(Newser) At 1.41 billion people, China is worried about its population. A Chinese government report says the nation will likely peak at 1.44 billion people in 2029 and slide into an "unstoppable" downturn thereafter, the BBC reports. Pointing to a low fertility rate, the China Academy of Social Sciences sees the population slipping to 1.36 billion by mid-centurywith an attendant loss of nearly 200 million workersand possibly sinking as low as 1.17 billion by 2065. The study also predicts China will have more elderly people and, with the ending of the one-child law in 2015, more children. The one-child policy was implemented nationally in 1979 to curb population growth and may have prevented roughly 400 million births, per a 2015 BBC article. story continues below A long-time critic of the one-child policy says China's population crisis will be worse than Japan's if officials don't act fast, the Japan Times reports. Yi Fuxian, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is urging China to abandon its two-child limit and offer incentives like maternity leave and parental tax breaks. Otherwise, parents in China will have fewer children as housing, health, and education costs keep rising. And it may be too late: "We can say that the US economy will not be overtaken by China but, rather, by India," Yi writes in the South China Morning Post. "China's economic vitality will continue to decline, which will have a disastrous impact on the global economy." (Meanwhile, China has built a mind-boggling antenna.) (Newser) What happens when a self-made millionaire leaves most of his fortune to his supposed son, only for a paternity test to reveal there was no biological relation between the two men? A lawsuit in British Columbia's Supreme Court that airs a lot of family secrets, per the CBC. Elis Gosta Hjukstrom died in Vancouver in 2017 at age 87, but his extended family (including siblings, nieces, and nephews) lives in Sweden, where he was born. They say Hjukstrom, who moved to Canada in his 20s, returned to Sweden for a visit in 1960 and had a brief romance with childhood friend Ingrid Jonsson. After they split up, Hjukstrom wrote a letter to Jonsson telling her he'd found success starting an import and distribution business; she replied and said she had given birth to a boy a few months after their relationship ended. She later led him to believe he was the boy's father. story continues below Hjukstrom, who never married, started sending her money, and added her and the boy to his will in 1966. She died in 2008, and by 2014, the now-grown Kenth Lundback was listed in Hjukstrom's will as the recipient of the bulk of his estate. But Hjukstrom's family had long suspected deception (another man is listed as the father on Lundback's birth certificate), and after Hjukstrom's death, the executor of his $14 million estate ordered the aforementioned DNA test. But Lundback filed a response with the court saying that Hjukstrom always knew there was a possibility the two were not biologically related, but that after Lundback learned Hjukstrom was (supposedly) his father in 2002, the two met and developed a "warm, happy, and encouraging" bond "akin to a father/son relationship." He says he offered to take a DNA test but Hjukstrom declined. The case is expected to go to trial next year. (Read the full story at the CBC.) (Newser) A junior high biology teacher who made national headlines for feeding a live puppy to a snapping turtle has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing. Robert Crosland was acquitted by a jury in Preston, Idaho, of animal cruelty charges, reports USA Today. Crosland has maintained from the start that he thought he was doing the right thing because the puppy was weak, sick, and wouldn't feed. He says he aimed to put it out of its misery. After unsuccessfully trying to feed the animal to a python in his classroom, Crosland placed the puppy in an aquarium with the snapping turtle, reports the Idaho State Journal. story continues below As students watched, the turtle dragged the puppy to the bottom of the tank, then began eating it when it drowned. "Obviously we didn't believe the facts amounted to a criminal offense when the law was applied," says Crosland's attorney. "The reality was that there was a ton of misinformation and gossip that were not actual facts or evidence." The state Humane Society disagrees, calling the verdict a "grievous error in judgment," per the Idaho Statesman. Crosland still has his job at Preston Junior High School. (Read more animal cruelty stories.) (Newser) Big news for Saudi Arabian women: Starting Sunday, courts there will send them a text message if they get divorced, the BBC reports. The move is apparently designed to end so-called "secret divorces" in which Saudi men end marriages without wives knowing. The measure is "a step aimed at protecting the rights of female clients," says the nation's Ministry of Justice, per CNN. Saudi women will also be able to check their marital status online. It's part of economic and social reforms by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was thought of as a reformer before the shocking murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in October. (Meanwhile, a video may answer questions about Khashoggi's death.) Bongo became ill in October while on a visit to Saudi Arabia. Rather than going home, he went to recuperate in Morocco in November, where he gave a New Years Day statement in which he admitted he had been through a difficult period, as sometimes happens in life. He said he was preparing to return soon. On New Years day he was accosted by four African males in Waterloo. They began assaulting him before he was loaded into their vehicle and driven to North Beach where he was further assaulted for almost five hours. He was left for dead after he was robbed of his and his brother's passports as well as R600 in cash. Chikura was located by Police and transported to hospital. He registered a criminal case at SAPS Durban. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 574-583-5121 or email cgrace@thehj.com. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 83F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear skies. Low 56F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. By PTI WASHINGTON: In a surprise move, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1. Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now. The president of the World Bank has always been an American citizen nominated by the United States, which is the largest shareholder of this multilateral financial institution. "It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," said Kim. Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim President effective February 1. "The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity," he said. "Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege," Kim said. By AFP The Saudi woman who made a desperate plea for asylum after landing at Bangkok airport will not be forcibly deported from Thailand, an official said Monday. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. The 18-year-old said she had planned to seek asylum in Australia and feared she would be killed if repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The incident comes as Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny over the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn had said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because of her lack of documents. A passport copy of Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun sits on the desk of Chief of Immigration Police Major General Surachate Hakparn . (Photo | AP) But he made an abrupt about-face the next day, following a global media frenzy as the young woman pleaded on Twitter for different countries to help her. "If she does not want to leave, we will not force her," he told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport on Monday, saying the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) would be able to meet her. "The UNHCR and I will... listen to what she wants, whether or not she wants to receive asylum to which country, and we will help coordinate." Qunun was stopped by immigration because Saudi Arabian officials contacted them to say she had fled her family, he added. If she wished to stay in Thailand, the UN would have to verify the legitimacy of her asylum claims, Surachate said. "Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send anyone to die," he added. "We will take care of her as best as we can." Barricaded in The UNHCR said it had been granted access to Qunun at the airport "to assess her need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation". Qunun had posted a video on Twitter of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. She said Saudi and Kuwaiti officials had taken her travel document from her when she landed -- a claim backed by Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. But at the press conference, Surachate said it was Thailand's "procedure to take the passport of anyone who we deny entry to." Earlier a Thai court dismissed an injunction to block Qunun's deportation, said human rights lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman, who filed the request. "They said we do not have enough evidence," she told AFP, adding she planned to appeal. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, told Saudi-owned TV channel Khalijia that the woman's father had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" bringing her back. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun. (Photo | FB) But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. A Twitter statement from the Saudi embassy in Bangkok said Qunun was stopped by Thai authorities for "violating the law". "She will be deported to the State of Kuwait where her family" lives, it added. Qunun, however, told AFP that she was only travelling in the Gulf state. Facing grave harm The ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. If sent back, Qunun told AFP she would likely be imprisoned and was "sure 100 percent" her family would kill her. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair," she said. In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, photo released by Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun views her mobile phone as she sits barricaded in a hotel room at an international airport in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo | AP) HRW's Robertson said she "faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia", and that Thailand should allow her to see UN officials and apply for asylum. "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored," he said. "She has clearly stated that she has renounced Islam which also puts her at serious risk of prosecution by the Saudi Arabian government." An Australian government spokesman said the claims made by Qunun "that she may be harmed if returned to Saudi Arabia are deeply concerning" and they are monitoring Qunun's case "closely". Australian embassy representatives in Bangkok have reached out to Thai authorities and the UNHCR to "seek assurances" that she will be able to access the "refugee status determination process". The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh and condemned the alleged "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian troops across the Line of Control which resulted in the death of a civilian. Director General (South Asia and SAARC) Mohammad Faisal, who is also the foreign ministry spokesman, summoned Singh and "condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the Line of Control," the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. The firing in the Bagsar Sector along the LoC resulted in the death of a civilian and injured a woman, it said. Faisal said that the Indian forces along the LoC and the Working boundary are "continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons. ALSO READ | Pakistan violates ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch " "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1970 ceasefire violation," it alleged. "The deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the statement said. Faisal urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire, in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC and the Working Boundary. The Pakistan Army confirmed the killing of a civilian and said the Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing targeting the civilian population. It said Pakistan Army troops responded effectively to those posts targeting civil population. He urged that the Indian side should permit UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions. India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC. By PTI ISLAMABAD: A top court in Pakistan on Monday indefinitely postponed hearing of a petition filed by jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif seeking suspension of his sentence in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case. On December 24, 2018, Accountability Court II Judge Arshad Malik sentenced 69-year-old Sharif to seven years in prison along with a fine of Rs 1.5 billion and USD 25 million in the Al-Azizia corruption case, concluding a series of three court cases against the Sharif family in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal. The three-time former premier is serving his term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail. Sharif filed an appeal against his conviction in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and a petition to suspend sentence until adjudication on appeal. A two-member IHC bench led by Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition and postponed it with the observation that it can only be heard after hearing of the appeal started. ALSO READ | Ex-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif files bail plea in Al-Azizia corruption case The court has so far not set any date for hearing of Sharif's appeal. In the appeal filed through his lawyer in the Islamabad High Court, Sharif argued that he was convicted on the basis of presumptions and his sentence should be set aside. He said the trial court verdict was based on misunderstandings as it failed to properly evaluate the objections by the defence. Three cases - Avenfield properties case, Flagship investment case and Al-Azizia steel mills case - were launched against the Sharif family by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on September 8, 2017 following a judgment by the Supreme Court that disqualified Sharif in the Panama Papers case in July last year. In July, 2018 Sharif, his daughter Maryam and his son-in-law Captain (retd) M Safdar were sentenced to 10 years, seven years and one year respectively in prison in the Avenfield properties case related to their purchase of four luxury flats in London through corrupt practices. However, the three were bailed out by the Islamabad High Court in September. ALSO READ | Ousted Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore Sharif was acquitted in the Flagship case due to insufficient evidence. His two sons - Hasan and Hussain - were accused in all the three graft cases. Sharif has maintained that the cases against him were initiated on the basis of allegations levelled by his political rivals and the report of a joint investigation team in the Panama Papers case was biased. By AFP JAKARTA: At least 32 people were killed by a landslide in Indonesia on New Year's Eve, authorities said Monday as they ended a week-long search for missing victims. Rescuers who have been pulling bodies from mountains of mud called off the search with one person still unaccounted for after heavy rains triggered the deadly slides in West Java province. Several others were injured in the December 31 disaster. "The search has wrapped up. Just one victim has not yet been found and the family has accepted it," said West Java police chief Agung Budi Maryoto. Landslides are common in Indonesia, a vast tropical archipelago prone to natural disasters and torrential downpours. More than 20 people died in October when flash floods and landslides hit several provinces on Sumatra island, western Indonesia. In June 2016, nearly 50 people died when floods and landslides struck Central Java province. By PTI WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he has been in indirect contact with Kim Jong-un and his talks with the North Korean leader have averted a major war in Asia. In an interaction with reporters at the White House, Trump said he had had "indirect" talks with Kim. Soon thereafter he left for Camp David for a meeting with senior administration officials. "When I came here this country was heading to war with North Korea and now we have a very good dialogue going. With North Korea we have a very good dialogue," he said. "Anyone else but me, you would have been at war right now. You right now would have been at a nice big fat war in Asia with North Korea if I hadn't been elected president," Trump said. Last week, Trump received another letter from Kim. The two leaders are expected to meet soon. The date and place for the meeting has not been decided yet. "It will be announced probably in the not too distant future," he said of a summit with Kim. "They do want to meet and we want to meet and we'll see what happens." "With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue," Trump added, saying he had "indirectly spoken" with Kim. During their meeting in Singapore last year, Trump and Kim agreed for denuclearisation of North Korea. The North Korean leader warned in a New Year's speech that Pyongyang may change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persists with sanctions. Trump said Sunday the sanctions remain "in full force and effect" and would do so until the United States saw "very positive" results. By PTI BEIJING: US electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday laid the foundation of a USD seven billion plant in Shanghai, becoming the first company to benefit from a new Chinese policy of allowing foreign vehicle manufacturers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in the Asian nation. Till now, foreign automakers in China were required to forge joint ventures with domestic firms for establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners. The plant, which is Tesla's first outside the US, is located at Lingang, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbour of Shanghai. It has an annual production capacity of 500,000 electric cars. Tesla signed an agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October, the company got the approval to use an 864,885 sq mt tract of land in Lingang for its Shanghai plant. Musk and Shanghai government officials attended the ground-breaking ceremony. "This will be the most advanced Tesla giga factory. With resources here, we are able to build this factory in record time, and we are hoping to have initial production of Tesla Model 3 toward the end of the year and volume production next year," 47-year-old Musk said. The Tesla factory, which will be built with an investment of over 50 billion yuan (USD seven billion), is the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai's history, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Aiming at reinforcing its presence in the world's largest market for electric cars, Tesla brought its Model S, Model X and Model 3 to the China International Import Expo held in November 2018 at Shanghai. Tesla delivered 245,240 cars, including 145,846 Model 3 -- the company's first mid-price, mass-market vehicle, in 2018 worldwide. China set a milestone record of selling one million new energy vehicles (NEVs) in 2018. The country aims at doubling the sales to two million in 2020. The production at the Shanghai plant will help Tesla significantly lower its cost and prices, giving it more edge in the market competition. Model 3, for example, which starts at a price of USD 35,000 in the US market, is sold between 500,000 yuan and 560,000 yuan (around USD 72,980 and USD 81,738) in China. After the Shanghai plant starts production of the model, the price of the car is expected to start at 400,000 yuan. Tesla has tapped into China's growing mainstream electric car market and established its charging network covering most cities in the country's developed regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta in east China and the Pearl River Delta in the south. "China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said in a statement released by the manufacturer. The California-based company in October 2018 set up its first overseas R&D innovation centre in Beijing, with focus on areas such as software and hardware development, localisation, China and Asia-Pacific data analysis, intelligent connected vehicles and charging technology. "In the past five years, Tesla has witnessed Chinese car consumers' growing awareness for environmental protection," Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, said. By AFP DHAKA: Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister for a record fourth term Monday after a crushing election victory marred by deadly violence and claims of widespread rigging. Hasina, 71, has presided over record economic growth in the South Asian country of 165 million people but critics have accused her of creeping authoritarianism. Her ruling Awami League party and its allies won the December 30 elections by a landslide, securing 288 seats in the 300-seat parliament compared to just seven for the main opposition. Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister. (Photo | AP) The campaign saw mass arrests of opposition activists and candidates and allegations of widespread rigging including ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. Seventeen people were killed on election day. ALSO READ | Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina denies accusations of vote-rigging The European Union has called for a probe into allegations of irregularities, saying "significant obstacles to a level playing field... tainted the electoral campaign and the vote." The United States expressed concern about "credible reports of harassment, intimidation and violence". The United Nations on Friday said there were indications that "reprisals" have targeted the opposition since the election, including physical attacks, arbitrary arrests, harassment, disappearances and filing of criminal cases. The opposition, which last week boycotted the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected MPs, has demanded fresh polls under a neutral caretaker government -- something Hasina and the election commission have rejected outright. Mother of humanity President Abdul Hamid administered Hassina'a oath in a ceremony at the presidential palace, Bangabhaban. A 47-member cabinet with many new faces was also sworn in. To her supporters, Hasina is known as Bangladesh's "mother of humanity" for allowing in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017. Opponents accuse her of jailing arch-foe Khaleda Zia on politically motivated charges, of orchestrating mass arrests, enforced disappearances and passing Draconian anti-press freedom laws to try to cling to power. Hasina was abroad in August 1975 when a group of renegade military officers assassinated her father, Bangladesh's first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and three sons. She started her political career as a hero of the people, returning from exile in 1981 to take over as Awami League leader and beginning a long struggle to restore democracy in Bangladesh. ALSO READ | Why India hopes that Sheikh Hasina wins December 30 elections Hasina joined forces with Zia's BNP to help oust military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990 but the pair soon fell out and were branded the "Battling Begums". Their rivalry has dominated Bangladeshi politics for the last 30 years. Hasina was first elected prime minister in 1996 but she struggled to emerge from the shadow of her father during her first term and lost the 2001 contest. She returned to power after winning the December 2008 polls by landslide, just months after she was imprisoned by a military-backed government on corruption charges. She has been in power ever since, presiding over economic expansion of more than six percent every year since 2009. GDP growth last year was 7.86 percent and Hasina has promised to take that into double digits. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: TRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday said that he would not recognise any organisation formed using his name, such as KTR Yuva Sena, KTR Seva Dal and KTR Fans Association. I will not encourage such organisations or associations. If the youth indeed want to show their affection towards me, they can work with TRS or one of its affiliated bodies, Rao declared on Sunday. He called for unaffiliated organisations to be dissolved immediately. Speaking to a delegation of KTR Yuva Sena who called on him, Rao said, I came to know that there are several organisations such as KTR Yuva Sena, KTR Seva Dal and KTR Abhimana Sangham are active in the State. I cannot endorse them. All of them should be scrapped. The TRS working president wanted such organisations to stop being active on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. If anyone likes me and the party, they should work under the leadership of party president K Chandrasekhar Rao. And they should do that from within the party, he said. KTR invited to Harvard KT Rama Rao has been invited to attend the Harvard India annual conference scheduled to be held in Massachusetts in USA on February 16 and 17. The theme of the this years conference is India at Inflection Point. Fau pax: CMO letter refers to KTR as minister Hyderabad: In a faux pas, the Chief Ministers Office, in a letter to a private hospital for the sanction of chief ministers relief fund(CMRF), referred to TRS working president KT Rama Rao as a minister. The Chief Ministers Special Secretary P Rajasekhar Reddy in his letter informed the hospital on January 4 that treatment of a patient from Mancherial could be extended as the Chief Minister has assured the sanction of `2 lakh for the same. The letter of consent (LOC) under CMRF was sent to the hospital based on a reference made by KT Rama Rao. In the letter, Rajasekhar Reddy referred to Rama Rao as IT and Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister twice. As of now, Rama Rao has not been inducted in the Cabinet. T Muruganantham By Express News Service CHENNAI: The cancellation of the Tiruvarur bypoll has kick-started a debate in Tamil Nadu's political circles. The order of the commission says both the central and state governments were against conducting the bypoll this month. Also, the Tamil Nadu chief secretary had urged the commission not to hold the polls for the other 18 MLA constituencies that are vacant till April. The commission also revealed that Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan had, on Dec 3, urged it not to hold the bypoll till April citing the ongoing relief works. Besides, she had also urged EC not to hold bypolls to 18 constituencies till April for the same reasons. Following this, the EC had sought a report from the Union Home Ministry. The Home Ministry in its letter dated December 31, agreed that the contentions of Tamil Nadu government on the damages caused by the cyclone and the relief works being done. The Union Home Ministry said, "As per the National Disaster Management Policy, the primary responsibility for disaster management including undertaking relief and rehabilitation measures rest with the States." ALSO READ: Bypoll to Thiruvarur Assembly constituency rescinded The Home Ministry also said, "The State government would be in the best position to assess the time frame for carrying out relief and rehabilitation measures in the cyclone-affected areas, since the execution of necessary measures on the ground is the responsibility of the State." The nine reasons spelt out by the Election Commission in its five-page order on rescinding the Thiruvarur by-election are as below: 1 The district administration needs time to ascertain the details of any migration of the families as the same cannot be ruled out 2 The relief distribution is half way and needs time to complete and the same set of officers are in charge of relief works as well as election-related works. 3 The prime festival of the land - Pongal falls during the period of election 4 The harvest of SAmba cultivation is due and the opening of direct procurement centres in inevitable as and when required in the villages, which may be construed or raised as an issued by some political parties as a breach of model code of conduct, though it is a regular activity 5 The affected people are yet to return back to normal life 6 The merchant associations too were not in favour of elections at this juncture; 7 The students facing public examinations may be put to hardship since the teachers form the core of the polling personnel. With hardly two months left for their examination conduct of elections at this time will have an effect on the academic performance of the students 8 Active participation of the public in the polling may get affected due to the aforesaid reasons 9 Almost all the political functionaries who took part in the all-party meeting unilaterally requested to postpone the by-election to Thiruvarur constituency Nirupa Sampath By Express News Service CUDDALORE: The Cuddalore District Mahila Court on Monday sentenced church priest to 30 years in prison and nine others to life in prison for their roles in the horrifying 2014 Tittakudi rape case, involving two minor girls from the district and trafficking gangs from across Tamil Nadu. On Friday, the court had found 16 of the accused guilty of various charges such as abduction and under provisions of the POCSO Act. One of the 17 accused had been acquitted. Mahila Court Judge T Lingeshwaran sentenced the church priest Aruldoss, who sexually assaulted the children, to a jail term of 30 years and fine of Rs 5 lakh. Anbazhagan, the gang's kingpin from Salem was sentenced to life in prison and a fine of Rs 3.21 lakh, while Anandaraj was sentenced to four life terms in prison and a fine of Rs 2.1 lakh. Selvaraj, another accused, was sentenced to three life terms and fine of Rs 30,000. Mohan Raj and Mathivanan both were sentenced to two life terms each and fines of Rs 2 lakh. READ | 16 accused found guilty in Cuddalore rape case Fathima was also sentenced to two life terms with a fine of Rs 4.4 lakh. Sridhar, the driver who took the children to different places in the state, was sentenced to two life terms and fine of Rs 4.4 lakh. Kala and Lakshmi were awarded two life terms and a fine of Rs 4.2lakh Giving the background to the case, Special Public Prosecutor K Selvapriya, said victim 1, aged 13 at the time, was studying in school at Tittakudi. A woman who ran an idly shop befriended her and, during Pongal in 2014, coerced her into sexual intercourse with her husband and other men. The child was later told she would be let off if she brought another child to them. The child brought victim 2, a 14-year-old girl from her neighbourhood, to the woman. Both girls were sexually assaulted by the men. In the months that followed, they were trafficked to various places in the State including Salem, Panruti, Vadalur, Virudachalam and Ulundurpet and were sexually assaulted by several men. The police investigation found that the two children had been forced to watch pornography and had been sexually assaulted by the church priest Aruldoss while being held by the Tittakudi gang. The father of one of the girls filed a missing complaint with Tittakudi police in July 2014. Meanwhile, the children managed to escape and reached Tittakudi where they told the police what had happened, identifying 19 accused, including the idly shop owner Tamilarasi and her husband Satheesh. Seventeen people were arrested in connection with the case but Tamilarasi and Satheesh have been absconding. By Online Desk Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed that the bomb hurled at Kerala BJP MP V Muraleedharan's house last week was part of a conspiracy to kill him. BJP workers in Kerala are being targeted every day, he said, while addressing BJP workers in Andhra Pradesh through video-conference. Modi also attacked Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu saying that he is pushing the state into "sunset" to see his "son rise", a mock reference to the state's tagline "Sunrise AP". The PM invoked "Telugu pride", alleging that Naidu betrayed Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder N T Rama Rao by joining hands with the Congress. "Telugu pride can only be restored when you (Naidu) put the interests of AP above your political interests and lust for power," the prime minister said. "A true tribute to NTR (the late N T Rama Rao) and what he stood for would be voting out those who betrayed NTR's values and sullied his memory. NTR's dream of a Swarna Andhra Pradesh will only be realised when every citizen of AP enjoys the fruits of development and not just one family," Modi said. Calling NTR a "true icon of Telugu pride", Modi recalled that it was NTR who led a "Congress-mukt Bharat" movement by forming an anti-Congress National Front. "Today, his own son-in-law (Chandrababu Naidu) has bent his head before the Congress to save his power. NTR was true icon of Telugu pride. NTR never forgave Congress for hurting Telugu pride and its betrayal of Telugu interests," the prime minister said. "Today, those in power in AP are so desperate to save their power that they betrayed Telugu interests and stabbed NTR in the back for the second time," he said. He also wondered how Telugu pride would be served by neglecting people and sacrificing their interests for power. "How is Telugu pride served by lying and abusing Modi day in and day out, just because you are worried that you will lose power? How is Telugu pride served by daydreaming about becoming prime minister when you have failed as CM?" Modi said, hitting out at Naidu. By PTI THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a scathing attack on BJP-RSS over the recent violence on the Sabarimala issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday said the Left government would not be cowed down by threats and intimidation and that the saffron party had "no strength for it now. "Addressing a press conference here, he also said that the CPI(M)-led LDF government would take stringent action against BJP-RSS activists who had unleashed violence in the name of the January 3 hartal and the violence that followed. The hartal was called in protest against the entry of two women of menstruating age into the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Vijayan said a cabinet meeting Monday decided to bring in an ordinance, the 'Kerala Prevention of Damage to Private Property Act,' to prevent destruction of private property during hartals. The Sangh forces, led by the BJP, had tried to destroy the law and order situation in Kerala and the perpetrators would not get any protection in the state as they received in the north, he said. "The violence in Kerala was a pre-planned agenda of the Sangh forces led by the party which rules the country. They (BJP-RSS) wanted to implement several other plans under the guise of the violence. They are now coming up with the charge that law and order in Kerala has collapsed because their plans did not work out and Kerala continues to be the same even after the violence," he said. The Chief Minister was replying to a question on BJP M P Nishikant Dubey's demand in the Lok Sabha, seeking dismissal of the Kerala government over the Sabarimala violence,alleging that the ruling CPI(M) was practising "politics of murder" and many BJP workers were its victim. "Are you saying that action should not be taken against those who unleashed violence? You can tell the same to other states. Do not try to intimidate us. The time for intimidation is over and BJP has no strength for it right now," he said. "In other states, when you (sangh parivar) unleash violence, no action is taken and even those who commit daylight murders are also not brought to book", he said,adding that such people would not get protection in Kerala. Quoting figures, he said Sangh activists were behind 92 per cent of violent incidents witnessed by the state in the recent days. The Sangh Parivar had triggered all violence, especially at Thalassery in Kannur, where the house of CPI(M) MLA A N Shamseer was attacked, he said. The attackers had not even spared even an MLA, media personnel and party offices during the violence as part of the the Sabarimala hartal, he said. Slamming the BJP-RSS for calling a hartal over the Sabarimala women's entry issue, Vijayan said a hartal is the last word of democratic protest, but calling for it every week amounted to ridiculing it. However, the Chief Minister said his government had no plans to bring in any legislation to regulate hartals now. To a question on the total number of women who had offered worship at the Sabarimala temple so far, he said he did not have the exact figures. Kerala had witnessed large-scale violence since January 2 when two women in the menstruating age offered worship at the Sabarimala temple. Vijayan said devotees have started coming for darshan at the Sabarimala temple, which showed there were no law and order issues. Echoing similar views, CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the BJP-led-NDA government at the Centre did not have the strength to dismiss the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The centre should first dismiss the Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Aditiyanath as communal clashes were increasing day by day there, he told reporters later, adding that in 2017, that state had witnessed 195 communal clashes. According to police, 2182 cases have been registered in connection with the violence unleashed in Kerala and 6711 people have been arrested till noon Monday. Of the arrested, while 5817 have been granted bail, 894 persons have been remanded, it said. Manoj Viswanathan By Express News Service SABARIMALA: According to a section of devotees, the tour operators are bringing unsuspecting foreigners who love trekking to Sabarimala, citing the SC order.The Malaysians and Sri Lankans are Tamilians who know about Lord Ayyappa and the temples tradition. However, the Europeans are alien to our culture and this is a plot by the tour operators to make Sabarimala a tourist destination than a pilgrimage centre, said Vinod Kumar, a devotee. Former TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan told Express: Many European men had visited Sabarimala earlier. As we didnt have a policy of restricting entry, we permitted them after obtaining a written statement that theyre devotees. We should develop Sabarimala as an international pilgrimage centre, not a tourist destination. I dont oppose the Sabarimala airport project. But it shouldnt be used to make Sabarimala a tourist destination. Gopalakrishnan said that such proposals are being made by people with ulterior motives.Weve to protect the customs and tradition of the temple, he said. TDB Commissioner N Vasu said that the Board has not considered restricting foreigners entry into the Sabarimala temple. For the Board, the people who arrive at the temple are all devotees. We never had verified whether the devotees have followed the customary penance and carry irumudikettu, he said. By Express News Service CHITRADURGA: Hosadurga MLA Gulihatti D Shekar on Sunday night tried to self immolate after a verbal duel with the police on lifting of sand by his followers and public. Shekhar who poured petrol in front of police station tried to set himself on fire, however police and his party workers prevented him from doing so. He was later admitted to taluk hospital where his condition is said to be normal. The MLA alleged that police were unnecessarily putting cases against his followers and public, but let unauthorized sand miners go scot free. It can be recalled that there was a continuous tussle between MLA Shekhar and police since May after he became legislator from the constituency. Hosadurga has been the hub of sand mining in district and many illegal miners operate from this place. By PTI BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar Sunday said his party will fight the national polls in alliance with the JD(S) across all seats of Karnataka. Shivakumar, who is also a minister, said discussions on seat sharing will be held soon. "I'm saying that we, Congress and JD(S), will fight together in all 28 seats," he told reporters. Asked on JD(S)'s demand for 12 seats, Shivakumar said, "I'm not a spokesperson of JD(S). Is it wrong to have a desire? Politically they will have to give a message of confidence and courage to their party workers and seek their support in winning." Seat sharing has emerged as a bone of contention between the two parties, however, leaders of both the parties have exuded confidence in fighting the polls together. Unhappy over the Congress' "big brother attitude", JD(S) members recently asked its leadership to contest all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state alone. However, JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda has clarified that his party will fight the polls in alliance with the Congress and demanded 12 seats. Indicating reservations about the JD(S)'s demand for 12 seats, state Congress Chief Dinesh Gundu Rao has said seat sharing between the ruling coalition partners will be based on merit. Meanwhile, on reports of few Congress legislators setting Monday deadline over delay in appointments to boards and corporations, Shivakumar said nothing of that sort has happened. He also cited new moon day and eclipse, considered inauspicious, as the reason for the delay. "No one has set any deadline, it is false. Congress party has given the list. Dinesh Gundu Rao gave it to me and I have handed it over to Kumaraswamy. We belong to Hindu culture and there are certain things, today is new moon day and also eclipse, let everything finish. No one can set any deadline," he said. "Both parties have decided on what has to be done. They (JD(S)) too have certain responsibilities, the chief minister has spoke to me. When it has to happen, it will happen," he added. Pointing out that the chief minister was out of town, Shivakumar said, "They have to decide on their party as well. They recently called a meeting of their party workers. It will be done and there is no reason to worry." Recently, Deve Gowda said appointments to all 30 boards and corporations will be done at one go. Congress forwarded its list of 19 legislators to the chief minister, but according to sources, the move has irked the JD(S) leadership as they were apparently not consulted. Also, Congress recommending some of its legislators as heads of boards and corporations that come under departments controlled by JD(S) ministers has angered the party, leading to the chief minister delaying the appointment. Valson Thampu By Dear Sisters and Brothers, We belong together in a state known the world over as Gods own country. We came to be so known, only because someonea smart bureaucrathad a brainwave that such a label, borrowed from the US, would boost Kerala tourism. God has served, since then, as spice to tourism promotion. God is God because of his patient endurance. S/he can be used, and abused, in any way you please. Even in the best of times, it was not easy to be God. We are now turning it into a veritable nightmare. We have human rights, at least in principle, and enjoy some protection in respect of our integrity and dignity. God is so defenseless! Anyone can attribute any bias, allergy and superstition to God. God has to swallow it. Surely, we wont like to be treated so, would we? Then, how come we consider it acceptable, and are even willing to shed blood to defend this insult to the divine? Kerala, friends, is a politics-ruined state. I remember fleeing from this lovely state half a century ago just to be able to study. I had lost a year in Kerala because educational institutions were often more closed than open and working. I wonder what would have happened to our state if Malayalees were not enterprising enough to disperse to the various havens of the world seeking employment, just as I migrated to Delhi for education. If you want to see the net development of Kerala for what it is, all you have to do is to subtract the money-order part of our economy from the total. Itll shock you! We have been ruined right royally by politicians. They did so in brutal pursuit of vested interests. We knew this all along, but pretended we did not understand. Now it seems its the turn of religion. What has survived the cussedness and cupidity of politicians could be vandalised by the parasites of religions. People in other parts of India think of us as rational and progressive. Religious reform movements have had a far better track record in Kerala than in any other part of India and, indeed, of the world. Religious reform is a dangerous thing to undertake. Jesus was a religious reformer. He was killed. Sree Narayana Guru was Jesus counter-part in Kerala. We did not kill him. We honoured him. Consider, friends: if Narayana Guru were living today, would he have survived, given his radical mission to reform religion with its attendant breaking of rituals and rites? So, have we progressed or regressed since his days? Today he would be denounced and damned for saying: Never mind which religion; it will do if your religion makes you a better human being. In theory, maybe, some would endorse him; but in practice even SNDP stalwarts could disown him. How has it come about that we think the only function of religion is to make us spite and fight each other? I often turn to sociology, not to theology, for answers. Max Weber, in The Sociology of Religion (1920)he has a book titled The Religion of India as welloffers, perhaps, the best possible insight. He identifies the emergence of the priestly class as the perilous phase in the degradation of religion. Priests in all religions, argues Weber, function only in furtherance of their class interests, for which they take complete control of the three pillars of religionscriptures, rituals (or aacharam) and dogmas. They erect the obscurantist canard that only priests can understand scriptures arighteven if they are not, often, the best educated in a societyand practise rituals in their purity. The purpose in monopolising dogmas is to condition so-called believers (viswasikal) in accepting whatever is prescribed by priests, habitually and unthinkingly. Even a cursory glance at the history of Christianity, especially when it was mixed up with state power, will convince you that its priestly class was a perverse hindrance to personal liberty, social harmony and human progress. Christianityenvisaged by Jesus as an agenda for human liberationwas degraded by priestly oligarchs as an ideology for legitimising laughable superstitions, irrational privileges and oppressive systems and practices. This monstrous structure of inequity was maintained precisely in the name of aacharangal (rites) as a wall, dividing hearts, corrupting souls, crippling societies. Unthinkable crimes and unspeakable cruelties were perpetrated with militant religious fervour. Millions fought and perished in priests-induced bigotry, for doctrines and excuses that mocked Jesus Christ. They were called martyrs. Today we know them to be piteous victims of priest-craft. If religion and politics are separately as harmful as they have been in history, isnt it scary to have a perverse combination of both? It is not a case of A + B. It is a case of (AB)2. You dont need to be persuaded elaborately that this forebodes extreme ill for the state. Priests and politicians gloat over our susceptibility. It is good news for them; but it is extreme bad news not only for us, but also for the generations after us. This is the time for courage, clarity and common sense. Also, for a bold dose of sanctified selfishness. Please be selfish, uncompromisingly selfish. Look to your own interests, especially long-term. You have Homeopathy on your sidethe principle of like curing the like. You are imperilled by the malevolent selfishness of a few. Why shouldnt you be selfish, if only save your sanity? Please be sharply and spiritedly selfish! (By the way, I have decided to renounce my priesthood by way of doing the least I can for the good of Kerala.) Valson Thampu Former principal of St Stephens College, New Delhi Email: vthampu@gmail.com By PTI NEW DELHI: Women comprise 13 per cent of the Indian Air Force's workforce, the highest among the three armed services, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. In a written response to a question in the Upper House, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said women constitute 3.80 per cent of the Army's workforce, while they are six per cent of the Navy's personnel. Women comprise 13 per cent of the Air Force's workforce, he said, adding they make up 21.63 per cent and 20.75 per cent of the staff in medical and dental services respectively of the armed forces. All nursing officers in the armed forces are women. The induction of women into the Army is based on the organisational requirement, fighting efficiency, combat effectiveness and functionality of the force, the minister said. Presently, women along with men candidates are recruited in the Army as officers through Short Service Commission (SSC) on all-India merit basis, he said. Women Officers are inducted into the Service Corps, Ordnance Corps, Education Corps, Judge Advocate General Branch, Corps of Engineers, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, Corps of Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, Aviation Corps and Corps of Army Air Defence. Women are also included in the Army in Military Nursing Service and medical officers cadre, he added. The resignation of US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis did not come as a great surprise. In fact, it was to be expected after President Donald Trump announced the US troop withdrawal from Syria, contradicting long reiterated affirmations by various US officials that the troops would stay, at the very least, as long as Iran remains present in Syria, as National Security Adviser John Bolton put it. There have been no signs of a reduction in the Iranian presence. If anything, Tehrans position in Syria has been reinforced thanks to Turkey and Russia. But Trump announced the troop withdrawal anyway, and Mattis resigned. Perhaps more important than the departure of the last adult in the Trump administration, as some media have put it, is the substance of Mattiss resignation letter. It conveyed three basic points: that it is time for the US to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with the presidents; that the US needs to treat its allies with respect; and thirdly, that the US must be resolute and unambiguous in its approach to China and Russia. The letter, which itemised the grounds for Mattiss resignation, underscored the basic divides in the US over foreign policy and, perhaps more profoundly, domestic policy and the prevailing ideology. The Mattis resignation is not the first or last resignation of a US defense secretary. Such events typically occur with transitions from one presidential administration to the next or at the time of mid-term congressional elections. But this one is totally different, because Donald Trump is unlike any of his predecessors. He is a new phenomenon in the US political order. Perhaps it features an element of the isolationist policies that followed the US war of independence or World War I when Washington refused to join the League of Nations and shut its eyes to what lay beyond the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. But we are now in the 21st century, more than 50 years after the establishment of an international order led by the US since the end of World War II with the existence of a Soviet rival during the Cold War, and without a rival following the collapse of the Soviet Union. More importantly, it looks like this new phenomenon is related to something deeper, coming from within the US. When Mattis writes that the president needs a defense secretary whose views are more aligned with the presidents, this means that the gap between the president and that official, and most probably the defense establishment as a whole, is unbridgeable. This is not about personality clashes. It is about fundamental differences that have surfaced on a number of occasions. Here is a president who has publicly indicated that he thinks he knows more than his generals. In one unprecedented incident, the world heard a US president say that his country had not won a war since World War II. His criticisms extended beyond the Pentagon to include the entire security establishment, including the CIA. When the CIA announced findings confirming that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 presidential elections, Trump came out in favour of President Vladimir Putins denials. Mattis was the last representative in the Trump administration of a school of thought that believed that the US president, regardless of who he might be, cannot depart from major US policy lines and that he can be guided to make the right decisions if aware of government secrets and the heavy responsibilities that rest on his shoulders. Presidents come and go, but the US and its strategic interests and assets remain constant. Among the most important of these are NATO, the joint defense treaty between Washington and Tokyo, the EU as an important wing of the Western camp and the Anglophone intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US. All these arrangements and institutions were the product of the enormous efforts the US had invested in order to counter the Soviet Union and communist ideology and to create such global institutions as the World Trade Organisation, an embodiment of globalisation and liberal ideology and the technologies that bind the planet and organise humankinds forays into outer space. But Trump was not convinced. In fact, he frequently expressed his lack of respect for Americas allies, NATO and the EU. Trump comes from different school. He doesnt see the world as one. He does not even share a vision for a world becoming one, in the ways it deals with crucial concerns from trade to global warming. To him, the world is made up of discrete national entities, each having its own set of interests and abilities. To him, the entity that he is in charge of the US has little interest in the welfare of the rest of the world. It cares about its own welfare and the welfare of its people or, more accurately, the white people who have been trampled on by the march of coloured peoples from all quarters of the world. So, the Trump approach is to deal with the world as separate units, each with its own bilateral relationship with the US. Multilateral organisations like the UN, WTO and NAFTA mean nothing if they mean moving US factories to Mexico or letting China have a permanent trade surplus over the US. When Mattis, in his resignation letter, stressed that the US needed to be resolute and unambiguous in its approach to Russia and China, this was not because those two countries are competitors but because they are among the forces that seek to revise the world order led by the US. Trump does not see the situation that way. He does not want a costly US leadership of the world order, especially if that leadership entails heavy military costs and the painful costs of wars such as those in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and, most recently, Syria. As for bilateral relations between nation-state entities, they differ from one case to the next. US interests may overlap with one country and they might conflict with those of another. Perhaps trade is a source of tension between China and the US because the former continually insists on retaining the perks granted to developing nations whereas, in fact, it is an economic superpower. On the other hand, the two countries can harmonise when it comes to nuclear disarmament in the Korean peninsula, even if such harmony would not extend to the South China Sea. The same applies to Russian-US relations. Washington and Moscow can see eye-to-eye on the war against the Islamic State group and against terrorism in general, but not on the question of Ukraine. Mattiss resignation was revealing. It comes on top of the resignations of John Kelly as White House chief of staff, Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and Herbert McMaster as national security adviser. In the US media, this has been described as the exodus of the adults in the Trump administration. In fact, they represent an entire school of thought in US foreign policy. Trump, now, is totally free to pursue his own policy, pure and simple. *The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. *A version of this article appears in print in the 20 December, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Exodus of the adults Short link: By Express News Service Adding strength to Indias Act East Policy, Indian Navy is to commission a new Naval Air Base in the Andaman Group of Islands. Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba will commission the new Base christened as the INS Kohassa on January 24 in Shibpur area of North Andaman of the Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands. At present, the airbase will be able to handle Helicopter and Dornier Aircraft. With commissioning the base will become self-contained with fuel storage, repair facility, manpower under a commanding officer. The Navy plans to extend the base into a bigger air base in future. Talking to TNIE Navy Spokesperson, Captain DK Sharma said, The Base is in consonance with the governments act east policy. This will provide flexibility to the Indian Aircraft and ships in case of any emergency. Andaman is about 1400 kilometers away from the countrys mainland. Keeping the strategic location in Mind, India has already institutionalised patrolling of strategic waterways passing through the high seas near Malacca Strait and Six Degrees Channel. Indias only tri-services command, Andaman and Nicobar Command, is located here along with three other air bases at Port Blair, Great Nicobar and Campbell Bay. The Indian Ocean Region is vital to world trade and economic prosperity of many nations as more than 75% of the worlds maritime trade and 50% of global oil consumption passes through the IOR. Anand ST Das By Express News Service PATNA: In a setback to Bihars Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, Patna High Court on Monday rejected his petition challenging the Nitish Kumar-led NDA governments order asking him to vacate the plush bungalow he has been occupying since the time he was the deputy chief minister. A division bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice AP Shahi and Justice Anjana Mishra upheld the order passed on the matter by a single-bench on October 6 last. Even when Yadavs appeal against the order by Justice Jyoti Sharan was pending with the HC, the state government had made an abortive bid to evict the RJD leader from his official bungalow in Patna, prompting the Opposition parties to accuse the government of practising vendetta politics. Yadav, who is the younger son of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, has been persistently refusing to vacate the spacious government bungalow at 5, Desh Ratna Marg in Patna that was allotted to him as deputy chief minister in 2015. Soon after the Grand Alliance government comprising RJD, Nitish Kumars JD(U) and Congress collapsed in July 2017 and NDA returned to power, the new regime had asked Tejashwi to vacate the bungalow. The governments order for vacating the bungalow was found justified by both the single-judge and double-judge benches. The court found no merit in the petitioners contentions, said Bihars advocate general Lalit Kishore. Even though the state government earlier allotted the bungalow at 1, Polo Road for Tejashwi Yadav, he has been refusing to shift to that bungalow, where current deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP has been residing. When Tejashwi was deputy chief minister in the 20-month Grand Alliance government, he had reportedly renovated the 5, Desh Ratna Marg bungalow as per his taste. Incidentally, this bungalow is a few metres away from from the Raj Bhavan and the chief ministers official residence. RJD cried hoarse over the judicial development and said it would be challenged in the apex court. The party also accused the states NDA government of using the bungalow as a means to humiliate Tejashwi Yadav, who is the Grand Alliances chief ministerial candidate for Bihars Assembly polls slated for next year. Nitish Kumar deliberately engaged in this game over the bungalow to humiliate Tejashwi Yadav. We will appeal against the order in the apex court. The state governments order is unjust, said RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari. Sana Shakil By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government on Monday paved the way for providing Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan with the Union cabinet approving the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill despite facing criticism from Opposition parties and protests from Assam and other Northeastern states. The bill is likely to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the last day of the Parliaments Winter Session. READ | Eight panel members file dissent notes The move came within hours of the presentation in the Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the bill and giving it a go-ahead. The report was prepared with a majority vote even as Opposition members have opposed the move to grant citizenship on the basis of religion. Approving the Bill, the Committee said its purpose is to enable acquisition of Indian citizenship by members of minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who were forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution in their countries. ALSO READ | Hindus in Assam will become minority in 5 years if Citizenship Bill not passed: Assam minister While endorsing the move of the government, the Committee was, however, of the view that since the matter was still sub judice, the government had to tread with caution and take recourse to all legal precautions lest it causes embarrassment at a later date. The joint panel, headed by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, exhorted the government to make verification process robust and transparent at all stages and also asked the government to ensure all eligible persons are included in the final NRC list. It raised concerns saying inadequate deportation of illegal migrants has caused a burden on genuine citizens of the country so the government should ensure there is no ambiguity in the Bill in context of the Assam Accord which seeks to safeguard the interests of Assamese people. ALSO READ: Everything you need to know about Citizenship (Amendment) Bill Citing Indias poor deportation statistics, the JPC said that the Foreigners Tribunals have identified over 90,000 illegal migrants since 1986 out of which only 2,400 could be deported. The committee is not satisfied with the overall scenario of deportation of illegal foreign nationals... It is indisputable that deportation of illegal migrants has remained a perennial problem with the Centre. The committee also referred to the ongoing agitation in Assam in protest of the bill saying it was not convinced with the MHA claim that there is no specific report on unexpected demographic changes of certain Northeastern states, particularly Assam, due to the influx of migrants from Bangladesh.It also said resettlement packages provided to the state government for accommodating migrants should motivate state governments to help settle such migrants. By PTI PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Monday said a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Rafale deal was not required as the Supreme Court had given its judgment and the Lok Sabha had debated the issue. The Janata Dal (United) president also urged the government to hear the people of Assam on the the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. Targeting opposition parties that have attacking the government over the Rafale issue, Kumar said, "The Supreme Court has delivered its judgment on the issue. It has already been debated in Lok Sabha. It is no more an issue." "It is beyond one's fathom as what is left now that needs to be convinced to the people. JPC should be constituted for what?," he told reporters here after his 'Lok Samvad' (public interaction) programme. Kumar was accompanied by his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats. The JD(U) president also refused to give much importance to the mahagath bandhan which, he said, had "no future" in Bihar. "I am quite confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will again become the prime minister after the Lok Sabha polls. But the people are supreme, they will take the decision ultimately," Kumar, who will play an important role for the NDA in Bihar in the parliamentary election, said. He said he does not buy the argument that the BJP will lose the Lok Sabha polls as it has lost assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The mahaghatbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar has no future even though it attempts to make caste equations to gain electoral success by cobbling up with various political parties, the chief minister said. "They (RJD and others like it) have made such attempts in the past also. But these equations have no force as people will ultimately vote on the work of a party," he said. The grand alliance is aligning with anyone and everyone, Kumar said, adding, "this shows their lack of confidence." The grand alliance in Bihar comprises RJD, Congress, HAM, RLSP and Sharad Yadav's LJD. Taking a swipe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Kumar said the man who tore into ordinance on convicted legislators has compromised with the issue of corruption and is meeting and aligning with people facing graft charges. His barb was apparently directed towards the Congress's alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD in Bihar. Kumar, however, did not reply to a query during the interaction with reporters on the future he sees for Rahul Gandhi. On the JD(U)'s stand on the Citizen (Amendment) Bill, Kumar said the amendment must keep the Assamese identity intact and should not hurt their sentiments. The government must listen to the people of Assam before coming out with any amendment, he said. "So far as the issue of the amendment bill is concerned, I have conveyed my views to the current dispensation (at the Centre) on it. I had a talk with Home Minister Rajnath Singh late yesterday evening in this regard," Kumar said. He said the issue is currently lying with the joint select committee of Parliament and "I can give my reaction only after going through the amendments incorporated in the bill." "But whatever amendments be, it must keep the Assamese identity intact and their sentiments should be respected. The government must listen to the people of Assam before coming out with any amendment," Kumar said. The chief minister said his party's view on the issue is already in public domain and a delegation from Assam, including students' unions and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), had met him in July last year during the JD(U)'s national executive meeting. He said he had then expressed his views on the bill. During the interaction after the Lok Samvad, the chief minister had an exchange of words with a TV journalist who had asked a question on the Sabarimala issue. Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: After making good on its pre-poll promise to waive farm loans, the Congress government in Rajasthan has announced its next big step with an eye on the general elections this year. State Urban Development Minister Shanti Dhariwal has announced that the government, led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, will go a step further and waive loans of all families where farmers committed suicide. Minutes after a meeting of the loan waiving committee at the Secretariat on Saturday, Dhariwal said many farmers had committed suicide in Rajasthan on account of non-payment of reasonable prices for their crop yields by the earlier BJP government. The minister said, In Hadauti region alone, over 70 farmers had committed suicide. Our government will bring all those distressed families under our waiver scheme. The Raje government allegedly never owned up to the deaths, as it would have been an admission of the administrations failures. She said all loans of these farming households will be waived and though a formal decision is yet to be taken, it (waiver) is likely to be announced after the next meeting of the committee on January 10. An inter-department panel, formed to look into the modalities of farm loan waivers in Rajasthan, has advised CM Gehlot to waive all loans of farmers who have committed suicide. BJP state president Madan Lal Saini accused the Congress of lying about farmer suicides during the BJP reign, saying, There have been three farmer suicides in just twenty days of Congress rule. The implementation of the loan waiver promise is likely to impose a staggering burden of nearly `18,000 crore. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: Evil breeds evil. The increasing trend of trafficking of brides in Haryana is a testimony to that. The states skewed gender ratio which, in turn, is a result of female foeticide has seen young girls of poor families from other states being sold to be married to men in Haryana. It has become a booming business, with the rates of brides going at Rs 1 lakh and upwards and agents earning big commissions. The brides, who are called Paro or Mol-ki-bahu are literally treated as chattels and sold and resold between men. A majority of them are minors and come from poor families in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. Recently, Haryana Police rescued a 15-year old Dalit girl from Odisha, who was sold for `2 lakh to Sandeep of Bhiwani, who was twice her age. He was arrested along with his mother. In September last year, six people from Haryana, including two women, were arrested by Uttarakhand Police in Barkot while trafficking a 14-yeqar-old, promising her guardians to get her married. In February 2018, Haryana Police busted a gang and rescued three minor girls in Faridabad and arrested two accused. Explain the modus operandi, an agent in Jind district said, The business is booming as brides from Uttarakhand, Bihar, MP, West Bengal and Jharkhand are being bought with the assurance of their parents that they will not get a case registered. Girls from Odisha are also being bought as brides as their rate is around `1 lakh. The girls photograph is shown to the prospective buyer-cum-husband through WhatsApp and later a place is fixed where he and his family are shown an album. The girls are mostly below 18 years of age and are not well-educated. Sunil Jaglan, convener of Avivahit Purush Sanghatan, who has been running a campaign against female foeticide and bride associated social evils, says, I raised this issue at a recent conference at Dehradun. A large number of poor parents from Uttarakhand villages sell their daughters to men in Haryana for anything between `1.5 lakh and ` 2.5 lakh. It is estimated that in every village of Haryana, on an average 10 brides are bought from other states. Theres this village Morkhi in Jind district where there are 250-odd purchased brides. However, he says nobody, including the government, has the exact figure of such brides. Explaining the reason for the bride trafficking, Jaglan says, Because of the gender imbalance, a number of men who are past the prime of their youth are still waiting for a prospective bride. So, their parents and villagers do not object to matrimonial alliance with girls from other states and cultures. They sometimes even sell their lands to buy the brides. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service Assam is on the edge as the Centre seeks to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in the Parliament. Take a look at the pros and cons of the Bill. What is the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill? The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2016 seeking to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan due to religious persecution and migrated to India before December 31, 2014. Such immigrants, who entered India before December 31, 2014 and have spent at least six years, will be protected by this Bill. Why does the BJP want to pass it? The BJP has always maintained that the non-Muslim immigrants are victims of Partition who fled the three neighbouring countries in the face of religious persecution. The BJP insists that it is the duty of India to protect them. Secondly, through the Bills passage, the BJP and the RSS want to consolidate the Hindu population in Assam. The Muslims, who account for around 34 per cent of Assams population, are in a majority in at least 11 of the states 33 districts. The population of the Bengali Muslims is way greater than the Assamese Muslims. ALSO READ | Government's efforts to grant citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants 'appreciable': JPC What is the reaction of the BJP-RSSs Hindu versus Muslim game? The various Assamese organisations, staging protests against the Bill, categorically say the Assamese are not so weak that they cannot defend their jati (community). They say the community had defeated the Mughals 16 times to protect its land and hence, it does not need the Hindu Bangladeshis for its protection. Will the Citizenship Bill benefit BJP? A large majority of the 40 lakh people, who were left out of the complete draft of National Register of Citizens or NRC, are perceived to be Bengali Hindus. The Bengali Hindus have been traditional Congress vote-banks. They started switching their loyalty to the BJP a few years ago on seeing the party fighting for their cause through its effort to get the Citizenship Bill passed. Most people belonging to the community now view the BJP as their messiah. Why are various organisations belonging to Assamese and other indigenous communities opposed to the Bill? The various organisations belonging to Assamese and other indigenous communities say the Citizenship Bill, if passed, will be in violation of the Assam Accord of 1985 and the NRC. In the Assam Accord which the Rajiv Gandhi government had signed with All Assam Students Union after six-year-long Assam Agitation against the illegal immigrants, it was committed that the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, who migrated to Assam after March 24, 1971, will be detected and deported. The NRC is being updated based on the same cut-off date. Secondly, the Assamese and the indigenous communities fear that if the Citizenship Bill is passed, it will make lakhs of illegal immigrants genuine Indians overnight and that will be a threat to Assams land, language, culture etc. They say an immigrant is an immigrant and there cannot be Hindu immigrant or Muslim immigrant. They insist that the immigrants, irrespective of faith who came to Assam after March 24, 1971, should be detected and deported. They say Assam is already bearing the burden of lakhs of immigrants, all faiths, who migrated prior to March 24, 1971 and it cannot take any more burden. ALSO READ | Citizenship Amendment Bill against the spirit of Assam Accord, say dissenting MPs What if Bengali Hindus, currently residing in Bangladesh, migrate to Assam after the Citizenship Bills passage? Does the fear of Assamese organisations that two crore Bengali Hindus will migrate to Assam from Bangladesh if the Bill is passed have any basis? They will not be protected by the Bill and pushed back. The Citizenship Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who entered India before December 31, 2014. Some organisations in Assam are trying to make people into believing that if the Bill is passed, two crore Bengali Hindus will migrate to Assam from Bangladesh and the Assamese and other indigenous communities will be outnumbered. The BJP dubs this as propaganda. Is the BJP risking the votes of the Assamese and other indigenous communities who have a far greater population than the Bengali Hindus in Assam? Amidst the months-long protests against the Bill in Assam, the panchayat election, held in December, was an opportunity for the BJP to gauge the mood of voters. The BJP was least affected by the protests. The party had won most of the seats, its best performance ever in the state. The Congress was a distant second. The BJPs state leadership was able to convince the partys Central leadership that the Assamese at large were not concerned about the Bill or else the BJP would not have performed so well. The BJP suspects that most of the 70 organisations, spearheading the protests, have vested interests. The BJP also suspects that they are acting at the behest of its political adversaries. Will non-Muslim immigrants be on a par with the indigenous communities if the Citizenship Bill is passed? The Bills passage will not necessarily make the non-Muslim immigrants Assamese. The Assam government will constitute a committee to define Assamese. For this, 1951 could be made the base year, subject to its acceptance by all and sundry. The government is likely to take into confidence various stakeholders before deciding on the base year to define Assamese. ALSO READ | The bill that cuts short BJP-AGP alliance Assam might also seek special status under Article 371. Most states in the Northeast are protected by Article 371. This will deny jobs, facilities and the political space to outsiders. So, if 1951 is made the base year to define Assamese, the immigrants, who migrated after 1951, will not be viewed as Assamese. They will not be able to buy land or get facilities and they or their children will not get jobs and contest election. This is likely to come with retrospective effect. By Express News Service PATNA: Minor girls lodged at a disgraced government-run shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur were forced to entertain male guests by dancing in scanty clothes to the tunes of vulgar songs before being raped by them, according to the charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The charge-sheet names 21 people as accused, including Brajesh Thakur, the politically connected owner of Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti (SSVS), the NGO that ran the shelter home, and seven of its women employees. It was Thakur, currently lodged in a jail in Patiala in Punjab, who forced the hapless minor girls to entertain the male guests routinely visiting the shelter home, Balika Grih, late in the evenings. If the girls, aged between seven and 18, refused to comply, they were given only chapattis and salt in dinner while those who complied were served proper dinner, notes the 73-page charge-sheet submitted by CBI at a special POCSO court in Muzaffarpur on December 19. Thakur, who owned three small newspapers and was allegedly close to politicians from Bihars ruling JD(U), also sexually assaulted the girls, found the CBI. the charge-sheet also named child protection officer Ravi Kumar Roshan and Ramanuj Thakur alias Mamu among those who often helped Thakur force the girls to dance in front of the male guests and then raping them, says the charge-sheet. Medical examinations of the minor girls lodged at the Balika Grih shelter home run by Thakur confirmed that at least 34 of them were raped several times during the months they stayed at the facility. Thakur, who was described by the Supreme Court as a very influential man, was shifted to the Patiala jail from a jail in Bihar recently after CBI accused him of trying to influence witnesses and destroying evidence in the scandal. The horrific sexual abuses came to light in a social audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in April 2018, leading to Muzaffarpur police to register an FIR against 11 people in May 2018. Massive public and political outcry over the scandal prompted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to order a CBI probe on July 26, 2018. Bihars then social welfare minister Manju Verma, whose husband and former JD(U) legislator Chandreshwar Verma was accused of frequenting the shelter home and having close links with Brajesh Thakur, was forced to resign on August 8, 2018. The couple is currently in jail after a CBI raid at their home in connection with the scandal found illegal ammunition. By PTI THANE: A 26-year-old man from Kalyan in Maharashtra's Thane district has been booked for allegedly molesting his sister-in-law, police said Monday. The woman in her complaint stated that she was living in her mother-in-law's home as her husband was bedridden following a paralytic attack and was being nursed there, said an official. At her mother-in-law's home, the accused made sexual advances towards her, the victim said in her complaint. "After the victim rejected his overtures, the accused assaulted her ailing husband. She was molested by the accused when she intervened. Neighbours rushed in and saved the couple," he said. The woman filed a complaint with MFC police station in Kalyan Sunday evening following which the man was booked, he said, adding that no arrest has been made so far. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: A ministerial panel under the GST Council on Sunday approved Keralas request to levy an additional 1 per cent calamity cess to fund the rehabilitation work in the state that was battered by unprecedented floods a few months ago. Kerala can levy the cess for up to two years, said Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who heads the panel. Another panel on giving relief to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) discussed a proposal to lift the tax exemption cap for them, but could not arrive at a consensus on the quantum. At present, businesses with turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh are out of the GST bracket. While Delhi suggested the exemption limit be raised to Rs 40 lakh, Bihar wanted it at Rs 50 lakh. The matter will now be taken up by the GST Council itself, which will meet on Thursday. The meeting will also take a call on the Modi panels recommendation on the Kerala cess. The GoM has recommended to the Council that Kerala be allowed to levy 1 per cent cess for two years. Also the Centre and states will together decide on increasing the borrowing limit under FRBM for funding natural calamity, said Modi. Which all items would attract the cess would be decided by the Kerala government, Modi added. As for any other state wanting to levy the calamity cess, it would have to route it through the GST Council, he clarified. The Group of Ministers (GoM) under Modi also suggested allowing additional borrowing over the permitted limit by states hit by natural calamities. The second GoM led by minister Shiv Pratap Shukla suggested extending the composition scheme to service providers with an annual turnover of up to `50 lakh. Such service providers can pay GST at 5%. Rarely is change a way to bolster the status quo rather than to alter it. But this is precisely what happened last week when Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz decreed a sweeping government reshuffle affecting key ministries, the Political and Security Affairs Council headed by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, and the National Guard, which is one of the countrys most important security institutions. Some hours before the 33rd Janadriya Culture and Heritage Festival was due to round up its activities, I along with other participants at that event in Riyadh, learned that our host, the head of the National Guard who had sent us our invitations to the festival, had been replaced by the crown princes cousin, Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz. Adel Al-Jubeir, who had been prominent in recent news on Saudi Arabia, was demoted from foreign minister to minister of state for foreign affairs while Ibrahim Al-Assaf, formerly the finance minister, was appointed minister of foreign affairs. Al-Assaf had been among the Saudi princes and entrepreneurs who had been put under house arrest in the Ritz Carlton in November 2017 and who was rumoured to have been released without having to pay the penalties that were exacted from the other detainees. The overhaul also affected the ministries of interior, justice, education, health, culture and the Ministry of Shura Council Affairs. But perhaps the most significant change was the reintroduction of the post of national security adviser, which is now occupied by Minister of State Musaad bin Mohamed Al-Aiban, a Harvard graduate. Although some of the names of those dismissed or appointed by the royal decrees came as a surprise, the government overhaul did not. It had been expected for some time since the Khashoggi murder because of the pressure Riyadh was coming under to bring those responsible to account and to take other required measures. Observers, who have been closely following events in the kingdom, read most everything from this perspective. For example, when Prince Ahmed bin Abdul-Aziz, the kings younger brother (from a different mother), returned to Saudi Arabia from London, where he had been living for many years, word quickly spread that he would be appointed crown prince, replacing Mohamed bin Salman. Nothing of the sort occurred. Far from penalising the current crown prince, last weeks royal decrees strengthened his power in the state. Without delving into the details of King Salmans recent decrees, what is certain is that, intentionally or not, they convey a clear message: Saudi Arabia is the master of its own will. The decrees do not reflect, even remotely, the thrust of international pressures and, above all, the pressures from across the Atlantic in the US Congress. As I read last weeks changes, after dismissing the officials directly responsible for the Khashoggi assassination and initiating the relevant criminal procedures, Riyadh decided to close the subject and proceed with the implementation of the new policies spearheaded by Crown Prince Bin Salman. As for public opinion in Saudi Arabias allies, that is another question. Saudi Arabias actions are clearly informed by the firm conviction that the Khashoggi case was politicised for ulterior motives that have nothing to do with the defence of the freedom of expression or human rights. An influential Saudi figure whom I had the opportunity to interview while here in Riyadh related a joke that went around at the time of the US-British invasion of Iraq: After a summit between US president George Bush Jr and British prime minister Tony Blair, the two heads-of-state held a joint press conference in which they announced that they had taken the decision to kill 20 million Arabs and one dentist. The journalists homed in on the dentist. Who was he? Why is he being targeted? Not one journalist asked about the 20 million Arabs and the sin they committed in order to deserve that fate. My interlocutor continued, you know and I know and the whole world knows that thousands of people around the world have been and continue to be subjected to what Khashoggi suffered, whether in the torture chambers in Guantanamo or Abu Gharib, or in police departments in some Third World countries. So why all this fuss about a single dentist? Why not defend the 20 million Arabs? He stressed that certain governments that are now casting themselves as defenders of the freedom of expression and the press are the worst abusers of the right to free expression and among the worlds top jailers of journalists and political opponents. He added: What happened in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul was a heinous crime that needs to be investigated. Saudi Arabia has taken the necessary measures towards this end. However, Saudi policy is governed by a strategic vision for reform and progress. Nothing in that strategy will be vulnerable to pressures motivated by hidden political ends. Whether we like it or not, this is the perspective of Riyadh and it explains why the recent changes were contrary to what many had expected. * A version of this article appears in print in the 20 December, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: A very Saudi reshuffle Short link: Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Accusing the BJP led Central government of indulging in politics of vendetta by misusing CBI against political rivals with regard to Saturday CBI raids across UP and Delhi in a case illegal mining and the possible quizzing of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati called up the SP chief expressing her solidarity with him on Monday. The BSP chief assured Akhilesh of standing by him and taking on the BJP together. Charging the ruling party of with playing dirty tricks and electoral conspiracy, Mayawati made the phone call to Akhilesh amid reports that he might be questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the illegal sand mining case of Hamirpur leading the CBI to conduct raids across 14 locations on Saturday. She told Akhilesh that it was the old tactic of the ruling party and even she and her party had also been on its target. There were reports that then UP chief minister Akhilesh might also be questioned by the CBI as he was holding the mining portfolio in 2012-13 when irregularities were committed by the then Hamripur DM and UP cadre IAS officer of 2008 batch B Chandrakala in granting 60 licences for mineral mining depute NGTs ban. Mayawati told Akhilesh that people were aware of BJPs dirty tricks which were not new. She asked him not to worry and that they would fight strongly against such conspiracies, said a BSP statement released to the media. The SP chief has questioned the timing of the raids and said he is ready to take up any challenge. Why did they take six years to include me in the probe? No one had ever questioned or investigated my role till now. In six years, no notice, no mention of my name was ever made. Suddenly, the ruling dispensation decided to probe my role as a minister. Its a second thought, a desperate move by the BJP leadership to browbeat us, he said, linking the raids to an SP-BSP alliance in UP for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. An inquiry into alleged illegal mining in Hamirpur commenced in 2016 after the Allahabad High Court ordered the premier probe agency to take over the case following allegations that public servants, in criminal conspiracy with other accused, allowed illegal mining of minor minerals in the district between 2012 and 2016. It was alleged that they illegally granted fresh leases for mining of sand, renewed existing leases and permitted obstructed period to the existing leaseholders, thereby causing losses to the government exchequer. Kumar Vikram By Express News Service SHEOPUR (MP): Ever since it launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on October 2, 2014, the government has built 9.07 crore household toilets in rural areas. Over Rs 1,300 crore has been spent on the awareness drive to teach people about the need for using toilets. But ground realities indicate the money is going down the drain in many areas. While the expenditures on building toilets and awareness campaigns have consistently increased, the toilets built under SBM (Gramin) remain merely brick enclosures in many villages. During a recent visit to Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh, this correspondent found toilets being used as storehouses in some villages. At other places, they were simply abandoned, with dogs and cattle resting inside. In Kalmi village, people complained of lack of water as the main reason for not using toilets. We dont have water to cook meal, how can we use toilets? said one villager. Similar reports keep coming in from various other part of the country. The issue has been raised several times in Parliament as well. Recently, it was pointed out that toilets constructed in many villages that were declared open defecation free had no seats and water facilities. The government in its reply said, Sanitation is a State subject and hence the responsibility for implementation of the programme lies with the States. Government of India provides technical and financial support to supplement the efforts of the State Governments. Complaints, if any, are forwarded to the respective State Governments for appropriate corrective measures. An official of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation said cleanliness was a behavioural issue and involved change of mindset to make people stop defecating in the open and adopt safe sanitation practices. The awareness campaigns are intended to do precisely that change mindsets. The official said massive media campaigns have been carried out at national level and cleanliness drives and awareness campaigns are held at regular intervals. A Swachh Bharat Whatsapp group has been created. A Facebook page for SBM(G) has been created, twitter handles are also active. Celebrities have been roped in as brand ambassadors, added the official. The budget for awareness campaigns has also gone up from `147 crore in 2015-16 to `527 crore in the current year (2018-19). But clearly, the mindsets in many areas are yet to change. By Express News Service MUMBAI: Police resorted to caning and detained 30 after Dalit groups tried to disrupt a public meeting of controversial rightwing leader Sambhaji Bhide at Jalna in Marathwada area of central Maharashtra on Sunday. Bhide is one of the accused in Bhima Koregaon violence case and Dalit organisations have been demanding his arrest in connection with the case. Bhide had been touring various parts of Maharashtra to raise funds for his ambitious project a 1200 kg golden throne at Shivaji memorial at Raigad fort. After the announcement of an event at Jalna a couple of weeks back, where Bhide was to deliver a lecture, organisations such as Sambhaji Brigade, Anyay Pratikar Dal, Bharip and Panthers Sena wrote to the district administration requesting it to enforce a ban on his entry to the district. With the administration seemingly dragging its feet in the matter, members of these organisations gathered at the venue on Sunday, hurling eggs and shouting slogans against Bhide. Even as a sizeable police contingent tried to whisk away the protesters from the Arya Samaj Mandir, the venue of protest in the Badi Sadak area of the city, some members of Bhides Shiv Pratishthan tried to confront the protesters, resulting in a clash between them. The police then had to resort to a mild lathi charge before detaining around 30 workers belonging to different organisations, an officer at Sadar police station in Jalna said. Bhide was also supposed to inaugurate three temples in the city. He left for Aurangabad in the afternoon after attending all the scheduled programs, the officer added. What sparked the protest Bhide had been touring various parts of Maharashtra to raise funds for his ambitious project a 1200 kg golden throne at Shivaji memorial at Raigad fort. Dalit organisations have been demanding his arrest in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. By PTI LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The BSP, the Congress and the AAP on Monday came out in support of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav amid reports the CBI may quiz him in an illegal mining case and accused the BJP-led NDA government of resorting to "vendetta politics". The possibility of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) questioning their party supremo also irked the Samajwadi Party(SP) MPs in the Lok Sabha where they kicked up a ruckus and tore and flung papers at the Speaker's desk. Facing flak, the CBI came out with details about the mining case in Uttar Pradesh with its officials claiming that the office of Yadav when he was the chief minister had cleared 13 projects in one single day. The CBI claimed that Yadav, who also held the mining portfolio for some time, cleared 14 leases out of which 13 were approved on February 17, 2013 in violation of e-tendering process. READ | BJP misusing CBI to stop me from clinching alliance: Akhilesh Yadav The CBI highlighted the role of Yadav after he accused the BJP government at the Centre of misusing the central probe agency for its political gains. Ahead of a formal announcement of a pre-poll alliance with the SP, BSP chief Mayawati telephoned Yadav and extended her full support to him, telling him not to be shaken by any "gimmicks". "Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav while dubbing any move by the CBI to quiz him as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. ALSO READ | Illegal mining case: Mayawati calls up Akhilesh Yadav, assures all help The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases. "The CBI raids and later the threat of quizzing by the CBI in a mining scam is nothing but political animosity of the BJP. Such petty politics and political conspiracy are not new for the BJP. The people of the country have understood it and they will teach the BJP a lesson in the Lok Sabha polls," she said in a press release. The release said that Mayawati called up Yadav on Sunday and talked to him over the issue. "The day news of the SP-BSP top leadership meeting came out, the BJP government used the CBI and raids were conducted in an old mining scam and the news of quizzing Akhilesh Yadav was deliberately spread. Is it not an action to defame the SP-BSP alliance?" Mayawati said. Yadav may face a CBI probe in a case of illegal mining, according to the agency FIR made public Saturday, the day the SP and the BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had also carried out searches at 14 locations. ALSO READ | BJP in alliance with CBI to target Akhilesh: Samajwadi Party "If this CBI action is not a political conspiracy, then why did BJP leaders issue statements and why did a BJP leader and minister acted as CBI spokesperson?," Mayawati asked. Claiming that she was "framed" in the Taj corridor case in 2003 when she did not agree to an alliance for the 2004 general elections, Mayawati said, "But later people took revenge and the BSP got absolute majority in the 2007 Assembly polls. "According to the release, the BSP chief reminded Yadav of these past incidents and asked him not to get shaken while asserting that people will give a befitting reply to the BJP. The BSP supremo also alleged that the BJP after coming to power in 2014 had been misusing government machinery for political gains and threatening rivals and giving relief "to BJP leaders in criminal cases". In the Lok Sabha, the ruckus created by the SP members led to adjournment of the House ahead of the scheduled time. READ | Lok Sabha proceedings disrupted due to protests by Samajwadi Party, Congress, others The SP members were protesting since the House reconvened after the weekend recess. Congress members too were in the Well of the House holding placards demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee(JPC) probe on the Rafale jet deal. The protests by SP, Congress, AIADMK and TDP led to three adjournments of Lok Sabha, before it was adjourned for the day by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan when SP members tore papers and flung them at her desk. SP members stormed the Well of the House and tried to snatch the papers of Lok Sabha officials who were sitting at the desk of the Secretary General. Thet alleged a nexus between the Centre and the CBI in the sand mining case. Dharmendra Yadav of the SP shouted slogans, alleging the CBI has become a "parrot of the BJP" and is "in alliance" with the ruling party. The ruckus by SP members in the House gained in intensity after the passage of 'The Personal Laws Amendment Bill, 2018'. When the House started a discussion on the next agenda item relating to natural calamities in various parts of the country, SP members started tearing papers, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was present in the House when his party members created a pandemonium. The Congress accused the government of misusing probe agencies to target opposition leaders in an effort to stall an alliance ahead of the 2019 polls. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad termed the CBI's move against Yadav as "vendetta politics" of the BJP. He also accused the BJP government of "misusing" probe agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax to target opposition leaders. "We strongly condemn it (CBI's action against Yadav). Such politics and dictatorship cannot be allowed in India," Azad said. He alleged that the BJP government did not initiate any action for over four-and-a-half years and suddenly acted against Yadav when it is about to end its tenure. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed the Modi government for "shamelessly unleashing" the CBI on Akhilesh Yadav and said it is time to throw out the NDA government, calling it a "dictatorial and undemocratic regime". Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: Separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajjad Gani Lone has said that his party, Peoples Conference, would contest all 87 seats of J&K Assembly seats in forthcoming state elections. Lone, whose party was in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said, Our alliance with the BJP has ended. Our party (PC) will contest all 87 Assembly seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections, Sajjad told reporters while addressing a press conference. The press meet was held shortly after former PDP MLA Abbas Wani joined Peoples Conference.Lone said his party would filed candidates in all the Assembly seats, including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. We wont have any pre-poll alliance with anyone, Sajjad said. On his partys alliance with BJP, he said, We have nothing to do with the BJP anymore. There was an alliance, but it is over. We will give tough a fight to all our opponents, including the BJP, said Sajjad, who was a minister for three years in the PDP-BJP coalition government. Sajjad joined hands with the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 Assembly polls. Kumar Vikram By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha polls this year might be held in nine or 10 phases as the Election Commission (EC) is likely to hold the Assembly polls of six or seven states along with the big political battle of 2019. The terms of four Assemblies Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will end in May and June, 2019. Moreover, the Centre is prepared to hold the Jammu & Kashmir polls as well. Apart from these states, the elections in Maharashtra and Haryana may also be clubbed together. The terms of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies end in the first week of November, and holding the polls together would save resources as there wouldnt be any more elections this year, an EC official said. The poll panel might announce the election schedule around the last week of February, and polling may start from April 8 or the next convenient date, sources said, adding, The template would be the schedule of the 2014 polls, when voting began on April 7, and over nine phases, going on till May 12. Officials claimed clubbing of the Haryana and Maharashtra polls would depend on the political situation. States and the ruling parties have to be allowed to take a call. Both states are ruled by the BJP. If the party thinks it could be beneficial, the two governments can take a call on seeking dissolution of the Assemblies six months before the scheduled end of term. Meanwhile, an EC official said the poll panel has sufficient resources to hold the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls of the seven states together. Deployment of security forces would also not be a big issue if elections are held together, said a government official. While the Sikkim Assembly term ends on May 27, 2019, the terms of the Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh Assemblies end on June 18, June 11 and June 1 respectively. The terms of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies end on November 9 and November 2 respectively. A call on polls for the J&K Assembly is yet to be taken. According to the EC, 22.3 lakh ballot units, 16.3 lakh control units and nearly 17.3 lakh VVPATs or paper-trail machines will be used for the 2019 LS polls. The number of machines include the buffer stock for training as well as replacements. These would be deployed at the nearly 10.6 lakh polling stations across India in the next parliamentary elections. IN ONE GO? By PTI LONDON: In a first, scientists have found evidence that the mysterious dark matter -- believed to make up most of the mass of the universe -- can be heated up and moved around, as a result of star formation in galaxies. The findings, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, provide the first observational evidence for the effect known as 'dark matter heating', and give new clues as to what makes up dark matter. ALSO READ | What is Ultima Thule, possibly the oldest space object ever explored? Scientists from the University of Surrey in the UK, Carnegie Mellon University in the US and ETH Zurich in Switzerland set out to hunt for evidence for dark matter at the centres of nearby dwarf galaxies. Dwarf galaxies are small, faint galaxies that are typically found orbiting larger galaxies like our own Milky Way. They may hold clues that could help us to better understand the nature of dark matter. Dark matter is thought to make up most of the mass of the universe. However since it does not interact with light in the same way as normal matter, it can only be observed through its gravitational effects. The key to studying it may, however, lie in how stars are formed in these galaxies. When stars form, strong winds can push gas and dust away from the heart of the galaxy. As a result, the galaxy's centre has less mass, which affects how much gravity is felt by the remaining dark matter. With less gravitational attraction, the dark matter gains energy and migrates away from the centre, an effect called 'dark matter heating'. The team of astrophysicists measured the amount of dark matter at the centres of 16 dwarf galaxies with very different star formation histories. ALSO READ | NASA spacecraft breaks record for smallest object to ever enter orbit They found that galaxies that stopped forming stars long ago had higher dark matter densities at their centres than those that are still forming stars today. This supports the theory that the older galaxies had less dark matter heating. "We found a truly remarkable relationship between the amount of dark matter at the centres of these tiny dwarfs, and the amount of star formation they have experienced over their lives," said Justin Read from the University of Surrey. "The dark matter at the centres of the star-forming dwarfs appears to have been 'heated up' and pushed out," said Read. The findings provide a new constraint on dark matter models: dark matter must be able to form dwarf galaxies that exhibit a range of central densities, and those densities must relate to the amount of star formation. "This study may be the "smoking gun" evidence that takes us a step closer to understanding what dark matter is. Our finding that it can be heated up and moved around helps to motivate searches for a dark matter particle," said Matthew Walker, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The team hopes to expand on this work by measuring the central dark matter density in a larger sample of dwarfs, pushing to even fainter galaxies, and testing a wider range of dark matter models. By Online Desk It's pretty hard to spot fake news these days since fraudsters are upping their game. Sometimes old scams are recycled after a few changes and succeed in snaring new victims. Remember back in 2016 a message about WhatsApp Plus/Gold was all over social media? The same hoax is doing the rounds again but with a different message this time. Some WhatsApp users received a message asking them to download an update that will enable them to use 'WhatsApp Gold.' If you're thinking it's an update that will help you to access secret premium features as the hoax messages claim, you're wrong. The fake message also mentions the word 'Martinelli.' Users are advised not to download any video sent with the message or click on the link to update the app. Twitterati took to the social media platform to alert users about this new scam. One of the tweets warned people not to open the 'Martinelli' link which leads to a malware site. Downloading this update could put your device and private data at risk. This is doing the rounds again. Apparently tomorrow Whats App Gold will be a thing and screw your phone up. #WhatsAppGold #Martinelli #WhatsApp pic.twitter.com/4nHA4N07Xi TechBuzz Ireland (@techbuzzinfo) January 2, 2019 In case you're not aware, WhatsApp never sends any messages to its users. All the updates will be downloaded automatically to your phone if you've opted for the 'auto-update' option in the app. Otherwise, it will be available in the Play Store for Android phones and in the App Store for iOS users. Earlier last week, a lot of people woke up to a mail saying WhatsApp would stop working from 2019 on certain devices. Users were asked to click on a link for a list of such devices. However, it was found to be just another spam email. There's just one rule to stay safe in the virtual world -- be aware of your activities! No one would offer us anything free like the hoax messages/emails claim. So, next time when someone sends you a message promising lavish stuff, be sure it's fake! A Sharadhaa By Express News Service Brothers Sai Kumar (popularly known as Dialogue King), P Ravi Shankar (who rose to fame as Armuga Ravishankar with Kempegowda) and actor Ayyappa P Sharma will all be in one frame. Yes, the established trio, for the first time, be sharing screen space in Bharaate. The Sriimurali-starrer film, directed by Chethan Kumar, has managed to rope in the actors, all of whom will be seen in prominent roles. Sriimurali In addition, Supreeth will be making his debut as producer. It is said that Ravi Shankar and Ayyappa have completed shooting their portions, while Saikumar will to shoot his portions and will join the sets in the coming days. SaiKumar and Ravi Shankar are dubbing artistes turned actors and rose to stardom in Kannada cinema. They have also acted in Telugu and Tamil films, while Ayyappa is a notable actor in the industry and his role in the latest film KGF has garnered a lot of attention. A family entertainer, Bharaate, meaning noise, has raised the expectations among cine-goers, especially because of its interesting cast. It is said to be in demand as filmmakers are keen to take the film in other languages, especially Bhojpuri, as the team has shot extensive portions in Rajasthan. The makers, who have completed shooting in parts of Mandya, Mysuru and North Karnataka, will resume their next schedule in Bengaluru from January 10. Bharaate features Sreeleela in the female lead and music by Arjun Janya. By Express News Service Looks like another Kannada heroine is heading to B-Town. Manvitha Kamath, who set the ball rolling with her role in Suris Tagaru, is said to have made a temporary camp in Mumbai, and her latest photos clicked by Mohit Holani are the talk of the town. Yes, I am in Mumbai, the film hub, and it is all a new experience. So, is it Bollywood calling for Manvitha? I am glad to have a lot of exciting things going on, but I have been asked to be tight-lipped and have kept my fingers crossed. I would love to share a lot, but only at the right time, she replies. On the Kannada front, Manvitha wrapped 2018 by completing the major talkie portions for her next yet-to-be-titled project, directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekar. She is paired opposite Vasishta Simha in the film. The project is left with 10 days of patch works and songs. Meanwhile, Manvitha is gearing up to join the sets of Daari Tappida Maga. Directed by Anil Kumar, the films shooting is currently on with lead hero Dheeren Rajkumar, who is making his debut. Manvitha is said to be joining the sets of the film from January 16. 2019 has started on a good note and I am waiting to start off with Daari Tappida Maga. It is yet another role to be added to my profile, she says. Countries will probably always engage in gruesome wars; however, another type of war is slowly creeping up on us, and it is equally calamitous. These upcoming wars may change course to focus on trade, eliminating weapons and replacing them with tariffs and taxes. The US, as it has done in countless standard wars, is now briskly waging the new trade wars. US President Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency and landed in the White House on an America First ticket and the promise of making trade fairer for American businesses. Implementing these promises is getting the US entangled in trade wars that are equally far-reaching in their consequences as conventional ones. The rising protectionism that Trump demands entails shielding US domestic industries from foreign competition by taxing imports. This is occurring as free trade, which drives prices down and boosts economies by eliminating restrictions on imports and exports, becomes a thing of the past. The first agreement to be hit by the trade war was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement that the US pulled out of. The TPP, an agreement between 12 countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, aimed at deepening and stimulating economic ties as it removed tariffs on trade. Today, doubts are engulfing the TPP, and the possibility of its continuing without the US is minimal. Then came Trumps threat to withdraw from the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada which eliminated tariffs and trade barriers and has controlled trade among the three states for over 25 years. After intense negotiations and haggling, a new NAFTA deal, NAFTA 2, was signed in November 2018 with major changes to the original agreement. Furthermore, Trump has imposed tariffs on US imports from Canada, Mexico, the EU and China in the hope that American consumers will buy local goods. Immediately, the affected partners reciprocated with their own tariffs, however. The US and its partners then embarked on a retaliatory trade war that will ultimately affect the world at large. Given the shared border, close proximity and historical resemblances, trade between the US and Canada is the largest in the world after trade between China and the United States, and yet a trade dispute has come about as the US has implemented a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminum from Canada and several other countries, shattering the collaborative climate. Canada has retaliated with tariffs on US products such as maple syrup, orange juice, dishwashers, jams, pizza, herbicides and more. The tit-for-tat escalation has continued, with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, saying we will not back down. The gains from the actions overseen by the Trump administration are dubious. In theory, taxing Canadian and other countries steel and aluminum allows US companies to buy local steel instead, but potentially prices will go up because less steel and aluminum is available on the market. This will reward US steel companies, but it will also affect consumer purchasing power as the prices of products using steel and aluminum will rise. An even more acute trading war, the one between the US and China, has escalated to a cataclysmic level, and has led China to accuse the US of launching the largest trade war in economic history. The US has slapped several rounds of sweeping tariff hikes on imports from China, and after each hike China immediately followed suit. During one round, the US imposed a 10 per cent tariff on over 5,000 Chinese products worth billions of dollars, over $250 billion to be exact, or almost half of the goods the US imports from China. China responded with its own tariffs on over 5,000 American goods, including liquefied natural gas, mineral ores, coffee, edible oils and more. By his actions, Trump aims to reduce the trade deficit between the US and China, which amounts to approximately $375 billion, and end what he has called the unfair trade policies undertaken by China. After a tense period in which the world held its breath, a truce between the two giants is finally in the works. During the G20 Summit held in Argentina at the end of last year, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the escalating trade war and how to curb it. The ongoing negotiations may resolve the trade dispute. In the meantime, Trump will hold off on plans to more than double US import taxes on $200 billion of Chinese goods and to impose tariffs on $246 billion of Chinese products imported to the US each year. China has also made some concessions. It has promised to import more US products to balance the trade deficit between the two countries and stopped exporting fentanyl to the US, a synthetic opioid. A trade war between the global powers hurts consumers worldwide as the prices of goods are hiked at both ends of the tug of war, making it harder for companies, domestic and foreign, to operate. In fact, tariffs often prove to be counterproductive as they drive up the cost of goods, passing this on to consumers. Today, as the US and China take a respite, the world is breathing a sigh of relief, hoping the temporary ceasefire in this trade war remains intact. However, the trajectory for more trade wars to come looks set. *The writer is a political analyst. *A version of this article appears in print in the 20 December, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Trading partners or punching bags? Short link: By Express News Service KOLKATA: Some 3,000 police personnel would be deployed and 300 police pickets would be established across Kolkata on Tuesday and Wednesday for CPM's trade union wing CITU's two-day strike called against the policies of the central government. Additional police forces would be deployed at Esplanade, metro stations, bus terminuses, ferry ghats, office localities and Burrabazaar area of the city. The state government also said that it will prosecute persons enforcing the bandh or blocking roads. CPM has said that it will enforce picketings in major junctions of the city including Left Front chairman Biman Bose at Shyambazaar five-point road junction, CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra at Rajabazaar More, Rabin Deb at Hazra More and Left Front Assembly leader Sujan Chakraborty at 8B Bus Stand in Jadavpur. A CPM march to the state police headquarters Lalbazaar last year turned violent and many were injured after police lathi-charged Left Front cadres and journalists. The heightened security measures for the two-day strike will be placed anticipating trouble like last year. By Express News Service KOCHI: The Kochi-Muziris Biennale has been evolving over the past six years since the debut show, with the ongoing edition getting richer with sounds as much as the visuals, according to filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan. This time, the biennale appeals not just to the eyes but also to the ears, said the septuagenarian, a pioneer of the new-wave cinema movement in Kerala. I am surprised by the addition of sound art. A winner of the countrys prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for cinema, Adoor visited Fort Kochis Aspinwall House, a main venue of the biennale. I have been religiously following every edition of the biennale since its first edition (in 2012). This festival has been instrumental in revealing the newest trend in global art before us, he said. Noting that the biennale had something new to offer every time, Gopalakrishnan said that this time the 108-day event has a wide range of video installations. Malayalam filmmaker Shaji N Karun, too, visited the biennale. What is best about the Biennale he said on Sunday, is that as it grows with each edition, it creates more awareness about art among the public. Sensitivity chisels an individuals soul. Aesthetics is the best tool you can find to make people more sensitive to the world around, he said. Alexandre Ziegler, French ambassador to India, applauded the ongoing biennale, hailing the diversity in its selection of art works.The gender diversity, geographical vastness and the range in the medium of the work are commendable. The selections are strong and powerful; each of them conveys a message, he said.The biennale reflects on issues across the world such as gender rights, colonialism and the use and impact of technology, he said. The Music of Muziris programme at the Pavilion made the weekend even more memorable as the audience were put into a trance on Saturday by the abhangs of Shruti Vishwanath. Abhangs are spiritual poetry from western India dedicated to Lord Vittala. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Protests broke out in University of Hyderabad on Monday, following the demolition of veliwada (dalit ghetto) on Sunday. The veliwada was erected three years by the dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula as a mark of protest against alleged cast discrimination by the university, following which he had committed suicide. Students conducted a protest march till the administration building, the entrance of which was blocked by the police. The university on Monday issued a clarification in which it said that the veliwada was removed as part of its broader move to rid the campus of all banners, posters, and flexis which have been installed without permission. The notification further said that the administrative circular to this effect was also issued recently. Shyam Yadagiri By Express News Service HYDERABAD : In spite of all the resources and support given by the US and other countries over the past three decades, poliovirus still continues to exist, and thrive in various parts of the world. Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication by Thomas Abraham details the reasons why polio eradication acquired a global dimension, and explores the causes of its seemingly imminent failure, despite being one of the most ambitious initiatives the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ever undertaken. In 1921, Franklin D Roosevelt, the former President of the US, allegedly got afflicted by poliovirus and remained wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life. Determined to respond to the threat, FDR helped raise huge amounts of money which was used to fund research to develop a vaccine. Researcher Jonas Salk developed a killed virus vaccine after testing it on monkeys, and later, on a group of crippled kids who already had polio after obtaining their parents consent. The vaccine worked, and in 1955, it was recommended for widespread use. Here, the author shares detailed information on the trials conducted. Later, another researcher, Albert Sabin, had developed a weakened virus vaccine which is to be given orally. Currently, this is the most-used forms of vaccine in the world. The distinguishing factor between Salk and Sabin vaccines was that the Sabin vaccine had the potential to eradicate the disease, and was given orally. However, with the Salk vaccine being in widespread use in the 1950s, the author says the US was not too keen on adopting Sabins oral vaccine, despite it being easier to administer. In 1957, the Soviet Union began trials of the Sabin vaccine on kids, and immediately adopted its use. By 1960, children in the USSR had been administered tens of millions of doses. Later, Mexico and Cuba followed suit. Only then, after seeing their successes, did the US switch to administering the Sabin vaccine. The later parts of the book delve into the issues surrounding vaccination. Though poliomyelitis has been eradicated from many parts of the world, it still exists in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, and regularly keeps popping out of countries that had been declared polio-free. Notwithstanding the $1 billion a year funds for the polio eradication campaign by organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary and others, poliovirus roams free across the globe. This book explores the reasons behind the ever-continuing campaign and its failure in achieving complete eradication. A must-read for those interested in the origins of polio and the geopolitics involved in its eradication. Pages: 252, Price: `699 Publisher: Context shyam@newindianexpress.com @shyamyadagiri By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Three years after the so-called institutional murder of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula at University of Hyderabad (UOH), the varsity administration removed the veliwada (a Dalit ghetto) that was erected at shopping complex in the campus by Vemula. The removal of veliwada comes just 10 days before the third death anniversary of Vemula, who had committed suicide on January 17, 2016. Students burnt the effigy of vice-chancellor Podile Appa Rao on Sunday evening after the varsity authorities demolished veliwada. It was erected by Vemula along with his friends as a mark of protest, soon after they were issued orders to move out of their hostel rooms by the university.However, since Vemulas death, the veliwada continued to exist, as the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) to which Vemula belonged, continued their protest demanding justice in the issue. C Shivakumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: A new Information Technology (IT) park is likely to be set up near King's Institute in Guindy, Chennai with an investment of Rs 600 crore to Rs 1,000 crore, according to official sources. The Tech Park will be similar to Olympia Techpark in Chennai and will come up on six-and-a-half acres of land at the site where Exide Batteries once had its offices and will generate 12,000 jobs. This will add 1.2 million square feet of office space to the city at a time when there is a shortage of IT micro-market office space. It is learnt that the project is awaiting single window clearance from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) under the Business Facilitation act. Sources indicated that the project also requires clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. The project will commence in 2021. Sources said the project has already attracted foreign direct investment and it will cater to multiple IT sectors. The project comes in the wake of Ascendas-Singbridge Group, a leading sustainable urban development and business space solutions provider, last week announcing acquisition of a 12.20-acre land parcel in Chennai to be developed into an IT park. A Shankar, Chief Operating Officer, Strategic Consulting, India & Sri Lanka, Jones Lang LaSalle told Express that these new tech parks were coming up at a time when there was huge demand for office space for information technology projects. "The investment is coming at the right time. It is not only these two projects, many are being planned in the Poonamallee area as well," he said. With the Global Investors Meet (GIM) around the corner, all these projects will be given priority and would be cleared if the site is clean and the project is good, said Shankar. Knight Frank, a property consultant has said that inadequate supply of office space is continuing to limit transactions. Office rentals have continued to increase in the city, with central business districts seeing an increase of Rs 65 to Rs 95 per square feet a month while in southern business districts they have increased by Rs 50 to Rs 76 per square feet a month. By PTI MUMBAI: Global rating agency, S&P, Monday affirmed 'BB' long-term and 'B' short-term foreign currency issuer credit ratings on IDBI Bank, while removing them from CreditWatch, after the recent capital infusion from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). The bank has announced that it received Rs 14,500 crore in fresh capital from LIC on December 28, 2018. This capital infusion is part payment for LIC's proposed acquisition of a 51 per cent controlling stake in the bank. The total infusion from the transaction is likely to be Rs 17,000 - 20,230 crores, greater than the bank's total capital of Rs 13,860 crore as of September 30, 2018. "Such a large capital infusion supports our view of a very high likelihood of support for the bank from the government. The infusion could enable IDBI Bank to accelerate write-offs and make sufficient provisions against stressed assets," the rating agency said in a report. It also removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on August 17, 2018. The rating agency, however, believes that derisking of the balance sheet and a substantial clean-up of the bank's large stressed assets may take at least a couple of years. The lender's gross non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was 31.8 per cent as of September 30, 2018, and the bank had insufficient provisioning coverage of 55 per cent against stressed assets. The bank has a high concentration of loans to risky sectors, including infrastructure. The rating agency also kept the bank's outlook as stable on the expectation that the capital infusion from LIC will help it meet the regulatory capital requirement on a sustained basis. The report said the bank's rating could be upgraded if it is able to reduce its stressed assets and credit costs to levels comparable to midsize public sector peers and derisk its balance sheet. By Express News Service MUMBAI: Liquidity is an issue that the Reserve Bank of India is constantly monitoring, the central bank is ready to take steps whenever required, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das told reporters in New Delhi after his meeting with the representatives of MSMEs. However, the governor warned that the issue of liquidity has to be dealt with caution; else it would become a situation of loose money. Caution and care has to be exercised by the RBI. Excess liquidity has adverse consequences, he said. The RBI has an understanding of the current liquidity situation, Das said, adding that it has recalled the additional Rs 60,000 crore open market operations (OMO) announced earlier for December and January. We do believe that the liquidity requirement of financial institutions to a great extent is met, Das said. The liquidity issue, which has been playing out since September and was accentuated by IL&FS defaults, also became a point of contention between the Finance Ministry and RBI under former governor Urjit Patel. RBI has been trying to show the credit growth in the past few months to emphasise how it doesnt see a liquidity crisis. NBFCs, on the other hand, have been saying they would want a separate liquidity window to ease their short-term liquidity problems.The RBI governor and his team are scheduled to meet heads of NBFCs in Mumbai on Tuesday. Corporate governance Another issue the RBI governor touched up on in his press conference was the need for governance at public sector banks (PSB). He said the issue of non-performing assets (NPA) of PSBs engages their attention on a daily basis, and as the recent RBI reports showed, there has been considerable amount of improvement. but the improvements have to be sustained, if the banks have to fulfill their responsibilities, and for some of the banks have to become healthy again, he said.What kind of governance reforms can be brought about has to be looked at a framework that does not throttle their functioning or bring about impediments in their working, and allows them sufficient commercial flexibility, Das said. The aim is that they should not only come out of the NPAs, but also grow, said the RBI governor. Reforms Governance reforms for PSBs should not throttle their functioning or bring about impediments in their working, according to RBI governor. The term the War on Terrorism was coined on 11 September 2001 when the horrendous attacks on New York and Washington gave rise to a new era of asymmetrical warfare between the worlds governments and terrorist groups. The term still represents a state of ongoing war that has moved from Afghanistan and spread across the globe since its declaration by former US president George W Bush in retaliation to the 9/11 attacks. Starting with the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, the Middle East has become a major front in this war and has witnessed an unprecedented spike in terrorist activities that have included countries still fighting against miscellaneous terrorist groups. Compared to previous years, 2018 saw a downward trajectory in the activities of groups such as Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda-affiliated organisations. The following is an overview of the War on Terrorism in some hotspots of this conflict. AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN: It was here that the War on Terrorism really started as the location of the longest war ever fought by the US military. This war is now in its 17th year and has been labelled the Forgotten War. Plans to withdraw from the conflict remain unclear, and Al-Qaeda and the Taliban remain active in both countries and are able to deliver deadly attacks on civilians such as the suicide bombing that took place in the Afghan capital Kabul in January 2018 killing 103 and injuring 235. In neighbouring Pakistan, an IS suicide bomber killed 149 people and injured 186 at the same time. The war in these two countries is far from over, and it is likely to escalate further in the coming period as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and IS are still resurgent. EGYPT: Terrorist attacks orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliates such Hasm and Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis have dropped off, despite attacks targeting Copts such as one in November targeting Coptic pilgrims going to a monastery in Minya, killing seven and injuring 12. The war on terrorism in Sinai has witnessed major successes by the Egyptian army, which launched Operation Sinai 2018 in February. This has managed to quell the IS-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group in the North Sinai governorate and restore order to a turbulent region. The success of the operation has driven groups such as Al-Morabitoon led by terrorist Hisham Al-Ashmawi to flee to Libya, where he was captured by Libyan special forces. The Sinai operation has resulted in the killing of hundreds of terrorists along with the destruction of thousands of hideouts, smuggling tunnels to Gaza, stores and vehicles. However, the battle is not yet over, especially since runaway IS and Jabhat Al-Nusra elements from strongholds in Syria may be tempted to rally in North Sinai. LIBYA AND NORTH AFRICA: The Libyan Civil War is far from over, but the Libyan army under General Khalifa Haftar has managed to control the tide of events and win decisive battles in 2018, including the liberation of terrorist strongholds in Derna. The influx of Al-Qaeda and IS-affiliated elements into the vast Libyan Desert and joining forces with existing terrorist cells remains a challenge, however. The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated government in Tripoli represents a challenge to Haftars long-term plans for the reunification of Libya. But military and logistical assistance from Egypt has helped the Libyan army become a power to be reckoned with, and the successes in 2018 may be the beginning of the end of the most horrific chapter in Libyan history. THE MIDDLE EAST: The so-called caliphate declared by the IS group in Iraq and Syria has descended into shambles, but IS remnants have been attempting to hold pockets in the Syria and Iraqi theatres. At the same time, the terrorist group has changed its tactics to bombings instead of the military campaigns that characterised its earlier existence. The horrific suicide bombings in the Suwaydeya governorate in Syria that left 255 killed and 180 injured was an indication of these new tactics, and despite Syrian army victories backed by Russian assistance and assistance from the International Coalition led by the United States, IS has not been completely wiped out. Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham has also been attempting to claim the position of IS. The Syrian army and Kurdish fighters are fighting an existential battle that will continue in 2019. Though far from completely safe, the liberated regions of Iraq and Syria are now seeing a new stability, and this has led to the return of thousands of refugees who fled the battle-torn regions years ago. WEST AFRICA: The IS-affiliated Boko Haram group has wreaked havoc in Africas most populous country of Nigeria and neighbouring areas. Despite massive efforts by the Nigerian army along with neighbouring armed forces, the group is far from having been neutralised. In 2018, it orchestrated deadly attacks on military and civilian targets, the most significant taking place in November when an attack on a military base in Borno State left 118 dead and 153 injured. The Nigerian government has not been able to quell the group, though American and French Special Forces in the continent have helped to curb some of its ambitions. THE WAR ON DRUGS: Comparisons can be drawn between the War on Terrorism and the War on Drugs, since the latter, fought mainly against Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, is similarly on-going. The War on Drugs has caused the deaths of over half a million people at the staggering cost of over one trillion US dollars since 1971. Even the destruction of Colombian drug cartels such as the Medellin cartel led drug baron Pablo Escobar or the Juarez or Sinaloan cartels in Mexico have not ended the war, since this has been fought using shoddy methods, with some governments and officials even backing the narcotics traffickers and growers. Newer cartels spawned from destroyed ones such as the Jalisco New Generation cartel control sizeable shares of the drug-trafficking business in Mexico and the US. And in the same way, the War on Terrorism which the US has spent over six trillion dollars on since 2001 has not resulted in the end of global terrorism and may even have exacerbated the situation. It has assisted in adding hundreds of thousands of recruits to terrorist organisations that have spread mayhem and destruction in all corners of the world. The reason has been a lack of clear goals. Instead of targeting the sources of terrorism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the West has ironically treated this group as moderate and allowed its members to be active on its soil. Years of reluctance in dealing with the two major financiers of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radicals, Turkey and Qatar, has rendered the War on Terrorism largely useless. A showdown with these two Islamist regimes has been averted for years, with Turkey still being an active member of NATO and Qatar hosting the biggest US base in the region. Both countries are even used as launch pads in the fight against terrorism. It is a truly bizarre situation and a mockery of efforts around the world to fight the cancer of terrorism. It also disrespects the victims of terrorism worldwide, even as there seems to be no political will in Western capitals to deal with the roots of the problem. This fact alone renders the War on Terrorism a never-ending one. Nothing will change until the policies of pampering terrorism financiers are over, with those behind terrorist activities held accountable. The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring and the Winding Road to Democracy. * A version of this article appears in print in the 20 December, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: An endles war on terrorism Short link: Thousands of the nations poorest residents many elderly or disabled live in deplorable and life-threatening conditions because Congress and the federal government have broken their promise to provide safe and sanitary public housing. Hundreds of public housing complexes where they live are rotting from neglect, unable to pass inspections by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development year after year, an InvestigateTV/Raycom Media analysis of federal data shows. The government is banking on the massive expansion of an experimental rehabilitation program to save public housing properties by privatizing more than a third of all the units. But the program has suffered from oversight woes and mismanagement. Tenants rights have been ignored or misinterpreted. And some of the most distressed properties arent being considered for the improvement program because repairs are deemed too costly. HUD admits growing pains with the new program. But overall, Its a particularly useful tool to help address $50 billion in public housing repairs, said Tom Davis, director of HUDs Office of Recapitalization. The backlog of unmet reconstruction needs is dire. Today, thousands of low-income tenants live among bugs and mice. Their plumbing leaks. Their drains are clogged. Their doors dont lock, and windows are broken. Their smoke detectors dont work, if they have them at all. Their peeling paint is laced with lead. If it breaks, its just broke, said Robert Morris, a retired school custodian who has lived at the Sunset Acres public housing complex in the small southeastern Louisiana city of Bogalusa for the past six years. InvestigateTVs six-month analysis found that hundreds of properties have been neglected for as long as a decade. The federal program designed to save them isnt fully living up to its mission. Public housing is a critical part of our countrys social safety net, said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. The federal government is not supporting it the way they ought to be. The complex where Robert Morris lives is an hour north of New Orleans. It has failed five of six HUD inspections in the past decade. Morris, 64, simply says of the apartments at Sunset Acres, Theyre not nice. Sunset Acres is among 365 public housing complexes that have failed at least half of their inspections in the past decade, the InvestigateTV/Raycom Media analysis of HUD data shows. As bad as the inspections have been, the problem is worse than that, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Far too many of these peoples homes fail inspections and we dont fix them. New program, new concerns Chronic underfunding for renovations by Congress has consequences: About 10,000 public housing units are lost in the U.S. each year from neglect thats left them uninhabitable. This compounds the affordable-housing crisis, where only one in four people who need help get it. On average, a household needs to earn a yearly income of nearly $25,000 to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment on the open market, advocates say. For those living in public housing, their household income averages $14,357, HUD data shows. Since 2010, Congress has slashed the budget for public housing repairs in half. This year, HUD awarded $2.6 billion to public housing authorities for capital improvement projects. The housing authority in Morris town of Bogalusa received $718,000 to address problems at three complexes. That represents slightly more than $2,100 per unit, below the amount needed for adequate repairs. With too little money to address the pressing needs, the federal government is counting on private investors to save public housing. Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD, started in 2012 under the Obama administration as a modest experiment to rehab 20,000 public housing units with private investments and tax credits. Once the overhaul is complete, theyre no longer owned by the government and the rent transitions to Section 8 housing, where tenants pay 30 percent of their income and the federal government reimburses the landlord for the balance of the market-rate rent. Its been a success, said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and member of the Senate housing committee. The federal government keeps throwing money at the problem and getting the same results. We ought to try something different. Yet the program has skeptics. For more than a year, the Government Accounting Office, HUDs inspector general and housing advocates have raised red flags about RAD. There are questions about the true cost of construction and private investment, HUDs oversight and the impact on tenants. HUDs Davis said his office is increasing its staff of 60 by 20 percent by the end of the year, largely to address compliance-related issues. Despite the questions, Congress and HUD are charging full steam ahead, privatizing nearly 40 percent of the nations one million public housing units. The goal of the program: use private money to fix up public housing. But 45 percent of the units were added to the program without any planned expenditures for renovations and repairs, according to InvestigateTVs analysis. In Sen. Browns state of Ohio, nearly 70 percent of the complexes will turn over to private owners without money spent on rehabilitation of their rundown conditions. I dont know how you can do RAD without injecting money into the upkeep and improvement of the structure, Brown said. The private owners have got to live up to their responsibilities, and Im not sure HUD is making them do that. Kennedy also expressed concerns with the lack of investment by private developers. He plans to discuss the issue with HUD Secretary Ben Carson. HUD needs to do a better job ... in making sure the private developers do what they say, Kennedy said. If you carefully supervise it, it can work. Davis said that every RAD project must have a 20-year capital improvement plan which details when repairs will be made and how they will be paid for. Upfront construction is only part of the picture, he said. Legacy of neglect Story continues below video Fix for public housing underfunding raises new concerns HARRISBURG The challenge of finding the cash to pay for needed repairs of aging public housing complexes, increasingly has housing authorities and the federal government turning to public-private partnerships, a trend that concerns advocates for the poor. Tekeydra Gibson waited two years for a coveted unit to open up at a public housing complex in Alexandria, Louisiana, a city in the middle of the state where more than a quarter of its 48,000 residents live in poverty. Her joy, however, sunk when she was shown to her three-bedroom apartment. The sprawling complex of four- and six-family units built in the 1970s looked as if a bomb had been dropped on the property units with caved-in roofs, others burned to the ground. I didnt even know it looked that bad until I actually got here, said the single mother of two. I was like, is this where Im moving to? Sycamore Place exemplifies whats happened since Congress slashed funding for public housing repairs and reclamation. Sycamore was neglected because there wasnt a significant amount of money flowing in ... to maintain it in good standing, said Joseph Page, executive director of the Alexandria Housing Authority, which owns and operates the complex. To see the empty units, see the trees growing through them, it makes me sad. Half of the 200 units in the complex are uninhabitable. Some are unlivable shells or a cement foundation. Those that are occupied have recurring problems with mold, broken appliances, heat that doesnt work and other issues. Basically, everything in this apartment is old, said Gibson, 20. The federal government created public housing after the Great Depression as a promise to provide for many poor Americans living in unsafe conditions or who were homeless. Today, the vast majority of the public units from high rises in big cities to duplexes in small towns are in decent condition, based on an InvestigateTV analysis of their HUD property inspection scores. Still, about 8 percent, including Sycamore Place in Louisiana, are in dire need of extensive repairs and updating. Its appalling and its unacceptable, said Yentel, head of the low-income housing coalition. People shouldnt have to live that way especially when the federal government is supporting it. HUDs inspections reveal the fragile condition of public housing complexes. The stock is old, with all of the units built between 1940 and the mid-1970s. And like any house, upkeep is necessary. But upkeep requires money. HUD inspects the complexes for structural integrity and to ensure the properties are safe for tenants. Broken windows and doors, refrigerators that dont properly cool, toilets that dont flush, insects, lead paint, mold and inoperable smoke detectors are dangers to the people who live in these units. Generally every year or two, inspectors give them a score between zero and 100. Any score below 60 means that the property has serious problems the lower the score, the worse the conditions. During the most recent inspections of public housing, nearly one in eight properties scored below 60. A complex in Hoboken, New Jersey had a score of just eight, the worst of any complex. Housing authorities are supposed to repair the deficiencies found during an inspection with money supplied by the federal government. But without adequate funding, housing authorities can only do so much. And over time, neglected repairs become increasingly expensive fixes. Too costly Sandra Stripe has lived at Boutte Estates in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana almost her entire life. And much has changed at the public housing complex east of New Orleans since she was a toddler. The toilets no longer fill with water after flushing. Water leaks from the upstairs apartments into the downstairs units. If were going to be paying this kind of money, we need to be living better, said Stripe, who pays $366 a month in rent, more than half of her monthly income of $675. In Karen Angelins ground-floor apartment, a mysterious vine grows along the ceiling of interior walls. In the winter, she relies on her stove to heat her three-bedroom apartment because the furnace is just decoration. Angelin added: Were living in the stone age. During its last inspection, the property had a score of 43. Inspectors found electrical hazards, problems with the roofs, unkempt and weedy yards, to name a few deficiencies. So when a letter arrived in the mail on Aug. 28, alerting tenants about plans to convert the complex to RAD, Angelin and other residents were hopeful that the 49-year-old complex would be rehabbed. There have been successful RAD conversions, in which old complexes become new and inviting. In Alexandria, executive director Page is as proud as a new father showing off whats now called Tranquil Place, which resembles a condo community of quaint brick units. Were no longer public housing, said Page. Were affordable housing. But RAD isnt a guarantee. HUD predicts as much as 60 percent of the nations public housing stock could work under RAD. The question becomes what to do about the rest? Some properties need too many costly repairs, making them unlikely to attract private investments. At least 200 complexes that have chronically failed inspections are not on the list for a RAD conversion. Overall, public housing largely is home to working parents, senior citizens and adults with disabilities. But without an infusion of cash from Congress, public housing stock will continue to deteriorate. We have the solutions, Yentel said. Whats missing, she added, is the political will. Jill Riepenhoff is a producer for InvestigateTV; Lee Zurik is the director of investigations for Raycom Media, parent company of InvestigateTV. International Myanmar government vows to crush Rakhine rebels YANGON, Jan 7 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 1/7/2019 10:58:07 AM IST Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi discussed insurgent attacks on Myanmar police on Monday in a rare meeting with the military chief, and her administration called for the armed forces to crush the rebels, a government spokesman said. According to Reuters, fighting between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine has displaced thousands of people since early December, according to the United Nations. The Arakan Army wants greater autonomy for Rakhine, where the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group makes up the majority of the population. Rakhine State saw a military-led crackdown in 2017, following attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents that prompted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee westwards into neighbouring Bangladesh. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other cabinet members met military leaders, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy and the military intelligence chief, to discuss foreign affairs and national security. The presidents office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists, Zaw Htay told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw. While Suu Kyi is barred from being president by a military-drafted constitution, Win Myint is a loyalist and she is seen as de facto leader of the civilian government, while the military remains in charge of security. The insurgents killed 13 policemen and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on Friday, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported. An Arakan Army spokesman outside Myanmar told Reuters last week the group attacked the security forces in response to a broad military offensive in northern Rakhine State that also targeted civilians. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 4,500 people were sheltering in monasteries and communal spaces after being displaced by the fighting in the past month. Zaw Htay described the Arakan Army as a terrorist organization and said it had surprised security forces on guard against Rohingya insurgents. He said the Arakan Army could destabilise Rakhine State for years to come and warned people not to give it support. Do they want to see a cycle of violence lasting decades? he said. I want to tell Rakhine people who are supporting (the Arakan Army): Dont think about yourself, but think about your next generation. Myanmar governments have battled various ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements. Zaw Htay also accused the Arakan Army of meeting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group of Rohingya insurgents that Myanmar also considers terrorists but added that Myanmar was unable to eliminate the groups as they had bases across the border in Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi foreign ministry official and two Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers denied the accusation. One BGB officer asked Myanmar to provide evidence of militant camps in Bangladesh. All the terrorism is taking place on the other side of the border, said Lieutenant Colonel Manzural Hasan Khan, a BGB commander in Coxs Bazar, the district where more than 900,000 Rohingya Muslims are sheltering having fled bouts of violence that have drawn international condemnation against Myanmar. The world knows what happened on the other side, he said. The Myanmar government and military leaders also discussed a temporary ceasefire the military announced last month in other parts of the country, where other insurgent groups operate, Zaw Htay said. The meeting was held at the request of the presidents office, he said. International 10 civilians killed in Afghan bomb attack Sharana (Afghanistan), Jan 7 (IANS) | Publish Date: 1/7/2019 10:58:35 AM IST At least 10 civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded after a bomb ripped through a district bazaar in Afghanistans Paktika province on Monday, officials said. Ten martyred and 13 wounded civilians were admitted to a main hospital in the provincial capital Sharana city following a bomb attack in Jani Khil district, Mohammad Raffah, a provincial health official, told Xinhua news agency. Two children were among those killed. The blast occurred after an improvised explosive device was detonated at a bazaar in the district in the morning, a police official said. In a separate development, five police personnel and three Taliban militants were killed after militants stormed a security checkpoint along a main roadway in Faizabad district of Jawzjan province on Sunday night. The militants overran the checkpoint and took several rounds of guns and ammunition after the clash. Egyptian-American actor Rami Malek has won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his role playing Freddie Mercury in biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. The critically and commercially successful film also won the Best Motion Picture Drama award. Sundays win was Maleks first success at the Golden Globes, after two previous nominations. He beat out big names including Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born), Willem Dafoe (At Eternitys Gate), Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased) and John David Washington (BlacKKKlansman). Malek has been widely praised for his portrayal of the rock icon in the film, and is currently up for a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for the role. Taking his Golden Globe, the actor gave thanks to Queen and to Mercury. Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of a lifetimeI love you, you beautiful man. This is for you, and because of you, gorgeous, Malek said in his acceptance speech. Born in 1981 in California to Egyptian parents, Malek is a film and television actor whose previous roles include the family action film Night at the Museum and the independent film Short Term 12. His breakthrough role was as vigilante hacker Elliot Anderson in the television series Mr. Robot, which earned him a Critics Choice Award and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. He has also appeared in television shows The War at Home, The Pacific, 24, and voice acted in animated series BoJack Horseman. Malek has spoken fondly of his Egyptian roots in numerous interviews, saying that his father brought him up connected to Egyptian culture and their extended family in the town of Samalut. He also noted how he fought against being type-cast in Hollywood because of his Arab roots, and hopes his success can pave the way for more diversity in the industry. In 2017, he accepted an invitation to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an effort to push for diversity among its members, after widespread criticism regarding lack of diversity of the 88th Academy Awards. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Short link: World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced Monday he would step down next month, more than three years before his current term was due to expire. The decision ends Kims six-year tenure and may give US President Donald Trump decisive influence over the future leadership of the global development lender. It has been a great honor to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime, Kim said in a statement. Kim, who became president in 2012, is to join an as-yet unnamed firm focusing on investments in developing countries, the bank said in a statement, and will return to the board of Partners-in-Health, which he co-founded. Under Kims leadership, the bank set the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and ramped up financing. Last year, it also won approval for a sharp $13 billion capital increase after acceding to requests from the Trump administration to curb loans to high-income countries like China. Kims tenure was also marked by high levels of disaffection among World Bank staff, who chafed at a widespread internal restructuring that Kim began. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will serve as interim president upon Kims February 1 departure, the bank said in a statement. Short link: Sayre, PA (18840) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 66F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 48F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Trainer Nikki Odorisio works with Sula to get her conditioned to humans so the red-footed booby can become an educator. SUPPORT THIS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM The article youre about to read is from our reporters doing their important work investigating, researching, and writing their stories. We want to provide informative and inspirational stories that connect you to the people, issues and opportunities within our community. Journalism takes a lot of resources. Today, our business model has been interrupted by the pandemic; the vast majority of our advertisers businesses have been impacted. Thats why the Weekly is now turning to you for financial support. Learn more about our new Insiders program here. Thank you. JOIN NOW The much-awaited proposal by the Trump administration on ending the decades-long stalemate between Israel and Palestine is still in the works and wont be released for another several months, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Jewish media on Sunday. The plan, touted by the US President as a deal of the century was supposed to be unveiled early this year, but the dissolution of Israeli parliament and snap elections scheduled for April have reportedly spoiled the cards. Friedman said on Sunday that the upcoming vote is not the only reason, noting that the plan, while pretty much completed, still needs wordsmithing and smoothing. Washington would release the plan in a way that gives it the best chance of getting a good reception, he stated. The proposal has already been rejected by Palestine, that refused to negotiate what it called the slap of the century after the US recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and moved its embassy there last year. to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you. Trumps deal of the century for Israel & Palestine delayed by several months ambassador Trumps deal of the century for Israel & Palestine delayed by several months ambassador Source : RT - Daily news Rebel Gabonese soldiers arrested, order to be restored within 2-3 hours govt spokesman Rebel Gabonese soldiers arrested, order to be restored within 2-3 hours govt spokesman Soldiers who had announced a military coup in Gabon have been arrested, RFI reports, citing the governments spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou. The situation is under control and order is expected to be completely restored within two or three hours, he added. Earlier on Monday, a group of military officers captured the national radio station in the capital city of Libreville. They had voiced concerns over President Ali Bongos ability to stay in office, and announced the launch of the National Restoration Council. While the government claims that the plotters have been arrested, sporadic gunfire continues to erupt near the radio station, Reuters reported, citing eyewitnesses.Source : RT - Daily news Israel will demand $250 billion in compensation from seven Arab countries and Iran for assets left by Jews forced to flee after the creation of the State of Israel, in an effort to correct the historic injustice of the pogroms. The specific demands are being finalized for the first two of the eight countries, according to Hadashot TV news, which reported that Israel would seek $35 billion from Tunisia and $15 billion from Libya. Compensation will also be sought from Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Iran. Gila Gamliel, Israels Minister for Social Equality, who is coordinating the effort, said that the time had come to correct the historic injustice of the pogroms [against Jews] in seven Arab countries and Iran, and to restore, to hundreds of thousands of Jews who lost their property, what is rightfully theirs. Also on rt.com Pushed to leave: Packing moods among Ukraines Jewish minority amidst far-right rise With the help of an international accountancy firm, the Israeli government has been quietly researching the value of property and assets that Jews were forced to leave behind when they left the countries in question, the Hadashot report said. Compensation, if it were received, would not be allocated to individual Jewish families, but would be distributed through a special Israeli state fund, according to the report. An estimated 856,000 Jews fled 10 Arab countries after Israel was established in 1948, according to Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC). Until now, however, Israel has never formally requested compensation for Jews forced to leave Arab countries. Meir Kahlon, chairman of the Central Organization for Jews from Arab Countries and Iran told the Times of Israel that at the time, Jews did not seek refugee status in the newly-created Israel as it was seen as a return to their historic homeland and the countrys first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, wanted to project an image of a state that was legitimate and could care for its people. The move comes as the Trump administration in the United States prepares its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal an effort which some analysts have already declared dead-in-the-water after the US, in a hugely controversial move last year, recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital. It also relocated its embassy to the city, which Palestinians in turn consider as the designated capital of the State of Palestine. In 2010, Israel passed a law which states that any peace deal must provide for compensation for Jews forced to flee Arab countries and Iran. Also on rt.com Israel evicts Palestinian family from home of 53 years to make way for Jewish settlers Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has also sought $100 billion in compensation from Israel for assets left by Arabs forced to leave the lands controlled by Israel today. Palestinians have also sought a right of return for the surviving refugees and their descendants a demand that has repeatedly been dismissed by Israel. The Trump administration also seems to have taken Israels side on that issue, halting funding for the UNs Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) last year. In 2014, Israel officially made November 30 a national day to commemorate the exiting of Jews from Arab and Iranian lands. Each year the day is used to raise awareness of the subject and to promote the issue of compensation to Jews. That year, Canada also formally recognized the refugee status of its Jewish emigres who fled there after 1948. At a 2014 event marking the displacement of Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Arab countries had compelled Jews living in their territories to leave their homes and assets behind and that the state would continue to act so that the claims of those Jews are not forgotten. Like this story? Share it with a friend! Chinas population is set to peak at 1.44 billion in 2029 before beginning an unstoppable decline in 2030, according to a shocking new report. Data hints that India may already be the most populous country in the world. According to the 'Green Book of Population and Labor' published by the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Friday, growth in Chinas working population has stagnated. Meanwhile, the countrys dependency rate (the population of non-working people including children and the elderly) is predicted to increase for decades to come in a trend which will have a far-reaching socioeconomic impact on the worlds most populous country. From a theoretical point of view, the long-term population decline, especially when it is accompanied by a continuously aging population, is bound to cause very unfavorable social and economic consequences, the CASS report states. By mid-century, Chinas population is expected to fall to 1.36 billion, with a consequent drop in the workforce of roughly 200 million. If fertility rates remain in or around current levels, the population could drop as low as 1.17 billion by 2065, the report warns. READ MORE: The devil you know: Old foes India & China strengthen ties as America proves too unreliable For the Chinese population, the most important demographic event in the first half of the 21st century is without a doubt the arrival of the era of negative population growth, the reports authors added. The countrys birth rate fell by 3.5 percent in 2017 despite an end to the highly controversial one-child policy. However, this policy shift, in combination with a rising proportion of retirees thru 2060 will further exacerbate the dependency rate: at present, Chinas elderly population is projected to reach 400 million by the end of 2035. Also on rt.com The EU bubble is doomed to burst in 2019, financial analyst warns With roughly 83 million people being added to the worlds population every year, current estimates project that we will reach 11.2 billion by 2100. The UN estimates that India will overtake China by 2024 as the worlds most populous country, though some believe this already occurred last year. By 2100, over 80 percent of the worlds population will live in either Asia or Africa. READ MORE: China to mark economic miracle that pulled 700 million people out of poverty Nigeria remains the most rapidly growing population (and seventh largest) and is expected to surpass the US by 2050. Fertility rates are declining in nearly all regions of the world, including Africa, the most fertile region, with Europe the only exception, according to UN 2017 report. Between 2010 and 2015, fertility rates dropped below replacement level in 83 countries, accounting for roughly 46 percent of the worlds population. China, the United States of America, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, Iran, Thailand, and the United Kingdom all feature among these 83. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Related Gabon soldiers seize state radio in apparent coup attempt African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat "strongly condemned" an attempted coup by rebel soldiers in the Gabonese capital on Monday. "The African Union strongly condemns the coup attempt this morning in Gabon. I reaffirm the AU's total rejection of all unconstitutional change of power," he wrote on Twitter. Short link: With the US Senate opening 2019 with a bill aimed at protecting Israel from boycott, similar state-level laws are facing opposition. One newspaper in Arkansas is suing the state, calling the boycott ban unconstitutional. Given that the government is still partially shut down over President Trumps plans to build a wall at the Mexican border, one would imagine the first piece of legislation rolled out by the Senate this year would prioritize breaking the impasse and ending the shutdown. Not so. Instead, S.1 is a collection of foreign policy measures aimed at strengthening military cooperation between the US and Jordan, reiterating opposition to Syrian leader Bashar Assad, appropriating foreign aid money for Israel, and most controversially giving state and local government the authority to refuse to do business with firms that boycott Israel. The bill is sponsored by Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a longtime opponent of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement and ally of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby. Aside from Rubio, the bill is expected to receive the bipartisan support necessary to muster a Senate majority. A similar bill introduced by Rubio last year was cosponsored by several Democrats, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is expected to support this latest effort, the Intercept reported. While Rubios bill is a watered-down version of a hardcore piece of legislation introduced by Democrat Ben Cardin (Maryland) in 2017 that would have actually criminalized boycotting Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union has still sounded the alarm. The legislation...sends a message to Americans that they will be penalized if they dare to disagree with their government, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kathleen Ruane told the Intercept. We therefore urge senators to vote no on the Combating BDS Act next week. State efforts State-level legislation offers a glimpse of what Rubios bill might look like in action. Anti-BDS legislation has already been enacted in 26 states, where it has already cost some employees their jobs, and has been met with legal challenges. Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist working for the Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas, lost her job last August when she refused to sign a contract promising to refrain from any action that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israel or in an Israel-controlled territory. Amawi, a US citizen who believes Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territory and boycotts Israeli products, filed a lawsuit alleging a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech. The lawsuit is currently in the works, but the Texas anti-BDS legislation has the full support of Governor Greg Abbott (R), who said that any anti-Israel policy is an anti-Texas policy. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Arizona and Kansas, on behalf of two state contractors who, like Amawi, refused to sign an oath pledging not to boycott the Jewish state. The latest challenge to anti-BDS laws comes from Arkansas, where a newspaper has decided to fight the oath on principle. The Arkansas Times has never published an op-ed critical of Israel, but when the University of Arkansas refused to advertise with the newspaper unless the Times signed the oath, the papers staff decided to sue. Why should an American citizen have to take a position in favor of the foreign policy of a foreign government just so he can do business with its own government, Arkansas Times publisher Jan Everett told MSNBC. What kind of thinking is that? The first state-level anti-BDS law was passed by Tennessee in 2015. In all 26 states that have enacted anti-BDS legislation since then, the legislations provisions are broadly the same, prohibiting companies or individuals who boycott Israel from doing business with the government. In some states, like Louisiana, the law only targets large contractors. Otherwise the bills have all been almost identical. Despite the party allegiances of those responsible for the legislation, the language used to support it has been the same. New Yorks Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, echoed Texas Republican Greg Abbott when he described BDS as an economic attack on Israel and stated If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you. Ultimately harmful to the Jewish community With both parties trying to come out more pro-Israel than each other in recent years, even some pro-Israel voices have realized that forcing Americans to place support for a foreign power ahead of their own constitutional rights probably isnt a great public relations move for Israel. Read more As the first round of states began passing anti-BDS legislation in 2016, internal documents from the Anti-Defamation League reveal that despite publicly supporting such laws, the Jewish advocacy groups staff actually thought they were a bad idea. Simply put, ADL does not believe that anti-BDS legislation is a strategic way to combat the BDS movement or defend Israel and is ultimately harmful to the Jewish community, one memo obtained by Forward stated. The bills, it continued, raise the profile of the BDS movement while giving the appearance that the Jewish community exercises undue influence in government, an age-old trope of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In addition, journalist Max Brantley wrote in the Arkansas Times last Friday that while he had never considered boycotting Israel before, he might now to prove a point. I was thinking this morning, he wrote, that perhaps I should advocate boycotts of Israel as a protest against Arkansas legislators who don't respect the First Amendment. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Burley, ID (83318) Today A mainly sunny sky. High near 90F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A mostly clear sky. Low around 55F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. More than 800 protesters have been arrested from hundreds of anti-government demonstrations held across Sudan since last month, the interior minister said Monday. "The total number of protesters arrested until now is 816," Ahmed Bilal Osman told parliament, revealing for the first time the figure for those detained since rallies erupted after an official hike in bread prices. Short link: btgbtg/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- With statements from National Security Adviser John Bolton contradicting President Donald Trump creating more confusion about whether the U.S. is withdrawing its 2,000 troops from Syria, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to the Middle East for a whirlwind tour to reassure partners that the U.S. will remain a presence in the region. Trump declared in December that ISIS had been defeated and, "Our boys, our young women, our men -- they're all coming back, and they're coming back now." The Pentagon confirmed shortly after that it would be a total withdrawal, completed in 30 days. But after his surprise decision came under widespread criticism, the timeline for what the president had characterized as an immediate withdrawal has changed repeatedly. A week after the president's initial announcement, U.S. officials told ABC News that withdrawal would take several months, with no final decisions made about the planned pace. Last week, Pompeo seemed to lay out four conditions for a U.S. exit, telling conservative outlet Newsmax the U.S. would continue its military campaign against ISIS, keep the pressure on Iran, protect Kurdish partner forces from Turkey, and ensure the safety of religious minorities in Syria. The next day, senior State Department officials briefing reporters ahead of Pompeo's trip said there was "no timeline for our military forces to withdraw from Syria." Instead, the drawdown would be conducted "in a deliberate, heavily coordinated way with our allies and partners" in order to "maintain pressure on ISIS throughout, and [so] that we do not open up any vacuums for terrorists to exploit," one senior official said. Bolton, who traveled to Israel and Turkey over the weekend, repeated that idea alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly opposed a U.S. withdrawal from Syria out of concern it would give Iran, an ally of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, an opening to further threaten Israel from Syria. "There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," Bolton told reporters Sunday in Jerusalem, specifically the defeat of remaining ISIS fighters in Syria and protection for Kurdish forces that served as the ground forces for the U.S. and its Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS as it took on the terror group. While those Kurdish forces, known as the YPG and part of the larger Syrian Democratic Forces, were armed, trained, and advised by the U.S., America's NATO ally Turkey says they are terrorists for their ties to Kurdish separatists in Turkey, a group known as the PKK that Turkey and the U.S. have designated a terrorist organization. After Bolton's remarks, Trump appeared on board with a delayed departure of U.S. troops, telling reporters, "I never said that we are doing it that quickly ... We won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." But when asked when troops will come home, Trump added, "It's going quickly." In the face of that confusion, Trump denied there was any contradiction on Monday, blasting a New York Times report as "very inaccurate" in a tweet: "No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" It's unclear what the president considers "prudent and necessary" -- and whether he agrees with the specific conditions Bolton and Pompeo laid out. But it will be Pompeo's task now to clear the muddy waters for America's partners, as he travels to Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait for a week of meetings. The message is despite the Syria withdrawal and cuts to funds for stabilization in Syria, the U.S. is not pulling out of the region, U.S. officials said. "The United States is not leaving the Middle East," a senior State Department official told reporters Friday. "The Secretary will reinforce that commitment to the region and our partners." Instead, he'll seek to rally those countries to support the U.S. withdrawal from Syria by contributing more funding and possibly even troops. The State Department cut $200 million in funds for projects like de-mining, rubble removal, and restoration of services like running water and hospitals -- things that the U.S. previously said were critical to returning civilians to areas liberated from ISIS and prevent the terror group's return. In place of U.S. funds, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries will give over $300 million to those same projects. With U.S. forces departing, there is renewed speculation that the Trump administration will be asking these partner countries to supply forces to patrol liberated areas -- something that a senior State Department official did not outright dismiss, saying Friday there are no plans right now, but, "We're exploring a variety of options." It's unclear how that would work, however, with Turkey and Assad and his allies Iran and Russia all likely opposed to such a move. Among the other topics Pompeo will have to address is bridging the divide between Gulf partners Saudi Arabia and UAE and their neighboring foe Qatar, as well as the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump, Pompeo, and other top U.S. officials have denied that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the royal insider turned dissident's killing, despite strong, repeated statements from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill saying he was. Instead, the administration has defended the relationship with the Saudis, downplaying the murder plot as less important than stability in the kingdom. The Saudis began the first trials of the 15-men hit squad they have blamed for the murder, saying it was a rogue operation at the order of the deputy intelligence chief and an aide to the crown prince, who have been fired. While the administration has so far not disputed that account, a senior State Department official said the U.S. is still not satisfied. "I don't think from our point of view that the narrative emerging from the Saudis or the legal process is yet -- has yet hit that threshold of credibility and accountability," the official said, but added they will work with the Saudis "to pursue this as aggressively as they can to get this albatross off their backs and to get out from under the shadow of this incident." Pompeo may address some of those challenges in a major address while in Cairo this week about how the U.S. is "a force for good in the region," a senior official said. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Party ID favored Democrats by 2 points in 2006, increasing slightly to +4 in 2018. But Democrats did not do as well among independents last year, winning them by 12 points, down 6 from their 18-point margin in 2006. The biggest difference between the two elections is the electorate's attitude toward the economy. In 2006, 49 percent of voters rated the economy as excellent/good while 50 percent who said it was not so good/poor. In 2018, positive attitudes toward the economy outweighed the negative, 68 percent to 31 percent. A 2016 law requires physicians and pharmacists to check the states prescription drug monitoring database to determine if doctors are running pill mills by purposely writing numerous prescriptions, or if patients are doctor-shopping for more pills. Use of the prescription drug database used to be limited to the attorney generals office, which conducts investigations into pill mills. The 2016 allowed the Health Department to have access to the records, too. The administration is also at least talking about the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the $5.6 billion he wants. Vice President Mike Pence said the White House counsel's office is looking at the idea. Such a move would certainly draw legal challenges, and Trump who told lawmakers he would be willing to keep the government closed for months or even years has said he would like to continue negotiations for now. Unruh's son told police that he wanted to get a picture with the former "House of Cards" star and went over to talk to him after his shift ended at the Club Car, a popular island bar and restaurant, according to court documents. The man said Spacey bought him several drinks and tried to convince him to come home with him before unzipping the man's pants and groping him for about three minutes. The Israeli army said Monday it had carried out further air raids against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket being fired over its border. The Israeli air defence system intercepted the rocket which was fired overnight from the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, the army said. Planes and a helicopter gunship then raided "terror targets within the organisation's military camp in the northern Gaza Strip," the statement said. A Hamas security official in Gaza said that Israeli aircraft carried out three raids, targeting a position of the armed wing of the movement near Beit Lahia in the north of the Palestinian enclave without causing any casualties. The latest raids follow strikes by the Israeli army on two Hamas posts on Sunday, after balloons carried an explosive device over the border fence. The Gaza border has been relatively calm in recent weeks after a deal in which Israel allowed Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid for fuel and salaries in the blockaded enclave. Following Sunday's strikes, the Israeli army statement said: "Earlier today, an explosive device attached to multiple balloons was launched on a model airplane from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. "In response, (Israeli) attack helicopters targeted two Hamas military posts in the Gaza Strip." A Hamas security source said one strike occurred east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and hit an observation point for Hamas's armed wing, while the second was east of Gaza City. The security source said no injuries had been reported. Israel launched three military offensives on Gaza since 2008. Since March, protests and clashes have occurred along the Gaza border fence. Protesters have been calling for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel. Israelis say that would mean the destruction of the Jewish state. At least 240 Palestinians have been killed since the demonstrations began, most of them by Israeli fire during border clashes but also by air and tank strikes. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period, one by a Palestinian sniper and another during an aborted special forces operation inside Gaza. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Short link: If something happens and they need something, the union is able to step in and advocate for them, Deely said. Its almost akin to being part of the bar if youre a lawyer or the medical association if youre a physician. You have a collective group that is able to advocate for you. It is important to salvage the history that we have, rather than to demolish and build over it when it could be saved and repurposed, the petition states. These beautiful and historic buildings can still serve the community which it was originally built for, but now in a different way. The township has issued citations to some of the homeowners in the area for issues such as sewage on top of the ground, discharging sewage into waterways, sewage backing up into buildings and making repairs to a septic system without a permit. In most cases, if a property owner cooperates with the township and makes repairs, the fine will be waived, Fisher said. The retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after meetings Friday in which its advisers weighed the merits of a $4.4 billion bid by Lampert's hedge fund to buy Sears as a going concern, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. If the 125-year-old retailer does die in bankruptcy like Toys "R" Us in 2018, and Borders Group Inc. in 2011 it would mark the largest fatality yet in the retail apocalypse prompted by a shift to online shopping. While initiatives such as Civica Rx are an important step in addressing the crisis of drug shortages and rising prices in the hospital setting, lawmakers in Harrisburg must step up and take action in order to see real change for people across our state," said Antoinette Kraus director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network. Natural Gas Through our $3.20 Target What Next? Our research team has been nailing the markets moves with our proprietary price modeling tools. Our December 12, 2018 call that Natural Gas would collapse nearly 30% after reaching a price peak was a very bold call. Who would have thought that predictive price modeling could be so accurate and could identify a move like this or call for what is expected to happen next? Back when Natural Gas breached the $4.60~4.80 range, our ADL predictive modeling system was suggesting a massive price anomaly was setting up. These types of triggers are becoming more common as volatility in the general markets increases. The ADL system suggested that a massive -30% downside price move would happen before the end of February 2019. Now, as that trade has completed and our targets have been reached, we are alerting our followers that Natural Gas should begin to consolidate between $2.80 and $3.30 before attempting to rocket back above $4.00 near April or May 2019. Read our original analysis of Natural Gas to learn why these moves provide an incredible opportunity for traders and visit www.TheTechnicalTraders.com/FreeResearch/ to read up on our early 2019 market predictions. Join our other members in making 2019 an incredibly successful year. We believe 2019 will provide exceptional opportunities for skilled traders and well be happy to share our proprietary research and analysis with you as a member of Technical Traders Ltd. You really dont want to miss these moves and this incredible opportunity. Think about it, one trade like this with a -30% selloff followed by a 24% price rally could make your entire year. Imagine being able to find trades like this every week or month for success. Visit www.TheTechnicalTraders.com and get ready to make 2019 a fantastic year of success no matter if we have a bull market or bear market. Chris Vermeulen www.TheTechnicalTraders.com Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better. His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility. He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Egypt's Foreign Ministry has condemned in in strongest terms the coup attempt in the friendly country of Gabon on Monday, a statement by the ministry said. " Egypt stands by the legitimate authority in Gabon in accordance with the African Union's governing principles" , the statement read, calling for respecting the rule of the law and the constitution in the west African country. The chief military rebel who led a failed coup in Gabon on Monday has been arrested and two of his commandos killed after they stormed a public radio station, the Gabonese presidency said earlier. Six rebel troops earlier Monday burst into the state radio broadcasting station, "neutralizing" gendarmes in front of the building before making their broadcast, it said. Security forces stormed the radio station in the capital Libreville to take it back, killing two rebel troops, arresting their leader and freeing journalists who had been forced to help rebels make their appeal. "The situation is under control," the presidency statement said. President Bongo is staying at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the West African country since October. Short link: Olympus TG-5 Tough Camera First Look Test Review Were back from Jessops with a brand new Olympus TG-5 Tough Camera after returning a faulty TG-5 bought from Curry's that had a stuck or dead pixel. So lets find out if the TG-5 camera's are not prone to having dead / stuck pixels which should NOT happen to brand new cameras! Or if the previous camera was a one off, as we test this TG-5 for the first time. https://youtu.be/rpOMFb3zkEc The TG-5 can be currently bought from Amazon UK for 360 - https://amzn.to/2QGWGJg , USA $380 https://amzn.to/2qLYwNG A warning to shoppers - Beware of the Google Ad online shops advertising cameras at deep discounts as the items being sold tend to be used / been on display and not brand new, hence the significantly lower prices. Ensure to subscribe to our youtube channel for new videos in our TG-5 series as we test every important aspect of the camera. By HGR http://www.howtoguidesandreviews.com http://www.marketoracle.co.uk Copyright 2005-2018 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved. Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. PTAB icon 165 Biosimilar makers will increasingly use post-grant reviews (PGRs) a type of proceeding available at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to cut down US patent thickets on biologics instead of inter partes reviews (IPRs), according to in-house counsel. Sources at global pharmaceutical firms say explain that PGRs are better for challenging biologic registrations at the PTAB because biologic patents often have broad specifications that make them vulnerable to description attacks. While both forms of post-grant proceeding have been recognised as cost-effective ways to invalidate patents compared to traditional litigation, PGRs can be used to launch written description attacks while IPRs can only be used to challenge patent prior art. PGRs have yet to become a popular tool for biosimilar makers because they can only be used against patents with a priority date later than March 15 2013. But sources point out that the next wave of biologic patents coming to grant were filed after 2012 and have a later priority date. We have not filed any PGRs as of yet but will certainly be using them for future products, says the global IP head at a pharmaceutical company. PGRs will definitely be more popular, or at least as popular, as IPRs in the biosimilar space. The head of IP for biosimilars at an innovator drug company agrees, and adds that she has wanted to use this type of proceeding for a long time but could not because of the post-2012-filing start date. She says that PGRs will be another useful tool for pharmaceutical companies to ensure freedom to operate for their biosimilar products, which is particularly challenging in the US where they are often blocked by enormous patent estates. The planned worldwide launches of biosimilars for AbbVies blockbuster arthritis-treating drug Humira emphasises this difficulty. The drug was launched as a biosimilar in the EU in October 2018. A US version is not expected until 2023. Patent thickets are a problem in Europe but not as much as they are in the US, says the biosimilar head of IP for an innovator firm. These estates currently are not seen as anti-competitive and yet an originator could have five inventions and turn it into 50 patents just by filing 10 divisional patent applications for each invention. It is now just a numbers game and not a matter of IP quality. PGRs and IPRs were both introduced by the America Invents Act in 2012 and so far the latter proceeding has been the most used across all industries at the PTAB. According to the USPTO, 8,476 proceedings out of 9,175 (92%) at the board between September 2012 and 2018 were IPRs. Only 139 (2%) were PGRs. Covered business methods (CBMs), the only other form of post grant proceeding at the PTAB, were also more popular than PGRs with 560 petitions. IPR indicators Sources say that they have largely relied on IPRs to attempt to cull biologic patent thickets at the PTAB, but that could change as PGRs become increasingly applicable to biosimilar strategies. After all, PGRs offer the same benefits as IPRs and more which means drug companies enthusiasm for IPRs is a good indicator of PGR popularity potential. The head of IP for biosimilars at a generics drug company says that, given the popularity of the IPR system in the biosimilar world, PGRs with their broader scope will quickly become very popular with drug companies. IPRs are very commonly used for biosimilars, he says. Just in my own portfolio here, I am defending against nine IPRs brought against my companys patents, and my team has filed around 15 in the last couple of years as a means to clear the path for biosimilars. The deputy general counsel at an innovator drug firm adds that his company has also been attacked by multiple IPRs and he suspects that it will have to fend off biosimilar makers taking advantage of administrative challenges in the form of PGRs as well. But there are two differences between IPRs and PGRs that might curb biosimilar makers enthusiasm for the latter. A 2016 report from RPX Corporation suggested that an IPR could cost anything between $100,000 and $700,000. That figure would be higher now because the USPTO increased IPR fees by 33% and PGRs costs by 27% in 2018. Yet an IPR is still cheaper than a PGR. The innovator firms biosimilar head of IP says that PGRs might cost her firm anything up from $1 million per patent, which is about 10 times more expensive than a standard opposition. But she adds that given the potential usefulness of the proceeding type, this cost may not significantly limit the number filed over the next few years. The second factor is time. Unlike an IPR, a PGR must be filed against a patent within nine months of its grant, which would force biosimilar applicants mapping IP protection for a brand product to be more diligent in establishing an IP portfolio early on. This timing cut-off is one reason why PGRs may not reach the levels of popularity of IPRs, says the generic firms biosimilar IP head. It is questionable whether a biosimilar applicant is going to want to invest $1 million to $2 million attacking a patent many years ahead of its likely biosimilar launch date. The global IP head at a pharmaceutical company does not believe these factors will dramatically reduce future PGR popularity because of the importance of challenging patent thickets and reducing risk when it comes to freedom to operate. He and the innovator firms biosimilar head of IP agree that global drug firms are likely to embrace the proceedings provisions because they are already used to the nine month cut off for European oppositions and they will lead to earlier patent clearing in the US, which benefits the biosimilar industry. Better for innovators? One may argue that the potential transition from IPRs to PGRs among biosimilar makers in the US is a good thing for biologic patent owners. The deputy general counsel at an innovator drug firm says that IPRs are particularly frustrating because they undermine the litigation scheme set up by the Hatch-Waxman Act and can be used to challenge a patent at any time. He says that innovators want a front-end quality for their patents, which is established by a quality examination and, more importantly, an early challenge. I do not mind PGRs as much as IPRs because we are used to the European opposition system and the idea that companies can try to attack patents within nine months of grant. Nine months is also early in the drug development process, which is good for us. It is after you have invested millions of dollars and developed the market that a patent attack really injures you. On the other hand, I cannot tell management that they have a predictable patent if at any given time they can face challenge after challenge from IPRs. He adds that his company and others like it are advocating for the PTAB to use its considerable discretion when considering whether to accept an IPR petition, and for it to consider that there may be better ways to administer justice than serial of parallel cases against a patent. US biosimilar makers are ready to embrace PGRs to better pave the way for their lucrative biosimilar products. The next wave of biologic patents will be a good test for their enthusiasm but perhaps not even high costs or efficient planning will stop them. The material on this site is for law firms, companies and other IP specialists. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs. Share this article (With story collection) LSBD McMahen well near Walkerville transferred to new producer The application period is open for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's annual awards. Egypt's Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfik paid a visit on Monday to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo to offer Christmas tidings to Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II. Minister Tawfik extended the tidings of the entire police force to the pope and all Christian citizens on the occasion of Coptic Christmas which falls on 7 January. Tawfik praised the role played by the Egyptian Church in strengthening national unity, patriotic sentiments, and stability in Egypt. Tawfik affirmed that the Egyptian people, through their devotion to unity, diversity and patriotism, have defeated the plots which aim to undermine the historical fabric of Egyptian society. Meanwhile, Pope Tawadros II praised the role played by the nations police, stressing that the sacrifices of policemen serve as role models in defending the homeland. The pope expressed his confidence in the ability of the police to maintain the security of Egypt. The Pope offered condolences to the police force for the fallen police officer Mostafa Ebeid, who was killed late on Saturday while attempting to defuse an improvised explosive device found near a church in Nasr City, Cairo. Short link: Computer & Technology Dhruvsoft Adds Cloud ERP Services to its Portfolio - Joins NetSuite Solution Provider Partner Program 07.01.2019 17:40:23 - Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited, a firm offering Professional Services in Cloud Enterprise Software space has joined hands with NetSuite by becoming a Solution Provider Partner in India (live-PR.com) - Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited, a firm offering Professional Services in Cloud Enterprise Software space has joined hands with NetSuite by becoming a Solution Provider Partner in India Hyderabad, India (December 2018) - Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited has announced that it has joined NetSuite partnership program as NetSuite Solution Provider Partner. As a NetSuite partner Dhruvsoft can provide and support NetSuites award-winning - Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited, a firm offering Professional Services in Cloud Enterprise Software space has joined hands with NetSuite by becoming a Solution Provider Partner in IndiaHyderabad, India (December 2018) - Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited has announced that it has joined NetSuite partnership program as NetSuite Solution Provider Partner. As a NetSuite partner Dhruvsoft can provide and support NetSuites award-winning product offerings including NetSuite ERP, NetSuite Small Business, NetSuite CRM, NetSuite CRM+, NetSuite OpenAir and NetSuite Ecommerce to small to medium-sized businesses. Most businesses do not have sufficient resources, expertise, knowledge and manpower to implement new business management software systems. As NetSuites Solution Provider partner Dhruvsoft offers a unique approach helping small to mid-sized businesses overcome these challenges by providing pre-sale, purchase and post-sale services. DhruvSofts NetSuite services include - needs analysis, system evaluations, purchase options, implementation, data conversion and migration, customization, process engineering, training, integration, post implementation support, optimization and business consulting. Dhruvsofts Sales and Implementation teams, which are trained by NetSuite, have the knowledge to offer significant value to customers who need local or on-site services. With business management software like NetSuite, our clients can meet their end-to-end business needs with a single software. NetSuite ERP allows them to be much more agile than their competition and greatly reduces TCO (total cost of ownership), said Sunil Khanna, CEO & Director Business Development, Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited. We are elated to represent a product that is so far ahead of the competition. As a Oracle NetSuite Solution Provider Partner Dhruvsoft will play an important role in the sales of NetSuite's award-winning products. As a value-added solution provider Dhruvsoft will be key influencers in customer adoption of on-demand software solutions. About Oracle NetSuite Oracle NetSuite enables companies to manage all key business operations in a single, integrated system, which includes customer relationship management; order management and fulfillment; inventory management; finance; Ecommerce and Web site management; and employee productivity. NetSuite is delivered as an on-demand service, so there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Finally, NetSuites real-time dashboard technology provides an easy-to-use view into role-specific business information that is always up-to-date. For more information about NetSuite, visit: About Dhruvsoft Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited are one of the leading NetSuite Solution Provider Partner in India. Dhruvsoft provides NetSuite Implementation, Development and Support Services to small and midsize and large business. Our NetSuite Alliance / Partnership enables us to provide Licenses and Services for entire range of NetSuite Products. Dhruvsofts service portfolio includes NetSuite ERP Implementations & Support, Custom NetSuite development, NetSuite Integration, Mobile App Development, Custom Application Development, Consulting, Offshore Outsourcing and Staffing. Dhrusoft is led by experienced business and technology professionals. We have focus on cloud based ERP and CRM solutions. We also provide services of Technology Planning and Deployment, SaaS (Software as a Service) applications deployment, Application Maintenance and Data Management. We also have expertise on NetSuites industry specific vertical solutions . Dhruvsoft an Authorized NetSuite Partner & Re-seller in India is committed to provide Licenses & quality services to clients across the world. To know more about NetSuite services contact DhruvSofts NetSuite Team by filling the form on the page at following link Contact NetSuite India Partner. visit - www.nssuccess.com/ www.dhruvsoft.com/netsuite-services/ Contact Information Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited Somajiguda, Hyderabad, 500082, India Yashwanth Kumar Media & Public Relations contact@nssuccess.com Calling from India +91-90300-91630 Calling from USA +1-(888)-822-2660 product offerings including NetSuite ERP, NetSuite Small Business, NetSuite CRM, NetSuite CRM+, NetSuite OpenAir and NetSuite Ecommerce to small to medium-sized businesses.Most businesses do not have sufficient resources, expertise, knowledge and manpower to implement new business management software systems. As NetSuites Solution Provider partner Dhruvsoft offers a unique approach helping small to mid-sized businesses overcome these challenges by providing pre-sale, purchase and post-sale services.DhruvSofts NetSuite services include - needs analysis, system evaluations, purchase options, implementation, data conversion and migration, customization, process engineering, training, integration, post implementation support, optimization and business consulting. Dhruvsofts Sales and Implementation teams, which are trained by NetSuite, have the knowledge to offer significant value to customers who need local or on-site services.With business management software like NetSuite, our clients can meet their end-to-end business needs with a single software. NetSuite ERP allows them to be much more agile than their competition and greatly reduces TCO (total cost of ownership), said Sunil Khanna, CEO & Director Business Development, Dhruvsoft Services Private Limited. We are elated to represent a product that is so far ahead of the competition.As a Oracle NetSuite Solution Provider Partner Dhruvsoft will play an important role in the sales of NetSuite's award-winning products. As a value-added solution provider Dhruvsoft will be key influencers in customer adoption of on-demand software solutions.About Oracle NetSuiteOracle NetSuite enables companies to manage all key business operations in a single, integrated system, which includes customer relationship management; order management and fulfillment; inventory management; finance; Ecommerce and Web site management; and employee productivity. NetSuite is delivered as an on-demand service, so there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Finally, NetSuites real-time dashboard technology provides an easy-to-use view into role-specific business information that is always up-to-date. For more information about NetSuite, visit: www.netsuite.com About DhruvsoftDhruvsoft Services Private Limited are one of the leading NetSuite Solution Provider Partner in India. Dhruvsoft provides NetSuite Implementation, Development and Support Services to small and midsize and large business. Our NetSuite Alliance / Partnership enables us to provide Licenses and Services for entire range of NetSuite Products.Dhruvsofts service portfolio includes NetSuite ERP Implementations & Support, Custom NetSuite development, NetSuite Integration, Mobile App Development, Custom Application Development, Consulting, Offshore Outsourcing and Staffing.Dhrusoft is led by experienced business and technology professionals. We have focus on cloud based ERP and CRM solutions. We also provide services of Technology Planning and Deployment, SaaS (Software as a Service) applications deployment, Application Maintenance and Data Management. We also have expertise on NetSuites industry specific vertical solutions .Dhruvsoft an Authorized NetSuite Partner & Re-seller in India is committed to provide Licenses & quality services to clients across the world. To know more about NetSuite services contact DhruvSofts NetSuite Team by filling the form on the page at following link Contact NetSuite India Partner. visit -Contact InformationDhruvsoft Services Private LimitedSomajiguda, Hyderabad, 500082, IndiaYashwanth KumarMedia & Public RelationsCalling from India +91-90300-91630Calling from USA +1-(888)-822-2660 Press Information: Dhruvsoft Contact Person: Anudeep Developer Phone: +91-90300-91630 eMail: eMail Web: http://https://www.nssuccess.com/ 07.01.2019 17:40:23 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. In the worlds largest refugee camp, where 1.1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees reside, 105 families have been stranded caught in a war that was not theirs. Unlike the rest of the refugees, these families are Rohingya Hindus a small minority within a minority that had lived peacefully for generations in Myanmars western Rakhine state alongside Muslims and members of the Buddhist majority. In the violence that engulfed Rakhine beginning in August 2017 when Rohingya Muslim militants attacked police checkpoints and the army responded by killing or maiming thousands of Muslim civilians 99 Hindus were killed and burned in mass graves. The Hindu villages were attacked by members of a militant group called the Arakhan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, that was also responsible for the attacks against the police. (Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Hindus who survived fled in the only direction they could: across the Naf River and into Bangladeshs sprawling refugee camps meant for Rohingya Muslims, the very people they blame for the violence against them. Fifteen months into the crisis, the Hindus minority status has sharpened: While Rohingya Muslims have categorically rejected a plan that would repatriate the refugees, Hindus are ready to return to Myanmar, a view that has placed them at odds with the vast majority of people in the camps. In May 2018, the United Nations struck a deal with the Myanmar government under which refugees would be allowed to return to Rakhine, although not necessarily to their original villages, many of which have reportedly been razed or occupied by Buddhists. The deal was widely criticized for not meeting the Rohingya Muslims main demands: a restoration of citizenship rights that they have been denied for decades, freedom of movement and guarantees of safety. Within hours, the Hindu families were packed and ready to go. But many Muslim refugees protested the terms by striking from jobs they hold as teachers, health workers, translators and builders in the camps. Human rights group assailed the plan as unworkable. The United Nations refugee agency has shelved the plan a welcome move for the majority of refugees, but one that has pushed the Hindus to the edge of their endurance. We were told the repatriation process will begin Nov. 11, said 50-year-old Jushna Pal, a mother of five. We were told to be ready. Our bags have been packed since then. Jushna Pal, center, and her neighbors in the Hindu Camp in southern Bangladesh. (Amir Hamza / For The Times) Muslims make up the vast majority of the more than 1 million ethnic Rohingya who once lived in Rakhine. Although many families trace their ancestry in Rakhine back several generations, Myanmar regards Rohingya Muslims as Bangladeshis who migrated there illegally and has denied them citizenship, freedom of movement and other basic rights, and frequently subjected them to state-backed violence. Hindus, by contrast, still hold citizenship in Myanmar and enjoyed greater rights there. Advertisement On Aug. 25, 2017, the same day that militant attacks on police checkpoints left 12 officers dead, masked assailants attacked the Hindu village of Fakirabad in Rakhines Maungdaw township. An Amnesty International report found that the attackers robbed, bound, and blindfolded [villagers] before marching them to the outskirts of the village, where they separated the men from the women and young children. The report described the attackers as members of ARSA and said they later executed 53 Hindus, starting with the men. Another 46 Hindus were believed to have been killed in an attack in another village, Amnesty International said. Far more widespread massacres occurred in Muslim villages, leading the U.N. to declare the Myanmar military campaign as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. More than 800,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh, joining refugees who had fled earlier rounds of violence and swelling the populations of the makeshift camps along the southeastern border. In Bangladesh, the more than 400 Hindu refugees, most of them children, live in a settlement known as Hindu Camp just outside one of the 27 refugee settlements that make up the sprawling Kutupalong and Balukhali complex. The Bangladesh government segregated the Hindus, who live under around-the-clock security in the only camp to have a constant police presence. Advertisement Families living in Hindu Camp are suspicious of outsiders and cagey with journalists. They detest their Rohingya Muslim neighbors, blaming them for their losses, for spawning the ARSA group and for opposing the repatriation plan. The animosity is mutual: Many Rohingya Muslims accuse Hindus of benefiting from the violence, alleging that Hindu families that stayed behind took property and livestock that had belonged to Muslims. In September 2017, weeks after the mass arrivals into the camps, two Hindus were killed and nine admitted to hospitals after violence broke out between the refugees. It is terrifying to live like this, said Shishu Sheel, a 32-year-old leader in the Hindu Camp. We are under threat because we dont blame the Myanmar government for the violence. It goes against the testimonies given by Rohingya Muslims. Rohingya Hindu children from Myanmar attend school at a refugee camp in Bangladesh in November. (Dibyangshi Sarkar / AFP/Getty Images) Advertisement Bangladeshs Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission, which is responsible for the camps, said repatriating Hindus and not Muslims is not an option. We treat all refugees the same way and will not be prioritizing repatriation of the Hindu refugees over Rohingya Muslims, said Shamimul Huq Pavel, the commission official who oversees the Hindu Camp. The Hindu families have appealed to the Indian government for help, but so far New Delhi has provided only humanitarian aid and words of concern. Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has also taken a tough line regarding Rohingya Muslims who fled to India, describing the estimated 40,000 refugees as a security threat and deporting a dozen of them back to Myanmar despite the threats against them. Officials in Indias foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement Sheel said the Hindu refugees expected more from Modi, a nationalist whose party has built a strong voter base by emphasizing the supremacy of Indias majority religion. India is a land for all Hindus. Mr. Modi is a Hindu. Why is he not helping us? Sheel said. The Hindu families say they are growing increasingly desperate and that if help doesnt come soon, they will consider trying to sneak back across the Naf River into Myanmar, despite their fears of leaving their camp and of being shot or captured at the border by Myanmar soldiers who might mistake them for Muslims. We cannot live like this any longer, said 35-year-old refugee Madhuram Pal. The Muslim families are being prioritized, but no one is telling us when we will be sent back. Advertisement Krishnan is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Shashank Bengali contributed to this report from Singapore. Just when we thought it was safe to stop writing about Real ID, along comes a bump in the road. How big a bump? Depends on your perspective. Its a bit of news that got buried in the holiday rush, so if you already know this, please click on our fabulous stories on Death Valley, the island of Hawaii and big cruises versus little cruises. Otherwise, pay attention, because if you read about whats happened without a full consumer-friendly explanation, you are apt to panic. Question: OK, so what happened? Should I panic? Advertisement Answer: The Department of Homeland Security has said that Californias Real ID licenses do not meet the standards for licenses that are supposed to be more secure. And no, you should not panic. Q: How did this happen? A: The short answer is miscommunication between DHS and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Q: Why should I care about this? A: Because California has issued 2.3 million of these licenses. Q. But I dont need a Real ID to drive, do I? A. No, you do not. If you choose not to get one, your license will say, Federal limits apply. You need one only if you want to use that form of identification to board a domestic flight beginning Oct. 1, 2020, or to enter a federal facility. Q. Does that mean the Real ID I just got is invalid? Advertisement A. No. And your Real ID license does not have to be reissued if it is good for five years. If you were an early adopter, as I was, and your license expires before that 2020 date, you probably will need to show a second form of ID verifying your identity when you renew. Q. What if I havent applied yet? A. If you havent applied yet and youre doing so beginning or after April 1, you will need two kinds of identification verification. Here is what the DMV says constitutes verification, but please check back before applying because the DMV is scrambling to make this fix. Right now, its online information requiring one form of residence verification applies to anyone applying before April 1. Q. What is Real ID anyway? And why the big deal? Advertisement A. The 9/11 Commission issued recommendations to make identification more secure, which became law in 2005. Youll need a Real ID a federally compliant drivers license or another acceptable form of ID to present to airport security to board an airplane beginning Oct. 1, 2020. It is a big deal, because if you show up on Oct. 1, 2020, expecting to use your noncompliant drivers license to board a domestic flight, you wont be getting on. Q. Does Real ID replace a passport? A. No. If you are traveling internationally, you will still need a passport. Q. Why not just use a passport for all security needs? Advertisement A. You may, and there are other forms of identification that also will work. I dont like carrying my passport when Im traveling domestically. (When I am traveling internationally, I keep it on my person, thanks to a tank-top undergarment with a zippered compartment. Its not the most convenient way to carry ID, but it is pretty secure.) Q. Doesnt this latest misstep speak volumes about the DMV? A. That debate is better left for the dinner table or wherever you argue or place blame for the current state of affairs. Whats more important for travelers is that changes are coming, and there are changes to the changes. They could affect you. Q. When are you going to stop writing about Real ID? Advertisement A. No time soon. Certainly not before Oct. 1, 2020. I receive many emails from people who are confused about what Real ID is and why they might or might not need it. This is the end of this column, but it is not the end of Real ID columns. How will I know when to stop? I promise to stop when a month goes by and I dont get an email that says, Im flying to Paris. So with this Real ID I dont need a passport, right? (Answer: Wrong. You do need a passport, and if you knew that, you can stop reading now.) Have a travel question or dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry. travel@latimes.com @latimestravel Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands and a good-time city known for welcoming tourists, slapped a new tax on cruise passengers Jan. 1. Cruise companies arent happy about it. In fact, MSC Cruises was so unhappy that it canceled future stops and replaced Amsterdam with nearby Rotterdam on its port stop schedules. Cruise & Maritime Voyages, a British line, also said it will replace most of its scheduled Amsterdam port stops. Several other companies are assessing the situation, according to Martyn Griffiths, director of public affairs for Cruise Lines International Assn. Europe. Advertisement It is still a very new situation, Griffiths said last Friday. Authorities are currently working to implement it and charge the lines, but the process is still unclear today. The new $9.12 fee applies to transit passengers and is to be charged per 24-hour period. CLIA issued a statement in late December saying its members are disappointed. The statement went on to say that the new tax means that cruise passengers visiting Amsterdam, who already pay a significant amount in port fees and other tariffs, will have to pay (an additional tax) whilst other day tourists, who arrive in Amsterdam by train, bus or car, would not have to pay a day tourist tax and do not also pay port or other fees. The organization also said transit cruise passengers represent only 1% of the total tourist traffic in Amsterdam and argued that the contribution of cruise passengers is extremely disproportionate. CLIAs statement also criticized the short implementation time for the tax two months saying: There is a real risk of call cancellations, which could result in a budget deficit of several million euros for the city of Amsterdam as a result of reduced fees collected by the Port of Amsterdam. The Municipality of Amsterdams website said the increased tax is in response to heavy demands on the city and its public spaces, as a result of large numbers of tourists. This day tripper tax will only apply to cruise passengers who do not live in Amsterdam and are only stopping over, not to passengers who are starting or ending a cruise in Amsterdam, according to the website. Advertisement travel@latimes.com @latimestravel At long last we can close the book on the Los Alamitos thoroughbred meeting with all the stewards rulings at once. Santa Anita is on deck for this week. --Apprentice jockey Luis Fuentes was suspended three days (Dec. 15, 16 and 26) for careless riding. On Dec. 7, he was riding Clear the Mine in the fourth race when his mount drifted out twice, once turning for home and then again near the half-pole. Clear the Mine was disqualified from second to third. The stewards unanimously levied their penalty for the second drift, which resulted in interference. --Apprentice jockey Heriberto Figueroa was fined $100 for being late to the paddock walking ring before the first race on Dec. 7. In most jockeys rooms there is a bell that tells the riders when to go to the walking ring. Figueroa said he didnt hear the bell. His mount, Hereslookinatya finished second in the race. --Jockey Mario Gutierrez was fined $100 for using his riding crop more than three times without giving his horse a chance to respond during the third race on Dec. 14. Gutierrez admitted to the violation on Smile Awhile, who finished second. --Exercise rider Juan (Oscar) Ruiz was fined $100 for galloping a horse while the emergency lights were on at the track. No date was given. The stewards said Ruiz offered no valid excuse. --Trainer Edin Walther Solis was fined $500 for trying to choke jockey John Jude in the barn area at San Luis Rey Downs. No date was given. Solis explained that the pair had a history and that while there was some physical contact, he downplayed the choke. Jude confirmed the pair had a history and said the choke was serious lasting for a few seconds. Solis apologized and said he just lost his cool. Solis must be evaluated by the Winners Foundation for anger management issues. --Jockey Matt Garcia was suspended seven days (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) for twice weighing in more than one pound under his assigned weight on Sept. 14 and 15 at Los Alamitos. One day he weighed out (before) at 122 pounds and weighed in (after) at 120. The next day, he weighed out at 123.8 and weighed in at 121.6. When jockeys weigh out they do not have safety equipment but when they weigh in they do have that equipment, which accounts for about 2-2.5 pounds, which would make the discrepancy even greater. Garcia says he weighed out with a wet chamois and heavy girth channel but they were gone when he weighed back in. Matt Nichols , clerk of scales, said those items are not permitted at weigh out and that he did not recollect Garcia having those items anyway. A jockey can get away with being underweight by less than a pound. For the second day in a row, Joel Rosario was off all his mounts at Santa Anita. But, no fears, hes coming back. Hes got the flu, Ron Anderson , Rosarios agent, told Ed Golden of Santa Anita. But hes expected to resume riding on Thursday. Sundays feature, and the only stakes race in the country worth more than $100,000, was little more than a paid workout for talented 3-year-old filly Bellafina. She won the Grade 2 $200,000 Santa Ynez Stakes, a seven-furlong race, by 8 lengths. And, she wasnt really asked. It was a tiny field of five, but she beat a pretty sturdy filly in Mother Mother, who finished second, and a surprise shipper from Northern California, Tomin, who was third. Reflect and Sold It completed the field. There was a tiny bit of trepidation on how she would run, after a flat fourth-place finish in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies. Trainer Simon Callaghan attributed it to her being in a breeding cycle. After the Breeders Cup, we jogged her for two weeks, Callaghan said And then she was showing such good energy, we got her back galloping and got her on a regular pattern. And [owner] Kaleem [ Shah ] told me to run her when I thought she was ready. I said to Kaleem a couple of weeks before the race that we have to run, and he said that was fine. After a disappointment, and to see this kind of performance, its nice to see. I think she would have won the race if it was five, six, seven [furlongs], a mile or a mile-and-a-eighth. She had trained well for Simon coming into this and I expected her to run well and she did, Prat said. Shes definitely improving. She was a little immature before, but [Sunday] she improved a lot. Always looking to add more subscribers to this newsletter. Cant beat the price. If you like it, tell someone. If you dont like it, then youre probably not reading this. Either way, send to a friend and just have them click here and sign up . Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more. Santa Anita Charts Results for Sunday, January 6. Copyright 2019 by Equibase Company. Reproduction prohibited. Santa Anita, Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California. 9th day of a 61-day meet. Clear & Fast FIRST RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $32,000. Maiden Claiming. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $50,000-$40,000. Time 22.22 45.48 57.45 1:03.74 Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Spicy Vibration 119 2 1 1 1hd 28 1 Figueroa 2.40 1 Sir Eddie 124 1 3 22 23 1hd 212 T Baze 0.90 4 Midnight Bandit 124 3 4 3hd 4hd 3hd 3 Prat 3.00 7 Desert Movie 124 5 5 5 3hd 41 45 Fuentes 9.50 6 Levi's Saint James 122 4 2 4hd 5 5 5 Delgadillo 43.80 2 SPICY VIBRATION 6.80 3.20 2.40 1 SIR EDDIE 2.40 2.10 4 MIDNIGHT BANDIT 2.20 $1 EXACTA (2-1) $6.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-1-4-7) $1.77 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-1-4) $6.05 WinnerSpicy Vibration Dbb.g.4 by Papa Clem out of Salty Fries, by In Excess (IRE). Bred by Legacy Ranch, Inc. (CA). Trainer: David E. Hofmans. Owner: Legacy Ranch, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $146,235 Exacta Pool $59,871 Superfecta Pool $25,865 Trifecta Pool $39,481. ScratchedCentaurus Rule, Iron Curtain. SPICY VIBRATION had speed outside a rival then inched away and angled in, set the pace inside then dueled along the rail, responded when headed in the stretch, fought back to a short advantage under left handed urging a sixteenth out and gamely prevailed. SIR EDDIE came a bit off the rail to stalk the early pace then bid outside the winner to duel for the lead, put a head in front in the stretch, battled outside that one to the wire and was outgamed. MIDNIGHT BANDIT chased off the rail then inside on the turn and in the stretch and edged a rival for the show. DESERT MOVIE chased outside foes on the backstretch and three deep on the turn and into the stretch, drifted in despite left handed urging past midstretch and was edged for third. LEVI'S SAINT JAMES was in a good position chasing the leaders between horses to the stretch, came out past midstretch and weakened. SECOND RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $57,000. Allowance. Fillies and Mares. 4 year olds and up. Time 23.14 47.01 1:11.67 1:24.17 1:37.13 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Starr of Quality 124 2 2 2 31 21 11 1 Pereira 3.50 4 Withholding Info 122 4 5 51 51 4 21 2 Talamo 4.70 8 Queen Bee to You 124 8 8 71 6hd 63 42 33 Prat 2.10 1 Sweet Treat 117 1 3 11 1 1hd 3 4 Figueroa 23.80 7 Mongolian Humor 122 7 1 62 74 71 7hd 5 Franco 9.50 5 Sauce On Side 122 5 7 8 8 8 8 61 Van Dyke 4.70 6 Convince 124 6 6 4hd 4hd 5hd 5 7 Gutierrez 15.00 3 Arctic Roll 124 3 4 31 2hd 3hd 61 8 T Baze 8.70 2 STARR OF QUALITY 9.00 5.00 2.80 4 WITHHOLDING INFO 5.60 4.60 8 QUEEN BEE TO YOU 2.40 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $4.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-2) $33.60 $1 EXACTA (2-4) $28.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-4-8-1) $71.04 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (2-4-8-1-7) $5,736.20 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-4-8) $35.55 WinnerStarr of Quality B.m.5 by First Dude out of Gator Blitz, by Gone West. Bred by Donald R. Dizney, LLC (CA). Trainer: William Spawr. Owner: Acker, Tom and Lindo, Jon. Mutuel Pool $266,626 Roulette Pool $697 Daily Double Pool $49,525 Exacta Pool $146,066 Superfecta Pool $65,256 Super High Five Pool $90,367 Trifecta Pool $99,792. Scratchednone. STARR OF QUALITY had speed between horses then stalked a bit off the rail leaving the first turn, bid between foes to duel for the lead, took a short advantage into the stretch, inched away under left handed urging past midstretch and held on gamely. WITHHOLDING INFO four wide into the first turn, stalked outside a rival, came out four wide into the stretch, bid outside the winner past midstretch and continued willingly but could not get by. QUEEN BEE TO YOU a bit slow to begin, angled in and chased outside a rival then a bit off the rail, split horses on the second turn and into the stretch, waited off heels behind and between foes in midstretch, came out for room and finished with interest. SWEET TREAT sent inside to the early lead, dueled along the rail on the backstretch and second turn, fought back into the stretch and weakened a bit off the rail in the final furlong. MONGOLIAN HUMOR five wide into the first turn, chased off the rail, came four wide into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. SAUCE ON SIDE broke out a bit and a step slowly, angled in and saved ground off the pace, came out into the stretch and could not summon the necessary late kick. CONVINCE angled in on the first turn and saved ground stalking the pace thereafter and lacked the needed response in the drive. ARCTIC ROLL (GB) stalked early then bid three deep to press the pace, came three wide into the stretch, was in a bit tight in upper stretch and weakened. STARR OF QUALITY wore calks. THIRD RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $32,000. Maiden Claiming. Fillies. 3 year olds. Claiming Prices $50,000-$40,000. Time 22.00 45.40 57.87 1:10.83 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Miss Fia 120 2 4 11 11 12 12 Delgadillo 3.60 7 Equal Measure 122 7 2 2hd 22 28 26 Prat 1.30 6 Tick Tock 117 6 6 51 51 31 36 Figueroa 9.80 3 Discrete Stevie B 115 3 7 7 7 5hd 41 Fuentes 26.30 1 Point Received 120 1 1 62 61 6 5ns Payeras 82.00 4 Acadia Fleet 117 4 3 4 4 41 611 Espinoza 7.40 5 So Gucci 122 5 5 31 32 7 7 Fuentes 2.40 2 MISS FIA 9.20 5.00 2.80 7 EQUAL MEASURE 3.00 2.40 6 TICK TOCK 4.40 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $4.60 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-2) $52.20 $1 EXACTA (2-7) $13.30 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-7-6-3) $33.96 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (2-7-6-3-1) $2,824.20 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-7-6) $33.80 WinnerMiss Fia Dbb.f.3 by Maclean's Music out of Setafire, by Jump Start. Bred by Tarabilla Farms (KY). Trainer: David E. Hofmans. Owner: Tarabilla Farms, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $251,657 Roulette Pool $895 Daily Double Pool $26,214 Exacta Pool $154,695 Superfecta Pool $71,583 Super High Five Pool $7,403 Trifecta Pool $106,607. ClaimedEqual Measure by Hess, Maria E., Red Baron''s Barn LLC and Rancho Temescal LLC. Trainer: Robert Hess, Jr. ClaimedSo Gucci by Besecker, Joseph E., Bambauer, Sheila and Rothblum, Steve. Trainer: Doug O'Neill . Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (2-2-2) paid $46.65. Pick Three Pool $54,857. MISS FIA had speed between horses then inched away, set the pace a bit off the rail and won clear under urging and steady handling late. EQUAL MEASURE stalked outside then off the rail, came out a bit in the stretch and bested the others. TICK TOCK chased three deep then outside a rival on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and was along for the show. DISCRETE STEVIE B between horses early, settled a bit off the rail, came three deep into the stretch and did not rally. POINT RECEIVED saved ground stalking the pace, came a bit off the rail in midstretch and weakened. ACADIA FLEET stalked a bit off the rail then inside into and on the turn, continued along the fence in the stretch and also weakened. SO GUCCI stalked off the rail then inside on the turn, came out into the stretch, drifted inward in the final furlong and gave way. FOURTH RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $23,000. Maiden Claiming. Fillies. 3 year olds. Claiming Price $30,000. Time 24.01 48.02 1:13.76 1:27.12 1:40.60 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 7 Blueberry Princess 122 7 1 2 21 23 26 1 Sanchez 2.30 5 Thanks 122 5 2 11 12 11 1hd 26 Roman 1.50 1 Had Enough K P 122 1 5 6 61 63 3 38 T Baze 2.80 6 Reds Sacred Appeal 122 6 6 7 7 7 51 4nk Flores 24.30 2 Depende de Ti 122 2 4 41 3hd 34 46 59 Fuentes 8.40 4 Awepollonia 122 4 3 3 42 4 6 6nk Martinez 15.00 3 West Way Dreams 122 3 7 51 5 5hd 7 7 Payeras 37.20 7 BLUEBERRY PRINCESS 6.60 3.40 2.60 5 THANKS 2.80 2.40 1 HAD ENOUGH K P 2.80 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $4.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-7) $46.20 $1 EXACTA (7-5) $7.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (7-5-1-6) $11.39 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (7-5-1-6-2) $249.40 50-CENT TRIFECTA (7-5-1) $10.00 WinnerBlueberry Princess Grr.f.3 by Fighting Hussar out of Flyindownbaylaurel, by Alphabet Soup. Bred by BG Stables (CA). Trainer: Hector O. Palma. Owner: BG Stables. Mutuel Pool $226,011 Roulette Pool $1,210 Daily Double Pool $26,136 Exacta Pool $120,631 Superfecta Pool $69,332 Super High Five Pool $6,130 Trifecta Pool $97,752. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (2-2-7) paid $48.20. Pick Three Pool $32,379. BLUEBERRY PRINCESS stalked off the rail, bid outside the runner-up in midstretch, gained the advantage under left handed urging a sixteenth out and gamely prevailed. THANKS sped between horses to the early lead then angled in, set the pace inside, fought back along the rail in the final furlong and continued willingly to the wire. HAD ENOUGH K P saved ground chasing the pace, came out leaving the second turn and three wide into the stretch and picked up the show. REDS SACRED APPEAL fanned four wide into the first turn, chased outside then a bit off the rail, came three wide into the stretch and did not rally. DEPENDE DE TI came a bit off the rail on the first turn, stalked outside a rival or just off the inside, angled to the fence entering the stretch and weakened. AWEPOLLONIA angled in and saved ground stalking the pace, dropped back into the stretch and gave way. WEST WAY DREAMS a bit slow to begin, drifted out into the first turn, chased outside a rival then just off the inside, was between horses into the stretch and had little left for the drive. FIFTH RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $18,000. Claiming. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Price $12,500. Time 23.64 47.62 1:12.25 1:24.95 1:38.11 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 9 Platinum Equity 124 8 2 62 4hd 1hd 1 1nk Fuentes 4.50 3 Builder 124 2 3 11 11 24 26 22 Flores 4.10 10 Gryffindor 124 9 8 9 9 81 4hd 32 Payeras 14.20 8 Spend It 124 7 7 72 72 7 5 41 Pedroza 21.50 6 Original Intent 124 5 9 83 84 9 9 5 Van Dyke 1.60 5 Royal Seeker 117 4 6 4hd 65 61 3hd 62 Fuentes 35.10 7 Typhoon Harry 119 6 5 5 3hd 5hd 6hd 71 Figueroa 6.10 2 Spirit Mission 124 1 4 2hd 5 4hd 71 86 T Baze 10.90 4 Frankie Machine 124 3 1 31 2hd 3hd 8hd 9 Puglisi 14.00 9 PLATINUM EQUITY 11.00 6.00 4.80 3 BUILDER 6.20 4.60 10 GRYFFINDOR 6.60 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $3.60 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (7-9) $36.80 $1 EXACTA (9-3) $39.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (9-3-10-8) $220.24 50-CENT TRIFECTA (9-3-10) $155.55 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (9-3-10-8-6) Carryover $2,049 WinnerPlatinum Equity Dbb.g.4 by Stay Thirsty out of Side Venture, by Touch Gold. Bred by Don Ameche III & Hayden Noriega (KY). Trainer: Andrew Lerner. Owner: Vindicate Racing. Mutuel Pool $289,419 Roulette Pool $719 Daily Double Pool $32,367 Exacta Pool $167,760 Superfecta Pool $75,905 Trifecta Pool $109,516 X-5 Super High Five Pool $2,686. ClaimedOriginal Intent by Gallegos, Elizabeth and Greenman, R. Dean. Trainer: Dean Greenman. ScratchedAyacara (GB). 50-Cent Pick Three (2-7-9) paid $68.15. Pick Three Pool $55,974. 50-Cent Pick Four (2-2-7-9) 469 tickets with 4 correct paid $345.00. Pick Four Pool $212,188. 50-Cent Pick Five (2-2-2-7-9) 201 tickets with 5 correct paid $2,033.70. Pick Five Pool $474,490. PLATINUM EQUITY five wide into the first turn, stalked four wide on the backstretch and second turn, bid outside the pacesetter to gain the lead a quarter mile out, battled outside that one through a stiff drive and gamely prevailed under left handed urging. BUILDER sped to the early lead, inched and set the pace a bit off the rail then inside, fought back along the rail leaving the second turn and through a long drive and went gamely to the end. GRYFFINDOR angled in and settled a bit off the rail, came out for room leaving the second turn and four wide into the stretch and picked up the show. SPEND IT angled in on the first turn and chased a bit off the rail, came out leaving the second turn and five wide into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. ORIGINAL INTENT settled just off the inside, also came out on the second turn, swung six wide into the stretch and improved position. ROYAL SEEKER between horses early, chased a bit off the rail, went up four wide on the second turn and into the stretch and weakened. TYPHOON HARRY four wide into the first turn, stalked three deep between foes on the backstretch and second turn and also weakened. SPIRIT MISSION saved ground stalking the pace, cut the corner into the stretch and also weakened. FRANKIE MACHINE had speed three deep then stalked between horses to the stretch and had little left for the drive. SIXTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $57,000. Allowance. Fillies and Mares. 4 year olds and up. Time 21.82 44.76 1:10.03 1:16.61 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 4 Bashful 124 4 7 7 5hd 11 13 Smith 1.70 5 Loving Lynda 124 5 5 21 22 31 22 Prat 5.40 3 Tyfosha 124 3 4 3hd 3hd 44 3 Gutierrez 2.40 8 No Wine Untasted 122 7 3 12 12 2hd 43 Franco 3.70 6 Copy Begone 124 6 1 51 64 67 54 Roman 45.20 2 Nice Ice 124 2 2 4 42 5 614 Pereira 12.20 1 Trustini 122 1 6 61 7 7 7 Van Dyke 13.50 4 BASHFUL 5.40 3.40 2.40 5 LOVING LYNDA 5.00 3.00 3 TYFOSHA 2.40 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $3.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (9-4) $31.20 $1 EXACTA (4-5) $11.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (4-5-3-8) $8.41 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (4-5-3-8-6) $392.50 50-CENT TRIFECTA (4-5-3) $15.95 WinnerBashful B.f.4 by Orb out of Chief Secretary, by Deputy Minister. Bred by Kinsman Farm (KY). Trainer: Richard E. Mandella. Owner: Fox Hill Farms, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $334,228 Roulette Pool $1,351 Daily Double Pool $30,941 Exacta Pool $156,576 Superfecta Pool $76,003 Super High Five Pool $9,788 Trifecta Pool $116,717. ScratchedBatiquitos, Princess Roi. 50-Cent Pick Three (7-9-4) paid $45.25. Pick Three Pool $53,234. BASHFUL settled off the rail then went outside a rival on the turn, came out four wide into the stretch, took the lead outside a pair of foes nearing midstretch and won clear under a moderate hand ride. LOVING LYNDA stalked off the rail then three deep leaving the backstretch, angled in off the fence on the turn, came out in upper stretch, bid between foes, was no match for the winner in the final furlong but clearly best of the others. TYFOSHA was in a good position stalking the pace between foes or outside a rival, split horses into the turn, continued outside a foe, came three deep into the stretch, steadied when crowded in upper stretch and edged the pacesetter for the show. NO WINE UNTASTED sped to the early lead outside, set the pace off the rail then a bit off the fence, fought back in upper stretch and was outfinished for third. COPY BEGONE chased four wide then three deep, continued off the rail on the turn and a bit wide into the stretch and weakened. NICE ICE saved ground stalking then chasing the pace, continued inside in the stretch and also weakened. TRUSTINI settled inside chasing the pace, dropped back along the rail on the turn and into the stretch and gave way. Following a stewards' inquiry and a claim of foul by the rider of TYFOSHA against the runner-up for alleged interference in upper stretch, no change was made when the stewards ruled the incident did not alter the original order of finish. SEVENTH RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $59,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Price $62,500. Time 23.11 46.28 1:10.80 1:23.30 1:36.08 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 9 All Out Blitz 122 8 5 21 21 22 1hd 1hd T Baze 3.50 7 Air Vice Marshal 122 6 2 1 1hd 1hd 23 22 Smith 8.20 6 Kershaw 117 5 1 41 4hd 3hd 3 3hd Figueroa 5.70 8 Pepe Tono 124 7 6 72 6 61 4hd 43 Delgadillo 6.90 2 Super Sol 122 2 3 3hd 3hd 4 53 54 Talamo 4.00 4 El Huerfano 122 3 4 56 57 52 62 61 Prat 2.60 1 Clear the Mine 115 1 7 8 71 71 8 71 Fuentes 46.50 5 Magic Musketier 124 4 8 6hd 8 8 7 8 Desormeaux 10.10 9 ALL OUT BLITZ 9.00 4.80 3.80 7 AIR VICE MARSHAL 8.20 5.00 6 KERSHAW 5.00 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $3.80 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (4-9) $36.60 $1 EXACTA (9-7) $29.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (9-7-6-8) $71.67 50-CENT TRIFECTA (9-7-6) $68.25 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (9-7-6-8-2) Carryover $4,207 WinnerAll Out Blitz B.c.4 by Concord Point out of Smart and Single, by Smart Strike. Bred by Kaleem Shah, Inc. (KY). Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Kaleem Shah, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $265,186 Roulette Pool $1,072 Daily Double Pool $39,131 Exacta Pool $145,548 Superfecta Pool $65,987 Trifecta Pool $100,120 X-5 Super High Five Pool $5,513. ClaimedEl Huerfano by Where We At. Trainer: Mark Glatt. ScratchedSurfing Star. 50-Cent Pick Three (9-4-9) paid $62.65. Pick Three Pool $50,791. ALL OUT BLITZ five wide early, dueled four wide on the first turn then outside the runner-up the rest of the way, put a head in front in the stretch and gamely prevailed under urging. AIR VICE MARSHAL four wide early, dueled three deep between horses then a bit off the rail leaving the first turn and inside on the backstretch and second turn, fought back along the fence through the stretch and went on gamely to the end. KERSHAW had speed between foes then stalked between horses, came three deep into the stretch and held third. PEPE TONO angled in and chased outside a rival then a bit off the rail on the second turn and into the stretch and was edged for the show. SUPER SOL had speed inside to duel for the lead then saved ground stalking the pace, came out into the stretch and weakened. EL HUERFANO angled in and stalked a bit off the rail then came out into the backstretch, continued three wide then four wide into the stretch and also weakened. CLEAR THE MINE settled inside then outside a rival, went three deep into and on the second turn and lacked a response in the stretch. MAGIC MUSKETIER angled in and chased inside, saved ground throughout and had little left for the drive. EIGHTH RACE. 7 Furlongs. Purse: $200,000. 'Santa Ynez Stakes'. Fillies. 3 year olds. Time 22.67 45.00 1:09.18 1:22.00 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Bellafina 124 2 4 2hd 1hd 15 18 Prat 0.40 1 Mother Mother 120 1 3 1 21 22 21 Van Dyke 2.10 4 Tomlin 120 4 1 5 5 35 37 T Baze 16.50 5 Reflect 120 5 5 41 41 4 43 Desormeaux 11.40 3 Sold It 120 3 2 31 3 5 5 Gutierrez 19.50 2 BELLAFINA 2.80 2.10 2.10 1 MOTHER MOTHER 2.40 2.10 4 TOMLIN 3.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (9-2) $13.80 $1 EXACTA (2-1) $2.10 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-1-4) $4.60 WinnerBellafina B.f.3 by Quality Road out of Akron Moon, by Malibu Moon. Bred by JSM Equine, LLC. (KY). Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Kaleem Shah, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $464,133 Daily Double Pool $42,933 Exacta Pool $146,400 Trifecta Pool $140,979. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (4-9-2) paid $19.30. Pick Three Pool $52,107. BELLAFINA pressed the pace between horses then dueled outside the runner-up, took a short lead on the turn, inched away leaving the turn, kicked clear, was shaken up once with the reins to widen in midstretch and drew off without further encouragement. MOTHER MOTHER had good early speed and dueled inside, fought back on the turn, came out into the stretch and held second. TOMLIN broke on top and bumped with a rival, had speed off the rail then between foes, fell back and angled in, stalked inside, continued along the rail in the stretch and bested the others. REFLECT had speed outside foes then stalked off the rail or outside rivals, went four wide into and out of the turn and weakened. SOLD IT bumped at the start, pressed the pace three deep then stalked off the rail into the turn, continued alongside a rival on the turn, came out into the stretch and also weakened. NINTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $22,000. Waiver Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $16,000-$14,000. Time 22.67 46.42 58.40 1:10.90 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 7 Baby Ice 119 6 1 3hd 2 1 11 Espinoza 4.50 3 Christy Jackson 122 2 5 11 1hd 23 26 Bejarano 2.60 6 Just Be Held 124 5 7 5 42 41 3 Talamo 14.30 4 Pied N True 117 3 2 7 7 5 41 Fuentes 6.80 5 Rizzi's Honors 124 4 6 2hd 3hd 31 5 Pereira 10.80 10 Miss Unusual 119 7 3 63 51 7 65 Figueroa 1.20 1 Creative Spark 114 1 4 41 61 6hd 7 Donoe 53.20 7 BABY ICE 11.00 4.60 4.60 3 CHRISTY JACKSON 3.60 2.80 6 JUST BE HELD 7.00 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $2.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-7) $15.80 $1 EXACTA (7-3) $19.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (7-3-6-4) $37.65 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (7-3-6-4-5) $1,242.80 50-CENT TRIFECTA (7-3-6) $54.90 WinnerBaby Ice B.m.5 by First Dude out of Ice Girl, by Devil On Ice. Bred by Y-Lo Racing Stables, LLC (FL). Trainer: Steve Knapp. Owner: John Evans. Mutuel Pool $286,575 Roulette Pool $684 Daily Double Pool $110,118 Exacta Pool $148,324 Superfecta Pool $90,323 Super High Five Pool $49,861 Trifecta Pool $119,496. ClaimedPied N True by Cesar DeAlba. Trainer: Cesar DeAlba. ClaimedMiss Unusual by Jeffrey Steinberger. Trainer: Andrew Lerner. ScratchedLea's Reward, Quizlet, Vallestina. 50-Cent Pick Three (9-2-7) paid $24.60. Pick Three Pool $109,341. 50-Cent Pick Four (4/7/9-9-2-7) 5063 tickets with 4 correct paid $89.50. Pick Four Pool $593,864. 50-Cent Pick Five (9-4/7/9-9-2-7) 470 tickets with 5 correct paid $664.55. Pick Five Pool $409,104. 20-Cent Pick Six Jackpot (7-9-4/7/9-9-2-7) 137 tickets with 6 correct paid $1,206.62. Pick Six Jackpot Pool $309,456. Pick Six Jackpot Carryover $603,541. BABY ICE stalked three deep, bid four wide leaving the turn, took a short lead outside the runner-up in upper stretch, drifted in and battled outside that one through the final furlong under urging and inched away late. CHRISTY JACKSON had speed between horses then inched away, set the pace a bit off the rail then inside on the turn, came out into the stretch, fought back inside the winner through the lane but could not quite match that one late. JUST BE HELD hopped some at the start, chased off the rail then split rivals on the turn, came four wide into the stretch and edged a foe for third. PIED N TRUE settled a bit off the rail then inside on the turn, split horses into the stretch, angled in past midstretch and was edged for the show. RIZZI'S HONORS stalked between horses then bid between foes leaving the turn, came out into the stretch and weakened. MISS UNUSUAL chased outside then alongside a rival on the turn, came t here deep into the stretch and lacked a further response. CREATIVE SPARK saved ground stalking the pace, fell back leaving the turn and weakened. Polyana Viana is 10-2 as a mixed martial arts fighter and 1-1 with UFC. And, apparently, she is 1-0 against some dude who was dumb enough to try robbing her using a cardboard gun. Viana, a UFC strawweight, told MMA Junkie that she was waiting for an Uber ride in front of her apartment in the neighborhood of Jacarepagua in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro around 8 p.m. on Saturday night, when a man sat next to her. He asked me the time, I said it, and I saw he wasnt going to leave. So I already moved to put my cellphone in my waist, Viana said the next day. And then he said, Give me the phone. Dont try to react, because Im armed. Then he put his hand over [a gun], but I realized it was too soft. Advertisement He was really close to me. So I thought, If its a gun, he wont have time to draw it. So I stood up. I threw two punches and a kick. He fell, then I caught him in a rear-naked choke. Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, Now well wait for the police. Viana said she kept the man subdued while others called police. She added that she later learned that the man had been using a cardboard cutout of a gun. UFC President Dana White tweeted a photo Sunday of a bloodied man he said was the person who tried to rob Viana. I was fine, Viana said of the incident. I was fine because he didnt even react after. Since he took the punches very quickly, I think he was scared. So he didnt react anymore. charles.schilken@latimes.com Twitter: @chewkiii Here is the text of Gov. Gavin Newsom s inaugural address: The story of our state is the story of a dream one that has drawn strivers and seekers here forever. Its what brought my family to California some three generations ago the promise not just of a better life, but a bigger one, with opportunities they couldnt find anywhere else in the world. So deep does the California Dream run in the history and character of our state that it can feel as enduring as our primeval forests or our majestic mountain ranges. But there is nothing inevitable about it. Every dream depends on the dreamers. And it is up to us to renew the California Dream for a new generation. And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend that dream. And thankfully, by the way, we have our champion Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help us in that endeavor. But there is an administration in Washington hostile to Californias values and interests. California has always helped write Americas future. And we know the decisions we make, would be important at any time. But what we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. And the future depends on us. And we will seize the moment. California is a giant engine of commerce the most creative and entrepreneurial in the world. We have the resources to ensure a decent standard of living for all. Its not a question of whether we can do this, but whether we will. At a time when so much of America is divided, we are united. Our people are big-hearted, fair-minded, and when those qualities are more vital than ever. Ive seen that again in just the past few weeks. I visited Paradise after the fires swept through, and met people who literally lost everything they owned but still were reaching out to help others. I went to San Diego and met volunteers providing relief to desperate migrants who others treat like criminals like the 3-year old girl, just literally a year older than my youngest, at a shelter who quite literally captured my heart. I spent time with farmers in Fresno who rise and grind before the sun comes up to feed the world. There are everyday heroes all over our state who work hard, then come home and care for aging parents or newborn children, or who open up their homes to foster kids, like my mother, Tessa, did. She was a single mom raising two kids on her own and working three jobs, and she still had room in her heart for more. Thats the California I know. Thats the one I love. And thats why I am so confident in our future. Make no mistake, though, there are powerful forces arrayed against us. Not just politicians in Washington but drug companies that gouge Californians with sky-high prices. A gun lobby thats willing to sacrifice the lives of our children to line their pockets. Polluters who threaten our coastline and pay-day lenders who target our most vulnerable. In other places, interests like these still have a tight grip on power. But here in California, we have the power to stand up to them and we will. We face serious challenges, undoubtedly some that have been deferred for too long. Even in a booming economy, there is a disquieting sense that things are not as predictable as they once were. That we all must now run faster just to stay in place. Stagnant wages. Costs that keep rising rent, utilities, visiting the doctor the basics are increasingly out of reach. We face a gulf between the rich and everyone else and its not just inequality of wealth, its inequality of opportunity. We have a homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night. An achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids. And too many children know the ache of chronic hunger. Ive met families in this state who have to improvise where to tuck their babies in at night making nests out of blankets on the floor, or turning dresser drawers into makeshift cradles because they cannot afford a crib. These arent merely policy problems. They are moral imperatives. So long as they persist, each and every one of us is diminished. We are all touched by the human condition whether we ourselves are homeless or jobless, whether we ourselves can pay the bills or have safe drinking water at home. We all have our own frailties; we all have our own vulnerabilities were all susceptible to suffering and disaster. So let us resolve to follow the example of rescuers and rebuilders in Paradise and Malibu and Santa Rosa and Ventura and to make sure our fellow Californians share in the compassion and empathy that connects us and makes our burdens and anxieties easier to bear. Our politics doesn't always reward taking on the hardest problems. The results of our work may not be evident for a very long time. But that cannot be our concern. We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, paying down debt, and meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history. But I want to be clear: We will be bold. We will aim high and we will work like hell to get there. Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith and firm will can still come together to achieve big things. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and the incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled and always on the side of the people. This will take courage. I know courage is a word that means different things to different people. To me, courage means doing what is right even when it is hard. That will be the foundational mission of our administration. We will be "California for all." We will not be divided between rural and urban or north, south or coastal and inland. We will strive for solidarity, and face our most threatening problems together. It is with deep faith in our state and our future that I ask you to join me in the work ahead. Let us be pioneering optimists who look to the future not with trepidation but with creativity and boundless energy. This is a time for courage and we will rise to meet it. Our state has been on a journey together since the worst of the Great Recession. Back then, we were $27 billion in debt. Unemployment was north of 12%. We had the worst credit rating of any state in our nation. Today, our economy is larger than all but four nations in the world. Weve created nearly 3 million jobs and put away billions of dollars for a rainy day. Where Washington failed on the epochal challenge of climate change, California led, extending our cap-and-trade system and setting bold targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and then beating them. So much of this progress has happened under the watch and leadership of Gov. Jerry Brown. It has been an honor to serve with him these past eight years and to learn from him, not just as his lieutenant governor, but throughout my lifetime. When Jerry last took the oath of office, he reflected on a parable from the Sermon on the Mount. It tells of a foolish man who built his house on sand. A storm washed it away. But a wise man sought sounder foundation. And when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house he built, it did not fall. For it was founded upon a rock. For eight years, California has built a foundation of rock. Our job now is not to rest on that foundation. It is to build our house upon it. Now more than ever, we Californians know how much a house matters, and children matter because so many of our neighbors have lost theirs. Together, let us build a house stronger than the coming storms, yet open to the world. A house that provides shelter to all who need it and sanctuary to all who seek it where opportunity abounds for all who will work for it. A true California house, sun-kissed, dream-soaked, and built with the sweat of honest work. We will not have one house for the rich and one for the poor, or one for the native-born and one for the rest. We will build one house for one California. Because what is a house but a home. And California is our home. In our home, every child should be loved, fed and safe. My wife, Jennifer, and I have four children, and there is nothing more important, I hope you can tell, than giving them a good and happy life. But all kids not just the children of a governor and a filmmaker should have a good life in California shouldnt be ripped away from their parents at the border and nor should they be left hungry while politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built. [Newsom's reference to his son Dutch, who was running around the stage] (This is exactly how it was scripted.) We will support parents they need support, trust me so they can give their kids the love and care they need, especially in those critical early years of life. In our home, no one should live in constant fear of eviction or spend their whole paycheck to keep a roof overhead. Were committed to launching a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a state-wide mission. In our home, every person should have access to quality, affordable healthcare. Far-away judges and politicians may turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed healthcare for all Californians. We will use both our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs. We will stop stigmatizing mental health and start supporting it. And we will always protect a woman's right to choose. In our home, we believe in justice for all. We will defend the progress weve made to reform our criminal justice system. We will continue the fight against over-incarceration and over-crowding in our prisons. And we will end the outrage that is private prisons in the state of California once and for all. In our home, working people deserve fair pay, the right to join a union, the chance at a middle-class life. We will fight not for growth at any cost but for inclusive, sustainable growth. We will shape the future of work and connect higher education and skills training to the next generation of middle-class jobs because in a time of swift and unsettling change, all Californians should be able to count on a measure of security and a real shot at opportunity. And those who dream of building something of their own a restaurant, a bookstore, a family farm they will get our support. Our small businesses help explain why California is one of the biggest economies on Earth. For me this is personal. I will never forget the day I got a $20 tip bussing tables at 16 years old at Ramona's restaurant in San Rafael. Trust me: Busboys don't get tips like that. I know it sounds strange, but it quite literally changed my life. It meant that my hard work mattered and it motivated me to keep going. Eight years later, I started my own business. So I know how much hard work and sacrifice is behind every small business in this state and how good it feels when that hard work pays off. California must never turn its back on the entrepreneurial spirit that has always defined us. And in our home, when trouble comes, we will stand together. (Right, Jen? Im glad this is the rehearsal. Well get to this tomorrow.) When fires strike when kids cry or the earth shakes, we will be there for each other. As a former mayor, I learned the wisdom of the African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together. So my friends in the Legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike, I promise you an open door and an open mind. Californians didnt send us here to bicker or sulk they get enough of that with respect in Washington. And lets not forget that it is not only in the corridors of the Capitol that change is being forged. I will partner with mayors, sheriffs and supervisors all over this state, I know the pressures you face. Ive been there. The only way to fix our problems is if you are empowered to lead the way. I intend to represent all Californians, not just those that voted for me. I will be a governor for the dock worker in Long Beach, and the farm worker in Lost Hills, the small business owner in Corona, and the teacher in Compton. I recognize as well that many members of our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesnt care about them doesnt even really see them. Well, I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride. This notion that were all in this together is a powerful one. Its also how I was raised. Some of you may know that my father passed away just before Christmas. He was a judge. Justice Bill Newsom. For him, Justice was more than a title. It was in his bones. He believed to his core that all people should be treated fairly and with respect. Thats always been a bedrock California value to me. So 15 years ago, when I was a new mayor and I heard politicians in Washington sneering at California values and attacking our LGBTQ community, I remembered what my father taught me: Its never the wrong time to do the right thing. And thats what we did. In San Francisco, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, two women who had been in love for nearly 50 years, had the courage to stand up and say the two most powerful words: I do. Thousands more followed them. It took a long time, but love won. Just like 15 years ago, now is a time for courage. We will stand up for whats right, and we will defend our people. My pledge to every Californian is this: No matter what comes at us, I will have your back. If we do this right, the progress we make will never be unmade. As Cesar Chavez said, You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. There is a story we tell about our history, from Sutters Mill to Steve Jobs garage, about how this is a place where anything is possible. This is the coast of dreams. Thats true. But you shouldnt have to find gold or make it in the movies or create a billion-dollar start-up to live that California Dream. It is for everyone. Everyone in California should have a good job with fair pay. Every child should have a great school and a teacher who is supported and respected. Every person should be able to go to college without crushing debt or to get the training they need to compete and succeed. And every senior should have the ability to retire with security and live at home with dignity. That is the California Dream. Not to get rich quick or star on the big screen, but to work hard and share in the rewards. To leave a better future for our kids. The work we have spoken of today cant be the job of a governor alone, or a legislature, or even the entire government. It will only be achieved if we all share the spirit of the young DREAMer from Los Angeles I heard recently. She said: I wasnt born in California, but California was born in me. Theres a spark of California hope and California courage born in all of us. Its up to us what we do with it. The eyes of the world are upon us. Now more than ever, America needs California. It needs the guiding light of our values and the progress they make possible. This is where Americas future is made. This is our charge. That is our calling. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi wished all Egyptian Copts a Merry Christmas through his official Twitter account on Monday. Merry Christmas. Filled with peace, love, and compassion in the heart of every Egyptian and every vigilant conscience and every striving soul which sacrifices for love, goodness, brotherhood, and humanity. Many happy returns to the Christian brothers, El-Sisi posted in a tweet. Coptic Orthodox Christians, who make up a substantial majority of all Christians in the country, celebrate Christmas on 7 January, following the Julian calendar. Monday is a public holiday in Egypt. The tweet comes a day after he inaugurated the new Nativity of Christ Cathedral in a lavish celebration. The biggest cathedral in the Middle East is located in the countrys new administrative capital. The Egyptian president also inaugurated Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque in the same capital; it is Egypts largest mosque and one of the biggest in the region. Short link: Gavin Christopher Newsom took his place as Californias 40th governor Monday, christening a new political era of progressive activism in a Golden State both brimming with wealth and hollowed by poverty. Beneath a tent outside the Capitol protecting him and thousands of well-wishers from the threat of rain, Newsom rested his hand on a Bible held by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye and recited the oath of office. His wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, stood at his side, along with their four children. The former lieutenant governor and San Francisco mayor, 51, arrived at this moment by winning the largest electoral victory of any California governor in more than a half-century, largely on promises to restore Californias luster and offer an alternative to what he has called the corruption and incompetence in President Trumps White House. At the heart of Newsoms first address to California as its new governor was a forceful rejection of the policies and values of that administration, including the presidents push for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a move to separate children from immigrant parents seeking asylum. Though Trumps name was not mentioned in the roughly 30-minute speech, the ire directed his way was clear. Advertisement What we do today is even more consequential, because of what is happening in our country, Newsom said. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize the moment. Just hours after taking the oath of office, Newsom took another swipe at Trump by announcing plans for a major expansion of Medi-Cal to cover young immigrants in the U.S. illegally and require consumers in the state to carry health insurance, a mandate in the Affordable Care Act that was nixed by the federal government. 1 / 9 Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office, administered by California State Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, and is sworn in as the 40th governor of California in front of the Capitol in Sacramento. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 9 Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks after being sworn in as the 40th governor of California in front of the Capitol in Sacramento. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 9 California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his family wave to the crowd after he was sworn in as the 40th governor of California in front of the Capitol in Sacramento. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 9 California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, looks on during his inauguration. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) 5 / 9 Gov. Gavin Newsom kisses his son after Newsom was sworn in as the 40th governor of California. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 9 People make their way into tents outside the state Capitol to attend the inauguration of Gavin Newsom in Sacramento. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) 7 / 9 Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom takes to the stage at California Rises: A Concert to Help the Victims of California Wildfires at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento a day before his inauguration. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 9 Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento a day before he becomes the states 40th governor. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 9 Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom take to the stage at California Rises: A Concert to Help the Victims of California Wildfires at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento a day before his inauguration. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The Day 1 announcement was as much a rebuke to the Trump administration as it was an attempt by Newsom to make good on his campaign promise to fix a fragmented healthcare system that leaves many priced out or underinsured. Newsoms upbringing included family struggles and privilege, experience that shaped his rise in California politics. The child of divorced parents, he grew up with his mother, Tessa, who eked out a living working multiple jobs. But through his father, William, a state appellate court judge, Newsom had an entree into the highest echelons of San Francisco society. That helped launch his successful wine and hospitality business and propelled his political career, which began when San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the local Parking and Traffic Commission in 1996. He would later serve on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and as that citys mayor before becoming lieutenant governor in 2011. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to place California wineries, hotels in blind trust From there he launched his bid for governor, and campaigned on an ambitious and expensive agenda, including proposals for a state-sponsored healthcare system, universal preschool and increased funding for higher education. Newsom said hed rather be bold and risk failure than wallow in the safety of political incrementalism. Advertisement He defined the problems California now faces in sobering terms, saying state officials who pride themselves on leading the fifth-largest economy in the world cannot overlook that there are more homeless and children living in poverty here than any other state in the union. Newsom extolled the virtues of the rescue crews who fought the recent wildfires in Paradise, Malibu, Santa Rosa and Ventura and in his inaugural speech urged Californians to share that same compassion and empathy for those in need. We face a gulf between the rich and everyone else and its not just inequality of wealth, its inequality of opportunity, he said. A homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night. An achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids. And too many of our children know the ache of chronic hunger. The inauguration ceremony began with a rendition of the gospel song Titanium by the Voices of Destiny, the choir from Comptons Greater Zion Church, and traditional Mexican melodies from the music group Los Cenzontles of Richmond. Providing levity to the occasion, Newsoms 2-year-old son, Dutch, jumped on stage with his father and, for a brief time, wandered around as the new governor spoke. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. Advertisement When fires strike, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the speech, and the boys unplanned cameo, humanized the governor. Garcetti appreciated that Newsom talked about the states importance on the national level. Californias fight is first and foremost for California, Garcetti said. But it also models behavior for the rest of the country that we dont have to be at each others throats and that we can govern in a bipartisan way in which geography and party doesnt define us. I think that was very encouraging, but he didnt back off a progressive agenda. Newsoms speech on Monday was designed to outline the broad goals of his upcoming administration. The underpinnings of those policies, including his initial legislative agenda and specifics about spending, will be revealed in more detail when Newsom releases his first budget proposal this week and delivers a State of the State address later this month. Advertisement He set out a bold agenda when he ran for governor, former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis said. We should know a lot more after those three events have occurred. George Skelton: As Californias new governor, Gavin Newsom needs to address what no one wants to talk about Newsom takes the helm from Gov. Jerry Brown, who over eight years guided California out of recession-driven deficits and leaves his successor with an estimated $14.5-billion surplus and an ample rainy day fund. The former governor received a standing ovation after Newsom praised his leadership in California. Brown, 80, the longest-serving governor in California history, watched the inauguration from a nearby perch filled with California dignitaries. Joining him for the day of celebration at the Capitol were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and former Govs. Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Advertisement The changeover in administrations brings an infusion of energy and unpredictability into a capital city that has for the last eight years grown accustomed to Browns intellectualism and iron political hand. The silver-tongued, at times loquacious Newsom has vowed to seize this moment as he did in 2004, when, as mayor of San Francisco, he leapt into the national consciousness by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying the law and ultimately altering the course of LGBTQ rights in the United States. His ascent to the governors office underscores the ongoing generational shift underway in Californias top political leadership, which began when U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris succeeded Sen. Barbara Boxer, who retired in 2017. Read Gov. Gavin Newsoms inaugural address The change was felt during pre-inauguration festivities on Sunday, when the Newsoms and their four young children joined thousands of supporters at a free family-focused celebration at the California State Railroad Museum, and afterward hosted a benefit concert headlined by rapper Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center to raise money for wildfire victims. And for the first time in decades, Californias Victorian-style governors mansion will be home to a young family. Advertisement Californias new governor has signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college, with glimpses of those priorities surfacing as a few details of his upcoming budget have been revealed by the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets over the last week. The Newsom administrations attention to the needs of young children includes $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular emphasis on funding increases to help train child-care workers and a push for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. The governor is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months, and to spend $40 million to expand tuition-free community college to California students from one year to two years. Everyone in California should have a good job with fair pay. Every child should have a great school and a teacher who is supported and respected. Every person should be able to go to college without crushing debt or to get the training they need to compete and succeed. And every senior should be able to retire with security and live at home with dignity, Newsom said. That is the California dream. It cant get much better for Gavin Newsom as Californias next governor. But its almost certain to get worse Advertisement While Newsom is taking office amid nearly a decade of nationwide economic expansion and a state budget surplus that the Legislative Analysts Office in November declared extraordinary, Californias new governor has vowed to prevent a Sacramento spending spree. He has said the states financial well-being exists at the mercy of a capricious economy, and his calls for fiscal discipline and restraint had grown louder as his inauguration approached. Newsom has reached out to Republicans and other voters who did not support him in November, seeking to cool any expectations that he might blindly support a lengthy wish list of Democratic issues pent up by Browns tightfistedness. We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, paying down debt, meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history, Newsom said in his address. The governor begins his tenure in a Capitol under the firm control of Democrats. After the 2018 election, the party holds 89 of 120 seats in the California Legislature. Maybe not a bond, but theres a connection between Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom as governors of California Advertisement The legislative makeup allows Democrats to pass any bill, including tax hikes, without relying on a single vote from their GOP counterparts. But the ability of the legislative and executive branches to work together and varying factions of elected Democrats to see eye-to-eye remains unknown as California embarks on a new political chapter. Many Democratic lawmakers share Newsoms desire to overhaul the healthcare system and boost funding to increase access to preschool for children from low-income families, among other progressive policies unsuccessfully attempted under Brown that Newsom endorsed on the campaign trail. In an effort to lower expectations, Newsom has made it clear that he doesnt plan to sign every bill that lands on his desk, or frivolously deplete the states budgetary cushion. Newsom, when speaking to reporters the day before his swearing-in, took a few minutes to reflect on the winding path that brought him to the governors office. A decade and a half ago, many thought such an achievement would be out of reach for the brash, young mayor of San Francisco. Its been a long process, Newsom said. There was a moment when folks thought in 2004, 2005, that I would be lucky to get reelected as mayor, let alone ever elected outside of San Francisco. Advertisement Times staff writer John Myers contributed to this report. Coverage of California politics phil.willon@latimes.com Twitter: @philwillon Advertisement Updates on California politics Visit Essential Washington for coverage of the White House and goings on in the nations capital. Welcome to Essential Politics, our in-the-moment look at California political and government news. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom then mayor of San Francisco contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California the fifth-largest economy in the world having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin young, vibrant taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan $1.5 billion would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession more than 100 cases longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Advertisement Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparen The looming possibility of a teachers strike is certainly a major challenge facing the Los Angeles Unified School District. But it isnt the biggest one. LAUSDs finances are in a perilous state, and, despite repeated warnings, school officials and civic leaders have ignored the situation for far too long. The district, as the teachers union has pointed out, does have a reserve fund of close to $2 billion. These funds could definitely help in reaching a settlement with the union. However, the existence of the reserve cant make up for the fact that LAUSD currently spends about half a billion dollars more each year than it takes in, according to a recent analysis. Without painful corrective action, its financial situation will worsen considerably over the next few years. The deficit is caused in part by rising pension costs (which shouldnt have come as a surprise since they have been forecast for at least two decades). Higher special education costs and declining student enrollment due to charter school expansion and demographic shifts have also played a role. There are no quick or easy fixes for these problems. Advertisement In 2015, then-Supt. Ray Cortines assembled a blue-ribbon committee to conduct an objective analysis of the districts finances and to make recommendations for how projected deficits should be addressed. The reports conclusions were stark: The expanding gap represents a serious challenge to the LAUSDs financial stability in the near term, one that insists upon immediate action today. It warned that immediate and difficult measures would be required if the district hoped to continue adequately serving its students beyond the 2019-20 school year, noting that failure to do so could lead to the insolvency of the LAUSD, and the loss of local governance authority that comes from state takeover. Similar warnings have been issued more recently by both the county and state education departments. The districts leadership has made some attempts to address its fiscal challenges, but so far, no long-term solutions have been embraced. It is becoming increasingly clear that the districts problems are too great to be solved by the superintendent or the school board alone. Unfortunately, many of those who should help the mayor, community activists and local business, religious, foundation and university leaders have sat silent on the sidelines. They need to engage. As the district and United Teachers of Los Angeles debate how to resolve the current impasse, L.A.s civic leaders must come together to help devise and support a financial plan to ensure the district can serve its students. This may require a local parcel tax or bond measure as well as additional state funding. Why have civic leaders not become more involved up to now? Heres a theory. A few months after moving to Los Angeles I was invited to speak to a group of influential Angelenos about the need to invest in high quality after-school programs to support the well-being and development of children. During my remarks, I asked those present how many had attended a Los Angeles public school themselves. Most of those in the audience raised a hand. I then asked how many of them had children or grandchildren who were enrolled at district schools. Only a few hands went up. This is huge problem. When those with power and influence are disconnected from the school system and more concerned with making preparations for the 2028 Olympics than they are with schools that serve most of the citys children, we are in serious trouble. Advertisement The potential strike by teachers must be understood in this larger context. The teachers and their union have raised important and legitimate concerns, and the fiscal condition of the district does not negate the validity of their demands. The district must invest in its schools and its personnel if it hopes to have a future. But it is also clear that the school district faces real financial duress. Without substantial state government assistance along with increased revenue from local sources, it is hard to imagine how the LAUSD will meet its fiscal challenge. Eventually, it will be forced to carry out painful cost reductions that will hurt teachers and kids. Finding a solution is not just important for children. In addition to providing education to nearly 600,000 students, the school district is also the citys largest employer. L.A.s social and economic infrastructure is at risk, and leadership is needed to address the districts deficits in a thoughtful and strategic manner. Los Angeles cannot be a truly great city without a functioning school system that is embraced and supported at least as much as we support the Dodgers, Lakers or Rams. Advertisement There is no more important issue for civic leaders to address than preserving the viability of public education for future generations. Pedro Noguera is a professor of education at UCLAs Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and founder and faculty director of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion As 800,000 federal employees enter another week without paychecks, any way to end the countrys budget impasse has appeal. But the solution is not the one President Donald Trump has been floating in recent days: that he will simply invoke emergency powers and build a wall between the United States and Mexico without congressional approval. Doing so would constitute an unconstitutional and dangerous expansion of presidential power. Thankfully, the United States Constitution does not give the president emergency powers, and it has no clause that allows the president to suspend the Constitution when he perceives an emergency. Quite the contrary, the Constitution was deliberately written to keep government officials from claiming dictatorial powers in the name of national security or emergency management. The Constitution is clear that Congress controls the power of the purse and must approve the spending of all federal money. No exception to this is mentioned in the Constitution or has ever been recognized by the courts. Trump is not the first president to try to claim emergency powers. During the Korean War, President Harry Truman ordered the seizure of steel mills when a labor dispute threatened to close them. Truman argued that national security and the war effort depended on continued steel production. But In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. vs. Sawyer, in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled against Truman, concluding the president had no authority under the Constitution or federal laws to do this even in a wartime emergency. In a separate opinion, Justice William O. Douglas explained that seizing the steel mills would require that Congress appropriate funds to pay for the taking of private property, and the president cannot take over the spending power, which belongs to Congress, in this way. Both Justice Robert Jackson and Justice Felix Frankfurter, in their separate opinions, stressed that Congress had considered giving the president this power but did not do so. Advertisement This is directly relevant today, since Congress for the last two years has considered and rejected funding for Trumps wall. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The president is likely claiming authority to fund building the wall under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, but that law actually was meant to limit the ability of the president to claim powers by declaring a national emergency. One provision says that if there is a national emergency, funds in the Defense Department budget that are not obligated can be used for construction projects to support the armed forces. It says: Secretary of Defense, without regard to any other provision of law, may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces. The clear purpose of this was to ensure adequate space for military mobilization in the case of an emergency requiring a large number of troops. It is hard to imagine a court finding that there is an emergency within the meaning of the statute in this situation where nothing has changed. This is about Trump wanting to carry out a campaign promise, not an emergency that has suddenly arisen. Moreover, the statute is about construction projects to support the armed forces. Trumps wall is not about that at all. Any attempt by Trump to build the wall without congressional approval would be a grave threat to separation of powers. Under the Constitution, every major action of the federal government generally should involve two branches of government. Enacting a law, including adopting a budget, requires Congress passing a bill and the president signing it, or Congress overriding a veto. Going to war requires Congress declaring war and the president, as commander-in-chief, waging it. Enforcing a federal law requires that the executive branch bring a prosecution and the judiciary convict. No Supreme Court decision in U.S. history ever has approved the ability of the president to circumvent these checks and balances by spending a large amount of money without congressional approval. That would be a dangerous precedent and one inconsistent with a Constitution founded on the idea of checks and balances. Throughout his time in office, President Trump has chafed at the limits the Constitution imposes upon him, as have other presidents occasionally before him. That is a key reason, lets remember, that the nations founders wrote the document: to set out clearly the limitations of a presidents power. Once again, more than 200 years after it was written, the Constitution is again serving Americans well in preserving checks and balances. Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Scott Dozier, the convicted murderer who had all but begged Nevada authorities to execute him for years, was found dead in his death row cell over the weekend, authorities said. The 48-year-old was discovered hanging by a bed sheet tied to an air vent, Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Santina said Monday. Santina said he was pronounced dead at 4:35 p.m. Saturday. Dozier was not on suicide watch at the time of his death at the state prison in Ely. Authorities attempted life-saving measures to no avail, Santina said. Authorities from White Pine County and Nevadas inspector general are investigating. Advertisement Dozier avoided execution for years, despite his desire to be put to death. He came closest in July when corrections officials in Ely were set to use a controversial mix of drugs to kill him. But hours before the scheduled execution, a Nevada judge granted an injunction sought by the maker of a sedative that had been at the center of botched executions in other states. While drugmakers argued in district court, state court and even the Nevada Supreme Court that the drugs they made shouldnt be used to execute Dozier, the inmate continued to try and pave a path to his execution. Life in prison isnt a life, Dozier told the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the scheduled July execution. This isnt living, man. Its just surviving. Dozier was convicted in 2007 of murdering and dismembering Jeremiah Miller, 22, at a Las Vegas motel. He also was convicted in Arizona in the 2001 murder of 26-year-old Jasen Green. Dozier had waived his appeals in 2016. His quest to die drew national attention and was yet another high-profile case that called into question the use of pharmaceutical drugs to conduct executions. Nevada was attempting to use a three-drug cocktail that included midazolam, cisatracurium and fentanyl. Lawyers for Dozier argued that cisatracurium a paralytic drug would mask the pain and suffering he would probably experience during the execution. Drug manufacturer Alvogen, which makes midazolam, claimed in court that the Nevada Department of Corrections obtained the drug through a third party without disclosing it was to be used for executions. While Alvogen takes no position on the death penalty itself, Alvogens products were developed to save and improve patients lives, and their use in executions is fundamentally contrary to this purpose, Alvogen lawyers wrote in court briefs. Drug companies like Alvogen have been making it increasingly difficult for states to obtain drugs to carry out lethal-injection executions. Advertisement McKesson Medical-Surgical sued Arkansas in 2017 after it discovered the state was using one of its drugs in an attempt to execute 10 men in eight days an ambitious attempt as the state bumped up against an expiring drug supply. The company said the state had misled it by saying the drugs were being used for medical purposes. The Arkansas Supreme Court sided with the state and Arkansas executed four of the men using McKessons drug. Lethal injection as a means of execution goes back to the mid-1970s, when the standard protocol included administering sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. In 2009 that began to change. As drug supplies became more difficult to secure, states were forced to adjust and try different types and brands to carry out executions. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eight states have carried out executions using a single drug an anesthetic and six others plan to do so if necessary. When Dozier had been scheduled to be executed in July, Nevada had settled on a drug protocol that included the use of the paralytic drug. Advertisement But Doziers lawyers were always hamstrung by their clients wish to die, and he claimed to not be particularly bothered by which drugs were used. The inmate had periodically been on suicide watch over the last year and never recanted his wishes to die. David Anthony, a federal public defender who represented Dozier, said in an email Monday that he was sad to hear of the suicide. We offer our sincere condolences to Scotts family and hope that he has found peace, Anthony wrote. Tom Ericsson, who also represented Dozier, said the family was notified of his suicide directly by the warden. Advertisement Nevada hasnt executed anyone since 2006, and Doziers would have been the first in the states new death chamber, which was completed in 2016 at a cost of about $860,000. Adam Laxalt, the former attorney general, had aggressively sought to execute Dozier, but the Republican was replaced by Aaron Ford, a Democrat, as the states top prosecutor. Ford was sworn in Monday. david.montero@latimes.com | Twitter: @davemontero Academics with foreign ties living in Iran are on alert following the arrest of a demographer whose research led her to question the countrys decision to urge people to have more children. Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, who is a citizen of both Iran and Australia, was arrested in November while she tried to leave and is accused of being a spy, according to Kayhan, Irans conservative newspaper. Her colleague, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, a demographics professor at Tehran University and director of Irans National Institute of Population Research, was detained shortly after by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard and interrogated about his work on population growth and fertility, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported. Authorities allege that the two demographers falsified statistics about the fertility rate in Iran to mask the countrys population crisis, Iranian state media have reported. The government contends there is a coming population shortage and has been pushing to increase the fertility rate. Advertisement The arrest of a university researcher for simply engaging in academic inquiry is unusual even in a country with a long history of jailing activists and has renewed fear among other scholars and researchers who live and work in Iran. Its a signal to people in the country to be careful, or you will end up in jail, said Siavash Ramesh, a political analyst in Iran. If a demographer who says the population is good enough, is jailed, then who is safe? Shortly after the 1979 revolution, during the early years of the Islamic Republic, the government embarked on a systematic crackdown on people it viewed as enemies of the conservative theocracy. Sporadic crackdowns have followed over the decades. The recent arrests of activists, lawyers, environmentalists, womens rights activists and now academics, a handful of whom hold dual citizenship, signal an escalating attack on civil society. The arrest of the demographers reflects a shift in tactics by hard-liners against those they believe are foreign agents working against the policies of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader. Iranian security forces are beginning to close the space for both activism and analytical inquiry, said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist at the Brookings Institution. The latest wave of repression started on Dec. 28, 2017, when hundreds of Iranians were arrested and at least 20 killed after protesters took to the streets demanding the resignations of Irans top leaders. A month later, in February 2018, authorities began arresting environmentalists. Advertisement Kavous Seyed Emami, a sociology professor with Canadian citizenship, was one of eight environmental activists arrested and accused of passing intelligence to foreigners. The government said he hanged himself in Tehrans Evin Prison, though his family has challenged that account. A handful of academics, including Iranians who hold dual citizenship, have also been arrested in recent years and remain in prison. Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University academic and American citizen who was conducting research on the Qajar dynasty in Iran, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 on spying charges. Iranian-Swedish scientist Ahmadreza Djalali was sentenced to death a few months later on espionage charges. Hosseini-Chavoshi worked with the Australian National University as a researcher and coauthored Population Developments in Iran, a book detailing population trends in Iran and their effect on the countrys economy. She and other experts believe that Iran cant sustain a large population increase. Advertisement The allegations against her suggest how Iranians preference for smaller families has become a politically sensitive topic and stoked the fears of some religious conservatives about the future of the Islamic Republic. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, officials encouraged people to have large families. The population doubled in almost a decade to 55 million, up from 27 million in 1968, according to data from the United Nations. But after the Iran-Iraq war, officials reversed their policy. Contraceptives became widely available and religious leaders encouraged women to wait before getting pregnant. By the 1990s Iran had one of the most effective population control policies in the world. Today, that policy has placed Iran in a precarious situation: As Irans working-class population continues to grow older, the countrys outdated and poorly designed public pension programs could become strained. Advertisement Consequently, Khamenei has been calling for people to have more babies and has said he wants the population to grow from 80 million to 150 million people. Hard-liners rallying behind the supreme leader are accusing critics such as Hosseini-Chavoshi of being part of a Western conspiracy to keep Iran weak. Nasrullah Pezhmanfar, a cleric and member of Irans cultural committee of parliament, said reducing the number of people in Iran is an act of war initiated by America and its allies. The enemy has been implementing a consistent plan to reduce the birthrate, he said on state-run TV. Still, Iranians preference for having fewer children is likely to stay around. Advertisement Mehdi Akbari, 32, has been married for three years. He repairs cellphones at a shop in Valiasr Square. Although hed like to have children, Akbari said he cant to afford to raise them in Irans fickle economy. He makes about $250 a month and said he is barely able to make ends meet. My mom keeps saying that I must start a family, but I am not sure I can even afford a decent education or quality of life for my child, he said. No way, we cannot afford to start a family. Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer Melissa Etehad from Los Angeles Advertisement melissa.etehad@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad Moshe Arens, a former defense minister and Israeli hawk who represented the last vestiges of Israels founding generation and became a political mentor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, died Monday. He was 93. Arens recognized the skills and potential of Netanyahu in the early 1980s when he chose him as his deputy after being named Israels ambassador to the United States the first American Israeli to hold that position. Though lacking experience, Arens identified in Netanyahu an ability for politicking and drawing attention, skills he always lacked. But as Netanyahus career in the right-wing Likud party came to surpass his mentors, Arens became a principled critic of the era of political populism hed inadvertently ushered in. Arens was born in what is now Kaunas, Lithuania, on Dec. 17, 1925, and moved to the U.S. with his family when he was 13. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II and studied engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Caltech before permanently moving to Israel as the country was just being established. Advertisement A lifelong partisan of the Zionist right wing inspired by Zeev Jabotinsky, Arens, a professor of aeronautics at the Technion the Israel Institute of Technology soon drifted to political activism and was elected to the Knesset, Israels parliament, in 1973. Arens was a central figure in the development of Israels military industries in the private sector and served three terms as Israels defense minister. There was no greater patriot, Netanyahu said in a statement. Moshe Arens great contribution to our people and our state will be remembered forever. Netanyahu added: I loved you as a son loved his father. The relationship may have been familial, but fractiously so. Arens did not shy away from criticizing what he viewed as the crass political culture championed by his onetime disciple. He accused Netanyahu of betraying fundamental tenets of Revisionist Zionism, such as equality and personal rectitude. In retirement, he became a regular columnist in the liberal newspaper Haaretz, where he recently denounced the nation-state law supported by Netanyahu, that, in Arens view, denied non-Jewish citizens of Israel their innate rights. Israels president, Reuven Rivlin, a political acolyte who developed in Arens ideological camp within the Likud, remembered Arens as one of the most important ministers of defense the state of Israel ever had and a man of honor who never flinched from the fight. Advertisement In a tribute, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken described Arens as always original, independent and fascinating. He believed unbendingly in the need to advance and integrate Palestinian citizens into Israeli society, Schocken wrote. Dan Meridor, a former minister of justice and intelligence who grew up under Arens wing before leaving the increasingly rowdy and ideologically extreme Likud of Netanyahus era, remembered a gentleman who was unmoving and stubborn about two ideologies: Israels security and Israels humanity. He was as devoted a humanist as he was a champion of Israels self-reliance and defense. He saw no contradiction. He added: No matter your political views, you could tell your kids to grow up and be like him. Advertisement Arens is survived by his wife, Muriel; four children; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Prosecutors on Monday filed 28 new charges against a man they have identified as the NorCal Rapist, adding allegations from victims in five more counties. Roy Charles Waller, who turns 59 Tuesday, appeared briefly in court in Sacramento, accused of targeting victims in Northern California from 1991 through 2006. He committed at least 11 sexual assaults during that time, according to officials. In September, after years of sifting through leads and multiple manhunts, Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert identified Waller, a UC Berkeley employee, as the suspect in the NorCal Rapist case. Advertisement Authorities used DNA and information from genealogy websites to find Waller, noting the attacks with which he was linked started in the summer of 1991 in Rohnert Park, when a 21-year-old woman was raped in her home by a man who entered through an unlocked sliding glass door. In December 1991, another woman was attacked in Sonoma. Sexual assaults in several Northern California counties followed, with investigators saying that the ordeals would last for hours and that the women were blindfolded and sometimes bound with duct tape. He would ransack their homes, and sometimes he would kidnap the victims and take them to an ATM, where he would get money out of their accounts, Det. Avis Beery of the Sacramento Police Department said in an interview with The Times last year. Beery had been investigating the case for more than a decade. In addition to Sacramento, the attacks are believed to have happened in five other counties: Butte, Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo. Mondays charges stemmed from more DNA evidence, officials said, with prosecutors working to consolidate the case for trial in Sacramento. Waller had worked as a safety specialist at UC Berkeleys environment, health and safety office since 1992, managing programs to boost training for using machinery, including aerial lifts, forklifts and respirators. He is expected to return to court for another hearing on March 8. anh.do@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @newsterrier A mans body was found early Monday in the West Hollywood home of prominent Democratic donor Ed Buck, authorities said. It was the second time a man was found dead at Bucks apartment. Buck is a longtime political donor, a one-time West Hollywood City Council candidate and a well-known figure in LGBTQ political circles. Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments West Hollywood station responded to the Laurel Avenue apartment complex at 1:05 a.m. in response to a report of a person not breathing, the department said in a statement. At some point, the 911 caller performed CPR, the department said. Paramedics pronounced a man dead at the scene. The cause of death was not yet known. Advertisement The dead mans name has not been released, but Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Department, said he was black. Buck previously was investigated for the death of another black man, the 2017 overdose of Gemmel Moore, 26. Buck was present for the deaths of both men, the Sheriffs Department said Monday. Bucks attorney, Seymour Amster, said Buck was not arrested and is cooperating with investigators. From what I know, it was an old friend who died of an accidental overdose, and unfortunately, we believe that the substance was ingested at some place other than the apartment, Amster said. The person came over intoxicated. Sheriffs homicide investigators are conducting a thorough investigation of the most recent death and will do follow-up interviews and a secondary review of Moores death, the department said. Capt. Chris Bergner of the sheriffs homicide bureau said his detectives again will be working very closely with the district attorneys office and will be carefully examining all the evidence. Moore died of a methamphetamine overdose in Bucks apartment in July 2017, according to a Los Angeles County coroners report. Paramedics found him naked on a mattress in the living room, which was littered with drug paraphernalia, the report said. Advertisement Moores mother, LaTisha Nixon of Texas, and his friends questioned whether Bucks ties to elected officials and differences in race and class influenced the investigation and whether the drugs that killed him were self-administered. . Moore had been homeless and had worked as an escort. Buck, 64, is white. The coroner ruled Moores death an accident, and an initial review by sheriffs deputies found nothing suspicious. But the following month, homicide detectives launched a new investigation. Prosecutors this summer declined to file charges against Buck, citing insufficient evidence, according to court records. In a charge evaluation worksheet dated July 26, the Los Angeles County district attorneys office said that the admissible evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect Buck furnished drugs to Gemmel Moore or that suspect Buck possessed drugs. Advertisement Pictures in the News | Tuesday Jan. 8, 2019 The document also cited an inadmissible search and seizure but did not provide details. The district attorneys office reviewed and rejected four charges: murder, voluntary manslaughter, and furnishing and possessing drugs. Moore had flown from Houston to Los Angeles the day he died, according to coroners investigators. Moores mother said Buck bought his airplane ticket. Advertisement The Times reviewed pages of a journal that authorities said was found among Moores possessions. In it, Moore purportedly wrote in 2016 about using crystal methamphetamine. Ive become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that, Moore purportedly wrote. Ed Buck is the one to thank, he gave me my first injection of chrystal [sic] meth. The entry continues: I just hope the end result isnt death.... If it didnt hurt so bad Id kill myself but Ill let Ed Buck do it for now. According to the coroners report, an investigator found the following items in Bucks two-bedroom apartment: 24 syringes with brown residue, five glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, a plastic straw with possible white residue, clear plastic bags with white powdery residue and a clear plastic bag with a piece of crystal-like substance. Advertisement West Hollywood Councilman John DAmico on Monday said he asked the city manager to contact the sheriff and push for an investigation after the latest death. I have no further comment at this time. Im going to let the D.A. and LASD do their jobs, DAmico said. Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath said she has been in contact with the captain of the local sheriff station and tried to reach Sheriff Alex Villanueva directly. I support a full investigation of all facts related to this case as well as full consideration of all facts by the district attorney, she said. I am sick and heartbroken by the facts we know so far. Advertisement In response to Mondays death, the Los Angeles LGBT Center issued a statement calling for the Sheriffs Department to fully investigate this tragedy and aggressively seek justice wherever the investigation might lead. Buck became a nationally known figure in the late 1980s when he led the effort to impeach Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham. News reports at the time described Buck as a conservative Republican. The New York Times in 1987 described him as a 33-year-old millionaire entrepreneur who retired from the insurance service business a year ago to found the Mecham Recall Committee. Upon learning that Buck is gay, Mechams aides distributed bumper stickers reading Queer Ed Bucks Recall. The Arizona governors efforts to dismiss the recall supporters whom he dubbed a band of homosexuals and a few dissident Democrats with comments about sexual orientation were pilloried in the Doonesbury comic strip. Advertisement More recently, Buck has donated to various Democratic causes. Through June, Buck gave $23,600 to various California races and causes, including $7,600 to former state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) while was considering a run for lieutenant governor, according to campaign finance records. He also donated to candidates running for election to the West Hollywood City Council, Los Angeles Unified School District board and state Senate, and he served on the Stonewall Democratic Club Steering Committee. richard.winton@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @lacrimes hailey.branson@latimes.com Twitter: @haileybranson Leaders of the Los Angeles school district and its teachers union both went to church this weekend, but their sermons and audiences had little in common as a Thursday strike date approaches. Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, gave a pep talk to his members Saturday at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, across the street from his unions headquarters in Koreatown. Among the faithful filling the pews was Emily Reyes, the union chapter chair for Crescent Heights Boulevard Elementary School in Mid-City. It was so fitting that it was in church, Reyes said. Walking into that big Gothic church and just taking in the energy, it was very exciting. People seemed very energized. Were ready. Were ready to strike. Advertisement Austin Beutner scheduled three church visits Sunday and described in an interview his first stop, at Resurrection Church in Carson, where he spoke for several minutes. I said that we have to do the right thing for our students, and I believe the right thing is not to have a strike, Beutner said. He said he also discussed the importance of adults modeling the civil conduct that wed all like to teach to our students every day. Representatives of the teachers union and the Los Angeles Unified School District are tentatively scheduled to meet for a last-ditch negotiation session Monday morning. The school district accepted an offer from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti to hold the meeting at City Hall. Beutner said the fresh setting might help. But union leaders decided over the weekend against that location. A union spokeswoman said Sunday that the union had agreed to meet instead at school district headquarters, just west of downtown. Garcetti has offered to play the role of mediator, but the move away from City Hall suggests that he is unlikely to be called in at this stage. The back-and-forth over the venue was indicative of how the two parties perceive the meeting and how they want the meeting to be perceived. L.A. Unified officials want to send the message to the public as much as to UTLA that they will do whatever they can to stop a strike. On our agenda, we plan to bring counter proposals to UTLAs Last, Best and Final offer, Robert Samples, the districts interim labor relations director, wrote in an in email to the union. Advertisement Samples said the district would augment its team by having Beutner and other senior officials attend the session and invited the union to follow suit with its leaders, assuring UTLA that participants would be cleared to leave their work sites. Look forward to seeing you and your team tomorrow, he wrote. The union, on the other hand, has fired up its members for a walkout on the grounds that it would be good for the future of traditional public education. By declining a City Hall setting for talks, the union appears to be dampening any expectation of a last-minute settlement. Advertisement UTLA will engage in whatever talks are possible to avoid a strike, but the district must be willing to spend a substantial portion of its record-breaking $1.9-billion reserve to serve our students and must engage our full package of proposals rather than dismiss them, Caputo-Pearl said in a statement Sunday. The district has offered teachers a 6% raise spread over the first two years of a three-year contract. The union wants a 6.5% raise that would take effect all at once and a year sooner. But the issues that the union is pressing for go well beyond wages. UTLA also is demanding a significant reduction in class sizes and the hiring of enough nurses, librarians and counselors to fully staff campuses across the nations second-largest school system. Union leaders have framed their activism as a fight for the future of public education. Beutner has said that some of the unions proposals are worthy but that, if accepted, they would immediately push the school district into insolvency. Advertisement The superintendent wants as narrow a focus as possible in contract talks. Unlike the teachers, he doesnt want to deliberate over whether there is too much standardized testing or too little control over privately run charter schools that operate on district-owned campuses. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume Its great to see a burst of galactic activity kick off the year in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of mankinds first steps on the moon. On 1st January, NASAs New Horizons probe passed by the furthest object in our solar system ever to be visited by a spacecraft, sending images of Ultima Thule four billion miles across the galaxy back to Earth. The next day, at 10.26am Beijing time, Chinas ChangE-4 mission made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon. Both events show how space exploration has evolved over the past fifty years. They also hint at the difficulties watch brands now face in capitalizing on it for their marketing activities. Omega has an unparalleled record with its Speedmaster, which was chosen as the official watch of NASA and has been accompanying astronauts into the void ever since. But the two missions of the past week were both unmanned and the photos sent back to Earth were not of astronauts proudly holding flags and wearing manually-wound wristwatches but of a snowman-shaped object the size of Washington, DC and a hitherto unknown, empty lunar landscape. Ultima Thule NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Chang-E-4 CNSA As a partner of Chinas Lunar Exploration Programme (CLEP), TAG Heuer will celebrate the success of the ChangE-4 mission with its Chinese brand ambassadors and representatives of the CLEP at the China Science and Technology Museum later this week. The brand has been a partner of the mission since 2016 and last year presented two CLEP watches at Baselworld: a limited edition of 100 Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 chronographs and an Aquaracer Calibre 5 with moon disc at 9 oclock. Like the partnership itself, these watches are targeted more towards the local audience in China, restricting the potential audience to a mere 1.3 billion people. There are, however, other opportunities for watch brands looking to cash in on the 2019 space boom. Indias Space Research Organisation is planning no fewer than 32 missions in 2019, including its first attempt at a powered lunar landing with the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which is scheduled for early 2019. With no sign of an official timekeeper or official watch, could Switzerlands second-oldest watch brand fire up the patriotism of its Indian owners (the Tata Group) to persuade them to team up with this mission? Favre-Leuba already has the perfect hashtag in place: #conqueringfrontiers. The fact that such opportunities have not already been snatched up may be due to the way that more and more space missions are now funded. The Google Lunar XPRIZE offered 30 million US dollars to the first non-governmental team to land a rover on the moon and send back high-definition video. Lunar missions thus shifted from the public to the private sector. Despite Google withdrawing its sponsorship of the prize, privately-funded Space IL from Israel plans to launch the first-ever non-governmental lunar mission in February on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It could be the perfect opportunity for Itay Noy to put independent watchmaking from Israel on the map. Private sector companies like SpaceX are increasingly responsible for the heavy lifting that gets the payloads for these missions into space. These profitable businesses (SpaceXs valuation is greater than that of Switzerlands annual watch exports) have also gained valuable experience that has helped them plan their own manned space missions. Last year SpaceX confirmed that it had sold a flight around the moon to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. But given the size of the company, and its founders ego, it has little room (or need) for any corporate sponsors. The first human beings who flew around the dark side of the moon did so out of necessity rather than choice nearly half a century ago. For the crew of Apollo 13 it was the only hope of getting the slingshot they needed for a safe return to Earth. After a technical fault on board, they cut power to all but the most essential equipment, meaning that they had to rely on an Omega Speedmaster to time a 14-second engine burn to get their trajectory right. The fact that the humble Moon Watch is still part of the core Omega collection fifty years later is testament to the enduring appeal of the watch and such legendary stories. Will the second crew to make the journey wear Speedies as a touch of nostalgia? Well have to wait until at least 2023 to find out. A last-ditch bargaining effort to avert a Los Angeles teachers strike fell short Monday, although the two sides have agreed to meet again on Wednesday morning, the day before a strike is scheduled to begin. Whether the strike starts on schedule could depend more, however, on legal maneuvers that will play out on Tuesday. At issue is whether United Teachers Los Angeles in setting the strike for Thursday gave the Los Angeles Unified School District a legally required 10-day notice that its members would stop working under the existing contract. The current contract actually expired at the end of June 2017, but union members continued to work under its provisions as negotiations continued for more than 20 months. Advertisement In a twist, it is the union that is going to Los Angeles Superior Court over whether it followed the rules. The unions goal is to preempt the district from going to court on the same issue after a strike begins. Were that to happen, a judge could shut down the strike for several days, killing its momentum and perhaps making union leaders look to the public and their members inept. UTLA is expected to argue that it has provided ample notice of its intent to strike. The union publicly announced its Jan. 10 strike date on Dec. 19. Austin Beutner, Los Angeles Unified superintendent, speaks to the media after talks with the teachers union. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) On this matter, however, the district is asserting violation of a legal technicality, regarding a formal notice from the union to the district, that it hopes is enforceable. As lawyers for each side plotted their moves, bargaining teams were locked in a daylong session, meeting face to face to negotiate for the first time since early October. Both sides arrived at the meeting with their big guns: Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, and L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner. But the gathering at district headquarters, west of downtown, looked more like a United Nations conference than a head-to-head negotiating session. At least 30 people were in the room, fairly evenly split between the two sides, according to people who were there. The two sides caucused in separate rooms during the lunch hour. Advertisement Each side brought new proposals but not nearly enough to close the gap. Afterward, each side criticized the other. On some particulars, there wasnt even agreement on what was offered. In dueling news conferences, however, some details emerged. The district did not change its wage proposal. It has offered teachers a 6% raise spread over the first two years of a three-year contract. The union wants a 6.5% raise that would take effect all at once and a year sooner. District officials say theyve added about $75 million to reduce class sizes and hire new staff. This is on top of $30 million in their previous offer. Advertisement Belmont High School students after class on Monday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) The extra money would allow for a librarian to be hired for every middle school and about one additional academic counselor for every high school. The extra counseling would help, but counselors still are likely to juggle several hundred students. Nursing services would be doubled in elementary schools but that means only that the district would pay to have a nurse present at each school two days a week instead of one. Schools have been using discretionary money to pay for additional days, and that likely would continue. The teachers union also represents librarians, nurses and counselors. With the additional district money, more than 700 teaching positions would be added to reduce the size of classes. Thats a significant increase, but the vast scale of the nations second-largest school district would dilute the impact. Advertisement Maximum class sizes in grades four to six would drop from 36 to 35, the district said. Maximums in high school would drop from 42 to about 39. Schools with the greatest needs would see larger reductions of about four students per class. Caputo-Pearl contradicted the districts figures, asserting that the proposal somehow would actually increase class sizes. He also pointed out that the new spending commitment was for one year. We dont need a full-time nurse for just one year, he said. We dont think there was a lot of progress made today. UTLA has pressed for fully staffed campuses, framing its activism as a fight for the future of public education. Advertisement On its side, the union removed a demand to give teachers more control over standardized testing and budget decisions at schools. The union also dropped its demand for a say in when the district starts a new magnet program. Caputo-Pearl said he hoped to take up those issues in the future. District negotiators did not give the union much credit for the concessions. They said such topics had never been proper subjects for contract negotiations. The districts new offer might suggest that it had been holding back money. But officials insisted this was not the case, that finding the money required trade-offs. Discretionary funds for schools, for example, would decrease overall, they said. Some of the funding would come from money set aside, under state law, for students targeted for extra help: those from low-income families, those who are learning English and those in foster care. The money would still benefit those students, but would be spent on priorities favored by UTLA, district officials said. Advertisement Both leaders stuck to their messages. Caputo-Pearl said the union would strike to improve students educations. Beutner said a strike would harm students and families. We understand that a strike puts students and families in the middle of this disagreement, which is the last place we should put them, Beutner said. The superintendent has said that some of the unions proposals, while worthy, would immediately push the school district into insolvency. Monday marked the first day back for district schools.after winter break. Advertisement On Tuesday, the school board is scheduled to meet. One item on the agenda is a proposal to make it easier for parents to volunteer on campus. That effort already was under way before a strike became imminent, but having more parents on campus could help schools manage in the absence of teachers union members. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume Sunday night sure turned out golden for Sandra Oh. The evening was already a glittering occasion for the actress, who was serving as co-host of the Golden Globes with Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg. Then she took her hostess with the mostess level up a notch by scoring a trophy for her performance as Eve Polastri, an indefatigable and quirky British intelligence agent, in BBC Americas Killing Eve. And it was a win with several distinctions. 1 / 30 Wakanda forever: Black Panthers Chadwick Boseman, from left, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyongo and Michael B. Jordan pay tribute at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 2 / 30 Jim Beach, Queens longtime manager, accepts the Golden Globe for Bohemian Rhapsody, winner of the motion picture, drama award. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 3 / 30 Green Book director Peter Farrelly gives an impassioned speech with cast and crew looking on. The film won three Golden Globes, including best motion picture, musical or comedy. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 4 / 30 Chuck Lorre hoists the statuette as he accepts accept the award for TV series, musical or comedy for The Kominsky Method at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 5 / 30 Presenter Bill Murray holds a golden goblet at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 6 / 30 Anne Hathaway, left, and Jessica Chastain at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 7 / 30 The Wifes Glenn Close wins the actress - motion picture, drama Golden Globe. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 8 / 30 Rami Malek takes home the best actor - drama Golden Globe for Bohemian Rhapsody. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 9 / 30 Presenters Halle Berry and Lena Waithe at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 10 / 30 Olivia Colman wins the best actress - motion picture, musical or comedy Golden Globe for The Favourite. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 11 / 30 Janelle Monae presents If Beale Street Could Talk at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 12 / 30 Emily Blunt and Dick Van Dyke at the 76th Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton hotel. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 13 / 30 Jeff Bridges is honored with the Cecil B. Demille Award at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 14 / 30 Harrison Ford presents at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 15 / 30 Sam Elliott at the 76th Golden Globes held at the Beverly Hilton hotel. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 16 / 30 Rachel Brosnahan accepts the award for best actress - TV series, musical or comedy at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 17 / 30 Isan Elba and her dad, Idris Elba, stand together onstage at the 76th Golden Globes. She is this years Golden Globes Ambassador. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 18 / 30 Octavia Spencer onstage as a presenter at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 19 / 30 Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney present at the 76th Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 20 / 30 Emma Stone, from left, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz of The Favourite, at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 21 / 30 Big Bang Theory actors, from left, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco and Jim Parsons present at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 22 / 30 HFPA president Meher Tatna at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 23 / 30 BlackKklansman actors Adam Driver, left, and John David Washington present their film, up in the drama film category, at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 24 / 30 Ben Whishaw of A Very English Scandal, winner of the award for supporting actor in a series, limited Series or TV Movie at the 76th Golden Globes. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 25 / 30 Ben Stiller and Jamie Lee Curtis at the 76th Golden Globes, presenting the award for actress in a limited series or TV movie. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 26 / 30 Lucy Liu presents onstage at the 76th Golden Globes. (NBC / Paul Drinkwater/NBC) 27 / 30 Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh host the 76th Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 28 / 30 A Star Is Borns Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are presenters at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 29 / 30 The Kominsky Methods Michael Douglas hoists his Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy series. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) 30 / 30 Phil Lord, center left, Chris Miller and the cast and crew of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse take the stage at the Golden Globes after winning for best animated film as presenters Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyongo look on at far right. (Paul Drinkwater / NBC) Advertisement 2019 Golden Globe Awards: Full coverage It marks the second Golden Globe for the actress, who previously took home gold in 2005 for supporting actress in a series for her performance as Cristina Yang on Greys Anatomy making Oh, who is Korean-Canadian, the first Asian actor to win multiple Golden Globes. Sundays achievement also gives Oh the distinction of being the second woman of Asian descent to ever win for a leading TV role; she joins Yoko Shimada, who won the category nearly four decades ago, in 1981, for NBCs Shogun. The asterisks dont stop there. The win also made her the second Golden Globes host to win an award while emceeing, joining Amy Poehler who co-hosted and won for her role in Parks and Recreation in 2014 in the glory. (Of course, it remains a small and elite club, partly because there havent been many hosts in Golden Globes 76-year history; just 11 of its ceremonies have had emcees.) Its a rich turnaround for those disappointed by Ohs loss at last years Emmys. While nabbing her first lead actress in a drama nomination, she became the first person of Asian descent ever to be recognized in the category. A win would have been a one-two punch for the history books. Safe to say, Sunday saw Oh regain control of the situation, much like her fictional alter ego, Eve, would have done. yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com Twitter: @villarrealy It was a mix of business as usual and overwhelming sea change at the 76th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, where the film and television industry gathered to celebrate themselves and be seen by one another at the crowded Beverly Hilton bar during commercial breaks on live television. The red carpet, which was more like a womens march last year thanks to the #TimesUp movement and conversations about representation, sexism and sexual harassment, had reverted back to a nonpoliticized space, where Ryan Seacrest was safe once again to ask: Gaga, who are you wearing? Diamonds by Tiffany! But once inside, it was clear why Hollywood appeared to have taken a step back from the fervent social activism of the past few years: the race and gender equality theyd fought for was evident everywhere. 1 / 38 Jeff Bridges, who won the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton hotel on Sunday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 38 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisels Rachel Brosnahan. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 38 Alfonso Cuaron, holds his two statuettes for best director - motion picture and foreign language film for Roma. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 38 Escape at Dannemoras Patricia Arquette. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 38 The Americans cast and crew in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 38 Bodyguards Richard Madden. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 38 The team behind Spiderman - Into the Spider Verse. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 38 Carol Burnett receives the inaugural Carol Burnett Award at the 76th Golden Globes. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 38 Justin Hurwitz for First Man. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 38 Tyler Perry in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 38 Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson celebrate their Shallow victory in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 38 Lady Gaga in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 38 A Very English Scandals Ben Whishaw. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 38 Sharp Objects Patricia Clarkson. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 38 The Kominsky Methods Michael Douglas. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 38 Green Books Mahershala Ali. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 38 Saoirse Ronan in the Trophy Room. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 38 Sharp Objects Patricia Clarkson. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 38 Michael Douglas, left, Al Higgins, Alan Arkin and Chuck Lorre of The Kominsky Method in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 38 Ryan Murpphy (The Assassination of Gianni Versace) in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 38 The Assassination of Gianni Versaces team in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 38 Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace) in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 38 Michael Douglas, left, and Alan Arkin of The Kominsky Methold in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 38 Octavia Spencer, executive producer of Green Book, in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 38 Green Books team in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 38 Viggo Mortensen, left, Peter Farrelly, Linda Cardellini and Mahershala Ali in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 38 Mahershala Ali (Green Book) with his wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 38 Olivia Colman from The Favourite in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 38 Glenn Close (The Wife) in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 38 Glenn Close (The Wife) in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 38 Sandra Oh of Killing Eve in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 38 Sandra Oh of Killing Eve in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 38 Rami Malek and Brian May in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 38 Queen guitarist Brian May, Rami Malek (who played late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody) and Queen drummer Roger Taylor in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 38 Graham King in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 38 Rami Malek in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 38 Jim Beach, left, Roger Taylor, Brian May, motion picture drama actor winner Rami Malek, Graham King and Mike Myers in the Trophy Room at the 76th Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 38 Bohemain Rhapsody producer and longtime Queen manager Jim Beach, left, with Queen members Roger Taylor and Brian May and producer Graham King, celebrate the films victory. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement FULL GOLDEN GLOBES COVERAGE: Live updates | Winners list | Show highlights Sandra Oh was the events first Asian host and also the first to win lead actress in a TV drama (Killing Eve). The first black Spider-man won for best animated film. Glenn Close gave a stirring speech about women finding fulfillment in roles beyond mother and wife after her surprise win for lead actress in a drama, and for a film called The Wife, no less. Regina King won supporting actress for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk, a drama about black life in the 1960s by groundbreaking African American author James Baldwin. And Ben Whishaw dedicated his award for supporting actor in A Very English Scandal a drama about the painfully closeted lives of homosexuals in 1960s England to queer hero Norman Scott (the real-life figure he played in the show). Oh, who co-hosted the event with Andy Samberg, summed it up best when she spoke about her decision to take the hosting gig: I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change, she said during their opening banter. This moment is real. Trust me. It is real. Because I see you [pointing to women and minorities in the audience], and I see you, all these faces of change. And now, so will everyone else. Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg aim for laughs and tenderness in opening monologue And thats exactly what happened during the three-hour-plus ceremony, where the audience was a reflection of the shifting tectonics in both television and film. The camera panned across the banquet rooms dining tables, showing the cast and/or creators of Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians, Roma, Killing Eve, The Handmaids Tale, and Pose all productions focused on groups previously sidelined, or entirely overlooked, by mainstream Hollywood and TV. Advertisement It appeared those whod been locked out for so long were, for the first time, the majority in the room. But because this is Hollywood and nothing is entirely pure, there may have been other motives for toning down from politics. This year the Golden Globes arrived in time to influence Oscar voters. Promoting ones show, or performance, is another form of political theater, but it requires less fist pounding and more smiling. The changes taking place across both media, however, did lay the foundation for some sharp, self-aware humor. When Patricia Clarkson won for her performance in the limited series Sharp Objects, she addressed and thanked the shows director while accepting the award. You demanded everything of me except sex, which is exactly how it should be in our industry. Advertisement Samberg tackled similar themes when he addressed one of the bigger questions of the night: Some of you may be wondering why the two of us are hosting , he said during their opening. The reason is were the only two people left in Hollywood who havent gotten in trouble for saying something offensive, said Oh. 1 / 26 The best and worst looks of the 2019 Golden Globe Awards. From left: Carol Burnett, Danai Gurira and Anne Hathaway. (Los Angeles Times) 2 / 26 Danai Gurira was on fire in our style book at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. For the awards show, she wore an orange and red gown with an orange statement bow by Rodarte coupled with a bejeweled hairpiece. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 26 Could we expect anything less from uber-statement maker Lady Gaga? She arrived on the carpet at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills wearing an ice blue Valentino Couture gown with an extra long train that was said to evoke Judy Garland in the previous version of A Star Is Born. Gaga even added the color to her hair. (Jordan Strauss / Invision/AP) 4 / 26 Lupita Nyongo is a regular on the best-dressed lists. On the 76th Golden Globes red carpet, she was resplendent in a Calvin Klein by Appointment cobalt-blue chain fringed dress with silver drop beads and a Calvin Klein 205W39NYC Collection metallic silver box clutch. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 26 Mahershala Ali, a winner for Green Book, was living la dolce vita in Etro on the 76th Golden Globes red carpet in Beverly Hills. We couldnt agree more, which is why hes on our best dressed list. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 26 The legendary Carol Burnett wore a long gold-sequined jacket paired with a floor-length black slit skirt by the equally iconic Bob Mackie, making her one of our top picks at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 26 Instead of going with Queen-style flash or the colorful styles that many male stars have worn on red carpets of late, Rami Malek, the star of Bohemian Rhapsody, went classic Hollywood by wearing a dark fall/winter 2018 Givenchy tuxedo by designer Clare Waight Keller. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 26 Stephan James knows that the devil is truly in the details. Thats why he earned his place among our favorites with his velvet Ralph Lauren Purple Label tuxedo, Christian Louboutin shoes and a stunning lapel pin by Chopard at the 76th Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 26 With his fresh dark hairdo, Troye Sivan looks regal in a shawl-collar, Prussian blue Calvin Klein tuxedo at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images) 10 / 26 Taraji P. Henson brings classic elegance to the 76th Golden Globes red carpet in a green velvet Vera Wang gown with a plunging neckline and a simple long choker of diamonds. Because she brought sexy back to the red carpet is why shes on our best-dressed list. (Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images) 11 / 26 Idris Elba brings his best sexiest-man-alive vibes to the red carpet in a green velvet tuxedo jacket and vest combo by British fashion designer Ozwald Boateng at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. James Bond would be jealous of his stylish look. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 26 Golden Globes co-host Sandra Oh is white hot in her Atelier Versace gown with ruche detailing and an asymmetrical shoulder on the carpet at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. Oh captures old Hollywood glamour thats perfect for a host, a nominee or a winner. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 26 Regina King, who often brings tons of style to awards season, is an early red-carpet favorite in a gorgeous dusty plum sequined gown by Alberta Ferretti at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. She brings a dose of va va voom to the carpet. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 26 Jamie Lee Curtis brings new meaning to color-blocking at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills in this stunning white gown with silver detailing down the center and a front slit, a look that not-so-subtly matches her hair. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 26 Were torn. At first glance, we loved the top of Amber Heards black-and-white Monique Lhuillier gown for the 76th Golden Globes, but the bottom a full skirt -- was a real dud. It looked like two different dresses were combined into one at the last minute. It was too jarring for our eyes, and thats why its on our worst list. (Jordan Strauss / Invision/AP) 16 / 26 Constance Wu is typically a delight but misses the mark in this whipped-up gown by Vera Wang at the 76th Golden Globes. The fancy orange fashion bow cant save the look, which puts her square on our miss list. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 26 Anne Hathaway appears to have gotten lost on the way to a safari party instead of an awards show in this animal-print number by Elie Saab. Its a look that unfortunately lands her on our worst list for the 76th Golden Globes. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 26 What can we say about Americas sweetheart Julia Roberts, who usually inspires on the carpet? This time she misses the mark in this Stella McCartney look, which includes black pants that look fit for the office (with a tulle train?) and a fancier asymmetrical tan-colored top, at the 76th Golden Globes. Somebody need a Band-Aid? (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 26 We love a good gender-bending look, but Cody Fern seems lost somewhere between Aesops fables and a French perfume advertisement in this number complete with cloven hoof shoes by Maison Margiela at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 26 Kate Mara throws caution to the wind with a bedazzled brassiere at the top of the chiffon floor-length Miu Miu gown for the 76th Golden Globes. Unfortunately, it reminds us a little of a fancy shower curtain. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 26 Timothee Chalamet looks as if hes auditioning for a trapeze troupe in a new Cirque du Soleil show. For the Golden Globes, he wore a black button-up shirt with a mandarin collar under a shiny embellished harness from Louis Vuitton by Virgil Abloh. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 26 Usually a red-carpet standout, Debra Messing looks as if shes glued to the 76th Golden Globes red carpet despite the light feathers worked into this overly heavy gown by Pamella Roland. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 26 Erin Lim attempts to add a sweet note to this Easter egg-colored, trifle-inspired look at the 76th Golden Globe in Beverly Hills. However, trifle isnt a dessert thats on our menu this season. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 26 Allison Brie is sending confusing sartorial messages in this embellished bra and too-busy gown by Vera Wang at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. And who needs that on a red carpet when you can make a major fashion statement in front of the world? (Valerie Macon / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 26 Who doesnt love Lucy Lius style? Often we do, but this time we dont. If only someone had told her to lose the sheer pink cape over her pink and multicolor-detailed Galia Lahav gown before she left the house for the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. The lesson here: Not all superheroes or fashionable actresses should wear capes. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 26 Although shes on trend for the night wearing green, Our Lady J, a fan favorite from Pose and Transparent, is wearing one of our least favorite looks -- a busy mermaid gown -- at the 76th Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. A simpler green gown would have worked marvelously. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) A night of surprises at the Golden Globes adds twists to the Oscar race Advertisement But both promised an evening filled with lots of fun and surprises, And one lucky audience member will [be chosen to] host the Oscars! They were referring of course to the recent fallout over the Oscars choice of Kevin Hart as its host and then his announcement that he was stepping down after old homophobic tweets and jokes of his surfaced. Emotional moments abounded as well. Close, a surprise winner in her category over Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born, pointed out shes been a working actor for 45 years before recalling how her mother spent her life sublimated to her father. The actress teared up when she said her mother, when in her 80s, told Close she felt shed wasted her life. And it was so not right, she told the crowd. I feel like what Ive learned from this whole experience is, women, were nurturers, thats whats expected of us. We have our children, we have our husbands if were lucky enough, and our partners. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, I can do that, and I should be allowed to do that. And it was, of all people, Carol Burnett who perhaps best exemplified that reality when she accepted the first Carol Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award. The show of genuine respect in the room, from everyone from millennial actor Darren Criss (who won actor in a limited series for his performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) to legend Dick Van Dyke, was moving. Advertisement Her speech was gracious, but it was her breakthroughs in comedy and series TV and her influence on the lives of so many women and men in the room that drove the point home. This was a night for powerful women and pathfinders like Burnett and Close. The Golden Globes used to be considered the Oscars less serious half-sibling, but its looser format and inclusion of two media now makes it the more relevant awards show. Its also more dynamic to watch given TVs ascendance, and that half the actors up for awards move between the big and small screens among them Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey and Hugh Grant. At one point Samberg and Oh asked Carrey to move back to the TV section of the room since he was up for an award for his performance in Showtimes Kidding. He skulked over to the back of the room with his plate in a skit designed to highlight the absurdities of such a hierarchy today. That isnt to say those in the industry whove campaigned for changes in the old, stratified system think the work is over. Im not fooling myself, said Oh to the audience. Next year it could be different. It probably will be. But right now, this moment is real. Advertisement An upset victory for Bohemian Rhapsody and three awards for Green Book define an unpredictable Golden Globes lorraine.ali@latimes.com @lorraineali Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg aim for laughs and tenderness in opening monologue Hosts Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh at the beginning of Sundays show. (Paul Drinkwater / NBCUniversal via Getty Images) Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) got off to a rough start during the opening monologue of Sundays Golden Globe Awards. But the pair eventually found their footing once they moved away from gags about how nice they were (spoiler: theyre very nice) and moved on to more pointed jokes about the state of Hollywood. If you missed the earliest minutes of the show maybe youre a Chicago Bears fan who spent 15 minutes crying in the bathroom after that borked field goal here are the five takeaways. Ohs rhino advocacy While the success of Black Panther seems obvious now, Oh was certain that she knew why the film struck a nerve with audiences. It just goes to show that people want more movies where people ride around on rhinoceroses like theyre horses, Oh exclaimed. Ive been saying this for years! She makes a strong argument, actually. In a room of 100 people, Lady Gaga has only one anecdote Though the ceremony is the official starting point of awards season, promotional campaigns have been in the works for months. A Star Is Born lead Lady Gaga has found comfort in a single anecdote that comes up time and again about being in a room of 100 people and needing only one to believe in you. Well, Oh and Samberg poked fun at the music superstar, as they both repeated the story, to Gagas amused consternation. Emma Stone is sorry about Aloha The success of Crazy Rich Asians allowed Oh, born in Canada to Korean parents, to highlight the ridiculous lack of Asian representation in Hollywood. Crazy Rich Asians is the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha, Oh joked, naming two films in which white actresses were cast in Asian roles. In response, one of those white women issued a mea culpa. Emma Stone, nominated for supporting actress in a film, shouted, Im sorry! from the crowd. Stone played Allison Ng in Aloha. Finally, people have started apologizing for Aloha in general. Sandra Oh: ["Crazy Rich Asians"] is the first studio film with an Asian American lead since "Ghost in the Shell" and "Aloha." Emma Stone [in the crowd]: I'M SORRY! pic.twitter.com/YI1S7sLvPH David Mack (@davidmackau) January 7, 2019 Jim Carrey gets banished to the slums of TV Oh and Samberg also made sure that no one was seated inappropriately at the ceremony, which resulted in a few hurt feelings with Jim Carrey. Nominated for lead actor in a TV comedy for his Showtime series Kidding, Carrey was seated at a table in the front section of the theater, something that neither Oh nor Samberg would stand for. I just finished a film. Its called Sonic the Hedgehog. Its out in November, Carrey pleaded with the hosts, as they directed him to the back of the auditorium with his kind. Well, come back next year. Im sure itll be nominated, Samberg replied skeptically. Oh gets real When the jokes subsided, Oh offered some insight into why she, a celebrated dramatic actress, was standing onstage co-hosting an awards show. I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change, she said. And Im not fooling myself, Oh continued. Next year could be different; it probably will be. But right now, this moment is real. Trust me, it is real. Because I see you, Oh said to the audience. And I see you. All these faces of change. And now, so will everyone else. The ever-restless Los Angeles Philharmonic, possibly the most progressive and news-making arts institution anywhere, surprisingly began 2019 exactly as it ended 2018: suffused in tradition. Over the weekend, Zubin Mehta, long one of the worlds most famous conductors, finished a cycle of Brahms four symphonies and four concertos, which he had begun at Walt Disney Concert Hall at the end of December. Aimez-vous Brahms? Aimez-vous Zubin? Maybe you do, maybe you dont. But Francoise Sagans romantic novel, Aimez-vous Brahms? was a bestseller back in 1959, which is to say ancient history. Three years later, a 26-year-old Mehta became the L.A. Phil music director. Hes been in the limelight nearly 60 years. What more is there to be said about him? Or, for that matter, about Brahms, whose symphonies and concertos have been played to death? It so happens, plenty. At Mehtas first Brahms concert last month, it felt like time to rethink that standard Mehta wisdom of an imperious conductor strong on bravura and drama, less heralded for depth. After the full cycle, there is no question. Advertisement At the concert last Thursday night, as Mehta began the second half of his cycle, there was a small ceremony to name him the L.A. Phil conductor emeritus. It was an obvious honor. In his 16 years as music director, he basically created a new orchestra, appointing 86 musicians. He moved it into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He gave it a bold new sound that symbolized L.A. A seated Zubin Mehta shows his appreciation Thursday as he is honored with the title of conductor emeritus by L.A. Phil Chief Executive Simon Woods. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) But the 82-year-old Mehta who accepted the honor was not the magisterial figure we have known all these decades. A serious bout with cancer and recent hip surgery has left him needing assistance onstage and having to conduct seated. He is likely conducting in pain or dealing with the effects of medications or both. It all started here, he said of his career, speaking to the audience from his wheelchair. He had been young and inexperienced and learned much of the repertory in L.A. working with musicians who had played under the greats. With their experience and my supposed humility, we were a good team. He then broke into tears, something that was hard to imagine Mehta ever having done before onstage. But he refused to relinquish the microphone, continuing to reminisce about the past, rambling a bit. He then began Brahms Third Symphony somewhat unsteadily. There was a bit of rambling here as well. But with Mehtas defenses down, I found the performance downright revelatory. As a young critic 40 years ago it then being fashionable to harp on Mehtas shallowness I had called Mehtas performance of Beethovens Eroica Symphony formless. An editor objected. I might protest the form, I was told, but everything has form. Still, Mehta did not appear to have been thinking structurally, and I thought about nothing else, seeking the essence of music in its most hidden, abstract and complex underlying building blocks. Ive learned over the years to care more about experience than structure. Life is like that. All that is solid melts into air, etc., etc. Mehta can no longer parade onstage, head held high like a conqueror of orchestras. He still commands, no question about that. But the humility is no longer supposed. His connection with the music feels far more authentic. Its clear, moreover, that hes always thought about music in ways that go beyond form, although that was hard to appreciate under all the bravura. Maybe this has something to do with Mehta having grown up in India. His father may have been Indias leading orchestra conductor, and Mehta boasts a classic Viennese training. Yet, despite his obvious musical expertise, on some level Mehta brings an illuminating Indian sensibility to Western music. Advertisement To massively oversimplify, that sensibility is to treat music as something that flows like a river, as does a raga, rather than, say, a frozen symphonic edifice composed of harmonic building blocks. As a conductor, Mehta has always known exactly where he was going. Early on he made a name for himself having memorized scores, such as Stravinskys Rite of Spring, thought unmemorizable. But it was the journey rather than the whole that characterized his performance. Arrival, which is to say climaxes, have always been, and still are, his specialty. Audiences love him for that. Critics arent supposed to. And especially when it comes to Brahms, whose orchestral works are formally old-school with harmonies heavy as a German winter meal. But Schoenberg saw him as a progressive, because complexity opens a world of ambiguity. The Third Symphony is the most ambiguous of the four. Brahms pretends hes as rock-solid as ever, with a forceful opening. Key structures, however, are uncertain. Gorgeous melodies come out of nowhere for no reason. Brahms gets gets carried away with melodic invention. Rapture is lifelike, it comes when you least expect or understand it. A conductors job is to make sense of it all. Zubin Mehta conducting Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Mehta, though, followed Brahms and he followed his own bliss. He conducted from memory. There was never doubt that every note is embedded in his being, beyond the reach of pain or meds. The playing could be a little sloppy. It could also be downright brilliant, filling all the senses. Of the four symphonies, the Third was thus the standout. In the bold First, Mehta made his own Im-still-here bold statement, and some of that could also be found intruding into the lyric Second. The Fourth is a work of a certain resignation; Mehta gave it compassion and power. As far as the concertos were concerned, Mehta proved a mensch, putting his soloists first. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman was slow to warm up Thursday in the Violin Concerto, with nuance coming more easily than tone quality. He was joined by the impressive cellist Amanda Forsyth on Saturday for a dramatic reading of the Double Concerto, which proceeded the Fourth Symphony. Gustavo Dudamel, in a statement about Mehta, wrote that his soul permeates the sound of the orchestra. In these concerts, Mehtas sound was unmistakable, but it was his soul that came across most of all. Advertisement mark.swed@latimes.com Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday that he is resigning at the end of January. Kims unexpected departure, nearly three years before his term was set to expire, is likely to set off a fierce battle between the Trump administration and other countries that have complained about the influence the United States exerts over the World Bank. The official announcement provided no reason for his sudden departure. It will give President Trump the opportunity to nominate his choice to fill the post. The 189-nation World Bank is the largest government source for development funding, providing low-cost loans for projects around the world. Advertisement Since the creation of the World Bank at the end of World War II, its leaders have all been Americans. Its sister lending agency, the International Monetary Fund, has always been headed by a European. Other countries, including China and other Asian nations, have complained about this pattern. The IMF, which provides emergency loans to countries in economic crisis, is currently headed by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Kim, the former head of Dartmouth College, was tapped by President Obama to lead the World Bank in 2012. He was nominated by Obama for a second term in August 2016. Pictures in the News | Tuesday Jan. 8, 2019 In his resignation statement, Kim said he planned to join a firm that will focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries. He will also rejoin Partners in Health, an organization he co-founded more than 30 years ago to provide medical support to poor nations. The World Bank said that beginning Feb. 1, Kim will be succeeded on an interim basis by Kristalina Georgieva, its chief executive. It has been a great honor to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime, Kim said. Kims permanent successor will be decided by the World Banks board of directors. The United States is the largest shareholder in the bank, which is headquartered in Washington. Advertisement Kim, the World Banks 12th president, faced a number of crises during his tenure, including marshaling resources to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. Longtime producer Susan Zirinsky is replacing CBS News President David Rhodes in March, becoming the first woman to lead the storied division in the networks history. Zirinsky had been a leading candidate to become the executive producer of the networks newsmagazine 60 Minutes, replacing the programs ousted leader, Jeff Fager. But CBS Corp. acting Chief Executive Joseph Ianniello wanted to put Zirinsky in a larger role as Rhodes, who has been president of CBS News since 2011, is nearing the end of his contract and indicated he was ready to make an exit. He had been brought in by former CBS CEO Les Moonves, who was recently stripped of his $120-million severance over allegations of sexual misconduct after a four-month investigation. 60 Minutes is the No. 1 news program and will continue to be that, Ianniello said in an interview. Susan can add more value creatively on some of our other broadcasts and have an impact thats much greater on the entire organization. Advertisement Although there were discussions last week about Rhodes possibly taking on another position at CBS, he will depart in March after overseeing Zirinskys transition and have an advisory role after that. Zirinsky, 66, will be CBS News president and senior executive producer, signaling that she will have a strong hand in guiding the divisions content. Being a producer is my oxygen and the core of who I am, Zirinsky said in an interview. Ive got to manage money and contracts, but management people will be there for me. My whole approach is as a producer and thats what will differentiate us. Susan Zirinsky at a CBS newsroom meeting in her first day as head of CBS News. (CBS) With Charlie Rose and Jeff Fager gone, CBS News faces a daunting task to repair the damage from sexual harassment scandals Top female executives have been rare in network TV news. Deborah Turness was the first woman network news president, serving in the role for NBC from 2013 to 2017. On the cable side, Fox News is currently led by Suzanne Scott. Bill Owens is likely to take over as executive producer of 60 Minutes, but that decision will be made by Zirinsky. Owens, currently executive editor, has been running the program since Fagers departure in September. The executive upheaval comes during one of the most turbulent times in the history of CBS, which like other media entities has been rocked by the #MeToo movement. Advertisement CBS recently settled a lawsuit filed by three female employees who claimed they were sexually harassed by former CBS This Morning co-anchor Charlie Rose, who was ousted on Nov. 21, 2017. The firing disrupted the progress the network had made in the morning against entrenched competitors Today on NBC and Good Morning America on ABC. CBS was also shaken by the departure of Fager, who was under investigation amid allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior when he was fired Sept. 12. His ouster came after he sent a threatening text message to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan, who was working on a piece following up on #MeToo-related reporting in the New Yorker, which described the allegations against him. In the draft of the lawyers report leaked to the New York Times, investigators cited several instances in which Fager behaved inappropriately with colleagues and failed to respond to employee complaints about bullying by two producers who worked under him. Fager denied the claims. The reputation of 60 Minutes for having a sexist culture extends to its founding executive producer, Don Hewitt, who died in 2009. A former CBS News employee who said she was sexually assaulted by Hewitt has been getting payouts from the company for 20 years totaling more than $5 million. Advertisement Zirinsky said she is committed to improving the CBS News workplace in her leadership role. The #MeToo movement isnt behind us, its alongside us in our thinking, she said. There will be a new and more powerful human resources person in the news division that is working on culture change. Its really important to me to have an environment where there is transparency, where you can talk, where there are reactions based on actions. Despite the controversy over its handling of sexual harassment claims, 60 Minutes is still performing well in the ratings. Ianniello is said to be more concerned about the news divisions daily morning and evening programs and wants Zirinsky to fix them. Ratings for CBS This Morning which grew under the first five years of Rose and his co-anchors Gayle King and Norah ODonnell have eroded since Rose was replaced by John Dickerson, who had been successful as moderator of the Sunday program Face the Nation from Washington. Advertisement CBS Evening News has also become less competitive since Jeff Glor was tapped by Rhodes to replace Scott Pelley in the anchor chair in late 2017. The program has been running a poor third behind ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Zirinsky is expected to take action on both programs in her new role. A legendary figure at CBS News, Zirinsky is one of the last remaining figures linked to its glory years when the broadcast networks were the dominant source of news for TV viewers. The promotion of a longtimer with a deep connection to the legacy of the division will be a morale booster for the rank and file, according to one veteran in the company. Her reputation as a strong collaborator has made her a popular figure throughout CBS. Zirinsky joined the network as a 20-year-old college student in 1972, when Walter Cronkite was still the lead anchor and the Watergate scandal was entering the countrys consciousness. (She was the sole staffer in the Washington bureau when news of former President Nixons Saturday Night Massacre came over the wire services). Advertisement Zirinskys hard-charging early years at CBS News inspired the Type A producer played by Holly Hunter in the 1987 film Broadcast News. Zirinsky was a consultant on the film. Her long career includes leading the networks breaking coverage of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the first Gulf War in Iraq. For the last 20 years, Zirinsky has been the executive in charge of 48 Hours, the true-crime newsmagazine. She has also been the networks go-to producer for breaking news, prime-time news specials and documentaries. Zirinsky replaces David Rhodes, who was the head of CBS News for eight years. (Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP) Susan Zirinsky, legendary figure at CBS, makes history as first female executive to head news division Advertisement CBS News has been profitable under Rhodes, who oversaw the launch of the divisions 24-hour streaming digital channel CBSN in 2014. He said he aimed to adapt the division to changing viewing habits while maintaining its reputation for strong journalism. I feel Ive been a modernizer here, Rhodes said. That goes to all aspects of the business and the culture and trying to make sure an institution has an important future and not just an important past. Rhodes said CBS News will need more financial support from the company to better compete. As ratings continue to decline for all of broadcast television news with viewers migrating to cable networks and digital sources, CBS News has been under pressure to contain costs in recent years. Weve done more with less in a lot of ways, he said. There are some areas where you cant make up for lack of resources, and shes going to need a commitment that the resources are going to be there. Advertisement Zirinsky has said she will have the necessary financial resources to do what we need to do. Its been a challenging time, she said. Not just for us but the entire industry. stephen.battaglio@latimes.com Twitter: @SteveBattaglio Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of the New York Times, says that a Fox News report claiming that she views her former employer as biased against President Trump took words from her forthcoming book out of context. The Fox News article, written by Howard Kurtz and headlined Former NY Times editor rips Trump coverage as biased, quoted a passage from Abramsons book Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, in which she writes, Though [current New York Times Executive Editor Dean] Baquet said publicly he didnt want the Times to be the opposition party, his news pages were unmistakably anti-Trump. Some headlines contained raw opinion, as did some of the stories that were labeled as news analysis. In an email interview with the Associated Press, Abramson said that Kurtz didnt quote positive things she wrote in her book about her former newspaper. His article is an attempt to Foxify my book, which is full of praise for The Times and The Washington Post and their coverage of Trump, Abramson said. Advertisement Kurtz defended his article to the AP, saying, Her sometimes harsh criticism of her former papers Trump coverage leaps off the page and is clearly the most newsworthy element in the book because of her standing as a former executive editor. Kurtzs article was referred to in a Washington Times article Wednesday headlined Ex-New York Times editor Jill Abramson rips papers unmistakably anti-Trump bias. On Twitter, Trump quoted that headline, and added, Ms. Abramson is 100% correct. Horrible and totally dishonest reporting on almost everything they write. Hence the term Fake News, Enemy of the People, and Opposition Party! Abramson responded to Trump, tweeting, Anyone who reads my book, Merchants of Truth, will find I revere @nytimes and praise its tough coverage of you. Abramson also defended herself to the Guardian, saying, Donald Trump is echoing a piece on Fox News (surprise) that distorts and takes what I wrote totally out of context. Both the NYT and [Washington Post] have had superb coverage of the corruption enveloping the Trump administration, the best investigative reporting Ive seen. My book is full of praise for both papers. The Daily Beast obtained an advance copy of Abramsons book, which reporter Maxwell Tani says is largely positive in its assessment of the New York Times. Despite assuming that her replacement Dean Baquet was the source of many complaints about her, she also credits him with strengthening the papers coverage of the Trump administration, and sympathizes with some of the difficult situations he has faced, Tani wrote. But she does criticize the newspaper in her book for its coverage of Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign, saying the New York Times made bad judgment calls and blew its Clinton coverage out of proportion. Abramson was named the newspapers executive editor in 2011 and was fired in 2014. She is a lecturer at Harvard University and a columnist for the Guardian newspaper. Advertisement Her previous books include Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, co-written with Jane Mayer, which was a finalist for the 1994 National Book Award. Merchants of Truth is due for publication on Feb. 5 by Simon & Schuster. Column: The Regardie Report One Strike, and We're All Out The Money Divide Could Be Bridged, But the Fight Between the Teachers Union and the LAUSD Continues. Why? Mayor Linda Gorton addresses the crowd after taking her oath of office during her inauguration ceremony in the Gatton Student Center Grand Ballroom in Lexington, Kentucky. "I know our citizens want the very best for their city," Gorton said, "they want us to dream big dreams for Lexington." Photo by Arden Barnes | Staff CHANGCHUN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- A man who was acquitted after spending 25 years in prison in northeast China's Jilin Province was offered compensation from the state Monday. The Intermediate People's Court in the city of Liaoyuan ruled that Liu Zhonglin should be paid 4.6 million yuan (around 670,000 U.S. dollars) for his wrongful 9,217-day incarceration. In 1990, a woman was found dead in a crop field by a villager in Dongliao County. Liu was identified as a suspect and detained soon after. Liu was given a suspended death sentence for murder by the court in 1994, and a year later the provincial higher people's court upheld the ruling. Liu and his family repeatedly appealed, and he had his reprieved death sentence commuted to a 25-year prison term. He was released in 2016. His verdict was revoked in April 2018 as the higher court ruled that the previous convictions were based on unclear facts and insufficient evidence. The Supreme People's Court said courts nationwide heard over 28,000 state compensation cases from 2013 to October 2018, as the country makes more efforts to protect the legitimate rights of those who have been wronged. Among them were the overturned cases of Huugjilt and Nie Shubin, both executed for rape and murder based on wrongful convictions. The two were acquitted in 2014 and 2016 respectively. By Nam Hyun-woo LS Cable & System will supply 170 kilometers of submarine power cables to a massive wind farm in Taiwan, the company said Monday. According to the company, it has signed a deal providing the 66 kilovolt cables with a German wind power firm wpd, which is participating in the wind farm project in waters off western Taiwan. Taiwan plans to build a 5.5-gigawatt offshore wind power facility by 2030 by pouring $23 billion, in a bid to increase the country's reliance on renewable energy sources. The first phase of the project, scheduled to be finished by 2025, is led by European wind power firms. This is the first time that a Korean firm is supplying submarine cables to Taiwan, the company said. It attributed the contract to its 10 years track record supplying quality products to major wind farms in European nations including the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium. "The Taiwan project needs longer than 2,000 kilometers of cables worth more than hundreds of billions of won in the first phase," LS Cable & System CEO Myung Roe-hyun said. "We expect the contract to be the stepping stone for the company to win additional orders in overseas projects." By Jun Ji-hye SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun is striving to drum up the firm's battery and materials business in a bid to expand its business portfolio beyond oil refining which is largely swayed by oil price uncertainties. He is currently visiting the United States to look for opportunities in the global market and attend the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which kicked off in Las Vegas, Tuesday. His first destination was Georgia as the firm earlier announced a plan to expand its battery plant there with an investment scale of $1 billion. On Thursday, Kim looked around a factory site in Commerce and met with Commerce Mayor Clark Hill to discuss construction schedule and plans to recruit local people. Kim attended a ceremony Friday to sign an MOU with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Governor-elect Brian Kemp for the investment and construction of the battery plant. Kim is moving to Las Vegas to attend CES 2019 to showcase the firm's advanced technology in batteries for electric vehicles as well as materials to international visitors. "SK Innovation has improved its business models and is being transformed as a high-tech company," an official from SK Innovation said. Ahead of his U.S. visit, Kim visited the firm's battery factory in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, and materials plant in Jeungpyeong, North Chungcheong Province, to encourage employees there. By Jung Min-ho Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has punished employees for using an iPhone to send New Year greetings. Each of two Huawei employees responsible for the tweet had their salaries cut by more than $700 a month and were demoted one level. The message, posted on the company's official Twitter account on New Year's Eve wished followers a happy New Year while displaying the tag "Twitter for iPhone," a flagship product of American rival Apple. The tweet was removed later, but screenshots of the blunder spread across social media. "The traitor has revealed himself," a netizen reportedly quipped on microblog Weibo, in a comment "liked" by hundreds of others. The punishment was handed out after companies in China recently began boycotting Apple products in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver last month. Some companies threatened employees with fines, confiscation of Apple devices and even contract termination. Seoul, Tokyo should end tit-for-tat confrontation The conflict between Seoul and Tokyo over a radar row has taken a turn for the worse following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about a move by forced labor victims to take legal action to seize the assets of a Japanese company. Appearing on NHK's "Sunday Debate" program Sunday, Abe said he deeply regretted that South Korean victims of forced labor were trying to seize a Japanese firm's assets to get compensation for what the company did during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule. He ordered related government authorities to review specific measures regarding the issue, saying that Japan would take action in accordance with international law. His move came after the victims filed for an asset seizure against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. The victims' legal step followed a Supreme Court of Korea ruling in October ordering the Japanese steelmaker to pay 100 million won ($89,800) compensation to each victim. The top court also ruled in favor of other forced labor victims who are expected to take similar action against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Abe's expression of regret over the victims' move was not surprising because Tokyo has already threatened to bring the case to the International Court of Justice. His position is that reparation-related issues regarding Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula were settled under the 1965 treaty between Seoul and Tokyo that normalized bilateral ties. However, the Supreme Court rejected Japan's stance, ruling that the treaty did not terminate the victims' right to compensation. We have already called on Japan to respect the ruling and let its companies offer a sincere apology and compensation for the victims. Regrettably, the Tokyo government continues to refuse to do so. The latest developments show the two neighbors are poles apart over historical issues related to Japan's brutal colonial rule and atrocities, such as forced labor and the sex slavery of Korean women for Japanese troops during World War II. Bilateral relations have also been worsened by the Moon Jae-in administration's decision to disband a Tokyo-funded foundation to help wartime sex slavery victims. The latest radar dispute has added fuel to the fire. It occurred on Dec. 20 when a Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force P-1 patrol plane flew over South Korea destroyer Gwanggaeto the Great that was on a humanitarian mission to rescue a North Korean fishing boat drifting in international waters in the East Sea. Despite Seoul's denial, the Abe government has kept accusing the Korean warship of aiming fire-control radar at the patrol plane. The situation has deteriorated further since Japan released a video clip that shows only that the Japanese plane was flying too low in a threatening way over the Korean destroyer. We urge Seoul and Tokyo to end the tit-for-tat confrontation and solve the problem not with emotional reaction but with dialogue. Most of all, the two sides should make the utmost effort to overcome deep distrust and animosity in and against each other and look to a future partnership. Japan should face up to history more squarely. By Lee Min-hyung U.S. President Donald Trump U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that the U.S. and North Korea are having talks to choose the location for his second summit with Kim Jong-un. The summit, if realized, could provide a possible breakthrough in their stalled denuclearization talks. Trump's latest message also suggests that the U.S., which is under pressure to loosen sanctions on Pyongyang, is becoming more open to dialogue with the North to move the peace process forward. "We are negotiating a location," Trump told reporters, Sunday (local time). "It will be announced probably in the not too distant future." Trump did not specify other details for his possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But the remark is taken to mean the two countries have renewed their commitment to dialogue on the North's denuclearization and ended their months-long deadlock over failure to fine-tune differences on the method and timeline. Trump went on to underline that he keeps in touch with Kim, and both have a "very good relationship." Trump also said he "indirectly speaks" with the North Korean leader. The denuclearization dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang has in recent months failed to make outstanding progress following their first summit in June. But Kim's letter sent to Trump earlier this year has rekindled hopes for them to end their stalemate on the dialogue soon by seeking a breakthrough in their second leadership meeting. Given the latest remark by Trump, both sides are expected to hold a series of working-level or high-level dialogues in a near future to narrow their differences on the agenda and schedules for the possible second summit. Washington and Pyongyang have failed to resume their high-level talks after the latter canceled a planned dialogue in early November between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee. Former President Chun Doo-hwan's house / Yonhap By Park Ji-won Six out of 10 South Koreans disagree with burying former President Chun Doo-hwan at the National Cemetery after his death, a poll showed Monday. Realmeter's survey on 503 adults nationwide on Jan. 4 found that 61.5 percent said the related law should be revised to prevent Chun from being honored at the National Cemetery. A total of 26.8 percent, meanwhile, said Chun should be allowed to be buried at the National Cemetery as he was pardoned. The remaining 11.7 percent said they have no idea about the issue or declined to answer.. Based on law, people who served as President, National Assembly Speaker, Chief Justice, President of the Constitutional Court of Korea as well as political and military leaders and citizens who sacrificed themselves to help others can be buried at the country's cemetery. The law on former Presidents stipulates that those who received heavier sentences than an imprisonment is deprived of privileges as a former president. However, it is not applied to the burial. The 87-year-old Chun, who served as president from 1980 to 1988, however, is legally eligible for burial at the National Cemetery as he was released from prison on a presidential pardon. Chun received a death sentence in 1996 for his part in the military coup, the Gwangju killing, which resulted in an untold number of civilian deaths, and bribery. But he was pardoned one year later by then President Kim Young-sam. The issue regarding Chun has emerged after his wife Lee Soon-ja called her husband the "father of democracy" during an interview with a right-wing online publication. Political parties, except the main opposition Liberty Korea Party went all-out to criticize the remark. Chun, also, is facing a legal dispute since May last year for allegedly defaming victims of his 1980 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in his memoir and refusing to appear in court, citing health reasons. President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands ahead of a summit in New York in September 2018. / Yonhap By Kim Bo-eun Relations between South Korea and Japan are only set to deteriorate further, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continues to speak out on issues such as the execution of a forced labor ruling, and a radar row. Tension is building as Japan is seen to be considering taking the forced labor issue to the International Court of Justice. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday expressed "deep regret" over the ongoing process for South Korean victims of Japan's forced labor to seize assets of a Japanese company South Korea's top court ruled should compensate last year. After the Supreme Court ruled last October for Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal to pay 100 million won ($89,400) to each of the four plaintiffs, the legal counsel for the plaintiffs called for the company to compensate victims by Dec. 24. After it refused, the legal counsel requested a local court to seize the company's assets in South Korea, which are shares of PNR, a joint company between Nippon Steel and POSCO. Nippon Steel is known to hold 30 percent of the shares, which are worth around 11 billion won. Abe said he ordered related government bodies to review measures to counter the move, based on international law. The measures may include taking the case to the International Court of Justice, as both sides remain firm in their respective stances. The South Korean court acknowledged the victims' individual rights to compensation, while Japan claims compensation was concluded with a bilateral treaty signed in 1965. While a trial cannot be held unless South Korea agrees to it, raising the issue globally could be Japan's intention to publicize the case in its favor. The legal counsel for the plaintiffs of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries case is also set to take steps to seize assets of the company if it does not respond to calls to discuss the compensation issue. The Supreme Court also ordered Mitsubishi to compensate victims last year. The step is likely to be taken, as the Japanese government is known to have ordered the companies not to follow the court rulings. Meanwhile, the dispute that brewed over a Japanese patrol plane flying over a South Korean navy ship is escalating, as South Korea released its own video as evidence that its Gwanggaeto the Great destroyer did not target Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-1 plane with a fire control radar as Tokyo claims, and that the aircraft was actually obstructing the South Korean destroyer's humanitarian operation to rescue a North Korean ship. The defense ministry is set to upload the same video with subtitles in six languages, other than Korean and English, which it released last week. Earlier, Japan uploaded a video in which it claimed South Korea used the fire control radar. Seoul stated the video containing a recording of the Japanese plane's operator's remarks cannot serve as evidence and requested radar frequency data. Japan has refused to provide this, citing security reasons. Abe is reported to have ordered Japan's defense ministry to release the video and said in an interview last week South Korea used the fire control radar. President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with around 200 executives from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and venture startups at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul President Moon Jae-in said Monday he will drive initiatives to cultivate new technologies with the government to offer more financial and administrative assistance to local startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). "South Korea plans to invest a record amount of 20 trillion won on the research and development (R&D) in technologies for industrial parts, materials and promising equipment. SMEs with innovative business ideas will become the main beneficiaries as the government put up an additional 1.1 trillion won for spending on R&D designated for SMEs," Moon said during a meeting with some 200 executives at local SMEs and venture startups at Cheong Wa Dae. The President said the government will be quick to remove cumbersome regulations for startups to help them explore new business opportunities with more hiring. The government plans to begin the operation of the "regulation-free industrial zones" from this year in accordance with the initiatives. "SMEs and venture startups will be allowed to test their newly-developed technologies. They can commercialize them, there, if they want to. The government plans to build 4,000 more smart factories and two smart industrial zones by the end of this year," the President said. A smart factory is a type of manufacturing process embedded with advanced production facilities to improve productivity and safety whilst saving costs at workplaces. "SMEs and venture startups are the backbone to make the human-oriented growth initiatives actually happen because they account for more than 80 percent of the country's total hiring. Without job creation from SMEs and venture startups, it's impossible to address employment-related issues," the President said, adding the government will put more emphasis on pursuing balanced growth between SMEs and conglomerates. The government earlier proposed a new law to lift some tough regulations; however, some acknowledged it would be neither easy nor quick as mediating existing interests requires sufficient time and a difficult process. At a previous briefing of the industry ministry's 2019 policy objectives, Moon said innovation and growth of SMEs in the manufacturing industry should be the "key pillar" of Seoul's industrial development policy to build an innovative and even inclusive economy. "The government has been steady to create an eco-system for co-growth between SMEs and venture startups for job growth and to find new growth engines. We will be very active to fix irregular price fixing on materials and parts that they supply to larger companies," Moon said. Separately, Cheong Wa Dae said Moon will hold a press conference on Jan. 10 to explain his administration's top policy objectives for this year. Moon himself will directly mediate the 100-minute conference by answering questions regarding various issues from local politics to inter-Korean relations from local and foreign journalists. The government has officially jettisoned the term "conscientious objectors." Korea Times file By Jung Min-ho The South Korean government will stop using the term "conscientious objectors" when referring to people who refuse to serve in the military and will replace the term with "religious objectors." The Defense Ministry announced Friday that it would no longer use "conscientious objectors" for official documents, saying "religious objectors" would be more accurate. The move comes after tens of thousands of people found the term misleading and complained to the ministry. "We decided to replace the term to address the concerns that those who have served their duties can be misconstrued as not conscientious (because of its semantic implication)," said ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo. In its ruling on Nov. 1, the Supreme Court for the first time accepted "religious beliefs" as a justifiable reason to refuse compulsory military duty while overturning a lower-court ruling in which a Jehovah's Witness was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The decision forced the ministry to come up with alternative services for people who do not want to serve in the military and an official term to refer to them. But against the ministry's wishes, its decision has stirred up fresh controversies from activists, who believe "conscientious objectors" is a more appropriate term. "Although Jehovah's Witnesses account for most of the objectors, some non-religious people also refuse to serve in the military based on their consciences. Since 2000, there have been 80 such people," the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said in a statement. "To protect their beliefs, they chose to go to prison instead The government should not overlook them." Since the Korean War (1950-53), South Korea has required all able-bodied men to serve in the armed forces under a conscription system that the country sees as crucial to its defense against North Korea. Until today, South Korea has prosecuted more young men for refusing to serve what is billed as a "patriotic duty" than any other country. Jehovah's Witnesses say more than 19,000 of its members have gone to prison for the offense. U.K. Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field talks with The Korea Times at the British Embassy in Seoul on Jan. 4. / British Embassy 'London can help Seoul's push to shift away from nuclear energy' By Yi Whan-woo Uncertainty is growing over the United Kingdom's relations with other countries, as the British Parliament appears divided over whether to vote for or against Brexit plan next week. Mark Field, minister of state for Asia and the Pacific at the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, says the deal will hopefully pass, but he also underscored the need for business measures to mitigate a possible no-deal. Field, who visited South Korea from Jan. 4 to 5, hoped his trip showed his government's "commitment to the U.K.-South Korea relationship." The visit was his third to Korea since 2017. "It is a long and enduring relationship and as we leave the EU, we are determined to build on our ties with regional superpowers like South Korea," he said during an interview at the British Embassy in Seoul on Jan. 4. Field pointed out that annual trade volume between the two countries had reached 14 billion pounds and that it would be important to continue South Korea's free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.K. South Korea was the only Asian country to sign such an FTA through the European Union. Regarding South Korea's push to move away from nuclear energy, Field underscored that the U.K. had great expertise in decommissioning nuclear power plants and that two sides could work together. He said nuclear energy still had an important role to play in the transition to a low carbon economy. After stopping in Seoul, he visited Ulsan and Busan, meeting senior government officials and political leaders. Among them were First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, Deputy Director for National Security Nam Gwan-Pyo, ruling Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Hong Young-pyo and Ulsan Mayor Song Chul-ho. He discussed business opportunities, particularly in the energy and offshore wind-related sectors. In Busan, he visited the U.N. Memorial Cemetery Korea (UNMCK) to remember the sacrifice of more than 1,100 British military personnel who died during the 1950-53 Korean War. The following is the Q&A. Q What are the possible roles for the U.N. Security Council, which includes the U.K., to accelerate the denuclearization dialogue? A The U.K. is one of only five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and the only one that spends both 2 percent of our GDP on defense and 0.7 percent of GNI on development. We have played a prominent role through the U.N. and the EU in bringing sanctions against North Korea to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons. We support the ongoing dialogue between North and South Korea, as well as between North Korea and the U.S. Successful negotiations on the DPRK's nuclear and weapons program would lead to stability in a region that is home to thousands of British Nationals and important U.K. interests, which is vital to global economic growth. We fully support President Moon Jae-in's role in working toward a sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula. We welcome the outcomes of the third inter-Korean summit last year that include important steps to reduce military tension and build confidence. International pressure, and specifically a robust set of U.N. sanctions, has played a key role in bringing about recent developments. Until North Korea takes concrete steps towards complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, sanctions must continue to be strictly enforced. We will continue to support the United States in its efforts, and work closely with our international partners for a diplomatic solution. As a recognized nuclear state under the NPT, and a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, the U.K. has the technology and capacity to support denuclearization in North Korea. Q The vote on Brexit is scheduled in the third week of January. Do you think Prime Minister May's proposal will pass? If it doesn't pass, what's the next procedure? A The first thing I would say is that I very much hope it does pass. I think Mrs. May has worked tirelessly to get a bespoke deal from the EU. I believe she has put forward a pragmatic deal, and I'm confident that the U.K. Parliament will understand that and support the deal, and that MPs on both sides will recognize that it's better to have a deal than a no-deal outcome. What I would say in the context of Korean businesses is that there is a chance that a deal will not pass. It is therefore very much in the interest of Korean business that we have a continuity agreement signed as soon as possible to mitigate against a no-deal outcome. Q Demand for a second referendum is high. Former prime ministers also insist on the need for a second referendum, but is it feasible? A My view is that we had a referendum, and that it is now the job of the politicians and government to deliver upon the decision of the people. I think another referendum at this stage would still be a very close-run thing, as what the referendum in June 2016 did not entirely resolve was the very deep divisions over this issue. Another referendum would only serve to further divide ? and lead to more business uncertainty. This wouldn't be in the U.K., or Korea's, best interests. Q Are there any specific areas that you?re expecting will grow further because of the U.K.-Korea FTA after Brexit? A Korea is the only Asian country with which the U.K. has an in-force FTA through the EU, so replicating it is obviously a top regional priority for the U.K. government. As the U.K. prepares to leave the EU, we are committed to a smooth transition that maintains continuity of our trading arrangements, and ensures our governments and business continue to work together for growth. As I've said previously, U.K.-Korea trade is worth almost 14 billion pounds a year, and there is huge potential for this to grow further, in particular in renewable energy sectors such as offshore wind. The U.K. and Korea have strong and established trading relationships across a range of sectors obviously automobiles and pharmaceuticals, but also increasingly importantly in the technology sphere. What we need to do is have an eye on the future; to think where will my business be in five, 10, or 15 years' time. I'm always encouraged when I meet Korean businesspeople. They know the U.K. is a reliable and stable business partner. They know that Britain is a good place to do business actually the U.K. was ranked top of the Forbes Best Countries for Business 2019,' despite any uncertainty surrounding Brexit. And British businesses know that Korea is a good place to do business. We need to encourage all our business to continue to work together and find new areas of cooperation, and that's very much the message I will be delivering during my time here. Q Korea has mixed views on nuclear power plants. What is the U.K. government's position on this? A First of all, on the Korean government?s decision to close down nuclear power stations: The U.K. has great expertise in decommissioning nuclear power plants, and this is very much an area where we can work together. As for the U.K. position, we believe nuclear still has an important role to play as part of a diverse energy mix as we move to a low-carbon economy. However, it is important that in each case projects must provide value for money for consumers and taxpayers. Q Do you have any comment on Hitachi's decision to withdraw from building a nuclear power plant on the Isle of Anglesey? A All proposed new nuclear projects in the U.K. are led by private sector developers, and while the government has engaged regularly with the companies involved, this is entirely a commercial decision for Hitachi. Q How do you think North Korea?s denuclearization will affect trade relations in the Asia-Pacific region? A Around the world, time and time again we have seen that peace and stability lead directly to prosperity and economic growth. That is why I would echo the comments made this week by President Moon Jae-in; that once complete denuclearization and lasting peace are settled on the Korean Peninsula, a new era of peace and prosperity will begin. International pressure, and specifically a robust set of U.N. sanctions, has played a key role in bringing about recent developments. That is why it is so important that sanctions must continue to be strictly enforced until North Korea takes concrete steps toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. China's new flying saucer-like stealth drone seen in first public flight China's new stealth drone the Sky Hawk conducts takeoff and landing test at an undisclosed location and time. Photo: China Central Television A video featuring China's flying saucer-like stealth drone, the Sky Hawk, was shown for the first time on China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday, with leading military experts saying the technologies mastered by Chinese developers will allow the drone to fly faster, farther and avoid detection. Independently developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, the Sky Hawk conducted a test flight at an undisclosed location in China, the CCTV report said. The video showed the drone taking off and landing, marking the first time that the aircraft has been publicly seen in flight. The drone reportedly first flew in February, but no video was available before Saturday's broadcast. It was on display at Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province in November but was never flown there. The step-by-step revelations mean the drone is being developed and manufactured on schedule, and that China considers the drone feasible, Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday. Featuring a "flying wing" aerodynamic design similar to the US B-2 stealth bomber, the Sky Hawk is a high-altitude, long-range and high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle capable of conducting reconnaissance and patrol missions in hostile environments, CCTV reported. Controlling an aircraft with a "flying wing" design is much more difficult than controlling an aircraft with conventional design, Song noted. A turbofan engine on a flying wing aircraft allows it to fly much faster and farther compared with traditional turboprop or piston engine aircraft, he said. Another Chinese stealth drone with a "flying wing" design, the CH-7, developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, was also on display at the air show. Its 22-meter wingspan makes it significantly larger than the Sky Hawk, providing another choice for domestic and international users. The US has developed the X-47B stealth drone and run tests on aircraft carriers. Although the US project was suspended in favor of a stealth tanker drone, the US still has the edge in related technologies, Song said. The Sky Hawk will also operate on China's future aircraft carriers that will use electromagnetic catapults, said a military expert who requested anonymity. Electromagnetic catapults can launch a wide variety of aircraft, and since the Sky Hawk is smaller than the CH-7, it will be easier to use on an aircraft carrier, the expert told the Global Times. China's new strategic bomber, the H-20, is expected to also use a "flying wing" aerodynamic design to gain stealth capability and other benefits. Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong delivers a speech at his embassy during a New Year's reception on Jan. 4 to mark the the 40th anniversary of China's reforms and opening to the world / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo Embassy celebrates 40th anniversary of Beijing's economic reforms By Yi Whan-woo China and South Korea should seek ways to capitalize on the Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign-policy venture, "One Belt, One Road," to expand their economic cooperation, according to Beijing's top envoy to Seoul. Speaking at a New Year's reception on Jan. 4, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong said the two countries were "major stakeholders" on the issues on the Korean Peninsula. "The two countries should find new ways to better benefit from their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), Qiu said through a translator. "In that regards, linking the FTA with the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative as well as jointly exploring new markets will be necessary." His remark came amid concerns about OBOR being marketed as a modern recreation of the ancient Silk Road trading route. Xi's ambitious economic project is aimed at building a massive network of land and sea links connecting Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, resulting in co-prosperity of the targeted countries. But it instead has triggered concerns that the infrastructure projects financed by China may result in "semi-colonies." Ambassador Qiu listed the benefits of Xi's pet project, such as creating more than 200,000 jobs abroad and investment of more than $700 billion. "China's contribution to the global economic growth is bigger than that of the United States and Japan combined," he said. Regarding the issues on the peninsula, the envoy underscored that China and South Korea were major players and stakeholders. "The two countries share common interests and very similar stances in denuclearization through dialogue and negotiations and peace and stability on the peninsula," he said. His remark appeared to be hinting at China's role amid ongoing Washington-Pyongyang denuclearization talks and Pyongyang's repeated calls to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War. Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong, right, poses with Park Byeong-seug, a ruling Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker and also president of the Korea-China Parliamentary Council, during a reception at Qiu's embassy on Jan. 4. / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo The Chinese Embassy in Seoul hosted the reception to mark the 40th anniversary of the country's reforms and opening to the world. The invited journalists, estimated at about 100, were Korean diplomatic journalists, including former and soon-to-be correspondents to Beijing, and Chinese correspondents in Seoul. Also joining the event was ruling Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Byeong-seug. Park, who is also Korea-China Parliamentary Council president, cited a need for cooperation between OBOR and President Moon Jae-in's New Northern Policy. This is is aimed at bolstering South Korea's cooperation with China, Russia, Mongolia and Central Asian countries, and lay the groundwork for prosperity and peace on the peninsula. Costa Rican Ambassador to Korea Rodolfo Solano Quiros speculated Korea, if it officially joins the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), will contribute to trade with 13 CABEI members, including Costa Rica. Korea awaits the National Assembly's ratification to join CABEI, following a signing of a protocol of accession between CABEI Executive President Dante Mossi and Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Lee Ho-seung in Sejong, Dec. 28. / Embassy of Costa Rica This picture is unrelated to the story. / Gettyimagesbank By Kim Jae-heun It is discrimination against HIV carriers for a healthcare center to refuse them a medical checkup, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) said. The rights watchdog advised the institution to educate its staff of human rights. According to the commission, Monday, an HIV positive patients made a temporary reservation in August 2017 for a medical checkup at the health examination center of a local university hospital, which was the region's only institution designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to provide medical consultations for people with HIV. He had been receiving treatment at the hospital's infectious disease division since 2012. However, the center turned down the person's request to confirm the checkup, telling him to go to the gastroenterology division as an outpatient instead. He protested, and the center decided later to accept his reservation. But he submitted a petition with the NHRCK about the case. The center claimed it did not have the necessary protection equipment for staff and an assistant worker for the endoscopy machinery was a new employee who was not properly trained. The hospital claimed after the patient did not accept its offer, it was planning to obtain the necessary equipment so it could give him a checkup, and thus it was not a refusal of treatment. However, the commission said not having mandatory protection equipment and thus refusing to conduct medical examination means the center did not abide by the basic rule of infection control as a state-designated institution for HIV carriers. "The medical checkup for an HIV carrier has to be run under the supervision of a specialist, so it is unfair to refuse the examination by citing the assistant worker's inexperience," it said. "The patient had told the institution about his HIV status when making the temporary reservation, but the center did not prepare any plan to help him and instead told the patient to seek an examination at another division. This is an act of discrimination against an HIV carrier," it said. By Jung Da-min North Korea's propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri Monday said the unification of two Koreas was necessary to counter a foreign power, which had been the cause of division of the two Koreas. The foreign power is assumed to be the United States. "The biggest obstacle on the way to prosperity of our people today is the division of people," the pro-Pyongyang outlet said, in a commentary titled "True patriotism is in struggle for the unification of the country." The commentary highlighted former leader Kim Jong-il's efforts to promote the unification of two Koreas, including the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration in 2000 and the Oct. 4 Joint Declaration and 2007. It also said leader Kim Jong-un was making "endless efforts and dedication" to bring about the unification of Korea, encouraging people to follow the doctrines presented in his New Year's speech and make a big step forward in the struggle for unification. On Sunday, Uriminzokkiri highlighted Kim Jong-un's New Year's speech, arguing it has been recognized as a "conciliatory gesture" in South Korea. It said inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges needed sweeping expansion this year, to build on last year's efforts. "Cooperation and exchanges between North and South Korea are never a business for one side but for the unified development, common prosperity and the interests of both sides," it said. "North and South Korea should actively promote multifaceted cooperation and exchanges for the sake of the people." Six photos promoting the North Korean regime on display next to the gate of the North Korean Embassy in Rome, Italy, on Sunday (local time). They appeared on the bulletin board after reports that North Korea's acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song-gil, was seeking asylum after disappearing in early November. The photos show North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un's recent activities, including a summit with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and inspections of construction sites, as well as landmarks in the capital Pyongyang. The display is believed as an attempt by the North to show nothing is amiss despite the envoy's reported defection. Yonhap In this file photo taken on June 12, 2018 US President Donald Trump (R) gestures as he meets with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) at the start of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore. - US President Donald Trump said January 6, 2019 negotiations are underway on the location of the next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. AFP U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday negotiations are underway on the location of his next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while remaining evasive on its timing. Trump, who held a historic summit with Kim in Singapore in June, said earlier in the week he had received a "great letter" from the North Korean leader but declined to reveal its contents. "We are negotiating a location," he told reporters before boarding a helicopter for the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, where he said he would be discussing a trade deal with China. "It will be announced probably in the not too distant future," he said of a summit with Kim. "They do want to meet and we want to meet and we'll see what happens." "With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue," Trump added, saying he had "indirectly spoken" with Kim. The latest letter from Kim came after the North Korean leader warned in a New Year's speech that Pyongyang may change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persists with sanctions. Trump said Sunday the sanctions remain "in full force and effect" and would do so until the United States saw "very positive" results. At the first summit between the longtime adversaries in June, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward the Korean peninsula's denuclearization but with little apparent agreement on what that means. The United States has been pressing for North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons before any easing of economic pressure. Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for 70 years, wants immediate economic benefits and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. Trump has cast his first summit with Kim as a major diplomatic victory, and on Sunday repeated his claim that there would be war in Asia had they not sat down to talk. "Anyone else but me, you would have been at war right now ... You right now would have been at a nice big fat war in Asia with North Korea if I hadn't been elected president." But progress has stalled since the Singapore summit with the two sides disagreeing over the meaning of their vaguely-worded declaration, and the pace of US-North Korean negotiations has slowed, with meetings and visits cancelled at short notice. Culminating in late 2017, the North has carried out six atomic blasts and launched rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland, but has now carried out no such tests for more than a year. (Yonhap) KB Kookmin Bank's union workers hold a rally at Jamsil Students' Gymnasium in Seoul, Monday, a day before their planned general strike. Wage negotiation between management and union broke down on the day. It will be the lender's first general strike in 19 years. / Yonhap By Jhoo Dong-chan KB Kookmin Bank has gone into emergency management mode ahead of its union's general strike slated for Tuesday. In a bid to prevent the general strike from taking place, CEO Hur Yin released an urgent in-house statement Monday afternoon, saying management will yield to some of the union's demands including a 300 percent incentive. "If we confront each other with a general strike that will eventually inconvenience our customers, they will turn their backs on us and choose our rival banks. This isn't right. KB Kookmin Bank is the nation's leading bank. We should not ruin it by ourselves," Hur said in the statement. About 50 bank executives also submitted their resignations to Hur on Monday morning and they will resign from their posts if the union workers push ahead as previously announced, but their efforts fell short of expectations as talks between the two sides broke down on the day. The bank's union workers said they will stage a massive rally as planned. It will be the lender's first general strike in 19 years. "KB Kookmin Bank union workers across the country gathered at Jamsil Students' Gymnasium on Monday, the night before the general strike,"the lender'sunion in a press releasesaid. "After the Monday night event, workers will stage a general strike there and then return to their branches the following day." The lender said it will stay open for business as usual at its branches across the country, but concerns are already mounting about difficulties customers could experience in certain services such as private and corporate loans as well as foreign exchanges. The bank operates about 1,050 branches and local offices across the country, the largest bank in Korea in terms of number of branches. "I understand about 10,000 workers participated in the bank's last general strike in 2000," said a KB Kookmin Bank worker who asked not to be named. "If a similar number of workers join the rally on Tuesday, it is inevitable for customers to experience inconvenience especially regarding some face-to-face services." Bank management stressedit is doing its best to minimize customerinconvenience because of the general strike, but said it can't comply with some of the union workers' excessive and unreasonable demands. The union and management have failed to reach an agreement on key issues, including rules on the amount of bonuses and the introduction of a wage peak system. By Lee Kyung-min Getty Images Bank By Jhoo Dong-chan New Korea Investment & Securities CEO Jung Il-moon set the brokerage's goal to achieve a 1 trillion won ($893 million) operating profit this year and reach a 1 trillion won net profit within three years during his term. Jung said during this year's first press conference he will do whatever it takes to achieve these goals. "The current market situation isn't very favorable. There are not only external risks such as the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China but also internal challenges including mounting household debts as well as Korea's slow growth trend," he said during the press conference, Monday. "The goal is to reach a 1 trillion won operating profit this year and another 1 trillion won net profit within three years." He also said the securities firm will create synergy with other Korea Investment Holdings' subsidiaries. Korea Investment & Securities is the holding group's brokerage subsidiary. Jung talked about possible cooperation with Kakao Bank. Korea Investment Holdings is the internet-only bank's largest shareholder. Korea Investment & Securities plans to launch a brokerage account service via Kakao Bank by the end of the first half. "Korea Investment Holdings found some differences while it jointly worked with the internet-only bank as its largest shareholder. It took long to narrow the gap," Jung said. "As much as we manage to narrow the gap, however, we will create enormous synergy with Kakao Bank." He also left the door open to Kakao Bank's takeover of Baro Investment & Securities. "Kakao has its own business targets," Jung said. "Acquiring Baro Investment & Securities is one of its options. If Korea Investment does something for the possible acquisition, it could be another synergy." (Photo/Chinanews.com) As the fever surrounding bike-sharing services experiences a cooling-off period, it seems that Chinas shared automobile industry will also experience a "cold winter." Multiple Chinese auto-sharing service providers announced a halt in operation last year, including the leading vehicle-sharing venture, Togo. As one of the largest car-share companies in China, Togo now has less than 300 vehicles in Beijing - one of its largest user bases, where the company used to hold over 1,800 shared automobiles. Founder and CEO of the company, Wang Lifeng, disclosed that Togo would make major changes to the company's structure and business model. However, the company is not able to handle the trust crisis it's currently facing, and there are still vast numbers of users applying for a deposit refund. Compared with internet-based car sharing companies, those backed by auto giants are under much less pressure. For instance, EVCARD, an auto-sharing service provider financed by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation had 42,000 shared cars in operation in 2018, and the EV rental operator Panda-Auto under the Chongqing-based automaker Lifan Group also had 20,000 vehicles in service last year. These two companies are still expanding rapidly. However, auto-share services, according to insiders, are still in a preliminary stage that burns investment, and it's unrealistic to expect to make a short-term profit. Over past years, electric vehicles (EV) were being mass-produced by Chinese automakers because of a dual-credit regulation that encourages the production of new energy vehicles thanks to abundant governmental subsidies. The sluggish EV market resulted in a considerable inflow of such vehicles into the sharing sector, said Jiang Chao, CEO of Chinese auto-sharing service provider Ola Sharing. According to incomplete statistics, China is home to some 400 auto-sharing companies, and many of them were established to obtain governmental subsidies, Jiang added. The shared mobility industry is facing many issues, such as high acquisition and maintenance costs. Additionally, capital shortage restricted sufficient and effective deployment of the vehicles, which further resulted in a low usage rate, noted analyst Yu Mu from Analysys, a Chinese big-data analysis provider. The key to the development of the industry is a sustainable business model. Once these service providers lose their source of capital, they will face problems, said Yu, adding that this is especially true for startups. Compared with traditional automakers, startups have no advantages in vehicle ownership or capital, and they are not able to independently finance themselves. Therefore, they would be the first to experience the drawbacks of the industry reshuffle, Yu said. In 2005, I assumed the role of the Dutch ambassador to China and started my nearly 3 years of experience working in China, during which my direct contact with China had enabled me to forge a deep bond with the country. As Ive remained in close touch with China since then, I have witnessed Chinas rapid development and changes over the past 40 years since its reform and opening-up, especially the great economic, political, and social development and changes since the 21st century. I think 40 years is really not a long period of time in human history, but China has gained remarkable success during this period. Chinas reform and opening-up has created an economic boom in China. It was quite a challenge to simply feed more than one billion of Chinese people. However, China has not only done that, but also become the worlds second largest economy, showing the world a development miracle. In my opinion, the secrets of Chinas tremendous economic achievements lie in the two aspects listed below. On one hand, China has maintained long-term stability in its political system. The socialist political system with Chinese characteristics has effectively avoided the negative effects of political cycle on the stability of political system, thus giving the Chinese government more room for policy options, so that it can make long-term development strategies and focus its efforts on solving major and important issues. On the other hand, China attaches high importance to investment in scientific and technological research and development as well as industrial upgrading. Currently, China is transforming its economic development from the volume-driven mode into a pattern featuring high quality. With Chinas continuously rising position in the global industrial chain, made-in-China products have started to make positive impacts around the world together with the increasing popularity of a number of world famous Chinese brands. When I was the President of Delft University of Technology, I had kept close engagement with Chinese scientific research teams, which are world-class teams. Besides, China makes great efforts to attract global technological talents. Today, China is in the forefront of the world in terms of cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements. Regarding improving peoples living conditions as a major purpose of its policies, the Chinese government responds actively to the concerns of the people, taking constant measures to solve the problems in such areas as environment and security. As urbanization rate is rising fast in the country, China is getting increasingly experienced in urban governance and making cities more livable. In recent years, China has spent a lot of efforts in improving its legal environment, business environment, and administrative efficiency, which is great news for foreign-funded enterprises in China. In the past 20 years, China has constantly accelerated its integration into the international community, participating in and promoting the development of the international order more and more. The current international order and system, which are based on rules, require us to respect and follow the rules. In the face of global financial crisis, the international order needs necessary adjustment and reform, while it shall never deviate from the core essence of equality, openness, and cooperation which is the key foundation of long-term peace, stability, and development after World War . At present, protectionism and unilateralism is mounting. Some countries attempt to make new rules that fit their own interests unilaterally, which has created uncertainties to the world. The challenges we are faced with today are in no way such issues that can be tackled by any single country, but the ones that need intensified cooperation among various countries around the world. The international community needs important players in the global economy like China to take on the leadership role in maintaining the international rules. China has made clear commitments to relevant issues, and has constantly explored the approaches and solutions to safeguarding the multilateral system of the world with the aim of promoting the common development of mankind. At the 40th anniversary of Chinas reform and opening-up, Chinese leaders have made a commitment to further deepening reform and intensifying opening-up, which will have significant influence on the world. More importantly, China is materializing its commitment step by step. The Belt and Road Initiative has demonstrated Chinas strong determination to put into practice the promise to open its market wider to the world and will help to build better platforms for further boosting international cooperation. In the future, more countries and enterprises will get the opportunities to take part in Chinas development and share Chinas development benefits. (The author Dirk Jan van den Berg is the Chair of the Executive Board of Sanquin and former Dutch ambassador to China.) The 2018 National Climate Assessment warned that agricultural productivity in the Midwest could drop by 25 percent in the next 30 years without technology advances and changes in crop production. (soilassociation.org) It is only fitting, after the past two years of bumbling dysfunction, that the new Democratic majority in the House led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi debuts amid a crisis that Republicans managed to create all by themselves. Remember that Trump had GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress and still, somehow, managed to bluster and blunder his way into a shutdown. Thats hard to do. Its kind of like wearing both a belt and suspenders and still having your pants fall down around your ankles. One thing Pelosi brings, as she becomes speaker for the second time, is competence. That should be a reason for optimism, regardless of party affiliation or political views. During the past eight years, when John Boehner and Paul Ryan held the speakers gavel, I often heard Pelosi express great exasperation not just at their wrongheaded priorities but at their failure to display skills that she considered elementary. It sometimes falls to a speaker to pass legislation that many in the majority caucus do not like. In 2007, Pelosi needed approval of a bill funding the war in Iraq, which barely a handful of House Democrats supported. She got the bill through and also gave her caucus the chance to go on the record as opposing the war. Larry was born in Todd County, Minn., on Jan. 26, 1935, the son of Leo and Wilma (Campbell) Walker. He attended country schools, but as the only son of six children, he needed to leave school in ninth grade to help on the familys farm. If it had been his choice, he would have stayed in school, Janice said. He loved education. Off to work At 17 Larry went to work in iron mines in northern Minnesota but soon began attending Wahpeton State School of Science to study commercial refrigeration and heating. He met and began dating Janis Graham, and just before they married on Aug. 12, 1955, he was offered a position at Jans fathers company, Graham Refrigeration, in Wadena, Minn. Larry and Jan settled in Wadena. While Jan raised their six children, she also helped manage the business. For the next three-plus decades, Larry installed and maintained walk-in freezers for Red Owl grocery stores in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. The company also handled commercial refrigeration for the Red Lake Native American reservation. He also did frozen storage units for the potato company used by McDonalds, said his daughter, Julie Walker-Wright. A golden eagle sculpture is shown in a handout photo from Delta Police. A major insurance company is fighting back after a British Columbia court required it to make good on a policy covering a gold, diamond-encrusted eagle statue allegedly stolen in Metro Vancouver more than two years ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Delta Police MANDATORY CREDIT Pope Francis speaks during an audience with members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See during the traditional exchange of New Year greetings at the Sala Regia, at the Vatican, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Francis says next month's meeting of bishops from around the world aims to "shed full light" on clergy sex abuse and covers-ups, speaking to diplomats Monday at the Vatican, Francis called the abuse of minors "one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable." (Ettore Ferrari/Pool Photo via AP) Less: Just look at London, Ont. Same: We hear more bad news. More: Canada is on the right path. Vote View Results (credit: Megan Swann Photography) Taste Washington, a food and wine lovers wonderland, offers visitors the chance to experience Seattles hottest chefs and Washington States highly acclaimed winemakers. From March 28-31, 2019, more than 235 wineries, 65 restaurants will be meeting in Seattle and inviting all to drink and eat your heart out. The festival offers the most wine and food from one single place and is the nations largest single-region wine and food festival. Some of Seattles top restaurants which feature some of the best chefs across the nation, will take center stage to serve up delicious bites and sips at every turn. (credit: Courtesy of Visit Seattle) The four-day event takes place throughout Seattle and offers special tasting events each day allowing guests to either purchase individual tickets to one of the events, detailed below, or VIP admission tickets for the events. For those who dont want to miss any of the action and gain access to all events, there are two special VIP Packages (The Connoisseur or The Enthusiast Pass). The Connoisseur ($640) gives purchasers access to Taste Washingtons signature events, from the Red & White Party to both days of the Grand Tasting and everything in between. The second VIP pass, The Enthusiast ($335), garners purchasers entry to the most buzzed-about evening event, The New Vintage, a two-day VIP pass to the Grand Tasting, in addition to special perks regular ticket holders wont receive. (credit: Megan Swann Photography) Schedule Thursday, March 28: Red & White Party (7pm-10pm) On Seattles picturesque waterfront at the renowned AQUA by El Gaucho with Executive Chef Kevin Benner, the Red & White Party allows guests to get into the cellar with premier Washington winemakers who will showcase library favorites and 90+ point wines. This one-night-only event is an intimate experience into Washington winemakers most-coveted bottles. Friday, March 29: On the Farm (9:30am-3pm) Due to its location, it is no surprise that Seattle is home to one of the most unique and exceptional farm-to-table dining scenes in the country. On the Farm invites guests to tour a local farm and enjoy lunch paired with some of the best Washington wines alongside the chefs and winemakers who craft them. Friday, March 29: The New Vintage (7pm-10pm) Presented by Lexus, The New Vintage invites guest backstage to meet and mingle with the chefs and winemakers driving Washingtons impressive food and drink scene. Join celebrated Seattle chefs like Rachel Yang of Joule and Ethan Stowell of Ethan Stowell Restaurants among others and delight in unique bites and great conversation. James Beard winner of Best New Restaurant in the nation and Best Chef: Northwest, Edouardo Jordan will also be hosting a special Lexus Late Night after party at Salare. Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31: Grand Tasting (1:30pm-6pm VIP | 2:30pm-6pm General Admission) Located at the CenturyLink Field Event Center the Grand Tasting is a two-day event overflowing with Washingtons culinary riches. The event also features a chefs demonstration stage where you can learn the tricks of the trade, get up-close and personal with winemakers, and find new favorites to vote for in Taste Washingtons fourth annual Best Bite competition. Sunday, March 31: Sunday Brunch (10:30am-12:30pm) Held at the Palace Ballroom, the 2nd annual Sunday Brunch is an intimate event which gives an insiders look into the culture and energy behind the citys brunch scene. This years brunch will be a coast-to-coast experience as Seattle chef Tom Douglas and a culinary pal from Boston will serve a family style meal with brunch cocktails of course. (credit: Megan Swann Photography) While youre at it, book your stay at any area downtown hotel now for the best rates and easy access to all of the activities for Taste Washington. With 11 luxury resorts, and multiple others across the city, explore all Seattle has to offer in your downtime from the iconic Space Needle to ferry rides, from exploring the heart of grunge at MoPOP to hitting the Evergreen States famous trails. (Chinanews.com/Qiu Yu) Chinas express delivery industry is expected to see a 20 percent rise in parcel volume this year, said speakers at a national conference held by the countrys State Post Bureau (SPB) on Jan. 3. Experts predict that China will deliver 60 billion parcels in 2019. According to Ma Shengjun, head of the SPB, the revenue created in China through mail business increased 1,542 fold between 1978 and 2018, from 510 million to 787 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 0.9 percent of the countrys GDP. Additionally, Chinese postal services make up about 1/6 of the global total, and have ranked as largest in the world in terms of business volume for five consecutive years, Ma added. The conference said Chinas national postal service would create a business income of 930 billion yuan in 2019, up 18 percent from the previous year, 715 billion yuan of which will be generated by the express delivery industry. Syrian Democratic Forces(WASHINGTON) -- The Pentagon and the anti-ISIS coalition said they are aware of reports from America's Kurdish allies in Syria that at least two American citizens who were allegedly fighting with ISIS have been captured. "We are aware of open source reports of reportedly American citizens currently in custody who were believed to be fighting for ISIS. However, we are unable to confirm this information at this time. The incident is under investigation," Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, told ABC News. The Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced the capture in a statement on Sunday, saying that two Americans, along with three other foreign nationals, were taken in the city of Hajeen in eastern Syria near the last ISIS stronghold of Deir ez-Zor. Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF press office in northern Syria, wrote on Twitter: "These terrorists were captured by our forces this week in a Hajeen, two Americans, two Pakistanis and one Irishman." One of the alleged American captives was identified by the SDF as Warren Christopher Clark. According to the Houston Chronicle, Clark is originally from Houston and served as a substitute teacher in the Fort Bend Independent School District in Sugar Land, Texas. Using the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Ameriki, Clark allegedly sent a letter and a resume to the Islamic State offering his services as an English teacher in the caliphate. The documents were recovered in a house in Mosul, Iraq, by a group of anti-terror investigators. Copies were given to ABC News by Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the program on extremism at George Washington University and a former staffer at the National Counterterrorism Center. The letter purportedly written by Clark opened with a request for a teaching position at the University of Mosul, suggesting it would be a "great way of continuing my career." The resume attached to the letter claimed that Clark was born in 1984 and earned a B.S. in political science from the University of Houston in 2007. The resume also indicated that Clark held teaching positions in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the substitute teaching job in Sugar Land. The letter concluded with the assertion that "teaching has given me the opportunity to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds." In a lawfare blog post, Hughes wrote that Clark was a convert to Islam who became radicalized and was known to friends in Texas as a fervent Islamic State supporter. One acquaintance said he had assumed that Clark was an FBI informant because "no one is that open about liking terrorism," according to Hughes. Very little is known about the other alleged American ISIS member taken along with Clark, other than he was named by captors as 35 year-old Zaid Abed al-Hamid from the United States. However, it is not entirely clear if al-Hamid is even an American citizen. Simon Cottee, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Kent, who is writing a book about Islamic State fundamentalists from Trinidad, said he came across al-Hamid's name while investigating ISIS fighters from the Caribbean island nation. Cottee said official estimates put the number of ISIS fighters from Trinidad and Tobago at 130, although he believes the real number is much higher. "Hamid has been radical for a while," Cottee told ABC News. "According to my field work al-Hamid left Trinidad for Syria in April 2014 with his wife and 3 boys aged 7, 6 and 5. Once in Syria, they were based in Raqqa." Cottee said al-Hamid was arrested in 2011 on suspicion of conspiring to kill then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar along with 15 other men, but they were never charged due to lack of evidence. "Interestingly, of the 16 suspects, four ended up in Syria and Iraq. Another suspect among the 16 was captured in Venezuela in 2014 trying to leave for Syria," Cottee said. Al-Hamid and Clark were both reportedly captured during heavy fighting with the last significant group of ISIS militants in northern Syria. Only four other Americans are known to have been captured on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, according to Hughes. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Donate Now As a public service during this pandemic, the Jewish News is providing free, unlimited access to all articles. Jewish News is a nonprofit publication that is owned by the community and relies on community support. Forget modular smartphones, Samsung has unveiled the worlds first consumer modular TV at CES 2019. Dubbed The Wall, its the worlds first modular MicroLED TV with Samsung offering the TV in sizes as big as 219 inches and as small as 75-inch. The modular nature of the TV has been made possible thanks to the MicroLED technology. Unlike LEDs, MicroLED doesnt need any backlight to work properly. Samsung is shipping the MicroLED TV to consumers in 146-inch and 75-inches, though interested folks can always increase its size further thanks to its modular design. This is not the first time that Samsung has shown a modular TV demo at CES, it has been doing so since the last few years. But this was the first time, it showed the TV with screen size as massive as 219-inches. Samsung claims MicroLED offers all the advantages of OLED in an even thinner package. It produces the same deep blacks, vibrant colors, and the TV is capable of reaching brightness levels of up to 2000 nits. Their benefits include no burn in issues, longer lifespan, and support for an even wider color gamut. The 75-inch MicroLED TV does fall short in the resolution department at 4K, though thats still going to be enough for most people for now. Theres no word from Samsung on the pricing and availability of its MicroLED TV, though the TV will come to the US and Canada first before expanding to other markets. Given their sheer size and how expensive MicroLEDs are to manufacture right now, dont expect them to be cheap. [Via Samsung Sao Paulo - Large The first panel of Brazils Superior Court of Justice (STJ) unanimously voted to dismiss standing by the Attorneys Office of the National Treasury in Special Appeal number 1,221,170/PR. This brought an end to the Attorneys plan to restrict the rights of taxpayers to tax credits for contributions to the Social Integration Plan (PIS) and Social Security Financing (COFINS) agenda, right before the countrys Independence Day (Proclamation of the Republic). The STJ, in its decision on Special Appeal number 1,221,170/PR, clarified the concept of inputs for the purposes of PIS and COFINS tax credits, noting that: "The concept of inputs must be checked in light of the criteria of essentiality or relevance, taking into account the indispensability or importance of a given item whether a good or service for the development of the economic activity undertaken by the taxpayer." Given the concept of inputs, the STJ deemed that the restrictive environment established by Normative Instructions 247/2002 and 404/2004 by Brazils Federal Revenue Office (SRF) were illegal. The instructions had restricted the right to tax credits, similar to the rules applicable to the credits for tax on Manufactured Products (IPI); inputs added to the final product, or those that wear out through physical contact with the final product or service. The ruling - registered under number 779 in the STJs system of repeated appeals - noted the following: "The credit rationale in the SRFs Normative Instructions 247/2002 and 404/2004 is illegal in that it compromises the efficacy of the non-cumulative system of PIS and COFINS contributions, as defined by Laws 10,637/2002 and 10,833/2003. The concept of inputs must be checked in light of the criteria of essentiality or relevance, taking into account the indispensability or importance of a given item whether a good or service for the development of the economic activity undertaken by the taxpayer. Due to this decision, on September 26 2018, the National Treasurys (PGFN) Attorney General issued Notice 63/2018, making public its interpretation of the ruling proffered by the STJ in order to guide both its own agencies as well as those of the Federal Revenue Office. The notice chose to use the subtraction test as one of the tools to define the concept of inputs, even though the PGFN itself expressly recognizes that this method is nowhere to be found in the STJs decision. The subtraction test consists of the hypothetical elimination of the good or service from the economic activity undertaken. If the absence of the item results in the product or service becoming impossible, useless, or seeing a significant loss in quality to the extent that the companys activity becomes unfeasible, such an item can be considered to be an input. Applying the subtraction test used by the PGFN restricts and distorts the interpretation adopted by the STJ. As mentioned above, the STJs decision, which has been issued on the basis of repeat appeals, has by law the power to bind both the government as well as the decisions made in the Administrative Council of Tax Appeals (CARF). Thus, the government as a whole taken to be the Auditors of the SRF, Attorneys Office of the National Treasury, and Councilors of CARF - must adhere to the understanding determined by the STJ. CARFs Higher Chamber of Tax Appeals has respected the legal decision - as shown by ruling number 9303-007,512 - which was passed last October and upheld the understanding of the STJ. We can subsequently see that the matter was already resolved by the STJ. This article was written by Joao Marcos Colussi and Luana Maluf da Silva Robles of Mattos Filho. Joao Marcos Colussi Luana Maluf da Silva Robles The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ. Share this article Vanguard The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to throw in the towel and end his re-election bid, following the expressed disapproval and vilification by his own Campaign Director-General, Rotimi Amaechi in the leaked audio recording. ThisDay The BEDC Electricity Plc (BEDC) at the weekend revealed that it has successfully reconnected 42 communities within its franchise states of Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ekiti states which were hitherto without power supply to the national grid, as at end of November 2018. Tribune DEFINITE hearing of the case involving five accused persons arrested in connection with deadly bank robbery in Offa, Kwara state was on Monday stalled at a Kwara state High Court in Ilorin. The Sun President Muhammadu Buhari has said in order for the day-to-day running of the country not to suffer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the co-chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 election, would lead the campaigns which moves to Bauchi, on Thursday. Leadership The Nigeria Army will on Tuesday launch Operation Python 3 in Kebbi state, North West region of Nigeria, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has said. Daily Trust The National Vice Chairman of Christian Royal Fathers of Nigeria and member, South-east Council of Royal Fathers, Obi Gburugburu Ihim, Eze (Dr.) Oliver Ohanwe, has said that the entire South-east region will withdraw its supports for President Muhammadu Buharis re-election bid in 2019 if he did not show enough commitment to supporting a president of Igbo extraction in 2023. Daily Times Gang -up against Buhari will fail, says APC chieftain A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Charles Idahosa, on Tuesday, expressed surprise over the sudden endorsement of the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He said the gang-up is to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari does not wi The Nation The Nigerian Army says it invaded the offices of Daily Trust Newspapers offices in Maiduguri and Abuja to invite the organisations journalists responsible for the publication of a classified military operation plans. The highly anticipated Club MTV Base took place at Quilox Night Club, VI on December 8 2018 and Africas largest smartphone manufacturer, TECNO Mobile was on ground to make it a memorable night for guests. Hosted by MTV Base, the successful party tagged Back to the 90s was attended by over 200 party goers who got to enjoy the specially curated activities that made up the night. From the bustling red carpet to the busy Coca Cola bar to pick their choice of sweet or sour cocktails, guests had a good time mixing and taking pictures with celebrities. Revellers were then ushered to the TECNOs amazing 90s themed photo booth which was the cynosure of all eyes, where they had the opportunity to take pictures and experience the amazing selfie quality of the Camon 11 Pro, TECNOs newly released smartphone with embedded AI technology. Club MTV base was the perfect way for fans of the music channel to begin the 2018 festive season as they were thrilled by DJ Colex and host of MTV Base DJ Takeover, DJ TTB, who had his visual mix of thrilling songs from the 90s featured during the night for all who attended to truly have a great time. It was a truly fun evening. Everyone looked forward to owning the TECNO Camon 11 Pro for use in capturing selfies during the holiday perioda time when most people will let their hairs down and have lots of fun at different events. Enjoy the images. Terrorists in Gaza again began launching rockets into Israel early Monday morning. Thankfully, the Iron Dome defense system shot down the rocket headed for Israeli territory. In response, Ynet News reports, the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes on Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip: The Israel Air Force attacked several terror targets at a Hamas military base in northern Gaza in retaliation for a rocket fired from the strip early Monday. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, which was launched at 3:18am toward Ashkelon and the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, prompting the Code Red rocket alert The IDF said it holds Hamas responsible for all rockets emanating from its territory. On Sunday, IAF helicopters struck a Hamas position in southern Gaza in response to an explosive device sent from the strip carried by a styrofoam airplane which was using a cluster of balloons to remain airborne. The plane landed in a field in Sdot Negev Regional Council, near the Gaza border, and was neutralized by police sappers BRPC's executive committee gave the approval on Thursday to apply for a Mass Trails grant. BRPC Looks to Kick Start Mountain Biking Project PITTSFIELD, Mass. BRPC is hoping to kick off an effort to bolster mountain biking in the area. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is joining with two others Western Massachusetts planning organizations in a grant application to map, analyze, identify trail conditions, and lay the framework for a marketing effort to make Western Massachusetts known as a mountain biking hub. The hope is that the Mass Trails grant will kick off the project and a previously secured $800,000 in an environmental bond bill by state Sen. Adam Hinds can follow. Those funds have not been released by the administration. "The senator is a strong advocate for mountain biking and in the environmental bond bill, he got some money to do some of this work to promote Western Massachusetts as a mountain biking destination," BRPC Executive Director Thomas Matuszko said. "This new grant program came up, this Mass Trails program and the senator thought this would be a good program to apply to, working with our neighboring planning agencies the Franklin County Council of Governments and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission for all of western Mass," BRPC's grant application is for a different, and a smaller, pool of money. Matuszko said he expects the application to be somewhere in the $150,000 range and each of the three areas will choose a piece of state property to do the analysis and mapping. "We can scale up or down with the field work depending on the site we identify. I think we are thinking of Pittsfield State Forest right now as the pilot site for Berkshire County," Matuszko said. The outdoor recreational economy has been a major thrust in recent years among city and county officials. Hinds previously estimated that $46.9 billion is spent on bike trips per year and many of those bikers are driving right past the Berkshires to places like the Kingdom Trails in Vermont. BRPC is also looking for a grant to help North Adams become more efficient in purchasing. The executive committee gave Matuszko the OK to apply for an Efficient and Regionalization Grant to streamlining its purchasing and add such items as online ordering. "There are ways to improve this program, possibly with some kind of online ordering form," Matuszko said. He said the total budget for such a project hasn't been developed and the grant program doesn't open until Jan. 15. But he still received the approval to apply once the program opens. BRPC is also preparing to back a piece of legislation to allow industrial hemp to be grown in lands under agricultural protection. Matuszko said the state law defines what can be done on agriculturally protected lands by referring to horticulture. But "that definition of horticulture doesn't include industrial hemp. A relatively simple amendment is to have the definition of horticulture to include industrial hemp," Matuszko said. BRPC is now waiting for the piece of legislation to be introduced and will be writing to state lawmakers in support of the passage. U.S. scientists chart maps of world regions of possible origin of Zika virus SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. scientists from University of California, Davis (UC Davis) have worked out "hot spot" maps of regions in the world that can help health authorities detect potential wildlife hosts of viruses mostly spread by mosquitoes and ticks. A study by UC Davis researchers, which was published recently in the journal Nature Communications, said the maps recorded information about wildlife species that have been identified as the most possible host of flaviviruses such as Zika, West Nile, dengue and yellow fever. These viruses are the known culprits of major epidemics and widespread illness and death across the globe. The UC Davis researchers examined all the published data on wildlife species tested positive for flaviviruses by establishing a machine-learning model that processed about 10,400 avian and 5,400 mammal species to figure out the most likely species to host viruses. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tool was so powerful that it recognized 138 previously unrecognized dengue virus out of 173 host species. "Tomorrow, if there's an outbreak anywhere in the world, we now know which wildlife species are most likely to be infected in addition to humans," said lead author Pranav Pandi, a scholar with the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. The study identified Europe as one of the regions in the world that has very diversified varieties of potential Japanese encephalitis hosts, including many common bird species. It also predicted wildlife hosts in South America and Southeast Asia have the capabilities of spreading Zika virus in nature. UC Davis professor Christine Kreuder Johnson, co-leading author of the study, said the AI-powered model developed by the UC researchers has identified nine of 21 primate species to be host of yellow fever or Zika virus. Johnson said scientists hope to rely on the modeling technique to detect the most likely hosts for these viruses in their natural habitat, which is vital to global health and wildlife conservation. The Clarksburg School Committee meets Thursday night. Stamford/Clarksburg Merger Consultants Plan Public Meeting Committee members Cynthia Brule, left, Chairwoman Patricia Prenguber and Laura Wood hear reports at Thursday's meeting. CLARKSBURG, Mass. Consultants are already at work sussing out the challenges and benefits of an interstate school merger with Stamford, Vt. Public Consulting Group will hold its first public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Clarksburg School for both towns and will set a series of meeting with focus groups. "That town meeting will be for that feasibility group to share some information with both towns and any questions people have just as they're starting their work and they'll be back at the end of February," Superintendent John Franzoni said. "They want to be transparent, they want to get the information out there. They want to connect with the people in both towns, both schools, to get a full picture of the situation so they can make a recommendation about this merger." Franzoni and School Committee Chairwoman Patricia Prenguber participated in a conference call with PCG and planned on continuing that every Thursday morning to review schedules and plans. The consultants will return twice more in February to meet with eight-10 focus groups of parents, teachers, central office, school and town officials, community members and others. The Interstate School District Committee made up of members from Stamford and Clarksburg voted in late December to recommend Boston-based PCG. The decision was made based on the consultant's familiarity with Vermont education laws, the interstate Rivendell School District and its deep bench of support resources, including legal counsel. "I feel it was a challenging decision we made but it looks like we've got a good group to work with," Franzoni said. "It looks like they're following through with what they proposed and what they plan to do as far as their initial proposal." The merger is being largely driven by Vermont's Act 46, which seeks to combine school districts to streamline governance and purchasing power. Stamford, however, is geographically and culturally isolated and rejected the state's push for it to partner with a school 25 miles away. Clarksburg is facing its own challenges with its undersized school building, decreasing population and rising school costs. The consultants will look at options for using both buildings in different grade configurations to benefit academic programming, teaching licensure, and building utilization. They will also offer recommendations on governance and funding and the legal avenues that will have to be wended. "They're going to look at how both buildings could be used effectively, I think that's a key component of this," Franzoni said. "I'm just impressed so far with their thoroughness and their preparation." The consultants will also research how the merger could affect the Northern Berkshire School Union, of which Clarksburg is already the largest member. State Sen. Adam Hinds visited toured the school on Wednesday, Dec. 12, a half-day, and was given the background on the efforts to repair or renovate immediate problems in the building. A volunteer group has been working with school and town officials to pursue repairs after the vote for a $19 million school renovation project failed in 2017. Hinds had placed an earmark of $500,000 in a state capital spending authorization to fix the roof on the older section. Officials have been told access to the funds could be "a longshot," said Franzoni, because it would have to go through the Massachusetts School Building Authority is aware "the building needs more than a roof." The senator told him it would be in the town's best interest to write letters to the governor asking for the funds' release to address the real needs of the building. Hinds was also interested in keeping abreast of the progress of the merger, he said. Hinds and state Rep. John Barrett III (and originally the late state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi) had aided in ensuring $25,000 toward the merger feasibility study. That amount was matched by the Vermont Legislature and another $30,000 was added in by the town of Clarksburg through a Community Compact grant. In other business, Principal Tara Barnes gave a short report on professional development and last month's eighth-grade Holocaust event ("They get to have pizza with a Holocaust survivor and I don't know how many kids get to say that"). She also noted the results of the schoolwide math curriculum that was instituted about four years ago, referencing how she watched students breaking discs into sections to understand fractions and algorithms. "They could really connect why and what does it look physically when I'm actually doing this," she said. "It was a hard transition four years ago but I see the fruits of it." The school will hold its annual Super Bowl Sunday pancake breakfast fundraiser on Feb. 3. Franzoni reported that he had hired Jon Friedman, currently assistant principal of the elementary schools in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District, as a five-day school adjustment counselor for the Northern Berkshire School Union. Friedman holds a master's in social work and was a school adjustment counselor for 15 years in the Central Berkshire Regional School District. He replaces Doug Wentworth, who was with the school union for 17 years. He also reported that the school's cook, Brenda Bohl, has resigned and that the cafeteria manager, Joanne Gadebusch, wished to take over the cook's position. The cafeteria manager job will be posted. The committee voted to resume recording meetings for Northern Berkshire Community Television. The recordings had been stopped at some point during the summer. School Committee Cynthia Brule thought they should be aired if it would be easier for people to find out what was happening. Prenguber agreed. "They do a great job broadcasting concerts and school events ... that's something we should do," Franzoni said. "There's so many positive things. We should get that out there and show all the positive things that are happening in our schools." The committee entered into executive session to speak with a parent about a student. Clarification: An earlier version of this article accidently implied the MSBA may have control over the roof funds; it does not, but the state agency is aware of the condition of the school building. FACT CHECK See inaccurate information in this story? Tell us here. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Information available to YEN.com.gh suggests that junior military officers have organized a coup detat in Gabon. According to the soldiers, their aim was to restore democracy in the oil-rich country which has been ruled by Ali Bongos family for 50 years. Ali Bongo succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, as president in 2009, when he narrowly won the re-election in 2016, in a poll marred by violence and accusations of fraud. Ali Bongo Source: Pulse Ghana Source: UGC READ ALSO: Ghanaians mercilessly attack the government after news of free train rides surface online The soldiers took control of the national radio station at 04:30 local time (03:30 GMT) to read a short statement announcing a National Restoration Council. Tanks and armed vehicles can be seen on the streets of the capital, Libreville. Ali Bongo, who has been out of the country for two months, reportedly suffered a stroke in October 2018, and received treatment in Morocco. In an attempt to put an end to the rumours about his health with a televised New Year message, he claimed he was feeling fine. Soldiers however stated that they had been disappointed by the message, calling it a pitiful sight and a relentless attempt to cling onto power. Some Ghanaians took to social media to express their opinions about the situation in Gabon: Adams wished the same event happened in Ghana. Saku also called for an overthrow of the government. Jeremiah congratulated the military for the coup. Ayinga wondered why such an incident cannot happen in Ghana. To Richard, it was long overdue. And Vanunye expressed his appreciation to jah. READ ALSO: December 31 prophecy: Owusu Bempah in the 'grips' of National Security officials Yenkasa: Is Dumsor back? | #Yencomgh Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen News of Immigration officers taking Chinese lessons has not gone down well with some Ghanaians. The reason for the decision to take the lesson, YEN.com.gh understands, is to help with communication with Chinese nationals who visit Ghana. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has disclosed that there is a growing number of Chinese in Ghana. Comptroller-General of GIS, Kwame Asuah-Takyi Source: myjoyonline.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Ghanaians mercilessly 'attack' the gov't after news of free train rides surface online This has made it necessary to equip its officers with the language, so that communication is easier. According to the GIS, the move will also help with communication in instances where issues of national security are discussed. The new development has not come as exciting news to some Ghanaians, who have expressed their opinions on social media: To Brobbey, this is simply rubbish. Bryte wondered why the Chinese don't learn English instead. Bortey also wondered when we were going to wake up as a country. Quartey also asked if the Chinese Immigration service has started taking Twi and Ga lessons. Etse agreed, asking why the Chinese don't learn English instead? Tobinyale also wondered when Ghana became a Chinese colony. And Kyekyeku predicted that China will buy Africa in 10 years time. READ ALSO: 9 wild Emelia Brobbey photos that will make you fall in love with her Ghana News Today: Sad Story of How Woman Lost Baby at Gov't Hospital In Kumasi | #Yencomgh Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. Venice, FL (34285) Today Variable clouds with thunderstorms, especially this morning. High around 85F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy skies. Low 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Expert Interviews with Kevin Turner. 07/01/2019 Stephen Sharry from PropertyTV shares his thoughts on what made headlines in 2018 good and bad. Listen to the interview now: Transcript: Kevin: And with his thoughts and reflections on 2018, looking ahead to 2019, Im joined by Stephen Sharry, who is the Editor in Chief at Switch Media, or Property TV. Stephen, thank you very much for your time. Stephen: Lovely to be here, Kevin. Kevin: I noticed Well I know I know you personally. I know that youre a student of the industry, and you watch it very carefully. Thats why Im keen to get your take on the events of 2018. What were the highs and lows that you noticed? Stephen: Look, I think the big issue, Kevin was the growth in regional markets. Weve seen some drop off, and some people are saying its the end of the boom, which is probably true in Melbourne and Sydney. But, on the other side of the coin, weve seen growth in regional markets, say Hobart, which is the third year running now, and double digit growth at 60 and 30 percent returns. Were seeing specific niche markets that are continuing to grow. Brisbane has stayed relatively stable, and the smaller regional markets are just sitting there waiting to fly. Kevin: Yeah. Weve seen a tightening in lending as well, which has really impacted both consumer confidence, and from what Im hearing, investors confidence as well, Stephen. Stephen: Yeah, it has. But, whats interesting is that the Royal Commission in the banking has created a very toxic environment around the major banks, more than the smaller banks, so were actually seeing a growth in mutuals. You know, the credit unions, etc. are all starting to pick up their gain, theyre becoming more customer focused, and brokers are really on the ball as far as those lending sources are concerned. Even though weve seen a tightening, its still possible, Kevin. Theres still money out there. Kevin: The banking inquiry, Stephen, do you think therell be a flow on, or a backlash towards brokers? Stephen: Look. I hope not. When you say a backlash towards brokers, I think the whole broking industry is changing, in particularly the commission side of it, which in some respects is a little bit of a shame, but I think that brokers are going to become more important in the environment as we move into 2019. Yes, therell be some changes within the industry, but I dont think theyll impact on the importance that theyre going to play within the industry in coming years. Kevin: Can I just ask you about affordability? Whats your take on that? I mean, theres been a lot of talk about how unaffordable property is in Australia Thats largely on the back of the costs that weve seen out of Sydney and Melbourne. Are we doing much about affordability, or is there much we can do? Stephen: Yeah, look. Its interesting. We just saw the Victorian election results, with labor winning again. What theyve as part of their election pitch, they pushed infrastructure funding, and a lot of their infrastructure funding is around what they term connectivity. What theyre talking about is improved rail, buses and roads connecting regional centres. Now, part of that plan, say in Victoria, is going to have the potential to release up to 270,000 house blocks. I think different areas in Australia are attacking affordability in different ways. Some states arent doing anything, like I cant see much happening in Queensland, and little in New South Wales. But Victoria really seems to be being proactive at moving towards improving affordability over time. Kevin: Yeah, there seems to be some fairly creative ways that people are now building with increased infill into some of the city areas. Maybe that could be an attack on future housing, not an attack But, an attempt to lower affordability, because short of a crash, I cant really see property becoming more affordable, Stephen. Especially established homes. Stephen: Its difficult to accept that within established areas, Kevin, youre right. The issue with infill developments are But, developers have an expectation of return. That expectation on return is really fundamentally tied to the value of the properties around the infill. Youll see an infill development in an area where youve got $800,000 homes. Well, they dont want to produce product that sells at 400 or 500, you know theyre looking at product that sells for 7, 8, 9 hundred thousand. So, it doesnt really impact on affordability. It just gives people a greater choice in living in that particular area, which is where you get upgraders, etc. But it doesnt impact on affordability. Kevin: Weve seen some attempts by governments to make housing more affordable through housing affordability schemes, trying to incentivize developers, and even investors to invest in properties that will be rented out at below market value. Those schemes dont seem to work, Stephen. Stephen: Oh, I dont know, Kevin. Youre talking about the governments scheme NRAS. Kevin: Yes, I am. Stephen: I cant remember the exact figures, but I thought something like 30,000 properties were actually created in Australia that would not have been created if it werent for that scheme. By forcing an investor into renting at below market, but then providing a subsidy every year, I thought it was incredibly appealing. It was to a lot of investors. I dont think we should just ignore those types of strategies, because I think if theyre done well, they can work. Kevin: Interesting insights. Stephen Sharry, who is the Editor in Chief at PTV, Property TV. Check it out, there is a link on our website thatll take you straight to it. Stephen, thank you. Ill get you back next week, and I want to talk about going forward. Your views on 2019, because that in fact will be the first week of the first show into 2019. Ill talk to you then, Stephen. Thanks for your time. Stephen: Thanks, Kevin. Look forward to it. ................................................................................................................................................... By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] Ironwood Gogebic Community College will use a recent $2 million state grant to create a skilled trades training center which will include a new state-of-the-art welding lab. GCC Dean of Business Services and co-Interim President Erik Guenard said the college wants to respond to the employment needs of area business and industry, and create programs that will train students to meet those needs. The college is going to take a more active roll in workforce development, Guenard said. We already have a really great advisory committee that supports our welding program. So, were going to try and enhance that, increase our enrollment in those welding careers and increase the opportunities for us to educate and train more students; so we can supply our industry partners because they are really hurting for certified welders. Guenard said the advisory committee is made up of people from local and regional manufacturers. They give us direction on what we need to be teaching our students and our curriculum. They tell us whats coming as far as industry standards, what theyd like to see in our shops, the new equipment that theyd like their new employees to be trained on. Things of that nature. Theyre an oversight advisory committee that gives credence and validates our program. Guenard said the college plans to purchase the former Michigan Bell Telephone Company building on the northwest corner of Midland Avenue and Greenbush Street, and make the 9,000 square feet facility the home of its new skilled trades training center and welding lab. We have a preliminary design and everything pretty well locked up, we just need to get an engineer, an architect, to do the construction documents, bid it out and I think we could have it up and running within 12 months, said Guenard. Fingers crossed and the winds blowing at our backs, were hoping September. The $2 million is earmarked for renovation of the building and purchase of the state-of-the-art welding and skilled trades equipment, he said. Renovation will include new electrical, addressing ADA accessibility standards and creating classroom and shop spaces. He said the American Welding Society, which has input on the advisory committee, gave the college a $25,000 grant in December towards an air filtration system for the facility. The college currently shares a welding lab with the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District and Luther L. Wright High School, that is located on the first floor of the high school. We will step aside from that welding lab, but we will leave everything that we have contributed to that space to make sure those students have all the materials the need to be educated at that site, said Guenard. The new site will provide us with state-of-the-art welding technology, so as those students matriculate from the high school environment to the college environment, they are going to pick it up a level. Guenard said the college will continue to emphasize workforce development. Were going to look at bringing on a workforce development position that will probably be housed at that new center so we can work directly with industry and provide the needed services and training. Were going to be focusing on how to support our local workforce. He predicted the skilled training centers programs will grow. Weve talked about a couple of new programs, but we havent vetted them through our board yet. Wed like to do some more in-depth analysis with our industry partners and see where the skill shortages are and be able to create a program to meet the needs of business and industry in our region. He praised the state for its recent investment in the area and called for the community to rally. Youre looking at about $14 million coming into the community between Gogebic Community Colleges piece, Copper Peak, the investment with Waupaca Foundary. I think we really need to start looking forward instead of looking behind us all the time. This is a great launching point for us to grab the bull by the horns and start paving our own future and our own path. Guenard said the college wants to help that progress. Were hoping as Highlands copper mine gets started were going to be able to provide some services to them. Were working cooperatively with them now on some training pieces, but we need to pay attention to whats happening in our community and our region and we need to support those industries. A Venezuelan Supreme Court justice and longtime government loyalist who fled the socialist country for a new life in the United States called Nicolas Maduro an incompetent president leading the once-wealthy country to ruins. Christian Zerpa's embarrassing defection came days before Maduro begins his second term amid calls from critics and the international community to relinquish power. Zerpa on Monday accused Venezuela's high court of becoming a tool of Maduro's inner circle, lacking any judicial independence since he and a group of ruling party members were appointed to the bench in 2015. "Nicolas Maduro doesn't know the constitution, and he doesn't know the laws," Zerpa said in a Florida news conference. "This has no other name than a dictatorship." An aide to Iran's supreme leader said on Monday U.S. officials approached him during a December visit to Afghanistan to request talks with Tehran, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, but the U.S. State Department denied the report. Tensions between Iran and the United States have increased since May, when President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and later reimposed sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the pact. "During my visit to Kabul last month, the Americans ... asked to hold talks," Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a close aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying, without specifying what the U.S. side wanted to discuss. "This report is not accurate," said a State Department spokeswoman on condition of anonymity. While denying it made a specific overture to Shamkani, the spokeswoman repeated that Trump is open to a dialogue with Iran on "urgent national security issues" and wants Tehran to "make fundamental changes in their destructive behavior." im Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday he is resigning at the end of January. Kim's unexpected departure nearly three years before his term was set to expire, is likely to set off a fierce battle between the Trump administration and other countries who have complained about the influence the United States exerts over the World Bank. The official announcement of his departure provided no reason for his sudden departure. It will give President Donald Trump the opportunity to nominate his choice to fill the World Bank post. The 189-nation World Bank is the largest government source for development funding, providing low-cost loans for projects around the world. Since the creation of the World Bank at the end of World War II, its leaders have all been Americans. Its sister lending agency, the International Monetary Fund, has always been headed by a European. Other countries, including China and other Asian nations, have complained about this pattern. The IMF, which provides emergency loans to countries in economic crisis, is currently headed by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. South Korean media reported late Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be on his way to Beijing for his fourth summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Officials in China and in Seoul had no immediate comment. North Korea rarely reports such visits until they are over. The reports said a train like the one often used by Kim was seen crossing through the Chinese border city of Dandong late Monday amid heavy security. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency speculated the train could be carrying a senior North Korean official, while the Hankyoreh newspaper cited sources as saying Kim was in China for a summit. Yonhap said the train was expected to reach Beijing at about 10am Tuesday local time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to issue a special statement at 8pm Monday, at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. The embattled prime minister's mysterious statement left even veteran political reporters baffled as to its nature. There was speculation it was related to investigations into alleged corruption by Netanyahu. Police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in a series of corruption probes. Netanyahu called early elections last month and seeks re-election under the shadow of a possible indictment. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, and has said he would not give up his re-election campaign or resign his office if charged. A young soldier drowned in northern Israel early Monday morning during a solo navigation exercise for the Paratroopers Brigade's reconnaissance battalion, following heavy rain in the area. Three other soldiers were evacuated in light condition to local hospitals suffering from hypothermia. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi, 20, drowned in Nahal Hilazon near Karmiel in the early hours of Monday, hours after his solo navigation began in the Lower Galilee at 10pm Sunday. At around 4am, the soldiers were ordered to make their way to the end point. At around 5am, Yosefi and another soldier reached the Hilazon stream, which was between half a meter to one meter deep due to the heavy rainfall. The second soldier was able to reach the other bank, but Yosefi tripped for a yet unknown reason and was carried away by the current. Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi (Photo: Facebook) Yosefi apparently had time to tell the second soldier that he was slipping, and the latter threw a rope to him in an effort to pull him up, but to no avail. The search for Sgt. Yosefi lasted an hour and a half, and he was eventually found by the Israel Air Force's 669 Search and Rescue Unit some 100 meters away from where he tried to cross the stream. Search for Yosefi at Nahal Hilazon (Photo: Northern District Fire Department) He was airlifted to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, but was pronounced dead on the way after resuscitation attempts failed. Ground Force Commander Maj. Gen. Kobi Barak halted all navigation training, and GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan ordered the formation of a team of experts, headed by Etzioni Brigade Commander Col. Oren Simcha, to investigation the incident. Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi (Photo: Facebook) "The weather conditions last night allowed navigation in that area," IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said. "According to the weather forecast, the rain was only supposed to start in the morning." "One of the things being examined now is the state of the ground at the stream," Manelis said. "It's unclear whether the soldier was hit by something... This is a needless death, and we will draw the relevant conclusions from it." The IDF said the training plan received the proper approval from officers in the Paratroopers Brigade, including brigade commander Col. Yaki Dolef. Yosefi grew up in Tel Aviv and attended the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Bnei Brak. The yeshiva said he was "a well-manner boy with a permanent smile, very beloved by his friends and teachers." Yeshiva head Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Waxel said it was "easy to love Evyatar... he was always smiling and took on every task happily. He always offered his help to teachers, to the yeshiva and to his friends. Everyone knew they could count on him at every situation." Geor Spottle, an analyst for the Nezopont Intezet, stated on Kossuth Radio on Friday that Sipila is an example of a European politician who pampers immigrants who have committed rapes and spits on the face of his own people, according to Helsingin Sanomat . PRIME MINISTER Juha Sipilas (Centre) New Years speech has come under heavy criticism in Hungary. Id change this prime minister in the name of the people. He has no respect whatsoever for his own people, slammed Spottle. Kossuth Radio is the national radio station of Hungary. Nezopont Intezet, in turn, is a think tank established under the Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz), the ruling national-conservative populist party in Hungary. Spottles remarks were described as incredible hate-mongering propaganda by Annastiina Kallius, a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki who has previously lived in Hungary. The National Coalition continues to co-operate with Fidesz in the European Parliament. And the Finns Party is an admirer [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban. Why? she commented on Twitter on Friday. Sipila in his speech pleaded with the public not to use the sex crimes under investigation in Oulu, North Ostrobothnia, to foment hatred against foreigners and people of foreign backgrounds. First of all, everyone who comes here must follow Finnish laws and respect the inviolability of all people. We wont compromise one bit on this. Second of all, it should be emphasised that in this case, too, the suspected crimes were committed by individuals, not by population groups, he stated. The incidents are being investigated by the police and the judgements will be made by the independent judiciary. I urge everyone not to use these events to incite hatred against refugees or people with a foreign background. It is important to remember that in a state governed by the rule of law, taking the law into ones own hands is a crime, as is spreading hate speech, added Sipila. The Finnish news outlet to first report about the remarks of Spottle was Helsingin Sanomat. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi Rwandas national airline, RwandAir, announced that it will launch direct flights between Tel Aviv and Kigali following the signing of an aviation agreement between the two nations. Border Police forces at the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank noticed a Palestinian woman approaching them and ignoring calls to stop. They fired in the air before firing at her legs to neutralize her. Palestinian sources in Gaza said that the third installment of the Qatari grant, $15 million in cash, will not enter the strip this week. The announcement seems to be related to internal Palestinian tensions. When a company sees signs that consumers are losing interest in its main product, it must find a new market, or develop a new product. The same is true of political parties, which don't even get the chance to export their (ideological) merchandise. If they want to escape the twilight zone reserved for every sinking social movement, these parties must spot a gap in the market that no one else has yet detected. The Zionist left-wing parties have failed in this mission. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Rapid demographic changes, the national-religious avant-garde's astonishing activism, constant anxiety over the "Muslim enemy" and a right-wing leader's spectacular political prowess have all played a part in foiling the left-wing parties' repeated attempts to regroup. Left-wing activists demonstrating in Haifa (Photo: Ahiya Raved) Only under certain conditions could a coalition of credible figuresalbeit lacking in ideological uniformityput together an alternative government. Perhaps it would be too similar to the current coalition, but it would be more decent at least. Such a government could survive for a while before succumbing to the ideological and demographic currents from the right. As the left wing attempts to formulate an identity and a plan for the days after the inevitable defeat in April, it should address the relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority. This issue would challenge political thinkers, trigger debate, create conflicting visions and have a real impact in the political arena. Among all the important issues facing us, this is the only one that can actually be resolved by Israel's citizens. It is a far more important topic in an election season than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's future, which will nonetheless probably be at the center of the campaign. I doubt there is another country in the world with a minority with such clear characteristics living within its borders. But the pattern of conflict between a hegemonic majority and an underprivileged minority exists in many countries, and as a result there is a plethora of research and a multitude of models for harmonious coexistence. If Israeli politicians don't gain any insight from these examples, and instead make do with arguing over a nationalistic law whose sole value is symbolic and whose ultimate meager goal is to feel superior to others, we will never be free in our own country. The left's reaction to such right-wing moves are purely superficial, and come across as hysterical warnings against rising fascism. It's not enough. The left must clearly say, without obfuscating in the name of political correctness, what it believes is the long-hungered solution for good relations between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. Infinite repetition of the need to maintain a delicate balance between a "Jewish" and a "democratic" state is not enough. Complaining about the police and the discriminatory divison of land, not to mention the neglect in Arab communities, are also not enough. And so it's not surprising that the only serious attempt to create accord between the ethnic majority and the ethnic minority came from Arab intellectuals in the form of the "Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel", a paper that was published over a decade ago. As a Jew, who adheres to the vision of a Jewish State, I cannot accept this vision, but I can and do demand to discuss it, so as to find a common path forwards. Dodging this debate stems from fear. It is not the demands of the Arabs that so alarms Jewish Israelis, but the fact that a discussion about Jewish-Arab relations demands definition of the hegemonic group. The question of who we are and what we want to be is indeed a solemn one. The left must show this question is not too much for it to handle. The left must be brave and tackle the most pressing civil issue in Israel. The next time the Israeli parliament meets, after the April 9 elections, it will be without one of its most controversial politicians. Arab Israeli lawmaker Hanin Zoabi of the Joint List MK announced last week that she will not be seeking reelection, and she leaves behind a legacy of controversy, unfiltered, provocative opinions and the occasional violent outburst. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Throughout her 10-year Knesset career, Zoabis speeches and actions provided a host of sensational headlines, sparking a commotion during a plenum session on more than one occasion with her outrageous statements. She joined the Balad party back in 1997, and a decade later was placed third on the faction Knesset list. In 2009, at the age of 49, Hanin Zoabi became the first Arab woman to be elected to parliament for an Arab political party. Hanin Zoabi during a plenum session (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) Over the years, Zoabi also become very well-known to the members of the Knesset Ethics Committee, not only due to the multiple suspensions she received, but also because of her own complaints against other MKs and ministers. Zoabi's biggest controversy remains the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident. She was on board the Mavi Marmara shippart of the six-strong Gaza Freedom Flotillalwhen it set out from Turkey to Gaza in May 2010, despite the maritime blockade imposed by Israel. The Israeli naval commandos who stormed the ship outside Israeli territorial waters faced violent resistance, and the ensuing battle ended with the death of nine of the passengers. Zoabi documented the events onboard, later called the IDF soldiers murderers and went on the offensive when asked to apologize. "The person who murdered is the one who needs to apologize. You need to apologize," she retorted. Zoabi being removed from Knesset (Photo: Knesset Channel) Following the incident, Zoabi was labeled a traitor and a terrorist by multiple MKs, and an investigative committee headed by former Supreme Court justice Ya'akov Turkel established that the activists on board of the ship attacked the IDF soldiers with weapons, which could have caused death or serious injury. She was initially disqualified from the general elections following the Mavi Marmara debacle, but the Supreme Court unanimously overruled the decision by the Central Elections Committee. Zoabi was just as controversial in the plenum as she was on an anti-Israel mission. During one Knesset session, Likud lawmaker Miri Regev addressed her in Arabic, telling her to Go back to Gaza. In a 2011 parliamentary debate, President Reuven Rivlin, who was serving as Knesset speaker at the time, ordered Zoabi to be removed from the parliament. The lawmaker had to be forcefully ejected by Knesset ushers, whom she violently attacked. Zoabi protests killing of protesters on the Gaza border Four years later, during the Gaza war of 2014, know in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, Zoabi verbally and physically assaulted policemen at an anti-war demonstration in the city of Haifa. The event prompted the Ethics Committee to impose a maximum punishment on the Joint List MK, suspending her from parliament for six months. In February 2016, Zoabi and Balad colleagues Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas caused a major uproar after they met family members of terrorists who perpetrated deadly attacks against Israelis. The meeting, during which the three observed a minute of silence, was part of the Arab MKs campaign to pressure Israel into releasing the bodies of those attackers they claimed were "shaheeds" (martyrs). Zoabi speaking during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York As recently as April 2018, the Arab MK called on the Palestinians in the West Bank to join the Hamas-led "March of Return" protests on the Gaza border, and demanded an Israeli investigation into the shooting of demonstrators during violent border clashes with the IDF. "We need millions of Palestinians to march on Jerusalem. That is the aspiration. But we can't do it, because the Israelis would kill them," she said. "Israel has turned from a racist country to a fascist one." Hamas militants gained control of the Rafah crossing on Monday after the Palestinian Authority announced last night that its security forces had been withdrawn and would not continue guarding the crossing. The decision comes after a wave of arrests made by Hamas, aimed to deter Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip. Israel has succeeded in staving off a Palestinian Authority initiative to upgrade its status from observer state to member state with full voting rights at the United Nations General Assembly. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter In a bid to pass the draft resolution granting the PA full member status at the UN, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that he would appeal to the UN Security Council. Palestinian flag at UN headquarters in New York (Photo: Reuters) In addition, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had been expected to arrive at the UN headquarters in New York to promote the move, however, he has decided to dedicate his visit to take part in an event on the sidelines of the UN, rather than to promote the draft resolution. Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon led a diplomatic push to thwart the Palestinian move, in conjunction with several countries that maintain friendly relations with Israel. Danon held talks with some of the Security Council members, stressing that the Palestinian Authority does not meet the first and most crucial condition of being a permanent UN member, citing what he said was its clear policy of paying salaries to terrorists and waging an incitement campaign against Israel in textbooks and on social media. "The Palestinian Authority signs checks for terrorists, while trying to become a UN member. We've exposed the hypocrisy of the Palestinians before the international community. The PA continues paying monthly salaries to terrorists, encouraging violence and incitement, and therefore is not remotely close to being a 'peaceable country,'" Danon said. "The authority keeps erring in its attempts to promote its interests through unilateral moves, while it continues supporting terror," he said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly, September 2018 (Photo: AFP) To become a member state at the UN, a nation must be defined as "peaceable" and willing to assume the responsibilities delineated in the United Nations Charter. Furthermore, the joining state must receive a recommendation from 9 out of the 15 member states of the Security Council, followed by the approval of a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly. Realizing that the draft resolution is likely to be rejected at the General Assembly in light of Israel's efforts, the Palestinians decided to halt their efforts to promote it. US State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday. US officials discussed the schedule for the second Trump-Kim summit while in contact with North Korean officials in the Vietnamese capital city, fuelling speculation that Vietnam could host the event, the Munhwa Ilbo reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington. Young Israeli Jews arrested on suspicion of causing the death of a Palestinian woman filmed themselves burning the Israeli flag, according to a video published by the Shin Bet domestic security service on Sunday. The security forces also confiscated Israeli flags daubed with Nazi slogans from the home of one of the detained teenagers. The five minors are suspected of hurling stones at a car of Palestinian woman in October, leading to her death. Aisha al-Rawbi, 47, and her husband Aykube, 52, were driving through the junction with their nine-year-old daughter, on their way back from a family wedding in Hebron, when a large rock was thrown at their car, hitting Aisha in the head and killing her. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The five Israeli teenagers arrested in the case are suspected of a series of severe terrorism offenses, including her death. They are all under the age of 18 and have not been formally charged. The flag that was taken from the home of one of the minors had "Death to the Zionists" and "This stinking flag"alongside a drawing of a swastikawritten on it. Jewish terror suspects burn Israeli flag (: ) X Lawyers for the five suspects said their clients were being held in isolation in a bid by the Shin Bet in order to force false confessions. The Shin Bet dismissed claims that their interrogation methods were unethical. "The Shin Bet acts in accordance with the law to thwart terror activity, regardless of where it originates," said the agency in a statement. As part of the investigation into the attack, we found evidence that indicates the suspects had anti-Zionist and extremist motives evidenced by the activity and the harsh language used by the minors to attack the State of Israel and its symbols." Israeli flag with Nazi slogans confiscated by Shin Bet (Photo: Shin Bet media) "The allegations that the suspects were kidnapped by the agency are baseless," the Shin Bet said, adding that "warrants were issued by a judge before the arrest, and immediately after the teenagers families were informed. The suspects were not allowed to meet with their lawyers for the first six days of interrogation due to being suspected of terrorism offences." The Shin Bet also rejected the accusation of abuse during the interrogation process, saying that anti-terrorism measures taken by the agency are standard, and applied to all terror suspects, regardless of whether they are Arab or Jewish. Israeli flag burned by Jewish minors (Photo: Shin Bet media) "The interrogatees were held in accordance with the standard procedures, separately from adult detainees they did not raise any concerns about their well being either with the Shin Bet medical staff or the court officials during the appeal hearings, said the agencys statement, adding that the suspects were provided with Kosher food and the right to observe Shabbat. "Since the arrests began, the Shin Bet has identified an intentional and ongoing effort by interested parties to defame the agency and its personnel and delegitimize its activity. This attempt is reprehensible, and it will not dissuade the Shin Bet from continuing its activity to thwart any kind of terrorismJewish or Palestinian," the agency said. Two Israel Air Force pilots had to carry out an emergency landing after the canopy of their F-15 fighter jet detached at 30,000 feet during a training flight for a yet unknown reason. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The pilots, a captain and a lieutenant, took off from the Tel Nof Air Base on Wednesday night and were heading south. During the flight, the canopy detached, leaving the two pilots exposed to severe cold, strong winds and deafening noise. IAF F-15 'Falcon' fighter jet (file photo) (Photo: Haim Horenstein) Despite this, they decided not to eject at 30,000 feet. They reported the incident to the control tower at the Nevatim Air Base, and the base was put on alert and prepared for an emergency landing. The first few seconds were accompanied by confusion and stress, but the pilots quickly regained their composure. They were instructed to slow the plane and descend as much as possible, while at the same time land as soon as possible. This they did while facing immensely strong winds and difficulty in communicating with one another. A senior IAF official said that in such conditions, a decision to eject would have been legitimate as well, but the two pilots realized they could land the plane without risking their own lives. The IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement: "During a routine training flight, an F-15 ('Falcon') fighter jet had to land after its canopy detached. The plane's crew was in full control throughout the incident, acted with level-headedness, professionalism and great skill in handling the rare malfunction, and landed the plane safely at the Nevatim Air Base." IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin ordered to stop all training flights for F-15 Falcon fighter jets until an investigation into the incident is completed. If someone is a national threat, it should be possible to revoke their residence permit, she stated on YLE Ykkosaamu on Saturday . SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT Paula Risikko (NCP) has said she is prepared to amend the legislation to make it easier to deport people who have committed crimes after receiving a residence permit in Finland. Risikko estimated that the amendments are necessary because revoking a residence permit is currently very difficult. She also drew attention to reports that a group of men of immigrant backgrounds are suspected of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing underage girls in Oulu, North Ostrobothnia. Crimes are always shocking, but when theyre committed against children and minors they shock the entire Finland. But you have to remember that there are punishments for these. That must be made known to those who want to get to Finland. Well deliver punishments for these kinds of crimes and, if necessary, send you back to your home country, she said. In Finland, we play by Finnish laws. She added that it is also obvious that vulnerable people must be helped. But unfortunately this system and Finland is not an exception provides an opportunity for misusing the system. We must have the possibility to revoke a decision to grant a residence permit. It should even be possible to revoke permanent residence permits, said Risikko. She specified later that she believes it should be possible to revoke residence permits on grounds of a threat to national security. Currently, a Finnish residence permit can be revoked on grounds of a criminal conviction. Kai Mykkanen (NCP), the Minister of the Interior, has previously floated the possibility of stripping people convicted of aggravated sex crimes of Finnish citizenship. It wouldnt go against my sense of justice if it was possible to strip citizenship from people [convicted of aggravated sex crimes], he commented to Uusi Suomi in December. The issue has been subject to public debate after it was reported that 10 people have been detained on suspicion of involvement in several serious sex crimes Oulu. One of the suspects was arrested on an international arrest warrant in Saarbrucken, Germany, on 2 January. He is to be extradited to Finland by late January, according to a press release from the Oulu Police Department. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi The Israel Air Force attacked several terror targets at a Hamas military base in northern Gaza in retaliation for a rocket fired from the strip early Monday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, which was launched at 3:18am toward Ashkelon and the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, prompting the Code Red rocket alert. There were no reported injuries on either side. Iron Dome intercepts rocket fired from Gaza (file photo) (Photo: Reuters) The IDF said it holds Hamas responsible for all rockets emanating from its territory. On Sunday, IAF helicopters struck a Hamas position in southern Gaza in response to an explosive device sent from the strip carried by a styrofoam airplane which was using a cluster of balloons to remain airborne. The plane landed in a field in Sdot Negev Regional Council, near the Gaza border, and was neutralized by police sappers. The process caused the device to explode, but no damages or injuries were reported. About a week and a half ago, an IAF attack helicopter attacked a Hamas position in the southern Gaza Strip in response to a rocket launch toward Israel. The rocket fell in an open area in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No one was hurt and no damage was reported. The Israel Air Force attacked several terror targets at a Hamas military base in northern Gaza in retaliation for a rocket fired from the strip early Monday. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, which was launched at 3:18am toward Ashkelon and the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. BEIRUT -- The planned US troop withdrawal from Syria opens up a void in the north and east of the country, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The sudden American decision to pull out its 2,000 troops has forced a reassessment of old alliances and partnerships. The Syrian government, the Kurds, Russia, Iran, Israel and Turkey have all had a hand in the country's nearly eight-year war -- each in a way, fighting its own war for its own reasons within Syria. Now all of those conflicts play out in the territory being abandoned by the Americans, creating new tensions, potential chaos and bloodshed. John Bolton at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, January 6, 2019 To reassure jittery allies, Washington sent National Security Adviser John Bolton to Israel on Sunday, to be followed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is planning an eight-country tour of Arab allies this coming week. Here is a look at what's at stake. ___ The territory The area up for grabs is around a third of Syria, forming a rough triangle. To the north is the border with Turkey, to the east the border with Iraq, and the third side is the Euphrates River. This was the heart of the Islamic State group's foothold in Syria until the United States partnered with a Kurdish militia, creating a force of some 60,000 fighters --including some Syrian Arabs and Christian Assyrians -- that wrested it away from the militants. The territory is strategically important. For the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and its allies Russia and Iran, regaining it means re-establishing sovereignty. The territory was once the source of Syria's wheat and barley, its dams generated electricity and it holds some of Syria's richest oil resources. Without it, Assad will have a harder time with reconstruction and operating long term. For the same reasons, it's been a source of income for the Kurdish militia. For the Kurds, their hold gave weight to their long-sought goal of autonomy. For the U.S., the troop presence ensured American influence. Turkey sees Kurdish autonomy on its border as an existential threat and has vowed to prevent this, accusing the US of empowering the militia Ankara says is linked to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey. American troops in Syria (Photo: AFP) ___ Iran and Israel A Syrian government move east means the spread of Iran as well. It will dramatically widen the land corridor where Iran enjoys free rein for its allied fighters, weapons and supplies across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Already, Iranian-backed militias have expanded control over areas near Syria's border with Iraq and freely cross back and forth. That has alarmed Israel. The likely result will be increased airstrikes attributed to Israel against suspected Iranian-linked targets in Syria. Syrian air defenses in operation during an airstrike attributed to Israel in December 2018 ___ Assad and Russia Without the Americans, the door opens for Assad and his Russian backers to move in. "The only obstacle preventing Assad from gaining control of the east was the US presence and the cover that it provided to the (Kurdish militia). With that gone ... there is simply no real challenge that would prevent the regime from re-establishing control over those areas," said Ayham Kamel, of the Eurasia group. Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad meeting in Russia, May 2018 (Photo: Reuters) Abandoned by the US, the Kurdish fighters are forced to move toward Russia and Assad for protection against their more feared enemy, Turkey. Their force, armed and equipped by the US-led coalition, is unlikely to disappear. Instead, it is seeking an arrangement with Assad to continue operating as the government extends control over the territory. Syrian officials boast that the withdrawal is a defeat to America. Controlling the east would help seal Assad's victory in the civil war. The American move also accelerates a trend by Arab states to normalize relations with Assad, whom they shunned for years. The United Arab Emirates, a close US and Saudi ally, recently reopened its embassy in Damascus. ___ Turkey vs. Kurds, Russia and Assad Turkey's military, along with some 15,000 allied Syrian rebel fighters, is poised to launch an offensive in the east to break Kurdish control over the border. But an offensive risks creating friction with Russia. In particular, it could wreck a cease-fire agreement the two reached over Idlib, the northwestern province held by rebels and Islamic militants where Turkey has influence -- enabling a Syrian government assault on the province. Russian and Turkish officials have been holding talks, trying to avert tensions. Turkish tanks deploying on Syria-Turkey border (Photo: AFP) "A massive Turkish operation is not in Russia's interest. It destabilizes the situation, risks undermining Idlib agreements and talks on reconstruction. Plus, if Turkey decides to capture all of the Kurdish areas it will inevitably clash with Russia and Iran," said Yury Barmin, a Russia analyst. Turkey is equally concerned over the prospect of Syrian government control over the east. In the past, Damascus has used the Kurdish militia as leverage against Ankara and could do so again. For nearly 20 years, Syria hosted the main Kurdish leader until he was captured in 1998, now imprisoned in Turkey. ___ US, Turkey and Islamic State President Donald Trump dismissed the idea that the US needs influence in the conflict, saying Syria was nothing but "sand and death." He claims the US mission there -- to fight IS -- has largely been completed. But IS still holds pockets and US-led coalition officials warn it could surge again. There has also been growing unrest among Arab tribes in the east, disgruntled by the Kurdish-led administration. They too are likely to be a source of tension and may be leveraged by the different players for their own advantages. IS fighters with hostages in Syria Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Trump his forces could take over fighting IS. In two previous offensives, Turkish forces and their Syrian allies retook territory in the northwest from IS and Kurdish fighters. But their track record of abuses, forced displacement of Kurds and lawlessness raises concern over whether they can exercise authority in the east. "The force that Erdogan has to offer Trump to replace the (Kurdish militia) in eastern Syria is not large enough, locally legitimate enough, and quite frankly not vettable enough, for the standards of the US military," said Nick Heras, a Syria expert with the Center for a New American Security. Our daughter Noga is a big sister to two healthy girls. She's been suffering from various medical conditions since birth. Now, 13 years after she was born, she is yet to receive a proper medical diagnosis that might explain her condition. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Our story begins on August 15, 2005, when, shortly after Noga was born, doctors told us that she has an abnormally small head and a displaced rectum. Noga Barash They said she needed to undergo several medical tests and even surgery in the future. We felt like we were in good hands until I starting nursing her and her face turned blue. Noga was immediately taken into a special neonatal intensive care unit to receive oxygen therapy. We spent three weeks in the intensive care unit, trying to understand how to feed Noga, who wasn't gaining enough weight. We struggled to get a proper medical diagnosis that might shed light on her condition. Just imagine, having a first child, and soon thereafter fighting to save her life. Eventually Noga was discharged from the hospital with a monitor and an oxygen tank but without a diagnosis. From then on, the list of medical symptoms she was experiencing kept getting longer. Doctors said she was suffering from developmental delays, acute scoliosis, and structural changes in the brain. We kept trying to put the puzzle pieces together and find a diagnosis that might explain all her symptoms. Noga underwent several surgeries. One operation, a surgery to repair a simple eye problem, ended with pulmonary edema and with Noga's admittance into an intensive care unit. Why? We still dont know. Seeing our daughter connected to a ventilator is the image that comes to mind whenever she goes into surgery. Sadly, Noga has undergone a lot of operations, and there are still more to come. There is no medical prognosis to explain her condition. No one knows if a certain drug or a particular treatment can help Noga or cause harm. Meanwhile, our daughter serves as a human guinea pig for drugs and medical treatments while she suffers from a variety of side effects. Even today, after Noga undergone numerous surgeries and tests, no one knows how to improve her condition or prevent further damage. The lack of a proper prognosis not only affects Noga's medical condition, but our daily lives as well. Unless we 'borrow' other medical terms, such as autism or cerebral palsy, the government will not recognize her condition. Sometimes people say: "what is the purpose of a diagnosis if you're not planning on having more children? Even if Noga's condition is diagnosed, since she suffers from a rare disease, she still won't be given proper medication." To this we say: yes, diagnosis is important, in fact, it is crucial to several aspects in her life. Having no diagnosis means Noga doesn't fit into any category. Therefore, even the Ministry of Education doesn't know where to place her, and so, a guinea pig once again, our daughter wanders from one education framework to the next. Noga Barash Since Noga's condition isnt diagnosed, she has no peers who suffer from the same condition, to whom she can relate. Similarly, there are no family support groups, no association is willing to sponsor her, and, for a few years, she wasnt even entitled to disability benefits. As a biologist, I worked at the Institute for Rare Diseases at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and encountered many families who are desperate for a diagnosis. You find yourself going from one doctor to the next in the hopes that a new doctor can figure out what's wrong. Some children eventually receive a diagnosis, and as a result, get proper treatment. One of the most popular songs at a children show our girls dragged us to was "don't tag me". Noga even appeared in a music video calling for equality for people with disabilities. I agree with my daughter, people shouldn't be "tagged" or labeled, yet I want my daughter's condition to have a label, then, I might know what her future holds. Dr. Hila Barash will deliver a lecture on the importance of diagnosis at the "Connected" conference of the Israeli Association for Child Development and Rehabilitation, which will take place between January 9 and 10 at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. Please disable your ad blocker, and refresh the page to view this content. A 97-year-old veteran from the island of Taiwan pays his respects to his parents in Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan Province in April 2017. Photo: Courtesy of Jinri Toutiao More than 100 veterans in the island of Taiwan have found their relatives in the Chinese mainland with the assistance of big data analysis technology. Liu Yaliang, director of the "Finding missing relatives" initiated by Jinri Toutiao, one of China's most popular social media platforms, told the Global Times on Sunday that the project has helped 101 Taiwan's veterans find their hometowns in the mainland, with the oldest one being 100 years old. Liu said one of the veterans has been separated from his relatives in the mainland for 80 years. In 1949, the Kuomintang (KMT) Party led by Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in a civil war by the Communist Party of China, which later founded the People's Republic of China. Many KMT members fled to Taiwan in the aftermath of the conflict, causing many families to be split up. According to the company, it first utilized its location database to pinpoint veterans' hometowns and then sent messages to the region's users who have installed the application to spread the information. In March 2017, the first veteran who found his hometown was Hu Dingyuan, 97, whose relatives are living in Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. After reading the message, a journalist from the Chengdu Business Daily voluntarily went to Luzhou and found Hu's relatives who had lost touch with Hu for 77 years on April 10. "These veterans came back immediately after finding their hometowns and relatives in the mainland through the platform," Liu said. She said these soldiers "worshiped their parents and had a family reunion dinner with folks and relatives." "When departure, most of the veterans chose to take back a bottle of homeland soil to Taiwan," Liu added. "Occasionally, a deceased veteran's descendant would bring his bone ashes and place them in the family graveyard." The project was officially launched in December 2017 following a nine-month trial, and is supported by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Liu said. Washington (AFP) - A US Navy guided-missile destroyer on Monday sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea where Beijing has built military installations, sparking anger in China as trade talks between the two countries kicked off. The US and its allies periodically send planes and warships through the area, which is claimed by China, to signal to Beijing their right under international law to pass through the waters. The USS McCampbell sailed within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) of the Paracel Islands "to challenge excessive maritime claims," US Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr told AFP. She added that so-called "freedom of navigation" operations are "not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements." Beijing confirmed the sail-by, calling it a violation of China's sovereignty which has damaged "peace, safety and order" in the South China Sea. Aircraft and warships were scrambled, sending out warnings for the American vessel to leave the area, known as Xisha in Chinese. "We urge the US to immediately stop such provocative actions," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing, adding that Beijing had lodged a diplomatic complaint with Washington. "China will continue to take the necessary measures to defend national sovereignty and security." The operation came as Chinese and US officials kicked off talks in Beijing to find a solution to a bitter trade war that prompted the two sides to impose tariffs last year on more than $300 billion in total two-way trade. "All operations... demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe," McMarr said. The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Beijing asserts nearly all of the South China Sea as its territory, while Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts. Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's newly created independent Orthodox Church held its first service in Kiev on Monday after a historic break with the Russian Orthodox Church that has enraged Moscow. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attended the service in Kiev's most ancient church, the 11th-century Saint Sophia's Cathedral, as Ukrainian Orthodox believers celebrated Christmas Day according to the Julian Calendar. The service came a day after the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew based in Istanbul handed over a formal decree that finalised recognition of Ukraine's new Church. "We broke the last bonds that tied us to Moscow with its fantasies about Ukraine as the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church," Poroshenko said after the service. Clerics showed worshippers in the cathedral the decree that formally sealed a break with the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Yepifaniy, the 39-year-old leader of the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, led the service, which he called "a truly historic event." "The doors of our united Orthodox Church are open to everyone," he told the assembled believers. "There is still a lot of joint work ahead to strengthen this unity." The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill earlier Monday held a Christmas service at Moscow's Church of Christ the Saviour while President Vladimir Putin attended a church in his hometown of Saint Petersburg. In an interview with Russian channel Rossiya 1, Patriarch Kirill slammed the new Ukrainian church as "a union of two schismatic groups" and accused the Kiev authorities of destroying the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. "This is turning into a theatre of the absurd," he said. For more than 300 years the Ukrainian Church was split into three, with one Church overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow. The Kiev government now considers this unacceptable given its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in the east that has already killed more than 10,000 people. Story continues The Russian-controlled branch of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has refused to participate in establishing a unified church and has broken off ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Constantinople Patriarch's decision to recognise the Ukrainian Church's independence from Russia was a huge blow to Moscow's spiritual authority in the Orthodox world. The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly voiced fears that Ukraine will make legal moves or even use force to seize churches and monasteries that it currently controls, and some priests have told parishioners to be ready to defend them. Poroshenko has stressed that the government will respect the choice of believers who remain faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate. By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the latest challenge to California's ban on foie gras, a delicacy produced from the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed corn. The court declined to hear an appeal by producers of foie gras, including the Association des Eleveurs de Canards et d'Oies du Quebec, a Canadian nonprofit that represents duck and goose farmers. In doing so, the high court left intact a 2017 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the law. Animal rights groups contend that the force-feeding process is painful, gruesome and inhumane. California enacted the law in 2004 but it did not go into effect until 2012. The Supreme Court in 2014 rejected an earlier appeal brought by producers and restaurants. Foie gras means "fatty liver" in French. The product is produced by force-feeding corn to ducks and geese to enlarge their livers, which are harvested to make gourmet dishes. The law specifically bans any product created by "force feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird's liver beyond a normal size." (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham) By Steve Holland JERUSALEM (Reuters) - White House national security adviser John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States' Kurdish allies. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pullout from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be attacked by their long-time enemy, Turkey. Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be protected. Ahead of talks with Israeli officials, he told reporters the pullout would be done in a way that guaranteed the Islamic State jihadist group "is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again." And it would be carried out in such a way as to "make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." Asked whether a U.S. withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said: "Basically, that's right." The Syrian YPG militia has been highly effective in the war against Islamic State, a part of the wider Syrian conflict pitting a range of insurgent groups against President Bashar al-Assad's forces and sometimes against each other. But Turkey has long castigated Washington for its military relationship with the YPG. Ankara regards the YPG an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish armed group that has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey for over three decades. "PRESIDENT'S REQUIREMENT" "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum," Bolton said, "so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered." The YPG has indicated that it might seek a deal with Damascus after the U.S. forces have gone. Bolton, who will travel to Turkey on Monday, said the United States would talk to Ankara to find out what its objectives and capabilities were. Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey's targets were the YPG, the PKK and Islamic State. "One aim of Turkey's fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group," state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Kalin as saying, in comments that emerged after Bolton made his remarks. "Turkey will continue decisively its efforts to end the war, provide security, and implement the process of political transition without discriminating between our Syrian brothers on the basis of religion, ethnicity or sect," Kalin said. In Washington on Sunday, Trump reiterated that the United States would be pulling its troops out of Syria but suggested the move might not happen soon. "I never said we are doing it that quickly. But we are decimating ISIS," Trump told reporters. Later on Sunday Bolton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reassured Israel and other allies of the United States' commitment to their security. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kevin Liffey) By Arshad Mohammed, Jonathan Landay and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A routine U.S.-hosted conference of nations fighting the Islamic State militant group has become a damage control effort following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. The previously scheduled conference, tentatively set for Feb. 7 in Washington, aims to gather ministers from many of the 79 nations in the Global Coalition To Defeat Islamic State and galvanize their fight against the militant group. However, Trump's shock Dec. 19 decision to withdraw and the mixed signals Washington has sent about when it may pull out the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria have left U.S. allies and partners rethinking their own commitments. In the latest ambiguous signal, a senior State Department official on Friday first told reporters the United States has no timeline for the withdrawal of troops from Syria and then said it does not plan to stay indefinitely. Another senior State Department official, also briefing reporters before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to the Middle East next week, said one of his main messages would be that "the United States is not leaving the Middle East." "Despite reports to the contrary and false narratives surrounding the Syria decision, we are not going anywhere." However, three sources familiar with the matter said that the Trump administration is still working assiduously to contain the fallout from Trump's troop decision. A Pentagon adviser described the conference as part of a "damage control" effort necessitated by Trumps abrupt decision and as designed to explain to the coalition members "that nothing has been put in place" with regard to the pullout. "This (Trump's withdrawal announcement) was a slap-dash, individual decision" that angered and frustrated U.S. military commanders and blind-sided members of the anti-ISIS coalition, said the Pentagon adviser on condition of anonymity. "This is nothing more than damage limitation." Other people familiar with the administration's discussions stressed that the meeting had been previously scheduled, but one said it had been given "extra urgency" by the troop decision. A State Department spokeswoman who declined to be identified confirmed the conference was going ahead as scheduled and that "save the date" invitations had gone out but she declined comment on the agenda, saying it was still being worked out. Another source familiar with administration discussions said the meeting had been made more pressing and more difficult by the mixed signals about the withdrawal, possibly making foreign officials reluctant to attend until there is greater clarity. "They are trying to square the circle of what the president said and what they (other U.S. officials) want to do, which is not easy," said this person, who is familiar with the administration's discussions on the issue. U.S.-backed forces are still retaking territory from Islamic State in Syria, Pentagon officials said on Friday, two weeks after Trump said the troops had succeeded in their mission and were no longer needed there. Trump has provided a number of different timelines on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. On Dec. 19, he said that the forces would be "coming back now." A few days later, he tweeted that the pullout would be "slow and highly coordinated." Earlier this week Trump said the withdrawal would be "over a period of time." While military planners have looked at various timelines, U.S. officials have told Reuters it could take several months to carry out a withdrawal, potentially giving time for U.S.-backed forces to deal parting blows to the militant group that once held broad swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. One of the proposals under consideration is a 120-day withdrawal period, according a person familiar with discussions. Two sources familiar with the discussions predicted it would take at least until the end of 2019 to complete a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria. "Even if they wanted to, they couldnt be out in four months," said the Pentagon adviser on condition of anonymity. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Mary Milliken and James Dalgleish) Oslo (AFP) - Hundreds of people observed two minutes of silence on Monday in Norway in honour of two Scandinavian women hikers murdered in Morocco's Atlas Mountains in December. Standing in the cold with flags flying at half-mast at the University of South-Eastern Norway in the town of Bo, the participants gathered to remember 28-year-old Maren Ueland from Norway, and 24-year-old Dane Louisa Vesterager Jespersen. Both were both students there. The two women were killed at an isolated hiking spot south of Marrakesh overnight December 16-17, where they were vacationing. Their bodies were found the following day. The authorities have said they were beheaded and are calling the crime a "terrorist" act. The university addressed the murders with students on Monday morning as classes resumed after the Christmas break. "We talked with the students and tried not to understand what can't be understood, but we tried to make it easier for the students to put words on what has happened," Annette Bischoff, the head of the faculty where the two women were studying to be travel guides, told AFP. "This is very difficult for all of us, especially for the students who lived and studied with them," she said. The Moroccan authorities have arrested a total of 22 people in connection with the murders. They include the four main suspects and a Spanish-Swiss man who had links to some of the suspects and who subscribed to "extremist ideology", say Moroccan officials. The main suspects belonged to a cell inspired by Islamic State group ideology, but none of the four had contact with IS members in Syria or Iraq, Morocco's counter-terror chief Abdelhak Khiam told AFP. Washington (AFP) - FBI agents and air traffic controllers were among 800,000 federal workers left unpaid Friday after a US government shutdown sparked by Donald Trump's controversial Mexico border wall plan neared record length, bringing the president to the verge of declaring a national emergency. Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to fund border wall construction has morphed from a crowd-pleasing campaign slogan to an epic political fight paralyzing Washington, setting an ominous precedent for the remaining two years of the real estate magnate's troubled first term. He renewed his Twitter barrage Friday, calling the situation on the Mexican border "an invasion" and insisting that without a wall, "our Country cannot be safe. Criminals, Gangs, Human Traffickers, Drugs & so much other big trouble." But unable to persuade opposition Democrats to give him the money, Trump refused three weeks ago to sign off on swaths of unrelated government funding for employees as varied as law enforcement officials and museum staff around the country. On Friday, that partial government shutdown hit the 21-day mark, equaling the record from previous funding freezes and marking the first day in the saga that paychecks failed to appear for many workers. Trump's strategy was to use the shutdown to pressure Congress into giving him the wall money but the Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, haven't budged, saying they won't even discuss wall funding before government is fully reopened. The impasse leaves Trump with few options other than to relent or to declare a national emergency on the Mexican border, giving himself authority to bypass Congress and order wall funds to be squeezed from other budgets. He appears close to taking the second option, which opponents say will be immediately challenged in court as a case of presidential overreach. On Thursday, Trump took his message to the Texas border with Mexico and insisted once more that he has "the absolute right to declare a national emergency." Story continues And the top Senate Republican, Lindsey Graham, tweeted that it was "Time for President @realDonaldTrump to use emergency powers to build Wall/Barrier." "I hope it works," he added. In preparation for the possible emergency move, the White House has asked the military to look into diverting funds currently allocated for disaster relief to the wall, US media reported -- a move that would heighten the polemic. - Battle of egos - The standoff has turned into a test of political ego, particularly for Trump, who came into office boasting of his dealmaking powers and making an aggressive border policy the keystone of his nationalist agenda. Democrats, meanwhile, seem determined at all costs to prevent a president who relishes campaign rally chants of "build the wall!" from getting a win. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the US-Mexican frontier presents major challenges, ranging from the hyper-violent Mexican drug trade to the plight of asylum seekers and poor migrants seeking new lives in the world's richest country. There's also little debate that border walls are needed: about a third of the frontier is already fenced off. But Trump has turned his single-minded push for more walls into a political crusade seen by opponents as a stunt to stoke xenophobia in his right-wing voter base, while willfully ignoring the border's complex realities. Using typically polarizing language, Trump spoke in McAllen, Texas, on Thursday of cross-border criminals pouring into the country to commit murder. "They just go where there's no security and you don't even know the difference between Mexico and the United States," he told a meeting of border patrol officers. "They have women tied up, they have tape over their mouths, electrical tape. "If we had a barrier of any kind, a powerful barrier, whether its steel or concrete... we would stop it cold," Trump said. In fact, widely respected studies show that illegal immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States. Also, while some narcotics do enter the country across remote sections of the border, the majority is sneaked through heavily guarded checkpoints, the government's own Drug Enforcement Administration said in a 2017 report. It said that most smuggling is done "through US ports of entry (POEs) in passenger vehicles with concealed compartments or commingled with legitimate goods on tractor trailers." Bangkok (AFP) - The Saudi woman who made a desperate plea for asylum after landing at Bangkok airport has been placed "under the care" of the United Nations refugee agency, a Thai official said late Monday. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. The 18-year-old said she had planned to seek asylum in Australia and feared she would be killed if repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The incident comes as Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny over the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn had said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because of her lack of documents. But he made an abrupt about-face the next day, following a global media frenzy as the young woman pleaded on Twitter for different countries to help her. After announcing that Thailand "will not force her" to leave, Surachate told reporters late Monday that Qunun would be "allowed to stay" after a meeting with officials from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. "She is under the care of the UNHCR now but we also sent Thai security to help take care (of her)," Surachate told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport. He said Qunun had told UNHCR officials she "wants to stay in Thailand for a while while seeking asylum to a third country". The agency "will take five days to consider her status" and another five days to arrange for travel, Surachate said, adding that he would meet with Saudi diplomats on Tuesday to explain Thailand's decision. Following the announcement, a relieved Qunun tweeted that she felt safe "under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities", adding that her passport had been returned to her after being taken away on Sunday. Story continues UNHCR's spokesman in Geneva Babar Baloch confirmed Qunun had "left the airport to a safe place in the city" and said agency officials would interview her once she had had some rest. Surachate had told reporters earlier Monday Qunun was stopped by immigration because Saudi officials had contacted them to say she had fled her family. "Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send anyone to die," he said. "We will take care of her as best as we can." - Barricaded in - Qunun had earlier posted a video on Twitter of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture in a bid to stop her deportation from Thailand. She said Saudi and Kuwaiti officials had taken her passport from her when she landed -- a claim backed by Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, told Saudi-owned TV channel Khalijia that the woman's father -- a senior regional government official -- had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" bringing her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. A Twitter statement from the Saudi embassy in Bangkok said Qunun was stopped by Thai authorities for "violating the law". - 'Facing grave harm' - The ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. If sent back, Qunun told AFP she would likely be imprisoned and was "sure 100 percent" her family would kill her. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair," she said. HRW's Robertson said Qunun "faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia". "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored," he said. "She has clearly stated that she has renounced Islam which also puts her at serious risk of prosecution by the Saudi Arabian government." An Australian government spokesman said the claims made by Qunun "that she may be harmed if returned to Saudi Arabia are deeply concerning" and they are monitoring the case "closely". Australian embassy representatives in Bangkok have reached out to Thai authorities and the UNHCR to "seek assurances" that she will be able to access the "refugee status determination process". The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. dhc-burs/amu KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have stormed security posts in west Afghanistan, killing 21 police and pro-government militia members, officials said on Monday, the latest in a surge of attacks that has cast doubt on tentative steps toward talks. The Taliban attacked the checkpoints in two different parts of Badghis province, which is on the border with Turkmenistan, late on Sunday, provincial officials said. Abdul Aziz Bek, head of the Badghis provincial council, said 14 policemen and seven members of pro-government militias were killed, while nine were injured. A second government official, Jamshid Shahabi, a spokesman for the Badghis provincial governor, said more than 15 Taliban militants were killed and 10 wounded in the clashes. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, among the most deadly in the province in many months. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said in statement they killed 34 members of the security forces and pro-government militias and seized many weapons and ammunition. Leaders of the hardline Islamist group and the U.S. officials are scheduled to meet this month to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire. Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times in recent months to try to agree on a way to end the 17-year war. But in the meantime, both sides are keeping up their attacks. The Taliban say they are fighting to topple the Western-backed government and restore strict Islamic law after their ouster in 2001. The United States and its allies say they want to stop Afghanistan from becoming a haven for international Islamist militants plotting attacks in the West. In a separate incident on Monday, at least five civilians were killed and eight wounded in a bomb blast in the eastern province of Paktika. The Taliban left the bomb in a village square, said provincial official Mohammad Rasoul Adel. A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Storay Karimi and Jalil Rezaee in Herat and Anwarullah Mohabbat in Khost; Writing by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Editing by Robert Birsel) News Updates Would you like to receive an email newsletter alerting you to the top news stories and sports stories from The Ouachita Citizen, The Franklin Sun and the Concordia Sentinel each week? Sign up today! Reuters James Holmes Security, Asia We asked one of the world's leading experts that very question. Is Taiwan's Military Really Ready to Take on China? Chinese president Xi Jinping issued his latest threat to Taiwan during what the BBC artfully calls a speech marking 40 years since the start of improving ties between the communist-ruled mainland and the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. Xi exhorted Taiwanese to accept that they must and will be unified with the mainland. Sheesh. If forty years of improving ties culminate in threats to wipe out your negotiating partners political existence, Id shudder to think how forty years of deteriorating ties across the Taiwan Strait would have turned out. But Xis remarks do warrant taking stock of Taiwans defense afresh. To measure the adequacy of Taiwans defense, first, survey its overall strategic posture and then the state of its land, air and sea power. If the ROC armed forces are sufficient to discharge the tasks entrusted to them by the political leadership in Taipei, then the island is in sound shape to uphold its independence. If Taipei has assigned the military more to do than it can reasonably do, then trouble looms: missions must be cut or capabilities expanded until ends and means are in sync. First, strategy. Fewand by few I mean nonations boast the diplomatic, economic and military resources and political artistry to get everything they want. That being the case, they survey the surroundings and devise a strategy for a world of many goals and scarce resources. At its most fundamental, strategy is the art and science of setting and enforcing priorities among things or purposes the nation values, and apportioning resources to attain the priorities it cherishes most. You cant have it all. The Republic of Chinaan island state under the shadow of a continental giant bent on absorbing it by means peaceful or violentmust be more ruthless with itself than most when setting and enforcing priorities. Story continues Self-discipline hasnt always been the Taiwanese way. For example, strategists on the island have a habit of placing inordinate importance on defending outlying possessions, islands hard aboard the China coast and in the South China Sea. It strains credulity to think the ROC armed forces could defend the main island of Formosa while also holding offshore islands deep within waters and skies dominated by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The Taiwanese military would scatter air and sea assets all over the map in an attempt to do so, at a time when they are heavily outnumbered by increasingly capable PLA counterparts. For political reasons, Taipei probably cannot publicly write off the islandsfew leaders get away with forfeiting sovereign territorybut President Tsai Ing-wen and her lieutenants should tacitly demote them on the ROCs list of priorities. Successfully defend Formosa and preserve your national life, then you can worry about recovering lost peripheral territories. The commitment to national integrity would remain, but Taipei would have accepted it may have to fulfill that commitment in phases rather than all at once. This is not a palatable way of doing things, but it is reality when trying to survive amid moral danger. So to estimate whether Taiwanese strategy comports with reality, gauge whether Taipei is taking a gimlet-eyed approach to fixing priorities or is trying to do everything, everywhere, with a slender inventory of diplomatic, economic and military resources. Small states under duress must decide what they want most, apply themselves single-mindedly to obtain it, and downgrade or triage the rest. Second, military power. The ROC armed forces are undergoing a cultural revolution and are moving in the right direction, if not at the pace friends of Taiwan might like. The cultural revolution is this. During the Cold War, the Taiwanese Navy and Air Force planned to rule the seas and skies adjoining Taiwanese territory. ROC ships and warplanes were fewer in number than those deployed by the lumbering PLA Navy and Air Force. But they were more technologically sophisticated than their Chinese nemeses, and ROC seamanship and airmanship were better to boot. Superior qualityboth material and humanoffset inferior quantity. The culture of command of the sea and sky was imprinted on Taiwans military culture over the course of many decades of strategic competition with the mainland. That the ROC military worked closely with the U.S. military, a force steeped in command of the common, did little to disabuse ROC warriors of their ingrained assumptions about how to wage combat. The notion that a few doughty ROC ships and planes would take to the sea and air and beat back the PLA has been under strain since the 1970s when the United States withdrew formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China. No longer could Taipei count on that allied support when the chips were down. The strain intensified during the 1990s when the PLA set out to reinvent itself as a modern high-tech force. As a force more like the ROC and U.S. militaries, in other words. Chinese shipbuilding, aviation technology, and weapons design have made steady inroads for the past twenty yearscutting into Taiwans edge in quality while calling into question the conceit that ROC quality will beat PLA quantity. In short, the PLA has narrowed if not abolished the Taiwanese militarys technological advantage while also remaining far superior in brute numbers. The islanders may still hold an edge in tactical skill and elan, but, at some point, mainland forces will prevail by weight of numbers amplified by gee-whiz technology. What does this have to do with culture and a cultural revolution? Think about what military folk and their institutions are. As scientist Richard Dawkins teaches, human beings are susceptible to memes. We think of memes as jokes or snark that go viral online, attracting massive readership or viewership, and that is one example of it. But a meme is something more basic. Dawkins sometimes refers to a meme as a mind virus. It is an idea or image that spreads to person to person by a kind of mental contagion, capturing the fancy of those exposed to it. Dawkins takes an upbeat view of how memes work, contending that they emerge from a kind of evolutionary process: ideas are tried out and the fittest survive, becoming memes. A new idea may eventually emerge, natural selection resumes, and either the new idea becomes the meme or the old one outlasts it and remains in force. But now take a group of individuals susceptible to memes, put them in a bureaucratic organization, and put some of them in authority over the organization. What happens if a mental virus about how the institution should conduct its affairs goes viral among the leadership? Well, a bureaucracy is a sort of machine that mass-produces routine tasks. It runs on standard rules, regulations and procedures. If a meme captures its leaders minds, theyre apt to reshape those rules, regulations and procedures in keeping with it. In effect they incorporate the viral idea into the programming that governs how the machine functions. Once encoded in the bureaucratic workings, a meme is hard to dislodge; the leadership does what leaders do and punishes those who flout bureaucratic routine while rewarding those who comply and keep the machinery running smoothly. The process of natural selection among ideas slows down or grinds to a haltleaving the machine set in its ways. It resists trying to reinvent itself as the surroundings change around it, as they will in strategic affairs. Something dramatic if not traumatic may have to happen to jolt the institution out of its meme-driven way of transacting business. In the case of martial institutions, a catastrophic defeat has a way of clearing out ideas that have outlived their usefulness. Sufficiently hardheaded leadership might do so as well. Some of the memes impelling ROC military routine are the ones listed here: command the sea, command the sky, make quality overpower quantity. These were fitting for their times, but times have changed. ROC officialdom seems to understand this, but no shock to the system has discredited the old memes. That being the case, the machine tends to adapt by increments. For example, the Taiwanese Navy has begun acquiring small, stealthy patrol craft more suitable for denying the PLA Navy access to the waters adjoining Formosa than for fighting a major fleet battle for maritime command. It has armed them with indigenous anti-ship missiles able to give Chinese invaders a bad day. Wonderful! But the navy is only procuring a dozen such crafthardly a swarm capable of descending on and defeating a PLA invasion force. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Navy also maintains a legacy force of destroyers, frigates and amphibious warships best suited to fighting major surface engagements and projecting power onto foreign shores. The ROC battle fleet is visibly and increasingly out of step with the tactical and operational setting in East Asia. It also consumes resources that could go to the sea-denial fleet. In short, no shock to the ROC Navys way of naval warfare and collective psyche has compelled the force to embrace the new normal of PLA predominance, as well as ships, planes and armaments best fitted to compete in a sea-denial world. The meme is giving waybut at a glacial bureaucratic pace. As a result, Taiwans maritime strategy risks falling behind the times even as strongman Xi and other communist chieftains rattle their sabers. The same could be said of Taipeis air strategy, predicated on high-end fighters such as F-16s and F-35 stealth fighters. This at a time when airfields and other infrastructure are increasingly untenable in the face of PLA Rocket Force ballistic missiles and PLA Air Force combat aircraft. Aviators too are susceptible to memes. Nor, I should say, am I picking on Taiwan here. A meme spread throughout the U.S. Navy a quarter-century ago maintaining, in effect, that naval history had ended with the demise of the Soviet Navy. We no longer had to prepare to battle peer fleets to rule the main. We let the skills and hardware for major sea fights atrophyand are now scrambling to restore our fighting ability now that an age of great-power competition and strife is upon us. No one is immune to mind viruses. To evaluate Taiwans defenses, ask whether Taipei is asking too much of the armed forcesand whether the armed forces are remaking themselves adequately to cope with todays brave new world. James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and coauthor of Defending the Strait (Brookings, 2011). The views voiced here are his alone. Image: Reuters Read full article By Marwa Rashad RIYADH (Reuters) - Syrias chief opposition negotiator said on Sunday he was surprised by countries rebuilding ties with the Syrian government and urged them to reverse their decision. Arab states, including some that once backed rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, are seeking to reconcile with him after decisive gains by his forces in the war, aiming to expand their influence in Syria at the expense of non-Arab Turkey and Iran. The United Arab Emirates re-opened its embassy in Damascus last month and Bahrain said its embassy there, and the Syrian diplomatic mission in Manama, had been operating without interruption. "We do not have the power to stop this reconciliation," Nasr Hariri told reporters in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, where he is based. "We still hope there is a possibility for (these countries) to revisit their decisions and realize that the real and solid relation should be with their brothers of the Syrian people not with the regime that has committed all these crimes," he said. "Bashar al-Assad will remain a war criminal even if thousands of leaders had a handshake with him." Kuwait said last week it expected more Arab countries to reopen embassies in Damascus in coming days, although the move would need a green light from the Arab League. Syrias membership of the Arab League was suspended in 2011 in response to the governments violent crackdown on Arab Spring protests. For Syria to be reinstated, the League must reach a consensus. "We do not think it would be a sound step to readmit Syria into the Arab League. We think this is a decision that wont be in the interest of the political process," Hariri said. U.S-allied Gulf Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were the main regional backers of armed groups opposed to Assad, providing finance or weapons or both, acting largely as part of a program of support for the armed opposition coordinated by Washington. (Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Giles Elgood) Beijing (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived Tuesday on an unannounced visit to Beijing for talks with President Xi Jinping, as preparations ramp up for an expected second summit with Donald Trump. China is the key ally of isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea and its main source of trade and aid. After arriving in the Chinese capital, Kim met with Xi for around an hour, Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported late Tuesday, citing unnamed sources who said the talks focused on a possible summit with US President Trump and ways to deepen ties. Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju then attended a dinner hosted by Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Yonhap reported. China's foreign ministry earlier said Kim would meet with Chinese leaders to discuss "relevant issues" but did not reveal more about his itinerary. The North Korean leader, accompanied by several senior officials, had left Pyongyang on his private train on Monday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The trip, at Xi's invitation, is set to run until Thursday, according to KCNA and China's official Xinhua news agency. Kim's fourth visit to China comes a week after he warned in a New Year's speech that Pyongyang may change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persists with sanctions. "Both Xi and Kim see value in coordinating their positions in advance of Trump-Kim summits. That appears to be a pattern," Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. "Kim also seeks Beijing's help in getting international sanctions eased." While China and Russia have both said the United Nations should consider relaxing sanctions on Pyongyang, Trump insisted Sunday that they would remain "in full force" until the US sees "very positive" results on the nuclear issue. Kim's trip coincides with the second day of talks between US and Chinese officials in Beijing aimed at resolving their trade war, but China rejected the notion that it was using the North Korean issue as a bargaining chip in the negotiations. Story continues "Xi also gains from a summit with Kim -- and the timing could not be any better," said Harry Kazianis, director of defence studies at the Center for the National Interest, a US think tank. "With Chinese and US officials meeting to discuss how to end the growing trade war between the two superpowers, it shows Beijing clearly has a North Korea card to play if it sees fit." The trip began under the usual veil of secrecy and Kim has not been spotted in public since a motorcade believed to be carrying the North Korean entourage left a Beijing train station under heavy security early Tuesday. While the visit was the second item on China's evening news broadcast, newscasters simply read out a statement from the morning without showing any images of the visit. - 'Like family' - Kim -- whose birthday is reportedly on Tuesday -- visited China three times last year for talks with Xi. "This is Kim's first birthday in China. It shows his close relationship with China, like members of one family," said Beijing-based independent political commentator Hua Po. But relations hit a rough patch in recent years as China backed the UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear tests. Until his first trip in March, Kim had not met Xi in the six years after inheriting power from his father. "At different times, our interactions are different, but communication is maintained," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular press briefing. "As to in what form this is reflected, I don't think there's a need to read too much into it," Lu said, adding that US trade talks and Kim's visit were unrelated. A whirlwind of diplomacy enveloped the Korean peninsula last year, with Kim also meeting the South's President Moon Jae-in three times, and culminating in his high-profile Singapore summit with Trump in June. In Singapore, Kim and Trump signed a vaguely worded pledge about denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled amid disagreements over what that means, with meetings and visits cancelled at short notice. - 'Springboard' for Trump summit? - In Seoul, Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for the presidential Blue House, said it had been aware of the visit in advance. "We hope that the latest exchange between China and the North will help establish complete denuclearisation and permanent peace on the Korean peninsula and serve as a springboard for a second North-US summit," he said. Negotiations were underway on the location of their next meeting with Kim, Trump said Sunday, while remaining evasive on its timing. The US president said last week he had received a "great letter" from the North Korean leader but declined to reveal its contents. Washington is demanding Pyongyang give up its nuclear arsenal before any relief from sanctions is granted, while the North is insisting on immediate concessions from the US. Culminating in late 2017, Pyongyang carried out six nuclear tests and launched rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland, but has now carried out no such tests for more than a year. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council has postponed a key meeting on the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at South Africa's request, after an announcement on the results was delayed, diplomats said. The council was due to hold a public meeting Tuesday which is now expected to take place on Friday, according to council diplomats. Last Friday, a closed-door council meeting was held at France's request, but world powers failed to agree on a press statement ahead of the release of the results. South Africa, along with Russia and China, argued strongly in favor of holding off on any action until the results were announced, diplomats said. The election commission in Kinshasa was due to release the results on Sunday but it announced a delay until later this week, without specifying a date. The United Nations looks forward to the "timely publication of the provisional results by the commission," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, suggesting that vote-counting should not drag on for too long. Dujarric added that all players have a responsibility to "help maintain an environment free of violence" to ensure the peaceful conclusion of the vote "in a manner that reflects the will of the Congolese people." A little over half of the ballots have been counted since the December 30 polls, according to DR Congo's election commission. Western powers hope sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country will see its first peaceful change of the presidency since independence in 1960. The delay in announcing the results has heightened fears of vote-rigging to hand victory to the ruling party candidate, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, is not seeking re-election but there are fears he will maintain influence with Shadary at the presidency. A total of 21 candidates are vying for the presidency including opposition leaders Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi. South African Ambassador Jerry Matjila told reporters on Friday that the world must "be very, very patient" while vote-counting is under way and said his government would await an announcement from the election commission. South Africa, a non-permanent council member, is a leading power in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that includes the DR Congo. Bangkok (AFP) - A Saudi woman being held at Bangkok airport on Monday appealed for asylum and for other passengers to help protest her looming deportation, in desperate tweets from the hotel room where she barricaded herself. The incident comes against the backdrop of intense scrutiny of Saudi Arabia over its investigation and handling of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. She said she had planned to travel to Australia and seek asylum there, and feared she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The 18-year-old said she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. She tweeted that she was due to be deported on a Kuwait Airways flight to Kuwait due to depart at 11.15am (0415 GMT). "I ask the the government of Thailand... to stop my deportation to Kuwait," she said on Twitter. "I ask the police in Thailand to start my asylum process." Shortly before the scheduled departure, Qunun posted a plea for people within "the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me". "Please I need u all," she wrote. "I'm shouting out for help of humanity." In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Qunun posted video of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is "sure 100 percent" her family will kill her, she told AFP. A senior Thai immigration official said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because she lacked "further documents such as return ticket or money" and Thailand had contacted the "Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate". Story continues Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said Qunun "faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia" and Thailand should allow her to see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and apply for asylum. "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored," he said. The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. "The UN Refugee Agency has been following developments closely and has been trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet with Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, to assess her need for international protection," it said in a statement. The ultra-conservative kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, acknowledged in an interview with Saudi-owned channel Rotana Khalijial that the woman's father had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" to bring her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. Saudi Arabia has come under fierce criticism following the murder of dissident journalist Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2 -- a case that stunned the world. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. By Patpicha Tanakasempipat BANGKOK (Reuters) - An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family and barricaded herself inside a Bangkok airport hotel to prevent being expelled by Thai authorities has left the airport after talks with the United Nations refugee agency, an official said on Monday. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has been at Bangkok's international airport since Saturday when she arrived from Kuwait, saying she fears her family will kill her if she is forced to return home. Her relatives have not commented on her accusations of abuse and Reuters was not able to reach them. The case has drawn new global attention to Saudi Arabia's strict social rules, including a requirement that women have the permission of a male "guardian" to travel, which rights groups say can trap women and girls as prisoners of abusive families. It comes at a time when Riyadh is facing unusually intense scrutiny from its Western allies over the killing of a journalist at its consulate in Istanbul in October and over the humanitarian consequences of its war in Yemen. Thai immigration officials had planned to put Qunun on a flight back to Kuwait on Monday, but relented after her online pleas drew international attention. She told Reuters via text and audio messages she had fled Kuwait during a family visit there, and had planned to travel to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was held after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait. "They will kill me," Qunun told Reuters. "My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things." A representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) met Qunun at the airport and also discussed the case with Thai immigration officials. After the meeting, Thailand's immigration chief said she would not be expelled. "We will take her into Bangkok and provide her with safe shelter under the care of the UNHCR," immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters on Monday evening. He said the UNHCR would work on processing Qunun's request for refugee status. Giuseppe de Vincentis, the UNHCR representative in Thailand, said the Thai government had given assurances Qunun would not be expelled to any country where she might be in danger while her case was being processed. "PHYISICAL, EMOTIONAL ABUSE" Qunun posted a video on Twitter on Monday of her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress. She said her family was powerful in Saudi society but she did not identify them. Asked why she was seeking refuge in Australia, she told Reuters: "Physical, emotional and verbal abuse and being imprisoned inside the house for months. They threaten to kill me and prevent me from continuing my education. "They won't let me drive or travel. I am oppressed. I love life and work and I am very ambitious but my family is preventing me from living." The Saudi foreign ministry said in a tweet that its embassy was in touch with the woman's father and the Thai government, but its diplomats had not met or communicated with her. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thailand should not send Qunun back to her family because she says she faces danger. Qunun said she had obtained an Australian visa and booked a flight. She said she had planned to spend a few days in Thailand so she would not spark suspicion when she left Kuwait. Thai immigration chief Surachate, however, said that Qunun did not have a visa for Australia. The Australian Embassy said it had no immediate comment. Contradicting earlier accounts from Thai officials, Surachate said Thai authorities had been contacted by the Saudis before deciding to deny Qunun entry to the country. "The Saudi Arabia embassy contacted the immigration police ... and said that the girl had run away from her parents and they fear for her safety," he said. "We acknowledged this and checked her paperwork. She had a passport but no return ticket, no travel plan, and no destination or hotel reservation in Thailand ... so per airport security procedures, immigration denied her entry." (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um in BANGKOK and Ghaida Ghantous in DUBAI; Editing by Nick Macfie and Peter Graff) By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged European leaders on Sunday to stop bickering over the fate of 49 migrants stuck aboard two humanitarian rescue ships on the Mediterranean and let them land at a safe port of call. With his comments in an address to 60,000 people in St. Peter's Square for the feast of the Epiphany, Francis jumped into a diplomatic fracas between Italy and Malta and into an internal dispute among leaders of Italy's populist government. "I make a heartfelt appeal to European leaders to show concrete solidarity for these people," Francis said, raising his voice. They were only "seeking a safe port where they can disembark", he said. Thirty-two people are aboard the Sea-Watch 3, a vessel run by a German humanitarian group, which plucked them from an unsafe boat off Libya on Dec. 22. They include three small children and four teenagers. Another ship run by the German group Sea-Eye is carrying 17 people rescued on Dec. 29. Last week, nearly two dozen humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations' International Organization for Migration, called on the European Union to offer a safe port to both vessels. Speaking at a political meeting shortly before the pope made his appeal, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defended his country's refusal to take the vessels, saying it had no legal responsibility for the rescue. He accused Malta's critics of playing "the Christmas saint" while themselves rejecting the ships. "We need to find a balance between the human aspect and national security. This is an issue that might set a precedent and we should be vigilant about it," he said. Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star Movement, shot back at Muscat, saying Italy had for years taken migrants who arrived via the Mediterranean. "Now, Malta has to do its part. That is our position," he said. Di Maio has said Italy will take in women and children if Malta allows the ships to dock. But Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-immigrant League party and has closed ports to rescue ships, opposes this. Salvini has often criticized Francis, who has made defense of migrants a key feature of his pontificate. Italy and Malta are predominantly Catholic nations but the Church's influence in politics has waned significantly in recent years. (Additional reporting by Chris Scicluna in Valletta; Editing by Alison Williams, Angus MacSwan and Giles Elgood) Tunis (AFP) - A collision between a Tunisian boat and a Cypriot container ship that sent hundreds of tonnes of fuel spilling into the Mediterranean in October was due to an extraordinary series of human errors, investigators said Monday. The watch officer on board the Tunisian vessel Ulysse was chatting on his phone, while his counterpart on the Cypriot container ship Virginia did not attend to radar alarms, Tunisian, French and Cypriot investigators said in a report presented in Tunis. The Tunisian vessel rammed into the Cyprus-based boat -- anchored some 30 kilometres (18 miles) off Corsica -- at full speed on the morning of October 7. The Virginia had thrown anchor in the middle of a sea lane, the report said. It took several days of maritime manoeuvres to disentangle the boats and pump some 520 cubic metres of propulsion fuel, which had escaped tanks. "This accident is due to human error shared between the Tunisian boat's team and that of the Cypriot boat," said Youssef Ben Romdhane, director general of sea transport in Tunisia's commerce ministry. "The captain of the Tunisian boat was busy... making private telephone calls. He was far from the radar screen that warns of danger. He was alone", he told AFP. The Cypriot boat was anchored in an "inadequate" area, he added. "According to testimony... this is the first time a ship had dropped anchor in this location... (on) a sea lane used by merchant ships," he said. The Virginia had thrown anchor there under pressure from the ship owner, Ben Romdhane said, citing the investigation's report. The two ships had the same insurer, which estimated damage to the two ships to be at least 13.5 million euros (15.5 million dollars), while cleaning coastal waters was provisionally estimated at 10 million euros, Ben Romdhane said. More than 12 ships, including the French and Italian navy, were mobilised to tackle the fuel spill caused by the collision. The mayor of French coastal town Ramatuelle lodged a complaint over pollution of Pampelonne beach, a renowned retreat in the Gulf of Saint Tropez. A separate investigation is being carried out by France's judiciary, which is still evaluating responsibility for the accident and pollution. Lima (AFP) - Peru announced Monday it was barring entry to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his cabinet, increasing pressure on the socialist leader days ahead of his second-term inauguration. The move announced by Peru's Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio followed a decision Friday by 12 Latin American countries and Canada not to grant recognition to Maduro's hardline government following his controversial re-election in May. Popolizio told Peru's RPP radio that Lima's immigration authority would be given "a list of all the members linked to the leadership of the Maduro regime, including family members, so that they cannot enter the country." He said the measure would take effect immediately. Popolizio said the ban would also include bank transfers from individuals named on the list. The 14-member Lima Group met in the Peruvian capital Friday to discuss ways to step up pressure on Maduro's regime. The Group, which includes Canada, called on Maduro to temporarily transfer power to the opposition-controlled National Assembly until free elections can be held. However, Mexico -- under the new leftist government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- refused to sign the statement. Lopez Obrador defended the move on Monday, saying his administration was simply following a policy of "non-intervention." "It's not about ideological sympathies," he said. Maduro was re-elected on May 20 in a ballot boycotted by the main opposition parties and widely condemned by the international community, including the United States which called it a "sham." ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan's foreign ministry says Indian troops have killed a villager and wounded another along the two countries' line of control in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The ministry says it summoned an Indian diplomat Monday to lodge a protest. It said this "unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India" has been continuing since 2017 and that India has committed 1970 such violations. The Pakistan military said it returned fire after Indian forces hit civilians. There was no comment from India. Pakistan and India often accuse each other of initiating fire in Kashmir, which is split between them. Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their independence from British rule in 1947. Khartoum (AFP) - More than 800 protesters have been arrested in anti-government demonstrations held across Sudan since last month, a minister said Monday, as hundreds gathered at a rally backing President Omar al-Bashir. Deadly protests have rocked Sudan since December 19, when unrest first broke out over a government decision to raise the price of bread. Authorities say at least 19 people including two security personnel have been killed in clashes during the demonstrations, but rights group Amnesty International has put the death toll at 37. Interior Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman on Monday gave details to parliament of arrests made during the protests and violence that marked several rallies. "The total number of protesters arrested until now is 816," Osman said. The figure was the first given by officials for those detained since the rallies erupted initially in towns and villages and later spread to the capital Khartoum. Osman told lawmakers there had been a total of 381 protests reported since December 19. He said that 118 buildings were destroyed in the protests, including 18 that belonged to police, while 194 vehicles were set on fire including 15 that belonged to international organisations. "The demonstrations began peacefully, but some thugs with a hidden agenda used them to indulge in looting and stealing," the minister said, adding that the situation across Sudan was now "calm and stable". Protests broke out when the government raised the price of a small loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from two to six US cents). Several buildings and offices of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) were torched in the initial violence. - Rally backing Bashir - Sudanese authorities have launched a crackdown on opposition leaders, activists and journalists to prevent the spread of protests. Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year led by an acute shortage of foreign currency. Story continues The cost of food items and medicines has more than doubled and inflation has hit 70 percent. Food and fuel shortages have been regularly reported across several cities, including Khartoum. Most anti-government rallies have been spearheaded by professionals like doctors, teachers and engineers, but they have been swiftly broken up by riot police firing tear gas at protesters. On Monday, crowds of protesters gathered in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan but they were quickly dispersed by riot police, witnesses said. As the anti-government unrest rumbled on, the first rally backing Bashir was held in the eastern city of Kassala. Hundreds of people from Kassala and neighbouring towns and villages gathered in front of the local governorate to express their support for Bashir. Several supporters were carrying banners that read "Bashir, we want you to stay", witnesses said. "We want Bashir as president in order to maintain security in the country," Mohameddin Issa, a resident of Kassala participating in the rally told AFP by telephone. "Security is the top priority, after that comes food...but I also believe that the problem of food will be solved soon." Bashir's supporters also took to social networks Twitter and Facebook to back the rally in Kassala. "The rally in Kassala shows how popular the government is and how safe the country is," Ibrahim al-Siddiq, spokesman of NCP wrote in a post online. Authorities are holding a similar pro-regime rally in Khartoum on Wednesday. Bashir has dominated Sudan for three decades since coming to power in a coup backed by Islamists in 1989. By Camillus Eboh ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian soldiers raided the offices of the country's Daily Trust newspaper and arrested two of its journalists following an article about the military's fight against Islamist militants in the northeast, the newspaper said on Sunday. The Daily Trust published photographs on its website of armed soldiers raiding its head office in the capital, Abuja. The paper also said the military had shut down its office in the northeastern city of Maiduguri after arresting a regional editor and a reporter. The paper said the raids and arrests followed the publication of a story about the fight against Islamists. An uptick in attacks in recent months has made security a key campaign issue in the run up to the Feb. 16 presidential election in which Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term. A Nigerian army spokesman did not respond to text messages and telephone calls seeking comment. "The Federal Government has directed the military to vacate the premises of @daily_trust and the order has been complied with," the president's spokesman, Garba Shehu, said on Twitter. "Issues between the military and the newspaper as they affect the coverage of the war in the Northeast will be resolved through dialogue," he added. Atiku Abubakar, a businessman and former vice president who is the main opposition party's candidate, also posted a message on Twitter following the raids. "Freedom of the press is the bedrock of our democracy and nothing should be done to compromise it," he said. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed around 30,000 people since 2009 in an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria that has spawned a humanitarian crisis. It was pushed off most of the swathe of territory around the size of Belgium that it controlled in early 2015, but a faction that broke away in 2016 - Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) - has in the last few months claimed responsibility for a series attacks on military bases and strategically located towns. The group attacked Baga - a town that borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon - in December, forcing hundreds to seek safety in Maiduguri, some 200 km (125 miles) to the south. Opponents of Buhari have criticized his security record, pointing to such battles and a notable attack on an army base in Metele, Borno state, in which about 100 soldiers were killed. (Additional reporting by Garba Muhammad in Kaduna, Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi and Lanre Ola and Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by David Evans) ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) Prosecutors say a St. Louis-area man charged with fatally shooting his girlfriend, her two young children and her mother could face the death penalty once the investigation is complete. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that authorities are still investigating what led to the shooting late Friday. Richard Darren Emery of St. Charles, Missouri, is facing 15 charges, including first-degree murder. Emery, who often goes by his middle name Darren, exchanged gunfire with officers as he fled. He was captured several hours later wounded and covered in blood. St. Charles is a city of about 70,000 residents on the Missouri River northwest of St. Louis. A candlelight vigil was planned Sunday evening to honor the victims: 61-year-old Jane Moeckel, 39-year-old Kate Kasten, 8-year-old Zoe Kasten and 10-year-old Jonathan Kasten. ___ Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com Rome (AFP) - Some of the 49 migrants stranded off the coast of Malta are refusing food, one of the groups running the boats that rescued them reported Monday. "On board of #SeaWatch we are reporting episodes of people refusing food," Sea-Watch International tweeted Monday. "We fear that their psychological and health status may deteriorate significantly," it added. The migrants, rescued while attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing from north Africa to Europe, have been stranded on the Sea-Watch and another boat since December 22 since no country has allowed it to dock. But the diplomatic deadlock among EU member states has still not been resolved, despite Pope Francis's appeal on Sunday for EU leaders to show solidarity towards the migrants. The Sea-Watch and the Sea-Eye, who between them have 49 migrants on board, including a baby and a number of children, remain off the coast of Malta. On Sunday, Sea Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi described how the migrants, crammed into a small room, were vomiting on each other in the stormy seas. One European diplomatic source said France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal had declared themselves ready to take in some of the migrants. So too has Romania, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, agreeing to take in five migrants. But both Italy and Malta have repeatedly refused port access to the rescue vessels and they stuck to that position Sunday despite the pope's intervention. Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini maintained his position on Monday. "I don't understand why ... if there are 49 people in Maltese waters on German and Dutch boats, it's still the problem of the Italians," he told journalists. Relations between Italy and Malta have been strained since Salvini's decision to close Italian ports to the migrants, accusing the groups who rescue them of running a migrant "taxi service". Frank Doerner, a doctor on board the Sea Watch, said on Sunday: "The situation here on board is getting more and more unstable." And because they were unable to land the migrants they had rescued, that prevented them from going back out to sea to rescue others risking the crossing. Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday defended his administration's boycott of a regional push to make crisis-torn Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro step down following a disputed election. Mexico was the only member of the 14-country Lima Group -- which includes several top Latin American powers and Canada -- not to sign a statement Friday calling on Maduro to transfer power to Venezuela's democratically elected, opposition-controlled legislature, instead of starting a new term this week. That marked a major diplomatic shift for Mexico, the world's largest Spanish-speaking country. Until Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, took office in December, Mexico had been one of the most outspoken critics of Maduro's socialist government. Lopez Obrador fended off criticism over the move, saying his administration was simply following a policy of "non-intervention." "We're in favor of dialogue, without a doubt," he told a press conference. "However, what we can't do is condemn a foreign government, because that violates the principle of non-intervention.... It's not about (ideological) sympathies. It's about our foreign policy and our foreign-policy principles." He added: "We are going to be respectful of all the world's governments and peoples." Maduro has presided over a spiraling political and economic crisis in Venezuela since taking over from his mentor, the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, in 2013. He won a new six-year term in May in an election marred by irregularities. The Lima Group says it will not recognize a new Maduro-led government. Maduro's administration accused the regional bloc on Friday of trying to foment a coup at the behest of the United States. The group's meeting in the Peruvian capital last week was the first for Lopez Obrador's government. The Lima Group's other members are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Saint Lucia. Associated Press A 21-year-old man was killed and seven other people were injured when a vehicle crashed through a guardrail and plowed into a crowd at a mud racing event in Texas, officials said Monday. The crash happened at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday at a racetrack in Fabens, Texas, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of El Paso and less than a mile from the Mexican border, the El Paso County Sheriff's Department said. Willie Valadez Ramirez was pronounced dead at the hospital and two people remained in critical but stable condition Monday, according to the department. Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - A new Malaysian king will be elected and sworn in this month, royal officials said Monday, after Sultan Muhammad V abdicated in a historic first following his reported marriage to a Russian former beauty queen. The king stepped aside Sunday following intense speculation about his future after reports surfaced in recent weeks that he had taken medical leave, and then wed the former Miss Moscow. As the country reacted with shock to the news, Malaysia's Islamic royal families met at the national palace to push ahead with the task of picking a king to take over from Muhammad V, 49, who gave up the throne after just two years. Keeper of the Ruler's Seal, Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, said after the meeting that a new king and his deputy would be elected on January 24 and installed on January 31. Swearing in ceremonies for Malaysian kings are lavish affairs, marked by honour guards and Islamic prayers and attended by hundreds of guests in traditional finery. Muslim-majority Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement where the throne changes hands every five years between rulers of the country's nine states. The royal households take it in turn to provide the country's king, and it is usually known before the formal election who will become the monarch. While their role is ceremonial, Malaysia's royalty command great respect, especially from Muslim Malays, and criticising them is strictly forbidden. But the succession may not be as straightforward this time as the next in line to the throne, Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang state, is elderly and reported to be ailing. Royal officials said he did not attend Monday's meeting due to ill health. - Game of thrones - After him, the next in line under the rotation system is the sultan of southern Johor state. Sultan Nazrin Shah of northern Perak state is the acting king, as he is the current deputy and performed Muhammad V's duties after he went on medical leave at the start of November. Story continues Despite mounting speculation in recent days the king might give up the throne, there was still palpable shock across the country at the first abdication of a king since the end of British rule in 1957. "I am naturally stunned. The (king) is a man of the people," Siti Nur Fahimah Razali, a 25-year-old trader from the king's home state of Kelantan, told the New Straits Times newspaper. The relatively youthful Muhammad V was known for his relaxed persona and love of off-road driving and other extreme sports. But there had been growing unease at his reign after reports emerged in foreign media in late November -- several weeks after the king went on leave -- that he had married the Russian, Oksana Voevodina, in a lavish ceremony in Moscow. Royal officials in Malaysia have not so far commented on the reported wedding, or said what condition prompted him to take medical leave. But such a marriage is unlikely to sit well with the country's conservative royal households. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had a tense relationship with the royals during his first stint as premier from 1981 to 2003 as he sought to curb their powers, said the government accepted Muhammad V's abdication, official news agency Bernama reported. The leader said he hoped that a new king would be elected soon while insisting the government would not "interfere in this matter", it said. Libreville (AFP) - Gabon, one of Africa's top oil producers, has been ruled for more than 50 years by the Bongo family. President Ali Bongo, who took over from his father in 2009, oversaw the swearing-in of a new government on Tuesday, the day after returning home from an absence that prompted a foiled coup. Bongo had been abroad since October when he suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia. Here is an overview of the lush African nation. - On the equator - Straddling the equator on Africa's Atlantic coast, Gabon shares borders with Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. A former French colony, it spans 268,000 square kilometres (103,000 square miles) with a population estimated at just over two million, according to the World Bank in 2017. One in two Gabonese is aged under 20. Roughly 80 percent of its people are Christian, wit Muslims and animists accounting for the other 20 percent. - Half-a-century of Bongo rule - Gabon has enjoyed relative political stability since its independence in 1960 and has had just three presidents over half a century, two of them from one family. After nationalist president Leon M'Ba, Omar Bongo took power in 1967 and ruled for 41 years, making his the third longest reign in modern Africa. France's closest ally in Africa, Bongo was a key figure in a murky network of trade and political ties between France and its former African colonies known as "FrancAfrique". When he died in 2009, his son Ali was elected, winning a second term in 2016 although the results were contested, plunging the country into a wave of post-vote violence. Ali Bongo, 59, suffered a stroke on October 24 while in Saudi Arabia and was transferred to Morocco for treatment, being away from Gabon for nearly three months. - Oil 'emirate' hits hard times - Gabon has been an oil producer since the 1960s, earning it the title of "central Africa's little emirate". Before a global slump in oil prices in 2015, black gold represented 45 percent of Gabon's gross domestic product, but this plunged to 27 percent of GDP in 2017. Story continues An economic crisis since 2015 has led to a rise in unemployment, repeated strike action, companies operating on slowdown, and austerity measures being slapped on workers. To reduce its dependence on oil, Gabon has looked to diversify its economy. After taking power, Ali Bongo launched a string of construction projects, such as hospitals and roads, but several were halted due to lack of funds. Despite its rich natural resources, about one-third of Gabon's population still live below the poverty line. - Natural riches - Gabon's forests cover about 80 percent of its territory, hosting exceptional wildlife and biodiversity which the country has sought to exploit through eco-tourism that highlights wild gorillas, chimpanzees, panthers, elephants and hippos. In 2002, Omar Bongo created 13 new national parks that cover around 11 percent of Gabon to protect its wildlife and forests from excessive logging. It is also the world's second largest producer of manganese, while forests provide 12 percent of global timber exports, including coveted tropical hardwoods. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) One of the advantages of being in government for 50 years, says California Gov. Jerry Brown, is "you get to make mistakes that you then get to correct." For Brown, one of those missteps was the criminal justice overhaul he oversaw as a young governor during two terms from 1975 to 1983. Now 80, he leaves office Monday after again reshaping the system during the past eight years. Get-tough sentencing laws during and after his first stint helped lead to the mass incarceration that crowded state prisons to the bursting point, spurring a federal takeover of many prison operations and a cap on the inmate population. The Democratic governor spent much of his second stint in office reducing criminal penalties and shuffling less-serious offenders to county jails instead of state lockups. "He has done an immense amount to advance smart approaches to justice," said Lenore Anderson, founder and executive director of the reform group Californians for Safety and Justice, calling it a "remarkable legacy." Brown said one of his biggest mistakes in his first two terms was signing the state's current sentencing law in 1977, letting judges instead of parole boards decide when most convicts should be released. He said he thought at the time sentencing rules were too uncertain and criminals needed "clear, certain punishment." A 1978 study by two University of California, Berkeley law professors called the California sentencing reform an "event of national significance" as it limited parole boards' "almost awesome freedom" with a "new philosophical approach." But it had the unintended consequence of dramatically lengthening prison sentences, particularly after lawmakers added hundreds of enhancements for things like using a gun, being a repeat offender or being involved in a gang while committing the underlying crime. "It was an enormous social experiment in criminal justice," recalled San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who started in the district attorney's office the year Brown first took office. "They've been saying the same thing about the last seven years. They were saying then, 'This is an experiment, this is a gamble, and we don't know how it's going to work.'" Story continues Brown's voter-approved 2016 ballot measure helped restore some of the flexibility that was lost 40 years ago by allowing most offenders to seek earlier parole hearings. Critics want to scale back the law with a ballot question in 2020 because they think it's too lenient. Among Brown's final acts as governor was to file a lawsuit to try to block the question. He also reduced criminal penalties and kept lower-level felons in county jails instead of state prisons. Voters separately eased sentences for career criminals, drug users and petty thieves. The result is about 25 percent fewer inmates in California prisons. "California has been a leader in criminal justice reform, in proposing large solutions, but also because it has had large problems," said Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a senior research analyst at The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based reform group. The state's longest-serving governor also eclipsed records dating to at least the 1940s in granting pardons and commutations. His 284 commutations are nearly double the number granted by his eight most recent predecessors combined. His 1,736 pardons are more than triple the number issued by his next most prolific modern predecessor, Republican Ronald Reagan, and are 62 times greater than the last three governors combined. One of highest-profile pardons was of actor Robert Downey Jr. in 2015 for a 1996 drug conviction that sent the actor to prison for nearly a year. Many of Brown's changes since retaking office in 2011 were spurred by court orders, but his sister, Kathleen Brown, and niece, Kathleen Kelly, said they spring from the former Jesuit seminarian's deeply held views that people and society can change for the better. Kelly said Brown brings the same sense of urgency to criminal justice reform as to his more widely recognized concerns about climate change. Brown described his thinking in June while addressing an audience devoted to inmate rehabilitation. "You're trying to treat people like human beings that other human beings want to treat as animals and objects," he said. "But I can tell you from a practical point of view, from a public safety point of view, from a religious point of view, what we're endeavoring to do is the right thing to do." Former Gov. Gray Davis, who was Brown's chief of staff during his first two terms, said Brown also has reflected voters' changing views. "Jerry went from a pretty conservative period when people were generally concerned about their public safety to a time when courts were ordering him, without telling him exactly how to do it, to reduce the prison population," Davis said. Criminal Justice Legal Foundation president Michael Rushford, who advocates for crime victims, predicts changes by Brown and voters will spark a crime surge. In Brown's legislative decisions and judicial appointments, "he's doubled down," Rushford said. "He's done just as much damage as he did the first time around." One punishment Brown twice failed to change is executions. Decades ago, he vetoed a bill restoring the death penalty only to have lawmakers override his decision. He then appointed capital punishment opponents to the state Supreme Court, but voters ousted them. Dragged by voters and lawsuits, his administration moved to restart executions for the first time since 2006, though legal and practical barriers have pushed the issue to incoming Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Overall, Brown created a culture shift for criminal justice, said Alex Mallick, executive director of the reform group Re:store Justice. She wants other states to follow California's example. "Jerry Brown really kind of popularized rehabilitation and the idea that people would get rehabilitated in prison," Mallick said. ___ Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne contributed to this report. Rome (AFP) - The two leaders of Italy's ruling populist coalition on Monday threw their support behind the "yellow vest" protesters roiling neighbouring France. "Yellow vests, do not weaken!" Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), wrote on his party's blog. He denounced the French government for protecting the elite and the privileged, saying "a new Europe is being born. Of the 'yellow vests', of movements, of direct democracy" ahead of European parliamentary elections in May. Matteo Salvini, his counterpart from the far-right, the anti-immigrant League, also backed the "yellow vest" protesters. "I give all possible support to the French who are, in an educated and respectful way, letting a president who isn't acting in the interests of the French people know that the sooner he goes home, the better," Salvini told journalists in Rome, while condemning the violence. On Monday, Di Maio offered French protesters the use of their so-called Rousseau platform to improve organisation and "draw up an electoral programme". "This system (Rousseau) is made for a horizontal and spontaneous movement such as yours and we would be happy if you want to use it," Di Maio wrote. M5S has vaunted direct democracy since it began in 2009. Through its Rousseau internet portal, it gathers the votes of members online to decide its policies, draft legislation and candidates. The platform is presented by the party as a reflection of its unique commitment to grassroots democracy and a new politics. But it has been criticised, notably by former members, for its lack of transparency and the leadership's tight control over its functioning. The movement's successful candidate for Rome mayor in 2016, Virginia Raggi, was chosen by M5S followers on Rousseau from among several previously unknown candidates. "Like other governments, the French one thinks mainly about representing the interests of the elites, those who live from privileges, no longer those of the people," Di Maio wrote. Story continues French President Emmanuel "Macron's government is not up to expectations and some policies are de facto dangerous, not just for the French, but for Europe". "In Italy, we have inverted this trend," Di Maio wrote, calling on French protesters to do likewise. Around 50,000 "yellow vest" protesters took to the streets again on Saturday in cities around France to denounce Macron's centrist policies. While the numbers have dwindled since the earliest protests, a smaller but increasingly radical core of protesters remain determined to push on. The demonstrations have been frequently violent since they began in late November, particularly on December 1 when crowds ransacked a museum in the Arc de Triomphe and daubed graffiti on the famed monument. Protesters have criticised the French media for their coverage, demonstrating outside their offices, while mock executions of Macron have also been a feature of some gatherings. "Yellow vest" protests against fuel taxes began in rural and small-town France in late November, but then mushroomed into a wider revolt during December against the policies and governing style of 41-year-old Macron. Italy's M5S-League coalition in June became the European Union's first populist-only government, taking over from the centre-left Democratic Party. The ruling coalition has had numerous spats with Macron and with the European Commission in Brussels since coming to power, notably over its big-spending budget to apply populist measures. Jerusalem (AFP) - Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defence minister and one-time mentor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, died Monday aged 93, officials said. Arens, an aeronautics engineer, was also known for having played a key role in Israel's aerospace and military industries, including by pushing for the development of the Lavi Israeli fighter jet. Netanyahu and Israeli president Reuven Rivlin eulogised the Lithuanian-born, US-raised Arens. "My wife Sara and I shed bitter tears over the passing of our beloved Moshe Arens," Netanyahu said in a statement. He recalled Arens's terms as ambassador to Washington, foreign minister and defence minister, using his nickname Misha, and said he remained clear-headed even in the last stages of his illness. "A few weeks ago, I visited Misha at his home," Netanyahu wrote. "He was as lucid as ever, as sharp as a razor." Israeli public radio said Arens was suffering from "a severe sickness," a common media euphemism for cancer. Haaretz newspaper said he died in his sleep at his home near Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel said he was survived by his wife Muriel, four children and nine grandchildren. "Misha worked his whole life in key positions to ensure Israels development and success," Rivlin said in a statement. "As a scientist and engineer, as a statesman, as an ambassador and as a manager of the most important industries for Israel's security." - Lithuania to New York - Arens, of the right-wing Likud party, personally brought Netanyahu into politics in 1982 -- hiring the then US furniture salesman as a diplomatic liaison officer in Israel's Washington embassy. Two years later Netanyahu, the son of a historian active in Israeli right-wing politics, became Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Arens later backed the younger man's bid to lead Likud after the party's 1992 election loss to the Labour Party. Story continues But after Netanyahu won election as prime minister in May 1996, Arens grew increasingly critical of his protege's style. Arens was born in Kaunas, Lithuania on December 27, 1925 and in 1939 emigrated with his family to the United States, where he grew up in New York City. He studied mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which Netanyahu also attended later. His studies were interrupted in August 1944, when he enlisted in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He served for two years, reaching the rank of sergeant first class. After discharge he returned to MIT, receiving a degree in mechanical engineering, then immigrated to Israel on the state's founding in 1948. He later went back to the US to take a masters degree in aeronautical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He would become vice-president of engineering at Israel Aircraft Industries, where he managed aircraft and missile development projects. Arens entered parliament in 1973, remaining there until he retired from politics in 2003, except for a year as Israel's ambassador to the US in 1982-1983. A hawk, he voted against the 1978 Camp David accords with Egypt, Israels first peace agreement with an Arab country. Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister for a record fourth term Monday after a crushing election victory marred by deadly violence and claims of widespread rigging. Hasina, 71, has presided over record economic growth in the South Asian country of 165 million people but critics have accused her of creeping authoritarianism. Her ruling Awami League party and its allies won the December 30 elections by a landslide, securing 288 seats in the 300-seat parliament compared to just seven for the main opposition. The campaign saw mass arrests of opposition activists and candidates and allegations of widespread rigging including ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. Seventeen people were killed on election day. The European Union has called for a probe into allegations of irregularities, saying "significant obstacles to a level playing field... tainted the electoral campaign and the vote." The United States expressed concern about "credible reports of harassment, intimidation and violence". The United Nations on Friday said there were indications that "reprisals" have targeted the opposition since the election, including physical attacks, arbitrary arrests, harassment, disappearances and filing of criminal cases. The opposition, which last week boycotted the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected MPs, has demanded fresh polls under a neutral caretaker government -- something Hasina and the election commission have rejected outright. - 'Mother of humanity' - President Abdul Hamid administered Hassina'a oath in a ceremony at the presidential palace, Bangabhaban. A 47-member cabinet with many new faces was also sworn in. To her supporters, Hasina is known as Bangladesh's "mother of humanity" for allowing in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017. Opponents accuse her of jailing arch-foe Khaleda Zia on politically motivated charges, of orchestrating mass arrests, enforced disappearances and passing Draconian anti-press freedom laws to try to cling to power. Story continues Hasina was abroad in August 1975 when a group of renegade military officers assassinated her father, Bangladesh's first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and three sons. She started her political career as a hero of the people, returning from exile in 1981 to take over as Awami League leader and beginning a long struggle to restore democracy in Bangladesh. Hasina joined forces with Zia's BNP to help oust military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990 but the pair soon fell out and were branded the "Battling Begums". Their rivalry has dominated Bangladeshi politics for the last 30 years. Hasina was first elected prime minister in 1996 but she struggled to emerge from the shadow of her father during her first term and lost the 2001 contest. She returned to power after winning the December 2008 polls by landslide, just months after she was imprisoned by a military-backed government on corruption charges. She has been in power ever since, presiding over economic expansion of more than six percent every year since 2009. GDP growth last year was 7.86 percent and Hasina has promised to take that into double digits. Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - A truth commission in the tiny West African state of The Gambia began hearing witness testimony on Monday as it set about investigating rights violations committed by the regime of Yahya Jammeh. Modelled on South Africa's investigation into its apartheid era, the commission will hold hearings into Jammeh's 22-year era of oppression which ended in 2016 after he was forced from power. President Adama Barrow has hailed the commission as a step towards national healing and a way to prosecute those responsible and offer some closure to victims and families. Rights defenders accused the regime of systematic torture against opponents and journalists, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions and disappearances in the English-speaking country. The first witness on Monday, Ebrima Chongan, a police deputy inspector general before the 1994 coup which brought Jammeh to power, testified that he was tortured in a rat-infested prison outside the capital Banjul after the putsch. He said one government official put a gun in his mouth. "They beat me and pulled me out and showed me some blood and one of the soldiers asked me to say my final prayers," he said. "I am not embarrassed to say I was screaming. I thought I would die." After Jammeh took over The Gambia, the smallest country on the African mainland, he installed a network of oppression, driven by the police, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and a death squad called the Junglers. His reign began to fall apart in 2016, when he suffered an electoral defeat at the hands of Barrow, then an opposition leader. He refused to step down, but was forced out after other West African countries intervened militarily and diplomatically. He flew into self-imposed exile in Equatorial Guinea. The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) aims at using a court-like approach to investigate how abuse began and became systemic, as well as its impacts. Story continues "The start of the TRRC hearings is an important initial step towards securing justice, truth and reparations in Gambia," Amnesty International said in a statement. The commission is empowered to advise prosecution of perpetrators and recommend financial compensation to victims. Its board members are drawn from all the country's major regions, its five main ethnic groups and two religions, led by a retired UN diplomat, Lamin Sise. Libreville (AFP) - The chief military rebel who led a failed coup in Gabon on Monday has been arrested and two of his commandos killed after they stormed a public radio station, the presidency said. A group of soldiers attempted to take power and called in a radio appeal for a popular uprising against ailing President Ali Bongo, who is abroad recovering from a stroke. Security forces stormed the radio station in the capital Libreville to take it back, killing two rebel troops, arresting their leader and freeing journalists who had been forced to help rebels make their appeal. "The situation is under control," the presidency statement said. Six rebel troops earlier Monday burst into the state radio broadcasting station, "neutralising" gendarmes in front of the building before making their broadcast, it said. Officials earlier said five rebels had entered the building and four had been arrested. The message was read by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, the deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces. He said a "national restoration council" would be formed in the former French colony "to guarantee a democratic transition for the Gabonese people". Bongo is staying at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the West African country since October. Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki on Monday reopened a border crossing between their countries as part of an ongoing reconciliation between the former foes. The two leaders re-opened the border crossing between Humera in Ethiopia and Oum Hajer in Eritrea on the western edge of both nations, according to the state-owned Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation. In September, an initial two land crossings between the countries were ceremonially reopened for the first time in 20 years, after Abiy settled a long-standing border dispute by agreeing to adhere to a United Nations ruling. However, the major crossings between Bure-Debay Sima in the east and Zalambessa-Serha in the west were closed again last month without explanation, according to local media reports. Nevertheless, relations between the neighbours have continued to improve rapidly with Monday's reopening of the Humera-Oum Hajer border post the latest sign of normalisation allowing the free movement of people and goods. Borders were sealed in 1998 as the neighbouring Horn of Africa nations cut diplomatic ties at the outbreak of a short but bloody two-year frontier battle. An ensuing cold war stymied development and trade, and undermined regional security, but in a surprise move last year, Abiy began peace overtures, which were welcomed by Eritrea. New York (AFP) - Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Monday it will acquire Loxo Oncology for around $8 billion, the latest big transaction aimed at developing and monetizing new treatments for cancer. The deal supplements Eli Lilly's pipeline of cancer-oriented medicines with assets from Loxo, which was incorporated in 2013 and has a number of promising treatments at various stages of development. Under the terms of Monday's deal -- which follows last week's $74 billion announced takeover of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb -- Eli Lilly will pay $235 per share in cash, or about $8 billion, for Stanford, Connecticut-based Loxo. The deal, which represents a premium of some 68 percent over Loxo Oncology's closing share price on Friday, is expected to close by the end of the first quarter, the companies said in a statement. "Using tailored medicines to target key tumor dependencies offers an increasingly robust approach to cancer treatment," said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly's chief scientific officer. Loxo's portfolio "creates new opportunities to improve the lives of people with advanced cancer," he added. A note from Morningstar said the Loxo assets "should fit well with Lilly's strong position in oncology with already approved cancer drugs," adding that while Loxo's products are tailored to narrow patient groups, the "strong efficacy of the drugs should support continued pricing power and robust sales." Loxo's product pipeline is centered on treating patients when there is an inappropriate DNA change that can be discovered through genomic testing. The company aims to develop targeted therapies that can impede the progression of these diseases. A key driver for the deal because of near-term commercial potential is a treatment for lung, thyroid and some other tumors, Eli Lilly executives said on a conference call. The treatment was granted the "Breakthrough Therapy" designation by the Food and Drug Administration with a potential launch in 2020, the companies said in the news release. Story continues - New cancer treatments - The Loxo treatments are reflective of a generation of newer cancer remedies that treat specific populations suffering from a particular strand of a cancer, said Anupam Jena, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Whereas a decade ago most patients with lung cancer might have been treated with chemotherapy, a drug being developed by Loxo could be used by fewer than five percent of patients with a particular strand of lung cancer, Jena said. "We're moving towards therapies that are targeted towards specific mutations," Jena said. "So we are seeing smaller companies developing therapies for specific cancers and then licensing those products or being acquired by larger companies." One downside of pharma mergers is an increase in prices that usually follows, while an advantage is that higher prices incentivize innovation, Jena said. Eli Lilly executives said the company could still do additional acquisitions in the coming period. "We'll continue to look in oncology, as well as other therapeutic areas," Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks said on a conference call with analysts. "It just so happens that in oncology there are many more opportunities to look for biotech acquisition and pipeline additions because of how the science is really changing the treatment of cancer and so many venture-backed companies are exploiting that. "But that doesn't mean we'll exclude our other areas of interest either." Besides last week's Bristol-Myers Squibb acquisition, other recent pharma deals focused on cancer included GlaxoSmithKline's $5.1 billion acquisition of Waltham, Massachusetts-based Tesaro, an oncology-focused company with a treatment for ovarian cancer. Shares of Loxo shot up 66.3 percent to $232.65, while Eli Lilly rose 0.5 percent to $115.28. David Axe Security, The People's Liberation Army Navy could buy "fourth-generation" FC-31 fighters from the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute to replace older J-15s, state-run Global Times reported. Coming Soon to China's Aircraft Carriers: The JC-31 Stealth Fighter? The Chinese navy reportedly is considering acquiring a new stealth fighter to replace existing carrier-launched warplanes that have proved unreliable and unsafe. The People's Liberation Army Navy could buy "fourth-generation" FC-31 fighters from the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute to replace older J-15s, state-run Global Times reported. In Chinese military parlance, a "fourth-generation" plane is a stealthy plane with modern sensors and weapons. The rest of the world refers to such aircraft as "fifth-generation." "Multiple changes and upgrades are being made to the FC-31 allowing it to be used on an aircraft carrier," Global Times reported an unnamed military source as saying. The J-15 is a Shenyang-built copy of the Russian Su-33. A series of mechanical failures and four crashes involving J-15s prompted the Chinese navy to begin work on a replacement, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Russia has had its own problems with its Su-33s. In 2005 and again in 2016 Su-33s crashed after arrestor cables broke aboard the Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov. The fighters lacked the energy to take off again and instead plummeted into the sea. Global Times and other news outlets have cited, as evidence of Beijing's interest in buying FC-31s, various requests-for-proposals and tenders that the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute has published apparently in order to upgrade the FC-31 for carrier operations. Shenyang independently developed the FC-31 in the hope of selling it to the Chinese military or foreign air arms. That has changed. "The FC-31 is no longer export-oriented, and is destined for domestic military service," Global Times claimed. Story continues The two-engine, twin-tail FC-31 first flew in 2012. Shenyang has continued to refine the type while the Chinese air force acquires the larger J-20 stealth fighter from a different company for front-line use. There was speculation early on that the Shenyang intended for the FC-31 to have a naval role. The type features the heavy-duty landing gear and twin nosewheel that are standard on carrier aircraft that must endure high-impact landings. The same bulky landing gear pointed to a naval mission for China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation's Tian Ying jet-powered drone. In January 2018 Global Times cited an unnamed military official saying that the drone would operate from future Chinese carriers. As a carrier plane, the FC-31 could face some limitations that have vexed the J-15. China's first two carriers Liaoning and Shandong lack the catapults that the U.S. Navy's own flattops use to boost heavy aircraft off their decks. Instead, Liaoning and Shandong feature elevated ramps that give launching aircraft a modest lift bonus as they take off strictly under their own power. The constraints of the ramp take-off method prevent J-15s from carrying heavy loads of weapons and fuel, limiting their effectiveness in combat. The FC-31 likewise would be comparatively ineffective if the Chinese navy embarked the type on those vessels. Future Chinese carriers could feature steam-powered or electromagnetic catapults. China's third carrier, which as of early 2019 was under construction in Shanghai, reportedly has catapults. When that ship enters service sometime in the 2020s, it could be the first Chinese flattop capable of effectively deploying the FC-31. As of early 2019, a typical Chinese carrier air wing possessed as many as 30 aircraft, usually a mix of J-15s and helicopters. China is developing a carrier-compatible early-warning aircraft similar to the U.S. Navy's own carrier-borne E-2. In the best case scenario for China, the United States still would be years ahead when it comes to putting stealth fighters on carrier decks. The U.S. Navy in December 2018 certified its first squadron of F-35C stealth fighters, clearing the unit for routine operations. The U.S. Navy could declare the squadron combat-ready as early as February 2019, military officials have said. The F-35C is due to deploy for the first time in 2021, to the Pacific region aboard the carrier USS Carl Vinson. Chinese officials reportedly hope the FC-31 can counter the F-35C and other American stealth aircraft. "Only a fourth-generation fighter jet can stand up against another fourth-generation fighter in an engagement without being at a significant disadvantage," Global Times quoted an unnamed military source as saying. David Axe edits War Is Boring . He is the author of the new graphic novels MACHETE SQUAD and THE STAN. Image: Reuters. Read full article David Axe Security, Asia Think drones and electromagnetic catapults. China's Navy Has Big Plans for Its Future Aircraft Carriers The Chinese navy plans to embark jet-powered drones about future aircraft carriers, an unnamed military source reportedly told the government-run media outlet Global Times. But that could take a while. On Jan. 5, 2019, China Central Television aired a video depicting a Tian Ying drone taking off and landing. The broadcast represented the jet-propelled drone's first public appearance. It's unclear when and where the flight took place. Global Times described the Tian Ying -- "Sky Hawk" in Chinese -- as a "high-altitude, long-range and high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle capable of conducting reconnaissance and patrol missions in hostile environments." The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation independently developed the Tian Ying, hoping to sell it to the Chinese armed forces. "The Sky Hawk will also operate on China's future aircraft carriers that will use electromagnetic catapults," Global Times paraphrased an unnamed military expert as saying. Experts long had speculated that the drone might have a carrier role. In February, People's Daily Online, another government media outlet, announced the Tian Ying's first flight. Nine months later in November 2018, the drone appeared in a non-flying display at China's Zhuhai air show. The Tian Ying's heavy-duty landing gear and twin nosewheels were plainly visible. Both features are typical of aircraft that conduct high-impact landings aboard aircraft carriers. Tian Ying is actually a family of drones, some of them having very little in common with the others. The Tian Ying that CASIC prominently displayed at Zhuhai is flying wing that reportedly is similar in scale to the U.S. Navy's own X-47B jet-powered drone demonstration. The Navy and builder Northrop Grumman flew a pair of X-47Bs in a multi-billion-dollar series of carrier trials between 2011 and 2017. In the summer of 2013, the X-47B completed the first carrier-landings and catapult-launches aboard the USS George H.W. Bush sailing off the U.S. East Coast. Story continues The data the U.S. Navy gathered informed its MQ-25 program, which aims to build jet-powered aerial-refueling and surveillance drones for carrier air wings beginning in the early 2020s. In August 2018, Boeing won the contract to build as many as 72 MQ-25s for a total cost of up to $13 billion. Notably, Boeing's MQ-25 is a conventional wing-and-tail aircraft that apparently borrows design elements from Northrop's Tacit Blue stealth demonstrator from the 1980s. While the Americans move to put tanker drones on carriers in the 2020s, the Chinese could embark their own drones for surveillance or attack missions. The Chinese navy doesn't have much experience with aerial refueling. But Chinese carrier drones must wait for suitable carriers. The two flattops in service with the Chinese navy as of early 2019 are incompatible with jet-powered drones, which require a catapult for launch. Liaoning, a refurbished Ukrainian vessel and Chinas first carrier, launches its aircraft by way of a ramp rather than a catapult. Shandong, Chinas second carrier, also only has a ramp. The Chinese navys third carrier, a Type 002 vessel currently under construction in Shanghai, might have a catapult and could, in theory, embark drones. It usually takes several years to build a carrier, meaning the Type 002 flattop could enter service in the early 2020s. A mock-up of the conceptual, apparently nuclear-powered Type 003 carrier at the Military Museum of the Chinese Peoples Revolution in Beijing also includes catapults and features a Tian Ying-style drone in the launch position. U.S. Navy carriers feature steam-powered catapults. The U.S. and Chinese navies both are developing electromagnetic catapults that swap out unreliable steam power for magnetic force. The Chinese military would need to undertake at-sea trials before it could safely integrate drones into its carrier air wings. As American experience proved, these trials are expensive and time-consuming. It took the U.S. Navy six years to test out carrier-based drone operations. If the Chinese navy cut a contract for Tian Yings in January 2019 and began testing as soon as the catapult-equipped Type 002 carrier launched, it might still be the late 2020s when the Chinese fleet reliably can embark drones on a flattop. David Axe edits War Is Boring . He is the author of the new graphic novels MACHETE SQUAD and THE STAN. Image: Reuters. Read full article Phnom Penh (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Cambodians packed a stadium in Phnom Penh Monday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime -- a day strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's "second birthday". The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, installed a reign of terror in 1975 that left two million Cambodians dead from starvation, hard labour, torture and mass executions. It ended on January 7, 1979, when Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre, led Vietnamese forces into the capital to expel the murderous regime. The 66-year-old premier hailed the day as Cambodia's "second birthday" at an elaborate ceremony in Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium, where he was joined by traditional Khmer apsara dancers and marching bands. "Today we celebrate this ceremony in order to recall unforgotten memories of the most heinous crimes of Pol Pot's group," Hun Sen told the crowd, and thanked Vietnam for saving the country. A UN-backed tribunal found two top Khmer Rouge leaders guilty of genocide in a landmark ruling in November. The feisty prime minister -- who has ruled the country for 33 years -- also took the opportunity to revisit history, hitting back at countries which continued supporting the Khmer Rouge after its ouster. "These countries ... boasted about humanitarian and human rights and democracy (but) unjustly blocked" when the people needed assistance from the international community, he said, without naming any specific nation. After the regime was toppled in 1979, Hun Sen found his Vietnam-backed government caught between geopolitical forces as the US sought to keep the ousted Khmer Rouge at the table in the United Nations. The Southeast Asian country in recent years has tilted towards China thanks to loans for infrastructure and few complaints on human rights issues. Last July, his party won a much-criticised election handily, after his government dissolved the country's main opposition group and jailed its leader -- effectively turning Cambodia into a one-party state. Hun Sen on Monday vowed to "deny the actions of extremist opposition politicians and the foreign circle behind them", claiming that they were trying to push Cambodia from a democratic path. Critics say Hun Sen's 33-year reign, as one of the longest serving premiers in the world, has created a more repressive Cambodia, where journalists, rights defenders and opposition politicians are routinely jailed for dissent. For the first time ever female marines will be able to train with their male colleagues at what is traditionally an all-male battalion at Parris Island, South Carolina In an historic first for the U.S. Marine Corps, women will be able to train alongside men during boot camp. On Friday, a platoon of about 50 female marines began training side-by-side with the men at the traditionally all-male battalion at a facility in Parris Island, South Carolina. About 300 recruits are participating in this groundbreaking session, according to NBC News. But before we pop a cork for this step towards gender equality, we have to take into account that this decision doesn't totally reflect a shift in the Marine Corps' philosophy going forward. Instead, according to NBC News, as well as a source cited by the New York Times, they only integrated the male and female marines for "training efficiency." "A lack of female recruits during the winter training cycle made it more practical to shut down the all-female battalion at Parris Island and roll the remaining 50 women into a male battalion," the Times wrote, citing the official, who remained anonymous because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. According to NBC and the Times, recruits will still be trained by instructors of their own gender, despite the integration, and women will live on a separate floor in the barracks. The Marine Corps' gender segregation has long been controversial. As Glamour wrote in in September 2017, "Officials have often argued that women and men must be separated during the training process so that women can "become more physically competitive before joining their male counterparts." Because only 8.4 percent of Marines are women (the lowest percentage among all the branches of the military), Marine Corps leaders have said that an all-female training environment could provide them with the support they need during the early stages of service. However, others are now changing their tune and suggesting that the separation of men and women prevents male recruits from establishing good relationships with their fellow female Marines. By changing the early training process, it could foster more respect for women and help change the problematic culture that pervades the current Marine structure." Story continues Ret. Army Col. Ellen Haring, who is advocate for the women in the military and the CEO of Service Women's Action Network, pointed out in a statement to NBC News that all other military services have coed training unitsand have for years. "The Marine Corps' recent announcement that it would integrate an all-female platoon within a company of all-male platoons on a trial basis comes decades after all of the other Services integrated all of their basic training units," she wrote in her statement. "After reviewing training data in the 1990s both the Army and the Navy found that integrating basic training units improved performance on a number of measures." She went on to say that her organization has, "long advocated for fully integrated boot camp in the Marine Corps, including through pending federal litigation alleging that sex segregated training violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection." But there's still some hope that this training can lead to larger change: According to the corps, they will evaluate the training results after the 13-week session. Related Stories: -The Marine Corps Might Finally Take a Historic Step Toward Gender Equality -For the First Time in Military History, a Woman Is Training to Become a Navy SEAL -Disgusting: Former Marine Blames Women for Nude Photo Scandal Good Morning America A woman has been arrested for attempted murder after allegedly spraying another woman with a flammable substance and lighting her on fire. The incident occurred in the early morning on Monday, June 14, at approximately 4:34 a.m. in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when the Council Bluffs Police Department were called to investigate reports of a woman who was found with severe burns all over her body, authorities from the Council Bluffs Police Department said in a statement. When authorities arrived on scene they found the victim, 37-year old Christine Weilage, suffering from severe burns and officers, along with medics from the Council Bluffs Fire Department, immediately transported her to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, to be treated while detectives and crime lab techs gathered evidence at the scene, according to the Council Bluffs Police Department. The Italian superstar doesnt asseverate that he adores Budapest and the Hungarian audience only out of courtesy but also proves it: in 2019, he is preparing for his 4th live concert in Papp Laszlo Arena. Vita Ce Neis an unique word-play that has surprised even the Italian, although it doesnt change the fact that life exists and under no circumstances can we forget about that. The new album was released 23rd November and the tour taking place in the finest arenas of the 5 continents starts in February 2019. The most famous Italian artist has disclosed his return to music life through a digital campaign started on his social media websites. In co-operation with Italian Facebook, Eros Ramazzotti has become the first artist in Italy who announced his new album and tour using a debutant video premier tool. Eros Ramazzotti belongs to those few performers who are able to sing about life and love in a way that doesnt seem factitious or arty, not even for a moment. One of the most well-known people of Italy believes its affection, love and life-affirmation that make the world go round, thus, no one will be surprised if they think his new songs are about these themes. Everyone will be astonished by his unique perfoming style. Tickets: HUF 10,990 - 24,990 Date and time: 24 October, 8 pm Venue: Budapest Arena 1143 Budapest, Stefania ut 2. Source: budapestarena.hu An anti-government demonstration was held in Budapest on Saturday in protest against recent amendments to the labour code. Organised on Facebook, the demonstration was dubbed National protest against the slave laws and joined by opposition parties, unions and civil organisations. The demonstrators gathering on Heroes Square were chanting we wont be slaves and Fidesz mafia. The crowd moved through Andrassy Avenue towards the Parliament building. Addressing the participants, Laszlo Kordas, head of the TU confederation MSZOSZ, said that they would present a list of demands to Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday and give the government five days to set up a negotiating committee. If the government fails to set up the committee by deadline, the unions will hold a nationwide warning strike, and protesters will block roads and bridges, he said. The trade unions are prepared for a militant period because the government has made a deal with capitalists and chose to side with heinous profit-hunters, he said. Head of the teachers trade union PDSZ Tamas Szucs called for action and said there was no reason to fear from strikes because they were the only way to succeed and force those in power to back off. Socialist leader Bertalan Toth said that unity has been created between opposition forces both in parliament and in the streets. He called on the opposition parties to cooperate in both the European and local elections later this year. He said the opposition parties should field joint candidates everywhere. Conservative opposition Jobbik spokesman Peter Jakab said a petition would be launched against the slave law. Opposition DK deputy leader Csaba Molnar said even if Prime Minister Viktor Orban backs off and withdraws the labour code amendments, they would not stop because they are rebelling against the entire regime not just specific laws. Opposition LMP lawmaker Antal Csardi said four million employees were affected by the slave law, so the main task was to get it withdrawn and the labour code to be revised. He called the trade unions and other opposition parties for consultations on January 9. Opposition Parbeszed co-leader Gergely Karacsony said the government was unable to apply the dictatorial tactics of divide and rule against the protesters. Independent lawmaker Bernadett Szel said the world must not belong to the populists and Hungary must not belong to Orban. Liberals executive and independent lawmaker Anett Bosz said that Hungarys rule of law and democracy would have to be restored. Momentum deputy leader Anna Donath said Hungarians were not slaves. MTI Photo: Monus Marton The parliamentary group leader of ruling Fidesz said participants in recent demonstrations against new overtime regulations included organisations that are on US billionaire George Soros's payroll. Saturdays demonstration was already part of the campaign for the European parliamentary elections, in which voters will be given a chance to decide whether anti-migration forces should become stronger or weaker in the EP, Mate Kocsis said in public Kossuth Radio. Opposition parties on Saturday called for further protests, another change of regime and building a new republic, while trade unions announced nationwide demonstrations for January 19. Kocsis accused the participating parties of supporting migration and Soros who he said had lined up his people in Hungary for the battle. The opposition parties idea to run on a joint list in the European parliamentary election in May means that there will be an anti-migration list where votes for Fidesz-Christian Democrats can be cast and there will be a Soros list for those who support migration and Soros, he said. Anti-government protests are under way in several countries around Europe where the governments are anti-migration, Kocsis said. MTI Photo: Soki Tamas A sleigh carrying visitors to the National Elk Refuge on Dec. 28, 2018, glides beneath Miller Butte and the Gros Ventre Mountains on a tour to see wintering elk. Bradly J. Boner/Jackson Hole News & Guide Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon smiles at his wife, Jennie, as he is surprised with a display of bagpipes during a swearing-in ceremony at the Cheyenne Civic Center on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Gordon took the oath in a private ceremony early the same morning at the state Capitol that was closed to most media because it is an active construction site. Jacob Byk/Wyoming Tribune Eagle Just the right size? Photo: Nutella Likely motivated by the desperation and onsetting madness caused by a mere week of abiding by New Years resolutions, people on the internet have made what they believe is an amazing discovery. Costco sells a gigantic tub of Nutella, weighing in at 6.6 pounds three times the size of the second largest Nutella jar available from Costco for only $22. Never mind that its been available for years; what matters is that people have realized they can spend this upcoming weekend cuddling on the couch with a giant tub of chocolate-hazelnut spread. This is how I want to die. https://t.co/IV5GA9uQPB via @TODAYshow Matt Lincoln (@MattLincolnTV) January 7, 2019 Lol, well if this isnt a promising start to the (back to school) work week... a supersized tub of Nutella #retailer #manufacturer #news https://t.co/6mAMcbEZIl tanya shuckhart (@mediatanya) January 7, 2019 Nutella is being sold by the trash can load at Costco ... Ill be back in a few ShaggieTV (@ShaggieTV) January 7, 2019 The reactions have been, yes, pure bliss. However, one very notable individual may be unaware of the tubs existence. We are, of course, referring to Guy Fieri, whose son Ryder got a Nutella swag pack for his birthday a few days ago. How is the young Fieri going to feel, Mr. Flavor Town, when he finds out you couldve gotten him several buckets of Nutella? Staff Writer JoAnn Snoderly can be reached at 304-626-1445, by email at jsnoderly@theet.com or on Twitter at @JoAnnNCWV. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Charleston, WV (25311) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 77F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 51F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Niki Lauda is back in intensive care. The F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman had been holidaying in Ibiza following his long recovery from a life-saving lung transplant operation. But according to Kronen Zeitung newspaper, 69-year-old Lauda had to fly back to Vienna after contracting a serious flu illness. The newspaper cited "sources" who said Lauda caught the flu because his immune system was weakened following his medical ordeal. "There was an influenza case in his family, and he is treated in an intensive care unit with us," a spokeswoman for the AKH hospital confirmed. Osterreich newspaper said Lauda should be able to leave hospital "in three to four days". "He had to go back to Vienna because there were no specialists in Ibiza familiar with lung transplants," the report added. "The situation was serious in the first days of the new year, but Lauda is already doing much better again." (GMM) Please purchase a subscription to continue reading. If you have a subscription, please Log In . Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. If you believe you've gotten this message in error, please Log In. The Mountain States TRUSTED news source. Click here to stay informed and subscribe to The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Click #isupportlocal for more information on supporting our local journalists. Learn more about HD Media (TNS) The next time the San Diego Fire-Rescue Departments bomb squad responds to a call, it could have new gadgets at its disposal: drones.The department received two new Aeryon SkyRanger drones in mid-December, and bomb squad members have been using them in simulations recently, a city official said last week. The drones are expected to be used the next time the specialized unit is called on to check out a potential threat.San Diegos fire department specifically its bomb squad is the only public safety agency in the city authorized to use drones, and can do so only on a limited basis, according to Tiffany Vinson, San Diegos homeland security coordinator. Under similarly narrow rules, the Chula Vista Police Department also began using drones in late October The use of the devices by the two public safety agencies is part of the U.S. Department of Transportations Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program, which involves cities and government agencies around the country, and partnerships with leading technology companies, to develop best-use practices for commercial drones. San Diego was one of 10 cities and agencies selected to participate in the pilot program last May. The other nine cities and agencies chosen include the city of Reno, Nevada, an Alaskan university, a Native American tribe in Oklahoma and several states transportation departments.Four times a year, the program participants submit reports to the Federal Aviation Administration. The experiences of the test agencies will help decide how the FAA will update its rules for drone usage.In San Diego, the three-year testing program is focused on five areas: international commerce and border security, medical delivery, smart city and autonomous vehicle inter-operability, package delivery and public safety.Vinson, who is heading up the local program, said companies like Uber, through its Uber Eats program, could use drones on certain fixed routes to deliver food as early as this summer. Plans are also in the works to use San Diego as a test site for Uber Elevate, the companys futuristic-sounding plan to use autonomous drones as flying taxis.But while many of the proposed uses for drones are still in the planning, research or development phases, the devices are expected to have a more immediate impact in the public safety sector.Chula Vista police began using the drones Oct. 22, and less than five days later had used drones to respond to 30 emergency calls that led to three arrests, including one on suspicion of felony domestic violence.The departments drones have to stay within a one-mile radius of police headquarters on Fourth Avenue while a trained pilot stands on the police stations roof. The drones are not supposed to leave the pilots line of sight.While Chula Vista police are using what Vinson described as off-the-shelf DJI drones, the San Diego Fire-Rescue bomb squad ordered the larger, more technical SkyRangers, which are specifically designed for public safety agencies. The SkyRangers have more powerful cameras to get to the level of fine detail a bomb technician would need, Vinson said.Last month, city officials asked residents to share their thoughts and concerns about the use of drones in an online survey.Vinson said much of the feedback so far has centered on privacy and safety concerns.Those concerns echo the ones held by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties. Chloe Triplett, a policy advocate for the local ACLU chapter, said many members of the public see drones as a future tool for public surveillance.We dont disagree that drones have a lot of beneficial uses, like in mapping, search-and-rescue missions and scientific research, Triplett said. But if deployed without proper regulations and oversight, drones equipped with facial-recognition software and speakers capable of monitoring personal conversations could obviously cause a serious invasion of privacy rights.Triplett said all city drone policies including what type of data they collect, and how it is retained need to be clear and open to the public.Basic transparency is key, Triplett said.Vinson said such privacy concerns were exactly why the Fire Departments use of drones will be so narrowly focused on the bomb squad, and why the San Diego Police Department is not involved in any way.We dont want to invade anyones privacy, Vinson said. Thats not smart, and more importantly, not legal. CLAY CITY, Ind. (WTHI) A machine error causing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users grief at a local grocery store has been found to not be linked to the partial federal government shutdown. News 10 spoke with Marni Lemons, Deputy Director of Communications with the Indiana Family and Social Service Administration. She says her office had received reports of a machine at an IGA in Clay City turning down EBT or SNAP benefits. A photo showing the IGA in Clay City, Indiana. (WTHI Photo, Devan Ridgway) A photo showing the IGA in Clay City, Indiana. (WTHI Photo, Devan Ridgway) News 10 reached out to the store, where a store worker confirmed the machine wasnt working due to the government shutdown. That worker had no other comment on the matter. However, Lemons says that simply was not true. Lemons shared she had not been made aware of any other issues of this kind across the state of Indiana. She says work is already underway to correct the issue with that machine. Lemons says at this point, the partial federal government shutdown is not impacting SNAP benefits. Under growing social inequality and an upsurge in the class struggle, the year 2018 marked the fifth year in a row that police killed more than 1,000 people across the United States. The fact that thousands of people, the vast majority of them working class and poor, have been killed at the hands of the police in just the last five years is an expression of the brutality of capitalist rule and the immense scale of social inequality in the United States. As American imperialism ravages nations across the world by means of military violence, it increasingly brings the war home in the form of brutality and murder by an increasingly militarized police force. Following the police killings of Michael Brown, Freddie Grey, Philando Castile and Laquan McDonald, to name only a few of the most notorious cases since 2014, the police continued their murderous rampage in 2018: In March, police in Sacramento, California shot unarmed Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African American man, 20 times in his grandparents backyard. On April 5, police shot and killed Diante Yarber, 26, in Barstow, California, claiming afterward that he was driving toward them. The father of three daughters was fired on 30 times and hit approximately 24 times. His lawyer described the incident as the worst form of excessive and unnecessary force he had ever seen. In May, 54-year-old John Corneil was shot and killed in rural Maine after carrying a toy weapon. In June, unarmed Anthony Marcel Green, 33 years old, was killed by police as he fled from police in Kingsland, Georgia. In late July, 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick was shot in the back and killed as he ran from a traffic stop in Nashville, Tennessee. In September, Dereshia Blackwell, a 39-year-old black woman armed with a gun and knife, was shocked with a stun gun and then shot and killed by police in Missouri City, Texas. In October, police in Monroe County, Georgia shot and killed Ida Christy Stiles, a 42-year-old white woman while she was holding a toy weapon. In November, 33-year-old Christopher William Parrish, a white male, was shot and killed in Ogden, Utah. Police stated he was armed with a rock. As of this writing, Mapping Police Violence (MPV) reports that police killed 1,122 people in 2018, somewhat less than the 1,147 reported the previous year. In all of 2018, there were only 22 days when police did not kill someone. MPV defines police killings as a case where a person dies as a result of being chased, beaten, arrested, restrained, shot, pepper sprayed, tasered, or otherwise harmed by police officers, whether on-duty or off-duty, intentional or accidental. According to the Washington Post, which only tracks police shootings and does not include other types of police killings, such as taserings and beatings, police killed 996 in 2018, slightly higher than their total of 987 from 2017. The online aggregator Killedbypolice.net, which defines police killings similarly to MPV, stopped tracking police killings in July of 2018, citing financial strains. The finding that over a thousand people have been killed for the fifth year in a row is based on data gathered by Killedbypolice.net and MPV. Killedbypolice.net reports that US police killed 1,114 people in 2014, 1,222 in 2015, 1,171 in 2016 and 1,194 in 2017. Combined with MPVs data showing that police killed 1,122 people in 2018, the total number of people killed by US police over the past five years is 5,923, more than the total number of US soldiers killed in combat in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Yet, for all the thousands killed, cops are rarely ever charged or, if charged, convicted. According to research by Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, between 2005 and April 2017, during which thousands were killed by police, only 80 police officers were arrested for murder or manslaughter. In 2015, during the Obama administration, MPV found that 99 percent of police killings resulted in no conviction of a police officer. This is in part because capitalist law in the US gives police officers immense leeway to violently attack civilians under the legal doctrine of perceived threat. The proclaimed perception of being under threat is sufficient to exempt a cop from conviction for using deadly violence, even if the victim turns out to have been unarmed. It is also because the Democratic Obama administration, no less than Republican ones, defended the right of the police to employ violence against workers and young people. In fact, the Obama Justice Department repeatedly intervened in the federal courts on the side of the police in cases where victims of police violence or misconduct sued for redress. At the same time, Obama sought to cover up his defense of police brutality and divert the anger of tens of thousands who protested against police killings by framing the question entirely as a racial issue, thereby obscuring the more fundamental social and class issues. Although African Americans are killed by police in numbers disproportionate to their share of the US population, reflecting in part the racism of cops, the largest number of those killed by police are whitethe Washington Post reported that in 2018 police killed 397 white people and 209 black peopleand the most important factor in determining who is targeted by the police is social class. The victims of police violence are overwhelmingly working class and poor, of all races and ethnicities. Perhaps most striking and revealing is the response by the pseudo-left to the continued bloodletting by American police . Calls for protests to police killings by pseudo-left organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the International Socialist Organization (ISO), and Black Lives Matter (BLM), have declined dramatically in recent years. These groups, who represent not the interest of the working class but of upper-middle-class layers, have sought to portray police killings primarily as the product of racism within American society. Touted as the leading organization against police killings by the bourgeois media, BLM, which created the popular hashtag #blacklivesmatter, has expressed this the most sharply. During the mass popular protests in Ferguson, Missouri in which workers and youth protested over the police killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, the mainstream media declared BLM as the leaders of the protest. This was part of the ruling-class effort to divert the anger of workers and youth into the dead-end politics of BLM, which operates in the orbit of the Democratic Party. There is a genuine fear among the ruling class that a new mass protest against police violence could spark a wider movement that might develop into a political movement against capitalism. The protest of Ferguson and the subsequent events that followed expressed a growing radicalization among workers and youth in the United States. The American ruling class took note and has sought to avoid the recurrences of larger protests. It has relied on BLM and other pseudo-left groups to divert workers and youth into the dead end of identity politics. Since its inception over five years ago, BLM, which has thoroughly integrated itself into the Democratic Party and received a $100-million-dollar grant from the Ford Foundation, has all but abandoned its calls for any type of mass action or protest against police killings and has focused its efforts on reformist police policies and promoting Democratic candidates. Alicia Garza, one of the three cofounders of the BLM movement, stated openly in 2017 that BLM has moved away from protests. She said, What people are seeing is that there are less demonstrations. A lot of that is that people are channeling their energy into organizing locally, recognizing that in Trumps America, our communities are under direct attack. Patrisse Cullors, also a cofounder of BLM, told Mic in July 2018, Im so grateful that in this time, especially under this current government, that we created a movement five years ago. It gave us a blueprint on how you fight back. Weve seen the Womens March. Weve seen the March for Our Lives. Theyve used it to change policy, to change culture. She later told ABC News, There are so many different elected officials, both black and white, who are challenging the status quo right now, commenting that the recent election of Democratic representative and DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York was a testament to our movement. The unrelenting wave of police killings is an indictment of the bankrupt politics of the pseudo-left and their promotion of racialist politics as an antidote to police violence in the United States. Moreover, their insistence on race as the primary factor in police killings has only created confusion and sown illusions in police reform. The problem of police violence is ultimately a political one. To understand the nature of the police is to comprehend the dynamics of capitalism and the state. The police are part of the states arsenal to carry out the mandates of the ruling elite and ultimately to protect the interests of private property. The state, with its police, military, border patrol and spy agencies, exists as a repressive instrument in the irreconcilable conflict between the ruling class and the working class. It is dangerously misleading to declare that police repression is fundamentally the result of racism. Such a position makes the problem of police brutality an ideological one, and not a class question bound up with the system of capitalism. It, moreover, promotes the delusion that the police can be rehabilitated or replaced with some other, more equitable force under capitalism. Police murder and violence affect the entire working class, regardless of race. White workers are killed in the largest numbers and bear no special privilege from the brutality of the police. An analysis of police killings for the year 2017 conducted by the World Socialist Web Site found that working-class white men in rural areas are killed at similar rates to those of black men in cities and urban areas. The report also found that the majority of those killed came from working-class and poor backgrounds, making clear that class, not race, is the ultimate factor in police killings. The killing of people in primarily working-class and poor areas is the direct and indirect expression of class rule. In promoting a racialist narrative, BLM, the DSA, the ISO and others aim to divide the working class and channel social opposition back behind the pro-capitalist Democratic Party and in doing so defuse popular opposition to state violence. The author also recommends: Behind the epidemic of police killings in America: Class, poverty and race [20 December 2018] The partial shutdown of the federal government is a major attack on the working class by the Trump administration. More than 400,000 federal workers are effectively locked out, furloughed without pay. Another 400,000 are engaged in compulsory labor without pay, in violation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and other forms of involuntary servitude. The shutdown exposes the fraud of Trumps supposed sympathy for the plight of American workers. It affects increasingly broad layers of the working class and lower-middle class, with the biggest impact on the poorest sections of the population: millions of food stamp recipients, some two million Native Americans, whose tribal services are largely financed through the Department of the Interior, and millions more dependent on other forms of government support for their subsistence. The population as a whole will be affected by delays in income tax refunds and other federal stipends, by the disruption of air travel as payless paydays drive air traffic controllers and security screeners from their jobs, and by the loss of many other services and facilities. Even more ominous is the threat to democracy posed by Trumps declaration that, as president, he has the power to declare a national emergency and order the military to build a wall along the US-Mexico border using Pentagon funds, in defiance of Congress. Trump reiterated the threat on Sunday morning, saying that he would decide in a few days whether to take that drastic step. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted, in an interview broadcast Sunday morning, The impression you get from the president is that he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress, so the only voice that mattered was his own. Pelosis statement is true, but this only underscores the cowardice and complicity of the Democratic Party and its unwillingness to defend constitutional principles against the growing threat of a presidential dictatorship. Speaking on Sunday television interview programs, not a single leading Democrat said that such a direct defiance of Congress, which under Article I of the Constitution must appropriate all funds spent by the executive branch, would be an impeachable offense. Representative Adam Smith, who now heads the House Armed Services Committee, even said that Trump had the authority to take such action, based on precedents set in Afghanistan and Iraq. Smith was essentially arguing that Trump had the power to treat the US-Mexico border as though it was a war zone. Trumps declaration that he is prepared to trample on 200 years of constitutional precedent is not merely the result of his own authoritarian proclivities. Trumps presidency, the elevation of a billionaire swindler to the highest constitutional office, is itself a product of the decay of American democracy over the past 20 years: from the ultra-right campaign to impeach Bill Clinton, to the stolen election of 2000 and the installation of George W. Bush, to the undeclared and unconstitutional wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, to the increasingly open assault on voting rights and escalating efforts to free the executive branch from any sort of judicial, congressional or legal restraint. American democracy is collapsing under the weight of mounting social antagonisms, above all the colossal increase in economic inequality, as a financial aristocracy of unprecedented wealth controls all levers of political power while the vast majority of working people, struggling to survive, are excluded from any influence over government policy. The rival claims of the two sides in the dispute over the border wall have no credibility. There is no national security emergency as Trump claims. There is no flood of criminals and terrorists across the bordera Hitler-style big lie propagated endlessly by White House spokesmen and Fox News. There is only a growing number of desperate asylum seekers seeking to cross the US-Mexico border, mainly from Central America, to find refuge from a nightmare of violence and crushing poverty that is the result of a long history of oppression and intervention by American imperialism. Nor are the Democrats conducting a principled fight against the immoral proposal for a border wall, as Pelosi claims. Only a year ago, the two sides agreed on a plan to spend $25 billion on a border wall as part of a larger deal on immigration. Now the Democrats claim to be engaged in a titanic struggle over the difference between $1.6 billion and $5.6 billion. But no leading Democrat is demanding the closure of detention camps, the release of refugees and the recognition of their right to asylum, or the shutting down of the gangs of violent police thugs known as the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The real issue behind the border wall confrontation is the ongoing conflict within the US ruling elite between various reactionary factions, primarily over foreign policyparticularly Trumps orders to pull US troops out of Syria and draw down forces in Afghanistan, and his overall decision to focus on China rather than Russia as the main immediate enemy. More broadly, it reflects growing concerns that Trump is incapable of dealing coherently with the complex challenges facing US imperialism both at home and abroad. Trumps response to the Republican defeat in the midterm elections, the seating of a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, and the calls for impeachment from sections of the Democratic Party and the media is to intensify his appeals to his fascistic base and elaborate an openly authoritarian program. Unlike previous shutdowns, caused by legislative attempts to set limits on the executive branch, using its constitutional power of the purse, this shutdown was provoked and initiated by the executive branch in an effort to intimidate the legislature into doing the bidding of the president, or bypass it completely. All sides in this conflict within the ruling elite are antidemocratic, working to achieve their goals by methods that subvert the Constitution. Trump openly parades his support from fascistic elements like the Border Patrol union and other police agencies, while threatening to declare a national emergency and order the military to build the wall in defiance of Congress. The Democrats operate with the methods of palace coupthe Mueller anti-Russia investigation, backed by the military-intelligence apparatus, the demand for internet censorship to silence socialist and anti-war views, the glorification of generals guilty of war crimes as adults in the room, and now appeals to sections of the military to intervene against the president. What unites both factions is their common fear of any independent intervention by the working class. The Democrats are in terror of doing anything that might encourage direct working class opposition to the Trump administration and the shutdown. In this crisis, the federal government unions are acting as nothing more than extensions of the Democratic Party. They have not called a single demonstration or protest, let alone a strike, against what is one of the largest lockouts of workers in American history. When the trade unions represented, even in a limited way, defensive organizations of the working class, such an employer attack would have provoked protests and calls for support. The refusal of the unions, including the AFL-CIO, to lift a finger is a demonstration of their transformation into an industrial police force for big business. The working class cannot allow the federal shutdown to continue and permit the vying factions of the ruling class to inflict ever greater depredations on working people while they work out an anti-democratic resolution that accelerates the drive to dictatorship. If left in the hands of Trump and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, the outcome will be more repression of immigrants, lost paychecks and jobs for federal workers and contract employees, further erosion of social programs, and potentially an open breach with constitutional norms and the emergence of an outright presidential dictatorship. Federal workers must take the initiative. They should form rank-and-file committees to prepare protests and demonstrations, sickouts and strike action, organized independently and over social media rather than through the bankrupt and reactionary unions, to demand an end to the shutdown and the restoration of jobs and paychecks to all federal workers and contractors. This must be combined with appeals for support from other sections of workers coming into struggle, including the 40,000 Los Angeles public school teachers set to strike next Thursday and auto workers organizing against mass layoffs. In fighting for their interests, workers must demand a halt to the savage persecution of immigrants on the US-Mexico border and throughout the country. The last demand is not an afterthought, but a core principle. American workers must recognize that what is being done to refugees and asylum seekers at the borderjailing without trial, separation of parents and children, tear-gassing and other violence, and the building of internment campsis a preparation for similar attacks on the entire working class. This is how Trump and the Democrats will deal with any movement in the working class in defense of jobs, living standards and social benefits. The working class must intervene as an independent force in opposition to both parties and the entire political establishment. The logic of such a struggle is the preparation of a general strike against the Trump administration and the capitalist system as a whole. Real opposition to the Trump administration will not come from the Democratic Party and the palace coup maneuvers within the state apparatus. It must come from below, through a movement of the working class. Workers must draw the necessary political conclusions from the crisis. By threatening to shut down core functions of a modern society, from air travel to health care to public services for the needy and the most oppressed, the ruling class is demonstrating that it is unfit to rule. The shutdown shows the need to fight for a government of a completely different kind, one based on the needs of working people, not the defense of the property and wealth of a tiny elite. The breakdown of the capitalists government poses the need for the working class to take power into its own hands and establish a workers government. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2017 , 490 pp. Pachinko is a popular mechanical arcade game in Japan, often used for gambling (a North American equivalent might be the slot machine). It is both a game of chance and one of the few businesses that ethnic Koreans in Japan (zainichi) could own in the period following World War II. Pachinko is the second novel by Korean-American author Min Jin Lee (born 1968). The New York Times ranked it as one of the 10 best books of 2017. Apple Inc. bought the screen rights and plans to oversee the production of a television series based on the book. The novel tells the story of four generations of a Korean family, the Baeks, through most of the 20th century. It begins in the Korean fishing village of Yeongdo during the Japanese occupation (1910-45) near Busan, today South Koreas second-largest city, and later continues in Japan. Throughout there is pervasive and sometimes violent discrimination by the Japanese against Koreans. The Kim family in Yeongdo takes in lodgers. Their only surviving son, Hoonie, is born disfigured and disabled. On top of this, the Japanese occupation is a disaster for the Korean people, creating hunger and want all over the country. Hoonie eventually marries a girl, Yangji, whose family is desperate. The couple have a reasonably happy marriage, but after Hoonies death, their daughter, Sunja, becomes involved with a gangster, Hansu, who works closely with the Japanese. Sunja becomes pregnant out of wedlock by Hansu, who is married and wants to support her as his mistress. She refuses, and a shy and generous guest in the boarding house, a young Christian preacher, Isak Baek, marries her. Japanese imperialism needs workers to produce armaments as it expands into Asia. Isak and Sunja, along with hundreds of thousands of other Koreans, move to Japan, where Isak takes a job as a factory foreman in Osaka. They join his brother Yoseb, the pastor at a Korean church, and his wife Kyunghee. Sunjas child by Hansu, Noa, is born and soon afterward (with Isak), a son, Mozasu. Koreans in Osaka are forced to live in a ghetto, and their Christianity is suspect to the authorities. Isak disappears into a Japanese prison when he will not renounce his faith. For months the women go to the jail and speak to the polite Japanese guard. They bring Isak food which, they discover, he never receives. Years later, Isak is released, having been tortured and starved, and dies soon after. Sunja and Kyunghee support the family by selling kimchi at an outdoor market. Here there are scenes with ordinary Japanese, who are kind and sympathetic to them. The women eventually work for a restaurant secretly owned by Hansu. The war with the Americans comes and there is terrific destruction and loss of life as Osaka is firebombed. With Hansus help, the Baeks escape to the countryside. They return to Osaka after the war is over and the fortunes of the family rise in the postwar boom. Noa goes to a prestigious university, but when he discovers that Hansu, who has financed his education, is his biological father, he disappears and comes to an unhappy end living anonymously in the north of Japan. Mozasu becomes a pachinko parlor owner. In the end, the Baeks become rich. The next generation, represented by Solomon, Mozasus son, is raised extravagantly. Solomon lives in New York and Tokyo and works with the worst kind of investment sharks of the 1980s. In the end, this generation cannot escape anti-Korean racism, despite its wealth. In the first (and some of the best) chapters of the novel, which take place in the Yeongdo boarding house, during the Japanese occupation, Lee writes with humanity about her characters, and reveals their humanity to us: This thing called the Depression was found everywhere in the world, the lodgers said frequently during meals, repeating what theyd overheard from the men at the market who could read newspapers. Poor Americans were as hungry as the poor Russians and the poor Chinese. In the name of the Emperor, even ordinary Japanese went without. The portrayals of the poor fishermen who live as tenants in the boarding house are memorable, and one wishes such social and psychological pictures would recur in the book. Lee, the daughter of South Korean immigrants to the US, has remarked that she had to recast the entire novel after moving to Japan and interviewing dozens of members of the Korean community there: After my interviews, I realized that the story had to begin in 1910, and my character Sunja moves from Korea to Japan in 1933. Perhaps as a result of this decision and also, of course, because of Lees own talent, there is something vital and poignant particularly in the earlier sections of the novel set in Korea and in Osaka during the war. People live under the shadow of great historical events that demand everything from them. The premise is exciting, and Min Jin Lee deserves credit for undertaking a novel along such broad lines. The book was popular with American readers in 2017, when it was a bestseller. Pachinko was also popular with the critics, which may have had something to do as well with its focus on nationality and ethno-chauvinism. The work was a runner-up for the National Book Award. Lees conception of history, however, tempers and limits her artistic accomplishments, in my view. The first line of the novel, History has failed us, but no matter, reinforces one of the likely meanings of the title: life and history are a sequence of chance events from which an individual or a people may emerge better or worse off. The author asks us to consider nearly 70 years of the Baek family. However, according to Lee, historyincluding the titanic events of the invasion and colonization of Korea by Japan, the wars and migrations in that region over the next 40 years and the stability after the destruction of a world waris a process over which human beings, in the end, have no control and must endure stoically. The possibility of collective action by the Koreans in Japan and by the Japanese population itself is missing. The years immediately after the war saw a mass strike wave by the Japanese working class and a determination never again to return to militarist barbarism that lasts to this day. It is also significant that Lee says little about the Korean War and its impact on zainichi in Japan. As the North and South Korean states were formed during the massive American intervention on the peninsula after the war, accompanied by the Soviet Armys seizure of Manchuria and the north of Korea, the Koreans in Japan developed differing and polarizing political allegiances. Most significantly, the Korean War (1950-53)and the series of insurrections and massacres under the American puppet regimes of South Korea that immediately preceded the wardoes not appear to have much impact on the Baeks or anyone they know. Although Sunja does have this thought, It seemed as if the occupation and the war had changed everyone, and now the war in Korea was making things worse. Once-tenderhearted people seemed wary and tough. There was innocence left only in the smallest children. The Chinese Revolution of 1949 is simply not mentioned. The maxim that a historical novel is a product of the time in which it was written holds true for Pachinko. This is revealed through three aspects of the novels final portions. The first is a focus on the discrimination that Korean zainichi in Japan experience. What Lee emphasizes is unrelenting racism against Koreans in Japan and the deep bitterness that produces. Absolutely nothing apparently can overcome identity imposed from the outside and the inside. Secondly, the cultural impact of the last 30 years of skyrocketing economic inequality shows through in Pachinko as the Baeks get horribly rich, and, moreover, issues of identity are fought out among this layer of the population. Finally, in the lives of Solomon and his contemporaries in the 1980s, history itself is almost entirely absent. The younger generation gives almost no thought to the past, or to what might lie ahead. The period since the collapse of the USSR has been dominated in cultural life by the idea that history and social life have little significance for human motivation. The characters reach an impasse, and it is not clear the author sees much farther than they do. At one point, Solomons father, Mozasu, asserts: This country [Japan] isnt going to change. Koreans like me cant leave. Where we gonna go? But the Koreans back home arent changing, either. In Seoul, people like me get called Japanese bastards, and in Japan, Im just another dirty Korean no matter how much money I make or how nice I am. Solomon, as a zainichi, takes the fall for a deal gone bad. The man who betrays him expresses scorn for able-bodied middle-class people who are scared of their shadows and who pay the mediocre tax in regular quarterly installments with compounding interest. He goes on, When you play it safe, thats what happens, my friend. So if I were you, I wouldnt throw any games. Id use every fucking advantage. Beat anyone who fucks with you to a fucking pulp. Show no mercy to chumps, especially if they dont deserve it. Make the pussies cry. This contempt, whether its being held up to criticism or not, echoes that found in Lees first novel, Free Food for Millionaires (2007), also listed by the New York Times in its Top Ten Novels of the Year. Here Lee depicts a daughter of Korean immigrants in Queens, New York, recently graduated from Princeton, as she makes her way among young Wall Street brokers. There are some effective scenes in the book and to a certain degree it provides a window on Korean immigrant life in the US, but the focus is on the obnoxious and trivial affairs of the top 5 percent of income earners in New York City. In both novels, history is meaningless and senseless in the end. As more information surfaces concerning the severe structural faults in the $165 million, 36-storey Opal Tower in the Sydney suburb of Homebush, it is apparent that the problems stem from a broader crisis caused by self-regulation and the culture of cost-cutting throughout the construction industry. On Christmas Eve, cracks appeared in a six-metre by three-metre pre-cast panel on level 10 of the tower complex, which has been occupied for less than 12 months. Residents in the buildings 392 apartments and businesses on the ground floor were ordered to evacuate. On Saturday, they were told they must wait at least another week before they can reoccupy the building because the specific cause of the cracks has yet to be identified. A report on the cause of the cracking is due on Friday. To carry out its investigation, the builder of Opal Tower, Icon, has been tearing down walls in some apartments. One resident commented on Facebook: All of our personal belongings have been thrown in a pile and our furniture is damaged. We received absolutely no notice that they were going to be doing work in our property and this is just appalling. The most revealing aspect of the Opal Tower faults is that few experts in the building industry appear surprised. A report presented in April 2018 to the federal, state and territories Building Ministers Forum (BMF) stated: Those involved in high-rise construction have been left largely to their own devices. Where there has been supervision, this has generally been by private building surveyors (also known as certifiers) whom critics argue are not independent from builders and/or designers. It noted: We have heard that there is a high incidence of building products in the market that are not compliant with the standards set out in the NCC [National Construction Code], resulting in inferior and sometimes dangerous products being used in the construction of buildings. The report was commissioned in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed at least 72 people and the similar, but not deadly, fire at the Lacrosse tower building in Melbourne in 2014. On January 4, Geoff Crittenden of the Welding Technology Institute of Australia told the Sydney Morning Herald that about 85 percent of the 600,000 tonnes of fabricated steel imported into Australia every year is non-compliant. The initial response of the New South Wales (NSW) government and sections of the media was to call for a crackdown on dodgy certifiers and cowboy certifiers. This transparent attempt to scapegoat one element in the whole chain of construction is now wilting under a deluge of information. Robert Hart from Engineers Australia told the Australian Financial Review last week that blaming certifiers alone was missing the point. He noted that the NSW government had ignored 100 proposed changes to building industry regulation outlined in a 2016 report which it had commissioned. Theyve received so many warnings that the situation is critical, but theyve done nothing, Hart said. You talk about people fiddling while Rome burns, but the man responsible for sorting this out, [Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation] Matt Kean hasnt even picked up the fiddle. Its bloody ridiculous Its really appalling. Will someone have to die before theyll take it seriously? On January 4, Australian Subcontractors Association spokeswoman Louise Stewart indicted the toxic culture of pressure put on subcontractors by major building companies to cut costs. She stated: The subcontractors are asked to price jobs at the tender stage and even if the work is won, the prices are then shopped around and they are expected to drop their rates. Its the nature of the industry, thats the way its been working for years and its part of the problem. Stewart noted: Fifty years ago, builders employed large work forces and the trades were employed by the builder. Now almost none of the trades are employed by the builder. They are all subcontractors. And the subcontractors are played off against each other to get the lowest price. Its destroying the industry. Its eroding the quality of projects. Two-bedroom apartments in Opal Tower were sold for around $930,000, while single-room studio apartments sold for $600,000. Media commentators have speculated that their value will have at least halved. Some owners are already demanding that the developer, Ecove Group, buy back their units. It is highly likely that they will be left to bear massive losses. In NSW, the developer or construction company must repair the damage if major defects in a building emerge within six years of its completion, and two years for minor defects. However, these purported protections have been weakened by legal rulings that have defined major as meaning a situation in which a building is uninhabitable. In a 2014 decision, the full bench of the High Court found that Brookfield Multiplex did not owe a duty of care to compensate owners of the Chelsea apartment tower in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood for losses they had suffered due to defects. Colin Grace, a lawyer who acted for the Chelsea Owners Corporation, noted in December last year: It [the ruling] had a significant notional impact. It implied builders dont have a statutory duty of care to the end user. In January 2018, the NSW government introduced a Strata Building Bond requiring developers to put aside 2 percent of the total cost of the building work to cover any repairs needed during the first two years after it is occupied. However, as Colin Grace noted: Unless we deal with the fundamental problem of making better construction and better reviews and stages and certification, it wont change at all. Even when legal rights are in place, they do not necessarily offer protection. At the Elara Apartments, which was completed in 2007 in Canberras northern suburbs, structural problems led to cracks in the walls. The owners were forced to take legal action against the builder and Master Builders Fidelity Fund, which issues warranty insurance certificates to builders. The day after owners re-commenced legal proceedings in 2017, the builder went into voluntary administration. The repairs ended up costing about $20 million, or $120,000 per apartment, which owners had to pay while they continue to pursue legal action against the Fidelity Fund. In December 2018, lawyers for the Fund claimed in court that a five-year limitation on claims had expired, so the owners were not entitled to any compensationwhich in any case is capped at a maximum of $85,000. There are other reports of owners facing similar situations. The residential building construction in Australia is worth over $150 billion per year. A speculative housing boom has been one of the main drivers of economic growth and employment in Australia since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. The impact of this frenzied speculation is now beginning to be laid bare, with workers and residents burdened with huge mortgage debts or high rental payments for defective products. At every level of government, in bank boardrooms and across the building industry, the main concern is not the plight of home-owners however. It is the fear that the revelations of sub-standard construction will cause a sharp fall in new home purchases and an even greater slump in property prices. As the WSWS reported on Saturday, there is clear evidence that the housing boom is over. Sydneys median property price fell by around 10 percent in 2018, equivalent to roughly $100,000 per dwelling. This took the total fall since the citys market peak in early 2017 to 11.1 percent, the sharpest correction in over 35 years. The annual decline in Melbourne, the countrys second largest city, was 9.1 percent, or an average of about $75,000 per property. Chinas landing of a scientific probe on the far side of the Moon has led to a rash of media speculation, in the US in particular, about a new international space race amid heightened tensions between the two countries over economic issues, including trade, and a massive American military build-up in Asia against China. Washington reacted with shock when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957 and in 1961 became the first country to put a human being into space. Yuri Gagarin completed one full orbit in his Vostok spacecraft and successfully returned to Earth. The United States poured billions into the NASA space program, recognising that at stake was not only national prestige but vital military applications. As a result, the US became the first nation to put someone on the MoonNeil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. China has now achieved a space first of its own. While probes have previously been landed on the Moon, Chinas Change-4 was the first to make a soft landing on the side that is perpetually facing away from the Earththe so-called far side of the Moon. According to the China National Space Administration, the probe landed at 10.26 a.m. Beijing time after hovering to allow a suitable site to be located. A photothe first close-up image of the Moons far sidewas beamed back to Earth via a relay satellite previously positioned 80,000 kilometres from the Moon. Chinas space agency declared that the missions success had opened a new chapter in humanitys exploration of the moon. The instruments aboard Change-4 and its lunar rover include cameras, ground-penetrating radar and spectrometers that provide data that will assist in understanding the Moons geology. The lander also carries biological experiments to see if seeds will germinate and silkworm eggs will hatch in the Moons low gravity. In an article entitled The space race is back onand China is in the lead, Guardian journalist Mary Dejevsky commented: The first response of the US space agency, NASA, was generous, as scientists to scientists: what China had managed was a first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment. The response in political and military quarters in Washington, as in Moscow, however, is likely to reflect trepidation. In 2003, China became only the third country after the US and Russia to successfully put astronauts into space using its own rockets. Since then, it has sent 11 astronauts into space so far, and in 2016, two of them spent 30 days in Chinas own space station. Last year, China launched 36 rockets into spacemore than any other country, including the US which launched 30. Moreover, Chinas space agency has ambitious plans. Another Moon landing of the Change-5 is scheduled later this year. By 2022, China is aiming to have its third space station fully operational. It plans to begin building a base on the Moon in 2025 and to man it by 2030. Probes to Mars are also planned. While the budget for the China National Space Administration is still significantly less than for NASA, it is greater than any other country. Chinas space program has already provoked considerable nervousness in Washington. While profitable business opportunities are involved, the concern above all is that the US could be eclipsed by China in military applications, which are inherent in any space program. Large multi-stage rockets, accurate guidance systems and stable communications are just the most obvious developments that have potential military spin-offs. The US press has highlighted the Chinas ability to shoot down satellites, which it demonstrated in 2007 when it destroyed one of its own satellites. China is also developing a global navigation system, BeiDou, with clear military significance, independent from the operational American, Russian, and nearly operational European ones. BeiDou has a high-precision mode only available to the Chinese military, and will be fully operational globally by 2020. Washington, however, is the chief driver of military rivalry in space. In September 2016, a congressional sub-committee convened a hearing, entitled Are we losing the space race to China? which criticised the Obama administration for not devoting the necessary resources to winning the race. President Trump signed a new space-policy directive in December 2017 outlining plans for manned missions to the Moon and Mars. The US is aiming to return to the Moon by 2023. The renewed US space effort is explicitly connected to military plans. Last year the Trump administration announced the establishment of a new branch of US armed forces by 2020 to be known as Space Force, which will operate independently of the other branchesthe army, navy, air force, marines and coast guard. In a clear indication that it will get congressional approval, $12 billion was allocated this year for its establishment. In making the announcement, Vice President Mike Pence declared that the Space Force would be an elite group of war fighters specializing in the domain of space. A huge space command already exists within the US Air Force. Established in 1982, it is headquartered at the Peterson Air Force base in Colorado and oversees 30,000 personnel. It includes the Space and Missile Center, monitors ballistic missile launches and manages the Defense Departments satellites. In an emphatic declaration, Pence insisted, We must have American dominance in space, and so we will. In the sphere of manned space flight, the US has ground to make up after its space shuttle program had to rely on Russian launches. When the International Space Station in which the US and Russia have collaborated is decommissionedTrump has mooted ending funding by 2025Chinas space station could be the only one in orbit. At the same time, Chinas space program suffered a major setback with the failed launch in 2017 of the Long March 5, a new heavy lift rocket needed for its more ambitious projects. A worried editorial in the Financial Times yesterday, entitled China and the US should be allies, not foes, in space, suggested greater collaboration between all space powers would be far preferable to the secretive rivalry that characterised the early US-Soviet space race. While noting Trumps plans for a Space Force, the newspaper put the onus on China to show it commitment to global co-operation so as to defuse legitimate concerns about the militarisation of space. In reality, it is the US that has sought to isolate China from US-led space programs. None of the astronauts sent to the International Space Station has been Chinese. In 2011, US legislation specifically excludes scientific exchanges with China involving NASA. Its sponsor, Republican Frank Wolf, slammed China, declaring: We dont want to give them the opportunity to take advantage of our technology, and we have nothing to gain from dealing with them. Wolfs comments are today the basis of the deepening US trade war with China, in which the Trump administration has made alleged Chinese intellectual property theft and its drive for technological advances, as part of the Made in China 2025, the main bones of contention. Far from collaborating with China in space projects, the US space program is intimately connected to an escalating arms race. Under conditions in which the US is aggressively preparing for war with China, the current undeclared space race is even more ominous than the previous rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union. Indian supporters of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) will hold a public meeting in Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal, on Sunday, March 10 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International (FI). The Indian Trotskyists hosted a similar public meeting on November 18 in Chennai on the same topic which was addressed by Deepal Jayasekera, the assistant secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka. The Kolkata event will also be addressed by a leading member of the Sri Lankan SEP. The FI was founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Lenin of the 1917 Russian Revolution, to defend the perspective of international socialism against the betrayals of the Stalinist bureaucracy. Since its formation, the Fourth International has conducted a principled fight for the program and perspective of world socialist revolution against imperialism and all its political agencies, including Stalinism and Social Democracy. The ICFI was founded in 1953 in a split with Pabloite revisionism which had repudiated the political and theoretical foundations of Trotskyism. The ICFI alone embodies the entire 80-year struggle to defend and develop the perspective of international socialism. The forthcoming Kolkata meeting has immense significance. It will be held as increasing numbers of advanced workers and youth are seeking an alternative to Indias main Stalinist parliamentary partiesthe Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and the Communist Party of India or CPIthat have propped up bourgeois rule in India. The CPM-led Left Front government that ruled West Bengal for more than 30 years ruthlessly imposed the big business, free-market reforms demanded by Indias capitalist class. The Kolkata meeting will review the historical lessons of the fight for the Fourth International and the life and death battle against Stalinism, and their vital significance for the struggle for socialist internationalism today. We urge workers, students, youth, intellectuals and WSWS readers to attend the meeting and participate in this crucial discussion. Date and Time: March 10, at 5 p.m. Venue: Indian Association, 62 B.B. Ganguly Street, Kolkata 700012 (Near Central Metro, Gate No.4) The Institute for Statecraft (IoS) and its Integrity Initiative (II) constitute a secret propaganda network tied to the UK security services. They bring together high-ranking military and intelligence personnel, journalists and academics to manufacture and disseminate propaganda serving the geo-political aims of British imperialism and its allies. The IoS was founded in 2006 and the II in 2015. But their secret role in promoting fake news and disinformation was exposed only in November and December of 2018 by hacking group Anonymous. A document published by Anonymous shows funding for the II totalled 582,635 in 2017-18, with 480,635 coming from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the rest from NATO. Funding shot up to 2.6 million in 2018-19, with 1.96 million from the FCO and the rest from the US State Department, NATO and the American neoconservative Smith Richardson Foundation. Facebook, which plays in integral role in imposing censorship on behalf of US imperialism, donated 100,000. The Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) produced a briefing on the II last month documenting the role played by leading figures in the UK Ministry of Defence, US Army and senior intelligence figures. It noted, The involvement of these senior officers from military intelligence and information warfare units suggests that the MoD rather than the FCO is driving the Integrity Initiative programme. On January 4, a fourth trove of documents was made public by the Anonymous collective, taken from the internal servers of the IoS and II. These include many documents related to the poisoning last March of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May, without citing any evidence, immediately accused Russia of attempting to assassinate the pair using the nerve agent novichok, thereby ramping up global tensions. The II leaks indicate that the moves against Russia over the Skripal affair were scripted well in advance, with the IoS planning a detailed anti-Russia propaganda war, including suggested achievable objectives. A 2015 document written by IoS team member Victor Madeira is titled Russian Federation Sanctions. It lists potential levers to achieve Russian behaviour change, peace with Ukraine, return [of] Crimea, and regime change. Such levers span almost every conceivable area, including civil society, sports, finance and technology. Under intelligence, Madeira calls for the simultaneous expulsion of every RF [Russian Federation] intelligence officer and air/defense/naval attache from as many countries as possibleciting as a precedent the expulsion of over 1,000 Soviet officials from the UK in September 1971. More than 100 Russian diplomats were expelled from over 20 countries just days after the Skripals poisoning. Madeira has lectured at the University of Buckingham. The WGSPM quoted the universitys website: Dr. Victor Madeira comes to us from Cambridge (where he has been a lecturer and tutor for four years, working with Professor Christopher Andrew and Sir Richard Dearlove and the Institute for Statecraft in London, directed by Chris Donnelly, where he is a senior fellow working on 21st century security architecture. Dearlove is the former head of the UK foreign intelligence service MI6. The head of the IoS is Chris Donnelly, formerly a reserve officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps. He previously headed the British Armys Soviet Studies Research Centre at Sandhurst. Between 1989 and 2003, he was special adviser to four NATO secretaries general. An online biography confirms that Donnelly is, among many things, an honorary colonel in Specialist Group Military Intelligence (SGMI) and sits on the official team responsible for scrutinizing the current reform of the UKs Reserve Forces for the defence secretary. SGMI is a Ministry of Defence (MoD) operation based at Denison Barracks in Berkshire, England. It is part of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade, which became operational on September 1, 2014. Another leaked document shows that in October 2016, Donnelly met UK General Sir Richard Barrons. The account of their meeting is chilling in light of the Skripal affair that followed and the escalation of tensions with Russia, including demands by leading generals that the UK prepare for military conflict. Either Donnelly or Barrons reportedly stated that if no catastrophe happens to wake people up and demand a response, then we need to find a way to get the core of government to realise the problem and take it out of the political space. The speaker continued: We will need to impose changes over the heads of vested interests. We did this in the 1930s. My conclusion is it is we who must either generate the debate or wait for something dreadful to happen to shock us into action. We must generate an independent debate outside government. We need to ask when and how do we start to put all this right. Do we have the national capabilities [and/or] capacities to fix it? If so, how do we improve our harnessing of resources to do it? We need this debate now. There is not a moment to be lost. The Donnelly/Barrons meeting came just one month after the Financial Times leaked a letter from Barrons to the MoD making clear that the British military had to prepare for a major war. In his letter, Barrons demanded the upgrading of military and intelligence hardware, capabilities and personnel necessary to prosecute an extended air, land and sea confrontation against heavily armed state opponents, particularly Russia. Just days after the poisoning of the Skripals, the IoS proposed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office study social media activity in respect of the events that took place, how news spread, and evaluate how the incident is being perceived in various countries. Within days, the IIs Operation Iris swung into operation. As well as monitoring media coverage with its own team, it recruited the global investigative solutions firm Harod Associates to analyse social media activity related to the Skripals affair. On March 11, just seven days after the poisonings, II set out what it called the necessary narrative. It declared, Russia has carried out yet another brutal attack, this time with a deadly nerve agent, on someone living in Britain. The May governments account of how the Skripals came to be poisoned was shot through with inconsistencies, with the wider public increasingly sceptical at its ever-changing story. The II raised concerns that the government was far too weak, declaring, [I]ts essential the government makes a much stronger response this time. It proposed 11 possible, realistic first actions, including such authoritarian measures as banning Russian state news services RT and Sputnik from operating in the UK. Its first demand was to publicly attack the Putin government with a barrage of propaganda through regular media, social media, and with the assistance of specialists such as those at the Institute of Statecraft. A number of senior journalists at the BBC, Times/Sunday Times, Guardian and Financial Times are listed as supportive of the IoS/II in an earlier leaked document. These media outlets each played a central role in disseminating government propaganda throughout the Skripal affair. The named journalists include David Aaronovitch and Dominic Kennedy at the Times, Natalie Nougayrede and Carole Cadwalladr at the Guardian, Edward Lucas at the Economist, Neil Buckley at the Financial Times, and Jonathan Marcus at the BBC. Another figure who has played a central role for II is security consultant Dan Kaszeta. Invoices from his consultancy reveal he was paid over 2,000 to write anti-Russian articles published by the II. These included a puff piece on Porton Down, the UKs chemical weapons laboratory, which has the capability to produce novichok. His piece insisted that Porton Down, located just a few miles from Salisbury, could not possibly have anything to do with the presence of novichok in Salisbury. The author also recommends: Hackers reveal British governments interference in Spanish politics [6 December 2018] As the new year begins, the editorials of the leading German media are marked by a mixture of fear and aggression. Fearbecause the world political framework that enabled Germany to rise to the status of an economic superpower and to keep the class contradictions in check is at an end. Aggressionbecause they consider more extensive military action and another round of social cuts inevitable in response to the global crisis of capitalism. On January 1, the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) itemised the dangers confronting Germany in 2019. The future is in the dark. Sometimes it seems easier to cast light into the darkness, sometimes it seems impossible, the article begins. International politics had been predictable for long stretches of the East-West conflict. Even after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the new pattern had become predictable fairly quickly. Todays situation, on the other hand, did not resemble either situation. We live in troubled times, the FAZ concludes. It is the result of a series of incalculable, sweeping and long-lasting developments and actors: an American president unbridled by all the opposing poles in his cabinet; an EU paralysed by Brexit chaos; protectionism slowing the world economy; the almost unstoppable triumph of populists, who lay on Western democracies like mildew. The list could go on. The paper then lists five risks that could directly affect us. First and foremost is the Trump Chaos Factor. With the resignation of James Mattis as defence secretary, from a European perspective, the last transatlantic voice of the American government has turned its back. What is certain is that Trump will no longer coordinate his security policy steps with his partners. As further risk factors, the FAZ names the strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the chaos in Syria, Russia ante portas (before the gates) and a return of Al Qaeda. The Suddeutsche Zeitung too sees Trumpism as the greatest challenge for Germany. The American president had so far been a terrifying but ineffective Twitter troll. That has now changed. Like the FAZ, Stefan Kornelius, who wrote the Suddeutsche editorial, cites as evidence the letter of resignation of Defence Secretary Mattis and a nationalist speech by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels against the European Union. Both events prove Trumpism is not a personality problem, behind Trumpism stands an ideological movement that could not be more radical. Kornelius attempts to depict the EU as a response to totalitarianism and nationalism. It defended liberalism, multilateralism and a conception of alliance that once seemed to show Europe a way out of the cycle of war and hatred, against Trumps nationalism, he claims. Never before have modern Europe and the United States been so divided on such a fundamental issue of peace and order. That is nonsense, of course. The EU and its members have been involved in almost every criminal war in the Middle East in the last three decades. Kornelius himself is a fervent NATO supporter. In 2014, during the Maidan coup in Ukraine, he was one of the most furious warmongers against Russia. What has changed is the relationship between American and Europeanand especially Germanimperialism. The times in which Germany was able to rise to become export world champion in the slipstream of American foreign policy are over. Instead of being partners, the United States and Germany once again meet as rivals. And since Germany continues to be militarily inferior to the US, it is trying to sell the defence of its own economic and geopolitical interests as a struggle for liberalism and multilateralism against US nationalism. This started long before Trumps election. As early as 2014, representatives of the German government had announced that Germany had to stop commenting on world politics only from the side-lines and play a role in military terms that corresponded to its economic weight. Since then, a systematic military rearmament has been carried out. The commentary in the Suddeutsche also closes with an urgent appeal to finally wake up. Europe and Germany still do not recognize the urgency of the moment, complains Kornelius. Trump paralyzes, hypnotizesbut where is the anti-Trump? Newsweekly Der Spiegel is even clearer. In the editorial of the New Year edition, Christiane Hoffmann calls for accelerated rearmament. The increase in arms expenditure to 2 percent of economic output, about 70 billion per year, as laid down in the coalition agreement, is obviously not enough for her. The present world is a world without America, she writes under the headline More courage. NATOs guarantee of assistance no longer deserved its name. It might still be a vague hope, but no guarantee. That is why German politics must finally have the courage to openly debate how much security Germany wants after America, how much money it is willing to spend and how much sovereignty it is willing to give up for its defence, which can only be European. In her New Year speech, Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed her intention to rearm more rapidly. We must take on more responsibility in our own interests, she demanded. In the next two years, Germany would become a member of the UN Security Council and work for global solutions. In return, our defence spending would also be further increased. There is no opposition to the return of German militarism among the parties represented in the Bundestag (parliament). From the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to the Greens to the Left Party, all are in favour, especially if the rearmament is justified as a reaction to Trump. Militarism, on the other hand, has little support among the population. The Bundeswehr (armed forces) have great difficulty in finding enough recruits, and the vast majority reject the increase in arms expenditure and the deployment to NATO at the Russian border. This is the reason why the monitoring and police apparatus is also being systematically built up and the right-wing extremist AfD is being strengthened by ever new smear campaigns against refugees. With the revival of militarism, the ruling class is also returning to authoritarian methods of rule to suppress all resistance to war and dramatic levels of social inequality. As in the First and Second World Wars, the world is heading for disaster if the working class does not intervene in time. The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) and the International Committee of the Fourth International are fighting to build an anti-war movement based on the international working class that combines the struggle against war with the struggle against its cause, capitalism. (TNS) State Schools Superintendent Steve Paine said Friday hed support some type of one-time pay incentive for educators who arent certified to teach math, but are teaching it anyway, to increase their math education skills, and for elementary school teachers to also improve their teaching techniques.He suggested Gov. Jim Justice will provide more information in his State of the State address Wednesday.Well be developing a strategy that youll hear more about, to immediately give teachers who are not certified the opportunity to receive what I would call a content booster, and, perhaps, a differential pay stipend for obtaining that content, Paine said. I know thats been something that has been a challenging issue in the past, but extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary actions and were willing to take them.Teacher unions have opposed allowing teachers to be paid differently based on what they teach. The state superintendent mentioned only a one-time stipend when speaking Friday at the West Virginia Press Associations annual Legislative Lookahead.Paine said, We have an immediate need with teachers that are not certified as math teachers. Kids in those classrooms deserve teachers that understand mathematics. We have to fix that immediately.A West Virginia Department of Education report using data from last school year found 38 percent of public school math courses in grades seven through 11 are taught by non-fully certified teachers Last school year, only about 37 percent of tested public school students scored as at least proficient in math , per the state education department, and the proficiency percentage for high school juniors was only 29 percent.Also, about a fifth of West Virginia public and private high school students who graduated in 2017 and enrolled in the states public colleges in fall 2017 were required to enroll in remedial math education classes.That 20 percent figure includes students in several different types of remedial education classes, including courses that serve to teach students things they shouldve learned in high school while simultaneously letting them earn college credit. But the percentage doesnt include students in college level courses taught over two semesters, specifically designed for underprepared students, according to the state report that provided this information Paine said the new math program could involve teachers taking practice PRAXIS tests at the start to show the state what they know and dont, and then theyd get personalized plans and take the PRAXIS again at the end to earn the bonus.Unlike older grade teachers, elementary school teachers generally arent separately certified in subjects like English and math its all one certification. Paine said hed offer a similar program to elementary teachers regardless.We have a problem with elementary teachers that are coming out of higher education that are not prepared to teach mathematics, he said.He didnt mention how much the pay increase would be.The presidents of the states two main teacher unions, who joined Paine at Fridays event in Charleston, said they oppose paying math teachers differently.If the only vacancies we had in this state was in math, and you were filling every other position across the state, then we could say, Maybe we should look at something like that, but thats not the fact, said Dale Lee, the West Virginia Education Associations president.He suggested the state should offer free classes to teachers who want to get new certifications.I think it could very easily create other problems, and shortages in other disciplines, said Fred Albert, president of the American Federation of Teachers West Virginia arm. Im not sold on that idea.He suggested there could be loan forgiveness for teachers who agree to teach in particular schools or particular areas with shortages. The Underwood-Smith Teacher Scholarship Loan Assistance Program is a way this is currently offered. As the US government shutdown continues, millions of Americans face the prospect of being cut off from food stamps. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides benefits that allow some of the nations poorest households to buy food. More than 19 million households, or about 39 million people in the US, currently receive food stamps. The average monthly benefit is $245. Now even this minimal aid stands to be withdrawnpartially in February and completely in Marchif the government shutdown drags on. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has furloughed approximately 95 percent of employees in Food and Nutrition Services, the office that oversees the SNAP program. So as USDA workers go without pay, food stamp recipients benefits may also be slashed. Come February, the SNAP program faces a $1.8 billion shortfall. If this were spread out evenly across the 19 million households that receive SNAP benefits, each would see a cut of about $90 per month, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). If the shutdown that began December 22 stretches into March, current SNAP recipients would receive no money. Even if the Trump and administration and Congress come to an agreement to end the shutdown by February, households could experience a substantial delay in receiving their benefits due to operational and bureaucratic challenges at the USDA. The average monthly SNAP benefitwhich could easily be spent by any one of the millionaires in the White House or Congress for a single meal at an upscale restaurantcan mean the difference for food stamp recipients between going hungry or just getting by. Many of these households now face the threat of taking a further hit to their budgets, forcing families to choose between food and making payments for rent, utilities, health care or other basic necessities. Small businesses would also feel the pinch. According to an April 2018 CBPP report, in fiscal year 2017, SNAP recipients redeemed about $63 billion in benefits at about 260,000 retailers. About 80 percent of these retailers were considered small businesses, including local convenience stores and small independent grocers. Those businesses serving low-income neighborhoods would be particularly hard hit. As one of the last remaining vestiges of the safety net for workers and the poor, the food stamp program has come under bipartisan attack over the last decade. In 2014, President Obama signed legislation that cut $8.7 billion in food stamp benefits over the next decade, causing 850,000 households to lose an average of $90 a month. The Obama administration considered this to be an acceptable compromise with House Republicans demands to slash between $20.5 billion and $39 billion from the program. The Trump administration sought but failed to pass far-reaching changes to the SNAP program in the farm bill passed in December. House Republicans version of the bill could have forced states to impose work requirements on SNAP beneficiaries ages 49 to 59. Those proposals would have resulted in benefit cuts for up to 1.1 million households, according to an estimate by Mathematica Policy Research. Trumps proposals also targeted SNAP participants ages 18-49 who are not raising minor children in their homes. The average income of this group of food stamp recipients is just 33 percent of the poverty line, placing them among the poorest of the poor. Trump proposed scrapping work requirement waivers for this age group of SNAP recipients. Under a particularly harsh, longstanding provision of SNAP law, 18- to 49-year-olds without children are limited to receiving just three months of benefits out of every three years for those months in which they are not employed at least 20 hours a week. While participation in a training program counts toward fulfilling this requirement, states are not required to provide work training to these individualsand most dont. Due to the extremely harsh nature of this rule, beginning in 1996 SNAP law also included a provision that lets states seek waivers from the USDA from this three-month cutoff in areas where unemployment is high. Trumps proposal would have eliminated the most commonly used waivers, further punishing those individuals who cannot find work or job training by cutting off their food benefits. Having failed to pass these draconian changes, the Trump administration is now seeking to implement them through executive action. Presenting his annual economic road map for 2019, Central Bank governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy called on the Sri Lankan government last week to request the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resume its loan bailout programand extend its termsto avert the countrys growing financial problems. Coomaraswamys remedy for the islands economic crisis is to impose another round of austerity measures on working people. The IMF last November suspended the final $500 million instalment of its $1.5 billion loan to Sri Lanka after bitter infighting within Colombos political elite. President Maithripala Sirisena sacked pro-US Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replaced him with former President Mahinda Rajapakse, and then dissolved parliament. Sirisena, however, was compelled to reinstate Wickremesinghe as prime minister in mid-December, amid considerable international pressure, particularly by the US, after the Sri Lankan Supreme Court overruled the presidents political coup. There are provisions to extend the [IMF] program by another year which are worth considering, Coomaraswamy said. Senior deputy bank governor, Nandalal Weerasinghe, told the media that the bank would investigate how much more financial aid was needed and the sort of conditions that would be attached to an extension of IMF loan repayments. The IMFs $1.5 billion bailout loan, awarded in 2016, included a reduction of the budget deficit to 3.5 percent of the GDP in 2020. This was to be achieved by increasing taxes, slashing the countrys meagre welfare programs and restructuring the economyi.e., further privatisation of state-owned enterprises. Pointing to Sri Lankas precarious financial situation, Central Bank governor Coomaraswamy said that foreign reserves had fallen to $6.94 billion last year amid a $1 billion outflow from rupee-denominated government securities. Of that outflow, 42 percent occurred since October, when the bitter factional fighting erupted in Colombo. The value of the local stock market fell by 23 billion rupees during the year, with a 13 billion rupee decline since October. The capital market outflow was the main factor in a 19 percent depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee against the US dollar last year that forced up the cost of imported essentials. Coomaraswamy said that the Central Bank would respond to the capital outflow by cutting the volume of rupee bonds held by foreigners. In view of the increased volatility in global financial markets we intend to reduce the threshold for foreign investment in rupee-denominated bonds from 10 percent to 5. US financiers are the main investors in the Colombo security market. The Central Bank governor also noted that the government is required to make a $1 billion repayment in mid-January with total repayments of $2.9 billion due by the end of the year. He said that the Central Bank is currently attempting to secure additional loans from all available sources, including Panda and Samurai bonds, and swaps with the Reserve Bank of India and the Peoples Bank of China. While Sri Lankan exports are in decline, import prices are increasing. As a result the trade deficit had widened to $8 billion by September. Sri Lanka, Coomaraswamy continued, is a twin deficit country with trade and budget deficits, and admitted that the country has been battered by the global crisis. The economy faced heightening challenges in 2018, emanating mainly from global economic, financial and geo-political developments. Sri Lankas economic growth rate fell to an annualized 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2018, down from the 3.6 in the second quarter. The Central Bank estimates that the growth rate in 2018 will be 3 percent, a decline from the 3.2 percent recorded in 2017. The three major international rating agenciesMoodys, Fitch and S&Presponded to the IMFs suspension of its final loan instalment, by immediately downgrading Sri Lankas credit rating. Referring to the new credit rating, Coomaraswamy said: Now that we have been downgraded, we have had to renegotiate with various financing sources If we have an undisciplined budget and poor policies, we will be downgraded again. We will lose access to capital markets. The Central Bank governor warned the new Wickremesinghe government not to make any political concessions to popular sentiment in Sri Lankas forthcoming elections. I get very disturbed because everybody, even fairly well-informed people, say the election is coming so they will have to loosen policyWe cannot keep making the same mistakes. The government has to be careful to ensure there is no fiscal slippage, despite the elections. State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne told the Dailyft that Colombo has decided to begin discussions with several organisations, including the IMF and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) US aid program. The newspaper reported that further IMF intervention was crucial to encouraging the government to stick to its fiscal consolidation policies. Political uncertainty about the government, however, continues. Wickremesinghes United National Party does not have an outright majority in the parliament and President Sirisena will continue to use his powers to undermine the government. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who was supposed to present his 2019 budget last year, is now scheduled to present it in March. He has told the media that the budget will be a surprising one, indicating that there may be some concessions because provincial council and presidential elections are due to be held this year. In all likelihood, however, the IMF will insist on another round of harsh austerity measures that will set the stage for the eruption of mass struggles against the government and the Sri Lankan capitalist state by workers, students and the rural poor. In the wake of a hotly contested poll December 30 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Trump administration has deployed a contingent of troops to nearby Gabon, for the purpose of protecting US assets from possible violent demonstrations following the election to determine a successor to longtime leader Joseph Kabila. Election results which had been expected to be released Sunday by election officials have been delayed indefinitely due to a delay counting all ballots. Trump sent a letter to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday informing Congress that he had ordered the indefinite deployment of around 80 troops to Gabon to protect US citizens and embassy officials in the DRC. Trumps letter noted that the first soldiers arrived in the country on Wednesday with the appropriate combat equipment and supported by military aircraft. The letter also stated that more troops could be deployed to Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the DRC as needed. By deploying troops to the region, Washington is making it clear that it intends to install a pliant government in Kinshasa that will ensure that Americas economic interests in the country are secured. Trumps proclamations of America First in foreign policy does not mean a retreat from the intervention in the affairs of other nations or the flowering of peace; rather it means the naked pursuit of American imperialist geopolitics by economic and military means against adversaries and allies alike. The military operation must also be understood within the framework of Americas imperialist aims in Africa of reasserting Americas geopolitical dominance despite its economic decline relative to its global rivals. To this end, Washington has escalated its military operations in nearly every corner of Africa with the key aim of neutralizing Beijings vast economic influence on the continent. Washingtons latest military maneuver puts into practice the strategy laid out in a speech delivered last month by Trumps National Security Adviser John Bolton in which he identified the entire African continent as a field of great power competition between the United States and its two main competitors, China and Russia, which have been increasing their investments in many Africa countries. Bolton denounced Beijing and Moscow for predatory practices that threaten the financial independence of African nations; inhibit opportunities for US investment; interfere with US military operations; and pose a significant threat to US national security interests. In recent years, Kabila has run afoul of the US and Europe by developing closer economic ties to Beijing, hammering out several economic investment agreements worth billions of dollars, something which the imperialist strategists in Washington regard as intolerable. Also fueling the western imperialists lack of confidence has been the inability of the government to secure the Eastern provinces, long wracked by paramilitary skirmishes, home to the greatest concentration of the countrys immense mineral wealth. According to recent estimates, the DRC has $24 trillion in untapped raw resources, including cobalt and coltan, two metals that are critical to the growing smartphone and electric vehicle industries. Last months poll in the DRC came after a two-year delay in holding elections to determine the successor of President Joseph Kabila, who postponed elections before his term expired in December 2016, which set off a series of demonstrations and social unrest in the capital city Kinshasa and across the country. Kabila, who came to power in 2001, has backed his ruling partys candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary to be his successor. Washington in contrast has favored Shadarys opponent, wealthy businessman Martin Fayulu, a former oil executive educated in the United States and France. Both Shadary and Fayulu belong to the tiny layer of parasitic elites that make up the Congolese bourgeoisie, hoarding the massive resource wealth of the Congo among themselves and cutting lucrative contracts, while the Congolese masses experience widespread social misery, with the majority existing on little more than $1 per day. As the Minister of the Interior and Security under the Kabila government, Shadary was tasked with carrying out the regimes violent repression of demonstrators and political opponents, in particular the recent bloody campaign in Kasai province, in which his forces carried out crimes against humanity, including rape, torture, and numerous indiscriminate killings. Fayulu was employed by American oil giant Exxon-Mobil from 1984 to 2003, first as an auditor, then promoted to director-general, from which he oversaw the companys operations across the African continent. After resigning from Exxon-Mobil, Fayulu returned to Kinshasa and won a parliament seat in 2006. The presidential contest comes amid an explosion of political and social tensions rocking the central African nation, with recent protests against the deeply unpopular Kabila government, and ongoing rebel skirmishes in the eastern provinces. Adding to this toxic mix is a renewed outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in recent weeks. On the day before the poll, Kabila provoked an eruption of social anger as scores of protesters poured into the streets of Kinshasa and various cities after the presidents last-minute decision to arbitrarily bar 1 million people from participating in the poll, on the absurd claim that voters afflicted with Ebola could infect hundreds of people participating in the polls. On Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), the official body tasked with counting the vote, announced that the results of the poll will be postponed for another week. As of late Sunday, reports suggested that Fayulu had taken a clear lead in the poll. International election observers have voiced concerns for the potential of irregularities in the vote tally, along with the fear that by postponing the tally the Kabila government is stalling to provide time to ensure a victory for Shadary. The Catholic church, which wields significant power within the Congo, has warned of a large-scale uprising if the poll appears fraudulent. In the run-up to the poll on Sunday, the Catholic Church organized and placed 41,000 election observers at polls around the country. The church, in rebutting the governments proclamation of a delay, stated to the media that they had determined a clear winner. Although the Church did not publicly announce Fayulu by name, according to the Washington Post a senior Western official and a presidential adviser stated that the Catholic Church had indeed concluded that Fayulu was the victor. In an interview Friday presidential adviser Kikaya Bin Karubi condemned the Churchs conclusion of the tally, and ominously warned the Church was breaking constitutional and election laws and are looking to start a popular revolt that they will be responsible for. Tensions with Washington and Europe reached a crescendo on December 29 when Kabila, facing immense pressures from Western governments to step aside peacefully, defiantly booted the European Union ambassador from the country. For its part, the EU, under an initiative begun by Washington during the Obama administration, has imposed sanctions and travel bans on several key figures in the Kabila government, including Kabila himself, along with freezing the assets in European banks held by several Kabila officials. The extreme breakdown and deterioration of relations between Washington and Europe and the Kabila government was made clear when during a media interview in the days before the poll, Kabila was asked what advice he would impart to his successor, to which he answered, The biggest recommendation is that he listen to the voice of the Congolese and not follow that of the United States, Europe or elsewhere." In a federal courtroom in Chicago last Thursday, 14th Ward alderman and city council finance chairman Edward Burke was charged with seeking to extort business for his law firm and a $10,000 campaign contribution from an Archer Heights Burger King franchisee operating a restaurant in his ward. Long a major figure in the corrupt Democratic Party machine, Burke was arrested just ahead of the city council elections in February. This has had the effect of exposing once again the Democratic Partys deep corruption and shameless profit-seeking. Burke did not enter a plea on Thursday afternoon, and was released after posting $10,000 bond. Later on Thursday, he told reporters he had done nothing wrong. A condition of his release is getting rid of 23 handguns found in his city offices. The federal complaint alleges Burke withheld permits for renovations to the Burger King to force the franchise owner to retain Burkes law firm for his property tax work. The FBI investigation began in 2017 after Burger King executives contacted law enforcement. Federal agents raided Burkes offices in late November 2018. The complaint notes Burkes office went so far as to have a ward employee tell a restaurant representative that the construction had to stop, and the business has to stop. Eventually the Burger King executives agreed to give some tax work to Burkes firm, Klafter and Burke, as well as a $10,000 donation to the re-election campaign of Cook County Board Chair Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle is now the front-runner in the February mayoral election. The complaint cites the donation was made in order to prevent Burkes further interference with the restaurant. The Preckwinkle campaign claims to have given back that donation. Though the restaurant is not named in the federal complaint, it came to light that it was the restaurant on Pulaski and 41st that had been central to an investigation of the 2014 murder of teenager Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. That restaurants surveillance cameras captured the teens murder and Chicago police were found to have gone into the restaurant and forced employees to give them access to the cameras in an attempt to destroy the video evidence of the killing. The Burger King franchise owner, Shoukat Dhanani, is the second-largest Burger King franchisee in the US with more than 500 stores. In 2017, he was forced to pay $250,000 in fines for 843 child labor violations in his Massachusetts stores. Alderman Burke evidently wanted a cut in the profit-making. On Friday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Burke had stepped down from his position as city finance chairman. After that position was vacated, Emanuel announced on Sunday a forensic audit was planned for the $100 million per year city workers compensation program run by Burke, which has been exempt from oversight by the citys inspector general. Burke has been accused in recent months of giving workers compensation and disability checks to political allies and supporters. So-called ghost payrolling is a long-standing patronage practice in which aldermen award different forms of unearned compensation in exchange for off-the-books political work and favors. Chicago city leaders have periodically come under federal investigation for the practice. In 1996, one such investigation turned up several well-known ghost payroll beneficiaries from the time of the first Mayor Daley, including Harold Washington, later Chicagos first African-American mayor. At the time, federal investigators remarked that none of the ward bosses or city officials perceived that they had done anything wrong, and insisted this is simply the way city business is conducted. Ed Burke is the longest serving alderman in the history of the city council, and has run the 14th ward since 1969. He was once a Chicago police officer and media reports indicate he has been a licensed private detective and security contractor since the 1980s. He is currently a law partner at Klafter and Burke, a real estate tax assessment firm. Burkes wife Ann is an Illinois Supreme Court justice for the first judicial district. Earlier this year, Burke was honored at the City Club of Chicago for 50 years in Chicago politics. Burke, who is 75, is part of an old guard of ward bosses that includes figures such as Ed Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, who once led the Cook County Democratic Party and was convicted in 2007 of mail and wire fraud and in 2016 of tax evasion, and Tom Keane, convicted in 1974 of mail fraud and conspiracy charges. Thirty-three Chicago alderman have been convicted of corruption according to former alderman and current University of Illinois-Chicago political scientist Dick Simpson. Burke is a deeply corrupt representative of a deeply corrupt Democratic Party. The investigation and complaint, and any future indictment, emerge out of the day-to-day conflicts of the political cliques vying for power in a city that seems up for grabs since Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he would not run for re-election. Burke confirmed he will be running for re-election in the February 26, 2019 vote. With less than two months to go before the city elections, Burkes arrest has elicited more than the usual ritualistic calls for an end to corruption and for new leadership. A number of Democratic Party hopefuls are seeking to take advantage of this scandal. Burkes ward is majority-Hispanic and he faces four challengers, all of them Hispanic. In recent days, former county commissioner and newly elected Congressman Jesus Chuy Garcia endorsed a Burke opponent from his own organization, 28-year-old Tanya Patino. Whether he is charged tomorrow or next month doesnt really matter. Chicago needs to get cleaned up. Thats why we need to elect new, young representatives like Tanya to the Council, Garcia said. Garcia was also involved in the campaign of Aaron Ortiz, Patinos boyfriend, who successfully won a primary nomination against Ed Burkes brother Dan in Illinois House District 1. The Garcia machine made it a central issue in that race that Ed Burkes law office took on Donald Trump as a client and won him lower property taxes for the riverfront hotel and condominiums in the Trump Tower in Chicago. Patino said of Burke, Him representing Donald Trump, a person who speaks so negatively of immigrant families, and that being also the majority of our ward, I think thats what I mean with him being disconnected and out of touch with the community. The upcoming city elections to replace current Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel promise to be even more chaotic and filthy than usual, as a record number of candidates come forward to vie for the mayoralty and fill city council seats in races that are by some estimates expected to result in turnover of as much as one-third of the council. The author also recommends: Chicago teachers union shuts down strike, holds rally for Democrats [11 December 2018] Socialist Alternative and DSA hold election rally for Democrats in Chicago [22 October 2018] Less than a year ago, on May 1, 2018, the Los Angeles Board of education selected Austin Beutner, a former investment banker, as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Beutners appointment was made shortly after the most expensive school board election in US history in which millions were spent to elect candidates favorable to the billionaire-led school privatization movement. LAUSD is the nations second largest school district with more than 600,000 students and whose 33,000 teachers are expected to strike on January 10. Beutner began his career as a financial analysist for Smith Barney, a wealth management firm. At the age of 29 he became the youngest partner at the Blackstone Group, one of the largest private equity firms in the world. At the age of 33, in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he was selected by President Bill Clinton to lead a US State Department team in Russia on behalf of Wall Street to assist in monetizing many of the public assets stolen by the future Russian oligarchs. In 1996, after his success in plundering Russian assets on behalf of Wall Street investors, Beutner co-founded with former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Roger Altman, Evercore Partners, an investment banking advisory firm. When Evercore went public in 2006, the initial public offering reportedly made Beutner more than $100 million. Around this time, Beutner became a Los Angeles resident and with his large bankroll became a magnet for local politicians. In 2010, he was appointed by Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to be First Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles with oversight over twelve city agencies and 17,000 city employees. As Deputy Mayor Beutner focused on making the city more business-friendly, dispensing with many unnecessary permits and regulations. In this role, not only did he earn the gratitude of local businesses but the local trade union bureaucracy as well. When I first heard of his appointment and that he had this Wall Street background and a lot of money, I was skeptical, said Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles AFL-CIO. She came to change her mind however. Im so used to hearing why something cant be done or why its going to take so long. With Beutner its the opposite. He just gets it done. In 2013 with Villaraigosas term expiring, Beutner launched a campaign to run for Mayor but dropped out of the race a year later after attracting only two percent of likely voters. Later in 2013, Beutner and former US Secretary of Commerce and Democratic operative Mickey Kantor co-chaired the 2020 Los Angeles Commission to study and report on the financial problems impacting Los Angeles, particularly its chronic budget deficits and underfunded pension liabilities. The report issued by this Commission emphasized the failure of the public education system and the need to assert more autocratic control. Bold steps need to be taken, starting with a hard look at where accountability lies for our public education system. Our current approach is not acceptablea part-time, elected school board (elected by less than 20% of adults in our community) overseeing a $7+ billion enterprise does not make sense. The report implicitly suggested that the LAUSD might fare better under mayoral control, an effort that former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tried, and failed to achieve. Characterizing LA Unifieds current governance structure as prone to crisis, turnover and inconsistency, the report notes that other cities have made more assertive efforts to control their public-school systems. Also in 2013, Beutner joined with billionaire Eli Broad in an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Los Angeles Times. In 2014, however, he was successful in becoming publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times, but was fired in September 2015. Before his takeover, the Times posted the teacher-rating scores of 6,000 LA teachers based on student test results. Rigoberto Ruelas, a fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary in South LA, committed suicide after his family said he became depressed over the less effective rating posted on the newspapers web site. Within two weeks of Beutners firing the Los Angeles Times published a leaked June 2015 report from the Eli Broad Foundation, detailing Broads plan to transform half of Los Angeles schools to charter schools. Beutners ultimate selection as superintendent of LAUSD was the product of a well-orchestrated campaign by Broad and other charter school advocates to take over the Los Angeles School Board. The 2017 school board election became the most expensive ($15 million) in the country, with much of the money coming from outside of California, and resulted in the election of a pro-charter majority who then selected Beutner as the new Superintendent in 2018. In that election, nearly $10 million was spent by pro-charter groups. Of that $10 million, $5.14 million was spent by a group known as Parent Teacher Alliance. Another $2.8 million was spent by the Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA). The CCSA transferred $4.53 million to the Parent Teacher Alliance group before the election and also soon after receiving a $7 million contribution from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. In other words, it is highly probable that the new school board and, in turn, Beutner himself, were installed with the wealth of a single individual. Beutner, who is now 58, has no background in education, or in administering a school or school district. He is, as is apparent, a world renown financier, who has had a very lucrative career extracting huge profits for himself and his investors by privatizing public assets and slashing the wages and benefits of workers. It is these credentials that Beutner is expected to utilize, with the acquiescence of the unions, to force teachers and students to accept conditions mandated by drastically underfunded budgets. The austerity demands have been imposed for decades by Californias Democratic governors and Democratic-controlled state legislatures, all of whom were and continue to be elected with the endorsement and support of the unions. Beutner is wasting no time in ruthlessly attempting to suppress the emerging opposition of Los Angeles teachers. He most recently announced the hiring of hundreds of strike-breaking substitutes in the event of strike along with attempting to obtain an injunction preventing special education teachers from striking along with their colleagues on Thursday. The latter was struck down by a federal judge over the weekend. Los Angeles and California teachers should be warned. Beutner and a whole host of figures will accept no obstacles in their drive to privatize the district and cut teachers wages and benefits. The United Teachers of Los Angeles, UTLA, has no intention to organize a serious fight back against Beutner and his allies in the political establishment. In fact, the UTLA has centered its platform entirely around the election of Democratic Party candidates and various ballot measures that will do nothing to better fund public education. The only way forward for Los Angeles Teachers is to form their own rank and file committees with teachers around the state and around the country independently of the unions and the two parties of big business. There is enormous sentiment in favor of Los Angeles teachers both within the city and internationally. That sentiment can only find effective political expression by mobilizing the working class against the both corporate controlled parties and the capitalist system they defend. We urge teachers to contact the World Socialist Web Site as soon as possible to assist in this crucial effort. (TNS) A computer system crash is going to affect the way prospective Sacramento Superior Court jurors have to check in Monday for their reporting times.The courts system went down Friday, rendering both its website and main jury telephone line unavailable, said Kim Pedersen, the courts public information officer.Pedersen said the courts IT department is working to get the system working again by Sunday night, but the problem could persist until as late as Monday. The cause of the crash is unknown, she said.For now, new prospective jurors are being asked to call the Jury Commissioners Office at 916-874-7775 for their reporting instructions, Pedersen said. All returning jurors should follow the instructions previously rendered by the judge.Monday reporting instructions provided by the temporary hotline say juror groups 110 to 112 must report to the main courthouse on Ninth Street at 8 a.m., while groups 113 to 116 must check back at 11:15 a.m. for a possible 1 p.m. reporting time and groups 117 to 139 must check back after 5 p.m. for further instructions.If we get back up and running, obviously before Sunday, it will go back to the website or call the regular number, Pedersen said. But at this junction, we want them to follow these instructions.Despite the crash, it will be business as usual Monday morning, Pedersen said. The doors will be open and staff will be at all courthouse facilities. What happened in cybersecurity last year?There are many ways to answer that question, but most cyber discussions about 2018 quickly get complex.From GDPR to critical infrastructure attacks to government policy changes to data breaches (big and small) to cyberthreats seen (new and old) to staff turnover, simple explanations dont do justice to our global security challenges. Quick stories or fun cyber analogies can help, but most inquiring minds want more.So without going down an infinite number of cybersecurity rabbit holes, I know of no better way to summarize cybersecurity or critical infrastructure developments each year (in under 1,300 words) than to take a quantitative look at readership numbers with a spice of qualitative analysis (and personal commentary) thrown in annually about various technology and security topics.But before we list the top 2018 cybersecurity blogs, I want to remind you about top posts from previous years. Here is my list of the most popular cybersecurity blogs posts from 2017 , as well as the top posts from 2016 Also, these are the top individual blog posts from each year still getting lots of clicks (page views) in 2018:Also, the year-end summaries and security predictions reports for the upcoming year always do very well, with the recap numbers always bleeding across multiple years. Those posts include:This year, rather than using the countdown format from one to 10 on top viewed blogs, Ill start at No. 1.So what about the big picture on gov tech and cybersecurity blogging metrics?Overall, Im happy to report that 'Lohrmann on Cybersecurity & Infrastructure' continues to be listed as a top 50 Global Cyber Blog, at No. 32 as measured by Feedspot.com . More exciting, CISOPlatform.com has recognized Dan Lohrmann as a Top 100 IT Security Influencer for 2019 in their impressive global list of names coming in at No. 78. A sample of other recent recognition includes the StateTech Magazines Must Read State & Local IT Blog List and excellent ongoing coverage at Security Boulevard But most important, I want to thank you, my readers, for another great year in 2018. Your feedback, emails, interactions (online and at conferences), comments (on LinkedIn and other social media sites) as well as ongoing encouragement is such a great blessing.Hopefully, these lists of blogs tell a wider story, when put together. The trends, topics and attentions can help point to needed priorities that result in real action toward improvement.I look forward to an even better year in 2019. Thanks again for stopping by. China's homegrown gay hookup apps seen as cash cows China's biggest gay dating app announced on Saturday it would suspend registration for a week amid claims it was encouraging the spread of HIV among juveniles due to a lax registration mechanism. "HIV prevention is one of our greatest concerns," said the Beijing-based Blued, which is also very popular in Southeast Asia, in a statement on its Sina Weibo account on Saturday. Blued noted that they had always banned juveniles from registering and vowed to enhance HIV prevention awareness. They said they would launch a campaign to screen juveniles who lied about their age to register, and manage content involving teenagers. They also vowed to put a more prominent notice to ban juveniles from registering, the statement said. The Blued app was launched in 2012. It claims to have more than 40 million users, 30 percent of whom are from overseas, news portal Caixin reported Sunday. Peng Xiaohui, vice-chairman of the China Sexology Association, told the Global Times on Sunday that it was unreasonable for Blued not to take measures to check the age of those registering. Peng noted that sex education and gay people regulation remain lacking in China, which leaves space for unregulated gay social media platforms. Among the 809 HIV infection cases of people between 0 and 14 years old reported in China in 2015, 25 were transmitted by men who had homosexual sex, Caixin reported. Among the 25 cases, 19 were transmitted between sex partners met on social media while the youngest infected person was only 7 years old, according to Caixin. Peng pointed out that one way of solving the problem is by eliminating social discrimination against gay people. "Only after treating them equally can we regulate them as heterosexuals," Peng said. Blued's statement came after Zhang Beichuan, an expert on HIV intervention and sexologist at Qingdao University, accused Blued of encouraging HIV infection among juveniles due to a lack of an identification verification mechanism, Caixin reported. Zhang spoke with 56 gay men and medical professionals between January and October 2018, and was told that the youngest user of Blued was 14. Zhang claimed to have found many HIV infection cases involving gay people who had sex with people they met on Blued, according to Caixin's report. Zhang said he believes 35 million gay people live in China. Oceania is one of the largest geographical regions in the world as it spans an area of roughly 3,291,903 square miles. Due to the vast area that the region covers, it encompasses several unique geographical features such as rivers and mountains. Several major rivers flow within Oceania such as the Murray River found in Australia and the Sepik River found in Papua New Guinea. Most of the largest rivers that flow within Oceania are situated in Australia where they play a vital role in the country's economy. Here is a list of the most important rivers in Oceania. Murray River The longest river in Oceania is the Murray River which flows for roughly 1,558 miles. The river begins on the southeastern side of the country and flows to the southwestern part of Australia from where it drains into the Indian Ocean. Several fish varieties make their home in the Murray River such as the Murray cod, the Australian smelt, and the Macquarie perch. Several experts have indicated that the Murray River's health has been declining at a fast rate ever since the arrival of Europeans into the country which has resulted in the reduction of fish species in the river. The Murray River is vital for irrigation in several of the regions through which it flows. Fly River The largest river in Oceania regarding the volume of its discharge is the Fly River that is situated in Papua New Guinea. The Fly River stretches for a length of roughly 650 miles starting from the Star Mountains and draining in the Gulf of Papua. The Fly River's most important tributaries are the Ok Tedi River and the Strickland River which is the larger of the two. The Fly River is famous because its delta is roughly 62 miles long at its entrance. However, as the delta progresses, its width reduces, and by the time it reaches its apex, it is only 6.8 miles wide. The modern day name for the Fly River traces its roots to the ship HMS Fly which was captained by Francis Blackwood who was the first European to sight the river. The major challenge facing the health of the Fly River is the dumping of mineral waste into its tributaries particularly the Strickland River. Murrumbidgee River Another major river in Oceania is the Murrumbidgee River which flows through two Australian states. The river flows for roughly 923 miles before joining up with the Murray River. The Murrumbidgee River is famous because it often floods its banks. The Murrumbidgee's most destructive floods occurred in 1852 and affected Gundagai, Australia resulting in the death of 90 people which at the time was more than 30% of the town's entire population. In the 21st century, the Murrumbidgee's most notable floods occurred in 2010 and 2012. Darling River One of Oceania's most famous rivers is the Darling River which flows for roughly 915 miles. For much of Australia's modern history, the Darling River's health has been rapidly deteriorating which is attributed to human activities. The communities that live along the Darling River have contributed to its declining health by constantly polluting it with farm chemicals and industrial chemicals. In the present era, the Darling River has been on the path to recovery mainly due to the 2010 increase in rainfall within its catchment. Experts believe that if the Darling River is to return to its previously healthy state, massive changes need to take place in its long-term management. Sepik River New Guinea is home to one of Oceania's most important rivers, the Sepik River, which flows for roughly 700 miles. Several fish species make their home in the Sepik River such as catfish and rainbow fish. It is often claimed that the Sepik River remains the largest uncontaminated water system in the Asia pacific region and several species of fish were introduced into the river since the 1950s. The Sepik River meanders on its course and finally discharges water at its mouth to the Bismarck Sea without a delta. The Sepik is also unique because navigation is possible for most of its length. Due to the large number of meanders that the Sepik River takes, it has formed more than 1,500 lakes most of which have been classified as oxbow lakes. Experts indicated that the Sepik River was one of the few relatively undisturbed rivers in the world because there are few human settlements close to the river. Cooper Creek Australia is home to another major river in Oceania, Cooper Creek, that flows for roughly 810 miles. The river is extremely famous because it was where William Wills and Robert Burke died in the 19th century. Charles Stuart gave Cooper Creek its modern-day name in the 19th century, and he named the river after a South Australian chief justice, Charles Cooper. In ancient times, several aboriginal communities lived along the Cooper Creek; however, after the arrival of European settlers, the original inhabitants were displaced from their native lands along the river. Cooper Creek attracted European settlement because it was a reliable water source for both people and animals. Flinders River The longest river in the Australian state of Queensland is Flinders River which extends for roughly 624 miles. Flinders River traces its modern-day name to one of the most popular explorers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Matthew Flinders. In the ancient period, several aboriginal communities such as the Kalkadoon, Gugu-Badhun, and the Mayi-Kulan lived along the Flinders River. During the 19th century, the Flinders River was the site of significant floods that resulted in the deaths of many people. The Importance of Rivers in Oceania Rivers are vital to countries in Oceania since they are used for different purposes such as irrigation and fishing. Due to the importance of the rivers to their economies, the various countries in Oceania have implemented wide-ranging measures to keep their rivers healthy. San Francisco is a city in the US state of California, located on the west coast of the country and encompasses a stretch of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. The city covers an area of approximately 46.9 square miles, most of which is in the San Francisco Peninsula, and has a population of roughly 884,000, making it the 13th most populous city in the US. San Francisco is the financial, cultural, and commercial center of Northern California, and is a popular tourist destination because of its cool summers, magnificent rolling hills, and numerous landmarks. The city has more than 50 hills, and its hightest point is Mount Davidson, which has an elevation of 928 feet. Climate of San Francisco San Francisco experiences a warm summer Mediterranean climate, which is common along the coast of California. Its climate is characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, and is heavily influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay on the west and east, respectively. The moderate temperatures result in a moderately mild climate throughout the year, with very little seasonal temperature variations. Of all major cities in the US, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean temperature between June and August. The city rarely experiences snow, with only 10 measurable accumulations of snow recorded since 1852. The most recent snowfall occurred in 1976, when approximately 5 inches of snow fell on the community of Twin Peaks. However, city residents are accustomed to fog and cold weather. Snowfall in San Francisco Between 1976 and 2011, most residents of San Francisco, especially those younger than 35 years of age, had never seen snow in the city. However, in 2011 a rare chance of witnessing snow was predicted. The possible snowfall was forecasted days earlier, and on February 25, 2011, just before midnight, a light snowfall was reported around the city, including Twin Peaks. This was the first snowfall in 35 years, and therefore local television networks interrupted normal broadcasts to give up-to-the-minute reports. Meteorologists also reported the possibility of the snowfall extending to the following day. However, to the disappointment of residents, this did not occur. The tiny amount of snow that fell on the night of February 25 did not accumulate enough to be measured. Why Is Snow Rare in San Francisco? It rarely snows in San Francisco, and when it does, temperatures are not cold enough to allow for accumulation. However, snow is common in some regions that neighbor the city. The lack of regular snowfall in San Francisco is the result of its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, as any moisture that hits Northern California is warmed by the Pacific before reaching the land. In order for snow to form, both moisture and low temperatures are required. Northern California has a significant amount of moisture in the air, but temperatures are not cold enough for snow to be produced. Buried within the multitude of volumes that encompass Pennsylvania laws is a 176-year-old statute that is rarely used.The June 13, 1842, law gives the Legislature the legal authority to issue subpoenas that force anyone to testify before the House or Senate about "any part of the commonwealth." It says those who refuse to testify can be imprisoned, while a separate "Contempt of the General Assembly" law carries a misdemeanor criminal penalty.Despite those laws, the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to expand that chamber's investigative and subpoena power.It targets the Democratic-controlled governor's office and three independent row offices -- attorney general, treasurer and auditor general.The House voted 142-58 to adopt its biannual operational rules covering the 2019-20 legislative cycle. Within those rules, the House created a Government Oversight Committee to investigate "executive agencies and administrative actions."The committee must design its own regulations to abide by its legal doctrine of holding hearings, within 24 hours notice, "at any place in this commonwealth" upon the referral of the speaker of the House or the chamber's Republican or Democratic leaders. As part of those hearings, the committee can issue subpoenas for documents and testimony "upon any person" -- with the exception of lawmakers and their legislative staffers, who are immune from the committee's oversight.A day after that vote, questions swirled in the Capitol's legal and political circles: Why was the committee needed given the existing (if old) laws? Does the committee have the legal authority it claims? Will its power be used for partisan purposes? Will the first subpoena usher in a constitutional legal fight that ends up before the court, the third branch of government?There's nothing political about the new committee, said Mike Straub, spokesman for newly minted House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster. As proof he pointed to the support of Democratic leaders and 32 votes (out of 93) from Democratic lawmakers.The old laws provided the legal basis for the new committee's investigations and subpoena power, he said. The committee was needed, Straub said, because despite the old laws, the House's internal rules only granted subpoena power to the Appropriations Committee, which handles budget matters, and its Ethics Committee, which conducts private investigations of lawmakers' alleged transgressions."It's just expanding the responsibility the Legislature has of providing oversight on behalf of taxpayers," Straub said.Bill Patton, a spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus, made it clear Democrats did not seek the new panel."We feel it's duplicative of the existing committees and will add great costs, especially in legal fees," Patton said. "It is simply unnecessary. It's one of the main reasons so many Democrats voted against adopting the package of rules."The committee was modeled after a bill proposed last year by Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, but not approved. The goal, he said in an interview, is improved oversight across all committees."The point is to not actually do subpoenas," Grove said. "The purpose is to work with the administration to get documents. If the General Assembly is looking at a particular issue or a particular agency, it should be public knowledge and there should not be a need to have discussions of a subpoena."House Republicans believe they have the legal authority to issue subpoenas, "however, there are obviously limitations due to separation of powers," said Gov. Tom Wolf's spokesman, J.J. Abbott.Abbott would not say whether the administration would fight a subpoena either through its office of general counsel or the attorney general's office, which also handles lawsuits for the state. But, Abbott said, if the GOP-controlled chamber is serious about reform, it should follow Wolf's example by passing more stringent internal ethics rules that require lawmakers to turn in receipts for all taxpayer-funded travel and by imposing a gift ban from lobbyists and other seeking to do business with the government.Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton, agreed."There's no need for an oversight committee," Freeman said. "This is sort of an open-ended recipe for just disrupting government without having a clear mission in mind."Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Treasurer Joe Torsella declined comment through their offices.In an interview, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale questioned the need for the new oversight panel. Existing committees could do the same work and the Legislature could improve oversight simply by permitting his office to audit lawmakers' and the chamber's spending accounts, he said."I can't audit the Legislature because of separation of powers," DePasquale said.If the aim is simply to improve cooperation among the branches of government, DePasquale said he's for it."I always look to cooperate with anyone," he said.The Legislature rarely invokes its subpoena power, said Drew Crompton, the Senate Republicans' top lawyer. The House is free to create its own rules that enhance oversight, which is a good thing, he added. The legal fight, he cautioned, could come down to the application of the committee, particularly if subpoenas are issued."This [committee] could have merit," Crompton said, "but it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out." Isaiah Gardenhire is accused of stabbing a 13-year-old girl to death and committing other crimes while out on bond. He is in the Isabella County jail on a litany of felony charges and was out on bond in a case in Mason County. INDIANAPOLIS (WLFI) -- Halle Shoults, a Purdue student and Miss Benton County, was named the 61st Indiana State Fair Queen Sunday at the fairgrounds in Indianapolis. She was selected from 84 other contestants following three days of competition. Shoults will travel the state in June and July to 45 county fairs in advance of the Indiana State Fair, beginning Aug. 2. Shoults, a sophomore from Oxford, is studying Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She is a member of Ann Tweedale Cooperative, 4-H and the Purdue Lilly Scholars Network. It's been 50 years since a State Fair queen has come from Benton County. Terilyn Krill was the representative in 1969. Two other county fair queens made the Top 10 from the News 18 viewing area. Maci French, Miss Boone County, was 1st Runner-Up, and Emily Kilmer, Miss Jasper County, finished in 10th. Complete results can be found here. Congrats, Halle! CLINTON- Hamilton College hosted the 4th annual Yoga Festival. The festival was open to all ages and skill levels. The background of the instructors included a former pro body builder, a dancer, and a choreographer. All of the instructors at the festival were certified yoga instructors. Around 75 people turned out for this year's yoga festival. The event started off with an opening ceremony. After that, they broke off into group classes based on the individual's skill level. You know everyone has the new year new you type thing going on. We have a lot of people here that jumped on board, but honestly we have a lot of people that are regular yoga practitioners in our community, they belong to different studios throughout Utica Oneida, New Hartford, and Rome and its just a wonderful opportunity for everyone in the community to come together." said organizer Sandra Stanton. The festival lasted throughout the day and included food from Core Life, and Soul Bowl. Attendees were also treated with live music throughout the festival. The Florida Senate paid $900,000 to settle a complaint filed by a high-ranking staffer who alleged she was retaliated against for accusing a former senator of sexual harassment, according to documents released by the Senate President Thursday. As part of the agreement, the aide, Rachel Perrin Rogers, is resigning.Perrin Rogers, a longtime staffer for Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, filed her resignation letter Dec. 19, the day the settlement was signed with the Senate."In accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement, my resignation will be effective January 4th, 2019," she wrote in a letter to Simpson dated Dec. 19. "Having the opportunity to assist as you've served your constituents has been an honor. I feel an immense sadness that at this time I am no longer able to do this work for you in the Senate."The settlement dictates the $900,000 be paid in a one-time lump sum to a trust account for Freidman and Abrahamsen, a legal firm that helped represent Perrin Rogers. It is not known whether the entire amount is for legal fees or whether Perrin Rogers receives some of it.The money came from general Senate funds, Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said."From the time the complaint was first filed with the EEOC in September, the Administrative Law Judge recommended mediation as a solution that would bring a more timely resolution to what had already become a protracted and public employment matter," Betta said in a statement. "President [Bill] Galvano believed the matter would continue to negatively impact the parties and distract from the important work of the Senate, while legal fees mounted for all involved. For those reasons, President Galvano authorized the recent mediation, which led to the settlement. The settlement brings this matter to a conclusion that allows both parties to move forward."In the settlement, the Senate "denies any wrongdoing or unlawful acts" on the part of its elected or appointed officials, employees or other agents. The settlement bars Perrin Rogers or her legal heirs or other representatives from taking further legal action regarding her employment against the chamber, and states Perrin Rogers shall not seek future employment with the Senate.Perrin Rogers had filed her complaint against the Florida Legislature in January 2018 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that she was subjected to "retaliatory action" after she filed a sexual harassment claim against former state Sen. Jack Latvala, the powerful Clearwater Republican and a former Senate budget chairman. The complaint alleged the Senate "knew, or should have known, of the unlawful conduct of Senator Latvala and did not take any steps to prevent his abuses and protect its employees."Latvala resigned before last year's legislative session after six women -- Perrin Rogers among them -- anonymously spoke to Politico in November 2017 accusing Latvala of sexually harassing them. Perrin Rogers filed a confidential claim with the chamber thereafter and went public with her allegations after details of her identity were disclosed, and after she learned Latvala had read her unredacted filing.After the allegations were made, the Senate conducted two independent investigations: One determined Perrin Rogers' assertions Latvala groped and harassed her were likely, and he resigned in January. Another concluded Latvala might have broken state law by trading votes for sexual favors with a lobbyist, but the Leon County state attorney declined to press charges.Since then, Perrin Rogers and her attorney asserted, Senate leaders had retaliated against her, launching an investigation triggered by an internal complaint from a coworker who had supported Latvala and curtailing her responsibilities in her current role. But before settling the case in December, the Senate had repeatedly rejected the allegations for months and fought Perrin Rogers' case, even counter-suing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end its investigation into Perrin Rogers' claims.When asked to comment Thursday night, Perrin Rogers referred a reporter to her resignation letter. Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides paper-based packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Mills, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging. The company offers coated unbleached kraft (CUK), coated recycled paperboard (CRB), and solid bleached sulfate paperboard (SBS) to various paperboard packaging converters and brokers; and paperboard packaging products, such as folding cartons, cups, lids, and food containers primarily to consumer packaged goods, quick-service restaurants, and foodservice companies; and barrier packaging products that protect against moisture, hot and cold temperature, grease, oil, oxygen, sunlight, insects, and other potential product-damaging factors. It also offers various laminated, coated, and printed packaging structures that are produced from its CUK, CRB, and SBS, as well as other grades of paperboards that are purchased from third-party suppliers; designs and manufactures specialized packaging machines that package bottles and cans, and non-beverage consumer products; and installs its packaging machines at customer plants and provides support, service, and performance monitoring of the machines. The company markets its products primarily through sales offices and broker arrangements with third parties in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Graphic Packaging Holding Company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Tenet Healthcare: 1 Subsidiaries of this entity in which Tenet Healthcare Corporation directly and indirectly held a 95% ownership interest at December 31 2020 are set forth in the table below., 25 East Same Day Surgery L.L.C., 300 PBL Development LLC, 45th Street MOB LLC, 601 N 30th Street I L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street II L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street III Inc., AHM Acquisition Co. Inc., AIG Holdings LLC, AIGB Global LLC, AIGB Group Inc., AIGB Holdings Inc., AIGB Management Services LLC, AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #3 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #4 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #5 L.L.C., AMI Information Systems Group Inc., AMI/HTI Tarzana Encino Joint Venture, APN, ARC Worcester Center L.P., ASC Old Co. LP, ASC of New Jersey LLC, ASJH Joint Venture LLC, Abrazo Health Network EP Clinical Services LLC, Abrazo Surgical Outpatient Center LLC, Advanced Ambulatory Surgical Care L.P., Advanced Center for Surgery Vero Beach LLC, Advanced Regional Surgery Center LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Metairie LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Tampa LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of St Louis LLC, Advanced Surgical Concepts LLC, Advantage Health Care Management Company LLC, Advantage Health Network Inc., AdventHealth Surgery Center Celebration LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Mills Park LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Wellswood LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Winter Garden LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers Central Florida LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers West Florida LLC, Adventist Midwest Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Alabama Cardiovascular Associates L.L.C., Alabama Digestive Health Endoscopy Center L.L.C., Alabama Hand and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Alamo Heights Surgicare L.P., All Star MOB LLC, Allegian Insurance Company, Alliance Surgery Birmingham LLC, Alliance Surgery Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center Inc., Ambulatory Surgical Associates LLC, Ambulatory Surgical Center of Somerville LLC, American Institute of Gastric Banding Ltd., American Institute of Gastric Banding Phoenix Limited Partnership, American Medical (Central) Inc., Amisub (Heights) Inc., Amisub (Hilton Head) Inc., Amisub (North Ridge Hospital) Inc., Amisub (SFH) Inc., Amisub (Twelve Oaks) Inc., Amisub of California Inc., Amisub of North Carolina Inc., Amisub of South Carolina Inc., Amisub of Texas Inc., Anaheim Hills Medical Imaging L.L.C., Anaheim MRI Holding Inc., Anesthesia Partners of Gallatin LLC, Arizona Care Network Next L.L.C., Arizona Health Partners LLC, Arlington Orthopedic and Spine Hospital LLC, Arrowhead Endoscopy and Pain Management Center LLC, Asia Outsourcing US Inc., Aspen Healthcare, Atlanta Medical Center Inc., Atlanta Medical Center Interventional Neurology Associates L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Neurosurgical & Spine Specialists L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Physician Group L.L.C., Atlantic Coast Surgical Suites LLC, Atlantic Health-USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Avita/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., BBH BMC LLC, BBH CBMC LLC, BBH DevelopmentCo LLC, BBH Imaging Jasper LLC, BBH NP Clinicians Inc., BBH PBMC LLC, BBH SBMC LLC, BBH WBMC LLC, BCDC EmployeeCO LLC, BHC-Talladega Pediatrics LLC, BHS Accountable Care LLC, BHS Affinity LLC, BHS Integrated Physician Partners LLC, BHS Physician Performance Network LLC, BHS Physicians Alliance for ACE LLC, BHS Physicians Network Inc., BHS Specialty Network Inc., BT East Dallas JV LLP, BW Cardiology LLC, BW Cyberknife LLC, BW Hand Practice LLC, BW Office Buildings LLC, BW Parking Decks LLC, BW Physician Practices LLC, BW Retail Pharmacy LLC, BW Sports Practice LLC, Bagley Holdings LLC, Baptist Accountable Care LLC, Baptist Diagnostics LLC, Baptist Health Centers LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance ACO LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance LLC, Baptist Plaza Surgicare L.P., Baptist Surgery Center L.P., Baptist Womens Health Center LLC, Baptist/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Bartlett ASC LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Baylor Plano LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Blue Star LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Granbury LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Mansfield LLC, Baylor Surgicare at North Dallas LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Plano LLC, Baylor Surgicare at Plano Parkway LLC, Bear Creek Surgery Center LLC, Beaumont Surgical Affiliates Ltd., Bellaire Outpatient Surgery Center L.L.P., Berkshire Eye LLC, Bloomington ASC LLC, Blue Ridge/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Bluffton Okatie Primary Care L.L.C., Bluffton Okatie Surgery Center L.L.C., Bon Secours Surgery Center at Harbour View LLC, Bon Secours Surgery Center at Virginia Beach LLC, Bozeman Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Bozeman MOB LLC, Briarcliff Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Bristol Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Broad River Primary Care L.L.C., Brookwood - Maternal Fetal Medicine L.L.C., Brookwood Ancillary Holdings Inc., Brookwood Baptist Health 1 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 2 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 3 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Imaging LLC, Brookwood Center Development Corporation, Brookwood Development Inc., Brookwood Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Brookwood Garages L.L.C., Brookwood Health Services Inc., Brookwood Home Health LLC, Brookwood Occupational Health Clinic L.L.C., Brookwood Parking Associates Ltd., Brookwood Primary Care - Homewood L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Inverness L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Mountain Brook L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Oak Mountain L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care - Vestavia L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care Cahaba Heights L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care Hoover L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care The Narrows L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Network Care Inc., Brookwood Specialty Care - Endocrinology L.L.C., Brookwood Sports and Orthopedics L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Care L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Diagnostic Center LLC, C7 Technologies LLC, CGH Hospital Ltd., CHIC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CHN Holdings LLC, CHRISTUS Cabrini Surgery Center L.L.C., CHVI Tucson Holdings LLC, CML-Chicago Market Labs Inc., CRNAs of Michigan, CS/USP General Partner LLC, CS/USP Surgery Centers LP, California Joint & Spine LLC, Camp Creek Urgent Care L.L.C., Camp Lowell Surgery Center L.L.C., Captive Insurance Services Inc., Cardiology Physicians Associates L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Corporation L.L.C., Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates L.L.C., Cardiovascular Clinical Excellence at Sierra Providence LLC, CareSpot of Austin LLC, CareSpot of Memphis LLC, CareSpot of Orlando/HSI Urgent Care LLC, Carmel Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Carondelet St. Marys-Northwest L.L.C., Cascade Spine Center LLC, Castle Rock Surgery Center LLC, Catawba-Piedmont Cardiothoracic Surgery L.L.C., Cedar Hill Primary Care L.L.C., Cedar Park Surgery Center L.L.P., Centennial ASC LLC, Center for Advanced Research Excellence L.L.C., Center for the Urban Child Inc., Central California Healthcare Holdings LLC, Central Carolina Physicians - Sandhills L.L.C., Central Carolina-IMA L.L.C., Central Jersey Surgery Center LLC, Central Texas Corridor Hospital Company LLC, Central Valley Quality Alliance LLC, Central Virginia Surgi-Center L.P., Centura Ventures Surgery Centers LLC, Centura/USP Colorado Springs Surgery Centers L.L.C., Chalon Living Inc., Chandler Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Endoscopic Surgery Center LLC, Chattanooga Pain Management Center LLC, Chesterfield Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Chesterfield Anesthesia Associates of Missouri LLC, Chico Surgery Center L.P., Childrens Hospital of Michigan Premier Network Inc., Citrus Heights ASC RE LLC, Clarkston ASC Partners LLC, Clarksville Surgery Center LLC, Coast Healthcare Management LLC, Coast Surgery Center L.P., Coastal Carolina Medical Center, Coastal Carolina Medical Center Inc., Coastal Carolina Physician Practices LLC, Coastal Carolina Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Coastal Endo LLC, Colorado GI Centers LLC, Commonwealth Continental Health Care Inc., Community Connection Health Plan Inc., Community Hospital LLC, Community Hospital of Los Gatos Inc., Conifer Care Continuum Solutions LLC, Conifer Ethics and Compliance Inc., Conifer Global Business Center Inc., Conifer Global Holdings Inc., Conifer Health Solutions LLC, Conifer Holdings Inc., Conifer Patient Communications LLC, Conifer Physician Services Holdings Inc., Conifer Physician Services Inc., Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions LLC, Conifer Value-Based Care LLC, Conroe Surgery Center 2 LLC, Coral Gables Hospital Inc., Coral Ridge Outpatient Center LLC, Corpus Christi Surgicare Ltd., Covenant/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CreAtiv Management Company Inc., Creekwood Investors LLC, Creekwood Surgery Center L.P., Crown Point Surgery Center LLC, DH/USP SJOSC Investment Company L.L.C., DH/USP Sacramento Pain GP LLC, DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Education & Research, DMC Harper University Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, DMC Imaging L.L.C., Dallas Surgical Partners LLC, DeTar/USP Surgery Center LLC, Delray Beach ASC LLC, Delray Medical Center Inc., Delray Medical Physician Services L.L.C., Denton Surgicare Partners Ltd., Denton Surgicare Real Estate Ltd., Denville Surgery Center LLC, Des Peres Physician Network LLC, Desert Cove MOB LLC, Desert Regional Medical Center Inc., Desert Ridge Outpatient Surgery LLC, Desoto Surgicare Partners Ltd., Destin ASC RE LLC, Destin Surgery Center LLC, Detroit Education & Research, DigitalMed Inc., Dignity/Abrazo Health Network LLC, Dignity/USP Folsom GP LLC, Dignity/USP Grass Valley GP LLC, Dignity/USP Las Vegas Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Metro Surgery Center LLC, Dignity/USP NorCal Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers II LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers LLC, Dignity/USP Redding GP LLC, Dignity/USP Roseville GP LLC, Dignity/USP/John Muir East Bay Surgery Centers LLC, Doctors Hospital of Manteca Inc., Doctors Medical Center Neurosciences Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center Orthopedics Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center of Modesto Inc., Doctors Outpatient Center for Surgery LLC, Doctors Outpatient Surgery Center of Jupiter L.L.C., EPHC Inc., EPIC ASC LLC, East Atlanta Endoscopy Centers LLC, East Cobb Urgent Care LLC, East Cooper Coastal Family Physicians L.L.C., East Cooper Community Hospital Inc., East Cooper Hyperbarics L.L.C., East Cooper OB/GYN L.L.C., East Cooper Physician Network LLC, East Cooper Primary Care Physicians L.L.C., East Portland Surgery Center LLC, East West Surgery Center L.P., Eastgate Building Center L.L.C., Effingham Surgical Partners LLC, Einstein Montgomery Surgery Center LLC, Einstein/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., El Mirador Surgery Center L.L.C., El Paso Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy LLC, El Paso Day Surgery LLC, El Paso Urology Surgery Center Curie LLC, Emanate/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Emanuel Medical Center, Emerson Surgery Center LLC, Encinitas Endoscopy Center LLC, Endoscopy Center of Hackensack LLC, Endoscopy Center of South Sacramento LLC, Endoscopy Consultants LLC, European Surgical Partners Ltd., Eye Center of Nashville UAP LLC, Eye Surgery Center of Nashville LLC, FMC Medical Inc., FMCC Network Contracting L.L.C., FPN Frisco Physicians Network, FREH Real Estate L.L.C., FRS Imaging Services L.L.C., FSC Hospital LLC, FSH IT Services LP, First Choice Physician Partners, Flatirons Surgery Center LLC, Folsom Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Fort Bend Clinical Services Inc., Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate LP, Fort Worth Surgicare Partners Ltd., Foundation Bariatric Hospital of San Antonio LLC, Foundation San Antonio Borrower Sub LLC, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Fountain Valley Surgery Center LLC, Franklin Endo UAP LLC, Franklin Endoscopy Center LLC, Fresno Surgery Center L.P., Frisco Medical Center L.L.P., Frontenac Ambulatory Surgery & Spine Care Center L.P., Frye Regional Medical Center Inc., FryeCare Boone L.L.C., FryeCare Morganton L.L.C., FryeCare Physicians L.L.C., FryeCare Valdese L.L.C., FryeCare Watauga L.L.C., FryeCare Womens Services L.L.C., GCSA Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Gamma Surgery Center LLC, Gardendale Surgical Associates LLC, Garland Surgicare Partners Ltd., Gastric Health Institute L.L.C., Genesis ASC Partners LLC, Geneva Surgical Suites LLC, Georgia Endoscopy Center LLC, Georgia Gifts From Grace L.L.C., Georgia Musculoskeletal Network Inc., Georgia North Fulton Healthcare Associates L.L.C., Georgia Northside Ear Nose and Throat L.L.C., Georgia Physicians of Cardiology L.L.C., Georgia Spectrum Neurosurgical Specialists L.L.C., Georgia Spine Surgery Center LLC, Glen Echo Surgery Center LLC, Golden Ridge ASC LLC, Good Samaritan Medical Center Inc., Good Samaritan Surgery L.L.C., Grapevine Surgicare Partners Ltd., Grass Valley Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Graystone Family Healthcare - Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Great Lakes Surgical Suites LLC, Greater Dallas Healthcare Enterprises, Greater Northwest Houston Enterprises, Greenville Physicians Surgery Center LLP, Greenwood ASC LLC, Greystone Internal Medicine - Brookwood L.L.C., Gulf Coast Community Hospital Inc., HCH Tucson Holdings LLC, HCN Emerus Management Sub LLC, HCN Emerus Texas LLC, HCN Laboratories Inc., HCN Physicians Inc., HCN Sunnyvale Holdings LLC, HCN Surgery Center Holdings Inc., HDMC Holdings L.L.C., HMA/Solantic Joint Venture LLC, HMH-USP Surgery Centers LLC, HMHP/USP Surgery Centers LLC, HNMC Inc., HNW GP Inc., HNW LP Inc., HPI Holdings LLC, HPI North LLC, HPI Physicians LLC, HSRM International Inc., HSS Palm Beach Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, HSS/USP Surgery Center LLC, HUG Services Inc., HUMC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Hacienda Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Hagerstown Surgery Center LLC, Hardeeville Medical Group L.L.C., Hardeeville Primary Care L.L.C., Harlingen Physician Network Inc., Harper-Hutzel AHP Services Inc., Harvard Park Surgery Center LLC, Haymarket Surgery Center LLC, Hazelwood Endoscopy Center LLC, Health & Wellness Surgery Center L.P., Health Horizons of Kansas City Inc., Health Horizons of Murfreesboro Inc., Health Horizons/Piedmont Joint Venture LLC, Health Services CFMC Inc., Health Services HNMC Inc., Health Services Network Care Inc., Health Services Network Hospitals Inc., Health Services Network Texas Inc., HealthCorp Network Inc., Healthcare Compliance LLC, Healthcare Network Alabama Inc., Healthcare Network CFMC Inc., Healthcare Network DPH Inc., Healthcare Network Georgia Inc., Healthcare Network Holdings Inc., Healthcare Network Hospitals (Dallas) Inc., Healthcare Network Hospitals Inc., Healthcare Network Louisiana Inc., Healthcare Network Missouri Inc., Healthcare Network North Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network South Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network Tennessee Inc., Healthcare Network Texas Inc., Healthcare Partners Investments LLC, Healthmark Partners Inc., Healthpoint of North Carolina L.L.C., Heart and Vascular Institute of Michigan, Heritage Park Surgical Hospital LLC, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Hialeah Hospital Inc., Hialeah Real Properties Inc., Hickory Family Practice Associates - Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Hill Country ASC Partners LLC, Hill Country Surgery Center LLC, Hilton Head Health System L.P., Hilton Head Regional Healthcare L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional OB/GYN Partners L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional Physician Network LLC, Hilton Head Regional Physician Network Georgia L.L.C., Hinsdale Surgical Center LLC, Hitchcock State Street Real Estate Inc., Holston Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Holy Cross Hospital Inc., Home Health Partners of San Antonio LLC, Hoover Doctors Group Inc., Hoover Land LLC, Horizon Ridge Surgery Center LLC, Hospital Development of West Phoenix Inc., Hospital RCM Services LLC, Hospital Underwriting Group Inc., Houston Northwest Partners Ltd., Houston PSC L.P., Houston Specialty Hospital Inc., Houston Sunrise Investors Inc., Hyde Park Surgery Center LLC, ICNU Rockford LLC, Imaging Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., InforMed Insurance Services LLC, Integris/USP Health Ventures LLC, International Health and Wellness Inc., Irving-Coppell Surgical Hospital L.L.P., JFK Memorial Hospital Inc., JFP UAP Sugarland LLC, Jackson Surgical Center LLC, Jacksonville Endoscopy Centers LLC, Journey Home Healthcare of San Antonio LLC, KHS Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, KHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Kingsport Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Laguna Medical Systems Inc., Lake Endoscopy Center LLC, Lake Health Care Facilities Inc., Lake Lansing ASC Partners LLC, Lake Surgical Hospital Slidell LLC, LakeFront Medical Associates LLC, Lakewood Regional Medical Center Inc., Lakewood Surgery Center LLC, Lancaster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Lansing ASC Partners LLC, Lawrenceville Surgery Center L.L.C., Lebanon Endoscopy Center LLC, Legacy Warren Partners L.P., Legacy/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Leonardtown Surgery Center LLC, Liberty Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Lifemark Hospitals Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Florida Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Lone Star Endoscopy Center LLC, Longleaf Surgery Center LLC, Los Alamitos Medical Center Inc., Lubbock ASC Holding Co LLC, MASC Partners LLC, MCSH Real Estate Investors Ltd., MH Memorial City Surgery LLC, MH/USP Bay Area LLC, MH/USP Brazoria LLC, MH/USP Kingsland LLC, MH/USP Kingwood LLC, MH/USP Kirby LLC, MH/USP Main Street LLC, MH/USP North Freeway LLC, MH/USP North Houston LLC, MH/USP Richmond LLC, MH/USP Sugar Land LLC, MH/USP TMC Endoscopy LLC, MH/USP West Houston L.L.C., MH/USP Woodlands Parkway LLC, MSH Partners LLC, MSV Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MVH/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MacNeal Management Services Inc., MacNeal Medical Records Inc., MacNeal Physicians Group LLC, Magnetic Resonance Imaging of San Luis Obispo Inc., Magnolia Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Manchester Ambulatory Surgery Center LP, Maple Lawn Surgery Center LLC, Marion Surgery Center LLC, Mary Immaculate Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Mason Ridge Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Mayfield Spine Surgery Center LLC, McLaren ASC of Flint LLC, Meadowcrest Hospital LLC, Medical House Staffing LLC, Medical Park Tower Surgery Center LLC, Medplex Outpatient Medical Centers Inc., Medplex Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Memorial Hermann Bay Area Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann Endoscopy & Surgery Center North Houston L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Endoscopy Center North Freeway LLC, Memorial Hermann Specialty Hospital Kingwood L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Surgical Hospital L.L.P., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Brazoria LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Cypress LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Katy LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kingsland L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kirby LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Main Street LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Memorial City L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Northwest LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Pinecroft LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Preston Road Ltd., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Richmond LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Southwest L.L.P., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Sugar Land LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Texas Medical Center LLP, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Woodlands Parkway LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center The Woodlands LLP, Memorial Hermann Texas International Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann West Houston Surgery Center LLC, Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers II L.P., Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers III LLP, Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers IV LLP, Memorial Surgery Center LLC, Memphis Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., Memphis Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., Merced Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Mercy/USP Health Ventures L.L.C., Metro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Metro Surgery Center LLC, MetroWest HomeCare & Hospice LLC, Metrocrest Surgery Center L.P., Metropolitan New Jersey LLC, Michigan ASC Partners L.L.C., Michigan Pioneer ACO LLC, Michigan Regional Imaging LLC, Mid Rivers Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Mid State Endo UAP LLC, Mid-State Endoscopy Center LLC, Mid-TSC Development LP, Middle Tennessee Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Midland Memorial/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Midland Texas Surgical Center LLC, Midwest Digestive Health Center LLC, Midwest Pharmacies Inc., Midwest Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Millennium Surgical Center LLC, Mobile Imaging Management LLC, Mobile Technology Management LLC, Modesto Radiology Imaging Inc., Monocacy Surgery Center LLC, Mountain Empire Surgery Center L.P., Munster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Murdock Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, NHSC Holdings LLC, NICH GP Holdings LLC, NKCH/USP Briarcliff GP LLC, NKCH/USP Liberty GP LLC, NKCH/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., NKCH/USP Surgery Centers LLC, NMC Lessor L.P., NMC Surgery Center L.P., NME Headquarters Inc., NME Properties Corp., NME Properties Inc., NME Property Holding Co. Inc., NME Psychiatric Hospitals Inc., NME Rehabilitation Properties Inc., NSCH GP Holdings LLC, NSCH/USP Desert Surgery Centers L.L.C., NUCH of Georgia L.L.C., NUCH of Massachusetts LLC, NUCH of Michigan Inc., NUCH of Texas, Nacogdoches ASC-LP Inc., Name of Entity, National ASC Inc., National Ancillary Inc., National Diagnostic Imaging Centers Inc., National HHC Inc., National Home Health Holdings Inc., National ICN Inc., National Imaging Center Holdings Inc., National Medical Services II Inc., National Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., National Surgery Center Holdings Inc., National Urgent Care Holdings Inc., National Urgent Care Inc., Network Management Associates Inc., New Dimensions LLC, New England Physician Performance Network LLC, New H Acute Inc., New Horizons Surgery Center LLC, New Medical Horizons II Ltd., New Mexico Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, New Salem ASC RE LLC, Newhope Imaging Center Inc., North Anaheim Surgery Center LLC, North Atlantic Surgical Suites LLC, North Campus Surgery Center LLC, North Carolina Community Family Medicine L.L.C., North Central Surgical Center L.L.P., North Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, North Fulton Cardiovascular Medicine L.L.C., North Fulton Hospitalist Group L.L.C., North Fulton Medical Center Inc., North Fulton Primary Care - Willeo Rd. L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Windward Parkway L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Wylie Bridge L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care Associates L.L.C., North Fulton Pulmonary Specialists L.L.C., North Fulton Womens Consultants L.L.C., North Garland Surgery Center L.L.P., North Haven Surgery Center LLC, North Miami Medical Center Ltd., North Shore Medical Billing Center L.L.C., North Shore Medical Center Inc., North Shore Same Day Surgery L.L.C., North Shore Surgical Suites LLC, North State Surgery Centers L.P., NorthPointe Surgical Suites LLC, NorthShore/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Northern Monmouth Regional Surgery Center L.L.C., Northridge ASC RE LLC, Northridge Surgery Center L.P., Northwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Georgia Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Regional ASC LLC, Northwest Regional Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgery Center LLP, Northwest Surgery Center Ltd., Novant Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Novant/UVA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, OCOMS Imaging LLC, OCOMS Professional Services LLC, OLOL/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Okatie Surgical Partners L.L.C., Oklahoma Center for Orthopedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery LLC, Old Tesson Surgery Center L.P., Olive Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Olive Branch Urgent Care #1 LLC, Ophthalmology Anesthesia Services LLC, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Orlando LLC, Optimum Spine Center LLC, OrNda Healthcorp, OrNda Hospital Corporation, Orlando Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., OrthoArizona Surgery Center Gilbert LLC, OrthoLink ASC Corporation, OrthoLink Physicians Corporation, OrthoLink Radiology Services Corporation, OrthoLink/ Georgia ASC Inc., OrthoLink/Baptist ASC LLC, OrthoLink/New Mexico ASC Inc., Orthopedic Associates of the Lowcountry L.L.C., Orthopedic South Surgical Partners LLC, Orthopedic and Surgical Specialty Company LLC, PAHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, PDN L.L.C., PHPS Inc., PHPS-CHM Acquisition Inc., PHS/USP Health Ventures LLC, PM CyFair Land Partners LLC, PMC Physician Network L.L.C., PPRE LLC, PSS Patient Solution Services LLC, Pacific Endo-Surgical Center L.P., Pacific Endoscopy and Surgery Center LLC, Pain Diagnostic and Treatment Center L.P., Paley Institute Global LLC, Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital Inc., Palm Beach International Surgery Center LLC, Palm Valley Medical Center Campus Association, Palos Health Surgery Center LLC, Paramus Endoscopy LLC, Park Cities Surgery Center LLC, Park Plaza Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., ParkCreek ASC LLC, Parkway Recovery Care Center LLC, Parkwest Surgery Center L.P., Patient Partners LLC, Peak Gastroenterology ASC LLC, Pediatric Surgery Center Odessa LLC, Pediatric Surgery Centers LLC, Physician Performance Network L.L.C., Physician Performance Network of Arizona LLC, Physician Performance Network of Detroit, Physician Performance Network of South Carolina LLC, Physician Performance Network of Tucson LLC, Physicians Performance Network of Houston, Physicians Performance Network of North Texas, Physicians Surgery Center at Good Samaritan LLC, Physicians Surgery Center of Tempe LLC, Physicians Surgical Center of Ft. Worth LLP, Physicians Surgery Center of Chattanooga L.L.C., Physicians Surgery Center of Knoxville LLC, Piccard Surgery Center LLC, Piedmont ASC LLC, Piedmont Behavioral Medicine Associates LLC, Piedmont Cardiovascular Physicians L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina OB/GYN of York County L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina Vascular Surgery L.L.C., Piedmont East Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Piedmont Express Care at Sutton Road L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Rock Hill L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Tega Cay L.L.C., Piedmont General Surgery Associates L.L.C., Piedmont Internal Medicine at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Physician Network LLC, Piedmont Pulmonology L.L.C., Piedmont Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care and Industrial Health Centers Inc., Piedmont/Carolinas Radiation Therapy LLC, Placentia-Linda Hospital Inc., Pleasanton Diagnostic Imaging Inc., Point of Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Practice Partners Management L.P., Premier ACO Physicians Network LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Adult and Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Premier Endoscopy ASC LLC, Premier Health Plan Services Inc., Premier Medical Specialists L.L.C., Prince William Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Professional Anesthesia Services LLC, Professional Liability Insurance Company, Pros Temporary Staffing Inc., Providence/UCLA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Providence/USP Santa Clarita GP LLC, Providence/USP South Bay Surgery Centers L.L.C., Providence/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Pueblo Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, R.H.S.C. El Paso Inc., RE Plano Med Inc., RHC Parkway Inc., RLC LLC, Reading Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Reading Endoscopy Center LLC, Reagan Street Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Surgery Center LLC, Renaissance Surgery Center LLC, Republic Health Corporation of Rockwall County, Resolute Health Physicians Network Inc., Resolute Hospital Company LLC, Resurgens East Surgery Center LLC, Resurgens Fayette Surgery Center LLC, Resurgens Surgery Center LLC, Rheumatology Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Richmond ASC Leasing Company LLC, Rio Grande Valley Indigent Health Care Corporation, River North Same Day Surgery L.L.C., Riverside Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Rock Bridge Surgical Institute L.L.C., Rock Hill Surgery Center LLC, Rockwall Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.P., Rocky Mountain Endoscopy Centers LLC, Roseville Surgery Center L.P., Roswell Surgery Center L.L.C., SCNRE LLC, SFMP Inc., SFMPE - Crittenden L.L.C., SL-HLC Inc., SLH Physicians L.L.C., SLH Vista Inc., SLPA ACO LLC, SLUH Anesthesia Physicians L.L.C., SMSJ Imaging Company LLC, SMSJ Tucson Holdings LLC, SPC at the Star LLC, SRRMC Management Inc., SSI Holdings Inc., Sacramento Midtown Endoscopy Center LLC, Safety Harbor ASC Company LLC, Saint Agnes/Dignity/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Saint Agnes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Saint Francis Cardiology Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis Cardiovascular Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Medicare ACO LLC, Saint Francis Hospital Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett Inc., Saint Francis Medical Partners East L.L.C., Saint Francis Medical Partners General Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis Quality Alliance LLC, Saint Francis Surgery Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Surgical Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis-Arkansas Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis-Bartlett Physician Network LLC, Saint Thomas Campus Surgicare L.P., Saint Thomas Surgery Center New Salem LLC, Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP Baptist Plaza L.L.C., Saint Vincent Physician Services Inc., Salmon Surgery Center LLC, Same Day Management L.L.C., Same Day SC of Central NJ LLC, Same Day Surgery L.L.C., San Antonio Endoscopy L.P., San Fernando Valley Surgery Center L.P., San Gabriel Valley Surgical Center L.P., San Martin Surgery Center LLC, San Ramon ASC L. P., San Ramon Ambulatory Care LLC, San Ramon Network Joint Venture LLC, San Ramon Regional Medical Center LLC, San Ramon Surgery Center L.L.C., Santa Barbara Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Santa Clarita Surgery Center L.P., Savannah Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Schertz Surgery Center LLC, Scripps Encinitas Surgery Center LLC, Scripps/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Seaside Surgery Center LLC, Shands/Solantic Joint Venture LLC, Shelby Baptist Affinity LLC, Shelby Baptist Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Shore Outpatient Surgicenter L.L.C., Shoreline Real Estate Partnership LLP, Shoreline Surgery Center LLP, Shrewsbury Surgery Center LLC, Sierra Pacific Surgery Center LLC, Sierra Providence Health Network Inc., Sierra Providence Healthcare Enterprises, Sierra Vista Hospital Inc., Silicon Valley Outpatient Surgery Centers LLC, Silver Cross Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Sinai-Grace Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, Siouxland Surgery Center Limited Liability Partnership, Solantic Corporation, Solantic Development LLC, Solantic Holdings Corporation, Solantic of Jacksonville LLC, Solantic of Orlando LLC, Solantic/South Florida LLC, South Carolina East Cooper Surgical Specialists L.L.C., South Carolina Health Services Inc., South Carolina SeWee Family Medicine L.L.C., South County Outpatient Endoscopy Services L.P., South Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, South Florida Ambulatory Surgical Center LLC, South Fulton Health Care Centers Inc., SouthCare Physicians Group Neurology L.L.C., SouthCare Physicians Group Obstetrics & Gynecology L.L.C., Southeast Ohio Surgical Suites LLC, Southern Orthopedics and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Southern States Physician Operations Inc., Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., Southwest Childrens Hospital LLC, Southwest Endoscopy LLC, Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital LLC, Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital Real Estate LLC, Southwestern Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional OB/GYN L.L.C., Spalding Regional Physician Services L.L.C., Specialty Surgery Center of Fort Worth L.P., Specialty Surgicenters Inc., Spinal Diagnostics and Treatment Centers L.L.C., Spine & Joint Physician Associates, Springfield Service Holding Corporation, St. Augustine Endoscopy Center LLC, St. Christophers Pediatric Urgent Care Center - Allentown L.L.C, St. Josephs Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Josephs Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, St. Josephs Surgery Center L.P., St. Louis Physician Alliance LLC, St. Louis Surgical Center LLC, St. Louis Urology Center LLC, St. Lukes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, St. Marys Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, St. Marys Hospital Cardiovascular Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Levee Company LLC, St. Marys Medical Center Inc., St. Vincent Health/USP LLC, St. Vincent/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Stockton Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Subsidiaries of USPI Holding Company Inc., Suburban Endoscopy Center LLC, Summit View Surgery Center LLC, Sun View Imaging L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group I L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group II L.L.C., Sunrise Medical Group IV L.L.C., SurgCenter Camelback LLC, SurgCenter Northeast LLC, SurgCenter Pinellas LLC, SurgCenter Tucson LLC, SurgCenter at Paradise Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Deer Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Glen Burnie LLC, SurgCenter of Palm Beach Gardens LLC, SurgCenter of Plano LLC, SurgCenter of Southern Maryland LLC, SurgCenter of St. Lucie LLC, SurgCenter of White Marsh LLC, Surgery Affiliate of El Paso LLC, Surgery Center at Mount Pleasant LLC, Surgery Center at University Park LLC, Surgery Center of Atlanta LLC, Surgery Center of Canfield LLC, Surgery Center of Columbia L.P., Surgery Center of Coral Gables LLC, Surgery Center of Okeechobee LLC, Surgery Center of Pembroke Pines L.L.C., Surgery Center of Peoria L.L.C., Surgery Center of Richardson Physician Partnership L.P., Surgery Center of Santa Barbara LLC, Surgery Center of Scottsdale LLC, Surgery Center of Tempe Real Estate II L.L.C., Surgery Center of Tempe Real Estate L.L.C., Surgery Centers of America II L.L.C., Surgery Centre of SW Florida LLC, Surgical & Bariatric Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Surgical Clinical Excellence at Desert Regional LLC, Surgical Elite of Avondale L.L.C., Surgical Health Partners LLC, Surgical Institute Management LLC, Surgical Institute of Reading LLC, Surgical Specialists at Princeton LLC, Surgicare of Miramar L.L.C., Surginet Inc., Surgis Inc., Surgis Management Services Inc., Surgis of Chico Inc., Surgis of Phoenix Inc., Surgis of Redding Inc., Surgis of Victoria Inc., Sutton Road Pediatrics L.L.C., Sylvan Grove Hospital Inc., TENN SM LLC, TFPS IV L.L.C., TH Healthcare Ltd., TH International Services Florida LLC, THV Park Cities LLC, THVG Arlington GP LLC, THVG Bariatric GP LLC, THVG Bariatric L.L.C., THVG Bedford GP LLC, THVG Bellaire GP LLC, THVG DSP GP LLC, THVG DeSoto GP LLC, THVG Denton GP LLC, THVG Fort Worth GP LLC, THVG Frisco GP LLC, THVG Garland GP LLC, THVG Grapevine GP LLC, THVG Irving-Coppell GP LLC, THVG Lewisville GP LLC, THVG North Garland GP LLC, THVG Park Cities/Trophy Club GP LLC, THVG Rockwall 2 GP LLC, THVG Valley View GP LLC, TLC ASC LLC, TMC Holding Company LLC, TOPS Specialty Hospital Ltd., TPG Hospital LLC, TPR Practice Management LLC, TPS VI of PA L.L.C., TRMC Holdings LLC, TSPE LLC, Tamarac Surgery Center LLC, Tempe New Day Surgery Center LP, Templeton Imaging Inc., Tenet Business Services Corporation, Tenet California Inc., Tenet Central Carolina Physicians Inc., Tenet EKG Inc., Tenet El Paso Ltd., Tenet Employment Inc., Tenet Finance Corp., Tenet Florida Inc., Tenet Florida Physician Services II L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services III L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services L.L.C., Tenet Fort Mill Inc., Tenet Global Business Center Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Bucks County L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Graduate L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Hahnemann L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Medical Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Nacogdoches ASC GP Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Philadelphia Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Roxborough LLC, Tenet HealthSystem St. Christophers Hospital for Children L.L.C., Tenet Hilton Head Heart L.L.C., Tenet Hospitals Limited, Tenet Network Management Inc., Tenet Patient Safety Organization LLC, Tenet Physician Resources LLC, Tenet Physician Services - Hilton Head Inc., Tenet Rehab Piedmont Inc., Tenet Relocation Services L.L.C., Tenet SC East Cooper Hospitalists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Gastrointestinal Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Island Medical L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Lowcountry OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Mt. Pleasant OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet Unifour Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Tenet Ventures Inc., TenetCare Frisco Inc., Terre Haute Surgical Center LLC, Teton Outpatient Services LLC, Texan Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Texas Endoscopy Centers LLC, Texas Health Venture Arlington Hospital LLC, Texas Health Venture Baylor Plano LLC, Texas Health Venture Carrollton LLC, Texas Health Venture Centennial LLC, Texas Health Venture Ennis LLC, Texas Health Venture Fort Worth L.L.C., Texas Health Venture Granbury LLC, Texas Health Venture Heritage Park LLC, Texas Health Venture Keller LLC, Texas Health Venture Las Colinas LLC, Texas Health Venture Mansfield LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano Endo LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano LLC, Texas Health Venture Plano Parkway LLC, Texas Health Venture Texas Spine LLC, Texas Health Ventures Group L.L.C., Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical in Sunnyvale, Texas Spine and Joint Hospital LLC, The 6300 West Roosevelt Partnership, The Ambulatory Surgical Center of St. Louis L.P., The Healthcare Insurance Corporation, The Healthcare Underwriting Company a Risk Retention Group, The Huron Corporation, The Outpatient Center LLC, The Southeastern Spine Institute Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., The Surgery Center at Jensen Beach LLC, The Surgery Center at Williamson LLC, The Tresanti Surgical Center LLC, Theda Oaks Gastroenterology & Endoscopy Center LLC, Titan Health Corporation, Titan Health of Chattanooga Inc., Titan Health of Hershey Inc., Titan Health of Mount Laurel LLC, Titan Health of North Haven Inc., Titan Health of Pittsburgh Inc., Titan Health of Pleasant Hills Inc., Titan Health of Princeton Inc., Titan Health of Sacramento Inc., Titan Health of Saginaw Inc., Titan Health of Titusville Inc., Titan Health of West Penn Inc., Titan Health of Westminster Inc., Titan Management Corporation, Titusville Center for Surgical Excellence LLC, Toms River Surgery Center L.L.C., Total Joint Center of the Northland LLC, Tower Road Real Estate LLC, Tower/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Treasure Coast ASC LLC, Trophy Club Medical Center L.P., True Medical Weight Loss L.P., True Medical Wellness LP, True Results Georgia Inc., True Results HoldCo LLC, True Results Missouri LLC, Tucson Digestive Institute LLC, Tucson Hospital Holdings Inc., Tucson Physician Group Holdings LLC, Turlock Imaging Services LLC, Turlock Land Company LLC, Tuscan Surgery Center at Las Colinas LLC, Twin Cities Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Twin Cities Community Hospital Inc., UAP Las Colinas Endo LLC, UAP Lebanon Endo LLC, UAP Nashville Endoscopy LLC, UAP Scopes LLC, UAP of Arizona Inc., UAP of California Inc., UAP of Missouri Inc., UAP of New Jersey Inc., UAP of Oklahoma Inc., UAP of Tennessee Inc., UAP of Texas Inc., UCC Tucson Holdings LLC, UMC Surgery Center Lubbock LLC, UMC-USP Surgery Centers LLC, USC/Norris Cancer Hospital, USP 12th Ave Real Estate Inc., USP Acquisition Corporation, USP Alexandria Inc., USP Assurance Company, USP Athens Inc., USP Atlanta Inc., USP Austin Inc., USP Bariatric LLC, USP Beaumont Inc., USP Bergen Inc., USP Bloomington Inc., USP Bridgeton Inc., USP Cedar Park Inc., USP Chesterfield Inc., USP Chicago Inc., USP Cincinnati Inc., USP Coast Inc., USP Columbia Inc., USP Connecticut Inc., USP Corpus Christi Inc., USP Creve Coeur Inc., USP Denver Inc., USP Des Peres Inc., USP Destin Inc., USP Domestic Holdings Inc., USP Effingham Inc., USP Encinitas Endoscopy Inc., USP Fenton Inc., USP Festus Inc., USP Florissant Inc., USP Fort Lauderdale Inc., USP Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate Inc., USP Fredericksburg Inc., USP Fresno Inc., USP Frontenac Inc., USP Gateway Inc., USP HMH Surgery Center at Shore LLC, USP Harbour View Inc., USP Houston Inc., USP Indiana Inc., USP International Holdings Inc., USP Jersey City Inc., USP Kansas City Inc., USP Knoxville Inc., USP Little Rock Inc., USP Long Island Inc., USP Louisiana Inc., USP Lubbock Inc., USP Maryland Inc., USP Mason Ridge Inc., USP Mattis Inc., USP Michigan Inc., USP Midland Inc., USP Midland Real Estate Inc., USP Midwest Inc., USP Mission Hills Inc., USP Montana Inc., USP Morris Inc., USP Mt. Vernon Inc., USP Nevada Holdings LLC, USP Nevada Inc., USP New Hampshire Inc., USP New Jersey Inc., USP Newport News Inc., USP North Carolina Inc., USP North Kansas City Inc., USP North Texas Inc., USP Northwest Arkansas Inc., USP OKC Inc., USP OKC Manager Inc., USP Office Parkway Inc., USP Ohio RE Inc., USP Oklahoma Inc., USP Olive Inc., USP Orlando Inc., USP Philadelphia Inc., USP Phoenix Inc., USP Portland Inc., USP Reading Inc., USP Richmond II Inc., USP Richmond Inc., USP Sacramento Inc., USP San Antonio Inc., USP Santa Barbara Surgery Centers Inc., USP Securities Corporation, USP Silver Cross Inc., USP Siouxland Inc., USP Somerset Inc., USP South Carolina Inc., USP Southlake RE Inc., USP St. Louis Inc., USP St. Louis Urology Inc., USP St. Peters Inc., USP Sunset Hills Inc., USP TJ STL Inc., USP Tennessee Inc., USP Texas Air L.L.C., USP Texas L.P., USP Torrance Inc., USP Tucson Inc., USP Turnersville Inc., USP Virginia Beach Inc., USP Washington Inc., USP Waxahachie Management 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MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Europe ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. The Supreme Court agreed Friday to review highly partisan election maps drawn by Republicans in North Carolina and Democrats in Maryland, and decide whether such political gerrymandering violates voters' rights to a fair election.In North Carolina, the state's Republican leaders drew the congressional districts to lock in a 10-3 advantage for their candidates, even when the state's votes were evenly split.In Maryland, Democratic leaders shifted more than 100,000 voters to transform a safe Republican district into a reliably Democratic one. As a result, seven of its eight seats are held by Democrats.Rulings in the cases, due by June, will likely determine whether there will be legal checks on the state politicians who will redraw election districts following the 2020 census. The court said it would hear arguments in March in two cases: Rucho vs. Common Cause and Benisek vs. Lamone.Partisan gerrymandering is not a new problem, and the challengers face an uphill fight because of the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The high court has never struck down an election map as unfairly political, but Kennedy -- a conservative who sometimes sided with liberals -- had left the door open to ruling that an extremely skewed map might violate the 1st Amendment.Last year, the court considered two partisan gerrymander cases -- from Wisconsin and Maryland -- but cited procedural grounds for not issuing a definitive ruling.In the past, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has suggested judges have no role to play in policing the drawing of election districts. And now that Kennedy has been replaced by the more conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the chief justice may well have a majority to rule that drawing voting districts is an inherently political task to be decided solely by state lawmakers, not judges.Such a ruling could backfire on Republicans, however. The GOP won big victories in a 2010 midterm wave election and took full control in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina. They used their power to draw election maps that virtually guaranteed Republicans would win about three-fourths of the seats throughout the decade.In 2016, for example, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan had 48 seats in the House, and they sent to Washington 34 Republicans and 14 Democrats.But 2020 is a presidential election year, and Democrats are likely to fare much better then, building on the the state victories they racked up in November. If so, Democrats are likely to take as much advantage as possible when the election districts are redrawn with new census data, especially if the high court gives its approval to partisan line-drawing.Critics of partisan gerrymandering say they hope the high court will end the practice."Voters nationwide are ready for a ruling from the Supreme Court that finally declares that they come first, not self-interested politicians," said Paul Smith, a lawyer for the Campaign Legal Center. "If the Supreme Court fails to set limits on this undemocratic practice, we will see a festival of copycat gerrymandering in 2020 the likes of which the country has never seen before."Opponents of partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina and Maryland have unusually strong cases because the political leaders there candidly admitted they were drawing the maps for political advantage. But they emphasized that they were not gerrymandering by race, which the high court had ruled is unconstitutional."I'm making clear that our intent is to use the political data we have for partisan advantage," said North Carolina state Rep. David Lewis, when state lawmakers met in a special session in Raleigh two years ago to revise the congressional districts.Lewis announced he would go as far as possible to benefit Republicans. "I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage of 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it's possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats," he said.Voters who leaned in favor of Democrats were concentrated in three districts, while 10 districts were drawn to give Republicans a safe but not overwhelming margin.In November, the plan worked as intended. North Carolina's voters were closely split in statewide tallies, with Republicans holding a 51%-49% edge. But the GOP again won 10 of the 13 House seats, although one race remains in doubt because of allegations of fraud in the handling of absentee ballots.Lawyers for Common Cause and the League of Women Voters had sued, alleging this partisan manipulation of the districts violates the voters' rights to a fair election and an equal vote. Twice they won before a three-judge federal district court which called the election map discriminatory in its intent and its effect. The judges said the politically tilted map violated the 1st Amendment because it diluted the votes of some voters based on their political views, and it denied them the equal protection of the laws.But the Supreme Court set aside the first ruling in June so this year's election could proceed with the GOP-drawn map.In their appeal, lawyers for the North Carolina Republicans said there is no "manageable standard" for a court to decide when politics played too large a rule in drawing district lines. They also said voters do not have a right to "proportional representation" in the number of seats won based on statewide results.In past cases, Roberts has said the Constitution leaves the redistricting power to state legislatures. He has pointed to a provision which says: "The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the Legislature."Four years ago, he would have struck down the voter-approved independent commissions in California, Arizona and several other states on the grounds this map-drawing power resided with the state legislature. But he lost in a 5-4 decision when the now-retired Kennedy joined the four liberals in a case from Arizona.Earlier this year, the chief justice spoke for the court in overturning an anti-gerrymandering ruling from a three-judge federal court in Wisconsin, but he did so based on procedural grounds. The district judges said the state map was drawn to "entrench" one party in power for at least a decade. However, Roberts said the plaintiffs who voted in local elections did not have standing to challenge the statewide election map.Last month, the politically drawn map allowed Wisconsin's Republicans to retain a super-majority of 63 of 99 seats in the state Assembly, despite winning only 46% of the statewide vote. Democrats won the statewide races in Wisconsin, including for governor and attorney general, but the voters' shift toward the Democrats had no impact on political makeup of the state legislature. 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Corp., U.S. HealthWorks, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Alaska, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Arizona, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Florida, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Georgia, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Illinois, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Indiana, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Kansas City, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Kentucky, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Maine, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Minnesota, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of New Jersey, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of North Carolina, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Ohio, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Pennsylvania, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Tennessee, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Texas, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Washington, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Wisconsin, U.S. HealthWorks Provider Network of Colorado, U.S. HealthWorks of Colorado, U.S. HealthWorks of Illinois, U.S. HealthWorks of Indiana, U.S. HealthWorks of Kansas City, U.S. HealthWorks of Minnesota, U.S. HealthWorks of New Jersey, U.S. HealthWorks of North Carolina, U.S. HealthWorks of Pennsylvania, U.S. HealthWorks of Tennessee, U.S. HealthWorks of Washington, U.S. HealthWorks of Wisconsin, U.S. Medgroup, U.S. Medgroup Of Kansas, U.S. Medgroup of Arkansas, U.S. Medgroup of Delaware, U.S. Medgroup of Illinois, U.S. Medgroup of Massachusetts, U.S. Medgroup of Michigan, U.S. Medgroup of New Jersey, U.S. Medgroup of North Carolina, U.S. Medgroup of Ohio, U.S. Regional Occupational Health II, U.S. Regional Occupational Health II of NJ, USHW of California, USHW of Texas, Valor Healthcare, Victoria Healthcare, WWLTACH, West Gables Rehabilitation Hospital, and Wisconsin Prosthetics & Orthotics. First Data Corporation provides commerce enabled technology and solutions for merchants, financial institutions, and card issuers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Global Business Solutions, Global Financial Solutions, and Network & Security Solutions. The Global Business Solutions segment provides solutions to merchants, such as retail point of sale merchant acquiring, e-commerce, and mobile payment services, as well as cloud based point of sale operating system that include a marketplace for proprietary and third party applications. The Global Finance Solutions segment provides technology solutions for bank and non-bank issuers, such as credit, retail private label, commercial card, and loan processing, as well as licensed financial software systems; suite of account services that include card personalization and embossing, customer communications, and professional services; and call center solutions and back office processing. The Network & Security Solutions segment offers EFT network, stored value network, and security and fraud solutions, as well as other value added solutions to its clients in GBS and GFS segments, smaller financial institutions, and other enterprise clients. First Data Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More Within an hour of being elected California's 40th governor, Gavin Newsom cast the occasion as not just a win, but also a watershed."As Californians, we've been granted the extraordinary opportunity to write history's next chapter," he told supporters on election night, with the ornate former Los Angeles Stock Exchange as a backdrop. "And the extraordinary obligation to help every Californian write their own California story _ even from the darkest of circumstances."The soaring rhetoric was fitting for a man who had campaigned in all-caps and boldface, offering lofty promises to tackle health care, housing and other obstinate problems facing the state.Now, he'll have to deliver.When Newsom is sworn in as governor on Monday, he'll do so with the wind at his back: a robust state economy and flush budget, a forceful electoral victory and a Capitol brimming with Democratic allies. With that good fortune comes great expectations for success, brought on by Newsom's "something for everyone" campaign that left key constituencies hungry for follow-through.It can't get much better for Newsom, and it's almost certain to get worse. An economic contraction, a natural disaster, a rebellion among Democratic lawmakers _ all threaten the incoming governor's footing."All governors have to be somewhat fatalistic," said former Gov. Gray Davis, who started his term in 1998 riding the dot-com boom and ended it in 2003 after he was recalled after the state's energy crisis. "Your fate is not entirely in your hands."California progressives were euphoric following the November election and ascent of Newsom, who ran an unabashedly liberal campaign for the state's top job."Today, California voters embraced our agenda _ for affordable health care, quality child care, and worker rights, and they rejected the politics of division and hate _ in overwhelming numbers," Roxanne Sanchez, president of SEIU California, the state's largest labor union, said in an election night statement.Now, Newsom's allies are waiting to see whether his sweeping vows to build more houses, protect the environment and expand social services for the state's youngest and oldest will result in actual investment _ in state dollars and political capital.Perhaps the one constituency that does not hold sky-high hopes for the incoming governor is the business community, which harbors fears that his pledges could explode state spending and require new taxes.But Newsom has also taken pains to cast himself as a friend to industry, pointing to a multimillion-dollar hospitality venture as a sign of his entrepreneurial bona fides."He's got legitimate businesses in this state, and I've heard him say more than once to groups that he was mindful of how taxes and regulations can drive up costs," said Cassandra Pye, a political strategist and former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who succeeded Davis.Expectations are particularly high for what the governor-elect will do about health care, which Newsom described on the campaign trail as an animating passion. He has pledged nothing short of an overhaul, with goals of expanding coverage, tamping down on prices and ensuring widespread access. But Newsom has been publicly coy on how, exactly, he would achieve those aims.The focus on health care earned him the backing of a varied group of prominent players in the field, including health care providers, insurance companies and labor unions worried about cost. But those supporters have diametrically opposed views on what they want to see in a new health care system.For the California Nurses Association, which endorsed Newsom for governor in 2015, the governor-elect's swearing-in means a fresh chance at accomplishing its top priority: single-payer health care."We expect the governor-elect to deliver on his promise: Medicare for All for all Californians," said Stephanie Roberson, the union's government relations director.Newsom previously sided with the nurses in their push for 2017 legislation to establish a single-payer system. When Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat, tabled the measure, Newsom said he thought the bill should continue through the legislative process to fill in key details, such as how to pay for it. One legislative estimate pegged the price tag at around $400 billion.In a meeting with the nurses union after the election, Newsom reiterated his support, Roberson said, telling the group that he would sign a Medicare for All-style bill if it reached his desk. But Roberson acknowledged that Newsom has close ties to other healthcare players _ including the physicians' lobby _ that staunchly oppose that approach."We're not Pollyanna-ish about all of the different groups and all of the different entities that are speaking to the governor," Roberson said. "At the end of the day, the end product is what he's committed to _ and that's single-payer."But such a proposal would face pushback from another major Newsom backer, the California Medical Association."The notion that he's going to come in and do the single-payer thing, that's where people need to check themselves," said Dustin Corcoran, who leads the physicians' group. "We should challenge ourselves. We should be creative. We should be ambitious _ but anchored in pragmatic reality of what we can get done."The price tag, coupled with a need for cooperation from the federal government, pose major barriers to the single-payer model, Corcoran said. The doctors lobby argued last year that the nurses' proposal would drive physicians out of the state or into retirement, and lead to longer wait times for appointments and procedures. Instead, doctors expect the health care conversation in the Capitol to focus on a more achievable outcome: improving access to care.Should Newsom decide to pursue an overhaul of health care, it will require a herculean feat of consensus-building _ or inevitable disappointment for at least one faction of supporters.Since he was elected, Newsom has tried to temper expectations on health care and other promises. Californians should not expect homelessness to be eradicated, the health care system's ills cured and an end to the housing crisis "overnight," Newsom said during a December town hall forum in Fresno."It's a process that will unfold over a course of years," he told reporters after the event. "But I wanted to set a tone and tenor of expectation, and I'm going to do my best to meet it. Some areas I imagine we'll exceed it. Some areas we'll fall short. And you'll hold me accountable."Newsom secured nearly 62 percent of the vote in his race against Republican John Cox, the largest electoral win for a California governor since Earl Warren in 1950. He racked up commanding margins in urban hubs such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, narrowly led in the former GOP stronghold of Orange County and had respectable _ if not outright majority _ showings in the conservative-leaning Central Valley.His win overlapped with victories for liberals up and down the ballot, resulting in Democrats building a supermajority _ and then some _ in both houses of the state Legislature."The incoming governor has a mandate," Pye said. "He's got a very good Legislature, but he's got a long list of promises to keep."All governors must navigate the power-sharing dynamic with the legislative branch, deciding how proactive they can be in pursuing their agenda versus reacting to the cascade of policy proposals from legislators."He'll have to make a decision about when to engage and when not to engage," said Dana Williamson, a former top adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown. "Both of those are strategic decisions."Brown almost never publicly weighed in on pending legislation, Williamson noted, adding that when he did, "it was very purposeful." The effect was a tightly curated list of priorities that both voters and lawmakers could easily grasp."If you do too much, you can dilute the strength of your message," she said.Still, Williamson said she expects Newsom to be more engaged with legislators than Brown.Brown was largely seen as being able to coax or bend lawmakers to his will, but legislators are eager to reset the power dynamic on more equitable terms."The Legislature's going to be quite a challenge," Brown said in a recent interview. "And it's going to be a challenge because, first of all, I've been reasonably successful. And there is inherent tension between the executive and the legislative (branches)."And while Brown was the elder statesman in the Capitol, having served his first two terms as governor decades before, now it's the legislators, serving under longer term limits, who collectively have more experience than the state's new chief executive."As (Newsom) prioritizes, he's going to have to negotiate with a Legislature that is now more powerful than ever," said Fabian Nunez, the former Assembly speaker. Leaders in both houses "have years of experience in negotiating budgets under their belt. Obviously, Gov. Newsom does not."But a Capitol teeming with Democrats does not guarantee a glide path for liberal policies. Democratic victories in more moderate or conservative areas of the state were likely a reflection of the national political dynamic, Davis said, and not necessarily a mandate for progressivism."A lot of Republican women decided to vote Democratic ... because they couldn't stand Trump," Davis said. "Does that mean they're going to vote Democratic the rest of their life? It's a mistake to assume they will."One advantage for Newsom: The sheer number of Democratic votes means less arm-twisting on tough bills.Chris Tapio, a consultant to business-friendly Democrats in the Legislature, said the dynamic gives members in swing districts more freedom to lay off tax increases that might not sit well with their constituents. But if progressive lawmakers and Newsom pull too far left, centrist Democrats may take heat for the party's liberal policies, even if they didn't personally endorse the bills."Sometimes, regardless of a legislator's position, there's a guilt by association," Tapio said.Pye suggested Newsom's best strategy may be to strike quickly.In his first months in office, Schwarzenegger delivered a campaign promise to reduce the vehicle license fee in California to .65 percent, a move critics cast as a grievous financial mistake for the state. He also signed a bill in his freshman year to overhaul the state's workers' compensation system, cutting back costs for employers.Those opposed to the policies were caught off guard by how quickly the plans came together, Pye said."I think there's something to be said for coming into office and getting a big win, and leveraging that moment," she said. "It helps you establish yourself with the Legislature and with interest groups that are floating around the Capitol. It helps you garner that press you need in case you make a run for national office."For his first major policy proposal, Newsom is moving expeditiously to tackle a campaign promise with little political downside and wide support among California voters. The governor, who underscored his call for universal preschool in the final days of his bid for office, unveiled last week a nearly $2-billion proposal to expand access to early education and child-care programs.Unlike his predecessor, Newsom won't be greeted with dire fiscal conditions. He will take office after nearly a decade of nationwide economic expansion and with a healthy budget surplus.The Legislative Analysts Office in November declared that California's budget outlook is in "remarkably good shape," estimating the state will see $14.5 billion in extra revenue, even after it socks away money in the state's rainy day fund."It is difficult to overstate how good the budget's condition is today," the report stated. "By historical standards, this surplus is extraordinary."But the report cautioned that California's budget conditions can change quickly, especially if the country spins into another recession. Back in 2000, the state also predicted a massive surplus. Then the dot-com bust arrived. Within a year, California faced a $12.4-billion deficit.Brown has spent years prophesying that economic doom looms on the horizon, in part to keep spendthrift Democrats in the Legislature in check and also because history shows an eventual downturn is inevitable."What's out there is darkness. Uncertainty. Decline and recession," Brown said after unveiling his final budget last year. "So good luck, baby!"Economist Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, is bullish on California's economic outlook in the near term, saying all signs point to continued growth. But he expects a mild recession to hit at some point, saying it will deliver a devastating gut-punch to the state budget _ even with $15 billion in state's reserves _ and Newsom's ambitious policy agenda."Even with a modest downturn, you're going to have two years of $30-billion-plus deficits," Thornberg said. "It's going to be a mess."California's overwhelming reliance on personal income tax, including taxes on capital gains, makes the state's revenue stream volatile. The highest earners provide a lopsided portion of the state's personal income tax revenue, so when they do well, the state does well. When their investments tank, so does the state's revenue.Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget and Policy Center, said the volatility can be dealt with if the state's political leaders have the fiscal discipline to save money in good times, when there are surpluses, knowing that bad times are inevitable."The goal should not be reducing volatility, because that means you make the system less fair," Hoene said. "Managing volatility is the problem. You need people who will make tough choices."Economic uncertainty can wreak havoc on a governor's standing with voters."When people feel their lives are getting better, they're happy to support the incumbent governor. When they feel the opposite, they're happy to oppose him," Davis said.In all, the charmed circumstances under which Newsom is taking office belie the difficult road ahead."I think this is going to be as tough as the Dickens," Pye said. "This is a really tough state to run, and we have a lot of big problems right now. All of that coupled with the question of who will pay for it, you can't do anything but wish him luck and pray for him." Mining dream-team confirms multiple high-grade gold discoveries in two ultra-rich mineral belts. Temporarily undiscovered below US$0.25 per share, its one of those rare opportunities where the next drill hole could mean 5X or even 10X gains. Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. engages in the acquisition, evaluation, exploration, and development of mineral properties. The company primarily explores for silver, cobalt, nickel, gold, and copper deposits. Its flagship property is the Castle mine consists of 19 claims, 34 leases, and two licenses covering an area of 2,815 hectares located in Ontario, Canada. The company was formerly known as Canada Cobalt Works Inc. and changed its name to Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. in May 2020. Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. is headquartered in Coquitlam, Canada. Read More 28 minutes ago | June 15th | 2021 6:00 AM How to Avoid Getting into Debt in the First Place It seems like summer always becomes the most expensive month of the year for my family. Between summer vacations, landscaping projects (why are rocks, found in nature, so expensive?!) and more Yikes. It's easy to slide into debt. The truth is, no matter how savvy of a trader or investor you are, you can still end up in debt. When these SPEED READ: The Trump administration is expected to release the final domestic "gag rule," which is being challenged in court, this month. Three conservative states are awaiting federal approval to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding. Abortion will likely be a major topic in legislative sessions this year. Meanwhile, recently passed abortion laws will face legal muster. Domestic Gag Rule Medicaid Funding State Abortion Legislation Abortion was a focal point of politics and policy in 2018, and that's likely to remain true this year.Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of anti-abortion advocates in several cases, including one involving an immigrant teen and another about what information crisis pregnancy centers have to give patients.Shortly after those decisions, Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote, announced his retirement and was replaced by judge Brett Kavanaugh, giving the court a conservative majority. While abortion rights groups worry Kavanaugh's appointment will lead to more restrictions on abortion, he handed Planned Parenthood a victory in December by voting not to take a case from conservative states that want to defund the organization.At the ballot box in November, abortion rights groups largely suffered losses. Voters in Alabama and West Virginia passed laws that will take away a woman's right to an abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized the procedure, is overturned or severely gutted by the new Supreme Court.Looking ahead, here are a few issues that advocates have their eyes on in 2019.In May, the Trump administration released a rule that would prohibit publicly funded health centers from performing or referring patients to abortion services. It's referred to as a "domestic gag rule" because it's similar to the "global gag rule," which bans U.S. aid money from going to overseas organizations that provide or support abortions.The proposedrule politicizes Title X, a historically bipartisan federal grant program exclusively for family planning and reproductive health. Grantees range from Planned Parenthood clinics to city health departments to community health centers.The next round of grant applications is due Jan. 14. Reproductive health experts expect the final rule to drop just before then.The proposed changes could make it extremely difficult for providers to provide comprehensive health services that millions of people rely on, says Audrey Sandusky, spokesperson for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents Title X clinics. Were prepared to challenge the rule and do what it takes to protect patients.The organization is currently fighting the proposed change in court, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and three Planned Parenthood affiliates. A federaljudge tossed the suit in July, but the ACLU appealed that decision, and oral arguments took place in the U.S. Court of Appeals in December.Congressional Republicans have tried to keep Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding -- which is separate from Title X funding -- but with Democrats taking control of the House this month, their opportunity appears gone. Some conservative states, however, are taking this matter into their own hands. Tennessee and Texas have all submitted waivers asking the federal government for permission to remove abortion providers from their Medicaid programs. The Trump administration, which has pushed anti-abortion policies, is expected to weigh in on those waivers this year. If they are approved, more states are expected to follow with similar requests.To date, Arkansas is the only state to cut Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program -- a legally questionable move thats making its way through the courts.Now that the Supreme Court is solidly conservative, red states are expected to test the boundaries on what abortion restrictions the courts will allow, and liberal states are expected to pass laws securing or improving access to the procedure.Its almost as if more conservative states are jockeying to be the state thatll pass the law that will end up revisiting Roe, says Elizabeth Nash, state policy expert for the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.The Ohio Legislature, for instance, raced in the final months of 2018 to pass a bill that would outlaw abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Republican Gov. John Kasich, however, vetoed it. Iowa and Mississippi did successfully pass laws banning abortion after 15 weeks and six weeks, respectively. Both, however, were struck down in lower courts but could eventually land at the Supreme Court.On the other side of the spectrum, legislators in New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island have indicated that theyll attempt this year to repeal pre-Roe state laws that criminalize abortion.Those states are thinking about ways to protect abortion in ways theyd hadnt been thinking about before, says Nash. AGCO Corporation manufactures and distributes agricultural equipment and related replacement parts worldwide. It offers high horsepower tractors for row crop production, soil cultivation, planting, land leveling, seeding, and commercial hay operations; utility tractors for small- and medium-sized farms, as well as for dairy, livestock, orchards, and vineyards; and compact tractors for small farms, specialty agricultural industries, landscaping, equestrian, and residential uses. The company also provides grain storage bins and related drying and handling equipment systems; seed-processing systems; swine and poultry feed storage and delivery; ventilation and watering systems; and egg production systems and broiler production equipment. In addition, it offers round and rectangular balers, loader wagons, self-propelled windrowers, forage harvesters, disc mowers, spreaders, rakes, tedders, and mower conditioners for harvesting and packaging vegetative feeds used in the beef cattle, dairy, horse, and renewable fuel industries. Further, the company provides implements, including disc harrows leveling seed beds and mixing chemicals with the soils; heavy tillage to break up soil and mix crop residue into topsoil; field cultivators that prepare smooth seed bed and destroy weeds; drills for small grain seeding; planters and other planting equipment; and loaders. Additionally, it offers combines for harvesting grain crops, such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice; and application equipment, such as self-propelled, three- and four-wheeled vehicles, and related equipment for liquid and dry fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, and for after crops emerge from the ground, as well as produces diesel engines, gears, and generating sets. The company markets its products under the Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson, and Valtra brands through a network of independent dealers and distributors. AGCO Corporation was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. Read More MEDNAX, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides newborn, maternal-fetal, pediatric cardiology, and other pediatric subspecialty care services in the United States and Puerto Rico. It offers neonatal care services, such as clinical care to babies born prematurely or with complications within specific units at hospitals through neonatal physician subspecialists, neonatal nurse practitioners, and other pediatric clinicians. The company also provides maternal-fetal care services, including inpatient and office-based clinical care to expectant mothers and unborn babies through affiliated maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists, as well as obstetricians and other clinicians, including maternal-fetal nurse practitioners, certified nurse mid-wives, ultrasonographers, and genetic counselors. In addition, it offers pediatric cardiology care services comprising inpatient and office-based pediatric cardiology care of the fetus, infant, child, and adolescent patient with congenital heart defects and acquired heart disease, as well as adults with congenital heart defects through affiliated pediatric cardiologist subspecialists and other related clinical professionals; and specialized cardiac care to the fetus, neonatal and pediatric patients. Further, the company provides other pediatric subspecialty care services through pediatric subspecialists, such as pediatric intensivists, pediatric hospitalists, pediatric surgeons, and pediatric ophthalmologists, as well as pediatric ear, nose, and throat physicians; and support services in the areas of hospitals, primarily in the pediatric emergency rooms, labor and delivery areas, and nursery and pediatric departments. As of March 16, 2021, it operated a network of approximately 2,300 physicians. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Sunrise, Florida. Read More Ford Motor Company designs, manufactures, markets, and services a range of Ford trucks, cars, sport utility vehicles, electrified vehicles, and Lincoln luxury vehicles worldwide. It operates through three segments: Automotive, Mobility, and Ford Credit. The Automotive segment sells Ford and Lincoln vehicles, service parts, and accessories through distributors and dealers, as well as through dealerships to commercial fleet customers, daily rental car companies, and governments. The Mobility segment designs and builds mobility services; and provides self-driving systems development services. The Ford Credit segment primarily engages in vehicle-related financing and leasing activities to and through automotive dealers. It provides retail installment sale contracts for new and used vehicles; and direct financing leases for new vehicles to retail and commercial customers, such as leasing companies, government entities, daily rental companies, and fleet customers. This segment also offers wholesale loans to dealers to finance the purchase of vehicle inventory; and loans to dealers to finance working capital and enhance dealership facilities, purchase dealership real estate, and other dealer vehicle programs. Ford Motor Company has a strategic collaboration with ARB Corporation Limited to develop a suite of aftermarket products for the new Ford Bronco. The company was founded in 1903 and is based in Dearborn, Michigan. Read More Ad Resource Stock Digest 868 Interested This Week Heres the Safest Way to Get Insanely Rich in the 2021 Gold Bull Market Gold is screaming higher and smart investors are already cashing in on the #1 Gold Pick of 2021. Yet, you havent missed the boat. See how this newly-listed US$5 gold stock offers investors historic gains without mining a single ounce of the metal. Walkouts, protests Education secretary On her third day as governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that New Mexico will drop the oft-maligned PARCC exam after the current school year -- if not sooner.In its place, a new state-specific assessment system will be created, Lujan Grisham said. Although it's unclear exactly what the replacement will look like, the new Democratic governor said she's confident it can be in place by August and will meet federal requirements."I know that PARCC isn't working," Lujan Grisham said after announcing two executive orders during a news conference at the state Capitol. "We know that around the country."The governor, who was joined by four teachers at Thursday's news conference, also said families and students around the state should "expect to see New Mexico transition immediately out of high-stakes testing."Lujan Grisham had vowed on the campaign trail to eliminate PARCC testing in New Mexico if elected, and described it Thursday as a punitive system that has pushed educators to focus on test-taking preparation, not on teaching.Teachers union leaders, who had clashed with former Gov. Susana Martinez's administration over the PARCC exam and other education initiatives, praised Lujan Grisham's executive orders as a positive step."It will be a huge morale-booster" for teachers, said Charles Goodmacher, the government and media relations director for the National Education Association-New Mexico union. "It could even convince some people who were thinking about leaving to stay longer."American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said it was telling that Lujan Grisham's first official action as governor was focused on public education."The governor recognizes what renowned scientists have been saying for years -- that an overreliance on standardized testing turns schools from welcoming learning sanctuaries to testing factories," Weingarten said.However, the governor's announcement was not met with universal applause, even among teachers.Amanda Aragon, executive director of the nonprofit group NewMexicoKidsCAN, called Lujan Grisham's announcement disappointing."I think the criticisms of PARCC tend not to be based in real information," Aragon said. She argued that the rhetoric across the country about PARCC has become politically driven and expressed concern that Thursday's announcement would leave teachers and students in limbo while they wait for a replacement assessment to be developed."If you're a teacher or student, it's confusing," she said.Members of another organization made up of educators, principals and education assistants, Educators Elevating New Mexico, also blasted the announcement, saying the governor had failed to consult with groups representing high-performing teachers and those in rural areas.Three founding members of the organization, which was created last summer, also said in a statement that teachers unions do not speak for all educators.David Peercy, president of the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education, said he'll watch closely to see what new system the state adopts.He told the Journal that he's not anti-PARCC but has been against the way the test has been used. The former PED administration used PARCC scores as a factor in school grades, which were used to identify low-performing schools for potential closure, and teacher evaluations.The New Mexico Public Education Department began using the PARCC exam in 2015 for students in third through 11th grades.Results from the PARCC test, short for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, were used by the Martinez administration in the state's school grading and teacher evaluation systems, both of which could now undergo changes.The initial implementation of the annual standardized test prompted walkouts, protests and criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Nearly 5,500 students declined to take the exam in the first year it was implemented, but that number and the protests have dropped significantly. The state has also made changes, including shortening the test.Meanwhile, the number of states using PARCC has dropped in recent years and Lujan Grisham's decision to end it in New Mexico will leave New Jersey and the District of Columbia as the only states still fully administering it.During Thursday's news conference, Lujan Grisham said some parts of the PARCC exam may still be used this spring -- when the annual test is scheduled to be taken -- to ensure that New Mexico complies with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which she voted for as a member of Congress.The governor also said feedback from teachers, school administrators and parents will be used to create the new assessment tool.In addition, she said she believes the changes will be allowable under federal law, which requires annual tests from third to eighth grades but gives states flexibility in how they're administered."My expectation is my leadership team deals with that proactively so we don't have those (problems)," Lujan Grisham said.Despite moving quickly to drop PARCC testing in New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said she's not necessarily planning to undo all other Martinez-era education initiatives. She also heralded the recent announcement that New Mexico's 2018 high school graduation rate had increased to 73 percent -- an all-time high that still lags behind the national average."We want to build on that -- that's a good thing for New Mexico," Lujan Grisham said.Although several Cabinet secretaries have been named, Lujan Grisham has not announced her pick to run the Public Education Department.She said Thursday that she will unveil her choice before the 60-day legislative session starts Jan. 15, but she indicated that logistical challenges -- including the $128,000-per-year salary -- have complicated efforts to fill the post."I'm not going to move so quickly we don't have the right person in this job," Lujan Grisham told reporters.In the meantime, she said Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, a former state senator and special education teacher, will temporarily take on the duties and responsibilities of PED secretary.Morales, who also attended Thursday's news conference, met for hours with PED employees later in the day to inform them of the pending changes."We want the department to know there's stability, leadership and direction," Morales said. He said his message to PED staffers was received positively. The second dairy talk will be Feb. 12 from 1-3 p.m. at Lowell Community Memorial VFW in Lowell. The Dodge County chapter of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau will supply milk and cookies as a snack. That afternoons presentation will be led by Mark Stephenson, the director of the Center for Dairy Profitability. He will provide a comprehensive overview of the Dairy Revenue Protection program and updates to the Farm Service Agencys Dairy Margin Protection Program. The Koneck Family Farm in Burnett is the location for the final dairy talk on March 12. It will be held inside from 1-3 p.m. and attendees are requested to bring their own chair. The ins and outs of dairy cow behavioral well-being will be a topic of discussion led by Jennifer Van Os, an assistant professor in animal welfare. She will speak about the implications of exposure to environmental extremes, benefits of barns versus pasture, and how to manage both indoor and outdoor heat stress. Young will then finish the series of talks by examining the proper ways to transport animals. This is the second year we are hosting the dairy talks because feedback was very positive, Young said. They provide an excellent opportunity to learn from one another and were hoping for a good turnout. The dairy talks are free, but registration is encouraged. To register, call 920-386-3790. Follow Kelly Simon on Twitter @KSchmidSimon or contact her at 920-356-6757. Funding for this initiative has not kept up with programming costs, Schild said. Winona cut a full-time parent educator, leaving only one. When parents are supported, the kids benefit as well, Riebel explained. She added that mental health needs in early childhood should also be examined as an area of future support. Educators in Winona and across Minnesota who want to convey their specific needs about early childhood education and care will have that opportunity this year, as the state Department of Education recently announced a federal grant that will pay for statewide listening sessions to collect information on those needs. The $4.7 million grant is aimed at developing a strategy to coordinate the states numerous facets of early care and education, MDE Assistant Commissioner Hue Nguyen said. Minnesota has Voluntary Pre-K, we have child care providers, we have day care centers, we have Head Start. We have a variety of different ways families can access early learning for their children, Nguyen said. How can we better coordinate these systems? How can we give parents the choices they want? WASHINGTON - With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump waves as he departs after speaking on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) WASHINGTON - With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week. Trump's Oval Office speech his first as president will be followed by his visit Thursday to the southern border to highlight his demand for a barrier. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that he will use the visit to "meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis." The administration is also at least talking about the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the $5.6 billion he wants. Vice-President Mike Pence said the White House counsel's office is looking at the idea. Such a move would certainly draw legal challenges, and Trump who told lawmakers he would be willing to keep the government closed for months or even years has said he would like to continue negotiations for now. Trump's prime-time address will be carried live by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer called on the networks to give Democrats a chance to respond. "Now that the television networks have decided to air the President's address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime," they wrote in a joint statement released Monday night. As Trump's speech and border visit were announced, newly empowered House Democrats and at least a few Republican senators stepped up pressure on GOP lawmakers to reopen the government without giving in to the president's demands The closure, which has lasted 17 days, is already the second-longest in history and would become the longest this weekend. Leaning on Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing anxious about the impact of the shutdown, Pelosi said the House would begin passing individual bills this week that would reopen federal agencies, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure Americans receive their tax refunds . A police officer and K-9 do a routine security check at the Capitol as the partial government shutdown lurches into a third week with President Donald Trump standing firm in his border wall funding demands, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. After no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged shutdown, newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) The White House moved to pre-empt the Democrats, telling reporters Monday that tax refunds would be paid despite the shutdown. That shutdown exemption would break from the practice of earlier administrations and could be challenged. "There is an indefinite appropriation to pay tax refunds. As a result ... the refunds will go out as normal," said Russell Vought, acting director of the White House budget office. There were other signs that administration was working to control the damage from the shutdown, which has furloughed 380,000 federal workers and forced another 420,000 to work without pay. The National Park Service said it was dipping into entrance fees to pay for staffing at some highly visited parks to maintain restrooms, clean up trash and patrol the grounds, after reports of human waste and garbage overflowing in some spots. Over the weekend, the federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees missing work or calling in sick. But Trump and the Transportation Security Administration pushed back on any suggestion that the call-outs at the agency represented a "sickout" that was having a significant effect on U.S. air travel. TSA said it screened more than 2.2 million passengers Sunday, a historically busy day due to holiday travel. Ninety per cent waited less than 15 minutes, the agency said. "We are grateful to the more than 51,000 agents across the country who remain focused on the mission and are respectful to the travelling public," said TSA spokesman Michael Bilello. The talks over ending the shutdown have been at an impasse over Trump's demand for the wall. He has offered to build the barrier with steel rather than concrete, billing that as a concession to Democrats' objections. They "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel," he said. But Democrats have made clear that they object to the wall itself, not how it's constructed. They see it as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed-upon levels. Two people embrace on the U.S. side of the border, seen through the border wall Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, seen from along the beach in Tijuana, Mexico. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday the White House is looking into the legality of declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and begin construction on President Donald Trump's long-promised Southern border wall. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) "Maybe he thinks he can bully us. But I'm from Brooklyn. You let a bully succeed, you'll be bullied again worse," Schumer said at a breakfast with the Association for a Better New York. At the White House, spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp complained that Democratic leaders have yet to define what they mean when they say they are for enhancing border security. "Democrats want to secure the border? Great. Come to the table," she said Monday. "We are willing to come to a deal to reopen the government." Trump has tasked Pence during the shutdown fight to negotiate with Democrats, including during talks over the weekend with Democratic staffers. But the vice-president is increasingly being called upon to prevent defections in the GOP ranks. Asked whether cracks were forming between the White House and Republicans eager for the shutdown to end, Pence told reporters, "We've been in touch with those members and others." He said that he and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would be at the Capitol Tuesday and Wednesday to brief lawmakers. Among the Republicans expressing concern was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up funding bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." However, McConnell has said he won't take up funding bills without Trump's support. Adding to concerns of lawmakers, federal workers who are still on the job apparently will miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump asserted that he could relate to the plight of the federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. Not so easy, many of them say. Derrick Padilla, a corrections officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Colorado, has worked without pay for two weeks and said he's nearly depleted his savings. "It's now becoming a game of, 'OK, who's going to get paid? How am I going to make this payment? What's the most important thing I have to pay for this month?'" he said. "The bills don't go away," Padilla added. "We're expected to meet our financial obligations, and we're being put in a position to not be able to meet those obligations." For furloughed federal workers in Washington, some at least could enjoy the prospect of baseball in a few months. The Washington Nationals said season ticket holders who are laid off or not being paid by the federal government could postpone monthly ticket payments until the government is back up and running. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Juliet Linderman in Washington, Alex Sanz in Atlanta and David R. Martin in New York contributed to this report. MEXICO CITY - Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coasl city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MEXICO CITY - Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coasl city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday. State and local police said the attack occurred late Sunday at the "Las Virginias" bar in a low-income section relatively far from the beachside tourist resort zone. Six men were found shot to death in the bar, and another died at a local hospital. One man was wounded but survived the attack. He told police he was drinking beer with friends when gunshots broke out. The attackers have not yet been identified. Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, Playa del Carmen has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighbourhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway. The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more than double in the last year, with 688 killings in the first 11 months of 2018, compared to 322 in the same period of 2017. At that rate, Quintana Roo could end 2018 with a homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000, on a par with El Salvador. The Caribbean coast especially Cancun and the area south known as the "Riviera Maya" had long been largely spared the drug violence affecting other areas, but that no longer appears to be the case. Local sources report that the feared Jalisco cartel has moved into the region, disputing control with local gangs. In September, two Mexican marines were found stabbed to death in Cancun. In a single day in August, police found eight bodies strewn on the streets of Cancun. In January 2017, gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in Cancun, killing four people. A day before that, a shooting at a music festival in Playa del Carmen left three foreigners and two Mexicans dead. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a brief travel warning for Playa del Carmen in March. A February 2018 blast on a ferry apparently caused by an explosive device injured 26 people, including several American citizens. That has sparked fears that the Caribbean resorts could come to resemble the faded Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The bloody violence in Acapulco that flared in 2006 eventually earned it a level-four "do not travel" warning from the U.S. Department of State. Still, violence in Playa del Carmen is still far from Acapulco levels. In 2017, Acapulco had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Mexico and the world. With so many family gatherings this time of year, many of us notice that our siblings are turning into our parents, and some of our partners and friends kids are turning into their parents. Thats no illusion. As scientists have learned from nature versus nurture studies on twins and adoptees, humans become more like our biological parents and other family members as we get older. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion With so many family gatherings this time of year, many of us notice that our siblings are turning into our parents, and some of our partners and friends kids are turning into their parents. Thats no illusion. As scientists have learned from "nature versus nurture" studies on twins and adoptees, humans become more like our biological parents and other family members as we get older. This is a little scary. Its not that we dont love the anxious relative who cant enjoy a holiday dinner because her stuffing wasnt perfect, or the impulsive one who cant stop at three glasses of eggnog even though he will regret it. Its just unnerving to realize they are reflections of the selves we might become. I learned about escalating family resemblances from talking with Robert Plomin, a behavioural geneticist at the Kings College London. He describes the phenomenon in his recent book, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. At first, I thought the interview might be contentious, considering that Id recently written a column titled You Are Not Your DNA. It turned out we disagreed very little. He and I share a fascination with families. His pioneering studies used families following adopted kids as well as their birth mothers. He found that kids take after their birth mothers, but not their adoptive parents, in cognitive skills, interests and personality traits. And as they get older, the resemblance only got stronger. He attributes this to the fact that people with literary, musical, mathematical or scientific inclinations will construct environments that amplify these predispositions; they are not necessarily or primarily products of those environments. He even found that adoptees resembled their birth mothers in such seemingly non-genetic traits as television watching and the likelihood of getting divorced. But then, these are influenced by personality traits. (Not that the traits associated with divorce are necessarily bad. As my dad used to say, better a vacancy than a bad tenant, and as Ive gotten older, Ive come to agree more.) The adoptive parents had surprisingly little influence on anything measurable. "Parents dont have the levers to pull that think they do," he said. Despite all the hype about tiger moms, teaching grit and 10,000 hours of practice, he said, the reality is that kids are not blobs of clay you can mould. This does not mean that were shaped only by nature. Its just that people have misunderstood nurture. To Plomin, nurture is not how you were parented but the multitude of slings and arrows you encounter in your life. As he put it in his book, "What makes us different environmentally are random experiences, not systematic forces like families." We are moulded by unpredictable forces, but the very nature of the clay is a mix of our ancestors. Some reviewers have accused Plomin of being a genetic determinist that is, putting too much emphasis on genes as the drivers of our futures. In the introduction to the book, he does indeed say that genetic testing could provide a sort of crystal ball. But in our conversation, he said genetic tests (and family members) show us a future that might be not a future that must be. You might have a high risk of becoming an alcoholic, and knowing that might make you more conscious about avoiding this outcome. He said he had a high risk of becoming overweight, and that he is indeed somewhat overweight and has fought the battle of the bulge for years. But he doesnt think that means he cant achieve a healthy weight. Plomin has also studied twins and the similarities between monozygotic, or "identical," twins. They share almost identical DNA and usually look quite similar, but of course they are unique individuals. That was strikingly illustrated in the recently released documentary Three Identical Strangers, about monozygotic triplets separated in infancy and reunited at 19. The three young men looked alike, had the same smile and the same gestures, but (spoiler alert) one was much more troubled than the other two and eventually killed himself. The filmmakers try to suggest that the adoptive father is to blame, though there was no convincing evidence that he did anything wrong. Reading Plomins book made me appreciate how brutally unfair this accusation may have been, and how dismissive of the influence of random slings and arrows. Plomin is a great enthusiast for the newest generation of genetic tests, now capable of giving us information on traits that are influenced by a multitude of genes, including cognitive skills and personality traits. Our relatives navigate around many of the same rocky shoals, but I imagine that if Im careful, I can avoid running into them. Some of them. But this might just be a personal preference for stories. I turn to science when I want to understand the natural world and trends in human behaviour. For wisdom on how to live, I find myself increasingly gravitating toward novels, stories and people. My mom was the same way. Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Winnipeg teacher Beverly Scott would be taking her class of Grade 2 students to the gym and forget where she was going. Cleverly, shed ask: Who was listening? Who knows where we are going? Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg teacher Beverly Scott would be taking her class of Grade 2 students to the gym and forget where she was going. Cleverly, shed ask: "Who was listening? Who knows where we are going?" That was in late 2005, recalled her husband, Gavin Scott, also a retired teacher. SUPPLIED Beverly and Gavin Scott in January 2016 on Hawaiis Big Island "She knew something was wrong. She tried to cope and do the best she could," said Gavin, who volunteers with the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba. The incidence of the disease is growing at an alarming rate. It affects 22,500 Manitobans, including Beverly, who is in hospital now that the disease has progressed. By 2038, it is expected to reach more than 40,700 people in the province. By sharing his experiences, Gavin said, he can help others who are just starting out, while helping himself by just talking about it. "Were on a ride we cant get off," he said, adding caregivers need to educate themselves about the disease, seek help from the society, friends and family and take care of themselves. "You can get really burned out," the 69-year-old said. "Its been a long go," he said of the time since Beverly, 68, was hit with cognitive impairment 13 years ago. It ended her career, which she loved, at Christmastime. "She had to leave her class halfway through the school year, which is very hard for a teacher," said her husband, who worked as a teacher for another three years before retiring. "At one point, I knew I couldnt leave her at home. By then, Id reached retirement age and I could afford to." He and Beverly were then able to travel to Hawaii and drove to the Maritimes. "They were good years, but frustrating at the same time," he said. "Wed be in the car and shed say, Ive already seen all of this yesterday," Gavin reminisced. "And there were times like when she got lost in the mall in Quebec City. There are all kinds of little stories like that." Hes had revelations, too. As a caregiver to a loved one who has dementia, hes learned how to live in the moment, he said. "Sitting down, talking and having coffee or giving them a little shoulder rub became more important," he said. "Living in the moment, thats all Beverly could do. She couldnt remember the past or live in the future." After being married for 41 years, Gavin believes shed be as loving towards him if the caregiving situation were switched. "Its about doing the best job you can," he said. "There is an appreciation youve done the best for your partner that you could. If the roles were reversed, I would hope that someone would love me enough to stick with me." Thats not always the case, though. "Sometimes, friends are put in the role of caregiver," he said. Most often, dementia takes hold when a person is elderly, not in middle age, like when it hit Beverly. More and more people are affected by Alzheimers each year, as baby boomers advance into old age. "Its almost like cancer so many people are touched by dementia," Gavin said, urging those impacted to reach out to the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba. "There are a lot of people with a lot of knowledge," said Gavin, who belongs to a support group. The societys website (alzheimer.mb.ca) offers tips about how to help end the stigma, challenges attitudes about the disease and provides resources. "And hang in there," he added. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca As more people get vaccinated and states begin to roll back some of the restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic schools, agencies and workplaces are working on a plan on how to safely return to normal. OTTAWA When CN Rail's warning system for runaway trains in Winnipeg wasnt functioning correctly, workers simply turned it off. For several months. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA When CN Rail's warning system for runaway trains in Winnipeg wasnt functioning correctly, workers simply turned it off. For several months. When a locomotive crew couldnt get a mechanical switch to route their train down a different track, they simply continued down the line behind the Grant Park Walmart without informing their supervisor. Meanwhile, CN has changed oversight of its trains in the city to a position that requires less training. These are among a handful of rail-safety issues the Free Press uncovered after obtaining complaints filed with the Transportation Safety Board by Winnipeg rail workers, complaints the watchdog deemed serious enough to flag for CN Rail. The amount of oil crossing the Prairies by rail is growing exponentially, with tanker cars rolling through Winnipeg on its historic rail lines every day. Yet the TSB has warned for years that the rail industry is relying on drowsy workers, resulting in incidents that are seldom made public. One of them occurred in Winnipeg in the early hours of Dec. 13, 2016, as a 400-metre long train was heading eastbound along one of Canadas busiest rail lines. "We have validated the presence of a local safety deficiency," said Dan Holbrook, TSB's western manager for rail investigations. He called the incident "a potentially very serious event in our railway world. This one did not lead to a collision, or anything like that but they are important to us, as leading indicators." When the 25-car eastbound train running parallel to Taylor Avenue reached Waverley Street, the controller in the Symington Yard office in Transcona couldnt determine whether an automated switch had properly aligned the track. The controller asked the crew to stop, get out and manually turn the switch a common procedure for train crews so that the train would cross from the south tracks onto the north set. The two employees werent able to move the switch. In that case, Holbrook said, thats when the controller would start checking the rest of the line to see whether the train could safely proceed along the tracks it was on. The controller then would send instructions to the train crew via text message. "They didnt understand that their obligation was to wait until they received that written authority. And they just took it upon themselves to make that switch line up to the south track and continue on eastward on their merry way, without actually having a revised, written authority to do so," said Holbrook, who compared the incident to flying blind. The supervisor found out only when he asked the crew to indicate when theyd reached the next stop signal; the reply was that they were well past that point. Holbrook said two managers operating the train were used to office jobs. "They were a management crew; they dont normally perform these duties," he said. The train continued onwards to the Symington Yard without incident. "Luckily, it didn't lead to an accident," he said. The incident took place 14 months after CN Rail downgraded its safety infrastructure in Winnipeg. In October 2015, the company shifted safety duties within the city from a rail traffic controller to a yard traffic controller, a ranking that Holbrook said requires less training and adds confusion as workers are shuffled between doing network control at a dashboard and conducting locomotives on moving trains. CN said the change instead allows local staff to focus on safety for the huge amount of rail infrastructure in Winnipeg. In any case, the change did cause a serious public-safety risk. CN updated its software to accommodate for the switch from an RTC to a YTC, which created "an inadvertent programming anomaly," the TSB wrote in January 2016. Normally, an alarm in the Symington Yard office is supposed to sound when trains bypass stop signals, known as a Rule 439 alarm. Instead, the alarm started ringing each time a train passed through CNs Winnipeg corridor, even under a green signal. "Shortly thereafter, to address the nuisance activity of the Rule 439 alarms, they were disabled in the YTC office," the TSB told CN Rail in a rail-safety advisory letter, obtained by the Free Press. Advisory letters are issued only when the TSB perceives a real safety issue, not a potential one. At that point, the alarm had been switched off for three months. "An unprotected high-risk situation can occur, which can lead to train collisions and/or derailments," the TSB warned. "An important safety defence for train operations at this location is not immediately available." TSB senior member Faye Ackermans said all these problems shortfalls in rail-worker training, technological issues, crews not communicating with supervisors are resulting in trains travelling, in some cases, without authorization. DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A train signal near the Jubilee overpass. In fact, those types of breaches are among the most common rail-safety issues reported to the TSB. In 2017, there were 122 documented instances of what the agency calls "movement exceeds limits of authority," and there's been only one year in the past decade in which fewer than 100 instances were reported. Ackermans said that within that category, about 33 incidents per year involve track signals not being followed, meaning trains are breaking speed limits or travelling on the wrong track. She said thats particularly concerning for Winnipeg, because of the amount of historic railway infrastructure adjacent to densely populated buildings. "If it's in the middle of a town, or a large urban centre, there can be a real risk," she said. "It can have catastrophic effects." It's unclear whether last Thursday's derailment near Portage la Prairie was a result of a staff not following signals. Two trains headed in the same direction and collided, leaking diesel into a ditch near the Assiniboine River. That derailment remains under investigation. The December 2016 incident in Winnipeg involving the switch happened in the riding of Jim Carr, who represents Manitoba in the federal cabinet. "I know that (Transport Canada) looks into all near-misses, including one that occurred in Winnipeg," Carr told the Free Press. He noted that Transport Minister Marc Garneau is working on new rail-safety regulations. "You're always concerned when an accident is possible, and you want to make sure than an accident won't happen, and that every precaution has been taken. And I know that Minister Garneau believes this to be his No. 1 priority. And I have full confidence that he will do whatever's necessary to keep us safe." The Railway Association of Canada would not comment on the incident. CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said the company's records suggest the train in the December 2016 incident proceeded in the absence of an oncoming train. "Safety is a core value at CN," Abecassis wrote, citing federal law and measures meant to protect both staff and neighbouring communities. "We have followed up on the incident and the matter has been closed." dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca This is the second instalment in a three-part series examining safety issues along Winnipegs railway tracks, amid a historic increase in the volume of oil being shipped by rail. WASHINGTON - Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday he is resigning at the end of January. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE- In this Sept. 12, 2017, file photo World Bank President Jim Yong Kim pauses during a joint press conference for the 1+6 Roundtable Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Kim says he is resigning at the end of January. Kim's unexpected departure nearly three years before his term was set to expire, is likely to set off a fierce battle between the Trump administration and other countries who have complained about the influence the United States exerts over the World Bank(AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) WASHINGTON - Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday he is resigning at the end of January. Kim's unexpected departure three years before his term was set to expire is likely to set off a fierce battle between the Trump administration and other countries who have complained about the influence the United States exerts over the World Bank. In a letter to bank staff, Kim said that he has long believed that the key to bridging the gap between the massive financing needs of developing countries and the amount of support available was to work with the private sector. "I have therefore decided that it's time for me to take on new challenges and fully focus my efforts on leveraging private finance for the benefit of people around the work," Kim said in his note to staff. Kim's departure will give President Donald Trump the opportunity to nominate his own choice to fill the World Bank post. The 189-nation World Bank is the largest government source for development funding, providing low-cost loans for projects around the world. Since the creation of the World Bank at the end of World War II, its leaders have all been Americans. Its sister lending agency, the International Monetary Fund, has always been headed by a European. Other countries, including China and other Asian nations, have complained about this pattern. The IMF, which provides emergency loans to countries in economic crisis, is currently headed by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Kim, the former head of Dartmouth College, was first tapped by former President Barack Obama to lead the World Bank in 2012. He was nominated by Obama for a second term in August 2016. That term would have ended on June 30, 2022. In his resignation statement, Kim said that in addition to joining a firm that will focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries, he will also rejoin Partners in Health, an organization he co-founded more than 30 years ago to provide medical support to poor nations. The World Bank said Kim will be succeeded Feb. 1 on an interim basis by Kristalina Georgieva, its chief executive officer and the bank's executive board would immediately start the process for selecting a permanent successor to Kim. "It has been a great honour to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," Kim said. Kim's permanent successor will be decided by the World Bank's board of directors. The United States is the largest shareholder in the bank, which is headquartered in Washington. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin looks forward to working with other countries on the bank's 24-member executive board to select Kim's successor, a Mnuchin spokesperson said. Kim, the World Bank's 12th president, faced a number of crises during his tenure, including marshalling resources to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. This story has been corrected to show the correct spelling of Kristalina Georgieva, who will succeed Kim on an interim basis. BEIJING - Tesla Inc. broke ground Monday for a factory in Shanghai, its first outside the United States. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this April 22, 2014, file photo. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, right, looks on as a set of Tesla Model S sedans are delivered to its first customers in China at an event in Beijing. Musk said Monday, Jan. 7, 2019 on twitter that the automaker is breaking ground for a Shanghai factory and will start production of its Model 3 by the end of the year. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) BEIJING - Tesla Inc. broke ground Monday for a factory in Shanghai, its first outside the United States. CEO Elon Musk said Monday on Twitter that the company will start production in China of its Model 3 and a planned crossover by the end of the year. Tesla announced plans in July to build the Gigafactory 3 facility in China, the biggest electric vehicle market, despite trade tension between Beijing and Washington. That followed Beijing's announcement it would end restrictions this year on foreign ownership of electric vehicle producers in an effort to spur industry development. A woman walks past a Tesla car being charged in Beijing, China, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said Monday on Twitter that the automaker is breaking ground for a Shanghai factory and will start production of its Model 3 electric car by the end of the year. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) "Looking forward to breaking ground on the @Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory today!" said Musk on Twitter. "Aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year." China's state broadcaster CCTV showed Musk and other Tesla and local officials attending a chilly ceremony in the rain Monday in Shanghai's outskirts. The Shanghai factory will produce "affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China," Musk said. The company refers to a planned crossover that has yet to receive a formal name as the Y. Higher-priced models will be built in the United States for export to China, Musk said. A sales staff chats with a customer at a Tesla store near a poster announcing orders of the Model 3 electric cars in Beijing, China, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said Monday on Twitter that the automaker is breaking ground for a Shanghai factory and will start production of its Model 3 by the end of the year. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Tesla, based on Palo Alto, California, global automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. that are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing electric vehicles in China. Local production would eliminate risks from tariffs and other import controls. It would help Tesla develop parts suppliers to support service and make its vehicles more appealing to mainstream Chinese buyers. Tesla said in October it had signed an agreement for a 210-acre (84-hectare) site in the Lingang district in southeastern Shanghai. Shanghai is a centre of China's auto industry and home to state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., the main local manufacturer for GM and VW. Tesla has yet to give a price tag but the Shanghai government said it would be the biggest foreign investment there to date. The company faces competition from Chinese brands including BYD Auto and BAIC Group that already sell tens of thousands of hybrid and pure-electric sedans and SUVs annually. Until now, foreign automakers that wanted to manufacture in China were required to work through state-owned partners. Foreign brands balked at bringing electric vehicle technology into China to avoid having to share it with potential competitors. The first of the new electric models being developed by global automakers to hit the market, Nissan's Sylphy Zero Emission, began rolling off a production line in southern China in August. Lower-priced electric models from GM, Volkswagen and other global brands are due to hit the market starting this year, well before Tesla is up and running in Shanghai. TORONTO - A lawyer for Miniso Guangzhou LLC says instead of heading to court Miniso Guangzhou LLC and its Canadian franchisee have reached an interim agreement. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - A lawyer for Miniso Guangzhou LLC says instead of heading to court Miniso Guangzhou LLC and its Canadian franchisee have reached an interim agreement. Lawyer John Grieve says in an email to The Canadian Press that the deal will keep stores operating and reinstitute the delivery of inventory to Canadian operations while both sides work towards a long-term solution. Grieve's remarks come after Miniso Guangzhou LLC filed court documents with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, threatening to force Miniso Investments Inc., Migu Investments Inc. and Miniso (Canada) Store Inc. into bankruptcy It also accused them of fraudulently transferring registered trademark rights to third-party corporations, disposing of inventory and ceasing to meet liabilities as they came due. The filings said Miniso Guangzhou LLC is owed the Canadian equivalent of US$2.4 million in loans and US$13.3 million in inventory. There are about 50 Miniso stores in operation in Canada, but when the brand entered the country in 2017 it promised to open 500 locations within three years. TORONTO - Anyone who has seen an "Intel Inside" label on a piece of computer technology will instantly grasp what BlackBerry Ltd. is aiming to achieve with its "BlackBerry Secure" branding strategy. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Blackberry logo located in the lobby of the company's B building in Waterloo, Ont. on May 29, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Ryan TORONTO - Anyone who has seen an "Intel Inside" label on a piece of computer technology will instantly grasp what BlackBerry Ltd. is aiming to achieve with its "BlackBerry Secure" branding strategy. The Canadian technology company, based in Waterloo, Ont., unveiled the latest components of BlackBerry Secure on Monday at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. The announcements were aimed mostly at manufacturers and other companies that want to assure their customers that their products have privacy and security features endorsed by BlackBerry. Alex Thurber, a BlackBerry senior vice-president and its general manager of Mobility Solutions, acknowledged that younger consumers may not be as aware of the company as in its heyday before the arrival of the iPhone a decade ago. But Thurber said BlackBerry still makes the security software and other features that go into phones and other devices in return for licencing fees. "Of course, businesses and enterprises and governments are still very aware that BlackBerry is out there because our software management and security has continued to be deployed everywhere," Thurber said Monday. Speaking by phone from Las Vegas, Thurber said one of the BlackBerry's achievements has been its accreditations by the National Information Assurance Partnership administered by the U.S. National Security Agency. That accreditation has opened government doors for BlackBerry in the United States the company's biggest market and around the world. "It really is all the G7 governments that use BlackBerry technology, be it the older hardware phones or now the software-protected devices. I think that's important," Thurber said. "At the end of the day, people realize that governments need to secure classified information and companies that they trust are companies that have proven themselves." In today's world of internet-connected consumer electronics and social media, Thurber added, consumers are also concerned about who is collecting and re-selling their personal information. "We have never monetized users' data. We have been very clear and up-front about that," Thurber said. The BlackBerry Secure labelling has been attached to specialty phones by Punkt Tronics AG, under a framework agreement announced last year. BlackBerry also signed a similar deal last year with Bullitt Group, a British smartphone and consumer electronics maker, but that hasn't yet resulted in a BlackBerry secure product. The company is also working with a partner that makes Alexa-enabled interactive speakers, though the partner hasn't been identified. BlackBerry is talking with potential partners that could use its BlackBerry Secure feature packs, Thurber said. "We're hoping that those will start being announced around the time of Mobile World Congress (in Barcelona) at the end of February." Companies in this story: (TSX:BB) Supporters of an Indigenous camp blocking access to a planned pipeline in northern British Columbia say they are anticipating RCMP action over an injunction filed against them. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A sign for a blockade check point by the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation is shown in this undated handout photo posted on the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidumt'en Territory Facebook page. Supporters of an Indigenous camp blocking access to a planned pipeline in northern British Columbia say they are anticipating RCMP action over an injunction filed against them. Jennifer Wickham, a member of the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, said on Sunday that police have gathered in Smithers and Houston, B.C., which are the closest towns to the Gidimt'en checkpoint. TransCanada has said it has signed agreements with all First Nations along its Coastal GasLink pipeline route to LNG Canada's $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, B.C. But Wickham says the company does not have the authority to build through Wet'suwet'en territory because the house chiefs, who are hereditary chiefs rather than elected band council leaders, have not given consent. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Facebook, Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidumt'en Territory Supporters of an Indigenous camp blocking access to a planned pipeline in northern British Columbia say they are anticipating RCMP action over an injunction filed against them. Jennifer Wickham, a member of the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, said on Sunday that police have gathered in Smithers and Houston, B.C., which are the closest towns to the Gidimt'en checkpoint. "They have a charter bus, RV, and what seems to be a tactical vehicle," she said. TransCanada has said it has signed agreements with all First Nations along its Coastal GasLink pipeline route to LNG Canada's $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, B.C. But Wickham says the company does not have the authority to build through Wet'suwet'en territory because the house chiefs, who are hereditary chiefs rather than elected band council leaders, have not given consent. "Our traditional governance system is separate, and that is who has jurisdiction over the house territories and clan territories," she said. RCMP said in a statement Sunday morning that while it is responsible for enforcing the injunction order, its top priority is safety. "In planning for the enforcement of this injunction, police are taking the remote location of the Morice River Bridge into account and will be ensuring that enough police officers will be present in the area to keep the peace and ensure everyones safety," the force said. "The primary concerns of the police are public safety, police officer safety, and preservation of the right to peaceful, lawful and safe protest, within the terms set by the Supreme Court in the injunction." On Dec. 14, the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs issued a statement saying they were deeply concerned by the National Energy Board's decision denying their request to participate in a jurisdictional challenge to the permits issued to TransCanada's Coastal GasLink pipeline project, which would cross Wet'suwet'en territories. While members of another Wet'suwet'en house, the Unist'ot'en of the Gilseyhu clan, erected a camp and checkpoint in the area of the planned pipeline years ago, the Gidimt'en gate was erected 20 kilometres away in December. "We wanted to show that even though the Unist'ot'en and Gidimt'en are from separate clans, all the chiefs have been opposed to pipelines in our territories for years and years and years," Wickham said. "Unist'ot'en has been holding that responsibility all by themselves, so the (Gidimt'en) chief decided it was time for all of us to physically show our support." In an amended injunction order filed Friday, a B.C. Supreme Court justice said the defendants which include anyone "occupying, obstructing, blocking, physically impeding or delaying access" in the area have until Jan. 31 to file a response to Coastal GasLink's injunction application. In the meantime, the order says they are prohibited from physically interfering with or impeding any person or vehicle trying to access the area or carrying on pipeline business, including pre-construction and construction activities. The defendants are also prohibited from threatening, intimidating or getting within 10 metres of anyone actively working on the project. TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said on Sunday the company is not asking for the camp to be dismantled, only for access to the construction area. "The camp established next to the bridge will remain as is. In fact, we see no reason why the camp cannot continue with its activities. We simply need to use the public bridge to access our pipeline right of way," Cunha said in an email. When the company announced the agreements with First Nations elected councils in September, it also said it would continue holding discussions with some hereditary governance groups. LNG Canada announced on Oct. 2 that its joint venture participants had taken a positive investment decision to construct the Kitimat export facility. B.C. Premier John Horgan said LNG Canada's decision ranked on the historic scale of a "moon landing," emphasizing just how much the project means to an economically deprived region of the province an estimated $23 billion in provincial revenue. In a notice of civil claim filed Nov. 23, Coastal GasLink says construction on the pipeline is scheduled to begin this month for completion in 2021. "Coastal GasLink has project agreements with all 20 elected Indigenous bands along the length of the project in British Columbia," the company said in the court document. The company has tried to begin work in an area only accessible by the Morice Forest Service Road, but has been prevented from doing so by the demonstrators, it said. "A small delay in completing the work could contribute to a significant overall delay for the project," it says. Around 2012, the Unist'ot'en camp set up a blockade by constructing a gate and other obstacles to the area, and a second gate has been constructed recently at the Morice River Bridge, it said. Coastal GasLink was most recently prevented from accessing the area on Nov. 20, it said. In a statement posted on its website, the Unist'ot'en camp issued an international call to action for the Gidimt'en access checkpoint and at least 17 events had been organized by Sunday afternoon. The statement describes potential RCMP action as "an act of war," pointing to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which says Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their territories. "We are now preparing for a protracted struggle. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en and the land defenders holding the front lines have no intention of allowing Wet'suwet'en sovereignty to be violated," it said. Rami Malek at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Viewed of Take Five - This is your final free article during this 30 day period.Stay in touch with all of the news from Winchester, Frederick and Clarke. Sign up today for complete digital access to The Winchester Star. Willmar, MN (56201) Today Plentiful sunshine. High around 85F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low near 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Apples woes unnerve supply chain, may cause shake-ups in Chinas use and division of labor Apple's earnings warning, coupled with an announcement of weak iPhone sales, sent shivers down to global markets and are set to shake the business of some of its suppliers based in China, possibly affecting jobs in some localities, analysts said on Sunday. However, Apple's troubles will have a limited short-term impact on China-based suppliers, analysts said. On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC in an interview "[Apple's] shortfall is over 100 percent from iPhone and it's primarily in China." The statement sent chills across capital markets, hurting Apple suppliers based in China. For example, Hong Kong-listed AAC Technologies, which has plants in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, saw its shares fall about 10 percent from Wednesday to Friday in response to Apple's news. The company kicked off a share buyback program to shore up the price. Another iPhone supplier, Sunny Optical Technology (Group) Co, based in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, was downgraded from "Buy" to "Neutral" by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to financial news site www.aastocks.com on Friday. The broker also slashed the company's earnings per share forecasts, citing easing global smartphone demand and pressure on Sunny's short-term handset module margin. Chinese analysts noted that the impact of weak iPhone sales would be felt, but to a limited degree. Limited impact The nation's smartphone market will be still growing, so the reported weak iPhone sales will have a limited impact on suppliers, Fu Liang, a Beijing-based telecom industry expert, told the Global Times on Sunday. "There will be some hard times for suppliers that are over-reliant on Apple, and this incident will teach them the value of diversification," Fu said. Zhang Yue, an independent analyst, said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, better known as Foxconn and a supplier of Apple's iPhones, will certainly be affected by the weak iPhone sales. "Fewer orders from Apple could translate into fewer jobs at its plant," Zhang said, noting that Foxconn might still escape with little damage as its drive in recent years to eliminate human jobs through automation could offset the impact of weak iPhone orders on its profitability. Foxconn is reportedly using only about 45 production lines, although it had nearly 60 assembly lines prepared for Apple's XR model, according to media reports in November. In Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan Province, where Foxconn has an iPhone complex that employs 250,000 people, the job market has cooled for seasonal reasons. But it's also been affected by poor sales of Apple's three latest models, according to a post on a Sina blog on December 31. Foxconn is also reportedly set to begin assembling top-end iPhones in India in 2019, Reuters reported in December. Domestic brands Analysts said such relocations would be a potential concern for China's job market, which means that the nation must nurture domestic brands to achieve a lasting solution. "Foreign brands will leave when they deem fit. You cannot help it because China does not have sway in the division of labor in this supply chain," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Sunday. "What China can do is to achieve dominance in the division of labor in the smartphone supply chain, by forging an industry cluster based on its vast home market," Cong said. "Only domestic brands can help with this government-led drive." Foxconn, which works like an independent black box, is not contributing to local industrial cluster buildup, according to jigongzhanlue, an influential Sina Weibo account in December. The market share Apple that lost was taken by some domestic smartphone brands such as Vivo and Oppo, and these brands are still making their devices in China, albeit from different locations than Foxconn. Assembly-line workers might have to shift to other cities for jobs, causing a labor force migration, Zhang said. Apple faces an increasing encroachment of its market share by four major Chinese brands: Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. According to a report by Sino Market Research in October, Vivo led in shipments in China with 20.62 million units in the third quarter of 2018. Apple ranked No.6, behind Oppo, Huawei and Xiaomi, with 10.54 million units shipped, down 16 percent from the same period in 2017. "If these domestic brands can tap the potential of new markets such as Europe and Asia, demand for making smartphones in China will still grow regardless of the performance of Apple's iPhones," Zhang said. Katori Hall's 2014 play Our Lady of Kibeho has its UK premiere in Northampton this month, following the writer's previous successes including the Olivier Award-winning The Mountaintop. Set in 1981, the piece is based on the true story of three Rwandese girls who have visitations by the Virgin Mary. During these visitations, they are warned of a terrible war to come and thousands of lives ruined. In 1994, 13 years after the visitations at Kibeho, Rwanda experienced a major genocide, with an estimated 1 million people dying or disappearing. Can you describe Our Lady of Kibeho? Our Lady is based on a true story about three young Rwandese girls in 1981 having a visitation from the Virgin Mary except at first, no one believes them. So it's then about their struggle to convince people that there is a goodness in the world. Things then change however once the Virgin Mary starts issuing a warning about a terrible war coming and it makes them question their faith and the goodness of others. Why did you pick these events as the subject for a play? I went to Rwanda for the first time in 2009 to attend a genocide conference and, as part of my trip, I visited a lot of memorial sites and had many talks with people who had been either victims of the genocide or perpetrators of the genocide. We ended up visiting the Kibeho college and that was when I heard the true story of the three girls who from 1981 to 1982 had visitations. The local priest told us the story and I knew it had to be seen as a play. It's a tale about belief, and theatre is about the suspension of disbelief, so I felt like the theatre space and drama was the right way to tell the story. You've written about Rwanda before in shows like Children of Killers what does the country mean to you? The country is important to me because an incredibly horrible thing happened there in 1994. Almost a million people were killed, or disappeared due to a perceived difference in perceived ethnicity, an imposed ethnicity. Me being African American and having inherited a history of oppression and racism and that then being exacerbated by sexism and classism, I look at a country that has faced these imposed divisions and it fills me with empathy. I had to bear witness to the story of Rwanda. A lot of people who need to be spoken for are dead. They're in the ground, not even truly buried in the way they deserve. Has the play's relevance changed since it first opened in 2014? I hope the relevance of everything I write stands. Our Lady is all about whether or not the girls really did see the future and see the genocide, but if they saw 1994, they might have also seen past that to 2024, we just don't know. Things like what happened in Rwanda aren't ever over there might be a mutation, but even to this day there is a tightness in the country and a fear about talking about the events of 1994 and awaken the past demons and ghosts. In reality, you need to purge them. Has the show changed between New York and Northampton? There are minimal changes between New York and here in New York we didn't name all the girls in the Kibeho visitations, but for the purposes of this run we wanted to further individualise each girl and give them a name. In New York we only had 11 actors and Northampton will have more than that (as well as a community chorus) a better reflection of the fact that, eventually, hundreds and hundreds of people came up the hills of Kibeho to be blessed by these girls. The show has a large community chorus involved could you explain why that was an important part of the staging? The chorus is extremely important because the play is about how it started from one girl, then two more, and then their message spreading across the world. I am a person who always writes about community and who really revels in group dynamics. I think having a community chorus is a visual metaphor for how things move from one person to an entire village, and from one country to all around the world. I also love having a lot of people on stage you can have a big group being impacted in lots of different ways. The show sees you reunite with director James Dacre after the award-winning original production of The Mountaintop in 2009 what is it about your working relationship that works so well? James and I both love to tell stories that embrace big ideas but also embrace singular, intimate moments. I've always loved James' approach to working on plays and how investigative he is. His work has a deep purpose, it wants to change the world and wants to transform people. His performances feel like going to church. They're spirit-filled. I'll always be excited by working with him he helped jumpstart my career, there were times when we stayed up until 2am, 3am at a pub just trying to figure out scenes from The Mountaintop. Preston (EastIdahoNews.com) -- An Idaho science teacher who ignited worldwide controversy after feeding a puppy to a snapping turtle was found not guilty of animal cruelty Friday evening. A panel of six jurors delivered the verdict to a packed courtroom after deliberating less than 30 minutes following the two-day trial in Franklin County. Robert Crosland, the Preston Junior High School teacher, smiled as the verdict was read and afterward spoke publicly for the first time since the March ordeal. "I would just like to thank all of the support that I've received," he said. "I'd like to thank this community for staying behind me. It's really what got me through all of this." Crosland fed the sick puppy to a turtle named Jaws at Preston Junior High School after hours in front of a few students. Following an investigation by the state attorney general, he was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. +2 Teacher charged after allegedly feeding puppy to turtle in front of students An Idaho science teacher who allegedly fed a puppy to a snapping turtle was criminally charged Friday. Robert Crosland is facing one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. Shane Reichert, one of Crosland's defense attorney, admitted that some people might take issue with a snapping turtle eating a puppy but Reichert argued that in the eyes of the law, there is no difference between the dog and a rat or even deer people hunt. "As we set out from the beginning, we thought the State was going to have a difficult time proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt," Reichert said. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden thanked the investigators and attorneys who worked on the case on behalf of his office. "As prosecutors, our job is to present evidence to the jury. In this case, Mr. Crosland's peers in Franklin County did not find the state proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I appreciate the jurors' attention and respect their decision," Wasden said in a prepared statement. WHAT HAPPENED IN MARCH Based on witness testimony from the trial, the timeline leading up to the snapping turtle eating the puppy is as follows: Teacher accused of feeding puppy to turtle in front of students Authorities are unsure if the puppy was alive at the time of the feeding. Crossland's son, Mario Crosland, received the puppy from a farmer he knew. One of the farmer's dogs had recently given birth to a litter of puppies, and the farmer was worried the pups were feeding off of the mother too much causing her health to decline. As a result, he started giving the puppies to others. When Mario received the puppy, he noticed it was sick. He said in his testimony that the puppies eyes were cloudy and it refused to eat. He said he and his sister tried to nurse the puppy back to health, but after a day it was clear the puppy was going to die. He said no matter what they did, it refused to eat. They gave the puppy to their dad who decided he would feed it to either his python, Monty, or the snapping turtle. Crosland arrived at school and attempted to feed the puppy to Monty but the snake didn't eat it. The teacher then took the pup out to his van and continued with his regular teaching schedule. After school ended, Crosland stayed to help a student with a project. He mentioned to the few students in his classroom that he needed to feed his animals and asked if anyone would be offended because a puppy would be involved. The witnesses all testified Friday that they did not have a problem with it. Crosland let the students handle the puppy. Most of the witnesses said they noticed it was sickly, lethargic and its ribs were sticking out. A couple noted the puppies eyes were cloudy. After a few moments, Crosland placed the puppy in the snake's enclosure but it became clear the reptile wasn't interested. Crosland then put the puppy in the snapping turtle's 350-gallon tank. Witnesses testified the puppy tried to swim for a couple of seconds then the turtle pulled the puppy under the water. Instead of eating the puppy right away, the turtle waited for it to stop moving which took around 30 seconds. A few of the witnesses said the puppy could barely move its legs before losing consciousness and it did not struggle much because of its poor health. After the turtle ate the puppy, the students left. Idaho Deputy Attorney General David Morse argued that the puppy suffered as a result of the feeding, saying it was "flailing around and crashing" around in the turtle tank. WHAT WITNESSES SAID ABOUT CROSLAND Every witness called to testify said it was common knowledge that Crosland fed live animals to the snapping turtle and snake that were kept in his classroom. The Preston Junior High School Science Department Director said those reptiles would not eat dead animals and it was the movement of living creatures that triggered their response to feed. Another common theme among witnesses was that the puppy Crosland fed to the turtle was deathly ill. The witnesses consisted of current and previous students. They made clear that Crosland is a beloved teacher one even testifying that he was his favorite teacher in school. Two of Crosland's colleagues in the science department had only positive things to say about Crosland's character, his love for teaching and his passion for animals. Crosland's son, Mario, became emotional when testifying about his father's love for animals and how he would do whatever he could to care for them. Mario even went so far as to say that his father "could do what Fish and Game couldn't" when it came to caring for animals. WHAT'S NEXT FOR CROSLAND Crosland continues to teach for the Preston School District and he feels "a lot of relief" with the not guilty verdict. Students, teachers and others in Preston hope the community can now move forward. "There was no question in my mind that he had no evil intent or no intent to harm this animal. Given the fact that what he does for a living and the area in which he teachers there is no question he was doing what he thought was best for this puppy," Stratton Laggis, Crosland's other attorney, said. A Grammy Award winning songwriter paid a visit to a local middle school on Monday to help student write their own song STAMFORD Scofield Magnet Middle School is looking for students to sign up for LiveGirlTalk, a 10-week mentoring group that creates a brave space for girls. The small group meets weekly with a professional mentor who facilitates interactive activities and discussion topics ranging from relationships to body image to social media. GREENWICH A new deputy fire chief was sworn in Monday morning in Greenwich. Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Morris is replacing Tom Nixon, who is retiring from the service. Morris joined the Greenwich Fire Department in 2005, after working in public-safety elsewhere, and he was promoted to lieutenant in 2014. The new deputy chief earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Connecticut, and he is an adjunct faculty member at Post University in the field of fire and arson investigation. Morris also has special expertise in hazardous materials, confined space operations and trench rescues. He is also an EMS instructor. Hes the consummate professional, Fire Chief Peter Siecienski said. After he was sworn in as deputy chief, Morris said he felt a keen sense of responsibility that goes with the job. Im going to make sure I do everything I can to ensure everyone goes home their families, he said, after fighting fires. He said he found the work rewarding getting to help people on the worst day of their lives, through thick and thin. Morris also founded a peer support group in the department. Another firefighter was promoted to lieutenant to fill Morris position. George Lattanzi was hired in Greenwich in 2000, and he has been serving as acting lieutenant. He has earned a number of commendations in his career and also served as an instructor. First Selectman Peter Tesei said it was always a pleasure to take part in promotion ceremonies today we have an opportunity to celebrate you and your accomplishments, he told the gathering of firefighters. Lattanzi said he appreciated the support of colleagues in the department who helped me along the way. The professional department, when fully staffed, has 95 working firefighters, out of a total of allocation of 107 members, including fire marshals and administrative staff. The department currently has four vacancies, while three new recruits are set to take up work in the department in coming weeks. One firefighting position is open, and the hiring process is ongoing. The department has four deputy chief who are responsible for running daily shifts. CHICOPEE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- Two Chicopee police officers are being hailed as heroes after saving a toddler who wandered in a swimming pool. The two police officers saved a two-year-old girls life on Saturday, performing CPR on the spot. As workers return from their holidays, Canadas 100 highest paid CEOs have already earned more than the average worker. A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) says that those high earning bosses receive 197 times more per year than the average worker. Based on 2017 figures for the S&P/TSX Composite Index, the top 100 made an average $10 million, down from a year earlier but the second highest since the CCPA began tracking the figures. Despite what appears to be a tight labour market, markedly higher wages havent materialized for the average worker, says study author CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald. This report serves as a reminder that immense wealth continues to circulate through the economyits just not making its way into the hands of the average worker. The average worker will have to work full time all year to earn what a top CEO does by 11:33 a.m. on January 2. Gender pay gap Last years CEO pay numbers were particularly high due to six men receiving extreme retirement bonuses worth between $9-18 million each. If these are removed, this year becomes the highest paid year for the richest 100 CEOs. Variable or bonus pay linked to a companys stock price accounted for 77% of CEO pay and MacDonald says that this is the primary driver of the gender pay gap, where bonuses for male and female executives at the same company based on the same stock price show women paid less. If executive bonus pay is really about merit, we shouldnt see such extreme differences in bonuses between different executives at the same company. This cuts right to the heart of the meritocracy argument some use to attempt to justify outrageous CEO pay, adds Macdonald. Gov. Holcomb directs flags to be flown at half-staff in Floyd County Monday to honor late state representative Jury selection will get underway Monday morning at the New Castle County courthouse as a second set of inmates charged in a fatal riot at the Vaughn prison in Smyrna prepares to head to trial. This time around, inmates Obadiah Miller, John Bramble, Kevin Berry, and Abednego Baynes will be in court. Miller is currently serving 10 years for manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Bramble is in the midst of a 40-year sentence for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, second-degree assault, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, possession of ammunition by a person prohibited, and home invasion. Berry is currently serving 14 years for three counts of first-degree robbery and other charges. Baynes is in prison on a second-degree murder charge, sentenced to 18 years behind bars. Unlike the last trial, all four inmates are represented by attorneys. Obadiah Miller is being represented by Tony Figliola of Figliola & Facciolo in Brandywine Hundred; John Bramble is being represented by Tom Pedersen, a criminal defense attorney based in Georgetown; Kevin Berry is being represented by Andy Witherell, a Wilmington-based criminal defense attorney while Abednego Baynes is being represented by Cleon Cauley of The Cauley Firm in Wilmington. Each face three counts of murder in the death of correctional officer Lt. Steven Floyd who was killed in the Feb. 1-2, 2017, riot, as well assault, kidnapping, and conspiracy charges. They're among 16 inmates charged in connection with the violent attack. In the first trial, not one inmate was convicted of intentional murder of Floyd, but self-proclaimed mastermind Dwayne Staats, who was serving a life sentence, was convicted of felony murder and murder of a law enforcement officer. Inmate Jarreau Ayers, who was also serving life in prison, was convicted of kidnapping, assault, and conspiracy. Deric Forney was cleared on all counts. Article continues below advertisement Obadiah Miller, who goes by the nickname "OB" behind bars, consistently came up in the first trial as one of the men who viciously stabbed Floyd. Inmates who brought up his name testified that "OB" was the only one not wearing a mask. One inmate who took the stand called him "a butcher." Bramble's name also came up when inmates testified he brutally beat Officer Joshua Wilkinson, who suffered major injuries in the uprising. It's unclear whether Bramble had a weapon--one inmate testified he used a mop wringer in the attack while another testified that he did not see any weapons. Jury selection is expected to take all week with trial slated to begin on Monday, January 14, 2018. The biggest risk may be that an external emergency - a war, a terrorist attack, a financial crisis, an immense natural disaster - will arise. By then, it will be too late to pretend that he is anything other than manifestly unfit to lead. For the country's sake, there is only one acceptable outcome, just as there was after Americans realised in 1974 that a criminal was occupying the Oval Office. The president must go. Achieving this outcome won't be easy. It will require honourable people who have served in the Trump administration to share, publicly, what they have seen and what they believe. (At this point, anonymous leaks are not sufficient.) It will require congressional Republicans to acknowledge that they let a con man take over their party and then defended that con man. It will require Democrats and progressive activists to understand that a rushed impeachment may actually help Trump remain in office. Before we get to the how of Trump's removal, though, I want to spend a little more time on the why because even talking about the ouster of an elected president should happen only under extreme circumstances. Unfortunately, the country is so polarised that such talk instead occurs with every president. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama were subjected to reckless calls for their impeachment, from members of Congress no less. So let's be clear. Trump's ideology is not an impeachable offence. However much you may disagree with Trump's tax policy and I disagree vehemently it is not a reason to remove him from office. Nor are his efforts to cut government health insurance or to deport undocumented immigrants. Such issues, among others, are legitimate matters of democratic struggle, to be decided by elections, legislative debates, protests and the other normal tools of democracy. These issues are not the "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours" that the founders of the United States intended impeachment to address. Yet the founders also did not intend for the removal of a president to be impossible. They insisted on including an impeachment clause in the Constitution because they understood that an incompetent or corrupt person was nonetheless likely to attain high office every so often. And they understood how much harm such a person could do. The country needed a way to address what Alexander Hamilton called "the abuse or violation of some public trust" and James Madison called the "incapacity, negligence or perfidy" of a president. His offences The negligence and perfidy of Trump -- his high crimes and misdemeanours -- can be separated into four categories. This list is conservative. It does not include the possibility that his campaign coordinated strategy with Russia, which remains uncertain. It also does not include his lazy approach to the job, like his refusal to read briefing books or the many empty hours on his schedule. It instead focuses on demonstrable ways that he has broken the law or violated his constitutional oath. Trump has used the presidency for personal enrichment Regardless of party, Trump's predecessors took elaborate steps to separate their personal financial interests from their governing responsibilities. They released their tax returns, so that any potential conflicts would be public. They placed their assets in a blind trust, to avoid knowing how their policies might affect their own investments. Trump has instead treated the presidency as a branding opportunity. He has continued to own and promote the Trump Organisation. He has spent more than 200 days at one of his properties and billed taxpayers for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If this pattern were merely petty corruption, without damage to the national interest, it might not warrant removal from office. But Trump's focus on personal profit certainly appears to be affecting policy. Most worrisome, foreign officials and others have realised they can curry favour with the president by spending money at one of his properties. Saudi Arabia has showered the Trump Organisation with business, and Trump has stood by the Saudis despite their brutal war in Yemen and their assassination of a prominent critic. This example and many more flout Article 1 of the Constitution, which bans federal office-holders from accepting "emoluments" from any foreign country unless Congress approves the arrangement. Madison, when making the case for an impeachment clause, spoke of a president who "might betray his trust to foreign powers." Then, of course, there is Russia. Even before Robert Mueller, the special counsel, completes his investigation, the known facts are damning enough in at least one way. Trump lied to the American people during the 2016 campaign about business negotiations between his company and Vladimir Putin's government. As president, Trump has taken steps in Europe and Syria that benefit Putin. To put it succinctly: The president of the United States lied to the country about his commercial relationship with a hostile foreign government toward which he has a strangely accommodating policy. Combine Trump's actions with his tolerance for unethical Cabinet officials including ones who have made shady stock trades, accepted lavish perks or used government to promote their own companies or those of their friends and the Trump administration is almost certainly the most corrupt in American history. It makes Warren G. Harding's Teapot Dome scandal look like, well, a tempest in a teapot. Trump has violated campaign finance law A Watergate grand jury famously described Richard Nixon as "an unindicted co-conspirator." Trump now has his own indictment tag: "Individual-1." Federal prosecutors in New York filed papers last month alleging that Trump identified as Individual-1 directed a criminal plan to evade campaign finance laws. It happened during the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, when he instructed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay a combined $US280,000 ($392,000) in hush money to two women with whom Trump evidently had affairs. Trump and his campaign did not disclose these payments, as required by law. In the two years since, Trump has lied publicly about them initially saying he did not know about the payments, only to change his story later. It's worth acknowledging that most campaign finance violations do not warrant removal from office. But these payments were not most campaign finance violations. They involved large, secret payoffs in the final weeks of a presidential campaign that, prosecutors said, "deceived the voting public." The seriousness of the deception is presumably the reason prosecutors filed criminal charges against Cohen, rather than the more common penalty of civil fines for campaign finance violations. What should happen to a president who won office with help from criminal behaviour? The founders specifically considered this possibility during their debates at the Constitutional Convention. The most direct answer came from George Mason: A president who "practiced corruption and by that means procured his appointment in the first instance" should be subject to impeachment. Trump has obstructed justice Whatever Mueller ultimately reveals about the relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia, Trump has obstructed justice to keep Mueller and others from getting to the truth. Again and again, Trump has interfered with the investigation in ways that may violate the law and clearly do violate decades-old standards of presidential conduct. He pressured James Comey, then the FBI director, to let up on the Russia investigation, as a political favour. When Comey refused, Trump fired him. Trump also repeatedly pressured Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, to halt the investigation and ultimately forced Sessions to resign for not doing so. Trump has also publicly hounded several of the government's top experts on Russian organised crime, including Andrew McCabe and Bruce Orr. And Trump has repeatedly lied to the American people. He has claimed, outrageously, that the Justice Department tells witnesses to lie in exchange for leniency. He has rejected, with no factual basis, the findings of multiple intelligence agencies about Russia's role in the 2016 campaign. He reportedly helped his son Donald Trump Jr. draft a false statement about a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer. Obstruction of justice is certainly grounds for the removal of a president. It was the subject of the first Nixon article of impeachment passed by the House Judiciary Committee. Among other things, that article accused him of making "false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States." Trump has subverted democracy The Constitution that Trump swore to uphold revolves around checks and balances. It depends on the idea that the president is not a monarch. He is a citizen to whom, like all other citizens, the country's laws apply. Trump rejects this principle. He has instead tried to undermine the credibility of any independent source of power or information that does not serve his interests. It's much more than just the Russia investigation. He has tried to delegitimise federal judges based on their ethnicity or on the president who appointed them, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump has criticised the Justice Department for indicting Republican politicians during an election year. He has called for Comey, Hillary Clinton and other political opponents to be jailed. Trump has described journalists as "the enemy of the people" an insult usually levelled by autocrats. He has rejected basic factual findings from the CIA, the Congressional Budget Office, research scientists and others. He has told bald lies about election fraud. Individually, these sins may not seem to deserve removal from office. Collectively, though, they exact a terrible toll on American society. They cause people to lose the faith on which a democracy depends -- faith in elections, in the justice system, in the basic notion of truth. No other president since Nixon has engaged in behaviour remotely like Trump's. To accept it without sanction is ultimately to endorse it. Unpleasant though it is to remove a president, the costs and the risks of a continued Trump presidency are worse. What now? The most relevant precedent for the removal of Trump is Nixon, the only American president to be forced from office because of his conduct. And two aspects of Nixon's departure tend to get overlooked today. One, he was never impeached. Two, most Republicans -- both voters and elites -- stuck by him until almost the very end. His approval rating among Republicans was still about 50 per cent when, realising in the summer of 1974 that he was doomed, he resigned. The current political dynamics have some similarities. Whether the House of Representatives, under Democratic control, impeaches Trump is not the big question. The question is whether he loses the support of a meaningful slice of Republicans. I know that many of Trump's critics have given up hoping that he ever will. They assume that Republican senators will go on occasionally criticising him without confronting him. But it is a mistake to give up. The stakes are too large and the chances of success are too real. Consider the following descriptions of Trump: "terribly unfit," "erratic," "reckless," "impetuous," "unstable,""a pathological liar,""dangerous to a democracy," a concern to "anyone who cares about our nation." Every one of these descriptions comes from a Republican member of Congress or of Trump's own administration. They know. They know he is unfit for office. They do not need to be convinced of the truth. They need to be persuaded to act on it. Democrats won't persuade them by impeaching Trump. Doing so would probably rally the president's supporters. It would shift the focus from Trump's behaviour toward a group of Democratic leaders whom Republicans are never going to like. A smarter approach is a series of sober-minded hearings to highlight Trump's misconduct. Democrats should focus on easily understandable issues most likely to bother Trump's supporters, like corruption. If this approach works at all or if Mueller's findings shift opinion, or if a separate problem arises, like the economy, Trump's Republican allies will find themselves in a very difficult spot. At his current approval rating of about 40 per cent, Republicans were thumped in the midterms. Were his rating to fall further, a significant number of congressional Republicans would be facing long re-election odds in 2020. The recent criticism from Mitt Romney, who alternates between critical and sycophantic, depending on his own political interests, is another sign of Trump's weakness. Finally, there is the hope - naive though it may seem - that some Republicans will choose to act on principle. There now exists a small club of former Trump administration officials who were widely respected before joining the administration and whom Trump has sullied, to greater or lesser degrees. It includes Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn, HR McMaster and Jim Mattis. Imagine if one of them gave a television interview and told the truth about Trump. Doing so would be a service to their country at a time of national need. It would be an illustration of duty. Throughout his career, Trump has worked hard to invent his own reality, and largely succeeded. It has made him very rich and, against all odds, elected him president. But whatever happens in 2019, his false version of reality will not survive history, just as Nixon's did not. Which side of that history do today's Republicans want to be on? Washington: With no breakthrough in sight to end the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump plans a Tuesday night address to the nation. On Thursday he will visit the US-Mexico border to highlight his demands for a border wall. US President Donald Trump. Credit:Bloomberg Newly empowered House Democrats - and at least a few Republican senators - are stepping up pressure on Trump and GOP lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump said he would discuss the "Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border" at 9pm EST. When it comes to the issue of women in Australian politics, the Liberal Party is not the only party with a problem. A headcount of which party has more women is not what we need. Emma Husar talks to the media outside court after her defamation case against Buzzfeed in Sydney in December. Credit:Janie Barrett Politics in 2018 was a "shocker" for the treatment of women, and the people we represent are quite rightly fed up with the point-scoring and back-stabbing. Im not going to sugarcoat what is an uncomfortable conversation for some. Enough with the merit debates no, the new wave is political candidates who dont look, sound or feel like their predecessors. Theyre not going to compare, so stop trying. We should instead give them a go and set them up for success in representing their communities. Women have been given a seat at a table but not at every table. The power structures, backroom deals and faceless men, that exist away from the carefully crafted colourful photos, are alive and well and dominate decisions as to which tables were invited to sit at, when and with whom. One of the main entrances into the Perth CBD will be closed until January 25 as work is completed on a nearby development. Main Roads WA is urging motorists heading back to work after the holiday period to be patient when using the East Perth Causeway roundabout, while workers complete utility works on the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority's Waterbank project. The road closures are a result of work on the nearby Waterbank project. Credit:Lendlease Traffic heading into the city via the busy Causeway bridge is being diverted onto Riverside Drive to follow detours via Plain Street, Victoria Avenue and Barrack Street. Traffic leaving the city via Adelaide Terrace will need to merge with buses into a single lane after Plain Street. A Brisbane band have been labelled "idiots" after being kicked off stage for displaying swastika flags during a weekend performance. Revellers were horrified enough to help kick punk group Big Bongin' Baby out of West End's The Bearded Lady on Saturday night, according to management. The Bearded Lady management kicked out a band after displaying swastika flags on stage. Credit:Facebook The Bearded Lady general manager Jamie Simmonds said staffers acted quickly to cut the music from the stage with the help of punters. He was furious the band had ruined the night and had distressed about 50 guests and staff members. An alleged top-ranking Comanchero gang member is suing the publisher of The Daily Telegraph, claiming articles linking him to the murder of a fellow bikie embarrassed him and injured his reputation. Ali Bazzi has launched defamation proceedings against Nationwide News and journalist Emma Partridge in the Federal Court over stories that reported he met the men who were later charged with the murder of ex-Comanchero boss Mick Hawi prior to his shooting. Ali Bazzi (right) with Comanchero boss Mark Buddle in the Mediterranean. Buddle tasked Bazzi with taking charge of the gang in Australia. The Daily Telegraph alleged that Mr Bazzi is a close confidante of the Comancheros national president Mark Buddle, who fled to Europe in 2016 and is a suspect in several police investigations. Mr Hawi was gunned down outside a Rockdale gym in February last year and three men associated with the Lone Wolf bikie gang face charges relating to the murder. Comedian Billy Connolly has apologised for recent comments in which he suggested he was "near the end" of his life, telling his fans he's sorry for depressing them. A short video posted by his wife, Australian psychologist Pamela Stephenson, on Twitter showed Connolly cheerfully playing a banjo as he denied the statements which aired last week in a BBC documentary. "Sorry if I depressed you": Billy Connolly has denied he's "near the end". Credit:ITV "Not dying, not dead, not slipping away, sorry if I depressed you. Maybe I should have phrased it better," Connolly joked in the video. Ellen DeGeneres' attempt to clear comedian Kevin Hart's name and reinstate him as Oscars host did not go over well with critics online. The daytime host, who is openly gay and previously hosted the Academy Awards herself, was blasted for calling Hart's critics "haters" and "trolls," referring to those who unearthed the comic's past homophobic jokes that cost him the high-profile hosting gig. Hart had apologised for the jokes in the past but refused to do so again when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an ultimatum to apologise once more or drop his hosting duties. He pulled the plug on the gig last month. Members of the LGBTQ community publicly characterised DeGeneres' endorsement of Hart on her show on Friday as a "betrayal," while others scolded her for seemingly belittling journalists and other knowledgeable critics for researching the incoming host's background. (Hart told DeGeneres he'll reconsider hosting now.) Up for debate: Live legislation tracker Check out the latest developments on bills pending before state lawmakers in four key topics. Trusted local news has never been more important, but providing the information you need, information that can change sometimes minute-by-minute, requires a partnership with you, our readers. Please consider making a contribution today to support this vital resource that you and countless others depend on. After suffering an apparent stroke in October, Gabons president, Ali Bongo, traveled for treatment to Saudi Arabia and then to Morocco, where he has been recovering. In his first public statement since falling ill, he issued a New Years address from the Moroccan capital, Rabat, acknowledging that he had been through a difficult period and promising to return soon. But Netanyahu may not have called them early enough, as Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit weighs whether he has a duty to announce the details of an indictment before Israelis go to the polls on April 9. Netanyahu has argued that such an announcement would be undemocratic. Before the indictment is formally issued, the prime minister would have a chance to present his defense a process that could drag on for months, until after elections. Hours before Boltons arrival in Ankara, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar insisted that Turkeys problem was not with Kurds in general but with those belonging to the Peoples Protection Units, or YPG. The fight of the Turkish armed forces is not against our Kurdish brothers, with whom we have shared the same geography and the same bread for centuries, Akar said. The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment about whether he is free, detained or under indictment. Qahtani did not respond to an email requesting comment on his whereabouts. A person close to the Saudi royal court said he believed Qahtani was under house arrest but could not be sure. On Thursday, Saudi Arabias general prosecutor said 11 defendants had appeared in court for the first time, but the prosecutors office did not release their names or say whether Qahtani was among them. The U.S.-led coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the pairs detention, and spokesmen for the SDF provided no further details of their incarceration. The mens fate could be complicated by the uncertainty surrounding President Trumps unexpected announcement that some 2,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawing from Syria in the near future. Washington has shown little desire to extradite captives accused of being part of the Islamic State. Although China has pledged to increase its purchases of American goods to help narrow the $375 billion U.S. trade deficit, this would not address the structural causes for the imbalance. Washington has demanded that Beijing level the playing field for American companies by granting greater access to the Chinese market, protecting U.S. intellectual-property rights and cutting down on unfair government subsidies for Chinese firms. According to press statements and social media postings reviewed by The Washington Post, at least 48 members in the House and Senate split about equally between both parties have announced they plan to refuse or donate their pay for the duration of the shutdown. Thirteen of those are House freshmen serving for the first time in Congress, which currently stands at 434 members in the House and 99 in the Senate, with two vacancies. I can relate, and Im sure the people who are on the receiving end will make adjustments; they always do, he told reporters outside the White House. He also claimed that many of those people agree with what Im doing: refusing to reopen the government without obtaining funding for the wall, one of his signature campaign promises. We understand the sentiment: Mr. Trumps inflaming of prejudice and lying about the danger posed by immigrants are indeed immoral. But the problem with a wall isnt that its immoral; Democrats have never opposed border security, including by means of tall fencing where that makes sense. The problem with Mr. Trumps wall is that it would be ineffective and a waste of money. Illegal border crossing into the United States has been dropping for decades, as measured by the numbers of migrants arrested along the southwestern frontier. About half of the nations undocumented immigrants are now thought to have arrived legally, often at airports, and overstayed their visas. No wall will compel them to depart when their visas expire. Building a wall would not even stanch the current surge of asylum-seeking families, most of whom present themselves to U.S. border officials at legal ports of entry. Israeli politics were more unsettled than usual before Trumps announcement. Early elections are coming in April. Michael Oren former ambassador to the United States, now a deputy minister is one of the few Israeli officials who is carefully listened to by both Washington and American Jewry, yet he has been orphaned politically by the collapse of his Kulanu Party. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may steal a march on a rising rival, Naftali Bennett, by drafting Oren into the prime ministers Likud Party, and keeping him out of Bennetts fledgling New Right Party, which is draining away Netanyahus most reliable voters. Whether Oren aligns with Netanyahu or Bennett, Israel needs him out in the world explaining the Jewish states policies, given the potential threat of a two-front war with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah and Iran in Lebanon and Syria to the north. Politics here is confused, uncertain and tense. The electoral rebuke to President Trump (measured by the Democratic advantage in House races of nearly 10 million votes) showed that those who marched and demonstrated understood that peaceful assembly was only the first step toward achieving their goals. In cities and towns, red and blue, large and small, they met in church basements, coffee shops, living rooms and libraries. There, they planned how to persuade their neighbors to elect a majority that would stand up to the president and his pliant congressional allies. Then they executed the hard work of door knocks, phone calls, social media conversations, fundraising and texts. And they prevailed. The administration also touts a border wall as a way to stem illegal immigration. The fact is that, since 2007, most immigrants who are here without proper documents arrived legally and simply overstayed their visas. In the 2017 fiscal year, according to Trumps own Department of Homeland Security, about 700,000 visitors overstayed their visas; the largest number was from Canada (101,281), followed by Mexico (52,859), Brazil (37,452) and China (35,571). It looks as though Trump is worried about the wrong border. And when Trump has a tantrum, it doesnt help to yell at your child, threaten punishment, plead for calm, or try too hard to make everything better. This just tends to make tantrums last longer. Instead, ignore the outburst, and later, a quick word of praise along the lines of Nice job pulling yourself together can let your child salvage some self-esteem. Yet when it comes to Internet-based platform companies, they seemingly exist everywhere and nowhere, making up their own rules. So enforcement is more challenging. As you tap the Google map or launch a tweet, it makes no difference if the server running the algorithm resides in the United States or halfway around the world. If Facebook is threatened by regulators, it could just place its servers on an island in international waters or, in the future, use Internet-beaming balloons. If the Saudi action was meant to head off further congressional action, it was pathetically weak. The government press agency reported that an initial court hearing had been held and that a state prosecutor planned to seek the death penalty for five of those charged. But the court hearing was not public, and none of the suspects was named. By all indications, not just the crown prince but also other senior officials whom Saudi authorities have previously accused of involvement in the murder have not been charged. Instead, a small group of security personnel, who undoubtedly followed orders when they participated in the attack, are being set up as scapegoats. Those to whom the death penalty is applied will be beheaded, in keeping with the kingdoms barbarity. Warren, on the other hand, diagnoses virtually every issue from student debt to climate change, gun control to retirement security with the same blunt prescription. The answer is corruption, pure and simple. We have a government that works for those at the top, she says. When we get organized, when we push back, we can make some real change. It is noticeable that Trumps name rarely crosses her lips, a sign she believes this message can connect with some of the same frustrated middle-class voters who flocked to him in 2016. The conditions before, during and after the vote were chaotic. In advance, voting was postponed in three cities, all opposition strongholds, ostensibly because of concerns in two of them about an ongoing Ebola outbreak and about ethnic unrest in the third so those 1.2 million voters out of the countrys approximately 40 million were disenfranchised at the start. Then came what Human Rights Watch described as rampant election-day obstacles to voting, including problems with voting lists, polling places, armed coercion and malfunctions in the electronic voting machines, which had never before been used in the country. The day after the vote, Dec. 31, the government shut down Internet and text messaging nationwide, a tactic it has used before to control information. It cut the signal of at least two televison broadcasters and withdrew the accreditation of a French correspondent. Trump makes no secret of his intentions. With startling and ill-advised candor, he has told at least one leader of a NATO ally that his campaign to break Chinas unfair trade practices is a prelude to an effort he will then lead to destroy European Union practices that have created trade imbalances with the United States. The comment was taken by this leader as the nail in the coffin of transatlantic cooperation during the Trump presidency and perhaps beyond, according to an aide who recounted the conversation on condition of anonymity. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Im concerned about the financial challenges that many Utah families and businesses could face as federal workers start to miss paychecks. Thats especially true in Ogden, given the thousands of federal employees there who work for the IRS and the U.S. Forest Service, Romney said in a statement to The Washington Post. Im hopeful this will be resolved soon in a way that protects border security and reopens the government, and thats what Ill be focused on with my colleagues as negotiations continue. China and Gambia have seen rapid development on all fronts in their relations since the resumption of diplomatic ties more than two years ago, said visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi with his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara on Saturday, January 5, 2019 in Beijing. [Photo:Foreign Ministry] During the meeting with his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara, Wang said China and Gambia have restored exchanges in various fields and achieved notable results in cooperation on major infrastructure projects, enabling the bilateral friendship to take root among the two peoples. Facts have proved that resuming bilateral diplomatic relations fully conforms with the fundamental interests of Gambia and its people, the universal consensus on the one-China principle and the common aspiration for unity and cooperation by the Chinese and African peoples, Wang said. The Chinese foreign minister said Gambia's reaffirmed commitment to the one-China policy will help lay a firm political foundation for a comprehensive and healthy development of bilateral ties. He said the two countries should further increase mutual trust as well as mutual support on issues concerning each other's core interests. China and Gambia should step up communication and coordination to implement the major consensus between leaders of the two countries and the results from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, Wang said. In this respect, he suggested that Gambia combine the China-Africa cooperation initiatives proposed at the FOCAC Beijing Summit with its national development plans and find priorities, so as to push for progress in various fields of bilateral cooperation to benefit both sides. Wang noted that China-Africa cooperation in essence is South-South cooperation, and the China-Africa efforts towards common development and prosperity will help promote equality and peace in the world. China is willing to do everything within its power to help with the economic and social development in Gambia and other African countries based on Africa's realities and actual needs, he said. For his part, Tangara thanked China for its help in Gambia's economic development and improvement of people's livelihood while voicing the hope that Wang's visit would lead to a closer bilateral relationship. The Gambian foreign minister said Gambia firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and will support China on various international occasions as well as on issues of core interest, pushing further development of bilateral ties on the right track. He said Gambia is ready to strengthen communication with China at various levels, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation in fields like economy, energy and technology. Tangara said the major cooperation initiatives proposed at the FOCAC Beijing Summit showed China truly addresses the concerns of African countries and supports their efforts to enhance their own capabilities in national development. While praising China as a leader in defending multilateralism and the interests of developing countries amid the headwinds of unilateralism in the world, the minister said his country is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China in various international affairs. Man dies after being punched in Pa.: Authorities say a dispute between two people who were walking dogs at a Philadelphia park ended when one punched the other, causing a fatal injury. Police say the 38-year-old victim and his fiancee were walking a dog at Gold Star Park when they came across another man and his unleashed dog just before 9 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses say the victim asked the man to not let the animal run free. The other man became angry and punched the victim in the face, causing the victim to fall backward and hit his head on the ground. The victim was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. His name hasn't been released. The man who threw the punch remained at large Sunday. Brown is 80 and as irascible as ever, worrying about the possibility of nuclear war something that has preoccupied him since the early 1970s and the quickening pace of climate change, which he made a focus of his final term in office. He is seemingly far happier these days when alone with his wife, Anne Gust, and two dogs on their 2,500-acre ranch of rolling hills, live oaks and pasture that his family settled in the late 1800s. Administration officials are also looking to see what is legally permissible as they determine how to grapple with the 38 million Americans who could lose access to food assistance next month because the Agriculture Department is also caught up in the shutdown. As soon as this week, the agency could begin notifying states that it might not be able to provide the expected levels of financial assistance for food programs. Privately, members who are taking their regular salary say requests to withhold pay are largely symbolic. Members, who are paid once a month and have not received January checks yet, can ask for their pay to be withheld but will get it back when the shutdown is over. China has previously been accused of embedding spying technology in its products. In May, the Pentagon directed service members on military bases to stop using phones made by the Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei because of security risks. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security found that some Chinese made security cameras had a back door loophole that left them vulnerable to hackers. The Wall Street Journal reported that that companys cameras have been used at a U.S. Army base in Missouri and the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan. Placed for adoption by a mother who abused alcohol, Brown had run away from her adoptive parents home in the months before the murder, according to court documents. The 16-year-old was living with an abusive boyfriend nicknamed Cut Throat who she said sexually assaulted her and forced her into prostitution. McAuliffe went much further than his predecessors with his April 2016 executive order that restored voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their sentences. Republicans were incensed that the order included violent offenders and those who had not yet paid restitution to victims, and they accused McAuliffe of trying to help his friend and political ally Hillary Clinton by adding Democratic voters to the rolls. He ran a cadet school that trained officers after the revolutionary triumph of Jan. 1, 1959, laying the foundation of the communist countrys new army. He also played a leading role in one of the great battles of the Cold War, helping command Cubas nascent militia forces in their victory over invading exile forces at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. They said they responded to a 911 call at 4:14 a.m. at Garfield House, an apartment building on Wisconsin Avenue NW, just south of Washington National Cathedral. Vongell Lugo, 36, was found in the hallway of his apartment, unresponsive and with stab wounds. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later. Concords defense team had asked a court to rule on its demand to share with Prigozhin known as Putins chef because of his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin millions of pages of evidence turned over by Mueller prosecutors. Under a court protective order, sensitive evidence in the case must be reviewed first by a U.S. government firewall counsel before being released to any non-U.S. national, including co-defendant Prigozhin, in part because of his alleged ties to Russian intelligence. In a case similar to Rezaians, Hekmati, the former U.S. Marine freed with him, filed suit and was awarded $63 million in 2017 by a federal judge. Hekmati is a dual U.S.-Iranian national who was born in the United States and worked in Iraq and Afghanistan as a cultural analyst and adviser for U.S. defense contractors. He was making his first trip to Iran to visit relatives when he was seized, held prisoner for 4 years, coerced into making a false confession and convicted of espionage before his release, a U.S. judge found. The judges noted that Randall had invited residents to share their views on her page and listed her official county email address and phone number on the site. The ruling also emphasized the interactive comment section of the page, which it said is essentially a public forum in which government officials cannot censor speech. The Departments request is that Miracle Hill comply with its own policy submitted for licensure, a state official said in a January 2018 letter to the group. She said its license was being downgraded to temporary and warned the temporary license would be valid for no longer than six months. Failure to address these concerns will result in the expiration of Miracle Hills license as a Child Placing Agency. Homicides in the city jumped 40 percent in 2018 compared with 2017, reaching levels not seen since 2015. The 2018 rise occurred as homicides declined in many other large cities and as the number of killings elsewhere in the Washington region rose slightly or dropped. And the new year is off to a violent start, with five people killed over the weekend alone. But her work as a federal investigator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been made more challenging over the past two years under the Trump administration. The federal hiring freeze has resulted in a brain drain she says, as the positions of people who quit or retire go unfilled, leaving more work for the staffers who remain. There has been no opportunity for promotion and their complaint intake branch dwindled from about 40 workers to a skeleton crew of five people. As a fashion extravaganza, the 76th Golden Globe Awards began and ended with Lady Gaga in a billowing Valentino Haute Couture gown in a shade of pale blue with a hint of lilac. The dress required its own team of wranglers to manage the extravagant train, and her necklace the massive string of Tiffany diamonds dubbed the Aurora came with its own security guards. Her hair had been molded into something akin to a Henry Moore sculpture and dyed to match her dress providing vindication for all those ladies of a certain generation who still demand a blue rinse at the beauty shop. When Gaga stepped up to the E! microphone for her red-carpet interview about filming the remake of A Star Is Born, for which she was nominated for her role as Ally, she waxed on about having studied method acting as a child, but said it was the making of this movie that taught her to go to the nectar of your being. Predicting the winner? Is that success? Even if journalists could do that (and they cant) it would not be much of a public service, would it? A very weird thing about horse race or game coverage is it doesnt answer to any identifiable need of the voter. Should I vote for the candidate with the best strategy for capturing my vote? Braille (pronounced brale) is a way of reading and writing that uses touch, not sight. Letters, numbers and other symbols each have a code of up to six dots. The dots are punched through paper and can be felt on the other side. Is that enough to revive the regions fortunes? Hard to say. Today, an undifferentiated bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse is still nearly $30; single-vineyard bottlings can be even more. And local agricultural organizations have frustrated outsiders attempts to buy Maconnais land, even Leflaive. Theyve also been working on a system of premier cru vineyards, much like in the Cote dOr. On the surface, that seems like a good idea, but the French have a tendency to jump the gun on such endeavors. Is there really a market for premier cru Macon? Heres a gripe, because there was little else to grouse about in Sundays show and the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations choice of winners: How much earlier is awards season going to creep up the calendar, anyhow? For some, Sunday marked the Feast of the Epiphany, still technically part of the Christmas holidays. Raise your hands if youve had time to undeck the halls. With Globes getting earlier and the Academy Awards planning a move to early February in 2020, were going to have to drop the New Years Eve ball onto a red carpet. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Alabama attorney general is not investigating reports of online fakery in the 2017 Alabama Senate race after determining it is an issue for federal election regulators. A spokesman for Attorney General Steve Marshall said Monday that Marshall's office has asked the Federal Election Commission to "investigate the matter to determine if any federal laws were violated." The Washington Post and New York Times reported incidents of misleading online tactics by a social media researcher and others during Democratic Sen. Doug Jones' 2017 campaign against Republican Roy Moore. Operators posed as conservative voters on Facebook. Marshall previously said he was evaluating the reports. Spokesman Mike Lewis wrote in an email that they evaluated reports of possible deception and "determined the matter to be under the exclusive jurisdiction" of the FEC. The Vanishing. Photo: Saban Films Originally and less vaguely entitled Keepers, the thriller The Vanishing dramatizes the story of three lighthouse keepers (one young, one middle-aged, one getting up there) who resided for a time on a rocky, storm-swept island in Scotlands Outer Hebrides before vanishing four days before Christmas, 1900. We know in advance that the story wont end happily, so the question is: Will we learn anything about human nature in extremis en route to the foreordained catastrophe? The short answer is no, but the movie is phenomenally well made and the three actors who fall apart on our watch suffer magnificently. Foremost among them is Peter Mullan, whose face can be studied like a chart: How did that line get there? What habitual expression does that line denote? Theres a map of the human psyche there for them that know to read it. Mullans character, Thomas Marshall, has lost what family he had under miserable circumstances and seems surrounded by an aureole of emptiness. It soon infects James Ducat (Gerard Butler), who tearfully left behind a wife and kids but seems bereft beyond reason even before all the bad stuff goes down. The third member of the party, young Donald McArthur (Connor Swindells), is coming apart from the start, plainly out of his histrionic depth. When a storm hits, Mullans Marshall greets it in high dudgeon, shouting at the heavens like Lear on the heath. It seems fitting when the three awake to find the cliffside littered with dead gulls: The birds must have swooped in to hear Mullans declamations and smashed into the lighthouse. The disappearance of the Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers has tantalized mystery buffs for over a century, since the poet Wilson Wilfrid Gibson published Flannan Isle in 1912. Ive read one news story that cites, among possible explanations, killed by pirates, eaten by seabirds, and even kidnaped by aliens. The Vanishing features no ETs or even man-eating seabirds, but the tale that the writers Joe Bone and Celyn Jones have cooked up does feature frightening pirate types (among them the unearthly pale Gary Lewis) who come ashore under excruciating circumstances. More should not be said (and for pitys sake dont watch the trailer, which spells out more than any critic should) except that the violence when it comes is sudden, brutal, and morally disorienting: Without always meaning to, our protagonists have sinned in their own eyes and fight back against invaders with no confidence that God is on their side. For reasons too tragic to contemplate for long, Butlers Ducat is pretty sure that God isnt. The director is Kristoffer Nyholm, whose name sounds like a Danishization of Christopher Nolan but actually made the second season of the original The Killing as well as the spooky Brit mini-series The Enfield Haunting. Hes a superbly resourceful filmmaker. The scenes inside the lighthouse feel as if theyre happening at sea despite the buildings solidity. Partly its the lighthouses creaks and groans and shrieks of the wind, partly the tempestuous psyches of the men. Butler looks different here thicker, more dissolute, his blue eyes turned inward with guilt and horror. Swindellss face suggests like his name the wind that sends waves against rocks. The Vanishing doesnt have the fullness of tragedy, to which it aspires. The characters are too punch-drunk too early from the effects of the wind and waves, and the ways in which they turn on one another dont feel fully set up. Though gifted writers, Bone and Jones (they sound like a pair of pirates) are so steeped in the kind of plays in which actors grab one anothers faces and bellow their lines that the madness seems more like good theater than incisive psychology. But good, harrowing theater it is, plus excellent settings making this the second film in a few short months to convey the splendid unruliness of Scotland. (The other was The Outlaw King.) Bring a sweater preferably one of those long woolen fishermans sweaters I bought many years ago at the top of Scotland, near the ferry to Orkney because youll feel the chill. Incidentally, a lighthouse historian recently concluded that Marshall, Ducat, and McArthur were swept away by unusually violent seas when they attempted to secure their equipment Marshall having been previously fined for neglecting to do so. But for many, the idea that theyre still on some spaceship roaming the galaxys equivalent of the Outer Hebrides will never die. State Like Sleep. Photo: The Orchard The muzzy mystery State Like Sleep, written and directed by Meredith Danluck, is good enough to make you wish it were better, less slack, more resolved though as I write that Im aware that its slackness and irresolution are central to the movies power and the whole point, really. Maybe my assessment is colored by the dud ending, since the journey to its criminally unsatisfying final scenes is tantalizingly dreamlike and unnerving. Katherine Waterston is Katherine, the quasi-Gothic heroine whose Belgian movie-star husband, Stefan (Michiel Huisman), either put a bullet in his head or was set up to make it look as if he did. In flashbacks, we see the couples happy days as well as its last, anguished ones, in which Katherine is in the process of moving out because of Stefans alleged infidelity (tabloid pictures of him with a blonde woman) and flagrant drug binges. Thanks to Katherines decision to cut her hair after her husbands death, Danluck and editor Curtiss Clayton can glide between time periods without fear of confusing us. And glide they do. The title is a description of Katherines near-fugue state, of how she drifts through old haunts and new fear-chambers in a haze of memories, paralyzed by guilt and unable to remain in the present. But shes also trying to get to the bottom of her husbands death shes Antsy Drew. As she gropes toward lucidity, another world is heard from: Her mother (Mary Kay Place) has a series of strokes and lies in a hospital bed, somewhere between life and death. Katherine has nothing in her world to hold onto. Indefinition defines her. Danlucks writing, fortunately, has sharp edges that slice through some of the murk. Mary Kay Place (when conscious) is amusingly brassy, with a fun first scene in which she lambastes a Belgian nurse for failing to find a suitable vein in which to insert an IV. Julie Khaner harshes any possible mellow as the dead Stefans abrasive mother, who was attached to her son both emotionally and more mysteriously financially. Shes the movies most discordant note: The more of her there is, the tenser we become. Then theres Emile (Luke Evans), a white-blond club operator who was apparently Stefans best friend (though Katherine never heard his name) and is so ostentatiously sinister hed be laughable if he werent so seductive. Watch him settle beside her on a sofa to the trancelike angst of 80s New Wave while plugging her nose with heroin, his hand caressing her bare arms in what feels like damnably erotic slow motion. Will she surrender to this vaguely malevolent figure? Part of her wants to. State Like Sleep does have a more definite figure, although one with weird ellipses. His name is Edward, he lives in a close-by apartment, and hes played by Michael Shannon, normally not associated with Mr. Stability roles but gentle and likable here. Shannon and Waterston have an easy rapport. They were great together as the civic-minded capitalist George Westinghouse and his brilliant wife in the so-so The Current War, which was screened in Toronto in 2017 but has yet to be released. (It was a Harvey Weinstein Oscar-bait project and radioactive.) Shannons Edward is a married man who seeks company wherever he goes (Love the one youre with, he actually says, to Katherines disgust) but sees in Katherine a more enduring prospect. Their first scenes are delightful, especially the one in which they muse on onomatopoeic words like curve, pierce, slide, and (good one) anguish. Their last scenes are florid and unearned. Which is as much as I can say. State Like Sleep works up a decent head of thriller steam and then stalls. Dead. On. The. Screen. You could make a case that by raising and then pointedly rejecting the demands of genre Danluck has been true to her vision to the theme of no one knowing who anyone is really and the idea that stories are constructs that help us live more comfortably but are essentially false. You could make that case. I wouldnt. I think that, without meaning to, Danluck cheats the audience. Waterston doesnt give you what Debra Winger did in the ne plus ultra of bereft women mysteries, Mikes Murder the roiling beneath the surface. Shes softer and more remote. But movies often come down to, Do I want to watch this persons face for nearly two hours? and Waterston is very watchable. The pain that dulls her features is somehow exciting. It fits Danlucks onomatopoeic idea of anguish. 90 Day Fiance Tell All, Part 1 Season 6 Episode 12 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next Photo: TLC I love reunion episodes because I exclusively watch reality television to analyze the toxic relationships. Naturally, there is no better place to watch people argue than in a manufactured setting in which they are forced to relive the worst moments of their year on national television and discuss them in detail. Episodes like this are my Super Bow which is why it is with a heavy heart that I must share that I am disappointed with this 90 Day Fiance Tell-All special. I am disappointed that Larissa and Colt didnt show up until the last 20 minutes, when thats all we really wanted to see. Dont get me wrong, there were some highlights, but overall this bait and switch insulted my intelligence as a viewer. Not okay! Lets just skip to the part when Colt and Larissa arrive, because thats all we really care about anyway. Larissa and Coltee are late and all their castmates hate them for it. Apparently the love-gremlins (like lovebirds, but more monstrous) lost their luggage flying from Nevada to New York. This is something we can all relate to. What makes matters worse is that Larissa lost her makeup bag and the formal garments she was planning on wearing to the reunion. I wont question this woman for checking her bags in the first place because that would be blaming the victim. Instead, I will empathize with her as a woman who doesnt want to be caught without her lewks on national television. Listening to Colt and Larissa conspire against their enemies in that limo reminded me of House of Cards and not in a good way. Never did I understand why these two were together until I saw the way Colt backed up Larissa in her violent paranoia. This power couple totally deserves each other. And I used the the term power couple loosely Colt and Larissa are a power couple like antibacterial soap and the superbug; together they wreak more havoc then they ever could alone. Once Larissa and Coltee finally get to the reunion, they threaten to leave if the producers cant find Larissa the perfect outfit. I love walking into a room and immediately threatening to go home. Its the reality show equivalent of finding the biggest guy in prison and punching him in the throat to establish dominance. This prompts several PAs to scour New York to find Larissa her perfect Kardashian-style dress. Imagine going $120,000 into debt to attend film school only to find yourself at a Rainbows in midtown texting pictures of bandage dresses to an emotionally unhinged reality star who refuses to face her enemies without looking super hot. Everything about the production of this is bleak and exactly what Im looking for in my reality programming. I need more of this and less of Leida crying about bullying Erics daughter with the rattail. Finally, Larissa gets her dress and makeup ready, but I dont even notice what shes wearing because Im distracted by her unsightly bangs. Onstage, Coltee and Larissas entrance immediately alters the vibe of the room. The couples direct all the energy theyd been channeling into hating their significant others into hating Colt and Larissa. I think in psychology this is called projection, but WebMD isnt always right (One time I had an eye infection and WebMDs cure was for me to cry as if I hadnt already been crying every day of my entire life what Im saying is that health care is a human right.) The tension is so thick you couldnt cut it with a vibranium chainsaw. All is quiet, all is still, until Fernanda makes the first jab. She says it was more comfortable when Colt and Larissa werent there. Of course thats true, but thinking the tell-all special is supposed to be comfortable was her first mistake. If Fernanda is feeling good during a tell-all, it means she didnt tell it all, and that is a disservice to herself as a reality TV star and to us as viewers. Larissa takes this little opening to unleash a tirade of profanity and insults culminating in her calling Fernanda ugly, jealous, and thin (which apparently is an insult?). This prompts Jonathan to get involved and call Larissa pathetic, which prompts Colt to call Jonathan pathetic, which means we have a Pathetic-Off, folks. Lets keep it real, everyone on this show is at least a little bit pathetic. The whole premise is that Americans who couldnt find anyone to love them here go abroad to find someone whos willing to sleep with them in exchange for American citizenship. At its best, 90 Day Fiance is a story about how love knows no language, but at its literally-everything-else, its about desperate people taking desperate measures to not feel alone. To weigh one couples pathetic-ness against the others is to split the hairs that Paul collected. Which is worse: living with your mom or having a child bride? Because of Colts counteraccusation, I realized that if Jonathan has been trying to get Fernanda a visa for 1.5 years, and shes 18 now, he started dating her when she was 16 And in my book, dating an underage girl is the most pathetic thing you can do. (Game point, Colt!) God bless the wonderful Shaun Robinson for getting to the root of the problem between Larissa and the 90 Day Fiance cast. Apparently, Fernanda (and her minions) are mad at Larissa for taking an ass selfie on a cop car and worrying her fans. This is the stupidest sentence I have written, and truly insignificant in the grand scheme of problems. However, for Fernanda, this speaks to Larissas great desperation for fame. This is a hot take, but ultimately, I think the rest of the cast doesnt like Colt and Larissa because they see a reflection of themselves. They accuse Larissa and Colt of being fame-whores, but so are they. They accuse Larissa of not letting Fernanda get a word out, while each of them has been guilty of an interruption or two. They think Larissa and Colt are acting crazy, well they all just had televised weddings after having known each other for less than 90 days. Pot, meet Kettle! Kettle, meet ya ugly-ass face! Ultimately this episode ends with every single one of the cast members storming off stage because they are frustrated with Larissa. But this is not before Asuelu has a slight rage blackout, which is like watching a panda take steroids And thats exactly what I want in a reality reunion. Otherwise, the evening is pretty uneventful. The tension between Ashley and Jay is palpable, but somehow they are still living together. My question is: Why? There is no scenario in which Ashley could ever forgive Jay for his wrongdoings, so she needs to stop wasting her time, cut her losses, and move on. Ashley has shared that she hasnt applied to adjust Jays status as a citizen, so right now hes living in a red, white, and blue purgatory in which he is surrounded by the unlimited breadsticks of the American Dream with no hope of ever getting to eat them. Ashley thinks that he should just be thankful that he had 90 days to get married because it took him 93 to screw up. This is a great, piercing line that emphasizes what we already know: these two are not going to make it! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I have no faith. Sometimes I wonder if the people in charge of K1 visas fervently watch this show and make adjustments to the castmates immigration statuses based on the constantly shifting narrative. I would love to watch the Lifetime show about judge-y government bureaucrats with soft spots for love they could call it The Great Immigration Bake Off. There are some things about Jay and Ashleys interaction that I appreciated. I loved that everyone stood by Ashley and defended her at every turn. There is truly no logic Jay could use to defend his actions, although he tries. At one point he says he was just using Tinder to make friends, which couldnt be more of a stretch if it was a pilates instructor. Jay claims that this is all one big misunderstanding, a goof, if you will. I realize now that Jay is the walking incarnation of the Shaggy song It Wasnt Me. Ashley could literally catch Jay butt-naked, banging on the bathroom floor, and hed literally be like, I didnt mean it that way. What Im saying is that Jay plays dumb. Like when Shaun Robinson asks him if he would be in a monogamous relationship, and Jay says no, which startles everyone until Jonathan helps him find the excuse that he doesnt know what monogamous means. Now, part of me wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I have been to Jamaica; I know that this man has grown up speaking English his entire life. I dont know if he knows the dictionary definition or the word, but clearly he doesnt know the true meaning of monogamy because he stepped out on his wife three days after the wedding. (Boom, roasted!) Other things happen with the other couples, but it doesnt really matter. Asuelu cries about missing his parents, which reminded me that hes barely legal. Leida says she regrets the way she treated Erics kids, but we all know thats untrue. Steven admits no wrongdoing in his treatment of Olga, which gives me an aneurysm. And Jonathan and Fernanda started dating when she was 16, which is the only thing I can think about. Until next week! Photo: Vulture In 2018 there was an abundance of exciting new fiction, most of it written by women, none of which sold nearly as well as political nonfiction (or the subset of it that was about Trump or by Michelle Obama). This year, expect the former trend to continue, alongside some strong non-Trump nonfiction and the return of a few powerhouse novelists (Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, Ian McEwan, Marlon James). And did we mention that Margaret Atwood is publishing a sequel to The Handmaids Tale? The challenge of 2019 may not be finding a breakout work of fiction but figuring out which bestsellers to read. January You Know You Want This, by Kristen Roupenian (Scout Press, 1/15) The author of Cat Person comes out with a debut collection thats weirder and creepier than fans of her viral short story might expect and this is a good thing. Roupenians so-realistic-it-hurts New Yorker debut may have broken the bookish sector of the internet, but the stories in which she uses her wild imagination to describe the most extreme sexual dynamics are just as compelling. MK We Cast a Shadow, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World, 1/29) This propulsive debut novel follows an unnamed black man who desperately wants to shelter his son from racism, which runs even more rampant in a future America. When skin bleaching is not enough, hell turn to experimental medicine to make his son white, but of course it comes at a great cost. We Cast a Shadow proves that the eeriest works of speculative fiction are those that hit closest to home. MK February Bowlaway, by Elizabeth McCracken (Ecco, 2/5) McCracken writes the kinds of exquisite sentences that contain tiny revelations in every line. Her first novel in 17 years is worth the wait: A big, sweeping saga about a candlepin-bowling alley (Google it if youre not from Massachusetts) and the triumphs, dramas, and idiosyncrasies of its owners and patrons over a century. MK Merchants of Truth, by Jill Abramson (Simon & Schuster, 2/5) The departed Times executive editors sharp elbows and tough reporting have long left people wondering if a tell-all was on the way. It turns out to have been a much better book (though she does tell-some about her firing from the paper). Diving into the business and culture of the Times, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and Vice, Abramson examines an exciting and harrowing decade in journalism from the perspective of someone who roots for it with eyes wide open. BK Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James (Riverhead, 2/5) Buzz has been building about the African Game of Thrones since James first announced that, after his Booker Prizewinning A Brief History of Seven Killings, he planned to geek the fuck out. Indeed he has: A tracker tries to find a kidnapped boy in a mythical Africa populated by shape shifters, mermaids, witches, and flesh-eating trolls. Therell be more to come in his projected trilogy, not to mention the inevitable cable series. LS The Collected Schizophrenias, by Esme Weijun Wang (Graywolf, 2/5) Wang is a brilliant writer with tons of medical knowledge and self-awareness who also happens to be living with one of the most stigmatized mental illnesses. This intimate essay collection grapples with her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and all the sorrow and searching that comes with it. Always artful and illuminating, never facile. MK Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf, 2/19) Among other gems, Luiselli has recently written a gorgeous novella meant to entertain Mexican factory workers and a slim, sobering essay collection based on her time as an interpreter for undocumented children at the southern border (it was bad enough under Obama). This novel is the epic her fans have been waiting for: the story of a road trip across America, a family journey mirroring the course of a nation in trouble. MK March Gingerbread, by Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead, 3/5) Oyeyemis fiction deals in twists on fairy-tale tropes that go in entirely unexpected directions. Gingerbread is her tasty latest, an audacious take on Hansel and Gretel containing deep dark family secrets and sketchy business deals, among other intrigues. As always, Oyeyemi juxtaposes a quaint, storybook setting with Tinder references, Skype conversations, and other signifiers of modernity. MK The New Me, by Halle Butler (Penguin, 3/5) Stories of female disaffection are everywhere right now (see: Moshfegh, Ottessa). But this compact story of a millennial temp workers daily struggles to reinvent herself with snappier tights, a can-do smile, and small, almost-manageable goals is a brilliant excoriation of the marketers telling us that life offers an unending parade of do-overs. Butler nails the unspoken hierarchies of contemporary office life in this wry and utterly terrifying work. HK The Wall, by John Lanchester (W. W. Norton, 3/5) The British journalist and novelist has dealt before (in Capital) with the impact of global forces on neighborhoods, but this, his foray into dystopia, looks to be vastly more ambitious. In a likely future in which climate change and a refugee onrush have melded into one world catastrophe, Britain has erected a wall to keep out both the literal and the human sea, and a Draconian system maintains the peace until it doesnt. BK Billie the Bee, by Mary Fleener (Fantagraphics, 3/5) Chalk it up to sexism that Mary Fleener isnt a household name, even for comics nerds. This enormously talented underground writer/artist returns to the drawing board for an environmentalist graphic novel about a bee beset by invaders. It seems like kids stuff, but its quite harrowing for anyone concerned about ecological Armageddon. AR Instructions for a Funeral, by David Means (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 3/5) Its always an event when one of the countrys best short-story writers in this case someone who took a break to write a wild, powerful novel (the Man Bookernominated Hystopia) returns to the form. Here, in his fifth story collection, Means eases up on the violence and shock to score more intimate gut-punches, plumbing everything from parental estrangement to looming death. BK Look How Happy Im Making You, by Polly Rosenwaike (Doubleday, 3/19) We may have just entered Year of the Mother in fiction. Chris Powers collection Mothers comes out in January, as does the English translation of Yuko Tsushimas powerful Territory of Light, about a single mother. In March, Rosenwaikes stories of expectant, avoidant, ambivalent, and childless mothers will join the fray, unpacking the hand-wringing that goes on whenever the question of conception comes up. HK Murder By the Book: The Crime that Shocked Dickenss London, by Claire Harman (Knopf, 3/26) Tales of shocking, grisly Victorian murders are stacked up on every Barnes and Noble entry table in the country. But Harman, who has delivered riveting, image-shifting biographies of larger-than-life Brits like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, has such a special touch that this particular story of an 1840 high-society murder inspired by the rise of macabre literature itself will surely raise the stakes for the entire genre. HK Good Talk, by Mira Jacob (One World, 3/26) When novelist Jacobs 8-year-old mixed-race son asked her a lot of complicated questions about identity and Michael Jackson, she was as honest with him as she could be, informed by her own experience as an Indian-American woman. The resulting graphic memoir is simultaneously charming, vulnerable, and rightfully angry. In the age of Trump, some questions about tolerance and hate remain unanswerable, but Jacobs beautiful book is a great place to start. MK The Other Americans, by Laila Lalami (Pantheon, 3/26) Following a novel set in contemporary Morocco (Secret Son) and a work of inventive revisionism (The Moors Account), Lalami will turn this year to the contemporary U.S., spinning a kaleidoscope of first-person narratives around the mystery of a hit-and-run that causes the death of a Moroccan-American and delving deep into relationships between classes, races, and especially members of the same family. BK Kaddish.com, by Nathan Englander (Knopf, 3/26) Theres a simplicity to Englanders third novel and a focus on Jewish guilt that feels closer to his first story collection than it does to his more sprawling novels. But theres also a hum of suspense behind this slim tale that belies its subject: A lapsed Orthodox Jew hires an internet mourner to say daily Kaddish for his father, and spends his whole life paying off the spiritual debt of that sin. BK April A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, by Ann Beattie (Viking, 4/2) I would read anything by Beattie, whose elegant, enigmatic short stories have stayed with me for years decades! after reading them. Her 21st book opens at a New England boarding school for smart screwups, where the protagonist falls under the sway of a charismatic and manipulative teacher. LS Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi (Holt, 4/9) Not far into Chois newest mind-bender of a novel, a group of theater kids sit in a darkened classroom, emboldened by their brilliant but eccentric teacher to do whatever they might feel moved to do. From there, Trust Exercise spins out in entirely unexpected directions, including a shocking #MeToo reckoning, but remains fixated on who gets to control the narrative. Part One lures you in, Part Two reshuffles everything, and Part Three makes you wonder if you understand anything about fiction. HK Normal People, by Sally Rooney (Hogarth, 4/16) Not yet 30, Rooney has been hailed as the first great millennial writer. This follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Conversations With Friends, promises more glittery prose, deadpan sex, and witty repartee played out on social media, email, and text. A former champion debater at Trinity College, Rooney switched to writing in part because she had qualms about advocating morally dubious positions. The new book is set at Trinity, like her last one, and already picking up raves and awards. LS Women Talking, by Miriam Toews (Bloomsbury, 4/19) This haunting work of fiction based on real events is not marketed as horror, but few premises are more ghastly. In a Mennonite community, everyone from babies to elderly women were drugged and raped repeatedly by a group of their own men. The women must decide whether to leave the settlement or stay and fight their attackers. Toews gives voice to illiterate women clinging to their humanity and morality even when their community fails them. MK Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese, 4/23) A master of uneasy realism, McEwan has occasionally dipped his toes in the waters of speculative fiction, most recently in 2016 with a take on Hamlet narrated, bizarrely, by a fetus. His next book is another foray into strange territory set in an alternate version of 1980s London in which Alan Turing has made a breakthrough discovery in artificial intelligence. LS May The Den, by Abi Maxwell (Knopf, May 14) Id read virtually anything set in New England back when it was simultaneously the worlds hotbed of ideas and a crucible of religious prudery. The Den about two women ostracized from the same community for giving in to their sexual desires, 150 years apart seems promising on both fronts. If theres any novel that needs a contemporary remake its The Scarlet Letter, and this one is primed to deliver. HK Once More We Saw Stars, by Jayson Greene (Knopf, 5/14) After a freak accident a brick falling from a windowsill killed Greenes 2-year-old daughter Greta, he didnt know how hed ever climb out of the dark well of sadness that engulfed his life. His memoir confronts the internal cacophony that never ceases when the worst thing in the world happens. Parents of young children, like me, should plan on reading it through barely parted fingers. HK The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West (Hachette, 5/28) When Woody Allen complained of #MeToos witch hunt atmosphere, New York Times columnist Lindy West wrote a piece titled, Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. Im a Witch and Im Hunting You. The author of Shrill is as culturally astute as ever in the book that grew out of the column, examining a culture that enables all sorts of entitled men (yes, Trump) to feel persecuted whenever they face any negative consequences for their actions. MK June On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press, 6/4) What a thrill it is to discover that a bold young poets prose is as lyrical as his poetry. Vuongs debut novel comes in the form of a letter written from a son to his illiterate mother, a Vietnam War refugee in America plagued by PTSD and unmoored in her new country. Its an unforgettable attempt to make sense of a life, tragic and hopeful all at once. MK City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert (Riverhead, 6/4) Take or leave Eat, Pray, Love: Gilberts fiction especially as it deals with the unlikely routes women take when the familial mold is shattered is where its really at. (The illicit masturbation scenes in The Signature of All Things will permanently imprint themselves on your brain.) City of Girls, about a young women in the sparkling and salacious theater world of 1940s New York, looks to be another story about the barriers women face and catapult while pleasure-seeking. HK How Could She, by Lauren Mechling (Viking, 6/25) Mechling is a former Vogue staffer and current proprietor of Clog Life, an Instagram account that captures a very specific slice of style among New Yorkers who value comfort but make it fashion. Her quirky but elegant aesthetic pervades this comedy of manners about female friendships set in the media world, in which change is the only constant and the devil wears highly curated outfits that may or may not include Prada. MK July The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 7/16) Whiteheads novel The Underground Railroad turned a seventh-grade history lesson into a piece of living, breathing, suffering live action that revivified the horrors of the slave trade and its aftermath. (It also won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. Ahem.) So dont be surprised if The Nickel Boys, a based-on-reality tale of one black young mans life in a juvenile reformatory in 1960s Tennessee, awakens you to fresh horrors while lyrically transporting you to a place you really ought to discover. HK August Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino (Random House, 8/6) According to Tolentino, this collection of essays is loosely organized around the concept of self-delusion, a favorite subject of the New Yorker writer, who approaches it with clear-eyed self-reflection. All of these pieces are new (for one, she re-watched Girls v. Boys, a reality show she was on when she was 16). But as an appetizer, try Tolentinos essay, The Year We Played Ourselves. LS Inland, by Tea Obreht (Random House, 8/13) With the Orange Prizewinning The Tigers Wife, Obreht, 25 at the time, proved herself as a literary wunderkind, capable of fictional magic. (It was one of Michiko Kakutanis top-ten books of 2011.) Since then shes kept her head down and readers waiting. Inland, set in the Arizona desert in the 1890s, augurs another journey through a rugged landscape and an unexpected past. HK Doxology, by Nell Zink (Ecco, 8/27) Nell Zink is the sardonic bard of radicalism, skewering and celebrating (and somehow also really getting) a generation that came after her, all while breaking taboos with casual flair. Mislaid and Nicotine were short and powerful proofs of her talent; this novel will show what she can do at twice the length, following a child of punk rockers navigating the period between 9/11 and the Resistance. I cant wait. BK September Olive, Again, by Elizabeth Strout (Random House, 9/3) Sometimes I feel like I can smell the inside of Henry Kitteridges pharmacy, with its smooth wooden counter and dust motes in the air. Thats how vivid Olive Kitteridge remains, more than ten years after it won Strout the Pulitzer Prize. In a surprise move, Strout is revisiting the gruff but beloved character and her small Maine town in a follow-up that will hopefully double down on her commitment to marvelously un-bullshitable women. Sontag, by Benjamin Moser (Ecco, 9/3) Is there anything left to learn about Susan Sontag anything not amply covered in her many songs of herself? Apparently so, because Mosers biography was moved from Sontags home publisher, FSG, after he turned in the draft, raising the possibility of material she might not have approved of. Mosers care and thoroughness, his compelling subject, and his access to private archives puts this high on the list of 2019 biographies. BK The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese, 9/10) It is, unfortunately, a perfect time for a Handmaids Tale sequel. In The Testaments, Atwood will return to her vision of an America conquered by Uber-Christian tyrants. Little is known about the book other than that its set 15 years after the first novel and features three narrators. Blessed be. AR The Divers Game, by Jesse Ball (Ecco, 9/10) Balls experimental, high-concept novels are both quickly plotted and difficult to shake after reading, full as they are of disturbing imagery and philosophical quandaries that taunt you for days. His latest is an intensely political book set in a society replete with xenophobic violence one unsettlingly like our own. MK October Grand Union, by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press, 10/8) One of the rare superstars equally at home in novels and essays, Smith has also published short fiction, and her long-awaited first collection will include a batch of new material too. Shes always been adept at bending the various styles of modern and contemporary lit to her own ends; a compendium of shorter work might give readers an even better sense of her range and flexibility. BK U.S. President Donald Trump showed no signs Sunday of backing down on his demand for taxpayer funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico, saying there is "not going to be any bend" on his part. "We have to build a wall, a barrier. It can be steel," Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to his Maryland retreat at Camp David for discussions with key administration officials about border security and policies they plan to pursue this year. Watch related video by VOA's Michael Bowman: In the meantime, Trump is engaged in a dispute with opposition Democratic lawmakers over his demand for more than $5 billion in funding for the barrier, a stalemate that has shut down about a quarter of U.S. government operations for 16 days, already one of the longest government closures in U.S. history. "This shutdown could end tomorrow, or it could go on a long time," Trump said, noting that Democrats refusing his demand for wall funding have voted for barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border in the past. "Democrats agree, you need border security." Trump said he does not expect anything to come out of a second day of negotiations Sunday between top White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, and key congressional aides on how to bridge differences over border security and Trump's demand for wall funding. But he said progress could be made in talks over the next few days. The U.S. leader said, "If we don't have border security, we'll be crime ridden," with people crossing into the U.S. illegally "killing our citizens." He said supporters, who often cheered his call for a wall during his successful 2016 run for the White House, are telling him, "Make sure you win this battle." He said, "People that didn't vote for Donald Trump also want border security." Democrats have offered Trump $1.3 billion in new funding for border security, but not for a wall, which they say is an immoral, ineffective way of controlling border access to thwart illegal immigration. They have called for heightened use of technology to catch immigrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico. Trump declared, as he first did on Friday, "I may declare a national emergency, depending on what happens in the next few days," to build the wall without congressional approval by using money that had been designated for military construction projects. The shutdown has forced the closure of museums in Washington, with trash going uncollected at understaffed national parks. If the shutdown extends to February, food assistance for poorer Americans would be curtailed, as would tax refunds at the height of the annual period when Americans file tax returns on their income from the previous year. About 800,000 federal government workers have been furloughed or are continuing to work without pay during the shutdown. In recent days, Trump voiced little concern about any inconvenience they may have in meeting their household bills, saying that "most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats." On Sunday, he said, "I can relate," but added, "I'm sure people will make adjustments." In past shutdowns, furloughed government workers have been paid retroactively when government funding has resumed and most officials in Washington assume the same will happen this time as well. Trump officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to support his position on border wall funding and refusal to reopen the shuttered government agencies that are unrelated to the wall while continuing to debate a budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which controls border operations, for another month. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told Fox News that Democrats are "just unwilling to let this president win" on the wall dispute. She said that "at some point, we have to say 'enough is enough,'" to extend the shutdown in order to secure wall funding. "This president is prepared to do what is necessary to protect our borders," she said. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he believes Democrats "think they're winning the PR battle and they're willing to drag this out because they think it hurts the president." Democrats have vowed they will not give Trump taxpayer money for the wall, especially since he said repeatedly during his 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for it, which Mexican officials have often said they will not do. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Churches, Harare City Council, civic society and government representatives on Saturday convened meeting on find ways to curb alcohol and drug abuse. Kudza Kadzombe, a Harare councillor, is one of the people who attended the meeting. (Video:Godwin Mangudya) Seven Chinese nationals will appear in a Zimbabwe court on January 9th, to answer to charges of possessing rhino horn pieces worth nearly one million dollars and money laundering. The seven first appeared in court last Thursday, but trial was delayed after prosecutors said they were not yet ready. WASHINGTON - World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim unexpectedly resigned on Monday, more than three years before his term ends in 2022, amid differences with the Trump administration over climate change and the need for more development resources. Kim, nominated by former U.S. President Barack Obama for two five-year terms, had pushed financing for green energy projects and largely dropped support for coal power investments, but had avoided public clashes with the Trump administration, which has made reviving the U.S. coal sector a priority. Kim told World Bank employees in an email that he was leaving the world's largest lender and donor to poor and middle-income countries on Feb. 1 to join a private-sector firm focused on infrastructure investments in the developing world. "The opportunity to join the private sector was unexpected, but I've concluded that this is the path through which I will be able to make the largest impact on major global issues like climate change and the infrastructure deficit in emerging markets," Kim said. Kim said details about his new job would be released at a later date. The physician and former Dartmouth College president said he would also rejoin the board of Partners in Health, a health advocacy group he co-founded 30 years ago. Kristalina Georgieva, who in 2017 became the World Bank's chief executive officer, will assume the role of interim president when Kim departs, the bank said. Georgieva, a Bulgarian national, had previously held senior European Union posts after serving 15 years at the World Bank, starting as an environmental economist in 1993. Two people familiar with Kim's shock announcement to the World Bank executive board said he was leaving of his own accord and was "not pushed out" by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump, however, will wield strong influence in choosing Kim's successor as the United States holds a controlling share of the World Bank's voting rights. The bank president has traditionally been an American chosen by the U.S. administration, but some of the multilateral lender's 189 member countries could mount a new challenge with alternative candidates. Korean-American Kim faced challengers from Nigeria and Colombia when he was first nominated in 2012. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury, which oversees the U.S. voting interest in the World Bank said: "We appreciate Mr. Kim's service to the World Bank," adding that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin "looks forward to working with his fellow governors in selecting a new leader." David Malpass, the Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, has questioned the need for additional resources for the World Bank and other international financial institutions, arguing instead that the lenders should focus more of their resources on poorer countries and lend less to middle-income countries such as China. Nonetheless, the Treasury backed a $13 billion capital increase for the World Bank last year, which imposed some lending and management reforms, including some caps to the rate of salary increases. A Venezuelan Supreme Court justice and longtime government loyalist who fled the socialist country for a new life in the United States called Nicolas Maduro an incompetent president leading the once-wealthy country to ruins. Christian Zerpa's embarrassing defection came days before Maduro begins his second term amid calls from critics and the international community to relinquish power. Zerpa on Monday accused Venezuela's high court of becoming a tool of Maduro's inner circle, lacking any judicial independence since he and a group of ruling party members were appointed to the bench in 2015. "Nicolas Maduro doesn't know the constitution, and he doesn't know the laws," Zerpa said in a Florida news conference. "This has no other name than a dictatorship." A once wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is in the throes of a historic crisis after two decades of socialist rule. Millions have fled, while runaway inflation leaves those remaining behind struggling to afford scarce food and medicine. Maduro is expected to take his oath of office on Thursday before the Supreme Court, launching his second, six-year term. Political opponents and many foreign nations consider it illegitimate, saying his re-election in May was a sham because popular opponents were banned from running and the largest anti-government parties boycotted the race. Zerpa said that he fled with his family because he didn't want to play a role legitimizing Maduro's rule. Relatives staying behind have since been visited by Venezuela's intelligence police, he said. "Maduro is incompetent," Zerpa said. "The country and it public companies are in ruins." In far-reaching comments, Zerpa said the military lacks a national conscience for allowing Maduro stay in power, and he accused Supreme Court chief justice Maikel Moreno of having ties with drug traffickers. Zerpa didn't provide evidence, holding back sensitive information, but said that he's ready to cooperate with a sweeping U.S. investigation into corruption and human rights abuses among Venezuela's well-connected. Maduro loyalist Moreno said Sunday that Zerpa fled Venezuela to escape allegations of sexual harassment charges lodged by women in his office. Zerpa denied Moreno's claims. Zerpa surfaced publicly in Miami on Sunday, describing how he received directions from the influential first lady Cilia Flores on how to rule in politically sensitive cases. As a newly installed justice, he recounted being summoned to the court and told to sign off on a key ruling without first reviewing its details. It disqualified three elected representatives of Amazonas state from taking their seats in congress following the opposition's sweep of legislative elections in 2015. The key ruling cemented Maduro's power, preventing the opposition from amassing a two-third super majority that would have severely curtailed Maduro's power. Zerpa apologized for propping up Maduro's government as long as he did, saying that he feared being jailed as a dissident where his life would be put at risk. "I will not be able to return to Venezuela," Zerpa said. "I am a dead man." Zerpa is among the top Venezuelan officials who have been sanctioned by Canada, but he has not been targeted by U.S. authorities, who accuse dozens in Maduro's administration of using their power for personal gain. Pressure has been mounting against Maduro internationally and from his political opponents still inside Venezuela. A dozen Latin American governments and Canada delivered a blistering rebuke Friday, rejecting the legitimacy of Maduro's second term and urging him to hand over power as the only path to restoring democracy. The opposition-led congress on Saturday opened its session for the year vowing to battle against Maduro's socialist administration. Maduro says he intends to take the oath despite his critics and press ahead with the socialist revolution, promising a turnaround of the failing economy. "The revolution is stronger today than ever, more experienced than ever, to defend the sovereignty of the country,'' he said. "Venezuelans have the opportunity to enjoy 2019 as a year of prosperity and progress." U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is in Turkey for talks with senior officials as the Trump administration seeks assurances that Turkish forces will not target Kurdish fighters allied with American forces. The visit to Turkey comes after Bolton said Sunday that protection for the Kurdish fighters who have helped battle Islamic State militants was one of the necessary conditions for a U.S. withdrawal of its 2,000 troops in Syria. National Security Advisor John Bolton, seen in thi FILE - National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Dec. 13, 2018. FILE - National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Dec. 13, 2018. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered," Bolton told reporters Sunday. Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG, to be linked to the PKK, a Kurdish group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. WATCH: John Bolton on Turkey-Syria relations Bolton said there is no timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, but that the process would not be abrupt. His comments were the first public confirmation that the administration had backed off an initial indication that it would pull out the troops within 30 days. Bolton said President Donald Trump "wants the ISIS caliphate destroyed," referring to Islamic State, which once claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its religious territory in Syria and Iraq. Trump overruled U.S. national security officials and surprised allies with his Dec. 19 announcement he was withdrawing the U.S. troops from Syria, where they have carried out air attacks on Islamic State and Syrian positions and advised Kurdish fighters. Trump's action, meeting a long-time pledge of his to get U.S. troops out of Syria, drew widespread protests, including from Republican lawmakers and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The partial U.S. government shutdown entered its 17th day Monday with no end in sight. President Donald Trump is still demanding more than $5 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to thwart illegal immigration before reopening the quarter of the government that has been closed since December 22nd. Trump, however, now is saying he would agree to a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall he has long vowed to build. Trump said again Monday that he could declare a national emergency to build the wall without approval from lawmakers, but added on Twitter, "Let's get our deal done in Congress!" Congressman Adam Smith, the new Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, just stated, Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. Its been done a number of times. No doubt, but lets get our deal done in Congress! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019 Trump's tweet referenced Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Trump cited him as saying there is a provision in the law that allows the president to declare an emergency. Later on CNN, Smith said that declaring an emergency would be "horrible policy" and a "terrible idea." Smith said the president would be challenged in court. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. ?The Trump administration called for approval of $5.7 billion for the wall, along with another $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs" to take care of migrants arriving at the border trying to enter the United States. But Democrats opposed to Trump's demand for the wall said there was no progress in talks over the weekend over how to resolve the border security issue and reopen the government. Democrats in the House of Representatives plan to starting passing legislation aimed at funding individual agencies that have been shuttered, but the president says he is opposed to a piecemeal approach that does not resolve his demand for a wall. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion in new border security funding, but nothing for a wall. A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards t A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards the border fence at the U.S. side of San Diego, California, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2019. A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards the border fence at the U.S. side of San Diego, California, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2019. As a new work week began in the United States, about 380,000 government workers remained furloughed, while another 420,000 were deemed essential and required to work with no idea when they will receive their next paycheck. In past U.S. government shutdowns, the workers were paid retroactively once the funding impasses were resolved and Washington officials expect the same thing will occur again this time. Trump said Sunday he can "relate" to the workers missing paychecks starting this week, but said he expects the 800,000 workers "that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do. People understand what's going on." He said, "Many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I'm doing," although there has been no survey of government workers' views on Trump's wall proposal. Some border security officials said they agree with his demand for a wall. The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum is seen shuttered during the partial government shutdown, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum is seen shuttered during the partial government shutdown, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a priority would be to reopen the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, "an action necessary to make sure working families received their tax refunds on schedule." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a previous House package that would have funded most of the agencies through the end of September and the Department of Homeland Security for a month to allow for further border security negotiations. McConnell called the plan a "non-starter," saying it was a waste of time for the Senate to vote on any shutdown-related legislation that Trump opposes. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called on McConnell to bring the new set of bills reopening individual agencies to a Senate vote once they pass the House. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speak Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Democratic colleagues, speaks to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security at the White House, Jan. 4, 2019. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Democratic colleagues, speaks to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security at the White House, Jan. 4, 2019. "They are essentially the same funding bills that the Republican Senate wrote and approved by a 92-6 margin during the last Congress," Hoyer said in a statement Sunday. Trump contends the wall is needed to stop migrants, mostly from Central American countries, from illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, as well as preventing drug trafficking and terrorism. Democrats say the wall is immoral and would be an ineffective and expensive effort. Trump said Sunday that if Democrats are willing to make a deal, one could be reached "in 20 minutes if they want to." Otherwise, Trump said, the shutdown is "going to go on for a long time." The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has launched a $430 million campaign to help displaced people and refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR). Over a million CAR residents have been internally displaced or made refugees by years of inter-communal fighting. More than a quarter million of them are living in neighboring Cameroon. Rosine Ngaxi Alzina, 24, sings a lullaby for her two-week-old baby to sleep. She sings that God, who helped them escape safely last month from the Central Africa Republic to Cameroon, will provide for them. Alzina delivered her baby boy two weeks after arriving at the Gado Badjere refugee camp. She looks sick and tired. Alzina said she was raped by armed gangs after her husband was killed in inter-communal fighting. She said she was traumatized and is not thinking of returning to the Central African Republic. She would not be able to sleep because of the endless gunfire, suffering, and killings, said Alzina. Although she is not sure of where to get her next meal, she said, she prefers to stay where there is peace. A steady trickle of refugees like Alzina ensure the camps population continues to grow -- this month it hit 27,000. Gado Badjere Health Center Nurse Bernice Mulangal said an average of 60 to 70 babies are born in the camp every month. She said less than a third of the women know who the fathers are because many were raped or worked as prostitutes. Rape cases She said some of the women confide to them that while in Cameroon they were raped on farms where they go to work. Others were raped by armed gangs in CAR before they escaped. Mulangal says wives lost their husbands to the war in CAR but they lack the means to help the women medically and psychologically. The UNHCR says fighting in the CAR has produced over half a million refugees and even more internally displaced. FILE - A woman takes care of her child in a camp s FILE - A woman takes care of her child in a camp sheltering internally displaced people (IDPs) next to the M'Poko international airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, Feb. 13, 2016. FILE - A woman takes care of her child in a camp sheltering internally displaced people (IDPs) next to the M'Poko international airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, Feb. 13, 2016. A lull in fighting in some areas allowed nearly a quarter million displaced to return home in 2018. But others like Alzina continue to flee unrest. More than half the population, nearly 3 million people, are dependent on aid. The UNHCR on Monday launched a $430 million dollar plan for the Central African Republic from its capital, Bangui. 'Desperate situation' Humanitarian Coordinator Najat Rochdi said the CAR is in a very desperate situation. "I will just want to mention the tragic situation in Central African Republic. In one year time we had an increase of 70 percent of central Africans who are displaced," said Rochdi. CAR has been beset with conflict since the Seleka, a coalition of Muslim rebels, forced President Francois Bozize from office in 2013. The country has since been plagued by communal violence - mainly between Christian and Muslim militants. Though the country held elections in February 2016, the government has been unable to stem the conflict. DAKAR, SENEGAL - Two years after President Yahya Jammeh left power in Gambia, the country is opening a truth commission that will look into abuses carried out during his more than two decades in power. The commission, known as the TCRR, or Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, opened hearings Monday. The hearings in the capital, Banjul, will give alleged victims of Yahya Jammehs regime an opportunity to voice their grievances publicly. Jammeh ruled Gambia from 1994 until January 2017. He is accused of killing journalists, torturing and killing political opponents, and sponsoring a campaign that allowed so-called witch doctors to abduct hundreds of people and force them to drink unknown substances. His paramilitary unit, the Junglers, was known to be particularly brutal. They summarily executed more than 50 Ghanaian, Nigerian, and other West African migrants in July 2005, according to Human Rights Watch. Incumbent Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, leader o FILEL - Incumbent Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, leader of the APRC (The Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction) greets his suporters in Bikama, Nov. 24, 2016 during an electoral rally. FILEL - Incumbent Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, leader of the APRC (The Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction) greets his suporters in Bikama, Nov. 24, 2016 during an electoral rally. Ebrima Chongan, who was senior commander of the gendarmerie at the time of the 1994 coup when Jammeh came to power, was the first to testify. Chongan began by recounting the day of the coup and how he refused to take part. Afterwards, Yahya Jammeh came and others. They had their rifles. I thought that at any moment they would come for me, he said. Shortly after the coup, Jammehs officers did come for him. Chongan was locked up in what would become Jammehs notorious Mile 2 Prison for three years. Chongan alleges he was tortured there by Jammehs officers. They used physical violence, and conditions at the prison were inhumane, he said. And you have the rats. You know you have to fight with the rats for the food. You know Mile 2 is the only place I saw the rats; they even eat soap, he said. Chongan is one of many hundred who are expected to testify. FILE - Gambian political prisoners arrive at the S FILE - Gambian political prisoners arrive at the Supreme Court for trial in Banjul, Gambia, Dec. 5, 2016. FILE - Gambian political prisoners arrive at the Supreme Court for trial in Banjul, Gambia, Dec. 5, 2016. The Amnesty International campaigner for West Africa, Marta Colomer, says the hearings are important steps to achieving justice in the small West African country. This is a sign as well of the strong commitment of the government to break with the systemized human rights violations that Gambians have suffered for twenty two years, said Colomer. After losing power, Jammeh fled to Equatorial Guinea. A video of Jammeh and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang dancing together on New Years Eve surfaced last week, raising doubts that Obiang would ever extradite Jammeh to Gambia to face justice. Colomer said despite the video, these hearings mark efforts to hold Jammeh accountable, whether in Gambia, Equatorial Guinea or another country. U.S. President Donald Trump says he is addressing the nation Tuesday about the "humanitarian and national security crisis" on the country's U.S.-Mexican border before traveling there Thursday for a firsthand look at efforts to thwart illegal immigration. Trump announced the prime-time nationally televised address Monday shortly after news secretary Sarah Sanders said the U.S. leader would "meet with those on the frontlines" of controlling access across the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico. She said more details of the trip would be announced soon. Trump's visit to the border would come in the midst of what is now a 17-day partial government shutdown centering on a dispute over his demand for more than $5 billion in funding to build a barrier to block migrants, most of them from Central American countries, from crossing into the United States. The U.S. Capitol is seen as the partial government The U.S. Capitol is seen as the partial government shutdown lurches into a third week with President Donald Trump standing firm in his border wall funding demands, in Washington, Jan. 7, 2019. The U.S. Capitol is seen as the partial government shutdown lurches into a third week with President Donald Trump standing firm in his border wall funding demands, in Washington, Jan. 7, 2019. Opposition Democrats have blocked funding for the wall, but offered $1.3 billion in new spending for border security. There was no end in sight Monday for the shutdown that has halted about a quarter of U.S. government operations since December 22nd. Trump, however, now is saying he would agree to a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall he has long vowed to build. Trump said again Monday that he could declare a national emergency to build the wall without approval from lawmakers, but added on Twitter, "Let's get our deal done in Congress! Congressman Adam Smith, the new Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, just stated, Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. Its been done a number of times. No doubt, but lets get our deal done in Congress! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019 Trump's tweet referenced Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, citing him as saying there is a provision in the law that allows the president to declare an emergency. Later on CNN, however, Smith said that declaring an emergency would be "horrible policy" and a "terrible idea," and that the president would be challenged in court if he sought to build the wall without congressional authorization. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. ?The Trump administration called for approval of $5.7 billion for the wall, along with another $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs" to take care of migrants arriving at the border trying to enter the United States. But Democrats opposed to Trump's demand for the wall said there was no progress in talks over the weekend over how to resolve the border security issue and reopen the government. Democrats in the House of Representatives plan to starting passing legislation aimed at funding individual agencies that have been shuttered, but the president says he is opposed to a piecemeal approach that does not resolve his demand for a wall. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion in new border security funding, but nothing for a wall. A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards t A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards the border fence at the U.S. side of San Diego, California, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2019. A border patrol office inside his vehicle guards the border fence at the U.S. side of San Diego, California, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2019. As a new work week began in the United States, about 380,000 government workers remained furloughed, while another 420,000 were deemed essential and required to work with no idea when they will receive their next paycheck. In past U.S. government shutdowns, the workers were paid retroactively once the funding impasses were resolved and Washington officials expect the same thing will occur again this time. Trump said Sunday he can "relate" to the workers missing paychecks starting this week, but said he expects the 800,000 workers "that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do. People understand what's going on." He said, "Many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I'm doing," although there has been no survey of government workers' views on Trump's wall proposal. Some border security officials said they agree with his demand for a wall. The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum is seen shuttered during the partial government shutdown, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum is seen shuttered during the partial government shutdown, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a priority would be to reopen the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, "an action necessary to make sure working families received their tax refunds on schedule." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a previous House package that would have funded most of the agencies through the end of September and the Department of Homeland Security for a month to allow for further border security negotiations. McConnell called the plan a "non-starter," saying it was a waste of time for the Senate to vote on any shutdown-related legislation that Trump opposes. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called on McConnell to bring the new set of bills reopening individual agencies to a Senate vote once they pass the House. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speak Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Democratic colleagues, speaks to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security at the White House, Jan. 4, 2019. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Democratic colleagues, speaks to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security at the White House, Jan. 4, 2019. "They are essentially the same funding bills that the Republican Senate wrote and approved by a 92-6 margin during the last Congress," Hoyer said in a statement Sunday. Trump contends the wall is needed to stop migrants from illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, as well as preventing drug trafficking and terrorism. Democrats say the wall is immoral and would be an ineffective and expensive effort. Trump said Sunday that if Democrats are willing to make a deal, one could be reached "in 20 minutes if they want to." Otherwise, Trump said, the shutdown is "going to go on for a long time." ISTANBUL - President Donald Trump's national security adviser is in Ankara for high-level talks amid renewed bilateral tensions over Washington's backing of a Syrian Kurdish militia, and growing doubts about Trump's commitment to rapidly withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin appeared to set the tone for John Bolton's visit, describing as "irrational" U.S. diplomatic calls for Ankara to give security guarantees for the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG a crucial ally in Washington's war against Islamic State. Turkey designates the militia as terrorists linked to an insurgency waged by the PKK rebel group inside Turkey. December's decision by Trump to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria was widely interpreted in Turkey as a green light for a Turkish military operation against the YPG. FILE - U.S. forces are seen at the Kurdish People' FILE - U.S. forces are seen at the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) headquarters after it was hit by Turkish airstrikes in Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria, April 25, 2017. FILE - U.S. forces are seen at the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) headquarters after it was hit by Turkish airstrikes in Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria, April 25, 2017. "The importance of ensuring that the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds was still part of the American mission" in Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. On Sunday, Bolton echoing Pompeo's message, Bolton said "any Turkish military operation should be coordinated with Washington, and that the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered." Ankara quickly hit back, dismissing Washington's concerns. "One aim of Turkey's fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions (YPG) is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group," Turkey's presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said. WATCH: US talks with Turkey ?Adding to Turkey's unease ahead of the visit, Bolton appeared to outline some preconditions for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. "U.S. troop pullout in the foreseeable future is a 50/50 proposal unless the White House works out a deal with Turkey," said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Bolton is joined by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and James Jeffrey, special envoy to Syria. The delegation is due to have high-level talks with their Turkish counterparts. High expectations Given the robust diplomatic exchanges ahead of the visit, expectations for a breakthrough are not high. "I don't think much will come from these talks," said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen. "If there is a deal to be found, it will be found from the two presidents, and not from this visit." "At the end of the day, whenever there is a contradiction or whether they try to translate what Mr. Trump says, these high-level bureaucrats are at the losing end and have to resign," he said. Trump's surprise move to withdraw from Syria came during a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in December. The decision fueled speculation of a resetting of ties between the two NATO allies that had been poisoned over differences on Syria. Iran factor FILE - Turkey Iran SyriaTurkey's President Recep T FILE - Turkey Iran SyriaTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani arrive for a news conference following their meeting in Ankara, Dec. 20, 2018. FILE - Turkey Iran SyriaTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani arrive for a news conference following their meeting in Ankara, Dec. 20, 2018. Bolton is also expected to press Turkey to back U.S.efforts to contain Iran's growing influence in the region. "Concerning Iran, there will be nothing done," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "Turkey is a partner with Iran," he noted. "Turkey will only try to mediate between Tehran and Washington. In recent months, Turkey has been trying to play the peacemaker. So, Turkey will not want to get involved in this dispute." In December, Erdogan reiterated opposition to U.S. sanctions against Iran, pledging to work toward undermining them. While backing opposite sides in the Syrian civil war, Turkey and Iran have increasingly been cooperating on efforts to end the conflict in Syria. However, given historical rivalry, defined in part by the religious divide of Shia and Sunni Muslims, Turkey could yet be receptive to Washington's concerns. "Underneath the facade of deep friendship and cordiality with Iran," said Yesilada, "Ankara is acutely aware of the Shia Wall plan and may cooperate with the U.S. and the Sunni Axis to prevent its erection in the future." Turkey, with its large army and long border with Syria, has the potential to contain Iran's influence. Turkish forces already have a sizeable military foothold in Syria. Expanding that military presence to include containing Iran will come at a high price for Washington. "Ankara has a narrow objective to enter east of the Euphrates [in Syria] to take over from the U.S., not to allow any YPG presence along the [Turkish border]," said Selcen. "For Turkey to play along and contain Iran, then the U.S. will have to offer more." He said incentives could include "full-scale military and logistic support. Which means probably bigger U.S. support than present in Syria, which is contradictory to what Mr. Trump is saying [about withdrawing from Syria]." S-400 missile system Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defence FILE - Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defence systems during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, at Red Square, Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. FILE - Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defence systems during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, at Red Square, Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. Bolton is also expected to address Ankara's planned purchase of Russia's S-400 missile system. Washington claims the system threatens NATO's security and is offering as an alternative its Patriot missiles. Hopes of resolving a missile system impasse had been growing following the diplomatic momentum generated by Trump's Syria pullout decision. Selcen warns Bolton's visit comes at a critical moment in relations. "For Mr. Trump to change his position fully [on Syria], it will again be another game changer [in Turkish-U.S. relations], as was the decision to pull out was a game changer," he said. Thai authorities says a young Saudi woman who was stopped in Thailand as she tried to flee to Australia to seek asylum has left the Bangkok airport and is under the care of the U.N. refugee agency. "She is under the care of the UNHCR now but we also sent Thai security to help take care (of her)," the head of Thailand's Immigration Police Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn told reporters about the case of the woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun. He has said she will not be forcibly sent back to Saudi Arabia. The 18-year-old fled from Kuwait during a family vacation and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport Saturday night. She had barricaded herself inside her airport hotel room and on Monday made several Twitter posts demanding she be allowed to meet with someone from the U.N. I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN!I want UN! Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 In an earlier video post, Alqunun can be seen pacing inside the hotel room and saying, "I just want to survive." "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair. I am 100 percent certain they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail," she said. Following the announcement that she will not be forcibly sent back home, Alqunun tweeted that she felt safe "under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities." The U.N. refugee agency said it would take about five to seven days for U.N. officials to evaluate her case. Surachate told reporters, "Thailand is a land of smiles" and that, "We will not send anyone to die." According to Surachate, Alqunun's father was expected to travel to Bangkok. He said Alqunun would be asked if she is willing to meet with her father. Thai authorities had previously refused to let Alqunun into the country, saying she had no travel documents or money. But Alqunun says Saudi and Kuwait officials took away her passport when she arrived -- a claim backed up by Human Rights Watch. "Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee," Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Michael Page said. He appealed to Saudi and Thai officials not to follow through with their initial plan to send Alqunun back to Kuwait on Monday. "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will," he said. Women have few civil rights in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom. They need permission from a male relative to obtain a passport and travel overseas. Women who commit so-called crimes against morality can sometimes meet the death penalty. Another Saudi woman, Dina Lasloom, flew to the Philippines in 2017 while trying to escape Saudi Arabia. An airline security official reported seeing her dragged out of the airport with her mouth, hands, and feet bound with duct tape. Human rights activists have seen no trace of her since. ISLAMABAD - More than 30 people, mostly pro-government forces, were killed in Afghanistan when Taliban insurgents stormed security outposts and a bomb blast ripped through a busy market, officials confirmed Monday. The Taliban staged coordinated raids in two districts of northwestern Badghis province late Sunday, killing 21 Afghan soldiers and police personnel. The attack also injured nine security forces, Abdul Aziz Beg, head of the provincial council told VOA. A provincial government spokesman, Jamshid Shahabi, confirmed the overnight attacks, saying government forces killed 15 assailants and injured 10 others. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed its fighters killed more than 32 Afghan forces and seized a large quantity of weapons. The insurgent group usually issues inflated battlefield claims. Meanwhile, a bomb went off Monday in a busy market in eastern Paktika province, killing at least 10 people and injuring 13 others, said provincial police and health officials. No group claimed responsibility for the deadly blast in the troubled Janikhail district of the province which borders Pakistan. Paktika Province, Afghanistan Afghan peace efforts The violence comes as Taliban representatives and U.S. officials are scheduled to meet again this month to discuss ways to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA over the weekend that a date and venue for the next meeting with U.S. diplomats have not yet been determined. There has been no interruption in the dialogue process with America because ending the occupation of Afghanistan is now a compulsion for them [the U.S.], said Mujahid. Taliban Says Peace Talks With US Are on Track The Taliban has said that its engagement with the United States for negotiating an end to "the war and illegitimate occupation" of Afghanistan remains on track, ruling out once again any direct peace talks with the government in KabulTaliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA a new round of discussions with the U.S. is in the cards but dates and a venue have not yet been determined. The Taliban has said that its engagement with the United States for negotiating an end to "the war and illegitimate occupation" of Afghanistan remains on track, ruling out once again any direct peace talks with the government in KabulTaliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA a new round of discussions with the U.S. is in the cards but dates and a venue have not yet been determined. Taliban officials insist they are seeking a timeline for the United States and its coalition partners to completely withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, naming the presence of foreign forces in the country as the biggest obstacle in the way of peace. Mujahid asserted that if talks fail to achieve the desired results and the war continues with the Taliban the Americans would have no option but to be driven out of Afghanistan. The Taliban has said that its engagement with the United States for negotiating an end to the war and illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan remains on track, ruling out once again any direct peace talks with the government in Kabul. Mujahid dismissed the Afghan government as the product of foreign occupation of Afghanistan, with no authority or ability to end to the conflict. FILE - A US military helicopter flies over the sit FILE - A US military helicopter flies over the site of a suicide bomb that struck a NATO convoy in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 2, 2017. FILE - A US military helicopter flies over the site of a suicide bomb that struck a NATO convoy in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 2, 2017. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said last week that President Donald Trump is in the "process of evaluating" whether to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan. US Weighs Sizable Drawdown in Afghanistan, Officials Say President Donald Trump is considering withdrawing roughly half of the more than 14,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, senior administration officials say. Under the reported plan, about 7,000 U.S. troops would start coming home in January, and the rest would exit in the coming months in a phased drawdown. There was no comment from the Pentagon or U.S. Central Command. The U.S. troops are part of a non-combat NATO force whose primary mission is training and advising Afghan forces in taking President Donald Trump is considering withdrawing roughly half of the more than 14,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, senior administration officials say. Under the reported plan, about 7,000 U.S. troops would start coming home in January, and the rest would exit in the coming months in a phased drawdown. There was no comment from the Pentagon or U.S. Central Command. The U.S. troops are part of a non-combat NATO force whose primary mission is training and advising Afghan forces in taking In December President Donald Trump ordered military commanders to begin preparing plans to bring back home about half of the more than 14,000 U.S. forces currently stationed in Afghanistan. A young Saudi woman who fled to Thailand is pleading not to be forced back to Saudi Arabia. "I just want to survive," 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun said in a social media video where she can be seen pacing inside a Bangkok airport hotel room. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair. I am 100% certain they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail." Rahaf fled from Kuwait during a family vacation and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport Saturday night, intending to seek asylum in Australia. Thai authorities refused to let her into the country, saying she had no travel documents or money. But Rahaf says Saudi and Kuwait officials took away her passport when she arrived, a claim backed up by Human Rights Watch. "Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee," Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Michael Page said. He appealed to Saudi and Thai officials not to follow through with their plans to send Rahaf back to Kuwait Monday. "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will," he said. Women have few civil rights in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom. They need permission from a male relative to obtain a passport and travel overseas. Females who commit so-called crimes against morality can sometimes meet the death penalty. Another Saudi woman, Dina Lasloom, flew to the Philippines in 2017 while trying to escape Saudi Arabia. An airline security official reported seeing her dragged out of the airport with her mouth, hands, and feet bound with duct tape. Human rights activists have seen no trace of her since. LIMA - Peru announced Monday it was barring entry to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his cabinet, increasing pressure on the socialist leader days ahead of his second-term inauguration. The move announced by Peru's Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio followed a decision Friday by 12 Latin American countries and Canada not to grant recognition to Maduro's hardline government following his controversial re-election in May. Popolizio told Peru's RPP radio that Lima's immigration authority would be given "a list of all the members linked to the leadership of the Maduro regime, including family members, so that they cannot enter the country." He said the measure would take effect immediately. Popolizio said the ban would also include bank transfers from individuals named on the list. Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hold a portrait of him in a ceremony to swear him in symbolically in front of the National Assembly building during a rally around the city in Caracas, Venezuela on Jan. 7, 2019. Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hold a portrait of him in a ceremony to swear him in symbolically in front of the National Assembly building during a rally around the city in Caracas, Venezuela on Jan. 7, 2019. The 14-member Lima Group met in the Peruvian capital Friday to discuss ways to step up pressure on Maduro's regime. The Group, which includes Canada, called on Maduro to temporarily transfer power to the opposition-controlled National Assembly until free elections can be held. However, Mexico under the new leftist government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to sign the statement. Lopez Obrador defended the move on Monday, saying his administration was simply following a policy of "non-intervention." "It's not about ideological sympathies," he said. Maduro was re-elected on May 20 in a ballot boycotted by the main opposition parties and widely condemned by the international community, including the United States which called it a "sham." YANGON - Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi discussed insurgent attacks on Myanmar police on Monday in a rare meeting with the military chief, and her administration called for the armed forces to "crush" the rebels, a government spokesman said. Fighting between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine has displaced thousands of people since early December, according to the United Nations. The Arakan Army wants greater autonomy for Rakhine, where the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group makes up the majority of the population. Rakhine State saw a military-led crackdown in 2017, following attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents that prompted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee westwards into neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other cabinet members met military leaders, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy and the military intelligence chief, to discuss "foreign affairs and national security". "The president's office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists," Zaw Htay told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw. While Suu Kyi is barred from being president by a military-drafted constitution, Win Myint is a loyalist and she is seen as de facto leader of the civilian government, while the military remains in charge of security. The insurgents killed 13 policemen and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on Friday, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported. An Arakan Army spokesman outside Myanmar told Reuters last week the group attacked the security forces in response to a broad military offensive in northern Rakhine State that also targeted civilians. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 4,500 people were sheltering in monasteries and communal spaces after being displaced by the fighting in the past month. 'Cycle of violence' Zaw Htay described the Arakan Army as a "terrorist organization" and said it had surprised security forces on guard against Rohingya insurgents. He said the Arakan Army could destabilize Rakhine State for years to come and warned people not to give it support. "Do they want to see a cycle of violence lasting decades?" he said. "I want to tell Rakhine people who are supporting (the Arakan Army): Don't think about yourself, but think about your next generation." Myanmar governments have battled various ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements. Zaw Htay also accused the Arakan Army of meeting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group of Rohingya insurgents that Myanmar also considers terrorists but added that Myanmar was unable to eliminate the groups as they had bases across the border in Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi foreign ministry official and two Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers denied the accusation. One BGB officer asked Myanmar to provide evidence of militant camps in Bangladesh. "All the terrorism is taking place on the other side of the border," said Lieutenant Colonel Manzural Hasan Khan, a BGB commander in Cox's Bazar, the district where more than 900,000 Rohingya Muslims are sheltering having fled bouts of violence that have drawn international condemnation against Myanmar. "The world knows what happened on the other side," he said. The Myanmar government and military leaders also discussed a temporary ceasefire the military announced last month in other parts of the country, where other insurgent groups operate, Zaw Htay said. The meeting was held at the request of the president's office, he said. Authorities in Chinas southern Guangdong province are expected to soon revoke the license of a prominent rights lawyer, apparently for defending his client. Authorities held a public hearing Saturday to decide if such an administrative punishment would be imposed on lawyer Liu Zhengqing, according to other rights lawyers. A final decision is expected a week from the hearing. The ruling against Liu for allegedly endangering state security and malicious defamation while defending his clients will be the first of its kind. The department of justice in Guangdong didnt specify which comments in Lius earlier defense statements were at issue when he defended an ethnic Uighur minority in late 2016 and a Falun Gong practitioner in 2017. Media reports, however, said what riled authorities the most was an earlier defense, in which he said: the Chinese Communist Party was having a dictators doomsday panic, so much so that its lackeys were enforcing a political suppression through judicial means. Once disbarred, Liu will be the 26th rights lawyers in China who has suffered such administrative suppression in the past year or so, rights groups say. Fight against state apparatus Liu did not show up at Saturdays hearing to defend himself. He told VOA that he was unwilling to play along with what he called a show trial the provincial justice department has put on to disbar him. [Such an administrative punishment on me] is neither legal nor reasonable. But what can I say? Will they listen to me? Its just another black-box operation of theirs. I have no way of [defending for myself] or telling what will come my way next, Liu said. Liu added that an individual cant win the fight against the state apparatus. He thus wont waste time and energy to appeal his case if he is disbarred. Liu has been a well-known rights lawyer, who specializes in criminal defense. He has taken up many politically sensitive cases including the cases of other rights lawyers and activists such as Xie Yang, Qing Yongmin and Huang Qi. In Lius absence, Sui Muqing, another rights lawyer who had been previously disbarred, appeared at Saturdays hearing to plead for Lius case. Sui and 24 other rights lawyers have previously issued an open letter in support of Liu. Public hearing? Sui said that the so-called public hearing was secret in its nature as many of Lius supporters werent allowed in while the justice department didnt provide necessary materials for him to defend for Liu. Sui argued that Liu had done nothing illegal but to make statements of non-guilty defense for his clients and state security charges are vaguely defined and arbitrarily applied offenses. Sui said any punishment on Liu will set a bad precedent that will negatively impact lawyers autonomy to defend their clients. The consequences will be terrible once such a bad example is set. That means that, in future human rights cases, no lawyers will dare to plead innocence for clients. That way, we will be faced with a failing system of legal defense, Sui said. Sui added that, in his experience, a final decision to disbar Liu may be reached later this week. The justice department on Monday refused to comment. And Sui agreed that Lius punishment may signal a warning for his role in representing dissident Huang Qi. Huang was scheduled to stand for a pre-trial hearing in early December, which got canceled for reasons unknown. And Huangs mother appeared to have disappeared after having disclosed the hearing notice to media two days before the hearing. Over the years, lawyer Liu has taken on so many [influential] human rights cases. If the case of Huang Qi is a factor, Id say that Huangs case is the final straw that has broken the camels back, he said. Political persecution Albert Ho, chairman of China Human Rights Concern Group in Hong Kong, noted that Lius punishment is yet another example of Chinas ongoing political persecution to intimidate rights defenders and dissidents, following its crackdown on rights lawyers in 2015. I think the overall target is to silence the whole legal community particularly with regard to those who are outspoken, who wish to uphold legal justice and pursuing the legal objectives independent of the direction of the government, Ho said. Rights groups have strongly condemned Chinas arbitrary administrative punishments on large numbers of rights lawyers. Ho said that his organization demands China immediately withdraw all illegal administrative penalties against Liu and his peers in the past. In accordance with its constitution and the Lawyers Law, China should ensure its lawyers are able to perform their professional duties without intimidation or hindrance, nor shall they suffer prosecution or penalties for any speech or action while practicing law, the group said in a press statement. Golden Globes co-host Sandra Oh said she was afraid to take the job of co-hosting this year's show with Andy Samberg, but she took it anyway. "I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out at his audience and witness this moment of change," Oh said near the top of the show as she looked at the minority nominees in attendance at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California. Three films featuring African American cast members were nominated for best dramatic picture this year -- "Black Klansman," "If Beale Street Could Talk" and "Black Panther," along with "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "A Star Is Born." "Bohemian Rhapsody" won and Rami Malek won the best dramatic award for his turn as the music group Queen's front man Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody." Oh, who was featured in this year's blockbuster film "Crazy Rich Asians" picked up the best performance by an actress in a TV drama prize for her work on BBC America's "Killing Eve." The Hollywood Foreign Press Association hosts the Golden Globes awards, which honors the best in film and television. A push for gender equality was also evident Sunday, especially when Regina King said upon accepting the prize for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film "If Beale Street Could Talk" said, "...in the next two years, everything that I produce, I'm making a vow ... that everything that I produce is 50 percent women." The crowd cheered and King challenged "anyone out there who is in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries . . do the same." Christian Bale, who won the best actor in a musical or a comedy film, thanked Satan for helping him with his role as Dick Cheney in the film "Vice." Mahersala Ali won for his supporting role in the film "Green Book" and the film also won the best screenplay prize. Lady Gaga was in tears when it was announced she won for co-writing "Shallow'' from "A Star Is Born.'' Gaga accepted the award with co-writers Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt. She said, "As a woman in music it is really hard to be taken serious as musician and as a songwriter.'' She added that her co-writers "lifted me up, they supported me.'' The FX series "The Americans" about a pair of Russian spies hiding out as husband-and-wife travel agents in the U.S. in the 1980s won the best TV drama Golden Globe Award for its sixth and final year. Jeff Bridges received the Globes' honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award. In remarks about everything from Michael Cimino to Buckminster Fuller and, of course, to his 'Big Lebowski' character the "Dude," Bridges compared his life to a great game of tag. "We've all been tagged,'' said Bridges. "We're alive.'' He ended by "tagging'' everyone watching. "We can turn this ship in the way we want to go, man,'' said Bridges. A similar television achievement award was also launched this year, dubbed the Carol Burnett Award. Its first honoree was Burnett, herself. "I'm kind of really gob-smacked by this,'' said Burnett. "Does this mean that I get to accept it every year?'' A Gabonese government spokesman says all but one of the military officers who attempted a coup early Monday have been arrested. "Four have been arrested and one is on the run," said Gabon spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou. Military officers seized Gabonese National Radio, the state radio station, Monday in Libreville, the capital. The soldiers announced their intent to establish a national restoration council. Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang said on the airwaves that President Ali Bongo's recent radio address "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out the responsibilities of his office." The president is in Morocco, recovering from a stroke. The French news agency AFP reports that shots were heard at the state television offices in the Libreville at the same time the military statement was being read on the radio. U.S. President Donald Trump recently deployed American military personnel to Gabon because of fears on political unrest in neighboring Congo. The government of Gabon has regained control in the capital, Libreville, after an attempted coup, officials said Monday. A government spokesman said that Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang the leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defense and Security Forces of Gabon has been captured. Obiang was the last of five members of the group to be arrested Monday. Two soldiers associated with the coup attempt were killed by government forces. Government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou said the situation was "under control" late Monday, and that the government had retaken control of state broadcasting offices and a major thoroughfare in Libreville the only two places affected by the attempted coup. Military officers seized Gabonese National Radio, the state radio station, early Monday, announcing their intent to establish a "national restoration council." Gabon's President Ali Bongo is out of the country in nearby Morocco, recovering from a stroke. The African Union condemned the attempted coup. The @_AfricanUnion strongly condemns the coup attempt this morning in #Gabon. I reaffirm the AU%27s total rejection of all unconstitutional change of power. Moussa Faki Mahamat (@AUC_MoussaFaki) January 7, 2019 Bongo has been in Morocco since October. In a brief New Year's speech recorded in Morocco, he acknowledged his health problems without giving details, and called the country "indivisible." Obiang said on the airwaves that President Ali Bongo's recent radio address "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out the responsibilities of his office." Bongo has been in office since 2009, narrowly winning re-election in 2016. His father ran the oil-rich country before him, and many have criticized the family for profiting off the country's natural resources while failing to adequately invest in basic services for its roughly two million citizens. U.S. President Donald Trump deployed American military personnel to Gabon last week because of fears on political unrest in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. PARIS - Lyon's archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and five other figures are on trial on charges of failing to act against sexual abuse allegations targeting a priest in his diocese. This is the latest pedophilia scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church before a key Vatican conference on sexual abuse. The sexual abuse allegations date back to the 1980s and 1990s. They involve Father Bernard Preynat, a priest in France's Lyon diocese, who has admitted to wrongdoing and is due to go on trial later this year. But one of country's most prominent clerics, Lyon's archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, is accused of covering up the abuse. If found guilty, he faces up to three years in jail and a $54,000 fine. Barbarin denies the charges. He says he took action as soon as he found out about the sexual abuse allegations many years later. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin waits for the start of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin waits for the start of his trial at the Lyon courthouse, central France, Jan. 7, 2019. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin waits for the start of his trial at the Lyon courthouse, central France, Jan. 7, 2019. The archbishop did not comment publicly before his trial, but one of his lawyers says the cleric expects to be acquitted. Barbarin reportedly sought advice about how to handle the allegations from a Vatican official who will not be present at the trial on grounds of diplomatic immunity. Francis Devaux, who heads French victims' group "Freed Speech" [La Parole Liberee], told local TV what is most important about the case is that it was covered up for so long and that alleged victimizer Father Preynat was protected. Devaux was the first alleged victim to go public, claiming in 2015 he was abused by Preynat, who was subsequently removed from his post. A year later, investigators dropped the case against the priest. But the victims' group carried on, ultimately succeeding in landing Barbarin and five others in court. This is not the French Church's first sexual abuse scandal, but it is the highest profile one to date. It comes before a key Vatican meeting in February that Pope Francis says aims to shed full light on sex scandals and alleged cover ups by Catholic clergy. The chair of Catholic reform group "We Are Church International," Colm Holmes, said Cardinal Barbarin's trial is an encouraging step. But he is disappointed in Pope Francis, who has praised Barbarin. "He has backed the Cardinal all the way," he said, "but he has not listened to any of the victims.And now at last the victims will have their say when it comes to [the] court now." Holmes said he is skeptical next month's Vatican meeting will lead to real church reform. He also pointed to his native Ireland, one of a number of countries rocked by pedophilia scandals, and where church attendance has plummeted in recent decades. "And that has happened in other countries as well, where people are so disappointed with the reaction of the hierarchy of the people in charge to the whole abuse scandal," he added. A historically Catholic nation that is now staunchly secular, France has also seen emptying pews. Last year, French bishops announced they would create an independent commission to investigate sexual abuse.A poll found most French Catholics support a parliamentary probe. CAIRO - Egypt's president on Sunday inaugurated a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region's largest mosques in a highly symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his rule, fighting Islamic militancy while advocating equality between the overwhelming Muslim majority and Christians, who account for 10 percent of Egypt's 100 million people. This is a historic and important moment, said el-Sissi inside the cathedral. But we still have to protect the tree of love we planted here together today because seditions never end. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the world's primary seat of learning for Sunni Muslims, echoed el-Sissi's sentiments in comments also made at the cathedral. The two places of worship, he said, stand as a symbol in the face of attempts to undermine the country's stability and sectarian seditions. El-Sissi's widely publicized policy to staunch sectarianism, however, has done little to protect Christians in rural Egypt, where Muslim extremists frequently attack their homes and businesses or force them to leave their homes after violent disputes. Critics and activists say discrimination against Christians there is often tolerated by local authorities and branches of the security agencies. Christians also complain of stringent restrictions on the construction of churches. But Sunday's opening ceremony in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, el-Sissi's brainchild that is located in the desert east of Cairo, stressed what the pro-government media like to call the unbreakable national fabric of Christians and Muslims. Entertainers and chorus lines took to the stage to sing about the two faiths living peacefully side by side. Short films on the same topic were also screened. The ceremony's presenters portrayed the construction of the cathedral and the mosque, which took 18 months to complete, as a message to humanity. It is a message to the whole world that Egypt is a nation for all, said one presenter. The ceremony, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and a host of Arab dignitaries, included recorded video messages of support from the region's top Christian clerics as well as Pope Francis. Speaking in Italian, Pope Francis said: With joy I greet all of you on the joyful occasion of the dedication of the new Cathedral of the Nativity, built in the new administrative capital. May the prince of peace give to Egypt, the Middle East and the whole world the gift of peace and prosperity. The inauguration ceremony, which ended with a display of fireworks, took on added significance because it fell on Christmas Eve for Egypt's predominantly Coptic Orthodox Christians, and just hours after a police bomb squad major was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a Cairo church. El-Sissi and participants observed a minute of silence in memory of the fallen policeman. The late Saturday blast came a little more than a week after a roadside bomb hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian driver. It likely will compel authorities to further tighten security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. Already, armed policemen guard churches and security guards check the identity of visitors. Metal detectors have also been set up outside churches. The heightened security followed a spate of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group which has targeted churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries, killing more than 100 Christians over the past two years. Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, with the army and police now engaged since early last year in an all-out campaign to eradicate them, throwing into battle tens of thousands of troops backed by armor, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and warships. U.S. President Donald Trump says he will be withdrawing the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria at a "proper pace," while at the same time continuing the military's fight against Islamic State terrorists. Trump, in a Twitter remark Monday, set no timetable for the withdrawal and derided what he said was "a very inaccurate story" in "the Failing New York Times" that said Trump was retreating from his December 19 announcement for a quick pullout of troops, which administration officials at the time predicted would take about 30 days. John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, said Sunday on a visit to Israel the U.S. troops would stay in Syria until Islamic State is defeated and the Trump administration received assurances Turkey would not target Kurdish fighters allied with American forces. Trump, in his tweet, said, "No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" The Failing New York Times has knowingly written a very inaccurate story on my intentions on Syria. No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!..... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019 When he made the troop withdrawal announcement, he said on Twitter, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency." We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018 Trump overruled U.S. national security officials and surprised allies with his announcement last month that he was withdrawing the U.S. troops from Syria, where they have carried out air attacks on Islamic State and Syrian positions and advised Kurdish fighters. Trump's action, meeting a long-time pledge of his to get U.S. troops out of Syria, drew widespread protests, including from Republican lawmakers, and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Bolton, after meeting Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussed the U.S. troop withdrawal with officials Monday in Turkey. He said Sunday that protection for the Kurdish fighters who have helped battle Islamic State militants was one of the necessary conditions for a U.S. withdrawal of its troops in Syria. FILE - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton FILE - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Jan. 6, 2019. FILE - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Jan. 6, 2019. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum, so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered," Bolton said. Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG, to be linked to the PKK, a Kurdish group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Bolton said there is no timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, but the process would not be abrupt. His comments were the first public confirmation that the administration had backed off an initial indication that it would pull out the troops within 30 days. Bolton said Trump "wants the ISIS caliphate destroyed," referring to Islamic State, which once claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its religious territory in Syria and Iraq. TAIPEI - A hog evidently tossed into the ocean from China washed up on New Years Eve along Kinmen, an outlying Taiwanese-held islet. Local agricultural inspectors later tested the carcass positive for African swine flu, an infectious disease that has led to the slaughter of some 600,000 pigs in China. Dispose the animal and move on? Not so fast. The mid-sized, brownish hog quickly became not just a household media image in Taiwan but also a new issue showing the depths of an icy impasse between the leaders of Taiwan and China. Taiwan wants China to turn over more information about the hog so authorities in Taipei can help stop the deadly swine flu from reaching its own giant pork industry. FILE - Workers disinfect passing vehicles in an ar Workers disinfect passing vehicles in an area having the latest incident of African swine flu outbreak on the outskirts of Beijing, China, Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. Workers disinfect passing vehicles in an area having the latest incident of African swine flu outbreak on the outskirts of Beijing, China, Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. China hasnt answered a letter from Taiwans Council of Agriculture about the pig or said much else. Communist leaders see self-ruled Taiwan as part of their turf, not a separate country, and wont talk about anything at all unless the government in Taipei agrees that the two sides belong to a single China. I can only speculate, but when relations are better, Beijing would definitely first give Taiwan a heads up and say here's how things are, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. China and Taiwan have been ruled separately and seldom gotten along since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists lost to Mao Zedongs Communists. The fleeing Nationalists rebased their government in Taiwan. More militarily powerful China still insists that the two sides eventually unite. Swine flu risk Taiwan went on guard against a spillover of African swine flu after China confirmed its first case in August. The disease had caused 81 cases in 21 Chinese provinces as of early December, Beijings official Xinhua News Agency says. Taiwan braced because its main island lies just 160 kilometers southeast of China and the carcass reached an islet thats just 10 kilometers away. An outbreak of African swine flu would devastate Taiwans $2.59 billion pig farming industry, the government-funded Central News Agency reported. Chinas Xinhua calls the outbreaks generally under control. Airport authorities in Taiwan were already stepping up penalties against passengers who bring in meat before the pig carcass washed up followed by another carcass on a different outlying islet that turned out not to be infected. In Taipei on Jan. 1, President Tsai Ing-wen used her annual New Year speech to demand information from China. Her governments spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka asked in a Friday Facebook post whether the second pig was a biochemical bomb from China. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech during a New Year's day press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 1, 2019. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech during a New Year's day press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 1, 2019. ?Tsai visited Kinmen herself Friday as her government began a 14-day ban on pork products from being shipped to Taiwan proper. Health politics The other sides government has never, according to agreements, given honest and timely reports on the outbreak to Taiwan, Tsai said in her speech. Once African swine flu gets into Taiwan, it would not only give a bit hit to related industries and impact the peoples economy, but more importantly it would cause Taiwan people to have a negative view of the other side, she added. We dont look favorably on that situation happening. Tsais party advocates long-term autonomy for Taiwan, not Beijings goal of unification. China has hit back since Tsai took office in 2016 with military flybys, a heisting of diplomatic allies and cuts in Taiwan-bound group tourism. The Beijing governments Taiwan Affairs Office said in late December it does not need to provide outbreak info under a 2010 two-way agricultural inspection deal because Taiwan does not allow Chinese pork imports. Taiwan officials are politicizing the hog carcass, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Washington D.C.-based Stimson Center think tank. But China should not put politics before health, she said. I think thats something thats very wrong, Sun said. You cannot use this issue as a political bargaining chip and force the other side or punish the other side for not accepting a political condition. Hog or no hog, China and Taiwan went after each other much of last week over politics. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Taiwan and China must unify and didnt rule out use of force to make that happen. Tsai responded in some of her toughest language yet toward China that she rejects Chinas idea that both sides belong under one flag as well as Xis suggestion that China govern Taiwan as it rules Hong Kong, with a degree of local autonomy. Britains embattled Theresa May will make a push this week to persuade rebel lawmakers in her ruling Conservative party to back her contentious Brexit withdrawal agreement. But little has changed since she delayed before Christmas a House of Commons vote on the proposed deal and few observers believe shell be successful as many rebel lawmakers are locked into their opposition because of public promises theyve made to their constituency parties. Meanwhile, political pressure is mounting on the prime minister, who insists she can win the vote, to delay Britains scheduled March 29 exit from the European Union. Two former ministers from the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher, Ken Clarke and Chris Patten, have urged her to rethink and put Britains exit from the bloc on hold in order for a political consensus to be hammered out on Britains future relationship with the EU. Patten added his voice Monday to calls for a re-run Brexit referendum, It may be that we can only end this divisive and impoverishing argument by holding another referendum, he said. May has adamantly ruled out holding another plebiscite to break the parliamentary deadlock. More than 200 MPs from various parties have signed a letter urging her to take the prospect of a no-deal Brexit off the table, if she fails to garner the parliamentary support she needs for her Brexit withdrawal agreement to be approved. The politicians from the Conservative, Labor, Liberal Democrat and the nationalist parties of Scotland and Wales are concerned about the impact on British manufacturing crashing out of the bloc in March without any kind of arrangement with the European Union, the only legal current option. Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave flags outside the h FILE - Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave flags outside the houses of Parliament in London, Britain, Dec. 19, 2018. FILE - Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave flags outside the houses of Parliament in London, Britain, Dec. 19, 2018. In their collective letter, the lawmakers wrote, Leaving the EU without a deal would cause unnecessary economic damage. Trading on World Trade Organization terms would instantly make our manufacturers less competitive and make it very difficult for the industry to justify producing goods in the UK for export. Leaving without a deal would make continued investment in UK manufacturing a real challenge for global firms, when they have plants in other European locations. May has little more than a week to rescue her Brexit plan. The House of Commons will restart debate on the Brexit withdrawal agreement Wednesday. The House of Commons is likely to vote on the proposed deal next week unless the government again postpones it, something May on Sunday pledged not to do. May's deal, which was negotiated after almost two years of ill-tempered haggling between British and EU negotiators, tries to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters. The proposed deal would see Britain locked in a customs union with the European Union for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner. In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. It would not be able to implement free trade deals with non-EU countries. FILE - A pro-Brexit demonstrator waves a placard w FILE - A pro-Brexit demonstrator waves a placard with others outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, Dec. 18, 2018. FILE - A pro-Brexit demonstrator waves a placard with others outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, Dec. 18, 2018. The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc even if a final free-trade deal isnt negotiated. Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a vassal state, a rule-taker and not a rule-maker. Mays aides appear convinced the European Union will offer some concessions in the next few days to help the British leader get the votes she needs, but critics say theyre reaching for straws, and EU leaders frustrated with the time and energy they have spent on Brexit appear in no mood to offer her assistance. Britain's divorce deal with Brussels is the only deal on the table and cannot be renegotiated, an EU Commission spokesperson said Monday. EU officials say the bloc will continue to advance its "no deal" planning and no more Brexit negotiation meetings are scheduled. The language used by the EU Commission Monday is no different from what EU leaders have used since the deal was signed in November. May promised before Christmas to get legal reassurances from Brussels over the so-called Irish backstop - the insurance policy to ensure a hard border with customs checks is not reimposed on the island of Ireland. With May unable apparently to squeeze anything out of the blocs negotiators in the final hour that would substantially alter the political dynamic in London, her aides are also considering a parliamentary trick to change the wording of the legislation presenting the Brexit withdrawal agreement next week by making any approval of the deal contingent on the European Union offering more concessions. The move would be intended to limit the scale of the parliamentary rebellion against May. But EU officials say that would infuriate Brussels, which would unlikely accept the blackmail. LONDON - The chances of Britain crashing out of the European Union by default with no deal in place are growing, as lawmakers appear unlikely to support the deal Prime Minister Theresa May struck with the bloc. A parliamentary vote on the agreement is scheduled next week. Britain's European Union exit on March 29 is written into British law, and new legislation would be required to cancel it. Delaying Britain's departure would also require unanimous agreement from the 27 other EU member states under the Article 50 process, which is seen unlikely unless Britain planned to hold another referendum. Governments and businesses in Europe are trying to prepare for the chaos that would follow a "no-deal" Brexit, with supply chains, energy networks and basic cross-border services like banking and insurance facing prolonged uncertainty. 'Too little, too late' Nearly 100 trucks took part in a drill to test Britain's contingency plans Monday. From a disused airfield commandeered as a truck park, the convoy snaked through 30 kilometers of rush-hour traffic to the port of Dover. About 10,000 trucks pass through Dover every day, bringing vital supplies from the continent and sending Britain's exports to the European Union and beyond. Planners warn any customs or security delays could cause traffic lines of 50 kilometers. Dover's Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke said the drill was too little, too late, "I welcome the Department for Transport ramping up Brexit preparations, but this trial is on far too small a scale." FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on the draft Brexit deal outside 10 Downing Street in London, Nov. 14, 2018. FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on the draft Brexit deal outside 10 Downing Street in London, Nov. 14, 2018. British economy suffering May's hopes of passing her Brexit deal in parliament, designed to ensure a smooth exit, appear slim. She said Monday the vote will go ahead despite widespread cross-party opposition. "We are continuing to work on further assurances and further undertakings from the European Union," May said in a speech. Meanwhile Britain's economy is stuck in the slow lane, with 0.1 percent growth in the last quarter. Brexit, alongside global trade tensions, are also weighing on Eurozone economies. In France, analysts say the "yellow vest" anti-government protests have dented growth. That movement has now spread to Britain. In recent days Brexit supporters wearing yellow high-visibility vests have picketed parliament and tried to block roads, demanding the referendum result is fulfilled. "We want Brexit and we want it delivered now. We didn't vote for any half measures. We voted out and we should be out," pro-Brexit protester Jackie Harkins told VOA. Poll shows shift to staying in EU But the biggest poll since the referendum shows a shift in favor of remaining in the European Union, by 54 percent to 46 percent. So could Britain hold another vote? Many fear the wider consequences, says Alan Wager of the U.K. in a Changing Europe program at Kings College London. "If there was another referendum, how divisive would it be? Would it be even worse than the last one?" Theresa May is hoping last-minute EU concessions will rescue her deal, but Brussels says negotiations are finished. So businesses are triggering contingency plans. Medicines are being stockpiled. The public is being warned of potential food shortages. A no-deal Brexit is edging closer while Britain's politicians remain gridlocked. NEW DELHI - Amnesty International on Monday accused India of disregarding international law after a Rohingya family was deported to Myanmar where the military is accused of genocide against the stateless Muslim minority. The family of five, who had been in prison in India's northeastern Assam state since 2013, was handed over to Myanmar authorities on Thursday the second such deportation in just months after seven men were returned in October. The United Nations expressed concern over the forcible repatriation of the Rohingya while rights groups warned New Delhi was putting the community at serious risk by returning them to Myanmar, where for decades the minority has been targeted in violent pogroms by security forces. The Rohingya are despised by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which refuses to recognize them as citizens and falsely labels them "Bengali" illegal immigrants. They were concentrated in Rakhine state, the epicentre of a Myanmar army offensive that since August 2017 has driven some 720,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. "The Rohingya population in Rakhine state in Myanmar continue to live under a system of apartheid," Amnesty India's Abhirr V. P. said in a statement. "The expulsion of asylum-seekers and refugees amounts to a violation of India's obligations under customary international law, which prohibits governments from returning people to a territory where they are at risk of serious human rights violations." India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention. Indian officials say around 40,000 Rohingya are living in the country, where Hindu hardliners have called for their mass deportation. Around 18,000 Rohingya in India are registered with the United Nations refugee agency. UNHCR said despite repeated requests they were not granted access to the Rohingya family detained in Assam before their deportation. India's home ministry told parliament last week that 478 Rohingya were arrested between 2015 and 2018, with last year topping the list with 230 detentions along the nation's borders. As tensions build in Congo over the delay in announcing the election results, actor Ryan Gosling and activists with whom he has published a book about the Central African country urged officials to announce a credible winner. Congo's electoral commission on Sunday delayed indefinitely the announcement of the results of the Dec. 30 vote. However, the influential Catholic Church said it can see a clear winner from the 40,000 observers it posted across the country and it urged the electoral commission to publish the true results in "respect of truth and justice." The U.S. government also urged the electoral commission to present accurate results that correspond to results announced at each of Congo's 75,000 polling stations. President Donald Trump said military personnel had deployed to Central Africa to protect U.S. assets from possible "violent demonstrations." Congo's government forbids speculation about the winner before the official results are announced and it has imposed an internet blackout over the country to prevent conjecture on social media. Le livre "Congo Stories" de John Prendergast et Fi FILE - A journalist reads the "Congo Stories" book by John Prendergast and Fidel Bafilemba with pictures by Ryan Gosling in Washington, D.C., Dec. 14, 2018. FILE - A journalist reads the "Congo Stories" book by John Prendergast and Fidel Bafilemba with pictures by Ryan Gosling in Washington, D.C., Dec. 14, 2018. Gosling took photos in Congo that illustrate the book Congo Stories, published last month with text written by activist John Prendergast and other Congo analysts. Commenting on the edgy situation in Congo, Prendergast joined calls for accurate results of the polling. "It is impossible to ignore the mountains of evidence of a stolen election and a stolen government," said Prendergast. "If they steal the final electoral result, it will just compound the losses of the Congolese people, whose resources and rights have been taken by Congo's leaders, present and past." Gosling called on consumers of smartphones, many of which contain strategic minerals from Congo, to make informed choices to help improve the lives of the Congolese people. "I've learned that if Congo was the beneficiary of its own natural resources it would be one of the richest countries in the world as opposed to one of the poorest," wrote Gosling, responding by email to questions from The Associated Press. An exhausted Congolese independent electoral commi An exhausted Congolese independent electoral commission (CENI) official rests as results are tallied for the presidential election, at a local results compilation center in Kinshasa, Congo, Jan. 6, 2019. An exhausted Congolese independent electoral commission (CENI) official rests as results are tallied for the presidential election, at a local results compilation center in Kinshasa, Congo, Jan. 6, 2019. "I've also learned that despite centuries of brutality and exploitation, there is an incredible movement in Congo among people who are using the living nightmares they have endured as fuel to make the hopes and dreams of their families and country a reality," he wrote. "The momentary choices that we make as consumers can have lifelong consequences for the people of the countries from which those products are sourced," wrote Gosling. "We have an opportunity as consumers to support those who are being exploited in their efforts to achieve justice and live the lives to which they are entitled." 'Hungry for change' Congo's election is an opportunity for change for the better, according to the activists with whom Gosling collaborated on the book. "The people of Congo are hungry for change after 17 years of a lack of governance under [President Joseph] Kabila," said Chouchou Namegabe, a Congolese journalist. "These elections represent the possibility to have the first democratic transition of power in Congo in its post-independence history. ... Congolese people need a choice for who governs them, though this election will probably not deliver that." The international community should use economic sanctions to press Congo to deliver good governance, said Prendergast, founder of the Enough Project, which campaigns for international firms to disclose where they source strategic minerals from Congo and other African countries. "From the colonial era up to the present, the state in Congo has been hijacked for the personal benefit of ruling elites and their business partners, leaving nothing for developing the nation," wrote Prendergast to AP. "The solution is a combination of supporting Congo's courageous reform movements along with imposing international sanctions and other consequences on the kleptocratic networks - led at this time by President Kabila - that continue to impoverish Congo and foment violence in the country." 'Accountable leaders' needed Multinational corporations, particularly the manufacturers of smartphones and computers, should encourage stability in Congo, said Fidel Bafilemba, a Congolese civic leader who works closely with the Enough Project. He said that eastern Congo is unstable because of armed militia that control its lucrative mines. Congolese supporters of opposition Presidential ca Congolese supporters of opposition Presidential candidate Felix Tshisekedi stand outside the UDPS party headquarters in Kinshasa, Congo, Jan. 7, 2019. The Congolese Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has not given a date for the publication of preliminary results. Congolese supporters of opposition Presidential candidate Felix Tshisekedi stand outside the UDPS party headquarters in Kinshasa, Congo, Jan. 7, 2019. The Congolese Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has not given a date for the publication of preliminary results. "Congo needs accountable leaders who will ensure compliance with Congo's laws, and the government needs to hold its generals accountable for the human rights abuses they oversee," said Bafilemba. "Congo also needs international help in the form of sanctions against the leading smugglers of conflict gold, which has become the largest funder of armed groups in eastern Congo. And Congo needs help from electronics, jewelry, and other companies, who should invest more in helping build up the conflict-free trade from Eastern Congo." Congo needs change that will improve the lives of its people, said journalist Namegabe. "There is a serious risk of seeing violence and instability continue in the country. There are more than 200 active armed groups, and many potential triggers where social tensions could burst into violence very quickly," she wrote, saying that Congo's more than 80 million people will work to improve the country. "One of the main qualities of the Congolese people is a stubborn hope for a better future." Vietnams tra fish farmers could face oversupply problems this year due to rampant production. Photo cafef.vn Many farmers have rushed to breed tra fish after prices increased steadily from the beginning of 2017 due to fingerling and raw materials shortages. The situation may lead to oversupply of raw materials when farms step into the harvest season. The selling price of raw fish for factories could be reduced, the company said. Farms could suffer great losses and stop breeding tra for the next season, meaning they would lack raw materials for the next crop, VDSC warned. However, according to the firm, if the US-China trade war continues, Vietnam could increase its market share in the US, replacing Chinese tilapia that currently accounts for 40 per cent of all fish imports to the US. Barriers to Vietnamese tra fish in the US market are likely to decrease. Vietnam has passed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) field tests the most important step in the assessment process established by the USADAs Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). In addition, the preliminary anti-dumping tax on basa fish during the 14th administrative review period (POR 14) is significantly lower than that of POR 13. As a result, VDSC expects the tra fish export volume to the US market to increase sharply this year. The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) may be approved early this year. If EVFTA is approved, the import tariff for frozen tra fish fillets will be reduced from the current rate of 5.5 per cent to zero within three years. The rate for processed tra fillets will be reduced from 7 per cent to zero within seven years. VDSC said demand for tra fish in the EU is expected to rise. With the popularity of processed products in the US and EU markets, Vietnam has the potential to increase its profits from high-value products. The gross margin for the products is 22-25 per cent, higher than the margin of 12-16 per cent for frozen fillets. The world population will exceed 8.5 billion people by 2030. As the natural fish supply worldwide is dwindling, the market share of farmed fish is expected to increase from 47 per cent in 2016 to 54 per cent in 2030. According to VDSC, this change presents a chance for tra producers like Vinh Hoan to expand production. Vietnams Mekong Delta region has favourable ecological conditions for large-scale tra farming. The natural conditions combined with advanced farming technology will produce white-meat tra products, a favourite choice of consumers. Other major tra producers such as India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia produce low-value yellow-meat tra fish. Vietnams export value of the fish was estimated at US$2.3 billion for 2018, higher than the $1.8 billion recorded in 2017, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers. X2 is the latest CBU model of BMW in Vietnam At the conference on strengthening the development of Vietnam's supporting industry held reccently by the Government Office, THACO chairman Tran Ba Duong said that the corporation started assembling mid-range-segment vehicles like KIA and Mazda, then moved to assemble European near-premium-segment brands like Peugeot, and is now targeting BMW. The chairman said that the corporation has yet to fix a specific time or the models to be assembled. In order to secure an agreement with BMW, the manufacturer has to equip a modern manufacturing line and prepare financial resources. THACO has been officially permitted to distribute German luxury cars from January 2018, after BMW cancelled its contract with the previous distributor Euro Auto after it was found to have used forged documents to import and smuggle cars. In early-2018, this manufacturer announced launching 15 showrooms of BMW and MINI across the country by 2019. However, by the end of 2018, the company has re-opened three showrooms of Euro Auto, including one in Hanoi, two in Ho Chi Minh City: one for BMW and one for MINI. THACO did not disclose the sales of BMW. However, according to Vnexpress.net, about 400 BMW vehicles were sold in the first half of the year. The latest completely-built-up (CBU) model is X2, while the X3 model will arrive next year. Meanwhile, the peak sales made by the previous distributor Euro Auto was 1,800, including 1,400 BMW and 400 MINI vehicles. Previously, BMW used to be assembled in Vietnam from 1994 by Vietnam Motors Corporation (VMC) at Trieu Khuc Street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi with the monthly output of 100-150 vehicles, including the 525i, 328i, 325i models. Due to the poor performance, this factory halted manufacturing in 2005, and spent the next two years to sell the vehicles in store. Currently, Mercedes is still the only luxury cars assembled in Vietnam, leading the sales charts with a good lead on other players. If BMW is assembled in Vietnam and its price reduces accordingly, the brand will become a heavy-weight contender for Mercedes and other models in the same segment, such as VinFast Sedan Lux A2.0 and VinFast SUV Lux SA2.0, which will be sold from the autumn of 2019. The market shares of major smartphone brands in Vietnam (per cent) Vsmart shakes up the smartphone market Vingroup launched its new smartphone brand called Vsmart focusing on the mid-range and low-end segments, send ripples through the Vietnamese market. Vsmart is currently the hottest name in the market and has four devices, the Joy 1, Joy 1+, Active 1, and Active 1+. Active 1+ is equipped with a 6.2 inch edge-to-edge screen, Snapdragon 660, 6GB RAM, 64GB ROM, front and back cameras with a bokeh function, and will be sold for VND6,290,000 ($273.5). Active 1 has a metal frame, glass back with Snapdragon 660, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, dual camera, and a 3100 mAh battery. It will cost VND4,990,000 ($217). Meanwhile, the low-end smartphone Vsmart Joy 1 runs on a Snapdragon 435, with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of memory, and a 5.5 inch screen. It will cost VND2,490,000 ($108.2). The larger model Vsmart Joy 1+ (Snapdragon 430, 3GB RAM, 32GB memory, 6.2 inch screen) will be a tad more expensive at VND3,390,000 ($147.4). Vsmarts rival in the current mid-range segment is brands like: Nokia 6 $219.13 LG G6 $386.95 Lenovo Moto X4 $252.17 Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 $334.34 Honor 8X $256.52 Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite $290.87 Realme 2 Pro $273.91 Huawei Nova 3i $282.17 Oppo F9 $334.34 According to GfK SE (established in 1934 as Gesellschaft fur Konsumforschung, "Society for Consumer Research"), there are dozens of brands and smartphones priced around VND5-9 million ($217-391) competing in mid-range segment, which accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the smartphone market. Meanwhile, IHS Markit Ltd. said that mid-range smartphones price at $150-390 accounted for nearly one-third of phone sales around the world. Mai Trieu Nguyen, director of Mai Nguyen Luxury Mobile, assessed, Vsmart has good pricing, compared to the market average, Vsmart devices are 20-30 per cent cheaper. General director of Qualcomm Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, Thieu Phuong Nam said, I am very impressed by the Vsmart devices design and features. With the desire to bring consumers the highest-quality Vietnamese products, reasonable prices, I think, the potential of the Vsmart series is great as they suit the majority of Vietnamese consumers. Having the same idea, Le Bao Long, Admin of VOZ Forum also appreciated the Vsmart series. In terms of appearance, the Vsmart series is quite nice, they have beautiful screens, and for now I have nothing to complain about. In my opinion, Vsmart is very competitively priced. According to Bui An, admin of HD Vietnam Forum, the Vsmart series has very good prices. If products stand up to long-term use, they will gain a lot of love from consumers. Leading the market in 2019 The mid-range segment is the focal investment of technology giants like Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Nokia, LG, and Xiaomi. GfKs statistics show that the market share of mobile phones in the VND5-7 million ($217-304) and VND7-10 million ($304-435) range increases due to the launching of more and more products in this segment and the increasing incomes of users. This price point is enough for companies to integrate good features and beautiful designs, clearly showing the resources of each firm. The smartphone market is on the rise with the upgrade in design together with the explosion of high-end technology. Darren Chen, chairman of HTC Corporation (Taiwan), said that in 2019 HTC will have a new strategy to increase its market share and improve profit. HTC plans to focus on mid-range and high-end smartphones. HTC will also probably launche its first blockchain smartphone Exodus 1. Samsung (Korea) has also just announced integrating fingerprint sensors on its mid-range phones from 2019. This is the most modern type of sensor offering great accuracy and speed. Xiaomi (China) also confirmed to soon launch a new mid-range smartphone next year that it plans to equip with the latest Qualcomms Snapdragon 675. Vsmart shows great ambition by setting the target to take over 30 per cent of the smartphone segment in two years. The firm also announced launching 10 products in all segments next year, but the centre will likely be the mid-range and low-end segment. To increase our foothold in the segment in the upcoming time, the firm needs to improve product quality, integrate artificial intelligence (AI), strengthen hardware configuration, and employ smarter software, said Angie Wang, research groups analyst at Gartner's Personal Technologies. By the producers plans, 2019 will be a hot year in mid-range smartphone segment. MHI Vietnams general manager Jun Shirota believes that the private sector has an important role to play in upskilling the Vietnamese workforce in response to Industry 4.0 To maintain its competitiveness and continue its upward trajectory, however, Vietnam needs to respond to the evolving manufacturing landscape, specifically in light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. New collar workers: The future of manufacturing One of the biggest changes that Industry 4.0 will bring to manufacturing is its transformation of factories into high-tech environments populated by automated machinery and robots. The increasing presence of technology in such industrial workplaces is expected to create new kinds of jobs and change the nature of existing ones, giving rise to what has been called as new collar workers. This new kind of worker is set to replace the old divide between blue collar manual labour on the factory floor and white collar clerical and management jobs in offices. New collar jobs are both intellectually demanding and require accuracy and dexterity. Workers, for their part, are expected to be specialists and multi-skilled for instance, a welding expert who is also a quality control manager. While this presents a variety of opportunities, it also poses a great challenge: the widening of the skills gap that is already affecting the sector both here in Vietnam and globally. The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that by 2020, more than a third of core skills required by occupations will have changed. Even more alarming are other studies which suggest that 65 per cent of children entering primary school today will have jobs that do not yet exist and for which their education will fail to prepare them. To address these concerns, education will play a key role. The Vietnamese central government recognises this and has, in fact, made provisions for it in its directive to strengthen the countrys ability to access Industry 4.0. These include plans to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the universal education curriculum as well as revise and enhance training in vocational schools to develop skills that will help workers keep up with the requirements of Industry 4.0. MHI Aerospace Vietnam is part of the global supply chain of wing flaps and cargo doors for one of Americas largest aircraft manufacturer, and this manufacturing technology came straight from Japan The role of the private sector For the private sector, it is imperative to support and augment these efforts. In the manufacturing industry, specifically, companies need to play an active role in training new collar workers in Vietnam to build a deep talent pool for and ensure the continuity of their operations. One way to do this is through scholarships and other partnerships with educational institutions. At Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, these have long been part of our programme to support the local communities in which we operate, including Vietnam. In fact, one of our most active scholarship programmes in the Asia-Pacific region is in the country. Specifically, we have a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) for Vietnamese students to study in Japan and receive internships at MHI. Moreover, we have an annual sponsorship dedicating thousands of dollars to joint-training activities. These include short-stay study and exchange programmes for outstanding students and professors, as well as seminars related to advanced Japanese technologies in energy and aviation two sectors MHI Group has expertise in and the local industries of which we are helping to build further. Another way to upskill the Vietnamese workforce is to facilitate technology transfer. As our factories in Vietnam are part MHI Group's global manufacturing supply chain for aviation equipment and diesel engines, we have been able to embed this organically in our operations. Specifically, our employees learn expertise and best practices from other markets, including new skills, knowledge, and technologies that will help power Industry 4.0. MHI Groups commitment to social development in Vietnam is also reflected in its partnerships with local academic institutions and scholarship programmes for aspiring Vietnamese youth Through these efforts, we hope to provide a win-win approach to address one of the biggest challenges posed by Industry 4.0 to the local manufacturing industry. By helping create new collar workers, MHI aims to retain our manufacturing competitiveness while helping Vietnam skill up its workforce, access the benefits of Industry 4.0, and power the continued rise of its manufacturing sector and economy. My Trung IP should have been completed in 2017 but remains mostly empty land So far, creditor SBIC and debtor Hashin Co. JSC and the Nam Dinh Peoples Committee have yet to agree on a plan to deal with the long-abandoned My Trung Industrial Park (IP), which would be the key to recover the $23.3 million debt which SBIC lent to Hashin. The Nam Dinh Peoples Committee granted the investment certificate for this IP on December 28, 2006, expecting it to be completed by 2007. After that, Hashin implemented some infrastructure items in the project with the area of 30 ha and attracted 14 secondary contractors. In 2006, Vietnam Shipbuilding Finance Company (VFC) a member of Vinashin currently belonging to SBIC and BIDV lent Hashin $9.6 million in international bonds to construct the infrastructure of My Trung IP which has an area of 150.68ha and the total investment of VND358.6 billion ($15.59 million) in My Trung commune, My Loc district, Nam Dinh. Previously, Hashin took up a loan from BIDVs Nam Dinh branch and VFC which it collateralised by mortgaging 12 land plots and one property, handing over the land-use right certificates granted by the Nam Dinh Peoples Committee. According to Nguyen Thanh Dong, acting chairman of the SBICs Board of Members, Hashin pledged to mortgage assets, including 12 land-use right certificates. However, as of December 2018, VFC only handed over five of these certificates over the total area of 71.4ha. The rest of the seven certificates, despite being granted by the Nam Dinh Department of Natural Resources and Environment, have not been handed over to VFC to complete the mortgage. Due to the difficulties in financial resources and the restructuring of Vinashin, the investor stopped the project in 2010. The remaining 80ha has been abandoned since then. Due to the incomplete investment, My Trung IP cannot produce the revenue Hashin expected. SBICs representative also confirmed that besides being unable to repay the debt on time, Hashins total debt has reached $23.335 million, including $13.726 million of interest calculated by the last day of July 2018. According to the Nam Dinh Peoples Committee, since 2012, many investors have come to negotiate with Hashin about My Trung IP. The negotiations between the parties were unsuccessful, leaving My Trung IP unoccupied for a long time, affecting Nam Dinhs investment environment, said Pham Dinh Nghi, chairman of the Nam Dinh Peoples Committee. After many delays, in July 2017, the Nam Dinh People's Committee had to issue Official Letter No.506/UBND-VP5 asking the prime minister to allow Nam Dinh province to handle Vinashins debt by revoking My Trung IP and reimbursing Hashin on the basis of the investor voluntarily returning the land to the state. At the same time, the Nam Dinh People's Committee also proposed the PM to approve the policy to transfer My Trung IP. The new investors will return to Hashin the prescribed costs, which are not lower than the refunding cost appraised by Vinacontral JSC. Pham Dinh Nghi affirmed that this would be the optimal solution because as the terms of investment certificate have been broken, the Nam Dinh Industrial Park Management Board has enough basis to terminate the project and revoke Hashins land-use right certificate. In addition, since the investor has not completed the infrastructure works according to the investment certificate, the project cannot be transferred to other investors. The leaders of Nam Dinh province said that the reason for proposing this plan is because My Trung IP project is an asset securing the government loan to Vinashin. Therefore, in order to minimise damage to the state, as well as related parties, Hashin needs to terminate the project and voluntarily return the land to the state. After that, the new investors will have enough legal basis to repay the costs which Hashin invested. In fact, in June 2017, Nam Dinh Industrial Park Management Board decided to revoke My Trung IPs investment certificate. At the time of revocation, the Nam Dinh Peoples Committee said that there was another investor negotiating with the IP Management Board and relevant credit unions. The irony is that this solution will be difficult to implement in light of the Ministry of Finance's viewpoint expressed in Official Letter No.7837/BTC-TCND dated June 29, 2018, which stated that in case Hashin has not yet fulfilled its obligations or has not replaced the mortgaged property by other security measures, it has no right to determine the fate of the mortgaged property. According to VIRs research, the assets guaranteeing VFC loans have yet to be replaced, so Hashin does not have the right to voluntarily return the project and assets on land as proposed by the Nam Dinh People's Committee. Leaders of the Hai Duong People's Committee handing over the investment certificate for the paper project (Source: VNA) According to information published on the portal of the Hai Duong Peoples Committee, on January 2, the Hai Duong Peoples Committee granted a license for Hong Kong-invested Leo Paper Bags Manufacturing (1982) Limited to develop a paper manufacturing project in Cam Dien-Luong Dien Industrial Zone in Cam Giang district. Accordingly, the factory will focus on producing paper bags and cards and is expected to come into operation in July 2021. In the framework of the ceremony, Hai Duongs provincial leaders also granted a license for True Voice International Inc. from the Republic of Seychelles for an $8 million project, which will specialise in producing machinery and components related to audio amplification equipment. The plant is slated for completion in 2020 in Cong Hoa IZ in Chi Linh town. This is Leo Paper Bags second project in Hai Duong after a $5.1million project in the Kim Thanh district-based Phu Thai IZ. Speaking at the licencing ceremony, Nguyen Manh Hien, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, said that Hai Duong has emerged as an attractive investment destination and the two projects marked a good beginning for the year. Hien expressed hope that the two investors will help promote the provincial investment climate and opportunities. In 2018, Hai Duong province ranked 11th in foreign investment attraction, with a total of $532 million, signifying an increase of 51.3 per cent on-year. $224 million of this capital volume was poured in 38 newly-registered projects and the remaining $308 million were added to 36 existing projects. To date, the total disbursement of foreign capital in the locality reached $4.59 billion, which is 60.4 per cent of the registered foreign-invested capital. Vietnamese exported steel has been one of products being investigated.-Photo thanhnien.vn This comes as many members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have strengthened trade safeguard tools to protect their domestic industries. According to the Trade Remedies Authorities of Vietnam under the MoIT, in nearly six months from May to October of 2018, the worlds 20 largest advanced and emerging economies (G20) launched 85 trade defence cases, including 63 anti-dumping cases, 19 anti-subsidy cases and three self-defence cases. To ensure the effectiveness of trade remedies, the countries have kept a close eye on imports to uncover fraud. Investigations into trade remedy avoidance against Vietnamese enterprises also increased. With a large scale of export turnover of US$245 billion, 2018 continued to be the record year of trade safeguards for exported goods from Vietnam. As of December 2018, 19 investigations were launched on export products from Vietnam, mostly steel, fibre, household appliances and electronics. Some outstanding lawsuits in the past year such as the European Unions (EU) temporary safeguard measures in the investigation with some imported steel products. These include Vietnams cold-rolled and non-alloy steel; sheet metal and cold rolled stainless steel sheets and bars. The US Department of Commerce initiated an anti-dumping investigation and countervailing duties on corrosion-resistant steel products imported from Vietnam due to suspicion of tax evasion. The Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) also initiated a dumping investigation on a number of carbon welded steel pipe products originating or imported from Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam. The Ministry of Industry and International Trade Malaysia (MITI) initiated a dumping investigation on a number of alloyed or non-alloyed flat iron or galvanised steel products originating from or imported from Vietnam. Vietnam is the country that features most in anti-dumping lawsuits in the US, following by India, Turkey, Australia, EU, Canada and Brazil. Vietnamese products facing high risks of investigation are plywood exported to the US as well as truck and bus tyres to the Europe. Most cases came to the conclusion that evasive behaviours exist and then trade remedies were applied. As the US and some other countries allow importers to self-declare and self-certify the origin of goods, the possibility of fraud occurs outside the territory of Vietnam. In that context, the MoIT and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) have sought to tighten the issuance of origin certificates, with special attention on products with high risk of fake Vietnamese origin certificates being used. The MoIT has also worked with the Ministry of Finance to watch for abnormal signs in exports to some markets to avoiding damaging Vietnams prestige and the interests of exporters. The MoIT also asked for businesses help in monitoring the market and providing information in violation cases. Children as young as five light up during the festival AFP/PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA People in the village of Vale de Salgueiro, which lies in a celtic region in the northeast of the country, have been celebrating the festival like this for generations. Parents encourage their children, some as young as five-years-old, to light up during the two days of the holiday, a tradition whose origins are not entirely clear. "We don't know when or how this tradition got started," said village mayor Carlos Cadavez. "But we have a resident aged 101 years who says it was already like that at the time of her parents. "We think that, at the beginning it was linked to celebrating the emancipation of boys as they approached adolescence," he added. Cadavez, a 45-year-old postman, himself allowed his daughter to smoke during the festival from the time she was nine. Local priest Julio Gomes said there were several religious festivals after Christmas in this region devoted to Saint Etienne and centre around young people. The blending of Catholic and pagan rites was perfectly normal here, said the 35-year-old priest, even if he found the practice of getting children to smoke "a little odd". "The people of the village know that tobacco is bad for your health," said Jose Ribeirinha, who has written a book about the tradition. "It's just a rite of passage," said the journalist, whose own father hailed from the village. For a good 15 years now, the local tradition has regularly generated controversy in the local media, but locals are united in rejecting the judgment of the outside world. This year the mayor of Mirandela, the regional capital, travelled to the village in a vain attempt to persuade local kids to give that part of the festivities a miss. But six-year-told Rui and his cousin Eduarda, 10, could hardly wait for the piper to finish playing before they lit up the cigarettes their parents had given them. "Me too, I started at their age," said Eduarda, Isabel Hermenegildo's mother. "Every year I smoke on Jan 5 and 6, but never the rest of the year." Eduarda, she said, had been following the tradition since the age of five. "That's how it is, that is the tradition here, that's how it's always been," said the 45-year-old teacher, who grew up in this village of 200 inhabitants. The villagers talked, danced, drank - and smoked - until the small hours of Sunday morning. The limit is relatively low as prices in some foreign countries are 20-30 times higher than Viet Nam. - Photo thebank.vn Vietcombank on Thursday announced it has adjusted the limit for its cardholders, starting from January 1, 2019. The adjustment aims to meet State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV)s Circular No 26/2017/TT-NHNN on bank card operation, effective from January 1 this year, a Vietcombanks representative said. According to SBV, it stipulates cash withdrawal transactions will be subject to a daily cap to limit the use of cash as foreign currency spent for improper purposes that are not permitted by law. Vietcombanks representative said this regulation does not affect customers demands as a survey showed few customers used credit cards to withdraw money abroad due to high fees and charges. However, banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said the limit is relatively low as prices in some foreign countries are 20-30 times higher than Viet Nam. The limit is also low if compared with the rate stipulated in the countrys immigration policy. Under the current regulation, a person can bring into Viet Nam US$5,000 or other currencies equal to VND15 million without declaring it. Circular No 26 also stipulates for cash withdrawals at domestic card accepting units, each cardholder can withdraw a maximum of VND5 million per day. According to the circular, in case of issuance of credit cards with security assets, the credit limit granted to the cardholder shall not exceed 80 per cent of the value of the security assets, which is valued at a maximum of VND1 billion. In case of credit card issuance without security assets, the credit limit granted to a cardholder is VND500 million. Chief operating officer Michael Piro Congratulations on your 20-year milestone in developing high-end real estate projects in Vietnam. How would you evaluate your achievements so far in the country? Spearheaded by our CEO Peter Ryder, we have established ourselves as one of the premier real estate developers in Vietnam, highlighted by our beach resort developments: Four Seasons The Nam Hai, Six Senses Con Dao, and Hyatt Regency Danang. These properties were truly revolutionary and the first of their kind back when we opened them. Since then, there have been many new entrants into the market, and I truly believe that we paved the way for other luxury developments in Vietnam. In 2016, we entered into a joint venture with Japans largest overseas developer, Kajima Corporation, forming Indochina Kajima. This will be the vehicle that will drive our presence in the market in the coming years, and we are extremely excited to be working alongside our Japanese partners. We may not have the size or scale of some of our peers in this field, but we promise to bring innovative real estate concepts that uphold the highest standards in design, sustainability, and service. These core pillars will continue to be at the heart of our business philosophy, as you will soon find out with our subsequent developments. 2018 was a remarkable year for Indochina Capital, with the official launch of the first Wink Hotels in Vietnam. What does this start mean to the company? The ground-breaking of our first Wink Hotels, located at 75 Nguyen Binh Khiem in Ho Chi Minh City, was a major milestone for our company on many levels. Firstly, it marked the start of the first of many projects together with Kajima, and the debut of Vietnams first international-standard hospitality brand Wink. Secondly, it was the culmination of all the hard work of the Indochina Kajima team, overcoming one challenge after another to arrive at this point we are all so proud. We are finally building something again! Everyone who has been involved in this process understands all the preparation, the site sourcing, the analysis, and the decision-making that was required to arrive at this end result, and we could not be more excited for our first Wink Hotels to open its doors in a little over a years time. Wink is our next statement, the next stage in our development portfolio and Vietnams maturity as a global hospitality player. Without divulging too much, in 2019 we will be more aggressive and expand our search for land plots all over Vietnam. For Indochina Kajima, Wink Hotels will be a part of a much larger portfolio of real estate properties. The team will continue to work hard on diversifying our body of work, and we hope to make an announcement (or two) sometime in 2019. You have just reached a strategic advisory agreement for a high-end residential development in Hanoi. What do you stand to gain from this agreement in the upcoming time? We were recently appointed to be the strategic advisor and lead sales agent for The Zei, a high-end complex in My Dinh. We are quite selective for projects to get involved with, and thoroughly studied this project before becoming engaged. Our objective is to make The Zei a landmark development in the My Dinh area, similar to the success that we experienced with Indochina Plaza Hanoi. Our services for The Zei draw on the synergy between two of our core divisions, Indochina Strategic, our advisory arm, and Indochina Properties, our brokerage arm. This will help expand our business in residential advisory. The real estate brokerage industry in Vietnam, particularly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, is highly saturated with many players in the market, but you almost never see a broker that manages to add value to the projects they are selling. At Indochina Strategic, we pride ourselves on having a hands-on approach, allowing our clients to deliver a high-quality product similar to past Indochina Capital developments. Through our international network, we have brought in world-class consultants and designers who will help us reach our clients goals. It is rare to see big names coming together for a real estate project in Hanoi, which underscores the confidence we all have in this development. The Zei Vibrant energy in the heart of My Dinh, Hanoi What do you think about the prospects of the Vietnamese real estate sector in general and the hospitality sector in particular in the next couple of years? Do you think foreign investors will keep flocking to the market? What challenges and opportunities do you foresee? The market operates on a cycle. For reference, the 2011-2013 period was when the market reached rock bottom, followed by the recovery period between 2014 and 2015, which culminated in the current 2016-2018 period where the market is booming with a surge in demand and take-up rate. While the residential segment has lost momentum due to a lack of innovative products in the market, office and retail market fundamentals, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Citys central business districts, remain strong. Despite the aforementioned cycle and deceleration of the market, we have observed that developments that are well-located and offer high-quality products continue to perform strongly in sales and occupancy. With that in mind, we remain bullish on the markets potential, as we are confident in our abilities to not only develop the right projects, but also to steer our advisory clients in that direction. Our hospitality experience has made it a focus of our consultancy services. With the ever-growing tourist arrivals, globalisation and relaxation of visa protocols, we trust that these factors will allow us to keep focusing on this sector. In the majority of quality real estate projects in Vietnam, the 30 per cent cap on sales to foreigners is used up quickly, once again proving the importance of the developments quality. Institutional investors, mostly from South Korea and Japan, are keen to acquire operating properties and land, due to the strong expat demand and the relatively lower cost of capital in their home country. The biggest challenge in the market today is the developers ability to differentiate themselves, to build a unique product. Unfortunately, many Vietnamese developers lack creativity and try to emulate an already proven formula. This also doubles as an opportunity, as developers who understand this issue can take the lead and introduce something new to the market. Additionally, more and more established brands are trying to enter the market, which allows developers to take advantage of the new experiences that these brands can offer. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here. Anthony Gomes, 2017 European Blues Award Winner for Best Musician/Live Performance, brings his Peace, Love & Loud Guitars Tour to Boulder Station Casino in Las Vegas, NV on February 7th, 2019. Anthony Gomes Come Down Official Music Video httpvh://youtu.be/lZ52Rm3osfk Peace, Love & Loud Guitars was named Best Blues Album of 2018 by Blues Rock Review and SoundGuardian Magazine. In addition to hitting Number 1 on iTunes Blues Chart and Amazons New Release Blues Chart, the first single, Come Down, has earned over 425,000 views on Facebook and has been included on Spotifys In The Name Of The Blues curated playlist. Gomes expects to tour for the next year in support of the album with stops in Europe, Canada and the United States. Anthony, joined by bassist Sean Holland and drummer Jeremy Howard, will be showcasing songs from his latest release as well as performing fan favorites from past albums. Brazils Justice and Public Security Minister has sent a task force of military troops to quell violence in the northeast of the country, following a week of criminal retaliation for plans to impose tighter restrictions in state prisons. By James Blears Three hundred federal troops in thirty trucks are patrolling the streets of Brazil's fifth largest city, Fortaleza. They're bolstering local police. Organized crime launched an onslaught response to tougher jail time rules, including the confiscation of cellular phones and desegregation of inmates, which had previously been done according to cartel affiliation. The response wasn't long in coming, in the form of a prison riot. Meanwhile, outside its walls on the streets, shops were looted and set on fire, buses were torched, banks and public buildings shot at, police stations attacked and a homemade bomb was placed by a viaduct. More than fifty people have so far been arrested including teenagers. Brazil's new President, Jair Bolsanaro, has praised the swift response of law and order, calling it appropriate and timely. As part of his manifesto on which he's already delivering, he's promised a crackdown on crime and will relax firearms laws so ordinary people can own guns to defend themselves. Pope Francis addresses members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, on theme of multilateral diplomacy. ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS Monday, 7 January 2019 Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, The beginning of a new year allows us to interrupt for a few moments the frenetic pace of our daily activities in order to review the events of past months and to reflect on the challenges facing us in the near future. I thank you for your numerous presence at this annual gathering, which provides a welcome opportunity for us to exchange cordial greetings and good wishes with one another. Through you, I would like to convey to the peoples whom you represent my closeness and my prayerful hope that the year just begun will bring peace and well-being to each member of the human family. I am most grateful to the Ambassador of Cyprus, His Excellency Mr George Poulides, for the gracious words of greeting he addressed to me in your name for the first time as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. To each of you I would like to express my especial appreciation for your daily efforts to consolidate relations between your respective Countries and Organizations and the Holy See, all the more so through the signing or ratification of new accords. I think in particular of the ratification of the Framework Agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of Benin relating to the Legal Status of the Catholic Church in Benin, and the signing of the Agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of San Marino regarding the Teaching of Catholic Religion in Public Schools. In the multilateral sphere, the Holy See has also ratified the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education. Last March it adhered to the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, an initiative aimed at showing how culture can be at the service of peace and a means of unification between different European societies, thus fostering concord among peoples. This is a token of particular esteem for an Organization that this year celebrates the seventieth anniversary of its foundation. The Holy See has cooperated with the Council of Europe for many decades and recognizes its specific role in the promotion of human rights, democracy and legality in an area that would embrace Europe as a whole. Finally, on 30 November last, the Vatican City State was admitted to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Fidelity to the spiritual mission based on the command that the Lord Jesus gave to the Apostle Peter, Feed my lambs (Jn 21:15), impels the Pope and consequently the Holy See to show concern for the whole human family and its needs, including those of the material and social order. Nonetheless, the Holy See has no intention of interfering in the life of States; it seeks instead to be an attentive listener, sensitive to issues involving humanity, out of a sincere and humble desire to be at the service of every man and woman. That concern is evident in our gathering today and inspires my encounters with the many pilgrims who visit the Vatican from throughout the world, as well as with the peoples and communities that I had the pleasure of visiting this past year during my Apostolic Journeys to Chile, Peru, Switzerland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. That same concern leads the Church everywhere to work for the growth of peaceful and reconciled societies. Here I think in particular of beloved Nicaragua, whose situation I follow closely in prayerful hope that the various political and social groups may find in dialogue the royal road to an exchange beneficial to the entire nation. This has also been the context for the consolidation of relations between the Holy See and Vietnam, with a view to the appointment, in the near future, of a resident Papal Representative, whose presence would serve above all as a sign of the solicitude of the Successor of Peter for that local Church. So too with the signing of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the Peoples Republic of China on the Appointment of Bishops in China, which took place on 22 September last. As you know, that Agreement is the result of a lengthy and thoughtful institutional dialogue that led to the determination of certain stable elements of cooperation between the Apostolic See and the civil authorities. As I noted in my Message to the Catholics of China and to the universal Church,[1] I had already readmitted to full ecclesial communion the remaining official bishops ordained without pontifical mandate, and urged them to work generously for the reconciliation of Chinese Catholics and for a renewed effort of evangelization. I thank the Lord that, for the first time after so many years, all the bishops in China are in full communion with the Successor of Peter and with the universal Church. A visible sign of this was the participation of two bishops from Continental China in the recent Synod on young people. It is to be hoped that further contacts regarding the application of the signed Provisional Agreement will help resolve questions that remain open and make needed room for an effective enjoyment of religious freedom. Dear Ambassadors, The year just begun contains a number of significant anniversaries, in addition to that of the Council of Europe, which I mentioned above. Among these, I would like to bring up one in particular: the hundredth anniversary of the League of Nations, established by the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919. Why do I mention an organization that today no longer exists? Because it represents the beginning of modern multilateral diplomacy, whereby states attempt to distance their reciprocal relations from the mentality of domination that leads to war. The experiment of the League of Nations quickly met with those well-known difficulties that exactly twenty years after its birth led to a new and more devastating conflict, the Second World War. Nevertheless, that experiment paved the way for the establishment in 1945 of the United Nations Organization. Certainly, that way remains full of difficulties and obstacles, nor is it always effective, since conflicts persist even today, yet it cannot be denied that it provides an opportunity for nations to meet and seek common solutions. An indispensable condition for the success of multilateral diplomacy is the good will and good faith of the parties, their readiness to deal with one another fairly and honestly, and their openness to accepting the inevitable compromises arising from disputes. Whenever even one of these elements is missing, the result is a search for unilateral solutions and, in the end, the domination of the powerful over the weak. The League of Nations failed for these very reasons, and one notes with regret that the same attitudes are presently threatening the stability of the major international organizations. To my mind, it is important that today too there should be no lessening of the desire for serene and constructive discussions between states. It is clear, though, that relationships within the international community, and the multilateral system as a whole, are experiencing a period of difficulty, with the resurgence of nationalistic tendencies at odds with the vocation of the international Organizations to be a setting for dialogue and encounter for all countries. This is partly due to a certain inability of the multilateral system to offer effective solutions to a number of long unresolved situations, like certain protracted conflicts, or to confront present challenges in a way satisfactory to all. It is also in part the result of the development of national policies determined more by the search for a quick partisan consensus than by the patient pursuit of the common good by providing long-term answers. It is likewise partially the outcome of the growing influence within the international Organizations of powers and interest groups that impose their own visions and ideas, sparking new forms of ideological colonization, often in disregard for the identity, dignity and sensitivities of peoples. In part too, it is a consequence of the reaction in some parts of the world to a globalization that has in some respects developed in too rapid and disorderly a manner, resulting in a tension between globalization and local realities. The global dimension has to be considered without ever losing sight of the local. As a reaction to a spherical notion of globalization, one that levels differences and smooths out particularities, it is easy for forms of nationalism to reemerge. Yet globalization can prove promising to the extent that it can be polyhedric, favouring a positive interplay between the identity of individual peoples and countries and globalization itself, in accordance with the principle that the whole is greater than the part.[2] Some of these attitudes go back to the period between the two World Wars, when populist and nationalist demands proved more forceful than the activity of the League of Nations. The reappearance of these impulses today is progressively weakening the multilateral system, resulting in a general lack of trust, a crisis of credibility in international political life, and a gradual marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations. In his memorable Address to the United Nations the first time a Pope addressed that Assembly Saint Paul VI, whom I had the joy of canonizing this past year, spoke of the purpose of multilateral diplomacy, its characteristics and its responsibilities in the contemporary context, but also of its points of contact with the spiritual mission of the Pope and thus of the Holy See. The primacy of justice and law The first point of contact that I would mention is the primacy of justice and law. As Pope Paul told the Assembly: You sanction the great principle that relationships between nations must be regulated by reason, justice, law, by negotiation, not by force, nor by violence, force, war, nor indeed by fear and deceit.[3] At present it is troubling to see the reemergence of tendencies to impose and pursue individual national interests without having recourse to the instruments provided by international law for resolving controversies and ensuring that justice is respected, also through international Courts. Such an attitude is at times the result of a reaction on the part of government leaders to growing unease among the citizens of not a few countries, who perceive the procedures and rules governing the international community as slow, abstract and ultimately far removed from their own real needs. It is fitting that political leaders listen to the voices of their constituencies and seek concrete solutions to promote their greater good. Yet this demands respect for law and justice both within their national communities and within the international community, since reactive, emotional and hasty solutions may well be able to garner short-term consensus, but they will certainly not help the solution of deeper problems; indeed, they will aggravate them. In light of this concern, I chose to devote my Message for this years World Day of Peace, celebrated on 1 January, to the theme: Good Politics at the Service of Peace. There is a close relationship between good politics and the peaceful coexistence of peoples and nations. Peace is never a partial good, but one that embraces the entire human race. Hence an essential aspect of good politics is the pursuit of the common good of all, insofar as it is the good of all people and of the whole person[4] and a condition of society that enables all individuals and the community as a whole to achieve their proper material and spiritual well-being. Politics must be farsighted and not limited to seeking short-term solutions. A good politician should not occupy spaces but initiate processes; he or she is called to make unity prevail over conflict, based on solidarity in its deepest and most challenging sense. Politics thus becomes a way of making history in a life setting where conflicts, divisions and oppositions can achieve a diversified and life-giving unity.[5] Such an approach takes account of the transcendent dimension of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. Respect for the dignity of each human being is thus the indispensable premise for all truly peaceful coexistence, and law becomes the essential instrument for achieving social justice and nurturing fraternal bonds between peoples. In this context, a fundamental role is played by the human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose seventieth anniversary we recently celebrated. The universal objective and rational nature of those rights ought rightly to be reaffirmed, lest there prevail partial and subjective visions of humanity that risk leading to new forms of inequality, injustice, discrimination and, in extreme cases, also new forms of violence and oppression. The defense of those most vulnerable The second point of contact that I would mention is the defense of those who are vulnerable. In the words of Pope Paul: We want to speak for the poor, the disinherited, the unfortunate, and those who long for justice, a dignified life, liberty, prosperity and progress.[6] The Church has always been committed to helping those in need, while the Holy See itself has in recent years promoted various projects aimed at assisting the most vulnerable, projects that have also been supported by different actors on the international level. Among these, I would mention the humanitarian initiative in Ukraine on behalf of those suffering, particularly in the eastern areas of the country, from the conflict that has now lasted for almost five years and has recently seen troubling developments in the Black Sea. Thanks to the active response of the Catholic Churches of Europe and of members of the faithful elsewhere to my appeal of May 2016, an effort has been made, in collaboration with other religious confessions and international Organizations, to respond concretely to the immediate needs of those living in the territories affected. They are in fact the first victims of the war. The Church and her various institutions will pursue this mission, also in the hope of drawing greater attention to other humanitarian questions, including that of the treatment of the numerous prisoners. Through her activities and her closeness to the people involved, the Church strives to encourage, directly and indirectly, peaceful paths to the solution of the conflict, paths that are respectful of justice and law, including international law, which is the basis of security and coexistence in the entire region. To this end, the instruments that guarantee the free exercise of religious rights remain important. For its part, the international community and its agencies are called to give a voice to those who have none. Among the latter in our own time, I would mention the victims of other ongoing wars, especially that in Syria with its high death toll. Once more, I appeal to the international community to promote a political solution to a conflict that will ultimately see only a series of defeats. It is vital to put an end to violations of humanitarian law, which cause untold suffering to the civil population, especially women and children, and strike at essential structures such as hospitals, schools and refugee camps, as well as religious edifices. Nor can we forget the many displaced persons resulting from the conflict; this has created great hardship for neighbouring countries. Once more, I express my gratitude to Jordan and Lebanon for receiving in a spirit of fraternity, and not without considerable sacrifice, great numbers of people. At the same time, I express my hope that the refugees will be able to return to their homelands in safe and dignified living conditions. My thoughts also go to the various European countries that have generously offered hospitality to those in difficulty and danger. Among those affected by the instability that for years has marked the Middle East are especially the Christian communities that have dwelt in those lands from apostolic times, and down the centuries have contributed to their growth and development. It is extremely important that Christians have a place in the future of the region, and so I encourage all those who have sought refuge in other places to do everything possible to return to their homes and in any event to maintain and strengthen their ties to their communities of origin. At the same time, I express my hope that political authorities will not fail to ensure their security and all else needed for them to continue to dwell in the countries of which they are full citizens, and to contribute to their growth. Sadly, in these years Syria and more generally the whole Middle East have become a battleground for many conflicting interests. In addition to those of a chiefly political and military nature, we should not overlook attempts to foment hostility between Muslims and Christians. Even though over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims,[7] in different areas of the Middle East they have long lived together in peace. In the near future, I will have occasion to visit two predominantly Muslim countries, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. These represent two important opportunities to advance interreligious dialogue and mutual understanding between the followers of both religions, in this year that marks the eight-hundredth anniversary of the historic meeting between Saint Francis of Assisi and Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. Among the vulnerable of our time that the international community is called to defend are not only refugees but also migrants. Once again, I appeal to governments to provide assistance to all those forced to emigrate on account of the scourge of poverty and various forms of violence and persecution, as well as natural catastrophes and climatic disturbances, and to facilitate measures aimed at permitting their social integration in the receiving countries. Efforts also need to be made to prevent individuals from being constrained to abandon their families and countries, and to allow them to return safely and with full respect for their dignity and human rights. All human beings long for a better and more prosperous life, and the challenge of migration cannot be met with a mindset of violence and indifference, nor by offering merely partial solutions. Consequently, I cannot fail to express my appreciation for the efforts of all those governments and institutions that, moved by a generous sense of solidarity and Christian charity, cooperate in a spirit of fraternity for the benefit of migrants. Among these, I would like to mention Colombia which, together with other countries of the continent, has welcomed in recent months a vast influx of people coming from Venezuela. At the same time, I realize that the waves of migration in recent years have caused diffidence and concern among people in many countries, particularly in Europe and North America, and this has led various governments to severely restrict the number of new entries, even of those in transit. Nonetheless, I do not believe that partial solutions can exist for so universal an issue. Recent events have shown the need for a common, concerted response by all countries, without exception and with respect for every legitimate aspiration, whether of states or of migrants and refugees themselves. In this regard, the Holy See has actively participated in the negotiations and supported the adoption of the two Global Compacts on Refugees and on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. In particular, the migration Compact represents an important step forward for the international community, which now, in the context of the United Nations is for the first time dealing on a multilateral level with this theme in a document of such importance. Despite the fact that they are not legally binding, and that some governments were absent from the recent United Nations Conference in Marrakesh, these two Compacts will serve as important points of reference for political commitment and concrete action on the part of international organizations, legislators and politicians, as well as all those working for a more responsible, coordinated and safe management of situations involving refugees and migrants of various kinds. In the case of both Compacts, the Holy See appreciates their intention and their character, which facilitates their implementation; at the same time, it has expressed reservations regarding the documents appealed to by the Compact on migration that contain terminology and guidelines inconsistent with its own principles on life and on the rights of persons. Among others who are vulnerable, Paul VI went on to say that: We speak for the younger generation of today, who are moving ahead trustfully, with every right to expect a better mankind.[8] Young people, who often feel bewildered and uncertain about the future, were the subject of the fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. They will also be at the forefront of the Apostolic Journey that I will make to Panama in a few days for the thirty-fourth World Youth Day. Young people are our future, and the task of politics is to pave the way for the future. For this reason, it is urgently necessary to invest in initiatives that can enable coming generations to shape their future, with the possibility of finding employment, forming a family and raising children. Together with young people, particular attention needs to be paid to children, especially in this year that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is a good occasion for serious reflection on the steps taken to protect the welfare of our little ones and their social and intellectual development, as well as their physical, psychological and spiritual growth. Here I cannot refrain from speaking of one of the plagues of our time, which sadly has also involved some members of the clergy. The abuse of minors is one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable. Such abuse inexorably sweeps away the best of what human life holds out for innocent children, and causes irreparable and lifelong damage. The Holy See and the Church as a whole are working to combat and prevent these crimes and their concealment, in order to ascertain the truth of the facts involving ecclesiastics and to render justice to minors who have suffered sexual violence aggravated by the abuse of power and conscience. My meeting with the episcopates of the entire world next February is meant to be a further step in the Churchs efforts to shed full light on the facts and to alleviate the wounds caused by such crimes. It is painful to note that in our societies, so often marked by fragile family situations, we see an increase of violence also with regard to women, whose dignity was emphasized by the Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, published thirty years ago by Pope Saint John Paul II. Faced with the bane of physical and psychological abuse of women, there is an urgent need to recover correct and balanced forms of relationship, based on respect and mutual recognition, wherein each person can express in an authentic way his or her own identity. At the same time, the promotion of certain forms of non-differentiation between the genders risks distorting the very essence of manhood and womanhood. Concern for those who are most vulnerable impels us also to reflect on another serious problem of our time, namely the condition of workers. Unless adequately protected, work ceases to be a means of human self-realization and becomes a modern form of slavery. A hundred years ago saw the establishment of the International Labour Organization, which has sought to promote suitable working conditions and to increase the dignity of workers themselves. Faced with the challenges of our own time, first of all increased technological growth, which eliminates jobs, and the weakening of economic and social guarantees for workers, I express my hope that the International Labour Organization will continue to be, beyond partisan interests, an example of dialogue and concerted effort to achieve its lofty objectives. In this mission, it too is called, together with other agencies of the international community, to confront the evil of child labour and new forms of slavery, as well as a progressive decrease in the value of wages, especially in developed countries, and continued discrimination against women in the workplace. To be a bridge between peoples and builders of peace In his address before the United Nations, Saint Paul VI clearly indicated the primary goal of that international Organization. In his words: You are working to unite nations, to associate states to bring them together. You are a bridge between peoples... It is enough to recall that the blood of millions, countless unheard-of sufferings, useless massacres and frightening ruins have sanctioned the agreement that unites you with an oath that ought to change the future history of the world: never again war! Never again war! It is peace, peace, that has to guide the destiny of the nations of all mankind! [And] as you well know, peace is not built merely by means of politics and a balance of power and interests. It is built with the mind, with ideas, with works of peace.[9] In the course of the past year, there have been some significant signs of peace, starting with the historic agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which puts an end to twenty years of conflict and restores diplomatic relations between the two countries. Also, the agreement signed by the leaders of South Sudan, enabling the resumption of civil coexistence and the renewed functioning of national institutions, represents a sign of hope for the African continent, where grave tensions and widespread poverty persist. I follow with special concern the developing situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I express my hope that the country can regain the reconciliation it has long awaited and undertake a decisive journey towards development, thus ending the ongoing state of insecurity affecting millions of people, including many children. To that end, respect for the result of the electoral process is a determining factor for a sustainable peace. I likewise express my closeness to all those suffering from fundamentalist violence, especially in Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and from continued internal tensions in Cameroon, which not rarely sow death even among civilians. Overall, we should note that Africa, beyond such dramatic situations, also shows great positive potential, grounded in its ancient culture and its traditional spirit of hospitality. An example of practical solidarity between nations is seen in the opening of their frontiers by different countries, in order generously to receive refugees and displaced persons. Appreciation should be shown for the fact that in many states we see the growth of peaceful coexistence between the followers of different religions and the promotion of joint initiatives of solidarity. In addition, the implementation of inclusive policies and the progress of democratic processes are proving effective in many regions for combating absolute poverty and promoting social justice. As a result, the support of the international community becomes all the more urgent for favouring the development of infrastructures, the growth of prospects for future generations, and the emancipation of the most vulnerable sectors of society. Positive signs are arriving from the Korean Peninsula. The Holy See regards favourably the dialogues in course and expresses the hope that they can also deal with the more complex issues in a constructive attitude and thus lead to shared and lasting solutions capable of ensuring a future of development and cooperation for the whole Korean people and for the entire region. I express a similar hope for beloved Venezuela, that peaceful institutional means can be found to provide solutions to the ongoing political, social and economic crisis, means that can make it possible to help all those suffering from the tensions of recent years, and to offer all the Venezuelan people a horizon of hope and peace. The Holy See expresses the hope too that dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians will resume, so that an agreement at last can be reached and a response given to the legitimate aspirations of both peoples by ensuring the coexistence of two states and the attainment of a long awaited and desired peace. A united commitment on the part of the international community is extremely important and necessary for attaining this goal, as also for promoting peace in the entire region, particularly in Yemen and Iraq, while at the same time ensuring that necessary humanitarian assistance is provided to all those in need. Rethinking our common destiny Finally, I would mention a fourth feature of multilateral diplomacy: it invites us to rethink our common destiny. Paul VI put it in these terms: We have to get used to a new way of thinking about mans community life and about the pathways of history and the destinies of the world The hour has come to think back over our common origin, our history, our common destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never been as necessary as it is today, in an age marked by such great human progress. For the danger comes neither from progress nor from science The real danger comes from man, who has at his disposal ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to bring about ruin as they are to achieve lofty conquests.[10] In the context of that time, the Pope was referring essentially to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Arms, especially the terrible arms that modern science has provided you, engender bad dreams, feed evil sentiments, create nightmares, hostilities and dark resolutions, even before they cause any victims and ruins. They call for enormous expenses. They interrupt projects of solidarity and of useful labour. They warp the outlook of nations.[11] It is painful to note that not only does the arms trade seem unstoppable, but that there is in fact a widespread and growing resort to arms, on the part both of individuals and states. Of particular concern is the fact that nuclear disarmament, generally called for and partially pursued in recent decades is now yielding to the search for new and increasingly sophisticated and destructive weapons. Here I want to reiterate firmly that we cannot fail to be genuinely concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of any employment of nuclear devices. If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned. For they exist in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only the parties in conflict but the entire human race. International relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms. Weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, create nothing but a false sense of security. They cannot constitute the basis for peaceful coexistence between members of the human family, which must rather be inspired by an ethics of solidarity.[12] Rethinking our common destiny in the present context also involves rethinking our relationship with our planet. This year too, immense distress and suffering caused by heavy rains, flooding, fires, earthquakes and drought have struck the inhabitants of different regions of the Americas and Southeast Asia. Hence, among the issues urgently calling for an agreement within the international community are care for the environment and climate change. In this regard, also in the light of the consensus reached at the recent international Conference on Climate Change (COP24) held in Katowice, I express my hope for a more decisive commitment on the part of states to strengthening cooperation for urgently combating the worrisome phenomenon of global warming. The earth belongs to everyone, and the consequences of its exploitation affect all the peoples of the world, even if certain regions feel those consequences more dramatically. Among the latter is the Amazon region, which will be at the centre of the forthcoming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held in the Vatican next October. While chiefly discussing paths of evangelization for the people of God, it will certainly deal with environmental issues in the context of their social repercussions. Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. Within a few months, an end would come to the last legacy of the Second World War: the painful division of Europe decided at Yalta and the Cold War. The countries east of the Iron Curtain recovered freedom after decades of oppression, and many of them set out on the path that would lead to membership in the European Union. In the present climate, marked by new centrifugal tendencies and the temptation to erect new curtains, may Europe not lose its awareness of the benefits the first of which is peace ushered in by the journey of friendship and rapprochement between peoples begun in the postwar period. Finally, I would like to mention yet another anniversary. On 11 February ninety years ago, the Vatican City State came into being as a result of the signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy. This concluded the lengthy period of the Roman Question that followed the taking of Rome and the end of the Papal States. With the Lateran Treaty, the Holy See was able to have at its use that small portion of material territory indispensable for the exercise of the spiritual power entrusted to men for the sake of mankind,[13] as Pius XI stated. With the Concordat, the Church was once more able to contribute fully to the spiritual and material growth of Rome and Italy as a whole, a country rich in history, art and culture, which Christianity had contributed to building. On this anniversary, I assure the Italian people of a special prayer, so that, in fidelity to their proper traditions, they may keep alive the spirit of fraternal solidarity that has long distinguished them. To you, dear Ambassadors and distinguished guests here present, and to your countries, I offer cordial good wishes that the New Year will see a strengthening of the bonds of friendship uniting us and renewed efforts to promote that peace to which our world aspires. Thank you! In one portion of his speech to the Diplomatic Corps on Monday, Pope Francis emphasizes the purpose of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the Peoples Republic of China. By Andrea Tornielli In his speech on the "State of the World" seen through the eyes of the Holy See, Pope Francis dedicated several significant lines to the signing of the Provisional Agreement with the Peoples Republic of China. His words are important because they bring out once again the intention underlying the Holy Sees long-standing commitment to a lengthy and thoughtful institutional dialogue. The first significant fruit of this dialogue is represented by the Agreement signed in Beijing on 22 September 2018 by the Holy Sees Under-Secretary for Relations with States, Antoine Camilleri, and by Chinas Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Chao. Recent Popes and those who work with them have been committed, not to political or diplomatic goals, but to fostering the unity of the Catholic Church in China and to unity between the Bishops of China and the Successor of Peter. In other words, they have sought to guarantee the essential elements necessary for the life of Catholic communities in China. Pope Francis recalled in his speech to the Diplomatic Corps that he had previously readmitted the remaining official Bishops ordained without pontifical mandate into full ecclesial communion, urging them to work generously for the reconciliation of Chinese Catholics and for a renewed effort of evangelization. For the first time in many years, all the pastors of the Catholic Church in China are in communion with the Bishop of Rome. One sign of this full communion was confirmed by the participation of two bishops from mainland China at the Synod on Young People. Pope Francis showed visible emotion as he greeted them during the inaugural Mass on the steps of St Peter's Basilica. The final remarks of the paragraph dedicated to China in the Popes address to diplomats should also be underlined: It is to be hoped that further contacts regarding the application of the signed Provisional Agreement will help resolve questions that remain open and make needed room for an effective enjoyment of religious freedom. Once again, we can conclude that which is implicit in the title of the Agreement itself: that this is a first, historic, and fundamental step along a path which is not concluded and which will require more time. An understanding was reached regarding nominations of new Bishops, as was announced in September. However, much concrete work is yet to be done, in order to resolve the various delicate questions that remain open. One such regards the case of clandestine Bishops who have not yet been recognized by the Chinese Government: an activity in which the Holy See is deeply engaged and whose sole objective is the unity of the Church and the possibility for millions of Chinese Catholics to profess their faith in full communion with the Pope. Photo provided by the China National Space Administration on Jan. 3, 2019 shows Yutu-2, China's lunar rover, leaving a trace after touching the surface of the far side of the moon. China's lunar rover, Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, left the first ever "footprint" from a human spacecraft on the far side of the moon late at night on Thursday, after it separated from the lander smoothly. The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent back to the Earth via the relay satellite "Queqiao", the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. Launched on Dec. 8, 2018, China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed on the far side of the moon on Thursday morning. (Xinhua) BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-4 probe has started the exploration on the far side of the moon thanks to the relay satellite that provides a communication link with ground control. The relay satellite, named Queqiao, meaning Magpie Bridge, after a Chinese legend, was launched on May 21, 2018, and became the first communication satellite operating in the halo orbit around the second Lagrangian (L2) point of the earth-moon system, nearly 500,000 km from the earth. The maximum distance between the satellite and the Chang'e-4 probe on the far side of the moon is 79,000 km. The satellite processes data from the probe and transmits it to earth, said Sun Ji, a designer of the satellite from the China Academy of Space Technology. The satellite can stay in its orbit for a long time due to its relatively low fuel consumption, as the earth's and moon's gravity balances its orbital motion, said Zhang Lihua, chief designer of the satellite. While in orbit, it can "see" both the earth and the far side of the moon. From earth, the orbit looks like a halo on the moon, said Zhang. The concept of deploying a relay satellite in the halo orbit was first put forward by U.S. space experts in the 1960s, but was realized by Chinese space engineers. "We will let Queqiao work as long as possible. It could also provide communication for probes from other countries if they intend to explore the moon's far side within the lifetime of the satellite," said Ye Peijian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a senior space expert. "And that will be a Chinese contribution made to the world," Ye said. The relay satellite will also be used for scientific and technological experiments. It has a low-frequency radio spectrometer, jointly developed by Dutch and Chinese scientists, to help astronomers "listen" to the deeper reaches of the cosmos. It also carries a reflector developed by the Sun Yat-sen University, in south China's Guangdong Province, to conduct the world's longest laser-ranging test between the satellite and an observatory on the ground. Researchers hope to use the cameras on the satellite to capture asteroids hitting the far side of the moon, said Sun Ji. "It's extremely difficult, but we hope to try," Sun said. To control the cost of the Chang'e-4 mission, the relay satellite was designed to be relatively small, weighing about 400 kg. Chinese experts designed several antennas for it, including one shaped like an umbrella with a diameter of almost 5 meters. "We learned from textile technologists and watchmakers in the development of the metal mesh and ribs on the antenna," Zhang said. "It must endure temperature changes of more than 300 degrees centigrade. We conducted countless experiments for that." His team had just 30 months to develop the satellite, putting them under tremendous pressure. To promote public interest in space exploration, the China National Space Administration invited people to write down their wishes for lunar and space exploration, and the relay satellite carries the names of tens of thousands of participants and their messages. Pope Francis in his New Year address to members of the Diplomatic Corps has spoken passionately and positively about the African continent. Paul Samasumo Vatican City In the course of the past year, there have been some significant signs of peace, starting with the historic agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which puts an end to twenty years of conflict and restores diplomatic relations between the two countries. Also, the agreement signed by the leaders of South Sudan, enabling the resumption of civil coexistence and the renewed functioning of national institutions, represents a sign of hope for the African continent, where grave tensions and widespread poverty persist," Pope Francis told diplomats accredited to the Holy See in the address. Concern for DRC Pope Francis said he was, however, following with special concern the developing situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and expressed his hope that the country would regain the reconciliation it has long awaited and undertake a decisive journey towards development, thus ending the ongoing state of insecurity affecting millions of people, including many children. Pope Francis has urged respect for the result of the recent presidential election. Congo is yet to announce the winner of the election. Closeness with those suffering fundamentalist violence I likewise express my closeness to all those suffering from fundamentalist violence, especially in Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and from continued internal tensions in Cameroon, which not rarely sow death even among civilians, said the Holy Father. Africa shows positive potential and is grounded in ancient culture Pope Francis was emphatic that overall, beyond dramatic situations, Africa shows great positive potential and was rooted in its ancient culture and its traditional spirit of hospitality. An example of practical solidarity between nations is seen in the opening of their frontiers by different countries, in order generously to receive refugees and displaced persons. Appreciation should be shown for the fact that in many states we see the growth of peaceful coexistence between the followers of different religions and the promotion of joint initiatives of solidarity. In addition, the implementation of inclusive policies and the progress of democratic processes are proving effective in many regions for combating absolute poverty and promoting social justice. As a result, the support of the international community becomes all the more urgent for favouring the development of infrastructures, the growth of prospects for future generations, and the emancipation of the most vulnerable sectors of society, the Pope told ambassadors. Gettysburg, PA (17325) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High 78F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear skies. Low 58F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Valdosta, GA (31601) Today Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High near 95F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Mostly cloudy. Low 73F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th January, 2019) The actions of Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, who has granted autocephaly to the recently created Orthodox Church of Ukraine, come as a violation of centuries-old principle of conciliarity and may entail major schism in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Pec and Serbian Patriarch Irinej told the Pechat newspaper in an interview on Sunday. Earlier in the day, Constantinople handed over an independence decree to the head of the unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which does not include the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). "We already have one major schism because of the papacy as a deviation from the spirit of conciliarity the schism between the Christian East and the West, which has lasted for centuries. Because of this new eastern model of the papacy a new major schism may occur," Patriarch Irinej was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The patriarch of Serbia also expressed hope that Constantinople would find the strength not to pursue the path it had taken, damaging the unity of the Orthodox church. "The only possible way out of this deep crisis is a return to the principle of conciliarity and centuries-old canonical order ... to the responsible pan-Orthodox problem-solving instead of an overemphasized insistence on one's own primacy and on one's own special and exclusive privileges and powers ... from the position of the 'first without equals' instead of the position of the 'first among equals,' because this via facti [self-willed decision] abolishes the hitherto inviolable Orthodox principle of conciliarity," the patriarch added. In a separate interview with a Serbian television channel, tv Hram, the Serbian cleric said that Patriarch Bartholomew had acted unilaterally, ignoring other independent churches and hurting his own standing in their eyes. "The Constantinopole patriarch found the most tragic solution. I think it is a pity that this decision of the incumbent patriarch on Ukraine has led to this and, most importantly, has called his authority and the Constantinople Patriarchate's reputation into question," the Serbian patriarch said. Patriarch Irinej suggested that all independent Orthodox churches should have been consulted on how to move forward on Ukraine. "Patriarch Bartholomew did not consult anyone but seemingly made an agreement with other powers to try and solve the issue by himself. As we can see, this decision has led to a catastrophe, which legalized and deepened the new split in Ukraine," he added. In December, a unification council was held in Kiev, which united two non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. While the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate officially refused to take part in the council, it was attended by two UOC-MP bishops, who were later defrocked by their church. The Russian Orthodox Church has refused to recognize the results of the unification council and Constantinople's decision to give independence to the Ukrainian church, insisting that Constantinople legalized schism and adding that the day when the tomos was signed was a "tragic" one for the global Orthodoxy. Under the granted tomos, the unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine will have jurisdiction exclusively over Ukraine and will not be authorized to appoint bishops and establish its parishes abroad, making it effectively dependent on Constantinople. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Whether Orthodox Christmas will be recognized as an official holiday in Estonia depends on the results of the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 3, Vladimir Velman, an Estonian parliamentarian from the ruling Centre Party, told Sputnik on Monday. TALLINN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2019) Whether Orthodox Christmas will be recognized as an official holiday in Estonia depends on the results of the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 3, Vladimir Velman, an Estonian parliamentarian from the ruling Centre Party, told Sputnik on Monday. This topic for discussion emerged when on Sunday Tallinn Mayor Taavi Aas, who is also a member of the Centre Party, wished Orthodox believers a merry Christmas and said that Orthodox Christmas should become an official holiday in Estonia. "There's understanding in the Centre Party that Orthodox Christmas should be made an official holiday. The Social Democratic Party and the recently established Estonia 200 party could support this idea if they are elected to the parliament. If centrists gain very strong positions at the elections, then it will be possible to do it, and if they don't, then this will remain pure talks," Velman said. He recalled that the Centre Party had submitted to the parliament a bill suggesting to make Orthodox Christmas a holiday several times already, but had failed to gain support of the majority of parliamentarians. Velman added that the idea had not been included into the coalition agreement between his party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Isamaa (Fatherland) party as Isamaa did not back it. "Today, [Isamaa Secretary General] Priit Sibul has confirmed this, claiming that his party was against increasing the quantity of holidays," Velman specified. The Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate unites 37 parishes with around 200,000 Orthodox believers. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2019) The United Nations' new special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, will take office on Monday, replacing Staffan de Mistura. The date was announced by de Mistura last month. The Italian said his successor would make a fresh start mediating a way out of the Syrian crisis, currently in its eighth year. The 63-year-old Norwegian is a veteran diplomat who has served in both UN and government roles, most recently as Norway's ambassador to China. The United Nations said in a statement that it expected Pedersen to bring decades of political and diplomatic experience to his new position. A celebration of the life for John Robert "Bobby" Brown, 72, will be held at his residence on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, at 10 a.m. Bobby was born in Dublin, but his home was Baldwin County. He was predeceased by his parents, John Preston "Pete" Brown and Virginia Watson Brown. He was retired Next week: The Count and Countess Nicol and their palace in Montreal. Aurore Eaton is a historian and writer in Manchester, contact her at auroreeaton@aol.com or at www.facebook.com/AuroreEatonWriter. AFTER NINE PEOPLE were shot to death by a public transit worker, who then killed himself in San Jose, the latest mass murder in America, California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke for many on the eve of this Memorial Day weekend. The intent, according to city planner Dean Trefethen, is to allow people with small camps to be able to rent them out during the summer season. For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. The positions of the Ukrainian troops came under fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted four attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas on January 7, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action (WIA). Read alsoJFO: Russian-led forces mount five attacks on Ukraine army in past day "Russian occupation forces violated the ceasefire in Donbas four times from 00:00 to 18:00 Kyiv time As a result, one serviceman of the Joint Forces was wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 18:00 Kyiv time on Monday. "The positions of the Ukrainian troops came under fire from grenade launchers of various systems, heavy machine guns and small arms near the Vilnyi village in the Luhansk sector, outside the village of Luhanske close to the town of Svitlodarsk, near the village of Berezove in the Donetsk sector, and in the area of Pavlopil in the Mariupol sector," the report said. Ukrainian military continue monitoring the enemy along the contact line, while adhering to the terms for a complete ceasefire. The situation in the Joint Forces Operation zone remains under control of the Ukrainian troops, the press center wrote. According to Ukrainian intelligence, one occupier was killed and another one was wounded. Russian-led military forces mounted five attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, in the past day; no Ukrainian army casualties were reported. Read alsoRussian proxies in Donbas continue hampering activities of OSCE monitors "There were no Joint Forces casualties in the past day," Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) press service said in its morning update on Facebook on January 7. "Our troops' strongholds were fired upon from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms near the Vilnyi village in the Luhansk sector, outside [the village of] Novomykhailivka and [the towns of] Maryinka and Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk sector, as well as near [the village of] Hnutove in the Mariupol sector," the press service said. In response to enemy provocations, units of the Joint Forces returned fire, using common weapons. According to Ukrainian intelligence, one occupier was killed and another one was wounded. Since Monday midnight, Russian-led forces have not opened fire. As was earlier reported, Russian armed formations deliberately slowed down the passage of citizens through the line of demarcation at entry/exit checkpoints with Russian-occupied Donbas, which caused crowds and traffic congestion in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Among them are social activists and Ukrainian sailors, prisoners of war. Head of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olha Skrypnyk says a total of 37 people were arrested for political reasons in Russian-annexed Crimea in 2018. Read alsoCrimean Tatar activists bring food, clothes to captive Ukrainian sailors in Moscow "Thirty seven people were deprived of their liberty within politically motivated cases, including 13 civilians. Among them are activists such as Server Mustafayev, Enver Bekirov, and Yevhen Karakash. Another 24 people are Ukrainian sailors, prisoners of war," she said, as reported by the Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske on January 7. In addition, at least six people were arrested in administrative cases in Crimea, she said. Skrypnyk also added that Russian-backed authorities in the occupied Crimea opened 44 new criminal proceedings in 2018 on grounds of political motivation. As was earlier reported, unknown individuals in Russian-annexed Crimea attacked Crimean Tatar activist Riza Asanov while he was filming a video report about the controversial Taurida highway on the peninsula. UNIAN memo. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin. The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began. All 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia declared themselves to be prisoners of war. Deputy Minister of Justice and Ukraine's Commissioner for ECHR Affairs, Ivan Lishchyna, says the Ukrainian government has lodged a lawsuit against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the violation of the Ukrainian sailors' rights who were captured by Russia near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea on November 25. "Application No. 55855/18 has been filed today, January 7," he wrote on Facebook. Read alsoU.S. may impose new sanctions on Russia, arm Ukraine after Kerch Ex-ambassador Herbst The document is related to the fact that the Russian Federation violated the rights of 24 Ukrainian sailors amid an illegal attack on Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait on November 25. As a result, the sailors were arrested with wounded crew members and prosecuted in Russia. On December 27, all 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia declared themselves to be prisoners of war (POW). The Kremlin responded that there were no "Ukrainians, prisoners of war" in Russia. As UNIAN reported earlier, on the morning of November 25, Russia blocked the passage to the Kerch Strait for the Ukrainian tugboat "Yany Kapu" and two armored naval boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol," which were on a scheduled re-deployment from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. The Ukraine Navy Command noted that the Russian side had been informed of the plans to re-deploy the vessels in advance in accordance with international standards to ensure the safety of navigation. The Russian coast guard ship "Don" rammed the Ukrainian tugboat, damaging the Ukrainian vessel. As the Ukrainian boats were heading back in the Odesa direction after being rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them. All 24 crew members on board were captured and later remanded in custody for two months, being charged with "illegal border crossing" (the sailors are facing up to six years in prison). Three crewmen were wounded in the attack. Russian-controlled "courts" in occupied Crimea ruled that all 24 detainees should be remanded in custody, after which they were transferred to the Moscow-based Lefortovo and Matrosskaya Tishina detention centers. The Rams weren't ranked in the top 10 for Division 3 at the end of the regular season, so they have nothing to lose Tuesday at Blair Field. The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the key to the country's independence, the head of state said. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says Ukraine, with the creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has finally severed ties with Russia. Read alsoTomos of autocephaly being exhibited in St Sophia Cathedral on Orthodox Christmas (Video) "The creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the pledge of our independence. This is the foundation of our spiritual freedom. We've severed the last ties that connected us with Moscow and its fantasies about Ukraine as the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is not and won't be anymore," he said at the Christmas liturgy in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv where the tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was shown to the public. As UNIAN reported, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on January 5, 2019, signed the tomos in his residence in Istanbul, which proclaims the autocephaly of the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The tomos says that the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognizes a canonical, autocephalous, self-governing Orthodox Church within the limits of the politically formed territory of Ukraine. The document also sets out the basic principles for the functioning of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. On January 7, the tomos was exhibited for the public at St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv. Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Al-qunun is greeted by Thai immigration authorities at a hotel inside Suvarnabhumi. Reuters The Thai authorities have granted UNHCR access to Saudi national, Rahaf Mohammed Al-qunun, at Bangkok airport to assess her need for international refugee protection. UNHCR has been following developments closely and immediately sought access from the Thai authorities to meet with Ms. Mohammed Al-qunun, 18, to assess her need for international protection. The Saudi woman told human rights groups and the media that she was stopped at Bangkok airport in transit from Kuwait and had her passport taken from her. She claimed that she fled her family fearing for her life and had been planning to head to Australia where she hoped to seek asylum. UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement. Non-refoulement is an international principle that prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. This principle is recognized as customary international law, and is also enshrined in Thailands other treaty obligations. For reasons of confidentiality and protection, we will not be in a position to comment on the details of the meeting. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip have attended the opening of the new Palanca-Mayaky-Udobne checkpoint on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border, Ukrinform's correspondent in Moldova said. "Investment in this important project for our countries is being made, first and foremost, in the interests of citizens of Moldova and Ukraine. The opening of the new joint checkpoint Palanca-Mayaky-Udobne, as previously emphasized by our Ukrainian colleagues, will help double the transport and passenger flow," Filip said. The Moldovan prime minister also said that in addition to the amenities for citizens, the new checkpoint also has comfortable conditions for the work of Moldovan and Ukrainian border guards and customs officers. Filip emphasized the importance of one more checkpoint opened earlier at the central, Transdniestrian section of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border - Kuchurhan-Pervomaisc. He thanked Ukraine for close cooperation during the opening of the checkpoint at the Transdniestrian section of the border, owing to which, for the first time since independence, Moldova has established control over this border section. This is already the sixth joint customs and border control point on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. Militants launched five attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in Donbas over the past day. The weapons banned under the Minsk agreements were not used, the press service of the JFO Headquarters reported. The enemy used grenade launchers, heavy machine gun and small arms to shell Ukrainian troops near Vilne (70km south-west of Donetsk), Novomykhailivka (28km south-west of Donetsk), Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk), Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk) and Hnutove (19km north-west of Mariupol), reads the report. No casualties among Ukrainian troops were reported over the past day. According to the intelligence, one invader was killed and one more was wounded on January 6. Today, the enemy has not opened fire yet. Despite the deterioration of weather conditions, the Ukrainian soldiers continue to reliably control the actions of the enemy along the contact line, while fully adhering to the ceasefire. Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has again clarified its stance against the use of 1080 poison to control pest species like possums and rats. A bag of 1080 pellets Source: 1 NEWS The use of 1080 has increasingly become a contentious issue in New Zealand, with several protests carried out last year by anti-1080 groups and the SPCA has been vocal about its opposition to 1080 for several years. In a post published yesterday, the SPCA wrote that it remains strongly against the use of sodium fluoroacetate, which is widely used by the Department of Conservation, due to the pain and suffering it causes to animals. "We would like to see a ban on the use of poisons such as 1080, because these substances cause such intense and prolonged suffering to animals that we believe their use can never be justified," the group wrote. "There should be greater emphasis on looking for solutions that would enable species who cannot be completely removed to co-exist in the environment instead. "SPCA also encourages the research and development of humane alternatives to species control, including the replacement of lethal methods with humane non-lethal methods, such as limiting reproductive abilities. "The welfare of all animals should be viewed equally, and people should recognise that they deserve protection from suffering pain or distress, regardless of the species or where they came from. "Whether an animal is native or introduced, any measures taken to manage their impact or numbers must recognize that these animals are sentient and have the capacity to experience pain, suffering, or distress, regardless of whether they are viewed or classed as a pest." FOREST AND BIRD LASHES OUT AT SPCA'S 'FLAWED LOGIC' Forest and Bird CEO Kevin Hague responded to the statement today, calling it a blow to the SPCA's credibility. Mr Hague said the SPCA has failed to understand how nature works in the wild, having only treated domestic animals such as cats or dogs, and said they will be seeking a meeting with the society to discuss the issue. "While the idea of stoats and rats peacefully coexisting with native birds sounds great, the reality is that an estimated 25 million native birds, eggs and chicks are cruelly eaten alive by introduced predators every year in New Zealand," Mr Hague said. "This is the terrible death that countless native animals across New Zealand suffer every night. "The SPCAs position on 1080 is a blow to their credibility. Its sad to see them promoting flawed logic whose outcome is the extinction through being eaten alive of treasured animals like our kiwi, kereru, and kokako. "Without scientific, ethical and precision pest control, of which 1080 is a key tool, there is no way to protect our native animals from the overwhelming numbers of introduced predators. "Giving up 1080 would lead to an ecocide of huge proportions in New Zealand, and the SPCA need to understand this is the outcome of their pest control position." 1080 A 'CRITICAL TOOL', CONSERVATION MINISTER SAYS Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has supported the use of 1080, saying last month that it is a "critical tool" in the fight against species which damage the environment and attack native species. In 2017-18, $4.8 million was provided for 1080 alternative research, and that investment increased to over $7 million in 2018-19. "The best alternative at the moment is trapping, which is already used extensively across New Zealand," Ms Sage said in Parliament in December. "The Government is supporting a range of research into different compounds, including things like PAPP, which is very effective for stoats; things like sodium nitrate; microencapsulated zinc phosphate paste; and also into traps like self-resetting traps," Ms Sage said. When asked if she supported or saw a future for alternatives to 1080, Ms Sage said "absolutely". PokerStars does not currently allow those from Colorado, Utah and New Mexico to play for real money on their website. Alternatives include Americas Cardroom , available to play for real money in all 50 states. They also offer a generous welcome bonus with a maximum of $1000. 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Americas Cardroom is one of the few sites that has long served the U.S. market and is currently offering a $15 million guaranteed online tournament with a $1 million first place prize . Americas Cardroom tends to rank as the 8th largest online poker site in the world. It also offers a sportsbook and online casino. Keep in mind, you can also play for free to hone yours poker skills, especially if just starting out. Looking for a sportsbook? Americas Cardroom has one! Join Here - Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com A 36 year-old man dies of COVID-19 after calling relatives in the wee hours of the morning saying his oxygen was out and there was no one around. His widow, also COVID positive is calling on you to get vaccinated. It has become a routine national embarrassment for our federal representatives to squabble, nit-pick and grandstand to the point of failing their primary duty: keeping government in operation. Once again, our federal government is without a working budget and is partially shut down as a result. Since Dec. 21, thousands of workers are working without pay or are on furlough. Important work isnt getting done. How did it become acceptable to shutter government agencies to force partisan agendas? President Trump took ownership of the shutdown ahead of time, saying it was the only way he could force $5 billion in funding for a wall across the southern border, but when complex systems fail, theres plenty of blame to go around. Its everyones job to fix it. Congressional Republicans, initially in control of both houses of Congress, could not rally enough support for a budget that everyone would agree to. Democrats, now in charge of the U.S. House, remain dedicated to blocking Trumps wall, even at the cost of a continued shutdown. For many, there is little direct impact. Screenings are still happening at airports, the military remains on the job and federal criminal cases are moving forward. Once the jury convicted Glaub, the court said it didnt need to consider the First Amendment because the jury had determined that his intent was to defraud. The 10th Circuit upheld this outcome. First, it said that it wasnt up to the jury to decide whether Glaubs actions were free speech because free speech is an issue of law for the judge, not one of fact for the jury. The appeals court then said that because the jury found [Glaubs documents] were false claims, Glaubs speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Take a moment to consider how absurd the courts ruling is as a matter of common sense. The judge essentially said he couldnt address the free-speech claim until the jury ruled then he said the jury had decided the free-speech claim so he didnt have to address it. That cannot be right. In 1969, with construction of Tulsas Inner Dispersal Loop dragging on for more than a decade, Oklahoma Congressman Ed Edmondson hosted a swanky dinner party at the Summit Club, situated on the top floor of a downtown skyscraper with a birds-eye view of the half-finished highway. The guests included several other members of Congress, including not coincidentally U.S. Rep. John Kluczynski, who served as chairman of the roads subcommittee overseeing federal highway funds. Edmondson made sure Kluczynski got a seat near the window and conveniently left the spot next to him vacant. Then Joseph Howell, a veteran newspaper reporter who worked for the Tulsa World and the Tulsa Tribune over the years, took advantage of the open seat and sat down to pester Kluczynski with questions about the IDL and why Tulsa couldnt get enough funding to finish it. The north and west sides of the loop were part of the interstate highway system and had already been completed, with 90 percent of the costs covered by the federal government. The rest of the loop, however, was relying on state and local money. And Tulsa couldnt come up with the $10 million it needed to finish the project. For sale will be roughly 300 parcels of real estate on which property taxes have not been paid for at least three years. Minimum bids are set at two-thirds of the assessed value or the total amount of the published taxes, interest, costs and fees, whichever is less. A year after congregants of Tulsas three Eastern Orthodox churches braved the rain and mud on the Arkansas River, the tight-knit community came together at a new location for the Blessing of the Waters on Sunday. More than 100 congregants of St. Antony, Holy Trinity and Holy Apostles Orthodox Christian churches met at Centennial Park east of downtown, the ceremony previously held along the banks of the Arkansas River. The Rev. George Eber of St. Antony Orthodox Christian Church said it was nice to move the ceremony into a tighter, more condensed space inside the park. I think it helps everybody realize there are more of us than we think there are, Eber said. Sometimes a lot of the public will come out. The Blessing of the Waters is part of celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Its done so that the blessing is carried around the world through the water. In the past, the congregations put a large cross made of ice into the Arkansas River, but Eber said they opted for several smaller ice crosses this year for Centennial Parks pond. Children had dozens of handheld ice crosses containing flower petals to throw into the pond. Born in 1945, Raila Odinga is one of the most significant politicians in Kenya who has survived several political storms and gone through almost all the four political regimes in the country. His long standing experience in politics has often seen him being given several names that his supporters and Kenyans in general have gotten used to calling him. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: I'm not interested in 2022 politics - Raila Odinga Raila Odinga wearing his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party attires. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Raila Odinga - News and biography facts 2018 1. Agwambo Agwambo is Luo term that is used to refer to someone who has some supernatural powers that differentiate him from other human beings. This term is synonymous given Raila's political muscles particularly at his backyard in the Nyanza region where he commands huge support and those seeking to vie for any political seat in the region rely on his blessings to make it through. 2. Jakom Jakom is also a Luo term which refers to somebody who is holding the chairperson position, leading a group of followers or simply a person in position of power. Given he comes from the Luo community, this term is commonly used to identify him as the leader of the tribe, leader of Opposition and ODM party. 3. Baba Baba has been one of the long standing title that Kenyans have used to refer to the political enigma given his long history in politics. The name is used symbolically as an elder who guides his followers and whatever he says is what they follow. Raila, who was born on January, 7, 1945, to former late vice president Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Mary Juma (also late) turned 74 years old. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Breakdown of what Raila Odingas international job entails 4. RAO RAO has been in existent for as long as Raila Odinga has lived in politics since his early years in politics. RAO is an abbreviation of his official name Raila Amolo Odinga. 5. People's President The title became famous after the controversial swearing in at Uhuru Park where Raila Odinga was declared the people's president despite the fact that he lost in a hotly contested presidential election in August 2017. Some of the people who administered the oath included the vocal leader of the defunct National Resistance Movement (NRM) Miguna Miguna and Ruaraka MP Otieno Kajwang'. Raila Odinga holding a bible during the controversial inauguration as the people's president at Uhuru Park, Nairobi. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kenyans flood Raila Odinga with birthday wishes as the opposition chief turns 74 6. Arap Mibei This is a Kalenjin term that refers to someone who helps one to cross over a river or water. In the context of Raila Odinga, this term is often used just as the Joshua term that is used to refer to Raila as one who helped people cross the river. The term became synonymous during his narrations on his symbolic role in leading his followers to cross the biblical River Jordan during the 2017 General Elections. 7. Owadgi Akinyi Owadgi means a brother to, therefore, the term refers to a brother to Akinyi. Raila's sister Wenwa Akinyi Odinga Oranga is currently the Consul General at the Kenya Consulate in Los Angeles, USA. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news We are not guests in this country-Tuko TV Source: Breaking News - Sudi alleged Murathe was conspiring with Tuju to bring down Ruto - He claimed these two were being paid by political brokers to tarnish the DP's name - The MP called for election of party officials arguing this would restore order in the party - He was reacting to a spate of attacks that had been launched against Ruto by now resigned Murathe - Murathe had declared war against Ruto asking the DP to forget about his 2022 bid and retire Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi has warned the ongoing onslaught by the now former Jubilee Party Vice Chairman David Murathe against Deputy President William Ruto could reignite tribal animosity in Rift Valley. Sudi accused Murathe and Jubilee party's Secretary General Raphael Tuju of causing disharmony within the ruling party. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jubilee MP goes berserk, asks Uhuru to resign following Murathe's outbursts Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi warns the sustained attacks by former Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe against Deputy President William Ruto may cause violence. Photo: TUKO. Source: Original READ ALSO: Jubilee Vice Chair David Murathe resigns Speaking in Eldoret on Sunday, January 6, Sudi said the former vice chairman's utterances had the potential to cause mayhem and disharmony among the peaceful living communities residing in the Rift-Valley region. "Careless utterances like the ones David Murathe have been making can burn the country. We have been living peacefully and Murathe's statements are threatening to divide us," Sudi said. READ ALSO: Jubilee vice chairman says hes ready to block William Ruto from contesting for the presidency The vocal lawmaker, who is one of Ruto's close political allies and foot soldiers, accused Murathe of conspiring with the Jubilee party Secretary General to bring down the deputy president. He claimed the two, Murathe and Tuju, were being bankrolled by well known political brokers to tarnish Ruto's image. "Some brokers have been using Murathe and Tuju tarnish the image of the Deputy President but that will not work," Sudi said. READ ALSO: William Ruto says he is ready for 2022 without Uhurus endorsement The MP called on the top party officials to dissolve the leadership and order fresh elections of leaders in the party, arguing the move would restore order and harmony in the party. The legislator added they are in Jubilee party to stay and have no plans of creating any new party after URP and TNA were dissolved to form the ruling party. As indicated in previous reports by TUKO.co.ke, Murathe had declared war against Ruto's 2022 presidential ambition. The former Gatanga MP argued DP is part and parcel of the Presidency and therefore his term should end when the current president retires. "In effect, if he automatically becomes president without going for the mandate from mwananchi, what mandate does he have if not having been elected together with Uhuru? Can the president sack his deputy? He cannot because the Presidency is a pair. That is why Chapter 148 says you cannot run again. Na tutaenda mpaka Supreme Court, sisi hatuchezi na watu (we are not joking around, we will move to the Supreme Court)," he argued. Story by Kipkosgey Tuwei Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. When Uhuru, Ruto and Raila Met at State House - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - A fight ensued on Saturday evening between the son of the ODM official and the family of area assistant chief - The two disagreed over a 1.4 acre piece of land that both factions claim to be legitimate owners - According to the ODM Party official, he acquired the land after winning a court case that challenged his ownership - However, according to the local administrator, the land was illegally sold by his brother and the case was pending in court The son to Migori ODM Party Chairman Philip Makobongo is fighting for his dear life after he was involved in a fight over ownership of a 1.4 acre piece of land. TUKO.co.ke has learnt that Patrick Makobongo sustained serious machete wounds on the evening of Saturday, January 5, when a fight involving him and the son to area assistant chief Joseph Nyamanga ensued. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jubilee Vice Chair David Murathe resigns READ ALSO: Embattled Nairobi Speaker Beatrice Elachi abandons Ruto for Mudavadi According to the ODM official, his son was wounded by the family of the administrator which claims ownership of land he acquired legally, Citizen Digital reported on Sunday, January 6. He claimed that a court granted him ownership of the property after he successfully won a case contesting its ownership. READ ALSO: Female police officer attacked, badly injured by unknown person in Kayole However, according to Nyamanga, (assistant chief), the case is pending in court and that the ODM official procured it illegally from his brother. In December 2018, Nyamanga alleges a court had issued an order restraining both parties from stepping on the land before it ruled on the case. The injured son was admitted at Kisii Level V hospital and his father has since demanded that the government brings to book perpetrators of the act. Police in Rongo, Migori County have launched investigations into the incident. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. We are not guests in this country-Tuko TV. Source: Tuko Newspaper This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices. The partners at Dreyer Boyajian and LaMarche Safranko Law recently merged firms to become Dreyer Boyajian LaMarche Safranko, Attorneys at Law. THE Leader of the Opposition stepped way over the line last Saturday in a media release in which she sought to make comparisons between the current situation regarding last Wednesdays failed mass vaccine roll-out, and the 1990 attempted coup. National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds says theres no secrecy surrounding a small gift of Pfizer vaccines given to the National Security Ministry by the United States government. In a telephone interview with the Express yesterday, the minister said the small vaccine gift of 80 vials of Pfizer amounted to about 400 doses of the vaccine. However, the arrival of these vaccines generated curiosity in the country as to exactly how the batch came to Trinidad and the handover process as well as who exactly will benefit from the shots. THE Ministry of Health was aware of an incoming donation of 80 vials of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine just prior to its arrival in the country, but the necessary documents for the United States gift to the Ministry of National Security were up to yesterday not yet sorted. gspannu7@gmail.com Washington, January 7 In a surprise move, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1. Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now. The president of the World Bank has always been an American citizen nominated by the United States, which is the largest shareholder of this multilateral financial institution. It has been a great honour to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime, said Kim. Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim president effective February 1. The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity, he said. Serving as president and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege, Kim said. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com Washington, January 7 The United States is now planning to install a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall along its border with Mexico, President Donald Trump said on Sunday indicating his administration and the opposition Democratic party are closer to resolving their difference on the issue, which has led to a partial government shutdown for a fortnight now. We are now planning a steel barrier rather than concrete (wall). It is both stronger & less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the USA, Trump said Sunday afternoon. The presidential comment came soon after US Vice-President Mike Pence held a meeting with representatives of the top Democratic Congressional leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Trump described it as productive meeting. VP Mike Pence and group had a productive meeting with the Schumer and Pelosi representatives today. Many details of Border Security were discussed, he said. We've been in touch with a lot of people, and I informed my folks to say that we'll build a steel barrier. Steel. It'll be made out of steel. It'll be less obtrusive, and it'll be stronger. But it'll be less obtrusive, stronger, and we're able to use our great companies to make it, by using steel, Trump told reporters at the White House on his return from Camp David. So we're going to be doing a steel barrier, and that gives us great strength at the border, he said. Responding to a question, Trump said the opposition Democrats did not like the option of a concrete wall along the Mexico border, so he has offered them with a steel one. Trump argues that a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border is essential to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. The entry of illegal immigrants into the country in hundreds and thousands results in a big drain on the economy of the US running into billions. They don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel. Steel is fine. Steel is actually more expensive than concrete, but it will look beautiful and it's very strong. It's actually stronger, Trump told reporters explaining the reasons for moving towards a steel-based physical barrier rather than a concrete one. What we need is we need a strong border. We have criminals coming in. We have human traffickers coming in. We have drugs pouring in. We have things happening that you don't want to even know about. And it's been that way for decades, and we can't have it anymore, Trump said. Because of the strength of our economy -- the stronger it is -- it's probably the greatest economy we've ever had. And because of that, it's happening even more so. We have to stop it, he asserted. PTI ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Peshawar, January 6 The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the US in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venue to Qatar, Taliban officials said on Sunday, seeking to fend off Riyadhs push to include the Afghan government in talks. The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019. Leaders of the hardline Islamic militant group have rejected the Kabul governments offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favour of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table. We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month, a Taliban member based in Afghanistan said. The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia, he said. The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he said. Reuters editorial@tribune.com Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Phagwara, January 6 The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, in association with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will in 2020 launch the countrys first mission to study the chemical composition of Suns corona and various heat-generating reactions around it. While such missions are currently being undertaken by US space agency NASA, India will send out a coronagraph aboard Aditya-L1 satellite, the first Indian mission to study the Sun. Amit Kumar from the IIA, who is at an expo being organised by Indian Science Congress at Lovely Professional University, showed a laboratory model of the project and said the coronagraph in titanium (having less thermal expansion), weighing 175 kg, was being readied that will set out on a 1.5 million-km journey from the Earth. It has seven types of optical assemblies, including deflectors and cameras, which will create a spectrum that will help study the chemicals in the corona. We know that hydrogen and helium are largely present but there are some metals too, including calcium and iron. It will be positioned to face the Sun in such a way that artificial eclipse gets created and only corona light enters. We will study the reactions that lead to solar flares. We will also try to find out as to how long the Sun will give us warmth. The IIA scientists are also working on a 30-metre telescope (equal to a 100-foot mirror), which will have 156 times more collecting area than the Hubble Space Telescope, producing 12 times sharper image. The telescope is coming up in collaboration with the US, Canada, China and Japan. India has contributed Rs 1,500 crore to the project, in addition to providing 92 mirrors to be used in it. Telescope-control and dome-control softwares too are being created by the IIA in association with four other companies, including TCS and Honeywell. Kumar said the telescope would be placed atop a peak in Hawaii, US, and the mission is scheduled for 2027. The site has been chosen as it is a cold desert sans any pollution and the atmosphere there is very thin, suitable for the best view. The mission is to find Earth-sized, terrestrial, habitable planets around other stars, said the expert at the expo. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Patiala, January 6 The first draft for the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act is ready and will be adopted soon, said Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra, during the annual conference here at the Government Medical College. Mohindra requested cooperation from doctors of the Indian Medical Council and the Punjab Medical Council to implement the Act. Mohindra said, For the last two years, I have been under pressure to come out with the said legislature. I want full cooperation from the doctors fraternity since they are 80 per cent stakeholders in the Act. The Act will certainly come out, come what may. He said the patient-friendly Clinical Establishment Act would make all private clinical practitioners register themselves and maintain minimum standards of medical facilities. The Act will ensure quality healthcare and help in fixing the accountability of doctors, he said. The Act, the minister said, would ensure that clinical establishments charge rates of procedures and services as prescribed by the government. The minister said, There is a continuous mushrooming of private nursing homes, clinics and quacks in the state. A mere Class X-pass person is assisting doctors in clinics. Therefore, to put a check on the malpractices and negligence, we need to implement the Act. However, the Health Minister received strong reservations from doctors at the conference. Senior doctors said the Act would discourage doctors from using modern scientific medicines and illegalities would continue. Doctors said the government had already failed to implement the existing laws to regulate quackery. The minister assured doctors that it would be a very doctor-friendly Act and would benefit poor people. The patient-friendly Clinical Establishment Act will require all private clinical practitioners to register themselves and maintain minimum standards of medical facilities. It will ensure quality healthcare and fix accountability of doctors Brahm Mohindra, Health & Family Welfare Minister editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Barnala, January 6 After a meeting of the core committee of the AAP, its leaders, while speaking on the resignation of Sukhpal Singh Khaira from the party, said the AAP had got rid of an opportunist, who had always ditched everyone for his political gains. They also claimed that the remaining five rebel MLAs would soon return to them. Sources informed that during the meeting, nine MLAs, two MPs along with senior leaders of the party discussed how to make their January 20 rally, which would be presided over by the partys national convener Arvind Kejriwal, a grand success to set the ball rolling for the Lok Sabha elections. We want to clarify that we do not have any grudge against our remaining five rebel MLAs and, in fact, request all to come back to work hard for the development of Punjab under the party leadership. Khaira has always raised questions over the decisions of the party, be it appointing HS Phoolka as Leader of Opposition (LOP) or me as party president of Punjab unit. His fight is only for grabbing power and nothing more than that, said Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP from Sangrur. Mann said the resignation of Khaira was just a political drama and if he wanted to test his popularity he must resign from the Punjab Assembly and contest from Bholath again. Leaders also formed transportation, publicity and other committees required for the rally. Some leaders also informed that Sangrur, Bathinda and Faridkot would be their target areas to mobilise maximum residents for their rally. Core committee chairman Budhram said the party did not depend on any individual but the driving force behind it had always been people and volunteers. Khaira did not ask even a single question in the recent session of the Vidhan Sabha after he was removed from the post of LOP that exposes his claims about sincerity for issues of Punjab, he said. Khaira has always raised questions over the decisions of the party, be it appointing HS Phoolka as Leader of Opposition or me as president of the Punjab unit. His fight is only for grabbing power... Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP monicakchauhan@gmail.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 7 Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to discuss potential alliances with state unit leaders and partys core committee members at a meeting here on January 9. Ahead of the meeting, he met Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, AICC state in-charge Asha Kumari and PCC chief Sunil Jakhar in the capital to take stock of election preparations in Punjab. All three told The Tribune that the issue of alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab was not discussed. Nor was it part of the agenda. They, however, said the Punjab Congress had conveyed to the leadership earlier that it was not in favour of a truck with AAP. Punjab leaders today put the ball in Rahul Gandhis court with Amarinder Singh saying the final decision rested with the high command, depending on the national perspective and electoral compulsions. The issue of alliance with AAP didnt come up today. But our stand on this has been clear for long and was conveyed to the Congress leadership much earlier. Punjab Congress doesnt want any alliance with the defunct AAP in Punjab. We will win all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. That said, a final decision would be taken by the Congress high command, Singh said, leaving the door ajar for an alliance, should the central leadership feel the need for it to keep the BJP out in 2019. The buzz is that AAP convener and Delhi CM is seeking a quid pro quo. Jakhar said, "As a state unit we are not in favour of aligning with AAP. But the final decision on the 2019 strategy will be that of the Congress president." Asha Kumari reiterated the same. editorial@tribune.com Rajmeet Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 6 Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the state Congress has begun the exercise to dole out political appointments to its legislators and senior party leaders. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has reached Delhi to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi tomorrow. It is learnt that the names for appointments of chairmen in boards and corporations, besides other bodies would be announced soon. Around 10 appointments, including half to the sitting MLAs, are to be cleared after getting a green signal from partys top leadership. As the parliamentary elections are approaching fast, chairmen of various election committees, market committees and zila parishad and panchayat samitis are to be appointed. The appointment of district PPCC presidents is also pending, said a senior leader. Besides Capt Amarinder, Punjab affairs incharge Asha Kumari and PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar are in Delhi. After the meeting with the party president, the state leaders would again hold a meeting. Before leaving for Delhi, senior officials in the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) had held detailed meetings to prepare the groundwork. A senior Congressman said the party leaders needed to arrive at a consensus over the distribution of posts between MLAs and other leaders. The party president is reportedly keen on adjusting leaders who have worked relentlessly for the party for many years, but were denied ticket in the last Assembly elections. There are nearly 114 positions in boards, corporations and other government bodies that are to be filled from among party leaders. With 21 months in power, resentment has been brewing among senior leaders due to delay in the appointments even as 13 former bureaucrats, including those who retired long ago, have already been adjusted. editorial@tribune.com KV Prasad Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 6 Efforts by the ruling BJP to get parliamentary approval for the contentious triple talaq Bill received a setback with its coalition ally, the Janata Dal-United, deciding not to support it in the Rajya Sabha. Although with 73 MPs, the BJP is the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha, the ruling coalition is still in a minority in the House. On this piece of legislation, its numbers can just about add up to 100. The JD-U with six MPs, including Deputy Chairman Harivansh, will not vote for the Bill. When the legislation affects members of such a large community, we need to hold discussion with them. This is our consistent stand and we cannot support the triple talaq Bill, JD-U Bihar party chief and MP Bashisht Naraian Singh told The Tribune today. Adding to the BJP parliamentary party managers woes is the stand of the AIADMK. Party leader V Maitreyan said their 13 MPs would vote against the Bill. With the TDP already on the Opposition side, the Bench strength of those who are opposed to the Bill in the current form is over 115 in a House of 243-MPs. The Congress is not against the Bill in principle, but is against some penal provisions, including three-year jail. The Opposition is insisting that the Bill be referred to a select committee for scrutiny before it can be taken up for passage. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on December 27 with the Congress, TMC, AIADMK and RJD walking out in protest. uttara@tribuneindia.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 7 Taking strong exception to people still being prosecuted under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act three years after it was declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court on Monday warned of strong action against errant officials. "Its shocking that people are still being prosecuted for a provision that was scrapped by this court in 2015. If that is the case then we will send all those concerned officials to jail," a Bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman said. The Bench, which also included Justice Vineet Sharan, gave the Centre four weeks to respond to a Public Interest Litigation filed by Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). PUCLs counsel Sanjay Parikh said more than 22 prosecutions had taken place under the provision since the Supreme Courts March 2015 verdict. The court has sought issuance of appropriate circulars and advisories to all states and union territories for immediate full compliance of the verdict. Acting on a PIL filed by Shreya Singhal, the Supreme Court had on March 24 declared unconstitutional Section 66A of IT Acta provision that gave sweeping powers to the police to arrest people for posting annoying or offensive comments online. Justice Nariman was part of the Bench that read down the provision because it violated a citizens constitutional to free speech. Section 66A of the IT Act made sending such messages a crime, punishable by up to three years jail. We hold the section unconstitutional on the grounds that it takes within its sweep protected speech that is innocent in nature. It is liable to have a chilling effect on free speech and, therefore, has to be struck down, the top court had said then. The provision hit headlines after two girlsShaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasanwere arrested in Palghar in Maharashtra's Thane district for posting something online against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death. "Despite the clear and unequivocal holding of this Court in Shreya Singhal case, Section 66A of the IT Act continues to be applied in the legal system. A recent working paper by the Internet Freedom Foundation demonstrates that pending prosecutions under Section 66A of the IT Act have not been terminated, and further that it continues to be invoked by police across India in FIR registered after the verdict," the PUCL said in its petition. editorial@tribune.com Jaipur, January 6 An inter-department panel looking into the modalities of the farm loan waiver in Rajasthan has decided to recommend waiving loans of farmers who committed suicide between 2014 and 2018. The decision was taken at the first meeting of the committee chaired by Urban Development Minister Shanti Dhariwal on Saturday. At least 70 farmers committed suicide during 2014-2018. We will recommend that their loans, be it for farming or for any other purpose, be waived, Dhariwal said. Details such as the burden on the exchequer will be discussed on January 11. Industries Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said they were in favour of waiving loans no matter the amount or bank. After forming the government, Ashok Gehlot had announced waiving short-term loans from coop banks and farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh from any bank. The panel was set up to decide the modalities. OC editorial@tribune.com Lucknow, January 6 A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested the personal secretaries of state ministers Archana Tripathi, Sandeep Singh and Om Prakash Rajbhar on charges of corruption and bribery. On getting sufficient evidence against the secretariat staff members, they have been arrested and sent to jail. The chief minister has a zero-tolerance towards corruption, the Uttar Pradesh Government said in a statement late on Saturday night. On December 28, the three were suspended on graft charges following a sting operation by a news channel. They were suspended on orders of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who also directed officials to register a police case against them, a state government release said. In accordance with Adityanaths direction, the matter will be probed by SIT and it will submit its report within 10 days after taking statements of all parties in the case, it said. The SIT will be led by ADGP (Lucknow Zone) Rajiv Krishna. A sting operation was conducted by a TV channel purportedly showing three personal secretaries of ministers allegedly seeking bribes in return for favours such as transfers and issuing contracts. In the sting operation, Om Prakash Kashyap, personal secretary of Backward Welfare Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, is purportedly seen asking for Rs 40 lakh for a transfer. Rajbhar, who is a minister from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), said he had removed his personal secretary and written to the chief minister to take stern action against him. Further, personal secretary of Minister of State for Mining Archana Pandey was shown allegedly striking a deal with the channels reporter for getting him mining contracts in about six districts. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 7 Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Monday batted for a peaceful approach to resolving the Kashmir conflict and reducing tensions between India and Pakistan. Asked by The Tribune if a military solution is possible in Kashmir, Solberg said, I personally dont believe that military solutions solve problems. I believe in peaceful solutions. I believe in participation of women, youth and peace negotiators. You can have victory through military solutions but you will have underlying activities. It is not just in Kashmir, but in all places in the world. We see it in Syria. She added that any military solution will not be a long lasting and peaceful one. Solberg, who is in India on an official visit, will deliver the inaugural address in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the fourth edition of the major foreign policy event Raisina Dialogue organised by the Ministry of External Affairs starting Tuesday. The Norwegian leader remarked that India and Pakistan will have to decide when they want to start talks and hoped that military expenditure could be reduced to increase spending on education and health. She stated that Norway could mediate only if India and Pakistan want so. If there is a movement in India and Pakistan for greater talks together, of course we and other countries can say that we can help mediating if there is a possibility. But it has to be partner-driven. It has to be those who are party to the conflict. Both Pakistan and India are big enough countries to make sure they can also decrease tensions without any help from outside. Responding to questions about former Norwegian PM Bondeviks recent surprise visit to the Valley, Solberg clarified that he went there as a private citizen. Bondevik, who heads the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, in a quiet visit to the Valley on November 23, met with Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the Joint Resistance Leadership that led to speculation of intervention. On his way back, Bondevik also met with Sardar Masood Khan, President of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. He (Bondevik) has an institute for peace and security which is a private institute in Norway. And it was not part of any governmental plan or of Norwegian government to start any negotiations. He was invited. Our government policy is very clear. If we are drawn to help somewhere, they have to ask for it, clarified Solberg. Earlier responding to a question in Rajya Sabha on the issue on December 28, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in a written reply had ruled out any third-party role or mediation in Kashmir. Solberg also supported Indias membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. editorial@tribune.com Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, January 6 Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde is caught in the middle of a controversy after he allegedly ordered the police to arrest a student for recording his speech during an elocution competition at a college in Amravati district on Saturday. The incident happened shortly Tawde inaugurated the elocution competition organised at Shivaji Shikshan Sansthas College of Arts and Commerce in Amravati. During his interaction with students of the Bachelor of Journalism course, the minister was asked about the soaring cost of education. Tawde told the student that he could look for work if he could not afford his educational expenses. By then, the minister saw another student, Yuvraj Dabad, recording his conversation with the students. Students of the college told local newspapers that the minister asked Dabad to stop recording his conversation. When Dabad refused, Tawde asked the security detail accompanying him to arrest Dabad and force him to delete the footage. Dabad told television channels that he was detained by the police for some time after which they returned his smartphone to him. Opponents of Tawdes BJP have picked on the incident. Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray tweeted reports of the incident: Every student must read thisThe education minister of Maharashtra directs cops to arrest student. Why? Because he was shooting an interaction! No tough questions please! They want Youth (sic) only to man their electoral booths, not answer questions about education & jobs. A day after the incident, Tawde denied that he asked the police to arrest the student. I saw students recording the incident and told them that we could have a proper discussion inside the hall, he told reporters. China-AU relations "in the best shape ever": Chinese FM ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that relations between China and the African Union (AU) are now "in the best shape ever." Wang made the remarks when he held talks with Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Referring to the AU as a model of Africa's unity, self-reliance and integration, Wang said that the two sides should promote the implementation of the results achieved at Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and focus on the four areas of overall planning of China-Africa cooperation, peace and security, health, and coordination on international affairs. On creating a stronger strategic partnership between China and the AU, Wang said that China's development should benefit developing countries first, especially African countries. China is willing to align China's development initiatives with African priorities and projects, especially in jointly implementing the Belt and Road Initiative and the AU's agenda 2063, Wang said. Reiterating that peace and stability are the most urgent needs of the African continent, Wang said his country supports the 55-member Union to play its leading and coordinating role in the area. "China will help Africa to improve its independent peacekeeping capabilities within its capabilities and truly follow Africans' own way to maintain peace and stability on the African continent," he said. Wang further expressed China's willingness to ly cooperate with the AU, maintain a rules-based multilateral and free trade system, and safeguard the common interests of China, Africa and developing countries. For his part, Faki said that Wang's visit to the AU headquarters at the beginning of the New Year clearly shows the high-level and strategic relationship forged between the AU and China. Africa-China relations are united and friendly, strong and powerful, and mutually beneficial, said Faki. Faki said that the AU appreciates China's valuable support and assistance in developing infrastructure and enhancing independent peacekeeping capabilities on the African continent. Noting that China's cooperation with Africa has set a model for international partners to cooperate with Africa, Faki has once again congratulated China for its successful hosting of the FOCAC Beijing Summit. He reaffirmed the AU's commitment to maintaining communication with China and earnestly implementing the eight major initiatives proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to further promote the Africa-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Faki said that the AU is willing to further strengthen strategic coordination with China, jointly safeguard multilateralism and maintain international rules. After their talks, Wang and Faki jointly attended the handover ceremony of the Chinese-built AU Integrated Service Center project. rchopra@tribunemail.com Chennai, January 7 The Election Commission (EC) has rescinded its January 3 notification announcing the by-election in Tamil Nadus Thiruvarur Assembly constituency. In a communication to the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, the EC on Sunday said the notification calling upon Thiruvarur to elect a member of the legislative assembly would stand rescinded forthwith. The EC had earlier announced that the by-election would be held on January 28. The seat fell vacant following the death of DMK president M Karunanidhi last August. According to the poll body, all actions taken by the Returning Officer and others of Thiruvarur Assembly constituency had been declared as null and void. All major political parties in the state had demanded postponement of the by-election as it would impact the Gaja cyclone relief work in the constituency. Welcoming the ECs action, BJPs Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan in a statement said the need of the hour in Thiruvarur is relief and not election. Taking a dig at the DMK, AMMK and others who had announced their candidates for the by-election, Soundararajan said the parties that did not show alacrity in carrying out the relief work showed alacrity in announcing their candidates. Soundararajan criticised the CPI for filing a petition with the EC against holding of the by-election in the Supreme Court while extending its support to the DMK candidate at the local level. IANS rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, January 7 In fresh trouble for Congress leader Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra, the Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against a firm allegedly linked to him and a few others in connection with suspected financial and other irregularities in land deals in Gurugram in 2008, officials said on Monday. They said the central probe agency had filed a criminal FIR, known as enforcement case information report in official parlance, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The fresh case follows searches conducted by the ED in December last year on three people linked to Vadra. The searches were conducted in connection with its probe into alleged commissions received by some suspects in defence deals and illegal assets stashed abroad. The new charges were based on an FIR filed by Haryana Police in September last year, they said. According to the Haryana Police FIR, Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, a firm allegedly linked to Vadra, purchased 3.5 acres of land in Gurugrams Sector 83 from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.50 crore in 2008 when Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress was the chief minister and also held the portfolio of the Town and County Planning Department. Later, Skylight Hospitality sold this land to realty major DLF at a price of Rs 58 crore, after procuring a commercial licence for the development of the colony with the influence of Hooda, the police had alleged. The company thus made a profit of about Rs 50 crore, an allegation rejected by Vadra in the past. In return, the state government allotted 350 acres of land to DLF at Wazirabad in Gurugram in violation of rules, the police had claimed. In the alleged quid pro quo, the realty major made Rs 5,000 crore, it had said. The ED would probe if such a financial irregularity led to laundering of funds and creation of illegal assets by the accused, they said. Vadra is already being probed by the ED in connection with two PMLA cases--one related to land deals in Bikaner in Rajasthan and another linked to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and illegal acquisition of overseas assets. It is also probing the role of Hooda in connection with a similar land deal case in Gurugrams Manesar area. PTI editorial@tribune.com Mumbai, January 6 Effectively debunking the claims of a Mumbai builder on Bollywood thespian Dilip Kumars prime plot in suburban Bandra here, the original owners of the property on Sunday reiterated that he is its perpetual lessee for a period of 999 years. Since the lease was signed in 1953, it expires in 2952. The 96-year old Dilip Kumar and his 74-year old wife Saira Banu got a major boost in their ongoing property battle with Mumbai realtor Samir N. Bhojwani when the Seth Mulraj Khatau Trust (SMKT) issued public notices in the media on Saturday-Sunday through their lawyer Altamesh Shaikh. The public notice categorically stated that Dilip Kumar is the perpetual lessee and not a tenant, as alleged, of the property for the period of 999 years. Besides, the rent on the property has already been commuted and the lease is still valid and subsisting. The public notice has been issued on behalf of the legal heirs of the late Sunit C. Khatau, beneficiary of the SMKT settlement and the late Chandrakant M. Khatau, one of the Trustees, said a trustee, Panna S. Khatua, the widow of Sunit C. Khatau. The latest development in the high-profile controversy came soon after the aged actor-couple, in their first pro-active offensive - hit out at builder Samir N. Bhojwani with a Rs 200-crore defamation suit and it was first highlighted by IANS on January 4, 2019. The public notice also alleged that Bhojwani and others have created and manufactured illegal back-dated documents of several properties of the SMKT, for which it has also lodged police complaints. Bhojwani was arrested in connection with the police complaints and is currently out on conditional bail, and the bail cancellation matter is likely to come up before the Bombay High Court on January 7. Referring to a public notice issued by Bhojwani around a fortnight ago, the SMKT said: Samir Bhojwani claimed ownership of the property belonging to Dilip Kumar. Please note that Bhojwani is not the owner of the property. The property card shows the name of Chandrakant M. Khatau as one of the owners and Dilip Kumar as lessee by the sale deed dated September 25, 1953. The public notice warned the members of the public against entering into any kind of deal with anybody for the property belonging to the SMKT as it would not be binding on the trust. Earlier, the celebrity couple had even appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, but had launched a counter-attack on the realtor with the defamation notice after failing to get any response. The dispute pertains to Dilip Kumars iconic Pali Hill bungalow No. 16 on a 1,600 sq mt plot, said to be worth over Rs 250 crore. Since it is in a dilapidated state, he shifted in 2003 to his wifes bungalow No. 34 in the same area in Bandra west. Saira Banu has already announced that she will build a museum in honour of Dilip Kumar at the No 16 site, which is mired in a controversy since several years. IANS Debunking builders claim over property amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 6 In the wake of ongoing violence in Kerala over the entry of women of reproductive age into the Sabarimala shrine, the Congress on Sunday reiterated the demand for a law to "marry the Constitution and law with the traditions of the people of Kerala". Attacking the ruling CPM in Kerala for failing to protect law and order in the state and opposition BJP of fomenting trouble on the issue, the Congress said a law was urgent to address the matter. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala in a statement today said the Centre must bring a law to marry the rights of women of Kerala to the long-held traditions of society there. Congress leader KC Venugopal had this week moved an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha demanding such a Law and had also raised the issue in Zero Hour. "While BJP is creating trouble and CPM has failed to maintain law and order in the state, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee is espousing the long-held traditions of people of Kerala in a peaceful manner. We believe that law and constitution is supreme, but, belief and tradition of people, particularly the people of Kerala have to be married with the existing law and the constitution. The faith of people of Kerala cannot be segregated from the rigours of law and from the constitution that we gave ourselves. It is for this reason that the Congress and our senior MP KC Venugopal suggested in the Parliament that let BJP government bring in a piece of legislation," Surjewala said. He said let the legislation be debated, rights of women be stated on the floor of Parliament, traditions of Kerala over centuries be espoused and stated in Parliament and a path found, which is bereft of violence and acceptable to all. The Congress stand on Sabarimala has remained ambivalent with the party centrally backing the SC order allowing women of all ages to enter the shrine but the state unit joining local protests against such entry. Senior Congress leaders from Kerala, including Shashi Tharoor, have changed their opinion on the issue with Tharoor admitting he earlier saw the issue as one of equal access but later realised it was one of religion and sanctity. With the SC set to hear review petitions against its orders on January 22 Congress has now decided to seek a law in Parliament to urgently address the matter in the wake of deteriorating law and order and go out the BJP on the defensive ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress in Kerala has also filed a review petition against the SC judgment demolishing the age barriers for women to enter the Lord Ayappa temple. editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, January 6 After losing two of her sons in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, Jaswant Kaur had to flee the country 10 years ago with her family. But little did she know that her struggle for a life of dignity would begin in her natural homeland, India. Kaur, her grandchildren and daughters-in-law are among the thousands of Hindus and Sikhs who escaped persecution in Afghanistan to find safety in India, but are now left running pillar to post for citizenship. The process to get citizenship is long with a wait of about 12 years or more. Rife with red-tapism and complicated procedures, one has to run office to office to complete requirements. The challenge is bigger for Kaur, in her early sixties, as her family is an all-women household. Her third son was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Jalalabad in which prominent members of the Hindu-Sikh community in Afghanistan also died in July last year. Compare this to the situation in Europe and western countries where Afghan refugees get residency in five years, said Manohar Singh, Delhi president of Khalsa Diwan Society. Kaur lives in India on a visa which is to be renewed after a couple of years. Recently, the government introduced a long-term visa but made the procedure even more complicated. The procedure now requires refugees to get guarantee of two Indian citizens who will be responsible if an applicant is caught in a crime or violation of regulations, Singh said. Unlike in the US and several European countries where children born get local passports, Afghan refugees have to get Afghan passports for their children even if they are born in India, Singh said. Extremists have stopped minority communities from trading and employment unless they convert to Islam. Looting is rampant and women can move only in burkas, he alleged. Children face verbal assaults and attacks in schools, thus many left education in between, he claimed. However, for Kaur all may not be lost. She may have a glimmer of hope with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that seeks to ease the citizenship process for people from minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who are coming to India in the wake of discrimination faced by them. Following the Jalababad attack, the wife of Jaswant Kaurs third son, Thirpal Kaur, also joined her mother-in-law in West Delhi with her four children four months back. A Joint Parliamentary Committee will submit its report on Monday in which it is likely to recommend introduction of the Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they dont possess any proper document. The Congress, TMC, CPI(M) and a few other parties are steadfastly opposing the Bill claiming citizenship cannot be given on basis of religion. After the report is submitted in the Lok Sabha on January 7, it is to be seen whether the Bill could get through during the winter session of Parliament, which comes to an end on January 8, sources said. Various members from Opposition parties are asserting that citizenship is a constitutional provision and cannot be based on religion, as India is secular. An Opposition MP said if the Bill in its present form comes into effect, it will nullify the Assam Accord under which anyone entering the state illegally after March 1971 should be declared a foreigner and deported. A large section of people and organisations in the Northeast have opposed the Bill, saying it will nullify provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. PTI Major drop in population uttara@tribuneindia.com New Delhi, January 7 The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday announced it was pulling out of the BJP-led coalition government in Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Bill saying its "last-ditch attempt to convince" the Centre to withdrew the proposed legislation failed. After a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here, AGP president Atul Bora said: "We tried to convince the Centre that the Bill was against the Assam Accord and will nullify the ongoing updating of the National Register of Citizens...But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance". The proposed legislation seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the AGP and several parties and organisations have claimed that it will have an adverse impact on the demography of the sensitive border state. There is, however, no immediate threat to the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government as the BJP 61 MLAs, besides the support of 12 members of the Bodoland People's Front and the sole Independent legislator. In the 126-member House, the AGP has 14 MLAs, of whom three, including Bora, are ministers. Asked if the ministers have tendered their resignations, Bora said, "We will do that after reaching Guwahati". Later, Bora told reporters: "We felt betrayed at the BJP's attitude towards the bill as when we entered into the alliance, we were convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants...We never dreamt that the BJP could do this to the people of Assam. We now regret entering into an alliance with the BJP". He also said Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal refused to meet them when they had sought an appointment to discuss the issue with him as "probably he could not face us". "We made a last-ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow," Bora said, adding Singh was requested not to ignore the public sentiment only for votes but it is unfortunate that they did not listen. The BJP had promised to ensure the passage of the Bill in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The Bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to people from minority communitiesHindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christiansfrom Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The AGP and other groups in Assam have said that the provisions of the Bill will nullify the 1985 Assam Accord, which provides for deportation of all illegal migrants who had entered the state after March 1971, regardless of their religion. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) and a few other parties have been opposing the bill claiming that citizenship on the basis of religion was unconstitutional. There were widespread protests in the state against the Bill and, for the first time, the media was also out on the street to register their protest against it, the Assam agriculture minister claimed. A bandh has been called on Tuesday by eight influential student organisations in the Northeast and more than 40 groups in Assam to protest the Bill. Several groups have staged protests in Assam as well as the national capital, where a bunch of men stripped in front of Parliament House. In a statement in Guwahati earlier in the day, AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said the party decided at a meeting held on Friday that it would withdraw its support to the state government if the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, was passed by Lok Sabha. The three AGP ministers and a senior party MLA had gone to New Delhi to meet the prime minister who is yet to give them an appointment. The leaders, however, met Rajnath Singh. The AGP with 14 seats in the assembly had entered into an alliance with the BJP before the 2014 polls and was opposed to the Citizenship Amendment Bill since the beginning. The AGP has no MP in Lok Sabha or in Rajya Sabha. The AGP had placed its reservations on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee when the panel had visited the state and also tried to mobilise opinion against the bill among NDA constituents such as the JD (U) and the Shiv Sena, and opposition parties. Bora said the AGP is thankful to the parties who supported it and opposed the Bill. "We had met the prime minister, the home minister and the JPC chairman and requested all to withdraw the Bill. We thought that being in the government, we can convince the central leadership not to pass it," he said. "We had categorically said that we will not allow the Bill to be passed at any cost and tried till the last moment," he added. Urging the people of Assam to join in the fight for existence, Bora said the party will announce their next course of action after reaching Assam. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, January 6 The final report of the joint parliamentary committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which will be submitted in Lok Sabha on Monday, does not have the approval of at least four opposition parties whose members on the panel have moved dissent notes, sources said on Sunday. Members of the Congress, TMC, CPI(M) and the Samajwadi Party have moved dissent notes to the JPC report on the bill, sources across these parties said. "As members of the joint committee on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, we can state that there was no consensus in the committee on the final report. We had been opposed to the bill as it brings out the ethnic divisions in the state of Assam, one of the notes said. Members of the committee from the Left and TMC said the committee had visited Gujarat, Rajasthan and Assam where they faced major opposition to the bill. "In Assam, it is more critical issue. During the Assam visit, the committee even faced demonstration. On behalf of the committee, we promised to visit the state again, to talk to more stakeholders about the issue and also assured them that unless we meet again we won't submit the report. Now, it's embarrassing," said a member from the Left. The opposition parties said they had objection to the bill, which, they alleged, links religion to citizenship. This is the basic objection. So, delink religion from citizenship issue. This is against the spirit of our civilisation, culture and of our Constitution. Citizenship can't be linked with state, religion, caste, creed and be country specific. It should be universal," said another dissenting member. The members have also raised objections over the way the committee has functioned. They said they had given amendments to Clause 2 of the bill seeking to eliminate the specific mention of six minority communities and also the names of neighbouring countries. This was to secularise the bill, the dissent note from the TMC said. The amendments were defeated in the committee in a vote by the show of hands. The ruling party mobilised all their members to defeat the amendments. "We are not happy about functioning of the commission. Since three years of its formation, the sitting was occasion. During the session, the committee sits for three times in a week. Sometimes no meeting for six months. So the chairman used to put the committee either in top gear or in neutral gear. It was not normal, a Left leader said. The opposition leaders have also alleged the bill which seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 with the aim of granting citizenship to minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians -- after six years of residence in India, instead of 11, could end up exposing the ethnic divisions in the state of Assam. "The opposition is united in opposing the bill. The report will be submitted tomorrow and then everyone will come to know," said a source in the Congress. While speaking in Silchar, Assam on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated the Centre's commitment to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill. "The Citizenship Bill is an atonement of the wrong that was done during India's partition. I hope this bill is passed soon in Parliament. India will safeguard all who had been victims of partition," he said. "We feel that no names of genuine Indian citizens should have been deleted. We also strongly feel that the bill should not be passed by sheer majority since this is a political effort not necessitated by political realities in Assam and West Bengal," the TMC said in its note. PTI Amendment seeks Grant citizenship to minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, after 6 yrs of residence in India uttara@tribuneindia.com Vibha Sharma and Mukesh Ranjan Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 7 The central government will introduce a constitutional amendment Bill providing 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker upper castes in Tuesdays Parliament session, a top government source said on Monday. The development comes within hours of the Union Cabinet approving the reservation, sources said. BJP leader Thawar Chand Gehlot, social justice minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modis cabinet, is likely to introduce the Bill in Parliament. Currently, there is no such reservation in the general category. "The reservation will be given to those economically backward poor people who are not availing the benefit of reservation as of now," the source explained. Sources said the proposed move will not disturb the existing 50 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. "The quota will include sections not falling under any provision of reservation such as Brahmins, Banias, Thakurs, Jats, Gujjars, Muslims and Christians," a source privy to the decision said. He said that rules will be framed in due course to implement the Cabinet decision. Affirmative action for such classes has been denied till now. If the Congress or other party opposes it, they would actually be doing us a favour, a BJP leader said. When asked about Supreme Courts upper limit of 50 per cent on reservations, he said it cannot stop or hinder Parliament. The Bill is likely to define EWS as: Annual income below 8 lakh Agriculture land below 5 hectare Residential house below 1000 sq.ft Residential plot measuring below 100 yards in notified municipality Residential plot measuring below 200 yards in a non-notified municipal area The central government believes the reservation would cover 60 per cent of upper castes, sources said. Rajya Sabha session extended The central government has had Rajya Sabha proceedings extended to help get the Bill passed, sources said. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has agreed to extend proceedings by a day, the sources added. Winter Session of Parliament that started on December 11 was to end on Tuesday, January 8. The development comes within months of general elections, and is being seen as a factor that could tip the scales in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modis party. General elections are likely to be held in April and May this year. 'Gimmick' Opposition parties appeared to cautiously extend their support the decision, although some hinted that it seemed like an election gimmick. Endorsing reservation for economically poor classes irrespective of caste, the Congress on Monday frowned at the intention behind the Modi government approving 10 per cent quota for the "unreserved categories" and demanded to know "where are the jobs". Addressing the media after the cabinet approved 10 per cent reservation for economically backward people in general category in jobs and educational institutions, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the decision reeked of "political motive" rather than the actual welfare of the masses. "India is on verge of the worst job crisis of the century with unemployment at a high of 7.3 per cent which is the highest in last 23-24 months. The demonetisation disaster and the flawed implementation of GST resulted in crores of job losses. "Moreover, the Modi government admitted in Parliament that 24 lakh posts in government sectors are lying vacant which the government has failed to fill up in last 4.5 years," said Surjewala. "While we welcome the decision to offer reservation to economically weaker classes, but the question that arises is where are the jobs. The government after destroying millions of jobs, with the next elections just 100 days away, has suddenly woken up and offering reservation without creating any jobs. "Without creating jobs, reservation for the upper castes will turn out to be a 'jumla' (false promise) for the elections," said Surjewala. The NCP wondered if the decision was the start, and if the Centres ultimate aim was to have reservation cancelled for SCs and STs "as per the RSS' stand".The NCP also said the move will mainly benefit the middle class and not the poor, but national spokesperson Nawab Malik quickly added that that it wasnt against the quota. The poor would not get the reservation benefits in education and government jobs until the Rs 8 lakh annual eligibility ceiling is reduced, he said. In a rare show of support, the Aam Aadmi Party said it was willing to support the decision. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said although his party would willingly support the Bill, he warned the Centre that dragging its feet over the decision would render it a mere election stunt". BJPs ally Janata Dal (United) urged political parties to support the Bill. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) welcomed the government's decision to give 10 per cent quota to the poor in the general category and said the move will bring economically backward sections of upper castes in the mainstream of development. In a statement, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said all political parties should support the constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament to help the socially and economically deprived sections of upper castes. With agencies amansharma@tribunemail.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Hyderabad, January 6 The lone BJP legislator in the Telanagna Vidhan Sabha, T Raja Singh, who represents the Goshamahal constituency in old city of Hyderabad, has announced that he will not take oath in the Assembly when it meets on January 17. His objection is to take oath before the pro-tem Speaker, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), who Singh said belonged to a party that was "always talking against Hindus". #Telangana government decided to make #AIMIM MLA as pro-tem Speaker of newly elected #Telangana Assembly. I wouldn't take Oath in front of such speaker. pic.twitter.com/FJ8OniiDFd Raja Singh (@TigerRajaSingh) January 6, 2019 Singh, who has been in invited controversy earlier for his "hate speeches", including threatening to "behead" AIMIM leaders, said, "I will neither come to assembly, nor take oath in front of him. I will speak to legal advisers and decide what further has to be done." The BJP MLA famous for his "hate" speeches had threatened AIMIM Chandrayangutta MLA and the party president's brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, while being interviewed by a national TV channel. He had said, "I have challenged Akbaruddin Owaisi multiple times that you leave your security cover, I will leave mine. Give me five minutes, and if your head is not under my foot. I will not be called Raja Singh anymore." This led to a complaint against him before the Election Commission that did not yield any result. Singh urged Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) to change the decision of making Khan the pro-tem Speaker. Khan is legislator from Charminar constituency. "If you (KCR) change your decision regarding pro-tem Speaker, a positive message will be conveyed in Telangana. I urge the CM to recollect that AIMIM was against bifurcation of state," he said. The new legislative assembly will commence its proceeding on January 17, and will continue till January 20. A day prior to the commencement of the session, Khan who represents Charminar constituency will take oath as pro-tem Speaker in Raj Bhavan. The oath will be administered by Governor ESL Narasimhan. On January 17, the schedule of election for the speaker will be announced and the nomination will take place. On the next day (January 18), polls are slated to be held, results of which will be declared on the same day. On January 19, the Governor will address a Joint Session of the Telangana Legislature and motion of thanks will be introduced the next day. amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, January 6 Senior BJP leader and Union minister Rajnath Singh will head the party's "sankalp patra" (manifesto) committee and his cabinet colleague Arun Jaitley its publicity wing for the Lok Sabha polls as its president Amit Shah on Sunday announced formation of 17 groups in preparation for the elections. Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Thavarchand Gehlot, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, K J Alphons and Kiren Rijiju, and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are the other members of the 20-person committee tasked with preparing the party's manifesto, a statement said. Finance Minister Jaitley will also be a member of this committee with Home Minister Singh at its helm. Union minister Nitin Gadkari will head a 17-member committee to reach out to social and volunteer organisations while his cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj will preside over a group that will produce literature for the polls, it added. Both Singh and Gadkari are former BJP presidents. Prasad will head the party's media group while Union minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the wing which will organise meetings of intellectuals. The Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May with the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a re-election. A committee will deal with "pravas" (tour) of party leaders, another with social media while a third group, whose 13 members include party general secretary Saroj Pandey, will reach out to beneficiaries of various government schemes, the statement said. BJP vice president Shyam Jaju and its information technology wing in-charge Amit Malviya are in the 13-member social media committee. The eight-member publicity wing members include Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Mahesh Sharma, party general secretary Anil Jain, its Rajya Sabha MP and businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar besides Goyal. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar deputy chief ministers -- Keshav Prasad Maurya and Sushil Modi -- party general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Ram Madhav, former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda are among the other members of the manifesto committee. All party's national spokespersons, which include its media head Anil Baluni and his deputy Sanjay Mayukh, will be part of its media committee to be headed by Prasad. Shah also announced committees to deal with transportation, distribution of literature, 'Mann ki Baat', a monthly radio broadcast by the prime minister, and bike rally. Part general secretary Arun Singh will look after the 'Mann ki Baat' committee and also the one tasked with spearheading the office works. Yadav will be a key member of the committee which will deal with matters related to the Election Commission. In the run-up to the elections, Shah has made a host of appointments, including of in-charges and their associates for different states, to spearhead the party's campaign. - PTI editorial@tribune.com Gurnaaz Kaur Shashank Shah is a stakeholder management strategist, researcher and published business author. His research and publications focus on the role of corporations in economic and social value creation through visionary leadership, stakeholder-centric decision making and inclusive business strategies. He has co-authored over 100 research-based papers, case studies and articles in the areas of Corporate Stakeholder Management Strategy, Private Sector Development, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Governance and Leadership. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School, Fellow and project director at Harvard University South Asia Institute. After two successful books Soulful Corporation and Win Win Corporation, this time he has come up with The Tata Group: From Torchbearers to Trailblazers. This book tells riveting tales and gives insider accounts of adventure and achievement, conflict and compassion, dilemmas and decisions across twenty-five Tata companies. Here are excerpts from interview with this young author on all that has gone into bringing this book together. What made you write about Tatas? Tatas are the most globalised conglomerate in India. 66% of their revenues comes from overseas. The kind of internal changes they have made to adjust and live up to the changes liberalisation kind of forced on corporate India. With all that how they also streamlined their focus and value system. While I was doing my research, I realised that the last major work on the Tatas was done in the year 1992, which captured the Tata story historically but over the next 25 years the Tatas have grown substantially- 25 times precisely. From twenty thousand crores to six lakh fifty thousand crores post liberalisation. The kind of global success they have achieved made me delve deep into their story. What all has gone into the book? I have done about 100 interviews with senior Tata leaders, right from Mr Rattan Tata, MDs of all Tata companies then the next level and gone down all the way of hierarchy to middle managers, visited the factories in Pune, Jamshedpur. Tatas have 7 lakh employees. Ive referred to all the published data on the Tatas, journals, magazines, newspapers, archival records, speeches, letters both Indian and international. It was important to include what the international press perceives about the kind of work they have done because we are very patriotic about how our companies have done overseas but how do they perceive our companies in their geographies, so therefore its not an opiniated book. Its a book based on several perspectives. Tell us about the key learning from the research. What I have gained is it is possible to do well by doing good. Its usually perceived that you win at someone elses cost and vice versa but my premise has been that no its possible to win yourself and help your stakeholders to win. Tatas are considered as a group of companies that has done really well by building various institutions, but thats just one part of it, thats the kind of charitable work they have done. The way they have done business is equally interesting because sometimes charity is considered as clearing your guilt of doing things in an incorrect way but that has not been their strategy because the Tatas are owned by trusts and these trusts by mandate have to spend 85% of the earnings for social welfare, so its a virtuous cycle. This is a model that has been in place for 100 years and this is going to be a model in perpetuity. Therefore money is going to be continuously used for social welfare and the more success the companies achieve the more money is available for larger good. This is a very unique model and this is my learning that you dont earn money just for the sake of passing it on to your next generation but you earn money and create wealth in such a way that it benefits the country, the society. Thats a key learning. How did you take up this line of study based on social value creation or stakeholder-centric decision making? My passion has been based on my observation of the Indian economy. In the early years of the new millennium, there was a huge change in the way the Indian economy was operating- from pre-liberalisation to post-liberalisation era, in the licence raj where everything was so controlled and so limited in availability to an era where multinationals came in. We moved from all the made in India services to global competition which forced the Indian companies to give their best and improve. There was that transition that happened in the Indian economy because of which there was a lot change but as a young student I also observed a lot of things that were happening on the negative side. There were .com companies that made large amount of money and in a year or two later all of those companies had gone bust. A lot of cases of insider trading, fudged accounts were surfaced. This kind of made me think what is the purpose of business? Is it the purpose of business to make money at any cost and portray an artificial sense of success of it or is about creating genuine value for all the stakeholders, while also earning money for those who have invested in the company. That kind of embarked me into my area of research as to how this can be done. uttara@tribuneindia.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 7 The Jammu and Kashmir Government told the Supreme Court on Monday that it had not received any application for resettlement under Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act, 1982, which allows grant of resettlement permit to Pakistani nationals who migrated to that country from the state between 1947 and 1954 after Indias partition. The Competent Authority envisaged under Section (2(a) of the J&K Grant of Permit for Resettlement (or Permanent Return to) the State Act, 1982 was never notified by the State Government. As such, no application could be received under the Act, the state government said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. Upon perusal of records it was found that no applications have ever been received under the Act of 1982 even by the Custodian of Evacuee Property, Jammu and Kashmir. Also, no application was ever by the office of the Custodian General, the affidavit further read. The Supreme Courtwhich is seized of a PIL filed by Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party against the Act in 2001had ordered a stay on the operation of the Act and in 2008. Last month, it had asked state government to furnish details of the number of applications it received from original migrants from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan expressing their intent to resettle in India. Its likely to take up the matter on Tuesday. How can descendants of those who moved to Pakistan during partition be allowed to return under the 1982 Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act? a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had asked on December 13 during hearing on Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Partys petition against the Act. Pointing out that an 18-year-old person who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 would be 90-year-old now, the Bench had wondered if the state would allow such a persons children and grandchildren and their spousesborn in Pakistan and having Pakistani citizenshipto come back and settle in Jammu and Kashmir. If the Act is put into operation, the grandchildren of those who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 can now come with their families and settle in Jammu and Kashmir. How do you include his/her children? This will amount to allowing someone other than those who migrated to Pakistan to settle in the state, it had said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had supported the PIL, saying permitting resettlement of descendants of those who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 from Jammu and Kashmir was fraught with serious security implications and would go against the Citizenship Act. On December 7, the matter couldnt be taken up after the top court permitted Jammu and Kashmir government counsel M Shoeb Alam to circulate a letter for adjournment of the case. JKNPP had challenged the Act through then MLA Harsh Dev Singh. The Act was first challenged by him before the apex court in 1982. In 2001, he filed a petition in the top court against the Resettlement Act. JKNPP maintained that people of Jammu and Kashmir who migrated to Pakistan from 1947 could be considered for their return but their descendants could not be. The party had said that the law passed by the Assembly was draconian, unconstitutional and improper which threatened the security of the state. The Supreme Court had in August 2016 hinted at sending the case to a Constitution Bench. It had said if during the course of proceedings it found that some constitutional issues were involved, it would refer it to a Constitution Bench. JKNPP had earlier told the court that a Division Bench in 2008 had issued direction to list the case before a constitution bench but the Chief Justice in the same year had over-ruled the decision and ordered the matter to be listed before a three-judge Bench. The case was considered by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 2001 on a presidential reference but the top court returned the reference to the President. gspannu7@gmail.com Jammu, January 7 Jammu and Kashmir recorded 2,936 instances of ceasefire violations by Pakistan in 2018 the highest in the past 15 years with an average of eight cases dailyin which 61 people were killed and over 250 injured, officials said on Monday. Shelling and firing by Pakistani troops was very heavy in 2018, virtually making the 2003 India-Pakistan border truce redundant, they said. Pakistani troops repeatedly targeted forwards posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to create a fear psychosis among the people, a senior police officer said. Pakistani forces have violated the ceasefire 2,936 times in 2018, in which 61 people were killed and 250 injured, a senior Army official told PTI. The violations continued despite Pakistani troops vowing to maintain peace on the border during more than 20 brigade commander-level and flag meetings with the Indian forces. Pakistan vows to maintain peace and strengthen border relations, but they do not keep their promises, the Army official said. The number of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in 2018 was over three times that of 2017, when 971 cases were reported. In 2017, 31 people 12 civilians and 19 security forces personnelwere killed and 151 suffered injuries. People living near the border in Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts were severely hit by firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Fear gripped the border populace due to frequent shelling, which prompted thousands of people to migrate to safer places. The officials said that due to shelling and firing incidents, people had to migrate to safer places three times last year, which affected education and farm activities. To protect border residents in view of increasing ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the Central Government sanctioned Rs 415 crore for the construction of over 14,400 underground bunkers along the LoC and the IB and made efforts to speed up the work last year. Over 300 bunkers have been constructed under the programme in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and tenders have been floated for more such bunkers, the officials said, adding that over 4,000 bunkers would be constructed this year. Giving details of cases of ceasefire violations in the past decade, the officials said that in 2015, 405 cases of ceasefire violations were reported and 583 such instances were recorded in 2014. There had been a gradual increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan between 2009 and 2013. The corresponding figures for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 were 347, 114, 62, 44, and 28. In the previous three years, the numbers of such violations were 77 in 2008, 21 in 2007 and three in 2006, according to official data. For three years 2004, 2005 and 2006 there was not a single such violation on the border. The Indian Government led by the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee entered into a border ceasefire agreement with Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 26, 2003. India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan, of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, January 6 Breaking silence on PDP president Mehbooba Muftis visit to families of militants, the Hizbul Mujahideen on Sunday asked them to disallow her from entering their houses. In an unverified 20-minute audio, Hizbul Mujahideens operational commander Riyaz Naikoo, termed Mehboobas visit to the families as a new drama. Mehbooba has so far visited the families of two militants one among them was killed by security forces in November last. She also visited family members of soldier-turned-Hizbul militant Idrees Sultan of Safanagri in Shopian. National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah later lashed out at Mehbooba for using dead militants to appease the voter. You know that Mehbooba has started a new drama... Mehbooba is going to families of militants to show sympathy and says the police receive directions from somewhere to harass their families. When she was in power, families of militants were harassed then too. Who was giving directions to the police then? Naikoo said in the audio clip. The Hizb chief said Mehbooba is shedding crocodiles tears on the death of civilians and militants. When she was in power, civilians were killed then too. Then she was trying to appease Delhi and the BJP by giving statements like had they (stone throwers) gone to buy toffee. Now she is not in power, and she says the police are getting directions from somewhere to harass ultras families, Naikoo said, adding that as the elections were near, she was sympathising with people. I have requested the families of militants not to allow her into their house... Whenever she visits you, throw her out. She is sympathetic to India not us, he said, adding that they know who facilitates Mehboobas visit to militant families. Reacting to the unfurling of an Islamic State flag by some masked youth on the pulpit of Srinagars Jamia Masjid last week, Naikoo called them Indian agents and said they want to defame the freedom struggle internationally. editorial@tribune.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, January 6 A counter-insurgency expert with varied experience in tackling Kashmir militancy is likely to don the mantle of the highly sensitive 15 Corps of the Army. Lt Gen KJS Dhillon is likely to take charge of the Armys Srinagar-based sensitive and strategic 15 Corps in February, defence sources in Delhi said. Lt General Dhillon is at present the Director General of Perspective Planning of the Army. He has previously served in various capacities in the conflict-hit Kashmir. He will be replacing Lt Gen AK Bhatt, who had taken over as the General Officer Commanding of the 15 Corps, also called the Chinar Corps, on January 31, 2017. The new Corps Commander is assuming office in February, a senior defence official said. Lt General Bhatt is proceeding to New Delhi to assume charge of the Military Secretary, the defence official added. Lt General Dhillon, a Raj Rif officer, had earlier served in the Valley and commanded a counter-insurgency brigade 7 Sector of the Rashtriya Rifles at Handwara in frontier Kupwara district in 2011. As the Brigade Commander, he was instrumental in planning a large number of anti-militancy operations in Handwara. Later, he also served as the Brigadier General Staff of the 15 Corps. Lt General Dhillon also commanded the 36 Infantry Division, also called RAPID in the Southern Command. The new Corps Commander would assume office at a time when J&K is gearing up for the parliamentary and Assembly elections. During the tenure of Lt General Bhatt, the security forces stepped up anti-militancy operations in Kashmir. Over 240 militants were killed in Kashmir during his tenure. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM The Katowice Climate Package spells out how countries will provide information about their domestic climate actions, including mitigation and adaptation measures, and details of financial support for climate action in developing countries. During last months 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Poland, there was an agreement on a five-yearly global stock-taking. COP24s primary objective was to discuss and agree on a common rule book or a robust set of guidelines for all countries to follow in implementing the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. The 2015 agreement commits the world to keeping global temperatures within 2C above those recorded in the pre-industrial era (and preferably within 1.5C). Many believe that its too little, too late. The sentiment seems to be running high that countries are not doing enough to address climate change and there is no sense of urgency. The scenario is already worrying. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the world is now nearly 1C warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution. The year 2018 saw record high temperatures in many countries across the world in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa accompanied by prolonged spells of hot weather. A few weeks before COP24, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its Special Report, had sent an unequivocal message of the impact if the temperature rise was not kept within 1.5C. It stated, Even 1.5C of warming would cause sea level rises, extinction of species, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves that would threaten the worlds stability. Levels of warming greater than that would devastate parts of the globe, wiping out agricultural productivity, melting the glaciers and rendering many areas uninhabitable. Some countries, including Saudi Arabia, US and Russia, however, objected to the meeting welcoming the report on keeping global temperature rise within the 1.5C limit. As a compromise, in the final statement, the report was only to be noted. Small island countries, facing a crisis due to the rising sea levels, worry that the findings of this UN-backed scientific report are not being taken seriously. Former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed was quoted as having said, Almost 10 years since I was last present at these climate negotiations, nothing much seems to have changed. We are still using the same old words. Still making the same tedious points. At the current pace of progress, achieving the 2020 goal (for implementing the agreement on 2C limit) appears beyond reach. In fact, the world seems on course for a 3C rise in atmospheric temperature. When that happens, it will put small island countries such as Kiribati and Maldives at risk of submersion. Hundreds of millions will be displaced and their lives will be endangered. The pressing issue of financing also remained largely unresolved at the conference. Adequate level of finance is essential for vulnerable countries to enable them to invest in mitigation and adapt to the impact of climate change. One of the mechanisms set up for channelling the financial support was the establishment of the Green Climate Fund, with expectations of mobilising $100 billion per year. However, not enough funds were pledged and the Fund is yet to make significant progress towards its first formal replenishment. Transfer of green technology is another sticking point. The press release issued after COP24 states that the package includes guidelines on how to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology. Other issues yet to be resolved concern the rules for the monitoring of carbon credits or so-called carbon trade. India remains highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, not only because of the geographic and climatic conditions and the large number of poor people, but also due to the weak and already overstretched healthcare system. The floods in Kerala in August 2018, heavy rain and cloudbursts leading to flash floods in Kedarnath in 2013, and perennial drought conditions in parts of the country leading to crop failure and farmer suicides underline the devastating impact of climate change. Ironically, while developed countries have been responsible primarily and historically for causing climate change through unabated greenhouse emissions, the impact will disproportionately be felt by developing countries of Africa and South Asia who least contributed to the same. Developed countries seem to neither acknowledge their historical responsibility nor come forward to assist developing nations financially or through technology transfer. The Government of India has taken initiatives, including shifting from coal to renewable energy sources, on its own and in partnership with the International Solar Alliance. It has been raising the issues of equity and differential responsibility on various fora. But lack of emphasis on these issues at the Katowice conference is a cause for concern. Given the scale and urgency of the risks we face, it is imperative that all countries take climate action at the speed and level required and reverse the rise in emissions as well as achieve carbon-neutral status by 2050. This is the only way to stave off the dangerous effects of climate change. The author is former Director, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for South-East Asia, New Delhi Global impact of adverse weather vermaajay1968@gmail.com Kuldeep Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, January 6 After much delay, the state capital, Kufri, Fagu, Narkanda, Kharapathar, Khirki and Charki received fresh snowfall on Sunday, leading to a surge of tourists out to enjoy the landscape. However, the situation led to traffic chaos on a 10-km stretch of the Shimla-KufriNarkanda-Rampur highway between Chharabra and Fagu, where thousands of commuters remained stranded for more than eight hours. Traffic was cleared around 7.30 pm, but 70 HRTC buses are still stranded on the route. A massive traffic jam on the highway exposed the tall claims of the district administration with regard to preparedness to deal with any situation during the snowfall. Although the authorities concerned have deployed machines to clear snow, heavy rush made the restoration work difficult. PWD engineers said the road had turned slippery and the movement of vehicles at this point was difficult. More than 2,000 passengers, including children and elderly, on board 70 HRTC buses were the worst-affected. They were travelling to Shimla from Chopal, Rohru, Jubbal, Kotkhai, Narkanda and Theog. Policemen are also finding it difficult to bring the situation under control. A group of tourists said they had been stranded on the route since early morning. There seemed to be no end to this traffic chaos. Some tourists said they had to cancel their bookings in hotels. A policeman, however, said vehicular movement in the city was normal. Since the state capital received light snowfall, the traffic melted it. Chopal, Rohru, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Theog remain cut-off from the state capital as there is 6 inches to 1 feet of snowfall at the higher points of Fagu, Kufri, Narkanda, Kharapathar, Khirki and Charki in the apple belt. Even the Anni-Jalori-Kullu route remains blocked due to heavy snowfall at the 12000-ft Jalori Pass, said locals. The HRTC has diverted its buses via Basantpur to Rampur and Kinnaur due to heavy snowfall at Kalpa and Reckong Peo since Saturday. Bharmour, Tissa and Pangi, too, remain cut off from the Chamba headquarters. The movement of all buses has been stopped. Life has been affected in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti. On the other hand, Shimla hoteliers are making the most of the harsh weather as some tourists are preferring to stay back till the situation is back to normal and the traffic is cleared at Kufri. Since it was a weekend and there was snow prediction, a large number of tourists made a beeline for the capital city, leading to traffic jams. SNOWFALL Shimla 5 cm Kalpa 7 cm Manali 3 cm RAINFALL amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 6 Balkaur Singh, the lone MLA of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in Haryana, today joined Dushyant Chautalas Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). He announced his decision in presence of Dushyants father Ajay Singh Chautala. Along with 50-year-old Singh, some local leaders from his Kalanwali reserved Assembly segment in Sirsa also joined the JJP. He said Dushyant was the only leader who could carry forward the legacy of Ch Devi Lal. With this, the number of MLAs supporting the JJP has gone up to four, as Dabwali MLA Naina Chautala, Uklana MLA Anoop Dhanak and Charkhi Dadri MLA Randeep Fogat are with the JJP. Balkaur joined the JJP at the same time when SADs Haryana unit was meeting to draw up a strategy for the elections. At the meeting, chaired by Balwinder Singh Bhunder, the party mulled over prospects to contest at least two LS seats in the state. editorial@tribune.com Parveen Arora Tribune News Service Karnal, January 6 Almost 10 per cent of cultivable land in Haryana is going waste because of salinity and alkalinity, which is wreaking havoc by rendering fertile land non-productive. Farmers of north, west and central Haryana, including Ambala, Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Jind, Jhajjar, Sirsa and Sonepat, are worried about the alkalinity problem in their soil. Meanwhile, the issue of salinity prevails in the soil of central, southern and western parts of Haryana, including Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Gurugram, Jind, Mewat, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, Sonepat and Palwal, reducing the size of cultivated land. As per data, around 33 lakh hectare cultivated land is in Haryana. In kharif season, 29-30 lakh hectare is cultivated, while in Rabi season, 32-33 lakh hectare land is cultivated. The problem of salinity and alkalinity prevails on around 3.15 lakh hectare, which needs reclamation to attain potential yield. Of the 3.15 lakh hectare, 1,45,054 hectare is saline, having predominant salts of chlorides and sulphates of sodium, calcium and magnesium, while 1,70,563 hectare is alkaline (sodic) which has predominant salts of carbonates and bicarbonates of sodium. The recurrent waterlogging in various districts is contributing to salinity and the increasing area under saline soil is worrying the scientific community, farmers and the state government. As per the data, around 90,000 hectare was affected with salinity during 1990s, which has increased to 1.45 lakh now. Surprisingly, only 12,000 hectare has been reclaimed so far. The situation of alkaline-affected land is a little better as it was around 3.5 lakh hectare earlier, of which around 1.8 lakh hectare has been reclaimed, while the work on the remaining 1.7 lakh hectare is going on. Farmers are facing problem of sodic soil in various villages of Assandh block, resulting in less yield. A number of farmers are still not aware about the reclamation methods, resulting in extra burden on them, Sher Singh, a farmer of Assandh block, said. Rohtash, a farmer from Badopal in Fatehabad, said the excessive salinity in the soil was leading to losses. RK Yadav, head of Division of Soil and Crop Management, Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, said With the help of gypsum, we reclaimed soil from alkalinity. Now, the institute is working on developing alternate amendments for saline soil reclamation. We are using by-products from sugar mills, like press mud, gypsum-enriched solid waste, compost and phospho-gypsum, for reclaiming sodic soil. Farmers could reduce around 50 per cent of gypsum, substituting it with 5 tonne per hectare of press mud. Only surface drainage was a solution for the reclamation of waterlogged saline soil, he added. Vappala Balachandran Vappala Balachandran Ex-Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat BY unearthing terror mastermind Mufti Suhails conspiracy, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has disproved Home Minister Rajnath Singhs assertion, made on May 23, 2016, that there was no threat to India from the Islamic State (IS) as people of the Muslim community are against the IS. Rajnath Singh had repeated this argument on March 15, 2018, saying that the IS would have no impact on India. He should have known that the IS is not supported even in Sunni-majority Arab areas, not to speak of Muslims globally. The Home Minister is not alone in going wrong on the shadowy terror group. Mathew Olsen, Director of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), had told the Brookings Institution on September 3, 2014, that he had no credible information that the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is planning to attack the US. A year later, ISIL (IS) organised one of the worst mass killings in the US at San Bernardino on December 2, 2015, through a Pakistani-origin couple. Thus, even knowledgeable people go wrong in assessing the danger from the IS. Some say that the IS would not be able to march into India like the way it captured Syrian-Iraqi territories. Others think that it would stealthily infiltrate foreign cadres into target countries on the lines of al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad. The first scholar to describe how they operate was US journalist James Kitfield. When the IS had not even made its appearance, he wrote in the National Journal Weekly in September 2006: Global insurgency reacts to Osama bin Ladens radical ideology almost like distant and seemingly disconnected light particles respond in unison to an unseen wave. This is also called Do it yourself terrorism. No doubt the IS had raised a spectacular army and captured 60,400 sq km during 2014-17 with 31,000 foreign fighters from 81 countries. By January 2018, this area had shrunk to 6,500 sq km through allied bombing and online propaganda was reduced by over 60 per cent. Still they are able to sneak into the minds of their adherents remotely and make them zombies to obey commands. The UN Security Councils Counter-Terrorism Committee acknowledged this in November 2018. The IS covert propaganda is able to bypass the internet and shift to anonymous sharing portals like Sendvid.com, Justpast.it, and Dump.to and maintain its networking structure in the face of coordinated disruption. The UN report of December 31, 2018, estimated that 20,000 fighters might still be present in IS-controlled areas. The IS also motivates its retuning cadres to unleash terrorism in countries of their origin. Algerian Islamists who had taken part in the Afghan Mujahideen wars (1980-89) had started it on their return to Algeria, killing thousands in the 10-year civil war from 1991. I had envisaged a scenario like this in India through my column, When the Boys Come Home, in a prominent weekly on September 21, 2014. A tragic example of this type of terrorism happened in Surabaya (Indonesia). The families of Dita Oepriarto, Anton Febryanto and Tri Murtano, including their minor children, blew themselves up on May 13, 2018, when they attacked three Christian churches. Oepriarto, a childhood education programmer belonging to IS affiliate Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), had spent time in IS-controlled areas. Other countries are spending thousands of man hours decoding how such remote propaganda affects the minds of people beyond national borders and how to counter them. The European Union has a staff of 550 in its Radicalisation Awareness Network on cross-border issues such as asylum, migration, border control and terrorism. The Organisation for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the worlds largest security-oriented inter-governmental organisation, has programmes to prevent online radicalisation, not all very successful. An article in New York Times in 2017 says that people tend to look up to online propaganda, being dissatisfied with the mainstream media. In the US, several official and non-official agencies are involved in countering online radicalisation following the theme paper of December 2012 by Thomas Keen and Lee Hamilton, co-Chairs of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. We do not seem to have paid focused attention to it. Our security agencies, Home Ministry, police forces and the National Security Council might assure us that they are taking necessary steps, but there is no transparency regarding their specific contribution. We have no tradition of academic institutions being involved in such serious studies, except by think tanks that might produce occasional papers. One of the basic requirements to prevent radicalisation is to maintain an inclusive society where justice is assured to all sections irrespective of their religions or castes. The UN General Assemblys Four Pillars of Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, adopted on September 8, 2006, and renewed every two years speak of addressing conditions to the spread of terrorism, including violation of human rights. Mufti Suhail had spoken about the persecution of Muslims in India as one of the reasons for his joining the IS network. We should introspect whether the beef lynchings in some states on mere suspicion had created such conditions, especially when DNA tests by the National Research Centre on Meat had certified that only 7 per cent of the suspected samples were cow meat (between 2014 and 2017). We should also introspect how far the NDA governments misguided policy on Kashmir has contributed to this trend even after the May 24, 2018, recommendation by the National Security Strategies Conference to Rajnath Singh on holding talks with the Hurriyat and Pakistan to stop the slide. This introspection should include policy deviations such as considering separatists as untouchables, policy excesses like treating stone throwers as terrorists and using pellet shots on demonstrators. On December 29, 2018, masked youths entered the 14th-century Jama Masjid in Srinagar and hoisted Islamic State flags on the pulpit, akin to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis action of proclaiming the IS from the podium of the 12th-century grand mosque of al-Nouri in Mosul on July 4, 2014. It is hoped that the present J&K administration would fully support the Hurriyat-led joint resistance in countering this sacrilege. Shyam Saran Shyam Saran Former foreign secretary and senior fellow, centre for policy research ON December 31, 2018, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA), initiated by the Congress. It spells out a long-term strategy for the Indo-Pacific. It conveys willingness of the Congress to support financial appropriations for initiatives the US Administration may bring before it in realising various components of the strategy. The amount indicated is modest, a mere $1.5 billion per year for the next five years, hardly commensurate with the scale of ambition ARIA manifests. When compared to the vast sums that China is deploying for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Asia and beyond, the US effort would appear anaemic. But it represents a relatively greater level of commitment to the region than the earlier Pivot to Asia declared by President Obama in 2013 that turned out to be mainly a rhetorical flourish. It coincided with Chinas militarisation of offshore islands in South China Sea and the declaration of an Air Defence Identification Zone in the East China Sea which went unchallenged. Will ARIA make a difference? Will it reassure US military allies and partners in the region? ARIA is important because it manifests a change in US perception of China from it being a competitor to now an adversary. The Act expresses grave concerns with Chinese actions that seek (i) to further constrain space for civil society and religion within China; and (ii) to undermine a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region. The fact that in a highly polarised political environment, the Act was passed by consensus in the Senate, and by a very large majority in the House of Representatives, is significant. It demonstrates a broad consensus in the US that China is a threat not only to its security interests, but also an economic and even ideological rival. This is also reflected in the explicit commitment to helping Taiwan maintain asymmetric military capabilities vis-a-vis China. The Act could be a warning to Trump that in dealing with the China threat, his alienation of allies and partners is inimical to US interests. It may constrain his transactional approach to China, relieving pressure on that country if he is able to get a favourable trade deal, for example. Trump may still go his own way, the trade war may subside, but ARIA signals that the underlying trend is unmistakably towards sharper US-China confrontation. ARIA embraces the concept of Indo-Pacific in place of the earlier focus on Asia-Pacific. The difference between the two concepts is the inclusion of India as an integral part of the geostrategic space that the US sees as the main theatre of contestation with China. The Act defines Indo-Pacific as stretching from the western shores of the Pacific to the western shores of India, or more colourfully as stretching from Hollywood to Bollywood. India occupies a prominent place in the text which recognises the vital role of the strategic partnership between the US and India in promoting peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and welcomes India being designated as a major defence partner enjoying cooperation at a level commensurate with the closest allies and partners of the US. Despite Indias hesitancy, the Act regards the Quad as being vital to address the pressing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. India has not linked its embrace of Indo-Pacific with the Quad and has been cautious in projecting its role and future evolution. However, the US sees the Quad as integral to its Indo-Pacific strategy and this may pose a challenge to Indias intent of not being seen as a participant in an overt containment of China. In his speech at the Shangrila Dialogue in Singapore in June, PM Modi had defined Indo-Pacific as encompassing the entire oceanic space, from the western Pacific all across the Indian Ocean to the eastern shores of Africa. However, in a joint statement with the Indonesian President, reference is made to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific being realised through ASEAN-led institutions and processes, recognising ASEAN centrality. It would appear that India has tacitly accepted that in operational terms the more restricted definition applies. There is also the obvious contradiction between the Quad and ASEAN centrality as key mechanisms for a new security architecture in the Indo-Pacific. Reconciling the two will be a diplomatic challenge. ARIA expresses strong recommitment to US military alliance partnerships in the region, but it also underscores the importance of expanding US economic and trade ties with countries in the region, in particular with ASEAN countries. The importance of engaging with ASEAN, the East Asia Summit process and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is emphasised. How much of this will be followed through by a Trump administration allergic to trade pacts and multilateral arrangements remains to be seen. Predictably, the legislation has a prominent focus on North Korea and the continuing threat from its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal and the goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its N-programme is reiterated, linking the lifting of any sanctions to concrete measures undertaken by the North Korean regime. The Congress has, through the Act, sought to keep itself abreast of the progress of negotiations, thereby seeking to prevent Trump from any impulsive giveaways. There is no mention of the Trump-Kim summit or the agreement reached between them and this reflects the concern over his unorthodox initiatives. There is an entire section of the Act which seeks to promote US values in the Indo-Pacific region. There is a reiteration of US commitment to upholding rights and promoting democratic values. China is mentioned specifically, as is Myanmar and the Philippines. We should therefore expect greater activism on the ideological front from the US or at least in its Congress. For India, US pressure on China is helpful, but a confrontation, which forces countries to take sides, may not be welcome. Some serious diplomatic tight-rope walking lies ahead. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Sponsored By: Dorsett Automotive featured 20 YEARS After 20 years at The Trentonian, I've got two words for ya: Thank you Three years ago, I ditched shampoo for baking soda and apple cider vinegar. It started as a challenge from my editor at the time, and was supposed to last only a month. Much to my shock, I loved the results and stuck with it. My previously unmanageable hair became less frizzy, less greasy, and much easier to manage. The funny thing, though, is that the more I simplify my beauty routine, the less patience I have with it. Now I want to take my hair care to an even more extreme level of simplification, to the point where I do almost nothing to maintain it. And so, Ive embarked on a journey toward water-only washing, which is exactly what it sounds like washing with nothing but water! Benefits of the Water-Only Method southerlycourse / Getty Images Theres actually nothing strange about washing with water only. The act of stripping our hair of its natural oils every few days, a.k.a. shampooing, often with harsh chemicals, is far more bizarre, but this has become normal practice over the past century. Our hair is not meant to be washed with shampoo because its oils are good for it, as counterintuitive as that may sound. Ariana Schwarz, who has washed her hair with only water for the past two years, explains on her website, Paris To Go: Think about the way nature works. Everything from the surface of a leaf to feathers, guillemot eggs, butterfly wings, the scales of a fish, and the skin of a whale is self-cleaning. Other structures utilize various organisms to remove contaminants or allow droplet flow in a non-exploitative, non-toxic, non-polluting way. Take mycoremediation, for instance, or hydrocarbon-chewing microbes. When hair is not subjected to shampoo, it is given the chance to stabilize, to bring oil production under control, and to establish a self-sustaining routine that will not cannot destroy your hair in any way because its entirely natural. Becca at Just Primal Things, another lifestyle blogger whos an avid water-only hair washer, writes: The best part about this method compared to other no poo or shampoo-free methods is that absolutely nothing about this method can cause damage, dry out your hair, or create lasting buildup. Nothing is messing with the pH of your scalp, so it can stay balanced, healthy, and calm. In my opinion, when you achieve a successful, water-only routine, your hair has reached its final form. How Water-Only Washing Works triocean / Getty Images In a nutshell, you use warm water in the shower or tub, massaging the scalp with your fingertips to release dirt and excess oil. The warmer the water, the more oil it will wash out. Its important, however, to end with cold in order to close the hair cuticle and reduce frizz. But there is more to the method than just that, as Ive discovered while researching. During the transition period, which seems to average about a month, its important to massage the scalp frequently with fingertips (not nails), in order to loosen any dirt and to distribute the oil along the hair shaft. Becca (quoted above) recommends a three-part process that includes scritching (the afore-mentioned scalp massage, to be done on dry hair, as if you were shampooing), preening (pulling the oil down by placing two fingers on either side of a small section of hair, as if using your fingers as a straightener), and brushing, preferably with a clean boar-bristle brush, every day between washes. My Experience With Water-Only Washing Katherine Martinko / Treehugger As I write this, its been only 11 days since my last shampoo and so far, its surprisingly good! Keep in mind that I already didnt use shampoo and only washed every 5-6 days, which means my hair isnt that oily to begin with; but usually by now it would be pretty gross and itchy, especially considering that I do sweaty CrossFit workouts three times a week. It feels weird to be constantly massaging my scalp since Ive always tried not to touch my hair, in order not to make it oily; but it does seem to help, and looks less greasy after Ive had my hands in it for a few minutes. The two water washes Ive done so far did a great job at resetting the natural curl structure of my hair, which usually gets ruined by shampoo (even baking soda and ACV, to some extent). Because theres oil in it, the curls look shinier and more defined. Im really excited about this water-only adventure, and I suspect that it will be the next big trend in green beauty, just as baking soda was several years ago. Since this is my unofficial Lenten beauty challenge, Ill report back at the 40 day mark to let you all know how its going. A well-intentioned call for baby food manufacturers to ditch added sugars should place more responsibility on parents. When a spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation, Tim Rycroft, stated last week that baby food manufacturers add sugar to improve "palatability," there was outrage from the public. Dr. Robert Lustig tweeted, "The food industry puts the sugar in because the kids love it! And that's exactly why it has to come out!" Nutritionist Ada Garcia wrote, "Making foods sweeter is a good way to ensure that children will choose them over other foods that are less immediately palatable." Rycroft's statement may be infuriating, but why is anyone surprised? Welcome to the real world, where marketers will always try to convince us that a manufactured product is the best. Baby food is no different from everything else. Babies love sugar and they're more willing to eat new foods that taste sweet on their tongues than those that taste sour or bitter. The baby food industry has built its flavor profiles around this knowledge, creating blends of foods that almost always feature a fruit or vegetable with high levels of natural sugars, such as apple, banana, carrot, pear, and sweet potato, that can overpower the taste of other, less-sweet ingredients. Peruse a baby food aisle and you'll see that sugary blends are more common than single-ingredient purees, and that it's impossible to find bitter or strong-tasting vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, rapini, and asparagus anywhere, not even in the blends. When I poked around my local grocery store, I found containers of "Banana Apple Beet & Berry" (9 grams of sugar per 4.5 oz serving), "Vanilla Banana Berry Risotto" (6 grams sugar per 4.5 oz), and "Pumpkin Raisins and Cinnamon" (13 grams sugar per 4.5 oz). Even the savory "Pumpkin, Pear, and Beef Stew" had 8 grams of sugar. (Who puts pear in a beef stew, anyways?) MaxPixel 9 grams of sugar per pouch/Public Domain Garcia thinks this is appalling and wants the baby food industry to clean up its act as part of the UK's broader campaign against sugar consumption and child obesity. She wrote in the Guardian, "[There is] little information on the ingredients used in the formulation of commercial baby foods in the British market... The food industry argues that it is using fruit and vegetables, which is true, but the problem is that the moment these fruits and vegetables are mashed and highly processed, the carbohydrates in the cell walls become free sugars." While I'm all in favor of removing unnecessary sugars from baby foods, I can't help but think that Garcia and other critics of Rycroft's statement are missing the bigger point here, and that is that the industry cannot be blamed entirely for what parents are choosing to feed their infants. What troubles me more is the way in which Western parents teach their babies to eat solid food or, should I say, fail to teach? Countless smart adults fall for the erroneous belief that filling young tummies with something, anything, is preferable to the child going without food, even briefly; but this, over time, has harmful repercussions namely, an inability on the child's part to eat anything that does not contain sweetness. Babies like sugar as much as any human, but that does not mean they should get it, and certainly not until eating habits have been firmly established and it can be perceived as a reward, not a vehicle for other nutrients. A parent who understands this wants nothing to do with processed baby foods. (Apparently this is a majority of parents in the UK, since the number that buys prepared baby foods is estimated to be around one-third.) They stick with homemade vegetables and grains (lentils, rice, peas, chickpeas, green beans, tofu, zucchini, broccoli, etc.) and avoid all fruits. They feed their baby the same foods they eat themselves, and when the baby rejects them, they do not rush off to find a processed alternative. They understand that good training takes time, that learning to eat well from a young age impacts long-term health, and that an appreciation for food is one of the best gifts you can give a child. As soon as parents start demanding sugar-free baby foods, I have no doubt the industry will bend over backward to provide them, but up until now parents have dropped the ball on this issue. They've been too content to prioritize convenience over nutrition and should examine their own feeding habits before blaming the industry for simply giving them what they wanted all along. Amistad Partners were excited to host a MICE and Leisure Agents event on the 11th of December 2018 in London at the Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch complete with their own private Bowling Alley. (TRAVPR.COM) UNITED KINGDOM - January 4th, 2019 - London, United Kingdom, 20th December 2018 Amistad Partners were excited to host a MICE and Leisure Agents event on the 11th of December 2018 in London at the Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch complete with their own private Bowling Alley. Joining the AP Team that evening were the following partner hotels; Aphrodite Hills Cyprus, Derby Hotel Collections, Electra Hotels & Resorts and Zeina Hotels Budapest. The key focus of the night was to give our partner hotels the chance to meet potential MICE and Leisure agents face-to-face. The event started at 6 pm with delicious canapes, drinks and an introduction of each partner hotel to the agents by the AP sales team Rick Schultheis -VP Sales EMEA, Adriana Torrisi -Director of Sales EMEA, Neema Shrestha -Director of Sales EMEA, Jeanette Friedrich -Business Development Executive and Vigneswaran Rajagopal Marketing Director. Later agents were engaged in fun filled bowling and ended the evening with a nightcap, whilst the AP team presented individual star performers with surprise prizes which included 2-night stays with breakfast from our partner hotel in Cyprus, Greece and Budapest and reindeer carrots for the lowest score bowler. Great fun and positive new relationships were forged over the evening. It is sure to be repeated soon! About Amistad Partners Partner Hotels: Aphrodite Hills Cyprus: The 5-star luxury Aphrodite Hills Hotel stands proudly at the heart of the magnificent award-winning Aphrodite Hills Resort. Its unique and scenic location on a plateau, overlooks the glittering blue Mediterranean Sea and the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The Hotel fabulously combines the classic with the contemporary and offers a first-class level of service, ideal for your Corporate Events and Conferences. Hotel is a lifestyle haven for devotees of luxury and comfort, and the first Resort Hotel of its kind in Cyprus. Derby Hotels Collection Madrid, London and Paris Derby Hotels Collection is a Spanish company with 22 luxury boutique hotels and hotel apartments situated in the city centre of Barcelona. Next to the most exclusive shopping street Paseo de Gracia and the Gaudis masterpieces, La Pedrera, Batllo and Sagrada Familia. Furthermore, they have 4 luxury properties in the major European capital cities such as Madrid, London and Paris. Electra Hotels & Resorts, Greece: Since the first Electra hotel opened back in 1965, Electra Hotels and Resorts history has been one of warm, luxurious hospitality services. Operating under the philosophy of traditional Greek hospitality, we aim at creating a comfortable environment full of luxurious details, from which our honored guests can explore Greeces main cities or the island of Rhodes, one of the countrys most celebrated islands. For half a century, we have hosted more than 6.5 million discerning travelers in our properties in Athens, Thessaloniki and Rhodes, treating each and every one of them as family. As we embark towards our centennial, we plan to keep on doing just that: creating a sumptuous hospitality experience fit for the 21st century traveler that is still warm and familiar just as you know us to be. Zeina Hotels, Budapest: Established in 2005, is Budapests latest hotel chain with four and five hotels with individual styles in the centre of the Hungarian capital. Boutique Hotel Budapest is a four-star hotel building with its comfortable well-equipped rooms was designed by the popular, modern and yet elegant style of international boutique hotels. The hotel established a new trend in the Hungarian`s market of city lifestyle (design and boutique) hotels. Continental Hotel is an iconic buildings of Budapests traditional Jewish quarter, in Dohany utca and launched his second hotel investment. Continental Hotel Budapest****Superior, which opened in June 2010, blends the rich past and the future that lies ahead, traditional hospitality and the modern expectations of the 21st century as a symbol of the guest-focused approach nestled between the Grand Boulvard and Rakoczi ut. Prestige Hotel Budapest****Superior is a lavish elegance tailored for the demands of our time - this is going to be the character of the building typical of the age of the Monarchy has been preserved; so, the rooms open from a 6 floors high internal circular gallery presenting an imposing spectacle of the special internal space. The hotel awaits its guests with 85 rooms, meeting room, relaxation zone and top gastronomy of Costes Downtown restaurant. To book a stay at any of these hotels, contact Adriana Torrisi at Adriana.Torrisi@amistadpartners.com To book for your next event at any of these hotels, contact Neema Shrestha at Neema.Shrestha@amistadpartners.com Or visit www.amistadpartners.com Source : http://ow.ly/1Lwk30n3Xb1 ### Built in only 500 units and discontinued in late 2012, the Lexus LFA is often considered a collectors item and one of the rarest Japanese supercars around. However, despite the fact that production ended six years ago, you can still buy a brand-new LFA in the United States. Eight Are Still Available! Hows that even possible? Well, it turns out that some dealers still have a few in showrooms. These cars were discovered back in 2017 when no less than 12 were still on dealer inventory. Since then, Lexus sold four of them, one of which found a new owner toward the end of 2018. Now thats a cool Christmas present! According to Lexus, the unsold LFAs are classified as dealer inventory and remained unsold because some of them were ordered by dealers and executives for themselves and not necessarily to be sold to customers. While some can be purchased, other cars are being kept as display items. Needless to say, some dealers are probably not in a hurry to sell them and are asking a hefty premium over the already expensive sticker. When it was still in production, the LFA had a starting price of more than $350,000. Others are probably waiting for the LFA to gain even more value, which makes sense given that a coupe was auctioned off for $434,000 in 2018, with only 120 miles on the odometer. All told, if youre dreaming of owning an LFA and missed your chance back in 2011-2012, you can buy one in 2019. It will require a bit of digging, and it might be really expensive, but at least you can buy it brand-new. What makes the LFA Cool? The LFA was by far Lexus biggest effort up until now. While other vehicles are based on Toyota platforms, the LFA was developed from a clean sheet and had its very own engine under the hood. It was Toyotas big shot at the supercar market, and it spent almost ten years designing it. The bespoke 4.8-liter V-10 generates 552 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque and pushes the LFA from 0 to 60 mph in only 3.6 seconds. Lexus also introduced a Nurburgring Package upgrade that increased power to 563 horsepower and more aggressive aerodynamics. In 2010, this car lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7:22.85 minutes. In 2011, Lexus improved the benchmark to 7:14 minutes, setting a new record that placed the LFA above the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, and the Dodge Viper ACR. The LFA is often compared to the Ferrari Enzo and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, two iconic supercars from the 2000s. Its design and engine also won several awards from automotive magazines. Further reading Read our full review on the 2011 Lexus LFA. Read our full review on the 2012 Lexus LF-A Nurburgring Package. Read our full speculative review on the 2022 Lexus LFA Successor. The 2019 Consumer Electronics Show is just around the corner, and with it arrives a series of new debuts from the major automakers. The latest comes from Mercedes, which just dropped a short teaser video for its new second-generation CLA Class. The official details are light as of this writing, but theres a good chance this updated four-door coupe will be rocking some serious technological firepower. Say Hello To The Second-Gen CLA This new teaser was first shared on Mercs social media outlets, with a post to Facebook that includes a blurb that reads Stay tuned! The new CLA will have its world premiere at CES in Las Vegas, January 8th. The video shows off the CLAs four-door coupe body style, with several quick moving shots of the new four-door coupe, complete with moody lighting and a techno-tastic music score. Like I said in the intro, official details are scarce, but its believed the new CLA will become a bit larger in terms of exterior dimensions for its second generation. The video also provides close up views of the new CLAs various design features, including the window line, the fenders, the taillights, and the large alloy wheels. We also expect a full set of LED taillights. Whats more, the video provides a pretty decent look at the interior, where were happy to find a three-spoke steering wheel complete with shiny trim outlines for the thumb-length controls, an enormous horizontal gauge display on the dash, rifled air vents, and white door panels. The specific model slated to show in Vegas will be the Mercedes-Benz CLA Edition, which will be the latest limited-run range-topper, offered as a celebration of the new generational changeover. Not only will it come stuffed with features and amenities, but it looks like itll also carry a host of unique orange trim bits as well. Under the hood, look for the same engine spec as the A-Class, with a turbocharged four-cylinder gas unit producing 188 horsepower. Either FWD or AWD will put the power down, with a seven-speed automatic dual-clutch transmission swapping the cogs. A pumped-up AMG model will also drop some time later (either this later year or early next year) and offer more horsepower, more aggressive styling, and sharper suspension bits to boot. Merc also teased the new CLA on Instagram, with user gorden.wagener (Mercedes design head) lifting the sheets a bit early to reveal the new CLAs headlight design. It certainly looks sharp, and we cant wait to see the rest of the fascia. A Debut At CES? It might seem a bit strange for Mercedes to debut a new model at the Consumer Electronics Show, but the locale is actually pretty telling as far as intentions go. Notably, the new CLAs interior is expected to come with the latest MBUX infotainment system upgrade, specifically something offering the very latest in AI-based features. Suddenly, CES starts to make a whole lot more sense. Broadly speaking, the Consumer Electronics Show is becoming increasingly important for the automotive industry, and the reveal of a major model line update from Mercedes is proof positive of that. Its also worth noting that Mercedes is skipping the Detroit Auto Show in favor of CES, which is further indication of where the industry is headed as a whole. The 2019 Consumer Electronics Show is slated to kick off this week on January 8th. Meanwhile, the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA class is expected to be available later this year. Further reading Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA. Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Mercedes-AMG CLA 45. Read our full review on the current 2014 Mercedes-AMG CLA45. Read our full review on the 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLA. 9 Rising Stars to Know in Kansas City in 2019 From chefs to pizzaiolos to baristas, these talented individuals are pushing boundaries either in kitchens of their own or under the direction of some of the region's best chefs. Meet this year's roster of rising stars in Kansas City. The local restaurant elite continue their culinary conquest this year and here's a glimpse at some of the most promising new talent among the KCMO foodie scene.Checkit: AND WE'RE BACK!!! Strange Brew: Kansas City Celebrates Snake Oil Coffee Kansas City-based Roasterie launches CBD-infused coffee KANSAS CITY (KCTV) - A Kansas City coffee favorite is out with a new product that could bring a whole new meaning to the term "coffee pot." A Facebook post by The Roasterie Monday morning announced the company's first extension of its Canned Cold Brew line, CBD Cold Brew. Old Airport Working Fine KCI ranks high for on-time performance - Kansas City Business Journal Kansas City International Airport made a ranking of top medium-sized airports by on-time performance. KCI ranked No. 15 on the annual list compiled by the Punctuality League. The rankings are pulled from 58 million flight records from airlines and airports worldwide. Help Find Dangerous Pooch Blue Springs police search for dog as little girl recovers from attack BLUE SPRINGS, MO (KCTV) - Police are currently looking for a dog and its owner after a child was attacked. Cora, 6, was attacked at a dog park in Blue Springs on Saturday afternoon. The girl's mother says she is doing well recovering but the dog did do significant damage. Fanboy Festival Lineup Revealed Alex Gordon, Billy Hamilton, Dayton Moore added to Royals Fan Fest lineup Royals star catcher Salvador Perez, pitcher Danny Duffy and infielder Whit Merrifield are among more than a dozen players who will join manager Ned Yost at Royals Fan Fest Jan. 25-26 at the Kansas City Convention Center's Bartle Hall. The Royals released a partial list of players attending the event Wednesday but promised more names will be announced soon. Death Highway Meth Precaution Portion of 71 Highway to close to replace lights KANSAS CITY, Mo. - On Monday morning, light repairs will continue along 71 Highway that could impact traffic. Beginning at 9 a.m., the Missouri Department of Transportation will close one southbound lane between 75th and 87th streets. Capital Electric crews will be replacing overhead lights along the highway. Prez Trump Against Booze Government shutdown delays new beer for Kansas City brewers While lawmakers debate over funding for the Southern Border wall and the government shutdown, across the country beer consumers and taxpayers may soon feel its effects. Breweries are preparing for their busiest seasons, but the government shutdown is delaying production of new beers. Kansas City Glory Days Gifting Royals to give out Bo Jackson bobblehead at 2019 FanFest KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Royals fans are getting a nice perk for coming to Fan Fest and just in time for National Bobblehead Day. On Friday, Jan. 25, Royals fans can get a Bo Jackson bobblehead with a donation to Royals Charities. The bobblehead feature Jackson breaking a battle over his head. Hottieis probably one of the greatest Instagram models of all time and right now she inspires this quick peek at pop culture news.Closer to home, here are the news links worth a look:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . Samsung just made an announcement that will rock Apple fans world, with iTunes content and Airplay 2 capability coming to Samsung smart TVs in 2019. Ever since Steve Jobs began talking about his plans for the Apple TV, Apple fans have dreamed of getting the full breadth of iTunes and other Apple content on their TV. As TVs have gotten smarter, the possibility has remained tantalizing, but so far, if you wanted to put Apple content on your TV, it required an actual Apple TV which doesn't include a TV. That's all changing thanks to Samsung. The smart TV manufacturer has just gained an unmistakable advantage in the world of streaming content by announcing a deal with Apple that puts iTunes and Apple TV content onto Samsung smart TVs. The addition of iTunes means that movies and shows previously limited to iTunes and Apple products will be available to purchase or rent. The new content will work with Samsung's Universal Content Guide, and can even be searched and played using Bixby, Samsung's built-in voice assistant. That's a huge win for both Apple and Samsung, especially since Google (who competes with both) has a huge presence on smart TVs with Google Play movies and shows. But there's another big win for Apple users, as Samsung TVs will now also support Airplay 2 casting, providing an easier way to share content from an iPhone or iPad, and giving iOS users a big reason to choose Samsung. Whether it's video, photos or audio, the new capability lets you share it with your Samsung TV just like any other Airplay device. The new feature will come standard on Samsung's 2019 smart TVs, including Samsung's QLED models. But current Samsung owners won't be left in the cold, either, since the iTunes and Aircast 2 capability is coming to several 2018 models as a software update. Credit: Samsung [January 07, 2019] The Americas data center colocation market to witness investments of more than $11 billion by 2023 LONDON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Americas data center colocation market to witness investments of more than $11 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of over 3% during the forecast period. The research report offers market size analysis regarding colocation services during the forecast period. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5587792 The telecommunication service providers, colocation service providers, enterprises and government entities are making efforts to improve the network connectivity by investing in submarine cable in the Latin American market. The adoption of lithium-ion UPS systems, DRUPS, and fuel cells will lead to the transformation of infrastructure solutions in the market. Americas data center colocation market is driven by the datacenter development of Tier III and Tier IV standards in the US and Canadian region. The increasing investments in mega-datacenter projects are contributed heavily by colocation, internet, and cloud service providers, resulting in higher revenues in the American market. The market research report provides in-depth market analysis and segmental analysis of the Americas data center colocation market by investment, service type, and geography. The report considers the present scenario of the Americas data center colocation market and its market dynamics for the period 2018?2023. It covers a detailed overview of various Americas data center colocation market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study includes both the demand and supply sides of the market. It also profiles and analyzes the leading companies and various other prominent companies operating in the Americas data center colocation market. Data Center Colocation Market in Americas Dynamics The rising demand for cloud connectivity and hybrid infrastructure services is augmenting the growth of the data center colocation market in Americas. Various colocation providers have announced cloud connectivity services to major cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM, Equinix, Digital Realty, and CyrusOne to widen their consumer reach in the global market. The increasing focus on facilities developments from the federal government will lead to investment in colocation facilities or private cloud datacenters in the American market. The federal government and the state government is also planning to consolidate their data center infrastructure to reduce cost and improve efficiency in the market. The largest colocation service providers investing over than $500million in new construction and expansions in the data center colocation market in Americas. In 2017, more than 30 M&A activities were witnessed across Americas, valued at more than $18 billion, 15 million in square feet area, and 500+ MW of power. The increasing demand for superior services is contributing to the growing number of M&A activities in the American market. Data Center Colocation Market in Americas Segmentation This Americas data center colocation market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the market by investment, service type, and geography. The investment segment in the American data center collocatin market is classified into electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, and general construction. The general construction segment occupied the second largest market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of over 3% during the forecast period. The increasing number of greenfield and brownfield developments is propelling the growth of this segment in the American market. Market Segmentation by Investment Electrical Infrastructure UPS systems Generators Transfer Switch and Switchgear Rack PDU Other Electrical Infrastructure Mechanical Infrastructure Cooling Systems Rack Other Infrastructure General Construction Building Development Installation & Commissioning Building Design Physical Security DCIM Market Segmentation by Service Type Retail Wholesale Data Center Colocation Market in Americas Geography The Americas data center colocation market by geography is segmented into the US, Canada, and Latin America . The US contributed to more than 85% of the investments in 2017, growing at a CAGR of over 2% during the forecast period. The report offers market size analysis in terms of colocation services, power capacity (MW), and square feet area for all the segments for 2017-2023. Virginia , Texas , California , New York , North Carolina , and Illinois are the major market for colocation constructions in the US market. Latin America is the fastest growing region in the American market, at a CAGR of more than 10% by investment during the forecast period. The consolidated efforts to improve the broadband and network connectivity by telecommunication companies, enterprises, colocation providers, and government entities will propel the growth of the Latin American market. Market Segmentation by Geography US Canada Latin America Key Vendor Analysis The Americas data center colocation market witnesses million-dollar investments by Digital Realty and Equinix is investing across the US and Canadian region. Equinix, Digital Realty, CyrusOne, Switch, and Vantage Data Centers are some of the providers investing in the US. Investments by Urbacon Data Centre Solutions in Canada and Latin America to boost their market share. The rising investments in new facilities and expanding existing ones will intensify the competition in the American market. Leading providers are estimated to add over 500,000 square feet of net rentable area and 60 MW of power capacity in the Americas data center colocation market YOY for the next few years. Various service providers are offering retail colocation and managed services to sustain the competition in the American market. The major vendors in the Americas data center colocation market are: CoreSite Realty Corp. CyrusOne Cyxtera technologies Digital Realty Equinix Switch Other prominent vendors in the Americas data center colocation market include 1547 Critical Systems Realty, 365 Data Centers, Ascenty, AT&T, Axtel, Bell Canada , CentriLogic, CenturyLink (Level 3), CloudHQ, Cogeco Peer 1, Colo-D, DataBank, Data Foundry, EdgeConnex, Entel, Expedient, Flexential (Peak 10 & ViaWest), Green House Data, Green House Data, I.C.E Datacenters, Infomart Data Centers, Internap, KIO Network,ODATA (Patria Investimentos), Quality Technology Services (QTS), RagingWire Data Centers (NTT), Rogers Communications, ROOT Data Center, Sabey Data Centers, Stream Data Center, T5 Data Center, TigoUne (UNE EPM), TierPoint, Telefonica, Urbacon Data Center Solutions, Vantage Data Center, vXchnge, and Zayo Group Holdings. Key market insights include 1. The analysis of Americas data center colocation market provides market size and growth rate for the forecast period 2018-2023. 2. It offers comprehensive insights into current industry trends, trend forecast, and growth drivers about the Americas data center colocation market. 3. The report provides the latest analysis of market share, growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. 4. It offers a complete overview of market segments and the regional outlook of Americas data center colocation market. 5. The report offers a detailed overview of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key market strategies to gain competitive advantage. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5587792 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: sarah@reportbuyer.com Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-americas-data-center-colocation-market-to-witness-investments-of-more-than-11-billion-by-2023-300773862.html SOURCE ReportBuyer [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] TCL debuts expanded range of AI-powered 8K TVs at CES 2019 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TCL, top three global television brand and leading consumer electronics company, today debuted its latest artificial intelligence (AI)-powered 8K TVs, including the flagship TCL X10 QLED 8K TV and an 8-Series flagship TV, its first QLED 8K TV for the US market, at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2019. The company also officially announced it has joined the 8K Association as a founding member and launched its new branded platform for AI solutions, TCL AI-IN. TCL AI-IN is TCL's new branded AI platform, under which all of its AI-powered products will be grouped, and successfully integrate its smart technology partners such as Android TV, Roku (North America only) and Amazon Alexa. With this platform, TCL is building an intelligent ecosystem that provides consumers with a simple, personalized lif experience. Under the TCL AI-IN branded platform, the key features of the 75-inch TCL X10 QLED 8K TV, available in selected markets from the second half of 2019, include: 8K display technology with a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 (33.2 megapixels), quadrupling the total number of pixels of a 4K TV and providing detailed images that are closer to real life in clarity; display technology with a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 (33.2 megapixels), quadrupling the total number of pixels of a TV and providing detailed images that are closer to real life in clarity; Quantum Dot display technology supports a wide color gamut display, approaching 100% of the DCI-P3 color space coverage; Ultra-contrast control zones solution; Dolby Vision imaging technology; imaging technology; Theater-level soundbar from Onkyo and Dolby Atmos audio technology; audio technology; Android TV with the Google Assistant built-in; An integrated AI soundbar; A simplistic design, just 14.5mm at its thinnest point, making it one of the thinnest 75-inch direct backlight products in the industry, reducing optical distance to 4mm; Full-view design. The flagship QLED 8K TV from 8-Series for the US market will be available in 2019. Detailed specifications of the TV will be disclosed in due course. *Product specifications and sizes differ in different regions. Product availability varies according to local launch plans. About TCL Electronics Headquartered in China, TCL Electronics Holdings Limited (HKSE: 01070) is one of the top three players in the global TV industry, engaged in the research and development, manufacturing and distribution of consumer electronic products. TCL Electronics is striving to build a comprehensive ecosystem for smart TVs that provides users with a superior experience with its smart products and services. Media Contact: Hill+Knowlton Strategies Rachel Wu +852-2894-6292 rachel.wu@hkstrategies.com Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190104/2338687-1 SOURCE TCL Electronics [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Alliance Memory Cuts Lead Times for Automotive Temperature DRAM Portfolio SAN CARLOS, Calif., Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alliance Memory today announced that it has greatly reduced lead times for its DRAMs with -40C to +105C automotive temperature ratings. Responding to customer demand, Alliance Memory now holds many parts in finished goods stock and in addition can promise lead times of just six weeks for its most popular automotive temperature range products. Alliance Memory offers a complete lineup of automotive temperature CMOS SDRAMs, including double data rate (DDR), DDR2, and DDR3 devices. The companys portfolio of SDRAMs in the automotive temperature range includes components with densities of 64 Mb, 128 Mb, and 256 Mb. Automotive DDR1 SDRAMs feature densities of 128 Mb, 256 Mb, and 512 Mb, while DDR2 devices are available in densities of 256 Mb, 512 Mb, and 1 G. Alliance Memorys 1-Gb, 2-Gb, and 4-Gb automotive DDR3 SDRAMs operate over 1.35-V and 1.5-V power supplies. Alliance Memorys automotive temperature DRAMs are AEC-Q100-compliant products for high-temperature-requirement applications, including Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS); powertrain; automotive active safety and autonomous driving; connectivity and in-vehicle-networking (IVN); carputers (customized PCs in cars); telematics; and infotainment systems. Alliance Memory automotive temperature products will be amongthe highlights at the companys Embedded World 2019 exhibit (Hall 3A, Stand 613), Feb. 26-28 in Nuremberg, Germany. A complete list of automotive memory solutions from Alliance Memory is available here: https://www.alliancememory.com/datasheets/automotive-memory-solutions/ . About Alliance Memory Inc. Alliance Memory is a worldwide provider of critical and hard-to-find DRAM and SRAM memory ICs for the communications, computing, consumer electronics, medical, automotive, and industrial markets. The companys product range includes DRAMs and SRAMs with commercial, industrial, and automotive operating temperature ranges and densities from 64Kb to 8Gb. Privately held, Alliance Memory maintains headquarters in San Carlos, California, and regional offices in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. More information about Alliance Memory is available online at www.alliancememory.com . Editor resources: Link to product image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alliancememory/albums/72157705307925654 Link to detailed product info: https://www.alliancememory.com/datasheets/automotive-memory-solutions/ Agency Contact: Bob Decker Redpines +1 415 409 0233 bob.decker@redpinesgroup.com Alliance Memory Contact: Kim Bagby CFO +1 650 610 6800 kim@alliancememory.com [January 07, 2019] Peraso To Showcase 4K Wireless Video At CES 2019 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Peraso Technologies Inc., a leader in the development of mmWave technology and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) chipsets, is set to showcase multiple wireless video products and demonstrations at CES 2019, including a commercially available wireless docking solution from Millitronic. Additionally, Peraso will be showcasing a 4K video dock utilizing its MA-USB technology to drive simultaneous 4K monitors. Peraso is the only WiGig vendor in the market that supports the MA-USB protocol, thus allowing its customers to develop high performance, low-latency solutions for the wireless video market. "Multi-gigabit data rates, low latency and low interference are critical advantages that make 60 GHz technology an ideal choice for Millitronic," explains Alex Lin, President and CEO of Millitronic. "Further, our strong relationship with Peraso has enabled Millitronic to be an early vendor of WiGig-based solutions in the wireless networking marketplace." The low latency aspect of WiGig wireless tehnology is essential for a variety of video use cases, including video conferencing, which requires near real-time response between participants. Further, WiGig is ideal for use in wireless displays, as productivity applications such as spreadsheets require near-zero latency in terms of the user interaction. Ultimately, gaming and VR require latency levels in the range of 5ms, only achievable with 60GHz WiGig technology. "We are seeing a surge in demand for wireless video support, particularly with the simultaneous broad transition to 4K video," said Bill McLean, President and CEO of Peraso Technologies. "As the only WiGig vendor to support point-to-multi-point MA-USB, Peraso is the go-to choice for this application." Peraso will be showcasing their wireless video, networking and fixed wireless solutions at CES 2019 - January 8th - 11th, 2019, at the Westgate Hotel. To arrange a private demonstration, email CES-booking@perasotech.com. About Peraso Technologies, Inc. Peraso is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company is focused on the development of 60 GHz chipsets and solutions compliant with the IEEE 802.11ad specification. 60 GHz has been adopted for interoperability certification by the WiFi Alliance under the WiGig brand. For more information, visit www.perasotech.com. FOLLOW US: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/peraso-to-showcase-4k-wireless-video-at-ces-2019-300773743.html SOURCE Peraso Technologies, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Daimler Trucks invests half a billion Euros in highly automated trucks STUTTGART, Germany and LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- World premiere of the new Freightliner Cascadia with partially automated driving features (level 2) Start of series development of highly automated driving (level 4), enabling automated driving mode on specific routes without required user intervention Increasing safety, boosting transportation performance and significantly cutting costs per mile New R&D center for automated trucks fosters knowledge transfer for accelerated speed of innovation Martin Daum : "As a leader of our industry, we've been pioneering automated trucking. In 2015, our Freightliner Inspiration Truck got the first road license ever for an automated commercial vehicle. Now we take automated trucking to the next level: we're ready to launch the first partially automated new Freightliner Cascadia in 2019 and next, we tackle highly automated trucks. Highly automated trucks will improve safety, boost the performance of logistics and offer a great value proposition to our customers and thus contribute considerably to a sustainable future of transportation." Today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Daimler Trucks announced that it will invest EUR 500 million (around 570 million USD) over the next years and create more than 200 new jobs in its global push to bring highly automated trucks (SAE level 4) to the road within a decade. Highly automated driving is characterized as automated travel in defined areas and between defined hubs without any expectation of the system that a user will respond to a request to intervene. In commercial trucking, level 4 is the natural next step after level 2, increasing efficiency and productivity for customers, cutting costs per mile significantly. In doing so, Daimler Trucks is skipping the intermediate step of conditionally automated driving (level 3). Level 3 automated driving does not offer truck customers a substantial advantage compared to the current situation as there are no corresponding benefits to compensate for the technology costs. The new Freightliner Cascadia offers partially automated driving features (level 2), making it the first-ever partially automated series production truck on North American roads. It also made its world premiere during today's presentation of Daimler Trucks at CES. Daimler Trucks has been a pioneer of automated truck development for years. In 2014, the world's leading truck manufacturer presented the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025, the world's first automated truck, and was the first to demonstrate the technological opportunities and great potential that automated trucks have for the economy and society. Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG with responsibility for Daimler Trucks & Buses: "As a leader of our industry, we've been pioneering automated trucking. In 2015, our Freightliner Inspiration Truck got the first road license ever for an automated commercial vehicle. Now we take automated trucking to the next level: we're ready to launch the first partially automated new Freightliner Cascadia in 2019 and next, we tackle highly automated trucks. Highly automated trucks will improve safety, boost the performance of logistics and offer a great value proposition to our customers and thus contribute considerably to a sustainable future of transportation." Level 2 automated driving now a reality in the new Freightliner Cascadia With Active Drive Assist (Mercedes-Benz Actros, FUSO Super Great) and Detroit Assurance 5.0 with Active Lane Assist (Freightliner new Cascadia), Daimler Trucks is already bringing partially automated driving features into series production. The new system can independently brake, accelerate and steer. Unlike systems that only work above a certain speed, Active Drive Assist / Detroit Assurance 5.0 make partially automated driving possible in all speed ranges for the driver for the first time in a series production truck. Active lateral control and the connection of longitudinal or lateral control in all speed ranges are new thanks to the fusion of radar and camera information. Daimler Trucks reassessing the benefits of platooning Moving forward with its innovation roadmap, Daimler Trucks is reassessing its view on platooning. Daimler Trucks defines platooning as the eectronic coupling of two or more trucks with significantly reduced distance between them to, in theory, improve aerodynamics and therefore save fuel. Daimler Trucks has tested platooning for several years, especially in the U.S., where benefits would be expected to be the most substantial. Results show that fuel savings, even in perfect platooning conditions, are less than expected and that those savings are further diminished when the platoon gets disconnected and the trucks must accelerate to reconnect. At least for U.S. long-distance applications, analysis currently shows no business case for customers driving platoons with new, highly aerodynamic trucks. Daimler Trucks will, of course, remain committed to all partner projects that are still ongoing. Level 4 automated driving improves safety, efficiency and competitiveness Highly automated trucks (level 4) offer enormous advantages in many areas. In today's society, there is a growing desire for safer roads and more sustainable transport solutions and level 4 trucks can considerably contribute to that. They enhance safety in traffic thanks to a redundancy of systems and a multitude of sensors and systems that never get tired or lose attention because today, a great majority of accidents are still due to human error. Level 4 highly automated trucks also improve efficiency and productivity, among other things, through higher utilization of the vehicles practically around the clock. They also make it possible to travel during light traffic times, for example at night, and thus avoid traffic jams by intelligent route management. This has positive effects for truck customers and for the entire economy: the competitiveness of an economy is strongly correlated with the efficiency of logistics. This aspect becomes more and more relevant as global road freight volume is expected to more than double between 2015 and 2050. 200 new jobs for engineers or robotics specialists with IT and programming skills Daimler Trucks is creating 200 new jobs in the area of highly automated driving (level 4). The newly created positions and roles are to be filled primarily by mechatronics engineers or robotics specialists with IT and programming skills. The main location is Daimler Trucks & Buses new Automated Truck Research & Development Center in Portland (Oregon, U.S.). The center's experts are dedicated to all aspects of developing, testing and validating automated vehicles. In addition, the engineers in Portland work in close cooperation with their colleagues in the research and development centers at Daimler Trucks locations in Stuttgart (Germany) and Bangalore (India), thus forming a global network. Interested talents can apply at https://daimler-trucksnorthamerica.com/lead/ or directly to innovateDTNA@daimler.com. Requirements for highly automated driving of cars and trucks differ considerably A crucial success factor for the development of a safe and reliable level 4 highly automated truck is a closely coordinated system of engineering and technology development. Daimler Trucks uses the extensive knowledge from many years of experience in developing driver assistance systems. And the transfer of knowledge within the Daimler Group forms the basis of a high speed of innovation. Thanks to its overall portfolio ranging from passenger cars and vans all the way to buses and trucks, the Daimler Group is ideally positioned for all relevant application scenarios of automated driving. Scalable solutions are therefore available. Across all divisions, the company is guided by a clear philosophy which is based on introducing a safe, dependable and mature system. Developments from the Mercedes-Benz Cars division suitable for haulers and their transport needs will also be used at Daimler Trucks. Level 2 systems now available will be raised to level 4 through innovation and the re-definition of existing systems. Despite all the similarities, the requirements for highly automated driving of cars and trucks differ considerably from one another. The sheer size of a truck makes higher demands on the technology than in the passenger car sector as do moving systems on an articulated system, for example. In addition, the driving behavior due to a greater mass or other deceleration values as well as other driving characteristics, for example in curves, place much higher demands on the system. The operating conditions in the transport industry are also much tougher. In order to enable efficient delivery cycles and to meet customer requirements for fast delivery, the vehicles must be operated for as long as possible. This must not lead to any restrictions in durability or reliability, for example under a wide variety of weather conditions and extreme vibrations. Finally, public acceptance is a key factor to successfully integrating level 4 systems into the value chain. Two sensors are currently in use at level 2. In the next development step at level 4, there will be significantly more, all also higher performing. This leads to a completely new level of data volume but also places extremely high demands on the quality of data processing. The goal: the driver's perception is recreated by the holistic recording of the traffic and vehicle situation by different sensor technologies. With their specific strengths, each sensor makes a contribution to the overall performance and safety. Three different technological approaches form the basis: radar, camera and lidar. The safety, precision and durability of the systems will already play a leading role at launch. As in aircraft, all safety-relevant functions will therefore be equipped with a redundant system that is capable of seamlessly taking over in case the primary control system malfunctions. Daimler at a Glance Daimler AG is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. With its divisions Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services, the Daimler Group is one of the biggest producers of premium cars and the world's biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles with a global reach. Daimler Financial Services provides financing, leasing, fleet management, insurance, financial investments, credit cards, and innovative mobility services. The company's founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history with the invention of the automobile in the year 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, it is a motivation and commitment of Daimler to shape safely and sustainably the future of mobility: The Group's focus is on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior automobiles that appeal and fascinate. Daimler consequently invests in the development of efficient drive trains with the long-term goal of locally emission-free driving: from hightech combustion engines about hybrid vehicles to electric drive trains powered by battery or fuel cell. Furthermore, the company follows a consistent path towards intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, automated driving and new mobility concepts. This is just one example of how Daimler willingly accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility towards society and the environment. Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. Its current brand portfolio includes, in addition to the world's most valuable premium automotive brand, Mercedes-Benz (Source: Interbrand-Study "The Anatomy of Growth," 10/5/2016), as well as Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes me, the brands smart, EQ, Freightliner, Western Star, BharatBenz, FUSO, Setra and Thomas Built Buses, and Daimler Financial Services' brands: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Daimler Truck Financial, moovel, car2go and mytaxi. The company is listed on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt and Stuttgart (stock exchange symbol DAI). In 2017, the Group sold around 3.3 million vehicles and employed a workforce of more than 289,300 people. With application of IFRS 15 and IFRS 9 in financial year 2017, Group revenue would have amounted to 164.2 billion and Group EBIT would have amounted to 14.3 billion. Before application of IFRS 15 and 9, Group revenue in 2017 amounted to 164.3 billion and Group EBIT amounted to 14.7 billion, as previously reported. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/daimler-trucks-invests-half-a-billion-euros-in-highly-automated-trucks-300773660.html SOURCE Daimler North America - Corporate Communications [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Philips introduces intelligent, personalized solutions to improve consumer health at CES 2019 LAS VEGAS and AMSTERDAM, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- At CES 2019 (Booth # 44219, January 8-11, Las Vegas, NV), Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced a range of intelligent, adaptive and personalized consumer health solutions that help people to live healthy lives and be active health consumers. "At this year's CES, we are showcasing intelligent and personalized solutions that are tailored and adaptive to people's unique needs, motivations, and characteristics," said Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader, Personal Health businesses at Philips. "Consumer technology, such as Philips' virtual hub for personal oral healthcare, is the key to making the shift from reactive to proactive health care. With a strong foothold and trusted brand in both professional healthcare and the consumer world, Philips is in a unique position to bridge both worlds for example, combining clinical know-how of sleep data with consumer insights to develop innovative consumer health solutions that support all phases of sleep." Philips' suite of consumer sleep solutions Building on the successful introduction of the SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband at CES last year, SmartSleep will now feature an expanded suite of consumer sleep solutions. This suite includes the SmartSleep Analyzer, a clinically validated digital analysis tool designed to help people learn more about their sleep challenges and obtain information regarding solutions. To support the 40 percent of adult men and 24 percent of adult women who are habitual snorers [1], Philips will offer a sneak peek at its SmartSleep Snoring Relief Band. In addition, Philips will preview the SmartSleep Better Sleep Program, for which Philips partnered with SleepRate to deliver a fully customized and personalized program that re-trains people to be able to fall asleep and stay asleep using a mobile app. In addition, Philips' expanded SmartSleep offering includes sleep and wake-up lights, such as the latest connected Somneo. Find all information related to Philips SmartSleep consumer sleep solutions here. Philips Sonicare teledentistry expanding oral healthcare Philips is also introducing the Sonicare teledentistry service to North America. This service provides consumers with remote dental consultation from licensed dentists within 24 hours. The Philips Sonicare app acts as a 'virtual hub' for personal oral healthcare, helping users to manage their complete oral care on a daily basis and share brushing data with their dental practitioners, putting personalized guidance and advice at their fingertips. Complementing the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart connected toothbrush, the Philips Sonicare app now also has an automated brush head reordering service. Philips' view on the future of personal care The Philips Smart Shaver series 7000 is the world's first connected and AI-powered shaving solution, which analyzes shaver motion and determines the otion type to provide each man with a personalized shaving plan to tackle their specific skin issues and needs. The Philips Skincare Assessment uses a combination of daily questions and skin measurements to identify the health of the skin, capturing this data in the app and using it to provide a personalized skin report. Philips' connected devices and services are shaped by sensors, data and adaptive intelligence and personalized to each individual's needs, enabling to optimize and give real-time guidance on daily personal care routines. The SmartMirror concept shows how Philips' solutions empower individuals to better understand that their daily routines can have an impact on their health, confidence and wellbeing. Find more information related to Philips personal care solutions at CES here. Philips improves the aging and caregiving experience Philips Cares empowers people to easily form and activate a care circle of trusted family and friends, access meaningful insights into their loved one's wellbeing, receive notifications about care, and manage their Philips Lifeline service all through a single integrated web or mobile application. More than 40 million people in the U.S. are acting as caregivers [2], caring for a loved one, often an aging parent, partner or friend. Being a family caregiver will bring joy and satisfaction, but it often also is challenging and confusing. Role reversal, complexity and cost put tremendous strain on families as they go through the challenges of aging. Philips Cares transforms the aging experience so that people can worry less and focus more on the key moments that matter with their loved ones. Find more information related to Philips Cares aging and caregiving experience here. Further Philips innovations being showcased at CES 2019 include: Philips Dream Family, Philips Pregnancy+, the Philips Airfryer, the Philips High Speed Power Blender and Philips Air Purifiers. Philips at CES Philips will be at CES 2019 at Booth # 44219 (Sands Expo, Las Vegas, January 8 - 11, 2019). On Monday, January 7, at 1:30pm PST, Pat Baird, Global Head of Global Standards at Philips will be speaking as part of the Healthcare Disruptor Summit on how artificial intelligence continues to grow in the consumer technology industry. On Tuesday, January 8, at 2:45pm PST, Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader, Personal Health businesses at Philips will be speaking at the Digital Health Summit on how technology and innovation can help to eradicate chronic diseases. On Wednesday, January 9, at 9:55am PST, Sean Carney, Chief Design Officer at Philips will be speaking about how Philips creates health technology solutions that continuously engage people as part of the Digital Health Summit. On Thursday, January 10, at 3:00pm PST, Iman Farzaneh, Business Leader Mother & Child Care at Philips will be speaking at the Family Tech Summit about how parents are using technology to solve challenges with regards to fertility, pregnancy and child rearing. All sessions take place alongside CES 2019. For live updates throughout CES, follow the conversation @PhilipsLiveFrom and the event hashtag #CES2019 or visit our additional social media channels on YouTube and LinkedIn. [1] sleepeducation.org [2] AARP.org For further information, please contact: Anna Hogrebe Philips Group Press Office Tel: +1 416 270 6757 E-mail: anna.hogrebe@philips.com Silvie Casanova Philips North America Tel: +1 (978) 659-7467 Email: silvie.casanova@philips.com About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter. ? View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/philips-introduces-intelligent-personalized-solutions-to-improve-consumer-health-at-ces-2019-300773886.html SOURCE Royal Philips [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Tulane University Launches Entrepreneurial Hospitality Program in America's Premier City for Hospitality The A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, located in New Orleans, has announced new offerings in Entrepreneurial Hospitality. New Orleans' long history of hospitality and Freeman's strength in entrepreneurship come together to create a living, learning laboratory where students will develop distinctive, market-relevant and high-value capabilities. The program will include a new Master of Management in Entrepreneurial Hospitality, intensive seminar courses featuring national thought leaders in the hospitality industry and options for graduate students and working professionals to earn a concentration in entrepreneurial hospitality with their MBA. "In today's economy, hospitality is a mechanism for all companies to engage consumers and create meaningful experiences. It transcends all industries," says Ti Adelaide Martin, Co-Proprietor of New Orleans' legendary restaurant Commander's Palace. Hospitality is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. Worldwide, travel and tourism generate more than $7.6 trillion annually, outpacing the global economy for seven consecutive years and supporting one in ten jobs on the planet. In New Orleans alone, the tourism industry employs more than 90,000 people. Located in a top tourist destination with a new reputation as an entrepreneurial hub, the Freeman School is committed to giving students an exceptional, immersive education in a hotbed of hospitality The programs in Entrepreneurial Hospitality prepare students to address the new emphasis on customer service in traditional hospitality industries and beyond. Courses will show the critical role that hospitality is playing in industries as diverse as health care, banking and retail. Freeman will launch one of the program's first five-day intensive seminars in January at the Stewart Center within the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute where students will conceptualize, plan and present a new and innovative hospitality venture to a panel of industry professionals. "Freeman is proud to have an extensive network of notable and successful hospitality alumni who will support these new program offerings with first-hand knowledge and current industry insights," says Doug Hertz, president and CEO of United Distributors Inc. and the chairman of the board of Tulane University. "There's no better way to teach this subject than to engage students directly with successful hospitality entrepreneurs - and there's no better place than New Orleans." "Teaching hospitality in a business school provides students a broad grounding in business principles, allowing them to address critical challenges in a variety of functional and industry settings," says Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School. "Students will develop critical thinking and problem solving skills through hands-on, course-based projects set in a wide range of hospitality and non-hospitality contexts." About The Freeman School of Business The A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University is a leading internationally recognized business school with more than 3,000 students in programs spanning the globe. With innovative curricula that combine outstanding classroom instruction with distinctive experiential learning opportunities, the Freeman School is dedicated to preparing current and future business leaders to contribute positively to their organizations and their communities. Founded in 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Freeman School is a founding member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the premier accrediting body for collegiate schools of business. For more information visit freeman.tulane.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005036/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] CES 2019: Kingston to Showcase Upcoming Consumer, Enterprise SSDs and Everyday Life Embedded Solutions Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, will once again share upcoming products for consumers and business customers at CES 2019. For over three decades, Kingston's industry-leading products and technology solutions have provided great performance, reliability and consistency, and this year will be no different. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005055/en/ CES 2019: For over three decades, Kingston's industry-leading products and technology solutions have provided great performance, reliability and consistency, and this year will be no different (Photo: Business Wire) Kingston will demo: Next generation four-channel NVMe M.2 SSDs providing consumers of all levels blazing speeds and high performance. A side of the company that is rarely seen is its embedded solutions which power products found in your everyday life. High-endurance microSD cards for devices such as security and dash cameras. 8K video editing station powered by an upcoming U.2 NVMe SSD and data center SATA SSDs in RAID 0. For the past few years, Kingston has been working with the movie industry in Hollywood for its content capture and postproduction needs. The demo includes some of the tools studios use: DC1000M NVMe U.2 SSD will be Kingston's first U.2 form factor SSD offering over 5xthe performance of SATA SSDs. It is perfect for system integrators designing next-gen., high-performance NVMe servers and storage arrays for Tier 2 Cloud providers and hosting companies running either OEM or white box server platforms. Data Center 500R (DC500R) and Data Center 500M (DC500M) SATA SSDs. DC500R is optimized for read-centric workloads and DC500M is suited for workloads featuring a high mix of reads and writes. Both drives offer endurance ranges that satisfy 80 percent of the world's workload requirements and are designed with Quality of Service (QoS) as the primary criteria to ensure predictability and consistency in IO and latency delivery. Members of the media are encouraged to email pr@kingston.com to schedule a meeting (by appointment only) during CES 2019. Kingston can be found on: YouTube (News - Alert) : http://www.youtube.com/kingstontechmemory Facebook (News - Alert) : http://www.facebook.com/kingstontechnology Twitter (News - Alert) : https://twitter.com/KingstonTech Instagram: https://instagram.com/kingstontechnology/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/kingston About Kingston Technology Company, Inc. Kingston Digital, Inc. ("KDI") is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please visit kingston.com Editor's Note: For additional information, evaluation units or executive interviews, please contact David Leong, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., 17600 Newhope Street, Fountain Valley, CA (News - Alert) USA 92708, 714-438-1817 (Voice). Press images can be found in Kingston's press room at kingston.com/company/press/ Kingston and the Kingston logo are registered trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. IronKey (News - Alert) is a registered trademark of Kingston Digital, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2019 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005055/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Toyota Mobility Foundation Unveils Five Visions for the Future of Mobility at CES LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The five finalists in the three-year Mobility Unlimited Challenge have been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. The Toyota Mobility Foundation launched the $4 million global challenge in 2017 in partnership with Nesta's Challenge Prize Centre, with the aim of improving the lives of millions of people with lower-limb paralysis. The Challenge invited engineers, innovators, and designers from across the world to submit designs for game-changing technologies, incorporating intelligent systems, to improve the mobility and independence of people with lower-limb paralysis. Central to the Challenge is the importance of collaboration with end-users to develop devices which will integrate seamlessly into users' lives and environments, while being comfortable and easy to use, enabling greater independence and increased participation in daily life. Each of the five finalists will receive a grant of $500,000 to develop their concept further, with the final winner of the Challenge receiving $1 million in Tokyo in 2020. The five finalists are: The Evowalk: Evolution Devices ( United States ) - a non-intrusive sleeve which goes around the user's leg and has sensors that track the user's walking motion and will stimulate the right muscles at the right time to improve mobility. - a non-intrusive sleeve which goes around the user's leg and has sensors that track the user's walking motion and will stimulate the right muscles at the right time to improve mobility. Moby: Italdesign ( Italy ) - an integrated network of wheel-on powered devices, allowing users of manual wheelchairs the convenience and benefits of a powered chair, accessible via an app-based share scheme. - an integrated network of wheel-on powered devices, allowing users of manual wheelchairs the convenience and benefits of a powered chair, accessible via an app-based share scheme. Phoenix Ai Ultralight Wheelchair: Phoenix Instinct ( United Kingdom ) - an ultra-lightweight, self-balancing, intelligent wheelchair which eliminates painful vibrations. - an ultra-lightweight, self-balancing, intelligent wheelchair which eliminates painful vibrations. Qolo (Quality of Life with Locomotion): Team Qolo, University of Tsukuba , ( Japan ) - a mobile exoskeleton on wheels, allowing users to sit or stand with ease. - a mobile exoskeleton on wheels, allowing users to sit or stand with ease. Quix: IHMC & MYOLYN ( United States ) - a highly mobile, powered exoskeleton offering fast, stable and agile upright mobility. (See Notes to Editors for further details about the shortlisted entries, their personal quote and a link through to their images.) Eighty entries were received from specialist teams in 28 countries globally. The finalists were chosen by a panel of expert judges including: Professor Linamara Battistella , Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine doctor at the University of Sao Paulo ( Brazil ) , Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine doctor at the University of ( ) Winfried Beigel , Director of Research and Development for Otto Bock Mobility Solutions ( Germany ) , Director of Research and Development for Otto Bock Mobility Solutions ( ) Dr. Mary Ellen Buning , President-elect for the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America ( United States ) , President-elect for the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of ( ) Dr. Kay Kim , President of NT Robot Co ( South Korea ) , President of NT Robot Co ( ) Dr. Eric Krotkov , Chief Science Officer at Toyota Research Institute ( United States ) , Chief Science Officer at Toyota Research Institute ( ) Eric LeGrand , disability rights advocate ( United States ) , disability rights advocate ( ) Sophie Morgan , television presenter and disability advocate ( United Kingdom ) , television presenter and disability advocate ( ) Ruth Peachment , Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist at the National Spinal Injuries Centre ( United Kingdom ) , Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist at the National Spinal Injuries Centre ( ) Matthew Reeve , Director of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation ( United States ) , Director of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation ( ) Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai , President of robotics company Cyberdyne ( Japan ) , President of robotics company Cyberdyne ( ) Dr. Lloyd Walker , professional rehabilitation engineer at Tech4Life ( Australia ) Dr. Eric Krotkov, Chief Science Officer at Toyota Research Institute and one of the judges of the Challenge, stated: "There are so many technological opportunities to explore approaches to alleviate challenges stemming from lower-limb paralysis. A competition like the Mobility Unlimited Challenge gets innovators to focus on the same problem to identify something of great common interest that serves society. I am excited by these finalists who have a breadth of technical approaches - wheelchairs, orthotics, braces, exoskeletons. I look forward to seeing how they will take these devices out of their conceptual stage to help our end users." In addition to the $500,000 grant, the finalists will attend tailored workshops, receive mentoring opportunities with engineering experts, and collaborate with end users to further the development of their concepts through to 2020. Ryan Klem, Director of Programs for Toyota Mobility Foundation commented: "These five finalists have shown real innovation driven by human-centered design. We think that the technology incorporated in these devices could change the lives of a huge number of people around the world, not just for people with lower-limb paralysis, but also those with a wider range of mobility needs. It will be fascinating to follow the teams' journeys and see how the $500,000 grant will help them develop their ideas to bring to market and get them into users' hands." To ensure entries from organizations of all sizes, the Challenge also offered ten teams seed funding in the form of $50,000 Discovery Award grants during the entry period. Of the ten Discovery Award winners, four went on to be selected as finalists. Charlotte Macken of Nesta's Challenge Prize Centre said: "Current personal mobility devices are often unable to fully meet the needs of users due to limitations affecting functionality and usability. Historically, the pace of innovation is slow, due to small and fragmented markets and difficulties in getting new technology funded by health-care systems and insurers. This can make the field unattractive to the very people who could help change the world. We hope that challenges like this can inspire innovation and are excited to see how the five finalists use this opportunity to develop their ideas further." Around the world, millions of people are living with lower-limb paralysis (the most common causes being strokes, spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis). While there are no statistics on paralysis worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates there are 250,000-500,000 new cases of spinal cord injury globally every year. Contacts: London Sarah-Jane Rumford or James Ward +44 (0)7810 434 636 +44 (0)7913 433 255 +44 (0) 0203 740 5325 sj@89up.org james@89up.org Full Details of Finalist Devices & Finalist Quotes: THE EVOWALK: EVOLUTION DEVICES ( UNITED STATES ) The Evowalk is a non-intrusive sleeve which goes around the user's leg and has sensors that track the user's walking motion and will stimulate the right muscles at the right time to improve mobility. This personalized, timed muscle stimulation that helps user's muscles contract as they walk will not only help them day to day but will also rehabilitate the muscles over time. The Evowalk is a non-intrusive sleeve which goes around the user's leg and has sensors that track the user's walking motion and will stimulate the right muscles at the right time to improve mobility. This personalized, timed muscle stimulation that helps user's muscles contract as they walk will not only help them day to day but will also rehabilitate the muscles over time. Quote from Pierluigi Mantovani from Evolution Devices "It feels amazing to be selected. The Mobility Unlimited Challenge is a fantastic opportunity for people to build devices that are normally hard to fund but could make a huge difference. This support will help us finish our research and develop the device further, so we can get it to the people who really need it. People like my dad. My dad has multiple sclerosis and developed foot drop. He was recommended a device that was far too expensive so myself and some friends built this prototype that helped. After that we wanted to make something affordable for others. Our main goal has always been to help people regain the ability to walk freely again." "It feels amazing to be selected. The Mobility Unlimited Challenge is a fantastic opportunity for people to build devices that are normally hard to fund but could make a huge difference. This support will help us finish our research and develop the device further, so we can get it to the people who really need it. People like my dad. My dad has multiple sclerosis and developed foot drop. He was recommended a device that was far too expensive so myself and some friends built this prototype that helped. After that we wanted to make something affordable for others. Our main goal has always been to help people regain the ability to walk freely again." MOBY: ITALDESIGN ( ITALY ) Moby is the first mobility service created for wheelchair users. It's the cycle share scheme equivalent for wheelchair users. Consisting of a series of wheel-on electric devices, located in urban hubs, it will make travelling around cities much simpler and easier for people with lightweight manual wheelchairs. Connected via an app, it will enable users to interact with the device, other wheelchair users and other means of transport. Moby is the first mobility service created for wheelchair users. It's the cycle share scheme equivalent for wheelchair users. Consisting of a series of wheel-on electric devices, located in urban hubs, it will make travelling around cities much simpler and easier for people with lightweight manual wheelchairs. Connected via an app, it will enable users to interact with the device, other wheelchair users and other means of transport. Quote from Serena De Mori from Italdesign "Moby is a concept we developed over time, working with users of wheelchairs. They said they wanted a way to make travelling easier and so we developed this platform. We entered this Challenge because we wanted to have a different kind of mobility solution which is accessible to all. We are very happy to have been selected for the Challenge and hope to develop the concept further and to build the first prototypes to test on the street as soon as possible. We are looking forward to bringing this concept to reality and working with users to improve it over time. The Mobility Unlimited Challenge is important because it give a possibility to everybody to take part and make a difference in the mobility world." "Moby is a concept we developed over time, working with users of wheelchairs. They said they wanted a way to make travelling easier and so we developed this platform. We entered this Challenge because we wanted to have a different kind of mobility solution which is accessible to all. We are very happy to have been selected for the Challenge and hope to develop the concept further and to build the first prototypes to test on the street as soon as possible. We are looking forward to bringing this concept to reality and working with users to improve it over time. The Mobility Unlimited Challenge is important because it give a possibility to everybody to take part and make a difference in the mobility world." PHOENIX AI ULTRA-LIGHT WHEELCHAIR: PHOENIX INSTINCT ( UNITED KINGDOM ) The Phoenix AI wheelchair is an ultra-lightweight manual wheelchair made from carbon-fiber. Using smart sensors the chair will configure itself to what the user is doing so it remains in sync with how the user moves. The sensors detect if the user is leaning forward or back, algorithms will calculate the wheelchair's response. The Phoenix Ai will have many smart functions never before seen in wheelchairs, at the core is intelligent centre of gravity. The chair will continually adjust its centre of gravity to fit what the user is doing making for a chair that is easier to push and turn by eliminating drag and uncomfortable, painful vibration while also making the chair safe from falling backwards. Intelligent, lightweight power assist will make slopes easier to ascend while automatic braking will remove the need for users to grip the wheels to slow down. The Phoenix AI wheelchair is an ultra-lightweight manual wheelchair made from carbon-fiber. Using smart sensors the chair will configure itself to what the user is doing so it remains in sync with how the user moves. The sensors detect if the user is leaning forward or back, algorithms will calculate the wheelchair's response. The Phoenix Ai will have many smart functions never before seen in wheelchairs, at the core is intelligent centre of gravity. The chair will continually adjust its centre of gravity to fit what the user is doing making for a chair that is easier to push and turn by eliminating drag and uncomfortable, painful vibration while also making the chair safe from falling backwards. Intelligent, lightweight power assist will make slopes easier to ascend while automatic braking will remove the need for users to grip the wheels to slow down. Quote from Andrew Slorance from Phoenix Instinct "I'm delighted to have made it to the final five. I've worked towards this for years but didn't expect to make it through! I'm so pleased the judges recognised that the wheelchair has proved itself as the most viable mobility device for decades and although it has done well it is now tired and in need of a serious makeover. I wanted to show how I think the wheelchair can be evolved while maintaining its core, proven fundamental capabilities that are behind its success as a mobility device. I wanted to be part of this Challenge because I broke my back when I was 14 which was now thirty-five years ago. By the time I was 16, I'd decided that I would one day design a wheelchair that would change perceptions by using cutting edge materials and styling. I knew the next step beyond advanced materials has to be to make wheelchairs smart. But that costs a huge amount of money in development. So, when I saw this Challenge, I thought here is the money to develop this technology. No-one else is going to do it. No company is going to decide to spend half a million dollars on research and development to advance the manual wheelchair. Why should they? As long as their competitor also doesn't do it the status quo can continue with wheelchairs remaining much as they were thirty-five years ago. This Challenge changes that. Being selected is just incredible. But now the work really begins, we've got eighteen months to turn the wheelchair which has been in the technological dark for so long into a futuristic device that intelligently makes wheelchair life easier." "I'm delighted to have made it to the final five. I've worked towards this for years but didn't expect to make it through! I'm so pleased the judges recognised that the wheelchair has proved itself as the most viable mobility device for decades and although it has done well it is now tired and in need of a serious makeover. I wanted to show how I think the wheelchair can be evolved while maintaining its core, proven fundamental capabilities that are behind its success as a mobility device. I wanted to be part of this Challenge because I broke my back when I was 14 which was now thirty-five years ago. By the time I was 16, I'd decided that I would one day design a wheelchair that would change perceptions by using cutting edge materials and styling. I knew the next step beyond advanced materials has to be to make wheelchairs smart. But that costs a huge amount of money in development. So, when I saw this Challenge, I thought here is the money to develop this technology. No-one else is going to do it. No company is going to decide to spend half a million dollars on research and development to advance the manual wheelchair. Why should they? As long as their competitor also doesn't do it the status quo can continue with wheelchairs remaining much as they were thirty-five years ago. This Challenge changes that. Being selected is just incredible. But now the work really begins, we've got eighteen months to turn the wheelchair which has been in the technological dark for so long into a futuristic device that intelligently makes wheelchair life easier." QOLO (QUALITY OF LIFE WITH LOCOMOTION): TEAM QOLO, UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA ( JAPAN ) The Qolo Standing Device consists of a lightweight, mobile exoskeleton on wheels which uses passive actuators to allow users to sit or stand, effectively removing the 'chair' from 'wheelchair'. Mobility is controlled using the upper body, allowing hands-free operation. The device enables users to travel around in a standing position, changing both physiological and social aspects of everyday living. The Qolo Standing Device consists of a lightweight, mobile exoskeleton on wheels which uses passive actuators to allow users to sit or stand, effectively removing the 'chair' from 'wheelchair'. Mobility is controlled using the upper body, allowing hands-free operation. The device enables users to travel around in a standing position, changing both physiological and social aspects of everyday living. Quote from Kenji Suzuki from Team Qolo "We're very proud to be in the final five. We want to remove the chair from wheelchair. Our device gives users the choice to sit or stand, using cutting edge technologies. This means that wheelchair users can interact with other people at the same eye-level, improving communication and changing the way they see the world. We are of course very happy to have been selected, but our work is not over. Once we develop our product and people start using it and we see how it has helped people, that will make us truly happy. But what makes us most happy is that there were 80 entrants. Eighty innovators contributing to society. Not just our unique device. The hope is that someday people could be choosing from 80 very different devices." "We're very proud to be in the final five. We want to remove the chair from wheelchair. Our device gives users the choice to sit or stand, using cutting edge technologies. This means that wheelchair users can interact with other people at the same eye-level, improving communication and changing the way they see the world. We are of course very happy to have been selected, but our work is not over. Once we develop our product and people start using it and we see how it has helped people, that will make us truly happy. But what makes us most happy is that there were 80 entrants. Eighty innovators contributing to society. Not just our unique device. The hope is that someday people could be choosing from 80 very different devices." QUIX: IHMC & MYOLYN ( UNITED STATES ) A robotic, powered exoskeleton with motors at the hips, knees and ankles, as well as additional actuators offering someone with lower-limb paralysis fast, stable, and agile upright mobility. Utilizing modular actuation, perception technology from autonomous vehicles, and control algorithms for balancing autonomous humanoid robots, this device will deliver the mobility, safety, and independence that current exoskeletons cannot. The device will improve accessibility in society - especially at home and work. A robotic, powered exoskeleton with motors at the hips, knees and ankles, as well as additional actuators offering someone with lower-limb paralysis fast, stable, and agile upright mobility. Utilizing modular actuation, perception technology from autonomous vehicles, and control algorithms for balancing autonomous humanoid robots, this device will deliver the mobility, safety, and independence that current exoskeletons cannot. The device will improve accessibility in society - especially at home and work. Peter Neuhaus from IHMC & MYOLYN said: "We're delighted to have made it through as one of the five finalists of the Mobility Unlimited Challenge. In the business world, developing technologies for people with lower-limb paralysis has been extraordinarily hard. We've constantly struggled against people saying the market is too small and because of that people aren't putting in the effort, research or investment this field deserves, meaning there hasn't been enough advancement. We're now focused on the next stage of the Challenge. On the engineering challenges to meet the needs and wants of users. And on the business development side, making this commercial and ensuring it gets to the people who need it most." About Toyota Mobility Foundation The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established in 2014 to support the development of a more mobile society. The Foundation aims to support strong mobility systems while eliminating disparities in mobility. It utilizes Toyota's expertise in technology, safety, and the environment, working in partnership with universities, government, non-profit organizations, research institutions and other organizations to address mobility issues around the world. Programs include resolving transportation problems, expanding the utilization of personal mobility, and developing solutions for next generation mobility. Learn more at www.toyotamobilityfoundation.org . About Nesta's Challenge Prize Centre Across the world, there are many people and communities that are overlooked and underserved, facing ever more complex challenges. Nesta's Challenge Prize Centre tackles some of these problems by harnessing and fostering innovation, fresh thinking and technology to achieve positive impact. From health to conservation, finance to agriculture, assistive technology to education, we connect people, businesses and experts to drive fresh thinking and deliver systemic change. The Challenge Prize Centre uses prizes to stimulate innovative solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face, including: The Longitude Prize, created to tackle growing levels of antimicrobial resistance and reduce the use of antibiotics. The Inclusive Technology Prize, a challenge prize to encourage innovations that gives disabled people equal access to life's opportunities. The UNDP's Renewable Energy Challenge Prize, to find a renewable energy solution capable of providing off-grid power to cover the needs of war-returnee families in rural Bosnia and Herzegovina . . The Dynamic Demand Challenge Prize, created to reduce carbon emissions by shifting energy demand to off peak times or through excess renewable generation. To find out more visit http://challengeprizecentre.org View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/toyota-mobility-foundation-unveils-five-visions-for-the-future-of-mobility-at-ces-300773859.html SOURCE Toyota Motor North America [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Argus, Elektrobit, and NXP provide combined solution to protect connected and automated vehicles LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- (CES 2019, North Hall Booth #6106) -- Elektrobit (EB), a visionary global supplier of embedded and connected software products for the automotive industry, and its subsidiary, Argus Cyber Security (Argus), a global leader in automotive cyber security, announced today that they are collaborating with NXP to bring to market the industry's first complete software-hardware solution that delivers comprehensive protection against even the most sophisticated cyberattacks. With vehicle safety as the highest priority, it is critical that OEMs have the ability to provide passengers with optimal defense against cyber threats. The combined solution enables car makers to comply with upcoming regulations and current guidelines that require equipping vehicle systems with the ability to detect and respond to cyber-security incidents. This first-of-its-kind solution consists of: NXP's Secure CAN Transceiver for a vehicle's controller area network (CAN) bus, which detects and prevents malicious activity at the CAN bus level; Argus' Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS), which detects potentially malicious activity through data and timing heuristics, and then reports this activity to a security backend to enable an appropriate response; EB cadian Sync software, which enables continuous over-the-air (OTA) updates in the vehicle, including critical updates to ECUs as necessitated by the NXP Secure CAN Transceiver and Argus IDPS findings. "Connected functions in today's cars require the security solutions of the highest standards", said Martin Schleicher, executive vice president, business management at EB. "This joint solution helps car makers and their suppliers to bring to market secure cars, compliant with upcoming regulations and current guidelines for automated cars." "Argus has conducted dozens of research projects across fleets, vehicles and vehicle components and has found that all of them are vulnerable to cyberattacks," said Yoni Heilbronn, chief marketing officer, at Argus Cyber Security. "This comprehensive approach to security with Elektrobit and NXP is vital for car makers to keep even the most sophisticated threats outside of the vehicle." "NXP's secure CAN Transceiver is a perfect hardware complement to EB's and Argus' software solution, one that aims to deliver a truly holistic security solution for increasingly connected cars," said Timo Roermund, head of automotive security, at NXP. Visit Elektrobit at CES 2019, North Hall Booth #6106 to discover this industry-first comprehensive security solution. About Argus Cyber Security Argus, a global leader in automotive cyber security, provides comprehensive and proven solution suites to protect connected cars and commercial vehicles against cyberattacks. With decades of experience in both cyber security and the automotive industry, Argus offers innovative security methods and proven computer networking know-how with a deep understanding of automotive best practices. Customers include car manufacturers, their Tier 1 suppliers, fleet operators, and aftermarket connectivity providers. Founded in 2013, Argus is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in Michigan, Silicon Valley, Stuttgart, and Tokyo. Argus is an independent company of Elektrobit, a leading provider of automotive software products and services. About Elektrobit (EB) Elektrobit (EB) is an award-winning and visionary global supplier of embedded and connected software products and services for the automotive industry. A leader in automotive software with over 30 years serving the industry, EB's software powers over one billion devices in more than 100 million vehicles and offers flexible, innovative solutions for connected car infrastructure, human machine interface (HMI) technologies, navigation, driver assistance, electronic control units (ECUs), and software engineering services. EB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental. For more information, visit us at elektrobit.com For more information: Silvia Bartels Public Relations Manager, Elektrobit Tel. +49 9131 7701-6916 Mobile. +49 1522 2826483 Email: silvia.bartels@elektrobit.com EMEA Philipp Hanke Weber Shandwick for EB Tel. +49 89 380179-48 Email: phanke@webershandwick.com North America Stephannie Depa Breakaway Communications for EB and at-CES contact Tel. +1 415 358-2485 Mobile. +1 530 864 0136 Email: sdepa@breakawaycom.com Argus Press Contact: Brandon Weinstock Headline Media argus@headline.media +1 914-336-4878 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/argus-elektrobit-and-nxp-provide-combined-solution-to-protect-connected-and-automated-vehicles-300773450.html SOURCE Elektrobit (EB) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] OurCrowd Highlights 14 Of Its Portfolio Stars At CES OurCrowd, a global investment platform and Israel's most active venture investor will showcase some of its market leading portfolio from Israel and around the globe at this year's Consumer Electronics Show ( CES (News - Alert) .) Learn more about how equity crowdfunding is opening up investment opportunities to accredited investors in a wide range of sectors including Artificial intelligence, Mobility, Drones and more. OurCrowd Founder & CEO Jon Medved (News - Alert) says, "For once, CES attendees will actually be able to invest in some of the exciting startup companies that they see at the show. These companies are funded through our unique democratic platform of venture capital where accredited investors can start making intelligent startup investments with as little as $10,000. Investors may want to set aside some of the money they were planning on spending at the tables and visit us first." Portfolio Companies on Display at OurCrowd's Booth at the Westgate Paradise Center, Suite 301: To receive OurCrowd portfolio news updates, or to arrange interviews at CES with company CEO's, or OurCrowd Business Development Partner Laly David, contact Aaron Kliner at aaron@headline.media (+972 54-8143742) or Leah Stern at leah@ourcrowd.com (+44 747-0196-826) for more details. All of the above companies will also be on hand at OurCrowd's Global Investor Summit in Jerusalem, March 7, 2019. RSVP today at summit.ourcrowd.com END About OurCrowd: OurCrowd is a global investment platform, bringing venture capital opportunities to accredited investors worldwide. A leader in equity crowdfunding, OurCrowd is managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and is led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved. OurCrowd vets and selects companies, invests its own capital, and invites its accredited membership of investors and institutional partners to invest alongside in these opportunities. OurCrowd provides support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and creates growth opportunities through its network of strategic multinational partnerships. The OurCrowd community consists of almost 30,000 accredited investors from over 150 countries. OurCrowd has raised over $800 million and invested in 170 portfolio companies and funds. To join OurCrowd as an accredited investor visit www.ourcrowd.com and click "Join." About the 2019 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit: The OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, Where the startup world gathers. The 2019 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, taking place March 7 in Jerusalem, Israel, is one of the premier events in the tech industry, and the largest business event in Israel's history, with 15,000 expected to register to attend. The Summit provides an interactive, front-row seat to the formerly closed world of startup venture capital, with exclusive exposure to cutting-edge technologies, the entrepreneurs behind them, and the corporate leaders deploying them. Top investors, venture capitalists, corporate partners, entrepreneurs and journalists come from around the world both for Summit day as well as a week of events that include tours of the Israeli ecosystem, corporate meetups, and cultural and historical excursions. Thousands more will participate through livestreaming. Learn more at summit.ourcrowd.com For Press Materials: http://blog.ourcrowd.com/CES2019 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005017/en/ [January 07, 2019] GHSP Unveils Wireless Charging, UV-C Disinfection, and Edge-to-Edge Touchscreen Controls That Transform Home and Auto at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show GHSP, a global supplier in the automotive and premium appliance industries, today announced it will demonstrate a range of advanced technology designed to make consumers' lives easier by being personalized and integrating seamlessly between the home and car at the Consumer Electronics Show ( CES (News - Alert) ), January 8-11 in Las Vegas. GHSP will also demonstrate the electrification of the vehicle powertrain, bringing scalability and increased power density to the company's new line of brushless motor technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005392/en/ On display at GHSP's booth (#6638, LVCC North Hall): Connected Kitchen: Smart surface turns an everyday kitchen into a technology hub. A backsplash that's an edge-to-edge touchscreen brings the oven's cooking controls to anywhere in the kitchen. Look up recipes online, play a podcast, or close the garage door, all from the same interface. Smart surface turns an everyday kitchen into a technology hub. A backsplash that's an edge-to-edge touchscreen brings the oven's cooking controls to anywhere in the kitchen. Look up recipes online, play a podcast, or close the garage door, all from the same interface. Travel Pod: A vehicle interior showing the future of mobility that's seamless, integrated and persnalized. Consumers no longer need to learn a new interface each time they enter a vehicle. A vehicle interior showing the future of mobility that's seamless, integrated and persnalized. Consumers no longer need to learn a new interface each time they enter a vehicle. Wireless Charging: Charge mobile phones and devices in the Travel Pod without the need for cables using the Qi wireless standard. Charge mobile phones and devices in the Travel Pod without the need for cables using the Qi wireless standard. UV-C Disinfection: Increased mobility means increased germs. Automatic disinfection technology, using UV-C light, on display in the travel pod and kitchen - touchscreen display, oven handle, fridge crisper drawer, and countertops. Increased mobility means increased germs. Automatic disinfection technology, using UV-C light, on display in the travel pod and kitchen - touchscreen display, oven handle, fridge crisper drawer, and countertops. Vehicle Powertrain: Multi-touch interface showing electrification of the vehicle powertrain demonstrates greater efficiency in oil epumps, water epumps, and control actuators. "We recognize that consumers are mobile but are tired of learning a new interface each time they enter a new vehicle or environment," said Marc Smeyers, GHSP's chief technology officer. "That's why we've created solutions that are not only personalized but are an integrated and seamless experience." "We've also reimagined the kitchen, creating a digital backsplash smart surface where consumers can access and control their favorite features and apps. Even the oven controls are moveable and can be accessed virtually anywhere," said Smeyers. "As consumer behavior and expectations change, it's vital we create innovative control systems, like those we're showing at CES, to continue to be relevant in the market." GHSP will also have demonstration of its technology at DigitalExperience, an invite-only media event, held at the Mirage hotel on January 7th, 2019 at 7:00pm. About GHSP GHSP is a privately-owned company based in Grand Haven, Mich., that specializes in the design and manufacturing of innovative control systems and technology solutions primarily for the automobile and premium appliance industries. Founded in 1924, GHSP has locations in North America, Europe and Asia. GHSP is a portfolio company within JSJ Corporation, a growth firm with global manufacturing, distribution and service businesses that focus on highly technical skills to deliver engineered solutions. Learn more at GHSP.com and www.JSJcorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005392/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Raytheon Names Scott Weiner Vice President, Corporate Development WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has named Scott Weiner vice president, Corporate Development reporting to chief financial officer Toby O'Brien. He will oversee domestic and international transactions including: acquisitions, divestitures/spin-offs, minority investments and strategic alliances/joint ventures. "Because of Scott's background as both an engineer and a senior financial executive, he is an excellent fit for Raytheon," said Raytheon chief financial officer, Toby O'Brien. Weiner joins Raytheon from Cobham plc in New York where he was the senior vice president, Corporate Development. There he led a global team doing mergers and acquisitions. He held a similar position at EDO Corporation. He began his career as an engineer at AIL Systems Inc., working on state of the art microwave and millimeter wave space commnications products, contributing to five U.S. patents. Weiner earned an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, a master's in Electrophysics and bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from New York University. About Raytheon Raytheon Company, with 2017 sales of $25 billion and 64,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 96 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter. Media Contact Corinne Kovalsky +1.781.522.5899 corporatepr@raytheon.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raytheon-names-scott-weiner-vice-president-corporate-development-300773768.html SOURCE Raytheon Company [January 07, 2019] AccelStor Named Among '30 Most Attractive Companies 2018' by The Silicon Review Magazine AccelStor today announced that The Silicon Review Magazine has named it among the 30 Most Attractive Companies 2018. "The Silicon Review 30 Most Attractive Companies 2018 program identifies companies that not only provide most innovative solutions to solve industry's toughest challenges, but also are successful in hiring and retaining the best talent there is. Winning a spot on this list indicates the company has distinguished itself from peers by its employee centered approach," said Sreshtha Banerjee, Editor-in-Chief of The Silicon Review Magazine. The publication has selected AccelStor based on its openness to innovation, hiring techniques, employee retention strategies, culture of learning, and moreover, the ability to conduct global business. "We are honored to be recognized by Silicon Review Magazine as one of the most attractive companies." said Charles Tsai, Co-founder & President at AccelStor." I think it is because that e never stop innovating and are always moving towards our stated goal of helping companies all over the world make the most out of their flash storage investment. " "This recognition makes AccelStor more determined to believe that we are on the right path. With this award, we hope more people will get to know AccelStor and join us on the journey towards adopting all-flash storage." About AccelStor AccelStor is transforming modern applications through intelligent data remapping and focuses on perfecting software that unleashes the true potential of solid-state storage technology. AccelStor's NeoSapphire all-flash arrays, powered by the FlexiRemap technology, is specifically designed for flash technology to resolve performance bottlenecks caused by legacy RAID technology that was built for spinning disk. It is proven to deliver exceptionally high sustained IOPS for business-critical applications. FlexiRemap technology is the culmination of 10 years of research to empower AFAs for I/O-intensive applications such as AI, IoT, HPC, virtualization, database applications, media processing, and financial transactions. For more information about AccelStor and NeoSapphire AFAs, please visit www.AccelStor.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005446/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ASUS Unveils Full Lineup of Gaming and Lifestyle Innovations at CES 2019 ASUS today revealed its latest lineup of lifestyle innovations designed for today's digital professionals, schools, everyday users and gamers at the ASUS Media Showrooms at CES 2019 in Las Vegas. Featured products include StudioBook S (W700), a thin 15-inch mobile workstation with an even larger display powered by NVIDIA (News - Alert) Quadro graphics and the first of a new series of extremely powerful laptops designed for creative professionals; ZenBook S13 (UX392), the world's first slimmest bezel Ultrabook with a 97% screen-to-body ratio and NVIDIA GeForce MX150 discrete graphics; ZenBook 14 (UX431), a NanoEdge display laptop that packs performance and a quad-speaker design; VivoBook 14/15 (X412/X512), compact 14-inch and 15.6-inch laptops available in four trendy colors and featuring frameless four-sided NanoEdge displays, Intel (News - Alert) Core i7 processors and discrete NVIDIA graphics; Chromebook Flip C434, an ultraslim 14-inch, 360 flip Chromebook based on the popular Chromebook Flip C302; Chromebook Educational series with ruggedized designs; ProArt PA32UCX, the world's first 32-inch 4K HDR monitor with Mini LED backlight; and RT-AX58U, a 2x2 dual-band Wi-Fi router, featuring support for Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology for better network efficiency. A wide range of other products are also on display in the ASUS Media Showroom, including the ASUS Prime X-299 Deluxe II motherboard, ProArt PA34VC and ProArt PA329C monitors, ZenScreen GO MB16AHP portable monitor, ZenBeam S2 and F1 LED projectors, PN30 and PB50 - the first ASUS Mini PCs equipped with AMD processors - E900 G4 workstation, ASUS AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi System (RT-AX92U 2-Pack), ASUS Lyra Voice and more. ASUS also introduced three TUF Gaming products at CES 2019: TUF Gaming K7 - the first ASUS optical gaming keyboard - the TUF Gaming P3 mouse pad and the TUF Gaming BP2700 backpack. The full lineup of latest ASUS products embodies the In Search of Incredible spirit of creating awe-inspiring innovations and empowering everyone with the market's best digital devices. Modern devices for today's creative professionals To supply the world of digital entrepreneurs and content creators with devices specifically designed for their professional and creative demands, ASUS now offers the StudioBook S (W700) and ProArt PA32UCX. StudioBook S (W700) brings together the power of Intel Core i7 and Xeon processors with NVIDIA Quadro graphics in a compact 15-inch chassis with a larger NanoEdge display that gives creators more room to work and provides better mobility. With PANTONE validation and 97% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, the 16:10 display delivers better color accuracy and meets cinematic standards. StudioBook S is the first entry in a brand-new laptop series tailor-made for creative professionals, such as designers, animators, architects and programmers who need outstanding performance to handle professional applications ranging from complex renderings to 3D blueprints. ASUS also introduced E900 G4, the first workstation supporting quad graphics to deliver ultimate performance and scalability. Powered by Intel Xeon Scalable family processors with up to 28 cores per processor for a total of 56 cores in dual-processor configurations, 12 ECC memory modules and up to four of the latest NVIDIA Quadro RTX GPUs, E900 G4 is optimized for applications that process huge amounts of data on the fly, including computer animation, architecture modelling, science simulation and machine learning. E900 G4 is certified by multiple independent software vendors (ISVs) to ensure it meets the demands of businesses and delivers key performance for a wide range of applications. For designers who demand exceptional display performance and color accuracy for their visual workflows, ASUS created ProArt PA32UCX, the world's first 32-inch 4K monitor with Mini LED backlighting and 1000+ zones of local dimming to support multiple HDR formats (HLG and HDR-10). With true 10-bit color that enables 97% DCI-P3 color space coverage and a rich selection of I/O ports, including dual ThunderBolt 3, DisplayPort and three HDMI 2.0 ports, ProArt PA32UCX is perfectly designed for studio workflows. ASUS Mini PC ProArt PA90 provides content creators and creative professionals with a stylish, reliable PC that delivers professional-grade performance in a sleek design. Based on the Intel Z390 chipset, PA90 features up to a 9th Gen Intel Core i9 processor, NVIDIA Quadro graphics and support for Intel Optane Technology for high-performance storage. PA90 redefines the aesthetics of professional and personal workstations, delivering the perfect combination of powerful performance, quiet operation and compact design. Frameless notebooks for the ultimate viewing experience The latest ASUS notebooks are tailored to provide truly unique experiences that unleash users' creative power and reinvigorate their tech lifestyles. ZenBook S13 (UX392) is a 13.9-inch Ultrabook powered by the latest Intel Core processors and featuring the world's largest screen-to-body ratio of 97% in a four-sided NanoEdge display that has bezels measuring only 2.5mm. With a width of just 12.9mm, ZenBook S13 is also the world's slimmest laptop available with discrete NVIDIA MX150 graphics. All this power is contained in an incredibly compact and light aluminum unibody weighing 1.1kg and CNC-milled for added strength, enabling ZenBook S13 to meet the military-grade MIL-STD-810G durability standard. Coming in slim and sleek with a new Utopia Blue color, ZenBook S13 is the perfect balance of performance and beautiful aesthetics for those who want a powerful yet stylish notebook. The new ZenBook 14 (UX431) features a slim-bezel NanoEdge display with up to an 86% screen-to-body ratio for an unbounded viewing experience and a more compact design that has a 6% smaller footprint than the previous UX430 model. Performance is a key feature of the ZenBook series, and ZenBook 14 has a full complement of high-performance components including the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU, up to NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics, 16GB RAM (News - Alert) , an ultrafast PCIe SSD and gigabit-class Wi-Fi. ZenBook 14 optionally includes the exclusive new NumberPad, an innovative LED-illuminated numeric keypad built into the touchpad. ZenBook 14 has a quad-speaker audio system for truly immersive sound, with a frequency response increased by 1.4X compared to the previous UX430 model. Both ZenBook 14 and ZenBook S13 share the same futuristic Utopia Blue color, a trendy style for these two distinct notebook segments. To provide the benefits of bezel-free notebooks to a wider audience, ASUS unveiled VivoBook X412 and X512, featuring compact designs available in several trendy, eye-catching colors such as Peacock Blue, which has an iridescent effect where the color tones change depending on the lighting, and Coral Crush, the trendiest color for 2019. In addition to their frameless, four-sided NanoEdge displays that provide an up to 88% screen-to-body ratio, the new VivoBook series also offers uncompromising performance with up to an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, discrete NVIDIA graphics, and dual-storage as well as an ErgoLift design for better ergonomics and more comfortable typing. For creators who prefer versatile Chrome OS devices for on-the-go use, ASUS released the brand-new, ultraslim 14-inch 360 ErgoLift Chromebook Flip C434, featuring a new aluminum-alloy design finished with a premium diamond-cut edge. The four-sided NanoEdge display on Chromebook Flip C434 increases the screen-to-body ratio to 87%, enabling a 14-inch screen to fit in a smaller 13-inch chassis. Chromebook Flip C434 delivers 10 hours of battery life for all-day creativity and productivity. Rough and tough devices for every school First announced at CES 2019, ASUS created an entirely new lineup of Chromebooks, including the new ASUS Chromebook Tablet CT100 that provides lightweight, ruggedized Chrome OS computer solutions for education use and continues the ASUS commitment of providing an extensive range of innovative products and services for the education sector. The latest Chromebook lineup includes Chromebook C204 and C403 with 11.6-inch touch panels and 14-inch anti-glare displays; Chromebook Flip C214 with a 11.6-inch 360-flippable display; and Chromebook Tablet CT100, a stunning 9.7-inch QXGA wide-angle touch-display tablet. Chromebook Flip and Chromebook Tablet both come with a built-in stylus to provide intuitive input for improved learning experiences. The new Chromebooks feature military-grade durability, spill-resistant keyboards and all-around rubber bumpers to withstand the rigors that electronics often face in schools. This new lineup of Chromebooks provides educators with a full-range of lightweight, ruggedized options that can cater to their specific curriculums and unleash the creativity and productivity of their students. Impeccable Wi-Fi 6 connectivity for all ASUS has been focused on designing next-generation Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) networking solutions to deliver the computing power needed to handle multiple devices simultaneously and ensure stable connections for all of them in today's connected homes. At CES 2019, ASUS announced RT-AX58U, one of the industry's first mainstream 2x2 dual-band Wi-Fi 6 routers that features 160MHz bandwidth and 1024-QAM for faster Gigabit Wi-Fi speeds of up to 3000Mbps as well as OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology to deliver fast, strong and stable Wi-Fi, even when multiple compatible devices are connected and transmitting data simultaneously. RT-AX58U is AiMesh-compatible, so users can use them to build a mesh Wi-Fi system or integrate them into their existing system and enjoy seamless, whole-home Wi-Fi. RT-AX58U also features AiProtection Pro powered by Trend Micro (News - Alert) , commercial-grade internet security software that protects all family members and devices on the network from online threats and also features comprehensive parental controls. AiProtection Pro comes with free lifetime updates to ensure ongoing protection. Equipped with the Intel Home Wi-Fi Chipset WAV654, RT-AX58U provides stable connections even when multiple compatible devices are connected and transmitting data simultaneously, such as IoT devices, or when transferring data via the USB port. With support for 160MHz channel bandwidth, users will be able to connect, stream and download faster on PCs with Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) that are connected to the RT-AX58U, such as the new ROG Mothership gaming notebook. In addition to RT-AX58U, ASUS also provides a full lineup of Wi-Fi 6 routers, including RT-AX88U, launched in 2018 as the world's first Wi-Fi 6 router, and AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi System (RT-AX92U 2-Pack), the world's first mesh Wi-Fi system featuring Wi-Fi 6. TUF Gaming adds waterproof keyboard, military-styled backpack and mouse pad to the ranks TUF Gaming is designed for gamers seeking stability and performance at an affordable price and focuses on delivering durable gear that can survive the rigors of punishing play and still deliver reliable performance. Although it started with motherboards, the TUF Gaming series has expanded to a wide-range of products including the TUF Gaming M5 mouse, TUF Gaming P3 mouse pad, TUF Gaming K5 keyboard, TUF Gaming H5 headset, TUF Gaming GT501 case and TUF Gaming FX10CP desktop. To continue supporting the DIY community, ASUS has also expanded the TUF Gaming Alliance program, a collaboration with major PC-component manufacturers to ensure compatibility, stability and durability, with new Alliance components demoed at the ASUS Showcase Room. This time at CES 2019, TUF Gaming has revealed its next-generation keyboard, TUF Gaming K7. The first ASUS optical-mech gaming keyboard, TUF Gaming K7 features optical switches that eliminate the debounce issues found in traditional mechanical keyboards and the wear and tear that results from purely mechanical switches, giving users faster response times and a longer product lifecycle. TUF Gaming K7 comes in a frameless design with a top plate made from aircraft-grade 5052 aluminum for exceptional durability and offers an ergonomic magnetic palm rest for more comfortable usage. The keyboard also meets the IP56 water-resistance standard - the highest level for keyboards on the market - and features floating keycaps with individual RGB lighting, which can be synchronized using the ASUS-exclusive Armoury II software. ASUS also expanded the TUF Gaming product portfolio at CES 2019 with the announcement of the TUF Gaming BP2700 Backpack. Fitting the TUF Gaming ethos, the BP2700 backpack is built with high-quality, durable material that repels water and prevents scratching. The military-inspired design of the backpack comes with 12 different pockets to ensure proper storage for gaming gear and features convenient zippers for easy access. TUF Gaming P3 is a durable mouse pad with a smooth, gaming-optimized cloth surface for accurate and responsive tracking and is imbued with the TUF Gaming ethos in all elements of its design. TUF Gaming P3 is finished with anti-fray stitching for everyday resilience and has a non-slip rubber base, providing the best performance for any gaming scenario. Additionally, the compact TUF Gaming FX505 and FX705 gaming laptops now come equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 5 processor and AMD Radeon RX 560X graphics card for even better performance during extreme game play. ASUS at CES 2019 The latest ASUS products will be on display at the ASUS Media Lounge on the 63rd floor of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on January 7, 2019 from 10:00am-6:00pm and January 8-101, 2019 from 9:00am-6:00pm. Please note that all visitors need to make a reservation in advance, please contact your local ASUS representative for assistance or reach out to the press contacts listed below. 1 The rooms will close at 4pm on Thursday, January 10. RELATED PRESS RELEASES: To access all ASUS and ROG CES press releases and collateral, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/ASUS-2019-CES. ASUS Media Showrooms Address: Trump International Hotel, 2000 Fashion Show Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA NOTES TO EDITORS ASUS Global Press Room: http://press.asus.com ASUS Global Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/asus ASUS Global Twitter (News - Alert) : http://www.twitter.com/asus About ASUS ASUS is one of Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Companies, and is dedicated to creating products for today and tomorrow's smart life. Our comprehensive portfolio includes Zenbo, ZenFone, ZenBook and a range of IT devices and components, along with AR, VR and IoT. ASUS employs more than 16,000 people worldwide and over 5,000 world-class R&D talents. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, the company won 4,511 awards and earned approximately US$13 billion of revenue in 2017. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005627/en/ Innovid, a NYC-based video advertising platform, secured $30m in pre-IPO funding. Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing group made the investment. The company intends to use the funds to further advance its end-to-end CTV platform as well as to expand its global presence. Led by Zvika Netter, CEO and co-founder, Innovid provides a technology platform delivering addressable and interactive video ads across mobile, desktop, connected TVs, streaming devices and social platforms. The company currently creates, delivers and measures video ads for the worlds largest brands, such as LOreal, Toyota, Bank of America, GlaxoSmithKline, Campbells and more. In partnership with its publishing clients, Innovid led the creation of consumer choice-based engagement ads and live Internet TV campaigns. It currently reaches more than 75 million households and works across the largest footprint of connected and streaming devices including integrations with Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Samsung TV and more. The company recently launched OTT COMPOSER, the premiere self-service authoring tool to create and publish experiences for connected TV advertising. Innovid has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Singapore. FinSMEs 07/01/2019 [January 07, 2019] Wipro Limited to Announce Results for the Third Quarter Ended December 31, 2018 on January 18, 2019 Wipro (News - Alert) Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, will announce results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2018 on Friday, January 18, 2019 after stock market trading hours in India. The results will be available in the Investors section of the company's website at www.wipro.com/investors At 7:15 PM IST* (8:45 AM US Eastern time) following the results announcement, the senior management will discuss the company's performance for the quarter and answer questions sent by 6:30 PM IST* (8:00 AM US Eastern time) to: iyer.aparna@wipro.com or abhishekkumar.jain@wipro.com The audio from the conference call will be available online through a web-cast and can be accessed at http://services.choruscall.eu/links/wipro190118.html Dial in details for the conference call are as below: Time 7:15 PM - IST* (8:45 AM - ET#) Click here for the diamond pass link Diamond Pass is a Premium Service that enables you to connect to your conference call without having to wait for an operator. If you have a Diamond Pass click the above link to associate your pin and receive the access details for this conference, if you do not have a Diamond Pass please register through the link and you will receive your Diamond Pass for this conference. Primary Access Toll Number +91 22 6280 1120 +91 22 7115 8021 Local Access Available all over India +91-7045671221 US Toll Free Number US Standby Toll Number 1 866 746 2133 1 323 386 8721 UK Toll Free Number UK Standby Toll Number 0 808 101 1573 44 203 478 5524 No passcode Required * Indian Standard Time, # US Eastern Time Please dial any of the above numbers five to ten minutes ahead of schedule. The operator will provide instructions on asking questions before and during the call. The replay of the call will be available two hours after the end of the call on following numbers: Call Playback Numbers: Phone (News - Alert) Number Pass-code / Conference ID Replay Dates India Toll +91 22 71945757 +91 22 66635757 Access Code: 947765# 18-Jan-19 to 18-Feb-19 International Toll 18554360715 Access Code: 947765# 18-Jan-19 to 18-Feb-19 About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 175,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005598/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] ViewSonic Expands Line of Gaming Displays with Launch of New ViewSonic ELITE Sub-Brand of Monitors ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of display solutions, unveils the launch of a new sub-brand of professional gaming monitors. ViewSonic ELITE gaming products are specifically designed with a sleek and minimalistic aesthetic, while boasting practical gamer-centric designs. With decades of display technology experience and heritage, ViewSonic ELITE will deliver next-level gaming products that fit the needs of today's multifaceted gaming community. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005187/en/ The ViewSonic ELITE XG350R-C is a 35-inch curved screen gaming monitor; it features WQHD resolution, customizable RGB lighting, as well as AMD (News - Alert) FreeSync technology. (Photo: Business Wire) ViewSonic ELITE launches with a pair of new gaming monitors: XG240R and XG350R-C. The XG240R and XG350R-C are the first monitors aligned with partnered software programs that enable customizable RGB lighting capabilities. Through partnerships with the industry's top PC peripheral manufacturers, ViewSonic ELITE products allow gamers to take full control over their RGB ecosystems when using these partners' software. When running the software, the RGB lighting harmoniously syncs with other RGB-equipped gaming peripherals and hardware. XG240R The ViewSonic XG240R is the first 24-inch monitor under the ViewSonic ELITE sub-brand featuring customizable RGB integration. The XG240R is a highly responsive competitive gaming monitor that delivers esport tournament-level performance. With 1080p Full HD resolution, it boasts a 144Hz refresh rate, super-fast 1ms response time and AMD FreeSync anti-tearing technology, ensuring a captivating gaming experience. XG350R-C The XG350R-C 35-inch monitor is the primary ultra-wide curved gaming monitor under the ViewSonic ELITE line. With a1800R curve, the XG350R-C features WQHD (3440x1440) resolution and comes equipped with customizable RGB lighting, as well as AMD FreeSync technology to eliminate tearing. The XG350R-C also comes with proprietary SonicExpert sound enhancement technology, offering a completely immersive gaming experience from audio to visuals. With the 35-inch ultra-wide curved screen, the XG350R-C provides a broader field of view, ensuring gamers will never miss a thing on the screen. Both the XG240R and XG350R-C include HDMI and DisplayPort connections, multiple USB 3.0 inputs, and built-in speakers. The monitors were designed with ergonomic functions with stands that swivel/tilt, rotate and adjust in height, making sure gamers can spend long hours gaming comfortably. "Gaming setup is an important factor with gamers, from products to comfort to environment. By launching ViewSonic ELITE, we wanted to present an evolution of style and performance with our monitors," said Jason Maryne, vertical marketing manager for gaming at ViewSonic Americas. "The ViewSonic ELITE line incorporates the latest technology features and product specification that gamers require, making sure that the monitors are designed to fulfill these demands. We're delivering form, function and some fun." ViewSonic ELITE will be featured with several gaming partners at global gaming conventions; and the company will participate in community-based charity events to promote an inclusive gaming message. ViewSonic ELITE has collaborated with multiple PC component manufacturers to provide compatibility between ViewSonic ELITE RGB monitors and select RGB software from partners. ViewSonic ELITE affirms its commitment to the gaming community by empowering gamers with comprehensive ecosystems that give gamers control. Current ViewSonic ELITE RGB software partners include: TT RGB PLUS Ecosystem by Thermaltake Chroma by Razer MasterPlus+ by Cooler Master The ViewSonic ELITE XG240R and XG350R-C will be available in January 2019 with the following ESPs: Model ESP XG240R $266 (USD) XG350R-C $716 (USD) For further news and information about ViewSonic ELITE, visit https://www.viewsonic.com/gaming/, and follow on Facebook and Twitter. #ViewSonicGaming. For general ViewSonic information, visit ViewSonic.com and follow on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. About ViewSonic Founded in California in 1987, ViewSonic is a leading global provider of visual solution products. As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic keeps the world connected with a portfolio of professional level visual solutions that enhance the way we compute, collaborate, communicate and connect. Our products include LED monitors, interactive commercial displays, touch displays, projectors, thin client, zero client and smart displays. To find out more about ViewSonic, visit viewsonic.com. This news release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's expectations with regard to future events. Actual events could differ significantly from those anticipated in this document. Trademark footnote: ViewSonic and the ViewSonic trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of ViewSonic Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other corporate names and trademarks stated herein are the property of their respective companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005187/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] DaySmart Software Acquires PupKeep DaySmart Software, the leading provider of business management software supporting small business growth, today announced it acquired PupKeep, a pet services cloud software company. The acquisition will allow DaySmart to expand its pet services offerings to incorporate daycare, boarding, kenneling and training into its existing grooming salon and mobile pet grooming software. Since founding the company in 2017, PupKeep's Kraig Jacobson and Brandon Ray have created a platform that enables pet boarding and daycare owners to more effectively and efficiently grow their businesses. Following a successful year of growth for DaySmart's 123Pet software, marked by a 30 percent increase in the user base, the team recognized the opportunity to expand its offerings to deliver the most comprehensive pet services platform. With this acquisition, DaySmart will increase its appeal to the growing pet services industry by combining PupKeep's products with the 123Pet software offerings. "We are passionate about providing a platform to pet services professionals that not only makes their lives easier, but allows them to deliver superior customer service to their clients," said Jacobson. "We're excited about the synergies between DaySmart's 123Pet software and PupKeep and know this a great opportnity to take PupKeep to the next level, expand our software's capabilities and reach an even broader audience of pet groomers, daycare facilities, kennels and pet professionals. We are extremely excited for what the future holds for our customers and our employees." "Kraig and Brandon have created an excellent platform and support system for the kenneling and pet daycare industries, and we're thrilled to be adding them, their expert team and their technology to our business," said Jeff Dickerson, CEO of DaySmart. "Their approach to the business problems faced by these professionals is born out of first-hand kenneling experience and has been continually informed by their customers. That level of industry-specific expertise and dedicated customer attention is what DaySmart prides itself on, and we look forward to seeing what they're able to accomplish as members of our team." Jacobson, Ray and the rest of the PupKeep team have joined DaySmart as full-time employees. Their new office opens this month in Raleigh, North Carolina and several new hires are planned for the first quarter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. To learn more about DaySmart's pet services capabilities, visit www.123petsoftware.com. About DaySmart Software Makers of the popular and award-winning Salon Iris, Orchid, 123Pet and Inkbook software, DaySmart is the leading provider of business management tools designed to make it easier for entrepreneurs to run and grow their businesses. DaySmart desktop and cloud apps are purpose-built for the salon, spa, pet and tattoo industries, and backed by a US-based support team that is dedicated to client success. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, DaySmart has been a small business champion since 1999. The company has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list for eight consecutive years. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005354/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Savari Announces Continued Worldwide Leadership in C-V2X Technology LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Savari, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based auto tech company and pioneer of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) radio technology, today announced continued momentum in the development of its Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) direct communication technology through the StreetWAVETM 2000 RSU, as well as the Savari MobiWAVETM C-V2X software stack. With its forward compatible evolution to 5G New Radio (5G NR) C-V2X, Savari expects the C-V2X compatible solution to bring benefits for road safety, automated driving and traffic efficiency as soon as 2020. CES Highlights (VIDEO) Savari is showcasing its products and technology at CES 2019, Tech East, Westgate, Smart Cities Pavilion, booth #2201. Ravi Puvvala, CEO, Savari is speaking on a CES panel entitled: "Data is the New Currency. Learn how to Turn Vehicle Data into Revenue", located at the Trillium Secure booth #501 in the Westgate hall 11 AM on Wednesday, January 9th, 2019. 5GAA Membership Savari is the first stack provider to have joined and supported the 5GAA (5G Automotive Association), an international cross-industry organization of companies from the automotive, technology and telecommunications industries. "C-V2X is ready to improve road safety with deployment in production vehicles and road infrastructure as soon as 2020, leveraging a state-of-the-art proven radio with decade-long developed automotive software protocols," said Christoph Voigt, 5GAA chairman. Milestones Include Series B Funding, Joint Efforts with Leading Technology Companies Throughout 2018, Savari achieved several major milestones, including a $12 million Series B round of funding, led by Aviva Ventures, which plans to develop autonomous vehicle insurance models by integrating Savari's V2X analytics with its advanced data platform. Additionally, Savari has been working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, to deliver a comprehensive C-V2X solution and roadside units (RSUs). As part of the working relationship, Savari provides key software components for C-V2X modules featuring the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution, which have been used in numerous trials and performance tests worldwide. "Qualcomm Technologies remains committed to offering the superior solutions and products to support the present and future of the automotive industry," said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are pleased to work with ecosystem leaders such as Savari as we move towards the commercialization of C-V2X and 5G, which will aid in turning vehicles into platforms for innovation, new services and business models." Successful C-V2X Demos in U.S and Abroad To date, Savari's technology has been demonstrated in a number of real-world scenarios globally: United States In Washington, D.C., Savari's technology was demonstrated in Audi an Ford vehicles equipped with the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution, in scenarios with obstructed or no visibility, such as left-hand turns and scenarios involving pedestrians and vulnerable road users. Additionally, two other features were showcased: sending alerts to other vehicles about emergency electronic brake light activation and communicating with traffic signal controllers. Additionally, Panasonic Corporation of North America joined Ford, Qualcomm Technologies and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to unveil the first real-world application of C-V2X technology connecting the vehicle, roadways and a regional traffic management center (TMC) in Denver, Colorado. Connected Ford vehicles operated on C-V2X-equipped roadways in the area around Panasonic's CityNOW headquarters in Denver, with the trial overseen by CDOT's regional TMC in the city. Shanghai Savari completed live demonstrations of LTE Vehicle-to-Everything (LTE-V2X) during the SAE-China Congress & Exhibition (SAECCE) event in Shanghai. Its leading V2X software stack and applications fully support LTE V2X direct communication technology based on the rapidly maturing 3GPP specifications and roadmap. In addition to its V2X Software Stack being fully optimized for use with the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution, it is compliant with China's latest standards and specifications. Savari is working with several China Automotive Tier-1's, GM China, BMW, Audi and locally present global OEMs through its offices in Shanghai. DEMO VIDEO Paris Savari teamed up with 5GAA, BMW Group, Ford, Groupe PSA, and Qualcomm Technologies for the first European demonstration of C-V2X Direct communication interoperability between multiple automakers. The live demonstration showcased C-V2X direct communication technology operating between passenger cars, motorcycles and roadside infrastructure. Six demonstrations were shown, including emergency electronic brake light, intersection collision warning, across traffic turn collision risk warning, slow vehicle warning and stationary vehicle warning, signal phase and timing/signal violation warning and vulnerable road user (pedestrian) warning. DEMO VIDEO Japan This past month, Savari completed a joint Cellular V2X trial in Japan with Ericsson, Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, OKI and Qualcomm Technologies -- Japan's first C-V2X testing in the country using 5.8 GHz as the experimental radio frequency for direct communication. The use cases were designed to address various aspects of V2X communication and demonstrated that C-V2X can exploit the full potential of connected and intelligent mobility. The tests also showcased the solution's reliability and latency, which is important for communicating mission-critical messages quickly and efficiently. "Savari's engineers and software supported the first C-V2X trial in Japan, which was powered by the Qualcomm 9150 chipset solution," said Ravi Puvvala, CEO, Savari. "Congratulations to Continental, Ericsson, Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, OKI, and Qualcomm Technologies joining forces for this effort." New Certifications Ensure Savari's Solutions Are Standards-Compliant Savari is also proud to announce completion of critical certifications and complies with Chinese and European standards for information and communications technologies: CAICT -- The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) is a scientific research institute directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China . To achieve certification, a product must be submitted to GlobalPlatform-accredited laboratory and competently pass several tests to meet the security evaluation and/or functional testing criteria. The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) is a scientific research institute directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of . To achieve certification, a product must be submitted to GlobalPlatform-accredited laboratory and competently pass several tests to meet the security evaluation and/or functional testing criteria. CEN -- CEN is one of three European Standardization Organizations recognized by the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards in Europe , in relation to various products, materials, services and processes. "Savari continues to lead the worldwide market for automotive and infrastructure products, and in 2018, we were able to advance our V2X solutions through partnerships with other market leaders such as Qualcomm Technologies, General Motors, Ford, Audi, BMW, SAIC, Great Wall Motors and others to demonstrate successful real-world applications globally," said Ravi Puvvala, CEO, Savari. "These relationships combined with our industry certifications and Series B funding will fuel our momentum in the coming year as we work toward our goal of delivering the benefits of road safety, automated driving and traffic efficiency to the general public." About Savari Savari seeks to make the world's roadways and vehicles automated and safer by deploying advanced wireless sensor technologies and software. Savari builds software and hardware sensor solutions for automotive car manufacturers, the automotive aftermarket and smart cities. The company pioneered V2X radio technology, which is crucial for vehicles to achieve Level 4 and Level 5 of automation. The technology allows vehicles to share data with other vehicles, traffic lights and smartphones. With more than 150 man-years of V2X learning and development and 15 million-plus miles per year of public testing, Savari is a leader in V2X technology. Savari is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and has offices in Detroit, Mich., Munich, Germany, Seoul, Korea, Bengaluru, India, Shanghai, China. For more information, visit savari.net . Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/savari-announces-continued-worldwide-leadership-in-c-v2x-technology-300773550.html SOURCE Savari, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Tauriga Sciences, Inc. to Launch an E-Commerce Site to Coincide with the Commercial Launch of its Cannabis/CBD Infused Chewing Gum Product Line NEW YORK, NY, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), engaged in building its business through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities and equity investments, has today announced that it will launch an E-Commerce site to coincide with the commercial launch of its Cannabis/CBD infused chewing gum product line (CBD Gum). The Company anticipates that is commercial product launch will take place on or around March 1, 2019. The Company has, thus far, mainly focused its sales strategy on distributors and large potential retail customers. From a strategic standpoint, the Company has decided to proceed with the construction and launch of a dedicated E-Commerce site for the sale of its CBD Gum. This website will be constructed under the following URL address: www.taurigum.com The Company plans to set aside 1,200 individual CBD Gum packs (Units or Packs), out of a total of 8,700 Units (the initial production run), for fulfillment of customer orders that transact through this above-referenced E-Commerce site. The Company is presently assembling the infrastructure to efficiently process E-Commerce based customer orders and expects to hit the ground running with respect to this initiative. Lastly, the Company will accept minimum customer order(s) of 1 Unit per order and expects the pricing (per Unit) to be set at the following: $17.99 per Unit (this is subject to change based on market conditions). AN IMPORTANT COMMITMENT: The Company wishes to confirm to its shareholders, that at all times, it will remain in compliance with both U.S. Federal and individual State rules and regulations & laws that govern this sector. At the same time, the Company will be constantly monitoring the legal landscape which may experience material hange(s), at any point in the future. Studies have shown that a chewing gum product may provide a superior delivery method for distributing its key active ingredients (such as CBD), in comparison to other oral dosage forms, such as: pills, capsules, beverages, and gummies. As an individual chews gum, the CBD is released from the gum quickly and is absorbed by the Oral Mucosa, rather than the Digestive System. Bypassing the Digestive Tract allows the CBD to maintain its inherent bioavailability, and it also means that the CBD gets absorbed by the body substantially faster than other forms of Oral Ingestion. Studies have also shown that CBD that is swallowed as capsules, beverages, gummies or edibles delivers less than 10% of the CBD shown on each respective label. With CBD Infused Chewing Gum, an individual can get relief for aches and pains in rapid time, and at a dose that is potentially strong enough to make a noticeable difference, and delivered cost effectively without wasting the majority of the CBD consumed. ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES, INC.: Tauriga Sciences, Inc. ( TAUG ) is engaged in building business through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities/equity investments. The Company is currently evaluating potential acquisition candidates, as previously disclosed, to create lasting shareholder value. Additionally, the Company is working diligently to identify potential opportunities to generate revenue and leverage its considerable resources and expertise to build a diversified and sustainable business model. Please visit our corporate website at www.tauriga.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Contact: Tauriga Sciences, Inc. 555 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor New York, NY 10022 Chief Executive Officer Mr. Seth M. Shaw Email: sshaw@tauriga.com cell # (917) 796 9926 www.tauriga.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Alliance Data Schedules Fourth-Quarter And Full-Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call For February 7, 2019 PLANO, Texas, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data, will host a conference call on February 7, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the Company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results. Hosting the call will be Ed Heffernan, president and chief executive officer; and Charles Horn, chief financial officer. The conference call will be available via the Internet at www.alliancedata.com. Additionally, there will be several slides accompanying the webcast. Please go to the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary software. Please contact AdvisIRy Partners by e-mail: adsirteam@advisiry.com with any questions. About Alliance Data Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions, enhancing the critical customer marketing experience; the result is measurably changing consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today's most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its clients create and increase customer loyalty through solutions that engage millions of customers each day across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. An S&P 500, FORTUNE 500 and FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work Fo company headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alliance Data consists of three businesses that together employ approximately 20,000 associates at more than 100 locations worldwide. Alliance Data's card services business is a provider of market-leading private label, co-brand, and business credit card programs. Epsilon is a leading provider of multichannel, data-driven technologies and marketing services, and also includes Conversant, a leader in personalized digital marketing. LoyaltyOne owns and operates the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada's most recognized loyalty program, and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty, a global provider of tailor-made loyalty programs for grocers. Follow Alliance Data on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Contacts: Investors/Analysts Tiffany Louder Alliance Data 214-494-3048 Tiffany.Louder@alliancedata.com Media Shelley Whiddon Alliance Data 214-494-3811 Shelley.Whiddon@alliancedata.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alliance-data-schedules-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2018-earnings-conference-call-for-february-7-2019-300773320.html SOURCE Alliance Data Systems Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] IAC Appoints New Executive Leadership In Major Organizational Realignment LUXEMBOURG, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- International Automotive Components (IAC) Group, a global automotive and mobility leader in lightweight and new-material interior solutions, today announced changes to its executive leadership team including the appointment of its new chief financial officer, general counsel and the creation of chief technology officer and chief supply chain officer roles. These changes represent a new direction for IAC and are designed to better position the company to drive growth, align its structure with company goals and enhance its product portfolio. "These organizational changes will add additional expertise and depth to our leadership team that will strengthen the company's ability to adapt to market changes, more rapidly achieve our strategic objectives and capitalize on growth opportunities," said CEO Manfred Gingl. "We are thrilled to welcome industry veterans of this caliber to IAC." IAC's leadership appointments are comprised of the following individuals: David Prystash joins the company's leadership team as chief financial officer (CFO) reporting to IAC CEO Manfred Gingl . As CFO, Prystash will oversee the company's global finance, treasury and accounting activities. He replaces Dennis Richardville , who is retiring from IAC after 16 years. Prystash comes to IAC from General Motors (GM) where he was vice president and CFO of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. In this role, he was instrumental in negotiating the sale of Opel / Vauxhall to Peugeot and achieving $6.5 billion of cost reductions over a four-year period. Prior to that, he served GM as CFO of Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations. Before joining GM, David also held executive leadership roles including CEO and CFO with various non-automotive companies after spending 24 years at Ford Motor Company (Fod) in various senior financial and operational posts including assignments in Asia and South America . Prystash earned a Master of Science in industrial management and a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . joins the company's leadership team as chief financial officer (CFO) reporting to IAC CEO . As CFO, Prystash will oversee the company's global finance, treasury and accounting activities. He replaces , who is retiring from IAC after 16 years. Prystash comes to IAC from General Motors (GM) where he was vice president and CFO of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. In this role, he was instrumental in negotiating the sale of Opel / to Peugeot and achieving of cost reductions over a four-year period. Prior to that, he served GM as CFO of Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations. Before joining GM, David also held executive leadership roles including CEO and CFO with various non-automotive companies after spending 24 years at Ford Motor Company (Fod) in various senior financial and operational posts including assignments in and . Prystash earned a Master of Science in industrial management and a Bachelor of Science from in . Iwona Niec Villaire has been named executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Villaire will be responsible for overseeing the company's legal affairs on a global basis. Before joining IAC, Niec Villaire spent the last three years of her 20 year career as chief administrative officer and general counsel for Chassix, Inc. where, among her many accomplishments, she was instrumental to the development and execution of the company's long-range strategic plan to drive profitable growth, implemented the company's global compliance program and led the alignment of the company's human resources with its long-term objectives. Prior to Chassix, Niec Villaire served as deputy general counsel and director of global compliance with Cooper-Standard Automotive and was senior counsel with Federal-Mogul Corporation. Niec Villaire earned a Juris Doctorate, Master of Arts in educational psychology and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit . She is a member of Inforum Michigan and the Michigan Bar Association. has been named executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Villaire will be responsible for overseeing the company's legal affairs on a global basis. Before joining IAC, spent the last three years of her 20 year career as chief administrative officer and general counsel for Chassix, Inc. where, among her many accomplishments, she was instrumental to the development and execution of the company's long-range strategic plan to drive profitable growth, implemented the company's global compliance program and led the alignment of the company's human resources with its long-term objectives. Prior to Chassix, served as deputy general counsel and director of global compliance with Cooper-Standard Automotive and was senior counsel with Federal-Mogul Corporation. earned a Juris Doctorate, Master of Arts in educational psychology and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from in . She is a member of Inforum Michigan and the Michigan Bar Association. David Pascoe has been appointed to the newly created position of chief technology officer (CTO). In this role, Pascoe will be responsible for expanding the company's advanced technology portfolio and evolving its global product strategy. Pascoe comes from Magna International, where he most recently served as vice president of Engineering, Research and Development (R&D). He is credited with launching Magna's Open Innovation Initiative to vet and identify global technology solutions. Pascoe held various executive positions with Magna companies throughout his 31-year career including vice president of Corporate Engineering and R&D and vice president of Electric Vehicle Technology. He spent the first 10 years of his career as a design engineer for Magna, where he worked on product design and development for body, chassis, hardware, powertrain, interiors and mirrors. Pascoe earned a bachelor's degree in engineering science from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada . has been appointed to the newly created position of chief technology officer (CTO). In this role, Pascoe will be responsible for expanding the company's advanced technology portfolio and evolving its global product strategy. Pascoe comes from Magna International, where he most recently served as vice president of Engineering, Research and Development (R&D). He is credited with launching Magna's Open Innovation Initiative to vet and identify global technology solutions. Pascoe held various executive positions with Magna companies throughout his 31-year career including vice president of Corporate Engineering and R&D and vice president of Electric Vehicle Technology. He spent the first 10 years of his career as a design engineer for Magna, where he worked on product design and development for body, chassis, hardware, powertrain, interiors and mirrors. Pascoe earned a bachelor's degree in engineering science from the in . Kelly Bysouth recently joined the company as chief supply chain officer (CSCO). In this new role, she has global responsibility and operational control of procurement and supply chain activities. Bysouth brings 25 years of experience in the automotive procurement and supply chain space. She was previously with Adient, where she was vice president of Global Procurement and Supply Chain and is credited with building the first centralized supply chain function within the organization and delivering benchmark year-over-year cost savings. She held a variety of leadership positions during her tenure at Adient in North America and Europe . Bysouth earned a Bachelor of Arts in finance from Michigan State University , a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and CPSM certification. ABOUT IAC Headquartered in Luxembourg, International Automotive Components (IAC) Group is a leading global supplier of automotive components and systems, including instrument panels, console systems, door panels, headliners and overhead systems to automakers around the world. The company's 2017 sales were $4.4 billion. IAC Group operates more than 50 manufacturing facilities in 16 countries. The company has more than 60 total locations in 19 countries, including 18 design, technical and commercial centers, and employs more than 22,000 people globally. For more information, visit www.iacgroup.com. Media Contact Julie Noyes +1.248.455.4111 Jnoyes@iacgroup.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iac-appoints-new-executive-leadership-in-major-organizational-realignment-300773129.html SOURCE International Automotive Components (IAC) Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Ryan Promotes Six Principals to Senior Leadership Team Across Five Practices Ryan, a leading global tax services and software provider, announced today the promotion of six team members to the leadership role of Principal. The new Principals include: Robyn Bowen, Property Tax Compliance Practice Property Tax Compliance Practice Steven R. Dudgeon, Severance Tax/Royalty Practice Severance Tax/Royalty Practice Christopher Jensen, Abandoned and Unclaimed Property Practice Abandoned and Unclaimed Property Practice Camilo Paredes, Tax Technology Practice Tax Technology Practice Noelle Rouhana, Commercial Property Tax Practice Commercial Property Tax Practice Steve Thompson, Commercial Property Tax Practice "These team members are highly regarded for their many contributions, leadership in the Firm, and mastery in their respective practices," said Ginny B. Kissling, global president and chief operating officer. "They have demonstrated Ryan's culture to pursue excellence and provide exceptional service and strategic guidance to our clients. We are excited to share in their career accomplishments and look forward to their continued success with Ryan." Robyn Bowen, based in Ryan's Nashville office, specializes in managing large personal property compliance engagements and implementing technology solutions to increase efficiencies and mitigate risk. She is responsible for the management, coordination, and testing of custom software applications designed to address the unique needs of the leasing industry, including customer impact and experience. Bowen joined the Firm in January 2013 and has been a frequent speaker for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, Association of Consumer Vehicle Lessors, and Institute for Professionals in Taxation. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Brenau University and is a Certified Member of the Institute (CMI) from the Institute for Professionals in Taxation with a designation in Property Tax. Steven R. Dudgeon is an upstream oil and gas subject matter expert. He specializes in providing multijurisdictional tax and royalty services in the oil and gas industry, including incentives, deductions, and exemptions. Dudgeon joined Ryan in October 2007 and is based in the Firm's Houston office, where he also provides ongoing severance tax and royalty compliance consulting services to clients on a multinational basis. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston and Bachelor of Liberal Arts degrees in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Illinois. Christopher Jensen, based in the Dallas office, joined Ryan in January 2013 and has more than 12 years of experience in assisting companies of all sizes and industries with various aspects of unclaimed property compliance. He serves on the 2018-2019 Board of Directors for the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization as the Treasurer and is a frequent author and speaker on the topic of unclaimed property. Jensen received his Bachelor of Science degrees in Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Mary and is a certified public accountant, where he is licensed in the states of Texas and North Dakota. Camilo Paredes is a seasoned tax technology professional with deep experience in evaluating and implementing automated global tax solutions, designing and implementing "best practice" improvements to automate tax decision and reporting processes, and custom tax integrations and tax automation solutions. Paredes joined Ryan in April 2007 and is based in the Dallas office. He earned a Systems Engineer degree from Universidad Autonoma de Colombia, a Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Florida International University. Noelle Rouhana specializes in the valuation, assessment, taxation, and exemption of real and personal property on a state and local level for clients in a variety of industries. Rouhana has worked closely with multistate jurisdictions in successfully reviewing, analyzing, negotiating, and appealing both real and personal property tax assessments. She is an active member of Commercial Real Estate for Women and has served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Property Tax Professionals since 2012. Rouhana joined the Firm in November 2012 and is based in Ryan's Houston office. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston and is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM), Designee, and a Certified Property Tax Consultant, licensed in Texas. Steve Thompson specializes in providing real property analysis, valuations, and appeals for income-producing properties, including office, multifamily, industrial, and flex-use properties. Based out of the Washington, D.C. office, Thompson joined the Firm in October 2006 and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy from Georgetown University. He is also a Certified Member of the Institute (CMI) from the Institute for Professionals in Taxation. About Ryan Ryan, an award-winning global tax services and software provider, is the largest firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides an integrated suite of federal, state, local, and international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including tax recovery, consulting, advocacy, compliance, and technology services. Ryan is a five-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multidisciplinary team of more than 2,200 professionals and associates serves over 14,000 clients in more than 45 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005090/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Hammer Fiber Optics Holdings Corp and Wikibuli Close Transaction to Provide Service in Dominica PISCATAWAY, N.J., Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hammer Fiber Optics Holdings Corp (OTCQB: HMMR) and Wikibuli, Inc. announce today that the transaction between the companies closed as planned on January 1, 2019. As part of the agreement Hammer Wireless will acquire an interest in Wikibuli in exchange for cash and common stock. The details of the transaction were released via an 8-K in December 2018. Erik Levitt, Hammers CEO and Kristen Vasicek, Hammers COO will join Wikibulis Board. Sean Partington and Glen Simon will continue to manage Wikibulis day-to-day operations. Wikibuli suspended service in 2017 due to severe weather-related damage to its infrastructure. The new infrastructure will be owned by Wikibuli and operated by Hammer and its subsidiaries as part of its Mobile Network Service Provider (MNSP) program. The planned network, powered by Hammers proprietary Air (TM) technology, will be designed to provide high speed fixed wireless services, mobility, WiFi and will incorporate Smart City capabilities. We have been preparing for the iplementation of the wholesale voice and SMS network through the end of 2018, said Sean Partington, Wikibulis CEO. We are still on schedule for an initial deployment in late February. The first phase of construction will establish the basic network infrastructure and allow for revenue streams from the wholesale business in advance of the wireless deployment. Hammer launched its MNSP program in July 2018 with 1stPoint Communications, now a key Hammer subsidiary. The program is a framework for launching networks in the United States and internationally where wireless spectrum is available. The Air architecture allows for a wide range of allocations and is many times more efficient than fiber based implementations while delivering similar speeds and a wide range of applications. The unique value proposition of our Everything Wireless strategy will bring a new paradigm to subscribers in Dominica, said Erik Levitt. Our objective is to bring unparalleled new service levels both on and off-island. Connecting our subscribers worldwide as we build networks with our partners is going to be a priority for us, said Kristen Vasicek, who is responsible for the global marketing plan. The partnership with Wikibuli is a tremendous opportunity for meaningful social change through our unique technology and local expertise. About Hammer Hammer Fiber Optics Holdings Corp. (OTCQB:HMMR) is a telecommunications company investing in the future of wireless technology. Hammers Everything Wireless go to market strategy includes the development of high-speed fixed wireless service for residential and small businesses using its wireless fiber platform, Hammer Wireless AIR, Over-the-Top services such as voice, SMS and video collaboration services, the construction of smart city networks and hosting services including cloud and colocation. For more information contact Frank Pena at fpena@hammerfiber.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] INVECAS Announces World's First HDMI 2.1 with HDCP2.3 Chip & IP Solutions for TV, AVR, Soundbar and STB INVECAS, a leading provider of IP and IC solutions, today announced the world's first HDMI 2.1 integrated circuits (ICs) including full support for HDCP2.3. The three new ICs from INVECAS each support 8K Ultra High Definition video at 60Hz for ultra-crisp delivery of the finest imagery, as well as 4K UHD video at 120Hz for crisp smooth motion delivery of high action content such as gaming and sports, each as outlined in the latest HDMI 2.1 specification. The INV4789 Port Processor (News - Alert) IC is ideal for TV designs, the INV4788 Transmitter IC is targeted for set top box and media player applications, and the INV4781 Switching IC is configured for AVR and soundbar designs. The ICs are now sampling to customers. Key Features include: 8K 50/60Hz and 4K 100/120Hz as outlined in the HDMI 2.1 specification Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) Support for Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) modes Support for static & dynamic HDR (News - Alert) allowing for extended dynamic range and wide color gamut support HDCP 2.3 premium content protection "DTV manufacturers using INV4789, our advanced Port Processor solution, an now offer consumers the ultimate 8K 60Hz and 4K 120Hz home experience when enjoying blockbuster Hollywood movies, TV broadcasts, sports, gaming, and more. The INV4781 provides the most advanced switching of the latest premium audio and video content for A/V receivers and soundbars," said Chandlee Harrell, senior director at INVECAS. 2019 International CES (News - Alert) Las Vegas: INVECAS showcases the 8K 60Hz Home Theater experience - underpinned by INVECAS's Integrated Circuit solutions in conjunction with Samsung (News - Alert) QLED 8K, HDMI LA Booth #20208 LVCC South Hall 1 from Tuesday to Friday January 8-11, 2019. Editors interested in meeting INVECAS, Inc. during International CES, or companies interested in product information, contact Chandlee.Harrell@invecas.com. About INVECAS, Inc. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA (News - Alert) , INVECAS is a leading provider of silicon proven and standards compliant IP and custom IC solutions. The INVECAS team has driven the creation of the highly successful HDMI industry standard through its direct participation in HDMI standards bodies. Via its subsidiary, Simplay Labs ATC LLC, INVECAS offers manufacturers comprehensive standards interoperability and compliance testing services. Additionally, expertise in ASIC & Design Services, Embedded Software & System-level Solutions, make INVECAS a one-stop-destination for EDMs working on diverse market segments. For more information, visit http://www.invecas.com/. INVECAS and the INVECAS logo are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of INVECAS, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005460/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] LITE-ON to Preview Its First QLC Solid State Drive at CES 2019 At CES (News - Alert) 2019, LITE-ON Storage, an established leader in the rapidly expanding solid-state drive (SSD) industry, will preview its first storage device series built around emerging Quad-Level Cell (QLC) technology. The new QLC SATA SSD series is expected to deliver dramatically higher levels of speed, performance and cost effectiveness than current NAND technology and compete with many hard disk drive (HDD) storage offerings. Release of QLC SSD is slated for the second half of 2019. With the exponential growth of data, information technology (IT) leaders are under pressure to reduce infrastructure costs and increase operational efficiency. Storage accounts for a large portion of overall IT funding. HDD can become a bottleneck in terms of speed, performance, and reliability. "Many data centers struggle with reliability problems, high power consumption, excessive noise and slow read-write speeds associated with hard disk drives (HDDs)," said Darlo Perez, Managing Director, Americas region at LITE- ON (News - Alert) Storage. "With QLC, we will not only improve our lineup of powerful SSs, we will be able to offer companies a clear and sensible migration path toward high-performing SSDs - with all of the advantages inherent in them." QLC flash, which stores four bits per cell, is expected to deliver an extra 33 percent in storage density over current TLC flash with three bits per cell of storage. "We've seen the SSD industry making noise about moving to QLC to once-and-for-all challenge HDDs in the data center, so it makes sense for LITE-ON to go in this direction," said Gregory Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights. "SSDs take up less space, do not fail as often because they have no moving parts and use less power than HDDs. While QLC SSDs don't eliminate the cost-per-gigabyte advantages of hard drives, their latency response time, overall performance and power savings combine to provide a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to HDDs in a variety of workloads." LITE-ON also plans to showcase several of its other upcoming SSDs for client, enterprise and industrial solutions during CES 2019. About LITE-ON Storage A Strategic Business Group of LITE-ON Technology Corporation, LITE-ON Storage is a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of Solid-State Drives (SSDs) for PC Client, Industrial Solutions, Automotive, Enterprise and Cloud Computing. Available in a variety of interfaces and form factors to deliver the right product for the right application, LITE-ON SSD solutions are highly customizable using industry-leading key components. Designed for innovation, built for quality, and chosen for performance, all LITE-ON SSDs are 100 percent manufactured in-house utilizing state-of-the art facilities in Taiwan. Additional information about LITE-ON can be found at: liteonssd.com 2019 LITE-ON Technology Corporation. All rights reserved worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005100/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] ITRI Shines at CES 2019 Unveiled in Las Vegas LAS VEGAS, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwans largest and one of the worlds leading high-tech applied research institutions, demonstrated its innovative applications at CES 2019 Unveiled in Las Vegas on January 6, 2019, drawing the attention from international media such as Reuters TV, Voice of America, Tech Guide, and Indiantelevision.com. CES Unveiled is an official press event of CES that brings together key players in the tech industry and influential media from all over the world. This year, it hosts 1,500 global media and features the latest innovation showcase from over 220 tech companies. ITRI demonstrated the Hybrid Power Drone with High Payload and Duration and the Portable UVC LED Water Sterilizer System at CES 2019 Unveiled Las Vegas. ITRIs exhibits at CES 2019 Unveiled Las Vegas received great media attention. The tech innovations ITRI exhibited at the event revealed its advanced R&D capability and the determination to solve problems for industry and society. Among them are the two CES 2019 Innovation Award Honorees: the Hybrid Power Drone with High Payload and Duration and ITRI spinoff ELECLEANs disinfectant spray. Both have shown their excellence in engineering, aesthetic, and design qualities, user value, and positive impact to uality of life, putting themselves on par with global players such as iRobot and Honeywellhonorees alike in the Robotics and Drones and Home Appliances categories respectively. The other highlight is the Portable UVC LED Water Sterilizer System, a 2018 R&D 100 Award winner honored for its novel way to produce clean drinking water. Tech Guide Editor Stephen Fenech, one of Australia's most respected tech journalists, was impressed by the applications of the Hybrid Power Drone with High Payload and Duration in utility inspection, agriculture and emergency rescue. He believes the technology can be very useful for emergency supply delivery or air drops. Anil Wanvari from Indisntelevision.com, India's most widely read online media, advertising, marketing and satellite television resource, commented that the Portable UVC LED Water Sterilizer System would be perfect for use in India, where access to clean drinking water is limited. He stressed that the mobility and solar battery design of the sterilizer can satisfy the market demand. ITRIs Highlights at CES 2019 Hybrid Power Drone with High Payload and Duration ITRIs Hybrid Power Drone with High Payload and Duration is an octocopter that can hover up to 45 minutes at 30 kg payload, which is over three times the endurance of a drone powered solely by lithium battery. This technology solves the problem of insufficient duration and payload for multi-rotor drones and can be applied to a variety of commercial uses. The drone can even carry granular fertilizers, proving its capabilities as an advanced agricultural drone for plant protection. With highly efficient electric propulsion and fault-tolerant autopilot, it can perform robust delivery service and long range infrastructure inspection as well. ELECLEAN Disinfectant Spray ITRIs spinoff ELECLEAN developed a portable device that uses water to produce a disinfectant to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses such as H1N1 Virus and Enterovirus. It uses the worlds first nano-catalysis electrochemical technology to convert water molecules into reactive oxygen species (ROS) in 15 minutes. Without adding chemicals, the device alleviates the need for preservatives, stabilizers, or scents that are common in conventional disinfectants, and can be applied for multiple purposes including disinfecting surfaces, cleaning hands, or sanitizing pets. Portable UVC LED Water Sterilizer System ITRIs Portable UVC LED Water Sterilizer System is developed to ensure clean drinking water supply and avoid the risks caused by contaminated water. It can provide immediate water sterilization by killing 99.9% of bacteria such as E.coli in the water. The system uses UV LED as the light source and reduces the module volume by 1/3, compared to a mercury lamp sterilizer. The system features small size, low energy consumption, and a longer lifespan. Visiting Information: Venue: 20636 South Hall 1, LVCC (Taiwan Excellence) Date: 1/8-1/11, 2019 Video of ITRIs highlights at CES 2019 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT8E_6dwOJA Find fact sheets of ITRIs technologies at: https://www.tradeshownews.com/events/CES-2019/itri/ About ITRI Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is one of the worlds leading technology R&D institutions aiming to innovate a better future for society. Founded in 1973, ITRI has played a vital role in transforming Taiwan's industries from labor-intensive into innovation-driven. It focuses on the fields of Smart Living, Quality Health, and Sustainable Environment. Over the years, ITRI has incubated over 270 innovative companies, including well-known names such as UMC and TSMC. In addition to its headquarters in Taiwan, ITRI has branch offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan in an effort to extend its R&D scope and promote opportunities for international cooperation around the world. For more information, please visit: http://www.itri.org/eng . Media Contact Yvonne Liu Office of Marketing Communications, ITRI +886-3-591-9154 yvonne.liu@itri.org.tw Photos accompanying this announcement are available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8f547c41-bbad-4de7-9a80-623ed03991e4 //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f483e401-8ae1-4e2f-8b13-1870a1bdeff6 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Owl A.I. Technology Breaks the Barrier of HD Video Streaming & Storage Making Security Mobile and Smart For years despite prodigious advances in hardware, personal video security has been limited to the home. It's been open season on vehicles and technically impossible to identify car thieves, break in burglars and hit and run drivers. The limitations of software created an impenetrable barrier to bringing quality HD video to the car where security is needed the most until NOW. "Owl's high-resolution cameras go where they are needed the most. Owl's superpower is revolutionary software that records only the important events and alerts the driver when it detects potential security concerns. The bits of A.I. are smart enough to store and send ONLY the important information," says veteran venture capitalist and Co-founder of Elevation Partners, Roger McNamee. The Owl Network gives drivers the ability to stream and store 1440 HD video over 4G LTE (News - Alert) for personal security by building the most advanced mobile security system. In just 10 months this transformative technology has empowered car owners to help identify and arrest car thieves, break in artists and hit and run drivers. Innocent drivers involved in crashes have been exonerated of blame by police within minutes of accidents saving them untold thousands. Insurance companies are processing and paying out claims faster because drivers now have the ability to get and share instant HD video evidence on their phone when they need it. The Owl Car Cam has even been credited with saving a young woman's life. Just how significant is Owl's A.I. technology? McNamee emphatically states, "Over the course of a 36-year career as a tech investor, I have been lucky enough to work with some legendary startups and founders. Owl is positioned to join that list." Owl's AI-powered Owl Car Cam operates via a 4G LTE network offering unparalleled protection for vehicles - driving and parked. Owl keeps drivers connected with vehicles anytime and anywhere. A.I. programmed sensors directs the Owl to recognize important events which it records and sends immediately to the driver's phone. If Owl detects a serious crash, Owl 911 Assist contacts the driver via the camera and calls 911 if assistance is requested. If there is no response from the driver, the live agent dispatches emergency services to the location of the car. "Originally w thought about bringing this A.I. technology to the home then we realized that every single person can relate to real and far more frequent pain caused by injury or financial loss around cars. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do every day. Whether driving or parked we need security," says CEO Andy Hodge. Hodge who led teams on both the original iPod and iPhone (News - Alert) at Apple is no stranger to transformative technologies and neither is his co-founder and fellow Microsoft HoloLens alumnus, Nathan Ackerman. "We solved the storage and streaming problem - the most vexing problem in personal security - by making it mobile and giving you video that you can actually use. Owl allows you to see faces and license plates, so drivers have a better representation of what happens. It is a game changer and the revolution has just begun." Since launching nationally from Palo Alto (News - Alert) , CA in March, the Owl network has grown exponentially. A deeply engaged community of tens of thousands of drivers record and share video daily. Many members have reported the life altering effects of having Owl's mobile video security. SAVE A LIFE "The Owl cam saved my life," says gig worker and delivery driver Jen Nolasco of Passaic, New Jersey. Just six days after installing the security system, two men held Jennifer at knifepoint during a delivery. "I backed into the front of my car and pointed them to the green light and I said you're being recorded. They immediately ran off. I truly believe the Owl Car Cam saved my life." Using the video proof from Jen's phone, Passaic Police quickly arrested the two assailants. Having instant video proof that she was not at fault during a serious accident proved critical for Bay Area tech worker 26-year-old, Samantha Barton. During her 45-minute morning commute in October, Barton was rear ended with such force her car was pushed into the car in front of her totaling her car. "My first thought is this is going to cost money that I don't have, but police looked at the video clip Owl sent to my phone and immediately determined that I was not at fault, so I didn't have to pay anything to replace my car. "Statistically police reports that determine fault at the scene of accidents are accepted by insurance companies 90% of the time as fact. Owl Car Cam owners have reported time and time again that instant Owl video evidence has exonerated them from being falsely accused. TO CATCH A THIEF Oceanside, CA. Owl car cam owner, Scott Makowski, called customer service on December 6, to report his Mercedes had been stolen from his driveway. Within minutes the Owl customer service representative was able to locate and send a video clip of the man who stole Makowski's car. Makowski's sister posted the car thief's picture on social media and received a message on Facebook (News - Alert) saying, "that guy is my cousin." Makowski called the thief and demanded his car back. The thief refused and asked him for $2000." Instead, Makowski went to the police and provided the video evidence as proof and the 26-year-old thief was arrested. Makowski got his Mercedes back. TO PROTECT PRIVACY Owl's founders take privacy very seriously. The car camera is encrypted and only the driver has access to the footage. "Having been part of the original iPhone team at Apple (News - Alert) , Owl's founder Andy Hodge knows the importance of delivery security solutions that also protect privacy," assures Roger McNamee who has written extensively on the sanctity of consumer privacy. With a network of drivers using and sharing instant video as a community that have generated millions of views, Owl forecasts a future where the ability to share accurate information instantly will lead to better outcomes in cases of natural disasters. "Imagine how helpful Owl might have been in Paradise, California during the wildfires if a network of drivers armed with Owl cameras had been able to share instant accurate information about which roads led to safety and which led to danger in real time," says CEO Hodge. From individual commuters to fleet drivers to the Chief Security Officer of the household managing teen or elderly drivers-The Owl Car Cam is the MUST have security device for 2019. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005331/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] LeddarTech Signs Nagase & Co. Ltd as Its Exclusive Distributor for Japan QUEBEC CITY, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LeddarTech, an industry leader providing the most versatile and scalable auto and mobility LiDAR platform, today announced that it has selected Nagase & Co. Ltd. as the distributor of its solid-state LiDAR solutions for ADAS and autonomous vehicles in Japan. We are honored to represent LeddarTechs visionary LiDAR technology in Japan, stated Koichi Kawahito, Division Manager of the Automotive Electronics division at Nagase. He added: LeddarTechs LiDAR mobility platform brings to Tier-1 suppliers a differentiated, compelling automotive LiDAR offering that is in line with Nagases mission to expand its automotive business to distributing components and systems as well as offering software and design services for advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS), electrical vehicle and human-machine interfaces. A memorandum of understanding between the two parties was signed at the beginning of December. Nagase will be responsible for the promotion and sales in Japan of LeddarTechs LCA2 LeddarEngine and LCA3 LeddarEngine , which are highly integrated solid-state LiDAR cores that are comprised of a LeddarCore system on chip (SoCs) and coupled with the LeddarP signal processing software. In addition, Nagase will provide high-quality, first-line product support to local customers. LeddarTech is truly committed to providing the best technology and support to our worldwide customers. We are proud to be associated with such a reputable distributor as Nagase & Co., Ltd., stated Adrian Pierce, Vice-President of Global Sales and Business Development at LeddarTech. Charles Boulanger, LeddarTechs CEO, added: We intend to bring great value to our mobility customers in Japan with our distinctive business model that is based on a comprehensive LiDAR development platform. This platform provides Tier-1 suppliers with the ability to design and mass produce customized automotive-grade, high-performance, and cost-efficient LiDAR solutions for the most demanding automotive use cases. Presence at CAR-ELE-JAPAN January 2019 LeddarTechs and Nagases close collaboration will be showcased at CAR-ELE-JAPAN , from January 16 to 18, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. Together, at booth number E47-002, they will present and demonstrate 3D Flash solid-state LiDAR solutions based on the LCA2 LeddarEngine. The CAR-ELE JAPAN show brings together automotive electronics technologies, such as components, materials, software, manufacturing equipment and testing technologies, etc. It attracts automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and has become a must-attend event for automotive industry professionals. About Nagase Nagase & Co., Ltd. is a chemical trading firm, founded in Kyoto, Japan in 1832. The Nagase Group began as a specialized sales agent securing exclusive contracts to sell industry-leading products from around the world in Japan. Over the years, the company has leveraged its technology and information gathering expertiseas well as its global networkto transform its business into a hybrid model offering superior manufacturing, processing and R&D functions as well as trading company services. The Automotive Solutions department has been providing high functional material and parts into the automotive industry for a long time and is now focusing on delivering state-of-the-art technologies into the market to realize a safer and more comfortable mobility society. More information is accessible at www.nagase.co.jp/english About LeddarTech LeddarTech is an industry leader providing the most versatile, scalable auto and mobility LiDAR platform based on the unique LeddarEngine, which consists of a suite of automotive-grade, functional safety certified SoCs working in tandem with LeddarSP signal processing software. The company is responsible for several innovations in cutting-edge mobility remote-sensing applications, its patented technologies enhancing ADAS and autonomous driving capabilities for automobiles, trucks, buses, delivery vehicles, robotaxis, shuttles, and more. Additional information about LeddarTech is accessible at www.leddartech.com, and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. LeddarTech, Leddar, LeddarEngine, LeddarSP, and LeddarTech logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of LeddarTech Inc. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners. LeddarTech Contact: Daniel Aitken, VP Marketing and Communications +1-418-653-9000 ext. 232 | Daniel.Aitken@Leddartech.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] The Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) Concludes in Testing of iioote's Warning System for Moisture and Water Damage That Wireless Sensors Help to Detect Leaks at an Early Stage STOCKHOLM, Jan. 07, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- iioote and RISE has carried out a four-month test of a warning system for moisture and water damage. The conclusion of the measurements shows when appropriate and correctly placed sensors are used a water leak can be detected at an early stage avoiding consequential damages. In some cases, the expansion of a water leak might additionally be detected. During 2018 iioote launched the IoT solution "SenseIoT" systemized for monitoring of moisture and mold in properties with wireless sensors using the LoRaWAN standard. This solution is now verified and tested by RISE and documented in a report with the subject "Wireless warning system for moisture and water damage in buildings" consisting of moisture and temperature sensors. The test included functional control of the warning systems ability to detect elevated moisture levels in a system of joists test set-up floor built to scale. The test involved collecting data from multiple sensor manufacturers compared with RISE's calibrated sensors and to investigate the functionality of moisture detection in narrow spaces such as system of joists, and in the event of a leak, see the spread of the moisture in the floor structure. iioote's construction engineering department built the test set-up floor used for the measurements carried out at RISE premises in the city of Boras over four months. Conclusions from the RISE report: "In general, the investigation shows that the choice of humidity sensor and the sensor location is very important when a warning system for moisture and water damage is fitted into a building construction. The dispersion of the moisture level in the joists was also measured satisfactorily." "The result shows that a warning system for moisture and water damage can be based of any of the humidity sensors that have shown very good or good conformity with RISE moisture sensors." "Overall, the measurements show that with the right sensors and with correct positioning of the sensors, a leak can be detected at an early stage avoiding consequential damage. Additionally, in some cases the expansion of a water leak can be detected." iioote is looking forward to a continued dialogue with insurance companies, real estate companies, construction companies and many more to increase the use and implement this cost-saving and other IoT-solutions. Read more about the solution SenseIoT at https://www.iioote.com/en/senseiot/. DISCLAIMER: The English version is a translation of the original in Swedish for information purposes only. In case of a discrepancy, the Swedish original will prevail. iioote contributes to Sweden's goal to be the best in the world to use the potential of digitalization. About iioote AB iioote work with companies, organizations and municipalities in implementing IoT in their business, from analysis need and strategy to planning, implementation and system integration. iioote has expertise in IoT, IT and Telecom, combined with industry-specific skills from the construction, machinery and automotive industries. iioote integrates solutions that drive the development of simple and innovative IoT in the community. This is enabled by radio systems that use low-energy technology, Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). More information about iioote can be found on our website www.iioote.com/en Contact: Robert Spertina, Managing Director & Head of IoT, phone +46 -70-797-6788, robert.spertina@iioote.com Christer Thulin, IoT Construction Engineering, phone +46-70-663-23-00, christer.thulin@iioote.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/iioote/r/the-research-institutes-of-sweden--rise--concludes-in-testing-of-iiootes-warning-system-for-moisture,c2711917 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/17894/2711917/972445.pdf PDF http://news.cision.com/iioote/i/iioote-ab,c2553503 iioote AB [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Hess Provides Update on Drilling and Development Activities Offshore Guyana Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) said today that drilling has begun on the Haimara-1 exploration well offshore Guyana, the first of two planned exploration wells in January. The Stena Carron drillship is drilling the Haimara-1 well, located 19 miles (31 kilometers) east of the Pluma-1 discovery in the southeastern part of the Stabroek Block. The Noble Tom Madden drillship will drill the second well, Tilapia-1, located three miles (five kilometers) west of the Longtail-1 discovery. The Tilapia-1 well is located in the growing Turbot area. Operator ExxonMobil is progressing the Liza Phase 1 development, which has moved into its peak execution phase ahead of expected startup in early 2020. Drilling of development wells in the Liza field is continuing using the Noble Bob Douglas drillship, subsea equipment is being prepared for installation, and the topside facilities modules are being installed on the Liza Destiny floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in Singapore. Preparations are underway for the commencement of pipe-laying activities in the Liza field in the spring. The Liza Destiny FPSO is expected to sail from Singapore to arrive offshore Guyana in the third quarter of 2019. The growing resource base on the Stabroek Block underpins the potential for at least five FPSOs producing more than 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025. Liza Phase 2 is expected to start up by mid 2022. Pending government and regulatory approvals, project sanction is expected in first quarter 2019 and will use a second FPSO designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels per day. Sanctionig of a third development, Payara, is also expected in 2019 with start up as early as 2023. ExxonMobil plans to deploy a seismic vessel operated by Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) to the Turbot area to acquire 4-D seismic data similar to a 4-D campaign conducted in the Liza area in 2017. A second PGS vessel has been released after seismic acquisition activities were suspended on Dec. 22 when vessels were approached by the Venezuelan navy in the northwest portion of the Stabroek Block. Drilling and development operations offshore Guyana are unaffected by the incident, which occurred more than 110 kilometers northwest of the Ranger discovery. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds a 45 percent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds a 30 percent interest and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited holds a 25 percent interest. Hess Corporation is a leading global independent energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. More information on Hess Corporation is available at http://www.hess.com. Cautionary Statements This news release contains projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These projections and statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. No assurances can be given, however, that these events will occur or that these projections will be achieved, and actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risk factors. A discussion of these risk factors is included in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We use certain terms in this release relating to resources other than proved reserves, such as unproved reserves or resources. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure relating to proved reserves in Hess' Form 10-K, File No. 1-1204, available from Hess Corporation, 1185 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10036 c/o Corporate Secretary and on our website at www.hess.com You can also obtain this form from the SEC (News - Alert) on the EDGAR system. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005164/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] QIAGEN Acquires N-of-One, Expanding Its Clinical Bioinformatics Capabilities in Molecular Oncology Decision Support QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire N-of-One, Inc., a privately-held U.S. molecular decision support company and pioneer in clinical interpretation services for complex genomic data. The addition of N-of-One will enable QIAGEN to significantly expand its decision-support solutions while offering a broader range of software, content and service-based solutions. It will also enable QIAGEN to provide customers with greater access to valuable genomic data assets and service offerings. N-of-One's technology-enabled, yet human-driven, services and the proprietary MarkerMine database are planned to be integrated into QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI), enhancing this industry-eading clinical offering with medical interpretation and real-world evidence insights and offering robust decision support in oncology. The proprietary database, services and processes of N-of-One produce case-specific reports based on data generated with molecular tests, including next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, and deliver clinical evidence for biomarkers and a list of therapeutic options for consideration. N-of-One also provides patient-specific clinical trial matching services and a somatic cancer database with more than 125,000 anonymized patient samples. This data will be added to the patient samples currently available in QCI, further increasing QIAGEN's position in offering by far the largest genomics knowledge base. Please find the full press release here View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005121/en/ [January 07, 2019] Razer Introduces the Razer Raptor Gaming Monitor CES (News - Alert) 2019 - Razer, the leading lifestyle brand for gamers, announced today its all-new 27-inch gaming monitor concept, the Razer Raptor. The desktop screen will be unveiled at CES 2019 as an early-design-phase model, with production units slated for release later this year. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005161/en/ Razer Raptor 27-inch Gaming Monitor (Photo: Business Wire) Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan says, "Razer has worked alongside partners in the past to bring the Razer experience to monitors, but the full potential was never fully realized. We have decided to tackle this space on our own and are very excited to expand our presence to include desktop displays." ESPORTS READY DISPLAY The Razer Raptor will deliver ultra-wide viewing angles with its custom-calibrated WQHD (2560x1440) IPS edge-to-edge panel with thin 2.3 mm bezels. The monitor will feature AMD (News - Alert) Radeon FreeSync adaptive sync technology with fast response times featuring 1 ms Motion Blur reduction and a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, ensuring fluid frames while gaming. The display satisfies the most demanding esports and performance enthusiasts insisting on pixel-perfect visual outputs with high refresh rates and low response times for competition at the highest levels. The Razer Raptor will display vibrant colors, with its 95 percent DCI-P3 wide color gamut and support for HDR (News - Alert) content, providing deep blacks for truly immersive viewing experiences. Color profiles will be programmed into the monitor to address gamer and prosumer demands for optimized gaming, movie and productivity settings. PRCISION CRAFTED DESIGN Razer's precision-crafted, matte-black design features a forged aluminum base. Its backplate is finished with a blend of fabric and metal to add a touch of elegance. Razer Chroma-powered LED strips illuminate the monitor's base, which can be customized through the Razer Synapse 3 application to synchronize with other Razer Chroma-enabled hardware. Designed with easy cable management in mind, the height adjustable monitor is also capable of tilting backwards up to 90 degrees for easy I/O ports access. Built-in CNC milled channels line the back of the monitor base to allow users to easily hide the five unique Razer green performance cables included with the display, creating a clean battle station setup. EXTENDED CONNECTIVITY The Razer Raptor will offer a variety of input ports for connectivity for various devices. This includes 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x USB-C which includes power delivery, and 2 x USB-A 3.1 ports. The Razer Raptor aims to increase the productivity of users with picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture input capabilities allowing for multiple inputs to be simultaneously displayed. The USB-C port also includes power delivery to allow for lower wattage devices to be charged while connected to the monitor. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY The new Razer Raptor gaming monitor will be priced at $699.99 MSRP and is scheduled to be available later this year from Razer.com in the U.S. and Canada. SPECIFICATIONS Screen Size: 27 in. Resolution: WQHD (2560 x 1440p) Panel Type: IPS Refresh Rate: 144 Hz Response Rate: 4 ms with Overdrive, 1 ms with Motion Blur reduction, 7 ms typical Gaming Modes: FPS / Racing / MMO Mode / Streaming Viewing Angle: 178 Degrees (H/V) Aspect (News - Alert) Ratio: 16:9 Contrast Ratio: 1000:1 Brightness: up to 420 Nits Color Gamut: 95% DCI-P3 HDR: Yes Height Adjustable Stand: Yes, w/ 90-degree tilt for easy port access Connectivity: 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x DP 1.4, 1 x USB-C (supports DP1.4), 2 x USB 3.0 Pass Throughs Included Cables: 1 x Power, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Display Port, 1 x USB-C (also supports DP and Power Delivery), 1 x 2 USB-A 3.1 Dimensions w/ Stand: 24.15" (613.4 mm) W x 15.29 in. 19.23 in. (388.4 mm - 488.4 mm) H x 7.46 in. (189.4 mm) D Weight w/ Stand: 25.4 lbs. (11.5 kg) ABOUT RAZER Razer is the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers. The triple-headed snake trademark of Razer is one of the most recognized logos in the global gaming and esports communities. With a fan base that spans every continent, the company has designed and built the world's largest gamer-focused ecosystem of hardware, software and services. Razer's award-winning hardware includes high-performance gaming peripherals, Blade gaming laptops and the acclaimed Razer Phone (News - Alert) . Razer's software platform, with over 50 million users, includes Razer Synapse (an Internet of Things platform), Razer Chroma (a proprietary RGB lighting technology system), and Razer Cortex (a game optimizer and launcher). In services, Razer Gold is one of the world's largest virtual credit services for gamers. Razer Pay is the e-wallet designed for youth and millennials, and Razer Game Store is the only games download store that offers rewards for gamers. Founded in 2005 and dual-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, Razer has 15 offices worldwide and is recognized as the leading brand for gamers in the USA, Europe and China. Razer is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Stock Code: 1337). Razer - For Gamers. By Gamers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005161/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Transportation-as-a-Service Technology announces 2019 conference and exhibition dates, a new venue and coverage of topics including CAVs, EVs, Battery, Infrastructure and Future Mobility COVENTRY, England, Jan 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- - The event will include 2 co-located conferences and a shared exhibition looking at all the key topics surrounding connected and autonomous vehicle (CAVs), Electric Vehicles (EVs), Energy/Battery and Infrastructure technology and how this fits into a new future for mobility. - The event is being organised by Angel Business Communications in partnership with Coventry University and WMG/University of Warwick and has already attracted an array of leading international experts. Angel Business Communications, a B2B publisher and event organiser, announces the 2nd Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS) Technology conference and exhibition will take place on the 4th and 5th June 2019 at The National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, UK. The annual event will draw 600+ senior decision makers from companies along the entire value chain of the CAVs, EVs, Energy/Battery, Charging, Infrastructure and Future Mobility industry. www.taas.technology The British Government has named the West Midlands region as the UK's first 'Future Mobility Area'. The region is fast becoming a hub for research, development and implementation of future mobility technologies and will be an ideal location to welcome the global experts the conference attracts. Highlights of the 2018 event, including the speaking line up, can be seen here: https://www.taas.technology/cavs/taas2018 TaaS Technology - Twice as Nice Following on from the success of the inaugural TaaS Technology conference, our 2019 event will include 2 co-located conferences. TaaS Technology - CAVs and Future Mobility - https://www.taas.technology/cavs/topics - https://www.taas.technology/cavs/topics TaaS Technology - Energising Future Mobility - https://www.taas.technology/energy/topics This international conference is being organised with our partners Warwick University (WMG) and Coventry University both are key players in CAVs, EV, Energy, Infrastructure and Future Mobility projects. Attendees to the event can purchase one ticket to have full access to both conferences providing access to industry-leading insiders delivering more than 80 presentations spanning all the key topics. The conference will equip the delegates with an up-to-date overview of the status of the industry and provide them with many opportunities to meet other key players within this community. There is a strong over-lap between the two conferences. Attendees and exhibitors are exposed to all relevant supply chains, customer and supplier bases, saving time and money by attending a single event covering all core themes. The TaaS Technology conferences are put together by leading industry experts covering these topics - bringing together the most significant developments in each of these areas. Each conference will cover key topics shaping the future of mobility CAVs and Future Mobility Energising Future Mobility The technology Progress on EV adoption solutions update Logistics EV battery performance and costs Planning, policy, legislation and ethics BEVs, HEVs and AEVs Where is the market heading? Business models and financing Future mobility, EVs and Smart Cities The emerging new retail environment Power generation Implementation - from strategy to practical Rethinking vehicle design Future urban mobility EV & AV support services The customer, society and attitude are changing the impact on mobility Confirmed speakers at the conferences to date include CAVs and Future Mobility Energising Future Mobility Natalie Sauber, Arcadis Ian Plummer, Auto Trader - The consumer's journey down electric avenue Catherine Faiers, Auto Trader - Does the consumer have an appetite for autonomy? Matthias Wellers, AVL Panel: Andrew Grant, Bloomberg Do Autonomous Vehicles need 5G? Roy Williamson, BP - Ultra-fast charging facilitating uptake of Electric Vehicles Mike Dempsey, Claytex - Sensor models enabling autonomous vehicles to perceive the road ahead more clearly Bob Moran, Department for Transport - Powering our future mobility Seth Elliot, Free2Move Celine Cluzel, Element Energy - Mobility trends in Europe opportunities for new products & services Boyd Cohen, iomob - From Mobility as a Service to Internet of Mobility Anders Wall, GreenMobility A/S Edwin Kemp, KPMG Alex Collet, ION Energy - Sofware first approach for energy storage & management Tomaso Grossi, TomTom - Mapping the Road to Autonomous Driving Christoph Domke, KPMG Fred Jones, Uber - Replacing your car with your phone Louis Debatte-Monroy, TomTom Clare Jones, what3words Knut Hechtfischer, Ubitricity - Efficient solutions to drive electric mobility forward. Smart charging infrastructure wherever there is electricity "The future of mobility including CAVs, EVs, Energy/Battery and Infrastructure continue to be hot topics right now. Transportation as we know it is ripe for disruption. With traditional car manufacturers, OEMs, software companies, component providers, energy companies, government and new transportation companies investing billions of pounds into the research and development of CAVs and future mobility systems, we are excited to be organising the 2nd TaaS Technology conference to connect, inform and inspire those shaping the revolution in mobility," said Sukhi Bhadal, Event Director, TaaS Technology Conference. "After the successful launch of the conference and digital magazine in 2018, we are thrilled to announce the dates for the 2019 event and growing the event into 2 co-located conferences. The two-day conferences and exhibition will be a unique event allowing for education, influence and networking between the major international players who are driving forward the new mobility revolution, a revolution which has the potential to save lives and bring new mobility solutions to millions of people," added Bhadal. "The TaaS technology conference has quickly become the "must attend" UK event for the ITS sector. The 2018 programme was terrific, and the event was well organised, informative, interactive and enjoyable for the participants. I look forward to seeing you in 2019 and discussing how smart mobility is benefiting society," Richard Harris, Director at HMI Technologies and a member of the conference program board. "With the Success of the TaaS Technology conference in 2018, I am very much looking forward to returning next year. For 2019, the co-located twin conferences of "CAVs and Future Mobility" and "Energising Future Mobility", means that there will be a depth that enables participants to dig down into new learnings and insights. With the dramatic growth of the New Mobility sector, transportation and automotive are in the box seat for an exciting road ahead, and it's at TaaS Technology where you'll find all the latest developments and trends," added James Carter, Principal Consultant at Vision Mobility and a member of the conference program board. The TaaS Technology event will take place on the 4th and 5th June at The National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, UK. The event is supported by the quarterly digital title TaaS Technology Magazine. For further information on speaking, sponsorship and exhibition opportunities please contact: Sukhi Bhadal Event Director T: +44-(0)-2476-718970 E: sukhi.bhadal@angelbc.com TaaS Technology Conference - www.taas.technology TaaS Technology Digital Magazine www.taas.news [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] McAfee and Verizon Team up to Secure Connected Devices in the Home CES - Today McAfee (News - Alert) announced its collaboration with Verizon to provide protection throughout the home network with Verizon's Home Network Protection (HNP). The McAfee-powered solution provides Verizon (News - Alert) Fios customers with a seamless and easy-to-use security solution that protects against malicious websites, provides parental controls and helps keep devices connected to the home network, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, protected. The popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices continues to grow at a significant pace with 10.5 billion connected devices expected in homes by 2020 according to Gartner (News - Alert)1. With this explosion in connected devices, consumers must be aware of the potential threats. According to research from McAfee, 80 percent of parents are worried about their child interacting with a social predator or cybercriminal online. "Our homes are more connected than ever before. It's imperative that consumers look beyond their PCs to keep their devices and information safe," said Shailaja Shankar, general manager, mobile and ISP business units, McAfee. "We are delighted that Verizon shares our vision of making the home a secure space and chose us to help ensure its customers are protected from online threat." "We are committed to providing the security solutions that help our customers enjoy their digital lives to the fullest," said Darren Kaufmann, executive director, Verizon. "Together with McAfee, we can help ensure the home network is secure, and that parents have the peace of mind knowing they have the simple tools they need to provide a safe online environment for their children." Key Product Features and Benefits: Simple to Manage - Monitors and controls the entire home network via the MyFios app - from anywhere - Monitors and controls the entire home network via the MyFios app - from anywhere Parental Controls - Customers can set rules and time limits for specific websites and general internet use - Customers can set rules and time limits for specific websites and general internet use New Device Notification - Identifies and approves any devices that connect to a user's home network and blocks unauthorized users - Identifies and approves any devices that connect to a user's home network and blocks unauthorized users Pause Home Internet - Temporarily stops internet access for devices - Temporarily stops internet access for devices Malicious Site Blocking - Stops bad websites from accessing devices before they are exposed to threats Availability and Pricing Verizon Home Network Protection (HNP) is currently available for Verizon Fios customers and is included in the price of the Verizon Quantum (News - Alert) Gateway Router. 1 Gartner, Market Trends: Choose a Functional Business Model for the Connected Home Market, 15 April 2016 About McAfee McAfee is the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company. Inspired by the power of working together, McAfee creates business and consumer solutions that make our world a safer place. www.mcafee.com. McAfee technologies' features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation. No computer system can be absolutely secure. McAfee and the McAfee logo are trademarks of McAfee, LLC or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks and brands may be claimed as the property of others. McAfee, the McAfee logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of McAfee LLC or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005048/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] I have been considering the events of the past 12 months from an anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory perspective, and with what we may be faced with in the year ahead. For me, the main issue arising from 2018 is the ongoing debate I have been having with a variety of NGOs and pressure groups who would see public UBO (ultimate beneficial owner) company register systems implemented across the board, including the Caribbean islands that provide offshore company services to the globe. NGOs such as Transparency International and Global Witness have taken me to task on several occasions over our differing respective positions on this subject. I have stressed that both organisations do a tremendous job in advancing the public interest to counter corruption, to retard money laundering, and to undermine other forms of criminality. The world is a better place due to their efforts. In May 2018, I wrote a post for the FCPA Blog, Open company UBO registers are not the panacea to financial crime, which as the title suggests provided a critique of those who were hoping that open public registers would foil sophisticated economic criminals, and that (separately) tax avoidance was best combated by changing laws onshore. I was delighted that Global Witnesss Murray Worthy added his opinion to the debate, making some relevant counter-observations to my blog, but ultimately concurring (albeit in part) with my assertion that enforced regulation compelling company stakeholders to accurately disclose the identities of their UBOs was the way forward, rather than the lip-service currently being paid to this subject in places such as the UK and its flawed Companies House approach. Murray stated in response: As we have said many times before simply having a public register isnt a panacea loopholes need to be closed and rules need to be enforced. Thats why were campaigning to improve the UK register and why its vital that the Overseas Territories build on the lessons already learnt in the UK. I agreed with the points Murray was making. My only observation would be that the Overseas Territories have already learned from their mistakes of the past. The British Virgin Islands (BVI), which has historically suffered criticism, shot to prominence yet again on the back of the Paradise Papers release, following 2016s Panama Papers. Many of the tales arising from these mass data dumps were hard to combat. Indeed, in years gone by, the Overseas Territories adopted a more than cavalier attitude to compliance, and the resultant criticism was deserved. However, the inevitable attacks by the NGOs this year ignored the fact that the BVI and other locations, such as Cayman and the Bahamas, had already secured their shores with much tighter AML regulatory systems, and they were doing their best to enforce them diligently. So, in 2018 we continued to see an onslaught of criticism against the Overseas Territories, despite the improved regulations they have put in place. It was this aspect of the UKs and the NGOs criticism that I found unfair, unhelpful and prompted me to speak out on the Territories behalf. In particular, I was extremely perturbed by the intervention of the UK law makers, who entered the fray stating that they were going to force the Overseas Territories to implement public UBO registers. Why? The much-lauded Companies House in the UK may be an open UBO register, but it is very poorly policed and there are still crooks using bogus information en masse to open English and Welsh companies. In effect, the public register in Cardiff is only as good as the information being provided by those who want to open an English and Welsh company: the lack of due-diligence is acting as an enabler. If we add to the equation the ongoing scandals arising out of the Scottish Limited Partnerships situation, and their apparent ongoing abuse by crooks, in particular those hailing from behind the rapidly re-emerging Iron Curtain, the UK needs to get its own house in order before turning its sights on the Overseas Territories. Indeed, in my May post for the FCPA Blog, I made the point: According to the London Evening Standard, one company had an address which translated as Street of the 40 Thieves in Ali Babba, with another applicant describing their occupation as fraudster. Unsurprisingly, no action was taken against those responsible. The single Companies House prosecution success is shrouded in controversy, being a whistleblower seeking to illustrate how easy it was to mislead those compiling the register. This whole situation is shrouded in hypocrisy. If the UK and its vast resources cannot bring the true UBOs to book, what chance for the hard-pressed territories? By October, was anybody surprised by the news that the UKs National Crime Agency (equivalent of the USAs FBI) had concluded that the Cayman Islands was entering into a process of passive resistance, by failing to cooperate speedily with the NCA requests for assistance? If indeed this was the case, perhaps the Caymans were objecting (via a form of civil disobedience) to what they saw as unfounded criticism of their compliance processes. What struck me the most about this latter revelation was that the head of the NCA, Donald Toon, made the observation: This is not quick work, because rich criminals are experts at hiding their ownership of corrupt assets. In my resultant post for the FCPA Blog, I suggested that the Cayman authorities were wrong to drag their feet, if indeed they were doing so, because this was arming those who would continue to attack the offshore financial services industry. That said, Mr. Toons observations regarding the deviousness of crooks who could easily bypass the public registers, confirmed (for me) the naivety of those who continue to believe that public UBO registers will resolve the worlds money laundering problems. They wont, because crooks lie. My good friend, fraud investigator Burke Files of Tempe, Arizona, put my point in a LinkedIn response to one of my FCPA Blog pieces, in a more pithy and pugnacious way than I have been able to muster: The UBO registers are useless. For honest owners it becomes a burden. And for the dishonest, tis but a shimmy and a wiggle to go un-noticed and/or recorded. So, moving forward to the New Year, what do I predict will change? Sadly, I cannot see the onslaught against the Overseas Territories ending anytime soon. The NGOs will continue to target offshore service providers, insisting on open UBO registers. The campaigners hold a very firm assumption that this is fundamental for transparency. I will continue to tell them that they are incorrect, and they will continue to tell me why I am wrong. As 2019 arrives, our debate will continue. But I would still like to wish them (and you) a very happy New Year and look forward to advancing the discussion on this and other important subjects in 2019. With thanks to Tony McClements, Senior Investigator at Martin Kenney & Co, for his assistance with this post. ____ Martin Kenney, pictured above, is Managing Partner of Martin Kenney & Co., Solicitors, a specialist investigative and asset recovery practice based in the BVI, focused on multi-jurisdictional fraud and grand corruption cases www.martinkenney.com | @MKSolicitors. In 2014 he was the recipient of the ACFEs highest honor: the Cressey Award for life-time achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud. He was selected as one of the Top Thought Leaders of the Legal Profession in 2018 and 2019 by Whos Who Legal International and as the number one offshore lawyer for asset recovery in 2017 and 2018. [January 06, 2019] Samsung Unveils Future of Displays with Groundbreaking Modular MicroLED Technology at CES Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today introduced its latest innovations in modular MicroLED display technology during its annual First Look CES (News - Alert) event at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The revolutionary new MicroLED technology designs featured at the event included: a new 75" display, a 219" The Wall as well as other various groundbreaking sizes, shapes and configurations for a next-generation modular MicroLED display - a 2019 CES Best of Innovation Award winner. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005136/en/ (Photo: Business Wire) "For decades, Samsung (News - Alert) has led the way in next-generation display innovation," said Jonghee Han, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "Our MicroLED technology is at the forefront of the next screen revolution with intelligent, customizable displays that excel in every performance category. Samsung MicroLED has no boundaries, only endless possibilities." Featuring self-emissive technology and modular capabilities, Samsung's MicroLED displays deliver unparalleled picture quality, versatility and design. These transformative TV displays are made up of indiviual modules of self-emissive MicroLEDs, featuring millions of inorganic red, green and blue microscopic LED chips that emit their own light to produce brilliant colors on screen - delivering unmatched picture quality that surpasses any display technology currently available on the market. At last year's CES, Samsung introduced MicroLED by unveiling The Wall, the critically acclaimed, award-winning 146" MicroLED display. Due to the technical advancements in the ultra-fine pitch semiconductor packaging process that narrow the gap between the microscopic LED chips, Samsung has been able to create a stunning 4K MicroLED display in a smaller, more home-friendly 75" form factor. Thanks to the modular nature of MicroLED, this technology offers flexibility in screen size that allows users to customize it to fit any room or space. By adding MicroLED modules, users can expand their display to any size they desire. The modular functionality of MicroLED will allow users in the future to create the ultimate display even at irregular 9x3, 1x7 or 5x1 screen sizes that suits their spatial, aesthetic and functional needs. Samsung's MicroLED technology also optimizes the content no matter the size and shape of the screen. Even when adding more modules, Samsung MicroLED displays can scale to increase the resolution - all while keeping the pixel density constant. Additionally, MicroLED can support everything from the standard 16:9 content, to 21:9 widescreen films, to unconventional aspect ratios like 32:9, or even 1:1 - without having to make any compromises in its picture quality. Finally, because MicroLED displays are bezel-free, there are no borders between modules - even when you add more. The result is a seamless, stunning infinity pool effect that allows the display to elegantly blend into any living environment. The possibilities for eye-catching designs are enhanced by new Ambient (News - Alert) Mode features. For more detail on Samsung's 2019 QLED 8K and MicroLED lines, please visit booth #15006 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES 2019 (January 8-11, 2019). About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at http://news.samsung.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005136/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 06, 2019] Mobile marketing company Madup secures 13.4 billion KRW investment SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Madup, an ad-tech based mobile marketing company, announced that it has secured Series B funding of total 13.4 billion KRW. A total of 5 venture capitals - Praxis Capital (a private equity fund partner), Stonebridge Ventures, ID ventures, MG investment, and Seoul Investment Partners - have funded this Series B investment. The significance of Stone Bridge Venture's decision to continue its investment after its Series A funding demonstrates Madup's growth potential within the mobile ad market. Madup, after successfully securing Series B investment, plans to expand its performance marketing by aggressively increasing data and technology efficiency with its years o know-hows. Madup is a data-based mobile marketing company that maximizes the effects of advertisement by selecting optimal channels and detailed targeting. It already has acquired Series A funding of a billion KRW in 2016. Currently Madup is managing its international partner's traffic in Korea, while simultaneously providing customized marketing consulting for diverse industries and sizes. Moreover, with its own in-house system, it detects and blocks illegal advertisement, buys appropriate inventories, and measures the ad's performance in detail, actively representing the client's interests. "We made the decision to invest for Madup's exceptional technology, its know-hows in a large-scale ad campaign, and its growth potential in utilization of AI/Big data technology ," added an insider from Praxis Capital. "Madup has grown as an irreplaceable partner in the mobile marketing market since its first investment in 2016," stated Son Ho-Joon, director of Stonebridge Ventures. Madup's director Lee Joo-Min expressed its determination in his statement: "We will become the leader of ad-tech industry by providing maximized efficiency and results for our clients." View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mobile-marketing-company-madup-secures-13-4-billion-krw-investment-300773523.html SOURCE Madup [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 06, 2019] eSthenos Technologies Enables NBFCs to On-board MSME Borrowers Under 30 Minutes BENGALURU, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- - Launches Banyan 2.0 which uses Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Models to recommend credit decisions The estimated number of MSMEs in India is a staggering 44.50 million. One of the major driving factors of India's GDP growth is the MSME industry, which employs 40% of India's Workforce, contributing 45% of the output and 40% of the exports. Hence, the financial needs of this industry is growing as well. MSMEs are also one of the most crucial customer base for NBFCs and other financial institutions, as they don't change their financial institutions often and are a very loyal set of customers, which is why it is very important for financial institutions to deliver world-class customer service. With increasing credit requirement of the MSMEs, financial institutions should leverage technology to originate high loan volumes at faster speed, ensuring better transparency and enhancing customer service along-with decreasing the cost of the loans. FOS platform of eSthenos Technologies enables Financial Institutions to on-board MSME Borrowers under 30 minutes with its real-time, cloud based data collection and risk assessment module. The highly sophisticted and modern design architecture enhances the security and the quality of the data collected. Availability of data in cloud and multiple internal and external API integrations results in improved reaction time for users. Faster and accurate data collection with minimal paperwork and real-time credit worthiness check reduces the turnaround time of the disbursal. Based on algorithmic credit assessment models, the platform gives a wider and precise view of the borrower's credit worthiness. Real-time monitoring of the performance of each application based on hierarchy helps the management to make better and faster decisions and reduces monitoring cost by a substantial margin. eSthenos launches its improved version of its platform Banyan. Lending institutions have a mine of data, which if put to correct use can create constructive results. This data can be used to create better credit models based on the customer's history. Banyan can analyse the data of Financial Institutions to recommend product pipelines for cross-sale, understand and benchmark competitors data, internal fraud detection and generate sales pipeline who can be approached in the future. About eSthenos eSthenos is an award winning technology platform trusted by leaders in the financial services industry. We offer 'designed by users' CRM, Loan Origination System, Lead Management System, Underwriting Platform, Business Intelligence & Analytics Platform. With more than 5,000 users across 1000+ locations, eSthenos helps their clients to process 6,00,000+ loan applications every month with more than 80,000 EMI collections every working day. eSthenos offers highly flexible and user-friendly products for complete banking needs. Dedicated banking platform helps clients to process applications for Housing, LAP, vehicle, personal and SME/MSME loans with greater control and bring smile to faces of rural and semi urban clients. eSthenos also offers a range of products for group loans, individual loans, collections, lead management and analytics. For more information, visit http://www.esthenos.com. Media Contact: Madona Chowdhury madona@esthenos.com +91-8860400130 eSthenos Technologies Pvt Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 07, 2019] Online Tech Executive to Deliver Keynote at the Indiana Cyber Technology and Policy Summit Online Tech, a leading provider of hybrid and multi-cloud solutions, today announced that Nick Lumsden, vice president of technology and product strategy, will provide the keynote address at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce Cyber Technology and Policy Summit. The conference, which takes place Jan. 8 and 9, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency and Conrad hotels in Indianapolis, focuses on teaching business executives about cybersecurity threats, protecting company operations and the exploration of the public policy nuances of technology and cybersecurity. Entitled "False sense of security: What AWS, Google (News - Alert) Cloud and Azure Aren't Telling You," Lumsden's keynote presentation will discuss the differences between infrastructure cloud security and application cloud security. "It's an honor to be invited to addess this esteemed group of Indiana business leaders on this important topic," said Lumsden. "Cybersecurity is a critical component of any successful business, and we see companies struggling to decide where to keep their data in the most safe and compliant manner. I look forward to sharing my insights about developing and integrating security with cloud computing." In addition to exploring the differences between infrastructure and application cloud security, Lumsden will discuss customer responsibility in the cloud and offer attending executives a deeper understanding about the risks and benefits of moving to and keeping their applications and data within the cloud. Lumsden has 20 years of experience in leadership and developing technology strategies for enterprises that comprehensively address cybersecurity as well as future business growth needs. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Michigan Technological University. About Online Tech Online Tech is the leader in secure, compliant hybrid and multi-cloud solutions for service providers, channel partners and enterprise organizations. Their industry-leading portal, OTPortal, enables clients to view and manage all of their IT systems in a single pane of glass. Backed by independent HIPAA, PCI (News - Alert) , EU-US Privacy Shield and SOC 2 audits, Online Tech delivers exceptional experiences for businesses seeking a fully managed IT-as-a-service provider. For more information, call 877-740-5028, email solutions@onlinetech.com or visit www.onlinetech.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005131/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Nellie Grace Spragg, 78, of Hundred, WV died Thursday, June 10, 2021 at her residence. She was born October 9, 1942 at Hundred, a daughter of the late James Herbert Strope and Iva Haines Strope. Nellie worked many years ago at Oneacre Drug Store and the Bank of Hundred. She loved her animals U.S. Rep. Eric Stallwell. West Virginia state Senator Richard Ojeda. And the founder of Venture for America, Andrew Yang. All three of these men have launched long-shot bids to become the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, joining a crowded field of at least 25 potential candidates. On Sunday, Yang, 43, spoke before a crowded auditorium at Shaker Junior High School to make his case on why he was the candidate to take on President Donald Trump. He also signed copies of his book "The War on Normal People." Yang is the son of a former G.E. employee and a Schenectady native. He's hoping to make history. If he is nominated Yang would be the first Asian-American nominee of any major political party. As of now he is the first Asian-American to run for the Democratic nomination. Speaking before a mostly Asian-American crowd at the Chinese Community Center's Chinese School on Sunday, Yang recognized the history he would make. The Chinese Community Center's Sunday school is based at the Shaker Junior High School. "I want to show that we're as dedicated to public office as any other ethnic group," he said. Yang's pitch concentrated about the American economy and what it will look like as advances in automation continue to make certain jobs obsolete. What Im presenting to the American people now, the reason Donald Trump is our president today is because technology is making harder and harder for Americans to make ends meet, the 43-year-old Yang said. So, Im running for president on a platform to help America evolve. Yang spent his first four years in Schenectady before his father took a job with IBM and the family moved to Yorktown Heights. He went to Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Brown University with a degree in economics before getting a law degree at Columbia Law School. After his first company failed, Yang joined several other entrepreneurs and eventually joined a test prep company that Kaplan bought out in 2009. In 2011, he started Venture for America, a non-profit designed to encourage entrepreneurship and start-up companies in struggling communities. Yang said that as he traveled around the country for work, he realized the enormous levels of economic disparity that existed, which eventually led him to decide to run for president. The centerpiece of Yangs platform is universal basic income, which he is calling the Freedom Dividend. The idea is to give every adult between 18 and 64 a monthly payment of $1,000. Yang sees it as the best way to help everyday Americans in places where automation and the lack of good-paying manufacturing jobs have decimated local economies. As he sees it, the loss of jobs due to robots and other advances is only going to get worse, putting millions out of work. When he ran the numbers, the swing states that lost the most jobs to manufacturing went to Trump, Yang said. I have friends who work in technology and theyre 100 percent sure that what we did to the manufacturers were about to do to the retail workers, the call center workers, the fast food workers and the truck drivers, he said. Unfortunately, those are all the most common jobs in America today. To pay for the program, which at approximately $2.4 trillion would be more than half the entire United States government budget, Yang wants to institute a value-added tax on the companies that have benefited the most from automation and other technological advances. Value-added taxes are common in other parts of the world, especially the European Union. A tax at half the level of that of European countries would raise around $800 billion, Yang estimates. The rest of the funding would come from reduced federal spending as Americans use that money to pay for things like healthcare they otherwise wouldnt be able to afford and through economic growth as that money goes back in to the economy. $1,000 a month would be a huge difference maker to tens of millions of Americans, Yang said. It would improve their physical health, their mental healthit would be a game-changer for many Americans. The rest of his policy positions are in line with most of the Democratic field single-payer healthcare, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, fighting climate change and reducing the cost of higher education. As for the actual improbable path to the nomination, Yang says he sees it as a math problem, but one that he can figure out, starting with Iowa. Hes been there seven times so far, laying the groundwork to overcome the odds. The Iowa Democratic caucus typically sees around 170,000 voters, Yang said. If he can get 40,000 Iowans to vote for him, he believes hell capture national attention, giving him momentum in the next few primaries. That is the test, that is the only test, he said. But his real hope is California, a state with millions of potential Asian-American voters. And the state has bumped up its primary date from June to March for the 2020 election, making it a key stop as the Democratic field sorts itself out. Yang hopes that being a solid Asian-American candidate will help drive Asian-American voters to the polls in his favor. He believes a surprise showing in Iowa, followed by strong support in California might put him on the main stage for the final Democratic debate in 2020. Im running for president to help America wake up to the fact that its not immigrants, we need to get our arms around the fact that its technology thats transforming our economy, he said. But Im also running for president to help show that Asian-Americans are just as American as anyone else. That we can contribute at the highest levels, that we care about our country as much as anyone else and that when it comes down to it, we can lead this country just as any other community. NISKAYUNA - In the town's Youth Court, a high school student can be judge, jury, prosecution or defense. But not without a caseload. Cases referred to the town's Youth Court, where students sentence minors who commit misdemeanors to community service, have dwindled to just three this past year. And when the state implemented Raise the Age legislation in October steering teenagers away from criminal courts cases referred to the Youth Court threatened to disappear altogether. That would leave high schoolers who signed up for the extra-curricular club with little to do. Niskayuna High School seniors Aidan Stevens and Tyler Bobbitt are trying to save Youth Court by revamping its approach. As co-directors of the Youth Court, the pair are planning field trips to observe Niskayuna Town court, attend mock trials with local law schools and host lectures by attorneys. "It's tough to have a club and be so involved and see it dwindle like it has. It's a loss and you can't do much with it. We're excited to take the club where it's going," Bobbitt said. "We don't want to get rid of the program because these kids are really interested in law and it's an amazing program and it's very helpful for them and we want to give them this experience," Stevens said. Niskayuna's Youth Court, in existence for around 20 years, is the only one in Schenectady County and one of the high school's largest clubs with an average of 70 students. Niskayuna Town Justice Steve Swinton, who refers cases to Youth Court, said there have been fewer juvenile arrests combined with an increase in defendants who aren't eligible for Youth Court because their crimes are too serious, they have gone through the program once before or they have a prior criminal conviction. Niskayuna High School's code of conduct also changed in the past couple years, requiring an automatic suspension for some offenses that would have been referred to Youth Court, said Principal John Rickert. Students also need to plead guilty to participate which they don't always do. "We would be very willing to refer cases that were eligible to Youth Court," said Rickert. "It's becoming harder to match up all those variables." Raise the Age legislation, starting on Oct. 1, also mandates that 16-year-old defendants be transferred from criminal court to either family court or a new branch of county court. Next year, the same will apply to 17-year-olds. "We already didn't have enough cases," said Swinton. Youth Court can take cases of 12- to 18-year-olds, but Stevens said they rarely see defendants under the age of 16. If a teen is caught shoplifting, for example, he or she would be referred to Youth Court. The most common offenses are petit larceny, trespassing and criminal mischief. In the past, marijuana possession or driving without a license also were cases handled in Youth Court. The court doesn't deal with felonies or violent crimes. The defendant enters a courtroom comprised of his or her peers: two prosecuting attorneys, two defense attorneys, six to 10 jurors and a judge. The jury hears the case and gives a sentence of community service. If the defendant completes the required hours, his or her record is expunged. For any teen-ager, the prospect of being judged by your peers could leave a lasting impression. "I think personally it's kind of embarrassing to be judged by peers and a wake-up call to have kids our age and younger than us to be put in a power position over you," Bobbitt said. "I think it's a little more influential than if an adult were to say that. It's humbling to have people who could be sitting next to you in class judging you." Club advisor Janice Lindsay said students participating in the club take their responsibility seriously. Some offenders are more remorseful than others, she added. "They feel like they're really a part of things and are making an impact. If a peer has to come in front of them and be humbled like that, they really do feel like they're making an impact on their future," she said. In a competitive college application process, participation in Youth Court has been invaluable to students, Lindsay said. This past year, the lack of cases raised into question whether funding from the town was needed to keep the club running. Swinton suggested $6,000 set aside for an unfilled Youth Court clerk position be reallocated for raises for the court clerks, which was put in Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed's initial 2019 budget. After pushback from Town Board members, the money was added back in. But there are no plans to spend the money. Stevens and Bobbitt said they don't need any money to run the club. Lindsay said a future expense could be for bus transportation for field trips as the club expands into other activities. They hope to kick off visits to court this month. "It has been a successful and award-winning program," said Town Board member Denise Murphy McGraw. "Even for the kids on the not-so-great end of it." Niskayuna isn't the only town's Youth Court facing reduced cases. In Clifton Park, Town Board member and liason Amy Standaert, who started the club, said it regularly has 100 members. For the last five years, they were receiving 12 cases annually. After taking a hiatus in the fall to train new members, she said they only received their first referral since September on Monday. She is hoping to receive more referrals from the school district of students who opt to participate in Youth Court instead of getting suspended or expelled for violating school code. "I've seen such amazing things happen from members and jurors who say it's life-changing," Standaert said. "We believe in it 100 percent. We are working hard to make sure that Raise the Age doesn't negatively impact us." NORTH GREENBUSH The state Attorney General's Public Integrity unit has now subpoenaed records from the town regarding the sewer line that was run to Supervisor Louis Desso's property. Town Board members and employees were asked Dec. 20 by Town Clerk Kathryn Connolly to provide copies of any records, especially emails, regarding Desso's Stephen Drive property and sewer connections. The AG's request for town records came around the same time as when investigators obtained sewer records from Rensselaer County concerning Desso's sewer extension. The supervisor's sewer line raised questions with the county this past summer because its existence was never reported to the county sewer district for billing; Desso has maintained that while his neighbor connected to the line, he has yet to. Also, there are concerns that Desso was not properly billed by the installing contractor, childhood friend Charles "JR" Casale. Desso recently provided the Times Union with what he alleged was an April bill for the work - which showed no details or a break down of costs, only a single $10,000 charge. Also, Casale had active business before the town in 2017, at the same time the Town Board voted to give the supervisor the sewer extension he wanted. North Greenbush Town Board member Mary Frances Sabo said of the records request: "It was any and all documents regarding the approved two-lot subdivision at 12 Stephen Drive," adding, "I'm going to say it's in response to a subpoena," Sabo said. The town clerk confirmed she had made the records request to town elected officials, but would not say who she was fulfilling the request for. Desso's attorney said late last week the supervisor is prepared to speak to state attorney generals corruption unit investigators, his attorney said. We are in contact with the attorney generals office, said Joseph Ahearn, a Troy attorney representing Desso. We remain willing, able and ready to meet with the attorney generals office to answer questions about any aspects of the investigation about the sewer line at his house, Ahearn said. Desso has maintained that he acted properly in securing the sewer line to is Stephen Drive home. Desso has said that he followed the towns provisions regarding sewer service and districts just like any other town property owner. Washington President Donald Trump stood by his demands for funding for a border wall Sunday as another round of shutdown talks failed to break an impasse, while newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump, who spent part of the day at Camp David for staff meetings, showed no signs of budging on his demand for $5.6 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. A meeting with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. Seeking to strike an optimistic note as he returned from the presidential retreat in Maryland, Trump said he had told aides to say that they wanted a steel barrier, rather than the concrete wall he promised during the campaign. Trump said Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. The seemingly intractable budget showdown marks the first clash for Trump and Democrats, who now control the House. It pits Trump's unpredictable negotiating stylings against a largely united Democratic front, as many Republicans watch nervously from the sidelines and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay. Although Trump tweeted that the Sunday session had been "productive," two Democrats familiar with the meeting gave a different take, saying the White House had not provided the budget details they had requested and again declined to re-open government. One of the officials neither was authorized to speak publicly said no additional meetings were scheduled. Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for "some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." While insisting he wanted to make a deal, he also declared he would not give an inch in his fight for funding for a border barrier, saying: "There's not going to be any bend right here." Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer suggested Sunday that pressure would only mount amid the shutdown, which he said is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations, home loans and farmers in New York. ALBANY A state prison inmate has accused a guard at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora of facilitating his 2018 beating by a fellow inmate who was allowed to enter a locked cell and attack the victim with a makeshift weapon, leaving him in a coma with a skull fracture and other serious injuries. The allegations detailed in a federal lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Albany underscore a pattern of alleged abuse that was either sanctioned or carried out by officers at the troubled facility. Multiple accounts of inmate beatings have surfaced following the 2015 escape by two convicted murderers, Richard Matt and David Sweat. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Andrew J. Champion, 35, who was moved to a Washington County prison after the incident, said officers at the prison rewarded members of a prison gang who did their bidding, including carrying out attacks on inmates, who filed complaints. Champion, a repeat felon who is in prison for his conviction on sex abuse and burglary charges, arrived at Clinton in December 2017. He worked in the same tailor shop made famous by Sweat and Matt, who had befriended a civilian female employee, Joyce Mitchell, who supplied the tools they used to pull off their escape. In the federal lawsuit, Champion said that his troubles at Clinton began after he declined an offer from another inmate to be a part of a gang and to take part in attacking another inmate. His lawsuit claims the gang was "condoned and permitted to exist" by unidentified officers who gave those inmates "preferential treatment and benefits, such as additional food and extended phone time." In December 2017, the claim states, Champion suffered a seizure in the tailor shop and was placed in a medical unit through New Year's Eve. He said that when he complained to a sergeant that he had not received a special holiday meal, the sergeant returned later and told the inmate he needed to "pay his dues." On the morning of Jan. 2, 2018, Champion alleges, he was alone in a cell, laying on his bunk, when his electronic cell gate opened before 7:30 a.m., which was unusual. He said he looked up and an inmate in the prison gang, clutching a white sock that contained a heavy object, began beating him as a correction officer stood in the cell watching the attack. He was beaten unconscious and woke up in a hospital with his mother at his bedside, according to the lawsuit. Prison officials attributed Champion's injuries to a fall they claimed he took while suffering from a seizure. Medical records indicated he had suffered brain hemorrhages and fractures in his skull, nose and cheekbone. The lawsuit said the injuries are "consistent with a brutal beating and inconsistent with an epileptic seizure." "Anyone would recognize that it was not credible he could sustain simultaneous fractures on the opposite sides of his head from a fall," said Alan L. Fuchsberg, a Manhattan attorney for Champion. Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said the agency will not comment on "pending litigation." Numerous other inmates who have served time at Clinton Correctional Facility have accused officers of excessive use of force, including pulling bags over their heads and subjecting them to severe beatings that left them with significant injuries. The state Inspector General's office, which issued two reports following the 2015 escape, did not investigate allegations by inmates who claimed they had been beaten by prison officers, including some who claimed the attacks were intended to intimidate inmates to not cooperate with investigators. John Milgrim, a spokesman for the state Inspector General's office, said the office "monitors" complaints of inmate abuse but that the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has its own internal unit that investigates those cases. In 2016, the Times Union published a story about systemic abuse of inmates by prison officers, including a case at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie where several officers faced discipline for an incident in which a gang member was put into the cell of an Albany man, Matthew Thornton, and told by a sergeant to "take care of business." The gang member, Raffi Mata, then attacked Thornton. Thornton, who died in 2016 at the age of 37 after being released from prison, told the Times Union that officers sent Mata into his cell as payback for complaints, including formal grievances, he filed against officers. In another incident, Thornton said guards attacked him in a prison van, pulling a bag over his head to prevent him from breathing as they threatened him for filing grievances. Also in 2016, the U.S. Justice Department investigated the circumstances that led to the April 2015 death of Samuel Harrell, a Fishkill Correctional Facility inmate who died after an altercation with correction officers. Federal prosecutors announced a year later there was "insufficient evidence" to pursue a civil rights case against the officers involved in the incident that led to Harrell's death. The inspector general referred Thornton's case at the Greene County prison to the U.S. Attorney's office in Albany, but that office took no action even though two prison officers were fired and an arbitrator found them responsible for Thornton's beating. James Donah, a Clinton Correctional officer from 2004 to 2010, told the Times Union in a 2015 interview that certain officers at that prison had a reputation for handling the "dirty work" and that beatings of inmates were commonplace. Donah, who was in prison for domestic violence when he was interviewed, recounted he had also heard about but did not see a violent incident in October 2010 when Leonard Strickland, a mentally ill inmate, died after being beaten by officers. Donah said he never took part in the beatings but acknowledged once framing an inmate by planting a weapon in his belongings. He said officers routinely framed inmates for violations or contraband as a form of punishment. He said some officers carried "drop weapons" they would plant on inmates or in their belongings. Hillary Clinton is joining Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he pushes to pass the Reproductive Health Act in New York and decriminalize abortion, she announced on Twitter Sunday. Under New York's current law, written three years before the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, abortions after 24 weeks are illegal unless it's necessary to save a women's life. Abortion is a felony and self-abortion is a misdemeanor. ALBANY An East Greenbush businessman has been indicted on charges he swindled $151,600 in worker's compensation benefits and lied under oath about his employment. Joseph Torre, 51, the owner of Unlimited Construction Services, pleaded not guilty Monday to an indictment unsealed by acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough charging Torre with second-degree grand larceny and first-degree perjury. SCHENECTADY A doctor accused of gross negligence and fraud allegedly lied on his job application while trying to get hospital privileges at Ellis Medicine in 2016. Denny J. Pacheco, who previously worked in emergency rooms in Poughkeepsie and Elmira, has been charged by the state Office of Professional and Medical Conduct with committing professional misconduct for allegedly discharging five severely-ill patients between 2012 and 2016 who needed immediate care, according to a hearing notice on the charges filed by the state. Pacheco, who was the subject of disciplinary proceedings by administrators at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, also allegedly lied on his job applications to Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira in 2015 and in his application to Ellis in 2016 because he affirmed he was not the subject of any investigations. However, it's unclear if Ellis ever hired Pacheco. Philip Schwartz, spokesman for Ellis Medicine, said it could not be immediately determined Sunday if Pacheco ever worked there. Ellis Medicine runs Ellis Hospital in Schenectady as well as Bellevue Woman's Center in Niskayuna. A call to Pacheco, whose primary residence appears to be in New Paltz, was not returned Sunday. Hospital officials at Vassar took disciplinary action against Pacheco after investigating three patient cases that happened between 2012 and 2014. In two of those instances, Pacheco sent home a 7-month-old who was suffering from a fever and severe respiratory illness, and a 22-year-old who needed immediate gallbladder surgery, according to the statement of charges. But Pacheco denied to Arnot that he was under any investigation, and gained employment there in 2015. The doctor came under suspicion again in 2016 after discharging two people at Arnot, one who had meningitis and another who had suffered extensive injuries in a car accident. In the most egregious case cited in the statement of charges, a 50-year-old Poughkeepsie man sought emergency treatment at Vassar Brothers in 2014 for heart attack symptoms. Despite an irregular EKG reading, Pacheco discharged the man who stood up from his chair and immediately suffered a fatal heart attack. Attorney Thomas Davis, who is representing the man's wife in a lawsuit, told the Times Union that two prior medical malpractice claims against Pacheco, including one that was settled in 2011, were not mentioned in the state's charges. "She is still agonizing about what happened.," Davis told the Times Union. "Finding out about the doctor has made it even more painful for her." According to the statement of charges, Pacheco then lied when applying for "temporary hospital privileges" at Ellis in December 2016, affirming that he was not under investigation at the time. "He began practicing in 2010, so over the course of six years, there were at least five different incidents," Davis said. "The fact is that he could go from one hospital to another and either nobody checked or they were given wrong information." Pacheco began practicing medicine in 2010 in New York state, but he was licensed in Pennsylvania in 2005 as part of his graduate work as a doctor of osteopathy. A doctor of osteopathy is the same legally as an MD, but the kind of training a doctor of osteopathy receives in medical school is slightly different. Pacheco's license has since expired in Pennsylvania, according to that state's online professional records. But he is still a licensed doctor in Florida. Records online with the Florida Department of Health said while Pacheco is licensed there, he is not currently practicing. The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine website lists Pacheco as an adjunct clinic assistant professor of family medicine. That college has campuses in Middletown and Harlem. Pacheco currently faces charges of gross negligence, incompetence, fraud, and failure to keep records, and could lose his license to practice medicine in New York if the allegations are substantiated. A November 2018 hearing was scheduled on the case, but there has been no update as to any findings made by the committee on professional conduct. The hearings are private, and it is unclear if Pacheco is currently practicing medicine. The Elmira medical center, Arnot Ogden, in a statement to WENY News, said it was "not made aware of any allegations related to Dr. Pacheco." "Nonetheless, we will be following up in accordance with our standard procedures to determine if there has been a deviation from any credentialing policies or standards of care and will take whatever further action is warranted by the facts," the statement said. Duran, Nicole An Amsterdam man was sentenced to one to three years in state prison on Monday after pleading guilty to aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in his car. Carlos Colon, 35, pleaded guilty on Oct. 3 to the felony charge as well as circumventing an interlock device, a misdemeanor, the Albany County District Attorneys office said. "As for direct face-to-face meetings, no contacts are (planned) for the near future," he was quoted by Tass news agency as saying. In November, following the cancellation of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, the latter called off another previously scheduled meeting with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the Group of 20 in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Ryabkov noted that Moscow and Washington have continued working contacts through correspondence and embassies, such as a recent telephone conversation between the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford. Putin has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet with Trump and discuss multiple issues on the bilateral and international agendas. UTICA An off-duty Albany police officer who was patronizing a prostitute at a Utica residence on Monday morning fatally shot a man who tried to rob him at knifepoint during the illicit encounter, according to police. Utica police said the off-duty Albany officer, Christofer M. Kitto, was carrying $3,000 cash at the time of the shooting and had met up with the woman after leaving nearby Turning Stone Casino. Kitto is a former Army sniper who served in Iraq and joined the Albany Police Department in July 2013, according to published reports and police officials. Kitto was charged with patronizing the prostitute, a misdemeanor, but police declined to file charges related to the shooting. They said Kitto's use of deadly force appeared to be justified. It's unclear whether a grand jury will review the shooting. The shooting victim, Shatelle Hooks of Syracuse, was transported to St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, where the 35-year-old died from his injuries. Police confirmed that Kitto, 34, was not armed with his departmental weapon and used a personal semiautomatic handgun to shoot Hooks. Police said they concluded that Hooks pulled a folding-style metal knife and tried to take "property," including cash, from Kitto, who pulled his weapon and opened fire, striking Hooks several times in the chest. "At this stage of the investigation, pending new conflicting information or forensic evidence, the shooting appears to be a justifiable homicide, and no charges are being filed at this time with respect to the death of Shatelle Hooks," Utica police said in a statement. "The Utica Police Department, however, will continue to investigate this incident and will conduct a thorough and transparent investigation." Utica police remained on scene of the Lincoln Avenue shooting through Monday afternoon. Albany police issued a statement Monday afternoon saying that Kitto had been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan did not respond to a request for comment. Albany police Chief Eric Hawkins said the department will "take the appropriate action" if any internal policies were violated by Kitto. A conviction on a misdemeanor offense is not definitively grounds to fire an officer, unless it involves official misconduct. "Right now, the officer is on administrative leave, and we don't have a whole lot of information beyond what has been released by the Utica Police Department," said Hawkins, who was appointed Albany police chief in September after six years leading the police department in Southfield, Mich., near Detroit. Hawkins said that his internal affairs investigators did not travel to Utica on Monday. "At this point right now, we're treating this as an off-duty incident," he said. "We're still sorting through some things." Hooks, who sources said was an acquaintance of the female prostitute allegedly patronized by Kitto, served nearly four years in state prison for a 2007 incident in which he allegedly kidnapped his then-girlfriend and forced her to withdraw money from a bank. He pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and was released from prison in 2012. He served another 17 months in state prison from April 2015 to November 2016 for felony criminal contempt. Steve Hughes contributed reporting. Albany Students returning to Albany High after the recent holiday break are encountering some changes, in the form of additional alarms on the doors. And youngsters at ONeal Middle School will find their building is open 15 minutes earlier, at 7:20 a.m., to allow for more thorough inspections of students entering the building. Still to come is an audit of metal detectors in those schools to make sure they are sensitive enough to find small weapons and continued review of how staffers can respond to disruptions and violent incidents in the schools. School officials also are looking at developing an anonymous tip line that would allow students to inform adults of brewing problems or weapons being sneaked inside the schools. The security upgrades follow two incidents in December in which students were caught bringing BB guns into both the high school and middle school. In the first incident, on Dec. 13, a student was let into the high school via one of the buildings many emergency exits when another student opened it from the inside. Someone spotted the BB gun, but it was unclear what kind of weapon it was, which led to a lockdown in which students and teachers remained in their classrooms and police are called, said district spokesman Ron Lesko. The BB gun bore a close resemblance to a .45 caliber handgun, which could have presented an even greater danger if police had seen it and mistaken it for a high powered weapon. For about 10 or 15 minutes all we knew was there was a gun in the building, said Lesko. On Dec. 17, a student brought a BB gun into ONeal middle school after he sneaked it though the buildings metal detector. The two incidents were unrelated, Lesko said. School officials later found the gun in the students locker and the security aide who was on duty was later placed on administrative leave. In a similar incident around that time, a youngster was also caught with a small knife that had been also been sneaked through the metal detector. In addition to reviewing security and checking the metal detectors sensitivity, Lesko said workers have put loud alarms on the approximately 30 doors at Albany High. Warning signs are going up and the alarms are set to be operable by the end of the week. It will be a high pitched very noticeable noise that will go off a minimum of 30 seconds, said Lesko, who added that security cameras are also trained on the doors. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU A World War II veteran had a long-time wish come true during his 106th birthday celebration at his Delmar home. Robert Carlyn was unofficially promoted to Air Force colonel and received a number of military gifts during the celebration. Just before the ceremony Carlyn welcomed and joined guests in signing patriotic songs including the Air Force Song, Army Song and Marine Song. His daughter Dr. Cynthia Carlyn and Congressman Paul Tonko pinned full bird eagles, rank insignias, on his uniform during a ceremony before dozens of family members, including his son, Richard Carlyn of Boston, friends, Patriot Guard Riders members and veterans. "Oh my God," said Carlyn with a smile after he was promoted. "Thank you for your service to our country," Tonko said after unofficially promoting Carlyn. "We are all free because of people like you." Tonko also gave a framed proclamation from Congress that acknowledges Carlyn's service to the country. Bill Schaaf, state captain of the Patriot Guard Riders, displayed a large photo showing Carlyn in his World War II uniform. Ray Sestak, assistant state captain of Patriot Guard Riders, and Ken Bailey, 97, a member of Army veterans of World War II and Patriot Guard Riders, presented a shadow box that displays many of Carlyn's medals, ribbons, and dog tags. Bailey also gave Carlyn a star taken from a discarded American Flag and a note that thanks him for his service. After Rhonda Cooper, a Patriot Guard Riders member and flight coordinator of Leatherstocking Honor Flight, gave Carlyn a Leatherstocking Honor Flight T-shirt, she repeated what's written on the shirt's back: "Land of the Free because of the Brave. That's you, sir," she told Carlyn. She also gave Carlyn a Leatherstocking Honor Flight coin. Next, his family had a challenging mission. They needed lots of time to place and light 106 candles on the airman's cake. Afterward, many joined in helping him blow out the candles. One of the guests was extra special. After the war, Jean Claude Simille became Carlyn's barber for decades. At age 5, Simille was among the French who were liberated from the Nazis by Carlyn and other American troops as the war ended. The Patriot Guard Riders and his daughter Cynthia together made the promotion and celebration possible. Robert Carlyn enlisted in the Army in 1942, first as an enlisted man. After graduating from the Technical Training School in Miami, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces. Afterward, he then trained as a combat intelligence officer at the AAF Intelligence School at Harrisburg, Penn. Upon earning his diploma in December 1942, he was assigned to the Eighth Air Force, 4th Bombardment Wing stationed in England. He was involved in the planning and execution of the American daylight, precision, and strategic bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe. His duties included intelligence assessments of proposed targets, briefing aircrews, preparing after-action damage reports, and going on an occasional "milk run." After D-Day, Carlyn's combat record included service in France and Germany. As a fluent French and German speaker, he was sometimes called upon to interrogate and translate. He remained on active duty in Europe through September 1945. After demobilization, he remained in the Air Force Reserve and advanced to lieutenant colonel in 1955. During his years in the Air Force Reserve, Carlyn held a top-secret clearance and was assigned to war planning and international political military affairs. He retired in December 1972. As a civilian, he was a real estate broker before retirement. Leader advances Nicholas C. Maio of Colonie has been promoted to Army first lieutenant during a ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas. The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team 1st Calvary Division soldier has been deployed to Grafenwoehr, Germany as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. He is a 2017 Reserve Officers Training Corps graduate of the University at Albany and a 2013 graduate of Colonie Central High School. He is the son of Tony and Lisa Maio of Colonie. New soldier New York Army National Guard Pvt. Anthony Delbalso of Mechanicville has arrived for duty with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry at the Queensbury Readiness Center in Queensbury. News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com. Classes start back up at Union College in Schenectady today after winter break. This also marks David R. Harris' second trimester as president. Harris, a sociologist who has been heralded as a teacher, scholar and administrator, became the 19th president of Union College on July 1, 2018. Most recently, he was chief academic officer at Tufts University. He was also at Cornell University, first as a professor of sociology and later as founding director of Cornell's Institute for the Social Sciences. His scholarship has focused on race and ethnicity, social stratification and public policy. Patricia Arquette's Golden Globe speech on Sunday was most notable for a bleeped-out portion, but she also thanked prison workers and inmates for their help in making "Escape at Dannemora." Arquette, who won the award for best actress in a TV miniseries, thanked "all the people who worked in the prisons who helped us and told us their experiences in there and the people who had been in prisons who told us about their experiences." The actress played state prison employee Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, who helped two prisoners escape from the Clinton County Correctional Facility in 2015. Arquette was briefly bleeped out during her speech as she talked about the makeup crew who replicated Mitchell's teeth for her portrayal. She later apologized, Variety reported. "I didn't plan that. It was an unplanned f-bomb," she said. "I'm so sorry." She held up her trophy and joked: "You can't take it back, can you?" Ben Stiller, who directed the Showtime miniseries, presented Arquette with the award. Mitchell, who is serving a sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, last month denied in interviews with the New York Post that she had consensual sex with the prisoners, David Sweat and Richard Matt. She helped both men escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in June 2015. The 23-day manhunt that was launched for the escapees resulted in the Sweat being recaptured and Matt being shot to death. Mitchell was found guilty of promoting prison contraband and was sentenced to 7 years in the Westchester prison for her part in the escape. Mitchell, known as Tillie, doesn't deny she smuggled in drill bits and hacksaw blades in frozen ground beef for Matt and Sweat. She remains adamant that she didn't have sex with the inmates, only that she provided Sweat with nude photos of herself and was forced to give Matt oral sex. However, a 154-page state report details many of the incidents depicted in the Showtime series. Released in June 2016, the report, from Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, was used as the source material for the miniseries. Mitchell also said she plans on writing a book contradicting the Showtime series' version of events. "The truth doesn't sell," she told the Post. "Everyone thinks I'm just a whore who wanted it." Colonie Frontier Airlines will launch nonstop services between Albany International Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport beginning April 30, with round-trips operating on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Fares will be as low as $34 each way. The carrier already serves Fort Myers and Orlando from Albany, but ceased nonstops to Denver after a short period. The new Raleigh-Durham flight to Albany is one of eight that Frontier is launching from the North Carolina airport on April 30 and May 1. Frontier flies twin-engine, single-aisle Airbus aircraft, and will use A320s in a one-class seating configuration, with extra legroom available in the front three or four rows and in the exit rows. The ultra-low fare carrier appeals to leisure travelers who are budget-sensitive. "Our business model is also very friendly for small business," where the traveler might be paying the fare out of his own pocket, said Seth Neuschwander, the carrier's director, planning and revenue analysis, during a press conference at the Albany airport last June. American Airlines operated three daily round-trips between Albany and Raleigh-Durham in the 1980s and 1990s when it had a hub in Raleigh. It closed the hub by 1995. Rotterdam police SCHENECTADY A 22-year-old Rotterdam man faces six years behind bars for causing brain injuries to his 2-month-old son by shaking or throwing him, according to the Schenectady County district attorney's office. Tristan Tinney pleaded guilty Monday to felony reckless assault of a child. The plea deal also includes a 14-year order of protection that prohibits him from having any contact with the boy and calls for three years of post-release supervision. WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado is taking over the portfolio on easing water contamination in Hoosick Falls, and more broadly the fight to restore regulatory teeth to President Donald Trumps Environmental Protection Agency. On the day he was sworn in last week, Delgado told reporters on a conference call that the situation in the Rensselaer County village was among his top regional concerns as the new House member for New Yorks 19th District. Its definitely a priority of mine, he said, noting that hed mentioned the Hoosick Falls situation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and had met several times with Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., whose district includes the city of Flint, which also suffered from devastating water contamination. Delgado brought Kildee to Hoosick Falls for a roundtable meeting during the campaign, and made two or three solo appearances there himself. Hoosick Falls has been reeling since learning in 2014 and 2015 that its drinking water contained unacceptably high levels of PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid. RELATED: MORE STORIES ABOUT PFOA, HOOSICK FALLS "Based on his interest in listening to our community, I'm optimistic he will be a helpful force for our village and the issues we are facing," said Hoosick Falls Mayor Rob Allen. As a freshman lawmaker confronted with an administration interested in rolling back regulatory controls, Delgado faces a steep climb. Under former administrator Scott Pruitt, the EPA held back a report on the same class of chemical pollutants that contaminated the water of Hoosick Falls, with one White House official calling its conclusions "a public relations nightmare." Trump subsequently fired Pruitt in the face of allegations of numerous ethical lapses including exorbitant travel and security costs and outfitting his office with a costly "phone booth" to prevent eavesdropping on his calls. EPA's acting Director Andrew Wheeler is a former coal industry lobbyist who has said he will prioritize cleanup of sites on the federal Superfund list. A manufacturing plant operated by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in Hoosick Falls, which has been a focus of the contamination, was declared a Superfund site in 2017. PFOA was used at the plant for decades, including by companies that operated the plant before Saint-Gobain purchased it in the late 1990s. Trump signed legislation last year to reauthorize the EPA's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for the first time since it expired in 2003. The fund is the primary mechanism for federal aid to localities to improve pipelines, some of which date to the 19th century in upstate New York. Funding authorization would start at $1.174 billion for 2019 and rise to $1.95 billion by 2021. The measure lowers the threshold for monitoring water system contaminants. The previous floor was for water systems serving 10,000 or more. The new law reduced it to 3,300, one hundred less than Hoosick Falls' 3,400. Allen and environmental advocates upstate say the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done a creditable job of putting New York in the lead among states with tough pollution standards for drinking water. After much delay, the state Drinking Water Quality Council last month recommended limits on cancer-causing industrial pollutants including PFOA. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics has installed a state-of-the art filtration system and levels of PFOA are now untraceable in water tests. Even so, many Hoosick Falls residents favor a completely new source of water a supply that has never been polluted. "The filter is not a perfect long-term solution," said Liz Moran, environmental policy director for the Albany-based New York Public Interest Research Group. "They want to know their water is clean. And they deserve it." Allen said the state is expected to release a report in April on potential alternative water sources. One possibility, he said, is the Tomhannock Reservoir, about 15 miles away. Tomhannock already is the water source to several systems, including Troy, Allen said. It has sufficient supply but is downhill from Hoosick Falls, which would add to the cost. Delgado will not have to fight alone in Washington for aid to Hoosick Falls and other municipalities, such as Newburgh, which is dealing with contamination from Stewart Air National Guard Base and Stewart International Airport. Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand also have advocated in Congress for stronger safeguards against water pollution. "We look forward to working with Rep. Delgado in the ongoing effort to fully address the impacts of the PFOA pollution in Hoosick Falls including full remediation, clean drinking water and justice for all those who have been harmed," Schumer said in a statement. Even so, Delgado will be in the spotlight as representative of an area that had its entire system compromised, much like the nationally known case in Flint. And Delgado and other lawmakers in 2019 will face the continuing challenge of an underfunded EPA that seems less committed to enforcing pollution laws than watering them down. So Delgado's success in this difficult terrain or at least convincing constituents that he gave it all he's got will be an early test of the 41-year-old Rhinebeck Democrat's willingness to do battle on Capitol Hill. Delgado "has a fantastic opportunity here," said Moran of NYPIRG. "Hoosick Falls needs a good ally in Congress. And water in New York state needs additional protections." Thomasville, GA (31792) Today Sunshine this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 92F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 72F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. remaining of SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Keyser, W.Va., resident Clifton Brooks, shown in this 2005 Times-News file photo, will be honored Thursday during Mineral County Day at the Legislature. Brooks is the only living Tuskegee Airman in West Virginia. Even though the Nestucca High School wrestling team was low on numbers this past weekend, they certainly made their presence felt at the inaug Tifton, GA (31794) Today Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 95F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 70F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Ad Resource Stock Digest 855 Interested This Week Heres the Safest Way to Get Insanely Rich in the 2021 Gold Bull Market Gold is screaming higher and smart investors are already cashing in on the #1 Gold Pick of 2021. Yet, you havent missed the boat. See how this newly-listed US$5 gold stock offers investors historic gains without mining a single ounce of the metal. 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Limited, Tesco Navona (1LP) Limited, Tesco Navona (GP) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Navona PL Propco Limited, Tesco Opticians Limited, Tesco Overseas (Holdings) Limited, Tesco Overseas Investments Limited, Tesco Overseas ULC, Tesco Passaic (1LP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (GP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Passaic PL Propco Limited, Tesco Pension (Jade) Limited, Tesco Pension Investment Limited, Tesco Pension Trustees Limited, Tesco Personal Finance, Tesco Personal Finance Compare Limited, Tesco Personal Finance Group Limited, Tesco Property (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.2) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) Limited, Tesco Property A.S., Tesco Property Finance 1 Holdco Limited, Tesco Property Finance 1 PLC, Tesco Property Holdings (No. 2) Limited, Tesco Property Holdings Limited, Tesco Property Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.5) Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.6) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP No.2) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.2) Limited, Tesco Red (1LP) Limited, Tesco Red (GP) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Sarum (1LP) Limited, Tesco Sarum (GP) Limited, Tesco Seacroft Limited, Tesco Secretaries Limited, Tesco Services Limited, Tesco Sourcing India Private Limited, Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Tesco Stores (Thailand) Ltd, Tesco Stores CR a.s., Tesco Stores Limited, Tesco Technology Services HK Limited, Tesco Treasury Services PLC, Tesco Trustee Company of Ireland Limited, Tesco Underwriting Limited, Tesco Vin Plus SA, Tesco Worldwide Limited, Tesco for Thais Foundation, Tesco-Global Stores Privately Held Co. Ltd, Tesco.Com Limited, The Brookmaker Limited Partnership, The Teesport Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Aqua Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Atrato Limited Partnership, The Tesco Blue Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Coral Limited Partnership, The Tesco Dorney Limited Partnership, The Tesco Kirkby Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Navona Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Passaic Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Property (No.2) Limited Partnership, The Tesco Red Limited Partnership, The Tesco Sarum Limited Partnership, Trent Hypermarket Private Limited, Trigger Retail Ltd, Valiant Insurance Company DAC, Value House Properties Limited, Variable Preference, Ventnor High Street Management Company Limited, Verulam Properties (2001) Limited, Verulam Properties Limited, Victoria BB Sp z.o.o., WE7, WSC Properties Limited, Wanze Properties (Dundalk) Limited, Weymouth Avenue (Dorchester) Limited, Whitecastle Properties Limited, Wm. Low Supermarkets Limited, Woolwich Central Residents Management Company Limited, Worple Road Plc, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, aAcklam Management Company Limited, dunnhumby (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, dunnhumby (Thailand) Limited, dunnhumby Canada Limited, dunnhumby Consulting Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Czech s.r.o., dunnhumby Employment Company Limited, dunnhumby Holding Limited, dunnhumby Hungary Kft, dunnhumby IT Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Inc, dunnhumby International Limited, dunnhumby Ireland Limited, dunnhumby Italia Srl., dunnhumby Limited, dunnhumby Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., dunnhumby Netherlands B.V., dunnhumby Norge A.S., dunnhumby Overseas Limited, dunnhumby Poland Sp z.o.o, dunnhumby Slovakia s.r.o., dunnhumby South Africa (Pty) Ltd, dunnhumby Trustees Limited, and dunnuhumby. Sadiq Khan has brought forward the 12.50 ultra-low emission zone charge to April 8 this year from a previously agreed start in 2020 Small businesses have pleaded with the Mayor of London to delay the full introduction of a scheme that charges motorists for driving in the capital. Sadiq Khan has brought forward the 12.50 daily charge on polluting vehicles to April 8 this year from a previously agreed start in 2020. But the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned that many firms are unprepared amid fears the extra costs could be devastating for many companies. The charge will cover the congestion charge zone in London and operate 24 hours a day, with vehicles that don't meet tough emissions standards forced to pay 12.50. This will be on top of the 11.50 congestion charge during its hours of operation. Lorries will be charged 100 per day for the emissions zone. The FSB has called for businesses that are yet to replace their vehicles to be given more time. Gareth Bacon, leader of the Conservative Group on the London Assembly, said: 'Unfortunately the Mayor is hell-bent on implementing these proposals in a reckless way which hammers business.' A spokesman for Khan said: 'London's polluted air causes thousands of premature deaths every year and Sadiq is introducing the ultra-low emission zone to help tackle pollution.' The trial of former Barclays boss John Varley and three ex-colleagues will begin today into allegations of fraud carried out during the financial crisis. They are the most senior bankers to ever face criminal charges in Britain. Varley, 62, former Middle East chairman Roger Jenkins, 63, former wealth division boss Tom Kalaris, 63, and former European boss Richard Boath are in the dock over deals struck with Qatari investors that helped Barclays survive the financial crisis. The trial of former Barclays boss John Varley (pictured above) and three ex-colleagues into allegations of fraud carried out during the financial crisis in 2008 will begin today The bank secured around 12bn in emergency funds from mainly Gulf investors as markets plunged in 2008, allowing it to avoid state bailouts taken by the likes of RBS and Lloyds. Qatar, a major investor in Britain, has not been accused of wrongdoing. The trial in London is expected to last up to four months and is a crucial test for the Serious Fraud Office after a judge last month halted mid-trial its prosecution of former Tesco bosses accused of a multi- million-pound fraud. British Gas owner Centrica is feeling the heat after a leading City broker warned its dividend was 'hanging by a thread'. Shares were sent sliding by the report from Jefferies, which said there was a material possibility that Centrica's earnings would fall short of expectations and the sale of its nuclear business was critical. Analysts predicted Centrica would make 8 per cent less profit per share than last year after the Government introduced an energy price cap to limit customers' bills, and the price of commodities such as gas continued to fluctuate. Analysts predicted British Gas owner Centrica would make 8 per cent less profit per share than last year after the Government introduced an energy price cap to limit customers' bills If UK power and gas prices follow the trend of oil and fall a further 20 per cent, Jefferies' Ahmed Farman explained, Centrica may barely be able to afford its 12p per share dividend to investors. In November last year Centrica also reported issues in its gas exploration and production operations, and outages at the Hunterston B and Dungeness B nuclear power stations. Centrica has a 20 per cent stake in eight British nuclear power plants, and announced last summer that it planned to sell them. Pressure is growing on chief executive Iain Conn to scramble a deal together, as Farman emphasised that Centrica needs to sell the nuclear assets for around 1billion to pull the company's balance sheet into better shape. Investors were clearly shaken by the warnings, as Centrica's shares fell 4.4 per cent, or 6.05p, to 131.25p. Stock Watch - Pottery manufacturer Churchill China, which specialises in making products such as plates and bowls for hospitality companies like hotels and caterers, shot up on announcing a strong finish to 2018. The Stoke-on-Trent firm, which is set to announce results for the year at the end of March, said exports were particularly strong and its performance would be ahead of market expectations. Shares in the company climbed by 9 per cent, or 85p, to 1025p yesterday. Jefferies cut its recommendation on the Centrica stock from 'buy' to 'hold', and lowered its target price to 125p. The price of oil was chugging higher after a downhill end to 2018 as traders factored in production cuts due to come into force this month from Opec, the cartel of 14 major oil-producing countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia. Brent crude was up more than 2 per cent by the evening to $58.21 as traders hoped Opec's cuts would boost demand for the smaller quantities of oil available. Oil was suffering at the end of last year as investors worried a global economic slowdown and troubled relations between the US and China could weaken demand. However, yesterday's rise was not enough to lift major oil companies on the FTSE 100. BP closed flat at 520.8p, while Royal Dutch Shell was 0.5 per cent, or 11p, down at 2389p. The blue-chip index ended the day down 0.4 per cent, or 26.54 points, at 6810.88 points as cigarette companies Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco also weighed on the Footsie. US research firm Cowen abandoned its optimistic stance on the tobacco sector, and said increased scrutiny from US regulators could cause the volume of cigarettes sold to fall by 8 per cent per year between 2018 and 2025. Imps fell 5 per cent, or 122.5p, to 2330p, while BAT was down 4.2 per cent, or 108.5p, at 2474.5p. It was a stronger day for smaller stocks. Scottish broadcaster STV soared by 8.5 per cent, or 29p, to 369p as it agreed a five-year partnership with Sky. Sky customers in Scotland will be able to access regional programmes in full high definition, and can watch STV's on-demand service through their Sky boxes for the first time. Brownfield housebuilder MJ Gleeson was also on the rise as it said it sold 691 houses in the second half of 2018 up 16.5 per cent on the same time a year before. Shares stacked up 10.9 per cent, or 72p, to end the day at 730p. Investors were keen to take a punt on gaming technology company Nektan as it announced total revenue generated from customers playing on its platforms shot up by 83 per cent to 4.7million from October to December. Nektan itself rose 7.1 per cent, or 1p, to 15p. Three former Credit Suisse bankers allegedly pocketed kickbacks out of a fundraising for Mozambiques tuna industry Three former Credit Suisse bankers have been charged with siphoning more than 150million out of a fundraising for Mozambiques tuna industry. The trio allegedly pocketed kickbacks after raising 1.5billion for the African country by selling bonds on the international markets in 2013. This deal which was meant to support maritime projects including a tuna fishery was done in secret and triggered a financial crisis when it emerged the projects being backed were highly suspicious. Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh have been arrested in London and released on bail. US authorities want the ex-bankers extradited over the scandal, claiming the bonds were issued to illegally make them richer. Former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang has been arrested in South Africa in connection with the scandal. Credit Suisse has not been charged. A memorial visitation for Ellen Johnson, 66, of Estherville, will be held from 4:30-7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, at the Henry-Olson Funeral Chapel in Estherville. Ellen Marie Johnson (Bergeson), born on Feb. 22, 1952, to Lester and Muriel Bergeson, departed this life on Jan, 4, 2019, in Estherville, Iowa. As a child, Ellen lived on a farm near Gruver, Iowa until the family moved to Estherville when she was in grade school. She graduated from Estherville High School in 1970 and attended Iowa Lakes Community College. She lived in the Minneapolis suburbs with her husband Tim Heidecker until she moved back to Estherville with her daughters, Jessica and Tara, in 1992. Ellen worked at Farm Bureau, Good Samaritan and Heartland Americana until she joined the school system as a paraprofessional. She enjoyed working with the teachers and helping the children until her retirement in 2017. She was united in marriage with Philip Johnson on June 24, 2000. They began their marriage on an acreage northwest of Estherville, until moving to an acreage outside of Sherburn, Minn., in 2004 where they enjoyed raising horses. They moved back to Estherville when Phil became ill in 2009. Phil passed away from his illness in March of 2015. Ellen loved spending time with family and friends. She enjoyed music and dancing and had a wonderful sense of humor. She was very artistic and could create beautiful floral arrangements and wreaths. Ellen loved to decorate her home and was a wonderful cook. She enjoyed entertaining and made every holiday special for her family, with her beautiful decorations and delicious meals. Christmas was her favorite holiday. She reunited with her first husband and high school sweetheart, Scott Rasmussen. They enjoyed each others company and traveling together. They were companions until her passing. Left to cherish Ellens memory are her children Jessica (Jason) Romey and Tara (Jon) Hinderks, her sisters Vivian (Dean) Koenecke, Julie (Larry) Clark, her nieces Debra (Mike) Lund, Dawn (Jim) Follese, nephews, Danny (Richelle) Bergeson, Brett (Deb) Bergeson, her sister-in-law Dixie Bergeson, her grandchildren Kade, Holly, Caleb, and Sophie, her companion Scott Rasmussen, best friend Barb (Dale) Nissen, and many loved great nieces and nephews, step-children, and step-grandchildren. Ellen will live forever in our hearts and memories. www.henryolsonfuneral.com Norwegian Air has blamed problems with Rolls-Royce engines for a hit to its finances. The low-cost airline said it had suffered technical issues with Trent 1000 engines supplied by the engineer, to power its Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes. Rolls was forced to launch a massive scheme of checks and repairs and redesign some parts after turbine blades in certain versions of the engine were found to be wearing down faster than expected. Norwegian Air boss Bjorn Kjos has blamed problems with Rolls-Royce engines for a hit to its finances The problem has affected several major airlines. Norwegian struck a deal with Rolls in December that it said would improve its finances, but has not disclosed details. Rolls has warned investors the overall costs associated with fixing the technical problems could reach 440million. Norwegian boss Bjorn Kjos also said competition from other airlines and high oil prices had hit performance in 2018. The carrier failed to hit analyst targets for passenger miles and for the proportion of seats sold during December. It said the number of miles travelled by paying passengers rose just 24 per cent in the second half of 2018, missing analyst forecasts. And its load factor, which measures how many seats are sold per flight, fell from 84.6 per cent in December 2017 to 78.6 per cent. Kjos said the firm was seeking to make cost savings. Norwegian has shaken up the long-haul flights market by offering tickets at knockdown prices. But its growing popularity has made it the subject of intense takeover speculation, with British Airways owner IAG among those thought to be interested. Corporate raider Ed Bramson has declared war on Barclays after it rebuffed his demand for a seat on the board. In an explosive letter, the activist investor criticised the prized investment banking division and said it would be impossible to change the lender from the outside. The New Yorker one of Barclays' biggest investors with a 5.51 per cent stake revealed he had asked to join the bank's board in September but was rejected. Activist: Corporate raider Ed Bramson criticised Barclays' prized investment banking division and said it would be impossible to change the lender from the outside He is planning to table a vote at the annual meeting in the spring which would allow investors to install him as a non-executive director against the wishes of senior management including outgoing chairman John McFarlane and chief executive Jes Staley. If the bid is successful it could net Bramson tens of millions of pounds in extra fees from his company Sherborne Investors. Bramson earns his money by identifying a target business, buying shares in it and improving its fortunes. If he forces his way onto the board as an executive or chairman, the fees payable rise dramatically. He began buying Barclays stock in early 2018 but has not revealed his hand until now. In an annual letter to Sherborne's backers who include Aviva, Invesco, Columbia Threadneedle and Blackrock Bramson said: 'We have undertaken a long process of consistent engagement, deliberately allowing ample time and opportunity for Barclays to respond to our concerns. 'We do not have confidence that continued engagement with the company, strictly as an outsider, will produce any more measurable results in the future than it has to date. 'It seems increasingly likely that, for any progress to be made on our concerns, we will be required to seek a shareholder vote to make changes in the composition of the board.' Barclays outgoing chairman John McFarlane, left, and chief exec Jes Staley are against offering Bramson a seat on the board Bramson met McFarlane, fellow American Staley, finance chief Tushar Morzaria and senior independent director Crawford Gillies in New York to set out his case for a board seat. But the letter said: 'We were told the directors would look forward to continued engagement with us but that board representation would not be 'needed'.' The stage is set for a battle, with Barclays likely to fight tooth and nail to deny Bramson a seat. It is feared that simply getting a seat will not satisfy the 68-year-old and he will try to wrest control away from Staley. The row could even pull in Bank of England governor Mark Carney, as regulators are likely to face questions over whether Bramson's actions might destabilise Barclays. City commentator David Buik, of trading firm Core Spreads, said: 'I suspect at Barclays this will have been greeted with a particularly noisy raspberry. 'He will have to make an extremely good case for why he wants a seat on the board.' Barclays and Sherborne both declined to comment. Homewares firm Dunelm has defied fears of a disastrous Christmas for the UK's retail industry with a bumper sales rise during the all-important Golden Quarter. Shares in Dunelm spiked 12 per cent to 6.56 in early trading today after the retailer, best known for its cut-price bedding, towels and furniture, said it expects profits for the full year to come in at the top end of City expectations. The Leicester-based firm's renewed confidence was triggered by a 9 per cent rise in sales over the last three months, which was spearheaded by a 37.9 per cent surge at its online division. Leicester-based Dunelm is hailing a 9% sales rise over the three months to December 29 The group took a knock in its last financial year after it bought online company Worldstores and worked to integrate the businesses. But the move appears to be bearing fruit now with Dunelm benefiting from increased ecommerce capabilities. Boss Nick Wilkinson, who replaced former Apple exec John Browett last year, said: 'Our multichannel proposition is improving all the time, and we are looking forward to introducing our new web platform in the summer, using more flexible technology which will allow us to better serve our customers in a changing retail landscape.' Sales advanced at its 169 stores too - up 5.7 per cent compared with the same period last year. Despite the strong performance, the company said it remains cautious due to the 'unprecedented level of uncertainty currently facing consumers and businesses in the UK' in the run up to Brexit. Commenting on the results, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: 'Retail slump, what retail slump? Today's update from homewares seller Dunelm looks great. 'It is good to see Dunelm is not resting on its laurels with plans to launch a new, more flexible web platform this summer. In an unforgiving retail environment, delivering the best possible customer experience is crucial.' The upside in Dunelm's shares today is due, IG analyst Joshua Mahony said, to the switch towards more positive news, and away from 'a trend of profit warnings and underperformance that saw the firm lose 50 per cent of its market value over the course of 2 and a half years.' Dunelm's trading update comes at the start of what is expected to be an extremely busy week of retail results from the likes of Tesco, M&S and Debenhams. Fashion giant Next was first out of the gate with its Christmas results last week, reassuring investors with a modest 1.5 per cent sales rise. After a torrid 2018 on the High Street, which saw the collapse of chains including Toys R Us, Maplin and Poundworld, analysts expectations for retail firms are moderately low. The morning session started off on the positive side, on the back of modest gains made in Asia overnight, but the Footsie ended the day in the red, closing down 0.4 per cent, or 26.54 points, at 6,810.88. The US and China are in talks today and tomorrow in relation to trade, and that helped raise investor sentiment in Asia overnight. The upbeat mood in Europe seen in the morning didnt last long as markets handed back some of Fridays bullish move. 'When upward moves are short lived it can be a sign that dealers arent particularly confident,' said David Madden at CMC Markets UK. In some good news for the retail industry, discount supermarket Aldi hailed its best Christmas in the UK ever after making almost 1billion in sales during the month of December. Meanwhile, homewares retailer Dunelm said sales rose 9 per cent in the so-called Golden Quarter, helped by a 38 per cent leap online. Click here to read on the This is Money app >>> Bonus payments at US investment banks are set to dwarf those at their European rivals again this year. A closely watched industry report, by consultants at Johnson Associates, predicts that average Wall Street bonuses will increase five to ten per cent, but the largesse is not expected to be replicated at Europes biggest banks which face growing political pressure over fat cat pay. Jason Kennedy, of recruitment firm Kennedy Group, told the Daily Telegraph: For years the Europeans have played in the second division while the Americans have been playing in the premier league. Bonus boom: Wall Street bonuses will increase five to ten per cent, according to a new report (Pictured: Goldman Sachs offices in London) US banks have also dominated EU banks in merger and acquisition rankings. As Europe's only sound global player in corporate and investment banking, Barclays holds a special place in the City. Last year its UK banking team was instrumental in securing the 30billion deal by Comcast for Sky and the 14billion merger of Randgold for Barrick Gold. It comes out top for investment banking fees earned in Britain and has an excellent trading and deal making franchise in the US as a result of the takeover of the American arm of Lehman a decade ago. Corporate raider Ed Bramson is determined to unsettle Barclays just as it is emerging from the shadows of the financial crisis. National asset: Last year Barclays' UK banking team was instrumental in securing the 30bn deal by Comcast for Sky and the 14bn merger of Randgold for Barrick Gold He wants Barclays out of investment banking and concentrating on its consumer brands. These include Barclaycard and use less capital than investment banking. He fails to recognise that retail banking is a crowded space with Lloyds having a dominant market share, Royal Bank of Scotland on a growth path and newcomers, such as Metro Bank, offering superior services. His timing is barmy too in that he wants Barclays to focus on the consumer when unsecured credit is at record levels. Having failed to bully a robust Barclays board into giving him a seat at the table, Bramson is seeking to take the fight directly to shareholders at the company's annual meeting in the spring. Depressingly, some UK long funds, including Aviva Investors, are backers of Bramson. They should recognise that his real motive is quick profits rather than the longer-term interests of Britain, as investors in Electra investment trust among others could testify. Bramson must be shown the door. Grocery disrupter That Aldi and Lidl have become real forces in British shopping is indisputable. But anyone looking for guidance on the broader grocery picture has to take the Christmas numbers from Aldi with a pinch of salt. It reports sales in the week commencing December 17 were up more than 10 per cent on a year earlier. It would be surprising if income was not up given that it operates from 827 stores, an increase of 65 from a year earlier. Indeed, in reporting its seasonal sales Aldi is engaged in as much as a promotional exercise as anything else. As a German private company it is excused from breaking the sales down into categories and fails to provide the like-for-like sales measure that is standard in retail. Fresh insight into the Aldi model is provided by evidence to the Competition and Mergers Authority on the proposed 15billion tie-up between Sainsbury's and Walmart-owned Asda. Aldi disclosed it is able to offer lower prices than the other grocers because it has a narrower range of 1,800 lines. This makes for a less complex supply chain and simpler logistics. The German firm's goal in the UK is to offer customers a 15 per cent discount on the lines it stocks compared with current prices at the Big Four supermarkets. Aldi's concern about the Sainsbury's-Asda deal is that the 10 per cent price cut promise of the new supermarket behemoth would make the other grocery chains vulnerable to supplier price increases and a less good deal for the consumer. Aldi might get a better hearing if it provided forensic detail about its operations rather than its skill in flogging mince pies and prosecco. Oncology recruit The race to become world leader in cancer treatments is on in earnest. American drug maker Eli Lilly is taking an 6.3billion gamble on buying Loxo Oncology. Emma Walmsley at Glaxosmithkline recently splashed out 3.9billion on oncology biotech outfit Tesaro and has taken on San Francisco R&D guru Hal Barron to help push into the immunology space. AstraZeneca, which has a head-start with immunology treatments, is upping its game by separating oncology into a separate unit looking at both early stage and late implementation treatments. It has recruited Jose Baselga, one of the world's leading cancer specialists, to head the unit. Baselga became available after he resigned from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York following controversy over his failure to disclose commercial connections with pharma companies in academic papers. He has corrected the record and AZ chief executive Pascal Soriot believes he is the person to drive forward the group's R&D for oncology and bring late stage medicines to market. Baselga's recruitment looks a risk worth taking. Party pooper? Ousted WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell Pedestrian WPP chairman Roberto Quarta gets to host this year's CBI business leaders' lunch in Davos, a role previously carried out by his erstwhile chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell whom he forced out following misconduct allegations. I'm told boisterous Sorrell, who regards the annual jamboree as his personal fiefdom, plans on making an appearance in the Alps. What's the betting he, rather than Quarta, ends up holding court over the Davos darlings? Gormless-looking Russian energy tycoon Roman Abramovich considered buying Tottenham Hotspur before Chelsea according to Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg's The Club: How The Premier League Became The Richest, Most Disruptive Business In Sport. But one visit to North London was enough to put him off. Roman's verdict: 'Worse than Omsk.' Bloomberg has fallen out with its neighbours at the City of London Magistrates Court. According to Financial News, the Court has complained to the local authorities about the cigarette ends Bloomberg staff have been discarding outside its nearby building. Incidentally, the firm's boring founder Michael Bloomberg is the person responsible for outlawing smoking in the work place. He introduced the joyless ban while Mayor of New York, which other cities duly copied. Former John Lewis deputy chairman Lord Price says he will begin blending his own pear champagne at his property in Dorset this month. His Lordship hopes it will be ready to drink before Christmas, so we must politely reserve judgement on the ambitious-sounding sparkler until then. In the meantime, I trust Price uncorked something suitably palatable last night for his wife Judith. Her Venetia Williams-trained horse Top And Drop won the 2.10 at Chepstow. America's stock market continues to yo-yo all over the place as the US's trade dispute with China hots up. Aviva's normally eloquent chief investment officer David Cumming's considered verdict on Radio 4: 'It's like it's on acid.' Stately ex-Financial Conduct Authority chairman John Griffith-Jones has been appointed chairman of debt advice charity Step Change. A city source sniffs: 'He was chairman of KPMG when it gave HBOS's accounts the all clear just before its collapse. Not sure I'd want him advising me on my debts.' Diatoms are vital to life on earth and dont get the attention they deserve, Kevin Dong said. The Estherville Lincoln Central alum and University of Iowa undergraduate spent last summer almost entirely in the lab. My advisor was not that happy with me because were not supposed to eat in the lab, but I was really focused, Dong said. For those with less ecological science knowledge than Dong, the first question may be: What is a diatom? Breathe in. Breathe out. Dong said diatoms are responsible for up to 40 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. According to Diatoms.org, we breathe the oxygen that diatoms release. Specifically, Dong said, they are microscopic algae, but their cell walls are made of silica. They live in a glass house. Dong said this makes them attractive to look at. The silica walls measuring one to 100 microns in width make them excellent carriers for the delivery of drugs to the body. Theres a rumor going around that Kevin Dong could be curing cancer. Dong said that statement goes too far, but diatoms could be used as a capsule to deliver chemotherapy drugs to targeted parts of the body. They arent one species. Researchers estimate there are 20,000 to 2 million species of the algae, and new species are discovered each year. The qualities of diatoms make them excellent for filtration of water and beer and they serve as a carbon pump, turning atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into organic carbon. Dong, a pharmaceutical sciences major at the University of Iowa whos applying to pharmacy school this summer, studied diatoms because in addition to creating and releasing oxygen, diatoms indicate by their tolerances and changes, the quality of the water in which theyre living, and scientists can determine this by looking at them through a microscope and without the need for expensive chemical testing. Diatoms eliminate the need for chemical tests because the diatom response will indicate the chemical composition of the water, Dong said. This is how Dong started studying diatoms. As a rising sophomore at ELC, Dong took a class at Lakeside Laboratory in Okoboji. I really enjoyed it. I was younger than most people who took the class, and they had more experience with research than I did, but I understood it pretty well, and I came back to take the class a second time, Dong said. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Sylvia Lee, biologist for the Environmental Protection Agency and Kerry Howard, PhD, of the University of Nevada-Reno asked Dong to come on board as a teaching assistant. Lakeside Laboratory gave me a great jumping off point to propel me to the opportunities Im getting now, Dong said. One of these opportunities was conducting original research on diatoms last summer at the Timberlake Biological Field Station in Texas, through Tarleton State University. Dongs supervisor was Dr. Victoria Chaibi, associate professor of biological sciences at Tarleton. Dr. Chaibi regularly offers research opportunities to students, and was co-author of the poster Dong presented to the National Science Foundation. Dr. Chaibis ongoing research is Biodiversity and environmental optima of Colorado River diatoms at the Timberlake Biological Research Station. Dong said the goal was to improve bioindicators in Texas. The bioindicator is the diatom: the algae used to measure the health of the water body. The issue: unlike other areas, Texas had no initial data set from which Dong could measure changes. Dong had to create it. It was the first of its kind in that region, Dong said. After collecting his baseline data, Dong spent time at the water and in the lab finding out how changes in the water quality affected the diatoms and ultimately what it means for us. One application that covers the field and the pharmaceutical studies that take up most of Dongs year is determining how pharmaceutical waste in the water affects water quality for all species. Dongs long days in the lab, starting as early as 8 a.m. and sometimes not leaving until after midnight, resulted in his acceptance to present his work to the National Science Foundation at the Research for Undergraduates Symposium in October. The Symposium had a sort of American Idol esque series of elimination rounds. From 3,000 initial nominations, the crowd for Dongs area was narrowed to 20, then 10., then Dong and his cohort were the top 10 percent of the top 10 percent of all projects. They came from a wide range of schools, even the Ivy League and some of the best research universities in the country, Dong said. In presenting to agents from the National Science Foundation, Dong managed to say, I think I did pretty good. The National Science Foundation, Dong said, is interested in hearing from the nations top undergraduate scientists because many of them will be the graduate, doctoral and post doctoral researchers doing cutting-edge work in the next several years. Dong said he began dreaming big during his high school years at ELC. Science teacher Kris Turner was one teacher Dong said particularly encouraged and inspired him. Dong said Lee, Wu and Howard have been instrumental in his research. There are not many diatomists, and there is a lot to learn. Research continues, and there are a lot of kinks to work out, Dong said. As Dong looks toward a fast track through completing his undergraduate work and going to pharmacy school, he hopes to open new knowledge streams in his work on diatoms. MARISSA BERGEL, Wheeler softball, senior: Bergel hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning to lift Wheeler past Holy Cross, 9-7, in the Class S state tournament. The hit was part of a five-run rally in the inning. JOEY GUARNIERI, Westerly track & field, senior: Guarnieri placed first in two sprints at the Southern Division championships. He won the 100 (11.19) and the 200 (22.73). JOSH MOONEY, Stonington track & field, sophomore: Mooney placed first in the 110 hurdles at the Class M state meet in 14.65. He also finished second in the 300 hurdles (39.87) and second in the javelin (160-0). MARGARET WEEDEN, Chariho track & field, junior: Weeden finished first in the high jump at the Southern Division championships. Weeden cleared 5-1 and also placed sixth in the triple jump at 31-5. Vote View Results New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Monday sought adjournment of the Supreme Court hearing on a plea challenging the validity of the sensitive J&K Resettlement Act of 1982, saying that there is no elected government at present in the state which is under the President's rule. It said that since the challenge is to the state legislature enactment, it would be appropriate if the hearing was done when the elected government is in place. The reason was given in a letter circulated among the parties in the case by the state administration. In its affidavit filed through advocate Shoeb Alam, it replied to the query of the court, asked during the last hearing, as to how many people who had migrated from the state have applied for returning from Pakistan under the provisions of the Act. The state government said in its reply that the Act was never notified by it and therefore no applications could be received under the Act. "Upon perusal of records it was found that no applications have ever been received under the Act of 1982 even by the custodian of Evacuee property, Jammu and Kashmir. Also no application was ever received by the office of the custodian general," it said. The government also replied in negative to the question asked by the court whether any applications were made by the descendants of permanent residents who had migrated to Pakistan. On December 13 last year, the apex court, while hearing the plea challenging the validity of the sensitive Act, had sought to know as to how many people who migrated from the state have applied for returning from Pakistan. It had asked the state government's counsel to take instruction on the issue. The apex court had wanted to know how many migrants and their descendants have applied and whether applications for return have been made by permanent residents -- persons who are being given special rights and privileges under the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution. The top court was apprised that the Act was meant for those people who had migrated to Pakistan during the partition in 1947 and were willing to return. The Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act of 1982, which was stayed by the apex court in 2001, envisages grant of permit for resettlement of Pakistani nationals who had migrated to Pakistan from Jammu and Kashmir between 1947 and 1954 after India's partition. The petitioner, Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party (JKNPP), is arguing the matter through its Chief and senior advocate Bhim Singh. Singh has contended that the matter has been pending for long and needs to be decided. The top court had on August 16, 2016 indicated that it may refer the matter to a constitution bench if it finds that some issues needed interpretation of the Constitution. The court had said that it will hear the matter and if during the course of proceedings it is found that no constitutional issue is involved, then it will pass an order. JKNPP had earlier told the court that a division bench in 2008 had issued direction to list the case before a constitution bench but the Chief Justice in the same year had over-ruled the decision and ordered the matter to be listed before a three judge bench. It had said that people of Jammu and Kashmir who migrated to Pakistan from 1947 could be considered for their return but their descendants could not be. The party had said that the law passed by the Assembly was draconian, unconstitutional and improper which threatened the security of the state. JKNPP through Harsh Dev Singh, a then MLA, had challenged the Act passed by the J&K Assembly in 1982. In 1982, the Act was first challenged by Singh before the apex court and then Governor B K Nehru had refused to sign the Bill and sent it back to the Assembly. Later, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then President of newly constituted BJP, had also filed a petition before the apex court seeking intervention. Singh said that even B K Nehru, an Indian diplomat and native of Kashmir, was convinced that the Act suffered from many defects and constitutional error. The matter was considered by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 2001 on a presidential reference. The apex court returned the reference to President with a three-word pronouncement: 'Returned, respectfully, unanswered'. Singh in 2001 had filed a writ petition in the apex court seeking quashing of the Resettlement Act. The top court while admitting the plea had ordered for stay of operation of the Act and in 2008, the matter was referred to the Constitution Bench on the plea that the subject relates to the interpretation of the Constitution of India. PTI MNL SA Lucknow, Jan 7 (PTI) UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma Monday welcomed the Union Cabinet's approval for 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward section in the general category and said the slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' is truly reflected in the decision. "For the first any government has risen above caste and religion and has taken a decision for the poor. This is a major step taken by the NDA government, and we welcome it," he told PTI. "The slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' is truly reflected in this, and all the parties must welcome it, as there is no religion to poor and poverty," he said. A constitutional amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, the last day of the Winter Session. The government has also sought extension of the Rajya Sabha proceedings for a day to enable the passage of the bill. Meanwhile, reacting to joint statements by senior SP leader Ramgopal Yadav and BSP leader Satish Mishra over alleged misuse of the CBI by the BJP, Sharma said, "A CBI probe has been ordered by the court and an action is being taken on the basis of the directive of the court. The BJP never misuses nor uses any legal institution. Levelling allegations on the BJP is incorrect and baseless." The BSP, the Congress and the AAP on Monday came out in support of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav amid reports the CBI may quiz him in an illegal mining case and accused the BJP-led NDA government of resorting to "vendetta politics". PTI NAV SNE SNE New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi Monday called on Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and sought her support to the demand for a legally-binding international convention against online sexual abuse, pornography and trafficking of children. Solberg is on a three-day visit to India during which she will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of issues with an aim to expand the multi-faceted bilateral partnership and also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Prime Minister Solberg, in a one-on-one meeting with Satyarthi at the Norwegian Embassy here, expressed her support to his demand, according to a statement from the Nobel Peace Laureate's office. Satyarthi has been meeting global leaders to seek their support for the new convention. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela, among others, have extended their support to the cause, it said. "Satyarthi and Solberg discussed the very important role of the youth in achieving the children related sustainable development goals that he got incorporated into the international policy agenda back in 2015," according to the statement. "Both the leaders also discussed about promoting quality, inclusive and equitable education for all children," it added. The child rights activist has proposed that the legislation should be backed by a new Global Task Force against online child pornography, child sexual abuse and child trafficking to provide victims with holistic support. He has already written to all Heads of States with his appeal for a new convention. This request has also been submitted to the UN Secretary General and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the statement said. PTI KIS SMN SMN New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday held strategic dialogue with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during which they reviewed the progress in ties and exchanged views on regional and global issues. At the start of the 10th India-Japan Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue, both sides agreed that the visit of Foreign Minister Kono at the beginning of the New Year has provided an important opportunity for them to identify the agenda of bilateral relations in 2019. The visit also marks an important beginning for a series of high-level bilateral exchanges this year to take the bilateral relationship to newer heights, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said. During the talks, the two foreign ministers discussed follow up actions on the decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in October last year, which had opened new vistas of bilateral cooperation in areas such as regional connectivity, economic partnership, new and digital technologies, health care, renewable energy, defence cooperation, maritime security etc. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and global issues of common interest, the MEA said. They reaffirmed that based on shared values and interests, the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership has acquired a broader significance in the current global context and has become a factor of prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The last round of the dialogue was held in Tokyo in March 2018. Swaraj also congratulated Kono for Japan's hosting of the G-20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019, and promised India's full support for Japan's G-20 Presidency. Following the strategic dialogue, Foreign Minister Kono also called on Prime Minister Modi. Kono briefed the prime minister about the follow-up action taken in recent months after the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Japan. Prime Minister warmly recalled his successful visit to Japan and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan. Prime Minister Modi said India looks forward to the next round of annual summit with Japan, later this year. PTI ASK GVS Lucknow Jan 7 (PTI) UP Minister Siddharth Nath Singh Monday sought to know why opposition leaders are "panicking" over a CBI probe into the mining scam if they have not done anything wrong. Taking exception to statements of BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leaders over reports that the CBI might quiz SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the scam, Singh said, "It looks like 'chor ki daadi mein tinka' (guilty conscience pricks the mind)." "Why are they afraid. The CBI has not yet taken the name of Akhilesh Yadav. If there was no illegal mining during the SP government, there is no need for them to be afraid of the CBI probe," he added. Referring to Mayawati's phone call to Yadav after reports emerged that he might be quizzed by the CBI in connection with the mining scam, he said, "It seems their alliance principle is -- you save me and I will save you." "Promises were made during the rule of SP government of probe into the works carried out during the BSP regime and vice versa, but nothing was done and now both the parties are in alliance," the minister said. Earlier in the day, a release was issued by the BSP in which Mayawati extended her full support to Yadav and asked him not to get shaken while asserting that people will give a befitting reply to the BJP. "Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav, while terming the reports as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the ruling BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases. Yadav may face a CBI probe in a case of illegal mining, according to the agency FIR made public Saturday, the day Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-led BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had taken up the case on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. PTI SAB SNE SNE New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. Kono briefed the prime minister on follow-up action taken in the recent months after Modi's visit to the country in October 2018, a statement from the prime minister's office said. The prime minister recalled his "successful" visit to Japan, and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan. Modi said India looks forward to the next round of the Annual Summit with Japan later this year. PTI NAB IJT New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is on a three-day visit to India, during which he will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on a host of issues such as oil imports from Tehran. Zarif will hold talks with Swaraj on Wednesday and also address the Raisina Dialogue. On Tuesday, he will meet Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, attend a business forum and interact with scholars. His meeting with Gadkari assumes significance in the wake of a collaboration between the two countries along with Afghanistan on the operationalisation of the strategically-located Chabahar port. According to the MEA, apart from Zarif, Foreign Ministers of Japan and Australia -- Taro Kono and Marise Payne -- are also visiting India. Swaraj held talks with Kono Monday evening, while her meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Payne will take place on Tuesday. Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar will also be visiting India and will be meeting Swaraj Tuesday. All the visiting dignitaries are scheduled to attend the Raisina Dialogue, India's annual flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics. Payne will also meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. PTI ASK IJT Third parties in Canada yet another reassessment (Part Two) By Mark Wegierski Interestingly enough, some of the most significant third parties have existed in Quebec. A major Quebec-nationalist (but also Catholic-traditionalist) party that flourished on the provincial level in Quebec before 1960 was the Union Nationale. The party and the province was led for decades by Maurice Duplessis a figure somewhat similar to U.S. strongman Huey Long who was called Le Chef. Duplessis had (in 1948) given Quebec its distinctive, traditional-looking flag the blue cross with the Bourbon lilies. Duplessis support for the Diefenbaker Conservatives in the 1958 federal election led to Diefenbaker winning one of the largest majorities in Canadian history but Diefenbaker was simply unable to make the support from Quebec more permanent. There was also the death of a promising young leader of the Union Nationale in a car-accident who could have perhaps eventually become Canadas first French-Canadian conservative Prime Minister. The Union Nationale largely disintegrated after his death, and the triumphant Quebec Liberals subsequently enacted the so-called Quiet Revolution a widespread secularization of Quebec life. The Ralliement creditiste, which existed in various embodiments at the federal and provincial levels in Quebec, was sometimes together with, and sometimes apart from, the Social Credit Party of Canada. The Ralliements main leader was Real Caouette. In the 1962 federal election, the Ralliement won 26 seats in Quebec, while the Social Credit Party won only four seats in English-speaking Canada. The unwillingness of the English-Canadian leadership of the Social Credit Party to allow Real Caouette to lead the whole party, resulted in a split in 1963. Although some years later, Real Caouette became the leader of the whole party, by that time it had lost all of its federal seats in English-speaking Canada. There have been as well the separatists (or sovereigntists) in Quebec -- called the Parti Quebecois (PQ) in the province, and the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) in the federal Parliament. The PQ has frequently formed the government of Quebec and has been able to shepherd through two referendums on sovereignty, in 1980 (strictly-speaking, a referendum on sovereignty-association) and in 1995. The 1995 referendum came very close to success. The Bloc Quebecois had largely won most of the Quebec vote (obviously, they ran candidates only in Quebec) in the federal elections of 1993 to 2008. However, in the 2011 federal election, they were routed by the NDP winning only 4 seats. The Quebec triumph of the NDP in the 2011 federal election (winning 59 of 75 seats) especially in regard to the victories of some very young and inexperienced candidates is difficult to adequately explain. In the 2015 federal election in the province of Quebec, NDP support was greatly reduced, and the Bloc Quebecois was able to win 10 seats. In recent years, there was also a somewhat more conservative provincial party in the province of Quebec called the Action democratique du Quebec (ADQ) (although it virtually collapsed in the 2008 Quebec provincial election) which had tended to support the Conservatives federally. There has now arisen a centre/centre-right third party in Quebec, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) into which the ADQ has folded itself. In the October 1, 2018 provincial election, the CAQ was able to win a strong majority of 74 of 125 seats, while the Liberals were reduced to 32 seats, and the very left-wing Quebec solidaire won 10 seats, ahead of the Parti Quebecois, which was reduced to 9 seats. This was a truly historic election. The Conservatives/Progressive Conservatives had disappeared from provincial politics in Quebec many decades ago. At the federal level, the support of Quebec voters for the Conservatives/Progressive Conservatives was fitful and sporadic. In the enormously important federal elections from 1963 to 1980, the Progressive Conservatives were usually barely able to win one or two seats in Quebec. The Liberal majority in the federal Parliament, especially under Trudeau, was heavily based on holding nearly every seat from Quebec. One of Brian Mulroneys great successes was the huge support the Progressive Conservatives received from Quebec voters in the 1984 and 1988 federal elections. It was a success, however, that did not last into the 1993 federal election. There is also now a very left-wing party in Quebec, called Quebec solidaire, which holds ten seats in the Quebec legislature. Between 1989-1994, the Equality Party held four seats in the Quebec legislature. They were representatives of the provinces Anglophones (i.e., the English-speaking minority, which is mostly centered in West Montreal and the so-called Eastern Townships (which are actually in the western part of the province of Quebec). The latter term is derived from the fact that these were the eastern-most areas of British-demarcated administrative units (townships). The Equality Party also drew support from the so-called Allophones the minorities in Quebec whose first language is neither English nor French. One of the most enduring joke-parties in Canada, the Rhinoceros Party, was centered largely in Quebec. In earlier decades, it was snidely said of the NDP and its prospects in Quebec, that some of its candidates in Quebec ridings in federal elections, actually got fewer votes than the Rhinos. (And the profile of the earlier CCF in Quebec had actually been even lower.) The Rhinoceros Party has never elected a member of a legislature. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home Patnaik to join BJD's demonstration in New Delhi on Tuesday Bhubaneswar, Jan 7 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to join the BJD's day-long demonstration demanding a hike in MSP of paddy, at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. "Our party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik will join us at the demonstration," BJD MP Prasanna Acharya told PTI over phone from New Delhi. He said Patnaik will also lead a party delegation and meet President Ram Nath Kovind in the evening. The party will submit a memorandum to the President, Acharya, who is also president of the president of Biju Krushak Janata Dal, said. The BJD has been demanding a hike in paddy MSP to Rs 2,930 per quintal and a resolution in this regard was passed in the assembly, supported by both the Congress and the BJP. However, the Centre did not accept the state's demand and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to meet the delegation of Odisha in this regard, Acharya said. Apart from the chief minister, Odisha ministers, BJD MPs, MLAs, leaders, farmers and youth wings of the party will join the protest in New Delhi. The Opposition BJP, on the other hand, has said it would gherao the state secretariat and 'Naveen Niwas', on the farmers' issue. "The BJD has failed to provide basic amenities like irrigation, power supply, storage facilities to the farmers in the state. The BJD leaders are holding a picnic at Delhi," said BJP spokesman Golak Mohapatra. Describing the BJD's planned demonstration at Delhi as a farce, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik in a statement said: "This is another gimmick of the BJD before the 2019 general election to woo farmers." The OPCC chief added that prior to the 2014 elections, the BJD had taken its party members to Delhi by a special train to demand special-category status for Odisha, but the result was "a big zero". PTI AAM RBT RBT Dhaka, Jan 7 (PTI) Sheikh Hasina will be sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister for a record fourth term on Monday after her Awami League's landslide victory in the December 30 election. Hasina's ruling alliance won more than 90 per cent of the seats contested in the election, which was marred by accusations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence. Hasina, 71, and her ruling Awami League party have dismissed the accusations. On Thursday, she was chosen as the leader of the House for the fourth time. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is termed by many as the country's iron lady. Bangladesh on Sunday named a council of ministers with several new faces in the 47-member Cabinet of Prime Minister Hasina. Several veterans were dropped from the council of ministers amid speculation about the inductions as major portfolios like defence were retained by Hasina herself. The Jatiya Party, a key partner in the Awami League-led Grand Alliance of Hasina, on Friday decided to occupy the opposition benches in Parliament after the main opposition BNP led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia rejected the results of the general election. PTI NSA NSA Mexico City, Jan 7 (AP) Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coast resort city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday. State and local police said the attack occurred late Sunday at the "Las Virginias" bar in a low-income section relatively far from the beach side tourist zone. Six men were found shot to death in the bar, and another died at a local hospital. One man was wounded but survived the attack. He told police he was drinking beer with friends when gunshots broke out. The attackers have not yet been identified. Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, Playa del Carmen has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighborhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway. The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more than double in the last year, with 688 killings in the first 11 months of 2018, compared to 322 in the same period of 2017. At that rate, Quintana Roo could end 2018 with a homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000, on a par with El Salvador. The Caribbean coast especially Cancun and the area south known as the "Riviera Maya" had long been largely spared the drug violence affecting other areas, but that no longer appears to be the case. Local sources report that the feared Jalisco cartel has moved into the region, disputing control with local gangs. In September, two Mexican marines were found stabbed to death in Cancun. In a single day in August, police found eight bodies strewn on the streets of Cancun. In January 2017, gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in Cancun, killing four people. A day before that, a shooting at a music festival in Playa del Carmen left three foreigners and two Mexicans dead. The US Embassy in Mexico issued a brief travel warning for Playa del Carmen in March. A February 2018 blast on a ferry apparently caused by an explosive device injured 26 people, including several American citizens. That has sparked fears that the Caribbean resorts could come to resemble the faded Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The bloody violence in Acapulco that flared in 2006 eventually earned it a level-four "do not travel" warning from the US Department of State. Still, violence in Playa del Carmen is still far from Acapulco levels. In 2017, Acapulco had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Mexico and the world. (AP) SCY SCY Bangkok, Jan 7 (AFP) An 18-year-old Saudi woman seeking asylum has left Bangkok airport "under the care" of the UN refugee agency, a Thai official said Monday, following her desperate plea against deportation. "She is allowed to stay... she is under the care of the UNHCR now," said immigration chief Surachate Hakparn. "She left the airport with the UNHCR." (AFP) PMS PMS Colombo, Jan 7 (PTI) A top Sri Lankan court Monday dismissed a petition seeking mental health assessment of President Maithripala Sirisena for his sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, a controversial decision which plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis. On October 26, President Sirisena, 67, sacked Wickeremesinghe as Prime Minister and replaced him with ex-strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, triggering the never-seen-before political and constitutional impasse which lasted for over two months. The Court of Appeal dismissed with costs the petition filed by a woman named Thakshila Lakmali Jayawardena, saying it had no authority to hear the case. Jayawardena sought an order directing the police chief to go into Sirisena's state of mind. The petition called for a medical report on the President's mental status. The court ordered Jayawardena to pay Rs 100,000 as legal costs. Jayawardena's Attorney said after filing the case that President's unusual action warranted a medical check up on his mental status. The petition was filed before the Supreme Court order on December 13 which ruled that Sirisena's action to dissolve parliament to call fresh parliamentary election was unconstitutional and illegal. Sirisena move to sack Wickremesinghe was described as a "constitutional coup" by the prime minister's supporters, arguing that the president had no power to sack a sitting Prime Minister as per the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Sirisena's appointment of Rajapaksa was also questioned in the court as the Wickremesinghe camp questioned as to how Rajapaksa functioned in the prime minister's job when he had failed to prove his parliamentary majority. Rajapaksa sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called snap elections on January 5. However, the Supreme Court overturned his decision and halted the preparations for snap poll. Sirisena and Rajapaksa suffered reversal setbacks, forcing the president to reinstate Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. PTI CORR MRJ AKJ MRJ Washington, Jan 7 (AP) President Donald Trump acknowledged Sunday that weekend shutdown talks led by his vice president would not break an impasse, as newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Heading to Camp David for staff meetings, Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for $5.6 billion for a wall along the US-Mexico border. Undercutting the staff-level talks, Trump declared that only he could make a deal with Democratic leaders "in 20 minutes, if they want to." Said Trump: "If they don't want to, it's going to go on for a long time." With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. The seemingly intractable budget showdown marks the first clash for Trump and Democrats, who now control the House. It pits Trump's unpredictable negotiating stylings against a largely united Democratic front, as many Republicans watch nervously from the sidelines and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay. After another round of talks led by Vice President Mike Pence with senior congressional aides, Trump tweeted that the session had been "productive." But two Democrats familiar with the meeting gave a different take, saying the White House had not provided the budget details they had requested and again declined to re-open government. One of the officials neither was authorized to speak publicly said no additional meetings were scheduled. Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for "some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." While insisting he wanted to make a deal, he also declared he would not give an inch in his fight for funding for a border barrier, saying: "There's not going to be any bend right here." Speaking to reporters later in the day, Trump said he had told aides to say that they wanted a steel barrier, rather than the concrete wall he promised during the campaign. Trump said Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Democrats criticized McConnell for waiting on Trump's support, but Collins said she was sympathetic to McConnell's opposition to moving legislation without agreement from the president. Several Republicans pushed the Interior Department to find money to restaff national parks amid growing concerns over upkeep and public safety. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested Sunday that pressure would only mount amid the shutdown, which he said is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations, home loans and farmers in his state. "Democrats and now a growing number of Republicans are coming together and saying let's open up the government and debate border security separately," Schumer told reporters in New York. Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." "Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border," said Schiff, D-Calif. Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. AP RAX RAX Kathmandu, Jan 7 (PTI) A 28-year-old self-styled spiritual leader in Nepal, popular as "Buddha Boy", is under investigation after four devotees, including three nuns, disappeared from his ashrams, according to a media report. A joint team of Central Bureau of Investigation and police raided Ram Bahadur Bomjan's ashram in Sindhupalchowk district last week after four persons went missing, the Kathmandu Post reported. Police suspected that one of his devotees, Sanchalal Waiba, who went missing from Bomjans ashram in Sindhupalchowk, might have been murdered. Police searching for Waiba found nine covers of salt packets buried some 300 metres away from the ashram on Saturday. Police said they found the covers of salt packets buried under the soil but did not find any mortal remains. The body might have been burnt elsewhere, Deputy Superintendent of Police Bimalraj Kandel said. On December 28, families of the missing devotees had demanded that the government conduct a thorough investigation to find their whereabouts. At a press conference in Kathmandu, the grieving families alleged that Bamjan is a "paedophile and murderer". Bomjan became popular as "Buddha boy" in 2005 after his followers said he could meditate for months without water, food or sleep. Bamjans ashrams in Sindhupalchowk, Nawalparasi and Bara are under police surveillance round-the-clock. The ashrams are under the police control until the investigation concludes, DSP Kandel said. PTI PMS AKJ PMS PMS New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Leaders from various non-BJP parties Monday extended support to the demand of small ice cream manufacturers that they be included in composition scheme under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. Leaders including P C Chacko from the Congress, Sanjay Singh (AAP), Manoj Jha (Rashtriya Janata Dal) attended a meeting of the All India Small Scale Ice Cream Manufactures Association, and extended support to their demand. The central government has kept the ice cream businesses as small cottage industry in the larger slab of GST (18 per cent) which is "wrong", said Punit Manchanda, chief patron of the Association . He said the ice cream business should be brought back in GST composition scheme. The composition scheme is meant for taxpayers whose turnover is less than Rs 1 crore. PTI VIT CK Mumbai, Jan 7 (PTI) Equity benchmark Sensex Monday climbed over 155 points to close over 35,850, tracking positive cues from global markets coupled with a dovish tone from the Federal Reserve and hopes of better China-US trade relations. The 30-share Sensex opened higher and continued its upward march to regain the 36,000-mark, hitting a high of 36,076.95. It, however, lost some ground towards the fag-end due to profit-booking and a weak trend in european markets and settled 155.06 points, or 0.43 per cent, higher at 35,850.16. The gauge had gained over 181 points in the previous session on Friday. Similarly, the broader 50-share NSE Nifty gained 44.45 points, or 0.41 per cent, to end at 10,771.80 after touching a high of 10,835.95 and a ow of 10,750.15. Gains in realty, teck, IT, power, consumer durables, banking and oil & gas stocks helped both the key indices to score gains. Both the US and China have expressed an interest in settling their tariff war. Envoys of both nations will have discussions during meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Traders said supportive global cues following robust US jobs data for December and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's comments that the Fed would be flexible in policy decisions this year and optimism ahead of Q3 earnings season which begins this week also bolstered trading sentiments. Top software services exporters TCS and Infosys scheduled to report their results for the December quarter on January 10 and January 11, respectively. Investor sentiment also got a boost after China's central bank announced an easing in policy Friday, with 100 basis points of cut to bank reserve requirements freeing up around USD 116 billion for new lending, they said. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors bought equities to the tune of Rs 240.60 crore, while FIIs sold shares a worth Rs 157.72 crore Friday, according to provisional data. PTI SUN MKJ Setting the wolf to guard the sheep: Electing the Palestinian Attorney-General to the ICC Nominations Committee for judges By Amb. Alan Baker The election of the Palestinian Attorney-General, Dr. Ahmad Barrak, to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee on Nominations of judges of the International Criminal Court, if it were not so serious, could be seen as comical. It cannot but invoke the ancient Latin maxim ovem lupo commitere, or in its literal and colloquial version to set the wolf to guard the sheep. This perhaps sums up the acute absurdity to which respected international institutions in the international community, and particularly the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, have descended. Sadly, they have permitted themselves to be abused and manipulated by an irresponsible Palestinian leadership, intent on hijacking international organizations for obvious and blatant political purposes. However, the election of a Palestinian representative to the judges Nominations Committee, as unwise and ill-advised as it may be, is indicative of a far wider and more serious problem facing the International Criminal Court, with the admission of what purports to be The State of Palestine as a party to its Statute. By any international, legal and factual criterion, this is nothing more than a political fiction invented and given prominence by the United Nations General Assembly and bequeathed to the ICC. There exists no sovereign Palestinian state, and there exists no sovereign Palestinian territory over which the ICC could exercise its jurisdiction. The acceptance in 2014 of the State of Palestine as a party to the 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC, and the issue of Palestinian status vis-a-vis the court, remain questionable and legally flawed, since membership of the Court, pursuant to its Statute, is restricted to states, and there exists no sovereign Palestinian state. The question therefore must be asked how could a fictional non-state entity be accepted by the ICC as a state party to the Rome Statute, and how, therefore, could its representative be appointed to the nominating committee for judges? Palestinian Aims The Palestinian leadership has little interest in the vision, aims, and purpose of the ICC, set out in the preambular provisions of its 1998 Rome Statute, so laboriously negotiated and drafted over many years by the international community. Nor are they interested in the detailed provisions of the Statute regarding membership, jurisdiction, admissibility, and the elements of crimes. To the contrary, their only purpose for involving themselves with and engaging the ICC is to utilize the Court politically in their campaign to delegitimize Israel and its leadership. This has been stated by senior Palestinian leaders, and is especially evident in the 2014 Palestinian formal announcement of acceptance of the ICCs jurisdiction for the purpose of identifying, prosecuting and judging authors and accomplices of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. Does a Palestinian State Exist? It is widely acknowledged that the issue of the final status of the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip is an open negotiating issue between the Palestinians and Israel pursuant to the Oslo Accords (1991-3). These accords were countersigned by leading members of the international community (United States, EU, Russia, Egypt, Jordan, and Norway) and endorsed by the UN. They do not specify what the final status of the territories will be, and the issue remains open for negotiation between the parties. Pending their final settlement, the territories cannot be regarded as Palestinian territories but as disputed territories, subject to a dispute-settlement process. Hence, any determination whether by the UN, by any of its specialized agencies, or by the ICC as to any form of Palestinian status of the territories, cannot be seen as other than an attempt to prejudge the outcome of the permanent status negotiations. The fact that there exists no sovereign Palestinian state has been repeatedly acknowledged by the Palestinian leadership itself, since their initial, and still binding commitment in the Oslo Accords (1993-5) to withhold initiating or taking any unilateral step to alter the status of the territory pending the outcome of the agreed-upon permanent status negotiations. The non-existence of a Palestinian state was even recently reaffirmed on December 22, 2018 by Palestinian chief negotiator and PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, as reported by the Wafa Palestinian news agency, in commenting on a ruling by the Constitutional Court of the Palestinian Authority dissolving the Palestinian parliament. Erekat declared that dissolution of the parliament is part of the transition from the period of the Palestinian Authority into the State of Palestine period. However, this has not prevented the Palestinian leadership from advancing, through the institutions of the international community, what is a fictitious claim to statehood. Similarly, it has not prevented the international community from blindly accepting and advancing this parallel Palestinian attempt to by-pass their negotiating commitment, to achieve statehood unilaterally through international bodies. Palestinian Status vis-a-vis the Court The justification by the UN for this curious state of affairs was a non-binding UN General Assembly recommendation, couched in the second operative paragraph of resolution 67/19 of December 4, 2012, to: [a]ccord to Palestine non-member observer State status in the United Nations, without prejudice to the acquired rights, privileges and role of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United Nations as the representative of the Palestinian people, in accordance with the relevant resolutions and practice; While the UN General Assembly has absolutely no power to determine the establishment of states nor to declare statehood, and despite the obvious fact that no actual Palestinian state exists, the UN Secretariat nevertheless determined, in a curious internal legal memorandum following that resolution, that: As Palestine is a Member State of UNESCO, the Secretary-General would accept instruments of accession from Palestine for treaties that follow the Vienna formula. Since the General Assembly has accepted Palestine as a non-Member observer State in the United Nations, the Secretary-General will be guided by this determination in discharging his functions as depositary of treaties that are open to any State or all States deposited with the Secretary-General. On the basis of that General Assembly resolution and the interpretation given by the UN Legal Counsel, the Palestinian leadership regarded this as a green light to declare, on the December 31, 2014, its recognition of the jurisdiction of the ICC for the purpose of identifying, prosecuting and judging authors and accomplices of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. This was immediately followed on January 1, 2015 with a formal letter of accession to the Statute of the ICC by the Palestinian leadership, which was accepted by the UN Secretary-General on 6 January 2015. Thus, despite the factual non-existence of a Palestinian state, and despite a clear lack of legal grounds, and in contravention of the terms of the ICC Statute that refers to States parties, the Secretary-General of the UN and the ICC Prosecutor accepted the State of Palestine as a state party to the ICC Statute. This in itself enabled the election of the Palestinian Attorney-General to the Nominations Committee for ICC judges. On the strength of their having been accepted as a state party to the statute, the Palestinians have proceeded to institute complaints against Israeli political and military leaders for war crimes that they claim have been committed during the various military confrontations, as well as for Israels settlement policy. In fact, the Palestinians appear to have adopted the ICC as their own private tribunal for hounding Israel. On January 16, 2015, the ICC Prosecutor opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine. Can the ICC Deal with the Palestinian Complaints? The question remains whether the ICC has the legal capability of extending its jurisdiction over the territories that, while claimed by the Palestinians to be their sovereign territory, are distinctly not so and remain formally territories in dispute. Logically and legally, without any agreed-upon and internationally accepted and recognized permanent status of the territories, and without any accepted international determination that there indeed exists a Palestinian state duly exercising rights of sovereignty over its territories, it is highly questionable whether the ICC could exercise jurisdiction there and deal with the various Palestinian complaints. In light of the above procedural and jurisdictional questions as to the very status of the Palestinians vis-a-vis the Court, and pending juridical determination as to whether such a non-state entity may be considered to be party to the ICC Statute, it might have been more prudent on the part of the ICC and its Prosecutor to defer the issue of electing a Palestinian representative to serve on the Advisory Committee on Nominations of judges. Today, this appears to be overly premature. Assumption of Bona Fides and Impartiality by the Court Despite procedural or political action by the prosecutor to process Palestinian complaints, it may be assumed and hoped that the Court will act in the juridical and objective manner befitting an international juridical and non-political body. Any political involvement by the Court would endanger its juridical integrity something the Palestinians are indeed attempting to achieve with every complaint that they refer to the Prosecutor. As such, in light of the obvious lack of jurisdiction of the ICC in territories claimed by the Palestinians, as well as the inherent lack of gravity of the accusations of crimes,, it is highly unlikely that the court would be able to take such complaints seriously. In this context the ICC Prosecutors statement of February 9, 2014 on the issue of political manipulation of the ICC, is relevant: By the very nature of the Courts mandate, every situation in which I act in my capacity as ICC Prosecutor will be politically fraught. My mandate as Prosecutor is nonetheless clear: to investigate and prosecute crimes based on the facts and exact application of the law in full independence and impartiality. Whether States or the UN Security Council choose to confer jurisdiction on the ICC is a decision that is wholly independent of the Court. Once made, however, the legal rules that apply are clear and decidedly not political under any circumstances or situation. In both practice and words, I have made it clear in no uncertain terms that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC will execute its mandate, without fear or favor, wherever jurisdiction is established and will vigorously pursue those irrespective of status or affiliation who commit mass crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. The Offices approach to Palestine will be no different if the Courts jurisdiction is ever triggered over the situation. It is my firm belief that recourse to justice should never be compromised by political expediency. The failure to uphold this sacrosanct requirement will not only pervert the cause of justice and weaken public confidence in it, but also exacerbate the immense suffering of the victims of mass atrocities. This, we will never allow. Given the election of the Palestinian attorney-general to the appointments committee for judges, one may indeed ask if there is no end to the absurdity and inclination of the ICC to prejudice its stature as a credible juridical body and advance its self-destruction. Amb. Alan Baker is Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center and the head of the Global Law Forum. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. He served as legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Israels ambassador to Canada. Home New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Central Trade Unions Monday said around 20 crore workers will go on a 2-day nationwide strike from Tuesday to protest against the government's alleged anti-worker policies and unilateral labour reforms. "As many as 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs) have joined hands to go on a 2-day nationwide strike from tomorrow. We expect 20 crore workers to join the strike. "This is the largest number of workers from formal and informal sectors joining the strike against anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led central government," Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of AITUC, told reporters here in a joint press conference of the 10 CTUs. She said sectors like telecom, health, education, coal, steel, electricity, banking, insurance and transport among others are likely to support the strike. "We will go on protest march from Mandi House to Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Similar protests would be done across the country," she said. Kaur said the CTUs are also opposed to unilateral labour reforms. "We have given suggestions on labour codes. But during discussion...trade unions' demands were rejected. We went on strike on September 2, 2016. We also did 3-day 'Mahapadav' (agitation) from November 9-11 in 2017. But the government did not come for dialogue rather went ahead with unilateral labour reforms," she said. The 10 CTUs going on strike include INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC. RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will not participate. "The government has failed to create jobs and grossly ignored unions' 12-point charter of demands. The Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on labour issues has not called unions for any discussion since September 2, 2015 strike. This has left us with no other option but to go on strike," Kaur said. In a joint statement, the CTUs also alleged that the government undermined tripartism and continued its "aggressive attack with arrogance on the lives and livelihood of the working people." They are also opposed to the proposed amendments in Trade Union Act, 1926 saying those are irrational and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions. The unions claim that farming communities through their associations have also extended support to the strike. Student and teacher organisations of various universities have also declared support, the statement said. PTI KKS ANU New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Former Union minister P Chidambaram was questioned once again by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in connection with the INX Media money laundering case, officials said. This is the second time that the senior Congress leader has deposed before the agency in the case. He was earlier grilled by the ED in December. Chidambaram, 73, was asked to depose before the investigating officer (IO) of the case to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and was given a time for Monday, they said. It has earlier questioned him in the Aircel-Maxis PMLA case. The Delhi High Court, in November last year, had extended till January 15 the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram on his pleas seeking anticipatory bail in the INX Media case lodged by both the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court had also directed him to cooperate with the investigation. The ED has questioned Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case in the past and has also attached his assets worth an estimated Rs 54 crore, located in India and abroad. It had registered a PMLA case in this deal case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. Karti Chidambaram was also arrested on February 28 by the CBI for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007. He was later granted bail. PTI NES NES ANB ANB New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) The Bihar government Monday reached out to electronics and telecom companies and industry bodies for skilling of youths of the state and providing them employment opportunities. "We have been running 'recruit, train and deploy' programme for the last two years. Now we want electronics and telecom companies to be part of it. Under which, the Bihar government will meet the training and recruitment related costs for youth to make them employable in companies," Dipak Kumar Singh, principal secretary, Labour Resources and CEO, Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM), said after a meeting with industry players here. Singh said the state government has no shortage of funds for skilling youths in the state. "Our Chief Minister (Nitish Kumar) wants youths to get jobs. There will be no cap on the number of youth that can be trained for employment in electronics and mobile phone companies," the official said at the Mobile Manufacturers Conclave organised by the BSDM. He said that due to exorbitant land cost in Bihar, the state government has been unable to attract industries or companies that require large chunk of land but is ready to invest even if recruitment of youths takes place outside the state. The meeting organised by the BSDM in the national capital saw participation from companies like Samsung, Lava, Karbonn Mobile, Xiaomi, Dixon Technologies, Lenovo, Jio Mobile, and industry bodies like India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), CMAI Association of India, Telecom Sector Skill Council, Electronics Sector Skill Council, etc, as per details shared by the state government officials. Singh said the BSDM is open to industry deciding on a course curriculum to suit their needs for the recruit-train-deploy programme. "Bihar government and BSDM are very earnestly trying to structure and leverage the tremendous demographic dividend which the state enjoys in partnership with us. We are in the process of a feasibility study for building a formal structure of training and deployment," Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman, ICEA, said. He said that an entire ecosystem of candidates, training partners, trainers, assessing bodies, etc, has to be established. "We are happy to see the conviction and passion with which BSDM is working and sincerely hope that a great partnership between our industry and Bihar is going to be created for the benefit of our industry, Bihar and the nation," Mohindroo said. PTI PRS MKJ With the start of a new year, it is, perhaps, time to take a look at the world's worst humanitarian crisis at the moment: The civil war in Yemen. Since the civil war 'phase' of the Yemen conflict started in 2015, at least 6,660 civilians have been killed and 10,563 injured according to a UN report. A large number of these casualties have been caused by the air strikes launched by a coalition of gulf states led by Saudi Arabia. What is the Yemen civil war? The Yemen civil war had its origins in the insurgency launched in the north of the country by Shia fighters led by Hussein al-Houthi in 2004. The insurgency remained dormant during the opposition protests against the rule of dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, which began in 2008, before turning, effectively, into a sectarian 'Shia vs Sunni' conflict in the early years of this decade. The ongoing civil war, between the internationally recognised government of Yemen and the Houthis, erupted in 2015 with the intervention of the Saudi-led coalition. The Saudi coalition entered the conflict to stem the growth of Iranian influence in the country; Tehran had armed and supported the Houthis. The Saudi coalition, which consisted of forces from Sunni nations like Egypt and the UAE, was backed by the US, UK and France. Situation in Yemen The situation in Yemen has all the makings of a humanitarian crisis. The civil war has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Yemeni citizens and injuries to numerous others. The victims get injured or killed daily due to the fighting that takes place between the rival forces while they go out to buy daily essentials or fetch water from the wells. According to the UN, the crisis has worsened with a famine threatening nearly 13 million people in Yemen. International charity Save the Children claimed in November 2018 that nearly 85,000 children have died of starvation in Yemen since the civil war began in 2015. The reason that famine is looming over Yemen has been attributed to the Saudi coalition's blockade of all the humanitarian aid going into Yemen. On the pretext of blocking arms supplies to the Houthi forces from Iran, the Saudi coalition has strangled all means of transportation in and out of the Houthi-controlled areas. The US has been blamed for being unable, or unwilling, to stop the Saudi involvement in the Yemen conflict. While the US military has stopped providing in-flight refuelling for Saudi fighter jets operating over Yemen, Washington still provides training and military assistance to the coalition members. The UN has also failed to provide a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yemen with its attempts at advocating for a humanitarian corridor on the HudaydahSanaa highway in December last year not being effective. War crimes UN investigators had recently accused the Saudi-led coalition of multiple war crimes like launching air strikes on civilian targets, torture, rape of civilians and use of child soldiers. The UN has claimed Saudi and UAE air strikes have caused the largest number of civilian casualties. The Saudi forces were noted as being uncooperative with investigators on questions over their targeting procedures. The coalition has also been accused of failing to consult its own 'no strike list', which includes over 30,000 places in Yemen such as refugee camps and hospitals. The response Beyond the UN, no government or organisation has done much to alleviate the plight of the Yemeni people. The Saudi coalition has continued to perform air strikes in Yemen despite facing growing criticism and outrage from the international community. The West has been reluctant to crack the whip on the Saudi coalition over the Yemen civil war given the intricacies of oil politics and the need to contain the spread of Iran's influence in the region. Google can sometimes give us some really funny and bizarre search results. What perhaps started off as a glitch in its algorithm has now become something netizens look forward to. Known as Google bombs, the weird and unrelated results are a consequence of heavy linking. It has been done for political, business as well as comedic purposes. Google bombs, though taken down almost immediately after discovery, are well remembered by the internet community. Listed below are some of the most famous Google bombs of all time: 1. Microsoft More Evil Than Satan Himself During Googles early years, in 1999, an eagle-eyed user found that a search with 'More Evil Than Satan Himself' showed results for tech giant Microsoft. This is considered to be the first Google bomb in history. 2. Abortion Murder One might expect a search for 'murder' to show results relating to the act of unlawful killing. While that is what you would see first, at one point, this word was dragged into a very unexpected political rivalry, the pro-choice vs pro-life debate. Pro-life activists in 2011 manipulated Googles algorithm to make it show the second most related result relating the query murder as the Wikipedia page for abortion. 3. Find Chuck Norris The name Chuck Norris never fails to ring a bell in our minds. It was only fitting that when the Hollywood legend was targeted by a Google bomb, the result had to be an error message saying Google wont search for Chuck Norris because it knows you dont find Chuck Norris, he finds you. 4. French Military Victories Frances most famous military conquests are known for being their biggest failures. And this is now being turned into a meme on various social media platforms. This ridicule of the French military on the internet can be dated to as far back as 2003 when a Google search for french military victories yielded the result Your search French military victories did not match any documents. Did you mean: French military defeats? 5. Church of Scientology Dangerous Cult Church of Scientology, Los Angeles | Wikimedia Commons The Church of Scientology has been in the news for quite some time now owing to their bizarre belief and rituals, famous members such as Tom Cruise, and sex assault allegations by former members. In 2008, a hacking collective that went by the handle Anonymous, rerouted Googles algorithm to show results of the query dangerous cult as links to the Church of Scientology. National security debates on the border and beyond By Mark Alexander Sometimes, the first column of the year is an easy one just a few reflections about the year past and the year to come. Unfortunately, the last week of 2018 was marred by a couple of political confrontations that are casting a long shadow over the new year. Most notable among those issues are two significant national security issues. The first of these is a rather straightforward interruption of some "non-essential government bureaucracies" beginning on 22 December, which President Donald Trump implemented after Democrats failed to provide sufficient federal funding to secure our border with Mexico. The second is a policy shift in the Middle East much more a chess move than the mainstream media's typical portrayal of this policy change as a game of checkers. Regarding the border security/shutdown showdown I have covered in detail how all the key Democrat Party leaders, including incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have repeatedly advocated for border security and strong immigration laws until it was no longer politically expedient to do so. Democrats oppose securing our southern border for two reasons: first, because Trump supports it, and second, because these illegal immigrants and their progeny represent the Democrat Party's most promising and powerful source of new votes. Demos, therefore, don't want "immigration solutions." They want to appease their Hispanic constituents with smoke-and-mirror political rhetoric. In addition, they are using immigration as diversionary fodder to undermine the Trump administration's considerable economic policy success. Thus, by advocating for open borders, Democrats hope to create a socialist-voter pipeline by flooding our nation with illegal immigrants who are likely to require long-term, taxpayer-funded government assistance. However, an unforeseen problem with this strategy is that a growing number of Latinos and Hispanics in our country now, legal and illegal, don't want the job and wage competition from more illegals flooding in from Mexico and Central America. Democrats say they support a "living wage" but then advocate, in effect, an open border, which ensures that millions of working men and women will never break free of the minimum wage. The Democrats' refusal to secure our border with Mexico, and their so-called "sanctuary city" agenda, has, over the years, invited millions of illegal immigrants to invade our southern border, many of them using children as human bargaining chips in order to stay in the U.S. Some are seeking economic welfare, while others pose a significant threat to our citizens. Three recent and tragic deaths should constitute a low benchmark in the never-ending border-security debate. In late December, there were two deaths of immigrant children in Border Patrol custody. The first was an eight-year-old boy whose Guatemalan mother declared, according to press reports, that the boy's father brought the sick child with him "because they figured he'd have an easier chance of gaming the American immigration system to gain an illegal foothold here." His sister said, "We heard rumors that they could pass [into the United States]. They said they could pass with the children." Another Guatemalan child, a seven-year-old girl who was sick when she and her father were apprehended by the Border Patrol, also died. President Trump noted correctly, "Deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrat ... immigration policies that [encourage] people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. ... The two children in question were very sick before they were given over to the Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn't given her water in days. The Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard and getting so little credit." But there was another death in December, also the direct result of Democrat inaction on border security, that should be a rallying point for all Americans. The day after Christmas, Newman, California, police officer Ronil Singh, himself a legal immigrant from Fiji, was murdered by an illegal immigrant. Arrested for that murder was Gustavo Arriaga, a Mexican national with reported ties to the violent Surenos gang and previous arrests that should have resulted in his deportation. Tragically, California's incomprehensible "sanctuary" restrictions prevented his arrest from being reported to immigration officials. In other words, Democrats opened the door for Officer Singh's murderer to enter our country, and Democrat policies prevented him from being rightly deported. Seven other illegal immigrants have been arrested in connection with Singh's murder. (A week earlier, another illegal immigrant in California murdered two people in a crime spree.) Singh's brother Reggie expressed his family's grief and his gratitude for the apprehension of the assailant: "I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. ... I wish I could thank all of the law-enforcement agencies, Homeland Security in San Francisco, everyone." Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson, whose agency led the investigation into Officer Singh's murder, issued this condemnation of the California laws that allowed for this cold-blooded murder: "While we absolutely need to stay focused on Officer Singh's service and sacrifice, we can't ignore the fact that this could've been prevented. ... This is a criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported to ICE. We were prohibited law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws, and that led to the [murder of Cpl.] Singh. ... This is not how you protect a community." This murder by a violent illegal immigrant and countless others before it and to come demands an answer to the following question: "Sanctuary for whom?" On these senseless murders, Don Rosenberg, whose son Drew was killed by an illegal alien, said, "We relive what happened to our loved ones. It's just another stab in the back, particularly in California by our government that doesn't give a damn about our families. They don't care about us. They don't care that their policies and their laws are killing people." Officer Singh now joins a tragic and ever-growing list of Americans murdered by illegal immigrants, including Kate Steinle, Jamiel Shaw, and Mollie Tibbetts, as well as countless others whose violent deaths apparently didn't warrant widespread media coverage. (Two days after Singh's murder, in nearby Knoxville, Tennessee, an illegal immigrant was arrested for the criminally negligent homicide of a 22-year-old local resident.) We extend our prayers for officer Singh's family and for all law-enforcement personnel who man that wall 24/7, providing protection for their fellow citizens. Responding to the latest instances of violence and the epidemic issues of drug- and sex-trafficking of minors across our southern border, President Trump, who has already deployed military personnel to assist with border security, declared that inaction on securing our border with Mexico will result in shutting it down entirely: "We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall and also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with." Regarding the enormous financial cost of illegal immigration, Trump noted, "It's a national embarrassment that an illegal immigrant can walk across the border and receive free health care and one of our Veterans that has served our country is put on a waiting list and gets no care." Indeed it is. The taxpayer burden of illegal immigration is conservatively estimated at $155 billion per year versus a one-time expense of $7-$9 billion for Trump's border barrier. And for the record, Congress has already authorized redistributing $10.6 billion in taxpayer funds to Mexico for its own southern border security. Regarding the so-called "shutdown showdown" President Trump has already signed legislation approving $900 billion of $1.2 trillion for federal agency operating expenses, but the partial shutdown is having a significant impact on 800,000 people on the federal payroll. The interruption of "non-essential government services" and furlough of 380,000 government employees could be viewed as "paid vacation," as Congress has always restored back pay retroactively. However, many of those affected live on tight margins, and missing paychecks means potentially missing loan and mortgage payments and other bills. They will begin feeling the pinch in January, but taxpayers, who are footing the bill, are already bearing the shutdown burden. The same is true of the 420,000 essential government employees who remain on the job, most in security positions, who will not receive pay in January, but are guaranteed their back pay. Those employed by government contractors will not see their back pay restored. How did we get here? In short, President Trump requested $5 billion in additional border-security funding in order to begin construction of barriers along our southern border with Mexico. Before recess, in one of the last actions of the Republican-controlled House before Democrats take over this week, lawmakers passed a bill approving $5.7 billion in additional funding. But that bill was dead on arrival in the Senate, which only agreed to $1.3 billion for border security, and none of that for a border barrier. When Senate Democrats denied additional border-barrier funding, including a $2.5 billion compromise offer from Vice President Mike Pence, Trump ordered the partial shutdown. For how long? According to the president, "I can't tell you when the government is going to reopen. ... [Not until] we have a wall, a fence, whatever they'd like to call it. I'll call it whatever they want. But it's all the same thing. It's a barrier from people pouring into our country." Trump drew attention to the necessity of security walls by mentioning one in particular: "President and Mrs. Obama built a 10-foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The US needs slightly larger version!" Democrats are weighing their options for a rebuttal. They're likely to pass a package of Senate spending bills to reopen the government in an attempt to shift blame for the shutdown to Republicans, as Trump will not approve such spending. Trump, the consummate dealmaker, is looking for some concession from Democrats by using Obama's illegal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deceit as a bargaining chip, but he may not get one. Notably, he has also issued an executive order putting a hold on pay increases for all non-military government employees another bargaining chip. The president called key members of Congress to the White House last week for negotiations. But the biggest obstacle to border security is, as Trump noted, this: "The Democrats don't want to let us have strong borders, only for one reason. You know why? Because I want it." Regarding our military presence in Syria and Middle East policy Whether in domestic or foreign policy matters, Trump has shown a penchant for strategic unpredictability that inevitably comes with varying degrees of perceived instability which he happens to thrive on. In 2016, Trump laid out his priorities for defeating the resurgent Islamic State, along with his policy objective in Syria: "What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria. You're going to end up in world war three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton. You're not fighting Syria any more, you're fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right?" He added that dealing with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was "secondary ... to [ISIS]." A week before Christmas, the White House announced President Trump's "slow and highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops" from Syria. According to Trump, "We have won against ISIS ... Our young women, our men, they're all coming back and they're coming back now. We won." Trump elaborated, "American and coalition forces have had one military victory after another over the last two years against ISIS, including the retaking of both Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. We've liberated more than 20,000 square miles of territory ... and liberated more than 3 million civilians from ISIS's bloodthirsty control ... I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds; we're not nation building. ... Our presence in Syria was not open-ended, and it was never intended to be permanent. The men and women who serve are entitled to clear objectives, and the confidence that when those objectives are met they can come home and be with their families. Our objective in Syria was always to retake the territory controlled by ISIS. Now that we have done so, the nations of the region must step up and take more responsibility for their future." He concluded, "There will be a strong, deliberate, and orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria very deliberate, very orderly while maintaining the U.S. presence in Iraq to prevent an ISIS resurgence and to protect U.S. interests, and also to always watch very closely over any potential reformation of ISIS and also to watch over Iran." Notably, he reiterated: "I never said that I'm gonna rush out. ... ISIS was all over the place when I took over. It was a total mess in Syria. We've almost eradicated all of them. We think all of them will be gone by the time we get out." Predictably, criticism of Trump's decision came in droves from both sides of the aisle. Perhaps the most controversial of the president's assertions was "We won," leaving many to ask what, exactly, did we win? Amidst the flood of opinion still pouring in from critics and supporters alike, what follows are the most valid pros and cons of the Syria departure. Supporting the departure: Troops in Syria, an Obama-era decision, were never congressionally authorized, so the departure is a win for the Constitution. National Review analysts Andrew McCarthy and David French, who otherwise have a difference of opinion on the Syria withdrawal, both agree that the Iraq/Afghanistan Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) did not extend to Syria. French notes, "President Obama should have gone to Congress and sought the necessary authorization to respond." Likewise, McCarthy declared: "[If] you want to fight that enemy in an elective war, the Constitution demands that the people give their consent through their representatives in Congress." We'll continue to monitor Syria and deny it as a safe haven for terrorism, according to President Trump. One of the foremost critics of the decision to leave Syria was initially Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). However, Graham reversed course after meeting with the president, stating: "[I] feel a lot better about where we're headed in Syria." He noted that Trump remains stalwart in his commitment to preventing Syria from being a safe haven for terrorist cells, saying, "He promised to destroy ISIS. He's going to keep that promise. We're not there yet, but as I said today, we're inside the 10-yard line and the president understands the need to finish the job." To Be Determined? If Trump has taught us anything over the last two years, it's that there's always a bigger plan in play than what he and the ardently anti-Trump media reveal. Time and again, we've seen his decisions turn out better than expected. So we're going to leave this last "pro" space open there's something else at play here that has yet to become clear, and we trust that it's in our nation's best interest. Again, Trump is playing chess while the media sees only checkers. Against the departure: The U.S. will be less equipped to counteract its strategic enemies. The conflict in Syria is deeply complex, but of the numerous parties invested in the outcome Syria, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Kurds, and the U.S., to name a few our ability to influence outcomes in the region may be weakened as a result of Trump's decision to depart. Policy analyst Colin Dueck notes: "A sudden and unexpected drawdown of U.S. forces can only reduce America's leverage against a range of adversaries and competitors including ISIS and the Taliban." Though we retain the ability to influence the outcome through political and economic means, we are less equipped to influence change without troops on the deck. Our allies will be less secure as a result, as will our myriad interests in the outcome of the conflict. Even with a reported footprint of only 2,000 troops (assuredly, some of our presence in the region is undisclosed or classified), our presence in Syria helped to assure safety and security to our regional allies by checking our enemies. As The Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick writes: "Despite their relatively small numbers, the U.S. forces in Syria have had a massive strategic impact on the power balance in the country. Deployed along the border triangle joining Syria, Iraq and Jordan, the U.S. forces in Syria have blocked Iran taking over the Iraqi-Syria border and so forging a land bridge linking Iran to the Mediterranean through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon." Now, in our absence, Israel and Jordan will have to become better equipped to prevent the flow of logistics, personnel, and ideology from Tehran to Beirut, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. There was speculation about Defense Secretary James Mattis's resignation before the Syrian shift, but he certainly signaled his disagreement with Trump's decision. As David French wrote, "Our nation has lost its foremost warrior in protest [of the decision]." Although Trump will surely identify a capable defense secretary to follow in "Mad Dog's" footsteps, his departure struck a blow to the perceived stability of our military policy. Mattis was the member of Trump's National Security Council with the most familiarity with military policy in the Middle East, beginning with his command of Task Force 58 during Operation Enduring Freedom, the invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 Islamist attack. The departure of Mattis will also have a significant impact on the morale and well-being of our men and women in uniform, who rightly held him in high regard. It should be noted that Gen. Mattis also disagreed with President Trump on other important matters of policy: walking away from the Obama administration's Paris climate agreement and tearing up its Iran nuke deal; moving our nation's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; engaging with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; banning certain transgender individuals from U.S. military service; and using U.S. troops to defend our southern border. In summary, our military analyst, Lee Crockett, concludes that Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan constitute a complex tapestry of international politics and warfare. According to Crocket: "The Syria conflict is incredibly complicated, and it is a microcosm of the geopolitical conflict between Iran, China, Russia, and the West. One possible outcome could be that the unification of both parties against the pullout could result in a congressionally approved AUMF for any further involvement in Syria. But if history has taught us anything about prolonged wars (see Vietnam, 1964-1973, and Afghanistan, 2001-present) it is that simply pulling chocks and bringing the troops home has resulted in America failing to accomplish its desired ends. "In 1964, we sought to prevent communism from bleeding into South Vietnam and beyond. Two administrations and three presidential terms later, our national resolve on the importance of South Vietnam faltered, and we abandoned South Vietnam to a communist takeover in 1975. We entered Afghanistan in 2001 to erode the nation's status as a safe haven for terrorism. Two administrations and three presidential terms later in 2013, our national resolve on the importance of Afghanistan to our national security faltered, and we abandoned Afghanistan to the resurgence of the Taliban and Islamism. "President Trump wisely returned to Afghanistan in force in 2017, though we returned to a nation that was not only war-torn but also being overrun again by the Islamist Taliban. In 2014, we entered Syria (unconstitutionally though it was) to counteract the Islamic State and prevent the region from harboring terrorist cells. Now that President Trump has decided to depart, have we truly accomplished our initial objective, or will the Syrian departure result in a regional failure to secure our national interests suffering the same fate as Vietnam and Afghanistan at our allies' expense?" The criticism of Trump's unfolding military strategy in Syria was punctuated by a surprise Christmas visit by the president and first lady to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. To the resounding cheers of military personnel, Trump asserted: "Our faith and confidence in you is absolute and total. ... You are the warriors who defend our freedom. You are the patriots who ensure the flame of liberty burns forever bright. That's who you are. ... To everyone at Al Asad Air Base, and every American serving overseas, may God bless you, may God protect you, and may God always keep you safe. We love you. We support you. We salute you. We cherish you. And together, we pray for justice, goodness, and peace on Earth." On that, we can all agree. Above all the political rancor, I ask you to join us in daily prayer for God's blessing upon our nation, especially for the protection of and provision for our uniformed Patriots and their families, and wisdom for our nation's leaders. Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post. On the first day of the Madhya Pradesh state assembly session, the minority Congress government faced its maiden political challengethe BJP decided to contest the elections for the assembly speakers post. Conventionally, after 1967, there has not been any election to the post of assembly speaker. However, this morning before the house could begin the oath-taking of new members, former chief minister Shivraj Singh spoke out of turn to register his protest against the nomination of protem (placeholder) speaker Deepak Saxena. Shivraj Singh said that, by convention, the senior-most member of the house is made protem speaker; but Chief Minister Kamal Nath violated that. Deepak Saxena, a close supporter of Kamal Nath and four-time MLA from Chhindwara, was made protem speaker overlooking senior MLAs, who have been in the assembly for as long as straight eight terms, he said. The state cooperative and parliamentary affairs minister Govind Singh, however, countered the BJP's claim, saying that the selection of protem speaker was done by the governor and the chief minister. He said the government had nothing to do with his appointment. Later, the BJP declared former education minister Vijay Shah as their candidate for the post. Shah, BJP's senior-most tribal leader, submitted his nomination as speaker before A.P. Singh, the principal secretary of the assembly. It was widely considered that the BJP would decide not to contest the speakers post, because it wanted one of its members as deputy speaker. The state assembly has a tradition of electing speakers unopposed; the opposition is given the post of deputy speaker. This four decade old tradition was broken today, with the BJP fielding its candidate. However, the Congress is unfazed. Chief Minister Kamal Nath said, "We will fight this election, and all our 121 MLS are with us". In the house of 230 members, Congress has 114, supported by 7 others, while BJP has 109 members. The election to the speaker's post will be held tomorrow. The BJP on Monday expressed sadness over its ally AGP deciding to break the partnership over the Citizenship Bill, saying the regional party had "fallen into the Congress trap". While opposition Congress welcomed the AGP's decision, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) proposed to form a united platform taking along the regional party to fight the "communal and divisive" politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) invited the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to join the ongoing agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Congress and the AIUDF also lashed out at senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for claiming that the state will "go Jinnah's way if the Citizenship Bill is not passed". The proposed Citizenship Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami said, "We have not got any information officially. The alliance with the AGP was made by our national president [Amit Shah], so I think only he will be informed." "We are definitely hurt seeing it on TV because we did not want them to leave the alliance. We got a hint that they have fallen into the Congress trap," Goswami told PTI. Another alliance partner, the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF), did not come out with any official reaction, but its MLA and Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma termed the AGP's decision as "correct", adding that it was her personal view. "The party (AGP) was born for the cause of the indigenous people and cannot go against them. Responding to peoples' call, it has withdrawn the support," she said. Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi of the Congress said the AGP should join hands with other parties to protest against the bill. "We should forget all our differences and aim towards fighting against the bill," he said. He will next be seen in The Big Bull Timothy Seth Bryant Pennington was born on January 30, 1988 in Corbin, Ky. He departed this life on June 3, 2021 to be with his Lord and Savior, whom he accepted as a young boy at his church, West Corbin Baptist. Seth was assured of his salvation and knew where he would spend his eternity. S Israeli-Japanese friendship: A potential yet to be realized By Shaun Ho Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu In the past few years, Israel has begun to tilt toward the East. Prompted by declining political support from Europe, Jerusalem gradually turned to non-Western powers such as Russia and China for support. While Israels growing relationship with China, in particular, has gained widespread attention in recent years, little attention has been paid to Israels relationship with the other Asian economic superpowerJapan. Despite being the third largest economy and one of the most powerful countries in the world, Japan has often been below the radar in Israels foreign relations and vice versa. Until the 1990s, Japan avoided trade with the Jewish state because of its strong reliance on oil and gas imported from the Arab states and hence its compliance with the Arab League boycott of Israel. As a result, most Japanese firms were unwilling to trade with Israel until the Arab League boycott ended in the 1990s. Although relations between Israel and Japan have improved significantly, especially in trade and economic cooperation, these two countries have yet to develop a close political and economic relationship to the extent that Israel has with its Western allies and even China. Yet there is great potential for the two countries to develop deeper economic and even geopolitical ties, as both Japan and Israel would benefit considerably from increasing economic and technological cooperation, particularly in the field of innovation, and political cooperation on the international stage. Japans Need for Israeli Innovation Despite both being developed nations, Japan and Israel have very different economic structures. The former has an enormous and mature economy dominated by conglomerates and other large corporations, while the latter has a relatively small but innovative economy whose growth is largely dependent on the myriad start-ups in Silicon Wadi. Additionally, corporate cultural differences between the two countries cannot be any starker. Japanese corporations are known globally for their rigid hierarchical structures and meticulous attention to detail, while Israelis are averse to vertical hierarchies and prioritize innovation over detail. Although it may seem that two countries with such contrasting cultures would not be able to work together effectively, these differences, in fact, would allow Japan and Israel to complement each other and alleviate each others structural weaknesses. As Glenn Newman wrote in the Japan Times in August 2018, Israel and Japan are the yin and yang of countries. And yet, despite or maybe because of their differences, they have much to offer each other. Marrying their respective geniuses, Japan and Israel could be a killer combination. Following decades of economic boom in the post-war period, Japans asset price bubble burst, and its economy slumped into a period of stagnation known as the Lost Decades from the 1990s until well into the early 2010s. To reinvigorate the Japanese economy and make it more competitive on the world stage, in 2012 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated a set of economic reforms known as Abenomics, which consists of three arrows (overarching policies): monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms. As part of the third arrow to reform the economic structure, the government is seeking to use innovation and technology to increase Japans competitiveness and economic growth. Although Japan is often regarded as one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, it has been falling behind in innovation in recent years and losing its technological edge over countries such as the United States, South Korea, and China. Many critics contend that one major reason for the lack of innovation is that the rigid hierarchical structure of Japanese corporations and the cultural aversion to risk stifle innovation of new technologies and discourage entrepreneurship. This is where Israel can potentially complement and play a role in Japans economy. In contrast to Japanese culture, which values structure, consensus-making, and meticulousness, Israeli culture is more egalitarian, more individualistic, and less risk-averse. As a result, Israelis are much more willing to develop new technologies and to engage in creative entrepreneurship, allowing Israel to become one of the most innovative countries and to have the highest number of start-ups per capita in the world. By investing in and cooperating with Israeli high-tech firms and start-ups, Japanese firms would be able to gain access to Israeli technology. Already, several Japanese corporations, such as Panasonic, NEC, and Ricoh have begun cooperation with Israeli companies in research and development (R&D) programs and plans to establish R&D centers in Silicon Wadi. Japanese automobile giants like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have also started to invest in and cooperate with Israeli start-ups to improve their automotive technologies. Japans investments in Israeli start-ups would be immensely beneficial to the Japanese economy, not only because it would gain access to technology that it would not have otherwise, but also because many of these technologies would be potentially crucial to the Japanese governments effort to create sustainable economic growth through innovation. As part of the Abenomics reforms, for example, the Japanese government has launched an initiative called Society 5.0, which aims to shift Japan to an innovative society based on the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. [See glossary below for definitions.] As a world leader in AI and big data technology, Israel can contribute toward many areas of this initiative. One area toward which Israeli firms can contribute is health care. With its rapidly aging population, Japan is seeking ways to increase peoples access to health care, particularly in rural areas where the elderly are concentrated. The Society 5.0 initiative aims to utilize AI and big data to improve peoples access to medical services and data. Having developed some of the top medical technologies in the world, Israeli firms can play a big role in Japans effort to innovate its medical data technologies. For example, Israeli startups such as Genoox and Aidoc, which have revolutionized the use of big data in health care, can complement Japans current medical data technology. Another area in which Israeli technology would assist Japans transition into an innovative economy is financial technology (fintech). As one of the largest and most important financial markets in the world, Japan is surprisingly backward in fintech, falling behind most other advanced economies and even China and India. Furthermore, a high proportion of transactions in Japan are still conducted in cash, making Japan one of the most cash-dependent societies in the developed world. Because of the high transaction costs that come with cash payments, the Japanese government is promoting cashless payments and money transfers based on blockchain technology [See glossary below for definitions.] as part of the Society 5.0 initiative. As a global leader in fintech, Israel is eager to cooperate with Japanese financial firms. In 2017, a delegation of Israeli fintech companies led by the Israel Innovation Authority and the Israeli Ministry of Economy visited Japan to showcase Israeli fintech solutions to Japanese financial institutions and fintech firms. To accelerate Japans adoption of fintech and transition into a cashless society, the government has begun to deregulate the financial sector so that innovative technologies can be integrated into the industry and fintech firms can enter the Japanese market. According to Noa Asher, Israels trade representative to Japan, the Israeli Ministry of Economy aims to help Israeli fintech firms to penetrate the Japanese market and develop their business with Japanese financial institutions. With such a huge potential for growth in the Japanese fintech industry and strong backing from the Japanese government, Israeli fintech firms are likely to take this opportunity to invest in the Japanese financial sector and cooperate with their Japanese counterpartsa win-win situation for both countries. Israels Need for the Japanese Market While the Japanese economy can benefit significantly from Israeli innovation and technology, Israeli firms can also profit from investing in the Japanese market and cooperating with their Japanese counterparts. Although Israel has a large innovative capacity, it does not have the scale or the market for expansion. Japan, with a population and GDP 14 times larger than that of Israel, is a massive potential market that Israel has yet to tap into. Moreover, despite the Japanese governments past support for the Arab League boycott, the absence of anti-Israel (and anti-Semitic) sentiment and of the BDS movement means that there would be little objection from Japanese firms and consumers to cooperating with their Israeli counterparts or buying Israeli products. Practically speaking, there are almost no obstacles to economic and technological cooperation between Israeli and Japanese firms. Abes International Ambitions and Israel Although economic cooperation is the most notable common interest between Japan and Israel, the two countries also share geopolitical interests, especially as both countries seek to expand their international influence. For the past 70 years, Japan has pursued a pacifist foreign policy whereby Japans militarythe Self-Defense Forcesis restricted from foreign intervention and only allowed to defend itself from immediate threat. This is because Article 9 of Japans post-war constitution bans the country from maintaining armed forces and only allows for self-defense forces. In recent years, however, Prime Minister Abe and his nationalist-conservative Liberal Democratic Party have been pushing for changes to the pacifist constitution. Since Abe took power in 2012, he has attempted to amend the constitution to expand the international role of Japans Self-Defense Forces. Indeed, by reinterpreting Article 9 of the constitution, in 2014 the Japanese government ended the policy that banned the Self-Defense Forces from taking part in foreign conflicts. Since then, Japans Self-Defense Forces will be able to engage in collective self-defense, which would allow them to defend allies. According to The Economist, Mr. Abe has a fixation with foreign and security policy. He would dearly like Japan to shed the complexes it has developed as a result of its history of militarism and colonialism, and assert itself more in international affairs. While there is strong opposition from the Japanese public and the political Left to Abes plans to amend the constitution, Abe is determined to make Japan a more important player in international security and expand its military forces. As Japan increases its military influence worldwide, it will seek not only to increase cooperation with its traditional allies like the United States, but also to find new partners. In its effort to win allies and counteract Chinas growing assertiveness in the region, Japan has already strengthened political and economic ties with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, India, and Southeast Asian nations. Although not in the Asia-Pacific, Israel can be an invaluable partner for Japan. As one of the most powerful countries in the Middle East, Israel can provide important strategic benefits to Tokyo in the region. Until recent years, Japan has been reluctant to cultivate political ties with the Jewish state, mainly because of its reliance on the Arab states and Iran for its energy supplies, and thus, it was of greater strategic interest to maintain good relations with these countries. However, circumstances have changed drastically in recent years. While Israel has not established any new official diplomatic relations with the Arab states, there has been a marked improvement in informal relations between Israel and countries like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Furthermore, as oil prices decrease, the influence of Arab oil supplies on Japanese policy in the region has also declined. Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, said, Geopolitics is changing in the Middle East and as oil prices come down, strategically its not as important. Japan is changing its mind. These changing circumstances mean that Tokyo will not need to be as cautious in improving political relations with Jerusalem. It is now much more viable for Japan to build ties with Israel while maintaining good relations with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. One area in which Japan and Israel can develop political and military relations is the arms trade. As the Japanese government aims to expand its military power and build up its Self-Defense Forces, it will need to purchase more weapons from abroad. Currently, Japan buys most of its weapons from its own arms industry and from its close allies like United States and Britain. However, Israel can potentially become a major supplier for Japans Self-Defense Forces. Japan would greatly benefit from importing weapons from Israel, which are some of the most technologically advanced in the world. For Israels large defense industry, which is one of the most important sectors of the Israeli economy, Japan is a particularly attractive and potentially profitable market. In contrast to Israels sale of dual-use products to China, which has raised concern from the United States, it is highly unlikely that Washington would be concerned about Israeli arms sales to Japan, as Japan does not pose a security threat to the United States or Israel. In fact, Washington would likely welcome military cooperation between its close allies. Furthermore, Japans clean human rights record and pacifist foreign policy mean that selling arms to Japan would not raise any controversy. Conclusion The opportunities are immense, the enthusiasm is great, because there is genius on the Japanese side, there is genius on the Israeli side, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Jerusalem in 2015. Indeed, even though Israel and Japan sit at opposite ends of the continent and have very different cultures, the two countries have a great potential to develop close ties, both economic and political. From Israels founding in 1948 until the end of the Arab League boycott in the 1990s, Japan was held back from developing close political or economic ties with the Jewish state. Now that Israel has improved its relations with the Arab states, there is little reason for Tokyo not to develop further political ties with Jerusalem. There are even greater reasons for Japan to expand economic cooperation with Israel, particularly in the field of technology and innovation, as the two economies would be able to complement each other. There is practically no obstacle to the two countries increasing cooperation, which would greatly benefit both countries economies. What Israel and Japan should do now is to discover each others strengths and recognize the immense potential of Israeli-Japanese cooperation. Shaun Ho is a student at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and an intern at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). Home President Donald Trump says he will address the nation Tuesday night about what says is a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps prime-time address will come amid a partial government shutdown caused by his insistence that Congress give him more than $5 billion to build a wall on the border. Congressional Democrats are refusing to pay for a wall. GRANITE CITY If you left high school without earning a diploma and feel that now is the time to earn one, let Southwestern Illinois College help you get ready. The Adult Education and Literacy department will offer free high school equivalency preparation classes in St. Clair, Madison and Randolph counties in January. Day Classes Day high school equivalency preparation classes will meet at the following days, times and locations. Friday, Jan. 18 from 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., then Monday through Thursday thereafter, starting Jan. 21 to Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.: SWIC Belleville Campus, 2500 Carlyle Ave. SWIC Sam Wolf Granite City Campus, 4950 Maryville Road Monday through Wednesday from Jan. 22 to Feb. 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.: East St. Louis Community College Center, 601 James R. Thompson Blvd. Cahokia Library, 140 Cahokia Park Drive Monday through Wednesday from Jan. 22 to Feb. 26 from 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.: SWIC Red Bud Campus, 500 W. South Fourth St. Tuesday and Thursday from Jan. 22 to March 28 from 10 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. at the following location: New Bethel Church, 5803 Belmont Ave., East St. Louis Evening Classes Evening high school equivalency preparation classes will meet Tuesday and Thursday from Jan. 22 to March 28 from 5:30-8:15 p.m. at the following locations: SWIC Belleville Campus, 2500 Carlyle Ave. Collinsville High School, 201 S. Morrison Ave. East St. Louis Community College Center, 601 James R. Thompson Blvd. SWIC Sam Wolf Granite City Campus, 4950 Maryville Road Monday and Wednesday from Jan. 21 to March 27 from 5:30-8:15 p.m. at the following location: Marissa High School, 300 School View Drive Spanish Evening Classes Spanish Evening high school equivalency preparation classes will meet Tuesday and Thursday from Jan. 28 to March 18 from 5:30-8:35 p.m. at the following location: SWIC Sam Wolf Granite City Campus, 4950 Maryville Road A mandatory preregistration and orientation session is required. Learn more about upcoming classes and schedule a preregistration appointment by calling 618-235-2700, ext. 5525, or toll free in Illinois at 866-942-SWIC (7942), ext. 5525. ROXANA After more than six years, members of two class-action lawsuits involving Roxana properties affected by cancer-causing ground pollutants released by the nearby refinery are finally receiving settlement checks. The first sets of checks began popping up in residents mailboxes around Christmas of 2018. Settlements are based off of loss of property value. The final approval of the settlement was given by the U.S. District Court of Southern Illinois. Individual settlement numbers are confidential; however, Holly Marcum, an attorney whose firm had a hand in the class-action lawsuit, says that her clients have been happy with the amount of money they have received. Since checks have gone out I have not heard anything about people being dissatisfied, Marcum said. Marcum is an attorney with Goldenberg Heller & Antognoli, P.C. I had a client call me right before Christmas after he received his check and he was so excited, Marcum said. He called just to say, thank you. Settlement checks all stem for a 2012 lawsuit which was originally filed by the Alton-based law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy, alleging the illegal dumping of benzene and other dangerous chemicals at the then-Shell-operated Wood River Refinery. Benzene is a colorless, flammable liquid with a sweet smelling odor. According to the American Cancer Societys website, benzene is known to cause cancer, based on studies in both people and lab animals. Long-term exposure to benzene can also cause anemia, which can cause a person to feel weak and tired; a low white blood cell count, which can lower the bodys ability to fight infections; and a low blood platelet count, which can lead to excess bruising and bleeding. Simmons Hanly Conroys class-action settlement was approved by a federal judge on Aug. 2, 2017. The firm announced that the settlement would total $4.48 million. In a press release on their website discussing the settlement, Simmons Hanly Conroy chairman John Simmons, a former Roxana resident himself, said that he hoped that the lawsuit could bring Roxana residents peace. While a lawsuit cannot undo what has been done, I hope the people of Roxana find some relief in this result for what they have endured, Simmons says in the release. Goldenberg Heller & Antognoli P.C.s class action lawsuit was later combined with Simmons Hanly Conroys bringing the total to over $5 million. The properties involved in the suit include parcels between the southwest corner of South Central Avenue and Rand Avenue, extending north along the east side of South Central to the south side of the alley between First Street and East Tydeman Avenue, then extending back south to Central and Rand. The suit also included owners and occupants of private property that fell between there between Jan. 1, 1986, and March 2007. The village of Roxana also received money in the settlement. Village President Marty Reynolds called the settlement payouts a long time coming. This has kinda been downstream for a couple of years now, Reynolds said. This used to be a situation that no one wanted to touch or get involved in. Citizens of Roxana who did not join the class-action suit do not have access to current settlement money. However, Roxana citizens can file their own independent suit, but history indicates the chances of it yielding a good result are slim. Its kinda like a one-and-done, Marcum said. The Wood River Refinery is still open and operating in Roxana. It is now owned by Phillips 66 and Cenovus Energy and operated by the joint-venture company WRB Refining, LLC. The settlement paid to residents focuses on historic issues from prior ownership, said Melissa Erker, Director of Government and Community Affairs for Wood River Refinery. Phillips 66 is committed to operating with the highest integrity running safely, reliably and with respect to environmental stewardship. Since this refinery has been under our ownership, we have committed millions of dollars in safety and reliability investments to support operating excellence. Telegraph reporter Nathan Woodside contributed to this story. Reach reporter Riley Newton at (618) 208-6460. TAYLORVILLE A central Illinois congressman now in the minority in the U.S. House of Representatives is guaranteeing Democrats move to impeach President Donald Trump, a move he says will bring the nations capital to a halt. Democrats took over the U.S. House on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment in November. Now back as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California was asked on the Today Show about possible impeachment of the president. Well, we have to wait and see what happens with the Mueller report, Pelosi said, referencing Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia prior to the 2016 election. U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said he expects impeachment proceedings regardless, and that will be a disservice to the American people. Everything comes to a stop in Washington when impeachment proceedings begin, Davis said. I certainly hope that Democrats have a little more foresight than what Im anticipating right now. Its unclear what would be the impetus for impeachment. Mueller hasnt filed any report against the president, but has gone after various members of the presidents inner circle for things that are not connected to alleged Russian collusion to sway the election or obstruction of justice in firing FBI Director James Comey. Trump has called Muellers probe a witch hunt led by people upset at the outcome of the 2016 election. Regardless, there has been a lot of talk from Democratic circles about impeachment. Theyll have no choice, Davis said. The far left of the Democratic Party funded many Democratic victories and they expect the president to be impeached. We shouldnt be impeaching for a political reason and we shouldnt be avoiding impeachment for a political reason, Pelosi said. Davis said impeachment proceedings will bring Washington to a halt, stifling progress on any other issues like infrastructure, student loan debt, or other things important to the American people. The impeachment process starts in the U.S. House, where a measure would act as an indictment. If passed there, the Senate would then hold a trial. The U.S. Constitution says no person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present. Democrats control the House, Republicans the Senate. Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other statewide issues for INN. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience, and previously hosted The Council Roundup, as well as Bishop On Air, a morning-drive current events talk show. Prodding Trumps EPA to reexamine Endangerment Finding By William L. Kovacs Campaign rhetoric strongly suggested that the Trump Administration would redress the Obama Administrations insane attempts to regulate every aspect of society in a futile attempt to control nature and climate. President Trump withdrew from the Paris Accord, initiated repeal of the Clean Power Plan, sought a reasonable replacement for the plan, and turned off the regulatory fire hose. Great start! But two years in, it is clear that the administration has stalled on dealing with the most significant part of Obama regulatory overreach: the 2009 Endangerment Finding the Environmental Protection Agencys declaration that plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere threaten the health and welfare of current and future generations. While the Finding itself does not impose any new regulations, it does provide the administrative basis to justify a massive number of regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, data and facts asserted as supporting the Endangerment Finding (EF) drive many climate change studies, including the November 23, 2018 study titled Climate Change Special Report Fourth National Climate Assessment Authoritative Report on the Science of Climate Change with a Focus on the United States. Most unfortunate of all, while the evidentiary basis for the Endangerment Finding was subject to informal public comment and the scope of the Obama era Clean Power Plan was enjoined by a court, the studies underlying EPAs Endangerment Finding have not been subjected to outside, independent expert analysis, nor tested in the rigors of cross-examination in a court or courtroom setting. Simply put, without independent testing of the factual claims establishing its Finding, EPA retains the power to regulate all energy-producing and energy-using activities throughout the United States and thus to regulate our production, consumption, transportation, employment base and living standards. Since the climate change issue could not be resolved when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, it is even more improbable that a divided Congress could ever reach a compromise. Even worse, while EPA talked tough on climate change in the early days of the Trump Administration, it has since hung a Do Not Disturb sign on its front door. So, what can citizens do in the next two years, knowing that neither Congress nor the administration will act to critically examine the supposed facts set forth in EPAs Endangerment Finding? My moral code prohibits me from saying there is nothing we can do. So I will set forth some modest proposals that can be taken up by younger people who have the energy and willingness to discover, highlight and dramatize the true facts and evolving knowledge underlying the science of climate change. First and foremost, EPA must release all of its climate studies. It might surprise some, but many of the foundational studies have never been publicly released or are so old they are corrupted. In a similar case, amid my 20-year effort to obtain the Six-City health study, EPA told me in the late 1990s that the information belonged to Harvard University. A few years later, when I sought it under the Data Access law, EPA said information in the studies was developed before 2000 and the law was not retroactive. The Bush administration responded to my FOIA with documents that were so redacted that the only readable words were the to and from on the first page. And finally, the Obama administration told me the studies could not be produced because the information is now too corrupted to be usable. But this is not about the lack of transparency in government. It is about obtaining and analyzing EPAs climate data and studies, so that the science underlying the Endangerment Finding can be tested. That means you should not pre-judge any of the studies. You must let the analysis of facts in the studies be your guide. This is essential, because otherwise environmentalist groups, the news media, left-leaning politicians and others with a stake in the 2009 Finding will paint the entire effort as an attempt to destroy the planet and human civilization. This search for the facts is crucial since establishing the facts is essential for developing the right policies for now and for after the Trump administration is gone. If the science proves the EF is solidly supported by the evidence, we will all know that we must develop and implement the very costly policies needed for mitigation. If the facts prove the Finding is faulty or highly uncertain, then the nation could save trillions of dollars by not implementing numerous useless projects. Here are my suggestions: 1) File a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting from EPA a list of all climate studies it has undertaken and links to the electronic version of the Endangerment Finding studies. A citizen friendly EPA should be most willing to provide the list of and link to the studies. 2) Should EPA provide this list and links, scientists from around the world could review the quality of the studies by evaluating them under the standards of review set out in the OMB Information Quality Act (IQA) Guidance Document: peer review, objectivity, reproducibility and similar standards. There are likely thousands of studies, so the essential first task is to identify the most influential studies, of which there are likely only a few. 3) A similar request could be filed under the Data Access Law for studies performed after 1999. 4) For the most influential studies, request that EPA provide the underlying data so that the actual data can be tested in accordance with the IQA Guidance Document. The government paid for and owns this data, so it should be available to citizens to test its reliability, reproducibility and the peer review quality. 5) When the most influential studies are identified and the underlying data secured, hire a team of forensic data scientists to analyze the data used in EPAs studies, to determine whether the studies authors used the data properly or used them in ways that supported a personal bias. For the most influential studies, the forensic data team should also review the emails that relate to the government study. 6) Concurrently, a group of non-scientists should compile a list of the scientists who performed the studies, the amounts the scientists were paid, potential conflicts of interest, the total number of federal grants each scientist received, and the qualifications of each scientist working on the climate studies. 7) Establish a review board of independent, non-political climate experts to determine the soundness of the facts underlying the Endangerment Finding. If the facts are sound, the matter is settled. 8) If the facts are judged not to support the EF or if they establish a high degree of uncertainty, then it is essential that a Petition for Rulemaking be presented to EPA to conform its Endangerment Finding with the data. If it is granted, then the process of getting the facts corrected will start. 9) If EPA denies the petition, the matter should be taken to federal trial court to challenge the arbitrariness of EPAs decision. Keep in mind: this crazy idea to challenge an EPA denial of a petition for rulemaking in court is exactly the process that environmental groups used to win the Massachusetts v. EPA case in the Supreme Court. Just dont forget you need to include a few states to have standing to sue. What is outlined is a long, long shot. It requires that EPA make government-owned scientific data available to the public for review. It assumes the Trump administration will be open to such a process and can make it happen in two years. It assumes that funds can be raised to hire the best scientists in the world to analyze the facts and defend them in court, if necessary. Finally, to paraphrase Colonel Jessup in the movie A Few Good Men, it assumes that both sides will be prepared to handle the truth. But at least we will all have attempted to find the truth behind the Endangerment Finding, so our country will have the best information possible on which to make some very expensive and far-reaching public policy decisions. William L. Kovacs was active in national policy issues for over forty years. He served as a senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs for a major business trade association, as chief counsel on Capitol Hill, as chairman of a state environmental board and as a partner in several Washington, DC law firms. Home Forty years ago, in exercising the legitimate right to national defence, the Vietnamese army and people along the Southwest border rose up and fought against the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime in order to defend national independence and protect the border, and also to help the Cambodian people topple the Khmer Rouge and enter a new era of peace, national harmony and development. Such a great victory is due to the combination of many factors, first of which is the sound leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, followed by the resolute and accurate leadership of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Defence. It is also a victory of the art of mobilising the national composite strength with the love for peace and justice of the worlds peoples, especially the patriotic Cambodian people and armed forces. During the wars against the French and American aggressors, Vietnam and Cambodia fought together and shared the hardships in the struggle against the common enemy to gain independence and freedom for each country. But after assuming power in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge regime started an aggressive war against Vietnam and a brutal genocidal policy against the Cambodian people. For less than four years, the Khmer Rouge massacred nearly three million Cambodians, throwing the Khmer people on the verge of extinction. For Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge distorted history, incited national hatred and sent troops to assail the Southwest border. They even invaded Tho Chu and several other islands in Vietnams southwestern waters. On December 23, 1978, they deployed many divisions to launch a general offensive onVietnams Southwest border, destroying villages, looting properties and brutally killing Vietnamese, even women, children and the elderly. Facing the Khmer Rouges aggression and expanding war, Vietnam exercised a policy of restraint, peace and friendship. But the more restraint Vietnam exercised, the further the Khmer Rouge went, forcing the country to choose the path of rising up to exercise the right of legitimate defence. In response to the appeal for help of the Cambodian people and the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, Vietnam not only defeated the invaders but also dispatched troops to help the Cambodian people overthrow the genocidal regime of Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979, salvaging the Cambodian people from the genocidal regime, reclaiming their rights to life and entering an era of independence, freedom and national revival. Vietnams actions arose from the need for legitimate defence, international responsibility and conscience of a people once suffering from much oppression and many invasions. During the arduous fight, numerous Vietnamese soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives or left parts of their bodies on the battlefields. Vietnams assistance to the Cambodian revolution was righteous and selfless. President of the Cambodian National Assembly Heng Samrin once stated that the help of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers was the humane and right assistance. Such assistance should have been the main duty of the international community in salvaging a nation in a tragedy caused by systematic genocide of the Pol Pot regime. Cambodian PM Hun Sen also affirmed that without the help of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers, the Cambodian people and army would not be able to liberate the country that fast. He emphasised that if Cambodia had sought to liberate itself, all Cambodians would have all died. On January 8, 1979, the People's Revolutionary Council of Cambodia was established and requested that Vietnamese volunteer troops continue to cooperate with Cambodias armed forces to eradicate the remnants of the Khmer Rouge and strengthen the revolutionary government. Along with military action, Vietnam also sent many experts to support Cambodia to build local governments and revive its economy from the ruins left by the genocidal regime. On June 29, 1989 when Vietnamese volunteer soldiers left Cambodia, a newspaper of the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Party ran an editorial stating that During the extremely tragic years under the Pol Pot genocidal regime, although there were many powerful and wealthy countries in the world, only our neighbour Vietnam came to our rescue. During Cambodias period of national construction and development, building on the fine tradition, the Party, Government, Army and people of Vietnam continue to cooperate with the Party, Government, Army and people of Cambodia on many fields. Such assistance and the fighting solidarity between the two countries will be inscribed in history forever, becoming a bright symbol of faithful and selfless international solidarity between Vietnam and Cambodia. Forty years have passed, the world and the region have witnessed tremendous changes, and the bilateral relationship has also seen new developments, but the nature and value of such a relationship between the two countries and peoples remains unchanged. We believe that the time-honoured relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia will continue to be safeguarded and promoted in a new period through specific and effective cooperation programmes in various fields, making substantive contributions to the cause of national construction and defence in both countries. VANCOUVERThe families of two British Columbia police constables who had been detained in Cuba following an assault allegation say they have been declared innocent and returned home. In a statement posted to Facebook, the families of Mark Simms with the Vancouver police and Jordan Long of nearby Port Moody say they have profound gratitude for the two mens return to Canadian soil. In April, British Columbias deputy police complaint commissioner said the men were arrested mid-March in Varadero following allegations that an Ontario teenager was assaulted while vacationing in the same area. The Port Moody Police Department says in a statement that one of its members was acquitted in November by a Cuban judiciary regarding allegations of being an accessory to a sexual assault. The department says the members travel restriction remained in place as the Cuban prosecution appealed the verdict, and it learned on Friday that the appeal was rejected and the acquittal upheld. Vancouver police say they have been in touch with their member who was detained in Cuba and can confirm he is home, but would not provide additional details. Read more: Cuban prosecutors appeal unanimous acquittal of two B.C. police officers involved in assault case, family says Two Vancouver-area police officers arrested, released during vacation in Cuba Read more about: Are you ready to fight for Toronto? Sewell, Jan. 2 John Sewell talks a good talk, but one wonders how he squares his lament about downsizing city council with the fact that the city has failed to address the burning issues around housing, infrastructure and transportation during all the years since amalgamation. The lack of foresight and planning by a bloated council bent on running the city as if it was 44 villages with special interests becomes evident in hindsight and betrays the mindset inherited from the Sewell/Rowlands/Hall era. No, your crusading methods have made this city what it has become: a Gordian knot of problems that bicycle lanes and rail deck parks will not untie. I pin our slim hopes on a smaller council accountable to the city as a whole. Kope Inokai, Toronto Thank you, for your inspiring article. What a fantastic challenge you have delineated for all Torontonians thirsting for change in the present political climate. You have provided us with a comprehensive vision of the need for change and some suggestions for getting started. Im looking forward to being part of a faith-based group to focus on one of these challenges. Your courage in speaking up and providing leadership is commendable. In the parts of Canada that really know winter, Toronto will forever be the butt of jokes as the city that once called in the army to help dig itself out of a snowstorm. But Torontos inability to cope sensibly with the white stuff of winter goes far beyond that big storm of 1999. The city mechanically plows the sidewalks where people are least likely to walk, and doesnt plow them where people are most likely to walk. How does that make any sense? As the Stars May Warren reports, the city plows some 5,900 kilometres of Torontos 7,000 kilometres of sidewalks. But the majority of those are in the former cities of Etobicoke, North York, East York and Scarborough, and not in old Toronto. While this may have started out as an issue of amalgamation the former suburban cities had municipal sidewalk clearing and old Toronto didnt that its still hanging on after more than 20 years is just plain stupid. Toronto city council has left the responsibility for clearing sidewalks in the central core, the densest area of the city with the most pedestrians, with individual business owners and residents who, not surprisingly, do a fairly haphazard job of it. And its pedestrians, including vulnerable seniors and those with disabilities, who face the dangerous consequences of the citys nonsensical snow-clearing policy. If the downtown sidewalks dont meet the criteria for clearing, as the city says, theres an easy fix for that. Change the criteria. If the equipment the city uses to plow sidewalks in suburban areas isnt up to the task of clearing downtown sidewalks that may be more narrow or have more obstructions, from bus shelters to utility poles, theres a fix for that too. Get different equipment. If other big cities like Montreal and Ottawa can figure this out, so can Toronto. Ottawa even has a sidewalk triage policy designed to provide the most benefit to the most people. In other words, the opposite of what Toronto does. In Ottawa, sidewalks in the downtown core are to be cleared within six hours of the last snowflake falling, the downtown residential sidewalks within 12 hours and the other residential sidewalks within 16 hours. Montreal takes the task so seriously that its equipment shed includes ice-crusher machines that break up thick ice patches rather than leave them for salt to melt over time. Certainly, Torontos winters arent as severe as those in Ottawa and Montreal. But as pedestrians know all too well, it takes only one slippery patch on an uncleared sidewalk to bring someone down. And with that, for the frail in particular, can come a trip to the hospital. A 2016 Toronto Public Health report found thousands of annual emergency room visits were a result of falls on snow or ice. Those cost the health care system $4 million per year and the city some $6.7 million a year in insurance liability claims. And its hardly a surprise that the report found that most falls happen in areas where the city doesnt clear the sidewalks. With the likelihood of more extreme weather brought on by climate change and an aging population these trends, which have a human cost and a public financial toll, will only get worse. Unless the city changes the way it handles snow. Former mayor Mel Lastman was ridiculed for declaring an emergency and calling in the army for that big snowstorm. But he always maintained he had no regrets about it. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... We arranged it so that senior citizens could go around the corner to get milk, so that people could get on the TTC, Lastman said at the time. Thats something city council should take to heart now. It doesnt require the army to achieve that standard. It just takes a sidewalk snowplowing policy that makes some sense. RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA Authorities here will not say what became of Saud al-Qahtani, a powerful royal adviser whom Saudi prosecutors allege played a major role in the events that led to Jamal Khashoggis killing in Istanbul three months ago. So in the seven weeks since the government said he was under investigation, only rumours have filled the silence. He was spotted recently in the coastal city of Jiddah, a resident said, and in the offices of the royal court here in the capital, according to a person who works with the government. Other accounts put Qahtani, once a top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a remote corner of the kingdom, laying low. The governments treatment of Qahtani is being closely watched in Washington and other foreign capitals as a test of whether Saudi Arabia is sincere about prosecuting everyone found to be involved in Khashoggis killing, including senior officials. Even then, the many unanswered questions surrounding Qahtanis role include whether he helped hatch the plot, as some Saudi officials allege, or is a fall guy served up by the government. The CIA has concluded with medium to high confidence that the crown prince likely ordered the Khashoggi operation. Saudi officials say Mohammed was unaware of the plot, and some of them privately suggest it was a misguided plan by Qahtani to demonstrate his loyalty to his boss. The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment about whether he is free, detained or under indictment. Qahtani did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on his whereabouts. A person close to the Saudi royal court said he believed Qahtani was under house arrest but could not be sure. On Thursday, Saudi Arabias general prosecutor said 11 defendants had appeared in court for the first time, but the prosecutors office did not release their names, or say if Qahtani was among them. A U.S. official said in a conference call with reporters that the Trump administration was pleased to see the beginning of the trial but added that the legal process had not yet hit that threshold of credibility and accountability. Read more: Pompeo plans to press Saudi leaders over killing of Khashoggi Saudi Arabia says five face death penalty in Khashoggi killing Partners fret over Khashoggi killing but still maintain Saudi ties The last detailed government comment on Qahtani was on Nov. 15, when prosecutors said he was under investigation and had been forbidden from leaving the kingdom. That same day, the Trump administration said it had imposed sanctions on Qahtani, calling him part of the planning and execution of the operation that led to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. The Saudi government said Qahtani had been fired from his post as royal court adviser. But the lack of clarity on his status and the various reported sightings of him have raised questions about whether he continues to wield influence behind the scenes. Some argue that Qahtanis fate is beside the point. They say the more urgent question is whether Saudi Arabia has taken steps to repudiate the repressive policies that he has come to represent. According to human rights groups, Qahtani was intimately involved in the governments arrests of critics and rivals to the crown prince, alleged torture of detainees and aggressive pursuit of the kingdoms critics abroad. Saudi officials have called Khashoggis death a tragic mistake but cast it as an isolated incident that does not represent the governments policies. A Cabinet shakeup last month that added a few seasoned ministers was seen as a tacit acknowledgement by the Saudi leadership that the crown prince was in need of more prudent counsel. But it was a far cry from reforming the system, said Hala al-Dosari, a longtime Saudi human rights activist who lives in the United States. The only thing they changed is the people, she said. They didnt take any steps to revise the portfolios he handled since he was appointed, including the arrests and abuse of the women activists and other prisoners of conscience, she added, referring to Qahtanis role in the detention and alleged abuse of a group of womens rights activists. Saudi Arabia has promised a transparent investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post who vanished soon after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Saudi and Turkish authorities both said the culprits were members of a 15-person team of Saudi agents that was sent to Turkey and that Khashoggis body was dismembered after he was killed. Attention focused on Qahtani almost as soon as the killing was revealed. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... From his powerful post as a media adviser to the crown prince, he was a pugilistic defender of Mohammeds policies on social media and the ringleader of an online effort to harass the kingdoms critics. Qahtani had also played a central role in the Saudi effort to bring exiled critics, like Khashoggi, back to the country. Saudi government officials have said that effort was focused on returning dissidents through negotiations despite what happened to Khashoggi and accounts of forced repatriations. After initially denying any role in Khashoggis disappearance, the Saudi government acknowledged in mid-October that he had been killed by Saudi agents and said Qahtani and several other officials had been fired, for unspecified reasons. The government added more detail weeks later, when prosecutors announced that their investigation had found the killing was the result of a botched attempt to bring Khashoggi home alive. Prosecutors said that members of the Saudi team in Istanbul had disobeyed their orders and decided to kill the journalist if he did not accompany them willingly. Qahtani, who knew Khashoggi, met with the Saudi team before they left for Turkey to share with them information relevant to the mission based on his specialization in media, according to a government summary of the prosecutors investigation that referred to Qahtani only as the adviser. Qahtani expressed his belief that the victim was co-opted by organizations and states hostile to the Kingdom and that the victims presence outside of Saudi Arabia represents a threat to national security, the summary said, referring to Khashoggi. Some Saudi officials, shaken by the global backlash, have privately invoked Qahtanis name as a way of assigning blame for decisions that have embarrassed the crown prince, including the brief detention last year of Lebanons prime minister while in Saudi Arabia. Qahtani had served the royal court for more than a decade, but his reputation as a nationalist, hawkish enforcer coincided with the Crown Prince Mohammeds rise to power, analysts said. He embraced the role with zeal. People familiar with the detention conditions of Saudi womens rights activists who were imprisoned last year have in recent weeks said that Qahtani personally supervised the torture of at least two of the women. One of them, Loujain al-Hathloul, was abused by six security officers in a secret detention facility several months ago. As they forcibly kissed her while subjecting her to electrical shocks, Qahtani sat in the room watching his men and taunting her, according to two people who were briefed on her detention. In the past few weeks, some Saudi citizens have vocally defended Qahtani on social media. One person posted a message on Twitter saying a rumor campaign had targeted Qahtani and Ahmed al-Assiri, a former senior intelligence official who prosecutors have also named in the plot that killed Khashoggi. Fahad al-Ahmadi, a Saudi journalist with 272,000 followers, retweeted the message, and added: No one doubts their loyalty to the homeland. Read more about: The worlds largest airborne observatory was supposed to be parked in Seattle this week, so thousands of scientists attending the Super Bowl of Astronomy could behold this marvel: a Boeing 747 outfitted with a massive telescope used to study the fundamental mysteries of the universe. But conference-goers will not be able to see NASAs space-exploring plane. Its visit to the 233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society was cancelled, one of a growing list of scientific casualties of the partial government shutdown now stretching into its third week. Along with the plane, hundreds of government scientists are also no longer allowed to attend the conference or two other major scientific gatherings scheduled to begin this week. Those meetings will address pressing issues in the fields of technology, space exploration, extreme weather and climate change. But the shutdowns impact on science stretches well beyond the empty chairs at this weeks conferences, said Keith Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society. It means some of the nations smartest scientific minds are sitting at home, not doing science, for weeks, with no clear end in sight. Thats difficult to recover from, said Seitter. Well be seeing ripple effects from this for a long time. Attendees of the events describe them as crucial opportunities for scientists from the government, the private sector and academia to exchange research and ideas. The gatherings are like three-legged stools, said Kevin Petty, the chief science officer for the private climate company, Vaisala. And this week one of the legs is missing. Thats the value of these conferences, its the people I run into in the hallway or the coffee line, start up a conversation and realize theres a connection between what theyre doing and what Im doing, said Amanda OConnor, a satellite imaging expert who is attending a weather conference. Its those serendipitous encounters that are lost and really important. Some 700 federal employees who planned to attend the American Meteorological Society conference in Phoenix are staying home. Another 500 will miss the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum and Exposition in San Diego. The American Astronomical Society estimates that between 300 and 450 scientists will be absent this week from the worlds largest annual astronomical meeting, where the NASA plane was supposed to be. But its hard to get a firm count, said Rick Fienberg, the organizations press officer: Organizers emailed a survey, but furloughed government employees arent even allowed to check their email. Even Jim Bridenstine, NASAs new administrator, and the leaders of the National Weather Service are no longer able to attend the weather conference, and the organizers scrambled to replace their presentations. Until late last week, Fienberg said the astronomical organization had hoped the politicians in Washington could work out a deal to resolve the impasse over U.S. President Donald Trumps demands for $5.6 billion (U.S.) to build a wall on the southern border. But on Thursday, employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, were told to cancel their conference plans. Scientists and engineers from NASA and the Smithsonian were also told they couldnt attend. Conference organizers have scrambled to shift speakers, relax the rules to allow non-governmental employees to present the work of their federal colleagues and negotiate with hotels to allow government employee to cancel reservations made long ago. In the same week that the Chinese government lands a rover (on the far side of the moon) and the U.S. sends a probe to the furthest object ever visited by humanity, said Kevin Marvel, the astronomy organizations executive officer, scores of scientists at all career levels are being prevented from attending our meeting. One concrete casualty could be the governments ability to recruit and retain the next generation of scientists, said Seitter, with the American Meteorological Society. Take E.L. Meszaros, a doctoral student at Brown University, who had been scheduled to present her research on human-drone communication techniques at the San Diego technology conference. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... But her work was funded by NASA, as was her trip to the conference. So shes stuck at home in Rhode Island. She always imagined shed work as a public servant. But now she has scientist friends who work for the government who havent been paid in weeks and are interviewing at other places. If you cant guarantee that youre going to be able to pay your employees, she said, then it does make you second guess whether thats where you want to work. Read more about: The Dry Alabama Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devils work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotallers who supported Republican Roy S. Moore in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. Pray for Roy Moore, one tweet exhorted. In fact, the Dry Alabama campaign, not previously reported, was the stealth creation of progressive Democrats who were out to defeat Moore the second such secret effort to be unmasked. In a political bank shot made in the last two weeks of the campaign, they thought associating Moore with calls for a statewide alcohol ban would hurt him with moderate, business-oriented Republicans and assist the Democrat, Doug Jones, who won the special election by a hair-thin margin. Matt Osborne, a veteran progressive activist who worked on the project, said he hoped such deceptive tactics would someday be banned from American politics. But in the meantime, he said, he believes that Republicans are using such trickery and that Democrats cannot unilaterally give it up. If you dont do it, youre fighting with one hand tied behind your back, said Osborne, a writer and consultant who lives outside Florence, Alabama. You have a moral imperative to do this to do whatever it takes. The discovery of Dry Alabama, the second false flag operation by Democrats in the fiercely contested Alabama race, underscores how dirty tricks on social media are creeping into American politics. The New York Times reported last month on a separate project that used its own bogus conservative Facebook page and sent a horde of Russian-looking Twitter accounts to follow Moores to make it appear as if he enjoyed Russian support. The revelations about the first project, run in part by a cybersecurity company called New Knowledge, led Facebook to shut down five accounts that it said had violated its rules, and prompted Jones to call for a federal investigation. There is no evidence that Jones encouraged or knew of either of the deceptive social media projects. His spokeswoman, Heather Fluit, said his legal advisers were preparing to file a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Both Alabama projects were devised shortly after the exposure of the full dimensions of Russias fraudulent use of social media in the 2016 presidential race, when thousands of Facebook and Twitter accounts posed as Americans. Because the Russian operation attacked Hillary Clinton and helped Donald Trump, Democrats have spoken out most vehemently against it. So some Democrats were discomfited by the revelation that the first of the Alabama efforts was explicitly devised to try out the tactics of the Russian operation, according to an internal report on the project obtained by The Times. Rather than Russians working in St. Petersburg posing as Americans, this time Democrats most of them far from Alabama pretended to be conservative state residents. The first of the Alabama efforts was funded by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, who apologized and said he had been unaware of the project and did not approve of the underhanded methods. The second was funded by two Virginia donors who wanted to defeat Moore a former judge accused of pursuing sexual relationships with underage girls according to a participant who would speak about the secret project only on the condition of anonymity and who declined to name the funders. The two projects each received $100,000 (U.S.), funneled in both cases through the same organization: Investing in Us, which finances political operations in support of progressive causes. Dmitri Mehlhorn, the groups managing partner, declined to comment on whether he approved of the tactics he had helped pay for. But after the Times report in December, he acknowledged, in a post on the online forum Medium, a concern that our tactics might cause us to become like those we are fighting. He declared that some tactics are beyond the pale. Another organizer of the project, according to two participants, was Evan Coren, a progressive activist who works for the National Archives unit that handles classified documents. He did not respond to requests for comment. Beth Becker, a social media trainer and consultant in Washington who handled Facebook ad spending for the Dry Alabama page and the projects other Facebook page, called Southern Caller, said in an interview that a nondisclosure agreement prohibited her from saying much about the project. But, she added, I dont think anything this group did crossed any lines. That may be true in the sense that neither law nor regulations set any clear limits on social media activity in elections. The law has clearly not caught up with social media, Becker said. But there is no doubt that the progressive Democrats who created the now-defunct Facebook pages and the related Twitter feeds, seeming afterthoughts with negligible reach were trying to deceive voters about their identities and real views. Re-enact Prohibition and make Alabama dry again! said one post. Democrats continue to put party before country, said another. Facebooks community standards, which were tightened in 2018, emphasize authenticity and prohibit misrepresentation, including co-ordinated efforts to mislead people about the origin of content. Political social media trickery of this sort is usually well hidden and hard to detect without help from an insider, so its difficult to say how common it has become. Some political veterans warn that without new laws or regulations explicitly outlawing fraudulent social media tactics, both parties may feel pressure to use them simply to stay competitive. There were at least two more social media operations intended to help Jones campaign, run by small companies called Tovo Labs and Dialectica. Neither responded to queries about their tactics. A public account by Tovo Labs of its effort described setting up websites for Christian conservatives and moderate conservatives but claimed all the content was legitimate material and its methods ethical. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... A pitch to potential customers from Dialectica offers a new generation of information weapons to battle fake news, and a marketing email shared with The Times says the company worked in the Alabama races meme war for at least three months. Osborne, who said he helped conceive the Dry Alabama project and wrote for the Southern Caller page, said the effort began in conversations with acquaintances from his years at the annual Netroots Nation progressive gatherings. They discussed what tactics might help Jones chances and zeroed in on tensions within the Republican Party over whether drinking should be permitted in Alabama, where the number of dry counties had dwindled. Business conservatives favour wet; culture-war conservatives favour dry, he said. That gave us an idea. Essentially, the aim was to frighten the business conservatives who could be targeted with ads using Facebooks tools with the potential implications of a Moore victory. Some ideas were nixed by organizers: A raffle of an AR-15 assault rifle was out, Osborne was told, as was outright homophobic language. I learned that if youre doing a false-flag conservative page for a liberal donor, there are limits, he said. But he said he enjoyed mimicking the voices of his conservative opponents who dominate in the state. By the time the project got funding, there were only two weeks left in the race. With salaries needed only briefly, about 80 per cent of the $100,000 went toward Facebook ads. Elizabeth BeShears, a Republican communications consultant from Birmingham, was amused when she spotted a Dry Alabama ad on Facebook demanding that candidates pledge to try to ban drinking, because her husbands family had strongly supported a recent effort to turn a county wet. She assumed the Dry Alabama ads were aimed at anti-alcohol conservatives, and posted on Twitter a screenshot of the Facebook ad with the remark, Yalls targeting is so wrong. In fact, Osborne said, BeShears was the perfect target for the ads. She voted for Jones out of disgust for Moore, though she didnt need the Dry Alabama ad to persuade her, she said. Osborne said the stats he was given on the reach of the brief Facebook operation were impressive: 4.6 million views of the Facebook posts, and 97,000 engagements for instance, liking or sharing posts. Simple videos pushing the Dry Alabama message were watched 430,000 times, he said. Given Jones slender margin of victory about 22,000 votes, out of more than 1.3 million it is hard to say for sure that Dry Alabama had no impact. But many other independent efforts were at play on both sides, and the amount spent on the two false flag projects was relatively tiny in a race that cost at least $51 million, including the primaries. BeShears said she doubted the Dry Alabama effort had had a significant effect on the outcome, in part because Moore was seen as a toxic candidate and Alabamians had long harboured strong views about him. By the time the project was carried out, few voters were undecided, she said. I dont think most people saw it and thought thats a reason to vote or not to vote for Roy Moore, she said. The only people who were still hanging on to the Roy Moore bandwagon were going to be there no matter what. Whether youre still going to be able to drink a beer at your tailgate was not going to sway them. Read more about: WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, rolled back Sunday Trumps decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave U.S. forces there for months or even years. Bolton, making a visit to Israel, told reporters that U.S. forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of Daesh group were defeated and Turkey provided guarantees that it would not strike Kurdish forces allied with the United States. He and other top White House advisers have led a behind-the-scenes effort to slow Trumps order and reassure allies, including Israel. We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully co-ordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they dont endanger our troops, Bolton said in Jerusalem, where he was travelling before a visit Tuesday to Turkey. Boltons comments inserted into Trumps strategy something the president had omitted when he announced Dec. 19 that the United States would depart within 30 days: any conditions that must be met before the pullout. The remarks also reflected the disarray that has surrounded the presidents decision, which took his staff and foreign allies by surprise and drew objections from the Pentagon that it was logistically impossible and strategically unwise. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned within hours of the announcement, and the Pentagon chief of staff, Kevin Sweeney, said Saturday evening that he was also leaving. While Bolton said Sunday that he expected U.S. forces to eventually leave northeastern Syria, where most of the 2,000 troops in the country are based for the mission against Daesh, he began to lay out an argument for keeping some troops at a garrison in the southeast that is used to monitor the flow of Iranian arms and soldiers. In September, three months before Trumps announcement, Bolton had declared that the United States would remain in Syria as long as Iranians were on the ground there. Read more: No breakthrough in shutdown talks as Trump stands by demands Debate around Trumps wall obscures many other issues at the border U.S. sends troops for possible violent Congo vote protests Asked on CBS News Face the Nation if Boltons comments amounted to an admission that Trump had made a mistake, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who at times has been one of the presidents staunchest supporters, said, This is the reality setting in that youve got to plan this out. Graham, who described the dangers of making the announcement first and then considering the longer-term implications, added, The president is slowing down and is re-evaluating his policies in light of those three objectives: Dont let Iran get the oilfields, dont let the Turks slaughter the Kurds, and dont let Daesh come back. The move to reverse course on Trumps promised swift withdrawal picked up in recent days, even as Bolton worked to avoid openly confronting the president the way Mattis did. On Friday, in a briefing for reporters about a forthcoming trip to the Middle East by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a senior State Department official said there was no fixed timetable for the U.S. withdrawal. Asked about the shifting timeline Sunday as he left the White House for meetings about border security at Camp David, Trump told reporters that he had never said we were doing it that quickly. In a video on the evening of his announcement in December, he had said that our boys, our young women, our men theyre all coming back, and theyre coming back now, though he later extended that to four months. Now, the four-month schedule appears highly in doubt. The conditions Bolton described, including the complete defeat of Daesh and the guarantees from Turkey, could easily stretch out. Bolton will meet Tuesday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who argued to Trump in a phone call last month that Daesh had been defeated, and that U.S. troops were therefore no longer needed to aid Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces a terrorist body bent on carving out a separate nation. Before the Turkey visit, Bolton was expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over dinner Sunday evening. Netanyahu has also been concerned about the U.S. plan, for fear it will leave a vacuum and embolden Iran. In Jerusalem, Bolton described the conditions as policy decisions that we need to implement, and he said a timeline for a withdrawal would be necessary only once those stipulations were met. He said that Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would negotiate with Turkish officials this week over the protection of the Kurdish fighters. Boltons comments seemed to expand on a classified memo he wrote to Cabinet officials on Dec. 24 that outlined a strategy for Turkish troops to replace the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops conducting counterterrorism operations against Daesh in northeastern Syria, according to two Defense Department officials. Boltons memo came after Trump and Erdogan spoke by phone on Dec. 23. After that conversation, Trump tweeted: I just had a long and productive call with President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed Daesh, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly co-ordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. Bolton also wrote in the memo, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that the administrations objectives in Syria remained consistent. Those goals have included routing the Daesh group from its last enclaves in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, ousting Iranian-commanded forces and pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the countrys civil war. Pentagon officials almost immediately expressed skepticism that the Turkish military, which has struggled to carry out limited operations along its border with Syria in the past two years, could execute expansive counterterrorism operations deeper into Syria, toward the border with Iraq. Moreover, U.S. military planners said any Turkish movements into northeastern Syria would lead to clashes with the Syrian Kurdish-Arab coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... The Pentagons skepticism about the plan only heightened in recent days when in response to Boltons memo, Turkish authorities asked the United States for significant military support, including airstrikes, logistics and transportation. Three Defense Department officials said that despite Boltons memo, there had been no planning for any turnover of counterterrorism operations to the Turks. U.S. forces are beginning the preparations for a withdrawal from northeastern Syria, even as the timetable has become increasingly fluid. After meeting in Iraq on Dec. 26 with Lt. Gen. Paul LaCamera, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and Syria, Trump agreed to increase the time for the drawdown from 30 days to four months. That would provide enough time to decide where else in the region to move the huge amounts of military equipment, how much, if any, would remain behind with Kurdish-Arab allies, and what might be disabled to avoid falling into the hands of the Syrian government or its Russian and Iranian allies. Read more about: A look back at the demise of the mainstream news media in 2018 By Rachel Alexander One prevalent theme of 2018 was the further deterioration of the mainstream news media. The meltdown began in late 2016, after President Trump won the election. The media went into full assault mode, bashing Trump and churning out fake news at a breathtaking speed. They could not handle this new type of Republican president who aggressively went about a conservative agenda and frequently attacked the press. But Trump fought back, taking to Twitter to speak directly to the American people. He got his message out first, before the media could report on it. The media was forced to report afterwards on his tweets, which were difficult to spin when embedded in an article word for word. Journalists in media were so blinded by their hatred of Trump that they could not see the constant negativity was backfiring. People dropped their subscriptions to biased newspapers and cable TV. People turned to news from bloggers, Facebook friends and conservative outlets in order to avoid the bias of traditional news sources. Instead of reading The New York Times, people visited the Drudge Report online. Instead of paying for CNN and MSNBC, people watched streaming news services like Newsmax and The Blaze. Conservative Fox News was the most-watched channel on basic cable for the 29th consecutive month. Usually, when one party is in power, the oppositions strength grows outside of the office, such as in the media and in tech. So its unusual that Fox News is doing as well as it is. The phrase fake news became wildly popular in 2017 and 2018 as Trump repeatedly caught the media reporting dishonestly. Some of the worst offenders have been the hardest hit. In Novembers ratings, CNN failed to place even one show in the top 20 for cable news shows. The New York Times suffered a 23 percent decrease in net income during the third quarter this year as compared to last year. The paper began offering voluntary buyouts in early October, in order to downsize employees. Trust in the mainstream media continues to erode. A Gallup poll from September found that 69 percent of U.S. adults say their trust in the news media has decreased in the past decade. Only 17 percent overall trust most news organizations, and 67 percent overall say they trust only some news organizations. A substantial 45 percent referred to things like inaccuracy, bias, fake news, and alternative facts as the reason why they dont trust the media. Yet with all this dismal news, the mainstream media isnt letting up on its attacks on Trump. Biased journalists would rather see their jobs disappear than stop the Trump bashing. Stories about journalists becoming delivery drivers for Amazon and turning to other odd careers are popping up. However, the demise of the mainstream media is being slowed by the big tech giants. Google and Facebook are censoring news sources on the right. Google recently banned Western Journal and The Gateway Pundit from Google News. This will sharply curtail much of their traffic. At the same time, Google prioritizes left-leaning news sites in its search results. Facebook changed an algorithm in January of this year which resulted in greatly reducing the traffic to conservative pages. Facebook next banned some of the most popular conservative pages this year, including Right Wing News. But while the big tech giants may have stemmed the tide a bit, they are running up against a tidal wave. While lefty journalists depend solely on their writing jobs to make a living, conservatives are much more business minded. They can work a full time job in business while contributing articles on the side to a news publication. As the layoffs of journalists continue, part-time conservative journalists are stepping in to fill the void. For example, in Arizona, the local newspapers are declining and slowly going out of business. They are being replaced by the Arizona Daily Independent, a conservative online paper with a business model that includes unpaid, part-time contributors. ADI now covers a lot of stories that the mainstream local newspapers dont. Media has become a very competitive area, due to the rise of the internet allowing anyone to become a blogger with their own platform. Its hard to compete against a self-funded conservative journalist who isnt affected by layoffs. The mainstream media doesnt appear to be decreasing its hatred of Trump. At this rate, look to see even more of a decline in 2019 along with the increasing rise of conservative news. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home Following a year of turmoil in which CBS was rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct and the ouster of several high-profile figures, the president of its news division, David Rhodes, is stepping down. On Sunday night, the network announced that he will be replaced by veteran producer Susan Zirinsky, who will become the first woman to lead the division when she takes over as president in March. Toward the end of his eight-year stint as president of CBS News, Rhodes oversaw the removal of both longtime host Charlie Rose and Jeff Fager, the chairman for CBS News and executive producer for 60 Minutes, both of whom were accused of mistreating employees. Joseph Ianniello, CBS Corp.s acting CEO, wrote in an email to staffers on Sunday night that Rhodes has decided the time is right to move on to new opportunities and thanked him for his integrity and editorial rigour in leading the news division for eight years. In his own missive sent to staffers on Sunday night, Rhodes said that he plans to stay with the company after the transition, serving as a senior adviser to Ianniello and the news division. The new year is a time for renewal, for new goals, he wrote. The world we cover is changing, how we cover it is changing and its the right time for me to make a change too. Zirinsky, his replacement, has spent nearly five decades at CBS News, beginning as a part-time desk assistant in the midst of the Watergate scandal in 1972 while she was still a student at American University. She is now a senior executive producer on 48 Hours, a weekly newsmagazine covering crime and justice, and will continue to hold the title of senior executive producer after her promotion, indicating that she will be closely involved in overseeing the networks news content. In his company-wide email, Ianniello noted that Zirinsky has touched virtually every division and every CBS News broadcast over the decades shes worked here, covering major world events from the Tiananmen Square student protests to the Gulf War. She also contributed to the 1987 romantic comedy Broadcast News as an adviser and associate producer, and loosely inspired the hard-driving character played by Holly Hunter in the film. Described as a legendary figure by the Los Angeles Times and a respected newsroom leader and consummate insider by New York magazine, Zirinsky is ascending the corporate ladder during a tumultuous time in the networks history. Her predecessor, Rhodes, became CBS Newss president in 2011 and launched CBSN, the networks 24-hour news channel, in 2014. He had previously been an executive at Bloomberg and Fox News. But with his contract set to expire next month, speculation had grown that Rhodes could be out amid declining ratings on key programs during a period of significant upheaval at the network. Rose, the longtime host of CBS This Morning and PBSs The Charlie Rose Show, was fired in November 2017 after The Washington Post reported that eight women had accused him of making unwanted sexual advances toward them. (The total number of accusers has since risen to 35 women, 14 of whom worked with him at CBS News.) Rose has denied any wrongdoing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, viewership for CBS This Morning has been in decline since his ouster. In September 2018, Leslie Moonves, the companys powerful chairman and chief executive, resigned after the New Yorker reported that a dozen women had accused him of sexual misconduct. Moonves has denied the allegations, which ranged from forced oral sex to exposing himself. In December, CBS announced that it had completed an internal investigation and found Moonves guilty of wilful and material malfeasance, and that, as a result, he would not be receiving his $120 million (U.S.) severance. Days after Moonves September resignation, Fager, the executive producer for 60 Minutes was ousted from the company. Fager had been under investigation amid reports that he touched employees inappropriately and overlooked abusive behaviour charges which he has denied. His departure came after he sent a threatening text message to a CBS correspondent who was covering the story, calling the accusations false and telling her to be careful. Given that backdrop, seeing a woman ascend to the top position at CBS News struck some observers in the media as poetic, even though Rhodes had not been directly implicated in the negative reports about CBS workplace culture. A new woman boss at CBS News is good news, Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, wrote on Twitter. What a twist, tweeted Irin Carmon, who broke the story of Roses sexual misconduct for The Post and currently writes for New York. After the departures of Moonves, Fager, and Rose after allegations of assault, harassment, and/or hostile environment for women, the inspiration for Broadcast News brilliant, nuanced lead character takes over. Oregon state Sen. Bill Hansells rural district is the size of Maryland, and it is criss-crossed with hundreds of miles of road splayed with all manner of roadkill. While driving one of those routes a couple of years ago, Hansell spotted a dead deer and had what he called an aha moment: Could the carcass feed someone? It just struck me, you know: This is such a waste, he said. Chowing down on roadkill was not legal in Oregon then. But as of Tuesday, it is. With the enactment of a bill sponsored by Hansell himself, and unanimously passed by the legislature, Oregon became the latest of about 20 states that allow people to scoop dead animals off the road and serve them for dinner. Among them are Washington, which issued 1,600 roadkill salvaging permits within one year of legalizing the practice in 2016; Pennsylvania, where more than 5,600 vehicle-deer crashes were reported in 2017; and Georgia, where motorists may take home struck bears. The rules vary by state, though most require timely reporting of the collection to authorities, and most absolve the state of responsibility if the meat turns out to be stomach-turning. Oregon allows the salvaging of deer and elk and for human consumption only (sorry, Fido). People who pick up a carcass must apply online for a free permit within 24 hours, and they must turn over the animals head and antlers to the state wildlife agency within five business days. That is for two reasons, Hansell said: Antlers can be sold to collectors, and no one wanted to create a financial incentive for crashing into wild critters; wildlife authorities also want to test head tissue for chronic wasting disease. Importantly, the roadkill must have been produced by accident. That is, drivers are not allowed to hunt with their automobiles, Hansell said. Drivers who inadvertently strike a deer or elk but only wound it may humanely dispatch the animal with a firearm, then salvage the meat, according to regulations published by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Oregonians are already taking advantage of this new right. Hansell, citing figures from the fish and wildlife department, said a dozen salvaging permits had been issued by Friday morning. Thats 12 carcasses that are not strewn alongside of the road, that are being harvested and consumed, he said. Its exciting. It also might sound a little, well, gross. But it should not, said Thomas Elpel, a Montana author and wilderness survival instructor whose how-to video on the practice is posted on YouTube. Its meat. Whether you buy it in a store or pick it up on the side of the road, its the same thing. In the stores, its packaged with Styrofoam and plastic, which maybe looks pretty, but is harmful to the environment, Elpel said. Its a more authentic way to connect with your food supply. Elpel said he grew up eating roadkill harvested by his grandmother, though it was not explicitly legal when he was a kid. The state began issuing permits in 2013, and Elpel said he salvages carcasses several times a year often enough that his freezer is full. Students at the wilderness survival school he runs, Green University, are served roadkill in their included meals. Theres a tremendous amount of meat out there, Elpel said. Its kind of crazy, when theres so many families that are struggling to make ends meet and kids that are not getting enough nutrition, and there it is, free on the side of the road. Free, yes, but not without labour. In one of his books, Elpel walks readers through his roadkill salvaging method. Among his tips: If it is green and the smell makes you want to barf, then pass, he writes. The choicest carcasses have been hit in the head, leaving the body intact, but broken bones and bloodied flesh can be trimmed off. Gutting and butchering is otherwise similar to the process hunters use. Roadkill jerky, he notes, is easy to make. Elpel said young deer have been the centrepiece of some of his favourite roadkill dinners. We have enjoyed fawn on a number of occasions, he said. Thats exceptionally tender venison. Cant go wrong with that. Support for the Oregon roadkill bill was strong and came from an unlikely array of groups, Hansell said. Hunters liked it, but so did animal welfare supporters. Road crews tasked with scraping up rotting animals were pleased by the prospect of a little less work, and nutritionists got behind the idea of free organic protein, Hansell said. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... As for Hansell, he has no plan to salvage dead deer. A squeamish stomach prevented him from ever learning to hunt or dress deer, he said, and he is not a big fan of venison. But he said he would not turn down an invitation to a roadkill meal. To me, its no different from wild with regard to how it ends up on your plate, Hansell said. I would have no problem eating it. BERLINAuthorities warned Sunday of a high risk of avalanches on the northern side of the Alps, after heavy snowfall in recent days created dangerous conditions across parts of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A 20-year-old skier died in an avalanche Saturday on Mount Teisen, near the Austrian border, German police said. The womans five companions were unharmed. In Austria, public broadcaster ORF reported that a 26-year-old man died Sunday after being struck by an avalanche while skiing near the town of Schoppernau. Authorities in Austria closed some roads and train lines because of avalanche risks, while airports in the region have seen delays as workers struggled to clear the large amount of fresh snow and de-ice planes. Hundreds of passengers were stuck for hours on a train early Sunday after a snow-laden tree crashed onto the tracks near Kitzbuehel, Austria. About 14,000 households were temporarily left without electricity in northern Austria because of damage to power lines. ORF reported that about 600 residents and tourists were still stuck in the Austrian village of Soelktal following a road closure. An Austrian army helicopter managed to drop some supplies there on Sunday. Officials in the nearby Salzburg region described the situation as very precarious, noting that large avalanches could be triggered spontaneously. The German weather service DWD forecast a further 40 centimetres (almost 16 inches) of snowfall in some areas by Monday. Read more about: The United States has long been the only industrialized country not to offer paid leave to new parents. Instead of waiting for the federal government, the incoming governor of California intends to change that in a significant way for families in his state. He is expected to introduce a proposal to give families six months of paid leave after the birth of a child. What is unclear is how California would pay for it. The proposal, which Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom is expected to include with his budget after he is sworn in Monday, would be the most generous state policy in the nation, at a time when federal paid leave proposals have stalled. Yet it does not include a plan to finance it, and there is no guarantee that the legislature would approve raising the money. It is the same challenge that has stymied the policy at the federal level. Around 80 per cent of Americans consistently say they support paid parental leave, and some Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in embracing the idea. Yet federal lawmakers have declined to pass tax increases or corporate mandates to make it a reality. Californias proposal continues an effort by governors to pass laws on the issue while Congress is gridlocked. Massachusetts, Washington and New Jersey recently passed or expanded paid family leave policies. Advocates say Oregon, Colorado and Connecticut are poised to do so, too. In competitive races in the recent midterm elections, 29 per cent of candidates for Congress and governor included paid leave in their platforms, up from 4 per cent four years earlier, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. But the California proposal, shared by a Newsom adviser on condition of anonymity, is set apart by the length of the proposed leave. The state currently offers six weeks of partly paid leave (with an additional six weeks of disability for birth mothers). The five other states offering it, along with the District of Columbia, give between four and 12 weeks. Many of the biggest companies give certain new parents between two and 16 weeks. Some of the most generous companies, like those in Silicon Valley, give around four months; Netflix offers a year. But only 16 per cent of American workers get paid leave from their employers. Economists have found that about six months of parental leave is ideal. A shorter period offers fewer benefits for babies health and development, and a longer one can hurt womens careers and earnings. The absence of paid leave and other family-friendly policies has been found to be the major reason that more women are not working in the United States, and the reason American parents say they are unhappier than nonparents and parents in other countries. My career never recovered and never will, said Charlotte Brock, 39, a mother in Vienna, Va. When she had her first child eight years ago, she quit her job as a think tank analyst and moved in with her parents because she had no paid leave. Now an analyst at NASA, she is expecting twins, and has pieced together sick leave followed by part-time work. Her husband does not get paid parental leave either. People dont realize the recovery for women, even physically, is a lot longer than whats advertised in our culture, she said. And just in terms of the experience of bonding, the closeness, and breastfeeding is so much easier if you can do it without having to pump (breast milk). The share of American women who are working has stalled, researchers say, hurting families incomes and the countrys economic output, even as that share has continued to climb in other rich countries. As employment has improved since the last recession, men have benefited more than women. Economists have pinpointed the lack of family-friendly policies as a big reason. In Canada, by comparison, some parents can stretch out their paid leave over 18 months, and in Britain, many parents can take one year. Both nations also provide subsidized child care. Because we refuse to acknowledge that people have families and care issues, were falling behind our economic competitors, said Heather Boushey, executive director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, who advised Hillary Clinton on economic issues during her 2016 presidential campaign. If policies like paid parental leave and subsidized child care enabled more mothers to work, the United States could add 5 million prime-age workers to its labour force, according to a new economic letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Spending on child care makes the biggest difference in female employment, earnings and fertility, found a recent paper. The California policy would be the nations biggest test of the idea that longer leave, by encouraging parents not to quit their jobs and by delaying the need to pay for infant care, can help economic growth. But the governor will face questions about whether it would require a tax increase; how the program could stay solvent if there were a recession; and how businesses would cope with employees long absences. Californias existing paid leave program is financed by a 1 per cent payroll tax. Increasing that tax would require the approval of two-thirds of the Legislature, not assured despite Democratic control. The proposal unites two of Newsoms campaign themes: help for young children and reductions in the expenses of daily life. Infant care costs an average of $1,230 a month in a child-care centre. His budget proposal will also include $1.8 billion for early childhood education, as reported by The Los Angeles Times, including expanded prekindergarten programs, subsidized child care and home visits by nurses for pregnant low-income women. The ideas signal the extent to which the new governor wants to take California in a different direction. His predecessor, Jerry Brown, pushed back on what he saw as extravagantly expensive plans, and warned in exit interviews of an approaching recession. California has a history of fervent opposition to taxes. Democrats now have supermajorities in both the states Senate and the House, but many of them have embraced fiscally conservative policies. California was the first state to pass paid parental leave, in 2002, and researchers have already been able to assess some effects. Even though California companies opposed the original policy, surveys have found either no effect or a positive effect on productivity and turnover. Paid leave increases mothers wages and work hours, research shows, and improves the health of babies and mothers. Mothers breastfeed longer. Fathers who take leave are more involved in child care for years to come. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Californias leave program is paid for entirely by employees payroll taxes, in a fund that is part of the states temporary disability insurance program. New parents receive a percentage of their earnings, up to $1,216 a week. The new plan would allow new parents to divide six months of paid leave as they see fit, or to give it to other family members caring for the baby. Reaching six months of leave could take several years, said the Newsom adviser. First, the administration plans to extend leaves by an unspecified shorter period. It would free up money to do so with a policy change: The trust fund that administers paid leave would be required to hold three months of reserve funds instead of six. Then the administration would start a task force to address questions like how to reach six months of leave, including the biggest issue of all: how to pay for it. John Polanyi Collegiate Institute will remain open Monday despite a threat issued against the North York high school over the holidays, Toronto police said. Students received the threat via text message from an unknown person last week, police spokesperson Katrina Arrogante told the Star. Police wouldnt reveal what the nature of the threat was. However the Toronto District School Board said police believe the school near Allen Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W. is safe and no hold-and-secure or lockdown process is necessary. We will follow our usual practices that ensure the safety of students and staff each and every day, read a letter from the TDSB to parents, guardians and students. As an added measure, there will be added TDSB security as well as a police presence around the school on Monday. The letter added: While the comment made may be nothing more than an off-hand remark, we must take it seriously. Be assured that we will always take every precaution to ensure the safety of students and staff. According to the TDSB, some people at the school were made aware of the threat after it was posted on social media. Police were asking that it no longer be spread online while they continue to investigate. A daytime shooting in the Beach, a neighbourhood favoured for its close-knit and family-friendly community, has left some residents feeling unsafe. Police responded to a report of gunshots near the intersection of Queen St. E. and Woodbine Ave. around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. They located two male victims in their 20s suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The victims were transported to hospital conscious and breathing and are expected to recover. Police found shell casings and three firearms at the scene, as well as a vehicle with bullet holes. Insp. Anthony Paoletta said he believes the victims were shot while inside the vehicle and later made their way to a nearby business. Two male suspects who were seen leaving the area on foot have been arrested, said Const. Katrina Arrogante. Police found a second vehicle near the scene that they say was abandoned by the suspects. Paoletta said the shooting may have started north on Woodbine Ave. near Kingston Rd. before progressing south toward Queen St. The northbound lane of Woodbine Ave. and the eastbound lane of Queen St. were closed around the site of the incident for several hours while police investigated. Read more: Fatal stabbing in Scarborough marks Torontos first homicide of 2019 Gordon Leask, who has lived in the area for three years and worked in the community for nearly 10 years, was stopped at an intersection northbound on Woodbine Ave. with his fiancee when they heard gunshots next to their car, followed by a car screeching south along Woodbine Ave. It was a surreal experience, said Leask. I was born and raised in Scarborough where that kind of stuff just happens ... but it happening in that area is unheard of. He said the area is family-friendly and a safe and inclusive neighbourhood, and the shooting, while shocking, wont change that. Just because it happened once doesnt change my opinion, he said. Others say the incident has changed their perspective on the neighbourhood. Chris Gradin, a resident of the neighbourhood whose condo overlooks the crime scene, said he was flabbergasted when he returned home to find his street crowded with police. To have it at our front door like this is jarring, he said. We (feel) unsafe in our own neighbourhood, and thats disturbing. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Gradin, who moved to the area from Vancouver about a year ago with his wife and young son, said he chose it because it was known for being quiet and family-oriented. Its no longer something that were voyeuristically watching from afar, Gradin said. This is very real. Donald Trump has affirmed his respect for judicial independence, the Prime Ministers Office says, less than a month after the U.S. president baldly said he would intervene in Meng Wanzhous pending extradition from Canada if it would help forge a trade deal with China. In a summary of a phone call Monday between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the PMO indicated the leaders discussed the high-profile U.S. extradition request though Meng was not named and agreed on the importance of respecting the independence of judges and the rule of law. China has pressed Canada to get Meng freed from the extradition process, which Canadian politicians have replied they simply arent allowed to do. Trudeau also thanked Trump for the strong statements of support by the U.S. in response to the arbitrary detention of two Canadians in China, the summary says. The two leaders agreed to continue to seek their release. Entrepreneur Michael Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig, a diplomat on leave from Global Affairs Canada, were taken into Chinese custody on security grounds in December. Beijings actions came just days after Canadian authorities in Vancouver arrested Meng, a senior executive with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies, who is wanted by the U.S. on fraud charges. Mengs arrest infuriated Beijing, and many western analysts see Chinas detention of Spavor and Kovrig as retaliation. Read More: Senators and MPs shouldnt undercut Canadas message to China 13 Canadians detained in China since arrest of Huawei executive in Vancouver, officials reveal Canada will work with allies to push China to release Kovrig and Spavor, Freeland says Trudeau said at the time that Canada, which has an extradition treaty with the U.S., was merely following standard legal protocol. Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told reporters it was absolutely false to assume a political motive behind Mengs arrest. However, Trump muddied the waters the same day by telling Reuters in an interview that he would certainly intervene in Mengs case if I thought it was necessary to help ensure a trade deal with China. Canada has called for the immediate release of Kovrig and Spavor. Each man has had a single consular visit from John McCallum, Ottawas ambassador to China. A Canadian parliamentary delegation, long scheduled to visit China, is doing what it can this week to help secure the pairs freedom. A Monday opinion piece in the China Daily newspaper, published by the countrys Communist Party, accused Canada of acting as a loyal adherent of the U.S. in the Meng detention drama. By continuing to follow the U.S., either passively or actively, Canada will eventually harm its national interests, said the article by Li Qingsi, a professor of international studies at Renmin University in China. If Canada insists on following the old track, it may not benefit much from a big trading partner like China. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Meanwhile, a friend of Spavor says he is concerned about the detained Canadians well-being and financial future now that an online fundraising effort in his name has been derailed. Andray Abrahamian, a lecturer at Stanford University in California, was among the organizers of a GoFundMe campaign for Spavor. I worry about many things, starting with his health and emotional well-being, Abrahamian said Monday. GoFundMe said the campaign in Spavors name was shut down because its third-party payment processor, which made the decision, was unable to handle the donations. GoFundMe spokeswoman Rachel Hollis would not elaborate on the reason, but said the fundraising portal relies on such processors to make sure money transfers made online are securely processed and verified, helping us to keep GoFundMe the safest place to donate online. The backers were told it was for a terms and conditions violation, but nothing more specific than that, Abrahamian said. Basically, nearly everybodys money was refunded Friday without notice, then the next day the page was shut down. Spavor is director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organization that facilitates sporting, cultural, tourism and business exchanges with North Korea a largely isolated country subject to a number of international sanctions over its nuclear-weapons program. Abrahamian said the fundraising effort was intended to create a little pot of money to help with Spavors legal fees or other costs and, when the stressful experience is over, to aid his recovery and readjustment. Once the issue with China is resolved, he probably wont be able to transit through that country, meaning he wont be able to continue his work promoting exchanges, Abrahamian said. So we wanted to help buy him some time while he figures out whats next. We also were hoping his family could use the money to have his possessions collected and shipped back to Canada. Were trying to figure out how to best solicit donations again, but are afraid we wont be as successful as this past attempt. It was Christmastime, after all. Read more about: OTTAWACrammed into a cell with 13 other sleep-deprived inmates, strong-armed into singing the Chinese national anthem and forced by shouting guards to watch state television a Canadian man detained in China last fall is offering a glimpse of what he says life was like for him on the inside. Jason Cigana, a 39-year-old originally from the Montreal area, had been living and working in Chinas southern city of Shenzhen for six years when he was arrested by Chinese police in October. He was locked up for three weeks and eventually deported. Cigana wanted to share his experience with the Chinese legal system after two Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested there in December. The Chinese government has said both Kovrig and Spavor were arrested on national-security grounds. Their detentions appear to be in retaliation for Canadas arrest of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States. Although his case is different from Kovrigs and Spavors, Ciganas experience offers a rare look at how China handles people, including foreigners, while they are in custody. Its something pretty rough, to be honest and I was small potatoes compared to these guys, Cigana said in an interview, referring to Kovrig and Spavor. These guys are going to have it a lot, lot worse. Read more: Friend concerned for detained Canadian after fundraising effort shut down 13 Canadians detained in China since arrest of Huawei executive in Vancouver, officials reveal China says no doubt two detained Canadians broke law A Canadian government source, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, confirmed Cigana was detained in China last fall. Cigana said his arrest came a few days after he made what he describes as racially charged comments on an online chat group made up of mostly expatriates. He admits he also made a very insensitive remark about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed many thousands of Chinese people. He says he regrets both and he never thought his comments would reach an audience outside the 88-member group on the WeChat platform. He said screen shots of the conversation were shared widely on social media in China and reached tens of millions of people. The remarks were translated from English to Chinese, but he says his words were twisted to sound a hell of a lot worse. As his comments spread, they stirred up a lot of public outrage, to the point his conversation made national news in China. Cigana, whos married to a Chinese national with whom he has a four-year-old son, learned making such statements also violated local laws. Fearing a backlash, he holed up at home for days. Then, Chinese police came knocking at his door. He was detained, interrogated for several hours and released, several times over four days. Police eventually locked him up for three consecutive weeks. Cigana described the conditions he faced inside the detention centre as terrible. Fourteen people packed into one cell and a shower that consisted of a cup and a bucket, he said. He recalled the lights being left on for 24 hours a day, and cranked up at night. Barking dogs, slamming doors and shouts from guards made it almost impossible for detainees to ever get any shut-eye, he said. The rooms are monitored, so lets say if youre sleeping and you cover your eyes theyll start screaming through the intercom to not cover your eyes, Cigana said. The guards also forced him to sing the anthem, vow loyalty to China and absorb propaganda on state TV, he said. If you turn away from the television during this time you are yelled at and berated, he said. Its something straight out of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Months after his detention and deportation, Ciganas case continues to haunt him. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... A website in his name has appeared online and he said its designed to ruin his reputation. Purportedly created by his family to seek forgiveness on his behalf, its a mix of English and Chinese and talks about what a mess his life has become since saying horrible disrespectful and insentience (sic) comments about China, taking photos of perverted nature and saying many pro-Hitler and anti African American culture. Cigana said his reputation has been further damaged by other postings on online chat rooms made in his name. Some of the postings are sex-related requests that he had nothing to do with. None of it is true, Cigana said. When police took him in for questioning, Cigana said his name had yet to appear in any Chinese news stories. But shortly after he left the police station the first day, he said, a photo of him taken during his interrogation as well as his passport information were already circulating on social media. Cigana has consulted lawyers in an effort to get the website and the postings removed from the internet but hes been told the process will be difficult and expensive. As he hunts for work that will help him sponsor his familys immigration to Canada, Cigana fears he will have difficulty finding any if potential employers Google his name. Hes considered changing it. He says he messed up. Not that theres an excuse my wife is Chinese, my son is Chinese, Cigana said. I dont hate Chinese people. I guess it was just a case of sometimes we go a little bit hard on the internet without realizing its not a game. You can be punished for it. Its something that essentially ruined my life. Last week, a federal government official speaking on background said 200 Canadians are detained in China for a variety of alleged infractions. Guy Saint-Jacques, Canadas ambassador to China between 2012 and 2016, said in an interview that crowded cells with poor sanitary conditions and 24-hour lights have been reported in other cases, including by Canadians Julia and Kevin Garratt. The two were Christian aid workers who ran a coffee shop in northeastern China, near the North Korean border. China arrested the Garratts in 2014 and accused them of spying and stealing military secrets. It took two years before both were freed. Saint-Jacques said Canadians facing more minor charges in China, such as visa issues, dont usually face tough conditions like those described by Cigana. It sounds familiar, although maybe a bit harsher, said Saint-Jacques, comparing Ciganas recollection to other cases he was aware of. He added he didnt recall cases where there were attempts to attack a detainees reputation online. But he said the Nanjing Massacre, in particular, is a very sensitive topic for Chinese people. I would like to have more details (about Ciganas case), but obviously this gentleman touched a raw nerve with his comments and they wanted to make an example, Saint-Jacques said. You have to assume ownership of what you say all the time. Read more about: Canadas universal health-care system is a source of pride for most Canadians, and perhaps even a defining characteristic of our nationhood. As an emergency room physician, I know how lucky I am to be able to provide the best care for my patients without worrying that the tests I order might drive them into bankruptcy sadly, a concern for many of my colleagues south of the border. For Ontarians, that green health card that sits in your wallet alongside your credit card is your passport to health care. But unlike your credit card, you never see the bill. So have you ever wondered what happens to the information that is collected each time your card is used? Each time you have an interaction with our health-care system whether its a doctors visit, a lab test or a visit to the ER a piece of information, or administrative data, is generated and collected by the province in order to manage, administer and pay for services. But these pieces of data do double duty helping the province evaluate and improve our health-care system, driving new discoveries that can lead to better care, lower costs and better health for all Ontarians. So how are these data used to improve health care? Just like a picture becomes clearer when you include more pixels, the picture of the health of an entire population becomes clearer as more individual pieces of this data are added. With data from nearly 14 million people going back more than 25 years, Ontarios powerful repositories of health-care data are very high resolution, and the envy of health systems and researchers worldwide. Whats more, these data can be linked together with community and social data to paint an even more descriptive picture of the health of Ontarians a picture that can tell us how well, or badly, our health system is performing at meeting everyones needs. Since 1992, ICES an independent not-for-profit research institute has been entrusted with this information. We use it to study the health system, and then health officials use our findings to deliver better health care. ICES carefully protects the privacy and security of these data, and our work is overseen by Ontarios Information and Privacy Commissioner. ICES was one of the first such institutes in Canada and is a model for other provinces. In fact, research and evidence from ICES has probably influenced decisions that affect the way you approach your health, and the health of your family and friends, every day. For example, ICES research has made our roads safer by showing the link between driver cellphone use and deadly collisions, leading to changes in the law. Our research has led to the withdrawal of a number of unsafe medications from the market and has accelerated Ontarios response to the opioid crisis. Our work has helped to introduce new return-to-play guidelines for children with concussion and continues to demonstrate which strategies work (and dont work) to fix hospital overcrowding. While we have been working with Ontarians health data for many years, we recognize that today more than ever people want to have input about how their data are being used. Weve heard from Ontarians who want ICES to do more with data to improve health care as long as data privacy and security remain priorities at all times. Today, the conversation about how to use these data to improve our health has to go beyond the walls of our institutions and include the voices, values and perspectives of Ontarios public. Members of the public are welcome to join the conversation on how health data should be used to improve the health-care system and make new discoveries. Ontario citizens can join the ICES public advisory council to discuss issues of health data and research, new data opportunities and partnerships, and to provide guidance on what research questions matter most to them. If you live in Ontario and would like to find out more about the ICES council, visit www.ices.on.ca/public. If you are interested in joining the council, fill out the online application. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... MADRIDSpains maritime rescue service says it has saved 549 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The service says its craft intercepted six small smuggling boats carrying a total of 350 migrants on Saturday in waters east of the Strait of Gibraltar. On Sunday another 199 migrants were pulled from five different boats, including two tiny inflatable boats meant for small bodies of water or near the beach. One of those tiny recreational boats was carrying four children. The other was packed with 10 adults. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that 2,262 migrants died while crossing the Mediterranean in 2018. The European Unions border agency says that 57,000 migrants reached Spain last year, double the figure for 2017. That is partially due to the fact that Italy, Malta and other EU nations have been refusing to let aid boats full of rescued migrants dock at their ports. Overall, however, unauthorized border crossings into Europe hit a five-year low in 2018. Read more: Boat with 300 migrants arrives in Spain after week at sea Spain finds 17 dead migrants, 100 survivors in Mediterranean Spain rescues more than 440 migrants from Mediterranean Sea Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Read more about: Lets do follow the climate money! By Paul Driessen The climate crisis industry incessantly claims that fossil fuel emissions are causing unprecedented temperature, climate and weather changes that pose existential threats to human civilization and our planet. The only solution, Climate Crisis, Inc. insists, is to eliminate the oil, coal and natural gas that provide 80% of the energy that makes US and global economies, health and living standards possible. Failing that, CCI demands steadily increasing taxes on carbon-based fuels and carbon dioxide emissions. However, as Frances Yellow Vest protests and the latest climate confab in Poland demonstrated, the world is not prepared to go down that dark path. Countries worldwide are expanding their reliable fossil fuel use, and families do not want to reduce their living standards or their aspirations for better lives. Moreover, climate computer model forecasts are completely out of touch with real-world observations. There is no evidence to support claims that the slight temperature, climate and weather changes weve experienced are dangerous, unprecedented or caused by humans, instead of by the powerful solar, oceanic and other natural forces that have driven similar or far more serious changes throughout history. More importantly, the CCI solutions would cause unprecedented disruption of modern industrialized societies; permanent poverty and disease in poor countries; and serious ecological damage worldwide. Nothing that is required to harness breezes and sunshine to power civilization is clean, green, renewable, climate-friendly or sustainable. Tens of billions of tons of rock would have to be removed, to extract billions of tons of ores, to create millions of tons of metals, concrete and other materials, to manufacture millions of wind turbines and solar panels, and install them on millions of acres of wildlife habitats to generate expensive, intermittent energy that would be grossly insufficient for humanitys needs. Every step in this process requires fossil fuels and some of the mining involves child labor. How do CCI alarmists respond to these points? They dont. They refuse to engage in or even permit civil discussion. They rant that anyone who denies climate change science is on the fossil fuel industry payroll, thus has a blatant conflict of interest and no credibility, and therefore should be ignored. Rebuttals to my recent We are still IN article cited Greenpeace and DeSmogBlog as their reliable sources and claimed: Im associated with several right-wing think tanks that are skeptical of man-made climate change. One of them received $582,000 from ExxonMobil over a 14-year period, another got $5,716,325 from Koch foundations over 18 years, and the Koch Brothers gave at least $100,343,292 to 84 groups denying climate change science in 20 years, my detractors claimed. These multi-year contributions work out to $41,571 annually; $317,574 per year; and $59,728 per organization per year, respectively to pay salaries and overhead at think tanks that are engaged in multiple social, tax, education, medical and other issues not just energy and climate change. But lets assume for a moment that money especially funding from any organization that has any kind of financial, regulatory or other special interest in the outcome of this ongoing energy and economic battle renders a researcher incapable of analyzing facts fairly and honestly. Then apply those zero-tolerance, zero-credibility Greenpeace-DeSmogBlog-CCI standards to those very same climate alarmists and their allies who are determined to shut down debate and impose their wind, solar and biofuel policies on the world. Where do they get their money, and how much do they get? Billionaire and potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg gave the Sierra Club $110 million in a six-year period to fund its campaign against coal-generated electricity. Chesapeake Energy gave the Club $26 million in three years to promote natural gas and attack coal. Ten wealthy liberal foundations gave another $51 million over eight years to the Club and other environmentalist groups to battle coal. Over a 12-year period, the Environmental Protection Agency gave its 15 Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee members $181 million in grants and in exchange received quick rubberstamp approvals of various air quality rules. It paid the American Lung Association $20 million to support its regulations. During the Obama years, the EPA, Interior Department and other federal agencies paid environmental pressure groups tens of millions in collusive, secretive sue-and-settle lawsuit payoffs on dozens of issues. Then we get to the really big money: taxpayer funds that government agencies hand out to scientists, computer modelers and pressure groups to promote global warming and climate change alarmism. As Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore noted recently, citing government and other reports: Federal funding for climate change research, technology, international assistance, and adaptation has increased from $2.4 billion in 1993 to $11.6 billion in 2014, with an additional $26.1 billion for climate change programs and activities provided by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Feds spent an estimated $150 billion on climate change and green energy subsidies during President Obamas first term. That didnt include the 30% tax credits/subsidies for wind and solar power: $8 billion to $10 billion a year plus billions more from state programs that require utilities to buy expensive green energy. Worldwide, according to the progressive Climate Policy Initiative, climate change investment in 2013 totaled $359 billion but this falls far short of the $5 trillion per year thats actually needed. The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change echoes those greedy demands. It says the world must spend $2.4 trillion per year for the next 17 years to subsidize the transition to renewable energy. Bear in mind that $1.5 trillion per year was already being spent in 2014 on Climate Crisis, Inc. research, consulting, carbon trading and renewable projects, according to the Climate Change Business Journal. With 6-8% annual growth, were easily looking at a $2-trillion-per-year climate industry by now. The US Government Accountability Office puts United States taxpayer funding alone at $2.1 billion per year for climate change science $9.0 billion a year for technology R&D and $1.8 billion a year for international assistance. Total US Government spending on climate change totaled $179 billion (!) from 1993 through 2017, according to the GAO. Thats $20 million per day! At the September 2018Global Climate Action Summit, 29 leftist foundations pledged to give $4 billion over five years to their new Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming campaign. Sea Change Foundation co-founder Nat Simons made it clear that this is only a down payment! And I get pilloried for working with organizations that received $41,571 to $59,728 per year from fossil fuel interests questioning claims that fossil fuels are causing climate chaos and raising inconvenient facts and questions about wind, solar and biofuel replacements for coal, oil and natural gas. Just as outrageous, tens of millions of dollars are squandered every year to finance studies that supposedly show surging greenhouse gases and manmade climate change are creating dangerous hybrid puffer fish, causing salmon to lose their ability to detect danger, making sharks right-handed and unable to hunt, increasing the number of animal bites, and causing US cities to be overrun by rats. Lets apply the Greenpeace-DeSmogBlog-Climate Crisis, Inc. standard all these organizations and researchers. Their massive multi-billion-dollar conflicts of interest clearly make them incapable of analyzing climate and energy matters fairly and honestly and disqualify them from participating in any further discussions about Americas and the worlds energy and economic future. At the very least, they and the institutions that have been getting rich and powerful off the catastrophic manmade global warming and climate hustle should be cut off from any future federal funding. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT.org). He has written numerous studies and articles on energy, climate change, human rights and other topics. CALGARYOrganizers in Calgary and Edmonton are holding rallies Tuesday in solidarity with members of the Wetsuweten First Nation who are currently working to keep RCMP and a natural gas company off their traditional territory in northern British Columbia. Members of the nation are currently facing police removal from two checkpoints that block LNG company Coastal GasLink from entering their traditional land. Roughly 30 rallies are being organized across Canada and parts of the United States, and even as far afield as Italy, in support of the Wetsuweten Nation members, according to various Facebook pages listing the events. This includes a rally outside the headquarters of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. which holds Coastal GasLink as a subsidiary in downtown Calgary at noon on Tuesday. In recent months, Calgary has witnessed mass rallies of oil-and-gas supporters frustrated with the lack of progress on major infrastructure projects, such as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The city is also home to the headquarters of some of Canadas biggest oil and gas companies. Michelle Robinson, a co-organizer with the Calgary event, said this makes a rally in the city even more important. I think for us, its really important from here in Calgary to have a showing of whats happening over there is rooted from here, she said. In Edmonton, a rally has been organized by Climate Justice Edmonton and Indigenous Climate Action at Beaver Hills House Park for Tuesday afternoon, according to a Facebook page for the event. Read more: Calm before the storm as Wetsuweten Nation members await RCMP RCMP gathers in nearby towns as First Nation braces for conflict B.C. Indigenous group anticipating RCMP action at anti-LNG pipeline camp Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, belongs to Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. She was one of the group of organizers who helped set up Unistoten Camp eight years ago, which is why she says Tuesdays rally is a personal interest for her. Ive seen the immense beauty and the significance that the lands and territories hold. Not just for the people of Wetsuweten, but frankly, for all of us, she told StarMetro. We are now in a time of real crisis on the planet where we should be working to protect the last remaining intact biodiverse regions of the world and that is what the Wetsuweten and the Unistoten have been doing for the last nine years, she said adding that all their work is being threatened by this desire to continue to remain status quo, business as usual for white settler populations and systems of capitalism that have been a big part of destroying Indigenous rights land territories, livelihoods and culture. She says hosting a rally in solidarity with the Indigenous folks in an oil province is a breath of fresh air. I really hope we can continue to have these conversations about what we are really going to do, not just for the planet, but to ensure that the rights and titles of all peoples are addressed, she said. Because Alberta is an oil province, she does not believe they will be faced with a lot of counter-protesters. The counter-protesters in this province only care if it affects their bank account, which is a really sad thing to be frank about, she said. The fact that a lot of the Albertans and the counter-protesters are really only thinking about whether or not they pay their bills, rather than save the planet, is really troubling. Its currently unclear how many people will attend the Calgary rally. Robinson said it might not have the greatest timing for people at work, and especially for marginalized supporters. A second rally may be in the works for Calgary as early as Saturday, she said. Despite the sometimes angry tone of Calgarys recent oil and gas rallies, Robinson said she isnt concerned about the safety of those who show up Tuesday. Organizers have contacted TransCanada and the Calgary Police Service in advance, she said, and she doesnt believe pro-oil supporters are necessarily opposed to them. I have no doubt there will be people yelling at us. But were there to support the camp, were there to support our peoples, and to say violence against Indigenous peoples is wrong, Robinson said. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... The rallies come as RCMP officers are reportedly deploying to remove the checkpoints from Morice River, B.C., on Monday morning. Coastal GasLink is developing a pipeline through the area to deliver natural gas to the proposed LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C. The Wetsuweten House Chiefs have opposed it. All Wetsuweten Clans have rejected the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline because this is our home, reads a statement from organizers at one of the checkpoints on Monday. Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to protect our ways of life for our babies unborn. On Dec. 14, the B.C. Supreme Court granted Coastal GasLink a temporary injunction against the first checkpoint known as the Unistoten Camp to clear the way for further construction of the pipeline. The Unistoten are another House group within the five clans of the Wetsuweten Nation. Coastal GasLink had argued the original checkpoint effectively stalled construction on the pipeline project. The Unistoten Camp checkpoint was not dismantled or opened following the injunction, and the Gidimten clan of the Wetsuweten Nation set up the second checkpoint since the injunction was granted. With files from Perrin Grauer Read more about: CALGARYThis is the week the frantic scramble to book in-demand camping spots in the Rocky Mountain parks begins. Jasper National Park will start taking reservations on Jan. 8, followed by Banff on Jan. 9. Elk Island National Park, Rocky Mountain House Historic Site, Waterton Lakes National Park, and Wood Buffalo National Park open for bookings on Jan 10. Reservations for backcountry sites meaning those only accessible by hiking open later in January. Reservations for in-demand spots on busy weekends fill up quickly, leading some campers to overbook their campsites well in advance and show up whenever theyre able to. Campsite reservations at Parks Canada sites used to open in April, just before the busy summer camping season. But in 2016, Parks Canada decided to push the date back to January to make it easier for visitors to plan their experience well in advance, according to a statement. The agency also said there are a limited number of first-come, first-served campsites in several national parks, including Banff and Yoho. Booking so far in advance has nonetheless created a rush for campsite space in the mountain parks, according to some outdoor enthusiasts, that frustrates beginners and is pushing at least one event planner to look overseas for a taste of the wilderness. If you go into any of the campsites and look online theyre booked months in advance, said Anthony Mauriks, the owner of Norseman Outdoor Specialist, an outdoor store in Calgary. Thats really discouraging to people that want to get out, but the reality is that theres a whole bunch of those that are just not used. For novice campers hoping to pitch a tent in a national park for the first time, this system can be especially difficult, Mauriks said. Bookings arent normally as heavy on backcountry sites, but these tend to be geared toward more experienced campers. But even for those with a serious love for the outdoors, the inflexibility of the booking system is causing at least one event organizer to think of overseas destinations such as Norway or Iceland over Canadas national parks. Raihan Khan, a member at large with the Calgary Outdoor Club, has planned numerous excursions, both within Canada and overseas. He said hes not opposed to having a reservation system for campsites at national parks, but said requiring campers to book weeks or months in advance can be frustratingly inflexible, especially for those planning multi-day excursions. If bad weather forces a group out of their campsite, rebooking to another campsite on the fly isnt possible. It really restricts your ability to explore and enjoy the outdoors, he said. This is especially true for prospective campers in Banff or Jasper travelling to Alberta from out-of-province. Anyone with a strict trip itinerary who misses their flight or is held up before arriving at their campground runs the risk of losing it. In Europe, Khan said, many campgrounds dont require a reservation. Campers who arrive at a full campground can simply move on to the next one without having to clear it with park officials. I would have wanted to go and hike in Newfoundland, Khan said. But Im finding it easier to go somewhere in Europe, for people who can afford to pay the airfare. Other outdoor enthusiasts and Parks Canada itself said the system works just fine. According to Parks Canada, campsite use at national parks across the country has jumped since the new reservation system came into effect from 120,000 per year to over 340,000. Matt Mosteller, a longtime outdoor enthusiast and writer, said Parks Canadas system gives campers the chance to book their excursions well in advance. It gives you something to look forward to in the long term, he said. Mosteller also pointed out that booking campsites or excursions far in advance is common in the United States as well. Those looking to explore sites such as the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park by boat must apply through a lottery system roughly a year in advance. At least if I do the Parks Canada one, maybe I have to be up early in the morningbut at least at that point, right when I push the button, I know Ive booked that trip, Mosteller said. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Balancing ease of access for prospective campers to national parks with the ability for campsites to hold everyone who wants to pitch a tent is tricky, Mauriks acknowledged. He believes the system should include a small penalty for campers who book a campsite and either cancel their time at the last minute or dont use all of it. There should also be a way to check campsites for last-minute cancellations. Such a system might certainly benefit outdoor stores like Norseman Outdoor Specialist, he said, but it could also draw more people to the national parks wild beauty. Were in the business of encouraging people to get into the wilderness, Mauriks said. Thats what we do more than anything else more than selling or anything. Encouraging people to have an experience. And, obviously, the easier we can make that, the better. Read more about: Miniso Guangzhou LLC, the Chinese low-cost retailer, has reached an interim agreement with its Canadian franchisees which may save them heading to court, a Miniso lawyer says. Miniso stand accused of fraudulent dealings with franchisees, allegations the company denies. Lawyer John Grieve says in an email to The Canadian Press that the deal will keep stores operating and re-institute the delivery of inventory to Canadian operations while both sides work toward a long-term solution. Grieves remarks come after Miniso Guangzhou LLC filed court documents with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, threatening to force Miniso Investments Inc., Migu Investments Inc. and Miniso (Canada) Store Inc. into bankruptcy. It also accused them of fraudulently transferring registered trademark rights to third-party corporations, disposing of inventory and ceasing to meet liabilities as they came due. The filings said Miniso Guangzhou LLC is owed the Canadian equivalent of $2.4 million (U.S.) in loans and $13.3 million in inventory. There are about 50 Miniso stores in operation in Canada, but when the brand entered the country in 2017 it promised to open 500 locations within three years. HOUSTON, B.C.RCMP say they arrested 14 people from a blockade to a forest service road in northern British Columbia that is preventing access to a pipeline project. Mounties say the arrests took place at the Gitdumten checkpoint on Morice West Forest Service Road for various offences, including alleged violations of an injunction order against the blockade. They allege officers saw a number of fires being lit along the roadway. Members of the Gidimten clan of the Wetsuweten First Nation had set up a camp and a checkpoint in the area, southwest of Houston, which they said was to control access. In a statement, RCMP say officers spoke with representatives of the camp about the removal of a road block along the roadway, and set up a meeting between hereditary chiefs and Coastal GasLink. But police say at about 3 p.m., they realized the matter couldnt be resolved and they took action. Read more: Regulator schedules hearings for B.C. LNG natural gas pipeline challenge Unistoten Camp faces temporary injunction over pipeline protest Environmental and economic development choices split Canadas First Nations The statement says a temporary exclusion zone has been set up in the area where the police do not allow access to anyone who is not part of the enforcement team. The RCMP says the zone remains in place and will be consistently reassessed. The statement also addressed what police called erroneous reports that RCMP jammed communications in the area, and that the military was present during the police enforcement operation. We would like to clarify that both of these allegations are incorrect, the statement says. The area is extremely remote and even police had limited access to communication. Mounties said earlier Monday they would enforce the interim injunction issued by the B.C. Supreme Court in mid-December. The court ordered the removal of any obstructions interfering with the Coastal GasLink project. The injunction gave protesters 72 hours to remove obstructions and the police say that had not happened, preventing Coastal Gaslink Pipeline Ltd. from being able to do any work in the area. The pipeline by TransCanada subsidiary Coastal GasLink would carry natural gas from the Dawson Creek area to Kitimat. The company says it has signed agreements with all First Nations along the route for LNG Canadas $40-billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, but demonstrators argue Wetsuweten house chiefs, who are hereditary rather than elected, have not given consent. A news release issued Sunday on behalf of Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says all five Wetsuweten clans, including the Gidimten, oppose the construction of oil and gas pipelines in their territory. The provincial and federal governments must revoke the permits for this project until the standards of free, prior and informed consent are met, Phillip says in the release. LNG Canada announced in October that it was moving ahead with its plans for the Kitimat export facility. Construction on the $6.2-billion pipeline, which is 670 kilometres long, is scheduled to begin this month. B.C. Premier John Horgan said LNG Canadas decision would help an economically deprived region of the province and bring in an estimated $23 billion in provincial revenue. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Around 2012, the Unistoten camp set up a blockade by constructing a gate and other obstacles to the area, and a second gate was recently constructed at the Morice River Bridge, the company said in a document filed with the court. TransCanada has said it is not asking for the camp at the bridge to be dismantled, only for access to its pipeline right of way. Marches were planned across the country on Tuesday to support members of the Gidimten clan who oppose the pipeline project. Read more about: Off a dirt road outside Kingston, Jamaica, 300 marijuana plants sit in manicured rows overseen by a Rastafarian grow master who goes by the name Bob on the Job. As Canadian pot producer Aphria Inc. tells it, the farm is part of its growing portfolio of international assets. For two U.S. short sellers, its one of the catalysts for an offensive that sent Aphria shares plunging in December. Hindenburg Research and Quintessential Capital Management questioned the farms existence and said Aphria overpaid for largely worthless assets in a three-country deal. The truth, as uncovered by a tour of the Jamaican countryside and the back streets of Buenos Aires by Bloomberg, is more nuanced. In the nascent world of global pot investing, assets can be hard to document and even harder to value, though first-mover advantage may hold big rewards. Aphria acquired LATAM Holdings Inc. in a September deal that the Leamington, Ont.-based company valued at $193 million (U.S.) when it was announced and SOL Global Investments Corp., the seller, said was worth $298 million when it closed. The assets include Marigold Projects, a licensed Jamaican grower, a pharmaceutical distribution warehouse in Argentina and licensed farmland in Colombia. In mid-December, black and yellow plastic tubs brimming with medical-grade marijuana were stacked inside an old shipping container on the Marigold farm. The haul is the product of 2,500 kilograms of weed it harvested from 10 acres of former sugar cane-growing land leased from the government, proof Aphria says, the assets have value. Theres been so much interest in Jamaicas medical marijuana that there were companies coming from all over to the island to assess the situation, Lloyd Tomlinson, Marigolds founder, said at his office in Kingston. In the country made famous by the ganja-smoking reggae star Bob Marley, thats a huge opportunity. Hindenburg and New York-based hedge fund Quintessential called the acquisitions part of a shell game to funnel money to insiders at an inflated price. The Dec. 3 report sent Aphrias stock down by about half in three days, wiping out $1.4 billion in market value. Aphria called the report malicious, false and defamatory, and said the deals were backed by a fairness opinion from Cormark Securities Inc., a Toronto investment bank. Aphria has also appointed a special committee to review the acquisitions and named Irwin Simon as an independent chairman, replacing Vic Neufeld who remains chief executive officer. Hindenburg has urged Cormark to make the fairness opinion public. The emerging cannabis markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are in various early stages of developing a robust medical cannabis regime, like we have in Canada, Aphria said in a Dec. 17 emailed response to questions about the short report. They also represent significant opportunities to realize new demand and establish important, low-cost regional cultivation for domestic use and international export. The controversy took a new twist when smaller U.S. cannabis retailer Green Growth Brands Ltd. announced a proposed hostile takeover offer on Dec. 27 that valued Aphria at almost $2.8 billion. Aphrias shares jumped 13 per cent the day after the bid, erasing some of the losses from the report. Hindenburg called the bid noncredible and raised questions about connections between the two companies while Aphria said the offer significantly undervalues the company. Aphria is scheduled to report earnings for its fiscal second quarter on Jan. 11. The company has not yet released the detailed, line-by-line rebuttal of the short report it told BNN Bloomberg it would issue. The Jamaica farm is the most obvious proof that Aphria bought a functioning business in Latin America. Quintessential said its researcher was unable to find the operation, despite much searching, and was therefore unable to confirm its existence. Located an hours drive from Kingston in St. Catherine parish, the farm is tucked about 250 metres off the road, surrounded by a chain-link fence, patrolled by armed guards, and monitored by dozens of security cameras. Tomlinson, a lanky, bald Jamaica native, said he started the operation in 2015 after obtaining a renewable, 25-year lease from the government. He declined to say how much he paid for the lease. About 4,100 plants were being grown when Aphria bought the business on Sept. 27, according to a copy of an inventory seen by Bloomberg. On the day Bloomberg visited, workers were moving month-old plants from a covered nursery to the growing fields, including a strain the company developed called Marigold. The October-November harvest is the largest, according to the company, but the climate can support as many as three harvests a year. Tomlinson said the farm has the capacity to increase its production substantially to 16,000 kilograms a year. Hes never been contacted by Quintessential, he said. Aphria said it received a Tier 3 licence for the farm, allowing it to cultivate five acres or more. In an emailed response to questions, Quintessential stood by its research and said the farm is of little importance for the purpose of valuing the assets of the company because Marigold leases the land, instead of owning it. It also doubted the 2,500 kilogram output claim. The only asset that Aphria appears to have purchased is a Tier 3 cannabis licence, Quintessential said. Aphria cant yet export its Jamaican weed, as the country currently doesnt allow it. The government plans to introduce a bill to parliament early this year that would allow for commercial shipments abroad, according to the Cannabis Licensing Authority. Initially, the company plans to focus on the local market, selling to the 2.9 million residents and the more than 4 million tourists who visit annually. Quintessential also raised doubts about the existence of a Kingston retail shop, called Sensi Medical Cannabis House. The hedge fund said it visited the address in a small shopping centre in Jamaicas capital in October and couldnt find the business, coming to the conclusion that Marigolds Unit 51 didnt exist. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Bloomberg found the store well-marked on the second floor, above a pizza-by-the-slice and Jamaican beef-patty joint. Inside, the store was built out, but shelves and display cases were empty. A second room, in which a leather couch sat, was built for smoking on the premises. A sales manager who asked not to be identified said they plan to have a medical doctor on site who can write prescriptions to some of the 3,000 customers they expect each week. Marigold has three other retail sites that arent yet open, according to copies of the approvals seen by Bloomberg. Quintessential, in response to questions, said it couldnt locate the business because Aphria had published the wrong address for Sensi. In Argentina, Aphrias subsidiary ABP SA is remodelling a warehouse in the residential Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The four-story building is not operational, according to three construction workers who asked not to be named. The entrance hall has an empty reception desk, four waiting chairs and eight official authorizations posted on the wall granted by local regulatory bodies. ABP also runs a drugstore called Farmacia & Perfumeria. Aphria said ABP also distributes to a network of pharmacies, clinics and hospitals and that its delivered 1,500 bottles of an oil derived from cannabis for use in clinical studies on treating refractory epilepsy in children. The LATAM deal was funded by the issuance of 15.7 million common Aphria shares plus the assumption of $1 million in debt. Quintessential and Hindenburg said in their Dec. 3 report that this amounts to about $280 million based on Aphrias share price when the deal closed, and the Jamaican assets made up $145 million of that total. Aphria said the deal was worth $193 million when it was announced in July and the seller of the assets said it received approximately $298 million when the deal closed in September. Neither Aphria nor the seller gave a value for the Jamaican assets. Aphria paid 15-20x more for its Jamaican operations than competitors, Nathan Anderson, founder of Hindenburg, said in an email on Saturday. A small farm connected by a dirt road does not justify the egregious acquisition price. Aphria said the price paid was comparable to similar acquisitions made by other Canadian cannabis producers. Bank of Nova Scotia analysts Oliver Rowe and Ben Isaacson said the $193 million price given by Aphria at the time of the announcement was more appropriate, as this was the value management had control over when they entered the deal. They estimated the Jamaican assets to be worth about $45 million and pointed to similar deals done by Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis Inc. Canopy agreed to pay an initial $34.8 million in shares for Spectrum Cannabis Colombia S.A.S, giving it 42 licensed hectares of production capacity. Aurora paid $290 million to acquire ICC Labs Inc., which gave them two greenhouse facilities, three outdoor grow sites and two under-construction facilities in Uruguay and Colombia. In Colombia, Aphria purchased a 90 per cent stake in Colcanna, which it said has an office and 34 acres of farmland in a coffee-growing region about 200 miles west of Bogota. These transactions indicate to us that Aphrias purchase price of $193 million for Colombia, Argentina and Jamaica is, at the very least, rational and perhaps even relatively inexpensive, the Scotiabank analysts wrote in a note. Ultimately, the LATAM acquisition is a small part of Aphrias total assets, which include Canadian production capacity thats expected to reach 255,000 kilograms annually in 2019, $314 million of cash on its balance sheet and supply agreements with all the Canadian provinces. Were not usually one to blow smoke up our neighbours pipes, but on this occasion, its well warranted. A bunch of Aussie petrol-heads have reclaimed the world record for the biggest simultaneous burnout, with 126 cars smoking it up during the annual Summernats meet in Canbera last weekend. Summernats set the original record for Largest Simultaneous Burnout back in 2013 with 69 cars, but the feat was overtaken in 2017 when 119 Saudi Arabians took the prize from the Aussies. So in the first weekend of 2019, Summernats organisers made sure the record returned. They did it for Australia and brought the record home to its rightful place, Summernats said in a statement. After the smoke cloud cleared, the new record was verified on the spot by Guiness World Records officials. Proceeds from the sale of these patches, available online or from Franconia Township Police Department officers, will be donated to Souderton Area School District autism programs. Staff reports Watertown Public Opinion (Editors note: Steve Chapman is off this week.) President Donald Trump began the new year with characteristic bombast, blaming others for perceived failures, taking credit for non-achievements or those accomplished despite him, and dispensing misinformation like candy on Halloween. In his first Cabinet meeting, the president riffed for an hour and a half on his petty grievances rather than do the business of setting the agenda for the year with his appointees, several of whom are in an acting position because their predecessors resigned or were pushed out the door. Seeing as the president seems unable to come up with a plan to actually govern in 2019, here are a couple of items on my wish list a list that reasonable conservatives and some liberals might even be able to agree on. Lets start with infrastructure. It seems like eons ago when the president stood in the lobby of Trump Tower to announce his $1 trillion infrastructure plan, but Trumps controversial comments on the deadly alt-right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous weekend eclipsed the Aug. 15, 2017, announcement. In 2018, Trump released an even bigger plan, $1.5 trillion, but to date, not much has been accomplished. With Democrats in control of the House, infrastructure will gain traction, but the trick will be doing something that makes sense, doesnt bust the budget and largely pays for itself. Democrats would like to roll back the Trump tax cuts to pay for some of the needed upgrades to infrastructure, but it would make more sense to increase the federal gas tax to raise revenue for roads and bridges. Republicans never want to raise taxes, but taxing fuel is essentially a user fee, with those who use highways the most paying for that use. Right now, the federal fuel charge is 24.4 cents a gallon for diesel and 18.4 cents for gasoline, and it hasnt been raised in more than 20 years. A few cents more would raise significant funds, but those funds should be used directly to pay for highways and bridges, not spent on mass transit as some Democrats would like. Gas prices remain historically low, so there is no better time to bump up the fuel tax. Immigration is another area where there is possibility of movement if the president would just tone down his rhetoric and Democrats would accept modest changes because a sweeping overhaul is not possible. President Trump says he wants to secure the border, but illegal immigration is falling, not rising, and has been for a decade. The only area that has seen a significant increase is the number of families and unaccompanied minors who are fleeing violence and poverty in their own countries, mostly from Central America. These are not traditional immigrants but asylum-seekers. Whether the president likes it or not, current law only allows those seeking asylum to apply once they are on U.S. soil and the courts have so far ruled that the administration cant change the rules without going to Congress. Providing asylum to those fleeing persecution is an important value to most Americans, but it makes little sense to insist that people show up at our borders if they want to claim asylum. The system was simply not meant to deal with the more than 150,000 families and unaccompanied children who came last year alone. Congress should look to modify current law to make the asylum procedure more manageable and to ensure that those who have legitimate claims can seek protection while those with more tenuous ones dont bog down the system. But the easiest fix to our immigration problems would be resolving the status of those who were brought here illegally as children, the so-called DACA population. They deserve to be granted the legal right to remain in the U.S., as long as they have committed no crimes, have paid taxes and are gainfully employed or in school. No one, not even President Trump, wants to deport these young people, so he should forget the right-wing talk show screamers and work with Congress to protect them. If the president could stop getting his advice from Fox News, he might actually get something done this year. Who knows? He might actually enjoy what it feels like to have real accomplishments to tout, as opposed to fantasizing about walls and making government grind to a halt. Linda Chavez is chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center. Julianne Endres Watertown Community Foundation Several local nonprofits are starting the New Year with a grant, thanks to Giving Back 365 donors. The 2018 Watertown Area Community Foundation program had 92 participants who gave at a dollar a day during the year. Donors $365 gifts were split with half being awarded in grants and half being put in an endowed fund to support future grants. The total available for granting in 2018 was $17,550 which included those gifts and the endowment earnings. At the end of the year, Giving Back 365 donors voted on the grant applications received. Here are the results: $1,500 to the Boys & Girls Club for First Aid, CPR and AED supplies and training. $871 to Divine Providence of South Dakota to help purchase technology equipment for the Mercy Tree ecumenical praise and worship team. $1,575 to Habitat for Humanity Greater Watertown Region to support the production of a video for the organization. $2,000 to Joy Ranch to support construction/remodel costs of the Mack house that was recently moved to Joy Ranch grounds for summer staff housing. $2,000 to Lake Area Child Protection, Inc. to help fund local foster parent events. $1,504 to Lake Area Zoological Society to support the Wildlife Warriors boys program at Bramble Park Zoo. $2,000 to My Happy Place to support the acquisition of office supplies as well as assist with bedroom makeovers for sick children. $1,100 to Watertown Area People Against Child Hunger (PACH) to buy food and two large tables to be used for sorting food. $2,000 to Watertown Area Transit to help with transportation costs for local LATI students in need. $1,000 to Watertown Artwalk to help with publishing costs of the 2019 Artwalk brochures. $2,000 to Watertown Police Department Camp Chance to provide T-shirts for the 2019 participants. Thank you to the 2018 Giving Back 365 donors for making these grants possible. If you would like to join the 2019 Giving Back 365 effort, please send your gift to: Watertown Area Community Foundation, 211 E. Kemp, Watertown, SD 57201. For more information, call 605-882-3731. Meet the mainstream By Daniel M. Ryan January 3rd saw the world-wide celebration of the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin's genesis block. It was the Bitcoin blockchain's 10th birthday. Ten years of explosive pell-mell growth and development of a digital frontier that's now recognized as Internet 3.0. Bitcoin is now used for remittances; it's seriously talked about as a store of value like gold. Blockchain technology is effecting a permanent revolution of finance. What began as an underground techno-libertarain experiment defiantly set against the fiat-money banking system now counts among its influencers Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke (for Ripple), Al Gore, Ralph Benko, and Sheila Bair. Until her recent resignation, Blythe Masters the inventor of the first wave of financial derivatives was a mover and shaker in the blockchain sector. In one sense, the ten years of Bitcoin is like a compressed history of San Francisco from 1840 to World War 1: a small settlement to gold-rush boom town to sprawling growth to rapid development to modern-city regulation. But in another sense, its life track has been like the stereotypical Boomer: starting off adulthood throwing mud at limousines only to end up riding in one. When a history of cryptocurrency is written what follows only scratches the surface one theme will be the muting of the original ideals for practical and arguably responsible reasons. Though a world-historical success economically, there is an element of tragedy in the cryptocurrency story. As was reported world-wide, Bitcoin's genesis block Jan 3, 2009, contained the famous headline from the Financial Times: "Chancellor [Alastair Darling] on brink of second bailout for banks." Although Satoshi Nakamoto included it to test Bitcoin's signed-message functionality, its text said volumes about the early adopters it would attract. Nakamoto announced it on a peer-to-peer programmers' group on Nov. 1, 2008, two days after self-publishing Bitcoin's white paper. He and Bitcoin attracted a then-small tight-knit group of supporters in 2009, including Nick Szabo and cryptographer Hal Finney. The latter received the first transfer of Bitcoin from Satoshi himself, and there were times in that year when he and Satoshi were the only ones keeping the blockchain going via mining. Sadly, Finney passed away in 2014. Other supporters, who were just as crucial as the cryptographers and programmers, were libertarians. Brandon Smith, the proprieter of alt-market.com, was approached by two of them in late 2009. They urged him to join in and to push Bitcoin on his Website. He turned them down, and has had zero regrets about it. Whatever you think about his business acumen, he certainly stuck by his principles. The next year saw the legendary sale of a pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins. This being the first sale, it was a trust-based exchange where the seller of the pizza used his credit card to order a pizza online for the buyer. At that time, there was no need for an escrower. 2010 was also the year that the first Bitcoin exchange, appropriately named bitcoinexchange.com, debuted. Mt. Gox, originally an exchange for Magic: The Gathering cards, switched to Bitcoin later that same year. Originally, both accepted PayPal. But Paypal refused to accept crypto as a legitimate good, so a scammy buyer could complain to PayPal, get his spend reversed, and keep his ill-gotten Bitcoin. Both exchanges got stung by this, so Mt. Gox switched to wire transfer. At that time, the owner of Gox was Jed McCaleb. The now-notorious Mark Karpleles didn't buy it until the next year. Also in 2010, Satoshi went dark. His original code had been cleaned up and organized by Gregory Maxwell, Mike Hearn, Gavin Andreson and others who had formed the Github group Bitcoin Core. Before he vanished, Satoshi appointed Andreson as lead maintainer of Bitcoin's open-source code. To all appearances, Satoshi vanished because he thought his creation was in good hands and could thrive without him. 2011 saw the first wave of hackings. The hacking of Mt. Gox in May '11 was enough to kill the bull market and send Bitcoin into its worst bear market to date. Mt. Gox was wounded, but came back. Hackers killed some other exchanges outright, like Bitcoinica. They would kill quite a few more. Portentously, Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road opened up in the dark web in February of 2011. It got noticed by a Gawker writer in June. Although Bitrcoiners didn't like this mentioned, the Silk Road was the venue that platformed the first regular use of Bitcoin as a currency. Buying the legal and illegal goods and services on Silk Road was the first use of Bitcoin in the way that Satoshi intended it to be used. This shouldn't be jimmie-rustling, as it encapsulates the Innovator's Dilemma. Disruptive technologies can't overturn niches occupied by incumbents because people are creatures of habit. A disruptive technology, even one clearly superior, has to establish itself in a niche that the incumbents deem to be too risky or seamy for them to exploit. Thusly, Bitcoin first came into its own as a currency as a medium of exchange for a niche that no payment processor would touch. We're seeing a recapitulation of this effect in the "dark ideas" sector. Bitcoin can't boot anyone off its platform, nor can it be deplatformed. Wikileaks had relied on Bitcoin donations since 2011, the year after it was deplatformed by PayPal. Now that the right and foes of the regressive left are being squeezed, they're turning to Bitcoin too. Blessedly and by design, cryptocurrency is opinions-agnostic. 2011 also saw the first innovative altcoin. Namecoin attempted to use its blockchain for an alternative DNS system using .bit as its top level domain. It didn't come to fruit, but it was a good try and proved to be a herald of more consequential innovations. A harbinger of another side of the altcoin space came with Tenebrix. This alt used used scrypt as its hashing instead of SHA-2. Its reason for being was the arrival of Bitcoin mining programs that could use graphics cards' Graphics Processing Units (GPUs.) Miners who preferred to use their CPUs were miffed at being outcompeted. Tenebrix, with a hashing function that would foul up the GPU mining programs, offered them a chance to stick with their CPUs. So a lot of miners loved it until they found out that the dev of the coin secretly mined some himself before announcing it to the Bitcoin public. This cheating made Tenebrix the first altcoin scam. The idea was good, though, so a dev by the name of coblee forked it into Fairbrix and guaranteed that there was no premine beyong a 100-block test run. Fairbrix was itself a test run for the now-venerable Litecoin, devved by the same Charlie Lee. 2012 saw Bitcoin recover from '11's vicious bear market. Word spread about it, and so did derision. It got nicknamed "Magical Internet Money." '12 also saw the introduction of Ripple and XRPs. Ripple and the XRP tokens were a professional attempt to adapt blockchain technology to replace the '70s-era SWIFT system. Rather than battle the banks, Ripple aimed to work with them. It was the first platform to introduce in-blockchain tokens, or Assets, but these were not tokens in the cryptocurrency sense of the term. They were created by opening "trust lines." This procedure punted away the trust-free goal of cryptocurrency. Although Ripple's platform carried the first decentralized market, it was a market that traded those trust-line Assets. Unsurprisingly, it was controversial. Because of the trust factor and a ledger system dominated by Ripple Inc., many Bitcoiners insisted that it was not a cryptocurrency at all. Despite this, it attracted a thriving community in '12 and '13. Although it was not included in Coimnarketcap.com's first lists of cryptocurrencies it didn't show up until about August 11, 2013 it's occupied the #3 or #2 slot since then, except for a brief slip to #6 in February 2014. It hit the big time in 2017 as the "legit" alternative cryptocurrency. Silk Road's Ulbricht was busted by the FBI in 2013. By that time, Bitcoiners were looking at remittances as a use case and beginning to implement. Remittances, on a much larger scale than dark markets, saw Bitcoin and other cryptocuurencies being used as currencies. Nowadays, about 15% of all private remittances are sent with cryptocurrency. After the arrest, the U.S. Senate held a hearing on Bitcoin and it was surprisingly favourable. Bitcoin leapt upwards in consequence, and the old-time crypto-libertarianism was on the slow road to being downplayed. Although 2014 was ravaged by a bear market that was hard on Bitcoin and even harder on alternative cryptocurrenies, it proved to be the trial by fire that ensured Bitcoin and the others would be a permanent part of world finance. Not unlike 2018, 2014 saw a lot of goofiness, some scamming, but a lot of true grit. Before the slogan "bear markets are for building" was coined, faithful cryptonauts were living it in 2014 and 2015. Ethereum, the cryptocurrency that brought smart contracts into being, was the first professionally-run pre-sale: it set the standard for the post-boomtown age. Its blockchain hosts a huge number of Assets known in Ethereum-speak as ERC-20 tokens - and serves as the platform for a host of start-ups. Back in 2014, funding for new cryptocurrenies came through pre-sales or through the devs' own pockets. Start-up money was only available for service builders like companies offering remittances with Bitcoin or a Bitcoin non-dark marketplace. Nowadays, there's venture capital aplenty. Yes, the boom town has evolved into a thriving metropolis. Cryptocurrency is becoming mainstreamed. But in so doing, it's met the demands of the mainstream authorities. As renowned cryptoanarchist Tim May said in his last interview before his passing: I cant speak for what Satoshi intended, but I sure dont think it involved bitcoin exchanges that have draconian rules about KYC, AML, passports, freezes on accounts and laws about reporting "suspicious activity" to the local secret police. Theres a real possibility that all the noise about "governance," "regulation" and "blockchain" will effectively create a surveillance state, a dossier society. I think Satoshi would barf.... What I see is losses of hundred of millions in some programming screw-ups, thefts, frauds, initial coin offerings (ICOs) based on flaky ideas, flaky programming and too few talented people to pull off ambitious plans. Sorry if this ruins the narrative, but I think the narrative is [corrupted]. That's the tragedy of Bitcoin's world-historical success. One part of the tragic side is the fact that boom towns attract boom-town hustlers and boom-town hurry-overs. The other part is poignant. Through decisions entirely pragmatic and understandable, many of them motivated by a moral-obligation version of fiduciary duty, Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sector has had to downplay its original ideals. Those ideals still live in muted form, but a pessimist would opine that they're headed to Rotary-Club lip service. When you meet the mainstream, you meet the demands of the mainstream. And, as the last ten years have shown, the demands of the mainstream are quite different than the promises of crypto-anarchism. They may well be realized far off in the future, but not in the managerialist world of today. Daniel M. Ryan, as Nxtblg, is spinning his wheels at Steemit. Home Tre at Banyan Tree: Chef Kreaton elevates and innovates with local produce Banyan Tree, located in Laguna, is a truly spectacular resort with several highly- rated restaurants, beach frontage, and surrounding saltwater lakes. Tre, its flagship restaurant, will probably be less known to you and tonight, its my destination for dinner. Dining By Chris Watson Monday 7 January 2019, 11:20AM I jump on-board a buggy and make my way through pristine grounds of luxury pool villas looking out across manicured lawns and traverse quaint wooden bridges as we head to this paragon of fine dining. Arriving, I am greeted and accompanied through a charming lounge to the restaurant. The vista is breathtaking. I pause to fully digest the scene; all tables are afforded picture postcard views over an expanse of water towards warmly lit villas dotted along the banks of the lake. In the early evening, the lake is enveloped with an ethereal glow. Located in an attractive wooden Thai pavilion one can dine, semi-indoors or below the stars on an outside terrace at the waters edge. This is a venue that screams romance! Presented with the menus, I am greeted by Chef Kreaton Cutajar, who helpfully explains that his style has a western foundation, however ingredients are wherever possible locally-sourced. This philosophy supports Banyan Trees core company commitment to protecting and sustaining the environments in which they operate. The goal, to generate the lowest possible carbon footprint. An admirable philosophy in this age of global warming and amid the critical need to take more care of our environment for future generations. As I discuss my selections with Chef Kreaton, I discover he is half Maltese and half British; in fact, from Essex. He arrived at Tre from renowned restaurants across the globe and has worked with several celebrity chefs including the infamous Gordon Ramsay. A choice of home-made breads arrives with the typical butter, oil and balsamic offerings, however accompanied more unusually by an eye-popping beetroot dip. Whilst the bright purple colour is self-evident, this humble healthy vegetable has been elevated. Both the smooth texture and earthy flavour of this puree is quite incredible. Following this, an amuse bouche is brought to the table; yet another surprise. A traditional egg box, labelled free range of course, contains simple eggs filled with a punchy chawanmushi egg custard. It is at this point that I realise I am in for a real treat! I have chosen to begin with two starters, the first, home-made agnolotti, half-moon shaped pasta containing taleggio cheese in a sauce of truffle butter and dusted with pecorino cheese. The delicate parcels are perfectly cooked with a hint of bite and the filling gives a pleasant fruity tang to the dish. The pasta is coated in a buttery sauce and the cheesy topping gives the dish a slight saltiness which cuts through the richness of the butter. I follow this with scallops artfully presented with Chiang Mai turnip and a crunchy tonka bean granola adding texture. Truly an excellent beginning. Should I return soon, a somewhat rhetorical question, I would have no difficulty in choosing other appetisers which equally tempt. There is a Thai blue river prawn served with textures of corn or perhaps an heirloom tomato salad with avocado and caviar. They both sound absolutely lush! A picture-perfect palate cleanser is brought to the table as I await the main event, however I will keep this to myself so those of you who visit may enjoy the simply stellar surprise! Main courses follow of a 72-hour braised Wagyu brisket on a bed of polenta with burnt onions and black tea. I opt for side dishes of a truffle potato puree with a decadent texture and crunchy Thai asparagus; this a perfect foil to the wonderfully unctuous beef which literally melts in the mouth. This is a subliminal dish. Other main dishes, I am confident could also deliver the desired flavour bomb. Earlier, I almost took the plunge for a black cod in a rich and powerful dashi broth or a signature Phuket lobster with Thai ginger. I make yet another mental note that I must return. Tre has in the past closed during the summer-months however I am informed that the management are considering remaining open throughout the year; in case they dont, heed my recommendation and make a reservation soonest. Leave room for dessert as they are both highly innovative and inspiring. They range from a Longan flower honey dish married with Chiang Mai almonds to a white chocolate confection scented with Thai dill. The attentive staff advise me that my chariot awaits and as I depart, reflect on my quite special evening. Theres clearly no holding this (half) Essex boy back; Tre is his proverbial Ford Sierra Cosworth X4i and should you dine here, which I recommend you do, I have no doubt you will have an elegant experience, whilst traveling at the culinary equivalent of 100 miles per hour. This is good food! The combination of Chef Kreaton and Tre is a recipe for success. Chris is a former Michelin Guide Inspector who, following an international career in hospitality spanning 30 years in both the Middle East and Asia, has now settled in Thailand and will contribute a monthly restaurant column. Phuket gets ready to celebrate Childrens Day PHUKET: Local municipalities across the island are getting ready to celebrate Childrens Day this Saturday (Jan 12) with a host of fun activities for kids. culture By The Phuket News Monday 7 January 2019, 03:31PM Childrens Day this Saturday (Jan 12) will see a host of activities especially for the kids. Photo: The Phuket News / file Childrens Day, in Thai called Wan Dek, is celebrated throughout the country on the second Saturday of January every year. The national day, although not a public holiday, to give children the opportunity to have fun and to create awareness about their significant role towards the development of the country. The day was set as a national day to be observed in 1955. Phuket, along with the rest of the country, will host activities at many government offices and hotels across the island on Saturday as follows: The Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command, based at Cape Panwa, will host its traditional activities from 8am to 3pm, and which will include a military weapons display, a live air-sea rescue display, and a chance for people to board and view the Navy bases hostage rescue military ship. Meanwhile, the Phuket Provincial Office and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO, or OrBorJor) will hold their Childrens Day events from 9am to 3pm at Phuket Provincial Hall, where children will be able to sit in the Governors chair among other fun activities. Phuket International Airport, operated by Airports of Thailand (AoT), will host a fun event at the X-Terminal building, with magic shows, live performances, games and free food and drink. Phuket City Municipality will hold its activities at Saphan Hin from 8am to midday, including live childrens performances and activities, and lucky draw prizes for kids. Patong Municipality will host a fun event at Loma Park, on the Patong beachfront, with more than 4,000 prizes for kids. Also 16 small stages will be set for live performances and activities and free food and drink. Chalong Municipality will host its fun event at the municipality offices, with live shows, performances and activities, gifts and free food and drink. Srisoonthorn Municipality will host its fun event at 87 Nawamintolaracha Park (also called Khun Nam Bang Maruwan, click here), with live shows, performances and activities, as well as gifts for children and free food and drink. Wichit Municipality will host its fun event at the public park opposite the Laem Chan Health Promoting Hospital on Patthana Thongthin Rd from 8:30am, with more live shows and fun kids activities. Phuket Rajabhat University (PRU) will hold their Childrens Day activities at the PRU campus north of Phuket Town from 5pm to 8pm. Pabuk aid effort kicks off BANGKOK: Survival kits and other aid for storm and flood victims have started to roll in to hundreds of communities and farms affected by Tropical Storm Pabuk, as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha makes a trip to the South to lead the recovery effort. disastersweather By Bangkok Post Monday 7 January 2019, 12:02PM Border Patrol Police were among the first responders to the Storm Pabuk devastation, and are seen, above, starting repairs on monks living quarters at Wat Daeng in Chian Yai District of Nakhon Sri Thammarat, crushed by falling trees at the height of the storm. Photos: Bangkok Post / Pattarapong Chatpattarasil The assistance came after pictures from Nakhon Sri Thammarat and its surrounding provinces showed the extent of the damage from the storm, which claimed the lives of several people, not to mention rare dolphins. To date, six people are reported to have died after Pabuk made landfall on Nakhon Sri Thammarats Pak Phanang coastline late on Friday. The storm continued onwards to the Andaman Sea the following day. Pabuk was downgraded Sunday to a low-pressure system, which is good news for Thailand, government spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta quoted Gen Prayut as saying. The premier is scheduled to visit storm victims in Nakhon Si Thammarat today, following provisions and survival kits given by His Majesty the King to residents, especially evacuees in the hardest-hit Pak Phanang district. Volunteers handed food to evacuees from khrua phraratchathan, a royally bestowed kitchen, while necessities were distributed to villagers at a local temple in Pak Phanang district. Military officers have been also ordered to assist in the operation. All armed forces must stand by the side of people to help them, Defence Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich said, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon. Although Pabuk has begun to move away from the South, the storm left behind a string of tragedies in its wake. Police found the body of Joom Pooroy in a canal, in which the 57-year-old plunged into while she was riding a motorcycle to look for her child late on Friday. She was among the villagers who were evacuated to an emergency shelter earlier on the same day. Officers said that she must have passed out and drowned because of the strong current. A fisherman was found dead on the shore at Pattanis Yaring district yesterday, after his boat capsized on Friday. As the surveys to quantify the damage to private property and public infrastructures continue, authorities are starting to count the casualties among wildlife. Animals were also among the casualties claimed by Pabuk as it tore its way through the South, as at least one finless porpoise and one pink humpbacked dolphin were killed by strong waves. The young calves struggled against 4- to 5-metre high waves as they emerged to breathe on the waters surface, Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine scientist who serves as the deputy dean of Kasetsart Universitys Faculty of Fisheries, wrote on his Facebook page. They tried their best but failed to find their mothers. Mr Thon believed the dolphins were separated from their respective pods. They died as Pabuk departed, the marine scientist lamented. We cant help them. But nature is indeed always impartial no mercy. In Prachuap Khiri Khan gigantic waves destroyed a seawall, tearing down the line of defence along Sam Roi Yot beach and hurling stones and sand ashore. Officials were shocked when they saw stones littering a seaside road over a distance of nearly 800 metres. Travelling times for residents and tourists lengthened sharply as many roads were severely damaged by the storm. Long-term solutions to all affected provinces are being planned to help villagers lives return to normal. The government wants to absorb their tears and increase their revenues, Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said after an urgent meeting. Officials will help villagers sell their remaining farm produce in Bangkok, as well as grocery stores and shopping centres in their provinces, he said. Pabuk affected 212,784 people across 2,635 villages in 18 provinces from Thursday to Saturday last week, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. In Nakhon Sri Thammarat alone, almost 180,000 residents across 23 villages were affected. While most shelters have closed, eight shelters remain open in the storm-ravaged province, as more than 1,100 residents affected by the storm have decided to stay until the flooding recedes. Read original story here. Marine Dept launches Facebook complaints portal, as dangerous Phuket speedboat complaint left floundering PHUKET: The Marine Department of Thailand today (Jan 7) launched a Facebook page for people to file complaints about marine tour services, and especially marine safety. tourismmarineSafety By The Phuket News Monday 7 January 2019, 07:46PM The Marine Department launched its Facebook page for people to file complaints about marine tour services, and especially marine safety, today (Jan 7). Image: Screengrab / Facebook / Marine Dept The Marine Department launched its Facebook page for people to file complaints about marine tour services, and especially marine safety, today (Jan 7). Image: Screengrab / Facebook / Marine Dept The Marine Department launched its Facebook page for people to file complaints about marine tour services, and especially marine safety, today (Jan 7). Image: Screengrab / Facebook / Marine Dept The launch of the webpage, called Notification of Complaints to the Marine Department (click here), aims to allow people to file complaints instantly, with photos, Phuket Marine Office Acting Director Wiwat Chitchertwong explained to The Phuket News. It will be easier for foreign tourists and other people to inform us about bad marine services or unreliable services in Phuket, Mr Wiwat said. Also tourists can change the language from Thai to English with a single click (using the built-in Facebook translation service). After that the Marine Department (head office in Bangkok) will record the complaint and send the information to us. Then we will go to work on the complaint, and depending on the we will warn or charge the boat operator or even revoke their license. We can even force them to undergo training after they have been handed down punishment or a warning, he said. Mr Wiwat noted that people can still file complaints through the Marine Departments existing complaints web portal, which launched five years ago. (Click here.) But Facebook allows people to file complaints in English, and there is even a QR Code that people can scan to access it, he said. Alternatively, Thai speakers can still file complaints by calling the free hotline 1199, he added. However, the launch of the Marine Departments Facebook complaints page today comes while a serious complaint filed in English through the formal website about a tour speedboat allegedly nearly running over a snorkeller off Phuket remains not even being passed to the Phuket Marine Office after after 11 days. The complaint, filed on Dec 27 and addressed To Phuket Harbourmaster, reports alleged reckless driving by a speedboat operator off Koh Mai Thon, located just over eight kilometres from the tip of Cape Panwa. A speedboat of a tour operator [...] almost ran over a snorkeller at Koh Maithon. Me and my friends just happened to be at anchor at this bay and the incident unfolded right in front of us, the speedboat was flying into the bay at full speed to show off to the tourists onboard and only our frantic screaming at them made it stop at the last second, the swimming man luckily emerged unharmed from under their bow!! reported the complaint. This was the most reckless driving we have ever seen with an absolute disregard to safety and our hands are still shaking from witnessing this incident. Two boats of this tour operator arrived to the bay, the logo of the operator is shown on the pic2 but the boat that nearly caused a fatal accident went hiding behind the rocks right after the incident and I could take only one photo (pic3) at a distance - it was sitting between two rocks. Same logo on the freeboard, red roof. I am sure the driver can be identified easily when your authority contacts the business owner. We would like to report this incident to Phuket Harbourmaster and the relevant authority and also bring awareness to the surrounding - a lot of incidents including fatalities on water in Thailand are due to the tour operators reckless and ignorant behaviour towards people and the environment. (See complaint here.) Mr Wiwat today confirmed to The Phuket News that he had taken no action so far about the complaint as he was unaware of the incident. I have not yet received any notification of this complaint. I am waiting for the Marine Department to send this information, he said. Mr Wiwat also offered no explanation as to whether the new Facebook page will improve how complaints are handled, and why. Yet Mr Wiwat did claim that he had no authority to take any action on any complaints posted without first receiving a formal notice from Bangkok. Thai Official: Saudi woman at Bangkok airport will not be forcibly deported BANGKOK: Human Right Watch today (Jan 7) released a statement requesting that Thai authorities immediately halt the planned deportation of an 18-year-old Saudi woman who says she is fleeing domestic abuse and fears for her safety if forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia. immigrationSafety By The Phuket News Monday 7 January 2019, 04:44PM The 18-year-old Saudi woman, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, said she fears for her safety if returned to Saudi Arabia. Photo: AFP Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told Human Rights Watch that she arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on the evening of Jan 5, 2019, en route from Kuwait to Australia, but was met by a representative of the Saudi embassy who seized her passport to prevent her from traveling to Australia. Saudi and Thai officials told her she would be forced to return to Kuwait this morning (Jan 7), where her father and brother are awaiting her. Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will, said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee. Al-Qunun said she fled while her family was visiting Kuwait, which unlike Saudi Arabia, does not require a male relatives approval for an adult woman to depart the country. She said that she was fleeing abuse from her family, including beatings and death threats from her male relatives, who also forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. Al-Qunun began tweeting about her situation beginning at 3:20am Bangkok time via a Twitter account she created in January. In an English-language tweet, she wrote, Im the girl who run away from Kuwait to Thailand. Im in real danger because the Saudi embassy trying to forcing me to go back to Saudi Arabia, while Im at the airport waiting for my second flight. She also tweeted a video in which she says that Saudi embassy officials stopped her after arriving in Bangkok, and she later posted a copy of her passport. She tweeted that she was being held in an airport hotel and that Saudi embassy officials told her she would be returned to her family in Kuwait this morning. Al-Qunun told Human Rights Watch that at about 5pm yesterday, Thai immigration officers took her from her hotel room and informed her that she could not enter Thailand because her visa was rejected and that she must return to Kuwait today. She then returned to her room. However, she had not applied to enter Thailand because her passport was taken, along with her plane ticket to Australia. Thai authorities prevented Al-Qunun from having access to UNHCR to make a refugee claim even though it is evident she is seeking international protection. Under customary international law, Thailand is obligated to ensure that no one is forcibly sent to a place where they would risk being subjected to persecution, torture or ill-treatment, or other serious human rights violations. As a party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Thailand has a treaty obligation not to return anyone to a territory where they face a real risk of torture or ill-treatment. Human rights lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman filed an injunction at 1pm to Bangkok's Criminal Court to prevent Qunun's deportation and although the injunction was rejected due to a lack of evidence, immigration chief Surachate Hakparn later said at a press conference at Suvarnabhumi airport that "If she does not want to leave, we will not force her," adding that the UN refugee agency will be meeting her. Al-Qunun may be at serious risk of harm if returned to her family. She also faces possible criminal charges in Saudi Arabia, in violation of her basic rights, for parental disobedience, which can result in punishments ranging from being returned to a guardians home to imprisonment, and for harming the reputation of the kingdom for her public appeals for help. Human Rights Watch has documented that under Saudi Arabias male guardianship system, adult women must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel abroad, marry, or be released from prison, and may be required to provide a guardians consent to work or get health care. These restrictions last from birth until death, as the Saudi state views women as permanent legal minors. While Saudi Arabia has some regulations to combat domestic violence, guardianship makes it extremely difficult for victims of violence to seek protection or obtain legal redress for abuse. The near impossibility of transferring guardianship away from abusive relatives can condemn women to a life of violence. Shelters for survivors of domestic violence often send women back home if their abusers sign a pledge not to harm them, and women cannot leave such shelters without a male relative to receive them. Once again we are seeing the abusive influence of Saudi authorities abroad as they seek to forcibly return Saudi women fleeing mistreatment and violence by their families, Page said. Apparently, Saudi authorities not only want to perpetuate systematic discrimination of women at home and prevent Saudi women from freely travelling abroad, but also ensure that those who manage to escape are forced back to a life of abuse. Drugs, guns seized in Pa Khlok raid PHUKET: A series of raids by Thalang Police last Friday targetting three addresses netted seven suspects along with drugs, guns and ammunition. crimedrugspolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 7 January 2019, 03:05PM The raids led to seven suspects arrested for drugs and illegal possession of ammunition and a home-made air rifle. Photo: Thalang Police The raids led to seven suspects arrested for drugs and illegal possession of ammunition and a home-made air rifle. Photo: Thalang Police The raids led to seven suspects arrested for drugs and illegal possession of ammunition and a home-made air rifle. Photo: Thalang Police The raids led to seven suspects arrested for drugs and illegal possession of ammunition and a home-made air rifle. Photo: Thalang Police The raids led to seven suspects arrested for drugs and illegal possession of ammunition and a home-made air rifle. Photo: Thalang Police Thalang Police led by Lt Col Theerawat Liamsuwa first raided workers accommodation for Care and Clean (Thailand) Co Ltd in Moo 4, Pa Khlok, at about 4pm, where five suspects were taken into custody. Mumaspaowee Chae, 22, and Wanshan Lehleen, 23, both from Narathiwat, were arrested after officers found them in possession of 178 red, orange and green methamphetamine (ya bah) pills all embossed with the letters WY, and 500 grams of kratom leaves. The pair were later charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell and possession of a Category 5 drug (kratom). In another room at the workers accommodation, Busri Saemsa, 28, also from Narathiwat, was arrested after he was found in possession of five red and orange ya bah pills, for which he was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug. In yet another room, officers arrested Isma Apo, 23, also from Narathiwat, after he was found with one red WY ya bah pill, for which he was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug. In the fourth and last room raided at the first target address, police arrested Natthawut Sampo, 27, from Surin province, after he was found in possession of two .22-calibre bullets, two .38-calibre bullets, two 9mm bullets, and one .45-calibre bullet, for which he was charged with illegal possession of ammunition. At the second target addresses, also in Moo 4, Pa Khlok, officers arrested Payungsak Dam Phetthong, 30, after he was found in possession of 500ml of boiled kratom juice and a home-made air rifle with seven steel pellets, for which he was charged with possession of an illegal firearm and possession of a Category 5 drug. At the third target address, also in Moo 4, Pa Khlok, officers arrested Anikul Reksin, 26, after he was found in possession of 146 ya bah pills, all embossed with WY. Officers seized the drugs and B6,250 cash Anikul has on him, and charged him with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell. For the past seven years Scott Tiegs, Oakland University ecologist and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has worke Americas Suicidal Turning Point: Chapter Six: The 28-Year-Old, American Nightmare Known As The New World Order By Michael Moriarty It all began, for myself at any rate, with President George H. W. Bushs announcement to the entire world, that there was going to be A New World Order Run by the United Nations! Before I complete my examinations of the remaining Presidents on my Post Kennedy list of Commander-in-Chief Executives, I must call your attention to what I label as the American corner of The New World Order Fraternity! The origins of that indisputably treasonous daydream began with a very secretive club, identified by President John F. Kennedy, but already known of, worldwide, for a countless number of years, as The Illuminati! If you want the full content of President Kennedys speech here it is. The courageously inflammatory truths were shared in a speech given at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on April 27, 1961. Many describe the event as the speech that cost J.F.K. his life! With the smarmiest voice ever to reach the White House, George H. W. Bush becomes the first American of any major importance to announce the inevitable success of something that most Americans had never heard of before: The New World Order. At one point, in fairly recent times, there was a single video of President George H. W. Bush announcing The New World Order FOUR TIMES! The particular four speech video I have cited, due to what I assume are outside pressures, has disappeared. Apparently one treasonous speech is forgivable, but four?! The basic contents of the H. W. vision of Americas future, however, is in the first announcement he made about it from the Oval Office. When we succeed, and we will is one of the most frighteningly treasonous certainties ever to come out of the mouth of an American President. Suddenly the Founders of the United Nations carry far more weight with this particular President of the United States than even the Founders and National Sovereignty of the United States! He, President George H. W. Bush, made the same astounding declaration three more times! Before the American people and Congress! Is it any wonder then that President Donald Trump, one of Americas legendarily loyal Nationalists, has not only the entire Democrat Party committing their treasonously tired destruction of the United States! Their Federal crimes of Sanctuary Cities and New World Order Treason!! The Republicans In Name Only, the RINOs, are entirely the Bush Familys creation. They cannot be loyal to Republican President Donald Trump because he has already declared that he will have nothing to do with a New World Order. Nor with any fancy business out of the increasingly sounding Islamic United Nations. THE NEW WORLD ORDER reminds me increasingly of the equally anti-Semitic Third Reich!!! What makes them think that the return of Adolf Hitler is a good idea anywhere, at any time?!?! How destructive to America is The New World Order? Presently the American Government is now shut-down! Why? Because President Donald Trump wants to protect the border with Mexico from illegal aliens invading it? NO!!!! It is shut down because of a treasonous Democrat Party and the equally treasonous RINO, New World Order Republicans, such as the entire George H. W. Bush family and the treasonous Bush/Clinton Families Coalition! Both these criminal corners of the American Government want American sovereignty to surrender to a New World Order monopoly run by the Islam-loving United Nations! In short, it is an open-borders, murder plot to weaken and then virtually destroy American sovereignty!!! Why this, now Third Millennium Political Disease thinks it can succeed?! Why did Hitler think he could succeed?! Because he was Evil personified! Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home A major update to the lineup of businesses in downtown Rochester was announced Thursday night, as it appears Mr. B's Food and Spirits has been @MarkCavitt on Twitter Mark Cavitt is a multimedia journalist at The Oakland Press and MediaNews Group in Michigan. His beat includes all Oakland County government offices, departments, boards, commissions and committees. Troy police are asking for the publics help in identifying a suspect in a sexual assault that reportedly happened at the Somerset Collection In this Dec. 22, 2018 file photo, the U.S. Capitol is seen on the first morning of a partial government shutdown in Washington. As the governments partial shutdown threatens to drag into a third week, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are feeling the financial pinch. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Instant unlimited access to all of our content on thenewsguard.com. The News Guard E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. (The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement) President Donald Trump speaks at an economics meeting in Washington, D.C, on Oct. 17, 2018. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrew Harrer Confused, unkempt and injured, a 78-year-old Sterling Heights man under the watch of a state-sanctioned caregiver was abandoned in a McDonald' Williams-Sonoma, Inc. operates as an omni-channel specialty retailer of various products for home. 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Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. 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Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC. Ad Resource Stock Digest 851 Interested This Week Heres the Safest Way to Get Insanely Rich in the 2021 Gold Bull Market Gold is screaming higher and smart investors are already cashing in on the #1 Gold Pick of 2021. Yet, you havent missed the boat. See how this newly-listed US$5 gold stock offers investors historic gains without mining a single ounce of the metal. Ad Resource Stock Digest 842 Interested This Week Heres the Safest Way to Get Insanely Rich in the 2021 Gold Bull Market Gold is screaming higher and smart investors are already cashing in on the #1 Gold Pick of 2021. Yet, you havent missed the boat. See how this newly-listed US$5 gold stock offers investors historic gains without mining a single ounce of the metal. Japan on Monday started levying a 1,000 yen ($9.22) departure tax on each person leaving the country, a measure aimed at raising funds to further boost tourism. The International Tourist Tax will cover everyone regardless of nationality -- from business people to holidaymakers older than two years of age -- and will be tacked on to the price of a airline ticket. The government wants to use an estimated 50 billion yen ($460 million) it will generate in additional tax revenue to improve tourism infrastructure, such as making airport immigration processes faster and encouraging visitors to explore areas beyond traditionally popular destinations such as Tokyo and Kyoto. Read also: Travelers leaving Japan to pay 1,000 yen departure tax from Jan. 7 Japan has been aggressively courting international tourists as a new pillar of economic growth. More than 30 million foreigners are estimated to have visited Japan in 2018, a new record, thanks to a steady flow of tourists from Asia -- particularly China, South Korea and Taiwan. The nation aims to boost visitor figures to 40 million by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa and Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Bandung/Jakarta Tue, January 8 2019 Demand for the West Java administration to revoke a discriminatory regulation against the Ahmadiyah community is rife after a group of people forcibly dispersed a book launch organized by the minority group in Bandung last weekend. Interfaith network Jakatarub and the Bandung Legal Aid Institute (LBH Bandung) both said the discriminatory action was motivated by Gubernatorial Regulation No. 12/2011, which sets restrictions on Ahmadiyah activities and prohibits Ahmadis from propagating their beliefs. West Javas new governor, Ridwan Kamil, should have revised or even revoked the very regulation as its presence could legitimize all types of discriminatory acts against the Ahmadiyah, LBH Bandungs Harold Aron said. Jakatarub coordinator Risdo Simangunsong said the regulation was concerning because it could be used to justify persecution against Ahm... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jeff Mason and Ginger Gibson (Reuters) Washington, United States Mon, January 7, 2019 08:08 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5a3fd1 2 World #USA,#politics,Donald-Trump,shut-down,border,wall Free US President Donald Trump pledged on Sunday not to bend in his demand for a wall along the southern border with Mexico but said the barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete as a potential compromise with Democrats who refuse to fund it. Trump's comments came at the start of the third week of a partial government shutdown resulting from the dispute that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers idled or without paychecks. Trump threatened again, without providing specifics on where the funding would originate, to declare a national emergency as an alternative way to build the wall, depending on the outcome of talks in the coming days. Democrats have declined to approve the $5.6 billion Trump wants to fulfill a 2016 campaign promise to curb illegal immigration. Led by new Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrats passed a bill in the House of Representatives last week to reopen the government without wall funding. Pelosi has called a border wall immoral. "This is a very important battle to win from the standpoint of safety, number one, (and) defining our country and who we are,"Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for a short trip to the Camp David presidential retreat. "The barrier, or the wall, can be of steel instead of concrete, if that helps people. It may be better," he said. The White House painted that offer, which Trump floated previously, as an olive branch. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that agreeing to a steel barrier would allow Democrats to stick to their refusal to fund a wall. "That should help us move in the right direction," he said. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did not show his hand when asked whether the White House offer to move away from a concrete structure was evidence of compromise. "It'll be discussed," he said on NBC. Vice President Mike Pence led a second round of talks with congressional aides on Sunday about the issue, but Trump said he did not expect those talks to produce results, noting that the principals - himself, Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer - were the ones who could solve it quickly. "If we don't find a solution, it's going to go on for a long time. There's not going to be any bend right here," Trump said. He later tweeted that the Pence talks were productive. But a Democratic aide familiar with the meeting said Democrats urged the White House to pass measures to reopen the government without wall funding and Pence said Trump would not do that. The aide said no progress was made and no further meetings of the group were scheduled. OTHER CONCESSIONS? Democrats could demand other concessions from the White House, such as protections for immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, or changes to other spending provisions. Trump said he wanted to help on the Dreamer issue but preferred to wait for a Supreme Court ruling on it first. Democratic US Senator Dick Durbin reacted coolly to Trump's suggestion of declaring a national emergency. "I don't know what he's basing this on, but he's faced so many lawsuits when he ignores the law and ignores tradition and precedent," Durbin said on CBS' "Face the Nation." Large chunks of the federal government were shut down on Dec. 22 after lawmakers and the president hit an impasse overTrump's demand that a bill to keep the federal government operational include money to help build a $23 billion wall along the US border with Mexico. About 800,000 government workers are either furloughed or working without pay. "I can relate," Trump, a former New York businessman, said when asked if he could relate to the pain of federal workers struggling to pay their bills. "I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments." Asked if workers would get paid on Friday, Trump said: "We'll see whether or not it's settled." Not all Republicans agree with Trump's insistence on keeping government agencies shuttered until the border debate is resolved. "It is not a sign of weakness to try to figure out a middle ground, and I think that both sides need to indicate a willingness to listen and to compromise, US Senator Susan Collins of Maine said on NBC. She called the debate over using steel versus concrete "bizarre." House Democrats plan to pass a series of bills this week to reopen government, breaking up legislation they have already approved in a bid to get Republicans to agree to reopen certain agencies, Hoyer said on "Meet the Press." "We need to open up government and then negotiate. Not the other way around," he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 11:42 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5b7030 1 City thief,motorcycle,crime,police,Facebook Free An alleged motorcycle thief was arrested in Kembangan, West Jakarta, on Friday after trying to sell the vehicle on Facebook. Kembangan Police chief Comr. Joko Handono said MAS and JY had stolen the Honda Beat from a minor on Wednesday evening. The victim was riding his motorcycle when the two suspects allegedly pulled up alongside him on their own bike and intimidated him into pulling over. MAS told the victim to stop and then hit him with a hat, Handono said on Sunday, adding that the suspects allegedly forced the victim into an alley and threatened to kill him. They reportedly gestured in a way with their hands that made the victim believe they were armed with a gun. MAS was arrested on Friday night in a convenience store in Kembangan, while JY remains at large Kembangan Police criminal investigation unit head First Insp. Dimitri Mahendra said the motorbike was then advertised in a Facebook group named Info Balap Liar Serpong (Serpong Wild Racing Info) for Rp 1.8 million (US$127). The victims parent discovered the post and quickly filed a police report. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Bangkok, Thailand Mon, January 7, 2019 09:28 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5abf34 2 World #Thailand,#SaudiArabia,woman,held,Bangkok,Airport,domestic-abuse Free A Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport said she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials, who confirmed the 18-year-old was denied entry to the country on Sunday. The incident comes against the backdrop of intense scrutiny of Saudi Arabia over its investigation and handling of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. "They took my passport," she told AFP, adding that her male guardian had reported her for travelling "without his permission". Qunun said she was trying to flee her family, who subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair," she said, adding that she is certain she will be imprisoned if she is sent back. "I'm sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail," she said, adding that she was "scared" and "losing hope". Qunun was stopped from entering Thailand when she flew in from Kuwait on Sunday, Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told AFP. "She had no further documents such as return ticket or money," he said, adding that Rahaf was currently in an airport hotel. "She ran away from her family to avoid marriage and she is concerned she may be in trouble returning to Saudi Arabia. We sent officials to take care of her now," he said. He added that Thai authorities had contacted the "Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate". 'Can't escape' But Qunun disputed his account, saying that she was only in transit to seek asylum in Australia, and was accosted by Saudi and Kuwaiti embassy representatives when she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport. She took to Twitter to plead her case, creating a profile with an Arabic bio that reads "I just want to survive". During a video livestream showing her walking around a carpeted hallway, Qunun spoke in Arabic about how her father had told Saudi embassy officials she was a "psychiatric patient" who had to be returned, even though she had "an Australian visa". "I can't escape the airport," she said in the live video. "I tried but there's a security (official) watching me." In a sign of growing desperation over the last few hours, the woman live tweeted barricading her hotel room door with furniture. Immigration head Surachate said Qunun would be sent back to Saudi Arabia by Monday morning. "It's a family problem," he said of the case. But Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities must allow the teenager to make a refugee claim with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will," said Michael Page, HRW deputy Middle East director. "Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee." 'Family problem' Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, acknowledged the woman's father had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" to bring her back. But in an interview with Saudi-owned channel Rotana Khalijial, he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. Saudi Arabia has come under fierce criticism following the murder of dissident journalist Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2 -- a case that stunned the world. The ultra-conservative kingdom has long been attacked for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 12:33 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5b79f1 4 Business rupiah,strengthening,US-dollar Free The rupiah strengthened to Rp 14,105 per US dollar on Monday, 1.71 percent higher than on Friday, according to the Jakarta interbank spot dollar rate (JISDOR), triggered by a number of sentiments. Monex Investindo Futures analyst Faisyal said one of the positive sentiments that triggered the strengthening of the rupiah was a statement made by United States Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell who said the US central bank would be more cautious in hiking its reference rate this year. The statement was made after the release of positive data on the non-farm payroll and payment average rate in the US last week. Market players interpretation is that the Fed would not hike the key rate for awhile, Faisyal said, adding that the other positive sentiments included the meeting between representatives of the US and China to discuss the trade war. The rupiah was also positively affected by the government shutdown in the US, which was brought about due to disagreements over the funding of a wall on the US-Mexico border. There is an indication that the shutdown could take longer than what was expected, Faisyal said as quoted by kontan.co.id. He added that the positive sentiments would take place for a while, which could further strengthen the Indonesian currency in the coming days. Nearly all currencies in Asia strengthened on Friday, except the Hong Kong dollar. Meanwhile, the US dollar index was at 96, 0.19 percent weaker than its position on Friday. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 09:56 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5ae26b 1 Business pertamina,non-subsidized-fuels,price-adjustment Free State energy giant Pertamina lowered the price of non-subsidized gasoline by up to Rp 250 (2 US cents) per liter on Friday following a drop in the global crude oil price and the rupiah strengthening against the US dollar. Under the new policy, the new price for Pertalite gasoline (RON 90) in Greater Jakarta is Rp 7,650 per liter, Pertamax (RON 92) is Rp 20,200 per liter and Pertamax Turbo (RON 98) Rp 12,000 per liter. Meanwhile, prices for non-subsidized diesel fuel are Rp 11,750 per liter for Dex and Rp 10,300 per liter for Dexlite. Pertamina retail marketing director Mas'ud Khamid said in a press statement that the price adjustment took effect on Saturday. "We will continue to evaluate fuel prices periodically in accordance with the global crude price and the rupiah exchange rate in the global market," he said. The company explained that fuel prices could differ in each region, depending on the regional fuel taxes. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sebastian Partogi (The Jakarta Post) Ubud, Bali Mon, January 7 2019 Critical view: Well-versed in Southeast Asian politics, American journalist Michael Vatikiotis shares his concerns about rising intolerance and identity politics in Southeast Asia in his latest book, Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia. Seasoned American journalist Michael Vatikiotis believes in the power of people to address protracted conflicts in Southeast Asia. American journalist Michael Vatikiotis understands Southeast Asia through and through. He has spent more than three decades, mostly as a journalist and peace mediator, in the region, including Indonesia. His connection to Indonesia is undeniably strong. He first came to Jakarta in 1987 as a BBC correspondent at the time when the country was still under the authoritarian rule of Soeharto. He later served as the Jakarta bureau chief of Far Eastern Economic Review ... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 10:12 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5b09fa 1 City dead-body,dead-victim,jakarta,fire-incidents,West-Jakarta,firefighters Free A man named Tarmad, 58, was found dead on Sunday amid the ruins of a house that had been razed by a fire in Jelambar, Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, three days earlier. Tarmad was reported missing by his son-in-law Andi, 32, who had been searching for him at nearby community health centers (Puskesmas) and temporary shelters since the fire broke out. Andi finally asked Tarmads neighbor Hasyim to search through the burned remains of the victims home and found his body. "Based on a testimony of the victims child, Tarmad was frequently ill and had difficulties hearing," said Tanjung Duren Police criminal unit head Adj. Comr. Rensa Aktadivia as quoted by kompas.com on Sunday. Police suspect that when the fire broke out, the victim attempted to escape his home but became trapped. The Jelambar fire occurred late on Friday and caused 368 people to lose their homes. It was reportedly sparked by a short circuit in one of the 40 houses that burned down. (mai) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 18:53 889 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5d2ca6 1 City elevator,vandalism,pedestrian-bridge,West-Jakarta Free The Jakarta administration plans to station police officers at some of its pedestrian bridge elevators to help in emergency situations as well as to prevent vandalism. "If not guarded, we're afraid there will be unwanted occurrences," Imam Adi Nugroho of Bina Marga road agency told tempo.co on Monday. Imam said officers would be stationed at Jelambar Bridge in West Jakarta and Sumarno Bridge in East Jakarta, adding that more officers might be deployed when needed. He said the officers were currently being trained and they would be ready when the elevators began operating. The elevators at the two locations started being built on June 6, and were completed last month. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 15:51 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5cd682 1 City Istiqlal-Mosque,jakarta,Religious-Affairs-Ministry,award Free An Istiqlal Mosque caretaker was awarded a house by the Religious Affairs Ministry on Friday for his 66 years of service to the iconic Jakarta monument. Suparno, 90, affectionately known as Mbah Parno, has been working for the mosque since it was built in 1952. But despite having a new home in Parung, Bogor, West Java, Suparno says he still prefers to live in a rented house in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, with his wife and five children as it is located only 2 kilometers from Istiqlal and allows him to walk to work every day. I didnt work for decades to seek a reward. [My service to the mosque] stems from my devotion to God, he told kompas.com over the weekend. Ill let my children live in the [new] house. I still want to be here, which is close to Istiqlal. Born in 1928 in Boyolali, Central Java, Suparno moved to Jakarta in 1951 in search of a better life. A year later, he was hired as a construction worker at the mosque and earned Rp 15 (less than 1 US cent) per day. It was during that time that he met Friedrich Silaban, a Christian of Batak descent, who was appointed as Istiqlals primary architect by Indonesias founding father Sukarno. Silaban later hired Suparno as his private assistant because of his diligence and work ethics. After construction of the mosque was completed, Suparno was assigned to be its caretaker. His main job was to deliver letters. In 2005, he was tasked to look after the shoes and sandals of visitors. Since 2016, his role has been to ensure that worshippers maintain a straight shaf (prayer row), which is mandatory for Muslims conducting mass prayers. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Mon, January 7 2019 Police have arrested a 25-year-old resident of South Rejowinangun village for damaging 19 cross-shaped grave markers in several cemeteries in Magelang, Central Java. Magelang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Kristanto Yoga Darmawan said the suspect, identified only as FK, had a history of mental illness and the police would examine his mental state as they investigated the case. We will observe the suspect at Soerojo Psychiatric Hospital to determine whether he really has a mental illness, he said. Darmawan said a resident first spotted FK at Candi Nambangan cemetery in Gelangan village on Friday night. The suspect was allegedly seen destroying a cross-shaped grave marker and holding an iron hammer. The police have confiscated several pieces of evidence, including the hammer, iron sticks and wire. He added that FK was last admitted to a psychiatric ... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 17:32 889 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5cf528 1 City illegal-firearm,South-Tangerang,shooting Free A man who shot himself in the foot in South Tangerang, Banten has been charged for possession of an illegal firearm. Ade Raihan, 19, reportedly made up a story that he was shot with a gun. Later, the South Tangerang Police discovered that he shot himself under the influence of alcohol. He has been charged for possession of an illegal gun. Ade was admitted to Sari Asih Hospital in Ciledug on the last day of 2018 to receive treatment for a foot wound. Ade told the hospital staff that he was shot, prompting the hospital to file a police report. The police then launched an investigation into the scene on Jl. Raya Bintaro and questioned witnesses. "None of the witness noticed a fight around the scene at that time," South Tangerang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ferdy Irawan told reporters on Monday as quoted by kompas.com. As the police delved into the case, it was discovered that Ade had shot himself with a homemade firearm. "We developed our investigation and found a homemade firearm at [Ades] house," Ferdy said. Criminal investigation unit head Adj. Comr. Alexander Yurikho said that Ade shot himself under the influence of alcohol. "When he and his friends gathered to drink, Ade wanted to show off his gun, but he ended up shooting his own foot," Yurikho said, adding that Ade could be charged under Emergency Law No. 12/1951 on possession of illegal firearms, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 10:57 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5b507a 4 Business fiscal-incentives,luxury-apartments,Real-Estate-Indonesia,comments Free Real Estate Indonesia (REI) is urging the government to fulfill its promise to introduce fiscal incentives for the development of luxury residences early this year, as part of its efforts to boost property sales and trigger growth in other sectors. The incentives should be introduced immediately so it will have significant impact. Otherwise, the impacts will be less significant and the condition of the property industry will worsen, REI chairman Soelaeman Soemawinata said in Jakarta on Sunday, as reported by kontan.co.id. Soelaeman was referring to the government's plan to issue a Financial Ministry regulation in early 2019 to cut value-added tax (VAT) for luxury apartments and houses. He pointed to four aspects that could affect the property industry: government regulations, bank financing, special financing plans and infrastructure development. In the planned regulation, the government intends to revise upward the floor price of luxury properties that carry a VAT of Rp 20 billion (US$1.11 billion) to Rp 30 billion. Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo shared Soelaemans view, and stressed that the government needed to issue the regulation immediately. Yustinus also believed that the policy would have a significant impact on the property industry that would positively affect other industries. Growth in the property industry would in turn trigger growth in construction services as well as downstream industries, and would create more jobs. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 14:51 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5c5cff 1 Business city,anies-baswedan,pollution,laundry,detergent Free Detergent manufacturers and the laundry industry have said they would work with the government in pushing for better product standardization to solve the pollution of Jakartas rivers, caused mainly by the excessive use of detergents. Detergent manufacturers have also pledged to urge companies to produce environmentally friendly detergents. Indonesian Laundry Association (ASLI) chairman Apik Primadya said that the organization was keen to speak with the Jakarta administration to make sure that a new city regulation on detergent use would help both business and the environment. We are ready to support the Jakarta administration to create a better regulation on detergents [] So far, 70-80 percent of our members have been educated to use low-foam detergenst, he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend. ASLI has 20,000 members in 18 provinces that mostly run coin-operated laundromats or bulk laundry services. Most of the associations members presently dispose waste by dumping it directly in drains, just like household waste. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan recently said that he would issue a new regulation on car wash and laundry services in the city after determining that the detergents the businesses used could worsen water pollution in the capital. Workers remove trash from the Sentiong River, also known as Kali Item (Black River), on Thursday. Jakartas rivers are heavily polluted by solid and liquid waste because of a lack of waste treatment facilities and residents littering habit. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan ) Anies said that some of the most polluted rivers in Jakarta, such as the Sentiong River infamously nicknamed "black river" by local residents were polluted by detergent-heavy runoff from industry and households. He also called on the Trade Ministry and the Industry Ministry to issue better regulations on detergents. Responding to Anies' plan, director general of textile, chemical and miscellaneous industries Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono at the Industry Ministry said the ministry planned to issue a new Indonesia National Standard (SNI) specifically for detergents, pending approval from the National Standardization Agency (BSN). "Hopefully with this SNI, detergents that companies produce will have higher bio-degradability so they can decompose faster, said Sigit. He said the draft SNI was gathering input from all stakeholders, including major detergent manufacturers like Unilever Indonesia and Wings Group, as well as the Environment Ministry and research institutions. Consumer goods giant Unilever Indonesia said it was committed to complying with all national regulations, including those on products that could have negative impacts on the environment. Our products, such as Rinso and Molto detergents, are formulated with the appropriate level of surfactants [active cleaning ingredients] according to consumer needs, and are biodegradable through microorganism activity, said Sancoyo Antarikso, Unilever Indonesia governance and corporate affairs director. The surfactant content in Unilever products also met the SNI on environmental protection from harmful materials. In addition, the company claimed that its latest Rinso detergent formulation used smart foam technology, which removed foam faster during the rinse cycle. PT Sayap Mas Utama (Wings Group), the manufacturer of popular detergent brands like Daia and So Klin, said it was continuing to support the governments efforts to combat pollution, and that all Wings products complied with environmental protection standards. Powder detergents have been tested by accredited laboratories and declared readily biodegradable or environmentally friendly. This means that they decompose well in the [natural] environment, said Joanna Elizabeth Samuel, Wings Groups fabric care marketing manager. Aside from manufacturing products according to government standards, Wings Group said it had issued a reminder to customers to properly dispose of the waste generated from their products. By CBS News , Jan . 06, 2019 American taxpayers send more foreign aid to Egypt than to any other nation except Israel. But America's nearly one and a half billion dollars a year is going to a regime accused of the worst abuses in Egypt's modern history. Opponents of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have been imprisoned by the thousands. El-Sisi has strangled freedom of speech. And his troops have murdered protestors. As you might imagine, President El-Sisi does not do a lot of interviews. And we were surprised when he sat down with us. El-Sisi was apparently surprised by our questions because his government has asked us not to broadcast his interview. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 12:55 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5b7dea 1 Business BI,MSME,loan-disbursement Free Bank Indonesia (BI) is seeking a commitment from banks to disburse at least 20 percent of their total credit to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). BI deputy governor Erwin Rijanto conceded that not all banks had fulfilled the requirement as stipulated by Bank Indonesia Regulation No: 17/12/PBI/2015, though most have been cooperative. Erwin said BI was considering expanding the list of beneficiaries of the 20 percent quota to beyond MSMEs. One of the alternatives is to distribute [the credit] not only to MSMEs, but also to other prioritized sectors like [manufacturers of] export-oriented products, Erwin said as quoted by kontan.com. However, Erwin declined to explain the details of the expansion plan but said BI wanted to encourage banks to provide more financial facilities to prioritized sectors and boost economic growth. PT Bank Mayapada Internasional president director Haryono Tjahjarijadi welcomed the idea, saying that the bank was ready to support the planned BI policy. However, we need time to prepare for the change in policy, he said, adding Mayapada was considering disbursing more credit to the trading industry, which it had been dealing with. In the first 11 months of 2018, banks distributed Rp 956.9 trillion (US$67.8 billion) or 20.25 percent of the total credit distributed. One of the banks that distributed 20 percent of its total credit is state-owner lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI). (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 16:41 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5cd853 4 Business BI,finance-ministry,Foreign-exchange,monitoring Free Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Finance Ministry signed an agreement on Monday on the integrated data monitoring on foreign exchange, particularly relating to exports and imports. The cooperation was marked by the launch of the Integrated Monitoring Real Time Information Data of Foreign Exchange (SiMoDis) signed by BI Governor Perry Warjiyo and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in Jakarta. BI said the launch of the SiMoDiS was one of the first steps to strengthen the implementation of a policy related to foreign exchange from exports that had been implemented in 2012. The SiMoDis would integrate exports and imports with real time information as a result of cooperation between the government and BI, it added. Technically, the SiModis will integrate the flow of documents, goods and money from the Customs and Excise Office and data on taxpayers from the Directorate General of Taxation with export incoming data and import outgoing data from the financial transaction messaging system and foreign exchange banks. The SiMoDis will be able to provide comprehensive export and import information both to BI and the Finance Ministry, BI said. It added that the agreement was expected to improve the quality of information on foreign exchange resulting from exports, obtain information on foreign exchange needed for imports and to increase foreign exchange from exports. The agreement was also expected to optimize state revenue from the customs and taxation sectors, to obtain information on the profile of exporters and import obedience as well as to strengthen the joint analysis on foreign exchange. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 14:59 890 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e5c6358 1 Business exports,2018,Performance Free Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has estimated that export growth in 2018 would reach only 7.5 percent, far below the targeted 11 percent, although the official result has not been released. Last year's 11 percent target was already lower than the 16 percent export growth achieved in 2017. Enggartiasto has attributed the lower export growth to global economic turbulence that led to a decline in local market demand. "I just want to be realistic, as I see that non-oil and gas exports only [grew] 7.47 percent in November," Enggartiasto told reporters on Monday at the ministry. The trade minister's projection reflects Indonesia's trade balance predicament, which recorded a US$7.52 billion deficit in November. The government, he said, would keep expanding bilateral and multilateral trade agreements in order to secure access to foreign markets and drive exports. (bbn) Some of the series kicking off new runs in January like Black Monday and Roswell, New Mexico are new to television, while the likes of You're The Worst and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are already well-established. So too is Brooklyn Nine-Nine which will be airing on a new network. Here is a list of the much-awaited televisual feasts about to start in the first month of 2019. You're The Worst The unconventional couple returns for a final season. Against all odds, Gretchen and Jimmy's many disappointments have led them to the point where they might just get married. Irreverent and off-beat as always, this fifth season will bring to a conclusion this most unusual love story. Are they about to take it all the way this time? Out on January 9 on FXX Brooklyn Nine-Nine Cancelled by Fox, the sitcom will re-emerge on NBC for its sixth season. Jake Peralta, Captain Ray Holt and Sergeant Amy Santiago will be back in the 99th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Out on January 10 on NBC. Roswell, New Mexico Aliens are once again thick on the ground in Roswell. The CW has breathed new life into this cult noughties series with a host of new characters. The new season will follow Liz Ortecho as she returns to her hometown of Roswell, where she discovers that some of her nearest and dearest are not of this world. Out on January 15 on The CW. Black Monday A look back on the 1987 stock market crash, which was one of the worst in Wall Street history. But what caused this Black Monday? "No one knows who caused it -- until now." Apparently the culprits were a group of outsiders who not only brought down the markets, but also crashed an expensive car and a celebrity birthday party. Comic and violent by turns, the series will document the uncontrollable destiny of Maurice Monroe, played by Don Cheadle. Out on January 20 on Showtime. When Georges F. Keller began donating paintings by masters like Henri Matisse and Salvador Dali to the Kunstmuseum in Bern his reputation was not in doubt. The Swiss-Brazilian national had been a respected art dealer who gifted 116 works to the museum from the 1950s until his death in 1981. But last year, the Kunstmuseum's provenance researcher came across an archival document linking Keller to Etienne Bignou, a Frenchman now considered a "red-flag" dealer because he traded art with Germans in Nazi-occupied Paris. For the Bern museum, the potential fallout of gifts with possible Nazi ties was not new. The museum was the sole heir of hundreds of major pieces left behind by Cornelius Gurlitt, who died in 2014 and whose father, Hildebrand, was tasked by the Nazis with selling art stolen from Jews or confiscated as "degenerate" works. The case captured huge global attention and the arduous process of trying to restore the Gurlitt treasures to their rightful owners is ongoing. But there are signs that the Gurlitt ordeal, with the heavy legal and historical responsibility accompanying the artworks, has changed attitudes across Switzerland about an institution's duty concerning suspect art. "I clearly see a before and after the Gurlitt case," Kunstmuseum director Nina Zimmer told AFP. "The climate has changed, the tone has changed, the questions have changed and I think we all agree that it is part of the museum's task to look at where the collections come from and to deliver answers," she said. Read also: Florence museum demands Germany return artwork stolen by Nazis Who was Georges F. Keller? Keller and Bignou worked together in Paris at the Gallerie Georges Petit, which specialized in Impressionist works, until it closed in 1933, according to archives published by the Frick Art Reference Library. Bignou then set up his own eponymous gallery in the French capital with Keller, who also had French nationality, as his partner. Keller later became the director of the New York branch of the Bignou gallery, the archives show. Amelie Ebbinghaus, a provenance researcher at the firm Art Loss Register, said that documents from both the French state and the Allied powers indicate that Bignou traded with German buyers in Paris and was identified at the time as a "collaborator". "That obviously doesn't mean that the works came from problematic sources, but it can't be ruled out," she said. It is not clear what Bignou's potentially dubious connections mean for the works Keller gave to the Kunstmuseum, including Matisse's "The Blue Blouse" (1936), which depicts a young woman in bold, primary colors. Zimmer told AFP that she had her own questions about Keller before the Bignou connection was established, since none of his donations to various Swiss museums had come with documentation. "I was always curious," she said. "We have almost zero knowledge of where these works came from before he gave them to us." But once the Keller-Bignou link was confirmed, it was "immediately clear that we need to know more about these works," she said. Changing attitudes The Bern museum has applied for federal funding to conduct a full audit of Keller's legacy. That approach -- and new Swiss government grants for provenance research -- point to changing practices in a country with a mixed record on Nazi-looted art. "Switzerland had the position that it was a neutral, free country and that any trade that happened in Switzerland in the period of 1933 to 1945 was not affected by the Nazis," Ebbinghaus said. But that view was not necessarily shared by other countries, who pointed to artworks sold in Switzerland at cut-rate prices by Jews fleeing the Nazis, she said. In the late 1990s, Switzerland and others came under pressure to probe their World War II-era history, not only in looted art but also bank accounts and gold deposits. A 1998 landmark international agreement on returning art stolen by the Nazis known as the Washington Declaration was drawn up. The question of what constitutes looted art, as well as research suggesting that possibly thousands of works held in Switzerland were sold by Jews under threat, continue to provoke debate. However, Swiss museums and auction houses are increasingly showing caution in handling problematic pieces, Ebbinghaus told AFP. Read also: Auction houses play key role in returning war spoils Hitting a brick wall Establishing ownership of a looted piece, let alone identifying a rightful heir, is notoriously tricky. This has been highlighted in prominent cases such as the battle between an American descendant of Jewish Holocaust victims and Austria's Belvedere Museum over masterpieces by Gustav Klimt which featured in the 2015 film Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren. Zimmer said the challenges for Switzerland were a lack of qualified provenance researchers and limited funding. But she identified private archives as a roadblock that threatens all provenance investigations. "Sometimes you make great progress and then you find out that the exact next document you need is in a family archive and you need to convince them to open it for you," she said. And that can be quite a tall order, she added. She stressed that the Bern museum would continue to push for more provenance research by building ties with universities and creating programs to cultivate a new generation of specialists. "We need to dive deeper in there, and we will," she said. Chinese gay dating app Blued is halting new user registration for a week, it said on Sunday, following media reports that underage users caught HIV after going on dates set up via the worlds largest networking app for the LGBT community. China has a vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender scene (LGBT) scene, though activists say conservative attitudes among some groups in society have prompted occasional government clampdowns. On Saturday, citing academic research, financial magazine Caixin said juveniles were heavily involved in the gay dating app, where some teenagers had even hosted livestreaming. It added that many gay teenagers had unprotected sex through the app and contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In response, Blued vowed to launch a comprehensive content audit and regulation, and crack down on juvenile users posing as adults and on texts, pictures and groups that involve minors. Blued always forbids juveniles from logging on and using the app, it said in a statement on its verified account on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo. Read also: Dating apps use artificial intelligence to help search for love The company added that it had enabled artificial intelligence to weed out pornographic content since last year, and vowed to further support AIDS prevention work. The Beijing-based company did not immediately reply to a request from Reuters for comment on Sunday. Blued, which was launched in 2010 and now boasts 40 million registered users, is backed by state-run media Beijing News. It is the brainchild of a former policeman who quit his job to play Cupid to millions of gay men in China. Grindr, a Los Angeles-based gay dating app well-known globally, is also owned by a Chinese company. The people of Nagekeo district in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), celebrated last Thursday the inauguration of Regent Johanes Don Bosco Do and Deputy Regent Marianus Waja, who had been sworn into office by NTT Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat on Dec. 23. But something was noticeably different at the celebration. Instead of using regular plates to serve various culinary offerings, the people of Nagekeo used plates made from dried palm leaves. Called wati, these plates are traditionally used to hold cooked foods such as rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables, as well as beef and pork dishes in various ceremonies and celebrations, such as weddings and cultural rituals. With their inauguration ceremony, Johanes and Marianus took the opportunity to officially launch a program that aims to revive traditional, environmentally friendly products. Residents wove 10,000 wati for the event, using 10,000 banana leaves as lining. They also created 10,000 glasses out of bamboo. In recent years, the people of Nagekeo slowly shifted from wati plates to more modern plates sold in markets or sellers who come to villages. Wishing to revive the tradition, the regent said that wati plates would be routinely used in public fairs. We must rekindle the confidence of Nagekeos residents to cultivate the eco-friendly plates, he added. Read also: Religious harmony thrives in Flores' Puncak Liur Ende Bishop Mgr. Vincensius Potokotta told The Jakarta Post that the Catholic Church supported the regents movement. It will do wonders for our local craftspeople and empower residents, he said. I was touched when I received gifts from the women of Nagekeo; the wati plates and bamboo glasses they made themselves. Anwar Pua Geno, head of the East Nusa Tenggara Legislative Council, said it was his first time using wati plates and bamboo glasses. I highly appreciate this movement, he said. All local government agencies and officials must join Nagekeo residents in supporting the regents program. Meanwhile, Nagekeo resident Yosefina Muda told the Post that the program had already benefited those who had the skill to produce the environmentally friendly plates and glasses. In a short amount of time, from when the new regent and deputy regent were officiated to the celebration day, we involved all women in the area to weave the plates and glasses. The people of Nagekeo were impassioned by the program, she said. (wng) Back in August 2018, the island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) was hit by a series of earthquakes that destroyed more than 32,000 houses, as reported by kompas.com. However, a number of traditional wooden houses in Senaru village and Batu Layar district were left unharmed despite being rocked by a 7.0-magnitude quake. Indriyatno, a lecturer in the forestry department at Mataram University in West Nusa Tenggara, told tempo.co that the locals had actually inherited cultural wisdom about living on the ring of fire by adapting to their environment. The need to live harmoniously with nature was also voiced by Indonesian architect Yu Sing from Studio Akar Anomali (Akanoma). In a public lecture held during the Indonesian Cultural Congress in December last year, the architect stressed the importance of constructing disaster-sensitive building using natural resources that connect to nature. The water-sensitive house in Kelapa Gading that has space underneath for water in case of flood or heavy rainfall. (Yu Sing - Studio Akanoma/File) It depends on the disaster, but the point is how we perceive it, said Yu Sing about the standard of disaster-sensitive buildings on Friday, Dec. 7, at the Education and Culture Ministry in Central Jakarta. Buildings should be relatively able to withstand disasters or, if they are damaged, they wont kill any people inside. Yu Sing pointed out an example of traditional houses that are synchronized with their environment, for instance the stilt houses in flood-prone areas. Meanwhile, the houses in areas where earthquakes frequently occur are made of flexible materials. Read also: Meanings behind architecture of traditional Betawi houses Akanoma Studio has completed various eco-friendly projects, one of them is a water-sensitive house in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. Kelapa Gading used to be water absorption area, but now it has turned into a residential area and shopping destination. Inspired by Si Pitungs wooden stilt house, the water-sensitive house has space underneath for water in case of flooding or heavy rainfall. The studios headquarters in Padalarang, West Java, was designed to be close to nature as well by the installment of a mini forest and the integration of its work space into its surroundings. We use bamboo a lot, hence we also plant it around our studio. It's not enough for us though, but we want to convey the realization [of preserving nature], said Yu Sing. Houses built in flood-prone areas can adopt a concept from Si Pitung's wooden stilt house to create a water absorption space beneath the building. (Shutterstock/File) The use of natural resources as construction materials may still raise questions about their durability, especially when dealing with disasters such as earthquakes or flooding. For Yu Sing, who is an alumnus of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Bandung, West Java, technology can help such materials to last, for instance by improving the quality of low-grade wood. It is also necessary for people to recognize the materials to be able to maintain them and use them according to their function. (mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kim Young-chae (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 7, 2019 Back in the 1990s, the world went through unexpected turbulence. A long-standing dichotomy of Cold War ended with two historic moments, the unification of Germany and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Francis Fukuyama, an American political pundit, seemed to be undoubtedly right to predict the win of liberalism over other political systems when the political classic, The End of History, was published in 1989. Indeed, liberalism, democracy and market economy were zeitgeist in the 1990s. Regional integration was propelled by the tailwind of global optimism and liberalism. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed to give birth to todays European Union. The treaty resulted in forming of a common market, adopting a single currency, Euro, and designing common foreign and defense policy. This was unprecedented and e to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our content on web and app No advertising, no interruption A bonus subscription to share Bookmark and night mode functions on app Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Philippines bans pork from 13 countries over African swine fever fears Pork and pork-based products from 13 countries have been banned from entering the Philippines as a precaution against the spread of African swine fever (ASF), the country's Department of Agriculture said. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel said pork and pork products from Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and Zambia arriving at the Philippines' entry points will be confiscated and destroyed within 24 hours, according to local news reports. Stepping up measures against the ASF threat, Pinol ordered that foot baths be installed in entry points including ports where cruise ships dock. Foot baths, which have disinfectants, would ensure that people do not enter with contaminated material on their shoes. Pinol said the Bureau of Customs was also directed to conduct "rigid inspection for the checked-in and hand-carried luggages of all incoming passengers from ASF-affected countries". Meanwhile, Pinol relieved on Friday, Jan. 4, the whole quarantine group at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for what he said in a Facebook post was its "failure to comply with an earlier order I issued to institute Quarantine protocols to prevent the entry of pork products from areas affected by the African Swine Fever". Hog raisers also appealed to the government to implement stringent measures to prevent the entry into the country of ASF. "We understand how difficult it is for our officials especially as an archipelagic country, we have several entry points. We really need to put countermeasures in place because once ASF enters the country, the industry will find it hard to recover", National Federation of Hog Farmers president Chester Warren Tan said. The ASF has spread to parts of Europe and Asia including China, where it confirmed its first case in August 2018. China has reported over 90 cases of ASF since August, according to a Reuters report in late December. The Lao PM is accompanied by Minister of Planning and Investment Souphanh Keomixay, Minister of Foreign Affairs Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Bosengkham Vongdara, and Minister of Energy and Mines Khammany Inthirath. The Lao PMs entourage also includes the Minister of Industry and Commerce Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Public Works and Transport Bounchan Sinthavong, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Thongsavanh Phomvihane and others. Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith was born on November 10, 1945 in the Houaphan province of Laos. He was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1987 to 1992, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare from 1993 to 1996, and a member of the Lao National Assembly from 1997 to 2001. He became Deputy Prime Minister and President of the State Planning Committee on March 27, 2001 and he was additionally appointed as Foreign Minister on June 8, 2006. He was Deputy Prime Minister from 2001 to 2016, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2016. He is a politburo member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and has been Prime Minister of Laos since 2016. Zolnierek/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- In a short but fiery hearing involving Robert Mueller's special counsel team Monday, a federal judge admonished an attorney representing a Russian firm, calling his behavior "unprofessional, inappropriate and ineffective." Citing what she called "meritless personal attacks" on the special counsel's office in court filings, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich told Eric Dubelier, lead counsel for the Russian firm, Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, to "knock it off." In a defiant response, Dubelier said he was merely "telling the truth" and said it was only the judge's opinion that his remarks had been unprofessional. Dubelier, an attorney at Reed Smith, accused the judge of showing "some bias" against him and, because of that, he said, he would have to confer with Concord about whether he should continue to represent them. Dubelier is known for filing colorful motions that have included sarcastic quips and quotes from pop culture. Most recently, on Friday Dubelier quoted the 1970s movie "Animal House" in criticizing a special counsel motion. "Flounder, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f**ked up... you trusted us. Hey, make the best of it," read the quote. On Monday, Friedrich said "clever quotes from movies [or] cartoons" will not be effective in persuading the court. Concord and the special counsel for weeks have been locked in an argument over whether Concord's attorney can share some information -- marked "sensitive" by the government -- with officers of Concord, including Yevgeniy Prigozhin, known to be an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Concord was among three Russian business entities and 13 Russian individuals, including Prigozhin, accused by the special counsel of involvement in a massive troll factory operation in which Russian nationals allegedly created hundreds of online personas, pretending to be Americans, with the goal of swaying the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, more generally, sowing social and political discord in America. Concord, the only defendant to answer the charges in court, is accused of funding the operation and has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge. The question of how sensitive information is shared is a critical one both to the case and to the broader Mueller investigation. Previously, legal and national security experts told ABC News there was a concern that information provided to Concord for their defense could end up at the Kremlin, exposing U.S. secrets to an adversary. Before sealing the courtroom from the public so the two sides could discuss the discovery question, Friedrich set the next court hearing for the case for March 7. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. EDWARDSVILLE The Madison County Boards Health Department Committee on Friday dabbled in discussing what members felt would be the effects of legalization of marijuana in Illinois. In their first meeting of 2019, the Health Department Committee reviewed a document called Protecting Public Health and Promoting Equity in Adult-Use Marijuana Legalization in Illinois, which was put together by Illinois Public Health Institute. The final paragraph of the summary of the document reads, Given the numerous concerns related to public health and safety published by states with legalization and commercialization policies, combined with opposition form major professional societies across medicine, behavioral health, addiction, road safety, law, and law enforcement, IPHI urges caution in determining whether to legalize or commercialize adult use marijuana in Illinois at this time. Review of the document sparked conversation and questions about what legalization would mean for those under the age of 21, or the age that would be required for purchasing legal marijuana. As a member of this health board, Im really concerned with the mental health of youth and how its affected by marijuana, Philip Chapman, R-Highland, said. Im not willing to sell our youth into addiction or slavery to a drug because our state need revenue. According to a study from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, Illinois would generate $525 million in new tax revenues, including $505 million for the state and $20 million for local government if the state were to legalize. My concern is the gummy bears kids, the edibles, kids will see that, and they wont know that its harmful and if its readily available for adults, then its going to get into the wrong hands, said Chrissy Dutton, R-Bethalto. According to information from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, early exposure to cannabinoids in adolescent mice decreases the re-activity of brain dopamine reward centers later in adulthood. This could help explain the increased vulnerability for addition to other substances later in life for people who begin using marijuana at an early age, hence why some think of marijuana as a gateway drug. After about twenty minutes of back and forth discussion, conversations fizzled out and the meeting went back to their agenda. While the Madison County Board Health Department would not have direct input on policy in regards to marijuana legalization, the job of the committee is to provide liaison between the Madison County Board and other state and local government entities and other groups relative to issues concerning public health. Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker campaigned on the legalization of marijuana and its corresponding tax revenue boost. Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has also stated that he is on board with legalization and would support measures to legalize. Because of these factors and more, in recent article by Forbes, Illinois was declared one of the states most likely to legalize marijuana in 2019. The Illinois General Assembly begins its session on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Reach reporter Riley Newton at (618) 208-6460. WASHINGTON I dont think it was a coincidence that staff who worked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sometimes ended up standing in front of me when I attended press events she held in San Francisco, when I worked for a local paper. Pelosi didnt seem to like it when Id pepper her with questions about, say, her ill-considered 2007 visit to Syria, during which she proclaimed, The road to Damascus is the road to peace. She was, after all, used to a press corps that considered her a political moderate in spite of her very progressive voting record and positions. I was not among that group. It was a San Francisco-based misinterpretation due to Pelosis old-school style. A Democratic fundraiser and organizer while she raised her five children, Pelosi resisted entreaties that she run for office until her youngest was in high school. The daughter of Baltimore mayor Thomas DAlessandro, Pelosi was raised in the ways of the back room. She knows how to cut deals when many Bay Area pols prefer to flaunt their precious sensibilities. Shes pragmatic to the point that she tried to rein in Democrats who wanted to impeach President George W. Bush because of the war in Iraq. CENTRAL CITY Like many ministers, the pastor of St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Central City is a busy guy. The Rev. Kevin McReynolds is one of three chaplains for the Nebraska State Patrol. St. Pauls is one of the association churches for Heartland Lutheran High School in Grand Island. McReynolds is the Nebraska District Disaster Relief Coordinator for the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, and is involved with the Lutheran Womans Missionary League. But hes not carrying out those duties to impress people. Im not doing this so that I get a bunch of people patting me on the back and saying Hey McReynolds, great job. Youve been busy and youve done all these things, he said. Because when I look at it, I think Well, I really havent done a great job at any of these jobs. He volunteered for many of them because I grew up watching my parents be involved and not stand by the sidelines. In getting involved, they formed relationships with people. If his congregation is paying attention to his schedule, he hopes they would say, Look at that guy. Hes nothing special, and yet hes going out and hes trying to take what we hold so near and dear and apply it in various ways. Booming Ecuadorian shrimp output takes up the slack from faltering India Top customer China now encourages the importing of Ecuadorian shrimp in a legal, direct manner. Its sustainable business model is on track to ship over 600,000 tonnes by 2020. An eFeedLink Hot Topic While the 2018 shrimp exports of number one supplier India fell by 15% or more, second-ranked Ecuador's shipments just keep on climbing. According to the country's National Chamber of Aquaculture (NCA), January to November shipments totaled 461,790 tonnes, compared to the 384,600 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017. While the 2018 shrimp exports of number one supplier India fell by 15% or more, second-ranked Ecuador's shipments just keep on climbing. According to the country's National Chamber of Aquaculture (NCA), January to November shipments totaled 461,790 tonnes, compared to the 384,600 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017. Based on the above-mentioned trade momentum, Ecuador can be expected to ship approximately 502,000 tonnes of shrimp with a value exceeding US$3.1 billion in 2018. That is an 18.5% increase over 2017's 426,000 tonnes is significantly above its 10-year average 12.1% rise in annual export volumes. It is also a cumulative 314% increase over the 122,000 tonnes it shipped ten years earlier, in 2008. This is far beyond the NCA's expectations: Two years ago it predicted 2018 output of 390,000 tonnes: This figure was exceeded by nearly a third or at least 120,000 tonnes. John Sackton, editor of www.seafoodnews.comattributes Ecuador's continued strong growth to "Higher Pond Survival [rates], lower feed conversion ratios, higher pond yields and shorter [growth] cycles." He also opines that despite this country's stubborn adherence to low stocking densities, "Ecuador has higher shrimp production potential than India." Blessed by the Guayas River, which forms the largest estuary in the South Pacific Ocean, the clashing of exceptionally warm equatorial fresh river water and cooler, saltwater Humboldt current creates ideal shrimp growing conditions. Consistent equatorial weather means that Ecuador can harvest three shrimp crops yearly, whereas most of its Asian rivals can only produce two. Alongside with enjoying more undeveloped frontier regions with an ideal growing climate than India, Ecuador is also distinguished by a unique business model that stands out from its export rivals. Ecuadorian shrimp is produced with probiotic elements, which do not affect the product, the environment or people. Its industry association proudly boasts that "since transitioning to sustainable natural growth promoters in 2005, no alerts for the presence of antibiotics or controlled substances in Ecuadorian shrimp have been reported." Asia drives the lion's share of Ecuadorian shrimp export expansion, with Europe playing a secondary role. According to Ecuadorian government statistics, January to November shrimp shipments to the EU increased 6% in value, totaling $498.65 million and on track to exceed US$550 million. With shrimp prices down, shrimp exports to the EU rose a higher 11% by volume, mostly due to unexpectedly strong demand from Italian and Spanish buyers. An estimated 80,000 tonnes in EU sales were complimented by approximately half as many exports to non-EU European countries. While exports are booming, their destinations are undergoing a rapid transformation. From over half of exports ten years ago, America now only buys 14%. On the other hand, Asia accounted for 23.5% of shipments in 2013 but by 2017 this proportion had risen to 57.8%. Based on official January to November trade statistics, the proportion of Ecuadorian shrimp exports procured by Asian buyers will have risen to over 61% in 2018. Prior to this year, a majority of Asian destined exports were shipped in a rather discreet and indirect manner. They were imported into the Vietnamese port of Hai Phong and thereafter be smuggled into China. While Indian shrimp is also smuggled into China this way, Ecuadorian imports exceed those of India by two to three times. This was done to avoid a 5% import tariff and sales taxes ranging from 9% to 11%. In December 2017, China reduced its shrimp import tariff to just 2%. It thereafter made repeated, well-publicized crackdowns on shrimp smuggling and mass arrests of illegal traders. The result has been a sudden surge in direct, legal Ecuadorian shrimp shipments to China and leveling out of once booming Vietnamese re-export volumes. For example, 2017 saw Ecuador ship 218,472 tonnes of shrimp to Vietnam, with 60% to 70% of this sum re-exported to China. That year's direct shipments of Ecuadorian shrimp to China only totaled 15,042 tonnes, which was 93% less than what was exported to Vietnam. From January through November 2018 inclusive, shrimp exports to Vietnam totaled 191,821 tonnes, 1.4% less than the 194,500 tonnes shipped in the first eleven months of last year. But January to November exports to China skyrocketed to 81,454 tonnes. That is approximately 492% more than the 13,772 tonnes of Ecuadorian shrimp that was formally imported by China in the first eleven months 2017 and an exponential increase on the 1,500 tonnes shipped in 2010. Based on present trade flows, Vietnamese imports of Ecuadorian shrimp (which were mostly re-exported) are set to fall 3% to slightly over 210,000 tonnes. On the other hand, 2018 direct exports to China will jump by approximately 500%, to over 90,000 tonnes. At close to US$600 million, China now accounts for approximately 18% of Ecuadorian shrimp exports by both value and revenues. Going forward, some Ecuadorian traders have said they expect all their exports destined for China to be shipped directly starting this year. While this is too optimistic a forecast, we can see at least a majority of Ecuadorian shrimp destined for China going there directly by the end of 2020. While the most aggressive export expansion is occurring within Asia, Ecuador has also adapted to shifting western hemisphere trade flows. A decade ago, America absorbed over half its exports and bought 88,000 tonnes as recently as 2014. In recent years, neither US nor European shrimp demand increased by much, but in January 2018 EU instituted a strict sanitary inspection standard: Due to repeatedly finding unacceptably high antibiotic levels, all Indian shrimp imports are automatically detained for a strict, thorough veterinary inspection. The new rule discouraged blocked Indian shrimp exports from entering European nations. European buyers subsequently substituted Ecuadorian imports in place of Indian supplies. With so much Ecuadorian shrimp now going to Europe, American buyers were forced to substitute Indian shrimp imports in their place. The net result is that in less than five years, US imports of Ecuadorian shrimp have fallen by 22% while European imports from Ecuador have increased by roughly a third from the levels of five years ago. Going forward, the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GOAL) projects that through 2020, world shrimp production will rise by 5.7% annually with Ecuador leading the way with growth rates significantly above this average figure. However, unlike Asian countries, Ecuador must achieve its target without raising stocking densities. John Tinsley, emerging markets technical director for Biomar (which produces 12% to 15% of Ecuador's shrimp feed) notes that this nation's shrimp farming is keynoted by "relatively low stocking densities, semi-intensive and extensive farming, with a focus on genetic selection." Unlike East Asian producers that seek pathogen free breedstock, Ecuadorian farmers seek out whiteleg stock that may have been exposed to pathogens but which are genetically resistant to disease. Can Ecuador's low stocking density model achieve another two consecutive years of 10% growth GOAL's forecast implies? Long-term forecasts are always at the mercy of everything from a price crash to unexpected disease outbreaks. Even so, there is reason to believe that Ecuador will grow over 600,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2020. In particular, Ecuador's government is extending the country's electric power grid to the remote regions where most shrimp cultivation occurs. The substitution of abundant, easily expandable grid-based electricity in place of scarce diesel generator based power will enable the automation and mechanization of the country's shrimp farms. Alongside a marginal increase in pond area, the productivity gains that will be reaped from integrating shrimp farms with Ecuador's national power grid will ensure at least two years of near 10% production increases. Conservatively speaking, 600,000 tonnes of Ecuadorian shrimp exports with up to 400,000 tonnes being shipped directly to China by 2020 looks increasingly possible. All rights reserved. No part of the report may be reproduced without permission from eFeedLink. NEW HAVEN Marijuana growers and dispensaries can only sell their products for cash and need a financial institution where the money can be deposited. Small state-chartered banks and credit unions are always on the lookout for new accounts to expand their businesses. Both industries are composed of highly regulated, complex organizations, and their relationship is complicated by the fact that cannabis is listed on the federal level as a Schedule I illegal drug, along with cocaine, heroin and LSD. But a startup company, Green Check Verified, based for now at 5 Science Park, is offering a way for marijuana companies and banks and credit unions to conduct business together in a secure, high-tech environment. We have these people on both sides, the cannabis industry and the financial industry, and theyve not been able to communicate effectively, said Paul Dunford, director of customer experience for Green Check Verified. This is about bringing them together using technology. The technology is key, because both the cannabis and financial companies will use the same cloud-based platform and must comply with a myriad of laws, regulations and rules that vary from state to state. So, as founder and president Kevin Hart said, weve been in stealth mode here since September 2015, filing for three patents, designing the platform and planning to expand the team and the thinking, and thats all before we wrote the first line of code. In July 2017, the company incorporated in Delaware and Connecticut and in December signed up its first customers two dispensaries and a financial institution as it launched a pilot program, Hart said. He is in active conversations with companies in 13 states, which happens to be the number of employees Green Check has on its payroll. Interstate commerce in cannabis is illegal, which is why marijuana dispensaries and growers cant use credit cards and why Green Check is only working with state-chartered banks and credit unions, not federally chartered banks such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo. Dunford said the companies are allowed to conduct business within states because of an amendment in the fiscal 2015 federal budget, which prohibited federal enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in states that have a medical marijuana program. In the federal budgets you cannot use federal funds to prosecute these businesses in states where its legal, Dunford said. In 2013, an Obama administration ruling, called the Cole Memo, named for then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole, had covered any state-approved marijuana program. Both rulings said federal prosecutors should only focus on sales to minors, those involving criminal activity and on sales from a state where cannabis is legal to one where it is not. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo in January 2018, but Hart said it was merely guidance; its not law, and that President Donald Trump has come out in favor of medical marijuana. While Sessions had opposed recreational marijuana for adults, Hart said that position caused a lot of rhetoric and a lot of hysteria but nothing ever came of it. Interstate commerce is illegal but everything that happens within the states is legal, he said. It is a misconception that it is illegal and that has been an unfortunate hard stop for people in the financial services industry. In fact, the Financial Crime Enforcement Network, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, has issued guidelines about banking in the cannabis industry, Hart said. There are more protections in place, Dunford said. No one person at this point could turn the clock back but people dont know that. Solving the problem of cash The real issue for marijuana businesses is how to deal with the large amounts of cash from customers. Banks, at the same time, want to make sure their transactions are legal and that the cannabis businesses are operating within the law. The challenge is to establish a true and trusted relationship between those two entities, Hart said. Its a fascinating problem set because, on one side, you have these local community financial institutions [that] are struggling to find new deposits, said Mike Kennedy, director of product strategy. From the banks perspective, you have this $10 billion industry thats largely unbanked or underbanked and that solves their problem. From the cannabis industry side, you have these businesses that are relatively young, and they have operational challenges and are being forced to run multimillion-dollar businesses without access to the financial system, he said. The financial institutions are under obligation to manage their own risk exposure. They are responsible for preventing instances of fraud, money laundering and other illegal activity from occurring within the financial system. Its a big problem, Hart said. Nobody can walk into a bank with bags of cash today and say, I want to open an account. Banks will ask them a lot of questions and turn them away, he said. At Green Check Verified, Were solving the cash problem, Hart said. Instead of them showing up with the bag of cash, the bank will know in advance how each sale was verified and how those sales have complied to up-to-date rules and regulations. Kennedy added the bank staff will know that there was a corresponding amount of compliant cannabis sales that correspond with that deposit. Because both sides of the transaction are using Green Check Verified, in which each sale is recorded, including the type of marijuana sold, the amount and other details, the cannabis business can say, in effect, You dont have to trust us. You have compliant visibility into that sale, Dunford said. From the banks and credit unions point of view, They need low-cost deposit dollars, Hart said. Credit unions, community banks they struggle with big-bank competition. Credit unions have the charter of working within the communities that they serve. This gives them the opportunity. This is a big reason why we were endorsed by the Credit Union League of Connecticut for their member unions to enter the cannabis business, he said. We call it a welcome dependency. Hart said he is in conversation with one credit union in Connecticut, but that its executive wasnt ready to divulge its identity. Hes also talked with legislators, the state departments of Consumer Protection, Revenue Services and Banking and the lieutenant governors office, he said. More states legalizing marijuana Medical marijuana is legal in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and recreational weed (what Hart calls adult marijuana) is legal in 10 states and D.C., according to Governing magazine. Hart said five more are poised to legalize cannabis. Connecticut, which permits medical marijuana and recently doubled the number of dispensaries to 18, will take up recreational cannabis in the upcoming session, with Gov.-elect Ned Lamonts and many legislators support. It appears that they will have the votes, Hart said. Kennedy said regulations get more complicated when a state legalizes recreational marijuana in addition to a medical cannabis program. Its like bowling with the bumpers up and then putting them down, he said. It becomes a more complex regulatory environment. One big difference is that medical marijuana is not taxed while recreational pot is. You have to be able to segregate those tax dollars, Kennedy said. Consumption rules change as well. In every state weve seen so far, a medical program has higher consumption limits than an adult program, Dunford said. Green Checks platform can tell you what your limit is. It can tell you if youre approaching your limit. With marijuana sold as smokable flowers, oils and edible brownies, You may not know that those three things add up to more than 2.5 [ounces] because of how the product is packaged, Hart said. The system will help them identify that. Connecticut allows a patient 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana per month. If all dispensaries were using Green Checks system, the state could relax its rule that requires patients to choose one dispensary in order to keep them from buying more than the limit. Each dispensary would have access to the same information, much like all CVS pharmacies having your prescription information. With each state having its own laws, possession limits and other regulations, the bank would want to know that the dispensary was adhering to each before it accepted a deposit. Laws and regulations change, and they carry pretty substantial risk if you fall outside of them, Kennedy said. Green Check ensures compliance in each jurisdiction. Compliance is expensive, Hart said. Its difficult. Tech can actually lessen those burdens dramatically. It will also help states like Connecticut that hope to raise revenue by taxing marijuana. Hart said that in California, for example, they rolled these programs out with the expectation that they can collect tax dollars and they never can collect the tax dollars because the businesses arent banked. A small-town tax collector is not set up to take duffel bags of cash, which they have to do now, Kennedy said. Its also dangerous for the dispensary to keep large amounts of cash on hand. In November, Southern Connecticut Wellness Center, a dispensary in Milford, had its safe stolen. Two people broke in and didnt steal any product. They stole the money, Kennedy said. Hart said the company is talking with marijuana dispensaries and that hell approach growers in the future. Other companies solve a small sliver of the problem, he said. To date we are the only company and other people have attested to this that have taken the approach of working within the banking industry, not around it. Drawing talent from New Haven Green Check is making efforts to support New Haven and hire from the area. Hart attended Southern Connecticut State University, and Kennedy graduated from there, and they have just hired a Southern grad, Jessica Boe, whom they took on last year as a paid intern. They have brought on another intern and are working with a junior computer science student, Tiffanie Edwards, who is using mock transaction data from Green Check to work on her honors thesis. I owe my four decades of computer software career to Southern, Hart said. The New Haven community has been really great. Theres a very vibrant tech community in New Haven. One company, Checkmate Digital, helped design the platform, he said. Boe said she had interviewed at another company at Science Park but didnt get the job. I got an email from Kevin a couple days later, she said. The next day, I got the job as a software intern. Originally from Wellsville in southwestern New York state, Boe has lived in Connecticut for seven years and worked at Green Check before she graduated from Southern. I was taking six classes my last semester and they [the Green Check staff] were wonderful, Boe said. They basically said, Come in when you can. They were great. She said shes working on automation testing, which has to do with a web app filling out forms by itself. I love Green Check. I love all the people that I work with. Theyre all very positive and funny, she said. Edwards, who is from Bridgeport, is going to be using machine-learning techniques to cluster or categorize the data. What I decide to cluster them by is up to me, she said. A form of artificial intelligence, machine learning is using neural networks from a computer that work like human neural networks, Edwards said. It has to have a set topic that its learning. Once it learns the topic it will be able to perform many decisions on its own, based on that learned topic. Lisa Lancor, chairwoman of Southerns Computer Science Department, said she began reaching out to New Haven companies because there was this disconnect that I thought was definitely solvable. On one hand, she was being told there wasnt any tech talent in Connecticut in the New Haven area and I was hearing from my students that there [werent] any jobs in Connecticut and they were leaving the state. The problem was that Connecticut companies were asking for three years experience or more. Companies in New York, Boston and Silicon Valley, California, were taking new graduates. She calls the internship program a four-win: the student has experience to put on a resume, Lancor gets feedback on how to modify her program, the companies tend to hire the interns, and its good for Connecticut. Were keeping the talent in the state, she said. She said there is a national crisis of women in computers and minorities also are underrepresented. She said Hart was very excited about the diversity of students that we have at Southern and that when Green Check took on Boe as an intern they loved her right away. They were very impressed with the skill set she had and her last day of finals they gave her a full-time offer. Hart said the companys growth plans means theyll be leaving 5 Science Park, off Winchester Avenue, for new quarters. Weve been here for four years and, sadly, were moving, he said. He said Green Check is positioning itself at the largest part of the funnel of opportunity. The cannabis industry is viewed as the largest-growing consumer goods sector nationally. We want to be at the front of that in little old New Haven, Connecticut. This story was edited to clarify that medical marijuana patients may purchase 2.5 ounces of marijuana per month. edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382. NORWALK Seeing the demolition in progress adjacent to Washington Village, and the boarded up windows in the projects still-standing buildings, FedEx trucks drive past the only apartment still inhabited. They assume the whole development is vacant. Thats a problem for Lucy Vallere, who has lived in Washington Village nearly 60 years and as of Thursday will be the lone dweller in final buildings slated to be razed. Vallere, now 63, has had a series of medical complications with her feet that have left her legs non-weight-bearing. She gets regular shipments of medical supplies that, as her neighbors have trickled out, have had to be diverted elsewhere, lest they be lost in the mail. Weve had to have stuff shipped all the way to Stratford to our daughters house, Vallere said. Vallere lives in Building 9 of Washington Village, within the bounds of Phase 3 of a revitalization of Norwalks oldest housing project. The old, federally funded units will be replaced with new, mixed-income buildings, developed with the help of a federal Choice Neighborhood Initiative Grant by Trinity Financial, a Boston-based private developer. Phase Two of the demolition the razing of six buildings adjacent to where Vallere lives is more than halfway done and is expected to be complete by the end of the month. The 136 public housing units of the former Washington Village will be replaced with 136 public housing units, 67 workforce housing units and 70 market-rate units, collectively known as Soundview Landing. All of the former Washington Village residents are guaranteed a spot in the new development, if theyd like. But during construction, tenants needed to be relocated and were given Section 8 vouchers and resources from the Norwalk Housing Authority to do so. Its been a difficult, months-long project, with many complaints from residents about conditions in the project as the construction inched closer to their homes and difficulty finding new accommodations. The Housing Authority is nearly through with the relocation process. According to Housing Authority Executive Director Adam D. Bovilsky, there were six units still occupied last week. Four families moved out over the weekend, and one is scheduled to move on Thursday. Vallere said shes actively looking for homes with her daughter, a real estate agent, but so far hasnt had any luck. The city is also assisting Vallere. Obviously, we are aggressively working with that family to find a suitable apartment, Bovilsky said. But, because Vallere cannot walk, and because her husband has COPD, their options are limited. She, her husband and daughter need a first-floor, three-bedroom space that is handicapped accessible and doesnt require steps to get into the house. In recent months, her daughter has looked at more than 20 units to no avail. Common Council member Ernie Dumas has been a vocal advocate for the remaining residents of Washington Village. In the fall, he summoned Mayor Harry Rilling and other city officials to tour the project and see first-hand the living conditions, which had eroded as people moved out. Garbage sat in the projects courtyards for days or weeks, household items lined the sidewalks and residents complained of squatters in the vacant units. The complaints were followed by increased efforts by the Housing Authority and the city to remove trash and increase police presence, as they worked with families to find new homes. Im just hoping and praying that everybody gets out of their safely, said Dumas, who has continued to visit Washington Village regularly even as the population dwindles. As Vallere spoke on Monday from her home at Washington Village, her daughter was out looking for another prospective home. She felt strange as her neighbors moved out around her. Their departure highlighted her familys immobility. Were looking for a home wherever its available, Vallere said. Im not being fussy, we gotta move. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Provo police officer Joseph Shinners, 29, was shot on Jan. 5, 2019, and later died from his injuries. (Provo Police Department) Utah Police Officer Killed While Attempting to Arrest Dangerous Fugitive A police officer in Utah was shot while attempting to arrest a dangerous fugitive, authorities said, and he later died from his injuries. Joseph Shinners, 29, a police officer in Provo, was shot around 10 p.m. on Jan. 5, Provo Police Chief Richard Ferguson told reporters at a press conference on Sunday. Joe Shinners was intelligent, he was honorable and he was hardworking, Ferguson said, according to Fox 13. He was decent in every single way and he exemplified the nobility of policing. He was the very best of the Provo Police Department. Shinners was trying to apprehend a dangerous fugitive who had violently threatened officers in the past and was near a Bed, Bath & Beyond in Orem. The suspect fired at Shinners and hit him; Shinners fired back and struck the suspect, who was only identified as a 40-year-old male. The suspect was in custody and was being treated at a local hospital. Hell face multiple criminal charges, possibly including aggravated murder of a police officer, Orem Police Chief Gary Giles said at a press conference later on Sunday, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. The Orem Police Department launched an investigation into what has happened since the incident took place within Orem city limits. Provo police Detective Nick Dupaix said that Shinners leaves a hole behind that would be hard to fill. There is going to be a hole in our department that probably can never be filled, Dupaix said. The officer who was shot, he was one of our best, simply put. Joe Shinners was intelligent. He was honorable. He was hardworking, Ferguson added. He is the officer who you would want to show up at your door in your biggest crucible moment. We are #Heartbroken to hear about the loss of another #Hero. To the officers of the @ProvoPolice, we will never forget the sacrifice your officer made to keep @provocity and the state of Utah safer. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/kexCAxhgL7 SLC Police Dept. (@slcpd) January 6, 2019 A GoFundMe launched to raise funds for Shinnerss memorial and to support his family, has raised over $26,000 as of Monday morning. Jake Bertelsen was one of Shinnerss close friends organized the page. I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been able to participate up to this point. The outreach and generosity of those who knew Joe has been humbling, he wrote on Sunday night. I have raised the initial goal we set so we can hopefully continue to provide more support for his sweet wife and baby during this tough time for them. I hope we can continue to see the amazing support for this great man. Friends remembered Shinners, including Craig Jensen, a longtime family friend and a member of the Springville City Council. Deeply saddened this morning at the death of one of our Provo officers. God bless all our men and women in uniform and their families. https://t.co/S5W6VfiOIh Gov. Gary Herbert (@GovHerbert) January 6, 2019 Hes a great kid. He comes from a family of service, Jensen told Deseret News. He could be serious when he needed to be but he had a heart. He wasnt in it for himself. He was in it because it was the right thing to do. Officials across the state also responded to the death, including Democrat, Rep. Ben McAdams, who said on Twitter: Its a sad day for @ProvoPolice and all of us. The officer was killed while selflessly keeping the community safe. Sending my prayers and condolences to the fallen officers loved ones and all who knew him. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, there were 145 law enforcement officer fatalities in 2016, a 12 percent increase from 2017. Of the deaths, 53 were firearms-related. Two of the deaths took place in Utah. Eleven each took place in California, Florida, New York, and Texas. From NTD News A F18 Hornet fighter jet prepares to land on the deck of the US navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the eastern Mediterranean Sea on May 8, 2018. The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group on May 3 began air operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, conducting flight operations against the so called Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria and Iraq. (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images) US Central Command Conducted 36 Airstrikes in Yemen in 2018 The U.S. military conducted a total of 36 counterterrorism airstrikes in Yemen in 2018, specifically targeting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the ISIS terrorist group, according to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). The airstrikes were conducted between January and September, with no strikes occurring in the following three months, the Jan. 7 report noted. The strikes hit areas in Abyan, al Bayda, Hadramawt, Shabwah, and Zamakh governorates. In January, CENTCOM conducted 10 airstrikes that targeted both AQAP and ISIS. In February, the United States conducted six airstrikes on AQAP, seven in March, and four in April. CENTCOM conducted two airstrikes in May, two in June, another two in July, one in August, and two more in Septemberall targeting AQAP terrorists. The report highlights U.S. efforts in fighting ISIS, coming shortly after President Donald Trumps announcement to withdraw about 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. Despite the pullout, Trump has reiterated his commitment to defeating ISIS. Turning to Twitter, the president said that troops would still be leaving at a proper pace, an apparent response to media reports stating that his intentions in Syria had changed. No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary! Trump wrote on Twitter on Jan. 7. Meanwhile, the Combined Joint Task Force said Jan. 4 that they had conducted 469 strikes consisting of 1,001 engagements in Syria and nine strikes as part of 14 engagements in Iraq. Those strikes took place between Dec. 16 and Dec. 29. Amid the reports, Trump said the U.S. military had killed Jamal al-Badawi, the man who led the deadly terrorist attack in 2000 on the USS Cole. Al-Badawi was targeted in a strike carried out in Yemen on Jan. 4. Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole, Trump wrote on Twitter. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi. Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism! U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during the signing of a document after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. (Susan Walsh/Pool via Reuters/File Photo) US and North Korean Officials Met in Vietnam to Discuss Second Trump-Kim Summit Officials from the United States and North Korea met in Hanoi, Vietnam, to discuss plans for a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported Jan. 7, citing anonymous diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington. The location of the talks suggest that the second summit between the two leaders may take place in Vietnam, Munhwa Ilbo reported. Vietnam could play a symbolic role for the summit since it is a communist country with a reformed economy. Vietnam has diplomatic relations with both the United States and North Korea. Pyongyang has a diplomatic office in Hanoi. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump told reporters at the White House on Jan. 6 that the United States and North Korea are negotiating a location for the second summit. It will be announced probably in the not-too-distant future, the president said. They do want to meet and we want to meet and well see what happens. Trump said he spoke to Kim indirectly and that the two nations maintain a very good dialogue. North Korea hasnt conducted tests of missiles or nuclear weapons since Trump met Kim in Singapore last June. The two leaders signed a joint statement agreeing to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, establish peaceful relations, and repatriate the remains of U.S. soldiers. The agreement also includes security guarantees for North Korea. Kim said in a televised New Years address that he is willing to meet Trump anytime to continue discussions on denuclearization. I am always ready to sit together with the U.S. president anytime in the future, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail, Kim said. Trump is holding tight sanctions in place on North Korea until significant progress is made to abandon nuclear arms. The United States is seeking complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the reclusive communist regime. Trump has said on several occasions that the Obama administration was headed for war with North Korea, a danger he helped evade. You would, right now, be in a nice, big, fat war in Asia with North Korea if I wasnt elected president, he said Jan. 6. In August last year, Trump told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to delay a visit to North Korea due to lack of progress on denuclearization. Trump placed blame at the time partially on China, suggesting that Beijing may not have been enforcing sanctions on North Korea in good faith because of Chinas trade dispute with the United States. Last month, the United States sanctioned top North Korean officials over human-rights abuses and censorship. One of the officials, Choe Ryong Hae, is seen by some as the second most powerful official in Pyongyang. The sanctions were announced as the State Department reported that North Koreas communist regime continues to abuse human rights and censor the media. The government arbitrarily detains or, in some cases, even executes violators, the report said. Individuals can be severely punished for simply owning radio or television sets able to receive non-government broadcasts. Reuters contributed to this report. Shipping containers sit at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, on Sept. 18, 2018. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) US and China Begin Face-to-Face Trade Talks in Beijing A U.S. delegation arrived in Beijing on Jan. 7 to conduct in-person trade negotiations with their Chinese counterparts. The U.S. side is being led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish, with senior officials from the White House and U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, State, and Treasury joining him. It is the first time U.S. officials are having face-to-face talks since U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed on a 90-day truce to not escalate tariffs on both countries goods. On Jan. 4, Trump told reporters at the White House that hes optimistic about the talks. I think we will make a deal with China. I really think they want to, he said. Trump also said that he thinks the United States has the upper hand since the Chinese economy is experiencing a severe downturn. Xiang Songzuo, an economist at Chinas Renmin University, delivered a speech on Dec. 16, 2018, in which he cited reports concluding that Chinas GDP growth was very low, or even shrinking. Chinese state-run media also seem optimistic about the talks, though they continued to deny U.S. claims of widespread intellectual-property theft. One Global Times editorial, on Jan. 5, read: As long as the phrases China and stealing [technology] are placed together, Washington can find solutions to the problems and skepticisms they face. This kind of simplistic, rough attitude is not only shirking responsibility, but also making a fuss about nothing. The rest of the article analyzed Apples recently announced reductions in its sales forecast, explaining that the bad news bode negatively for the United States. An opinion article that ran on CGTN, the international channel of Chinas state-run broadcaster, on Jan. 6 expressed hope for real results during the talks. Unlike the previous talks, theres great hope that this round of talks will end the trade war, Kong Qingjiang, an international law expert at China University of Political Science and Law, wrote. The article claimed that the trade war affected the 2018 U.S. midterm election resultsechoing a propaganda ploy by Beijing that the trade tariffs have impacted business for farmers in U.S. heartland states that voted for Trump during the presidential elections. Ahead of the midterms, Beijing attempted to sway voters in those states by running advertorials depicting the U.S. trade tariffs negatively in a major Iowa newspaper. Kong added that if the trade war continues, it could negatively affect Trumps bid for re-election in 2020. To make sure that his wins in Buenos Aires are not short-lived, Donald Trump is eager to see an agreement or sort of an agreement either to put the end to the trade war or to show substantial results, thus scoring points for his upcoming presidential campaign, Kong wrote. He also expressed the Chinese regimes stance that China had made major gestures of goodwill, citing the drafting of a foreign investment law that proposes banning forced technology transfers and government interference in foreign business operations. But U.S.-based political analyst Qin Peng thinks the gestures are more symbolic than a true commitment to real reform. For example, with [resuming] buying U.S. soybeans, it is because China has no choice but to buy. The world only has two major suppliers of soybeans [Brazil being the other one]. Of course, in the past two years of trade talks, China has also promised a lot, but has not fundamentally fulfilled much of them, Qin told NTD Television, in an interview. NTD and The Epoch Times are both part of the Epoch Media Group. Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese Vice Chairman Wang Qishan may meet with Trump at the sidelines of the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, citing an anonymous source. President Donald Trump (C) is shown border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) Trump Could Declare National Emergency in First National Address President said he will focus on 'humanitarian and national security crisis' at the southwest border, plans to visit border on Thursday WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump will address the nation in a broadcast at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 8, according to a post on Twitter. It will be Trumps first such address from the Oval Office. Trump has hinted at the possibility of using emergency powers to get funding for the border wall if the deadlock with Congress isnt broken. I may declare a national emergency dependent on whats going to happen over the next few days, Trump said before heading to Camp David on Jan. 6. A national emergency would give the president the ability to bypass congressional approval. Additionally, the president has scheduled a visit to the southwest border on Jan. 10, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed on Jan. 7. [Trump] will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis, Sanders wrote in a tweet on Jan. 7. More details will be announced soon. Although no trip details are available yet, Trump had said that he would travel to Texas in January for the groundbreaking of a new 115-mile portion of border barrier that he announced had been contracted on Dec. 25. The president last visited the border in March 2018 to view border wall prototypes. He also visited Yuma in 2017, where a border fence helped cut illegal border crossings by 95 percent. In fiscal year 2018, almost 400,000 aliens were apprehended by Border Patrol after crossing the Southwest border illegally. Trumps determination to secure funding for the border wall and the refusal by Democrats led to the partial government shutdown in mid-December. Negotiations have made little progress, and theres no end in sight. Trump said he will only sign a spending bill that includes $5.6 billion for the wall. The lame duck House passed legislation that included wall funding and would have reopened the government, but Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said no Democrats would vote for it, so Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to bring it to a vote. The Democrats gained the House majority after the new year while Republicans widened their majority in the Senate. The House passed a new budget bill that would reopen government but didnt include wall funding, so McConnell again declined to bring it to a Senate vote. We have to have border security. If we dont have border security, we are going to be crime-ridden and its going to get worse and worse, Trump said on Jan. 6. Were looking at a national emergency, because we have a national emergency. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) confirmed that Trump has the authority to call a national emergency on the grounds of border security. Trump reacted to Smith on Jan. 7, writing on Twitter, No doubt, but lets get our deal done in Congress! Trump said that Vice President Mike Pence and other negotiators representing the administration had a productive meeting with those representing Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Jan. 6. A number of law enforcement experts support a wall to help cut down on illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human trafficking. National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told reporters on Jan. 3 that anywhere that you look where we have built walls, they have worked. Ive been a Border Patrol agent for 21 years. I can personally tell you, from the work that I have done on the southwest border, that physical barriers, that walls actually work, he said. They have been an absolute necessity for Border Patrol agents in securing the border. Currently, around 654 miles of barrier exist along the almost-2,000 miles of U.S.Mexico border. Customs and Border Protection constructed around 31 miles of new and replacement fencing in 2018, with the final nine miles expected to be complete early this year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The following is the breakdown of miles for the 2018 projects: 2.25 miles in El Centro, California. Completed. 20 miles in El Paso, Texas. Completed. 14 miles in San Diego. Completion anticipated in May 2019. 4 miles in El Paso, Texas. Construction started in September 2018. The Case for a Wall Trump made the case for a border wall in a Jan. 4 letter that was hand-delivered to all members of Congress. He attached a presentation that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had planned to deliver during a meeting with congressional leadership the day before, but was cut off by the Democratic side. The letter highlighted the main areas of the crisis along the border: drugs, criminal gangs, terrorists, and vulnerable populations. The amount of drugs seized along the border dramatically increased between 2017 and 2018, with fentanyl seizures increasing by 73 percent, methamphetamine increasing by 38 percent, and heroin increasing by 22 percent. In 2018 alone, 1.7 million pounds of narcotics were seized by Customs and Border Protection, according to the congressional briefing. Although most drugs are seized within vehicles entering through official ports of entry, many more come in between the ports. Meanwhile, 6,000 gang members, including those from the violent MS-13 gang, were apprehended at the southern border. Vulnerable populations also increased and overwhelmed resources at the border, especially between ports of entry. In 2018, 60,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended by Border Patrol, an increase of 25 percent from the year before. Driving the increase however, was family units from Central America, about 161,000 were apprehended in 2018, an increase of 50 percent. In the last five years, asylum claims increased by 2,000 percent, completely clogging the immigration court system. Of the thousands of Central Americans who claim asylum, only 9 percent end up being granted approval by an immigration judge. Immigration courts now have a backlog of almost 800,000 cases awaiting adjudication. Less than a decade ago, most illegal border-crossers were single adult males from Mexico. The migrant caravans that dominated much of the media headlines later in 2018, came about as a culmination of border security gaps, asylum loopholes, and wretched conditions in home countries. Follow Charlotte on Parler: @charlottecuthbo Trial Over 2020 Census Citizenship Question Begins in California A federal court trial began on Jan. 7 in San Francisco, California, against the Trump administrations decision to reinstate a citizenship question into the 2020 Census. The trial, comprising of two related cases, challenges the departments decision to re-insert a question that asks people to provide their citizenship status. This question was last asked in 1950. The lawsuits, brought by California and a number of cities, argue that the citizenship question is unconstitutional and that the decision to reinstate it was an arbitrary and capricious action by the Commerce Department, one of the defendants in the suit along with the departments secretary, Wilbur Ross, and the Census Bureau. The plaintiffs say the question is unconstitutional because it would discourage immigrants and Latinos from participating in the nationwide survey, therefore violating the Constitutional requirement that everyone in the United States, including non-citizens, should be included in the Census. Moreover, the plaintiffs claim the undercount would subsequently jeopardize the states representation in the Congress and threaten their funding, according to court documents. The plaintiffs have asked the court to stop the question from being asked in the upcoming Census and plans to bring in a number of academics to support their claim. This week well bring in witnesses who will demonstrate just how critical an accurate 2020 Census count is for our state and people, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argues Census officials take steps to guard against an undercount, including making in-person follow-up visits, so the final numbers will be accurate. Households that skip the citizenship question but otherwise fill out a substantial portion of the questionnaire will still be counted, DOJ attorneys said in court documents. The Commerce Department said the purpose of the question is to provide census block level citizenship voting age population data that is not currently available from government surveys. This data will help the DOJ to improve enforcement of a 1965 law meant to protect minority voting rights. The DOJ plans to rely on its expert, Stuart Gurrea, to argue that the citizenship question would cause no change in apportioning congressional seats in any state and only a negligible dip in the distribution of federal funds to California. Multi-State Lawsuits The DOJ asked the Census Bureau in December 2017 to reinstate the citizenship question, and it was done so in March last year. Court documents show that Ross had reviewed several options to provide the citizen voting age population data to the DOJ and concluded the Census would provide the most complete and accurate data. Ross also said the citizenship question has been well-tested, as it has been included in the American Community Surveyan annual survey of a sample populationsince 2005. After the announcement, several state governments and interest groups across multiple states, including New York, Maryland, and California, filed lawsuits against the Trump administration. The DOJ tried to get the cases tossed out, but their efforts have been rejected by multiple judges in several statesincluding California. One of the trials in New York ended in November last year and the judge is expected to make a ruling soon. The Constitution requires the Census to be collected every 10 years. This information helps determine how many seats a state holds in the Congress based on their respective populations. The federal government also relies on this data to determine how to distribute billions of dollars in funding each year like Medicaid, Medicare Part B, and the Highway Planning and Construction Program. The United States previously collected peoples citizenship status from 1820 to 1950. Judge Richard Seeborg, who is presiding over the California trial, will have to decide whether to allow the question. He will be hearing testimony from both sides until early next week. The Associated Press contributed to this report This photo shows the logo if US car maker Tesla in Brussels on February 8, 2018 - A day after launching one of its cars into space, Tesla moved on February 7 to ease concerns on earth over production delays for its Model 3, the key to future growth for the star electric carmaker. (Emmanuel DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images) Tesla Urges Tariff Exemption for Chinese-Made Car Computer Brain WASHINGTONTesla Inc. has asked the Trump administration to exempt the Chinese-made car computer brain of its new Model 3 sedan from 25 percent tariffs imposed in August, saying they threaten the electric carmakers bottom line. Increased tariffs on this particular part cause economic harm to Tesla, through the increase of costs and impact to profitability, the company said in a previously unreported request for tariff relief from the government. Led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, Tesla is among a host of companies, including No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors Co, to warn of growing costs related to the tariff war between the worlds two largest economies. The Chinese-made computer, used by Tesla in the car assembled in Fremont, California, was among $16 billion in imports that were hit with 25 percent tariffs by the United States Trade Representatives Office in 2018. In a redacted request posted on a government website by the USTR on Dec. 17, Tesla did not identify the supplier of the computer. But it said it had been unable to find another manufacturer with the required specifications, at the volume requested and under the timelines necessary for Teslas continued growth. Tesla, which called the Model 3s computer the brain of the vehicle, added that choosing any other supplier would have delayed the (Model 3) program by 18 months with clean room setup, line validation, and staff training. Using a new supplier substantially increases the risk of poor part quality that could lead overall vehicle quality issues that would impact the safety of our vehicles and the consumer acceptance of the final product, Tesla added in its request for tariff relief. Tesla declined to comment on the tariff matter on Jan. 4. But it has been aggressively cutting costs as it works to meet production goals for the Model 3, which has become a top-selling luxury sedan on the U.S. market alongside the larger Model S. Other automakers have sought similar exemptions but have not yet received an answer. GM in late July sought an exemption to a 25 percent U.S. tariff on its Chinese-made Buick Envision sport utility vehicle. The Envision accounted for nearly 15 percent of U.S. Buick sales last year, even as sales fell by 27 percent. In October, GM also sought exclusions for about two dozen parts, including push-button ignition switches and transmission bearings. Nissan Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have also filed exclusion requests for parts, while Uber Technologies Inc. asked for an exclusion for electric bikes rented through the Uber app. The Trump administration has imposed 25 percent tariffs on a total of $50 billion in annual Chinese exports and 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese exports. The tariffs were in response to what the Trump administration calls Chinas unfair trade practices. By David Shepardson Taiwan Detects 10 Cases of African Swine Fever in Chinese-Originated Pork Products, Showing Epidemics Quick Spread Taiwanese authorities have detected 10 imported Chinese pork products that tested positive for African swine fever. Taiwans Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, an agency under the Council of Agriculture, reported that the 10 were out of a total 678 tested pork products originating from mainland China, according to a Jan. 6 article by Taiwans Central News Agency (CNA). The epidemic in mainland Chinathe worlds largest producer of porkfirst occurred in Shenyang City, the capital of northern Chinas Liaoning Province, in early August 2018. Since then, the outbreak has spread to 23 provinces in China. African swine fever is a highly contagious disease that kills nearly all pigs that contract it. However, infected pork products are not known to have harmful effects on humans who consume them. The Bureau pointed out that six of the 10 tested positive items were pork products retrieved from trash bins: three of which were all found at the Shuitou Pier in Kinmen, a group of islands governed by Taiwan that is offshore from the Taiwan main island; one at the Taichung International Airport; one at the Kaohsiung International Airport; and one at the Taoyuan International Airport. The six items were likely thrown away by travelers before they passed through customs, as Taiwan currently has a penalty of 200,000 New Taiwan dollars ($6,490) for travelers who bring in pork products from areas affected by African swine fever. The remaining four that tested positive were seized from travelers by customs officials: two items at the Taoyuan airport, one at the Kaohsiung airport, and another at the Port of Taichung. Huang Jin-cheng, deputy director of the Council of Agriculture, stated that the 10 items originated from 10 different Chinese provinces and municipalities, including Fujian Province in southern China, Heilongjiang Province in the north, and Chongqing, a city in southwestern China. Huang also pointed out that it took 65 days after the Council of Agriculture began testing Chinese pork products to identify the first infected pork product from China, which was found at Shutiou Pier on Oct. 31, 2018, according to Taiwanese media. But since then, the window of time narrowed to 13 days between the first and second detected cases, followed by 17 days between the second and third, and zero days between the fourth and the fifth. The higher frequency could be seen as a sign that the outbreak in China is getting worse. According to CNA, the only provinces in China that have not reported a case of the disease are Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hebei, Shandong, and Guangxi. All four of Chinese directly governed municipalities, Chongqing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Beijing, have reported cases of the disease. The Council of Agriculture has also tightened regulations on the use of food waste as pig feed, according to Taiwans English-language daily newspaper Taipei Times. While pork products from animals infected with African swine fever are safe to eat, food waste containing infected pork has the risk of becoming pig feed, which can lead to the disease being transmitted to live pigs, according to the United States National Pork Board. Some countries prohibit the feeding of food scraps to pigs. The new regulations require hog farms to be inspected by Taiwans Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) before they can continue to use food waste to feed pigs. Farms must pass a review of their disinfection procedures for food waste, as well as air and water pollution control facilities. The EPA currently has 357 hog farms on its regulatory list allowing them to feed pigs leftovers. Another 1,155 hog farms that have been using food waste but were not on the list, now must obtain regulatory approval from the EPA, or switch to commercial fodder instead. Otherwise, they must cease operations within a week. According to Taipei Times, the island has a total of roughly 7,230 hog farms. Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Supreme Court to Weigh Broadcom Bid to End Shareholder Suit WASHINGTONThe U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to hear an appeal filed by a subsidiary of chipmaker Broadcom Inc. seeking to put an end to a shareholder lawsuit concerning its 2015 acquisition of Emulex Corp. The legal question, which could affect other cases, is whether under the Securities and Exchange Act shareholders need to show intent to defraud when suing a company over statements made during the merger and acquisition process. Avago Technologies Wireless Manufacturing, which later merged with Broadcom, paid almost $610 million to acquire Emulex Corp in 2015. Emulex made equipment for data centers such as chips and routers. Gary Varjabedian, an Emulex shareholder, filed a securities class action lawsuit in federal court in California around the time of the deal seeking to prevent it. The move failed, but Varjabedian amended his lawsuit to include a claim that Emulex had failed to disclose data about other transactions between semiconductor companies when urging shareholders to accept the offer. The plaintiffs have said they were misled into accepting a deal that may not have valued Emulexs shares highly enough. A district court judge in 2016 dismissed the claim, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to show proof of intent, known in legal parlance as scienter. But in an April 2018 ruling, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived the litigation by ruling that the plaintiffs were not required to show intent. Instead, the court said, only a showing of negligence was required. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce business group urged the court to take the case, saying that shareholders have no right to make such claims, whether or not there is proof of intent. A ruling is due by the end of June. By Lawrence Hurley Street Artist Trolls Oscars With Kevin Hart Posters on Hollywood Streets A street artist has been accused of posting fake Oscars ads around Hollywood, criticizing the Academy Awards in the midst of actor Kevin Harts uncertain hosting status at the Oscars. The posters claim The Oscars Have No Hart, along with the date and time of the event, and the ABC logo, next to a picture of Kevin Harts face. The artist, who uses the alias of Sabo, hung most of the posters near the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, which will be the Oscars venue on Feb. 24 according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sabo has produced a number of provocative street art pieces, often including political messages as a way to counterbalance the liberal, leftist deluge of messages in the media and street art, according to his website called Unsavoryagents. After he set up a street art campaign targeting Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, and posted a picture of his creation on Facebook, his account was banned according to Forward. His poster included the text [expletive] Zuck 2020. The link to Sabos Twitter account shows a message that it is suspended. An article in The Wrap indicates that Sabos account was suspended with no explanation or time frame for the suspension. I dont think the tech companies are trying to shut The Right down, I know they are, Sabo told TheWrap. They are developing an entirely new language to demonize anyone who does not think like them, then de-platform them in hopes of their networks not being there for us during the midterms or for the election of 2020. But they, like the goons in Hollywood, overestimate their importance. Sabo joined the debate about Hart after backing out from hosting the Oscars. He made controversial jokes on Twitter years ago, which were accused of being offensive to homosexuals and recently publicized again. Harts dream to host the Oscars was ruined in a matter of days. Hart announced via Instagram on Dec. 4 he had been invited to host the Oscars. On Dec. 6, he addressed media reports in a video apparently recorded while he laid in bed during the Australia leg of his Irresponsible Tour. Stop looking for reasons to be negative stop searching for reasons to be angry, he wrote in the text area of the Instagram video post. If u want to search my history or past and anger yourselves with what [yo]u find that is fine with me. Im almost 40 years old and Im in love with the man that I am becoming. In another Instagram video on the same day, he explained how the Academy Awards asked him to apologize for the old Twitter posts or they would find a new host. The same energy that went into finding those old tweets could be the same energy put into finding the response to the questions that have been asked years after years after years, said Hart. We feeding the internet trolls and we reward them. Im not going to do it man, Im going to be me, Im going to stand my ground. He then continued to say if he loses the opportunity to host for not apologizing then so be it. A day later he sent apologetic Twitter posts while, at the same time, announcing he is voluntarily stepping down. Many fellow comedians, celebrities and visual artists have expressed that the controversy is neither justified nor should Hart have to step down. The Oscars have yet to announce a replacement host. From NTD.com Shen Yun to Begin Its European Tour LONDONFlips and tumbles as well as elegant movements. The expressive art form of Chinese classical dance dates back thousands of years. An art form that is being revived by New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts. Artists from its international company arrived in Londons Gatwick airport on Jan. 6, to embark on its all-new 2019 tour. Their first stop is just south of London, at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. Classical Chinese dance has a history of thousands of years, and it is said to be descended from the heavens, said principal dancer Vantanai Sae-Li. He added that Chinese cultural values are expressed through the dancers movements on stage. [Classical Chinese dance] incorporates many Chinese values, portrayed using postures and movements. It is special because it also includes acting elements and a plethora of tumbling techniques, he said. While Sae-Li didnt give away any details about the upcoming 2019 programme, he did say, We definitely upped our game by perfecting our skills, and like always were bringing a whole new show. Established in 2006, Shen Yun has a mission of reviving Chinas rich cultural history, which is almost lost in modern day China. It brings 5,000 years of Chinese culture back to life on stage, with its performances featuring classical Chinese dance, a digital backdrop, ethnic costumes, bel canto singing, and a live orchestra blending music from the East and West. In some scenes, its as if the artists fly up into the heavens, as the live orchestra and animated backdrop work in sync with the dancers. Trumpeter Eric Robins said that playing the trumpet is a very all-encompassing role. Our melodies are flowing and fluid and very much in coordination with whats happening on the stage, he said. He added that the audience can expect another exciting performance this year. Every year its new, every year its exciting, theres a lot of laughing, theres the whole spectrum, crying, laughing, you name it, its all there, he said. At the airport, Shen Yun fans gathered to welcome the artists to the country. One sign read, Ive waited 220 days for this moment, counting the days from Shen Yuns last performance in the UK. Victoria Ledwidge, who came to greet the performers, said she is always excited when Shen Yun comes to the UK. Ancient Chinese culture is so full of beauty and wisdom and virtue, and we can learn so much from it, its amazing. The dancers are the most incredible athletes, they literally fly across the stage, and the backdrop is breathtaking, and the costume and the music it transports you to another world, she said. [Shen Yun] shows the purity of the ancient culture of China. It brings back to life, those values that weve maybe forgotten a bit, said Carina Depelean, who has seen the performance in previous years. Depelean, who used to dance, said she finds the dancers skills amazing and wonderful. Shen Yuns international company is kicking off its Europe tour at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, Surrey. In the coming weeks and months they will be performing in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Salford, and Plymouth. The artists will also travel to France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. Additional reporting by Susanna Rodriguez. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. AUSTIN, TexasTears started rolling down Connie Robertss face as divine beings floated across heavenly realms. Her experience with Shen Yun Performing Arts gave her warmth like a fireplace on a frigid evening. She didnt expect stories about the Creator nor stories about being lost in contemporary society. And the performance delivered to her more than she could have imagined. Just the fact that people are going to find God through your performance, Roberts said. I think its a message that people dont realize theyre going to hear, so when they get the message, there is a spiritual connection. I loved it. It made me cry. A good cry. Roberts experienced Shen Yun Performing Arts with her sons girlfriend, Isis Walters, at The Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin on Jan. 6. The company has a mission to revive Chinas 5,000 years of semi-divine culture that was lost after six decades of communist rule. China was once known as Shen Zhou or Divine Land, which is a name used to describe a time when deities and mortals coexisted and a belief that the divine transmitted a rich culture to the people of the earth, according to the company. For thousands of years, people were influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and other disciplines. They lived by principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution and strove to lead moral and virtuous lives. With a mission to revive these virtues in traditional Chinese culture, Shen Yun showcases many story pieces that reflect these values, and touches on spiritual themes. Dances like A Final Moment, which tells a story about modern people and a battle between good and evil, inspire audience members and make them think about our role in the world today. This was something Roberts, who works as a general contractor, reflected on after the performance. Regardless of what the world is going to do to, with, or for you, the message is to help each other so that we can return to God, Roberts said. She said she was able to see this message from the storyline of the overall performance. As souls, as God-loving souls, regardless of the culture, regardless of where you are on the planet, we are all connected. I think the storyline was basically, we came to the planet, to the earth if you will, and we need to learn from each other, teach each other, help each other, pray for each other, she said, adding that after following the right way to be people can then return to Heaven. Its like an amazing story. Its absolutely beautiful, she said. Passion and Energy The New York-based company is currently touring the world with six equal-sized groups that are set to perform in over 100 cities. Roberts said despite it being their last performance in Austin this year, the dancers still showcased a top-of-the-line [and] A-game performance. She said the performers exhibited a whole feeling of positive energy, which she thinks derived from the passion of the dancers and the accompanying orchestra. She said the energy of other audience members also helped lift the mood of the theater. When youre walking in, you can feel the people are excited for the doors to open, she said. Walters also enjoyed being in the positive field. She said, I absolutely adored it, every second, every movement, the presence of being there. With reporting by Sally Sun and Janita Kan. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. Saudi Woman Seeking Asylum Can Stay Temporarily In Thailand BANGKOKAn 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family over alleged abuse and barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room in a desperate bid for asylum will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case is evaluated by the U.N. refugee agency, immigration authorities said on Jan. 7. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun grabbed global attention when she sent out pleas for help via social media, saying she feared for her life if she were put on a plane back to Kuwait, where she had slipped away from her family, or her homeland. Instead, she has been allowed to enter Thailand temporarily under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency, which was expected to take about five to seven days to study her case and her claim for asylum. She said she wants to go to Australia to seek refuge there. Hey I'm Rahaf. My father just arrived as I heard witch worried and scared me a lot and I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in But at least I feel save now under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities. And I finally got my passport back pic.twitter.com/pQER7HDVi7 Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law, said Thai Immigration Police chief Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. Alqununs plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families and other obstacles they face in the conservative kingdom. Photos released Monday night by immigration police showed Alqunun with Thai and U.N. officials after she left the airport transit hotel room where she had been holed up over the weekend, sending her pleas for help on her Twitter account. She later tweeted that she feels safe under U.N. protection and has gotten back her passport, which had been taken from her earlier. Alqununs ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabias restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a mans consent. Upon arriving at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man whom she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room, and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online, sending out pleas for assistance over Twitter, and also barricaded her hotel room door. Global attention was sparked by social media and she did not get on the scheduled morning flight to Kuwait. Alqunun wrote of being in real danger if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her fathers retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the U.N. refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian lawmakers, Germanys ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow U.N refugee officials to meet with her. The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it expected to take at least 5-7 days to evaluate her case and claims, according to Surachate, the Thai immigration police chief. Giuseppe De Vincentiis, the UNHCR representative in Thailand, told journalists he did not know where Alqunun would be staying but that she would be safe because she was under his agencys protection. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with her, but De Vincentiis noted a good spirit of collaboration so far with Thai officials. Surachate said Alqununs father was due to arrive Monday night, and officials would see if she was willing to meet with him. As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She wont be sent anywhere tonight, Surachate said at a news conference. She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles, he said. He noted her tweets mentioned she does not want Islam, adding that this type of thing, in her country, is a hard crime. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press that Thailand should let Alqunun continue her journey to Australia. She has a valid Australian visa, he said. The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harms way. Surachate challenged parts of Alqununs story, including that she had an Australian visa. The fact is she didnt have any money. She intended to come here and didnt have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless, he said. He later said Kuwait Airways had been at fault for allowing her to board her flight to Thailand without having proper travel documents. The airline did not immediately comment. Earlier, Surachate had said that the Saudi Embassy had said she had run away from her parents and said she could be in danger. The embassy did not mention that she had rejected Islam. Her case highlighted Saudi Arabias male guardianship laws, which require women who want to travel, obtain a passport or marry to have the consent of a male relativeusually a father or husbandno matter what their age. It also underscored the limits of the reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the grisly killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always trying to escape male relatives. In 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom triggered a firestorm online when she was stopped en route to Australia, where she planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts. Despite efforts by the Saudi government to curtail the scope of male guardianship laws, women who try to flee their families in Saudi Arabia have few good options inside the kingdom. They often are pressured to reconcile with their families, sent to shelters where their movement is restricted or face arrest for disobeying their legal guardian. While the Saudi Embassy in Thailand denies Saudi authorities were involved in trying to stop Alqunun from going to Australia, the kingdom has in the past forced its citizens to return home. Saudi Arabias charge daffaires in Bangkok, Abdullah al-Shuaibi, was quoted in Saudi media as saying that Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. He said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that such a decision would rest with Thai officials. She was stopped by airport authorities because she violated Thai laws, he was quoted as saying in Sabq, a state-aligned Saudi news website. The embassy is only monitoring the situation. By Kaweewit Kaewjinda and Aya Batrawy Saudi Woman Held at Bangkok Airport Fears Family Will Kill Her If Repatriated A Saudi woman is being held at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok , Thailand after trying to escape her family in Saudi Arabia. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, said she renounced her religion, Islam, and now fears for her life if repatriated as planned early on Jan. 7. Rahaf just send me this, she just want you to make sure she is on the hotel and she still needs help and protection. pic.twitter.com/xxs61JIfhP Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 According to reports, Rahaf has been held in the airport since 4 a.m. GMT on Jan. 6. She is due to board GMT Kuwait Airways flight 412 from Bangkok to Kuwait at 4:15 a.m. on Jan. 7 (11:15 a.m. local time). According to a series of live videos and messages that Rahaf posted to Twitter, she had planned to travel to Australia to apply for asylum. Video from @rahaf84427714 just sent from her hotel room at the #Bangkok airport. She has barricaded herself in the room & says she will not leave until she is able to see #UNHCR. Why is #Thailand not letting @Refugees see her for refugee status determination? @hrw #SaveRahaf pic.twitter.com/3lb2NDRsVG Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) January 7, 2019 Rahaf told AFP news agency that after she landed in Bangkok, her passport was confiscated at the airport by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials. Her father had reported her for traveling without a male guardian. According to The Daily Mail, her father had told an airport employee official via messaging app Whatsapp that she was mentally ill but did not provide evidence when asked. She lives with her parents and six siblings in Hail, Saudi Arabia, where her father is a government official according to the Daily Mail. Rahaf said she had been suffering beatings and emotional abuse from her family members according to media reports. When she and her family traveled to visit her family in Kuwait, Rahaf seized the opportunity to flee with help from a friend by booking flights from Kuwait to Thailand, then Thailand to Australia. She took a taxi to the airport in Kuwait around 4 a.m. local time after making sure her father was asleep. I seek protection in particular from the following country Canada/United States/ Australia /United kingdom, I ask any if it Representatives to contact me. Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 6, 2019 Rahaf is being held in an airport hotel guarded by security officials. She told The Daily Mail, When I came to Thailand someone told me that he will help me to get a visa for Thailand in the airport. After that he took my passport. After one hour he came back with five or six people, I think they were police or something and then they told me my father is so angry and I must go back to Saudi Arabia. They know I ran away from him. I am scared. My brother told me that hes waiting with some Saudi men. They will take me to Saudi Arabia and my father will kill me because he is so angry. He will kill me. My family do this, I know them. They kept telling me they will kill me if I do something wrongthey say that since I was a child. Rahaf had requested her passport back so she could fly to another country. They [the airport officials] kept telling me I cant get a visa. The airline told me I have to stay here, so I can go back to Kuwait. From Kuwait they [my family] will take me to Saudi Arabia. They [my family] will kill me. I am so scared. I dont know what I will do. I have to fight, because I dont want to lose my life, she told The Daily Mail. She told BBC Newshour: I shared my story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this I cant study and work in my country, so I want to be free and study and work as I want. She also told BBC Newshour she has renounced Islam. Renouncing Islam in Saudi Arabia is considered a crime that is punishable by death. Translation of tweets from the #Saudi woman trying to flee into asylum who said she is being held at #Bangkok airport: I am the girl who escaped #Kuwait to #Thailand. My life is in real danger if I am forced to return to #Saudi Arabia. https://t.co/6DLk4WSpKX Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) January 5, 2019 Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson warns Rahaf is at serious risk of honor violence. As far as we can tell, her father is a prominent government official, I expect hes going to be very, very harsh, Robertson told The Daily Mail. Certainly hes senior enough to do whatever he wants to his daughter and nobody is going to raise a finger against him. Theres a long history of what they call honour violence. I think shes at serious risk. Weve been pressing the UN to get in there. They need to go to the airport. #UNHCR needs urgently demand access to Rahaf al-Qunun, the Saudi woman facing "honor-related" violence if she is forced back to #SaudiArabia. She's asking now for asylum, why can't UNHCR get out to the airport and demand #Thailand let them see her? There's no time to waste! pic.twitter.com/ECFn1nrfcO Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) January 6, 2019 According to AFP, Thailands immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said Rahad had fled her family to avoid marriage and is concerned she may be in trouble [after] returning to Saudi Arabia. She had no further documents such as return ticket or money, Hakparn said, adding Thai authorities had already contacted the Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate. Meanwhile, Thai Police Major General Surachate Hakparn told the BBC Rahaf was denied entry and is being deported via the same airlines she had taken to arrive into the country, Kuwait Airlines, because she did not have a visa to enter Thailand. Rahaf said she had a visa to go to Australia and was planning to travel via Thailand to Australia. It is unclear why Rahaf would need a Thai visa or why she would need to be deported on such grounds. Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson told the BBC: It seems that the Thai government is manufacturing a story that she tried to apply for a visa and it was denied in fact, she had an onward ticket to go to Australia, she didnt want to enter Thailand in the first place. #Thailand is manufacturing fake stories about #Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun @rahaf84427714 "applying for a #Thai visa" & being denied. She was transiting #Bangkok on her way to Australia and never intended to enter Thailand. This looks like Thai & #SaudiArabia playing games to me. pic.twitter.com/roP4SbzK94 Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) January 6, 2019 On Twitter, the hashtag #SaveRahaf is being used to publicize and follow her case. A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, told MailOnline For reasons of confidentiality and protection, we are not in a position to comment on the details (or even confirm or deny the existence) of individual cases. However, UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers, having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection, cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. This principle is recognized as customary international law, and is also enshrined in Thailands other treaty obligations. From NTD.com Brien Basarich, 31, a dancer at Showgirls Men's Club in Plant City, admitted to officers that she made blog posts threatening to carry out a mass shooting. (Polk County Sheriff's Office) Police Arrest Florida Dancer Who Said She Had a Vision of Committing Mass Shooting An exotic dancer in Florida was arrested and after police officers were alerted to her writing that she had a vision of carrying out a mass shooting. Brien Basarich, 31, a dancer at Showgirls Mens Club in Plant City, admitted to officers that she penned the blog post in question under the name taking-lives. I had a vision of a very public place, only one way in and one way out, Basarich wrote on Tumblr. Preferably a bar/club on a busy night. 2019 has a lot in store if my plans go according! Another Tumblr user said on Jan. 4, that they had alerted local authorities to the post, which has since been taken down along with Basarichs account. According to an affidavit obtained by WFTS, when police officers asked Basarich why she created the post and several similar ones, she said she is a fan of serial killers and mass murderers. She also said that she enjoys true crime, or stories about criminal events that have taken place. In another post, she said: Preferably a bar/club on a busy night. 2019 has a lot in store if my plans go according! In other posts, she said she was excited to get her first gun, an AR-15, soon, and that she would get others soon after. In response to another user asking her if she had a desire to kill, she answered: I feel at time a lot of us have urges, whether they will admit or not is the question. So yes, I have. Basarich was arrested and transported to the Polk County Jail, reported Bay News 9. She was charged with making a written threat to kill or injure. A day after being arrested, she was bonded out of jail on Jan. 3. Two Cousins Killed Within Three Days Five children spent Christmas without a mother after two separate shootings killed two cousins just before Christmas in Jacksonville, Florida. Police discovered the body of mother of two Nekecheana Phillips, 27, with a gunshot wound and dead outside her home on Hunt Street in the Lackawanna neighborhood, on the afternoon of Dec. 21. Phillips had filed a domestic violence petition two days earlier to obtain a restraining order against her former boyfriend. She was a good mother, Phillips neighbor Ronald Dennis said. Always smiling, always reserved, and just a good person. According to the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office Eric Lamar Jackson, 27, turned himself into police and was charged with burglary and second-degree murder. Police allege Phillips arrived home on Dec. 21 and found Jackson waiting inside. The pair has a history of domestic violence. Im really shook by the whole thing, Phillips neighbor Brandi Salinas said. You see people fighting all the time you know what I mean, and they say things out of hate, but to actually do what he did is just heartbreaking. Jackson reportedly confronted Phillips after she ran outside to escape and shot her in front of others, including her two daughters before running off. Christmas is Tuesday, and theyre going to be burying their mother, Salinas said. Everybody today needs to stop. Whatever youre going through in your home if you dont get along, whatever it may be, its not that serious. It affects so many lives. Epoch Times reporter Jeremy Sandberg contributed to this report. From NTD News Oil painter Verona Sorensen attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Place des Arts - Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Jan. 6, in Montreal, Canada. (Dongyu Teng/The Epoch Times) MONTREALOil painter Verona Sorensen attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Place des Arts Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Jan. 6, in Montreal, Canada. Sorensen felt emotional while she watched Sleeves of the Tang Palace, a classical Chinese dance performance in this years production. Its set in Tang dynasty, the golden age of Chinese arts and culture. I just remember being very, very moved and feeling, wow, I havent been this affected by visuals to the point of bringing up emotions, Sorensen said. Sleeves of the Tang Palace features billowing water sleeves and graceful dancers. Its really the elegance of the women that was just so, so graceful, she said. Sorensen added that there are more components of Shen Yuns surface than the visual, and that these components all work together to create a stirring feeling. There is the visuals, there is the music, there was the group being so tight together and graceful, she said. Shen Yun began in New York when a group of artists from around the world came together with the mission of reviving Chinas divinely inspired culture. Since 2006, the company has traveled the globe every year to show the authentic traditional Chinese culture through music and dance. Sorensen said that on a deeper level she could also feel that divine aspect. She described being in a state of consciousness beyond thinking while watching Shen Yun. Youre out of your mind, youre in a space of feeling, she said. Its almost like youre overwhelmed by how beautiful it is. With reporting by Dongyu Teng and Carrie Gilkison. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. Ohio Medical Resident Says Shes Sorry for Vowing to Give Wrong Meds to Jews An Ohio medical resident has spoken out for the first time after dozens of anti-semitic missives she wrote went viral, prompting the medical establishment that listed her as an employee to say she was no longer working there. Lara Kollab, 27, of Westlake, said in perhaps the most controversial post on Twitter that she would give the wrong meds to Jews. Kollab finally spoke out about the controversy on Jan. 4, apologizing for the language in a blog post but doubling down on the anti-Israel stance conveyed through some of her missives. I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts, Kollab wrote. I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. She blamed the content of her messages on youth, despite some being made in 2017. These posts were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naive, and impressionable girl barely out of high school. I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance, and humanity, Kollab wrote. I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture. Kollab said that she hopes to make amends. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me, she added. The missives began circulating widely after being highlighted by the Canary Mission in late December 2018. In them, she called for violence against Jews, supported terrorists, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In one post, she wrote, Typical nazi mentality. zionists are the spawn of hitler. Dr Lara Kollab, 27, a former resident at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in now-deleted posts that she hoped 'Allah will kill the Jews' and referred to Jewish people as 'dogs'. https://t.co/zyzc3gGR6U Steven R. Green (@athens_lawyer) January 3, 2019 A number of the posts were made in 2017, despite Kollabs claims that they were all made many years ago. Zionists will basically use every opportunity to use the words Israeli, victim, and terrorist attack in the same sentence, she wrote in one. In another, she added: Further proof that Israel is more about hatred and white supremacy than it is about world Jewry, in case you didnt know. In 2016, she wrote in one tweet: Every Palestinian get-together ever discussion topics include: Politics, religion, marriage, ye5reb bayt el e7telal [May he destroy the occupations house]. The Cleveland Clinic, which had listed Kollab as a worker on its website, said that Kollab was no longer working there. Touro College, a Jewish medical college from which Kollab graduated, spoke out about the posts, said: We are shocked that one of our graduates would voice statements that are antithetical to Touro and to the physicians Hippocratic Oath. We have received word from the Cleveland Clinic where Dr. Kollab was last affiliated and learned that she is no longer employed there. The college added, Touro College is appalled by the anti-Semitic comments reportedly made by Lara Kollab, a graduate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. The mission of Touro College is to educate, perpetuate, and enrich the historic Jewish tradition of tolerance and dignity. From NTD News Nursing Home Where Woman in Vegetative State Gave Birth Was Cited After Staff Walked in on Showering Patient The nursing facility where a woman in a vegetative state gave birth was previously cited for failing to protect its residents privacy. The Hacienda nursing home in Phoenix said it is investigating the Dec. 29 birth of a baby. The mother is a woman who has been in a vegetative state for the past 14 years after she suffered a near-drowning incident, reported Phoenix-area CBS affiliate KPHO. The child is reportedly healthy. Police are investigating the case as a sexual assault. The nursing home was cited for a privacy deficiency after a male patient told investigators in December 2017 that while he was being bathed by a staff member, other staff members would walk in on him while showering. The resident said that it made him feel uncomfortable, according to records from the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services, People magazine reported. He stated that he does not know why staff come and go in the shower room when he does not have any clothes on. He stated it has happened on many occasions. A female staff member said another female staff member entered the room and just wanted to talk with [the other staff member] who was giving the bath. It has now become a bad habit and is a dignity problem, according to the states report. The second staffer said she had seen many other staffers do the same thing. DISTURBING DETAILS: None of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth. azfamily 3TV CBS 5 201914 The staffer, along with the director of the facility, said those incidents occurred because they needed to access the trash cans or supplies stored in the shower room. They also said staff members would cross through the shower area to get from one room to another, People magazine reported. Both staffers have been counseled on privacy during showering residents, and the report added that all direct care staff would receive more training in light of the allegations. In January 2018, state investigators said the issues have been corrected, People reported. The health care facility has at least 74 patient beds, according to federal records. It cares for people who have a variety of developmental conditions. Some of the patients have been there for decades, said state records. In 2013, the Arizona Department of Health Services said a male employee mistreated patients by making sexually suggesting remarks to them, according to the New York Times. Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman at the Phoenix Police Department, told The Times that investigators are looking into the facility. A spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Health Services told the Times: During this time, the agency has required heightened safety measures be implemented at the facility, including increased staff presence during patient interactions; increased monitoring of the patient care areas; and increased security measures with respect to visitors at the facility. Haciendas spokesman, David Leibowitz, said on Jan. 4 that the firm is aware of a deeply disturbing incident involving the health and safety of a Hacienda resident, reported The Times. He said, While federal and state privacy laws prohibit us from publicly discussing a patients health or case, Hacienda has and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and all the relevant regulatory agencies regarding this matter. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un poses for photos in Pyongyang in this January 1, 2019 photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (KCNA/via Reuters) North Koreas Kim to Visit China for Fourth Summit SEOULNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un is visiting China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese and North Korean state media reported on Jan. 8, as preparations for a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump continue. Kim left for China on a private train on Monday afternoon accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and other senior North Korean officials, including Kim Yong Chol and Ri Yong Ho, North Koreas state-run KCNA news agency said. Chinas official Xinhua news agency also confirmed the visit and said Kim is visiting China from Monday to Thursday. The report did not state the purpose of the visit. Last year Kim traveled to China three times to meet with Xi, before and after Kim held other summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim is expected to meet again with both the U.S. and South Korean presidents in the near future, and another visit to China has been seen as a possible move before those summits. Neither KCNA nor Xinhua provided further information on Kims itinerary. Earlier on Jan. 7 the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported that U.S. State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between Trump and Kim, fueling speculation that Vietnam could host the event. At their landmark June summit in Singapore, Kim and Trump pledged to work toward denuclearization, but the pact was light on details and talks since have made little headway. China is the Norths most important economic and diplomatic backer, despite anger over its neighbors nuclear and missile programs. Ties have warmed in the last year as Pyongyangs relations with both Seoul and Washington have also improved. China also played a role in Trumps meeting with Kim, lending the North Korean leader an airliner for his trip to Singapore. Diplomatic sources say Xi will probably go to North Korea at some point soon, which would make him the first Chinese leader to do so since 2005. In early December, Xi told North Koreas foreign minister during a visit in Beijing that he hoped North Korea and the United States meet each other halfway and address each others reasonable concerns, allowing positive progress on the peninsulas nuclear talks. By Hyonhee Shin, Andrew Galbraith and Joyce Lee Jose Munoz, chief performance officer at Nissan Motor Limited, responds to a question on the new Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance venture capital fund during roundtable with journalists at the 2018 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 9, 2018. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) Nissans Executive Munoz Takes Leave of Absence in Wake of Ghosn Arrest TOKYOA senior executive of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Jose Munoz, has taken a leave of absence in a sudden management shake-up as the Japanese automaker deals with the aftermath of the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Munozs absence comes as Ghosn has been held in a detention center since his Nov. 19 arrest on allegations of financial misconduct, which was followed by re-arrests over further allegations. In a statement on Jan. 5, Nissan said that Munoz has taken a leave of absence to allow him to assist the company by concentrating on special tasks arising from recent events. As a result, his planned appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week would be canceled, a Nissan spokesman said. Reuters could not immediately reach Munoz for comment. Munoz is considered by many in the company to be a close ally of Ghosn, whose arrest has rocked the auto industry and strained Nissans ties with French partner Renault SA where he still remains chairman and chief executive. It has prompted some soul-searching at the Japanese automaker, which has acknowledged that too much power was concentrated with Ghosn after he oversaw the turnaround of the struggling automaker two decades ago following its rescue from the brink by Renault. After stripping Ghosn of his chairman position following his arrest, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has called for changes to weaken the clout of controlling shareholder Renault. Munoz, who serves as Nissans chief performance officer, joined the automaker in 2004 in Europe, and led its ambitious expansion in North America after the global financial crisis. Since then, Nissan has succeeded in raising its market share in the United States, but profitability in the region has plummeted in the past few years due to heavy discounting on its vehicles, an issue that Saikawa has pledged to reverse. Earlier this year Nissan tapped Munoz to oversee its operations in China, where it plans to ramp up sales over the next few years. Since then, the worlds largest auto market has been showing signs of a slowdown, prompting the automaker to cut local production plans in the coming months. By Bhargav Acharya, Joe White & Naomi Tajitsu NIH Calls Out China for Violating Research Integrity The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has warned about Chinas undermining of research integrity. Among other issues at stake are the protection of intellectual property developed at U.S. institutions and the inappropriate use of U.S. academic funding. The NIH report Foreign Influences on Research Integrity zeroes in on Chinas Thousand Talents program, which the Chinese regime has attempted to hide since the FBI began investigating it. NIH is aware that some foreign entities have mounted systematic programs to influence NIH researchers and peer reviewers and take advantage of the long tradition of trust, fairness, and excellence of NIH-supported activities, the report said. Some foreign nations have created state-sponsored programs to recruit and sponsor skilled scientists, and a number of the violations NIH and recipient organizations have uncovered were made by members of such programs. Talent recruitment plans, such as Chinas Thousand Talents Program, have been recently highlighted in the media. The Thousand Talents Program is reported to consist of some 56,000 recruits, including at least 6,000 top-tier recruits, across many scientific disciplines and at highly prestigious institutions, and its self-stated mission is to gather the global wisdom and create the China great exploit. One key qualification of its members is access to intellectual property (IP). While only a small fraction of foreign researchers in the United States are part of the Chinese program, many of the recruits have received U.S. federal funding from institutions that include the NIH, the report said. Investigations In an interview with The Epoch Times media partner NTD, Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of NIH, said that NIH started an investigation of foreign threats to research after its own staff found some concerning instances. At the same time, NIH also received warnings and suggestions from some law enforcement agencies. On Aug. 21, 2018, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins sent a letter to more than 10,000 organizations that are recipients of or applicants for NIH grant awards, and encouraged them to set up briefings with FBI field offices about threats to intellectual property and foreign interference. Problematic examples identified by NIH include Identical or highly similar applications submitted for funding to both the NIH and a foreign entity, but without disclosure to NIH; IP claimed by foreign governments rather than the U.S. government, even though support from U.S. government was clearly used for the discovery; and Investigators failing to disclose foreign support to the U.S. institutions that are their employers. Tabak said that while NIH received roughly $39 billion in research funding from the U.S. government last fiscal year, only 11 percent of the funding was kept for internal use, with the rest going to 2,500 to 3,000 institutions around the United States, supporting 300,000 to 350,000 scientists across the country. Tabak said that he couldnt discuss any specific cases about how NIH funding was improperly used by foreign nations, but said that there are some examples of where that has been used in a foreign nation to create companies without acknowledging or due credit to the works supported by the U.S. government. Patents and so forth are filed only in the foreign nations, not in the U.S. system. Espionage The concerns about the Thousand Talents program occur within the context of a growing awareness in the U.S. government of the threat of Chinese espionage. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Chinas Non-Traditional Espionage Against the United States: The Threat and Potential Policy Responses on Dec. 12, committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in his opening remarks, When it comes to espionage, FBI Director [Christopher] Wray has said, Theres no country thats even close to the Peoples Republic of China. General Keith Alexander called Chinas estimated gains from economic espionage, of up to $600 billion, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. China is believed to be responsible for 50 to 80 percent of cross-border intellectual property theft worldwide, and over 90 percent of cyber-enabled economic espionage in the United States. The abuse of U.S. grants and positions is an open secret among Chinese-American academics. One Chinese-American academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Epoch Times that it is fairly common for Chinese-American academics, especially those work at U.S. universities, to take extra positions in China. They are paid full salaries in the U.S. At the same time, they take positions in China, as well. Some have labs in both countries; some even recruit and mentor their own graduate or postgraduate students in China, he said. This academic said his former mentor in a U.S. university has done so, and still travels to China regularly. He has partners in China, and they were able to use the fruits of his research and ideas gained in the United States to obtain funding of more than 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) from the Chinese state. U.S. universities should adopt policies that are as strict as government guidelines, in terms of staff management, to tackle this issue, the academic said. Also, those who choose to return to China for work, he said, shouldnt be allowed to continue work at U. S. universities at the same time, and shouldnt be allowed to take anything from their U.S. employers. The FBI can find the academics who straddle two boats at the same time by looking for articles published in magazines such as Science and Nature, he said. If the author is affiliated with both a U.S and a Chinese institute, or acknowledges both a U.S and a Chinese institute, it is highly possible that he or she works for both countries simultaneously. Going Underground In response to mounting U.S. criticism of the Thousand Talents program, the Chinese regime has sought to erase the public record of its existence. According to Radio Free Asia, an internal document issued by Review Working Group for Youth Talents under Thousand Talents Program on Sept. 29, 2018, requires that in order to better ensure the safety of overseas talents, (Chinese) institutes should not use emails to send out interview notifications. Instead, they should use telephone, fax, and other channels to notify the interviewees; and the notifications should be in the format of invitation to academic conferences and forums (as opposed to interviews). No such text as Thousand Talents Program should appear in the written notifications, it states. According to a report by the Chinese-language Epoch Times, in order to avoid the attention of the FBI, the Ministry of Education of the Peoples Republic of China required Chinese universities to delete information related to the Thousand Talents program from their websites. The Epoch Times verified this by checking the websites of Beijing University, Tianjin University, and a few others, and couldnt find any information related to the program. Before the FBI initiated its investigation of the program, many Chinese universities and research institutes would proudly publish the names of the talents they had successfully recruited from overseas countries. Reporting by Kitty Wang, NTD. T. Scott Marr, in a file photo, is known as the "Miracle Man" after seeming to come back to life after his family and doctors thought he was about to die. (T. Scott Marr "Miracle Man"/GoFundMe) Nebraska Man Thought Nearly Brain-Dead Recovers, Leaves Hospital A Nebraska man who was thought to be nearly brain-dead recovered and left an Omaha hospital, leaving family members stunned. T. Scott Marr is now known among some as the miracle man. He was diagnosed with a stroke on Dec. 12, 2018, and rushed to Methodist Hospital. He was placed on a breathing machine in intensive care. Marr showed no neurological improvement by the next day and brain swelling concerned the doctors taking care of him. We were worried in this case that this was not a reversible process and that it was going to proceed to brain death, Dr. Rebecca Runge told The Associated Press. Marrs daughter Preston Marr said that the family believed their father wasnt going to recover. They told us he was on his way to brain death, so we said our goodbyes before extubating him, all the monitors were shut off and we waited by his side, she said. We were told he would pass quickly, possibly in minutes, as far as they knew, the Marr family added on a GoFundMe page they started to raise funds for T. Scott Carrs care. He wasnt breathing around the vent, which meant he wasnt breathing on his own. They decided to have the breathing tubes removed. But after the tubes were removed, T. Scott Marr started breathing on his own, forcing his children to skip an appointment theyd made with a funeral home. We were planning to pick a mortuary for cremation, we instead decided to go back to the hospital to be with him again. As we were on our way our aunt said she felt he was more responsive, the family wrote. 'Miracle Man' recovering after being taken off life support https://t.co/aLRm5tUbYx pic.twitter.com/6hapTzIhuD KETV NewsWatch 7 (@KETV) January 4, 2019 After he moved his fingers and toes on command, doctors ordered a new test and found that he was suffering from a rare condition called posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). According to an article in Practical Neurology, the syndrome is a condition caused by reversible subcortical vasogenic edema that can clinically manifest with headache, altered mental status, visual disturbances, and/or seizures. The exact mechanism of PRES is currently not well understood. One of the dominating hypotheses is that severe hypertension exceeds the auto-regulatory ability of the cerebral blood vessels, leading to compromise of the blood-brain barrier and vasogenic edema, the authors wrote. According to Marrs family, the hospital staff was stunned to see the recovery. Literally their jaws dropped, they said. Marr told the Omaha World-Herald that he credited his faith for his survival. Im not an extremely religious person. I dont go to church every Sunday, Marr said. But I do believe in God. I believe with all my heart. And now this is just proof for me that everything Ive ever heard is true. That he loves me. That hes right there for me. It was pretty much a miracle. His family said he will get intense care in the near future. He is OH so excited just as we all are! The plan is for 24-hour supervision at home for as long as needed & outpatient physical therapy, speech/cognition therapy & obviously physician follow-ups, they wrote on the GoFundMe page, noting that Marr returned home on Jan. 3. Thank you for the continued love & prayers. Keep em comin & dont be shy about visiting when hes back home bored out of his mind. From NTD News Model Annalise Braakensiek looks on during a 2012 file photo. Braakensiek was found dead on Jan. 6, 2019. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images) Model Annalise Braakensiek Found Dead in Her Apartment at Age 46 An Australian model was found dead in her apartment over the weekend in Sydney, Australia at age 46. Police received reports from people concerned about the welfare of Annalise Braakensiek and responded to her apartment in the Potts Point neighborhood on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Officers found the models body inside the flat. A police spokeswoman told the Sydney Morning Herald that the death does not appear to be suspicious. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death. Close friends told news.com.au that no one had heard from Braakensiek for a few days. Adriana Dib, one of her friends, said she last spoke to Braakensiek on Wednesday and that her friend seemed fine. I thought she sounded OK. I wasnt worried at all. We discussed the new year and all the wonderful things we would get to conquer and achieve, Dib said. To find out today that shes gone is so devastating, I feel out of body. She brought so much magical love to everyone she knew. My life was better for having had her in it. We were kindred. I felt very lucky. The world has lost a genuine beacon of beautiful light. She bought the apartment in November 2018 after she split from husband Danny Goldberg in April last year. After splitting with Goldberg, she posted on Instagram: I dont know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces. She said after buying the apartment that she was focusing on moving forward with her life. In December she posted a picture on Instagram and in the caption called 2018 a challenging year but sounding hopeful. My biggest challenge was not having my own home (for a year now)!!!!?!! she said. Referring to family and friends, she said: I dont know what Id do without you all. And I promise as soon as I move into my new abode Ill be back to cooking, sharing my new jewellery designs and being a general all round mega Vikingess! She also touted a new line of jewellery that fans could buy for Christmas presents. Braakensiek was an ambassador for RUOK, a suicide prevention charity in Australia. In 2017, she said that she had struggled with the deaths of a number of people close to her. I couldnt get out of bed, she said. I think I spent about six weeks in bed. I couldnt do anything but cry my heart outit was a very frightening feeling, she told the Morning Herald. She said that sharing her struggles with family members and focusing on a healthy lifestyle had helped her. On RUOK day in late 2018, she posted on Instagram a picture of a heart and thanked people who listened to her and provided support. Im a proud ambassador for this fantastic suicide prevention charity mental health has so so many misconceptions, criticism, misunderstandings, and false judgments still!! We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us. ( And in the worst situations), she wrote. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have helped me through my dark clouds now Im strong enough to help my loved ones who unfortunately are not in the best place right now. But we will get through this! From NTD News In this Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019 photo, T. Scott Marr wears a miracle man hat during a press conference in Omaha, Neb. Thought to be brain dead, Marr awakened after being taken off life support. (Kent Sievers/Omaha World-Herald/AP) Man Thought Nearly Brain-Dead Recovers and Leaves Hospital OMAHA, NebraskaA man whose children had decided to remove his breathing tubes has recovered and left an Omaha hospital after weeks of therapy. Now his family members call T. Scott Marronce nearly brain-deadthe miracle man. Marr originally was diagnosed with a stroke on Dec. 12 after he was found lying in his bed, unresponsive but breathing. He was rushed to Methodist Hospital and soon placed on a breathing machine in intensive care. Marr showed no neurological improvement by the time his family returned the following day. Brain swellingprimarily in the back of the brainconcerned his doctors. We were worried in this case that this was not a reversible process and that it was going to proceed to brain death, said Dr. Rebecca Runge. His daughter Preston Marr said she and the rest of the family faced a harsh reality: Scott Marr was not expected to recover. In this Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019 photo, T. Scott Marr and his daughter, Preston Marr, left, break down during a press conference in Omaha, Neb. Thought to be brain dead, T. Scott Marr awakened after being taken off life support. (Kent Sievers/Omaha World-Herald/AP) He had always said, I never want you guys to see me lying in a hospital bed, lying in a nursing home, Preston Marr said. They told us he was on his way to brain death, so we said our goodbyes before extubating him, all the monitors were shut off and we waited by his side, she said. He kept breathing. He was still breathing on his own the next morning when his children returned after skipping their appointment with a funeral home. I asked him to move his thumbs, and he slowly moved his thumbs, and I asked him to wiggle his toes, and he wiggled all his toes really slightly, Preston Marr said. In this Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019 photo, T. Scott Marr listens during a press conference in Omaha, Neb. Thought to be brain dead, Marr awakened after being taken off life support. (Kent Sievers/The World-Herald via AP)/Omaha World-Herald/AP) His doctors soon ordered another test. It showed that Scott Marr was suffering from a rare condition called posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome. Its commonly caused by high blood pressure, but there are many things that can cause it, Dr. Runge said. The severe swelling Marr experienced is not typical of the syndrome, she said, which is why a devastating stroke was the initial diagnosis. Marr credits his faith for his survival. I dont want to make this into a huge religious thing but Ill tell you what: It was pretty much a miracle, he said. Police arrived at Robert Houstons home in Holiday, Florida, discovering a slice of pizza on a chair along with tomato sauce and cheese splattered inside the residence. (Pasco County Sheriff's Office) Man Arrested for Throwing Pizza at Father After Finding out His Dad Helped Deliver Him at Birth A Florida man was arrested on Jan. 3, after he allegedly attacked his father by throwing pizza at him after learning his father helped deliver him at birth, according to reports. Police arrived at Robert Houstons home in Holiday, Florida, discovering a slice of pizza on a chair along with tomato sauce and cheese splattered inside the residence, WFLA reported. The mans father told officials that he was coming home from walking his dogs when his son picked up the pizza from a delivery man. Then, Houston held his father down, yelled at him, and shoved the pizza in his face, according to police, according to WTSP. The victim began to flail around trying to get the defendant off him at which point the defendant went outside and awaited law enforcement, an arrest warrant read, as reported by WFLA. Houston, 33, later told police he threw pizza at his dads face striking him with it due to him being mad his dad helped give birth to him, reported WTSP. Two other family members corroborated his fathers claims, said authorities. It was a decades-long family secret, apparently. Bradenton Herald 201914 He walked up to me and turned around putting his hands behind his back, saying he knows Im going to take him to jail, a deputy said in a police report. Its not clear why that detail caused him to attack his father. He was arrested on a domestic battery charge. Houston is now being held at the Land O Lakes Detention Center and is being held on $150 bond, according to WFLA. Second Florida Food Incident It comes a few days after a woman in Palm Beach County, Florida, attacked her parents and chased them with a 12-inch knife after they apparently refused to take her to Outback Steakhouse. A Lake Worth woman has been arrested for attacking her parents because they refused to take her to Outback restaurant Wednesday night. WPBF 25 News 201913 Deanna Seltzer, 28, went into a rage and flipped over a table before punching her mother, reported CW12. Seltzer then allegedly picked up a 12-inch decorative knife and chased her father around the house after he intervened, saying, Im going to kill you, according to the report. Its not clear if Seltzer was under the influence of alcohol or drugs when she allegedly attacked her parents. Violent Crime Down? The FBI said that both violent crime and property crime decreased in 2017 compared to 2016. Overall violent crime decreased 0.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, while property crime decreased 3 percent during that time, the agency said in September, releasing data from 2016. There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to UCR nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017, the FBI said in its report. The Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) GSAT-9 onboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09), launches in Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh on May 5, 2017. (Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images) India Moves to Counter Chinese Regimes Space Threat as Scrutiny Increases New Delhi will set up monitoring stations in neighboring countries to track Chinese satellite activity India is set to install ground stations for satellite communications in five neighboring countries, a diplomatic move designed to counter Chinas influence in the region, according to Indian media. The five countries are Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, according to a Jan. 3 article by Indias English-language daily newspaper The Times of India. Each country will host one large ground station equipped with 7.5-meter antennas, as well as 100 very small aperture terminals (VSAT), making possible applications such as television broadcasting, telephony, internet connection, and disaster management. India has earmarked an estimated 50 million rupees (about $719,000) for the construction of the station and terminals in each country, to be supplemented by additional payments from the host governments. Chinas threat to India is also on the United States radar, as the Trump administration has recently renewed the United States role in the Indo-Pacific region. The station in Bhutan, in the countrys capital Thimphu, will be ready for commissioning Jan. 9 and is expected to be in operation as early as Jan. 15, according to The Times of India, which cited anonymous sources. The ground stations and terminals in each country are linked to the South Asia Satellitea 2,230-kg communication satellite (also known as GSAT-9) launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in May 2017. It was built over a period of three years in cooperation with members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. India alone paid for the construction of the satellite at $63 million, after Pakistan, also a member of SAARC, opted not to provide monetary and technical support. The satellite is part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis neighborhood-first foreign policya way for India to strengthen diplomatic ties with its neighbors in South Asia. The satellite provides services such as communications, tele-education, banking, and television broadcasting, with India providing technical assistance and other know-how to the countries involved. The station in Thimphu is seen as Indias counter to the satellite tracking infrastructure created by China in Tibet, according to The Times of India. The Tibetan region of southwest China shares a 3,380-kilometer (2,100 mile) border with India. A separate article by The Times of India noted that Chinas Tibetan facilities gave it the ability to track Indias satellites and other space assets. Construction of the space monitoring stations and terminals are being carried out by Indian company Alpha Design Technologies, which specializes in the integration and installation of defense electronics, avionics, and space-satellite systems. It is working in conjunction with ISRO. We will even send out our people to help the countries utilize our satellite service. We hosted representatives from all these countries on December 12 in New Delhi to chart out future plans, said ISRO Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan, according to The Times of India. Aside from the five aforementioned countries, a similar project is being planned for Afghanistan, according to The Times of India. Chinas Space Military Weapons China has invested heavily in Ngari, a prefecture in Tibet that is several thousand meters above sea level. Ngari is located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Sino-India Line of Actual Control, which separates Indian and Chinese-controlled territory in an area of the Himalayas. In November 2018, Chinas state-run news agency Xinhua reported the opening of a space observatory at Ngari. Located 5,100 meters above sea level, it has eight telescopes. Also located at Ngari is one of five ground stations inside China to track the Micius satellite, according to the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences. The satellite, launched in August 2016, is touted by China for its technological advancement in providing quantum communications. The satellite can transmit uncrackable keys from space to provide private communication, according to a 2016 state media report. Chinas projects in Ngari have been in part driven by Chinas ambitions to develop cutting-edge science and technology, including quantum computing and space, both of which were highlighted in Beijings 13th Five-Year Plan (20162020) economic objectives. Indian news and analysis site The Print warned of the threat against Indias satellites posed by the Ngari satellite tracking station in an article published in March 2018. The article warned that the station could possibly be expanded to integrate Chinas anti-satellite missile weapons, which could be used to destroy Indian satellites. The threat posed by China isnt limited to India. William Carter, deputy director and fellow of the Technology Policy Program at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in testimony at a congressional meeting in January 2018, warned of Chinese anti-satellite threats against the United States. Carter said that Chinese military thinkers believe in a simple phrase about the U.S. military: No satellites, no fight, reflecting the opinion that the U.S. militarys Achilles heel is its reliance on satellite coverage. He noted that the Chinese army has tested a range of anti-satellite weapons, including conventional ground-based kinetic kill vehicles. The Chinese have also developed ways to disable satellites. Of Chinas Micius satellite and its capabilities, Carter explained: Some of Chinas claimed advances in quantum technology are likely embellished, but we have seen enough of Chinas capabilities in this field that we must take them seriously. In other words, quantum technology could have military applications. Indo-Pacific Beijing has been building up its influence in the Indo-Pacific region through its One Belt, One Road initiative (OBOR, also known as Belt and Road), unveiled in 2013, as it seeks to establish trade routes connecting China with Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. China now has control of several ports in the region through leases, including Pakistans Gwadar port, Maldives Feydhoo Finolhu port and Sri Lankas Hambantota portfor which China has a 99-year lease that began in 2017 because the Sri Lankan government couldnt repay a $6 billion Chinese loan to develop the port. The Trump administration has recently stepped up its role in Asia, as well as the Indo-Pacific, after U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act on Dec. 31, 2018. According to a Jan. 1 article by Indias economic daily newspaper The Economic Times, part of the measure calls for closer strengthening and broadening of diplomatic, economic, and security ties between India and the United States, which include more cooperation in defense trade and technology. Despite renewed U.S. support and Indias own increased naval presence, including at the Iranian seaport Chabahar, India is still unsettled by Chinas presence in the region, especially after Chinas state-run media recently reported that Beijing had begun constructing one of four advanced warships to be delivered to Pakistana nuclear-armed country with which India has had historical tensionsas part of an arms deal. Hindustan Times, in an editorial titled Chinas Indian Ocean Plans Are Decidedly Anti-India, published on Jan. 4, stated that China has always seen Pakistan as a balancer against India, in response to the news about the warships. It concluded: With no letup in Chinese hostility, the hesitation in India on balancing China is entirely unwarranted and should be jettisoned. Two Chinese police officers arrest a female Falun Gong practitioner at Tiananmen Sqaure in Beijing on Jan. 10, 2000. The persecution of Falun Gong has continued for nearly 19 years. (Chien-Min Chung/AP Photo) In 2019, the Chinese Regime Is Restructuring the Way It Handles Falun Gong As persecution nears 20-year mark, it reflects factional struggle and institutional fatigue in the Communist Party News analysis Last year, the Chinese Communist Party announced that among other reforms, it would be dissolving the 610 Office, an executive leading group that has played a key role in the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual practice. The 610 Office is the informal name of the Central Leading Group on Dealing with Falun Gong created on June 10, 1999, in anticipation of the persecution, which began on July 20. Following the expansion of its tasks to cover other faith groups, it was re-christened the Central Leading Group for Dealing With Heretical Religions. On March 21, 2018, the CCP announced a series of structural reforms planned for Party and state bodies that further concentrate power in the hands of the central Party authorities under Chinas current leader Xi Jinping. Among the 60-item list of changes was that the 610 Office would be disbanded, as well as two other organizations related to the anti-Falun Gong campaign. Viewed in isolation, the move comes across as a technicality. The Communist Party has maintained its hardline attitude towards Falun Gong since the beginning of the persecution in 1999as the ongoing arrests, harassment, and secret trials of Falun Gong practitioners can attest to. And under Xis watch, the CCP has only turned up the dial on its other human rights abuses. But when placed in the broader context of Chinese regime politics, the decline and end of the 610 Office reflects the intensity of factional struggle in the CCP. It also adds to a long list of indicators that while the Party cannot afford to stop persecuting Falun Gong, the campaign has become an awkward practical liability for it and its leaders. Police detain a Falun Gong practitioner on Tiananmen Square as a crowd gathers around in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2000. (AP Photo/Chien-min Chung) Politics of Persecution Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline practiced by tens of millions of people. Its adherents have been subject to violent suppression by the communist authorities since July 1999. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have died from mistreatment in custody. Meanwhile, deepening investigations suggest that even larger numbers of people have been outright murdered for the harvest and sale of their organs. The persecution of Falun Gong was ordered by then-Party leader Jiang Zemin, following a familiar pattern of violent political movements in the history of communist China. Awkwardly, Falun Gong has never been explicitly banned by Chinese law, a fact that is often cited by attorneys representing practitioners in courtbut typically ignored by judges due to the influence of the Communist Partys Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC) overseeing law enforcement and judicial matters. As in previous communist political movements, officials who were more proactive in the anti-Falun Gong campaign received generous promotions and benefits. The persecution of Falun Gong was expected to result in quick success. Instead, practitioners stood up for their faith and raised awareness about the persecution, which dragged on inconclusively and became a deepening liability for the Party authorities. Over the years, the CCP expanded the scale and sophistication of its police state. By 2011, combined security expenditures were so high that they surpassed that of the Chinese military. Despite the treasure and political capital spent, leaked internal 610 Office documents from 2013 described how not only was the persecution failing to achieve its goals, but that the efforts of Falun Gong adherents to speak out against the Partys repression were on the rise. In 2017, Freedom House estimated that there were still 7 to 10 million Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China. Minghui.org, a website founded by practitioners to document the persecution, puts that number at 20 to 40 million. In a photo taken before July 1999, when the Chinese regime launched a nationwide persecution, Falun Gong practitioners practice the exercises in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. (Minghui.org) Practical obstacles ranging from international pressure, to the reluctance of many ordinary Chinese to turn against their law-abiding neighbors and colleagues, have been seen in the course of the repression against Falun Gong. Minghui.org has detailed numerous accounts of Chinese police and other civil servants turning a blind eye to Falun Gong practitioners activities. According to a recent report by Bitter Winter, an online magazine focused on religious rights in China, public security officers in the northeastern city of Dalian pay bribes in order to be excused from the obligation of making Falun Gong arrests. Many Chinese officials, including Jiang Zemin, have been sued in absentia for their roles in the persecution. Bo Xilai, a now-imprisoned senior Party official who is alleged to have had a close connection to the organ harvesting business, has been sued at least 10 times. This diplomatic stain contributed to Bos failure to be selected as Chinese vice president in the personnel reshuffling at the 2007 17th National Congress of the CCP, stunting his career path. Factional Struggle Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi Jinping has found himself engaged in intense regime infighting, a feud that has occasionally touched upon the anti-Falun Gong campaign. Earlier in the persecution, casting a matter of political life and death gave Jiang Zemin ideological license to promote his allies and sideline opponents. Meanwhile, he oversaw the rise of severe corruption in China and political factionalism within with the Party. Jiang stepped down from his official leadership positions between 2002 and 2004. However, the vast network of allegiances he had cultivated during his time in office gave him lasting political power. Analysts of Chinese politics have observed that Hu Jintao, leader of China from 2003 to 2012, was effectively puppeted by the Jiang faction. Prominent figures aligned with Jiang include the aforementioned politician Bo Xilai, and Zhou Yongkang, who as head of the PLAC commanded Chinas vast and ever-expanding security forces. Both had built their careers persecuting Falun Gong. Prior to Xis rise, Bo and Zhou had allegedly conspired to seize power, but their plans fell through due to a scandal in February 2012. Bo was arrested and sentenced the next year; meanwhile, Xi began a massive anti-corruption campaign to purge the Communist Party of other rivals. In 2013, Zhou Yongkang was investigated, then purged in June 2015. His fall came as Party authorities under Xi moved to downsize the security apparatus and strengthen central authority. Zhou Yongkang (L), Secretary of the Chinese Communist Partys Central Political and Legislative Committee, in 2007 and Bo Xilai in March 2011. (Left to Right: Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty Images, Feng Li/Getty Images) Internal Attrition The moves to root out Jiangs influence obliquely affected the persecution of Falun Gong. Many of those purged had been heavily complicit in the repression, and their political fates created an atmosphere of uncertainty among Chinese security officials, a trend noted in various reports by Minghui. The persecution itself even came under subtle criticism. In 2016, a report by the CCPs anti-corruption agency chastised the 610 Office for failing to implement the law; earlier, the Offices leadership post had been left empty, an ominous sign that it had fallen out of favor with the Xi authorities. Apart from the decline of the 610 Office, developments in Chinese society pointed at a slight shift in the situation. In mid-2015, an adjustment in the judicial code made it easier for citizens to file lawsuits; this was followed by over two million formal complaints brought against Jiang Zemin for starting the persecution. The wave of lawsuits can be contrasted with an earlier such attempt in 2000, when the two plaintiffs were brutally tortured; one to death. A smallbut increasingnumber of court decisions made in favor of Falun Gong practitioners has also been registered since Xi came to power, something unthinkable in the Jiang-Hu era. In 2016, an internal PLAC report acknowledged some instances of unfair treatment in the course of the anti-Falun Gong campaign, and recommended that steps be taken to remedy the issue. In 2016, 3,000 residents from Jianli County in Hubei Province signed their name and affixed their thumb prints in red ink to a joint criminal complaint against former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin. (Minghui.org) But so far, the dismantling of the 610 Officeand all other signs that the treatment of Falun Gong could changemust be qualified by the fact that the Communist Party has continued to stress its ideological and political dominance. Minghui, which provided the document, quoted an anonymous Chinese official as saying that the persecution of Falun Gong had become difficult to handle, but that the Party does not want to completely restore Falun Gongs reputation, for it would be a slap in their own face. In nearly all respects, human rights under Xis leadership have been on a bleak trend, as the CCP steps up its persecution of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Chinese Christians, and other minorities. Communist ideology is also being featured more prominently in education and the media. The 610 Office itself seems to be determined to make the best of its last days. According to a document leaked from the groups Liaoning provincial branch last October via Bitter Winter, the 610 Office there began a new drive to target Falun Gong practitioners and other believers in the province. The end date for the campaign is March 2019, when the 610 Office is scheduled to be closed. The Partys need to preserve its authoritarian rule seems to preclude meaningful improvement in Chinese human rights. But crisis lurks beyond the regimes control, such as economic downturn, the Sino-U.S. trade war, and social unrest. As these and other challenges intensify, Xi Jinping and his colleagues may find themselves forced to make unprecedented choices if they are to keep their positions. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Huawei-Made Small Cell Boxes Rouses Security Concerns in Sydney Residents in a suburb in Sydney, Australia, are seeking answers from a major telecommunications company after it announced plans to install new transmitters or small cell boxes made by Chinese telecom Huawei outside their homes without approval. The Australian Broadcasting Network (the ABC) reported that TPG is planning to place 35 Huawei-made transmitters throughout Sydneys north-western suburb Ryde as it strives to build its own 4G mobile network and that experts said such a move may become more common as Australia transits to 5G. The small cell boxes are to be used for 4G and mobile services in suburban areas and are less powerful compared to the larger telecommunication towers. The boxes are roughly the size of two shoeboxes. Unlike the larger towers, generally used by companies like Telstra and Optus, the small cell boxes can be mounted on power poles without needing to undergo a council or planning approval process under Australias federal telecommunications act. Furthermore, residents also do not have a say over their installation. More than 100 residents have signed a petition to remove the transmitters from the residential area, according to the ABC. Taken by Surprise Ryde residents John and Sue Cappadonna told the ABC that the only notice they received was a printed notice on a power pole outside their home. We really dont want this infrastructure right in front of our home here, John Cappadonna told the ABC. I didnt realize you could build that kind of contraption in a residential area. We dont want it here, Sue Cappadonna said. It causes us great anxiety that this thing is going to be running 24-7. Ryde Mayor Jerome Laxale said the move also took him by surprise. Under the telecommunications act its basically open-slather for these companies to install these small cell devices in the suburbs, he told the ABC. I was surprised. It is council-owned land, the property of residents in Ryde and we ultimately have no say. It is a notification process, rather than a consultation process. Security Concerns Huawei was blocked from supplying equipment for Australias planned 5G Networks due to security concerns. Australias federal government announced the ban in a joint statement on Aug. 23, 2018, and declared its commitment to take the necessary steps to safeguard the security of Australians information and communications at all times. Australian intelligence agencies had warned that there was credible evidence that Huawei was connected to the Third Department of the PLAan arm of the Chinese militarys cyber-espionage network, according to professor Clive Hamilton, the author of the book Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia. Hamilton said in his book that Huawei has spent time creating a public image of trustworthiness by setting up an Australian board as a front: Although it is not a state-owned company, it would be naive in the extreme to believe a company that with government support turned itself into the worlds second-biggest telecommunications equipment maker did not have daily links with Chinas intelligence services. Huaweis 5G technology has already been rolled out in Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Health Concerns TPG prepared a fact sheet for residents (pdf) to assuage concerns related to the health and safety of radio communications and the associated electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from electronics, mobile phones, power lines, radios, and computers. TPG advises that licensed radio frequency transmitters, including the TPG small cells and commercial radio and TV broadcast towers, are regulated to protect all people in all environments, the notice read. Australia has adopted the safety regulations recommended by the World Health Organisation. These regulations have a significant safety margin or precautionary approach built into them. The national safety regulations operate by placing a limit on the strength of the signal (or radio frequency electromagnetic energy) that our antennas can transmit. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves within the frequencies 30KHz (0.00003GHz) to 300GHz and include microwaves (0.3GHz to 300GHz), which are at the higher frequency end of the radio waveband. Since the 1990s, government and industry experts have maintained that mobile phones are safe, and have pointed to studies that reveal no problems associated with wireless exposure. In 2015, an appeal letter to the United Nations signed by over 200 scientists from a group called International EMF Scientist wrote that the microwave radiation coming from our phones and other wireless devices is proven to be harmful to humans and the environment. They pointed to effects such as cancer risk, a rise in harmful free radicals, genetic damage, structural and functional changes to the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and a negative impact on our general well-being. In 2016, the National Toxicology Program released a report from its 16-year, $25 million study examining the health impacts of wireless radiation. The study, which aimed to give the government a conclusive answer as to whether or not the radiation emitted from mobile phones can cause harm, found that it can cause brain tumors, heart tumors, and DNA damage. Epoch Times reporters Janita Kan and Conan Milner contributed to this report. From NTD News How to Kickstart a Young Persons Retirement CHICAGOWhen the Vondruska family gathered in Watersmeet, Michigan on Christmas Eve to open presents, the grandchildren did not rip open any packages from their grandparents. Instead, George and Susan Vondruska handed their three granddaughters, who are in their early 20s and working, notes that say they now have Roth IRAs worth $5,000 each. Think of how large this can be if they retire in 45 years, said George Vondruska. It could be quite large, indeed. That initial lump sum could become more than $150,000 for each granddaughter at retirement. That assumes an average annual return of 8 percent on a portfolio about 82 percent in U.S. and international stock index funds and the rest in bond funds. The grandparents picked Roths because they are such a powerful retirement savings vehicle. The growth is never taxed if invested until at least 59. A person needs to have earned income to qualify each year for the contribution, with a limit of $5,500 for 2018. But the IRS does not actually see who puts the cash into the account. Parents or grandparents who already have their own retirements squared away are incentivizing young people to save by starting the accounts as soon as the kids have earned income from a jobeven babysitting or lawn mowing. Here is what you need to know about seeding a Roth for the young people in your family: 1. It is never too early Financial planning trainer and certified public accountant Ed Slott preaches starting young, noting the magic of compounding, or what Einstein called the eighth wonder of the world. And it grows tax-free forever. Parents with businesses can even hire young children and pay them with a Roth IRA, said Slott. But to qualify, children must be hired for real work; at appropriate pay. You cant hire your child to clean his room, said Slott. 2. Know the rules Roth IRAs are not technically gifts, so gift tax rules do not apply. A parent or grandparent can provide the money, but it cannot equal more than a child earned in a job or business during the year and the limit is $5,500 in 2018 and $6,000 in 2019. When Boston-area financial planner Maureen Demers two oldest children started summer jobs in a friends sandwich shop at 15, she waited until they received their W-2 forms to make sure she knew what each had earned. By tax time the kids had spent the $800 they earned, but Demers filled out paperwork at Vanguard to open each a Roth IRA and deposited the full $800. She plans to do the same for a child in high school this year. There is usually no need to file a tax return unless a worker has earned $12,000 or more this year. Demers did it anyway to recover the withholding from the summer work. 3. Consequences for college aid A Roth IRA is a childs asset, which means that if a child needs financial aid to afford college, a family could face a reduction in aid of up to 25 percent of the Roths value at some private colleges, notes Kalman Chany, author of Paying for College Without Going Broke. This is not an issue at public colleges, where the FAFSA financial aid application ignores retirement accounts of both parents and students. But private colleges do delve into a students retirement accounts and other assets with the CSS Profile form, which requests financial aid. The college could require a student to withdraw Roth IRA money and use it for college. In that case, the withdrawal would be considered income and that income could reduce aid by another 50 percent during the next college year. 4. How to invest The key to choosing investments, especially when the sums are small to start is to make it simple, said Demers. She suggested a total stock market index fund like Vanguards, which is a low-fee exchange-traded fund with no minimum that mimics the full stock market and can be held for life. She warned grandparents not to invest conservatively for a child, who has years to recover from a bear market. These can be purchased through any discount broker or brokerage accounts at fund companies such as Vanguard and Fidelity. By Gail MarksJarvis People vote at outdoor booths during early voting for the mid-term elections in Pasadena, California on Nov. 3, 2018. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) House Dems First Big Bill Is Liberal Wish List for Federalizing Voting News Analysis House Democrats first bill of the 116th Congress, titled H.R. 1, the For the People Act, is described as the most transformational and comprehensive suite of democracy reforms ever proposed. Thats quite a claim, even allowing for the exaggerated rhetoric typical of a new Congress. Thus, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democracy Reform Task Force Chairman Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) elevated H.R. 1 to the rarefied atmosphere of milestones such as the direct popular election of senators and voting rights for women. Democrats know that, with a Republican president and GOP Senate majority for the next two years, the earliest H.R. 1 could become law is after the 2020 election, but thats why their opening proposal in 2019 cant be ignoredits a powerful indicator of where Democrats yearn to take the country. The bill includes a liberal laundry list of new laws, programs, and regulations, virtually all of them being proposals conservative critics heartily agree would be transformational, but, from their perspective, in the worst possible ways. Included in H.R. 1s 571 pages are proposals promoting internet, automatic, and same-day voter registration, vastly expanding the power and funding of an obscure federal panel named the Election Assistance Commission, strengthening early voting, endorsing statehood for the District of Columbia, depriving state legislators of authority to draw congressional districts, and requiring disclosure of previously anonymous campaign donors, including those among federal contractors. In addition, the bill significantly expands public financing of congressional and presidential elections, repeals the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision, requires incumbent presidents and vice presidents, and candidates for those offices, to release their tax returns, and vastly extends executive-branch ethics and conflicts-of-interest regulations. And thats only the highlights. Both parties could support some of H.R. 1s proposals. The bill, for example, requires presidential inauguration committees to disclose their expenditures, limits aggregate contributions, and restricts funds used on purposes unrelated to the inauguration, according to the Democracy Reform Task Forces section-by-section description. Similarly, H.R. 1 prohibits Members of Congress from using taxpayer funds to settle any case of employment discrimination acts by the Members. And the proposal requires that all reports from federal agencies mandated by Congress be published online in a searchable and downloadable database. But there is little chance that any of the rest of the act would even get a hearing in the Republican-led Senate or in President Donald Trumps White House. Election Access Consider just the 45 separate provisions under H.R. 1s Title 1Election Access, all reforms in who votes, how votes are counted, and which level of government controls elections. It is a wish list of every liberal fantasy, very poorly thought-out, and it effectively federalizes the entire election process, Robert Popper told The Epoch Times. Popper is director of the non-profit government watchdog Judicial Watchs Election Integrity Project. He led a legal team that won a landmark settlement announced Jan. 3, in which the state of California and County of Los Angeles agreed to remove an estimated 1.5 million names of registered voters who havent voted in two to four years. The removal process is sanctified under section eight of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, better known as the Motor Voter law passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Poppers team also won similar settlements in Ohio in 2014 and Kentucky in 2018. Under the latest settlement, officials agreed to contact the 1.5 million names, then purge from voter rolls those who dont respond in a reasonable time. Such settlements would end if H.R. 1 became law because Democrats are writing section eight out of the NVRA, Popper said. They use terms like accuracy and integrity, while doing everything to undermine those things. On other H.R. 1 provisions designed to make it easier to vote, Popper noted that its dubious how same-day registration can be done without voter ID, and he worries that internet registration is untried and you wonder if elections could be decided by hackers. As for early voting, Popper pointed to evidence that letting people cast their ballots days or weeks before Election Day actually reduces turnout. In one of the studies Popper mentioned, four University of Wisconsin researchers concluded that early voting has created negative unanticipated consequences by reducing the civic significance of elections for individuals and altering the incentives for political campaigns to invest in mobilization. Popper also cited a Government Accountability Office study that surveyed 20 studies on the effects of early voting and reported that seven studies found no statistically significant effect, another eight studies found that the policy decreased turnout, and five studies reported mixed evidence. Nightmare Situation True The Votes Catherine Engelbrecht shares much of Poppers skepticism about H.R. 1. She calls same-day registration another nightmare situation for efforts to ensure honest elections. Give states the ability to check same-day registrations with tech that supports real-time verification of identity, residency, and citizenship at the polling place, then lets talk about same-day registration, Engelbrecht told The Epoch Times. Her Houston-based nonprofit provides training, technology, and support to fellow citizens, so that they can ensure election integrity in their own communities. Engelbrechts group gained national attention in 2013 when it was revealed IRS officials improperly targeted hundreds of conservative, evangelical, and Tea Party non-profit applicants for lengthy delays during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns. Engelbrecht, an advocate of block-chain-based digital registration security, said she has no objection to the concept of online voter registration, generally speaking, because the technology exists to support it, it would be more convenient, more people would likely register to voteall good things. But, she said, the states need support to get the job done right, because automating a fundamentally broken process wont make it any less broken. Engelbrechts bottom-line on H.R. 1? There is no question that this bill would hurt election integrity. Our election processes are already easily manipulated. H.R.1 ensures that our elections will be as open as our borders. Health Group Healius Rejects Chinese Jangho Groups $1.2 Billion Takeover Bid Australian health group Healius rejected a A$1.7 billion ($1.21 billion) takeover bid on Jan.7 from Chinese construction company Jangho Group. Jangho, which is also Healius largest shareholder with a 15.9 percent stake, has been making inroads into Australias healthcare sector. The foreign company made the unsolicited buyout offer on Jan. 3 to acquire the rest of Healius at A$3.25 ($2.32) a share. Following news of the takeover proposal, Healius share price increased 7.8 percent to A$2.63 ($1.88) on Jan. 3 and a further 4.56 percent to A$2.75 ($1.96) on Jan. 4. However, the Healius board unanimously rejected the proposal for being opportunistic as it fundamentally undervalues the company. The Boards view is reinforced by the highly conditional and uncertain nature of the proposal, the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). In particular, the sources of funding are not apparent from the information provided by Jangho and the proposal is conditional on a number of regulatory approvals that are outside of the control of Jangho, including the approval of Chinese and Australian regulators. The status of these approvals is unknown. The company has begun a number of strategic initiativesto deliver more shareholder value than what was originally offered in Janghos proposal. We do not believe pursuing the proposal is in the best interests of shareholders other than Jangho, Healius chairman Rob Hubbard said in an announcement to the ASX. Healius, formerly known as Primary Health Care, is one of Australias largest owners of medical centers and pathology centers across the country. Healius is estimated to be worth A$2.88 billion ($2.05 billion), according to The Australian Financial Review. Even if the offer were accepted regulatory hurdles are still expected to impede the deal. The acquisition would have required approval from cross-border mergers and acquisitions regulators from both countries. If the deal proceeded, it would have made Jangho one of Beijings biggest healthcare players operating in Australia. With an ageing population burdening existing services in the worlds second largest economy, Chinese firms are increasingly looking at healthcare firms as high-quality assets. Jangho, which is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, is one the worlds biggest manufacturers of curtain walls and more recently has diversified into healthcare via a number of investments in Australia. In 2015, the company bought 20 percent of the ASX-listed ophthalmic chain Vision Eye Institutewhich was also a shareholder of Healiusand then later the entire eye care group. Jangho is also the fourth-largest investor of Monash IVF with a 4.5 percent stake. Taken By Surprise J.P. Morgan healthcare analyst David Low told The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) the bids timing is surprising, considering how Jangho has been on the register for two years and the generally low level of market consolidation in Australia. Separately I am cautious this wont help the groups business. It will likely make it harder to recruit doctors because of the uncertainty of the ownership, and adding GPs is quite important to Healius plans to expand its medical centre business, Low told SMH. The sudden possibility of a new owner will likely cause potential recruits to stand back and wait to better understand the new owners plans before signing up. Healius had been under pressure for a number of years. Former CEO Peter Gregg stepped down in early 2017 after the Australian Securites and Investments Commission charged him with falsifying records while serving as an executive at construction group Leighton Holdings between late 2009 and early 2014. According to SMH, Jangho was speculated to be planning for a full takeover of Healius since it first appeared on the register. In 2017, both Jangho and Gregg were forced to deny they had planned a bid together, the SMH reported. Reuters contributed to this report From NTD.com Good Leaders Should Love the People They Lead When I was a teenager, my grandfather, a captain in the Marines, told me a story about a general he met during the Vietnam War. When my grandfather went to meet this general, he found him making calls to save a group of Marines, after a rescue mission had turned into a full-scale battle. The Marines have a creed to never abandon a fellow Marine, dead or alive. A group of Marines had been ambushed while trying to recover the bodies of another unit, and the next group that was sent in as reinforcements was also ambushed. The general was desperately trying to save these young men. He turned to my grandfather with tears running down his cheeks and said, My boys are dying out there. When my grandfather spoke of good leaders, this was often the anecdote he used. A core trait of a good leader is to love the people youre in charge of. The Han Dynasty text Guiguzi states, One with talent but no kindness cannot command an army. How a leader regarded those in his charge was among the key traits that separated sage kings from tyrants. It was the virtue that determined whether a military leader cared about how his choices affected the well-being of his men, and whether a ruler cared about how a policy affected the everyday lives of his people. In this same light, a boss can run an efficient and well-ordered company and still be hated by his employees. A man can have a well-ordered home and still be despised by his wife. The reason is that being able to lead does not necessarily make someone a good leader. Efficiency, order, and even tangible results are not always the mark of a good leader. History is filled with great leaders who werent necessarily good men, and while their accomplishments might have been far-reaching, they left tainted legacies. A Leaders Compassion In the early 1700s, Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote in the Hagakure, a manual for the samurai, that the reason why people still revere the sages of the three ancient kingdoms is because of the vastness and extent of their compassion. Tsunetomo said that he was aware of what constituted valor and wisdom, but he had only recently come to grasp what compassion was. He cited Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the first Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who stated: If the ruler loves his retainers and the people as his children, they, in turn, will think of the ruler as their parent. The principle underlying governance of a peaceful realm is compassion. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had similar views on leadership. In his Nicomachean Ethics from the mid-300s B.C., he referred to politics as the supreme and most authoritative art in the aspiration toward goodness. Cultivation of Virtue His views were based on the idea that moral goodness and the cultivation of virtue were the true sources of joy; and that in the context of politics, a true leader would embody traits of goodness and virtue, and would, in turn, nurture these values in his people. Politics was something done for the benefit of others, through the pursuit of virtue. The deviation from monarchy is tyranny, for both are forms of one-man rule, but there is the greatest difference between them: The tyrant looks to his own advantage; the king, to that of his subjects, Aristotle wrote. For a man is not a king unless he is sufficient to himself and excels his subjects in all good things, and such a man needs nothing further. Therefore, he will not look to his own interests but to those of his subjects, for a king who is not like that would be a mere titular king. Aristotle added that tyranny was the opposite of this principle, since the tyrant pursues his own good. As an example, we can look to the Chinese military classic Tai Gong Six Secret Teachings by Jiang Ziya. In it, King Wen, who founded the Zhou Dynasty, asks him how to administer a state where the ruler is honored and the people are content. Jiang Ziya replied, Just love the people. King Wen responded by asking what this meant in practice, and was given an explanation of principles that included protecting jobs, keeping taxes low, and, as a leader, avoiding acting out of self-interest and corruption. Thus, one who excels at administering a state governs the people as parents govern their beloved children or as an older brother acts towards his beloved younger brother, Jiang Ziya said. When they see their hunger and cold, they are troubled for them. When they see their labors and suffering, they grieve for them. Emperor Tang of ancient China was said to embody these virtues. The ancient text Huainanzi described him thusly: His virtue and kindness flowed everywhere, so that the oppressed and poor were relieved. He comforted those who mourned for the dead; he inquired after the sick and fed the orphan and the widow. The people clung to him with affection; his commands were readily obeyed in the country. Broadness of Mind Benevolent leaders also possess a broadness of mindthe ability to see the bigger picture and to guide people along a road that leads them to the best outcome. This requires the consideration of multiple viewpoints, not taking the easy and comfortable path, while being thoughtful of the needs and wants of others. Benevolence was seen as going hand in hand with governance, and this was a common theme across many cultures. Guidance on how to achieve this was outlined in many classic texts for leaders. The Warriors Rule by Tsugaru Kodo-shi states this plainly: Civil administration consists of two things only: benevolence and governance. Benefits are bestowed by virtue of benevolence; regulations are established by governance. Then government is right. On Micromanaging The ancients also warned against micromanagement and tyrannical control of individuals down to individual actions. In ancient China, the powers of the state didnt stretch below the county level, and good leaders looked to the wisdom and insights of those around them to develop a broadness of mind. The Confucian text Kung Tzu Chia Yu (The School Sayings of Confucius) states that fish avoid streams with clear water; a man too judicious amasses no followers. In this same light, those who micromanage and who are overly judgmental of minor flaws often find themselves without the loyalty and respect of those theyre in charge of. American President and former Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant showed his ability to leverage the individual insights of his men and their ability to improvise in strategy as the situation demanded. He stated, I do not propose to lay down for you a plan of campaign, but simply to lay down the work it is desirable to have done and leave you free to exercise it in your own way. Wise Advice It was also understood that to attract wise counsel, leaders needed to exercise good values and a love for their own people. The Three Strategies by Huang Shigong states: If your benevolence extends to the people, then wise men will take to you; if your benevolence reaches all creatures, then sages will take to you. If wise men take to you, your country will be strong; if sages take to you, the whole world will be united. The purpose of wise counsel wasnt for selfish aims, however. The Three Strategies notes that the goal is the goodness of the society itself. It states: Those who can help the world when in danger can thus establish peace in the world. Those who can eliminate the worlds anxieties can thus experience the worlds pleasures. Those who can save the world from calamity can thus obtain the blessings of the world. Joshua Philipp is a senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times. Georgia Family Says They Returned From Vacation to Find Stranger Living in Home A Georgia family discovered a man had been living in their home after traveling over the holidays. He even changed the locks and claimed the house was his. Janice Henson told WSB-TV that the key to her familys home in Marietta wouldnt work when she attempted to open the door. Marietta, in Cobb County, is a city located northwest of Atlanta. A man in a wheelchair came to the door and told her to leave. The stranger also claimed to have a gun, said Henson. The police were called, leading to a five-hour standoff between officers, the SWAT team, and the suspect. WSB reported that the SWAT team broke down the door and sent a robot to locate the suspect. The suspect was identified as 26-year-old Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols, who eventually surrendered to law enforcement. Officials charged him with felony first-degree burglary and making terroristic threats. He is now being held at the Cobb County jail on $33,220 bond. Henson told the news outlet that its not clear how long Nuckols had been living in her house. She noticed some of the familys belongings were moved around and their food was gone. He also left us notes thanking us for the key and thanking us for letting him live here, and it was his house now, Henson told WSB. He moved all the pictures, emptied drawers. He was making this house his. Other details about the case are not clear. Sovereign Citizen Case? It comes a few days after another Georgia man claimed a $500,000 house as his in Gwinnett County. Joel Fedd occupied a house before he was arrested by police, WSB reported. Fedd even posted images on his Facebook page showing him on the property even though a family had already bought the property but had yet to move in. They say the [expletive] $500,000, half a million, but this [expletive] free when you a [expletive] Moor, and you know where you at and who you are, what you tied to, Fedd said in one of the videos. They say it was $500,000, but thank you ancestors for the free gift. It was already mine I just had to realize that. In another video, Fedd posted legal documents on the windows to the home from the inside, and he said they legally allow him to occupy the home. We doing everything the legal way. I might look like a bandit, but, no. Thats what they want you to think. Im actually one of the good guys. Reclaiming whats rightfully mine, Fedd said in a video. The text next to the video says Claim It You Have The Law On Your Side. Fedd was charged with criminal trespass and making false statements. The owners have since regained control of the property and moved in, reported WSB. Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba arrives for a group picture at the BRICS summit meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 27, 2018. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters) Gabon Soldiers Seize State Radio in Apparent Coup Attempt LIBREVILLEMilitary officers in Gabon staged an apparent coup attempt early on Jan. 7, seizing the state radio station and declaring their dissatisfaction with President Ali Bongo, who is recovering from a stroke in Morocco. A New Years eve address by Bongo reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office, said Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, who described himself as an officer in the Republican Guard and leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defense and Security Forces of Gabon. In a video circulating on social media, Ondo Obiang is seen in a radio studio wearing military fatigues and a green beret as he reads the statement, which was broadcast at around 4:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT). Two other soldiers with large assault rifles stand behind him. Video: Military 'seizes' power in Gabon, where Ali Bongo's family has ruled for 50 years. Ali Bongo got sick last year, went for treatment and returned not to Gabon but Morocco to recuperate. This unprecedented. pic.twitter.com/3nWKAjwUxk Lord Abraham Mutai (@ItsMutai) January 7, 2019 Ondo Obiang said the coup was being carried out against those who, in a cowardly way, assassinated our young compatriots on the night of August 31, 2016, a reference to deadly violence that erupted after Bongo was declared the winner of a disputed election. A source close to the government said there were gunshots around the national television station, but that the plotters appeared to be a small group of soldiers. A spokesman for the presidency told Reuters he would make a statement shortly. Bongo, 59, was hospitalized in October in Saudi Arabia after suffering a stroke. He has been in Morocco since November to continue treatment. In his speech on New Years, Bongo acknowledged health problems but said he was recovering. He slurred some of his words and did not move his right arm, but otherwise appeared in decent health. The Bongo family has ruled the oil-producing country for nearly half a century. Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009. His re-election in 2016 was marred by claims of fraud and violent protest. Bongo won re-election in 2016 by fewer than 6,000 votes, sparking deadly clashes between protesters and police during which the parliament was torched. The European Union said it found anomalies during the election in Bongos stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent on a 99.9 percent turnout. By Geraud Wilfried Obangome Dentist Arrested After Attacking 86-Year-Old Cab Driver in Road Rage Incident A dentist was arrested after attacking an elderly man in a road rage incident, the Massachusetts State Police said. Nicholas Franco, 66, was apprehended on Jan. 4, for assault and battery upon an elderly person over 60 or disabled person with injury, the police said in a statement. The charges stem from a road rage incident that took place in Boston near the intersection of Jeffries Road at Transportation Way. Witnesses and video surveillance indicate that Franco cut off and stopped his 2016 Mercedes in front of a white taxi cab that was stopped at the traffic light at Harborside Drive. The video surveillance hasnt been released. He exited his vehicle and walked over to the cab. The operator of the cab, an 86 year-old male exited his vehicle and the two engaged in a verbal altercation which led to Franco pulling the victims glasses off his face, pushing him to the ground and striking him in the torso. Franco then got back into his vehicle and left the scene, the Massachusetts State Police said. The elderly cab driver was taken to Mass General Hospital for a medical evaluation and Franco was arrested. He was scheduled to be arraigned in East Boston District Court on Friday afternoon, the state police said. Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorneys office, confirmed that Franco was arraigned on a charge of assault and battery on an elderly person on Jan. 4. Wark told the Boston Globe that Franco was released on his own recognizance and ordered to return to court on Feb. 26. EXCLUSIVE: I was was shocked, I couldnt get up, I tried and couldnt do it. 86 year old cab driver says a dentist attacked him near Logan this morning. Now the dentist is facing charges. Hear from the elderly cab driver ahead at 10 on @boston25 pic.twitter.com/ozL9sdMv7S Elysia Rodriguez (@ElysiaBoston25) January 5, 2019 According to Boston 25, Franco works for the East Boston Dental Associates. The victim told the broadcaster that Franco came out and pushed me and hit me and I went down. I was shocked, I couldnt get up. I tried to get up and couldnt do it, and thats all, Charles Touroyan added. The elderly cab driver said that he had no broken bones. They took me to the hospital to check me out and Im okay, Touroyan said. Nothing broken, but my son tells me in the morning Im going to be sore. I am asking everyone to please keep the Marksville United Pentecostal Church in your prayers-pastor: Bro. Eric Descant! Alex Madrigal 201914 Pictures Show Five Children Killed in Florida Five children who died in a fiery Florida crash were traveling in a church van heading to Disney World, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Local news outlets published photos of the children. The Florida Highway Patrol named the five children as 14-year-old Joel Cloud, 14-year-old Jeremiah Warren, 9-year-old Cierra Bordelan, 13-year-old Cara Descant, and 10-year-old Brieanna Descant. According to News4Jax, they were traveling from Marksville, Louisiana, which is about 700 miles from Disney World. They were an hour away from the theme park when the crash occurred along Interstate 75 in Gainesville. The accident also left two truckers dead. Steve Holland of West Palm Beach, one of the truckers, was cited between 2000 and 2014 in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida for traffic violations, driving an unsafe vehicle, driving without proof of insurance, and driving an overloaded vehicle, reported WPBF. The station reported that he was driving north on Interstate 75 on Jan. 3 when he veered into another vehicle, lost control, and passed over the center divider, hitting the church van with children inside as well as another truck. Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report. From NTD News Cyntoia Brown Granted Clemency by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted executive clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a victim of child sex trafficking who killed a Nashville man in 2004 when she was 16 years old. Brown was sentenced to life for killing the man. In December, Tennessees Supreme Court ruled that Brown, 30, has to remain in prison for 51 years before she is eligible for parole. Haslams order on Jan. 7 stipulated that Brown will be eligible for release on Aug. 7, 2019, on time served, reported The Tennessean newspaper. She has to stay on parole for another 10 years. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16, Haslam said in the statement. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life, he said. He added: Transformation should be accompanied by hope. So, I am commuting Ms. Browns sentence, subject to certain conditions. According to the newspaper, Brown will participate in counseling sessions and must complete 50 hours of community service. She will also have to get a job. In a statement from her lawyers, Brown thanked Haslam for your act of mercy in giving me a second chance. With Gods help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been, Brown added. She was convicted of shooting and killing 43-year-old Johnny Allen in the head after she feared for her safety. Allen had paid Brown for her services as a prostitute. In the incident, Brown said she thought Allen was reaching for a gun before shooting him. At the time of the killing, she had run away from home and was living with her boyfriend, a pimp known as Kut Throat, who forced her into prostitution, according to court documents, as reported by NBC News. Browns supporters and defense lawyers argued that the 51-year prison term was too extreme, given the circumstances and the fact she was a 16-year-old. Prosecutors argued that the motive in the shooting was robbery, as she left with some of Allens money and his vehicle. This is truly a joyful momentfor Cyntoia and for all of us who have worked to help her, said Charles Bone and J.Houston Gordon, Browns lead attorneys. During her time in prison, she completed her GED and received a college degree from Lipscomb University. #BREAKING: Gov. Haslam grants clemency to Cyntoia Brown. Set for release on August 7th. pic.twitter.com/ISkFiHtRgK NewsChannel 5 (@NC5) January 7, 2019 Haslam Grilled at Nashville Event In an event last month, Haslam was asked about Browns situation. As a victim of sex trafficking and assault, this is an unjust sentence in the first place, stated Justin Lang, an attendee, according to a prior report from Epoch Times. Under Tennessee law, all minors engaged in sex work are legally considered victims of sex trafficking. She has not been treated as a victim of trafficking and not given the justice she deserves, Lang added. Lang said that the Supreme Courts order to make Brown serve 51 years in prisons is a human rights issue. And so I ask you, what really, functionally, is the difference between life without parolewhich is no longer constitutional as the United States Supreme Court declared for minors, for any crimeand You might get parole after 51 years, for a victim of sex trafficking? he asked. An exterior view of the ZGC Innovation Center is seen in Santa Clara, California, U.S. on April 12, 2018. (Stephen Lam/Reuters) Chinese Tech Investors Flee Silicon Valley as Trump Tightens Scrutiny SAN FRANCISCONew Trump administration policies aimed at curbing Chinas access to American innovation have all but halted Chinese investment in U.S. technology startups, as both investors and startup founders abandon deals amid scrutiny from Washington. Chinese venture funding in U.S. startups crested to a record $3 billion last year, according to New York economic research firm Rhodium Group, spurred by a rush of investors and tech companies scrambling to complete deals before a new regulatory regime was approved in August. Since then, Chinese venture funding in U.S. startups has slowed to a trickle, Reuters interviews with more than 35 industry players show. U.S. President Donald Trump signed new legislation expanding the governments ability to block foreign investment in U.S. companies, regardless of the investors country of origin. But Trump has been particularly vocal about stopping China from getting its hands on strategic U.S. technologies. The new rules are still being finalized, but tech industry veterans said the fallout has been swift. Deals involving Chinese companies and Chinese buyers and Chinese investors have virtually stopped, said attorney Nell ODonnell, who has represented U.S. tech companies in transactions with foreign buyers. Lawyers who spoke to Reuters say they are feverishly rewriting deal terms to help ensure investments get the stamp of approval from Washington. Chinese investors, including big family offices, have walked away from transactions and stopped taking meetings with U.S. startups. Some entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are eschewing Chinese money, fearful of lengthy government reviews that could sap their resources and momentum in an arena where speed to market is critical. Volley Labs, Inc, a San Francisco-based company that uses artificial intelligence to build corporate training materials, is playing it safe. It declined offers from Chinese investors last year after accepting cash from Beijing-based TAL Education Group as part of a financing round in 2017. We decided for optical reasons it just wouldnt make sense to expose ourselves further to investors coming from a country where there is now so much by way of trade tensions and IP tensions, said Carson Kahn, Volleys CEO. A Silicon Valley venture capitalist told Reuters he is aware of at least ten deals, some involving companies in his own portfolio, that fell apart because they would need approval from the interagency group known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He declined to be named for fear of bringing negative attention to his portfolio companies. CFIUS is the government group tasked with reviewing foreign investment for potential national security and competitive risks. The new legislation expands its powers. Among them: the ability to probe transactions previously excluded from its purview, including attempts by foreigners to purchase minority stakes in U.S. startups. China is in the crosshairs. The Asian giant has been an aggressive investor in technology deemed critical to its global competitiveness and military prowess. Chinese investors have bought stakes in ride-hailing firms Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft, as well as companies with more sensitive technologies including data center networking firm Barefoot Networks, autonomous driving startup Zoox and speech recognition startup AISense. (For a graphic of Chinese venture investment in U.S. tech, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2SBHUVh) A dearth of Chinese money is unlikely to spell doomsday for Silicon Valley. Investors worldwide poured more than $84 billion into U.S. startups for the first three quarters of last year, exceeding any prior full-year funding, according to data provider PitchBook Inc. It is a radical shift for Silicon Valley. Money has historically flowed in from every corner of the globe, including from geopolitical rivals such as China and Russia, largely uninhibited by U.S. government scrutiny or regulation. Reid Whitten, an attorney with Sheppard Mullin, said that of the six companies he recently advised to get CFIUS approval for their investment offers, only two have opted to file the paperwork. The others abandoned their deals or are still considering whether to proceed. It is a generational change in the way we look at foreign investment in the United States, Whitten said. Critical Technologies The decline in Chinese investment comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington. Trump has blasted China for its enormous trade surplus and for what he claims are its underhanded strategies to obtain leading-edge American technology. The nations have already levied billions in tariffs on each others goods. And Trump is considering an executive order to bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by Chinas Huawei and ZTE, which the U.S. government has accused of spying. CFIUS is emerging as another powerful cudgel. Led by the U.S. Treasury, it includes members from eight other government entities, including the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security. The secretive committee does not disclose much about the deals it reviews. But its most recent annual report said Chinese investors made 74 CFIUS filings from 2013 to 2015, the most of any nation. The president has the authority to make the final decision, but a thumbs-down from CFIUS is usually enough to doom a deal. Washington demonstrated its tougher stance even before the new law was passed, when Trump in March blocked a $117 billion hostile bid by Singapore-based Broadcom Ltd to acquire Qualcomm Inc of San Diego. CFIUS said the takeover would weaken the United States in the race to develop next-generation wireless technology. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. In November, CFIUS rolled out a pilot program mandating that foreign investors notify the committee of any size investment in certain critical technologies. The scope of that term is still being defined, but a working list includes artificial intelligence, logistics technology, robotics and data analytics the bread and butter of Silicon Valley. Research firm Rhodium predicted that up to three-quarters of Chinese venture investments would be subject to CFIUS review under the new rules. Just the threat of that scrutiny has caused some Chinese investors to reconsider. Safe Side of the Fence Some security experts applaud what they call long-overdue protections for U.S. startups. What we are concerned about is a limited number of bad actors who are phenomenally clever about how they can access our intellectual property, said Bob Ackerman, founder of AllegisCyber, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco and Maryland that backs cyber security startups. Rhodium calculates that, on average, 21 percent of Chinese venture investment in the United States from 2000 through 2017 came from state-owned funds, which are controlled at least in part by the Chinese government. In 2018, that figure surged to 41 percent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken a more active role in policing Chinese investment. Two industry veterans, a startup adviser and a venture capitalist who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters they were recently cautioned by the FBI not to pursue deals with Chinese investors. The two people did not name the Chinese entities of interest to the FBI, but said the deals concerned U.S. companies building artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies. Whether any of this deters China from reaching its goal of dominating advanced technologies remains to be seen. China can still invest in U.S. technology through layers of funds that obscure the money source. And Chinese investors are redirecting funds to promising companies in Southeast Asia and Latin America. U.S. startups, meanwhile, are rewriting deal terms to avoid a CFIUS review. Strategies include adding provisions to prevent foreign investors from obtaining proprietary technical information, and denying them board rights, veto rights or additional equity in future rounds, attorneys told Reuters. People are rightfully concerned about making sure they are on the safe side of the fence, said Jeff Farrah, general counsel of the National Venture Capital Association. By Heather Somerville The emblem of the Geely automobile maker logo is seen at the IEEV New Energy Vehicles Exhibition in Beijing, China, on Oct. 18, 2018. (Thomas Peter/Reuters) Chinas Geely Sees Sales Growth Evaporating as Car Market Struggles BEIJINGChinas most globally high-profile and successful carmaker, Geely, is forecasting flat sales this year, a sharp slowdown from 2018 as the countrys giant auto market struggles with slowing economic growth and more cautious consumers. Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, the main listed unit of the Geely empire which owns Volvo Cars and Proton, posted sales growth of 20 percent in 2018. That was despite a slide in sales at a host of other carmakers and forecasts that last year was the first in decades to see a fall in sales in Chinas overall car market. The gloomy forecast for 2019 highlights how the year is likely to be tough for all carmakers, including General Motors and Great Wall Motor. Geely said in a filing that despite its growth last year, it had missed a sales target of 1.58 million cars by around 5 percent. Its sales started to slow in the last quarter of 2018, with a 44 percent drop in December alone, according to monthly sales data filings. Some other domestic and international firms have flagged a sharp drop in demand in China at the end of last year, including Apple Inc, which cut its global sales forecast due to Chinese weakness. Geelys chairman Li Shufu said in a new years address that the year ahead was pivotal. We must lay the foundation for our survival, otherwise we may soon face a period of demise, he said in the address posted on Geelys social media last year. Chinas auto market likely contracted last year for the first time since at least 1990, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said last month, citing economic shifts, weakness in smaller cities and international reasons which could refer to the Sino-U.S trade war. The industry body expects around 28 million vehicle sales in 2019, roughly level with 2018. Chinas Auto Industry in Trouble Since June 2018, Chinas auto industry has experienced a continuous decline in sales. Henan Province is one of Chinas biggest by auto sales with over a million passenger car units sold this year. But growth has stalled sharply, according to data from local consultancy Daas-Auto. Henan auto sales dropped 18 percent in October after a 25 percent drop the month before, outstripping a fall in sales nationwide of almost 12 percent last month, the fourth straight month of declines. The slowing economy has sapped consumer confidence even as access to credit has dwindled amid a crackdown on risky lending and high levels of debt. This credit had previously spurred car purchases, some dealers said. Zhang Yinlong, a local manager at an auto finance firm, told Reuters at a large second-hand car market near the city that it was a bad time to be in the industry. I dont see many customers are buying car these months, he said. By Yilei Sun & Adam Jourdan Canadian Delegation in Shanghai Seeks Release of Kovrig and Spavor The two Canadians were detained shortly after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver TORONTOA Canadian parliamentary delegation currently visiting Shanghai has asked for the release of detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, despite previous comments that the cases were not on the official agenda. The gist of the message is that the executive branch of Canada has asked for their immediate release, Canadian Sen. Joseph Day, the head of the delegation, said after meeting with Chinese officials on Jan. 7, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat and an adviser with the International Crisis Group, and Spavor, an entrepreneur, were detained in China on what is widely believed to be trumped-up charges in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec. 1. The CBC report said the discussion turned to the issue of Kovrig and Spavor after Chinese officials at the meeting asked about Mengs arrest by Canada on an extradition request from the United States. Before the delegation left for China, Day had said the release of the two men was not the purpose of the trip and his group wanted to tread carefully when meeting with Chinese lawmakers so not to interfere with diplomatic efforts. Other members of the delegation, which is hosted by the Canada-China Legislative Association, include Sen. Victor Oh and members of Parliament Chandra Arya, Michael Cooper, Majid Jowhari, and Geng Tan. They say the trip had been planned for months and the itinerary set before the detention of Kovrig and Spavor. However, the delegation drew criticism for not putting the detentions on the official agenda. Former Canadian ambassador to China David Mulroney said Beijing wants Ottawa to believe its best not to bring up the issue in order to avoid upsetting the long-term relationship between the two countries. What we have essentially is a Canadian delegation using Chinas talking points at a time when we should be saying, Its not business as usual. The most important thing for us is to secure the freedom of these two people who have been wrongly detained,' Mulroney told CBC. Were saying, Well, you know there are these embarrassments that come up every now and then but we have to stay focused on the long-term relationship.' After an initially muted response, Canada formally demanded that China release Kovrig and Spavor. On Dec. 21, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a statement describing the mens detention as arbitrary and called for their immediate release. She also said Canada would follow the rule of law and due process in Mengs case and would adhere to its international legal commitments. Allies including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union added their voices in support of Canadas position. More recently, Global Affairs Canada confirmed that 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Mengs arrest, with eight released so far. Global Affairs added that approximately 200 Canadians overall have been detained in China and continue to face ongoing legal proceedings. U.S. prosecutors allege Meng misled banks about transactions linked to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. She is currently out on bail in Vancouver awaiting extradition hearings. California Storm Brings Power Outages, Shuts Down Highway LOS ANGELESTens of thousands of people lost power on Jan. 6, after a powerful winter storm swept through Northern California, while another storm system in the southern part of the state unleashed mudslides in wildfire burn areas and trapped motorists on a major highway. The deluge loosened hillsides where a major blaze burned last year in and around Malibu, clogging the Pacific Coast Highway with mud and debris. A stretch of the scenic route northwest of Los Angeles was expected to remain closed in both directions until Jan. 7, while crews tow away stuck vehicles and clear lanes. No injuries were reported. Saturday night storm wreaked havoc on PCH as seen in these images taken by @CaltransDist7 crews who are busy clearing roadway. The closure in both directions may extend until Tues. SR 23 also affected. Avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/wwVCVrXjza Caltrans District 7 (@CaltransDist7) January 6, 2019 The rapper Soulja Boy was among those whose cars were mired in the muck that was up to 4 feet deep in some areas. The 28-year-old retweeted a photo of the mudslide and posted: My car got stuck too almost went into the ocean, along with a prayer emoji. My car got stuck too almost went into the ocean https://t.co/ks4HlrsS9u Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) January 6, 2019 An automated rain gauge in the western Santa Monica Mountains showed nearly three-quarters of an inch of rainfall in one hour, said the National Weather Service. These are heavy rates, the weather service tweeted. Up to 1 inches of rain fell in coastal and valley areas, while mountain communities got heavy snow. Storm system to bring 1-2 inches of rain across much of SLO/SBA counties through Mon,, with local totals 2-4 inches in Santa Lucia Mtns. Peak rates 0.25-0.50 inches per hour with local rates up to 0.75 inches per hour across the foothills of NW SLO County. #SLOWeather #cawx pic.twitter.com/bOrqgfwOKV NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) January 7, 2019 Flash-flood watches and warnings were eventually lifted for areas burned by the fires that scorched more than 155 square miles of brush and timber acres in November, destroyed about 1,600 structures and claimed three lives. The sun emerged in Los Angeles on Sunday and the red carpet for the evenings Golden Globe awards was expected to remain dry. Scattered showers were possible later in the night. To the north, wind and rain forced delays or cancelations of flights out of San Francisco International Airport for a second day. A wind advisory was in place until 10 p.m. Sunday. The San Francisco Bay Area could get up to 1 inches of rain, with the heaviest downpours coming after sunset. Strong winds and downed trees knocked out electricity for at least 80,000 customers across the Sacramento region Sunday night. The National Weather Service said Sunday that winds gusted up to 49 mph. Our crews have safely restored power to more than 40,000 customers and are continuing to work through the night to restore power to everyone. Thank you for your patience. Stay up-to-date at https://t.co/R7TLtSY0H7 and stay away from downed power lines. pic.twitter.com/cGKn7mXGIR SMUD (@SMUDUpdates) January 7, 2019 Saturdays storm brought about a foot of snow to the Sierra Nevada and twice that amount was expected Sunday. A winter storm warning was in effect until 4 a.m. Monday. Avalanche warnings were posted in parts of California, Nevada, and Utah. The Sierra Avalanche Center issued a backcountry avalanche warning for the Lake Tahoe area stretching south into the Sierra along the California-Nevada line from noon Sunday until 7 a.m. Monday. The National Weather Service says blizzard conditions with gale-force winds could trigger widespread avalanche activity. Two feet of snow was reported at Mammoth Mountain 150 miles south of Tahoe. More than a foot fell in the upper elevations around Tahoe, including 19 inches at Squaw Valley. Windstorms that pummeled parts of Washington state and Oregon over the weekend left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. If you're a deep sleeper, you may have missed the wind storm overnight. Here's a look at peak wind gusts overnight: https://t.co/uT3beHFB7c. Over 200,000 power outages remain this morning. Winds will continue to ease this morning. #wawx pic.twitter.com/sTJ20yju1f NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) January 6, 2019 A strong system brought winds that registered gusts of about 60 mph at Sea-Tac Airport in Washington, the National Weather Service in Seattle said. Dozens of flights in the region were canceled or delayed. Charles "Chase" Merritt, who is charged in the deaths of a family of four whose bodies were found three years after their disappearance, waits for his preliminary hearing in San Bernardino, Calif. Opening statements are expected Monday, Jan. 7, 2018, in the trial of Merritt for the murders of Joseph McStay, McStays wife Summer and their 3- and 4-year-old sons. The family disappeared from their San Diego County home in 2010. Three years later, their bodies were found in a remote desert location. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune/AP) California Man on Trial for Alleged Murder of Family of 4 SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.For years, the disappearance of the McStay family from their San Diego County home puzzled investigators, with no signs of forced entry and the couples credit cards untouched. After their remains were found years later in a remote desert location more than 100 miles away, authorities charged a Southern California man with the killings, alleging he bludgeoned his business partner, partners wife and two young sons with a sledgehammer before burying them. Now, 61-year-old Charles Chase Merritt is facing trial in the murder of Joseph McStay, McStays wife Summer, and their 3- and 4-year-old boys. Opening statements are expected Jan. 07 in San Bernardino County, where the familys remains were found. Merritt, who was a business associate of McStay, has pleaded not guilty. Merritt could face the death penalty if convicted Authorities have said Merritts cellphone was traced to the remote gravesites and to a call days later seeking to close out his then-missing business partners online bookkeeping account. Michael McStay, brother of the victims, and Susan Blake, their mother, arrive at court for the preliminary hearing for accused killer Chase Merritt in San Bernardino, Calif. Opening statements are expected Monday, Jan. 7, 2018. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune/AP) They also have said Merritts DNA was discovered on the steering wheel and gearshift of McStays SUV, which was impounded near the Mexican border a few days after the family vanished. Defense attorney James McGee said that DNA could have been transferred to the vehicle by McStay after he met with Merritt shortly before the family vanished. McGee also said none of Merritts DNA was found at the gravesites but DNA belonging to other unidentified individuals had turned up there. From the evidence the government is going to present, our argument is going to be: You had the wrong guy, McGee said. People place crosses near the graves where the McStay family was found in Victorville, Calif. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune/AP) Britt Imes, supervising deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County, said he could not comment on ongoing cases. The McStay family disappeared from their home in Fallbrook, which is about 50 miles north of San Diego, in 2010. Their remains were found in San Bernardino County in 2013 along with a 3-pound sledgehammer and a childs pants and diaper. Authorities have said all four victims were believed to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators have said they spoke with Merritt shortly after the family went missing and noticed he referred to them in the past tense. They also have said a customer service representative told them he received a call about McStays QuickBooks account, which he used to pay vendors connected to his water features business, after he vanished. The call, according to authorities, was placed from Merritts cellphone. Flags with the logo of German chemicals company BASF flutter in front of the company's headquarters in Ludwigshafen, western Germany on Feb. 24, 2017. (Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images) BASF Workers in Taiwan Suspected of Leaking Company Secrets to Chinese Firm TAIPEI/FRANKFURTTaiwan is investigating six current and former employees of BASFs local operations suspected of leaking corporate secrets to a rival Chinese company, an official said on Jan. 7. Five employees were detained and one had been granted bail by a court, Lu Sung Hao, Taipei-based director of Taiwans Crime Investigation Bureau, told Reuters. The prosecution has not filed any charges against them. The case comes amid fears among officials and executives around the globe about industrial espionage by China. The Bureau said in a statement that a senior manager was suspected of stealing electronic manufacturing processes, technology, and other trade secrets, and leaking and selling them to a competitor in China for a high price. The company that paid for the information was identified as Chinas Jiangyin Jianghua Microelectronics Materials Co., which had offered 40 million yuan ($5.8 million) to the current and former employees in return for the technology transfer to build a factory in China, Lu said. The Chinese company was not available for immediate comment late on Monday. The employees had received a series of payments totaling T$40 million ($1.30 million) late last year in two bank accounts, Lu said. German chemical company BASF said that only one of the people under investigation is a current employee and that the individuals contract had now been suspended. We have taken immediate steps to support the investigation led by local law enforcement officials and protect the relevant information, BASF said. The company and the Bureau both declined to provide any estimate on financial losses. Officials in Taiwan and the United States have been accusing Chinese companies of intellectual property theft amid Chinas multi-billion drive to cut reliance on foreign chips and build up its own semiconductor industry. Taiwan has vowed to defend its chip industry, the islands economic backbone, by tightening its regulations and penalties on corporate espionage. Reuters reported in November that German prosecutors were pressing criminal charges against a former employee of chemicals maker Lanxess for allegedly stealing trade secrets to set up a Chinese copycat chemical reactor. The case underscores fears among German officials and executives about industrial espionage in Europes largest manufacturing nation. State prosecutors in the city of Cologne, where the company is headquartered, told Reuters they had brought criminal charges in June against a Chinese-born German national based on a complaint filed with police by Lanxess about two years ago. There have been several reports in Germany of manufacturers with operations in China catching local staff doing work for copycat rivals. But the alleged data theft at Lanxess is a rare case in which a suspected leak has been identified at home. German intelligence agency BfV in July warned companies in its annual report that China could resort to intellectual property theft as it aspires to become an exporter of high-tech products, adding that it is hard to distinguish between state and industrial espionage. By Tom Sims & Yi-Mou Lee Arkansas Department Fires Sheriffs Deputy After Chihuahua Shooting A sheriffs deputy in Arkansas was fired after video footage showing him shooting a Chihuahua circulated widely over the weekend. Faulkner County Sheriff Tim Ryals said that Deputy Keenan Wallace was fired a day after the shooting incident on Friday, Jan. 4. I believe there were numerous opportunities to de-escalate the incident. While it appears no policies or laws were violated, I hold every employee within our agency to the highest of standards and will be forwarding the investigation to the Prosecuting Attorneys Office for further review, Ryals said in the Jan. 5 statement. Wallace was fired, Ryals added. We in Law Enforcement answer calls every day that require split-second life and death decisions. We strive to be right 100 percent of the time. Our Department is sadden [sic] about this incident and apologize for any distress and disappointment this incident has caused anyone who was affected by this disheartening event. We will keep Reeses in our thoughts through the recovery process, he said. The video footage showed the Chihuahua barking and running around and Wallace talking to the dogs owner. Wallace is seen firing his gun and hitting the dog, that lets out a yelp. The shooting prompts the dogs owner to explode, yelling: Are you [expletive] me?! The owner backs up trying to get to his house as Wallace quickly approaches him and says repeatedly, Stay right here. Wallace does not explain why he shot the dog. Im scared at this point. I want to go in my house. You just fired a weapon in my direction and poor defenseless dog. Whats wrong with you, Doug Canady, the dogs owner, told Fox 16. He said Reeses, the dog, wouldnt have hurt anybody. My heart broke when he shot her. What did that poor dog do? he added. The deputy responded to the house after a woman pointed a gun at the Chihuahua, claiming the dog tried to attack her, which Canady denied. Canady said that deputies prevented him from saving his dog and that a neighbor rescued her. He said shes recovering. Warning: Video and post contain graphic content. Officer in Conway AR shot a innocent dog on private property without a warrant! just a stray dog wanting attention and barking like any other didnt even kill the dog just left it to suffer. Total bullshit. Prayers to the owner who just lost their dog:( pic.twitter.com/lXYKk06ehG Catie (@catiejwoodson) January 5, 2019 Conway Animal Welfare unit employee Brittney Wright told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that she was appalled by the shooting, saying, I dont see how it could ever be proved as a justifiable response. Because the area where the shooting occurred is outside the city limits, calls regarding animals are handled by the sheriffs office and not her unit, according to Wright. Wright said animal control officers arent armed with guns but with batons and pepper spray. If animals cant be captured then officers use traps. Any animal situation can be handled without lethal force, and that [dog] posed absolutely zero threat, she said. In a previous statement, the sheriffs office claimed the Chihuahua was an aggressive dog. Wright, citing her certification in canine behavior analysis, said that the dog showed little sign of aggression. According to a GoFundMe started for the dog, Reeses was being prepared for jaw surgery scheduled for Jan. 7. Reeses is in bad shape, wrote Meagan Harris, who started the fundraiser. The surgery was going to cost between $8,000 and $10,000, she added. The rest of the $14,000 that Harris aims to raise would go toward future vet bills and food, comfortable bedding, and other costs. The fundraiser has raised $13,850 as of Monday morning. From NTD News New California Movement activists wearing yellow vests protest on steps of the Stanislaus County Courthouse in California on Jan. 1, 2019, calling on President Donald Trump to end California's sanctuary state policies. (Nathan Su/The Epoch Times) After Officers Slaying, Yellow Vest Activists Urge Trump to End Californias Sanctuary Policies NEWMAN, Calif.On the first day of 2019, a group of New California movement activists wore yellow vests and joined together to urge President Donald Trump to take proper actions to end the states sanctuary policy. The gathering was held following the death of Newman city police officer Corporal Ronil Singh, who was shot by an illegal immigrant the day after Christmas during a traffic stop. The New California movement is a statewide grassroots effort to break most of Californias rural areas away from the current state, and to form a new state. So far, representatives of 47 out of the total 58 counties in California have joined this movement, as well as fractions of five other counties. The activists of the movement have been wearing yellow vests since December in solidarity with French citizens against socialism and globalism. Mass lawlessness is now the order of the day, reads Grievance 49 issued by the New California movement at the Newman event, addressing Singhs death. The New California movement has been filing weekly grievances to establish how California citizens rights have been taken away by the current state government, following the same constitutional process under which West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1861. I really believe that SB 54 sanctuary state status has been one of the reasons why we have lost so many of our own American citizens, said Paul Preston, the founder of the movement. SB 54, which was signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2017, limits cooperation between local law-enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities. Many residents living in Newman City believe that SB 54 is responsible for Singhs death. Based on the information from the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Department, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, who fired the shots that killed Singh, illegally crossed the border into Arizona a few years ago, and has worked as a farm laborer in the Stanislaus County area. Arriaga has two prior DUI arrests and ties to the Sureno Street Gang. This [the death of Singh] is probably something that could be prevented, had not we had sanctuary state. The suspected person, in this case, was arrested prior. If they were able to provide Homeland Security and ICE with that information, he may have been deported, and we might not be standing here today, Newman Police Chief Randy Richardson said at Singhs funeral service on Jan. 4. Illegal immigrants are dangerous, said Pritpal Sinhm Gosain, who is a Sikh immigrant and resident of the nearby city of Patterson. Gosain came to join the yellow vests gathering because he shares a similar cultural background with Singh. We are here to honor our officer, Corporal Singh, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant, said Paul Taylor, one of the top leaders of the New California movement. Taylor said that he joined a protest against SB 54 last March. Taylor said SB 54 allows illegal immigrants coming to the United States to cause harm, while not having a way to vet them. SB 54 has made the United States lose its sovereignty. The grievance issued by the New California movement claims that California has been in violation of U.S. Constitution Article IV, Section 4, which is known as the Guarantee Clause. This section in the U.S. Constitution requires that the state and federal governments must provide the citizens of the United States a republican form of government, protect them against invasion, and protect them against domestic violence. The grievance claims that the sanctuary state policy made by the current mono-party system in California has failed to provide Californians with what was required by the Guarantee Clause of the Constitution. The movement calls the sanctuary policies designed by the current states mono-party system acts of insurrection against the U.S. Constitution. Under Californias sanctuary state policy, we are going to see Singhs case happen over, over, and over again, Preston said at Singhs funeral service. The grievance also states that the current California state is attempting to destroy the State of California and break down the sovereignty of the Union of States of America by utilizing Marxist-Leninist and Maoist revolutionary tactics. The movement urges Trump to take proper actions, based on the Insurrection Act of 1807, to stop sanctuary state policies in California. Preston told The Epoch Times that so far, there are similar movements in Nevada, New York, and Illinois. Eric Black Jr., 20, was arrested and charged with capital murder after admitting to shooting Jazmine Barnes, 7, in the outskirts of Houston, Texas on Dec. 3, 2018, officials said. (Harris County Sheriff's Office) Activists Pushed False Racism Narrative for Jazmine Barnes Shooting in Houston Activists in Houston and around the nation pushed a theory that the shooting of a 7-year-old girl was racially motivated until two black men were arrested for allegedly committing the crime. The theory stemmed from a description of the suspect as a white male. A sketch of the suspect was released in early January depicting a thin Caucasian man with light colored eyes. Activists claimed, without evidence, that the perpetrator shot the young girl because of racial animus. Civil rights activist Shaun King was among those pushing the narrative. He even posted a picture of a man who was arrested in Houston recently, saying he believed that man could be the killer. A photo of the man shows a convincing resemblance to the sketch. King has not apologized for identifying the wrong person by name or broadcasting a picture of the man to his over-one-million followers on Twitter. The family of Barnes and the local chapter of Black Lives Matter also claimed the shooting was driven by racism, a claim echoed by officials without evidence, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) during a rally on Saturday. A number of outlets (one example) circulated the news by claiming as fact that a white male suspect killed Barnes. Eric Black Jr., 20, and Larry Woodruffe, 24, who are both black, were arrested for the alleged shooting of Barnes. Black admitted to the shooting, which was reportedly a case of the men firing at the wrong car, believing it was another vehicle. Officials said the description of a white male suspect was based on recollections by two of Barness sisters. We do not believe in any way that the family, as weve said from the beginning, that theyve been involved in anything nefarious, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a press conference, reported the Houston Chronicle. [It] just went down very quickly. The gunfire erupted. Were talking about small children. They witnessed something very traumatic. Its likely the last thing they did see was indeed that truck and the driver in that truck. Gonzalez said the man in the truck was most likely just a witness, by sight or sound, to what actually transpired. Unlike activists and family members, Gonzalez did not attribute a motive to the white male suspect they were looking for. But King and Gonzalez both pushed the description of a white male suspect even after they received a tip that led to the arrest of Black Jr., reported the Daily Caller. Gonzalez later said that a tip delivered to King and forwarded to authorities helped officials identify Black Jr. and Woodruffe. Black Jr. appeared in court on Jan. 6 and was remanded without bail. Prosecutors said during the court appearance that Woodruffe was partially identified as the second suspect. They believe that Black Jr. was driving a rental car while Woodruffe pulled the trigger during the drive-by shooting near a Harris County Walmart. In the press release announcing the arrest, the Harris County Sheriffs Office said that Black Jr. was charged with capital murder for the Dec. 30 shooting. I am grateful to our dedicated investigators, the partner law enforcement agencies that provided vital assistance, and tipsters from across the nation who pulled together to support our work to get justice for Jazmine, Gonzalez said in a statement. Our work is not finished, but I believe the people of Harris County can take comfort in knowing we have made great progress. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was among those lauding the work of law enforcement in the arrest. I want to thank the Harris County Sheriffs Office and all law enforcement for their diligent work to identify and arrest a suspect in Jazmine Barnes senseless murder, Turner said in a statement. The authorities worked around the clock to find the individual who is allegedly responsible for the heinous and unspeakable act of violence against an innocent child. This should serve as a warning to all violent offenders who prey on our community: The color of your skin, how much money you makethese things dont matter when law enforcement will find you, eventually. From NTD News 5 Members of Mexican Sex Trafficking Organization Jailed Five members of the notorious international criminal organization known as the Rendon-Reyes Trafficking Organization were sentenced to prison last weektheir sentences ranged from 15 to 25 years. The men, all from Mexico, with some residing illegally in the United States, previously pleaded guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking, and other federal charges, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). They were apprehended in both Mexico and the United States. The organization, based in Tenancingo, in Tlaxcala State, Mexico, smuggled young girls into the United States, where they were forced to engage in prostitution. The organization earned thousands of dollars in profit from the women. They then laundered the proceeds back to Mexico. President Donald Trump told reporters on Jan. 6 that drugs, victims of human trafficking, criminals, and gang members are continuing to cross the border onto U.S. soil. He has not backed down from his demand for $5.6 billion in funding for the border wall to be included in the next budget. These sentencings are the latest chapter in this Offices long-term commitment to eradicate human trafficking and all forms of modern-day slavery, said U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue. The crimes committed by the members of the Rendon-Reyes Trafficking Organization were brutal and shocking, and I hope that the sentences give the victims in this case some sense of justice. The defendants include Jovan Rendon-Reyes, 32, sentenced to 20 years in prison; Saul Rendon-Reyes, 41, to 15 years in prison; Felix Rojas, 48, to 25 years in prison; Odilon Martinez-Rojas, 47, to more than 24 years in prison; and Severiano Martinez-Rojas, 53, to more than 24 years in prison. Between December 2004 and November 2015, members of the organization, including the defendants, forced young women and girls, some as young as 14 years old, to engage in countless commercial sex acts in both the United States and Mexico, according to court documents. Three other defendants are set to be sentenced Jan. 15. The organization targeted vulnerable women and girls from poor areas of Mexico and Central America. Members of the organization lured the victims into fraudulent romantic relationships with promises of love and marriage. Sometimes they abducted the victims and, in one case, a victims child. The girls were forced into prostitution through methods including severe and repeated beatings, sexual assaults, forced abortions, threats to the victims, their families and their children, and psychological harm. Victims were forced to perform up to 45 sex acts a night. An 18-year-old Madisonville man has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a dispute with his neighbor erupted in gunshots Saturday night, police said. Authorities said 47-year-old Anthony Medina was taken by helicopter to a hospital after being shot at least once in the left shoulder. His condition was not immediately known Sunday. Officials said Martin Gonzalez-Zamudio was sitting across the street when police arrived on East Lance Street around 11 p.m. and admitted to being the shooter when officers asked if he'd seen what happened. Police reported recovering a handgun and nine shell casings in the driveway of Medina's mobile home. The shots appeared to have been fired through a window, officials said. Gonzalez-Zamudio was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, and the case remains under investigation, Madisonville Police Chief Herbert Gilbert said in a statement. Not surprisingly, most top resolutions for the coming year remain relatively unchanged from previous years' plans. They revolve around health, such as exercising more, eating healthier and, for many Americans, quitting smoking. In this country, cigarettes continue to be associated with nearly 500,000 deaths a year from coronary heart disease, stroke, cancers and other illnesses. As I pointed out last week, my suggested New Year's resolution is that we do all in our power to halt a new threat to the health of our nation -- specifically, of young people -- that could dramatically expand those numbers even more. As widely reported in the past few weeks, vaping -- the inhaling and exhaling of vapor from heated cartridges of liquid usually containing nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals -- has seen the biggest one-year spike of any kind in the 44 years of monitoring of substances used by young people. The total number of middle- and high-school students using e-cigarettes rose to 3.6 million, an increase of 1.5 million students in one year. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has labeled the situation as "epidemic." The latest survey also indicates that students may not realize they are inhaling nicotine, a highly addictive substance. Add to that the fact that many teenagers picking up an e-cigarette have never smoked a traditional cigarette, and, now, according to current research, they have become four times more likely to do so. Steve Wildsmith was an editor and writer for The Daily Times for nearly 17 years; a recovering addict, he now works in media and marketing for Cornerstone of Recovery, a drug and alcohol treatment center in Blount County. Contact him at wildsmith steve@gmail.com. JEFFERSON - Howard F. Schrumpf, 92, of Jefferson, went home to meet his savior he loved and served so faithfully on June 12, 2021, at the Valley View Manor Nursing Home of Norwich. Howard was born in Pennsauken, New Jersey, on Jan. 13, 1929, the son of Foster and Myrtle (Walker) Schrumpf. Fo Towanda, PA (18848) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Rain showers early becoming more intermittent for the afternoon. High 68F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 49F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Instant unlimited access to all of our E-Editions and content on thechronicleonline.com. The Chronicle E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. (The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement) Swarthmore, PA (19081) Today Areas of patchy fog early. A few clouds early, otherwise mostly sunny. High around 80F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A mostly clear sky. Low near 60F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Toyota Mobility Foundation Unveils Five Visions for the Future of Mobility at CES LAS VEGAS - January 7, 2019: The five finalists in the three-year Mobility Unlimited Challenge have been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. The Toyota Mobility Foundation launched the $4 million global challenge in 2017 in partnership with Nestas Challenge Prize Centre, with the aim of improving the lives of millions of people with lower-limb paralysis. The Challenge invited engineers, innovators, and designers from across the world to submit designs for game-changing technologies, incorporating intelligent systems, to improve the mobility and independence of people with lower-limb paralysis. Central to the Challenge is the importance of collaboration with end-users to develop devices which will integrate seamlessly into users lives and environments, while being comfortable and easy to use, enabling greater independence and increased participation in daily life. Each of the five finalists will receive a grant of $500,000 to develop their concept further, with the final winner of the Challenge receiving $1 million in Tokyo in 2020. The five finalists are: Volvo Celebrates Record UK Awards Success in 2018 Volvo achieves a record-breaking year of awards, with 43 significant honours received in the UK in 2018 On the international stage, Volvo's new SUVs excelled, with the XC40 named European Car of the Year and the XC60 acclaimed as World Car of the Year Seven UK manufacturer/brand of the year titles, plus multiple car of the year and category award successes Range of awards spans all areas of motoring, including technology, business/fleet, towing, safety, practicality and used cars LONDON - January 7, 2019: Volvo enjoyed a year of unprecedented awards success in the UK in 2018, receiving 43 major honors from the media, motoring organisations and the wider creative industry. The stunning scale of achievement was reflected internationally, too, with the Volvo XC40 premium compact SUV named European Car of the Year and the XC60 mid-size SUV acclaimed as the World Car of the Year. The honors list included manufacturer and brand of the year titles for Volvo, notably from the consumer organisation Which?, along with carwow, BusinessCar, Motor Trader and AM (Automotive Management). There were awards for all three Volvo SUVs, with the new mid-size XC60 claiming 12, including UK Car of the Year, Best Car from Auto Trader and Best Large SUV from Fleet World. The XC60 also claimed three trophies from the Caravan and Motorhome Club, including Towcar of the Year, while the T8 Twin Engine version was named DrivingElectric's Large Plug-in Hybrid of the Year. The compact XC40 was equally successful, also winning a tally of 12 awards, including the prestigious What Car? Car of the Year title, BBC TopGear Magazine's Sensible SUV of the Year and Auto Express's Small Premium SUV class win. It was hailed as a 'Game Changer' of the year by Autocar as well. It wasn't just SUVs reveling in the glory, though. Later in the year, the launch of the new V60 premium estate delivered further success, with family car awards from Parkers and News UK, and the Practicality Award from carwow. It was also named Estate Car of the Year in the Scottish Car of the Year Awards and best Compact Executive by Carbuyer. Jon Wakefield, Volvo Car UK Managing Director, said: "This exceptional run of awards is humbling, but each one is appreciated for the vote of confidence it represents in what we are doing to extend the all-round strength and appeal of our brand. With more exciting new products in the pipeline, we remain committed to doing even more in the future to deliver cars that take design, technology and desirability to even higher levels." The awards in detail: Washington: A federal appeals court said on Monday a Virginia politician violated the Constitution by temporarily blocking a critic from her Facebook page, a decision that could affect President Donald Trump's appeal from a similar ruling in New York. US President Donald Trump. Credit:JACQUELYN MARTIN In a 3-0 decision, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Phyllis Randall, chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, violated the First Amendment free speech rights of Brian Davison by banning him for 12 hours from her "Chair Phyllis J. Randall" page. The ban came after Davison had attended a 2016 town hall meeting, and then under his Facebook profile "Virginia SGP" accused school board members and their relatives of corruption and conflicts of interest. Randall had also removed her original post and all comments, including Davison's. Circuit Judge James Wynn rejected Randall's argument that her Facebook page was a private website, saying the "interactive component" was a public forum and that she engaged in illegal viewpoint discrimination. Washington: President Donald Trump's evolving definition of a border wall animated negotiations to end a partial government shutdown on Sunday, while House Democrats moved to increase pressure on the president by vowing to pass individual bills to reopen targeted departments that handle critical functions like tax refunds and food stamps. "I informed my folks to say that we'll build a steel barrier," Trump said after returning to the White House from a senior staff meeting at Camp David, Maryland. He added of the Democrats, "They don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The President characterised the second day of talks between Vice-President Mike Pence and Democratic congressional aides as "productive" after saying earlier in the day that he did not anticipate much progress. But Trump also said that, if no deal could be reached over his demand for $US5.7 billion ($8 billion) for the border wall, he was still considering using "emergency" authority to build the barrier with other government funds. For their part, Democrats said there was no progress as the shutdown entered its 16th day, and asked again that the government be reopened before negotiations on border security money begin. The McGowan Government has rebranded the controversial Safe Schools program, which was axed by the federal government in 2017, and made it available to all primary and secondary schools across WA. The $1.4 million Inclusive Education program which aims to make schools inclusive for same-sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students has been paid for with existing education department funding, and fulfils an election promise made by Labor before the state election. Protesters defending the controversial Safe Schools program in Melbourne. Credit:Penny Stephens According to Inclusive Education's website, it runs gender diversity training sessions for teachers, provides support for transgender and gender-diverse students, and offers lesson plans to reduce homophobia and transphobia in schools. The program is not compulsory and schools can choose which parts to implement, if any. Queensland's top cop has assured the Premier there are no African gangs operating in the state, undercutting an independent senator's justification for billing taxpayers to attend a widely condemned far-right rally. Queensland senator Fraser Anning was slammed for attending the far-right rally in Melbourne's St Kilda on Saturday, for which he is charging taxpayers close to $3000 for his return flight and government-provided car. Far-right activists in St Kilda on Saturday. Credit:Darrian Traynor The senator has insisted he was representing his constituents on the interstate trip, as African gang violence was rapidly spreading to my own state. Independent Queensland senator Fraser Anning says he doesn't care if he loses his seat in the next federal election after coming under intense scrutiny for attending a far-right rally in Melbourne. Senator Anning is charging taxpayers close to $3000 for his return flights and Comcar to attend the St Kilda Beach rally, which was organised by convicted far-right extremists Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson and attended by about 100 of their supporters. Fraser Anning and United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell at the event. Credit:AFR The Queensland senator insists he was representing his local constituents on the interstate trip as his state is experiencing violence from alleged African gangs. The controversial senator who Prime Minister Scott Morrison has attacked as a "repeat offender" on racism used taxpayer funds to fly to at least three far-right meetings across Australia. Fraser Anning, whose attendance at a rally organised by convicted extremist Blair Cottrell at St Kilda on the weekend unleashed a wave of angry criticism, also billed taxpayers to appear at other events in Sydney and Melbourne, bringing the combined cost of his three trips to nearly $10,000. Mr Morrison attacked the Queensland senator on Monday for associating with "extreme and offensive racist views" and backed calls for the former One Nation figure to consider his future in Parliament. Senator Anning is under fire after charging taxpayers more than $2800 for return flights to St Kilda, where some protesters were seen performing Nazi salutes at the rally organised by Mr Cottrell and Neil Erikson, far-right nationalists who have been previously convicted of inciting serious contempt for Muslims. Fijis top immigration official has confirmed categorically that Islamic State fighter Neil Prakash is not a Fijian national, meaning the Morrison governments stripping of Prakashs Australian citizenship is not lawful. Speaking for the first time to Australian media, Fijis director of immigration, Nemani Vuniwaqa, also said no one from the Fijian government was consulted before Australia declared Prakash had lost his Australian citizenship, despite the fact a second citizenship was vital to the legal process in Australia. Asked whether he was absolutely certain Prakash was not Fijian, he said: Yes I am. He is not a Fiji citizen. A leading Fiji-based lawyer has also examined the case and concluded of Prakash that it is almost certain that he is not a Fiji citizen now. Mr Vuniwaqa threw the case into question last week when he told a local paper Prakash was not Fijian, dramatically undermining Home Affairs Minister Peter Duttons announcement in late December that Prakash had been stripped of his Australian citizenship. Loading However many festivalgoers had been unaware the service was being offered. "We had little publicity and no signage because there was a late call, this one people will be more aware so we're expecting a higher level of patronage [if it goes ahead]," Mr Vumbaca said. Negotiations about the Canberra pill testing trial came down to the wire last year. While the ACT government, ACT Policing and venue the University of Canberra were all on board, Cattleyard only gave the green light for the trial to go ahead the Thursday before the Sunday festival. The promoter had been concerned about reputational damage if police began arresting punters, and wanted an iron-clad indemnity agreement from government, as well as police to give users of the pill testing service immunity from prosecution. However a spokeswoman for Cattleyard said in November that it would welcome pill testing at this year's event at Exhibition Park in Canberra. Mr Vumbaca said about 10 other promoters, some of whom organised multiple festivals, had been in contact after the recent drug deaths to ask about pill testing. Loading "We've been getting calls from promoters all around the country wanting us to do pill testing, there's been a change in momentum," Mr Vumbaca said. "They do a hell of a lot of work in maintaining patron safety and protecting the health of patrons. While program like ours is not a silver bullet, it's part of a suite of measures they'd like to have available. They know what we're offering will reduce harm, it certainly won't increase harm." But until more governments soften their opposition to drug testing, Mr Vumbaca said they can't offer the service. "We can't do much unless we have government cooperation. We've been encouraging governments interstate to contact the ACT government ministers and advisors, don't take our word for it on how we operate and how effective it is, take their word for it," he said. The ACT government was initially opposed to pill testing, but came around after a working group of police, health officials and drug and alcohol specialists concluded it could help reduce drug-related harm. However ACT Opposition legal affairs spokesman Jeremy Hanson said people would still take a pill when the test proved it contained an active quantity of the drug. "That's why they bought it and then you dont know what they effect of that pill is going to be on you. People die from dehydration, different amounts of drugs affect people differently, particularly dependent on their health and on their weight so thats a lot of the problem," he told ABC Radio on Friday. Loading Mr Hanson said he believed an educational campaign over Snapchat or Instagram would be more effective in preventing young people from taking drugs. However Ms Fitzharris said policy makers needed to listen to experts and the community and consider new approaches to prevent and reduce harm. "The conservative side of politics in Canberra continue to take a head in the sand approach to pill testing. It is of interest that their spokesperson on this issue is not the shadow health minister, but the shadow attorney-general, she said. "To be very clear to the Canberra Liberals, pill testing does not give a false sense of security. It is very clear in all the statements by the ACT government and material provided by Pill Testing Australia is that it is not safe to take these drugs. Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer also disagreed that pill testing gave a green light to drug use. "This is happening now, there's no green light being given by drug testing at all and were failing miserably with the heaviest policing presence you could possibly muster," he told ABC Radio. He said he'd dealt with cases where heroin addicts had taken doses twice as potent as they normally would and died as a result. "They did what they normally did, had they been advised of the toxicity they probably would not have done it," Mr Palmer said. Reply to LHZB's Query on Rejection of Proposal for RSAF Fighter Training Detachment in Ohakea, New Zealand (Source: Singapore Ministry of Defence; issued Jan 07, 2019) Singapore and New Zealand are close defence partners, and share a long history of operational and training cooperation. The Singapore Ministry of Defence and the Republic of Singapore Air Force appreciate New Zealand's support in assessing the feasibility of a long-term fighter training detachment in Ohakea. Both sides have mutually concluded that the proposal will not proceed. Singapore and New Zealand will continue to look for new opportunities to cooperate on defence and security activities. -ends- Carnival Australias decision meant cruise ship visits to Fremantle dropped from 60 in 2016-17 to 43 in 2017-18. The $3.25 million refurbishment of the Fremantle Passenger Terminal was completed this month in an effort to draw more ships and passengers to Perth. The upgrade of Australia's largest cruise ship terminal has been completed. The refurbished facility, designed by Optus Stadium architects Cox Architecture, features a ground floor foyer, new decorative glass panelling dividing the escalators and within the Customs Hall, and modern furniture for the transit area. A new state heritage approved steel and glass central canopy, repainted facade, updated signage and new banners greet passengers entering the building. Ports Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the makeover was a major improvement to the visual experience and comfort for cruise passengers at the terminal. Achieving better links between the passenger terminal, the Fremantle train station and Fremantle CBD will be part of our planning for the future of Victoria Quay, she said. Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the cruise sector was increasingly important. The state government has taken the extraordinary step of digging a deep trench hundreds of metres long to stop motorcycles and four-wheel-drives accessing a patch of crown land in the City of Armadale. The land, bordered by Tonkin Highway, Armadale Road and Twelfth Road in Haynes, became a magnet for off-road vehicles after clay from the nearby Champion Lakes Regatta Centre was dumped there in the mid-2000s. The trench has been reasonably successful. Credit:Hamish Hastie The clay was dumped in mounds that created a challenging track for illegal thrillseekers and the land has caused headaches for residents ever since. For more than a decade the WA Planning Commission has been battling with off-road vehicles by continually installing fences, only for them to be flattened within weeks. A young man is in critical condition in Royal Perth Hospital after his car hit a tree in Bentley on Sunday evening. A 21-year-old man is in critical condition at Royal Perth Hospital after his car hit a tree in Bentley on Sunday evening. Credit:WA Police Police are calling for witnesses to the crash or anyone with dashcam footage of the incident, which happened about 6.50pm Sunday on Hillview Terrace, near Jarrah Street. The 21-year-old was the only person in the blue Holden Commodore when it crashed. Police are also investigating another crash on Sunday in which a 28-year-old man died. The news came out yesterday that the Andrews government had denied permits for a proposed resort in Apollo Bay. I have to admit I was shocked, but in a good way, that finally a level of government had taken heed of the people's will and also employed common sense. Shelley Beach in Apollo Bay. Credit:Richard Cornish It is heartening that sometimes when a community bands together, writes letters, fundraises, emails politicians, chases media and uses passion to harness action, that people power can win out. And while most in Apollo Bay will feel relief and vindication, we will not gloat knowing that many other places have not been so lucky and that others continue their battles (Adani, anyone?). Developers have not been used to knockbacks; it has been a growth-at-all-costs mentality for large-scale projects for a while now, regardless of the impact on local business and environments. But maybe this decision to block the Apollo Bay resort is a harbinger of change. That a more sustainable approach to growth and concern for the impact on our fragile ecosystems is appearing. We have destroyed so much of our pristine natural world, but this decision gives hope to a groundswell of support for more considered and less invasive projects. Logically, if you wreck the beautiful place you are hoping to bring tourists to, by building where you want them to stay, the cash flow will never eventuate. Meanwhile, the state's Environment Protection Authority has deployed monitors to Sale and Longford in Gippsland, to provide the community and emergency service workers with information on how smoke from the Rosedale bushfire is affecting air quality. The EPA warned that smoky conditions can threaten peoples health, even far away from the bushfires that create the smoke. "Any smoke can be hazardous, but summer bushfires produce large amounts of it, and its not uncommon for it to affect communities a hundred or more kilometres away," the EPA said in statement. "People with pre-existing conditions, including asthmatics, should take their medication, follow their treatment plan and seek immediate medical advice if symptoms such as breathing issues, wheezing or tightness in the chest persist." Fire investigators visited a remote clearing, which houses a burnt-out shed, on Monday. Deputy incident controller John Wood said all the fire indicators suggested the blaze started somewhere around the general area of the clearing, within 500 metres to a kilometre. "[This] is where we think it started, but we will look at all avenues," he said. "It's just an area of concern and it's part of the ongoing investigation, there is nothing at all confirmed with that location." Arson chemists have also visited the Rosedale pine plantation in a bid to identify the source of the blaze. "Experts are considering a number of possible causes including a lightning strike that occurred in the days prior," a police spokeswoman said. Incident controller Peter West told a community meeting on Monday night that authorities were still investigating how the blaze started. "Police and specialist fire investigators have been to the point of origin and gone over it two or three times now," he said. "There is no conclusive evidence either way to how it started, whether it was lightning or [something else]." Authorities had asked residents to remain vigilant and monitor conditions on Monday night, as they water-bombed throughout the night. Willung resident Graham Lamont, 76, said on Monday night he and his wife had everything packed and were on high alert. "It's a bloody big fire. It's pretty nasty really, but we have the fire brigade up along the track up there and they are watching it at a particular road. If it crosses that road, then we don't have a long time to make a decision - do we stay or go? "It will then be in the pines, and if it gets into the pines it will be very hard to stop. We have a south-easterly wind which unfortunately is the worst wind for us." On Sunday night, when the wind changed, Mr Lamont said aircraft had taken water from his dam about 20 times. The couple have lived on the property for 22 years and have never seen a fire this close to their home. A teenager allegedly involved in attacks on five men on the St Kilda foreshore sparked a night of violence when he struck a man with an extendable baton, a court has heard. Mechac Mukanu is accused of starting a group assault on two men by hitting one of them on the leg with the long metal baton about 10.45pm on December 1, before up to five others repeatedly punched and kicked the pair. Police allege Mr Mukanu was then one of about 20 African-Australian youths who attacked three men about 15 minutes later, during which the friends were punched, kicked and knocked unconscious, and one had his mobile phone and wallet stolen. Police arrest youths in St Kilda late last year. Credit:Seven News Mr Mukanu, 18, on Monday applied for bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court, which heard police had also charged a 17-year-old, who cannot be named, and had another four or five suspects they were yet to arrest. Two men were rushed to hospital with stab wounds after a group of men fought in a Logan park on Sunday night. Police responded to reports of a brawl involving a group of men at Oates Park on Mary Avenue in Woodridge about 9.45pm on Sunday. A 22-year-old man suffered stab wounds to his back and underarm during the fight and when his 27-year-old friend came to his aid he was stabbed in the chest. Specialist critical care paramedics raced to the scene and took both men to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in serious conditions. Police said all the men knew each other and the others involved in the fight on the run. An asbestos-filled house in Brisbane's east has been engulfed in flames overnight. Five fire crews were called to Haylock Street in Wynnum just before midnight and found the house well alight on arrival and the fire threatening a neighbouring home. The house suffered significant structural damage as the flames took hold. Credit:Nine News Queensland - Twitter All residents had been accounted for within minutes of fire crew arriving, but it took about two hours for them to extinguish the flames. "We had some major structural collapse inside the dwelling as well as a lot of asbestos fibres present, so we had to ensure the safety of our crew and decontaminate appropriately," firefighter Christopher Clarke told Nine News. A man was shot and three men charged after a fight broke loose outside a gym in Sydney's west on Monday. Police were called to Berry Street, Clyde just before 5pm after reports of shooting. Four ambulance crews attended the scene, treating a 48-year-old for a single gunshot wound to his left foot and a 30-year-old for facial injuries. The 48-year-old man was taken Westmead Hospital in a stable condition, while the 30-year-old was taken to Blacktown Hospital under police guard. Police were told the man was shot after a fight took place outside Plus Fitness 24/7 in Clyde. The Canberra Comedy Festival 2019. March 18 to 24. Various venues. Adults only except where indicated. canberracomedyfestival.com.au. Comedy musical group Baby Wants Candy With everything that goes on here, Canberrans need to laugh. And more than 60 comedy acts are soon coming to help people in the ACT do just that. This year's Canberra Comedy Festival is the seventh, its associate director James Stevenson says. It's now a well-established event in the ACT and Stevenson believes this is, in part, because Canberrans are sick of being passed over when big names and international acts tour Australia. Each year, he says, the festival books Australian and international acts that are touring the comedy circuit and brings them to the nation's capital. Canberra comedians also perform. The insurance tab for last month's monster hail storm over Sydney and other parts of NSW continues to climb, nearing the $675 million mark, according to the Insurance Council of NSW. The bill for extreme weather this summer may rise further in coming days with further storms possible for Sydney's western suburbs on Tuesday and across Sydney on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts. Hail bigger than golf balls smashed windows and battered roofs across Sydney and beyond on December 20. Credit:Nick Moir, Supplied Insurance claims for the December 20 event - the worst of the season so far - already total 81,194 as of Monday, with almost 60,000 of them involving motor vehicles. More than 17,000 claims were for household damage. The workplace tribunal has waved through a new wage agreement for more than 100,000 Woolworths supermarket employees that will restore penalty rates in the process striking down a challenge from an outside union over whether it was a fair deal. Workers voted in favour of the new enterprise bargaining agreement in October, which will fix their base pay just more than 6 per cent above the national award rate, while paying full penalty rates that had been cut from previous agreements. The FWC has approved Woolworths' new EBA. The deal, negotiated with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), Australian Workers Union and the meatworkers' union was challenged in the Fair Work Commission by the rival Retail and Fast Food Workers' Union (RAFFWU). RAFFWU's objections included that it did not pass the "better off overall test", because casual workers had fewer rights to convert to part-time, and that Woolworths had misrepresented the benefits of the new agreement to workers on issues such as laundry allowances. A former senior manager has described the chaos inside failed app building company Appster in the lead up to its collapse as angry clients have demanded their money back ahead of a creditors meeting later this month. A one-time tech industry darling, Appster once aimed to reach $100 million in revenue but collapsed in December with a creditor's report showing they are owed a total just shy of $1 million. Appster has gone into liquidation, leaving employees and clients out of pocket. Credit:Wayne Taylor The company let go its employees in a surprise announcement a fortnight before Christmas and a day before pay day, leaving employees short of two weeks' pay and annual leave entitlements. On top of claims for unpaid wages, the report shows Appster owes American Express $150,000, the Australian Taxation Office $187,089.28 and NAB $75,000 as well as a list of clients left furious with their experience. Former chief executive Mark McDonald is claiming $107,042.14 from the liquidation of Appster. Facebook has pulled down an event page for the St Kilda Beach rally after it found posts with hate speech amid debate about whether the meeting organised by far-right extremists Neil Erikson and Blair Cottrell should be described by media as a Nazi event. The Saturday rally on one of Melbournes most popular beaches, which has been condemned by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, was heavily advertised through social media. The Facebook event for the "political meeting"- organised by Mr Erikson, and his Nationalist Uprising and Cooks Convicts pages - was pulled down on Sunday night. Around 1900 people had shown interest in the event, with about 500 saying they would attend though around 100 reportedly showed up. Hey Blake, While driving through Metairie recently, I noticed there is no 13th Street among the numbered streets between Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Causeway Boulevard. Instead, what would be 13th Street is called Melvil Dewey Drive. Why is that and what is Dewey's connection to Metairie? Dear reader, If you don't know the name Melvil Dewey, you've no doubt heard of his Dewey Decimal Classification system, which is still used by libraries around the world. Born Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey in 1851 in Adams Center, New York, he changed the spelling of his first name to Melvil as a young man. According to the Library of Congress, that was in part because of his keen interest in simplified spelling, which also led him to drop his middle name and for a short time even spell his last name as Dui. He invented the Dewey Decimal System for classifying books when he was 21 and worked as a library assistant at Amherst College. His reputation as the "father of modern librarianship" led Jefferson Parish leaders to honor him by renaming 13th Street in Metairie for him in 1967. A parish council resolution sponsored by Councilman Anton Pilney suggested the change. It was prompted by the October 1967 opening of a new headquarters for the Jefferson Parish public library system, located near Causeway Boulevard and 13th Street. What happened to Sara Mayo Hospital in New Orleans? The hospital for women and children operated from 1905 to 1979, when it went bankrupt. According to a Nov. 19, 1967 Times-Picayune article, Pilney's resolution was designed "to recognize Melvil Dewey on the occasion of the recently completed 30,000-square-foot library headquarters located on North Causeway Boulevard, which will greatly improve the library service afforded the residents of Jefferson Parish. The two fit neatly together, which is the way Dewey liked things to be." The library headquarters, later called the Lobby Library branch, remained open until 1997, when the library system moved its headquarters to the much larger East Bank Regional Library on West Napoleon Avenue. The former Lobby Library building now is an office for the Jefferson Parish Department of Juvenile Services. LOCAL WOMEN'S MARCH CANCELED, REPLACED WITH 'LISTENING TOUR' Thousands of women took to New Orleans streets to protest President Donald Trump and threats to health care and racial and economic justice in past years, but it won't happen this year. Organizers behind the city's chapter of the Women's March movement canceled plans for a Jan. 19 event in the wake of allegations of anti-Semitism among national organizers. Several other chapters around the U.S. also have distanced themselves from national Women's March leadership. Organizers also say the growing costs of the events outpaced fundraising efforts in the wake of the controversies. A fundraising campaign raised only $600 locally over several months. Instead in recognition of Women's History Month in March local organizers will plan a statewide "listening tour" to "listen to women in our state, find out what their concerns are and what they would like to see moving forward," according to Angela Adkins, president of the National Organization for Women's (NOW) Baton Rouge chapter. NOW Baton Rouge has served as the state's legal entity for the local event, with Women's March New Orleans as an umbrella coalition for citywide and statewide groups focused on women's health, social justice and civil rights. Adkins says local organizing efforts have grown from a handful of partner groups at the first march in 2017 to more diversity in the planning team and more than a dozen other groups that planned to join 2019 events. More than 10,000 people marched in New Orleans at the first event in 2017. The 2018 event centered on the voices of women of color and transgender women as well as low-wage workers and currently and formerly incarcerated women. "Moving forward, we're looking at making sure the march reflects the people of New Orleans, the women of New Orleans, and if we have other marches in the state, reflecting those places as well," Adkins said. Adkins encourages advocates and allies to "reach out, volunteer and donate your money," as organizers cross-promote the events and efforts of partner groups and other organizations in lieu of a march. "We have to turn our marching into action," Adkins said. "If 10,000 people go out and volunteer one or two hours a week, that's a lot of activism and a lot of work that can go out into changing our communities." Amid controversy, 2019 Women's March in New Orleans canceled due to growing costs, low fundraising Over the last two years, millions of women, including thousands in New Orleans, took to the streets to protest the election of President Donal Landry: Absolutely, positively not running for governor Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry couldn't be clearer: He's running for re-election to head the state Department of Justice and won't be jumping into the race for governor, he confirmed during an appearance last week on Acadiana-based KPEL-FM talk radio. "I like the job I'm doing," Landry, a Republican, said. "We have a great staff." Republicans see the race against incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards, the lone Democratic governor in the Deep South, as a priority heading into the 2019 cycle. While the ballot lineup may shift, Landry stressed he is not in the mix confirming yet again that he's not interested in leaving the AG's office after his first term. He announced his re-election campaign in November. Two Republicans, U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham of Alto and Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, already have announced plans to run against Edwards. Clancy DuBos: Looking ahead to the big political stories of 2019 Politically, 2019 will be a watershed year in the nations capital and in Louisiana. In Washington, all eyes will be on special prosecutor Rob In recent weeks Landry has spent most of his time touting his priorities as attorney general and had made his decision to seek re-election before U.S. Sen. John Neely Kennedy, a Republican who Landry had leaned on to make a decision, announced he wouldn't run. But that hadn't stopped some from continuing to float his name as a potential challenger to Edwards in the governor's race. Recently, The Hill, a Washington D.C.-based political website, without identifying sources, reported that "some speculate that (Landry) may reconsider, especially with Kennedy out." The Hill included the race for Louisiana governor among its top five elections to watch in 2019. In his Thursday radio appearance, Landry described his thoughts behind running for attorney general instead of mounting a challenge to Edwards. Landry, who has been a vocal critic of Edwards and a frequent challenger to the governor's policies, said, "There has to be a check on the governor, and we believe right now that's the best (role)," he said. ELIZABETH CRISP | THE ADVOCATE New report on housing vouchers suggests discrimination Housing vouchers provide federal assistance aimed at helping lower-income families afford stable housing to more than 2.2 million households in the U.S. But more than 80 percent of minority families that rely on vouchers are living in "minority-concentrated" areas in New Orleans, segregated from other renters in what appears to be violations of the Fair Housing Act. A January report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found most voucher recipients in the country's 50 biggest metropolitan areas are living in lower-income areas with significantly less access to jobs, transportation and other services which could have detrimental effects on residents' quality of life, from whether they have access to fresh food and other health and well-being measures compared to renters living in "high-opportunity" areas. In New Orleans and Metairie, the share of families using vouchers in high-poverty neighborhoods (55 percent) is significantly higher than the share of voucher-affordable units (25 percent). Only 4 percent of New Orleans families using vouchers live in "low-poverty" areas but 25 percent of all metropolitan voucher-affordable rental units in the U.S. (more than 4.8 million units) are in low-poverty neighborhoods. Nationwide, only 5 percent of families using vouchers live in high-opportunity neighborhoods, but those areas only account for 18 percent of all affordable rentals. The CBPP report recommends lawmakers back stronger anti-discrimination measures to prevent landlords from discriminating against voucher recipients and to help increase the availability of better housing for lower-income renters, as well as encourage municipalities to invest in areas with higher voucher use. Uber partners with 911 services in New Orleans 911 dispatchers in New Orleans now will receive location data and vehicle information from passengers and drivers who dial 911 from a "panic button" within the ride-hailing Uber app. Those details include the car's make, model and license plate number information previously available only within the app but now sent to dispatchers when the passenger, or driver, swipes to a menu on the app to call for 911 assistance. Uber's integration with local dispatchers is now available in more than 30 cities in the U.S., following reports of more than 100 Uber drivers sexually assaulting passengers, lawsuits against the company alleging its failure to address the assaults and other safety issues and accidents that have cropped up within the ride-hailing industry. Uber partnered with emergency response tech company RapidSOS for a pilot in Denver and expanded to Nashville, Tennessee and several other cities, including Phoenix, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Tyrell Morris, executive director of the Orleans Parish Communications District, which oversees the city's emergency dispatch and 311 services, says location accuracy "is the most critical piece of information" for 911 calls, particularly for New Orleans' more than 18 million annual visitors who aren't familiar with the city. Landrieu's book one of Obama's favorites of 2018 Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's memoir, "In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History," was among former President Barack Obama's favorite books of 2018, according to a list Obama published on Facebook. Obama also cited "American Prison" by Shane Bauer (the subject of a recent Gambit cover story), as well as (of course) "Becoming," former first lady Michelle Obama's best-selling memoir. The former president also made a list of his favorite songs of 2018, which includes "Apeshit" by The Carters, "I Like It" by Cardi B, "My Own Thing" by Chance the Rapper and "Wow Freestyle" by Jay Rock featuring Kendrick Lamar. His favorite movies of the year included "BlacKkKlansman," "Eighth Grade" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor?". Restaurant review: 'Viet-Cajun' crawfish and more at BOIL Seafood House on Magazine Street Pick your 'catch' and your sauces and spice at this seafood spot Seattle performer Dina Martina has made fans out of Dan Savage and the city's alternative paper, The Stranger, and built a following at places like Provincetown, Massachusetts with her offbeat drag and raconteur shows. She's also building a following in New Orleans. Martina returns to New Orleans Feb. 2 with a new show, "Creme de la Dregs," at Cafe Istanbul. Martina's last visit was previewed in Gambit. Dina Martina performs at One Eyed Jacks May 22 Dina Martina's lounge act in drag is not easy to describe. But many have tried. And Martina also spoke to Gambit in 2016. Interview: Dina Martina Last year, cabaret star, performance artist and "surreal raconteur" Dina Martina sold out One Eyed Jacks with an evening of dubious entertainm Being close neighbouring countries, Vietnam and Laos have a time-honoured and intimate relationship. The traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos, which were established by President Ho Chi Minh and Presidents Presidents Kaysone Phomvihane and Souphanouvong and have been nurtured by generations of the two countries leaders and people, have become a valuable treasure of both nations. This is also one of the important factors to ensure the success of the cause of national construction and defence in each country. The Vietnamese people always remember and are sincerely thankful for the great and precious support that the Lao Party, State and people have dedicated to the Party, State and people of Vietnam in the past struggles for national unification as well as in the current cause of national construction and defence. The Vietnamese people congratulate the Lao Party, State and people on the achievements that they have gained over the past few years. Laos is one of the countries posting the highest economic growth rate among ASEAN, with GDP growth ofroughly7% in recent years. Open investment mechanisms, expanded banking credit for agriculture and small businesses, and the development of special economic zones have helped Laos to attract foreign investors and promote its economic development. Laos is currently pursuing the foreign policy of peace, friendship, cooperation, independence, and multilateralism and is willing to be friends and partners with other countries, while strengthening cooperation with its neighbouring border countries and strategic partners. We are happy to see that the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos continue to be consolidated and deepened in all fields. Senior leaders of the two Parties and States hold regular meetings in various forms and the exchange of delegations at all levels is maintained frequently. Leaders of the two countries have paid due attention to the implementation of high-level agreements in 2018 to ensure the efficiency and schedule of agreements. Cooperation between Vietnam and Laos has been continuously promoted in a wide and effective manner in all fields, including security, defence, trade, investment, education - training, agriculture, culture, tourism, and others. During the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Solidarity Year 2017, the two countries organised diverse and meaningful cooperation and exchange activities, demonstrating the solidarity, trust, and special relationship between Vietnam and Laos. The two sides also actively exchanged information and closely coordinated and supported each other in regional and international cooperation forums, while continuing to strengthen their cooperation with ASEAN member countries to join hands to build the ASEAN Community and maintain solidarity and a consensus in ASEAN. The 41st meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee, which is held in Hanoi and co-chaired by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, aims to promote the bilateral cooperation in a deeper and more practical manner. At this meeting, the two sides will assess the implementation of high-level agreements between the two countries as well as discussing the cooperation direction and plans for 2019. We believe that, the participation of the Lao Prime Minister in the 41st meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee will contribute to strengthening the political trust between the senior leaders of the two countries and deepen the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and Laos for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. Leave it where it is and renovate the building Move into the Municipal Auditorium in Treme Listen to Treme residents and find another location Put it in Plaza Tower, if financing becomes available Vote View Results Thank you for your editorial on former President George Herbert Walker Bushs call for volunteerism and the impact of collective action to imp William Bonin's recent letter about clowns in office left out the biggest clown of all, the incompetent fool yall elected as president. He ha Gov. John Bel Edwards answers questions while hosting his end of the year press conference from the Governors Mansion Thursday Dec. 20, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La. Two familiar issues wont be on Gov. John Bel Edwards agenda in 2019. There will be no tax hikes and no special sessions heading into the final year of Edwards first term in office. Were not going to have to raise taxes," Edwards, a Democrat, said during the Press Club of Baton Rouges luncheon on Monday. Its my intention not to have a single special session of the Legislature." Since taking office in January 2016, Edwards has called state lawmakers into seven special sessions all to address issues with the state's finances. The Legislature initially agreed to a temporary one-cent sales tax hike to shore up the state budget in 2016. The sales tax rate was scheduled to fall from 5 percent to 4 percent on July 1, but the Legislature again approved a temporary extension of part of the sales tax hike during a special session in June. The new state sales tax rate is 4.45 percent through 2025. Louisiana is doing better on so many critical fronts, Edwards said, heading into what is expected to be a blistering battle for re-election. We are in a much better position to meet those challenges. Edwards has identified pay raises for teachers and school support staff as his top priority for the legislative session that begins April 8. He also plans to try again on issues he campaigned on in 2015 a modest minimum wage hike and legislation meant to address the gender pay gap in Louisiana. Gov. John Bel Edwards makes staff changes as campaign for re-election starts to gear up Gov. John Bel Edwards has named veteran communications specialist Christina Stephens to be his new deputy chief of staff, replacing Richard Ca Two Republicans already have announced plans to run against Edwards in the gubernatorial race U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham of Alto and Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone. The election will be Oct. 12, with a Nov. 16 runoff between the top two vote-getters if no candidate gets more than 50 percent in the primary. Since the start of the new year, Abraham and Rispone have begun gearing up their fundraising and campaigning efforts in the state. Abraham recently held multiple fundraisers in North Louisiana, while Rispone has begun appearances in Acadiana and Baton Rouge. Gov. John Bel Edwards gives update on economy, priorities heading into 2019 Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is heading into a heated re-election battle next year, spent his final news conference of 2018 touting successes th The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Republicans on the national level have identified Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, as a target for the election cycle in which few other states will be filling their governors offices. Im optimistic about the election this year, he said. Edwards said he has several initiatives that will be rolled out in the coming months to address school safety, opioid addiction and red tape that hinders businesses and professionals. He also said he plans to work to promote veteran-owned businesses. He didnt elaborate on those efforts. Edwards said he believes that the $1,000 annual pay raises for school teachers that he is proposing will win bipartisan support. "It's really an investment in our children," he said. Edwards hasn't fared so well with his proposal to set a state minimum wage hike of $1.25 over two years to $8.50 an hour. Louisiana currently has no minimum wage, so the minimum defaults to the federal $7.25 an hour. Congress last increased the federal minimum wage in 2009. The minimum wage went up in 20 other states at the start of the year. Similar to the minimum wage issue, Edwards also campaigned on promising to tackle the state's gender pay disparity. Studies have suggested that Louisiana has the highest gender wage gap in the country. The Louisiana Legislature has consistently rejected efforts to address the disparity, after facing opposition from some business groups and others who argue that legislation could encourage frivolous lawsuits. Critics also say statistics on the gender pay gap often don't reflect the differences in skill and job type that can separate men and women in various employment fields that are reflected in pay. Can't see video below? Click here. Both of Louisiana's nuclear power plants have been federally relicensed to operate into the 2040s, Entergy announced Monday. The company operates the River Bend facility in St. Francisville and Waterford 3 in Killona. Each was originally licensed in 1985. Entergy also owns the Grand Gulf plant just over the state line in Port Gibson, Mississippi; it was relicensed in 2016. Nuclear power provides 16 percent of Louisiana's energy. It's an important component of the state's clean energy portfolio, Entergy President and CEO Phillip May wrote in a news release. "The license renewals allow for continued safe, secure and reliable operations of Waterford 3 through 2044, and River Bend through 2045, two additional decades past the original licensing dates. The 974-megawatt River Bend facility and 1,159-megawatt Waterford unit are the largest sources of carbon-free power in Louisiana," the release states. The plants do have to store nuclear waste on-site, which a few officials discussed when the licenses were under review. However, that's seen as a federal problem, as Nevada politicians have blocked the U.S. government from opening the Yucca Mountain repository in their state, where spent fuel rods were designed to be recycled and stored. Entergy noted Waterford 3 and River Bend employ more than 1,500 workers and pay more than $36 million in state and local taxes each year, the company noted. State officials had expressed hope that both nuclear plants would be allowed to continue operations. They offer a "good deal for rate payers," Louisiana Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Skrmetta said in September. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up By that point, both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agencies had issued favorable safety and environmental reports. The commission's final decision came in late December. +2 Entergy seeks to re-license two nuclear plants, amid questions over performance in power emergency Entergy has received preliminary approval to operate its nuclear plant near St. Francisville for another two decades, though federal agencies Entergy's relicensing application was under consideration as federal and state authorities began inquiries into recent power shortfalls. In January and September last year, regional energy providers struggled to meet demand. They triggered the emergency response that can lead to rolling blackouts, though neither event triggered such a drastic response. Entergy is not specifically under investigation, though its nuclear sites were among those unable to generate maximum power output at times. The inquiries are still underway, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Mary O'Driscoll said Monday. She declined to speculate how long it would continue. Regulators have explained that relicensure involves an examination of safety, not productivity. Consumer advocacy groups have said they just want to be cautious that utility providers are kept in check so rate payers aren't subsidizing underperforming facilities. A 15-year-old teen from Smithville, Missouri, has permanently lost her sense of sight as well as smell and taste, leaving doctors bewildered on the mysterious illness she has. Jordyn Walker is currently fighting a disease for just over a year and a half, but it has already taken most of her senses. It was in July 2017 when she first experienced some of the symptoms including stomach pains, which was found to be related to colitis, or the inflammation of the colon. Losing Senses After which, her eyes, nose, and ears started bleeding, which resulted to losing her senses of smell and taste. Even though this may be horrible to witness, test results showed there was nothing to be alarmed of, making her parents think it was just a one-time instance. However, things just took a lot worse from then on and specifically on the year after, when she found herself rushed at The University of Kansas Hospital after vomiting, diarrhea, and intolerable stomachache. Her face immediately swelled up, alarming doctors at the rapidity of what had happened. More than that, her face had to undergo emergency surgery, with doctors removing bones on both sides to reduce swelling. However, the pressure was too much on her eyes that Walker lost her eyesight, with the recorded pressure at 85 mm Hg, far from the average 12 to 22 mm Hg. Sad to say, this mysterious illness claimed Walker's sense of sight for the rest of her life. The teen, who is an editor in her school paper, and her family is raising funds via GoFundMe to help find the cause of the illness. Still A Mysterious Illness "Doctors believe that the blood flow to the optic nerve was compromised, severely damaging one nerve and completely destroying the other," the GoFundMe page read. Her parents were, needless to say, frustrated that there is still no diagnosis about the cause, but doctors handling the case were more than exasperated over the case. Nonetheless, they said that at least they know what it isn't, judging from the negative results of the tests done on Walker. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Nvidia brought a massive bag of tricks to their CES keynote this year, including enabling G-Sync on any adaptive-sync monitors, confirming DLSS and ray tracing in a bunch of new games, and even adding a whole bunch of professional-oriented features to their RTX lineup via a software update. Of course, dont forget the two biggest announcements: the RTX 2060 and RTX in laptops. Bringing G-Sync to the masses Gamers have had a love-hate relationship with G-Sync since its launch five years ago. Just like AMDs FreeSync, it smooths out gameplay by removing screen tearing and stuttering, but unlike FreeSync, it adds an additional couple hundred dollars to the monitors cost. With Nvidia dominating the high-end GPU market, however, gamers have been forced to pay the price. Until now, that is. Today, Nvidia has announced that theyve secretly tested over 400 monitors with Adaptive-Sync and Variable Refresh Rate technologies, and theyve found 12 that qualify to be G-Sync certified. Amusingly, quite a few of these are actually cheaper FreeSync variants of G-Sync panels released by the same manufacturer. They say theyve still got 150 monitors to go, and theyll check any new ones released. Even better, however, is the option for gamers to enable G-Sync without certification. For gamers who have monitors that we have not yet tested, or that have failed validation, well give you an option to manually enable Variable Refresh Rate, too. This means that any FreeSync monitor should now be G-Sync certified too. The option will become available after a driver update on January 15th. DLSS confirmed in five new titles Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an alternative to the commonly used Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) that games employ to prevent rendered images from having jagged edges and rougher texture maps. It relies on the AI-optimized Tensor Cores that are exclusive to RTX to upscale images with deep learning, in order to save the GPU from having to render at a higher resolution and lose performance. Up until now, Nvidia has marketed DLSS as a way to improve general performance, and before today, they hadnt announced any ray-traced titles capable of DLSS. That changes now, with Battlefield V, Justice, and Atomic Heart all getting DLSS support to undo the damage ray tracing does to performance. According to Nvidia, at 4K Chinese MMO Justice should be able to run at 50 fps standardly with a 2070, 60 fps with a 2080, and 70+ fps with a 2080 Ti. Activating ray tracing drops all those numbers by about 10 fps but adding in DLSS raises them back to slightly higher than they were before. The same should reportedly occur in Battlefield V. Last but not least, Biowares Anthem and Chinese title JX3 Online will get DLSS but not raytracing. According to an Nvidia blog post, having DLSS but not raytracing can boost performance by as much as 40%. Expanding RTX capabilities Nvidias statistics have revealed that of the 200 million gamers that use their graphics cards, 8 million of them broadcast, 8 million of them are video enthusiasts, 4 million use a VR headset and 1.5 million are hobbyist animators. As part of a new strategy to create PCs for gamers, not gaming PCs Nvidia will be adding software updates designed to help these applications in an imminent update. Nvidia has partnered with OBS, the largest streaming software platform, to optimize it to use RTX to its fullest extent and to introduce Pro-Quality Broadcast streaming on a single PC. Previously, Pro-Quality streams required two PCs to handle the performance requirement. For videographers, Nvidia has worked with RED to introduce official support for 8K video editing, decoding and color correcting. VR also gets a slight boost, with better software to support single-cable headsets and eye-tracking in headsets of the future. Animators get one of the most meaningful boosts, with RTX now supporting enhanced acceleration for the Autodesk Arnold interactive rendering engine. Decode Your Future with an Online Computer Science Degree from Drexel Drexel University's online computer science programs are designed to prepare you for work on the cutting edge of technology. The curriculum is designed for students with any level of experience or previous knowledge. Choose the program thats right for you. Learn More. Nvidia on Monday announced a breakthrough in 3D rendering research that may have far-reaching ramifications for future virtual worlds. A team led by Nvidia Vice President Bryan Catanzaro discovered a way to use a neural network to render synthetic 3D environments in real time, using a model trained on real-world videos. Now, each object in a virtual world has to be modeled individually. With Nvidia's technology, worlds can be populated with objects "learned" from video input. Nvidia's technology offers the potential to quickly create virtual worlds for gaming, automotive, architecture, robotics or virtual reality. The network can, for example, generate interactive scenes based on real-world locations or show consumers dancing like their favorite pop stars. "Nvidia has been inventing new ways to generate interactive graphics for 25 years, and this is the first time we can do so with a neural network," Catanzaro said. "Neural networks -- specifically generative models -- will change how graphics are created," he added. "This will enable developers to create new scenes at a fraction of the traditional cost." Learning From Video The research currently is on display at the NeurIPS conference in Montreal, Canada, a show for artificial intelligence researchers. Nvidia's team created a simple driving game for the conference that allows attendees to interactively navigate an AI-generated environment. The virtual urban environment rendered by a neural network was trained on videos of real-life urban environments. The network learned to model the appearance of the world, including lighting, materials and their dynamics. Since the output is synthetically generated, a scene easily can be edited to remove, modify or add objects. Reducing Labor Overhead Rendering 3D graphics is a labor-intensive process right now. Nvidia's technology could change that in the future. "This is cool because it's using deep learning to cut down on what has traditionally been a very manual and resource-intensive activity," said Tuong Nguyen, an analyst with Gartner, a research and advisory company based in Stamford, Connecticut. "This has applications wherever 3D graphics are used -- video games, augmented reality, virtual reality, TV and movies," he told TechNewsWorld. "It frees up the graphic professionals' time so they can do other things, such as improve on a scene's quality with additional details," Nguyen added. "The idea is to lay the foundation, or at least do a lot of the heavy lifting, so you can spend more time and energy on making a project stand out in many other different ways." "Developers and users of virtual environments will especially benefit from the new technology," noted Tamar Shinar, an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Riverside. "It potentially replaces the laborious process of designing the appearance of a virtual world, and expensive methods to render it photorealistically, with a process based on video input and computation at interactive rates," she told TechNewsWorld. "It enables the rendering of virtual environments from video data," Shinar continued. "This novel approach to interactive rendering of virtual environments opens many possibilities for interactive applications such as games, telecommunication and training simulators." Competition for Hollywood By taking the drudgery out of 3D rendering, Nvidia's technology also could bring into the market players that previously had been priced out of it. "Currently, the creation of 3D content and scenes has been very labor-intensive and limited to companies with big budgets -- primarily games companies," said Bill Orner, a senior member of IEEE, a technical professional organization with corporate headquarters in New York City. "This deep learning model will enable other industries that don't have 'Hollywood' budgets to create 3D interactive tools," he told TechNewsWorld. "One thing that artificial intelligence and machine learning does is take the human out of some of the process," explained Michael Goodman, director for digital media in the Newton, Massachusetts, office of Strategy Analytics, a research, advisory and analytics firm. "That allows a lot of money to be saved," he told TechNewsWorld. That could be good news for content producers for virtual reality headsets. "Currently, VR content creation is prohibitively costly, and it is difficult to create the kinds of experiences consumers are looking for," explained Kristen Hanich, a research analyst with Dallas, Texas-based Parks Assocates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products. "Lowering the barrier to entry should help with the VR industry's content problem -- there's a lack of it," she told TechNewsWorld. Nevertheless, Nvidia has some work to do before the promise of its deep learning technology can be fulfilled. "While interesting, the technology is in its early stages," observed Parks Associates analyst Craig Leslie Sr. "The graphics aren't photorealistic, showing the fuzziness encountered with many AI-generated images," he told TechNewsWorld. "It will require significant improvement before it will be considered market ready." Simulating Bad Behavior The Nvidia technology also may find a home in the automotive industry. "A computer's ability to quickly read and understand real-life environments is a critical piece of the self-driving future," said Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of Ericho Communications, a public relations firm in New York City. "These deep-learning tools could make it easier for cars to make sense of the world around them and navigate their surroundings with less chance for error," he told TechNewsWorld. "As much as this technology can be used to create rich 3D worlds for gaming technologies," he added, "its application in automobiles seems more profound. It could give AI-driven cars a more accurate computer model that would dramatically improve passenger safety." A problem currently faced by self-driving car developers is simulating real-life driving environments. "Traffic models now are too simplistic," said Richard Wallace, transportation systems analysis director for the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit automotive research organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "Simulation drivers are too well-behaved. We need more realism," he told TechNewsWorld. "The industry is beginning to realize that these AI systems can never drive enough real-world miles to get all the learning they need to drive a vehicle, so simulation is starting to become prevalent everywhere," Wallace added. "Nvidia's technology could be very useful for that." John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Seminole, FL (33772) Today Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly during the afternoon hours. High 84F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Cloudy skies. Low 78F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Netherlands Announces Tax 'Blacklist' by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 07 January 2019 On December 28, 2018, the Dutch Government published in the Official Gazette a list of 21 low-tax jurisdictions. Companies doing business in these territories will face new anti-avoidance measures, intended to tackle tax base erosion and profit shifting. Jurisdictions on the list have a corporate tax rate of less than nine percent. These include the five territories already on the European Union's tax blacklist: American Samoa, Guam, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands. The other jurisdictions listed are Anguilla, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Vanuatu, and the United Arab Emirates. Jurisdictions named on the list will fall within the scope of new Dutch controlled foreign companies (CFC) rules, which became effective from January 1, 2019, under the framework of the EU's Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive. The Directive's new CFC rules are intended to ensure that the EU country in which a parent company is located will be required to tax certain profits that are "parked" in a low or no tax country. The company will be given a tax credit for any taxes paid abroad. In addition, withholding tax equal to the Dutch headline corporate tax rate will be imposed on interest and royalty payments to these jurisdictions from 2021. The Dutch rate of corporate tax is 25 percent, but it will fall to 20.5 percent by 2021. The Dutch tax authority will also no longer issue tax rulings to taxpayers with regards to tax structures involving companies established in these listed low-tax territories. The list of low-tax jurisdictions will be reviewed on an annual basis. Winter will make a comeback in Upstate New York this week with ice, snow, wind, and cold temperatures. One primary weather system will set up the weather for much of the week. This will be an area of low pressure that will approach Upstate New York on Monday, move through on Tuesday, and send a cold air mass into the region for the latter half of the week. Cold air has become entrenched in Upstate New York ahead of this system on Monday. This will set up a period of icy precipitation from Monday afternoon into early Tuesday. Areas of freezing drizzle and sleet will work into Western New York and the Finger Lakes this afternoon with a more significant period of icy precipitation this evening. The ice will spread into Central New York tonight with freezing rain in the North Country, Adirondacks, and Catskills lingering into Tuesday morning. Only a few pockets of ice are expected in the Capital Region. Ice accretion amounts will only be a few hundredths of an inch, but many roadways will become slippery and treacherous. Gusty winds over higher elevations could also lead to some broken branches and sporadic power outages. Warmer air will work in for Tuesday and steady precipitation will end during the morning. High temperatures should reach into the 40s for all but the Adirondacks where upper 30s are likely. Low pressure will strengthen as it crosses Lake Ontario and moves into the Adirondacks Tuesday night. As this happens, winds will turn to the northwest and increase. An area of rain will accompany the low Tuesday evening, changing to snow from west to east during the overnight. By Wednesday morning snow will be falling across much of Upstate New York. The heaviest snow will be near the low over eastern portions of Upstate New York and southeast of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Parts of the Capital Region and Hudson Valley may hold on to mostly rain before the precipitation pulls out of that area. As the low pulls away, lake effect snow off Lake Ontario will become the main focus. Several inches of accumulation are likely southeast of Lake Ontario over Central New York through late Wednesday and into Thursday. In addition to the snow will be widespread gusty winds of 35-45 mph throughout Upstate New York. Temperatures will fall through the 30s on Wednesday with highs Thursday in the low and mid 20s for most of Upstate New York. Snow will end by Friday, but a very cold air mass will settle in. High temperatures will be in the teens and single digits for most areas. Parts of the Adirondacks may not get above 0 degrees. Winds will still be gusty, sending wind chills Friday below zero, especially in the morning hours. Here are the details day-by-day: Monday, January 7 Very light precipitation will be possible during the afternoon near and west of I-81. Some of this may be freezing rain. More widespread icy precipitation is expected during the evening and overnight hours. Temperatures will spend most of the day in the 20s before rising into the low 30s overnight. Tuesday, January 8 Some icy precipitation will be possible early in the morning before transitioning to rain showers. More widespread rain will move in late in the day, turning to snow overnight. Temperatures will range through the 40s Tuesday afternoon with upper 30s in the Adirondacks. Wednesday, January 9 Widespread snow is likely early Wednesday. Snow will then consolidate southeast of Lake Ontario for the afternoon and evening hours. Several inches of accumulation will be possible. Strong winds are also likely. Temperatures will slowly fall from the mid and upper 30s early to the upper 20s late. Thursday, January 10 Gusty winds are likely throughout Upstate New York with flurries and squalls southeast of Lake Ontario, especially in the morning. Temperatures will be in the low or mid 20s for most of Upstate New York. The Adirondacks will top out in the upper teens while 30 degrees will be possible for the Capital Region. Friday, January 11 Periods of sunshine are likely, but it will be very cold and breezy. Morning wind chills will be below zero throughout Upstate New York and possibly dangerously low in the Adirondacks. Afternoon highs will sit just below zero in the Adirondacks with single digits in the North Country. High temperatures will be in the teens elsewhere. More from NYUP Weather New York Upstate Weather ALBANY A Manhattan lawmaker wants to ban the incubation and hatching of baby chicks in schools, saying the practice is cruel and leads to the abandonment and death of countless young birds each year. Educators, though, say they take steps to find homes for the newborn chickens or ducks. And incubations are a time-honored way to give young kids a hands-on biology lesson. Proposed by Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, the measure would ban incubation projects statewide. "Unfortunately, even the most well-intentioned schools often run into problems when cute baby chicks quickly grow into adult chickens, and find that there is nowhere for them to go," said Rosenthal, who has sponsored numerous animal rights and anti-cruelty measures. While the bill doesnt yet have a state Senate sponsor, it is part of a broader push in the animal rights movement. There is no mother hen involved, Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns, said of the incubations in which chickens are hatched in special incubation devices that schools typically rent or borrow from organizations like BOCES or Cooperative Extension Services. This is a barren, sterile experiment which is miserable for the chicks, said Davis, whose organization opposes factory poultry farming practices. You have cute little fuzzy chicks then the chicks disappear. Not so, said Jeffrey Vivenzio, principal of Voorheesville Elementary School, one of many schools in the Capital Region that have long had the incubations, generally during the spring semester for elementary and kindergarten students. We always have a plan for when the eggs hatch, Vivenzio said, explaining that they give the chicks to farms or to families that keep chickens. Other local schools, he added, have also kept some chickens on the grounds in order to keep ticks at bay. We find there is a lot of educational value, he said, adding that the incubations can be followed by kids as young as 5. The process is combined with lessons about nutrition and the circulatory system and can help teach kids about nutrition and life cycles, according to literature from the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The process has changed over the years, though. The Saratoga County Extension Service this year plans to offer chicks for sale if they dont end up on local farms or with students' families. And schools such as Voorheesville have incubated ducks as well as chickens. Another life cycle project involves raising butterfly larvae. Organizations like Davis' and PETA, though, are proposing alternatives such as virtual incubations which allow interactive computer displays of the hatching process. -- By Rick Karlin, Times Union, Albany, New York New York New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for a state constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights. Cuomo spoke today at a rally at Barnard College in Manhattan. He was joined by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several state Democratic lawmakers, according to the New York Daily News. He said during the rally he fears the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that currently protects abortion rights nationwide could be overturned by the court's new conservative majority, according to the News. Abortion was always expected to be on the agenda for the Legislature this year. Cuomo called for a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights last year as well, although the proposal will likely gain more traction now with Albany under full Democratic control. He said the shifting nature of modern politics means future governors and Legislatures could easily overturn whatever laws he and today's Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly pass. An amendment to the state's constitution would be harder to erase. "We'll put it on the ballot, we'll write it into the constitution and we'll be able to say we have protected women's rights in a way no one else has before," Cuomo said, according to the News. Lawmakers also said they will pass bills later this month that would strengthen the states current abortion laws and require insurance companies to provide coverage for womens contraception, the News said. The bill to strengthen abortion laws, the Reproductive Health Act, has been approved by the Assembly in the past, but stalled in the Republican-led Senate. Democrats now control both chambers, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. The bill would add protections granted by the Roe vs. Wade decision to New York state law and remove abortion from the penal code, the D&C said. The bill on coverage for contraception has also been long-stalled. The amendment would require passage by two separately elected Legislatures before the matter goes to voters. Cuomo said he will push for the first round of passage this year, meaning 2021 is the earliest voters would get the issue, according to the News. During the rally, Clinton said that the struggle for women's equality is not just something to read about in history books, according to the D&C. It continues to be the fight of our lifetime, she said. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 Albany, N.Y. Legislation aimed at the use of schools as polling places in New York appears to be gaining traction in the state Legislature, but obstacles remain. Bills on the matter have been introduced in recent weeks by members of both parties in both the Senate and Assembly, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. The idea first emerged in 2014 following several high-profile school shootings, but failed to move forward, the D&C said. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, Democrat of Nassau County, is a sponsor of one of the bills. It wouldn't bar schools from hosting elections, but instead would ensure that no school would be required to serve as a polling place while class is in session and minors are present. Officials would have to find an alternative site if a school chose to opt out, according to the D&C. Similar legislation Kaminsky introduced in 2016 failed to make it out of committee. Republican Sen. Robert Ortt of Tonawanda introduced legislation this month that would impose a total ban on schools serving as polling places. Assembly Anthony D'Urso, Democrat of Nassau County, introduced a third bill that would give school boards greater say in whether local buildings host elections. "You have this bizarre dichotomy where on the one hand schools have become much more fortified and secure and appropriately so," Kaminsky said, according to the D&C. "Except on Election Day, then we let anyone walk into schools." The New York State School Board Associates began pushing in 2014 for local school boards to have a greater say in whether schools host elections. The state Election Commissioners Associate says removing polling places from schools could be a hardship, according to the D&C. Any alternative site would have to be handicapped-accessible, which could be difficult for some voting districts and result in longer trips to the polls. Lawmakers could also address the problem by consolidating state and federal primaries on the same day, instead of holding them on separate days in June and September. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also discussed making Election Day a state holiday, the D&C said. We may not be talking about having elections with kids in school anymore, there may be very few and far between, Kaminsky said, according to the paper. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 Francis Conole is a native of Syracuse, an Iraq War veteran, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves. For the past two years, he has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy supporting Defense Secretary James Mattis. The views expressed are those of the individual only and not those of the Department of Defense. By Francis Conole | Special to Syracuse.com The resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis left many at the Pentagon and in the Armed Forces feeling saddened by his departure. For the past two years, I have had the good fortune of serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy. During this time, I have seen up close his fierce devotion to defending our country, his quiet integrity, his affection for the men and women he led, and his nonpartisan, mission-first approach to leading the Department of Defense. I am certain Mattis will be remembered as one of the great leaders of our time. When I was at the Naval Academy, Gen. Colin Powell spoke to us at one of our Wednesday night lectures on leadership. I remember Gen Powell defined leadership in the simplest terms: Know your s---. And know your people. Secretary Mattis exemplified this ethos. Mattis knew the supreme importance of the mission of defending the country. This, in turn, meant he understood all too well the grave consequences of incompetence in our line of work. As such, he was extremely demanding, both of himself and his people, and relentlessly drove us to know our issues in pursuit of the mission. The words working hours were not in Mattis vernacular, and as a lifelong bachelor, he was often referred to as the warrior monk. Among the many stories we came to appreciate about Mattis, one details how, when changing duty stations, he needed a separate truck just for his books. Mattis was constantly asking us what we were reading, not because he believed history had all the answers, but because he believed that an understanding of the events of the past could help light what is often a dark path ahead. Mattis was once asked by a colleague about how to respond to young officers who claim they dont have time to read. His response went viral and eventually was published by Business Insider. Mattis was also a leader who has integrity and a sense of personal honor. He would often tell us that those of us privileged to serve our nation, in and out of uniform, must be the epitome of American values and ethics. One of the values he lived was to take care of the men and women he led. In one of my first encounters with Mattis, he was receiving the King of Jordan at the Pentagon. We would welcome the king with a full military honor guard. With a schedule that almost never had a minute to spare, Secretary Mattis arrived almost 20 minutes early for the sole purpose of going around and talking to each Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Airman in the honor guard. He didnt do this for show. There were no cameras and it was never reported. These traits are part of Mattis quiet integrity, an integral part of what makes him a great leader. Finally, in a time when the country at times feels increasingly divided and hyperpartisan, I found Secretary Mattis to be fiercely nonpartisan and entirely mission-focused. Throughout his career as a Marine, Mattis existed in an environment where people did not ask your political persuasion, and unit cohesion was central to accomplishing the mission. As such, Mattis understood the importance of keeping the military apolitical. On one of his first trips to the Middle East in 2017, we were visiting one of our facilities in Jordan. After a meeting with the on-the-ground commanders, we were departing the base when I heard the familiar battle cry of the troops yelling Hoorah, Sir! The troops, who almost certainly did not have permission from their commander, were spontaneously rushing toward the Secretary. They were not going to miss an opportunity to hear from their legendary leader. Mattis turned to them and delivered an impromptu speech that encapsulated many of his core beliefs. Toward the end, Mattis lamented the division back home and told the troops to hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other." In April, I will return home to my hometown of Syracuse to live for the first time since leaving for the Naval Academy. I have traveled the world, deployed to Iraq with Army Special Forces, and sailed the high seas from the Atlantic, to the Persian Gulf, to the Black Sea and beyond, but never have I served with a finer leader than Jim Mattis. Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse police have released photos of a suspect in the Dec. 19 killing of Asim Musa and asked for the publics help. In the photo, the suspect is wearing a sweatshirt from Fowler High School that says Class of 2011 on the back. The suspect also is wearing a mask in the photograph that shows him from the front. Syracuse police issued two photos of a suspect in the killing of Asim Musa Dec. 19, 2018, and they are asking for the public's help. The sweatshirt says Fowler Falcons on the front. Musa, a Sudanese immigrant, was shot and killed while working behind the counter at Eddies Market on Oakwood Avenue. It was around 9:30 p.m. when a masked man entered the store. Musa asked the man to take the mask off, but the man refused, which led to an physical altercation between the two men. The men continued to fight outside on the sidewalk when another man walked up and shot Musa in the back. In a statement, police said theyd been working the case continuously since it happened and asked for the publics help. Musa, a gifted mathematician, had hoped to own his own convenience store one day, his family said. He left behind a 9-year-old daughter. Police asked anyone with information about the case to call them at 315-442-5222. CAMILLUS, NY - Three members of the Camillus Fire Department have filed a complaint against the incoming fire chief asking that the man be suspended for 30 days and not allowed to become chief. The three members allege that James McBride, who was elected chief by the membership Dec. 4, made racist, unethical and offensive comments on Facebook, according to a written complaint they filed with the village of Camillus. McBride, who has since taken the Facebook posts down, said in one The world is made up of all kinds but in America if you are an illegal get out. Go back home, we have enough foreigners living off the system. Another said they are professionals because they came here and got a f***ing free education... Another depicted young boys aiming toy guns with the line what boys did in my day and then showed boys wearing makeup with the title what boys are doing today. The complaint was filed by Brian Raichlin, Scott Penoyer and Austin Mersfelder on Dec. 3. Raichlin says the village board, which runs the fire department, approved McBride as fire chief on Dec. 17. Raichlin says the board has not responded to the complaint. Camillus Mayor Patricia Butler-Rhoades says the village board investigated the complaint and determined the Facebook posts in question were private conversations between McBride and his brother. In addition, the mayor said the posts were not made under the guise of the Camillus Fire Department or as a representative of the department. Butler-Rhoades said those complaining are upset because they are unhappy with the results of the fire department election. McBride defeated Tim Bloodgood, the current chief. The mayor also said the board decided not to appoint Raichlin as first assistant chief, so she said he is upset. Raichlin denied the election was the reason they filed the complaint, noting the complaint was filed Dec. 3 - the day before the election was held. McBride, the new chief, did not return phone calls or messages from Syracuse.com| The Post Standard. Raichlin said he believes the board should hold a hearing. "We find these posts blatantly offensive, and they go against the fire departments social media policy,'' he said. The policy reads Where the person posting information can be identified as a member of the Camillus Fire Department, unethical or offensive content are not permitted. The village-run volunteer department about 40 members, according to Raichlin. The mayor said the three who filed the complaint are trying to make everything look really bad because they didnt win the election. She said the board discussed the posts in an executive session earlier in December, and took no action on them. They did approve McBride as fire chief. The village board meets again at 6 p.m. today, and Raichlin said they plan to ask the board about the complaint. Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse teenager rubbed tears from his eyes today as he apologized for killing his best friend while modifying an illegal gun. Dwight Murray was 17 years old in October 2018 when he and Niko Santana, 18, purchased a handgun in poor condition, then attempted to fix it up inside a Shonnard Street residence. Santanas mother, Rhonda Hayden, said today she remembers her son coming into the living room holding his chest. Mom, call 911. Im shot, Santana told her. Santana died from his injuries after being taken to a local hospital. Today, Murray was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison for reckless manslaughter in Santanas accidental shooting death. I loved Niko, that was my best friend, Murray said, stiffing his crying. I think about him every day. It hurt me a lot. Even Hayden, the victims mother, said she thought Santana would have stood with Murray despite what hed done. Niko and Dwight were inseparable, she said in court. Niko should be here next to Dwight. But Hayden added that she also thought Murray should be punished for what he did, despite the fact after all this, I still love Dwight. Murrays lawyer, Heather Vincent, noted that her client had accepted responsibility from the start. She argued for Murrays record to be sealed as a youthful offender. The probation department in a pre-sentence report had reccommended youthful offender status, if the judge felt it was legally possible. While not excusing what happened, Vincent said the two friends had obtained the illegal gun to protect themselves from gangs. My client and Niko did not want to be part of a gang, she said. But prosecutor Caleb Petzoldt said that there were too many poor choices made for that. Murray and Santana had purchased the gun together. Murray was attempting to make modifications and test it when the gun fired a bullet into Santanas chest. This cases highlights so many poor choices, Petzoldt said. For his part, County Court Judge Matthew Doran said he couldnt think of a worse situation for everyone involved: The senselessness of this loss, the gravity. The judge ruled he would not seal Murrays record. He then sentenced Murray to 2 to 6 years in prison. Murray, who had been free on bail, was handcuffed and led away. Syracuse, NY -- The mother of a murdered Syracuse man was led by security out of a courtroom today during a profane tirade against her sons killer. County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller said her words to that point had rung true. Before Aisha Jones was kicked out, she noted that the unexplained murder had left a total of eight children without fathers, with one father dead and one going to prison, possibly for life. You are an embarrassment to my nation. Black men killing black men because someone looked at you, Aisha Jones told killer Daquan Dennard. In a letter to the court, Jones called an epidemic of black men killing black men genocide, the judge noted. Miller applauded Jones for bringing the uncomfortable truth to light. African-American men in the city of Syracuse are killing African-American men in the city of Syracuse, the judge said, later adding: Thats a reality that Ms. Jones brought to light...without concern for political correctness. County Court Judge Thomas J, Miller Joness son, Rasheem Glover, was murdered by Dennard during an after-hours pop-up party at a Cortland Avenue residence in April 2018. Dennard pointed a gun three inches from Glovers head before firing, Chief Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle said today. McGunnigle said we may never know why Dennard pulled the trigger. Text messages he sent later confirm that Dennard had some kind of problem with Glover, but he didnt explain what that was, the prosecutor added. The two men were at a crowded party at 4 a.m. when Dennard pulled the gun and fired, a jury decided in December. The 50 to 100 people jammed into three rooms of the house fled after the shooting. Only Glover was found, dying in the kitchen, when police arrived. Jones, the mother, spoke at length during the victim impact portion of Dennards sentencing today. She took exception to Dennards profane outburst at her during his murder arraignment months ago. She began yelling obscenities at Dennard today, especially to his depiction of her as a b*tch. All women are queens! Im a queen!" Jones told him, her words punctuated by curses. She was quickly calmed down and apologized to the judge. Thats when she described the heartache of losing her son and seeing Dennard go to prison. Not for him, Jones said, but because Dennard left six children behind. Glover left two children. Their families are grieving. Im crying. Your mothers crying, Jones said. She vowed to come to every one of Dennards parole hearings, which begin more than two decades from now. She called him an embarrassment" and spoke of black-on-black crime. Then she ended with a second profane tirade. Jones was still yelling obscenities as she was removed from the courtroom, surrounded by family trying to calm her down. Miller took a five-minute break to let emotions cool. He also apparently reviewed the letter that Jones had brought for her remarks. When court resumed, Jones walked back into the courtroom and begged forgiveness. Miller said she had unfortunately forfeited her right to be there. She left without incident. But Miller said more people like Jones -- unafraid to speak their minds -- need to be present in their communities. He quoted from her letter: (Dennard) was one of many black men in our community committing genocide," Jones wrote. Without people acting on instincts coming forward, people cant take their neighborhoods back, Miller said. They cant be intimidated. He added that the senseless violence left too many victims, like Dennards and Glovers' mothers. Good people, people who deserve better," the judge said. The judge credited witnesses for coming forward and testifying against Dennard at trial. The judge condemned Dennard for making faces at the witnesses during trial, in an apparent attempt to intimidate them. The judge concluded with his critique of black-on-black violence. Until things change, African-American mothers will continue to bury sons and grandsons, Miller said. Its a sad reality and I hope it changes soon. Its not going to change today. With that, he sent Dennard to prison for 25 years to life, the maximum punishment for murder. VSP Senior Trooper K.S. Chapman said investigators are currently pursuing two persons of interest. He said the gold 1993 Honda Accord had been sold the day before the crash that claimed the life of 87-year-old Margaret Poe. The license plates registered to and displayed on the Honda had expired in 2015, Chapman said, and belonged to the vehicles previous owner. Chapman said the Honda was traveling toward Chilhowie on Riverside Road when it ran off the road and crashed into Poes home, exiting from the other side. Poe, the only person at the residence at the time, died from injuries sustained in the crash before first responders could arrive. The Hondas driver fled the scene. Chapman asks anyone who may have seen the vehicle in the hours before the crash or who may be able to identify the driver to call the state police field office in Wytheville at 276-228-3131. Access to broadband internet is argued to be a necessity now, and efforts are under way to give more Smyth County residents the opportunity to connect. In December, the Smyth County Board of Supervisors gave its OK for county administration staff to pursue funding that would help bring high-speed internet access to a portion of eastern Smyth County. County Administrator Michael Carter told the board that a demonstrated need exists for updated and expanded broadband service in the county and region. He noted that the Tobacco Commission has set aside funding for such projects. He asked for the authorization to file a pre-application for one of the loan/grants. Do you already have a paid subscription to any of the SWNewsMedia newspapers? If so, you can Activate your Premium online account by clicking here. Activation will allow you to view unlimited online articles each month. To activate your Premium online account, the email address and phone number provided with your paid newspaper subscription needs to match the information you use in setting up your online user account. If you are having trouble or want to confirm what email address and phone number is listed on your subscription account, please call 952-345-6682 or email circulation@swpub.com and we'll be happy to assist. Bay of Plenty Ever thought of joining the civil construction industry? if so then this is your chance to get a foot in the door. We are... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz The government says only about half the votes cast in the December 30 presidential election have been counted so far. The presidential election results were supposed to have been announced today but there have been, as the government puts it, unexpected delays. President Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, was supposed to have been replaced by a new president in 2016 but Kabila and his cronies delayed elections and Kabila remained in power despite growing pressure to allow the elections to take place. That finally happened and there are fears that the candidate Kabila backed, despite being the least popular (and most hated) of the three main candidates will somehow win. The official vote results are now due in mid-January but sources inside CENI (Congos Independent National Electoral Commission) have apparently told Catholic Church leaders that actual voting results agree with what CENCO (Congos Catholic Bishops Conference) and other election observers estimate. Currently Martin Fayulu is the likely winner and Felix Tshisekedi second, but apparently not by very much. In a distant third place is the Kabila crony Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. The overall vote is, as all earlier polls indicated, a rejection of Kabila. Fayulu is an oil company exec, smart, knows how to run an honest business and is very anti-Kabila. Tshisekedi hates Kabila, wants to be president but he doesnt want to ignite another Congo war. Kabila appears to be arranging a surprise victory for his favourite Shadary and is under growing local and international pressure to not do that. It is more and more likely that a surprise Shadary victory would trigger widespread violence and more years of civil war. Kabila seems to consider chaos acceptable to allowing an honest vote count and massive defeat for his candidate. The U.S. has sent 80 military personnel to nearby Gabon in case rapid intervention is needed to provide more security for American diplomats in Congo. January 5, 2019: CENCO (the Catholic bishops) demanded that CENI (the electoral commission) must release presidential election results and not delay them. CENCO observers have seen vote tallies that indicate one candidate is in the lead for president. Later another CENCO official confirmed that. No one would reveal which candidate had won, but the strong implication is it was one of the two opposition candidates (Tshisekedi or Fayulu). President Joseph Kabilas handpicked and preferred successor is Shadary, a former interior minister who worked for Kabila but was much less popular than the opposition candidates. CENCOs demands have political power in Congo. The Catholic Church is Congos most trusted nation-wide institution, the only national institution that is not regarded as corrupt and/or controlled by Congos wealthy families and elite politicians. CENCO mediated the 2016 December Accord which ultimately led to the December 30, 2018 election. However, following CENCOs demand, CENI failed to publish election results on January 3, claiming that vote counting centers had yet to receive 80 percent of the votes cast. Ballots were still in transit. Opposition political parties responded to that failure by accusing the Kabila government of manipulating vote totals. CENCO is confident it has evidence of who won the election. If CENCO doesnt have precise vote tabulations it very likely has highly granular post-vote polling data indicating voter choices (observers asking voters for whom they voted). A Western NGO ran a nationwide opinion poll in early December and found Fayulu was supported by 47 percent of voters, Tshisekedi 33 percent and Shadary 20 percent. By the end of December there were indications Fayulu and Tshisekedi both had 40 percent in early returns while Shadary had 16 percent CENCO and other election monitoring groups put a lot of shoes on the ground. CENCO has over 40,000 election observers throughout the country. SYMOCEL, another citizens election monitoring group, had 20,000 observers. However, by Election Day the government had accredited only 15,000. Still, SYMOCEL claims it was able to monitor about a third of Congos polling stations. Do the math, at least 55,000 Congolese election monitors were deployed. They were in position to detect major trends. (Austin Bay) January 4, 2019: Grounds for a disputed election are emerging. Any disputed outcome will quickly produce post-election violence. That happened in 2006 and 2011. If the violence spreads, the possibility of another Congo-wide civil war cannot be dismissed. As it is, the election was supposed to have occurred in late 2016 but President Joseph Kabila managed to stall elections and remain in power another two years. The constitution required he cede power but he did not. That is a major source of opposition political anger, the kind that can explode if triggered. Unfortunately, the election has produced many triggering circumstances. Lets start with the Ebola virus and the epidemic in eastern Congo. That had election consequences that benefited the Kabila candidate. The government did not allow an estimated 1.2 million people in Ebola-stricken areas to vote until March 2019. The government said the epidemic made it too dangerous for people in these areas to vote on schedule. The prohibited areas are Beni and Butembo in North Kivu province and Yumbi in Maindombe province. Yumbi only has 60,000 voters but Beni and Butembo are major population centers and were battlegrounds during the Great Congo War that put Kabila in power. All three cities and their immediate regions are opposition political strongholds. The final election results are supposed to be announced in mid-January so voters in the prohibited areas are disenfranchised. This has already triggered voters in Beni and Butembo. Local leaders called CENIs decision unjustified. Citizens in both cities reportedly opened their own polling places on December 30 and voted. They are already demanding their votes be counted. CENIs decision is already a national issue. Congo has 40 million registered voters and 1.2 million votes could make a difference in the election. Other voting irregularities occurred nation-wide that could easily affect the results. SYMOCEL monitors reported that in several places around the country where voting did take place the polls often opened late. In 24 percent of the polling places it monitored the polls closed early and voters waiting in line were not allowed to vote. In Congo that is illegal. Also, in 18 percent of the polling place monitored by SYMOCEL, the voting machines either failed to operate or malfunctioned validating another opposition political claim that the machines were unreliable (and subject to vote-rigging). On the other hand, election monitors from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) reported the election went relatively well despite the problems reported by SYMOCEL. The SADC, however, did not deploy 55,000 observers, which CENCO and SYMOCEL did. January 3, 2019: Opposition political parties continued to criticize the shutdown of Internet service that began late on the night of December 30. The shutdown has continued through today. The government now claims it shut down the Internet to prevent the dissemination of fake news. President Kabilas political party, FCC, claimed the shutdown was needed to prevent disorder. In response, several foreign NGOs demanded that internet and mobile messaging services be restored and accused the government of denying press freedom and blocking communications channels. January 1, 2019: The government cut off the signal of Radio France Internationale (RFI) which is a popular station in Congo. RFI reported that on the evening of December 31 its signal was being jammed. Transmissions by the TV station Canal Congo have also been disrupted. Canal Congo is owned by opposition politician Jean-Pierre Bemba. At one time Bemba commanded a large rebel militia group. He was recently acquitted of war crimes charges. Meanwhile, Congos internet shutdown continues. Western donor nations demanded that the Kabila controlled government restore internet access. Internet and some other communications services were cut on late on the evening of December 30. The donor nations and several NGOs also insisted Congos election monitoring organizations have access to vote counting centers. CENCO and SYMOCEL both reported their personnel were being denied access. Uganda reported that more Congolese who feared post-election violence had fled Congo and entered Uganda. The exodus began at the end of December and continues. December 31, 2018: A French court has handed over CAR (Central Africa Republic) militia leader Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona to the Hague war crimes tribunal for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was arrested in France on December 12. Ngaissona was a senior commander in anti-balaka militia attacks in 2013-2014. Zambias President Edgar Lungu has fired the Zambian Army commander and deputy commander. The reasons for the firing were vague, but Lungu insisted that the military must respect the hierarchy of power, which presumably means respecting presidential authority. Lungu was recently accused of repressing opposition political leaders and opposition political speech. He was elected in 2016. December 30, 2018: In Congo, the long-awaited national election has begun. By late evening both the government and opposition candidates claimed victory. December 29, 2018: Media in Rwanda and Congo reported that 40,000 Congolese citizens living in Rwanda will not be able to cast votes because the Congolese government has closed the border. Opposition parties immediately cited this as another blatant example of election interference committed by the increasingly unpopular Kabila government. The government also confirmed that it will not let EU (European Union) election observers monitor the election. A similar request by US-based election monitoring organization the Carter Center (named for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter) has also been denied. December 28, 2018: Burundis president Pierre Nkurunziza asked East African Community (EAC) leaders to hold an emergency summit to address the latest disagreements between Burundi and Rwanda, to include discussing the armed incidents on their borders that have occurred in the last three years. Nkurunziza claims Rwanda is meddling in Burundis domestic affairs. The Rwandan government claims Burundi is provoking Rwanda and calling for a summit is just a way for Nkurunziza to distract attention from Burundis internal problems. December 27, 2018: Several SADC (Southern African Development Community) leaders are meeting in The Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) to discuss how to deal with possible spillover conflict from Congo if the post-election violence erupts. Zambia, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa all sent senior representatives. The Congo government condemned new economic and political sanctions imposed by the EU and expelled the EU ambassador to Congo. In October Congo accused the EU of interfering in the upcoming election. December 26, 2018: Burundi announced it will move its capital from Bujumbura to Gitega. Bujumbura is located in western Burundi on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Gitega is in the central highlands (about 100 kilometers east of Bujumbura). The move will likely occur in 2019. In 2007 President Pierre Nkurunziza promised to move the capital to Gitgea because it has a more central location. December 25, 2018: Uganda reported at least 50 more people have fled Congo and apparently a lot more are on the way to Uganda. The refugees fear election-related violence. December 22, 2018: The AU has told Burundi to reduce the troops it has on peacekeeping duty in Somalia. Burundi will need to reduce their contingent by 1,000 soldiers by the end of February 2019. This is part of what the AU calls a progressive pullout from Somalia. December 20, 2018: Congo announced the December 23 election will be delayed by at least a week. CENI reported that it had not distributed voting materials to many of the 75,000 polling stations polling stations. December 17, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province), two soldiers died in a firefight with the FDLR rebels. The firefight erupted after Congolese security forces arrested two FDLR leaders northeast of the city of Goma and near the Rwandan border. FDLR was founded by Rwandan Hutus who took part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, were unable to seize power and have been on the run ever since. FDLR survives as successful bandits and generally stays out of nearby Rwanda. December 16, 2018: In Congo, at least one person was killed and 80 injured as a result of pre-election violence. For example, brawls between supporters of rival candidates erupted in the southwest Kasai region. December 14, 2018: In CAR, Catholic Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga asked for an international investigation of the November 15 attack on the CAR town of Alindao. A cathedral was burned and over 60 people slain in the attack. The cardinal believes many more were killed in the bush. The cardinal believes there is evidence the UN peacekeepers in the area did not attempt to intervene in what became a massacre. The UPC rebels, a splinter faction of the old Moslem Seleka rebel movement, is believed to have committed the atrocity. December 13, 2018: In the Congo capital (Kinshasa), a fire in a warehouse destroyed several thousand voting machines and ballot boxes. A CENI spokesman said at least 8,000 voting machines were destroyed. This could delay the December 23 election. Opposition politicians accused pro-Kabila security forces of committing arson. One critic pointed out that Kabilas presidential guard was supposedly protecting the warehouse. The UN has extended the presence of its CAR peacekeeper force to November 15, 2019. The CAR peacekeeper force is authorized 11,650 military and 2,080 police personnel. Currently, Rwanda and Pakistan provide the largest troop contingents (1,371 from Rwanda followed by Pakistan with 1,243). Egypt, Bangladesh and Zambia round out the top five with around 1,000 soldiers each. December 12, 2018: In Eastern Congo (North Kivu province), now has more than 500 confirmed Ebola virus cases. At least 289 deaths have occurred. December 11, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province), ADF rebels apparently killed nine civilians in an attack on the town of Oicha. France has given CAR government security forces 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and three amphibious vehicles. The UN exempted the French from arms embargo restrictions. CARs small army of 7,000 soldiers lacks weapons and equipment. French officials said the AK-47s were from a shipment seized in Somalia during 2016. December 10, 2018: The EU imposed new individual economic and political sanctions on 14 Congolese leaders. The sanctions include freezing assets and banning travel. They will remain in effect until December 12, 2019. December 9, 2018: Rwanda reported that at least two Rwandan soldiers have died in an attack blamed on FLDR fighters who had entered Rwanda from eastern Congo. December 7, 2018: In Congo, an Army colonel (Jean de Dieu Mambweni) has been arrested on charges related to the murder of two UN workers (Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp) in March 2017. The two victims were murdered while investigating reports of atrocities committed in the southwest Kasai region. The government initially blamed the rebel Kamuina Nsapu militia. Later the government acknowledged government security forces could have been involved. It appears they were. Prosecutors have an audio recording of the colonel speaking with the two UN investigators two days before their murder. Mambweni apparently contacted a translator who may have been in contact with the rebels. From that point, it gets murkier, but both the government and the rebels may have had a hand in the investigators murders. Meanwhile, Mambwenis defense counsel sought to have Congos interior minister at the time and pro-Kabila presidential candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary to give testimony regarding the negotiations he led with Kamuina Nsapu leaders. Apparently, Shadary did not appear in court. This arrest does not help Shadary in the upcoming presidential election. December 6, 2018: In Uganda, it was revealed that the since mid-2018 army had apparently detained six policemen and a soldier who are supporters of former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura. The seven security officers have been held since June 2018 without trial and their alleged crimes have not been announced. In August Kayihura was also arrested and charged with aiding the kidnap and repatriation of Rwandan nationals living in Uganda. He was also charged with failing to protect military property. In Rwanda, the High Court acquitted Diane Rwigara on charges of fraud and inciting insurrection. Rwigara is an outspoken Rwandan social and political reformer with presidential aspirations. Her mother, Adeline, was also acquitted of several charges, including inciting insurrection. In Burundi, the government has ordered UN investigators (of political repression and violence against government opponents) to leave the country within two months. Burundis government objects to UN reports documenting political repression and physical violence against its political opponents. December 5, 2018: Congos neighbours are worried that the election scheduled for December 23 could lead to violence. So are many Congolese. Non-Congolese militias and rebels with bases in Congo could use Congos violence as a cover for launching raids into their home countries. Or neighbouring countries could strike at the rebel camps. Examples abound. Recently Burundian security forces attacked a Burundi rebel camp in Congo. (Austin Bay) December 4, 2018: In CAR, a church in the town of Ippy was attacked by the same rebel group that burned the cathedral in Alindao on November 15. In the Alindao, an attack by UPC militiamen murdered over 60 people. December 3, 2018: In Congo, the U.S. embassy reopened after being closed since November 26 due to terrorist threats. So far the explicit threat has not been named but diplomats in the capital (Kinshasa) believe the threat was tied to the arrest of two members of the Ugandan Islamist ADF militia. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an intelligent, heartfelt and generous address to all Russians for the New Year. His words contained wisdom and original inspiration, spoken eloquently and at length, seemingly without cue cards. By contrast, US President Donald Trump gave a churlish, selfish and shallow greeting to some of his citizens, a partisan address that was replete with divisiveness, militaristic jingoism and a few token words of cheer thrown in. The two contrasting styles, and substance, say everything about the two political cultures. Russias is mature and intelligent. Americas, especially under Trump, has become openly self-centered, superficial and aggressive. For starters, Putin gave a nationwide televised address in which he spoke from the Kremlin fluently for nearly four minutes without a single word misplaced. He was speaking from outdoors as could be seen from his exhaled breath touching the frigid air. For his part, Trump didnt actually give a nationwide New Year speech. The nearest thing was a 20-second soundbite from the White House lawn in which he wished everyone to have a good party while, in self-pitying tone, he added that he would be working in the Oval Office. Later, the US president gave a phone-in interview to his favorite TV channel, Fox News, whose anchorman was reporting from reveling in New York Citys Times Square. The interview lasted for nearly nine minutes. So, we may deduce that for all those American citizens who dont tune into Fox, they didnt receive a New Year greeting from their president. Not a propitious beginning for the year ahead. Then there were the issues of style, substance and tone. Putin spoke from the heart beginning with his inclusive opening, Dear Russians, dear friends. His speech was personal, endearing and compassionate. Full of hope we eagerly await the New Year, he said with sincerity and dignity. As long as our families are gathered together our hearts are warm. He appealed for helping those in need or whom we have hurt, because no man is an island. Compassion generates kindness and brings the joy of companionship. There was no harping by the Russian president on achievements or egotistical grandstanding. Putin urged the nation to be unified and strong. It was forward-looking and optimistic, wishing everyone to pursue their dreams and, on a practical note, calling for political and economic endeavor to improve quality of life for all Russians. Cynics may say Putin was painting a rosy picture with mawkish rhetoric. But surely a leader is one who strives to uplift people and to give unity of purpose. Listening to his words, there can be little doubt that the Russian leader is committed to delivering in practical terms on making life better for Russians. Over to Trump, the style and tone could not have been more different or jarring. When he was asked by the Fox News anchor what he was doing for New Years Eve, Trump immediately plunged into his bottomless ego. Well, I am sitting at the White House talking to you as if seeking praise for appearing to be a selfless, dedicated commander-in-chief. For the next nine minutes Trump went on a rambling rant, barely able to complete his sentences. His top priorities included building the wall on the Mexican border, about the need for security against immigrants, and he just couldnt resist making jabs at Democrats and others who disagree with his politics. Trump bragged about supposed achievements, saying that he had achieved more than any other president. He crowed about supposed economic success under his administration, and seriously he claimed that he was bringing US troops home from Syria (illegally present in that country) because he had eradicated ISIS. Frankly Ive done more than I said [I would]. Not only am I able to get out [of overseas wars] but also I have won. Weve really largely eradicated ISIS. He talked about the 2020 presidential election which he said, Im gonna win big. Towards the end of his divisive, pugnacious rant, Trump did make an effort to sound inclusive, when he said he wished great wealth for our country and he talked about the American people being the big winners from his presidency. Just success, prosperity and health for our country thats all I want, concluded Trump. Well, who is painting the impossibly rosy picture here? Many reliable indicators show record numbers of American citizens suffering from in-work poverty, chronic under-employment, housing and health crises. And this president seems to have no inclination to provide practical policies for improving social conditions. His oligarch policies for enriching the super rich are delusional claims about making American great again. New Year messages are traditionally about goodwill and peace. Trumps Fox-wide address was full of militarism. He boasted about building up our great military at least five times. On the purpose of creating wealth, he didnt say it was for improving public services of health and education. Trump said: Great wealth for our country means we can do a lot more for our military. Admittedly, he did at one point say hopefully we will never have to use our military. Nevertheless, his speech was bristling with jingoism and aggression. His view of the world was typical siege mentality and threatening. Our military will be so strong we will never have to use it. Meaning: were going to contain the world under a reign of terror. Russias Putin never made a single mention of militarism in his New Year address. Even though Russia has much to be proud about from the way it defeated the US-backed terror war for regime change in Syria. Putin talked about cherishing family, friends and compatriots and working together as a nation for the collective benefit of all. Yet, Western politicians and their supine media relentless portray Russia as an aggressor nation! Trump was a demagogue on steroids who evidently had not the decorum to aspire for the greater good and peace. His speech was all me, me, me and more me. Bragging, self-indulgent, militaristic, divisive and bitter. And to cap it all, barely articulate. This tale of two New Year addresses tells you which nation has the real strength to prosper in the future. I wanted to find wild Maui, so naturally, I piled my family into a rental car for a five-hour drive on a narrow road with single-lane bridges and curves so sharp that I sometimes lost sight of the pavement and oncoming cars. Horns and brakes get a workout on this roadway. Knuckles turn white. And, still, I decided that it was our path to paradise, remote Maui where Hawaiians outnumber haoles (aka mainlanders), horses graze on oceanside pastures and the landscape drips with verdant beauty. Our destination, the tiny town of Hana, was all that. Especially the dripping part. One day, five inches of rain fell in an hour. We learned online that some sections of the highway we had braved the legendary Road to Hana had closed. I could think of worse places to be stranded. But we were on Day Three of our winter escape and had not yet seen the sun. We had swum in a pool overlooking the Pacific, strolled a black-sand beach, climbed a nearby peak and also reached for rain gear, a lot. The Seven Sacred Pools in Haleakala National Park, where we hiked on red-mud paths, appeared as one big gushing waterfall, the distinct pools drowned. Sunglasses remained tucked in our bags. The major TV news broadcasts recently covered the shocking starvation of huge numbers of Yemeni children, caused by ceaseless Saudi bombing. What was notable in the ones I saw was the lack of reference to who sold those bombs to the Saudis: the U.S. arms industry. Newspaper articles and television news sound bites depict Democratic U.S. senators and representatives saying that a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border would not work and would be a waste of taxpayer money. Republican senators and representatives are saying a wall is needed and would work. I have not seen many articles or television sound bites that state the facts behind either of those views. All we see and hear are pronouncements. So, I did my own research and learned that at least 30 other countries already have or are constructing border walls and fences to keep illegal immigrants out. There may be more, but I did find verified accounts that at least two of those countries already have proved that the walls/fences actually work. The wall between Israel and Egypt resulted in illegal crossings dropping from 391,384 in 2013 to 1,418 in 2017 (a 99 percent reduction). The wall between Hungary and Serbia resulted in illegal crossings dropping from 16,000 in one year to just 18 after the wall was built (a 99 percent reduction). If walls don't work and are a waste of money, why do at least 30 other countries already have them or are in the process of building them? If the walls don't work, why did illegal crossings drop by 99 percent with the Israel/Egypt wall and Hungary/Serbia wall? President Donald Trump campaigned on and has repeated his intention to build a wall on the border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration and drugs from coming in to our country. He also promised that Mexico would pay for it. Of course, Mexico has refused to pay a dime for a border wall. Recently, the president stated Mexico is paying for the wall through the new trade agreement. Analysis by economists and fact checkers has concluded that the deal's financial benefit to the U.S. is minimal. Truth is, the American taxpayer is being asked to pay for a wall. Many border security professionals and independent analysis have found that a wall across the border would not stop illegal immigration or drugs from entering the U.S. because most of these people and drugs are coming into the U.S. through legal ports of entry. Many cars crossing the border are not screened. Why dont border agents screen every person and vehicle at the border? Screening everyone would virtually stop commerce, crippling American businesses and the U.S. economy. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security under the current administration reported that about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in this country are people who overstayed legal visas, which has nothing to do with a border wall. Its been said the first casualty of war is the truth, and the political war over the partial government shutdown is no different. As it drags into its third week creating hardship for 800,000 federal workers, garbage pile-ups at national parks and shuttered museums President Donald Trump and his GOP enablers have pursued a cynical misinformation campaign about the issue at the center of it: Trumps demand for a wall along the Mexican border. No, illegal border crossings arent a growing crisis. No, terrorists arent flooding or even trickling over the border. No, the American people dont want this wall. These are all demonstrable falsehoods that Trump has repeated, ad nauseam, to justify the havoc his shutdown is wreaking on America. What does it say about his position that a wall of lies is needed to prop it up? Trump has shown hes willing to mislead the country on virtually any topic, but immigration has always had a central place in his tapestry of fiction. Its a topic on which he has relentlessly attempted to overwhelm facts and data with bigotry and fear. So lets get clear on some facts: Airline travel faces delays as air-traffic control staffing is pinched. According to CNN, increasing numbers of Transportation Security Administration agents are calling in sick to protest the requirement that they continue working without pay. These are just a few of the many ways the effects of the shutdown will be passed on to the American public, and when enough constituents get fed up, members of Congress will hear about it loudly and angrily. McConnell is one of 22 Senate Republicans facing re-election battles in 2020, and his role in prolonging the shutdown is likely to factor in the bid for his seat. Mitch McConnell has a problem and its Donald Trump, political analyst Mary Anne Marsh wrote on the Fox News website. A few Republicans have announced their decisions not to seek re-election, which frees them from worrying about voter backlash for abandoning Trump. There is no excuse for even a short-term, partial government shutdown, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., stated. Im not for a government shutdown under President Trump. "She is now under the sovereignty of Thailand. No one and no embassy can force her to go anywhere. We will protect her as best as we can," Hakpal told a news conference Monday. "We will talk to her and do whatever she requests. Since she escaped trouble to seek our help, we are the Land of Smiles, we will not send anyone to their death. We won't do that, we will adhere to the human rights principles under the rule of law." After meeting with Thai immigration officials and UNHCR representatives, Qunun left the hotel with UNHCR staff through the back door to avoid the waiting media outside, Hakpal told CNN. In a statement, UNHCR said it would "assess her need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation." CNN has not been able to reach Qunun's family for a response to the abuse allegations. Qunun says she arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday after a flight from Kuwait, where her family is. She told CNN she originally intended to fly on to Australia, but decided to enter Thailand instead. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Monday launched a fresh attack on the news media, writing in tweets that it consists of many "crazed lunatics," and again invoked the derogatory term "enemy of the people." "With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse," Trump said in the first of the tweets. "Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!" It was not clear what provoked Trump's broadside. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about what prompted the president's tweets. But a couple of hours later, Trump was back on Twitter, taking issue with a New York Times story that reported that his national security adviser, John Bolton, had rolled back Trump's decision to rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Bolton told reporters in Israel that American forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of the Islamic State were defeated. Neel Bhatt, a UW assistant professor of otolaryngology, specializes in treating patients with voice problems. Through his work, he began to realize people did not like the sound of their own voices. With the transition to school over Zoom, many students can relate to the discomfort of hearin Toxic lead coursed through Christopher Holland Jr.s body at two critical points in his life: as a toddler poisoned by lead paint and as a 20-year-old struck down by bullets. I saw how it affected his life with relationships, with his anger issues, always complaining that his head hurt, Christopher Holland Sr. said of the lead poisoning discovered when his son, known as Lil Chris, was 4 years old and living in north St. Louis. Lead poisoning cases have dropped dramatically since the 1990s, when Lil Chris was a child, but the problem hasnt gone away. The citys old housing stock still poses a danger to children in many neighborhoods. Last year in St. Louis, more than 2,600 children had measurable levels of lead in their blood, which can lead to stunted growth, learning disabilities, risky behavior and other health problems. There is no safe amount of lead in a body, and damage to developing brains is permanent. The main source of lead poisoning here is lead paint, banned in 1978 but too late for the nearly 90 percent of housing stock in St. Louis that was built earlier. City officials worry that demolition of old houses could reverse the years of progress in reducing lead poisoning. The renewed push to demolish vacant buildings, generally thought to be a positive step for decaying urban areas, could have unintended and long-term public health consequences. When the structures fall, heavy metals carried by dust can travel several blocks, drifting into open windows and settling into neighbors yards. Demolitions elsewhere have been blamed for a rise in lead-poisoned children, who in turn are at higher risk of criminal behavior as adults. My boys were my life Christopher Holland Sr. graduated from high school in 1988. Chris Jr. came along the next year, his brother Demontae in 1991. The family lived in a $210-a-month apartment on Ashland Avenue with those windows with the wooden frames with the paint chipping, Holland said. Even when houses are repainted, disturbing walls or opening windows can dislodge paint chips and dust to be ingested or inhaled by children. After both boys tested high for lead during a regular checkup as preschoolers, It was really tragic for me, being a young parent at that time with two kids. My boys were my life. For them to be sick like that, it was really on me, Holland said. Nearly 30 years later, old houses in St. Louis continue to poison children despite an aggressive anti-lead campaign by former Mayor Francis Slay, who vowed to eradicate lead poisoning in the city by 2010. The results of the campaign were impressive the number of elevated blood lead levels dropped from nearly 1 in 3 children in 2000 to about 1 in 50 for the last few years. But just as the city reduced its rates of lead poisoning, federal health authorities moved the goal line. In 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered the definition for potential lead poisoning from 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to 5, based on evidence that children can suffer harm from lower concentrations of lead. In 2017, there were 678 children ages 6 and younger in St. Louis with blood lead levels above 5 micrograms, and an additional 150 with a lead level above 10. State health records show 1,660 children tested at a level between 3 and 5, enough to cause developmental delays. We did a great job for 20 or 30 years, then weve kind of let our guard down, said Dr. Christina Gurnett, a Washington University pediatric neurologist. In a way its off our radar screens because the levels are so low that we cant on an individual basis detect whos being harmed by this low level of exposure. Lower concentrations of lead are more challenging to identify and treat because a child may not show immediate, obvious symptoms. And the lower the concentration in the blood, the harder it becomes to find the source of lead in the childs environment, Gurnett said. Demolitions as a health threat While living in a house with leaded paint is considered the primary pathway for lead poisoning, living near demolition sites has also been established as a risk factor. Building demolitions are known to disperse leaded dust through a neighborhood, and are blamed for a recent uptick in childhood lead poisoning in Detroit. The connection was made many years earlier in St. Louis. In 2002, the citys lead abatement teams reported to the health department that children living near demolition sites repeatedly tested high for lead. With money from the CDC, the city commissioned a study on proximity to demolition sites and lead poisoning. If you demolish an old house, you put up this cloud of dust that blows with the wind, deposits in your yard and creates a potential risk, said Felicia Rabito, an environmental epidemiologist from Tulane University and one of the authors of the study. The researchers mapped the houses of more than 10,000 children who had blood lead tests in 2001 and 2002 and the addresses of 990 demolitions completed in 2001 and 1,033 in 2002. Even when controlling for the age of houses, the team found a link between high lead levels and living within a quarter-mile of demolition sites. Tipping Point: A legacy of neglect A series looking at the consequences of decades of disinvestment in St. Louis. See all related stories at stltoday.com/tippingpoint Controlling ambient lead dust released during a demolition is important because it potentially can enter the residential environment on the soles of shoes, on the clothes of children, or through open windows and doors, thus increasing the likelihood of ingestion by children, the researchers concluded. Despite the known link between demolition dust and lead poisoning, there are no federal, state or local laws requiring the removal of lead in a building before a total demolition. Whats missing is the financial and political will to take the necessary precautions, Rabito said. There are lead-safe practices for demolitions of risky buildings, so do it, thats all were asking, she said. Its very frustrating. This stuff has been known for a really long time, and were still talking about it. I cant understand why childrens health isnt a primary priority. Best practices The safest way to demolish a house contaminated with lead is called the Baltimore protocol, named for an experiment in that city. Houses were covered in plastic before demolition and soaked down to diminish dust. The protocol worked lead in dust traveled less than 20 yards, compared to 191 yards in a dry demolition without any precautions. But across the country, and even in its namesake city, the Baltimore protocol is viewed as too costly and time-consuming. Buildings are mostly brought down under a requisite spraying of water, which still allows lead dust to settle across a 300-foot radius. Before September, St. Louis only required demolition companies to spray work sites with a hose a half measure that wasnt sufficient to reduce dust, said Patrick Brown, chief resilience officer and Mayor Lyda Krewsons senior policy adviser on vacancy and blight. Now contractors must use powerful misting fans to wet down buildings during a demolition. The city purchased two fans for about $100,000, and it rents them to contractors for $250 a day half the cost of the $500 fine for not using the fans. One contractor has been fined since the rule went into effect, Brown said. Wrapping a house in plastic before tearing it down could double the average demolition cost of $8,000 to $10,000, city officials said. The more that a demolition costs, the fewer buildings were going to be able to take down, Brown said. Brown added that city officials for the first time are having conversations about balancing the risks and rewards of demolitions to public health. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that every dollar invested in lead poisoning prevention saves $119 in tax revenue and reduced health care and legal costs. All the money and time and effort trying to reduce the blood lead levels in children, we do not want to reverse that because of demolition practice, said Frank Oswald, the citys building commissioner. St. Louis Development Corp., the citys economic development agency, is testing the alternative process of deconstruction, which takes buildings apart piece by piece to salvage materials and reduce health risks from dust and remaining debris. While the more expensive process is not financially feasible for all 12,000 city-owned vacant properties, officials are hopeful that the 30-building pilot project set for 2019 will expand. The extra costs upfront are worth it, said Roger Lewis, professor of environmental health at St. Louis University who oversees research on lead exposure. Whats the cost of the child who has developmental disabilities versus the cost of cleaning up this yard, making sure dust doesnt get in the air? Lewis asks. Its a moral question. Its an economic question. They have to find a better way of dealing with the demolition of buildings than they do now. There was lead everywhere The 20th Ward in south St. Louis, which includes the Gravois Park and Dutchtown neighborhoods, has the highest rates of lead poisoning in the city, at more than 14 percent of children. Alderman Cara Spencer attributes the high rates to a lack of renovated housing stock and a history of predatory landlords in the area. It is terrifying when your child is exposed to something that is totally irreversible, said Spencer, who encourages families in the ward to get their homes tested. Born in February 2017, Kendrick Brown was a healthy baby until he started crawling around his house on Potomac Street near Gravois Park, his mother, Kardedra Brown, said. He was barely eating. Everything slowed down for him, Brown said. When we went for his 1-year checkup, we found out that his (lead) levels were high. An initial inspection cleared the familys home for lead. But Kendricks levels kept rising until they hit 40 micrograms, requiring hospitalization for a few days last summer at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital. A second inspection found the home was contaminated. There was lead on the stairs, in my room, downstairs in the kitchen. There was lead everywhere, Brown said. Kendricks lead levels, now tested every month, have dropped to 24 micrograms but are still too high. He takes iron supplements to help his body absorb nutrients, but his appetite hasnt returned. The family has had to move a few times after Browns fathers house in the city also tested high for lead. The toddler goes to follow-up appointments at Cardinal Glennons Knights of Columbus Developmental Center and so far is hitting milestones on time. Brown said she has other family members who have experienced learning delays after lead poisoning. It scares me to see that happen to him, she said. Its hard, and its frustrating because we dont have anywhere stable to go right now. Were still jumping from house to house. Links to crime The citys high rates of gun violence, opioid overdoses and sexually transmitted diseases all get more media attention. But a growing body of evidence, including research from St. Louis University, hints that some of those problems likely started with lead-poisoned babies. Lead, a neurotoxin, disrupts and damages the area of the brain that controls behavior, reasoning and intelligence. The toxin can cross the placental barrier, damaging the nervous system of a developing fetus. Exposure to lead in utero or in early childhood raises the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, lowered IQ and learning disabilities. While no one has tracked lead-poisoned children in St. Louis over time, the long-term Cincinnati Lead Study found that children with high blood levels had higher arrest rates as adults. In Detroit, researchers found that lead-poisoned children were seven times more likely to drop out of high school. There is a fairly strong and consistent correlation between lead exposure and a variety of social issues and social problems, said Brian Boutwell, a criminologist at SLU. Nationwide, a decades-long decline in violent crime has been attributed in part to the removal of lead from gasoline and paint in the 1970s. Locally, SLUs research has shown a correlation between crime rates and lead exposure in St. Louis neighborhoods, even when controlling for socioeconomic factors. There was quite a bit of progress made in removing lead from gasoline and pipes and paint, but there are still places like St. Louis where exposure levels are high, Boutwell said. When you have aging houses that begin to decay, it is still a great benefit to society to remove those heavy metal toxins. A shortened, lead-poisoned life It took a couple of years for Christopher Holland Sr. to save up enough money to move out of the lead-tainted apartment on Ashland Avenue. After the family got out, they sued their landlord in 1995 for failing to resolve the lead contamination. Lil Chris, whose blood lead level was higher than his brother Demontaes, was awarded an $85,000 settlement to be paid in $5,000 annual installments after the boy turned 18, court records show. He received two payments before dying in 2010 at age 20 when a man he tried to rob on a Hazelwood street killed him in self-defense. Hazelwood police at the time said the shooting was justified, that Lil Chris died with his finger on the trigger of a .38-caliber revolver. He had two bullet wounds, one in his side and one in his back. His father paid the funeral expenses with the $18,000 left from the lead poisoning settlement after taking a penalty for cashing out early. Holland Sr. remembers Lil Chris as quick to get mad all the time. Demontae has problems with coping with life, too, impulse control and decision-making. A lot of that, I know it comes from lead. The fathers discussions with his children always involve making better choices, talking out their problems or walking away and controlling their anger, he said. When your kid hurts, you hurt, and Im like that, Holland said. I know I cant keep you from bumping your head and making mistakes, but Im trying my damndest to try to stop you from making mistakes. Holland knows he couldnt stop the boys from being poisoned, and it haunts him, wondering how different their lives could have been. Janelle ODea, Post-Dispatch data specialist and reporter, and Andrew Nguyen, newsroom developer, produced the accompanying graphics. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BRIDGETON Residents will have the chance to respond Monday to a report outlining the health risks from the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill. State health officials will host a public meeting from 5 to 8:30 p.m. to answer questions and take comments. Fumes from the landfill may have caused breathing problems in nearby residents in recent years, according to the Bridgeton Public Health Consultation released in September by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The report covers air monitoring data collected near the landfill from 2013 to 2016 by state and federal agencies. An underground fire was detected at the landfill in 2010. The smoldering released "sulfur-based compounds" into the air, which could have aggravated asthma or lung disease and caused difficulty breathing, headaches, nausea or fatigue, the report says. Exposure to the landfill also could have increased stress among residents, the report found. Remedial work at the landfill has now reduced emissions to levels that are unlikely to harm most people, according to state health officials. Mayor Lyda Krewson says her office will investigate a city jobs agency amid reports of financial mismanagement. The announcement came after a KMOV (Channel 4) report last week featuring anonymous current and former employees of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment better known as SLATE alleging misspending of grant money, poor oversight over payroll and a hostile work environment. Krewson said officials will also ask Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway to move up the audit of SLATE, as the auditors office continues its overview of city finances. We also, of course, are looking into it ourselves, but we know an independent investigation is more reliable, Krewson said. Galloway spokeswoman Steph Deidrick said the review of SLATE will begin this year. As with any audit, we will consider alleged misuse of public dollars, Deidrick said. Krewson addressed the matter at a news conference Thursday highlighting accomplishments of 2018 among them, SLATEs helping more than 9,000 St. Louisans find employment. Community organizations will also receive training in at least three sessions. The district will send home information with students and prepare a video explaining the process no later than Feb. 1. The board of elections will send out sample ballots to registered voters, train polling place personnel and assign a program coordinator to respond to voters questions and concerns. The training materials will describe the process as follows: In cumulative voting, voters cast as many votes as there are seats. You can give more than one vote to a single candidate. For instance, there are two seats open in this board election. You can cast both your votes for one candidate or one vote each to two different candidates. Eric Fey, Democratic director of elections at the election board, said that the proposal has been approved by U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel. The original lawsuit said that black residents were underrepresented in a district where nearly 80 percent of students are black. CLAYTON A St. Louis County doctor Monday admitted sexually abusing women at pain clinics in 2017 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation. Circuit Judge David L. Vincent III sentenced Abhishek Jain, 40, after Jain pleaded guilty to two felony counts of second-degree sodomy and two misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse. The sentence was part of plea deal between prosecutors and the defense. Jain, who is originally from India, will surrender his medical license and voluntarily leave the United States instead of being deported, his lawyer Joel Schwartz said Monday. We believe this was a fair outcome for all parties involved, Schwartz said. At the time of his charges in December 2017, Jain had a license to practice but was under probation because of past troubles in three other states. Jain worked at Interventional Pain Management Services, with offices at 5000 Cedar Plaza Parkway in unincorporated St. Louis County and at 261 Dunn Road in Florissant. Charges said two incidents of sex abuse were in October 2017: A woman, 60, said Jain groped her breasts during an exam for chronic pain, and another woman, 61, told police Jain groped her. A message from David Nicklaus Want to stay smart about what's happening in St. Louis? Make a modest investment in a Post-Dispatch subscription and I'll tell you how developments around the world affect local businesses big and small. Intro subscription rate: Just $1 for 6 months Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JEFFERSON CITY In one of his first acts as attorney general, Republican Eric Schmitt on Monday lent his offices support to a man trying to end the practice of modern-day debtors prisons in Missouri. Schmitt, the former state treasurer who was sworn into his new job last week, filed a brief in the Supreme Court of Missouri on behalf of George Richey, of Appleton City, Mo., saying counties do not have the authority to classify jail debts as court costs or fines. Courts should not be using the threat of jail time to generate funds for bloated big government budgets when other means of collection exist, Schmitt said. De facto debtors prisons have no place in Missouri, and I am proud to stand up against a system that seeks to treat its poorer citizens as ATMs. The issue of imprisoning people when they cannot pay their jail fees has been highlighted in recent months by St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger. In the brief, Schmitt notes a series of columns outlining the problems that jail time has caused people throughout rural Missouri. A St. Louis man has been charged with robbing gas stations in Ladue and Richmond Heights on New Year's Day. Zhadi Hervey, 19, allegedly was a part of a group who held up three businesses at gunpoint that day: the BP at 814 South Lindbergh Boulevard in Ladue, the Phillips 66 at 2200 South Big Bend Boulevard in Richmond Heights and the In and Out Market at 1133 Bellevue Avenue in Richmond Heights. He allegedly stole items including lottery tickets, cash, cigarillos and beer, while at least one other robber held a store clerk at gunpoint, according to charges filed Saturday. The documents say Hervey, of the 2600 block of Hereford Street in St. Louis, used a car during the robberies that was registered to someone in his family. The owner of the In and Out Market told Fox 2 News that one of the robbers said he was 19 and repeatedly said he was "sorry" and that he didn't "want to do this." Hervey faces three counts of first-degree robbery and three counts of armed criminal action. Bond was set at $150,000. His mug shot was not immediately available and it was unclear if anyone else had been charged in connection with the robberies. A message from David Nicklaus Want to stay smart about what's happening in St. Louis? Make a modest investment in a Post-Dispatch subscription and I'll tell you how developments around the world affect local businesses big and small. Intro subscription rate: Just $1 for 6 months Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WENTZVILLE A suspected robber was anything but stealthy Wednesday when he was caught sitting on the curb of the Wentzville police station with $100 bills in his pocket after a credit union robbery across the street, police say. Police say Karsten Hardeman, 20, of Dayton, Ohio, was spotted just before 5 p.m., shortly after 1st Financial Federal Credit Union at 1232 Wentzville Parkway reported a man had taken cash and ran , according to Wentzville police. The credit union can be seen from the police station. An officer in the station decided to respond to the robbery on foot Wednesday, but when he opened the station door he immediately spotted a man matching the description of the robber, police said. The officer approached and ordered Hardeman, 20, to show his hands, causing several $100 bills to fall out of a sweatshirt pocket, according to police. I have no idea what he was thinking or why he decided that would be a good place to go, Officer Jacob Schmidt said. Hardeman had been released from the jail inside the police station just 50 minutes before the robbery. He had been taken into custody at a towing company and charged with a misdemeanor drug offense. Ruth Laws was struggling financially even before her two granddaughters were orphaned by the murder of an Olivette couple a month ago. She was devastated by the unsolved murders of Michele Laws, 43, and her boyfriend, Igor Zhukov, 47, but crime victims and their families dont just face emotional challenges. Ruth Laws, 75 and legally blind, already had custody of her grandchildren, 9 and 13, but now must raise them without help from their parents. And she needed to pay for her daughters funeral. For assistance, Laws has turned to the states Crime Victims Compensation Program, which may cover as much as $5,000 for her daughters funeral. Zhukovs family is doing the same. It would be nice to get some help with the finances, Laws said. Im very grateful that this is available for victims. It helps with the funerals. If any money is left over, it can help with the welfare of the children. All of this is extra in our life that we didnt program our lives for. A new law meant to make it easier for Missouri crime victims to get help from the fund appears to be working for people like Laws, advocates say. Missouris Crime Victims Compensation Program was set up to help pay for things like medical and counseling expenses for the survivors of crime or up to $5,000 for funeral expenses for murder victims. It will also cover lost wages for a period of time. Fines from state and federal offenders pay for the program, which is run by the state Department of Public Safety. Of 1,700 applications last fiscal year, Missouri approved 892 and issued more than $5.1 million, according to Mike OConnell, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. Victims can get a maximum of $25,000 for eligible crime-related expenses, though the money only covers costs not covered by insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, restitution and civil suits. Fewer hoops A few months after the legislative overhaul of the program, it is noticeably easier for victims to request aid, Katie Dalton recently told the Associated Press. Dalton volunteers and is director of programs at the Crime Victim Center, a St. Louis group that helps victims apply for such aid. The fund formerly came with significant red tape, she said. The hoops victims had to jump through, on top of the trauma of dwelling on the crimes, sometimes led them to drop their applications. Theyll get frustrated and they get confused by all the different people calling them and what they need, Dalton told the Associated Press. So they either get denied because they stopped contacting Crime Victims Compensation or because theyve then said, Im done, I dont want to complete this form. Cemeteries and funeral homes sometimes offer to pursue the funds, with mixed results. Some have learned after the funeral bills come due that paperwork was never submitted and deadlines have passed. Before the changes took effect in August, victims had to submit a notarized application to receive aid. Theyd need to send in official documents and medical paperwork by mail, and hospitals and other physicians were not allowed to do so on their behalf. Furthermore, they were required to report crimes to police within 48 hours and to cooperate with prosecutions that might not occur until years later. It could take as long as six months for victims to receive financial help, but Dalton said the revamped process has already shaved off time and made it easier for applicants to follow through on their requests. The law also expanded eligibility, according to Colleen Coble, CEO of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Previously, those with recent, serious felony records could be denied aid, she said. Not everyone had problems under the old system. Maria Miller, 41, of Maryland Heights, was able to get money from the program to help pay for the burial of her son, Courtney Williams, 21, of Jennings. Williams was shot in the head while driving on Dec. 24, 2014. A funeral home helped Maria Miller fill out the paperwork. The fund helped pay for her sons funeral and headstone, and she received some grief counseling. That money came back right on time, she said. It took a huge burden off of me, Miller said. But her own mother struggled getting help after two other murders in the extended family the same year. Gloria Miller, 58, of Pagedale, said she hoped to get help burying her son, Harrol Berry, 23, after he was found shot to death in St. Louis on Nov. 25, 2014. Her window to apply for funds expired. She says a cemetery employee offered to fill out the paperwork for her but failed to do it. She learned too late that the application had never been submitted. She took two jobs and was able to save enough for a marker for Berry. She is still saving to pay for a marker for another son, who was killed in prison by other inmates while serving life sentences for murder. Families of people victimized while in prison werent eligible for aid previously and arent under the changed law. Meanwhile, Laws is hoping to get help more quickly and with fewer headaches than some in the past. After the death of her daughter in the double homicide, Laws called the Crime Victims Compensation Program and explained her situation. She was quickly emailed forms to fill out and got someone to help her with them. I was grateful for that, she said. I hated that I am eligible for this. I hate that I am a crime victim and that I would be eligible for such a benefit. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A message from David Nicklaus Want to stay smart about what's happening in St. Louis? Make a modest investment in a Post-Dispatch subscription and I'll tell you how developments around the world affect local businesses big and small. Intro subscription rate: Just $1 for 6 months Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. UPDATED at 9:28 a.m. with name of victim ST. LOUIS A man who was shot Sunday afternoon during an argument has died, police said. Police on Monday identified the dead man as Vincent Martin Sanders, 35, of the 3500 block of Minnesota Avenue. They also said the man suspected of shooting Sanders is 42, but did not say whether he was in custody or whether the men knew each other before the fatal argument. At least three witnesses told police the victim had been arguing with another man about 3:30 p.m., according to St. Louis Police Lt. Ken Lammert. They were on the sidewalk of Chippewa Street, about 20 yards west of the Moto Mart on Jefferson Avenue. The argument escalated when the Sanders punched the other man, who took out a handgun and shot him once in the chest. The shooter ran south on Texas Street and was at large on Sunday. Sanders ran around a Regions Bank branch and collapsed outside. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died. Police were hoping to review surveillance tapes from the mart. It was not immediately clear Monday what the tapes showed. People scrambled across the Mississippi on Feb. 7, 1936, at Gasconade Street in south St. Louis and, a few days later, near the Municipal (now MacArthur) Bridge downtown. Researchers have identified racial differences in a key biomarker used to identify Alzheimers disease, leading to concerns that the disease may be under-recognized in African-Americans. The findings from the small study at Washington University School of Medicine were published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Neurology. The differences involve one of two proteins in the brain that are linked to Alzheimers disease: amyloid beta and tau. The study showed that African-Americans had significantly lower levels of tau than Caucasians; but they were just as likely to be cognitively impaired. Researchers analyzed data from 1,215 people, of whom 173 were African-American. The participants average age was 71. One-third had mild dementia due to Alzheimers, while the rest showed no signs of memory loss. All the participants underwent at least one test for Alzheimers: a PET scan to detect plaques of amyloid beta, an MRI scan for signs of brain shrinkage, or a spinal tap to measure amyloid and tau. Analysis of the PET and MRI scans showed no significant differences between races; but samples of spinal fluid revealed African-Americans had significantly lower levels of tau, according to a news release from the university. More than a century and a half after Mormons fled conflicts in the Midwest to settle in Utah, some members of fundamentalist sects that practice polygamy have established a community in southwest Missouri. A joint report from The Salt Lake Tribune and The Guardian US explores "The Ranch," as the community is known by residents. One of the founders said he heard a voice from God in the mountains of Utah 35 years ago that told him to go to Missouri and buy a farm, according to the report. They ended up with a 600-acre property northwest of Springfield. Outsiders refer to the community as "The Compound," but residents say it's a place where they can live without conflicts with others or among themselves. Romania's President is the one to go to the European Council meetings, while for new proposals a mandate is needed from the Legislature, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster on Sunday evening. Asked who represents Romania in the Council meetings, Melescanu said: "The technical answer is given by two decisions of the Constitutional Court, since the mandate of President Traian Basescu, when it was decided, (...), two decisions of the Constitutional Court according to which Romania's President goes to the European Council meetings. In case there are economic or financial matters, the Prime Minister can go. In both cases, however, there must be a mandate from Parliament when proposals or new stands in Romania's foreign policy exist." The Romanian chief diplomat said that "the institution truly committing Romania in terms of foreign policy is Romania's Parliament, where by presenting the governance programme the proposals and action directions of Romania in relation with the European Union are adopted."Asked about the internal tensions during Romania's presidency of the Council of the EU, Melescanu said that there is a proposal according to which such disputes mustn't become a topic connected to the role Romania will play at the Council of the EU."In the latest negotiations, political consultations that took place last year, [Senate] President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu made a proposal on accepting a moratorium during the presidency, when internal disputes that come up shouldn't become topics of Romania's presence as president of the Council of the European Union," Melescanu said. Minister Delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba will attend on Tuesday the meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC), with Romania's list of priorities while holding the helm of the EU Council topping the event's agenda. "Tomorrow I'll attend the General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels chaired by Romania. This is also the first ministerial meeting chaired by our country. (...) The first topic will be the presentation of priorities, the second will be the multi-annual financial framework, a subject I suggest that we approach constantly. It will be on the agenda of all the meetings at my level. It will also be discussed at technical level, and we will prepare the ground for a political discussion at the time we consider it can garner consensus among the various institutional actors and the various member countries," Ciamba emphasized. The Minister Delegate for European Affairs said that one of the topics at the GAC meeting will be the combat of misinformation. Read also: #Romania2019.eu/Ciamba: Budget allocated to Romanian Presidency between 60 and 80 ml euro, precise figure to be known at end of term "To us, it is important to protect the European Parliament elections from any kind of outside interference and I think that a European debate on misinformation and cyber attacks is very important, for us to look at how this kind of action may disturb or sometimes even destabilize electoral processes, it is better to do it before than at the moment they occur," added the Minister Delegate for European Affairs. AGERPRES . The precise budget allocated to the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be known only at the end of the term, however, it stands between 60 and 80 million euro, Minister Delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba told a press conference on Monday. Ciamba added that many of the events organized during Romania's EU Presidency "will seek to highlight the country's pros, the comparative edge of Romania". "We will know the allocated budget only at the end of the term, it stands between 60 and 80 million euro. It is a rational budget, considering that this is the first time we hold the Presidency and also taking into account the size of our country. It is also a rational budget when referenced to the ambitious agenda we envisage, the number of meetings [planned] at various levels is more ambitious than the previous Presidency," Ciamba said. He added that Romania will host 288 meetings, most of them in Bucharest, but also in the cities of Iasi, Sibiu, Cluj, Constanta, Brasov or Alba Iulia. Ciamba said that, among others, 22 informal ministers' meetings will be held in Brussels, as well as 1,677 technical group meetings. The EU Affairs Minister also spoke about the expenses incurred by Romania's holding the EU helm, "which are shared among the institutions responsible for preparing and implementing Romania's term at the Presidency at the Council of the European Union". Read also: Romania, interested in transposing Black Sea-Caspian Sea Freight Corridor into reality "The procurement process for the goods and services required for the smooth unfolding of the events was carried out using the customary instruments, there is no special instrument at hand for the Presidency," Ciamba said. AGERPRES . Romania is interested in transposing the Black Sea-Caspian Sea Freight Corridor into reality, Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Melescanu said on Monday upon welcoming Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Romania Shohrat Jumayev, who is on a farewell visit, according to a press release issued by the Foreign Ministry (MAE). The Romanian dignitary congratulated the ambassador for the successful accomplishment of his mandate in Romania for over eight years and for his good command of the Romanian language, pointing out that through his activity he contributed to the development and boost of the bilateral relationship on multiple levels, stressing that Turkmenistan continues to be an important partner of Romania in Central Asia. The Romanian minister also stressed the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation between Romania and Turkmenistan in connectivity, including by capitalizing on existing regional opportunities. Read also: Rovana Plumb and Eugen Teodorovici - proposed as interims at Transport and Regional Development ministries The head of the Romanian diplomacy welcomed the Turkmen youngsters' interest in choosing Romanian higher education institutions for their professional training, showing that there is already a tradition of cooperation in this field, consolidated also by the contribution of the Turkmen ambassador. AGERPRES . Romanian citizens have the right to benefit from a fair justice, an autonomous justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Melescanu told Digi 24 private television channel on Sunday evening, also underscoring that "Romania comes second by the number of complaints filed with the European Court of Human Rights, after the Russian Federation." "Romanian citizens have the right to benefit from a fair justice, an autonomous justice, and also, as much as possible, to benefit from even more than the legal norms in Romania, which is precisely what we are trying to do during this time with the modifications that we are trying to bring to certain normative acts, and we also need to consider that fact that, right now, Romania comes second by the number of complaints filed with the ECHR, after the Russian Federation, which proves that we also need to consider the provisions of the international treaties such as the European Convention of Human Rights when making decisions at justice level," said the head of diplomacy. He also spoke about the message sent to Romania by the leader of ALDE in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, on the occasion of the taking over by Romania of the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, and described the message as "an encouraging one.""In the second half of his speech, he also makes very clear references about the rule of law in Romania, the need to modify the provisions of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code, including such provisions that refer to the law regarding the activity of the non-governmental and the other organisations. I assure you that ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats) will clearly adopt these ideas, considering also the fact that Romania needs a functional rule of law right now, based on compliance with the laws adopted by Parliament, and not based on protocols, and trials, which for some bring convictions and for others acquittals, while evidence is missing in both cases," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.He also added that the leader of ALDE in Romania, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, was 'among those who were very loud when it came to the need of strengthening rule of law in Romania, justice independence and ensuring the best functioning of justice, so that the citizens will trust justice again."The leader of ALDE in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt also wished Romania good luck at the presidency of the Council of the European Union "during critical times," when several legislative negotiations must be brought to an end before the European elections.In his message on Thursday on his official Facebook page, Verhofstadt also refers to the government's commitments and the place of Romanian Liberals in the European ALDE family."Romania takes over the presidency of the European Union in a critical time, when there are several such legislative negotiations that need to be brought to an end before the European elections. I wish them good luck. At the same time, the government needs to meets its commitments related to the rule of law: reform of justice, criminal code and the law on NGOs must reflect all the recommendations made by the Venice Commission and they must be assessed by this organism before coming into force. The Romanian Liberals promised to follow this path and we expect them to do it. If they do this, they will have their well deserved place in the ALDE family. If they don't, they won't," said Verhofstadt. Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster on Sunday that Romania and Bulgaria will most likely join the Schengen area at the same time. "Romania and Bulgaria are syamese brothers, if you allow me. (...) We have joint the EU together, we have received together the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, we were both proposed to have an admission into Schengen process. Think how could a border between 700 and 1,000 km long, the Danube, where Romania would be outside Schengen and Bulgaria would be inside Schengen, could work. There are things that from a practical point of view, from my point of view and from a technical point of view, cannot function," the Romanian Foreign Minister said. He added that Romania meets the technical requirements for this goal."As a political message, I believe we must very clearly follow the idea that the access to the Schengen area is a matter related to observing some technical norms which Romania has been observing and we want to see why, what are the reasons for which it wasn't allowed," Teodor Melescanu also said. A Charlotte woman was killed in Iredell County Sunday morning when she was struck by a Jeep while walking alongside a road, officials said. Iredell County EMS responded to N.C. Highway 150 at the Iredell County border with Rowan County, east of Mooresville, around 6:30 a.m. According to N.C. Highway Patrol Sgt. Ed Shelton, the woman, Jocelyn Liz Caballero, was walking west along the road with another person. Its not known why the two were walking near the highway. A Jeep Cherokee driven by Jose Guadalupe Garcia of Salisbury was headed in the same direction, Shelton said. The front of the Jeep struck Caballero, 31, Shelton said. The other pedestrian was not hit. The road was dark and there was no lighting, the highway patrol said. Caballero and the unnamed pedestrian were not wearing bright clothes, Shelton added. Garcia, 56, wasnt hurt in the crash. Shelton said that Garcia was not speeding and that the investigation is ongoing. Garcia is not facing charges at this time. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Nebraska's current tax break for retired veterans, passed in 2014, met immediate criticism that it was too little, too confusing and excluded too many military retirees. The state has sought, in recent years, better incentives for retired military members to remain in or relocate to Nebraska, particularly those with high-tech experience who worked at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. The current tax break applies only to veterans who retired after July 18, 2012, and required veterans to choose, within two years of leaving the military, whether to immediately take an income tax break that lasted for seven years, or wait until age 67 to tax a break that lasted for the rest of their lives. The immediate tax break reduced the taxable portion of a military pension by 40 percent; the later tax break provided a 15 percent reduction for life. Under Ricketts' new proposal, all retired veterans, National Guard members and military reservists would be allowed a 50 percent reduction in the taxable portion of their pension. "What this does, it makes it easy," the governor said. It also eliminates what Ricketts called "the injustice" of excluding many veterans who retired prior to mid-2012. During his trial in August 2014, he spoke about how he and his wife, Maureen, were living apart he was staying with his pastor in the church rectory and she was living in their Henrico County home. He also testified about how years earlier, he had thought that "maybe this was the end of our marriage." KIGALI, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda Development Board (RDB) on Sunday met with a delegation of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba in Rwandan capital Kigali, discussing more agro-products exports to China. RDB and Alibaba seek to support Rwandan entrepreneurs to export more agro-products such as beef, crayfish, avocado, chili pepper, French bean, tree tomato, and other fruits and vegetables to China, by providing necessary infrastructure to boost agro-processing, lowering the cost of air-freight transport, providing more trainings to Rwandan entrepreneurs to enable them trade more product volumes and other ways, said a statement released by RDB. China presents a huge market for Rwanda, with its big population and increasing spending power, RDB CEO Claire Akamanzi said in the statement. RDB is exploring "unique and big" opportunities" of the Chinese market, she added. The delegation was in the central African country for the past week, meeting different government officials and private sector people, according to RDB. The visit was the follow-up of an Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) agreement signed in October between the Rwandan government and Alibaba. The signing makes Rwanda the first African country that launches eWTP, proposed by Alibaba's Jack Ma with aims to promote public-private dialogue to foster a more effective and efficient policy and business environment to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in cross-border electronic trade. [ Editor: WPY ] Ogden jazz icon Joe McQueen may be gone, but his memory and legacy live on. One physical reminder of his life, McQueen's lifelong home at 3158 Grant Ave., has now become available for sale. The house received extensive remodeling, but as investor Richard Casperson has said, "Joe's energy is J anuary is the month for self-improvement, which is why the arrival of Tel Avivs favourite co-learning space, Jolt, is aptly timed. Jolt was founded back in 2015 by CEO Roei Deutsch as a marketplace for lectures. However, the start-up launched its first campus last year, offering regular study programs, and after raising $7.15m in Series A funding, is now bringing this offering to London. The start-up works like a gym, but for your mind. Sign up via the app, pay a subscription fee and gain access to different classes that promise to help you future-proof your career, at Jolts Liverpool Street campus. A monthly membership costs 100 a month, whereas an annual membership works out at around 80 a month and includes two extra classes a month. The first set of talks and sessions include Instagram marketing classes from ex-Google employee and founder of the Rising Tide Society, Natalie Frank. A former VP of product at Netflix, Gibson Biddle, will be teaching you how to make wicked hard product decisions. Different topics require different class lengths: some work as 90-minute one-off sessions, others are three-hour workshops or mini-courses of up to four sessions. Classes run through Sunday to Thursday at different times of the day, though a lot of the London sessions appear to be in the evening at the moment so it can fit around working hours. Scroll through the app to find a class that youre interested in. Then join a group of 13 other students in the campus, in rooms specifically designed for productivity and focus, where the instructors will join remotely from anywhere in the world via Jolts Eyelevel video conference system. Jolt says over 1,000 people applied in the pre-launch registration phase to be approved for the first January batch of 100 seats. Multiple classes will run throughout the year so if you missed a specific session the first time around, there should be another opportunity again. The start-up plans to open a second campus in Soho in the summer to offer even more chances to learn. The launch of Jolt taps into two New Years resolutions: gain a hobby outside of work and improve your career prospects by gaining new skills. Having a hobby has been shown to help you perform better in the office, with lower chance of burnout, and in the age of automation, upskilling yourself has become a pressing issue. Members will also benefit from having access to Jolts wider network, offering countless networking opportunities. Discussing the first London campus launch, Jolts UK regional director, Dion McKenzie, said: Traditional learning methods are failing to meet consumer demands for ongoing and constant learning that benefits you both personally and in a professional capacity. "Whether were improving peoples understanding of their own career path and interests, simply teaching a new skill or refining a targeted approach to learning, Jolt offers an environment where people can learn from world class experts in a tailored way and get feedback from peers allowing them to build a valuable professional network outside of work. If you want to try out Jolts services before committing, the start-up is holding an event in Shoreditch this Wednesday named The Future-Proof Festival, offering a masterclass on personal branding, a talk from author and podcaster Emma Gannon, and the chance to have your CV personally reviewed. A "walking" car with wheels on stilts, a vending machine baking fresh bread and a robot to help empty-nesters feel less lonely were among the first gadgets to be unveiled at the worlds biggest technology show in Las Vegas. The five-day CES consumer electronics showcase, which attracted more than 182,000 visitors last year, gives views to the future as envisaged by tech giants and start-ups alike. Major trends this year include the next generation of driverless vehicles, wearable health gadgets, ultra-high-definition 8K televisions and devices controlled by digital assistants from the likes of Amazon and Google. Today Hyundai is due to unveil its Elevate concept walking car with wheels mounted on four legs to help first aid teams climb over rubble in disaster zones. Drone firm DJI will be showing the Mavic 2 Pro, which has a Hasselblad camera capable of capturing 20-mega-pixel photographs and 4K video. The BreadBot, an autonomous vending machine that can mix, prove and bake fresh bloomers, to be delivered at the push of a button, will also be previewed. There is a notable shift towards pint-sized technological companions to keep people company. One of the most adorable droids is Lovot, a fluffy wide-eyed robot powered by artificial intelligence meant as an enthusiastic puppy-like companion on wheels. Its Japanese designers created it in a bid to cure loneliness. A-droid-able: the Lovot was created by inventors at Groove X to help cure loneliness Ryutao Murayama, of Tokyo-based inventors Groove X, said: We created a hi-tech solution to help people who are lonely. Another digital helper, Somnox, is a 500 pillow-like sleeping robot that users hug to help them fall asleep as they feel it breathe in their arms. Cycle tech on show includes the BSafe inflatable crash vest that looks like a life jacket and is packed with sensors that trigger a wearable airbag to blow up and cushion the rider if they fall off. Another potentially life-saving health tech device for the road is smart glasses by start-up Ellcie that can tell if the wearer is about to fall asleep at the wheel. Sensors help detect how much the person is blinking, nodding their head or yawning to assess alertness. The convention is one of the biggest dates in the tech industry calendar, where gadgets are unveiled alongside discussions around key subjects such as AI, robotics and autonomous vehicles. Around 4,500 companies will descend on the city, focused on nearly three million sqft of exhibition space spread across 11 venues. S tar Trek and Doctor Who actor William Morgan Sheppard has died aged 86. The British actor died in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to son Mark, who is also an actor and shared the screen with his father multiple times. Mr Sheppard was best-known for his work in Star Trek over the years, playing four different roles. He played a Rura Penth commandant in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Ira Graves in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Schizoid Man and a Qatai in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Bliss. His last appearance was as the Vulcan Science Council minister in the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie. Mr Sheppard graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1958 before working with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 12 years. He also appeared in the Doctor Who Season Six episode The Impossible Astronaut. Son Mark paid tribute to the actor in a post on Instagram. He said: We went to spend some time with my father today. Though he couldnt speak, we held hands, he laughed and was so happy to see us. We left and came home. A good day. He was rushed to hospital and passed at 6:30pm, my mother by his side. O livia Colman proved every bit a humble hero as she candidly accepted the award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy at the 2019 Golden Globes. The actress, who bagged the gong for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, couldnt stop smiling as she embraced her crowning moment with a very British speech. Colman, 44, opened with Cor blimey, before later referring to her co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as ma b****** and thanking director Yorgos Lanthimos. She also recalled noteworthy experiences during filming for the drama, including travelling on a private jet. She then melted hearts, appearing to be in disbelief, as she told husband Ed Sinclair and children Hall, 12, and Finn, 14, to look at her on stage. In character: Olivia Colman as Queen Anne in The Favourite Here is her speech in full: Cor blimey, thank you so much. I'm not going to cry because my entire table will point and laugh at me as I've been crying all evening. Stars dazzle at the Golden Globes Yorgos, thank you the most muchly and ma b******, Emma and Rachel, thank you, every second of working with you was such a joy and I was so sad that it finished. "I would like to tell you how much this film meant to me but I can't think of it because I'm too excited. "I went on a private jet and I ate constantly through the film and it was brilliant and I promise I will keep on enjoying this, because it's amazing. "Ed and the kids, look! Yay!" They turned on its ear the common wisdom that we had tapped all the oil there was to get and that prices were bound to continue escalating. Oil prices plummeted, from an average of more than $100 a barrel in Mr. Obamas presidency to $45.41 as 2018 drew to a close. S andra Oh may have made history at the Golden Globes but it was her parents who stole the show. Oh was awarded the Best Actress gong for her role as assassin-hunting spy Eve Polastri in hit drama Killing Eve. The 47-year-old, who hosted the show with Andy Samberg, fought back tears as she took to the stage to dedicate the award to her mother and father. There are two people here tonight that I am so grateful that they are here with me. Id like to thank my mother, my father, Oh said before stepping aside to bow and address them in Korean. Mum, Dad, I love you, she said. Proud parents: Sandra Oh's mother and father were on hand to celebrate her win / NBC The camera cut to her proud parents applauding, leaving fans in tears. One posted: Sandra Ohs father applauding her win just ENDED ME <3. Another tweeted: He made me cry so sweet. So much love!! A third wrote: ITS ALL JUST SO, SO PRECIOUS. Stars dazzle at the Golden Globes Big Little Lies actress Reese Witherspoon also praised Oh and her parents, tweeting: So happy for you @IamSandraOh and for your cute mom& dad #GoldenGlobes2019!! Your performance in @KillingEve is incredible!! Speaking backstage Oh added: For Asian kids, to make, our parents happy is so fulfilling. My parents are amazing and amazing people and Internet sensations. Theyre just so happy. Oh kept fans up-to-date with her parents outing to the 76th annual awards ceremony, posting a picture of the pair backstage with her best friend. Proud: Sandra Oh's parents supported her at the ceremony / Instagram/ Sandra Oh She captioned the shot: Goodfellas style - mom & dad go through the kitchen @goldenglobes W/ my BFF Margo. Oh beat Caitriona Balfe, Elisabeth Moss, Julia Roberts and Keri Russell to take the Best Drama Actress in a Television Series on Sunday night. She made history after becoming the first Asian woman to win an award at the same ceremony she was hosting. She is not the first Asian actress to win in her category after Japanese star Yoko Shimada was honoured for Shogun in 1981. A wards season wouldnt be awards season without an awkward snub, and the Golden Globes more than delivered when Nicole Kidman appeared to reject Rami Malek. Kidman was onstage to present Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody with the Best Picture gong after it fought off competition from Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, If Beale Street Could Talk and A Star Is Born at Sunday nights ceremony. But Kidman didnt seem too keen on congratulating Malek, who plays the late Freddie Mercury, and turned away from him as he attempted to go in for a hug. Malek, 37, took the accidental snub in his stride and gently touched Kidmans back as they applauded the producers of the biopic. The awkward moment was captured by an eagle-eyed fan who shared the clip on Twitter alongside the caption: Rami Malek trying to talk to Nicole Kidman is like me trying to talk to my crush #goldenglobes. Kidman was branded so rude for ignoring Maleks first Golden Glone win. One tweeted: She ignored him, didn't even acknowledge him, how rude, most of those actors are up emselves any how why should Nicole kidman be any better. Proud: Rami Malek with his Best Actor award for playing Freddie Mercury / AP Another wrote: She sure did a number on him! Rude a** lady, no class! Mr. Malek seems to always be such a gentleman no matter what. That award was well deserved! Congrats Rami! But others were quick to defend Kidman, who lost out on Best actress in a motion picture to Glenn Close, claiming she simply hadnt seen Malek. One tweeted: Clearly she didn't see him, he was behind her. Some people always feel the need to spew negative comments on beautiful people. God help us. Stars dazzle at the Golden Globes Another posted: She probably didn't see him from up there. Malek was honoured for his portrayal of Mercury, picking up Best Actor in a motion picture at the 76th annual awards bash. He thanked the legendary icon, who died in 1991, for giving me the joy of a lifetime. He said: I love you, you beautiful man. This is for and because of you, gorgeous. Malek was joined by his co-star Lucy Boynton and Queen guitarist Brian May. T he 2019 Golden Globes unexpected breakout star wasnt an actor, model or even a Lady Gaga outfit: instead, the undisputed queen of this years awards ceremony was a woman holding a tray of Fiji water bottles on the red carpet. Twitter users were quick to spot the woman, who was soon nicknamed Fiji Water Girl, as she appeared in the background of the Golden Globes red carpet coverage while clutching her tray of refreshments, managing to photobomb some of Hollywoods biggest names. Fiji Water Girl, who was quickly identified as Los Angeles-based model Kelleth Cuthbert, soon became an unlikely viral hit, applauded by social media users for smiling straight into the camera lens as she appeared in the background of red carpet shots. The Fiji water lady is totally the queen of the red carpet, tweeted one viewer, while a handful of other fans claimed that the model was living her best life. The Fiji water lady taught us that while you may never be a celebrity, you can ALWAYS lurk smugly in the background of someone elses moment, one Twitter user wrote. Others went a step further and lobbied for Cuthbert to step in to fill the vacancy for this years Oscar host, with one writing: I found this years host for the Oscars FIJI WATER GIRL Petition to have Fiji water girl host the Oscars, another added. Stars dazzle at the Golden Globes Shortly before the ceremony kicked off at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, Cuthbert shared on image of herself posing on the red carpet in a tiered blue gown (albeit without her signature tray of drinks), with the caption: Not the worst way to spend a Sunday #goldenglobesfijigirl#fijiwatergirl C hristian Bale left his co-stars shocked after he thanked Satan during his 2019 Golden Globes speech. The prolific actor, who stunned many with his thick British accent, left listeners baffled as he accepted the gong for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Dick Cheney biopic Vice. Bale paid tribute to his wife Sibi Blazic, candidly admitting shes the reason he still has a career, as he is prone to talking c***. He then casually went on to thank Satan for giving him inspiration for the role amid a list of people, including children Joseph and Emmeline, who he lovingly referred to as Banana and Burrito. The Church of Satan thanked Bale for his shout-out, tweeting: "To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr. Bale's own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!" Here is his acceptance speech in full: "Look at all of us lucky buggers for making a life out of something we love, thats extraordinary right. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of that for so many years. Thank you to my beautiful wife, who told me less is more, say less right now because she knows the dumb c*** that could comes out of my mouth at times. Dick Cheney: Bale won the award for his role in the biopic I can sink and ruin a perfectly good movie and so-so career in one speech so thank you for that advice my love. I wouldnt be working without her. Thank you to our beautiful children Banana and Burrito, theyve given me a love and a soul that I never thought possible. Thank you to that geezer over there Adam [McKay]. He said I have to find somebody that can be absolutely charisma-free and reviled by everybody so we wanted Christian Bale in it. Thank you. And for all the competition I will be cornering the market on charisma-free a********. What do you think, Mitch McConnell next? That would be good, wouldn't it? Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role. Loved-up: Bale walked the carpet with wife Sibi Blazic / Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Ive got to look at this table and say thanks to everybody here. Megan [Ellison], my God thank you so much weve made a couple of really brilliant fine movies. Thank you for being such a film lover. "Amy [Adams], Steve [Carrell], Sam [Rockwell], all the actors on this. To Dede [Gardner], to Jeremy [Kleiner] and Brad [Pitt] to [Jeff] Waxman and [Jennifer] Maddleoff and please Greg Cannon and Chris Gallagher, the prosthetics and makeup people on this, if they hadnt done their job absolutely brilliantly I wouldnt be here, no one would give a c**** about it at all. I share this with you gentleman and with the crew as well. "Thank you so so very much. (To wife Blazic) am I missing anything darling? Oh I cant hear. Theres got to be other people Im missing here. Ill say thank you to you all later. Much appreciated. S he was forced to drop out of college and abandon her dream of being a history teacher as she could no longer afford to support herself. But 26-year-old New York rapper Cardi B has revealed she has not given up on her aim of going back to school saying its never too late to make your dreams come true. The Bronx-born artist, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, dropped out of formal education and became a full-time stripper as she could not make ends meet. She shot to fame after a number of her Vine posts about life as an exotic dancer went viral which led her to become a regular on VH1 reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York in 2015. Last year, her debut single Bodak Yellow stormed to the top of the US charts, with her first album Invasion of Privacy also debuting at number one and breaking several streaming records. She has had three UK top 10 singles and her album peaked at number five in the UK chart. Speaking in the February issue of The Red Bulletin, the rapper said that despite her success she would not rule out going back to school. The Look Book: Cardi B - In pictures 1 /35 The Look Book: Cardi B - In pictures February 10, 2019 Cardi B arrives for the Grammy Awards in a vintage Thierry Mugler Couture in Los Angeles, CA, USA Reuters July 11, 2016 Cardi B attends the VH1 Hip Hop Honors: All Hail The Queens wearing x-rated embellished denim in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for VH1 September 14, 2016 Cardi B wears an edgy leather skirt and Pink Floyd t-shirt to the Front Row fashion show during New York Fashion Week in New York, NY, USA Getty Images December 8, 2016 Cardi B wears a flora and fauna printed mini dress for the VH1 America's Next Top Model premiere in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for VH1 January 9, 2017 Cardi arrives for the Being Mary Jane premiere wearing a black velvet ensemble in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for BET February 9, 2017 Cardi B arrives for the Michael Costello fashion show during New York Fashion Week wearing a black mini dress with an oversized yellow fur coat in New York, NY, USA Getty Images June 24, 2017 Cardi B poses during night three of BETX Live! wearing yellow patterned pants and bold wrap in Los Angeles, CA, USA Getty Images for BET June 25, 2017 Cardi B arrives for the 2017 BET Awards wearing a striking red Givenchy suit in Los Angeles, CA, USA Getty Images August 26, 2017 Cardi attends the WME IME and Mayweather Promotions VIP Pre-Fight Party wearing an embellished illusion cat suit in Las Vegas, NV, USA Getty Images for Showtime August 27, 2017 Cardi wears a white skirted Christian Siriano jumpsuit for the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards in Inglewood, CA, USA Getty Images September 9, 2017 Cardi B poses backstage for the Christian Siriano fashion show during New York Fashion Week wearing a black ensemble with the designer's black shrug sweater in New York, NY, USA Getty Images September 10, 2017 Cardi poses on arrival for the FENTY PUMA by Rihanna Spring/Summer 2018 Collection show wearing a Fenty x Puma ensemble with an orange cropped orange puffer in New York, NY, USA September 12, 2017 Cardi B attends NYLON's Rebel Fashion Party wearing a HALPERN sequined gown in New York, NY, USA Getty Images September 14, 2017 Cardi arrives for Rihanna's 3rd Annual Diamond Ball wearing a full mint Christian Siriano gown in New York, NY, USA AFP/Getty Images September 26, 2017 Cardi B wears a Levenity leather overcoat for Airbnb's New York City Experiences Launch Event in New York, NY, USA October 6, 2017 Cardi poses upon arrival for the BET Hip Hop Awards wearing a silver gown with high slits in Miami Beach, FL, USa Getty Images for BET October 17, 2017 Cardi B attends the Stream TIDAL X: Brooklyn Benefit Concert wearing a Victoria Hayes pastel green ensemble with sheer wrap in New York, NY, USA AFP/Getty Images November 22, 2017 Cardi arrives at E11EVEN wearing a emerald green velvet ensemble in Miami, FL, USA Getty Images for E11EVEN November 29, 2017 Cardi B wears a sequined Mark Fast frock with fishnet neckline and feathered hem for the MOBO Awards in Leeds, England Getty Images January 25, 2018 Cardi B attends the Warner Music Group Pre-Grammy Party wearing a structural off the shoulder gown by Carolina Herrera with Sophia Webster platform sandals in New York, NY, USA Getty Images January 28, 2018 Cardi B poses on the red carpet for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards wearing a tiered white Ashi Studio Couture gown and Christian Louboutin heels in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for NARAS February 3, 2018 Cardi B attends the 2018 Maxim Party wearing a blue leather overcoat in Minneapolis, MN, USA Getty Images for blu February 10, 2018 Cardi arrives for the Christian Siriano fashion show during New York Fashion Week wearing the designer's green pantsuit with a white Duckie Confetti stole in New York, NY, USA Getty Images February 14, 2018 Cardi B poses upon arrival for the Marc Jacobs Fall 2018 Show wearing the designer's print dress and mint-green fur shrug in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for Marc Jacobs March 11, 2018 Cardi continues to show love to Christian Siriano by wearing his burgundy tulle frock that disguised her new baby bump while accepting Best New Artist onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Inglewood, CA, USA Getty Images for iHeartMedia April 10, 2018 Cardi visits Music Choice wearing a striped shirtdress in New York, NY, USA Getty Images May 7, 2018 Cardi B shows off her baby bump wearing a Moschino beaded gown for the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Met Gala in New York, NY, USA Getty Images August 20, 2018 Cardi arrives for the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards wearing a Nicolas Jebran off the shoulder gown in New York, NY, USA AFP/Getty Images September 7, 2018 Cardi B attends Harper's BAZAAR Celebrates ICONS By Carine Roitfeld wearing a ruffled red gown by Dolce & Gabbana in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for Harper's Bazaar September 27, 2018 Cardi B attends the Billboard 108 R&B Hip-Hop Power Players event wearing a lime green coat with coordinating mint wig in New York, NY, USA Getty Images for Billboard October 9, 2018 Cardi B poses on the red carpet for the 2018 American Music Awards wearing a Dolce & Gabbana floral gown with matching headpiece in Los Angeles, CA, USA Getty Images November 14, 2018 Cardi B arrives for the launch of her Fashion Nova collaboration wearing her own Fashion Nova x Cardi B skirt suit in Hollywood, CA, USA Getty Images January 5, 2019 Cardi wears a Louis Vuitton pajama set at the Fanatics Super Bowl Party at College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, GA, USA Getty Images for Fanatics February 10, 2019 Cardi arrives for the Grammy Awards in a vintage Thierry Mugler Couture in Los Angeles, CA, USA Getty Images February 13, 2019 Cardi B attends Ignite Angels and Devils Pre-Valentine's Day Party wearing a black jumpsuit in Bel Air, CA, USA Getty Images for Ignite Maybe when Im older Ill have the time to go to college. Why not? Its never too late to make your dreams come true. Sometimes its just a matter of juggling things to create the right atmosphere and the perfect conditions. The seven-time Grammy nominated star reflected on giving up her ideal career path, saying it forced her to look at life differently and take risks. Cardi, who has a daughter Kulture Kiari Cephus with her rapper husband Offset, said: I realised that shattered dreams dont have to mean catastrophe in and of themselves; if anything, its the opposite. When you realise that, far from it being an obstacle, [the end of one thing can] actually be an opportunity to try something else, you begin to take risks. When it turned out I wasnt going to get to [finish] college as Id wanted, I got tied up with music instead. Cover: The latest edition of Red Bull / Red Bulletin Magazine B radley Cooper and Irina Shayk appeared to swat off any rocky romance rumours as they made a rare public appearance together at this years Golden Globes. The Hollywood couple, who share one-year-old daughter Lea, looked loved up as they walked the red carpet hand-in-hand and couldnt stop smiling as they posed in front of a wall of photographers while waving to fans outside the Beverley Hilton in Los Angeles. Supermodel Shayk looked stunning in a gold embellished dress which she teamed with metallic heels, while Cooper opted for a white tuxedo and black shoes. Shayk was later seen affectionately fixing Coopers bowtie as they sat alongside his A Star is Born co-star Lady Gaga. Loved up: Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper on the red carpet / Getty Images Shayk was on hand to support her partner after he was snubbed at this years awards bash, losing out on Best Director to Alfonso Cuaron for Roma and Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama to Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody. A Star is Born was Coopers directorial debut and also saw Gaga miss out on Best Actress to Glenn Close for The Wife. The romantic tragedy managed to pick up one out of a potential five gongs with Gaga honoured for her track, Shallow. United front: Irina Shayk looked stunning as she stepped out to support boyfriend Bradley Cooper / AFP/Getty Images Shayk and Coopers appearance comes weeks after it was reported they were miserable together. A source told Page Six that the couple looked estranged during dinner out in October. They were not looking happy... they barely spoke to each other at the start of the meal, the source said. Halfway through, she started looking off to the side and he was moody. This year's Golden Globes doubled up as a date night for a string of Hollywood's biggest stars including Idris Elba, who struggled to keep his hands off of fiancee Sabrina Dhowre. Michael Douglas, who won Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy for The Kominsky Method, planted a kiss on wife Catherine Zeta Jones' hand while Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz went for a full on peck on the lips. Man charged with murder over train stabbing Thirty-five-year-old Darren Shane Pencille, of Farnham, is accused of stabbing Lee Pomeroy in front of his teenage son on the train in Surrey on Friday. Pencille is also charged with possession of an offensive weapon. Chelsea Mitchell, who is 27 and also from Farnham, has been charged with assisting an offender and will also face magistrates today. Golden night for Colman, Madden, Wishaw and Bohemian Rhapsody British stars Olivia Colman, Richard Madden, Ben Wishaw and Christian Bale have all won awards at the Golden Globes this morning . Colman won Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for The Favourite, while Madden was named Best Actor in a TV Series Drama for Bodyguard. Whishaw took home Best Supporting Actor in a TV series for his role in A Very English Scandal, and Bale was named Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his portrayal of the late Dick Cheney in political satire, Vice. Bohemian Rhapsody was the big winner of the night, scooping the prize for best drama and best actor with Rami Malek. A number of stars wore wristbands and ribbons in support of the anti-sexual harassment campaign Times Up and to encourage companies to double the number of women in decision-making positions. MPs return to Commons to start Brexit deal showdown Theresa May is to renew her efforts to win over critics and seek fresh guarantees from Brussels ahead of next week's crunch vote on Brexit. MPs return to the Commons today after the Christmas recess with warnings that the attitudes of Tory Brexiteers against Mrs Mays deal with the EU have hardened. Two-hundred-and-nine MPs have also signed a letter to the Prime Minister a letter urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. They have been invited to meet Mrs May tomorrow, in one of a series of meetings she is carrying out this week in a charm offensive to win support for the deal. Family's relief after snatched toddler found The family of a 17-month-old snatched when a thief took her fathers car yesterday say they are relieved after she was found safe and well . Little Maria Tudorica was abducted when a man posing as a prospective buyer for her fathers Audi A5 drove off in it yesterday afternoon in Newham. A desperate search was carried out and Maria was found in a nearby street about three hours later. Her uncle Gheorghe said he felt "1,000 times relief" after Maria was returned to her distraught family. New long-term plan for NHS Up to 500,000 lives could be saved under plans for the NHS in England over the next decade, health chiefs claim. The NHS long-term plan involves greater use of high-tech treatments and diagnostic testing and could prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases. NHS England chief Simon Stevens said the plan also tackles head on the pressures faced by health staff. On this day 1558: Calais, the last English possession on the mainland of France, was regained by the French. 1610: Galileo discovered the four satellites of Jupiter. 1789: The first national US elections were held: George Washington became the first president. 1844: Saint Bernadette of Lourdes (Marie-Bernarde Soubirous) was born. She was an asthmatic French girl who claimed to see a vision of the Virgin Mary at a spring near her home. 1857: The London Central Omnibus Company started its first services. 1927: The transatlantic telephone service between London and New York opened. A n Uber driver who claimed the app was controlling him has admitted killing six people. Jason Dalton pleaded guilty to fatally shooting six people on Monday in a five-hour murder spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on February 20, 2016. The 48-year-old shot eight people before telling police that when he pressed a button on his phone screen, the horned cow head of a devil would appear and give him an assignment that he said would "literally take over" his body, local television station WZZM reported. He said the difference between the night of the shootings and others was that an icon on the Uber app that is normally red had changed to black. The shootings took place outside an apartment complex, restaurant and at a car park. He had been approved as an Uber driver just one month before the killings. In March 2016, Dalton filed a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the ride-sharing company. In April 2016, a judge ruled that Dalton was mentally competent to stand trial after psychiatrists determined he understood the charges against him. Two months later, prosecutors said Daltons attorney, Eusebio Solis, told them the defendant intended to file a motion to use the insanity defence. Mr Solis said on Monday that Dalton was pleading guilty against his advice. T housands of swimmers have been stung by bluebottle jellyfish in Queensland, Australia, forcing the closure of popular beaches in the middle of summer. Around 13,000 stings have been recorded in the past week, as unusually strong winds push the jellyfish close to the shore. The number is three times more than in the same period last year. A whopping 3,595 people were stung by #bluebottles over the weekend, Surf Life Saving Queensland tweeted. Due to the northeasterly winds, we will continue to see bluebottles hanging around. They said on Monday that a 32-year-old woman had been taken to hospital following a particularly severe sting. They added that over 25,000 people were still enjoying patrolled beaches in Queensland and lifeguards had treated 304 bluebottle stings. People can be stung in the water or on the sand by bluebottle jellyfish colonies, which appear like blue-tinged sacs measuring up to 15cm (6 inches) long. Stings are typically mild and treated with ice or hot water. It follows a recent spate of people being stung by the deadly box jellyfish in Queensland. The number of people taken to hospital with suspected box jellyfish stings has so far been 20 - double the 10 year average. T hai officials today halted plans to deport a Saudi teenager who says she is fleeing her abusive family as she barricaded herself inside a hotel room to stop being sent home. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, has been stranded at an airport hotel in Bangkok since Saturday after she was denied entry by Thai officials on her way to Australia, where she is seeking asylum. Today, Thailands immigration police chief assured the teenager that she would not be sent anywhere against her wishes. It came after a judge turned down a last-minute appeal from Thai lawyers to prevent her deportation, claiming there was not enough information about who she was. Speaking at a press conference, Major General Surachate Hakparn said Ms Alqunun, who has been appealing for help over social media, would be allowed to meet UN refugee officials. The teenager, who arrived into the country on a flight from Kuwait, claims she is fleeing beating and death threats from male relatives and fears she will be killed if she is forced to return / REUTERS He added that he would also meet with UNHCR - the United Nations refugee agency - today to discuss Ms Alqununs asylum plans. Thai authorities would then need to explain to Saudi authorities why she is not being sent back to the country, if that decision is made, he added. The move came as the teenager, who has accumulated tens of thousands of followers since Saturday, tweeted a video which showed her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress to avoid being escorted to board a Kuwait Airways flight. She had appealed for help over Twitter from the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, who had said it was trying to seek access from Thai authorities to meet with her. She said in the video: Im not leaving my room until I see UNHCR. I want asylum. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said: The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harms way. Officials later confirmed that her planned forced departure had been averted and the flight had left without her. Ms Alqununs ordeal began on Saturday when she was stopped by officials at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi airport. The teenager later claimed she was tricked into giving up her passport and moved to a hotel airport. Thai officials deny she was detained at the behest of the Saudi government. Colonel Choengron Rimphadee, Thailands immigration departments deputy spokesman, said she had been denied entry because she could not show a return ticket, hotel reservation or proof of funds, adding: Whoever violates Thai immigration law will be considered a prohibited person and treated the same. Saudi Arabias charge daffaires in Bangkok also denied Saudi authorities were involved. Later, Germanys ambassador to Thailand, Georg Schmidt, posted a message of concern about her case, which he said he was conveying to Thai authorities. Ms Alqununs plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who have tried to flee abusive or restrictive family conditions. Under Saudi Arabias restrictive male guardianship system, adult women must obtain permission from a male guardian, usually a family member, to travel abroad, marry, or be released from prison. In 2017 Dina Lasloom hit the headlines when she was stopped en route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum. A Saudi Woman who says she is fleeing her abusive family has been allowed to temporarily enter Thailand under the protection of the UN refugee agency. An evaluation of her case and claims for asylum is set to take around five to seven days. Images released by Thai immigration police show Ms Alqunun leaving her room at a Bangkok airport hotel where she barricaded herself inside amid fears for her safety. The teenager arrived in Thailand on a flight from Kuwait, claims she is fleeing beating and death threats from male relatives and fears she will be killed if she is forced to return. The agreement allowing her to leave the airport came after officials from the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, met Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn, and then with Ms Alqunun. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with Ms Alqunun, but its representative in Thailand Giuseppe De Vincentiis noted "a good spirit of collaboration so far" with Thai officials. According to Major General Surachate, Ms Alqunun's father was due to arrive in Bangkok on Monday night, and officials would then see if she was willing to depart with him. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun / AFP/Getty Images "As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She won't be sent anywhere tonight," Major General Surachate said at one of several news conferences at the airport. "She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles," he said. "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law." She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her father's retaliation. A n attempted coup by military officers in Gabon has been brought under control, the government spokesman has said. "The government is in place. The institutions are in place," Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told France 24. He had earlier told Reuters that four officers who had taken over the national radio station were in custody. A fifth is still on the run. Soldiers appeared on state media on Monday declaring they had launched a coup "to restore democracy" in the West African country. They said they were unhappy with the leadership of President Ali Bongo, who is recovering from a stroke in Morocco. The 'coup' was staged in protest at the leadership of President Ali Bongo / AFP/Getty Images Early on Monday a soldier who identified himself as Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the military had seized control of the government. He was flanked by two others holding weapons and all were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets. A New Year's eve address by Ali Bongo "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office," said the leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon. The radio message was broadcast at around 5.30am today. A soldier reads a statement saying the military has seized control of the government / AP A source close to the government said there were gunshots around the national television station, but that the plotters appeared to be a small group of soldiers. A crowd of about 300 people had gathered at the station in support of the attempted coup, but soldiers fired tear gas to disperse them, Reuters reported. Most of Libreville remained calm but there was a strong police and military presence on the street and helicopters circled overhead. Bongo, 59, was hospitalised in October in Saudi Arabia after suffering a stroke. He has been in Morocco since November to continue treatment. In his speech on New Year's, Bongo acknowledged health problems but said he was recovering. He slurred some of his words and did not move his right arm, but otherwise appeared in decent health. S oldiers in Gabon declared they had launched a coup earlier today because of concerns over the leadership of President Ali Bongo. Armed forces members appeared on state radio to say the military had seized control of the government "to restore democracy" to the country. The message was broadcast at around 5.30am this morning at television headquarters in the capital Libreville while Bongo, 59, recovers from a stroke in Morocco. According to some media reports, four of the soldiers have now been arrested while a fifth reportedly fled. Here's what we know so far. The 'coup' was staged in protest at the leadership of President Ali Bongo / AFP/Getty Images Where is Gabon? Gabon is on the west coast of central Africa, bordering the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Gulf of Guinea. Some two million people live there and the capital Libreville has a population of around 700,000. Around 10 per cent of its territory has been designated parkland as part of conservation efforts. Only Costa Rica has more national parkland. Ruled by France since the late 19th century, Gabon gained independence in 1960 and elected its first president, Leon M'ba, in 1961. Gabon is relatively stable for west Africa and has only had three presidents since its independence. But the oil-rich country has been ruled for more than 50 years by Bongo and his father Omar, who died in 2009 after a 40-year rule in which he reportedly crushed dissent and political opposition. Critics have accused the family of profiting from the country's natural resources while not investing enough in basic services, as Gabon is extremely unequal despite its position as a major oil producer. Around a third of the population live in poverty and it has a high infant mortality rate, with youth unemployment around 35 per cent. Just 20 per cent of the population earn more than 90 per cent of the country's income and the average life expectancy is just 62-years-old. Despite this, Ali Bongo is enormously wealthy. Gabon president Ali Bongo / EPA Why did the army stage the apparent coup? Lieutentant Kelly Ondo Obiang, describing himself as leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon, said a New Year's Eve address by Ali Bongo "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office". Lt. Obiang, calling himself commander of the Republican Guard, said soldiers had stage the apparent coup in an attempt "to restore democracy" to the country. As he read out the statement, he was flanked either side by soldiers holding weapons. All three were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets. Following the attempted coup, the internet was reportedly cut and a curfew imposed on Libreville. Tanks and armed vehicles are said to be patrolling the city. A source close to the government said there were gunshots around the national television station, but that the plotters appeared to be a small group of soldiers. A crowd of about 300 people had gathered at the station in support of the attempted coup, but soldiers fired tear gas to disperse them, Reuters reported. Who is Ali Bongo? Ali Bongo was elected president in 2009, following his father's death and his re-election in 2016 was marred by claims of fraud and violent protests But he has been out of the country since October after he suffered a stroke. He was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia before he moved to Morocco where he continued treatment. In his New Year's speech, filmed in Morocco, Bongo acknowledged his health problems but did not give any details. He slurred some of his words and did not move his right arm, but otherwise appeared in decent health. But soldiers said they were disappointed by the address, slamming it as a "pitiful sight" and a "relentless attempt to cling onto power". Bongo and members of his government have faced repeated suspicions by foreign governments of corruption, including allegedly using the American financial system to launder assets. They have denied the accusations. Is the coup ongoing? Officials have said the situation is now "under control" following the coup attempt earlier today. D ebris washed up on the coast of Madagascar has been confirmed as "most likely" belonging to missing flight MH370. Five pieces of debris were handed over to Malaysian authorities in November by relatives of those on board and wreck hunter Blaine Gibson. Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, disappeared as it made its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. One of the pieces discovered was a floor panel which contained the letters and numbers WPPS61. Authorities have since confirmed that it is very likely that the debris came from the doomed flight. Grace Subathirai Nathan (R), daughter of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 passenger Anne Daisy, shows a piece of debris believed to be from flight MH370 / AFP/Getty Images Wreck Hunter Blaine Gibson told the West Australian: Locals tell me there are many more pieces of debris washed up but it needs Malaysia to offer rewards. He told the newspaper that he had been handing locals small rewards in return for the debris. Mr Gibson now believes that the main plane wreckage lies just outside of the search area. Grace Subathirai Nathan, (R) daughter of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passenger Anne Daisy and MH370 #SearchOn Campaign leader pictured with Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook / EPA Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have in the past suggested that the plane ran out of fuel after flying in the wrong direction over the Indian Ocean for six hours. There had been speculation that the plane crashed due to a deliberate 'murder-suicide' plot by pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, however this has been refuted by official investigators. A part of the debris believed to belong to MH370 / EPA Although some debris from the plane has been found off the coast of Africa, no part of the main body has been discovered despite a 46,000-square mile search of the Indian Ocean. A ban on kosher and halal slaughter has come into effect in the Flanders region of Belgium unless the animal is stunned before it is killed. It comes after legislation prohibiting animal slaughter without pre-stunning was passed in the nation's parliament in July 2017. The northern region of Flanders is the first in Belgium to implement the ban, with the legislation coming into effect on New Year's Day. Similar restrictions will be in place in the southern Wallonia region from September. The law was branded the "greatest assault on Jewish religious rights in Belgium since the Nazi occupation" by the European Jewish Congress in May 2017, the Jewish Chronicle reported. Both the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher rituals require that the animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining the blood. Under the new law, animals will have to be stunned electrically before being killed. Belgium's Muslim and Jewish communities have expressed opposition to the law, with several religious organisations filing lawsuits to stop the new legislation, MailOnline reported. These include the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organisations, the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress. It is hoped the lawsuits might still light the ban later this year. A n extensive search is underway after an empty inflatable boat thought to be used by migrants was found on a beach in Kent. The coastguard team launched the operation amid heightened concerns over migrants attempting to cross the Channel. A search was carried out at Dungeness at 8.10am on Monday. The coastguard said it carried out a search of the area due to "concern there could be maritime casualties" but none had been found. A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "HM Coastguard has been co-ordinating a search at Dungeness in Kent after an empty RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) was found on the shore. "Dungeness Coastguard Rescue Team led the beach search and Kent Police has been informed. "Following an extensive search of the area, HM Coastguard was satisfied that there were no maritime casualties and the search team was stood down." The Border Force has been approached for comment. Around 60 migrants are believed to have come ashore between December 23 and December 30 but reports from charities and refugees in Calais suggest the figures could be higher. The Mail on Sunday reports that 66 migrants made it to Britain on Christmas Day alone. Last month Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared a "major incident" over the number of migrants trying to cross the Channel to reach the UK. Of the 504 migrants seeking to cross the English Channel in 2018, 276 managed to get to British waters and coasts, and 228 were intercepted by the French authorities. P hillip Schofield was forced to apologise after Martin Clunes branded the Government a "s****storm" when speaking about policing in Britain on This Morning. Clunes appeared on the show to discuss his new drama Manhunt, which follows the investigations into serial killer Levi Bellfield. The actor said that the role has "opened his eyes" to the work the police do after he spent time with the serious crime squad in Hampshire as part of his preparation. Clunes, who stars as ex-Met murder Senior Investigation Officer (SIO) Colin Sutton in the drama, spoke to Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Monday about the process of learning the character. Martin Clunes on This Morning / Rex Features He told how he discovered "how many people and how much energy there is" after his time with the Hampshire force. He said: "I was there to see... because I was playing the SIO, so I wanted to see how the rest of the team were towards him - how he was towards them. "We filled our boots and you come away thinking: Thank god weve got a police force. Which we wont have if this current sh***storm of a government have their way. Schofield quickly jumped in to announce: We apologise for that by the way." But fans of the show were quick to hail Clunes a "hero", tweeting their support for the phrase. A Government test of how lorries could cope in a no-deal Brexit was branded a farce today when just 89 vehicles turned up. Instead of the 150 heavy goods vehicles planned by organisers, just over half took part in the trial of emergency measures to keep food and goods flowing between Britain and Europe. It was a fresh embarrassment for the Government days after it emerged that it had awarded a 14 million no-deal contract to a ferry company that owns no ferries and which appeared to have copies its terms and conditions from a food delivery service. A squabble over who was to blame for this mornings damp squib was in full flow between the Department of Transport and Kent County Council. Traffic jam: Lorries line up / EPA The exercise was planned to test an emergency measure to turn Manston airfield in Kent into a lorry park for goods vehicles en route to Dover if, as experts predict, extra checks and regulations after Brexit result in massive traffic jams and delays. The convoy that later set off down the A256 appeared to include two removal vans and a Thanet Council bin lorry. However, a letter last week called for for 100 to 150 lorries to take part. Former Labour Transport Minister John Spellar said: This is another farce. Chris Grayling has given a shipping contract to a company that has no ships and now hes held a lorry test without trucks. He is starting the year with the same incompetence as he ended 2018. Tory former chairman Lord [Chris] Patten said The exercise at Manston was enough to make one weep. Nicky Morgan, the chair of Palrliamnets powerful Public Accounts Committee, said: If they cant get enough lorries for this test then it doesnt inspire much confidence about the rest of their no deal preparations. Former Business Minister Anna Soubry said the test was an embarrassing farce and said the Government should have taken no-deal off the table. Thats the way to move matters forward not engage on Micky Mouse stunts that achieve nothing but more despair from British business, she said. Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said the number of lorries involved was a drop in the ocean compared with the huge fleets that would be pouring into a small and windy road through Kent in the event of a no-deal Brexit. A queue of Eddie Stobart lorries near Ramsgate / AFP/Getty Images The HGVs were expected to take part in two trial runs at 8am and again at 11am to test how the A256 copes with increased lorry traffic. The HGVs are to take part in two trial runs at 8am and again at 11am to test how the A256 copes with increased lorry traffic / AFP/Getty Images Lorry drivers were given 550 for taking part in the exercise, making a bill for fees of 48,950. Invitations to take part in the exercise were issued by the DfT using a list supplied by the Freight Transport Association. Some DfT officials accepted that fewer lorries took part than expected. Arguments were seen to break out among marshals over the best way out of the disused airfield, while the lorries took an hour to make the 33-mile journey from Manston to Dover, a trip that would normally take about 30 minutes. The Road Haulage Association described the test as window dressing, saying it could not possibly mimic the reality of 6,000 trucks that would be held at Manston airport in the event of no deal. A DfT spokesperson said: Any lessons learned from today and further mitigation measures will be considered carefully to ensure Operation Brock is fully functional if needed. Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, speaking for Best For Britain campaign, said: This is a taxpayer funded farce. The DfT said the reason many lorries did not take part was that they were busy transporting goods around the country and did not have free time. But it insisted the turnout did not affect the value of the exercise, which was to test the flow rate of lorries travelling from Manston airfield to Dover to catch ferries. Kent Labour councillor Karen Constantine said: I gather that Kent County Council were scratching around for participants at the back end of last week. They have been struggling to get people to take part. T he father of murdered toddler James Bulger has blasted a new film about his son's killing as "offensive". Ralph Bulger has claimed the short film is too sympathetic towards his son's killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, and said the family was not contacted ahead of its release. The two-year-old was killed by the pair, both aged 10, after they snatched him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993. Detainment, which is shortlisted for an Academy Award, is 30-minute film based on interview transcripts and records from the case. Ralph Bulger the father of James Bulger / PA Archive/PA Images Mr Bulger told the Mirror he has been left devastated by the latest portrayal of his son's murder. He said: Not once has the maker of this film contacted me or any of Jamess family about this film. Jon Venables / PA It has been 26 years since my son was taken and murdered and so I have seen many documentaries and news stories about him. But I have never been so cut up and offended by something that shows so little compassion to James and his family. Robert Thompson in 1993 / PA I accept this is a murder of such magnitude it will always be written about and featured in the news but to make a film so sympathetic to Jamess killers is devastating." Director Vincent Lambe admitted last week that he did not contact the toddler's parents for permission before releasing the film. Well it probably wouldnt have been made if [Denise Fergus] said no, he told Good Morning Britain. He added: A lot of people might say they feel its wrong to humanise them, but if people cant accept the fact they were human beings, they would never be able to begin to understand what could have driven them to prevent such a crime." A group of migrants have been found following an extensive search after an empty inflatable boat was left on a Kent beach. One man found by UK police and Border Force officials has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry to the UK. The boat was found on Monday at 8.10am on the shore at Dungeness. Hours later and three-and-a-half miles away, officials and a paramedic were seen with the men in Harden Road, Lydd, giving them foil blankets and police jackets to keep warm. Police and Border Force personnel have found a group of migrants hours after an empty inflatable boat was left on a Kent beach. / PA A Home Office spokesman said eight people were found following the search. He said seven of the men are in Border Force care and the eighth has been transferred to hospital. A ninth man, who was also found in the area, has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry to the UK," the spokesman added. "The incident is currently being investigated by officers from Immigration Enforcements Criminal and Financial Investigation team. Coastguard teams had carried out the search after the boat was found and were stood down once it was clear no one had been left stranded in the sea. The operation came amid heightened concerns over the number of migrants trying to cross the Channel. In December, Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared the situation a "major incident" and announced plans to bring two Border Force cutters back to the UK to boost sea patrols. A Navy vessel, HMS Mersey - which was on patrol this morning, is being used to guard the Channel until the cutters return. Mr Javid said that "in almost every case" those who make the journey in these circumstances go on to claim asylum in the UK. Of the 504 migrants seeking to cross the English Channel in 2018, 276 managed to get to British waters and coasts, and 228 were intercepted by the French authorities. T he cost of the chaos caused by drones at Gatwick Airport is expected to run into the tens of millions of pounds. A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said early estimates of lost revenue for the airport and airlines is at least 20 million. This figure is based on similar levels of disruption on previous dates. More than 1,000 flights and 140,000 passengers due to travel in the run up to the Christmas break were affected. Business associated with the airport including airlines, retailers, hotels and taxis are thought to have lost millions in combined revenues due to the disruption. Passengers wait in the South Terminal building at Gatwick Airport, after the airport reopened to flights following its forced closure because of drone activity, in Gatwick. / REUTERS Passengers of delayed or cancelled flights have been advised by the UK Civil Aviation Authority that the incident was an extraordinary circumstance outside the airlines control and no compensation would be available. However, airlines do have a legal duty of care to passengers affected by the incident, which included providing meals and refreshments, organising hotel accommodation and transport if required, placing passengers on an alternative flight to their destination as soon as possible, or offering a full refund. The three major airlines that operate from the airport - Norwegian, British Airways, and EasyJet - have not yet released estimates of revenue lost. John Grant, director of JG Aviation Consultants, estimates companies such as EasyJet, who operate 40 per cent of all daily flights from Gatwick, would have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit from the disruption. Every case will be different and unless we know the actual passenger numbers booked on each airline that day then its hard to give an accurate number, he said. Taking EasyJet as an example, their profit before tax last reported year 2017/2018 was some 578m or around 1.58 million per day. Taking those same numbers that would make Gatwick likely to have a profit per day of 632k and if you assume that perhaps they lost 50% of that profit (passengers would have rebooked in many cases) then it could have cost them circa 300k in profit. A spokesman for EasyJet said the company did not have any estimates and would not be disclosing a figure. Norwegian said they would not be disclosing any estimates and British Airways did not respond to questions. For the shops and restaurants at Gatwick, Mr Grant estimates the total revenue lost would be more than 1 million. On an average day Gatwick generates around 2.1 million of revenue of which around 52% (1.05 million) comes directly from aeronautical revenues charged to airlines, he said. Clearly a large part of that revenue would have been lost since little capacity existed to accommodate passengers on later flights so close to Christmas. Duty and tax free income would also have been impacted and that based on their March 2018 year-end averages around 147,000 revenue per day so in total around 1.152 million of revenue using the law of averages. A spokesman for Gatwick Express said they had not yet estimated any loss of revenue and would provide an update in "quarter one." He said fare revenue collected by Govia Thameslink Railway is passed directly to the Department for Transport so income would not be affected. B oris Johnson has told an anti-Brexit campaigner that the UK should have "no terrors about leaving the European Union without a deal. When questioned on camera by Remainer Femi Oluwole about his position on leaving the EU, Mr Johnson said on Monday that we should have no terrors. No fears of no-deal. Responding with a bemused look on his face, human rights advocate Mr Oluwole called after the former Foreign Secretary to say: No fears? The answer is not to be scared? It comes after Mr Johnson said a no-deal Brexit was closest to what people voted for in the referendum. He used his Daily Telegraph column to dismiss downright apocalyptic messages about Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, arguing that people could sort fact for nonsense. Mr Johnson said: "They didn't vote for anything like Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement. They voted to come out. It is no deal or WTO terms that actually corresponds to their idea of coming out, and they view that option with a confidence that is now directly proportional to the growing strength of the Government's warnings against it." Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson / EPA His column came as the EU said it had no plans for talks on renegotiating Theresa Mays Brexit deal after the Prime Minister said she was seeking further assurances from Brussels to get her deal passed. With a vote on the Withdrawal Agreement expected to take place on January 15, a European Commission spokesman said there were no talks planned for this week. Margaritis Schinas said that the agreed Brexit deal was "the best and the only deal possible" and the Commission was focused on watching what happened in the vote. Without some activity from Brussels Mrs May is expected to lose the so-called meaningful vote, which was postponed in December when it became clear the Government would be defeated. Mrs May on Monday said she was still working to get concessions that would appease rebellious MPs. Prime Minister Theresa May will attempt to win over her Brexit critics ahead of a crunch vote / EPA Speaking at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool at the launch of the NHS Long-Term Plan, she said work was still ongoing and claimed that there had been "some further movement" from the EU at the December European Council meeting. She said: "In the coming days, what we will set out is not just about the EU but also about what we can do domestically. "So we will be setting out measures which will be specific to Northern Ireland, we will be setting out proposals for a greater role for Parliament as we move into the next stage of the negotiation and we are continuing to work on further assurances on further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that has been expressed by parliamentarians." However, her speech came minutes after Mr Schinas had said that while Mrs May would speak to EC president Jean-Claude Juncker this week, "there is no negotiation because everything on the table has been established as approved, established, achieved". P olice have been urged to intervene amid growing verbal abuse aimed by pro-Brexit protesters at female MPs and journalists outside the Houses of Parliament. Remainer Tory MP Anna Soubry was drowned out by "Nazi" taunts and vile abuse in live television interviews today, while Sky News presenter Kay Burley was loudly branded a liar during broadcasts. When Ms Soubry was interviewed by Ms Burley, journalist Dawn Foster, who was also present, said she heard protesters shouting that they hoped all three were sexually assaulted. Scotland Yard said officers are investigating whether any crimes have been committed. Also on Monday, the political commentator Owen Jones shared video on Twitter showing him being accosted by a group near Parliament, including men wearing Union Jacks. They could be heard calling him a "traitor" and a "horrible little man". Ms Soubry, who supports a second EU referendum, later told the BBC the police need to do their job and was understood to be contacting Scotland Yard on the matter. College Green, where television broadcasts are filmed outside Parliament, has been cordoned off in response to the protests. However protesters are still able to stand on the pavement next to the green to make themselves heard. Footage also emerged on Monday of anti-Brexit campaigner Femi Oluwole being called Lammy - a reference to Labour MP David Lammy - as he filmed Ms Soubry being followed by protesters while she walked around Westminster. After Mr Oluwole and Ms Soubry questioned what the protester just said, the man added: Oooh, is that cultural appropriation you mug. Tommy Robinson supporter James Goddard has featured in many of the video clips that show chants coming from the group of yellow vest-wearing protesters. In one clip he appears to be shouting to police that they are fair game and saying if you want a war Ill give you a war. Responding to a question by Tory MP Nick Bowles about MPs being given adequate police protection, Commons Speaker John Bercow said: I am concerned at this stage about what seems to be about a pattern of protest targeted in particular at women. Female members and, in a number of cases I am advised, female journalists have been subjected to aggressive protest and what many would regard as harassment. I can assure the House I am keeping a close eye on events. Labour MP Stephen Doughty also raised the issue in the Commons during a Brexit question session and called on Mr Bercow to intervene. The Cardiff South and Penarth MP said: "Can I urge you to use your offices with the Metropolitan Police at the highest levels to ensure that proper action is taken on this?" Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said on the matter: "Obviously I won't have seen the incidents outside but anyone who stands at this despatch box is always mindful of the plaque of Jo Cox, which I know is so dear to many, particularly on the benches opposite, but across the House. "I think all of us would unite on that wherever people are on the Brexit debate... all of us in this House should be able to air their views with respect." No 10 called the abuse Ms Soubry received unacceptable and said MPs "should be free to do their jobs without any form of intimidation". Theresa May's official spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has been very clear that nobody involved in the political process should be subjected to abuse or harassment. "They should be free to do their job without any form of intimidation and it is clearly unacceptable when that isn't the case." Asked whether MPs should be offered greater protection while the "meaningful vote" on Brexit is debated over the next few days, the spokesman added: "There are existing laws in relation to public order, harassment and making threats. A Met Police spokesman said: "Police received a third party report of a public order offence on Monday, January 7, in the area of College Green. "Officers are assessing if any crimes have been committed. T heresa May today staked her hopes of winning the big Brexit vote in the Commons on an 11th-hour promise from the European Union to agree a deadline for a future trade deal. A deadline of around 2021 is being mooted, which would ensure the unpopular Irish backstop plan lasted no longer than a year. No 10s focus has changed, however, from fixing a date for the backstop to end, to setting a date for the future partnership which would make it redundant. But this was dismissed as impossible to meet by a former head of the Treasury. Lord Macpherson said in a tweet: Time for some honesty about Brexit. "There is no way the UK will negotiate a trade deal with the EU by December 2020. He said even 2022 was very optimistic and a deal would probably take until the middle of the next decade. Downing Street said Mrs May spoke over the Christmas break with Jean-Claude Juncker, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Mark Rutte in a bid to get a concession on the backstop to reduce a giant Tory rebellion. Senior ministers say Irish premier Leo Varadkar is blocking Theresa Mays appeal for 11th-hour concessions on the backstop because he does not realise how close Britain is to crashing out of the EU without a deal. The Irish think that we will cave in at the last minute, a senior minister said. The real question is when the Irish start to think that no deal could actually become reality. Mr Varadkar is now the focus of efforts at EU level to broker reassurances that might persuade enough Conservative MPs to peel off from a giant rebellion against the withdrawal agreement when it goes to a meaningful vote in the Commons on January 15. German foreign minister Heiko Maas will visit Dublin tomorrow for talks, following a 40-minute conversation over the phone last week between the taoiseach and Angela Merkel. The German chancellor intervened after she was contacted by Mrs May twice over Christmas. But Mr Varadkar has stated he is not considering changes to the agreement and British ministers fear it will take a resounding defeat for the withdrawal agreement before Ireland is willing to consider serious concessions. The backstop would see Northern Ireland remain aligned to some rules of the EU single market, if another solution is not found before the end of the transition period in December 2020. Mrs May is threatening to cancel MPs weekends and even their half-term break to get critical Brexit legislation through Parliament. Her spokesman said she would do whatever is required to pass laws needed to keep the country running after the withdrawal date of March 29. M ore than 200 MPs from across the Commons have signed a letter to Theresa May urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. The letter was organised by Tory former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labour's Jack Dromey. All 209 signatories to the letter have been invited to meet the Prime Minister in Downing Street on Tuesday. Dame Caroline told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "Crashing out of the EU without a deal will cause job losses and bring to an end the renaissance of manufacturing that we've seen in regions like mine in the West Midlands, and both Jack Dromey and I know the human interest and impact of this." Former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman warned no-deal 'will cause job losses' / Getty Images It comes as the PM is set to intensify efforts to win over her Brexit critics and seek fresh guarantees from Brussels ahead of next week's crunch vote on her deal, expected on January 15. Mrs May has acknowledged she was "still working on" getting further assurances from the European Union to address concerns about the backstop measure aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland. But as MPs returned to Westminster after the Christmas break she was warned that the attitudes of Tory Brexiteers had hardened, with Boris Johnson using his Daily Telegraph column to say the option of leaving the EU with no deal is "closest to what people actually voted for" in the 2016 referendum. Boris Johnson said no deal is 'closest to what people voted for' (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images) / Getty Images Meanwhile, in preparation for a no-deal Brexit, a major exercise is being carried out in Kent involving more than 100 lorries. The trial will test out Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports. The meeting with signatories is one of a series being organised by Mrs May, who is also hosting drinks receptions for Tory MPs on Monday and Wednesday as part of an charm offensive to win support for the Brexit deal. The PM has warned the UK will be in "uncharted territory" if the deal is rejected in the vote. Theresa May: Commons Brexit vote will go ahead She told BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "What we'll be setting out over the next few days is a sort of assurances, is measures in three areas. "The first is measures that will be specific for Northern Ireland. "The second is a greater role for parliament as we take these negotiations into the next stage for our future relationship. "And the third, and we're still working on this, is further assurances from the European Union to address the issues that have been raised." MPs are set for a crunch vote on Mrs May's Brexit deal / PA Mrs May held talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday and the pair are expected to keep in touch this week as the clock ticks down to the Commons showdown. The DUP's deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said the Withdrawal Agreement remained "toxic" as a result of the Irish backstop measure. "The fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed," he said. Eurosceptic Conservative backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What would change the chemistry is if the DUP came onside. If the DUP were satisfied, that would change the chemistry. "But there would still be a hardcore of Conservatives who are probably going to vote against this for a variety of reasons." Sir Bernard said it was "lame" for MPs to sign the letter opposing a no-deal Brexit, after Parliament had voted in favour of holding the 2016 referendum and accepting its outcome and had legislated for withdrawal on March 29. "Leaving the EU is set in the law," he said. "Many of the people who have signed the letter this morning saying they don't want a no-deal Brexit have actually voted through the legislation that means we leave on March 29 with or without a formal Article 50 withdrawal agreement." T he word Brexit is mentioned more than 500 million times a day in Britain, a new study has claimed. New research, commissioned by Channel 4, showed it is hard to escape talk of leaving the European Union, with the word "Brexit" uttered 507 million times over 92 million conversations on the topic in the UK each day. The study also revealed it could be taking a toll on our anxiety levels as two thirds of Brits admit conversations about Brexit are stressful either because of differing opinions, worry over not understanding the issues, or fretting about the future. Online and abroad, talk about Brexit is just as prolific. There have been 180 million tweets mentioning Brexit globally since the referendum in 2016. In character: Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings in Brexit: The Uncivil War (Channel 4 / Nick Wall) / Channel 4 Researchers surveyed 2,000 adults on the topic ahead of the new drama Brexit: The Uncivil War, released on Monday. As the exit date of March 29 approaches, the study found British adults have had two conversations about Brexit each day on average since June 2016. People who voted to remain were found to have more conversations about Brexit than those who voted to leave the EU, discussing the topic for an average of seven minutes and 38 seconds each day - one minute longer than leave voters. While one in five Brits were found to hate talking about the topic, on average the term Brexit is heard 11 times a day by one Brit. The survey showed 32 per cent said the were grasping for ways to shut down the conversation when Brexit comes up and 30 per cent admitted they did not know enough about the subject. T ory MP Anna Soubry was drowned out by vile abuse and "Nazi" taunts from pro-Brexit protesters during live BBC and Sky interviews today. Ms Soubry, a staunch Remainer, was discussing next weeks Commons vote on Theresa Mays Brexit deal outside Parliament on Monday afternoon. When she later joined presenter Kay Burley on Sky News, protesters allegedly shouted that they hoped the women were sexually assaulted. In a clip of her interview with BBC News presenter Simon McCoy, chants of Soubry is a Nazi can be heard as she speaks. Ms Soubry, who backs a second EU referendum, then tells Mr McCoy: I do object to being called a Nazi actually. Im sorry but I just think this is astonishing," she adds, visibly unhappy. This is what has happened to our country, actually. She was also targeted as she spoke to Sky News presenter Ms Burley in a separate interview. Journalist Dawn Foster, who was also present, said she heard protesters shouting that they hoped Ms Soubry, Ms Burley and herself were sexually assaulted. Speaking up to be heard over the chants, Ms Soubry told Ms Burley: "I don't have a problem with people demonstrating and making their views heard. I have a real problem with people who call me a traitor or 'Soubry, you Nazi'. That is a criminal offence and I'm a criminal barrister. "I'm also a lass from Worksop, so I don't get scared by these people or intimidated. I was a reporter during the miners' strike, so I don't feel physically intimidated. My difficulty is I want to respond and you mustn't, so I'm really behaving myself." The MP for Broxtowe, who has been repeatedly targeted by protesters, said the incident was "seriously worrying". She added: "I'm afraid the truth is that Brexit has unleashed these people. This is Britain now. This is not the country I know and love and these people do not represent our country and they need sorting out." The protesters were criticised by high-profile Brexit supporters including presenter Piers Morgan and former Conservative and Ukip MP Douglas Carswell. Writing on Twitter, Mr Carswell said: "Small crowd shouting oafish chants at TV crew outside Parliament. "I'm not a great fan of the mainstream broadcasters, but such boorishness is out of line. "Do they realise how much damage they do?" In December police officers protected Ms Soubry outside Parliament as she was surrounded by Brexit "yellow vest" protesters who shouted "Hitler" jibes at her. A video widely shared online showed the former cabinet minister being accosted and shouted at by protesters as one man called her a "disgrace to the country". S triking doctors faced fury today as thousands of patients in London saw appointments postponed. Nearly 500 elective operations, such as knee or hip replacements, were cancelled at hospitals in the capital, as well as more than 3,100 hospital outpatient appointments, according to initial reports. One hospital said to be affected was Guys and St Thomas. However, support among the medical profession for the strike appeared to be crumbling, with more doctors turning up for work than predicted. It had been expected that about a third of GPs would join the British Medical Association-led industrial action, the first since 1975, over pension reforms. But the early figures suggested that only 17 per cent of GP practices in London were affected. Many doctors faced with public anger appear to have decided in recent days against striking. A distraught mother seeking an appointment for her sick son claimed she was turned away by a surgery in Hackney. * [A letter relating to this point was published on 29th June and is reproduced below.] I dont think its right that GPs should be allowed to strike, she said. Surely theres another way of doing this without patients suffering. She told how she had been up half the night with her eight-year-old son, who she said was suffering from a fever, headache and boils. The BMA had stressed that while routine operations and appointments might be postponed, urgent cases would be dealt with during the day. But doctors, MPs and patients condemned the action. London-based cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: This is primarily about doctors pensions at a time of austerity when other people are facing financial hardship. Its an own goal for the BMA. MPs even suggested ministers should now look at further cuts to medics gold-plated pensions, which are far higher than those for millions of workers in the public and private sectors. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has stressed that doctors will still be able to retire on a pension of 68,000 a year, though they will have to work longer and pay higher contributions. But the most immediate concern was whether patients were suffering because of the doctors actions. The mother said she tried to get an appointment for her son at the Lawson Practice in Hackney this morning while he was being cared for at home by a relative. But they told me to come back tomorrow, said the housing worker. He got really poorly last night with a fever, a headache and boils coming up. I was also hoping to get my prescription renewed. Its really urgent. The surgery later said that her son would be offered an appointment this afternoon. The mother said her GP called to say they had assessed her son's case and had upgraded him to a severe emergency. Dr Deborah Colvin at the Lawson Practice insisted the industrial action was supported by some patients. She said: We pay double what civil servants pay for the same pension and the Government wants us to pay even more. Im doing this today on behalf of younger GPs. The patients are completely behind us. But Mr Lansley has urged doctors not to participate in the pointless strike, warning them it would achieve nothing. He said today: I cant see why anybody thinks there is any benefit in penalising patients. It wont serve any purpose whatsoever. Mr Lansley added: GPs and doctors on average retire with a pension of 43,000 a year and a lump sum, something which in the private sector would only be able to be purchased with a pension fund of about 2 million. I dont think its anything other than a generous scheme. In future it will continue to be a generous pension and it will be generous and a very good pension by comparison with others. The BMA announced the action last month after it accused ministers of pressing ahead with totally unjustified increases to pension contributions and a later retirement age for doctors, even though a deal on pensions was agreed four years ago. BMA chief Dr Hamish Meldrum said: Doctors are not asking for any special treatment, just fair treatment. 'I didn't vote for industrial action' Dr Aseem Malhotra London-based cardiologist I didnt vote for industrial action because I feel this is the wrong issue to take a stand on. This is primarily about doctors pensions at a time of austerity when other people are facing financial hardship. The BMA should have taken a much stronger stand on NHS reforms, which will affect patients as well as doctors. The Governments care bill will damage patient care. Undoubtedly, some patients today will suffer because of this day of action, especially those patients in chronic pain or who need knee or hip operations They now face a longer wait time for their operation. "This goes against my instinct, which is to provide a duty of care to my patients. Public sector pensions are important, but the timing of this is all wrong. Its an own goal for the BMA. I dont think we are going to get anything out of this: Lansley isnt going to budge. And I dont think the public is going to have much sympathy. 'We had a deal, this is a betrayal' Dr Ben Hart GP and partner at the Chrisp Street Health Centre in Poplar, the second most deprived ward in the country. This was not a decision I took lightly. I feel extremely conscious of taking any action when we are a highly paid and privileged group of individuals. The Government will argue were just chiselling for more money. But there are low-paid workers in the NHS too who are concerned about their pensions. We had a deal in 2008 agreed in good faith. This is a betrayal. Were identified as high-earning people who should buckle down along with the rest of the UK. Id be very happy to support a government campaigning to reduce inequality by paying more taxes. Id absolutely support that. But I see the Coalition as very hypocritical in reducing taxes on the super-rich. * On 29 June the following letter was published in the Standard: In your coverage of industrial action by doctors (21 June) you reported that a patient attended the Lawson Practice to seek an urgent appointment for her son who was not with her at the time and was told simply to return the following day. In fact, although our GPs were taking part in the industrial action, our staff ensured that a message was added to the 'duty doctor' list so that a doctor would ring her to take more details and decide what action was needed. This is the normal service we provide every day to enable us to prioritise requests. Our records show the duty doctor duly rang about 20 minutes later and offered an appointment at a time that suited the patient. It is upsetting to see our service inaccurately portrayed when we work very hard - including on the day of action - to make sure all patients receive safe and appropriate care. T he use of body-worn cameras was today credited with helping to reduce attacks on staff at one of Londons biggest hospital trusts. There were 219 physical assaults on nurses and other frontline staff at Guys and St Thomas hospitals between April and September last year, down from 274 in the same period a year earlier. Security guards began wearing cameras in 2016 after the total number of incidents including verbal assaults rose 27 per cent to 850 between April and September that year. The trust is working with the Met to encourage staff to report assaults and threats from patients and visitors. Staff have also been given advice on how to de-escalate potential flashpoints. There has also been an increase in the number of patients excluded from the trust due to their conduct, up from 28 to 29. This means they will receive only emergency treatment. Exclusions result from breaking behaviour contracts issued to disruptive patients and visitors. The number issued rose from 140 to 236 over the same six months last year. The A&E at St Thomas, which treats many casualties from the West End, is a hotspot for incidents. Dame Eileen Sills, chief nurse at Guys and St Thomas, said: We want staff to feel safe and supported when they come to work any unprovoked violence and aggression towards staff is unacceptable. Kings College hospital, in Denmark Hill, also provides guards with cameras. A hospital spokeswoman said that while it had not seen a decline in assaults, the video footage had helped to secure convictions in court. A young woman was reported to police for assault after she broke the nose of a man who groped her on New Years Eve. The 21-year-old Austrian was celebrating in Viennas City Hall Square when she was allegedly touched on the bottom by a 20-year-old Afghan migrant. In response, the woman turned around and hit him in the face, breaking his nose. He was taken to hospital and charged with sexual harassment. The man is said to have groped several other women during the evening, according to local police. A spokesman for the Viennese Police said: A 20-year-old Afghani is suspected of having seized several women on the buttocks on New Year's Eve at the Town Hall Square. When he did this with a 21-year-old Austrian, the woman may have beaten him in reflex, causing him a broken nose. The 20-year-old suspect, who was reported on suspicion of sexual harassment, was taken to hospital. A young man has been stabbed in a fight near a bus garage in south London. Scotland Yard said a 27-year-old man had been airlifted to hospital after being attacked at Stockwell bus garage on Monday afternoon. The area has been sealed off by police while investigations are carried out. They later said the victim's injuries were "not life-threatening or life-changing." A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: Police were called at 1.35pm to Stockwell bus garage, SW4 to a report of a fight at the location between two men. The bus garage is cordoned off following the attack just after 1.30pm on Monday / Google Maps On arrival police found a 27-year-old man suffering stab injuries. Londons Air Ambulance attended the scene and have taken the victim to a south London hospital. The severity of the victims injuries is not known at this time. Cordons are in place around Binfield Road. No arrests have been made. Enquiries are ongoing. A spokesman from Go Ahead London, who operate the garage, added: "I can confirm the incident took place close to, but off-site from, Stockwell Garage and it was a non-bus related matter, in that it didn't involve any members of staff or passengers. "Local bus services are also operating normally." Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call police on 101 quoting CAD/3272 or contact via Twitter @MetCC. T he father of a 24-year-old who was killed on a speedboat said he suspects police "haven't got a clue" about the whereabouts of her fugitive killer. Jack Shepherd, 31, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence at the Old Bailey after a trial in his absence, and has been on the run for almost 10 months. The web designer faces six years' imprisonment over the December 2015 incident when his speedboat capsized during a late-night cruise after a champagne-fulled first date on the River Thames. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Graham Brown said he had "no confidence" the authorities were looking for Shepherd. Charlotte Brown was killed in a speedboat crash on the River Thames whilst on a date with Jack Shepherd / Metropolitan Police/PA Wire He told the paper: "They've posted him missing on Interpol and that's about it. "I would question what kind of priority and resources they're putting into finding him." Mr Brown added that he did not understand why a friend or family member has not told Shepherd to face justice, saying: "If my son had done this, I would be calling for him to give himself up." Police conceded last week they are not aware of the whereabouts of Shepherd, and said he may be using bank accounts belonging to friends to fund his life on the run. A murder probe has been launched after a married couple were found dead at their home in east London. Simbiso Aretha Moula, 39, and her husband Garikayi Moula, 51, were found dead in their home in Lower Mardyke Avenue, Rainham, on Friday. Post mortem examinations found the woman died from compression of the neck. Police said the mans death is not being treated as suspicious. The Metropolitan Police said the couple's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by officers. Nobody else is being sought in connection with their deaths. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Considine said: "I would like to thank those members of the public with whom we have spoken as part of our inquiry thus far. "We are ensuring that next of kin are being fully supported at this most difficult of times. P olice are still hunting a "slim Asian man, dressed in black" who stole a car with a 17-month old toddler inside after she was found safely about three hours after she was taken. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police have appealed for help to trace the thief after the Audi A5 was taken at around 4.35pm on Sunday. Maria Tudorica was sitting in the passenger seat when a man - purporting to be interested in buying the vehicle - took the car from Nine Acres Close in Newham. The car was ditched without the child as police searched frantically, but police said at about 8pm that she had been found "safe and well". It also emerged today that the toddler was wearing extra clothes when she was found, leading police to believe that either the thief or a member of the public gave her extra clothing to keep warm after she was abandoned. The scene in Nine Acres Close, Newham, east London, as police searched for Maria / PA The car had been found abandoned in Hathaway Crescent at 5.53pm. Officers said on Monday that Maria was last seen wearing a white top and red trousers, but was found wearing "an additional item of clothing". Police said the baby girl was wearing a white top and red bottoms Scotland Yard said: "Officers believe that either the suspect put the clothing on the child before abandoning her, or that a member of the public dressed her due to the cold, but who at the time did not wish to contact police." In a statement, the force added: "Detectives would also like to hear from anyone who saw the black Audi between the time it was stolen and when it was found. "Where was the car for these 80 minutes? If you captured the vehicle on your dashcam please contact police." Maria's car trader uncle, Gheorghe Stelica, told the Press Association he felt "born again" after learning she had been located. Earlier that day, he had asked his brother, 35-year-old Claudia Stelica, who is Maria's father, to show the car to the prospective buyer as a favour because he was out of London. Anyone with information is asked to contact police via 101 quoting reference 4480/6Jan. A woman was found dead and three other people are fighting for life in hospital after another weekend of bloodshed in London. Scotland Yard launched its fourth murder inquiry of the New Year after the woman, in her mid-30s, was found dead at a block of flats in east London on Saturday evening. A 32-year-old man, who is known to the victim, was arrested at the scene and is being questioned by police in custody. Police say they are treating the death as suspicious and a post mortem examination will be carried out to establish how the woman died. Neighbours in the modern Baltimore Wharf block in East Ferry Road on the Isle of Dogs said they were shocked after the womans body was discovered. Police remained at the scene this morning. Another murder inquiry has been launched into the death of a 50-year-old woman in Hobday Street in Tower Hamlets. The death on December 30 was originally treated as unexplained but a special post mortem examination found the victim had been strangled. There have been no arrests. He was taken by air ambulance to a major trauma centre in east London after the stabbing at 2.30pm, and remained in a critical condition in hospital this morning. A man arrested on suspicion of GBH today remained in custody. Another young man, 26, was in a critical but stable condition in hospital today after being stabbed a number of times in Field Road, Forest Gate, at about 2pm on Saturday. A man was arrested on suspicion of GBH. In another incident a 39-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted by a male driver in a possible road rage attack in Gants Hill, Redbridge. Police arrested a 54-year-old man who was driving a Toyota Yaris that collided with the womans Kia Picanto at about 6.50pm on Friday. A father fatally stabbed as he travelled on a train from Guildford to London with his teenage son was knifed nine times, a court heard today. IT firm owner Lee Pomeroy, 51, had been taking his 14-year-old son for a day-trip ahead of his 52nd birthday when he was stabbed on the 12.58pm service from Guildford to Waterloo on Friday. Today Darren Shane Pencille appeared in court charged with his murder. Pencille, 35, was also charged with possession of an offensive weapon. The defendant appeared in the dock at Staines Magistrates Court today wearing glasses and a prison-issue grey tracksuit. Lee Pomeroy (British Transport Police ) / British Transport Police He stood in the dock to confirm his name, date of birth and that he was British, telling magistrates he had no address during a hearing lasting just over two minutes Pencille then addressed magistrates from his seat, telling them: Innocent until proven guilty. (Elizabeth Cook/PA ) / Elizabeth Cook/PA He said: Im paranoid. Im hearing voices. Chelsea Mitchell also appeared at the magistrates court charged with assisting an offender (Elizabeth Cook/PA ) / Elizabeth Cook/PA According to witnesses the men were involved in a three to four minute row, moving through the carriage and into another before the attack. Pencille did not enter pleas and chair of the bench Helen Mattey remanded him in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court later today. Staines Magistrates' Court where Darren Shane Pencille appeared in the dock this morning / PA Chelsea Mitchell, 27, of Willbury Road, Farnham, also appeared at the magistrates court charged with assisting an offender. The court heard that she is the partner of Pencille. The charge stated that the mother-of-one helped the alleged killer leave the scene and to change his appearance. Prosector Sally Lakin said Mr Pomeroy had been stabbed nine times by Pencille after a row on the train. Mitchell was also was remanded in custody to appear alongside Pencille to Guildford Crown Court this afternoon. Police were called at 1.15pm to Horsley station on Friday and paramedics battled to save Mr Pomeroy, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr Pomeroy was described by his family as an honourable man and would always help somebody who was in trouble. In a statement, the family said he was a cultured man, who loved his 50-year-old wife Svetlana Pomeroy. The statement said: He was an honest, bright person, who loved music very much, he knew history and art and he was a bachelor of science in Maths. He was devoted family man and did everything for his family. He was an honourable man and would always help somebody who was in trouble. K evin Spacey has appeared in court today accused of groping a young man at a bar in 2016. The Oscar-winning actor had to push through a crowd of journalists and cameras as he arrived at Massachusetts district court on the resort island of Nantucket. The 59-year-old actor faces charges including a felony indecent assault and battery charge. He did not enter a plea but has previously said he plans to plead not guilty. The judge set another hearing for March 4 and said that Spacey does not need to appear but must be available by phone. The judge ordered that he must stay away from the alleged victim throughout the proceedings. He also granted a request by Spacey's lawyers to preserve the victim's cellphone data for six months after the alleged assault. Spacey's Attorney Alan Jackson said there is data that is "likely exculpatory" for Spacey. Kevin Spacey pushes through a crowd of journalists outside Massachusetts district court / Reuters Spacey appeared relaxed and happy as he sat in the courtroom for the hearing which lasted a matter of minutes. It is the first criminal case brought against Spacey since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. In court: Kevin Spacey / Sky News The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the ex-House of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in a crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teen worked as a busboy. Spacey's lawyer, Alan Jackson, has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager didn't immediately report the allegations. If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison. The civil attorney for the accuser said in a statement ahead of the hearing that his client is "leading by example." Kevin Spacey is led into court by police / EPA "By reporting the sexual assault, my client is a determined and encouraging voice for those victims not yet ready to report being sexually assaulted," said lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of clergy sexual abuse victims. Garabedian is not a part of the criminal case against Spacey. After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix's House Of Cards, in which he said: "I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn't do." It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. K atie Price today denied drunkenly crashing her 75,000 pink Range Rover into another car after her ex-boyfriends birthday bash. The 40-year-old former glamour model is accused of being almost twice the legal drink drive limit when her car bumped into another vehicle and ended up in a hedge on October 10 last year. She pleaded not guilty to the allegation this morning, insisting she could not have been driving the vehicle at the time of the early hours incident in Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich. Mother-of-five Price was breathalysed at the scene of the crash and had 69 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath - almost twice the legal drink drive limit, it is said. Katie Price denied being behind the wheel at the time of the crash / PA District Judge Nigel Dean told the court this morning: The issue in this case is whether Miss Price was legally in charge of the vehicle. She relies on the statutory defence - that there was no likelihood of driving while the level of alcohol exceeded the prescribed limit. The court heard the owner of the car that was hit found pink paint on the bodywork the following morning. He concluded an accident of some sort had occurred and made enquiries, added the judge. CCTV appeared to show Ms Prices Range Rover in the vicinity of his car. Price spent the previous evening at her ex-boyfriend's birthday / PA Price had spent the previous evening at ex-boyfriend Kris Boysons 30th birthday party at a Turkish restaurant and bar. She was arrested more than an hour after police arrived at the scene of the crash, at around 1.40am, and was detained for 13 hours at a police station before being released. Price was charged last month and stayed tightlipped as she was escorted by security into court this morning for the hearing. She wore large sunglasses to cover her face and a grey and maroon fluffy jacket. She asked for permission from the judge to not say her address out loud in court, as her lawyer claimed she has been trying to become anonymous for some time. But Judge Dean refused her request, saying: All defendants are treated equally. Price was previously banned from driving for six months in February last year, after she was caught speeding in West Sussex. She faces a second court hearing later this week in Crawley over claims she got behind the wheel before that ban had expired. Price, from Horsham, Surrey, pleaded not guilty to the charge of bring drunk in charge of a motor vehicle. A gay couple had hot coffee thrown over them by a woman in a homophobic attack after they asked her to move her bag from a seat, police said. Two men who had boarded a Hammersmith and City line train at Plaistow during rush hour asked a woman if she could move her bag from a seat so they could sit down, according to British Transport Police. However, the woman began shouting homophobic abuse in response, the force said. She then threw a cup of coffee at the victims and before hitting one of the men in the face repeatedly, according to police. One of the men was left with swelling to his lip and minor injuries to his arm after the attack at 7.25am on August 9. The woman left the Tube train at Bromley-by-Bow station. Police have now released a picture of a woman who they want to speak in connection with the investigation. I n the UK, we are lucky to have an average of 25 days annual leave each year. Singaporeans have seven days, Filipinos have just five and, technically, Americans have zero as its the discretion of the employer but most US workers have around 10 days of annual leave each year. With around five full weeks of leave, this means we have plenty of time to play with for holidays. But, by booking some strategic days off in 2020, you could effectively double 15 of your annual leave days to have 35 days off. Below is a guide for how to make the most of your annual leave days in 2020. Easter weekend People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}} Days to book off: April 14, 15, 16 and 17. By Easter, Brits are usually ready for a holiday after the relentless UK winter. The best way to make the most of your annual leave days is to utilise the days off around the Easter weekend. By taking the four days after Easter Monday off, you can treat yourself to a 10-day holiday. Any bank holiday weekend Days to book off: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after the bank holiday weekend. Take your pick of the Early May, Spring or August bank holiday and turn it into a week-long jaunt to some place new. By taking four days off following the bank holiday (or before if you choose the Early May bank holiday), you can turn these four days annual leave into a nine-day vacation. Best hotel openings of 2020 - in pictures 1 /53 Best hotel openings of 2020 - in pictures The Legian Sire in Lombok, Indonesia Click through the gallery to see the best new hotel openings of 2020 ... LHW Hotels The Legian Sire in Lombok, Indonesia LHW Hotels The Legian Sire in Lombok, Indonesia LHW Hotels The Legian Sire in Lombok, Indonesia LHW Hotels The Hoxton, Rome in Italy The Hoxton Pendry West Hollywood in Los Angeles, USA Preferred Hotels Pendry West Hollywood in Los Angeles, USA Preferred Hotels Hotel Villa Dagmar in Stockholm, Sweden Preferred Hotels Riggs Washington D.C., USA Lore Group Riggs Washington D.C., USA Lore Group Montage Healdsburg in California, USA Preferred Hotels Kisawa Sanctuary, Mozambique Kisawa Sanctuary Kisawa Sanctuary, Mozambique Kisawa Sanctuary Kalesma in Mykonos, Greece Kalesma Kalesma in Mykonos, Greece Kalesma Aman, New York Aman Hotels The Sense Experience Resort in Tuscany, Italy Preferred Hotels Ruby Lucy, London Generic Ruby Hotel picture shown Ruby Hotels Ruby Lucy, London Generic Ruby Hotel picture shown Ruby Hotels Six Senses Shaharut in the Negev Desert, Israel Six Senses Six Senses Shaharut in the Negev Desert, Israel Six Senses Six Senses Shaharut in the Negev Desert, Israel Six Senses W Bali - Ubud, Indonesia Marriott Hotels Xigera Safari Lodges in the Okavango Delta, Botswana Xigera Xigera Safari Lodges in the Okavango Delta, Botswana Xigera Can Ferrereta, Mallorca Can Ferrereta Bawah Reserve in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia Bawah Reserve Bawah Reserve in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia Bawah Reserve Bawah Reserve in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia Bawah Reserve Six Senses Fort Barwara in Rajasthan, India Six Senses Six Senses Fort Barwara in Rajasthan, India Six Senses OZO Maldives, Maldives ONYX Hospitality Group Arctic Bath in Swedish Lapland, Sweden Arctic Bath Arctic Bath in Swedish Lapland, Sweden Arctic Bath Zedwell in London, UK Zedwell Villa Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark Villa Copenhagen Villa Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark Villa Copenhagen Villa Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark Villa Copenhagen The Guardsman in London, UK The Guardsman The Guardsman in London, UK The Guardsman The Guardsman in London, UK The Guardsman Raffles Udaipur, India and Raffles Bali, Indonesia Images to come. Pictured: Raffles Maldives Raffles Melia Saidia Residences in Saidia, Morocco Melia Melia Saidia Residences in Saidia, Morocco Melia ME Dubai in Dubai, UAE ME Dubai ME Dubai in Dubai, UAE ME Dubai Hilton Garden Inn, Faroe Islands Hilton Bvlgari Hotel Paris, France Bvlgari The Londoner, England The Londoner Pan Pacific London, England Pan Pacific Hotels The Mayfair Townhouse in London, England Iconic Luxury Hotels The Mayfair Townhouse in London, England Iconic Luxury Hotels The Mayfair Townhouse in London, England Iconic Luxury Hotels Christmas 2020 Days to book off: December 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31. To get two weeks (and three weekends) off work next year or 16 days in total youll need to use seven days of annual leave. Considering Christmas falls on a Friday this year and Boxing Day will be recognised the following Monday, simply take four days off during the week before Christmas and three days off the following week. As New Years Day falls on a Friday, it means you wont be back at work until January 4, 2021. A s we set off from Christchurch International Airport in a rusty orange Mahindra, a compact SUV made in India, city scenery is quickly eclipsed by every shade of green imaginable. We have just embarked on a week-long road trip through the South Island of New Zealand, which is nowhere near enough time to see everything. Stretching about 150,000sq km roughly half the size of the UK the South Island is a 13-hour drive from top to bottom without stopping. But youll want to stop... every five minutes. After all, this is a far-flung land of forested mountains, staggering cliffs, heroic fiords, inviting vineyards and countless winding roads. For starters, theres the Lewis Pass in the north, which leads to hot springs retreats and oceanside viewing points for whale-spotting; the Lindis Pass in the centre, which cuts through spectacular mountains and lakes; and the Great Coast Road in the west, punctuated by gorges and glaciers. To see a fraction of what the South Island has to offer, youll need time and a car or a campervan. From north to south, here are 10 of the most striking natural wonders along the way. Marlborough Sounds People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}} Head north from Christchurch if your idea of an ideal holiday revolves around vineyards, national parks and sandy stretches of coastline. In the South Islands northern Marlborough region youll get a little of everything by tracing State Highway One up the eastern coast and into wine country. This is one of the best places in the world to sample crisp sauvignon blanc from award-winning vineyards such as Hunters, Jackson Estate, Cloudy Bay Vineyards or Spy Valley Wines, not to mention ample opportunities to pull over for hot springs, fishing, hiking and kayaking. Further north, make your way to the Marlborough Sounds about 150km of coastline thats known for its river valleys, green hills and whale-watching opportunities. These are mainly from October to March. Akaroa A former French settlement on the Banks Peninsula, Akaroa overlooks a photogenic harbour about an hour- and-a-halfs drive south-east from Christchurch. Formed by the eruptions of two volcanoes millions of years ago, the area is home to unique natural scenery think sea caves, sheer cliffs and ancient lava flows as well as a harbour thats teeming with marine life. For those keen to see wildlife up close, take a two-hour harbour tour on a catamaran. Several companies, including Black Cat Cruises, will show you New Zealand fur seals soaking up the sun, waddling white-flippered blue penguins (the worlds smallest) and dolphins bowing beside the boat. Arthurs Pass National Park As one of the major highways connecting Christchurch and the west coast, Arthurs Pass will lead you to breathtaking scenery as it weaves through beech forests, the Canterbury Plains and the Canterbury National Park. Inching into the mountains, youll spot limestone boulders, wild flowers, Alpine lakes, deep gorges and glistening glaciers. Stop at the parks main village for lunch before stretching your legs with the Dobson Nature Walk or the Devils Punchbowl Waterfall. The Great Coast Road Peppered with 19th-century gold-rush towns, the 600km Great Coast Road runs like a spine down the west coast of the South Island. In the most dramatic stretches, narrow roads trace sharp cliffs while the Tasman Sea pummels rocky beaches hundreds of metres below. On other legs of the journey youre driving at sea level so close to the water you can almost see it lapping at the car door. Then theres the Punakaiki pancake rocks, where a short walking path takes you past 30-million-year-old cliffs, whose layers of hard limestone and softer sandstone have been eroded and compressed over time. As a result, big boulders look like theyve been sliced up into slivers of hot cakes. This natural phenomenon has created several geyser-like blowholes vertical shafts that erupt with plumes during high tide. Another pit stop is the Hokitika Gorge, which is surrounded by dense forest and limestone mountains. The waters colour will depend on the time of your visit. Its a milky blue-grey colour after it rains, or a vivid shade of turquoise on a clear day. Fox Glacier For most travellers, the highlights of the west coast are the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Fox Glacier is the larger of the two, stretching 13km long and hundreds of metres deep. 41 stunning places and things to see in New Zealand - in pictures 1 /41 41 stunning places and things to see in New Zealand - in pictures Mt Cook Unsplash A beach near Nelson Shutterstock Roy's Peak Unsplash Queenstown Shutterstock Lake Tekapo Pixabay Hot Water Beach, Coromandel Shutterstock Hobbiton Unsplash Pelorus River, near Nelson Shutterstock Cape Reinga Unsplash Hokitika Gorge Unsplash Lake Tekapo Unsplash Hooker Valley Track Unsplash Fiordland National Park Unsplash Split Apple Rock, Abel Tasman Unsplash Auckland City Unsplash Hooker Lake Unsplash Wharariki Beach Unsplash Kea (native bird) in Arthur's Pass Unsplash Mount Maunganui Beach, Tauranga Unsplash Hooker Valley Swingbridge Unsplash Lake Pukaiki Unsplash Lupins, found in the South Island Unsplash Lindis Pass Unsplash Lake Pukaiki Unsplash Milford Sounds Unsplash Mount Aspiring National Park Unsplash Homer Tunnel, Fiordland National Park Unsplash Lindis Pass Unsplash Cape Reinga Unsplash Mount Cook Unsplash Maori Bay Unsplash Auckland Unsplash Skippers Canyon Pixabay Marlborough Sounds Pixabay Sheep (you'd be hard-pressed not to find any) Pixabay Lake Tekapo Pixabay Wellington Pixabay Milford Sounds Pixabay Bridal Veil Falls Pixabay Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki Pixabay Mount Cook Pixabay Franz Josef Glacier Franz Josef, half an hours drive from Fox, is another blue river of ice which looks look it has spilled into rocky river beds below. Just five kilometres away from Franz Josef Glacier is the town of the same name. Depending on weather conditions, its possible to explore the glaciers ethereal ice caves with accredited guides such as Franz Josef Glacier Guides, which also offers glacier heli hikes, hot-pool visits and challenging ice climbs. Both glaciers are easy to access, thanks to footpaths through ancient river valleys that lead to the mammoth mounds of ice. The Southern Lakes In the heart of the South Island, in Central Otago, the Lindis Pass weaves between the islands majestic lakes and valleys on the way to Queenstown. Not only will the scenery have you hitting the brakes every few minutes to snap pictures, but youll also find yourself on a detour to explore the regions wineries. Stop on the banks of Lake Tekapo in the early evening and watch the sun disappear behind the mountains. As the sky explodes, the rich, sherbert shades are reflected on the water. Dark Sky Reserve Also in the lakes region youll find the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, one of the largest in the world. Thanks to the absence of light pollution and professional telescopes, its one of the best places to see the Magellanic Clouds, Southern Cross, Milky Way and extrasolar planets. If you visit between March and September you also have a good chance of catching the Aurora Australis, known as the Southern Lights. More stargazing can be done in Mackenzie Country, within the reserve, where the SkyScape retreat has a glass-roofed cottage framing the stars. Milford Sound One of the most challenging but rewarding drives in the South Island is the mountain road to Milford Sound through the Fiordland National Park. This is the edge of the world, tucked away on the western tip. With mountains on all sides, youll feel dwarfed by snowy peaks and sky-high waterfalls. From Queenstown, the drive to the Unesco World Heritage site takes four hours each way. But youll want time for the Mirror Lakes, Cascade Creek, Hollyford Valley Lookout, the three-hour Marion Track, the Chasm gorge, or the three-hour Key Summit Hike through the rainforest. On reaching the Sound, most travellers opt for a two-hour harbour cruise around the fiord to see seals, waterfalls and mountain scenery. Its best to take off early, bring tyre chains, fuel, food, snacks and warm clothes. Or you could consider breaking up the drive with a stay in Te Anau, a picture-perfect town thats home to the largest lake on the South Island, glowworms caves, endangered birds and glacial valleys. The Catlins In the south-eastern corner of the South Island, the Catlins is all about wildlife. As you trace the rocky coastline youll encounter countless reasons to veer off the main road. For starters, follow the signs for Catlins Forest Park, home to easy walking trails and two roaring waterfalls. F irst impressions The Langdale Hotel sits in the heart of the Lake District. Look out for sheep wandering across the road from Ambleside, a 15-minute drive away. Craggy outcrops of granite stud the rolling upland fields, with the Brathay river to your left. This is the real Lakes. The four-star Langdale Hotel is part of an estate that includes the Brimstone Spa, Stove bar and restaurant, Wainwrights Inn and several timeshare holiday homes. It almost feels like an Alpine resort in summer. Looks Low-lying buildings use local slate and granite to blend into the landscape. By contrast, the interiors are metropolitan in style with velvet sofas and retro chairs. The rooms are spacious, with superking beds, and the decor is a mix of purple, raspberry and charcoal grey. We made a beeline for the island bar inside Stove, where we sipped a delicious Bedrock Bramble cocktail (Bedrock gin, lemon juice, sugar gomme and Briottet creme de mure). Feel The Langdales relaxed vibe creates a welcoming environment for families. Our baby slept in his buggy as we enjoyed dinner at Stove. Stone-baked pizzas can be taken to your room if you really want to hide away. People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}} Extras A visit to the spa is a must. Sweat it out in the lava sauna and Himalayan salt steam room before taking a dip in the outdoor relaxation pool. For workout junkies theres a 20-metre pool and a small gym. As well as the impressive bar, Stove features a double-sided log-burner within the dry-stone chimney breast and a theatre kitchen complete with open chefs table and a recessed wood-fired oven. The food is comforting and contemporary. Starters include baked queen scallops and pickled mackerel. But I had to leave space for the 12oz sirloin and triple-cooked chips... Outside Its easy to see why William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter drew inspiration from the Lakes. A short stroll takes you to Elterwater, an impossibly pretty village. Hikers can do a three-hour walk to Bowfell, and on to Skafell Pike. For a different experience, enjoy an adrenaline-pumping guided 4x4 experience (graythwaiteadventure.co.uk). Getting there Its a six-hour car drive from London, or three hours on the train to Windermere. Virgin Trains go to Oxenholme. In a nutshell P rincess Fahrelnissa Zeid was a Turkish artist known for her larger-than-life portraits and abstract patterns, and todays Google Doodle celebrates the incredible mark she made on the art world on what wouldve been her 118th birthday. The princess lived a life as colourful as her work, marrying into royalty and living through the birth of modern Turkey under the leader Attaturk. After hosting a fascinating exhibition of her work in 2017, Tate Modern called her one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century." Here, we take a look back at her life and some of her most memorable work: Who was Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid? Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid was renowned for fusing Islamic and Byzantine traditions with influences from the West. Born into an aristocratic Ottoman family in the early 1900s, she was one of the first women to attend the Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul and one of the countrys first modern women painters. After marrying into the Jordanian royal family, she went on to travel the world, attending art school in Paris and exhibiting in London. Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern 1 /6 Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Resolved Problems, 1948 Raad bin Zeid Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Untitled c.1950s Raad bin Zeid Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Third Class Passengers, 1943 Raad bin Zeid Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Fahrelnissa Zeid in her studio, Paris, c.1950s Samuel Cole, Tate Photography Raad bin Zeid Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Fight against Abstraction, 1947 Raad bin Zeid Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern Triton Octopus, 1953 Raad bin Zeid Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Whilst living in Istanbul, she became part of the avant-garde scene and would later become best known for her large-scale abstract paintings. Settling in Jordan, she founded the Royal National Jordanian Institute Fahrelnissa Zeid of Fine Arts in 1976 and for the next fifteen years tutored young women until her death in 1991. What was her most famous work? Today's Google Doodle commemorates Fahrelnissa Zeid / Google The commemorative Google Doodle is based on her 1948 masterpiece, Resolved Problems, memorializing the artists full embrace of the abstract form with its kaleidoscopic mix of blue, red, yellow, green, purple and white spaces. Commenting on her move towards abstract painting, she said: I did not intend to become an abstract painter; I was a person working very conventionally with forms and values. But flying by plane transformed meThe world is upside down. A whole city could be held in your hand: the world seen from above. W ANTED: popular London burger group seeks ambitious, flexible person with initiative, who can manage and serve people with ease, works well under pressure, and mucks in with any task. Layla Williams is what is known as a shift runner (a junior line manager in effect) in the Warren Street branch of Honest Burgers. The above skills are just some of those required for her role. Williams development has been amazing, according to Oli Cavaliero, head of recruitment at the now 29-strong group of restaurants started by Phil Eales and Tom Barton in 2011. But if Id asked her eight months ago whether she thought shed be fit for the task, shed have shaken her head. Honest saw something in me that I didnt - which is actually quite hard for me to say, she says during our meeting. Back in February last year, Williams was an inmate at Downview womens prison in Surrey, having been charged with supply two and a half years earlier. Food. Bars. Going out. Delivered weekly Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}} It felt like a lot longer than two and a half years, though - because in there youre so isolated and you have so much time. Youre just thinking, thinking, thinking, she says. Williams met Cavaliero, somewhat accidentally, through the charity Working Chance, which creates long-term job opportunities for young women who have been in prison or care. Part of its work involves inviting businesses to offer skills workshops, such as interviewing training, which Cavaliero describes as a chance to help the ladies grow their confidence and help them disclose why theyre inside. Layla Williams, landed her job at Honest Burgers through Working Chance, prefers not to be photographed (Honest Burgers) / Honest Burger Cavaliero happened to have been put in touch with someone who asked him along to a session one day, and it was there that he and a colleague were introduced to Williams. Going there was honestly one of the best working days of my life. It was so inspirational As a result of it we hired someone 18 months ago who was been working in one of our kitchens, we hired someone amazing last week and we met Layla, who has been brilliant. Williams admits she was nervous about the first interview, but that on seeing Cavalieros colleague, Ruby, I knew it was fine. Because when I was inside wed done these things called Ice Breakers where you have to dress up in toilet roll and shed been on my team - so that broke the ice between us! Today, having passed the interview stage and gone through an extensive but supportive training process, at first on day release - Id be let out at 10am and had to be back by 11pm - and later working full-time, Williams says she has less time for looking back. Instead she prefers to crack on at the restaurant. Im in a much better place now. [This has] let me find myself again. Find who I was. And it was just like [becoming] a normal person again and being treated like one, she continues. Meanwhile, she describes how her two children, currently based in Williams hometown of Swansea in Wales, are very excited - glad to see a change in me, really. Indeed, Williams daily routine has changed significantly - going from not knowing what the future held, to becoming a waitress, to having responsibilities like setting up a restaurant, doing staff shift briefs (including all health and safety aspects), taking occasional orders and checking in on customers. At closing time, she does the reverse, making sure everything is tidied away, and, in addition, she looks for opportunities to collaborate with local businesses and looks after the front of house and kitchen staff during service, making sure everyone is doing alright. It seems like a long list, but Cavaliero reckons that boiling it down to these tasks is Layla underselling herself a bit. In order to be a shift runner for Honest Burgers, a candidate is selected into a group of only 15 other people from across the country. Next they head into an eight-week course, where they are expected to undertake weekly tasks in the restaurant, including spending time on the grill and at the kitchen pass, and get assessed at every stage. So its not an easy path! But another thing that is important is that Layla is recognised as being really great at something we call Old School Hospitality. Thats about looking for opportunities to surprise customers - a burger or a glass of wine on the house maybe - which is hard to pinpoint. Layla is really good at this and the team have learnt a lot from her. Youve got to build the teams confidence to help them understand how to do it. Was it obvious to Williams at the start how this sort of hospitality worked? Ive learnt a lot myself doing it. The thing is that some customers are here for a night out and want to have fun, some are with their family and want quiet time, and will expect [you to get] that. And some want to chat to you. I always pick up on what they need straight away - I think you just kind of get it, she laughs. (Honest Burgers) Overall Williams sees the job as challenging but rewarding and she thrives when its busy - even if that means having to buy new trainers every few months because of all the time spent on her feet. On a busy night like a Thursday or a Friday well have up to six of us on the floor, and I love it. The atmosphere is great and full of energy and Ive always got a general manager above me if I need support. But I love the buzz - I really bounce off it and other people. I love it here. [Honest] are amazing people to work for and we just work as a team I started here as a waitress [and] it had been about three years since Id had a job. And this got me back into normality to be honest. Cavaliero alongside Honests founders Eales and Barton - who have also started a project hiring and training people who have been homeless - is keen to emphasise that while the partnership with Working Chance started accidentally, it has continued because we saw some great people and thought what an amazing source of skills [it was] For us its about finding people with skills who can add value to any team. I think the world of recruiting is changing so were trying to broaden our horizons in how and who were employing. Im really passionate about it - I could talk about it for days! I ask Cavaliero where Warren Streets best shift runner might head next: There is so much opportunity for you at the next level up - as a manager, he tells her. Its probably hard for our managers to recognise their own skills, but all of them have to be pretty ambitious [and proud of what they do and of the team] which is something you probably didnt realise you were when you started. Then, to me: Layla is a real leader - all our managers are. She just gets stuck in. So does she want to get stuck into making plans for the future? Well Ive only been in London since I got out [of Downview]. My original plan was to work, earn some money and go back home to Wales. And now I just really want to go to Wales with Honest because we havent got anything like this there. 108 Garage Without the furniture, this place really does look like somewhere you can park your car which makes sense for a restaurant located in a former garage. Its known for innovative, seasonal plates that change on a regular basis. Chef Chris Denney originally trained in fine arts, but jumped career paths and worked his way up to a triple-Michelin star kitchen, Piazza Duomo in Alba. Here, his dishes are intelligent and forward-thinking, with plates like the lamb chops with fermented cabbage and liquorice. This is somewhere to fall in love with: the food is beautifully done and gorgeously presented, with a wine list that's just as fine and delicate too. Definitely one to try. W PP chief executive Mark Read on Tuesday admitted that the business had become unwieldy as he set out a radical evolution to bring it to heel, a plan that will cost 300 million and lead to 3500 job cuts. Industry criticism of WPP under Sir Martin Sorrell had it that the company was so sprawling that it was frequently competing with itself for trade. Read on Tuesday confirmed that diagnosis, saying the ad giant was too unwieldy, with too much duplication as a result, it is not always as focused or as fleet of foot as it needs to be. The 300 million cost over three years will pay for property closures and redundancies. The 3500 jobs will be lost from a total of 134,000 in 110 countries. Around 1000 new jobs, probably in digital roles, will be created, and acquisitions are on the agenda. Read said that WPP will be buying things we dont have, rather than buying a new version of what weve already got, in what seems to be a clear swipe at Sorrell. WPP says that it will save costs of 275 million a year by 2021. Read said he didnt recognise industry gossip which claims WPP is losing staff and clients, confirming that the businesss top 20 staff members have not moved to rivals. However, in October WPP did lose its decades-old creative account for Ford to Omnicom a big loss. The dividend will be held at 60p and growing it rather than share buybacks will be the priority. This reassured the City somewhat. Shares rose 35p to 840p. Broker Liberum declared: new strategy in right direction, but WPP could have been more bold. WPP confirmed that it is in talks to sell a majority stake in market research business Kantar, which could raise 2 billion to cut debt. The firm is valued at 3 billion. The shake-up will see 100 offices merged and a further 80 closed. The well-known advertising brands such as Ogilvy and J Walter Thompson will be retained. Traditional ad agencies are under intense pressure from Google and Facebook. Read said that the industry is facing structural change not structural decline and that WPP will adapt at speed, to become even more client-centric. Timothee Chalamet is not only one of the most swoon-worthy guys in Hollywood but hes also a sartorial risk-taker who deftly dons out-there ensembles such as the sparkly embellished bib he wore to the Golden Globes on Sunday night with aplomb. Ever wondered where he gets his sartorial savoir faire? Well, as his mother (and date) Nicole Flender accompanied her son on the red carpet at the 76th annual Golden Globes on Sunday night wearing a logo vest and trouser set from the Spring 2019 Off-White collection, it became clear that fashion nous is in the blood. Both dressed head-to-toe in looks from streetwear designer of the moment Virgil Abloh, Chalamet and his mum might just be the coolest mother-and-son duo we have ever laid eyes on. And its not the first time that Chalamet has chosen to bring his mum as his date for an awards ceremony. Flender stood at Chalamets side on the Oscars red carpet last year when he was nominated for his breakout performance in Call Me By Your Name. People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}} Timothee Chalamet and Nicole Flender attend the 90th Annual Academy Awards / Getty Images And back in January of last year, she also accompanied him to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a ceremony she had also attended with her son five years previously, as Chalamet pointed out in a throwback pic on Instagram. That the pair should choose to wear designs by Virgil Abloh (the only seen at the Golden Globes this year) comes as no surprise given Chalamets vocal support for the designer. The young star has spoken openly about his admiration for Virgil Abloh and has supported him in both his roles as creative head for Louis Vuitton menswear and his own label Off-White. In October last year, Chalamet was one of the first to wear a monochromatic suit from Ablohs debut collection for the French fashion house. Timothee Chalamet, October 2018 / Getty Images A sparkling harness wouldnt work on everyone, but Chalamet managed to pull it off while simultaneously oozing that just-rolled-out-of-bed cool for which we love him. Timothee Chalamet's wore a sparkling harness at the Golden Globes 2019 / Getty Images In fact, the only real competition he had for coolest cat on the red carpet this time was from his style maven mother. A s the architect who restored London Zoos penguin pool in the Eighties (and as Berthold Lubetkins biographer), may I comment on your piece Pool that gave penguins sore feet may have had its day, says architects daughter, January 4. The original poolside paving was largely rubber, for the penguins comfort, but was replaced by the zoo with concrete. The original birds were an Antarctic species which preferred to huddle together but these were replaced with South American Humbolts, which prefer to burrow, thus making the original nesting quarters less suitable. In the restoration project we were required to apply a layer of quartz granules to the ramp surfaces for the benefit of the keepers but to the discomfort of the penguins. As for the idea that Lubetkins masterpiece be blown to smithereens, I trust that its grade I-listed status will preclude such vandalism and that it will continue to be enjoyed as an aquatic sculpture, even if unoccupied. John Allan EDITOR'S REPLY Dear John I agree with you that it would be an act of cultural vandalism to blow to smithereens the 1930s penguin pool at London Zoo, even if it is (as we reported last week) the somewhat patricidal suggestion of the architects daughter. On the other hand, it clearly isnt suitable on welfare grounds to house penguins these days. Surely, rather than just leave it vacant, a more imaginative use can be found for it? Your observation that the original plan, if followed, would have been more animal-friendly reminds me of plenty of projects in politics that on paper look perfect but in practice are a fiasco. Brexit, anyone? George Osborne, Editor Pronunciation of Alexander Zverev Jonathan Smith points out that English speakers make little effort to pronounce German words correctly [Achtung! German names need care, January 3]. This probably has more to do with the poor knowledge of foreign languages in this country. What he did not say is that the surname Zverev is of Slavic origin, not Germanic. Following Russian or Slavic pronunciation rules would result in Zverev with a z unlike the tsf version he suggests. Germans would mostly pronounce his name their way but I think they would understand the subtlety. Mark Gomar Improve tenants accommodation Further to your article on the quality of accommodation that certain private landlords inflict on their tenants [Fears over death-trap homes as majority of councils fail to fine rogue landlords, January 3], while your newspapers coverage is to be commended, it seems clear that the only way of improving the living conditions of such tenants is to take them out of the private sector. We need to instigate the most extensive programme of social housing construction since the end of the Second World War. Keeley-Jasmine Cavendish Is Transport Secretary Grayling all at sea? I SEE that Seaborne Freight, the company awarded a 13.8 million contract to run a ferry service from Ramsgate in the event of a no-deal Brexit, has become an object of ridicule [Brexit shipping firm in contract farce, January 3] after copying its online terms and conditions from a takeaway website. T heres a poignant moment at the end of Fiddler on the Roof the latest, brilliant, incarnation now showing at the Menier Chocolate Factory when the Jewish residents of Anatevka, having been evicted in 1905 by Tsarist troops, discuss their plans for the future. Yente the matchmaker is heading for Jerusalem. Tevye and his remaining family are going to America. Tzeitel, Tevyes oldest daughter, is on her way to Poland, though she eventually hopes to join her parents in the US. Chava, with her Russian soldier, is also off to Poland, specifically Krakow. As the Fiddler symbol of tradition walks off stage, were left to wonder. Did Tzeitel and her tailor husband make it to the US? Did Chava and her soldier bring up their children in Krakow? What happened to their families four decades later? Auschwitz is less than 50 miles from Polands second largest city. Fiddler also raises questions about citizenship, nationhood and rights. Who belongs? And what, precisely, is it that they belong to? Jews in the Pale of Settlement in the late 19th century were, at best, second-class citizens, always in danger of falling victim to vicious pogroms. At the beginning of 2019 remarkably questions of citizenship and nationhood are, once again, uppermost in peoples minds. The US government shutdown reflects an impasse between Donald Trumps demand for $5 billion to help fund construction of his wall on the Mexican border, and Congresss refusal to play ball. The President, grandson of a German immigrant, is not keen on immigrants. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has requisitioned the Royal Navy in a bid to stop the flow of migrants across the English Channel: hes presumably hoping to take back control. Our impending departure from the EU, however, will do little to make our porous borders any less porous (if anything, demographic changes taking place in Africa and the Middle East suggest the flow of migrants will only increase in decades to come). Stephen King / Alamy Stock Photo Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, spent the New Year extolling Singapores virtues yet failed to mention that Singapores success has depended hugely on immigration. Meanwhile, some of my good friends resident in the UK for decades received an unsettling Christmas present thanks to a Home Office tweet announcing that EU citizens and their families will need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK after 31 December 2020. They will have to provide proof of continuous residence defined as at least six months in any 12-month period over a five-year stretch a requirement that does not apply, of course, to British citizens, who may have lived abroad for all their lives. Then theres the issue of EU citizenship for British subjects. If youre rich enough and dont have a criminal record, you can buy your way back into the EU via citizenship-by-investment programmes. Walking through Larnaca Airport the other week, I was bombarded with advertisements offering me and my family the chance to become Cypriot. At a price. For a cool 2 million investment in local property, I could acquire Cypriot and hence EU citizenship within six months for myself, my spouse and any offspring under the age of 28. Even better, after three years, I could reduce my property investment to a mere 500,000 while maintaining my familys new Cypriot identity. "For a cool 2 million investment in local property I could acquire Cypriot and hence EU citizenship" And Cyprus is not the only option. Austria offers something similar even if the bar is somewhat less precise: you have to make a substantial capital contribution and, beyond that, demonstrate that your activities are having a direct positive impact on the Austrian economy through, for example, technology or jobs. Maltas scheme is a little cheaper than Cypruss but requires a non-returnable 650,000 contribution to the national development fund. And for those willing to take a risk, Montenegro hoping to join the EU within the next few years is cheaper still. Those with deep pockets thus dont have to worry too much about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. They can be nicely hedged: the UK might be leaving the single market but, in the event it all goes horribly wrong, rich Brexiteers can buy their way back in (even if they fail to see the irony of their new immigrant status). And for those who dislike the UK and EU in equal measure, there are other options. How about a new Caribbean life in St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada or Antigua? People move for all sorts of reasons. In the mid 19th century, skilled workers from England and Germany headed across the Atlantic, attracted by the high wages on offer in the New World. At the same time, however, those escaping the Irish potato famine made similar journeys, albeit on deadly coffin ships. They were, arguably, the equivalent of those now making perilous journeys across the Mediterranean and, in recent weeks, the English Channel. Thats why a sensible immigration policy is near impossible to implement: almost all variants will eventually crumble because we simply cannot take back control of developments beyond our frontiers that ultimately determine how porous those borders actually prove to be. Worse, by retreating behind the supposed safety of our borders, we end up dividing the world and, indeed, our own nations into them and us. We all know where the nationalism of the late 19th century ultimately led. Defining citizenship is no easy task. The EU single market established the principle of free movement of people partly in a bid to deal with the evils of the past. It may not be the most perfect system. Withdrawing from it, however, has revealed that citizenship is both precious and fragile. Some can cope with its fragility by resorting to their cheque books. For others, however, life is in danger of becoming a lot less comfortable. Tolerance is in increasingly short supply. With citizenship in doubt, tradition is suddenly important once again. As people wonder whether they still belong in their adopted countries, the fiddlers are returning. I ts time we were told Plan B. Why? Because Britain will shortly be in uncharted territory where nobody can say exactly what will happen. That was the alarming prediction from no less than the Prime Minister herself yesterday when asked what next if Parliament votes down her Brexit deal. That defeat looks as close to certain as you get in politics. The one-month delay in holding that vote has not won over the opponents or changed the parliamentary arithmetic. It has been yet another waste of precious time as Britain hurtles towards the EU exit door at the end of March with almost no arrangements to ensure continuity of our economic and security partnerships the day after. It is worth remembering what Plan A was supposed to entail. We were told in January 2018 that agreement would be reached with Brussels by the autumn to take back control of our borders, laws and money; and that it would be passed by the Commons. There would be no need for any panic or disruption, ministers reassured us, because Britains businesses and public services would know where they stood by Christmas. Now its January 2019. A deal has been signed with the EU, but (inevitably) it leaves Brussels in charge of our money, laws and borders. The Faustian pact that Theresa May made with the hard Brexiteers on entering office has failed, as they (predictably) abandon her. The delusional hope in Downing Street that moderate Labour MPs would rescue a Tory Government has evaporated. Members of the Cabinet, from the top down, are as clueless as everyone else about what happens next and the Prime Minister goes on TV and tells the nation she doesnt know either. Meanwhile, leaving the EU without a deal in less than three months time remains the default that this Government wrote into law. No wonder Whitehall is now in full-scale panic mode. Entire departments have been switched over to warlike planning for no deal. Fridges for medicines and ferries for food are being bought up, wasting taxpayers money. Todays exercise in Kent, where a Second World War airfield has been turned into an emergency lorry park, has descended into a Dads Army farce. Act of madness This national madness has to stop. Step forward more than 200 MPs, from all parties, who have tabled a parliamentary amendment that tries to remove no-deal Brexit as the default. It is a commendable effort to put Parliament in charge. But why isnt the Prime Minister providing the lead? The botched coup against her in December should have provided a moment to pivot away from the dead end she was headed down. Instead, she continues to intone that nothing has changed. Yet everyone knows that in Downing Street they are weighing up the options, although no member of the Cabinet (except the Chief Whip) is involved in that discussion. What are those options? A general election is a real possibility this year, but we can safely rule out the Prime Minister herself calling it despite an utterly useless Labour Opposition gifting her a poll lead in the midst of this chaos. She tried a snap poll in 2017, never recovered her authority, and the Tories wont let her try it again. The chances of the EU reopening the withdrawal agreement are close to zero, and the opponents of that deal know that all the talk of triple locks and additional guarantees over the backstop count for nothing unless they are legally binding (which they won't be). Hard Brexiteers wont back down they are successfully running down the clock, and the polls show the Tory membership support them and their leadership ambitions. Embracing a no-deal Brexit, for all the contingency planning, would shatter the Government and destroy the Tories prospects for a generation. S eedrs, which raises funds for start-ups, on Monday said investors ploughed a record 195 million into businesses advertised on the companys website last year a 60% increase. Big hits included Urban Massage, pictured, which raised 3.5 million last year, and an 11 million fundraise for money transfer firm Transfergo. In total 186 companies raised money through Seedrs, with 28 of them raking in more than 1 million. Seedrs chief Jeff Kelisky, an IBM and Microsoft veteran, said 2018 was a sensational year for the business, with record investment levels. Seedrs, which boasts it is equity crowdfunding done properly, also has a secondary market where punters can buy and sell their shares. Since 2017, 5,800 investments have sold. The company is backed by fund manager Neil Woodford, Faber Ventures, Augmentum Fintech and more than 2,000 customers. As an entrepreneur, its easy to buy into the build it and they will come mindset. After all, what youre building is probably what inspired you to become an entrepreneur in the first place. But no matter how much people like to attribute success to a radical idea, the fundamental key to survival for any business isnt its concept, its strategy or even its execution. No, what any new startup needs to thrive is a strong network. Related: How to Level Up Your Networking Skills and Make the Most of Every Event Relationships matter. This isnt to say that things like development and positioning arent important when building a business. They are. But who you know -- and who knows you -- is the ultimate validation in the startup world. After all, everyone who interacts with your business -- investors, customers, clients -- they all need to buy into your vision and your ability to execute it first. Just imagine, if Mark Zuckerberg had built The Facebook at a lesser known university in Montana, do you think it would have ever gotten the momentum that it did? Probably not. The relationships that you make are also important from a mentorship perspective. Seeking advice from your network can help you make the right calls to set your business up for growth. The question is, how do you build that powerful network as a founder, especially when youre building it from scratch? Put yourself out there. There is a reason why there are so many networking events for founders. Building a successful network requires putting yourself out there again and again and again. It means reaching out to friends of friends and sending countless cold emails. It means not shying away from taking a seat at any table. This may feel uncomfortable at first, but with every interaction it becomes easier to make that introduction. At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, this process didnt come naturally to me either. New to this kind of networking, I started out with a mechanical approach. I created a spreadsheet with all of my contacts and made note of every meeting -- and way that I could follow up. While this process initially helped motivate me to continue to reach out, the more I practiced and the more I talked to new people the easier it became to find an authentic rhythm with each connection. And that was the real key to making my professional relationships even stronger. In short, dont be afraid to tap into the networks that you do have -- and dont be afraid to ask who you should meet next. Related: Bold Moves and Fearless Networking Will Help You Forge Partnerships One size doesnt fit all. That said, its not enough to just put yourself out to the world. Meeting someone once doesnt mean that theyre suddenly a reliable part of your network. But, on the flip side, you need to be sure that the relationships that you continue to put time into are the most valuable for you and your business. The biggest and most frequent mistake that I see fellow entrepreneurs make is treating their contacts as if theyre all in one bucket. They spend as much time drafting an email to a lead investor as another founder, which is just crazy. Everyone you meet as a entrepreneur doesnt warrant your same attention -- and your strategy for interacting with them and cultivating those relationships shouldnt be one size fits all. Segmenting your network. Instead, you should be focusing your attention on the segments of your network that most deserve it. As an entrepreneur, Ive discovered that there are three main types of people in your network -- your advocates, your helpers and the lurkers. And they all deserve different amounts of your time and attention. 1. Advocates. The most important segment of your network is made up of your advocates and sponsors. These are the people who are putting their own social capital on the line by making introductions and advocating on your behalf. They could also be putting financial capital on the line by investing money in you and your idea. The main thing is that they are taking on risk to support you and your business. Needless to say, these relationships can be a huge propellor of success and, personally, I spend about 90 percent of my networking time managing and deepening these relationships through regular check ins and updates. This isnt to say that your advocates and sponsors should be your closest friends. But you should be keeping them up-to-date regularly enough that theyre keeping you front of mind. Related: Face-to-Face Meetings With Investors Are Important, But Don't Underestimate the Power of Written Communication 2. Helpers. Your helpers are the people who like to give you advice and whose advice you respect in return. They probably wont do much for you other than that -- either because theyre not comfortable doing so or they dont have the network or capital themselves -- but they do provide useful insight. I turn to these helpers to seek advice when needed, but I also make sure that Im giving back to these relationships. They might not be investing the capital to get you to seed or series A, but the startup community is incredibly strong. Theres no such thing as a one way street, and you can probably help them put things in perspective as well. 3. Lurkers. No matter how careful you are with the relationships that you build, the last part of any entrepreneurs network is made up of lurkers. Lurkers are people that see you hustling, but wont show up to help. These are the investors that keep blowing you off with no real explanation, the people who you thought were your friends but never come out of the woodwork to support your new endeavors. With these people, you have to be careful. Most of the time, they are dangerous and true sucks of both time and energy. And yet, its easy to get caught up with these folks even when we know that we shouldnt. Instead, I focus on quickly identifying who is a lurker so that I dont waste my time. In conclusion, whatever the size of your network, segmenting your relationships into these different types will help you build the right kind of connections that your business needs to succeed. Even better, knowing how to prioritize each part of your network will also free up time to work on your passion -- your business. Related: To Demonstrate Real Leadership, You Must Know How to Delegate How to Avoid the 3 Plagues of the Financially Disabled Building the Right Network for Your Business Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved KABUL, Afghanistan - After weeks of disarray and mixed signals, Afghan officials announced Sunday that the country's presidential election, scheduled for April 20, will be delayed by three months to ensure the polls are better organized than the chaotic parliamentary elections held in October. "April will be very difficult because of the harsh winter, transporting election materials, security, and budget issues," the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Jan Abdul Bade Sayad, said during a news conference. "To better prepare for the vote, we have decided to hold the election in July." But the reasons for the postponement went far beyond the technical glitches and insurgent attacks that marred the parliamentary poll, forcing a one-week voting delay in Kandahar province and an indefinite postponement in Ghazni province after violent attacks in both areas. For the past several months, the government of President Ashraf Ghani has been caught between two sets of competing domestic and international pressures in deciding when to hold the presidential poll, in which Ghani is expected to seek re-election for another five-year term. The main source of contention has been the recent efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, efforts that have accelerated rapidly through discussions between insurgent representatives and U.S. officials, as well as through meetings that included Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other governments. The first real progress in moving toward a settlement after 17 years of war has raised hopes among Afghans and the international community. But Ghani, who proposed several truces and meetings with the insurgents, has been largely left out of the process because the Taliban has refused to negotiate with Afghan officials. Ghani ha`s been hoping to improve his chances of re-election in April by being a champion of peace, but many of his domestic opponents and foreign backers have urged that the polls be delayed to protect the peace talks from political interference. Zalmay Khalilzad, the Trump administration's special envoy for peace, has said often that he hopes a settlement can be reached before the elections. Other government opponents had proposed that an interim caretaker government be installed to oversee the peace talks and that the Ghani administration step down in April as required by the constitution. It is not clear what will happen between April and July, but the government seems likely to extend its tenure. Until this week, Ghani has insisted the polls be held on time, but on Sunday a spokesman for his office said he welcomed the announcement by the election commission. The panel had been widely expected to announce a delay for the past several days. "The delay has no technical reason. It was the wish of America to delay the polls because of the peace process," said Abdul Shokoor Dadras, an analyst in Kabul. If the election were to be held without waiting for the results of negotiation efforts, he said, "then that may have meant the end of the peace process." --- Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report. STAMFORD Victims of a Bridgeport mans alleged bloody crime spree that included armed robberies of food delivery drivers testified Monday about the terrifying experience. A trial that could last several weeks began for Onaje Smith, 20, charged with the armed robberies of Norwalk Chinese food delivery drivers in 2016. Smith is also accused of killing Stamfords Shane Slinsky in August 2016 and shooting a man in a West Side bodega in January 2017. Food delivery driver Wuguian Huang, 41, testified about arriving to a Rolling Lane home in Norwalk on Jan. 9, 2017 when he was approached by two men dressed in black and wearing ski masks. Huang said he was holding his phone in one hand and the food in the other when one of the men shoved a gun in his chest and the other rifled through his pockets for his wallet. I will shoot if you dont give me your wallet. I will shoot, Huang recalled the man said. I was so scared, he added. He said they took the food and his wallet that contained a souvenir 100 yuan note. Assistant States Attorney Michelle Manning showed Huang the Chinese bill, worth about $15. Huang said he knew it was his because of the way it was folded. Fenyan Chen, another Chinese food delivery driver, also testified Monday about how he was robbed five days later on Derby Road in Norwalk. Chen said he could not find the house and called the number that placed the order. He said the man told him to go where a red car was parked. As Chen walked into the yard, he said he was confronted by two masked men, one carrying a gun. Chen said the gunman fired a shot, knocking the cellphone from his hand. After grabbing the food, the other man rummaged through Chens pockets. Chen testified he begged the men to not take his wallet. He said one robber told the gunman, shoot him. shoot him. Chen testified the gunman aimed the pistol at the upper part of his left leg. But before he could pull the trigger, Chen said he pushed the barrel of the pistol to the outside part of his leg, so his bone would not be struck. The bullet struck Chens left hand and the outside of his left thigh. After grabbing the $150 Chen had in cash, the pair drove off in his Toyota Camry. However, Huang and Chen admitted they could not identify the robbers. In late November, Smiths co-defendant, Tyreik Gantt, 20, of Stamford, accepted a plea deal in the case. Gantt admitted to a dozen felonies, including two counts each of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and attempted murder and single charges of arson, larceny and conspiracy to commit murder. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com Motorists are still being arrested by Stamfords wide-awake police force for failing to have 1919 Connecticut licenses. All are being dealt with severely by prosecuting attorney Kenealy, most of them being obliged to pay $10 to have the charge nulled. This is the minimum fine that can be imposed. It would be well to note that most of the offenders are from out of town. 50 years ago Stamford legislator sponsors bill for 4-year college here Legislation establishing a four-year college here is being sponsored by five Democratic state legislators from Stamford. They are state Sen. William F. Hickey Jr. and state Reps. Elmer W. Lowden, 155th AD; William E. Strada Jr., 158th AD; Thomas F. Donnelly, 159th AD; and George V. Connors, 150th AD. The legislators are asking for organized, grassroots support from all individuals, organizations, and corporations in and around the Stamford area because of the competition from other cities seeking four-year colleges. The legislation, to be introduced in about a week in the Connecticut General Assemblys upcoming session, will specifically request establishment of a four-year curriculum for the Stamford branch of the University of Connecticut, leading to the granting of a bachelors degree. 25 years ago Incinerator fly ash poses no danger, tests show Fly ash from Stamfords obsolete incinerator, which has bedeviled Shippan residents for nearly 20 years, is not a health or environmental threat, according to preliminary test results. The tests, used to measure smog, fly ash and the toxic heavy metal it contains, show levels far below those imposed by the state to protect public health and safety, according to public works officials and an environmental scientist. Although the incinerator will be closed, we are relieved that it is not producing anything toxic, Public Works Commissioner Michael Pavia said. erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2665; @erin_kayata Rice University physicists reported the first laser-cooled neutral plasma, a breakthrough that could lead to simulators for exotic states of matter that occur at the center of Jupiter or white dwarf stars. Researchers who make the coldest plasmas in the universe just found a way to make them even colder by blasting them with lasers. The scientists cooled the plasma to around 50-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, about 50 times colder than in deep space. This chilly plasma could reveal how similar plasmas behave at the centers of white dwarf stars and deep in the core of gas planets like our cosmic neighbor, Jupiter, researchers reported in a new study. [The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics] Plasma is a type of gas, but it's different enough to be recognized as one of the four fundamental states of matter (alongside gas, liquid and solid). In plasma, a significant number of electrons have been separated from their atoms, creating a state where free electrons zip around ions, or atoms that have either a positive or negative charge. Temperatures in naturally occurring plasma are typically very high; for example, plasma on the surface of the sun seethes at 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 degrees Celsius). By cooling plasma, scientists can make more detailed observations in order to better understand its behavior under extreme conditions, like those roiling our gas giant neighbors. Be more chill So why use lasers to help the plasma chill out? "The laser cooling takes advantage of the fact that light has momentum," lead study author Thomas Killian, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University in Texas, told Live Science. "If I have an ion in the plasma and I have a laser beam scattering light off that ion, every time that ion scatters a photon it gets a push in the direction of the laser beam," Killian said. This means that if a laser beam opposes the ion's natural motion, every time the ion scatters light it loses some momentum, which slows it down. "It's like walking uphill or in molasses," he said. For their experiments, Killian and his colleagues produced small amounts of neutral plasma plasma with a relatively equal number of positive and negative charges vaporizing strontium metal and then ionizing the cloud. The plasma dissipated in less than 100 millionths of a second, which didn't leave the scientists much time to cool it down before it disappeared. For the laser cooling to work, they needed to precool the plasma, slowing the ions down even more. In the end, the resulting plasma was about four times colder than any that had ever been created before, the study authors reported. Tom Langin, a doctoral candidate at Rice University, makes an adjustment to an experiment that uses 10 lasers of varying wavelengths to laser-cool ions in a neutral plasma. (Image credit: Brandon Martin/Rice University) Assembling the pieces needed to generate highly cooled plasma took about 20 years, though the experiments themselves lasted less than a fraction of a second and there were thousands upon thousands of experiments performed, Killian said. "When we create a plasma it only lives for a couple hundred microseconds. Every 'make a plasma, laser-cool it, look and see what happened' is less than a millisecond," he said. "It takes days and days to actually build up enough data to say, 'Ah, this is how the plasma is behaving.'" Going colder The study's findings invite plenty of questions about how ultracold plasma may interact with energy and matter; finding answers could help to create more accurate models of white dwarf stars and gas giant planets, which have plasma deep in their interiors that behaves similarly to the plasma cooled in the lab. "We need better models of those systems so we can understand planet formation," Killian said. "This is the first time that we've had a tabletop experiment in which we can actually measure things to feed into those models." Creating plasma that's even colder may also be within reach, which could further transform scientists' understanding of how this mysterious form of matter behaves, Killian told Live Science. "If we can cool it another order of magnitude, we can can get close to predictions of where the plasma may actually become a solid but a bizarre solid 10 times less dense than any solid that people have ever made," Killian said. "That would be very, very exciting," he added. The findings were published online Thursday (Jan. 3) in the journal Science. Original article on Live Science. Dark matter, it seems, has been clinging to galaxies for a very long time. Most galaxies that existed 10 billion years ago had about as much dark matter as galaxies do today, contradicting earlier studies that suggested less dark matter lurked around galaxies in the early universe. "Dark matter was similarly abundant in star-forming galaxies in the distant past as it is in the present day," said Alfred Tiley, an astronomer at Durham University in England and lead author on the new study. The research was recently submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and published Nov. 16 in the preprint journal arXiv. "It wasn't a complete surprise, but in reality, we didn't know whether the observational reality would align with expectations from theory." [The 11 Biggest Unanswered Questions About Dark Matter] Dark matter makes up approximately 85 percent of the total mass in our known universe, but the mysterious substance does not interact with light, leaving scientists in the dark about the its precise nature. So, instead of viewing it, astronomers must rely on dark matter's gravitational pull on the normal matter, called baryonic matter, that makes up the stars, nebulas and planets we see in the night sky, as well as all the trees, rocks and people on Earth. Dark matter tends to clump into halos around galaxies; astronomers discovered this by measuring how fast galaxies rotate. According to Newton's law of gravity, stars on the outskirts of a galaxy should rotate much more slowly than those at the center. But in the 1960s, astronomers found speedy suburban stars on the fringe of the Milky Way that hinted at extra matter hiding out beyond those stars' galactic orbits. Studies have since measured thousands of rotation rates across the universe, confirming the presence of these dark matter halos. In the new study, researchers used data from two surveys of 1,500 star-forming galaxies to calculate rotation rates for galaxies going back 10 billion years. Precisely measuring galactic rotation far in the cosmic past is difficult, because these ancient galaxies are incredibly distant and faint. So, the scientists estimated an average by clumping the galaxies by distance and then combining their light. "Our estimate of the amount of dark matter in galaxies is an average for the whole population at each epoch," Tiley told Live Science. "The amount of dark matter within individual galaxies might vary significantly." Accounting for galaxy mass and density, the researchers found nearly equivalent amounts of dark matter for galaxies that existed long ago in our cosmic past as for galaxies in our local universe. But not everyone is entirely convinced. The findings contradict previous studies that found that galaxies in the early universe had less dark matter than younger galaxies do. Those studies looked at much more massive individual galaxies and used a different model to infer the amount of dark matter. "[The new research] uses only one of the four independent approaches we had used to come to our conclusion," Reinhard Genzel, lead author of one of the previous studies and an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, told Live Science. Tiley found that his team's results were highly dependant on the model they used. Ultimately, he chose to use a model that he and his colleagues found to be more representative of the low-mass galaxies scientists believe predominated at the early epoch. Computer simulations suggest that very high-mass galaxies, like those studied by Genzel, are rare in the distant universe. "It appears [their] results apply to very massive galaxies at this distant epoch but may not be representative of galaxies with comparatively lower stellar masses, like those that we studied in our work," Tiley told Live Science. The new results match what would be expected from the prevailing "lambda cold dark" matter model describing our universe. This model explains how the universe is structured and why it is expanding at an ever faster rate. Originally published on Live Science. Georgetown, SC (29440) Today Sunshine this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 91F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. SPEAK OUT The Tribune invites readers to express their views in the Voice of the People column and in Viewpoint. Letters to the Voice of the People are limited to 200 words. Viewpoint columns should be no more than 700 words. Both Viewpoint and Voice of the People submissions are subject to editing. All submissions must include the writer's full name, which will be printed. Letters, including e-mail, which do not include the writer's street address and telephone number will not be considered for publication. This information is kept confidential but is necessary for verification purposes. Letters may be mailed to the Editorial Department, South Bend Tribune, 635 S. Lafayette Blvd., Suite 138, South Bend IN 46601; emailed to vop@sbtinfo.com, faxed to 574-236-1765, or submitted through our online form here. Due to volume, it is not possible to print all submissions. Except in special circumstances, we do not print poetry or thank-you letters. We do not print letters announcing events to come, extensive quotations from other material, open letters or form letters. CATHERINE LUCEY and LISA MASCARO Associated Press South Bend Tribune WASHINGTON With no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is standing firm in his border wall funding demands and newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, though on Sunday he did offer to build it with steel rather than concrete, a concession Democrats panned. With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. The letter includes a request for $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs," a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress, saying Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." Trump asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. ___ Associated Press writer Julie Walker in New York, Jill Colvin in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. WASHINGTON With no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is standing firm in his border wall funding demands and newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, though on Sunday he did offer to build it with steel rather than concrete, a concession Democrats panned. With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. The letter includes a request for $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs," a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress, saying Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. ___ Associated Press writer Julie Walker in New York, Jill Colvin in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. Success! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup. Nets A/S and Concardis Payment Group Complete Merger Posted by Publisher Internet br /> The merger of Nets and Concardis Payment Group has been completed. Together, Nets and Concardis Group form a leading European payment player. Joint capabilities drive faster time to market of state-of-the-art solutions, underlining ambition to be at the forefront of innovation. Nets A/S (Nets), a market leader in the Nordic payments industry, and Concardis Payment Group (Concardis Group), a leading merchant payment service provider in the DACH region, have today announced that the merger of the two companies has been completed. Bo Nilsson will lead the combined Group as CEO and Robert Hoffmann will continue as Concardis Group CEO, reporting directly to Bo Nilsson. Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets, said, \We are very pleased that the merger has been completed which allows us to proceed with our plans. By combining our market-leading positions as payment champions in the Nordics and the DACH region we will be able to accelerate our European expansion and be a driving force behind the ongoing consolidation in the European payments industry.? Hoffmann, CEO of Concardis Group, added, ?As a joint Group we look forward to leveraging our combined strengths and further digitising our offerings to drive faster time to market for state-of-the-art, customer-friendly solutions underlining our joint ambition to be at the forefront of payments innovation.? The merger creates a business with approximately ?500 million of EBITDA and ?1.3 billion of net revenue. The resulting industrial scale will enable further investments in innovation and service improvements for customers, allowing the Group to reinforce its leading position in the European payments market. The headquarters of the Group will be in Ballerup, Denmark, and Nets and Concardis Group will retain their respective brands. The newly formed Group is backed by leading private equity investors Hellman & Friedman, Advent International and Bain Capital.?These owners each bring significant sector expertise, operational resources and capital to help accelerate the new Group?s growth and internationalisation. About Nets A/S At Nets, we see easier products and solutions as the foundation for growth and progress ? both in commerce and society. With 2,400 employees located in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Estonia, we help financial institutions, businesses and merchants across the Nordic and Baltic regions make tomorrow a little easier for their customers while delivering unrivalled security and stability. Powering a tomorrow that?s easier than today. This is what drives us. ? Concardis Payment Group is a leading provider of digital payment solutions with 1,000 employees serving customers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South-Eastern Europe. We empower merchants, service providers and financial institutions to benefit from payment\-\-s and business digitization. Whether it is seamless payments at stationary points of sale, customisable solutions for mobile and e-commerce or value-adding services: Our innovative products and services minimize complexity and make payments easy to improve customer experience. Auryn Identifies Significant Copper Mineralization at New Prospect Near Sombrero Posted by Publisher Internet Auryn Resources Inc. (TSX: AUG, NYSE AMERICAN: AUG, ?Auryn? or the ?Company?) has identified a significant zone of oxide copper mineralization over a 1.2-kilometer strike length and 500-meter width. It is located about 12 kilometers south of Sombrero at the Milpoc prospect (Figure 1). Rock samples have returned copper ? oxide mineralization grades ranging from 0.1% ? 8.45% and silver grades ranging from 0.06 g/t 101 g/t (Table 1). The stratiform mineralization identified at Milpoc is hosted within red bed sediments of the Casapalca formation and is the first mineralization observed stratigraphically above the Ferrobamba formation. The Ferrobamba hosts the known high-grade copper ? gold exo-skarn mineralization at the Sombrero project to the north.? This mineralization is preferentially hosted in highly porous sandstone units that typically have a thickness of 10 ? 30 centimeters and there are numerous mineralized beds that occur over a 100-meter thickness within the sedimentary sequence. ? In addition, the Ferrobamba limestone observed adjacent to the Casapalca formation is characterized by jasperoid silica bodies that are consistent with a distal signature to an intrusive or underlying skarn body at depth (Figure 2). Auryn will continue to evaluate the Milpoc prospect through magnetic surveying in an effort to identify the potential source area of the mineralization. A Message from Michael Henrichsen, C.O.O. and Chief Geologist: ?The high-grade copper-oxide and silver mineralization at Milpoc represents another opportunity within the Sombrero district to discover an additional intrusive center that could be related to skarn and porphyry mineralization. Our technical group continues to discover new styles of mineralization in different formations that we feel demonstrate a very high level of mineral endowment within this newly-emerging district.?? Michael Henrichsen, P.Geo, COO of Auryn, is the Qualified Person who assumes responsibility for the technical disclosures in this press release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AURYN RESOURCES INC. Ivan Bebek Executive Chairman For further information on Auryn Resources Inc., please contact Natasha Frakes, Manager of Corporate Communications at (778) 729-0600 or?info@aurynresources.com In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital AG Jochen Staiger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch About Auryn Auryn Resources is a technically driven junior mining exploration company focused on delivering shareholder value through project acquisition and development. The Company?s management team is highly experienced with an impressive track record of success and has assembled an extensive technical team as well as a premier gold exploration portfolio. Auryn is focused on scalable high-grade gold deposits in established mining jurisdictions, which include the Committee Bay and Gibson MacQuoid gold projects located in Nunavut, the Homestake Ridge gold project in British Columbia and a portfolio of gold projects in southern Peru, through Corisur Peru SAC. About Sombrero This project consists of the North Sombrero and South Sombrero properties, comprising approximately?100,000 mineral claims owned or optioned by Auryn Resources. The copper-gold Sombrero mining concessions are located 340 kilometers SE of Lima in southern Peru and are?hosted in the Andahuaylas-Yauri belt. This belt is interpreted to be on the north-western margins of this Eocene-Oligocene aged copper-gold porphyry and skarn belt that hosts the Las Bambas, Haquira, Los Chancas, Cotambambas, Constancia, Antapaccay and Tintaya deposits.?The project is characterized by a strong structural control and significant copper and gold values from historical surface samples.?The principle targets at Sombrero are copper-gold skarn and porphyry systems and precious metal epithermal deposits. Forward Looking Information and Additional Cautionary Language This release includes certain statements that may be deemed ?forward-looking statements?. Forward-looking information is information that includes implied future performance and/or forecast information including information relating to or associated with the acquisition and title to mineral concessions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to the risks discussed in the Company?s Annual Information Form and MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2017 and subsequent continuous disclosure filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at?www.sedar.com?and the Company?s registration statement on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at?www.sec.gov. The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. QIAGEN to develop QuantiFERON-TB Access as a new test for low-resource, high-burden regions in global fight against TB QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced plans to develop a proprietary new version of a QuantiFERON?-based tuberculosis (TB) test dedicated and tailored to the needs of low-resource regions with a high disease burden of TB. The new testing solution, QuantiFERON?-TB Access (QFT? Access), is designed to pair ultrasensitive digital detection of latent TB infection with a complete workflow created with a focus on cost efficiency and ease of use. QIAGEN is developing QFT Access in a new partnership with Ellume, an Australian developer of high-performance digitally-enabled diagnostics. Clinical trials for QFT Access are planned to start in 2019, and commercialization is expected to begin in 2020. QFT Access has been designed to advance TB control in areas with limited infrastructure, including countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a group of 30 countries in these regions as high-burden, representing an estimated 85% of the global TB burden. QIAGEN intends to work with the WHO, various non-governmental organizations and governments to support their TB control efforts, in particular to achieve the goals set for the WHO\-\-s End TB Strategy. ?QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus is rapidly winning adoption in developed markets as an important way to detect latent TB infections and prevent patients from developing the active form of this potentially deadly disease,? said Thierry Bernard, Senior Vice President of QIAGEN?s Molecular Diagnostics Business Area. ?Despite the urgent need for more latent TB testing in low-resource, high-burden parts of the world, a lack of infrastructure and shortage of trained technicians make adoption of modern tests challenging. QuantiFERON-TB Access offers a novel solution for this challenge by combining the proven clinical insights of QuantiFERON-TB with Ellume?s digital technologies to deliver cost-efficient results quickly and without need for a laboratory, and a further signal of our support in the global fight against TB.? ?QuantiFERON-TB Access represents the biggest technology breakthrough in latent TB infection testing since the first FDA approval of QuantiFERON-TB in 2001,? said Dr. Masae Kawamura, M.D., Senior Director, TB Medical and Scientific Affairs, at QIAGEN. ?The ease of use for QFT Access and ability to get results in one visit can enable the evaluation of contacts of active TB patients in high-burden regions where screening is not currently performed due to lack of access to laboratories or the ongoing global shortage of high-quality tuberculin used in skin testing. The use of QFT Access addresses the issues of cost and complexity with a solution dedicated and tailored to the specific needs of these regions, and aims to provide a much-needed tool to help the world eliminate TB and achieve the UN and WHO goals.? Ellume?s Founder and Managing Director, Dr. Sean Parsons, said, ?We?re pleased to be partnering with a global leader such as QIAGEN to create a high-impact product such as QFT Access. Tuberculosis, particularly as drug-resistant TB, is an often-fatal bacterial infection and a serious threat to humankind. We are confident that Ellume?s technology will assist QIAGEN with detection of TB infections, leading to earlier identification and more effective treatment and containment in low-resource, high-burden countries. At Ellume, we pride ourselves on developing integrated solutions and we?re confident that our partnership with QIAGEN will create a world-class product in QFT Access to address this major unmet need.? QFT Access is being designed with important features and benefits that include: Built on proven QuantiFERON-TB technology: QFT Access is a novel ultrasensitive QuantiFERON assay specifically dedicated and designed to bring a version of this powerful technology to low-resource, high-burden regions. The assay eliminates cross-reactivity with the BCG vaccines and most of the environmental mycobacteria that frequently cause false-positive skin test results? Scalable solution for low-resource, high-burden areas: QFT Access has been designed to ensure both clinical efficacy and cost efficiency. It is very simple to use, with assay processing and read-out requiring minimal hands-on time and no laboratory. QFT Access tests can be completed with only one patient visit and in about 24 hours, unlike the skin test that requires two visits and requires a physician for assessment. The blood sample is also available for retesting, as needed, and data can be stored for later referral. The single-tube test is incubated for about 16-24 hours, and then results are determined in 5-20 minutes on a small proprietary, single-use cartridge. Results are displayed in real time on a compact hub, which can be operated using battery or USB power sources and independently of a computer.? Designed for rapid adoption and future menu expansion: QFT Access can be implemented quickly in screening programs that are increasingly part of TB control efforts in low-resource regions, in particular since usage requires only limited healthcare worker training. QFT Access also has potential to be used for latent TB testing in combination with other tests, such as for HIV infection, as well as for future use in detecting other disease targets. These are especially critical given the high burden of TB and HIV co-infection in the high-burden countries.? QFT Access builds on the success of QFT-Plus, which is registered in more than 75 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. QIAGEN?s fourth-generation QFT-Plus is the market-leading blood test for latent TB infections, with faster, less labor-intensive and more accurate insights than the century-old tuberculin skin test. To learn more about QuantiFERON-TB tests and tuberculosis control, please visit?www.quantiferon.com. Tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial infection spread primarily through coughing by patients with the active pulmonary form of the disease. In 2016, there were 10.4 million new cases of active TB worldwide and 1.7 million deaths from this airborne disease, according to WHO estimates. In latent tuberculosis infection, the bacterium infects a person but produces no symptoms unless it progresses to active disease, at which stage the patient is highly contagious. As part of comprehensive programs to eradicate TB, WHO and other organizations have expanded their guidelines for screening high-risk individuals and treating those with latent infections to help prevent further contagion and reduce the disease burden. About Ellume Ellume is an Australian-based digital diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high-performance, connected products for health professionals and consumers. Our focus is on the detection of common illnesses which affect the global population and our products differ from conventional diagnostics through performance, digital connectivity, actionability and simplicity. Ellume has developed novel detection technology powered by our unique quantum dot nanoparticle, which integrates optics, electronics, biologics and software into an intuitive and high-performance digital platform. Ellume has a global partnership in consumer health with GlaxoSmithKline, a global partnership with QIAGEN in latent TB, and a range of professional products under the ellume?lab brand which are scheduled for US launch in 2020. Further information can be found at www.ellumehealth.com Forward-Looking Statement Certain statements contained in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN\-\-s products, collaborations markets, strategy or operating results, including without limitation its expected adjusted net sales and adjusted diluted earnings results, are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations, regulatory processes and dependence on logistics), variability of operating results and allocations between customer classes, the commercial development of markets for our products to customers in academia, pharma, applied testing and molecular diagnostics; changing relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic partners; competition; rapid or unexpected changes in technologies; fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN\-\-s products (including fluctuations due to general economic conditions, the level and timing of customers\-\- funding, budgets and other factors); our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our products; difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN\-\-s products to integrated solutions and producing such products; the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate and protect our products from competitors\-\- products; market acceptance of QIAGEN\-\-s new products and the integration of acquired technologies and businesses. For further information, please refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare), Applied Testing (forensics, veterinary testing and food safety), Pharma (pharma and biotech companies) and Academia (life sciences research). As of September 30, 2018, QIAGEN employed approximately 4,900 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com. PHILIPSBURG:--- The St. Maarten Tzu Chi Foundation helped seniors and staff at the St. Martins Home start the new year off with smiles on their faces when its volunteers presented 108 gift packages filled with goodies and essentials to them during a visit on the first day of the new year. The visit to the home is part of a long-time tradition that the foundation has been involved in for the past decade and a half. The event also kicks off the foundations annual charity program. This year a total of 31 volunteers including 13 dance troupe members from the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation visited the home to entertain the elderly clients and present them with gifts. As is customary, volunteers arrived at the home during the lunch period of clients so that they can assist in feeding the seniors and also to create a feeling of love and care and engage in positive interactions with them. Following lunch, a formal welcome was done demonstrating the diversity of the many nationalities of Tzu Chis members and volunteers. Tzu Chi St. Maarten Commissioner Sandra Cheung then delivered a brief history of Tzu Chi emphasizing the involvement and commitment of volunteers in tending to the needy in Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin following hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The seniors were then invited to participate in a brief relaxing exercise to encourage team spirit and a sense of wellness. Volunteers also did a demonstration of Tai Chi meditation. Seniors were also entertained with a cultural dance presentation put on by members of the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation. A special New Year cake baked specially for seniors was also cut and shared with everyone present. This was followed by the presentation of gifts to clients and staffers. Gifts included a Red Pocket envelope which is symbolic of Tzu Chi Founder Master Cheng Yen's gratitude, appreciation, love, and compassion to all sentient beings globally and the foundation's gift bags. The ceremony ended with a closing prayer and the sharing of happy greetings for the New Year by those in attendance. Following the ceremony, several of the seniors., who were present said they enjoyed the program immensely and thanked the foundation for visiting them on the first day of the New Year to spend time with them, perform for them and share gifts with them. Many of them look forward to the foundations monthly visits to the home on the last Sunday of each month, where they are pampered with tender loving care of gentle massages, healthy conversations, polishing of their nails and entertaining and educational presentations. Cheung said she is grateful that volunteers again started their year off on a positive note by making others smile and she expressed gratitude to seniors and staff of the St. Martins Home for always being gracious hosts. PHILIPSBURG:--- Since 10 10 10, some things have changed in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Those include: (1) The non-existence of the Antillean House (2) Persons born in one the Islands of the former Netherlands Antilles cannot be called Antilleans. (3) In Holland the Antillean House has been replaced by Curacao House and Sint Maarten House. (4) Aruba House came about when the island stepped out of the Netherlands Antilles and became a country within the Kingdom on January 1st, 1986. The Aruba house is expected to look out for persons from Aruba, the Curacao House for those people from Curacao, while the Sint Maarten house has to work in the best interest of residents from Sint Maarten. During this year politics in the Kingdom will pass various motions expressing desires of having things happen in the various communities. However, here on the island, I will like to see a motion pass by the Parliament of Sint Maarten. Such motion should define and or establish who we are talking about in the Kingdom when it comes to the Sint Maartener. In the past, we had policies and programs established geared specifically towards the Antillean. In Holland, we even have Municipalities who called themselves Antillean Municipalities. Today some of those programs still exist. However, It is unclear who the programs are targeting. The following motion can be passed in the Parliament of Sint Maarten. Draft Motion The Parliament of Sint Maarten in its meeting of today, .. 2019. CONSIDERING (1) That since 10-10 -10 the Netherlands Antilles no longer exists (2) That the Antillean House in Holland no longer exists (3) That the Sint Maarten House has been established to represent St. Maarten and its people (4) That persons born in Sint Maarten after 10- 10- 10 cannot be called Antilleans. RESOLVES TO: - Have the Government of Sint Maarten do the necessary to declare that all persons born in Sint Maarten since 10- 10- 10 be called Sint Maarteners. - That there are persons born in Sint Maarten before 10- 10- 10 who are Sint Maarteners. - Being a Sint Maartener does not automatically give a person any specific nationality. And goes over to the order of the day! Copies of this motion to be sent to: The various Parliaments, Island Councils, Governments and Executive Councils of the Kingdom. Signed on this Day of 2019 by Drs. Rodolphe Emile Samuel PHILIPSBURG:--- As part of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance Save our Sharks Project a second tiger shark has been tagged in the territorials waters of Sint Maarten with a satellite tracking device. A Wildlife Computer SPOT (Smart Position or Temperature Transmitting) satellite tag was attached to the first dorsal fin of a sub-adult tiger shark late in December. These tags transmit to satellites, allowing the sharks to be tracked through the ARGOS satellite system for up a number of years. The first tagged tiger shark on St. Maarten, tagged in the fall of 2018, followed a migration track along the Aves ridge, a ridge in the Eastern Caribbean Sea of about 500 km in length probably of volcanic arc origin. The Foundation hopes that the recently tagged shark, called Irma will also provide valuable data of the migration patterns of sharks in the wider Caribbean Sea. The preliminary data we have been receiving is starting to show some interesting results in terms of the migratory patterns of tiger sharks in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. Not only is this data important but it is also critical for the transboundary management of a marine species critical to the health of our Caribbean Sea. Sharks are apex predators and as such keep the ocean food chain healthy, a food chain which in turn supports regional fisheries. With recent shark finning and fishing activities occurring in the wider Caribbean it behoves nation states in the Caribbean to establish a Wider Caribbean Management Plan for the species, commented Tadzio Bervoets, Project Manager for the Dutch Caribbean Alliance Save our Shark Project. Sea fairy, the first shark which was equipped with a satellite tag in this region, provided researchers with a wealth of location and movement information. She stayed the first months around St Maarten while doing forays to Anguilla, St Barths, Saba and the Saba Bank. In May 2017 Sea fairy migrated south following the Aves ridge and subsequently headed to Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The last location received for Sea Fairy was close to Puerto Rico. Sea fairys movement patterns may indicate a nursing area for tiger sharks around St Maarten, spending their juvenile years in sand and seagrass habitat before migrating around the Caribbean when large enough in size and maturity. It is interesting to see migration routes following the Aves ridge, which may supply the sharks with an abundant food source stated Nature Foundations Project Officer Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern. Nature Foundation Staff are currently in Aruba to assist researchers there with researching thier shark populations; This research will improve our understanding of the life characteristics of sharks and will provide knowledge about the population structure, abundance and migration of sharks in the Caribbean explained Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern. The DCNA Save Our Sharks Project, funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, has placed the focus on the conservation of sharks and rays in both the Caribbean and European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project has used science, education and community outreach and lobbying to establish shark sanctuaries, initiate science programs, and educate the public on the importance of sharks in the wider Caribbean; We need to have more research initiatives so that we can get a better idea on the status of the species, their migratory patterns and their local distribution in the wider Caribbean. Sharks are critical to the health of the Caribbean Sea but are also one of the most threatened Large Marine Species on the planet, concluded Bervoets. PHILIPSBURG:--- From January 7-11, 2019 The Parliament of Sint Maarten will be hosting the Tripartite and Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO). Delegations from the Parliaments of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten will be meeting at the Simpson Bay Resort and Marina, for the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO). The four parliamentary delegations will be discussing a number of topics that include presentations on: recent developments per country; state of affairs Venezuela; the Kingdom Charter including current relations within the Kingdom as well as bottlenecks and proposals for improvement; the draft Kingdom Law Dispute Regulation; Housing and the Landfill; election observation; and state of affairs consensus Kingdom laws. The program also includes a work visit to monuments in Marys Fancy. The delegations will also get a view of the landfill in Philipsburg. The Interparliamentary consultations will conclude on Friday, January 11, 2019, with the signing of an agreement list and a joint press conference of the four delegations. Prior to the start of the Interparliamentary consultations, on January 7, 2019, the delegation of Sint Maarten will also be participating in the Tripartite meeting along with delegations from the sister islands of Aruba and Curacao. Among the topics to be discussed are: Constitutional Court; draft Kingdom Law Dispute Regulation; current relations within the Kingdom, bottlenecks and proposals for improvement; situation in Venezuela; collaboration Immigration service of Sint Maarten with the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and handling immigration in general via ferry; collaboration in the field of Education more specifically the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate; and cooperation in the field of Healthcare. The goal of the meeting is to prepare for the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations as well as discuss topics of mutual interest. The Sint Maarten delegation partaking in the IPKO and Tripartite meetings will consist of the following members: Mrs. Sarah A. Wescot-Williams, President of Parliament, Delegation leader; Mr. Theodore E. Heyliger, Chairman Committee of Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations; Mr. Claude A.H. Peterson; Ms. Silveria E. Jacobs; Mr. Rolando Brison; Mrs. Ann A. Groen-Gumbs, LL.M., Acting Secretary-General; Mr. Garrick J. Richardson, LL.M., 2nd Act. Secretary-General. Attendance to the IPKO is strictly upon invitation. Other Members of the Parliament of Sint Maarten have been invited to be present as observers. The Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO) sessions will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 115, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.com and Parliaments Facebook page: Parliament of Sint Maarten. An 18-year-old Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was en route to Australia to claim asylum from her abusive family has left her airport hotel room after receiving temporary admission into Thailand. The Australian government has confirmed it is monitoring Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun's case, and that embassy officials in Bangkok have made representations to the UN refugee agency and the Thai government about her fears for her safety, which it said were "deeply concerning." The head of Thailand's immigration police said al-Qunun was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand on Monday under the protection of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and asylum claim. Immigration police released photos of al-Qunun after she left the hotel room, but did not confirm where she would be staying in the Thai capital. But though they are small in number, and their job largely done, the 2000 US troops in Syria have played a stabilising role far larger than their numbers would suggest. Loading First, they have provided protection to the Kurds, who have been a steadfast US ally in the Middle East and served as the spear-point for the re-capture of much territory from ISIS. Turkey is deeply uncomfortable with the Kurdish enclave on its southern border inside Syria, seeing it as rallying point for its own Kurdish population, and has sent its military into Syria periodically to prevent the Kurds from capturing more territory. With the protective trip-wire presence of the United States withdrawn, Turkey may now act more freely to dismantle the nascent Kurdish state in Syria. Indeed, so alarmed are they by this prospect, that the Kurds have requested that Assad send Syrian troops to help protect them from Turkey. Loading There are few peoples or nations in the Middle East more deserving of national self-determination and statehood than the Kurds: a people of 35 million who respect the rights of minorities, treat women as equals, eschew terrorism and anti-semitism, and have been a steadfast force for stability in the Middle East and western security partner for several decades. That is why US abandonment of the Kurds would be not only destabilising for Syria, but wrong in principle. Second, the presence of US troops in north-eastern Syria has prevented the realisation of a long-standing goal of Iranian policy: the establishment of a land bridge running from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, and into Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Iran already has a significant presence in Lebanon, in the form of Hezbollah; in Syria, through the presence of Iranian regulars and Quds Force fighters; and in Iraq, through Shiite militias funded and trained by Iran. Until now the US presence in north-eastern Syria, especially near Al-Bukamal and the border with Iraq, has effectively prevented the creation of this land-bridge between centres of Iranian influence. With US troops gone, the way will effectively be open for Iran to project power and transport missiles, weapons and militia from Tehran right through to the eastern Mediterranean. This will significantly raise the risks of a conflict between Iran and the regional bloc of countries resisting Irans ambitions, notably Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israel and Iran have already clashed multiple times, usually over Syrian territory. If Iran seeks to take advantage of US withdrawal to funnel advanced weaponry and missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon, expect a strong response from Israel. And if Assad seeks to exploit US withdrawal to recapture the area around Idlib, expect Turkey - which has declared this issue a red line - to intervene. Though the US presence has not prevented such clashes, it has stopped them getting out of hand. US retreat will cause the Middle East, not particularly stable now, to become a little more dangerous. Lastly, the US withdrawal will further entrench Russias role as the regions powerbroker and cement Assads diplomatic rehabilitation. Arab states are already coming to terms with this fact, building ties with Russia and moving to re-admit Assads Syria as part of the Arab bloc. Trumps decision to withdraw US troops from Syria has caused such angst because it is of such geopolitical importance. At stake is the future power order of the Middle East, and whether the US and its allies continue to play a role in shaping it. He did not deny the company had no vessels. Currently, Britain's EU membership means that trucks drive smoothly through border checks within the 28-nation bloc. But in a no-deal Brexit scenario, even a few minutes' delay at customs for each truck could mean vehicles backed up at ports and queued on feeder roads on both sides of the Channel. Monday's road network tests designed to test how traffic might flow around south-east England after Brexit started before dawn. They ran into trouble soon after making contact with reality. The Department for Transport had asked for between 100 and 150 trucks to assemble on Monday morning at a disused airfield in Kent, but only 89 turned up. For the rest of the morning, the vehicles moved in convoys back and forth to the port of Dover in tests that Britain's Road Haulage Association (BHA) said were too limited in scope to replicate the chaotic scenes that could play out if traffic is held up by customs delays after March 29. Loading al-Qunun's ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabia's restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a man's consent. Upon arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man whom she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room, and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online, sending out pleas for assistance over Twitter, and also barricaded her hotel room door. Global attention was sparked by social media and she did not get on the scheduled morning flight to Kuwait. al-Qunun wrote of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her father's retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the UN refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian lawmakers, Germany's ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow U.N refugee officials to meet with her. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it expected to take at least 5-7 days to evaluate her case and claims, according to Surachate, the Thai immigration police chief. Giuseppe De Vincentiis, the UNHCR representative in Thailand, told journalists he did not know where al-Qunun would be staying but that she would be safe because she was under his agency's protection. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with her, but De Vincentiis noted "a good spirit of collaboration so far" with Thai officials. Surachate said al-Qunun's father was due to arrive Monday night, and officials would see if she was willing to meet with him. "As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She won't be sent anywhere tonight," Surachate said at a news conference. Loading "She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles," he said. He noted her tweets mentioned "she does not want Islam," adding that "this type of thing, in her country, is a hard crime." Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press that Thailand should let al-Qunun continue her journey to Australia. "She has a valid Australian visa," he said. "The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harm's way." Surachate challenged parts of al-Qunun's story, including that she had an Australian visa. "The fact is she didn't have any money. She intended to come here and didn't have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless," he said. He later said Kuwait Airways had been at fault for allowing her to board her flight to Thailand without having proper travel documents. The airline did not immediately comment. Earlier, Surachate had said that the Saudi Embassy had said she had run away from her parents and said she could be in danger. The embassy did not mention that she had rejected Islam. Her case highlighted Saudi Arabia's male guardianship laws, which require women who want to travel, obtain a passport or marry to have the consent of a male relative - usually a father or husband - no matter what their age. It also underscored the limits of the reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the grisly killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always trying to escape male relatives. In 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom triggered a firestorm online when she was stopped en route to Australia, where she planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts. Despite efforts by the Saudi government to curtail the scope of male guardianship laws, women who try to flee their families in Saudi Arabia have few good options inside the kingdom. They often are pressured to reconcile with their families, sent to shelters where their movement is restricted or face arrest for disobeying their legal guardian. While the Saudi Embassy in Thailand denies Saudi authorities were involved in trying to stop al-Qunun from going to Australia, the kingdom has in the past forced its citizens to return home. Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Bangkok, Abdullah al-Shuaibi, was quoted in Saudi media as saying that al-Qunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. He said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that such a decision would rest with Thai officials. "She was stopped by airport authorities because she violated Thai laws," he was quoted as saying in Sabq, a state-aligned Saudi news website. "The embassy is only monitoring the situation." NSW Labor MP Lynda Voltz will resign from the upper house next month to contest Auburn, the seat held by former opposition leader Luke Foley who quit parliament amid sexual harassment allegations. Ms Voltz's resignation will create a casual vacancy in the upper house, with the party's assistant general secretary, Rose Jackson, likely to put her hand up for the spot. But filling the vacancy is expected to again cause tensions in the party's left faction, with some wanting a candidate from outside Sydney to "create more diversity". Labor frontbencher Lynda Voltz will contest Luke Foley's former seat of Auburn. Credit:Marina Neil Ms Jackson had hoped to win preselection for Auburn, but Labor's head office rejected a push for her to be parachuted into the seat and insisted on a rank-and-file preselection, which Ms Voltz won. Small construction businesses will not have an industry voice on the advisory council that will oversee the introduction of the ACT's new union access code, despite the impact on their future government contracts. Workplace and Employment Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith appointed members of the new Secure Local Jobs Code advisory council shortly before Christmas. Employment Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith appointed the council members last month. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos The code will apply to security, cleaning, construction and traffic companies tendering for ACT government work from January 15, and requires bosses to give new employees union membership forms and give union representatives access to their internet service, photocopiers and tea rooms. Contractors must also give the Secure Local Jobs registrar addresses, working hours and contact details before the job begins to allow unions to exercise their right of entry. They have questioned population and dwelling forecasts used for the peninsula plan, saying they are inconsistent with the Perth and Peel planning frameworks. The Rio Tinto building, which can be seen across the river in the distance, could one day be matched or even dwarfed by new neighbours south of the river. Credit:Emma Young They say the peninsula plan was also done out of turn, before the city-wide Local Planning Strategy, defying state policy in which city-wide plans are meant to be done before area-level plans. Seven community groups, including the City of South Perth Residents Association and action groups from Manning, Salter Point, Como and the Peninsula, have banded together to protest both to the council and the WAPC. Here was a community ready, willing and quite excited about a new planning scheme that would enliven a dreary area, encourage new employment and revitalise the retail sector, spokeswoman Vicki Redden wrote to WAPC chairman David Caddy. Naively we believed the blurb that told us that the character, amenity and liveability would be maintained, and the unique landscape and heritage would be protected. We accepted, as did the WAPC, that there would be an increase of about 1200 new dwellings, there were expected heights of 4, 8 and 11 storeys with a chance of some bonus. But somewhere along the way this new scheme was hijacked. The Pinnacles building, one of the only towers to be built already, shows the tension between the old and the new in South Perth. Credit:Emma Young Weve attempted to work with the city, we employed planners to advise and ensure we understand the technicalities [but] the only stakeholders given any weight are developers and their consultants. In the face of such strong resistance, the City councillors unanimously voted in October 2018 not to progress the current draft to an advertisement for public comment. They instead resolved to go back to the drawing board and hire consultants to hold further local consultations, this time taking into consideration, amongst many other things, "introduction of a maximum height limit". The process was planned to be completed by the end of April 2019 and councillors began to hold workshops in preparation. But on December 17 WAPC chairman David Caddy arrived at one of these workshops and told councillors that the state government had received a request from an unnamed party to intervene. Mr Caddy said he would be instructing the council to advertise the draft in its current form by the end of January. And once that happens, the local joint development assessment panel will be officially obliged to take it into account in approving developments, "deeming it to apply" despite the community having not yet had a say; so all rejected developments can reapply and possibly get approved even before the plan is endorsed. The Aurelia project, left, at the Labouchere Road freeway entry point, will one day be matched on the right by the Civic Heart development, another tower project undergoing a redesign after encountering problems. Credit:Emma Young These could include Sirona Capitals 44-storey tower on the Lyall Street/Labouchere Road corner, knocked back in December over concerns about overshadowing Perth Zoo across the road. Or Dragon Centurys 43-storey tower proposed for the other end of Lyall Street, facing the freeway, currently the subject of an appeal to the State Administrative Tribunal after the panel refused it. Or the 30-storey Lumiere project, nicknamed the Frankenstein project by locals for its numerous redesigns as the planning goalposts have shifted, currently also the subject of a SAT appeal. The amalgamated community groups have written to the WAPC and Planning Minister Rita Saffioti requesting an urgent meeting. A WAPC spokesman said that the City administration had invited Mr Caddy to attend the councillors workshop. He said Mr Caddy had now written to the City inviting the Council to give consideration to the advertising of the Activity Centre Plan by the end of January 2019, recognising that the draft plan has been prepared after comprehensive technical investigations and significant stakeholder and community engagement." The Lumiere site has now looked like this for years as the developer Edge Living tries to get through the development approval process. Credit:Emma Young It was also noted by the Chairman that further community consultation (including that of the broader community) could be undertaken once the plan is released into the public realm for comment," he said. Public advertising of the draft will enable the entire South Perth community and other interested stakeholders to examine the detail of the plan and make written comment. As mentioned above, the Council can undertake various community consultation activities during the public advertising period for the plan, including further community workshops. He did not respond to a question about who contacted the state requesting an intervention. But the City of South Perth might not just roll over. "The City will be seeking a reasonable extension to this date given the time of year and practicality of working through the matters and the adopted position of Council," said Mayor Sue Doherty. "The Council is progressing the South Perth Activity Centre Plan as expeditiously as possible and in light of this, further workshops will continue early in 2019. It is anticipated that the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan and associated scheme amendment will be resubmitted to Council for their consideration early in the new year. The red dust of the Pilbara and the prospect of a well-paid career lures hundreds of people to Karratha each year, but it seems most dont choose to stay into their twilight years. The mining town, along with Alkimos in Perths north, are the two communities in Western Australia where less than 0.1 per cent of the population was aged 85 and above in the 2016 Census. Childhood friends Susan Hanlin and Aline Reid grew up in Scotland together and have lived in Alkimos-Eglinton with their husbands and children for around five years. City of Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts (right) says the area attracts lots of young families. Credit:Heather McNeill Alkimos-Eglinton recorded just three people over 85 years. Karratha had seven out of a total population of 15,828. "Pakis, Pakis, Pakis", they taunted when we first migrated to Canada and turned up at primary school. There were lots of us brown kids at the school, mostly migrants from Sri Lanka after the war. But they still used the reference to Pakistanis as they hadn't adapted their insults to the new kind of brown kids in town. Far-right activists in St Kilda on Saturday. Credit:Darrian Traynor All us brown kids hung out together. Maybe it's because it was familiar, or maybe it was because the daily taunting made us a bit less safe and a bit more excluded. We arrived in Melbourne not long after. The fourth school in two years and we were a bit exhausted by the moving and unsure if we could endure another round of schoolyard initiation racism. My sister and I turned up on the first day of school, which happened to be the first day of high school for all of us. The kids didn't bat an eyelid at us. The most attention we got was word getting around that these new twins had funny accents. The view from Willung on Monday as firefighters battled the Rosedale blaze, which was threatening homes and lives. Credit:Jen Wilson Fire investigators are honing in on a remote clearing as they search for the source of an out-of-control bushfire that threatened homes in Gippsland on Monday afternoon. Homes and lives were under threat, and residents were urged to take shelter, after a wind change saw the blaze begin to move in a south-westerly direction towards the town of Willung. But firefighters managed to slow the spread of the fire after four hours of extensive water-bombing and an emergency warning was downgraded to a "watch and act" alert. Health officials warn a confirmed case of measles has been identified in Brisbane. A measles alert has been issued after an unknowingly infectious man flew from China to Brisbane on Saturday. Measles is one of the most infectious of all communicable diseases and is spread by tiny droplets generated through coughing and sneezing. Passengers who arrived in Brisbane on China Southern Airlines flight CZ 381 from Guangzhou on the morning of January 5 are urged to be alert for signs of the highly infectious disease. The man also visited the Prince Charles Hospital Emergency Department from noon to about 10.30pm on Saturday. Photo taken on Jan. 4, 2019 shows white swans rest at the Yellow River wetland in Sanmenxia, central China's Henan Province. White swans have flown from Siberia to the Yellow River wetland to spend winter. (Xinhua/Wang Ding) 9 1 [ Editor: zyq ] The cost of alcohol at music festivals has been blamed for driving some attendees to drugs, as a festivalgoer admits she would rather spend $25 on an illegal pill than fork out many times more on booze. As debate over the merits of pill testing at festivals continued on the back of two high-profile deaths, 21-year-old Anna* explained the financial motive behind her decisions. The FOMO Festival crowd at Brisbane's Riverstage were warned about the dangers of taking drugs. Credit:Lydia Lynch She told Brisbane Times after spending more than $150 for a ticket to FOMO Festival at the weekend, she would rather risk taking ecstasy than spend $10 a drink. Nobody wants to be sober at a music festival and drinks are way too expensive. That leaves you with two options: try and smuggle in a bulky flask of vodka or a tiny pill, Anna said. A teenager accused of murdering a Church of Scientology member at the organisation's Australasian headquarters has again requested not to appear before a Sydney court. The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did not appear when his matter was dealt with briefly at Parramatta Children's Court on Monday. Police at the Church of Scientology headquarters in Chatswood on Thursday. Credit:AAP The accused's lawyer, Frank Santisi, did not apply for bail and it was formally refused. The boy is accused of stabbing a 24-year-old man in the neck with a large kitchen knife while being escorted from the Scientology centre in Chatswood last Thursday afternoon. NSW Police are begging motorists to be more cautious when driving after a horror weekend with seven people killed on the state's roads, including a toddler. "We want people that are planning a long journey to have at least eight hours sleep before they begin that journey," said Traffic and Highway Patrol Command's chief inspector Phil Brooks. "Stop every two hours, rest, refresh and continue that journey on safely. Sadly these seven deaths are a clear indicator that many haven't done the right thing and planned their journey." Three-year-old Jarli Barker was killed when the car she was travelling in with two female relatives left the road and rolled on Saturday afternoon in Wellington, in the state's Central West. Local police say that they were travelling because of a family member's medical emergency when the "beautiful little girl" was killed. The NSW Police Force has officially apologised to Greens MP Jenny Leong, after being sued over a series of offensive posts made online by officers in 2016. Ms Leong, who sued NSW Police under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, told the Herald she is relieved and pleased by the outcome which was settled on a confidential basis. Newtown MP Jenny Leong celebrates her win at the 2015 NSW election. Credit:James Alcock Police released a public response to the complaint on Monday, stating: In December 2017, NSW Police Force made sustained findings including that the off-duty conduct had taken place and took disciplinary action against some of the officers. The NSW Police Force has apologised to Ms Leong. An investigation by the Sun-Herald in 2016 revealed the sexist and racist comments made against Ms Leong by police personnel across the Sydney City Local Area Command, Kings Cross, Bankstown, Cabramatta and senior management in March 2016. Two Irish men have been charged with murder, after allegedly fatally assaulting a 66-year-old man they did not know outside their inner west share house. Police and NSW Ambulance were called to the corner of Liverpool Road and Grosvenor Crescent in Summer Hill just after midday on Saturday, December 29, finding 66-year-old Paul Tavelardis suffering critical injuries by the side of the road. Mr Tavelardis was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown in a critical condition, where he died on Monday morning. Christopher McLaughlin, 24, and Nathan Kelly, 21, were arrested in Summer Hill shortly after the assault and taken to Burwood Police Station, where they were charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company and affray. Police say that they did not know Mr Tavelardis. The discovery of a possibly suspicious substance inside parcels at the Argentinian consulate prompted a large emergency response in Sydney's CBD. Fire and Rescue NSW crews arrived at a building on Market Street just before 9.20am on Monday morning and evacuated one floor of the building as a precaution, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said. Seven crews were on the scene including two specialist HAZMAT crews, who investigated the packages to determine whether the substance inside was hazardous. Fire crews liaised with police on the scene, before handing over a sample of the substance to police for testing. The ACT's light rail project could still receive accreditation even if the electrical cabling is too shallow to meet Australian standards, so long as Canberra Metro can prove it's safe. But the Electrical Trades Union says the consortium will be hard-pressed to find a sparkie who would sign off on it. A light rail vehicle arrives at the Gungahlin terminus. There are concerns about the electric cabling on the project. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong The union and its representatives are concerned electrical conduits in parts of the corridor are too close to the surface to meet Australian standards, the Sunday Canberra Times revealed. Australian standards say high-voltage cables installed underground in areas accessible to the public should be buried at a recommended 750 millimetres. The National Trust ACT has backed the decision to list a Canberra family's Harry Seidler-designed home on the heritage register, saying the property is worthy of recognition. The ACT Heritage Council's decision to list the 1950s Deakin home will come under review in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal after the owners applied to overturn it. Bowden House, pictured in 1954, from the side showing the 'butterfly roof and the cantilevered balcony. Credit:Harry Seidler At the heart of a dispute appears to be a question around whether renovations and upgrades to the property in the intervening years have made the original design unrecognisable. Owner Michael Bowden and his family say the decision was "unfounded and entirely detrimental", and will severely impact their freedom to develop the home, as well as decrease its value. For the past two years, Rebekah Condon and Jim Fuller have been living in strangers' homes. They've done so here in Canberra, across Australia, and have even stayed in houses in Canada and America. Jim Fuller and Rebekah Condon, who have have been house-sitting and pet sitting in Canberra and overseas for two years. Credit:Karleen Minney They don't pay rent or bills - and what they're doing is perfectly legal. The pair, who are originally from NSW but now call Canberra home, are house and pet sitters, and members of the group Trusted Housesitters. Buyers into a planned apartment complex in Tuggeranong's Southquay precinct have had their contracts torn up, after the developer conceded it would not be able to deliver the project on time. Developer Empire Global had earmarked a 2019 completion date for stage one of the Jardin development, which was to include 237 units, terrace homes and rooftop gardens at the corner of Anketell Street and Oakden Street. Andrew Bennett at the site of the Tuggeranong apartment building, where he paid a deposit on an apartment almost two years ago, but has now had the deal scrapped against his wishes. Credit:Elesa Kurtz But the project has yet to get off the ground, and now, in a letter sent to apartment buyers before Christmas, lawyers for the property group said it would be unable to deliver the project by the "arrangement date". The letter from Meyer Vandenberg lawyers, seen by The Canberra Times, said the developer had exercised its right to rescind the sale contracts, and would refund deposits to buyers within the following 32 days. Canberra house prices are predicted to grow by more than 6 per cent in 2019, as the capital continues to defy a nationwide property market downturn, according to a new report. But a declining auction clearance rate and slowing rate of housing finance commitments suggest demand might be beginning to cool in the ACT, the report from housing research firm CoreLogic and Moody's Analytics finds. The report, published on Monday, predicts Canberra property prices will rise throughout 2019, following moderate increases in the past six months. House values are predicted to rise by 6.1 per cent, according to the report, while unit prices are forecast to grow by 3.3 per cent. Canberra's median house price was $672,332 at the end of 2018, up 3.6 per cent in the past 12 months, according to CoreLogic figures. The NSW government is investigating the cause and extent of "shocking" algal bloom events in the state's far west that may have killed a million or more fish. The Department of Primary Industries has sent staff to examine the Menindee Weir Pool region, south-east of Broken Hill, where banks are lined with dead bony bream, Murray cod and other species. It's the largest of four recent fish kills in NSW after one in the same region at Christmas and two others on the Namoi and Lachlan rivers amid on-going drought and record heat. "Unfortunately, this won't be the last," Niall Blair, NSW's fisheries minister, said. "There's just nothing coming into the system." "When the market turns, we're prepared to be more aggressive," he said. He added that he had sketched out a "downturn list" of 150 targets including financial tech, cybersecurity, and consumer internet companies in case they become cheaper. The venture capitalist, who manages a $US714 million ($1 billion) fund, tried to put some of that money into 12 tech startups last year but failed when they demanded too rich a price. In some cases, he said, his offers to invest were outbid by as much as 40 per cent. The only investment he led in 2018 was a $USUS360 million deal in OutSystems, a software company in Atlanta. Letteri is one of a growing number of venture capitalists rooting for a market dip to calm the overheated startup scene. For the past few years, Silicon Valley tech startups have been awash in a stream of cash that has allowed them to expand quickly and sell or go public at high valuations. Yet that drove up the costs of deal-making for venture capitalists, who often prefer to invest in young companies at lower prices in the hopes of making a bigger return later. Loading Now some of these investors may get their wish for a market decline. Stocks tumbled late last year, led by tech giants such as Facebook and Apple, amid fears of slowing economic growth and a trade war with China. And so far this year, the stock market has swung wildly, whipsawed by confusing signals including Apple's disappointing iPhone sales in China and American employers adding more jobs than expected last month. While it takes time for choppiness in the stock market to ripple out into the startup market, many venture investors are already preparing for a downturn. Some are setting aside money to pounce on investments and are preparing to write bigger checks with the expectation that new investors who flooded in in recent years will flee. And they are keeping closer tabs on companies that were too expensive to invest in last year. "We definitely want to take advantage of a market downturn," said Sandy Miller, a venture capitalist at IVP who projects that startup valuations will fall 10 to 40 per cent this year. He said his Silicon Valley venture firm has set aside "meaningful reserves" to do more deals and to put more money into companies it has already invested in, though he declined to specify an amount. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Hi Neighbor, Well that was fast. The holidays, I mean. Of course it depends on when you began celebrating. I started listening to the Hallmark Christmas music station on Sirius Radio sometime around Halloween. My family did think it kind of strange when I asked them all to join in on Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer during Thanksgiving dinner. Then, when the clock strikes midnight Christmas night, its over. Time to get ready for Valentines Day! So, its a brand new year. For those who thought youd wake up New Years morning with a fresh start in America, sorry. Our countrys Tweeter in Chief couldnt resist telling us how he missed out on the holidays at Mar-a-Logo, instead staying in the White House to work while the rest of us were partying and having just a grand old time. Like government workers out of work without pay -- because the government is shut down. Or the cops, firemen, hospital workers and ER docs helping all us party animals on Christmas and New Years. Or the bus drivers, train engineers and ferry captains. The food service workers. Cab drivers. EMTs. Hotel workers. Not to mention us Fake News reporters. Yep, all of America was on holiday except that one lonely guy in the White House with his nose to the grindstone. I know the ice on Staten Island is pretty thin in this conversation. But I just dont know how much more America can take in terms this presidents volatility. And thats a shame, because a measured Donald Trump could be celebrated as a good maybe even great -- president, despite the warts, rumors and accusations. The economy is good. The market not so much. Jobs are abundant. The Wall Street Journal reports wages up 3.1 percent with low-skilled workers seeing the most gain. Gas prices are dropping. Foreign policy? Who really knows. Rocket Man is making noise again over there in North Korea. To his credit Trump has made no concessions. Russia? Better wait for the Mueller report on that one. ISIS might still exist, though surely not the force it was. But America has an image. Or had an image. And with all the respect I can muster to Staten Islands Trump base, its not the image this president projects to the world. Do we have to wake up on New Years Day to learn that the Commander in Chief has just informed the world that one of his retired Army generals has a big, dumb mouth, and that hes a Hillary lover! And then get a bulletin-by-tweet that Mexico IS paying for the wall. Excuse me, but why is the government shut down? Elizabeth Warren you know her, Staten Island Trump fans. Pocahontas! she set the political stage New Years Eve, pretty much declaring she wants to run against The Mocker in Chief when she announced she formed a presidential exploratory committee. Lets consider a variation of famous Ronald Reagan line of 1980, Are you better off than you were four years ago? Today, lets ask, When you voted for The Donald two years ago, is this what you thought you were getting? Maybe. But so much of it? There will be a glut of people who want to replace Trump in 2020 if he runs, and frankly, I dont think its a sure thing he will. But if we think a person with a grip on the global picture, who has extraordinary business instincts, who knows how to manage, who surrounds himself with the very best people and who has remarkable vision, then Mr. Trump is no longer your guy. Mike Bloomberg is. New Yorkers are a funny bunch. Rudy Giuliani was the savior of New York. Until he wasnt. Mayor Mike Bloomberg saved our city after the horror of September 11. He never got the accolades he richly deserved for that. Instead, all we heard about was an 18 percent property tax hike. Then he decided to try for a third term when the limit was two. And hes still excoriated for it. Did he really want the third term? Or did he feel New York really needed him? Theres no one else out there, he told me. And he was right. For all the New Yorkers who rail against Mike Bloomberg for stealing a third term, remember one thing: He didnt steal it. New York elected him. We had a choice. Bloomberg has said hell make a decision sometime this month or next. Theres a lot to say about a Bloomberg candidacy and what he would bring to the White House. For now, I hope he jumps into the primaries. I hope Democrat voters realize what they could have. And I hope he becomes the Democrats choice. More later. For now: Run, Mike. Run. Brian STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A surprised passerby was greeted by a cute seal rolling around on the sand at Midland Beach around 10 a.m. Monday when she was walking her dog. Xenia Freeman walks her chocolate Labrador on the same route every day for the last two years in her community and was surprised to see a seal come up that close to the shore. He was sunbathing right on the beach, enjoying himself, it was so cute, Freeman said. Seals were copious in and around New York coastal shores at one time but dwindled after over-hunting and pollution almost wiped out their species altogether, according to a New York Times article. Slowly over time, the population of the animals started to grow back during the 1990s and more seals could be spotted moving south down the coastline during the winter in order to avoid sea ice. He was playing in the water and then came back out for supper, going back and forth and laying on the beach, Freeman said. It was a beautiful sight to see for the Islander and the loner seal eventually made its way back into the water. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of Nancy Noga, a 17-year-old Sayreville, N.J., teen and former Staten Islander who was murdered and whose death remains unsolved. The Sayreville War Memorial High School seniors body was found five days later, on Jan. 12, 1999, behind a mini mall on Ernston Road in Old Bridge, according to a social media post by the Sayreville Police Department. She was killed while making the short walk from her part-time job at a store on Route 9 to the apartment complex where she lived, police said. She died as a result of blunt force trauma to her head. Noga lived on Staten Island as a child before moving to New Jersey, according to a MyCentralJersey.com report. Liza Walter-Larregui, who lives in Old Bridge now, told MyCentralJersey.com that when she was living on Staten Island, Noga became her best friend. She was my protector, she took me under her wing. We became best friends overnight, she told the website. The friends attended Totten Intermediate School (I.S. 34) in Tottenville and lived near each other, Walter-Larregui said. Even after Noga moved to New Jersey, the two remained in close contact. As the investigation enters its 20th year, the men and women of the Sayreville Police Department have not forgotten about Nancy and are actively investigating her murder, the Sayreville PD said. We are committed to finding the person(s) responsible for this horrific act and getting Nancy the justice she deserves. Page Content Smoking has been banned from most workplaces for a long time, but vaping presents new issues for employers. So should the smokeless alternative be treated like cigarettes? Employers should consider state and local laws, company culture, health risks and accommodations when developing their e-cigarette policies, employment law attorneys said. Electronic cigarettes (which are also called e-cigarettes, e-cigs, vaporizers and electronic nicotine delivery systems) are battery-operated devices that sometimes look like a traditional cigarette, a pen or a USB flash drive but can take on a variety of other forms. Users puff them to inhale an aerosol that usually contains nicotine, flavorings and other chemicalsthough not all e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Use of these devices is commonly called vaping. "The trend that I've seen is that employers are generally treating e-cigarette use the same as how they treat use of traditional cigarettes," said Jennifer Betts, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Pittsburgh. "This is not without controversy, however," she said, noting there is limited data about the health risks associated with the use of e-cigarettes. Is Vaping Harmful? E-cigarette use has the potential to benefit some people and harm others, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaping might benefit adult smokers who use e-cigarettes as a complete replacement for traditional cigarettes, but "scientists still have a lot to learn about whether e-cigarettes are effective for quitting smoking," the CDC said on its website. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation product. The CDC does say that vaping can be harmful to children, pregnant women and adults who have never used nicotine products. The American Lung Association cautions that vaping may pose secondhand-emissions risks. But more research needs to be done. "While e-cigarettes may be less harmful than regular cigarettes, this does not mean that they are harmless," according to the National Cancer Institute. Check State and Local Law Depending on their location, employers may have the discretion to treat vaping as they want, said Jay Hux, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Chicago. But employers should consider state and local regulations when developing a policy. Some statessuch as Alaska, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont, as well as Washington, D.C.broadly prohibit vaping in places where smoking is banned. Other states ban vaping in specific places such as child care facilities, state government buildings, schools and enclosed workspaces. Some local municipalities also have enacted bans on e-cigarettes in enclosed workplaces. As a result, in some jurisdictions, allowing e-cigarette use in the workplace would be unlawful, Betts noted. If a state hasn't instituted any regulations, as with any workplace policy, employers should make sure they understand their organization's goals so they can tailor policies and practices to reach those objectives, she said. "Remember, too, if you are in a unionized environment that you may need to bargain with a union before developing a policy about e-cigarette use." Workplace Policies on Vaping Some employers don't have explicit policies or haven't carefully considered how they want to treat vaping, Hux said. "Other employers superficially added it on to a smoking policy." Employers should consider the pros and cons of treating e-cigarette use as they treat the use of traditional tobacco products. On one hand, workers may be more efficient if they can vape at their workstations and not take as many breaks, he said. On the other hand, an employer may find it disconcerting for employees to puff on e-cigarettes at work, he added, noting that an e-cigarette is still a means of disposing an addictive chemical. Some employees could have a reaction to the chemical byproduct that a co-worker's e-cigarette emits, Betts noted. Requests for accommodation due to odor and chemical sensitivities are becoming more frequent under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Permitting e-cigarette use could require employers to engage in an interactive process and potentially grant accommodations to employees who feel ill by others' vaping, she said. Additionally, safety issues could arise with e-cigarette use in certain workplaces, such as those containing combustible materials, due to the ignition and heating elements in e-cigarettes. [SHRM members-only online discussion platform: SHRM Connect] "Moreover, if an employer's workplace is public-facing, it may have legitimate concerns about the image employee e-cigarette use projects," Betts said. Set Clear Guidelines Employers should evaluate their smoking policies to ensure clarity about the scope of the products covered and what areas of the worksite are covered by any smoking ban, Betts said. Consider whether employees can bring e-cigarettes into certain areas, or if they are completely banned from the property. If a workplace already has a clean-air policy, but it doesn't reference e-cigarettes, employees may be confused about whether vaping is covered, Betts said. "It's probably time to revise the language." Additionally, employees should typically be informed of any changes in workplace policies before they take effect. Betts said 60 to 90 days' notice is a good rule of thumb, but some states have specific rules employers should incorporate. Page Content California launched a pilot program in November 2018 to help more workers save for retirement. But the new state-run program, called CalSavers, is facing legal controversy and uncertainty. CalSavers is designed to help employees who work for employers that don't have a retirement savings program save for retirement by facilitating contributions to an individual retirement account (IRA). According to the California state treasurer's office, the program will benefit about 7 million workers in the private sector. Although state officials are proceeding with their plans for CalSavers, the future of the program is unclear. A taxpayers' rights group is challenging the program, claiming that it violates the U.S. Constitution. However, Katie Selenski, the executive director of CalSavers, said the program is proceeding as planned. CalSavers Timeline For now, employers can apply to join the CalSavers pilot program as early adopters. Their employees will be enrolled automatically unless they opt out. Beginning in July, all eligible employers in the state will be able to enroll their workers. Eventually, most California employers that lack a retirement savings plan will be required to do one of two things: either enroll their workers in CalSavers or provide a retirement plan through the private market. The deadlines for employers without a workplace retirement program to sign up for CalSavers are: June 2020 for companies with more than 100 employees. June 2021 for companies with 50-99 employees. June 2022 for companies with 5-49 employees. Program Structure If employees participate, funds will be automatically deducted from their paychecks, and this money will go into their CalSavers IRA account. By default, 5 percent of their pay is deducted from each paycheck, although the employee can choose a different contribution rate. The employee's contribution rate will automatically increase by 1 percent each year until it reaches 8 percent, unless the worker makes a different choice. CalSavers retirement plans are portable, so employees will have access to them if they change jobs. [SHRM members-only toolkit: Designing and Administering Defined Contribution Retirement Plans] The program is administered by financial services firm Ascensus. According to the California state treasurer's office, participating employers aren't fiduciaries or liable for workers' investment decisions, and they don't contribute to the employees' retirement accounts. Nevertheless, participating employers do have certain obligations, such as uploading an employee roster in order to enroll workers and submitting employee contributions to CalSavers. A Mixed Bag A plus of the program is that participating employers might attract and retain more workers, according to Melissa Shimizu, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Irvine. Employers will be required to meet ongoing requirements, such as handling the transfer of payments to CalSavers, said Ross Boughton, an attorney with FordHarrison in San Francisco. However, the CalSavers system should provide a valuable tool for employees, which will in turn benefit their employers, he said. The program is also a mixed bag for employees. Although workers will have the opportunity to save money for retirement and enhance their financial security, there are potential downsides. "Like any investment in general, there's always some risk to it," Boughton said. "You could lose money." Legal Issues In May, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association filed a lawsuit in federal court attempting to invalidate the CalSavers program. The group alleges that CalSavers "violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution because it is expressly pre-empted" by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). According to the complaint, "ERISA establishes nationally uniform standards to protect private employees and does not allow state-run retirement programs for private employees." The association claims that under CalSavers, employers "automatically become ERISA plan administrators with all attendant administrative and legal liabilities." Former President Barack Obama's administration created an ERISA safe harbor for state-sponsored retirement plans, in which these plans would be exempt from ERISA, Shimizu noted. But President Donald Trump later signed a resolution that rescinded those safe harbor regulations. Without that protection, state-sponsored retirement plans in California and other states must rely on U.S. Department of Labor regulations to determine whether the program is an ERISA-covered pension plan, according to Lorne Dauenhauer, an attorney at Ogletree Deakins in Portland, Ore. Employee participation must be "completely voluntary" for the program to be exempt from ERISA. Dauenhauer highlighted a key feature of the CalSavers program as potentially problematic: automatic enrollment of workers unless they opt out. So is this type of program completely voluntary? "That's certainly something that could be open to interpretation," Dauenhauer said. There's a credible argument that CalSavers is subject to ERISA given the automatic enrollment feature, said John McGowan, an attorney with BakerHostetler in Cleveland. "At the very least, it's unclear," he noted. "On the advice of the attorney general and our legal counsel, we cannot discuss pending litigation other than to say with total confidence that California's program is legal, and this challenge is baseless," Selenski said. Despite the legal challenge, employers that are required to participate in CalSavers should comply with the program's deadlines, Shimizu said. Employers can adopt a policy stating that they have no control over individual investments in the CalSavers program, McGowan said. Companies should make it clear that investment discretion is in the employees' hands, he added. Toni Vranjes is a freelance business writer in San Pedro, Calif. You are now listening to the sounds of the New Generation. A podcast created for those who desire a new way of gaining information rather than reading a traditional newspaper. In our show we will discuss everything from sports, pop culture, politics, and local news. To stay up to date on our latest episodes every week be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast service. And dont worry, we keep it short. BANGKOK An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family over alleged abuse and barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room in a desperate bid for asylum will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case is evaluated by the U.N. refugee agency, immigration authorities said Monday. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun grabbed global attention when she sent out pleas for help through social media, saying she feared for her life if she were put on a plane back to Kuwait, where she had slipped away from her family, or her homeland. Instead, she has been allowed to enter Thailand temporarily under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency, which was expected to take about five to seven days to study her case and her claim for asylum. She said she wants to go to Australia to seek refuge there. We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law, said Thai Immigration Police chief Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. Alqununs plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families and other obstacles they face in the conservative kingdom. Photos released Monday night by immigration police showed Alqunun with Thai and U.N. officials after she left the airport transit hotel room where she had been holed up over the weekend, sending her pleas for help on her Twitter account. She later tweeted that she feels safe under U.N. protection and has gotten back her passport, which had been taken from her earlier. Alqununs ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabias restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a mans consent. Upon arriving at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man whom she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room, and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online, sending out pleas for assistance, and also barricaded her hotel room door. Alqunun wrote of being in real danger if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her fathers retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the U.N. refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian lawmakers, Germanys ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow U.N refugee officials to meet with her. Her case highlights Saudi Arabias male guardianship laws, which require women who want to travel, obtain a passport or marry to have the consent of a male relative usually a father or husband no matter what their age. Kaweewit Kaewjinda and Aya Batrawy are Associated Press writers. CAIRO Thousands took to the streets in the Sudanese capital Sunday to call for President Omar el-Bashir to step down, the latest in nearly three weeks of demonstrations against his 29-year autocratic rule. Protesters gathered at several points across Khartoum before they began to march on el-Bashirs Nile-side palace in the city center. Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who regrouped and resumed the march only to be attacked by tear gas again. I am fully confident that we will succeed in bringing down this regime and live the life that we deserve, said Mohammed, an unemployed 25-year-old who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals. My confidence comes from the fact that most protesters are young and persistent like me. Activists said police on Sunday blocked a bridge over the Nile that links Khartoums twin city of Omdurman to the capitals center in a bid to prevent protesters from joining forces. They said unusually large numbers of police and plainclothes security men were deployed across Khartoum in anticipation of Sundays protests. Police, meanwhile, arrested at least five Khartoum university lecturers after they staged a brief campus protest Sunday in solidarity with the demonstrators, according to activists reached in the capital. Authorities have detained scores of activists and opposition leaders during the past two weeks. El-Bashir, an Islamist, has been in power since he led a military coup 29 years ago. He has shown no signs that he might step down and continues to blame the countrys problems on international sanctions and plots against its Islamic experience. His rule has been defined by turmoil and conflict while the economy has lurched from one crisis to another. The secession of the mostly animist and Christian south of the country in 2011 deprived Sudan of about three-quarters of the countrys oil wealth. Authorities have imposed emergency laws and curfews in some cities and suspended classes at schools and universities across much of Sudan. Hamza Hendawi is an Associated Press writer. BEIRUT Syrias Kurds are awaiting clarifications from the U.S. over Americas plans to pull out its troops from Syria following comments made by a top White House aide that appeared to counter earlier comments by President Trump, a Syrian Kurdish official said Monday. Speaking to the Associated Press from northern Syria, Badran Ciya Kurd said the Kurds have not been informed of any change in the U.S. position and were in the dark about the latest comments by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and what they indicated. We have not been formally or directly notified, all what we heard were media statements, he said. Bolton, on a visit to Israel Sunday, said U.S. troops will not leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected. The comments appeared to put the brakes on a withdrawal abruptly announced by Trump last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. While Bolton said there is now no timetable, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to withdrawing U.S. troops, though the president said, I never said were doing it that quickly and added that there will not be a total pullout until (Islamic State) is gone. The back and forth is troubling for the Kurds, who have been Americas only partners on the ground in Syria in the fight against the militants. Trumps decision last month drew widespread criticism from allies, led to the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on the Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. Bolton arrived in Turkey on Monday, accompanied by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, for talks with government officials. Bolton said the U.S. wants its Kurdish allies in Syria protected from any planned Turkish offensive a warning to be delivered to Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ciya Kurd said Bolton, through his comments, acknowledged that Turkey was killing the Kurds and that he wants guarantees that this would not happen. Turkey constitutes a bigger threat to Kurdish existence than Daesh and all international terrorist organizations, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. Nawaf Khalil, who heads the Europe-based Center for Kurdish Studies said, President Trumps statement regarding withdrawal of troops led to confusion and mistrust of the American side. He added that Boltons statement came to fix what should not have been said. In northern Syria, the Kurdish-led U.S.-backed force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces pressed on in their fight against Islamic State militants in their last holdouts in eastern Syria. Civilians continued to flee the area around the town of Hajin near the border with Iraq. Bassem Mroue is an Associated Press writer. MEXICO CITY Mexicos new president is facing the first major domestic challenge of his month-old administration, taking on fuel thieves who drill into government pipelines and steal from distribution depots. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, has taken the unusual step of shutting off some particularly theft-prone pipelines carrying gasoline and diesel. That has led to gasoline shortages and gas station closures in several states, but Lopez Obrador said Monday he isnt backing down. Lets see who gets tired first, the fuel thieves or us, Lopez Obrador said. We know it is not going to be easy, but we are not going to back down. Fuel theft is a $3 billion per year clandestine industry, so sophisticated that Lopez Obrador said gangs had established an alternative, clandestine and illegal distribution network with their own depots. Lopez Obrador said some gangs had actually built warehouses over pipeline rights of way to drill illegal taps into the ducts. At big construction projects, the gangs would set up sales points to supply stolen diesel to heavy equipment operators. The pipeline shutdowns forced the government to switch temporarily to more distribution by tanker trucks. Lopez Obrador also has tightened the screws on fuel theft gangs, posting soldiers at fuel depots. Lopez Obrador showed graphs Monday indicating the government was actually selling more gasoline after the pipeline shutdowns, suggesting that part of the demand has previously been met by stolen fuel. The state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos company said it was working to fix the supply problems, and stressed it had enough fuel to meet demand. It said the gas shortages had affected mainly the central states of Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato and Queretaro. Long lines formed at some of the few gas stations still operating over the weekend in place like Guanajuato, which is also a leader in illegal fuel taps. We are opening the pipelines back up carefully, and that means with the supervision of specialized personnel, Lopez Obrador said. The government knows it is up against fierce, deeply ingrained gangs that often recruit entire neighborhoods to face off against police and military personnel during raids against the thefts. There are groups, not all the people, but some, that stage protests when the government carries out operations against pipeline taps, he said. I am calling on all people not to participate in illegal acts. TravelSkills on SFGate is brought to you by Visa Hackers are gaining access to frequent flyer accounts and draining them of miles oftentimes without the victim ever noticing until weeks or months later. We recently spoke with Andy Luten, a Dallas-based frequent flier and travel blogger who recently had his American AAdvantage account targeted by cyber criminals. Thieves pilfered 138,500 miles from him, and then using the stolen points to redeem a pair of award tickets a process that took minutes. Luten describes in detail how he became a victim in a timeline on his Andy's Travel blog. The first clue that hackers had gained access to his account: An e-mail Luten received from American notifying him someone had changed the email address associated with his account. Then the thief made the two consecutive award bookings, the latter of which happened as he was on the phone with an airline reservations agent to report the incident. He ended up spending nearly an entire night online and on the phone with American trying to sort the theft out. "I caught it out of sheer luck," he told SFGate. Luten, being an avid American flier, said he checks his mileage balance almost daily. He immediately logged on after the e-mail change message to watch his mileage balance being emptied. "It's just crazy to think how easy this is," Luten said. "I pay that much attention to my account. Many others don't check their balances as frequently as I do, and they wait three months and then there's actual value that's gone." American eventually restored the stolen miles and cancelled the award tickets. The airline told Luten to file a police report to document the incident, which he did. American also assisted him in setting up a brand new AAdvantage account. Luten does not believe the two people who were ticketed using his award miles were responsible for the hacking, but believes the points were illegitimately resold online by the airline account hackers. Andy Luten So how did this happen in the first place? Here's how Luten summarizes what he thinks happened in a post about it on his blog: "Hacker found my email address and a password as part of some data breach (like Marriott's). They tried that password in a variety of sites and found that the email/password combo worked with American. They then ran a Craigslist ad or something for cheap car rentals and hotels (with a burner phone, of course), someone paid the hacker cash, hacker made award bookings in that person's name using my miles, and job done. It would be the recipient of the fraudulent award that gets arrested, not the hacker." Don't miss a thing! Sign up for a free bi-weekly travel news and deals emails! Protect against airline loyalty account hacks Targeting airline loyalty accounts is a relatively recent phenomenon for cyber criminals, according to Paul Bischoff, editor of UK-based consumer research firm Comparitech. In 2018, the company found a robust black market for stolen airline miles, with people on the dark web willing to spend hundreds of dollars for tens of thousands of stolen airline miles. "The stolen miles are usually redeemed for gift cards and other loyalty rewards," Bischoff said. "They are more difficult to trace than hotel bookings and flights, which usually require proof of identification." In this era of Instagram and social media, we know many avid travelers excited about their trips inform friends and followers about the journey ahead by posting boarding pass photos. Bad idea, Bischoff said. "Don't share your frequent flyer account number," he said. "If you have one, it's often printed on your boarding pass, so don't take a picture of your boarding pass and post it to social media." Instead, shred the boarding pass, and never include frequent flier numbers on baggage tags. (Or just keep your electronic boarding passes stored on your smartphone to yourself.) "Be on the lookout for phishing scams that pose as an airline or affiliated company to steal your frequent flyer number and other personal information from you," Bischoff added. Luten recommends using unique passwords for each travel account, which he now does. He said recouping losses after mileage accounts have been depleted can be difficult especially if you don't catch the crime early. "This is 100 percent identity theft," he said. "It's identity theft that nobody really cares about." Has anything like this ever happened to you? Will you update your loyalty program passwords today like I have? Please leave your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. Residents return to their charred homes to look for their belongings after a fire at a slum area in Quezon City, the Philippines, Jan. 6, 2019. More than 100 shanties were razed in the fire, leaving 200 families homeless and 5 people injured. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) 10 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] OAKLAND (BCN) An attorney for an Oakland woman arrested after allegedly biting a jogger who pepper-sprayed her dogs last week maintains her client was defending herself and her pets. Emily Dahm, an attorney representing Alma Cadwalader, 19, said Sunday that her client was trying to protect her dogs, which were running off-leash on a trail in Anthony Chabot Park on Thursday morning. The dogs, a shepherd husky mix and a lab mix, ran up to a woman jogging, but didn't attack, Dahm said. "There was no 'dog attack,' " Dahm said Sunday. The jogger "assumed the worst, overreacted and pepper sprayed the pets," Dahm said. The confrontation escalated when Cadwalader tried to get the woman to stop spraying the dogs, Dahm said. Cadwalader tried to grab the pepper spray and the jogger grabbed Cadwalader's hair and kicked her in the groin -- prompting Cadwalader to bite her on the forearm to let go of her hair, Dahm said. Police reports, however, maintain it was Cadwalader who "accosted" the jogger about 10:25 a.m. at Goldenrod Trail between the Chabot Equestrian Center and the Oakland City Stables in Oakland. Cadwalader allegedly tackled and punched the jogger multiple times, according to East Bay Regional Park District police. When the jogger attempted to push Cadwalader off her, the dog walker bit her, police said. The jogger suffered significant injuries after being bitten on the forearm by Cadwalader, according to police. An Alameda County judge issued a warrant Friday and police arrested Cadwalader. She is expected to be arraigned Monday in Alameda County Superior Court. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. OAKLAND (BCN) Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Monday that she is "full of gratitude and hope" as she begins her second four-year term as the city's mayor. Schaaf, who won 56 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 election despite facing nine challengers, said her top four priorities are "holistic public safety," equitable jobs and housing, "vibrant, sustainable infrastructure" and responsive and trustworthy government. In a swipe at President Donald Trump, with whom she has quarreled over immigration and other issues, Schaaf said, "Despite the horrible example we find in our current president, I truly believe in the nobility of public service." Schaaf also warned Trump, "If you pollute our coast with drilling or coal, we will stop you." The mayor said one of her biggest accomplishments during her first term was getting Oakland off the list of one the 10 most dangerous places in the country in terms of violent crime. Schaaf reminded the packed audience at the City Council chambers that information released last week showed that Oakland's homicide total in 2018 was its lowest number in nearly two decades, violent crime has been reduced for six straight years and the four year-average for homicides is at a historic low. However, 2019 has begun with a crime wave that resulted in five homicides in the first five days of the year. Also sworn in Monday were three new City Council members: Nikki Fortunato Bas in District 2, which includes the Lake Merritt and Chinatown neighborhoods, Sheng Thao in District 4 and Loren Taylor in District 6 in East Oakland, who defeated 16-year incumbent Desley Brooks. Bas, the first Filipina woman to be elected to the City Council, said she will work for "equity, inclusion and community participation" and fight "systematic racism and corporate power." Bas said there's a record level of development in Oakland but it's only helping people who already are well-off. "I say enough. No more free passes or deals behind closed doors," she said. Thao, the daughter of asylum seekers from Vietnam, said she's the first Hmong-American to be elected to a city council in California. "I want to be the voice for those who don't have voices," Thao said. Referring to the rising cost of housing in Oakland, Taylor said he wants to "stop the pushing and pricing out of our long-term residents." Taylor also said, "I want to make sure our government works more efficiently for us." Also sworn in Monday were newly elected school board members Aimee Eng, Gary Yee and Shanthi Gonzales. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. JOSEPH SCHMITZ appears for one of his initial court sessions related to the 2016 shooting death of Corina Booth. He accepted a plea agreement in court on Monday in Madison. Currently out on bond, Schmitz was previously held in custody at the Lake County Jail. Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney has resigned his post as chief of staff to the U.S. secretary of defense, the Defense Department said. Sweeney had become chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in January 2017, and his resignation comes soon after Mattis pointed departure in December. Mattis said then that he had resigned in protest of President Trumps decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and in protest of the presidents rejection of international alliances. Mattis had originally said he would step down at the end of February, but angered by Mattis criticism, Trump said he was removing Mattis from his post two months early. Patrick Shanahan, the former deputy secretary of defense, replaced Mattis and became acting secretary of defense on Jan. 1. After two years in the Pentagon, Ive decided the time is right to return to the private sector, Sweeney said in a statement on the departments website late Saturday. It has been an honor to serve again alongside the men and women of the Department of Defense. A spokeswoman for the department said she did not have any further comment beyond the statement. Sweeney retired as a rear admiral from the U.S. Navy in 2014, according to the Department of Defense. Sweeneys resignation follows several recent high-profile departures from the Trump administration, including that of Mattis. The president said in December that John Kelly would step down as White House chief of staff. Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group, also announced his resignation last month. Mihir Zaveri is a New York Times writer. A Michigan Uber driver accused of killing six people and wounding two others in a 2016 shooting spree pleaded guilty to murder on Monday just before his trial was set to begin. Jason Dalton terrorized the Kalamazoo area on Feb. 20, 2016, when he drove wildly through the city and its suburbs, shooting people outside a car dealership, a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a townhouse complex. Over a period of hours, he gave Uber customers rides between the seemingly random shootings. The gunfire rattled western Michigan and raised questions about Ubers screening of its drivers at a time when the ride-hailing service was expanding into smaller cities. It helps with community healing, some closure, said Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell. Its a heinous incident. Dalton, who was arrested the night of the shootings, initially pleaded not guilty and appeared to be headed to trial until his last-minute plea. Last year, Daltons lawyers persuaded a state appeals court to bar prosecutors from using incriminating statements made to police officers. Jury questioning in the case was to begin Monday, with the trial expected to last two weeks. But, with families of the shooting victims gathered in the gallery on Monday morning, Dalton changed course. His lawyer, Eusebio Solis, withdrew plans to use an insanity defense, and Dalton, shackled around his waist and wearing a dress shirt with an unbuttoned collar, stood at the front of the courtroom and pleaded guilty to every charge, including six counts of murder. Some in the courtroom gallery wept as officials read the names of the victims, and Dalton answered yes to questions about killing each of them. Ive wanted this for quite a while, Dalton told the judge when asked whether he understood his pleas. Dalton will face a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder charges when he is sentenced next month. Solis said he had advised his client against pleading guilty. Solis said plea discussions had been ongoing for months, but that prosecutors showed no support for a lighter sentence. Daltons plea left many questions unanswered about his motive. His victims included a retired English teacher, a former state worker, a father and son shopping for a car and a teenage girl who was pronounced dead but ended up surviving. The attack was denounced by then-President Barack Obama as another instance of large-scale gun violence. Ive got to assume all of you are just as tired as I am of seeing this stuff happen in your states, Obama said. The shooting also brought unflattering attention to Uber, whose officials at the time defended their background check process. Dalton, who had been an Uber driver for a short time, had no serious criminal record. No background check process would have made a difference in this case because this person didnt have a criminal history, Joe Sullivan, the companys chief security officer, said in 2016. Mitch Smith is a New York Times writer. After six years of legal battles, Californias ban on foie gras is still in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it would not hear a challenge to Californias 2004 ban on the production and sale of foie gras, leaving in place a 2017 ruling upholding it. Animal rights groups are jubilant at the decision, while trade groups and chefs have vowed to continue fighting. For those who havent seen foie gras on menus for a while, the term means fatty liver: large, pale, butter-rich lobes of duck or goose liver that are traditionally seared or made into pate. Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese through a process called gavage, inserting a tube down the birds throats and pouring grain into it, which opponents consider undue cruelty. The California law, which went into effect in 2004 but delayed enforcement of the ban until 2012, forced Californias only foie gras producer to close. Some California restaurants continued to serve foie gras, however, claiming they were giving it away to guests. Starting in 2012, groups such as the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards, backed by the French Laundrys Thomas Keller and dozens of other chefs, have supported a series of efforts to overturn the ban, leading to a legal back-and-forth. In 2015, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the ban violated the federal Poultry Products Inspections Act, which prohibits states from imposing their own conditions on the sale of poultry. The ruling put foie gras back on Bay Area menus. The California state attorney general appealed the ruling, however, and two years later, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed it. However, the court put a stay on the ban so the plaintiffs two out-of-state foie gras producers and a Los Angeles area restaurant group could petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. That challenge is now effectively dead. We are absolutely thrilled that the Supreme Court has denied the foie gras industrys petition to hear the case, and that will allow the Ninth Circuits ruling upholding the laws constitutionality to go into effect, hopefully today, said Kelsey Eberly, staff attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, based in Cotati. The fund has submitted numerous briefs in support of the ban, and filed a 2012 lawsuit against La Toque Restaurant in Napa, whose owner, Ken Frank, has consistently defied the ban. (The suit was stayed in 2015, but Eberly says that the group intends to resurrect it.) Shortly after the decision was announced, the chefs coalition announced that it will attempt another legal challenge in federal district court, but did not specify on what grounds. While vegan extremists will likely mischaracterize the legal effect of it, the Justices themselves have long noted that their decision not to hear a case does not reflect on the merits, claimed coalition representative Cathy Kennedy. Im not entirely surprised by this, and I remain as confident as ever that once this still very misguided law is subjected to proper legal scrutiny, it will fail on a number of levels, La Toques Frank said, calling the ban vague and unenforceable. When told of the groups intent, Eberly chuckled. They have certainly been creative in trying everything they can think of to stop this law from going into effect, she said. Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jonkauffman What exactly did Golden Globe winner Patricia Arquette say during her acceptance speech? Well, it wasn't quite "forked," but we cannot print the exact word in this family-friendly news publication. Despite tough competition, San Francisco-raised actor Darren Criss and East Bay native Mahershala Ali took home Golden Globes for their respective categories at the 2019 event in Hollywood on Sunday night. Ali beat out his fellow nominees in the best supporting actor category for "Green Book," and Criss won for his role as Andrew Cunanan, the antagonist at the center of FX's "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story." Criss, who grew to fame in the ebullient musical hit show "Glee," told Variety last summer that the move to appear in a much darker role was actually a long time coming. After his Emmy nomination last year, he told the site that "had been waiting and working for this moment my entire life." Criss would go on to win the television award the following month. RELATED: Hometown hero: Darren Criss wins Emmy for 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace' Criss thanked his teachers, his fellow cast members and crew, and his mother, who he called a "firecracker." The win makes Criss the third youngest to ever win in the category of best actor in a limited series. "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" won awards for best limited series, best actor in a limited series (Criss), and was nominated for best supporting actress (Penelope Cruz), and best supporting actor (Edgar Ramirez). RELATED: SF native Darren Criss says one dumb lie forced him to fake a British accent for four years "Green Book" won the best musical or comedy award and was nominated in five categories, including best director. In the film, Ali plays Don Shirley, an African-American composer and jazz pianist who hires a bodyguard to escort him on a tour of the deep south. The win is Ali's first Golden Globe. Taking the stage to accept the award, Ali thanked his co-star, Viggo Mortensen, and his family. Speaking to Mortensen in the audience, Ali said, "You pushed me every day, no days off. Even the days off weren't days off. Thank you, brother, I love you." "Lastly, I have to thank my wife, my mother and my grandmother," he added. "I thank you for your prayers, I've needed each and every one of them." Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. Vallejo police shot a man Sunday morning after he allegedly brandished a knife at an officer, the second Bay Area police shooting this weekend, authorities said. A property owner called police at 8:31 a.m. to report a trespasser at 410 Nebraska St., according to Vallejo police. Officers attempted to detain the man, who showed a knife and acted aggressively toward law enforcement. The suspect did not drop the weapon despite multiple commands, police said. A former private school employee living in San Pablo was charged with possessing more than 600 images of child pornography, authorities said Monday. Francisco Perez, 34, was arraigned Friday after Google tipped off local law enforcement agencies about his online searches in November, according to the Contra Costa district attorneys office. A Novato man was killed Sunday afternoon when a tree, uprooted by howling winds from the stormy weather, fell on his car on the UC Berkeley campus, authorities said. Shortly before 4 p.m., University of California police responded to reports that a eucalyptus tree had toppled over onto a car on Gayley Road on the eastern part of campus, police spokesman Dan Mogulof said. Its not quite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez breaking out her The Breakfast Club dance moves. But The Chronicle photo archive proves that for Gavin Newsom, there was indeed life before wonky political speeches about tidal power and middle-class workforce strategy. The former San Francisco mayor, who will be sworn in as California governor today, gained his first regional publicity as the 24-year-old co-owner of a new Cow Hollow wine shop. Newsom was introduced to Chronicle readers on Dec. 21, 1991, in a People section article titled: A New Generation Makes Its Mark: Society kids take up endeavors outside the expected realm. In his earliest interviews, theres little sign of the policy-focused politician who once dropped a 7 -hour State of the City address on YouTube. The sons of Gordon Getty and Justice Bill Newsom are opening a wine shop in Cow Hollow in March called Plump Jack, after the opera Getty wrote based on the Falstaff character, the Chronicle article stated, including a photo of Newsom, Andrew Getty and Billy Getty standing in a doorway. Gavin Newsom, 24, thinks they are doing their families, who are wine collectors, a favor. Fred Larson / The Chronicle That was followed by Newsoms first-ever quote in the pages of The Chronicle: We can save them some money and also give them access to better-quality wines. Thats actually not a bad slogan for a campaign in 2018. A little more wordy than Courage for a change, but it speaks directly to the voters. In the months that followed the 1991 article, more photos of Newsom were taken by The Chronicle, mostly standing next to rich people, bottles of wine, or both. Newsom appears during one photo shoot to be wearing Sun-In to lighten his hair, which is slicked back to 2019 specifications. Steve Castillo / The Chronicle Beyond that, conservative bloggers looking for an angle of ridicule will be disappointed. Gavin Newsom looked cool. And boring. And motionless. Perhaps the place to look is the newspaper archive of Redwood High in Larkspur, where Newsom graduated. Maybe they have photos of him doing the The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub SACRAMENTO Gavin Newsom took the oath as Californias 40th governor Monday and instantly challenged President Trump, promising a progressive, principled administration that will counter corruption and incompetence in the White House. It is up to us to renew the California dream for a new generation. And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it, Newsom said. But there is an administration in Washington clearly hostile to Californias values and Californias interests. The former San Francisco mayor painted a picture of California as a virtual nation-state, one that will push beyond the strictures proposed by the GOP leaders in Washington toward a more progressive future. What we do today is even more consequential because of whats happening in our country, Newsom said on the west steps of the state Capitol, which were enclosed by a tent against the threat of rain. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The new governor promised to offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled and always on the side of the people. He also talked about his plans to improve life for Californias families and quickly showed what that means. About halfway through the new governors 25-minute address, 2-year-old Dutch, the youngest of Newsoms four children, wandered onto the stage looking for his father. Newsom scooped the boy up to loud laughter and continued with his speech, saying the state will support parents so they can give children the love and care they need, especially in those critical early years. Newsom talked about the need for a range of programs to shore up Californias safety net and deal with problems that have been deferred too long amid the states growing prosperity, such as homelessness and chronic hunger. These arent merely policy problems, he said. They are moral imperatives. So long as they persist, each and every one of us is diminished. Like all inaugural speeches, Newsoms talk was long on vision and short on specifics. He called for a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and fair pay for workers and said the state will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed health care for all Californians, but he was silent on exactly how the state will pay for those new initiatives. Throughout the speech, Newsom walked a fine line between his stated need to keep California on the careful financial course plotted by his predecessor, Jerry Brown, and his campaign promise to shake up the state. We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, pay down debts and meet our future obligations, Newsom said. But let me be clear: We will be bold. We will aim high, and we will work like hell to get there. He saved some of his most fulsome praise for Brown, who was governor during the two terms Newsom spent as lieutenant governor. To a standing ovation from the crowd, Newsom gave Brown credit for much of Californias progress. The new governor promised a California for all, uniting the states heavily populated and heavily Democratic coastal urban areas with the more conservative rural and agricultural regions to deal with the problems that affect all residents. We will not be divided between rural and urban or north and south or coastal and inland, the new governor said. We will strive for solidarity and face our most threatening problems together. Over the next several weeks, Newsom plans to introduce policies that he hopes will make the California dream accessible to more than wealthy people living in coastal regions. Among the new spending priorities Newsom has signaled in recent days are: state support for expanded pre-kindergarten; making the second year of community college education free for full-time students who now get their first year funded; and six months of paid leave from work for parents of newborn children. Missing from his speech Monday was any direct mention of single-payer health care, a sign that Newsom is continuing to temper his campaign promise to deliver it. As he said Sunday at a preinaugural event, no one no one is suggesting that we can overnight change the way were doing business. But we will take some risks. We will do some things that will create some unease. The challenge will be to show that Newsom is more than a leader of the anti-Trump resistance. He must solve intractable problems that plague the state. One in 5 Californians lives in poverty, 3 million dont have health insurance, and homelessness has spread from cities to rural areas. Skyrocketing housing costs threaten to turn a generation of young Californians into perennial renters or drive them from the state in search of an affordable life. Newsom has never shied from championing leading-edge, often controversial ideas, whether it was the Care Not Cash program in San Francisco aimed at replacing most direct welfare payments for homeless people with housing and services, pioneering City Hall sanctioning of same-sex marriages, or the statewide legalization of recreational cannabis. Yet two questions have always shadowed Newsom: whether he can transform his ideas into policy, and how much he is driven by his future political ambitions. He has ruled out running for president in 2020, but a successful first term would put him in prime position for a 2024 run should the Democrats fail to win the White House next year. The idea that California is big enough and important enough to push back against the Trump-led national government found quick agreement from Democratic legislators. We do have to go at it alone, because Donald Trump has declared war on California, said Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco. Whether it be health care, education, drug prices, civil rights, you name it, we have to create our own destiny. California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, so we march to the beat of our own drum, said Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who chairs the budget committee. In Washington, they cant even get a budget passed. They cant fund government. Its a very different philosophy of governance here than in Washington, D.C. John Wildermuth and Joe Garofoli are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth @joegarofoli Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Scattered thunderstorms. High 82F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 63F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara in Banjul, capital of Gambia, Jan. 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai) BANJUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- China and Gambia have seen rapid development on all fronts in their relations since the resumption of diplomatic ties more than two years ago, said visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday. During the meeting with his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara, Wang said China and Gambia have restored exchanges in various fields and achieved notable results in cooperation on major infrastructure projects, enabling the bilateral friendship to take root among the two peoples. Facts have proved that resuming bilateral diplomatic relations fully conforms with the fundamental interests of Gambia and its people, the universal consensus on the one-China principle and the common aspiration for unity and cooperation by the Chinese and African peoples, Wang said. The Chinese foreign minister said Gambia's reaffirmed commitment to the one-China policy will help lay a firm political foundation for a comprehensive and healthy development of bilateral ties. He said the two countries should further increase mutual trust as well as mutual support on issues concerning each other's core interests. China and Gambia should step up communication and coordination to implement the major consensus between leaders of the two countries and the results from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, Wang said. In this respect, he suggested that Gambia combine the China-Africa cooperation initiatives proposed at the FOCAC Beijing Summit with its national development plans and find priorities, so as to push for progress in various fields of bilateral cooperation to benefit both sides. Wang noted that China-Africa cooperation in essence is South-South cooperation, and the China-Africa efforts towards common development and prosperity will help promote equality and peace in the world. China is willing to do everything within its power to help with the economic and social development in Gambia and other African countries based on Africa's realities and actual needs, he said. For his part, Tangara thanked China for its help in Gambia's economic development and improvement of people's livelihood while voicing the hope that Wang's visit would lead to a r bilateral relationship. The Gambian foreign minister said Gambia firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and will support China on various international occasions as well as on issues of core interest, pushing further development of bilateral ties on the right track. He said Gambia is ready to strengthen communication with China at various levels, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation in fields like economy, energy and technology. Tangara said the major cooperation initiatives proposed at the FOCAC Beijing Summit showed China truly addresses the concerns of African countries and supports their efforts to enhance their own capabilities in national development. While praising China as a leader in defending multilateralism and the interests of developing countries amid the headwinds of unilateralism in the world, the minister said his country is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China in various international affairs. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] SACRAMENTO There were signs in Gavin Newsoms preinaugural celebration that his time as governor will be markedly different both in style and substance from that of his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown. For one, there was an actual celebration. When Brown returned to the governors job eight years ago, the highlight of his inaugural celebration was his appearance at a union-sponsored tent, where he was to eat a hot dog and say a few words. Brown grabbed a dog but blew off the speech. By contrast, Newsoms preinaugural fiesta started Sunday with a private luncheon for donors at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum, followed by a family-oriented party at the California State Railroad Museum. The festivities were topped by an evening concert at the Golden 1 Center headlined by A-listers Common and Pitbull that Newsom said raised $5 million for California wildfire victims. Scott Strazzante Newsom has already started to differentiate himself from Brown by teasing out policy proposals in advance of his swearing-in and inaugural speech at noon Monday in front of the state Capitol and the release Thursday of his first budget. Newsom said Sunday he was committed to an audacious goal of giving parents six months of paid leave after they have a child. The proposal, which the New York Times first reported, is expected to be included in the new governors budget plan although apparently not with a way for paying its as-yet unknown cost. Brown generally steered away from sweeping new social programs, although he did back big-ticket infrastructure projects including high-speed rail, delta water tunnels and a rebuild of the states aging road and mass-transit networks. California now offers six weeks of paid leave for new parents, at levels ranging from 60 to 70 percent of their work compensation. Newsom described the six-month paid leave idea as a stretch goal. When I think in terms of California, its a nation-state. I think about those nations that invest in their future, Newsom said. He said the return on the investment would be parents ability to spend more time with their children instead of shelling out money to hire other people to watch them. Newsom also signaled that there could be rough times ahead for Browns high-speed rail pet project. The incoming governor promised a much more sober assessment in the next several months on what to do about the bullet-train project, which has been plagued by cost overruns and is under construction only between Madera and Bakersfield. Newsom promised to be more transparent about the project and much more honest about what it is and what it isnt. Newsom said his budget will contain more money for state-funded prekindergarten education and community colleges. Newsom will propose making the second year of community college free to thousands of California students by waiving the $46-a-credit fee for two years instead of the current single year. Newsom is backing a $1.3 billion expansion of prekindergarten classes for children from low- and moderate-income families, part of what he has said will be a focus on family issues. How to watch inauguration Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom's swearing-in and inaugural speech will be live-streamed on SFChronicle.com starting at noon Monday. See More Collapse Those werent explicitly a priority of Browns. Unlike the outgoing governor, Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have children four young ones and they wrestled with whether to uproot them from the family home in Marin County for Sacramento. In the end, the new governor decided the commute from the capital to Kentfield would be impractical, and the family will live in the Governors Mansion. Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who described himself as the only other constitutional officer with car seats in the backseat, said Newsoms policies will be shaped by his personal situation. It means something to me to have someone (as governor) talking about policies that affect children and families who is going through that himself in real time, Padilla said. Padilla also predicted that were going to see a lot more outreach ... from (Newsom) than from the previous governor. Across the board, to the Legislature and to voters. On Sunday, the Newsoms and their children took a spin around the railroad museum, trading fist-bumps and taking selfies with all who asked. Brown often scoffed at selfies, wondering why people wouldnt rather have a conversation with him. It shows that the next governor is comfortable hanging out here with the real people, said Nancy Porter, a Redding resident who encouraged her young daughter to take a photo with Newsom. Mike Miller, a retired union electrician who volunteers at the railroad museum, said he hoped that Newsom would continue many of Browns policies. He said that with a nearly $15 billion budget surplus and a supermajority of Democrats in the Legislature, the incoming governor has got everything going for him. Its just up to him not to mess it up, Miller said. So hes got to just keep it going. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Suggestion to Democrats: Call President Trumps bluff. Introduce and pass a bill to fund Homeland Security, with say $2.3 billion for border security, but limiting $1 billion of that for border barriers. With the Democrats willing to compromise publicly for the sake of the lower-paid government workers and the country, the Republicans will have to make their priorities clear. We will see whether their politics trump (so to speak) the good of the American people. Miriam Mueller, San Francisco Thanks, Gov. Brown As he leaves office, Id like to thank Gov. Jerry Brown for his terms as governor of California. I didnt always agree with his decisions, such as denying universal preschool to all of our states children. However, I am appreciative that he is leaving our state with a budget surplus, renewed a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gases and shepherded many climate change initiatives. Brown has been a diligent and forthright governor, always well informed and dignified. If only such adjectives could be used to describe our current president, Id feel as hopeful about our nations future as I do about our states future. Suzanne Peterson-Reed, Santa Rosa Astrology clues Regarding Read the stars 2019 augurs ill in Washington (Opinion, Jan. 4): Like columnist Andrew Malcolm, Ive also looked into astrological signs to get a Washington, D.C., forecast for 2019. One key figure missing from his analysis is Special Counsel Robert Mueller, born on Aug. 7. That makes Mueller a Leo, the fiercest sign in the zodiac. Its symbol is the lion, its element is fire and two of its principal traits are courage and honesty two things sorely lacking in our government. The year 2019 augurs ill for a certain prevaricating and unstable Gemini president because a determined Leo prosecutor will soon be releasing his findings to Congress and the American public. Julian Grant, Pacifica Lack of innovation Regarding Apple falls on iPhone sales slump (Business, Jan. 3): Is the Apple announcement a case of the tail wagging the dog? Tim Cooks announcement of why iPhones arent selling was ridiculous, yet it changed the course of the stock market on Jan. 4? How can he blame lack of sales on China when the real reason is that Apple has new iPhones with no significant new innovation and a $1,000 plus price tag? Yet the stock market gasps and goes into a frenzy? Apple should look to themselves to create a compelling product and not just expect that people will blindly buy whatever and try to place the blame elsewhere when they dont. It really isnt 1984. Vince Dattoli, Sausalito Transfer ownership Regarding Power distribution lines belong underground in rural California (Open Forum, Jan. 4): Kudos to Robert A. Johnston for his timely article. I, and I suspect many other readers, have been waiting for an informed proposal addressing this obvious need. If we now transfer ownership of this essential service from its for-profit corporation (Pacific Gas and Electric Co.) to the public, we can all have a part in such decisions. Jim Stoye, Corte Madera Human solution needed Regarding Repair our social media, heal our fractured nation (Open Forum, Dec. 31): The piece was addressed to Facebook Friends and suggested ways that may be part of the answer: Local papers sharing the digital advertising revenue and developing algorithms to ensure balanced political coverage. However, it also noted that virtual friends are not a substitute for real-life connections, that retreating into information cocoons eliminates the need to get along, and since how to get along is an essential prerequisite for a democratic society, the net effect of all this is a weaker social fabric and tribalized politics. A tech solution to a tech problem doesnt address the core issue: Computerized tech increasingly provides the frame for human experience rather than serving that experience. This is symptomized by the dual conflation of quantity of connection with quality of communication and of happiness with contentment. Whats needed is a human solution. Computerized technology needs to truly serve humankind and the planet, rather than the reverse, so that individuals, families, communities and society at large can live in greater harmony with themselves and with nature. Peter Katcoff, Novato Pelosi regains control Congratulations to our Rep. Nancy Pelosi for being elected speaker of the House. May our nation be blessed onward in 2019. Gilbert Battung, San Ramon You could call it a meat race. A select group of Bay Area and international companies is vying to get the first cell-based meat to market: that is, a meat product created entirely with in-vitro cells derived from chicken, fish, beef or pork, rather than from slaughtered animals. Proponents say the technology promises to be a more sustainable, safe and humane way to feed the worlds booming population of meat eaters. I was thinking, Are we walking on the moon? It was like a voyage of discovery, Chris Jones says of his first taste of the chicken cells produced at San Franciscos Just Inc. formerly called Hampton Creek, where he is vice president of product development. Its pure. Its clean. Its like if you took chicken to its most intense point. At Justs Mission District headquarters, Jones, a former restaurant chef, is leading a team that is figuring out how to turn those chicken cells into a nugget that is aimed squarely at carnivores and one that he hopes will debut in restaurants in 2019. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2018 Yet there are some barriers: Not a single country in the world has approved the technology yet. The science needs to develop to get production to scale, and perhaps most important, the public needs to be convinced of the idea. But at least four Bay Area companies are determined that cell-based meat, which differs from plant-based alternatives like the Impossible Burger because it contains cells derived from animals, is the way of the future, and that the future is very near. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would jointly oversee the regulation of cell-based meat also known as cultured or lab-grown meat which Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said could begin as soon as 2019. And while the National Cattlemens Beef Association and other industry groups have urged the USDA not to allow such products to be called beef or meat, a few global food corporations have gotten on board. Tyson Foods and Cargill have both invested in Memphis Meats, a Berkeley cell-based meat company that has raised over $20 million in funding. With recent climate-related wildfires and a U.N. report warning of an ever-more escalated pace of climate change, Bay Area entrepreneurs say the meat revolution cant happen soon enough. Traditional animal-based agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of human-made global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and many say it cant meet rising demand. At scale, cell-based meat would be responsible for only a fraction of the GHG emissions and land and water use, and require much less energy, according to a 2011 study from the University of Oxford and the University of Amsterdam. The world seems on the brink of environmental collapse, and this just has to happen faster than society can adapt, says Mike Selden, CEO of Finless Foods in Emeryville, a cell-based seafood startup that has raised $3.5 million in funding. The company is developing a cell-based version of bluefin tuna, partly because the wild version is endangered and partly because they can sell it at a premium. Bay Area cell-based meat companies are busy working out two main issues to move the technology forward: discovering which cell lines to use for their various beef, poultry, pork and seafood products, and finding the best media, what some call nutrient broths, in which to grow cells. (In medicine, in-vitro cells usually grow in fetal bovine serum. Cultured meat companies plan to use plant-based media instead, for cost and ethical reasons.) At Just, which already has a supermarket line of plant-based mayo made with Canadian yellow pea and a liquid egg substitute made with mung bean protein, senior scientist Vitor Espirito Santo works in the cultured meat research lab. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle An incubator is busily agitating beakers full of liquid in a circular motion. In one larger beaker, a ring of white matter swirls on top like sea foam on a wave. The white stuff is meat cells Santo wont reveal which kind that will continue to incubate over a few weeks. Then, they will be drained into a gray-pink paste that looks and acts similar to ground meat and can be used in products like sausages and patties. Upstairs in Justs kitchen, Jones and other chefs present a tiny round prototype of their chicken nugget. Within its light coating, the meat filling is beige with tiny pockets of air; it looks more like a cream puff than dense white muscle. The flavor is definitely chicken, and has some of the chew and juiciness of traditional poultry. But it doesnt yet deliver the primal carnivorous satisfaction of chomping through meat fibers. That could change as Just and other companies plan to use 3-D printed scaffolding to make beef steaks and fish fillets the same technology used in tissue engineering which Just CEO Josh Tetrick says could happen within a couple of years. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. The industry is moving forward despite the fact that 78 percent of respondents in a 2014 Pew Research Study said they would not eat meat grown in a lab. Marketing, including farm-to-table campaigns, could be one way to bring people in. The company recently announced that it will be partnering with Wagyu beef producer Toriyama in Japan to produce cultured beef from its prized cattle. When people get more information, their attitude changes, says Steve Myrick, vice president of operations at Memphis Meats, pointing to more recent surveys. The more familiar people are, the more likely they are to want to eat it, he said through email. Once companies finalize their products, theyll have to perform toxicology tests and follow other protocols for approval from the FDA. The USDA will then oversee labeling and production. We know our consumers want to feel safe and want to know where (the food) is coming from, says Brian Spears, CEO and co-founder of New Age Meats, a startup that operates out of the San Francisco accelerator Indiebio. To dispel some of the mystery, Spears plans to sell cell-based pork sausages alongside what he calls other products of technology, such as beer and bread. He envisions serving them first in a Bay Area brew pub with matching brewing vats for making beer and growing meat. If that happens, it would be, as Jones said of his first taste of cell-based chicken, a leap into a different dimension. Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan Two celebratory New Years Eve gunshots in the East Bay struck people as the bullets came down: one lodged itself in the skull of a 6-year-old girl in Oakland and another grazed the hand of a tourist at a house party in San Leandro on New Years Eve. Another celebratory gunshot struck a parked car in Hercules, prompting the citys Police Department to issue a warning in its daily police log. When fireworks go off in the Bay Area, people might also hear the sounds of festive gunshots. Local law enforcement agencies say that when shots are fired, those bullets still have to come down somewhere. I just dont think people realized the dangers and ramifications when choosing to celebrate the New Year with gunfire, San Leandro police Lt. Isaac Benabou said in a news release Wednesday. When those shootings happen, police collect evidence and use ShotSpotter technology to triangulate where the sound of the shot came from, said Felicia Aisthorpe, an Oakland Police Department spokeswoman. The most critical of this years crimes, however, may prove near impossible to solve. Doctors have determined its too risky to remove the bullet from the 6-year-old girls head, meaning investigators will be unable to test it and trace it to a firearm. But circumstances change, said Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson, noting ever-evolving technology. We dont lose hope, we dont lose sight that this could ever be solved. If an arrest is made, the accused could face either a misdemeanor or felony charge under the California Penal Code for negligently discharging a firearm. But which charge the suspect faces depends on whether the bullet strikes someone and if he or she has prior convictions. In that case, courts might interpret a felony offense as a strike under the states three strikes law, prosecutors said. It really depends on totality of circumstances, said Contra Costa County district attorneys office spokesman Scott Alonso. Generally speaking, if someone is on probation, it could violate probation terms. Its always up to the judge. Animal abuser sentenced A Hayward man accused of severely beating a 9-month-old puppy for pooping in his house in 2017 was sentenced Thursday in Alameda County court, authorities said. After Joshua Tadduc, 24, discovered the accident on Sept. 11, 2017, he pulled the dog down the stairs by her hind legs, took her to the garage and hit her in the face with a 6-foot wooden pole, he told investigators. Tadduc left the pit bull puppy, bloodied and injured, in the garage, where she stayed until the next day when Tadducs roommates found her and took her to the veterinarian. Alameda County district attorneys officials said the dog, named Aaliyah, suffered a fractured jaw and spent six hours in surgery to reconstruct her jaw. The case involved the Alameda Cruelty Task Force, created by District Attorney Nancy OMalley in 2017 to bring more attention to the links between animal abuse and human abuse. The task force involves law enforcement, animal welfare agencies, social services and community members to bring a more holistic approach to abuse investigations whether they involve humans or animals. If someones beating their dog to a pulp, why dont we ask if their girlfriend is OK? Or their wife? Or their child? Assistant District Attorney Sharmin Bock said. Kids wont tell you that their mothers boyfriend is molesting them, but theyll tell you that theyre worried about their dog. Bock pointed out that animal cruelty can often be a red flag for other kinds of abuse, like spousal abuse and violence toward kids. Bock added that investigators found no evidence of Tadduc abusing humans or abusing pets in the past. Animal abuse cases are rare in Alameda County, Sheriffs Office spokesman Ray Kelly said, but animal neglect cases like people having too many pets or not keeping up sanitary living conditions pop up more frequently. This case was pretty shocking. I dont recall another case like that since then, Kelly said. Tadduc pleaded guilty and will serve three years of felony probation and 30 days in county jail. He must take anger management classes and pay for Aaliyahs veterinary bills. The biggest crime news from last week - A Mexican national charged with murder in the killing of Newman police Cpl. Ronil Singh was ordered to undergo mental evaluation to see if hes fit to stand trial. - San Franciscos first homicide victim of 2019 was murdered in the Tenderloin after using her cell phone to record the suspect beating another woman, authorities said. - A 14-year-old boy on his bicycle was struck by a vehicle in Oakland and dragged for four blocks before the driver fled the scene. - San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is recovering after being struck by a Toyota Highlander while riding his bicycle. - Fifty people were killed in DUI crashes over the long New Years weekend, up from 40 during the same time last year. Gwendolyn Wu and Ashley McBride are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com, ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu, @ashleynmcb The longtime UC Berkeley employee suspected of preying upon Northern California women over the course of 15 years as the notorious NorCal Rapist was charged with 28 new crimes Monday in Sacramento. The Sacramento County district attorneys office filed an amended complaint Monday against 59-year-old Roy Charles Waller, who appeared briefly in Sacramento County Superior Court but did not speak while the amended charges were presented. Waller, a Benicia resident, was arrested in September in Berkeley. The alleged serial predator is accused of raping seven women in six Northern California counties over 15 years beginning in 1991. He now faces a total of 40 charges in the seven crimes, which occurred in Sacramento, Yolo, Butte, Contra Costa, Solano and Sonoma counties. Investigators linked DNA evidence from the crimes to Wallers family lineage, officials announced at a news conference last fall in Sacramento. Since then theyve offered few details; Shelly Orio, a district attorneys spokeswoman, declined to say whether Mondays charges were also based on DNA evidence. The NorCal Rapists assaults began in 1991, when the attacker crept through an unlocked door and raped a woman in her Rohnert Park townhome. The man went on to attack a woman in Vallejo in 1992, and then another in Martinez on Halloween 1996, when he wore a skeleton mask and weeks later called the victim at work to apologize. Later crimes were committed in Woodland and Davis in Yolo County, Chico in Butte County and in Sacramento, authorities said. The most recent charges against Waller stemmed from a 2006 crime in Sacramento County, authorities said. Police tied the cases together through DNA evidence from more than a decade ago, but until last year they werent able to match the crimes to a suspect. Authorities said in 2006 that the NorCal Rapist would blindfold and bind his victims with duct tape, and either brandish a gun or tell victims he was armed. He would chat with his victims or apologize to them, and in some cases he called them later to say he was sorry for using their ATM cards. Orio declined to say whether prosecutors intend to file more charges. Waller is on investigative leave from his job at UC Berkeleys Environmental, Health & Safety office, where he has worked since 1992. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan @sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Sylvia Chase, an award-winning television journalist who spent five years as a Bay Area news anchor, died Thursday in Marin County after a short illness. She was 80. KRON-TV hired Chase away from ABC News 20/20 in 1985, a move that attracted national attention. She headed back east in 1990, but not before winning a Peabody Award for her hour-long documentary here on the plight of homeless children. She returned to the Bay Area after her retirement in the early 2000s, settling in Belvedere. Her time at KRON was during an era when news anchors were local celebrities: her starting salary was said to be $400,000 at a time when the the average home in San Francisco was valued at less than $175,000. But other journalists saw Chase as one of their own, a top-flight professional. She was remarkably talented and extremely generous, recalled Tom DeVries, a retired television reporter who worked with Chase at KRON and remained friends with her in the decades that followed. She could easily have been a bigfoot, but she wasnt. Born in Minnesota, Chase moved to California to attend UCLA. She majored in English and then worked in politics and state government before getting a broadcasting job in Los Angeles. She joined the staff of CBS News in New York in 1971 and moved to ABC a few years later. She received a range of broadcasting rewards and was dubbed the most trusted woman on TV by TV Guide. During her time at 20/20, a survey by the magazine also pegged Chase as the top investigative reporter on any of the national newsmagazines. Sylvia was a pioneering presence, said Joseph Lovett, a producer who worked with her at CBS News. She was such an empathetic reporter, but could also be very tough pursuing a story. You dont often get people with both talents. All this made her shift to a local news anchor position industry news of its own especially because Chases decision came just two months after ABC killed an investigative segment she did on the links between Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy family. Chase at the time brushed aside suggestions that the two incidents were related, but later wrote that the decision by ABC was a factor in her departure. Whatever the cause, Chase became one of the Bay Areas most visible news personalities of the late 1980s not only anchoring newscasts but hosting prime-time news documentaries each year. Her pieces included a journey to Russia to look at environmental conditions and an exploration of infant mortality. I resolve to raise public awareness about two issues: the perils facing Californias children and the growing crisis in caring for AIDS patients, Chase told The Chronicle in 1988. Ill see if we cant do a story every day about children. Whether it was a desire to again focus on reporting rather than anchoring, or the fact that KRON newcasts continued to lag in the ratings, Chase returned to ABC News at the end of 1990. I hate to leave the Bay Area, but if Im going to get mugged it might as well be in New York, Chase quipped to Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. She remained at ABC until 2001, then retired and purchased a home in Belvedere. Shes always been bicoastal, said Lovett, who would see her on her frequent visits to New York. She belonged everywhere. Chases final work of journalism came during her retirement in Belvedere a short documentary on one family with students at De Marillac Academy, a Catholic middle school in the Tenderloin where Chase volunteered. Ive always thought that as a journalist, Im really a teacher and I have a great commitment to the importance of truth, honesty, thorough research, she commented afterward in a filmed testimonial. I like to think that I can pass that on to the students I interact with. But you know, they pass on a lot of things to me. Per Chases request, no memorial service will be held, a family member said. A Sylvia Chase Scholarship Fund is being established at De Marillac Academy, 175 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, 94102. John King is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnKingSFChron On a gray November afternoon, outside a U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in San Francisco, a dozen people joined hands to pray. We gather in the firm conviction we must stand always on the side of love, said Tovis Page, intern minister at Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo. Love does not separate, isolate, abandon or punish. Separating families is never an act of love; wrongful imprisonment is unjust on every level. The group, which had grown to over 20 people, including two nuns and several pastors, lined up to go through metal detectors at the buildings entrance, and then proceeded to fill up and overflow the wooden benches in a fourth floor immigration courtroom. The occasion was a bond hearing to decide whether Alexey Kharis, a political refugee from Russia whod been held in immigration detention since August 2017, could go home to his wife and two children in Palo Alto while his case proceeds. The group at 630 Sansome St. that day was composed of immigrant accompaniers people who go with asylum seekers to their court hearings and check-ins with federal authorities, and sometimes to schools, hospitals and other meetings. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle It was an outsize showing of support for a routine affair that might otherwise proceed in relative obscurity. Their presence serves as comfort to those facing deportation but also as a statement to the judges and government officials whose decisions have life-changing consequences. In this day and age, with the things going on, we need a village, and thats what were doing, said Sister Joan Marie ODonnell of the Burlingame Sisters of Mercy, who was among those at Kharis hearing. Accompaniers express support for immigrants in the simplest of ways: by being present and bearing witness. Accompanying people to court hearings doesnt require fluency in other languages or legal knowledge. While the concept has been around for years, the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration has galvanized more people in the Bay Area and nationally to get involved. And a clash between local and federal officials has changed their work in an ironic way: The accompaniers are often not able to actually accompany asylum seekers in person. There are no longer any ICE detention facilities in the Bay Area. Rather than pay to transport immigrants from detention centers elsewhere, ICE has them videoconference in to their hearings. Theres a vast network of people trying to help our immigrant neighbors who are caught up in snares of deportation and detention, said the Rev. Deborah Lee, who heads Oaklands Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, one of the nonprofits that coordinates accompaniment statewide. Her group and others are actively seeking people who want to be on accompaniment teams as well as to offer housing to asylum seekers. Courtroom audiences show judges that this person matters, has community ties and community support, Lee said. Judges sit there all day deciding on peoples lives. Were trying to help humanize people who otherwise could be just another name, another number. Accompaniers may get to know specific immigrants. In those cases, they may testify as character witnesses, if theyve known someone for (a while) and developed a relationship, said Rebecca Merton, national visitation network coordinator in Oakland at Freedom for Immigrants, another nonprofit that coordinates accompaniment. Accompaniment teams, many of them formed at local congregations, often go further. They may visit immigrants in detention, help them find child care and housing (sometimes providing it), navigate health care systems, give rides to appointments and detention visits, and assist with fundraising and letter writing. Many say they feel called to help because of their interest in social justice. It particularly strikes a chord with us because many members are of Eastern European Jewish backgrounds who would not be here today if some members of their families had not been helped by individuals, churches or others in the second World War, said Julie Litwin, co-chair of the immigration committee at Kehilla Community Synagogue in Oakland. And in the more distant past, Jews have many times been immigrants in places that were not our own land, where we were at the mercy of people to be kind to us. My congregation and other communities of faith want to bring whatever impact we can, using our place of privilege and our intent to say, No, this will not stand, because its wrong, said Rev. Ben Meyers of the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo. Even when the asylum seekers are not physically present, they are aware of the supporters, either because their lawyers tell them or because the camera briefly gets directed to the courtroom audience. Clients feel empowered by the people there, said Lizzie Davis, a staff attorney with Deportation Defense & Legal Advocacy Program of Dolores Street Community Services in San Francisco. A lot of immigration processes and procedures are incredibly isolating, especially for detained clients. Seeing supportive faces has a huge impact on them. Judges get the message as well, she and other attorneys said. To win bond, you have to demonstrate that you are not a danger to the community, said Alejandra Rosero, another attorney at the legal nonprofit. When the community shows up at hearings, it creates a huge impact that judges see. Its also valuable for community members to learn how the system works. People dont know a lot about immigration hearings and immigration detention; the reality of what an adversarial system it is, Rosero said. Supporters find immigrants to work with in various ways, including word of mouth. Lawyers may refer them, they may meet families at protests or court. Some detention centers allow signup sheets for immigrants to request community support, Merton said. When Lourdes Barraza of San Jose visited her husband at the Contra Costa West County Detention Facility in Richmond last year, she encountered protesters outside. (That facility has since severed its ICE contract and no longer jails undocumented immigrants.) We connected, and they supported me in many, many ways, she said. Accompaniment made a huge difference. I was desperate, ready to give up. They gave me the motivation I needed to feel I was doing something to bring my husband home. Her accompaniment team checked in with her daily and helped her hold vigils, mount a phone call campaign, organize press conferences and collect donations. Kehilla Synagogues Litwin said working with Barraza was an emotional experience. We were extremely involved in that case and its ups and downs, she said. At one hearing when a decision was postponed, Everyone was sobbing; it felt so horrible, so painful and unnecessary to treat someone like that. After six months in detention, Barrazas husband, Fernando Carrillo, was released to live again with Barraza and their three daughters, all four of whom are U.S. citizens, although the government has since appealed his release. Barraza, who studied criminal justice, had worked as a group supervisor at Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall. Now she works with the Interfaith Movement, helping people in situations similar to that of her husband. After that ordeal I see the criminal justice system in a very different way, she said. I couldnt see myself going back to that area. Kharis, who was being detained in Marysville (Yuba County), attended his bond hearing via videoconferencing. During a break in the proceeding, Rev. Lee from the Interfaith Movement asked the judge if Kharis supporters could greet him. The judge rotated the camera toward the packed courtroom as the two dozen or so people waved and shouted Hi, Alexey. The short hearing ended with temporary release for Kharis, with a $100,000 bond and an ankle bracelet. The strangers in the gallery broke into cheers and applause and embraced Kharis wife, Anna, as she wiped away tears. It was like we were all holding our breath, and suddenly we could breathe again, Lee said. Kharis later reflected on the experience in a Facebook post thanking his courtroom supporters. Youve made the dream come true; without you Im not sure I could make it, he wrote. And even when I was in detention to know that all you care and fight for me it made my life hopeful. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid Thank you for reading! You have reached your 30-day limit of free access to SentinelSource.com, The Keene Sentinels website. If you would like to read two more articles for free at this time, please register for an account by clicking the sign up button below. We hope you find The Sentinels coverage of the Monadnock Region valuable. We rely on our subscribers to bring you strong local journalism and hope you will consider supporting our work by taking advantage of this special subscription offer here. Despite their sharply different styles, Larson has more in common with some of the liberal insurgents than he does with the other members of the Connecticut delegation, several of whom come from backgrounds of wealth and privilege. Like newly elected 5th District Democratic U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Waterbury, Larson has an up-from-nothing personal narrative. He is one of eight children and grew up in a five-room house in the Mayberry Village public housing development in East Hartford. And like Hayes, hes a product of the state university system and a former public school teacher. Crime incidents in Seattle saw an overall bump last month, after a previous decline, according to data from SpotCrime, which collects data from police agencies and validated sources. Incidents rose by 1.4 percent, from 10,319 in November to 10,461 in December. The month-to-month increase in reports was led by theft and burglary. Theft rose from 1,747 reported incidents in November to 1,801 in December. Burglary incidents went from 603 to 632 for the month, or a 4.8 percent increase. While a somewhat smaller category, there was also a sizable percentage increase last month in vandalism, from 255 incidents per month to 283. Vandalism reports have decreased since the same month last year. Among the few types of offenses that saw a downturn last month, robbery reports went from 123 to 104. Assault incidents fell from 648 to 646, and shooting incidents went down from six to four. When it comes to crime patterns in different areas of the city, Broadway, the Cascade and Delridge saw the largest increase from November to December. Yesler Terrace, Sunset Hill and Capitol Hill also saw considerable percentage increases in crime offenses for the month, although they continue to have lower overall crime levels. Saturdays, Sundays and Fridays saw the most reported crimes last month. The largest increase from the previous month occurred on Sundays, Saturdays and Mondays, while incidents on Fridays, Thursdays and Tuesdays went down. Late night, evening and early morning saw the most crime last month on average each day. To report a crime in progress or life-threatening emergency, call 911. To report a non-urgent crime or complaint, contact your local police department. Head to SpotCrime to get free local crime alerts in your area. This story was created automatically using local crime data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about our data sources and local crime methodology. Got thoughts about what we're doing? Go here to share your feedback. The Whitman County Republican Central Committee has unanimously expelled James Allsup, one of the state's best known extreme right nationalists, from the voting ranks of its precinct committee officers. The booting of Allsup was done at a meeting that included a state representative, the county sheriff and all three Whitman County commissioners, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported. Allsup is best known for marching with the white nationalist group Identity Evropa at the 2017 Charlottesville demonstration and riot in which one counter demonstrator was killed. He was at the time president of Washington State University College Republicans, but resigned soon afterward. RELATED: Spokane GOP chair quits, had praised white supremacist Allsup was part the effort to build a "Trump Wall" on the University of Washington campus in May of 2016, a plywood structure decorated with the slogans "White Lives Matter" and "Make America Great Again." The event drew about 100 counter protesters. Spokane County Republican Chair Cecile Wright resigned last year after giving a platform to Allsup and appearing to praise his views. Allsup spoke in defense of the Charlottesville march, claiming it was "totally misrepresented by the media." In December of 2018, with Allsup long gone, the WSU College Republicans took up plans to erect another mock-up of a border wall. Despite Wright's kind words, the GOP establishment in Eastern Washington have said they want no part of Allsup or white nationalist politics. "I don't have a relationship with him (Allsup), but I know what he stands for," U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a Facebook post last year, adding: "White supremacy, racism and bigotry are never acceptable and have no place in America or Eastern Washington." Allsup shot back at McMorris Rodgers, writing: "I'm disappointed to see spineless Republicans cover in fear of leftists all because they're afraid of mean comments from the journalists that hate them anyway." RELATED: Bigots in bunches: A primer on Northwest white power groups Allsup was elected unopposed as a precinct committee officer. The party cannot undo his election, but it could deny him a vote in the central committee. Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy has been Allsup's most vociferous adversary, writing in a Daily News piece: "Allsup can try to put a nice new dress on his old, despicable Nazi ideas, but I recognize them for what they are. They aren't Republican. They aren't American. They aren't me." A prominent alt-right activist, Joey Gibson of the Patriot Prayer movement, did seek the Republicans' U.S. Senate nomination last year. He took only 2.27 percent of the primary vote. Seattle Police arrested a man after he called 911 to report he had killed his brother. The call occurred at 6:40 p.m. Sunday. The suspect reportedly told 911 operators he killed his brother at a nearby location and provided an address. That heavy pressure is really working. So much so, in fact, that what used to be a crisis magically isnt anymore, even when it comes to what the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts calls judicial emergencies that is, vacancies that have been open the longest and have the most negative effects on the caseloads of sitting judges. In March 2012, Democratic Whip Richard Durbin, a senator from Illinois, said that 35 judicial emergency vacancies would cause the administration of justice to suffer at every level. Judicial emergencies are 80 percent higher today, yet we are to believe everything is fine, judicially speaking? This isnt about judges, of course. These foot-dragging politicians arent failing to do their duty because the nominees arent qualified. The main thing wrong with them, as far as Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, and his colleagues are concerned, is who nominated them. Politics, plain and simple, is throwing sand in the gears of the federal bench. Today, more than 130 positions on the U.S. District Court and U.S. Court of Appeals are vacant. To put that in perspective, its more than twice as many vacancies as there were under President Bill Clinton or President George W. Bush. Ten openly LGBT people were sworn-in to the 116th U.S. Congress last week two to the U.S. Senate and eight to the U.S. House the most ever serve in either chamber, according to the Victory Fund, a national group dedicated to electing LGBTQ candidates. At the state level, 84 Victory Fund-endorsed candidates won seats in 36 legislatures, including in three states--Indiana, Nebraska and Kansas--that have never elected openly LBGT state lawmaker before. KINGSTREE, S.C. Williamsburg Countys first female supervisor, Tiffany Wright, was sworn into office last week. She defeated former supervisor Stanley S. Pasley in a primary in June. She ran unopposed in November's general election. Pasley served three terms. Wright had worked as the countys emergency management and 911 director since 2008. She said she sought the supervisors seat because she felt there could be more done in Williamsburg County. I felt that I would be of a bigger service stepping outside of my role as emergency management (director) and taking my concepts of leadership on a broader scale, where I could encompass and provide the greatest amount of help to the citizens, Wright said. Although she is a native of Buffalo, New York, Wright has been in South Carolina for 14 years. She served 10 years in the emergency management division of Williamsburg County and 15 years in civilian and military law enforcement. Wright worked two years with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division. During her campaign for county supervisor, Wright said, she ran on the idea of making sure the office has a good relationship with county council members, because they are the spokespeople for the residents. FLORENCE, S.C. Brian Kress is using some of the techniques he learned in the 2018 Florence's Biggest Loser competition to help his coworkers get into shape. In July of 2018, shortly after he won the Biggest Loser award for most percentage of weight lost, Kress was transferred by his company to Jacksonville, North Carolina. He had always planned to continue working out and staying in shape after the competition, and so he was looking for workout partners. I actually have a couple of coworkers that Ive encouraged to come with me, Kress said. Some of the things I learned in the Biggest Loser, Ive been able to share with them and help them get back into shape and whatnot. So, its been good to help some people. He said helping his coworkers was gratifying, as was finding partners to work out with. Kress lost 50.8 pounes last year and won the $500 prize for the most percentage of weight lost. The biggest challenge for Kress has been to keep his healthy eating habits. Thats where the challenge comes in, Kress said. I was pretty strict with what I ate during the competition, and I slacked off a little bit after, but overall Ive stayed in pretty good shape. He also said he changed his workout routine to a more muscle-building one. He said he usually goes to the gym three or four times a week. The Road Map to Tax Reform is a chamber guide to improving the states tax system. There is no question that South Carolinas tax code needs to be overhauled to make it more competitive, less burdensome and more equitable for job creators and families, Pitts said. Similarly, our businesses cant thrive without a well-prepared workforce, so we focus on improving the education pipeline, including combating the teacher shortage. Workforce development The chamber calls for the supporting of efforts to address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, making housing in high-growth areas more attainable, striving for the expansion of career-awareness and training initiatives to fill high-demand jobs and making it easier for qualified professionals to be credentialed and certified in the state. Trees are a hallmark of vibrant neighborhoods. So why did nearly one-quarter of eligible residents in Detroit, Michigan, turn down free street trees? That's the mystery University of Vermont researcher Christine Carmichael solves in one of the first studies to explore opposition to city tree planting programs. As cities from New York to L.A. embark on major tree planting initiatives, the research helps to explain why more than 1,800 of 7,425 eligible Detroit residents -- roughly 25% -- submitted "no-tree requests" between 2011 and 2014 alone. The study was published January 7 by Society and Natural Resources journal. "This research shows how local government actions can cause residents to reject environmental efforts -- in this case, street trees -- that would otherwise be in people's interests," says Carmichael, a postdoctoral researcher at UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Carmichael found that the opposition in Detroit resulted primarily from negative past experiences with street trees, particularly in low-income neighborhoods grappling with blight from vacant properties. In 2014 alone, the city had an estimated 20,000 dead or hazardous trees, following the contraction of Detroit's once-massive tree maintenance program from budget cuts and population decline. For many long-term residents, wariness of the new trees was driven by past experiences of caring for vacant properties in their neighborhood. They believed responsibility for maintaining the trees would eventually fall to them. "Even though it's city property, we're gonna end up having to care for it and raking leaves and God knows whatever else we might have to do," said one woman interviewed for the study. Carmichael also found that skepticism of the program was tied to wider distrust of the city government and outside groups in parts of Detroit. As a result, residents wanted greater decision-making power in selecting which trees to plant in particular locations, adds Carmichael who completed the three-year study for her PhD with co-author Maureen McDonough of Michigan State University. advertisement Greening Detroit Urban greening projects offer health benefits to residents, from improved air quality to decreased crime, and seek to boost the typically lower amount of tree cover in low-income neighborhoods, Carmichael says. For these reasons, many cities have launched major tree planting initiatives in recent years, including MillionTreesNYC, Grow Boston Greener, The Chicago Tree Initiative, and The Greening of Detroit. To avoid past mistakes in the city's tree planting and maintenance approach, staff at The Greening of Detroit, a non-profit contracted by the city to plant trees, selected tree species that could survive in urban environments and guaranteed maintenance of trees for three years after planting. However, the group relied primarily on educating residents about the benefits of trees and their program, which failed to address people's concerns. "By not giving residents a say in the tree planting program, they were re-creating the same conflicts that had been happening in the city for a long time," says Carmichael. advertisement Carmichael says simple steps, such as allowing residents a choice over which kind of tree will be planted in front of their home, can reduce tensions. Investing more effort in follow-up communication with residents who receive trees would also help to ensure that trees are cared for, and residents do not feel overburdened with tree maintenance. One man interviewed for the study said, "I've left several messages. My tree was planted last August. My wife loved it. I was told that they would come back out and either water it or fertilize it. Haven't seen anyone. So, I've been doing the best that I can. Where do I go from here?" Lessons for non-profits Monica Tabares of The Greening of Detroit says that increased spending by the City of Detroit's forestry department, as well as a change in the organization's leadership, has led the group to focus more on community engagement. Since Carmichael presented her findings to The Greening of Detroit, the organization has instituted community engagement training for the youth they hire to water street trees and interact with residents. "As a result of our refined focus, [our program] has brought thousands of residents together to not only plant trees, but gain a greater understanding of the benefits of trees in their communities," says Tabares. Carmichael's study is gaining attention from city planners across North America hoping to learn Detroit's lessons. Local governments and non-profits in Austin, Denver, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Toronto and Vermont have reached out for help implementing her research. The study also offers lessons for how non-profits and donors measure successful outcomes, Carmichael says. With limited resources and watchful donors, some non-profits often focus on narrow outcomes -- such as the number of trees planted per year -- without also prioritizing deeper community engagement, which might slow the immediate work of planting trees, but create more a sustainable outcome. "We need to broaden the measurable outcomes that we can gauge success by," says Carmichael. "Healthy urban forests cannot be measured just by the number of trees planted. We also have to capture who is involved, and how that involvement affects the well-being of people and trees in the long-term." New research shows for the first time that adults with autism can recognise complex emotions such as regret and relief in others as easily as those without the condition. Psychologists at the University of Kent used eye-tracking technology to monitor participants as they read stories in which a character made a decision then experienced a positive or negative outcome. The lead author Professor Heather Ferguson, from the University's School of Psychology, explained that the study highlights a previously overlooked strength in adults with ASD. The researchers found that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were quickly able to think about how things might have turned out differently (either better or worse than reality), then judge whether the story character would feel regret or relief (known as counterfactual emotions). The adults with ASD were found to be just as good at recognising regret emotions in the character as adults without the condition, and even better at computing relief. The eye-tracking method provided sensitive information on when readers had inferred the appropriate counterfactual emotion for the character. Appropriate emotions resulted in shorter reading times. Professor Ferguson said: 'Our study is unusual in using state-of-the-art eye-tracking methods to test how people understand emotions in real time. We have shown that, contrary to previous research that has highlighted the difficulties adults with autism experience with empathy and perspective-taking, people with autism possess previously overlooked strengths in processing emotions.' In a recent study exploring the feasibility of introducing gun safety discussions and interventions into routine health care settings, investigators suggest that there is some support for promoting firearm safety in pediatric primary care as a universal suicide prevention strategy for adolescents. John Zeber, a mental health services researcher and associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with team leader Rinad Beidas at the University of Pennsylvania and other co-investigators, assessed the needs of stakeholders who would implement a new approach to promoting a program the researchers call Firearm Safety Check. This program is designed for physicians to ask families about the presence of firearms in the home, offer information on safe gun storage and provide free gun locks. As Zeber explains, "We're not taking a position on gun ownership, but if you have a gun and a child in the home, we believe safe storage will greatly reduce the risk of a tragedy. We're finding that it would be a new role for many physicians, though we previously found the majority do at least discuss guns with their patients. We're looking for fairly simple solutions that don't take a lot of time and that seem feasible. All the stakeholders recognize the problem, they just differ on what to do about it." He adds, "Some critics say to those of us in public health, 'Stay in your lane, don't get involved,' but we see this as a major problem to be addressed." Zeber and co-investigators point out that youth suicide has increased steadily over the past several decades due in part to an increase in suicide by firearm. Their recent paper on the topic is featured in the American Medical Association's open access online journal JAMA Network Open. The authors point out, "There is clear consensus that promoting firearm safety in pediatric primary care is essential in reducing youth suicide. Physician groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Academy of Medicine recommend that physicians discuss firearm safety with parents." However, "physicians can be reluctant to discuss firearm safety in primary care," and existing strategies "remain underused," they add. To explore this, Beidas, Zeber and colleagues conducted qualitative interviews with nearly 60 stakeholders in nine groups such as parents of youth, physicians, nurses, other clinical providers, and health system leaders of pediatric primary care and behavioral health practices. Interviews were conducted over a span of seven months at two large health systems, Henry Ford Hospital in inner city Detroit, and Baylor Scott & White Health in the rural central Texas town of Temple. They also talked with gun owner constituents, third-party payers and members of national credentialing bodies. In this study, Beidas, Zeber and colleagues found that stakeholders "indicated that firearm safety promotion is a health system priority and reported generally favorable perceptions of the Firearm Safety Check approach for suicide prevention." Respondents frequently noted the need for patient interactions about firearms to be brief, and that existing infrastructures such as electronic health record systems should be used. They also identified distribution of firearm locks as "likely the most complex and underutilized component to implement." Zeber, the site lead co-investigator at the Texas location, says, "We asked how comfortable physicians, for example, would be about counseling patients about gun safety and the danger that a gun in the home may pose. We asked if they'd feel comfortable offering their patients a gun lock, in addition to screening about the presence of a firearm. Each stakeholder group has different perspectives, and doctors understand this, but they also are the ones who see higher risk adolescents in their offices." He adds, "There was broad consensus about the importance of the conversation and that some intervention would be welcome and helpful in addressing this public health crisis. Reducing access to guns while promoting safe storage was a central theme that emerged. But the details of what that intervention would look like, and what might be feasible to try, remain to be determined. People across the health care spectrum agree it is important to talk about this topic with patients, but what we do next and best approach is still being discussed." Overall, the authors state that their results "support the development of implementation strategies to support clinician and organizational behaviors around firearm safety." Zeber says their findings will drive an implementation proposal that they are still developing. Lamont called it a fresh start for an agency that has been rocked by high-profile child fatality cases. He said he was going to let her have the room to run, to lead, and Dorantes said one of her first tasks was to build bridges with other public and private agencies and people in the field and to foster trust inside and outside the sprawling DCF. You asked. We listened. Your daily crossword, Sudoku and dozens of other puzzles are now available online. Play them or print them here. Play now Dhaka, Jan 7: Sheikh Hasina will be sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister for a record fourth term on Monday after her Awami League's landslide victory in the December 30 election. Hasina's ruling alliance won more than 90 per cent of the seats contested in the election, which was marred by accusations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence. Hasina, 71, and her ruling Awami League party have dismissed the accusations. On Thursday, she was chosen as the leader of the House for the fourth time. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is termed by many as the country's iron lady. Bangladesh on Sunday named a council of ministers with several new faces in the 47-member Cabinet of Prime Minister Hasina. Several veterans were dropped from the council of ministers amid speculation about the inductions as major portfolios like defence were retained by Hasina herself. The Jatiya Party, a key partner in the Awami League-led Grand Alliance of Hasina, on Friday decided to occupy the opposition benches in Parliament after the main opposition BNP led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia rejected the results of the general election. London : Emma Watson has said that she feels optimistic about a "fairer future" for women courtesy the Time's Up campaign. On the first anniversary of the campaign, the actor took to Instagram on Saturday to express gratitude towards people who have been a part of the revolution. "From my sisters in the film industry to the activists and campaigners around the world who have supported us, I've been so inspired by the way people have reached out to each other, shared experiences and advice, and organised together as part of this movement for change. "Gender equality can only become a reality if we harness the transformative power of solidarity across professions and across borders," Watson wrote. Emma The "Harry Potter" alum said there is still a long way to go but "the achievements so far make me optimistic for a fairer future". "2018 was just the beginning," she said. A vocal feminist, Watson, in an another post urged the masses to be a part of Time's Up UK chapter that launched the Justice and Equality Fund (JEF), which is the UK's version of the Legal Defence Fund. The JEF aims to support women who have experienced harassment and abuse, improve accountability, and prevent future abuses from occurring. "I hope that more people will be inspired by the #TIMESUP anniversary to give at home here in the UK, so the Justice and Equality Fund can reach even more under-resourced organisations and campaign groups in 2019," the actor wrote. Grace Wilson 184371-2 A BUSINESSWOMAN with a passion for exploring and for saving the planet has launched an eco-friendly online travel brand. Grace Wilson (29) has launched Yugen Explore, which offers a range of products and advice for those who enjoy travelling the globe. Its website offers top tips for backpackers, links to Government advice about popular destinations and blog posts by experts on topics such as travel, marine biology and mental health. Grace, of Thackeray Avenue, Rawmarsh, said travelling around exotic locations such as south-east Asia and South America inspired her to set up Yugen. I just felt that there were a limited number of inspirational travel products available, she said. It was difficult to find travel products, health and safety advice and to access Government websites for advice and I would spend hours researching things. I knew certain things that would make your life easier because I worked for an outdoor company things like microfibre towels. It pains me to see people with bath towels in their luggage, and I think, How do you not know?, but people wouldnt know unless someone tells them. Yugen is a Japanese word which describes an awareness of the universe too deep and meaningful for words. Its product range includes universal plug adapters, microfibre travel towels, reusable water bottles, T-shirts made from bamboo and beach towels made from Turkish cotton. Grace, who set up her business in March, said her best-selling products were the beanie hats, T-shirts and plug adapters. I have got quite a big online following already, she said. We have a big focus on being ethical and not using companies which use child labour, for example, and using sustainable materials. Reducing plastic is a massive focus for us. Grace grew up in Rawmarsh and attended Rawmarsh Comprehensive School. She later studied fashion buying at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating in 2011. After spending some time working at a clothes shop in Ibiza she got a job back home working at Go Outdoors as a product developer. Last year, Grace travelled around South America, where she came up with the idea for Yugen, then travelled around the Philippines and south-east Asia. Grace said she wanted to encourage people to look after her products and to be more sustainable. Otherwise people will buy a cheap plug adapter and leave it in the hostel we want people to get away from that, she said. We want to stop people from using single-use plastic thats why we have the reusable bottles. Why would you buy a bottle of water every day when you can spend 10 on one of these? Were trying to encourage people to buy things that will last instead of having this trend of fast fashion. Grace said she was also keen on promoting cheap travel not just in the UK but around the world. I want people to travel as much as possible, she said. Its a big thing I did Im from Rawmarsh and I didnt know anyone who had been travelling. I didnt go on an aeroplane until I was 16 and no one told me about it at school no one said you can visit all those amazing places you talk about in geography. I just want to inspire people so they know they can go travelling and it doesnt have to be expensive. I met so many different cultures and its just so valuable, the experience you get. Graces products are already stocked in outdoor accessory shop Foothills on Edgedale Road, Sheffield, and she is hoping to get stocked in more outlets soon. She said she had sold products at festivals and shows, including surfing festival Boardmasters in Cornwall. Grace said many customers had been in touch with her on social media and had sent her pictures of them wearing her products. Getting feedback like that and seeing everyones pictures makes it all worthwhile, she said. Among the bloggers contributing to her website are marine biologists from a University of Portsmouth project called See Bin, Sea Change, which raises awareness of marine pollution, and nurse Iona Rendall, who writes about how travelling can be beneficial for mental health. You can shop online or find out more by visiting https://www.yugenexplore.com/ This is a point that deserves a lot more discussion than its gotten. Immigration policy has, regrettably, gotten reduced to arguments over migrant caravans and whether we should build a wall along our southern border. Those are really superficial arguments. We ought to be asking why it is that some countries in Central America are so racked by violence that their people are willing to walk thousands of miles to get away from it and what we ought to be doing about that. Theyre not walking from Panama or Costa Rica, but from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Those countries have been there a long time and only recently do we see this kind of migration. Whats changed? A wall wont fix that problem; it would simply send people out to sea to wash up, dead or alive, on the gulf coast. The proof of that can be found in Europe. The vast distance of the Mediterranean Sea hasnt deterred desperate Africans from trying to make the voyage. Even that, though, isnt the really big immigration question. Its this: How many more people do we need to sustain an aging population in their retirement? Our system of Social Security benefits depends on younger workers paying for the older generation ahead of them. In 1960, there were 5.1 workers paying into Social Security for each beneficiary. Today, that figure is down to 2.8 workers. By 2035, its expected to be down to 1.9 workers for each beneficiary. Thats where the Social Security crisis comes from. We need more workers paying into the system to preserve the benefits that retirees were promised. Otherwise, retirees will see benefits cut, or workers will see tax increases beyond what they can (or will) bear. This is a step taken in states across the country in recent years. In Novembers midterm elections, voters in four states approved plans to take the power to draw the election district lines out of the hands of legislators. Four other states had already made this change. Its clear that voters are tired of losing out on real choices at the polls because incumbent legislators of both parties have built fortresses around their seats by controlling the shape of their districts when they are in power. Loud and clear, voters are telling political leaders, Give us back fair elections. Here in Virginia, that would begin with the selection of the independent commission. The citizens committee has proposed a process that gives the General Assembly a role in selecting the commission members, but turns control over the actual drawing of the lines to the commission. To assemble the commission, a panel of retired judges would nominate five Republicans, five Democrats and 12 independents from applications open to any registered Virginia voter. Then the leadership of both parties in the General Assembly would use a strike process similar to how juries are selected to cull those 22 nominees to the final 10-member commission. Your editorial also is mistaken that buildings are necessary for quality schools. More than 400 school systems already use the internet to provide quality education. Liberty University alone has some 90,000 students in programs at all levels using the internet. And other universities as well as private education efforts from MIT to massive open online courses (MOOC) successfully do it, too. But you do not need the internet at all. Courses done by a few master teachers that meet all SOLs can be put onto DVDs and mailed to remote students while reducing costs. And can often be reused with further savings of labor. Grasping at straws, yall now want to again claim that Virginia has failed to provide high quality schools. Nonsense and barfola. Only a fool would go to court with your silly claim. You are trying the failed disparity claim again, which already lost in court. And because quality has no metric specified in the law, any education qualifies as high quality. You should look at having local schools find better, cheaper, easier ways to improve the quality of their education instead of trying to steal money from Northern Virginia. Artificial intelligence and computers would cut costs drastically while improving outcomes by supplementing a reduced teaching staff. China already has found that using AI helps teach English better with far fewer teachers at significant savings in cost. Imagine how much better, computer based AI software augmenting education via the internet, would be than what we have now, which is limited to PC nonsense by the teachers unions. Instead of constantly whining about funding disparity, how about a campaign to get local school boards to stop using tunnel-vision thinking while stuck in a box that prevents considering better solutions. Even assuming for the sake of argument that it did, theres no reason to believe his removal would be a panacea for the disunion, disharmony and dyspepsia that afflict this country. Indeed, it could easily make matters worse. Remember: 63 million people voted for this guy, even knowing what he is. Remember, too, that his latest Gallup approval rating stands at 39 percent. Though no elected president since Eisenhower has polled that low at a similar point in his term, that figure still seems stunningly high. As flagrantly awful a president as Trump has been, four in 10 Americans think hes doing a bang-up job. To overturn the will of that many people, especially in todays charged environment, is to fracture an already fractured union. None of which is to say it shouldnt be done, but only to point out the consequences thereof. But again, the argument is academic. As noted, Trump will probably be impeached (though not removed). And the six in 10 of us who see his awfulness for what it is surely will exult. Which is fine so long as we realize that impeachment will very likely change very little of what actually ails America. Perhaps thats as it should be. MILLER Candace Johnson January 2, 2019 Candace Johnson Miller passed away peacefully January 2, 2019 in Tulsa, OK, surrounded by friends and family. Raised in Roanoke, Virginia, by Louise and Dr. Marcellus A. Johnson III, Candace attended Converse College and received her Master's from the University of Tulsa. A dedicated educator and advocate, Candace worked as a speech pathologist in Tulsa Public Schools and in private practice, with a focus on helping children with disabilities. Candace was also a community leader in local service organizations. Candace shared her passion for life with everyone around her. A lover of mountains, the beach, all things chocolate, and a good party, Candace always sought ways to help and care for others. Famed for her matchmaking skills, Candace also introduced many other happy couples. Candace was married to George Miller for 43 wonderful years. She is survived by her husband George; sons, Marc and Weston; daughter-in-law, Jessica Winans; and sisters, Barbara Sykes and Pamela Lee. She will be dearly missed by all whose lives she touched. A memorial service for Candace will be held Tuesday, January 8, 2019 10 a.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Tulsa. Donations in her honor may be sent to The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges, where she spent many happy years: www.tulsacenter.org. Visitors planning to visit buildings at historically reconstructed village where General Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, will have to make do with a walking tour of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park instead. As the partial government shutdown enters its third week, the parks main visitor entry gates remain shuttered due to lack of funding and the park is closed, at least officially. About 75,000 visitors come to the park annually to see where Lees Confederate army laid down its arms. The instruction for the shutdown is that if we normally swing a gate to lock visitor entry, thats what we do because we dont have employees available to provide visitor services, said Robin Snyder, the parks superintendent. However, Snyder said much of the expansive park which contains about 2,000 acres of forest and fields, interspersed with walking trails to buildings, monuments and interpretive sites, and auto pullovers along National Park Drive (Virginia 24) will remain accessible to visitors at their own risk. The Virginia 24 parking lot, which provides primary access to the historic Appomattox Court House village, including the park services visitors center and McLean House, site of the surrender ceremony, is closed. Rep. Denver Riggleman said he will donate his paycheck to a fire department during the partial federal government shutdown. The freshman Republican representative from Nelson County said in a tweet Monday that he will donate his check to Drakes Branch Volunteer Fire Department in Charlotte County. They were recently devastated by Hurricane Michael, he wrote. Their community came together after an awful tragedy. We can learn from them. Roll Call listed at least 44 House members and senators who have announced they will go without pay or donate their pay. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Loudon, whose Northern Virginia district is home to many federal employees, said she asked the administrative office to hold her pay until the shutdown is resolved. Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Henrico, and Elaine Luria, D-Norfolk, have also asked to forgo their pay. The shutdown has stretched since Dec. 21, after an agreement between the Senate and House and President Trump fell apart after Trump demanded $5 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. In his letter, Loftis describes five separate cases of Section 8 tenants living in Garland-owned buildings. In two of those cases, the contracts that allow the tenants to use housing subsidy vouchers pre-date ownership of the buildings by limited liability companies in which Garland is an owner. In one case, the agreement was signed after Garland was elected but before he took office. In the remaining two cases, the contracts were signed while Garland was a city council member. No information was supplied about the owners or members of the LLCs, Loftis wrote, and RRHA did not know that Council Member Garland had an ownership interest. The contracts signed by a representative of the limited liability companies, however, included a certification that the owners were not a public official, member of a governing body, or State or local legislator, who exercises functions or responsibilities with respect to the program, according to the letter. That contract is nothing I ever saw or had anything to do with or even knew there was such a thing. I never even knew we had section 8 housing tenants, Garland said in an interview. In an October interview, BevNET reported that Humm intended to release two reduced-sugar varieties of its brew. The publication also said the new brewing process, which gave the company tight control over alcohol levels, had delayed the start of production in Roanoke. In the article, Danek praised the new system. Making a compliant, non-alcoholic, raw, live kombucha is just a complete game-changer, she told BevNET, while adding that she felt the company could take a bit more time with its expansion. 2020 is a better gauge for opening Roanoke, Danek was quoted as saying. But under its deal with the city, Humm had to obtain permits for site work and begin by Dec. 31, 2018, according to a real estate purchase agreement. Rob Ledger, the citys acting director of economic development, said city officials decided to declare the requirement met based on a roughed-in construction entrance and the drop-off of building components of Humms future facility. No permits were needed for those steps. Humms incentive package includes 12 acres of land worth $943,000. If the company goes into business in Roanoke as it says it plans to do, it will owe nothing for the real estate. Feelings are a wild card. On the one hand, the ability to experience deep emotion is one of the things that defines us as human. On the other, feelings can be and often are destructive to relationships and even to self. Like thoughts and behavior, feelings begin in chaos (check out the toddler), and like thoughts and behavior, feelings require firm discipline lest they become ever more chaotic. In the 1960s, the profession of psychology my profession began to focus on and obsess about feelings, especially childrens feelings. In graduate school, I learned that children raised in the 1950s and before (me!) had not been allowed to express their feelings freely. Their bottled-up feelings, starved of ventilation, rotted and became putrid, causing all manner of problems, most notably low self-esteem. Through various bogus therapies (e.g. hitting their parents with foam rubber bats as encouraging therapists looked on and asked the parents how they felt about being hit by their child), children were supposedly assisted toward getting in touch with and liberating their long-repressed emotions, thus cleansing their psyches of accumulated flotsam. (It is true, by the way, that we baby boomers were not allowed to express our feelings freely. For that, we are forever indebted to the common sense of our elders.) Mexico awarded by Guinness for longest Rosca de Reyes Saltillo, Coahuila Chefs from La Universidad Vizcaya de las Americas were awarded the Guinness record for the longest Rosca de Reyes (ring of the kings) bread in the world. Coming in at 2,065.43 meters, the lengthy traditional bread beat the previous world holder for the longest loaf, which was Switzerland. Carlos Tapia of Guinness World Records for Latin America verified the length of the bread and its new world record, noting that the previos record was held by Switzerland with 973.24 meters in 2011. Mexico has set the bar very high, so I do not believe that they will be contacting us in the next few years to break this record, he said. Photo: EFE The bread, Rosca de Reyes (ring of the kings), is a traditional Mexican sweet bread made to celebrate Reyes Magos. Chefs from the university spent days baking the bread that involved more than 300 volunteers. Rolando Franc, director of La Universidad Vizcaya de las Americas, said that the bread was made with support of the municipality. He explained its main ingredients are flour, sugar, milk, eggs and fruit, adding that this particular ring also included more than 7,000 dolls inside. Inside any Rosca de Reyes are plastic baby Jesus dolls. While traditions vary, it is believed that those who get the dolls in their piece will have good fortune for the year, be king for a day or a named godparent. In return, they must invite friends and family for a traditional tamale feast on February 2 for Dia de la Candelaria or Feast of Purification. The Rosca de Reyes bread help believers remember that God can turn darkness and bitterness into light and sweetness. More than 3,000 people were on hand to help eat the holiday sweet bread after it was judged by Guinness. It is the universitys fifth year making the large ring. It is best to have a good working relationship with your local police department (even if you have a security guard on duty). Get to know the local police by inviting officers to workplace social events or offer them coffee while on patrol in the area. Contact the police at the first sign of an employee becoming agitated. Have a system in place for indicating to a manager or human resources representative to make the call. Always err on the side of calling the police if the situation is getting heated. Tell the agitated employee that if he or she does not calm down that the police will be contacted. Ask the employee to take some time out take deep breaths, perhaps suggest that the employee take some time away from the office and leave the premises. VDOC believes in second chances for all offenders Editor, Times-Dispatch: Regarding Bill Farrars Op-Ed column, Virginia Department of Corrections continues inhumane practice of solitary confinement: In Virginia, the number of inmates in long-term restrictive housing is less than 100, and that number is made public anytime someone asks for it. Its 62 today. Virginia is a national leader in limiting the use of restrictive housing, and were incredibly proud of the hard work that has made that happen. Its disappointing but not surprising to see others trying to score easy political points and advocacy groups trying to fundraise off this issue. As a data-driven agency, the Virginia Department of Corrections devotes vital resources to monitoring and reporting information on our offender populations. That includes adding information on restrictive housing in the Departments Quarterly Report to the Governor and General Assembly. Starting with the calendar year 2018 Quarterly Report, the department will include the numbers of offenders in both long-term and short-term restrictive housing. If you live in Richmond you know that about every two years the city will be consumed debating the merits of another giant, publicly funded pr As a rule, any talk of a new museum in the commonwealth should be welcome news. This is especially the case when the institution in question would be established, from the get-go, with private funds. Were not so sure, though, about the National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations, proposed for Loudoun County and backed by a $10 million lead gift from the Starr Foundation. The museum, according to an Office of Strategic Services Society press release, intends to educate the American public about the importance of strategic intelligence and special operations to the preservation of freedom, honor Americans who have served at the tip of the spear, and inspire future generations to serve their country. These are laudable ambitions, as far as it goes. There is little doubt that espionage in its many forms has contributed mightily to winning wars, cold as well as hot. But what goes under the general rubric of intelligence can also be a dirty business, far less glamorous than James Bond movies would have us believe. It is, unfortunately, built on systematic deceit, the deliberate dissemination elsewhere of fake news, coups of foreign governments, and attempted, if not always successful, assassinations. The fourth annual Taste of Middlesex County promotion runs Jan. 14 to 20, with fixed-price three-course dinners at a variety of restaurants in the region. Menus will be priced at $20.19 and $30.19. Participants include Amici Italian Grill, Inn at Middletowns Tavern at the Armory, Lan Chis and Tuscany Grill in Middletown; Fire at the Ridge in Middlefield, The Griswold Inn and Scotch Plains Tavern in Essex, Red House in Deep River and Waters Edge Resort & Spa in Westbrook. More participating restaurants will be posted to the Middlesex Chambers website before the event. Price does not include beverage, tax or gratuity. middlesexchamber.com. When asked if Jason Davis wounds were self-inflicted, Taylor said the agency wouldnt know until the medical examiners report was complete. Believing the report will come out later this week, he said the medical examiner will reveal the cause and manner of each victims death. Both Poindexter and Rhodes were deemed stable and recovering from their injuries in Lynchburg General Hospital on Saturday. Sitting in her living room on Friday night, neighbor Reva Wisley heard gunshots ring out repeatedly, with no signs of stopping. The source was uncertain at first. People often do target practice in the forest behind her house. Still, this felt a little different. This just kept going, said Wisley on Saturday morning, standing in her living room. It felt like it went on for five minutes. She bounced her dog, June, a Chihuahua-Jack Russell Terrier mix, in her arms. It didnt bother me as much, but she wouldnt stop barking, said Wisley. She was barking during and after the gunshots, Wisley said, toward her next-door neighbors house, which sat just 45 feet to the left of her own. One of two prisoners who authorities say drove away from a Giles County work detail Saturday was captured Monday in Carroll County. Ones in custody, the other ones still out and were still checking places, Sheriff John Gardner of Carroll County said. John Kenneth Haynes, 45, of Cana was arrested just after 2 p.m. in a secluded section of the county, Gardner said. Haynes was in an old camper atop a ridge, just a place to hide, is what it looked like, Gardner said. With officers surrounding the camper, Haynes came out and surrendered, Gardner said. Hed had enough, I think, Gardner said. Still at large Monday evening was Ronald Eugene Dalton II, 36, of Dugspur. Haynes and Dalton are accused of escaping from a work detail made up of inmates from New River Valley Regional Jail. The inmates were working in Pearisburg, near the Giles County garage, Giles Sheriff Morgan Millirons said Monday. About 9 a.m. Saturday, Millirons said, Haynes and Dalton left in a 2006 Ford Taurus a surplus county vehicle that had been parked with the keys in it, Millirons said. State hospitals have seen a near quadrupling of individuals admitted involuntarily due to a mental or behavioral health crisis over the past five years. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services is asking the General Assembly to approve nearly $8 million to address staffing shortages. Virginias state hospitals consistently operate at nearly 130 percent of the capacity for which they are staffed, resulting in what national standards recognize as unsafe conditions for patients and staff, according to departmental reports. The bed of last resort law that lawmakers passed in 2014 required state hospitals to admit anyone deemed a danger to themselves or others under a temporary detention order, or TDO, if a suitable bed is not available in a private hospital. This law, paired with an overall increase of people in need of hospitalization for mental health crises, has stressed state hospitals resources, said Hughes Melton, commissioner of the department, at a meeting of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources on Monday. Last month, Norfolk Southern officially announced it was moving from Norfolk to Atlanta, a decision that will likely force the company to repay some of a $4 million economic development grant it received from the state in 2016. When asked Monday if his decision to accept corporate money while calling for reform could appear hypocritical, Northam said he does not make decisions based on who has or has not made contributions. He said that as a physician, he has seen the health care industry change its thinking on accepting payments from pharmaceutical companies, and he would like to see similar changes in politics. Until were able to do that, I will continue to operate in the existing landscape, Northam said. Virginia Democrats are on a statewide winning streak that has lasted a decade, and believe they have a chance to take control of the General Assembly in legislative elections this fall. Instead of one partys members choosing to voluntarily impose campaign finance limits on themselves, Northam said both parties should play by the same rules. We all need to be in this together, Northam said. Campaign finance reform needs to affect both sides of the aisle. The Republican Party of Virginia called Northams position stunningly hypocritical. Phoebe P. Hall, the first female public defender in the city of Richmond and the rector of the Virginia Commonwealth University board of visitors, died Friday. She was 77. She was one of the finest human beings I have known, worked with, and learned from, and she will be sorely missed by all of us who had the fortune to be her colleague and friend, VCU President Michael Rao wrote in a letter to the campus community. She was, in every way, a remarkable human being who dedicated her life to helping people discover the very best in themselves and each other. Mrs. Hall, of Richmond, was named last year to Virginia Lawyers Weeklys inaugural class of the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame, among other awards. She co-founded her familys law firm, Hall & Hall PLC, practicing family law, elder law and estate planning, according to Raos letter. My mother was the strongest woman I have ever known, her son, Franklin Hall, of Montana, said in an email Saturday. She was a feminist before her time and she instilled that value in all of us. She was the rock my father, sister and I depended upon her entire life. While her passing is heartbreaking, we are doing our best to focus on celebrating her life, her good fortune and the profound impact she had on so many people. The agency opened entries for the contest Wednesday with a Feb. 1 deadline. All K-12 students in Virginias public schools are eligible to submit their work paying homage to teachers. The winners from elementary, middle and high schools each will get $1,000 for their schools art department and a $150 gift card. Last year, students from Newport News, Richmond and Prince William County won the contest. 8th STEM Essay Contest underway Gov. Ralph Northam and the Virginia Council on Women are holding an essay contest for young women in their junior and senior years of high school. The winners of the eighth annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Essay Contest will get a $5,000 scholarship to pursue a STEM career in college. One scholarship will be awarded in each of five geographic regions across the state. Council President Chris Hilbert, who called the situation embarrassing for the body and city, says the council couldnt remove Agelasto if it wanted to, citing advice from the city attorney. Agelastos colleagues on the citys nine-member governing body have expressed frustration with the situation, but not willingness to pursue his ouster. In his lawsuit, Richardson, a 5th District councilman for 18 years, challenged Agelastos explanation that he left the district to accommodate his familys growing needs. The district encompasses Randolph, Oregon Hill, Woodland Heights, Swansboro, Byrd Park, Carytown and part of the Fan. Agelasto said in November that he and his wife moved from the 1900 block of Floyd Avenue to the 4200 block of West Franklin Street because they are expecting a second child in March and needed more space. He called the move temporary but did not elaborate. That Agelasto moved out of the district when there are houses there with ample space available to him is evidence of neglect of duty, Richardsons lawsuit states. Richardson also argues Agelastos later decision to rent out his Floyd Avenue home made clear he did not intend to move back. Cafe Ole - the downtown Mexican lunch spot at 2 N. Sixth St. - has new owners. Julian Shelton and his wife Beena officially took over the 26-year-old restaurant on Jan. 2, though the couple have been working with previous owner Betsy Thomas for a few weeks as they learn the ropes. The quaint Mexican eatery has been serving up affordable, delicious and fast Mexican fare since 1992 and Thomas was the second owner of the restaurant after purchasing it from founder Dave Rennolds in 2008. In August Thomas listed the restaurant for sale with Nathan Hughes, principal broker with Sperity Real Estate Ventures. "Cafe Ole isnt going anywhere," Julian Shelton said. "Were just trying to take it to the next level." Shelton and his wife own the Subway franchise on Lakeridge Parkway in Ashland, near Bass Pro Shop. They'd been looking for a new venture for the past two years, planning to open a pizza franchise somewhere when came across the Cafe Ole listing. "I really liked Richmond," Shelton said. "And Cafe Ole has huge expansion potential." Last month, a Texas judge handed down a despicable decision that threatens the health coverage of 20 million people and undermines pre-existing condition protections for all Americans. The judge ruled to strike down the entire health care law based on a faulty, partisan reading of the law. But the only reason the attorneys general were even able to file this lawsuit is because of a provision slipped into the Presidents tax law last winter, paving the way for this last-ditch attempt to kill health care reform. The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land, and no ones health insurance changes right now. But we must be clear whats at stake: if this ruling stands, tax credits to help you afford health insurance would be gone. Protections for the more than 130 million Americans with preexisting conditions would be gone. The ability to stay on your parents insurance until youre 26 would be gone. Ohios entire Medicaid expansion would be gone. Limits on how much you pay out-of-pocket each year would be gone. More affordable prescription drugs for seniors through closing the donut hole would be gone. Requirements for insurance companies to cover essential services like hospital visits would be gone. And the list goes on. But all of these attempts to take away these protections have failed before, because Americans fought back, and shared their stories. And well fight back again. I want to encourage all Ohioans keep making your voices heard. Keep sharing your stories about how the ban on preexisting condition discrimination allowed your child with asthma to get coverage. About how being able to shop for insurance on the exchanges allowed you to find a cheaper plan. About how the Medicaid expansion has allowed you to get health coverage for the first time in your life. Those stories remind policymakers what is at stake, and its those stories we need to hear again. I will never stop fighting to protect Ohioans health care, because we cannot go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage to the five million Ohioans under age 65 with a preexisting condition. Lock It Up Storage will offer the following at public auction on Friday, January 11 as a direct result of non payment of their account. The undersigned has been granted authority by legal procedure to sell the following but not limited to, at public auction, although the law of redemption applies in the above. Lock It Up Storage, 260 Ashland Rd. at 11 am Unit E18, belongings of Leslie Moses, last known address 1095 Koogle Rd. Mansfield; folding canopy, camping chairs, misc. model cars, camping stove, luggage. Sunlite Laundry/Tanning & Storage, 1081 W. Longview Ave. at noon Unit 220, belongings of Chad Bookmyer, last known address 895 Brookfield Dr. Mansfield; coffee table, heater, totes Unit 206, belongings of DeMarque Herans, last known address 258 Grace St. Mansfield; couch, chairs, tv's Unit 303, belongings of Megan McIntyre, last known address 743 Concord Ave, Mansfield; air conditioner, end tables, crib, kids toys Unit 329, belongings of Denice Bonds, last known address 300 Washington Ave. Elyria; table, chairs, fans Unit 900, belongings of Anthony Marti, last known address 183 Cleveland Ave. Mansfield; boxes, clothes Lock It Up West, 1201 W. Longview Ave. Mansfield at 12:30 pm Unit 241, belongings of Tina Rutter, last known address 1229 Pawnee Ave. Mansfield; bed frame, lamp, totes Unit 2066, belongings of Larry Scott, last known address 43201 Warren Ravenna Rd. Newton Falls, OH; video players, lamp, table top Unit 320, belongings of Brooke Ousley, last known address 2712 Taylortown Rd. Shelby; twin beds, furniture Unit 651 and 9033 (Ea. unit sold separately), belongings of Sherri Janeczek, last known address 887 Expressview Dr. Mansfield; freezer, coffee table, shelf Unit 1045, belongings of Sara J Dorion, last known address 2785 Eckert Rd. Mansfield; coffee table, bassinet, sofa Unit 6047, belongings of Shannon Aten, last known address 302 Altmont Ave. Mansfield; table, chair, exercise equipment The Amendment tells the true story of Brooks and Leslie Douglass. In 1979, when Brooks was 16 and Leslie 12, two men invaded their Oklahoma home, stole some money, raped Leslie and shot the siblings and their parents. The parents died but the kids survived. Iranian activist Esmail Bakhshi has been out of jail for a month, but says he still bears the physical and psychological scars from being tortured "to the verge of death" during his 25-day jail stay in Khuzestan Province. Bakhshi was arrested on November 20 for his role in weeks-long protests over unpaid salaries at a local sugar factory. He was charged with disruption of public order and collusion against national security and spent weeks in jail before his release on bail on December 12. Now Bakhshi's claims have shined a light into the greater issue of prisoner mistreatment and torture, which rights group say is widespread, and have prompted parliament to launch an investigation. 'Intolerable Pain' "Weeks after my release, I still feel intolerable pain in my broken ribs, left ear, and testicles," Bakhshi wrote in an Instagram post on January 5 in which he detailed the alleged abuse he endured. "I was so badly battered that I could not move for 72 hours in my solitary confinement cell," he added. "The pain was so unbearable that it made sleeping impossible." During his detention, activists claimed, Bakhshi suffered internal bleeding and injuries to his head and face stemming from interrogations at the jail in Ahvaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan Province, in southwestern Iran. In his Instagram post, Bakhshi expounded on the situation, saying that both he and journalist Sepideh Qolian, who was arrested at the same time, were subjected to psychological torture. "What was interesting was that the torturers, who called themselves soldiers of the Imam [a revered figure among Shi'ite Muslims], attacked me and Ms. Qolian with abusive sexual profanity while beating us," Bakhshi wrote. He also claimed that his interrogators told him his phone was bugged long before his arrest. "While beating me, one of the interrogators said that they knew everything about me, including a dispute with my wife over my labor-rights activities," Bakhshi wrote. Balkhshi challenged Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi, a mid-ranking cleric, to a live TV debate concerning the alleged torture of detainees. "As a cleric, and from the moral and human rights point of view, tell us what is the sentence for those who torture prisoners? Is torturing prisoners permissible? If it is, to what extent? Does the ministry you run have the right to secretly monitor private telephone conversations?" 'Source Of Shame' Iranian media reported that a parliament committee has been authorized to investigate Bakhshi's claims after lawmakers requested a probe. Ali Motahari, an outspoken member of parliament, wrote a column in the reformist Etemad daily on January 6 in which he said Bakhshi's claims were a "source of shame" and demanded answers from the Intelligence Ministry. Gholamreza Shariati, the governor of Khuzestan, denied Bakhshi's claims. "I checked with the relevant bodies and the claim of torture was strongly denied," he told the Jamaran news website. International human rights groups have long alleged that torture is widespread during the interrogation of detainees in Iran, including rape and other sexual violence, electric shock, and amputations. Rights groups have also alleged that medical treatment is denied to certain categories of detainees, especially prisoners of conscience, political prisoners, and human rights defenders. Strikes Hit Iran The protests at Haft Tapeh, which has around 4,000 workers, largely ended in December after the workers received their wages. Iran has seen multiple strikes and protests in recent months over working conditions and unpaid wages in a range of sectors, including steel, education, mining, and transportation. Iran is in the grip of an economic crisis and has seen sporadic protests in recent months. The United States reimposed economic sanctions on Iran in early November, targeting Tehran's crucial oil, transportation, and financial sectors. Six Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals living in Sweden have gone on trial in Stockholm accused of transferring funds to the extremist group Islamic State (IS). Three of the Central Asian men are also charged with plotting an attack in the Scandinavian country. The first day of the trial took place at the Stockholm district court's high-security chamber on January 7, with the defendants sitting behind a bulletproof-glass wall. The suspects were identified in court documents as Uzbek nationals Akromion Ergashev, Bakhtior Umarov, Gulom Tadjiyev, Shoahmad Mahmudov, and David Idrisson. The Kyrgyz suspect was identified as Atabek Abdullayev. Abdullayev, Idrisson, and Umarov are accused of acquiring chemicals and other equipment, including bayonets and radio headsets, with the intent of "killing and harming other people," the charge sheet read. All six suspects, aged between 24 and 46, lived legally in Sweden. They reject all the charges against them. The trial is scheduled to run until February 11. A radicalized Uzbek asylum seeker, Rakhmat Akilov, in April 2017 ran down pedestrians in Stockholm with a stolen truck, killing five people. He was sentenced to life in prison in June 2018. Based on reporting by AFP and dpa The whereabouts of six Russian sailors abducted by pirates in the dangerous waters off the West African coast are still unknown, Russian officials say. The kidnappers have not established contact yet, and the location of the captured Russian sailors remains unknown," the Russian Embassy in Benin said in a statement on January 6. Pirates seized the Panamanian-flagged MSC Mandy container ship in Benins territorial waters early on January 2, robbing crew members and sailors and abducting six hostages before fleeing. Officials have said 24 to 26 people were aboard the ship -- up to 20 Russians, four Ukrainians, and two Georgians. Six of them, later identified as Russians, were taken hostage. The industry website Portnews said those abducted were the captain, his senior aide, a third aide, the boatswain, a fitter-welder, and the cook. The ship was traveling from Lome, Togo, to Lagos, Nigeria, when attacked. After the incident, the vessel continued on to Nigeria before returning on January 5 to Benins main port, officials said. Russian state-run TASS news agency said diplomatic officers had visited the ship and met with crew members in the Benin port, and several replacement sailors, including a captain, were brought aboard. "Diplomats spoke to the crew, learned the details of the incident, and found that none of the crew members was injured, TASS quoted Albert Dyabin, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Cotonou, as saying. He added that crew members said the incident occurred when eight to 10 attackers, all speaking English, arrived on a speedboat. The Maritime Bulletin earlier reported, without citing sources, that seven to nine pirates boarded the Mandy cargo ship armed with AK-47 rifles and machetes. MarineTraffic.com lists the 37,000-ton ship as being Panama flagged and being built in 1993. Security experts say the seas off the coast of Western Africa including the Gulf of Guinea, where this incident occurred -- are some of the world's most dangerous, with pirate ships often seizing oil tankers and holding sailors for ransom. In February 2018, an oil tanker with a crew of 22 Indian nationals was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. The crew was released five days later after a ransom was reportedly paid. A report a year ago by the International Maritime Bureau said 10 incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members took place in or around Nigerian waters in 2017. With reporting by Interfax, TASS, dpa, and The Maritime Bulletin Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan are planning to meet soon to discuss the announced departure of U.S. troops from Syria, where both countries also have a strong military presence. Turkey's state news agency Anadolu reported on January 6 that the meeting is expected to take place this month. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the two leaders intend to hold talks soon but that the exact date has not yet been set. Putin and Erdogan last met on December 1 at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires. Foreign and defense ministers from the two countries met in Moscow at the end of December to discuss Syria. Syria has been engulfed in a seven-year civil war. Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United States and Turkey back differing antigovernment fighters. The U.S. national security adviser, John Bolton, said he would discuss U.S. plans when he meets Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan in Turkey on January 8. Those meetings will follow talks, also focusing on Syria, that Bolton is holding in Israel, where he said the U.S. pullout was conditional on Turkish guarantees in regard to U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters. President Donald Trump on December 19 surprised U.S. lawmakers and many military leaders when he announced he would pull all 2,000 U.S. forces from Syria, where they have been assisting a Kurdish militia in rooting out IS fighters from that country. Many supporters, critics, and international allies expressed shock over the decision, saying it would hand Russia and Iran a victory and leave the Kurds at the mercy of Turkish forces. Ankara sees the U.S.-backed YPG militia in Syria as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey and has vowed to crush it. Trump was not specific about a time frame, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters after meeting with Trump. He said the president was committed to making sure Turkey did not clash with the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG forces once U.S. troops leave Syria. Israel has expressed concerns that a U.S. pullout from Syria could allow Iran to consolidate its presence there and pose a risk to its security. On January 6 in Jerusalem, Bolton said the U.S. decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria was conditional on Turkey ensuring the safety of Kurds in Syria. Asked if a U.S. pullout would be halted if Turkey could not guarantee the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said: "Basically, that's right." "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum," Bolton said. It must be assured, he added, that any Turkish military actions will not "endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered." With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and TASS Amid a continuing debate about the dire conditions in Russian prisons and repeated cases of torture there, a top official from Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) says its workers are suffering from "moral fatigue" as a result of low wages and daily contacts with inmates who sometimes attack the guards. Valery Maksimenko told the Interfax news agency on January 7 that more than 3,000 psychologists work in the FSIN, of whom some 350 provide prison guards and other FSIN workers with necessary professional assistance. Maksimenko also stated that inmate attacks on prison guards is on the rise because FSIN workers hesitate to use force against inmates. "Because after using [force against inmates], the guards must for half a year, or even for a year, answer questions by investigators, prosecutors, courts...to prove that they were right, as they may face even criminal charges," Maksimenko said. A day earlier, Maksimenko told Interfax that the FSIN is not a legacy of the notorious Soviet-era gulag system and called such comparisons "incorrect." "Gulag meant mass violations of human rights, mass repressions, illegal verdicts, executions, torture, forced confessions, and that cannot be said about today's situation," Maksimenko said. "If some prison guards beat inmates, that doesn't mean it is the legacy of the gulag. It means that such guards have no brains...no desire to work, no patience." Maksimenko added that the FSIN is doing everything to get rid of such employees. Earlier in November, Maksimenko told Ekho Moskvy radio that Russia needs more prisons to hold police officers, prison guards, and other law enforcement agents who have been convicted of crimes. In Russia and some other former Soviet republics, former law enforcement officers serve prison terms in penitentiaries separate from common ones. Abuse by police, prison guards, and other law enforcement officers has long been a problem in Russia. The topic has come to the attention of the Russian public and the media in recent months after a video showing at least 17 guards beating an inmate at a prison in the city of Yaroslavl became public in July. Fifteen guards from that prison were arrested following a public outcry. Probes were launched against several prison guards suspected of torturing or killing inmates in Russia's other regions. With reporting by Interfax Most Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas as believers gathered in Moscow, Kyiv, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Cairo, and cities throughout the world to mark in the holy day. Catholics as well Orthodox churches in Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria celebrate Christmas on December 25 under the Gregorian calendar. The Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas on January 6. The January 7 celebrations come amid tensions between the largest Orthodox denomination-- the Russian church-- and the spiritual headquarters for the Orthodox faith in Istanbul. The Istanbul headquarters, known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, recently backed an effort by Ukraine to establish its own Orthodox church, independent of Moscow. Patriarch Bartholomew on January 6 handed over a document known as a "tomos" to the head of the new Ukrainian church, Metropolitan Epifaniy, at a ceremony in Istanbul on January 6. Hundreds of Ukrainians lined up at Kyiv's St. Sophia Cathedral complex on January 7 to view the document enshrining the newly gained independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. "For the first time, we celebrate Christmas with an independent autocephalous church," President Petro Poroshenko said after attending services in St. Sophia Cathedral. "It is the basis of our spiritual freedom, we broke the last fetters tying us to Moscow," he added. Efforts by Ukrainians to establish an independent church intensified after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and began supporting separatists shortly thereafter in parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Orthodox churches, including those in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, and Jerusalem are among Orthodox and Eastern Rite churches that celebrate Christmas observing the old Julian calendar. Currently (19012099), the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Catholics as well Orthodox churches in Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria celebrate Christmas on December 25 under the Gregorian calendar. The Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas on January 6. In St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 7 presented the Transfiguration Cathedral with the icon of Christ Pantocrator as a Christmas gift, while Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia's Orthodox Church, conducted services in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Attendance at midnight Christmas Mass has become a tradition for Russian leaders -- some of whom, like longtime KGB officer Putin, were staunch supporters of the communist system during the Soviet era. Meanwhile, Putin fired a cannon in his native St. Petersburg to mark Christmas. Together with Putin, 85-year-old Vladimir Bendet pulled the lever on the howitzer that fires a daily noontime salute at the Petropavlovsk Fortress on the banks of the Neva River. In Bethlehem, hundreds of people marked Christmas on January 7 with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III at the Church of the Nativity, which was established on ground traditionally recognized as Jesus's birth site. Palestinian police stood guard as several dozen demonstrators shouted "traitor" in protest of the Greek Orthodox Church's sale of property in mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem to groups promoting Jewish settlements. Israeli purchases of church land and property in east Jerusalem have angered Palestinians -- including many Orthodox Christians -- who consider the territory to be the capital of their future state. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem, but the move has not been recognized by the international community. In Cairo, Egypt's president in a symbolic gesture inaugurated a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region's largest mosques. It comes at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians in deadly terror attacks. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has spoken of sectarian harmony as a major policy goal, but he has still faced criticism for not doing enough to protect Christian and other minorities. "This is a historic and important moment. But we still have to protect the tree of love we planted here together today because seditions never end," the president said from inside the cathedral. With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and TASS NOTE: This article has been amended to clarify that some Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar on December 25. Four Ukrainian citizens have been killed after a cargo ship sank off Turkey's Black Sea coast, Kyiv's envoy to Ankara said. The Panama-flagged vessel sent out a distress signal around 150 kilometers off Turkey's Black Sea province of Samsun, the Turkish coast guard said on January 7. The crew of the Volgo Balt 214 vessel included 11 Ukrainians and two Azerbaijanis, Samsun Governor Osman Kaymak said. Kaymak said that a total of six crewmen died in the tragedy, while seven others were rescued and taken to hospital. Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Sybiha confirmed there were 11 Ukrainians onboard and said that four of them were among the dead. https://twitter.com/andrii_sybiha/status/1082252812518604801 There was no information about the nationalities of the other two dead crew members. The Turkish governor quoted one of the survivors as saying that the ship's hull split in two after being hit by a powerful wave. Turkey's coast guard said the search-and-rescue operation was carried out by a plane, three helicopters, and two boats. With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP QARAGHANDY, Kazakhstan -- Scores of protesters rallied in a central Kazakh city demanding "justice" after a Kazakh man was killed in a brawl in a local restaurant during New Year celebrations. The young man was stabbed to death in the clash between two groups during celebrations on January 1. Three other men were hospitalized with stab wounds. The incident in Qaraghandy has raised ethnic tensions, after some of the protesters blamed the killing on ethnic Armenians. In a January 3 statement carried by state media outlets, Qaraghandy police said three suspects -- identified as Torgom Malkhasian, Sokhak Malkhasian, and Qaiyr Nadyrbekov -- had been arrested. The main suspect in the case, 21-year-old Narek Gururian, remained at large. In a video posted on Telegram and YouTube on January 7, a man identifying himself as Narek Gururian, born on March 30, 1997, acknowledged that he took part in the brawl but insisted that he did not kill anyone. "I am ready to give myself in to the authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and ask the authorities to provide me with security and carry out a transparent investigation. I am ready to bear responsibility for what I did but will not take somebody's sin on myself. I am not a murderer," the suspect said. The demonstrators gathered in front of the regional police department in Qaraghandy on January 6 and demanded thorough investigations into the killing, some saying that Armenians must be deported from the country. Regional governor Erlan Qoshanov met with the protesters and said that "all those responsible for the death will be prosecuted." "This case is being monitored by the authorities at the highest level. We will investigate it until all those responsible are punished. I promise you, as the region's governor and the president's representative here, that the main suspect, who remains at large, will be detained in two-three days," Qoshanov said, adding that if the suspect's relatives were trying to hide him, they would be prosecuted too. The protesters then left the site. According to a January 6 statement on the governor's website, murder and hooliganism investigations have been launched. "At this point, nine participants [in the deadly brawl] have been established, of whom eight were apprehended, while one was placed on an international wanted list. We want to stress that the brawl took place between two groups and was not ethnically motivated," the statement said, warning that people who tried to incite ethnic hatred might face criminal prosecution as well. Official Kazakh media frequently praise long-term President Nursultan Nazarbaev, asserting he has maintained domestic tranquility among the Central Asian nations various ethnic groups. With reporting by Merhat Sharipzhan and RFE/RL's Kazakh Service Participating venues include Vinted, INDIA, The Cook and the Bear, Flora and Artisan Restaurant, located at the Delamar Hotel. Crawl participants will enjoy deeply discounted food and/or drink specials (including tropical drinks) at these restaurants for four hours. Guests are encouraged to wear vacation-inspired gear, like Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses and sun hats and grass skirts. An Azerbaijani media-rights group has added its name to the list of organizations urging the government to release a hunger-striking blogger who was targeted with a new charge just weeks before his expected release from prison. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and other watchdog groups, and The Washington Post's editorial board have also demanded that 26-year-old Mehman Huseynov be freed. Huseynov has been on a hunger strike for 13 days, his lawyer says, amid suspicions that the administration fabricated its latest accusation against the former anticorruption blogger and media activist. The Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, which Huseynov once led, says the new charge against him stems from the "criminal and corrupt nature" of Azerbaijan's ruling regime. It urged the British government to pressure Baku into ensuring Huseynov gets proper medical care and to cancel any anticipated "high-level visits, meetings, and strategic deals" with its Azerbaijani counterpart. "We call on [U.K. authorities] to act NOW to Save Mehman Huseynov's life," the Azerbaijani NGO said in a tweet late on January 6. Prison authorities refuted the claim that Huseynov was on a hunger strike. "As far as I know, Mehman is accepting water as well as food. That man is not hungry," Mehman Sadiqov, head of the public-relations department for the prison service, told RFE/RL, adding that medical officials "immediately" attend to any prisoner who experiences health problems. Huseynov is already serving a two-year prison sentence after being convicted of libel for saying he had been mistreated by police in January 2017. Just weeks earlier, he had posted photographs of luxury homes he alleged belonged to government officials and lawmakers and had been critical of Mehriban Aliyeva's eventual appointment to the post of first vice president by her husband, President Ilham Aliyev. Huseynov has maintained his innocence and called the original case against him politically motivated. In late December, about two months before the end of his sentence, Huseynov was charged with "resisting a representative of the authorities with the use of violence dangerous to [the representative's] health and life." His lawyer, Shahla Humbatova, said Huseynov could face up to seven years if convicted on the charge. She also told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service on January 4 that the fresh charge had prompted Huseynov to refuse all liquids and solids from December 26 to December 30. After that, he began taking water, she said, but nothing else. "He says he is determined to continue the hunger strike, and he emphasized that this is the only means of struggle against injustice that he has at this time," Humbatova said. Human rights groups accuse Aliyev's government of fabricating criminal cases to stifle dissent and media freedom in the oil-producing Caspian country of around 10 million people. Giorgi Gogia, associate director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division, and Ane Tusvik Bonde, a senior adviser at Human Rights House Foundation, have also called for Huseynov's release and for the new charges to be dropped. "Unfortunately, there are justified grounds for the assumption that these new charges [against Huseynov] are clearly politically motivated and clearly designed to further silence a prominent human rights activist whom we consider a political prisoner," said the PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom) and Stefan Schennach (Austria). "Furthermore, we are alarmed by the fact that Mehman Huseynov has embarked upon a hunger strike as the only means available to him to protest about his plight. We call upon the Azerbaijani authorities to review his case as a matter of absolute priority," they added in the January 5 statement. Huseynov's case is reminiscent of blogger and activist Mehman Qalandarov, who died on April 2017 in Azerbaijani custody following his arrest on drug-trafficking charges that rights activists contend were fabricated. Qalandarov, a government critic who had repeatedly called for the release of imprisoned opposition activists, was said to have hanged himself, though critics of the Azerbaijani government have said the circumstances of his death were murky. A Committee To Protect Journalists report in December listed Azerbaijan among the world's most egregious jailers of reporters. An infant who was found alive by rescuers in the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk has regained consciousness. The baby boy had spent some 35 hours in the rubble after a suspected gas explosion took down a section of the high-rise building. Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters on January 7 that 10-month-old Ivan Fokin started breathing without a respirator over the weekend and that doctors in a Moscow clinic had switched off the life-support system. Ivan is recovering from a skull injury, fractures, kidney dysfunction, frostbite, dehydration, and hypothermia. He was plucked from the wreckage on January 1, having survived freezing temperatures beneath the rubble after the explosion, which occurred early on New Year's Eve, killing 39 people. Russian authorities have said the deadly collapse was caused by a cooking-gas explosion. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax Uzbekistans president has issued a decree that allows unmarried couples to share rooms in hotels across the former Soviet republic. According to Shavkat Mirziyoevs decree, published by the National Information Agency of Uzbekistan, the move is being made to secure unmarried couples' "right to a private life." "Hotel services must be provided regardless of individuals' permanent addresses, citizenship, or status of their relations, including matrimonial relations," the decree says. The decree also orders the extension of the number of countries whose citizens can visit Uzbekistan without visas. Currently, Uzbekistan offers visa-free entry to citizens of France, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and the most of the former Soviet republics. It has also announced that by February it will allow 30-day tourist visas for citizens of Germany, Britain, Ireland, and several other European Union member states. Mirziyoev has announced plans to implement reforms to open Uzbekistan to the outer world after he came to power following the death of longtime President Islam Karimov in 2016. Predominantly Muslim Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country, with a population of 32 million. UPDATED at 5:00 P.M. EST on 2019-01-18 Myanmars leaders on Monday vowed to put down an insurgency in western Rakhine state by the Arakan Army (AA), demanding that ethnic Rakhines end support for the armed group that killed 13 policeman in coordinated attacks during the countrys Independence Day last week. Zaw Htay, director general of President Win Myint's office, said Myanmars de facto leader State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the AAs attacks during a meeting on national security held with the president, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other cabinet members. The Presidents Office has instructed the military to launch an operation to to put down the insurgents, he told a news conference in the capital Naypyidaw. Zaw Htay also said that the AAs attacks were a stab in the back and that political differences divisions should be resolved through discussion. On Friday, Myanmars Independence Day, members of the AA used both light and heavy weapons to attack four police outposts in Buthidaung township, killing 13 officers and injuring nine others. Zaw Htay accused the AA of having ties to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Muslim militant group that in August 2017 launched deadly assaults on 30 police outposts and an army base in northern Rakhine state, triggering a brutal military crackdown that killed thousands and drove more than 725,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. We have had information about ARSA, and we learned earlier that the AA would attack police posts, he said. We reviewed why our police posts were attacked and have discussed some plans to work on in the region, but we cant give you the details now. Zaw Htay said he believes the attacks are the outcome of meetings between the AA and ARSA in July, but he did not offer any evidence of such contacts between the two mutually hostile groups. The AA represents the state's Buddhist Rahkine ethnic group, while ARSA is a militant group that purports to speak for Muslim Rohingyas. AA spokesman Khine Thukha said his group does not have any connections to ARSA and that Zaw Htays statements during Mondays press conference were an attempt by the government and the military to brand the Arakan group a terrorist organization. Zaw Htay also urged Rakhine lawmakers, youth, and civil society organizations to stop supporting AA rebels for sake of the states development. Do they want to see a cycle of violence lasting decades? he asked at the press conference. I want to tell the Rakhine people who are supporting AA, please dont think about yourself, but think about your next generation. Myanmar military and government leaders attend a meeting to discuss national security at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw, Jan. 7, 2019. Credit: Photo courtesy of Myanmar President's Office Army urged to listen to locals Rakhine representatives appeared to be lukewarm to the appeal and called on the central government to listen to local concerns in the state. Htu May, an Arakan National Party (ANP) lawmaker in the upper house of Rakhine state's parliament, said that the central government and Tatmadaw, as the national military is called, should consider the position of ethnic Rakhine people living in the region to prevent such attacks from recurring. I myself as an ethnic Rakhine would like to add that regarding the attacks on Independence Day, the sentiments of ethnic minorities should be taken into account by the Union government and the Tatmadaw, he said. Then, there could be discussions and a solution, he said. Incidents like the Independence Day attack could be reduced once the discussions began. Tun Aung Kyaw, general secretary of the ANP, said the party was questioning whether the attack on Independence Day was appropriate. For warring parties, if one is not an ally, he may be considered an enemy, he said. Maybe thats the reason they launched an attack. We cant say for sure. The AA, which is fighting the Myanmar military for greater autonomy in Rakhine state, attacked the outposts because the government army is using the police for military operations, and the police have threatened area villagers, Khine Thukha told RFA on Friday. He also said that Arakan soldiers did not intentionally choose Independence Day to carry out the violence. We just did what we had to do, he said. We didnt choose Independence Day. It was just a coincidence. Theres no Independence Day for us. The Myanmar military declared a four-month unilateral cease-fire on Dec. 21 in five military regions, but it excluded Rakhine state. Statements by the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) and ultranationalist Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha on Sunday said the attacks by the AA constituted an act of terrorism. MNHRC member Yu Lwin Aung pointed out that the armed assaults were deliberately launched during a flag-raising event to disgrace the nation. If the other side retaliates, then the people will become victims and lose their basic rights, he said. It is difficult to stay calm and not fight back. Such violent acts can lead to human rights violations of local ethnics. Thats why we condemn such acts of terrorism. Ma Ba Thas statement expressed sorrow for the dead and injured policemen and urged the government to take full responsibility for law and order and protect the local population. Clashes between the Myanmar military and the AA in Kyauktaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and Ponnagyun townships have forced more than 5,000 local residents to leave their homes, according to estimates by locals and the United Nations. The rebel group reported that a fresh clash with the military occurred around noon on Monday near Doechaung Wa village in Paletwa township in Chin state, which abuts Rakhine state. Warning letter and bullet A member of the AA, meanwhile, has sent a warning letter along with a bullet to police officer Kyaw Hla, commander of the Tain Nyo police station in Rakhines Mrauk-U township, according to AA spokesman Khine Thukha. It could be AAs lower-level commanders who sent the bullet along with the warning letter to this police officer because he is known as the one who has oppressed local residents, he said. RFA contacted Kyaw Kyaw Hla who confirmed that he received the threat and the bullet, but said he could not comment further on the incident because he was busy. The letter warns him not to disrupt the AAs Rakhine national affairs activities. Someone in the AA also sent similar threats to Chit Shar Aung, police chief of Nwa Yone Taung village, and two locals named Nyan Lin and Sit Sit on Dec. 21. Meanwhile, groups of journalists from domestic and international news outlets have been visiting the areas where the attacks by the AA took place on a Myanmar government-sponsored trip since Jan. 5. On Monday, a group that included reporters from RFA, Voice of America, Democratic Voice of Burma, Mizzima, and the Myanmar Times traveled by helicopter to Maungdaw township, which borders Buthidaung, along with Lieutenant General Aung Win Oo, chief of the Myanmar Police Force, and Khin Maung Tin, deputy minister of the State Counselors Office. Government officials comforted policemen and their families who were attacked by the AA and offered them money before having a closed-door meeting at Maungdaw districts General Administrative Office. We will not remain silent on these attacks which are a stab in the back, Aung Win Oo told the police officers. The Police Force will do what we should together with the military. After the meeting, Police Brigadier General Myint Toe, the commander of Border Guard Police Force No. 1, told the reporters about the AAs attacks on Jan. 4. The reporters also visited police outposts in Kahtee Hla and Gotepi villages and the No. 3 Border Guard Police Force in Buthidaung, but government authorities didnt take them to the Kyaung Taung and Nga Myin Taw police posts for security reasons. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report contained incorrect English translations of the words for "put down" and insurgents in the quotes by Zaw Htay, director general of President Win Myint's office. Reported by Wai Mar Tun, Win Ko Ko Latt, and Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Nandar Chann and Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Authorities in China are actively pursuing internet users who use circumvention tools to avoid the complex system of blocks, filters and human censorship known collectively as the Great Firewall. Police in Rongchang district of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing handed an official summons and warning to internet user Huang Chengcheng for "setting up and using illegal channels to access the international internet." Huang was held for eight hours of questioning on Jan. 4, his phone scanned, and his posts to overseas social media sites gathered by police for use as evidence. Police said Huang's posts had "seriously contravened laws and regulations," and warned him not to use circumvention tools again, according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website. An internet user surnamed Liu who frequently uses virtual private networks (VPNs) to scale the Great Firewall said the ruling Chinese Communist Party doesn't want its citizens to have free access to non-government sources of information. "VPNs are specifically designed to get around China's Great Firewall, meaning that we can see how different the news is in China, where it is tightly controlled, to the U.S., where the flow of information is relatively free," Liu said. "[We can also see] by comparison how they are more advanced than we are in terms of the information economy and in terms of democracy," he said. "There is going to be a backlash; an inevitable side-effect of the suppression of news, and also an expression of the curiosity that oppressed people have about the outside world." Meanwhile, police in the southern province of Guangdong issued an administrative punishment to an internet user surnamed Zhu for "setting up and using illegal channels to access the international internet." According to the official WeChat social media account of the Shaoguan municipal police department, Zhu was fined 1,000 yuan on Dec. 27 for his use of the Lantern Pro app to circumvent government censorship, in violation of articles 6 and 14 of China's "Interim provisions for the management of computer information networks (international internet)." A duty officer who answered the phone at the Shaoguan police department declined to comment, referring inquiries to the internet police. But an officer who answered the phone at the Shaoguan municipal internet police said they didn't know anything about Zhu's case. Scaling the wall Rights lawyer Liang Xiaojun said fining people for viewing the overseas internet is "ridiculous," but that not everyone in China is concerned about it. "Actually they are forbidding people from circumventing the Great Firewall in order to control their thoughts," Liang said. "But many people in China think that they don't need to scale the Great Firewall to view things outside ... there are so many different types of information on Weibo, and that's enough." "Others don't need to scale the wall, so they don't think there's a problem. An internet user surnamed Wu from the southwestern province of Sichuan said the government doesn't want people to see anything that challenges the official version of the news. "They are afraid that we will be able to learn more," she said. "There are a lot of things we can't even see." An internet user who asked for anonymity said: "The Chinese Communist Party is trying to control all aspects of society to maintain its political power. It monitors people's thoughts and behavior, and suppresses the vitality of the whole of society." Over the last two decades, Chinas Great Firewall has grown into an alarmingly effective apparatus of censorship and surveillance, according to the 2018 Freedom on the Net report published by Freedom House. "Internet controls within China reached new extremes in 2018 with the implementation of the sweeping Cybersecurity Law and upgrades to surveillance technology," the report said. It said Beijing is also seeking to propagate its model of online censorship overseas by conducting large-scale trainings of foreign officials, providing technology to authoritarian governments, and demanding that international companies abide by its content regulations even when operating outside of China. "These trends present an existential threat to the future of the open internet and prospects for greater democracy around the globe," the report said. Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Ma Lap-hak and Fok Leung-kiu for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, during a lavish ruling party celebration Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the bloody Khmer Rouge era, called for wider political dialogue in his country, but fell short of including the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). During an event attended by more than 60,000 people at Phnom Penhs Olympic Stadium, Hun Sen thanked Vietnam for aiding the struggle to liberate Cambodia and her people from the genocidal regime, under whose 1975-79 rule an estimated 3 million people are believed to have died. The timely Jan. 7 [1979] victory saved millions of Cambodian lives who otherwise would have been subjected to death, he said, suggesting Vietnam had merely aided the Cambodian National Salvation Front in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, rather than invaded and taken control of the country. That day reintroduced and revived values, both spiritual and material, of the Khmer nation, brought to an end a dark chapter of Cambodias history, and opened a new era for the countryone of independence, freedom, democracy and social progress for its pitiful citizens. We have since provided Cambodian citizens all kinds of rights and freedoms for them to have true control over their own fates. After Vietnam marched on Phnom Penh, Hanoi administered the country for more than a decade, appointing Hun Sen prime minister and maintaining tens of thousands of troops on the ground. After facing heavy international pressure and enduring significant military casualties, Vietnam withdrew its troops from Cambodia in September 1989 and two years later became a signatory to the Paris Peace Accord, which paved the way for the country to become a democracy. During Mondays event, Hun Sen also vowed to open Cambodia up to wider political dialogue between all parties, civil society, and all progressive circles, but fell short of mentioning the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was banned by the Supreme Court in November 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to topple the government. The court decision, which also slapped a five-year ban on the political activities of 118 of the CNRPs senior officials, allowed the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to effectively run uncontested in Cambodias July 29 general election and win all 125 seats in parliament. Hun Sen said Monday that his government would promote wider political dialogue to collect intellectual input and human resources from all sources, without discrimination, and to increase the total force for nation-state building and development. However, he warned against a history that we cannot let resurface, as it causes national division due to the ambition of politicians who use our citizens as their tools to attain their personal interests without thinking about the fate of the nation. Marchers parade through Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium at an event marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the Khmer Rouge era in Phnom Penh, Jan. 7, 2019. Credit: Hun Sen's Facebook page Political dialogue Speaking to RFAs Khmer Service after the ceremony, senior CNRP official and former lawmaker Um Sam An rejected the idea that Hun Sen is seeking national reconciliation. Even if he intends to promote comprehensive dialogue, he will not hold talks with all political partiesparticularly the CNRP or civil society organizations that work transparently, fairly, and independent of the government, he said. He only will hold dialogue with minor political parties that serve as his puppets. When asked for clarification about Hun Sens statement, CPP spokesperson Chhim Phal Vearun told RFA that it should not be taken as an invitation to dialogue with the CNRP. This doesnt suggest that [dialogue] will be held with the now-defunct partyHun Sen referred only to parties with legal status under Cambodian law, he said. Veteran political analyst Lao Mong Hay told RFA that Hun Sen was continuing to isolate himself from the international community by refusing to reinstate the CNRP and restoring political rights to its officials. Since the election, the U.S. has announced visa bans on individuals seen as limiting democracy in the country, as part of a series of measures aimed at pressuring Cambodia to reverse course, and the European Union, which was the second biggest trade partner of Cambodia in 2017, has said it will drop a preferential trade scheme for Cambodian exports based on the countrys election environment. Meanwhile, Soeng Sen Karuna, spokesman for local rights group Adhoc, applauded Hun Sens promise, noting that civil society has faced difficulties in working with the government at all levels, and has even been accused of staging a revolution for campaigning on behalf of human rights and efforts to ensure free and fair elections. We welcome his remarks, but we dont know from now on whether they will be effectively implemented, he said. The Interior Ministry has already issued a notification to open the space for civil society, but in practice, things have not been improving. For instance, we were obstructed from holding an event to celebrate International Human Rights Day on Jan. 3. Liberation or invasion Hun Sens remarks about Vietnam also drew condemnation on Monday from observers who called Jan. 7 is a day of invasion, rather than liberation. Acting CNRP President Sam Rainsy, who is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a string of convictions by courts seen as beholden to Hun Sen, called the prime minister a usurper who was first installed by the invading Vietnamese Communist army in 1979. He has since clung to power through election manipulation, terror and violence, he said, in a message posted to his Facebook account. Ly Srey Sros, a youth political analyst, told RFA that Jan. 7 is a day with both good and bad connotations for Cambodias youth. Vietnams intervention in Cambodia can be considered a success story for Cambodian citizens in that they were able to escape the genocidal regime, but we must admit that based on international law, such an intervention was a violation of Cambodias sovereignty, she said. Sophal Ear, associate professor of World Affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles, called Vietnams intervention both a liberation and catastrophe for Cambodia. It brought liberation from the Khmer Rouge, but it also brought to power a group of individuals who, 40 years later, are still in power, he said. In that time, Cambodia went from a Vietnamese colony to a Chinese colony, he added, referring to Beijings increasing influence in the Southeast Asian nation. In the lead up to Mondays celebration, hundreds of ethnic Cambodians living in Australia and the U.S. staged anti-Jan. 7 Day protests over the weekend, referring to the anniversary as a day of grief marking a foreign occupation of Cambodia. Animosity between Vietnam and Cambodia goes back centuries, but was heightened by the Vietnamese war in 1979, and accusations over the demarcation of the border between the two countries have become a prominent feature in Cambodian politics as Hun Sens opponents have attempted to paint the strong man as a tool of the Vietnamese. Hanois state-run Vietnam News Agency reported that the two countries held a ceremony on Jan. 4 in the Vietnamese capital to mark the victory of the southwest border defense war and the joint victory on January 7 of Vietnam and Cambodia over the genocidal regime. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. We would love for you to join us to share your memories of Daryl with family and friends. Daryls full obituary can be view at http://www.myersmortuary.com/ A celebration of life will be held from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on 2021-06-27 at Fraternal Order of Eagles , 2140 N Lebanon St, Lebanon, IN 4 Vernon, Ct. - 01/07/2019 - This is the rear view of Sacred Heart Church in Vernon where four people have been charged with trespassing and criminal mischief after attempting to break in to the church. The four individuals, three from New York and one from New Jersey, are alleged to have purchased a hammer from a local store after seeing a posting on social media about the abandoned church and driving up from New York City. (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant) Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivers a speech at a CMC meeting held in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Gang) BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping Friday ordered the Chinese armed forces to enhance their combat readiness from a new starting point and open new ground for developing a strong military. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the instruction at a CMC meeting held in Beijing. Hailing the landmark, pioneering and historic military achievements since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi said the armed forces had resolutely safeguarded national sovereignty, security and development interests and withstood complex situations and severe struggles. "The world is facing a period of major changes never seen in a century, and China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development," he said, warning that various risks and challenges were on the rise. The entire armed forces should have a correct understanding of China's security and development trends, enhance their awareness of danger, crisis and war, and make solid efforts on combat preparations in order to accomplish the tasks assigned by the Party and the people, Xi said. Regarding combat capability as the only and fundamental criterion, Xi ordered all work, forces and resources to focus on military preparedness and ensure a marked progress in this regard. Xi stressed the armed forces' ability to respond quickly and effectively to contingencies, asking them to upgrade commanding capability of joint operations, foster new combat forces, and improve military training under combat conditions. Party and government departments and agencies at the central and local levels are required to support the defense and military development. Xu Qiliang, a CMC vice chairman, presided over the meeting, and Zhang Youxia, the other CMC vice chairman, announced the decision to give awards to 10 model units and 20 model individuals. They received awards from leaders, including Xi. Xi also signed a mobilization order for the training of the armed forces, the CMC's first order in 2019. 3 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] HARTFORD Seven months after Connecticut passed legislation promising its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections, a Republican state representative has filed a bill to repeal the act. State Rep. Kurt Vail, of Stafford, has proposed legislation to withdraw Connecticut from the group of states that are participating in the National Popular Vote compact. But unless they can win over Democrats, Vails effort, along with several other Republican-backed voting bills, are likely to be ignored when the General Assembly convenes Wednesday for its 21-week budget-setting session. Democrats will hold both legislative chambers and the governors office, and they have their own election-related priorities such as increasing access to the ballot box. I want to make it easier for students to vote, said Sen. Will Haskell, a Westport Democrat and incoming first-term vice chairman of the Government Administration and Elections Committee. I want to make the absentee ballot process less burdensome and more modern. State Rep. Daniel Fox, D-Stamford, who chairs the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said Monday it is likely his committee will work on early voting proposals and campaign finance-law revisions, but avoided specific topics. Now is the time when a smorgasbord of ideas are floated about changes to election law, he said. More Information Frequently asked questions How do lawmakers submit bills? The most common way is for a member of the House or Senate to file general language with the Legislative Commissioner's Office, the General Assembly's nonpartisan lawyers. Where does a bill go from there? If the proposal is from a senator, the bill, in legalese, goes to the Senate Clerk. If a House member files it, the Legislative Commissioner transfers it to the House clerk. Once the session starts, the bills are sent to committees of cognizance. For instance, an elections-related bill would be sent to the Government Administration & Elections Committee. What is the committee process? Committee co-chairmen and ranking members review proposed bills. The leaders decide what pieces of legislation should be "raised" for public hearings and put bill proposals on committee agendas for votes. When the General Assembly convenes on Wednesday, the House and Senate will adopt rules that set committee deadlines, mostly April and May. Just because a bill is approved in one committee, however, does not assure it makes it to the House or Senate for a floor vote. Other related committees may also review bills. Very often, the last committee to review proposed laws is the Judiciary Committee. Bills requiring state funding need approval from the Appropriations Committee, while tax-related bills must pass the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee. Can legislation pass one chamber and become law? Except for some personnel nominations, no. Both the House and Senate have to approve the same language for new laws to reach the governor for final review. See More Collapse Whenever you come off an electoral season and we just had a contentious electoral season you always have ideas that evoke passion and emotion about election law, Fox said. These are when the best election laws are generated. As committee chair, Fox and his co-chair, Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, will have considerable leeway in deciding what election laws are changed. Committee leaders can decide whether a bill gets a hearing, or a committee vote. Fox doubts that Vails bill on repealing the National Popular Vote compact would advance. Both he and Flexer voted in favor of the joining the compact in 2018; Fox even led its passage in the House. The measure passed in Connecticut in May after a decade of lobbying. It passed the House on a close vote, but received bipartisan support in the Senate. It was such a long battle, Fox said. The National Popular Vote compact is not in effect yet: its activated when states representing 270 electoral votes have signed on. So far, 11 states and the District of Columbia have joined, putting the total at 172 electoral votes. States with 98 more electoral votes would need to pass legislation to enter the compact in order for it to be implemented in 2020, the next presidential election. In 2019, Republicans hope the GAE committee will also consider term limits for state lawmakers and changes to primaries. State Rep. Arthur ONeill, R-Southbury, filed three bills Friday. One piece of legislation would amend state law to no longer require major parties to hold conventions to endorse candidates for certain elected offices, such as governor. Politicians on both sides of the aisle questioned the need for conventions in 2018. Business executive Bob Stefanowski won the Republican primary for governor after deciding not to participate in the state party convention. He petitioned his way onto the primary ballot. ONeill also filed a bill to move the primary for state elections from August to June. In addition, he proposed using ranked-choice voting in primaries for state or municipal offices. Vail also filed a bill Friday proposing an amendment to the state Constitution to limit the number of years a legislator can serve in one office to 12. The limit would also apply to the governor, attorney general, secretary of the state and other executive branch officers. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson MIDDLETOWN Police are investigating the discovery of four dead puppies in a plastic bag Sunday just before noon in a wooded area about 2 miles from the Interstate 91 rest stop. A city resident alerted police about the dogs, which they believe had been dead for a few hours, after finding them on the side of Preston Avenue, Middletown Police Lt. Heather Desmond said in a release. Authorities gathered evidence from the scene that we will be processing, Desmond said. The preliminary investigation revealed the puppies were male, about two weeks old, black in color, with some white on their chins, chests and feet. The puppies appeared to be a possible poodle or Cocker Spaniel mixed breed, she said. The puppies were taken to Pieper Olsen Veterinary Hospital in Middletown, where they were examined, authorities said. Were hoping we can find some evidence regarding the people who may have put them there, Middletown Control Officer Gail Petras said. A necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death, police said. WTNH reports that Sandra Renkiewicz and her husband, Joseph, made the gruesome discovery during a walk in a rural area off Preston Avenue. The couple was first alerted by their two dogs after they began pulling at something in the woods. Im disgusted by it, Sandra Renkiewicz told WTNH. Who does this in the middle of winter to helpless little puppies? Its disgusting, and there are so many agencies that would have taken those pups. Someone may know of a dog that just had puppies, and they are no longer around, Desmond said in the release. These puppies would have been too young to adopt, and should have remained with their mother. Anyone with information is asked to contact Middletown Animal Control at 860-638-4030. A quick two autoroute exits south of the southern end of Burgundy's Cote d'Or and you land in the river town of Tournus, greeted by a tire store and the local McDonald's. This is the start of the Maconnais - not far from the famed heart of Burgundy, but in spirit, a world away. Once upon a time, when wine largely revolved around France, the Maconnais was a reliable place to find chardonnay. You encountered its wines if you drank something labeled Macon-Villages, Pouilly-Fuisse, Saint-Veran or maybe Vire-Clesse (the last approved in 1999, as the region's fortunes were on the wane). They were fruity and more generous than the often-stoic white wines of northern Burgundy. If they tasted more basic, that was by design. For decades, they helped to bulk up the rosters of large Burgundy merchants - bottles that kept shelves full and offered a weeknight drink. Maybe they didn't have the cachet of chablis. But if you wanted a decent chardonnay, touched by the wand of Burgundy, Macon wines were there. Of course, that world is long gone, which is why I recently found myself back in the Maconnais, trying to figure out what comes next. Chardonnay is grown in nearly every wine-producing country, leaving wines like Macon-Villages without any special flair. They're not cheap enough to compete with the oceans of inoffensive chardonnay from elsewhere. It's understandable why their fortunes waned. Except that's starting to change. A handful of forward-thinking vintners are overcoming the region's perennial inferiority complex, hoping that it will be seen again, in a different way. They envision a future guided by better, often organic, farming and defined as much by red wine as white. And their white wines largely discard the generic bottles of the past in trade for distinctive wines from specific villages and vineyards. It's an acknowledgment that the region's best parts share the same hillside plantings and limestone soils that made the Cote d'Or so special. "When you think about the Maconnais, people think of Macon-Villages, of a flat ocean of vines," says Jean-Philippe Bret, who with his brothers Marc-Antoine and Jean-Guillaume created the ascendant Bret Brothers label. "And it's not flat." Let's stick with geography for a moment, because it explains a lot about the region's mixed fortunes. The city of Macon and surrounding countryside are squeezed in a complicated spot: Burgundy's most famous dirt sits to the north, while to the south lies Beaujolais, whose northern edge touches the southernmost Maconnais towns. Historically, the area's farmers aligned their fortunes more north than south; in the 16th-century era of Louis XIII, historian Roger Dion has pointed out, the Maconnais proclaimed their winemaking "superior in dignity" to their southern neighbors. Their fortunes largely lay to the north, too. Large Burgundy negociants such as Louis Jadot (but large Beaujolais merchants too) bought a lot of wine from local growers and co-ops to bottle under their own names, enough that relatively few Macon growers bottled wines themselves. The wines became defined by that fruity, anodyne style - often, points out Caroline Gon, with California-like sugar left to soften the wine. "We want a cleaner, more pure style than that," says Gon, who with her husband, Frantz Chagnoleau, is part of the new generation. These forward-thinking winemakers have watched the white wines of the Cote become rarer and more collectible, while to the south, Beaujolais began enjoying a quality revolution for its red wines. They grew weary of being stuck in between; about 15 years ago, they formed the Artisans Vignerons de Bourgogne du Sud to find a path out of the doldrums. It was Beaujolais, and its red gamay wines, that provided one hint for a revival. Today, Maconnais red wine, mostly from gamay, has become a new bright spot, partly because gamay is beloved by younger drinkers who may never have drunk a white Macon-Villages. The area's limestone soils, very different from Beaujolais granite, provide brighter flavors and mineral aspects than vineyards to the south. There's also pinot noir that more than holds its own with many basic Cote d'Or reds. This is less a new twist than history repeating itself. Through the centuries, the Maconnais was predominantly a red-wine region; in 1857, the ampelographer Victor Rendu described it dominated by red grapes (although the best-known villages, including Pouilly and Fuisse, were known for white). As recently as the 1970s, reds accounted for nearly 40 percent of production. But that changed with the white-wine era of the 1980s, and the rise of chardonnay. So there's a lot riding on wines like Manganite, an old-vine red Macon-Cruzille from Julien Guillot at Clos des Vignes du Maynes. Guillot and his family, whose winery is a darling among natural-wine fans, staked their future on a long view of the region. That's not a big surprise: His grandfather Pierre Guillot acquired the property in 1952 and helped to pioneer organic farming in France. And the Clos itself was founded over a millennium ago, by the same Clunisian monks who planted much of the Cote d'Or. But history was less kind to the south. "They planted Clos de Beze [one of the greatest Burgundy vineyards] in 909, and they planted here in 910, the same monks," Guillot tells me, "and they have the grand cru and we're in generic Bourgogne." As for white wine, the Maconnais pulled another lesson from their neighbors' success, both north and south - namely, the importance of trading out such generic appellations as Saint-Veran for more distinctive (and expensive) single-vineyard bottles, made with painstaking cellar work. This was already a precept among the region's quality pioneers, including Domaine Valette and J.A. Ferret; today it can be seen in the wines of such younger vintners as Bret Brothers, and its sister label, La Soufrandiere, most of which are bottled by individual parcel. Today you don't simply make a Pouilly-Vinzelles, but a Les Quarts or a Les Longeays. There's also a more literal Burgundy influence. A handful of top Burgundian winemakers have come south, as negociants once did, to establish southern beachheads. This includes the famed Domaine Leflaive of Puligny-Montrachet, which has made a Macon-Verze since 2004, and Dominique Lafon of Meursault, who in 1999 bought a Maconnais property and founded Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon. Lafon - with Gon, who makes his wines (see below) - has largely focused on single vineyards. And both Leflaive and Lafon brought the biodynamic farming they refined on the Cote d'Or. Is that enough to revive the region's fortunes? Hard to say. Today, an undifferentiated bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse is still nearly $30; single-vineyard bottlings can be even more. And local agricultural organizations have frustrated outsiders' attempts to buy Maconnais land, even Leflaive. They've also been working on a system of premier cru vineyards, much like in the Cote d'Or. On the surface, that seems like a good idea, but the French have a tendency to jump the gun on such endeavors. Is there really a market for premier cru Macon? Either way, it's time to shelve the old view of wines such as Macon-Villages. If the region doesn't have fancy airs, today it's a place with more faith in its own potential, rather than one marked by insecurity about its neighbors. - - - Top Names to Know These five properties are helping define a new era of quality for the Maconnais. In addition, look for wines from Domaine Valette, Guillot-Broux, Domaine de la Bongran and Jean-Claude Thevenet. Clos des Vignes du Maynes: Young Julien Guillot has turned this historic property in Cruzille into the model of the new Macon, with a particular focus on red wines, plus some exceptional beaujolais from purchased grapes. Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon: Top Meursault producer Dominique Lafon takes the same approach as he does on the Cote de Beaune with his single-parcel Macons: Farming in biodynamics and bottling such wines as his Les Maranches (on thin soils near the Saone river in Uchizy) or Clos du Four (a midslope planting in Milly-Lamartine). Frantz Chagnoleau: Chagnoleau and his wife, Caroline Gon, winemaker at Heritiers , created their own small organic domaine in 2010. They've banked on the potential of the unheralded Saint-Veran appellation and shown its potential with such wines as their energetic La Roche, from 75-year-old vines. Bret Brothers/La Soufrandiere: The three Bret brothers control the family domaine in Vinzelles, which produces wines under the Soufrandiere label, and buy grapes for their namesake label, both single-parcel Macon such as Pouilly-Fuisse Les Crays and some very good beaujolais. Domaine du Clos des Rocs: The most prominent property in the tiny appellation of Pouilly-Loche, where Olivier Giroux bottles single-vineyard wines from his own 7 1/2-acre vineyard and other small plots, including Les Mures. - - - Bonne is the author of "The New Wine Rules" (Ten Speed Press, 2017) and the upcoming "The New French Wine" (Ten Speed Press). Jessica Nuzzo/Bluefield Daily TelegraphThe Mud Pit ATV resort welcomes riders to stay and eat at the location in Duhring. The planned closure of a nearby trail has left many ATV-related businesses unsure and concerned about their future if the trail were to actually close. January 07, 2019 10:59 IST After a war of words over the weekend on Twitter, fight between the government and the opposition on alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal resumes in Parliament. WATCH ALL THE ACTION HERE. Last updated on: January 07, 2019 09:39 IST 1,605 people were killed, 30,719 were injured in 10,399 incidents of communal violence from 2004 to 2017. IMAGE: A scene from Bhadrak, Odisha, April 2017, after communal clashes. Photograph: PTI Photo India witnessed 10,399 incidents of communal violence from 2004 to 2017 wherein 1,605 people were killed and 30,719 were injured, said the Ministry of Home Affairs in reply to an RTI query. The maximum number of incidents took place in 2008 when 943 cases were reported. The year witnessed most lives -- 167 -- lost to violence and 2,354 people were injured, said the year-wise data. The minimum cases 580 were reported in 2011 -- when 91 people were killed and 1,899 injured -- according to the ministry of home affairs's reply to Noida IT professional and RTI activist Amit Gupta. Gupta had also sought to know the number of people arrested and convicted in the cases related to communal clashes, riots and fights during the period. He, however, was informed that such data was maintained by state governments as 'police' and 'public order' were state subjects. According to the RTI reply, in 2017, 822 cases of communal violence were reported wherein 111 people were killed and 2,384 injured. While in 2016, 703 cases were reported, 86 people were killed and 2,321 injured. In 2015, 751 cases were reported, 97 people were killed and 2,264 injured, while in 2014, 644 cases of communal trouble came to the fore, 95 people were killed and 1,921 injured. As many as 823 such cases were reported in 2013, in which 133 people were killed and 2,269 injured, while in 2012, there were 668 cases of communal clashes, 94 people were killed and 2,117 injured, the MHA said. In 2010, 701 cases of communal clashes were reported, it said, adding 116 people were killed and 2,138 injured. The year 2009 witnessed the second maximum -- 849 -- cases of communal clashes, with 125 people losing their lives and the maximum people injured in a single year -- 2,461 -- it stated. In 2007, 761 cases were reported, 99 people were killed and 2,227 injured, while in 2006, there were 698 cases, 133 people were killed and 2,170 injured. In 2005, 779 cases were reported, 124 people were killed and 2,062 injured, while in 2004, there were 677 cases, 134 people lost their lives and 2,132 injured, the data added. On being asked why he sought the data of communal clashes from 2004, Gupta told PTI, "I wanted to put the facts on incidents of communal clashes, fights or riots into perspective. "Hence, I sought the year-wise data from 2004 till 2017 so that we can have a clear picture of things during the UPA and NDA governments." Reportage: Press Trust of India. Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com Source: January 07, 2019 09:50 IST In a veiled warning to the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Sunday said that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Shah's statement came immediately after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis set the BJP workers a target of winning 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Reacting to the statements, the Shiv Sena said it was ready to take on whoever challenges it. Shah and Fadnavis addressed BJP workers from Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Nanded districts of Maharashtra on Sunday. "Party workers should get rid of confusion about (prospects of) alliance (with the Shiv Sena). If the allies join us, we will ensure their win, or else will defeat them too. Party workers should start preparations at every booth," Shah said. He compared the coming elections to the third battle of Panipat, in which Maratha forces were defeated by the army of Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Durrani (Abdali). The BJP chief said after this battle, the country was "enslaved" for 200 years. "If we win this election, our ideology will continue to rule for next 50 years. We should put in extra efforts to win this election," Shah said. "In 2014, the BJP won 73 seats (in Uttar Pradesh). This time even if SP and BSP join hands, we will win 74 seats," he said. Echoing Fadnavis, Shah said, "We should aim to win at least 40 out of 48 seats (in Maharashtra)." This is for the first time the BJP has taken an assertive stand in the matter of alliance with the Shiv Sena. The Sena has been regularly hitting out at the BJP despite being part of the government in the state and the Centre. Its leaders have often said they would contest the next polls on their own. Speaking before Shah, Fadnavis said, "The party president will decide what to do with the Shiv Sena and the proposed alliance. But the BJP should aim to win 40 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state." "The victory of 2019 will be bigger than 2014. Last time we won 122 seats in (state) Assembly and received 1.50 crore votes. We need two crore votes to attain power on our own. The number of people who have benefited from the state government's policies is more than that." Shah had reportedly told party MPs from Maharashtra at a meeting in Delhi last Thursday that they should be ready to contest the coming elections without an alliance, though efforts to forge a pre-poll tie-up with the Sena were on. The Sena and BJP had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance but split up at the time of Assembly elections. The Sena joined the state government later. Late Sunday evening, the Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP, saying its plan to win 40 seats meant it would rely on manipulation of electronic voting machines. "The Sena is ready to take on opposition. Those who attack us, we will surely defeat them," said an aide of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. "The BJP's boast of winning 40 seats is evidence that it is going to form alliance with EVMs. The BJP has been unnerved by the results of assembly elections," he said. "Amit Shah's arrogant and boastful statements have exposed that party....Shiv Sena talked about Hindutva and Ram temple but it seems our stand did not go down well with the BJP," the leader said. "The BJP does not want anybody who talks of Hindutva," the Sena leader said. Source: Last updated on: January 07, 2019 20:40 IST In more ally trouble for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Asom Gana Parishad on Monday announced it has pulled out of the BJP-led ruling coalition in Assam over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which the regional party is opposing tooth and nail. IMAGE: Widespread protests are being carried out in Guwahati over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Photograph: PTI Photo The decision to snap ties with the BJP over the bill that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will, however, not affect the stability of the Sarbananda Sonowal-headed government. The bill is likely to come up in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, which is the scheduled last day of the winter session of Parliament. The announcement was made by AGP president and minister Atul Bora after he said its last-ditch attempt to convince the Centre to withdraw the proposed legislation failed. The AGP has 14 MLAs in the 126-member assembly while the BJP has the support of 74 MLAs. The BJP has 61 members while 12 MLAs of the Bodoland Peoples Front and a sole Independent member are backing the party. The opposition Congress and the All Indian United Democratic Frontg have 25 and 13 members respectively. AGP has three ministers in the state, but they have not resigned yet. The AGP has no MP in the Lok Sabha or in the Rajya Sabha. The decision to snap the ties followed an AGP delegations meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi during which he asserted that the government will ensure the passage of the Citizenship Bill in the Lok Sabha Tuesday. We made a last ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. We tried to convince the Centre that the bill was against the Assam Accord and will nullify the ongoing updating of the National Register of Citizens. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance, Bora told reporters after the meeting. IMAGE: All Assam Students Union activists hold placards as they raise slogans protesting against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in Guwahati. Photograph: PTI Photo The BJP had promised to ensure the passage of the bill in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Telugu Desam Party and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the last one year during which the saffron party also parted ways with the Peoples Democratic Party-headed coalition in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJPs ties with Shiv Sena also remain strained while the leader of another NDA constituent Apna Dal-Sonelal on Monday warned its ally -- the BJP -- it will go to any extent if the senior partner does not change its attitude to smaller parties in the ruling coalition. Apna Dal-S president Ashish Patel said the party can take any decision but declined to elaborate. The Union Cabinet earlier in the day cleared the redrafted Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, officials said. A meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill and it is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday, an official privy to the development said. Asked if the ministers have tendered their resignations, Bora said, We will do that after reaching Guwahati. Later, Bora told reporters, We felt betrayed at the BJPs attitude towards the bill as when we entered into the alliance, we were convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants...We never dreamt that the BJP could do this to the people of Assam. We now regret entering into an alliance with the BJP. He also rued that Chief Minister Sonowal refused to meet them when they had sought an appointment to discuss the issue with him as probably he could not face us. Bora also said that Singh was requested not to ignore public sentiments only for votes but it is unfortunate that they did not listen. IMAGE: Policeman detains an activist during a protest held by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti along with 69 other indigenous organizations of Assam against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in Guwahati on Monday. Photograph: PTI Photo The move by the AGP came within hours of the presentation in Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. The announcement followed AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahantas statement in Guwahati that the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they dont possess any proper document. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India-Marxist and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship cant be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. There were widespread protests in the state against the bill. A meeting of the AGP was held in Guwahati on Friday on the issue and it was decided that if the Bill is passed in Lok Sabha, we will withdraw support to the government in the state, Mahanta said earlier in the day. The three AGP ministers and a senior party MLA had gone to New Delhi to meet the prime minister who is yet to give them an appointment. The leaders, however, met Rajnath Singh. The AGP had entered into an alliance with the BJP before the 2014 polls and was opposed to the Bill since the beginning. The AGP had placed its reservations on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee when the panel had visited the state and also tried to mobilise opinion against the Bill among NDA constituents such as the Janata Dal-United and Shiv Sena, and opposition parties. Last updated on: January 08, 2019 10:38 IST 'Genuine mistakes can and must be forgiven,' argues Vivek Gumaste, US-based academic and political commentator. The Bharatiya Janata Party's decisive electoral defeat in its bastion, the Hindi heartland, has come as a boon and a life-saver for a near terminal Opposition and injected a much-needed bolus of adrenaline into its adversaries, both political and ideological. However, in their haste to capitalise on the moment and exploit the BJP's discomfiture to the hilt, Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi's detractors are embarking on a dangerous and dubious path of vile disinformation and reckless populism that does not augur well for the country. The shrill, high decibel campaign emanating from these disparate entities reeks of negativism and skullduggery; a blatant attempt at obfuscation that takes recourse to hyped up incidents of intolerance, exaggerated projections of gloom and doom and outright falsehoods to create an overall impression of despondency. This 'Remove Modi' crusade needs to be countered and called out for what it is, so that the nation gets a legitimate perspective prior to May 2019. That there is some disenchantment with the BJP at the ground level is undeniable. But this public resentment warrants intelligent scrutiny. Is it an absolute indictment of the Modi government for non-performance vis a-vis other previous governments? Or is it a relative disapproval stemming from the gap between expectations and fulfillment? And is it to some degree influenced by an orchestrated propaganda of falsity? The emergence of the BJP government in 2014 ushered in a new era of hope and progress; almost a revolution of sorts that hoped to carve out a new India and lift the sagging morale of a nation direly in need of aggressive and purposeful reinvention. This, the Modi government has done effectively through a series of innovative initiatives. The outlandish claim that this government is merely enamoured with symbolic and high-profile ventures divorced from the needs of the common man is a myth. In fact, the government is focused on alleviating the day to day hardships faced by the common man by providing toilets, bank accounts, affordable housing, LPG gas connections for cooking, and health insurance. The single most important programme that will define this government is its Swachh Bharat Abhiyan -- a bold, daring initiative that previous governments had considered too paltry to address. Thousands of new toilets have been built and open defecation is on the retreat. Sceptics may quibble about the exact number of new toilets built but the progress in this area in the last four years surpasses everything we have done since Independence. WHO stated that at least 180,000 diarrheal deaths were averted in rural India by this programme, pointing to its tangible benefits. While there is still much work to be done, this programme has brought about a sea change in the mindset of Indians towards cleanliness -- a vital change for social and medical advancement. There are other plausible success stories -- all geared towards making the life of the common man better. To name a few: Jan-Dhan Yojana: The World Bank Global Findex Report indicates that the percentage of adult bank account holders in India increased to 80% in 2017 as compared to 53% in 2014 and 35% in 2011, pointing to increased financial inclusiveness. When on April 28, 2018, the tiny hamlet of Leisang in the north eastern state of Manipur lit up with electric light, Modi fulfilled the promise he made in 2015 of electrifying every one of the 18,452 remaining villages in 1000 days -- the milestone was reached with 12 days to spare. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, undertaken by the Government of India to provide affordable housing to the poor has so far resulted in 1.07 crore rural houses being built, with the time taken to build a home having been drastically cut to 114 days compared to 314 for previous governments. The government hopes to build 29.5 million homes by 2022. Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, 100 million LPG connections including 40 million free to poor women, were given in last four years, compared to 130 million in the six decades since Independence. With the Ayushman Bharat health plan Modi launched the world's largest healthcare insurance plan that will provide health care access to 500 million needy Indians. While this plan is still in its infancy, that it is a step in the right direction is undeniable; an important need of the common man that other governments had failed to address. This is not to say that this government has not made any missteps especially in the financial sector. Demonetisation was a well-intentioned idea that went awry. There must be acknowledgement of that with a gentle reminder to the public that it was done with the noblest of intentions. Likewise, the public must be made to realise that GST was a necessity and inevitable; it is here to stay, a done deed that no successive government will rescind. That this government has been making periodic modifications in the GST to make it more acceptable needs to be appreciated by the public. Instead of debating relevant matters, Modi's detractors and their acolytes are indulging in a jamboree of non-issues. The notion that intolerance is on the rise is an illusion based on isolated incidents -- distorted and blown out of proportion. The cow slaughter imbroglio heads this litany of lies. Veteran columnist Tavleen Singh declared in July 2017 in Indian Express: 'Violence is the mood of the new India and the armed men who wander our highways in search of Muslims to kill are today's heroes.' Do a few isolated incidents (yes, they are isolated when viewed against the vast expanse of India) occurring in a few remote towns in a country of 1.3 billion spread out over 7,935 urban units (cities and towns) and 640,867 villages define 'the mood' of an entire nation? This statement is classic example of unadulterated hyperbole, rumour-mongering and senseless alarmism that does more harm to minorities by creating an environment of exaggerated fear. The massive mandate given to Modi was tagged with unrealistic sky-high expectations -- a complete realisation of the goals was almost impossible and disappointment was inevitable. Public pique needs to be assuaged, but the voter must be made to realise that the Modi government, even with its deficiencies, is far better than Manmohan Singh's scam ridden 10-year tenure. The biggest selling point of this regime is its incorruptibility. Arguably, this is the only government in India's history to complete its tenure without even the whiff of a scam. Only an honest, incorruptible and sincere government has the best chance of delivering tangible progress to the Indian people. Genuine mistakes can and must be forgiven, unlike malicious scams. The BJP and Modi must be given another chance in 2019 to complete its work, for India too deserves another chance. US-based academic and political commentator Vivek Gumaste is the author of My India: Musings of a Patriot. January 07, 2019 09:57 IST 'It was reported that three women accessed the shrine in the last few days.' 'This will swing things in favour of the reformists.' 'So long as no females were allowed to pray there, the strength of emotion kept the issue burning.' 'As more and more women do this, the matter will fade,' says Aakar Patel. IMAGE: Bindu Ammini, 42, and Kanakadurga, 44, are escorted by the police after they entered the Sabarimala temple on the intervening night of January 1-2, 2019. Photograph: Reuters In 2016, Kerala elected the Left Front to power. The Congress was defeated and lost 7% of its vote share. But the Left also lost about 2% of its votes. The gain in votes was made only by one party, the BJP. It went up by 9% and more than doubled its previous share of Malayali votes to a total of 15%. This was a big jump and very encouraging, but the BJP has been doing this across the country for many decades. In Gujarat, the Jana Sangh (which was the former name of the BJP) got only 2 to 3% of the votes till the mid 1970s. But the party leadership continued to strive and work and build the organisation without expectation of personal reward. The Emergency and then the Ayodhya movement gave the Jana Sangh and the BJP the opportunity to mobilise and it grabbed it. One can rightly accuse the party of using religious issues and divisions to achieve political ends, but one cannot accuse it of failing to achieve them. Readers will be aware that the RSS and the BJP have done something similar in Kerala, though in this instance the growth has been accompanied by great violence. Many people from the RSS and BJP and the Left parties have been killed as the fight for dominance at the neighbourhood level has become ugly. The BJP won only one assembly seat in 2016, but in the next election it will finally be established as a major player in that state. The party's aggressive use of the Sabarimala issue has definitely helped it to attract a significant part of the upper caste vote which is angry over the Supreme Court decision to allow all Indians to access the temple. However, the ultimate victory here will be that of the women and those people who back the rights of the individual over the rights of tradition. It was reported that three women accessed the shrine in the last few days. This will swing things in favour of the reformists. So long as no females were allowed to pray there, the strength of emotion kept the issue burning. As more and more women do this, the matter will fade. We have seen the same thing over the same issue happen in India before. In the 1930s, the issue was whether or not to allow Dalits into temples. Mahatma Gandhi was opposed by Hindu groups which organised dharnas against him for supporting the entry of Dalits. In Ahmedabad, the Swaminarayan sect, which is run primarily by the Patels of my community, declared themselves non-Hindu to keep the Dalits out. They did this to claim that the Bombay Harijan Temple Entry Act was not applicable to them. But, of course, we know that such things cannot work. Ultimately, we cannot discriminate in the name of tradition and the right thing always prevails in the course of time. The Patels kept fighting against Dalit entry, but lost in the Supreme Court. The judges observed that 'The Harijans's right to enter temples symbolises the right of Harijans to enjoys all social amenities and rights, for, social justice is the main foundation of the democratic way of life enshrined in the provisions of the Indian Constitution.' Today this observation seems normal and nobody can take exception to it. Something similar will happen in Kerala. In a few months or few years it will become normal to see females in the temple. Those who are currently angry over the defeat of tradition will lose their anger over time. Those who wanted to keep Dalits out are today nowhere to be found. They have not vanished, but their views have changed and our society has changed. Today, nobody can claim that tradition should prevail over individual rights to keep Dalits away from temples. In time, we will be surprised that we were fighting over such an issue as the entry into temples of females in 2019. The conservative element of society constantly seeks to keep reform on hold because it offends tradition. When it loses one battle, over Dalits, this conservative element, moves on to the next one, women. In future there will be something else, but there also it will display anger and then accept the inevitable. In that sense the defeat of tradition will help the BJP politically in the short run. But it will help us as a law abiding and rights respecting society in the long run. Aakar Patel -- winner of the 2018 Prem Bhatia Award for Political Reporting -- is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own. January 07, 2019 10:40 IST 'Nehru once told JRD, "I hate the mention of the very word profit".' '"Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit!" JRD replied.' 'Nehru reiterated, "Never talk to me about the word profit, it is a dirty word".' A fascinating excerpt from Shashank Shah's The Tata Group: From Torchbearers To Trailblazers. IMAGE: J R D Tata. Fifteen years younger to Nehru, J R D Tata admired him as the heroic knight in armour and an apt leader for independent India. However, four decades later, while penning the foreword to a compilation of his keynote addresses, JRD wrote, 'I have often thought that if fate had decreed that Vallabhbhai Patel instead of Jawaharlal, would be the younger of the two, India would have followed a very different path and would be in a better economic shape than it is today.' What caused JRD's opinion to change over the four decades? Well, several factors did. The most central being the approach, or rather the lack of it, towards economic development in the first three decades since Independence. The nature of the Tatas's businesses in core sectors such as steel, electricity and locomotives made it imperative for their companies to be heavily dependent on government orders and anti-dumping protection. This required the maintenance of a fine balance between the Raj and the freedom movement. Yet, whether under the Raj or post-Independence, their key focus of dialogue with the government of the day was India's industrial development. Farokh N Subedar recalled that whenever the Tata Group chairman went to North Block for a pre-Budget presentation before the finance minister, the focus wasn't on a 'wish list' of things that were relevant for the Tatas alone. The interests of the Indian industry at large were always a priority. L K Jha, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, recalled in 1986 that when he was a secretary to the government, JRD never approached him on behalf of any Tata company, but for the whole industry. He wanted no favours, only fairness. IMAGE: From left: S K Patil, then vice-president Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, J R D Tata and then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in New Delhi, October 28, 1958. Photograph: Kind courtesy Press Information Bureau In 1944, some of the most eminent industrialists of India were hosted by the Tata chairman to propose 'A Plan of Economic Development for India'. This was later known as the 'Bombay Plan' or the 'Tata-Birla Plan'. The Rs 10,000 crore plan put forth several recommendations on improving per capita income, health, education, housing, agriculture and industry. It was probably one of the first plans in the world prepared by capitalists, which laid a strong emphasis on social well-being. It envisaged a largely deregulated economy with government investments in industries of national and strategic importance. When the newly formed Government of India adopted centralised economic planning, there was no precedent of economic planning and liberal democracy going hand in hand. But policymakers found no inherent contradiction among the two. In 1954, Nehru, impressed by his visit to China, incorporated in the draft of the Second Five Year Plan that India would move towards a 'socialist pattern of society'. Nehru once told JRD, 'I hate the mention of the very word profit.' 'Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit!' JRD replied. Nehru reiterated, 'Never talk to me about the word profit, it is a dirty word.' In the general elections of 1971, Naval Tata (Ratan Tata's father) decided to stand for elections as an Independent candidate from the South Bombay constituency. It is believed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was displeased with the Tatas's attempt at contesting elections against the Congress candidate. Furious and unforgiving, she is supposed to have told JRD, 'So the Tata Group wants to set up a front against me?' This was history repeating itself. Nearly fifteen years earlier, Nehru had reacted in similar fashion. The context was different. JRD was increasingly disillusioned by the Nehruvian approach to socialism, centralised planning and nationalisation of key industries. To add to that, during the 1957 general elections, the Communist Party of India emerged as the second largest party in the Lok Sabha. JRD believed the country needed a credible Opposition, and the leftist parties would further damage the prospect of free enterprise flourishing in India. IMAGE: The first batch of vehicles bearing the 'T' rolling out of the Tata Engineering and Locomotive (now Tata Motors) plant at Jamshedpur. Photograph: Tata Central Archives Around 1959, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, former governor general of India, started a new party in reaction to the Nehru-led Congress's anti-industry and socialistic approach to governance. He requested JRD's support to the fledgling Swatantra Party. Naval Tata asked JRD to exercise caution. He was concerned that public support to Rajaji would earn Nehru's displeasure. JRD took two full months before sending a positive reply. However, the transparent leader that he was, he communicated this decision to Nehru when he met him the next time. On hearing about the Tatas's support to Swatantra Party, Nehru blew up, 'You have no business to do that.' In order to pacify him and clarify his stance, JRD wrote a detailed letter to the prime minister dated 16 August 1961: ...We have been perturbed by the total absence of any responsible and organised democratic opposition which we feel is an equally indispensable element of any permanent democratic organisation of society... It is indispensable in the national interest that an effort should be made to displace the Communist Party as the second largest in the Parliament... We have therefore come to the conclusion that in addition to continued support to the election funds of the Congress, we should also contribute, although on a lower scale, to the funds of the Swatantra Party... In a letter dated 18 August Nehru responded, '...You are, of course, completely free to help in any way you like the Swatantra Party. But I don't think that your hope that they will emerge as a strong Opposition is justified...' 'When I joined business, there was no black money. There was no corruption, for whom were you to corrupt? When you did not have a system of government control where you had to get a permit for everything.' 'In the early days, taxes were also very low. Black money will always be there as long as taxes and controls are high,' JRD affirmed this in the late 1980s based on his half a century of experience under different systems of government. It was the same during the years when Tata Steel and Tata Power were being established. Dorabji Tata did face political problems with the Raj, but not corrupt officers. The British officers he dealt with were men of their word. The only gift they accepted was a Christmas hamper of tinned ham and wine. Despite differences on political and economic grounds, JRD remained appreciative of the finer qualities of both Nehru and Indira. Whenever called upon to advise or assist the government on matters of public interest and policy, the Tata leadership made their services available, much beyond the call of duty. Between 1947 and 1984, the most difficult days for Indian businesses, the Tatas retained the number one position despite an unsympathetic relationship between business and bureaucracy. Operating in core industries that were governed by strict price controls and severe caps on expansion, their achievement was laudable. Throughout this period, JRD believed in keeping business and politics apart. He felt it was wrong for businessmen to run newspapers, or undertake any activity of a political or quasi-political character. In 1979, when JRD was asked why the Tata Group had not grown as fast as some other groups during the Licence Raj years, he said, 'If we had adopted the means some others have, we would have grown twice as big as we are today, but we didn't.' Then he forcefully added, 'And I would not want it any other way.' IMAGE: J R D Tata with Ratan Tata. Photograph: Kind courtesy Gopal Shetty Nearly forty years later, Ratan Tata reaffirmed the Tata approach. In a September 2017 interview he said, 'I would be lying if I said there weren't moments when issues came up and decisions had to be made (on taking shortcuts with the government). 'Happily, every time, boards and leadership stood together saying -- that's not what we (the Tatas) do.' 'Over the years, we have suffered because of that.' 'I believe it is very important to come back at night and say I have not succumbed (to pressure).' Excerpted from The Tata Group: From Torchbearers To Trailblazers by Shashank Shah, with the kind permission of the publishers, Penguin Random House India. Last updated on: January 07, 2019 22:54 IST 2019, however, will be a bigger test as the firm continues to deal with rising attrition and margin pressure. IMAGE: Taking over when the board of directors and the companys founders were at loggerheads, Parekh has led the Bengaluru-headquartered firm to a zone of safety. Photograph: PTI Photo Salil Parekh is set to complete a year as managing director and chief executive (MD & CEO) at Infosys, the information technology major. A period in which he was able to bring stability at the top, giving clear direction and assuaging many concerns of shareholders on growth at the countrys second-largest entity in the segment. Taking over when the board of directors and the companys founders were at loggerheads, Parekh has led the Bengaluru-headquartered firm to a zone of safety, while realigning the focus to its roots as a services company. Nevertheless, his term has also seen some exits at the top level. The resignation of then chief financial officer M D Ranganath was the most prominent. Also, reduction in the operating margin target and a high staff attrition rate have raised concern among investors. Parekh also seems to have been able to win the trust of the founders to a large extent, the tenure having been free of friction so far, unlike his predecessor. Salil (Parekh) has performed admirably, considering the mess he took over. He has stabilised the board and his leadership team. He has reassured investors, customers and employees, said Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder and CEO of global research entity Everest Group. Although Infosys had a few high-profile departures, these had been expected. I think, Infosys is starting to get some of its swagger back. In the first half of this financial year, revenue growth was 6.9 per cent in dollar terms (over a year before), at $5.75 billion with a forecast of six to eight per cent overall earnings growth for the whole year. The operating margin was 23.7 per cent by the end of the September quarter, within the company's earlier forecast of 22-24 per cent. Infosys also bagged a $700-million contract from Verizon, as part of which it is in the process of rebadging around 2,500 employees of the US telecom major. Analysts think the willingness to go for such deals also reflects more flexibility under the new regime; traditionally, it had kept away from this route. Parekhs stint was also marked by an emphasis on ensuring Infosys remains a services-driven. His predecessor, Vishal Sikka, was seen veering the course for a product play. Parekh aggressively pursued a digital-heavy strategy, making smaller acquisitions while also linking the compensation of top executives to digital revenue flow. Appointment of consultants McKinsey to advise on sharpening of sales strategy and embedding of digital specialists at large client accounts were part of this. Acquisition of WONGDOODY and Fluido are a good start and setting up of digital hubs are impressive. His steps towards revising employee compensation upward and linking it to digital technology skills is a great move for organic development, says Phil Fersht, founder & CEO at HfS Research. Infosyss partnerships in Singapore with Temasek and in Japan with Hitachi, Panasonic Corporation and Pasona would add to solid Asia-Pacific presence, Fersht added. Parekh also preferred to continue with the companys localisation effort, especially in America. Parekh seems to have been able to win back shareholders. The share price went from Rs 506 on January 5 to Rs 656.95 this Friday, a 30 per cent rise (albeit supplemented by the rupees fall). Under his watch, Infosys also made a 1:1 bonus issue for shareholders. Some add that Infosys still has a long way to go in coming closer to the performance of larger peer Tata Consultancy Services. TCS recorded double-digit revenue growth in the first two quarters of 2018-19. It also clinched a number of large deals over the year. Rising staff attrition also continues to be a major issue before Parekh, with the figure well above 20 per cent in the past two quarters. Though Infosys has definitely done well under the new CEO, it is yet to be seen whether itcan challenge the industry leader. "In that, this year will be the real test for Parekhs leadership, says a Mumbai-based analyst. January 07, 2019 19:44 IST Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is slated to meet senior executives of Apple on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month. After a year-long lull, iPhone maker Apple is again warming up to India as a manufacturing and retail hub, it is learnt. The two sides are back on the negotiating table, following Apples China setback, multiple sources in the government and the industry indicated. In fact, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is slated to meet senior executives of Apple on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month. Sources confirmed the meeting was requested by Apple. Stakeholders and consultants working with Apple have also been brainstorming on the tech giants way forward in the India market as trade tensions between the US and China have escalated. The Cupertino-based firm lost nearly $474 billion of market capitalisation over the past three months as its stock continues to fall and its China plans turn increasingly hazy. Recently, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook had surprised investors by slashing revenue expectations by up to $9 billion due to poor sales in China during the quarter ended December 29. Sometime early last year, talks between India and Apple had broken down. The two sides remained aloof after Apple, while proposing to manufacture in India, had insisted on a series of sops, including a 10-year tax holiday and duty-free imports of components, among others. In the fresh round of talks, there could be a possibility of reaching middle ground. While officials at the DIPP said the Centre was not in a position to offer company-specific sops, they hinted that an arrangement could be made if iPhones were indeed manufactured and not just assembled here. An offer to make India its new export hub would better its chances, the officials added. The company, too, may soon drastically change its approach to its fast-growing market - India - sources said. It currently controls only 1 per cent of the market in India, where import duties on high-end mobile phones were raised to 20 per cent recently. Apple did not comment. But a senior source in the company said its continuing demand for tax sops was for the hundreds of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) it sources the products from. Tangled fine print Even as 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) has been allowed in single-brand retail, compulsory domestic sourcing norms have been an irritant. As soon as the FDI limit breaches the 49 per cent level, companies need to source at least 30 per cent of the goods value locally to be able to open and operate fully-owned stores in the country. Apple has maintained the sourcing norms are unfeasible to comply with as India hardly has any high-precision OEMs. Subsequently, the government had proposed relaxed sourcing norms for cutting-edge and state-of-the-art technology companies. While the government is yet to define cutting-edge and state-of-the-art companies some 18 months after the matter was discussed, sources within Apple argue that the sourcing relaxation was only for the first three years of operations. This did not make sense for them then because the company figured it would take more time to establish in India, a difficult market for premium category phones. "Nor does it make any sense now as the company cannot force its suppliers to relocate to India, which may be used as an export hub for its products, a senior industry lobbyist with the US-India Business Council, said. Grouses remain The erstwhile Foreign Investment Promotion Board had discussed Apple even in its last meeting. We decided the 30 per cent (local sourcing) norm cannot be relaxed, a senior government official who was present during the meeting said. Apples subsequent disinterest in India was seen as a snub to the government. Some stakeholders, including the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, are against engaging with Apple yet again, sources said. The ministry has suggested that the government can instead focus on major OEMs such as Foxconn, which currently makes mobile phones for Xiaomi from its manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. Apple currently assembles the lower-cost SE and 6S models in India through another OEM Wistron Corps local unit in Bengaluru. According to the data from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research, mobile manufacturing units have risen from two in 2014 to 123 by the end of 2017. Despite most of these continuing to be assembly lines for products manufactured elsewhere, some like South Koreas Samsung have opened factories with significant value addition in India. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters January 07, 2019 13:51 IST Huawei willing to place its software code with government. Surajeet Das Gupta reports. Photograph: Reuters In a bid to allay fears that Indian national security could be at risk, Huawei India has said it is willing to place its software code (source code) in an escrow with the government. "In 2010, we were the only equipment company which offered to place the software code of the equipment in an escrow to the Indian government, when similar questions on security were raised. We are willing to do the same again for 5G so that there are no apprehensions," says CEO Jay Chen. Telecom experts say control over the software codes helps a government to check at any time whether there have been any security breaches in the network or whether any spyware has been installed or embedded. Chen's reference to 2010 was to the time when the Chinese telecom giant was not allowed to participate in telecom projects that had been opened up for bidding by BSNL in sensitive areas where India has international borders. This restriction, however, was removed after a few months. In recent weeks, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have banned Huawei products from rolling out on future 5G networks for fear of spying or theft. These security concerns prompted the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council, which represents domestic Indian manufacturers, to express similar reservations. The Council has written to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, asking him to restrict equipment made not only by Huawei but other Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers too such as ZTE. However, the Cellular Operators Association of India defended Huawei and urged the government not to make any hasty decision. Chen said the company was ready to comply with any other conditions that the government might wish to put in place for rolling out 5G, just as it had in other countries. As an example, he said that in the UK -- a key market for the company -- Huawei had set up a cyber security centre where government experts could test telecom gear. However, a UK government report on Huawei in July said it had 'only limited assurance' that the equipment posed no threat to national security. January 07, 2019 16:14 IST The losses in state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh have put the ruling party under pressure to announce swift measures aimed at addressing rural distress and lack of employment. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com The 2019-20 interim Budget, which will be Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys last before the 2019 general elections, will serve as a vision document for the Narendra Modi governments economic policy approach as it looks to secure a second term in power. It will also continue the theme of fiscal consolidation, which has been seen in all of this administrations Budgets. Business Standard has learnt, however, that Jaitley may not pitch hard on or strongly commit to any medium-term fiscal forecast, as in the near future hangs the spectre of the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission (FFC), which is expected to submit its report to the government in October 2019. The FFCs recommendations kick in from fiscal 2020-21, the most crucial of which will be how much of the Centres tax kitty will devolve to the states and how much grants-in-aid of the revenues of the states should be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of India. The Budget is expected to be presented on February 1. According to the existing medium-term fiscal road map, the government should be targeting a fiscal deficit of 3.1 per cent of gross domestic product in 2019-20 and 3 per cent in 2020-21. Top government officials said that in his speech Jaitley was likely to touch upon the issue of FFC recommendations. The Centre, irrespective of the party in power, will have a better idea of where it stands in terms of a fiscal consolidation road map when the full Budget is presented in July post-elections, as the government is likely to get a sense of the FFCs thinking on what it may recommend. The February interim Budget, that way, is a proverbial blind spot in terms of a future fiscal road map, said a senior official. The prime minister and the finance minister are big supporters of fiscal discipline. Apart from 2017-18, when there was uncertainty regarding revenue targets due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation, the target has been met every year and will be met this fiscal year as well, said another official. Does one need to go back to the days of pre-election populist announcements of the previous governments, or does one maintain fiscal credibility? "While the government had been criticised for some of its economic policies like demonetisation, it has rightly been commended for presenting credible Budget numbers, the second official added. However, the need to be fiscally conservative will also need to be balanced by electoral realities, officials admit. The losses in state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh have put the ruling party under pressure to announce swift measures aimed at addressing rural distress and lack of employment. As reported earlier, the Centre is considering a number of measures to deal with agriculture distress, including nationwide price or income support schemes. Hectic discussions are being held at the topmost levels of the government and an announcement could be made in the Budget or even before it. On account of this, the central exchequer could take a hit of Rs 60,000-70,000 crore a year and the finance ministry is looking at options to share the burden with states. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising Congress state governments farm loan waivers is seen as an indication that the Budget may steer clear of any national farm loan waiver. As is the norm with interim Budgets, Jaitley will definitely present a report card of what the Modi government has announced and implemented in its current term. But it will also be a forward-looking document, officials say. The government will lay out its vision for not just the rural and agriculture sector, but also employment creation, the small and medium enterprises (hit most by demonetisation and GST), infrastructure, health, education, and other themes. The month of January is crucial for the Budget-making process in that sense. With a month left, the most crucial inputs, those from the Prime Ministers Office, will be received. The broad themes, the governments vision, as well as the fiscal numbers, are being finalised, officials added. In an interview with Business Standard earlier this month, Jaitley had indicated that he will not break convention and may not present a Budget with detailed tax proposals. I will go by past precedence, that in an election year, there are certain things you can present, and certain things you cannot, Jaitley had said. January 07, 2019 11:05 IST 'Nothing in this world is permanent. So also in business.' 'And more so in family businesses where family issues often influence business decisions,' point out S Subramanian and Nupur Pavan Bang. IMAGE: Malvinder Singh, former chairman and CEO, Ranbaxy Laboratories. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters Looks like promoters of a few family businesses refuse to learn from the past or fail to put mechanisms in place to prevent a recurrence of feuds in the family. Until the early 1990s, feuds in family businesses could not destruct the family wealth entirely as the businesses had the coveted licences in a controlled economy and the cover of limited competition. In a liberalised economy, feuds between the promoter family members not only spoil the reputation of the family and the company, but also destroy shareholder value. Look no further than two recent cases for proof. On September 4, 2018, Shivinder Singh, co-founder of Fortis Healthcare, filed a case against his elder brother Malvinder Singh in the National Company Law Tribunal for oppression and mismanagement at group companies RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis Healthcare. Though Shivinder later withdrew his petition, his move confirmed all was not well between the two brothers. Malvinder and Shivinder inherited Ranbaxy Labs from their father Parvinder. Parvinder was the eldest son of Bhai Mohan Singh, founder of Ranbaxy. Bhai Mohan Singh split his business empire among his sons Parvinder, Manjit and Analjit in the late 1980s. The split was considered in favour of his elder son who got the crown jewel, Ranbaxy Labs. In the early 1990s, Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder got into a battle for the control of Ranbaxy, as an outcome of which Bhai Mohan Singh was ousted from the board. Again, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, after Parvinder's death, Bhai Mohan Singh and Manjit fought with Parvinder's sons Malvinder and Shivinder regarding the shareholding of Ranbaxy. Governance issues came to the fore each time. IMAGE: Gautam Singhania, Chairman and managing director, Raymond Group. Photograph: Photograph: Kind courtesy, Raymond/Facebook Now consider the Raymond Group. In August 2017, group founder and patriarch Vijaypat Singhania had an ugly legal fight with his son and managing director of group flagship Raymond Ltd, Gautam Hari Singhania. In the late 1990s, Vijaypat's elder son Madhupati spilt from the family business after a bitter feud with his father. In a family settlement, Madhupati relinquished his rights, as well as those of his children, to the family businesses. After his exit, Gautam, the younger son, got control of Raymond. In 2013-2014, Vijaypat's brother Ajaypat's children were controversially removed from the list of promoters. In 2015, when Vijaypat transferred his shareholding in Raymond to Gautam, the children of Madhupati filed a case against their grandfather for depriving them of their share in the ancestral wealth. Various cases amongst different factions of the Singhania family are ongoing and unresolved even today. Invariably, these groups have serious governance issues. Recently, Malvinder and Shivinder were forced to give up control of Fortis. The sale of Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo had ethical issues as the buyer alleged that the Singh brothers hid irregularities probed by the US FDA while selling the company. Similarly, corporate governance issues in Raymond were highlighted when a minority shareholder alleged in March 2017 that the promoters of Raymond Group have been using company cash for personal benefits. In its AGM in June 2017, a resolution to sell its premium real estate at throwaway prices to promoters of Raymond and their extended family was presented to the board. It was defeated by shareholders. Regulators and external stakeholders keep a check on corporate governance. But an equally significant aspect is family governance. Family governance needs to be put in place by the family alone, voluntarily, and needs to be followed in spirit as there is no law that dictates that it needs to be put in place or that it needs to be followed. To ensure that relations don't sour, start the governance process early on. It is easier to get the buy in from family members when the going is good. While damage control is often done when an issue gets out of hand, the softer issues of family governance are not taken up on a priority basis when more pressing business matters keep the family patriarch busy. Conglomerates like the Murugappa Group and the GMR Group have put in place detailed family constitutions to guide members in times of doubt, conflicts and crisis. While the Murugappa Group is in its fifth generation, the GMR Group is controlled and managed by the first and the second generation family members. On a philosophical note, nothing in this world is permanent. So also in business. And more so in family businesses where family issues often influence business decisions. In such an environment, clarity and explicit guidance will go a long way in building lasting institutions and family legacies. S Subramanian is chairperson, accreditation and ranking, and associate professor, IIM Kozhikode; Bang is associate director, Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, ISB. Porterville, CA (93257) Today Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High near 95F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low 63F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-334-2557 or email legals@bulletinjournal.com. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Property details: You are bidding on the full purchase price of the property, not a down payment. Description:Take a look at this awesome 1.29 ACRE MULTI-USE (RESIDENTIAL, AGRICULTURE, RANCH)PROPERTY located in Lancaster, Los Angeles County and ASSESSED AT MORE THAN $9,700!! This property is perfect for Greenhouses, single family residences, the raising of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, crops, etc.! 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The land is located in the kv estates with a gorgeous trout stocked lake and ice fishing for HOA Members ($150 Annually) as well as a Clubhouse to rent for Family Gatherings and Events. 10 Min to Saguache (School, Gas, Market, Post Office.) 10 Min to Moffat (School, Post Office) 35 Min to Salida (Walmart, School, Shopping, Food, Gas.) 45 Min to Alamosa (Walmart, School, Shopping, Food, Gas.) 80 Min to Gunnison (Walmart, School, Shopping, Food,... Price: $ 16,200 State/Province: Colorado Seller State of Residence: Colorado Type: Homesite, Lot City: Moffat Zip/Postal Code: 81143 Zoning: Residential Location: 811**, Moffat, Colorado You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Residential Donald Trumps unilateral decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria is likely to help ISIS adopt a new strategy and expand its territorial control while at the same time continuing its execution of unarmed civilians. The move also means Trump has stabbed in the back his most successful military partner, the Kurds. Nonetheless, all is not lost for the Kurds they have already emerged as prominent actors who are capable of developing serious diplomatic and political ties. A decade ago, the AKP government in Turkey launched a set of reforms called the Kurdish Opening and started official conversations with the leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. This was not the first time that the Turkish state was in contact with the PKK, but it was the first period for launching a multi-layered process which made the negotiations legitimate. Yet Turkeys 40-year internal conflict did not end and, in the summer of 2015, the dialogue between both sides gave way to aggravated state repression. Less than two years after the collapse of the Turkish-Kurdish negotiations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights announced that half a million Kurdish people left their homes due to the ongoing military operations by the Turkish army from July 2015 to December 2016. Turkish troops entered the peripheral, politicized neighbourhoods of Kurdish cities after the PKK declared democratic autonomy, and kept those districts under curfew, sometimes for up to 90 days. These developments beg the question: Why did the dialogue between the Turkish state and the PKK, aimed at mitigating ethnic conflict and bringing about peace, fail in Turkey? Heres why. Maintaining a control regime Even though the Turkish-Kurdish negotiations were highly publicized, the Turkish states reliance on violence has been underestimated. Nation-states are expected to maintain control over certain territories that are under their jurisdiction. But what happens when a specific state enforces territorial control and violence over minority-populated areas in its attempts at democratization and dialogue during a negotiated peace process? And how does the existing territorial agenda of the Turkish state affect its desire to resolve the protracted conflict with Kurds? There is substantial research offering rich insights into territory, state and authority in parts of the world ranging from Israel and Palestine to Ireland, the Balkans, Asia and Africa. But the relevance of the territorial aspects of conflicts has been largely neglected when its come to examining the Kurdish-populated borderlands of Turkey. The research I conducted in Turkeys Kurdish borderlands between 2013 and 2014 shows the territorial agenda of the Turkish state can be best seen when conducting ethnographic field work in those regions. Kurdish borderlands are war-torn areas with their own dynamics. Opposing sides are more likely to confront and interact with each other here. Author provided In these volatile conditions, people became more willing to share their stories once I got to know them better. My interviews revealed that the policies introduced by the Turkish state to bring about peace failed because the state pursued what I call a dual strategy during the same process of democratic reforms. That is, the states territorial agenda coexisted with its emphasis on negotiating the Kurdish-Turkish conflict through democratic channels. How Kurds regarded reforms Drawing on the 12 months of field work, my studys focus on territorial control involved two aggregate factors, each of which also have various components. At the state level, I examined democratic reforms and showed the mechanisms of territorial control. At the Kurdish level, I looked at the responses of Kurdish political actors and Kurdish people to understand how the Kurds regarded the reform process. I presented the stories of Kurds from the 1990s and 2000s to show their experiences living under territorial control on the borderlands. Both of these aggregate factors are the two main components of the typology of territorial control. At the macro level, the state enacts policies and Kurdish political actors respond. At the micro level, the state employs various mechanisms, including securitization, expulsion, demographic and administrative control, nationalizing the landscape and control of movement across borders. Meanwhile, Kurds speak of these processes displacement and loss of property; militarization; disruption of minority culture; disenfranchisement; and denial and loss of minority cultural heritage from their own perspective. By focusing on territorial control, my research explains the limitations of democratic reforms that only focus on cultural rights but exclude territorial rights. The processes of ethnic control continued to operate in certain Kurdish-populated sites, such as Hakkari, Sirnak, Van, more than others during the Turkish-Kurdish peace process. These control tactics negated the impact of the so-called Kurdish Opening. Why did the Turkish state continue to maintain territorial control in certain areas more than others? Because these are border zones in rough terrains that are more likely to foster insurgency. More control over certain border zones Border zones do not only cover the lines between Turkey, Iraq and Iran, which were not even properly fenced, but also some villages and towns in the hinterland/interior territories, which I also call the zone of conflict. Control mechanisms used by the Turkish state seemed to be on hold in certain destinations, while they were strikingly visible in some other locations during my 12 months in the region. In these interior territories, displacement and loss of property became the primary tool of control while militarization and demographic control was more pervasive in towns right on the borders. The Turkish state does not manage every border in the same way. Despite the common narratives of loss and displacement, there were some strategic locations where the state preferred to have civilians around rather than keeping the area vacated. One of the villagers who also served as a village guard for more than a decade told me how they were compelled to stay in the village and became shields between the soldiers and guerrillas. The majority of people, regardless of their political ideology, agree that everyone from these areas lost a property at least once. On top of that, most of them also complained about the lack of sufficient and fair compensation. Author provided. Another common narrative, independent of political ideology, was that those who received some amount of compensation complained about the corrupt system because, according to these participants, the legal system created certain beneficiary groups who have been taking advantage of the Kurdish villagers fragile conditions. Ideology important Unsurprisingly, party affiliation and political ideology still matter. Those who were openly associated with the Peoples Democracy Party (HDP), a pro-minority party that has MPs in the Turkish parliament, were more critical about the processes of control and violence as well as their durability, partly because the HDP voters have witnessed and experienced the deep, dark side of these control practices but also because every aspect of their lives was politicized. In accordance with their political stance, the majority of the participants from the Kurdish-populated borderlands were sceptical but also optimistic about the peace process, because, for them, the process could be manipulated but the idea must have been appreciated because it was proposed by the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Surprisingly, most of these people also had to serve as village guards, paramilitary groups armed and paid by the state in their war against the PKK. The stories of village guards show the complexities and contradictions of this protracted conflict. The village guard system has become a primary component of the co-optation and dependency measures taken by the state to neutralize independent actors and maintain territorial control in these highly militarized areas adjacent to Iraq and Iran. Democratization is a long path requiring courage, fairness and commitment. At the heart of democratization lies the elusive Turkish-Kurdish negotiations. Understanding the Turkish-Kurdish negotiations and its limitations requires understanding the mechanisms and experiences of territorial control. Omitting territorial rights from the bundle of policies designed for minority accommodation in such divided settings means that a Turkish-Kurdish peace accord is a long way off. Dilan Okcuoglu, PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow in Political Studies, Queen's University, Ontario This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The friendly relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Brazils new president, Jair Bolsonaro, made headlines at the end of 2018. This budding brotherhood, as theyve called it, started when Bolsonaro, then the president-elect, announced plans to move Brazils embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Though he has since revised that promise, relations between the two countries continue to flourish. Netanyahu even attended Bolsonaros inauguration Jan. 1, becoming the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil. More than a bromance, the close ties between the two leaders are a testament to their countries foreign policy strategies. Back to Normal Alignment with Israel, while often framed as a new development, is a return to form for Brazil. In the late 1940s, Brazil supported the creation of an Israeli state and was among the first countries to recognize the Israeli government. Ties between the two grew closer during Brazils military dictatorship, from 1964 to 1985, as they cooperated in areas such as security and nuclear energy. The relationship continued through the 1990s; in fact, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso received several awards from Israel, including an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while in office. It was only when Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took power in Brasilia in 2003 that Brazil-Israel relations became strained. Diverging from Cardosos neoliberal economic policies, da Silva espoused more direct government control of the economy and ushered in a populist era of government in Brazil. Changes in foreign policy accompanied the economic shifts: Brasilia turned against the United States and, by extension, against Israel. Brazil formally recognized the Palestinian state, according to the 1967 border, in 2010. Even then, its relationship with Israel persisted. In 2010, Brazil also ratified the free trade agreement that the Common Market of the South, a regional trade bloc better known as Mercosur, had struck with Israel three years earlier. And despite its decision to recognize Palestine, Brazil never upgraded its diplomatic mission there to embassy status. The moves didnt exactly please Israel, but neither did they derail its relations with Brazil. Bolsonaro wants to reverse course from the populist policies of Brazils recent history. To that end, hes pledged to roll back government interference in the economy and to reach out once more to the developed countries da Silva eschewed in a bid to promote industrialization and growth among fellow developing economies. And Bolsonaros market reforms, like those of his predecessors, will come with foreign policy changes. Where da Silva looked to other countries in the Southern Hemisphere namely states in South America and Africa, as well as China for support and cooperation, the new Brazilian president is turning back toward wealthier northern states like the U.S., countries in Northern Europe and, of course, Israel. (click to enlarge) Areas of Mutual Interest For Israel, meanwhile, Bolsonaros interest is well-timed. Israel, a relatively small country, depends on trade and collaboration with other states to keep its economy humming. Surrounded as it is by rivals, however, it must look beyond the Middle East to find suitable partners. Latin America is a natural choice. The regions many developing markets and trade potential make it an attractive destination for Israel, which, according to the latest World Bank figures, derives 30 percent of gross domestic product from exports. South America remains a largely untapped market for Israel, and it boasts a wealth of natural resources and numerous opportunities for investment, technology development and military modernization. Over the past couple years, Netanyahu has paid official visits to Colombia, Argentina and Chile, along with several countries in Central America. But Brazil is a standout in the region. Not only does it have a $1.93 trillion economy the worlds ninth-largest, by the World Banks most recent data but it also has recently pulled itself out of recession. Now that Bolsonaro has taken office, promises of deregulation and more open markets have made Brazil even more enticing. The focus on economic ties in Latin America is something of a departure for Israel. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Israel built its relationships with regional states, including Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Argentina and Colombia, on military backing and support for various armed groups. Its ties with Brazil and nearby countries today are broader in scope by comparison. Nevertheless, military equipment still has a role to play in the partnerships. In Brazils case, technology transfer and development are the priority. Brazil began talks with Israel in March 2018 to acquire and exchange scientific and defense technologies, an arrangement that would at once satisfy Israels desire to export military goods and services, its area of expertise, and Brazils need to acquire more advanced technology. The two also have reached nascent agreements over defense technology, such as missiles, radar and high-tech surveillance cameras, that could help modernize Brazils military and law enforcement. (Some recent Brazilian governments have shied away from making these kinds of deals, but Bolsonaro, a champion of the military and security forces, will welcome them.) Space exploration and satellites are other points of mutual interest. Brazil can benefit from Israels know-how on the subject, while Israel takes advantage of Brazils strategic launch sites near the equator. Along with defense, water scarcity is an issue where Israels knowledge and experience will come in handy for Brazil. Israel is a global leader in irrigation technology, including drip watering, desalination and extracting moisture from the air. Innovation in the field has enabled it to overcome arid and desert conditions to sustain agriculture, and that ingenuity could be invaluable for Brazil. The South American countrys semi-arid Northeast region is currently in the throes of a yearslong drought that has hurt local economies and populations that rely on rainfall for their agricultural activities. The Brazilian government historically has taken an ad hoc approach to addressing these problems, for example by trucking in large volumes of water to alleviate droughts. Working with Israel, Brazil could devise a longer-term strategy to mitigate the effects of uneven rainfall and lay the necessary groundwork to keep developing the Northeast. The Brazilian Senate unveiled plans for such an initiative early last year, and the topic will be a priority when Bolsonaro visits Israel, as he is expected to do in the first quarter of this year. (click to enlarge) A Pragmatic Partnership For all that renewed cooperation has to offer Brazil and Israel in the economic and tactical spheres, from a political standpoint, the gains are modest. Aligning with Israel will help Brazil ingratiate itself with the United States, while giving Israel more diplomatic support an asset for a country surrounded by enemies and frequently subject to scrutiny, if not censure, on the international stage. Other than that, though, neither side has much political capital to offer the other. Its shift toward Israel, in fact, has prompted speculation that Brazil would lose allies in the Arab world. But as Netanyahu works to normalize relations with Arab countries in response to Irans growing influence in the Middle East, the risks of a diplomatic backlash will diminish for Brazil. The growing partnership between Israel and Brazil is a pragmatic one, based on complementary needs and priorities. These needs whether economic, military or environmental are driving the two countries together, Brazil in its quest to develop its economy and assume greater influence in global affairs, and Israel in its effort to find new overseas markets to boost its economy. Before the United States officially entered World War II, many young Americans volunteered to serve in foreign air arms. Whether flying for Britain in the Eagle Squadrons or in the American Volunteer Group supporting Chiang Kai-shek in China, those who served as fighter pilots were the spearhead of American intervention, and they quickly became folk heroes. One of the most colorful and controversial members of that unique fraternity was Gregory Boyington. Boyington discovered a new world in combat aviation after several years as an instructor pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. The combat experience he accumulated over China and Burma was nearly wasted by a bureaucracy that failed to comprehend the necessities of the new war-and was often willing to shelve talented individuals whose skills were sorely needed at the front. Boyington's methods of circumventing rules and regulations as well as his often outrageous personal conduct often proved that he was, as he admitted in retrospect, his own worst enemy. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed Friday that Jamel al-Badawi, an al Qaeda veteran who has long been wanted for his role in the Oct. 12, 2000 USS Cole bombing, was targeted in a recent airstrike. The precision strike was carried out on Jan. 1 in the Marib governorate of Yemen. CNN first reported earlier today that Badawi was killed in the missile strike. CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban says it is aware of reports saying the legacy al Qaeda operative had been killed, but added that U.S. forces are still assessing the results of the strike following a deliberate process to confirm his death. Badawis role in the Cole bombing one of al Qaedas most successful operations prior to the 9/11 hijackings is discussed in the 9/11 Commissions final report. Badawi and another al Qaeda man, Fahd Quso, are described as [l]ocal al Qaeda coordinators for the attack. Badawi was originally tasked with filming the bombing, but passed that task off to Quso, as Badawi had to travel. However, Quso fell asleep and failed to record it. The Yemeni government provided uneven assistance in the aftermath of the bombing, and ultimately failed to keep them in custody. Both Badawi and Quso were found and arrested by the Yemenis [w]ithin the first weeks after the attack, the 9/11 Commission noted. But the Yemeni government did not let the FBI team participate in the interrogations. The CIA deemed Yemeni assistance to be slow and inadequate. The American team had difficulty assessing the information received from the Yemenis because it was all secondhand. The 9/11 Commission reported that the Yemenis provided the U.S. government with new information from the interrogations of Badawi and Quso on Nov. 11, 2000. This information included descriptions of individuals from whom the detainees had received operational direction, including an al Qaeda operative known as Khallad. The detainees reportedly told their interrogators that Khallad had helped direct the Cole operation from Afghanistan or Pakistan. Khallad, also known as Walid (or Tawfiq) bin Attach, is currently detained at Guantanamo. The Yemenis held Badawi, but he escaped from prison in Apr. 2003. According to the FBI, he was recaptured in Mar. 2004, only to escape once again in Feb. 2006. The 2006 jailbreak proved to be a significant event in the evolution of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as some of the escapees helped to relaunch the group three years later. AQAP quickly began to threaten the U.S. in 2009, but most of its early terror plots were either thwarted or failed on their own. Badawi reportedly surrendered to the Yemeni government in 2007, but was then granted a conditional pardon and was supposed to lived under house arrest. That proved to be a permissive arrangement. Badawi also allegedly worked with Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a key figure in the USS Cole bombing who is detained at Guantanamo. A leaked threat assessment prepared by Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) indicates that Nashiri met with Badawi per Osama bin Ladens instructions in Nov. 1999. Two months later, in early Jan. 2000, al Qaeda attempted to bomb the USS The Sullivans. CENTCOM notes that Badawi has been wanted for his role in that failed plot as well. Although al Qaeda failed in early 2000, the group stuck with the idea of attacking an American warship. Ten months later, the jihadists were successful in killing 17 Americans on board the USS Cole. Badawi has been wanted by the U.S. for more than 18 years. If he was killed earlier this month in an airstrike, then America finally caught up with him once and for all. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Video streaming service Starz Play is planning to add up to 50 new shows in 2019 to consolidate its leading market position in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The new series will be unique to the Starz Play over-the-top (OTT) platform and will air on the same day and time as they debut in the US. Hit movies and popular Arabic series will also be a focus during the coming year, the company said.There is a strong global shift towards OTT subscription services such as Starz Play and this region is no different. Independent reports show that Starz Play is the number one OTT provider in the MENA region, with a 26% share of the overall regional market including Egypt and the Maghreb region of Arab and French-speaking North Africa, said Maaz Sheikh, co-founder and CEO.By 2022, our data and predictions suggest Starz Play will further increase its regional market share to around six million paying subscribers positioning the brand as the stand-out leader in the O TT streaming segment, he added.In September 2018 the platform added the entire catalogue of The Big Bang Theory, including the hit comedys final season. It also premiered season 5B of action-drama series Vikings in November. The first episode of Vikings season 5B premiered in Dubai, 24 hours before airing in the US. It also extended its contract with Disney to provide viewers with Episodes I-VII of the Star Wars movie franchise.Arabic speakers comprise 80% of Starz Plays 700,000 users. Of those in the UAE, 50% of subscribers are Emirati. In Egypt and the Mahgreb, 100% of subscribers are Arabs, while 85% of the platforms Saudi audience are nationals. The company also expanded into Pakistan in 2018.We have the most on-demand shows offered in the region and provide content we know our subscribers want. The joy of digital is that we can see within half an hour of releasing a new show how popular it is. We listen to our customer needs and our audience want on-demand shows, said Sheikh. UK: Leasing company Porterbrook is to supply Rail Operations Group with two Flex electro-diesel multiple-units equipped to carry postal and other just-in-time light freight traffic. Delivery is planned for early 2020. Welcome to Railway Gazette. This site uses cookies. Read our policy. OK USA: The opening of the 43 km TEX Rail commuter line in Texas was postponed the evening before the planned January 5 launch date, with transport authority Trinity Metro saying it had been unable to get clearance from the Federal Railroad Administration to operate the entire route. People getting stuck on walking tracks near popular beaches are stretching the job of surf lifesavers. In the northern region alone, 50 people were rescued by surf lifesavers in the period from the December 31st to January 6th. Northern Region Surf Lifesaving CEO Matt Williams said people aren't using their common sense when heading out to the beach. He said beaches on the west coast of Auckland were particular hotspots - 27 rescues were needed in the region on Saturday alone. But it's not just the water that's proving difficult for some beachgoers to navigate. "You look at Karekare and Piha beach - people get stuck on the walking tracks there," Mr Williams told RadioLIVE's Mike Puru. He also said some searches have led lifeguards to people who've gone wandering in carparks, or off to the toilets. "Where our area of work is growing is not just between the flags, it could be a mum or a friend comes up and says 'look, we've lost somebody' and they could be on a walking track, they could be in the car park." Mr Williams also highlighted the need for greater funding in the mostly volunteer-based service. "We're a thinly resourced organisation, we're largely resourced by volunteers, funding is always a struggle." He said the Labour Government had been working with Surf Lifesaving to come to an agreement. National MP Chris Penk launched a petition in late December calling on the Government to make Lifesaving a funded emergency service. Mr Williams also reminded people to swim between the flags. "If you're on an un-patrolled beach and you see someone in trouble, dial 111 and ask for police." This article originally appeared on Newshub. Rise and other new high-rise apartment buildings are popping up all over West Lafayette with intent to attract Purdue students. The president and publisher of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) Marc Lewis will retire on June 30 after almost 20 years with the company and over four decades in the religion publishing industry. Lewis career began at the United Methodist Publishing House before joining PPC in 1999 as senior v-p and general manager. He was named acting publisher in 2007 and was elected publisher a year later. During his tenure, Lewis oversaw projects such as the Presbyterian Church (USA)s new Glory To God hymnal, and he helped establish the press Westminster John Knox Press, Geneva Press, Thoughtful Christian, These Days, and Presbyterian Leader, and Flyaway Books imprints. Lewis also played a key role in bringing the Presbyterian Church (USA)s publishing efforts under one roof with the consolidation of Congregational Ministries Publishing into the PPC in 2018. No other changes to the staff were announced at this time, though the PPC board has an active search committee seeking my replacement and I expect a person will be selected this spring, Lewis told PW. Reflecting on his career, Lewis noted the growing challenges publishers have when trying to "create awareness for good books." He cited Amazon and the demise of local bookstores, as well as modern distractions such as "the daily political noise that can seem to drown out more civil voices," but he remains optimistic about the future. "My sense is that the challenges will increase, but that publishing will remain a rewarding vocation for hopefully many who want to try to contribute and make a difference," Lewis said. As hinted at by Booksellers Association (BA) executive chairman Tim Godfray in his Christmas message, the number of independent bookshops in BA membership in the U.K. and Ireland has grown for the second year in a row. The growth follows more than 20 years of decline in the sector. (Godfray hints at 2019 upturn) The BA figures are the second piece of positive book trade news in the U.K. 2019, following Nielsen's report that print book sales had risen for the fourth year in a row (Print book sales up again in 2018). The number of independent bookshops in BA membership in 2018 grew to 883, up from 868 in 2017. The figure in 1995 was 1,894. Members of the association seem largely to have avoided the downturn in Christmas sales reported by retailers in other sectors. Responding to the BA's Christmas trading survey, 73% of booksellers said that their Christmas sales were up on 2017, and 63.5% reported that foot traffic was up. Meryl Halls, BA managing director , said: "It is extremely encouraging to see independent bookshops succeeding in 2018, demonstrating the creativity and entrepreneurship of booksellers in the face of difficult challenges. We are delighted for - and proud of - our incredibly hard-working booksellers. We do, though, also need to consider these figures in a wider context. "Retailers generally are facing an increasingly challenging landscape across the U.K. and Ireland, and we all need the retail landscape to be strong," Hall said. "Bookshops (especially our larger members) continue to experience unequal business rates, and struggle alongside wider retail with unfair competition from online retailers, as well as post-Brexit uncertainty. In light of this, we ask the Government to take the steps needed to protect the future of bookshops and their high streets, considering the concerns of retailers and booksellers so they can both flourish." A longer version of this story appeared in BookBrunch. Women's Health USA is one of the largest physician practice management companies in the United States, partnering with high-quality womens health groups including more than 600 physicians throughout the country to help them remain independent and strong. Recently Women's Health USA implemented PDS DASH software for Analytical Dashboarding to better improve transparency, operations and communication. Developed by Practical Data Solutions, PDS DASH software is specifically tailored for todays healthcare environment. It allows professionals to create and distribute highly visual data in a matter of days while blending a multitude of metrics. With a goal of providing quality care to patients in a timely manner, PDS DASH serves as an important asset to Women's Health USA. Choosing PDS DASH was an easy decision for Women's Health USA as the ability to quickly create visual dashboards brings immediate value to their organization. With our volume of physicians continuing to grow significantly, creating and publishing reports was a challenge, says Beverly Hammond, Women's Health USA AVP of Data Strategies. Our partners need the right information, in a focused fashion, to manage effectively. The PDS staff and the prebuilt templates allowed us to get up and running quickly with an initial focus on physician productivity and expenses. PDS boasts more than 100,000 dashboards per month created within healthcare organizations nationwide. Womens Health USA has a tremendous vision in recognizing the challenges in front of them when creating dashboards, says Russell Hendrickson, CEO of PDS. They came to PDS and articulated their business needs as we discussed various options and strategies to achieve success. I am extremely confident that with the use of PDS tools, they will achieve exceptional results. About Womens Health USA Womens Health USA currently partners with specialists in OB/GYN, in vitro fertilization, and other womens health practices in seven states to implement growth strategies, payer contracting, revenue cycle management, EMR support, financial and human resource management, merger and acquisition support, ancillary services development, marketing and risk management services. With more than 600 physician partners, its unique and successful partnership model enables physicians and physician groups to maintain their independence, while leveraging the experience and resources of a national organization. About Practical Data Solutions Practical Data Solutions is a healthcare analytics company based in Southbury, Connecticut. Since 1995, PDS has partnered exclusively with healthcare organizations to design, build and support state-of-the-art technologies employing best practices for data warehousing, business intelligence, analytics and dashboard reporting. As Information Architects for Healthcare, their number one objective is to exceed their clients expectations and achieve ROI. For more information, please visit http://www.pds-online.com. White Oak Pediatrics (http://www.whiteoakpediatrics.com/) is pleased to add three nurse practitioners to its team. Jennifer Takach, DNP, CPNP, is from Montgomery County. In 2010 she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BScN, said Dr. Impeduglia before adding, when she is not utilizing her critical care experience, she likes trying new foods, enjoying family time, traveling, and being in the great outdoors. According to Dr. Impeduglia, Elizabeth Marshall, CPNP, MSW, is from New Jersey. She earned a BA in biology from Lafayette College and an MSW from New York University. While working as a pediatric clinical social worker, she discovered that she loved caring for children which fueled her desire to go into nursing. In 2017, Elizabeth received her Masters of Science degree in advanced practice nursing with a specialty in pediatric primary care, highlighted Dr. Impeduglia. Caroline Van Voorhis, CPNP, is from Iowa. With a BA in medicine, health & society along with a MScN from Vaderbuilt University, she is excited to join White Oak Pediatrics and meet the families that will be under her care. Caroline enjoys exercising, baking, and her other new role auntie to a baby niece, informed Dr. Impeduglia. White Oaks Pediatrics has a full team of practitioners, decades of experience, and the type of warm and friendly service you look for in a pediatric clinic. To learn more about the clinics staff, visit https://www.whiteoakpediatrics.com/meet-our-providers. To learn more about White Oak Pediatrics, visit https://whiteoakpediatrics.com/blog. About White Oak Pediatrics White Oak Pediatrics has served families for more than 30 years. Multilingual physicians and nurses care for patients from birth to age 21, along with new and expectant parents. A wide variety of in-house procedures are offered for your convenience, along with state-of-the-art patience access to medical records, same day appointments for most needs, sport and wellness physical, 24/7 on-call access and Saturday hours. Contact Details: Giovanni Impeduglia Gaithersburg, MD: Ph 301-977-4100 Silver Spring, MD: Ph 301-681-7101 whiteoakcare@aol.com whiteoakpediatrics.com Source: White Oak Pediatrics ### Visual Technology Services, known for PDF3D software, announces the pdf3d.io lightweight automation toolkit, a new SDK for batch conversion and server-side integration. The new pdf3d.io low-code toolkit brings 3D PDF processing to command-line scripting, web app and .NET component services. The design of pdf3d.io is optimal for manufacturing workflows, data collection reporting, as well as small-scale local or equipment-coupled report generation. The extensive 3D PDF features are focused on applications in BIM, survey, earth-sciences, engineering and manufacturing reporting and collaboration. pdf3d.io enables a full range of developer personas from lone-coders through to professional enterprise teams developing applications that range from stand-alone to fully integrated. "This new addition of pdf3d.io is significant because it benefits under-served development environments for 3D, says Randall S. Newton, principal analyst for Consilia Vektor and Contributing Editor at Digital Engineering Magazine and AEC Magazine UK. 3D PDF internals are complex; not every vendor in the PDF toolkit business takes the extra effort to offer development tools, especially not for the wide variety of 3D vector formats used by industry. With web stacks disrupting app design, its a good sign for the 3D PDF industry to see the arrival of this new approach. Integrating 3D PDF generation into existing software with pdf3d.io is often much faster than traditional compiled program development with three-way access: command-line for simple no-code style operations, .NET component for tight integration using in-memory XML, and a self-hosted web service with a JSON/XML controlled RESTful API. These options enable operations to be integrated as an unattended batch script converting a number of 3D files into PDF using a standard design template, or used for on-demand PDF generation as a service behind a website, or with libraries embedded within an existing application where it can be invoked to produce secure 3D PDF reports avoiding remote services. pdf3d.io is a tool weve had in development for a while sitting in between our end-user tool, ReportGen, and our big SDK developer toolkit. It contains the best elements of both products and offers real flexibility for the developer with low-code requirements, explained Ian Curington, CEO at PDF3D. We designed IO to be used by programmers in a hurry with skills in scripting, web mash-ups and XML wrangling as an easier starting point. pdf3d.io is a suite of programs, DLLs, REST server and out-of-the-box examples that facilitates conversion of 3D models into 3D PDF documents. Optimized for production file conversion, pdf3d.io is controlled by an extensive XML-based API. Apart from supporting a large number of 3D file formats (including STEP, DWG, STL, X3D, FBX, IFC) it provides a vast number of customizable parameters and configurations including changing scene lighting conditions, animation, metadata, mesh quality, JavaScripting, 3D annotations, hyperlinks, password security, watermarks and strong 256-bit encryption. By including glTF, pdf3d.io enables both WebGL 3D content capture to PDF or export from PDF. pdf3d.io can easily be deployed through automation scripting or to an online Web App environment, accessed directly from a web browser session. pdf3d.io is self-hosted, meaning it installs and runs locally on client systems without vendor hosting. The conversion engine can be bundled directly into local client applications for resale if required. The pdf3d.io API may be accessed through C++, C# .NET, Visual Basic, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby and other languages, on Windows, Linux and macOS. pdf3d.io is available from https://www.pdf3d.com/products/pdf3d-io/ About PDF3D PDF3D (http://www.pdf3d.com) provider Visual Technology Services, based in the United Kingdom, produce a suite of widely respected software products and plugins for engineers, scientists and developers who need to communicate complex data and 3D models to others in the universally accessible PDF format. PDF3Ds technology provides the fastest and easiest-to-use, highly compressed 3D PDF conversion available for an ever-increasing range of formats and tools. From 3D CAD to GIS, DWG and LIDAR, PDF3D works closely with users and programmers within the engineering, geospatial, geology, aerospace, architecture, medical and product packaging communities worldwide. Event Lobby Achieving a 50% YoY growth in unique clients, vFairs was able to catapult the number of virtual events it hosted by recording a 90% YoY growth in 2018, indicating that more organizations are showing a preference for virtual events compared to the traditional physical format. vFairs, a leading virtual events platform, has emerged as a top solution provider in 2018 for organizations looking to host effective online events, from Virtual Career Fairs to Online Tradeshows. vFairs ended the year recording impressive growth across all business metrics including their customer base, geographical footprint and revenue numbers. Powering high- impact virtual events for reputed clients such as Nestle,T-Mobile, Ernst & Young and Unilever, vFairs continues to grow its influence in the online event sector. vFairs expanded its network of customers by serving clients across 19 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Dutch Caribbean Island, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. With a focus on custom branding, intuitive visual experience, chat tools and a very responsive customer service, vFairs was able to position itself as a result-focused solution for HR, Sales & Marketing. Achieving a 50% YoY growth in unique clients, the company was able to catapult the number of events it hosted by recording a 90% YoY growth in 2018 - a proof of it being a favored channel for audiences versus traditional physical events. A total of 3,600 exhibitors took part in these virtual events, where more than 800 webinars were delivered and an impressive 1.3 million chat messages were exchanged. This massive activity resulted in favorable outcomes for hosts like amplified sales, lead generation and job applications. With on-the-ground presence in North America, the Middle East and Asia, the vFairs team takes pride in their 24/7 technical support - a reflection of their commitment to uncompromising client success. Their 50+ customer reviews on Capterra with a flawless 5/5 rating shows why they have been gaining traction in the industry. Customers of vFairs have consistently praised the technology and customer service delivered to them. Pam Olson, Vice President, National Accounts, Professional Diversity Network says: "Their Customer Support team does the heavy lifting answering complex technical questions and has identified problems early heading off deeper issues. They are a truly amazing team and have supported our customers 24 x7 by phone and email. Moreover, the General Manager of vFairs, Muhammad Younas, weighed in on his plans for 2019 with a statement: "We are taking the momentum we built in 2018 into 2019 and are working hard to touch more audiences and markets. We feel there is a tremendous opportunity in virtual events transforming the way we conduct events today and we're already seeing a massive shift in how companies approach this area. We're working on innovating on our interaction tools and product design and position ourselves to deliver even more ROI to our customers than ever before." Continuing to grow and provide organizations with an effective platform to engage audiences in interactive ways, vFairs looks forward to making online event hosting even more effective and pervasive in 2019. About vFairs Based in North America, Middle East & Asia, vFairs is a leading virtual events provider that power events like Virtual Career Fairs, Online Tradeshows & Virtual Benefits Fairs. Hundreds of organizations like Nestle, Unilever, T-Mobile, Teradata & Barclays have conducted successful events using the vFairs virtual events platform, enabling them to hire top talent faster, drive lead generation and market their offerings to a broader audience. vFairs has a stellar track record in customer service as shown by ratings on third-party review sites like Capterra. To learn more, visit vFairs.com. We really want the world to start talking more openly about what women respectively and collectively experience when it comes to vaginal health; right now, millions of women suffer in silence, says vConfidences Co-Founder, Brittani Phillips. A womans biological need to wear pads changes over time - from menstruation as early as 12 years old to then vaginal health challenges with age or post-partum body form and function changes. What doesnt change? The stigma, the private suffering, the silence. Even with the rise in social media and public conversations, the world still isnt talking about real, biological vaginal health challenges. Its 2019. That needs to change. vConfidence is making the first move. The Charlotte-based leader in womens vaginal health procedures launches their 2019 social media campaign The War on Pads today. vConfidence is pleased to announce the revolutionary campaign will feature two prominent lifestyle influencers for a paid partnership: Ali Landry and Saarah Samadani. Actress, model, and host, Ali Landry also serves as the Founder of RE/SHAPE, a lifestyle platform for women focused on natural health and wellness, fitness, and beauty. Saarah Samadani is the health, wellness, lifestyle, beauty, mommy blogger and influencer behind Beauty Momme. I launched RE/SHAPE as a way to explore and talk about some of the health issues of aging health, nutrition, wrinkles, thinning hair, sleepless nights that were controlling my life, Landry noted. This paid partnership with vConfidence is my personal and continued commitment to that conversation. Samadani echos the sentiment. Theres a new reality when you have kids; your daily grind changes, yes, but also your body, mind, and spirit change, too, Samadani notes. Im excited to partner with vConfidence to reclaim some control over my post-partum body and see how it impacts my mind, spirit, and sense of self and how I share that with my followers and the world. Landry and Samadani will receive vConfidences safe, non-invasive, energy-based treatment from board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist Duncan Turner MD. Turners well-renowned practice, Turner Medical Arts in Santa Barbara, California, offers a wide array of womens health care treatments, therapies, and techniques. Our practice has always been committed to state-of-the-art, cutting edge technology and procedures; more importantly though, were committed to treating the whole woman versus just one particular concern, explains Turner. This is where we align well with vConfidence and where I hope we can serve, support, and treat Ali and Saarah and millions of women who watch and follow these two women. Landry and Samadani tout strong social media followings with whom theyll share their experience with vConfidence. The goal is to start a more public, active, and engaged conversation about vaginal health and vaginal health challenges. We really want the world to start talking more openly about what women respectively and collectively experience when it comes to vaginal health; right now, millions of women suffer in silence, says vConfidences Co-Founder, Brittani Phillips. Our commitment has always been to treat a womans body, and then, in turn, serve her sense of sense and confidence. We believe The War on Pads campaign with Ali and Saarah leading the way will bring greater awareness to how busy women and mothers can reclaim control over their health. How To Get Cheaper Car Insurance Insurance companies are known for providing a plethora of discounts. But only a few are really valuable and can save you a lot of money, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com has launched a new blog post that presents the most valuable discounts which will make drivers get cheaper car insurance. Clients should profit on all discounts they are eligible for. Insurance companies are known for providing multiple discounts. Drivers are recommended to request their insurer to provide a list of discounts and their respective requirements. Although there are many discounts available, only a few are really valuable and will have a great impact on the car insurance cost. Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com presents which ones are the best. Multi-policy discounts can be some of the most rewarding ones. Since car and home are the most expensive to insure, combining coverage with the same company can provide a discount that will save the client a lot of money. Multi-vehicle plans can also provide significant savings. The value of the discounts varies a lot, depending on the insurer, the number of combined policies and the value of the insured belongings. Good student discount is probably the best way in which teens can save auto insurance money. In order to qualify, the driver must have at least 3.0 GPA or meet additional requirements (like being on the Deans Honorary List). Report cards or other documents are required in order to qualify. For more car insurance info, money-saving tips and free online quotes, please visit http://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. Amify Logo 2018 This will allow us to optimize shipping time and shipping costs for our brand partners, giving their customers an even better shopping experience. Amify, a four-time Inc. Magazine award-winning Amazon strategy partner focused on maximizing the potential of brands on Amazon, announces the January 2019 opening of a third corporate location in the Cincinnati Metro area. With the Cincinnati distribution center, in addition to its headquarters in Alexandria and distribution center in Las Vegas, Amify seeks to further expand its industry presence and increase logistical efficiency for its brand partners. Amify provides a variety of services focusing on brand management, pricing protection, content enhancement, and sales acceleration. Beginning in 2011 as a seller of niche sporting goods on Amazon, Amify has experienced eight consecutive years of growth and has surpassed $100 million in lifetime revenue. In 2018, Amify experienced 32% year over year revenue growth and expanded its employee workforce by more than 20%. In terms of cumulative Amazon revenue, Amify ranks in the top .01% and has facilitated sales with over 200 brands. The addition of the Cincinnati location increases logistical efficiency for Amify and its eastern U.S. partners, offering more strategic fulfillment options and quicker inventory turnaround. The new location at 1310 Cox Avenue in Hebron, Kentucky gives Amify a presence that is proximate to more consumers than any other geographic point in the United States, greatly increasing Amifys processing capacity and sales velocity. Our Cincinnati office is strategically located near the Amazon Prime Air hub at the Cincinnati Airport, says Amify Founder and CEO, Ethan McAfee. This will allow us to optimize shipping time and shipping costs for our brand partners, giving their customers an even better shopping experience. About Amify: Amify is a four-time Inc. Magazine award-winning Amazon strategy partner focused on maximizing the potential of brands on Amazon. Amify uses industry expertise and a data-driven approach to be a complete Amazon solution, providing a four-pillar approach focused on account management, brand protection, sales acceleration, and content enhancement. With a focus on innovation and brand authenticity, Amify strives to build long-term relationships and offer personalized strategies that are adaptable to the changing Amazon landscape. They are unique in their ability to independently execute a broad array of projects across the full spectrum of client contexts. ALM Intelligence Consulting division, previously known as Kennedy Consulting, has released its 2018 ratings of logistics consulting providers, naming Tompkins International as one of the top six leaders in the consulting industry. ALM Intelligence describes Tompkins International, the leaders are at the top of the market in terms of their capabilities to create client impact through their depth of expertise and ability to deploy it across a range of engagement models. They are unique in their ability to independently execute a broad array of projects across the full spectrum of client contexts. They range from providers in the top quintile in terms of depth of capability for low-complexity engagement models to those that combine above average depth of capability with the ability to deploy it across high-complexity engagement models. Logistics consulting addresses the development and execution of best practices for managing the movement and storage of goods across the supply chain. Primary activities involve network strategy and design, and warehouse, inventory, and transportation management. ALMs Vanguard research series assesses firms in terms of their relative ability to create impact for their clients. In addition to its overall rating assessments of consulting providers depth and breadth of capabilities and best-in-class provider designations, this series includes detailed capability evaluations for each covered provider as well as a qualitative analysis of their consulting organization, approach, and service delivery model. I am delighted that Tompkins Internationals entire team has been recognized by such a prestigious outlet. My team and I work very hard for our clients, this recognition confirms that, stated Jim Tompkins, CEO of Tompkins International. About Tompkins International A supply chain consulting and implementation firm that maximizes supply chain performance and value creation. We enable clients to be more profitable and valuable, while also becoming more agile, flexible, and adaptive to the marketplace. Tompkins collaborates with client teams to develop improved operations strategies, supply chain planning, and execution across all the Mega Processes of supply chains (PLAN-BUY-MAKE-MOVE-DISTRIBUTE-SELL). Tompkins is headquartered in Raleigh, NC and has offices throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. For more information about Tompkins International visit: http://www.tompkinsinc.com. The Springs Living today announced Chief Operating Officer Jay Leo has been promoted to President. Company Founder Fee Stubblefield, who held the concurrent titles of President and Chief Executive officer, will continue as CEO. An MBA graduate of Arizona State University, Leo has contributed to the success of the Companys steady expansion as it grew from five senior living communities when he started in 2010 to 17 in 2019. As President, Leo will focus on the Companys operational structure and systems, key measurements, and quality and performance predictability. His expanded role is especially important as the company finalizes construction on new, innovative senior living communities in Lake Oswego, Oregon and Bozeman, Montana, and undertakes major renovations on other properties in 2019. Jay is talented in the areas of organizational development and strategic alignment because he leads with humility, which encourages open communication with our employees and the residents we serve in our communities, said Stubblefield. The end result is that he makes the right things happen. Leo joined the senior housing sector after his time at Intel Corp where he held analyst and management positions. While at The Springs Living, he worked his way from Executive Director of The Springs at Tanasbourne, to Director of Operations at the home office in McMinnville, Oregon. He was named Chief Operating Officer in 2016. Leo serves as an active board member of the National Center for Assisted Living, and on the Future Leaders Council of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. About The Springs Living The Springs Living is a locally owned senior housing company headquartered in McMinnville, Oregon and founded in 1996. With a purpose to positively change the way people experience senior living, The Springs Living offers independent living, assisted living and memory care within most communities. For more information visit http://www.TheSpringsLiving.com. Each group has its unique affiliation model in terms of financial compensation, business support and management processes, but the success of a partnership comes down to whether the groups share a common set of values. Smile Brands Inc. announced today it has made a strategic investment in support of DecisionOne Dental Partners based in Schaumburg, Illinois. The investment will help fund DecisionOnes continued growth and acquisitions throughout Chicagoland and neighboring states. DecisionOne Dental Partners management will continue to lead and operate the business. Smile Brands Inc. is a leading dental support organization (DSO) that provides business support services to over 400 locations across 17 states. Smile Brands is able to provide DecisionOne significant expansion capital as well as access to additional business support services. CEO Dr. AJ Acierno of DecisionOne and CEO Steve Bilt of Smile Brands realize the future of mid-market DSOs is to have an investment and business support partner like Smile Brands who has services that can help accelerate growth while continuing to meet the needs of providers and patients. DecisionOne was founded in 2011 by two brothers, Dr. AJ Acierno and Dr. Mike Acierno. It is one of the most respected and fastest growing dental support organizations in the U.S. with approximately 30 affiliated practices in the Chicago area. By blending the values of a solo practitioner dental office with the business efficiencies of larger group practices, DecisionOne has created a proven partnership model that puts patients first while helping providers navigate the increasing complexity of the dental landscape. Many DSOs help remove day to day management headaches allowing providers to focus on clinical excellence. At DecisonOne, we go beyond standard DSO administrative support by building offices around our doctors instead of simply inserting providers into cookie cutter offices, explains Dr. AJ Acierno. This approach allows us to create individual office cultures that result in lasting patient relationships. We believe strongly that building patient relationships based on trust is the key to guaranteeing access to care and making patients better. The world of dentistry has changed dramatically over the past several decades. Dental students are graduating with high amounts of debt, technologic advancements require higher overhead and payment administration is increasingly complex. More and more providers are looking to affiliate with a dental support organization, but finding the right fit is imperative. Smile Brands CEO, Steve Bilt understands the importance of there being a strong cultural connection in any partnership. Today there are hundreds of DSOs and thousands of group practices in the U.S., says Bilt, Each group has its unique affiliation model in terms of financial compensation, business support and management processes, but the success of a partnership comes down to whether the groups share a common set of values. Our investment behind DecisionOne is as much about shared values as it is about business expansion. I am confident that Drs. AJ, Mike and the rest of the DecisionOne team will further our mission of delivering Smiles for Everyone. Dr. Mike Acierno, Chief Dental Officer, insists that clinical autonomy is key in a patient-first delivery model. After dental school, I went into private practice and AJ took the DSO path, explains Mike. That gives us a unique perspective on the industry and how to improve the lives of our patients, team members and providers. When it came time to find a partner, we needed to find someone as committed to our patient care model as we are. About Smile Brands Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands provides expansion capital and access to support services to independent dental groups and DSOs. The organization delivers comprehensive business support services through exclusive long term agreements with affiliate dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands supports over 400 Bright Now! Dental, Monarch Dental, Castle Dental, A+ Dental Care, OneSmile Dental, Johnson Family Dental, P3 Dental Group, and DecisionOne Dental offices in 17 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com. About DecisionOne Dental Partners DecisionOne Dental is a network of carefully curated dental professionals who value personal doctor-patient relationships and high quality of patient care. Over the last decade, the growing complexity of the dental sector has diluted doctors focus and led to a reduction in the perception of patient care and trust. DecisionOne Dental Partners was founded by brothers Dr. AJ and Dr. Mike Acierno, both practicing family dentists, who believe dentistry can thrive locally while adhering to the core values that support patients above all else. With approximately 30 current locations, DecisionOne is the fastest growing dental group in Illinois. The Chicago Tribune named them one of the top midsized workplaces in the Chicago area for 2018, plus Acierno Dental in Schaumburg was recently featured in Chicago magazine's "2018 Top Doctors" issue named as a top Chicagoland dental practice. For more information about DecisionOne Dental or to find a dentist, visit http://www.decisiononedental.com. It's not a Tour . . . it's an Experience Retire in Panama Tours focuses on providing a comprehensive portfolio of experiences in the country and education on key relocation matters so that those considering a move to Panama are equipped with the information they need to make an informed decision and experience a smooth transition. The tour company offers a seven-day immersive experience across the Panamanian landscape, visiting key relocation communities and cities across the country. The company focuses on providing a comprehensive experience of life in Panama, showing tour guests available living options to suite their lifestyles, whether they prefer city, beach, or mountain living. In addition to utilizing their knowledge of Panama to guide guests tours across the country, Retire in Panamas guides and relocation experts are equipped to educate guests on the steps necessary to retire in the country, as well as key facts about the economy, health care, and finances required for a successful expat relocation experience. The tour also includes meetings with current expats living in the country, immigration attorneys and health insurance experts, so clients get an honest look into life as an expat in Panama. Retire in Panama Tours seven-day Panamanian experiences costs include airport pickup and drop of at the hotel; seven nights hotel lodging expenses; three meals a day, including tips; tour transportation; entry fees for excursions; and a domestic flight back to Panama City. Program staff are on hand to assist with making travel arrangements. To find out more about Retire in Panama Tours or to book a tour, visit their website at https://www.retireinpanamatours.com/ About Retire in Panama Tours Retire in Panama Tours is a tourism company formed in 2018 by Oscar Pena and Rod Larrivee to provide immersive Panamanian experiences geared toward helping future expats move or retire to Panama. Pena is a native Columbian who has been in the tourism and hospitality business for more than 15 years, which in the last ten he has called Panama home, In Panama he has owned a tour company, coordinated a volunteer program, and has given many private tours to expats relocating to Panama, Pena is a volunteer with Panamas SINAPROC program (search and rescue), he currently sits on the board of directors of the Boquete Community Players, and is a member of the board of the Boquete Chamber of Commerce. He is often interviewed by the media for his expertise on tourism in Panama. Larrivee is an expat from Vancouver, Canada with a long professional background in building successful Internet technology companies and served as the owner and President of a large publishing company and social media company for books based out of Austin, TX. He relocated to Panama in 2011 to provide on-ground support for his Austin company and eventually retired and stayed in Panama, befriending Pena and pursuing their mutual interests in tourism. Larrivee acts as Retire in Panama Tours IT and logistics coordinator. Pena and Larrivee are also the co-owners of Boquete Ning, the largest online community of expats in Panama. Find out more about Retire in Panama Tours online at https://www.retireinpanamatours.com/ As the company expands, ReST aims to maintain its position as a world-leading Smart Bed and sleep technology innovator. Responsive Surface Technology, an Atlanta-based Smart Bed and sleep technology innovator, today announced the closing of $3.2 million of additional funding. The funding comes from two Invest Atlanta-affiliated programs, the Atlanta Advantage Loan Fund and New Markets Tax Credit financing. The capital will not only enable ReST to expand its marketing and research efforts, but also help it open its first company-owned store in West Midtown. We are proud that our performance in the year since Invest Atlantas initial investment gave them the confidence to offer additional funding, said Lloyd Sommers, General Manager of ReST. The funds will support our efforts to expand distribution so that more people than ever before will have the opportunity to experience why the ReST Bed has become the leading Smart Bed. As the company expands, ReST aims to maintain its position as a world-leading sleep technology innovator. ReST is committed to expanding its Atlanta footprint by continuing to grow its operations in West Midtown and creating new jobs. The company focuses on hiring local talent, including skilled workers from Atlantas Westside neighborhoods. "The Atlanta Advantage Loan Fund and New Markets Tax Credit financing are a win-win, providing an additional source of capital to innovative companies like ReST while bringing economic investment and new jobs to other parts of the city, said Dale Royal, President, Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. We are excited to support their expansion with this additional funding and look forward to continued partnership as they grow in Atlanta. Launched by Advantage Capital and Invest Atlanta, the Atlanta Advantage Loan Fund is a loan program for businesses in the City of Atlanta located in census-designated distressed neighborhoods. Invest Atlantas New Markets Tax Credit program is administered through Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc., a U.S. Treasury-certified community development entity. The program aims to attract private investment to Atlantas underserved neighborhoods and financially support catalytic projects that provide services or create quality jobs accessible to low-income residents. # # # Responsive Surface Technology, LLC ReSTs mission is to provide the ultimate sleep experience. ReST is the only company with an integrated technology solution that not only monitors movement in real-time but automatically responds to those unique and personal changes. Our main product is the ReST Bed: the only truly smart bed. The ReST Bed incorporates our patented smart fabric, which senses changes in pressure and interacts with the mattress in order to automatically respond to the sleepers comfort and support needs throughout the night. Above all, ReST Beds help people sleep better so that they can live healthier and more productive lives. http://www.restperformance.com About Invest Atlanta Invest Atlanta is the official economic development authority for the City of Atlanta. Its purpose is to strengthen Atlantas economy and global competitiveness in order to create increased opportunity and prosperity for the people of Atlanta. Chaired by the Mayor of Atlanta, and governed by a nine-member board of directors, Invest Atlantas programs and initiatives focus on developing and fostering public/private partnerships to create jobs, grow the economy, revitalize neighborhoods, attract investment, spur innovation and encourage entrepreneurship. To achieve these goals, Invest Atlanta leverages the benefits of bond financing, revolving loan funds, housing financing, tax increment financing and tax credits. About Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. AEMI is a U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Entity created by Invest Atlanta in 2006 that specializes in providing gap financing for projects that create jobs and revitalize Atlantas distressed neighborhoods. In 2016, the AEMI board of directors approved the allocation of $100,000 to finance a pilot revolving loan fund for social entrepreneurship in Atlanta. About Advantage Capital Advantage Capital provides financing to established and emerging companies located in communities underserved by conventional sources of capital. Since 1992, the firm has invested more than $2.6 billion in companies from a diverse array of industry sectors and has helped support more than 48,000 jobs. Learn more at http://www.advantagecap.com, or via Twitter or LinkedIn We are honored to receive this award, as it confirms we are fulfilling our commitment to put patients first and give them an unrivaled experience in modern dental care, says Dr. Justin Scott of Pure Dental Health. Pure Dental Health is a thriving dental practice that treats patients through all stages of life. With a staff of five highly skilled dentists who are trained in multiple facets of dentistry, they can deliver a full realm of services to Atlanta patients, including general dentistry, emergency dentistry, cosmetic smile makeovers, dental implants and Invisalign Clear Aligners. Pure Dental Health has a main office in Atlanta and recently opened an additional office in Dunwoody. Patient experience is highly prized at Pure Dental Health, as they deliver dental care in a modern, spa-like environment with amenities far beyond the average dental practice. Located in the heart of Buckhead, their upscale office is equipped with free Wi-Fi, hot scented towels and flat-screen TVs as well as access to IV sedation dentistry if needed. They even provide complimentary valet parking during evening hours. It is easy to understand why patients have left such glowing reviews for this Atlanta dentist, which garnered them the recognition of being a 2019 Top Patient-Rated Dentist from Find Local Doctors. Find Local Doctors is an established online directory that helps people find reputable and qualified doctors and dentists in their area. The Top Patient-Rated Dentist award is given to dentists who have earned excellent ratings from their patients across multiple review sources. We are honored to receive this award, as it confirms we are fulfilling our commitment to put patients first and give them an unrivaled experience in modern dental care, says Dr. Justin Scott of Pure Dental Health. Beyond their pampering amenities, Pure Dental Health is exceptionally equipped to deliver a full realm of dental services using state-of-the-art technology and techniques. In one place, patients can receive a routine cleaning, a smile makeover, oral surgery or a full set of implant-supported dentures. The Atlanta office is located at 2285 Peachtree Road and the Dunwoody office is located at 2390 Mount Vernon Road. Both offices include a team of talented dentists led Dr. Justin Scott and Dr. Lydia Muccioli. For more information about the services offered at Pure Dental Health or to schedule an appointment, visit the practice website at http://www.puredentalhealth.com or call (678) 666-9977. The Peace Education Program is having a profound impact on people who have been marginalized by challenges, inspiring them to improve their behavior and feel a renewed sense that peace is possible. The participants all leave better than before. Some who were known to have coping and behavioral challenges have made 180-degree turnarounds. The Peace Education Program (PEP) is a series of multimedia workshops that explore the meaning of personal peace, each helping participants discover their own inner resources to live more fulfilling lives. The core material for each workshop is a selection of video excerpts from Prem Rawats talks. Do you have a thirst in your life to be happy? Do you have a thirst in your life to experience peace every single day? You can do something about that, says Rawat, a renowned speaker, author and founder of The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF). The Peace Education Program tries to achieve one simple thing: its to put you in touch with yourself. The sessions also include facilitated reflection time, participant discussion, and workbook learning, all focusing on 10 thought-provoking themes: Peace, Appreciation, Inner Strength, Self-Awareness, Clarity, Understanding, Dignity, Choice, Hope and Contentment. PEP has benefited people in more than 80 countries in a wide variety of settings, from universities and corporate offices to correctional facilities and drug treatment centers. While the goal of the program is simple, it is having a profound impact on people who have been marginalized by intense challenges, inspiring them to improve their behavior and feel a renewed sense that peace is possible. The participants all leave better than before. Some who were known to have coping and behavioral challenges have made 180-degree turnarounds, says Terrence Mathews, a counselor who works with inmates participating in PEP at the Metro West Detention Center in Miami, Fla. In Colombia, PEP has been incorporated into the governments reconciliation efforts to build a lasting culture of peace after decades of civil war. Bringing the Peace Education Program to five hundred schools in Antioquia is sending a message: there is a new possibility. Those children that stopped dreaming about the future are now building the future, says Dr. Nestor David Restrepo Bonnett, Secretary of Education for the Department of Antioquia in Colombia. In the UK and a growing list of other areas, veterans report that PEP is giving them the tools they need to harness their inner-strength and successfully return to civilian life. I was an angry, hating man when I first started it, says Blair Murray, a client at The Beacon, a recovery center for homeless veterans in North Yorkshire, England. A big conflict I had was trying to understand myself. I didnt have the tools, and now Ive got the tools from the PEP. In Ecuador, the peace education workshops inspired the formerly violent Bloods group to relinquish their weapons in favor of community improvement projects, gaining the support of local government authorities. I think that if we hadn't heard Prem Rawats message, the worst wouldve happened. We wouldve continued killing each other, stealing, says Jefferson, one of the groups leaders. Youth violence and other crime is often rooted in drug abuse, with opioids emerging as the biggest threat. PEP is becoming part of the solution, as rehabilitation providers discover that it helps addicts develop the inner strength they need to stay sober. Prems message is real and its genuine, even for guys like me, who came from a broken home, and have been in and out of jail. Im getting back to being alive again without having to look for peace from substances or alcoholism, says Mark West, a client at the James Casey House, a treatment facility in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The Prem Rawat Foundation makes the Peace Education Program, which is non-religious and non-sectarian, available for individuals and organizations at no charge. Learn how you or your organization can start offering PEP here. PracticeLink Magazine - Fall 2018 Issue "Being able to meet representatives from various employers all at one place at your job fair made the search a breeze." - Michelle Turley, M.D. PracticeLink is proud to announce the 2019 schedule for PracticeLink Live! Physician Career Fairs: St. Louis, MO February 28, 2019 Dallas, TX March 28, 2019 Pittsburgh, PA April 18, 2019 Cleveland, OH April 25, 2019 Minneapolis, MN May 9, 2019 Houston, TX May 23, 2019 Detroit, MI July 11, 2019 Philadelphia, PA September 12, 2019 Chicago, IL September 19, 2019 New York, NY September 26, 2019 Seattle, WA October 9, 2019 Baltimore, MD October 22, 2019 Atlanta, GA November 14, 2019 Phoenix, AZ November 21, 2019 On top of meeting with hiring employers and physician recruiters, PracticeLink Live! Physician Career Fairs also grant you the opportunity to attend a free, job-search seminar, teaching you the steps you need to take to find your first, or next, practice. Visit our website for more information and to RSVP. For specific questions, contact Sarah Griffin at sarah.griffin(at)practicelink.com. About PracticeLink: PracticeLink connects job-seeking physicians with practice opportunities and in-house recruiters across the country, enabling both parties to find the perfect fit. Physicians can search for and receive practice opportunities that best suit their personal and professional needs while also receiving helpful career development and job-search information. In-house recruiters can search for and communicate directly with job-seeking physicians, letting them find hires without placement fees. PracticeLink is headquartered in Hinton, W.Va., with a second office in St. Louis, MO. Creative Colors International We hope to build a business that will give our children a better future - Paul Smith Creative Colors International, the nations leading on-site repair and restoration franchise, launched its newest location on November 27, 2018, in the Erie, Pennsylvania area. This is big news, as more local business owners and cost-conscious residents than ever are seeking alternatives to astronomical upholstering charges and replacement fees associated with damaged possessions made of leather, vinyl, plastic and fabric. Erie residents Paul and Trisha Smith have a history of business ownership and investment in the northwestern Pennsylvania region. Before deciding on their partnership with Creative Colors International, Trisha spent the past 10 years as the owner of a childcare/preschool center. Paul has experience in multiple industries ranging from healthcare and insurance to banking and logistics. The couple is raising three children and they are the motivation behind this latest business decision. We hope to build a business that will give them a better future, says Paul. More and more families are turning to entrepreneurship to improve their quality of life. Increased income, more time with family, flexible hours and having a business to leave to their children are just some of the reasons people make the leap to self-employment. According to Paul, hes thrilled to open this Creative Colors International location because the companys revolutionary products and restoration techniques will help local customers save up to 90 percent in replacement fees by repairing worn and/or damaged materials. The hallmarks of Creative Colors Internationals legendary customer service also match with the Smiths personal philosophy as well. We believe the keys to success are quality work, honesty and reliability. Further, the statistics suggest that repairing and restoring, as opposed to upholstering and replacing, can save local business owners and residents hundreds of dollars on any damaged item. For example, the costs associated with upholstering any type of seat can be very steep, ranging anywhere from $120 to $450 per cushion. And according to Terri Sniegolski, Creative Colors Internationals CEO, the commitment shared by all franchisees to help customers save money, and deliver on the companys We Can Fix That philosophy, has been the key catalyst for the companys expansion to 82 locations in 28 states with 160+ mobile units since its initial inception in 1980. Were excited to open our next Creative Colors location in the Erie area because we know that Paul and Trisha share the same We Can Fix That attitude our other successful franchisees possess, said Sniegolski. We are thrilled about our expansion in the northwestern Pennsylvania region because we know the local business owners and customers in the community will be eager to repair and restore their possessions at a fraction of the cost. The Smiths plan to start off with one mobile unit, but expect to add another within a year. It didnt take much for the Smiths to know that a Creative Colors International franchise was a good fit for themand for northwestern Pennsylvania. After we came out for Discovery Day (a day where prospective franchisees meet the corporate support team) and confirming the need for this in our market, it just made sense. Serving the automotive, commercial and furniture industries, Creative Colors International offers affordable solutions for tears, holes, scuffs, scratches and other damage found on leather, vinyl, plastic or fabric, through on-site repair, restoration, cleaning, dyeing and protection. For local residents, this means Creative Colors International can repair auto interiors, leather furniture, RV flooring and boat vinyl, among other things. Additionally, for business owners, Creative Colors International can repair any upholstery found in critical locations around the company, such as waiting rooms, examination rooms, restaurant booths, hotel rooms and theater seating, among others. For more information on the Smiths and their Creative Colors International location, please visit http://www.WeCanFixThat.com/Erie. About Creative Colors International Launched in 1991, the Creative Colors International (CCI) franchise system was created through its affiliate, J&Js Creative Colors, the original industry leader in refurbishment techniques and systems. Today, both companies continue to be family-owned and operated by the second generation. Catering to the abundance of upholstered items in every home, business and vehicle, CCI is the ultimate in on-site repair, restoration, cleaning, protection, and dyeing of leather, vinyl, plastic and fabric. Through proprietary technology, CCI restores damaged material at a fraction of replacement costs, saving customers up to 90 percent. CCI repairs are stronger than the original area and are nearly invisible to the naked eye. In the Automotive, Furniture, and Commercial Markets, CCI offers on-site repair and restoration to all types of leather, vinyl, fabric, plastic, and carpeting by repairing and re-dyeing holes, cuts, tears, burns, scrapes, fading, and discoloration. For more information on CCIs services and franchise opportunities, visit http://www.wecanfixthat.com. My patients are the measure of my success. This recognition serves as an affirmation that we are doing our job to provide superior dental care to the Elk Grove community, says Dr. Devan Dalla of Ora Dentistry. Ora Dentistry is full-service dental practice with a mission to provide the highest standard of dental care in a rewarding and comfortable environment. To this end, the Elk Grove office is equipped with modern dental technology, relaxing amenities and staff of dental professionals who adhere to superior, patient-centered care. Among the team members is lead dentist Dr. Devan Dalla. He brings trusted experience and diverse training, equipping him to provide all aspects of dental care in one convenient place, from routine dental cleanings to the most advanced dental implants technology to Invisalign clear aligners. The unwavering focus on individualized care combined with the expansive range of services available at Ora Dentistry have undoubtedly contributed to the number of excellent patient reviews left for Dr. Dalla across multiple online sources. For the second consecutive year, Ora Dentistry has been named a Top Patient-Rated Elk Grove Dentist. Find Local Doctors gives this award to a select group of dentists who have consistently earned five-star ratings from their actual patients. Find Local Doctors is a credible online directory that connects consumers with local physicians and dentists who meet their criteria for qualifications and reputation. My patients are the measure of my success. This recognition serves as affirmation that we are doing our job to provide superior dental care to the Elk Grove community, says Dr. Devan Dalla of Ora Dentistry. Beyond the comprehensive menu of dental services at Ora Dentistry, there is also an undeniable dedication to patient comfort. This includes a pampering, spa-like experience complete with warm scented towels, complimentary beverages, wireless headphones and neck pillows. The Elk Grove office also offers flexible scheduling including family block appointments as well as Saturday and evening availability. Ora Dentistry is located 2733 Elk Grove Boulevard in Elk Grove, California. More About Dr. Devan Dalla: Dr. Deval Dalla is a graduate of New York University College of Dentistry and has been in practice since 2008. While at NYU, Dr. Dalla was awarded Honors in Implantology as well as the Dr. Bernard E. Rudner Memorial Award for demonstrating superior Clinical Performance in providing comprehensive oral care. Prior to moving to the United States, Dr. Dalla earned a Bachelor's Degree in dental surgery from one of the leading dental schools in India and graduated top of his class. Dr. Dalla is an active member of multiple dental affiliations including the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID). He has a genuine passion for dentistry and for treating patients with the individualized attention they deserve. Dr. Dalla is currently practicing dental surgeon who is also serving our country as a Captain in the United States Army Reserve. For more information about Dr. Dalla or the services he offers at Ora Dentistry, please visit http://www.oradentistry.com or call (916) 975-1000. This is a testament to both our amazing team and clients. We love what we do in creating responsive website designs that perform great in search engines for out customers. I would personally like to thank our staff for making this happen. Chicago based Operation Technology has been named a leading expert in web design for 2018 by Clutch, a comprehensive researching and analyzing company based in Washington, D.C. The Clutch ratings report recognizes over 1000 companies for their ability to deliver and commitment to client satisfaction. This year, Business Analyst DJ Fajana at Clutch stated that the list of innovative leaders were chosen from their demonstrated creativity, deep understanding of the industries, and elevated level of customer service and satisfaction. Since Operation Technology has received the honor of being recognized as a leading expert in web design in 2018, Brad Fogel, the President of Operation Technology wanted to publicly praise both his staff and clients alike: This is a testament to both our amazing team and clients. We love what we do in creating responsive website designs that perform great in search engines for our customers. I would personally like to thank our staff for making this happen. Operation Technology offers web design and digital marketing services to clients throughout the United States. At Operation Technology, we always work hand-in-hand with all of our clients to give them the best experience possible while making sure that they stay visible in an increasingly competitive environment. With our team of experts, we work to get all of our clients more traffic, qualified leads, and business from their websites. We understand that communication is essential to helping our clients achieve their goals, which is why our team prioritizes our client relationships so highly. Per Clutch ratings, only the most highly recommended companies are named as leaders in Clutchs annual reports. These web designers have gone above and beyond to prove their industry expertise and ability to deliver. Learn more about Operation Technology: https://www.operationtechnology.com/ Read the full report: https://clutch.co/press-releases/announces-leading-web-design-agencies-united-states-2018 Curated quarters will provide an educational and historic look at the journey of African Americans and other people of color in the space called home. Interior Design maven Celeste Alexander will launch Curated Quarters, a resource for the interior design professionals in January 2019. The mission of the magazine is to celebrate the heritage and history of the often-underrepresented African American design community and their unique contributions to style and home decor. Alexander believes the contributions of African American designers has been overlooked for years in a niche industry that often celebrates the influences from everywhere but Africa and or continents with people of color. Curated Quarters will provide an educational journey for millennials on the historic giants of the past who paved the way for us to live the way we do today. The magazine offers an opportunity for urban designers to showcase beautiful homes done our way and others to learn about our culture from a different perspective, Alexander remarks. Residential design has historically relied heavily on colonial and provincial influences associated with France, Italy and England. Alexander would like to see influences from Africa and other continents with people of color used throughout design theory. Due to the cultural differences of the African American experience many of our contributions have been overlooked by the mainstream interior design community, Alexander says. Curated quarters will provide an educational and historic look at the journey of African Americans and other people of color in the space called home. The interior design industry continues to thrive economically with projections for 2019 coming in at 10.15 billion dollars according to a quote from the American Society of Interior Designers listed in February 2018 State of the Industry: Social Design at a Crossroads research study listed on http://www.interiorsandsources.com. We see the interior design industry showing growth in terms of employment, service and sales over the next ten years. Its important that African American and designers of color are a part of this growth in a major way. Our immediate goal is to be a resource to potential clients, the interior design industry on ways to integrate African and African American artistic influence as a viable option in the marketplace. Our long-term goal is to support and highlight designers of color that are breaking barriers and setting trends in the industry, Alexander says. Curated Quarters will premiere in January 2019. For more information on the debut and launch of Curated Quarters visit http://www.curatedquartersmag.com. For media and/or sponsorship opportunities contact: curatedquarter1(at)gmail.com We continue to develop the drug and its administration with the goal of administering the treatment in humans as soon as possible. The progress of research and development from now on will depend to a large extent on the financial investment in the project Just last month, Arizona Senator John McCain lost his battle to an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. There are over 240,000 new cases diagnosed worldwide every year of this fatal cancer. But now there is hope on the horizon. Neuroscientists at Israels largest and most comprehensive hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer, have discovered a new drug called SIXAC that has the potential to cure these terminally ill patients. In the first stage of testing, the effect of the drug on tumor cell cultures was found to reduce their rate of growth, their ability to create colonies and their ability to create extensions that penetrate the brain tissue. The drug was then examined in animals with high-grade malignant brain tumors. When the drug was administered by direct injection into the brain tumor, it reduced tumor volume and had a life-extending effect. In about 10 percent of the animals, the drug significantly extended life and actually cured them of the disease. We continue to develop the drug and its administration, with the goal of administering the treatment in humans as soon as possible. The progress of research and development from now on will depend to a large extent on the financial investment in the project, said neuroscientist Dr. Efrat Shavit-Stein, who has been working on the pioneering treatment. Dr. Shavit-Stein along with her colleague, Professor Joab Chapman, are available for interviews. About Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer Born together with Israel in 1948, Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer is the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East. Sheba is the only medical center in Israel that combines an acute care hospital and a rehabilitation hospital on one campus, and it is at the forefront of medical treatments, patient care, research and education. As a university teaching hospital affiliated with the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University, it welcomes people from all over the world indiscriminately. To learn more, visit: http://www.eng.sheba.co.il. Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce the election of 12 lawyers to the firms partnership, effective January 1, 2019. The class of 2019 includes an equal number of women and men from multiple practice groups across seven offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I am delighted to welcome this highly talented and diverse group of lawyers to our partnership, said Morrison & Foerster chair Larren Nashelsky. They are gifted lawyers in their respective areas of practice, and each has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to clients, colleagues, and community. The following lawyers have been elected partners: Amanda Aikman, a member of the Litigation Department, and part of the firms Securities Litigation, Enforcement, + White Collar Defense, FCPA + Anti-Corruption, and Investigations + White Collar Defense Groups, is based in the New York office. She represents companies and individuals in criminal and civil enforcement matters, conducts internal investigations, and advises companies on global compliance issues. Before joining the firm, Ms. Aikman was a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division. As a member of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) unit, Ms. Aikman investigated and prosecuted violations of the FCPA as well as other white collar crimes and was involved in a number of significant cases. She was also responsible for researching and preparing the first comprehensive draft of the landmark joint DOJ and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publication, A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ms. Aikman received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Caitlin Sinclaire Blythe, a member of the Litigation Department, and part of the firms Securities Litigation, Enforcement, + White Collar Defense, and Investigations + White Collar Defense Groups, is based in the San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on investigations, white collar defense and commercial litigation. She represents companies, audit committees, and individuals in SEC and DOJ enforcement matters, as well as internal corporate investigations involving accounting and disclosure issues. Ms. Blythe also represents corporations and individuals in class actions and other complex commercial litigation matters. Before joining Morrison & Foerster, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Ms. Blythe received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Andy Campbell, a member of the Corporate Department, is based in the Washington, D.C. office. His practice focuses on representing issuers and underwriters in capital markets transactions and advising public and private companies on a variety of other corporate and securities matters, including strategic transactions, corporate governance matters, and compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the listing standards of securities exchanges. With a particular focus on and experience in the REIT industry, Mr. Campbell regularly advises both issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings and other registered and unregistered offerings of common and preferred equity, debt, and convertible debt. He received his J.D. from the University of Alabama and his B.A. from Williams College. Dario de Martino, a member of the Corporate Department and co-chair of the Blockchain + Smart Contracts Group, is based in the New York office. His practice focuses on domestic and cross-border corporate transactions, principally in connection with public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and corporate governance matters. Mr. de Martino represents a broad array of U.S.-based and international clients, ranging from global corporations to closely held companies, most of which are active in the following industries: technology, including blockchain and cryptocurrencies, financial services, and healthcare. He regularly counsels clients in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, including with respect to private equity investments in companies developing blockchain-enabled technologies and token offerings (also known as ICOs). Mr. de Martino received his J.D. from Federico II University School of Law and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School. Marc-Alain Galeazzi, a member of the Financial Services Group, is based in the New York office. His practice focuses on advising and counseling foreign and domestic banks, financial holding companies, bank holding companies, and other financial institutions on a variety of bank regulatory, Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML), and transactional matters. Mr. Galeazzi also has significant experience advising financial institutions on complex regulatory matters, including matters relating to the Bank Holding Company Act, the Bank Merger Act, the Dodd-Frank Act (with regard to the Volcker Rule, living wills, and enhanced prudential standards, among others), applications to federal and state banking regulators for expansion of activities, internal restructuring, and new products, sales, and acquisitions. Mr. Galeazzi received his LIC JUR from the University of Fribourg and his LL.M. from Boston University School of Law. Annabel Gillham, a member of the Litigation Department, is based in the London office. She manages the London employment department and is part of the firms Employment + Labor and Global Privacy + Data Security Groups. Her employment practice covers cross-border employment counseling, executive hiring and firing, strategic employment advice on transactional matters and investigations and employment litigation. Ms. Gillham also regularly designs and presents training and legal updates to senior managers and HR executives and has participated in working party UK government consultations (including on the UK gender pay reporting regulations). On the data protection side, Ms. Gillham advises multinational organizations on individual rights requests, regulatory investigations and all aspects of GDPR compliance. She has particularly strong experience guiding clients through the new regime governing access to data relating to criminal allegations. Ms. Gillham received her G.D.L. and L.P.C. from the University of Law of England & Wales and her B.A. from the University of Bristol. Akira Irie, a member of the Intellectual Property Group, is based in the Tokyo office. He has represented clients before U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and the USPTO. He also assists clients in patent litigation before Japanese courts. His litigation experience includes pre-suit analysis, managing discovery and trial strategy, taking and defending depositions, arguing discovery and pre-trial motions, and arguing at Markman hearings. Additionally, he also has experience drafting pre-trial and post-trial briefs, preparing and presenting witnesses for trial testimony, and participating at patent trials before the ITC and U.S. district courts. He is also registered to practice before the USPTO as a patent attorney and has argued in Inter Partes Review proceedings before the USPTO. Mr. Irie received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law and his B.A. from Swarthmore College. Nicole Johnson, a member of the State + Local Tax Group, is based in the New York office. Her practice focuses on state and local tax controversies at the audit, administrative, and judicial levels, and encompasses tax matters regarding all tax types. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Johnson was a state and local tax manager with one of the big four accounting firms, where she focused on complex state and local tax controversies and planning opportunities. She is a frequent lecturer concerning state and local taxes and has spoken before such organizations as the Council On State Taxation, the Energy Tax Association, the Ohio Tax Conference and the California Tax Policy Conference. In 2018, Ms. Johnson was appointed to the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal Advisory Panel. She received her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law and her BSB from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Jim Krenn, a member of the Corporate Department, is based in the San Diego office. He counsels private and public companies on a broad range of significant business transactions, from formation through liquidity. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and emerging company counseling. Mr. Krenn advises clients on private and public acquisitions on both the buy-side and sell-side across numerous transaction structures, including equity purchases, asset purchases, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures of divisions and subsidiaries, cross-border transactions and auctions. He counsels emerging life science and technology companies in equity financings and general corporate matters and angel, corporate, and venture capital investors in investments in such companies. In addition, Mr. Krenn represents public companies on capital markets transactions and reporting matters, and advises boards of directors on corporate governance issues. Mr. Krenn represents clients in multiple industries, including biopharmaceutical, artificial intelligence, medical device, e commerce, cybersecurity, software, Internet, social media, semiconductor, unmanned aerial vehicles, agtech, consumer products, finance, cleantech, energy, and action sports. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame. Joyce Liou, a member of the Intellectual Property Group, is based in the San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, domestic and international trademark prosecution, copyright and trademark enforcement, and domain name arbitration. She has litigated trademark, copyright, and design patent infringement cases, as well as proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In addition to litigation, Ms. Liou advises clients on complex intellectual property issues such as counterfeit and gray market goods. Her clients come from a wide range of industries and fields, including wireless networking, consumer electronics, computer software, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, plants, and food products. Ms. Liou received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. David Newman, a member of the National Security and Global Risk + Crisis Management Groups, is based in the Washington, D.C. office. Drawing on his experience as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney and his background in government regulation and national security, his practice involves guiding clients through sensitive matters pertaining to national security and global risk and crisis management. He has significant experience advising clients on crisis management, counseling clients on Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) reviews, and conducting internal and government-facing cross-border investigations. Recently named as one of the top 40 under 40 figures in the data law bar around the world by Global Data Review, Mr. Newman has been called upon over the past year by CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired Magazine, among others, to provide thought leadership and insights on trending cybersecurity and data privacy issues. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Newman held several key posts at the White House, serving as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to President Barack Obama and on the staff of the National Security Council. Throughout his tenure at the White House, he regularly advised the President and other senior administration officials on a range of complex matters affecting the federal government, overseeing a broad portfolio that spanned national security priorities, crisis response and preparedness planning, new data and technology initiatives, criminal justice reform, and civil rights litigation. Previously, Mr. Newman was counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ, where he helped manage the DOJ National Security Division and counseled senior officials at the DOJ and across the government on a wide array of matters. A former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Newman received his J.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from Columbia University. Dr. Julia Schwalm, a member of the Commercial Litigation practice, is based in the Berlin office. Dr. Schwalm represents national and international clients in the resolution of large-scale commercial, often cross-border disputes, with a focus on technology-based disputes. She has represented clients in all aspects of litigation, from pre-litigation strategy through trial to the enforcement of judgments, and settlement negotiations. She has handled cases in a variety of industries, including automotive, aviation, consumer goods, telecommunications, heavy machinery, and banking. She also advises clients on product liability issues, assists them with the risk assessment, and has conducted numerous EU-wide voluntary recalls for her clients. Dr. Schwalm received her Dr. iur. from the University of Regensburg. ABOUT MOFO We are Morrison & Foerster a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its lists of most innovative law firms in Northern America and Asia every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in those regions. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFos Privacy and Data Security, Bankruptcy, and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education for poor children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, winning asylum for the persecuted, and safeguarding the environment. Mobile Doorman Resident Apps Now Available in More Than a Quarter Million Apartment Homes Nationwide "This is a tremendously exciting time for our company," says Mobile Doorman Founder and CEO Bob Matteson. Mobile Doorman, the industry-leading creator of custom-branded resident apps for apartment communities across the United States, today announced that its apps now serve more than 300,000 apartment homes at the conclusion of 2018. That figure represents almost an 800 percent increase from the end of 2017 and a more than 1,500 percent jump from the conclusion of 2016. With that expansion has come significant inroads into the apartment industry's biggest players. Mobile Doorman's client roster now includes communities managed by Greystar, Lincoln Property Co., Pinnacle, Alliance Residential and FPI Management the five largest apartment managers in the U.S., according to the National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC) authoritative ranking of the 50 biggest apartment management firms. Pegasus Residential, another company on the NMHC's list, recently committed to rolling out Mobile Doorman apps across 19,660 units within its portfolio. "This is a tremendously exciting time for our company," says Mobile Doorman Founder and CEO Bob Matteson. "From the explosive growth of our market presence to our new team members and our additional funding, I think we'll look back at 2018 as a pivotal year in the trajectory of Mobile Doorman. I am so humbled by the results our team is producing and the enthusiasm and excitement our apps are generating for both renters and apartment operators. The number of clients wasn't the only thing that grew for Mobile Doorman in 2018: the company also added 25 team members, representing a 400+ percent increase in headcount. Other notable growth developments include: The August announcement of the closure of a $2 million Series A funding round from Chicago-based Reimagined Ventures, an investment arm of the Alec Litowitz family office. The funding will be used to further build Mobile Doormans presence in the U.S. multifamily market and further the integrations of its apps with smart home technology. Mobile Doorman also expanded its technologically-focused partnerships throughout 2018. This includes new integrations with the popular property management system ResMan and payments platform ClickPay, as well as announcements of 2019 integrations with ButterflyMX, a cutting-edge smartphone intercom platform, and smart-home tech provider IOTAS. Last month, the custom-app developer announced the launch of its first-ever in-house technology division, which was supported by the opening of its second office, Mobile Doorman North, in Madison, Wis. To learn more about what Mobile Doorman can do for your apartment community in 2019, visit http://www.MobileDoorman.com. About Mobile Doorman: Mobile Doorman specializes in developing custom, white-label apps for apartment and condominium communities across the U.S. Our mission is to improve how residents interact with their properties with a convenient, user friendly tool that helps them live smarter while helping property owners manage better, improve retention, and boost their bottom line through nexgen technology. For more information, visit http://www.MobileDoorman.com. 2019 MIAMI Chairman of the Board Jose Maria Serrano Home to one of the worlds most diverse communities, MIAMI plays a key role in promoting South Florida globally and developing long-lasting relationships with foreign markets, 2019 MIAMI Chairman of the Board Jose Maria Serrano said. The MIAMI Association of Realtors (MIAMI) signed four international collaboration agreements during its recent Miami International Congress. MIAMI now has 204 international partners. These alliances create business opportunities for MIAMI members, enhance Miamis global position and strengthen the local economy. The bilateral agreements also provide resources, visibility and connections for MIAMIs international partners. MIAMI signed partnerships with World Property Business Club (Worldwide), OPISAS (Worldwide), TEMFED (Turkey) and FIABCI-Russia (Russia). Home to one of the worlds most diverse communities, MIAMI plays a key role in promoting South Florida globally and developing long-lasting relationships with foreign markets, 2019 MIAMI Chairman of the Board Jose Maria Serrano said. MIAMI has international partners in more than 50 countries and five continents. The Power of Global Partnerships MIAMI, the largest local Realtor association with 47,000 members, has been signing honorary reciprocal agreements with international real estate associations since 1996. MIAMI has bilateral agreements with real estate associations in more than 50 countries. The organizations are part of MIAMIs International Referral Network, which links South Florida properties with more than 1 million real estate professionals around the world. MIAMIs International Referral Network provides MIAMI members with a powerful competitive advantage, which benefits buyers, sellers and the communities they serve. Consumers should seek real estate professionals who are members of the MIAMI Association of Realtors because they have international expertise, professional network and marketing resources to better serve them. For a full list of MIAMI International Partners, visit MiamiRealtors.com/internationalpartners About Our New Partners World Property Business Club (Worldwide): The WPBC is a unique opportunity for any Realtor to increase his or her international business in an efficient way. More info: http://www.worldproperties.com Overseas Property Investment Solutions and Services: OPISAS seeks great opportunities for buying at convenient prices, renovating and renting properties, and then reselling them. More info: https://www.opisas.com/eng TEMFED: Largest Professional Non-Government Organization in Turkey Founded in 2005, TEMFED is the largest professional non-government organization in Turkey. More info: http://www.temfed.org.tr FIABCI- Russia: Founded in 1995, FIABCI-Russia represents the international interests of Russian Realtors. More info: http://www.fiabci.ru About the MIAMI Association of Realtors The MIAMI Association of Realtors was chartered by the National Association of Realtors in 1920 and is celebrating 99 years of service to Realtors, the buying and selling public, and the communities in South Florida. Comprised of six organizations, the Residential Association, the Realtors Commercial Alliance, the Broward Council, the Jupiter Tequesta Hobe Sound (JTHS-MIAMI) Council, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Council and the award-winning International Council, it represents 47,000 real estate professionals in all aspects of real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage. It is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S. and has official partnerships with 204 international organizations worldwide. MIAMIs official website is http://www.MiamiRealtors.com Paul Mahsahn "Making the impossible possible" Paul Mahsahn is a native Memphian from Orange mound with a vision to transcend Memphis hiphop to the world. Having experienced personal struggles he brings his own personal raw emotion to his craft in ways that lead one to easily relate.known to make music that is both entertaining, and thought provoking. Paul Mahsahn has performed from Memphis TN to Houston TX.Like first time drinkers usually become alcoholics Paul Mahsahn specializes in making new consumers become repeat consumers. Paul Mahsahn is not a single entity Paul Mahsahn is a movement. As an artist Paul Mahsahn has achieved moderate underground success with the controversial record Ms.jetblack saluting African-American women, while speaking out against colorism within the community at large in the song. He was also granted the opportunity to have a small background role in an upcoming Nationwide theater movie titled the"Brian Banks Story", which was directed by Tom Shadyac and starred Aldi's Hodge. Memphis hip-hop artist Paul Mahsahn now returns to the studio with a new wave of momentum behind him. Recently, he was contacted by local news media Channel 5 of Memphis for an interview concerning the Ms. Jet-black single. Paul Mahsahn performed Ms.jetblack at the Southern Heritage classic tailgate party organized by the Memphis dj team called the Pro Beat Djs.Footage of that performance was broadcasted on local Memphis news and honored on hip hop YouTube's independent artist honors segment. The record has also received radio airplay from many radio stations in the U.S. such as Boston's station 87.fm by DJ Big Beats to Lagos Nigeria City 105fm. Riding such an underground wave of success, Paul Mahsahn returns to the studio to expand on what he has done with an upbeat, feel good, yet powerful project called 1 night Action that will give consumers the total package in great production,savvy wordplay with all around appeal.Included in this project will be a record where the artist bares his soul seeking clarity concerning the world's state of affairs, and the situations that plague our society nationally, internationally.Also featured on this project will be a song with it's own challenge called"did she shake it" or "did she break it"challenge.the song is the ultimate twerk record with a hip-hop/rock feel called shake it til u break it.Another single that will be promoted has half the first verse in spanish called Drippin crises.It is strictly about enjoying life.And another record will be a smooth sensual record guaranteed to be a hit among the ladies called slowdown showdown. Ms.jetblack will still be included as a single in this upcoming project.The project will also address many of today's controversial topics as the artist has never been one to shy away from the relevant subject matters of today's time.There will be many other things covered in this upcoming project that for sake of writing cannot be expressed in this article. To view the artist and a few of the artist achievements, visit https://www.reverbnation.com/paulmahsahn. (All new account with all new music including ms.jetblack) The artist can be contacted by email at paulmahsahn33@gmail.com and paulmahsahn33 Instagram.Search Paul Mahsahn on Twitter for features, show bookings, etc contact the artist agent@(901)900-9572 ask for Paul.Thank you for your time in reading this article about this inspirational artist. Contact Information Paul Wicks P.M.E. Memphis Tn, 38018 (901)900-9572 https://www.reverbnation.com/paulmahsahn EF Ultimate Break (EFUB), a leader in immersive and social, millennial-tailored group travel experiences, announces a line-up of seven new and exciting itineraries coming in 2019 to its portfolio of Millennial and Gen Z hot spots. While some of these highly anticipated trips mark EF Ultimate Breaks first venture into popular destinations like Hawaii, Ibiza and Africa, other new trips throughout Europe grow EF Ultimate Breaks active portfolio of more adventurous, outdoor itineraries. From tracking gorillas in Uganda to hiking the Swiss Alps to wine tasting on sunset ferries in Lake Como, EF Ultimate Break is giving 18-29-year olds seven more reasons (at least!) to travel in 2019: Introducing Africa in 2019 o African Adventure: Gorillas and Great Lakes - An ecological deep-dive into Uganda; travellers will see gorillas and other wildlife in their natural habitats while visiting four national parks. EF collaborates with World Animal Protection to ensure travel programs are consistent with animal welfare policies. Highlights of Morocco Just across the water from Spain, Morocco has a plethora of exotic influences from both European and African countries alike! Marrakesh may be an icon of a bygone era but make it your reality in 2019! Spain, Portugal, and Morocco- Nail two continents in one trip! This vacation combines Europe with Africa, and Mediterranean beaches with bustling Saharan cities. Equal parts paella and couscous. No Passport? No problem. Hawaii Clocks in as EF Ultimate Breaks First Domestic Trip o Hawaii - Surfs Up! Big waves, night time manta ray snorkelling, volcano hiking and the unrivalled poke bowls arent just for honeymoons. Hawaii offers 18-29-year olds so much more! See Europe Your Way: More Tours. More Ways. Ibiza, Barcelona, and Valencia Discussions on the worlds best nightclubs and beaches begin and end with Ibiza and Valencia. This tour is anything but your mothers Mediterranean! Italian Lakes and Swiss Alps An amazing tour inclusive of mountain hikes and vistas of Lakes Como and Lugano, two new destinations for EF Ultimate Break. Requisite chocolate, cheese and wine included on this active tour! Ireland Adventure Touring Ireland is always popular but touring Ireland by foot is a wish of many young travellers. On this new active itinerary, travellers will hike the Cliffs of Moher and Giants Causeway then kick up boots to live music and a Guinness at a cozy, local pub. Pick Your Destination. Book Your Departure. EF Ultimate Break Does the Rest! EF Ultimate Break experiences include flights, accommodations, airport transfers, meals, Insta-worthy experiences, a 24-7 tour director, and a social group environment to make lifelong connections. With only $150 down, travelers 18-29 years old can reserve a spot on one of EF Ultimate Breaks life changing tours. In addition, EF Ultimate Break offers interest-free payment options meaning Millennials and GenZers can book now and pay on a schedule leading up to departure making travel in your twenties financially attainable. Visit http://www.efultimatebreak.com for more information and to see all available trips. ### About EF Ultimate Break EF Ultimate Break is the best way to experience the world for anyone 18-29. With 65+ trips, everything from airfare and accommodations to interest-free payment plans and daily breakfasts are included. As a proud part of EF Education First, EF Ultimate Break draws on over 50 years of EF expertise to add amazing travel experiences to its growing tour portfolio. EF, the world leader in international education, has helped more than 15 million people learn a language, discover the world or earn an academic degree to date. EF is the first international education company to collaborate with World Animal Protection to ensure travel programs are wildlife friendly and avoid attractions inconsistent with animal welfare policies. Geoffrey Finlay Logistyx Technologies is growing by leaps and bounds, and were deeply committed to recruiting the best and brightest people in the business; providing world-class products, services and technologies; and empowering our customers with instant access to the largest carrier network on the market. Logistyx Technologies, the leader in Transportation Management for parcel shipping, today announced it has successfully completed 90 People in 90 Days -- an initiative aimed at recruiting 90 employees in the same amount of time to help drive the companys commitment to provide its customers with instant connectivity to the largest carrier network in the industry. The success of 90 People in 90 Days comes on the heels of Logistyx recently doubling the size of its new North American corporate headquarters in Rolling Meadows, Ill., to accommodate its rapid growth. In January 2019, Logistyx will add space in a second office tower at its expansive Rolling Meadows campus and open new offices for its European headquarters in the Netherlands. The company also recently expanded its network carrier operations in its offices in Tulsa, Okla. Logistyx Technologies is growing by leaps and bounds, and were deeply committed to recruiting the best and brightest people in the business; providing world-class products, services and technologies; and empowering our customers with instant access to the largest carrier network on the market, said Logistyx CEO Geoffrey Finlay. In the next year and beyond, we will continue to expand our carrier reach, and as a result, enable our customers to expand theirs. In line with the companys rapid growth in facilities, staff, services, products and platforms, Logistyx will soon launch TME3, the industrys first true single global enterprise engine. We could not be more excited about the launch of TME3, and we can hardly wait to introduce our customers to even more products and platforms they wont find anywhere else in the marketplace, Finlay said. Logistyx optimizes businesses transportation management for parcels with industry-leading software, hardware and knowledge to increase carrier choice and efficiency to reduce parcel shipping costs without sacrificing service. This unique, comprehensive package offers a configurable solution for smarter shipping anywhere by leveraging a global carrier network and predictive analytics for data and value-driven decisions. Logistyxs multi-carrier shipping software solutions are used around the globe every day by manufacturers, distributors, e-commerce companies, and third-party logistics providers. About Logistyx Technologies: Logistyx Technologies is the leader in Transportation Management for parcel shipping, providing an unmatched global multi-carrier network, predictive analytics and full visibility into customer deliveries. Its software boosts parcel shipping efficiencies and other business KPIs for many of the worlds top brands, manufacturers, retailers and logistics providers. Headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Logistyx Technologies also has U.S. offices in New York, Philadelphia, San Diego and St. Louis, and international offices in Canada, the Netherlands, the UK and Singapore. For more information, visit http://www.Logistyx.com. Were eager to showcase how our made-to-order flooring will offer North American customers a competitive alternative to whats currently on the market. Lico-U.S. will exhibit its Hydro Fix Comfort Core flooring line Jan. 23-25, 2019 at the International Surface Event (TISE), Las Vegas. Comprised of three tradeshows including Surfaces, StonExpo/Marmomac and TileExpo, TISE is the largest North American floor covering, stone, and tile industry event. Lico-U.S. will be at booth #2077. The Surfaces show is the perfect venue to introduce new products because its such a comprehensive show and maintains a stellar industry reputation, says Rob Rebman, president of Lico-U.S., a newly-formed C-Corporation between LI & CO (Switzerland) and ACP (Wisconsin). Were eager to showcase how our made-to-order flooring will offer North American customers a competitive alternative to whats currently on the market. Hydro Fix Comfort Core flooring integrates RCB technology, which is twice as dense as any LVT/WPC core and offers a thinner, more rigid plank. It is 100 percent waterproof, can be installed over most existing hard surfaces and will not telegraph minor subfloor imperfections. It also boasts the highest acoustic performance in the market. Lico-U.S. is investing $10 million to begin manufacturing Hydro Fix at its Neenah, Wis., headquarters, a 200,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing and distribution facility that will include PVC flooring extrusion and milling lines. The company will also provide sales and service in North America for Licos many other flooring technologies and brands manufactured at Licos main production facility in Mustair, Switzerland. LI & CO is a privately held company with over 20 years of high-quality, innovative floor manufacturing experience. The Swiss company currently manufactures 13 flooring lines in Mustair. ACP, LLC is a privately held, 25-year-old manufacturing, marketing and distribution company. ACPs history includes manufacturing and distributing decor offerings including backsplash, ceiling and wall products for residential and commercial customers. More information about Lico Swiss-quality floors, including where to buy, technical specifications, installation guides and FAQs, can be found at http://www.lico-us.com. Lico flooring products are a product of ACP. ACPs products blend ingenuity with style giving customers finished projects that feature easy installation, quality, affordability and timeless appeal. Company contact information: ACP 2341 Industrial Drive, Neenah, WI 54956. 800-434-3750. With the integration of a new suite of cloud offerings in our portfolio, we felt it was time to implement a website redesign wed been considering for some time. Liberty Center One, a leading provider of IT delivery infrastructure, today completed a redesign of its website. Intended to help prospective clients more easily understand and browse through Liberty Center Ones offerings, the redesign also promotes several new cloud offerings. These include infrastructure-as-a-service, virtual disaster recovery, data-storage-as-a-service, backup-as-a-service. One Cloud Services, Libertys cloud offers robust cloud architecture to handle a range of workloads. Desktop-as-a-service lets clients utilize a Citrix-powered cloud desktop. At Liberty Center One, we're always looking for ways we might better serve our clients, said Tim Mullahy LCOs Managing Director. In the last 18 months, weve managed to significantly expand both our offerings and our geographic coverage while building out the level and quality of service were able to provide. A major objective of this expansion, explains Mullahy, was to ensure clients were able to enjoy the same flexibility, customizability, and support with LCOs new offerings as they are with its current portfolio. This is one of the reasons the company offers cloud migration assistance at no additional cost. Its also why the company chose this moment to redo its website. With the integration of a new suite of cloud offerings in our portfolio, we felt it was time to implement a website redesign wed been considering for some time, he continues. Our new site layout is more streamlined, more focused, and easier to navigate. The new website reworks Liberty Center Ones sitemap, separating its services into three broad categories: colocation, cloud, and virtual disaster recovery. It will also include a resources page designed to help clients address many of the most common questions pertaining to colocation and the cloud. We look forward to seeing how our audience engages with our new site - and to offering them our new products and services, Mullahy concluded. About Liberty Center One Liberty Center One is an IT delivery solutions company focused on high availability environment and data protection. Liberty provides public cloud, private cloud, and colocation services out of three hardened, SOC2 Type II audited data centers in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Dallas. Contact Liberty Center One by calling 734-507-0521, by visiting http://www.libertycenterone.com, or by emailing tim.mullahy@libertycenterone.com. Precious Names of God: an eye-opening list of Gods various names and titles. Precious Names of God is the creation of published author Lawrence Adams, a native of British Columbia, Canada, who has been through the Bible over fifty times. Adams writes, God has many names that describe his personality. When you get to know his nature and how he works, his names are precious to you. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Lawrence Adamss new book is a spirited attempt to make known the various names of God that will be a source of strength for all believers as well as a way for Gods children to feel closer to their heavenly Father, who after all knows them by name. Adams offers this straightforward work of biblical scholarship as an invaluable reference for avid students of the Bible and prophecy. View a synopsis of Precious Names of God on YouTube. Consumers can purchasePrecious Names of God at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Precious Names of God, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Evaluation and treatment of infants born with severely undersized lower jaws vary among doctors, but common practices could define best practices, according to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Researchers propose an algorithm for early management of Robin sequence, a condition in which Infants have a tiny lower jaw, allowing their tongue to compromise their airway and impair feeding. The study published in the official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) involved 193 doctors from 20 countries 80 percent were surgeons who answered survey questions about evaluation and early treatment of infants with Robin sequence, as well as two cases to evaluate how they would handle clinical scenarios. The first case was a newborn with nonsyndromic Robin sequence, moderate airway obstruction and feeding impairment. The second case was an infant with syndromic Robin sequence and severe airway obstruction needing intubation in the delivery room. Variations were found among clinical groups. However, the investigations found that, Despite variation in the evaluation and treatment of infants with RS (Robin sequence), this international and multispecialty survey showed trends that could represent best practices. The proposed algorithm presents diagnosis and early treatment based on consultations, feeding evaluation, sleep study and airway evaluation. Such factors as obstructive sleep apnea, airway anomalies and feeding could determine treatment, according to the algorithm. This study showed a marked difference in the management of infants with RS between U.S. and non-U.S. physicians, researchers wrote. Non-U.S. physicians tended to spend more time trialing non-operative treatments and were less likely to recommend an airway operation compared with U.S. respondents. The authors hypothesize this is driven by differences in healthcare systems and maternity leave allowances, because delaying an airway operation is likely associated with longer hospitalization. In addition, surgeons and non-surgeons vary in how they evaluate and treat these patients, but the results were statistically irrelevant, according to the study. Surgeons tend to ask for an airway evaluation, consult with a geneticist, conduct diagnostic imaging and recommend airway surgery earlier. Non-surgeons are more likely to place nasogastric tubes earlier, perhaps due to more attention to eating and nutrition, the authors stated. Furthermore, providers with a high volume of new infants with the condition are more likely to recommend consultation with a craniofacial surgeon and a sleep study during early treatment. These doctors also were more likely to propose surgery to treat airway obstruction earlier and less likely to insert a tube in the nasal passageway, possibly because doctors who have more resources and background with the condition are more likely to operate sooner. The authors of Early Management of Infants With Robin Sequence: An International Survey and Algorithm are: Cory M. Resnick, DMD, M.D. (Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Boston Childrens Hospital), Joshua LeVine (Harvard School of Dental Medicine), Carly E. Calabrese, MPH (Boston Childrens Hospital), Bonnie L. Padwa, DMD, M.D. (Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Boston Childrens Hospital), and Anne Hansen, M.D., MPH, and Umakanth Katwa, M.D. (Harvard Medical School). The full article can be accessed at http://www.JOMS.org/article/S0278-2391(18)30506-8/fulltext. The Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is published by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons to present to the dental and medical communities comprehensive coverage of new techniques, important developments and innovative ideas in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Practice-applicable articles help develop the methods used to handle dentoalveolar surgery, facial injuries and deformities, TMJ disorders, oral and head and neck cancer, jaw reconstruction, anesthesia and analgesia. The journal also includes specifics on new instruments and diagnostic equipment, and modern therapeutic drugs and devices. David has built an impressive track record of strategic and corporate accomplishments within the insurance software vertical. Insuresoft, a digital insurance platform provider for property and casualty insurers, is pleased to announce the appointment of David Squibb as their new Global Evangelist. As the Global Evangelist, David will work with Insuresofts leadership to coordinate a cohesive brand message. Before joining Insuresoft, David held global sales and marketing leadership positions for Xpertdoc Technologies, Valen Analytics, and OneShield, Inc. Prior to that, he was the General Manager for a global insurance technology business unit at CGI. David has built an impressive track record of strategic and corporate accomplishments within the insurance software vertical, said Tony Villa, Chief Executive Officer of Insuresoft. David embodies our commitment to building our team of insurance professionals in order to better service our clients and partners. I am very excited to be working with such a stellar team of technology and insurance experts, stated David Squibb. I am looking forward to helping them build their brand. I firmly believe the organization is poised for incredible growth. About Insuresoft Insuresoft is a privately held independent software vendor with offices in University Park, IL and Tuscaloosa, AL. Insuresofts flagship product, Diamond, is a digital insurance platform comprised of policy, billing, claims and analytics modules that are utilized by property and casualty insurers. The platform processes all personal and commercial lines of business across all 50 states. Insuresofts clients span the continuum from start-up MGA to some of the largest carriers and brokers in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.insuresoft.com, email sales@insuresoft.com, or call 866-299-1314. Jay Steinman, left; Keith Mandachit, right. Huffman Engineering now has eight licensed professional engineers on staff. Huffman Engineering, Inc., a leader in control systems integration with offices in Nebraska and Colorado, today announced that two more of their engineers, Keith Mandachit and Jay Steinman, are licensed as professional engineers in the State of Nebraska. This brings the company up to eight licensed professional engineers on staff. Jay Steinmans experience with mechanical design, PLC and HMI programming, qualification and validation have led to his success as a lead project engineer. Jay also holds certification as a Wonderware Certified Developer. Jay completed his undergraduate education at the University of Nebraska and received his Master of Engineering Management degree also from the University of Nebraska in 2017. Keith Mandachit has worked on numerous projects for customers ranging from water treatment to pharmaceuticals. His familiarity with many different applications and industries makes him an asset for any customer considering technical upgrades or new applications. Keith was named to Control Engineering Magazines Leaders Under 40, Class of 2012, received the Control System Integrators Associations (CSIA) Rising Star Award in April 2014 and received Nebraska FIRST LEGO Leagues Outstanding Volunteer award in 2012. Keith is also an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America. Keith has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and serves as Huffman Engineerings Engineering Manager. About Huffman Engineering, Inc. Huffman Engineering, Inc. is a CSIA Certified control systems integration company offering turnkey engineering design and control systems integration services to industrial and utility customers. Huffman Engineering has served the Midwest since 1987. For more information, visit HuffmanEng.com. The scholarship was established to encourage students to advance their education beyond high school, better preparing them to enter the workforce and give back to their communities. Houston Personal Injury Law Firm, Lowenberg & Kumar, has announced a $1,000 scholarship opportunity for college and trade students. The scholarship was established to encourage students to advance their education beyond high school, better preparing them to enter the workforce and give back to their communities. In the United States, over 60% of undergraduate students graduate with student loan debt. Scholarships lessen this burden, allow students to spend more time focusing on their education, as well as encouraging students to be philanthropic later in life. Who is eligible? The Lowenberg & Kumar Scholarship is open to students from across the country. To be eligible, applicants must be U.S. citizens and show proof of current enrollment or acceptance at an accredited college or trade school. If the applicant is already attending college, they must have a G.P.A. of 3.0 or above. Current high school students, who are applying based on their acceptance into a program, must show a high school G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher. Funds can only be used for school tuition and related expenses. A check will be made payable directly to the educational institution. How to Apply Those interested in being considered for the scholarship will write an essay of at least 750 words, but no more than 1,000 words, on what will set you apart from others in your chosen field or profession. When answering this question, applicants are encouraged to consider what they will do to bring unique value to their work and how they will prevent against mediocrity in their vocation. The essay should be emailed to scholarships "at" thetexastriallawyers.com in MS Word, PDF, or plain text format, along with proof of enrollment or acceptance in an accredited college or trade school, and a copy of your most recent college, trade school, or high school transcripts. Include your name and phone number in your email. The deadline to apply for the Lowenberg & Kumar Scholarship each year is November 1st at Midnight, Pacific Time. Contacts: Mike Lowenberg Andrew Kumar Lowenberg & Kumar Law Firm 5433 Westheimer Road, Suite 630 Houston, TX 77056 (832) 241-6000 https://www.thetexastriallawyers.com/#scholarship Mitch Kristofferson Haven addresses some of the most important challenges that large Japanese shippers face today when optimizing their global supply chain, said Mr. Kristofferson Haven Inc. considered one of the pioneers of the digital revolution in shipping logistics, announces the appointment of Mitch Kristofferson as Managing Director Japan to solidify Havens commitment to the Japanese market. Based in Tokyo, Mr. Kristofferson has had successful tenures at Oracle, DemandTec, SAP and most recently Apttus where he established and led Apttus business in the Japan market. He will oversee the growth and evolution of Haven throughout Japan while being responsible for driving strategy, brand awareness, sales execution, partner alliances, and customer success. Haven addresses some of the most important challenges that large Japanese shippers face today when optimizing their global supply chain, said Mr. Kristofferson. The visibility that Haven offers its customers and partners is fundamental to logistics and supply chain transformation. Im thrilled to join the company to help deepen its presence in Japan. Haven continues to work with integrated trading companies to solve their most critical supply chain issues through automation and visibility, said Mr. Tillman, Havens CEO. The appointment of Mr. Kristofferson to Managing Director reaffirms our commitment to existing customers in the region. Were thrilled to add Mitch and his track record of working with Japanese trading firms to increase efficiency through technology. Mitch received a BA Degree in Human Biology from Stanford University and an MBA degree with a focus on marketing also from Stanford University. --- About Haven Inc. Haven was founded in 2014 to responsibly expand global trade through digital transformation. We help enterprises automate logistics, collaborate with partners, and gain valuable insights into their supply chain. If you share our vision and seek to make a material impact on trade, or if you manage a complex supply chain, get in touch here: https://www.haveninc.com. Grower DIrect 6 bin Napasol pasteurizer TERP approval for our Napasol pasteurization line for almonds is a big deal allowing to expand applications and develop toll services to Almond growers in California Grower Direct Nut Company of Hughson California, has successfully validated its Napasol Pasteurization unit for Almonds. With the Almond Board of California Technical Expert Review Panel (TERP) approving their facility, they can offer pasteurization toll services to the Almond industry. Napasol North America of Pasadena, CA, has supplied the validated pasteurization line that Grower Direct is currently running with Walnuts. The Napasol pasteurizer has been consistently and reliably producing high quality Ready-to-Eat walnut kernels that retain all the raw characteristics of the nut with a >5log pathogen reduction process assuring product safety. Grower Direct customers have been very happy with the results of the Pasteurized walnuts. The general consensus is that the treatment improves the overall quality of the walnut by reducing the walnut's natural acidity and adding a crunchy bite without negative effects on the shelf life. The Napasol process uniquely allows pasteurizing at low temperatures by working in a partial vacuum with saturated steam. Lucio Salazar CEO/COO of Grower Direct Nuts says TERP approval for our Napasol pasteurization line for almonds is a big deal allowing to expand applications and develop toll services to Almond growers in California. The batch process can produce over 10000lbs of pasteurized almonds per hour with documented traceability of each load. The low temperature process preserves the raw characteristic of the almonds as the steam does not wet the product and no drying step is needed. The Food Safety Modernization acts (FSMA) Preventative Controls requires a Pasteurization step for which the Grower Direct Company has invested in the Napasol Pasteurization technology. Aaron Martella CEO/President of Grower Direct Nuts says We decided on the Napasol unit because we liked the positive effects it had on both walnuts and almonds. Also, with the increase in demand for pasteurization, we needed an alternative to PPO (Propylene Oxide) that was more of a natural process. Unlike other processes where product is transported on conveyors, belts, or other mechanical means, the almonds in the Napasol process sit still in a bin which moves through the processing line. This eliminates mechanical product damage thus reducing dust and breakage. The product in the bin is never in contact with the equipment allowing continuous use of the equipment without down time for cleaning. When needed the bins can be cleaned offline while the line is running. At product changeover surfaces and floors can be easily cleaned. Grower Direct Nut Company Inc. is a full service walnut processing facility that primarily focuses on shelled walnuts. The family business was founded in 2004. In addition, the Martella family serves many local growers with a commercial harvesting business and is one of the largest walnut hullers/dehydrators in California. Obtaining TERP approval and adding the Napasol pasteurization unit allows them to offer services for walnuts, almonds and potentially other nuts. Napasol North America of Pasadena, CA, provides pasteurization equipment for nuts, seeds, herbs, spices and other low moisture foods. While Napasol equipment is validated for the full range of nuts in locations around the world, this is the first plant in the US to get TERP approval for Almond Pasteurization. This major step will open the considerable and growing Almond pasteurization market to the Napasol technology. William D. Oetinger has joined the law firm of Grim, Biehn & Thatcher, located in Perkasie, Pa. Oetingers areas of practice include general litigation, criminal law, and municipal law. We are very pleased that William has joined our firm, said Gregory E. Grim, CEO, Grim, Biehn & Thatcher. His knowledge and experience will serve our clients well. Grim, Biehn & Thatcher of Perkasie, Pa., is pleased to welcome attorney William D. Oetinger to the firm. A resident of Hatboro, Pa., Oetinger received a bachelors degree from Pennsylvania State University and a law degree from Temple University. His areas of practice include general litigation, criminal law, and municipal law. We are very pleased that William has joined our firm, said Gregory E. Grim, CEO, Grim, Biehn & Thatcher. His knowledge and experience will serve our clients well. Prior to joining Grim, Biehn & Thatcher, Oetinger worked as an assistant public defender in Bucks County, Pa., where he represented indigent defendants in all aspects of criminal proceedings. About Grim, Biehn & Thatcher Grim, Biehn & Thatcher has been providing trusted legal counsel, practical, commonsense advice and values-based business solutions to clients since the firm was founded by Webster Grim in 1895. The firm represents clients in the areas of Business, Commercial and Tax Law; Litigation; Family Law; Criminal Law; Landlord/Tenant Law; Municipal/Zoning Law; Personal Injury Law; Wills and Estates; and Real Estate Law. The firm prides itself on the following commitments it makes to its clients: Responsibility Recognizing that the firm is in a service business and that clients expect and deserve timeliness and responsiveness. This priority is embedded into the firms culture and values. Trust Representing clients in a skillful and honest manner; taking ownership of every action in its dealings with clients and others with unyielding integrity. Diligence Providing the best service with confidence about what the firm does and always working hard to deliver quality service with the clients goals and best interests in mind for each legal matter. Value Striving to pool talents and resources to better serve clients and minimize unnecessary costs and expenses, thus providing increased value to its clients. For more information about Grim, Biehn & Thatcher visit http://www.grimlaw.com. Ron Diamond spoke at the 12/11 partners-only meeting which marked the official kick-off of the Stanford GPC Disruptive Technology & Digital Cities Program. Financial Poise is pleased to congratulate Ron Diamond, Chair of the Family Office Advisor, a Financial Poise editorial board, on his speaking engagement on December 11, 2018, at the inaugural partners-only meeting marking the official launch of the Stanford GPC Disruptive Technology & Digital Cities Program. The Stanford GPC Disruptive Technology & Digital Cities Program was created in 2017 to change the way commercial companies transform and monetize disruptive technology for their urban markets. The goal of this program is to identify early-stage technologies that can create commercial opportunity, while also looking at new ways of thinking about company and industry business models, governance, sustainability, competitive advantage and relevant technology adoption. Joining Mr. Diamond at the December 11, 2018 meeting were Digital Cities Program partners Amazon, Bechtel, Booz Allen, CIBC, Cushman Wakefield, Hitachi, Microsoft, Prologis, Royal Bank of Canada, SRI International and Visa. Diamond notes that it was an, "exciting opportunity to speak at Stanford University alongside partners Amazon, Microsoft, Visa, Booz Allen and Cushman Wakefield at the inaugural meeting of the newly created Stanford Digital Cities program." ABOUT DIAMOND WEALTH Diamond Wealth is a boutique financial services firm that offers a comprehensive suite of advisory services catering to the unique needs of family offices, ultra high net worth individuals and business owners. To learn more about Diamond Wealth, please visit http://www.diamondwealthstrategies.com/ ABOUT FINANCIAL POISE Financial Poise has one mission: to provide reliable plain English business, financial and legal education to individual investors and private business owners. Financial Poise content is created by seasoned, respected experts who are invited to join our Faculty only after being recommended by current Faculty Members. Our editorial staff then works to make sure that all content is easily digestible. Financial Poise is a meritocracy; nobody can buy her way onto the Financial Poise Faculty. Start learning today at https://www.financialpoise.com/ "Nearly all of the geopolitical developments that matter are now trending in the wrong direction. These issues, if left unaddressed, will lead to big trouble down the road. This is geopolitical climate change. Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group President Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer and Chairman Cliff Kupchan are pleased to present this year's Top Risks report, which identifies the most challenging political and geopolitical trends and stress points for global investors and market participants in 2019, as well as a few red herringsissues that, despite media attention, are unlikely to pose a significant threat or drive instability in the coming year. The political risk outlook for 2019 is reasonably good, said Bremmer. But nearly all of the geopolitical developments that matter are now trending in the wrong direction. Thats unprecedented in my lifetime. These issues, if left unaddressed, will lead to big trouble down the road. This is geopolitical climate change. Topping the list in 2019 is Bad Seeds: The geopolitical dangers taking shape around the world will bear fruit in years to come, Bremmer and Kupchan write. The worlds decision-makers are so consumed with addressing (or failing to address) the daily crises that arise from a world without leadership that theyre allowing a broad array of future risks to germinate, with serious consequences for our collective mid-term future. Below is a summary of all ten Top Risks for 2019. Click here for the full report and an exclusive video. Bremmer and Kupchan will host an on-the-record conference call today at 10:00 EST/15:00 GMT to discuss the risks and take questions. Dial-in information is below. The geopolitical environment is the most dangerous its been in decades, and at a moment when the global economy is faring well. Markets are taking hits and (mostly) bouncing back. Whats wrong with this picture? Nothingyet. The most serious geopolitical risks (a cyber confrontation with Russia, war with Iran, implosion in Europe, a true US-China trade war) are more plausible than theyve been, but none are particularly likely to play out in 2019. But we are heading for serious longer-term trouble down the road. Thats the first of Eurasia Groups ten Top Risks this year. 1 - Bad seeds World leaders are so busy dealing with local crises that theyre ignoring much bigger problems down the road. 2019 is the year bad seeds are being planted that will eventually threaten the entire global order. Examples? Political institutions across the worlds advanced democracies, the transatlantic alliance, NATO, the European Union, the G20, the World Trade Organization, Russia and the West none of these will explode this year, but every one of them is headed in the wrong direction. 2 US-China The US-China relationship is broken, and even a truce in the trade war wont fix it. Trust between the two sides is almost gone. Democrats and Republicans agree that China poses threats. The Chinese believe they cant afford to back down. Both sides will work to make themselves less vulnerable to the other by reducing the connections that have so far bound them together. 3 Cyber gloves off Hackers build new skills, our digital dependency deepens, and there are still no realistic rules of the road to help avoid cyber-conflict. Its hard to halt an attack. You cant tell whether its a government, a thief, a terrorist, or anarchist whos shooting at you. Your cyber-defenses fast become obsolete. And 2019 will be the year the US government goes on offense. The results will be dangerous. 4 European populism The European Union will hold parliamentary elections in May, and populists will win more seats than ever before. Theyll also play more significant roles in the European Commission and European Council, helping them challenge current European policy on migration, trade, and enforcement of EU rules inside member states. Internal disagreements will also disrupt the EU's ability to react quickly to crises. 5 The US at home Their majority in the House gives Democrats real power for the first time since Donald Trump became president, and though hes not likely to be removed from office, infighting in Washington will be especially intense in 2019. Trump will face challenges from Democrats, the media, the courts, and a growing number of investigations of his administration, his campaign, his businesses, and his family. Trump will return fire, raising the risk of a constitutional crisis. Markets may remain volatile. 6 Innovation winter Security fears persuade governments to avoid foreign suppliers in areas critical to national security. Privacy concerns lead them to tightly regulate how citizens data can be used. Economic worries lead them to build barriers that protect their tech companies against foreign competitors. We see these trends in US-China relations, but Europe and Japan are also imposing new restrictions. Brazil, India, and even California have adopted, or are considering, tough new data protection rules. Innovation depends on cooperation. Expect much less of that in 2019. 7 Coalition of the unwilling Donald Trump now has imitators. Italy's Matteo Salvini and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro used a playbook like Trumps to win an election. Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Recep Erdogan, and North Koreas Kim Jong-un have tactical reasons to promote the US president. Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman and Israel's Bibi Netanyahu need his support. These leaders dont salute a common flag, but each will bolster Trumps challenge to the international status quo. 8 Mexico New president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is popular, and his party has big congressional majorities, but his bid to roll back the opening of Mexicos economy, orthodox macroeconomic policies, privatizations, and deregulation threaten a return to the 1960s. In 2019, hell spend money Mexico doesnt have on problems like poverty and security that resist straightforward solutions. And as he centralizes power, policy making will become more erratic. 9 Ukraine Vladimir Putin will not compromise on Ukraine, Russias most important neighbor. He wants a decisive say in that countrys future. Ukraine will hold a presidential election in March, and parliamentary elections in the fall. Russia will interfere to a far greater degree than their involvement in US and European elections. Both governments have political incentives to pick fights with the other. Though both want to keep their battles within limits, conflict can take on a life of its own. 10 Nigeria Nigeria faces its most fiercely contested election since becoming a democracy in 1999. President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the energy and skill to meet Nigerias needs. His opponent, Atiku Abubakar, wants mainly to enrich himself and his allies. If Buhari wins, much-needed reforms must wait, and militant attacks on the oil industry will worsen. His failing health could add to political infighting. An opposition win could lead to more predatory and populist governance. Theres also a wildcard risk: An inconclusive election result could create chaos. Red herrings Brazils new president Jair Bolsonaro might be a nationalist and former army officer, but the public, the media, and Brazils political institutions wont allow space for any dangerous centralization of power. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made many enemies in recent years but hes not going anywhere, and neither he nor the kingdom he will lead faces serious risks in 2019. Irans need to endure US sanctions by protecting relations with Europe will limit the aggressiveness of its foreign policy, as it keeps its head down and tries to run out the clock on the Trump administration. Suspicion and competition between Russia and China will ensure they dont move toward a genuine anti-Western alliance. *** Top Risks Conference Call Dial-in (10:00 EST/15:00 GMT) +1 877.888.4312 (US, CANADA) +1 785.424.1876 (INTERNATIONAL) CONFERENCE ID: 29298 *** Eurasia Group is the world's leading global political risk research and consulting firm. By providing information and insight on how political developments move markets, we help clients anticipate and respond to instability and opportunities everywhere they invest or do business. Our expertise includes developed and developing countries in every region of the world, specific economic sectors, and the business and investment playing fields of the future. With our best-in-class advisory and consulting offerings, the next-generation applied geopolitics platform egX, and GZERO Media, the Eurasia Group umbrella provides the marketplace with a complete political risk solution. Headquartered in New York, we have offices in Washington DC, London, San Francisco, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Tokyo, as well as on-the-ground experts and resources in more than a hundred countries. "Politics first grounds our work: Politics is the lens through which we view the world, and we are committed to analysis that is free of political bias and the influence of private interests.- - Elvie, the health and lifestyle brand developing smarter technology for women, today at CES 2019 announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to market its recently launched silent wearable breast pump in the United States. With the milestone, Elvie Pump will be available for purchase on Elvie.com on February 7. Elvie Pump is a complete departure from existing pump technology, offering more freedom and mobility to expressing moms. The truly hands-free pump gives women the flexibility to go about their daily routine while pumping, whether at home, the office or traveling. Elvie Pump creates suction with a differentiated technology that makes it silent, as well as substantially smaller, lighter and easier to use. An accompanying app lets users monitor pumping progress and automatically pause pumping when the bottle is full. The FDA clearance is a significant milestone for Elvie, as well as mothers looking for a new breast pump designed for their modern lives. With nearly 6,000 people on the Elvie Pump waitlist in the U.S., we are confident there is a demand for innovation to outdated pumping technology, said Tania Boler, Founder and CEO of Elvie. Elvie is focused on creating solutions to the issues that matter most to women, and were excited to bring an entirely new pumping experience to moms across the United States. Elvie Pump retails for $499 for a double unit and $279 for a single unit. The Elvie Pump will be on display at CES at the Sands Expo, Halls A-D, Booth 44258. Elvie Pump Product Features: Single-user, closed system electric pump 5oz. reusable, BPA free bottles that are dishwasher and microwave safe Stimulation and Expression modes 7 intensity settings, providing complete control over what feels comfortable and works most efficiently Rechargeable via USB Includes breast shield in two sizes for the best fit (a third size is available to purchase as a separate accessory) Compatible with iPhones 5S and newer (iOS10+) and Android phones with version 6 and newer that support Bluetooth Low Energy To view the media kit, click here. For further information or comment please contact the Elvie press team at elvie@sourcecodecomms.com. About Elvie: Founded in 2013, Elvie is a British brand developing smarter technology for women. Elvie creates extraordinary products to improve womens health and lives. Their first product, Elvie Trainer, is an award-winning pelvic floor trainer and app that helps women strengthen the pelvic floor via fun, five-minute workouts. Elvie Trainer is recommended by more than 1,000 health professionals worldwide to enhance pelvic floor muscle training compliance, technique and outcomes. In 2017, Elvie was recognized as one of the UKs top 33 startups by TechCityUK, won "Hottest Hardware Startup" at The Europas, was named one of the 15 startups To Watch by The Sunday Times and listed as the 13th fastest-growing business in the UK by SyndicateRoom. For more information visit elvie.com. Elastic Path, the worlds leading provider of enterprise API commerce solutions, today announced that John Bruno has joined the company as vice president of product management. Bruno previously served as senior analyst at Forrester, where he was responsible for the CPQ and B2B Commerce Waves. Elastic Path, the worlds leading provider of enterprise API commerce solutions, today announced that John Bruno has joined the company as vice president of product management. Bruno previously served as senior analyst at Forrester, where he was responsible for the CPQ and B2B Commerce Waves. John brings invaluable expertise to Elastic Path, said Harry Chemko, CEO of Elastic Path. He has experience our customers need and no one else has. He was the lead author of Forresters 2018 B2B eCommerce playbook, providing a unique lens for businesses to learn how to improve sales outcomes in todays digital age. He has also been an advisor to the industrys leading brands, giving him a distinct vantage point, a clear view of our competitive landscape and an ambitious vision for how we will grow to dominate this market. In addition to his work at Forrester, Bruno served as senior business analyst at Pegasystems and a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. He has extensive experience working with Fortune 500 brands, retailers, and distributors to develop digital commerce strategies. He has spoken and written widely, with expertise featured in Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Forbes, Business Insider and more. In his new role, he will empower Elastic Path product teams to better understand customer behaviors, channel partner dynamics, analyst views and the competitive landscape. As part of the product leadership team, Bruno will be charged with continuing Elastic Paths legacy of anticipating the next commerce evolution and leading the revolution behind it. John is a huge asset to our growing team, said Senior Vice President of Products Peter Lukomskyj, to whom John will report. Were aggressively hiring product managers in both Toronto and Vancouver, and theres no one better to build out that team than John. Given my exposure to the market as an analyst, I knew Elastic Path was a company with a strong vision for the future of commerce and the technology prowess to enable it today, said Bruno. Im proud to be joining a team thats on the leading edge of how cloud technology empowers brands to better connect with and serve their customers. In my new role, I will build on the work I did at Forrester to help brands build truly integrated customer experiences. I predict were moving towards a future where the best digital experiences of tomorrow dont feel like commerce -- connected commerce simply underpins everything. And thats whats only possible with Elastic Path. About Elastic Path Defining the future of commerce, Elastic Path pioneered the worlds leading API-oriented commerce solution for enterprises. The companys flagship product, Elastic Path Commerce, has helped the worlds top brands generate over $60 billion in over 170 countries. Customers from industries as diverse as travel, telecoms, publishing, software, and retail enjoy the benefits of a flexible, open architecture that monetizes brand-defining customer experiences, facilitates business agility and eliminates commerce system silos. Elastic Path is a private company based in Vancouver, Canada with offices in the UK and US. For more information, visit http://www.elasticpath.com. NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith (Source: VNA) During a reception in Hanoi for Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith who came for the 41st session of the Vietnam - Laos inter-governmental committee, Ngan further said she hopes the implementation of the key projects between the two countries on energy and transport will be accelerated. Especially, the quality and tempo of the construction of the Lao National Assembly office should be ensured, she stressed. The guest briefed his host of the outcomes of the session which he co-chaired with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier the same day, during which the two sides highly valued the achievements recorded in 2018, exchanged ideas on the difficulties and affirmed their determination to boost up the cooperation in 2019. At the session, the two sides signed six cooperation minutes, affirming that they will actively collaborate to prepare for important projects between the two countries, the Lao leader highlighted. Chairwoman Ngan spoke highly of the outcomes and stressed that the NA supports the Vietnamese Government in intensifying its cooperation with the Lao Government. The law-making body will continue its supervision so as to accelerate the implementation of the agreements between the two sides, she said. The NA leader rejoiced at the great achievements recorded by Laos during the recent past and expressed her belief that under the leadership by the Party, the management by the Government and the supervision by the NA of Laos, the country will reap greater successes. Host and guest also shared important experiences in law-building work and the holding of the confidence votes on officials elected or approved by the NAs. They expressed their belief that the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries will continue to be deepened, spanning from the fields of politics, diplomacy and security-defence to culture, education, human resources training, health care, tourism people-to-people exchanges./. Laura Vergara a renowned Argentinian journalist and researcher Laura Vergara, is primarily aimed at parents, educators and authorities so they can warn and protect the little ones about the danger of the Harry Potter story The fantasy novels of Harry Potter, with immense popularity and commercial success, has also had its share of criticism, including concern about the increasingly dark tone as the series progressed, as well as the often gruesome and graphic violence it depicts. Laura Vergara, a renowned Argentinian journalist and researcher that has managed to link the "world of magicians", with the illegal behavior of those who attempt against private property and extortionate, sow persecution and torment, against anyone who does not submit to their goals has shown the danger for young readers in a detailed way on her controversial book Harry Potter, whistleblower of the Fearful World of the Sects? that will be release in Books and Books, in Coral Gables this January 7, 2019 at 8pm. The writer shows how Harry Potter, the child marked by a curse on his forehead, becomes the representation of those who are ruled by an indomitable spirit, which does not abide rules or rules, driving along the paths of transgression, where the motto that consumes them is one that affirms that "the end justifies the means". In Lauras book, the reader will discover a particular and highly founded vision of the author, about the history of Harry Potter; the one that has enchanted the minds of thousands of readers around the world. It is a work of deep investigation, conjugated with the own experience, of those who have gone through the dark path that transits every person who has been the victim of the unscrupulous action of the sects. Thus, Laura Vergara proceeds to expose and leave in evidence, that the "story of magicians with childlike appearance", ends up being an incitement to disobedience, subliminal message hidden in what was presented as an adventure that seemed to highlight the values of the friendship, chivalry and bravery, but that with daring malice ended up promoting the world of occultism and esoteric traveled by the members of darkness. Ultimately, the call of Laura Vergara, is primarily aimed at parents, educators and authorities so they can warn and protect the little ones about the danger of the Harry Potter story. It is an invitation to reflection and sound judgment, of those who must ensure the integrity of children, so that they discover through their own discernment, the risk to which the readers and followers of the Harry Potter saga could have been led. About the author: Laura Andrea Vergara Ceballos is a Professional Journalist graduated from the Higher School of Journalism "Obispo Trejo y Sanabria" of the city of Cordoba (Argentina) in 1995. She is also a National Announcer having obtained her qualification from the Higher Institute of Radio and Television Teaching (ISER) of the Argentine Republic. He dedicates his independent professional path to research related to the so-called "Groups and Methods of Mental Manipulation". Through this path and already as a writer, she carries out works and research, all about different sects, false religions, spurious indoctrination methods and others, which ultimately are characterized by "breaking and vitiating the will of the people to achieve submission"; scientific research works, which respectively register before the Intellectual Property Registry. https://booksandbooks.com/event/laura-vergara/ Don O'Day, FNBT Executive Vice President Chief Banking Officer Dons focus on the customer experience combined with his remarkable career in executive leadership helps position First National Bank and Trust for future growth. David McCoy, President of First National Bank and Trust Company (FNBT), is pleased to announce that Don ODay has been promoted to Executive Vice President Chief Banking Officer. In this position, he will play a key role in the execution of the banks strategy as he continues to lead the commercial and consumer banking sales teams in serving our communities with Sound Advice, excellent customer service, and innovative financial solutions to fit the individual needs of consumers, families and businesses throughout the banks footprint. Dons focus on the customer experience combined with his remarkable career in executive leadership helps position First National Bank and Trust for future growth, said McCoy. This past year, he was instrumental in the development of the banks strategic plan and will be a driving force in its execution. ODay earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana, and has had an impressive career in banking including retail sales, customer service, commercial and consumer lending, treasury management, credit administration, as well as executive leadership. He began his career as a Vice President and Branch Manager with Oak Brook Bank before moving to Cole Taylor Bank in Rosemont, Illinois where he served various roles of increased responsibility. He was serving as Senior Vice President (SVP), Director of Community Banking when he left Cole Taylor Bank to become SVP, Regional Retail Manager at Banco Popular North America, also in Rosemont. Within a year, Don was promoted to the position of SVP, Illinois Business Banking Director. He was later recruited by Suburban Bank and Trust in Elmhurst, Illinois where he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer before being named President at the same company. Before joining the FNBT family in 2017 as EVP, Chief Lending and Retail Officer, ODay served as Executive Vice President of Inland Bank in Oak Brook, Illinois. As part of the banks executive management team, ODay participates in the overall management of the bank and is based at the banks Beloit-Grand Ave office located at 345 E Grand Ave in Beloit, Wisconsin. ODay resides in Roscoe, Illinois with his wife, Gayle. First National Bank and Trust Company is a family-owned, community bank headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin. Chartered in 1882, First National Bank and Trust Company now serves nearly 30,000 households in 13 communities and 16 locations in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois with assets of approximately $1.2 billion. Commitment to full service banking, investments, asset management, exceptional service, and Sound Advice has positioned First National Bank and Trust Company as a Stateline leader in the industry. For additional information, visit http://www.bankatfirstnational.com. Cyberlaw.io Military families deserve to receive exceptional service and care from us, the civilians and communities they are protecting and serving. Any way we can show we appreciate them matters. Its important to give back and to teach our children to give back. Welcoming a new baby to the family is exciting, but it can be tough if finances are tight and your service member is deployed. Operation Homefronts Star-Spangled Babies baby shower program is in place to make it easier for service members and their growing families to welcome the newest patriot to their families. Cyberlaw.io is hosting a drive for the program from January through March. Donated items can be dropped off at 601 Heritage Drive, Suite 205, Jupiter, Florida 33458. Items needed include learning and development toys 0-12 months, gyms, jumpers, soothers or sound machines, baby monitors, baby carriers/wraps, teethers, rattlers, stroller toys, push and pull toys, diapers (size 2), wipes, diaper cream, lotion, baby shampoo, onesies, blankets and towels. Military families deserve to receive exceptional service and care from us, the civilians and communities they are protecting and serving. Any way we can show we appreciate them matters. Its important to give back and to teach our children to give back, said Curry. Operation Homefront is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to build strong, stable, and secure military families so they can thrive not simply struggle to get by in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. Operation Homefront has consistently earned high ratings from leading charity rating services, including Charity Navigators 4-Star rating for 11 consecutive years for superior service and accountability, and the Platinum level Transparency Seal from GuideStar. Operation Homefront has met all of the BBBs business standards. Ninety-two percent of its expenditures go directly to programs that support tens of thousands of military families each year. Operation Homefront provides critical financial assistance, transitional and permanent housing and family support services throughout the year to prevent short-term needs from turning into chronic, long-term struggles. To donate directly to Operation Homefront, please visit https://www.operationhomefront.org/donate. Cyberlaw.io provides information on cyber risk management and offers comprehensive legal forms for sale for small doctors offices, accountants, insurance professionals, and other small businesses. About Cyberlaw.io Cyberlaw.io is ideal for small businesses that dont have the money to pay for lawyers or expensive cybersecurity professionals. It meets the need for people who cant justify the expense, so they can get the paperwork they need and do it themselves. For more information, please call 1-833-232-9237, 1-833-23-CYBER, or visit https://www.cyberlaw.io/. For media inquiries, please call the NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361. This is an amazing step forward for all CyberGuard360 partners serious about disaster recovery and the very latest in cyber protection."Al Alper, CEO, CyberGuard 360 CyberGuard360, a firm which develops a solution set of products to detect and mitigate threats from cyber attacks, unveiled CyberGlass SIEM 2.0 late last year. The platform now integrates Unitrends backup statistics and statuses to deliver critical insights into systems health and disaster recovery capabilities. The partnership with Unitrends, a Kaseya company, brings disaster recovery and business continuity services to the CyberGuard360 platform, while also broadening Unitrends industry-leading, enterprise-class backup and disaster recovery solutions to the MSP and MSSP markets. CyberGlass SIEM 2.0 is analytics-driven and provides real-time monitoring of threats across the entire technological domain --an organized means of reporting incidents, the ability to analyze large quantities of data to determine where issues/incidents are occurring and the specific tools to confront and deal with threats immediately from within the same platform. This is an amazing step forward for all CyberGuard360 partners serious about disaster recovery and the very latest in cyber protection, said Al Alper, CEO of CyberGuard360. Fortune 100 companies rely on Unitrends every day to protect their data. This means that if CyberGlass identifies a threat which needs to be recovered from, or a backup that needs to be investigated, access to the Unitrends appliance and backups are just a click away. We have developed a superior product in CyberGlass and are pleased to expand its scope and reach even further with our work with Unitrends. The integration with Unitrends comes on the heels of an extensive research and development phase for CyberGlass, released to the market last year. CyberGlass is a first-to-market SIEM 2.0 solution in the ongoing world of cyber threats. The platform covers cloud, perimeter, network, endpoints, and devices that interact and participate on the network. CyberGlass incorporates all traditional SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) components, adds protection components such as next-generation endpoint security, web and DNS security, Dark Web monitoring and much more, then overlays them with CyberGlassAL, an actionable interface that enables engineers to perform prescriptive and proactive remediation without ever having to leave CyberGlass. This design protects businesses from the growing and dangerous threat of cyber attacks on their infrastructure by including the entire security stack in its implementation. CyberGlass SIEM 2.0 incorporates all of the traditional SIEM tools with real-time information monitoring and management and further builds with the inclusion of top-level functionality that includes protection and remediation capabilities. Additionally, the management component incorporates powerful scripting and automation which have been previously used only by MSPs and enterprise IT departments using third party tools. Where traditional SIEM sees something, says something, CyberGlass SIEM 2.0 actionable interface sees something, does something, said Alper. About CyberGuard360 CyberGuard360 is a cybersecurity company that designs and builds cybersecurity products and services to enable enterprise IT departments and channel partners who are charged with protecting the companies they serve from the cyber threat landscape. Founder/CEO Al Alper launched this separate company to address a need he has seen in the market for a strong cyber security protection suite of technology and services that can be managed within a single-pane-of-glass; obviating the need to use 5 or more systems to protect an enterprise. The company was also designated as a Champion of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) 2017 and has expansive experience with and knowledge of cyber regulations such as New York States Department of Financial Services new cyber security regulations (23 NYCRR 500). CyberGuard360 maintains offices in Wilton, CT and Larchmont, NY, as well as other satellite locations throughout the region. For additional information, call 844-315-9882 or contact via the web at https://cyberguard360.com. Between the new branding strategy and website, this is an exciting time for our company and marks an important moment in our future as a leading commercial cleaning franchisor. Coverall North America, Inc., one of the leading franchisors in the commercial cleaning industry, is inviting visitors to explore a completely revamped website, reflecting the companys new brand identity. The new website has been designed to offer the ultimate user-friendly experience with improved navigation and functionality, enabling users to easily see the services provided by Coveralls franchised business owners. The site also provides entrepreneurs with a path to discover all the benefits of becoming an independent business owner. New website enhancements include: Simplified Navigation: Quick and easy access for users to find the topics of information that suits their needs. Featured Workplaces: Allowing users to easily find an industry that is relevant for their commercial cleaning needs and cleaning specifications. Free Get a Quote: Getting information faster and more streamlined for users. Multiple opportunities for our users and customers to gather more information. Improved Location Mapping: Giving detailed information, providing multiple ways to find a Coverall support center. Rapid Response Functionality: Allowing the site to be compatible with all browsers and mobile devices. Coveralls site refresh is the culmination of a multi-year strategy that includes new messaging, collateral and color palette. The brand overhaul hones in on Coveralls key differentiators, which includes the unparalleled support Coverall provides individuals looking to begin their dream of business ownership, as well as the commercial cleaning services provided by Coveralls network of over 8,000 franchised business owners. Over the past 30 years, Coverall has built a strong reputation for quality and innovation, said Nicole Ivey, Coveralls Vice President of Marketing. Our market research confirmed that evolving our brand identity enables us to clearly articulate our value proposition to all our stakeholders. Between the new branding strategy and website, this is an exciting time for our company and marks an important moment in our future as a leading commercial cleaning franchisor. Coverall collaborated with Tampa, FL-based Bayshore Solutions, an end-to-end digital agency, to build a fully responsive website. Were so happy to assist Coverall in bringing their new website vision to life, said Kevin Hourigan, President and CEO of Bayshore Solutions. With the new Coverall website, the navigation is more user-friendly, the messaging is streamlined, and the site will render beautifully on any browser or device. Visitors to the new site can stay informed with the latest Coverall and industry news through the new blog, Coverall Fresh Thoughts offering users richer online content through thought leadership. About Coverall North America, Inc. Since its inception in 1985, Coverall North America, Inc. has grown into a leading franchised brand, licensing thousands of entrepreneurs to operate independent commercial cleaning businesses using the Coverall brand and system. In 2008, Coverall launched its proprietary Health-Based Cleaning System Program, and in 2014, introduced the Coverall Core 4 Process, demonstrating its dedication to continuous innovation and leadership on behalf of its franchisees. Coveralls unique process combines advanced cleaning technologies and tools, hospital-grade disinfectants, comprehensive training programs, business support services, and a passion for supporting our network of over 8,000 owners who provide the Coverall cleaning system and services to over 50,000 customers across 90 markets. For more information, visit http://www.coverall.com. About Bayshore Solutions Since 1996, Bayshore Solutions has served nearly 3,000 clients with a proven methodology that is digital-driven, creatively-refined and results-oriented. As an end-to-end digital agency, they provide customized business storytelling, website design & development, e-commerce, digital marketing, creative and hosting solutions. Bayshore Solutions has won national awards from many organizations, including Advertising Age, American Business Awards, Inc. 5000, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others. For more information, please visit http://www.BayshoreSolutions.com. Accessible on the Google Home device and on the Google Assistant app, the experience offers users an interactive means of engaging in 1:1 conversations with one of the beauty industrys most storied brands Convrgan AI voice and messaging platform powering conversational experiences for enterprise brands and retailersrecently partnered with Aveda, developing an interactive voice experience that enables consumers to engage with the brand via the Google Home device and the Google Assistant app. Along with a look at the history behind the Aveda brand and a store locator function, the experience gives users access to personalized beauty tips and product recommendations, plus meditations guided by a wellness and meditation expertwhich can be customized not only to suit the users state of mind, but to accommodate their busy schedule. Whats particularly exciting to us about this product is the manner in which it leverages the latest features that Actions on Google has to offer, said Liz Snower, co-founder and President of Convrg. Through functionality called surface switching, users can carry on a seamless conversation across the Google Home device and the Google Assistant app. For example, when a product or store location is recommended via the voice experience on Google Home, they can opt to have that link sent to their phone for added convenience. Additionally, they can tee up a custom meditation through the voice device, and have it sent to the Assistant app, where they can access it when theyre ready with the tap of a button. Having also developed the Action on Google Home for the GRAMMYs in addition to a number of chatbots for brands in the beauty and retail space, Convrg is bullish on the future of voice as a powerful channel for innovative retailers across a variety of verticals. Its estimated that half of all search as we know it will take place via voice by 2020, and its easy to understand why that isfrom the consumers perspective, speaking is easy, fast and convenient, remarked Audrey Wu, co-founder and CEO of Convrg. From the brands perspective, this shift in user preference represents a massive opportunity to engage with the user on their own terms. We envision a future where voice is an instrumental component in any e-commerce toolkit, and as such, we believe that experiences like this one, which enable brands to have bi-directional conversations with the user, are the first step toward that future. ABOUT CONVRG Founded in January 2017, Convrg is an AI voice and messaging platform powering conversational experiences for enterprise brands and retailers. For more information, visit http://www.convrg.io. ABOUT AVEDA Founded in 1978 in Minneapolis, MN, Aveda creates plant-based hair, skin and body products for beauty professionals and consumers. Aveda innovates in botanical technologies, combining the principles of modern science and Ayurveda, the ancient healing art of India, to develop performance-driven hair, skin and body productsmade with pure flower and plant essencesthat are created with respect for the Earth, and a comprehensive menu of ritual-based treatments for holistic beauty. Throughout the years, Aveda has pioneered new benchmarks of environmental responsibility in beauty. It was the first company to sign the Ceres Principles in 1989 - a nonprofit organization mobilizing business leadership on climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability challenges - and the first beauty company to manufacture with 100 percent wind power in its primary facility. Aveda was also the first beauty company to receive a Cradle To Cradle charter for its commitment to sustainable products, packaging and production. In 2013, Aveda was honored with the first Legacy Leaders Award from Cradle to Cradle for its pioneering role in environmental leadership. Aveda received the Sustainability Leadership Award in 2017 during the Sustainable Beauty Awards organized by Ecovia Intelligence for its leadership in packaging, green formulations and sustainable ingredients. Since 1999, Avedas annual Earth Month campaign, held each April, has raised more than $60 million to support environmental projects around the world. Aveda is trusted by salon and spa professionals worldwide. Since 2007, more than half of the fastest growing salons in the U.S. have been part of the Aveda network. Aveda products are available in Aveda Experience Centers and more than 9,000 professional hair salons and spas in more than 40 countries and at http://www.aveda.com. Go behind-the-scenes at Aveda on the Living Aveda blog and follow Aveda on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. CONTACT: Audrey Wu audrey(at)convrg(dot)io Dr. Jeff Elton, CEO At Concerto HealthAI, we are combining technology with RWD at a scale that has been unavailable to most healthcare organizations until now, said Dr. Elton, the CEO of Concerto HealthAI. Concerto HealthAI, a technology leader in definitive Real World Data (RWD) and Artificial Intelligence solutions for precision health in oncology and other key therapeutic areas, and its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Jeff Elton, will present at J.P Morgans exclusive meeting of investors, entrepreneurs and executives spanning the entire healthcare landscape, on January 8, 2019, at 2:30 p.m. in San Francisco, CA. Concerto HealthAI is the emerging leader in integrated clinical RWD, AI solutions and outcomes science and has the largest and fastest-growing RWD oncology dataset in the market. Concerto HealthAI has an exclusive 10-year partnership with CancerLinQ, a non-profit subsidiary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). With CancerLinQ, Concerto HealthAI is bringing its clinical and technical expertise to collaborative research efforts with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) to accelerate insights and understanding of the real-world use, tolerability, and effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Combined with its AI platform, eurekaHealth, Concerto HealthAIs data and analytics solutions support and streamline drug development, clinical trials, HEOR analytics, and improve patient outcomes. Concerto HealthAI is a leader in clinical outcomes research, HEOR, prospective real-world digital registries and clinical development synthetic control arm studies the forefront of Real-World Evidence solutions. At Concerto HealthAI, we are combining technology with RWD at a scale that has been unavailable to most healthcare organizations until now, said Dr. Elton, the CEO of Concerto HealthAI. This means a comprehensive and accelerated approach to generating insights, designing studies and finding patterns for precision medicine and improved patient outcomes that just isnt possible in current clinical or scientific literature or practice. One such application of the eurekaHealth AI platform, presented at ASCO 2018, focused on side effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. One in five breast cancer patients receiving chemo are susceptible to a life-threatening side-effect called neutropenia, where the immune system loses its ability to fight off infections. Leveraging eurekaHealth on a de-identified real-world dataset of 10,288 breast cancer patients, Concerto HealthAIs platform demonstrated an average 27% increase in prediction of chemo-induced neutropenia compared to existing studies. In September, Concerto HealthAI strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Jeff Elton, Ph.D., as CEO. Dr. Elton brings over 25 years of experience in healthcare and life sciences and previously was Managing Director, Accenture Strategy & Predictive Health Intelligence, global COO of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and a McKinsey partner in Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products. He is a founding board member and senior advisor to several early-stage biotechnology and AI companies and a member of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and Forbes Technology Council. Dr. Elton co-authored the groundbreaking book, Healthcare Disrupted: Next Generation Business Models and Strategies. Published in 2016, Healthcare Disrupted created an industry roadmap for AI, advanced analytics, real-world data and digital medical solutions. Concerto HealthAI is a portfolio company of SymphonyAI, a group of companies that provide leading AI-centric solutions for transforming the business enterprise for the retail, CPG, healthcare and industrial verticals. Founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani and backed with his $1 billion investment, SymphonyAI is one of the fastest growing companies in the business-to-business AI solutions sector with 1,500 employees. We are on the verge of a new age in healthcare and Im thrilled to join Concerto HealthAI and guide this transformation that will greatly improve patient treatments and outcomes through the use of RWD and AI, Dr. Elton said. About Concerto HealthAI Concerto HealthAI is a technology leader in definitive Real-world Data (RWD) and AI solutions for precision oncology. Our mission is to accelerate improvements in clinical outcomes for cancer patients through our partnerships, unique real-world data assets, leading AI-based technologies, and the worlds top outcomes research and data science talent. For more information, visit us at http://www.concertohealthai.com. Concerto HealthAI is a SymphonyAI company. eurekaHealth is a trademark of Concerto HealthAI. We Provide A Truly Smart Business Solution To Managing Your IT Network This alliance will empower Complete Technology Solutions to provide unparalleled, nation-wide onsite and remote IT support to its clients, specifically to their specialized vertical markets of multifamily housing, student housing, and hospitality. Complete Technology Solutions, LLC, a technology consulting firm founded in 2001 and a member of the Muncie Innovation Connector and the Indiana Apartment Association, today announced a new partnership with the leading MSP Business Development Group, The 20. Complete Technology Solutions has become an official Elite member of The 20, empowering the company to deliver a broader set of solutions for its customers looking to streamline their user experience. This alliance will empower Complete Technology Solutions to provide unparalleled, Nation-Wide onsite and remote IT support to its clients, specifically to their specialized vertical markets of multifamily housing, student housing, and hospitality. "It gives me great pleasure to announce our new partnership with The 20," said Travis Street, CEO of Complete Technology Solutions. "The 20 is the most renowned MSP business development group in the industry. The ability for our clients to get the best solutions available, and the world-class service and support that The 20 delivers, is incredible. Complete Technology Solutions is proud of this new relationship and we look forward to continuing to help our clients thrive and improve our operations with The 20s proven model." The 20's singular platform and infrastructure allows all MSPs to maintain their individuality while being able to effectively support clients throughout North America. MSPs with a small or medium on-site team can now provide services that were once offered only by larger MSPs without the same risks and investments. We are pleased to welcome Complete Technology Solutions to The 20, said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20. At The 20, we have perfected a single service delivery model with proven processes to help IT providers grow. We are excited to take Complete Technology Solutions to the next level. To learn more about The 20 and membership requirements visit http://www.the20.com. For more information about Complete Technology Solutions visit http://www.completetechnology.solution. About Complete Technology Solutions Complete Technology Solutions, now a a proud Elite member of The 20 MSP, has provided expert IT support since 2001, helping hundreds of businesses increase productivity and profitability by making IT a streamlined part of operations. Our mission is to deliver the latest technology consulting, services, maintenance and support as a highly cost-effective IT solution in order to maximize our clients productivity and profitability. Not only does your productivity and profitability increase when your network is streamlined but Complete Technology Solutions is proud to offer a variety of critical services to ensure that your business runs at maximum efficiency. From managed IT services, to phones, security, and business continuity, we've got you covered. We Make IT Happen! About The 20 The 20 (http://www.the20.com) is an exclusive business development group for Managed Service Providers (MSP) aimed at dominating and revolutionizing the IT industry with its standardized all-in-one approach. The 20's robust RMM, PSA, and documentation platform ensures superior service for its MSPs' clients utilizing their completely US-based Help Desk and Network Operations Center. Extending beyond tools and processes, The 20 touts a proven sales model, a community of industry-leaders, and ultimate scalability. The Cheapest States To Insure A Car The cheapest states to insure cars have several things in common. Living in rural areas and having numerous companies to choose from will make rates cheaper, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has released a new blog post that presents the cheapest states to insure a car in 2018. Cheapest states for auto insurance have several characteristics in common. Their population lives preponderantly in rural areas, they are safe from extreme weather and favorable legislation. The state with the cheapest average rate is Vermont. Annual premiums in Vermont average $932, which is well below (32 percent) the national average of $1,365. Vermont has a sparse population which lives predominantly in rural areas. Vermont also has a low number of accidents and uninsured drivers. Iowa is described as a perfect rural-state, with more than 86.000 farms. A high number of insurance companies selling coverage in the same area will reduce the average rates. Ohio, Idaho and Virginia are perfect examples. Only in Virginia, there are around 300 insurance companies. The high competitiveness benefits the policyholders the most. Favorable legislation will also help drivers get cheaper coverage. The client is protected by unfair price increases. Virginia has a stable regulatory environment, the State Corporation Commission(SCC), of which the Bureau of Insurance is a part. SCC activities include licensing, regulation, examination, and investigation of insurance companies, agencies and agents. This means that rates increases are thoroughly analyzed. For more car insurance info and free online quotes, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. Heather Sakers, listing agent on the project, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty Devonshire Place represented over $16 million in sales volume for our firm and was a very successful endeavor for us. We look forward to working with FLOBX on future Outer Banks communities, says Pamela Smith, Vice President of Sales. The new Devonshire Place construction project at Bermuda Bay started in early 2015 and consisted of 38 Single Family Townhouse style condominiums. Maintenance free and fully furnished, prices ranged from $284,500 to $419,500. Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty was the Exclusive Listing Firm on the project with Heather Sakers as the listing agent representing the seller, FLOBX. The last of the 38 units was recently sold in December, marking the sell out of the entire Devonshire Place community. The average sales price of the 38 homes sold was $332,200. Of those 38 units, 24 were both listed and sold by Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty, including 13 that were listed and sold by Sakers. The majority of buyers who purchased a unit intend to use it as an investment property and/or a second home. We worked closely with the developers while marketing Devonshire Place and are very pleased to have sold all of the homes within a 3-year time period. Devonshire Place represented over $16 million in sales volume for our firm and was a very successful endeavor for us. We look forward to working with FLOBX on future Outer Banks communities, says Pamela Smith, Vice President of Sales. Representing the sales of 38 homes at Devonshire Place was a big task, and one that I am grateful for. Working alongside a local developer and builder brought a whole new level of knowledge to my business about construction and development on the Outer Banks. This hidden gem of a community is really the first of its kind on the Outer Banks and KDH offering detached condo single family style homes, and once buyers realized the huge benefits of being in a maintenance free community on the Outer Banks, it just took off. The best part is I have so many new, happy clients who get to enjoy years of memories on the Outer Banks with their friends and families because of this community, says Heather Sakers, listing agent on the project. Sakers can be reached at (252) 599-6814 or by email at heather(at)cbseaside.com When we purchased the 38 vacant lots in 2014, we brought a new style, elevation and color scheme to the neighborhood, all while maintaining the vibrancy one expects in Bermuda Bay. Luckily for us, industry professionals and consumers alike were becoming familiar with our top-quality construction and superior design through our first development in the OBX market, Beacon Villas at Corolla Light. When we listed with Heather Sakers and Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty, sales began to take off. We really hit our stride with the introduction of the St. George and Somerset Models: 1513 sq. ft. 2 story homes featuring ground floor living space with all bedrooms upstairs. This helped Devonshire Place to be the fastest selling development in the Outer Banks ever! says Sunny Berle, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FLOBX. We have replicated our best-selling Somerset Model at our newest development, Sun Salt Aire Townhomes, on Carolyn St. between the highways in Kill Devil Hills. These are maintenance free, fully furnished and ready for occupancy January 2019. Keep an eye out for our next project, Beacon Quarters at Corolla Light, breaking ground in January '19, starting in the low to mid $200's and featuring the quality one can expect from a FLOBX home, explains Berle. About FLOBX: Florida OBX Real Estate Development is a group of experienced investors with backgrounds in finance, resort hospitality, real estate, building and design. With a reputation for integrity, open communications, original design and impeccable implementation the company has scaled heights of success since 2014 with the two fastest selling developments in the OBX. For more information, visit https://obxnewhomes.com/ About Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty: Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty firm has sold the most real estate on the Outer Banks for the past five years and number one in sales volume for the past three years*. Family owned and operated with nearly 30 years of local knowledge and experience, the company offers real estate services across the entire Outer Banks as well as all of northeastern North Carolina. Combined with the Coldwell Banker brand, one of the largest and most influential residential real estate brokerage franchises in the world, Seaside Realty offers top-tier real estate services to buyers and sellers throughout the region. *As reported by the Outer Banks Association of REALTORS 1/01/2018 12/31/2018. Fred Alger Management, Inc. (Alger) is pleased to announce that Christie Tully, SPHR, has joined as Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources. Ms. Tully will play a central role leading all aspects of human resources for the firm, including recruiting, compensation and benefits, and administration. Ms. Tully, who has 11 years of human resources and recruiting experience, joins Alger from Mission Capital Advisors, where she served as Director, Head of Human Resources. She previously held recruiting roles at Kain Management Group and Glocap Search. Prior, Ms. Tully worked as a project manager at General Electric and Thomson Financial. She began her career at Goldman Sachs as an internal wholesaler and sales desk analyst. Ms. Tully received her undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Vermont. I am excited to welcome Christie to Alger, said Hal Liebes, Executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer. She brings a valuable amount of expertise to the firm, and I believe her experience in talent acquisition will help us as we continue to grow. Ms. Tully also holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Society for Human Resources Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) Certifications. These two certifications show that individuals have been able to demonstrate significant knowledge in the field of human resources. About Alger Founded in 1964, Alger is widely recognized as a pioneer of growth-style investment management. Headquartered in New York City with affiliate offices in Boston and London, Alger provides U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors and financial advisors access to a suite of growth equity separate accounts, mutual funds, and privately offered investment vehicles. The firms investment philosophy, discovering companies undergoing Positive Dynamic Change, has been in place for over 50 years. Weatherbie Capital, LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser specializing in small and mid-cap growth equity investing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alger. For more information, please visit http://www.alger.com. 2019 BRIT's International Award of Excellence in Sustainable Winegrowing Casa Ferreirinha and its parent organization, Sogrape Vinhos, have put together an impressive sustainability program culminating with the outstanding taste and quality of its Quinta Da Leda wine, said Dr. Ed Schneider, BRIT's president and executive director. The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is pleased to announce Casa Ferreirinha, a Portuguese reference brand in Douro Wines, as its platinum medal winner in BRITs 2019 International Award of Excellence in Sustainable Winegrowing competition. Casa Ferreirinha topped the field this year based on the winerys ongoing sustainable programs that address both the three key factors of sustainability environmental, economic, and social aspects -- as well as superior wine taste. Five additional wineries - two from the U.S., two from Italy, and one from Portugal, also won awards based on their strong sustainable programs. Casa Ferreirinhas current sustainability accomplishments include: vineyard certification by the International Organization of Biological Control (IOBC) Integrated Production (IP) standards; growing floristic biodiversity as a means of promoting natural enemies of grapevine pests like the grape moth; preservation of indigenous grapevine varieties like the Touriga Nacional; use of renewable energy (hydro, wind, and solar); aggressive short-term plan for reduction in CO2e emissions; and education, medical, and insurance programs available to its workforce. The vineyard has been working towards this award for almost a decade. In 2009, Casa Ferrreirinha was a founding member of the Portuguese Association for Grapevine Diversity (PORVID), a non-profit association promoting biodiversity and managing the preservation of indigenous grapevine varieties like the Touriga Nacional. Casa Ferreirinha is a pioneer brand in the production of Douro Wines. Innovation married with tradition, as well as the profound knowledge of the Douro Region, are the guarantee of exceptional wines such as Vinha Grande, Quinta da Leda, Callabriga and Barca Velha. Casa Ferreirinha and its parent organization, Sogrape Vinhos, have put together an impressive sustainability program culminating with the outstanding taste and quality of its Quinta Da Leda wine, said Dr. Ed Schneider, BRIT's president and executive director. From their sustainable programs in the field, to their progressive workforce and community programs, to being good leaders and stewards within the Portuguese wine industry; we congratulate their achievements. Sogrape has been for a long time promoting excellence sustainable practices at environmental, economic and social levels. This recognition reaffirmed by BRIT means to us an acknowledgment of our work in this field, in particular of all sustainability programs of Casa Ferreirinha (this year awarded platinum) and Sandeman, cherishing not only the progress in viticultural practices, but also on the initiatives applied to the winemaking processes, or even on social programs to workers and community, said Antonio Oliveira Bessa, board member at Sogrape Vinhos, SA. We believe that, more and more, sustainable production and consumption will be a distinctive factor of Sogrape brands. The awarded wine was Casa Ferreirinhas Quinta da Leda, 2015 Additional BRIT sustainable awards went to the following outstanding wineries: Gold medals Sandeman, Avintes, Portugal. Submitted Sandeman Vintage Port 2016 Tasca DAlmerita, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. SubmittedIl Tascante 2015 Tascante Estate Jowler Creek Vineyard & Winery, Platte City, Missouri. Submitted Estate Norton 2016 E. & J. Gallo Winery, Modesto, California. Submitted J Vineyards Pinot Noir 2016. Gallo receives special recognition for its corporate-wide, multi-brand sustainability programs and for the organizations industry leadership. Silver medal Ruffino, Pontassieve, Italy. Submitted Riserva Ducale Oro Presentation of the platinum award to Casa Ferreirinha will be made in Fort Worth on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 during BRITs Vine to Table dinner and auction fundraising event. Competition for the new BRIT/FIVS international sustainable winegrowing award beginning in 2020 starts May 2019. All competition rules, judging criteria, and submission dates remain the same. Please check the BRIT web site for details: http://www.brit.org/wineaward Ali Jahangiri, Founder of OpportunityZoneExpo.com Their insider knowledge and insight into Opportunity Zones an exciting new frontier of American investment is making this the most influential and successful Opportunity Zone Expo in the nation. California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, who was inaugurated in Sacramento today, will be a keynote speaker at the Jan. 25 Opportunity Zone Expo, the countrys largest education, networking and marketing event for key players in the industry. Ma is one of more than 50 government officials, industry professionals and accomplished investors sharing their insight at the expo, which takes place at the JW Marriott L.A. Live hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The conference will also feature keynote addresses from Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia. Hundreds of industry professionals will attend the expo, including fund managers, attorneys, real estate developers, tax specialists, investment banks, institutional investors and government officials. We are proud to present three of our countrys great leaders alongside so many other distinguished professionals who are influential in their fields, said Ali Jahangiri, CEO of the Opportunity Zone Expo. Their insider knowledge and insight into Opportunity Zones an exciting new frontier of American investment is making this the most influential and successful Opportunity Zone Expo in the nation. Ma last served as a member of the California State Board of Equalization. In November, she received 7.8 million votes, more than any other treasurer candidate in state history. Ma is also a certified public accountant and former member of the California State Assembly, where she became the first Asian-American female speaker pro tempore. She supported law protecting victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, as well as advocated for California consumers and minority business owners. Headquartered in California, the Opportunity Zone Expo mentors industry leaders about economic development through the governments new tax incentive program established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Specifically created within the act are Opportunity Zones, which are low-income communities that are attractive for investment because they offer tax incentives to investors. There are 8,700 zones in all 50 U.S. states, five territories and Washington, D.C. Investors to the zones can defer capital gains tax by 10 percent after 5 years, 15 percent after 7 years or pay no tax after 10 years. The law also allows investors to pool their money investment into special Qualified Opportunity Funds. Opportunity Zones are providing unprecedented economic opportunities across the United States, Jahangiri added. By providing tax incentives, they are benefiting not only local and national investors, but thousands of local communities who will reap the benefits of revitalization, business investment and jobs. Theyre a win-win for all involved. Through the Opportunity Zone Expos extensive network of professionals and industry experts, the companys conferences will help expand U.S. business networks and keep professionals nationwide updated about Opportunity Zone regulations, trends, fund creation and new projects. The expo leans on its parent companys longstanding history of organizing domestic and global conferences about investment, immigration and legislation. It provides a cutting-edge agenda with impressive keynote speakers and a wide spectrum of thousands of attendees. For more information or to buy tickets, visit http://www.opportunityzoneexpo.com. Follow us on social media: Twitter: @oppzoneexpo Facebook: @opportunityzoneexpos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opportunity-zone-expo/ Instagram: @opportunityzoneexpo Media Contact: Marie Ekberg Padilla Editor in Chief Opportunity Zone Expo 949-293-0829 marie(at)opportunityzoneexpo(dot)com http://www.opportunityzoneexpo.com This funding will help us continue to acquire market share while also allowing us to focus on building even more products for patients in pregnancy, says Babyscripts CEO and Co-founder, Anish Sebastian. Babyscripts, Inc., the leading virtual care platform for managing obstetrics, announced today that Philips, the leading international health technology company, has taken a minority position in the company by leading a $6 million round of financing. Additional investors include StartUp Health and NueCura Partners. Babyscripts has spent the last four years building a clinically-validated, virtual care platform to allow OBGYNs to deliver a new model of prenatal care. Using internet-connected devices for remote monitoring, Babyscripts offers risk-specific experiences to allow providers to manage up to 90% of pregnancies virtually, allowing doctors to detect risk more quickly and automate elements of care. Babyscripts has leveraged their established success in prenatal care to support expansion into the postpartum space. With the recent acquisition of iBirth, one of the first provider-delivered, co-branded pregnancy apps in the marketplace, Babyscripts now offers the most holistic and engaging technology program to manage pregnancy and postpartum. With this additional funding, Babyscripts shows a commitment to dominate the space with clinically validated provider-prescribed technology for pregnancy and postpartum, now managing more than 150,000 pregnancies across 20 states. This funding will help us continue to acquire market share while also allowing us to focus on building even more products for patients in pregnancy, says Babyscripts CEO and Co-founder, Anish Sebastian. We are excited to partner with a group like Philips this is a great validation of our vision for obstetrics: a risk based model that weve coined precision prenatal care. In concert with the investment from Philips, Babyscripts intends to partner with the Mother/Baby unit of Philips Healthcare to build the markets most extensive, clinically-validated virtual care obstetrics and pediatrics platform to support holistic care for mothers in pregnancy and postpartum care. This intended collaboration aims to expand Babyscripts footprint in the United States through Philips established customer base in mother and child care and extend the ability to engage patients over the first three years of life after birth. Babyscripts complements Philips current digital offerings in the clinical pregnancy sphere, while Babyscripts will leverage the expansion to extend its reach into the consumer and pediatric space through Philips Pregnancy + app and service. Babyscripts historically has focused all of its efforts in creating a trusted channel between the patient and OBGYN throughout the pregnancy, says Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-founder of Babyscripts. Its only natural that we begin to expand that relationship through postpartum care and early stage pediatrics. On average, our patients use our app and remote monitoring service 6 times a week. Think of how exponentially more valuable a continued relationship will be for our customers, health systems, and plans, if we continue the relationship post the 9 months of pregnancy. This investment and intended partnership is a true testament to the fact that Philips and Babyscripts are both committed to rethinking the Mother/Baby patient journey in healthcare. From developmental care solutions to educational materials, and through a wide range of remote and proximate monitoring devices, Babyscripts and Philips will continue their commitment to provide better health outcomes for mothers and babies at every step of their journey, from prenatal to postpartum; NICU to nursery; and beyond. We see great potential in Babyscripts and their business model and look forward to working closely with them to expand their offering and customer base in the United States, said Iman Farzaneh, head of Mother & Child Care in Philips. Babyscripts solutions fit perfectly with our own mission to improve peoples lives through meaningful innovations. Helping to safeguard the health of mothers and their babies during pregnancy, birth and the first years of life is a very important part of it. About Babyscripts Babyscripts is a new model for prenatal care that is transforming the way expectant mothers use technology to work with their OBGYN practice. Its the first mobile, clinical solution to provide remote monitoring of an obstetricians patient population while directly improving patient satisfaction and practice reimbursement. About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at http://www.philips.com/newscenter. "We can move a lot closer to 100% reporting through the app now with the offline mode. - Colin Castle, Home Instead Clearwater AxisCare Home Care Software announced the release of the offline version of their Caregiver GPS Mobile App this week. AxisCare Mobiles offline mode will allow caregivers to clock in/out and document their daily activities when they are unable to access an internet connection. This is especially helpful for the tens of thousands of clients aging in their homes located in rural areas, outside cellular coverage areas or within facilities where mobile phones have difficulty connecting. We have been using the AxisCare app since the Beta version and have loved it says Colin Castle, Director of Home Instead Clearwater. It has simplified our time keeping and record keeping of client ADLs. The only issue we have had, and it is not an issue with the App or AxisCare, is the inconsistent mobile coverage in our area. Knowing that the app will now offer an offline mode is huge and I know our caregivers will love it. We can move a lot closer to 100% reporting through the app now with the offline mode. We are excited about this feature in particular because it will directly affect the care thats given. says Todd Allen, Axiscares CEO. Historically, caregivers in spotty cellular areas could easily be distracted with their phones as they tried to document their ADL notes, mileage, client signatures, etc. Now they can focus more attention on the client while also recording accurate visit documentation at the point of care, instead of waiting to document after they are back online. Since the company launched their GPS caregiver mobile app, AxisCare Mobile, roughly 2.5 million visits have been documented and verified. AxisCare still offers telephony services as well, but is seeing a large number of agencies and caregivers transition to the app. We expect the adoption rate of the mobile app to increase dramatically with Offline Mode, says Todd Allen. We already work with many agencies billing to Medicaid with our scheduling platform and mobile app as a recommended EVV provider. This enhancement to AxisCare Mobile will help agencies and states even more with visit verification reporting. The apps Offline Mode will capture the main information needed as if the caregiver were online. The App simply alerts the caregiver that they do not have an internet connection and automatically begins Offline Mode so the caregiver can continue with visit verification and point of care notation. About AxisCare Home Care Software AxisCares award-winning home care software is a back-office and point of care solution for non-medical agencies across all 50 states and 6 countries. Specializing in Private Pay, Medicaid and other 3rd-Party Billing integrations, the platform helps agencies from startup to enterprise stay compliant, cash-flow healthy, and ahead of their competition with built-in marketing and CRM tools. Recently given the industrys top award for ease of use, overall performance and customer service, their mission is to transform home operations, empowering agencies to give better care. For more information they can be reached at sales@axiscare.com or by visiting http://www.axiscare.com. The Appalachian Way in Coal Country: a memoir of a midcentury East Kentucky childhood. The Appalachian Way in Coal Country is the creation of published author Lois Walker West, a Kentucky native who spent most of her adult life in Ohio before moving to Florida in retirement, where she enjoys writing and illustrating childrens stories for her three great-grandchildren and trips to the beach with her sisters. Living in a home with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and an outhouse for a bathroom is a few of the true inconveniences experienced by the author as a child. Her parents had lived in Kentucky long before she was born. Her ancestors found their way into the Kentucky mountains from Scotland and Ireland by way of England in search of a better life. The search ended when they reached the southeastern Kentucky mountains. Land in that area was most likely available through land grants. In the early 1930s, the father inherited a parcel of the land that was once owned by the great-grandfather. These twenty acres or more provided the family a way to survive in this remote area. The natural wooded area changed drastically when coal was found in that area of Kentucky. A large part of the grandfathers land was leased to a coal mining company. The development of coal mining communities covered many acres of the land. This was when Allais, Kentucky, was added to the map. After many years of working underground in a coal mine, the father was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in the late 1940s. He was blessed with relatives and friends in Allais when they donated the blood he needed to live. He prayed to God to keep him alive until all his children were on their own. God chose to take him in a car accident the day his last child was getting her marriage license. The authors memories of her happy childhood are true experiences, and her love of Kentucky will remain and be passed on to all her present and future generations. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Lois Walker Wests new book is a nostalgic look at a fading portrait of American rural life. View a synopsis of The Appalachian Way in Coal Country on YouTube. Readers can purchase The Appalachian Way in Coal Country at traditional brick and mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Appalachian Way in Coal Country, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. "Erection" by David Thomas The #MeToo and #TimesUp social movements have empowered women to add their stories to emerging news headlines, but there is still so much inappropriate sexual behavior happening below the radar and being excused as boys will be boys, or worse, she asked for it. Author David Thomas wants to help put a stop to it with his cautionary tale, Erection: A Memoir. Erection is a personal examination of David Thomas life as it relates to his sexuality and how it controlled much of his behavior. Thomas examines the condition of American male sexuality and the conversations (or lack thereof) around sexuality in society. Referred to by Thomas as thinking with my crotch, the book tells a story of the human damage ordinary men create when they follow their hormones instead of their common sense. Clarion Reviews describes Erection as a thorough, humane approach to human sexuality, seen through the lens of one mans experiences[Thomas] focuses on mens sexual responsibility and how men can empower and dignify their sexual needs without preying on women. Americans reluctance to talk about sex, which they perceive as a taboo subject, gives permission for men to aggressively pursue sex and to avoid thoughtfully communicating about sex, sexuality, and sexual consequences of misbehavior. Thomas argues, as a male, that men must stop thinking with their crotches and learn to be comfortable communicating about human sexuality. I grew up in a household where sex was not even talked about or thought of, the author said. Looking back on that I think that was part of the reason I went into the world so unprepared for relationships. Erection also offers a male viewpoint of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, as Thomas has been on the offending side of a #MeToo situation. He discusses misbehavior by ordinary men that must be brought to light alongside the actions of prominent and powerful men such as Harvey Weinstein, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Matt Lauer and many others. As men, we need to start taking responsibility for our own actions, rather than blaming the woman who wears short skirts, drinks alcohol or goes out at night, Thomas said. Erection: A Memoir By David Thomas ISBN: 978-1532050022 (softcover); 978-1532050015 (hardcover); 978-1532050039 (electronic) Available at the iUniverse Online Bookstore and Amazon About the author David Thomas is a retired professor and higher education administrator. He has published over twenty books, and he has three children and lives with his wife in the Midwest. In Erection, he chronicles his candid and personal story of sexual misconduct, and he urges other erection-driven men to reflect on their sexuality and communicate about it with their partners and families. To learn more, please visit https://www.erectionthebook.com. Author Lisa Zschuschen has had many personal struggles with depression and anxiety. However, forest bathing has calmed her. Meanwhile, photographer Patricia Ahearn discovered all the health benefits of forest bathing during life's most difficult and tragic time the loss of her granddaughter, Violet. Together, they invite readers to experience the power of nature through a virtual walk in the woods guided by inspirational writings and captivating photographs in Forest Bathing: Living and Healing - A Photo Journal (published by iUniverse). In this photo journal, Zschuschen and Ahearn combine talents to introduce readers to the world of forest bathing, a Japanese-based concept that promises its followers relaxation, whole-body health benefits and a renewed sense of purpose, simply by walking in the woods, using all five senses. In their own words, Zschuschen and Ahearn explain what forest bathing has meant for them, their family and their health and include commentary from residents, medical doctors and wellness professionals. Ahearns photographs display local natural beauty and highlight nature in its most pristine form. Forest Bathing: Living and Healing - A Photo Journal aims for readers to find a new approach to getting outside. We hope the photographs soothe and make people smile, inspire people to get exploring. We hope readers will share this relatively new concept with anyone that could benefit from it, Zschuschen and Ahearn conclude. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Bathing-Living-Healing-Journal/dp/1532059663. Forest Bathing: Living and Healing - A Photo Journal By Lisa Zschuschen Hardcover | 11 x 8.5in | 100 pages | ISBN 9781532059681 Softcover | 11 x 8.5in | 100 pages | ISBN 9781532059667 E-Book | 100 pages | ISBN 9781532059674 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble About the Author Lisa Zschuschen has been an enthusiastic writer for her entire life. Through the practice of forest bathing, she has learned to slow down, enjoy life, and reset priorities. Patricia Ahearn is a professional photographer and a registered nurse with a passion for combining the two for health, nature, well-being and enjoying life with family and friends. iUniverse, an Author Solutions, LLC, self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Indigo Books & Music, Inc. in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Readers Choice, Rising Star and Editors Choice designationsself-publishings only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniversebooks on Twitter. "I feel it is one of the most important creative partnerships in my life." SXSW Co-Founder Louis Black Local creative content company Arts+Labor has moved its offices into the former SXSW headquarters on 40th street adjacent to the Austin Chronicle. SXSW Co-Founder Louis Black says, Whenever someone talks to me about a documentary, a narrative film, a music video or anything to be visually captured I immediately reach out to Arts+Labor. What we have done so far has been so much fun and turned out so well. I feel it is one of the most important creative partnerships in my life. The best news is that it looks like we'll be working a lot more and a lot more together in 2019. And Beyond. Along with the move, Arts+Labor is proud to announce the promotion of Cody Ground to Executive Creative Director, Kyle Cockayne to Head of Production, and Rachael Trigg to Head of Development. The companys also hired Scott Hamilton as Executive Producer, and Alie Jackson as Senior Art Director. This follows the departure of Executive Vice President Craig Parks, who will continue to work with the company in a strategic role in 2019. This is an incredible group of people, and were honored to have them on our team. Were also extremely excited about the continued creative collaboration with the legend that is Louis Black, says Arts+Labor co-founder Alan Berg. This new leadership teams work spans an incredible range of projects from independent films to branded content and social media campaigns. Their work includes the Amazon-released documentary Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove, RuPauls Drag Race, Top Chef, and media campaigns for Marvel, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. Since its inception in 2006, Arts+Labor has produced 29 independent films and since 2014 it has had eight films premiere at Sundance and five at SXSW. In addition to film production, the firm has deep commercial experience. It created the City of Austins new tourism commercial, and works with brands ranging from Hugo Boss to AMD and Dell. In addition to serving as SXSWs production partner, Arts+Labor produced Outside Industry, which chronicles the history of SXSW and debuted at the festivals 25th anniversary. Aprio, LLP, a nationally-recognized CPA-led business advisory firm, announced today that Richard Kopelman has been re-elected as the firms managing partner. In addition, the firm has re-elected three executive committee members and added five new partners and three directors to Aprios leadership team. Kopelman has been the firms managing partner since 2012 and was re-elected to serve Aprio as managing partner for three more years. Under Kopelmans leadership, Aprio has grown its revenue by 40 percent and added five new services lines to the business. Today, Aprio is recognized as a Top 100 Accounting Firm in the United States and has been recognized as a Best Place to Work for the past two years. In 2017, Richard championed an industry-leading rebrand transitioning the firm from Habif, Arogeti & Wynne to Aprio, and since 2013 has spearheaded six combinations including the firms first two outside of the Atlanta market. In addition, Aprio re-elected three members to its Executive Committee: Yelena Epova, Partner-in-Charge, International Services Michael Levy, Partner-in-Charge, Transaction Advisory Services Alan Vaughn, Partner-in-Charge, Real Estate & Construction These three partners join existing committee members: Adam Beckerman, Rob Casey and Sam Tuck. Aprio is proud to announce five new partners and three directors in 2019 as it continues to build success for the firm. Naming new partners and directors demonstrates Aprios commitment to its team members professional growth and development, but also the recognition of the strategic foresight, expertise, dedication and passion these individuals demonstrate in advising the firms clients to get to their next. Aprios newest professionals admitted into the partner group, as of Jan. 1, 2019, include: Jessica Hussain, Retail, Franchise & Hospitality Michael Lange, Manufacturing & Distribution Thomas Prevatt, Professional Services Thomas Scott, Technology & Blockchain Jagruti Solanki, Technology & Blockchain The Aprio professionals named director, as of Jan. 1, 2019, include: Julie Chesebro, Tax Director Shay Eubanks, Tax Director Cheryl Leydon, Director, Global Mobility Services As Aprio continues to grow, it is important that we promote individuals who can be strong leaders and guide the firm to its next, said Richard Kopelman, CEO and Managing Partner. It is an honor to promote our co-workers to partners and directors, they have each played an important role in the firms success and I know they will continue to develop professionally and advise our clients to achieve whats next. For more information about Aprio or the firms leadership team, visit http://www.aprio.com. About Aprio: Aprio is a premier full-service, CPA-led business advisory firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, that advises clients and associates on how to achieve whats next. Aprios associates work as integrated teams across advisory, assurance, tax, cloud accounting and private client services, bringing the best thinking and personal commitment to each client. Across practices, Aprio brings together proven expertise, deep understanding and strategic foresight for industries including Manufacturing and Distribution; Non-Profit and Education; Professional Services; Real Estate and Construction; Retail, Franchise and Hospitality; and Technology and Blockchain. In 65 years, Aprio has grown to 500 employees. To serve clients wherever life or business may take them, Aprios teams speak more than 30 languages and work with clients in over 40 countries. Aprio is recognized as a Top 100 Accounting Firm in the United States and has been recognized as a Top Workplace for two years in a row by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In addition to its Atlanta headquarters, Aprio also operates in New York; Birmingham, Ala., Sarasota, Fla. and Alpharetta, Ga. For more, https://www.aprio.com. Alex Graham, an educator to the children of Detroit with a background in curriculum development, data analysis, professional development, research and statistics, has completed his new book Checkmate: How Power and Greed Destroyed the Detroit Public Schools: a gripping account that tackles the ruination of the Detroit Public School system by the government. Author Graham puts emphasis on the effects of the educational demolition brought about by mismanagement of the upper echelons of the society: Imagine being confined to a fortress for sixteen long years, bound not by shackles of steel but by Machiavellian assurances from the most cunning rulers of a troubled kingdom. And at long last, when the cloak of doublespeak begins to fray, threats of swift punishment replace hollow promises. Power and Greed Destroyed the Detroit Public School System tells the tale of the collapse of the Detroit Public School system at the hands of the most powerful people in Michigan government. The method of destruction was like a chess game where kings, pawns, and a queen strategically maneuvered through the school district until the total dismantlement of the school system was achieved. Under the guise of school reform and promises of providing the children of Detroit with an opportunity of a lifetime, these skilled players persuaded unsuspecting employees and students to be willing participants in their own eventual demise. Like the Flint water crisis, government officials chose money over lives, with Detroit children paying the ultimate price. Checkmate. Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Alex Grahams engrossing book presents thought-provoking notions that aim to enlighten readers with the necessity to better the educational system to upgrade every potential students capacity and prevent further damage to their lives. Readers who wish to experience this work can purchase Checkmate: How Power and Greed Destroyed the Detroit Public Schools at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time-consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. The Internet manners book by Kristin Johnson, Aint U Got No Manners, dubbed by Patrick Evans of CBSTV-2 in Palm Springs as the Bible For Social Media, nabbed the Bronze Award in the category of Computers and Technology in the 2018 Nonfiction Book Awards from the Nonfiction Authors Association (NFAA). The judges review states, This book is chock-full of excellent advice and good psychology. It is written in the language of its target audience: people who are part-human, part-internet cyborgs, although they may not realize it. The information is well organized and presented, with lots of examples, appropriate evidence, and considerable humor. The NFAA, founded in 2013 by author (From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks, and Information Products) Stephanie Chandler, provides valuable education, resources, and a supportive community for 14,000 members who are experienced and beginning authors of nonfiction books. The NFAAs Nonfiction Book Awards honors nonfiction books year-round and welcomes submissions of traditionally published and self-published books. The NFAA Web site states. As an extension of the Nonfiction Authors Association, we are committed to honoring excellence in nonfiction books and welcome submissions by self-published and traditionally published authors alike, in both print and ebook formats. Publishers are also welcome to submit books for award consideration. Johnson said, Winning the Bronze Award from NFAA is an honor and, since the winners were notified in December, an unexpected Christmas present. The NFAA does great work and I tip my hat to Stephanie Chandler, Special Projects Director & Social Media Manager Sue Canfield, and everyone at NFAA. Kristin Johnsons book Aint U Got No Manners is available at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/699426 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996843744. Visit Kristin on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/author/authorkristinjohnson. AdventHealth Wesley Chapel has been named a 2018-2019 High Performing Hospital for hip replacements by U.S. News and World Report. The U.S. News analysis of hospitals includes data from nearly 5,000 centers across multiple medical specialties, procedures, and medical conditions. Scores are based on a variety of patient outcome and care-related factors, such as patient safety and nurse staffing. AdventHealth Wesley Chapel scored excellent for patient experience and prevention of prolonged hospital stays. AdventHealth Wesley Chapel is committed to having the best doctors and most advanced medical equipment so that our patients have the best outcomes possible, and this award recognizes that dedication by our leadership and our staff for the high quality of care they deliver, said Denyse Bales-Chubb, President and CEO of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. U.S. News ranks nearly 5,000 hospitals in 16 adult and 10 pediatric specialties. Hospitals also receive a rating in nine common procedures and conditions, including hip replacement and COPD. To be nationally ranked in a specialty, a hospital must excel in caring for the sickest, most medically complex patients. About AdventHealth West Florida Division The West Florida Division of AdventHealth has some of the nations brightest medical minds making lifesaving breakthroughs in the Greater Tampa Bay region. We are surgical pioneers, scientists and researchers with leading edge technology and innovation for the best medical experts to deliver our brand of inspired, compassionate care to every patient, every time. Our network of care includes AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth Lake Placid, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Ocala, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Tampa, AdventHealth Wauchula, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills, as well as three freestanding offsite Emergency Rooms including AdventHealth Central Pasco ER, AdventHealth Palm Harbor ER and AdventHealth TimberRidge ER. We also have post-acute care, physician groups, Express Care at Walgreens clinics, urgent care centers and home health care. As part of AdventHealth, a faith-based not-for-profit health care system, our mission, Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, is at the center of everything we do. AdventHealth has hundreds of care sites and nearly 50 hospitals across the United States, dedicated to treating body, mind and spirit and delivering whole-person care to our communities. For more information about AdventHealth, visit http://www.AdventHealth.com, or Facebook.com/AdventHealth, and for specific details on the West Florida Division of AdventHealth, click here. AdventHealth North Pinellas Care Team cuts the ribbon on their da Vinci Xi surgical robot. AdventHealth North Pinellas is the latest hospital in the West Florida Division to integrate the innovative da Vinci Xi robot into the operating room. Surgeons trained on the da Vinci systems can view the surgical site using magnified 3D HD technology, allowing them to make more precise adjustments during colon, cardiology, bariatric and gynecological procedures, just to name a few. Robotic surgeries mean less blood loss, less pain, less risk of infection, minimal scarring, and a quicker recovery for patients. AdventHealth North Pinellas will use the da Vinci Xi to perform general, urology, colorectal and thoracic surgeries. AdventHealth North Pinellas Surgeon Dr. Raj Kotak was the first to use the robot on January 3 during a successful gallbladder surgery. Adding the da Vinci Xi to our operating rooms enhances the quality of care we provide to our patients, said Jason Dunkel, President and CEO of AdventHealth North Pinellas. We have some of the brightest medical minds healing our community and were excited to have this state-of-the-art technology to ensure our patients are receiving the best care possible, while alleviating any additional down time following surgery. AdventHealth is committed to investing in the most advanced technology and innovation to provide exceptional, whole-person care to every patient, every time. ### About AdventHealth West Florida Division The West Florida Division of AdventHealth has some of the nations brightest medical minds making lifesaving breakthroughs in the Greater Tampa Bay region. We are surgical pioneers, scientists and researchers with leading edge technology and innovation for the best medical experts to deliver our brand of inspired, compassionate care to every patient, every time. Our network of care includes AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth Lake Placid, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Ocala, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Tampa, AdventHealth Wauchula, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills, as well as three freestanding offsite Emergency Rooms including AdventHealth Central Pasco ER, AdventHealth Palm Harbor ER and AdventHealth TimberRidge ER. We also have post-acute care, physician groups, Express Care at Walgreens clinics, urgent care centers and home health care. As part of AdventHealth, a faith-based not-for-profit health care system, our mission, Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, is at the center of everything we do. AdventHealth has hundreds of care sites and nearly 50 hospitals across the United States, dedicated to treating body, mind and spirit and delivering whole-person care to our communities. For more information about AdventHealth, visit AdventHealth.com, or Facebook.com/AdventHealth, and for specific details on the West Florida Division of AdventHealth, click here. About AdventHealth North Pinellas AdventHealth North Pinellas, located in Tarpon Springs, is a 168-bed, full-service hospital specializing in cardiovascular medicine, emergency medicine, orthopedics, wound healing, sleep medicine, womens care, and general surgery including minimally invasive and robotic-assisted procedures. AdventHealth North Pinellas has been nationally recognized by the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, The Joint Commission, and The Leapfrog Group, for excellence in providing quality patient care. AdventHealth North Pinellas serves both the Pinellas and Pasco communities of West Central Florida. For more information, visit http://www.AdventHealthNorthPinellas.com. ACD, a leading auto claims technology, decision support, advisory and service network aggregator to the property and casualty industry was recently recognized as one of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America by Entrepreneur Magazines Entrepreneur360 List, a premier study delivering the most comprehensive analysis of private companies in America. Based on this study forged by Entrepreneur, ACD is recognized as a well-rounded company that has mastered a balance of impact, innovation, growth, leadership and value. Were extremely honored to be recognized for this award and it caps off a tremendous year for our company. Were proud to have created a dynamic and innovative culture and this is truly a team honor, stated Ernie Bray, CEO of ACD. Were very excited to launch into 2019 and give our insurance clients powerful services and technology that will drive their success for years to come, added Bray. Our annual evaluation of vetted data offers a 360-degree analysis of top privately-held companies across a multitude of industries, explains Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine. They are deemed successful not only by revenue numbers, but by how well-rounded they are. The companies that make the list have pushed boundaries with their innovative ideas, fostered strong company cultures, impacted their communities for the better, and increased their brand awareness. Honorees were identified based on the results from a comprehensive study of independently owned companies, using a proprietary algorithm and other advanced analytics. The algorithm was built on a balanced scorecard designed to measure five metrics reflecting major pillars of entrepreneurshipinnovation, growth, leadership, impact and business valuation. For additional details on the E360 List and the companies recognized, visit: https://www.entrepreneur.com/360 ABOUT ACD With a mission of shortening the claims process and driving customer satisfaction, ACD delivers the leading virtual claims workflow technology that flexes to an auto insurers specific business needs. ACDs AutoLink incorporates multi-channel methods of inspection into one unified platform. Its exclusive claims triage features the largest crowdsourced on-demand field appraisal network and modern photo estimating tools for the digitally empowered customer. ACD is a leading insuretech firm located in Carlsbad. For more information visit ACD http://www.acdcorp.com Understand the requirements for calculating overtime and complying with Californias wage and hour laws. AudioSolutionz, a division of audio conference and corporate education leader ProEdTech, will host a 100-minute live webinar titled Overtime: 2019 Compliance Requirements for Paying Employees in California by Vicki M. Lambert, CPP on Thursday, January 24, 2019. There is a large chunk of workforce in California that's eligible for overtime wages. Yet, 'unpaid overtime claims' comprise the largest category of complaints filed under Californias wage and hours laws. California sees a higher number of unpaid overtime settlements compared to any other state. And to complicate things, California overtime compliance requirements for employees differ from those in other states. In order to avoid costly legal troubles later, it is important to understand the Californias overtime rule for 2019and how they apply to employees. In this informative webinar, payroll expert Vicki M. Lambert will explain the requirements for calculating overtime and complying with the states wage and hour laws. She will not only guide attendees on how the overtime rules (2019) for California employees differ from those in other states, but will also walk them through the specific terms and procedures used while handling the payroll for California workers. Lambert will also share what agencies govern proper payroll compliance for California employers. After attending this webinar, attendees will understand both the large differences, as well as the subtle nuances, that make California overtime compliance unique for the employees. They will know where California follows the federal standards; where it differs, and how to determine which has priority. Session Highlights This in-depth 100-minute session on California overtime rule 2019 will help attendees: Understand the requirements for calculating overtime and double time to ensure California overtime compliance in accordance with the states wage and hour laws Gain sound knowledge of the terms used in wage and hour law regarding paying overtime, such as regular rate of pay, workweek, fluctuating workweek, and alternative workweek Learn the calculations needed for when an employee is paid different rates of pay within the same workweek and is due overtime pay Know the requirements for compensatory time off as opposed to make-up time and explain the difference between the two under California law Know where California follows the federal standards and where it differs and how to determine which has priority Who Should Attend Payroll executives/managers/administrators/professionals/practitioners/entry level personnel Human resources executives/managers/administrators Accounting personnel Business owners/executive officers/operations and departmental managers Lawmakers Attorneys/legal professionals Any individual or entity that must deal with the complexities and requirements of paying employees overtime in the State of California For more information on California overtime rule 2019 register for this webinar, visit: https://www.audiosolutionz.com/hr-compliance-employment/california-new-overtime-updates.html Get $40 off on our conferences and webinars. Use Code PRWEB40 on checkout (applicable for all purchases). About ProEdTech ProEdTech is a leading source of knowledge and training for professionals in over 15 industries, serving individuals, businesses and their employees around the globe. It offers webinars, online conferences, seminars, boot camps, books, DVDs, white papers, industry reports and other learning tools from industry experts and insiders who provide a fresh perspective on key issues, trends and regulations in order to simplify governance, risk and compliance (GRC) for enterprises and industry professionals. ProEdTechs AudioEducator webinars offer updates, regulatory knowledge and information on the latest news in various medical specialties, as well as coding and billing updates, and analysis of regulations that affect ambulatory surgical centers, home health, long term care and hospice facilities, hospitals and healthcare systems, health insurers and physician practices. ProEdTechs Eli Financial platform offers tax and banking professionals, focusing on providing high-quality online training products customized for U.S. lenders and tax practitioners that include the latest updates from the IRS, CFPB and other regulatory authorities. Webinars are also offered through AudioSolutionz in the technology, human resources, construction and housing, ICT and telecom, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods and retail, safety and security, transportation, energy and environment, education, trade, and chemicals industries. ProEdTech regularly provides professionals the opportunity to get answers to their most complex questions directly from experts, without having to attend costly live conferences. To learn more, visit: http://www.proedtech.com/. A widely reported late 2018 property news story that a Toorak mansion had been sold for around $52 million, the second-highest price ever paid in Victoria, has been taken down from the Domain website. The exclusive story had been published suggesting that the residence at 53-55 Irving Road had sold off market for a strong price. The published article came without details on its exact sale price nor the alleged buyers identity. It was reportedly sold by the Ebeyan family who bought it from the Zeigler family in 2002, according to the article published on the Domain website. "The residence at 53-55 Irving Road is said to have sold in a quiet deal without being advertised for sale, Domain understands," readers were told. There was a subsequent report in the Herald Sun suggesting the buyer knocked on the front door to secure the home. Both websites have since removed the story from publication and the $52 million sale has not appeared in the end of year top sales list. Title Tattle understands that the day after the article was published, a family member advised Domain the article was "completely inaccurate." The family also advised it had been "unprofessional to print names." The reputedly sold home sat on about 2000 square metres of land. Even in the originating article, agents in the exclusive enclave had "raised eyebrows" at the reputed price given it didn't really match its land size. The Stonington mansion sale by art dealer Rod Menzies holds the $52.5 million Melbourne record, for the 1890s home on 1.2 hectare. It's followed by tech entrepreneur Ruslan Kogans $38.8 million purchase of a Toorak home from telecommunications investor Philip Cornish. In third place Qi Yang bought the residence of former Mirvac director Marina Darling for $38 million. The $26.25 million sale of the contemporary Toorak home of Daniel and Danielle Besen held the record in 2016. Mumbai, Jan 7 : An invitation to noted litterateur Nayantara Sahgal to inaugurate a three-day literary event in Maharashtra this week has been withdrawn to "avoid any untoward incident", the organisers said, kicking up a huge row. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government should not be linked to "such unnecessary issues". On her part, Sahagal, 91, and a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, thought the organisers "may have given in to political pressure". "No reason was mentioned in the email sent to me by the organisers. They only regretted that the invitation had to be cancelled. The organisers may have given in to political pressure. I don't know, I have no idea why they withdrew my invitation as the organisers were very keen on my attending the event. Maharashtra is a BJP state. Maybe, the BJP unit in Maharashtra did not want me to be there," Sahgal told a TV news channel. The controversy erupted after the Akhil Bharatiya Maratahi Sahitya Sammelan (ABMSS) suddenly rescinded its decision to invite Sahgal to inaugurate its 92nd literary convention in Yavatmal on Friday. Fadnavis was to have shared stage space with the author at the event. ABMSS Executive President Ramakant Kolte said in a statement on Sunday that the invite to Sahgal was withdrawn "to avoid any untoward incident and loss during the three-day meet and in view of the controversy against her name". On its part, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the ABMSS was an autonomous body and it was the organisers' call whom to invite or not and the state government had no role to play in this. "On the issue of inviting and then cancelling the invitation to any personality, attempts are being made to drag in the government. But neither Fadnavis nor the government are involved in this in any manner. The media should not link the government in such unnecessary issues," the CMO said in a statement. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray made it clear that neither he nor his party objected to Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. This was after a MNS leader, Raju Umbarkar, protested against the invitation. "The sentiments behind the resistance by my colleague were stemming from the fact that the very essence of Marathi language needs to be safeguarded. Though his sentiments are correct, one has to take into account the very fact that a very senior and noted writer like Nayantara Sahgal is going to be present at the literary meet. When in her presence, our profound culture and traditions stand unveiled, it can become a medium to exhibit our culture to the rest of the world. Keeping this in mind, my party and I have no objection to it," Thackeray said, tendering a "sincerely apology" to the ABMSS over the controversy. Besides, a farmers' leader, Devanand Pawar, initially objected to inviting an English language writer to inaugurate a Marathi literary event. He later claimed he had no intention to defame Sahgal and demanded the ABMSS tender her an apology for the ruckus caused. Several political leaders targeted the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue. Compounding matters, several literary figures, speakers, journalists and others have now demanded that the ABMSS should cancel their invites and some have even threatened to boycott the event. On Monday, 42 prominent personalities from films, arts, literature, media, social work, poets and civil society, under the banner of 'Friends of Democracy', flayed the move to cancel Sahgal's invite. They asked that the meet be boycotted. New Delhi, Jan 7 : Global ride-hailing platform Uber on Monday announced the appointment of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur alumnus Pavan Vaish as the new Head of Central Operations. Vaish was co-founder and CEO of Daksh e-services -- one of the most successful services acquisition in IBM's history and Vaish spearheaded its integration with IBM. "As we embark on our next wave of growth, we are building and strengthening a team of industry experts and veterans who appreciate the impact of ridesharing and are committed towards innovation for a better tomorrow," said Pradeep Parameswaran, President, Uber India & South Asia. "We are confident that Pavan will play a pivotal role in writing the next chapter in the company's growth journey," Parameswaran added. Vaish also co-founded Quadrant Infotech, an offshore data capturing business focused on the US market. "Uber is an iconic brand and the company has played a critical role in shaping India's ride-sharing ecosystem. In my new role, I look forward to drive the next phase of its growth through operational excellence and strategic innovation," said Vaish. Vaish who has 25 years of experience has also worked as Global Chief Operating Officer at UnitedLex. Badin : , Jan 7 (IANS) Pakistan's Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of travelling around the world to "beg" for financial support for his cash-strapped country. "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg (for financial aid)," Shah, a leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said in a speech at a rally in Matli, Badin on Sunday. He also claimed that those without any experience in politics were given a seat in the government, Samaa TV reported. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had finalised a $6.2 billion support package to help Pakistan address its balance of payments challenge. According to a report in Dawn newspaper, the package involved $3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, besides a $3 billion cash deposit. It was expected to be announced by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his two-day visit to the country starting Sunday. The daily had cited a government official as saying that the package was similar to that given by Saudi Arabia. With this, Pakistan would get a total saving of about $7.9 billion on oil and gas imports from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about $12-13 billion, the official said. The government had also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that was at an early stage, the daily said. Khan had also visited China in November to seek economic assistance. That time, state-run news channel PTV ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of his speech and became a target of trolling by netizens. "We're incredibly pleased to welcome Shant to the WSPA team," Reheis-Boyd said. "Shant's robust association experience and enthusiasm will complement our existing in-house government affairs team, who fiercely advocate for our member companies and our state's economic and environmental future." "I'm excited to join WSPA's growing team and look forward to a seat at the table with stakeholders to chart out a vibrant energy future for all Californians," said Apekian. Prior to joining WSPA, Shant served as the Vice-President of Public Affairs for the California Apartment Association and helped lead its legislative and political programs. He has also served as legislative staff to state legislators and worked on numerous political campaigns. Apekian's first day at WSPA was December 31, 2018. Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is a non-profit trade association representing the companies that safely and reliably explore for, produce, refine, transport and market the petroleum and energy products that fuel the five western states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. We represent 150,000 women and men who have proudly been powering the western states since 1907. wspa.org | twitter: @officialwspa SOURCE Western States Petroleum Association Related Links http://www.wspa.org EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wpromote, the nation's leading independent digital marketing agency, today announced it has been named number three on Ad Age's highly competitive Best Places to Work list for the third time. Headquartered in El Segundo, Wpromote's 385+ employees and office dogs are spread throughout eight locations across the U.S. Wpromote's unique culture is a direct result of constant dedication to employee happiness. Employees are always encouraged to give honest feedback about their roles and how the company can improve. The management team utilizes TINYpulse, a leading employee engagement platform that collects anonymous feedback, to ensure every employee has the opportunity to provide insights, suggest changes and share ideas. Chief Operating Officer Michael Block personally reviews every submission in TINYpulse each week and responds to each individual. The company's core values are client success, culture, respect, transparency and drive; these are reflected in Wpromote's motto "Make Mondays Suck Less." "Cultivating a positive, collaborative company culture is the most important part of creating a successful business," said Wpromote Founder & CEO Michael Mothner. "A company is only as good as the people that power it, and if those people feel valued and appreciated, that will come across in their work with clients. We have an incredible team at Wpromote and it's my top priority to make sure they have the tools they need to succeed." Internal committees offer opportunities for employees to get involved. Wprovide is the internal organization connecting team members to charitable organizations, and Wpromote has joined the the 'Pledge 1%' initiative, dedicating 1% of employee time to pro bono work helping non-profits. Wpromote also started an initiative called RISE as a way to support female employees in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Wpromote boasts a team that is 57% female, and the goal of RISE is to empower the women in the company by building a supportive community that helps them excel within Wpromote and beyond. As Wpromote has grown, the leadership team has shown dedication to overall employee happiness by building important benefits, including generous baby bonding policies, improvements to the 401k program, additional healthcare benefits, flexible telecommuting options and unlimited paid time off. Although perks don't make the culture, employees cite favorites such as in-office yoga classes, weekly Fine Wine Friday happy hours, fresh fruit and veggies and monthly team social events. Wpromote's commitment to both fun perks and benefits package upgrades keeps employees happy. Wpromote leadership is always looking for ways to better serve and invest in the employees, and this attitude of ownership and true concern for each person's happiness helped solidify Wpromote's inclusion on Ad Age's exclusive list. About Wpromote Founded in 2001 by CEO Michael Mothner, Wpromote is an award-winning digital marketing firm with eight offices across the United States, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Dallas. Named one of the Best Places to Work in the US by Ad Age for the third time, Wpromote and its 385+ employees have helped hundreds of clientsfrom startups to Fortune 500 companiesgrow their businesses online with end-to-end digital solutions. As the agency of choice for major brands like Marriott, Bayer HealthCare, Verizon, Z Gallerie, Wienerschnitzel, J.D. Power, and Forever 21, Wpromote utilizes integrated search, mobile, and social marketing tactics to help clients Think Like A Challenger surpass competitors. With unmatched experience and a focus on advanced data-driven digital intelligence, Wpromote helps companies big and small succeed online. For more information, visit www.wpromote.com . Contact: Whitney Wells BAM Communications [email protected] C: 541-530-1677 SOURCE Wpromote Related Links http://www.wpromote.com DENVER, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Welltok, the leading consumer health enterprise SaaS company, announced today that it will present at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, January 8, 8:00 am PT at the San Francisco Westin St. Francis Hotel in Elizabethan C. Welltok's chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Margolis will provide a company update and discuss how its award-winning consumer activation platform empowers customers to connect consumers with personalized health improvement resources and make it easy and rewarding for them to complete actions that optimize their health. Welltok's 2018 highlights include: Strategic Acquisitions : completed the acquisition of Wellpass, the leading interactive messaging company, to expand the company's presence in the managed Medicaid and government markets and bring sophisticated text messaging capabilities to its health activation platform. Welltok also continued integration and expansion of Tea Leaves Health, which it acquired to propel growth within the hospital market and enrich core capabilities. : completed the acquisition of Wellpass, the leading interactive messaging company, to expand the company's presence in the managed Medicaid and government markets and bring sophisticated text messaging capabilities to its health activation platform. Welltok also continued integration and expansion of Tea Leaves Health, which it acquired to propel growth within the hospital market and enrich core capabilities. New and Enhanced Solutions : launched solutions across many markets. The Medicare Quality Solution precisely identifies risks for gaps in care and boosts Star Ratings. Welltok's new predictive analytics solution generates actionable insights and powers health initiatives. Additionally, Tea Leaves Health enhanced its industry-leading growth solution to create longitudinal relationships with both providers and consumers. : launched solutions across many markets. The Medicare Quality Solution precisely identifies risks for gaps in care and boosts Star Ratings. Welltok's new predictive analytics solution generates actionable insights and powers health initiatives. Additionally, Tea Leaves Health enhanced its industry-leading growth solution to create longitudinal relationships with both providers and consumers. Employer Market Growth : selected by the Health Transformation Alliance, a co-op of approximately 50 major corporations, as its preferred principal partner for consumer health engagement. Welltok's Total Wellbeing Solution stood-out among competitors for its ability to analyze and apply data to personalize employee wellbeing and optimize spend. : selected by the Health Transformation Alliance, a co-op of approximately 50 major corporations, as its preferred principal partner for consumer health engagement. Welltok's Total Wellbeing Solution stood-out among competitors for its ability to analyze and apply data to personalize employee wellbeing and optimize spend. National Recognitions: collected awards in 2018 for continued growth and key differentiators including security excellence, SaaS enterprise development and the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Awards include: Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Company list, Deloitte Fast 500, Inc 5000, Entrepreneur 360, Forbes Cloud 100, Info Security PG's Global Excellence Awards, SC Magazine Best Security Team finalist and Fierce Innovation Award finalist, Frost & Sullivan's CC Analytics and Cognitive Computing awards. About Welltok Welltok is a data-driven, enterprise SaaS company that delivers the healthcare industry's leading consumer activation platform. Welltok's solutions empower leading health plans, employers, providers and public entities to connect consumers with personalized health improvement resources, making it easy and rewarding for consumers to complete actions that optimize their health and wellbeing. Only Welltok leverages a machine-learning, multi-channel approach proven to help innovative organizations power growth and retention initiatives, improve healthcare value, and streamline the consumer experience, while upholding the highest security and compliance standards. Follow on Twitter on @Welltok.com. Media Contact Erica Sniad Morgenstern 415.697.3496 [email protected] SOURCE Welltok Full-time job applicants are invited to apply online at jobs.wegmans.com , or call 347-652-2424 for more information. Interviews are conducted by appointment only and applications are not accepted at the store construction site. Available full-time positions include everything from entry-level management to customer service, overnight grocery, and culinary roles like chefs and line cooks. Select part-time positions for bakery and culinary roles are currently being filled as well. Hiring for all other part-time positions will begin at a later date. "Here at Wegmans, you drive your own development and the opportunities are truly what you make of them," said Brooklyn Store Manager Kevin Cuff, who began working for Wegmans 21 years ago when he was 16 years old. "You are more than just a number. You are a family member who has a voice and an opportunity to do whatever it is you are passionate about." Wegmans' status as a great place to work is widely recognized. In 2018, the family-owned company placed second on FORTUNE magazine's list of "The 100 Best Companies to Work For." The company has ranked highly on the list for 21 consecutive years. Employees cite an extensive array of benefits as the reason they chose Wegmans, including competitive pay and benefits packages, premium pay on Sundays and holidays, tuition assistance through the company's employee scholarship program, and flexible scheduling. Wegmans Brooklyn is a 74,000 square-foot supermarket, including a second-floor mezzanine with nearly 100 seats for the in-store market cafe. The mezzanine space also has a bar, serving food, wine, beer, and spirits. Wegmans stores have a European open-air market look and feel, offering an abundance of choice, the best ingredients, thousands of organic options, restaurant-quality prepared food, and consistent low prices. In business since 1916, Wegmans now operates 98 stores in six states and has more than 48,000 employees chainwide. The company is set to open three locations in 2019, all in brand new markets: in Virginia Beach, Virginia; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Brooklyn, New York. Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a 98-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The family-owned company, recognized as an industry leader and innovator, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. Wegmans has been named one of the '100 Best Companies to Work For' by FORTUNE magazine for 21 consecutive years, ranking #2 in 2018. Contact Information: Valerie Fox, Wegmans media relations coordinator, 585-720-5713, [email protected] SOURCE Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. Related Links http://www.wegmans.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The following event roundup from Virtual Press Office is a list of featured exhibitors for CES 2019, the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies, which takes place from January 8-11 in in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES 2019 press kits, news releases and photos are available on Virtual Press Office's dedicated news page for the event, managed by Virtual Press Office/Cision PR Newswire: http://ces.vporoom.com/ CES 2019 press kits on Virtual Press Office AccuWeather Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/AccuWeather More than 1.5 billion people worldwide rely on AccuWeather to help them plan their lives, protect their businesses, and get more from their day. AccuWeather provides hourly and Minute by Minute forecasts with Superior Accuracy with customized content and engaging video presentations available on smartphones, tablets, free wired and mobile Internet sites, connected TVs, and Internet appliances, as well as via radio, television, and newspapers. Established in 1962 by Founder, President and Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers -- considered the "father of modern commercial meteorology," the nation's most respected source on the business of meteorology having been named "the most accurate man in weather" by The New York Times, and one of the top entrepreneurs in American history in Entrepreneur Magazine's Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs -- AccuWeather also delivers a wide range of highly customized enterprise solutions to media, business, government, and institutions, as well as news, weather content, and video for more than 180,000 third-party websites. Audio-Technica Booth #20860 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/Audio-Technica For more information, visit audio-technica.com G+D Mobile Security, Inc. Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/gi-de G+D Mobile Security manages and secures billions of digital identities throughout their entire life cycle. We are the eSIM market leader globally with our state-of-the-art platforms managing more than 40 million eSIMs today. G+D invented the SIM card 30 years ago, and with it, we are revolutionizing today's IoT security framework with our SIM-Enabled Secure Cloud Connect IoT solutions. As we move into the 5G era, G+D is positioned to power beyond the SIM where our expertise in secure connectivity will drive the hyper-connected 5G ecosystem. G+D Mobile Security is a global technology company headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company is part of the Giesecke+Devrient group. G+D Mobile Security has a workforce of 5,700 employees and generated sales of approximately EUR 812 m in the 2017 fiscal year. More than 40 sales and partner offices as well as 20+ certified production and personalization sites and data centers ensure customer proximity worldwide. Our products and solutions are used by commercial banks, mobile network operators, car and mobile device manufacturers, business enterprises, transit authorities and insurance companies and their customers every day to secure payment, communication and device-to-device interaction. MobileHelp Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/MobileHelp MobileHelp is a leading provider of mobile Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) and health management solutions. MobileHelp's PERS devices are integrated with nationwide wireless voice, data and GPS technology to provide real-time medical alert monitoring services and expedited personal emergency assistance. In addition, MobileHelp offers proactive health management services such as activity tracking, medication reminders and a telehealth platform, MobileVitals, for both consumers and healthcare providers. For more information about MobileHelp, please call 1-800-989-9863 or visit the company website at MobileHelp.com. MultiTech Booth #2314 - Tech East, Westgate Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/MultiTech MultiTech designs, develops and manufactures communications equipment for the industrial Internet of Things connecting physical assets to business processes to deliver enhanced value. MultiTech has consistently connected customers and we've been doing so for more than 40 years. We're continuing our legacy of consistently connecting customers with the world's first commercially deployable LoRa-based suite of communications devices. MultiTech works with customers worldwide to easily enable cellular, analog, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS Machine to Machine communication capabilities for their Internet of Things applications. For more information please visit multitech.com. Nextbase Dash Cams Booth #7238 LVCC North Hall (Vehicle Technology Station) Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/Nextbase Nextbase pioneered the Dash Cam sector in 2014 and are now the world's leading Dash Cam brand. Nextbase Dash Cams have received critical acclaim, winning rave reviews and over 50 product awards, including being rated the number one Dash Cam brand by highly respected and independent consumer affairs title Which?. Nextbase is also Europe's largest manufacturer of Dash Cams owning a vast market share by volume, according to data acquired by independent retail analysts GfK. At CES 2019 Nextbase will launching their long awaited 'next gen' Series 2 range. The revolutionary range features multiple 'world first' features, including Emergency SOS, AutoSync, and Amazon Alexa Auto Built-In, further cementing Nextbase's status as the world's leading Dash Cam brand. Nextbase plans to replicate the European market leading success in the US as Dash Cams look to become one of the fastest growing consumer technology categories in years to come, as according to Orbis Research predictions, the value of the global Dash Cam market is expected to reach $5.36 billion by 2023, with an emphasis on the US as a major propeller due to potential government mandated regulations and motorist's demand for safety solutions. Omron Healthcare, Inc. Booth #44022 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/OmronHealthcare Omron Healthcare, Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of personal heart health and wellness products. Its market-leading products include home blood pressure monitors and electrotherapy devices. Since Omron invented its first blood pressure monitors more than 40 years ago, the company has been passionate about empowering people to take charge of their health at home through precise technology. Omron is the number one doctor and pharmacist recommended brand of blood pressure monitors for home use. The company's mission is Going for Zero, the elimination of heart attacks and strokes. For more information, visit OmronHealthcare.com. Parks Associates Sands, Halls A-D Booth #42953 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/ParksAssociates Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting firm specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Our expertise includes new media, digital ent., home networks, OTT, digital health, mobile apps, CE, energy mgmt., and home systems & controls. Peraso Technologies Westgate Hotel, Central Tower, Suite 910 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/Peraso Peraso is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the development of 60 GHz wireless chip sets compliant with the IEEE 802.11ad specification. Peraso provides the highest performance silicon in the 802.11ad market, with leadership positions in fixed wireless broadband, WiFi networking and 4K wireless video. PowerSphyr Booth #2107 Westgate Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/PowerSphyr Founded in April 2016, PowerSphyr delivers a full range of universal wireless charging solutions. They deliver solutions that support power ranging from 500 watts down to low milliwatts. The solutions provide backward compatibility for existing wireless charge enabled smart devices (ex. Apple 8 and X; Samsung 8 and 9), as well as supporting next generation magnetic resonant (MR) charging which delivers faster charging, spatial freedom, and simultaneous charging of multiple devices with a range of power requirements. The team PowerSphyr has assembled has been developing cutting edge wireless charging solutions for more than 10 years. The PowerSphyr architectural platform provides cross-compatibility with the 3 primary standards for wireless charging: Magnetic Resonant; Magnetic Induction (or Qi); and RF Harvesting (trickle charging). SkuBot Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/SkuBot For more information, visit skubot.com Syndiant LVCC South Hall 1 #22045 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/Syndiant Syndiant develops high definition light modulating panels and optical engines for near-eye and embedded projection displays. Syndiant's patented all-digital LCOS technology brings high definition performance to the world's smallest personal display devices. The company has offices in Dallas, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Tivic Health EUREKA PARK, BOOTH #53355 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/TivicHealth Tivic Health Systems Inc. (Tivic Health) is a bioelectronic device company dedicated to developing microcurrent therapy solutions for chronic diseases and conditions. Tivic Health's first product, ClearUP Sinus Pain Relief, targets sinus pain associated with allergic rhinitis. Founded in 2016, Tivic Health is part of a $6.2B global neuromodulation industry. The team is dedicated to harnessing the power of neuromodulation for home use products, empowering people to improve their health and quality of life. Tosech LLC Booth #51873 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/Tosech Smarte is a division of TOSECH, LLC., a dynamic company powered by a team determined to re-imagine the ordinary through insights, innovation, creativity and product narrative to deliver savvy home and life upgrades in a variety of mundane consumer segments. Xentris Wireless Booth #36011 Press Kit: ces.vporoom.com/XentrisWireless Xentris Wireless is a leader in designing, manufacturing and distributing high quality, innovative wireless accessories supplying a full line of products to a wide range of customers and top wireless companies including wireless carriers, retailers and dealer agents. With nearly 30 years of experience, Xentris Wireless continues to provide exceptional product, sales, logistics and marketing solutions to the ever-changing wireless industry with proven success and continued commitment. The above press kits will continue to be updated throughout the show. Please check back during CES 2019 for the latest news. Virtual Press Office (http://www.vporoom.com/) is a Cision PR Newswire company. Follow us on Twitter @VPOEventZone or subscribe to our RSS feed for more trade show news. If you have questions about Virtual Press Office services, or if you would like to offer feedback on this exhibitor profile roundup, please email [email protected]. SOURCE Virtual Press Office NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual Health Partners, Inc. (VHP), a virtual health and wellness company, today announced that CEO & Co-Founder Jillian Bridgette Cohen will present a corporate overview at the Biotech Showcase 2019 conference taking place January 7-9 in San Francisco. During the presentation, Cohen will provide an overview of the Company's proprietary SaaS & PaaS healthcare solution, review business highlights, and unveil new platform features including AI enhancements. Cohen has successfully raised multiple rounds of financing and has been involved with a number of exits. "VHP is honored to be selected to present at the Biotech Showcase," says Cohen. "We're excited to share how our scalable solution to personalized nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle modification support, in a live virtual setting, has already transformed care outcomes for tens of thousands of clients across multiple fields of the wellness and medical industries. With over 250 partners ranging from large fitness companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical & medical device companies, insurers and Fortune 500 nutrition companies, we have experienced fast but sustainable growth and are redefining the health and wellness sectors." Details for the two presentations are as follows: Biotech Showcase Date: Monday, January 7, 2019 Time: 10:15am PST Room: Franciscan C Venue: Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel, 333 O'Farrell Street Digital Medicine & MedTech Showcase Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2019 Time: 10:45am PST Room: Powell I Venue: Parc 55 San Francisco A Hilton Hotel About Virtual Health Partners VHP is an innovator in health and wellness, focusing on live virtual nutrition, fitness and lifestyle modification within a contained ecosphere of support. Offered exclusively through a network of participating partners, including Hospital Systems, Physicians, Medi-Spas, Fitness, Insurance, Health & Wellness, Medical Device, Pharmaceutical and Nutrition Supplement Companies, the Company's Business-to Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) model provides a SaaS and PaaS solution that is fully scalable and cost-effective. Through a proprietary Privacy and HIPAA compliant platform, VHP is able to provide a turn-key virtual solution for its business partners across various verticals including fitness, wellness, oncology, weight loss, fertility, orthopedics and plastic surgery. About Biotech Showcase Biotech Showcase is an investor and networking conference devoted to providing private and public biotechnology and life sciences companies with an opportunity to present to, and meet with, investors and pharmaceutical executives in one place during the course of one of the industry's largest annual healthcare investor conferences. Investors and biopharmaceutical executives from around the world gather in San Francisco during this bellwether week which sets the tone for the coming year. Now in its eleventh year, this rapidly growing conference features multiple tracks of presenting companies, plenary sessions, workshops, networking, and an opportunity to schedule one-to-one meetings. Biotech Showcase is produced by Demy-Colton and EBD Group. Both organizations have a long history of producing high quality programs that support the biotechnology and broader life sciences industry. VHP Corporate Contact: [email protected] 877-586-1733 www.virtualhealthpartners.com PR Contact: Christina Monteleone EvolveMKD [email protected] 646-517-4366 VHP SOCIAL MEDIA: @virtualhealthpartners @VHPGO SOURCE Virtual Health Partners, Inc. Related Links https://virtualhealthpartners.com LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The kitchen is the center of family discussions, the makeshift desk for tackling homework, and the place for preparing and cooking meals. In this multi-purpose space - the appliances need to do more than cook and bake - they should connect the kitchen. At CES, Whirlpool brand is introducing the Whirlpool Connected Hub Wall Oven concept, a vision for a central cooking hub that will offer a whole new automated cooking experience for families. While traditional ovens focus on programming, running, and completing the cooking experience, the Whirlpool Connected Hub Wall Oven will expand possibilities in the kitchen with augmented reality and the latest in touchscreen technology. "We know that between homework, buzzing cell phones and over-scheduled calendars, getting meals on the table can seem like an impossible task some days," said Jennifer Tayebi, communications brand manager, Whirlpool brand. "Our new Connected Hub Wall Oven will act as a helping hand in the kitchen - teeing up recipe suggestions based on preferences, offering cooking tips, maintaining the busy family calendar and providing step-by-step cooking instructions - straight from the oven door. It will offer families a whole new, automated way to approach getting food on the table." In place of a traditional window glass oven door, the 27" transparent LCD interface will unlock access to discover, learn, and control the cooking process from a central hub. The Whirlpool Connected Hub Wall Oven's features will include:* Between work, school work and extracurricular activities, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the day's activities. As the kitchen hub, the oven will offer integration with family calendars. If it sees multiple evening commitments, but a 45-minute window for dinner together, it will prompt a quick recipe that meets the night's needs. it's easy to get overwhelmed with the day's activities. As the kitchen hub, the oven will offer If it sees multiple evening commitments, but a 45-minute window for dinner together, it will prompt a quick recipe that meets the night's needs. From Parmesan Herb Crusted Salmon to Honey-Balsamic Asparagus, the connected oven will offer personalized recipe suggestions based on a family's preferences to help solve the daily "What's for dinner?" predicament. based on a family's preferences to help solve the daily "What's for dinner?" predicament. With step-by-step video instructions via the Yummly platform on the LCD screen, families will be able to follow along with recipes straight on the oven door. No need to fumble around with bulky cookbooks or recipe cards to get the recipe just right. on the LCD screen, families will be able to follow along with recipes straight on the oven door. No need to fumble around with bulky cookbooks or recipe cards to get the recipe just right. With different cooking times and cooking instructions, getting every dish on the table can be a challenge. With Coordinated Cooking , recipes are stacked up and steps will be prompted at the right time on the LCD screen, so your chicken and macaroni and cheese will be ready to be plated at the same time. , recipes are stacked up and steps will be prompted at the right time on the LCD screen, so your chicken and macaroni and cheese will be ready to be plated at the same time. For families who need more assistance, the oven will provide instructions to ensure they are getting the most out of their appliance . From which rack to use to which cooking cycle to select, the oven will visually prompt families for the optimal cooking experience. . From which rack to use to which cooking cycle to select, the oven will visually prompt families for the optimal cooking experience. While something delicious is cooking or baking away in the oven, it's tempting to check on it by opening the oven door once or twice - or three or four times. But, doing so drops the oven temperature and extends the cooking time, delaying mealtime. With an internal vision system with extreme zoom, families can check food's doneness without opening the oven door for ideal results. Born from Whirlpool Corporation's innovation incubator, WLabs, the Whirlpool Connected Hub Wall Oven will offer a whole new way to care for loved ones in the kitchen. From January 8-11, CES attendees can get up close to all Whirlpool Corporate innovations at booth #41925 in the Smart Home section, located at the Sands Expo Center. For more information on the brand's care-centric product innovations and to join the conversation, visit ces.whirlpool.com and follow #ConnectToMore #CES2019. * Features subject to change. CES is a registered trademark of Consumer Technology Association (CTA). About Whirlpool Brand: For more than one hundred years, Whirlpool brand has been inspired by how people care for their families. Whirlpool brand is designing home appliances that are focused on improving how families give and get the care they need with the latest technologies and innovations whether that means flexible refrigerator storage for all types of family needs, induction technology for efficient cooking and easier cleaning, or laundry pairs that sense and adapt to clothes. Whirlpool brand is part of Whirlpool Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of major home appliances. Whirlpool Corporation is also one of Habitat for Humanity's largest corporate partners for over 15 dedicated years, donating a refrigerator and range to every new Habitat for Humanity home built in North America. For more information on Whirlpool, please visit whirlpool.com/everydaycare or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/whirlpoolusa or Twitter at @WhirlpoolUSA. Additional information about the company can be found at whirlpoolcorp.com. About Whirlpool Corporation: Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is the world's leading major home appliance company, with approximately $21 billion in annual sales, 92,000 employees and 70 manufacturing and technology research centers in 2017. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, Jenn-Air, Indesit and other major brand names in nearly every country throughout the world. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com, or find us on Twitter at @WhirlpoolCorp. SOURCE Whirlpool Corporation Related Links http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Execu|Search Group released today its 2019 Hiring Outlook titled, The Employee Experience: 4 Ways To Attract, Engage, & Retain Employees In Today's Competitive Market. The report, which provides insights into the factors that most impact employee engagement and well-being, aims to help employers navigate today's candidate-driven market. Arguably the most competitive job market for employers in decades, the Hiring Outlook offers recommendations for improving the employee experience, from hiring to retention. "With professionals in the driver's seat, they're commanding more than just higher salaries," said Edward Fleischman, CEO of The Execu|Search Group. "Professionals consider their careers an integral part of their lives and they expect their job to provide meaning. Top performers who do not feel engaged or supported at work will be first to leave, so our 2019 Hiring Outlook is meant to provide employers with tools for creating a culture focused on building a strong employee experience." Findings of the report include: It's becoming increasing difficult to keep talent: 66% of professionals are NOT planning to stay at their organization long-term Companies must offer more professional development: 86% of professionals said that they would change jobs if they were offered more opportunities for professional development 66% of professionals said that there isn't much support for those wishing to take on leadership roles Managers play a critical role in employee engagement: Professionals ranked support from leadership/management as the most important element of company culture Employers are falling short regarding work-life balance 45% of employees do not feel their employer promotes a healthy work-life balance 71% of professionals said they would change jobs if they were offered flexible scheduling in a new role The full report can be accessed, here. About The Execu|Search Group: The Execu|Search Group is a leading recruitment, temporary staffing, and workforce solutions firm with offices throughout the U.S. The firm serves clients across a broad range of industries, including Accounting/Finance, Creative + Digital, Engineering, Financial Services, Healthcare, Human Resources, Legal Services, Nonprofit, Office Support, Pharma, and Technology. MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Klemperer, (212-871-0607), [email protected] SOURCE The Execu|Search Group Related Links https://www.execu-search.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) increased in December, following a minor decline in November. The index now stands at 111.61, up from 110.23 in November. The increase marks a 5.4 percent gain in the ETI over the past 12 months. "The Employment Trends Index rose sharply in December, reversing the declines in recent months, suggesting that employment will continue to expand in the coming months," said Gad Levanon, Chief Economist, North America, at The Conference Board. "With gloom and doom views dominating the news in recent weeks, it is somewhat reassuring that leading indicators of employment are growing. While employment growth could slow down in 2019, it is still likely to expand fast enough to further tighten the labor market. All the main measures of wages are now rapidly accelerating, suggesting that more people from the sidelines will return to the labor force in 2019. The improving labor force participation rate in December led to an increase in the unemployment rate to 3.9 percent. The expansion in labor supply is allowing employers to more easily expand their workforce and meet demand for their goods and services." December's increase was fueled by positive contributions from seven of the eight components. From the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: the Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get," the Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Industrial Production, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry, and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales. The Employment Trends Index aggregates eight labor-market indicators, each of which has proven accurate in its own area. Aggregating individual indicators into a composite index filters out "noise" to show underlying trends more clearly. The eight labor-market indicators aggregated into the Employment Trends Index include: Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get" (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey ) ) Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor) Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now ( National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation) Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers (BLS) Job Openings (BLS)** Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board)* Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)** *Statistical imputation for the recent month **Statistical imputation for two most recent months The Conference Board publishes the Employment Trends Index monthly, at 10:00 AM ET on the Monday that follows each Friday release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report. The technical notes to this series are available on The Conference Board website: http://www.conference-board.org/data/eti.cfm. NOTE: This month's release incorporates annual revisions of standardization factors to the Employment Trends Index, which bring it up to date with revisions in the source data. These revisions do not change the cyclical properties of the index. The standardization factors, known as volatility adjustment factors, are done by calculating the standard deviation of the monthly percent change in each component. The period used for calculating the standardization factors begins in November 1973 and ends at December 2017. The standardization factors are then used to construct the index from November 1973 to present. As a result, the revised index, in levels and month-on-month changes, will not be directly comparable to those issued prior to this annual revision. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.conference-board.org/data/eti.cfm About The Conference Board The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org. SOURCE The Conference Board Related Links http://www.conference-board.org NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amynta Group ("Amynta" or "the Company"), an industry leading group of warranty, managing general agent and specialty risk companies, today announced that it has acquired ClearView Risk Holdings, LLC ("ClearView"), a differentiated habitational Managing General Agent ("MGA") and leading specialized transactional Wholesale Brokerage, that controls over $200 million of premium. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Amynta CEO Stuart Hollander commented, "We are excited to welcome the industry-leading ClearView team to our Amynta family as we work together to leverage their specialty platform for combined accelerated growth. This acquisition is a major step forward in our strategy to expand Amynta's MGA segment, enter the habitational risk and property underwriting space as well as to diversify our services from premier carriers. With its sophisticated technology and range of relevant products and industries including habitational, construction, energy, manufacturing, property and casualty, ClearView is well-positioned in the market and perfectly aligned with our growth strategy as we seek to scale our platform and deliver additional market leading products and services to our clients and customers." ClearView is the parent holding company for Strata Underwriting Managers ("Strata"), a nationally recognized habitational program designed exclusively for the underwriting and management of multi-dwelling properties, and Southwest Risk, LP ("Southwest Risk" or "SWR"), a full-service specialty transactional wholesale brokerage platform with expertise in difficult to place commercial coverage in both the excess & surplus and specialty admitted marketplace. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices in Houston, Fort Worth and Tallahassee, Florida, ClearView writes business in 37 states across the U.S. ClearView's team, led by CEO Parker Rush, will continue driving expansion of the business as part of Amynta. Hollander continued, "I look forward to working closely with Parker and the proven, highly capable ClearView leadership team who are experts in their field and leaders in their territory. Together we will continue ClearView's track record of organic growth and pursue opportunities that will further expand Amynta's MGA segment and diversify our offerings." Parker Rush, CEO of ClearView, said, "This is an important milestone in ClearView's history and will help take our business to the next level as we compete in our current markets and strive to elevate our role as a leading national specialty platform. Joining Amynta presents an opportunity to further differentiate ClearView, driven by the rapid geographic scalability of our Strata program and Southwest Risk's ability to capitalize on the significant growth opportunities we see in a large and growing excess and surplus lines marketplace. I look forward to working with Stuart and the Amynta team to build on our collective momentum." ClearView was formed in December 2010 upon a majority investment in Southwest Risk by GCP Capital Partners, LLC. Amynta was created in 2018 out of Madison Dearborn Partners' acquisition of a number of AmTrust Financial Services U.S. fee businesses. Boris Gutin of GCP Capital Partners said, "As with all our investments, we focus on backing world-class management teams and superior business models. It has been our pleasure to partner with Parker Rush and his management team twice, first with Republic Insurance and now ClearView Risk. Under his leadership, Parker and his team have built an industry-leading habitational program with a culture focused on delivering superior underwriting results, across multiple insurance cycles, to a large and diverse group of carrier partners. During our investment, ClearView has grown its premium base substantially, more than doubled the number of markets, grown its earnings and created a recurring, predictable business model. We believe under Amynta's ownership and support, ClearView can continue to organically grow its core business as well as expand into new programs and business lines." The transaction closed on January 4, 2019. Upon closing, ClearView became a subsidiary of Amynta. Waller Helms acted as financial advisor to ClearView and GCP Capital Partners, with Lock Lorde serving as legal counsel. For Amynta, MHT Partners served as financial advisor and DLA Piper served as legal counsel. About The Amynta Group The Amynta Group is an industry leading group of warranty, managing general agent and specialty risk companies. This collection of professionals and firms provides warranty and services contracts for the automotive, consumer products and specialty equipment industries, among others, and administers niche workers' compensation and contractor liability coverage in the United States on behalf of AmTrust and other carriers. The Amynta name is derived from antiquity and means "protector," which underscores the company's focus and commitment to bringing industry leading products and services to its wide range of clients and customers. Amynta plans to invest in growing and maintaining its market leading position with a focus on ensuring a high performing work culture, product innovation and market expansion. For more information, please visit www.amyntagroup.com. About ClearView ClearView Risk Holdings, LLC provides complex excess and surplus lines insurance solutions to its large network of independent agents. ClearView Risk combines industry and technical expertise, superior service and a desire to become the comprehensive wholesale partner to its independent agents. The Company excels by combining wholesale transactional brokerage with program management and Managing General Agency capabilities. ClearView Risk is headquartered in Dallas, with additional offices in Houston and Fort Worth, and writes business in 37 states across the United States. For more information, please visit www.clearviewrisk.com About GCP Capital Partners GCP Capital Partners is a middle market private equity investment firm managing three active funds with $1.4 billion in committed capital. GCP has completed over 60 transactions since its inception in 2000. GCP has been an active investor in the software and technology industries, community banks and insurance. GCP's managing directors have nearly 100 years of combined private equity experience and have substantial personal capital invested in the funds. GCP Capital Partners is the successor to Greenhill Capital Partners, the merchant banking business of Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL) which the principals formed in 2000. For more information about GCP Capital Partners, please visit www.gcpcapital.com. About Madison Dearborn Partners Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (MDP), based in Chicago, is a leading private equity investment firm in the United States. Since MDP's formation in 1992, the firm has raised seven funds with aggregate capital of approximately $23 billion and has completed over 140 investments. MDP is currently investing out of its most recent fund, $4.4 billion MDCP Fund VII, in businesses across a broad spectrum of industries, including businesses and government software and services; financial and transaction services; basic industries; health care; and telecom, media and technology services. For more information, please visit mdcp.com. SOURCE The Amynta Group Related Links http://www.amyntagroup.com FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TAE Life Sciences , an oncology company pioneering a new treatment platform focused on addressing limitations in current cancer therapy, is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Hill as Chief Operating Officer. With expertise in technology development and clinical adoption in the field of Radiation Oncology, and a wealth of experience in commercializing medical technology, Hill's appointment furthers TAE Life Sciences' ability to scale its efforts to bring a compelling new technology for treating cancer patients around the world. "Rob's strength in the innovation and commercialization of medical technology will be a great advantage as we develop the market for our innovative approach to cancer treatment," said Bruce Bauer, CEO of TAE Life Sciences. "We are excited about the knowledge and energy he brings to our team." As Chief Operating Officer of TAE Life Sciences, Hill will use his extensive knowledge in the development of radiation oncology systems to amplify and accelerate the commercialization of a full clinical system for TAE Life Sciences' proprietary solution for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). TAE Life Sciences is leveraging unique accelerator-based neutron beam technology developed by TAE Technologies, Inc. , the world's largest and most advanced private fusion energy company. TAE Life Sciences has exclusively licensed intellectual property from the fusion energy leader to bring promising treatment potential for head and neck, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and other cancers that are difficult or impossible to treat with traditional methods. Its development of low-energy neutron beams will be practical for installation in typical hospital settings. Hill joins from Accuray Incorporated, where he held a variety of executive level roles including Senior Vice President of R&D, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, and Chief Product Officer. Over his tenure he led efforts in product development, innovation, mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and intellectual property development. Hill was previously Vice President of Engineering at North American Scientific and held various research and development leadership roles at NOMOS Corporation, where he was an early innovator in the field of radiation therapy focusing on Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), tomotherapy, and Monte Carlo dose calculation. "I joined TAE Life Sciences because I believe its unique approach to cancer treatment will have a significant impact on the lives of individuals battling the most lethal cancers," said Hill. "I am honored to be joining a talented team working hard to give hope to patients and families who need new therapeutic solutions." For more information on TAE Life Sciences and its work in bringing BNCT treatment to market, visit www.taelifesciences.com . ABOUT TAE LIFE SCIENCES: At TAE Life Sciences, our mission is to advance Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Our foundational platform beam technology is derived from decades of development by TAE Technologies, Inc., an innovative leader in fusion energy technology. Leveraging their groundbreaking work for clinical investigation, TAE Life Sciences is developing the next generation of low-energy neutron beams optimized for BNCT and practical for typical hospital settings. We have assembled a world-class, cross-functional team of clinicians, radiation oncologists, physicists and other researchers to enable us to bring our technology to those who need it most. The device being developed by TAE Life Sciences is currently for investigational use only and has not been approved for sale or commercial use. SOURCE TAE Life Sciences "Suicide is a mental health illness that is overwhelming our nation and takes our loved ones, friends and does not discriminate! We need more people, including legislators who are willing to speak up and support us and our cause. We need to bring parity to mental health and continue to work to end the stigma of mental health and suicide," said Pam Smith, AFSP Mississippi Chapter Board Member . One of the best ways to prevent suicide is to connect individuals at risk with a mental health professional for assessment and treatment; individuals at risk for suicide must be able to access and afford mental health care. "Parity" means that insurance coverage for mental health and substance use care should be no more restrictive than coverage for other medical conditions. Despite existing parity protections in both federal and state law, Mississippi residents with mental health and substance use conditions are still facing significant barriers in accessing mental health care and coverage. Over 60% of adults with mental illness in the state do not receive treatment, ranking Mississippi 44th in the nation. AFSP advocates will be urging lawmakers to introduce legislation to improve parity protections, oversight, and reporting across the state. The AFSP Mississippi State Capitol Day is a special day for all who have a connection with or a personal story around the topic of suicide. Volunteers will meet with their state legislators and share their stories about why they participate in this advocacy effort; giving a human face to this important health problem. Attendees hope that by sharing their stories, it will help the legislators understand the need for suicide prevention and mental health legislation. AFSP Mississippi Chapter advocates are part of a larger national movement of AFSP volunteer advocates who will be visiting over 40 state capitols across the United States in 2019 to bring best practices in suicide prevention to state legislators and their staff. To learn more about AFSP's advocacy efforts, visit here: https://afsp.org/our-work/advocacy/. One American dies by suicide every 11.69 minutes and 90% of those who die by suicide had a diagnosable mental health condition at the time of their death. Through advocacy, AFSP volunteers will urge state lawmakers to be the voice for the thousands of Mississippi residents affected by suicide each year. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, and with a public policy office in Washington, D.C., AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Related Links http://www.afsp.org BRONX, N.Y., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SD Urban Retail, a Manhattan-based owner and developer, announced today that Sherwin-Williams and Victoria's Nails & Bar have opened their brand new retail stores at The Shops on Broadway located at 5740 Broadway, Bronx, NY 10463. This location for Sherwin-Williams represents their largest store in NYC, occupying 4,000 square feet. For Victoria's Nails & Bar, a best-in-class regional operator, the 6,000 square foot space is their 18th location in the New York Metro area. The Shops on Broadway is a newly constructed shopping center comprised of 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail with 86 on-grade parking spaces, 14-foot ceiling heights, and 240 feet of frontage. "We are happy to announce the store openings of Sherwin-Williams and Victoria's Nails & Bar at The Shops on Broadway," said Daniel Alvarez, Director of Acquisitions and Leasing at SD Urban Retail. Alvarez adds, "Both stores look fantastic, and I expect they will draw a vibrant customer base from the Bronx and lower Westchester." Next month, SD Urban Retail expects Flame Hibachi will open for business at The Shops on Broadway next to the FedEx Office store. Flame is a first-rate regional operator with nine locations. The Shops on Broadway has two spaces available for lease: 2,000 square feet between FedEx Office and Sherwin-Williams, and 6,000 square feet (that can be demised into smaller areas) between Victoria's and Flame. SD Urban Retail owns 60,000 square feet of retail space across New York City and is an affiliate of Storage Deluxe, the leading self-storage developer in the New York metro area. Storage Deluxe has developed over five million square feet of storage since its inception in 1998, and currently has a development pipeline of 1.6 million square feet. SOURCE SD Urban Retail "Our team delivered this world-class expansion project safely, on time and within budget," said Graham van't Hoff, Executive Vice President for Shell's global chemicals business. "This is a key growth project for Shell's global chemicals business. Geismar will continue to play a leading role in providing the materials for products that an increasing number of people need and enjoy." The new unit strengthens Shell's leading position in the US Gulf Coast and illustrates the strategic value of its integrated downstream business. The Geismar site is supported with advantaged ethylene feedstock from Shell's nearby Norco, Louisiana and Deer Park, Texas manufacturing sites, enabling the site to respond to market conditions. The expansion project contains around 3,570 tonnes of steel, 18,290 metres of concrete and 85 linear kilometres of pipe. Several new pieces of infrastructure were built as part of the expansion, including a new water cooling tower, a significant expansion of the site's rail loading capabilities, and the repurposing of a previously idled tank farm. Notes to Editors Shell started main construction on the fourth AO unit at Geismar in 2016, after taking a final investment decision in November 2015 . in 2016, after taking a final investment decision in . The new unit utilises Shell's advantaged technology, known as the Shell Higher Olefins Process (SHOP) technology. The expansion emphasised working with local companies. The primary contractor was Turner Industries, which was founded and is headquartered in nearby Baton Rouge, Louisiana . There were more than 2,000 construction workers employed and an additional 20 permanent jobs created. . There were more than 2,000 construction workers employed and an additional 20 permanent jobs created. The Shell Geismar Chemical Plant is located next to the Mississippi River, about 20 miles south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana . It is a standalone chemicals manufacturing plant, operated by Shell Chemical LP. The site produces alpha olefins, alcohols, ethoxylates, ethylene oxide and ethylene glycols. . It is a standalone chemicals manufacturing plant, operated by Shell Chemical LP. The site produces alpha olefins, alcohols, ethoxylates, ethylene oxide and ethylene glycols. Shell's global chemicals business sells more than 18 million metric tons of petrochemicals per year. Shell's world-class integrated refining and chemicals plants are in Asia-Pacific ( Singapore ), Europe ( the Netherlands ), and North America (the US Gulf Coast and Canada ). ( ), ( ), and (the US Gulf Coast and ). Shell operates three major petrochemical facilities in the USA at Deer Park, Texas ; Norco and Geismar in Louisiana ; and additional chemicals manufacturing in Canada at Scotford and Sarnia. at ; and in ; and additional chemicals manufacturing in at Scotford and Sarnia. We draw strength from being part of an integrated energy company; we benefit from shared infrastructures, access to a variety of feedstocks, and deep manufacturing and processing expertise. This gives Shell a competitive advantage over stand-alone chemicals companies. For more details, visit www.shell.com/chemicals. Cautionary Note The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this release refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as "joint ventures" and "joint operations" respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest. This release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', "schedule", ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. There can be no assurance that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, January 7, 2019. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this release. With respect to operating costs synergies indicated, such savings and efficiencies in procurement spend include economies of scale, specification standardisation and operating efficiencies across operating, capital and raw material cost areas. We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this release that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. SOURCE Shell Related Links http://www.shell.com BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, LLC starts out the new year pleased to announce the acquisition of Professional Medical Insurance Services (PMIS), headquartered in Houston, Texas with seven other offices across the country. This PMIS medical and malpractice group will further expand the Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty Healthcare Division, headed by Guy Feist out of the Oklahoma City office. Professional Medical Insurance Services works exclusively within the Healthcare Industry and has become one of the leading insurance brokerages in the country for hospitals, physicians, diagnostic centers, and managed care companies. With the focus on client needs, PMIS has built solid market relationships with the vast majority of insurance markets that provide property and casualty products specifically for medical facilities and practitioners. Bill Reiss of PMIS will remain on in a leadership role for Seeman Holtz Healthcare. Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. continues to target high-quality independent agencies for geographic expansion and continued growth throughout the United States. With the addition of Professional Medical Insurance Services, Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. will continue to reach new and current clients by helping them protect their most important valuables with not only the right insurance but with the right service for each client. SHP&C offers: All Personal Insurance lines Private Client Umbrella Coverage Commercial, Trucking, Marine Insurance Payroll Employee Benefits Human Capital Management Professional Liability Insurance Medical & Malpractice Marshal Seeman, President of Seeman Holtz Property and Casualty, stated, " We are pleased to have the PMIS team join our family of companies. Their professionals immediately provide our Healthcare division tremendous depth of technical knowledge in this industry." Brett Williams, Vice President, added, "We are strategically poised to focus on professional insurance specialties in 2019. The PMIS team provides us a fantastic start." About Our Company: The Seeman Holtz family of companies provides comprehensive risk management, financial and insurance advice to clients across the country. Contact: Eric Holtz Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty 844.255.6639 [email protected] SOURCE Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. Related Links http://www.seemanholtzpc.com NEWARK, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanveo Inc., a pioneer in bringing next generation technology solutions to the AEC industry worldwide, solidified their intent in providing Electrical Engineering services, and recently welcomed Juan Orosco as their VP of Engineering Services. Juan Orosco - VP of Engineering Services at Sanveo, Inc. "Sanveo is sticking with its promise to not only expand geographically, but to also grow its service offerings," says Irshad Rasheed, COO of Sanveo Inc. "Adding Electrical Engineering services will enable the company to be a well-rounded end to end solution provider to contractors. For Electrical Engineering services, our focus initially is to work on projects in California, but we will soon have the capability to deliver projects in all the major states." Irshad Rasheed added, "We are very excited to welcome Juan to our team here at Sanveo. Not only does he bring exceptional technical skills and three decades of experience to the company, but also great leadership and motivational skills. He will be an excellent role model to all the employees at the company." Over the past three decades, Juan Orosco has worked with Engineering firms, Contractors, as well as Owners. He is a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer and Traffic Engineer in the State of California. He has worked on a variety of projects in the past, but the focus of his recent experiences at Google and Rosendin Electric was on Data Centers. "What attracted me to Sanveo was their vision for the AEC industry and their unique technology-driven approach towards design and preconstruction. They have some really great talent here and I am looking forward to building their Engineering services group." In 2018, Sanveo's Electrical Engineering group executed more than half a dozen projects for some key clients and the results have been very positive. "Our engagement with Sanveo so far has been excellent," said Jeremiah Nieman, who is the Preconstruction Manager at Collins Electrical Company, Inc. "They handled an extremely fast-paced design-build project very well, and I am impressed with their team's responsiveness. I look forward to working with Sanveo as our go-to Engineering and BIM partner." Sanveo recently worked with Jeremiah to complete the Electrical Design package on a major apartment community project in Oakdale, CA. About Sanveo: Sanveo is an AECO technology firm specializing in BIM (building information modeling) and VDC (virtual design and construction) services as well as advanced technology consulting. Since its inception in 2008, Sanveo has demonstrated consistent commitment to quality which has led Sanveo to be a part of 200+ projects across the US. Sanveo strives to empower its clients to extract the most value out of project information to make effective decisions, enhance productivity and improve quality. For more information, visit www.sanveo.com Juan Orosco - https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-orosco-8944b317/ Media Contact: Nikhil Gandhi Sanveo, Inc., 39899 Balentine drive, Ste 265 Newark, CA, USA +1 510.770.1900 [email protected] SOURCE Sanveo, Inc. Related Links http://sanveo.com DALLAS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") announces its 2019 quarterly earnings release dates. The results webcast will be held on the following dates and times: Q4 2018: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time Q1 2019: Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time Q2 2019: Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time Q3 2019: Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time Conference Call Information SC management will host a conference call and webcast to discuss each of the quarterly results and other general matters. The conference call details will be available in the press release filed the morning of each of the release dates. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans or future events are not historical facts and may be forward-looking. Although we presently believe the dates above will be the dates on which we will release our quarterly results during fiscal year 2019, these dates are subject to change. About Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") is a full-service consumer finance company focused on vehicle finance, third-party servicing and delivering superior service to our more than 2.7 million customers across the full credit spectrum. The company, which began originating retail installment contracts in 1997, has an average managed asset portfolio of approximately $52 billion (as of September 30, 2018), and is headquartered in Dallas. ( www.santanderconsumerusa.com ) Contacts: Investor Relations Evan Black 800.493.8219 [email protected] Media Relations Laurie Kight 214.801.6455 [email protected] SOURCE Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. NEW YORK and BASEL, Switzerland, Jan. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Roivant Sciences today provided corporate updates across its family of companies in advance of the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Launch of Alyvant Roivant announced the launch of Alyvant, a new Vant focused on technology-enabled pharmaceutical commercialization which has entered into an agreement with a pharmaceutical partner to co-promote three approved branded medicines. Alyvant's long-range vision is to reduce the cost of commercializing all medicines through technology, generating savings for the healthcare system at large. Alyvant is led by President Gillian Cannon, who joined the company with over 30 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including at Merck, Otsuka, and UCB. Alyvant's Chief Technology Officer, Mitchell Mittman, previously worked in senior roles at Amazon, Expedia, Goldman Sachs, and other financial institutions where he built industry-leading software and data science platforms. "Alyvant's technology integrates market research, sales force optimization, and digital engagement into a single platform to connect patients and physicians with relevant medicines as cost-effectively as possible," said Benjamin Zimmer, President of Roivant Health. "This technology platform allows us to engage new market segments that are underserved by traditional pharma commercial models, while also reducing the need for expensive and wasteful mass-market DTC campaigns that inflate the cost of delivering new medicines to patients." Additional Updates Urovant reported that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 2a trial of vibegron in patients with abdominal pain due to irritable bowel syndrome Axovant announced the creation of its Scientific Advisory Board and provided clinical trial timelines for four of its investigational gene therapies Dermavant and Altavant announced appointments of senior executives Vivek Ramaswamy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Roivant, will provide further business updates, including new data from Immunovant's ongoing Phase 1 study of subcutaneous anti-FcRn antibody RVT-1401, at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference tomorrow, Monday, January 7th, at 9:30 a.m. PT at the Westin St. Francis. His presentation will be webcast here. About Roivant Sciences Roivant aims to improve health by rapidly delivering innovative medicines and technologies to patients. We do this by building Vants nimble, entrepreneurial biotech and healthcare technology companies with a unique approach to sourcing talent, aligning incentives, and deploying technology to drive greater efficiency in R&D and commercialization. For more information, please visit www.roivant.com. Media Contact Paul Davis Head of Communications [email protected] SOURCE Roivant Sciences Related Links https://roivant.com NSFR is the second standard of the Basel III liquidity rules designed to promote stable long-term funding. With Kamakura's NSFR module, the bank will be able to measure, manage, and control its long-term liquidity risk. The solution allows the bank to customize reports for both regulatory compliance and internal use and includes access to subject-matter consulting. Patrick Ho, RHB Group Chief Risk Officer, said Monday, "When we implemented Kamakura's LCR module in 2017, it not only helped us meet our regulatory submission timeline but gave us the ability to forecast our future LCR ratios. Adding the NSFR module will make our bank fully compliant with Basel III. Kamakura's unique ability to generate simulated NSFR projections will ensure that we are prepared for any economic scenario. With the suite of Kamakura modules, including LCR, NSFR, FTP and ALM, we have now a holistic view of both internal and external risk metrics, all within a single solution." Ng Sew Cheng, RHB's Head of Group Asset & Liability Management, said, "Kamakura Corporation's professional approach to implementation was key to the successful upgrade. Their team has a proven track record in implementing the NSFR module both locally and overseas and with the subject-matter expertise provided, it ensures that we follow best practices for risk management for years to come. Their solution will also allow us to project future NSFR ratios in any situation, even if we change our business strategy, our divisional assets, or the structure of our balance sheet profile." Tan Chee Hian, Kamakura's Managing Consultant to RHB, said, "We have a very stable implementation team that fully understood RHB Bank's data and requirements. Mutual trust between RHB and Kamakura made the implementation smooth and successful. Our NSFR module follows the same principle as other modules in the system, giving users the flexibility to configure rules to meet current compliance guidelines and users can easily make changes to respond to future regulatory changes. In addition, our solution allows the bank to conduct stress tests and sensitivity analyses monthly or on an ad hoc basis. Results are transparent and allow users to drill down to the account level for greater detail." Dr. Clement Ooi, Kamakura's Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific Operations, said, "Today's ever-changing regulatory landscape means that banks need to look beyond just automating regulatory reports and to a solution that manages many aspects of risk. RHB, like other sophisticated banks, needs advanced forecasting and simulation capabilities to prepare for adverse market movements. Kamakura provides a fully integrated ERM solution that allows RHB to actively manage its cash flow positions and profiles. The NSFR module fits seamlessly into the bank's existing architecture and integrates perfectly with its existing simulations." About RHB Banking Group The RHB Banking Group, which incorporated in Malaysia in 1994, was established following the merger of Kwong Yik Bank, DCB Bank, Sime Bank, and Bank Utama Berhadinstitutions that were incorporated more than a century ago. RHB Capital, as it was then known, was listed on the Main Board (now the Main Market) of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in 1994, and assumed its present name in 1997. RHB provides financial products and services through its main subsidiaries RHB Bank Berhad, RHB Investment Bank Berhad, RHB Insurance Berhad and RHB Islamic Bank Berhad, while its asset management and unit trust businesses are managed by RHB Asset Management Sdn. Bhd. and RHB Islamic International Asset Management Berhad. In 2005, RHB became the first domestic financial group in Malaysia to set up an Islamic banking subsidiary, known as RHB Islamic Bank Berhad. In 2012, RHB acquired OSK Investment Bank Berhad (OSKIB). The following year, the merger of OSKIB with RHB Investment Bank (RHBIB) made RHBIB the largest investment Bank in Malaysia by assets. With the recent merger of OSKIB and RHBIB, the investment banking business now extends to six ASEAN countries and Hong Kong. About Kamakura Corporation Founded in 1990, Honolulu-based Kamakura Corporation is a leading provider of risk management information, processing, and software. Kamakura was recognized as a category leader in the Chartis Report, Technology Solutions for Credit Risk 2.0 2018. Kamakura was named to the World Finance 100 by the editor and readers of World Finance magazine in 2017, 2016 and 2012. In 2010, Kamakura was the only vendor to win two Credit Magazine innovation awards. Kamakura Risk Manager, first sold commercially in 1993 and now in version 10.0.3, is the first enterprise risk management system for users focused on credit risk, asset and liability management, market risk, stress testing, liquidity risk, counterparty credit risk, and capital allocation from a single software solution. The KRIS public firm default service was launched in 2002. The KRIS sovereign default service, the world's first, was launched in 2008, and the KRIS non-public firm default service was offered beginning in 2011. Kamakura added its U.S. Bank default probability service in 2014. Kamakura has served more than 330 clients with assets ranging in size from $1.5 billion to $3.0 trillion. Its risk management products are currently used in 47 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. To follow risk commentary by Kamakura on a daily basis, please follow: Kamakura CEO Dr. Donald van Deventer (www.twitter.com/dvandeventer) Kamakura President Martin Zorn (www.twitter.com/riskmgrhi) Kamakura's official twitter account (www.twitter.com/KamakuraCo). For more information, please contact: Kamakura Corporation 2222 Kalakaua Avenue, Suite 1400, Honolulu, Hawaii 96815 Telephone: 1-808-791-9888 Information: [email protected] Web site: www.kamakuraco.com Press Contacts: Martin Zorn President and COO 1-808-791-9888, extension 8700 [email protected] www.kamakuraco.com www.kris-online.com SOURCE Kamakura Corp Related Links http://www.kamakuraco.com Posted Monday, January 7, 2019 10:38 am Delays encountered during a prominent Kelso street project could have statewide consequences for the way cities hire contractors. Kelso's recent South Pacific Avenue repaving effort through downtown dragged on a month longer than expected, to the frustration of neighboring businesses and residents. City officials say the delays were partially caused by the contractors' inexperience. Community Development Director Michael Kardas this week said if the city had been legally able to accept the second lowest bid, which was a scant 1 percent ($8,000) more than the lowest bid, the $1.2 million project would likely have been completed on time and with fewer problems. The frustrations have prompted the city to ask local legislators to amend state law to allow cities to accept bids from contractors that come within 3 percent of the lowest bidder. Instead of being legally obligated to accept the lowest bid, cities across the state could take past experiences into account before awarding a contract. This is just one of the local issues that will compete for lawmakers' attention during the 105-day legislative session. Southwest Washington legislators who represent the 19th and 20th districts will have multiple other policy proposals to ponder this year, including changes to school bond supermajority thresholds, allocations for tourism dollars and attempts to streamline environmental reviews of large industrial projects. But the lawmakers say the state's biennium budget is likely to dominate the session, which starts Jan. 14. "As usual, it's going to be a budget thing," 19th District Sen. Dean Takko, D-Longview, said Thursday. "We certainly aren't done with McCleary and the schools. And we've got to put more money into mental health. A lot of people are concerned about homelessness and housing issues, so there's pressure to do something there, and just about everywhere." Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, said he is concerned about Gov. Jay Inslee's proposed $3.7 billion tax package and said he wants to focus on "living within our means and making good investments." He added that he wants to find solutions to better fund special education. School administrators this year will ask lawmakers to support special education funding and school capital facility needs. Educational Service District 112, an education service agency that includes the Longview, Kelso and other Cowlitz County school districts, estimates it will cost $21 million to make up the special education shortfall across the 30 districts it represents this year. 19th District Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, said this week that there is "a legitimate beef" that legislators are not doing enough to fund special education. And he said he would like to continue to focus on K-12 funding and improving the higher educational system. Area school superintendents will also ask legislators this session to change the school funding model make it easier for rural districts like Longview to offer competitive salaries for teachers. Takko said the Legislature will likely look at teacher salaries, which rose significantly in some communities after strikes across the state this summer. "A lot of the salary increases just aren't sustainable. It's going to come home here in a few years. There's some talk of raising the cap on local levies but if we do that, we're right back into another McCleary," Takko said. (Longview and Kelso school districts both oppose raising the levy cap.) The Legislature passed sweeping funding bills during recent years to meet the state Supreme Court McCleary decision ordering the state to fully fund basic education. Part of the decision included a limit on local school bond levies to reduce dependence on local dollars to bridge funding gaps. 20th District Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, said the Legislature will continue to "tweak" its McCleary fix to resolve problems it has caused for rural schools. Local school districts are also asking legislators to lower the 60 percent supermajority requirement to pass a capital bond to a simple majority. Recent bond measures in Castle Rock and Longview failed at the ballot despite receiving 55 percent and 58 percent approval, respectively. Local school officials say a simple majority would make it easier to modernize and replace crumbling buildings. The City of Kelso has asked lawmakers to adjust the way tourism tax dollars are distributed in Cowlitz County. The cities in the county get 2 percent of the state sales tax collected in their jurisdictions to promote tourism. Cowlitz County collects an additional 2 percent lodging tax from hotels and motels for tourism projects. In most of the state, the lodging tax goes back to the cities where it is collected, Kelso City Manager Steve Taylor said this week. For Kelso, that's an additional $180,000 a year that is generated in the city but goes to the county. Kelso is asking legislators to amend state law to allow the city to get that hotel/motel tax money. The change would not impact taxpayers, but would redistribute the revenue. Kalama, Woodland and Longview support the policy change, Taylor said. The city has been unable to negotiate the matter with the county, he said. This redistribution would allow the city to pay for its own projects instead of asking the state for money, like the $1 million the city is requesting to improve Tam O'Shanter Park, Taylor said. "I am for local control of tax revenue. Too often we've gotten away from (that)," 19th District Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, said Friday. "This is an issue we're seeing beyond lodging tax. Local entities are trying to claw back money they were supposed to get that was nickeled and dimed away." The City of Longview has requested about $2.08 million for two capital projects: Replacing bathrooms at Lake Sacajawea and helping finance the Beech Street extension. Rep. Blake said he will introduce a bill instructing the state Department of Ecology to clarify when global carbon emissions would need to be considered in the permitting process for an industrial project. The legislation was spurred by the lengthy and controversial environmental review processes for projects like the proposed Longview coal export terminal and Kalama methanol plant, he said. "Project proponents shouldn't live in fear of the unknown and Ecology should ... put it in rule when (the impact of global carbon emissions) does or doesn't apply, rather than just being some arbitrary determination," Blake said. Both Longview and Kelso councils have said they would support efforts to "streamline" the environmental permitting process. Rep. Walsh said he has a similar bill that establishes "clearer" criteria for when Ecology issues water permits. He also plans to introduce a bill to curb what he considers regulatory agency overreach. "In my opinion ... you have unelected agencies essentially making law," he said. "The legislative branch needs to reassert its authority over the rulemaking process." 20th District Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Centralia, is proposing a carbon reduction bill that uses utility tax incentives to encourage businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and invest in energy efficient practices, he said. He also wants to work on making health care bills more transparent. Braun will run a bill this year that would provide $500 million to build regional mental health facilities across the state. He and Takko, Blake and DeBolt all said the Legislature needs to support transitioning mental health services away from large institutions to smaller, community facilities. DeBolt and Orcutt both plan to continue working on bringing broadband to rural communities. Takko is introducing multiple bills to try to make local government more efficient, including a constitutional amendment that creates governance continuity in the event of a catastrophic disaster, such as the predicted Cascadia earthquake. The Legislature will also consider a $20 to $40 million land swap between the School Trust Lands and Wahkiakum and Pacific counties to free up timber land. Much of the county timber land is under protection for marbled murrelet, whereas the School Trust Lands, which can be located anywhere in the state, owns unencumbered land in those counties. Blake said the land swap is likely to take multiple biennium budget cycles. "These lands were lands that the counties at the time specifically asked the state to manage to produce revenue. It's unfortunate that the federal government has come in and told the state and counties that they can't manage these lands that were set aside to produce revenue," Blake said. Blake said he is also going to focus on restoring hatchery production for commercial and sport fishermen, as well as supporting southern resident killer whale recovery. Reporter Mallory Gruben contributed to this story. SAN FRANCISCO and IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants announced today that risk management and insurance professional Randy Pizer has joined the firm's operations in California as Vice President/Account Executive. While Pizer will be based in EPIC's Irvine, CA. office, he will be a part of EPIC's Pacific North Region and work closely with EPIC San Francisco Principal Joe Vineis and others on a number of key risk management, business development and client service initiatives, largely related to the Healthcare industry an area of specialty for Pizer across his entire career. Pizer will report to Deepa Neupane, EPIC's VP of Operations, based in Concord, CA. Pizer joins EPIC from broker Beecher Carlson in Orange County, where he spent more than 13 years, most recently as a vice president working with large, complex risk management accounts, primarily in the healthcare industry. Previously, Pizer served as an Account Executive in Aon's healthcare practice where he managed a diverse group of accounts ranging from local medical groups to large multi-state health plans. Using both traditional and alternative risk approaches, Pizer's specialty is helping healthcare providers manage the risk associated with capitation. Pizer received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. Professionally, he has earned the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation. "We are excited to further expand and enhance EPIC's operations in California and across the country with Randy's addition," said Curt Perata, EPIC's Pacific North Region President. "He is well known for his expertise, particularly in the Healthcare industry, and is highly regarded for building strong, positive relationships and providing exceptional service and support to his clients. He is another top tier addition to our EPIC team." Randy Pizer can be reached at [email protected] or 949-417-9119. About EPIC EPIC is a unique and innovative retail property & casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm. EPIC has created a values-based, client-focused culture that attracts and retains top talent, fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty and sustains a high level of customer service excellence. EPIC team members have consistently recognized their company as a "Best Place to Work" in multiple regions and as a "Best Place to Work in the Insurance Industry" nationally. EPIC now has nearly 1,400 team members operating from 50 offices across the U.S., providing Property & Casualty, Employee Benefits, Specialty Programs and Private Client solutions to more than 40,000 clients. With run rate revenues approaching $400 million, EPIC ranks among the top 15 retail insurance brokers in the United States. Backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, the company continues to expand organically and through strategic acquisitions across the country. For additional information, please visit https://www.epicbrokers.com/. *PHOTO: Send2Press.com/300dpi/19-0107s2p-randy-pizer-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants HUNT VALLEY, Md., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- 2019 marks the 30th year in business for Preston Productions Inc., a broadcast video and film production company located in Hunt Valley, MD. To celebrate this new milestone, the company will be making some changes, including a name change to Maryland Motion Pictures (MDMP). "I want the company to feel more inclusive and believe removing my name from it is the best way to do that," said Stanley Preston, Producer and Director at MDMP. "This is more than just a name change. It's about new tools, techniques and relationships with clients who have a story to tell, and with colleagues who love to tell them." Preston Productions Announces Rebranding to Maryland Motion Pictures When MDMP started back in 1989, most scripts were written using a typewriter. The company shot on 16/35mm film, or Betacam SP videotape. Editing rates at large video production facilities ran between $375-$575 an hour. Times have changed. "Whether it is a thirty second commercial, marketing video or feature length film, our mission is to produce creative, compelling and effective content for every client no matter what the budget. Filmmaking is our passion and we want to work with others who share that spirit," said Preston. To connect with Maryland Motion Pictures, visit their website at www.mdmotionpictures.com or follow them on social media: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/marylandmotionpictures Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marylandmotionpictures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/maryland-motion-pictures Contact: Stanley Preston Producer/Director @ Maryland Motion Pictures www.mdmotionpictures.com 18 Cockeysville Road, Suite 212 Hunt Valley, MD 21030 410.683.0000 SOURCE Maryland Motion Pictures Related Links http://www.mdmotionpictures.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Federico Pignatelli, founder of The Industry Model Management, Pier59 Studios and creator of the Model's Bill of Rights, ahead of Fashion Week reiterates the ban of several modeling agenciesWilhelmina, Elite USA, Major, Nomadfrom the iconic photography studio and fashion week destination. "The way that models are treated is too often disgraceful," said Pignatelli. "In an industry that has grown exponentially over the past 30 years but entirely unregulated, I find myself now in the position, as the owner of Pier59 Studios, of demanding that Wilhelmina, Elite USA, Major and Nomad clean up their acts." As a champion of model's rights, Federico Pignatelli hopes that the ban encourages all agencies to take the comprehensive bill of rights seriously as the modeling industry braces themselves for another busy season in the coming month. "The goal of the Model's Bill of Rights is to ensure that models are working in safe studio locations and environments, are free from harassment, do not receive legal pressure from their agencies, and, fundamentally, that they are paid in a fair and timely manner without unjustified overcharges," Pignatelli adds. Immigration violations are also rampant within the fashion industry. Models are frequently sent to jobs by their agencies without proper documentation, putting them at risk for fines, jail time and even deportation. Further, those models who have been granted visas by their agencies often feel pressured by the very companies that are supposed to protect them, as their immigration status is used as leverage to encourage them to take jobs that they would otherwise turn down. "The bottom line, young models need to feel educated, empowered and confident to be in control of their career," Pignatelli comments. "We offer comprehensive education programs at The Industry Model Management to help combat this, but until the rest of the industry starts following the law, we may see little change." For more information on the Model's Bill of Rights, please visit www.theindustrymodelmgmt.com. To learn more on Pier59 Studios and how to book the space, please visit www.pier59studios.com About The Industry Model Management The Industry Model Management is a high-end boutique women's agency, with headquarters located in the Iconic Pier59 Studios at Chelsea Piers in NYC in addition to our offices in LA. Our focus is on discovering new talent and managing each individual to cultivate a successful and long-term career. In maintaining a very select roster, The Industry Model Management is able to offer a personalized level of service to each and every model we represent. The Industry Model Management is also on the forefront of changing the way models are being paid. Payments are made regularly in no more than 60 days from completed work, regardless if clients have paid or not. Owned by Federico Pignatelli, The Industry Model Management is part of the Art & Fashion Group Company which includes the iconic Pier59 Studios which boasts the highest caliber of international fashion and advertising clients in the world. With the ability to call on strong and distinctive relationships within the fashion community, The Industry Model Management has an exceptional edge over other model and talent agencies. With our in-house access to the Pier59 Studio Group's state of the art digital, production and studio teams we are able to develop talent and create content that looks to the future of video and social media branding. The Industry Model Management is a place that never ceases to inspire both its agents and models alike. About Pier59 Studios Founded in 1995 by Federico Pignatelli and his Art and Fashion Group Corporation, Pier59 Studios is a 110,000 square-foot premier photography and multimedia studio located at Chelsea Piers in New York City. As the largest photography facility and multimedia complex in the world, the space is equipped with state of the art technology and accommodates the needs of photographers, designers, advertising agencies and television and film production companies. Pier59 Studios features eleven column-free studio spaces, including a 6,500 square-foot sound stage constructed for live performances, special events, video and commercial projects. Nine studios are naturally lit and contain retractable walls. For more information please visit www.pier59studios.com. Media Inquiries: Amanda Yodice [email protected] 212.805.3015 SOURCE Pier59 Studios Related Links https://www.pier59studios.com/ "At this year's CES, we are showcasing intelligent and personalized solutions that are tailored and adaptive to people's unique needs, motivations, and characteristics," said Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader, Personal Health businesses at Philips. "Consumer technology, such as Philips' virtual hub for personal oral healthcare, is the key to making the shift from reactive to proactive health care. With a strong foothold and trusted brand in both professional healthcare and the consumer world, Philips is in a unique position to bridge both worlds for example, combining clinical know-how of sleep data with consumer insights to develop innovative consumer health solutions that support all phases of sleep." Philips' suite of consumer sleep solutions Building on the successful introduction of the SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband at CES last year, SmartSleep will now feature an expanded suite of consumer sleep solutions. This suite includes the SmartSleep Analyzer, a clinically validated digital analysis tool designed to help people learn more about their sleep challenges and obtain information regarding solutions. To support the 40 percent of adult men and 24 percent of adult women who are habitual snorers [1], Philips will offer a sneak peek at its SmartSleep Snoring Relief Band. In addition, Philips will preview the SmartSleep Better Sleep Program, for which Philips partnered with SleepRate to deliver a fully customized and personalized program that re-trains people to be able to fall asleep and stay asleep using a mobile app. In addition, Philips' expanded SmartSleep offering includes sleep and wake-up lights, such as the latest connected Somneo. Find all information related to Philips SmartSleep consumer sleep solutions here. Philips Sonicare teledentistry expanding oral healthcare Philips is also introducing the Sonicare teledentistry service to North America. This service provides consumers with remote dental consultation from licensed dentists within 24 hours. The Philips Sonicare app acts as a 'virtual hub' for personal oral healthcare, helping users to manage their complete oral care on a daily basis and share brushing data with their dental practitioners, putting personalized guidance and advice at their fingertips. Complementing the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart connected toothbrush, the Philips Sonicare app now also has an automated brush head reordering service. Philips' view on the future of personal care The Philips Smart Shaver series 7000 is the world's first connected and AI-powered shaving solution, which analyzes shaver motion and determines the motion type to provide each man with a personalized shaving plan to tackle their specific skin issues and needs. The Philips Skincare Assessment uses a combination of daily questions and skin measurements to identify the health of the skin, capturing this data in the app and using it to provide a personalized skin report. Philips' connected devices and services are shaped by sensors, data and adaptive intelligence and personalized to each individual's needs, enabling to optimize and give real-time guidance on daily personal care routines. The SmartMirror concept shows how Philips' solutions empower individuals to better understand that their daily routines can have an impact on their health, confidence and wellbeing. Find more information related to Philips personal care solutions at CES here. Philips improves the aging and caregiving experience Philips Cares empowers people to easily form and activate a care circle of trusted family and friends, access meaningful insights into their loved one's wellbeing, receive notifications about care, and manage their Philips Lifeline service all through a single integrated web or mobile application. More than 40 million people in the U.S. are acting as caregivers [2], caring for a loved one, often an aging parent, partner or friend. Being a family caregiver will bring joy and satisfaction, but it often also is challenging and confusing. Role reversal, complexity and cost put tremendous strain on families as they go through the challenges of aging. Philips Cares transforms the aging experience so that people can worry less and focus more on the key moments that matter with their loved ones. Find more information related to Philips Cares aging and caregiving experience here. Further Philips innovations being showcased at CES 2019 include: Philips Dream Family, Philips Pregnancy+, the Philips Airfryer, the Philips High Speed Power Blender and Philips Air Purifiers. Philips at CES Philips will be at CES 2019 at Booth # 44219 (Sands Expo, Las Vegas, January 8 - 11, 2019). On Monday, January 7, at 1:30pm PST, Pat Baird, Global Head of Global Standards at Philips will be speaking as part of the Healthcare Disruptor Summit on how artificial intelligence continues to grow in the consumer technology industry. On Tuesday, January 8, at 2:45pm PST, Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader, Personal Health businesses at Philips will be speaking at the Digital Health Summit on how technology and innovation can help to eradicate chronic diseases. On Wednesday, January 9, at 9:55am PST, Sean Carney, Chief Design Officer at Philips will be speaking about how Philips creates health technology solutions that continuously engage people as part of the Digital Health Summit. On Thursday, January 10, at 3:00pm PST, Iman Farzaneh, Business Leader Mother & Child Care at Philips will be speaking at the Family Tech Summit about how parents are using technology to solve challenges with regards to fertility, pregnancy and child rearing. All sessions take place alongside CES 2019. For live updates throughout CES, follow the conversation @PhilipsLiveFrom and the event hashtag #CES2019 or visit our additional social media channels on YouTube and LinkedIn. [1] sleepeducation.org [2] AARP.org For further information, please contact: Anna Hogrebe Philips Group Press Office Tel: +1 416 270 6757 E-mail: [email protected] Silvie Casanova Philips North America Tel: +1 (978) 659-7467 Email: [email protected] About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter. SOURCE Royal Philips Related Links http://www.philips.com HOUSTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PARR) ("Par Pacific") today announced that Bill Pate, Par Pacific's Chief Executive Officer will attend the Goldman Sachs 2019 Global Energy Conference in Miami, Florida on January 9, 2019. Bill will participate in a panel discussion, as well as one-on-one meetings that same day. About Par Pacific Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PARR), headquartered in Houston, Texas, owns and operates market-leading energy and infrastructure businesses. Par Pacific's strategy is to acquire and develop energy and infrastructure businesses in logistically complex markets. Par Pacific owns and operates one of the largest energy networks in Hawaii with 148,000-bpd of combined refining capacity, a logistics system supplying the major islands of the state and 91 retail locations. In the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies, Par Pacific owns and operates an 18,000-bpd refinery, a logistics system and 33 retail locations. Par Pacific also owns 46% of Laramie Energy, LLC, a natural gas production company with operations and assets concentrated in Western Colorado. For more information contact: Suneel Mandava Senior Vice President, Finance (713) 969-2136 [email protected] SOURCE Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced Rubicon Organics Inc. ("Rubicon Organics") (CSE: ROMJ;OTCQX: ROMJF), a premium organic cannabis company with operations in Canada, California and Washington, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. Rubicon Organics upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market. Rubicon Organics begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "ROMJF." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com. "Trading on the premium OTCQX Market will enable Rubicon Organics to more efficiently provide their investors with current information and transparency," said Jason Paltrowitz, Director of OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP of Corporate Services at OTC Markets Group. "We are pleased to welcome Rubicon Organics and look forward to supporting the company as it builds long-term shareholder value." "Rubicon Organics' expansion into trading on OTCQX is a milestone that brings the Company greater access to investors. Upgrading to OTCQX in the U.S. can enhance liquidity for our shareholders and allow a broader group of investors to participate in the North American cannabis market through Rubicon Organics," commented Jesse McConnell, CEO. Rubicon Organics Inc. was sponsored for OTCQX by Dorsey & Whitney LLP, a qualified third-party firm responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements and recommending membership. About Rubicon Organics Inc. Rubicon Organics Inc. ("Rubicon Organics" or the "Company") (CSE:ROMJ) (OTCQX:ROMJF) is focused on building super premium organic cannabis brands with operations in Canada, California and Washington. The Company holds the intellectual property to produce super premium, certified organic cannabis at low cost, while utilizing environmentally sustainable production methods. Rubicon Organics is working towards beginning cultivation in Q1 2019 with a combined Phase I capacity of 15,500 kg, including 4,500 kg leased to a Washington state licensed operator applying Rubicon Organics' cultivation methods. The Company also owns two award-winning U.S. cannabis brands: 1964 Supply Co. in California and Doctor & Crook Co. in Washington. About OTC Markets Group Inc. OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors. To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com. OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are SEC regulated ATSs, operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed Media Contact: OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected] SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc. NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Optima Partners, a leading global regulatory compliance and risk management advisory firm, today announced the appointment of Shannon M. Horton, a former senior compliance professional with KKR Credit Advisors, as Director and Head of the firm's newly opened West Coast office. The appointment of Ms. Horton, who will be based at the firm's San Francisco office, is part of Optima Partner's expansion into key strategic markets. Optima Partners Appoints Shannon M. Horton to Director of West Coast Office In her new role, Ms. Horton will be responsible for supporting and maintaining relationships with the firm's large number of West Coast clients, as well as overseeing the office's operations. An impressive career spanning nearly 20 years, Ms. Horton is a regulatory compliance expert who has advised hedge funds, private equity, venture capital firms, and global banks on a wide range of compliance and regulatory matters. Before joining Optima, Ms. Horton served as Deputy Chief Compliance Officer for KKR Credit Advisors, a San Francisco-based registered investment advisory firm with more than $50 billion in assets under management. In that role, she supported the compliance function across a number of KKR Credit's strategic credit initiatives including the Business Development Company and Closed-end Fund businesses. Ms. Horton served as Chief Compliance Officer of the KKR Income Opportunities Fund and also led a business development company expansion including NYSE listing of Corporate Capital Trust and a joint venture advisor with a leading asset management firm. Earlier, she was the Chief Compliance Officer at registered investment advisors Nelson Capital Management, wholly owned by Wells Fargo & Company, and Wells Fargo Alternative Asset Management, respectively. Ms. Horton also served as an Assistant Vice President at J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC, the private equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Senior Compliance Associate at Osterweis Capital Management, a registered investment advisor. Optima Partners CEO Jonathan Saxton commented on Ms. Horton's appointment: "We are thrilled to welcome Shannon to our growing team. Her extensive knowledge and expertise in an increasingly complicated regulatory compliance environment, combined with her exceptional leadership skills will greatly contribute to our continued efforts of expanding and strengthening Optima Partner's service delivery and marketing share in the U.S and internationally." Ms. Horton commented: "I am deeply honored to have been given the opportunity to join Optima Partners and play an integral role in this phase of the firm's stellar growth. I am looking forward to leveraging my years of experience in the San Francisco-area compliance community, as I work closely with the firm's highly talented and dedicated group of professionals in providing innovative solutions to our clients' challenging needs." Ms. Horton can be reached at [email protected] or (415) 999-5340. Optima's San Francisco office is located at 600 California St, 11th Floor. About Optima Partners Optima Partners is a leading global regulatory compliance and risk management advisory firm providing streamlined and cost-effective services tailored to clients' individual needs. The firm provides a truly global service locally, achieved by ensuring that its industry recognized experts work closely with a diverse group of clients, ranging from hedge funds, private equity firms and investment banks. Optima Partners' unrivalled expertise in the global regulatory landscape, strong relationships with regulators, and a deep commitment to provide clear and practical counsel gives clients the services they need to meet the demands of a complex and dynamic financial regulatory environment. The firm currently advises more than 500 clients across its global offices in New York, San Francisco, London and Hong Kong. For more information, go to the firm's website at www.optima-partners.com Media Contact: Marc Weinstein 908-967-9958 [email protected] SOURCE Optima Partners Related Links http://www.optima-partners.com CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) today announced plans to build a state-of-the-art plate mill in the U.S. Midwest. Nucor's Board of Directors has approved an investment of $1.35 billion to build the mill, which is expected to be fully operational in 2022 and will be capable of producing 1.2 million tons per year of steel plate products. The project is expected to create approximately 400 full-time jobs. "This investment is consistent with our drive to continue delivering sustainable, profitable growth and superior returns for shareholders," said John Ferriola, Chairman, CEO & President of Nucor. "Together with the significant share repurchases completed in 2018, the Board's decision to fund this high-return opportunity demonstrates our commitment to balanced capital allocation. We have a strong foundation to build upon as we advance our goal of leading in every market in which we compete." Leon Topalian, Executive Vice President of Beam and Plate products, said, "By building this state-of-the-art plate mill in the Midwest the largest plate-consuming area in the United States we will enhance our ability to serve our customers in the region while also furthering our goal of meeting all the steel needs of our customers around the country. We expect to select a site for the new mill early this year. Our team is poised and ready to take the next step in advancing our position in steel plate products." The new plate mill will produce cut-to-length, coiled, heat-treated, and discrete plate ranging from 60 to 160 inches wide, and in gauges from 3/16 of an inch to 14 inches in thickness; enabling Nucor to supply plate products that the Company does not currently offer. Nucor currently operates plate mills in North Carolina, Alabama and Texas. "This administration is taking the decisive and meaningful actions that American manufacturers need to compete on a level playing field," Ferriola said. "Tax reform, continued improvements to our regulatory approach and strong trade enforcement are giving businesses like ours the confidence to make long-term capital investments here in the U.S. that create jobs and ensure our success for decades to come." Investor Conference Call and Webcast The Nucor management team will discuss this announcement later this morning (January 7, 2019) at 9:00 AM eastern time. The webcast will be available at www.nucor.com/investor/events and https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/913/28819. About Nucor Nucor and its affiliates are manufacturers of steel and steel products, with operating facilities primarily in the U.S. and Canada. Products produced include: carbon and alloy steel -- in bars, beams, sheet and plate; hollow structural section tubing; electrical conduit; steel piling; steel joists and joist girders; steel deck; fabricated concrete reinforcing steel; cold finished steel; steel fasteners; metal building systems; steel grating; and wire and wire mesh. Nucor, through The David J. Joseph Company, also brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron and hot briquetted iron / direct reduced iron; supplies ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap. Nucor is North America's largest recycler. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. The words "believe," "expect," "project," "will," "should," "could" and similar expressions are intended to identify those forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (1) competitive pressure on sales and pricing, including competition from imports and substitute materials; (2) U.S. and foreign trade policies affecting steel imports or exports; (3) the sensitivity of the results of our operations to prevailing steel prices and the changes in the supply and cost of raw materials, including scrap steel; (4) market demand for steel products; and (5) energy costs and availability. These and other factors are discussed in Nucor's regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those in Nucor's fiscal 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A. Risk Factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of this date, and Nucor does not assume any obligation to update them. SOURCE Nucor Corporation Related Links http://www.nucor.com LONDON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE) today announced that its report of drilling rig status and contract information has been updated as of January 7, 2019. The report, titled "Fleet Status Report," can be found on the Company's Website www.noblecorp.com, under the "Investor Relations" section of the Website. About Noble Corporation plc Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 25 offshore drilling units, consisting of 12 drillships and semisubmersibles and 13 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is a public limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 08354954 and registered office at 10 Brook Street, London, W1S 1BG England. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com. SOURCE Noble Corporation Related Links http://www.noblecorp.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AiCure, a behavioral data analytics company targeting the healthcare and life sciences industries, today announced NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals has chosen its platform to provide behavioral insights around diabetic patients participating in a clinical trial for neuropathic pain. AiCure's interactive platform will offer NeuroBo a single touchpoint to measure and modify patient behavior, keeping participants engaged and on treatment throughout the trial. NeuroBo will also integrate patient reported outcomes and micro-reimbursements within AiCure's platform, providing a simplified experience for all trial participants. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 50 percent of the 30 million Americans with diabetes suffer from diabetic neuropathy, which results in numbness and tingling in one's limbs. As the disease progresses, 50 percent of the diabetic neuropathy patients develop neuropathic pain as a result of damage to the peripheral nerves which can produce debilitating limb pain. NeuroBo's lead candidate, NB-01, will be entering into a Phase III clinical trial to evaluate its efficacy in treating diabetic neuropathic pain. "Proper adherence and dosing are both critical to the accuracy of trial results and it's often quite difficult to ensure," said John L. Brooks III, president and CEO of NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals. "AiCure offers the only platform that can accurately confirm our trial participants are taking the right medication at the right dosage, while also capturing valuable behavioral and endpoint data helping us to advance our clinical trial for a potential treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain." AiCure's Interactive Medical Assistant (IMA) uses artificial intelligence (AI)-powered computer vision to recognize individual faces and medications. IMA offers patients a single platform to monitor their treatment regimen, complete ePRO questionnaires and receive micro-reimbursements. "NeuroBo's lead candidate has the potential to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from diabetic neuropathic pain," said Adam Hanina, co-founder and CEO of AiCure. "Our primary mission at AiCure is to improve health for all patients by understanding their individual responses to treatment. We're proud to be working with NeuroBo as they progress their clinical trial for the potential treatment of neuropathic pain that impacts millions of patients with diabetes every day." AiCure's proprietary platform leverages AI and computer vision to capture and analyze behavioral data video and audio patient information that shows how people respond to medical conditions and treatment. These encounters unlock unprecedented amounts of objective behavioral data that AiCure stores and analyzes to identify trends, behaviors and patterns of each individual to provide insights into the patient's condition. These currently untapped insights allow providers and trial sponsors to incentivize individuals and intervene in a timely manner with the goal of improving health and trial outcomes as well as reducing the costs of care and drug development. For more information about AiCure and its platform, visit www.aicure.com. About AiCure AiCure is a behavioral data analytics company targeting the life sciences and healthcare industry to improve health by understanding the science behind the human response to illness and treatment. AiCure uses proprietary AI to capture and analyze visual and audio data from patients around their actions and responses to medical conditions and treatment across clinical trials and patient care. AiCure's platform provides pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, payers and government entities with novel insights around the science of patient behavior, allowing them to measure and modify it for better care. Founded in 2010 and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), AiCure has more than 100 patents and works with large pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotechs worldwide. Learn more about AiCure at www.aicure.com. About NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals is focused on neurodegenerative diseases that affect millions of patients worldwide. The company's novel lead candidate NB-01 is a potential treatment for diabetic neuropathic pain. NB-01 increases levels of nerve growth factor (NGF). NGF inhibits nerve cell death and promotes nerve regeneration. The compound, licensed from leading pharmaceutical company, Dong-A ST, is moving into Phase III clinical trials in early 2019. NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals has a second compound focusing on Alzheimer's disease currently ready for an IND and Phase IIa trial. NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals was jointly founded by JK BioPharma Solutions, a company specializing in the development of new biopharmaceuticals, and Dr. Roy Freeman, a Harvard Medical School Professor of Neurology, to develop natural ethical medicines addressing neuro degenerative diseases and is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit https://www.neurobopharma.com. SOURCE AiCure Related Links https://aicure.com TOKYO, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Macromill Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo, Scott Ernst, Representative Executive Officer and Global CEO) hereby inform that Jan Willem Gerritsen, Executive Officer, Europe/US/Latin America Operations of the Macromill Group and Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MetrixLab, is leaving the company on 8th January to pursue another opportunity. Scott Ernst, Representative Executive Officer and Global CEO of the Macromill Group will take over his roles and responsibilities on an interim basis. Jan Willem Gerritsen co-founded MetrixLab in 1999, and went on to build the business, managing it skillfully through its incredibly rapid global expansion. He played a key role in the integration of MetrixLab and Macromill following their merger in 2014. Jan Willem Gerritsen said: "It has been a privilege to co-found, serve and grow MetrixLab from the early days when it was just a handful of people to the global company it is today. I am very proud of the business, its talented employees and impressive international client list. We have built an incredibly strong foundation and a great leadership team. I leave knowing that team will do an amazing job of continuing to drive business growth, and I am positive the company will go from strength to strength in the future." Scott Ernst who will hold the post of Chief Executive Officer of MetrixLab comments: "Throughout almost 20 years of constant change, Jan Willem has remained a consistent presence at the helm of MetrixLab. His business acumen, strong leadership and dedication has not only helped grow the company in commercial terms, but it also created the spirit of MetrixLab. We thank Jan Willem for his extraordinary commitment and contribution and wish him great success in his new venture. Jan Willem has built an exceptional leadership team who will ensure a seamless transition, allowing us to maintain our momentum, and to continue to drive the business forward. I look forward to working closely with the entire team in 2019 and beyond." About Macromill Macromill is a rapidly growing global market research and digital marketing solutions provider. We bring together the collective power of our specialist companies to provide innovative data and insights that drive clients' smarter decisions. Macromill's industry-leading digital research solutions deliver rapid and cost-effective solutions to the challenges businesses face today. Headquartered in Tokyo with over 40 offices across the Americas, EMEA and Asia, Macromill serves more than 4,000 brands and agencies in more than 90 countries with over 2,100 experts worldwide. Macromill Group companies include: Macromill, Inc., Dentsu Macromill Insight, Inc., M-Cube, Inc., M-Promo, Inc., Macromill Carenet, Inc., Macromill Embrain Co., Ltd., MetrixLab B.V., Oxyme B.V., Precision Sample, LLC, Centan Inc. and H.M. Marketing Research, Inc. For more information, please visit our Macromill Group website https://group.macromill.com [Company Overview of Macromill, Inc.] Business Name: Macromill, Inc. Representative: Scott Ernst, Representative Executive Officer, Global CEO Headquarter: Minato-ku, Tokyo Established: January 31, 2000 Main Business: Marketing research and digital marketing solution URL: https://group.macromill.com About MetrixLab http://www.metrixlab.com MetrixLab provides consumer insights that drive smarter business decisions. A truly global digital research agency, we pioneer new technologies and integrate multiple data sources to push the boundaries of research. This enables our experts to provide high-quality insights at scale, at speed and for an unparalleled value. In just one decade, we've grown rapidly and now work with more than half of the world's top 100 brands. Our expertise, passion and solutions enable our clients to succeed at product innovation, brand engagement and customer value in over 90 countries. MetrixLab is part of the Macromill Group. Contact: Ryo Takahashi, IR & Stakeholders Communication - [email protected] Sabine Winkler, MetrixLab, Global Marketing and Communications - [email protected] T +31-10-203-07-46 M +31-61-423-90-57 SOURCE Macromill Inc. NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Leeds Equity Partners, LLC ("Leeds Equity"), the foremost private equity firm investing exclusively in the Knowledge Industries, announced today the promotions of Eric Geveda and Christopher Mairs to Managing Director and Kevin Malone and David Neverson to Principal. "These promotions reflect the important contributions that each of these colleagues has made to the growth and performance of the firm, as well as the contributions we know they will continue to make in their new roles," said Jeffrey T. Leeds, Managing Partner of Leeds Equity. "Each of them has demonstrated a commitment to an investment approach that emphasizes sector immersion and expertise. They have shown the capacity to invest with discipline as well as vision, and to partner with management teams to advance innovation." Jacques Galante, Partner of Leeds Equity, added, "Since joining the firm many years ago, Eric, Chris, Kevin and David have helped to bring increased depth to our investment team and Knowledge Industries sector focus. As we continue to invest Leeds Equity Partners VI and look ahead to the future, their promotions bolster our senior talent and will help to further drive value for our partner companies and investors." Promotions to Managing Director: Eric Geveda joined Leeds Equity in 2011 and over the last 7 years has worked with Leeds Equity's investments in, among other companies, BARBRI, CeriFi and Edcentric. Prior to Leeds Equity, Mr. Geveda worked at Arsenal Capital Partners, Lightyear Capital and Credit Suisse. Mr. Geveda graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in Finance and Economics and earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. joined Leeds Equity in 2011 and over the last 7 years has worked with Leeds Equity's investments in, among other companies, BARBRI, CeriFi and Edcentric. Prior to Leeds Equity, Mr. Geveda worked at Arsenal Capital Partners, Lightyear Capital and Credit Suisse. Mr. Geveda graduated magna cum laude from the with a B.B.A. in Finance and Economics and earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Christopher Mairs joined Leeds Equity in 2008 and over the last 10 years has been involved with Leeds Equity's investments in Endeavor Schools, INTO University Partnerships, Project Management Academy, Prosci and Simplify Compliance and was previously involved with, among other companies, Nobel Learning and SeatonCorp. Prior to Leeds Equity, Mr. Mairs worked at Greenhill & Co. Mr. Mairs graduated with first class honors from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland with a B.Sc. in Mathematics. Promotions to Principal: Kevin Malone joined Leeds Equity in 2010 and over the last 8 years has been involved with Leeds Equity's investments in, among other companies, BARBRI, Edcentric, Exterro and LRN. Prior to joining Leeds Equity, Mr. Malone worked at Harris Williams & Co. Mr. Malone graduated from the Olin Business School at Washington University with a B.S. in Business Administration. joined Leeds Equity in 2010 and over the last 8 years has been involved with Leeds Equity's investments in, among other companies, BARBRI, Edcentric, Exterro and LRN. Prior to joining Leeds Equity, Mr. Malone worked at Harris Williams & Co. Mr. Malone graduated from the Olin Business School at with a B.S. in Business Administration. David Neverson joined Leeds Equity in 2011 and has over the last 7 years worked closely with Leeds Equity's investments in Campus Management and Fusion Education Group and was previously involved with Evanta, Ex Libris and Fulcrum Financial Data. Prior to Leeds Equity, Mr. Neverson worked at ICV Partners and Lehman Brothers. Mr. Neverson graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College with a B.A. in Business Administration and earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania . About Leeds Equity Partners: Leeds Equity Partners, LLC, is a New York-based private equity firm dedicated exclusively to partnering with management teams in the education, training, information services and software industries (the "Knowledge Industries"). The firm was founded in 1993 and currently manages $1.7 billion of capital across a broad spectrum of companies within the Knowledge Industries. Leeds Equity seeks to leverage its sector-focused expertise and market insights to create long-term value for its portfolio companies. For additional information on Leeds Equity Partners, see http://www.leedsequity.com/ For More Information: Jeffrey T. Leeds Tel. 212-835-2000 Fax: 212-835-2020 www.leedsequity.com SOURCE Leeds Equity Partners, LLC Related Links http://www.leedsequity.com "David's arrival is another exciting milestone in our ambitions to build the premier public M&A and private equity practice in the world, and to serve as trusted advisors to our clients on their most high-stakes matters," said Marc Jaffe, Global Chair of Latham's Corporate Department. "David's experience representing major private equity firms and corporations in complex transactions will bring tremendous value to our clients and we are happy to welcome him to the firm." Beller's practice focuses primarily on representing private equity and other investment firms on leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, equity investments, and other significant transactions. He has also represented numerous public companies in both friendly and contested M&A transactions across a range of industries, including energy, real estate, telecommunications, and manufacturing. Paul Kukish, Global Co-Chair of Latham's Private Equity Practice, said: "David's practice is a perfect fit for our private equity and M&A platform in New York and globally. He is an accomplished lawyer who has led significant corporate transactions, and his arrival marks another step forward in our continual effort to meet the needs of clients who are looking to execute sophisticated deals. David is an excellent addition to the team in New York and our global practice." Michele Penzer, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in New York, added: "David's reputation in the market is one of exceptional client service and the highest quality legal work, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the New York office. His experience further bolsters our strong footprint in New York." "I look forward to putting Latham's global, integrated platform to work for my clients," said Beller. "The firm's extraordinary culture and commitment to growing in line with clients' needs drew me to Latham, and I look forward to contributing to the ongoing growth of the firm's leading M&A and private equity practices." Beller is the second prominent M&A partner to join Latham's New York office in 2019. The firm announced on January 3 the arrival of Alexander Johnson, who represents private equity firms and multinational corporations on complex US and cross-border transactions. Beller joins Latham & Watkins from Paul, Weiss in New York. He received his JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and his BA from Yale University. About Latham & Watkins (lw.com) Latham & Watkins delivers innovative solutions to complex legal and business challenges around the world. From a global platform, our lawyers advise clients on market-shaping transactions, high-stakes litigation and trials, and sophisticated regulatory matters. Latham is one of the world's largest providers of pro bono services, steadfastly supports initiatives designed to advance diversity within the firm and the legal profession, and is committed to exploring and promoting environmental sustainability. Notes to Editors 1 Latham & Watkins operates as a limited liability partnership worldwide with affiliated limited liability partnerships conducting the practice in France, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, and the United Kingdom and as an affiliated partnership conducting the practice in Japan. Latham & Watkins operates in South Korea as a Foreign Legal Consultant Office. Latham & Watkins works in cooperation with the Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Contacts Marc Jaffe, Global Chair, Corporate Department, 212.906.1281 Paul Kukish, Global Co-Chair, Private Equity Practice, 212.906.1725 Michele Penzer, New York Office Managing Partner, 212.906.1245 SOURCE Latham & Watkins Related Links http://www.lw.com IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California-based Karma Automotive announced the creation of a new Mobility Experiences Division to help build its long-term brand value and create opportunities for target consumers to enjoy premium hands-on experiences in the luxury electric Revero in settings that match their lifestyle. The new Mobility Division will initially offer short-term rentals of a small fleet of Reveros stationed at luxury hotels in Southern California. Although aimed at the kind of luxury hotels frequented by Karma's discerning customer base, the carsharing model can be expanded to provide other prospective buyers the kind of personal and special VVIP treatment the automaker is known for. "Karma Mobility Experiences provides our discerning target customers the kind of personalized high-tech luxury experience that makes driving and owning a Revero truly special," said CEO Dr. Lance Zhou. "Shared mobility and related platforms are an important element of our well-funded business plan that will also acquire and develop key technologies important to connectivity, artificial intelligence and electrification." Karma has partnered with San Francisco-based Ridecell to provide the technology platform that powers the luxury mobility services program. Customers can use a Karma branded Android or iOS app designed by Ridecell to arrange for their short-term rental and access their assigned Revero located at a convenient luxury hotel location. "Ridecell is excited to be the chosen new mobility platform for the Karma Automotive Mobility Experience Division," said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. "As Karma Automotive moves into new mobility, Ridecell will provide the platform and market insights necessary to launch a differentiated mobility offering." The new division will be led by Sean Hazaray, Karma Mobility Program Manager, who explained the team plans to provide a series of products focused on various luxury mobility experiences. For example, beyond the initial luxury hotel activation, Karma's Mobility Reveros could also be used to provide personalized instant test-drives outside of a dealership setting, rides and luxury shuttle services at key corporate marketing activations and for targeted influencers and other stakeholders. "Our initial station-based fleets will help us build awareness, enhance our brand image and provide the operational experience we'll need prior to expanding into new markets and business models," Hazaray said. "These luxury mobility experiences also provide Karma the opportunities we need to evolve as an automaker and become more prominent among millennial-friendly culture." Meet Karma Automotive and Karma Revero Karma Automotive designs, engineers, assembles and markets luxury electric vehicles, all from its Southern California base of operations. Founded in 2014 and employing nearly 1,000 people worldwide, Karma Automotive is committed to elevating and growing the luxury mobility experience for its customers and draws on global relationships and technology partners to achieve this. Named Green Car Journal's 2018 Luxury Green Car of the Year, Karma Revero is a luxury electric vehicle powered by dual electric motors that embodies the company's goals of offering leading automotive design, technology, customization and an outstanding customer experience. Learn more about Karma Automotive and Revero at www.karmaautomotive.com or visit the password-free Karma Newsroom at www.karmanewsroom.com for the latest press releases, videos and images. About Ridecell Ridecell is on a mission to empower new mobility operators, including OEMs, car rental companies, auto clubs, cities, transit agencies, dealer groups, and private fleets to launch, expand, and maximize the utilization of their own ridesharing and carsharing services. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company provides a new mobility cloud platform for carsharing, ridesharing and autonomous ridehailing. End-to-end integration and automation accelerate time-to-market, enabling Ridecell customers to launch mobility services quickly, operate efficiently, and scale revenues as business grows. Through its acquisition of Auro, Ridecell also provides a comprehensive suite of L4 on-vehicle software, sensors and controls that enable autonomous vehicle operation. Founded in 2009, Ridecell has already processed over 25 million rides and rentals, and has a team of more than 120 professionals in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ridecell's Series B round is led by Activate Capital and brings together prominent investors including DENSO, Cox Automotive, Munich Re Venture's ERGO Fund, Initialized Capital, LG Technology Ventures, BNP Paribas, Penske, Deutsche Bahn, Mitsui, Sony Innovation Fund, Ally Ventures and Khosla Ventures. The company powers new mobility offerings for several automakers and GIG Carsharing service by AAA. In addition, Ridecell powers dynamic shuttle services for campuses such as Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UCSF, 3M, and transit agencies like SouthWest Transit. SOURCE Karma Automotive Related Links https://www.karmaautomotive.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Knewton, the world's leader in AI-driven adaptive learning, today published the results of an independent study conducted by Johns Hopkins University to measure the impact of Alta, Knewton's adaptive learning courseware for U.S. higher education. The findings, which Knewton has published in their entirety, confirm an association between Alta and improvements in student outcomes across ability levels. As part of the company's commitment to transparency regarding Alta's impact on learning outcomes, Knewton shared its fully anonymized Fall 2017 data with the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Knewton invited JHU to assess the impact of demonstrating proficiency by completing Alta assignments as well as Alta usage in general on student outcomes like quiz and test scores, future assignment completion and retention. View Johns Hopkins University's complete analysis of Alta's impact on learning outcomes . "Making an impact on learning outcomes is why Knewton exists. With that comes a responsibility to be transparent about the results students are achieving with Alta and an opportunity to introduce new methods of efficacy reporting to the ed-tech community," said Heather Shelstad, VP of marketing at Knewton. "While essential measurements of efficacy such as grades and test scores are typically reported only once a course is completed, our technology and analytics capabilities allow us to report on results that predict learning outcomes in real time, providing instructors and students with important insights into progress." The publication of the JHU analysis marks the latest milestone in Knewton's ongoing commitment to transparency regarding the impact of Alta. In January 2018, Knewton published an analysis of Alta's impact conducted by its data science team. The results of this internal analysis strongly suggested a predictive and associative link between Alta and improved student performance. However, Knewton's own analysis took a different approach to controlling for student ability level and other classroom factors that influence outcomes than the one employed by JHU. "When we engaged JHU, we weren't merely interested in having a third party validate our internal analyses of Alta's efficacy. Instead, we wanted the perspective of an experienced research team that was largely unfamiliar with our in-house discussions and metrics regarding efficacy," said Illya Bomash, managing data scientist at Knewton. "JHU's analysis represents both a fundamental piece of scientific research and is key to our efforts toward transparency and continuous, data-driven improvement." "Impact isn't something to be established once, but rather continually, using different approaches and from different points of view," added Andrew Jones, data scientist at Knewton. "We're eager to build upon the work of these analyses to provide new insights into how Alta makes a difference for both students and instructors." About Knewton Knewton puts achievement within reach for everyone through adaptive learning technology and products that deliver personalized and lasting learning experiences. Educators, schools and universities, and education companies around the world use Knewton to power and provide digital courses that dynamically adapt to each student's unique needs. More than 40 million students around the world have used Knewton-powered courses to date. Knewton was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New York City. Media Contact [email protected] (415) 323-0850 SOURCE Knewton TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Jagged Peak, Inc., a subsidiary of Singapore Post Limited, a leading provider of global end-to-end eCommerce solutions, has contributed more than $68,000 to seven non-profit organizations championing civic, charitable or educational causes this holiday season. The Jagged Peak Charitable Non-Profit Program began in 2017. The program operates by leveraging donated work hours by volunteers from local non-profit organizations. Volunteers are assigned roles at Jagged Peak warehouses during the holiday peak season, and their wages are donated to their charitable organization. A total of 658 volunteers donated 4,141 work hours during this holiday season. "We are enthusiastic about our non-profit program and the ability to contribute to important charitable causes" said Michael Mercier, President of Jagged Peak. "It's been an all-around positive experience, our volunteers have been extremely productive and have provided us valuable support during our eCommerce peak season. A true win-win for all involved." Jagged Peak delivers innovative solutions to help brands and retailers launch and grow their eCommerce operations on a global scale. From webstore design, digital marketing, marketplace management and cross-border solutions, to omnichannel order management software and flexible fulfillment solutions offerings are designed to work individually or collectively to meet client specific goals. To learn more about Jagged Peak or inquire on participating in next year's non-profit organization visit www.jaggedpeak.com . About Jagged Peak Jagged Peak, a subsidiary of Singapore Post Limited, is a global, end-to-end eCommerce solutions provider with software and services that enhance the scalability and profitability of omnichannel businesses. Its full-featured eCommerce Platform (ECP) and robust Order Management System (OMS) can be deployed alone or coupled with a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Transportation Management System (TMS) to form a shop-to-ship, cloud-based software suite that integrates the entire order life cycle with visibility across business units and distribution channels. Combining this best-in-class technology with customer support, digital agency, and fulfillment, merchant of record, cross-border and marketplace management services, Jagged Peak offers a uniquely holistic approach to eCommerce. For more information, visit www.jaggedpeak.com. About Singapore Post Limited For over 160 years, Singapore Post (SingPost) as the country's postal service provider has been delivering trusted and reliable services to homes and businesses in Singapore. Today, SingPost is pioneering and leading in eCommerce logistics as well as providing innovative mail and logistics solutions in Singapore and around the world, with operations in 19 markets. Building on its trusted communications through domestic and international postal services, SingPost is taking the lead in end-to-end integrated and digital mail solutions. The suite of SingPost eCommerce logistics solutions includes front end web management, warehousing and fulfilment, last mile delivery and international freight forwarding. Media Contacts Jagged Peak Kristine Champion Marketing Director +1 813-637-6900 [email protected] Singapore Post eCommerce Chiu Ling Pok [email protected] SOURCE Jagged Peak, Inc. Related Links http://www.jaggedpeak.com VANCOUVER, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - INVICTUS MD STRATEGIES CORP. ("Invictus" or the "Company") (TSXV: GENE;OTCQX: IVITF; FRA: 8IS1) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding letter of intent ("LOI") to create a joint venture with Cannamerica Brands Corp. ("CannAmerica") (CSE: CANA) (OTCQB: CNNXF) and CBDistribution Company Ltd. ("CBDC") with the intention of acquiring hemp biomass for extraction into CBD isolate using purpose-built facilities for large scale CBD extraction. In December 2018, President Trump signed the $867 billion Farm Bill which recharacterized hemp from a schedule 1 drug with high potential for abuse to the lowest-level listed drug (schedule 5) which includes small doses of medicines such as codeine. This allows for mass hemp production in the United States that is federally legal and the ability to move hemp across state lines. Hemp is defined in the United States as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC. CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis, has had a surge in popularity over the past couple of years based on its a huge range of potential health benefits and uses. Subject to Board approval and completion of satisfactory due diligence, Invictus intends to enter into a definitive joint venture agreement on or before January 31, 2019. Each of the parties will receive a one-third share of the joint venture in exchange for their respective contribution: 1) Invictus will contribute a line of credit ("LOC") in the amount of $5 million CAD which will be used to acquire extraction equipment, build out infrastructure and fund working capital. The LOC will be secured by a general security agreement over the joint venture and will bear interest at a rate of 5% per annum; 2) CannAmerica is a pioneer in the science of cannabis extraction and post processing, precision dosing of product, and formulation of concentrates and oil-based vaporization products. The Company had sold more than 14 million cannabis infused gummies in the states of Colorado and Nevada, and will contribute operational expertise, will source the property, extraction equipment, staffing and manage operations; and, 3) CBDC will contribute the sourcing of Hemp Biomass procurement, branding, marketing and the commercialization of the finished product, including but not limited to CBD Isolate. "We are thrilled to partner with CannAmerica and CBDC to extract and supply CBD to the US market. This partnership represents a great opportunity to continue expanding our footprint beyond Canada and capitalize on the United States' federal legal framework that is now in place to produce and sell CBD," said George E. Kveton, CEO of Invictus. "This is a significant partnership for CannAmerica with world class partners. This joint venture accelerates the Company's long planned growth into the Hemp-based CBD market following the passing of the Farm Bill, with extraordinary opportunities for expansion into new markets" said Dan Anglin, CEO and Co-Founder of CannAmerica. For more information, please visit www.invictus-md.com. On Behalf of the Board, George E. Kveton Chief Executive Officer and Director Jessica Martin Vice President, Public Relations and Regulatory Affairs (833) 879-4363 About Invictus Invictus is a global cannabis company offering a selection of products under a wide range of brands. Our integrated sales approach is defined by five pillars of distribution including medical, adult-use, international, Licensed Producer to Licensed Producer and retail stores. Invictus has partnered with business leaders to convey our corporate vision, including KISS music legend and business mogul Gene Simmons as our Chief Evangelist Officer. To meet growing demand, Invictus is expanding its cultivation footprint, with three cannabis production facilities licensed under the Cannabis Act and Cannabis Regulations in Canada. To accommodate international sales, Invictus' wholly-owned subsidiary, Acreage Pharms Ltd. ("Acreage Pharms"), has designed and is currently building its Phase 3 purpose-built cultivation facility to be European Union Good Manufacturing Practices ("EU-GMP") compliant. The Company is targeting up to 50 percent of production to medical cannabis. To ensure consistency in quality and supply, Invictus maintains all aspects of the growing process through its subsidiary, Future Harvest Development Ltd. ("Future Harvest"), a high-quality fertilizer and nutrients manufacturer. Invictus drives sustainable long-term shareholder value through a diversified product portfolio with over 70 Health Canada approved strains and a multifaceted distribution strategy including medical, adult-use, international, Licensed Producer to Licensed Producer and retail stores. For more information visit www.invictus-md.com. About CannAmerica Brands Corp. CannAmerica Brands is a U.S. marine veteran founded and operated portfolio of cannabis brands with licensing agreements in the states of Colorado, Nevada and Maryland. The Company aims to maximize the value of its brands by employing strong brand management teams, marketing and licensing the brands through various distribution channels, including dispensaries, wholesalers and distributors, in the United States and internationally. The Company's core strategy is to enhance and monetize the global reach of its existing brands, and to pursue additional strategic acquisitions to grow the scope and diversity of its brand portfolio. For more information, please visit www.cannamericabrands.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, timing, assumptions or expectations of future performance, including the Company's plan to enter into a definitive joint venture agreement and the joint venture's ability to extract CBD isolate from hemp biomass are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this press release, including that the Company's joint venture will be successful in extracting CBD isolate from hemp biomass and that the Company will be successful in entering into a definitive joint venture agreement. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Important factors that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, the joint venture will not be successful in extracting CBD isolate from hemp biomass and/or the Company will not be successful in reaching a definitive joint venture agreement. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Invictus MD Strategies Related Links http://invictus-md.com/ HOUSTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the launch of IntelStor, a renewable energy data platform built for decision support of project diligence and product development. Used by whole industry value chain, IntelStor boasts the most comprehensive database in the industry having catalogued more than 380,000 installed wind turbines as well as proposed projects in over 115 different countries covering both onshore and offshore wind. It also includes the specifications for more than 1,200 wind turbine makes and models, plus more than 52,000 globally filed patents detailing the technology usage of those turbine models. The company has plans to add solar market data during 2019 and energy storage market data by 2020. IntelStor has taken 3.5 years to architect and build, plus the past 8.5 years of data gathering and scrubbing by a team of renewable energy industry domain experts. IntelStor is the brainchild of Philip Totaro, who was most recently running consultancy Totaro & Associates and was previously head of innovation and technology intelligence at Clipper Windpower. A beta test over the past eight months now concludes with close to 1,500 subscriber accounts created to date covering over 800 different companies. During the beta test of IntelStor, some tremendous results were achieved including: A project developer has used IntelStor to comparison-shop for wind turbines by benchmarking the "should cost" of the bill of materials compared to the price quotations they received. They saved US$60,000 in CapEx cost per turbine on a 400MW order when they realized they were initially being overcharged. A private equity group was able to quantify more than US$17 million in patent infringement liability prior to an asset acquisition using IP Prism by IntelStor, leading to a de-risking activity which almost totally mitigated their liability and paved the way for the M&A transaction. A wind turbine OEM was able to benchmark their product-positioning in more than 20 markets around the world simultaneously using MKT Prism by IntelStor. As a result, they introduced a new turbine model which has resulted in more than US$600 million in order book already by targeting underpenetrated regions of established as well as emerging markets. Originally created as a consulting tool, IntelStor has been spun off as a separate company specifically dedicated to online subscription access through a software as a service (SaaS)-based business model thanks to the advancement of IT systems technology. IntelStor is also a founding member of the Energy Data Alliance which was established to support asset owners, OEMs and data analytics companies in monetizing the market intelligence value of asset performance and health monitoring data. More information is available at www.intelstor.com. Contact [email protected] for more information or by phone at +1 832 915 0010. Related Files IntelStor Launch.docx Related Images intelstor.png global-product-sales.png renewable-energy-market-potential.png patent-portfolio-benchmarking.png Related Links IntelStor data SOURCE IntelStor LLC Related Links http://www.intelstor.com NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CEOs and CFOs of the largest US global companies are paid more than counterparts around the world because they earn larger incentive compensation based on performance, according to the inaugural 2018 Global Top 250 Compensation Survey of CEOs and CFOs from FW Cook, Inc., FIT Remuneration Consultants LLP and Pretium Partners Asia Limited. "Total pay levels are higher in the Americas than in Europe & Australia or Asia, although a disproportionate share of total pay (91% for the CEO and 86% for the CFO) is tied to annual bonus and long-term incentives," said David Cole, managing director of FW Cook, Inc. He added that total direct compensation for CEOs in the Americas is typically above the global "average" level when adjusting for company size while annual bonus levels are higher than in the other regions for the CEO but are in line with Europe and Australia for CFOs. According to John Lee of FIT, at the median, a significant portion of the total compensation package (69% for the CEO and 68% for the CFO in Europe & Australia) is tied to annual bonus and long-term incentives. This represents a smaller proportion than is the case in the Americas, with pay at median split almost evenly between base salary, annual bonus and long-term incentives in Europe & Australia. "The Americas put a premium on incentive compensation in line with shareholder expectations, and the higher risk has historically been a justification for higher target pay," said Lee. "In Europe & Australia, shareholder expectations over quantum has generally kept long-term incentives more modest." May Poon of Pretium said base salaries in Asia are often significantly below the global "average" level when adjusting for company size due to the state-owned nature of some companies. "Annual bonus levels are lower than in the other regions for both the CEO and CFO, as bonuses are regulated in China and some senior executives in family-run businesses are also major shareholders of the company," said Poon. The entire study is available on the FW Cook, Inc. web site at https://www.fwcook.com/content/documents/publications/12-17-18_FWC_2018_Global_Top_250_Final.pdf About FW Cook, Inc. FW Cook is an independent executive compensation consulting firm that provides objective advice to boards and management of the world's leading companies. Our firm's principle objective is to add value to the executive pay programs and processes of our clients. Our consultants collaborate with clients to solve complex problems and design programs that support their business strategy and successfully link executive pay to shareholder value. Founded in 1973, we serve public, private, and tax-exempt organizations across a broad spectrum of industries. With the largest market share of board engagements among our competitors, we currently serve over 750 clients. FW Cook's offices are located in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, and Boston. To learn more about us or to join our mail list, visit us on the web at www.fwcook.com. About FIT Remuneration Consultants LLP FIT Remuneration Consultants LLP is one of Europe's largest independent executive remuneration consultancies which advises a number of the world's largest companies from its offices in London. We have supported the remuneration committees at some of Europe's largest companies. FIT's highly experienced consultants advise on all aspects of executive remuneration. Whether the subject is remuneration policy, incentive plan design, pay benchmarking, shareholder engagement, technical implementation, M&A, IPO support or Board governance, we have the resources, expertise and judgment to assist our clients so that they can make difficult but informed decisions on executive pay. To learn more about us or to join our mail list, visit us on the web at www.fit-rem.com. About Pretium Partners Asia Limited Pretium Partners is an independent management consulting firm that helps accelerate clients' growth, increase profitability, and transform the company through effective reward, performance, and strategic human resources strategy. Pretium advises Asian clients on the people aspects during transformation, with reference to business needs, the latest market data, corporate governance trends and best practices. To learn more about us or to join our mail list, visit us on the web at www.pretium-asia.com. SOURCE FW Cook, Inc. Related Links http://www.fwcook.com WILLOUGHBY, Ohio, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Some of the highest-quality firearms and most important historical relics ever to pass through Milestone Auctions' doors will be presented in a January 19 sale comprising 800+ lots. Many of the items chosen for the suburban Cleveland company's first event of 2019 are fresh to the market from private collections. Bidders may participate in person at the gallery or by phone, absentee or live via the Internet. Smith & Wesson Model 320 revolving rifle shipped from factory in 1894, with case and box of scarce S&W .320 cartridges. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000 From the Civil War archive of James Bolestridge of 23rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers and Birney's Zouaves, which includes letters with first-person accounting of Battle of Gettysburg, this is a ferrotype of 17-year-old enlistee Bolestridge. Archive estimated at $4,000-$5,000 The January 19 auction will open with modern-era firearms and conclude with antique weapons whose timeline starts with a 1680-1720 British .80 caliber dog-lock musket. Important militaria will be interspersed throughout, adding variety to the day's lineup. The Civil War section of the sale is led by two exceptional collections. Lot 376 consists of a Civil War POW grouping from Lt. Josephus F Schuyler of the 123rd Ohio Voluntary Infantry. Schuyler was captured in 1863 and sent to Richmond's notorious Libby Prison. There he amassed an autograph book of fellow officers' signatures and photographic cartes de visite. Together with the ephemera, Schuyler retained many articles he carved of bone while incarcerated, from cutlery to rings to crochet hooks. Each is a work of art. This extensive set of Civil War mementos was sourced directly from a Schuyler descendant and is estimated at $15,000-$20,000. A second featured Civil War archive is so extensive it has been apportioned into 11 consecutive lots, starting with Lot 377. All of the items represented pertain to the Civil War service of James Bolestridge of the 23rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers and, later, Birney's Zouave regiment. Within this extraordinary collection of historical keepsakes, which was retained by many successive generations of Bolestridge's family, are a ferrotype of the soldier in uniform at age 17, his enlistment papers, saber bayonet, medals, CDVs, diaries, and a riveting collection of 50 wartime letters. In one of them, Bolestridge vividly describes the Battle of Gettysburg. Included among the earlier firearm highlights is a witness to America's westward expansion, an excellent-condition Winchester 1873 (patent) .44 caliber saddle ring carbine rifle. It was shipped from the Winchester warehouse in 1889 and has the rare distinction of having been a traveling salesman's sample. Estimate: $15,000-$20,000. Another very rare Winchester is an experimental or prototype .32-.40 caliber lever-action rifle discovered in a Vallejo, California gun shop that went out of business in 1942. In the gun-collecting world, it is known as the "Unknown Winchester Rifle" because no information pertaining to it has ever turned up. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000 Within the 20th-century firearms category, a near-mint 1936 Krieghoff Suhl semi-automatic Luger pistol from the World War II era is expected to make $6,000-$8,000; while a rare 1939 German Nazi presentation dagger with a custom-engraved Damascus blade by E.F. Horster is estimated at $15,000-$20,000. A very rare WWII Luftwaffe gold "double badge" with 150 brilliant-cut diamonds, created under instruction of Nazi leader Hermann Goring, carries a $70,000-$80,000 estimate. Made in 1990, a mint-condition Colt .45 single-action army revolver is a cutaway special edition that comes with a printed Colt historian letter, original box and papers. One of only seven such guns made in its particular configuration, it is estimated at $5,000-$7,000. A Smith & Wesson Model 320 revolving rifle originally shipped on May 29, 1894 is one of the most sought after of all S&W guns and comes housed in a custom French-fit wood case with a box of scarce Smith & Wesson .320 cartridges, and a detailed S&W factory letter. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Tel. 440-527-8060, [email protected]. Online: www.milestoneauctions.com. Media Contact: Miles King 440-527-8060 [email protected] SOURCE Milestone Auctions Related Links http://www.milestoneauctions.com MELVILLE, N.Y., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Acknowledging the demand for development support, Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, shows its devotion to the developer communities through the launch of a new developer support program website, the Canon Developer Community 1. For years, many companies have been utilizing Canon's remote camera control2 and communication capability by creating unique applications to help build successful solutions. From outstanding support to exclusive products and software available for sale, the Canon Developer Community program can help empower developers to take full advantage of Canon digital imaging solutions and SDKs to drive their enterprising visions. "The developer community has always been important to Canon, which is why the Company is pleased to launch the Canon Developer Community," said Kazuto Ogawa, president and chief operating officer, Canon U.S.A., Inc. "This full-featured program will bring the extensive resources of Canon to so many in the developer community, allowing them to meet the growing challenges of imaging today and help them to develop new applications to drive the tech industry forward." The robust, multi-tiered membership program can help to empower the vision of like-minded developers by providing: Access to Canon's SDKs and other development tools Access to the Canon Developer Community Online Store where exclusive developer products are offered for sale at discounted prices for United States developers developers Notification updates regarding the availability of new developer tools Direct technical support from Canon experts 1 Potential marketing opportunities1 with Canon3. Membership tiers range from Basic (free) membership where you get access to the developers tools and Community forum, as well as paid levels of membership such as Silver ($500), Gold ($2,500) and Platinum ($7,500) which are targeted to large-scale enterprise organizations and have additional benefits, such as access to technical support, exclusive service discounts and potential advertising and marketing opportunities to work with Canon USA3. The program will also give access to the Canon Community Online Store where the Canon Developer Community exclusive products and discounts are offered. Camera Control API (CCAPI) Canon is also launching a new API that will be available to members of the Canon Developer Community. This web-API, which Canon refers to as the Camera Control API (CCAPI), utilizes HTTP protocol over WiFi transmission. It can be executed over programs supporting HTTP, giving the developer more options of platforms to create applications. This helps empower the developer to take advantage of multi-platform support and develop innovative applications such as photo booths, animations, robotics/automations, event photography, mass portraits/passports, photogrammetry, among others. Canon PowerShot SX70 HS Developer Version with CCAPI In March of 2019, Canon is scheduled to introduce the PowerShot SX70 HS Developer Version Model, Canon's first camera integrated with the new CCAPI. This camera features a 65x zoom that can provide impressive versatility depending on application as well as outstanding color accuracy and sharpness, rapid auto-focus for fast capture. For Canon Developer Community members, this specialized PowerShot SX70 HS Developer Version camera is currently scheduled to be available in January at the Canon Developer Community Online Store. To learn more about the Canon Developer Community, please visit https://DeveloperCommunity.usa.canon.com . About Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $36 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), ranks third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2017 and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2018. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based service and support for all of the products it distributes in the United States. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] . 1 Available with select membership tiers only. 2 On select models only. Visit the Canon Developer Community to see what cameras currently have available SDKs. 3 Marketing opportunities are not guaranteed. Each potential opportunity will be reviewed and either approved or declined by Canon U.S.A., Inc. in its sole discretion. Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office 2019 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE Canon U.S.A., Inc. Related Links http://www.usa.canon.com CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED) and Walsh Construction are pleased to announce the successful completion of the new Palos Health South Campus in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, IL. The $80 million design-build renovation was executed over the course of a phased, five-year process beginning in 2013 bringing new, modern technologies to an aging campus and incorporating a sophisticated new Cancer program with the help of academic partner Loyola University. 2018 Steve Maylone 2018 Thad Donovan The completed campus includes a new 83,000 square foot Ambulatory Care Center, 40,000 square feet of renovated space in an existing building on the site, and the construction of a new 316-car parking deck. An initial campus master plan unified the campus by adjusting clinics into an academic health center model and organized services to increase collaboration and patient ease. "The new Ambulatory Care Center will serve thousands across Chicago's southwest suburbs, said Tom Caplis, Vice President of Healthcare at Walsh Construction. "We are proud to have helped bring this facility to life; it is a special place that will offer the newest technology in cancer care and state-of-the-art outpatient services." The joint institutional campus is the result of an initiative to provide an enhanced, cohesive patient experience in the Orland Park submarket offering a complete suite of specialties. Services provided at the newly completed campus include primary care, integrated medical/surgical care, musculoskeletal and neuroscience treatment, and full oncology services and support. Both institutions envisioned improved opportunities for better quality care through the sharing of the site and conceded their own design standards in favor of joint design and operational solutions. "The design for this Palos campus began with the idea that the facility should reflect its surrounding prairie setting and embody the natural environment contained within its bordering wetlands. It was imperative that natural elements be reinforced from the moment patients turned into the property and continued throughout their entire visit," said Aaron Shepard, Principal with Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED). This design concept led both interior and exterior design and planning decisions. On the exterior, paths connecting the buildings are surrounded by native prairie grasses. Presented with the challenge of three existing buildings on the site, the design team strived for visual consistency when designing the new building and took into consideration the pre-established aesthetic. The interior concept, inspired by these same biophilic goals, utilized glass, wood, and stone to create a compelling allusion to the surrounding prairie. Versatile and timeless, these multi-faceted materials used on the interiors not only emphasize the natural components but reinforce an improved wayfinding system rooted in a physical intuition and spatial recognition. The new Radiation Oncology Center, offers world-class radiotherapy treatment options and features an MRI-guided radiation therapy system available at only nine other locations around the world, the MRIdian. The unique MRI-guided system can simultaneously image and treat cancer patients, precisely targeting tumors while avoiding surrounding tissue. To learn more about the campus, please visit https://www.paloshealth.com/south-campus/. About Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED) Founded in 1908, HED seeks creative solutions that have a positive impact for its clients, the community, and the world. HED has earned a reputation for excellence in all facets of architecture, including design, consulting, engineering and planning services. The firm serves clients in a broad range of market sectors including Workplace, Housing, Mixed Use, Science + Technology, Healthcare, Higher Education and Pre-K-12 + Community Education from offices in six U.S. locations. See how HED advances your world at www.hed.design . About Walsh Construction Walsh Construction is part of The Walsh Group, a 120-year-old company providing design, build, finance, operation and activation services. The Walsh Group operates as Walsh Construction, Archer Western and Walsh Canada across 18 regional offices. The Walsh Group is consistently ranked among the largest contractors in North America and is currently listed as the fifth largest healthcare builder in the United States by Modern Healthcare magazine. Visit www.walshgroup.com to learn more. Media Contact: Nicole Marshall (504) 644-7335 | [email protected] Photos available upon request. SOURCE Harley Ellis Devereaux Related Links http://www.hed.design SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Grand Rounds , a new kind of healthcare company headquartered in San Francisco, today announced that Ami Parekh, M.D. has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Parekh comes from University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) where she served as the Chief Medical Officer of Population Health and Clinical Integration. In her newly created role as Chief Medical Officer at Grand Rounds, Parekh will help accelerate the company's leadership in employee health navigation. Parekh will play a major role in supporting the company's provider strategy while continuing the company's track record of putting patients first. Parekh will also be directly involved in patient cases at Grand Rounds. "Nothing motivates me more than helping a patient, so it's inspiring to join Grand Rounds and have the opportunity to tackle problems that face millions of patients across the country in a new way that is truly technology enabled," said Parekh. "My hope as Chief Medical Officer is to make a measurable impact on the more than 4.2 million lives that we currently cover and extend that coverage to new lives as well." Prior to joining Grand Rounds, in her role leading UCSF Health's Office of Population Health and Accountable Care, Parekh partnered with payers, providers and across the UCSF Health system to succeed in alternative payment models and develop new care models to better serve patients. As a clinician, Parekh saw patients both in hospital and ambulatory settings and was actively involved in resident and medical student education. Parekh has a Bachelor of Arts in political science and biology from Williams College and received her Medical Doctorate from Yale University School of Medicine. She also holds a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School. "Physicians and providers are our change agents, so for us to have Ami's in-depth experience as a physician and as a population health expert is a huge asset as we continue to scale in the years ahead," said Owen Tripp, CEO and co-founder of Grand Rounds. "Having a Chief Medical Officer on board allows us to continue keeping patients top of mind, while connecting with them on a more personal level to ensure we are providing quality care." Grand Rounds is a proud partner to more than 100 progressive employers and reaches more than 4.2 million covered lives through its two product offerings. Named by Rock Health as the 2018 fastest growing company in digital health , to the 2018 Forbes' Cloud 100 and as one of Glassdoor's 2019 Best Places to Work , the company has built a matching engine and expert care team to connect employees with the highest quality care available. Learn more about Parekh's journey to Grand Rounds and vision for the clinical team on the Grand Rounds blog . About Grand Rounds Grand Rounds is a new kind of healthcare company. Founded in 2011, the company is on a mission to raise the standard of healthcare for everyone, everywhere. The Grand Rounds team goes above and beyond to connect and guide people to the highest quality healthcare available for themselves and their loved ones. Grand Rounds creates products and services that give people the best possible healthcare experience. Named a 2019 Best Place to Work by Glassdoor and Rock Health's 2018 Fastest Growing Company, Grand Rounds works with inspiring employers and doctors to empower them to be the change agents we need to make our shared vision a reality. For more information, please visit www.grandrounds.com . Media Contact: Robin Suchan Director of Corporate Marketing [email protected] 415-792-5322 SOURCE Grand Rounds Related Links http://www.grandrounds.com FAIRFAX, Va., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) today announced it has been awarded the Navy Cyber Mission Engineering Support contract by the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWARSYSCEN) Atlantic. The multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract holds a shared ceiling of $898 million. It includes a five-year base ordering period, with one two-year option ordering period, and one six-month option-to-extend-services option ordering period GDIT will compete for individual task orders to provide state-of-the-art solutions for the Navy and Marine Corps' warfighting needs. "This contract offers a new platform to showcase GDIT's next-generation cyber and electronic warfare solutions to reinforce the Navy's important mission," said Senior Vice President Leigh Palmer, head of GDIT's Defense Division. "As electronic warfare continues to evolve, maintaining relevancy and technological superiority is critical. GDIT will support the Navy by utilizing our decades of engineering and technical experience to build mission-focused electronic warfare capabilities across the Navy's warfighter domains." Through this contract, GDIT will support SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic by providing complex engineering and technical services in support of national security mission capabilities. This will include research, development, test, evaluation, production and fielding for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR), information operations (IO), identity operations (IdOps), Enterprise Information Services (EIS) and space capabilities. For more information about General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), please visit www.gdit.com. SOURCE General Dynamics Information Technology Related Links http://www.gdit.com SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, the sole authorized seller of REALFORCE in the U.S., announced the new REALFORCE R2 RGB premium gaming keyboard line. The REALFORCE R2 RGB features various customization settings, allowing users to experience a completely immersive gaming experience. Designed for speed and responsiveness, REALFORCE R2 RGB keyboards feature Topre's best-in-class capacitive key switches which allows for maximum gaming performance. The REALFORCE R2 RGB keyboards feature customizable backlighting with over 16 million color combination options and come in tenkeyless and full-sized models, perfect for any type of gaming environment. The keyboard is also equipped with an ergonomic shaped frame and key settings that reduce hand and finger fatigue. The double shot keycaps improve key texture and makes key legends fade resistant. "Topre has spent years developing the REALFORCE R2 in Japan, paying close attention to design details, including feel, the layout and shape of the keys as well as overall functionality," said Yasunari Shimizu, President and CEO, Fujitsu Computer Products of America; sole authorized seller of REALFORCE in US. "The REALFORCE R2 RGB joins a family of legendary Topre REALFORCE keyboards designed to deliver a level of performance that is optimized for a remarkable keyboard experience - from gaming to programmers to keyboard enthusiasts and beyond." Topre REALFORCE RGB keyboard key features: Topre Electrostatic Capacitive Key Switch that enables extremely smooth key press with an appealing key sound and no chattering that enables extremely smooth key press with an appealing key sound and no chattering Ergonomic Shaped Frame and Key Settings contoured frame help to reduce hand and finger fatigue contoured frame help to reduce hand and finger fatigue RGB Per-Key Backlighting with over 16.8 million colors available, allowing users to customize keyboards backlighting with in-the-box software with over 16.8 million colors available, allowing users to customize keyboards backlighting with in-the-box software Double Shot Keycaps with improved key texture and fade resistant characters with improved key texture and fade resistant characters Full N-Key Rollover can keep up with any number of keystrokes and ensure users are always in control can keep up with any number of keystrokes and ensure users are always in control Software that allows users to program actuation points and backlit colors with ease Topre REALFORCE R2 RGB keyboard Pricing and Availability Immediately available in Tenkeyless and Full-Key Keyboard, the Topre REALFORCE R2 RGB retails for $399.00. The REALFORCE R2 RGB will also be featured at the FCPA booth at PEPCOM's Digital Experience on January 7, 2019. For more information, visit hhkeyboard.us and on social at @hhkbUS About Fujitsu Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 155,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. For more information, visit http://www.fujitsu.com and on social at @Fujitsu_Global . About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. is an established leader in the computer hardware industry, delivering innovative solutions and services that enable users to solve critical business productivity issues and streamline operations. Fujitsu provides cutting-edge solutions for business and personal environments, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of service and support programs. For more information about Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. solutions and services, visit http://us.fujitsu.com/fcpa or call 800-626-4686. Media Contact: BAM Communications for Fujitsu Computer Products of America [email protected] C: 516.567.3036 SOURCE Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. Related Links http://www.fujitsu.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- FiscalNote, a technology and media company providing information services and software that connect the world to their governments, today announced that Josh Resnik has joined as Chief Content Officer and SVP/Publisher. In this role, Resnik will guide FiscalNote's strategy for producing, distributing, and monetizing content, including serving as SVP/Publisher of CQ and Roll Call, as well as leading all content licensing and distribution partnerships. Resnik, who brings more than two decades of experience in media and technology to his work with FiscalNote, joins amid the company's next phase of growth following the $180 million acquisition of CQ Roll Call in August. In this role, Resnik will focus on elevating established media brands CQ and Roll Call by increasing coverage, driving more use of multimedia, and leveraging FiscalNote's expansive global government data, analytics, and tools. "I am thrilled to welcome Josh to the company, a forward-thinking executive who understands the power of combining technology with the award-winning journalism that is central to FiscalNote's mission," said Tim Hwang, founder and CEO of FiscalNote. "Josh's experience guiding companies through the integration of cross-platform solutions will be an asset as we continue to grow our products and services to best meet the needs of our customers and readers." Resnik's career has centered on the intersection of media, journalism and technology. Resnik previously led the Digital division at Gannett, then the largest newspaper owner and one of the largest TV station owners in the United States. He worked with publishers, editors, and TV station personnel to broaden content offerings and leverage technology solutions to create new cross-platform products and experiences, with special focus on video and social media to drive growth. "More than ever, there is great demand for objective, non-partisan journalism and information," said Resnik. "CQ and Roll Call are hallmarks of quality, balanced, in-depth coverage, and the combination with FiscalNote's innovative technology platforms and data is truly unique. I am excited to join FiscalNote and support its growth as people around the world continue to seek more information, data, and tools to connect with their governments and manage issues." Resnik will oversee FiscalNote's publishing teams, increasing coverage in areas that matter most to the company's customers and audiences, and expanding further to cover new areas that will be key drivers of future growth. The company is building out new TV and podcasting studios on Pennsylvania Avenue in order to grow its multimedia content, and the editorial teams will utilize FiscalNote's advanced data capabilities to enhance their reporting. Resnik, who began his career as an attorney, joined AOL in 1999 and led multiple strategic partnerships with digital industry leaders, including Google and Amazon. After his work at Gannett, he joined early stage e-commerce startup Spree Commerce, where he launched the company's first revenue-generating product and built its sales, marketing, partnership, and business intelligence functions, developments that culminated in Spree's acquisition by First Data in 2015. For more information on FiscalNote's leadership team, you can visit the website here . About FiscalNote FiscalNote is a technology and media company that provides information services and software that connect the world to their governments. As the premier hub of domestic and global government information, FiscalNote's comprehensive suite of software solutions offers customers and readers policy data, news, analysis and award-winning journalism. To learn more about FiscalNote and its family of brands, including CQ, Roll Call and VoterVoice, visit www.fiscalnote.com. Media Contact | Lindsay Hand | (516) 725-9686 | [email protected] SOURCE FiscalNote Related Links https://www.fiscalnote.com DELFT, Netherlands, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Union (EU) has awarded the HiSea consortium close to 2 million to develop, test and demonstrate information services that provide high resolution data of sea water quality. These services will incorporate, and process data obtained through different Copernicus services (the EU's Earth Observation and Monitoring service), such as the marine, land and climate services, local monitoring data, and advanced modelling. The platform is aimed at improving operation, planning and management of different marine activities, with a focus on the port and aquaculture sectors. The HiSea information services will include: Early warning services on potential risk factors by issuing alerts on storms, harmful algal blooms, faecal contamination and other hazards. on potential risk factors by issuing alerts on storms, harmful algal blooms, faecal contamination and other hazards. Real time crisis management regarding pollution accidents to identify the appropriate responses. regarding pollution accidents to identify the appropriate responses. Key performance indicators regarding fish growing rates, environmental conditions, or the level of vulnerability to storms for vessels. regarding fish growing rates, environmental conditions, or the level of vulnerability to storms for vessels. Information for planning operations including accurate and reliable meteorological, hydrodynamic and water quality forecasts. including accurate and reliable meteorological, hydrodynamic and water quality forecasts. Knowledge data base built on cause-effect relations that will help better understand and manage future operations. "The main goal of HiSea services is to deliver accurate and reliable information which is readily available, easily understandable and can fit seamlessly into users' operation, planning and management requirements," said Dr Ghada El Serafy from Deltares, who is the coordinator of the HiSea Project. "HiSea will provide relevant information, derived from many different sources, in a simple and effective way to add value to their operations and provide them with a competitive advantage." The consortium, which received funding through the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, is comprised of seven partners from The Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Spain, France, Greece and Israel. The HiSea Project will hold its opening conference in Scheveningen, The Netherlands on January 8-9, 2019. About HiSea HiSea is an EU-funded project that develops an innovative service offering high resolution water quality data at sea for ports and aquaculture. HiSea transforms the wealth of marine data collected by Sentinel satellites and generated by different Copernicus services in order to provide real-time information thus improving operation, planning and management of different marine activities. For further information https://hiseaproject.com/ Contact Dr. Ghada El Serafy +31-883358279 [email protected] SOURCE HiSea New targeted production rate increases throughput 50% providing robust project economics and resilience to lower cobalt prices VANCOUVER, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - eCobalt Solutions Inc. ("eCobalt" or "the Company") (TSX: ECS) (OTCQX: ECSIF) (FRA: ECO) is pleased to provide an update on its Idaho Cobalt Project (the "ICP"), located near the town of Salmon in east-central Idaho, in the heart of the historic Idaho Cobalt Belt. The ICP is the only near-term, environmentally permitted primary cobalt project in the United States. Following an extensive internal review, the Company's team has identified the potential to increase the targeted production rate to 1,200 tonnes per day ("tpd") from 800 tpd, an increase of 50% compared to the previous mine plan. This 1,200 tpd mine plan with improved economies of scale should create a more resilient project economic plan that can withstand the volatility of the cobalt market experienced recently. A larger and more robust plan will furthermore elevate eCobalt's position in the cobalt market. "When I joined the Company late last year, my main priority was to determine how to maximize the greatest value from the Idaho Cobalt Project while minimizing technical risk, and to advance the project to production as quickly as possible," stated Michael Callahan, eCobalt's President and CEO. "Although the cobalt market has been quite volatile over the last 12-plus months, the importance of this commodity in the impending electric vehicle revolution has not waned. Prices for cobalt are still expected to strengthen beyond 2020, aligning well with when we expect our product to reach the market. Within this market context, the viability of the ICP remains strong, and so we must deliver a plan that fully maximizes the project's potential today and well into the future. "One of our principal objectives over the past several months has been to build a first class technical team that has the talent to drive this project and the Company forward" commented Mr. Callahan. "This new group of mining professionals are mine builders and operators who have successfully led several world-class assets. We now have a level of talent and aptitude the Company has never had before. Together we took a critical look at the work that was in progress on the feasibility study, and rigorously tested all the assumptions to determine whether a larger and stronger plan could be developed. We challenged ourselves to develop a production plan with less risk and lower costs. The result of this work demonstrated that the incremental cost of retrofitting the mill to process more tonnage is supported by considerably stronger economies of scale while having no expected impact on the approved Plan of Operations. This plan would allow us to produce more cobalt earlier, thereby increasing cash flows at the beginning of the mine life, improving payback and overall project economics. Thanks to the team's commitment as well as all of the work that had been advanced on the feasibility study previously, we are working to deliver a plan which will provide for long-term value creation for all stakeholders." eCobalt will continue working with Micon International Limited to finalize the feasibility-level study for the 1,200 tpd mine plan. The change in targeted production rate is not expected to significantly delay achieving full production, and will not require any adjustments to the planned surface disturbance of the mine and mill, therefore changes to the Company's permits which comprise the approved Plan of Operations are not expected. The cobalt supply chain, from mine production to intermediates and finished product, has rapidly transformed over the past several years in response to the electric vehicle market. The pilot-level testwork along with ongoing market developments have provided critical information needed to refine the list of potential off-take partners. With the objective to produce a concentrate with the lowest processing cost to be sold at attractive terms, samples have been sent to this list of potential partners. The Company has received positive feedback from these parties demonstrating that ICP concentrate is desirable due to its clean and ethical production as well as its high cobalt and copper content. As there is no equivalent or benchmark concentrate in the market, thorough testing by refineries is required to obtain final concentrate specifications and commercial terms. Testing and analysis of ICP cobalt concentrate samples is currently underway by these parties. As final concentrate specifications may affect downstream processing, additonal guidance on the project development timeline will be provided once final indicative terms have been agreed. Work required over the next several months to complete the feasibility study with the new targeted production rate includes: Adjusting the mining sequence, schedule and costing for 1,200 tpd; completing the engineering to expand the mill to 1,200 tpd; obtaining quotes to bring these cost estimates to feasibility-level; and defining final concentrate specifications based on competitive commercial terms for off-take. "eCobalt has evolved with a continued focused on creating value for all stakeholders. We are committed to our shareholders, to our communities and to our industry peers to be driven by a dedication to operational excellence and risk management by our team of technically-driven, seasoned professionals," added Mr. Callahan. "The new team we have in place is creating positive change at the corporate and project level, taking a cautious approach to safeguard the future of the Company in turbulent as well as stable markets. With a stronger plan in place, we are better positioned to capitalize on the ever-growing market for cobalt even amidst volatility and market uncertainty. All of the work that has been achieved, paired with what we have observed in the international market, positions us to advance quickly to create this value for the long-term." About eCobalt Solutions Inc. eCobalt is a Toronto Stock Exchange listed development-stage mining company committed to providing cobalt products essential for the rapidly growing rechargeable battery and renewable energy sectors, made safely, responsibly, and transparently in the United States. The Company's Idaho Cobalt Project, located in East Central Idaho in the historic Idaho Cobalt Belt, is the only near-term, environmentally permitted, primary cobalt project in the United States. It is 100% owned by the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Formation Capital Corporation, U.S. For more information visit www.eCobalt.com. Cautionary Statement on Forward Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements in this news release pertaining to the feasibility study, financing and off-take activities are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievement. These risks, uncertainties and factors include general business, economic, competitive, political, regulatory and social uncertainties; actual results of exploration activities and economic evaluations; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; changes in project parameters; changes in costs, including labour, infrastructure, operating and production costs; future prices of cobalt; variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, development or mining activities, including the failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; delays in completion of exploration, development or construction activities; changes in government legislation and regulation; the ability to maintain and renew existing licenses and permits or obtain required licenses and permits in a timely manner; the ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms in a timely manner; contests over title to properties; employee relations and shortages of skilled personnel and contractors; the speculative nature of, and the risks involved in, the exploration, development and mining business. Such projections are and will inevitably always be dependent on assumptions about future mineral prices and development costs which will be subject to fluctuation due to global and local economic and industry conditions. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties which may cause results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements is included in filings by the Company with securities regulatory authorities and is available at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Although the Company has disclosed that the ICP remains the sole, near term, environmentally permitted, primary cobalt deposit in the United States and offers a unique potential for North American consumers to secure an ethically sourced, environmentally sound supply of clean cobalt products, there is no guarantee that the Company will attain commercial production of such cobalt products for use in the rechargeable battery sector. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The statements contained in this news release in regard to eCobalt that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including eCobalt's beliefs, expectations, hopes or intentions regarding the future. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and are based on information available to eCobalt as of such date. SOURCE eCobalt Solutions Inc. Related Links http://www.ecobalt.com/ MELVILLE, N.Y., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovation: A word with roots dating back to the 15th century1 it is heavy with meaning. Weaved throughout conversations in the consumer technology world, the definition is simple: "the introduction of something new."1 At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, NV (Booth #16206) Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, will take visitors through a four-step journey of how it is helping empower a variety of businesses and expanding itself into unexpected markets. Helping to Empower Your Vision Empower Your Imagination Empower Your Possibilities Empower Your Connections Each step is a behind-the-scenes look into the inner workings of Canon and how the Company has and can help creative innovators shape their vision. Featured companies such as Brizi, EA, photo booth experiential company Xangle, stop-motion animation company Dragonframe and a global leader in veterinary imaging SOUND, will show how they integrate or leverage Canon solutions into their business to help empower their vision. Additionally, the Company will show a range of new products in the booth such as the Rayo S1 mini projector2, Canon VIXIA HF W11 waterproof camcorder and Canon VIXIA G50 camcorder as well as its impressive, existing solutions within the Canon booth. "Behind every new creation lies a creator; an innovator who has the strength and confidence to drive their idea forward whether on their own or with strategic alliances and technology," said Kazuto Ogawa, president and COO of Canon U.S.A., Inc. "From sensors, software development kits, cameras, lenses, printers and more, innovation is at the core of Canon we are at the forefront to assist the next generation of creative technological minds to make their stamp on the world." Helping Empower Your Vision Get "close up" with the Canon EOS R camera. Visitors to the booth can stand in front of a camera rig that will take close up images of their eyes. Once an image is selected, it will be displayed on a larger-than-life screen with the eyes of all the other guests who have taken a photo. This will create a real-time mosaic of eye-color of the attendees to the Canon booth at CES. Take a photo among popular landmark, the Grand Canyon with Brizi, the creators of BriziCam, who use Canon cameras and software for their interactive, application controlled, photo taking experience. Create a game-ready avatar right on the tradeshow floor with EA in a matter of minutes, using a portable scanning rig outfitted with Canon cameras and software. Paint with light thanks to Xangle in a multi-camera photo booth activation to create bullet-time works of art that attendees will receive via email containing a short video of their created images as a souvenir. Experience stop-motion animation in real-time. Dragonframe, the masterminds behind such films as "Isle of Dogs" and Disney's "Frankenweenie" will showcase stop-motion animation technology with a professional animator, Anthony Scott , and an actual puppet used in the movie "The Little Prince" providing attendees a look behind the curtain into the world of movie magic. , and an actual puppet used in the movie "The Little Prince" providing attendees a look behind the curtain into the world of movie magic. SOUND a global leader in veterinary diagnostic imaging, has developed a software application specifically designed for veterinary workflows. Utilizing Canon Digital Radiography Detectors and Canon's medical SDK, Sound will demonstrate how they are able to provide a virtually seamless, robust, veterinary specific digital radiography system. Helping Empower Your Imagination Interested in new products? Canon has five products launching at this year's show: Rayo S1 mini projector, a pocket-size projector weighing approximately half a pound and featuring 4GB of internal storage and can project an image up to 84 inches. Canon VIXIA G50 camcorder, the first VIXIA G-series camcorder to feature 4K recording. It also includes a genuine wide-angle Canon 20x (29.3-601mm) optical zoom lens. recording. It also includes a genuine wide-angle Canon 20x (29.3-601mm) optical zoom lens. Canon VIXIA HF 11 and HF 10 camcorders, both are waterproof (up to 16.4 ft. / 5m ), shockproof, and dustproof, and are capable of functioning at up to 14 degrees F /-10 degrees C. ), shockproof, and dustproof, and are capable of functioning at up to 14 degrees F /-10 degrees C. Canon PIXMA TS702 printer, a compact connected inkjet printer with high-volume printing capabilities for both home and office/business-to-business usage. Helping Empower Your Possibilities PowerShot, Rebel, EOS, PIXMA, MegaTank, CarePAK, Live Learning are all synonymous with Canon. Attendees can help empower their possibilities and engage with the core products, services and resources, such as the #LearnwithCanon counter, that have helped shape Canon into a digital imaging leader, showcasing the Company's technologies, optics, sensors and processors. Helping Empower Your Connections Excellent manufacturing, software, and customer service are essential to a successful business. Canon has invested in all these areas to help ensure the best imaging solutions and support are available to our customers. CES attendees can experience how Canon services are now enabling the growth of other collaborators. In addition, attendees can learn how these collaborators are leveraging Canon design, manufacturing, development and customer support as services to grow their business in new ways. Eureka Park To further expand its focus on innovation, Canon will also have a presence at Eureka Park (Booth #50653); a CES sister conference focused on startups. OCCO, Dandelion Air, Snap 36, Cloud Spotter and Ortery can exhibit how Canon's SDK connects their companies. Canon continues to show their support for the developer community with the launch of a new website, DeveloperCommunity.usa.canon.com. This robust, multi-tiered membership program, can help empower the vision of like-minded developers by providing access to Canon's technology and support resources. The site is currently scheduled to offer exclusive access to discounted developer products such as the Canon PowerShot SX70 HS Developer Version camera which won't officially be available anywhere else until March and features the new Wi-Fi based Web API, Canon calls "Camera Control API." For more information, visit DeveloperCommunity.usa.canon.com. The Company will also host a panel discussion, "A New Era of Collaboration; Powered by Canon" on Thursday, January 10 at 1:00pm in Eureka Park with panelists from EA, Brizi and Tome Software, moderated by co-founder of ID8 Innovation Mara Lewis. Please visit Canon at the 2019 CES Show at Booth #16206 in the Central Hall and follow Canon throughout the show on Instagram at @CanonUSA and Twitter at @CanonUSAimaging. Use #CanonCES to join the conversation and visit our website at www.usa.canon.com. About Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $36 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), ranks third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2017 and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2018. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based service and support for all of the products it distributes in the United States. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] . Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office. 1Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation 2This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained. Participation subject to change without notice. SOURCE Canon U.S.A., Inc. Related Links http://www.usa.canon.com FLINT, Mich., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO), is updating its 2018 financial guidance and providing a preliminary 2019 outlook in connection with its presentation today at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. Diplomat now expects 2018 revenue to be at the lower end of the previously communicated $5.5 to $5.7 billion range and adjusted EBITDA to be at the higher end of the previously communicated $164 to $170 million range. 2018 revenue is expected to be within the range of $5.5 billion and $5.6 billion . and . 2018 adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be within the range of $167 million and $170 million , an increase of at least 64% based on the low end of the 2018 range vs. 2017. and , an increase of at least 64% based on the low end of the 2018 range vs. 2017. Diluted GAAP EPS 2018 is expected to range from ($0.08) to $0.00 . to . Net debt, including contingent consideration at December 31, 2018 is expected to be approximately $630 million . The company also announced that Joel Saban, president of Diplomat, and Albert Thigpen, president and chief operating officer of CastiaRx, are leaving the company effective immediately. The company has initiated searches for their replacements. Chairman and CEO Brian Griffin will directly oversee CastiaRx and the operational review of that business pending completion of the search. Griffin commented, "Diplomat delivered strong revenue and EBITDA growth in 2018 despite challenges in our CastiaRx PBM segment. Solid specialty growth, robust infusion performance, and better than expected synergy capture following completion of the PBM integration drove 2018 results, and investments we have made in sales, systems, processes and facilities are expected to drive future growth and profitability, positioning the company well for 2019 and beyond." Griffin noted that Diplomat has been selected by Hospitality Rx as the exclusive provider of specialty pharmacy services for its UNITE HERE HEALTH (UHH) plan members. UHH is a multiemployer union plan that provides health benefits to approximately 250,000 members across the nation. In addition, Diplomat announced a partnership today with CSI Specialty Group, a globally recognized specialty pharmacy consulting firm. Diplomat will provide limited-distribution drugs and specialty care management solutions to health system clients. "These recent contract awards are evidence that the payer sales strategy launched in early 2018 is gaining traction," said Griffin. "Payers are increasingly interested in Diplomat's specialty and infusion services on a carve-out basis as they focus on improved patient care and driving down total healthcare costs. We continue to see interest and are in discussions with mid and large-tier health plans looking to enhance the management of not only their specialty pharmacy benefit, but also their specialty medical drug benefit. We expect to announce additional awards in the coming months as we leverage coordinated sales and clinical efforts across specialty and infusion." Preliminary 2019 Outlook In 2019, Diplomat expects: Revenue in the range of $5.6 billion to $5.8 billion , representing an approximate 3 percent year-over-year increase based on the midpoints of 2018 and 2019 guidance ranges. to , representing an approximate 3 percent year-over-year increase based on the midpoints of 2018 and 2019 guidance ranges. Flat to low-single-digit percent year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth compared to the mid-point of updated 2018 guidance. Achievement of net debt/EBITDA below 3.0x by the end of 2019. Griffin commented, "We expect 2019 to be characterized by continued growth in specialty and infusion given our payer-focused strategy, and actions we are taking to return our PBM business to growth." In 2019, Diplomat also expects: Continued sales growth in specialty pharmacy, supported by further penetration in the payer space, particularly with health plans, as the company leverages coordinated sales and clinical efforts across specialty and infusion. Specialty infusion growth should also benefit from growth in key therapeutic areas, additional sales resources added in 2018, further traction from biosimilars, and new limited-distribution drugs, with the potential to expand therapeutic areas and geographically via tuck-in acquisitions. A realignment of the PBM to increase win rates and offset lost business. The company expects to significantly expand experienced sales and account management resources to drive business wins and position the business to return to growth in 2020. The preliminary 2019 outlook assumes a revenue contribution from CastiaRx of $450 million to $500 million. The revenue range expected to be generated by CastiaRx includes approximately $200 million in previously disclosed Medicare Part D contract losses, an additional $120 million combined revenue impact from client losses impacting 2019 and the pricing impact of contract renewals, $35 million in January 1, 2019 new business, as well as further awards given a strong pipeline for the remainder of 2019. Management Changes and CastiaRx Review "While we've been seeing some positive signs for the CastiaRx brand and value proposition, there is no question that this segment disappointed in 2018," said Griffin. "We are looking at this business very closely and are taking decisive steps to address its challenges, including key senior management changes. We have also engaged an external consultant with deep PBM operational experience to help implement operational performance improvement initiatives. We expect this review to be completed over the next several weeks and expect to provide an update on the review as part of our Q4 earnings call." Commenting on the departures of Saban and Thigpen, "They have contributed much to Diplomat during their tenure and we wish them the best for the future." "2019 will be a critical year for CastiaRx to demonstrate positive momentum and I will be personally leading the CastiaRx business on an interim basis, while we evaluate options for permanent leadership. We are focused on finding the right talent to maximize value for patients, payers and shareholders," concluded Griffin. Presentation Information As previously announced, Brian Griffin, Chairman and CEO, and Atul Kavthekar, CFO of Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc., are scheduled to present at the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, at 8:00 a.m. PT. The related presentation materials are available on the investor relations section of Diplomat's website at ir.diplomat.is. A live audio webcast of the presentation will also be available on the investor relations section of Diplomat's website at ir.diplomat.is. An archived audio recording and related presentation materials will be online for 90 days at the same URL. To learn more about Diplomat, visit diplomat.is . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events or our future financial or operating performance, and include Diplomat's expectations regarding revenues, Adjusted EBITDA, EPS, net debt, market share, new business and contract wins, the expected performance of growth strategies, introduction of new limited-distribution drugs and biosimilars, key employee searches, impact of operational improvement initiatives and results of operational and capital expenditures. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information. These statements are qualified by important risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those forecasted or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include: our ability to adapt to changes or trends within the specialty pharmacy industry; a significant increase in competition from a variety of companies in the health care industry; possibility of client losses and/or the failure to win new business; entry into disadvantageous contracts; our ability to expand the number of specialty drugs we dispense and related services; maintaining existing patients; increasing consolidation in the healthcare industry; significant and increasing pricing pressure from third-party payors; complying with complex and evolving requirements and changes in state and federal government regulations, including Medicare and Medicaid; current or proposed legislative and regulatory policies designed to manage healthcare costs or alter healthcare financing practices; the amount of direct and indirect remuneration fees, as well as the timing of assessing such fees and the methodology used to calculate such fees; the outcome of material legal proceedings; our relationships with wholesalers and key pharmaceutical manufacturers; bad publicity about, or market withdrawal of, specialty drugs we dispense; revenue concentration of the top specialty drugs we dispense; managing our growth effectively; our ability to drive volume through a refreshed marketing strategy in traditional specialty pharmacy; our capability to penetrate the fragmented infusion market; the success of our strategy in the PBM space; failure to effectively differentiate our products and services in the PBM market place; our debt service obligations; our ability to effectively execute our acquisition strategy or successfully integrate acquired businesses, including any delays or difficulties in integrating the combined businesses, and the ability to achieve cost savings and operating synergies and the timing thereof; the dependence on our senior management and key employees and effective succession planning and managing recent turnover among key employees; and the additional factors set forth in "Risk Factors" in Diplomat's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by any applicable laws, Diplomat assumes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof or the earlier date specified herein, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. Non-GAAP Information We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) attributable to Diplomat before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, change in fair value of contingent consideration and other merger and acquisition-related expenses, restructuring and impairment charges, and certain other items that we do not consider indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA is not in accordance with, or an alternative to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"). In addition, this nonGAAP measure is not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. You should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to some of the adjustments in the presentation, and we do not infer that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. We consider Adjusted EBITDA to be a supplemental measure of our operating performance. We discuss Adjusted EBITDA because it is used by our Board of Directors and management to evaluate our operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA is also used as a factor in determining incentive compensation, for budgetary planning and forecasting overall financial and operational expectations, for identifying underlying trends, and for evaluating the effectiveness of our business strategies. Furthermore, we believe it assists us, as well as investors, in comparing performance from period-to-period on a consistent basis. Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do and these calculations may not be comparable to our Adjusted EBITDA metrics. Due to the inherent difficulty of forecasting the timing and amount of certain items that would impact net income, we are unable to reasonably estimate the related impact of such items to net income, the GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDA at this time. Accordingly, we are unable to provide a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income with respect to the updated and forward-looking guidance provided herein. For the same reasons, we are unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information, which could have a significant impact on our full-year GAAP financial results. About Diplomat Diplomat (NYSE: DPLO) is the nation's largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy and infusion services. Diplomat helps people with complex and chronic health conditions in all 50 states, partnering with payers, providers, hospitals, manufacturers, and more. Rooted in this patient care expertise, Diplomat also serves payers through CastiaRx, a leading specialty benefit manager, and offers tailored solutions for healthcare innovators through EnvoyHealth. Diplomat opened its doors in 1975 as a neighborhood pharmacy with one essential tenet: "Take good care of patients and the rest falls into place." Today, that tradition continues always focused on improving patient care. For more information, visit diplomat.is . CONTACT: Terri Anne Powers, Vice President of Investor Relations 312.889.5244 | [email protected] Elizabeth Carr, Corporate Communications Manager 810.768.9871 | [email protected] SOURCE Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. Related Links http://www.diplomat.is We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. BOSTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Decibel Therapeutics and Cocoon Biotech today announced a research collaboration to apply Cocoon's proprietary silk fibroin platform to the development of therapeutics for hearing and balance disorders. As part of this agreement, Cocoon and Decibel will jointly conduct research into drug formulations optimized for transtympanic delivery to the ear, and Decibel will receive an option to exclusively license the technology on a program-by-program basis. For each licensed program, Cocoon will receive an upfront license fee, as well as development milestone payments and downstream royalties on programs that advance. "The unique properties of silk protein as an excipient offer the potential for the prolonged and controlled release of a therapeutic compound into the middle ear, where it can then be absorbed into the inner ear," said John Lee, executive vice president of pharmaceutical development at Decibel. "In those instances where transtympanic delivery of a drug is the right approach, we believe that Cocoon's platform has the potential to maximize therapeutic exposure of our medications while minimizing the frequency of injections." "Our silk fibroin platform has the potential to transform our ability to formulate, deliver, and stabilize molecules across a range of therapeutic applications in human health, animal health, consumer products, and agriculture, with resulting improvements in manufacturing processes, safety, and efficacy," added Ailis Tweed-Kent, M.D., chief executive officer of Cocoon. "We are excited to work with Decibel in applying this technology to hearing and balance disorders." About Decibel Therapeutics, Inc. Decibel Therapeutics has established the world's first comprehensive drug discovery, development, and translational research platform to discover and develop therapeutics to protect, repair, and restore hearing. To serve the over half a billion people globally living with hearing loss and related disorders, Decibel is committed to creating a world in which the benefits and joys of hearing are available to all. Decibel is headquartered in Boston, Mass. For more information about Decibel Therapeutics, please visit www.decibeltx.com or follow @DecibelTx on Twitter. About Cocoon Biotech, Inc. Cocoon Biotech, a privately-held biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass, is advancing silk fibroin as a material science platform with broad applicability across human health, animal health, agricultural, and consumer applications. Silk's unique material properties enable the extended delivery of therapeutics, and its chemical and physical properties support unique innovative applications. Silk fibroin is a natural, eco-friendly, biodegradable, and biocompatible material enabling products that have the ability to transform lives and the world in which we live. Cocoon's lead therapeutic programs are focused on next generation products in ophthalmology. Given the broad therapeutic relevance of the platform, the company also has ongoing collaborations with several global pharmaceutical companies across human and animal health. For more information, please visit www.cocoonbiotech.com . Media Contacts Decibel Therapeutics: Sara Green Ten Bridge Communications 1.617.233.1714 [email protected] Cocoon Biotech: Jennifer Williams Cook Williams Communications, Inc. 650-315-3538 [email protected] SOURCE Cocoon Biotech; Decibel Therapeutics Related Links https://www.cocoonbiotech.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to their children's K-12 education, many families have more choices than ever before. School choice options include traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online learning, and homeschooling. During National School Choice Week (January 20-26, 2019), millions of Americans will discover school choice options for their own families and raise awareness about the importance of opportunity in education at a record-breaking 40,594 community-based events and activities. Events range from open houses at schools to homeschool information sessions, school fairs, parent nights, school tours, and talent shows. Large celebrations and school fairs are also planned in more than 70 cities. "Every child deserves a great education," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "When families are empowered to choose a school or education environment that best meets the needs of their individual children, students have more opportunities to be inspired, be successful, and be happy. During National School Choice Week, we invite all Americans to learn more about school choice, celebrate great schools in their communities, and shine a positive spotlight on the benefits of opportunity in education." National School Choice Week was first celebrated in 2011. NSCW is a nonpartisan, nonpolitical public awareness effort with events and activities independently planned by schools, homeschool groups, organizations, and individuals. More information and resources for journalists covering the Week can be found at schoolchoiceweek.com/news. SOURCE National School Choice Week Related Links http://schoolchoiceweek.com "As we move into the next chapter of our company's growth, I look forward to the opportunity to continue building a high-performing team here at CR," said Dandy. "I am confident that our team will continue to bring exceptional value, delivery and thought leadership to the markets and geographies that we serve." Additionally, CR announced that P.J. Hannan, most recently at Hixson Architecture, Engineering and Interiors, has joined the company as the Vice President of Operations. Hannan's experience in operationalizing project management disciplines and client relationships will be leveraged, as CR continues to optimize the centralized management of its delivery systems to accommodate the needs of its client base through its core Director teams. Over the last 7 months, CR has positioned its leadership team to provide support for its Directors to better serve their client base, while strategically building an infrastructure to drive accelerated growth. This includes the recent additions of Bruce Quisno, a veteran architect from Macy's, as Vice President of the Retail discipline, Jason Reverman, formerly of local design firm FRCH, as Controller and several key Director hires in the growing Education, Hospitality and Government market sectors. About CR architecture + design At CR, we create spaces that authentically reflect our clients and creatively achieve their goals. For 36 years, we've gone where our experience leads us and where we can make an impact. Today, our clients engage with architecture, interior design and MEP professionals across offices in Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle. Staying rooted in our approach to quality design and innovation, we've developed a national portfolio of projects in the retail, hospitality, government, higher education, K-12, commercial, housing and senior living markets. By infusing the innovation and wisdom of our people, we create extraordinary places that build enduring value for our clients and the communities they serve. Visit cr-architects.com for more details. SOURCE CR architecture + design Related Links cr-architects.com For Spring 2019, Cole Haan continues to push boundaries by introducing their first shoe designed to seamlessly transition from work to workout, and everything in between. The ZERGRAND All-Day Trainer was created to ensure durability and endurance during workouts, proving the shoe's ability to stabilize the foot and provide adequate cushioning throughout your whole day. Cole Haan's Chief Marketing Officer and GM of Business Development, David Maddocks, notes, "Our customers are on the go more than ever and this shoe fits so easily into their schedules. The shoes were made to support the everyday, active lives of our extraordinary consumers and provide seamless transition from work to workout and more. It's the one shoe you need to pack on that next business trip or long weekend." With silhouettes for both men and women, all styles feature Cole Haan's proprietary leather heel chassis, which provides 360-degree heel support that cradles the back of the foot when the heel strikes the ground. Grand.S Energy foam is integrated throughout the shoe, allowing for high rebound and lightweight cushioning that complements the natural running gait cycle of your foot. The StitchliteTM Upper is engineered to breath and keep the wearer cool as they move; the decoupled and flexible rubber outsole is cored out for lightweight durability to go farther, while feeling lighter. "Everyone needs a shoe that is comfortable and sharp enough for the office but functional and durable enough to take you through your day and even your workout. We have truly created a performance-first shoe that fits perfectly into the rest of your life," said Cole Haan's Chief Creative Officer, Scott Patt. The ZERGRAND All-Day Trainer is available on www.ColeHaan.com and in US and international Cole Haan stores. The men's and women's collection ranges from $150-$220 and will be available in multiple colorways. About Cole Haan Cole Haan LLC, with its Global Headquarters in Greenland, New Hampshire and Creative Center in New York City, is an iconic American lifestyle accessories brand and retailer of premium men's and women's footwear, handbags, leather accessories, outerwear and eyewear. Cole Haan stands for its commitment to craftsmanship, timeless style and design innovation. For more information, visit ColeHaan.com and follow @ColeHaan. For more information, contact: Kimry Blackwelder, Cole Haan E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Cole Haan Related Links http://www.colehaan.com Accelerating near-term cash flow by monetizing cobalt, and solidifying Cobalt 27 as the battery metals proxy for the electric vehicle and energy storage revolution. TSX Venture: KBLT OTCQX: CBLLF FRA: 27O TORONTO, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. ("Cobalt 27" or the "Company") (TSXV: KBLT)(OTCQX: CBLLF)(FRA: 27O), announces the acquisition of a royalty of 1.5% of gross revenues and A$2 per tonne of ore mined under the Reed Industrial Minerals Pty Ltd ("RIM") sub-lease agreement (the "Royalty") held by Westgold Resources Limited ("Westgold"), on the producing Mount Marion Lithium Mine located in Western Australia. Cobalt 27 is acquiring the Royalty from Westgold for total consideration of A$250,000 (CAD$240,400), plus 200 metric tonnes of physical cobalt metal to be delivered to a LME-bonded warehouse of Westgold's choice. "We are committed to becoming a proxy for the large-scale transition to battery-based electric vehicles and energy storage systems. We are also intensely focused on accelerating near-term cashflow from battery metals streams and royalties. The producing Mount Marion lithium mine has the world's second largest high-grade lithium concentrate - spodumene reserves. Production of lithium concentrate from the open-pit mine began in early 2017. Acquisition of the Royalty is being largely funded by a small percentage (7%) of our existing holdings of physical cobalt. This transaction diversifies our portfolio of battery metals into lithium and exemplifies our core strategy of solidifying Cobalt 27 as the leading battery metals streaming and royalty company," commented Anthony Milewski, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cobalt 27. The Mount Marion lithium mine is jointly owned by one of China's largest lithium producers, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd (43.1%), Mineral Resources Limited (43.1%) and Neometals Ltd (13.8%) ("Neometals"). In 2015, Neometals, through its 70%-owned subsidiary RIM, entered into an agreement to lease the lithium mineral rights over a portion of the Hampton Area Location 53 from Westgold. The lease applies to a 3 kilometer by 1 kilometer portion of the Hampton Freehold Location 53, containing extensions to the Mount Marion Lithium Projects Deposit 2 and 2 West, and the former WMC Deposit 3. The initial lease period is 10 years, with options for two 5-year extensions. According to mining industry consulting firm CSA Global, the area is highly prospective, with the potential for additional, unmodeled ore in the Hampton Area Location 53. Lithium is a critical ingredient in all key electric vehicle ("EV") battery chemistries; approximately 40% of lithium demand is attributable to EV and energy storage systems. EVs are expected to account for the majority of lithium demand by 2025. Spodumene has a theoretical lithium oxide content of 8.03%. Due to its high lithium content it is considered the most important lithium ore mineral. According to the 2016 Feasibility Study, Mount Marion has a life of mine ("LOM") lithium carbonate equivalent cash cost of US$5,345/tonne, which is below the Australian Spodumene peer average of approximately US$5,600/tonne. Management believes the Royalty has the potential to provide Cobalt 27 with considerable cash flows over a 17-year term. Advisors and Counsel Scotiabank is acting as financial advisor to Cobalt 27. Stikeman Elliott LLP is legal counsel to Cobalt 27. About Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is a leading battery metals streaming company offering exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and energy storage markets. The Company owns 2,905.7 Mt of physical cobalt and a 32.6% Cobalt Stream on Vale's world-class Voisey's Bay mine, beginning in 2021. Cobalt 27 is undertaking a friendly acquisition of Highlands Pacific which is expected to add increased attributable nickel and cobalt production from the long-life, world-class Ramu Mine. The Company also manages a portfolio of nine royalties and intends to continue to invest in a cobalt-nickel-lithium-focused portfolio of streams, royalties and direct interests in mineral properties containing battery metals. For further information please visit the Company website at www.cobalt27.com or contact: Betty Joy LeBlanc, BA, MBA Director, Corporate Communications +1-604-828-0999 [email protected] Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains certain information which constitutes 'forward-looking statements' and 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation: timing of cash flow from the Royalty, cash cost and mine life of the Mount Marion lithium mine, the occurrence and timing of mining on the Hampton Area Location 53 lease, the demand for lithium and the use of lithium in EVs and energy storage systems,. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the Company's control. For more details on these and other risk factors see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the heading "Risk Factors". Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties underlying these forward-looking statements materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. SOURCE Cobalt 27 Capital Corp Related Links www.co27.com Isaacson takes over chief operating duties from Chris Concannon, President and Chief Operating Officer, who is leaving Cboe on January 14 to pursue a new opportunity outside the company. Tilly will add the title of President, a position he held from 2011 to 2013. These appointments will be effective January 14. As Chief Operating Officer, Isaacson will run the day-to-day operations of the company and assume oversight of the Risk/Information Security teams, while continuing to lead the trade desk, infrastructure, data and analytics, and foreign exchange (FX) technology and operations, which he previously led as Chief Information Officer. As Chief Technology Officer, a new position within Cboe, Crampton will lead global software engineering, quality assurance and project management. Since joining Cboe Global Markets in 2017, Isaacson has led the integration of the Cboe and Bats Global Markets (Bats) technology platforms following Cboe's acquisition of Bats in 2017. A founding member of Bats in 2005, Isaacson held various senior leadership positions with the company, including Chief Operating Officer from 2007 to 2014 and Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer from 2014 to 2017. Prior to helping found Bats, he was a software developer at broker-dealer Tradebot Systems from 2003 to 2005. Crampton also joined Cboe in 2017 following the Bats acquisition. He had been with Bats since 2008, where he led the software engineering teams through the implementation of the company's proprietary exchange technology platform and through the technology integrations following Bats' acquisitions of Chi-X Europe and Direct Edge. He previously held technical and management roles at Amazon and at Automated Trading Desk, an electronic market making and technology firm. Cboe Global Markets Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Tilly said: "The role of COO is a natural progression for Chris Isaacson, given his track record of success with the company and the importance we place on leading-edge technology and relentless execution. He is widely regarded as one of the top technology and operations professionals in the industry and is uniquely qualified to lead our daily operations during this next phase of our growth." Tilly continued: "Eric Crampton is a world-class financial technology professional who has been instrumental in the integration of Cboe and Bats. Working alongside Chris, he and his team are successfully executing our technology integration, creating a common world-class trading platform across our equities, options and futures exchanges, which when completed, will be a game-changer for Cboe and its customers. On behalf of everyone at Cboe, we congratulate Chris and Eric on their promotions and know that they will continue to deliver value to our colleagues, customers and shareholders." Commenting on Chris Concannon's departure, Tilly said: "Chris and I came together to execute the transformative Cboe-Bats deal. He shared my vision for what Cboe could become and today, with our greatly expanded multi-asset product line and global footprint, Cboe Global Markets is one of the world's largest exchange operators. We've had a tremendous working relationship and I want to personally thank him for his contributions to Cboe and wish him continued success in his next challenge." Chris Isaacson said: "I am honored to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. This is an incredibly exciting time for Cboe Global Markets given the growth we've experienced this past year, especially in our proprietary index products, while achieving major milestones toward our corporate integration and technology migrations. We continue to execute on our commitment to product innovation, leading-edge technology and seamless trading solutions. We have an outstanding team in place who delivers on this commitment each day and I'm excited about all we can accomplish going forward." Chris Concannon commented: "I am incredibly grateful to Ed, the Board of Directors and all of our Cboe Global Markets associates for their support. I'm proud of the work our entire team has done in the successful integration of Bats, which leaves Cboe even better positioned for the future. It is bittersweet to be leaving such a fantastic team, but I'm excited to pursue a challenging new leadership opportunity. I wish the entire Cboe team continued success." About Cboe Global Markets, Inc. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE) is one of the world's largest exchange holding companies, offering cutting-edge trading and investment solutions to investors around the world. The company is committed to relentless innovation, connecting global markets with world-class technology, and providing seamless solutions that enhance the customer experience. Cboe offers trading across a diverse range of products in multiple asset classes and geographies, including options, futures, U.S. and European equities, exchange-traded products (ETPs), global foreign exchange (FX) and multi-asset volatility products based on the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX Index), the world's barometer for equity market volatility. Cboe's trading venues include the largest options exchange in the U.S. and the largest stock exchange by value traded in Europe. In addition, the company is the second-largest stock exchange operator in the U.S. and a leading market globally for ETP trading. The company is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Kansas City, New York, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong and Quito, Ecuador. For more information, visit www.cboe.com. CBOE-C Cboe, Cboe Volatility Index, and VIX are registered trademarks and Cboe Global MarketsSM is a service mark of Cboe Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; our index providers' ability to maintain the quality and integrity of their indexes and to perform under our agreements; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel, including those experienced with post-acquisition integration; our ability to accommodate trading volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security risks, including cyber-attacks and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing potential conflicts between our regulatory responsibilities and our for-profit status; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; our ability to manage our growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively; unanticipated difficulties or expenditures relating to the acquisition of Bats Global Markets, Inc., including, without limitation, difficulties that result in the failure to realize expected synergies, accretion, efficiencies and cost savings from the acquisition within the expected time period (if at all), whether in connection with integration, migrating trading platforms, broadening distribution of product offerings or otherwise; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; potential difficulties in our migration of trading platforms and our ability to retain employees as a result of the acquisition; and the accuracy of our estimates and expectations. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC. We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc. Related Links http://www.cboe.com DUBLIN, Ohio, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its long-standing commitment to reduce opioid misuse and abuse, the Cardinal Health Foundation is pleased to announce a $530,000 grant to the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) to identify and deploy best opioid prescribing practices for pain management among OHA member hospitals across the state. This OHA initiative will engage hospitals in a first-of-its-kind statewide collaborative to gather and share benchmark data around opioid prescribing practices, based on physician specialty, patient diagnosis and other variables with the goal of producing more effective pain management and better patient outcomes, with fewer opioids prescribed. "Cardinal Health and OHA care deeply about the devastation prescription drug misuse has caused and are committed to working toward a solution to the opioid epidemic," said Jessie Cannon, vice president of Community Relations at Cardinal Health. "Under the umbrella of Generation Rx and our Opioid Action Program, we are pleased to support OHA in its work to refine opioid prescribing in communities across the state." "Ensuring prescribers can compare their prescribing habits with their peers is considered an important step in improving best practices," said Amy Andres, senior vice president of Quality and Data at OHA. "When we have established benchmark data, we'll work with hospitals to target opioid prescribing levels to better support patients with chronic pain." In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control published its guidelines for opioid prescribing to improve the safety and efficacy of pain care and reduce risks of long-term opioid use. The guidelines recommend that clinicians use caution when prescribing opioids at any dosage, prescribe the lowest effective dosage, and monitor patients on opioids closely for individual benefits and risks. Patients prescribed opioids in Ohio has decreased from 2.3 million in 2016 to 1.9 million in 2017 according to the latest report from the Ohio Automated RX Reporting System. OHA President and CEO Mike Abrams said, "From the inception of this project, OHA and Cardinal Health agreed that our focus would be on programs and services designed to significantly impact the opioid epidemic in Ohio. I am confident that this partnership will strengthen the ability of our member hospitals, as well as physicians across Ohio, to combat opioid misuse and abuse." To date, 62 Ohio hospitals have committed to participating in the OHA initiative to reduce opioids prescribed: Mercy Health - Allen Hospital Mercy Health - Anderson Hospital Mercy Health - Children's Hospital Mercy Health - Clermont Hospital Mercy Health - Defiance Hospital Mercy Health - Fairfield Hospital Mercy Health - Lorain Hospital Mercy Health - Perrysburg Hospital Mercy Health - Springfield Regional Medical Center Mercy Health - St. Anne Hospital Mercy Health - St. Charles Hospital Mercy Health - St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital Mercy Health - St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital Mercy Health - St. Joseph Warren Hospital Mercy Health - St. Rita's Medical Center Mercy Health - St. Vincent Medical Center Mercy Health - Tiffin Hospital Mercy Health - Urbana Hospital Mercy Health - West Hospital Mercy Health - Willard Hospital The Jewish Hospital - Mercy Health Cleveland Clinic Akron General Lodi Hospital Cleveland Clinic Akron General Medical Center Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital Cleveland Clinic Euclid Hospital Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital Cleveland Clinic Main Campus Cleveland Clinic Marymount Hospital Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital Genesis Hospital Holzer Gallipolis Holzer Medical Center-Jackson Fort Hamilton Hospital Grandview Medical Center Green Memorial Hospital Kettering Behavioral Medical Center Kettering Medical Center Soin Medical Center Southview Medical Center Sycamore Medical Center Lake Health TriPoint Medical Center Lake Health West Medical Center Atrium Medical Center Miami Valley Hospital Miami Valley Hospital North Miami Valley Hospital South Upper Valley Medical Center MetroHealth Brecksville MetroHealth Cleveland Heights Medical Center MetroHealth Medical Center MetroHealth Parma Medical Center University of Cincinnati Medical Center West Chester Hospital Community Memorial Hospital Wayne HealthCare Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital Ohio State University Hospital Ohio State University Hospital East The Cardinal Health Foundation grant funding also supports OHA initiatives that encourage alternative pain therapies and the creation of an online source for treatment and training resources for providers and community organizations. About Cardinal Health Cardinal Health, Inc. is a global, integrated healthcare services and products company, providing customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices worldwide. The company provides clinically proven medical products, pharmaceuticals and cost-effective solutions that enhance supply chain efficiency from hospital to home. To help combat prescription drug abuse, the company and its education partners created Generation Rx, a national drug education and awareness program. Backed by nearly 100 years of experience, with approximately 50,000 employees in nearly 46 countries, Cardinal Health ranks #14 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit cardinalhealth.com, follow @CardinalHealth on Twitter, @cardinalhealthwings on Facebook and connect on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/ company/cardinal-health. About the Ohio Hospital Association Established in 1915, OHA represents 237 hospitals and 13 health systems throughout Ohio that employ 255,000 Ohioans and contribute $29 billion to Ohio's economy along with contributing $5.3 billion in net community benefit. OHA is the nation's first state hospital association and is recognized nationally for its patient safety and health care quality initiatives and environmental sustainability programs. Guided by a mission to collaborate with member hospitals and health systems to ensure a healthy Ohio, the work of OHA centers on three strategic initiatives: advocacy, economic sustainability, and patient safety and quality. The association founded the OHA Institute for Health Innovation and OHA Solutions hospital staffing program and is a co-founder of the Ohio Health Information Partnership and the Ohio Patient Safety Institute. Learn more at ohiohospitals.org. SOURCE Cardinal Health Foundation Related Links http://cardinalhealth.com SAN DIEGO, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgepoint Education announced today that it has appointed Brian Bethune, PhD, to the position of Vice President, Learning Services. Dr. Bethune will provide strategic leadership of the instructional design of academic programs, curriculum development, and learning technology in order to enhance students' experience and positively impact their success. He reports to Chief Marketing Officer Tom McCarty. "Brian's experience helping several universities across the country expand and diversify their academic offerings will be a great asset to Bridgepoint as it transitions to a technology services company," said Tom McCarty, Chief Marketing Officer. "We look forward to harnessing his student-focused approach to create new learning solutions." Prior to joining Bridgepoint, Dr. Bethune served as Director, Continuing Studies at Hamline University, where he helped create new undergraduate programs in Psychology and Business, and masters' programs in Legal Studies and Business Analytics. He has also held the position of National Dean for several colleges at DeVry University and Dean of Creative Arts at Cuyahoga Community College. Dr. Bethune holds a PhD from Bowling Green State University, a Master of Fine Arts from Minnesota State University, and a bachelor's from University of Minnesota. About Bridgepoint Education Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE:BPI) harnesses the latest technology to reimagine the modern student experience through programs, technologies, and resources representing a unique model for advancing education in the 21st century. Bridgepoint stands for greater access, social learning, and exposure to leading minds. For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or www.facebook.com/BridgepointEducation. Contact: Lauren Coartney 858.513.9240 x11636 [email protected] SOURCE Bridgepoint Education Related Links http://www.bridgepointeducation.com PORTLAND, Oregon, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Upsurge in obese population, rise in government initiatives to promote healthy lifestyle, and increase in health consciousness among people facilitate the growth of the global body composition analyzers market. Allied Market Research published a report, titled, Body Composition Analyzers Market by Product (Bio-Impedance Analyzer, Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry Equipment, Skinfold Calipers, Air Displacement Plethysmography Equipment, and Hydrostatic Weighing Equipment) and by End User (Hospitals, Fitness Clubs & Wellness Centers, Academic & Research Centers, and Home Users) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2025. The report offers detailed analyses of the drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, market size & estimations, and competitive landscape. As per the report, the global body composition analyzers market contributed nearly $356 million in 2017, and is expected to garner $596 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 6.6% from 2018 to 2025. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Increase in obese population, proactive initiatives by government to promote healthy lifestyle, and rise in health consciousness among people facilitate the growth of the market. However, high initial cost and strict regulations regarding usage of body composition analyzers hinder the market growth. On the other hand, increase in the number of gyms and health clubs would create new opportunities in the market. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4294 Bio-impedance analyzers to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period Bio-impedance analyzer segment contributed more than two-fifths of the total market share in 2017 and is expected to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to low cost and convenience offered by them as compared to other analyzers. However, air displacement plethysmography equipment segment would register the highest CAGR of 9.6% from 2018 to 2025, owing to the higher accuracy provided by them and rise in awareness about bod pods. The research also analyzes skinfold caliper, dual energy X-Ray absorptiometry, hydrostatic weighing equipment, and others. Fitness clubs & wellness centers segment to lead in terms of revenue through 2025 Fitness clubs & wellness centers segment accounted for more than two-thirds of the total market share in 2017 and is expected to continue its lead in terms of revenue by 2025. This is due to increase in health consciousness among the population and significant surge in the number of health clubs and gyms across the globe. Home user segment would register the highest CAGR of 10.4% from 2018 to 2025, owing to the greater adoption of handheld and portable body composition analyzers to gain constant access. The research also analyzes hospitals and others. For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4294 North America to maintain its lion's share by 2025 North America contributed nearly two-fifth share of the total market in terms of revenue by 2017 and would maintain its lead by 2025 due to the presence of well-established healthcare infrastructure and continuous R&D initiatives. However, Asia-Pacific would grow at the highest CAGR of 9.0% from 2018 to 2025, owing to the increase in healthcare expenditure, surge in fitness clubs & wellness centers, and rise in obese population across developing countries. Frontrunners in the industry The leading market players analyzed in the report include Omron Corporation, Cosmed S.R.L., Hologic, Inc., Jawon Medical Co., Ltd., GE Healthcare, Rjl Systems, Inc., Tanita Corporation, Bodystat Ltd., Inbody Co., Ltd., and Seca GmbH & Co. Kg. These players have implemented various strategies including partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, expansions, collaborations, joint ventures, and others to gain a stronghold in the industry. Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas. Similar Reports: Surgical Mask Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025 India Disposable Gloves Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com SOURCE Allied Market Research New unit will integrate cyber security, fraud and physical security BMO's Anti-Money Laundering group, headed by Herbert Mazariegos , to work closely with Financial Crimes Unit TORONTO and CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) today announced that it will create a Financial Crimes Unit to be led by Larry Zelvin, who joins the bank effective January 14, 2019. The Financial Crimes Unit brings together existing capabilities around cybersecurity, fraud, and physical security from across the enterprise into an integrated central function. As head of the Financial Crimes Unit, Mr. Zelvin will be responsible for defining and executing strategy, mobilizing stakeholders, and working in full coordination with businesses across the bank. The Unit will leverage a fusion center model, which is widely regarded as an industry leading capability. Mr. Zelvin will report to Steve Tennyson, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, BMO Financial Group. Mr. Zelvin joins BMO from Citigroup Inc., where he was Managing Director and Global Head, Cyber Security. His previous roles include Director, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Senior Director for Response, National Security Council, The White House. "Given a growing reliance on advanced digital technologies, the financial services industry is faced with more sophisticated financial crime activities that often exploit misaligned fraud and cyber security practices. It is critical that we continue to invest, and develop our talent and processes to protect information of our customers, the bank and our partners," said Darryl White, Chief Executive Officer, BMO Financial Group. "We are continuously improving our security threat detection and response company wide and bringing together our capabilities under one leader is an important next step," said Mr. Tennyson. "Larry has over 25 years of experience as a deep security expert. He has been a significant contributor and instrumental in creating a number of industry-leading cyber security practices." The Financial Crimes Unit will work together with BMO's Anti-Money Laundering group. Herbert Mazariegos, currently BMO's U.S. Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, has been appointed Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, BMO Financial Group. Mr. Mazariegos has 25 years of financial services experience and has been a key contributor in BMO's leading AML capabilities. AML is a critical component of the bank's protection of customers and will collaborate closely with the Financial Crimes Unit in a number of areas. About BMO Financial Group Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $774 billion as of October 31, 2018, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. SOURCE BMO Financial Group Related Links http://www.bmo.com The #1 New Book Release in Religious Leadership, 'Helping Your Church Live Stream' is Now Available on Amazon PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 7, 2019 / Christian Newswire / -- Helping Your Church Live Stream by Paul William Richards, is now the #1 new book release in Amazon's Religious Leadership category. Helping Your Church Live Stream is an instructional guide for ministry leaders considering the use of live streaming as an outreach tool for the church. The book features an included online learning course available on UDEMY.com for church media directors and volunteers helping leaders in the church take their learning to the next level. "The momentum with this book and churches interested in live streaming technology has been incredible," says Richards the book's author. "The transformational power of broadcasting the message of God online is having an incredible impact on people's lives. The book includes raving testimonials from viewers who are shut-in, healing from surgery, even folks who are reconnecting with their hometown churches." The book includes a personal story from Richard's wife who moved away from her hometown church in Ladue, Missouri. Throughout the book, readers learn about live streaming and Richards own personal journey connecting his wife's hometown church with a live streaming system for his wife. "Live Streaming is also a great way for churches to attract new members. Especially younger generations using social media," says Richards. "Many leaders in the church will be interested in the chapters concerning digital donations and social media outreach." The book will be available on Kindle for free starting January 12, 2019 through January 16, 2019. The included online course will remain open for free enrollment throughout the month of January 2019. "Helping Your Church Live Stream 2.0" is an online learning course with over 3,500 churches already enrolled. The book is available on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/Helping-Your-Church-Live-Stream-ebook/dp/B07MDVDTMF Churches interested in enrolling in the free training course can learn more here: www.udemy.com/church-streaming The book also includes an online collaboration community on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/groups/churchstreamers NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Scope This report organizes information from diverse sources into a comprehensive report that includes an overview, market dynamics, disease type, leading blockbuster drug profiles, regulations, reimbursement and patents.It analyzes prevailing blood cancer treatment guidelines in different geographic regions. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05691568 The scope of the blood cancer therapeutic market is restricted to three disease areas: leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.Leukemia is classified into four sub-segments: chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This report includes an overview of the global market scenario for blood cancer treatments with base year data from 2017, estimations for 2018 and forecasts for 2019 to 2023, using CAGR projections.Market data in value terms is provided at global, regional and country levels for disease areas. This report forecasts the global market by disease area and discusses market data for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. This report involves regional market overviews for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Regional overviews provide information on the epidemiology of blood cancer by country and region and detailed market data for each region. Market dynamics, such as trends and challenges, are discussed in the report.Global market drivers, trends and challenges influencing the blood cancer therapeutic market are also captured in this report. Detailed analyses of competitive environments, blockbuster drugs, pipelines, patents, the regulatory landscape and the reimbursement landscape are included in the report.The regulatory scenario is discussed for the United States, Europe and Japan to provide an overview of regulations for new drug launches. The reimbursement scenario is outlined for the United States and Europe to provide an overview to readers.The pipeline analysis chapter discusses four major disease areas to provide details about major pipeline developments. The competitive landscape discusses major manufacturers involved in the blood cancer therapeutic market, key developments and product offerings. Report Includes: - 41 data tables and 48 additional tables - An overview of the global blood cancer therapeutics markets within the industry - Analyses of global market trends with data from 2017 and 2018, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2023 - Regional dynamics of the market covering North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other emerging economies - Discussion of major drivers, trends and challenges influencing blood cancer therapeutics market - Information on the competitive environments, blockbuster drugs, pipeline analysis, patent analysis, and regulatory and reimbursement structure - Coverage of regulatory environments for the United States, Europe and Japan; and information pertaining to the regulations for new drug launches - A look at the reimbursement scenario outlined for the United States and Europe, and Pipeline analysis encompassing major disease area - Examination of the competitive landscape and description of the major manufacturers involved in the blood cancer therapeutics market, key developments and product offerings - Company profiles of leading market players, including AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., GlaxoSmithKline plc, F. Hofmann-La Roche Ltd., and Novartis AG Summary The blood cancer therapeutic market was valued at REDACTED in 2017 and is estimated to be REDACTED in 2018.The market is forecasted to reach REDACTED in 2023, growing at a CAGR of REDACTED during the forecast period (2018 to 2023). The global leukemia therapeutic market was valued at REDACTED in 2017 and is forecasted to reach REDACTED in 2023.The market is witnessing several growth opportunities due to an increase in public and private initiatives to diagnosis the disease, a rise in the number of biopsies conducted annually and the availability of novel drugs. These factors will propel market growth during the forecast years, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of REDACTED from2018 to 2023. The global lymphoma therapeutic market is currently estimated to be worth REDACTED in 2018 and is forecasted to reach REDACTED in 2023.There are several drug approvals for lymphoma involving drug targets as antibody-drug conjugates, programmed death-1 receptor/programmed death ligands and microtubules, among others. The market has several growth opportunities due to premium-priced drug therapies.There are several clinical trials being conducted to bring forth new therapies with novel drug targets. It was reported that there were 217 active drugs under clinical trials for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2018. These factors will propel the growth of the market during the forecast years; it is projected to grow at a CAGR of REDACTED from 2018 to 2023. The global multiple myeloma therapeutic market is currently estimated to be worth REDACTED in 2018 and is forecasted to reach REDACTED in 2023.The market is undergoing several advances, such as the approval of several drug therapies that have improved overall survival. From 2011 to 2018, nearly seven drugs were approved, including Kyprolis, Imnovid, Pomalyst, Ninlaro, Farydak, Empliciti and Darzalex, which have increased the overall survival of multiple myeloma patients by nearly 23 months.There are several drugs in clinical trials that have the potential to be blockbusters. The market is highly attractive, and ongoing research will propel the growth of the multiple myeloma market. It is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of REDACTED during the forecast years, 2018 to 2023. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05691568 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com According to a recent survey commissioned by the company, approximately 80% of consumers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada do not trust their current Internet-connected devices to secure their data and privacy. Additionally, when asked about future purchases, respondents said they were more likely to choose a product or do business with a company that had a strong reputation for data security and privacy. The company's new BlackBerry Secure feature packs address this concern and buying preference by giving IoT device manufacturers the trusted software and proven framework to securely build smart products from health trackers to Alexa-enabled speakers without having to develop the technology and deep cybersecurity expertise internally. To ensure the products have been developed to the company's standards, BlackBerry's team of cybersecurity experts review the device. Following this process, the product will be deemed BlackBerry Secure, a recognized symbol of data security and trust. "2019 will be the year consumers will begin to vote with their wallets and seek out products that promise a higher level of security and data privacy," said Alex Thurber, SVP and General Manager of Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry. "IoT device manufacturers can address security and privacy concerns head-on and stand out in the cluttered IoT space by bringing to market ultra-secure products that consumers, retailers, and enterprises want to buy and use. This new service is a pivotal point in the company's software licensing strategy and underscores BlackBerry's evolution from providing the most secure smartphones to delivering the trusted security for all smart 'things'." Available today, OEMs will have the choice of the following feature packs which build upon each other and provide various levels of management and control: BlackBerry Secure Enablement Feature Pack : The enablement pack offers secure manufacturing and product lifecycle management features. Specifically, BlackBerry will provide a manufacturing station that provides a hardware Root of Trust and is connected to the company's Network Operation Center that is monitored 24/7 for uptime and reliability. During manufacturing, a BlackBerry Secure Identity Service Key is injected into the hardware and recorded on a secure server. Both at launch and periodically throughout the product's lifecycle, checks are performed to verify that the two keys match. If they do not, the device no longer boots. : The enablement pack offers secure manufacturing and product lifecycle management features. Specifically, BlackBerry will provide a manufacturing station that provides a hardware Root of Trust and is connected to the company's Network Operation Center that is monitored 24/7 for uptime and reliability. During manufacturing, a BlackBerry Secure Identity Service Key is injected into the hardware and recorded on a secure server. Both at launch and periodically throughout the product's lifecycle, checks are performed to verify that the two keys match. If they do not, the device no longer boots. BlackBerry Secure Foundations Feature Pack: In addition to hardening the operating system kernel, the Foundations Pack locks down software being executed with Secure Boot and ARM Trustzone technology to securely generate, use and store encryption keys used for various software operations. It also includes the BlackBerry Integrity Detection (BID) service which various components (kernel, Pathtrust, SELinux, etc) across the software stack, and generates real-time 'health' reports that can be accessed by users and trusted third-party applications. In addition to hardening the operating system kernel, the Foundations Pack locks down software being executed with Secure Boot and ARM Trustzone technology to securely generate, use and store encryption keys used for various software operations. It also includes the BlackBerry Integrity Detection (BID) service which various components (kernel, Pathtrust, SELinux, etc) across the software stack, and generates real-time 'health' reports that can be accessed by users and trusted third-party applications. BlackBerry Secure Enterprise Feature Pack: The Enterprise Pack is ideal for devices that will be used in regulated or restricted environments as it enables deeper management and control beyond what is standard in Android Enterprise. Through extended device management policies deployed on the device, enterprises can protect their data by controlling what can be accessed via device debug interfaces, communication protocols (Bluetooth, NFC), and radios (cellular, WIFI, GPS). It is also able to set policies which add baseline security for certifications such as FIPS. BlackBerry will be available to discuss the new solution at CES Unveiled on January 6, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay, and its booth, #7523 in the LVCC North Hall from January 8 - 11, 2019. To learn more about the BlackBerry Secure feature packs, please visit www.blackberry.com/secure. About BlackBerry BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) enables the Enterprise of Things by providing the technology that allows endpoints to trust one another, communicate securely, and maintain privacy. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company was founded in 1984 and operates globally. For more information, visit www.BlackBerry.com and follow @BlackBerry. BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services. Media Contacts: BlackBerry (519) 597-7273 [email protected] Investor Contact: BlackBerry (519) 888-7465 [email protected] SOURCE BlackBerry Limited Related Links http://www.blackberry.com ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of specialist UK insurance broker Stackhouse Poland Group Limited ("Stackhouse Poland"). The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter 2019. Founded in 1974 as a local community broker, Stackhouse Poland has since grown organically and through strategic acquisition into a highly successful, large-scale specialist UK insurance broker generating over 55 million in annualized revenues. With more than 500 employees, Stackhouse Poland operates from a network of 23 offices across the UK. It has well-established insurance divisions specializing in high-net-worth private clients, real estate, commercial, healthcare and a wide range of specialist insurance sectors. "Having begun life as a small, general practice broker, Stackhouse Poland has since grown through a well-managed blend of organic growth and targeted acquisitions, just like Gallagher," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "With its suite of specialisms and first-class reputation among clients in the UK marketplace, it will make an outstanding addition to our global team." On reaching the agreement to acquire, Michael Rea, CEO of the UK Retail division at Gallagher, which serves customers from more than 50 locations, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together our two high-performing businesses. We've long admired Stackhouse Poland as an ambitious, well-run insurance broker with an impressive portfolio of specialisms that are highly complementary to our own, such as private clients, real estate, marine, churches and education. "From our earliest discussions with Tim and the team, it was clear their business, like ours, has been built around a relentless focus on client service and we look forward to creating an extraordinary business together." Tim Johnson, Group CEO of Stackhouse Poland, commented: "In Gallagher we have found the ideal ally to take the business to the next level. It is clear that the Gallagher team shares Stackhouse Poland values putting clients first by employing and developing top class insurance professionals. The support we have had from our investment partners at Synova has seen us grow into a significant business in the UK marketplace, and the time was right to find a long-term global partner." Jeremy Cary, Executive Chairman of Stackhouse Poland, said: "For the last 17 years, initially with business partner James Agnew and more recently in wider partnership with Tim Johnson & Synova, we have resolutely focused on building a private client and specialist commercial broking business, where organic growth has been equally important as growth by acquisition. Stackhouse Poland's success has been a consequence of the fantastic clients we serve and the equally fantastic people we employ. The Gallagher business is infused with a similar culture, where it is all about clients and colleagues, and so I am happy to be passing the baton to a great home." Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 35 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP Investor Relations VP Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected] Notes to Editors: Established in 2007, and headquartered in London, Synova Capital ("Synova") is recognised as one of Europe's leading growth investors, generating class-leading returns investing in companies typically valued at between 10m and 100m. Key verticals include Financial Services, Technology, Business Services, and Health & Education. Synova invested in Stackhouse Poland in 2014, providing capital for acquisitions and strategic guidance to Tim Johnson and the wider management team. Further information is available from www.synova-capital.com or by email [email protected]. Media: David Menton Managing Partner +44 (0)20 3475 7665 / [email protected] SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Related Links http://www.ajg.com GREENVILLE, S.C., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Armada Analytics Inc., a leading independent real estate consulting firm headquartered in Greenville, S.C., announces the appointment of Matt Legge as chief executive officer to develop and execute the next phase of its growth strategy. In his role at Armada, Matt will be responsible for strategic agility in aligning process improvement, diversification and client development to drive execution across all business service offerings. He officially joined the team on Jan. 1, 2019. "We are fortunate to have someone of Matt's caliber and experience step up to lead Armada as we enter the next stage of accelerating what is working well for Armada and adapting to the fluid needs of the marketplace," said Zack Devier, founder and president. "Matt is a leader with hard-core underwriting skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together to successfully implement our growth strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Matt has the right operational and communication skills to take Armada to the next level. He is customer-focused with deep leadership capabilities and I look forward to working with him to implement our vision of exponential growth and continued dedicated excellence and dependability across Armada's diversified platform." Regarding the appointment, Matt stated: "As a long-time compatriot of Zack, I've observed the company's steadfast leadership and impressive growth over 12 years. As an Armada client, I've had the distinct pleasure of working with the talented Armada professionals that are dedicated to excellence and am delighted to be joining this dynamic team and contribute to accelerated diversified growth and enhanced efficiencies and participate in the Armada team culture that consistently delivers quality for its clients." Legge makes the next step in his career after nine (9) years at Capital One Multifamily Finance (formerly Beech Street Capital), where he was most recently senior vice president and head of underwriting for Capital One's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operations. Matt grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and holds a bachelor's degree in finance/investment management from Duquesne University. Visit https://www.armadaanalytics.com for a full bio. About Armada Analytics Inc.: Founded in 2006, Armada Analytics has grown to be a leading, independent, national provider of commercial real estate underwriting, due diligence, asset management and portfolio risk monitoring consultancy services to a broad spectrum of clients. Armada helps leverage the internal capacity of CMBS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD lenders, B-Piece investors and property owners. Armada currently has 75 full-time, U.S.-based employees with offices in Greenville, South Carolina (headquarters); Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Nashville, Tennessee. For more details, please visit www.armadaanalytics.com. Contact info: Contact Person: Brad Harvey Company: Armada Analytics Inc. Company URL: www.armadaanalytics.com Address: 55 Beattie Place, Suite 1510, Greenville, SC, 29601 Phone: 864-751-9072 Related Links Armada Analytics SOURCE Armada Analytics Inc. Related Links https://www.armadaanalytics.com COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Forensic Sciences' (AAFS) 71st Annual Scientific Meeting will take place Feb. 18-23, 2019, at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD. Themed "Diligence, Dedication, and Devotion," AAFS President Susan M. Ballou, MS, will lead the scientific community of nearly 5,000 national and international forensic professionals to discuss advances in the forensic sciences and hold discussions on the science, environments, and challenges that impact forensic science practitioners. The desire to advance the forensic science profession will be evidenced as professionals assemble to share ideas, case studies and attend more than 900 scientific sessions related to the 11 sections of the forensic sciences, which cover a multidisciplinary range of human, technical, medical, and scientific endeavors to search for the truth in the name of justice. More than 150 exhibitors will showcase the state-of-the-art technology and services. The scientific meeting begins with a public outreach event, a CSI MiniCamp, presented in partnership with the Maryland Science Center. The family-friendly CSI MiniCamp will be held from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Maryland Science Center, located at 601 Light St. in Baltimore. AAFS forensic professionals will present several hands-on experiments, from DNA testing of fruit to facial recognition reconstruction. From 911:30 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 20, the opening plenary session, "Diligence, Dedication, and Devotion," at the Baltimore Convention Center, will examine the how the forensic sciences community maintains its purpose to serve the cause of justice while dealing with adversarial scorn, interminable bureaucracy and less-than-optimal resources. AAFS President Ballou leads a panel discussion following presentations by Bonnie Armstrong, BS, The Shaken Baby Alliance; Ted Hunt, JD, U.S. Department of Justice; and John Sattler, BS, U.S. Naval Academy. Guest speakers will address fighting back victimization and what to do about it; rededication to a common cause: the search for truth in the name of justice; and diligence, dedication, and devotion in the real world. For updates on AAFS during the scientific meeting, visit the AAFS newsfeed at www.aafs.org. COMPLIMENTARY REGISTRATION FOR JOURNALISTS: Individuals able to document a current direct connection with the news media may receive free registration at the AAFS registration desk, as may journalism students by presenting letterhead-stationery certification that they are attending as part of a class activity. Everyone seeking access to any aspect of the annual meeting must be registered. Press attending special functions (e.g., workshops, seminars, luncheons), are required to preregister and pay the designated fees by the preregistration deadline of Feb. 1, 2019. About the AAFS: The American Academy of Forensic Sciences is a multidisciplinary professional organization providing leadership to advance science and its application to the legal system. The objectives of the Academy are to promote professionalism, integrity, competency, and education, and to foster research, improve practice, and encourage collaboration in the forensic sciences. Organized in 1948, AAFS serves a distinguished and diverse membership of more than 6,700 forensic-science professionals who are the focal point for public information when forensic-science issues are addressed in the public domain. AAFS publishes the internationally recognized Journal of Forensic Sciences. For more information, visit www.aafs.org. Follow us on Facebook. SOURCE American Academy of Forensic Sciences PLANO, Texas, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data, will host a conference call on February 7, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the Company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results. Hosting the call will be Ed Heffernan, president and chief executive officer; and Charles Horn, chief financial officer. The conference call will be available via the Internet at www.alliancedata.com. Additionally, there will be several slides accompanying the webcast. Please go to the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary software. Please contact AdvisIRy Partners by e-mail: [email protected] with any questions. About Alliance Data Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions, enhancing the critical customer marketing experience; the result is measurably changing consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today's most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its clients create and increase customer loyalty through solutions that engage millions of customers each day across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. An S&P 500, FORTUNE 500 and FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For company headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alliance Data consists of three businesses that together employ approximately 20,000 associates at more than 100 locations worldwide. Alliance Data's card services business is a provider of market-leading private label, co-brand, and business credit card programs. Epsilon is a leading provider of multichannel, data-driven technologies and marketing services, and also includes Conversant, a leader in personalized digital marketing. LoyaltyOne owns and operates the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada's most recognized loyalty program, and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty, a global provider of tailor-made loyalty programs for grocers. Follow Alliance Data on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Contacts: Investors/Analysts Tiffany Louder Alliance Data 214-494-3048 [email protected] Media Shelley Whiddon Alliance Data 214-494-3811 [email protected] SOURCE Alliance Data Systems Corporation Related Links http://www.alliancedata.com DUBLIN, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), a leading global biopharmaceutical company, today announced it will establish an R&D presence in the Kendall Square section of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a hub of science, innovation and business opportunities. The site will be led by Don Frail, PhD, Senior Vice President of Research and External Scientific Innovation (RESI) and Non-Clinical and Translational Sciences. "One of the driving sources of innovation today comes from smaller biotechnology and pharma companies. Our new, strategic presence in Kendall Square will allow us to more easily interact and engage with venture firms and start ups in the area," said David Nicholson, EVP & Chief R&D Officer. "I am confident that our new location in Cambridge, along with Don's deep expertise will accelerate the evaluation of scientific opportunities and further deliver on our Open Science model and the next wave of potentially transformational medicines." Dr. Frail joined Allergan in 2014, relocating from Boston to the Allergan R&D center in Irvine, CA, and has led the Research, Clinical Pharmacology, Toxicology and ADME departments including the External Science & Innovation initiatives to evaluate and implement partnerships and acquisitions across Allergan's four key therapeutic areas. Don will continue to lead the Irvine team as well. Previously, Frail led the Emerging Innovations Unit at AstraZeneca, the Indications Discovery Units at Pfizer and the CNS Discovery organization at Pharmacia. "I'm looking forward to returning to the Boston area to establish Allergan's new presence where we will continue to identify cutting-edge technologies and opportunities that deliver the highest value to patients and their healthcare providers. Our Irvine site will continue to be the home of R&D and retain its long-established External Scientific Innovation and Non-Clinical Translational Sciences team. The new Cambridge group will be fully integrated with the Allergan organization, and serve as a portal to our other R&D sites in Madison NJ, San Francisco area, and globally," said Don Frail, PhD. About Allergan plc Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a bold, global pharmaceutical leader. Allergan is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world. Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products for the central nervous system, eye care, medical aesthetics and dermatology, gastroenterology, women's health, urology and anti-infective therapeutic categories. Allergan is an industry leader in Open Science, a model of research and development, which defines our approach to identifying and developing game-changing ideas and innovation for better patient care. With this approach, Allergan has built one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry. Allergan's success is powered by our global colleagues' commitment to being Bold for Life. Together, we build bridges, power ideas, act fast and drive results for our customers and patients around the world by always doing what is right. With commercial operations in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day. For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com. Forward-Looking Statement Statements contained in this press release that refer to future events or other non-historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect Allergan's current perspective on existing trends and information as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from Allergan's current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Allergan's business. These factors include, among others, the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of FDA approvals or actions, if any; the impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance of and continued demand for Allergan's products; the impact of uncertainty around timing of generic entry related to key products, including RESTASIS, on our financial results; risks associated with divestitures, acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures; uncertainty associated with financial projections, projected cost reductions, projected debt reduction, projected synergies, restructurings, increased costs, and adverse tax consequences; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Allergan's periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Allergan's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2018. Except as expressly required by law, Allergan disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. CONTACTS: Allergan: Investors: Manisha Narasimhan, PhD (862) 261-7162 Christine Chiou (862) 261-7396 Karina Calzadilla (862) 261-7328 Media: Amy Rose (862) 289-3072 SOURCE Allergan plc Related Links www.allergan.com The transaction is expected to close by February. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Dallas, Texas, Aimbridge is North America's leading third-party hotel operator, with a management portfolio that includes approximately 800 upscale, independent and branded hotels with more than 100,000 rooms across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Aimbridge provides property management, asset management, development, renovation and consulting services to the most respected hotel brands in the industry, including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Wyndham. "Over the past 15 years Aimbridge has grown to become one of the most respected independent hotel managers in the industry, while creating a positive guest experience and generating operational excellence for our hotel partners," said Dave Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality. "We appreciate Lee Equity's strategic guidance over the past several years, and with Advent's financial and strategic support, we look forward to building on our proven track record of delivering superior results for some of the most prestigious hotel owners and developers across the U.S. and beyond." Since 2013, Aimbridge has made significant progress on its growth strategy, expanding its properties under management from 8 to over 800 and penetrating full-service and select-service properties at attractive growth rates. With its market-leading position and the support of Advent in partnership with Lee Equity and the Aimbridge management team, Aimbridge will be well positioned for continued growth and international expansion. "Aimbridge has emerged as the clear leader in the fast-growing and fragmented U.S. third-party hotel management industry, and we are thrilled to partner with the organization as we invest in Aimbridge's next chapter of growth," said Jeff Case, a Managing Director at Advent International. "Aimbridge has a unique opportunity to expand its reach globally through both organic growth and strategic opportunities while leveraging technology to better serve its hotel partners." "It's been a pleasure to work with the Aimbridge management team," said Yoo Jin Kim, Partner at Lee Equity Partners. "Under Dave Johnson's strong leadership, the team has grown the business consistently during our partnership and established a prominent market-leading position. We look forward to their next phase of success." "Over the past several years, Aimbridge has expanded significantly both through organic growth and strategic acquisitions," said Peter Munzig, Managing Director of General Atlantic. "We have been proud to work in partnership with Dave and the Aimbridge team and wish them continued success." Advent has extensive investment experience in the business and financial services and retail, consumer and leisure sectors. Over the past 27 years, Advent has invested $9 billion in 75 business and financial services companies and $11 billion in 75 companies in consumer, retail and leisure. About ADVENT INTERNATIONAL Founded in 1984, Advent International is one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors. The firm has invested in over 340 private equity transactions in 41 countries and as of September 30, 2018, it had $39 billion in assets under management. With offices on four continents, Advent has established a globally integrated team of over 190 investment professionals across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on investments in five core sectors, including business and financial services; healthcare; industrial; retail, consumer and leisure; and technology, media and telecom. After more than 30 years dedicated to international investing, Advent remains committed to partnering with management teams to deliver sustained revenue and earnings growth for its portfolio companies. For more information, visit www.adventinternational.com. About AIMBRIDGE HOSPITALITY Aimbridge Hospitality is the nation's largest independent hotel management firm with a proven track record for delivering superior returns for its strategic partners in a variety of markets and through economic cycles. Aimbridge provides hotel management services, accounting, revenue management, and a full suite of services. Based in Dallas, Texas, Aimbridge currently manages approximately 800 hotels with more than 100,000 rooms across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. For more information, visit www.aimbridgehospitality.com. About LEE EQUITY PARTNERS Lee Equity Partners is a New York-based private equity firm that partners with successful management teams to build companies with strong growth potential. Lee Equity targets equity investments of $50 million to $100 million in middle-market control buyouts and growth capital financings in companies with enterprise values of $100 million to $500 million which are located primarily in the United States. The firm invests in a range of industries where the team has deep relationships developed over decades, including financial, healthcare and business services and consumer. For more information, visit www.leeequity.com. About GENERAL ATLANTIC General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. Established in 1980, General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build exceptional businesses worldwide. General Atlantic has more than 150 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong Kong, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information, visit www.generalatlantic.com. SOURCE Advent International Related Links http://www.adventinternational.com SHANGHAI, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Acorn International, Inc. (NYSE: ATV) ("Acorn" or the "Company"), announced it has moved to a new, centrally-located Shanghai office. The office is located in Shanghai's Central Business District in a pristine newly-opened office tower. The central location and premium quality of the office provides an impressive space to entertain clients and partners and is expected to help attract employees in a highly competitive hiring market. The office is located in the Jing An District of Shanghai in Yueshang Plaza. The move is part of the previously announced initiative by Roche Enterprises (RE) to establish the RE Shared Services Center, which involves the collocation of Acorn with the China operations of two RE-affiliated companies: Cachet Hotel & Resorts (Cachet) and IS Seafood. Roche Enterprises, Inc. is owned by Acorn's Executive Chairman, Mr. Robert Roche and Mr. Roche is the Executive Chairman and the majority shareholder of Cachet and a co-founder of IS Seafood. Mr. Fisch is a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of Cachet. "We are excited about our new office location, which better reflects Acorn's image as a modern and dynamic digital media and marketing company in China," said Mr. Jacob A. Fisch, CEO and President of Acorn International. "By collocating Acorn's operations with our partners, Acorn Fresh can more closely collaborate with one of its key suppliers, IS Seafood, and we can better facilitate other forms of synergistic collaboration accretive to Acorn. Just as important, the joint workspace enhances the productivity of the RE Shared Services Center, which provides superior back office support for all businesses at a lower cost." About Acorn International, Inc. Acorn International is a leading marketing and branding company in China, leveraging a twenty-year direct marketing history to monetize brand IP, content creation and distribution, and product sales, through digital media in China. Previously the leading TV infomercial company in China, Acorn today has three divisions support its growth: 1) Product Division, 2) Content Division, and 3) Influencer Management Division. In the Product Division, Acorn sells product primarily through e-commerce channels in China, as well as through offline distribution and outbound marketing. In the Content Division, Acorn monetizes content. Specifically, in the Content Division, Acorn has redirected its direct marketing know-how to digital media in China, launching Acorn Streaming, which is primarily focused on live streaming and pre-recorded video content creation and distribution. In the Influencer Management Division, Acorn brings, through the creation of digital social content, leading U.S. celebrity talent and brands to China, representing their in-country digital presence. For more information visit www.acorninternationalgroup.com. Safe Harbor Statement This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "future," "going forward," "intends," "outlook," "plans," "target," "will," "potential," and similar statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. Contact: Compass Investor Relations Ms. Elaine Ketchmere, CFA Phone: +1-310-528-3031 Email: [email protected] www.compassinvestorrelations.com SOURCE Acorn International, Inc. Related Links www.acorninternationalir.com EVANSVILLE, Ind., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Accuride Corporation a leading supplier of wheel end systems to the global commercial vehicle industry today announced that it has appointed Jason Luo to serve as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Luo was formerly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ford China and, prior to that, President and Chief Executive Officer of Key Safety Systems. Mr. Luo has been a director of Accuride Corporation since March 2018 and also serves as a Senior Advisor to Crestview Partners, the majority owner of Accuride Corporation. The appointment follows the Board's acceptance of Rick Dauch's resignation from his Accuride executive positions and as a director following his appointment as the new CEO of Delphi Technologies. The Board has begun a search to identify a permanent Chief Executive Officer for Accuride. Thomas S. Murphy, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Directors of Accuride, stated, "Since our investment in Accuride in 2016, the company has embarked on a strategy to transform itself from a North American supplier into a global leader. Over the past two years, Accuride has more than doubled its revenues after completing two acquisitions which added substantial operations in Europe and Asia. We are excited to continue to execute on this strategy with Jason Luo as Interim CEO of the company. Crestview and Jason have worked together closely and successfully for over a decade and Accuride is fortunate to have such a talented and highly respected executive lead the company's outstanding team as we search for a permanent CEO." Mr. Murphy continued, "We thank Rick for his contributions to Accuride and wish him well in his future endeavors." Rick Dauch stated, "It has been my honor and privilege to lead this world-class team of talented and committed employees since 2011. Accuride today is well positioned to continue its strategic global expansion, and I have every confidence in its future success." About Accuride Corporation With world headquarters in Evansville, Ind., USA, Accuride Corporation is a leading supplier of wheel end systems to the global commercial vehicle industry. The company's products include steel and aluminum commercial vehicle wheels and wheel-end components and assemblies; and steel wheels for the European automotive and global agricultural, construction and industrial equipment markets. The company's products are marketed under its brand names, which include Accuride, Accuride Wheel End Solutions, Gunite, KIC, Kronprinz and Sudrad. Accuride is a portfolio company of Crestview Partners. For more information: www.AccurideCorp.com. About Crestview Partners Founded in 2004, Crestview is a value-oriented private equity firm focused on the middle market. The firm is based in New York and manages funds with approximately $9 billion of aggregate capital commitments. The firm is led by a group of partners who have complementary experience and distinguished backgrounds in private equity, finance, operations and management. Crestview has senior investment professionals focused on sourcing and managing investments in each of the specialty areas of the firm: industrials, media, energy and financial services. For more information, please visit www.crestview.com. MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS Jeffrey Taufield / Daniel Yunger Kekst CNC 212-521-4800 [email protected] / [email protected] SOURCE Accuride Corporation Related Links http://www.AccurideCorp.com If youre not following these insta-famous pooches already, we suggest you do it soonlike right now. Trust us, you wont regret it. These pups, live a chicer life than some people! Samson The Dood (@samsonthedood) Samson is a Golden Doodle living his best life in Brooklyn. He is also referred to as the top dog in NYC. Whatever he is doing, or wearing, other dogs are sure to follow. He can be seen at every important canine event in Manhattan. Sometimes that means attending a pool party, or hanging around local bars. If hes not out on the town, hes likely hanging out in his iconic robe. Marnie the Dog (@marniethedog) Marnie is a sophisticated lady. Even though shes 17 that doesnt stop her from having a good time. Apparently she hates being alone, and likes partiessounds like my kind of girl. Oh, and she has 2.1 million Instagram followers. Ella Bean (ellabeanthedog) Much like us here at Chip Chick, Ella Bean is a typical NYC girl who loves fashion and enjoys spending her summers in Europe. She can be seen sporting her custom aviators around town, and is constantly posting about her summer in Europewho can blame her? Norbert (@norbertthedog) Norbert makes us feel like we need to do more in regards to volunteering. This West Coast pooch spends most of his time as a therapy dog. He can be spotted frequently at the Childrens Hospital LA making his rounds. Agador (@poochofnyc) Lets get right to the point here Agadors hair is better than any persons, or animals, weve ever seen. His aesthetic is amazing, whether hes in bed, getting a blow out, or having wine I feel like I totally relate to him. Major (@major_the_waterdog) If youre a lover of beach vacations, and working out then this pooch is what youre looking for. Major is the most active pooch youll meet. Whether hes at his beach house, jumping into the pool, swimming in the lake, or running 100 yard dash his life is basically that of a professional athlete. Perry (@perry.the.pom) Perry is a self proclaimed dog model. Honestly, we couldnt agree more. The camera loves him. Cloe & Jack (@morkiesinthecity) Whats better than one dog? Two! This power duo has Manhattan wrapped around their paws. Between their matching outfits, or vacations to the beach, youre sure to fall in love with them. Sprout (@brussels.sprout) I like to think that my I cant with you right now face has really come a long way over the years. However, I think that Sprout has me beat. Seriously. I bet his significant other doesnt even have to say you look annoyed he can just tell by Sprouts face. Doug the Pug (@itsdougthepug) Sometimes, I think I relate to Doug more than most people I see on a daily basis. We love the same things, like coffee and social media attention. Hes also totally adorable. At the meeting (Source: VNA) PM Phuc expressed his delight at the positive development of traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in diverse areas over the recent past. PM Sisoulith, for his part, believed that the meeting will create a new driving force for the practical and effective development of bilateral ties. Both sides were satisfied with the outcomes of cooperation between the two governments in 2018, especially in politics, external affairs, national defence-security, social safety and order. Over 400 projects worth about USD4.1 billion by Vietnamese firms contributed to Laos socio-economic development. Two-way trade between the two nations exceeded the USD1 billion benchmark in 2018, up 14 percent year-on-year. Several strategic transportation connectivity projects are underway while the number of Vietnamese scholarships to Lao students keeps increasing, helping to raise the total number of Lao students in Vietnam to more than 14,200 so far. Both sides reached consensus on cooperation orientations for 2019, which lay the focus on collaboration across the fields of politics, foreign affairs, defence, and security. Regarding economic ties, the two countries will exchange experiences in building policies to stabilise the macro-economy and promote sustainable development. Also, they will work together to create business conditions for companies in each nation to reach 10 percent growth in two-way trade this year. Meanwhile, improving the quality of education-training cooperation will be prioritised, of which historical works highlighting the special relations between the two countries will be put into curriculums at both Vietnamese and Cambodian schools. In addition, competent ministries, sectors and localities will foster the practical and effective cooperation in culture, science, society, communications, sport, healthcare, and legislation, among others. In the spirit of special trust, the two sides agreed to continue close coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums. The two countries will accompany each other to deepen the cooperative progress of the ASEAN Community, and enhance the ASEANs role in strategic issues of the region, including the East Sea matter. Furthermore, they were unanimous on cooperation in effectively and sustainably using water resources in the Mekong river. Laos affirmed to back Vietnams candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure. PM Phuc stressed that right after the session, the Vietnamese Government will direct relevant ministries, sectors, localities, enterprises and units to closely collaborate with their Lao counterparts to immediately and effectively implement the just-made decisions. Following the session, the two PMs witnessed the signing and exchange of six documents, including an agreement on the cooperation plan between the two governments in 2019, the minutes of the session, an agreement on the Vietnamese Governments provision of 300 tonnes of rice seeds to the Lao Government, an agreement on the educational cooperation plan for 2019, the minutes on the transfer of the radio-TV station in Laos province of Savanakhet, and the minutes on the transfer of the Vietnamese-language faculty project at the Suphanouvong University and the Champasak University./. FERNDALE, Mich., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants (TSFR), franchisee and operator of Applebee's in Michigan, announces its entrance into the craft cocktail market with its recently-formed partnership with Ferndale-based Valentine Distilling Co. Two craft cocktails featuring Valentine vodka products are now available in its 65 Applebee's locations in Michigan. A classic Moscow mule featuring Valentine Vodka can now be found on participating Applebee's menus. And for a twist on the classic mule, a Motown Mule featuring Valentine White Blossom Vodka is also available. Both are served in Valentine-branded, copper mugs. "To kick off the New Year, we are extremely excited to share two of our favorite cocktails with innovative restauranteurs at TEAM Schostak," said founder Rifino Valentine of Valentine Distilling Co. As a family-owned company, TSFR purchased the Michigan Applebee's due to its alignment with their company values. "We understand the dining experience often begins with a cocktail. Having the opportunity to partner with a local, craft brand that's already won international acclaim was an easy decision to make. This allows us to offer something unique & different from other national dining establishments." said TSFR Executive Chairman Mark Schostak. "Throughout our more than five years owning and operating Applebee's, we have remained committed to bringing a local perspective of the market to our Applebee's locations." Recognized as one of The Detroit Free Press' 2018 Michigan Top Workplace, TSFR is proud to be the local owner and operator of Applebee's and looks forward to continuing to lead the way both in the restaurant industry and the communities it serves for years to come. About TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants Livonia-based TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants (TSFR) is one of Michigan's largest multi-brand, family-owned restaurant groups with an expansive portfolio of casual dining, quick service and family dining restaurants throughout the state of Michigan including Applebee's, Olga's Kitchen, MOD Pizza, and Del Taco. teamschostak.com About Valentine Distilling Co. Established in 2007, Valentine Distilling Co. is an American pioneer of small batch spirits. Valentine Distilling Co. is dedicated to American ingenuity, quality manufacturing, and small batch distilling using old-world techniques that create superior products. The company's award-winning vodka, gin, and bourbon are available in nine states, Ontario, and Quebec. www.ValentineDistilling.com | www.facebook.com/ValentineVodka | www.instagram.com/valdistill | Media Kit Contact: Ashleigh Laabs Phone: (989) 780-4090 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Valentine Distilling Co. Related Links http://www.valentinedistilling.com FORT MYERS, Fla., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- 21st Century Oncology has announced that Charlie Powell, CMPE, FACHE joined the company as the Chief Operating Officer on Jan. 1, 2019. A premier cancer care provider, the company welcomes Powell as the newest member of their "One Dream Team." Powell brings an extensive background in physician practice, ambulatory facility, and hospital leadership experience in health systems, as well as private practices. Powell's impressive accomplishments in establishing physician-led governance structures, increasing quality, safety and service scores and improving revenue cycle operations as well as his expertise in turnaround, population health, and strategic planning align well with the new 21st Century Oncology's vision for the future. Powell joins 21st Century Oncology from KentuckyOne Health in Louisville, Kentucky where he served as the President, Physician Enterprise and Ambulatory for Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital. In these positions, Powell improved patient satisfaction and quality measures, hospital operating performance, and achieved the top quartile CG-CAHPS access scores in the medical group. In addition to his accomplishments at KentuckyOne Health, Powell held positions at Saint Thomas Health in Nashville, Tennessee as CEO, Physician Services and CEO, Saint Thomas Heart. He also served as CEO, Northeast Georgia Heart Center in Gainesville, Georgia and COO, Piedmont HealthCare in Statesville, North Carolina. "Over the past year, we have been fortunate to continue to expand our leadership team with extraordinary health care leaders. Charlie is no exception and will play a key role in our expansion and evolution this year. We are excited to have Charlie joining our Dream Team and taking our operational performance to the next level," said Kim Commins-Tzoumakas, CEO of 21st Century Oncology. About 21st Century Oncology 21st Century Oncology is the largest global provider of Integrated Cancer Care services that strongly believes in fighting for patients like an army and caring for them like a family. Operating as one dream team in the crusade against cancer, the company employs or is affiliated with more than 928 physicians globally to deliver the most advanced, integrated, and compassionate cancer care in personal and convenient settings. Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, 21st Century Oncology operates 169 treatment centers. Media Contact: Samantha Scott, APR (239) 221-2858 | [email protected] SOURCE 21st Century Oncology PLEASANTON, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- 10x Genomics, today announced $35 million in funding as an extension of its Series D financing. The round was led by Meritech Capital with Fidelity and Wells Fargo participating. The company's total financing to date is $243 million. Today's announcement builds on 10x Genomics' continued growth and commitment to advancing biology. In the last six months, 10x acquired two companies, Epinomics and Spatial Transcriptomics - leaders in the fields of epigenetics and spatial genomics - to develop products that provide invaluable insights for unlocking fundamental biology, understanding disease and advancing human health. The company has also added a research facility in Sweden to develop new technologies. 10x Genomics has seen strong revenue growth in recent years with a twenty-fold increase from 2015 to 2017, and continues to see powerful demand for its products. The company has expanded its presence in Pleasanton, California with a new headquarters and manufacturing facility anticipated to create 200 additional jobs in the area this year. In addition, it recently opened offices in Singapore and Shanghai to serve the growing Asia market. Two months ago, 10x launched its latest products, Chromium Single Cell ATAC Solution and Feature Barcoding technology, that will accelerate genomic research by introducing scalable multi-omics analysis. "Biology is the next frontier for humankind," said Craig Sherman, managing director of Meritech Capital. "The 10x team's deep understanding of biology, chemistry, and math, coupled with its relentless execution, made it a very attractive investment for us. We are looking forward to partnering with 10x as they scale the company and introduce more innovation into the industry." "As a company, we've seen tremendous growth and expansion in the last year," said Serge Saxonov, CEO and co-founder of 10x Genomics. "We've released new products, announced new facilities, and welcomed two incredible companies to the 10x team. Today's funding announcement will allow us to continue with this momentum into 2019 as we scale 10x to become a company that impacts billions of lives around the world." About 10x Genomics 10x Genomics is committed to paving the way for a new understanding of biology, human health, and disease. The company was founded on the vision that this century will bring unprecedented advances in biomedicine to transform the way we treat diseases leading to dramatic improvements in human health. 10x products enable the acceleration of genetic discoveries through unparalleled resolution and are used in the Human Cell Atlas project as well as by leading biomedical research institutes, pharmaceutical companies, and clinical centers. Founded in 2012, 10x Genomics is financed by marquee global investors including Venrock, Softbank, Foresite Capital, Fidelity, and Meritech Capital. For more information, visit www.10xgenomics.com. Media Enquiries Lizi Sprague, Consort Partners for 10x Genomics [email protected] SOURCE 10x Genomics Related Links http://www.10xgenomics.com MARINA DEL REY, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- uBeam Inc., the pioneer of ultrasonic power-at-a-distance wireless charging, announced today the appointment of Simon McElrea as Chief Executive Officer. McElrea will also serve on the company's Board of Directors. Simon McElrea "I am delighted to lead uBeam and its many talented employees at this pivotal time in the wireless charging industry," stated McElrea. "The proliferation of IoT networks that require safe, reliable, Always-On connectivity and power, from the Smart Home to the much larger commercial, industrial, agricultural and renewable energy markets, is right in our sweet-spot." Mark Suster, uBeam investor and director commented, "uBeam's entire board went through a comprehensive CEO search together. We were thrilled that somebody with Simon's intimate knowledge of the wireless energy space and with his leadership & engineering skills shared our vision and agreed to lead uBeam." McElrea joins uBeam having served as CEO of Semblant Ltd. since 2015, a UK and Silicon Valley based B2B nanotechnology company which was acquired in Q4 2018 by HZO, a global leader in electronic material technologies. Prior to Semblant, McElrea was Vice President of IP, Licensing and Marketing at Energous Corporation, a San Jose based wireless-charging company that completed its IPO in 2014 and was awarded "Best of CES" in 2015. McElrea was responsible for the marketing, patenting and licensing strategy, as well as initiating FCC engagement and the formation of the "Uncoupled" wireless power standards committee within the AirFuel Alliance. Prior to Energous, McElrea founded and served as President of Invensas Corp., a subsidiary of Xperi Corporation, and has previously held a series of technology commercialization leadership roles at Vertical Circuits Inc. (VCI), Amkor Technology, Honeywell Inc. and Johnson Matthey Electronics. An author of over 30 US patents, McElrea holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees, with honors, in Engineering Science from Oxford University. "Over the past 18 months, our team of 30 engineers has been singularly focused on the miniaturization of the technology, to enable us in 2019 to provide reference design kits to our manufacturing partners and customers so that they can integrate it into their diverse range of products," said McElrea. "By developing the complete turn-key solution, from industry-leading transducers, to custom ASICs, control electronics, hardware and software, we have created an end-to-end solution, as well as the associated IP, which currently totals over 100 patents and applications. We are excited to be able to showcase this work at CES during the coming week." uBeam will demonstrate its solution at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 in Las Vegas, January 8th - 11th at its Suite (Venetian Suite 29-326), the Pepcom Digital Experience, Mirage Hotel, 6-10pm January 7th, and at the OurCrowd Pavilion, Booth 301 at Westgate Paradise Center, Tech East . For an appointment in uBeam's demonstration suite please email [email protected]. About uBeam uBeam is the inventor of ultrasonic power-at-a-distance wireless charging, utilizing airborne ultrasound to create safe, reliable, wire-free charging. By developing proprietary transmitters and receivers, uBeam's technology delivers usable power to charge devices ranging from mobile and wearable electronics to IoT devices and networks. Contact us at [email protected]. SOURCE uBeam Related Links https://www.ubeam.com VANCOUVER, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Rubicon Organics Inc. ("Rubicon Organics" or the "Company") (CSE:ROMJ) (OTCQX:ROMJF), a premium organic cannabis company with operations in Canada, California and Washington, is pleased to announce that its common shares are now trading on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker symbol "ROMJF". Rubicon Organics' common shares will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the ticker "ROMJ". The OTCQX Best Market provides U.S.-based investors with access to trade Rubicon Organics through regulated U.S. broker-dealers. "Rubicon Organics' expansion into the OTCQX is a milestone that brings the Company greater access to investors. Trading on the OTCQX in the U.S. can enhance liquidity for our shareholders and allow a broader group of investors to participate in the North American cannabis market through Rubicon Organics", commented Jesse McConnell, CEO. The OTCQX Best Market provides added service, value and convenience to U.S. investors, brokers and institutions seeking to trade ROMJF. OTCQX is OTC Markets Group's premier market for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies. To be eligible, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, be current in their disclosure, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction. Rubicon Organics is in the process of securing Depository Trust Company ("DTC") eligibility for its common shares. DTC manages electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies across the U.S. and in 131 other countries. Trading through DTC allows for cost-effective clearing and guaranteed settlement, simplifying and accelerating the settlement process of daily trades. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com/stock/ROMJF/quote. ABOUT RUBICON ORGANICS INC. Rubicon Organics Inc. ("Rubicon Organics" or the "Company") (CSE:ROMJ) (OTCQX:ROMJF) is focused on building super premium organic cannabis brands with operations in Canada, California and Washington. The Company holds the intellectual property to produce super premium, certified organic cannabis at low cost, while utilizing environmentally sustainable production methods. Rubicon Organics is working towards beginning cultivation in Q1 2019 with a combined Phase I capacity of 15,500 kg, including 4,500 kg leased to a Washington state licensed operator applying Rubicon Organics' cultivation methods. The Company also owns two award-winning U.S. cannabis brands: 1964 Supply Co.TM in California and Doctor & Crook Co.TM in Washington. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, statements regarding Rubicon Organics' plan to cultivate, timing and estimates of production for its facilities, are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans" or "is expected", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results are "to begin", "ramping up to", "imminent", "set to" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. The forward looking information in this press release is based upon certain assumptions that management considers reasonable in the circumstances, including that its capital needs will be as currently projected, that Rubicon Organics will be able to successfully obtain all necessary permits and approvals to conduct its business as currently proposed to be conducted, that Rubicon Organics will not be prosecuted in the U.S. for its involvement in the cannabis industry. Risks and uncertainties associated with the forward looking information in this press release include, among others, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including acquiring and renewing state, local or other licenses and any inability to obtain all necessary governmental approvals licenses and permits to complete construction of its proposed facilities in a timely manner; engaging in activities which currently are illegal under U.S. federal law and the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, particularly in California, due to inconsistent public opinion, perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry, bureaucratic delays or inefficiencies or any other reasons; any other factors or developments which may hinder market growth; Rubicon Organics' limited operating history and lack of historical profits; reliance on management; and the effect of capital market conditions and other factors on capital availability; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; and the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with customers and suppliers. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although Rubicon Organics has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Rubicon Organics assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law. SOURCE Rubicon Organics MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian sales and marketing firm DucMeta recently announced that its superb performance during the third quarter on behalf of a major client in the media and telecommunications industry has earned a Campaign Cup trophy for the firm. DucMeta received the quarterly Campaign Cup, an award given to the top-performing company of those focused on the same campaign in a given time period, for noteworthy sales and service on behalf of the client. The company continues to excel in service and sales, resulting in multiple awards for strong quarterly performance in recent years. President and CEO Voronica Verma praised her team's dedication and focus, saying, "It's rewarding to know that our team continues to hit the mark and truly excel on behalf of the client, and we are dedicated to ongoing success quarter after quarter." Providing clients with proven direct marketing solutions, DucMeta specializes in personalized customer acquisition and marketing outreach for Fortune 500 clients in numerous industries. The highly trained professionals at DucMeta know that face-to-face interaction is key in effectively acquiring and retaining customers. DucMeta's mission is to provide comprehensive growth opportunities for team members while creating profitable relationships with partners, team members, and clients. The company also prioritizes community involvement, supporting philanthropic organizations such as Operation Smile. Like DucMeta on Facebook. About DucMeta A privately owned marketing firm that specializes in outsourced marketing and sales solutions, DucMeta offers the client a creative approach to customer acquisition and retention. As a proven leader in outsourced marketing and sales, DucMeta uses face-to-face interactions to establish long-term relationships with both clients and customers. For more information, call 905-206-0508 or go to www.ducmeta.com. Contact: Voronica Verma 905-206-0508 SOURCE DucMeta Related Links http://www.ducmeta.com MIAMI, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Office Edge today announced the completion of an extensive renovation project, upgrading furnishings, technology, paint, carpeting and office decor in all five South Florida locations. "Office Edge, and its sister company Legal Edge Services, have served business and legal clients in South Florida for almost 20 years," said Robert Ramsden, President. "With this latest renovation we've once again brought the professional office environment to a new level of elegance, comfort and productivity for our clients." Office Edge and Legal Edge Services offer boutique, customized office solutions for business owners, remote executives, attorneys and entrepreneurs who demand a professional working environment with a full complement of administrative, virtual assistant and paralegal support. Services include live reception and call answering, full-service bookkeeping, business formation, court reporting, deposition support and trust accounting services. Fully-equipped meeting rooms, videoconferencing and coworking space are available along with complete kitchen facilities, catering services and client networking events. "Our hallmark has always been quality of service. Many of our attorneys and business clients have been with us for more than ten years, and some since the beginning," said Ramsden. "Their loyalty speaks volumes about the quality of services delivered by our highly skilled team of professionals." Office Edge executive suites and legal offices are available at prestigious business addresses on Ponce de Leon Blvd. in Coral Gables, Brickell Ave. in Miami, East Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, Sawgrass Corporate Pkwy. in Sunrise, and Executive Center Dr. in Boca Raton. All locations offer ready access to numerous area amenities including a wide variety of restaurants, hotels, shops and transportation. About Office Edge Office Edge is a boutique firm, family owned and operated for more than 18 years, with offices strategically located throughout South Florida. Office Edge and its sister company Legal Edge Services offer customized office solutions for business owners, remote professionals, attorneys and entrepreneurs who demand a productive working environment with comprehensive administrative and paralegal support services. From full-service executive suites, day offices, virtual offices and well-appointed conference rooms to live reception and call handling, private mail, video-conferencing, court reporting, deposition support, full accounting services and more, Office Edge delivers an unprecedented level of service to clients across a wide range of industries. To learn more, visit www.OfficeEdge.com or www.LegalEdgeServices.com. SOURCE Office Edge Related Links http://www.officeedge.com/ "With continued research in modern neural networks, our team introduces another leap in person identification accuracy by using multiple biometric traits separately or together," said Dr. Justas Kranauskas, R&D Manager for Neurotechnology. New Algorithms Provide Greater Speed, Accuracy and Interoperability The algorithm enhancements in the MegaMatcher 11 product line include fingerprint, face, iris, voice and palmprint modalities: Fingerprint algorithm updates for template generation, extraction, classification and matching improve accuracy, speed and interoperability. The classification algorithm improves both classification accuracy and speed and a new slap image segmentation algorithm detects the orientation of each fingerprint, allowing for the handling of more complex cases. Neurotechnology's fingerprint algorithms were top-ranked in the latest NIST evaluations: NIST MINEX III : Neurotechnology's template generators are ranked as the most interoperable MINEX III compliant template generators on the market. The MegaMatcher 11 template generator and matcher pair are ranked the 2 nd most accurate native MINEX III compliant pair. : Neurotechnology's template generators are ranked as the most interoperable MINEX III compliant template generators on the market. The MegaMatcher 11 template generator and matcher pair are ranked the 2 most accurate native MINEX III compliant pair. NIST Proprietary Fingerprint Template Evaluation II (PFT II): Neurotechnology's one-to-one fingerprint verification algorithm (submission 4E) is the 2nd most accurate algorithm on average across all 33 experiments. Face detection and recognition algorithms are significantly enhanced in MegaMatcher 11. The latest face detection algorithm locates many more faces in varied and difficult conditions and can detect up to a full profile rotation of the head. Compared to the previous version, face recognition accuracy is five times higher when set at a low False Acceptance Rate. Other face processing algorithms were also updated, including: more accurate facial feature points detection, better face image quality estimation and improved face properties and emotion classifiers. The latest facial recognition algorithms also achieved high scores in NIST FRVT evaluations: FRVT 2018 : Neurotechnology's face identification algorithm is ranked among the six most accurate algorithms (out of 40 different vendors) in the largest test on a population of 12 million subjects and is ranked 3 rd (out of 40 different vendors) when face photos were taken up to 18 years after the initial enrollment photo. : Neurotechnology's face identification algorithm is ranked among the six most accurate algorithms (out of 40 different vendors) in the largest test on a population of 12 million subjects and is ranked 3 (out of 40 different vendors) when face photos were taken up to 18 years after the initial enrollment photo. FRVT Ongoing: Neurotechnology's face verification algorithm is ranked among the 10 most accurate algorithms (out of 56 different vendors) in the mugshot test. Iris technology updates in MegaMatcher 11 include a new iris detection confidence feature to quickly verify the presence of an iris in a captured image. To help prevent attempts at spoofing through the use of fake iris textures, the latest version also detects the presence of contact lenses, a possible distortion agent in image capture. The iris algorithm was also among the leaders in the latest NIST evaluation: NIST IREX IX: It is the 2nd most accurate iris recognition algorithm (both in verification and identification scenarios) with an ability to accelerate iris matching up to 50 times faster than the closest competitor without significant degradation in recognition accuracy. Voice recognition in the latest version incorporates a new, text-independent speaker recognition algorithm, which improves the error rate by nearly two times compared to the previous version. Palmprint in the latest MegaMatcher line comes with a new extraction algorithm and introduces a faster palmprint matcher. As noted above, any of these modalities may be used individually or in any multi-biometric combination to provide even greater identification accuracy. The MegaMatcher 11 product line now also includes simplified, updated support for the latest biometric industry ANSI and ISO standards in both the binary and XML encodings. Multiple Product Formats Meet a Range of Identification Needs and User Expertise Updated products in the MegaMatcher 11 line include: MegaMatcher ABIS A complete biometric solution which includes all of the algorithms and software necessary for the deployment of large-scale multi-biometric projects using fingerprint, face and/or iris biometrics. The turnkey biometric system is ready to use, or it can be customized to address particular business needs. Capabilities include identity management, deduplication, adjudication and a latent fingerprint editor among other features. The solution is designed for national ID, voter registration with record deduplication, passport issuance, border control, forensic/criminal investigations, government e-services, social services, banking systems, healthcare and other civil and private applications. The latest MegaMatcher ABIS now comes as both an on-premise solution and a new set of cloud services: MegaMatcher ABIS On-Premise Solution For projects that prefer to perform all of their biometric functions on-site, MegaMatcher ABIS is available as ready-to-use software that runs on regular hardware and can be used in conjunction with cloud features as needed. For projects that prefer to perform all of their biometric functions on-site, MegaMatcher ABIS is available as ready-to-use software that runs on regular hardware and can be used in conjunction with cloud features as needed. MegaMatcher ABIS Cloud Service With this new release, the MegaMatcher ABIS complete system is now also available as a secure cloud service. Integrated cloud service functionality makes the system more accessible from multiple platforms and locations, enhancing its use as a solution for large and national-scale projects. Aside from the major algorithm improvements in the MegaMatcher 11 line, the latest MegaMatcher ABIS introduces workflow enhancements for most common usage scenarios as well as a dynamic post-processing of matching results utilizing given biographic data. This feature allows filtering of results based on attributes like location, gender, age, nationality and others. "Biometric systems tend to be associated with a high level of complexity," said Denis Kacan, MegaMatcher ABIS product manager. "With the MegaMatcher ABIS product we aim to minimize the possible challenges by delivering a solution which is easy to comprehend, use and maintain. The latest version brings a new level of efficiency with a simplified and adjustable system workflow. The new MegaMatcher ABIS Cloud Service is one more step towards our goal it can shorten project delivery time and reduce hardware and maintenance costs." Among other major projects in 2018, MegaMatcher ABIS was used for deduplication of more than 46.5 million multibiometric voter records in less than two months to prepare for the Democratic Republic of the Congo elections; more than 5 million duplicates were identified. MegaMatcher Accelerator MegaMatcher Accelerator is a combined software and hardware solution that provides high-speed, high-volume biometric identification for national-scale projects. It includes fingerprint, face and iris modalities with an even faster and more robust set of algorithms and failover architecture that utilizes a peer-to-peer network structure. Nodes may also be added dynamically. It is available in several editions, including the Extreme edition, which is capable of matching 1.2 billion fingerprints per second, 1.2 billion faces per second or 700 million irises per second on a single server with a GPU, making it well-suited for large scale biometric projects and short-timeline deduplication processes. MegaMatcher SDK MegaMatcher SDK is for the development of large-scale single- or multi-biometric systems for Microsoft Windows, Linux, MacOS X, iOS, Android and ARM Linux platforms. It includes the following biometric modalities as well as SDKs for them: fingerprint (VeriFinger), face (VeriLook), eye iris (VeriEye) and voice (VeriSpeak). The MegaMatcher SDK also includes a palm print modality. Each modality can be used alone or in any combination with other modalities. MegaMatcher On Card SDK This matching-on-card technology takes advantage of the latest algorithm updates in the MegaMatcher 11 line. It stores a person's fingerprint, iris and face templates on a smart card and performs template matching in a microprocessor embedded in the card, instead of matching biometric information on a PC processor. MegaMatcher 11 products and the entire Neurotechnology biometric product line can be purchased from Neurotechnology and through distributors worldwide. A free 30-day trial is available and, as with all Neurotechnology products, the latest version is a free upgrade for existing customers. For more information go to www.neurotechnology.com. About Neurotechnology Neurotechnology is a developer of high-precision algorithms and software based on deep neural networks and other AI-related technologies. The company was launched in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the key idea of using neural networks for various applications, such as biometric person identification, computer vision, robotics and artificial intelligence. Since the first release of its fingerprint identification system in 1991, the company has delivered more than 200 products and version upgrades. More than 3,000 system integrators, security companies and hardware providers in more than 140 countries integrate Neurotechnology's algorithms into their products. The company's algorithms have achieved top results in independent technology evaluations, including NIST MINEX, PFT, FRVT and IREX. www.neurotechnology.com Media Contact Jennifer Allen Newton Bluehouse Consulting Group, Inc. +1-503-805-7540 jennifer(at)bluehousecg(dot)com SOURCE Neurotechnology Related Links http://www.neurotechnology.com FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Top national Evangelical leaders send a letter to Airbnb to strongly condemn Airbnb's decision to discriminate against the State of Israel by removing Jewish-owned listings in Judea and Samaria; stating Airbnb's actions not only as discriminatory but anti-Semitic in nature. Mario Bramnick, President of the Latino Coalition for Israel, who coordinated for such strong Evangelical leadership support through the letter stated: "Airbnb has singled out Jewish persons and the state of Israel for discriminatory treatment, while continuing to list properties in other disputed territories and conflict areas around the globe. Moreover, it continues to list Palestinian-owned properties in Judea and Samaria; only Jewish-owned properties have been singled." "Given the fact that Israel is the only democracy in the entire Middle East, one would think that Airbnb would not succumb to the inexcusable prejudice, blatant intolerance and Israelaphobia demonstrated by their anti-Semitic stance," stated Dr. Jim Garlow, Founder & CEO of Well Versed. Michele Bachmann, former U.S. Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate, stated, "Airbnb's actions are clearly anti-Semitic. This is blatant racism and bigoted discrimination." The letter signed by the 38 Evangelical Leaders stated: "Evangelicals represent 25%-30% of the American population and strongly support the nation of Israel, the birthplace of our own Christian heritage. Some of our leadership were particularly active in the creation of many state laws designed to regulate against commercial discrimination of this nature. We will request of state authorities that Airbnb be added to their list of companies prohibited from any state investment." The letter further stated: "Airbnb's discriminatory action has no place in our community. As leaders of national and international Evangelical organizations and communities, we urge Airbnb to rescind their decision to discriminate against Jewish-owned listings in Judea and Samaria." Some of the signers include: Mario Bramnick, Esquire, Latino Coalition for Israel; Tony Perkins, Family Research Council; Ralph Reed, Faith & Freedom Coalition; Bishop Harry Jackson, Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, Maryland; Congresswoman Michele Bachmann; Susan Michael, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem; Dr. Jim Garlow, Well Versed; Bishop Marcus Lamb, Daystar Television; Ward Simpson, God TV; David Barton, WallBuilders; Bob Vander Plaats, The Family Leader; Kelly Monroe Kullberg, American Association of Evangelicals; and Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy SOURCE Latino Coalition for Israel Related Links http://lci.global EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Kellstrom Defense Aerospace (KDA) today announced the acquisition of Williams Aerospace and Manufacturing Inc. (WAM) based in San Diego County, California. WAM's manufacturing capabilities will be combined with the current KDA Engineered Products operating segment and will retain the Williams Aerospace and Manufacturing brand identity in the market. WAM has been a long-term Lockheed Martin Hologram Product Program licensee for the P-3 and C-130 and a manufacturer of parts for the C-5, F-16 and other U.S. OEM defense platforms. Over its more than 20-year history, WAM has developed a range of proprietary tooling for the manufacture of complex defense aircraft parts as well as strong capabilities in thermoplastic molding, CNC machining and the integration of aerospace and defense aftermarket components. A combination of WAM manufacturing expertise and KDA product design engineering will be deployed to support increased legacy spare parts solutions for the global military aircraft operator community. KDA CEO Chris Celtruda comments, "The addition of Williams Aerospace and Manufacturing to our group of companies adds a significant breadth of capability that supports our strategic growth plans and the needs of our global customer base. We expect to rapidly integrate the Williams Aerospace and Manufacturing business while investing in product development to expand our solution set for military aircraft sustainment." "We are excited to move forward as part of the Kellstrom Defense team," comments WAM co-owners William Cary and Shane Nonthavet. "Joining the KDA team offers the right solution for us to continue to be engaged with our employees and customers while creating new opportunities for future growth." KDA has partnered with its current financial backers, PNC Mezzanine Capital and Barings as well as Blue Torch Capital, as lead arranger for the senior debt financing, to complete this transaction. Houlihan Lokey Inc. served as financial advisor and placement agent. The combined companies are expected to exceed $160 million in total global sales for the 2019 calendar year. Additional financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. About Kellstrom Defense Aerospace Inc.: Kellstrom Defense Aerospace Inc. ("KDA") is a global integrated provider of parts and sustainment solutions for legacy defense aircraft, with a focus on OEM strategic distribution, component repair services and the manufacture of engineered products for military transports, fighter and rotary wing platforms. The Kellstrom Defense Aerospace business is headquartered in El Segundo, California, and serves the U.S. military and customers in over 60 partnering nations. Current operating locations include Camarillo, California; Miramar, Florida; Macon, Georgia; Cambridge, United Kingdom; Windsor, Australia; Singapore; United Arab Emirates; and Indonesia. KDA is committed to compliance, with hundreds of active export licenses and dedicated contract, export and security personnel. The Kellstrom Defense Advantage is being the respected global leader for defense aircraft sustainment, deploying an experienced team and complete capabilities to solve customer challenges. Further information is available at www.kellstromdefense.com and www.c130.com. Media Contact: Kellstrom Defense Aerospace Inc. Ruth Garcia Director, Marketing & Communications [email protected] SOURCE Kellstrom Defense Related Links http://www.kellstromdefense.com HOUSTON, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that SGT, LLC, a business unit of KBRwyle, has won a seat on the $12.1 billion U.S. Army Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-3 (ITES-3) Services Contract. KBRwyle is KBR's global government services business. The U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) selected KBRwyle as a prime contractor on the potential nine-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract. The contract has a base period of five years plus four option years. The Army's Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) program manages the contract, which is expected to be the Army's prime source of IT-related services worldwide. The contract's wide scope of services enables KBRwyle to offer solutions and support in several IT areas, including cybersecurity, integration, telecommunications, supply chain management and business process engineering. The services will directly assist the Army in meeting its global infrastructure needs. "This contract is an important opportunity for KBRwyle to expand on its existing technical and IT-related work with the U.S. Army," said Byron Bright, President, KBR Government Services U.S. "We understand the importance of technology-based solutions and on-demand access to information, and look forward to supplying these state-of-the-art IT services to support the warfighter and the Army's global mission." KBRwyle is a leading provider of U.S. government cyber and electronic security solutions. Its extensive experience in developing IT solutions for mission-focused programs encompasses a broad array of specialized end-to-end services. From enterprise computer services to satellite control centers and mission critical operations, KBRwyle consistently delivers innovative, high-quality IT support. About KBR, Inc. KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics Technology, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining and gasification Hydrocarbons Services, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU); program management and consulting services KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver. Visit www.kbr.com Forward Looking Statement The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company. KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. SOURCE KBR, Inc. Related Links http://www.kbr.com SYDNEY, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Geoswift, UnionPay International and Western Union Business Solutions, a subsidiary of The Western Union Company, have recently offered a joint tuition payment promotion available to Chinese students studying at more than 600 academic institutions in 11 countries. This alliance demonstrates the continued commitment in providing convenient and trusted payments which deliver an efficient experience for Chinese students and their families when making international tuition payments. The promotion is available only for Chinese students studying in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Czech Republic and Austria who choose to pay a qualifying tuition payment. Eligible Chinese students studying abroad who pay their tuition in RMB will receive a complimentary Amazon gift card worth RMB 100, while supplies last. To be eligible, students will need to make a qualifying RMB payment by selecting UnionPay on their institution's WU GlobalPay for Students platform and complete payment via Geoswift's PayTuitionNow portal. The offer is available until March 31, 2019 and is subject to the following: The promotion is available to UnionPay cardholders (card number starting with '62') who make a student payment of RMB 10,000 or more or more Users select UnionPay from their institution's WU GlobalPay for Students platform and complete payment via Geoswift's PayTuitionNow portal Users who make a qualifying transaction are eligible to receive an RMB 100 Amazon gift card redeemable on Amazon.cn (the gift card can be used for products listed for sale on Amazon.cn, they cannot be used to purchase additional gift cards or merchandise from abroad. The card is valid for three years) Amazon gift card redeemable on Amazon.cn (the gift card can be used for products listed for sale on Amazon.cn, they cannot be used to purchase additional gift cards or merchandise from abroad. The card is valid for three years) The promotion is valid while supplies last Raymond Qu, founder and CEO, Geoswift added, "The number of Chinese students studying abroad continues to rise and exceeded 600,000 in 2017[1]. Coupled with positive economic growth, cultural expectation and future employment prospects for Chinese international students, we believe that China will remain the world's leading source of international students for the foreseeable future." "Chinese students who study abroad and their families are a customer group to whom we attach great importance," said June Chen, General Manager of UnionPay International America. "And based on the UnionPay global acceptance network and service system, the UnionPay payment service system for these students is improving constantly: On the one hand, we are making education payments a feature service of UnionPay cross-border online payments, providing solutions to the biggest pain point of tuition fee payments. On the other, we are expanding our acceptance network in and near renowned schools, further enriching the card using channels by promoting innovative products like mobile QuickPass QR code payment. We are committed to offering better payment services to Chinese students studying abroad." "With a long history serving the education sector with more than 650 education institutions globally and providing payments to more than 200 countries and territories, we remain dedicated to providing innovative payment solutions that reinvent the way individuals send and receive money around the world," said Adam Tiberi, senior vice president, strategy and product, Western Union Business Solutions. "We are proud of our continued alliance with Geoswift and UnionPay, and support this current promotion designed to help students as they continue their education journey in global markets." For more information about the 'Tuition Payment Promotion,' please visit the UnionPay International site. [1] 2017 sees increase in number of Chinese students studying abroad and returning after overseas studies, Ministry of Education of The People's Republic of China. 2018. About Geoswift Geoswift is an innovative payment technology company connecting China and the rest of the world. The company comprises the world's leading payment technology experts that have a deep understanding of the industry, technology, and global and China monetary policy. Geoswift provides clients with customised one-stop cross-border payment solutions to and from China. Geoswift is relied upon by the world's leading e-commerce companies, most prestigious universities and the largest brands in the travel industry to grow their businesses. Geoswift is an acquirer of UnionPay International in North America, and a long-term partner of many other leading financial institutions. It also runs numbers of currency exchange stores throughout China. Geoswift is headquartered in Hong Kong with operating offices in Shanghai, Singapore, London, Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco for strategic and regulatory functions. For more information visit, please visit www.geoswift.com or send in your queries to [email protected]. About UnionPay International UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay's global business. In partnership with more than 1800 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 171 countries and regions with issuance in 50 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants. About Western Union The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments with speed, ease, and reliability. As of September 30, 2018, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering Western Union, Vigo or Orlandi Valuta branded services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2017, is available in more than 50 countries and territories to move money around the world. In 2017, we moved over $300 billion in principal in nearly 130 currencies and processed 32 transactions every second across all our services. With our global reach, Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com. SOURCE Geoswift Related Links http://www.geoswift.com WILBRAHAM, Mass. , Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- FloDesign Sonics, a global leader in acoustic cell processing for cell and gene therapies, today announced the creation of the ekko platform to support the needs of this rapidly evolving industry. Based on FloDesign Sonics' patented technology, ekko represents a vision for a product family using acoustics to address typical as well as unique applications associated with cell and gene manufacturing. This disruptive platform has the ability to process cells in a gentle and efficient way compared to traditional mechanical methods such as centrifugation or spinning membrane. "The acoustic engine at the heart of ekko is extremely flexible and has been proven to process cells in washing, concentration and several other key steps in ways legacy technologies have not been able to. We see acoustics as the foundation of a closed and automated platform we developed for research through to GMP manufacturing." -Richard Grant; Chief Product Officer FloDesign Sonics' mission is to apply acoustic cell processing to industrialize cell and gene therapy manufacturing, helping to reduce costs and improve patient accessibility. The ekko platform has been developed to achieve this goal, offering a solution that is more than an incremental improvement on existing technologies. FloDesign believes a "made for purpose" design strategy will ultimate produce a flexible, scalable solution that will adapt as the needs of the industry evolves. Stanley Kowalski, Co-Founder and CEO, will be presenting on FloDesign Sonic's vision and this important milestone in product development at the Biotech Showcase, January 7th in San Francisco, CA (1:45pm, Yosemite A). Stanley Kowalski commented, "ekko is the realization of our vision thanks to the hard work of our team and support from our investors. We are excited to present on our milestone achievement and our strategy moving forward as we continue to grow and partner." About FloDesign Sonics Founded in 2010, FloDesign Sonics develops acoustic technologies for the separation, concentration and purification of materials in an active fluid. Our key focus area is cell therapy, helping to address manufacturing challenges related to the processing, separation and purification of CAR T cells from pre-clinical through production. Our goal is to help industrialize cell therapies by addressing key areas of concern; manufacturing costs, product quality, scalability and simplification. We apply acoustic cell processing technology to key applications such as concentrate and washing steps, affinity separation and cell harvest. Please visit www.fdsonics.com for more information. Contacts Media: FloDesign Sonics [email protected] SOURCE FloDesign Sonics Related Links https://www.fdsonics.com MANCHESTER, England, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- New investor Morningside Venture joins existing blue-chip investor syndicate Company accelerates global phase 2b study of lead candidate olorofim to develop its novel antifungal in an area of high unmet medical need F2G Ltd, a UK- and Austria-based Biotech developing novel therapies for life-threatening fungal infections, today announced that it has raised funding from life science investor Morningside Venture Investments Ltd. (Morningside). This funding follows a EUR 24 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in November 2018 and allows F2G to accelerate its worldwide Phase 2b study for its lead candidate olorofim (formerly F901318) as a treatment for invasive fungal infections due to difficult to treat moulds such as azole-resistant aspergillosis. F2G has discovered and is developing the orotomides, a novel class of antifungal agents. The orotomides act via a different mechanism than currently marketed antifungal agents and are active against Aspergillus and other rare and resistant moulds. Due to their mechanism of action, orotomides have fungicidal activity against fungal infections resistant to current therapies, a growing global problem where limited treatment options have led to a high medical need. The Phase 2b study for olorofim is a global open-label study in patients who have limited treatment options for difficult-to-treat invasive fungal mould infections such as azole-resistant aspergillosis, scedosporiosis, lomentosporiosis, and other rare mould infections. There will be study sites across at least 6 countries. With 12 centres open in 5 countries (AU, BE, ES, NL, US), investigators in the study are recruiting patients well ahead of schedule. A further 20 centres will open in 2019. Olorofim is being developed both as IV and oral formulations. Ian Nicholson, CEO of F2G Ltd commented: "The investment from Morningside represents further validation and support of our strategy to develop a new, first-in-class anti-fungal drug. Morningside's addition further strengthens our investor syndicate which includes Novo Holdings, Advent Life Sciences, Merifin Capital and Brace Pharma, who represent a renowned and committed shareholder base with a track record of supporting successful next-generation companies. The recent funding from the EIB along with this additional investment from Morningside will allow F2G to progress the development of our lead candidate olorofim for a patient population with very limited treatment options and a high medical need. Recruitment for our phase 2b programme is ongoing and has already seen the enrolment of patients in Europe, Australia, and the U.S." Jason Dinges, an investment advisor to Morningside added: "We believe F2G's programmes have the potential to bring real impact in the treatment of life-threatening fungal diseases. We are very excited to support this proven management team as it seeks to further the development of olorofim in treating drug-resistant Aspergillus species and other rare moulds." In November 2018, F2G's Austrian branch, F2G Biotech GmbH, received a EUR 24 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the 'InnovFin - Infectious Diseases Finance Facility' (IDFF) run under Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme. The EIB financing recognises the potential of orotomides, a completely new class of antifungal agents to treat life-threatening fungal diseases. Notes to Editors About F2G F2G is a world-leading UK- and Austria-based Biotech company (F2G Ltd and F2G Biotech GmbH) focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. F2G has discovered and developed a completely new class of antifungal agents called the orotomides. The orotomides target dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), a key enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway. This is a completely different mechanism from that of the currently marketed antifungal agents and gives the orotomides fungicidal activity against a broad range of rare and resistant fungal mould infections. Olorofim (formerly, F901318) is F2G's leading candidate from this class and is in a Phase 2b open-label study focussing on rare and resistant invasive fungal infections such as aspergillosis (including azole-resistant strains), scedosporiosis, and lomentosporiosis. Olorofim is being developed both as IV and oral formulations. http://www.f2g.com Morningside Group Morningside is a diversified investment group founded in 1986 by the Chan family of Hong Kong. It is engaged primarily in private equity and venture capital investments. The group has investments in North America, Europe, across Asia-Pacific, and since 1992, in Mainland China. Morningside is an active investor in early-stage life science companies formed around new technologies that represent a high degree of novelty over existing technologies. More information is available at http://www.morningside.com . SOURCE F2G "The EDA industry continues to report growth, with all major product categories and geographic regions reporting revenue increases," said Walden C. Rhines, CEO Emeritus of Mentor, a Siemens Business and member of the ESD Alliance Governing Council. "Geographically, the Americas reported the largest regional increase for Q3, followed closely by Asia Pacific." Companies that were tracked employed 42,162 professionals in Q3 2018, an increase of 8 percent compared to the 39,044 employed in Q3 2017, and up 1.1 percent compared to Q2 2018. The complete quarterly MSS report, containing detailed revenue information broken out by both categories and geographic regions, is available to members of the ESD Alliance. Revenue by Product Category Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) generated revenue of $756.6 million in Q3 2018, which represents a 5.6 percent increase compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average for CAE increased 10.1 percent. IC Physical Design & Verification revenue was $475.8 million in Q3 2018, a 3.9 percent increase compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average increased 10.2 percent. Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module (PCB & MCM) revenue of $200.7 million for Q3 2018 represents an increase of 5.9 percent compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average for PCB & MCM increased 9.7 percent. Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) revenue totaled $883.5 million in Q3 2018, an 8.8 percent increase compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average increased 5.9 percent. Services revenue was $119.1 million in Q3 2018, an increase of 11.3 percent compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average increased 5.6 percent. Revenue by Region The Americas, EDA's largest region, purchased $1060 million of EDA products and services in Q3 2018, an increase of 7.4 percent compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average for the Americas increased 11.8 percent. Revenue in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) increased 5.5 percent in Q3 2018 compared to Q3 2017 on revenues of $350.8 million. The EMEA four-quarters moving average increased 6.9 percent. Third quarter 2018 revenue from Japan increased 4.1 percent to $242 million compared to Q3 2017. The four-quarters moving average for Japan increased 5.8 percent. The Asia/Pacific (APAC) region revenue increased to $782.9 million in Q3 2018, an increase of 7 percent compared to the third quarter of 2017. The four-quarters moving average increased 5.1 percent. The complete MSS report, available to the ESD Alliance members, contains additional detail for countries in the Asia/Pacific region. About the MSS Report The ESD Alliance Market Statistics Service reports EDA industry revenue data quarterly and is available to Alliance members. Both public and private companies contribute data to the report. Each quarterly report is published approximately three months after quarter close. MSS report data is segmented as follows: revenue type (product licenses and maintenance, services, and SIP), application (CAE, PCB/MCM Layout, and IC Physical Design & Verification), and region (the Americas, Europe Middle East and Africa, Japan, and Asia Pacific), with many subcategories of detail provided. The report also tracks total employment of the reporting companies. About the Electronic System Design Alliance The Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, is the central voice to communicate and promote the value of the semiconductor design ecosystem as a vital component of the global electronics industry. As an international association of companies providing goods and services throughout the semiconductor design ecosystem, it is a forum to address technical, marketing, economic and legislative issues affecting the entire industry. For more information about the ESD Alliance, visit http://esd-alliance.org. The information supplied by the ESD Alliance is believed to be accurate and reliable, but the ESD Alliance assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Press Contacts: Paul Cohen, ESD Alliance, 978-769-2106 Suzanne Graham, Mentor, A Siemens Business, 503-685-7789 SOURCE Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance Related Links http://esd-alliance.org TEL AVIV, Israel, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellomay Capital Ltd. (NYSE American: ELLO) (TASE: ELLO) ("Ellomay" or the "Company"), a renewable energy and power generator and developer of renewable energy and power projects in Europe and Israel, today announced that it received a letter dated January 4, 2019 from NYSE American LLC ("NYSE American") indicating that in connection with the end of the service term of one of the Company's external directors on December 29, 2018, the Company is currently not in compliance with the audit committee composition requirements set forth in Section 803(B)(2)(a) of the NYSE American Company Guide. NYSE American advised in the letter that the Company has until the earlier of its next annual meeting or December 29, 2019 (or, if the next annual meeting is held before June 27, 2019, until June 27, 2019) to regain compliance with the audit committee composition requirements. The Company previously published a notice and proxy statement in connection with an extraordinary meeting of its shareholders, currently scheduled for January 24, 2019 (the "Extraordinary Meeting"). The agenda for the Extraordinary Meeting includes a proposed election of a new external director who is expected to become a member of the Company's audit committee upon his election, thereby enabling the Company to regain compliance with the NYSE American audit committee composition requirements. For more information, see the Form 6-K furnished by the Company to the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 20, 2018. About Ellomay Capital Ltd. Ellomay is an Israeli based company whose shares are registered with the NYSE American and with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "ELLO". Since 2009, Ellomay Capital focuses its business in the renewable energy and power sectors in Europe and Israel. To date, Ellomay has evaluated numerous opportunities and invested significant funds in the renewable, clean energy and natural resources industries in Israel, Italy and Spain, including: Approximately 22.6MW of photovoltaic power plants in Italy , approximately 7.9MW of photovoltaic power plants in Spain and a photovoltaic power plant of approximately 9 MW in Israel ; 9.375% indirect interest in Dorad Energy Ltd., which owns and operates one of Israel's largest private power plants with production capacity of approximately 850 MW, representing about 6%-8% of Israel's total current electricity consumption; 75% of Chashgal Elyon Ltd., Agira Sheuva Electra, L.P. and Ellomay Pumped Storage (2014) Ltd., all of which are involved in a project to construct a 156 MW pumped storage hydro power plant in the Manara Cliff, Israel ; 51% of Groen Gas Goor B.V. and of Groen Gas Oude-Tonge B.V., project companies operating or developing anaerobic digestion plants with a green gas production capacity of approximately 375 Nm3/h, in Goor, the Netherlands and 475 Nm3/h, in Oude Tonge, the Netherlands , respectively. Ellomay Capital is controlled by Mr. Shlomo Nehama, Mr. Hemi Raphael and Mr. Ran Fridrich. Mr. Nehama is one of Israel's prominent businessmen and the former Chairman of Israel's leading bank, Bank Hapohalim, and Messrs. Raphael and Fridrich both have vast experience in financial and industrial businesses. These controlling shareholders, along with Ellomay's dedicated professional management, accumulated extensive experience in recognizing suitable business opportunities worldwide. Ellomay believes the expertise of Ellomay's controlling shareholders and management enables the Company to access the capital markets, as well as assemble global institutional investors and other potential partners. As a result, we believe Ellomay is capable of considering significant and complex transactions, beyond its immediate financial resources. For more information about Ellomay, visit http://www.ellomay.com. Information Relating to Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements that are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release regarding the Company's plans and objectives, expectations and assumptions of management are forward-looking statements. The use of certain words, including the words "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by the Company's forward-looking statements, including the Company's inability to obtain the majority required for the election of the new external director. These and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business are described in greater detail in the filings the Company makes from time to time with Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements are made as of this date and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact: Kalia Weintraub CFO Tel: +972-(3)-797-1111 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Ellomay Capital Ltd VANCOUVER, British Columbia, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CROP INFRASTRUCTURE CORP. (CSE: CROP) (CSE: CROP.CN) (OTC: CRXPF) (Frankfurt: 2FR) announced today its 49% owned subsidiary Elite Ventures is nearing completion of a 1,600 square foot genetics, tissue culturing and micropropagation laboratory at the company's Nevada Farms. The objective of the team and the lab will be to provide 10,000,000 plant starts for the company's 2,115 acres of CBD farms. By propagating in the lab, the company will save approximately $3.0 Million in seed and planting costs for the 2019 season. The laboratory team's objective, beyond saving on planting costs, is the mandate of developing proprietary genetics to maximize yield and provide the company a Global edge with specific attentions paid to the over 100 other photocannabinoids beginning with cannabinol (CBN) and cannabigerol (CBG). Cannabis industry analysts, The Brightfield Group, estimate the hemp-CBD market alone could reach $22-billion by 2022. CROP CEO, Michael Yorke, stated: "The development of this genetics and micropropagation lab is further demonstration of our team's dedication to keeping our genetics portfolio and brands at the fore front of this industry. Teams worked steadily through the later part of the year and Holiday season on the construction and development of this lab which will save the company and our stakeholders a significant amount in 2019 and beyond." About CROP CROP is publicly listed on the CSE and trades under the symbol "CROP" and in the US under the symbol "CRXPF". CROP is focused on cannabis branding and real estate assets. The Company's portfolio of projects includes cultivation properties in California, two in Washington State, a 1,000-acre Nevada Cannabis farm, 2,115 acres of CBD farms, extraction in Nevada and joint ventures on a San Bernardino dispensary app with international focuses in Jamaica and Italy. CROP has developed a portfolio of assets including Canna Drink, a cannabis infused functional beverage line, US and Italian distribution rights to over 55 cannabis topical products and a portfolio of 16 Cannabis brands. CROP's infrastructure has over 150,000 sq ft of built canopy and over 2,900 acres of real estate. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements and are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the expected returns from the Nevada Project; the technological effects of Nevada Project; the intention to expand its portfolio; and execute on its business plan. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding the regulatory and legal framework regarding the cannabis industry in general among all levels of government and zoning; risks associated with applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules relating to the cannabis industry; risks associated with maintaining its interests in its various assets; the ability of the Company to finance operations and execute its business plan and other factors beyond the control of the Company. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors, and the Company is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release. Company Contact Michael Yorke - CEO and Director E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +1-604-484-4206 Website: www.cropcorp.com SOURCE CROP INFRASTRUCTURE CORP. INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- American Legion National Commander Brett P. Reistad called upon Congress and the White House to immediately find a way to fund the Coast Guard's payroll and assure every member that they will be paid on time. "Senator John Thune has introduced the 'Pay Our Coast Guard Act,' " Reistad said. "The American Legion supports its immediate passage or similar legislation which will guarantee that these heroes who guarantee our safety and security will be paid on time and not miss a single paycheck." Reistad pointed out that his organization loudly objected to potential military pay stoppages during previous shutdowns and lawmakers found a way to guarantee that members of the other military branches would continue to be paid. "The brave members of our Coast Guard risk their lives defending us daily, just like their sister services in the Department of Defense," Reistad said. "Just because a Washington flow chart structures the Coast Guard under Homeland Security does not mean they should not be paid. Whether they are performing rescues during a hurricane or stopping drug traffickers at sea, members of the Coast Guard regularly perform heroic and lifesaving tasks on our behalf. They should not have to worry about bills and living expenses just because Congress and the White House cannot agree on a budget." Citing the Coast Guard's Semper Paratus motto, Reistad said that The American Legion is "always prepared" to support the men and women in uniform. "In the event that there is a delay in paying our Coast Guard, I have directed administrators of The American Legion Temporary Financial Assistance program to stand by and quickly administer requests made by active-duty Coast Guard members with children who need help with living expenses. We also hope that local Coast Guard commanders can assist single members with housing expenses by providing on-base or ship-board billeting." The American Legion Temporary Financial Assistance Program has awarded grants to meet the shelter, medical and nutritional needs for the minor children of military personnel since 1925. It is funded by donations made to The American Legion Veterans and Children Foundation, https://www.legion.org/donate. "As a nonprofit, The American Legion is not capable of funding the entire Coast Guard payroll," Reistad said. "But we are hoping that Americans immediately demand that Congress and the White House pay the Coast Guard. Regardless, our TFA will be there to assist military parents in need. Any donations that people wish to make to the foundation will be especially appreciated at a time like this." Media contact: John Raughter, (317) 441-8847, [email protected] SOURCE The American Legion Related Links http://www.legion.org RT January 7, 2019 A US Navy vessel, USS McCampbell, has sailed past disputed islets of the South China Sea in a freedom of navigation operation. In response, Beijing sent military ships and aircraft to warn it off, condemning the provocation. The guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands archipelago, the US Pacific fleet said on Monday. The operation was carried out to to challenge excessive maritime claims, according to the fleets spokeswoman Rachel McMarr. The voyage of USS McCampbell has triggered an angry reaction from Beijing. Chinas Foreign Ministry accused the US of entering the waters of the Paracel Islands without permission, adding that it had lodged stern representations with Washington. We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, adding that China had sent military ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the rogue ship. The troubled waters of the South China Sea are disputed by several nations of the region, namely Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Taiwan which Beijing sees as an integral part of the mainland. China claims sovereignty over almost of all the waters, which are frequently visited by US military vessels. Washington insists that it has been exercising its freedom of navigation right. The incident coincided with the start of high-level talks on trade between the US and China, which kicked off on Monday in Beijing. The negotiations, led by the deputy trade ministers of the two countries, are expected to go on for two days. The talks have become the very first official contact on trade rivalry since early December, when US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to try and settle differences during the G20 summit in Argentina. Back then, the two leaders announced a 90-day truce on new tariffs, which is set to expire on March 1. The trade war between Washington and Beijing has been going on for nearly a year already, with the two countries slapping tariffs on $300 billion worth of each others goods. This article was posted: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 6:30 am Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: Free Beacon January 7, 2019 Impeachment has become the talk of Washington since Democrats took control of a majority in the House of Representatives. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib grabbed the spotlight last week with her profane call to impeach President Donald Trump, and Reps. Brad Sherman and Maxine Waters have joined fellow California Democrat Tom Steyer in supporting articles of impeachment. This article was posted: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 6:39 am Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: American Mirror January 7, 2019 In a sign that Black Lives Matter is effectively no longer existent, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi escaped unharmed a moment when she told a race activist that all lives matter. During a town hall meeting with MSNBC on Friday, Pelosi was asked if she supports the Black Lives Matter movement. Well, I support the recognition that black lives matter for sure, Pelosi responded. And I have incorporated that in many of my statements. I think all lives matter, yes. But we really have to redress past grievances in terms of how we have addressed the African-American co she said, awkwardly stepping on her words to move on. I had the real privilege yesterday to address the black caucus, swearing in of the new black caucus members. Eight at least 8 new members elected from places that are not majority-black communities. So this was a real breakthrough, she said. So I think that were all working together to make sure that every part of our community, whether its the immigrant community, whether its the black community, whether its womens community and the rest, not only matter, but rule, Pelosi said. A d v e r t i s e m e n t She didnt specify whether legal immigrants should rule, or if shes okay with illegal immigrants ruling America, too. Less than three years ago, leftists deemed all lives matter to be a racist statement. Huffington Post contributor Jesse Damiani wrote in 2016, If you subscribe to the premise of All Lives Matter, its likely that you live in a predominantly white area and the majority of your social group is white. He went on: When you say All Lives Matter, youre drawing attention away from a movement that would help push the country toward the version of itself where all lives actually do matter. In other words, when you say All Lives Matter, you are perpetuating toxic racism and in fact causing harm. Because when you do, youre making it harder for the rest of the country to bring about positive change. Youre broadcasting to others that change isnt necessary when it very much is. It should also be noted Pelosis statement that immigrants should rule should give black Americans pause. The Daily Signal reported in 2017: As the Trump administration gets ready to tackle illegal immigration, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission noted the impact on the black community that he believes is too often ignored. Black males are more likely to experience competition from illegal immigrants, Commissioner Peter Kirsanow told The Daily Signal. Kirsanow, an attorney in Cleveland and former member of the National Labor Relations Board, said illegal immigration is both a short-term and long-term problem for young black males. What happens is you eliminate the rungs on the ladder because a sizable number of black men dont have access to entry-level jobs, Kirsanow told the news site. It is not just the competition and the unemployment of blacks. It also depresses the wage levels. This article was posted: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 6:09 am Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: A Note From Alex Jones: This is an incredible illustration of how the corporate, mainstream media works in concert to put out disinformation and obscure the truth to heighten tensions and further balkanize this nation. This is a classic divide-and-conquer strategy. It came out yesterday that they caught the man whos reportedly admitted he shot the poor, little African-American girl. Even though that information has been out for a day, in lock-step CNN, the New York Times and dozens of other publications simply ran with the headline that the shooter of the little girl had been reportedly apprehended. Upon reading the articles, which they should be forced to update, there were no image of his mugshot, there was no image of the fact that he is black, and no mention of the fact that there had been a national hysteria whipped up by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and others claiming this was a major hate crime on our hands, which angered thousands of people who came out to talk about race relations in America about how bad white people are. Even if the shooter was white, he could have been a mental patient who wasnt motivated by race. It now sounds like this case is one of mistaken identity because the suspect apparently thought he was shooting at a rival gang. Regardless, it shows how the mainstream media seizes on every event, twists it and when the facts dont go the way they want them to, they dont retract, they dont clarify, but rather they bury the story off the radar from public attention. Thats there big, important point here. In many areas of the country more than half of the blacks are aborted before theyre born, but do we see Al Sharpton and others leading protests against that? No. Do we see CNN covering that? No. Do we see the fact that over 95% of the crime against blacks in Chicago was committed by other blacks? No. But you dont see these so-called leaders rallying blacks against the culture of violence. Instead, on any rare case of a white person committing a crime against a black person or in this case the mistaken assumption of a white suspect its magnified and turned into a racially-based situation because theres a clear, present, sickening agenda in the mainstream media to do this. The media is now working in lock-step to cover up the fact that hes now come and turned himself in and that hes black. But its pertinent to put up the mugshot of the suspect in a nationally-reported investigation such as this one except, of course, when reality doesnt match up the mainstream medias pre-conceived narrative. This is just like in Europe youll hear the media report on German men who raped women in places like Cologne but it turns out theyre not German men, theyre migrants who just recently arrived in the country. Its all part of a global program against the West to allow the persecution and killing of whites which are covered up, and then conversely when a crime is committed against someone who isnt white, its magnified and turned into a huge deal. Even though these crimes should be reported equally without regards to race. Overall humanity in general suffers because the establishment using classic divide-and-conquer strategies to keep people of every race, religion or nationality fighting against each other. Crime statistics show murders within same race are actually far more common Prison Planet.com Jan. 6, 2019 The mainstream media is now downplaying the arrests connected to the death of a 7-year-old African-American girl after the white suspect in the shooting turned out to be two black men police believe shot at the wrong car during gang warfare. The media was so focused on fueling racial tensions that it lost motivation to push the story when it turned out to NOT be white-on-black crime, but its still huge news that needs to be reported because it highlights the culture of gang warfare thats damaging African-American communities. Regardless of the suspect, the victim is still a 7-year-old girl who didnt deserve to die, and the factors that led to her death still need to be investigated and reported on even if theyre not racially motivated. To give a brief recap, the little girl was killed in the back of her mothers vehicle while driving though Houston, Texas, last Sunday. As Infowars reported earlier today: Left-wing news outlets like Vox breathlessly reported the claims [of a racially-motivated white shooter] without question, asserting that Jazmine Barnes was killed when a white man fired into her familys car. Time Magazine also reported the assertion of the familys attorney Lee Merritt that the murder was a racist shooting, while the Washington Post amplified his demand that, We want to emphasize the racial nature of the attack and that hate-crime charges are appropriate. However, it now emerges that the suspected gunman was black. Sources tell ABC13 Larry Woodruffe, 24, has been arrested as a second suspect in the case. Those sources say Woodruffe is believed to be the shooter, reported Jessica Willey and Deborah Wrigley. All week the media insinuated that the death of Jazmine Barnes was a hate crime committed by a white man. Now that its proven not to be a white man who killed her I notice that suddenly the race of her killers is not in the headlines anymore. This is why so few trust the media. pic.twitter.com/4FTSgORNBr Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 6, 2019 According to a 2016 crime data organized by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, based on FBI crime statistics, intra-racial murders (in which the murderer and the victim are of the same race) are actually far more likely to occur. A d v e r t i s e m e n t In the following screenshots, the offenders are in the rows and the victims are in the columns, with the total number of reported victims for each data set in the bottom row: Known Offender Crosstab Victim Crosstab So unless the mainstream media is trying to stir up racial division, there was no reason for news publications to jump to conclusions with definite claims which were later debunked. This article was posted: Sunday, January 6, 2019 at 3:31 pm Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: Comment on this article Voice Of Europe January 7, 2019 Two men are being prosecuted at Skaraborg District Court for having strangled a dog to death and thus subjected it to suffering. In connection with a drug investigation, the police searched one of the accused mens mobile phones and found a film of the two men and some other unknown people torturing a dog. In the preliminary investigation, the police describe how the men tighten a strap around a small Pinscher dogs neck and hold it up in the air. The dog is bloody and seemingly lifeless in the film. Then, it is put in a plastic bag. One of the men is known to the police and can be heard talking and laughing in the film. Ah brother. She lives. What the f***? Brother, I beg you. Put the knife in her, the man says. Read more This article was posted: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 7:11 am Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: Comment on this article Breitbart January 7, 2019 Brad Simpson, executive producer of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, urged voters on Sunday to resist at the ballot box in his acceptance speech for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. Our show is a period piece, but the forces are not historical. Theyre here, theyre with us and we must resist, said Simpson. They tell us that we should be scared of people that are different than us. They tell us we should have walls around ourselves. As artists, we must fight back by representing those who are represented and for providing a space for people who are new voices for stories that havent been told, Simpson said. Simpson, who reminded viewers of Versaces death two decades ago, praised the designers openness about his sexuality despite hate and fear. Read more This article was posted: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 7:18 am Print this page. Infowars.com Videos: B-Heck Africa Sanitation Challenge launched B-HeCK Africa NGOs Alliance has launched their novel sanitation campaign World Bank introduces strict disbursement rules for Ghana's $200m vaccine loan The World Bank has put in place strict disbursement rules to check any abuse of Irish police to be given powers over passwords Irish police will have the power to compel people to provide passwords for Plattsburgh, NY (12901) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 71F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Showers early, then clearing overnight. Low 51F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. NJ leader in banning traveling animal acts Its official: Noseys Law is on the books. New Jersey is the first state to enact a ban on traveling wild animal acts, and it wont be the last. Its only a matter of time before beating, whipping and prodding animals to perform tricks is a thing of the past everywhere. This precedent was sparked when Nosey, a lonely, stressed and painfully arthritic elephant, was forced to plod in circles day after day at the state fair. Appalled, Raymond J. Lesniak, then a state senator, introduced Noseys Law to ban traveling elephant acts in New Jersey. Noseys Law which was expanded to cover other wild and exotic animals garnered massive support, but former Gov. Chris Christie pocket vetoed the bill. Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez and Assembly members Raj Mukherji, Andrew Zwicker and Jamel Holley gave the bill new life. Last year, Nosey was seized from her abusers after she was found chained and swaying in her own waste, suffering from urinary tract and skin infections, intestinal parasites, painful osteoarthritis, and dehydration and malnutrition. She is now thriving at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. When the Legislature returns next week, it is sure to resume work on a bill to address food aid for college students. The hunger-free campuses bill would provide funding for schools that set up programs with several designated services. This is a good initiative and makes sense. Attending college is a financial challenge that leaves some students in difficulty just sustaining the basics of the rest of their lives. Worrying about making ends meet and getting enough to eat, or worse still enduring poor nutrition, only distract from higher learning and make it less effective. Legislators and college administrators, though, should take care that the food aid programs they set up dont unduly contribute to the bigger problems colleges face. Food aid fits well with outreach programs to help lower-income students into the college track. Stockton University recently announced a state-funded program that will help 100 Atlantic City and Pleasantville students enroll at its city campus this year. Promising high school students will get summer enrichment courses, mentoring, and career- and financial-aid counseling. A hunger-free campus could help them stay focused on advancing their lives with a college degree. CAPE MAY As the partial government shutdown continues, the U.S. Coast Guard training facility is asking organizations collecting goods for employees and enlistees working without pay to open their drive up to all federal workers. That would allow Coast Guard recipients to get around ethics rules that block them from accepting more than $20 worth of goods. Enlistees and civilian employees received pay on the first of the year, said John Edwards, spokesman for the facility, though the source of the allocated funds was not identified. Should the shutdown continue, workers will not receive a paycheck Jan. 15, the next pay cycle. Then the word need would really become applicable, he said. Furloughed Coast Guard employees limited in donations they can accept The American Legion in Wildwood and the Seaville Fire & Rescue Company are collecting fo The drive, led by the American Legion in Wildwood and the Seaville Fire & Rescue Company, has collected diapers, food, baby formula, cash and gift cards. It was started independent of the Coast Guard, Edwards said. We didnt start getting wind of the donations and the drives until we started fielding calls from the media, he said. The Chief Petty Officers Association has agreed to accept and disperse the collected goods, Edwards said, since they arent under the purview of the federal government. After seeing a decline in overdose deaths in 2017, state data shows the numbers of deaths have gone back up in 2018 in both Atlantic and Ocean counties. Overdose deaths for 2018 are not yet final and are subject to change. Atlantic County Sheriff Eric Scheffler said there are many out there working hard to get rid of the stigma attached to getting treatment in the hope that more people seek it. Theyre providing such things as the countys Hope One van, which partners with more than 20 other organizations and providers and can help bridge the gaps in access to care and education around addiction by meeting people where they are at in the community, he said. Since September, weve gotten about 100 people into treatment, Scheffler said. We cant be discouraged. Were trying to keep people alive so that they can get help. Going into 2019, Scheffler said, the coalition hopes to expand its team, add a newsletter distribution with stories of people in long-term recovery, increase awareness about its temporary ID program, provide more community training and get more people into treatment programs. Needless to say, kids cereals were a rare treat for me, often reserved for vacations, birthdays and rewards for scholastic achievements. No doubt this resulted in me being somewhat obsessed with these cereals, and to this day there is always a box or two in the cabinet, perhaps in subtle defiance of the rules, but also because I genuinely love these cereals. So when I walked into Cereal Town I was beaming. A small, yet brightly decorated space, Cereal Town almost makes you feel like you have walked into a Lucky Charms commercial, with its endless rolling hills, bright blue skies and perpetual sunny days. The walls are lined with an army of available cereal options from Froot Loops to Reeses Puffs and all points in between. They have a menu here, and the best options on it deviate from the simplicity of a traditional bowl of cereal, incorporating a near endless list of toppings, syrups and milk options. While their premade combos sounded awesome, I opted to branch out on my own to create the peanut butter and chocolate themed bowl of my dreams. I made a beeline for the Reeses Puffs, but was saddened to find that my beloved Cocoa Pebbles were nowhere to be found. (Note: Neither were any of the monster cereals Count Chocula, Franken Berry or Boo Berry but that can be forgiven due to the fact that they are only released in small quantities during Halloween season.) ADVERTISEMENT The police in Lagos says it has arrested six suspects for allegedly dispossessing motorists of valuables at gunpoint. The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Imohimi Edgal, confirmed the arrest to reporters at the States Police Command Headquarters. He said the suspects were arrested on January 2. On Jan. 2, information was received from a reliable source that some hoodlums, armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, were dispossessing motorists of their valuables around Ajegunle area of Alakuko, Lagos. On receipt of the information, operatives from Alakuko Police Station mobilised to the scene. However, on sighting the policemen, the armed robbers ran in different directions to avoid being arrested but were chased, leading to the arrest of one, who led to the arrest of others. Exhibits recovered from them include cutlasses and daggers. Suspects have confessed committing the crime and will be charged to court at the conclusion of investigation, he said. In a similar development, a suspect was caught in Ejigbo area of the state robbing motorists. The suspect was immediately searched and a cut-to-size locally made gun with two cartridges were recovered from him. The police chief said suspects would be charged to court on completion of investigation. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The trade unions in Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions have given the state government a seven-day ultimatum to pay all outstanding arrears of the workers or they will resume their suspended industrial action on January 14. The Joint Action Committee includes the Oyo State chapters of Non-academic staff union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education, Nigeria (SSUCOEN). PREMIUM TIMES reported several industrial actions embarked upon by various workers unions as regards low subventions given to the schools as well as unpaid arrears, which were suspended after the state promised to intervene. The resolution to resume the strike was reached at a meeting of six institutions workers held in Saki last Friday. The six institutions represented include; The Polytechnic, Ibadan; Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora; The Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa; The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki; and College of Education, Lanlate. A seven (7) day ultimatum (from January 7 to 14, 2019) should be issued for the state government to pay all the arrears of between 3 and 18 months, failure of which ALL the workers in the six tertiary institutions will resume their suspended industrial action by 12:01pm of Monday, 14th January, 2019, read the communique released at the end of the meeting and signed by the JAC chairman, Afees Adeniyi. In October last year, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who promised to clear the backlog in due course, approved the payment of outstanding salaries to the state civil servants and teachers under the payroll of the state government. The state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Toye Arulogun, said the payment approved by Mr Ajimobi would cover the salaries of September and October 2018 which were still outstanding at the time. However, according to the unions, the government had refused to implement the governors directives. The Oyo state government had failed (with the release of September, October and November 2018 Salaries/Subventions) to implement the Governors directive (that was given at the October 24, 2018 meeting that was held with the Governing Councils and Managements of each of the Six Institutions) for the commencement of payment of backlog of arrears of salaries (3-18months) owed between January 2016 and October 2018 with the September, 2018 salary/ subventions, the communique continued. The meeting observed that as at today Friday, January 4th, 2019 the personnel subventions of September, October, November and December 2018 had been released without any provision for funds for the payments of the owed backlog of arrears of salaries in contravention of the directive given by the Governor- His Excellency, Senator (Dr) Abiola Ajimobi that payments of the outstanding arrears should commence. The Committee also commended the Oyo state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) for her efforts in ensuring that government implements the new national minimum wage for Nigerian workers. We equally recognize and appreciate Nigeria Labour Congress, Oyo state chapter for her support in ensuring that the accrued arrears of workers in the six tertiary institutions owned by Oyo state government are defrayed without any further delay. The Committee also directed all her members, who are affiliates of NLC, to join any actions embarked upon by the bodys Oyo state chapter, as regard the struggles for the actualization of national minimum wage and payment of three to 18 months accrued salary arrears of workers of the six tertiary institutions. A pastor in Lagos, Chris Omatsola, who appeared in a sex tape in November with his ex-lover, has revealed that there are more lewd videos, than the one which has gone viral. Mr Omatsola, who leads Zionwealth of Life Assembly, claimed his ex-lover, Tamaratokoni Okpewho, recorded the videos on their phones because she enjoyed filming their intimate moments. Mr Omatsola, an apostle, made the shocking revelation in a lengthy post on his blog, Zionweath News. He wrote, Princess and I had more than 10 sex tapes of ourselves on our phones as she enjoyed filming sex. I had deleted all our sex videos on my phone and she was aware and insisted she delete hers. Honestly, the sex-tapes were recorded sometimes in October 2017. She was holding the camera in some and I held the camera in others. We were both aware but we never knew it would go viral. He also shared a link to the post on his official Facebook page on Friday and hinted that he would no longer speak to the media about the issue. Defending the decision to go public with his side of the story, Mr Omatsola, who also owns Krystal Properties, Lekki, said it was because he knows his ex-lover will also come out with more lies and blackmail. This day, I make bold to say with all honesty of heart and sincerity of purpose that it is true that I committed sexual fornication with Ms. Princess Tamaratokoni Okpewho. I have since repented and God has forgiven me. But I did not post our sex-tapes on the internet or assaulted her physically as she maliciously and fallaciously claimed and want us all to believe. He also shared details of how he found himself in the scandal. I met Princess Tamaratokoni Okpewho aka Toks David in September 2017, just before the Lekki Toll Gate after Quilox nightclub around 4:40 a.m. I was returning from a vigil in Adetokunbo Ademola, Victoria Island, that fateful day. She flagged down my car on the lonely road. She appeared drunk. Because it was dark and I thought it could be dangerous, I stopped and picked her. When we got to my house that night, she slept on the couch in the sitting room, while I slept in the bedroom. Mr Omatsola urged other pastors to learn from his mistakes. I also think ministers of God should learn from my fall. Watch your steps because the devil is on your tail. Be careful with women. Prayerfully help people. If you have fallen, dont cover up. Seek Gods face with penitence and repentance. The scandal came to the fore in November after both parties clashed over the leaked sex video. The controversial video was reportedly leaked by a phone repairer. ADVERTISEMENT At the time, Ms Okpewho accused Mr Omatsola of releasing the video to force her into marrying him. The cleric denied the claim, saying the video was leaked to blackmail him. He would later allege that Ms Okpewho demanded N200 million from him. Following the scandal, Mr Omatsola has since relocated his church to an unknown location. He has also continued to post self-authored devotionals on his wall. China Daily | Jan. 07, 2019 China Southern Airlines Co, the largest airline by fleet size in Asia, said earlier this week that Qatar Airways Group now holds a 5 percent stake in the company by acquiring 14,600 of its total issued shares. The shares purchased include 8,600 Shanghai-listed A shares acquired through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect facility and 6,000 Hong Kong-listed H shares. Following the purchase, Qatar Airways owns 3.5056 percent of China Southern's A shares and 1.4944 percent of its H shares. Before the latest purchase, Qatar Airways owned 4.9 percent of China Southern's issued share capital. The purchase is "part of the strategy to invest in the strongest airlines around the world and continue enhancing operations and network connectivity", said Qatar Airways in a statement. "Given the complementary strengths and resources of China Southern Airlines and Qatar Airways, there are opportunities for us to work together and build a long-term relationship in ways that would bring benefits to customers of both airlines," said Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways. "Qatar Airways very much looks forward to the opportunity to deepen its working relationship with the airline and further enhance the travel opportunities across the globe," he said. Before this purchase, Qatar Airways acquired China Southern's A shares and H shares twice respectively in November and last month. Qatar Airways may, subject to applicable laws and regulations, consider further increasing its shares in China Southern in the coming 12 months, according to a China Southern announcement. "Qatar Airways aims to seek closer strategic cooperation with China Southern Airlines, instead of pure financial investments," said Zou Jianjun, a professor at the department of economic management of the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China. "Qatar Airways and a number of major carriers from the Middle East are seeking more cooperation with Chinese airlines, through equity investment and equity replacement, to tap into the huge Chinese market. For example, Etihad Airways recently further extended its code share arrangement with China Eastern Airlines," he said. Meanwhile, with its geological advantages, Middle Eastern carriers usually would like to strengthen their layout on Canton Routes, meaning those flights that connect Europe and Oceania, and usually stop in Asia. By strengthening cooperation with Guangzhou-based China Southern, it confirmed the intention of Qatar Airways to tap into such markets, Zou added. Qatar Airways, like American Airlines Group, which acquired a minority stake in China Southern in 2017, belongs to global airline alliance Oneworld. China Southern announced in November it would not renew its SkyTeam membership when it expires on Jan 1 this year, leading to speculations on its next move regarding airline alliances. It said last month it had signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic cooperation which subjects to regulatory approvals, a code-share agreement with Finnair, which is also a Oneworld member. It marks the first time that China Southern has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Nordic airline and means that China Southern will fill the "white space" in its network in Northern Europe, according to China Southern. ADVERTISEMENT Some Niger Delta Youth on Monday besieged the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Limited (NGPTC) protesting the planned relocation of the Companys head office from Warri to Lagos. The protesters who were drawn from the various states in the Niger Delta also moved against the planned relocation of the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC). Both NGPTC and NGMC are sub-units of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). The protesters marched through the NPA Expressway in Warri to the office located in Ekpan, Uvwie Local Government Area. They held placards with inscriptions such as: Our employment quota must not be compromised, NAIG says No to relocation of NGMC from Warri, among others. Addressing journalists, Eric Omare, factional leader of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide described the planned relocation as demonic. We are not only against any subsidiary of NNPC leaving Delta; we are also saying that Chevron has no business to continue in Lekki. Chevron should relocate its headquarters back to Warri or Escravos. Delta and other states in the Niger Delta are safe for oil companies to operate, he said. Also, Agbateyiniro Weyinmi, National President. Itsekiri National Youth Council (INYC) said the protest would continue until the alleged plan was reversed. We will remain until our demands are met by the management of the NGC, he said. Meanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa through his Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Freeman Fregene, who intervened appealed to the protesters to remain calm. Mr Okowa promised to dialogue with the management of the company on ways to resolve the issue. Responding, Emmanuel Akinsanya, Executive Director, Assets Management and Technical Services of NGMC commended the protesters for their peaceful disposition. Mr Akinsanya who spoke on behalf of the management, however, described the rumour as fake. The said rumour of relocation is fake and it is a rumour as far as the company is concerned, he said. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on Monday wept over the resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram in his state when he led a delegation to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari. The meeting is currently holding inside the council chamber of State House Presidential Villa Abuja. The governor broke down as he delivered his opening remarks, to state why he and his team were visiting the president again. The meeting has in attendance all three senators from the state, members of the House of Representatives, the APC governorship candidate and traditional rulers. Also in attendance are the Chief of Defence Staff, National Security Adviser, Director General of the Department of State Service(DSS) and the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Boko Haram has intensified attacks in northern Borno with reports suggesting they have taken over some towns including Baga, a prominent fishing area. Mr Shettima had earlier headed an emergency expanded security meeting in Borno where a decision was taken to come to Abuja and meet with Mr Buhari. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State spent the night in Monguno town where the Nigerian military battled Boko Haram insurgents, a spokesperson said on Sunday. The Nigerian military successfully repelled an attack on the town by Boko Haram in an overnight raid. Monguno town is the headquarters of Monguno local government area, located in northern Borno and it is 60 kilometers away from Baga in Kukawa local government area also within northern Borno. The area is where the military have been battling a resurgent Boko Haram since last week. Mr Shttima, who visited the town Friday decided to stay the night in order to raise the confidence of the 57,000 residents, displaced persons from three local government areas, civil authorities, Civilian JTF fighters, police and the military, his spokesperson, Isa Gusau said. Mr Gusau in an email to PREMIUM TIMES said Mr Shettima was in Monguno from Friday to Saturday afternoon. He spent the night at the local government lodge, he said. He also said the governor traveled to the restive area after resisting frantic efforts by aides and political associates to discourage him from visiting Monguno. He traveled in company of his security aides, some soldiers, policemen and men of the civilian JTF, he said. Mr Gusau said Mr Shettima was accompanied by the Senator representing Borno North, and Chairman, Senate committee on Defence, Abubakar Kyari and APCs governorship candidate, Babagana Zulum, a member of the House of Representatives, Mohammed Monguno, amongst others. He said Mr Shettima, in defying more than 24 hours of persuasion to stop his trip, reminded aides and political associates that Monguno town hosts about 57,000 fellow Borno citizens amongst them residents of other towns fleeing from attacks. I will be failing as a leader if fear of any kind stops me from going to Monguno where we currently have 57,000 fellow people of Borno, amongst them women and children. We must go there to show them a sense of belonging, to inspire them and build their confidence. Importantly also, the military needs us more than ever. They should see us, the leaders and feel our presence. There is no going back in my plan to travel and pass the night in Monguno. The same way we went to Gwoza and Chibok at different times and at the worst stage of the insurgency, for the funeral of the assassinated Emir of Gwoza and to meet parents after the Chibok abduction, is the same way we will go to Monguno. God will protect us, Mr Shettima reportedly told aides. Trip To Monguno During his stay in Monguno, Governor Shettima reportedly supervised the distribution of multiple trailer loads of food and non-food items to residents and displaced persons from Marte and Abadam local government areas living within host communities in Monguno. The governor also visited camps and supervised another distribution of food and non-food items to fleeing residents from Baga and Kross Kawwa, both in neighboring Kukawa local government area. The governor also commiserated with the people of Baga, Kukawa towns, and environs over the recent Boko Haram attacks in the areas, assuring them of governments determination to address the challenge. ADVERTISEMENT Governor Shettima sympathised with the victims, and took his time to address them at their various camps. The governor while presenting relief materials to the people affected, assured them of more support from the Government to alleviate their suffering, and doing everything possible to address the problem. The governor visited the military at King Nasara Barracks also in Monguno, held meetings with military commanders which wasnt open to journalists and interacted with soldiers to inspire their morale. He thanked the military for the patriotic efforts and sacrifices and said the people of Borno will forever be grateful to them, Mr Gusau said. He also said Mr Shettima, while returning to Maiduguri stopped at Gajiram, the headquarters of Nganzai Local Government to inspect a Mega Primary Schools, Housing Estate, and a General Hospital, all being constructed by his administration. He then proceeded to Gajiganna town in Magumeri Local Government to also inspect another Mega primary school nearly completed. The Governor finally departed for Maiduguri, making stops at the Military, and Civilian JTF checkpoints to support and inspire them, Mr Gusau added. The federal government on Monday resumed talks with the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) with both sides expressing hope of an agreement that would bring an end to the ongoing strike in public universities. Lecturers at the universities went on strike on November 4 last year, demanding improved funding of universities and implementation of previous agreements with the government. The National President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, led the unions delegation to Mondays meeting. PREMIUM TIMES had reported ASUU saying it would not honour further calls by the federal government for a meeting with its members on the strike. But Mr Ogunyemi told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday afternoon that the union was available for discussion with the government. They said they have taken some steps and they want to present them tomorrow, he said. So, we want to see what they have done. And if they are convincing enough, we will inform our members. The ASUU delegation arrived at the ministry at exactly 4:30 p.m on Monday. Also in attendance were the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sunny Echono; the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba; and officials from the National Universities Commission, Head of Service and Salaries, Wages and Income Commission. The meeting is holding at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja. Six other meetings had been held between both parties since the strike began. When the government delegation arrived, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, was absent. However, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mr Echono, was present. The government delegation was led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige. In his opening remarks, Mr Ngige expressed optimism that the meeting would be short and fruitful, adding that feelers from the Federal Government gave reason to hope that an agreement would be reached tonight. The deliberation will be short as the government has done a lot of work since the meeting was adjourned, he said. While responding to the appeal by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) that the media should cover the technical session, Mr Ngige said he would make sure the students return to school as soon as possible. I feel your pain but none of my children is schooling abroad, Mr Ngige said. Similarly, the ASUU president said it appeared there was good news for the union from what the minister said. In his speech, NANS President, Danielson Akpan, said it was essential for the media to cover the technical session for proper reportage of the deliberation. ADVERTISEMENT Details later ADVERTISEMENT Ahead of the 2019 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has presented the national register of voters to political parties. The register was presented by the chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, at the quarterly consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja. The commission also revealed the official total number of registered voters is 84 million. ADVERTISEMENT The Ali Bongo-led government in Gabon has announced that an attempt to topple the administration had failed and four of the plotters have been arrested and are in custody. The announcement came hours after a group of soldiers announced they had seized power in the country in a bid to restore democracy. The New York Times reports that a fifth of the soldiers are on the run. The coup comes on the heels of a New Years address by Mr Bongo, whose family has been in power in the country for 50 years, assuring the citizen of the country that he was of good health. Mr Bongo has been ill and is receiving treatment for stroke in a hospital in Morocco. He has not been seen in public for two months. The New Year address reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office, said Kelly Ondo Obiang, a lieutenant and the leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon. But government officials have announced that the government was in charge and everything is under control. The government is in place, a government spokesperson, Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, told France 24. The institutions are in place. Slurred words During his speech on New Years speech, Mr Bongo said, It is true that I have been through a difficult period, as sometimes happens in life. Today, as you can see, I am better and I am preparing to meet you again soon. But a section of the populace was unimpressed by the video as the president was said to have slurred some of his words and his right arm remained immobile throughout the speech. Mr Bongos father, Omar, was president for 42 years before he died in 2009 and was replaced by his son. Elections in the country have been discredited by reports of irregularities and fraud. The country also has a reputation for widespread corruption. Several Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and opposition leaders have condemned the invasion of Daily Trust offices and arrest of its journalists by the Nigerian military on Sunday. PREMIUM TIMES reported how Daily Trust offices in Abuja, Kaduna, Borno and Lagos were raided. The armed soldiers, who stormed these offices, arrested the newspapers journalists and went with some of the media outfits gadgets. This is not the first time under the Muhammadu Buhari administration that security agencies will carry out attacks on the press. Reacting to the incident , Amnesty International, via is official Twitter handle, said: Nigerian authorities have obligation to protect freedom of the press @daily_trust as provided by the constitution & International human rights laws. #FreePress #Nigeria amnesty international Also, the International Press Centre (IPC), in a statement signed by its director, Lanre Arogundade, described the development as a fresh threat to freedom of the press. The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, condemns in strong terms, the forceful closure of Daily Trust Newspapers head office in Abuja and the organisations Maiduguri office by military personnel on Sunday, January 6, 2019. A senior editorial staff of the organisation confirmed the military onslaught on the media establishment, stating that staff had been ordered out of the premises, laptops and computers seized and operations halted. No reason, he said, was given for the action. IPC considers this development as a fresh threat to freedom of the press as well as the freedom and individual liberties of journalists and other media professionals working in Daily Trust. The action of the military is also a threat to democracy with the presidential elections, less than two months away. The military is bound by the laws of the land and cannot, in any circumstance, be allowed to resort to extra judicial measures, no matter its grievances, he said. Another accountability platform in Nigeria, SERAP, in its condemnation on Twitter, said: Attack on @Dailytrust offices and arbitrary arrest of their reporters, is an attack on Nigerians freedom of expression and media freedom and an affront to basic principles of human rights and rule of law central to democracy. @MBuhari @ProfOsinbajo #FREEDailytrustJournalistsNow @SERAPNigeria urges @HQNigerianArmy to immediately release all journalists of @daily_trust and reopen the media house. Assault on the media will further undermine Nigerias democratic credentials and the rule of law. #FREEDailytrustJournalistsNow @MBuhari @ProfOsinbajo The presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar while reacting, said: I have received with concern, news of the sealing of Daily Trust corporate headquarters in Abuja. Freedom of the press is the bedrock of our democracy and nothing should be done to compromise it. If Daily Trust as an institution or any of its staff is in breach of the law, I recommend that due process be followed and not a resort to the jackboot, Mr Abubakar advised. ADVERTISEMENT In his reaction, the former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, compared the development to dictatorship. Before us is a full-blown dictatorship & I warned! Now in a democracy, Army invaded @daily_trust office, took its staff away! Aint we back to Buharis tyranny of 1984 when under Decree 4, journalists must not report information considered embarrassing to govt? Before us is a full-blown dictatorship & I warned! Now in a democracy, Army invaded @daily_trust office, took its staff away! Ain't we back to Buhari's tyranny of 1984 when under Decree 4, journalists must not report information considered embarrassing to govt? Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) January 6, 2019 Also, a human rights activist, Inibehe Effiong, said: There is no legal basis for the action of the Nigerian Army against @daily_trust. The militarys action is a coup against democracy. This reckless act of impunity and tyranny must be condemned unequivocally. Press freedom is guaranteed by Sections 22 and 39 of the Constitution. There is no legal basis for the action of the Nigerian Army against @daily_trust. The military's action is a coup against democracy. This reckless act of impunity and tyranny must be condemned unequivocally. Press freedom is guaranteed by Sections 22 and 39 of the Constitution. Inibehe Effiong (@InibeheEffiong) January 6, 2019 Trend Among Security Agencies: Before now, there have been several other attacks on the media and journalists by security agencies and operatives. In 2018, a reporter with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Taiye Edeni, was brutalized by security operatives, at the venue where President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Kaduna dry port. Also, a Nigerian newspaper publisher, Daniel Elombah, who publishes elombah.com, was arrested around 4:30 a.m. on January 2, 2018, in his residence by SARS. PREMIUM TIMES general assignment correspondent, Samuel Ogundipe, was also arrested and detained by police also in 2018, for carrying out his duties. In 2017, over 22 attacks were recorded. PREMIUM TIMES head office in Abuja was raided, the publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi, alongside Evelyn Okakwu, the newspapers judiciary correspondent, was arrested on January 19, 2017, over a story the army chief Tukur Buratai, felt uncomfortable with. Timothy Agbor of The Point Newspaper and Toba Adedeji of the Osun Defender were also recently brutalised on duty in 2017 by police operatives while covering a protest by Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees at the Osun State House of Assembly. The Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Nation Newspaper, Victor Ifijeh, has condemned the selling of awards by media houses to politicians and corporate bodies. Mr Ifijeh spoke on Saturday at the 60th birthday celebration and book launch of the Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Gbemiga Ogunleye. At the event, the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, and wife of the late business mogul, MKO Abiola, Doyin Abiola; among other dignitaries described Mr Ogunleye as dogged, rugged and versatile. Speaking on the topic; Survival of the Print Media in the Digital Age, Mr Ifijeh painted a gloomy picture of the print journalism globally and in Nigeria in particular, saying the negative impact of the internet on the print genre of journalism has been huge. The effect of the Internet on print is more devastating. The digital revolution strikes at the core of the print business. While what basically constitutes journalism hasnt changed over the centuries, how it is practised is undergoing massive changes brought about by the digital revolution. A few years ago, proprietors of evening papers were smiling to the bank. The papers were first with breaking stories. The daily publications were uncomfortable but could not respond. The new media came and displaced the evening publications. Now the new media are in fierce contest with morning publications. Also some years back, the soft-sells were the favourites of those who loved to know the latest about celebrities, the high and mighty and the superrich. They had a field day. Then came the bloggers, gossip sites, whose targets are also the high and mighty. Today, many soft sell magazines are haemorrhaging. The figures will perhaps tell the story better. To other countries we go, as no verifiable circulation figures are available here. The Audit Bureau of Circulations of newspapers (circulation statistics) released in May 2018 (ABC Ql 2018) showed that total newspaper circulation declined by 4.40 per cent year on year. Daily newspapers declined by 15.7 per cent YOY, weekly newspapers by 12.5 per cent, weekend newspapers by 92 per cent, local papers by 6.0 per cent and free newspapers by 1.1 per cent, year on year. In Q1 2018, the largest circulating Sunday Times of Johannesburg reported a figure of 260,132 copies. Another major paper, City Press reported a print run of 58,566 copies. In Q1 2014, Sunday Times circulated 405.458 copies. City Press sold 118, 676 copies. Both papers lost 50 per cent of their circulation within two years. As a solution, therefore, Mr Ifijeh advised media managers to be creative and innovative, suggesting multiple streams of income as practised by the Daily Times of old. To those organising awards for politicians as alternative sources of revenue, we have told them it is rubbish and not sustainable, he said. He said rather than boosting the sales and revenues of the media houses, organising awards rubbishes their image and subsequently limits their chances of survival in the face of the biting economy. The editor added that Print media managers must learn to collaborate especially in the area of circulation, and we can also look at other suggestions including merger and acquisition. Special publications do not need to target advertisers but can be done in partnership with experts in the universities or consulting agencies. While presenting the book, which is titled; The Editors Front Row Views, Mr Tinubu praised Mr Ogunleye for being daring and upright, saying there are few journalists who practised that long in the profession without blemish. Represented by his former deputy, Olufemi Pedro, Mr Tinubu challenged the new generation of journalists to be daring and fearless, saying the profession is not for those seeking to be rich overnight. On his part, Mr Ambode, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Fola Adeyemi, commended Mr Ogunleye for being firm and disciplined. ADVERTISEMENT The former Managing Director of the rested Concord Newspapers, Doyin Abiola, also lent her voice to the need to rescue the print media from collapse. The Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Vanguard Newspaper, Gbenga Adefaye, read part of a chapter in the 367-page book. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian Army has yet to release the Daily Trusts regional editor, Othman Abubakar, over 24 hours after he was arrested in Maiduguri by armed soldiers. Mr Abubakar was arrested alongside the newspapers reporter, Ibrahim Suwab. Armed soldiers stormed multiple offices of Daily Trust in Maiduguri, Kaduna, Lagos and the head office in Abuja Sunday afternoon. They took away computers from the Abuja office in an attack that happened hours after the paper reported on the armys effort to retake Baga, a fishing community in Borno captured last week by Islamist militants, Boko Haram. The army later unsealed the offices after a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari. The papers editor-in-chief, Mannir Dan-Ali, told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Monday evening that the reporter, Mr Suwab, was later released while the editor remained in detention. He was released in the afternoon but the regional editor, Othman, is still with the military, he said. Mr Dan-Ali said the soldiers also took the editor back to the papers Maiduguri office on Monday to pick his medication and a copy of the paper in contention. The military is reportedly unhappy about a story published in the Sunday edition of Daily Trust revealing how the armed forces are preparing a massive operation to retake Baga and other towns in northern Borno that are under the control of Boko Haram terrorists. Mr Dan-Ali said he spoke briefly with Mr Abubakar, and he told him that the military said a special team from Abuja was being expected to go to Maiduguri and Interrogate him after which he will be released subject to the provision of a surety. He said it was agreed that the chairman of the Borno State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists would stand as the surety. However, since then we are yet to hear from them, he said. Asked if Mr Abubakar had told him what the military were asking for, Mr Dan-Ali said I tried to ask him but he couldnt say, it appears there was a limit to what he could say. He however told me he is being treated well. The raid has drawn wide condemnation with calls for the journalists to be immediately released. ADVERTISEMENT President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Abuja met a delegation from Borno State, during which he reasserted his administrations unwavering support to equip the military to overcome the insurgency in the North-east. The president also told the delegation led by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State that the collective safety and security of civilians would continue to remain paramount in the administrations strategy to restore peace and stability in the region. Having been a former Governor in the North-east, a GOC in the region and very familiar with the terrain, I assure you that as Commander-in-Chief, Ill raise the standard of the Nigerian Armed Forces and get the resources to encourage them to do better than what they are doing, he said. The president told the delegation comprising political, traditional, religious, women and media leaders in the State that he was impressed by their leadership roles and participation in helping the government deal with the insurgency in the North-east. The president commended the contributions of the stakeholders from Borno State particularly the need for more air support for troops on the ground and coordination among different security agencies. I am getting at least a weekly situation report from the services and of course from other sources. I encourage the commanders to remain committed, he said. President Buhari thanked Governor Shettima for demonstrating leadership in the State during these difficult times. I have an idea how much you are doing and I very much appreciate it. Im sure that has earned you more respect from the people, he said. Earlier in his remarks, Governor Shettima recounted that before 2015, Boko Haram had almost completely overrun the State, occupying many local government areas because the state government did not receive the necessary support and succour from the then Federal Government. He told the president: We are here as a people who worked, prayed and waited for your presidency in the firm belief that with you as Commander-in-Chief, Boko Haram will become history. We are here because you have demonstrated empathy for Borno people and the overriding commitment to end Boko Haram. We are here because we knew you would welcome us without any suspicion or contempt. Others from the State who made comments included Mohammed Naga, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Borno State; Bulama Mali Gubio, Secretary, Borno Elders Forum; Maina Maaji Lawal, former Governor of the State; Muhammad Masta II bn Al-Amin El-Kanemi, Emir of Dikwa, representing the Shehu of Borno, Senator representing Borno North, Abubakar Kyari and Ali Ndume, Leader, Borno Caucus, National Assembly. ADVERTISEMENT The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Abubakar Atiku, has promised to complete all abandoned federal projects in Kogi, if elected president in the coming election. Mr Abubakar made the promise on Monday in Lokoja, the state capital while addressing a crowd of party supporters at a rally also promising to create jobs and wealth for the unemployed youth. He said his decision to contest the presidency was focused on ordinary citizens, and described Kogi as a beacon of hope and progress which must be carefully managed. According to him, the state is endowed with abundant natural resources in commercial quantity waiting to be tapped to make Nigeria a truly industrialised nation. The PDP candidate gave the assurance to workers and pensioners in the state to ensure prompt payment of their salaries and pensions from May 29. He also condemned the detention of Dino Melaye, the Kogi West senator by the police and called for his immediate release. Earlier, the Director-General of Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation and President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki urged Nigerians to vote out All Progressives Congress (APC) through the next general elections. Mr Saraki said Nigerians were not born to suffer, adding that Mr Abubakar as an experienced businessman would create jobs for Nigerians. Dont be deceived, dont be intimidated, dont be afraid, stand for the truth and come out en masse to vote for our candidates in all the elections, he said. Others speakers included former governors Ibrahim Idris, Idris Wada and State Chairman of the PDP, Sam Uhuotu, who all urged the people to vote for PDP candidates. Both Messrs Idris and Wada decried the state of things in the state and urged the people to rise to the challenge by voting out the APC. Others who spoke at the event were Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, a former deputy governor, Patrick Adaba and former Minister of Police Affairs, David Jemibewon. (NAN) The Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has expressed its readiness to re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari in the February general election. Israel Adeshola, the BCAN National President, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos. Mr Adeshola said the association was convinced beyond doubt that the only way to guarantee better future for the country was through good governance and sincere leadership. The only way to achieve this is for us to collectively ensure that President Buhari return in 2019. It takes patience, sacrifice and honest commitment to rebuild what had been destroyed and thats what the administration has been doing since it took over the helm of affairs. We all know that to destroy is very easy but to build is always not easy. The last 16 years of past administration witnessed the destruction of our economy as never before in the history of the country. The impunity that pervaded the previous administration greatly undermined the economic growth of the nation. There is no doubt that President Buhari is genuinely committed to ensuring that Nigeria regains her place as the giant of Africa both economically and politically, he said. The BCAN leader said that the association has advised its members to guide their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) jealously as they crave for the return of the president. The decision we make today will determine how good or bad our tomorrow will be, he added. Mr Adeshola said that now was the time Nigerian citizens must take that crucial decision of tomorrow to ensure better future for ourselves and coming generations. According to him, Mr Buhari was committed to bettering the lot of Nigerian citizens through sustainable economic programmes aimed at improving social economic conditions of people. One of such programme is the empowerment of small scale businesses for sustainable growth and development where many people have benefited. President Buhari does not believe in given you fish but to teach you how to fish by yourself so that you can be self-reliant, those who give you fish today may not give you tomorrow, he said. Mr Adeshola said Mr Buharis return in 2019 would allow him complete the good work he has started by ensuring the quality of life of an average Nigerian and ensure future of unborn generations were secured and protected. The BCAN president however called for unity and oneness among its members and the electorate to work as a team, collaborate with one another to ensure comprehensive victory for Mr Buhari. NAN reports that BCAN has mobilised its members and inaugurated its campaign offices in Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Oyo, Delta, Kogi, Ondo, Kwara, Jigawa and Kaduna States to mobilise support and ensure the re-election Mr Buhari. ADVERTISEMENT (NAN) As part of the efforts to curb child malnutrition in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has proposed about N300 millions in the 2019 budget for the procurement of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food ( RUTF). According to the budget breakdown, the RUTF will be distributed across the country, while part of the money will also be used to establish Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) sites. RUTF are enriched food that requires no preparation and is specifically designed to treat severe acute malnutrition (SAM), mostly in CMAM sites Malnutrition, which can result in death, stunting, underweight and wasting among children under age five, has remained a serious concern in Nigeria as the statistics continues to rise. According to the 2018 Nigeria Nutrition Health Survey (NNHS), about 2.6 million children under the age of five are threatened by malnutrition, with the insurgency ravaged North-east region accounting for over 900,000 of the affected children. The report also revealed that over 10 million Nigerian children are stunted. A statistical breakdown of malnourished children in the country shows that 42.8 per cent of children in the North-east are suffering from stunting and are at high risk of death due to malnutrition if urgent care is not received. It also revealed that 29.7 per cent of children in the North-central, 20.8 per cent in the South-west, 20.4 per cent in the South-south and 17.2 per cent of children in the South-east are stunted. Despite the increasing challenges of malnutrition in the country, the N300million proposed for RUTF in the 2019 appropriation bill is 33 percent lower than was approved in the 2018 budget. In the 2018 budget, about N400million (N400,186,200) was approved for the procurement of RUTF and establishment of CMAM sites in the country. The government also proposed N18,000,000 for Maternal, infant and Young Child Feeding Interventions in Nigeria, including Micronutrient Deficiency Control and Nutrition information Surveillance in the 2019 proposed budget. Though it was indicated as a new project for 2019, it was stated in the 2018 approved budget as an ongoing project with N20million budgeted for it. In spite of the amount budgeted for RUTF in 2018, malnutrition is still of high prevalence in the country. Nigeria has been largely dependent on international donors who have been working in the sector to fund malnutrition campaigns. Experts say this is unacceptable as many children under five die from malnutrition. A nutrition specialist, Bamidele Omotola, said that malnutrition funds were not released early despite the increasing challenges. Speaking at a media dialogue in Yola last year, Mr Omotola said child malnutrition is silently killing hundreds of under-age children in the country. For instance, nearly half of the funds released for 2017 were released in 2018. In 2016, $2.75 million was committed only $1.2 million was released. In 2017, a total of $5.5 million was committed, only $3.97 million was released. This year, $3 million was committed and only $0.02 million has been released so far, he said ADVERTISEMENT He also said that malnutrition is strongly responsible for the poor development of the affected children, resulting in high number of out-of-school children and other poor health records in northern Nigeria. Mr Omotola said the situation had assumed an emergency dimension which requires the urgent attention of the Nigerian government and other donors. ADVERTISEMENT The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), a group of opposition political parties, has threatened a mass protest on January 15 if the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, is not retired. According to civil service statutes, the occupant of the office of the Inspector General of Police is to resign after spending the mandatory 35 years in service or attaining 60 years of age. Mr Idris is expected to retire from service after reaching the mandatory 35 years in service this month. Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari held a closed-door meeting with Mr Idris amid speculations that his tenure as the police boss would be extended. In a statement on Sunday, CUPP said it would hold nationwide protests to force the government to back down on any plans to extend Mr Idris stay in office. It is flowing from this and to save our dear country from further drift from a government that lacks capacity to provide leadership to our country, that the secretariat of CUPP hereby directs all coalition members in the 36 states to begin preparation for nationwide protests from January 15, if the retired IG is seen dressed in police uniform around the Force Headquarters, said Imo Ugochinyere, CUPPs national spokesperson. The protests, according to the statement, would hold in front of the police command headquarters of every state and would continue till the right thing is done. Mr Ugochinyere said the protests would begin if Mr Idris is seen in police uniform around the force headquarters from January 15. He added that with Mr Idris tenure having come to an end on January 3, the Inspector General of Police office is now vacant. The IG is constitutionally barred from being retained or reappointed as the IG as he is no longer a serving police officer. His continued stay in office is illegal and an act of impersonation as there is no legal or documentary evidence to back up his stay as the IG. Making reference to Section 215(1)a of the 1999 Constitution, which he said, held that the president could only appoint a serving police officer, CUPP called on the president to announce a replacement or he would be held responsible if there is a breakdown of law and order. We call on President Buhari to be courageous to announce the replacement and not bow to the pressure to cement illegality in the core of the nations security architecture due to his desperation to rig himself back to power, knowing he has been rejected by the Nigerian people. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian government has reached an agreement with striking university lecturers, raising the possibility of ending the teachers prolonged industrial action. The national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), Biodun Ogunyemi, said the National Executive Committee of the union will review its decisions based on the new commitment by the federal government. He said the strike could only be called off after the NEC meeting. He did not say when the meeting will hold. We have had an extensive session, looking at all the issues, he said. According to him, there are issues that will require further consultations before the union can suspend its strike. In view of this, government has promised to reach us as soon as possible with a written proposal on those areas we need further consultations. And when we receive that, we shall treat accordingly and get back to the appropriate quarters, he said. The lecturers have been on strike since November 4, 2018, to demand improved funding of universities and implementation of previous agreements with the government. After the Monday meeting, the labour minister, Chris Ngige, said an agreement had been reached. According to him, the accountant general and the ministry of finance have confirmed with evidence that N15.4 billion had been released to public universities. On earned allowances, Mr Ngige said President Buhari has approved N20 billion to be used to offset the outstanding arrears of the 2009 to 2012 verified earnings in the universities. He said the earned allowances will be released to ASUU as soon as the process is completed. ASUU has fulfilled their side in time for the pension administrator to take care of pension of their staff. They earlier gave ASUU a temporary licence and ASUU has done the needful to get their licence. So, it is resolved, he said. Speaking on the issue of state universities, Mr Ngige said an eight-member committee has been put in place to meet with governors. He said the Goodluck Jonathan administration entered an agreement of N220 billion annual university funding with ASUU for the next 6 years, starting from 2009. He said the federal government will look for resources to meet the commitment and ASUU has been offered some token to show good faith. Mr Ngige said the union should take the resolution of the meeting back to its members and get back to the government on Thursday. These are the major issues we discussed and ASUU is supposed to take back the resolution of these meetings to their members. We expect that they will get back to us by Thursday, he said. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it will hold a nationwide protest on Tuesday over the presidents delay in transmitting the recommendations of the committee on a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly. The NLC general secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson, said this in a statement made available Monday evening. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how NLC threatened to embark on a nationwide protest on January 8 if the federal government does not send the tripartite committees report on N30,000 minimum wage to the lawmakers. The organised labour issued the threat following President Muhammadu Buharis statement that a high powered technical committee would be set up to devise ways to ensure that its implementation does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing. Mr Ozo-Eson recalled that the National Executive Council of NLC met on December 17 and decided it would embark on a nationwide mobilisation of workers and allies ahead of the protest. That is, if by Dec. 31, 2018, the bill on the National Minimum Wage is yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an act of parliament, he said. It is on record that each time we had cause to embark on a national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation. We still dont understand where the story about a strike commencing tomorrow came from, he said. He said all state councils, affiliate unions and the civil society organisations have been fully informed and mobilised to ensure the success of Tuesdays mass protests in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory. He said the public would be informed when a date is decided for the commencement of a strike. A meeting on Friday between the federal government and labour unions ended without an agreement. While addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, said the rally on January 8 will be determined by Mondays meeting. PREMIUM TIMES can report that members of labour unions have started arriving the ministry of Labour for the meeting. The planned protest by the unions is to put more pressure on Mr Buhari, who is seeking reelection, to submit a bill to the parliament for the implementation of N30,000 minimum wage. ADVERTISEMENT PREMIUM TIMES has obtained the third in a series of leaked audio recordings by Rotimi Amaechi, Nigerias transport minister and the director general of President Mohammadu Buharis campaign team. Mr Amaechi has been in the eye of a storm in the last 48 hours following the release of two earlier audio recordings where he expressed gloomy views about Nigeria and the administration of Mr Buhari. In one of the recordings, which was shared with this newspaper by Phrank Shaibu, a spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar campaign, the minister was heard saying the president has failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians and that there was widespread suffering in the land. Tolu Ogunlesi, a spokesperson of Mr Buhari, had dismissed the first leaked recording, saying Mr Amaechi was referring to immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan. But after the release of the second audio, Mr Ogunlesi claimed the audio had been cleverly edited by a former aide of Mr Jonathan, Reno Omokri, to paint the minister and the current government in bad light. However, on Monday evening, PREMIUM TIMES obtained another audio recording where the minister was heard badmouthing Lagos, the countrys commercial centre. He described the nations former capital as a glorified village. The minister said the city lacked basic infrastructure compared to Abuja, the countrys capital. He added that the city has poor road network, no running water, and is infamous for vehicular traffic congestion. I live in Abuja, tell me where else we have infrastructure. Lagos is a glorified village. The only difference between Lagos and other cities is the fact that business is in Lagos, everybody is there doing business, so you can at least have food, he said. If not tell me what else you have in Lagos? 1,000 plus megawatts. Thats all. Thats what you have. What else do you have? No water, there are no roads. When you hear traffic jams in Lagos or any part of Nigeria, where are there no traffic jams in Abuja? The reason why you meet traffic jams in Lagos is because there are no roads, the former governor of Rivers State added. Since 1999, when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, Lagos State has been exclusively governed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or parties, which formed the merger that birthed the APC. Mr Amaechis comment is made ironical by the announcement earlier today by Mr Buhari that a former governor of Lagos State, commonly believed de factor political godfather of the state, Bola Tinubu, has been placed in charge of his re-election campaign. Mr Tinubu is to supervise Mr Amaechi as he co-chairs the campaign organisation with Mr. Buhari. The family of the National Commissioner in charge of Health and Welfare at the Independent National Electoral Commission, Amina Zakari, have risen in stout defence of the election official, saying critics should leave her alone to do her job. A statement by Isah Zakari, a lawyer, faulted some of the claims published in media reports about the INEC official, saying rather than being castigated, Mrs Zakari should be celebrated as an accomplished woman. Enough is enough leave our mother, daughter, sister alone to serve the nation as she has done so diligently over her life and career, Mr Zakari said. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition figures had accused President Muhammadu Buhari of plotting to use Amina Zakari to rig the forthcoming elections. That was after she was appointed the chairperson of a committee that would coordinate the collation centre to be used for the announcement of the presidential election result. READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW: RE: Outrage as Buharis Niece, Amina Zakari Heads INECs Collation Centre Our attention has been drawn to the above captioned report in the Guardian of Thursday, January 4, 2019 in which it quoted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as saying that the National Commissioner in charge of Health and Welfare at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs Amina Zakari is a blood relation of President Muhammadu Buhari and has been appointed to head INECs Collation Centre in the forthcoming general elections. We ordinarily will not join issues with any political party, newspaper or media organization because we will not want to constitute an impediment to the discharge of their constitutionally guaranteed responsibilities. It is, therefore, a very tough decision to react to the blatant lies told against our mother, daughter and sister, Mrs Amina Zakari. We have taken this decision in the firm belief that this clarification will put to rest the ceaseless campaign of calumny orchestrated to pull her down. Amina Zakari is a patriotic Nigeria who has served her country faithfully and honestly for years without a blemish. We are therefore pained by the report that portrays Amina Zakari working to sabotage INECs firm determination to advance the democratic journey by creating a conducive atmosphere for citizens to exercise their voting rights. Contrary to the widespread belief, Amina Zakari is not a blood relation of President Muhammadu Buhari. Her mother was from Daura (born and bred in Kano) and she was not Buharis sister. Its also true that Buharis sister was once married into the family. The union was short lived and did not produce a child. This all happened well before Mrs Zakari was born. Furthermore, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, the veteran Kano politician who first made the claim that she was born by Buharis sister has since recanted. Those who have held on to the claim are therefore either unaware of his recantation or they are simply incapable of letting go their prejudices in the face of facts to the contrary. It is laughable that Mrs Zakari who was appointed National Commissioner by former President Goodluck Jonathan under a PDP government can no longer perform any function in INEC because she is a supposed relation of President Muhammadu Buhari. The pieces of information being sold to the press about Mrs Amina Zakari by the PDP are absolutely false, tendentious, malicious and highly reprehensible. Coming from outfits that we have the utmost respect for, makes it more excruciating for us to openly react. It is our belief that the issue of integrity should be as sacrosanct to any newspaper as it is to our family. Mrs Zakari has challenged anyone with evidence against her of any misdeed to come forth and prove their case. She has now served under 3 different Presidents in various capacities and has served her nation in a forthright and honest manner with the utmost humility and much sacrifice It is rather unfortunate that she has now been thrown into the limelight in a vicious campaign to reduce her accomplishments to purported blood relationship while ignoring her vast and accomplished resume. Mrs Zakari attended the acclaimed Queens College on merit being first from Kano State in the Common Entrance in her graduating year from primary school. Mrs Zakari also was one of the top students in her graduating Pharmacy B.Sc class at Ahmadu Bello University. She spent time raising a family giving birth to 5 Children while her late husband took roles of increasing capacity in UBA and Union Bank. She worked as a consultant for the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund but it is an absolute falsehood that she was appointed to that role by President Buhari. She started as a sub-consultant of Afri Projects Consortium and was eventually promoted to the Health portfolio for the Consortium after the departure of the late Dr Aminu Safana (whom she worked for) when he joined partisan politics in 1999. She also served as Executive Secretary for Health in the FCT Administration under the Obasanjo administrations second term. ADVERTISEMENT She is one of the most accomplished election experts in Nigeria with 2 elections under her belt (2011,2015). To our knowledge, President Buhari didnt even attend the Council of States meeting where her nomination for INEC was presented by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. What is unfortunate is instead of celebrating an accomplished woman to support diversity in our polity and groom our future female leaders, we are stuck on belittling Mrs Zakaris accomplishments to mere familial ties. If we begin to harangue and harass our officials for family ties (which they do not control) over competence we shall have no one to serve. A cursory review of INEC and other institutions will reveal a wealth of family and professional ties and contradictions, does that mean everyone should resign? While we have tremendous respect for the role of the media in our national development, we expect that media organizations whose promoters project themselves as respecters of the rights of others should always get their facts right and present incontrovertible facts. Enough is enough leave our mother, daughter, sister alone to serve the nation as she has done so diligently over her life and career. Isah Zakari Esq. For the Zakari Family ADVERTISEMENT The Director-General of President Muhammadu Buharis reelection campaign organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, has called on Nigerians not to give one vote to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections. Mr Amaechi is in the eye of the storm after an audio recording was released Sunday by the opposition PDP in which he was saying Nigerians were hungry and poverty has been growing under Mr Buhari. But speaking during the inauguration of the presidential campaign council of Mr Buhari Monday, Mr Amaechi assured Nigerians that the presidents next four years will be different from the 16 years of the PDP. I was in the PDP, the slogan was Share the money. But here we are not sharing money. And because we are not sharing money they are saying vote buying. Because they ran election with government money, eating, buying cars with government money and nobody cared. I appeal to Nigerians; dont give one vote to the PDP, they are hungry, they cant stand poverty, they cant stand not touching government money. Where money is given for prayers in Nigeria, I can pray in my church, nobody is giving me money to go and pray, he said. Mr Amaechi also said the PDP will not have peace until its members return all the funds stolen while they were in office for 16 years. PDP governed Nigeria from 1999 to 2015 when they lost to the APC. We are no longer stealing money. PDP stole the money meant to feed Nigerians and until they return it, they will not have peace. PDP has nothing to say to Nigerians. Our campaign is going to be issues based. We are determined to save Nigerians. The President said he will fight corruption; that he is doing. We met a tattered economy that if we did nothing, Nigeria would be at a mess. But today the economy has been growing. In fixing the economy we promised infrastructural development. When I took over as Minister of Transportation, GE approached me and said we have approached different governments for 11 years to allow us to take over the rail with our own money but nobody agreed, this government agreed, he said. Mr Amaechi told the gathering that before March this year, his ministry will sign a formal agreement of concession to a consortium that will take over Nigerias entire narrow gauge rail line and run it. On why Nigerians should re-elect Mr Buhari, Mr Amaechi said the change promised by the APC cannot be completed in four years. Anybody that says we can do so in four years must be a magician. What we are pleading with Nigerians for is another four years to consolidate on what we have started, he said. ADVERTISEMENT The military in oil-rich central African country, Gabon, has announced it has seized power, effectively ending the 50-year rule of the family of President Ali Bongo. The military said it is seizing power to restore democracy, the BBC reports. Citizens of the country were woken to a 3.00 GMT broadcast by the military announcing a National Restoration Council. Mr Bongo, who became president in 2009, has been ill and receiving treatment in Morocco for more than two months. According to the BBC, army armoured vehicles and tanks were seen patrolling the streets of the capital, Libreville. In a New Years day broadcast, he tried to put an end to the rumour about his health, assuring citizens that he was fine. President Ali Bongo. [PHOTO CREDIT: BBC.com] His message, clearly did not resonate with the army which described the broadcast as a pitiful sight and a relentless attempt to cling onto power. The Nigerian Army on Monday explained why its personnel invaded the offices of Daily Trust Newspapers in Maiduguri, Abuja, Lagos and Kaduna on Sunday. The spokesperson of the Army, Sani Usman, a brigadier general, in a statement said, Soldiers of the Nigerian Army along with elements of the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies were indeed at Abuja and Maiduguri offices of the publishing company to invite the staff of the company over its lead story on Sunday Trust publication. Mr Usman said the story, divulged classified military information, thus undermining national security. The Army spokesperson accused the newspaper of disclosing details of planned military operations against Boko Haram terrorists. The disclosure of classified security information amounts to a breach of national security and run contrary to Sections 1 and 2 of the Official Secrets Act, he said. He also said the story gave the Boko Haram sect prior notice of the Armys plans while also alerting it to prepare against the Nigerian military. Mr Usman said the publication sabotaged the planned operation and put the lives of troops in imminent and clear danger. We would like to state that the invitation of those responsible for divulging military plans was done with the best of intention in order to make them realise the import of such acts to our national security, he said. We therefore advice all, particularly journalists, not to worry but engage in their responsive reportage and to be professional as the Nigerian Army has no intention of muzzling the press or jeopardising press freedom. We however, wish to enjoin further that they should eschew jeopardizing national security in their reportage. We would not tolerate situation where a publication would consistently side with terrorists and undermine our national institutions. Mr Usman also appealed to all Nigerians, especially the media, to join hands with the Nigerian military and security forces to end terrorism and insurgency in the country. We would like to further assure that the invitation is for further investigation and if need be, all those culpable of jeopardising operations security will be prosecuted by the relevant law enforcement agency, he said. DAILY TRUST speaks on military siege on newspaper Shortly before the statement by the army, the management of Daily Trust Newspapers had given details of how armed soldiers laid siege on the companys corporate headquarters and regional offices in Maiduguri and Lagos. The CEO and Editor-in-Chief if the paper, Mannir Dan Ali issued the statement Sunday evening. Read the full statement below: Military invades Daily Trust, arrests journalists,Impound computers ADVERTISEMENT For 4 Hours on Sunday, January 6th 2019, Armed Soldiers who came in 5 vehicles occupied the head office of Media Trust Limited, publishers of the Daily Trust titles sending away journalists and other staff. Before the siege was called off at about 9.30 pm, the soldiers has ransacked the newsroom and carted away dozens of computers and effectively strangulated the production of the Monday edition of the paper. Earlier in the day at about 4 pm, another detachment of soldiers and plain cloth security officials went to the Maiduguri regional office of the company and conducted a search at the end of which they took away the Regional Bureau Chief, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab. Neither the company nor the families of the two reporters have heard from them since. A production staff who was taken away from the Abuja headoffice alongside our computers was released after a period of detention at the Mogadishu barracks in Abuja. In Lagos, military men in 7 vehicles arrived our offices at Textile Labour House in Agidingbi at about 9 pm and remain there until the time of issuing this statement. We have not been told of the reason for the military operation against this newspaper but suspect it may have to do with the lead story of the Daily Trust on Sunday that dwelt on the militarys effort to retake some towns recently reported to have been lost to insurgents. Another clue is that during the invasion of our premises both in Maiduguri and in Abuja, the military men were asking for the reporters who wrote the story. Media Trust Limited condemns this unlawful act and calls on the military authorities to release the two reporters arrested in Maiduguri and return the dozens of computers that were taken from our newsroom. We also like to thank our colleagues in the media and all others who have been calling and supporting us in our hour of need. We also appreciate the efforts of some government officials who insist that there is a better way of handling relations with the media. Mannir Dan-Ali, CEO, Editor-in-Chief Akwa Ibom procures N5bn worth of Hospital equipment Akwa Ibom State government has purchased medical equipment worth N5 billion for Ibom Specialist Hospital to boost healthcare delivery in the state. Dominic Ukpong, the states commissioner for health, disclosed that the state has been paying N400 million quarterly to offset bills for the medical equipment in the hospital. Mr Ukpong, however, said the hospital was not completed before it was inaugurated in the previous administration. We are paying the money now and the hospital had been inaugurated but not yet completed. It was supposed to be ground floor, first, second and third floors. Group decries N2,000 monthly HIV drugs fee The Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has called on governments to ensure Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is completely free, accessible and without user fee in 2019. Peter Obialor, the Lagos State coordinator, said his members were currently paying N2, 000 monthly to access the drugs. The group also requested that treatments should be made available in the nearest facilities closer to People Living with HIV (PLHIV) for easy access. The major thing we request from governments this year is to make PLHIV accessing treatment totally free, no user fee and it should be in all the nearest places and facilities for easy accessibility. One month alcohol-free boost long-term health A study by researchers from the University of Sussex in Falmer, UK, shows just how much skipping alcohol for one month can improve your life and concludes that these benefits are long-lasting. The research, led by Richard de Visser from the University of Sussex, found that people who took part in Dry January in 2018 reported higher energy levels and healthier body weight. They also felt less need to drink alcohol, even several months after participating in this initiative. Dry January is an initiative of the charity Organisation Alcohol Change United Kingdom, which encourages people to try giving up alcohol for 1 month at the start of the year. Diabetes and erectile dysfunction may be genetically linked New research published in the American Journal of Human Genetics suggests that genetic susceptibility to type II diabetes may be a cause of erectile dysfunction. Erectile Dysfunction (ED) affects approximately 30 million adults in the United States. There are several risk factors including older age, being overweight and being a smoker. ADVERTISEMENT Having certain other conditions such as diabetes, some types of cardiovascular disease, and chronic liver disease can also predispose someone to ED. A new study has strengthened a link between type II diabetes and ED and confirms that a genetic predisposition to type II diabetes can lead to ED. Sugary sodas tied to higher risk of kidney disease People who drink lots of sugar-sweetened soda and fruit juices may be more likely to develop chronic kidney disease than those who dont, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined survey data on beverage consumption among 3,003 African-American men and women who were 54 years old on average and didnt have kidney disease. After following participants for about 8 to 10 years, researchers found that 185 people, or 6 percent, developed chronic kidney disease. After researchers accounted for factors that can contribute to kidney damage such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and inactivity, they found that drinking mainly sodas and sweetened fruit drinks were associated with a 61 percent higher risk of kidney disease. Taken on its own, soda was associated with a 9 percent greater risk of kidney disease, and higher intakes of tea and beer were also associated with greater odds of kidney disease, the researchers report in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. No other individual types of beverages were associated with kidney disease. Panic in Sweden as hospital admits suspected Ebola patient There seems to be panic among citizen in Sweden after a patient suspected with Ebola, a highly infectious and potentially fatal disease was admitted in the hospital. Though test results were yet to be received, at this stage it is just a suspicion, other illnesses are entirely possible, a statement from regional health authorities in Uppsala, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Stockholm, said. The patient is being treated at the infectious diseases clinic at Uppsala University Hospital and is isolated. No other details about the patient or how he or she may have acquired the disease were disclosed. Ebola cases in DR Congo hit 560 Official Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reached at least 560, with 368 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health has confirmed. The situation as at January 2, 2019: a total of 608 cases (560 confirmed and 48 possible), 368 people died and 207 have recovered. An additional 29 people are being investigated on suspicion that they may have contacted the virus. More than 200 people have recovered from Ebola, the ministry said. The virus is spread through direct contact with the fluids of an infected person. Vaccination activities were also suspended. Syphilis experiment: Drug firm Bristol-Myers Squibb faces $1billion suit A US federal judge has ruled pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation must face a $1 billion lawsuit over their roles in a 1940s medical experiment that saw hundreds of Guatemalans infected with syphilis. 774 Guatemalan victims and relatives in 2015 launched a civil suit over the US-led experiment, which aimed to find out if penicillin could be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. They claimed the experiment subjected them or their family members to medical experiments in Guatemala without their knowledge or consent during the 1940s and 1950s. The unethical experiment was revealed by Susan Reverby, a professor at Wellesley College in the US. President Donald Trump plans to visit the U.S. border with Mexico on Thursday, amid a continued impasse over funding for a border wall which has caused a partial government shutdown. Mr Trump is leaving Washington for the first time since the partial federal shutdown began 16 days ago over his demand for funding for a wall along the border with Mexico. The Republican president showed no sign of backing off his pledge to build a wall, which he says is necessary to stem illegal immigration. Democrats in Congress disagree, with new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the building of a wall immoral. Mr Trump skipped a planned trip to Florida to stay in the U.S. capital during the Christmas and New Years holiday after large chunks of the federal government were shuttered on December 22. He exhorted Democrats in Congress to come back from vacation and approve funding for his wall. Democrats returned to Washington in the New Year, taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and passed legislation to reopen all closed government agencies but did not include wall funding. This week, they will pass a series of bills to reopen federal agencies after weekend talks between the Trump administration and Democratic negotiators failed to end a stalemate. The White House did not provide details of Trumps trip, but the planned visit will likely highlight security concerns pushed by the administration as justification for the wall. President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis, White House spokesman, Sarah Sanders, said in a Twitter post on Monday. She said details would be announced soon. No weekend breakthrough in U.S. shutdown talks Lawmakers and Trump hit an impasse in December over Trumps demand that a bill to keep the federal government operational include money to help build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. About 800,000 government workers are either furloughed or working without pay. On Sunday, Mr Trump pledged not to bend in his demand for 5.6 billion dollars to pay for the wall but said the barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete as a potential compromise with Democrats who refuse to fund it. Mr Trump has argued the wall is necessary for national security and has tried to link terrorism to illegal immigration, without providing evidence, as justification for the plan. Democrats say the wall is expensive and inefficient, as well as contrary to American values. Mr Trump visited the southern border last March. ADVERTISEMENT (Reuters/NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Malaysias monarchy was in a state of flux on Monday after its king abdicated the throne at the weekend in a historically unprecedented move. Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan resigned as the 15th Agong, or Supreme Ruler of the federation, the National Palace said on Sunday. The Sultan ruled for slightly more than two years, since December 2013. Malaysias kings are usually selected on a rotational basis from amongst the countrys nine monarchical heads for a stipulated five-year term. The kings role is largely ceremonial, as most of the authority to govern is held by the prime minister and cabinet. The next king in line is the Sultan of Pahang, but the 88-year-olds ailing health has raised questions of who should rightly succeed. The council of nine sultans met at the National Palace to determine who the next king will be. The abdication was not entirely unexpected. Rumours had been swirling that the king might step down after a rare meeting was convened amongst the countrys nine state rulers recently. Sultan Muhammad had been on a two-month leave of absence since November, during which time reports and images surfaced that he had wedded former Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina in Moscow. The palace has neither confirmed nor denied these reports, however the wedding sparked concerns that a foreigner might be inaugurated as Queen. During the kings absence, the Sultan of Perak Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah was ruling as Deputy King. As recently as Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed denied rumours of an abdication, saying he did not receive letters or any official indication about the possible abdication. Other political figures thanked the King for his service. The highest appreciation to Sultan Muhammad V for his service as the 15th Agong (King). We Malaysians pray that you will always be granted health and protection by God, ex-premier Najib Razak wrote on Facebook. (dpa/NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The Managing Director of Keystone Bank Ltd, Obeahon Ohiwerei says the bank will continue to demonstrate commitment in delivering superior and innovative banking solutions to its customers. Mr Ohiwerei said in a statement on Monday in Lagos that the banks customers could now transact banking services at their convenience on the new Keystone Bank Mobile App with zero data. According to him, the feature enables customers to enjoy banking services on their mobile phones without data. In our fast-paced and evolving digital world, service literally has to be at the speed of thought. The rules of engagement are changing so fast that customers expectations are as diverse as our lifestyles and choices. It is no longer a question of stepping out to the bank but about the convergence of innovative services, digital technology and Omni-channel platforms coming to us at breakneck speed, he said. Mr Ohiwerei said mobile banking was not entirely new in the industry, but that there was no end to innovation in delivering customer convenience, especially at Keystone Bank. He said development of new innovations remained one of the things that set the bank apart, adding that it would continue to be its strength. We are determined to be your preferred bank; dependable, responsive and always within reach, he said. Notable features of the mobile app are easy account opening, convenient self-booking and liquidation of fixed deposits. Others are an expanded list of bill-payment options, easy activation of standing instructions, recurrent future payments, Switch Card on/off option which allows users to disable their cards temporarily if missing and re-enabling at the click of a button. Also included in the features are Hide Balance Feature an additional safeguard against third-party viewing and the Meet Your Relationship Manager Option which allows users to call or email their account officers within the app. Keystone Bank is a technology and service-driven commercial bank offering convenient and reliable solutions to its customers. (NAN) PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 19:29:35 With the progression in technology, manufacturers are building up printers that are small and provide strong connectivity to smartphones through Bluetooth connections. Moreover, the smartphone market is witnessing high growth since smartphone access is increased, thus mobile photo printers are anticipated to see robust growth in the market, globally.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114895/Wireless-Bluetooth-Printers-Market The global market is estimated to expand at a remarkable 7.65% CAGR during the predicted period to procure a value of over US$ 43 Billion through the end of the predicted year 2025, up from an expected value of about US$ 24 Billion during 2017.Market SegmentationThe worldwide market on the basis of printer type is categorized as laser, zink, thermal, inkjet and others. The zink printer type is the highest expanding category with a CAGR of 10% over the predicted period. The thermal printer type is projected to touch a market value of about US$ 15 Billion through 2025 end consecutively dominating the market globally.The worldwide market based on pricing is categorized as more than 3500, 1001-3500, 551-1000 and 100-500. The 1001-3500 pricing category is estimated to develop at a moderately quicker pace to record a 9.01%CAGR. The 100-550 pricing category is set to dominate the market globally in the approaching years.The worldwide market based on the sales channel is categorized as retail shops and e-commerce. The retail shops are likely to record a high 9.12% CAGR over the predicted period. Though, the e-commerce category is likely to dominate the global market with a high evaluation.The worldwide market on the basis of end user industry is categorized as educational institutions, commercial, BFSI, healthcare, travel and hospitality, IT and telecom, retail, residential, government and public sector and others. The commercial category is the biggest in valuation terms and is projected to record a value in excess of US$ 26 Billion through 2025 end. The residential category is projected to expand at a higher pace over the predicted period.The worldwide market on the basis of the region is categorized as Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America and North America. Asia Pacific regional market is estimated to exhibit high attractiveness and potential in the approaching years and recording a 9.17% CAGR all through the predicted period.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114895/Wireless-Bluetooth-Printers-Market Key Market PlayersSome of the prominent companies functional in the global market for wireless Bluetooth printers includeCanon Inc.BROTHER INDUSTRIES, LTD.HP Development Company, L.P.Zebra Technologies CorporationSeiko Epson CorporationHoneywell International Inc.Toshiba CorporationRicoh Company, Ltd.Polaroid CorporationLexmark International, Inc.Bixolon Co., Ltd.Star Micronics America Inc.Able Systems LimitedCognitiveTPGOthersReport Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114895/Wireless-Bluetooth-Printers-Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:51:32 Press Information Persistence Market Research CONTACT: Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com yogesh Seggar Team Lead 8009610353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 578 Words CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead8009610353 Global Wet Waste Management Market: IntroductionWet waste refers to the organic waste usually heavy in weight due to dampness and can be segregated on the basis of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. Wet waste generally consist of vegetable waste, food waste, tea leaves, shredded newspaper etc. Wet waste management on the other hand is the process of compositing the waste to use it as manure, biogas etc. Further, compositing is the process of shattering down the organic matter in the presence of water and air, using small insects and microorganisms present in the air. The end product, called compost, is usually rich in readily usable plant nutrients forming a part of healthy soil. Moreover, removing waste from public areas helps in reducing risks associated to health, decreasing exposure to biohazards and also reduces infestation of pests. Wet waste management also yields waste energy which can further be deployed in generating electricity.Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12295 Global Wet Waste Management Market: SegmentationThe global wet waste management market can be segmented on the basis of source, service and type of waste. On the basis of source, the global wet waste management market can be segmented into municipal, industrial, commercial, healthcare and others (glues, construction, solvents etc.). On the basis of service, the global wet waste management market can be segmented into collection and transportation equipment, storage equipment, sorting equipment, processing equipment and disposal equipment. On the basis of type of waste, the global wet waste management market can be segmented into meat & bones, food waste, agricultural waste, medical waste, shredded paper and others.Global Wet Waste Management Market: DynamicsRising awareness for wet waste management is a key factor driving the global wet waste management market. Moreover, introduction of new wet waste management technologies such as waste to energy solutions is another major factor fuelling the growth of the overall wet waste management market. Increasing environmental sustainability and growing usage of eco-friendly fuels is a key element driving the growth of the global wet waste management market. Increasing government initiatives to spread wet waste management awareness among the individuals is further expected to enhance the overall market during the forecast period. However, lack of participation from industries and other sectors such as commercial, food and healthcare is expected to hamper the overall global wet waste management market growth during the forecast period. Moreover, lack of treatment plants and landfill sites is another factor which is expected to rise up as a challenge to the global wet waste management market over the forecast period.Global Wet Waste Management Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region, the global wet waste management market is divided into seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan. In terms of market growth, North America is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period followed by Asia-Pacific and Western Europe. Moreover, high waste generation from medical and industrial sectors as well as strict regulations by European Commission is expected to drive the demand for wet waste management in the Western Europe region.Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12295 Global Wet Waste Management Market: Key PlayersMajor companies involved in the wet waste management are Clean Harbors Inc., Remondis SE & Co. KG, Waste Management Inc., Republic Services Inc., Veolia Environment S.A., Suez Environment, Progressive Waste Solution Ltd., Republic Services Inc., Stericycle, Advanced Disposal among others. Voice to Text on Mobile Devices Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:51:45 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 630 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Mobile electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are rapidly overtaking the desktop, laptop computers as the primary computing devices for more than 50% of the worldwide customers. Users are increasingly getting used to access the web, read and write messages and interact on social networks. Input of text on mobile devices is popular despite the fact that it is significantly more difficult by using an on-screen keyboard. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a solution to the text input on mobile devices which is gaining popularity as an alternative to typing on mobile services. Google offers the ability to search by voice on Android, iOS, and Chrome while Apples iOS mobile devices come with Siri, similar to a conversation assistant. On both Android and iOS mobile devices, users can also speak to fill in any text field where they can type, a feature used to dictate SMS messages and e-mail.Voice to Text on Mobile Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsVoice to text on mobile devices capabilities enhance the missed-call and voicemail offerings across VAS (value added service) and network services. Voice-to-text on mobile devices improves customer satisfaction and generates revenue for various mobile network providers. A major limitation of the global voice to text mobile devices is that speech recognition is performed on a server. Mobile network connections are often slow which further limits the penetration of the voice to text mobile devices. The global voice to text mobile devices market has opportunities to invent techniques for building an accurate, small-footprint speech recognition system that can run in real-time on modern mobile devices.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2310 Voice to Text on Mobile Devices Market: SegmentationThe global voice to text on mobile devices market is classified on the basis of type of mobile device platform and region.On the basis of mobile device platform type segmentation, the global voice to text on mobile devices market is classified as follows:Android-based Mobile DevicesiOS-based Mobile DevicesBlackBerry OS-based Mobile DevicesWindows-based Mobile DevicesVoice to Text on Mobile Devices Market: OverviewWith Voice-to-text on mobile devices, one can send and receive text messages, post Facebook and Twitter updates, emails, all hands-free. Voice-to-text has an incredibly accurate voice recognition technology. Other applications of Voice-to-text on mobile devices include setting reminders, making appointments, and searching the internet without lifting a finger. Currently, a new application is available for deaf people who excel at lip reading. In meetings or group conversations wherein it gets difficult to follow a conversation when many people speak together, the applications aid in translating the speech into written words and transcribing it on screen in near real time. As a result, the global Voice-to-text on mobile device market growth is expected to be boosted by growing prominence of social networking websites and its hands-free feature.Voice to Text on Mobile Devices Market: Region wise OverviewGeographically, global voice to text on mobile devices market is classified into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA). Broad language coverage in Voice-to-text, with language detection for multi-language solutions is an important feature on mobile devices. The most common languages available for Voice-to-text are English (US, UK, Canada, Australia), Spanish (Latin American variations), German, French, Italian and Portuguese. Therefore, countries in America and Europe are expected to hold more than half the share in the global voice to text on mobile devices market.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2310 Voice to Text on Mobile Devices Market: Key PlayersThe key players in global Voice-to-text on mobile devices market are Nuance Communications, Inc., SingTel Optus Pty Limited, iSpeech, Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., to name a few. FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:10:54 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 833 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 Future Market Insights (FMI) recently announced the release of its report titled Residential Water Treatment Devices: Middle East Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025.According to the report, the middle east residential water treatment devices market was valued at US$ 414.1 Mn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 855.3 Mn by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.8% throughout the forecast period.Total population of Middle East & Africa stood at approximately 346 million in 2015 and is expected to grow at the rate of 2% per annum. The Middle East & Africa is also witnessing mass migration of people to urban centers, thereby leading to increased demand for water purifiers in these centers. Economies of North Africa, on the other hand, have also been registering healthy growth rates over the last few years, which in turn is expected to fuel growth of the residential water treatment devices market in the overall MEA region. Due to large scale industrialization, quality of water in the GCC and Levant countries has deteriorated during the recent years. Water availability in these regions is estimated to be merely 1,200 m3/person/year, which is substantially lower than the global average of 7,000 m3/person/year. These factors are also prompting urban masses in Middle East countries to opt for water purifiers. Furthermore, the GCC region is witnessing entry of globally established water purifier brands, which has resulted into increased competition in the market. Increased competition, in turn, ensures marginal decline in prices of residential water treatment devices in the retail market in these regions. However, price decline has been largely reported on the reverse osmosis-based water purification devices only, the sales of which have witnessed an upsurge in recent years.Around 44% of the Middle East & Africa population lives in rural area and is not aware about the necessity and techniques to purify and filter water. Penetrating these markets may be a challenging task for the concerned market participants as most of the vendors would have to begin by creating awareness regarding water purifier and filters and the importance of these products. Combination water purification system employs two different treatment technologies in one system. Players such as AquaPro and Kent have started offering RO+UV-based combination water purifiers in the GCC and Levant countries.Geography-wise, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dominated the GCC residential water treatment devices market in terms of value in 2014, accounting for more than one-third value share of the GCC residential water treatment devices market. On the other hand, Turkey dominated the Levant residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% value share of the overall market in the region. Furthermore, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period and is expected to maintain its revenue share dominance till 2025 end. The governments in the Levant and GCC regions are investing and opening up to Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and promoting industrialization, which has been leading to an increase in the per capita income of the residing population in countries such as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan are expected to register significant Y-o-Y growth during the forecast period. Besides, these countries are projected to bestow more focus on their non-oil and manufacturing sectors in the coming years, which in turn is expected to encourage the water purifier and water filter manufacturers in these countries to go in for domestic production and enhance sales. Countries such as Bahrain, Iraq, Palestine and Syria are currently witnessing moderate growth in demand for residential water treatment devices, and the trend is expected to continue during the forecast period as well.On the basis of filtration devices, the filtration faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the water tap faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than half volume share of the overall market.On the basis of purification devices, the reverse osmosis segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the gravity segment purification devices dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% volume share of the overall market.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-eu-1299 Key market players covered in the report include KENT RO Systems Ltd., Eureka Forbes, Britannic Water Treatment Company W.L.L., Panasonic Corporation, LG Electronics, Pure It LLC, Waterlife, Coolpex Pure Water System, Ultra Tec Water Treatment LLC and AQUA PRO UAE. Most players in the market are engaged in various activities, such as mergers and acquisitions, increasing investments in technological and product developments, geographical expansion and brand building via strong marketing strategies, in order to sustain their position in the competitive market. Telescope Box Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:23:31 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Abhishek Budholiya Manager 9898989898 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ # 670 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/Manager9898989898 Apart from wrapping and protecting goods the use of packaging is increasing and fulfilling these needs innovations are taking place in the packaging industry. Box, a widely used mode of packaging, is designed in several ways to meet different purposes and to attract customers by improving the aesthetic value of the product. Telescope box was developed apart from enhancing the aesthetic value of the product to provide the unique experience to the customer while accessing the product. Telescopic box commonly has a separate top and bottom that fit with each other. To classify a box as a telescope box the cover of the box should extend to the two third of the depth of the box. Plastic and paper & paperboard are most commonly used materials for manufacturing of telescope box while wood and metal are also used at a smaller scale in the production of these boxes. Telescope box has a vast range of applications from the packaging of consumer goods to electronic items, luxury items, and bulky items.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4459 Telescope Box Market: Market DynamicsTo attract and retain customers, packaging manufacturers are developing products covering minute details of the product for improving customer experience. Boxes are largely used in primary and secondary packaging of the goods in consumer goods, electronic items, and food and beverage industry. To utilize the penetration of used box packaging, telescope box is one such innovation in box packaging market. Box packaging market is estimated to be over US$ 160 Bn in 2017 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% over the forecast period. On the backdrop of convenience offered by telescope box to the consumer while frequently accessing the product, the demand for telescope box is expected to increase over the forecast period. Use of telescope boxes for packaging of goods reduces additional expense on sealing of boxes hence reducing the overall cost of packaging hence making the telescope boxes more attractive form of packaging. Extensive use of paper and paperboard a sustainable and eco-friendly material in the manufacturing of telescope boxes is expected to boost the telescope box market. However, a significant shift in packaging industry from traditional rigid packaging to flexible packaging to leverage the technological advantages offered by flexible packaging can hamper telescope box market. The ability of telescope box to look more stylish, provide convenience for frequent usage of the product and to protect products from external shocks can lay a path of opportunities in telescope box market.Request Report for Table of Contents @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4459 Telescope Box Market: Key Players:Some key players of telescope box market are International Paper Inc., Packsize International LLC, DE-Tech Packaging, Inc, Tim-Bar Corporation, A40 Packaging, Ebro Color GmbH, Wisconsin Packaging Corp., Sound Packaging LLC, Deluxe Packaging, Inc, and Stronghaven Inc.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, type of product and applications.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Report Highlights : Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Request to Report Methodology @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-4459 Tamarind Extract Market Forecast and Value Chain 2016-2026 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 14:46:33 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +13479183531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com abhishek manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 606 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +13479183531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.commanager+1 03479183531 Tamarind extract is used in a variety of food products to enhance flavor and health benefits. Traditionally, tamarind extracts were used in juices due to its coolant property and were excessively consumed in the Middle Eastern region. It is a regularly used food ingredient in Asia and Latin America regions. Tamarind extract is used for manufacturing of tamarind concentrate, which is used in the preparation of blends for fruit juice, sauces, pickles etc. Tamarind extracts are used as natural preservatives, owing to its antifungal, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. The other health benefits of tamarind extract are that it acts as an antioxidant. It is used to cure digestive problems, conjunctivitis, common cold, fever etc. Tamarind extracts are also used in cosmetic products. It acts as a bleaching and skin hydrating agent in cosmetic products. The fragrance oils made from tamarind extract has a sour and sweet essence. It is incorporated as a fragrance ingredient in a variety of products such as soaps, candles, air fresheners, bath oils, aromatherapy products, incense sticks, laundry products etc.Tamarind Extract Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe use of tamarind extract in the rapidly growing food industry is expected to be a major driver for the growth global tamarind extract market. Tamarind extracts are as an alternative for chemical preservatives such as lactic, acetic, benzoic acids etc. The increasing consumer awareness regarding food safety and health benefits of natural preservatives is anticipated to boost global tamarind extract market. The rise in demand and production of processed food and adoption of natural processing techniques by the food industry is expected to drive global tamarind extract market growth. Tamarind extract is an important ingredient in cosmetic and fragrance industry. The upsurge in consumer demand for organic food and ayurvedic medicines is expected to propel the growth of global tamarind extract market.Tamarind Extract Market: Segmentation On the basis of application,the global tamarind extract market can be segmented as follows:- Food Sauces,Juice blends,Condiments,Preservatives Seasonings,Cosmetics,Healthcare,Health drink,Syrups,Fragrance,Soaps,Candles,Air fresheners,Incense sticks,Bath oils,Aromatherapy productsTamarind Extract Market: Region Wise Outlook The global tamarind extract market can be divided into five regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). APAC holds major share in global tamarind extract market. India is the major manufacturer and exporter of tamarind extract. The tamarind extracts are exported to MEA and Europe regions. Thailand holds the second position in manufacturing tamarind extracts. The increasing investment in the healthcare industry and adoption of ayurveda is expected to drive tamarind extract market growth in the region. North America and Europe accounts for a significant share in global tamarind extract market. This is attributed to the mature food processing industries in these regions. Europe holds the major share in the fragrance industry, which is expected to boost the growth of tamarind extract in this region. MEA is expected to register high CAGR during the forecast period. North Africa accounts for a significant share in the production of tamarind. Tamarind extract is used as a major ingredient in fruit juices in the desert regions of the Middle Eastern region due to its cooling effect. Latin America is anticipated to register moderate CAGR over the forecast period due to the extensive use of tamarind extract in the food industry.Tamarind Extract Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global tamarind extract market are as follows:,Magma Foods,Kanegrade Limited,Shimlahills,, MoonLite,, Xi'an Victory Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd.,Abc International,BAAECO V FOOD,JADLI FOODS (INDIA) PVT. LTD.Abdullabhai Abdul Kader,, REVATA FOOD PRODUCTS PVT.LTD Strap Dispenser Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:00:04 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Abhishek Budholiya Manager 9898989898 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ # 732 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/Manager9898989898 In modern times one of the aims of the manufacturers is to reduce cost occurring due to damage of goods through shipping or local transportation. These conditions have led to the innovation in the ergonomic design of material handling and packaging equipment over the last half a decade. One such cost efficient packaging equipment is strap dispenser which correlated to the demand of industries such as pharmaceutical, food and beverage, automobile, etc. Strap dispenser machine uses either metal, plastic or fabric material to render a strong wrapping for rigid products such as metals, glass or plastic. Strap dispenser is used across individual and institutional application, predominantly to transfer raw material, semi-finished or finished goods across different department or region. Moreover, strap dispenser machine has a long self-life and provide high tensile proof for packed products.The driving factors of the rising growth in the strap dispenser are due to rise in demand of automobile sector across developed regions. Western Europe and North American market represent a significant percentage of market share in strap dispenser market which is expected to promote the growth of packaging industries over the forecast period.Strap Dispenser Market - Market Dynamics:Manufacturers of the strap dispenser are using raw material to manufacturer which is cost-effective and has less impact on the environment. Also, the invention of pneumatic and automatic strap dispenser machines have increased the productivity output of wrapping straps around packed products. In addition, automatic strap dispenser is tailored to meet the rapid demand packaging demand in the regions of Europe and North America market.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4442 On the other hand rising disposable income and growth in pharmaceutical and food industries in the region of Asia- Pacific would likely create a significant increase in the strap dispenser market over the projected period. Strap dispenser machine is an ideal strap wrapping machine for packaging product which works efficiently in the harsh environment and renders assurance to the manufacturer about the safety of the products. Overall the demand of strap dispenser is expected to witness an enormous CAGR over the projected period. Strap Dispenser Market - Market Segmentation:Global strap dispenser market is segmented on the basis tool type, application type and end use type.On the basis of tool type global strap dispenser market is segmented into pneumatic, battery automatic, semi-automatic, and manual. On the basis of application type, the global strap dispenser market is segmented into plastic strap, fabric and steel strap.Furthermore , plastic strap is sub-segmented into polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polywoven, and others. While fabric is sub-segmented into corduroy, ribbon and others. On the basis of end use type, the global strap dispenser market is segmented into pharmaceutical, personal and healthcare, food and beverages, chemicals, general industries, automobile, others.Request Report for Table of Contents @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4442 Global Strap Dispenser Market Key Players:Some of the key players operating in the global strap dispenser market include TSW Packaging Solution, CYKLOP International, Hangzhou Fuyang Deep Joint Import & Export Co., Ltd., Macarthur Wrap & Strap Pty Ltd., North Shore Strapping Company, Unipack, Modern Pneumatic Tools & Co., Cordstrap India Pvt Limited, Signode Packaging Solutions, Groheit & Weigel Gmbh. The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, type of product and applications.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Report Highlights : Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Request to Report Methodology @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-4442 Software Defined Networking Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:44:29 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 676 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 In this ever changing technological world, there is sharp inclusion of objects that are getting connected on day-to-day basis via public or private network. Traditional networking architecture are slow to response to demand generated by connected objects in a particular network. Thats where software defined networking (SDN) comes into the picture. Software Defined Networking separates control layer of a particular network from infrastructure and application layer, so that a network operator can easily manage the data flow through a centralized console, without touching switches and routers. SDN allows network engineer and operators to response instantaneously to changing business demand. A traditional network generally uses special appliance such as firewall and load balancer, instead SDN usages a software application that usages the controller to manage data plane.In SDN, software control entire network and its physical devices. Its about a software is integrated into networking hardware so that hardware can itself take decision about where to send data packets. It makes SDN next generation networking solution. Software Defined Networking usages northbound API to integrate control layer and application layer and uses southbound APIs to programmatically control data plane forwarding decision.Global Software Defined Networking Market: Drivers and ChallengesTechnological advancements in cloud computing and data center are contributing immensely in the growth of global Software Defined Networking market. Some of the big players of the market such as VMware and Cisco are offering separate Software Defined Networking solution for data center. Software Defined Networking deployment in data center is reducing downtime and increasing productivity of business organizations. In addition to this, increasing data consumption via mobile devices and growth in OTT services are putting enormous pressure on telecom service providers to digitalize their existing 3G and 4G networks. To meet increasing demand of data consumption, telecommunication service providers are transforming their networks with the help of Software Defined Networkingtechnology.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2338 Though Software Defined Networkingfacilitates network operators to control switches and routers through software but it doesnt virtualize functions and commands. In other worlds, Software Defined Networkingdoesnt allow to run the central network in software hardware. Moreover, enterprises are still reluctant to adopt Software Defined Networkingtechnology to some extent. They have fear that services running on their existing network will get hampered.Global Software Defined Networking (SDN) Market: SegmentationSoftware defined networking (SDN) Market can be segmented on the basis of component, application, end-user, and region. Component category include software and different types of services such as professional services and managed services. On the basis of application, the market can be segmented into SDN for data center and SD-WAN. Different type of end-user that are deploying SDN are cloud service providers, telecommunication service providers, and enterprises. Region wise, global software defined networking (SDN) Market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Japan, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Middle East & Africa.Cisco System Inc. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM Corporation, Juniper Networks, Pica8, Inc., Intel Corporation, and Big Switch Networks, Inc. are some of the big players of global software defined networking (SDN) market.Regional OverviewNorth America is the largest Software Defined Networking market as most of the Software Defined Networking providers such as Cisco, IBM, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are based in the North America region and are making huge investment over there. Also, due to the ongoing advancements in 4G and 5G technologies the US, telecommunication service providers are deploying SDN at every layer of their network.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2338 In Europe region, technology service providers have already understood the value proportion of SDN and have already started deploying Software Defined Networking in their networks but enterprise market still remain gloomy in terms of adoption of Software Defined Networking.In Asia Pacific region, growth in countries such as China, India, and Japan are immensely contributing in the market. In India, the telecommunication services industry is going through the transformation and service providers have started to deploy Software Defined Networking technology at massive scale. Silicon Nitride Market - Global industry segment analysis, regional outlook, share, growth; Silicon Nitride 2018 to 2028 by Future Market Insights Silicon Nitride Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:30:11 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 653 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1 03479183531 Silicon Nitride (Si3N4), a non-oxide advanced ceramic material characterized primarily by hardness, toughness, high strength, excellent thermal and chemical stability. Silicon nitride possess high temperature strength and excellent thermal shock resistance which makes it ideal for use in gas turbines and automotive engines. Silicon Nitride is mainly used for glow plugs, turbocharger rotors and hot plugs in diesel engines. Silicon nitride also possesses outstanding wear resistance and good electric conductivity.Increasing environmental concerns and emission regulations for light duty as well as heavy duty vehicles will assist the demand for turbochargers and in turn will push the demand for silicon nitride for the production of turbocharger rotors.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7729 Global Silicon Nitride Market: SegmentationThe global Silicon Nitride market can be segmented on the basis of type, grade, application and end-use industryBased on the type, the global silicon nitride market can be segmented intoReaction-Bonded Silicon NitrideSintered Reaction-Bonded Silicon NitrideHot Pressed Silicon NitridePressureless Sintered Silicon NitrideBased on the grade, the global silicon nitride market can be segmented intoStandard GradeHigh Purity GradeBased on the application, the global silicon nitride market can be segmented intoReciprocating Engine ComponentsBearingsMetal working toolsElectronic Circuit ManufacturingMedical DevicesBased on the end-use industry, the global silicon nitride market can be segmented intoAutomotiveAerospaceElectronics and SemiconductorMedical and HealthcareGlobal Silicon Nitride Market: DynamicsSintered silicon nitride is the most suitable material for manufacturing of turbocharger rotor owing to its good mechanical strength at high temperature and light weight. Manufacturers are substituting metal rotor by sintered silicon nitride, resulting in 50% reduction of inertia moment and also improvement of engine response. Thus, consumption of silicon nitride is anticipated to grow at significant pace over the near future. Further, increasing demand for engine downsizing for the optimum vehicle performance is assisting the sales of the turbochargers and in turn driving the growth of global silicon nitride market.Availability of alternative ceramic materials such as alumina, steatite, zirconia, silicon carbide, etc. is found to be one of the key factor restraining the growth of silicon nitride market over the forecast years. Silicon nitride is difficult to produce as a bulk material as it cannot be heated over high temperature owing to its association to silicon and nitrogen.Key manufacturers involved in the production of silicon nitride are found to be involved in the long term distribution agreement for the product with end-users across the globe For instance, in the recent past Amedica Corporation has announced the partnership with Shandong Weigao Orthopaedic Device Company Limited (medical device company based in China). Thus, found to be one of the key trends identified in the global silicon nitride market.Global Silicon Nitride Market: Regional OutlookConsidering regions, globally the silicon nitride market is expected to be led by China, owing to the presence of various end-use industries such as electronics, automotive, medical and healthcare, aerospace, etc. Asia-Pacific spearheaded by China is anticipated to be the key region in the global silicon nitride market throughout the forecast years. Asia-Pacific in the market is expected to be followed by Europe and North America region in the global silicon nitride market. Latin America, spearheaded by Brazil is expected to be grow at moderate pace in the global silicon nitride market over the near future. Middle East & Africa in the global silicon nitride market is anticipated to account for small share and is expected to grow at slow pace over the near future.Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7729 Global Silicon Nitride Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the key players involved in the global Silicon Nitride market include KYOCERA Corproation, CeramTec, UBE INDUSTRIES, LTD., Dynamic-Ceramic Limited, TOSHIBA MATERIALS CO., LTD., Amedica Corporation, CoorsTek Inc., Vesta Ceramics, Denka Company Limited, Panadyne, Reade International Corp., Yantai Tomley Hi-Tech Ind. & Tra. Co., Ltd., and others. Persistence Market Research PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:41:13 Press Information Persistence Market Research Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Yogesh Team Lead 800-961-0353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 493 Words Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Team Lead800-961-0353 Persistence Market Research (PMR) has published a new research report titled FoodService Packaging Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast 2017 2025. The report states that food service packaging is expected to witness an increment in it demand owing to the growing number of fast food chains across the globe and the inclination of consumers towards quick food services. An upsurge in the overall consumption of products across the globe has factored the price hikes on packaged goods. Diversity in demand for packaging solutions comes to play a key role for classifying the products on the basis of their function in protecting the goods and their appearance-enhancing attributes. The global packaging industry remains at the cusp of miscellany with a wide range of packaging formats congregated across multiple applications. Owing to this, the global food service packaging market is expected to witness a CAGR of 5.3% over the course of the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/22354 Concern over Hygiene and Consumer Convenience to be Core Driving Factors Influencing Market GrowthConsumers across the globe are gradually concerned about the hygiene related to the packaging of their food and are opting for food products that are convenient to carry. A large chunk of foodservice disposables are a one-time use and recyclable. As these products are mainly made of plastic and foam, they help reduce food contamination and also maintain food hygiene. Furthermore, these are most cost effective as compared to non-disposable foodservice products. The aforementioned properties are boosting the adoption of foodservice disposables by food service operators. Disposable foodservice products are lightweight and can hold both hot and cold beverages and food, which is further expected to fuel market growth.Asia Pacific to Surge Ahead of all RegionsOwing to the growing number of food chains in the region, the demand for food service packaging is also expected to rise at a substantial rate. The growth of the market in the region can also be attributed to the growing disposable income of people in the region and also their inclination towards fast food services. The sedentary and hectic lifestyle of people in the region has also impacted their eating habits, thus impelling them to order food online or order a takeaway from restaurants. As a result, the demand for food service packaging has risen substantially and is expected to stay the same in the coming years.Companies Look Forward to Product Quality EnhancementThe companies operating in the market are focusing on product differentiation and quality enhancement in order to retain their consumer base. The run to make the products attractive and hygienic is impelling manufacturers to invest in structured R&D initiatives. Some of the companies operating in the global foodservice packaging market are Dart Container Corporation, Georgia-Pacific LLC, Anchor Packaging Inc., D&W Fine Pack LLC, Gold Plast SpA, Berry Global Group Inc., and DOpla S.p.A.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC)@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/22354 Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 13:19:57 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 675 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Robotics is a science branch that includes electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science. It is concerned with the design, manufacturing, operation and use of the robots, along with the computer systems required to control them and process information. This technology is slowly but surely moving from fiction to fact thanks to current research in the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market. We will eventually reach a point when medical robots will be able to think, act independently or even take critical decisions without any assistance from doctors or medical professionals. Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery first came onto the scene in the first decade of the 21st century. These robots have already proved their mettle in assisting surgeons who perform hysterectomies or prostate cancer. Constant design improvements mean that the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market will become increasingly vital in the days to come.Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery Market DriversA preference for minimally invasive procedures is anticipated to drive the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market. Robots provide improved visualisation, greater dexterity and high precision & accuracy. Minimally invasive surgeries are very popular with surgeons, patients and also their insurance companies since incisions made are smaller, infection risk is less, hospital stays are much shorter and convalescence is greatly reduced. However, human limitations like hand-eye coordination and limited dexterity stifle treatments. The desire to overcome the challenges of current laparoscopic technologies and improve the scope of minimally invasive surgeries will benefit the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market. An ageing and growing population will boost the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market and growing acceptance of telesurgery is also going to help Robotics. A surgery can take several hours and be physically exhausting for surgeons and they could even experience hand tremors as a result. A surgical robot would be able to operate on several patients without any drop in precision or efficiency which would help medical professionals to serve a larger number of people in the long run.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2477 Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery Market RestraintsCost is a very critical challenge in the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market. A top of the line robotics-assisted surgery system can easily cost somewhere in the region of Euro 1.5 million. The initial investment itself can make it difficult for underfunded medical institutions in developing countries to adopt it. That is also not the only expense incurred as thousands more need to be spent on medicines required to complete the surgery. Hence, there is ongoing research to make the medical assistant robots of the future not only smart but affordable too. The second constraint in the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market is the lack of funding. In spite of dramatic innovations by scientists in robotics technology, investors are somewhat hesitant to invest in the industry until they are assured of a ready market for the devices. However, both patients & medical healthcare organisations are showing an increased readiness to pay for Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery equipment which will boost investor confidence and subsequently drive down development cost. The third restraint of the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market is human resistance to change. Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery is still a relatively new concept which has had almost no long-term follow-up studies. These systems also have very large footprints and massive robotic arms. It might be difficult for medical organisations to accommodate them when they are already space constrained, to begin with.Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery Market Key RegionsThe largest Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery markets are North America, the European Union, Asia Pacific and then the rest of the world. China, Japan and South Korea are expected to lead the world in future growth rate. This is on account of their rapidly ageing population, strong government focus on both healthcare and manufacturing expertise, and providing training to their surgeons to adopt and perform Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery. Companies would be well advised to cater to the specific needs of the Asian Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market for their long term benefit.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2477 Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery Market Key Market PlayersSome of the companies operating in the Robotics-Assisted Telesurgery market are Intuitive Surgical, Hansen Medical, Stryker Corp, IRobot Corporation and MAZOR Robotics. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:14:08 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Amir Manager +1-347-918-3531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 578 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1-347-918-3531 Respiratory heaters are external heaters that are used with the nebulizer system, to deliver heated aerosol or heated breathing gas to the patient. Respiratory heaters are also known as nebulizer heaters which are invented to provide heated and warm bland aerosol therapy to the patients who required respiratory support via a nasal cannulae, tracheal tube or face mask. The respiratory heaters offer the ability to mix oxygen and warm ambient air to the users without any need of piped medical grade air. With an ideal oxygen flow-meter, the nebulizer system is used in a conjunction with respiratory heater, which provides pressurized oxygen by ultra-fine particles in the therapeutic aerosol which is created by nebulizer system. The respiratory heaters creating a perfect system for patients or users who required high flow therapy. Basically, the function of the respiratory heater is to warm the solution in the nebulizer and heats the dilution air.Visit For Table of Contents: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5854 The global respiratory heaters market is anticipated to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The global market of respiratory heaters is driven by the increasing incidence of respiratory disorders such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis etc. The high cost of the surgical treatments in lung disease can upsurge the market of the respiratory heaters. Infections, allergies and air pollution increase the incidence of respiratory illness which will ultimately enhance the growth of the global respiratory heaters market. Ignorance of the initial symptoms regarding the respiratory illness, due to the lack of knowledge is the main reasons that will hamper the growth of this market.The global respiratory heaters market is classified on the basis of application and end users. Global respiratory heaters market segmented, by Application: Asthma,COPD,Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Bronchitis.Global ultrasonic dissection devices market segmented, by Distribution Channel:Hospitals,Retail Stores,Online Stores, Others.The increasing investment by the hospital facilities and government for better healthcare is expected to drive the market. The companies are engrossed in introducing the products with innovative technology. The respiratory heaters market is classified by application and distribution channel. In terms of application, the global respiratory heaters market is segmented into asthma, COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchitis. By distribution channel, respiratory heaters market is classified as hospitals, retail stores, online stores and others.On the basis of geography, respiratory heaters market is segmented as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to dominate the respiratory heaters market due to the advent of new technologies and favorable reimbursement scenario for laser treatment in this region. Europe is also contributing the moderate shares to the market due to the advanced medical facilities and easy availability of the respiratory heaters in the market. APAC is the most lucrative market for the respiratory heaters due to increasing awareness regarding the respiratory disorders in the region is expected to show a robust growth in the global respiratory heaters market. MEA is at a nascent stage to the global respiratory heaters market and anticipated to register a decent growth to the market over a forecast period. Overall, the global respiratory heaters market is expected to show significant growth over a forecast period.Some of the players in ultrasonic dissection devices market includes Carefusion, Teleflex inks, HealthTrust, ARMSTRONG MEDICAL, Teleflex Incorporated, GREAT GROUP MEDICAL CO., LTD., Medline Industries, Inc and others.Request Report Sample@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5854 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:05:59 TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 7, 2019 / Magnetic geophysics, Magnetotelluric (''MT'') geophysics and Gravity geophysics all support the potential that a large target at depth could be a massive sulphide body similar in area to the Sullivan Zinc-Lead massive sulphide deposit located 35 km north of PJX Resources' 100% owned Vine Property near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada.HighlightsRecent Three-Dimensional (''3D'') Modeling of Magnetic data has identified a magnetic signature that appears to correlate with a large conductive MT anomaly announced in December 2018. (see 3D images of MT and Magnetic Models http://pjxresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pjx-vine-mt-mag.jpg) The large conductive MT anomaly can be traced for 800 metres (m) horizontally along strike. The sub-vertical MT anomaly starts at about 600 m deep and can be traced down dip to the west to a depth of at least 2 kilometres (km).Two-Dimensional Modelling of gravity data suggests the potential for large dense bodies of massive sulphide at depths similar to the MT and magnetic anomalies.The anomalies appear to occur above the Moyie fault and adjoining fault splays. Anomalous zinc and lead mineralization have been intersected above these faults, in holes drilled up dip and on strike with the anomalies.''The addition of a magnetic signature to the large target at depth identified by MT and gravity geophysics strengthens the potential for massive sulphide mineralization on the Vine Property.'' states the President and CEO of PJX, John Keating. ''Each geophysical technique can be used to identify massive sulphides, however it is not often that we see all 3 correlate with the same target.'' As announced in December, 2018, Management believes the large MT anomaly could represent a folded massive sulphide body along the regional Moyie fault and adjoining fault splays. There is also a smaller, less conductive, MT target closer to surface. Of great significance is how both MT anomalies appear to correlate with the depths of potential massive sulphide identified by gravity data modelling. Neither of these target areas have been drilled.PJX plans to first test shallow targets for massive sulphide potential before testing the deep target. Shallow targets are at depths between 100 and 200 m. Drilling is planned to commence this month. Additional work to assess the MT and other data is on-going.The foregoing geological disclosure has been reviewed by John Keating P.Geo. (qualified persons for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects). Mr. Keating is the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of PJX.Stock Option GrantThe Company's board of directors has authorized granting stock purchase options to certain directors, employees and consultants to acquire an aggregate of 2,960,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.25, expiring January 3, 2024. The foregoing is subject to regulatory acceptance.About PJX Resources Inc.PJX is a mineral exploration company focused on building shareholder value and community opportunity through the exploration and development of mineral resources with a focus on gold and base metals. PJX's properties are located in the historical mining area of Cranbrook and Kimberley, British Columbia. Please refer to our web site http://www.pjxresources.com for additional information.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:Linda Brennan, Chief Financial Officer(416) 799-9205info@ pjxresources.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Forward-Looking InformationThis News Release contains forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements which relate to future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to exploration results, the success of exploration activities, mine development prospects, completion of economic assessments, and future gold production. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", ''appears to'', "should", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", believes", "estimates", "predicts", "potential", or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking-statements.Although PJX has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.SOURCE: PJX Resources Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 20:05:45 Press Information Research Report Insights Pvt Ltd 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, Canada Bisvjeet CEO 16317214201 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 790 Words 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, CanadaCEO16317214201 Portable ultrasound bladder scanner market is projected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue and volume during the forecast perioddue to factors such as new technological advancement, high end of accuracy, rise in the prevalence of urological diseases such as urinary tract infections, bladder control problems, Post-Void residual bladder volume and others. In addition, increasing health care expenditure and rising geriatric population globally are likely to contribute to the growth of the market. In terms of revenue, the global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market is expected to reach US$ 172 Mn in 2026, witnessing a year-over-year growth of 6.4%.Rising demand for portable ultrasound bladder scanner and growing awareness about the benefits associated with non- invasive diagnostic procedure are the other factors anticipatedto drive the global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market during the forecast period from 20162026.Factors such as rising prevalence of urological diseases,rising adoption of non-invasive, painless diagnostic procedures, increased efficiency of ultrasound bladder scanners and better patient convenience and safetyis expected to fuel the revenue growth of global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market over the forecast period. Economic factors such as increased healthcare costs per patient, andfocus on acquisitions and collaboration among companies to expand their urology product portfolio are expected to boost growth of global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market over the forecast period.Request for Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110115001/Portable-Ultrasound-Bladder-Scanner-Market Sales of portable ultrasound bladder scanner have remained quite healthy in the U.S. market, making North America the most beneficial market globally.North America portable ultrasound bladder scanner marketrevenue was accounted to be US$35.9 Mn in 2015, with the U.S. accounting for majority of revenue share.By product type, 3D portable ultrasound bladder scanner accounted for higher revenue share in global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market as compared to 2D portable ultrasound bladder scanner product segment. The segment is expected to reach a value of US$ 159.2 Mn by 2026, reflecting a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period. 2D portable ultrasound bladder scanner product type segment accounted for US$ 11.4 Mn by 2026, reflecting a CAGR of 2.3% over the forecast period. However, the 3D portable ultrasound bladder scanner segment is expected to record significant growth rate during the forecast period in terms of both revenue and volume due to high quality imaging and non-invasive diagnostic procedure to assess urological conditions.Request for Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110115001/Portable-Ultrasound-Bladder-Scanner-Market By end-user, the global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market is sub-segmented into hospitals, diagnostic centers, clinics, and Ambulatory Surgical Centers.Hospitalsdominated the end-user segment of the global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market in terms of both revenue and volume in 2015.The segment dominated the market due to factors such as increasing number of people opting for non-invasive and painless bladder scanning procedure for diagnosis.Hospitals end user segment is expected to register highest CAGR of 6.8% over the forecast period.However , diagnostic centersis expected to reach a value of US$ 26.2 Mn by 2026, reflecting a CAGR of 5.5% over the forecast period.The portable ultrasound bladder scanner lowers catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). CAUTI prolongs the unnecessary stay of patient in hospitals. Every year over 1 million catheterizations are done in hospitals of which 25% are unnecessary due to lack of guidelines for its use in various indications.North America accounted for a major share of 40.2% of the global portable ultrasound bladder scanner market in 2015. Increasing prevalence of urological diseases, rising geriatric population, and active awareness campaigns about the risks associated with the bladder problems are the key factors contributing to the growth of the portable ultrasound bladder scanner market in the region. In addition, introduction of new and innovative devices with advanced technological advancement and user friendly procedure technique also add fuel to the growth of portable ultrasound bladder scanner market. North America constitutes developed economies such as the U.S. and Canada. Revenues of APEJ are anticipated to grow by US$ 26.4 Mn by 2026, reflecting a CAGR of 6.7% over the forecast period in whereas Japanreflects a CAGR of 5.8% over the forecast period due toincreasing affordability of non-invasive procedures and favourable cost structure.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110115001/Portable-Ultrasound-Bladder-Scanner-Market Key players in the global portable ultrasound bladder scannermarket include LABORIE (Investor AB), SRS Medical System Inc., Verathon Inc. (Roper Technologies), C. R. Bard, Inc., dBMEDx Inc., ECHO-SON S.A., GE Healthcare Inc., Sonostar Technologies Co., Limited and others. Major market players are adopting different strategies such as productlaunch and acquisitions to maintain the market share. In 2016, Patricia Industries, a part of Investor AB acquired LABORIE, which has a strong focus on diagnostic devices and treatment of urologic disorders that is affecting the life of the people at a higher rate. Various acquisitions and collaboration are helping in the expansion of product catalogue and research and development activities. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 19:22:22 Press Information Research Report Insights Pvt Ltd 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, Canada Bisvjeet CEO 16317214201 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 509 Words 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, CanadaCEO16317214201 Varying technical textiles demand across various industrial verticals has been revealed in a report published by Research Report Insights over the forecast period by 2022. The market for polymer coated fabric is estimated to reach a valuation of US$ 19000 Mn by 2022-end, after analyzing a slew of factors influencing the dynamics of market. The market is expected to witness expansion at steady single-digit CAGR, and is concentrated in APEJ region.PE Coated Fabrics to Hold One-fifth Market SharePolymer coated fabrics having moisture barrier properties are expected to gather more demand in the market. Polyethylene coatings, which can prevent moisture from infusing the fabric will remain most lucrative. In terms of revenues, PE coated fabrics are expected to hold nearly 20% share of the market. The PE coated fabrics are expected to be garnering more demand in near future, while its contribution to overall market revenues wont be as remarkable as rest of the product-types.Request for Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114985/Polymer-Coated-Fabric-Market Drivers and RestraintsA variety of mechanical and physical advantages provided by PE coated fabrics owing to their minimum water permeation features is anticipated to increase the application range of polymer coated fabrics. In terms of value, the PE coated fabrics is likely to exhibit fastest sales increase by expansion at healthy CAGR over the forecast period. Vinyl coated fabrics are likely to be witnessed as top-grossing products in the market and is likely to procure two-fifth market share by 2017-end.Woven textile materials are likely to lose its trend in polymer coated fabric market in near future. Demand for the non-woven polymer fabrics are anticipated to overcome that of the polymer coated fabrics manufactured from woven textile materials. Woven textile materials are expected to secure more than one-third market share, while knitted textile materials are likely to hold two-fifth value share of total polymer coated fabric market. Bad selvedge and drop stitches are some of major deficiencies in woven textile products that have affected the lower uptake of polymer coated fabrics.Request for Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114985/Polymer-Coated-Fabric-Market Analysis of Market Based on SegmentationAPEJ region is anticipated to remain most profitable in the polymer coated fabric market, followed by North America and Europe. The polymer coated fabric market in Africa (MEA) and Middle East will exhibit fasted expansion at single-digit CAGR through 2022. While, industrial applications are likely to generate growing opportunity to reach nearly US$ 1000 Mn, transportation application of polymer coated fabric will have less demand in the foreseeable future. In terms of applications, production of canopies, roofing and awnings are projected to remain lucrative in the market, reaching a valuation nearly US$ 3000 Mn by the end of 2022.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114985/Polymer-Coated-Fabric-Market Competitive LandscapeE I du Pont de Nemours and Company, Bayer AG, 3M Company, Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd., Saint-Gobain, PPG Industries, Inc., The Sherwin-Williams Company, Akzo Nobel NV, The Valspar Corp, and BASF SE are some prominent players that will contribute in the growth of market during the forecast period PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 07:03:01 Pacific Prime Recognized Again With Bupa Global Award Stephen Ho Marketing Director - Pacific Prime and Kwiksure +852 3589 0508 At a Christmas party held for Bupa Global Insurances partners in Hong Kong, Pacific Prime Insurance Brokers was yet again recognized by the insurance provider in the form of an award. Bupa Global Asia Pacifics General Manager, Jonathan Quach, was on hand for the presentation of Bupa Globals Top Producer of 2018 Award to Pacific Prime, which was accepted on behalf of the company by Pacific Prime Senior Corporate Account Manager Christian Moore. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005 Pacific Prime's Christian Moore receives Top Producer award from Bupa Global Asia Pacific General Manager, Jonathan Quach (Photo: Business Wire) Of the award, Christian said, We are honored to be recognized as Top Producer as well as the Best Performing Intermediary earlier in the year by BUPA Global. This goes to show the importance of having a comprehensive product, along with dedicated client service, that can work in tandem together in the APAC market. While we have won awards from Bupa Global previously, it feels especially good to be acknowledged in front of our local peers in Hong Kong. Mr. Moore was correct that this is not the first time that Pacific Prime has been recognized for service and product excellence. Just last year, the broker was given Bupa Globals Best Performance Intermediary award. Pacific Prime has also received the Innovative Excellence award in 2016, Individual Sale Top Producer in 2014, and Top Global Distributor awards in both 2013 and 2012. The award winning insurance broker has also garnered accolades from organizations other than Bupa Global in the past, such as the recent Now Health and Best Doctors Insurance awards for Top Individual Sales and Top Individual Agency in 2017, and IHI Bupas Top New Business Producer for Travel Insurance award in 2013. Speaking to the sustained performance of Pacific Prime in the eyes of Bupa Global over the two companies 15+ year relationship, Bupa HK's Managing Director, Angus Slater stated, Pacific Prime has consistently been a top broker for Bupa Global. They are expat insurance experts; they have an innovative and energetic team, and have a wide footprint across all the key expat destinations. Pacific Prime have won our Top Producer award in the Asia Pacific region in the past few years and have again been the top producer for HK this year, generating the highest new business volume in 2018. Find Pacific Prime in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, London, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005 Pacific Prime was honored again by Bupa Global with the 2018 Top Producer award PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:07:21 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com abhishek manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 891 Words Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.commanager+1 03479183531 The organic milk market encompasses all milk and milk products derived from animals that are fed organic feed that is devoid of any animal by-products, have access to fresh pastures, and are not treated with any synthetic hormones or antibiotics. The term organic only refers to the process in which the milk is prepared and has no relation to the end-product nutrient profile. The market for organic milk is expected to grow at a rapid pace with the mainstreaming of natural and organic foods.Similar to all organic foods, the demand for organic milk is closely tied to the increasing consumer preference for naturally and organically grown products. This positive view of organics is due to several factors such as the perception of anything organic as healthy and pure, increasing care for environment and concern for farm animals. All these factors are crucial for the acceptance of organic milk products, thereby leading to the popularity of labels such as grass-fed and pasture-raised.Price is an important constraining factor for organic milk market as organic milk is almost thrice as costly as regular milk. This high difference limits the scope of the market only to urban and high-aware consumers.The consumer shift towards organic dairy products is also influenced by the large scale food adulteration scandals that have occurred recently. For instance, the 2008 Chinese milk scandal wherein a large number of children were hospitalized due to an excessive amount of melamine in the milk and infant formulas, has led to a great number of regulations, import restrictions and price fluctuations in the market. Events such as these have increased consumer interest in what the animal is fed, how it is raised and processing methods.The regulatory aspects of the organic milk market are mostly centered on the use of the organic label. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires that apart from the use of organic feed, cows should have access to fresh grass and spend at least four months a year grazing in pastures. The crucial aspect of organic milk market is a lack of use of synthetic hormones such as rBGH, a growth hormone given to almost 30% of the dairy cows in the US. These ingredients are considered very negatively by most consumers.Buy This Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2416 The organic milk market is segmented on the basis of application, packaging type, distribution channel, and geography. On the basis of application, the organic milk market is segmented as milk, dairy products and milk-based beverages and others. The majority of organic milk is consumed directly in the form of boiled milk, coffee, tea, and in cooking certain dishes at home. The use of organic milk is particularly increasing in households with kids due to extra concerns about food safety and health. The dairy products segment is further segmented into butter, cheese, desserts, and others. The dairy products segment is expected to gain market share with the growing consumer interest in healthy indulgent foods. Further these products are used in some bakery and confectionery good like milk toffies, bars and cakes and cookies.On the basis of packaging type, the market can be segmented into pouches, cartons, bottles, and cans. The use of any specific packaging type depends on the end-purpose and use. For instance, pouches offer a relatively cheap way and easy way to pack milk and are therefore very popular in emerging nations such as India. Cartons are an important packaging type in terms of the longer shelf life and convenience. Bottles can be of both glass and plastic and are heavily used for packing milk and beverages. Cans are mainly used to transport heavy loads of organic milk and in the case of many dairy products.On the basis of distribution channels, the market is segmented into hypermarkets/supermarkets, convenience and grocery stores, specialty stores, the internet and direct selling. The use of internet limited in the case of organic milk market as the products are easily perishable. Hypermarkets and supermarkets occupy the dominant market share mainly because a significant number of organic products are concentrated in large stores. Direct selling in the form of home deliveries is also an important and growing distribution channel because such delivery systems usually source the organic milk from local sources thereby ensuring freshness and quality.The United States occupies the dominant market share in the organic milk market. The increasing consumer awareness about natural consumer goods and increase in the incidence of lifestyle conditions such as obesity. Europe is another very important region in the organic milk market due to the high-income levels, easy product accessibility and strict regulations against synthetic food ingredients. U.K is a major consumer of organic milk and also houses many producers and suppliers. Despite occupying small market share at the current time period, the organic milk market is expected to grow at a significant level in emerging nations such as India and Brazil. This is due to the increasing awareness levels and fears of food adulteration among consumers.Some of the key players in the organic milk market include Danone (WhiteWave Foods Company), Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, Organic Valley, OMSCo (Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative), Dairy Farmers of America Inc., Agropur Dairy Cooperative, Arla Foods Amba, Donegal Investment Group plc. , etc. among the others.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2416 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:53:51 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Vaibhav SEO 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-market # 557 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/SEO3479183531 NMP or N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone is a hygroscopic, highly polar compound with great thermal and chemical stability. It is slowly oxidised by air and easily purified by fractional distillation. NMP is used for many applications, and is highly prevalent in the industry as it is biodegradable and recyclable. A new research report by Future Market Insights projects the market scenario of NMP for the years ahead. According to this comprehensive research report titled N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP) Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 2028, the global NMP market is expected to reach a value of over US$ 1,200 Mn by the end of 2028, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-625 N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone Market: SnapshotWith the rise in demand for NMP in the global market, many companies are adopting the strategy of innovating their product offerings. There are various companies moving strong in the market, and are forced to come up with innovative products in order to compete efficiently in the market. Innovation and sustainability initiatives are anticipated to be major factors responsible for competiveness. Consumers do not mind paying a premium for green chemistry and environmental preservation initiatives. This, along with more stringent regulatory constraints, may further increase the importance of innovation in this market. Regional expansion is another strategic move undertaken by top manufacturers to efficiently cater to consumer demands. Manufacturers are also expanding their production plants in different regions with improved capacity levels. These moves also serve as a driver for the global NMP market, boosting product supply and demand.Some of the key players in the market include companies such as LyondellBasell Industries Holdings, Ashland, Eastman Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Hefei TNJ Chemical Industry Co., Ltd, Shandong Qingyun Changxin Chemical Science-Tech Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Realsun Chemical Co., Ltd, Puyang,, Guangming Chemicals Co., Ltd, Abtonsmart Chemicals (Group) Co., Ltd, Balaji Amines, Binzhou Yuneng Chemical Co., Ltd, Binzhou City Zhanhua District Ruian Chemical Co., Ltd. All these companies play a crucial role in influencing the dynamics of the global NMP market.Read Comprehensive Overview with Methodology of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-625 NMP Market Anticipated to Face Growth Restrictions in North America and Europe Due to New Regulatory FrameworkAccording to the market analysis for the years 2018-2028, China is expected to record the highest consumption of NMP in excess of 120,000 MT by the end of 2028. However, in terms of growth rate, the SEA & Pacific region is expected to witness good growth during the forecast period. North America also holds a lucrative position with a high market value estimated by the end of 2028.The report also highlights the fact that the application of NMP in industrial cleaners and paints or coatings will decline exceptionally in Europe and North America, due to a stringent regulatory framework. In Europe, the use of NMP in consumer products is expected to decline owing to its entry in Annex VI of the CLP Regulation including Repr. 1B H360D with a specific concentration level (SCL) of 5% (current consumer product limit). If this is applied, it will confine the use of NMP in consumer applications to less than 0.3% and would thereby prohibit NMP from being used in such products as NMP would have no functionality at this level in the current consumer applications. Motorized Quadricycles Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 12:30:35 Press Information Persistence Market Research CONTACT: Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com yogesh Seggar Team Lead 8009610353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 752 Words CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead8009610353 Global Motorized Quadricycles Market: IntroductionMotorized quadricycles are small and fuel-efficient vehicles used for local transportation in rural and urban areas. Motorized quadricycles have emerged as an alternative to small city cars and motorcycles. With a speed range of 45 100 kmph and weight of up to 400-500 kg, motorized quadricycles have become a popular means of internal transportation. Quadricycles are largely used in European countries. They are exempt from stringent regulations and safety tests that are applicable for passenger cars; also, they are road-legal and may not require a full license to be driven. As per the directive 2002/24/EC & CE, quadricycles have been categorized into: light quadricycles (L6e) and heavy quadricycles (L7e). Light quadricycles are limited to a speed of 45 kmph, while heavy quadricycles are not speed limited and may have a speed of up to 100 kmph. Motorized quadricycles must meet environment regulations w.r.t emissions, however this isnt a key concern for manufacturers as a major share of motorized quadricycles are electric; gas powered quadricycles hold a low market share. Despite some existing restraining factors, the motorized quadricycle market is expected to witness noteworthy year-on-year growth over the forecast period. It has been witnessed that elderly population accounts for a majority of the demand for motorized quadricycles owing to low cost, light weight and ease of handling of the vehicle. This trend is expected to exist throughout the forecast period.Global Motorized Quadricycle Market: DynamicsLow cost, ease of handling and lack of stringent regulations are some of the prominent factors driving the sale of motorized quadricycles. Quadricycles are many folds cheaper than city passenger cars and thus appeal to huge masses, particularly the elderly population who do not seek high power and high speed vehicles. Motorized quadricycles are easy to handle; these usually have a CVT transmission and require comparatively low maintenance as compared to other passenger cars. Majority of motorized quadricycles are electric powered and thus, are environment friendly. Furthermore, the motorized quadricycle market lacks stringent regulations. Regulations for driving quadricycles vary from country to country. In some countries, no license is required to drive a quadricycle, while in some countries a valid driving license and a minimum age of 18 years are prerequisites.Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13651 The recent one-off tests conducted by Euro NCAP brought the quadricycle market to limelight. The frontal and side crash test conducted by the organization highlighted that quadricycles significantly lacked passenger safety even at a low speed of 50 kmph. The frontal and side impact tests highlighted the lack of minimum safety equipment in quadricycles. This has created pressure on manufacturers to transform their vehicles and ensure a high level of safety during crash, while maintaining cost of the vehicle; as surge in prices would not be acceptable to customers. At the same time, this incident may also restrain customers from buying quadricycles due to the lack of safety.Global Motorized Quadricycle Market: SegmentationBy product type, the motorized quadricycle market can be segmented into:Light QuadricyclesHeavy QuadricyclesBy mode of operation, the motorized quadricycle market can be segmented into:Electric QuadricyclesFuel Operated QuadricyclesBy price range, the motorized quadricycle market can be categorized into:EconomicMid-rangePremiumGlobal Motorized Quadricycle Market: Region-wise OutlookPresently, Europe leads the demand for motorized quadricycles in the global market, and the region is expected to remain predominant in the motorized quadricycle market over the forecast period. Flexible regulations in the region are expected to be the major driver for market growth and thus, increased adoption of quadricycles is expected over the forecast period. After Europe, North America and Latin America are anticipated to be major upcoming markets for motorized quadricycles. However, slow adoption rate is expected in some countries of these regions. The Asia Pacific motorized quadricycle market possesses significant growth opportunity owing to robust economic growth and increasing vehicle ownership per capita. However, some of the countries in the region create moderate demand for quadricycles, as quadricycles here are only limited to internal transport application and are not authorized to be driven on roads. Safety concerns for passengers and poor road infrastructure in some countries of the Asia Pacific region are expected to hamper demand for motorized quadricycles in the region.Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/13651 Global Motorized Quadricycle Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global motorized quadricycles market are:Aixam-MegaGrecavGroupe RenaultBajaj Auto. Ltd.Ligier AutomobilesClub Car, LLC.TECNO MECCANICA IMOLA SPA (Gruppo Tazzari) PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 13:01:30 Press Information Persistence Market Research CONTACT: Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com yogesh Seggar Team Lead 8009610353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 549 Words CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead8009610353 Introduction:Now a days Engine Management System (EMS) is common for low end vehicles and motorcycles. The engine management system is responsible for maintaining ignition timing and amount of fuel injected in the combustion cylinder. The engine management system helps to maximize the power output of engine, lower the exhaust, and lower the fuel consumption thus helping the vehicle to meet the required emission norms worldwide with improved energy performance. The engine management system is basically an Electronic control unit with sensors, sensors are used to send the information about intake air temperature, coolant temperature, throttle position, engine speed to electronic control unit. Electronic control unit takes the action and modifies the air fuel ratio and control the engine speed.Global Motorcycle Engine Management System Market Dynamics:Global motorcycle engine management system market is directly influenced by global motorcycle production & sales and emission regulations in different part of the world. The Asia-Pacific region is the largest market for motorcycles, there is a huge demand for motorcycles in India, and this factor makes this region the most lucrative market for engine management systems suppliers. The consumer demand for the more fuel efficient motorcycles in Asia-Pacific region is also a major driver for the global motorcycle engine management system market. Aftermarket installation of engine management system may contribute positively in the global motorcycle engine management system market. North America and Europe is the small market as compared with Asia-Pacific, but the demand for advance and efficient motorcycles is increasing, thus there is an opportunity for the engine management system suppliers in these regions.Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11461 The increase in the demand for environment friendly electric bikes and scooters is posing a threat for motorcycle engine management system market.Global Motorcycle Engine Management System Market Segmentation:Global motorcycle engine management system market is segmented on the basis of types of motorcycle where it is used, such as sport bikes, cruiser bikes, touring bikes, sport-touring bikes, dual-sport bikes, and scooter and mopeds. Further, the market is segmented on the basis of components such as; ECU, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, speed sensors, position sensors, and others. Global motorcycle engine management system market is also segmented on the basis of capacity of the engines such as, less than 250 cc, 251 to 500 cc, 501 to 1000 cc, and larger than 1000 cc.Global Motorcycle Engine Management System Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the Global Motorcycle Engine Management System market can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. European and North American motorcycle market mainly consist of sport bikes, touring (adventure) bikes which are all high performing bike with advance engine technology. Asian motorcycle market mainly consist of two-wheelers with engine capacity less than 250 cc. Asia-Pacific is largest market for motorcycles, more than 70% of the global motorcycle market.Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/11461 Global Motorcycle Engine Management System Market Key Players:The major global player identified across the value chain are Robert Bosch GmbH, Denso Corporation, Delphi Automotive LLP, Infineon Technologies AG, Omnitek Engineering Corp., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation among others. Companies are focusing on integration of smartphone through mobile application with engine management system which will help the companies to track the real time performance of a vehicle. Military Antenna Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 12:33:48 Press Information Persistence Market Research CONTACT: Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com yogesh Seggar Team Lead 8009610353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 670 Words CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead8009610353 Increasing modernization of the military equipment coupled with the boost in legacy system around the world is expected to fuel the demand of military antenna market. Military antennas provide highly accurate tracking, surveillance, ground mapping, warning against aircrafts, weapons, etc. thereby enhancing the security. Apart from all the above mentioned features, military antenna used in the radars also provide missile guidance for accurate target tracking. The rise in border infiltration, terrorism activities, inter country conflicts, and attack prone borders are expected to drive military antenna market in the near future.On the basis of platform, ground platform is expected to dominate the military antenna market as they help in providing real time information related to ground penetration, unexploded tunnels, etc. during the war. However, the market for space based platform is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Based on application, homeland security system is estimated to dominate the global military antenna system market over the forecast period. The advancement in the surveillance system such as 3D drones and multifunctional radars is estimated to have high potential to drive the military antenna market globally.Global Military Antenna Market: DriversA major factor driving the growth of the global military antenna market is the rise in military spending. Moreover, escalation in the need for better border security is expected to upsurge the demand for military antenna market. Moreover, technological mushrooming coupled with the need of modern battle equipment is expected to fuel the betterment of military antenna market during the forecast period. Increasing use of military antenna in armored vehicles, naval vessels, aircraft, etc. speed up the expansion and growth of the global military antenna market.Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13372 Global Military Antenna Market: RestraintsHigh initial costs coupled with the large spending on R&D activities is expected to hamper the growth of military antenna market. Moreover, economic crisis in the European countries like Germany, Russia, U.K. etc. is expected to restrain the growth of the global military antenna market.Global Military Antenna Market: SegmentationGlobal Military antenna market can be segmented on the basis of platform, product type, frequency, applications, and regions. On the basis of platform, the market can be segmented into airborne, ground, naval, and space. On the basis of product type, the global military antenna market can be segmented into vehicle mount antennas, base station antennas, shipboard antennas, man-pack and portable antennas, and asset tracking antennas. On the basis of frequency, the market can be segmented into High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF). On the basis of applications, global military antenna market can be segmented into homeland security system, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and handheld equipment. On the basis of regions, market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.Global Military Antenna Market: Region wise OutlookBased on regions, North America is expected to be the most prominent revenue generating region in the global military antenna system market. North America spent nearly US$ 596 Bn., which holds nearly 36% of the entire worlds spending on military, in 2015. However, in the U.S., there is a decline in spending on military by 2.4% in 2015. Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The military spending in Asia Pacific increased by 5.6% in 2015. Moreover, APAC and China accounted for nearly 50% share in the total military spending which is nearly four times the spending in military by India. Additionally, increasing border disputes in APAC is expected to drive the growth of military antenna market in this region. Latin America is projected to witness sluggish growth due to severe economic crisis.Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/13372 Global Military Antenna Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the prominent players identified in the global military antenna market are as follows,MTI Wireless EdgeEylex Pty Ltd.Cojot OyAntenna Products CorporationComrod CommunicationsBarker and WilliamsonRohde & SchwarzLockheed Martin CorporationRaytheon CompanyTermaHarris Corporation FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 08:44:00 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 544 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 Future Market Insights (FMI) announced the release of a latest report titled, POU Water Purifiers Market: MENA Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020. FMI estimates that the Point of Use (POU) water purifier market in Middle East and North Africa is expected to reach US$ 471 Mn at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2014 to 2020.Residential water purification system includes point of use water purifiers (POU), point of entry (POE) water purifiers, portable water purifiers. Moreover, the demand for POU water purifiers is high among consumers in MENA region as compared to POE and portable water purifiers. In the POU water purifiers market, products with high purification capabilities such as combination of reverse osmosis (RO) and Ultraviolet (UV) technologies are more preferred. It has also been observed that a majority of the demand is coming from urban centres in GCC when compared to the entire MENA region.Market SegmentsThe POU water purifiers market is segmented on the basis of technology which includes RO, UV and media-based. RO technology based water purifiers segment is estimated to account for slightly over 40% of the total POU water purifiers market in MENA region in 2014. Media-based water purification, which is a conventional water purification technology has also witnessed technological advancements, and is estimated to display a CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period, in terms of volume. The third technology, UV based water purifiers, is estimated to exhibit a sluggish growth rate during the forecast period due to its limitation in removing only organic contaminants from water. Additionally, UV-based water purifiers are also priced higher in comparison to media-based water purifiers and hence the product preference for UV based water purifiers is comparatively low.Region-wise, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Algeria are the promising markets for POU water purifiers. In addition, a cumulative scenario has been highlighted for rest of MENA (includes smaller countries like Kuwait, Jordan etc.). Among the aforementioned regions, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is estimated to be the prominent market for POU water purifiers, followed by Turkey, due to its growing population and rapid urbanization, and increasing awareness for safe drinking water forecast period. In addition, penetration of bottled water is a challenge for the POU water purifiers market in Anatolia. As a result, Anatolia is estimated to demonstrate a sluggish growth rate in the near future. Furthermore, POU water purifiers market in UAE is anticipated to reach 149.2 thousand units by 2020, exhibiting a CAGR of 10% between 2014 and 2020.Drivers and RestraintsDeteriorating water quality, rising cost of bottled water, increasing population coupled with increasing per capita income are some of the prominent factors which will catalyse the point of use water purifiers in the region. Though the MENA market is attractive in terms of absolute dollar opportunity, low awareness about safe drinking water and product unavailability are major challenges for the MENA POU water purifier market.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-ma-30 Competitive LandscapeKey players operating in the MENA water purifier market are LG, Eureka Forbes, Strauss Water, Panasonic, WaterLife and Coolplex. The report sheds light on their key growth strategies and recent developments. In addition, the report also discusses the value chain followed by multinational companies in MENA for POU water purifiers. Retail Glass Packaging Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 14:57:42 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Abhishek Budholiya Manager 9898989898 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ # 913 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/Manager9898989898 Retail glass packaging is the primary packaging of the products in glass bottles, containers, etc. Retail glass packaging is considered greener for packaging because glass is one of the most environmentally friendly material. The packaging of the product today is one of the primary concern and component of the marketing strategy for the product, especially in food and beverage industries. Companies nowadays have indulged in close cooperation with their customers and are also guiding their industrial suppliers, and have developed a proactive approach to developing innovative retail glass packaging solutions based on their knowledge of the terminal market. Companies are also offering a broad range of retail glass packaging products for shipping as well as display. Glass packaging is more attractive as compared to other packaging materials because of its glossy and tender appearance. The availability of 100% customization such as custom container designs, 3-D CAD renderings & video and flexible packaging with custom artwork, etc. in retail glass packaging, makes it one of the most suitable forms of primary packaging of the products.Retail Glass Packaging Market: Market DynamicsThe increasing demand for packaged food around the globe is fueling the growth of retail glass packaging market; this is attributed to the fact that glass is one of the most sterilized materials for packaging of eatables. The increasing consumption of beverages (alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic) is one of the primary drivers for the growth of retail glass packaging. The demand for the colored glass to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the product is also contributing to the growth of retail glass packaging market. The use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) to efficiently support the customers throughout the process of creation of retail glass packaging till the industrialization, is one of the prominent trends in the industry. The 100% recyclable nature of glass widens the scope for retail glass packaging market. It is because the retail glass packaging meets the demand for sustainable packaging solutions, unlike other materials. Retail glass packaging can help a company or its product attain the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certification because glass can be recycled endlessly. However, when it comes to distribution, plastic containers have a better transportation footprint, which in turns becomes a restraining factor for the growth of retail glass packaging market. This can be attributed to the fact that glass is a delicate and brittle material.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4440 Retail Glass Packaging Market: Segmentation OverviewRetail glass packaging is widely applied in the packaging of alcoholic beverages such as wines, beer, and spirits. It is also used for the packaging of medicines such as syrups, tonics, etc. Retail glass packaging is also used for packaging of non-alcoholic beverages such as flavored milk, juices, extracts, etc. Food items such as vinegar, pickles, jams, ketchup also require retail glass packaging. It is mostly used for the packaging of personal care and cosmetic products such as perfumes and body oils.In the pharmaceutical industry, retail glass packaging is ideal for packaging as the glass being a sterilized material, doesnt react with the medicines and keeps their chemical nature intact.Retail Glass Packaging Market: Regional OutlookThe global retail glass packaging market geographically is segmented as North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. The APEJ holds a significant share of the retail glass packaging market owing to the increasing demand for packaged foods and alcoholic beverages. Furthermore, the increase in R & D activities related to packaging technology, wherein retail glass packaging proved useful for retaining product freshness and quality; aids in boosting the growth of its market in the region. The market in the North America and Europe region is more inclined towards growing demand for retail glass packaging market because of the stringent government regulations and increasing preference for sustainable manufacturing practices and recyclable packaging materials.Request Report for Table of Contents @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4440 Retail Glass Packaging Market: Prominent PlayersSome of the prominent players in the global retail glass packaging market are : Koa Glass Co. Ltd.,,Gerreshiemer AG,,O-I (Owens-Illinois),,Verallia,,Vitro,,SKS Bottle & Packaging,,Ampak Inc.,,Pioneer Packaging,,REGINA INDUSTRIES LTD,,All American Containers,,HEINZ GLAS GMBH & CO. KGAA,,Rappaport Sons Bottle Co, Inc,,Freund Container & SupplyThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, type of product and applications.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Report Highlights : Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Request to Report Methodology @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-4440 FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:38:54 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 822 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 Luxury goods comprises of products such as accessories, footwear, apparel, watches and others which are quite expensive and target those consumers who belongs to premium class. The market for luxury goods consist of three types of end consumers, which includes kids lying between the age of 0-12 years, teenagers belonging to the age group of 13 to 19 years and the rest lies in adult group.Whereaskidsare concerned they are the smallest consumer group. Although being a smaller consumer group, the luxury products market for kids is experiencing tremendous growth in recent years due to changing consumer lifestyle and availability of the product. It is expected that spend on luxury shopping by consumers will grow by 25% in 2015. Luxury products for kids market is associated with higher margin as compared to adults luxury products segment. It has been found that babysluxury product accounted for more than 7.2% market share of luxury market in 2014. Luxury product market highly depends upon thefactors such as attractivemarketing, promotion techniques and proper distribution channel.Luxury products market for kids can be broadly segmented on the basis of product type, distribution channel and geographies. On the basis of product types it can be subsegmented into accessories, apparels and footwear. Among all these sub segments apparel market is expected to account for highest market share followed by footwear sub segment. The growth of apparel segment is fuelled by the frequently changing fashion and continuous need for new clothing for growing children. In 2014, U.S. and European market account for the most dominating market for apparel.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-205 The market for luxury baby product also depends upon the mode of distribution channel used for offering products to the consumers. The mode of Distribution channel is segmented into retail outlets, sell out through internet, companys brand outlet and others. Among all these distribution channel online retailing is expected to be most preferred mode for distribution in the forecasted period. This ishis is due to consumer convenience preferences and availability of the products at lower price. Furthermore, the second most preferred mode is expected to be the companys brand retail outlets as they provide better offerings at less price.Furthermore, the luxury products market for kids inAsia pacific is expected to account for fastest CAGR in the forecasted period as compared to other regions. This is because the growth in luxury expenditure is expected to increase by 40% by 2020.In addition, countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore and are expected to contribute a significant share to overall Asia Pacific luxury products market for kids. Whereas, spending from China is expected to witness a fastest growth in Asia Pacific.It is predicted to boost the customer base and prominent contributor in the revenue of global luxury products market for kids.Moreover , presently North America and Western Europe dominate the total luxury products market for kids due to high purchasing power of consumers. These regions are expected to witness a slow growth as compared to the growth exhibited by countries in Asia Pacific.The key factors driving the growth of luxury products market for kids includes continuous innovation in products sub segments, rising disposable income, changing consumer lifestyle, awareness of products through internet and social media, improving countries economy, influence of the consumers through their peers, friends or neighbours, and others .However, there are some restraining factors which are affecting the growth for luxury products market for kids which include the expensive price range for consumers in emerging markets and less product variants availability across the distribution channel. Moreover, internet being a prominent medium for distribution of the luxury goods is expected to witness low adoption among the consumers in emerging markets. Thisis due to less internet penetration in these markets.Initially the market for luxury baby products was dominated by specialty retailers such as Childrens Place The Walt Disney Company, Mothercare plc, The Gymboree Corporation and others. However, with the increase in premium consumers leading to a shift in consumer buying behavior, due to this various companies have entered the market which includes GAPInc, J Crew Group, Inc, DKNY, Gucci Group, Diesel,Dolce &Gabbana, United Colors of Benetton, Jack & Jill clothing Inc,Giorgio Armani S.p.A, BLOCH, Burberry Group plc, Converse, Christian Dior S.A, FENDI and others.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-205 This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, geographies and types.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market SegmentsMarket DynamicsMarket SizeSupply & DemandCurrent Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies InvolvedTechnologyValue ChainRegional analysis includesNorth AmericaLatin AmericaAsia PacificJapanWestern EuropeEastern EuropeMiddle East & Africa PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:24:00 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Vaibhav SEO 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/liquid-silicone-rubber-market # 587 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/SEO3479183531 As molding processes gain grounds in the manufacturing sector, injection materials such as liquid silicone rubber are witnessing a sharp increase in terms of demand. Versatile characteristics and unique properties of liquid silicone rubber is driving its value in the elastomer industry, wherein a wide spectrum of consumer products, medical devices and industrial goods are being manufactured by injecting liquid silicone rubber into mold cavities. Future Market Insights estimates that by the end of 2026, the global market for liquid silicone rubber will touch a valuation of US$ 7.9 billion.The study foresees a moderate growth for the expansion of global liquid silicone rubber market during the period, 2017-2026. It has been estimated that the global liquid silicone rubber market will register a value CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period. High carbon footprint of producing liquid silicone rubber at large scale, limitations to the reuse and recyclability of such elastomers and disposability challenges are set to deter the use of liquid silicone rubbers in the near future.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5736 Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber to Reflect Global Market Value Share of 45% through 2026Molding capabilities of liquid silicone rubbers will drive their use across several industrial applications. It has been observed that industrial grade liquid silicone rubber will showcase robust growth in demand in the coming years. Through 2026, nearly half of the global liquid silicone rubber market value will be accounted by sales of industrial grade elastomers. The report also foresees that liquid injection molding technology will be a sought-after in the global liquid silicone rubber market. In 2017, more than US$ 3.2 billion worth of liquid silicone rubbers will be used by liquid injection molding systems across the globe.Lucrative End-use Industries for Liquid Silicone RubbersThe study has identified key industries that will drive the end-use of liquid silicone rubber in the near future. Consumer goods industry will reflect highest profitability in the end-use of liquid silicone rubber for manufacturing fast-selling products such as buttons and rubber gaskets. By the end of 2026, US$ 1.76 billion worth of liquid silicone rubber will be used in the production of consumer goods worldwide. Furthermore, healthcare landscape will also exhibit fast-growing end-use of liquid silicone rubber over the forecast period. Liquid silicone rubber manufacturers will find lucrative profit margins will selling these elastomers in the production of expensive medical devices such as lung catheters. The report also observes the automotive industry as a lucrative end-user of liquid silicone rubbers. Over the forecast period, automotive end-use of liquid silicone rubber will reflect highest value CAGR of 5.4% in the global market.Read Comprehensive Overview with Methodology of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-5736 Liquid Silicone Rubber Manufacturing to Remain Concentered in AsiaChina National Chemical Corporation, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., KCC Corporation, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, and Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group Co., Ltd. are among the prominent manufacturers of liquid silicon rubber based in Japan, China, Korea and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The report estimates that in 2018 and beyond, the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will represent largest marketplace for liquid silicone rubber, reflecting a weighted 35% share on global market value. Other key players in the global liquid silicone rubber market, namely Dow Corning Corporation, Momentive Performance Materials, Inc., Evonik Industries AG, Bluestar Silicones International, SiVance, LLC, NuSil Technology LLC, Simtec Silicone Parts, LLC, Wacker Chemie AG, Stockwell Elastomerics Inc., and Xinapse Systems Ltd. are also expected to bolster their presence across the APEJ region in the foreseeable future. Healthcare Master Data Management Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:27:28 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 740 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Information Technology has revolutionised every industry and brought about substantial changes. It has made the world more interconnected, interdependent and increased the volume of data to be processed enormously. However, if the data is compromised by way of a leak or hack, it can also have devastating consequences. This is particularly true in medical healthcare and thus, there is a focus on the healthcare Master Data Management market. MDM is the processes, policies, and tools that allow an organisation to define and manage its critical data, leading to a single point of reference. The healthcare master data management market is a major component of MDM. Medical healthcare facilities need to keep critical records of their patients health and security. Any lapse by way of administering an inadequate or incorrect dosage could even lead to death. It is vital for organisations to keep accurate, up-to-date records of their patients to avoid mistakes that could lead to reputational as well as financial harm to the organisation. Master data in healthcare is mainly divided into identifying data like the patient, provider or location and reference data i.e. linkable vocabulary like LOINC, RxNorm, ICD, SNOMED, etc.Healthcare Master Data Management Market DriversThere are three drivers of the healthcare master data management market mergers & acquisitions (M&A), Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). In todays globalised world, M&As have become commonplace and this also holds true for the medical industry. National boundaries have become irrelevant and healthcare institutions can go in for M&As for the same reasons as other organisations. It is very rare for two medical institutions to have the same type of data management techniques & each will have its own master data. MDM is crucial to helping the two entities organise, manage and then merge the healthcare data. There is also a great deal of interaction & information exchange between hospitals worldwide now. It may be for a second opinion, diagnoses or patient reassurance. To successfully exchange information across different locations, HIEs need to have reconciled the master data file. The last major driver of the healthcare master data management market is ACOs. They are a group of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who provide medical assistance to their Medicare patients voluntarily. It neednt be mentioned that they would all have different data organisation & management methods, hence they would need to look at the healthcare master data management market.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2411 Healthcare Master Data Management Market RestraintsSome of the restraints constraining the growth of the healthcare master data management market are data ownership, multiple sources of data, lack of true integration between clinical & administrative apps & lack of analytical talent. Autonomous clinics have largely funded their own data management systems to the exclusion of the entire healthcare system. With increasing M&As in the industry, this issue has only been compounded recently. While patients have the right to their healthcare data, the question of who owns the data continues to linger. A second challenge is the sheer volume of data. Not only is it in individual organisation departments, some data might also be in a proprietary format like Picture Archiving Communication Systems (PACS). This might be controlled by an external source, making it difficult to extract or claim. Many healthcare institutions struggle to understand modern technology like healthcare payments, coding, reimbursements or other data. Integrating it for decision-making is another challenge entirely! Another major challenge for the healthcare master data management market is the lack of analytical talent. Healthcare providers struggle to find the right experts to help them exploit their databases to the fullest. There is a massive shortage of data scientists, especially in healthcare, who can use big data techniques to optimise healthcare records.Healthcare Master Data Management Market Key RegionsThe largest healthcare master data management market at present is the U.S. It is also expected to grow at the highest rate due to legislation like the Affordable Care Act, EHR adoption, and government focus on customised medicine, healthcare management and hospital reimbursement. Key Asian markets are China, India, Japan and Korea.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2411 Healthcare Master Data Management Market Key Market PlayersSome of the companies competing in the healthcare master data management market are IBM Corporation, Cerner Corporation, Verisk Analytics, Allscripts Health Solutions and Health Catalyst. Iv Equipment Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:20:51 Press Information Persistence Market Research Contact Us Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Yogesh Senger Associate Consultant 800-961-0353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 494 Words Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comAssociate Consultant800-961-0353 Rising cases of needle stick injuries, the shift in demand towards ambulatory surgical centers and fusion pumps, and a greater number of surgical procedures performed are poised to benefit the IV equipment market. Furthermore, a prevalence of chronic diseases in an ageing population in developed nations are positive signs for the IV equipment market. However, lack of wireless connectivity, regulatory mandates for new product launches and increasing cases of medication errors inhibit the unencumbered growth of the IV equipment market that is anticipated to witness a steady CAGR of 5% from 2017 to 2022.The IV catheter segment is the most popular in the IV equipment market and should remain so for the foreseeable future. The IV catheter segment is expected to be worth more than US$ 2.7 billion in 2017 itself and companies are recommended to target this segment with gusto. The infusion pump segment is a close second in the IV equipment market in terms of product type segment and is likely to be the biggest winner in terms of market share. Key stakeholders in the IV equipment market would do well to focus their energy on the Europe infusion pumps market as the region accounts for more than a third of the revenue contribution.Request for Report Methodology @: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/19297 The securement device segment and stopclocks & valve segment have single digit revenue share in the IV equipment market. While the former is projected to lose market share, the latter is on track to gain share and companies may seek to take advantage of this. The stopcock & valves segment is estimated to grow with a CAGR of just under 6% from 2017 to 2022. Along with Europe, the stopcocks & valves segment has strong potential in APEJThe drip chamber and needleless connector segment have a revenue share of less than a tenth in the IV equipment market at the end of 2017. The needleless connector segment is predicted to lose substantial share in the near future while the drip chamber segment should fall slowly. The Europe drip chamber segment is assessed to grow past more than US$ 285 million at the end of the forecast period. The needleless connector segment also has the greatest potential in Europe. Along with Europe, companies could additionally target the North America needleless connector segmentHospitals hold the lions share in the IV equipment market by end user segment and are forecast to hold steady for the medium to long term. Hospitals are the most-well equipped to deal with any and every patient need pertaining to IV treatment. Europe is the largest region in the hospital segment of the IV equipment market but there is a close competition for the second place between APEJ and North AmericaRequest to view Sample Report: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/19297 The companies profiled in the IV equipment market are AngioDynamics, Moog Inc., Terumo Corporation, C. R. Bard, ICU Medical, Smiths Group, Baxter International Inc., Fresenius SE & Co., B. Braun Melsungen AG, and Becton, Dickinson and Company PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 05:40:46 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Vaibhav SEO 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/industrial-safety-gloves-market # 621 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/SEO3479183531 According to Future Market Insights, the global industrial safety gloves market will reflect a moderate CAGR through the forecast period, 2017 to 2026. Worldwide sales of industrial safety gloves are estimated to account for over US$ 9,500 Mn revenues by 2026-end.Disposable Gloves being Relatively More Favored in End-use IndustriesIndustrial safety gloves are increasingly being employed in various industrial settings for guaranteeing the employee safety in the work environment. Growing awareness among consumers regarding health and hygiene, mounting number of accidents at workplaces, and the need for safety against hazardous chemicals and equipment handling has fuelled adoption of industrial safety gloves. Disposable gloves are being relatively more favored in end-use industries. Comparatively lower cost than re-usable gloves is a major factor driving demand for disposable gloves. Industries are obligated for ensuring their workers safety from occupational operational hazards. Various standards and laws have been enlisted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which are required to be complied with by the industrial sectors. This further creates demand for various industrial safety gloves such as neoprene gloves or nitrile gloves.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-6141 Robots have been increasingly replacing manpower in manufacturing as well as various other industrial sectors. There has been robust and huge negative effects of implementing robots on wages and employment across economies influenced by automation. Proliferated adoption of automation in various industrial settings are likely to reduce human efforts, as they enable increased accuracy and higher operational efficiency. This will subsequently limit demand for personal protective equipment such as industrial safety gloves to certain specific operations. One of the recent trends being observed in the global industrial safety gloves market is utilization of recyclable & green materials.Sales of Industrial Safety Gloves in Europe will Register Highest CAGR through 2026North America dominated the global industrial safety gloves market in 2017. However, the market in Europe is projected to outpace that in North America, to become the most remunerative market for industrial safety gloves by 2026-end. Sales of industrial safety gloves in Europe will register the highest CAGR through 2026, followed by those in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ). Revenues from industrial safety gloves sales in APEJ will exceed US$ 2,000 Mn by 2026-end.On the basis of product type, chemical protective gloves are expected to remain the leading revenue contributor to the market, followed by leather gloves. Rubber insulating gloves are also anticipated account for a major portion of the markets revenue share by 2026-end. Sales of metal mash and fabric gloves will exhibit the fastest expansion in the market through 2026. In addition, sales of rubber insulating gloves and synthetic gloves are projected to register a parallel expansion through 2026.Manufacturing Sector to Remain Dominant End-user in the MarketBased on end-user, manufacturing sector will remain dominant in the market, in terms of revenues, although witnessing a relatively slower expansion through 2026. Revenues from sales of industrial safety gloves in transportation and mining will register a parallel increase through 2026, In addition, Pharmaceuticals and food industries are anticipated to remain the fastest expanding end-users of industrial safety gloves, exhibiting a similar CAGR through 2026.Read Comprehensive Overview with Methodology of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-6141 Vendors in the global industrial safety gloves market are now finding options for reducing amount of scrap, and decreasing their reliance on the petrochemical resources. In addition, these vendors are focusing on using materials with minimum carbon footprint for production of industrial safety gloves. Key market participants sustaining growth of the market, as identified by the report, include 3M Co., E I Du Pont De Nemours and Co., Honeywell International Inc., Lakeland Industries Inc., Alpha Pro Tech Ltd., Ansell Limited, Uvex Safety Group, Grainger, Inc., Bullard, and Kimberly-Clark. Industrial Hemp Market - Global industry segment analysis, regional outlook, share, growth; Industrial Hemp Market 2018 to 2028 by future market insights Industrial Hemp Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:27:14 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 674 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1 03479183531 The legalization of industrial hemp has created major opportunities such as increasing processing and distribution, providing major revenue opportunities for the industrial hemp market players. The Hemp Farming Act of 2018, removed industrial hemp from Schedule I controlled substances, after which it was stated as ordinary commodity in the agricultural industry. With this policy, the industrial hemp market projects a bright a favorable future in the coming years.Research and Developments Illustrate the Benefits Associated with Industrial HempResearch and development plays a vital role every business domain. Researchers have explored the benefits of the plant for bees for the huge pollen quantity produced by hemp flowers, when the industrial hemp fields were investigated by researchers in Colorado.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7132 Lack in Uniformity of THC Levels in Different Regions to Affect Trade of Industrial HempThe tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in industrial hemp are defined differently by legislations across distinct regions. For example, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 stated the THC level for industrial hemp cultivated in America would be 0.3 percent THC, while the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) set the THC levels at 0.2 percent. This difference would cause disadvantages to the producers in North America and Asia.Leading Regions to Project Significant Potential for Production of Industrial HempThe industrial hemp market is scrutinized by analyzing its presence across the globally recognized regions. With the legalization of industrial hemp, the production is expected to register a massive growth in the coming years. Accepted as an agricultural commodity, industrial hemp is largely produced in Asia, Europe as well as the North American market.United States reflect rising production. The New Jersey governor gave an approval for the industrial hemp farming. Similar developments were observed in North Carolina, where a pilot program was focused on the information related to production, cultivation, and farming of industrial hemp aimed to improve the sustainability and profitability of agriculture for farmers in North Carolina. Michigan has also entered the league where the Michigan House of Representatives approved a plan that would allow farmers to expand into the industrial hemp market.Competitors to Implement Robust Strategies to Gain Competitive Edge in the MarketCompanies and contributors to the industrial hemp market are implementing key strategies with a focus on gaining greater market presence and a competitive advantage over its competitors. The major players recognized across the industrial hemp market include Botanical Genetics, LLC, Ecofibre, Hemp Inc., Plains Industrial Hemp Processing Ltd., MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA, INC., Global Hemp Group Inc., American Hemp LLC, Valley Bio Limited, Boring Hemp Company, and HempFlax BV.Hemp Inc., a recognized leader in industrial hemp industry announced that it has entered into an agreement with 2 Manifest Studio, LLC. For creating documentaries and docuseries for an estimated span of five years. As Hemp, Inc. is progressing in Arizona, it is expected to serve as an increasingly strategic area for hemp processing and distribution, and 2 Manifest Studio is diligently working towards capturing the developments commenced by Hemp, Inc.MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA INC., provided updates on the harvest of their Canadian hemp project in which the company stated that the hemp cultivation in 2018 provided immense experience and knowledge the years large scale operation. The company further finds scope in the use of improved genetics for the refinement and processing activities. This showcases their continual focus on developments and improvements, providing major growth avenues for industrial hemp market.Botanac, an industrial hemp production company based in Oklahoma recently harvested 104 acres grown legally, post the legalization of industrial hemp. The company being the first to grow as well as harvest the crop, with the industrial hemp seeds being let out for sale.Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7132 Classification of Industrial Hemp Market: Significant SegmentsThe industrial hemp market is segmented based on its application in end-user segments. The key application segments include pharmaceutical, animal care, paper products, packaging, textiles, construction materials, biodegradable plastics, cosmetics and body care products, automotive, food and beverages, and others. Indoor Air Quality Monitor Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 13:15:15 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 498 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Most of the people spend their 70% to 80% daily time indoors. Several air impurities can cause respiratory disorders, allergies etc. The quality of indoor air can affect the comfort, health and productivity of a building occupants hence, determining the quality of indoor air around occupants is important. The air quality monitor is used to perform the indoor air quality parameter testing. It helps to detect a mold or any air-borne bacteria formed from outside pollutant before it becomes s serious health and safety concern as well as to develop effective air pollution monitoring system through public-private funding. Increasing level of awareness among the public about the hazards of pollution and healthcare is also fuelling the growth of global indoor air quality monitor market.Indoor Air Quality Monitor Market: Drivers and RestraintsTechnological advancement in the air quality monitor systems as well the its demand from the developing countries like India, China etc. are offering some new opportunities for the key market player. However the technical limitations available with the air quality monitor as well as its high price is acting as a restraint for indoor air quality monitor market. In developed regions the increasing consumer preference for pollution free indoor atmosphere, increasing demand for green building technologies and smart homes is also driving the indoor air quality monitor system. The development of indoor air quality monitor system and its customization is expected to drive this market during the forecast period.The indoor air quality monitor market can be segmented into portable and fixed indoor monitor. The market for portable indoor monitors is expected to exhibit high CAGR during the forecast period. Government agencies and academic institute are anticipated to create high demand for indoor air quality monitor among all end use segments.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2453 Indoor Air Quality Monitor Market: SegmentationOn the basis of Sampling Method,Continuous MonitoringManual MonitoringPassive MonitoringIntermittent MonitoringOn the basis of Pollutant,Chemical PollutantsPhysical PollutantsBiological PollutantsOn the basis of End User,Government Agencies & Academic InstitutesCommercial & Residential UsersPetrochemical IndustryGeneration PlantsPharmaceutical IndustryOther End UsersIndoor Air Quality Monitor Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global indoor air quality monitor Market is segmented into the seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America leads the global indoor air quality monitor market in terms of demand, followed by Western Europe. The APEJ market is anticipated to create huge demand during the forecast period. A large number of factors such as implementation s of stringent environment regulations and increasing industrialization in this region is likely to drive the indoor air quality market.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2453 Indoor Air Quality Monitor Market: Key PlayersThermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.Teledyne Technologies Inc.Siemens AGEmerson Electric Co.General Electric CompanyServomex Group Ltd.MERCK KGaATSI, Inc.Testo AG Long-term Outlook: FMI forecasts moderate long-term growth for the India thyroid function test market, with global revenues expected to surpass US$ 55.3 Mn by 2025. During the period 2015-2025, the India thyroid function test market is anticipated to increase at 3.2% CAGR. Future Market Insights PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 06:54:35 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Umesh SEO Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ # 558 Words Future Market InsightsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comSEO Manager3479183531 Awareness on hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism continues to remain low in India, resulting into fewer people undergoing thyroid function tests. The India thyroid function test market will witness moderate growth in 2016, raking in 41.6 Mn in revenues, up from US$ 40.1 Mn in 2015. While high prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and government initiatives to raise awareness will continue to support growth in 2016, stagnant R&D investment in immunochemistry will impede overall momentum.Analysis by Test typeThe India thyroid function test market by test type is segmented into TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone), T3 (triiodothyronine), T4 (thyroxine), FT3 (Free triiodothyronine), FT4 (Free thyroxine) and others (TBG, T3RU, LATS, TSI). The others test segment is expected to lose some market share over the forecast period. Currently, the TSH test segment accounts for major revenue share in the India thyroid function test market. However, the T3 and T4 segments are expected to witness impressive growth during the forecast period.In the India thyroid function test market, the FT3 and FT4 test type segments are expected to witness significant growth in urban cities. FT4 test type segment has been estimated to register a moderate CAGR 2.4%, but the TSH test type segment is projected to continue to dominate the thyroid function test market in India over the forecast period.Analysis by End useThe thyroid function test market is segmented into Clinics, Research Organization, Diagnostic laboratories and Hospitals in terms of end use. Revenue from the research organization segment is expected to increase at second highest CAGR over the forecast period. However, the revenue generated from hospitals segment is higher as compared to the rest of the end use segment in the India thyroid function test market.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-in-1531 Competitive LandscapeSome of the key players covered in the India thyroid function test market report include Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC. (Merck & Co., Inc.), Beckman Coulter, Inc., (Danaher), Siemens Healthcare GmbH and Abbott Laboratories. The report offers insights on the various strategies related to software development, market consolidation initiatives and analyses the various market players specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.TSH will continue to be the leading test type segment in 2016, raking in US$ 25.1 Mn in revenues, an increase of US$ 1 Mn from 2015. TSH is widely recommended as a primary test for diagnosing hypothyroidism by medical experts, contributing to higher revenues vis-a-vis T3, T4, FT3, and FT4 tests.T4 will extend its lead over T3 test type segment, witnessing a higher y-o-y revenue growth in 2016 over 2015. T4 revenues totalled US$ 4.5 Mn in 2015, and this segment is expected to add US$ 1.7 Mn in revenues in 2016.Parameter20152016India Market40.141.6TSH Test type Segment24.125.1T3 Test type Segment4.54.6Hospitals End-use Segment21.322.2(All values are in US$ Mn)Hospitals will continue to be the leading end-use segment for thyroid function tests, representing revenues worth US$ 22.2 Mn in 2016, up from US$ 21.3 Mn in 2015. Hospitals will be the fastest growing end-use segment, followed by research organisations and diagnostic laboratories. Clinics will remain the smallest end-use segment in 2016, witnessing lowest growth rate vis-a-vis other segments.Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-in-1531 Long-term Outlook: FMI forecasts moderate long-term growth for the India thyroid function test market, with global revenues expected to surpass US$ 55.3 Mn by 2025. During the period 2015-2025, the India thyroid function test market is anticipated to increase at 3.2% CAGR. FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:48:27 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 734 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 The air treatment equipment includes those products which modify or change the technological characteristics and properties of air. This modification may include the treatment of harmful gases present in the air, increasing or decreasing the air temperature, compressing the air, removal of harmful microorganism from the air, increasing or decreasing the air pressure, removal of extreme odours and others. The air treatment equipment includes air compressor, air dryers, air washers, air filters, injectors and others.On the basis of application the air treatment products are available for both industrial and domestic use. It is also used for roadways vehicles, waterways vehicles such as for ships, marines, and also for airways such as in aeroplane, spaceship, fighter plane and others. For domestic use air treatment equipment are offered to the consumers in the modified form and available in the consumer durable products for their convenient use. The air treatment consumer durable product includes hot air blowers, air conditioners, automatic washing machine, microwave, oven, automatic washer dryers, hair dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers and others.On the basis of domestic use the air treatment products is sub-segmented into air conditioner, air purifier, humidifiers and dehumidifiers and others. Among all these sub-segments air purifiers are further sub-segmented into air filters purifiers, ionizing purifiers, ozone generators, adsorbents and others. Whereas air conditioners is sub-segmented into room air conditioners, split air conditioners, window air conditioners and others.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-in-246 Globally Asia-pacific is considered to be the highest market for the air treatment products followed by North America and Europe. In Asia Pacific China, India and Japan represent ample opportunities for players in this market. This growth in these countries is supported by increasing number of health conscious consumers and rising disposable income of the consumers.Among all these countries, India accounted for low growth for air treatment products in 2011 due to economic slowdown. Moreover, the demand of air conditioner segment also registered less growth as monsoon arrived early in the country. However, the market growth for air treatment product showed a positive growth in 2013 due to rise in country economic condition and urge of the consumer for better and healthier life. It is expected that India will show a potential growth for air treatment products in the forecasted period. This growth will be supported by rise demand for air conditioners in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and others due to rise in heat and temperature. It is expected that air conditioner will occupy the largest position of the pie as the consumers in India are making their switch from ceiling fans or table fans to air conditioner. Among all the sub-segments of air conditioner, split air conditioner is expected to show the highest growth. Furthermore, it has been found that awareness among the consumers for purified air will also fuel the market growth for air treatment products in India. States such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat is expected to support the growth of air purifiers as these states possess large number of industries.In India, high entrant of manufacturing industries, outsourcing companies and rise in commercialization are some of the major drivers supporting the market growth. In addition, increase in number of health consciousness among the consumers coupled with rising disposable income is also expected to fuel the market growth for air treatment products in India.However, the market of air treatment products in India possess some restraining factors. This includes lack of awareness among the consumers regarding the product such as humidifiers, dehumidifiers and others. Additionally, the consumers perceives these products as quite expensive and also it is considered as a luxury product and not an absolute necessity.The key players for air treatment products in India includes Bajaj Electricals Ltd, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd., Usha International Ltd., Panasonic Corp, Atlas Copco AB, Eureka Forbes, OSIM International, SANYO Electric Co ., Ltd and others.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-in-246 Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint Las Vegas, CES 2019 - HERE Technologies today announced HERE Navigation On Demand, a new one-stop solution for automakers to enable compelling, full-featured and always-fresh navigation experiences in their vehicles, including in the volume segment. HERE Navigation On Demand is navigation as a service, combining the benefits of embedded navigation with the experience and familiarity of a mobile navigation solution. This fully integrated solution works off the shelf, and offers easy and cost-effective deployment in connected embedded systems as well as on mobile, including mirrored set-ups. Automakers can also take advantage of an out-of-the-box framework enabling them to sell connected services on-demand and generate new sources of recurring revenue. "HERE Navigation On Demand is the reinvention of in-car navigation for the era of the connected vehicle," said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies. "Our solution gives automakers the agility and flexibility they need to deliver the most competitive navigation experiences on the market. Moreover, it provides them the freedom to create their own business models that support their unique strategies." A one-stop solution for improved scalability at lower cost HERE Navigation On Demand is a one-stop solution for automakers, enabling them to easily configure and deploy navigation experiences for different in-vehicle infotainment platforms, vehicle lines or trim levels. All the components required are fully integrated, including a configurable HMI. The solution can be ported to the most widely used operating systems and can run in the infotainment system or be mirrored from a mobile phone. By utilizing HERE Navigation On Demand, automakers simplify their infotainment supply chain and development process and can reduce capital expenditures in development as well as bill-of-material costs. As they near the start of production of new models, automakers also minimize the risks of feature-loss that stem from supply chain and development complexity and software update challenges when a car is in production or later in-market Fully updatable, always fresh HERE Navigation On Demand exploits the company's expertise in over the air software technology to enable updates of maps, data and software when the car is in the distribution chain or in-market. Data transmissions between car and cloud are fully secure, enhancing driver and passenger safety and privacy. On-demand services, recurring revenue HERE Navigation On Demand allows automakers to generate recurring revenue through the sale of connected services to drivers directly via the infotainment system. The service delivery framework is built into the solution, reducing the investment needed for business model enablement. Automakers can freely select which part of the experience they want to offer through subscriptions, and do not need to have content or software licenses in place before a user subscribes. Differentiation, strong digital brand presence Using the environment provided by the HERE Open Location Platform, a corresponsing software development kit (SDK) will enable automakers and 3rd parties to create additional functionality for HERE Navigation On Demand, based on their own or third party data. These applications will seamlessly integrate in the custom HERE Navigation On Demand experience, driving customer value and real differentiation. With HERE Navigation On Demand, automakers can choose to deploy their own branding across all screens in and out of the car as part of the wide scope they have to configure the experience to their own design standards. Deep vehicle integration provides a better user experience and helps to reduce driver distraction. For example, automakers could enable drivers to search and pay for charging their electric vehicle right from the navigation application, without having to switch between different views or even use different applications. Ready for tomorrow's mobility solutions The ability to deploy HERE Navigation On Demand on both embedded and mobile platforms as well as add functionality developed in the HERE Open Location Platform means that it can also easily integrate into larger on-demand solutions for ride-hailing and car-sharing. Seamless support for ADAS and automated driving HERE Navigation On Demand enables all the benefits of HERE automotive grade maps and navigation. These include the ability to feed automotive-grade map and dynamic road data to the vehicle's ADAS and automated driving control units. As automakers introduce more automation into their vehicles, HERE Navigation On Demand is ready to support their migration path from ADAS to autonomous driving. Partnerships accelerating time-to-market opportunity for automakers Voice-enabled navigation with Amazon Alexa HERE has worked with Amazon to integrate Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service, into the HERE Navigation On Demand experience. Alexa is pre-integrated into HERE Navigation On Demand, making it faster and easier for automakers to deliver an intuitive, voice-first navigation experience to customers in the car. Available with the Renesas R-Car platform HERE and Renesas Electronics Corporation have qualified HERE Navigation On Demand for Renesas' R-Car System-on-chip (SoC) family for automotive cockpit applications. The combination of the R-Car hardware platform and HERE Navigation On Demand jointly facilitates scaling IVI solutions from entry to top level. Available within webOS LG Electronics and Luxoft have partnered to make HERE Navigation On Demand available through the webOS ecosystem as it extends from consumer electronics to support automotive in-vehicle infotainment and beyond. Automakers can significantly reduce time to market for their in-vehicle infotainment solutions and offer connected services off-the-shelf through the integration of HERE Navigation On Demand in webOS Auto. Media Contacts: Jordan Stark +1 312 316 4537 jordan.stark@here.com Dr. Sebastian Kurme +49 173 515 3549 sebastian.kurme@here.com About HERE Technologies HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com. Tray Sealer Machines Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:39:40 Press Information Future Market Insights Contact Us U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Abhishek Budholiya Manager 9898989898 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ # 833 Words Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/Manager9898989898 With the advent of the various food delivery options, there is a rising demand for innovative packaging options that not only preserves the food quality but are also secure and hygienic. The growing demand from the food service sector has fuelled the need of machines to not only pack food but also provide a significant opportunity to the manufactures to increase their brand value and attractively display the product. Tray sealer machines are one such type that are used to seal trays with liquid, powders, granules etc. The tray sealer machines seals the tray with a peel off film and then cuts and trims it to provide it a finished look. A tray sealer machine improves the product longevity and increases its shelf appeal which directly influences the sales of the product. They are much simpler to use and are robust in approach. The tray sealing machines does not only minimize the production of waste but also make efficient use of material and energy. With the advancement in the food sector, the global try sealer machines market is expected to register a significant CAGR over the forecast period.Tray Sealer Machines: Market DynamicsAn increasing penetration in the food and beverages sector is one of the key substantial factor driving the growth of the global tray sealer machines market. Moreover, increasing acceptance for ready to eat food and quick service restaurants by consumers is one of the primary factor fuelling the proliferation of the global tray sealer machine market. The growth of the online food service restaurants is further intensifying the demand of the tray sealer machines market. Besides the food safety benefits, consumers also get a convenient packaging option which is impervious, easy to open , and refrigerator ready. Initial high cost of investment for installing machines is one factor restraining the growth of the global tray sealer machines market. Incorporation of computer interface in the machines is likely to create an opportunity for the global tray sealer machine market. Customized printing over the sealed trays is a key trend prevailing in the global tray sealer machines market. Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4472 Tray Sealer Machines: Market SegmentationThe global tray sealer machine market is segmented on the basis of technology, product type, end use, and geography. On the basis of technology, the tray sealer machine market is segmented into manual, automatic, and semi-automatic machines. Automatic tray sealer machines are gaining more prominence as compared to other segments globally to their fast output rates. On the basis of product type, the tray sealer machine market is segmented into meat & poultry food, sweets & confectionery, vegetables & fruits, and others. On the basis of end use, the global tray sealer machine market is segmented into institutional and non-institutional segments.Tray Sealer Machines Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global tray sealer machines market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Europe. North America is currently leading the global tray sealer machines market due to a large population base inclined toward packaged food. Asia pacific region is envisioned to grow significantly over the forecast period due to significant investments in the food & beverage sector. Europe will witness slow growth over the forecast period due to recession looming over certain parts of the European region. Latin America is witnessing serious economic downturns due to which the growth of the tray sealer machine market is expected to be sluggish over the forecast period.Request Report for Table of Contents @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4472 Tray Sealer Machines Market: Key playersSome of the key players of the global tray sealer machines are Sealpac UK Limited, G Mondini SpA, MPE UK Limited, Proseal uk Ltd., Mecapack SAS, ULMA Packaging, S.Corporation, and Sealers India Agencies.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, type of product and applications.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Report Highlights : Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Request to Report Methodology @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-4472 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 12:01:14 LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 7, 2019 / International Endeavors Corporation (OTC PINK: IDVV) is pleased to announce that the company has received a purchase order for 5 OGGL's (Off Grid Grow Labs.) The machines ordered will be configured in unison to harvest an estimated 1,500 lbs of Cannabis quarterly.According to Barry Smith, Marketing Director for International Endeavors Corp., "We are pleased to report this substantial order for 5 OGGL's (Off Grid Grow Labs). This project will provide a testament to the viability and functionality of the OGGL as the customer will be able to recoup costs in the first 9 months. This is an opportunity to prove the machines throughout in a very unique climate. Interest the last 30 days has been growing rapidly as there are many markets for Cannabis opening up throughout the globe. We are exploiting the units unique footprint coupled with its low start up cost and climate versatility. We are confident this will lead to more orders." The purchaser has agreed to allow the company to use the project for future sales efforts and marketing materials.About the OGGL: The OGGL is the first purpose-built, self-contained, off-grid growing laboratory. Built in a low-cost shipping container, the OGGL has integrated solar modules and lithium-phosphate batteries coupled with a generator backup to supply uninterrupted power to the grow room. The OGGL is configurable for the three stages of the growing process, which are: vegetative, flowering, and cloning.OGGL UnitAbout International Endeavors Corporation (OTC stock symbol: IDVV)International Endeavors Corporation focuses on building intellectual property and making equipment sales in the medical marijuana and legal cannabis industry through the creation of off-grid grow labs, biomedical devices, clean-energy solutions, and patented devices. The company is also engaged in locating and acquiring established companies, brands, and technologies. The company's real estate portfolio includes commercial property, agricultural land, and buildings.Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. International Endeavors Corporation (IDVV) is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.Contact:Nate Engel, CEOPhone: 1-951-296-1024Email: nate@ internationalendeavorscorp.com SOURCE: International Endeavors Corporation General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and President Nguyen Phu Trong and Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith (Photo: VNA) Trong congratulated Laos on its important domestic and foreign achievements over the past three years of implementing the Resolution of its 10th National Party Congress and expressed his delight at the deepening Vietnam-Laos relations. He spoke highly of the coordination between the Prime Ministers of Vietnam and Laos in directing ministries, sectors and localities to effectively implement the high-level agreements between the two Parties and States during the recent past. The Vietnamese leader also highly valued the outcomes of the 41st session of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-governmental Committee, describing them as a very important basis for the two countries to successfully implement the agreement on the cooperation plan between the two governments in 2019, as well as the Vietnam-Laos cooperation agreement for the 2016-2020 period. He asked the two governments to join hands in directing their ministries, sectors, localities and firms to actively implement the agreements reached at the session, focusing on the exchange of information and experiences in Party building, socio-economic development, close collaboration in national defence-security and foreign affairs, and seek ways to untangle the knots so as to improve the effectiveness of the cooperation in economy, investment, trade, culture, education, and science and technology. The leader availed himself of the occasion to extend his warm regards and New Year greetings to Lao Party General Secretary and President Bounnhang Vorachith and other high-ranking leaders of the Lao Party and State. Sisoulith, for his part, expressed his belief that under the leadership of the CPV led by the General Secretary, the Vietnamese people will reap greater achievements in the renewal process and successfully realise the Resolution adopted by the 12th National Congress of the CPV. Informing the host about the outcomes of the 41st session of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee, Sisoulith affirmed that the Lao government will continue working closely with the Vietnamese government to direct ministries, agencies and localities effectively realise agreements reached by leaders of the two Parties and countries as well as commitments at the 41st session./. If you are making plans to get your leukemia treatment in India then the first step is to locate good clinical coordinators. Indian Med Guru consultants strive to provide the best and the advanced leukemia treatment to the global patients who choose India for their medical travel. Success Rate of Leukemia Treatment in India PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:36:36 07/01/2019, Goa: Leukaemia, usually referred to as Blood Cancer, is an extremely burdening health condition, which affects the infection-fighting cells in the body. There are many risk factors that make an individual prone to this ailment. Chemotherapy is the primary form of treatment for this. Some other modes of treatment are Targeted Therapy, Radiation Therapy, Surgery, Interferon Therapy, and Stem Cell Transplantation.Leukemia is differentiated depending on the speed at which it progresses and also on the type of blood cell, which has been affected.There are four types of Leukaemia: Acute Myeloid Leukaemia Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia Chronic Myeloid LeukaemiaIn order to tackle such a gruesome ailment, it is important that the patients choose the right hospital and the right Cancer specialist. In this matter, India has become the most sought-after venue as there are world renowned hospitals with highly experienced and skilled Leukaemia specialists. There is a perfect blend of the right treatment amenities and affordability in India, which is missing is most other nations. So, to ascertain the availability of these best treatment opportunities for international patients, Indian Med Guru Consultants has emerged as a huge ray of hope. It is a leading medical tourism service provider.The availability of numerous state-of-the-art hospitals in India has positioned India at a very respected stature. These are some of the most reputed names in the world and top hospitals in India. The medical tourists can expect to receive very matured and progressive Leukaemia treatment facilities. The hospitals also have a very hygiene environment and hence, the patients are away from any infection. Also, international patients are given high priority and do not face any language hurdle too.Overall, the facilities offered at these coveted hospitals are exceeding the patients expectations. No wonder the inflow of such patients is so high today. Furthermore, these doctors particularly specialized to handle cases of Leukaemia, are taking the success rate of Leukaemia Treatment in India higher with each passing year. It is extremely commendable and at par with international standards. Leukemia being such a difficult health condition, it is very appreciable the way the best surgeons have pushed the success rate.Another attractive benefit is the affordability. This is owing to the very low priced Leukaemia treatment packages that are possible in India. There are customized and cost-effective offers and packages available at the top hospitals in India, and undoubtedly, such offers are a huge requisite by the ailing patients. So, while a lot of such Leukaemia affected international patients are visiting India, Indian Med Guru makes sure that they are able to get these affordable packages.For international patients requiring Leukaemia Treatment, India is a much-preferred venue owing to the above-mentioned attributes. However, getting access to these enviable treatment attributes can be much challenging for the medical value travelers. So, Indian Med Guru Consultants comes to the rescue of such international patients, who specifically are searching for appropriate Leukaemia treatment services like best offers and packages, top hospitals, best surgeons or Leukaemia specialists and much more. Over the years, there are numerous successful patient stories, where Indian Med Guru had a crucial role to play.About Indian Med Guru Consultants: The team of Indian Med Guru Consultants offers a huge bunch of services that are focused on ensuring that medical tourists do not face any issues while they are here for treatment. It has a pan India presence and has the best hospitals, doctors, and physicians impaneled so that the medical value travelers get nothing but the best, while they are in India. From start to finish, the entire medical tour is supervised very carefully by the representatives of Indian Med Guru, thus, guaranteeing a wholesome experience.28, Dona Paula,Panaji, Goa 403004, IndiaPhone No.: +91-9370586696E-mail: contact@ indianmedguru.com Major Depressive Disorder PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 05:36:22 Press Information Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Yogesh Sengar Team Lead 800-961-0353 email https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ # 646 Words 305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead800-961-0353 Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression and clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by loss of interest and pleasure in enjoyable environment. People are affected in different ways by major depression. Some people have trouble sleeping, feel agitated and irritable, and have sudden weight loss. Moreover, they can have other mental and physical symptoms such as fatigue, memory loss, feeling of hopelessness, body aches, headaches, and thoughts of suicide.Major depressive disorder can affect people in any stage of life. In adults, major depressive disorder is most common in those who are 25-44 years of age. Within an entire lifetime, major depression affects 10% 25% of women and 5% 12% of men.It is estimated that 10% 25% of people who develop major depressive disorder are previously diagnosed with dysthymia (dysthymic disorder), a form of depression. Some people may suffer from dysthymia and major depressive disorder at the same time. The presence of both conditions at the same time is known as double depression.Request Sample Report@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4190 The development of major depressive disorder may be related to certain medical conditions. Approximately 20% 25% of people who have cancer, diabetes, stroke, and myocardial infarctions are likely to develop major depressive disorder.The global major depressive disorder market is categorized based on various types of therapeutic drugs used to manage this medical condition. Based on type of therapeutic drug, the report covers selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Major brands of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors include Lexapro (Escitalopram), Viibryd (Vilazodone), Effexor (Venlafaxine), Cymbalta (Duloxetine), Pristiq (Desvenlafaxine), Fetzima (Levomilnacipran), and Savella (Milnacipran). Antidepressants, such as Noradrenaline, Specific Serotonergic Antidepressants, Norepinephrine-Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors, Tricyclic Antidepressants, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors, and Brintellix (Vortioxetine), are commonly used in the management of major depressive disorder. Major brands of antipsychotics include Abilify (Aripiprazole) and Seroquel XR (Quetiapine).In terms of geography, North America dominates the global major depressive disorder market due to increased awareness about various depression conditions in the region. The U.S. represents the largest market for major depressive disorder in North America, followed by Canada. In Europe, Germany, France, the U.K., Italy, and Spain account for a major share of the major depressive disorder market. This market in Asia is expected to expand at a significant rate over the next five years. This is due to various companies setting up manufacturing facilities in the region. Moreover, increasing awareness about various depression episodes and rise in geriatric population are also driving the growth of the market in the region. India, China, and Japan are expected to be the fastest growing major depressive disorder markets in Asia.In recent times, increased demand for therapeutic products for the treatment of this medical condition is a key driver for the global major depressive disorder market. Increased investments in R&D in the pharmaceutical sector and introduction of innovative drugs have also fueled the growth of this market. The ongoing development of drugs with properties, such as improved safety and high patient compliance, are also supporting the growth of the global major depressive disorder market. Therapies, such as biological therapy, meditation, and physiotherapy, have immense potential to spur the growth of this market.Request Report TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/4190 However, stringent regulations imposed by various governments hamper the growth of global major depressive disorder market. Moreover, the patent expiries of some blockbuster drugs (drugs that have an annual sale of USD 1.0 million and above) and risk of complications and side-effects associated with antidepressants have hindered the growth of the market. Increasing mergers and acquisitions of drug manufacturing companies and rapid product launches are some of the major trends in the global major depressive disorder market.The major companies operating in this market are H. Lundbeck A/S, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., AstraZeneca Plc, Alkermes, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Naurex, Euthymics Bioscience, Inc., e-Therapeutics plc, Eli Lilly and Company, and Pfizer Inc. Geospatial Imagery Analytics Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 13:07:40 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 526 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Geospatial analytics support to integrate, gather, operate, display, and examine geospatial data which is collected through satellite imagery, GPS, geotagging, mapping, and many other sources to create significant information that are important for making important business/organization decisions. In In geospatial imagery analytics, data is collected in the form of geo-referenced satellite images, and then it is represented in two different ways including raster and vector. Enterprises are using geospatial imagery analytics information to examine their operational effectiveness to endure their company position in this competitive surrounding. Geospatial Imagery analysis offers more precise images as related to 3D and 2D analysis. This analysis includes analysis of modules above, on, and below the earth surface. Geospatial Imagery analysis application of supports private as well as government sectors to make knowledgeable conclusions about businesses and also examine risk assessment and mitigation disaster management, urban planning, and climatic conditions.Geospatial Imagery Analytics Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe major factors driving the growth of geospatial imagery analytics market are increasing growth of geospatial analytics market, disposable incomes, and increasing advancement in analytics technologies. Moreover, geospatial imagery analytics is projected to have and high demand in the future analytics market. In coming years, the demand of geospatial analytics has improved among organizations, as it supports to pathway changes in patterns and trends over a period. Furthermore, technological developments in geospatial imagery analytics have increased the acceptance of geospatial technologies including remote sensing (RS), global positioning system (GPS), and geographical information system (GIS), and many others. Also, increasing penetration of geographical information system technology in the service industry, increasing usage of location-based data and rising demand of open interoperable solutions, are major factors which are boosting the growth of the geospatial imagery analytics market.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2445 Geospatial Imagery Analytics Market: Regional OutlookRegarding geography, geospatial imagery analytics market has been categorized into seven key regions including North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. The geospatial imagery analytics market is expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. North America is experiencing the rapid increase in the production geospatial imagery analytics as a demand for geospatial imagery analytics in wide range of verticals such as defense & security, government, environment monitoring, energy, utility & natural resources, engineering & construction, mining & manufacturing, insurance, agriculture, healthcare & life sciences, others market in the region is rising at faster pace. The geospatial imagery analytics market is projected to register healthy growth due growth of analytics market and technological advancement in information & technology sector across the globe. Geospatial imagery analytics market for Asia Pacific is also expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period primarily attributed to the growth of imagery technologies coupled with demand for customization in offerings, especially in China and India.Geospatial Imagery Analytics Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the geospatial imagery analytics market are:-Trimble Navigation, Ltd.Hexagon AB, General ElectricRMSI, Bentley Systems, Inc.ESRI, MDA CorporationFugro N.V.Harris CorporationWS Atkins Plc.TomTomDigital GlobeCritigen, AAMNokiaOthersBuy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2445 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 00:01:03 Fusionex privileged to host Jack Ma-chaired China Entrepreneur Club Media: Edelman Fariz Mustafa Fariz.Mustafa@edelman.com Fusionex International was honored to be the sole technology company in Malaysia to host the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) at its office. The Chinese delegation, led by its president and former China Merchants Bank President Ma Weihua, visited Fusionex in the hopes of fostering stronger relationships and exploring collaborative opportunities between both countries. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005 Fusionex International Founder and Group CEO Dato Seri Ivan Teh (left) presenting a token of appreciation to China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) President Ma Weihua (Photo: Business Wire) In China, CEC is the premier platform for business leaders and whose chairman is Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group. Founded by 31 of Chinas most prominent magnates, economists, and diplomats, the CEC is also a hub for Chinese entrepreneurial exchange, cooperation, and international collaboration. At the event, Fusionex Founder and Group CEO Dato Seri Ivan Teh delivered the opening speech while Ma Weihua presented the keynote address which was followed by a discussion between the Fusionex team and CEC delegation. Among the topics discussed was how Malaysian and Chinese enterprises may work together to improve and increase bilateral investments. In addition, numerous sectors were identified where closer ties could be formed such as cultural exchanges, bilateral trade, travel and tourism, technology, and exchange programs. Such programs would enrich both countries and provide a win-win situation for Malaysia and China alike. Over the course of the visit, the CEC delegation was presented with an overview of Fusionex and Malaysia, highlighting how Fusionex could help render its offerings and technology to help Chinese businesses. In his speech, Ma Weihua praised Fusionex for its exemplary role in driving the digital economy, stating that companies all over the world should seek to emulate Fusionex and its mastery of data and technology. He added that companies should begin adopting Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data Analytics to create smarter ecosystems to not only remain competitive but thrive in the future. CEC Secretary-General Maggie Cheng commented, I am enormously grateful for Fusionexs solid support for the CEC Business Visit. Our delegates found the interaction with Fusionex was one of the most stimulating and fruitful company visits. The delegation thoroughly enjoyed the office tour for feeling the pulse of the most successful Malaysian IT company. The delegates were highly impressed by the sharing about the millions of ways to incorporate Big Data into different industries. CEC is looking forward to furthering our friendship and collaborations in the coming New Year. A product demonstration, office tour, and bilateral exchange of souvenirs rounded up the event. Dato Seri Ivan Teh said: We applaud the CEC for bringing together a multitude of key industry players who make up the backbone of Chinas entrepreneurial spirit. Being a digital, technological, and innovative company, Fusionex is always open to partnerships where both parties get to achieve great things together. We also look forward to future collaborative opportunities with the CEC and believe that China and Malaysia can strongly benefit from the strategic application of technology. About Fusionex Fusionex is an established multi-award winning data technology provider specializing in Analytics, Big Data, the Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Its offerings are focused on helping clients capture, store, process, analyze and make sense of vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. Featured on Forbes, Bloomberg, Gartner, IDC, Forrester, Edison and Huffington Post, Fusionex is the largest Big Data Analytics company and market leader in ASEAN, bringing state-of-the-art, innovative and breakthrough data-driven platforms to its stable of clientele (including Fortune 500, FTSE companies, large conglomerates as well as a wide array of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)) that spans across the United States, Europe as well as Asia Pacific. To learn more about Fusionex, visit www.fusionex-international.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005 Flame Detector Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:50:20 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 634 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Flame is defined as an extreme increased in the energy which can be mechanical or nuclear in an uncontrolled amount result in increase in the temperature and evacuation of gases. Flame detectors are being installed for security purposes. It can indicate about fire or flame generated which can be because of explosion, or any kind of accident. There are so many sources responsible for the explosions some of them are increased pressure, nuclear reactions, leakage of gases, dust and others. In order to prevent the loss because of explosions or fire, several types of prevention measurements are being taken in to account and the most important is the fire indicator or flame detector. A flame detector is an indicator or sensor, which is designed to detect and indicate the presence of fire or flame and its response is dependent over its installation and manufacturing technology. Flame detectors come out with different features like sounding an alarm to indicate up to a certain distance, having self-control ability to deactivate fuel lines when observe some danger and activate a fire suppression system. A flame detector detects and indicate the fire or flame more quickly and accurately than a smoke or heat detector because of the mechanism being used to manufacture it. Today flame detector are used in almost all industries for the protection of financial as well as lives.The global flame detector market is expected to grow with the healthier rate during the forecasting period.Flame Detector: Market DynamicsFor last some years flame detector manufacturers has been coming out with latest technology and with more advanced features as more immunity towards false alarm, which are becoming the new trends for the market of global flame detector market. The key growth drivers of global flame detector market are increased adoption of flame detector s in oil & gas industries, exploration of new mining sites which increases the need for flame detector s there, drastic rising demand of flame detector s in automation sector, the newly formed safety regulations for hazardous areas are getting more stiffer & the need of comprehensive flame detector solutions across diverse sectors are some of the growth drivers responsible for the growth of global flame detector market. On the other hand staggering of mineral and mining industries globally & high implementation and maintenance cost of flame detector s are becoming the key restraints for the global flame detector market.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2356 Flame Detector: SegmentationSegmentation of global flame detector market are segmented on the basis of product type, service, verticals & Geography. On the basis of product type, global flame detector market is segmented as; single IR, dual UV/IR, single UV, triple IR (IR3), multi IR. Among all the above segments, multi IR is the advanced and is expected to be the major segment during forecast period. By service type, global flame detector market is segmented into following segments; Engineering services, installation & design services, maintenance service, inspection and managed services.On the basis of verticals, global flame detector market is segmented as Oil and Gas industry, automotive, consumer goods and retail, healthcare, energy and power, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, aerospace and defense and others.Geographically, Flame detector is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among all the regions North America is the highest contributor in term of revenue in global flame detector market and is expected to retain its position during forecast period.Flame Detector: Key PlayersThe key players of global flame detector market are Emerson Electric Co., Honeywell International, Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Simtronics ASA, Tyco, Det-Tronics, Johnson Controls, Micropack Engineering Ltd. & others.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2356 Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) Diagnostic Testing PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 06:06:48 Press Information Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Yogesh Sengar Team Lead 800-961-0353 email https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ # 562 Words 305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead800-961-0353 Escherichia coli (E. coli), is a bacterium which normally lives in the intestines of humans and animals. Some types of E. coli are an important part of a healthy human intestinal system. However, others are pathogenic and can cause illness and diarrhea. E. coli that cause diarrhea can be transmitted through contaminated water and food or through contact with animals or persons. Pathogenic E. coli strains are categorized into pathotypes. Six pathotypes of E. coli are associated with diarrhea and are collectively referred to as diarrheagenic E. coli. They are diffusely adherent E. coli (DAEC), enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), and shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Major sign and symptoms of E. coli infection include abdominal pain, diarrhea, and nausea and vomiting. Cases of E. coli infection are usually confirmed by the detection of bacteria in stool samples of infected individuals.E. coli is mainly found in contaminated food, especially undercooked ground beef, soft cheese made from raw milk, unpasteurized (raw) milk and juice, raw fruits and vegetables (such as sprouts), contaminated water, including untreated drinking water, and feces of infected people. Moreover, the bacterium is also present on the body surface of animals, such as sheep, cows, and goats.Request Sample Report@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4227 The global E. coli diagnostic testing market is categorized on the basis of various types of emerging diagnostic procedures and end users. Based on type of technology, the report covers monoclonal antibodies, molecular diagnostics, differential light scattering, immunoassays, flow cytometry, chromatography, gel microdroplets, diagnostic imaging, and others. Based on end user, the report covers commercial or private labs, physician offices, hospitals, public health labs, and academic research institutes.In terms of geography, North America dominates the global E. coli diagnostic testing market. This is due to increased government funding on healthcare infrastructure in the region. In addition, technological advancement in E. coli diagnostic procedures has also propelled the market in North America. The U.S. represents the largest market for E. coli diagnostic testing in North America, followed by Canada. In Europe, Germany, France, and the U.K. hold major shares of the E. coli diagnostic testing market. The E. coli diagnostic testing market in Asia is also expected to show high growth rates in the next five years. This is due to various initiatives undertaken by governments to increase awareness about E. coli infections. In addition, increased investments by many foreign diagnostic instrument companies have also propelled the growth of the E. coli diagnostic testing market in the region. India, China, and Japan are expected to be the fastest growing markets for E. coli diagnostic testing in Asia.Advanced application of bacterial diagnostic instruments is a key driver for the global E. coli diagnostic testing market. Also, increased government support in the form of funding and rapid technological advancement has fueled the growth of this market.Request Report TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/4227 Increasing number of mergers and acquisitions of diagnostic consumables manufacturing companies and rapid product launches are key trends of the global E. coli diagnostic testing market.The major companies operating in this market are Abbott Laboratories, Beckman Coulter, Wako, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Affymetrix, Inc., bioMerieux, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Siemens AG, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Cepheid, Inc., GenBio, Olympus Corporation, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson. Fact.MR PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:34:43 Press Information Fact.MR Suite 9884 27 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Abhishek Budholiya Marketing Manager +353-1-6111-593 email https://www.factmr.com/ # 707 Words Suite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandMarketing Manager+353-1-6111-593 ENT surgical devices market is expected to surpass US$ 2,500 million in 2019, according to a new study by Fact.MR . The ENT surgical devices market witnessed a steady progress and grew at 6.6% y-o-y in 2018. Overall growth of the ENT surgical devices market can be attributed to,- Technological advancements enhancing ENT procedure efficiency and outcome- Reimbursement policies in favor of ENT surgeries- Product developments accommodating demand trend such as minimal invasionThe medical technology industry has shifted from a traditional marketing model to a care delivery model. Following the new business approach, Tier 1 and Tier 2 players portray hegemony in the market and continue to introduce disruptive technology innovations in ENT surgical devices.Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=2454 The ENT surgical devices marketplace has the presence of a broad range of surgical instruments and equipment. According to Fact.MR valuation, ENT surgical lasers account for a leading share in the global market.Greater reliability of the laser treatment in ENT or otorhinolaryngology has been embraced by medical professionals as well as patients. Ranging from the treatment of snoring or nasal obstruction to cancer of ear, nose and throat, laser therapy have delivered definitive results and the account of successful outcomes is rising consistently. Fact.MR estimates that powered ENT surgical system will also register considerable demand in 2019. Powered ENT instruments are used in procedures such as removal of soft tissue, hard tissue and bone during surgery. On the other hand, the ENT visualization systems are growing at a faster pace and over 9% y-o-y growth is expected in 2019.The ENT surgical devices marketplace has witnessed introduction of a number of advanced navigation system, in particular, three-dimensional guiding system. Leading ENT surgical device manufacturers have introduced advanced navigation systems that assist ENT surgeons in easier navigation during ENT surgeries.Browse Full Report on ENT Surgical Devices Market with TOC- https://www.factmr.com/report/2454/ent-surgical-devices-market Hospitals Held Over Half the Revenues in 2018, ENT Clinics Growing Rapidly Fact.MR valuation finds that the ENT surgical devices market hit US$ 2,345 million in 2018 and the growth trend will continue in 2019. Hospitals continued to capture greater market share of the ENT surgical devices market in 2018. Improved hospital infrastructure with well-equipped ENT instruments can be attributed to over half the global share of hospitals in the ENT surgical devices market.In consonance with the rising prevalence of ENT disorders, construction of specialized ENT clinics has increased. Fact.MR finds that ENT clinics hold the second largest revenue and will grow at a faster rate in 2019.Fixed ENT Surgical Devices to Hold Over 37% Revenue Share in 2019Based on modality, three types of devices are present handheld, portable and fixed. Owing to the popularity of fixed devices, Fact.MR estimates that these devices will continue to account for a higher market share. On the other hand, handheld devices are estimated to account for the second largest revenue in the ENT surgical devices market and will register faster expansion in the coming years.According to the study, North America dominates the ENT surgical devices market and will account for over one forth revenue share in 2019. The market growth in North America is favored by favorable healthcare reimbursement coverage. In addition, presence of industry leaders in the regions contributes to the higher market revenues.The study finds that Europe follows North America with the second largest revenues. Europe and APEJ collectively held over half the revenues in 2018. While Europe presents an established market, improving healthcare infrastructure and economic standards in APEJ can be attributed to the growth scenario of the ENT surgical devices market in the coming years.The Fact.MR report tracks the ENT surgical devices market for the period 2018-2028. According to the report, the ENT surgical devices market is projected to grow at 6.4% CAGR through 2028.Request Methodology of this Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=2454 About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-08 00:10:03 Fort Worth, Texas - January 7, 2019 - Emerge Energy Services LP today announced that its subsidiary Superior Silica Sands LLC ("Superior") has signed a new agreement with Chesapeake Energy Corporation ("Chesapeake") covering frac sand supplied from Superior's San Antonio mine in South Texas. Chesapeake will procure frac sand from Superior's leading in-basin mine to support its growing completions program in South Texas. "We are very pleased to partner with one of the leading onshore Exploration and Production companies in the U.S.," noted Rick Shearer, Chief Executive Officer of the general partner of Emerge Energy. "Chesapeake is committed long-term to growing its position in the Eagle Ford basin, and as a leading producer of frac sand in South Texas, we are the perfect fit to supply Chesapeake with a large portion of its frac sand needs. Chesapeake has always been at the forefront of unconventional horizontal drilling, and we look forward to building our relationship with this new customer." "Also, our San Antonio plant is ramping up to full capacity as our new wet plant began production in December. We are excited about the opportunity ahead of us for our San Antonio plant and our other in-basin and northern white operations in 2019." About Emerge Energy Services LP Emerge Energy Services LP (NYSE: EMES) is a growth-oriented limited partnership engaged in the business of mining, producing, and distributing silica sand, a key input for the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells, through its subsidiary Superior Silica Sands LLC. About Chesapeake Energy Corporation Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Chesapeake Energy Corporation's (NYSE: CHK) operations are focused on discovering and developing its large and geographically diverse resource base of unconventional oil and natural gas assets onshore in the United States. The company also owns an oil and natural gas marketing business. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains certain statements that are "forward-looking statements." These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology including "may," "believe," "will," "expect," "anticipate," or "estimate." These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expected by management of Emerge Energy Services LP. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in Emerge Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. The risk factors and other factors noted in the Annual Report could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Except as required by law, Emerge Energy Services LP does not undertake any obligation to update or revise such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. PRESS CONTACT Investor Relations (817) 618-4020 This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Emerge Energy Services LP via Globenewswire Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:26:20 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 740 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comManager3479183531 Several countries across the world are either already facing or will face a demographic disaster in the near future. They will undergo severe socio-economic pressures due to a rapidly ageing population with not enough children being born to replace the workforce. This is particularly true in North America, Europe, Russia, South Korea & Japan. According to a government report compiled in Japan in 2012, 22% of the country is 65 or older and this is expected to rise to nearly 40% by 2060. In 2010, Japan had 30 million elderly individuals in old-age homes, but a serious dearth of caregivers to assist them. These countries are the mean reason that the eldercare-assistive robot market has come into existence. Over the past few years, eldercare-assistive robot R&D has become much cheaper, giving rise to helpers with more functionality & a cheaper price. It has also gained wider acceptance not only in Japan but also in the western nations.Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market DriversThe ageing population in developed countries is the main driver for the eldercare-assistive robot market. According to U.N data, the global over-65 population will grow by 181% and they will account for nearly 16% of the population by 2050. Caring for these individuals will be an enormous physical, mental & emotional undertaking. There will be a tremendous shortage of qualified & willing medical personnel for this. Eldercare-assistive robots have the potential to serve this demographic exceptionally well. They can use camera sensors to supervise the senior citizen, ensure that they take their prescribed medication at the right time & also prevent them from falling & injuring themselves. Another factor is the individualistic societies in western countries, as opposed to collective Asian ones. People prefer to live on their own as much as possible. Even in old age, they prefer the privacy, comfort & security of their own homes over that of an institutional caregiver like an old-age home. To address these requirements, eldercare-assistive robots can come in handy.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2409 Not only will they fulfil the role of medical practitioner, but they can also provide human-like companionship to the patient. They will be able to enhance the health & psychological well-being of the elderly in several ways. By reminding them off daily tasks & other important information, they could help dementia patients. With informal chit-chat, they might keep a senior citizens mind sharp, reducing the probability of clinical depression, or Alzheimers disease. Robots could also act as telepresence machines, bridging the gap between doctors and their elderly patients. These individuals might not always be able to travel to the hospital to seek treatment, & frequent nurse visits are also very costly. The doctor could check in with their patients through the robots screen, even control the machine for simple tasks. These are some of the factors helping the eldercare-assistive robot market.Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market RestraintsThere are a few challenges faced by the eldercare-assistive robot market. These robots must be able to manage & cope with more uncertain environments than industrial robots. This makes it a challenge to build safe & certified ones. Another issue might be human opposition. Either the elderly individual, their family or both might not be comfortable with the idea of a robot playing a caregiver role. Older people, in particular, might be very resistant to adopting high-tech equipment like eldercare-assistive robots to simplify their lives. Cost can also be a major restraint. While the price of these assistive robots has dropped over the last decade, they still cost thousands of dollars each. People from lower income or middle-class families might not see the benefit in adopting them as much. Even with many advances made in the eldercare-assistive robot market, it is estimated that it will be several decades before full assistive robotic care is possible.Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market Key RegionsThe main eldercare assistive robot markets are those regions which have an ageing population, i.e. North America (barring Mexico), the E.U, Japan, and China & South Korea. Japan is the largest eldercare-assistive robot market since it has the most rapidly ageing population along with very low immigration & birth rates. It also has several domestic players involved in making assistive robots. North America has also slowly but surely begun to warm up to the eldercare-assistive robot market.Buy Full Report Now @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2409 Eldercare-Assistive Robots Market Key Market PlayersSome of the companies involved in the eldercare-assistive robot market are Paro Robots, Aldebaran, Togo Seisakusyo Corporation, and Hasbro. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 19:37:48 Press Information Research Report Insights Pvt Ltd 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, Canada Bisvjeet CEO 16317214201 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 468 Words 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0 , Muskoka, Ontario, CanadaCEO16317214201 A dental light is employed to impart ace brightened up light to specialists plus present an authentic image with a lessened gloominess white light that assists them to match up shades, distinguish diverse particulars also assisting them in arriving at an analysis of tissues. These are as equally incandescent lamps along with LED lights come with diverse mounting placements.A number of the advantages of utilizing LED dental lights comprise of being eco-friendly, having a lower cost of functioning as well as having negative effects of overheating. Owing to all these amalgamated aspects, the market for dental lights is expanding at a consistent pace all by the world.Request for Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114991/Dental-Lights-Market Although the healthcare segment experiences extended expenditure throughout the globe, governments from around the world are imparting dynamically to improve and strengthen their healthcare base. This extended expenditure on therapeutic services is a remarkable driver encouraging the expansion of the global market for dental lights.The worldwide market for dental lights is anticipated to demonstrate a healthy 5.0% CAGR over the predicted period and is slated to attain a valuation of close to US$ 960 Million over the calculated period.Request for Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114991/Dental-Lights-Market Market Segmentation The worldwide market studied on the basis of region includes Europe, APEJ, Japan, MEA, Latin America and North America. The APEJ is estimated to remain as the biggest in value terms as well as is anticipated to present a CAGR of 6.0% by the predicted period. The global market based on the product type, is broadly segmented as halogen lights and LED lights. The LED lights are the biggest segment in valuation terms as well as will be reflecting a CAGR of 5.4% throughout the predicted time frame of 2026. The worldwide market by end user is categorized as dental clinics and hospitals. The dental clinics are the biggest segment in valuation terms in addition to this the market is anticipated to account for a market valuation of around US$ 730 Million through the end of the predicted year 2026, the market is also slated to exhibit a 5.5% CAGR through the predicted period. The global market on the basis of technology type is divided as mobile dental lights and fixed dental lights. The fixed dental lights is the biggest segment in valuation terms also is expected to account for a market valuation of close to US$ 700 Million through the end of the predicted year 2026, the market will be reflecting a CAGR of 5.5% for the predicted duration of 2026.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114991/Dental-Lights-Market Key Market PlayersThe major market players functional in the global market for dental lights includes A-dec, Inc. Danaher Corporation Planmeca Oy DentalEZ Dr. Mach GmbH & Co. KG Midmark Corp TPC Advanced Technology Flight Dental Systems Others Persistence Market Research PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 06:48:56 Press Information Persistence Market Research Contact Us Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Yogesh Senger Associate Consultant 800-961-0353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 728 Words Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comAssociate Consultant800-961-0353 Persistence Market Research (PMR) delivers the key insights on the global Cushings Syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market in its upcoming report titled Cushings Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment Market: Global Industry Analysis 20132017 and Forecast 2018 2026. In terms of revenue, the global Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is projected to register a CAGR of 9.3% over the forecast period.The Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment is segmented based on drug type, distribution channels and regions. Based on the drug type, the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment is segmented into Cushings syndrome treatment and Acromegaly treatment. The Cushings syndrome treatment is further sub segmented into Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibitors, Somatostatin, Ketoconazole HRA, and other Off-label. The Acromegaly treatment is further sub segmented into Somatostatin, Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibitors, and other Off-label. Based on the distribution channels, the global Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, and online pharmacies.Request for Report Methodology @: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/24664 The Cushings syndrome treatment segment is expected to be the leading segment in the Cushings Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market over the forecast period. The Cushings syndrome treatment segment is expected to witness a high growth at a CAGR of 9.5% over the forecast period.The Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market is also segmented based on the distribution channels. The hospital pharmacies segment in the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is expected to have a dominant share, while the retail pharmacies segment in the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7 % over the forecast period.The growth of the global Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is primarily driven by its growing prevalence coupled with the growing awareness and the rate of screening. The development of healthcare infrastructure around the world coupled with the governmental support towards orphan and rare diseases is also expected to drive the growth of the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market. However, the high cost of drugs coupled with the lower screening rates in the developing world are factors expected to hamper the growth of the market. Government support in terms of orphan drug status and the financial and tax incentives have led to a high return on investment for the Cushings syndrome and acromegaly treatment market.In the U.S., incentives include a 7-year period of market exclusivity following product launch, regardless of patent life, a waiver on Food and Drug Administration fees, and 50% tax credit on clinical studies. In the EU, Regulation offers 10-year market exclusivity, with tax credits offered by individual EU markets. In 2012, FDA Safety Innovation Act that has made rare disease drugs to progress through clinical trials activities. This has translated into driving the global sales of orphan drugs by 10% in a year between 2005-2011, and a 400 orphan drugs approvals in the U.S. and EU region.This report assesses the trends that are driving the growth of each segment of the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market on the global as well as regional level, and offers potential takeaways that proves substantially useful for manufacturers planning to enter the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market.North America is expected to be the dominant regional market for Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment, accounting for a high revenue share in 2017. The U.S. Cushings Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market is expected to account for a large share and to grow at a CAGR of 9.8 % over the forecast period, while Canada is expected to register a CAGR of 9.0%. Europe and Asia Pacific Cushings Syndrome and Acromegaly treatment markets collectively are expected to grow at CAGRs of 8.9 % and 10.5%, respectively. The market is expected to shift in favour of developing regions led by Asia Pacific nation of China owing to its fast developing economy and healthcare.Request to Sample Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/24664 Examples of key players covered in the Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market report are Novartis AG, Corcept Therapeutics, HRA Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Pfizer Inc., Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., among others. The companies are focusing on developing advanced drugs for Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment. However, the higher cost associated with Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment would hamper the growth of Cushings syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 15:14:15 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com abhishek manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 855 Words Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.commanager+1 03479183531 Cottonseed oil is an oil extracted from the seeds of cotton. Its production process involves pressing and extraction of oil from the cotton seeds followed by purification and refinement. The refinement of the oil is the key step as it helps in removing gossypol, a naturally occurring toxin that protects the cotton plant from damage. Cottonseed oil is essentially a by-product of the cotton industry along with cottonseed meal, hulls and linters. Over 10-15% of a cotton farmers income is expected to come from these by-products, making them considerably valuable products in cotton processing operations.The edible oil market is a highly competitive space occupied by numerous types of oils. The presence of many substitute products is a considerable drawback for the cottonseed oil market. From a consumer point of view, this represents a highly trend-driven market. The introduction of a new and healthy oils is bound to eat into the market of traditionally used oils, at least for a certain time period. This is regarded as a reason for the severe fluctuations observed in cottonseed oil retail demand and market values.One key advantage in this scenario is in regard to the industrial use of cottonseed oils. The product is widely used in various food and beverage products. Such large scale operations rely on a consistent supply chain, which is going to get disturbed in the event of a change of base ingredient, and as such are not impacted by volatile market trends. Cottonseed oil is a good source of antioxidant- tocopherol. The other advantages enjoyed by cotton seed oil are a low relative price and easy availability in cotton producing regions.With the increasing public understanding of the composition of such oils, the fat and nutrient profiles of cooking oils become very important. Given the relatively high fraction of saturated fats in cottonseed oil, this becomes a significant constraining factor for the market.Cottonseed oil market is segmented by end-use application, raw material type and region. On the basis of end-use application, cottonseed oil market is segmented on the basis of retail, food processing, cosmetic applications and other industrial uses. The retail segment is centered on its use as a cooking oil. Given its high smoke point, cottonseed oil is mostly used for deep frying and baking.It is mostly used as a cooking medium and is also part of various fried and processed foods such as potato chips and French fries. Due to its ability to form a beta prime crystal, which enables a consistent texture and appearance, cottonseed oil is a major ingredient in whipped toppings, margarines, shortenings, spreads and icings. . Unlike other cooking oils cottonseed oil has a neutral taste, meaning it doesnt alter the natural taste of food being prepared over it. Due to this reason it is used as a salad oil, wherein enhancing the flavor of the salad ingredients is considered primal.Buy This Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2363 Cotton seed oil is also used in several personal care or cosmetic products such as soaps, cosmetics and detergents. As mentioned above, untreated cottonseed consists of gossypol, a toxin present in cotton. Due to this reason, untreated cottonseed oil is used as an insecticide. Other minor applications of the product include its use in making rubber and explosives.On the basis of raw-material type, the market is segmented into genetically-modified (GM) cotton and non-GM cotton. The growing negative perception around GM crops makes this an important variable. Due to the promise of increased returns, many cotton farmers in the developing world switched to GM cotton over the last decade. It is estimated that GM cotton is cultivated in over 25 million hectares across the world, with over 75% of US cotton being genetically modified. This dominance of GM cotton is expected to decrease in response to growing consumer concerns and farmer protests across the world.Geographically, the global cottonseed oil market can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Both on the production and consumption side, the market is heavily dominated by India and China. These countries produced and consumed over 55% of the total cottonseed oil made during the 2015-2016 period. Pakistan and Uzbekistan are the other major regions in the cottonseed oil market. This dominance by Asia countries is largely attributed to large amount of cotton cultivation in the region and the high domestic demand for low-priced cooking oil.United States (U.S.) is a major producer and consumer of cottonseed oil in the North American region. Unlike the Asian countries, U.S. also exports a considerable portion of its cottonseed oil to other regions. Brazil and Turkey are the other important regions in the market. Eastern European nations such as Azerbaijan are also important but are limited by weak domestic consumption.Some of the key players of the market include, Cargill, Incorporated, Archer Daniels Midland Compan (ADM), PYCO Industries, Bunge Limited, Louis Dreyfus, Adani Wilmar (Fortune Foods), Maharashtra Solvent Extraction (P) Ltd, Oilseeds International, Ltd., maong the others.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2363 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:49:28 Press Information Research Report Insights Contact Us: Research Report Insights (RRI) 42 Joseph Street Port carling P0B 1J0 Muskoka, Ontario1 Phone - +1-631-721-4201 Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com BISHU 6317214201 +1631721420 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 628 Words Contact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com6317214201+1631721420 The confectionery market is expected to foresee expansion over the years to follow, globally. Generally, confections are high in calorie and low in nutrients, however, the sugar-free confections are gaining recognition in the ongoing years because of aspects, for example, changing lifestyle, increasing health and nutritional concerns, rising obesity rate and growing number of diabetic patients. To address health worries, better-for-you products have been foreseen a rise. On account of the requirement for organic or naturally sourced colors, the trend for the clean label has to strike the confectionery market too. With the aim of fulfilling this rising requirement, several food companies have declared their plans to redevelop their products to replace artificial ingredients as well as modify the ingredients lists.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124690/Confectionery-Market The confectionery market is supposed to perform better in Europe particularly in the Western European region trailed by the Asia Pacific and North America, on the basis of generated sales. The U.S. has always been a lucrative confectionery market worldwide, trailed by the U.K. and China. In the Asia Pacific market, India is believed to show the maximum growing market for confectionery in the world. Increasing population, growing trend of gifting confectionery items, rising retail market, and rising disposable income are a few of the prominent driving aspects of the overall market for confectionery. Growing populace in addition to rising disposable income in emerging nations such as China and India is likely to swell the expansion rate of the market for confectionery. Rising disposable income let the consumer expend more.Customers with a hectic schedule have a tendency be more leaning in the direction of confections since these items are consumed less time and moreover are tasty. In addition, a growing number of working women is fuelling the overall market it is, in addition, ensuing in the familys higher disposable income.Request Report For Toc: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124690/Confectionery-Market As per to the U.S. Department of Labor during 2013, in the U.S. the working women were about XX million that is likely to increase at XX% CAGR towards 2025 end. The urban populace is more leaning in the direction towards the consumption of confectionery in contrast to the rural counterparts. The most important constraints for the worldwide market for confectionery are rising raw material price, growing government regulations as well as increasing health issues. Moreover, in the U.S. market, the sale of confectionery based on retail was primarily led by two big confectionery manufacturers, namely the Mars and Hershey Company. The chocolate products produced by Hershey comprise the well-known brands such as Reeses and Kisses Peanut Butter Cups. In the year 2017, a consumer survey discovered that more or less 49.41 million U.S. customers showed that they, for the most part, eat Snickers.During the year 2017, Ferrero Group had been an active player in terms of merger and acquisitions, by acquiring the Fannie May assets of 1-800-Flowers, Inc and Ferrara Candy Co. Furthermore, the company also started 2018 with an even larger acquisition by successfully taking on another confectionary giant Nestles U.S. confectionery business. On the other hand, Another confectionary giant Hershey had previously taken on snacking chocolate brand barkTHINs in addition to Amplify Snack Brands, Mars taking a marginal venture in KIND as well as Campbell Soup Co.s planned acquirement of Snyders Lance. A few of the other prominent market players active in the worldwide market for confectionery are MondelAz International, Mars Incorporated., Parle Products Pvt. Ltd., Nestle S.A., Cadbury, Kraft Foods, United Confectionery Manufacturers, HARIBO Dunhills (Pontefract) PLC, Kegg's Candies, Perfetti Van Melle, Brookside Foods, Yildiz Holding, Crown Confectionery and Petra Foods.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124690/Confectionery-Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:46:38 Press Information Research Report Insights Contact Us: Research Report Insights (RRI) 42 Joseph Street Port carling P0B 1J0 Muskoka, Ontario1 Phone - +1-631-721-4201 Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com BISHU 6317214201 6317214201 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 618 Words Contact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com63172142016317214201 The commodity chemicals are foreseeing a rise in the market growth because of the economic expansion and rising gross domestic product (GDP) of developing and developed countries worldwide. The worldwide market for commodity chemicals is segmented into organics, petrochemicals, plastics, explosives, resins, synthetic rubbers, films, fibers and inorganics. These segments comprise several types of chemicals, for instance, acetic acid, methanol, propylene, polyvinyl chloride, hexane, benzene, melamine, methyl, acetone, glycol, esters, glycerines, adipic acid, butyl acetate, bisphenol, butanediol in addition to butadiene.There are high expansion prospects in the Asia Pacific market as a result of developing economies like India, Indonesia and China. These nations have flourishing manufacturing sectors that get ample back up from the respective governments. The Asia Pacific commodity chemicals market also gets huge support from gulf nations such as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the structure of a bulk supply of crude oil and natural gas. The main economical aspect which influences the buying decisions of the end customers is the price. Price is the foremost determining aspect since the product distinction in the instance of these commodity chemicals is extremely low. Though, the rigid governments regulation all over the world in relation to the environment and health side effect of chemicals as well as fluctuating prices of natural gas as well as crude oil are laying noteworthy challenge for the industry.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124689/Commodity-Chemicals-Market Countries Tariffs on Chemicals to Impact the Worldwide MarketsRecently, China's tariffs on chemicals, polymers are considered to alter the regional trade. Among which the US commodity chemical products market is indicated to be most impacted on the basis of exports to China since a percentage of overall production during the year 2017 are styrene, monoethylene glycol (MEG), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), EVA copolymers, ethylene dichloride (EDC) and high density PE (HDPE) , on the basis of an study of select chemicals trade flows. Nevertheless, China is still considered to have a dominant part as the worlds largest importer.Request Report For Toc: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124689/Commodity-Chemicals-Market Manufacturers Merge to Produce the Various Types of Commodity Chemicals to Meet the Exact Customer RequirementsLyondellBasell has recently finished the $2.25bn acquisition of A Schulman high-performance composites, plastic compounds as well as powders supplier. The acquisition, as indicated by LyondellBasell, doubles more than the companys present compounding business as well as broadens its extend to the high-margin end, growing markets such as construction materials, automotive, packaging and electronic goods. The joint business is likely to function as a separate advanced polymer solutions reporting sector. Also the A Schulman assets and the companys present propylene compounding assets, the segment would include polybutene-1 resins and catalloy thermoplastic resins. Likewise incorporated in the advanced polymers solutions sector would be engineered masterbatches, powders, and composites that are all novel to the product portfolio of LyondellBasells.Likewise, The Dow Chemical company ended its force majeure on VAM (vinyl acetate monomer) recently, elevating the proclamation for Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and India, the Middle East, Africa, in addition to the sales dominance on VAM in North America.LyondellBasell Industries and the Dow Chemical Company are the leading makers in the commodity chemicals market and apart from them, a few of the major market players operating in the worldwide market for commodity chemicals are BASF SE, Chem China, Bayer AG, INEOS Group Holding, Evonik Industries, Sumitomo Chemicals, Asahi Kasei, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, PPG Industries, Linde Group along with Akzo Nobel. Thus, market players are gaining a competitive edge and taking efforts to enhance their product portfolio in the commodity chemicals market.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124689/Commodity-Chemicals-Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:50:59 Press Information Persistence Market Research CONTACT: Persistence Market Research 305 Broadway 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007, United States, USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com yogesh Seggar Team Lead 8009610353 email http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com # 632 Words CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comTeam Lead8009610353 Chemical detection technology is used to detect chemical agents (CA), toxic industrial chemicals (TIC), and toxic industrial materials (TIM). Chemical detection technologies plays a vital important role in the monitoring of chemical plants and industries. Incidents from the past like Bhopal gas tragedy have triggered the alarm in the chemical industry to use top quality and reliable chemical detection technology. Furthermore, a rise in threat from terrorist organizations across the world is forcing countries to implant chemical detection technology at critical infrastructure facilities such as airports, nuclear power plants, and water distribution facilities, etc.Many of the commercially available CA and TIC detectors utilize technologies that are adapted from classical analytical chemistry techniques. These technologies are ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS), raman spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, colorimetric analysis, flame photometry, surface acoustic wave, photo ionization and flame ionization.Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12322 Global Chemical Detection Technology Market Dynamics:Global chemical detection technology market is driven by defense sector of various countries in the world. IMS technology is widely used in the military and civilian agencies for detection of illicit drugs, explosives and TICs. Increase in number of people travelling worldwide and security concerns at the airports are driving growth of the global chemical detection technology market. Worldwide forensic labs are using infra-red spectroscopy for forensic analysis such as in identifying polymer degradation. Infra-red spectroscopy can be used to detect the alcohol content in the blood.A recent trend of chemical detection equipment becoming portable is expected to fuel the global chemical detection market growth. Additionally, there is an increasing reliability on chemical detection equipment by end-users owing to the reduced number of false alarm. Raman spectroscopy is very efficient and non-destructive technology to investigate the authenticity of arts (paintings), which is expected to drive the global chemical detection technology market. Growth in health care and medical sector is also poised to positively influence the global market for chemical detection technology.Cost of the chemical detection equipment is very high along with high operating cost, hindering the growth of the global chemical detection technology market to some extent.Global Chemical Detection Technology Market Segmentation:Global chemical detection technology market can be segmented on the basis of end-use sector such as defense sector, civil sector, and commercial sector. Global chemical detection technology market for defense sector can be further sub-segmented on the basis of application such as anti-terrorism, first responder market, firefighting control, real time monitoring of toxic and hazardous industrial chemicals in the environment, chemical disaster management and detecting air-borne chemical threats. Global chemical detection technology market can also be segmented on the basis type into portable and non-portable equipment. Global chemical detection technology market can be segmented on the basis of geography in to North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).Global Chemical Detection Technology Market: Regional outlookGeographically, global chemical detection technology market can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is the biggest market for chemical detection technology. The U.S. is the leader in research and development of chemical detection technology. Countries affected by the terrorism such as India, France, the U.K. are next big market for the chemical detection technology.Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12322 Global Chemical Detection Technology Market: Key playersFollowing are the major key player identified in the value chain of global chemical detection technology market: S. E. International, Inc., S2 Threat Detection Technologies, Romtech, ChemImage Corp., Bruker Detection Corporation, and Implant Sciences Corporation, etc. Major players are turning focus toward strategic alliances and collaboration along with product innovation to increase their market share in the global chemical detection technology market. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 14:50:32 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +13479183531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com abhishek manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 546 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +13479183531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.commanager+1 03479183531 Industry from many centuries has utilized natural resources in the manufacturing of products that we use in our Daily lives. As the industry has expanded and brought in technological innovations, so have the different types of natural resources evolved in the process of manufacturing. Molecules derived from natural sources have become an important part of manufacturing process all over the globe. One of those widely used molecules are enzymes. From wine making to detergent manufacturing, enzymes have been used in myriad applications. One of the most widely used enzymes all over the globe is Cellulase.Cellulase is a group of enzymes that helps in the breakdown of the cellulose into smaller carbohydrates. The term Cellulase is also used to describe a mixture of enzymes working together to break down cellulose. Cellulase applications are not just limited to the healthcare and food and beverage industry. Industrial sector has widely adopted cellulase due to its catalyzing effect in cellulolysisBuy This Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2097 Cellulase Market- Market Segmentation:Based on the Source, the Cellulasemarket is segmented into:FungiBacteriaAcinomycetesPlantsAnimalsBased on end use, the Cellulasemarket is segmented into:HealthcareIndustrialFood and BeveragesTextilePulp and paperCellulase Market- Market Dynamics:Cellulase is widely used in the processing of coffee, especially during the process of drying. Cellulase is also utilized in wine making due to its cellulolytic properties. Cellulase breaks down the skin of the grape and along with it removes tannins and the unpleasant aroma. Cellulase synergistically with other enzymes are also used to make fruit juices. With the exponential growth in the food and beverage industry, we can expect the cellulase market to grow at a healthy CAGR throughout our forecasted period of 2016-2026. Cellulase is also used in industrial applications to produce laundry detergents, cleaning and washing agents. With the burgeoning rise in the industrial sector, cellulase market is bound to witness an exponential growth throughut our forecasted period of 2016-2026. Cellulase is being recognized as an alternative to anti-biotic in the treatment of biofilms produced by Pseudomonas. With the double digit growth in the global healthcare industry and the struggle against anti-biotic resistant bacteria, we can expect the cellulase market to witness a healthy CAGR throughout our forecast period. Cellulase is also used in the burgeoning paper and pulp industry. The restraints for the cellulase market are that its production is quite costly.Request Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2097 Cellulase Market- Regional Outlook:In terms of geography, the cellulase market has been divided in to five key regions; North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. The cellulase market is expected to exhibit an above average CAGR during the forecast period. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness a high demand for cellulase over the forecasted period. Highest growth is expected to be seen specifically from India and China. Significant growth will also be witness in Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.Cellulase Market- Major Players:Some of the key players in the cellulase market are Worthington Biochemical Corporation, MP Biomedicals LLC, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, Prozmix LLC, Creative Enzymes, bioWORLD, Amano enzyme U.S.A., Amano Enzyme Inc., Zhongbei Bio-Chem Industry Co., Ltd., Hunan Hong Ying Biotech Co., Ltd. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:22:13 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Amir Manager +1-347-918-3531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 535 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1-347-918-3531 Sutures are surgical accessories used to hold the body tissue together, which helps in timely healing of a wound. Catgut sutures are used to cure various conditions, such as neuropathic ulcers, chronic wounds, etc. They are also used during cardiac surgery. Ophthalmic sutures, orthopedic sutures, general sutures, etc. are the commonly used sutures Catgut sutures are of two types: absorbable sutures and non-absorbable sutures. Both absorbable and non-absorbable sutures can be made from both a natural as well as synthetic material. Catgut sutures have higher knot-pull tensile strength than other types of sutures. They also offer excellent handling features. Therefore, catgut sutures are preferred over other types of sutures.Request For TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-7044 Catgut Sutures Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing number of surgeries and rising healthcare expenditure are the primary factors that will drive the growth of the catgut sutures market over the forecast period. Moreover, rising incidences of trauma cases and increasing usage of catgut sutures during surgeries will propel the growth of the catgut sutures market throughout the globe. Increasing cases of facial rejuvenation and skin surgery are also responsible for the robust growth of this market. Lack of product innovation and high risks associated with the surgery might also hamper the growth of the catgut sutures market to some extent. Similarly, improper sterilization systems and lack of skilled professionals are the other two factors that might also hinder the growth of the catgut suture market.The global Catgut Sutures market is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period due to increasing cases of aesthetic surgeries. New product launches by leading manufacturers have raised the potential of the Catgut Sutures market. By product type, absorbable sutures is the most dominating segment in the global catgut sutures market as absorbable sutures are more preferred by physicians. By end users, hospitals are the most dominating segment, in terms of market value, as a majority of the aesthetic surgeries are performed in hospitals. Key manufacturers in the catgut sutures market are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to upsurge their market share.Catgut Sutures Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of regional presence, the global Catgut Sutures market is classified into eight key regions North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding China & Japan, China, Japan and the Middle East & Africa. North America is the most lucrative market for Catgut Sutures due to growing number of surgeries in this region. North America is followed by Western Europe and Japan due to rising incidences of trauma cases in these regions. In APECJ region, India and Australia are the major markets in the catgut sutures market due to rising geriatric population in these countries. MEA and Latin America are expected to witness relatively low adoption in the Catgut Sutures market owing to lack of awareness among people.Catgut Sutures Market: Key PlayersExamples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of the Catgut Sutures market include Johnson and Johnson Services Inc., Smith & Nephew,, Medtronic plc, Derma Sciences, 3M Healthcare, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Molnlycke healthcare, SMB Corporation Of India, Dolphin Sutures, Lotus Surgicals, and Riverpoint Medical.Request For Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7044 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:14:29 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Amir Manager +1-347-918-3531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 722 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1-347-918-3531 Cardiopulmonary bypass system is medical device that takes over the function of heart and lungs for temporary basis during the cardiac surgery. Cardiopulmonary bypass system helps in maintaining the blood circulation and flow of oxygen within the body. Cardiopulmonary bypass system is used during the open heart surgery because of the difficulty of operating on the beating heart. Cardiopulmonary bypass system is a five pump heart-lung machine providing cardiopulmonary support during open-heart surgery. Cardiopulmonary bypass system mainly consist of two main component, the pump and the oxygenator which remove oxygen-deprived blood from a patients body and replace it with oxygen-rich blood through a series of hoses. At the time of open surgery, blood returning to heart is diverted to through a heart-lung machine (a pump-oxygenator) before returning it to the arterial circulation. Cardiopulmonary bypass system does the work both of the heart (pump blood) and the lungs (supply oxygen to red blood cells). Cardiopulmonary bypass system nourishes the blood cells and allows them to continue cellular respiration even through surgery.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5855 Cardiopulmonary Bypass System Infection Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe major factors driving the growth of Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market are rising prevalence of cardiac diseases and increasing geriatric population. The rise in disposable income and growing healthcare expenditure is fueling the growth of the Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market. Favorable reimbursement policies and increasing government support by developing economies has also responsible for the growth of the Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market. Awareness campaign by NGO about awareness of cardiac diseases is low driving factors for Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market. New innovative technologies and increasing product launch for Cardiopulmonary Bypass System has upsurge the growth of this market. On the other hand, the high cost of cardiac surgery and risk of failure during the surgery can hamper the growth of Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market.Cardiopulmonary Bypass System Market: SegmentationThe global Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is classified on the basis of product type, modality, end user, and region.Based on product type Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is segmented into following:Conventional Cardiopulmonary Bypass SystemMini Cardiopulmonary Bypass SystemBased on modality, Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is segmented into following:StandalonePortableBased on end user Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is segmented into following:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersCardiac Research CentersCardiopulmonary Bypass System Market: OverviewThe global Cardiopulmonary Bypass System is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period due to rising prevalence of cardiac diseases. The increasing number of the patient undergoing cardiac surgeries has increased the demand for Cardiopulmonary Bypass System. Cardiopulmonary Bypass Systems are segmented on the basis of product types, modality and end user. On the basis of product type Cardiopulmonary Bypass System is classified Conventional Cardiopulmonary Bypass System and Cardiopulmonary Bypass System. Conventional Cardiopulmonary Bypass System is expected to dominate the market share in term of value for this market. On the basis of end-user Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is classified as hospitals, ambulatory surgical center and cardiac research centers. Among all the end user hospitals are expected to gain maximum market share in term of value. The manufacturing of low-cost Cardiopulmonary Bypass Systems by manufacturing companies can provide the opportunity for this market to grow more in low economic countries.Cardiopulmonary Bypass System Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of regional presence global Cardiopulmonary Bypass System are classified into seven key regions North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is the most lucrative market for Cardiopulmonary Bypass System due to high healthcare infrastructure and favorable reimbursement scenario. After North America, Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market is then followed by Western Europe and Asia-Pacific excluding Japan. In APEJ region, India and China are the major markets for Cardiopulmonary Bypass System due to the high prevalence of cardiac diseases and increasing geriatric population.Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5855 Cardiopulmonary Bypass System Market: Key PlayersExamples of some of the market participants in Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market identified across the value chain include Sorin Group, Braile Biomedica, Transonic, Spectrum Medical, Minnetronix, Inc., Medtronic plc., MAQUET Holding B.V. & Co. KG. and others. Major market players of Cardiopulmonary Bypass System market are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to retain their market share. FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:25:35 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 676 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 The disposable hygiene products market is witnessing an annual growth of nearly 6-7% due to increased consumer spending on personal care products globally. In addition, the demand for improvised comfort, performance and efficient absorbent hygiene products is expected to drive demand for disposable hygiene products in the near future. Concerns for safety, convenience and hygiene are identified as key factors affecting growth of disposable hygiene products market. Furthermore, rising consumption of products such as sanitary pads, wipes, baby products and others across the globe is anticipated to drive demand for disposable hygiene products market in near future. Among the developing economies, increasing population and manufacture of such products in countries such as India and China and low penetration of these products is expected to open opportunities for growth of the market in BRICS. Moreover, industry-sophistication is expected to fuel the demand for disposable hygiene products in Brazil.Apart from increasing population in BRICS, economic development particularly in countries such as China and India is a key factor contributing towards substantial growth of disposable hygiene products market in the region. Furthermore, increasing disposable income, rising expenditure or consumer spending on personal hygiene and increasing hygiene concerns are expected to fuel demand for disposable hygiene products over the next five to six years. Also, increasing Internet penetration is a prime factor supporting wide distribution of these products to tech-savvy consumers in BRICS via the medium of online retailing. Internet penetration is expected to enhance distribution of these products, leading to increased consumption and brand visibility among consumers in BRICS.Although hygiene concerns rank high among consumers in the BRICS region, low awareness among people in rural areas coupled with low adoption of products in regular operations could hamper growth of the market. However, some international companies are focused on advertising campaigns along with the government awareness campaigns regarding hygiene. Although hygiene concerns in BRICS region is high, low awareness among people in rural areas coupled with low adoption of products on a regular basis is expected to restrict market growth. Moreover, cost reduction coupled with efficient packaging of the disposable hygiene products is concern for companies operating in this market.As a result, a few international companies are focusing on advertising campaigns along with product portfolio expansion through opening of new manufacturing units. For instance, Unicharm Corporation, Procter & Gamble India and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA (publ.) among others, have opened new manufacturing units for hygiene products in India. For instance, Unicharm Corporation invested US $ 39.2 million to set up a manufacturing facility with the objective to develop baby care, pet care and feminine care products in India.The disposable hygiene products market is segmented on the basis of product type and material used in products. The various disposable hygiene products include nappies, diapers, toilet paper, wipes, sanitary protection, kitchen towels, paper tableware, cotton pads and buds. These products are classified according to age-group since product usage differs accordingly. On the basis of age-group, the market has been segmented into adult care, feminine care and baby care. The materials used in these products are broadly classified as woven or non-woven, which depends on the acceptability of the product as well as age-group for which they are designed. Among all the product categories, the sanitary pads and baby products are collectively expected to be a promising area in the BRICS disposable hygiene products market. Among all the BRICS countries, India and China are expected to witness an increase in demand for disposable hygiene products, followed by Brazil and Russia.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-br-107 Investments by local players for disposable hygiene products are increasing rapidly, which is expected to lead towards a strong competitive database. This in turn is predicted to enhance the competitiveness among local as well as international players, leading to substantial investments in this market in future. Prominent players in this market include Dispowear Sterite Company, Kimberley Clark Corporation, Disposable Hygiene Products Ltd., BOSTIK SA, BAHP, UNICHARM Corporation, Procter & Gamble Company, Unicharm Corporation, Kao Corporation and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA (publ). PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:13:45 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Amir Manager +1-347-918-3531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 620 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1-347-918-3531 The biotherapeutics virus removal filters provide robust and economic solutions to stop the potential viral contaminants in a sample from the desired product. By using virus removal technique, all the non-enveloped viruses can be completely removed from the sample. The biotherapeutics virus removal filters are basically used during the manufacturing of biotherapeutic drug products or samples such as therapeutic replacement enzymes, antibodies, blood, derivatives of plasma and biopharmaceuticals. The biotherapeutics virus removal filters can be used either in vivo or in- vitro environment. In biotherapeutics virus removal filtration, the virus removability is based on size-exclusion mechanism that is those viruses which are superior to the mean pore size, they became trapped.Biotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market: Drivers and RestrainsThe global biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is anticipated to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The pre-determined risk of contamination in biotherapeutic products is the major factor that can upsurge the growth of the biotherapeutics virus removal filters market. The global market of biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is driven by the increasing investments in research sector by government. The lack of experience and less awareness can be the factors which can hamper the growth of the market of biotherapeutics virus removal filters.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-6054 Biotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market: SegmentationThe biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is classified into technology, application and end users.Biotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market is segmented, by Technology Size Exclusion TechnologyDepth Filtration TechnologyBiotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market is segmented, by Application Monoclonal AntibodiesBlood & PlasmaEnzymesProteinsBiotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market segmented, by End User-Biopharmaceutical CompaniesClinical Research OrganizationsAcademic InstitutesOthersBiotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market: OverviewThe increasing investment by the government is the major role for better healthcare is expected to drive the market. The companies are engrossed in introducing the products for combat dressing. The biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is classified by technology, application and end user. In terms of technology, the global market of biotherapeutics virus removal filters is divided into size exclusion technology and depth filtration technology. By application the biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is segmented as monoclonal antibodies, blood & plasma, enzymes and protein. By end user, the biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is segmented into biopharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, academic institutes and others. Among all end user, biopharmaceutical companies are expected to gain maximum value share over the forecast period.Biotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market: Regional overviewOn the basis of geography, biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is segmented as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to dominate the biotherapeutics virus removal filters market due to the advent of advanced technologies in this region. Europe is also contributing the moderate shares to the market due to the advanced medical facilities and easy availability of the biotherapeutics virus removal filters in the market. APAC is the most lucrative market for the biotherapeutics virus removal filters due to increasing research facilities and developing biopharmaceutical industry in the region is expected to show a robust growth to the global biotherapeutics virus removal filters market. MEA is at a nascent stage to the global biotherapeutics virus removal filters market and anticipated to register a decent growth to the market over a forecast period. Overall, the global biotherapeutics virus removal filters market is expected to show significant growth over a forecast period.Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-6054 Biotherapeutics Virus removal filters Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players in the market are Pall Corporation, Z-Medica, LLC, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Merck KGaA, Sartorius AG and others. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 12:08:05 Future Market Insights (FMI), in its latest report titled, Bio-plastics Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 to 2020, estimates that the global bio-plastics market is expected to account for US$ 43.8 Bn by 2020, registering a CAGR of 28.8% during the forecast period. A growing beverage packaging industry, government support for adopting bio-based materials, and rising consumer acceptance for bio-plastics are expected to contribute to the growth of the global bio-plastic market over the forecast period.In terms of materials, the global bio-plastics market is segmented as bio-PET, bio-PE, bio-PA, bio-degradable polyesters, PLA & PLA blends, starch blends, PHA and others. Currently, the bio-PET material segment dominates the bio-plastics market, and was estimated to be US$ 5.6 Bn in 2014. This segment is expected to reach US$ 29.1 Bn by 2020, with a momentous CAGR of 31.4% for the forecast period. Moreover, an increasing demand for bio-plastics from the beverage packaging industry and effectiveness of bio-plastics in one-time use application has driven the demand for the bio-PET in the last few years.Request For Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb--69 On the basis of application type, the bio-plastics market is segmented as bottlers, other packaging, food-services, agriculture/horticulture, consumer products, automotive and others. Among all the afore mentioned applications, bottles segment is expected to dominate the market with 34.4% of the total revenue share by 2020. However, automotive segment is anticipated to exhibit the second highest CAGR of 27.5% as compared to other applications during the forecast period. Additionally, influx of new entrants is predicted to fuel the growth of others application segment, thereby accounting for 5.0% market share by 2020.Browse Full: "Bio-plastics Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 to 2020" Report at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/details/global-bio-plastics-market Key regions considered for this market study include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW (Rest of the World). Asia Pacific represents the most lucrative market, followed by North America. Asia Pacific is expected to contribute 33.7% market share to the overall bio-plastics market by 2020. The growth of Europe is supported by the strong influence of regulatory framework and awareness regarding greener products through various media among the consumers.Assessing the various factors driving this market, a FMI lead analyst, said, Increasing consumer awareness regarding benefits of greener products, strict regulations to incorporate bio-based products in automotive & packaging, and increasing investments by local companies are expected to fuel the demand for global bio-plastics market. Key players in the global bio-plastics market are BASF SE, Arkema, DSM NV, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Evonik Industries, NaturePlast, NatureWorks LLC, RTP Company, Techno polymer Co. Ltd. and Toray Industries Inc.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb--69 Automotive Internet of Things (IoT) Market - Global industry segment analysis, regional outlook, share, growth; Automotive Internet of Things (IoT) Market 2018 to 2028 by future market insights Automotive Internet of Things (IoT) Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 10:43:41 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Abhishek Budholiya Manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 733 Words U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comManager+1 03479183531 The Internet of Things or "IoT" refers to a network of physical electronic devices and components across the globe connected through the internet. These equipment and devices are equipped with Internet-connected sensors that provide ongoing data transfer and collection. As such, Internet of things is a transformational way for consumers and businesses to connect with one another. Due to the speed of research and developments over the last decade, the dream of a fully-automatic and fully-connected future is not too far away.The rapidly changing and expanding automotive industry has allowed the automotive Internet of things to revolutionize the automotive industry. The Internet of things makes driving/ traveling safer and efficient. From the perspective of connection of vehicles using automotive internet of things, automobiles connected to the internet have the capability to diagnose problems and avoid failure of systems. This can easily prevent any kind of inconvenience during a car breakdown scenario. This preventative maintenance also brings down the cost of repair and maintenance, saving the warranty cost for the manufacturer as well. Also, the connectivity between vehicles and neighboring infrastructure helps in preventing any mishaps and accidents.Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7151 Additionally, Automotive Internet of Things also provides beforehand information about road conditions and potential threats, thereby ensuring a safe ride. It also helps in managing traffic by providing real-time traffic data, parking data, alternative routes and transit and providing information about areas that see reduced traffic and congestion. Other than this, the automotive internet of things application also enables remote access to car and helps in automatic or efficient parking. The automotive internet of things, at the time of crash, automatically sends live data about the crash location, thereby also helping in saving lives.Automotive Internet of things (IoT) Market:Market DynamicsA connected world is the new trend in almost every industry and data is turning out to be the most valuable asset, driving various industries. Technological developments are leading to subsequent automation and vehicle to vehicle communications are transforming the automotive industry. Through the implementation of Internet Of Thing (IoT), the operating cycle and operating time can be calculated easily and it also facilitates the efficient utilization of recourses. Automotive Internet of Things (IoT) is not a new concept in the market but the faster data transfer and improved connectivity infrastructure coupled with growing integration of electronics in the automotive application have infinitely increased the scope of automotive internet of things and it is expected to become an integral part of all automobiles across the globe in near future. This concept is becoming widespread with most big shot players willing to capture the market by creating new and better technologies that provide user-friendly features and ease of operation to customers. In short, technological developments in the automotive industry will drive the market of the automotive internet of things.Automotive Internet of things (IoT) Market: SegmentationMarket segmentation of the Automotive Internet of things (IoT) market on the basis of its offerings:HardwareSoftwareServicesMarket segmentation of the Automotive Internet of things (IoT) market on the basis of connectivity:In-Vehicle CommunicationVehicle-to-Vehicle CommunicationVehicle-to-Infrastructure CommunicationMarket segmentation of the Automotive Internet of things (IoT) market on the basis of its form factor:EmbeddedTetheredIntegratedMarket segmentation of the Automotive Internet of things (IoT) market on the basis of its application:InfotainmentNavigationTelematicsAutomotive Internet of things (IoT) Market: Regional OutlookNorth America region will provide extensive growth opportunities in the automotive internet of things (IoT) market, predominantly because of the extensive research development and demonstration of Automotive Internet of things (IoT), particularly in countries, such as the U.S, owing to the presence of major technological giants in this region. North America is followed by Western Europe owing to the presence of prominent OEM manufacturers and high demand for high-end cars equipped with the internet of things. Rest of the world is estimated to account for a relatively small share in the automotive internet of things market.Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7151 Automotive Internet of things (IoT) Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants dentified across the value chain of the Automotive Internet of things (IoT) market are:Google Inc.IBM CorporationMicrosoft Corp.Apple Inc.Cisco Systems Inc.Robert Bosch GmbHIntel CorporationCisco Systems Inc.General Motors PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:37:55 Press Information Research Report Insights Contact Us: Research Report Insights (RRI) 42 Joseph Street Port carling P0B 1J0 Muskoka, Ontario1 Phone - +1-631-721-4201 Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com BISHU 6317214201 +1631721420 email https://www.researchreportinsights.com # 631 Words Contact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com6317214201+1631721420 Engine oil used in the automotive sector vary by their volume, the engine size, and viscosity index. Certain added substances are added to keep up and enhance the engine oils viscosity index. Utilizing engine oil gives various long-haul advantages to the end-user, the reduced friction amid automotive engine components because of utilizing engine oil limits wear and tears of the vehicle components. It likewise lessens the unfavorable effect of accumulated dust on the engine parts. Aside from these advantages it additionally seals holes and counteracts corrosion.The indicators driving the automotive engine oil market are expanding middle-class populace, infrastructural expansion, expanding portability because of urbanization along with the advancement of satellite towns, megacities, and township projects, rising disposable income, increasing the desire of having a vehicle along with the requirement for goods carrier from medium and small-sized enterprises.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124685/Automotive-Engine-Oil-Market Rising mobility as a result of the progress of satellite township near megacities, growing surface transportation infrastructure, are a few indicators that are considered to fuel the automotive engine oil market in Asia Pacific region. Rising automotive aftermarket as well as DIY (do it yourself) culture in Europe and North America is fuelling the expansion of automotive engine oil in this two region particularly in the retail industry.The market growth of automotive engine oil is likely to be hindered by the rising provision of counterfeit motor oil products. The engine oil makers expend large amounts on establishing their brand identity; in turn, this brand identity is utilized by counterfeiters to trade forge products. The rising supply of forge goods in the market hinders the brand image as well as the revenue of reliable engine oil producers.The automotive engine oil market is controlled by strict regulations and rules concerned with the transfer of utilized oil. As indicated by the EPA under the Federal Standards for Management of Used Oil, utilized oil ought to be burned or recycled for the energy restoration. Utilized automotive engine oil market presents dangerous environmental threats because of the existence of petroleum base stocks which are poisonous and hard to discard after usage.Universal Lubricants, LLC, headquartered in Kansas, U.S., manufactures and distributes a product called as ECOULTRA (re-refined flagship product) a synthetic blend motor oil, in a simple to pour, uncompromising, flex-pack pockets that have earned enormous acknowledgment in different nations and prospering in the U.S. As it offers the purchasers a speedier, simpler and cleaner approach to replace the oil and as the utilized oil is refined, it is foreseen that the requirement for packaged engine oils would rise over the approaching years.Request Report For Toc: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124685/Automotive-Engine-Oil-Market Few of the prominent players active in the automotive engine oil market, globally comprises Total S.A, Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Gazprom, LUKOIL oil company, ROSNEFT, Royal Dutch Shell plc, BP p.l.c, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Statoil, Sinopec Lubricant Company, Chevron Corporation., JIANGSU LOPAL TECH. CO., LTD. along with Ashland Inc.Currently, in the foreign industrial emerged nations the automotive engine oil sector is for the most part at a further advanced level, the world's big enterprises are essentially amassed in Japan, Europe, the United States, and so forth. In the meantime, foreign organizations have further progressed equipment, strong D and R ability, the technical level is in a prominent position. On the other hand, foreign organizations' production cost has taken a toll and is moderately high, in contrast to the Chinese organizations, this production cost is a competitive disadvantage, as the Chinese automotive engine oil production enterprise innovation keeps on enhancing, their share in the worldwide market as well as is expanding, competitiveness in the worldwide market gradually.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124685/Automotive-Engine-Oil-Market FMI PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 11:45:16 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 824 Words Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesManager3479183531 Luxury goods comprises of products such as accessories, footwear, apparel, watches and others which are quite expensive and target those consumers who belongs to premium class. The market for luxury goods consist of three types of end consumers, which includes kids lying between the age of 0-12 years, teenagers belonging to the age group of 13 to 19 years and the rest lies in adult group. Luxury goods market can also be segmented on the basis of application which includes soft luxury goods and hard luxury goods. Soft luxury goods includes designer apparel and leather goods such as hand bags and others, which is easily available for the customers in the hypermarket stores or directly operative outlet. Whereas hard luxury goods comprises of jewellery and premium watches. The hard luxury goods are offered to the consumers through premium class outlets, stores or sell out through internet.Thus the market for hard luxury product is also segmented on the basis of mode of distribution channel used for offering products to the consumers. The mode of Distribution channel is segmented into retail outlets, sell out through internet, companys brand outlet and others. Among all these distribution channel online retailing is expected to be most preferred mode for distribution in the forecasted period. This is due to consumer convenience preferences and availability of the products at lower price. Furthermore, the second most preferred mode is expected to be the companys brand retail outlets as they provide better offerings at less price.Globally, the demand of hard luxury goods are showing robust annual growth of 10% to 12%.North America and Europe is the highest contributor in the market share of hard luxury goods market. Increasing demand of accessories coupled with rising middle class disposable income has supported the growth of emerging markets in Asia-Pacific. It is expected to account for the fastest CAGR growth as compared to other regions. Among all the countries in Asia Pacific China is expected to be the most lucrative market followed by Japan. India is also expected to show a healthy growth in the forecasted period by registering a single digit CAGR growth. Whereas in ASEAN region Singapore is expected to be the most dominant market. The rising growth for hard luxury goods in Singapore is supported by the new entrants of jewellery brands and rising sales of watches. Rapid urbanization coupled with increasing disposable income in Thailand and Malaysia is predicted to boost the customer base and prominent contributor in the revenue of hard luxury good market in ASEAN region followed by Indonesia and Philippines.Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-as-106 Expanding middle class income group coupled with the urge of consumers for premium class products are the key drivers for the market growth of hard luxury goods in ASEAN region. Moreover, wide varieties of product offerings in each segments and continuous innovation and product launch is also expected to influence the consumers of ASEAN region to fuel the market growth of hard luxury goods in the forecasted period.However, the market of hard luxury goods in ASEAN region possess some restraining factors. This includes the weak distribution channel and limited availability of the products. Furthermore, the consumers perceives these products as quite expensive and also it is considered as a premium class product and not an absolute necessity.The key international market players for hard luxury goods operating in ASEAN region includes Gianni Versace S.p.A., LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, Prada S.p.A., Hermes International SCA, Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A, Prada S.p.A, Ralph Lauren Corp, Christian Dior SE, Gucci, Rolex SA, Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton Malletier, Tod's S.p.A. and others.This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, geographies and types.Regional analysis includesSingaporeMalaysiaThailandBruneiVietnamPhilippinesIndonesiaRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-as-106 The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also the maps qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 09:07:41 Press Information Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way Suite 2-9018, Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 688 Words U.S. Office 616 Corporate WaySuite 2-9018,Manager3479183531 Future Market Insights delivers key insights and presents a revised forecast of the global ambulatory surgical centres market for a 10 year period from 2017 to 2027 in the report titled Ambulatory Surgical Centres Market: Global Industry Analysis 20122016 and Opportunity Assessment 20172027. The revision in the market size and forecasts have been carried out taking into account the impact of various macroeconomic indicators and other industry-based demand-driving factors, as well as the recent developments of key market participants. The global ambulatory surgical centres market is projected to expand at a healthy CAGR of 4.0% in terms of value during the forecast period, revised from the previous CAGR of 3.9%, due to factors regarding which FMI offers useful insights in detail in this report.Request to View Sample of Research Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5071 The report broadly segments the global ambulatory surgical centres market on the basis of centre type, modality, services speciality area and region. Based on centre type, the global ambulatory surgical centres market has been segmented into single speciality centres and multispecialty centres.Multispecialty Centres Segment is the Most Lucrative SegmentMultispecialty centres segment is estimated to dominate the ambulatory surgical centres market by product type with 65% value share of the market by 2017 end. Multispecialty centres segment is expected to reach US$ 76,028.6 Mn by 2027 end and will grow at the fastest CAGR of 4.4% over the forecast period.Hospital-Based Ambulatory Surgical Centre Segment Accounts for Higher Market DemandAmong modality types, hospital-based ambulatory surgical centre segment is expected to dominate the global ambulatory surgical centres market with 59.5% value share in 2017. Hospital-based ambulatory surgical centre segment is expected to reach a market value of US$ 69,700.4 Mn by 2027 end, growing with a CAGR of 4.4% over the forecast period.Surgical Services Segment Dominates by Service TypeSurgical services segment is estimated to dominate the global ambulatory surgical centres market by service type with higher value share of the market by 2017 end. Surgical services segment is expected to reach US$ 77,664.3 Mn by 2027 end and will grow at a CAGR of 4.2% over the forecast period.Gastroenterology Segment is the Most Attractive Segment by Speciality AreaAmong speciality areas, gastroenterology is expected to dominate the global ambulatory surgical centres market in terms of value share during the forecast period. Gastroenterology is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.7% over the forecast period.North America Will Continue to Grow at an Exponential RateFMI has analysed the ambulatory surgical centres market across seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America is expected to dominate the market value share for ambulatory surgical centres and is expected to reach US$ 61,588.4 Mn by 2027 end. The Western Europe market is expected to account for the second largest market value share, followed by APEJ. North America and Europe are collectively expected to constitute more than 82% of the market share over the forecast period. MEA is predicted to be the least attractive region in the global ambulatory surgical centres market.Key Insights from FMIs Report on the Ambulatory Surgical Centres MarketGrowing focus on containment of healthcare costs and increased Medicare spending on ASCs are driving the global ambulatory surgical centre market.Number of outpatient surgeries have increased significantly in the recent years, thereby impacting the ambulatory surgical centres market worldwide. Also, a significant share of outpatient procedures have shifted from hospitals to free-standing ambulatory surgical facilities over the same period.Over the last decade, various constitutes across healthcare continuum, including private insurance companies, self-insured employers, and government payers, are implementing meaningful cost-containment measures.Leading manufacturers are focussing on setting up manufacturing facilities in emerging markets and this would substantially increase the chances of growth, as there would be no import-export glitches.Request Report for Table of Contents @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-5071 Ambulatory Surgical Centres Market: Key PlayersKey competitors covered in the report include AmSurg Corp., HCA Holdings, Inc., Tenet Healthcare, Surgical Care Affiliates, Inc., Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America, Surgery Partners, Medical Facilities Corporation, Healthway Medical Group and Community Health Systems, Inc.View Report Preview @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ambulatory-surgical-centre-market-092017 PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 14:25:55 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com abhishek manager +1 03479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 654 Words Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: www.futuremarketinsights.commanager+1 03479183531 Alcoholic beverages are manufactured by the fermentation of fruit, vegetables or cereals. The rise in the global consumption of alcohol, especially in developing regions such as Asia-Pacific drives the market for alcohol ingredients. This has resulted in increasing focus of key alcohol manufacturers to provide better functional ingredients by development in the production processes for alcohol ingredients and favorable functionalities of alcohol ingredients in various beverage applications. This will influence the alcohol ingredients market size.Beer is produced by fermentation of malted barley or other cereals with the addition of hops. Wine is made from fermented grape juice or crushed grapes; fortified wines include additional distilled spirits.Distilled spirits originate from sources of starch or sugar, including cereals, molasses from sugar beets, grapes, potatoes, cherries, plums, and other fruits; after sugar fermentation, the alcohol content is increased by means of liquid distillation. Although ethanol can be chemically synthesized from ethylene, the alcoholic beverage industry does not synthesize alcohol for use in beverages, because of the presence of impurities from the synthetic process.Request Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2344 Alcohol Ingredients Market SegmentationAlcohol ingredients market is segmented on the type of ingredients which includes yeast, enzymes, colorants, flavors & slats and others. The worldwide demand for alcohol ingredients is on the rise, particularly in the beverage industry. The demand is governed by the performance quality, their incorporation in beverage applications, and regulations imposed by international and local governments in the production of alcohol ingredients and alcoholic beverages.The alcohol ingredients market is expected to increase in developing countries due to the presence of emerging economies, rise in expenditure for alcoholic beverages, and the significant influence of traditions and cultures. Also, increase in population and disposable incomes in the developing Asian countries is driving the demand for alcoholic beverages, which in turn serves as a driver for the alcohol ingredients market.Alcohol ingredients market is also segmented on the basis of beverage types, which includes beer, spirits, wine whisky, brandy and others.Alcohol Ingredients Market Drivers & RestraintsThere is rise in alcohol consumption in emerging countries due to huge population base, more acceptance of socializing places like bars and pubs and growing consumption of alcohol becoming a new trend among young generation which is driving the market of alcohol ingredients. The demand of alcohol ingredients basically depends on the performance quality and legislations imposed by the both local as well as international government on the production of alcohol beverage ingredients and alcohol beverages.Distribution channel advancement such as online sales, separate counter for females, outlets in public places like airport are also few important driving factors for alcohol beverage industry.The demand of alcoholic beverages increases with the constantly changing taste preferences among the consumers, high consumer affluence towards drinks and the increasing disposable income in the developing economies. Global leaders in alcohol ingredients suppliers are focusing on new product development and innovation. For example recently flavored alcoholic beverages, cocktails are becoming very popular who are looking for change from the regular plain alcoholic beverages.There exists quite a few restraints in the alcohol industry such as high taxes, stringent government regulations on manufacturing and selling liquor, and ban on advertisements among others. Alcohol consumption is also subjected to the overall economys growth in terms of gross net income per capita and household expenditure. Thus, development in the economy would give a thrust to the alcohol market further but in a less pronounced manner.Buy This Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2344 Alcohol Ingredients Market Key PlayersThe alcohol ingredients market is fragmented and competitive, with a large number of players operating at regional and local levels. Some of the major players operating in maternal nutrition products market includes Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Inc, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, Koninklijke DSM N.V, Sensient Technologies, Ashland Inc, D.D.Williamson & Co., Inc., Dohler Group, Kerry Group PLC and Treatt PLC. PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-07 07:38:03 Press Information Research Report Insights 42 Joseph Street Research Report Insights (RRI Port carling P0B 1J0 Muskoka, Ontario1 Phone - +1-631-721-4201 Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com BISHU 6317214201 6317214201 email http://www.. # 618 Words 42 Joseph StreetResearch Report Insights (RRIPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com63172142016317214201http://www.. researchreportinsights.com The market for acetic anhydride is expanding on account of the increased requirement for cigarette filter drag in rising economies, predominantly in the BRIC nations. The growing smokers in these nations as a result of the expansion of the market since cellulose acetate flake come about as the foremost raw material for manufacturing cigarette filter drag is prepared by utilizing acetic anhydride. In addition, acetate cellulose is utilized in making acetate textile fibers that fuel the requirement for acetic anhydride.As cellulose acetate is chiefly utilized in the cigarette, acetic anhydride is in addition utilized in flavor as well as fragrances in addition to dyes market. Moreover, acetic anhydride could be utilized in resins & polymers, artificial sweeteners, explosives, agrochemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals, pesticides along with coating materials market. Acetic anhydride is in addition utilized to produce TAED (tetraacetylethylenediamine) that could be utilized in the form of a bleach activator in the market for laundry detergents and cleaning industry. On the other hand, going down consumption of acetic anhydride in cellulose acetate for household consumption could have the foremost effect on the overall market.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124793/Acetic-Anhydride-Market On the basis of demand, North America regional market has gained market attractiveness in the worldwide market for acidic anhydride. Among which, the U.S. had the biggest requirement for acidic anhydride on account of vast need from the market for cellulose acetate. On the other hand, the market for acidic anhydride is going down in the North America market over the years to come. The acidic anhydride market was fundamentally expansive in Europe and the trend is likely to proceed because of the developing requirement for cellulose acetate and TAED in the area.The Asia Pacific is foreseen to be the quickest developing business sector for acidic anhydride throughout the following couple of years. There is a vast requirement for acetic anhydride from nations, for instance, Japan, India in addition to China. China and Japan are widely held acetic anhydride users in the Asia Pacific region. Expansion of industries such as pharmaceuticals, polymer, and textile in India is believed to offer better prospects for the India market for acetic anhydride. The Europe market for acetic anhydride is determined by expanding demand for the laundry market of TAED in addition to cellulose acetate for cigarette market. France, the U.K, Germany and Italy are the main customer of acetic anhydride in the European market. The requirement is constant in Rest of the World for the worldwide market for acidic anhydride over the years to come.Request For Report TOC: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124793/Acetic-Anhydride-Market The decrease in the use of acidic anhydride in domestic utilization of stringent environmental regulations and cellulose acetate have appeared to limit the worldwide acidic anhydride market. In addition, the costs of acidic anhydride have demonstrated a remarkable development as a result of instability in the cost of methanol, which is a noteworthy crude material for the manufacturing of acidic acid. This has made it troublesome for makers to keep up profit margins.The foremost market players foraying in the worldwide market for acidic anhydride, have taken the form of an entry barrier for new market players, as a result of technical proficiency as well as feasibility concerns. The looking for novel applications in addition to the growth of manufacturing facilities is considered to be the foremost strategy for the market players for the growth of the market. A few of the topmost makers in the worldwide market for acidic anhydride include BP Chemicals, Celanese Corporation, BASF SE, Eastman Chemical Company, DuPont, Sasol Limited, SABIC, and PetroChina Ltd. amid others.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124793/Acetic-Anhydride-Market When it comes to the state of the art on the left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is (to borrow an expression) the tippy tops. She is an idiots idiot with a little girl voice that gives expressive form to her thoughts and dreams. If only she were given absolute power, she could produce the kind of rapid change (to borrow another expression) that has reduced Venezuela to poverty and starvation. 60 Minutes featured AOC in its lead segment last night. The segment is posted here (both video and, thankfully, transcript). Quotable quote: I think theres a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right. Here we get to the heart of the matter: Anderson Cooper: Youre talking about zero carbon emissions no use of fossil fuels within 12 years. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: That is the goal. Its ambitious. And Anderson Cooper: How is that possible? Are you talking about everybody having to drive an electric car? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Its going to require a lot of rapid change that we dont even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible? We are in the realm of Imagine. She has no idea (and Anderson Cooper seems to think that electric cars are powered by cotton candy). Cooper only takes up the angle that lies at the heart of every socialist utopia: Anderson Cooper: This would require, though, raising taxes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Theres an element where yeah. There people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes. Anderson Cooper: Do you have a specific on the tax rate? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: You know, it you look at our tax rates back in the 60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system. Your tax rate, you know, lets say, from zero to $75,000 may be ten percent or 15 percent, et cetera. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops - on your 10 millionth dollar - sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesnt mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more. In 1960 the top marginal federal income tax rate actually reached 91 percent on income over $200,000 (for single filers) or $400,000 (for married filers). AOC could present her proposal as a modest reform that falls short of the tax levels of the Eisenhower years. Or perhaps AOC would be inspired by the history. Superimposing New York state and local income taxes on top of the 1960 federal rates we could achieve a level of taxation exceeding 100 percent and get serious about encouraging the appropriate contribution from the rich. Socialists like AOC never do tell us what our fair share is or how they determine it. I would like to know what my fair share is. I think I have been paying more than my fair share for a long time, but I would like to know so I can have some peace of mind that they will leave me alone when I get there. But we will never get there. They never tell us what our fair share is because it is 100 percent. We deserve nothing. We have no right to fruit of our own labor. The want it all. As we will recall next month when we celebrate the anniversary of Lincolns birth, they offer the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Of course, as Lincoln explained their reasoning see AOC it is for our own good. They always bestride the necks of the people, not because they want to, but because we are better off for being ridden. Attempting to provide an honest assessment of Elizabeth Warren as a presidential candidate, Jim Eliason, chair of the Buena Vista County Democrats in northwestern Iowa, described her tone as very shrill. Eliason expressed concerned that Warrens tone will put some people off. He added: If I were Elizabeth Warren I would be thinking about, how can I speak to rural voters in the Midwest in Trump country? Every Democratic candidate for president has got to tell themselves Iowa is winnable, but we cant do it the way Clinton did it. As an Iowa political operative, its Eliasons job to worry about candidate attributes that might put Iowa voters off. Nonetheless, he has been criticized for expressing his concern that Warren will be off-putting because shell be perceived by some as shrill. Is there anything wrong with Eliason expressing himself as he did? I dont think so. Its true that shrill is far likely to be used to describe a female candidate than a male counterpart. But its also true that bully, blowhard, and bombastic are far more likely to used to describe male candidates. Should these terms be off-limits? The reality is that when women ramp up the volume, they run a much greater risk of sounding shrill than men who do. And when men go into overdrive, they run a much greater risk than women of sounding bombastic and/or bullying. This is probably why one set of vulgarities is often used to describe highly offensive women and another set to describe highly offensive men. Women and men tend to be offensive and unlikable in somewhat different ways. Thats just how things are. The relevant question when it comes to statements like Eliasons shouldnt be whether the statement is sexist or politically incorrect. The question should be whether the speaker is on to something. In other words, will Warrens tone strike Iowa voters as shrill and, if so, will it impair her prospects for winning in Iowa in the general election? If Democratic voters want to ignore these questions when they vote for their nominee, thats okay with me. Maybe they will offer up another candidate like Hillary Clinton whom many voters find off-putting. But its entirely understandable and appropriate for an Iowa Democratic county chairman not to ignore the questions and to warn Democrats about the answers. The U.S. withdrawal from Syrian might not be as precipitous as it was originally described by President Trump. It also may not be as complete. Yesterday, during a visit to Israel where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, John Bolton outlined objectives that must be met before the U.S. withdraws from Syria. The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement, he explained. One objective, of course, is the comprehensive defeat of ISIS in Syria. Bolton acknowledged that pockets of ISIS remain. The other main objective identified by Bolton is protection of our ally, the Kurds. Bolton stated: Its also very important that as we discuss with members of the coalition, [and] other countries that have an interest, like Israel and Turkey, that we expect that those who have fought with us in Syria . . . particularly the Kurds [not be put in] jeopardy. I dont see how a complete U.S. withdrawal can be accomplished without putting the Kurds in serious jeopardy at the hands of Turkey. Turkey regards the Kurdish fighters were allied with as separatists and terrorists. Thus, the Turks cannot reasonably be expected to forebear from attacking the Kurdish forces if the U.S. is out of the picture. If Bolton is serious about protecting the Kurds, and if hes speaking for President Trump, we wont be withdrawing from Syria in the foreseeable future. But what does Trump think? I dont know and Im not sure he does. Yesterday he said he remains committed to the withdrawal but that I never said were doing it that quickly. Actually, he did say this. On December 19, he tweeted: Our boys, our young women, our men, theyre coming back and theyre coming back now. Fortunately, we need not take this statement literally. How seriously we should take it remains to be seen. AMITY Sewer rates going up for 2019 Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation@postregister.com for help creating one. Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. Jerrel Floyd is an Alabama raised reporter who covers Summerville and Dorchester County for The Post and Courier. Get the SC business stories that matter. Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free. Pavel Vinogradov, a highly-decorated Russian cosmonaut, was among the many Russians who condemned NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstines decision to withdraw an invitation to the CEO of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, to visit the U.S. in February. Bridenstine told the Washington Post he canceled the invitation after numerous senators told him it was not a good idea. Rogozin has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2014, when he served as a Russian deputy prime minister during Moscows annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and military interference in eastern Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin appointed him to head Roscosmos in May 2018. While Roscosmos said it is waiting for official explanations from NASA, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a source in Roscosmos as saying that, in retaliation for NASA rescinding the invitation to Rogozin, Moscow was considering canceling already reached agreements with NASA, including the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G), a joint project to build a permanent space station orbiting the Moon. However, it should be noted that Rogozin spoke out against the LOP-G project as Roscosmos chief even before NASA disinvited him. Last September 22, he announced that Russia would not be part of the project under the conditions laid out by the U.S. side, because the Russian Federation cannot afford to participate in supporting roles." In November, Rogozin half-jokingly said, Russia's own Lunar mission will be tasked with verifying whether the U.S. ever landed on the Moon feeding a conspiracy theory, which is very popular in Russia. Commenting on the potential unraveling of the U.S.-Russian space partnership, Vinogradov said the political insanity in America is beginning to go off scale and has risen to cosmic heights, but claimed Russia and Rogozin will live quite tranquilly without NASA, while NASA and the U.S. companies will face hardships. Vinogradovs assessment is inaccurate: though it can be argued that the U.S. companies and NASA will have to adjust their plans if the bilateral space partnership collapses, Russia have to deal with losing billions in U.S. funds and thus be the biggest loser. There are multiple contracts between the U.S. and Russian space agencies under which Russia provides the services while the U.S. provides the funds. For example, under the contract between NASA and Roscosmos for the delivery of U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia has received $935 million over just the last three years. Notably, Russia has raised the price for transporting each American astronaut ten-fold over the last 10 years: in 2008, the U.S. paid Russia $21.8 million for each astronaut, while in 2018, the price for the same service was $82 million. NASA would pay much less for such services if they were provided by private companies rather than Roscosmos: both Boeing and Elon Masks SpaceX have proposed to send NASAs astronauts to the ISS for $58 million each. There is also the issue of quality of service: while Roscosmos managed 19 successful launches in 2018, the two U.S. companies had 29 successful launches in the same period. Washington has invested over $100 billion in operating the ISS, and the U.S. Congress is planning to extend the existing authorization for operating the ISS beyond 2024. At the same time, the U.S. is preparing to transition from NASA sponsorship of space travel to a regime where NASA could be one of many customers of a low-Earth orbit non-governmental human space flight enterprise. As stated in the NASA Authorization Act of 2017. A NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit supports the notion that the Russian space agency faces more significant funding issues than the U.S. companies. The OIG noted that if NASA met its initial goal of using private companies to transport astronauts, NASA could have avoided paying Russia close to $1 billion for Soyuz seats in 2017 and 2018 Along with the potential loss of the U.S. funding, Roscosmos is already facing major problems. In 2015, the Russian government significantly reduced Roscosmoss budget, limiting its 10-year funding to $22.5 billion roughly $2.2 billion a year -- compared to NASAs annual funding of $18 billion. But even Roscosmoss scarce funding is not guaranteed. The Russian state agency Sputnik reported in May 2018 that the Russian space agency could receive 17 billion rubles (around $240 million) less in 2019 than initially planned, while it may see a reduction of funding by 52 billion rubles (around $747 million ) in 2020 and 75 billion rubles (around $1.08 billion) less in 2021. In addition to financial hardships, Roscosmos has been under scrutiny due to multiple corruption scandals and failed space missions in 2018. Last August, a hole in the ISS caused leakage from the space station, and claims that it was deliberately drilled from inside triggered a storm of conspiracy theories. In October, a failed Roscosmos rocket launched with two astronauts on board, a Russian and an American Nick Hague resulted in an emergency landing. Both survived, describing the experience as harrowing. In November, the head of Russias Audit Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, accused Roscosmos of embezzling of billions of rubles in public funds. 2.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising House Democrats will soon be burying Donald Trump and his Cabinet secretaries in subpoenas, and one top committee chairman admitted it could be brutal. Now that they are in charge of the House, Democrats are planning to issue very large amounts of subpoenas to help their investigations into the president, his administration, his business and his campaign. Some people believe that the subpoena onslaught could get confusing, but Democrats say they need to get the facts which have so far been buried by Trump and his GOP enablers in Congress. The new House majority will be looking deeper into many issues surrounding acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, former Interior Department head Ryan Zinke, former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, for example. Advertising In addition, they will be obtaining much more information about the details of the presidents policies and business practices. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), chairman of the House Budget Committee admitted that the process could get ugly and be difficult for Trump: I joked for a while but its not funny anymore I said were going to have to build an air traffic control tower to keep track of all the subpoenas flying from here to the White House. So yeah, it could be brutal. The Democrats believe that they must investigate what they believe are gross abuses from agency heads. Republicans have given Trump and his Cabinet officials a pass on unethical behavior since Trump became president. And last Novembers elections put Democrats in charge of the House so that they can now hold the president and his administration accountable. As House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said: Over the last two years President Trump set the tone from the top in his administration that behaving ethically and complying with the law is optional. Were better than that. According to POLITICO: The first Cabinet official Cummings wants to talk to is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. His committee will press Ross over allegations he misled Congress about a decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. Ross also has been dogged by ethical questions and reporting that exposed numerous conflicts of interests involving his personal financial interests. In addition, As many as five House committees could take on DeVos over her rollback of for-profit college regulations, stalled student loan forgiveness processing and a rewrite of campus sexual assault policies. Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has accused DeVos of a full-on attack on civil rights protections for students particularly students of color, students with disabilities, transgender students, and survivors of sexual assault. Shes also criticized the Trump administrations moves to ease regulations on for-profit colleges, while Cummings is similarly looking at the collapse of a for-profit college chain. Democrats will also be looking into: Trumps tariff policies, his zero tolerance border policy which led to separation of children from their parents, his tax returns, Trump money laundering, his changes to environmental and other regulations, his moves to undermine the Affordable Care Act, and the behavior of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. In short, 2019 is starting off with a bang for Donald Trump as he faces an angry yet powerful group of Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives. He thought he could distract them from investigating him by extending the partial government shutdown, but that clearly wont work. In fact, nothing Trump tries to do will work to deflect the probes into his administration and his criminal business empire. For Donald Trump it is very clear that Winter is Coming in the form of a blizzard of subpoenas from Democrats in Congress. 2.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising Trump is asking television networks for airtime for a Tuesday night Oval Office address designed to whip up a fake border crisis. The New York Times reported: President Trump wants to address the nation about the government shutdown on Tuesday night, and later in the week plans to travel to the southern border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a border wall the sticking point in negotiations with Democrats who are eager to reopen shuttered agencies. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about a request to television networks to carve out time for an Oval Office address. A person familiar with the request said the White House had asked to interrupt prime time programming on Tuesday. The networks dont have to give Trump the airtime. There have been requests by previous presidents that were denied, but it is likely that the networks will give Trump the time he has requested because denials are rare, and usually only happen when a network is worried about financial losses from not running their regular programming. Trump is losing on the government shutdown, and so he is pivoting to trying to make a case for the declaration of a national emergency so that he can get his wall. There is no crisis on the border. Advertising The only crisis is that Trump made a campaign promise that he cant keep, so he is taking desperate measures to try to get his wall. The Networks Should Deny Trumps Request Trump is abusing the presidential platform to create a crisis. The networks should see through this sham abuse of the presidency and say no. There is no news value in a Trump address that is designed to manipulate with lies into supporting his wall. The right thing to do would be to tell Trump to go kick rocks, but the odds are that most networks, if not all, will end up showing the address. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. Advertising New U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, told Anderson Cooper last night that she believes Donald Trump is racist. In a 60 Minutes interview that covered many different subjects, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was asked by Cooper Do you believe President Trump is a racist? She replied Yeah. Yeah. No question, citing Trumps inflammatory rhetoric as proof to support her conclusion. When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy, Ocasio-Cortez said. When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, its night and day. Advertising Ocasio-Cortez also pointed out that the president is not the cause of the problem but is merely a symptom of a problem, saying, The president certainly didnt invent racism. But hes given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things. In response to Ocasio-Cortez, the White House told 60 Minutes that the congresswomans sheer ignorance on the matter cant cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform, adding that Trump has also repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms. In the interview, Cooper also asked Ocasio-Cortez about criticisms that shes pushing the Democratic Party too far to the left and about her proposals to increase taxes to help pay for her Green New Deal to fight global warming. During the interview Ocasio-Cortez also apologized if the president was hurt by her insults. If he felt genuinely threatened by me, then I apologize, she said. But I think that frankly, its any legal advice that anyone would give him. Then she said that Trump should not attack members of Congress because they now have subpoena power over him and his administration. And she clarified that she doesnt mind breaking all of the rules. If you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen, she commented about Trumps whining. The president is known for saying that hes a counter-puncher and that he hits back hard when somebody comes after him. But when women do the same to him, he whines and then treats them like the enemy. About this, Ocasio-Cortez said: People know that if youre coming after me, youre opening yourself up. People know that my style is sarcastic but honest and I take people at their word. And I will hold them accountable as well. She clarified that she was not issuing threats to people who come after her, and then added: I will take you down a peg if youre not being fair. Advertising If the networks give Trump airtime for his immigration address, they are looking at providing Democrats rebuttal airtime on national television. Maggie Haberman tweeted: The networks are weighing options, including giving a response to Dems. But they have NOT agreed to this yet, despite POTUS claiming so. https://t.co/QKujUlNwib Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 7, 2019 Habermans tweet was in response to a flat-out lie from Trump: Advertising I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019 Giving Democrats Equal Time Would Undercut Trumps Lie The whole point for the White House of Trump doing this national address is to give the president an unchecked platform on which to lie. If the networks give Democrats rebuttal time, Trump will lose his ability to spread his racist and false message about the crisis that he is trying to gin up on the border in an unfettered manner. Democrats should get equal time because this president cant be trusted to tell the truth on the nations airwaves. Television executives already know that if they carry Trumps speech, he will lie. If they feel like they have to provide airtime for the speech, which they dont, but if they feel like they must, the best option is to provide Democrats with an equal platform to address the nation. A Democratic rebuttal makes the Oval Office address must less attractive to Trump, as the television networks are making it clear that they are not trusting the nations airwaves to Donald Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising First Daughter Ivanka Trump will likely soon be investigated for failing to recuse herself from personally and substantially being involved in a Trump administration program that benefits her husband, Jared Kushner. The investigation is the result of conflict of interest allegations brought by the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW). CREW asked the Justice Department on Friday to investigate whether Ivanka violated federal law by promoting an Opportunity Zone tax break program from which she could potentially benefit, along with Kushner. BREAKING: We just filed a conflict of interest complaint against Ivanka Trump https://t.co/GnkpajL6vx Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 4, 2019 Advertising The complaint from CREW came after an Associated Press (AP) investigation last month which found that Ms. Trump and Kushner, both White House advisers, would benefit from the Opportunity Zones program they pushed that offers tax breaks to developers who invest in downtrodden communities. AP reported that Kushner owns a $25 million to $50 million stake in Cadre, a real estate investment firm which is investing in several U.S. cities under the Opportunity Zones program. In addition, Trump and Kushner have investment interests in at least 13 other properties held by Kushners family firm which also qualify for the tax breaks because they are in Opportunity Zones in New Jersey, New York and Maryland. The CREW complaint says that, under federal law, Kushners financial interests are considered of value to Ivanka Trump as well, and thus she is guilty of ethical and legal violations. CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder sent a 12-page letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, outlining Trumps activities. In the letter he said that as a result of the 2017 decision by Ivanka Trump and Kushner to retain a sprawling portfolio of investments after entering government, the couple assumed responsibility for exercising due diligence to avoid participating in any particular matter that directly and predictably affects the interests of the companies they retained. Ivanka Trump, Bookbinder wrote, has failed to live up to this responsibility. Bookbinder told the AP that CREWs complaint focused on Ivanka Trump because there is so much public information about her role in the Opportunity Zones program. The AP report noted that Ivanka Trump publicly promoted the program and coordinated with its main congressional sponsor, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. President Trump lauded his daughter last February for pushing this very hard. In the past, Ivanka Trump has tweeted her public support for Opportunity Zones and has appeared at White House events promoting the program. Opportunity Zones, passed in Tax Cuts legislation, will have a transformative effect on distressed urban and rural communities across America. Thank you @SenatorTimScott for your advocacy of this great policy. @WhiteHouseCEA @sparker https://t.co/Z8Os4Xm1ks Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 9, 2018 AP reported that Kushner also backed the program, but has had limited involvement behind the scenes. 591 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising Both U.S. Senators from Maryland said Sunday that they believe the Senate shouldnt consider any new legislation that is not related to the partial government shutdown. They said that no new business should be brought up in the Senate until the upper body takes a vote to reopen the government. The two senators are both Democrats Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Sen. Ben Cardin. Van Hollen wrote on Twitter that Democrats in the Senate should block consideration of any bills unrelated to opening the government, while also calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow a vote to reopen the government. Senate Democrats should block consideration of any bills unrelated to opening the government until Sen. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans allow a vote on the bipartisan bills the House passed to open the government. Mitch, dont delay. Lets vote! he tweeted. Advertising Cardin wrote in response to Van Hollen that he agreed and called the shutdown a crisis and a fundamental failure. Agreed. This isnt business as usual. This is a crisis, a fundamental failure to govern, and Americans are suffering for it, he tweeted. The Senate should not take up any bills unrelated to reopening the government until @SenateMajLdr lets us vote on exactly that. On Friday at midnight the U.S. government began its third week of a partial shutdown. Nearly 800,000 federal workers are not getting paid, although about half that number are still on the job with no paychecks coming in. The other half are not working because they have been furloughed. The House and the Senate have been unable to come to an agreement on Donald Trumps demand for $5 billion in border wall funding to be included in any spending bill that he signs to re-open the government agencies which have been temporarily shut down. Trump repeatedly has said that he wont sign a funding bill that does not include funding for the wall, while Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have consistently vowed not to approve any wall funding at all. Pelosi has called the building of a border wall with Mexico immoral. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, refuses to bring the House legislation up for a vote in the Senate without Trumps support. In response, Pelosi accused McConnell of abdicating his responsibility as Senate majority leader. 1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising If Donald Trump wanted an effective border policy, he should listen to the people at the border with actual experience on border security. But he has never done that. So he is proposing to spend at least $5 billion but probably many times more than that on a border wall which wall not improve border security at all. At least that is the opinion of both border security experts and members of Congress from border states. These people who really know what theyre talking about dont want Trumps wall. They say that a border wall wouldnt solve the problem that Trump claims he wants to solve. They also say that the border wall would siphon money away from border security solutions that would actually work to enhance security and solve the real border issues that they face. The solution that these experts want is the one proposed by Congressional Democrats, not by Trump or other Republicans who are playing politics and sucking up to their right-wing racist base of supporters. For example, the Democrat-sponsored bill recently passed by the House includes $1.3 billion for border security, but no money for a wall. This is definitely the right direction to go in right now, although Democrats from border states are asking for a lot more. Advertising Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela from Texas has asked for a $4 billion investment in technology and staffing to provide better security at legal points of entry. Trump has proposed just $400 million for those programs that would really enhance border security. Vela decried Trumps misguided insistence on physical barrier funding. This just shows that Trumps priorities are wrong, and have nothing to do with reality. Vela and others like him, who know what theyre talking about, say that the $5 billion being demanded by the president for his wall would be a complete waste of money. Trump has claimed that most human and drug smuggling does not happen at ports of entry. But this claim goes against information contained in official government documents as well as from local experts, who think the biggest need is for expanded legal ports of entry both from a security and an economic perspective. In the end, most of undocumented migration and drug trafficking does not take place in the middle of the desert, it takes place at our ports of entry, said Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, a nonprofit promoting business in New Mexico and West Texas. Barela praised Velas proposal, saying it would be a better use of taxpayer dollars than arbitrarily building walls that are easily surmounted. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment report, only a small portion of seized heroin, for instance, was captured outside of ports of entry. Most heroin smuggled by land into the United States, reported the DEA, comes in personal vehicles, followed by tractor trailers, and a smaller percentage smuggled by body carriers. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents Laredo, the busiest international commercial land crossing in the world, said the focus of border security investment should be on technology to screen trucks and trains, and boots on the ground to speed up legal crossings. Instead of spending those billions on fence, put it on ports of entry, said Cuellar. If you want to stop drugs, thats how you do it. 1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Advertising CNNs Anderson Cooper was obviously sick of watching Jeffrey Lord defend everything that Trump does, so the CNN host asked Lord, If he took a dump on his desk, would you defend it? Video: "If he took a dump on his desk you would defend it." @andersoncooper what? pic.twitter.com/nD8ZfZKtVN Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) May 20, 2017 After Lord had defended Trump telling the Russians, he fired Comey to take the pressure off by saying, I dont care what he says. Hes the President Of The United States. If he wants to say that. If Barack Obama wants to say whatever. If George Bush says, I looked in his eyes Advertising Cooper asked, If he took a dump on his desk, would you defend it? Lord (laughing), What? Cooper, I mean, I dont. What he would do that you would not defend? This is where America is at. There is nothing that Donald Trump can do that his supporters wont defend. If Trump pulled down his pants and went to the bathroom on his desk, his supporters would praise him for his independence and smart saving of personal energy by not walking to the restroom. The media is finally starting to catch on that there is literally nothing that the Cult of Trump wont justify, rationalize, and support. There can be no meeting in the middle because those who support Trump believe that he is always correct. Anderson Coopers question was not the norm for cable news, but it made a point. If Trump supporters are going to defend everything he does, why do we even bother asking them their opinion about anything? Mid-Stakes Cash Game Vlogging to $25K PSPC High Roller: Andrew Neeme January 06, 2019 Valerie Cross Andrew Neeme has quickly become a household name in poker, recently crossing the momentous 100,000 subscribers milestone on his YouTube channel after vlogging for just over two years. Now, the mid-stakes grinder vlogger extraordinaire and member of Team Run It Up finds himself in unfamiliar territory playing in a $25,000 buy-in tournament. Before the event, Neeme was getting dialed in. Feeling a big mix of excitement and nervousness," he told PokerNews. "Im trying to not get too carried away because its Day 1 here and I expect today to go fairly slowly. Its hard to not look too far ahead and just get too far ahead of yourself. While he's not a total stranger to bigger buy-in no-limit hold'em tournaments, having played the $10K WSOP Main Event, it's still a bit of a jump from his regular mid-stakes cash games. This is 2.5 times the biggest tournament Ive ever played; normally I dont play $25K events. Normally I play cash games and the occasional $1,500 and the [WSOP] Main Event is usually the biggest of the year for me. Vlogger Freeroll Unlike many other mid-stakes players who had to dry fire the PSPC, Neeme was gifted one of the coveted $30K Platinum Passes from PokerStars after co-hosting the YouTube Vlogger in Paradise challenge with PokerStars Pro Jeff Gross. They gave out two passes to the winning vloggers, Oliver Biles and Matt Kiefer, and Stars rewarded the pros with an entry of their own. We got a bunch of people involved in the YouTube vlogging world, and we had an awesome turnout of people that made submissions all over the world. As a result for spreading the vlogger love, [PokerStars] gave me a pass as well, so here we are. In terms of preparing for the biggest tournament he's played, Neeme is mostly relying on his extensive live poker experience. "I have so much live poker experience and Im going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least. I got into the lab a little bit here and there but Im trying not to cram my brain too full of new things," said Neeme. "I think its tough to expect to just unleash all these new tricks that you learned recently. I have so much live poker experience and Im going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least. When it comes to playing in events above your comfort level, most pros make a habit of selling pieces, and the PSPC is no exception, even if it's a freeroll. Andrew Neeme playing at the WSOP. Selling Action, Expectations I sold 20% on Stake Kings, Im giving away 1% to each of the five finalists from the Vlogger in Paradise competition, and swapped an additional five percent; one percent pieces here and there. "Were going to have a lot of people that have literally zero dollars on their Hendon Mob sitting next to people that have tens of millions of dollars on their Hendon Mob." Neeme is prepared for the long tournament grind and expects an unprecedented mix of players. This is my first $25K so I expect there to be a really interesting mix of people in this event. Were going to have a lot of people that have literally zero dollars on their Hendon Mob sitting next to people that have tens of millions of dollars on their Hendon Mob and I expect to just try to navigate my way through a table that looks like that, and hope for the best. So far it seems Neeme is following his game plan of taking it slow, hovering just under starting stack at the third break of the day. His fans will surely be on the lookout for a vlog on the experience soon. You can follow the PSPC action as it unfolds in the Bahamas right here at the PokerNews Live Updates page. The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media. Brooklyn Mack in Le Corsaire Photo by Carlos Quezada, Courtesy ABT Aivaras Sajus on the summit of Sharphu II, Nepal, Himalaya on 26 October 2018 after having made the first ascent with Spencer Gray Photo by Spencer Gray Spencer Gray making an alpine style 6-day first ascent of Sharphu II, Nepal, Himalaya in October 2018 with Aivaras Sajus Photo by Aivaras Sajus Spencer Gray making the first ascent of Sharphu II, Nepal, Himalaya in October 2018 with Aivaras Sajus Photo by Aivaras Sajus Sharphu II in Himalaya climbed by Spencer Gray and Aivaras Sajus In October 2018 Spencer Gray and Aivaras Sajus made what is likely to be the first ascent of Sharphu II (6328m) in Nepal's Kangchenjunga region. The route climbs the mountains east face, was climbed alpine style over a six-day period and has been called Samsara (ED2 AI5 M6). Sharphu I and II are twin peaks that share a steep east aspect. Japanese expeditions climbed nearby Nupchu Peak (currently mislabeled as Sharphu IV on the HGM-Finn map, see 2015 AAJ note) in 1962 and Sharphu I (6433m), the highest of the Sharphu group, in 1963. We are unaware of another team climbing Sharphu II. We approached via the Kangchenjunga base camp trail using horses and yaks. We set up base camp west of the small village of Khambachen at 4,550m in a yak pasture beside Nupchu Khola. This valley is inhabited by blue sheep and Tibetan wolves as well as snow leopards, which have been known to prey on villagers' yaks. After acclimatizing and scouting the peak for a week, we established a high camp at 5,600m at the Bergschrund below the east face and acclimatized there for one more day. The approach to the bergschrund briefly crosses into the runout zone of active seracs. The east face has four prominent cliff bands on its lower half and several gully systems that extend to the summit ridge. The shaded aspects of these cliff bands held good ice. The rock was mediocre. We linked together a line by climbing ice and mixed terrain through one gully, then traversing a snowfield below a dry cliffband into a second gully that we followed to the summit ridge. We camped once on the face under a full moon and the next night on the summit ridge with a steady 30mph wind and cold temperatures (-25C). Sharing one sleeping bag saved weight and encouraged shivering. We summited on October 26 by a final short snow ridge, then descended the snowy north ridge. After several rappels past summit rime snow and cliff bands interspersed with about 400m of steep downclimbing, we spent a final night on the glacier between Sharphu II and Sharphu VI and descended to base camp on our sixth day after departing. The adjacent east face gullies hold similar terrain with sections of excellent ice. In six days on the mountain we have observed only one rockfall incident, but it was a significant event directly down the first 200 meters of our line (after we had passed). We thank the Sherpa family that owns the White House in Khambachen for their generosity and help. by Aivaras Sajus From the press release: Its exciting to be the first lift-served bike park in the US thats open year-round and bring progressive mountain biking terrain to Texas, stated Koesis. Until now, this type of lift-accessed terrain was only available in a ski resort setting. The new Spider Mountain Bike Park is unlike anything else in Texas. With a variety of trails for all abilities and 350 feet of vertical, Spider Mountain s lift-served bike park features include downhill flow trails, and technical trails with bridges, berms, jumps, and more. The bike park is designed and developed by Hogan Koesis, director of mountain biking for Mountain Capital Partners, which owns and operates Spider Mountain and six ski resorts. Koesis has more than a decade of experience in the biking industry, designing, developing and constructing trails. Course Par Value: 70 Course Yardage: 7044 Waialae Country Club Waialae Country Club's golf course nestles between the majestic Koolau mountain range on the north and blue Pacific Ocean on the south as a verdant playing field for its members and annually for the world's greatest professional golfers. Established in the late 1920s, Waialae was first groomed as an amenity for the guests of Waikiki's Royal Hawaiian Hotel. On land acquired from the Isenberg family, the Waialae Golf Course, as designed by San Francisco architect Seth Raynor, was opened in 1927. The 40-year-old Isenberg home became the first clubhouse for the golf course. Competitive tournament play began immediately also when the first Hawaiian Open was held there in 1928. Waialae subsequently over seven decades has hosted major golfing events and since 1965 has been the prime and only venue for the annual official Hawaiian PGA TOUR tournament. The new 18-hole, over 7,000 yards long Waialae Golf Course displayed a new look in 1999 as PGA TOUR-designated enhancements were put in place for the PGA TOUR official event, the Sony Open in Hawaii. National and international TV highlight the Hawaiian look of Waialae's tailored greens, lush fairways, signature mountain range and azure ocean as the PGA TOUR golf pros bring to life the shots arm-chair viewers and spectators dream of. The course has one adjustment to show Waialae's attributes to the very best -- the front and back nines are reversed for Tournament play in order to utilize the sun's power setting in the west. Waialae history Waialae overall possesses a tradition exceeding its golf historical significance. In the process of Hawaii's unification under the Hawaiian Ali'i nearly 200 years ago, beaches from Waialae to Waikiki were landing areas for the Big Island of Hawaii King Kamehameha's flotilla of canoes carrying his warriors who already had brought Maui, Lanai and Molokai under his control. As the battle raged from Waialae to Waikiki, the invaders pushed the forces of the island of O'ahu under the King, Kalanikupule, across the island, up Nuuanu Valley and to eventual victory at the Pali Lookout. What started at Waialae ended with Kamehameha as the ruler of all the islands and all of Oahu, including Waialae. The Warrior King, Kamehameha the Great, was responsible for unifying all of the islands under one ruler for the first time. Today, Waialae, steeped in tradition, retains its gracious uniqueness as the Crown Jewel of golf courses reigning over the multitude of leisure-oriented golfing facilities throughout the 50th State of Hawaii. Hole descriptions courtesy of Waialae Country Club. See 2016 Course Map (link opens new browser) Staff reports The Petoskey News-Review LANSING The office of state Sen. Wayne Schmidt recently announced a schedule of January coffee hours when the senator will meet with constituents throughout the 37th Senate District. The senator will be available to answer questions and provide information and assistance, as well as take suggestions on issues affecting communities and businesses in the district. No appointment is necessary. Schmidts January coffee hours are as follows: From 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 7. Harbor Springs City Hall, 160 Zoll St., Harbor Springs From 2-3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7 at Cafe Sante, 1 Water St., Boyne City From 9-10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12, at Grand Traverse Pie Company, 525 W. Front St., Traverse City From 11 a.m.-noon on Monday, Jan. 21, at State Street Coffee Company, 211 W. State St., Cheboygan From 3-4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, at Cup of the Day, 406 Ashmun St., Sault Ste. Marie For more information or to contact Schmidt, visit SenatorWayneSchmidt.com or call (517) 373-2413. Staff reports The Petoskey News-Review PETOSKEY The Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce announced that it will host marketing workshops from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 and 30, at North Central Michigan College. The presenter for the two-part workshop will be Janet Begrow Chambers. She is president and owner of Beacon Marketing Solutions, a full-service, marketing communications firm that recently relocated to Charlevoix from central Pennsylvania. This workshop is designed to help businesses and non-profit organizations create an effective marketing plan so they can utilize their marketing dollars wisely while achieving their marketing goals, said Chambers. I have given this program at least 10 times over the last 15 years. Attendees leave feeling more confident that they have a written marketing plan with objectives and actionable items for the upcoming year. The program helps attendees define how to reach the right audiences with the right messages in the most cost-effective manner, she said. The first workshop on Jan. 23 will cover the marketing plan framework. Attendees will have worksheets to fill in before they arrive that cover identifying key target audiences for their products and services and defining marketing goals. This session will help attendees put together a SWOT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of their businesses. From here, attendees will learn more about defining how their business compares to competitors and how to define a competitive advantage. The second workshop on Jan. 30 will delve into marketing tactics including media choices, collateral materials, internet opportunities like social media and websites, and other marketing strategies. This session is designed to give attendees a general understanding of the various marketing channels and costs associated with these avenues. Chambers has a bachelors degree in marketing from Michigan State University. Before starting her own marketing communications firm in 2001, she worked for two national advertising agencies and maintained high-level marketing positions with Kish Bank, Universal Health Services and SNI Homecare. Chambers has always enjoyed working with small to mid-sized businesses. She has serviced clients in the retail, financial, healthcare, hospitality and business-to-business areas. As an active community member, Chambers taught business courses at the college level, served on the boards of several organizations, and volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She is excited to be back in Northern Michigan where she grew up. The program cost is $150 for members of the Petoskey, Charlevoix, Boyne City, East Jordan and Harbor Springs chambers of commerce. The nonmember price is $200. Attendees are expected to attend both sessions. Space is limited and early registration is suggested. More information on this program is available at bit.ly/2EBPmw2 or by calling the chamber at (231) 347-4150. Staff reports The Petoskey News-Review PETOSKEY Facing a lack of a quorum, Emmet County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority is looking to fill at least two openings on its board as soon as possible to avoid delays of its work. The organization meets at 11 a.m. on the second Thursday each month in the countys planning and zoning office. Members include county planning and zoning director Tammy Doernenburg, two county commissioners and six members of the community. A position on the board does not include a stipend as all members serve on a voluntary basis. However, officials note that the efforts of the brownfield redevelopment authority board have a measurable impact on the community. Towns and cities across the country have been cleaning up properties in their localities since the Environmental Protection Agency started the Brownfield Program in 1995. A brownfield is defined by the EPA as a property which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. A variety of grants are made available to assist in these clean-up initiatives. Emmet County Brownfield Redevelopment Authoritys main purpose is to promote the revitalization of environmentally distressed areas of the county. The authority aims to encourage redevelopment of underused sites, reduce threats to human health and the environment, create jobs and spur spin-off development. The board works to focus investment in downtowns and to preserve open space. In recent years, the authority worked to facilitate a brownfield plan for the development of the Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Bay Harbor. Recently, the authority accepted a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant and crafted a brownfield plan for the redevelopment of the former Skis Party Store and Gas Station along U.S. 31 across from the Pellston Regional Airport. The group received the requested grant funds and has completed an environmental assessment, lead and asbestos survey and is ready for demolition of the property this spring. The brownfield redevelopment authority will continue to oversee that the Pellston propertys due care plan is executed and will administer the grant funds for the redevelopment of the lot. It is expected that an airplane repair business will be constructed following demolition and cleanup. The repair business will serve as an annex to an existing business at Pellston Airport. Anyone interested in filling a volunteer position on the brownfield redevelopment authority may download the application online at www.emmetcounty.org. A real estate background would be helpful, but is not necessary to serve on the board. For further information or questions, contact Doernenburg at (231) 439-8998 or by email at tdoernenburg@emmetcounty.org. Arielle S. Hines (231) 439-9358 ashines@petoskeynews.com The Petoskey News-Review Wayne Schmidt, a Republican from Traverse City, is starting his second term in the Michigan Senate under interesting dynamics. Schmidt was first elected to the state Senate in 2014, and was re-elected to that position in 2018. Prior, Schmidt served three terms in the Michigan House. Because of term limits, Schmidt cannot run to serve in the Michigan Legislature after he finishes his second, four-year term in the Senate. Currently, the executive branch is under Democratic control, but Republicans have a majority in both legislative chambers. In the upcoming term, Schmidt will serve as assistant majority leader. In that role, Schmidt will assist Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, and will act in his stead when Shirkey is absent. He will also serve as the chair of the appropriations transportation subcommittee and appropriations chairman for the K-12 education budget. The senator recently answered questions from the News-Review about his priorities and other issues affecting the state. The questions and answers which have been edited for length and clarity are as follows. N-R: Looking back at 2018, what do you think were some of your biggest accomplishments? WS: I did a couple of good bills that will have an impact. One of those is Senate Bill 110, which is about workforce-appropriate housing. It clarified what local units of government can do to work with developers in creating more workforce-appropriate housing. I got that bill signed. One of the goals for 2019 and onward is to make sure we are continuing to work with developers and builders on how we can make workforce-appropriate housing a reality, rather its getting regulations out of the way or things like that. N-R: You mentioned workforce-appropriate housing, what are a couple of your other priorities? WS: Of course, transportation funding and getting more money for roads. I continue to hear that from constituents that they want their roads, freeways and bridges in better shape. I will continue to work on that. I think we have made some good progress, but there is more work to be done. N-R: In her inaugural address, Gov. Whitmer spoke about needing to push aside partisanship to address the challenges facing the state. Do you share her sentiments, and is it possible in the current political climate? WS: I think very much so. I think we can work together. Gov. Whitmer is by no means the enemy. In politics, there are adversarial relationships at times, but we have worked together. I think some of the hyper-partisanship comes from outside forces. Sometimes it comes from constituents on both sides on the aisle that are very pro their side. But we continue to work together. I have good relationships within the caucus, and friends across the aisle. We have made some great strides in Michigan. Is there more work to be done? Yes, (former) Gov. Snyder and (former) Lt. Gov. Calley both admitted there is more work to be done. We certainly come a long way in eight years. I am very proud of those eight years serving as both as a state rep and a state senator. We all want what is best for Michigan. Sometimes we come at it from different angles. Gov. Whitmer is governor, and we are going to work with her. N-R: Whats an example of an issue where you think bipartisan cooperation can be found? WS: Again, in transportation. I think there going to be a wait and see whats happening with the current funding model for roads. We are continuing to see increases. We just dedicated more money for roads. At the end of the day, a road doesnt care if a Republican or Democrat is driving on it. We just want the safest roads that we can have and in the best condition. I think for a couple of years, we will be seeing how this new funding model is rolling out and how the increased funds are being spent on fixing our roads, bridges and freeways. And then looking at it after that. N-R: This is going to be your second term as a senator. Before that, you spent three terms as a House rep. During that time, what has been the biggest change you have seen in Michigan? WS: We started to see the style of politics that has crept in at a national level creep into Michigan as well. Thats why (former) Gov. Snyders relentless positive action, and not playing the blame game resonated well with people. I appreciate hearing Gov. Whitmer saying she wants to work with both sides. I hope its something she maintains, that level of civility. It was certainly disappointing to hear Congresswoman Rashida Tlaibs comments. (Last week, Tlaib, a Democrat who represents Michigans 13th Congressional District, referred to President Donald Trump by a profane term when noting her desire to see him impeached). That was disappointing. That has no place in moving Michigan forward. But we have good working relationships in the Senate on both sides of the aisle, and we want to work on building those. Are there going to be differences? You bet. Are there going to be some strong words and people advocating strongly for their position? You bet. Hopefully, it doesnt become personal, and we dont just have completely useless and inflammatory rhetoric being tossed around. I know (Senate Majority) Leader Shirkey and Minority Leader (Jim) Ananich have a good relationship. I know senators have been meeting with their counterparts on the other side of the aisle. We have a lot of new members coming in. So there are going to be a lot of getting to know one another. There is also working with the new House members. Its not a question of one chamber being better than the other. Its just about working together and moving Michigan forward. N-R: Gov. Whitmer has asked Attorney GeneralDana Nessel to look at the new Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority. You voted in favor of that proposal. Are you confident in that piece of legislation? (During his final weeks of office, Snyder signed a bill that created a new authority, which will oversee the construction and operation of a utility tunnel that is expected to house the subaquatic portion of Enbridge Energys Line 5 pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac. Last week, Whitmer asked Nessel to issue a legal opinion about the legality of the legislation. Though the proposed tunnel has received support from union leaders, many environmental groups say the only way to ensure the safety of the Great Lakes is to shut down the pipeline.) WS: Yes, I stand by that. I think its the way to go. It definitely takes all the risk away from Line 5 underneath the Straits. I have confidence in the engineering teams, many of whom are from Michigan Tech (Michigan Technological University), that they can get the job done, so we can continue to have affordable energy for the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula. Its a very important piece of infrastructure. I know we can protect the environment while providing affordable, reliable and accessible energy for the U.P. and northern lower Michigan. N-R: Do you think constituents have any misconceptions about what legislators do? WS: I think constituents, rather they are from up north, the U.P. or downstate, are busy with family, work, school, church and civic groups. With all the increased media out there, especially on electronic and social media, and inflammatory rhetoric coming from Washington, I think people are sometimes starting to tune out and not getting as involved or not taking the time to understand better how state or even local government works. Its important people call. We certainly try to get back to everyone. Maybe show up at a coffee hour or make an appointment with their local or state elected official. It also helps break down those misconceptions or misunderstandings. Or even get a better idea where the elected official is coming from and lets the elected official better understand their constituents. Its not easy. Life has certainly increased in speed and so has what we had to govern. N-R: Is there anything else you would like to wrap up with? WS: I am certainly looking into getting more money for our schools, especially up north. I am making sure we have the 2X funding (the formula allows for the lowest-funded school districts to receive up to twice as much of an increase as the higher-funded districts) to close the gap between downstate schools and schools up north. Thats certainly going to be a continued priority. As she does every day, Amy Richards was taking her 6-year-old son to school on Sept. 10, traveling down Wertzville Road in Hampden Township. She was heading east and had the green light as she approached the intersection with Technology Parkway and Valley Road. Then came the crash. It seemed as though she pulled out right in front of me, Richards said. I slammed on the brakes. There was no avoiding the collision. Richards ended up in the hospital with minor injuries. Her son was checked in the emergency room, but was unhurt. Her car was totaled. It could have been worse. Two people have died in similar crashes at the intersection in the past three years, and Hampden Township police Chief Steve Junkin said the area is probably the most crash-prone in the township. Its an area thats seen dramatic growth over the past five years, that has drawn more and more traffic to what was once a rural road. And its continuing to grow: Penn State Health has announced plans to build a new hospital on the west side of the Wertzville Road/I-81 interchange. As part of those plans, Penn State Health commissioned a traffic study that will be presented to the township Planning Commission Thursday. An area of growth The area around the Wertzville Road-Technology Parkway intersection, which is just a few hundred feet east of the Interstate 81 interchange, has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Ten years ago, there was only business park with a handful of tenants, including The Patriot-News. In 2014, a supermarket anchored by a Giant Supermarket opened there, and in the same year, UPMC Pinnacles West Shore Hospital opened on Technology Parkway. Since then, a shopping center anchored by a Weis supermarket has opened, as has the Ortenzia Cancer Institute, some fast-food restaurants, and a medical marijuana dispensary. A townhouse development has been built and is now being expanded, and the 193-unit Crossings at West Shore senior living complex has opened. That whole Wertzville corridor is seeing a lot more traffic, Junkin said. When people moved there 20 years ago, it was a two-laned country road. PennDOT in 2017 commissioned a study of the 14-mile Wertzville Road corridor, from Route 11/15 in East Pennsboro Township to Route 34 in Middlesex Township. That study found that, between 2011 and 2016, the intersection with Technology Parkway had the highest number of crashes of any intersection in the corridor. I believe its probably our highest intersection crash area in the township, said Hampden Township police Chief Steve Junkin. The next most crash-prone intersections are just a few hundred feet west, where Wertzville Road meets Interstate 81. Amy Richards' vehicle was totaled after she was involved in a crash at the Technology Parkway intersection in Hampden Township. Its hard to compare the intersection with Technology Parkway with other intersections in the region because of the number of variables involved, including the traffic volumes of intersecting roads, the number of lanes and their configuration, PennDOT officials said. Rebecca ONeill, an employee of Novitas Solutions on Technology Parkway, uses Wertzville Road every day for her commute to and from work. When she leaves work at 4:30 p.m., she encounters rush-hour traffic jams around the intersection. She knows there are a lot of crashes in the area, but isnt sure whats causing them. But she believes the number of businesses whose employees are rushing to get home at the same time contributes to it. One slip up, and youre having an accident, ONeill said. Richards is concerned not about congestion, but about the safety of the intersection at Technology Parkway. Two fatal crashes that have occurred at the intersection since August 2016 both involved westbound vehicles turning left from Wertzville Road onto Technology Parkway, and colliding with another vehicle traveling east through the intersection. The latest fatal crash at the intersection happened in October. Verna W. Hendershot, 85, of Camp Hill, was a passenger in a car driven by her husband that was turning from Wertzville Road onto Technology Parkway when it collided with a minivan at 7:50 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 29. Hendershot was pronounced dead at Holy Spirit Hospital. Hedershots husband was also hospitalized. The data The 2017 study of the Wertzville Road corridor that was commissioned by PennDOT was aimed at identifying problem areas and possible improvements. The engineering firm of Whitney, Bailey, Cox & Magnani carried out the study. The corridor distance is about 14 miles long and includes East Pennsboro, Hampden, Silver Spring and Middlesex townships, said PennDOT spokesman Greg Penny. "The study identified potential improvements that represent short, mid-term and long term solutions. " Penny added most of the emphasis was on low-cost safety improvements, such a sign replacements, tree trimming, and traffic signal timing. Recommendations also included more substantial improvements, such as widening the road to create center turn lanes and intersection improvements. The study found that from 2011 to 2016, the 14-mile corridor: The intersection at Technology Parkway had 24 crashes over the five-year period, the highest number of reportable crashes of any intersection along the corridor. Saw another 42 crashes during those five years at the intersections of Wertzville Road and Interstate 81 northbound and southbound. The intersections are located less than half a mile from Technology Parkway. Averaged 81 reportable crashes annually, for a total of 400 over the five years. Reportable crashes are ones in which someone has been hurt, killed, or the vehicle was so damaged that it had to be towed away. Most of the crashes happened during the day and on dry pavement. The most common type of collision was an angled crash -- one in which two vehicles on opposite roadways collide -- accounting for 31 percent of crashes. Rear-end crash accounted for another 29 percent, followed by vehicles hitting fixed objects (22 percent of crashes.) Almost all of those crashes 324 of them happened at an intersection of within 250 feet of one, Penny said. The intersection at Technology Parkway is not unusually high in terms of crash numbers, but it currently ranks as the highest number in this specific corridor, closely followed by the intersections at the southbound and northbound ramps with I-81, Penny said. Junkin said far more crashes than the 24 happen at the intersection, but many are not reportable. Its a greater problem, even if you were to only look at PennDOT crash stats, he said. Traffic counts taken at the end of 2016 indicate an average daily traffic volume of 13,318 vehicles on Wertzville Road in the area of the Technology Parkway intersection, Penny said. What lies ahead Junkin said he isnt sure if the crashes at the intersection follow any pattern. Motorists have a lot of factors to deal with at the intersection, including offset lanes and high traffic volume, he said. There could be the human factor there, too," Junkin said, adding motorists may have misread oncoming traffic or simple arent paying attention. Its also a tough intersection for officers to monitor, as there isnt a safe spot for patrol vehicles to park. From the enforcement side of things, were limited as to what we can do at that particular intersection, Junkin said. Hampden Township Manager Keith Metts stressed that the Wertzville Road corridor runs through several townships, and some areas that have seen an increase in traffic volume with development. Metts added that whenever new land development occurs, developers have to conduct traffic studies to determine if any modifications need to be made to accommodate new traffic. The township is planning to form a committee, consisting of residents, business people and others, to consider land use goals for the Wertzville Road corridor, according to the townships website. Penny said PennDOT officials also have met with the Tri-County Planning Commission to review the findings of the 2017 study, and determine a best course of action moving forward. The course of action involves determining responsibility in terms of state and local jurisdictions while considering the fiscal needs and community impacts associated with any suggested improvements. In other words, who is going to do what and how does it all get paid for, Penny said. Very likely what will happen is that there will be a combination of improvements by PennDOT and some of the local municipalities along with some more substantial projects programmed with funding on a future Transportation Improvement Program." Since the crash, Richards said she has apprehensions about using the Technology Parkway intersection. Its only a matter of time until another bad accident occurs, she said. Something needs to be done now. What will it take? A winter weather advisory for the Harrisburg region is expected to kick in at 7 Monday evening as a storm brings snow, sleet and freezing rain to much of the Northeast. As of about 5:45 a.m. Monday, the Harrisburg region was on the very edge of the area expected to receive the most treacherous weather. Anyone heading north to areas including State College and Williamsport could well encounter more severe conditions. The National Weather Service forecast for the Harrisburg region calls for rain to arrive in the evening and eventually turn to sleet. The low temperature on Monday night is expected to fall to about 32. The winter weather advisory is expected to end at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Monday is expected to be a mostly cloudy day with a high of about 34 in the Harrisburg region. The forecast for Tuesday calls for a 50 percent chance of rain and a high of nearly 50. Wednesday is expected to be partly sunny with a high of about 38 and a low of about 29 overnight. Thursday and Friday are expected to bring mostly sunny but colder days, with highs just above freezing on both days. The forecast for Saturday calls for a similarly cold, partly sunny day with a chance of snow showers on Saturday night. In the Pittsburgh region, a cloudy Monday is expected to be followed by showers on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The forecast for Tuesday night calls for a chance of snow mixed with rain and a low of about 31. Wednesday is also expected to bring a chance of snow showers to the Pittsburgh region. The Philadelphia region also is under a weather advisory resulting from the likelihood of sleet on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Tuesday is expected to turn partly sunny with a high of 51, and the remainder of the work week is expected to be partly sunny although progressively colder, with a low of 24 on Thursday night and a high of 34 Friday. Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline said his crew had to suspend an exhaustive search for a man who jumped off the Harvey Taylor Bridge into the Susquehanna River. The unidentified man was reportedly seen jumping from the bridge early Saturday morning, according to a post from the Harrisburg Fire Departments Facebook page. We were out yesterday, but we had to suspend the search, Enterline said. We spent about six hours on the river, and we could not locate any signs of the victim. If anything becomes available about the mans identity, Harrisburg Police Department would release that information, Enterline said. Editors note: PPL officials say the old utility pole was actually 10 to 15 feet taller than it appears in the side-by-side photo provided by the homeowners below. The top of the old pole had been cut off during wire removal. This post has been updated to reflect that. DERRY TOWNSHIP Tom Fowlston got a letter from his electric company. PPL was planning on replacing some utility poles. They said they would be slightly larger, Fowlston said. Taller, wider and sturdier. But just how tall, wide and sturdy they wound up being surprised him. I came out of my house, looked up the street, and said holy cow, thats what they were talking about? Fowlston said. Now, there are 15 70-foot poles running down Forest Avenue in Derry Township, and he and his neighbors are not happy. But PPL says these poles are a necessary upgrade to outdated infrastructure. Its part of a $64.5 million project upgrading the 50-year-old lines running through this part of Dauphin County. Were sensitive to this being a visual change with the neighbors, but we feel its necessary and will benefit them, said Jessica Baker, regional affairs director for PPL Electric Utilities. This will help thousands of customers in the area with more reliable electrical service. But the neighbors want an alternative, and some have filed complaints with the states Public Utilities Commission. The neighborhood Forest Avenue is about a half mile long with 35 homes and is adjacent to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Most of the poles that went up on Forest Avenue are around 70 feet tall, in contrast to the wooden poles that had been there before. Neighbors estimated them to be 40-feet tall, though PPL said they were 55 to 60 feet. Side-by-side comparisons provided by the neighbors with the old poles, now removed, next to the new poles. Neighbors on Forest Avenue in Derry Township took this photo while the old utility poles were in place next to the new poles. According to PPL, though, the top of the old pole had been cut off during line removal. Just before Thanksgiving, Fowlston saw the first of the poles going up, reaching high into the sky. In a neighborhood with no sidewalks, these poles are planted right into the yard of residents on one side of the street. Fowlston was shocked. Another neighbor, Steve King, has harsher words. I call it deception, King said. King said these poles are not what they were expecting from the letter they got from PPL. Aesthetically, Fowlston said they are big and rust colored, taking away from the look of the suburban neighborhood, potentially affecting property values. And the ability to run even more wires than before will not encourage young families to move in. Theyll tell you studies have been done and its safe, but Google high-power lines, Fowlston said. Through construction, it has been a mess. Monstrous trucks and excavating equipment, digging up and removing poles, even coming in on Sundays, he said. The neighbors have since mobilized. They formed a group called the Concerned Citizens of Forest Avenue and have been attending Derry Township meetings to try to get PPL to run the lines underground or find an alternative. It appears their efforts may have paid off. The project is on hold now, in part, after the neighbors brought up a safety issue of one of these large poles potentially blocking line of sight at the intersection of Forest Avenue and Sand Hill Road. King cited all of this in his Public Utilities Commission formal complaint, filed Dec. 19, and said other neighbors have filed complaints, or will be filing them soon. Upgrading an aging infrastructure Were sorry the neighbors felt like they were deceived on the size of the poles, said Baker, of PPL. She said the company did send letters with photos of the poles and an explanation for why they are needed. The line PPL is replacing was built back in 1966, and the old poles were nearing the end of their useful lives, she said. All over our service territory, weve upgraded our standards to use new, steel poles, she said. These poles, like the ones going in place on Forest Avenue, are stronger, thicker and taller and will hold up a lot better through thunderstorms, wind, rain and harsh winter weather. They can also handle the increased demand for electricity and bring more reliable service to the Hershey area. They will also carry a second circuit. If theres a problem, they can switch customers to the other circuit so they dont lose power for a long time, she said. She added that the rust coloring on the steel poles is not rust but is actually a protective coating that will not require the expense of maintenance. This dark red color will fade into a darker brown and blend better with the landscape in time, she said. And the residents request to put the lines underground would also be an added expense that would have to be passed on to the consumer, she said. Its more expensive to put a line underground, where its more difficult to locate and repair the source of a power outage. The poles on Forest Avenue were the first to go up as part of the project, which calls for the upgraded line to traverse 4 miles through Derry Township. Similar poles and the upgraded line are next planned to go through Homestead Road and eventually cross Chocolate Avenue before ending at the Hershey substation. The upgraded PPL line has started on Forest Avenue and is planned to span 4 miles through Derry Township. The project was expected to be completed by spring. It looks like it may be a little longer. Work on hold Are the neighbors efforts working? PPL has put the project on hold. Weve received a lot of feedback, and our management is evaluating all of that feedback, then we will come back to the residents after that, Baker said. It will take some time. In addition to management reviewing this feedback, the project was also put on over the safety issue with the pole proposed over the line of sight issue at Forest Avenue and Sand Hill Road. She said PPL hopes to come back soon after reevaluating all of this, and an alternative to the current poles is a possibility. The Forest Avenue neighbors say that gives them some hope. Were doing everything possible that we can, King said. We know its going to be an uphill battle. A Middletown couple and their young son have been identified as the casualties of an apparent murder suicide. Borough police and Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said Monday that Marvin Caddell, 49, and his estranged wife, Nightflower Staats, 44, died in the incident in the 100 block of South Union Street. Police did not release the name of the child. The coroners office said he was 7. All three died of gunshot wounds, police said. They said the killings stemmed from a domestic dispute. The bodies were discovered in the family apartment on Saturday. Hetrick said the slayings likely occurred on Wednesday. Interim Police Chief Dennis Morris said he could not release further information pending a review of the evidence by the Dauphin County District Attorneys Office. The Middletown Press and Journal reports that a vigil is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday in front of the apartment building where the deaths occurred. What do Crispy M&Ms, Blackberry and SpongeBob SquarePants have in common? They were all born in 1999 20 years ago. Also turning 20 are Bluetooth, Napster and Super Smash Bros. In 1999: Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France. Ricky Martin released Livin La Vida Loca. President Bill Clinton was impeached on January 7 and acquitted on February 12. Hurricane Floyd hammered North Carolina. Twelve students and a teacher were killed in a mass shooting at Columbine High School. The Matrix and The Sixth Sense were released. The Sopranos debuted on HBO. Barbie turned 40. Law and Order Special Victims Unit debuted as did Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The Backstreet Boys released I Want It That Way. The movie 10 Things I Hate About You was released. Wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as the governor of Minnesota. O.J. Simpsons 1968 Heisman Trophy was sold for $255,500. Hip hop artist Eminem released his first major record, The Slim Shady LP. Light and airy and beautifully decorated angel food cakes were judged Jan. 6 at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Laura Fultz of Liverpool of Perry County won the blue ribbon and $500 prize in the Incredible Egg Angel Food Cake Contest. Baking contests are one of the hallmarks of the Farm Show, which runs through Jan. 12. Throughout the week, more than a half dozen baking contests take place, with whoopie pies, chocolate cakes and apple pies scrutinized by judges. Contestants compete at county and community fairs to become eligible to compete at the Farm Show. Fultz won at the Perry County Community Fair. Laura Fultz of Perry County won first place Jan. 6 in the Incredible Egg Angel Food Cake Contest at the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Show. Cakes are judged on flavor, texture, overall appearance, creativity and topping, icing or decoration. Laura Henry of Elizabethville, Dauphin County placed second; Steven Donough of Port Royal, Juniata County placed third; Geraldine Kobak of Collegeville, Montgomery County placed fourth; and Jayne Wenger of Reinholds, Lancaster County placed fifth. Here is the winning recipe: Angel Food Cake Ingredients: 1 cups egg whites (room temperature) 1 cups sifted cake flour 1 cups sifted powdered sugar 1 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup granulated sugar Directions: Sift together powdered sugar and flour in a large bowl. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla until soft peaks form, then gradually add granulated sugar. Add the powdered sugar mixture, gently folding in by fourths. Pour into ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Bake on lowest rack at 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Frosting: 1 cup Crisco cup butter 2 pounds 10X sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/3 cup evaporated milk Directions: Beat Crisco and butter together. Gradually add 10x sugar and evaporated milk and then beat for 5 minutes. Tint frosting and decorate cake as desired. Shippensburg University will be expanding their education programs to cater to beer brewers, thanks to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board The university was awarded a $71,701 grant from the PLCB in order to to prepare workers for the Pennsylvania brewed and malt beverage industry, according to Shippensburgs website. Shippensburg University was one of 12 such recipients of said grant money. The PLCB was authorized by Act 39 and the Pennsylvania Malt and Brewed Beverages Industry promotion Board to award up to $1 million annually for marketing for the Pennsylvania beer industry. The Shippensburg grant program will be guided by Dr. Alison Feeney, grant director and professor of geography/earth science; Dr. Thomas Frielle, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry; and Dr. Russell Hedberg, sustainability director and assistant professor of geography/earth science. For more information, visit the Shippensburg University website. A move by Pittsburgh to ban certain types of weapons and ammunition within the city has made it a target for a major open-carry gun rally planned for high noon today. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, Justin Dillon and his group Open Carry Pennsylvania are expecting some 500 gun carriers to converge at the portico of the City-County Building, with their weapons in tow. Dillon told the newspaper the gun rally, set for noon today, is intended to "show that we're not silent. The Second Amendment is important to us. [Open carrying] is our constitutional right. We're here, and we're responsible." In 2014, Dillon mounted a successful legal case against a similar gun ban in Erie, Pa., with the Commonwealth Court ruling state law prohibits municipalities and counties from regulating firearms or ammunition "ownership, possession, transfer or transportation" in any way that differs from state regulations. As a result Erie repealed its city park gun ban. Despite that case, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto said at a press conference on the citys proposed legislation in December that Pittsburgh was willing to challenge the constitutionality of the state law if need be, the Post-Gazette reported. That has set the stage for todays Second Amendment clash. A new analytical report published today claims that Apple's iPhone XR became the best-selling iPhone model in November 2018. In contrast, last year in November the more expensive iPhone X was the best-selling model with almost 50% higher volume compared to the iPhone XR in November this year. The overall sales of new iPhones took a hit in November due to slower sales of the series in the Asia Pacific region (excluding China and India), Europe and US. The decline in the US and Europe is due to the lengthening replacement cycle and decreased operator discounts this year during the launch of new iPhones. While the decline in emerging markets like the Asia Pacific (excluding China and India) is due to the higher price when compared to offerings from Chinese players. Counterpoint's Key points for Nov. iPhone Sales Angela Davis is one of Americas most famed political activists, advocating for both racial equality and socialism, and she is currently a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1969, California Governor Ronald Reagan tried to have her barred from teaching at any California university due to her membership in the Communist Party USA. To say she has been fighting for justice her entire life is an understatement. Speaking (writing) as someone who was raised Jewish, we are trained to identify people who fight injustice given how often we have been the victims of it throughout history, and my Spidey Senses are tingling right now. No matter your political beliefs, you can be certain that Angela Davis fights the good fight. Period. Which brings us to Alabama. Per the Associated Press: Black activists on Monday called for leadership changes and protests at an Alabama civil rights museum after it rescinded an award for political activist Angela Davis, a move the mayor said followed complaints from the Jewish community. Davis, a longtime activist who has supported Palestinian rights and criticized Israeli policy, is on a par with civil rights legend Rosa Parks, said activist Frank Matthews. This is the ultimate insult to deny Angela Davis her inheritance, he said. Museum leaders should quit, he said, and protests will be held. Other speakers called for a boycott. Now, reading this lede seems to indicate that there is a strident Jewish community in Birmingham that can overrule leadership at a civil rights museum, but the framing here is not great by the AP. Heres the mayors direct quote, seven paragraphs down, as to who is behind the protests (emphasis mine): protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies. Speaking as a Jew, I know exactly who some of its allies are, and they are not our allies. This is a fight that every liberal Jew has had with older members of their family, community, temple, etcRepublican evangelical Christians only care about Israel insofar as they need us all of us Jews to die a horrible death in Israel so Jesus can come back and bring them all up to heaven. Any Jew gladly going along with Christian Zionism for the purposes of executing their own brand of Zionism is a willing useful idiot. Now, on the topic of Palestine, there are many Jews and Republican evangelical Christians (I feel the need to delineate between GOP partisans and traditional evangelical Christians, as the latter have proven to be consistent in their moral beliefs while the former have proven to be anything but) who believe the same thing. I have had many arguments with Jewish members of my community over Palestine and its legitimacy, and it is very much a central facet of having a modern Jewish identiy. Older Jews are quick to cite the Yom Kippur War, as Israel defended itself against an invasion led by Egypt, Syria and a coalition of Arab states, as the reason why Israel cannot trust Palestine and it must remain a second-class state within Israel. What they always fail to cite is that war came after Israel seized the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. The struggle between conservative and liberal Jews on this topic is centered around the fact that our holy text tells us that this is our land, yet we seized it with the help of an empire, and so our homeland is also a project of colonialism. Israel has even passed laws restricting Palestinians access to their legal system. By definition, Israel is an apartheid state. To deny this fact is simply to deny reality. And this is what Angela Davis has criticized, like in her book, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement: The militarization of the police leads us to think about Israel and the militarization of the police thereif only the images of the police and not of the demonstrators had been shown, one might have assumed that Ferguson was Gaza. I think that it is important to recognize the extent to which, in the aftermath of the advent of the war on terror, police departments all over the US have been equipped with the means to allegedly fight terror. I am Jewish and I believe that the theoretical state of Israel is the home of my people, but this country calling itself Israel does not represent me or the values that I was raised to believe in. Israeli snipers shot and killed a journalist wearing a vest marked PRESS during a protest in Gaza last year. Either the IDFs training methods are insufficient, or that was intentional, and given the efficiency of the Israeli military, it was likely the latter. Israel represents the United States project of colonization, as it has functioned as a dual outpost in a key area of the world/mini me. Angela Davis is correct to connect treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to the crisis of policing communities of color in Americas cities. If you think the comparison is hyperbolic, let me refresh your memory as to how police in Ferguson responded to the protests there in 2016. Photo via Scott Olson/Getty Photo via Scott Olson/Getty Colonialism is bad, no matter if its perpetrated by the United States, the Soviet Union, China, England, or any of the other empires and their proxies throughout history who have exploited the less powerful. Any truly liberal platform should have dismantling colonialist state at its heart, because the industrialized exploitation of impoverished peoples is directly at odds with the future we say that we want to build. For the promise of the Jewish state to truly manifest, Israel must be democratic and the Palestinians must have a nation to call their own, or else we are no different than the rest of those who have persecuted us throughout history. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. 100 years ago Jan. 7, 1919: Former President Theodore Roosevelt died early yesterday, possibly from a blood clot in one lung. His health had been declining recently but few people knew it. Teddy visited Bloomington as president in 1903, and spoke to Spanish-American War veterans. 75 years ago Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Jan. 7, 1944: Greg Pappy" Boyington, Marine Hall of Fame pilot with 26 kills, did not return from his last mission and is now officially missing. But his mother is sure hell come through. (She was right. NBC later produced the series Baa Baa Black Sheep about his exploits.) 50 years ago Jan 7. 1969: The 19-year-old mother of a baby found abandoned on North Main Street a month ago has pled guilty to child abandonment. She faces up to three years in prison. Her husband, still a minor, is named in a delinquency complaint. The baby, born Dec. 4, is in a foster home. 25 years ago Jan. 7, 1994: Two money stories from todays paper: gasoline is under a dollar a gallon at 99 cents. Thats true all over Central Illinois; the lowest is in Clinton at 91 cents per gallon. Also, the New York stock market closed above 3,000 for the first time ever. Compiled by Jack Keefe; jkeefe@coldwellhomes.com. CHICAGO With his mental state deteriorating as he sat in the crushing isolation of solitary confinement, a desperate inmate named Anthony Gay saw a temporary way out. Sometimes it came in the form of a contraband razor blade. Occasionally it was a staple from a legal document or a small shard of something he had broken. He would mutilate himself in his Illinois prison cell, slicing open his neck, forearms, legs and genitals hundreds of times over two decades in solitary confinement. Once, he packed a fan motor inside a gaping leg wound; another time he cut open his scrotum and inserted a zipper. Each time he harmed himself, he knew that, at least for a little while, the extreme step would bring contact with other human beings. Therapists would rush to calm him. Nurses would offer kind words as they took his pulse and stitched him up. "It's kind of like being locked in the basement, and then emerging from the basement and being put on the center stage," he said. "It made me feel alive." Gay entered the Illinois Department of Corrections in 1994 as a young man, convicted of robbery after brawling with another teen who told police that Gay took his hat and stole a single dollar bill. He expected to serve as little as 3 { years. Instead, a fight with a fellow inmate led to Gay's first stint in segregation, pushing him into a downward spiral that resulted in 22 years in solitary confinement. Shortly after the segregation started, the cutting and suicide attempts began. The Illinois Department of Corrections would later identify Gay in court filings as one of a few dozen inmates whose mental illnesses were so acute and dangerous that they required full in-patient care. His psychiatric treatment, however, often consisted of a therapist shouting questions to him through a door. By keeping Gay in isolation, the state continued the increasingly discredited practice of segregating prisoners from others for long stretches. The American Correctional Association _ the organization that provides expected practices for prisons across the country _ issued new standards in 2016 that called for limits on restricted housing, including a provision that prisoners with mental illnesses should not be placed in solitary confinement for an extended period. An IDOC spokeswoman declined to comment on Gay's incarceration or the treatment he received. The agency also refused to release any records related to Gay's confinement, saying it would be an invasion of his privacy. The Tribune established a timeline of his confinement by reviewing thousands of pages of court documents, medical records and testimony transcripts and conducting interviews with Gay, his relatives, his lawyers, prosecutors and prison experts. Taken in their totality, the paperwork and interviews paint a disturbing portrait of a man whose prolonged isolation caused him to mentally deteriorate to the point where he would do just about anything _ including mutilate himself _ for human contact. Gay, now 44, recently filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming that his treatment amounted to torture and that he was denied proper mental health care. His case comes amid a broader rethinking around the country of solitary confinement, and whether it amounts to excessive punishment. At any given time, about 67,000 inmates nationwide are spending up to 22 hours a day alone in a cell, according to a joint study by Yale University and the Association of State Correctional Administrators. A significant number of those have mental illnesses, though estimates vary. A federal judge recently found that of the roughly 1,100 Illinois prisoners in solitary confinement, more than 900 of them have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. Another measure, provided last month by the Illinois Department of Corrections, found that nearly 1 in 3 prisoners in segregation have a mental illness categorized as serious. The issue has prompted several states to reform their segregation policies in recent years, though Illinois lags behind. While Illinois has significantly reduced the number of days juvenile offenders spend in isolation and no longer uses segregation as a punishment for young people as part of a consent decree between the department and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, those policies do not extend to the adult population. That, however, could change following a blistering report from a federal monitor charged with reviewing the treatment of mentally ill inmates in restrictive housing. Released from prison in August, Gay said he hopes his lawsuit helps change the system, and in some ways he already has. A federal judge ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections in October to improve its mental health services _ a groundbreaking ruling made after Gay testified about his troubling treatment in solitary. With Gay's intelligence and an extraordinary ability to articulate his mental deterioration in solitary confinement, his lawyers believe he could be a pivotal voice in the growing prison reform movement. "I'm more focused on loving the guys that's still left behind," Gay told the Chicago Tribune, "and throwing a rope to pull them out of the ditch." Early family life Gay's early family life in his native Rock Island wasn't always steady. He was raised in a working class neighborhood by an aunt and uncle who adopted him, although his biological mother, who had endured struggles of her own, lived in the same Quad Cities town along the Mississippi River. He sat at the dining room table of his aunt's home on a recent day, surrounded by family pictures, and recalled how as he was entering his teen years he made the fateful choice to leave. His maternal aunt's home meant stiff rules, homework and curfews, while his mother's two-room apartment meant freedom to come and go as he pleased. "If I had stayed here, I don't think I would've gotten into trouble," he said. "Went downhill when I left here." Gay said he had difficulties with discipline when he wasn't wrestling for his school team, at one point being sent to a juvenile home. He avoided a serious criminal record until age 18, when he fought another young man from a nearby block after Gay says the teen insulted his sister. Gay was accused of taking the other man's hat and $1 after beating him. Gay pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for a sentence of probation, but that was soon revoked after he was caught driving without a license. Suddenly his life was taking a detour into the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he found himself sentenced to seven years in prison. Still, with time off for good behavior, the sentence could have meant as little as three and a half years in medium-security facilities such as the Shawnee Correctional Center downstate, where he was sent in his earliest days. But shortly after arriving he had a fistfight with another inmate. Gay was transferred to the tougher Menard Correctional Center, as was the prisoner he fought with. The two soon brawled again, Gay said. That second fight put Gay into solitary confinement for the first time. And it was in solitary confinement _ in one Illinois prison or another _ where Gay would remain for more than 8,000 days. With panic setting in during those early weeks, he first sought attention by remembering something he had done when he was 12 years old back in Rock Island. He had taken a bunch of pills, prompting him to be rushed to the hospital. "It garnered a lot of sympathy," he said. "Everyone was so concerned about me. ... It felt nice to have people care for me." Sitting alone in his cell, he recalled the childhood episode and the resulting attention fondly. So without much hesitation, he said he opened the pack of medication he had been given by prison medical staff, and swallowed all of it. 'I was sinking' Gay's next transfer was to an Illinois facility synonymous with tough prison life the sprawling Pontiac Correctional Center in Livingston County, where Gay said conditions in the prison were worse and he spent most of his time alone and struggling with his mental state. The situation grew so intolerable, he says, that he repeatedly attacked guards and disobeyed orders, extending his time in segregation over and over again. "I don't think I understood it," he said of his steady deterioration. "I was sinking then but not really realizing it." He would become enraged by simple things, he said, like a guard giving him one piece of bread on his meal plate and not two. By repeatedly earning disciplinary tickets, Gay was slowly eating through all the good time built into his sentence, pushing his release date up to, and eventually beyond, his seven-year maximum. By 1998, Gay's conduct resulted in his transfer to what was then the newly opened Tamms Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility essentially designed to house the state's worst offenders. For at least 23 hours a day, inmates sat in 7-by-12-foot cells. Meals were served through a "chuck hole" and contact with outside world was sharply restricted. There were no jobs, no vocational training and, for Anthony Gay, no hope. In continued isolation, he gravitated further toward self-destruction. "I remember tearing the light switch out, sticking a screw in my ear," he said. "It felt good." But it took another inmate on his wing seriously injuring himself for Gay's behavior to worsen. The inmate had somehow managed to cut himself, Gay learned, and the incident prompted an emergency response by the staff unlike anything he had ever seen. He watched through the dime-sized holes in his cell's metal door as concerned prison employees rushed to the man's aid. "Nurses come at the speed of light. Mental health and security," he recalled. "They come running, and ... it hit me. These people really love this dude, they really care. I wanted that kind of attention." In a twisted plan to receive some of that same comfort and human interaction, Gay tried to mimic his fellow inmate. He threatened suicide with a noose that another inmate had made him and left in the shower area. He was bounced out of Tamms to other facilities and then back, all the while hurting himself more and more extremely. At one point he removed part of one of his testicles and hung it on his cell door, according to court records, as a kind of demented message to his captors. He only left Tamms a second time in late 2012 because the notorious facility shut its doors for good. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. "Kind of like a drug addict _ you have to up the ante," Gay said. "I learned to tolerate the physical pain. So the physical pain would alleviate the psychological pain." 'Outdated correctional notions' Therapists diagnosed Gay with antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, describing him as manipulative and anxious in their notes. He believed himself to be in love with his Tamms psychologist. The Department of Corrections responded by putting him on medication and providing occasional therapy. He continued to mutilate himself, but corrections officials typically dismissed it as a manipulative gesture. While there's no doubt Gay was trying to manipulate the corrections staff to elicit their concern, the extreme self-harm was also and simultaneously a symptom of a major psychiatric disorder, his attorneys say. "The Illinois Department of Corrections was well aware that solitary confinement was driving Anthony insane, but throughout nearly his entire incarceration they did almost nothing to ameliorate it," said attorney Antonio Romanucci, who is representing Gay in his federal lawsuit. Indeed, a federal monitor blasted the state Department of Corrections in a report released in 2018, decrying the conditions for mentally ill inmates. The 105-page review details how segregated inmates languish in "filthy, loud" cells that are inappropriate for housing the seriously mentally ill. By not addressing the isolated prisoners' needs, the department is causing problems for both itself and the inmates, according to Dr. Pablo Stewart's report. "The placement of seriously mentally ill offenders in segregation exacerbates their pre-existing mental illness as well as causing the development of new forms of psychiatric pathology," Stewart wrote. "It is imperative that the department fully embraces the reality that it is the largest provider of mental health care in the state of Illinois. As such, outdated correctional notions about the use of segregation need to be completely rethought." Gay garnered the attention of prison reform advocates as far back as his earliest time at Tamms, as lawyers monitored the conditions there and expressed concern about years of isolation for inmates in court filings. And he caught the notice of downstate prosecutors, who also wanted to make a statement about prison culture. In Livingston County, where Pontiac Correctional Center is situated, the state's attorney's office lodged a series of 21 indictments against Gay between 2000 and 2004 for the many times he threw his own excrement at guards. In what some call "picket fencing," the cases were often stacked separately as the statute of limitations for each charge was about to expire, so the convictions led to consecutive sentences. The charges were intended to send a clear message to both the public and the nearly 3,000 inmates housed at Pontiac: In a county where the prison employs hundred of residents, prosecutors would seek tough punishments against anyone caught abusing staff members. Gay stood trial on many of the counts, typically acting as his own attorney. Ultimately, his 10-month stay in Pontiac resulted in another 97 years tacked on to his sentence. A judge handling one of the cases noted the unusual nature of the Gay prosecution in a memo to another judge in May 2004. "The sad thing about this case is that at the age of 19, Mr. Gay committed a minor theft in Rock Island County and was sentenced. ... Because of all of the incidents at Pontiac Correctional Center, he probably will never be released," wrote Judge Charles Frank, according to court records. "I would think a $2 piece of plastic draping would have prevented all of these. Apparently, no one out there understands that." Desperate for help and now looking at a lifetime of solitary confinement, Gay began writing lawyers and begging for assistance. Among those willing to take up his cause was Scott Main of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University. Main and a colleague challenged how the sentence was structured and were eventually able to get Gay out of prison. Main had gone to the Livingston state's attorney at the time, Seth Uphoff, when he took over the office in 2012 and asked him to review his predecessor's actions. The sentences should have been "presumptively concurrent," Main argued, because Gay had been in custody the whole time and not on bond, as spelled out in state statutes. Uphoff eventually looked at the law himself and agreed with Main's argument. The prosecutor didn't condone what Gay had done, but he also did not want Gay and his lawyers to wage a protracted legal battle when he could quickly rectify the sentencing error. "My main job was to do justice," Uphoff told the Tribune. Uphoff and Main entered a joint motion to have Gay resentenced, a move that significantly shortened Gay's punishment. Uphoff lost his re-election bid in 2016 after his opponent received the endorsement of the union representing Pontiac corrections officers. With real hope of freedom for the first time in decades, Gay stopped harming himself as much in his final months of incarceration. Not coincidentally, he was transferred to Dixon Correctional Center, where he was allowed to interact with other inmates, taken off his medication and received intensive daily therapy. He was released this past August. Just days later, Gay told his complete story in court for the first time, testifying in a class-action lawsuit filed more than 10 years ago by another inmate named Ashoor Rasho, a case that has led to the federal monitoring of the state Department of Corrections. Lawyers have called Gay's poise and ability to articulate his experiences remarkable, considering his history. After Gay's testimony in the Rasho case, the federal judge issued a new order finding the state was "deliberately indifferent" to mentally ill inmates' needs and requiring state prison officials to address "constitutional deficiencies" in its treatment of those prisoners. He cited Gay in his ruling. "Part of the reason prisons are as far away as they are is because we don't want to see it, we don't want to look at it, we don't want to know about it," Main said as he reflected on Gay's case. The state has been ordered to pay $3.8 million for the inmates' legal fees in the decade-old case, an amount finalized by federal Judge Michael Mihm in late December. Another lawsuit In addition to the Rasho case, another downstate suit from 2016 filed by inmate Henry Davis is seeking class-action status and a requirement that the state apply new standards that limit the use of extreme isolation in state prisons. And Gay in October filed his own lawsuit against the state of Illinois and its prisons officials in U.S. District Court in Chicago, forming a third prong in the series of legal challenges buffeting IDOC. "It was plain for anyone to see that solitary confinement was ravaging Anthony's mind, and that he was in desperate need of appropriate mental health care," Gay's lawsuit reads. "But instead of placing Anthony in a setting that would alleviate the impact on his mind, or providing him treatment to get better, the defendants responded by prolonging Anthony's extreme isolation, depriving him of access to human contact, programming, mental health care, and activities _ for decades." Alan Mills of the Uptown People's Law Center is an attorney on both the Rasho and Davis cases, and he said those suits together with Gay's case could provide the momentum needed to bring real reform to Illinois. Mills said Gay's suit is notable because he is seeking damages for what happened to him as an individual. "What Anthony shows is why the other two are important," Mills said. "It shows the depth of damage that can be done to a person if we don't fix this system. There will be more Anthony Gays coming down the pike." Recent proposals to limit solitary confinement for adult inmates in Illinois died without even making it out of the General Assembly. More than 30 states _ including Texas, California, North Dakota and New York _ have taken steps toward reducing the number of inmates held in segregated cells for punitive reasons. And Colorado, once notorious for holding inmates in solitary confinement, now has a policy that bans solitary confinement for longer than 15 days and requires most inmates must be out of their cells for at least four hours a day. Adjusting to freedom Anthony Gay no longer treads anxiously or lives in isolation. He has a home now, with friends and family. He has a half-dozen lawyers, all of whom are concerned about how he adjusts amid his newfound freedom. "For the past year and a half I've been worried to death about what's going to happen when Anthony comes out, because what the hell?, what has the state done to this person and then said, 'All right, go forth?'" Main asked. "So there has to be some acknowledgement and some awareness and some reckoning to address what we, the state of Illinois, 200 years old, are in the process of doing and have done and will continue to do unless there are conversations like this." After his release, Gay moved in with his aging aunt and uncle, who see him as their son. His aunt often looks at him for long stretches without saying a word, just shaking her head and smiling as if she can't believe he has come home. He does get therapy, and he shrugs when a lawyer sitting with him talked about how he might be the one to shed light on a dark part of the Illinois prison system and help others who now find themselves where he was. There are deep scars, both physical and emotional, but Gay insists he doesn't hate anyone he believes did him wrong. He won't let himself be eaten up by anger thinking about those who ignored him except when they were pushing food through a slit in a steel door. "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate," he said, paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr. "Only love can drive out hate." He might write a long piece about his experiences, he said, and if not, he would like to get into publishing somehow. But for now Gay marvels at the small things, like mowing a lawn, having new shoes, and taking out the garbage. Even a stroll to a small coffee shop in his old hometown is something to be savored. "The other day, I walked down to the corner, and I just stopped and was like, 'Are you serious?'" he said. "I'm here." Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 World War II was a brutal conflict and it was common in the aftermath of battles for soldiers to acquire personal items of the fallen from the battlefield. Many soldiers on both sides returned home with these artifacts from their fallen enemies as keepsakes. Too often, many of these artifacts do not find a permanent place in the following generations lives after the American veteran passes and are often simply thrown away. Project Returned Memories Kiseki is a group trying to locate artifacts taken from Japanese soldiers and return them to the families. The project began in 1971 and has returned hundreds of war memorabilia to families in Japan. If you have Japanese battlefield memorabilia from the Pacific Theater of World War II, especially postcards, pictures and other personal items, and would like them to be returned to the soldiers' families, contact Chizuko "Chiko" Jaggard at 309-706-2055, Carlock. The project usually asks for information about items, where and how they were found, etc., to aid in locating the families. The project does not collect the items from the donors until the families are found. Q: I am retired from my career employment. I am a veteran. I understand that the U.S. Census Bureau has begun hiring workers for the 2020 census. I would like more information and how do I apply? A: The U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting thousands of people across the country for a variety of temporary jobs, including census takers, recruiting assistants, office staff and supervisory staff. You must be at least 18 years old, have a valid Social Security number and be a U.S. citizen. Pay in central Illinois ranges from $14 to $15.50 per hour plus mileage allowance when appropriate. Veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces and were separated under honorable conditions may be eligible for veterans preference. Veterans with service-connected disability ratings may be eligible for additional preference. DID YOU KNOW? Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Contracts to manage provider networks under the VAs new Community Care Network (CCN) have been awarded for three of the four VA regions. The CCN is based on feedback from veterans and other stakeholders, along with lessons learned from the Veterans Choice Program, which is phasing out. Illinois is located in VA Region 2. The CCN is designed to be the standard VA platform, which will improve access to specialty care and reduce backlogs of accounts payable to non-VA health care contract providers. DID YOU KNOW? The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs worked with community and veterans' service organization volunteers to place wreaths at VA national cemeteries in remembrance of the military branches, veterans' service and sacrifice for the nation. All 136 VA national cemeteries received at least seven wreaths (one for each service branch and one each for the Merchant Marines, POW/MIAs) from Worcester Wreath Company. A local Wreaths Across America ceremony was at Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington. Dozens of volunteers raised funds for the program and placed wreaths on dozens of veterans graves at Evergreen. Kudos to Evergreen Cemetery as host and the dozens of volunteers who took time from their busy holiday activities to honor our veterans. EVENT Lexington American Legion Post 291 will hold its annual sausage and pancake breakfast from 6 a.m. to noon Jan. 12 at Lexington High School. To purchase tickets and place meat orders, contact a Post 291 member or call 309-365-7190 or 309-365-8138. Tickets and a limited amount of extra sausage and other meat will be on sale at the door. Vogler is superintendent of the McLean County Veterans Assistance Commission. NORMAL Normal will pay a little more but get a bigger building under new plans for its five-story Trail East building. Bush Construction, the Iowa developer working on the building on the northeast side of Uptown Circle, would get $400,000 more in future property tax dollars from the site and up to $250,000 in future sales tax proceeds under a revised redevelopment agreement to be considered Monday by Normal City Council. "The financial support of the project is all dependent on the success of the project," said City Manager Pam Reece, including money coming through a tax increment financing district, which redirects property tax revenue generated by improvements from taxing bodies into a redevelopment fund. "There has to be sales tax generated to have any to share back." The town previously pledged $8 million in future TIF money, but that figure now will be $8.4 million. The sales tax money is a new addition to the agreement. Normal Finance Director Andrew Huhn previously said Bush could use a third-party investor to turn the expectation of the $8 million into $4.2 million available now for funding the project. The new package has a present value of $4.7 million. The increase is partly due to plans that now include 106 E. Beaufort St. after Bush reached an agreement to buy the Windy City Wieners building. It, along with town-owned buildings at 104 and 108 E. Beaufort, are expected to be razed for the project, now slated to cost $30 million rather than $29.2 million. "Their project costs are going up somewhat," said Reece, noting steel and new plans for a food hall, which is similar to a food court, may be more expensive than anticipated. "Now that they're getting into what's involved in the design and the build-out of that space, in terms of kitchen use and such, there's significant added cost, and then of course the addition of the 106 building." Reece said she can't comment on the terms of the sale of 106 E. Beaufort to Bush. The company is receiving 104 and 108 from the town for free as part of the redevelopment agreement. The council will discuss the updated plans, which do not need council approval. The plans call for a first-floor food hall and two other commercial tenants; second and third floors with a single tenant each, one of which will be Bloomington-based Farnsworth Group; a fourth floor with three office tenants; and a top floor with eight residential units, though that may change, said Reece. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Windy City Wieners is expected to be a tenant, and a local company is expected to occupy the full-floor office space not used by Farnsworth, said Reece. Bush has letters of intent for 70 percent of the commercial space, she added. The plans also include a walkway on the building's east side to connect the parking lot to Beaufort Street, which Reece said could be a nice public space. "It does scream for something that could be experiential, maybe a place to spend time relaxing and enjoying company or enjoying perhaps art," she said. Bush and Farnsworth are expected to address the council on the plans. The building is expected to start construction as soon as May. In summer 2018, state officials approved a 13-year extension to the uptown TIF district with the condition that already-developed properties begin paying property taxes to local taxing bodies in 2026 as previously scheduled. Bush was previously expected to use $10.1 million in debt, $8.9 million in owner equity and $6 million in federal New Market Tax Credits for the project. In another matter, the council will also consider a plan to build a two-story Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house at 405 Normal Ave. to open in August. The property was previously a rooming house that was demolished last fall. The Normal City Council meets 7 p.m. Monday on the fourth floor of Uptown Station. Contact Derek Beigh at (309) 820-3234. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_beigh Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 10 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON Temperatures will remain unseasonably warm through Tuesday, but colder temperatures will return to Central Illinois by the end of the week. But the main issue right now is the wind, said James Auten, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln. On Monday, the NWS issued a hazardous weather outlook for much of the area, including McLean County, citing wind gusts of up to 35 mph that may cause difficulty for some motorists. More of the same is expected for Tuesday, he said, when gusts could reach 40 mph. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Rain will also be a factor both days with possibly up to one-half inch of rain expected. Its January, but our high on Monday will be around 58 degrees, said Auten. That is really warm for this time of the year. The high on Tuesday is expected to be 44 degrees, but a cold front will pass through on Wednesday with the high temperature a more seasonable 27 degrees. By Friday, the high will be around 33 degrees. This really isnt a January thaw because we have not had the real cold temperatures you would expect so far, said Auten. December was about four degrees above average. There is no snow in the forecast either, he said. There is a chance of something coming in for the weekend, but it is still too early to tell, he added. Contact Kevin Barlow at (309) 820-3238. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_barlow Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A call to Gladwin County's 911 on Nov. 5, sent emergency personnel to a Beaverton address where a woman was not breathing, and Beaverton Police officer Bob Doyle was first on the scene. Beaverton Police Chief Brad Davis recently presented Doyle with a Life Saving Award for his efforts. Doyle said he was first on the scene on Nov. 5 and found a woman not breathing and without a pulse. "I did CPR and talked to her," Doyle said. "I guess I reverted back to training, doing what I was supposed to do." The woman regained a pulse and was again breathing when paramedics arrived. On the trip to the hospital, the woman again went into cardiac arrest, but emergency personnel were able to regain a pulse. Medical personnel told Davis he made a difference. "Some medical professionals told me that if (Doyle) hadn't responded so quickly, the woman would have died," Davis said. Since the incident, Doyle has gone back to check on the woman. A month later, the woman was walking around and talking. She was very thankful to Doyle. Beaverton City Manager Heath Kaplan and Mayor Ray Nau said they are proud of the role the officers take in the community. "This reemphasizes the need for the police department," Kaplan said. Janrain, one of the companies that helped usher in Portlands technology renaissance a decade ago, sold Monday to a Massachusetts online services company called Akamai Technologies. Privately held Janrain mines information from social networks to help its clients, large retailers and others learn about the people visiting its website. Visitors can use their logins from other sites, like Google or Facebook, to log in to a retailers site and the retailer can then analyze that shared information. Akamai said it will use Janrains technology to help its own clients improve their online security by identifying automated bots and limiting their access to online registration features. Akamai said that will help the sites reduce fraud. Financial terms of Mondays deal werent disclosed, but Akamai said it was an all-cash transaction that would reduce its profits by as much as $10 million this year, then add to profitability in future years. Akamai is a publicly traded company that reported $2.5 billion in sales last year, and profits of $218 million. Janrain employs 200, 92 of them in the Portland office that once employed more than 120. Akamai said it will retain the Portland site and integrate a small group of its employees already here into Janrains office. The companies didnt immediately say what Akamai will do with Janrains Portland office, which once employed more than 150. Ninety-four work there now, according to Janrain. Founded in 2002, Janrain had raised at least $79 million, most recently in a $27 million round three years ago. The Portland company says it has more than 3,400 clients, including Coca-Cola, NPR and Philips. As social media gained popularity in the years after the Great Recession, Janrain was among Portlands most promising young technology companies and helped lead the Silicon Forests transition from its roots in hardware manufacturing to a new generation of startup providing software and online services. Janrains profile was somewhat diminished in recent years, however, as the company refocused amid the changing social media landscape and diminished investor enthusiasm for social networking startups. Mondays sale followed a string of deals for Oregon technology companies in 2018, including young tech businesses such as Cozy, Exterro, Mirador Financial and Electro Scientific Industries Oregons oldest tech company. The spate of deals reflect the strong national economy and the continued low cost of borrowing, which has helped spur acquisitions and investments in many industries. Additionally, Oregon tech companies like Janrain tend to operate in market niches, which make them more likely to be consolidated into larger organizations than to do the consolidating themselves. Correction: Janrain was founded in 2002, not 2005. This article has been corrected. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Investment in Oregon startups hit its highest point in nearly two decades during 2018. The states entrepreneurs pulled in more than $600 million double the prior years haul. The influx doesnt reflect a resurgent startup scene, however. Rather, last years tally is an echo of an upsurge that took place a decade ago. The numbers come from the newly issued MoneyTree Report by PwC/CB Insights. The biggest investment went to Portland product development specialist Jama Software, which sold the company for more than $200 million in a deal led by New York investment firm Insight Venture Partners. Jama isnt a startup anymore it was founded way back in 2007. But its deal was the largest to date for an Oregon tech company from that era, which gave rise to a collection of upstart software and online services operations that helped reduce Silicon Forests dependence on the aging hardware manufacturing sector. Jamas sale cashed out employees and many of its early investors, while providing capital for future growth. Jama expects to expand to another floor of its downtown headquarters this year and said the funding could help it buy other companies to expand its business. The 2018 tally also includes two private equity investments totaling nearly $170 million in Vacasa, a Portland vacation rental management company founded in 2009, and $50 million for Gresham veterinary services company VetSource, which formed in 2005. Also landing big investments were Puppet ($42 million) and Urban Airship ($25 million), two other members of the Portland tech renaissance that began during the Great Recession. Startups represent a tiny slice of Oregons economy, and the state hasnt produced a large, homegrown tech company in decades. Employment and wage figures suggest the states technology sector, the hub for most startup activity, may have plateaued. Startup investment is important nonetheless, though, because nearly all the money comes to Oregon from outside the state. Such funding helps seed the development of new businesses, even though, in Oregon, those companies almost never turn into big corporations. Oregon startups more commonly operate in niche markets, and when theyre successful they often sell to larger companies that consolidate them into a broader corporation. On Monday, for example, onetime Portland startup standout Janrain sold to a Massachusetts online services company, Akamai Technologies. Akamai said it plans to retain Janrains Portland office, which employs 92. Such deals have created a network of outposts, from Intel to eBay to Amazon, which employ the majority of Oregon tech workers. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Daimler Trucks said Monday it plans to hire 200, most of them at its North American headquarters in Portland, to develop self-driving semis. Daimler said its looking for engineers and robotics specialists with software programming skills to develop so-called Level 4 automated trucks, which would likely enable the trucks to drive themselves at least in some situations. Daimler plans to spend $570 million on the initiative. The company said automated trucks could be significantly safer by reducing the chances for collisions caused by human error. Hiring is already very much under way. Well continue through this year, for sure, said Paige Kean, Daimler Trucks corporate communications manager. Its something were looking to put on roads within a decade. Its not clear just how automated these Level 4 trucks will be. Many industry descriptions say trucks with this level of automation would be able to pilot themselves on predetermined roads between destinations, with a driver taking the wheel in town or when an emergency arises. Daimler, though, is making no commitments. It says the specific automated features in its Level 4 truck will depend on how quickly technology advances. Only time will tell what the drive role will look like, Kean said. Daimler made its announcement Monday at the start of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an annual showcase of new and aspirational technologies. The company also announced Monday that its starting production on a partially automated truck, the Cascadia. It comes with Level 2 automation, which requires a driver to be in charge but offers automated features to improve safety and performance. Those automated features include cruise control technology that adapts speed to the vehicles around the truck and technology to keep the trucks in their lanes. Some of that technology was developed in Portland, but the trucks name notwithstanding Daimler will build the Cascadia at factories in the Carolinas and in Mexico. Daimler says it will skip Level 3 automation because the benefits arent adequate to offset the costs of developing the intermediary technology. Companies from Intel to Google to Uber have invested heavily in self-driving cars and are actively testing them in some states. Those companies also tout potential safety benefits, but there has been at least one fatality during testing. Daimler is among the leaders in developing autonomous trucks. As Daimler moves forward with some automated features, though, its taking a step back with another technology. Daimler and other trucking companies have been evaluating the benefits of platooning trucks using electronics to pair them together, one right behind the other, at close distances. The hope was that those narrow distances would improve aerodynamics and save fuel, the way bicyclists draft off one another in a race to save energy. Daimler has been testing platooning on Interstate 84 in Oregon. On Monday, though, Daimler said the benefits from platooning have been significantly below expectations. One problem, the company said, is that when platooning trucks disconnect they use extra fuel to accelerate and reconnect. Daimler said its current analysis shows no business case for customers driving platoons with new, highly aerodynamic trucks. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is ramping up his efforts to make a public case for his border wall as the partial government shutdown is now in its third week, planning a prime-time address Tuesday night and a visit to the border Thursday. Trump announced the news of his presidential address in a Monday tweet. "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border," he said. "Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern." Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Trump will travel to the U.S. border with Mexico on Thursday. "President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis," she said. "More details will be announced soon." The presidential speech and visit come amid the continuing partial government shutdown and Trump's insistence that any funding bill to reopen federal agencies include $5.7 billion for his border wall. Trump made his first visit to the border as president 10 months ago. During that trip, Trump toured 30-foot-tall steel and concrete prototypes of the border wall in California and strongly condemned jurisdictions that offer "sanctuary" to undocumented immigrants. The White House on Monday did not immediately release details on the site of Trump's planned visit. But the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that airspace in the McAllen, Texas, vicinity would be restricted on Thursday due to a "VIP movement." The border city of 142,000 people is home to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility where migrants who have crossed illegally into the U.S. have been detained. First lady Melania Trump also visited a shelter for migrant children in McAllen in June. Trump and congressional Democrats remain at an impasse on crafting a deal to reopen the government, which is in its 17th day of a partial shutdown. Democrats, who retook control of the House last week, have passed measures that would fund the federal agencies affected, but Trump has balked at any legislation that does not meet his demand for border wall funding. Talks over the weekend showed no signs of a breakthrough, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain furloughed. Trump said Sunday that he understood the predicament facing federal workers who are not receiving their paychecks. "I can relate, and I'm sure the people who are on the receiving end will make adjustments; they always do," Trump told reporters outside the White House. He also claimed that "many of those people agree with what I'm doing": refusing to reopen the government without obtaining funding for the wall, one of his signature campaign promises. With the impact of the partial shutdown rippling across the country, acting White House budget director Russell Vought sent a letter to congressional leaders Sunday detailing the administration's demands. The letter called for $5.7 billion "for construction of a steel barrier for the Southwest border" but also proposed "an additional $800 million to address urgent humanitarian needs" and unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border. In a tweet Sunday night, Trump sought to put a positive spin on the ongoing negotiations, describing them as "productive" and declaring that "we are now planning a Steel Barrier rather than concrete." But a Democratic official said no progress was made over the weekend, in large part because the White House has not been forthcoming about how the money would be used or why the request is for so much more than the administration sought only a few months ago. Trump has said in recent days that he might seek to unilaterally secure border wall funding by declaring a national emergency, a move that experts say would be of questionable legality. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply criticized Trump on Sunday for raising that possibility, suggesting in an interview with CBS News that the president would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress so the only voice that mattered was his own. The Washington Post Update: By 4 p.m. Monday, the Newberg-Dundee Bypass had reopened to traffic, according to ODOT. Two tractor-trailer drivers were killed early Monday in a fiery crash on the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, troopers say. The crash involved two commercial vehicles one carrying molasses and another carrying poultry and a third passenger car, according to an Oregon State Police spokesman. The collision, which injured one additional driver, happened amid reports of icy roads in Yamhill County and elsewhere across the region. It was the first fatal crash on the bypass, which opened in January 2018. Authorities think icy conditions played a role. The drivers of both semis died at the scene, and the passenger car driver was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The state police spokesman didnt think the poultry truck was carrying any live chickens. Flames from the crash reached 50 feet high, according to fire officials, and firefighters worked for over an hour to control the blaze. The bypass was still closed about 10:10 a.m., according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. Workers were cleaning up spilled diesel fuel at that point. Icy road conditions were to blame for a number of crashes throughout northwest Oregon on Monday morning, the Oregon Department of Transportation said. Moisture overnight and near-freezing temperatures early Monday caused black ice, according to the agency. The transportation department urged drivers to slow down, leave plenty of distance between cars and be aware of the slick roads. The crash happened about 5:20 a.m. south of Newberg on the Oregon 18 bypass. Troopers havent publicly identified anyone involved in the crash. Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Rosemarie Stein of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. By Val Hoyle As I take office as Oregons Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, I am truly honored to have the opportunity to serve the people of the state of Oregon. The labor bureaus mission represents values that Oregonians hold dear: equality, fairness and opportunity. I am excited to lead our dedicated staff in standing up to protect those who are most vulnerable. I will do so unapologetically. As labor commissioner, I will be a staunch defender of the civil rights of all Oregonians. I will safeguard and support the rights of Oregon workers to organize and bargain collectively. I will ensure that employers are following the law, and that workers are paid the wages and benefits they are owed for the work that they do. I am committed to ensuring that all Oregonians, regardless of whether they work at a multinational corporation, a small business or the state Capitol, are able to feel safe and free from harassment of any sort. This commitment also means being proactive. I expect to work with businesses across the entire state to ensure they have access to the accurate, timely information that they need in order to comply with Oregons labor laws. The vast majority of businesses do their best to follow the law and treat their employees well. They should not have to compete with businesses that operate for less by breaking the law. I plan to expand of our Technical Assistance Program for companies with a broader reach outside the I-5 corridor, and to step up enforcement against those truly bad actors who are gaming the system and benefiting on the backs of their workers. It is clear that the labor bureau can and should do a better job of ensuring that people in this state have access to information, whether its the ability to file a wage and hour or civil rights claim, or to access employment rules. To that end, my staff will be working to improve the navigability of our website and to build a mobile friendly platform. In order to serve our customers -- the people of the state of Oregon -- we need to meet them where they are. Lets face it, in 2018 so many of us, especially younger people, access information via our mobile devices. One part of this job I am most excited about is working with the apprenticeship division to expand opportunities for apprenticeships that result in careers with good pay and benefits. Not just those jobs available now, but also the jobs of the future. I appreciate that Gov. Kate Brown has proposed funding for additional staff in our apprenticeship division and we will be partnering with her office on her Future Ready Oregon program. If Oregon can be proactive in developing a strong workforce for the jobs that are already here, we also can become more competitive in attracting new businesses and expanding opportunity. This is a time when the federal government is backtracking on civil rights for women, people of color, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. People are scared. Now more than ever, the bureaus purpose is magnified. Oregon has led the way on wages, sick time, worker scheduling, opportunities for the formerly incarcerated and wage equality, as well as for civil rights protections at work and in housing. I am proud to have been a part of passing many of those laws in the Oregon Legislature and am excited to lead the agency implementing and enforcing those laws. This agency is uniquely empowered to look out for our citizens liberty, rights and opportunity. Oregon is one of only four states that directly elect their labor commissioners, which speaks to the value Oregonians place in the labor bureaus mission. I understand clearly that I am accountable to the people of Oregon and Im committed to being the labor commissioner for our whole state -- from Portland to John Day, in both rural and urban communities. For the next four years I am committed to working hard to lead this agency in a way that will move our state forward and serve the best interests of all Oregonians. Val Hoyle took the helm of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries on Monday. (c) 2019, The Washington Post David Von Drehle OPINION The customary tsk-tsks and vapors erupted when President Donald Trump opined on the state of mind of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a New Years Eve interview on Fox News. Asked if Warren thinks she can beat him in 2020, Trump replied, Youd have to ask her psychiatrist. Trump's critics are so reflexively critical at this point that they can't recognize a great idea when they hear it. By all means, let's ask Warren's psychiatrist - but let's not stop with Warren. To the couch, Mr. President! Love or hate him (or anything in between), no reasonable person can deny that Trump is a textbook example of narcissistic personality disorder. Reading the list of symptoms on the Mayo Clinic's website is like scrolling through the president's Twitter: "Require constant, excessive admiration," "exaggerate achievements and talents," "be preoccupied with . . . brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate," "monopolize conversations and belittle . . . people," "expect special favors and unquestioning compliance," "have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others." Yet we need not be so clinical to suspect that Trump might fail his inkblot test. Just look back to our opening sentence - specifically the words, "during a New Year's Eve interview on Fox News." Picture this man, this occupant of the highest office in the strongest nation on Earth. In early December, he announced plans to spend the holidays enjoying a restful break from Washington at his palatial Palm Beach retreat. The very picture of sanity, no? If I owned a palatial Palm Beach retreat and didn't use it to relax in late December, you'd rightly call me crazy. Yet there sits Trump, far from Mar-a-Lago, holed up inside the White House in a dreary D.C. December, abandoned by his chief of staff, his attorney general, his secretary of defense, etc. He's fighting a losing battle with Congress over money to build a wall - only it's not a wall, necessarily. It's "steel slats," perhaps. It's some sort of "barrier," anyway. Whatever it is, as a candidate, Trump promised nearly every day that it would cost us precisely nada. Jailed in the White House, hounded by investigations and jabbering himself in circles, he decided to insert himself into the Fox News coverage of New Year's Eve. That's cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Holiday cable is to news as cruise ship theater is to Broadway. Another year at this declining rate, and the president will be calling the sweater-dress ladies on QVC. Two years, and the next occupant might find the White House overrun with cats. A million erroneous citations notwithstanding, Albert Einstein never said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. But wherever it came from, Trump proves the maxim daily. He keeps spouting off, keeps improvising impulsively, keeps spurning those who could help him and antagonizing those who can hurt him, huddles ever closer to the dying embers of his demoralized base - yet seems surprised that things keep going wrong. In Trump's defense, I've long believed that most presidents could keep a shrink working overtime. Imagine trying to heal Thomas Jefferson's bifurcated personality: half slavekeeper, half apostle of freedom. Did James Madison's tiny stature have anything to do with his blustering and blundering into war? Might Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan have avoided the Civil War if the first had been sober and the second free to express his apparent homosexuality? And the daddy issues. Oh, my. Andrew Jackson never knew his father. Abraham Lincoln disdained his, coolly refusing to attend Thomas Lincoln's funeral. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a teenager when his invalid father died, and his domineering mother kept him on an allowance even in the White House. John F. Kennedy was, like his brothers, a product of his father's inexhaustible ambitions. Lyndon B. Johnson was haunted by his father's failures; Richard Nixon by his father's abusiveness; Ronald Reagan by his father's alcoholism. Bill Clinton never met his father, and Barack Obama's was almost entirely absent after the boy's toddler years. And would any president other than George W. Bush have been as eager to turn 9/11 into a crusade to oust Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator left in power by Bush's more cautious father? By all accounts, Trump was the apple of his father's eye, and yet the president has spent his career trying to escape his Outer Borough roots and deny his debts to dad. At this point, I wonder if anyone who's not a bit off-kilter has what it takes to win and inhabit the awesome, awful office of the presidency. To offer oneself as decider of the questions too hard for experts to decide. To alter one's life and the lives of one's family forever. To live with the nuclear button. Still, there's value in knowing. So let's ask the psychiatrists, Mr. President. And let's start with yours. Author Information: David Von Drehle writes a twice-weekly column for The Post. He was previously an editor-at-large for Time Magazine, and is the author of four books, including Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and Americas Most Perilous Year and Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. An SUV crashed into a propane tank Saturday at a gas station along U.S. 101 near Florence, sending the driver to the hospital, causing the evacuation of nearby homes and closing the highway for about an hour. Buzz Berry, 60, of Florence was driving a 1997 Ford Explorer south on the highway near milepost 192 when it veered off the road, went through a fence, plowed through trees and shrubs, went airborne and crashed into the top of a commercial propane tank at One Stop Market on the east side of the highway, Oregon State Police reported. The SUV came to rest in the gas station parking lot. Troopers and emergency workers responded about 1:30 p.m. to the gas station and found that the tank had ruptured. They shut down the highway until the tank was empty and evacuated surrounding residences and buildings, police said in a news release. The highway reopened about 2:35 p.m. Berry was taken to Florence Peace Health Hospital for injuries considered non-life-threatening, police said. Police are investigating what caused the crash. -- The Oregonian/OregonLive The National Park Service will take the unprecedented step of tapping entrance fees to pay for expanded operations at its most popular sites, officials said Sunday, as the federal government shutdown threatens to degrade some of the nations iconic landmarks. Under a memorandum signed Saturday by the Interior Departments acting secretary, David Bernhardt, and obtained by The Washington Post, park managers will be permitted to bring on additional staff to clean restrooms, haul trash, patrol the parks and open areas that have been shut during the more than two-week budget impasse. In a statement Sunday, National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith acknowledged that the administrations practice of keeping parks open but understaffed has become unsustainable at some of its most beloved sites. As the lapse in appropriations continues, it has become clear that highly visited parks with limited staff have urgent needs that cannot be addressed solely through the generosity of our partners, Smith said. We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services. Its not clear which parks would use the money, including Crater Lake in Oregon, which remains open but closed the road into the park because of issues such as human waste buildup. The entrance fee move, which some critics said could be illegal, shows the extent to which the Trump administrations decision to keep the national park system open to visitors is straining its capacity and potentially exposing public lands to long-term damage. During such shutdowns under the Clinton and Obama administrations, the Park Service chose to block access to its sites rather than leave them open with a skeleton staff on board. Trump officials chose the opposite course, and as trash has begun to mount, and key habitat has been imperiled, the administration is struggling to manage the problems. Congressional Democrats and some park advocates question whether the park-fee move is legal, because the fees that parks collect under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act are expressly designated to support visitor services instead of operations and basic maintenance. The new secretarial order authorizes parks that have available balances of these fee funds to spend them on operations that include trash collection and sanitation, road maintenance, campground operations, law enforcement and emergency operations, and entrance staff as necessary to provide critical safety operations. "The Department of Interior is very likely violating appropriations law," Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who is incoming chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies, said in a phone interview Sunday. "I want to see our parks open, but I want to see our entire government open the right way, following the law." McCollum said that she had voiced her concerns about the parks' predicament in a phone call with Bernhardt on Saturday evening, but that he had not shifted course. "We are certainly going to be doing oversight as the acting secretary moves forward with this, and he will be hearing from me directly," she said. "This will not open up the parks in any safe, effective manner for tourists to have a safe and enjoyable experience." House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Sunday that his panel also would scrutinize the justification for the move, noting that the president expects taxpayers "to either pay more to keep the toilets clean out of their own pockets or pay millions of dollars for his ridiculous wall." "Either way, this president is only happy as long as the American people pay for his every whim whenever it suits him," Grijalva said. "This is not how a rational president behaves, and the Natural Resources Committee will demand answers about whether these moves are legally justified." As the shutdown continues, risks emerge at national park sites. At least seven people have died at national park sites since the shutdown began, including a man at Yosemite National Park who illegally brought his dog on a trail and subsequently fell. A Park Service official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said that the Interior Departments solicitor had authorized the move in an opinion, but did not provide the document. This official did not specify how many agency employees would return to work under the revised contingency plan, but it could number in the hundreds. According to official estimates, as many as 16,000 of the Park Services 20,000-person winter workforce is furloughed. The law establishing the fees, which totaled $299 million last fiscal year, allows for them to be spent on "repair, maintenance, and facility enhancement related directly to visitor enjoyment, visitor access, and health and safety," along with other purposes, such as visitor information and habitat restoration. Under the law, 80 percent of the money collected must be spent on the park while 20 percent can go to fund activities at other park sites. Fees collected at parks are supposed to enhance the visitor experience, which can include films about a site's resources and restoration projects that are specifically aimed at activities such as hunting, fishing and photography. Jon Jarvis, who led the Park Service under President Barack Obama, said in an email that the agency decided not to tap the fees during the 2013 shutdown because "that is a slippery slope" that would blur the line between the operating budget provided by Congress and these supplemental funds. The agency's solicitor agreed with that interpretation, he added. The Park Service has not yet determined how many parks will be able to tap into these funds, officials said, but they would include the nation's most popular ones. Only 115 of the agency's 418 park sites collect entrance fees, though a few dozen more collect fees for campgrounds, parking and other purposes. These fees represent just a fraction of the agency's roughly $3.2 billion annual budget. Since any staffers returning to work will have their salaries funded through fees, this will mean that some Park Service employees will be paid for the hours they work during the shutdown while others, including some law enforcement officers, will not. In some sites where either state governments or outside groups are funding operations, employees are receiving at least part of their regular salaries. In the memo, Bernhardt asks for a list of parks that will expand their operations by dipping into these fees, as well as ones that don't collect fees but can demonstrate a need for additional funds and how they would distribute them. "While the (National Park Service) will not be able to fully open parks, and many of the smaller sites around the country will remain closed, utilizing these funds now will allow the American public to safely visit many of the nation's national parks while providing these iconic treasures the protection they deserve," Smith said in a statement. But Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an email that the move would simply drain money that was supposed to be spent on addressing the parks' massive maintenance backlog. "It's incredibly concerning that the Acting Interior Secretary is putting political pressure on superintendents to keep parks open at the expense of parks' long-term needs and protection," Pierno said. "For those national parks that don't collect fees, they will now be in the position of competing for the same inadequate pot of money to protect their resources and visitors. Draining accounts dry is not the answer." Even as Trump officials sought to maintain operations at key parks, some are closing up shop. On Sunday, Mount Rainier National Park announced that it was closing motor vehicle access beyond the park entrance because its main concession operator had stopped picking up trash and cleaning the bathrooms, and because snow was starting to accumulate. As a result, there will be no public services including food, restrooms or snow plowing sufficient for safe travel anywhere in the park beginning late Sunday, the statement said, adding that visitors would still be allowed to access the park by foot. -- The Washington Post A 28-year-old man who invited a 9-year-old girl and her family to live with him and then recorded himself spanking her bare buttocks was sentenced to 17 years in prison Monday. It was the latest in Lucas Orlin Eberts series of convictions for a string of crimes that included posing as an OHSU doctor and writing bad checks. The young girl reported that Ebert also kissed her on the lips, pressed his body up against her from behind and tried to force his way into the bathroom while she was showering, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl, her siblings and her mother moved in with Ebert after the girls father was sentenced to 30 days in jail in May 2017, investigators say. The girls mother told police that Ebert had met and become best friends with the girls father several months earlier, was an uncle-like presence in the girls life and seemed to have endless finances to help the family out. Eberts defense attorney, Drake Durham, said state law gave the prosecution too much leverage to negotiate a hefty sentence. The law requires a mandatory minimum 25 years in prison for Eberts two videos of the spankings, Durham said. That act is defined under state law as using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct -- essentially, child pornography because of the nudity involved. Seventeen years is pretty harsh for the conduct, Durham said. People who killed other people serve sometimes less than that. Strangers who rape and hold knives and guns to peoples throats sometimes get less than 17 years. So 17 years for spanking a girls bottom seems completely unjustified. But Durham said the sentence is eight years shorter than the sentence his client faced, so Ebert agreed to the plea deal. Brent Weisberg, a spokesman for the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office, said his office believes Eberts sentence is appropriate and holds him accountable for his crimes against the child, which include invading her privacy, touching multiple intimate parts of her body and causing her to have contact with his genitals for the purpose of arousing and gratifying his sexual desires. Added Weisberg: That victimization could last a lifetime and demands accountability." Ebert pleaded guilty to one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree invasion of personal privacy. In a second case, Ebert pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated theft and other crimes for running financial scams that included conning three people into paying him large amounts of cash for work promised though his unlicensed construction business. He failed to do the work. Ebert must pay back $60,000 to three people, including a senior citizen who he called more than 1,800 times while in jail over 11 months. Although Ebert was ordered to pay back that elderly victim only $10,000, a detective who investigated the case believed Ebert stole about $175,000 from her, according to the district attorneys office. A plea agreement says Ebert is receiving about three years of his 17-year prison sentence for this second case. Ebert previously spent time in prison on a three-year sentence in 2011 for an assortment of crimes that included posing as a surgery resident at Oregon Health & Science University and convincing a patient to stop taking her medications. Although he was ordered to pay just $18,000 in restitution in the 2011 case, authorities in three counties suspected Ebert was responsible for swindling victims, including his grandma, out of more than $100,000 while pretending to be a porn producer, Microsoft employee, doctor and credit counselor. In 2013, Ebert was sentenced to prison for 13 months for writing bad checks a few years earlier. Ebert stayed out of serious trouble until May 2017, when the 9-year-old girls mother reported Eberts abuse of her daughter. The girls mother told investigators that looking back, she could see how Ebert was grooming her daughter by spending $200 in clothes for her while buying her siblings only one toy, insisting the girl sleep in bed with him and slapping the girls bottom as she walked by. The girl told investigators that she felt gross when Ebert kissed her or pressed against her. She said he was powerful, scary, rich and could kick her and her family out onto the street and make sure they never found a home again, according to the affidavit. In his lifetime, (Ebert) has left a depressingly long string of victims in his wake, said Chuck Mickley, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted this most recent case. Mickley said Eberts troubles with the law stretch back into his teen years, and he has victimized and financially devastated friends, family, strangers, customers and businesses." -- Aimee Green agreen@oregonian.com o_aimee Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. A number of environmental advocacy groups have pulled out of ongoing negotiations with state officials over the future of wolf management in Oregon. The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands sent a joint letter to Gov. Kate Brown lambasting the process, which has gone on for more than a year. The groups also sounded the alarm over a draft of the plan from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which was reviewed by the organizations just before Christmas. The main sticking points in past negotiations have come over when and how lethal action can be taken against wolves that kill livestock. It has become abundantly clear that our good faith efforts to propose solutions and explore common ground in the stakeholder process have been for naught, the groups wrote. Every amendment to the Plan we have suggested in this process has been rejected by ODFW. Therefore, we will be withdrawing from the facilitated stakeholder process. The states wolf management plan has been contentious since the endangered canids returned to Oregon in 2009. Livestock producers and hunters have said that wolves should be subject to lethal control because they prey on their herds and impact their livelihoods. Environmental advocates have countered that wolves are an important part of the ecosystem and that there are many non-lethal ways of deterring wolves from killing cattle and sheep, many of which graze on public land. Negotiations over the plan, which included stakeholders from the Oregon Cattlemens Association, the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Oregon Hunters Association, were proving fruitful as recently as October, said Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild. It appeared, at least to Stevens, that the opposing groups were finding some common ground. But a draft of the revamped plan, released just before Christmas, ignored many of the recommendations made by the conservation groups, Stevens said. The plan is supposed to be revised every five years, with the last revision due in 2015. That revision never came though, as groups on opposing sides were unable to come to agreement on key issues within the plan. Since then, dozens of meetings have been held all over the state and a third-party facilitator was brought in to try to bridge the remaining divides. It was a very difficult decision to make after years of advocacy and coming to the table in good faith, said Quinn Read, Northwest director for Defenders of Wildlife. If we thought there was still an opportunity for meaningful discussion, we would be there. One of the main issues, Read said, was exactly what role the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was playing in the negotiations. She and Stevens both said the agency appeared to jump between the role of stakeholder and neutral facilitator, depending on which role proved beneficial. Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association, said he felt the process had been fair and he hoped that all sides would be able to resolve their differences and come back to the bargaining table. Representatives from the department of fish and wildlife did not respond to a request for comment. The next stakeholder meeting is scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas. -- Kale Williams kwilliams@oregonian.com 503-294-4048 @sfkale Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Desmond Pescaia wasnt feeling great and had been looking forward to a relaxing day at home Sunday. But sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., a stranger started banging on his front door. Pescaias peace-and-quiet soon turned to horror as the man wound up shot on the floor of his home, fatally wounded by a Portland police officer who was trying to arrest him. Pescaia had opened the door to find the man on his doorstep, dressed in a blue shirt, khaki pants, socks but no shoes with a multicolored blanket. The man told him that some guy named Ernest had directed him to the house to get help. The stranger claimed someone was after him, trying to kill him. He also told Pescaia he had been released from a hospital. Pescaia gave the man some water as he waited outside. Pescaia also offered him $10 to catch a MAX train and to get something to eat, but the man didnt oblige. Pescaia told the man he needed to go, then closed the door. About 15 to 20 minutes later, Pescaia looked out and saw the man sleeping on the front stoop right outside his door under an awning. Pescaia contacted his landlord, Lidiya Omelchenko, who lives next door, and she advised him to call police. She also called police. Pescaia told a 911 dispatcher that he asked the man three times to leave his property but now the man was sleeping on the front porch. I just wanted police to have him trespassed from here, Pescaia said Monday. According to Portland police, an East Precinct officer responded about 2 p.m. to a report of an unwanted person at the home in the 9600 block of Southeast Market Street. They later identified the officer as Consider Vosu, who has been with the Police Bureau for a year and 11 months. Pescaia said the uniformed officer arrived about 10 minutes after his call. Once Vosu pulled up in a marked car, the man on the porch started pounding again on Pescaias front door. The man was shouting that he wouldnt go with the officer because he had a fake badge, Pescaia recalled. Pescaia said he grabbed a walking stick and threatened the stranger, still outside. I tell this kid you need to leave or Im going to beat you with it, said Pescaia, who at 50, is about 6 feet tall and 280 pounds. Pescaia described the stranger as a young African American man, about 6 feet tall and thin. Police said the man was 36 years old but havent yet released his name. The officer, now at the base of the front stairwell outside Pescaias home, advised Pescaia to put down the walking stick because he didnt want to have to arrest him as well. The officer also advised Pescaia to close the door and that hed handle it, but Pescaia remained in the doorway with the door open. When Pescaia put down the stick, he said the stranger burst through the front door and into the home. Vosu followed and started to wrestle with the man in the front living room, Pescaia said. Vosu was on top of the man trying to turn him onto his stomach to place handcuffs on him. Pescaia said he stood nearby, trying to help. Then the stranger broke loose and kind of kicked the officer backward and into the rear bedroom, Pescaia said. The man started coming toward Vosu, who remained in the back bedroom. Pescaia said he tried to hold the intruder as Vosu ordered the man to stand down. Vosu told the stranger that he would use his Taser if he didnt follow orders, Pescaia said. Shortly after, the officer fired the stun gun. The stranger fell onto the floor at the doorway between the living room and bedroom, but the Taser didnt stop him for long, Pescaia said. He goes down and starts right back up, yelling aint no Taser was going to stop him, Pescaia said. At some point, the intruder pulled out a martial arts-type throwing knife and ran toward the officer, the tenant said. Vosu, still in the back bedroom, this time fired three shots from his handgun -- at close range, Pescaia said. He estimated the stranger was less than 2 feet from the officer. "All I heard was 3 pops,'' said Pescaia, who was standing in the living room. He saw the stranger fall on his back at the entry to the bedroom and a knife fall to his right side. The knife had double blade, he said. Police later said they seized a knife found inside the home as evidence. They released a photo of it that shows a 3 1/2-inch blade. Portland police on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, released a photo of a knife they said they found at the scene of a fatal shooting by an officer of a stranger who entered a man's home. The tenant of the home said the stranger pulled a knife on the officer. I ran outside, and I was dry heaving,'' Pescaia said. "I thank God I wasnt shot.'' Vosu had requested backup, but the shooting occurred before any backup arrived, police said. The officer alerted emergency dispatchers that he had fired shots and a man was injured. The man was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was declared dead, according to police. Pescaia said he sat in a TriMet bus for about six hours outside his house as he was interviewed by a homicide detective and spoke to a police chaplain. "All he had to do was leave,'' Pescaia said of the stranger. "I think he was hopped on something.'' Pescaia said hes struggled with drug and alcohol abuse in his own life and was tempted to grab a bottle of vodka or whiskey Sunday night to deal with his anguish but didnt. When he returned home, he found one of the officers bullets had pierced the rose-decorated wallpaper in a corner of his living room. Pescaia said the officers actions were justified. But the deadly outcome haunts him, he said. "Why me? Why this? Could I have done more? Could I have done better?'' he said he keeps asking himself. Its really overwhelming to know I had 40 officers on my side to take care of this once the officer radioed that shots were fired. "At the same time, I really dont know what more I could have done,'' Pescaia said. Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Mayor Ted Wheeler responded to the scene Sunday. Vosu has been placed on paid administrative leave under standard police policy. Police will identify the man after relatives are notified, they said. An autopsy has been completed. It was the first fatal shooting by Portland police this year. Based on witness statements and physical evidence, detectives believe the officer deployed his Taser, police said in a news release Monday. Detectives believe the Taser was not effective and the officer then fired his duty firearm, striking the suspect. The Police Bureau remains under a federal settlement reached after a U.S. Justice Department investigation found officers often used excessive force against people with mental illness. In 2018, Portland police shot and killed three people and wounded two others in confrontations. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review convicted killer Kipland P. Kinkels nearly 112-year prison sentence for fatally shooting his parents and then killing two students and wounding 24 others at Thurston High School more than 20 years ago. The U.S. Supreme Courts action means the Oregon Supreme Courts ruling upholding his sentence stands. Kinkel, now 36 and an inmate at the Oregon State Correctional Institution, had submitted his own typed petition to the nations highest court in early August. Two new lawyers -- Thaddeus Betz of Bend and Marsha Levick, deputy director and chief counsel of the Juvenile Law Center and a nationally recognized expert in juvenile law -- then submitted their own petition on Kinkels behalf. We are disappointed that the United States Supreme Court declined to review and correct the Oregon Courts error," Betz said in an email. "We will continue to strive to bring Mr. Kinkels sentence in line with the Constitution. They had argued that the Oregon Supreme Court got it wrong last year when it found that Kinkel is incapable of rehabilitation. "The Eighth Amendment bars sentencing a child to even virtual or de facto life without parole based on a treatable mental illness that does not preclude growth, maturity, and rehabilitation,'' Betz and Levick wrote. Kinkel, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, and his lawyers argued that Kinkel never got an opportunity to show hes not irreparably corrupt or permanently incorrigible before the state essentially imposed a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. They cited the 2012 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Miller v. Alabama that struck down mandatory life sentences without parole for two 14-year-olds. In that case, the high court ruled 5-4 that the mandatory true life sentences for the boys -- tried as adults and convicted of murder -- violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In Montgomery v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states are constitutionally required to give retroactive consideration to new substantive rules, such as that issued in the Alabama case. Oregons Deputy Attorney General Frederick M. Boss countered that the question of whether the Miller and Montgomery cases applied to lengthy aggregate sentences for multiple convictions is a noteworthy issue, but that the Oregon Supreme Courts decision on Kinkels sentence didnt turn on that matter. In May, the Oregon Supreme Court found that Kinkels crimes reflected irreparable corruption" rather than youthful immaturity that could change over time. It noted that Kinkels sentencing judge found that he had an incurable illness, either paranoid schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The state Supreme Court also couldnt say that Kinkels sentence was "constitutionally disproportionate'' given the number of people he killed and injured. Lawyers for Oregon argued that Kinkels sentencing judge issued the prison term after a six-day sentencing hearing during which Kinkels lawyers had elicited testimony about Kinkels youth and mental health issues. "Petitioner had a meaningful opportunity to present evidence about the issues that would permit the imposition of a life-without-parole sentence and he did so,'' Boss wrote to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to Kinkels petition. The state Supreme Court's majority ruling affirmed decisions by Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison and the Oregon Court of Appeals, which found Kinkel's sentence constitutional. State Supreme Court Justice Pro Tem James Egan dissented. He wrote that "it is difficult to comprehend how petitioner's youth at the time of his crimes, in combination with his mental disorder, did not affect the nature and gravity of his crimes." Kinkels lawyers agreed with Egan. They argued Kinkel suffered from a severe mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, and depression at the time of his crimes, which played a significant role in the shootings. Kinkel wrote in his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that he was delusional and hallucinating when he committed his crimes. Kinkel's sentence included 25 years for his four homicides and nearly 87 years for the wounding of 24 others and attempted murder of a police detective. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Months after Portlands premier psychiatric facility was cleared of a state and federal investigation, Chris Farentinos has resigned her position as the head of Unity Center for Behavioral Health. Legacy Health, which operates Unity, gave no explanation for her departure. Farentinos last day is Feb. 1, although she will stay on as an advisory member of the Unity board of managers. I am privileged to have been a part of the launch and early formation of Unity Center and to have worked alongside so many compassionate, skilled mental health professionals and influential partners to help those suffering from an acute mental health crisis, Farentinos said in a statement. Farentinos served as the director of behavioral health services for Legacy since 2013. But her tenure as director of Unity was marked with controversy from the start. Within the first month of opening, Unity staff reported instances of neglect and abuse within the facility. A federal and state investigation, started in spring 2018, eventually found that staff were poorly trained and overworked. The centers safety, security and emergency protocol was contradictory or never completed. Serious problems occurred for the year-and-a-half the center was first open, including sexual assaults, fights, escapes and two deaths. The reports that came from the investigation laid many of the problems at the feet of management for staff shortcomings. Farentinos also came under scrutiny for her claim that she is a doctor. Farentinos is from Brazil and received her medical license there, where she practiced psychiatry. When she moved to Oregon, she tried to earn her U.S. medical license, but failed twice. The title of Dr. was eventually stripped from her name in Unity materials. Trent Green, who has served as the president of Unity for Legacy Health, will continue to lead the center. He is also the president of Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. Chris passion and dedication, and her commitment to building working relationships with our staff, community groups and organizations have had a considerable impact, and we wish her the very best in her next endeavor," Green said in a statement. Worldwide Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market 2023 Key Players ArrMaz Clariant Kao Corporation Forbon Emulchem Fertibon Filtra Neelam Aqua & Speciality Chem Russian Mining Chemical Company PPG Tashkent Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market, Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Trends, Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Marke https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/695675/?utm_source=open&utm_medium=ADS https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/695675/?utm_source=open&utm_medium=ADS https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa-anti-caking-agents-for-fertilizer-market-2017-forecast-to-2022/?utm_source=open&utm_medium=ADS https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog The Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer market dynamics, forces, companies and trends have been determined after conducting a detailed study of the industry for this newly released research report now available with Market Study Report.This report focuses on the Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Caking is a significant concern in dry fertilizer production, storage, transport and application. Anti-caking agent can prevent agglomeration of fertilizer, inhibit fertilizer moisture and powder, and enhance particle mobility.Request a sample of this premium report at:Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers ArrMaz Clariant Kao Corporation Forbon Emulchem Fertibon Filtra Neelam Aqua & Speciality Chem Russian Mining Chemical Company PPG Tashkent Guangdong Xinlvyuan ChemipolMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversAnti-Caking Agent PowderAnti-Caking Agent PasteWater Soluble Anti-Caking AgentMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCompound FertilizerUreaPotash FertilizerOthersRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer market.Chapter 1, to describe Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer, with sales, revenue, and price of Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 Global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Competition, by Players4 Global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Size by Regions5 North America Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Revenue by Countries6 Europe Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Revenue by Countries7 Asia-Pacific Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Revenue by Countries8 South America Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Revenue by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Revenue Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer by Countries10 Global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Segment by Type11 Global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Segment by Application12 Global Anti-Caking Agents for Fertilizer Market Size Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixRead More:About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report LLC4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog: tzahiV/iStock(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) -- A woman who was sentenced to life in prison for killing the man she said trafficked her for sex has just been granted clemency. Cyntoia Brown had her sentence commuted by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today after serving 15 years in prison. "This decision comes after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case," Haslam said in a statement released by his office. Brown was convicted in 2004 of the murder of Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old real estate broker she claims was trafficking her for sex. She was tried as an adult in the case, convicted, and sentenced when she was 16 years old. "Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life," Haslam said in the statement. Haslam's office pointed to the reformational work that Brown did during her time in prison, inlcuding getting her GED and noting that she is expected to get her bachelor's degree this year. The decision to grant Brown clemency, which lawmakers and advocates have been pushing for, is one of the final acts of the outgoing Republican governor. Brown will be subject to parole until August 2029. Browns case gained attention in 2017 thanks to social media posts by celebrities, including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, calling for her release. She was also the subject of a 2011 documentary called "Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story." Her attorney, Charlie Bone, was the one to tell Brown on Monday that she was granted clemency. "There is nobody like Cyntoia Brown, and I may be a little prejudiced, but she deserves this," Bone said at a news conference. An advocate at the news conference read a letter written by Brown, in which she thanked many people, including Haslam "for your act of mercy and giving me a second chance." "The lord has held my hand this whole time and I would never have made it without him," Brown wrote in the letter, adding that she is "committed to living the rest of my life helping others." Nashville mayor David Briley also attended the news conference, calling the decision important for the city. "Her circumstances were tragic and that tragedy is something we can't forget...but today is a moment in Nashville where we can have a moment of redemption, where we can all be freed from the sins of the past," Briley said. "She has fought hard to give us this moment of redemption," he said. "Let's not let it pass." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Global Embedded SIM Market to Reach $6,886.2 Million by 2025 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5077 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/5077 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com A conventional SIM card is pre-provisioned with an administrator profile, while GSMA inserted SIMs are reprogrammable. e-SIMs could revolutionize the gadgets as it is the period of connected gadget and wearables. SIM cards have changed from a module equipment piece to a SIM that will be incorporated with gadgets at the time of manufacturing.The Global Embedded Subscriber Identity Module Market was valued at $1,054.2 million in 2017, and is projected to reach $6,886.2 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 30.7% from 2018 to 2025. North America was the highest contributor to the global market, registering a CAGR of 22.3% during the forecast period (2018 - 2025).Factors such as increase in adoption of IoT technology, rise in in adoption of connected devices, and favorable government regulations boosting machine-to-machine communications drive the growth of the e-SIM market globally.Get Sample Report with Detail Analysis@The e-SIM is a smart device that assists in changing the operator by updating the software settings. The current business scenario witnesses an increase in demand for automotive, particularly in the developing regions such as China, India, and others due to an increase in population and vehicle demand.Key Benefits for Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (e-SIM) Market: This study comprises an analytical depiction of the global e-SIM market with current trends and future estimations to depict the imminent investment pockets. The overall market potential is determined to understand the lucrative trends to gain a stronger foothold in the global e-SIM industry. The report includes information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities with a detailed impact analysis. The current market is quantitatively analyzed from 2017 to 2025 to highlight the financial competency of the global e-SIM market. Porters five forces analysis illustrates the potency of the buyers and suppliers in this global market.Market by Application: Connected Car Smartphone & Tablet Wearable Device OthersTop Impacting Factors: Increase in adoption of IoT technology Rise in privacy and security concern Surge in adoption of wearable electronicsTo Speak with Our Research Expert@The major players operating in the global e-SIM market are Deutsche Telekom AG, Gemalto NV, Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors N.V., Sierra Wireless, STMicroelectronics, Vodafone, Giesecke & Devrient, Idemia, and NTT DOCOMO.About Allied Market ResearchAllied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Allied Market Research provides one stop solution from the beginning of data collection to investment advice. The analysts at Allied Market Research dig out factors that help clients to understand the significance and impact of market dynamics. The company amplies clients insight on the factors, such as strategies, future estimations, growth or fall forecasting, opportunity analysis, and consumer surveys among others. As follows, the company offers consistent business intelligent support to aid the clients to turn into prominent business firm.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1-855-550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: 2023 Forecasting for Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Share | Demand, Analysis by Topmost Manufacturers, Regions, Product Type, Application. Oil Gas AC Electric Motors https://www.360researchreports.com/enquiry/request-sample/13647057 https://www.360researchreports.com/13647057 https://www.360researchreports.com/purchase/13647057 Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market 2018 Analysis Report on Oil & Gas Ac Electric Motors-Global (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, and Africa) Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023.Historical Forecast Period2013 - 2016 Historical Year for Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market2017 Base Year for Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market2018-2023 Forecast Period for Oil Gas AC Electric Motors MarketNumber pages Included in Report: 127In this report, Delivers Information studies of the current situation (with the base year being 2018) and the growth prospects of global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Forecast market 2018-2023.Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market report majorly focuses on frequent critical elements such as market driving factors, potential investment opportunities, latest technical progressions, productive manufacturing method, that certainly renovation the Oil Gas AC Electric Motors industry.Get Full Sample Report @The report lists out several main factors, starting from the basics to advanced Market intelligence which plays an essential part in managing. Focuses on the key global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market players, to define, describe and analyze the value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis, and development plans in the next few years.The global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market will reach xxx Million USD in 2018 and CAGR xx% 2018-2023. The report begins from an overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Oil Gas AC Electric Motors by product, region, and application, in addition, this report introduces a market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.This report implements a balanced mix of main and subordinate research methodologies for its analysis. The market is segmented on the basis of key criteria. For this purpose, a section dedicated to company profiles has been included in the report.The Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors industry with a focus on the different key market Regions. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Oil Gas AC Electric Motors manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. The report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Induction Electric Motors Synchronous Electric MotorsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market share and growth rate of Oil Gas AC Electric Motors for each application, including Onshore OffshoreBrowse for More Details:Global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Siemens GE ABB WEG Yaskawa RockWell Allied Motion Nidec Regal Beloit Johnson Electric Hitachi ARC System Schneider Electric Toshiba TMEIC ATB Hoyer, And OtherThe scope of the Report:1. This report focuses on the Oil Gas AC Electric Motors in Global Market Forecast 2023.2. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type.3. The Report gives a brief of the Terminology Definition, Industry Chain, Industry Dynamics & Regulations and Global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Overview.Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America, Middle East and AfricaChapters to deeply display the global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors market. Describe the Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force. Analyze the top manufacturers of Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Industry, with sales, revenue, and price Display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share of Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market TOC shows the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Industry, for each region.Reason to purchase this Report:1. The Report gives the complete Market Overview for Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Forecast 2018-2023.2. The report Provide the Overview of Upstream (Raw Materials / Components) & Manufacturing (Procurement Methods & Channels and Cost), Major Regional Production Overview and Trade Flow.3. Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market report gives the trending Industry analysis, Focused Applications, Product Segment Overview, Current Market Status.4. Total Overview of Product & Application Segment Production & Demand by Region. Market Forecast by Product, Application & Region.5. Company information, Products & Services and Business Operation (Sales, Cost, Margin etc.). Market Competition and Environment for New Entrants.6. Detailed TOC of Global Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Status and Outlook 2018-2023.Price of The Report: $ 2990 (Single User Licence)Purchase This Report @Oil Gas AC Electric Motors Market Table of Contents: Part 1 Industry Overview Part 2 Upstream & Production Part 3 Product Segment Part 4 Application / End-User Segment Part 5 Regional Market Part 6 Market Subdivision Part 7 Market Forecast Part 8 Key Companies List Part 9 Company Competition Part 10 Research ConclusionIn addition, this report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, the challenges and the risks faced by key manufacturers and the market as a whole. It also analyses key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.360 Research Reports is the credible source for gaining the market research reports that will exponentially accelerate your business. We are among the leading report resellers in the business world committed towards optimizing your business. The reports we provide are based on a research that covers a magnitude of factors such as technological evolution, economic shifts and a detailed study of market segments.360 Research Reports3rd Floor, Silver Spring, Sahyadri farmOpp Prabhavee Tech Park,Baner - Mhalunge Road, Baner, Pune 411045. Blue Biotechnology Market 2023 Expected CAGR of 10.2% | Top Key Players are Aker BioMarine, Marinova, New England Biolabs, PML Applications Ltd., Sea Run Holdings, Inc., PICES and More Blue Biotechnology Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/713 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/blue-biotechnology-market-713 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=713 Namely Blue Biotechnology Market Report has Been Published by Market Research Future Which Covers All the Geographical Locations with Demand, Trend Analysis with near about Forecasted results and Also Covers the Market Expectations.Market Synopsis:Blue biotechnology deals with the application of biotechnology to marine or aquatic sources at a molecular level to extract active new ingredients for development of new drugs and other purposes. Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a report asserting that the Global Blue Biotechnology Market is anticipated to expand at a strong CAGR of 10.2% during the forecast period of 2017-2023.Get PDF Sample Copy @Competitive Analysis:The major players of the Global Blue Biotechnology Market that are profiled in the report by MRFR are Aker BioMarine (Norway), Marinova (Australia), New England Biolabs (the U.S), PML Applications Ltd. (the U.K), Sea Run Holdings, Inc.(the U.S), PICES (Canada), Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (the U.S), Shell Marine Products (the U.S), GeoMarine Biotechnologies (India), GlycoMar (Scotland), Cellgen Biologicals Pvt Ltd. (India), Nurture Aqua Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India), Samudra Biopharma Pvt.Ltd (India) and Sanosil Biotech (India).Market Latest Update:The rapidly increasing research and development expenditure by the players for innovative product launch in medical, cosmetics, food and other industries is triggering competition in the global blue biotechnology market. The nascent stage of blue biotechnology has created huge opportunities for the product manufacturers and research institutes to explore higher verticals in the global blue biotechnology market.In June 2018, Hilton Lifestyle, LLC, a skincare manufacturer in the U.S., has announced the launch of its first full skincare line under the Paris Hilton brand called ProD.N.A. These skin care products are manufactured with the use of enzymes sourced from marine microalgae.Market Driver and Restraints:Oceans and Seas consist of large biodiversity and the development in the field of biotechnology has made it possible to utilize the marine and aquatic sources for obtaining various products that are useful for mankind. The availability of large market for blue biotech products in the various sectors is majorly driving the Global Blue Biotechnology Market.The increasing demand for blue biotech products in the pharmaceutical industry for production of various medicines and drugs is fueling the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. The flexibility, adaptivity and constant development of blue biotechnology are widening its application range in various industries.The vital application of blue biotech products in cosmetics, food and feed industries is impacting positively on the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. The increasing consumer demand for biologics over the conventional synthetic products is one of the major factors driving the growth of the global blue biotechnology market.The rapid development in the field of biotechnology owing to the increasing research and development expenditure is resulting in the significant expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. However, the strict regulatory framework for conservation of marine ecosystem is likely to act as a restraint on the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market.Market Segmentation:The global blue biotechnology market has been segmented on the basis of product, application and end-users. Based on products, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into enzymes, pharma products, bulk chemicals, biopolymers and other products. Based on application, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into bio-engineering, genomics, vaccine development, drug discovery and others. Based on end-users, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, research institutes, laboratories, and others.Browse Full Reports @Regional Analysis:The global blue biotechnology market has been segmented into five major regions such as North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and Africa. The North America region is dominating the global blue biotechnology market owing to the rapid development in the field of biotechnology and large number of players focusing on development of blue biotechnology in this region. The Europe region is the second largest market in the global blue biotechnology market due to the increasing consumer demand for biotech products in this region. The Asia Pacific region accounts for the steady growth in global blue biotechnology market as the blue biotechnology is still at a nascent stage in this region. Lack of awareness and less technological penetration in the underdeveloped area is resulting in the slow growth of blue biotechnology market in the Middle East and Africa region.Table of Content1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4 Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Threats4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsContinuedPrice: $4450(Single User)No of Pages: 80Buy now @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Cosmetic Wipes Market: Soaring Demand Assures Motivated Revenue Share during 2017-2022|| Key players are Nice-Pak Products, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Procter & Gamble Co https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=118 https://www.factmr.com/report/118/cosmetic-wipes-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=118 https://www.factmr.com/ https://factmrblog.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ The global cosmetic wipes market is anticipated to benefit from the growing awareness about the wide range of benefits associated with the use of several products offered by vendors. Cosmetic wipes are used for removing makeup, applying deodorants, and similar other purposes. The demand for cosmetic wipes could also increase due to their use in personal cleansing, for drying hands, and even in baby care.Request for a Sample of this research report:The growth of the global Cosmetic Wipes Market could be attributed to the rising need to save energy and time, taking into account peoples hectic daily schedules. As people continue to seek convenience in their on-the-go lifestyle, the demand for cosmetic wipes is foreseen to increase in the near future.Use of Natural Extracts in Cosmetic Wipes Impresses ConsumersSkin care could be a highly lucrative industry where the global cosmetic wipes market is projected to see strong growth in the coming years. Increasing use of herbal cosmetic wipes and other leading trends are expected to work in the favor of the market. This could be evidenced by the rising popularity of cosmetic wipes that use aloe vera and other natural extracts. In the facial care industry, cosmetic wipes are foretold to gain demand due to the swelling growth in the sales of anti-aging and other related products.Cosmetic wipes are used in skin firming, sculpting, and brightening and also during the treatment of hyperpigmentation, wrinkles, and uneven skin tone. A number of cosmetic wipes brands are envisaged to target the millennial generation by offering highly customized products. Another factor that could bode well for the global cosmetic wipes market is the increase in spending power of consumers.About the ReportThe report accurately projects the size and growth of the global cosmetic wipes market for the next few years. It classifies the global cosmetic wipes market according to different categories for offering a complete understanding of how various segments are performing in terms of demand and growth. It is divided into different chapters for easy distinction of studies on various aspects of the global cosmetic wipes market. The regional analysis section brings to light the lucrative market opportunities available in different parts of the world.Get Access To TOC Covering 200+ Topics:Market DefinitionOne of the primary purposes of using cosmetic wipes is moisturizing and cleansing the skin. Cosmetic wipes could also be used for maintaining female hygiene and performing simpler tasks such as applying a deodorant. Manufacturers have been particular about the inclusion of less number or amount of chemicals and addition of more natural ingredients in cosmetic wipes. This is mainly to prevent skin rashes or irritation. Cosmetic wipes can be used in different settings changing makeup in a party or dabbing sweat during workout.Additional Questions AnsweredThe report answers critical questions about the global cosmetic wipes market, including:How could wet wipes reach top market valuation by the end of 2022?Will modern trade lead the pack of distribution channels?Which region will dominate in terms of value?What will be the strategies adopted by players?Competitive LandscapeThe global cosmetic wipes market witnesses the presence of top players such as Nice-Pak Products, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Procter & Gamble Co., and Johnson & Johnson. The report gives a broad analysis of the global cosmetic wipes markets vendor landscape as it sheds light on recent developments, market figures, and other aspects of the leading players profiled.For any query get easily connect with an Analyst:About FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market insights reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Blog:Read Industry News at - Global Gamma Knife Market Will Reach USD 651,241.9 thousand by 2020 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3742 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/3742 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/gamma-knife-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Gamma Knife: Asia to Witness Highest Growth by 2020, the global Gamma Knife market is valued at USD 526,733.2 thousand in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% from 2014 to 2020 to reach an estimated value of USD 651,241.9 thousand in 2020.To know key findings Request Sample Report @:Radiation therapy is a procedure entailing the precise delivery of high doses of radiation to tumors and other relevant anatomical targets. Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a major form of radiation therapy. It is mainly used to treat brain tumors, arteriovenous malformations, trigeminal neuralgia, acoustic neuroma, and pituitary tumors. Globally, the Gamma Knife market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing prevalence of cancer and obesity and growing aging population. In addition, rising number of initiatives undertaken by various government associations and the advanced features of Gamma Knife systems are also driving the growth of the market. However, stringent regulatory requirements and prolonged approval time for Gamma Knife systems and a high cost of implementation and shortage of skilled manpower inhibit the growth of the market. The global Gamma Knife market is anticipated to grow from an estimated USD 526,733.2 thousand in 2014 to USD 651,241.9 thousand by 2020 at a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period.In North America, the Gamma Knife market is growing due to the rising incidence of cancer in the region. In addition, increased awareness about Gamma Knife technology for cancer treatment is also boosting the growth of the market in the region. According to WHO, approximately 2.8 million people had cancer, including brain cancer, in the U.S. in 2000. Moreover, according to the Hindawi Publishing Corporation, an international journal of surgical oncology, approximately 98,000 to 170,000 new brain metastases cases occur every year in North America.Request for Report Methodology @:In Europe, increasing prevalence of cancer is boosting the growth of the Gamma Knife market in the region. According to WHO, Europe accounts for only one-eighth of the worlds population. However, the region records around a quarter of global cancer cases. Several government associations, such as the Women Against Lung Cancer in Europe (WALCE) and European Head and Neck society (EHNS), are trying to increase awareness about breast cancer, lung cancer, and head and neck cancer and their brain metastases effects in Europe.However, Asia represents the fastest growing region in the Gamma Knife market due to the rise in cancer patients in various countries such as India, China, and Japan. According to WHO, the occurrence of cancer in India and China is set to climb at a rate of 78% from 2013 to 2030. In addition, growing aging population is also supporting the growth of the Gamma Knife market in the region.In Latin America, construction of manufacturing and research facilities by many companies is driving the Gamma Knife market in Latin America. Furthermore, the governments of Latin American countries have recognized the growing epidemic of cancer and are actively devising several patient awareness programs to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, including brain cancers.Browse the full Global Market Study on Gamma Knife - Asia to Witness Highest Growth by 2020 report atElekta AB, Varian Medical Systems, Inc., and Hokai are some of the leading players in the Gamma Knife market. Other major players in the Gamma Knife market include Huiheng Medical, Inc., Cyber Medical Corporation Limited, Masep Infini Global, Inc., Nordion, Inc., ET Medical Group, and American Shared Hospital Services.The global Gamma Knife market is segmented as follows:Gamma Knife market, by applicationBrain MetastasesBrain TumorsTrigeminal NeuralgiaArteriovenous MalformationsOthersGamma Knife market, by geographyNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsiaChinaJapanIndiaRest of AsiaLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaRest of the World (RoW)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Lock Bottom Cartons Market Expectations & Growth Trends Highlighted until 2028 / Key Players Wisconsin Packaging Corporation, Atlas Packaging, Imperial Printing & Paper Box Mfg. Co., ALL Packaging Company, JohnsByrne https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1295 https://www.factmr.com/report/1295/lock-bottom-cartons-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1295 https://www.factmr.com/ https://factmrblog.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Lock bottom cartons often use bulkier items, such as glass jars and candles, for transportation, storage and display. The flaps on the base of the box provide added durability and strength. The lock bottom cartons are generally made from paperboard and cardboard material types with a simple and effective design. The low cost of lock bottom cartons, as well as their various applications, is boosting their demand in the Global Lock Bottom Cartons Market. The lock bottom cartons mainly used in food and beverage, pharmaceutical, home care, cosmetics, stationery and other various industries. These products are being used on a day-to-day basis due to increasing per-capita spending and manufacturing facilities in many countries.Request Brochure of this Report-The global lock bottom cartons market is anticipated to show significant growth with a single-digit rise in CAGR from 2018 to 2028. In North America and Europe region, the lock bottom cartons market is expected to show a significant growth due to wide presence of consumer goods industry and high GDP growth in various countries. However, the lock bottom cartons market is expected to showcase a strong growth rate in APEJ and MEA region due to increased spending on food and cosmetics. The most significant share of the lock bottom cartons market is expected to be contributed by APEJ due to the growing number of manufacturing facilities in this region followed by North America and Europe.Global Lock Bottom Cartons Market DynamicsContinuous innovation primarily drives the global lock bottom cartons market in the packaging industry with respect to the size of boxes and the low cost of raw material, which varies based on the end-use industries. Alternate factors driving the global lock bottom cartons market include increasing demand for food, electronics, cosmetics, stationery and homecare products, which will increase the production of lock bottom cartons globally. New entrants in the lock bottom cartons market can easily find their way owing to growing demand as well as tremendous opportunity to penetrate the market. As a result, global lock bottom cartons market is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period.To know more about the Lock Bottom Cartons Market Visit the link-Global Lock Bottom Cartons Market SegmentationThe lock bottom cartons market can be segmented on the basis of box type, dimension type, application and end-use industry. On the basis of box type, lock bottom cartons can be categorized into tuck top auto-bottom, tuck top snap-lock bottom, crash lock bottom, seal end, tuck end, 4 corner beers tray, kwikset tray, walker lock tray, and other types.On the basis of dimension-type, the lock bottom cartons market can be segmented into standard and customized types. Standard type can be further segmented into various types, such as less than 4 X 1.5 X 6 inch, 4 X 1.5 X 6 inch to 6 X 4 X 10 inch, 6 X 4 X 10 to 10 X 6 X 12 inch, 10 X 6 X 12 inch to 12 X 8 X 14 inch, and more than 12 X 8 X14 inch.On the basis of application, the lock bottom cartons market can be classified into takeaway food delivery, trays, wine carriers, a box for lighter loads, confectionary item packaging, jars packaging, gift style packaging and other applications. On the basis of end-use industry, the lock bottom cartons market can be classified into food and beverage, cosmetics, home care, stationery, pharmaceutical and other industries. Geographically, the global lock bottom cartons market can be segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, CIS & Russia, Japan, Asia Pacific except Japan, and Middle East & Africa.Key Players of Global Lock Bottom Cartons MarketThe lock bottom cartons market has grown significantly owing to the rising demand for lock bottom cartons in the packaging industry, which is expected to increase production globally. Most of the manufacturers are mainly focusing on and planning to invest in the Asian countries, specifically China & India and the Middle East & African countries. Some of the key market participants in the global lock bottom cartons market are Wisconsin Packaging Corporation, Atlas Packaging, Imperial Printing & Paper Box Mfg. Co., ALL Packaging Company, JohnsByrne and other prominent players.. Qualitative impact of growth influencers on the market segments across regions has also been mapped by the report.Request TOC of this Report-About FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market insights reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Blog:Read Industry News at - Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market 2019 Industry Business Development by Top Key Players - BASF SE, Biome Technologies PLC, BIO ON, Biotechnology Co, Ltd, Polyferm, Inc Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market, Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market, Polyhydroxyalkanoate Industry, Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market Size, https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4621 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/polyhydroxyalkanoate-market-4621 Top Key Players:The major players operating in the Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market are Shenzhen Ecomann Biotechnology Co, Ltd (China), Tianjin GreenBio Materials Co., Ltd (China), Kaneka Corporation (Japan), BASF SE (Germany), Biome Technologies PLC (U.K.), BIO ON (Italy), Polyferm, Inc (Canada), Full Cycle Bioplastics (U.S.A), and Cardia Bioplastics (Australia) among others.Ask for sample report @Industry Segments:The Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market is fragmented by type, technology, application and region.Polyhydroxybutyrate polymers and polyhydroxybutyrate blended with copolymers are segmented on the basis of market type. Among these, polyhydroxybutyrate polymers are widely used for making bio-plastic materials which are beneficial to human beings and the environment. During the forecast period, a higher CAGR has been anticipated in the packaging sector owing to the growing use of Polyhydroxybutyrate Polymers.The technologies that are segregated on the basis of market type are genetically engineered plants and bacteria. Among these, genetically engineered bacteria segment has witnessed a significant growth in the production of polyhydroxybutyrate polymers due to its fast production and easy degradation.Biomedical, packaging, drug delivery carriers and biofuels are classified on the basis of application. It has been estimated that packaging sector is set to expand at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market Overview:Polyhydroxyalkanoate Polymers are biodegradable compounds, derived from natural resources such as vegetable oil, starch and proteins, among others. These polymers exhibit optical display, anti-oxidant property and piezoelectric effect which make them useful in various applications such as packaging, medical, agriculture and food services. Polyhydroxyalkanoate Polymers are of two types namely Polyhydroxybutyrate and Polyhydroxybutyrate blended with copolymers. Polyhydroxybutyrate Polymers are composed of 14 monomeric units. These polymers can be used as a substitute for synthetic plastic in order to avoid the depletion of natural resources and improvement achieved in the downstream process.The important driving factors in the Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market are implementation of rules and regulations set by the government to promote bio based products which are compatible to the environment. It has been estimated that a significant growth will be achieved in the global polyhydroxybutyrate market due to advancement in technology and the adequate availability of raw materials.Browse full report @Geographical Analysis:The Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate Market is spanned across five regions in the world namely Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa. It has been observed that Asia Pacific is set to expand at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. The major shareholder of Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate in the world is Europe due to its primary objective to achieve sustainable development in the region. The Polyhydroxybutyrate Market has observed a significant growth in the North American and Latin American region due to rising demand in the packaging and medical applications. A steady growth has been estimated in the Middle East & African region due to growing use of bio based products in the end-use industries.Intended AudiencePolyhydroxyalkanoate ManufacturersTraders and Distributors of PolyhydroxyalkanoateProduction Process IndustriesPotential InvestorsRaw Material SuppliersNationalized LaboratoryAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com The Report Focuses On Language Services Market development in the United States, Europe, Asia, Japan, and China... Language Services Market 2018 http://marketresearchvision.com/request-sample/48344 http://marketresearchvision.com/check-discount/48344 http://marketresearchvision.com/reports/48344/Language-Services-Market Latest Survey On Language Services MarketThe global Language Services market report provides an in-depth analysis of the Language Services industry, analyzing the potential of the market and also provides data and forecasts on the market structure, dynamics, and trends.The language industry is the sector of activity dedicated to facilitating multilingual communication, both oral and written. According to the European Commission's Directorate-General of Translation, the language industry comprises the activities of translation, interpreting, subtitling and dubbing, software and website globalization, language technology tools development, international conference organization, language teaching, and linguistic consultancy.Get a Sample PDF Report:Modern language industry has developed rapidly following the availability of the internet. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of quality assurance.The report proves as a valuable source of repository for the intending clients with up-to-date market intelligence and assists them in making strategic investment decisions. Additionally, the report distinguishes and studies emerging trends along with crucial drivers and major challenges faced by the industry.The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next eight years. The Language Services market report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry with respect to each of the regions and countries involved in the study.Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, it will also incorporate the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The segments and sub-segment of the market are explained in details.Get Discount on this Report:Market Segment by key players, this report covers, Lionbridge, Mayflower Language Services, RWS Group, SDL Language Services, Semantix, Teleperformance, TransPerfect, WelocalizeMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers , North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type covers, , Translation, Interpreting, Subtitling, Software And Website Globalisation, Language Technology Tools Development, International Conference Organisation, Language Teaching, Linguistic ConsultancyMarket Segment by Applications can be divided into, Healthcare, ICT, BFSI, GovernmentThe scope of the report: This research report presents an extensive study of the market and comprises significant insights, facts, previous data, and statistically-supported and industry-validated market facts and projections with an appropriate set of methodologies and assumptions. It provides analysis and data on the basis of market segments and sub-segments, regions, product type, and distribution channels.What the report offers:Market Overview for the Global Language Services Market and the identification of the market dynamics, including growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and potential opportunities for the market.Market analysis for the Global Language Services Market, with competitive landscape and geographic analysis on a global and regional scale.Determination of different factors responsible for changing the market landscape, rising future opportunities and determination of leading players, which can affect the market on a regional scale.Company profiles of the leading competitors along with their strategic initiatives and market shares.Determination and analysis of the macro- and microeconomic factors that affect the Global Language Services Market, as per the regional analysis.In the end, This report is an assimilation of trustworthy and updated information, quantitative and qualitative evaluation by industry analysts, inputs from industry professionals and leading competitors across the industrial value chain.Read Complete Report With TOC:If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About UsMarket Research Vision is a leading market research and market intelligence organization, specializing in research, analytics, and advisory services along with providing business insights & market research reports. Serving as a market research firm, we help our clients in finding: whats next? We believe in finding creative and innovative solutions through customized and syndicated research reports. We at Market Research Vision provides a study of products, services, technologies, applications, end users, market dynamics, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments. Our team widely focuses on market dynamics and identifies new opportunities to rely on. We serve several fortune 500 clients along with various small and large companies.Contact UsElvis Fernandesinfo@marketresearchvision.comsales@marketresearchvision.com+1 513 549 5911 (U.S.)+44 203 318 2846 (U.K.) South Africa: Food & Grocery Retailing Market Shares Summary and Forecasts to 2022 - Top Vendors: Spar, Pick & Pay, Shoprite, Checkers-All Brands, Woolworths, Game, Food Lover's Market, Boxer, Cambridge Food, OK Food & Grocery Retailing Market Shares Summary and Forecasts to 2022 - Premium Market Insights https://www.premiummarketinsights.com/sample/GD00007104 https://www.premiummarketinsights.com/inquiry/GD00007104 https://www.premiummarketinsights.com/buy/GD00007104 "Food & Grocery Retailing in South Africa, Market Shares, Summary and Forecasts to 2022", provides data for historic and forecast retail sales, and also includes information on the business environment and country risk related to South Africa retail environment. In addition, it analyzes the key consumer trends influencing South Africa food & grocery industry.Learn More, Get Sample Copy -Food & grocery is the largest sector and accounted for 52.2% of the total retail industry in 2017. Sales growth slowed down in 2016-2017 due to the weakening of the South African currency and drought conditions, which resulted in rising food prices.What else does this report offer--In-depth analysis of the latest trends in consumer shopping, covering the factors driving shopping, consumer insights, market dynamics-The report also details major retailers in food & grocery category group with their product proposition analysis and market positioning in 2017 along with recent key developments-Market insights based on consumer trends, changing economic and demographic factors, technology innovations, and other macroeconomic factors-Retail sales and the fastest-growing product categories in food & grocery sector-Qualitative and quantitative insights of changing retail dynamics in food and grocery sector.Scope-South Africa retail market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2017-2022-Growing awareness about health and demand for organic produce to drive sector sales-Hypermarkets set to dominate the sector due to value pricing and wider product choice-Online sales are projected to double by 2022 due to growing internet penetration-Spar, Pick n Pay, and Shoprite are leading the sector growth with value pricing strategies-Cambridge Food registered the highest sales growth during 2016-2017.Any query or specific requirement? Ask to our industry expert @Reasons to buy-Gain a comprehensive knowledge on food and grocery sector in the South Africa retail market and develop a competitive advantage from the start of your supply chain-Investigate current and forecast behavior trends in food and grocery category to identify the best opportunities to exploit-Analysis of key international and domestic players operating in the food and grocery market-Explore novel opportunities that will allow you to align your product offerings and strategies to meet demand by analyzing the vital economic and population trends, key consumer and technology trends influencing the food and grocery market-Analyze the recommended actions to align your marketing strategies with the crucial trends influencing consumer behavior-Analysis of key international and domestic players operating in South Africa retail market-including store counts and revenues that give you a competitive edge and identify opportunities to improve your market share.Purchase Complete Report @Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiOrganization: Premium Market InsightsEmail: sales@premiummarketinsights.comPhone: +1-646-491-9876About Premium Market Insights:Premium Market Insights is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries. Our commitment to customer service is best exemplified by free analyst support that we offer to our clients which sets us apart from any other provider. We also offer enterprise subscriptions which provide significant cost savings to our clients. Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh US: Woman in coma for over a decade gives birth at healthcare centre; investigation launched International oi-Shubham Ghosh Phoenix (USA), Jan 7: In what constituted a "deeply disturbing incident", a healthcare centre in the US state of Arizona is investigating an alleged sexual exploitation of a patient who has been in a vegetative state for at least a decade now after she gave birth to a baby, a local television report said. It was learnt from Phoenix-based KPHO-TV that the patient, who has remained at the city's Hacienda Health Care, gave birth on December 29. She has been immobile for at least 10 years after evading a drowning mishap, the report added. The news station attributed its report to a single unnamed source who had reportedly been told about the tragedy. Watch: Baby quails hatch and meet siblings inside incubator Hacienda Health Care spokesperson David Leibowitz said in a statement to People.com last week that the centre was cooperating with the police though stopped short of revealing more about the exact nature of the incident. "We have recently become aware of a deeply disturbing incident involving the health and safety of a Hacienda resident," Leibowitz said. "While federal and state privacy laws prohibit us from publicly discussing a patient's health or case, Hacienda has and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and all the relevant regulatory agencies regarding this matter." The New York Times and NBC News came up with reports that Phoenix Police had started an investigation into the allegations but the centre would not divulge details of the case or the duration of their probe into it. Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh US: 8-year-old immigrant boy who died in border staff custody wanted to have bicycle, says family International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Jan 7: Eight-year-old Felipe Alonzo Gomez, a Guatemalan immigrant who died in a hospital on the Christmas Day while in the custody of the US Customs and Border Patrol, always desired a bicycle, his family revealed days after his death. Catarina Gomez Lucas, Felipe's 21-year-old stepsister, told the Associated Press that the boy's father had taken him on the journey from the Central American nation to the US hoping that it would bring them more "opportunity". The father, Agustin, took Felipe with some clothing, new shoes and all the money he could manage. According to Lucas, the father-son duo was determined to escape the poverty of their hometown and "very happy to leave". Trump draws criticism for his decision to end right to US citizenship According to Guatemalan newspaper Pensa Libre, Agustin and Felipe were detained on December 18 after they crossed the US border in El Paso, Texas, and were taken to Alamogordo in New Mexico where the boy died. Felipe's mother Catarina Alonzo Perez told the newspaper that she wanted his remains to be brought back to her, People.com said. She was also heartbroken over the death of his son saying he was in good health when he left. The official reason of Felipe's death is yet to be confirmed even though autopsy report said he had flu at the time of his death. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 9:34 [IST] This Japan town pays over Rs 2 lakh for having 5th child, to boost population International oi-Shubham Ghosh Tokyo, Jan 7: Japan is one country on this planet which has been witnessing a demographic shrink since the 1970s. In 2017, less than a lakh babies were born in the 'Land of the Rising Sun' while the number of deaths touched a post-war high of 1.3 million, according to the country's Ministry of Health and Labor. Children make up just 12.3 per cent of the 127 million people of Japan, compared to almost 31 per cent in India; 19 per cent in the US and almost17 per cent in China. By 2065, the country's population is likely to drop to 88 million. When the rest of Japan is struggling to boost its population, the town of Nagi in western Japan has emerged as a major success story as far as incentivising its declining birth rate is concerned. With a population of just about 6,000, the small agricultural town has become a popular place for residents to bring up their children, thanks to absence of crowds, reported Washington-based Pulitzer Center. On New Year's Day, most number of babies were born in India; China distant second 400,000 yen for having the fifth children! However, Nagi's significance doesn't end here. The town also pays people who live there to have children. According to the Pulitzer Center report, while families receive 100,000 yen ($879 or almost Rs 61,000) for their first child, 150,000 ($1,335 or over Rs 92,000) for their second child and 400,000 yen ($3,518 or Rs 2.43 lakh) for their fifth child born to the same family. It's just an anti-thesis to India. In 2018, almost 42 million lives were lost because of this and it dwarfed all other deadly reasons Nagi authorities have also been offering other perks to boost parenting to serve a national goal of reviving Japan's demographic decline. The offers include subsidised housing, free vaccinations, school allowances and others and they have paid off well, the report added. It also said that because of this initiative, Nagi's fertility rate which is based on the average number of children a woman has in her life, doubled from 1.4 to 2.8 between 2005 and 2014. In the last four years, the fertility rate dipped slightly to 2.39 but it is still higher than the national average of 1.46. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 10:09 [IST] 4.5-km long cake to be baked in Kerala's Thrissur on Jan 15 Woman gives birth to 10 children: The earlier Guinness Book of World Record was 9 Russian researchers claim 'World's oldest woman' lied about her age when she died International oi-Madhuri Adnal Washington, Jan 7: The French woman who died as the world's oldest may have lied about her age by stealing her mother's identity to tack on an extra 23 years, a mathematician claims in a blockbuster new report. Jeanne Calment, the oldest documented person to have lived, died in 1997, at 122. However, a Russian mathematician, Nikolay Zak, is claiming her record to be false. Zak from the Moscow Center For Continuous Mathematical Education said in a report that Calment passed away in 1997. The lady who died was actually Yvonne Calment, Jeanne's daughter, he said. Zak, along with gerontologist Valery Novoselov, spent months scrutinizing Jeanne Calment's biographies, interviews, photos, witness testimony and public records in the city of Arles in southern France, where she lived. "Analyzing all these materials led me to conclude that Jeanne Calment's daughter Yvonne assumed her mother's identity," Zak told Agence France-Presse. Zak, a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists at Moscow State University, also says there are discrepancies between physical characteristics listed on Jeanne's identity card from the 1930s and her appearance as an older woman. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 11:53 [IST] Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina to take oath as PM for 4th time today; drops 36 old ministers International oi-Shubham Ghosh Dhaka, Jan 7: Sheikh Hasina, who won her third successive term as the prime minister of Bangladesh since 2008 and the fourth overall, is set to take oath on Monday, January 7. However, the prime minister revealed the names of her new cabinet on Sunday, January 6, and it was found that she has dropped 36 people from the outgoing administration and inducting 31 new faces, mostly first ministers. Of these 31, three would be technocrat ministers, Pratham Alo reported. Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media on Sunday that the new cabinet will have 24 minister, 19 state ministers and three deputy ministers. The cabinet is set to take oath at Bangabhaban, the official residence of Bangladesh's president around 3.30 pm local time. President Abdul Hamid will administer the swearing-in ceremony. India, China congratulate Sheikh Hasina on her victory in Bangladesh general polls Hasina's Awami League and its allies won almost all of the 300 parliamentary seats that went to the general polls on December 30. The opposition alliance, which managed to win just seven seats, termed the election as "farcical". Violence, intimidation and vote-rigging accusations marred the election which observers had always apprehended to be an influenced one. Though the opposition sought a fresh election, the election commission said it would investigate the rigging allegations but claimed later that election had taken place in a peaceful manner and there would be no fresh election. Bangladesh's cooperation with India to increase further with victory of PM Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh though has made remarkable progress under the leadership of Hasina but its democratic track records have come under serious scrutiny. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 9:37 [IST] Will Gadkari emerge as consensus candidate if 2019 mandate is hung? India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Jan 7: The bittersweet relation between the Shiv Sena and the BJP has taken an interesting turn with the latter hinting that it may back Nitin Gadkari as consensus candidate if 2019 Lok Sabha elections verdict is hung. For that matter even Gadkari has been making statements which is making the BJP's top brass uncomfortable. Some reports also suggest that Gadkari not only has a strong backing of the RSS but also shares good relations with several regional parties that could make the difference in 2019. He is a staunch RSS leader, but does not reflect the rigidity and the arrogance that has come to be associated with the current leadership. The Shiv Sena that is currently speaking out against Modi and Shah, is more favourably inclined towards Gadkari. If there is no tie-up, BJP will defeat ex-allies: Amit Shah in Maharashtra Shiv Sena did not say it directly that it would back Gadkari but dropped hints by saying that Gadkari, who was denied a second term as the BJP president in 2009, is waiting for the hung Lok Sabha of 2019. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut wrote in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' that the country is heading for a fractured mandate and prime minister Narendra Modi is responsible for it. He also blasted PM Modi for wasting the 2014 mandate and added that "Modi's larger-than-life image has lost the shine now." "The country is heading for a fractured mandate and prime minister Narendra Modi is responsible for it," he said, adding that the full mandate Modi won in 2014 was "an opportunity wasted". Raut wrote that in 2014 there was a wave in Modi's support as voters were determined to defeat the Congress, but "the picture has changed today". "Modi's larger-than-life image has lost the shine now. Rahul Gandhi's leadership is not as towering as Modi's but he has gained importance as people are disappointed with the current government," the Sena MP said. "While senior leaders in the BJP are worried about its possible poor performance in coming elections, Nitin Gadkari's statements are an indication of which way the winds are blowing. A leader like Gadkari has equal acceptance in the RSS as well as among other BJP leaders," Raut said. "Political conspiracies were hatched to deny Gadkari a second term when he was the BJP president (from 2009 to 2013)," he claimed. "He also faced several allegations in Purti group scam and a second term was denied to him. That memory still rankles with Gadkari," Raut said. "Gadkari is now waiting for the hung Lok Sabha of 2019," Raut added, suggesting, indirectly, that in that case the Union minister could become the consensus candidate for the top post. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 11:48 [IST] Bengal Lockdown: Who needs e-pass and how to apply for it West Bengal: IAS officer thrashes man in police station for lewd FB comments on wife India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Kolkata, Jan 7: District Magistrate of Alipurdua caught on camera thrashing a youth in a police station for allegedly sending lewd messages to his wife on Facebook. The youth was later arrested. In the video showing North Bengal's Alipurduar DM Nikhil Nirmal and his wife are purportedly seen repeatedly slapping and kicking the man at Falakata police station on Saturday night. The video has gone viral. Nirmal is heard saying in the video, "I will not let you do anything against me in my district. I will enter your house and kill you." According to reports, the husband and wife duo took turns to beat the youth. It is said that the incident occurred at the police station without the District Magistrate or his wife filing an official complaint even as they took turns to beat him up. See how Bengal IAS officer, Nikhil Nirmal, district magistrate of Alipurduar district take law in his own hands. He & his wife beat up a youth for making lewd comments on his wifes Facebook profile. Incident unfolds inside the police station & infront IC of Police @dna @ZeeNews pic.twitter.com/iRCO7SnRa6 Pooja Mehta (@pooja_zeenews) January 6, 2019 For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 16:15 [IST] Weather forecast for Jan 8: As Cyclone Pabuk nears, heavy rains in Andaman and Nicobar islands India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Jan 7: Cold Wave is prevailing all over the Indian Subcontinent. Cold and dry weather conditions are being observed in South India as well. Here is the weather forecast for Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur, Munnar and Andaman and Nicobar on January 8. Bengaluru: One Indigo flight from Delhi to Bengaluru was diverted and the departures of 41 flights were delayed due to conditions of fog early on Monday morning at the Bengaluru International Airport. Bad weather in Bengaluru forced at least three flights to be diverted to Chennai on Sunday morning. The city almost hit a decadal low when it came to minimum temperature recorded for the city in January. According to Skymet weather, minimum temperatures of Telangana and North Interior Karnataka are expected to fall by 2 to 4 during next 48 hours, but will once again start increasing from January 11 onward due to reversal of winds from northeast to southeast directions. Delhi: Delhi rains made an appearance after a long time, in fact, it was the first spell of good winter rains which resulted in reducing the persisting pollution levels over Delhi-NCR. As predicted by Skymet weather, dense fog to continue for coming 24- 48 hours during morning hours over the region. The sky conditions will be clear. Jaipur: Several parts of Rajasthan witnessed cold wave to severe cold wave conditions between December 18 and 30. However, since then the minimum temperatures were on a rise and cold wave abated almost entire Rajasthan by January. As predicted by Skymet weather, cold weather will continue over the states till January 10. Thereafter there will be relief from the ongoing cold morning and nights. Andaman and Nicobar: The cyclonic storm Pabuk is hanging in the Andaman Sea and its adjoining region since the last three to four days. Earlier this same system was named Usman when it majorly effected the Philippines region. As per Skymet weather, moderate rains to continue over parts of Andaman and Nicobar Islands for another 24 to 36 hours. Munnar: Munnar in Kerala is perhaps the most visited tourist spot which sees tourists flocking all throughout the year. It's a town and hill station located in the Idukki district of Kerala. Munnar's climate is classified as 'warm and temperate'. It is a rare event when temperatures are recorded below the zero-degree mark. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 16:46 [IST] Uttar Pradesh gets major share in the 17 election committees constituted by the BJP India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Jan 7: With 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Uttar Pradesh is one of the most important states for 2019 elections as well for the BJP that had won 73 seats along with its ally. Looking at the importance of the state senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from the state have been entrusted with crucial responsibilities just before the national executive in New Delhi. Union Home minister and one of the senior leaders of the party from the state Rajnath Singh, who was president of the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has been entrusted with the responsibility of making Sankalp Patra (manifesto). Total 17 committees have been constituted by the party president Amit Shah keeping in mind 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Will have to tell CBI about UP seat sharing: Akhilesh Yadav amid raids The 20-member Sankalp Patra Committee-led by Rajnath Singh has 20 other members including deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. By including names of leaders and workers in these committees, BJP president Amit Shah has not only tried to accommodate them but also tried to give the message by more representation to the state that how important it is for the BJP. In the publicity and dissemination committee led by Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley, Union minister and Noida MP Mahesh Sharma and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Jain have been made members besides some other. While the committee led by Union minister Nitin Gadkari that will have the responsibility of contacting non-government and social sectors have members like Union minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and former Union minister Kalraj Mishra. The team will have former Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai. This is being considered very important to manage Brahmin community in the state. Keshav Prasad Maurya mocks SP-BSP alliance, says people want to see Modi as PM again Chief of the IT cell and spokesperson of the UP BJP Sanjay Rai, who has been leading the team of 8-lakh strong Cyber Yodhdha deputed on booths, has got the award for this and has been included in the 13-member social media team. State BJP vice president J P S Rathore, who has been active with programme management and implementation, has been made part of the contacting beneficiaries of the government scheme team. Nation general secretary Arun Singh has been made part of many teams out of the 17 committees. Media team has Gaurav Bhatia, Anil Jain and Bizay Sonkar Shastri then literature making team has the name of Sudhanshu Trivedi and Mahesh Sharma. Naqvi too has been made parts of many teams. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 9:52 [IST] UPSC recruitment 2019: Official notification for forthcoming exams India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Jan 7: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is likely to release the official notification for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I) soon at upsc.gov.in. A detailed notification will be published in some of the same on the local newspapers on the website. Candidates who wish to appear for either of the two papers need to keep a tab of the official website for more update on the said exam. Before releasing. The NDA and NA (I) examination is likely to be conducted in the month of April (Based on previous years). National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I), 2019 Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2019 Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination, 2019 through CS(P) Examination 2019 For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 14:11 [IST] UP: Over 20,000 vegetarian 'sanskari' cops deployed for Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj India oi-Madhuri Adnal Allahabad, Jan 7: The preparations for the Kumbh Mela, slated to begin in Prayagraj on January 15, are on the full swing. The Uttar Pradesh Police is also involved in making all arrangements to make the Kumbh Mela hassle free and secure. According to the police official, as many as 20,000 such police personnel have been involved in the security preparations for Kumbh Mela, which is expected to attract lakhs of devotees to the holy town of Prayagraj, which was till recently called Allahabad. The Uttar Pradesh government has allotted Rs. 4,300 crore for creating infrastructure necessary to conduct the Kumbh Mela 2019. Around 1 lakh makeshift toilets, 20,000 construction workers, an equal number of sanitation workers, and 40,000 LED lights Kumbh Mela 2019 in Prayagraj: Important dates and all you need to know The roads are dotted with digital hoardings where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his cabinet are welcoming visitors to the Kumbh. The Kumbh Mela administration is looking for cops who are vegetarian and teetotaller to deploy them during the mega event in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad, starting January 15 next year. A certificate of 'good character' is also one of the qualities that the Kumbh Mela administration was looking in policemen. Nearly 12 crore devotees are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj which will begin January 15. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 11:37 [IST] UP Deputy CM says, ordinance will be brought if the SC decision goes against the Ram Temple India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Jan 7: Deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya has once again courted controversy by saying that the Supreme Court's decision will be in favour of the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and if the decision is not in favour of the Ram Temple then an ordinance will be brought to facilitate building a Ram Temple there. This is to recall that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it very clear that as long as the matter is in court, the government will not bring ordinance on this. But since the election is coming closure by the day, the deputy CM did not miss any chance to attack BJP's rivals in the state. He said that let the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress make whatever alliance they want but people have faith in PM Modi. Now, eyes focused on constitution of bench for Ram Janmabhoomi and Babri dispute case! The deputy CM was interacting with the three-layered convention of the panchayat workers of the state. He said that the government is working on the idea of conducting direct elections to Block Pramukh and Jila Panchayat Adhyaksh to stop use of money power and muscle power in these elections. Maurya termed gram pradhans as prime minister of gram sabha and said that the government has opened its coffer for the development of gram panchayat. He accused the SP government of racking controversy and said still the Centre had worked for the development of the state. He further said that the BJP has done a lot for the law and order situation in the state as people are now fearless while criminals are fearful in the state. He further said that the Opposition does not have any issue to raise in these elections and does not have any road map of development of the state. The Congress has made fun of poor people instead of working to bring them out of the abject poverty they are living in. He said that there is a need to understand that the entire world is behind India but if there is any mistake by people, the country will have to stand behind the world. 'Why drag Ayodhya issue to court?' asks Farooq Abdullah He took a dig on the Congress by saying that it will have to walk in Uttar Pradesh on the crunches of the SP and the BSP. It is up to people to decide if they wants to choose Modi or Rahul. He also talked about mining scam during the SP government and said that if Akhilesh has not done anything there is no need to worry for him. He said that it is a good indication that court will start hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi case from January 10, 2019 and on a question that the government should make a law on this issue, the deputy CM of UP said that it has to be decided by the central leadership. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 11:59 [IST] Karnataka Unlock Guidelines: What is open, What is not; Check details National award-winning actor Sanchari Vijay passes away at 3:34 am today, family decides to donate his organs BPL families which lost earning member to COVID to get Rs one lakh relief in Karnataka KCET 2021 registration open from today: How to apply for KCET Exam 2021, fees, other key details Bharat Bandh on Jan 8-9: What is open, what is closed India oi-Deepika S Bengaluru, Jan 7: Normal life is likely to be affected on Tuesday and Wednesday as workers of public transport corporations, autorickshaws and taxis will join two day nation-wide protest called by the trade unions against the Modi government. Ten major trade unions including the All India Trade Union Congress, CITU, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), SEWA and LPF have called for the two-day general strike to protest against what they describe as the anti-worker and anti-trade union policies of the Narendra Modi government. Employees in major sectors such as the Railways, banks and electricity departments as well as those in the unorganised sector, including street vendors and auto and taxi drivers, are expected to be part of the 48-hour strike. Transport will be hit in Karnataka Four unions including Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have extended their support to the protest. BMTC buses as well as KSRTC buses will not ply on January 8 and 9. Auto drivers, cabbies to join strike In a move that could hit commuters, autorickshaw and cab drivers have come out in support of a strike call given by commercial road transport workers on January 8 and 9 in major cities. Taxi owners also have extended their support. Ola and Uber too are unlikely to render services for these two days. Schools, colleges likely to be shut With transport being hit, schools and colleges are likely to be closed. The deputy commissioners of each district have been given the right to take a call on the declaration of a holiday. Emergency services available Emergency services like hospitals, ambulance service, medical shops, milk booths will be open. Hotel's to be shut Hotel owners have extended moral support to the strike, so it seems like most of the eateries will be open on January 8 and 9. Namma Metro will function Namma Metro will function as usual on these two days. Banking services to be hit Banking services across the country are likely to be affected on January 8-9 due to a nationwide strike, notice for which was served on Saturday by the All India Bank Employees Association (AlBEA) and the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI). Farmers to join strike Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left peasant wings would join the two-day nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 called by central trade unions against the alleged repressive policies for workers adopted by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. "AIKS and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will observe 'gramin hartal', rail roko and road roko on January 8 and 9, the day trade unions are observing nationwide general strike. This move is against the Modi government's failure to address rural distress issues, to save rural farmers' lands from the corporates. The farmers will extend all support to the ensuing general strike," said Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha. Tamil Nadu govt to take action Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan has issued a warning to all government officials. In a circular to all government departments, she stated that strict action will be taken against those government staff members found taking part in the strike. "If any of the Government servants have not attended office, consequent of their participation in the proposed All India Strike, their period of absence has to be considered as unauthorised and they are not entited to any pay and allowances on the basis of the principle of No Work - No Pay," it read. EC statement on compliance of COVID norms in elections in light of Madras HC observations and order Lawyer on EC's panel resigns for values not being in consonance with poll body TN: Election Commission cancels Tiruvarur assembly by-poll India oi-Madhuri Adnal Chennai, Jan 7: The Election Commission has decided not to hold the Tiruvarur by-election, slated for January 28. The by-election notification now stood rescinded, according to Satyabrata Sahoo, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer. The by-election notification now stood rescinded, according to Satyabrata Sahoo, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer. As a consequence of the cancellation of the notification, actions and steps taken by the Returning Officer for the constituency were "declared null and void." The Election Commission directed Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu that notification "calling upon 168-Thiruvarur Assembly Constituency to elect an MLA stands rescinded forthwith." "All steps taken by Returning Officer, Dist Election Officer and electoral authorities concerned are here by declared null and void" Election Commission stated that the Commission is of the view that the process of conduct of by-election from 168-Thiruvarur Assembly Constituency cannot be continued as TN govt, Dist administration Thiruvarur is pre-occupied with relief and rehabiliatation work after cyclone 'Gaja'. BJP's poll in-charges: Piyush Goyal for TN, Nadda gets UP The by-election was necessitated by the death of late DMK president and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on August 7. The notification for the by-election was made on December 31. Following this, the DMK and AMMK have announced their candidates while the AIADMK was scheduled to announce its candidate this morning around 9.30 am. Various political parties were also asking the election commission not to conduct the bypolls now since the restoration and rehabilitation works are going on Thiruvarur, which was one of the districts worst affected by cyclone Gaja. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 9:16 [IST] Hyderabad residents marvel as rainbow-coloured halo seen around the sun Telanagana: 67 school girls hospitalised due to stomach ache India oi-Madhuri Adnal Hyderabad, Jan 6: As many as 67 schoolgirls were rushed to the hospital after they complained of stomach ache and vomiting. The students belong to a state-run residential school in Ranga Reddy district. "Last evening all the students had fruit salad. After some time they had dinner and went to the bed. Today early morning the girls started vomiting and complained of stomach ache," Guruvaiah Goud, Chevella Police Station's Circle Inspector, told ANI. The girls were brought to the government hospital after complaining of stomach ache. KGBV is a government-run residential school. Maramma temple Tragedy: Manager suspected to be mastermind behind prasad poisoning case There are around 206 girls residing in the residential school. The Chevella police have registered a case under section 337 IPC (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) against the principal and cooks of the school based on complaints from parents, and further investigation is underway. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 12:30 [IST] Sabarimala violence: Case against 4 RSS workers for hurling bombs at Police India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 7: A case has been filed against four RSS activists, including Jilla Pracharak, for hurling country-made bombs against Police on January 3 (Thursday. The incident took place in Nedumangad region (rural Thiruvananthapuram) on January 3. According to the Police Jilla Pracharak Nooranad Praveen hurled country made bombs towards the Police station, two people including Praveen have been identified from the CCTV visuals of the incident, accused including Praveen are on the run. Sabarimala protests: UK updates travel advisory to India Widespread stone pelting, blocking of vehicles and incidents of violence and vandalism were reported during the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi against the entry of two women of menstruating age into the Lord Ayyappa temple. Agitators hurled a crude bomb at a local beedi manufacturing unit managed by the CPI(M) in Thalassery in Kannur district, but it did not explode which led to the arrest of 10 right-wing activists were arrested. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 10:21 [IST] Raj Thackeray apologises to Nayantara Sehgal over MNS threat India oi-Vikas SV Mumbai, Jan 7: Asserting that he would ask the party cadres to not take a stance on any sensitive subject without consulting him, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray on Monday expressed regret over his party activists opposing invitation to emminent writer Nayantara Sehgal to a Marathi literary meet. Sahitya Akadami award-winning author Nayantara Sehgal was to inaugurate the 92nd edition of annual Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, but after threats from some MNS leaders the organisers had cancelled the invitation. MNS had opposed invitation to Sehgal on the grounds that she writes in English and has no business to be called in for a Marathi literary event. "We do not oppose [the decision to invite] Nayantara Sehgal to the sammelan. We wholeheartedly welcome her. She must come," Thackeray said is a statement issued on Monday. Raj Thackeray calls for 'Modi-mukt Bharat', warns of riots on Ram Mandir issue "If an accomplished writer like Nayantara came to the festival and if she witnesses the richness of Marathi literature and becomes a vehicle for the spread of this (literature) throughout the world then me or my party has not objection to this. This is our party position and we wholeheartedly welcome her," he further said. Thackeray also expressed regret to the inconvenience caused to the organisers of the event. "I ask my party workers to not make any statements on such sensitive issues without consulting me," he said. MNS Vice-President Raju Umbarkar had threatened violence to stop the event from going through if Nayanatara was invited. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 12:39 [IST] If vaccines are free, why should private hospitals charge for them: Rahul to PM Modi Rafale deal: Rahul seeks answer from PM Modi in Yes or No India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Jan 7: Reiterating that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lied in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi on Monday sought answer from Narendra Modi in "Yes or No" to the allegation by the Congress president that the Prime Minister interfered in the Rafale deal despite opposition by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and senior defence ministry officials. Speaking outside Parliament, Rahul said the Defence Minister gave a long reply in Lok Sabha but did not answer yes or no to the question whether PM interfered or not. Prove orders for HAL or resign: Rahul Gandhi slams Nirmala Sitharaman "Defence Minister had earlier said that Rs 1 lakh crore were given to HAL, we challenged that ,and today she said that Rs 26,570.80 crore were given to HAL, Nirmala Sitharaman Ji lied in the Parliament," he said. "Today Nirmala Sitharaman lied in parliament. I am again requesting the Defence minister and PM Modi to answer "did Air Force and Defence ministry senior officers object to your interference in Rafale deal?" Please answer in a Yes or No," he said. Terming the Congress's doubts over her statement on HAL contracts as "incorrect and misleading", Nirmala Sitharman earlier in Lok Sabha, said, "over Rs 26,000 crore worth of contracts have been awarded and work amounting to Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline." Not accepting Sitharaman's statement in Lok Sabha, Rahul said the government hasn't paid HAL the Rs 15,700 crore it owed the public sector body for the planes and helicopters it had delivered. On Sunday, Rahul said Defence Minister Sitharaman must place documents of the government orders before parliament, or resign. Bofors brought Congress down, Rafale will bring Modi back: Nirmala Sitharaman The allegations came after media reports claimed HAL, grappling with low finances, had been forced to borrow money to pay its employees' salaries. The Times of India reported that though the process of ordering has been started, no actual orders have been placed yet. HAL is yet to comment on the matter. Rahul had said on Friday that Sitharaman evaded his questions on the controversial deal. However, she dismissed all allegations of corruption and accused Congress president of misleading the nation. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 15:15 [IST] Odisha: Maoists kill man over suspicion of being police informer, torch vehicles India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bhubaneswar, Jan 7: Heavily-armed Maoists torched three vehicles in Odisha's Patiamba village and shot dead a man on suspicion of him being a police informer near Malickpada village in Kandhamal on Sunday, 6 November. Kandhamal SP Prateek Singh said, "We are gathering information. Our force is present at the outpost there and we have started the procedure to take action." The victim was working as a night watchman at the Construction Camp in Patiamba nearby his home village. 3 civilians, 1 CISF jawan killed as Naxals blow up bus in Dantewada The body of the man killed by Naxals was found lying in a pool of blood near a field in the village Malickpada on Sunday. Meanwhile, combing operation has been intensified by the security forces in the aftermath of the incident, he said. At least four Naxals, including a woman cadre, had been killed in the same area in May last year in an exchange of fire with the police. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 9:39 [IST] We are anguished how things transpired during second wave: Delhi HC No personnel interest says Delhi HC while junking plea to ban trailer of The Accidental PM India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Jan 7: The Delhi High Court has junked a plea seeking a ban on the trailer of the movie, 'The Accidental Prime Minister.' The petitioner has no personal interest in the matter, the court observed while rejecting the plea filed by Pooja Mahajan, a Delhi based fashion designer. The trailer violated Section 416 of the Indian Penal Code as impersonation of a living character or living persons is not permissible in law. The Accidental Prime Minister: The man behind the insider account The film's producers have not taken any consent from Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi to perform their characters or perform their political life or to dress up in the same way as they had been doing in their normal life or copy their voice in any manner, the petitioner alleged. As per Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) guidelines on films based on real-life characters, a 'no objection certificate (NOC)' is required, but for the trailer, no such NOC was obtained, the petitioner also said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 12:43 [IST] Need peaceful not military solution for Kashmir: Norway PM India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Jan 7: Batting for peace, Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Monday said that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan could not be solved only from a military standpoint. "Both India and Pakistan are big enough countries...They can decrease tension between them without help from outside," Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg remarked while referring to Kashmir issue. She said that the controversial visit of former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik to Kashmir was in his "private" capacity. "When it comes to his visit, he went as a private citizen. He has an institute for peace and security. It is a private institute in Norway. He was invited. Our government's policy is clear -- if we are going to help someone, they have to ask for it," she said. Bondevik had paid a 'surprise' visit to the state and met top separatist leaders including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is currently on a 3-day visit here. Addressing the India-Norway business summit, Solberg said Norway sees great scope for partnerships with India in business, trade, and investments and the country's new strategy for engagement with India reflects its significance. "The aim of the new strategy is to strengthen Norway's bilateral relations and economic ties with India. Private sector engagement, research and technical cooperation are key components of the strategy," she said. India and Norway will sign an agreement Tuesday to facilitate dialogue to boost bilateral trade, which currently stands at USD 1.2 billion. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 21:52 [IST] The Importance of Being Assamese: Why Modi wants the state desperately More ally trouble for BJP: AGP walks out of govt over Citizenship Bill India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Jan 7: The ally trouble for the BJP continued with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday deciding to break ties with the saffron party over the Citizenship Bill. The AGP had earlier expressed reservations with the Bill saying it would make the Assam Accord meaningless. Former chief minster of Assam, Prafulla Mahanta said that the party was walking out of the government over the contentious issue. "We decided for an alliance with the BJP based on understanding on the Assam Accord and other issues. The Government of India by introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in Parliament has violated the understanding," it had said in a letter. No Indian will be left out of NRC, says PM Modi in Silchar AGP president Atul Bora had last month written to BJP chief Amit Shah, saying the party will have no alternative but to "repudiate the existing alliance" in case of such an eventuality. The letter, whose copy was given by Bora to reporters at a press conference on December 10, stated that the AGP is fully committed to the implementation of the Assam Accord of 1985. The draft National Register of Citizens (NCR) of the state had been prepared in accordance with the Accord. The AGP has been opposing the Citizenship Bill, saying if it is passed, the NRC exercise in the state would be of no use. The party had also taken out a rally against the bill in October. "We are to bring to your notice that if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is passed in Parliament, the provisions of Assam Accord and the ongoing preparation of National Register of Citizens will be totally frustrated and the Assamese language, culture and demography will be changed," the letter signed by Bora said. "Hence, if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is intended to be passed in the Parliament we will have no other alternative except to repudiate the existing alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party," it stated. "It is pertinent to mention herein that the Asom Gana Parishad is fully committed to the implementation of the provisions of the Assam Accord and hence we can never support the obnoxious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016," the AGP said in the letter. Bora, along with Kesab Mahanta, the AGP working president, and Phani Bhusan Choudhury of the party are ministers in the BJP-led government in Assam. The letter to Shah, which was also signed by Mahanta, said, "It is reliably learnt that the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016, in spite of our protest, including the protests resorted to by various organisations of indigenous people of Assam before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, is to be placed before Parliament." NRC: 30 lakh people left out of final draft re-apply in Assam It referred to the understanding arrived at prior to the Assam Assembly election, 2016, and said the AGP had decided to go for the alliance during a discussion with the BJP in New Delhi on "the basis of clear understanding of the Assam Accord, other major issues of Assam, including the seat adjustments". As a result of the alliance between the BJP and AGP, the 2016 Assam Assembly election was fought and the new government of the alliance led by the BJP was installed in the state, the letter said. But the understanding between the two parties was "violated" by the Centre, by introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in Parliament as well as by promulgating the ordinances on the subject, it stated "Further, the Assam Accord is also intended to be made meaningless," the letter alleged. The AGP leaders hoped that Amit Shah's "good office" would certainly take necessary steps so that the bill is not placed in Parliament at any point of time. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014 after six years of residence in this country. Mayawati tells Akhilesh Yadav to fight against BJP's political conspiracies India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Lucknow, Jan 7: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati Sunday called up former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav after CBI raided SP, BSP MLAs residences. According to news agency ANI, Mayawati told Akhilesh that these raids by BJP are nothing new and are their old political tactic which people now understand. She urged Alhikesh to fight against this political conspiracies. "Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav while terming the reports as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the ruling BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases. "The CBI raids and later the threat of quizzing by the CBI in a mining scam is nothing but political animosity of the BJP. Such petty politics and political conspiracy are not new for the BJP. The people of the country have understood it and they will teach the BJP a lesson in the Lok Sabha polls," she said in a press release. The raids were carried out as the Samajwadi Party and the BSP decided to fight the upcoming national elections together. Both parties have already worked out a seat-sharing arrangement to take on the BJP, which along with its allies won 73 seats from the state in 2014. Deal sealed: SP-BSP minus Congress to fight UP battle together Yadav declined to elaborate further, leaving the opposition parties guessing on whether the Congress will be accommodated. Yadav suggested the raids by the CBI by opening up old cases were an attempt by the BJP-led Centre to stop the SP-BSP alliance. The two parties along with the RLD are close to formally announcing an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The CBI registered an FIR against 2008-batch IAS official and then Hamirpur District Magistrate B. Chandralekha and 10 other individuals in illegal mining case, besides unknown officials and persons. Among those named in the FIR are SP MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit, who fought the 2017 election on Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. (With PTI inputs) Mamata denied starvation deaths in Bengal, but survey says state tribals have food scracity India oi-Shubham Ghosh Kolkata, Jan 7: When the Left was in power, the Opposition led by Mamata Banerjee had lashed out at the rulers of the day over the deaths in Amlashole in West Midnapore district because of starvation in 2004. It was exactly five years ago on this day (January 7) in 2014 that Banerjee, now the chief minister of West Bengal, paid a visit to Amlashole to assure that not a single life would be lost during the rule of her Trinamool Congress. However, it was recently that seven people from a tribal community reportedly died of food scarcity in Lalgarh in Jhargram district of the state and this time, the government of Banerjee was in the firing line. The government denied that the deaths were caused by starvation but a survey has found the prevalence of "food scarcity in varying degrees" in about 31 per cent of tribal households in the state. Bengal BJP livid after state chief Dilip Ghosh finds 'PM material' in Mamata Banerjee According to The Hindu, the study titled 'An Inquiry into the world of the Adivasis of West Bengal' and conducted by Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen's Pratichi Institute and Asiatic Society, which was to be released on Monday, January 7, said communities were "far behind" in terms of human development. The survey covered 1,000 tribal households to understand their living conditions, education and health. Bengal has over five million tribal people accounting for six per cent of the country's tribal population. However, in several areas, the tribals are "far behind" in terms of human development. One area of concern is the scarcity of food and that "nearly one third [31%] of the surveyed households" reportedly faced "food scarcity in varying degrees" in the past one year. "...While some households faced acute hunger only in some months (August-October), in many cases, people had half-meals only twice a day. Also, in some cases, adult members reportedly ate only once a day. Also, in some cases, adult members [of households] reportedly ate only once a day," the report said. Most of the families that were surveyed could hardly afford animal protein or pulses, said the report. Delhi starvation deaths: 3 girls given unknown medicines by father "Poverty-born vices like alcoholism [and] the fragility of the public health system...seemed to have resulted in a much lower life chances among the Adivasis than their more privileged co-citizens," the report added. Degradation of forest was cited as a major reason behind "reduced availability of natural nutrients" resulting in premature deaths. The report added that the surveyed households in the year preceding the survey was 52 out of which, 48 died premature deaths while only four died because of old age. Karnataka: Congress unhappy over CM holding up some appointments to boards, corporations India pti-PTI Bengaluru, Jan 7: Unhappy over Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy holding up a few appointments to boards and corporations, the leadership of the Congress, a partner in the ruling coalition, has decided to take up the issue with him. According to party sources, several Congress leaders and legislators are miffed with the chief minister over his decision to put on hold some appointments and have expressed their anger to the state leadership. "I will speak to Kumaraswamy; I don't know why he has put it on hold," Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah told reporters. Out of Congress' recommendation to 19 boards and corporations, the chief minister, after much delay, issued orders on Sunday for the appointment of 14, and eight legislators as parliamentary secretaries against the party's list of nine. Will Gadkari emerge as consensus candidate if 2019 mandate is hung? Kumaraswamy has also not made any appointments to the posts of deputy chairman of the planning commission, special representative in Delhi and political secretary to the chief minister, to which the Congress had suggested names of its legislators. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said the chief minister has not rejected any names recommended by the Congress, and he will speak to him on the issue. "He (the chief minister) has not rejected (the names recommended). I have come to know that for various reasons such as verification, to discuss with department ministers concerned before taking decision (he has put on hold). I haven't spoken to him yet. I will speak to him and request him to issue orders based on Congress' recommendation," he told reporters. Stating that there was no confusion, Parameshwara said that while making political appointments, usually some verification is done by the Chief Ministers' Office. "He (the chief minister) has not questioned or rejected the list we have recommended... he has never said that," the deputy chief minister said. Congress-JD(S) will fight LS polls together: DKS According to the coalition arrangement, both parties had decided to fill up posts of chairpersons to 30 boards and corporations, of which 20 will be for the Congress and 10 for the ruling JD(S). The JD(S) is yet to appoint its legislators as heads to boards and corporations and remaining post of parliamentary secretaries. Chairpersons for a few boards and corporations have not been filled as recommended by the Congress, including Dr K Sudhakar for the State Pollution Control Board Venkataramanaiah for the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) and S T Somashekar for the Bangalore Development Authority. Expressing his displeasure, Sudhakar said it is for the party high command to look into the issue, as the recommendations were finalised at the level of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "It is not a question of personal loss or gain to Sudhakar or Somashekar or Venkataramanaiah. It is the question of Congress' pride. Despite getting 80 seats (in assembly) today for what good reason have we ceded power to them JD(S), the party has to look into and decide," he said. "We cannot kneel down helpless," Sudhakar said, adding the Congress high command will take an appropriate decision. JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy had earlier clarified that Sudhakar's appointment was opposed as the Supreme Court guidelines had specified a certain qualification for the post. Congress MLA Venkataramanaiah's appointment to the KRDCL is said to have been opposed by Gowda's son and PWD Minister Revanna, saying it came under his department. The Congress had forwarded its list of 19 legislators for posts of chairpersons of boards and corporations to the chief minister soon after the cabinet rejig on December 22, but according to sources, the move had irked the JD(S) leadership as they were reportedly not consulted. The Congress recommending some of its legislators as heads to boards and corporations that come under departments controlled by JD(S) ministers, had angered the regional party, leading to Chief Minister Kumaraswamy delaying the appointments. JD(S) leaders and Kumaraswamy were also irked by the grand old party's move to appoint its MLA V Muniyappa as political secretary to the chief minister. The appointment order was issued on Sunday, amid reports that Congress MLAs had set a deadline of Monday evening, miffed over the delay in appointments to boards and corporations, failing which they had planned to meet on Tuesday to decide on the future course of action. PTI IT shocker for Sandalwood: Actors, producers asked to appear for questioning India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bengaluru, Jan 7: Income tax department on Monday issued notices to Sandalwood actors and producers, who have been raided last week, to appear for questioning. IT sleuths had seized Rs 2.85 crore cash, 25 kg gold and property papers worth Rs 109 crore from actor and producers. According to reports, actors and producers likely to depose before I-T sleuths today. Actor Sudeep told reporters that said raids were not meant to target anybody. He further appreciated theofficials' work and said he didn't have anything to worry about as he did not indulge in anything unlawful. Congress-JD(S) will fight LS polls together: DKS The income tax raid on Sandalwood actors came to an end on Saturday morning with taxmen seizing incriminating documents and directing the actors to appear for questioning when summoned. Puneeth Rajkumar, his elder brother Shivarajkumar, Yash and Sudeep. The actors had come under the I-T scanner after talks about their earnings from their recent box-office successes. However, searches continued till late in the night on Saturday night at the residences of film producers. Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said it is wrong to see political motives behind the Income Tax raids and asserted that the officials were only doing their duty, based on the inputs they receive. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said he has no objection if the raids were impartial, but it should not be something related to any political party. (With PTI inputs) ISI-Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh hatched plot in UK to strike India ahead of LS polls India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Jan 7: It has been over a week since the investigations into the busted Islamic State inspired module have commenced. When the group which went by the name Harkat-ul Harb e Islam was busted, it was said that it was inspired by the Islamic State. However, there appears to be a twist in the tale after the NIA discovered two calls made by the alleged kingpin of the module to Pakistan and Bangladesh. The NIA says that the module was being headed by Mufti Suhail, a resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh from where the majority of the arrests were made. How an illegal telephone exchange in Hyderabad helped ISI snoop on the Indian Army During the course of the investigation the NIA learnt that Suhail was being handled by a Pakistani. The chat transcripts with the agent, Abu Malik unearthed clearly suggested that the instructions were coming from across the border. However a call that was made by Suhail in October 2018 to a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh has made the case even more curious. The call was made in October from the United Kingdom in which Suhail is told to start preparing to launch operations. He was told that the operations would be launched and from January onwards there would be a series of attacks running up to the elections. The revelation comes in the wake of various reports suggesting that the ISI was trying to meddle in the recently concluded Bangladesh elections. Both the ISI and the Jamaat have opposed India's support to the Awami League. The operative who called Suhail tries to indicate that India's support to the Awami League must be avenged and hence a series of attacks need to be launched. Indian officials confirm that the ISI was trying to influence the Bangladesh elections. An ET report said that the ISI was pumping in huge sums of money to ensure that the BNP wins the elections. The report also says that the conspiracy was hatched by the ISI and was being controlled from the UK. BDnews24.com had reported last month that a huge sum of money was brought illegally from abroad to influence the elections. The report while quoting RAB Director, General Benazir Ahmed said that a horrible conspiracy had been foiled. He said that around 1.5 billion Taka had come in from Dubai and the aim was to influence the national elections. Warning bells: India faces a very crucial election this year. The intelligence agencies are reporting extensive activity by ISI moles and agents to disrupt the polls and create havoc ahead of the polls. ISIS in India is just the ISI minus the 'S' The recently busted module by the NIA was one part of that operation, officials tell OneIndia. However Pakistan wants the deniability factor and hence uses the name of the Islamic State to launch new operations in India. Intelligence agencies in India have always maintained that the operations of the so called ISIS inspired modules in India are not being handled from Iraq or Syria. In the busting of every module, we have come across clear instances of the events being staged by Pakistan. The ISIS problem in India have been two-fold. One is the setting up of modules, while the other is regarding recruitments for the mainland. Be it modules in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi or Uttar Pradesh, they have all been staged by Pakistan. In each case, the Pakistan link has cropped up and the handler has always been traced to that country. IB officials say that the ISI and the Jamaat would also look to activate modules in West Bengal and the neighbouring areas ahead of the elections. The ISI and Jamaat are clearly unhappy with India backing the Awami League over the BNP. There would be attempts to avenge the support that India is handing out to the ruling party in Bangladesh, IB officials also say. Government accused of being insensitive towards the problem of labour issues India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Jan 7: The Central government has not done anything to defer the proposed country-wide strike of labourers called on January 8 and January 9, 2019. The government has not yet initiated any dialogue with 10 important labour organisations of the country which are participating in it. Actually the government has communicated with the labour organisations in the year 2015 and 2016 when they had gone for one-day strike. They are once again going on strike as the government is not talking to them on the issues related to the problem of laborers. The strike is getting supports from farmers, teachers and student organisations of the country. Bharat Bandh on Jan 8-9: What is open, what is closed The meeting between the coal secretary and labour organisations has got canceled making it amply clear that around 2.5 lakh workers employed in the coal mines will now go on strike. But this will not only put the government in dock but power supply in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra will be badly impacted by these workers going on strike. Transport corporation workers of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana are likely to go on strike. So bus services will be impacted in these states. These labour organisations are claiming strike in BEST. So services of Mumbai public transport will also be impacted. Workers of Public Sector Undertaking of the government will also be part of these strikes. Workers of BHEL and SALE are planning to go on strike. Workers of the nationalised banks are supporting this strike but they have not yet decided to if they will stop working or continue to work. Railway workers will be part of the demonstration of the strike. Maharashtra: Around 30,000 BEST employees to begin strike today Joint Organisation of Labourers Central Trade Union general secretary Harbhajan Singh Sidhdhu said that the government has made it clear by interfering into the organisational matters of labour organisation that the government is anti-labourer. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 17:17 [IST] Full or interim budget: Why Modi government wont go for a vote on account India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Jan 7: There has been plenty of talk on whether the final budget by the NDA government would be a full-fledged or an interim one. The interim budget which is also called as the Vote on Account is the most likely option that the government would take ahead of the elections. Sources tell OneIndia that a full budget is unlikely due to the lack of time. It would be next to impossible for full budget to be passed due to the election timetable. Adding to this Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu hinted that the government normally just goes for a vote on account, only for a few days. That will also be only a few days. So it will be a continuous session as per the present arrangement, he had also said. Centre plans for 10 percent reservation to upper castes ahead of Lok Sabha polls The budget will be presented by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley on February 1. This would be his sixth budget since 2014. When the Modi government came to power in 2014, two budgets were presented that year. P Chidambaram as finance minister in the previous UPA government presented an interim budget in February 2014 due to the elections being around the corner. When the Modi government came to power in May 2014, Jaitley went to present a full budget in July. The normal practice is that if the budget falls just a few months before the elections then an interim budget is presented, leaving the full budget to the new government. Jaitley is expected to follow convention and present only an interim budget and allow the new government to present the full budget. The budgetary exercises for the one to be presented in February had begun in October 2018 itself. The finance ministry had even imposed a quarantine from December, which bars the entry of the media into the North Block where the Finance Ministry is housed. The quarantine remains in force until the budget is presented. An interim budget or a vote on account is a provision by which the government obtains permission from Parliament for a quantum of funds sufficient to incur its expenditures for the part of the year until a full budget is presented. Polls from April onwards: The dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be announced by March. The Election Commission of India has already begun the process of collecting details of the dates of festivals and school examinations, following which the poll schedule would be finalised. While the date for the polls would be announced mid-March, the elections would be held in April and May, sources said. The polling is likely to be conducted in several phases across the country. The EC would ensure that the poll dates do not clash with the festivals in the states as well as the school examination. A source informed that the first phase of the elections is likely to take place in the second week of April, while the last phase may take place in the second week of May 2019. In 2014, it may be recalled that in 2014, the polls were held in nine phases between April 7 and May 12. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 15:38 [IST] Decision of Mulayam Singh not contesting from Azamgarh starts war of words between BJP and SP India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Jan 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had opened a front against Samajwadi Patry patron and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh in Azamgarh. He is the sitting MP from there. Posters could be found showing him missing from the constituency. This is being done since the time of the Samajwadi Party government in the state but statement made by SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has made the thing worst for the party. In the election season, every word matters a lot and the statement made by Samajwadi Party general secretary has put the party in quandary. Not only social media but people in the constituency have started criticizing the decision of the former CM. Now Mulayam Singh leaving the seat is being made an issue in Azamgarh. Akhilesh Yadav cleared 13 mining leases on a single day, claims CBI During one of the programmes in Etawah, Ram Gopal Yadav said that the SP will announce name of its candidate by the end of January and party patron will contest the Lok Sabha election from Mainpuri. This is the statement that had caused trouble for the party. Ram Gopal Yadav announcing this amid talks of alliance was being criticised by all and sundry. A Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Azamgarh Brijesh Yadav told Oneindia, "When Mulayan Singh contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had made all tall claims. It was being said that as soon as Mulayan Singh wins election, there will be a flow of development in the district. But when he did not come to his constituency for six months people started looking for by lighting lanterns." Brijesh accused the former CM of dishonesty when he said, "Mulayam Singh managed to somehow win the seat by misusing government machinery, threatening people of Azamgarh, bogus voting and spending Rs 200 crore to win elections. But he did not return Azamgarh after winning the election. He did not utter a single word for the welfare of the people of Azamgarh despite being their representative in Parliament." He said, "The former CM does not even have the moral courage to face the people of the city and ask for their votes therefore it was certain that he will flee from Azamgarh. The BJP appeals to the people of Mainpuri to teach him a lesson of lifetime by defeating him from there in probably the last election of his lifetime to take the revenge of people of Azamgarh." But this has intensified the war between the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. The war between both the party is getting hot by the day. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 19:22 [IST] Farmers' Protest: Farmers are not being allowed to come to Bengaluru, says DK Shivakumar Congress-JD(S) will fight LS polls together: DKS India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Jan 7: Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar said his party will fight the national polls in alliance with the JD(S) across all seats of Karnataka. Shivakumar, who is also a minister, said discussions on seat sharing will be held soon. "I'm saying that we, Congress and JD(S), will fight together in all 28 seats," he told reporters. Asked on JD(S)'s demand for 12 seats, Shivakumar said, "I'm not spokesperson of JD(S). Is it wrong to have a desire? Politically they will have to give a message of confidence and courage to their party workers and seek their support in winning." Karnataka BJP chief Yeddyurappa meets Shivakumar, sparks alliance speculation Seat sharing has emerged as a bone of contention between the two parties, however, leaders of both the parties have exuded confidence in fighting the polls together. Unhappy over the the Congress' "big brother attitude", JD(S) members recently asked its leadership to contest all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state alone. However, JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda has clarified that his party will fight the polls in alliance with the Congress and demanded 12 seats. Indicating reservations about the JD(S)'s demand for 12 seats, state Congress Chief Dinesh Gundu Rao has said seat sharing between the ruling coalition partners will be based on merit. Meanwhile, on reports of few Congress legislators setting Monday deadline over delay in appointments to boards and corporations, Shivakumar said nothing of that sort has happened. He also cited new moon day and eclipse, considered inauspicious, as the reason for the delay. "No one has set any deadline, it is false. Congress party has given the list. Dinesh Gundu Rao gave it to me and I have handed it over to Kumaraswamy. We belong to Hindu culture and there are certain things, today is new moon day and also eclipse, let everything finish. No one can set any deadline," he said. "Both parties have decided on what has to be done. They (JD(S)) too have certain responsibilities, the chief minister has spoke to me. When it has to happen, it will happen," he added. There is a reason why D K Shivakumar is a troubleshooter Pointing out that the chief minister was out of town, Shivakumar said, "They have to decide on their party as well. They recently called a meeting of their party workers. It will be done and there is no reason to worry." Recently, Deve Gowda said appointments to all 30 boards and corporations will be done at one go. Congress forwarded its list of 19 legislators to the chief minister, but according to sources, the move has irked the JD(S) leadership as they were apparently not consulted. Also, Congress recommending some of its legislators as heads of boards and corporations that come under departments controlled by JD(S) ministers has angered the party, leading to the chief minister delaying the appointment. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 5:34 [IST] Climate change will see a rise in Naxalite activities: Report India oi-Shubham Ghosh Bengaluru, Jan 7: The world is now deeply concerned over the menace of climate change and efforts are on to arrive at political consensus to tackle the imminent danger. However, climate change is considered a threat not just because it can lead to deep impact on food security and geographical safety but also bolster social insecurity by means of helping the rebel and extremist activists like Naxalites. A report authored by researchers Pernilla Nordqvist and Florian Krampe for Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said last September. The report has apprehended that climate change will not only worsen socio-economic and political disparity in regions like South Asia and South-East Asia as those in power will decide who gets how much of the limited resources, resulting in dissent and clashes. "The climate-conflict linkage primarily plays out in contexts that are already vulnerable to climate change and violence, and where income is highly dependent on agriculture and fishing," IndiaSpend quoted Nordqvist who said this in an email. International climate meet kicks off in Poland a day after US snubs G20 on climate Human activities have seen the temperature going up by a degree already compared to what it was in the pre-industrial times, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and by another a decade or two, global warming is likely to touch 1.5 degrees Celsius. The two researchers went through 2,000 peer-reviewed studies on the relationship between change and conflict and zeroed in on 21 of the most authoritative works for preparing their report. Their findings from India showed that both rebel groups and government forces find it easier to recruit people in the face of approaching drought. "In some areas affected by the Naxalite conflict, the worsening of livelihood conditions has been related to the increased intensity of ongoing civil conflicts. During a drought, or a potential drought, there is an increased risk that rebels and government actors recruit or cooperate with civilians in exchange for livelihood and provision of food," IndiaSpend reported. Naxalites could make use of the climate-related events to gain power in a conflict which is already underway and rebels could accelerate their violence against civilians to ensure their groups' food security, the report added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 14:49 [IST] 'BJP's new ally is CBI': BSP over probe on illegal mining India oi-Vikas SV Lucknow, Jan 7: Asking how can Akhilesh Yadav be held responsible if an officer violated the law, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) took a jibe at the BJP-led Centre and said the safron party's new alliance is with the CBI which is probing the illegal mining case. Amid reports that the CBI is likely to quiz Akhilesh Yadav in the illegal mining case, the Samajwadi Party chief had on Sunday said he is ready to face the probe agency. In a joint press briefing with the Samajwadi Party, BSP's General Secretary SC Mishra said, "In land-mafia case FIR is against the officer, that officer violated law made by government in allotment process, how does that make then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav Ji responsible for it? Their (BJP) partners are leaving them, their new alliance is with CBI." Trouble for Akhilesh Yadav, CBI may question him The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister may face a probe by the CBI, according to the agency FIR made public on Saturday, the day arch rivals SP and BSP indicated their intent to join hands to counter the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the illegal mining that took place between 2012 and 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, may examine Akhilesh Yadav's role as he was the chief minister during this period The CBI carried out searches at 14 locations on Saturday in connection with its FIR against 11 persons including IAS officer B Chandrakala, Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit (who unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket) to probe alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16. Yadav, who was the chief minister of the state between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13 apparently bringing his role under scanner, according to the FIR. Will have to tell CBI about UP seat sharing: Akhilesh Yadav amid raids He was succeeded by Gayatri Prajapati, who took charge as mining minister in 2013 and was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot. This is a third FIR pertaining to illegal mining cases which were registered by the agency on January 2, 2019, nearly two-and-a-half year after it was directed by the Allahabad High Court to probe the issue. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 13:11 [IST] Bharat Bandh on 26th March 2021: What is Open, What is Closed Bharat Bandh today: Disruptions expected in some parts of the country Bharat Bandh today: Trade Unions' strike set to hit normal life; what will be open and closed India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Jan 8: Normal life is likely to be affected across the country following the two-day nation-wide general strike called by central trade unions against the alleged 'repressive' policies for workers by the Narendra Modi government. The strike has been called by a consortium of ten central trade unions and has received support from organisations like the AITUC, CITU, HMS, AIUTUC, TUCC, AICCTU, along with employees in the banking and insurance sector. The central trade unions have accused the government of ignoring its demands on minimum wage, universal social security, workers' status, including pay and better facilities, and guard against privatisation of public and government sectors. Government accused of being insensitive towards the problem of labour issues Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) service, autorickshaws, taxi services and Banking services are likely to be affected. The strike will be effective from January 8 at 6 am to January 9 till 6 pm. According to reports, buses and autos will stay off roads, aggravating problems for hundreds of daily commuters. Transport will be hit in Karnataka Four unions including Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have extended their support to the protest. BMTC buses as well as KSRTC buses will not ply on January 8 and 9. Schools to be shut With transport being hit, schools and colleges are likely to be closed. District administrations have been given the authority to declare a holiday for schools and colleges depending on the situation there, officials said. Some universities have deferred the examinations. University exams postponed The semester examinations of Bangalore University and Tumkur university have been postponed and even the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) has postponed the B.Pharma and D.Pharma courses examinations. Hotel, malls and theatres to function Hotels, malls and film theatres are also likely to function as usual, with their unions extending "moral" support to the strike. Emergency services available Emergency services like hospitals, ambulance service, medical shops, milk booths will be open. Namma Metro will function Namma Metro will function as usual on these two days. Banking services to be hit Banking services across the country are likely to be affected on January 8-9 due to a nationwide strike, notice for which was served on Saturday by the All India Bank Employees Association (AlBEA) and the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI). Farmers to join strike Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left peasant wings would join the two-day nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 called by central trade unions against the alleged repressive policies for workers adopted by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. "AIKS and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will observe 'gramin hartal', rail roko and road roko on January 8 and 9, the day trade unions are observing the nationwide general strike. This move is against the Modi government's failure to address rural distress issues, to save rural farmers' lands from the corporates. The farmers will extend all support to the ensuing general strike," said Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha. BEST employees firm on strike Around 29,000 employees of the civic run transport service BEST are going on an indefinite strike beginning from Monday midnight for various demands despite an industrial court restraining them from taking the step. Due to the strike, around 25 lakh passengers who travel by 3000 BEST buses that ply on streets of Mumbai city and the metropolitan region every day will be inconvenienced, a union official said late night. Enough is enough, no bandh in Bengal: CM Mamata Banerjee West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that trade unions called general strike would have no impact in the state. "I do not want to spend a single word on this. In West Bengal, we have taken a stand of not supporting any bandh. Enough is enough. In the last 34 years, they (Left Front) have destroyed the state by calling bandh. There will be no bandh," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat. The failure to fulfil the promise of creating over 1 crore jobs a year has been an important reason cited by the trade unions for organising the strike against the Modi government. According to Labour Bureau statistics, 1.55 lakh jobs and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Another major reason cited by the trade unions is the rise in prices of various daily use commodities. All about the Aditya-L1, India's first mission to study the Sun India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Jan 7: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch 'Aditya-L1', the first Indian mission to study the sun, by the year 2020. Originally named as the Aditya-1 mission, is a satellite designed to study the solar corona (outer layers of the Sun) which is quite similar to NASA's Parker Solar Probe. With Aditya-L1, India seems poised to advance its status among the global science community and, indeed, among private companies seeking a bargain on space exploration technology. The main aim of the solar mission is to do coronal and near UV studies of the sun and help resolve some unanswered questions in solar physics. ISRO's new station in Bhutan to pose stiff challenge to China The mission is a joint venture between ISRO and physicists from various institutes including Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai) and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (Pune). Aditya L1 satellite will be launched by using PSLV XL. The launch will take in early part of next solar cycle. The satellite will be programmed to orbit L1 point and image sun's magnetic field from space for very first time in world. Scientists hope to capture close-ups of sun from here, uninterrupted by eclipses for years. According to the ISRO, the Aditya-1 mission was conceived as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and was planned to be launch in a 800 km low earth orbit. Scientists say that any satellite in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system can view the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses. What is the solar corona? ISRO had planned to use Aditya-1 to observe only the solar corona, which is the outer layer of the Sun and extends to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere). The outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere) is termed as the corona. Aditya-1 was meant to observe only the solar corona. It has a temperature of more than a million degree Kelvin which is much higher than the solar disc temperature of around 6000K. Solar physicists haven't yet been able to know how the corona gets heated to such high temperatures. Aditya-L1 with additional experiments can now provide observations of Sun's Photosphere (soft and hard X-ray), Chromosphere (UV) and corona (Visible and NIR). In addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1. These payloads have to be placed outside the interference from the Earth's magnetic field and could not have been useful in the low earth orbit. When will the Aditya - L1 be launched? The Aditya - L1 is set to launch during 2019-2020 timeframe by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh Aditya, which is the Sanskrit word for 'sun' will be ISRO's second high-profile space mission after it launched its Mars orbiter in 2013. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 7, 2019, 23:51 [IST] Central New York Fighting hunger year round Though holidays over, fight to help those in need continues September 23, 2018, Stirnella Bar & Kitchen, Pine & Forge YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE Jessica Luna and Jordan Jackson met in 2007 at a friend's house and talked all night. "That was it," Jessica says. Jordan proposed on a trip to the Northeast. They were driving from Boston to Acadia National Park when they stopped for the night in Rockland, Maine. A visit to Breakwater Lighthouse was on Jessica's list of things to do before dinner at Primo, a restaurant known for its farm-to-table Italian cuisine. As the couple walked the breakwater, they stopped to look at the moon, and Jordan popped the question. "A full moon on one side and a setting sun on the other," Jessica recalls. "After he proposed, a woman with a camera walked up and took our photo; it was perfect. We both were in our road-tripping gear so we looked a bit rough but perfectly relaxed at the same time. Such a great memory!" OVER THE MOON The couple ran out of time to change for dinner so they went directly to the restaurant. At the table was a floral arrangement from Jordan. "I was so over-the-moon excited that I wasnt hungry, so he ate and I had a martini. I still want to go back and try the food; it looked really good." SMALL BUT PERFECT "Video games are huge," Kosalka says. One couple met in New York, so they wanted to include details of the city. They were married in a city park here in Omaha, and a yellow cab like youd see in the Big Apple provided the transportation. Some incorporate a passion in their lives in their wedding theme, or a family tradition they want to celebrate. "They want to introduce to family and friends how they celebrate or how they choose to relax," Kosalka says. "Its important to tell their story from their perspective." Like a good book, the Loverchecks added a twist to their story during the reception. Josette was seven months pregnant, so they did a gender reveal when it was time to cut the cake. Instead of a pink or blue cake, Josette held up a blue banner signifying a boy while Rob gave a short but touching speech. It was quite a surprise for their guests. "He's the first grandson on the Lovercheck side, so they are really excited that the name is going to carry on," Josette says. Baby Jaxon has brought a new chapter into their lives. They adore him, and so does Robs daughter, Kaya. Whenever a family member went to leave his dads hospital room after a visit, a goodbye just wasnt enough. Weber would reach up and pull them in for a hug, tears often welling up in his eyes. It showed you his heart, his son said. Bill, a retired minister, remembers one visit in particular: a Friday when it was just him and his dad. As they talked that night, his dad told him: Youre not just a good son, youre a good friend. Bill said that his dads cancer fight was a matter of faith. His strong Lutheran beliefs taught him that God shows His love through others, through the care of doctors and nurses, through the support from family and friends. Weber and his wife received more than 400 cards, calls and visits from friends. People dropped off so much food at their house everything from casseroles to pies and cookies that it filled up two fridges and two freezers. Fred Petersen has known Weber for 30 years and was a go-to friend for visits, rides to appointments and other help. Petersen always knew that his friend was an optimistic, upbeat guy, but Petersen was impressed by Webers ability to show those traits despite battling cancer. Elizabeth Warren's announcement that she will enter the 2020 presidential race evokes both hope and dread -- hope that the campaign will deliver a better president than the incumbent and dread at the lengthy political ordeal that lies before us. The prospect is something like preparing for knee replacement surgery. It may deliver joy in time, but only after months of pain and tedium. As with knee replacements, a happy outcome is not guaranteed. Warren has assets that may serve her well, being a sharp-witted populist and a woman in a party whose voters are mostly women. It's easy to make the case that she's as likely a nominee as anyone. But when The Hill opened the new year with a rundown titled "The Top Ten Democrats for 2020," holding down the No. 1 spot was someone no one had heard of two years ago and whose claim to fame is not losing by much to an unappealing opponent in a blue year -- Beto O'Rourke. Betting on him is the equivalent of investing in a tech startup, with a slim shot at a bonanza and a good chance of a complete bust. Our work is not over. UNOs Center for Public Affairs Research has found that from 2000 to 2010, 80 percent of Nebraska counties saw their minority populations rise. In two-thirds of counties that experienced population gains during that decade, minority groups contributed more than half the growth. Simultaneously, every study has predicted that the U.S. workforce demands a growing number of college-educated workers. We do not know what all the jobs of the future will be. We know the vast majority of them, particularly the long-term, well-paying jobs, will require higher education. As we look ahead, we must stay focused on our commitment to ensuring that the doors of higher education remain open to all including those who have traditionally been underrepresented. Our entire nation is looking forward to a highly educated and well-trained workforce. We are convinced that our opportunities to join with our partners to grow our student body, to transform more lives and to provide the talent Nebraska needs to stay competitive have never been greater. Our future depends on it. Our students, faculty and staff tell our story best. Jennifer Rivera, a bioinformatics and social work major from Omaha, says her education means to me that anything is possible. A pedestrian struck by a vehicle Sunday evening near Northwest Radial and Hamilton Street sustained a broken left leg, police said. William D. McKnight III, 53, of Omaha, was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center about 8:30 p.m., a police spokesman said. Investigators determined that McKnight was walking east near the intersection of Northwest Radial Highway and Hamilton Street when he was struck by a southbound vehicle that immediately left the scene. Anyone with information about the incident should contact Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP or at omahacrimestoppers.org. Tipsters remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The men and women who fought and bled in the Middle East wars of the past three decades are going to get a welcome home next May at an Omaha landmark that was once synonymous with veteran homecomings in Nebraska. The party for Purple Heart and valor award recipients of the Iraq, Afghanistan and Gulf Wars will take place May 24 at the Durham Museum, the former railroad station where thousands of their World War II predecessors returned from war zones. The event will follow a whirlwind 24 hours that will begin with a tribute dinner, continue with a pre-dawn flight to Washington, D.C., like earlier Honor Flights, and culminate in a trolley ride and parade through the Old Market to the Durham. With it being downtown, we think it will really add to the celebration of welcome home, said Evonne Williams, co-founder with her husband, Bill, of Patriotic Productions, the nonprofit that is putting together the event. We think people will embrace it come on downtown and wave the flags and the signs. An Omaha police officer was hurt Sunday morning when his cruiser was struck from behind on Interstate 80 west of the 24th Street overpass. Officer Aaron Thompson was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center with minor injuries, according to Officer Michael Pecha of the Omaha Police Department. He was treated and released. The other driver was not hurt. Both vehicles sustained heavy damage, Pecha said. Thompson was assisting with traffic control for another crash that had occurred on the curving entrance ramp from westbound Interstate 80 onto southbound Kennedy Freeway. The injury was reported at 10:32 a.m. Nancy Gaarder Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The name of a deceased former teacher at Omahas St. Margaret Mary Catholic School is included on a list of possible sexual abusers released recently. Eugene Parshall taught at St. Margaret Mary in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Rev. Gregory Baxter of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Parshalls name appears on a recently published list of possible sex offenders that was compiled by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, according to a letter that Baxter sent to parishioners late last week. The list is available at jesuitsmidwest.org. Baxter said in the letter that Parshall was listed as having more than one established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against him while teaching at the Holy Rosary Mission/Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was dismissed by the Jesuits in 1964 and sometime after that became a teacher at St. Margaret Mary. Residents of the Gifford Park neighborhood have been campaigning to have their own elementary school since 1999. Later this year, such a school will open at 32nd and Burt Streets. One proposal would have the school bear the name of the neighborhood. A naming committee has recommended that the new school in the Omaha Public Schools district be called Gifford Park Elementary School. The school mascot would be the Groundhogs and the school colors would be green, black and yellow or gold. OPS closed Yates Elementary, which was the neighborhood school at 32nd and Davenport Streets, in 1999. That building now serves as a community center. The OPS board will vote on the new schools name, mascot and colors Monday night. The school is scheduled to open in August. OPS included $17 million in its 2014 bond issue for the elementary school. To name the new school, OPS consulted future students of the school, parents, community members and district officials. An OPS board policy prohibits naming buildings or facilities after someone living or anyone who hasnt been dead for 10 years. The board must approve all OPS building and facility names. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The proposed scholarship program would provide 250 scholarships for the university and another 250 for state colleges in the first year, at a cost of $2 million. The number would double in the second year, for a cost of $4 million annually. The scholarships would be available to university students studying mathematics, engineering, health care, computer information systems and all programs at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis. The state college scholarships would be provided for students of rangeland management, criminal justice, computer information systems and industrial technology. The community colleges would have 65 scholarships in the first year, at a cost of $260,000. The number and cost would double in the second year. The scholarships would be for students in the skilled trades or target areas of study determined by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. Ricketts said it will be up to the individual institutions to set requirements for the scholarships and make the awards. As planned, NU and state college students could renew the scholarships for four years, while community college students could get them for two years. The celebration surrounding the annual Pacific bluefin auction hides how deeply in trouble this species really is, said Jamie Gibbon, associate manager of global tuna conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts. Its population has fallen to less than 3.5 percent of its historic size, and overfishing still continues today. In response to the growing scarcity of the fish, Japan and other governments agreed in 2017 to strict quotas and restrictions on fishing in an attempt to rebuild stocks to 20 percent of historic levels by 2034. That has caused considerable unhappiness and some hardship in Oma. Oma tuna is known as the black diamond of tuna because fishermen still use traditional manual fishing methods rather than trawling, allowing them to catch the fish intact. But to stick to the quota, fishermen there said they decided to go slow in the summer and concentrate instead on fishing in the fall and winter, when tuna fetches a higher price. But when they ventured out, the fish were harder to find than usual , leading to fears in November that the Oma tuna could eventually disappear from the nations sushi bars although Decembers catch was better. In 2002, Jones produced a play titled Sistah Girl and, in 2005, she produced Sistah Girl Revisited. In 2008, as a tribute to a beloved cast member who had died, Janette produced Sistah Girl Now and Again, which played at the Joslyn Art Museums Witherspoon Concert Hall. Janette has received many awards and accomplished much in her lifetime and has also been fortunate enough to follow her dreams. In this new year, Janette can be an inspiration to many other people who have dreams of achieving in different areas of their lives but are reluctant to do so. For instance, for many years Janette loved teaching Gods word. Every opportunity she had, she would be willing to teach others about Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. She said, After beginning to write at an early age, as I became older, I branched out and adapted, produced and directed Passion of the Christ at church in North Carolina. As her love for the Lord continued to increase, she wanted to do even more. She became an ordained elder in the African American Methodist Episcopal Church, and now serves as an associate minister at Allen Chapel AME Church in South Omaha, where Elder Benjamin R. Finnell is pastor. So she switched to felting, the process of rubbing wool with olive oil to harden it. When she attended a wool festival in Wisconsin, events included a hat-making session. That led to a new passion. I started from nothing and had no skills, she said of her millinery launch. I have taken tons and tons of classes to learn all these things that nobody would have a clue it takes to make a hat. She had to learn how to use a sewing machine and how to stretch fabric over wooden molds and steam it to actually create the hats. Many of her hat forms come from France, known for its millinery. She has even used teak salad bowls as forms. Some fabric comes from the Czech Republic. She has made hats out of felt, straw, velour and material made out of cork, among other things. Trembley loves embellishments: jewels, scarves, ribbons, fur, leather, even fake flora and fauna one purple and green hat on display in her shop looks like a hill with a valley that holds what looks like tall grass. Nature inspires me a lot, she said. Clare Claffey has launched her campaign for the 2019 Local Elections. Running as a candidate for the Social Democrats in the Birr Electoral Area, the Banagher native will focus on local issues including healthcare, affordable housing, local economic and social development. The Social Democrats were founded on the core principles of progress, equality, democracy and sustainability. The partys vision is for an Ireland "where every person can achieve their potential." The partys co-leaders are TDs Catherine Murphy and Roisin Shortall. As a new party, this is the first time the Social Democrats have fielded a candidate in Offaly. Speaking at the launch of her campaign in Birr on Saturday, Claffey said: I want to start my campaign the way I will go on by listening to local people. While I am aware of many of the local issues in Banagher, the electoral area is large and varied, and Id like to have a broader picture of the issues of importance to people across the area." "The Laois-Offaly Social Democrats Branch has designed a short online survey and were launching it here today, to capture the issues of importance to the whole community. Id like to urge people to have their say in this survey and help us to target the issues we look at first. The link to the survey can be found at the Facebook page for Clare Claffey Social Democrats. Gender balance on Offaly County Council has been in the news recently, with no women represented among the 19 current county councillors. Clare said: Id love to see better gender balance on Offaly County Council. Im delighted that three women so far have put their names forward to contest the local elections, and I hope that after May there will be at least one woman on the Council for each of the three electoral areas, Birr, Edenderry and Tullamore. Clare is also encouraging all Offaly residents to Check the Register to ensure that they can vote in May. While the Electoral Register for 2019 will be published in February, it is possible to add your name to the supplementary register, up to 15 days before polling day. Emphasising that everyone living in an area can vote in the local elections, Clare said, all of us are impacted by the policies of the County Council, whether that is through accessing services like housing or planning, or using roads, playgrounds, libraries or fire services." "Thats the case whether youre an Irish citizen or not, so its important that everyone makes sure they are on the register and makes sure they have a say on 24th May. All details and forms are on www.checktheregister.ie. Clare will be campaigning in the West and South Offaly areas in the coming months and can be contacted at clare.claffey@socialdemocrats.ie. Anyone with questions, issues or comments is invited to get in touch, by email, phone or via social media. The long wait is over to try out a section of the Slieve Bloom Bike Trails. Coillte opened a small looped section of the new cross mountain tracks just before Christmas to give people a taste of what's to come. The trail will eventually offer 100km of exciting biking tracks, varying in difficulty, from Baunreagh in Laois across to Kinnitty in Offaly. For now, the public can try a 4km section near Kinnitty village, with one 800m downward single track section not for the fainthearted. Coillte advise bikers to wear their helmets, and not to encroach on other unfinished sections, or it will delay their final surfacing. "The descent is fast in sections, so as with all MTB trails, make sure you ride within your ability and always wear a helmet" Coillte says. To access the trails which are open, drive to and park in Kinnitty village, Co. Offaly and cycle towards Kinnitty Castle/ Clonaslee. Follow blue waymarkers along the road and turn into the forest just after the GAA pitch. Sections of doubletrack will take you into the trail system with a long road climb and singletrack descent. Follow the blue waymarkers throughout. Phase 1 with 35km of tracks in Laois and Offaly is to open in mid-April. Coillte had planned to finish it by last October 2018 but the project was beset by delays caused by the hot summer. Coillte is building the trails in partnership with Offaly and Laois County Councils, funded by both councils and by substantial government grants. Failte Ireland has joined in support of completing the 5 million project. The trail is expected to attract thousands more tourists to the Slieve Blooms and boost income for surrounding areas. Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan has slammed the increase in VAT rate for the tourism sector which came into effect on January 1. In last October's budget, the government moved to reinstate the longstanding 13.5% rate for the sector, something that had been reduced to 9% during the recession. This VAT rate applies to small restaurants, bars, hotels and hair salons but Deputy Nolan, who opposed the increase in October's budget, said that the huge increase in VAT rate from 9% to 13.5% is "a very unfair hike which will have a negative impact on small businesses outside of Dublin currently struggling to keep their doors open." "I have been contacted in recent weeks by a number of very concerned business owners throughout Offaly and Laois. The government seem to have ignored rural Ireland and the fact that businesses such as restaurants, bars, hotels and hair salons provide much-needed employment in counties like Offaly and Laois." "The increase from 9%to 13.5% will have an adverse impact on businesses in small towns and villages throughout Offaly and Laois. You cannot compare a business in Dublin City centre with one in a small town or village in Offaly or Laois," Carol said. "It must be highlighted that many of these businesses have already had to endure extortionate rates hikes and insurance hikes, and to expect them to pay an increase in VAT is adding insult to injury." "The fact that this VAT increase is being imposed on businesses at a time when there is still much uncertainty about the effects of Brexit is ludicrous and clearly shows that the government is out of touch with reality and the genuine concerns of small businesses." "The tourism sector provides over 235,000 jobs annually, many of these jobs are in regional and rural areas, and there is no doubt but that many of these jobs will now be under serious threat." Deputy Nolan concluded by saying that "the unfair VAT hike will discourage people from starting their own business and will stifle progress and the potential for economic growth in regional areas." Not a single GP in Offaly has signed up to supply abortion services, the Irish Times has reported. Offaly is one of just four counties where doctors have failed to sign up to the new services which became legal in Ireland on January 1. Similarly, no GPs in Leitrim, Carlow or Sligo have signed up to provide the services. It's understood some doctors fear protests outside their premises if they sign up. Under the new service, GPs will provide medical abortions using the abortion pill to women up to nine weeks, while terminations between nine and 12 weeks are performed in hospitals. The Health Service Executive says details of abortion services are provided through the new My Options helpline on 1800 828 010 and the www.myoptions.ie website. The new website provides information for people experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Myoptions.ie also gives detailed information on abortion services and how they work. Abortion care will be free of charge to people who need it. The HSE says there have been quite a lot of calls to the helpline already. The HSE has listed the maternity units providing abortion care in Ireland: - National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin - Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar - Rotunda Hospital, Dublin - Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda - University Hospital Galway - Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar - University Maternity Hospital Limerick - Cork University Maternity Hospital - University Hospital Waterford On top of that, just short of 200 of the country's 3,500 GPs have signed up to provide the service. What abortion services will be provided? The law allows abortion in the following cases: Up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. People under 9 weeks of pregnancy will mainly be cared for by a GP, and people between 9 and 12 weeks will be cared for in hospital. Where there is a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant person. People in these cases will be cared for in a hospital setting. Where there is a condition likely to lead to the death of the foetus before or shortly after birth. People in these cases will be cared for in a hospital setting. A new research report on the future of the Leaving Certificate has shown that 76% of Irish students want a continuous assessment system for the Leaving Certificate exams. The report, Senior Cycle Reform What do you want?, was published on Monday, January 7, by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD). It surveyed the attitudes and views of students, parents, teachers and principals on the Leaving Certificate and its future reform. The report also showed that 97% of parents want reform, compared to 65% of principals, deputy principals and teachers. 79% of students do not feel that the current senior cycle programme encourages active learning methodologies while 28% of principals, deputy principals & teachers, 4% of students and 15% of parents feel the Leaving Certificate is fair and accurately assesses students. Students are the only group who would support a teacher correcting their own students assessment (51%) compared to 30% and 22% of parents and principals, deputy principals & teachers respectively. Speaking about the research, NAPD Director Clive Byrne said, This publication is the result of four months of comprehensive research and information gathering. Initially, it was quite unsettling to see that only 4% of students and 28% of principals, deputy principals and teachers feel that the Leaving Certificate in its current format is fair and accurately assesses students." "However, and more importantly, what it also points to is a huge appetite for a change amongst all stakeholders. For example, 76% of students support a move towards continuous assessment. While almost one in four of all principals, deputy principals and teachers support the concept." The reports research is also bolstered by personal contributions from opinion leaders in the third level and business community including Professor Philip Nolan, President of Maynooth University, Barry Napier CEO Cubic Telecoms, Rose Mary Hogan Head of Graduate Programme in Glanbia and Lewis Purser Director of the Irish University Association. Speaking about the importance of education, Professor Nolan states in the report, Education should stimulate this sense of a joy in learning, a curiosity to find out new things, an openness to thinking differently, and an openness to admitting you might have been incorrect in the past and have learned something new now. That love of learning, curiosity, a confidence in your capability, an openness to learning and thinking differently, are the most valuable things to take from time spent in education, and an important thing for both students and teachers to focus on. Oisin Hassan, Vice President of Academic Affairs in the Union of Students in Ireland, whose members also participated in the research, commented on the findings: Almost 700 USI members engaged in this research project. They are currently completing the Leaving Certificate or have done so within the last five years and have very strong opinions on how the examination needs to be reformed. For a large majority they do not believe that the current system is fit for purpose or meets their needs and the challenges they face outside of education." "There has been much talk about reform of the Leaving Certificate for many years. Yet each year another class completes the exam without any meaningful change occurring. Relying on just one single exam to determine the work of each student across all their years in second level education is unfair on students. It needs to change. We need to move beyond just talking about reform to actively embracing it. I am hopeful this research will help to accelerate this process." In response to the reports findings the NAPD has set out three key recommendations to support senior cycle reform. These are: - The establishment of a new Citizens Assembly Education Forum bringing together all stakeholders to fast-track the senior cycle reform process; - The inclusion of an additional practical component as part of the Leaving Certificate examination assessment process; and - To ensure equality for all ringfence funding for traineeships and apprenticeships to ensure the Leaving Certificate is not largely focused on further and/or higher education. Discussing their recommendations, Mr. Byrne said, The three recommendations as laid out in our report, are realistic, achievable and most importantly, will modernise our education system which has fallen behind the technological advancements in all other sectors. We have no doubt that many resources, funding, training, and hours of planning and dedication are needed to accomplish any reform, but it must be prioritised by both Minister McHugh and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. What is important about senior cycle reform is that the conversation is starting, people recognise change is needed, and people are starting to think about practical solutions. We have seen small changes over recent years with the introduction of the new subjects such as Politics and Society or the recent two-day extension to the Leaving Certificate timetable to ease pressure on students." "However, we need more than small steps. We in the NAPD want to lead the voice for change, and to ensure this critical conversation continues, Mr. Byrne concluded. A 19-year-old volunteer firefighter from western Pennsylvania was recently charged with arson, criminal mischief and risking catastrophe after allegedly setting two houses on fire out of boredom. Last month, police in Munhall, a community located about 8 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, arrested Ryan Laubham, a local volunteer firefighter, for allegedly setting fire to a pair of occupied homes on December 3 and 10. After interviewing witnesses and checking CCTV footage, authorities identified Laubham as the prime suspect in both cases, and he himself admitted to the crimes, saying that he had set the houses on fire because he was bored. Photo: skeeze/Pixabay On December 10, police and firefighters were alerted about a house fire in the 100 block of Crawford Avenue shortly before 3 a.m.. The owner of the home told first responders that she was sleeping on her couch in the living room when she suddenly awakened to thick smoke and crackling of flames. While the woman was being questioned, one of her neighbors approached the police officers and told them that someone had set fire to his back porch only a week before. Fire investigators determined that both fires were started intentionally, and police opened an investigation. While checking security camera footage from several homes in the neighborhood, investigators saw a man running in an alley behind the street where both fires had been set, after seeing the police cars approaching the site of the December 10 fire. Interestingly, the man waited for the cruisers to pass by and then walked into Munhalls No. 4 fire station. Another video showed the same man leaving and then re-entering a house in the 100 block of Lawrence Street, which was later determined to be Ryan Laubhams home. Court documents show that when he was first approached by police, the suspect said that he was at home on the night of the second fire, playing video games. After being informed about the security camera footage, the 19-year-old changed his story, saying that he had left his home to visit his girlfriend. As investigators pressed on with their questions, the young volunteer firefighter finally admitted to starting both fires, using gasoline for the December 10 arson, and paper towels for the one he had started a week before. He was charged with five arson related charges, two counts of causing or risking a catastrophe and two counts of criminal mischief, and was sent to county jail after failing to cover the $200,000 bond. On January 2nd, Ryan Laubham waived his preliminary hearing, so his case will be going to trial. Talking to reporters, his lawyer said he was scared and nervous about the charges. Hes scared. Hes a young man who has a bright promising future. Hes nervous, said Casey White, Laubhams lawyer. As crazy as firefighters setting fires sounds, this is actually a relatively frequent occurrence. It even has a name, firefighter arson, and according to the National Volunteer Fire Council, there are around 100 cases of firefighter arson arrests every year, in the US. Boredom, along with the prospect of getting attention for responding to the fires they have set are the two main motives cited by offenders. Firefighter arson is not just an American problem. Last year, three firefighters in Germany were accused of being involved in over 30 arson attacks and causing almost $3 million in damages. Apparently, their excuse was the sheer enjoyment of putting out fires Nardo hopes its return will serve as a visual reminder of the history the state will be highlighting this year, the quadricentennial of Virginias first democratic assembly at Jamestown. To mark the occasion, the House has also prepared an online database of the roughly 10,000 people who have served as burgesses or delegates throughout Virginias history. Virginia has long been recognized as the birthplace of America, said House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, in a news release last week. Leaders of our commonwealth were the founders of the United States ongoing experiment in representative self-government. Even Cox wont be allowed to sit in the old speakers chair, which will be formally unveiled Jan. 24 during a Virginia Capitol Foundation reception. A flyer for the event recounts some of the history, saying the chairs large and ornate form symbolically mirrors the height and reach of the office. It survived the destruction of the colonial Capitol by fire in 1747, served as backdrop to the momentous House debates of the 1760s and 1770s, survived the Revolutionary War and its removal from Williamsburg to the new Capitol in Richmond in 1780 and emerged unscathed from the devastation of the American Civil War. This chair is a rare historical testament, a distinguished object with an extraordinary history that reminds us of the great continuity and remarkable durability of this 400-year-old institution. In many ways, the Globes are the fashion warm-up for the Oscars, when most every actress shows up in couture and the men are often in bespoke tuxedos. We can expect more Celine and Louis Vuitton and Valentino. More white. More velvet. But the bigger lesson of the Globes is that increasingly the men on the red carpet are just as interesting as the women - if not more so. The men are not suddenly releasing some long-caged inner peacock. Their flamboyant side has been out and strutting for quite some time. It's that the women's clothes overall just aren't quite as exciting anymore. Lady Gaga was a one-off. The balance of fashion is shifting to the fellas. TALLAPOOSA COUNTY -- A 48-year-old Cleveland woman was fatally shot Sunday during a hunting trip near Lake Martin. Tallapoosa County Sheriffs Office identified the victim as Donna Duran, in a news release Monday afternoon. At around 11:36 a.m. Sunday, the sheriffs office responded to an incident on Centerpoint Road near Chuck's Marina, south of Dadeville off Highway 50 in Tallapoosa County. Initial report was that an individual was removing a rifle from the rear seat of a vehicle when the weapon discharged causing the death of the victim, the news release said. The shooting remains under investigation by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Tallapoosa County Sheriffs Office. The investigation also is awaiting autopsy results from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Very rare This incident is the first reported firearm-related hunting fatality in Alabama this calendar year, according to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources chief of enforcement Michael Weathers. Weve really gotten a really great response out of that. Ill see people out, just in the community, and folks will stop me and say hey, I watched your video on Facebook, that their neighbor had attended it and told them about it, Hughes said of the seminar. So, that turned out, you know, I guess, with more impact or much larger than we anticipated. Over the summer, a Drug Information Training for Educational Professionals was held for local educators and school officials to learn how to recognize drugs and chemically impaired students to help prevent impaired driving and to provide safe learning environments. It was the first time the program was held in Lee County. In mid-November, the office announced that four drug take-back kiosks were installed throughout Lee County in an effort to provided resources for citizens to property dispose of unused or expired medications to help cut back on the misuse or abuse of prescription drugs. The office has also been working to improve its social media presence by utilizing different social platforms to provide reminders, other public service announcements and to serve as a connecting tool with citizens. Auburn City Council faces a plethora of items to be discussed at Tuesdays Committee of the Whole Meeting, 6:45 p.m., and the city council meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Animal control We have the Lee County Spay and Neuter Program presentation by Commissioner Robert Ham, and I understand Roger Rendleman, the county administrator, will be there as well, Auburn City Manager Jim Buston said. The Lee County Commissions presentation will be conducted at the beginning of the Committee of the Whole Meeting to emphasize the importance of controlling the pet population and pet adoption. When we looked at how the Atmore area solved the problem, they put about $6,000 a year in a fund, and the fund was to supplement doing spay and neuters on dogs and cats for people with an income under and about $30,000, Ham said. It took them nine years, but they solved the problem up there. To curb the pet population, the city of Atmore used the funded supplement and actively encouraged residents to adopt their pets, and Ham wants to share Atmores success with Smiths Station, Opelika and Auburn. WASHINGTON Two Marines and a Navy corpsman stationed in northern Iraq are being investigated in the death of an American civilian contractor last week, two Defense Department officials said on Monday. The contractor was severely wounded in what officials described as a physical altercation on New Years Eve in Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The contractor, who worked for Lockheed Martin, was evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany, and pronounced dead on Jan. 4. The two Defense Department officials confirmed the death on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the continuing investigation. Ed Buice, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said in an email that the agency does not discuss the details of ongoing investigations. ROME Pope Francis defended modern multilateral diplomacy and international institutions against the resurgence of nationalistic tendencies in an address at the Vatican on Monday. Francis did not cite specific countries in his speech, delivered to diplomats at the Holy See, but he appeared to be lamenting the mix of jingoism and isolationism that has emerged in the United States and in European nations where populist governments have risen to power. Noting that the League of Nations, established after World War I, had failed to head off another war largely because countries were not willing to work together, Francis raised the specter of fresh violence. The same attitudes are presently threatening the stability of the major international organizations, he said, urging Europeans in particular to remain united in the face of temptation to erect new curtains. BANGKOK An 18-year-old Saudi woman who expressed fear that she would be killed if sent back to her family was allowed to remain in Thailand on Monday evening, ending a tense 48-hour drama at Bangkoks main international airport. The young woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, was on the verge of being deported earlier in the day at the request of the Saudi government. But after she and human rights advocates mounted a global social media campaign, Thai immigration officials agreed not to send her home. Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send someone back to die, said the countrys immigration chief, Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. We will take care of her as best as we can. After meeting with Ms. Alqunun and officials from the United Nations refugee agency Monday afternoon, General Surachate said that Ms. Alqunun had been allowed to leave the airport with agency representatives. They will take up to 10 days to process her request for refugee status and find a country that will accept her. MANILA For some inmates of the Manila City Jail, making the bed means mopping up sludgy puddles, unfolding a square of cardboard on the tile floor and lying down to sleep in a small, windowless bathroom, wedged in among six men and a toilet. On one recent night at the jail, in Dorm 5, the air was thick and putrid with the sweat of 518 men crowded into a space meant for 170. The inmates were cupped into each other, limbs draped over a neighbors waist or knee, feet tucked against someone elses head, too tightly packed to toss and turn in the sweltering heat. Since President Rodrigo Dutertes violent antidrug campaign began in 2016, Philippine jails have become increasingly more packed, propelling the overall prison system to the top of the World Prison Briefs list of the most overcrowded incarceration systems in the world. SEOUL, South Korea North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a four-day visit at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Chinese and North Korean official media said. The visit offers Mr. Kim and Mr. Xi an opportunity to coordinate strategy face to face should Mr. Kim have a second summit meeting with President Trump. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, confirmed Mr. Kims visit after a flurry of reports from South Korean media that a train appearing to be carrying a senior North Korean official had passed through Dandong, a Chinese city on the border with North Korea. The train entered China on Monday and pulled into Beijing on Tuesday morning, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. North Koreas state-run Central Television also confirmed the visit, reporting that Mr. Kim started the four-day visit to the country on Monday at Mr. Xis invitation. It said he was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and senior officials, including Kim Yong-chol, Mr. Kims right-hand man in diplomatic negotiations with the United States and South Korea. Soldiers arrived Sunday afternoon at the Daily Trust office in Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded, and rounded up two journalists working there, Uthman Abubakar, a regional editor, and Ibrahim Sawab, a reporter who has worked in the past for The New York Times. The men were detained in a military barracks. Mr. Sawab was released several hours later, but Mr. Abubakar remained in custody on Monday, colleagues said. Later Sunday afternoon, armed soldiers in five vehicles stormed the papers main office in the capital, Abuja, and ordered journalists working inside to evacuate. They occupied the building for four hours, according to Mannir Dan-Ali, the papers editor in chief, ransacking the newsroom and carting away dozens of computers. Soldiers also entered the newspapers offices in Lagos and Kaduna. Their actions strangulated the production of the Monday edition of the paper, Mr. Dan-Ali said. President Muhammadu Buhari, who is running for re-election next month, made big gains against Boko Haram when he first took office in 2015, but some of that success has slipped away in recent months, as the group has carried out a series of successful attacks against the military. Boko Haram fighters have killed dozens of soldiers, even posting online a gruesome video of one attack, and rumors have circulated that they once again control some territory in the countrys northeast. Soldiers have complained about long tours of duty that have left them with no days off for months, worn-out equipment and low rations, according to local news reports. The military has disputed all such claims. Even if it was stupid, theres significantly more political upset in Gabon then there has been, said Eric Benjaminson, a former United States ambassador to the country, who left in 2013. Its a marker for something. Mr. Bongo needs to return to Gabon, he said, and do something positive for the country. In a New Years Eve speech broadcast from Morocco, where Mr. Bongo, 59, was recuperating, the president sought to reassure the nation that he was fit. It is true that I have been through a difficult period, as sometimes happens in life, he said. Today, as you can see, I am better and I am preparing to meet you again soon. Observers noted that the president had slurred some words and did not move his right arm. The first indication that something was amiss in Libreville on Monday came early in the morning, when songs from the campaign of Jean Ping, Mr. Bongos chief opponent in the 2016 presidential election, were broadcast over national radio. A call to the station during the broadcast was answered by Lt. Kelly Ondo Obiang, the leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defense and Security Forces of Gabon, who said he would announce a coup shortly. He went on the air and did just that, while station employees were held hostage during the broadcast. Lieutenant Obiang said that Mr. Bongos speech from afar had reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office. A Michigan Uber driver accused of killing six people and wounding two others in a 2016 shooting spree pleaded guilty to murder on Monday just before his trial was set to begin. The driver, Jason B. Dalton, terrorized the Kalamazoo area on Feb. 20, 2016, when he drove wildly through the city and its suburbs, shooting people outside a car dealership, a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a townhouse complex. Over a period of hours, he gave Uber customers rides between the seemingly random shootings. The gunfire rattled Western Michigan and raised questions about Ubers screening of its drivers at a time when the ride-hailing service was expanding into smaller cities. It helps with community healing, some closure, said Mayor Bobby Hopewell of Kalamazoo. Its a heinous incident. Mr. Dalton, who was arrested the night of the shootings, initially pleaded not guilty and appeared to be headed to trial until his last-minute plea. Last year, Mr. Dalton won a case in the Michigan Court of Appeals that barred prosecutors from using incriminating statements made to police officers. Mr. Dalton had spoken to officers shortly after the shootings. LOS ANGELES There are 900 schools, 30,000 teachers and more than 600,000 students in the Los Angeles public school system. By the end of the week, a teacher strike could throw them all into crisis. After months of failed negotiations, teachers are expected to walk off the job on Thursday, in a show of frustration over what they say are untenable conditions in the second-largest school system in the country. Teachers and other employees in the Los Angeles Unified School District are demanding higher pay, smaller class sizes and more support staff like counselors and librarians. But district officials say that they do not have the money to meet all of the demands and that the strike would do more damage to schools than good. A strike in Los Angeles would offer a new stage for the national teacher protest movement, which in the last year has driven walkouts against stagnant pay and low education funding in six states. A walkout in staunchly liberal Los Angeles would also signal a major shift in a movement that has spread mostly in conservative or swing states with weaker unions. Good Monday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ President Trumps national security adviser, John R. Bolton, appeared to roll back Mr. Trumps decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave American forces there for months or even years. Read about the conditions. Mr. Trumps evolving definition of a border wall was central to negotiations over the government shutdown on Sunday, as he told reporters he was fine with a steel barrier. House Democrats moved to increase pressure on the president by vowing to pass individual bills to reopen certain departments that handle critical functions. Read about the discussions. The Trump administration has adopted several strategies to deter migrants and persuade them to turn around or not to come at all. Its latest effort is a policy that admits only a few asylum seekers a day at border crossings. As a result, migrants are now waiting on the Mexican side of the border for weeks and months. Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, as recently as late last year explored the possibility of becoming president of the University of South Carolina, four people familiar with the discussions said. Mr. Mulvaney, a congressman from South Carolina for six years before joining the Trump administration, initiated a discussion with a senior official at the university late last year about the position, which is going to become open this summer. By then, Mr. Mulvaney already had two other jobs he led the federal Office of Management and Budget, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But he was weeks away from getting a third job that he had lobbied President Trump for over several months: White House chief of staff. Mr. Mulvaney got the job in an acting capacity a move Mr. Trump said over the weekend gave him flexibility with various appointments after being replaced with a permanent director at the consumer bureau. But chief of staff is not a cabinet-level position requiring Senate confirmation, so it is unclear why the acting designation has remained. WASHINGTON The World Bank said on Monday that its president, Jim Yong Kim, would step down from his post in February to join a private infrastructure investment firm, an unexpected departure that comes nearly three years before the end of his term. The abrupt resignation, which is effective Feb. 1, could prompt a clash between the Trump administration and other governments over the future of the international body. The United States traditionally selects the president of the World Bank, which is made up of more than 100 countries, but Mr. Trump has taken a skeptical view about the importance of multilateral institutions. The World Banks priorities like combating climate change and engaging in foreign aid also tend to be at odds with those of the Trump administration. Last month, the bank announced it would invest $200 billion toward fighting climate change over a five-year period. The Trump administration did surprise some development experts last year when it supported a $13 billion capital increase for the World Bank, the first such boost since 2010. The increase, which the White House had initially resisted, was conditional on the bank putting cost controls in place and came with the understanding that lending to China would be expected to decline. The bank lent $64 billion to developing countries last year, a figure that included China. Jim Kim had deftly struck a balance between keeping the Trump administration mollified and involving the World Bank in work on areas that the administration has been openly hostile to, said Eswar Prasad, the former head of the International Monetary Funds China division. The new head of the institution will face a difficult challenge in maintaining the institutions legitimacy and relevance while hewing to the Trump administrations open hostility to multilateralism. But Democrats said they were left with the impression that the most senior officials in attendance were arguing that they were not empowered to make any agreements. Mr. Pence noted that no numbers for wall funding would be discussed because the meeting was not a principals meeting. And when he introduced the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as the person who knew Mr. Trump better than anyone, Mr. Kushner demurred, saying that distinction belonged to his wife, Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter, who was not in the meeting. A White House staffer in attendance described the weekend discussions as productive and cordial, but blamed Ms. Pelosi for being unwilling to look like she was negotiating with Mr. Trump to end the shutdown. While there was little common ground, some small advances were made, White House officials said. Republicans agreed that a concrete wall was a non-starter, and that any text of a bill would refer to steel and not concrete. And even though Mr. Pence said numbers would not be part of the weekend discussions, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, on Sunday provided Democrats with a written statement outlining why the administration needed $5.7 billion for a barrier along the southern border. In the meeting, Ms. Nielsen also gave the full briefing she had prepared to give Democratic leaders last week in the Situation Room, outlining what the White House has described as a crisis at the border. Several Democrats in the room, according to the White House official, said they agreed with her that a humanitarian border crisis did exist. But the Democrats who were interviewed said the two sides remained far apart about what constituted the correct response to a humanitarian crisis. Stephen Miller, the White House policy aide who has been the architect of the presidents immigration policies and its public face, occupied a seat along the edge of the room at Saturdays meeting, not at the table, and spoke infrequently, according to attendees. He interjected memorably only once, to argue that the Flores agreement, which limits how long the government can detain immigrant children to 20 days, was creating a loophole for smugglers. DES MOINES Allison Kipp is all in for Senator Elizabeth Warrens presidential campaign, but she was the exception. Ben Miller, a 21-year-old student at Iowa State University, said he wants to vote for an economic populist, and if Senator Bernie Sanders runs again it will be a tough choice between him and Ms. Warren. Charles Miller, Bens father, said he expects to vote for Ms. Warren, but is also intrigued by a Democrat who could be described as her ideological opposite: Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. As Democrats, we havent seen a big field like this in a long time, said the elder Mr. Miller, a 47-year-old resident of Ankeny, Iowa. And as long as they keep it positive, as long as theres no personal attacks and they just share their views, its going to be a good thing. Im ready to be convinced. Such is the mood of Iowa Democrats, who are currently feeling somewhat spoiled after a visit by Ms. Warren this weekend more than a year before a single vote is cast in the states caucuses unofficially kicked off the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. The partys 2016 primary was defined by rigid and bitter lanes of Hillary Clinton and Mr. Sanders, but as the 2020 nomination process begins, the states voters are giddy at the prospect of a crowded field that could feature more than a dozen candidates across the ideological spectrum. So some Democrats were discomfited by the revelation that the first of the Alabama efforts was explicitly devised to try out the tactics of the Russian operation, according to an internal report on the project obtained by The Times. Rather than Russians working in St. Petersburg posing as Americans, this time Democrats most of them far from Alabama pretended to be conservative state residents. The first of the Alabama efforts was funded by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, who apologized and said he had been unaware of the project and did not approve of the underhanded methods. The second was funded by two Virginia donors who wanted to defeat Mr. Moore a former judge accused of pursuing sexual relationships with underage girls according to a participant who would speak about the secret project only on the condition of anonymity and who declined to name the funders. The two projects each received $100,000, funneled in both cases through the same organization: Investing in Us, which finances political operations in support of progressive causes. Dmitri Mehlhorn, the groups managing partner, declined to comment on whether he approved of the tactics he had helped pay for. But after the Times report in December, he acknowledged, in a post on the online forum Medium, a concern that our tactics might cause us to become like those we are fighting. He declared that some tactics are beyond the pale. Another organizer of the project, according to two participants, was Evan Coren, a progressive activist who works for the National Archives unit that handles classified documents. He did not respond to requests for comment. Beth Becker, a social media trainer and consultant in Washington who handled Facebook ad spending for the Dry Alabama page and the projects other Facebook page, called Southern Caller, said in an interview that a nondisclosure agreement prohibited her from saying much about the project. But, she added, I dont think anything this group did crossed any lines. That may be true in the sense that neither law nor regulations set any clear limits on social media activity in elections. The law has clearly not caught up with social media, Ms. Becker said. The new governor also said he would propose in his new budget, due out later this week, mandating that all Californians obtain health care insurance, in direct response to the Republican tax bill last year that removed the mandate from the Affordable Care Act. Such a mandate in California would require approval of the Legislature, which is far from assured. His office also announced that he would create a surgeon general position for the state by executive order. His aides said the governors first budget would seek to expand Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented youths up to age 26. Mr. Newsom, 51, had been the states lieutenant governor largely a ceremonial position for eight years under Mr. Brown. Before that, he served as mayor of San Francisco, where he positioned himself, for the most part, on the liberal side of the spectrum. He was an early promoter of same-sex marriage and the legalization of recreational marijuana. On Monday, he used his speech to laud Mr. Browns tenure; the mention of his predecessors name drew a standing ovation. But Mr. Newsom left little doubt that he had a broader view of government than the moderate Mr. Brown. The departing governor inherited a $28 billion deficit and left Mr. Newsom a $14 billion surplus; he also created an $18 billion so-called rainy day fund to help the state get through what is widely viewed as an inevitable coming recession. Mr. Browns insistence on holding onto state revenues was a source of continued friction with Democratic allies in the Legislature, who wanted to use the money to restore spending cuts that had been in place during the Great Recession. Mr. Newsoms agenda is likely to be costly, and thus likely to face obstacles as the new governor prepares to offer a new budget. Mr. Brown, among others, has warned that California is heading into a recession, and there are concerns in the business community and among some moderate Democrats that the former San Francisco mayor might take a decidedly different approach to spending than Mr. Brown. Anthony Rendon, the Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, said in an interview Monday morning that while he supported some of Mr. Newsoms initiatives, he had strong reservations about raising taxes to pay for them, as Mr. Newsoms aides have suggested. Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee granted clemency on Monday to Cyntoia Brown, commuting her life sentence for killing a man who had picked her up for sex when she was a teenage trafficking victim. Ms. Brown, 30, will be released to supervised parole on Aug. 7, said Mr. Haslam, who will leave office later this month. She will have served 15 years in prison. [Read the Timess review of the Cyntoia Brown Netflix documentary, Murder to Mercy.] Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16, Mr. Haslam, a Republican, said. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Transformation should be accompanied by hope, he said. Ms. Browns story attracted widespread attention and she garnered support from celebrities, including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West. Lawmakers and rights activists highlighted the years of abuse and forced prostitution that she endured in her youth and lobbied the governor to grant her clemency before his term was up. The New York Times theater critics Ben Brantley and Jesse Green attended the opening weekend of the Public Theaters annual Under the Radar festival. Heres the first of their reports on the experimental work on display. The festival runs through Jan. 13 at various venues; for more information visit publictheater.org. [50/50] old school animation Through Jan. 13. If youre creeped out by Villanelle the angel-faced psychopath from Killing Eve you may want to steer clear of the nameless woman who opens this corrosive double bill of monologues. But if you enjoy unblinking journeys into everyday hearts of darkness (and hey, I dont judge you), then this portrait of a blank-faced young Brooklynite may be just your ticket. She is embodied by a pale and attenuated Julia Mounsey, who with Peter Mills Weiss created this icy diptych about giving and receiving pain. Though only in her early 20s, Ms. Mounseys character has figured out her definitive purpose in life, and shes totally cool with it: She exists to hurt other people. That description has nothing to do with the rituals of consensual sadomasochism. She works by stealth, and when she accomplishes her goal, these victims are unlikely to blame her for their suffering. In One Good Meal, we ask cooking-inclined creative people to share the story behind a favorite dish they actually make and eat at home on a regular basis and not just when theyre trying to impress. The chef Nina Clemente spent much of her childhood in New York City and southern Italy, but some of her earliest memories are of Chennai, India, a bustling city on the Bay of Bengal. She and her family lived there for half a year while her father, the artist Francesco Clemente, worked in the area. I remember an insane monsoon season, says Clemente, who was 4 during their stay. I woke up one night and my bed was floating in the center of the living room, and all the stray cats we had taken in were gone. This journey to a different world heightened Clementes senses and stimulated her palate. Her mother the artist, actress and costume designer Alba Clemente would often experiment with local ingredients as she cooked a red lentil dal. To this day, Clemente says, the traditional Indian dish is one of my comfort foods. In New York, almost every living situation involves a trade-off of some kind. As Joseph Boudin discovered during his first few years in the city, figuring out how to balance the pros and cons of various locations, rents, roommates and apartments is a difficult art to master. Since moving from Alabama four years ago, Mr. Boudin, 25, has lived in five apartments, each a brief attempt to find a long-term home. After a year in Manhattan, he moved to Staten Island to save on rent, although he was working in Midtown East. When he discovered the commute was miserable, he overcorrected by moving into a Hells Kitchen room-share where his rent, at $1,875, rivaled that of a studio apartment. And he still had to travel across town to work. Then he found a $1,200-a-month bedroom in an Upper East Side walk-up that turned out to be his worst calculation of all. Going in, he knew the accommodations wouldnt be deluxe. The two-bedroom apartment was small, shabby and on the sixth floor. When my best friend moved me in, she said, Joseph, are you sure you want to live here? Mr. Boudin recalled. There was a hole around the bathroom pipe that was the size of a dinner plate. The first time I met Jerry Brown, he was judging the Dutch oven cook-off contest at the Colusa Western Days festival. Sixteen teams had set up outdoor ovens on the fairgrounds to compete for the best main dish, side, bread and dessert, cooked over open fires in cast iron pots. The governor of California and his wife, Anne, judged as a team, as they do almost everything. He had been drawn to the fair in the spring of 2015 not for the food but the community: He was spending weekends in rural Colusa County, an hour northwest of Sacramento, on an isolated ranch that had been in his family since 1878. Despite his aversion to selfies, the governor mingled comfortably at the cook-off, introducing children to his famous corgi, Sutter, and greeting the towns retired doctor, who had started his practice in 1949 with a loan from Mr. Browns great-uncle. Then the governor headed to his nearby spread, still known as the Mountain House. The governor and Anne stayed in a small cabin, without water or electricity, off the grid. I had come to Colusa to see the ancestral Brown homestead and to fathom its appeal for a man who could live anywhere and chose to reinhabitate an area where rattlesnakes outnumbered people. In the course of a long conversation that afternoon, I began to appreciate why the land held such sway, and to think about how its history and that of the family offered a way to tell the history of California. Over time, I came to see Jerry Browns decision to build a future rooted in his past as key to understanding the man who ends his remarkable political career today, having served as Californias youngest governor in modern times, its oldest and its longest-tenured. A military victory against the terrorist group is a mere first step. The lesson of Iraq, where this terrorist group was born, is that premature declarations of victory and the reckless actions they tend to spur create more problems than they solve. The international community cannot afford to make the same mistake again today. Turkey proposes a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the root causes of radicalization. We want to ensure that citizens do not feel disconnected from government, terrorist groups do not get to prey on the grievances of local communities and ordinary people can count on a stable future. The first step is to create a stabilization force featuring fighters from all parts of Syrian society. Only a diverse body can serve all Syrian citizens and bring law and order to various parts of the country. In this sense, I would like to point out that we have no argument with the Syrian Kurds. Under wartime conditions, many young Syrians had no choice but to join the P.Y.D./Y.P.G., the Syrian branch of the P.K.K., that Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist organization. According to Human Rights Watch, the Y.P.G. militants have violated international law by recruiting children. Following the United States withdrawal from Syria, we will complete an intensive vetting process to reunite child soldiers with their families and include all fighters with no links to terrorist organizations in the new stabilization force. Ensuring adequate political representation for all communities is another priority. Under Turkeys watch, the Syrian territories that are under the control of the Y.P.G. or the so-called Islamic State will be governed by popularly elected councils. Individuals with no links to terrorist groups will be eligible to represent their communities in local governments. Local councils in predominantly Kurdish parts of northern Syria will largely consist of the Kurdish communitys representatives whilst ensuring that all other groups enjoy fair political representation. Turkish officials with relevant experience will advise them on municipal affairs, education, health care and emergency services. JERUSALEM Moshe Arens, the Israeli politician and statesman who was one of the last of his countrys founding generation of right-wing, liberal Zionists, and who held top posts but never achieved his greatest aspirations, died on Monday at his home in Savyon, Israel. He was 93. A son-in-law, Dr. Itzhak Fried, said Mr. Arens had died in his sleep. A former member of the Irgun militia and a young leader of the revisionist Betar Youth Movement, Mr. Arens remained until his last days a beacon of Israels ideological right. After helping to found the Herut (Freedom) party, he reached the top echelons of its outgrowth, the Likud, and was seen by many as the natural heir of the conservative prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. Mr. Arens served three times as defense minister and also as foreign minister and as Israels ambassador to the United States. Widely considered an outstanding defense minister, Mr. Arens was respected by the military and helped shape Israels defense doctrine. A champion of Israeli self-reliance, he fostered Israels aerospace program and became the godfather of one of the countrys most ambitious, though ill-fated, projects to build a state-of-the-art fighter plane, the Lavi. Still, some have expressed doubts that start-ups can change the trajectory of a state whose economic output is about the same as it was in 2005. The Lamonts are talking about innovation, but if, say, we get start-up companies here and they grow at a rate of 60 percent a year, thats too slow, said Fred Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut. In terms of scale, what you really want to do is get a Pratt & Whitney to put a facility with 1,500 jobs here, Mr. Carstensen added. What Connecticut really needs is big hits. Mr. Lamont, 65, started a cable television company in the 1980s, but he is better known for his political campaigns. In 2006, he beat three-term incumbent Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for Senate, but lost to Mr. Lieberman, who ran as an independent, in the general election. He sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010, but lost to Dannel P. Malloy, the outgoing governor. Mr. Lamont, whose great-grandfather was a business partner of J.P. Morgan, spent $38 million of his own money on his campaigns, including $12 million to win the governors race in November. Now he inherits a state striving to reverse its financial fortunes. General Electric dealt the state a particularly harsh blow when it announced in 2016 that it was moving its headquarters to Boston in search of a deeper pool of high-tech workers. When Mr. Lamont learned the news, he called a Yale classmate and neighbor in Greenwich, Indra Nooyi, who was the chief executive of PepsiCo. On a Friday Night Train Dear Diary: You know the feeling you get on a Friday after work ends? I had that feeling when I got on a Metro North train headed home after a long week. I picked the middle seat in a three-seat row. Just before the train pulled out, a man sat down next to me and gave me a mean look. You know, he said, you shouldnt be sitting in the middle seat. The implication was that I should have taken the window seat to allow more room for others. The comment made me angry, and I was about to respond to his rudeness but it was Friday. And I had to admit that he had a point. So I moved over to the window seat and offered him a handshake and an apology. Juan Cifuentes and his family never knew when the call would come. For nine years, he, a sister and their parents waited in Pereira, Colombia, their hometown, outside Medellin. When he was 17, just after he finished high school, the approval for their visas came through. They were going to join his grandmother in New York City. It was challenging, but it was very, very exciting, Mr. Cifuentes, 25, said of arriving in the United States in 2010. Being an immigrant, you encounter things you never expect and feel things you dont know about. Its all part of the process. Capping a Golden Globes ceremony that belonged more to audience favorites than to critical darlings, Bohemian Rhapsody and its star, Rami Malek, played the spoiler to A Star Is Born in the battle between two musicals competing in the best drama category for film. Neither, however, is currently streaming, and nor are any of the other major movie winners except for Netflixs Roma, which won prizes for its director, Alfonso Cuaron, and for best foreign language movie. [Heres the complete list of Golden Globe winners.] The good news is, plenty of quality movie nominees can be streamed now, and many of the winners arrive online later this month, including Rhapsody (Jan. 22), Star (Jan. 15) and The Wife (Jan. 22), a little-seen film for which Glenn Close won best actress. Meanwhile, nearly all of the TV winners are already on subscription services or available for rental. Heres a guide to the those major-category nominees and winners that are already a click away, along with excerpts from their New York Times reviews. Movies Roma Won for: Best foreign language, best director. Nominated for: Best screenplay. Many directors use spectacle to convey larger-than-life events while reserving devices like close-ups to express a characters inner being. Here, [Alfonso] Cuaron uses both intimacy and monumentality to express the depths of ordinary life. (Click here to read the full Times review by Manohla Dargis.) As the Golden Globes began on Sunday, Sandra Oh earnestly told the audience, I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change, referring to one of the more diverse slates of nominees in Globes history, in an industry that has traditionally been difficult to break into for people of color. It turned out at least this year the diversity wasnt just in the nominees, but also in the winners selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Several performers of color won in some of the most prestigious categories, including the nights best actor in a movie drama, the Egyptian-American star Rami Malek. And the diversity extended to the stories being told. Best animated movie went to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, in which a version of the superhero is an Afro-Latino teenager. (The directing team behind the movie included an African-American filmmaker, Peter Ramsey.) Best comedy went to Green Book, about the relationship between an African-American pianist and his Italian-American driver. One winner, Darren Criss, spoke onstage about the issue, noting, This has been a marvelous year for representation in Hollywood, and I am so enormously proud to be a teeny, tiny part of that as the son of a firecracker Filipino woman from Cebu that dreamed of coming to this country and getting to be invited to cool parties like this. I had stumbled across Williams work at the Mudd Club in the early 1980s when some photos on the wall stopped me. They were portraits of musicians from the neighborhood, some of them my friends, taken in the present but with a formal tone of the past. I asked the bartender who made them, and he said the artist, William Coupon, lived just a couple of blocks away. I met William and saw more of his images, which were beautiful. He was an artist who wanted to capture the beauty of people in social groups, and he saw the local musicians who played at the club as a community, a contemporary tribe. That feeling also informs his photos from Cafetal, where echoes of the past linger. Fat Carmine Aquilino tells stories about the old neighborhood photos on the wall. So does Joe Perrotta, the cafes owner. Recently, he pointed to a 50-year-old photograph of men playing cards around a table in the same room we were in: Thats my father. Mr. Perrotta said that its not only important that the dishes on the menu evoke memories of the past, like Sunday Gravy, but that the same space continues to bring people together. Poker gave way to tales of stickball matches, shared baby photos and antipasto for the table. Dr. Baselga stepped down in September from his role as chief medical officer at the cancer center after The New York Times and ProPublica reported that he had failed to accurately disclose his conflicts of interest in dozens of articles in medical journals. He later resigned from the boards of the drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb and the radiation equipment manufacturer Varian Medical Systems. Although Memorial Sloan Kettering has said that Dr. Baselga was not fired, hospital leaders have indicated that he was forced out. In October, Douglas A. Warner III, then the chairman of the cancer centers board, told the staff that Dr. Baselgas actions left us no choice. In December, the American Association for Cancer Research said that Dr. Baselga, at its request, had resigned his post as one of two editors in chief of its medical journal Cancer Discovery because he did not adhere to the high standards of conflict-of-interest disclosures that the group expects of its leaders. Some of his omissions involved articles that were published in Cancer Discovery while he was an editor in chief. A spokesman for AstraZeneca said Dr. Baselga was not available for comment, but the doctor told Reuters on Monday that he took responsibility for his disclosure lapses. He also said the cancer association had concluded his failures were inadvertent, and said many of his company relationships were publicly available on a federal database of physician payments by drug and device manufacturers. However, some of the relationships that Dr. Baselga failed to disclose were with small biotech start-ups that are not required to report to the federal government. Dr. Baselga is one of the best scientists in the field of oncology, said the spokesman, Gonzalo Vina. We evaluated the series of inadvertent omissions, which have since been addressed and it is not for us to comment about the previous roles he held. LONDON The arrival of the new year has done little to quell the nerves about a London in flux. The economic and political future of Britain remains uncertain, and the battle over how the country should leave the European Union continues to rage. It has prompted an identity crisis that spilled over into the first of the coming round of fashion shows, which began on Friday with London Fashion Week Mens. After all, the old narrative of London as a global metropolis was an identity deeply woven into its designs. So it was of little surprise that, last weekend, passionate questions around authentic presentations of self and voice, as well as explorations of artifice and mirage, were front and center on the runway. Heres what shone through. Thus does the promise of red-carpet change that hovered over the Golden Globes only a year ago when women took back their wardrobes for the night get squandered. The co-host Sandra Oh, in an emotional moment during the opening set of the awards show on Sunday, said she could see change by looking around the ballroom. But during the dress parade that is the celebrity entrances, it was mostly back to business on the fashion front. And I mean that literally. The red carpet is a marketing machine, pairing stars and brands to optimum mutually beneficial effect. Last year, the collective decision by women to wear black in honor of the Times Up movement, which aims to address systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace, changed the equation if not the players. It had power because it felt personal, a quality that has been largely leeched from the contemporary red carpet, where what to wear that most close-to-the-body decision has generally been transformed into a business arrangement. It raised the stakes beyond advertising to advocacy, suggesting the moment could be used for more than just moneymaking. Yet 12 months later, its still a promise, not a reality. Alonso Guzman Arellano says his Taiwanese cooking is very traditional. Still this chef, who left the Mexican state of Michoacan for New York when he was 15 (and most recently was cooking at a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey, after a stint at Vitae in Manhattan), puts a burrito spin on his parchment-thin scallion pancakes, rolling them around a filling of beef, jalapenos, onions and greens. The dish for which Mr. Arellano, 24, is best known at his compact market stall is braised beef noodle soup, a Taiwanese specialty. It comes in a deep bowl filled with slices of beef, bok choy, pickled cabbage and his hand-pulled noodles, an art that he has managed to perfect. The broth, which he says simmers for six hours, delivers depth and spice. He speaks Mandarin and has visited Taiwan. Dumplings and other soups with noodles are also on the menu. Noodle Culture, Gansevoort Market, 353 West 14th Street, 347-989-7325, noodleculture.business.site. Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. WASHINGTON It was the perfect Philip Greene anecdote, equal parts military and mixology. John Philip Sousa was the director of the Marine Band, Mr. Greene began, nursing a rye manhattan in a far corner of the Round Robin Bar, a historic lounge just a stones throw from the White House. His successor was a fellow named Fanciulli. Fanciulli was leading a Memorial Day parade right outside here in 1897. When a superior officer ordered Francesco Fanciulli to lead the band in a particular piece, he refused. Mr. Fanciulli was arrested and court-martialed for disobeying an officer. Still, the band leaders name lives on in liquid form. Fanciulli has a cocktail named after him, Mr. Greene said. Its basically a manhattan with a little Fernet Branca. Mr. Greene understood his story coming and going. By day, he is the trademark and internet counsel for the United States Marine Corps, with an office in the Pentagon, and he is as suit-and-tie proper as that job title would indicate. In his spare time, he is a drinks historian more prone to wearing tuxedos and seersucker. His latest book, A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris, was published in October. The split focus of his life prompts some interesting reactions. When I give a presentation to the public and Im announced as one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail, you hear a few suppressed giggles, he said. But then they say, Hes also the trademark counsel for the Marine Corps, and they say, Oh. A SABRA is a Jewish person who was born in Israel. The term is related to the Arabic word sabr, which means patience and perseverance. In Hebrew, the word SABRA also refers to the prickly fruit of a species of cactus. SABRAs compare themselves to the fruit, which has a prickly exterior and a soft interior, as a way of describing that perseverance. The term was first used in the 1930s, before the establishment of the state of Israel, to describe those who had immigrated as part of the Jewish diaspora. How It Might Be Clued SABRA has been an entry in the New York Times Crossword a total of 47 times, most recently in the Friday, Jan. 4, puzzle by Neil Padrick Wilson. [Read more about how President Trump sees Chinas recent economic weakness as an opportunity.] As the trade war drags on, however, investors have grown worried about its economic impact as well as the risk to corporate profits. Those worries were amplified last week when Apple warned that its sales in the most recent quarter would be worse than expected because of slowing demand for iPhones in China. And the rising cost of imports is also affecting businesses in the United States. [Read more about American factory owners who say the trade war is hurting them.] Offsetting those concerns, on Friday, the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome H. Powell, said the Fed would be flexible amid market turbulence and broader concerns about slowing global growth. The comments sent shares in the United States higher, as did strong job numbers for December. Also on Friday, the Peoples Bank of China essentially injected $218 billion into the countrys financial system. The move was intended to ease lending in the Chinese economy, which has experienced weaker factory output and consumer confidence. Asian shares ended higher Monday, while Europes major indexes pared early gains to close lower. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan jumped 2.4 percent, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed 0.8 percent higher. In China, the Shanghai composite index rose 0.7 percent, and the Shenzhen composite index rallied 1.7 percent. Although Goldman has pledged its cooperation, the firm has also claimed that it is innocent of the Malaysian charges and may well be girding for a fight with the Justice Department to limit its liability. Goldman also will have to deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which shares jurisdiction over the bribery law, and the Federal Reserve, Goldmans chief banking regulator. Goldman has little choice but to reach a settlement. The key question is how much its entanglement with 1MDB may cost the firm. Disgorging the $600 million fee it earned for arranging the bond deals is the likely starting point for any resolution in the United States. How much a potential fine could be on top of that is anyones guess. One possibility is that it will be a multiple of Goldmans profit on the transaction. That could push the penalty over a billion dollars, with the possibility of even more if Goldman has to reach an agreement with the Malaysian government. Do Cryptocurrencies Need a New Regulator? The precipitous fall in the value of cryptocurrencies in 2016 cries out for greater regulation to protect investors. Studies have shown that the market for cryptocurrencies is subject to widespread manipulation, which puts smaller investors at the mercy of those who are trying to profit from the price swings. Two bills were introduced in Congress in December to address manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets. Neither offers a concrete step toward regulating trading platforms, nor do they designate oversight to a single agency. As investors have suffered losses, the questions have increased about whether cryptocurrencies will survive as a viable investment class. Without greater government oversight to curb manipulation, the interest of small investors may well dry up. The Coming Investigations Control of the House means Democrats can investigate actions by the Trump administration, and perhaps the president himself. The subpoenas for documents and testimony are likely to fly up Pennsylvania Avenue in much the way they did during the Obama administration after Republicans took control of Congress. To help me focus on the most newsworthy topics, I do prebriefings, where companies tell me what they are going to introduce so long as I pledge not to reveal anything early. For weeks, my inbox has exploded with requests for meetings, often with obscure start-ups. (In the eight hours before I wrote this, I received 85.) Sometimes I agree, but usually these pitches arent the right fit. The show covers about 2.7 million square feet, so I wear comfortable, sturdy boots. I carry my laptop, a bulky battery pack for my phone, trail mix, business cards and, most important, hand sanitizer. (Despite this precaution, Ive returned with what we veterans call the CES plague about six times.) That reminds me: I should buy more hand sanitizer. Thats it for this briefing. See you next time. Chris Thank you To Eleanor Stanford (welcome back) for the cultural guidance and Alan Henry for such Smart Living. A special thanks to Brian X. Chen for todays Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. P.S. Were listening to The Daily. Todays episode is about President Trumps decision to withdraw troops from Syria and the ensuing debate over the role of the U.S. military. Heres todays mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Flexible blackjack cards ( 4 letters). You can find all our puzzles here. The editor of our technology coverage is Pui-Wing Tam, who was named a deputy business editor last month. Heres what else is happening SoftBank: The Japanese telecom company will inject another $2 billion into WeWork, the co-working start-up, according to people familiar with the deal. The latest commitment brings SoftBanks total investment in the company to about $10.5 billion and values WeWork at $47 billion. Silicon Valley: Some venture capitalists are rooting for a market dip this year, hoping that a downturn would calm an overheating start-up scene and make companies cheaper to invest in. North Korea: A train possibly carrying the countrys leader, Kim Jong-un, entered China, South Korean news media reported, raising speculation that he could be meeting with President Xi Jinping before a planned second summit meeting with President Trump. Nigeria: Soldiers stormed the offices of one of the countrys largest newspapers, detaining two journalists, over an article that the military said divulged classified information. The raid came amid struggles to combat Boko Haram and less than two months before presidential elections. Asylum seekers: As the U.S. tightens its policies at the southern border, many asylum seekers are contemplating hiring smugglers in Mexico, despite the dangers and increasing costs. Writing with the assurance and wry omniscience of an easygoing deity, Makumbi watches her protagonists live out invariably provisional answers. They are pagans and Christians, vagabonds and military generals, newspaper columnists and victims of H.I.V. Some are looking for families, like the orphan girl vying for her neighbors charity in a crowded Kampala boardinghouse. Others are in flight from relatives, like the elderly Christian missionary nostalgic for British rule. Named Kanani (or Canaan), he believes that faith will save him from the family curse and spends his days proselytizing at captive commuters: The church was like a bus and brethren were passengers on their way to heaven rather than a family. None quite manage to escape or fulfill their appointed roles; when Kintus carnival of clans, royal courts, Kampala apartments and church groups concludes, it is hardly clearer what form family might take, or how individuals should reconcile themselves to kinship. There is, nevertheless, a beauty to how Makumbis characters improvise alternatives to what they do not have or cannot be. In one characteristically tender and comic moment, a young man without a father looks for a surrogate to negotiate with a schools headmaster over a scholarship. His roommate obliges, and finds himself so caught up in the charade that he sheds prideful tears at his sons test results. Dressed for the meeting in a pinstripe suit that makes him resemble a broke black gangster from an American film, he boasts and blusters with a parents loving obstinacy. It may be a curse that families never work, but it is surely a blessing that they can always be reinvented. If Makumbis Kintus are cursed like Cain, the heroes of Wayetu Moores SHE WOULD BE KING (Graywolf Press, $26) are cursed like Storm, Wolverine and Professor X. The Liberian-American writers debut novel is a Marvelesque national epic about Liberias independence centered on three supernaturally gifted misfits. The leader is Gbessa, an immortal girl expelled as a witch by her indigenous Vai people, who finds shelter among the black American settlers of Monrovia. (The American Colonization Society, an antebellum organization dedicated to resettling African-Americans in West Africa, established Liberia in 1821. The country declared independence in 1847.) Gbessa joins forces with two other renegades: a magically invincible plantation runaway from Virginia and a Jamaican maroon with the ability to disappear. These newcomers patrol the coast like abolitionist avengers, superpowering their way through every coffle and barracoon they encounter. Meanwhile, in the ballrooms of Monrovia, Gbessa uneasily assimilates into the Americo-Liberian settler elite. The trios powers immortality, for Africas antiquity; invisibility, for maroon cunning; invincibility for the endurance of enslaved African-Americans allegorize the diasporic strands united by the countrys history: Who needs Wakanda when Liberia already has it all? The varied and frenetic action makes for a novel that, while stimulating, is often confusing and overstuffed. Some sections read like folk tales or adventure novels, while those set in Virginia serve up reheated plantation melodrama. She Would Be King shows greater originality when Moore dissects Monrovias social world. Patronized by Americo-Liberian ladies who see themselves less as fellow Africans than as a civilizing vanguard, Gbessa negotiates a double exclusion that only intensifies once she marries the settlers military chief. A conflict between the new arrivals and her estranged kin forces her into the role of mediator, brokering a hybrid identity for Africas first republic. Few novelists have explored the singular relationship between Liberias black settlers, for whom returning to Africa was a form of deliverance from American white supremacy, and the indigenous people who fell under their dominion. Moores sophisticated treatment of this encounter showcases her novelistic talents, though the tension somewhat dissipates when the real enemies arrive: The complex dance of nation-building gives way to a Garveyite battle royale pitting the reconciled settlers and natives against French slavers who attack Monrovia. But moments after arriving with his pregnant wife and three children at the foot of the international bridge, he and his family were stopped by Mexican officials and detained. A few months ago, Mr. Morenos lack of proper paperwork would have been ignored by the Mexican authorities, according to local officials and immigration lawyers. But Mr. Moreno was held in a cell for 20 days and his family was placed in a temporary shelter. The lure of the smugglers in Reynosa is not limited to Central Americans. Mexicans, too, employ their services, although the cost is lower the prices charged seem to depend on just how bad the situation is in a migrants home country. On a recent day in a migration office in Reynosa, a group of Mexicans sat waiting to be processed after their deportations from the United States. For the migration authorities, it is a job, said Melvin Gomez, 18, who is from the Mexican state of Chiapas. For Mexicans and Central Americans, immigration is a dream. Mr. Gomez had just tried crossing for the fourth time the day before. We have something to live for, he said, and that keeps us going. WASHINGTON President Trumps evolving definition of a border wall animated negotiations to end a partial government shutdown on Sunday, while House Democrats moved to increase pressure on the president by vowing to pass individual bills to reopen targeted departments that handle critical functions like tax refunds and food stamps. I informed my folks to say that well build a steel barrier, Mr. Trump told reporters after returning to the White House from a senior staff meeting at Camp David. He added of the Democrats, They dont like concrete, so well give them steel. The president characterized the second day of talks between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic congressional aides as productive after saying earlier in the day that he did not anticipate much progress. But Mr. Trump also said that, if no deal could be reached over his demand for $5.7 billion for the border wall, he was still considering using emergency authority to build the barrier with other government funds. For their part, Democrats said there was no progress as the shutdown entered its 16th day, and asked again that the government be reopened before negotiations on border security money begin. I dont think anything would stop me. And certainly not a wall. OSMAN NOE GUILLEN, who traveled to Mexicos northern border with his wife, fleeing economic hardship in Honduras. They plan to pay smugglers to take them to Texas. A gunman pulled up alongside them and opened fire. Jazmines mother, LaPorsha Washington, 30, was injured. Ms. Washington and her daughters met with investigators to help them create a composite sketch of the gunman, who attacked them before sunrise. The man was described as white, thin and in his 30s or 40s and driving a red pickup truck. On Sunday, the authorities announced they had charged a 20-year-old black man with capital murder in connection with the shooting. In a CNN interview, Ms. Washington said her teenage daughter told her that the man was white and that his hoodie was black. Thats all she could see at the time because the sun hadnt really even came out yet, Ms. Washington said in the interview. For days, the search for a white man dominated news headlines. The unexpected turn that the suspect charged was black and not white was not intentional, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, Tex., said at a news conference on Sunday. The person driving the pickup, who the police now believe was likely a witness to the shooting, might have been the last thing Jazmines family remembered prior to the mayhem and chaos, the sheriff said. Lori Brown, a criminologist at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., said eyewitness testimony is the least reliable evidence you can have because people try to understand how a traumatic event could have happened by using what they know about the world. Unfortunately, she said, we fill in the gaps. In the late 1970s, the United Automobile Workers union had a brazen idea. During negotiations for a new contract, members asked Chrysler to give workers representation on its board, a practice called co-determination that had been germinating all over Europe. The proposal was far outside the bounds of management-labor relations in America at the time, and Chrysler was initially immovable. But the union had helped secure a federal loan for the company, which shielded it from bankruptcy, and management eventually relented. In 1980, Chryslers chief executive, Lee Iacocca, nominated the U.A.W. leader Douglas Fraser to the board as a reward. But the presence of a single labor representative on a 17-member board did not translate into meaningful results for workers. At one point, Mr. Fraser did vote against a plush executive pay package, but he was the only nay. He stepped down in 1984, and Chrysler eliminated the union seat altogether in 1991. Only a handful of other companies tried worker representation, the unions didnt fight for it, and the American experiment in co-determination was over before it began. In todays Gilded Age when chief executives are making well over 300 times what the typical worker brings home in pay the idea is getting new life. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who recently announced her bid for president, introduced a bill last year to give workers the right to vote for two-fifths of all corporate board seats, with a companion bill in the House by Representatives introduced by Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico. A similar bill by Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin would entitle workers to elect one-third of the seats. Read our updates and analysis from the Golden Globes ceremony. Regina King, at Sunday nights Golden Globes, pledged in her acceptance speech after winning best supporting actress in a motion picture that women will make up 50 percent of the staff for any of her projects in the next two years. She won for her role as Sharon Rivers in the Barry Jenkins-directed If Beale Street Could Talk. In her speech, King also thanked Jenkins for giving us a film that my son said to me when he saw it, that it was the first time he really saw himself. Amy, thank you for the prayers, sweetheart, thank you so much. Oh, this is so fantastic. And Annapurna, thank you so much, everyone. I mean, this is odd, but its not. My publicist Mike Liotta, the Annapurna publicists, Daniella, Jesus, Seth, Marvin, who have been championing and working their asses off to get people to come see this film. Barry Jenkins. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for your empathy. Thank you for telling stories so rich and thank you for giving us a film that my son said to me when he saw it, that it was the first time he really saw himself. Thank you so much for that. Plan B, Jeremy, and Dede, oh, my gosh, what a journey its been, all the way from Year of the Dog to here, Jesus, man, oh, my gosh. My son, Ian, boy. Oh, thank you so much for all the love that we have been receiving for Beale Street, we are so proud of this film. The Baldwin family, thank you so much for trusting Sir Barry Jenkins to tell James Baldwins words and allowing us the opportunity. Thank you, God, for allowing me to be a witness. Hollywood Foreign Press Association, okay. Oh, cheers, cheers. Oh, my gosh, one more thing. So often everyone out there, they hear us on the red carpet and they say celebrities, were using the time to talk about ourselves when we are on our soap box and using a moment to talk about the systemic things that are going on in life. Times Up times two. The reason why we do this is because we understand that our microphones are big and we are speaking for everyone. And I just want to say that Im going to use my platform right now to say in the next two years everything that I produce I am making a vow and its going to be tough to make sure that everything that I produce that is 50% women. And I just challenge anyone out there anyone out there who is in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries, I challenge you to challenge yourselves and stand with us in solidarity and do the same. God bless you. Thank you. Walls protect. Walls divide. Both these statements are true. Yet perhaps no issue represents the deep political chasm separating this country as a wall a big, beautiful wall in the words of President Trump. In this lesson plan, students move past the political rhetoric to analyze the function and symbolism of a border wall. They learn about whats in place already along the United States-Mexico border, they find out what life in the borderlands is like, they learn more about border security and they consider walls as symbols. Then, if you would like to go further, we invite your students to compare President Trumps proposed wall to other historic walls, from China to Berlin, and we offer a related Student Opinion question about the shutdown and the wall that students can answer. _________ Warm Up Ask students to respond to the following prompt: Both of the following statements are true. Walls protect. Walls divide. Which statement do you think is more true? Explain why. Then have students share their answers as a class. If you are feeling a little more adventurous, you can have students stand up and respond to this same prompt using a barometer activity. Tape two signs, Walls Protect and Walls Divide, on opposite ends of the classroom. Ask students to stand along a continuum between the two signs based on how strongly they feel about their answer to the prompt. Give them a minute to find their spot along the continuum, then have students share what they think and why. U.S. government shutdown enters third week Negotiations over the weekend appeared to offer little hope of an immediate agreement between Democrats and President Trump over his demands for a border wall. Democratic leaders have repeatedly said they would not agree to any funding for the wall. The White House is also digging in, insisting on $5.7 billion in wall funding, even as some Republicans have started to call for an end to the shutdown. Mr. Trump gave little ground. They dont like concrete, so well give them steel, he said. Analysis: The idea of the border wall, which advisers to Mr. Trump said they initially created to remind Mr. Trump to talk tough on immigration during his campaign, has boxed in the president. Hes now struggling to find a way to please both his core supporters and conservative skeptics who see the wall as ineffective. In Opinion: Our columnist David Leonhardt builds a detailed argument that Mr. Trump is demonstrably unfit for office and must go, but that a rushed impeachment could actually help him remain in office. A series of independent audits made public at the end of 2018 by the Indiana State Board of Accounts warned of financial stress in three Lake County charter schools. The three schools Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in Gary, the Higher Institute of Arts and Technology in Merrillville and East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy were all found "likely to continue as a going concern," despite the schools' recent negative cash flows and declines in enrollment. The financial audits, compiled by Indianapolis-based Donovan CPAs, analyzed net assets, functional expenses and cash flows for the schools' financial years ending in June 2017 and June 2018. The audits enumerated likely factors contributing to each school's current financial state, as well as steps reported back to the auditing firm that each school is taking for a better 2018-19 report. Thea Bowman Leadership Academy Donovans audit found Thea Bowman, sponsored by Trine University, increased expenses by about $1.4 million last year despite losing about 70 students. The K-12 charter also saw its cash and certificate of deposit balances drop $1.1 million within the year and its expenses were found to exceed revenues by $995,000, according to the audit. Among the Republicans expressing concern was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Over the weekend, the federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work. But Trump and the Department of Homeland Security pushed back on any suggestion that the call-outs represented a "sickout" that was having a significant effect on U.S. air travel. At the White House, on Monday, spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp complained that Democratic leaders have yet to define what they mean when they say they are for enhancing border security. "Democrats want to secure the border? Great. Come to the table," she said. "We are willing to come to a deal to reopen the government." The American Heart Association and Methodist Hospitals have been teaming up for the last 15 years in the fight against heart disease and stroke through support of various programs and events. One of the ways they do so is through the Methodist Hospitals Heart Walk Team. It is outstanding to see the group rally year after year to raise funds for the mission of the American Heart Association, Ray Grady, CEO of Methodist Hospitals, said. You can tell its a cause near and dear to many hearts within the hospital and beyond." Methodist Hospitals has formed a heart walk team for the last 15 years and this year was determined to be the top fundraising hospital team in Northwest Indiana, as they claimed the title in many instances over the years. As the campaign came to a close on Dec. 1, we were honored to recognize Methodist Hospitals as the top fundraising hospital team in Northwest Indiana! American Heart Association Heart Walk Director Erin Crawford said. They raised over $36,000 this year, and we couldnt be more thankful for all they do to make this happen. Hundreds of Methodist Hospitals employees, along with their families and friends, attend the Heart Walk each fall. HAMMOND A chilly wind blew across the empty boat slips Sunday afternoon at the Hammond Marina as a group of more than 100 believers of the Eastern Catholic faith witnessed what is believed to be their first local blessing of Lake Michigan. "That these waters may be sanctified by the power, action and descent of the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord," the celebrants prayed from their positioning on a bobbing dock. The blessing, which was hosted by the St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church in Whiting, was held to commemorate the Theophany Feast, according to Father Andrew Summerson. The feast commemorates the baptism of Jesus for the Eastern church, while Western Catholics celebrated the Epiphany or Three Kings Day Sunday. "This is a day of his public revelation," Bishop Milan Lach said of the start of Jesus' ministry. Lach was one of two of the nation's four Eastern church bishops to join Summerson Sunday in conducting the blessing. He and other U.S. Catholic bishops have been gathered for a weeklong retreat in Mundelein, Illinois. Copeland said he too has heard of no challengers in his backyard. "It is eerily quiet," he laughed. Gary's Freeman-Wilson can usually count on some opposition. She beat back 11 challengers of all political stripes in 2011 and nine in 2015. How many she will face this year remains to be seen. Gary City Councilman Ronald "Ron" G. Brewer Sr. said Friday he had "kicked around" the idea of running for mayor, but will instead seek a new term to his current at-large seat on the City Council. Jerome Prince, just re-elected county assessor in the fall, said last week he is contemplating a run for mayor and has yet to rule it out. Prince, county assessor since 2015, is well known in Gary as a former city councilman from 2000 to 2008, a former Gary representatives on the Lake County Council from 2008 to 2014 and currently as Gary's Democratic city chairman, since 2016. He has until the noon Feb. 8 deadline to make up his mind. Lake Station Mayor Christopher Anderson has yet to declare whether he will seek a second term. Some 61 municipal offices are in contention in Porter County Its come down to be one of the checklist items that you look at when youre buying a residential property where youre not just investing, youre living there. Nearly one-third of Indiana counties have predicted radon screening levels at 4 or more picocuries, according to the ISDH, with Northwest Indiana counties falling in the 2 to 4 picocuries range. The Porter and LaPorte health departments are distributing free radon testing kits as a part of a partnership between the ISDH and the American Lung Association. Residents of each county can visit health department locations in Portage, LaPorte and Michigan City to pick up a kit. Lake County's health department did not return calls from The Times. The kits also can be purchased online or in most home improvement stores for about $15 to $30. Test kits are typically placed in the lowest level of a home and can take a short-term, two- to three-day sample or a long-term, three- to 12-month sample. The kits are then mailed to a lab, which will process the sample and return a result generally within a week. Novak recommends homeowners use both a short-range and long-range test for the most accurate results. VALPARAISO The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance has issued Porter Countys 2019 budget order containing the approved budgets, levies and certified tax rates for taxing units throughout the county. Porter County Auditor Vicki Urbanik said in a written statement the budget order shows the 2019 property tax rates will increase in all but six of Porter Countys taxing districts. The district tax rates combine the individual tax rates for each local government unit, such as schools and municipalities. Urbanik said a higher tax rate does not always mean an individual property tax bill will increase. Other factors affecting property tax bills include changes in an individuals assessed value and property tax deductions. All of the county governments budget totals were certified as adopted by the Porter County Council, with the exception of the highway departments budget. The decrease is attributed mainly to a reduction in anticipated state motor vehicle highway fund revenues, Urbanik said. The budget order reflects a statewide change in school funds. Instead of having multiple individual funds, most schools now have only three or four funds for debt, education and operations in addition to any voter-approved referendum funds. INDIANAPOLIS Hoosier students in grades six through 12 interested in getting a firsthand look at the state's legislative branch in action can apply to spend a day as a page for lawmakers in the Indiana House or Senate. Legislative pages typically go on a behind-the-scenes Statehouse tour, meet their local representative or senator, and learn about how Indiana laws are made by watching debates inside the House or Senate chambers. They also may be asked to assist lawmakers and legislative staff with minor tasks, such as delivering messages or organizing files. "The page program is a great way for students to jump-start their civic engagement and learn more about how their state government works," said state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso. "Witnessing the legislative proceedings firsthand helps students develop an understanding of how laws are created and encourages them to stay involved in the future." Pages serve from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., Indianapolis time, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays during the 2019 legislative session that runs to April 29. Individuals selected as pages must arrange their own transportation to and from the Statehouse. Paging is considered an excused absence for school attendance purposes. Bias crime legislation repeatedly has failed to garner majority support at the Statehouse in prior years due largely to Republicans refusing to extend protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals on the same basis as other protected characteristics. Under Bohacek's proposal, Senate Bill 12, judges would be explicitly permitted to consider a biased motivation for a crime, including anti-LGBT feelings, as an aggravating factor when deciding whether a convicted felon should serve more than the advisory prison term. It still would not be a crime to have hateful thoughts or to express hateful opinions. But committing a violent crime motivated by such thoughts or opinions potentially would make the perpetrator eligible for an enhanced sentence at the Department of Correction. "Now is the time to show the world that the phrase 'Hoosier hospitality' isn't lip service it's one of our states core values," said Michael O'Connor, senior director of government affairs at Indianapolis drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. "When it comes to attracting and retaining leading employers and top talent, we must send a clear and clarifying message: Indiana is a safe place in which to live, work and do business. "We hope all Hoosiers will join us in asking their legislators to move Indiana forward and declare that hate is not tolerated in our state." Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Flash China on Monday voiced firm opposition to a U.S. warship trespassing into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands, and urged the U.S. side to immediately stop such kind of provocative actions. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily news briefing that the USS McCampbell trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands earlier Monday without permission of the Chinese government, while China soon sent military vessel and aircraft to identify the U.S. warship, made a warning and demanded that it leave the area. China has lodged solemn representation to the U.S. side in this regard, Lu said, noting that the action has violated Chinese and relevant international laws, infringing on China's sovereignty and damaging peace, security and order of the area. "China firmly opposes and urges the U.S. side to stop such kind of provocative operations immediately," the spokesperson said, adding that China would continue taking necessary measures to defend its national sovereignty and security. Responding to questions about the impact such provocative actions will have on the ongoing China-U.S. trade consultations, Lu said it would be beneficial to both countries as well as the world to properly solve various problems between China and the U.S., including the trade issues. "Both sides should be responsible for creating a good atmosphere for it," he said. VALPARAISO A 24-year-old Union Township man has pleaded guilty to two counts of battery in a case that was originally filed as a rape. Edward Halper IV was sentenced in August to nearly two years of formal probation. The alleged victim in the case told police that after having consensual sex with Halper during the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2016, he later forced her to have sex again despite her pleas for him to stop. The woman said Halper slapped her in the face, grabbed her hair and slammed her head into the wall, according to charging information filed in court. "Halper continued to hold her down to the bed saying that she should stop crying or the people upstairs will think that he is raping her," according to court records. The woman said she continued to cry and ask Halper to stop, but the attack did not end until one of his friends entered the room, police said. While Halper initially denied having sex with the woman a second time, he later admitted to it, but said the woman never resisted, police said. He then said the woman did tell him to stop a few times, but he continued having sex anyway. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP Several Nazi symbols and a Nazi flag were among the graffiti spray-painted on a building owned by the Porter County Regional Airport, according to county police. The graffiti was discovered on a brick building used by the Region Flyers flight school and was reported to police Friday morning. The images and profane words were believed to have been painted sometime overnight Thursday into Friday, police said. Police photographed the graffiti and were told it caused hundreds of dollars in damage. Police recovered the top of a red spray paint can, but said they were unable to locate any fingerprints. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Police placed Givens in a squad car and went inside the home, where they found Edmond unresponsive in a reclining chair in the living room. Edmond had been shot in the head, police said. Medics with the Gary Fire Department initially took Edmond to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus, but he later was transferred to University of Chicago Medical Center. Police believed Givens was "extremely intoxicated and incoherent," because he had to be carried out of the residence and couldn't stand on his own as officers took him into custody, according to a probable cause affidavit. Up to five witnesses spoke with police, including a woman who said she was sleeping on the couch when she was awakened by a gunshot. She told officers she saw Givens at the kitchen table with a gun in his hand, sitting across from Edmond, court records state. The woman woke up other people sleeping in the house. Another witness told police he took the gun from Givens and handed it to another man, who removed the magazine. One witness told police Givens arrived at the home about 11 p.m. Wednesday to speak with a man but could not because the man was already asleep, court records say. CROWN POINT A Lake Criminal Court judge dismissed child molesting charges against a Gary man Monday at the request of the Lake County prosecutor's office. David M. Nava, 37, had been scheduled to stand trial Monday on two felony counts of child molesting and two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Nava had been accused of repeatedly molesting a then-14-year-old boy in 2017. The prosecutor's office filed a motion to dismiss the charges because of a lack of evidence, an official said. A previous investigation involving Nava and the same boy in 2011 also was dropped because the boy stopped talking about the alleged abuse, according to court records. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 1 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MICHIGAN CITY Three people have died in what police are calling a murder-suicide. Michigan City police Sgt. Chris Yagelski said police were called just before 2 p.m. Monday to a home in the 6800 block of Meer Road after a distraught relative called 911. Yagelski said tentative information, along with a preliminary investigation, indicates two adult residents of the rural Michigan City home were killed. The suspect, also an adult, then committed suicide. All three people were related, he said. During the course of the initial investigation Michigan City police were assisted by the LaPorte County Sherriffs Department, Trail Creek and Long Beach police departments, the LaPorte County prosecutors office, Michigan City Fire Department, LaPorte County EMS, LaPorte County coroners office and the Michigan City police chaplain division. As this remains an ongoing investigation, further information will be released as it becomes available, Yagelski said, adding that anyone with information should contact Detective Sgt. Anthony McClintock at 219-874-3221, ext. 1074. Check back at nwi.com for additional details. Love 1 Funny 5 Wow 3 Sad 28 Angry 2 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Hart wrote homophobic remarks on Twitter mostly between 2009-2011. Hart told her that when his old messages resurfaced, "what was once the brightest light ever just got real dark." He initially said he wouldn't apologize because he had addressed the issue several times. But given an ultimatum to apologize, he did so and stepped down. Hart said it was hard for him because he considered it an attack when his tweets resurfaced a day after he got the Oscars gig. "That's an attempt to end me," he said. "That's not an attack to just stop the Oscars ... Somebody has to take a stand against the ... trolls." DeGeneres received some resistance on social media, with some commenters saying that Hart's homophobic jokes were a legitimate issue for discussion, and it wasn't a case of people maliciously trying to hurt him. In a column posted Friday in the trade publication Variety, Caroline Framke argued that Hart hadn't proven that he'd learned much. Indiana University Northwest in Gary is accepting registration for certification in Lean Six Sigma, a business philosophy that aims to streamline operations, minimize waste and boost efficiency. Classes will take place at the Gary campus from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays from March 16 through May 11 for intermediate-level Green Belt certification for Lean Six Sigma, which has been widely adopted in the manufacturing sector after being popularized by Japanese automakers. Lunch is included. Jana Szostek, director of the Center for Professional Development at IUN, said the program is well-suited for business owners and managers, who can learn about how to increase profits by eliminating non-value added activities in the workplace in a data-driven analytical manner. The Lean Six Sigma methodology will help any business be competitive in our region, as well as our increasingly global marketplace, Szostek said. It has become the gold standard of quality and continuous improvement and is a highly sought-after certification. Its methods are applicable to any organization. Scott Rasmussen is the publisher of ScottRasmussen.com. He is the author of The Sun Is Still Rising: Politics Has Failed But America Will Not. You are here: World Flash Six people were killed at a wrong-way crash on the Interstate 75 (I-75) in Lexington of U.S. state of Kentucky on Sunday, according to a report released by the Lexington Police Department. A white pickup truck, traveling in a wrong direction in the northbound lanes of I-75, hit an SUV straight-on. The SUV caught fire. The driver of the pickup, a 41-year-old Kentucky resident, was killed in the crash. A Michigan family of five in the SUV were also killed. The identities of the Michigan family have not yet been released. Front Royal Police Department officer Olivia Meadows poses with her new K-9 partner, the 15-month-old black Labrador Maverick, who began duty Oct. 31. Butler University has announced the next few events in the 2019 Visiting Writers Series. As always, the events are free and open to the public and feature some of the best contemporary poets, novelists and nonfiction writers in the country. Below is the information from the press release we received this morning, check the Butler website for more details. Gregory Orr Tuesday, Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m. Schrott Center for the Arts The author of more than 10 collections of poetry and several volumes of essays, criticism, and memoir, Gregory Orr is a master of the short, personal lyric. Observes critic Hank Lazer, From Burning the Empty Nests (1973) to the present, Orr gradually developed the ability to fuse his incredible skill at visual precisionthe signature of his image-based work in his very first bookwith an insistent musical quality, joining visual precision with a beauty of sound. His near-death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement, in which he was jailed and severely beaten, contributes to the urgency with which his poems seek transformation. In an NPR story on his craft, Orr states, I believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive. Lauren Groff Thursday, Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m. Schrott Center for the Arts Lauren Groff is a New York Times bestselling author of three novels: The Monsters of Templeton (2008), Arcadia (2011), and Fates and Furies (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Amazons No. 1 Best Book of the Year, and President Obamas choice as his favorite book of 2015. Groff also wrote the celebrated short-story collection Delicate Edible Birds (2009), and her latest book, Florida (2018), is a collection of interwoven short stories centered on her adopted home state. Groffs work has appeared in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Atlantic, and in several of the annual The Best American Short Stories anthologies. Claudia Rankine Tuesday, Feb. 19, 77:30 p.m. Schrott Center for the Arts Recipient of a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) and Dont Let Me Be Lonely (2004), and several plays, including her first published one, The White Card, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2019. She is the editor of several anthologies, including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind (2015). Her bestselling book Citizen: An American Lyric uses poetry, essay, cultural criticism, and visual images to explore what it means to be an American citizen in an ostensibly post-racial society. A defining text for our time, Citizen was the winner of the 2015 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (it was also a finalist in the criticism category, making it the first book in the awards history to be a double nominee), the NAACP Image Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for poetry. C. Dale Young Wednesday, March 20, 7:30 p.m. Atherton Union, Reilly Room Young is the author of four poetry collections: The Halo (2016), Torn (2011), The Second Person (2007), and The Day Underneath the Day (2001). In his review of Torn, Mark Doty writes, C. Dale Youngs poems employ sly forms of repetition, touching back to phrases weve already encountered as if to guide us along the poems winding way. How importantand how fiercethese directions turn out to be as his poems push into their deepest territory: the burden of expectation and guilt, the fiercely pressurized experience that an education in the healing arts becomes. [Young] brings all his strength to bear on the necessary work of art, which is also a means of tending and of stitching, a craft that by its very artfulness implies the possibility of hope. Eula Biss Thursday, April 4, 7:30 p.m. Atherton Union, Reilly Room Eula Biss is the author of three books: On Immunity: An Inoculation (2014), named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and chosen by Mark Zuckerberg for Facebooks Year of Books; Notes from No Mans Land: American Essays (2009), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism; and a collection of poetry, The Balloonists (2002). A frank and fascinating exploration of race and racial identity, Notes from No Mans Land was described by Salon as the most accomplished book of essays anyone has written or published so far in the 21st century. It provokes, troubles, charms, challenges, and occasionally hectors the reader, and it raises more questions than it answers. It is strident and brave in its unwillingness to offer comfort, and, unlike all but a handful of the best books I have ever read, it is unimpeachably great. (Cosponsored by the Center for Faith and Vocation) Andre Aciman Tuesday, April 16, 7:30 p.m. Atherton Union, Reilly Room Andre Aciman is the author of the novels Harvard Square (2013), Eight White Nights (2010), and Call Me by Your Name (2007), the memoir Out of Egypt (1994), and the essay collections Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere (2011) and False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory (2000). He also coauthored and edited Letters of Transit (1999) and The Proust Project (2004). His work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the New Republic, Granta Magazine, and the Paris Review, as well as in several volumes of The Best American Essays. He has won a Whiting Writers Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a fellowship from the New York Public Librarys Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Copies of Bill Duncans book are still available from his wife, Ada Duncan, at 541-673-1073 as well as at While Away Books. Roseburg, OR (97470) Today Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Flash Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates' Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan agreed on Sunday to work jointly for peace and stability in Afghanistan. The two leaders held talks here on bilateral matters and strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and expressed their resolve to work closely to root out the scourge, said a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the visit of Sheikh Mohamed. "The Crown Prince recognized the efforts and unparalleled sacrifices made by Pakistan to eliminate terrorism and extremism," the statement said. The two leaders agreed to work closely for the lasting peace and stability of Afghanistan. The UAE hosted Pakistan-facilitated talks between the Taliban and U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi weeks ago. Khan briefed the UAE leader about the efforts Pakistan has made to support and facilitate the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process. He also appreciated the role the UAE has been playing in the reconciliation talks, the statement said. The two sides also agreed to explore further collaboration in areas of training, joint exercises and defense production. Sheikh Mohamed visited Pakistan following the UAE's announcement of 3-billion-U.S. dollar support to Pakistan. In return, Pakistan welcomed the UAE's investment in its oil and gas, logistics, ports and construction sectors. According to the statement, Pakistan and the UAE are expected to hold a joint ministerial commission to be co-chaired by respective foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi next month on bilateral cooperation. Julian Castro, a former U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary from Texas who's already announced a presidential exploratory committee, was scheduled to make several stops in Iowa on Monday. Former representative John Delaney of Maryland has also established a presidential campaign. Pledging to forsake corporate contributions if she runs for president, Warren challenged her Democratic competitors to do likewise. She also repeatedly criticized the idea that wealthy presidential hopefuls might use their personal fortunes to fund campaigns, a notion she said Democrats should find offensive. "Campaigns should not be for sale," she said at a stop in western Iowa. "As Democrats in a Democratic primary, we ought to be building grassroots support. We ought to be building a movement [and] not having billionaires buy these campaigns, whether we're talking about super PACs or self-funders." Although Warren didn't mention them by name, billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg have indicated they're considering joining the Democratic fray and have the resources to finance their own campaigns if they wanted to do so. Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, has spent millions of dollars on a campaign calling for Trump's impeachment. He's scheduled to make two stops Wednesday in central Iowa. Gas prices could be on the rise again soon, but estimates on how much depends on which expert you ask. Fuel prices plummeted at the end of 2018, dropping nearly every day for three months. That reduced the national average by about 70 cents per gallon. Between the end of 2017 and the end of 2018, prices declined by 44 cents in Iowa and 39 cents in Nebraska. The average price for regular unleaded gas in Iowa was $1.97 as of Sunday, about 27 cents below the national average, while Nebraska's average of $2.04 is about 20 cents cheaper than the national average. But according to price-tracking service GasBuddy, gas prices will be on the rise this spring. GasBuddy predicts that prices will rise due to an increase in demand for gasoline and projected production cuts by OPEC. The site estimates that the national average price will climb to $3 per gallon in May but will even out over the course of the year to about $2.70 per gallon, 3 cents cheaper than the 2018 annual average. But take that prediction with a grain of salt. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Louisiana bettors got a step closer to being able to start wagering on sporting events by fall if the governor approves the second of two bills that is about to clear the Legislature. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the controversy over how many people convicted of felonies will get their voting rights back March 1 should be focused on what the best policy is, rather than how many people are affected. For me, the most essential thing is, the policy that is embedded in the legislation," Edwards said Monday (Jan. 7) when speaking to the Baton Rouge Press Club. If the policy is right, what difference does it make about the numbers? The numbers are what they are, the governor said. New Louisiana law could allow tens of thousands on probation to vote There is some confusion about how many people on probation and parole for felonies will be able to vote starting March 1 under a new law. When Edwards and legislators were considering it last spring, the Louisiana Department of Corrections said between 2,200 and 3,500 people would be affected. Now, the state estimates about 10 times that many people will be re-enfranchised. On Monday, Edwards said he hadnt heard personally the law would impact as many as 35,000 people. In an interview with NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune a few hours later, Deputy Corrections Secretary Natalie LaBorde, an appointee of Edwards, confirmed a rough estimate of 36,000 pardoned and parole felons potentially being impacted. There are about 29,000 parolees and 35,000 probationers in Louisiana, according to the state. Almost all of them, with the exception of 1,500 probationers serving special deferred sentences, currently cannot vote in elections. The new law would create a major exception to that policy. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The new law states that a person who is under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony and who has not been incarcerated pursuant to that order within the last five years shall not be ineligible to register or vote. There is widespread agreement that this language applies to people on parole and probation who have been out of prison for five years with no major infractions. But most people on probation never go to prison in the first place, so the new language could allow them to vote as well, according to advocates for incarcerated people. Louisiana Secretary of State: More people may get voting rights restored than originally thought Thats not what many legislators thought they were voting on at the time, however. Most of the focus during the half dozen votes on the proposed measure were on probationers and parolees who had been under community supervision for at least five years. In most of the public discussions, no one talked about the majority of probationers -- those who never go to prison and rarely stay on supervision for five years -- being affected. Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said, through a spokesman, that he thinks the new law was written in such a manner that it may affect more individuals than was originally intended. Ardoins office, which oversees elections in Louisiana, also said the law has other technical issues which might make it harder to implement later this year. Edwards said he and Ardoin, who didnt back the law, are meeting Tuesday and the new law is likely to come up. Its a conversation that I know we are going to be engaging in, Edwards said. Ex-felons have voting rights restored by Louisiana Legislature The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave two journalism organizations grants totaling $2 million at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night (Jan. 6). The donations go toward journalism organizations investigating climate change and providing legal assistance for reporters, according to a CBS News report. InsideClimate News and the International Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press were each awarded $1 million grants. As artists, you bravely tell stories that enable us to see the world through the eyes of another, said Meher Tatna, actress and president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during the broadcast. These stories are our best hope of reflecting the kind of world we want to live in. We are privileged to share your work with the world. Last year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made similar donations with grants to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists, according to a report from Observer. Read the full report from CBS News and Observer. Like most New Orleanians, Darnell Lewis has enjoyed brass melodies since he was little. His mother calls him a real band head who is eager to become a band director someday. But instruments are expensive tools, and Lewis family cant afford to buy him a tuba. Fortunately, a new program in the city successfully awarded Lewis his very own tuba Friday (Jan. 4). Lewis is one of four students selected for the Preservation Hall Foundations new Sousafund program. The Sousafund was announced in March 2018 after Ben Jaffe, son of Preservation Hall founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe, had his sousaphone stolen. Jaffe created the Sousafund after he received an outpouring of financial support to replace his sousaphone, which was recovered last March. The program is intended to give at-risk students in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes access to basses and tubas to use in school music programs. Jaffe said in released statement on Jan. 3 that access to an instrument can make the difference between pursuing a career in music in a young students life. We have a responsibility to not only mentor and encourage, but to actually put a physical instrument in the hands of the next generation, Jaffe stated. Preservation Hall Foundation retains instrument ownership while theyre being used. However, the instrument ownership is passed on to the student if they decide to pursue a career in music, including applying to music schools nationwide. The students selected include Xavier University of Louisiana freshman Kerry Lewis, Jr., who received an upright bass. Three tubas were also awarded to St. Katherine Drexel Prep junior Perryion Landry, The Net Charter High School: Central City senior Darryl Mutin, and Lewis, whos a junior at Edna Karr High School. Sixteen-year-old Perryion joined Lewis and Mutin at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter on Friday to receive her horn. She called the program an awesome opportunity to interact with musicians. Jaffe told her to stay in touch in order to receive music lessons. Perryion happily hugged Lewis seconds before Jaffe gifted tubas to her, Lewis, and Mutin. The exchange was also emotional for Mutin, who said he enjoys music so much that he continued to march and perform for George Washington Carver High School after he transferred to The Net. Mutins former teacher gifted him with a tuba, but in dismay Mutin had to sell it, he said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Mutin admitted he started crying and everything when he learned Preservation Hall selected him for the program. The 20-year-old plans to earn money for college through music, but he said hell accept a college band scholarship if the school has a nice band. Mutin and Lewis said band experience prepares them for life. Lewis band director at Karr, for instance, teaches them to stay away from bad situations and to help others with pride. Lewis also takes advantage of Karrs band program by using the schools instruments for brass band performances outside of school. The three students launched into a performance within seconds of obtaining their tubas Friday. Lewis pulled a tuba mouthpiece out of his pocket and placed it on the instrument to perform for a few minutes before he paused midway to exchange smiles with his mother. That mouthpiece he have? He dont leave home without it, Shauunda Mitchell said. Lewis plans to return to New Orleans after college to become a middle or high school band director to try to continue the tradition of passing knowledge to the next generation of musicians, he said. Mitchell expressed confidence in her sons dream and said Lewis has played instruments since the third grade at Martin Berhman Elementary. She recalled how Lewis was the littlest one on the tuba in elementary school, but he carried the instrument through the whole parade season. Mitchell said he used to play music as late as 11 p.m. at home, so she and Lewis both expressed excitement over his new tuba. I was hoping I was going to get picked for this, said Lewis, 17. To actually get picked for this feels good. New Preservation Hall program offers at-risk students basses, tubas Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. Wayne Baquet Sr. makes some of the best fried chicken in town at Lil Dizzys, his Treme restaurant that opened in 2005. His gumbo is hard to beat. And Trout Baquet, which he sells each year at Jazz Fest, always ranks among our favorite dishes at the Fair Grounds. Now Baquet has added a second outlet for his Creole cooking inside the Rendon Inn, a long-running bar near the Broadmoor neighborhood. "We're excited about it," Baquet said. For now, Lil Dizzys at Rendon, as its officially known, is offering fried chicken, potato salad, gumbo, a burger and a menu of po-boys, such as shrimp, catfish, roast beef brisket and homemade hot sausage. "The fried chicken is so popular. That's the draw," Baquet said. "We really want to become famous for po-boys in addition to our Creole cooking." The fried chicken at Lil Dizzys was named last year as one of the 11 best in New Orleans by our critic Brett Anderson. Best fried chicken in New Orleans Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The kitchen at the Rendon Inn also has "tidbits," or bar snacks such as wings, cheese sticks and crawfish pies. On Jan. 14, Li'l Dizzy's at the Rendon will launch its full menu, including the same buffet offered at the original location. Basic breakfast will be available on Saturdays. On Sundays, Li'l Dizzy's at the Rendon will have a full brunch menu. Baquet didn't just grow up in the restaurant business, he literally grew up in a restaurant. His father, Eddie Baquet, opened a 7th Ward restaurant in the 1960s called Eddie's. Since money was tight, Eddie moved his wife and five kids into the back of the restaurant. Over the years, Eddie's became a popular draw with locals, visitors and even celebrities. Wayne Baquet Sr., with the help of his family, has run a number of popular Creole restaurants in New Orleans, including Cafe Baquet and Zacharys. (Note: Baquets brother Terry is an editor at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.) The kitchen at the Rendon Inn is currently open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Starting on Jan. 14, the hours will expand to 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Lil Dizzys at the Rendon: 4501 Eve St., New Orleans, 504.218.7106 (phone for bar) New Orleans police on Monday (Jan. 7) release images of three people they believe robbed a cab driver at gunpoint early on Saturday. The armed robbery occurred about 4:45 a.m. Saturday in the Hollygrove area, near the intersection of Mistletoe and Nelson streets, NOPD said in a news release. Police said a camera at the corner of Tulane and Loyola avenues captured images of the suspected men before they entered a United Cab taxi. A news release issued Monday with the images state the cab driver drove the three men to the Hollygrove location, where he was robbed by them. Police said the suspected men are believed to be in their 20s or early 30s, and may frequent the Eighth District. NOPDs 8th District is comprised of the French Quarter, the Faubourg Marigny, the Central Business District and much of the Warehouse District. The armed robbery of the United Cab driver at Mistletoe and Nelson was the second armed robbery of a cab driver reported to NOPD within five hours in that area. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Two cabdrivers among victims of five New Orleans robberies Hours earlier, Police said a 44-year-old cab driver was driving three men shortly before midnight Friday when one of the passengers put a gun to his head and demanded his belongings near the intersection of Monticello Avenue and Earhart Expressway in Hollygrove. The driver complied, and the trio fled. NOPD has not said if investigators believe the two robberies involved the same three men pictured in the above images. Anyone with information about the reported crimes is asked to contact NOPD at 504-821-2222 or provide information anonymously through Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111. Staff writer Hanna Krueger contributed to this report. Flash Malaysia's King Sultan Muhammad V resigned on Sunday, after over two years serving as the country's ceremonial supreme head of state. The resignation was announced by the national palace, saying Muhammad V has informed this matter officially to the Malay Rulers through a letter issued to the secretary of the Conference of Rulers. Under the special rotational monarchy system in Malaysia, the king as the head of state, is selected every five years from the nine hereditary sultans or state rulers, called the Conference of Rulers. Muhammad V had tried to fulfill his responsibilities as the head of state, and was an anchor of stability, source of justice, basis of unity and uniting factor among the country's diverse people, the palace said in a statement. He has also expressed his highest appreciation to the prime minister and the government for their cooperation, the statement said. The palace made no mention of the reason for his resignation, saying Muhammad V has prepared to return to his home state of where he remains as sultan. Muhammad V took the throne in December 2016. Prior to his resignation, the 49-year-old had been on a two-month medical leave from November last year before announcing his resignation. 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. The U.S. Marshals Service has arrested a Metairie sex offender whos been on the lam for two years. Jason Matthew Zeller, 41, was taken into custody Monday afternoon (Jan. 7) in Altamonte Springs, Fla., just north of Orlando, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Milton Ramirez. Say their names, victims relative tells convicted Metairie triple murderer at sentencing Federal authorities had been searching for Zeller since he skipped a Jan. 4, 2017 status hearing in Jefferson Parish regarding pending charges of possession of pornography involving juveniles and computer-aided solicitation of a minor. The case stems from an October 2015 arrest by the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office and the FBI. Zeller is accused of sending and receiving sexually explicit images of children, according to authorities. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up When investigators searched his Pier Avenue home in 2015, they seized his computer and discovered that hed been chatting with a girl under the age of 15 using Facebook. Zeller also had explicit photos of the girl that hed convinced her to send, authorities said. At the time of the 2015 arrest, Zeller was already a registered sex offender after a 2010 conviction of possession of pornography involving juveniles, authorities said. Federal authorities spent the last two years searching Zeller, who skipped town after missing court. Zellers father told the bail bonds company hed had no contact with his son, who seemed to have disappeared, authorities said. Zeller was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals from the New Orleans Office and the Middle District of Florida, The Seminole County Sheriffs Office after he tried to hide behind a coffee shop in Altamonte Springs, Ramirez said. No information was available Monday about his return to Jefferson Parish. But Zeller could also face federal charges related to unspecified violations of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Ramirez said. A woman faces aggravated battery and other charges after New Orleans police accused her of stabbing another woman in the head with a corkscrew Sunday (Jan. 6) in Algiers. The stabbing was reported about 10:50 a.m. in the 2100 block of Cobblestone Lane. Troylyn Haywood, 29, faces charges of aggravated battery, possession of Adderall and the sale, distribution or possession of a legend (prescription) drug without a prescription. She is expected to appear in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court Monday. It was not immediately clear if she was represented by an attorney. A preliminary NOPD report states two women had a verbal altercation that turned physical. The woman police identified as Haywood then produced a corkscrew and stabbed (the other woman) in the head, according to the report. The wounded woman, 26, was hospitalized. Her condition as of Monday was not known. A warrant for Haywoods arrest states the wounded woman had a laceration to the right side of her head and multiple scratches on her face and neck. The officer also noted bruising and swelling on the wounded womans face and neck, according to the warrant. Haywood was also being held at the Orleans Justice Center jail on a warrant out of Jefferson Parish, jail records show. Court records show authorities there sought to arrest her for allegedly missing court in connection to a case stemming from 2011. In that case, records show, Haywood pleaded guilty to two counts of monetary instrument abuse. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Man cut with pocket knife in Central City Sunday night A second stabbing was reported to NOPD Sunday, in Central City. A preliminary NOPD report states a 24-year-old man was cut in his left abdomen area during a fight with a friend. The stabbing was reported about 11 p.m. near the intersection of Saratoga and Second streets, according to the report. Police say a man, whose age was not listed, and his 24-year-old friend were arguing and began to fight. The 24-year-old was placed in a bear hug by his friend, and then pulled out a pocket knife. The friend who had the 24-year-old in the bear hug tried to disarm his friend," but was struck with the knife in his side. No other information about the stabbings was immediately available. Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to contact NOPD at 504-821-2222 or provide information anonymously through Crimestoppers at 5004-822-1111. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Troylyn Haywoods first name Tryolyn. Man shot in the 7th Ward on Sunday: NOPD Destrehan Pharmacy, a family-run business that has filled prescriptions in St. Charles Parish for more than 50 years, is closing. Its last day is Jan. 16. The pharmacy, located at 12627 E. Airline Highway, announced the decision to close Friday (Jan. 4) in a Facebook post. The post thanked customers for decades of business, but said mounting financial pressure amid falling insurance reimbursements forced the business to close. The decision was not easy and after many conversations with the family we decided that the sale was in the best interest of the employees, the community and our family, the post said. Customers will be able to fill and pick up prescriptions at Destrehan Pharmacy until Jan. 16. After that date, all files and prescription records will transfer to CVS, which has purchased the business, according to the post. In addition, customers who call Destrehan Pharmacys phone number will be directed to CVS. It was not immediately clear whats in store for the Destrehan Pharmacy building on Airline. The business did not immediately return calls requesting additional comment. Destrehan Pharmacy was purchased in 1966 by Lloyd G. Burkenstock Jr. and is now run by his grandson, B.J. Burkenstock. In 2017, the pharmacy built a new store near PJs Coffee and Ormond Pediatric Group on Airline Highway. The new location is down the road from its previous location as well as a CVS located in a neighboring shopping center. News of the closure comes as independent pharmacies throughout the nation are closing doors at a steady clip. Independent pharmacies in rural areas are especially vulnerable. From 2003 to 2018, an estimated 1,231 independently-owned pharmacies in rural areas closed, or roughly 16 percent, according to a July 2018 policy brief from the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis. Many experts blame pharmacy benefit managers, which administer prescription drug plans for millions of Americans and negotiate prices between insurers and drug companies. Experts note these benefit managers, also known as PBMs, tend to have opaque practices when it comes to setting drug prices and the reimbursements pharmacies get, which can put smaller pharmacies in a financial bind. Lawmakers, including those in Louisiana, have started targeting PBMs in efforts to curb skyrocketing drug costs. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up New laws take aim at prescription drug pricing in Louisiana In its Facebook post, Destrehan Pharmacy acknowledged there are many rumors as to why the business is closing, but the real reason has to do with declining reimbursements, not just from private insurance as well as Medicare plans and pharmacy benefit managers. It has been an honor to serve this great community and all the people who are a part of it, the post said. We are forever indebted for the love and dedication everyone has given to our business. The pharmacy will officially close its doors at close of business Wednesday evening, Jan. 16, 2019. An earlier version of included errors in its reporting of the names and history of the family behind Destrehan Pharmacy. Lloyd G. Burkenstock Jr. bought the pharmacy in 1966 and his grandson, B.J. Burkenstock, now runs the business. Jennifer Larino covers residential real estate, retail and consumer news, travel and cruises, weather and other aspects of life in New Orleans for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Reach her at jlarino@nola.com or 504-239-1424. Follow her on Twitter @jenlarino. With a number of Sears and K-Mart stores closing across New Jersey, there may be a new purpose for the land they used to occupy. Cape May County announced it had purchased the 62,000-square-foot K-Mart shopping plaza in Rio Grande via auction, submitting the winning bid of $5.75 million for the property, $4.65 million less than the appraised value of $10.4 million. The county says it originally had a lease-to-purchase agreement in place for the K-Mart store itself. However, when the parcel, previously owned by Frank Theaters, became available after the organization filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the county decided it would be more cost-effective to purchase the plaza. The former K-mart will also be the new home for the Department of Social Services. Cape May County spokesman Denis Brown said that at this time, the plan is to keep the businesses that are already in the plaza and rehab the old K-Mart building for the countys needs. County Counsel Jeff Lindsay called me with the idea of purchasing the property and when he explained how it could benefit the county, we all decided to jump on it, said Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. Freeholder Jeff Pierson and I have been working on this project for a while. I am proud of the whole team who put this project together. According to tax records, the property owner was previously paying Middle Township $192,900 in taxes, but that will come off the tax roles with the county as owner. The county hired the Cumberland County Improvement Authority to act as the project manager for the building renovation, which will have an estimated budget between $6 and $7 million. Cape May County also announced it had entered a lease agreement with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create a Community Based Clinic, contributing $1.3 million for renovations. The clinic will also be located inside the former Kmart building. The VA will then rent the space inside the building at the same dollar per square foot the county was paying under the lease agreement. When this project is completed it will be a big win for the Department of Social Services, which I oversee, Pierson said. It was also really important to me to help take care of our veterans which this also accomplishes. There is a lot of hard work that took place and I want to thank the staff for putting it together. A school board member is accused of impersonating a police officer and resisting arrest during a New Years Day incident in Millville. Police responded to BoJos Ale House shortly before 1 a.m. on Jan. 1 for a report of a fight and found several people standing outside of the establishment on High Street. As officers spoke with people at the scene, a man, later identified as Millville school board member Robert W. McQuade, took off running, police said. An officer ran after him, identifying himself as a cop and ordering McQuade to stop. He didnt stop until the officer eventually tackled him, according to the affidavit of probable cause. As the officer tried to handcuff him, McQuade pulled his arms away and reached into his right pocket as he yelled Im an off-duty retired Millville Police Department officer, police said. McQuade explained that his ID was in his pocket and presented a Millville Police Department badge and photo identification denoting his special officer status. He also had a department hat in his possession. McQuade, 53, told the officer that he ran because he was trying to apprehend someone involved in the fight at BoJos. The officer didnt see anyone else as he pursued McQuade, according to Lt. Ross Hoffman, spokesman for the police department. Officers investigated and learned that McQuade was in fact not an off-duty or retired Millville Police Department Officer. He had served as a Special 1 Officer many years ago, but was never reinstated, according to police. As the fight broke out in front of BoJos, witnesses reported that McQuade pulled up in his truck, parked in the middle of High Street and identified himself as a police officer before running from the scene. McQuade was charged with impersonating a police officer, resisting arrest by force and flight, and disorderly conduct, and released pending a Feb. 14 court date. As for the credentials McQuade showed officers, those are usually returned to the department once a special officers service ends, Hoffman explained. Its not clear why McQuade still had his, but the badge, ID and even the hat were confiscated when he was arrested. Efforts to reach McQuade for comment were unsuccessful. Special officers, who serve one-year appointments, do not have police powers when off duty, the arresting officer noted. Millville employs special officers to assist full-time police with various tasks, including crowd control, court security and enforcing city ordinances, according to the city website. McQuade is serving his second term on the city school board. On his LinkedIn page, he describes himself as a product developer and part-time security officer who previously held a position as a civil engineer for the 177th Fighter Wing in Atlantic City. Advocates have spent years pushing New Jersey to change its laws to allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants living here to obtain drivers licenses. And for years, the push has stalled. But there was renewed hope when Phil Murphy became governor last January, giving Democrats control of all branches of state government for the first time in eight years. Murphy, a proud progressive, campaigned on making those licenses a reality. Advocates marched in Trenton on his inauguration day to press for the issue. Multiple state lawmakers have promoted bills to create such licenses. And in September, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney came out in support. Still, a year after Murphy was sworn in, such a law doesnt exist. No bill has even come up for a vote in the Democrat-controlled state Legislature. Now, some advocates are concerned the issue will be put off until the end of the year. Thats because all 80 seats in the state Assembly, the Legislatures lower house, are up for grabs in Novembers elections, and some fear Democrats in charge want to avoid tackling a controversial issue that could fire up the Republican base and lead to negative campaign ads. Insiders say it might be safer to vote on the matter in the lame-duck session, the period between the elections and when the new Assembly is sworn in. Carlos Rojas, a leader of Cosecha, a New Brunswick group that has organized rallies on the issue, said hes worried political calculations will force immigrants to wait even longer. I think the Latino communities need more than just words, Rojas said. Murphy is pushing for the vote to happen quickly, saying it would be a mistake to hold off. Allowing our undocumented immigrant community to obtain drivers licenses is a critical step to building a stronger and fairer New Jersey for all," Alyana Alfaro, a deputy spokeswoman for the governor, said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. This policy will make our roads safer for all drivers and also stimulate the economy, Alfaro added. "The governor believes we should get this done as soon as possible and looks forward to working collaboratively with the Legislature to move the process forward. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, hasnt made any public comments about when a vote on the licenses might happen. But a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats told NJ Advance Media that Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Hudson the lawmaker driving the issue is still finalizing her legislation." Its a complicated and technical bill, and its critical to get it done correctly rather than quickly, the spokesman, Kevin McArdle, said. "The speaker is awaiting a finished product for a thorough review before deciding on a course of action and a timeframe for moving the bill. State Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex a co-sponsor of the legislation in the Legislatures upper house also said the language of the bill is still a moving target. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, stressed its still an issue legislative leaders care about. Murphy has taken steps of his own, including having the state Motor Vehicle Commission talk to other states about how they run their licensing programs. Twelve states including nearby Delaware and Connecticut and Washington, D.C., already provide special licenses to undocumented immigrants. But the governor needs the Legislature to pass a bill. And as Murphy learned a few times in his first year, the Legislature is led by Democrats who are more moderate than progressive. Plus, Murphys relationship with legislative leaders has sometimes been strained. That combination has caused some of his policy proposals to hit a wall. There are more than 466,000 undocumented immigrants of driving age in New Jersey, according to a 2018 study by left-leaning think tank NJ Policy Perspective. Proponents say special licenses who make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get to work, take their children to the doctor, and buy groceries. There are a lot of parts of New Jersey that are really impossible to get around without a drivers license, said Johanna Calle, director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. Plus, proponents say, the licenses would improve safety because many undocumented immigrants are already driving without insurance and registration. This would allow them to obtain those documents and even help lower insurance premiums for everyone in the state. Theyre on our roads. Theyre working in different places, Sweeney said on his radio show last September. "So its something that were going to have to address. Weve just have to figure out how we do it in the right way. Sponsors say undocumented immigrants in New Jersey would still need to provide ID proving their residence and pass a road test to obtain a license. The licenses could not be used for any federal purposes, such as boarding a plane. But critics fear this could lead to voter fraud and risk homeland security. A group of Republican state lawmakers from Ocean County state Sen. Christopher Connors, Assemblyman Brian Rumpf, and Assemblywoman DiAnne Gove released a statement earlier this year blasting the idea. Essential programs and services for legal residents are on the chopping block all while the needs of illegal aliens continue to be prioritized," they said. A more recent bill would institute a new two-tier licensing system to get New Jersey in compliance with the federal REAL ID act which the state has until October to comply with. That legislation would also create a separate standard license for undocumented immigrants in New Jersey. Advocates say lawmakers up for re-election shouldnt fear the issue, especially in the wake of last years midterm congressional elections, when Democrats flipped four U.S. House seats in New Jersey, in part because of voters protesting the policies of Republican President Donald Trump. I think lawmakers are rushing to think about the 2019 election and not really thinking about the outcome of 2018 midterm election, Rojas said. New Jersey definitely had a blue wave. I think one of the messages voters sent was theyre actually anti-Trump voters. And what it means to be anti-Trump is to stand up for immigrants. Added Calle: I think lawmakers should be aware of the fact this is definitely the right thing to do. NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Arco contributed to this report. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Katie Brennan, the staffer in Gov. Phil Murphys administration whose allegation she was raped by another former top aide to the governor has gripped New Jerseys political world, has filed suit against the state, the Murphy campaign and her accused rapist, Albert J. Alvarez. Brennan is seeking damages and emergency relief that bars the state from enforcing a confidentiality order against her as part of a new investigation into her statements that she has felt professional backlash since going public with her rape allegation. The lawsuit accuses administration officials of bungling their response to Brennans rape allegation by violating her confidentiality, failing to inform her of her rights and failing to investigate her claims. She pursued every avenue she could ... waved every red flag she could access, and she was ignored. As Ms. Brennan has said, if she cannot get justice through currently available complaint systems, who can?" Brennans attorney, Kathryn McClure, said in a statement. "It should never have come to this, but every opportunity to take meaningful action was met with disregard. Brennan, chief of staff to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, has said Alvarez raped her following a campaign gathering in April 2017. Over next year, she told members of Murphys inner circle but says her pleas were ignored. Alvarez was hired by the administration as chief of staff to the New Jersey Schools Development Authority and worked there until Oct. 2, the day he was contacted by the Wall Street Journal. Brennan filed suit Monday in state Superior Court. Last month she filed a notice of tort claim in a separate action against the state seeking damages for emotional distress for hiring and retaining Alvarez in state employment. Spokesmen for Murphy and the state Attorney Generals Office declined to comment. In the suit, Brennan accuses the administration of attempting to silence her in launching an equal employment investigation following her Dec. 4 testimony that she has felt ostracized by the Murphy administration. At a hearing before a special legislative committee investigating the administrations response, Brennan told lawmakers she felt her relationships had become strained since she went public with her story in October. This statement, according to the lawsuit, prompted the Division of Equal Employment Opportunity to open an investigation. As part of that investigation, Brennan was required to sign a confidentiality agreement. The EEO/AA launched this investigation on their own accord in order to apply its illegal strict confidentiality directive to plaintiff, to attempt to silence her once again ... If she breaches this confidentiality, the penalties include discipline, up to and including termination, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks to bar the state from enforcing the confidentiality agreement on an emergent basis. Plaintiff brings this lawsuit so not only her voice could be heard, but so that all survivors' voices are heard. Plaintiff and other state employees are and will continue to suffer irreparable harm if defendants are not immediately restrained from enforcing the strict confidentiality directive, it says. Brennan alleges in the lawsuit the administration violated her privacy by sharing her allegation with officials who had no legitimate investigative role, including Chief of Staff Pete Cammarano. Cammarano testified last month that he learned of the allegation from his deputy, Justin Braz, during the transition in 2017 and from Murphys chief counsel, Matt Platkin, in March. Cammarano was not an EEO/AA officer nor did he have any investigative duties or responsibilities in connection with (Brennan)'s complaint of rape or other complaints of sexual misconduct, workplace discrimination or harassment, it says. As such there was no legitimate reason for Platkin to inform Cammarano of plaintiffs complaint of rape; the state policy did not allow Platkin to make such a disclosure. The lawsuit seeks a broad retraining of all state officials, including Murphy, on workplace discrimination and retaliation. Murphy and state lawmakers are investigating how the state handled Brennans allegations. The administration is expected to release the results of an internal investigation this month. The state Legislature will hold its third and fourth hearings this week with testimony from Platkin, Cammarano, transition director Jose Lazano, and campaign counsel Jonathan Berkon. In past testimony, Cammarano and Charlie McKenna, Alvarezs boss as the Schools Development Authority, said they separately instructed Alvarez to look for employment outside state government in March and June, but he continued in his position until October. NJ Advance Media reporter Brent Johnson contributed to this report. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. By Analilia Mejia As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches -- a reminder of his legacy of fighting for racial and economic justice -- New Jersey legislators continue to debate the scope of a proposed minimum wage increase. Who will be granted the economic security an additional $12,000 a year provides and who wont is at the core of the discussion. In lieu of speeches and dedications, legislators should instead take a moment to consider the historical case against any worker exclusions and take a closer look at who they seem willing to leave behind. Close to 1 million New Jerseyans currently make less than $15 an hour. These workers are spread across the state, ranging in age, gender and occupation. The majority are adults, many have children and all struggle to make ends meet. Throughout U.S. history, we have had multiple examples of how higher wages and broad worker protections are an effective economic stimulus. In 1935, FDR moved a series of economic policies meant to stabilize a nation suffering under the Great Depression. Programs to secure the retirement of the elderly, protect workers right to organize, and provide unemployment assistance were all created, but, unfortunately, limited to certain workers. Historians may debate whether racism was intentional or a happy coincidence for Dixiecrats who championed Jim Crow segregationist policies, but the fact remains that the exclusion of predominantly black and/or female farmworkers, domestic workers, and the creation of a tipped sub-minimum wage had a detrimental impact on black workers and their families, felt even today. Legislators are unlikely to publicly doubt MLKs assertions that denying workers higher wages, union protections, and equity is anything other than immoral. None would publicly doubt that economic inequities faced by parents and grandparents limit the choices and economic security for future generations. And yet, many stand prepared to cherry pick who will be given access to an economic boost and who will languish in a permanent subclass of work and wages. Denying certain workers the protections and privileges enjoyed by some particularly when those unfortunately excluded are some of the most vulnerable workers among us runs completely counter to the ideals of pay equity and racial justice routinely espoused in Trenton. This cognitive dissonance is what makes the current debate to exclude certain workers inexplicable. Legislators have proposed a two track system, one where certain workers will experience the boon of thousands of dollars in increased pay, while others will languish on a lesser, slower, and capped track. The fact that the majority of the workers placed on the inferior track are those in industries and occupations comprised by mostly women or people of color should make every New Jerseyan take pause and question why we are even having this debate in 2019. Some legislators claim that repeating the mistakes derided by history as unjust is warranted in order to protect industries important to our state. Others will claim that the exclusions are insignificant or not as detrimental as advocates claim. Both of these assertions are incorrect. First and foremost businesses who must find subsistence in our state by maintaining poverty wages are a drain to public coffers both by depriving it of tax revenue and by creating greater dependency on public safety nets. Further, these industries are better served by a more robust consumer base, able to engage in our local economies instead of barely scraping by. Secondly, the myriad of possibly excluded categories, whether its tipped workers, youth workers, farm workers or those who work for a small business can be upwards of half of the workforce legislators contend to help. Its as if their intention is to craft a policy that will cover none. In his 1963 Letter from Birmingham City Jail, Dr. King asserted that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Let that quote be the guiding force behind minimum wage negotiations, anything else shall place New Jersey legislators in foul company on the wrong side of history. Analilia Mejia is executive director of NJ Working Families Alliance. Related opinions: Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Cash and computer equipment were stolen from an Ocean County mosque by thieves who broke open a large safe and ransacked an office over the weekend. When Mahmoud Atia, manager of Masjid Bilal in Toms River, arrived Sunday morning ahead of daily prayer, he found the office in disarray and the safe with a hole cut into the side, a video on Facebook shows. Alslam Alykom, We had a brake in last night between 10pm and Fajr prayer, if you have any information please contact us or call Toms River police departmen. Jzakom Allah khyrn. Posted by Masjid Bilal on Sunday, January 6, 2019 Police said cash and two laptops were missing from the safe. A shed at the back of the mosque also had its door broken open, but nothing was reported missing, police said. On the mosques Facebook page, organizers said surveillance video shows two or three people covering their heads with hoods before breaking a window and cutting out the back of the safe. They knew what they are after, the comment reads, claiming the burglars came in through the north side where there is construction to avoid cameras. Authorities urge anyone with information to contact Toms River Police Detective Louis Santora at (732) 349-0150 ext. 1276 or Detective Pat Jacques at ext. 1297. Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips New Jersey continues to be one of the countrys worst offenders when it comes to taking much-needed taxpayer funds for the states ailing 911 infrastructure and spending it elsewhere, a new report finds. The latest report by the Federal Communications Commission found New Jersey diverted more than $94 million, or more than 77 percent, of the money it collected in 2017 to expenses not related to the 911 system. Thats an improvement from the $108 million the federal agency said New Jersey diverted the year prior. Additionally, only a pittance of the nearly $28 million spent on the 911 system was actually put toward upgrades, according to documentation submitted by the state. Only $75,000 was used on system upgrades less than one-tenth of one percent of what was collected. The state did not specify, as it had in recent years, what that money was for. The report came as no surprise to local and county officials who have been fighting for more than a decade to get a piece of the funds the state collects from a 90-cent fee on everyones phone bill. Of the nearly $2 billion paid by residents since 2004, only $350 million has actually gone toward maintaining and upgrading the system. Aside from New Jersey, the FCC report noted five other states that diverted 911 fees in 2017: Montana, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island and West Virginia. When Americans pay 911 fees on their phone bills, they rightfully expect that money to fund 911-related services, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. Unfortunately, the FCCs annual report shows that, once again, several states have siphoned 911 funding for unrelated purposes. This is outrageous and it undermines public safety." A representative for Gov. Phil Murphy did not return an email seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Gurbir Grewal declined comment. The current 911 system, which is powered by dial-up modems, continues to have issues when it comes to fielding calls from cellphones. The states system relies on cell towers to find an approximate location of a 911 caller from a mobile device. It can have trouble tracking callers who are on the move, and can provide dispatchers with inaccurate locations that can lead to fatal mistakes. A relatively new system, Next Generation 911, would help bring 911 into the digital age. Using GPS mobile technology, it would help dispatchers pinpoint an exact location for a cellphone caller. It would also allow callers and dispatchers to communicate via text message, and enable callers to share photos and videos. Some counties arent waiting for the state to get its act together. Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, one of the most outspoken critics on the states diversion of 911 funding, is testing out a program in his county call center that utilizes the same mobile GPS technology as Google Maps and Uber. The program, Rapid SOS, uses a cellphones IP address to get an exact location of a 911 caller. Golden said the program has helped a dispatcher find the location of an incoherent man who was high on drugs and couldnt communicate his location. We encourage the state to use this technology, to take a look at it and deploy it around the state, Golden said. Rapid SOS is a workaround for NextGen 911, he said. His county call center, and most around the state, have also implemented workarounds so that people in distress can now text to 911. However, officials caution people to use that technology only when a phone call could put someone in harms way, like in an active-shooter situation. A package of bills would require the hundreds of 911 call centers in the state to be equipped with NextGen 911 within three years. The upgrade, estimated at nearly $100 million, would be paid for through an additional 9 cents charged to every monthly phone bill, bringing the total service fee to 99 cents. The bills (A2371, A3742) advanced out of committee last year but were never put up for a vote on the Assembly floor. Only one bill had a companion in the Senate and it did not receive a hearing. Even if th ebills were to pass and be signed by the governor, the only true way to ensure that funds allocated in the state budget for 911 dont get diverted is through a constitutional amendment. A bill to do just that was introduced in 2016, weeks after NJ Advance Media published a special report on the issue, but it never went anywhere. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Stephen Stirling may be reached at sstirling@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @sstirling. Find him on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Flash Outraged politicians and other prominent public figures are pressuring German authorities to get to the bottom of a massive data breach, in which stolen personal data was published by an anonymous Twitter account, German news agency DPA reported on Sunday. Around 50 of the nearly 1,000 cases of leaked data are considered severe, meaning that personal data, photos and correspondence were made public, security sources told DPA on Sunday. Former and current elected officials are among the 994 people affected by the data breach, with the vast majority of them hit solely with the publication of their contact data, the sources said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier were targeted, while celebrities and journalists were also among the victims, DPA said. The 50 more serious cases are currently the focus of ongoing investigations, according to the sources. The data was released in daily tweets throughout December in the style of a Christmas advent calendar but only attracted national attention on Friday. The Twitter account, named "G0d" (@_0rbit), has since been suspended. It is unclear who was behind the attack. German authorities charged with data security have come under fire. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) first became aware of the scale of the data leak in January, according to DPA. When Frank Campione, a physician assistant, handed someone prescription painkillers for cash in a mall parking lot in 2015, detectives saw an opportunity to take down a drug dealer. They charged him with the unlawful practice of medicine, distribution of a controlled dangerous substance and conspiracy to obtain a controlled dangerous substance. Later, he was indicted. But in the eyes of Superior Court Judge Dennis OBrien, Campione, a 47-year-old licensed medical professional from Brick, was just doing his job. Campione worked in a practice that made house calls with Dr. Howard Katz, who was also named in the indictment. Katz was charged with the unlawful practice of medicine, but not with distributing a controlled dangerous substance. OBrien dismissed the indictment against both men late last year. In a Nov. 16 hearing in Monmouth County Superior Court, the judge said it wasnt a criminal act to practice medicine in a vehicle. The state presented the case to a grand jury as if Campione was running an illegal CDS distribution business disguised as Acute Medical House Calls LLC when in fact the number of patients on CDS was a small fraction of the practices overall patient counts, OBrien explained in the hearing, according to an audio recording obtained by NJ Advance Media. If Campione was in business to illegally distribute opioids and other controlled dangerous substances for profit, "the number of patients would most certainly be higher, the judge said. The dismissal of the indictment comes as New Jersey grapples with the states soaring overdose rate, which many experts attribute to abuse of prescription painkillers. Sorting the good from the bad In 2016, the year Campione was arrested, Monmouth County had 164 drug overdose deaths. That was three times the amount of highway fatalities and 23 times the number of homicides. As highly-addictive pain medication continues to wind up on the streets, prosecutors have had to look at some doctors as no different than dealers peddling drugs. But weeding out the bad doctors from those prescribing medication to those in need hasnt always been easy. In September, for example, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal took the rare step of condemning the State Board of Medical Examiners, an oversight board his office oversees, after they allowed Dr. Bruce Coplin of Toms River, who was found to be overprescribing opioids, to keep practicing medicine. If we are serious about ending the opioid crisis, then we must also get serious about holding doctors accountable when they recklessly prescribe these drugs, Grewal said at the time. However, Coplin and his attorneys argued that he prescribed the drugs because other doctors had been too fearful to continue prescribing the painkillers, and those doctors patients had flooded into Coplins practice. He was trying to triage the situation, his attorney, John Hanamirian said. Prosecutors accused Campione of meeting people in public places to sell them prescriptions for opioids and other controlled dangerous substances, including oxycodone and Xanax. He was arrested and charged with selling a controlled dangerous substance on Feb. 18, 2016, following a four-month investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office. Katz was charged with the unlawful practice of medicine, but not with distributing a controlled dangerous substance. Campione was released from jail after paying $150,000 bond. His license to practice as a physician assistant remains suspended. Katzs license was never suspended. Interpreting facts During the investigation, two people were arrested for selling pills with oxycodone, an ingredient in highly-addictive painkillers. Those two defendants told investigators they purchased the painkillers from Campione, according to the facts of the case read aloud in court by OBrien. One of the witnesses agreed to wear a wire when he met Campione in his car in the parking lot of the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, OBrien said. During the Dec. 3, 2015, meeting, Campione allegedly handed the witness three prescription forms for refills of medication in exchange for $175 cash after performing a physical exam, the judge said. Investigators then searched Campiones home and found hollow-point bullets and brass knuckles before arresting him. OBrien said the two witnesses who Campione prescribed medication to had been previously sent for MRIs, and both patients were diagnosed with conditions that warranted prescription pain medication. The fact that prosecutors presented Campione as a drug dealer to the grand jury, OBrien said, is a gross mischaracterization of the facts. The state presented the case as if there was something criminal of the location of Campiones practice, OBrien added. In fact, he explained, multiple patients had testified that they paid a flat fee for a visit with Campione regardless of how many prescriptions, if any, they were given. Theres no evidence to support the statement that Campione charged patients for prescriptions, OBrien said. As for the ammunition and brass knuckles, prosecutors didnt mention that evidence existed at the first grand jury, OBrien said. Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni declined to comment on the judges ruling, but said prosecutors will exercise their appellate rights to appeal the decision. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips A few years ago, in the midst of some break-ins in their Hamilton neighborhood, Michael Kevin McCoy spotted a burglary suspect from his house. He just went out and tackled him, his son Brennen McCoy said Monday. It was the right guy, and the town gave him an award for his actions. Thats the kind of guy McCoy was. He was just always looking to help other people, his son said. The elder McCoy died Dec. 27 when his car crossed into oncoming traffic on Youngs Road in Hamilton and struck another car. He was 53 years old. Another McCoy child, the familys youngest, was seriously injured in the crash, and taken to a Philadelphia hospital for treatment. The child has since been released. The father was driving him to a piano practice, a GoFundMe page created for them says. Brennen said the reason his father lost control of the car was not finalized by police, but the familys hunch is that he suffered some type of medical attack. Brennen said his father was a cautious, safe driver. He drove below the speed limit, he said. Kevin McCoy, as he was known, formerly owned the Broad Street Health & Fitness in Trenton. He really supported small businesses and entrepreneurs, his son said. He worked as a FedEx driver, and most recently for Dorzar, a food services company in Newark as a warehouse supervisor. He was a former volunteer firefighter in Hamilton and Lawrence, and the McCoy family was very involved with Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Hamilton. Kevin McCoy was born in Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and remained a Washington Redskins fan. He also enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, hiking, and camping, and was a country music and NASCAR fan, his obituary says. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Former Gov. Jim McGreevey's nearly six-year tenure as the head of Jersey City's prisoner re-entry program may come to an end as soon as today, with McGreevey scheduled to face a hostile board of directors that may determine his fate. McGreevey, the embattled chief of the nonprofit Jersey City Employment and Training Program, has been told its nine-member board may discuss actions that could "adversely impact" his employment, sources with knowledge of the communication have told The Jersey Journal. The sources said Sudhan Thomas, the JCETP chair, warned McGreevey about the potential action on Friday in a "Rice notice," which public entities must send employees if they plan to discuss their employment. The notice came one day after McGreevey's attorney, Michael Critchley, told Mayor Steve Fulop in a letter that if McGreevey is fired at the mayor's direction, the former governor will sue. Critchley alleges that Fulop is punishing McGreevey for firing one of the mayor's political operatives last year, an allegation Fulop has denied. Fulop does not technically control JCETP, a federally funded nonprofit that provides job training and prisoner re-entry services, but he appoints its board members. Three years ago, Fulop called McGreevey's work with ex-prisoners "amazing." Today, the mayor accuses him of financial malfeasance. Reached by phone, McGreevey said, "Every day, I find great purpose and meaning in this service, and this is what I believe I was called to do and will continue to do." Thomas said McGreevey's decision to act as a JCETP lawyer instead of hiring one -- the ex-governor does not have an active law license -- "is obviously disturbing and concerning and a huge exposure to Jersey City." McGreevey told The Jersey Journal he has acted in the capacity of a lawyer to save JCETP money "so we could put our clients first." In 2013, Fulop installed McGreevey as executive director of JCETP and directed the former governor to expand its services to include a prisoner re-entry program. The move garnered national headlines and helped Fulop burnish his liberal bona fides as he waded into the crowded pool of Democrats seeking to succeed Then-Gov. Chris Christie. But it also chafed some of Fulop's longest supporters, who viewed the mayor as a political reformer, not someone who would buddy up with a man who had resigned as governor in 2004 under a cloud of scandal. Fulop and McGreevey have not spoken in years. Sources tell The Jersey Journal the dispute dates to Fulop's decision in 2016 not to run for governor. Last year, the Fulop administration began exerting more control over JCETP. Fulop started adding close allies to the nonprofit's board, including one of his chief political operatives, his former corporation counsel, the city's municipal prosecutor, and one of the mayor's drivers. Thomas, a Fulop ally, took over as chair in August, replacing someone close to McGreevey. In October, the city told JCETP it would receive nothing from a pot of federal money the city controls (JCETP received $154,400 from the fund three years ago). City Business Administrator Brian Platt defended the withdrawal of financial support in an Oct. 10 memo that says JCETP was "non-compliant" with rules on spending the cash, did not provide "proper and adequate job placement" for its clients, skipped required reporting and more. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at JCETP's headquarters, 398 MLK Dr. SECAUCUS Police are seeking the publics help in identifying a man who burglarized a Blimpie sandwich shop on Dec. 28. Surveillance footage released by the Secaucus Police Department shows a man inside the Blimpie located at 1277 Paterson Plank Rd. at 3:30 a.m. The man, who appears to have a noticeable limp, is seen in the video walking behind the service counter, kneeling near the register and then grabbing what appears to be an envelope. An investigation revealed that a single man forced entry into the business and committed a theft while inside, Capt. Dennis Miller said in a statement. The burglar described as a tall, thin man then fled in a 2003-2007 dark-colored, two-door Honda Accord and headed east on Paterson Plank Road, the video surveillance shows. Miller said the exact method of entry and proceeds of the crime are being withheld because the investigation is ongoing JERSEY CITY A 20-year-old Jersey City man was sentenced to eight years in prison for a fatal shooting that stunned the community for both its location and the age of the people involved. Daequan Jackson had turned 18 only four months before shooting 17-year-old Leander Williams three times at a back-to-school party at Holy Ghost Tabernacle Ministries Church on Communipaw Avenue on Aug. 9, 2016. A 16-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl were also wounded in the incident that was captured on a video that shows some 80 to 100 youths fleeing for their lives in the mayhem. Defense attorney Joseph Russo quoted Bryan Stevensons book Just Mercy as he argued for a reduced sentence Friday, saying Each of us is more than the worst thing weve ever done. He noted that at a hearing in the matter Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mirtha Ospina found there was evidence that the victim and two others had conspired to cause harm to Jackson that night. Williams had a gun in his pocket when he was shot, but Russo admitted that his clients actions did not rise to a true self-defense defense. The defense attorney noted that Jackson, who had finished ninth grade before being arrested, was deeply religious, won awards in school and since his incarceration, he has written poetry, four books, and had studied law cases in order to help in his defense. Russo asked for a sentence of three years less than proposed in the plea deal. When given a chance to speak, Jackson spoke cryptically, deflecting the blame from himself. A lot of us talk about what youth do," he told the court. "A lot of us talk about things they should do. But nobody talks about why they do the things they do. He said his father was killed when he was 2 years old and that he later hugged the killer. Jackson also said that on the night of the shooting, the decision was made for him, based on events, and not by him. He said I want to touch lives from now on We have to do what we are called to do, in life. He said hes happy and has learned from the whole experience. Finally, he noted the amount of time he has been jailed since his arrest and told Ospina several times that Now you get to tell my family when I get my freedom back. Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Najma Rana was not swayed, saying Williams, the victim, will never go home. His home is in a cemetery. The prosecutor said Williams had turned 17 only 42 days before being killed in a sanctuary where (youths) should have been safe. In the darkness, this defendant stood over the victim and fired and continued to fire. Rana said the 16-year-old girl had a bullet removed from the back of her head, and the 12-year old had a bullet removed from her jaw. She said They are not here. They are not here out of fear. They are not here out of the culture of violence in this city. Rana said there there was no confrontation between Jackson and Williams, who had only entered the dark hall 30 second before being killed. She said his eyes were likely still adjusting to the darkness and he had not even seen Jackson. The prosecutor said "But judge, if the defendant is deeply religious and deeply spiritual he will understand this, Rana said near her closing. Whats done in the darkness will not remain hidden. It always come to light. In the end, Ospina sentenced Jackson, as per the plea deal, to eight years in prison for the homicide and the aggravated assaults on the girls. The judge said that based on the accolades voiced by Jacksons attorneys, the time he will be behind bars and the job waiting for him through a reentry program, he will resurrect upon release. Ospina noted that Jackson had no priors and said This is not a sentence that says you are a bad person, but because he did a bad thing. Russo said he intends to file an appeal regarding the sentence. An 18-year-old from West New York was arrested Friday and charged with the murder of Steven Flores, who was shot and killed Dec. 23 just after midnight in West New York, authorities said. The alleged shooter, a West New York resident who was 17 at the time, is being charged as a juvenile. His identity is currently being withheld by the Hudson County Prosecutors Office, which has charged him with murder, weapons offenses, and aggravated assault. Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez credited her offices Homicide Unit for the investigation and arrest, as well as the West New York Police Department, the Union City Police Department and the North Bergen Police Department for assisting in the investigation. On the morning of the shooting, West New York police received a call of shots fired in the area of 61st Street and Park Avenue and found Flores, 19, of Union City, with an apparent gunshot wound to his upper body. He was pronounced dead at approximately 1 a.m., Suarez said. The Regional Medical Examiners Office then determined the cause of death to be a gunshot wound to the neck ruled Flores' death as a homicide. A second victim who suffered injuries not considered life-threatening was also found at the scene. He was transported to a local hospital, authorities said. Suarez said the 18-year-old was arrested at the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City. Two alleged members of the Bloods street gang have been sentenced to decades in prison for plotting the execution-style slaying of a rival gang member in Newark two years ago, prosecutors said Monday. Essex County Superior Court Judge James W. Donohue sentenced Rashan Jackson, 31, to life in prison for firing the shots that ended William Porters life, according to the Essex County Prosecutors Office. Hakeem Maloney, a 38-year-old convicted of helping Jackson plot Porters April 21, 2017, killing, was sentenced to 70 years, prosecutors said. Jackson and Maloney, both of Irvington, were among three alleged members of various Bloods gang factions convicted at trial in November of planning and carrying out the fatal ambush outside a now-shuttered nightclub on Mulberry Street. Porter, a 23-year-old Newark man authorities identified as a member of a hybrid gang, was shot eight times in a parking lot outside the club in an apparent execution captured on video by nearby surveillance cameras, Assistant Prosecutor Adam Wells told jurors. The jury ultimately convicted Jackson of Porters murder, while Maloney and Naim Jones, 42, of Newark, were convicted of conspiracy and weapons offenses in the murder plot. Jurors, however, could not reach a verdict on charges Maloney and Jones had promoted organized street crime as high-ranking members of the Bloods. Both Maloney and Jones, whom prosecutors identified as the godfather of one Bloods gang faction, were on parole from prior convictions at the time Porters slaying. Jones, prosecutors said, previously had been convicted of aggravated manslaughter and conspiracy in a 2004 double homicide case. Maloney, who was represented by defense attorney Steven F. Wukovits, must serve at least 52 years and six months of his sentence before hes eligible for parole. Jackson, who was represented by attorney Michael Robbins, must serve at least 63 years and nine months of his life sentence before he becomes eligible for parole, authorities said. Jones, who is represented by defense attorney Thomas R. Ashley, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8, according to the prosecutors office. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Actor Kevin Spacey appeared in court in Nantucket, Massachusetts on Monday to be arraigned on a felony charge of indecent assault and battery in connection with an alleged incident in 2016. CNN reports the actor pleaded not guilty to the charges. An 18-year-old man alleges that Spacey groped him at the Nantucket bar where he worked while the two were drinking together. Spacey, who did not speak during the court appearance, could face up to five years in prison for the felony charge. At best, this describes two people engaged in mutual and consensual flirtation, nothing more, Spaceys attorneys wrote in court documents. The Oscar-winning Spacey, 59, a native of South Orange, was among Hollywoods most elite A-listers when he became the subject of a long series of allegations of sexual misconduct and assault in 2017, after the #MeToo movement was energized by widespread allegations concerning film mogul Harvey Weinstein. The alleged Nantucket victim, who had been working as a busboy at the Club Car restaurant and bar, filed a police report in 2017. He claims Spacey groped him at the bar after buying him a series of drinks and says the actor tried to get him to go back to his house. CNN reports that the teen had told the actor he was 23. The busboy told police that Spacey reached out and began to rub his thigh, allegedly groping him for three minutes after unzipping the teens pants. The alleged victim recorded part of the encounter on Snapchat and shared the video clip with his girlfriend. Spaceys appearance in court drew the attention of national media. The actor is not required to appear for the next court date on March 4. The court ordered that Spacey stay away from the alleged victim and his family and agreed to a request from Spaceys attorneys that cell phone evidence from both the man and his then-girlfriend, including data and text messages they called likely exculpatory," be preserved (for six months). Earlier, a judge had denied a request from Spaceys lawyers to allow the actor to waive his right to be present at the arraignment. On Christmas Eve, after he was charged for the alleged Nantucket incident, Spacey, who had been keeping a low profile, released a video on YouTube in which he delivered a monologue in the style of Frank Underwood, his character from House of Cards. (Netflix had cut ties with the actor after allegations began to surface and his character was killed off in the show.) "I know what you want, Spacey said in the video, appearing to address the actions and demise of his character or his real-life troubles concerning the allegations, or both. You want me back. Of course some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. Theyre just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. Wouldnt that be easy? The mother of the 18-year-old man who Spacey is alleged to have assaulted, Boston news anchor Heather Unruh, held a press conference about the alleged incident in 2017, after other allegations against the actor had surfaced. She said when the actor went to the bathroom, her son left the bar and ran to his grandmothers house. It harmed him and it cannot be undone, she said at the time, adding that she wants Spacey to go to jail. Allegations of assault and misconduct concerning Spacey stretch back decades, with some men saying they were underage teens during their encounters with the actor. Actor Anthony Rapp went public with the first allegation against the actor in the wake of the allegations against Weinstein. Rapp claimed that in 1986, Spacey, who was 26 at the time, had made sexual advances towards him at a party when he was 14. Spacey said that he did not recall the incident. If I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, he said. At the same time, Spacey came out as gay. The actor was hit with a barrage of criticism, for the move. Some said he was trying to deflect from the seriousness of the allegations and conflating sexual misconduct with being gay Police have also investigated allegations against Spacey in Los Angeles and the United Kingdom, where he served as artistic director of Londons Old Vic theater for more than a decade. A group of 20 people came forward with allegations that Spacey had acted inappropriately before and during his time at the theater. Some connected with the theater said that Spacey had allegedly groped them or groped young men there. Harry Dreyfuss, son of actor Richard Dreyfuss, said in a 2017 essay for BuzzFeed that he was in London in 2008 with his father, who was rehearsing lines with Spacey, when the actor reached into his lap and groped him (he said his father was focused on reading the lines and did not see). He was 18 at the time. Members of the House of Cards crew also alleged that Spacey, an executive producer of the show, groped and harassed men on the set. One anonymous man alleged in a Vulture story that he was 14 when he had a sexual relationship with Spacey in the 1980s. He alleged the relationship ended when Spacey attempted to rape him. In the wake of the allegations against Spacey, director Ridley Scott recast Spacey in his film All the Money in the World. He reshot the actors scenes with Christopher Plummer in a matter of nine days. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook. The 70-year-old woman killed in Fridays house fire in Cape May County died of carbon monoxide poising, authorities said. Firefighters found Melody Murphy dead in an upstairs bedroom after entering the home on the 200 block of East Florida Avenue in the Villas section of Lower Township, police said. Murphys husband was treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries following the 6:45 a.m. blaze. Authorities are still working to determine how and where in the home the fire started. At approximately 7 a.m. Jan. 4, Lower Township police received a report of a working structure fire in the 200 block East Florida Avenue, Villas. https://t.co/WkHTDouEFw Cape May County News (@HeraldNews) January 4, 2019 Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. An adorable little seal trying to get some sun in North Wildwood had its afternoon nap interrupted by too many onlookers, and had to be moved to avoid being harassed, rescuers said. We keep telling people, for 40 years, leave the animal alone, said Bob Schoelkopf, founding director of the Brigantine-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which responded to the jetty in North Wildwood to take the seal Monday. The animal belongs there. When temperatures drop, its not uncommon for seals to slip out of the water, taking some time to rest, dry off and warm up in the sun, he said. But the sight can alarm passersby, who think the animals are hurt or dying when theyre really just trying to get some rest. The seal, which was about nine or 10 months old, was moved to another location Monday afternoon. Schoelkopf did not say where, as he does not want people flocking to the new location to get a look at the animal. Anyone who sees seals resting along the shore should not try to feed them or take a picture. When threatened, the seals can bite, and can also act defensively if approached by dogs, Schoelkopf said. If the seal does look truly injured, witnesses can call the center at 609-266-0538. The center is currently caring for two injured seals suffering from respiratory issues, one with a laceration on its flipper, Schoelkopf said. Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Four people, including a firefighter were injured during an overnight house fire in Camden, officials said. The fire broke out around 3 a.m. on the 200 block of Grand Street and left two residents with serious injuries, the Camden fire department said. The firefighter was injured while rescuing one of the residents and is expected to fully recover. Firefighters found one resident outside the home when they arrived. They soon rescued two others, and all three were taken to hospitals. One had burns over 50 percent of his body. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Three residents and a firefighter were injured during an overnight fire on Grand Street in Camden on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. David Lapp, 77, of the Town of Niagara, entered into eternal rest on December 13, 2020 at Niagara Hospice. Born in Niagara Falls, he was the son of Evelyn and John Lapp. Mr. Lapp was a CPA at his own firm in Niagara Falls. He had been Vice President of Finance for Sattler's Department Store You are here: China Liu Zhonglin, a man wrongfully imprisoned for murder for 25 years, was granted 4.6 million yuan ($670,000) in state compensation on Monday, The Beijing News reported. The money includes more than 2.62 million yuan of compensation for personal freedom and more than 1.97 million yuan of compensation for spiritual damages, both setting a record for state compensation among cases in which people were unjustly charged. In 1990, an 18-year-old woman was killed in Huimin village, Dongliao county, Northeast China's Jilin province. Liu Zhonglin, then 22 years old, was accused of murder and sentenced to life with reprieve. He has been appealing his case for 17 years. On March 28, 2012, the Higher People's Court of Jilin Province decided to review the case. After more than six years of review, the court declared Liu innocent for lack of evidence. He was acquitted in April 2018 after spending 9,217 days in prison. On May 23, 2018, 50-year-old Liu applied for 16.6 million yuan in state compensation, including more than 7.87 million yuan for personal freedom and 8 million yuan for spiritual damages. WEST HAVEN State Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven, has been named to a leadership position as House chairwoman of the General Assemblys Committee on Veterans Affairs. Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz recently made the appointment, Borer said in a release. I am elated to have been tapped by the Speaker to serve the Connecticut General Assembly in this role, Borer said in the release. Whether its improving healthcare, mental health access, jobs or family support, we need to continue to focus on supporting this critical population which has sacrificed for all of us, she said. All lawmakers will begin serving their new terms after being sworn in when the 2019 Legislative Session convenes Wednesday. The Committee on Veterans Affairs was established in 2005. It oversees all matters relating to military and veterans. Among issues the committee has taken up over the years are expanded eligibility for veterans to receive local property tax exemptions and tuition breaks at Connecticuts public colleges and universities, as well as protecting personal information of members of the Armed Forces and veterans to safeguard information collected by businesses. Rep. Borers commitment to improving the quality of life for our military and veterans makes her a great choice to lead this important committee, said Aresimowicz. I am pleased to have Dorinda join our leadership team as we look forward to making positive changes that help everyone in our state, he said. I am grateful to Speaker Aresimowicz for entrusting me to help lead in this area for Connecticut, said Borer. With a population of approximately one quarter of a million veterans in Connecticut, our committee will be actively reviewing legislation and seeking input from the public across the state to address their concerns. Borer also will continue to serve on the Environment and Public Health Committees in addition to her duties chairing the Committee on Veterans Affairs. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com I had been dreading my trip to the Cuddle Castle for the past few days. I'd set out, in the spirit of inquiry, to attend a Cuddle Party, a gathering I'd heard whispers about but had never seen up close. Unlike most parties, I had to pay for this one. Thirty-six dollars covered four hours of cuddling at a secret location in San Francisco's Richmond neighborhood. I was instructed to eat beforehand, bring water and "soft fluffy things" to "enhance" the experience, and to wear comfy clothes, such as pajamas. Pajamas seemed too intimate for me; the entire enterprise, which at this point I knew virtually nothing about, seemed too intimate for me. I settled on a non-porous pair of pants, which friends in the past had pointed out looked "witchy." Not one cell in my body was in the mood for cuddling once I walked up the steps and opened the door to the Cuddle Castle. I was greeted by the Cuddle Party facilitator, Yoni Alkan. A bearded man who looked to be in his 40s, he had a wrestler's physique and kind, confident eyes. I noticed he was wearing a fuzzy Cookie Monster onesie. "Hello!" he says warmly. "Would you like a hug?" I say yes. I figure it's a good place to start. ____ The first Cuddle Party took place in 2004 and was hosted by Marcia Baczynski and Reid Mihalko, relationship and sex educators living in New York. The idea was to create a safe space for people to experience non-sexual touch, practice boundaries, and feel more comfortable expressing consent. The belief that touch is essential a biological and social need but often difficult to find without an intimate relationship is a guiding principle within the cuddling world, which in recent years has emerged as a major commercial industry. There are professional cuddlists who offer private cuddling sessions for as much as $100 per hour. Cuddling has pushed into the retail market with vigor. Cuddle Parties take place all over the world, and all follow the exact same script. The first part of the evening is mingling, often over snacks. The second part is the informational portion, where the rules of cuddling are outlined. The third part is, naturally, the most amorphous: "free-range" cuddling. A group of about 30 trickles in over the course of a half-hour. The cuddle area is a carpeted living room with two large airbeds, a futon, and a large couch. Blankets and pillows coat the floor. An apple cake goes untouched for a startlingly long period of time; food doesn't seem to be the most pressing thing on anyone's mind. People are chatting in different corners of the room. Somehow, everyone intuitively knows not to cuddle yet. One man I chat with, with piercing blue eyes, tells me he's new to San Francisco; he moved here two weeks ago from Virginia and has been going to events through Meetups every day to "find like-minded people." He mentions two events called "Ecstatic Dance" and "Circling," the latter I find out is a gathering in which people sit in a circle and experience "being seen." Another man, a shy computer scientist, tells me he's never done something like this before. We talk about whether it is statistically possible for any one person to be "universally liked" by every person in a room, and, for a moment, about "energies." Another man, who appears to let his eyebrows do the talking, tells me he's new to polyamory and figured this might be a good start. The mention of polyamory momentarily shatters the innocence of the space, which has been carefully designed to dispel sexuality, as much as can be in a room full of adults with bodies and hormones and thoughts. Alcohol and lacy pajamas are prohibited. The room, which is growing toastier by the entrance of every new Cuddle Party attendee, feels like the set of a slumber party. I wonder if we will build a fort out of pillows. I am most likely the youngest person in the room, something I quickly realize once we gather for the "welcome circle." One by one, we introduce ourselves. "I'm a huge extrovert, like huge," a woman with thick, gray hair says excitedly. "If I could hold onto someone on the bus, even a stranger, I would. They would definitely hate me though." It strikes me that this is not what an extrovert is. Another person says they're here to "work on their Yes's and No's." A tiny, bewildered woman who looks to be in her 60s says she's here because she has a "lot of friends in the poly community" and wanted to "give it a try." A long-haired man sitting cross-legged says he will not be cuddling today; instead, he will be reading Winnie the Poo out loud. Digital First Media/Orange Count/Digital First Media via Getty Im At this point, Alkan has removed the top half of his Cookie Monster costume, revealing a T-shirt underneath. It is getting hot in the room, and also serious. It's time to go over the Cuddle Party rules. Rule #1: Pajamas stay on the whole time. Rule #2: You don't have to cuddle anyone at a Cuddle Party, ever. Rule #3: You must ask permission and receive a verbal "yes" before you touch anyone (Be as specific in your request as you can). Cuddling, I am beginning to find out, is not just spooning or hugging. The term contains literally hundreds of actions. Cuddling can be non-touch. Eye gazing and chatting are forms of cuddling. Everything from a gossamer graze of an elbow to a "puppy pile" counts. Alkan wrote an entire book on it, a picture book for adults titled "The Book of Cuddles." Earlier in the evening, I'd asked a woman in thick glasses and a frank energy if she had brought any "cuddling appliances," by which I meant a pillow or blanket. The question sounds much dumber out-loud than it does in my head. "Here, we call that fluff!" Alkan says, appearing out of nowhere. Rule #4: If you're a yes, say yes. If you're a no, say no. Rule #5: If you're a maybe, say no. Rule #6: You are encouraged to change your mind. Rule #7: Respect your relationship agreements and communicate with your partner. Rule #8: Get your Cuddle Party Facilitator or the Cuddle Assistant if you have a question or concern or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party. Rule #9: Tears and laughter are both welcome. Rule #10: Respect people's privacy when sharing about Cuddle Parties. Rule #11: Keep the Cuddle space tidy. Digital First Media/Orange Count/Digital First Media via Getty Im Consent is baked into every step of the process and, to help us practice, we're prompted with a few exercises. They're supposed to help us feel comfortable saying "our Yes's and No's." In one of them, Alkan asks us to turn to a partner and practice saying "no" to their request of "Can I kiss you?" ("Even if you want to!" he quips.) In the canned form of a script, it feels distanced from the actuality of rejecting someone in person. Alkan gives us "tools" to prepare us for the inevitable part of consent, which is rejection. If someone says no to our request, he suggests responding with "Thanks for taking care of yourself" or "Thanks for the information." "No is a complete sentence," he says in his introductory speech. We're told we shouldn't feel any pressure to "pad" our "no" with justifications. Before we start the free-range cuddling, Alkan announces to the group that anyone who would like to leave can do so now and they'll get a full refund. This, he tells me later, is so he can ensure that everyone who stays for the cuddling is there because they actively want to. He doesn't want money to be the reason for them to stay, he said. "People who are looking for sexual gratification and come to a cuddle party filter themselves out," he told me over coffee, a few days after the Cuddle Party. "At some point, they understand that this is not going to happen here, and they choose to leave." Alkan, who has been a sexual educator since 2011, decided to pursue Cuddle Parties as a venture two years ago, at the recommendation of "one of the leading cuddlists at the time." The most prominent professional one-on-one cuddling service is Cuddlist.com. Founded in 2016 by Madelon Guinazzo and Adam Lippin, the service has trained more than 400 people to become professional cuddlists. Eric Chan There are certified cuddlists and the higher-ranking trained cuddlists. The training for both requires an online course billed at $149. The sessions range in time and rate; Alkan charges $100 per hour. Sometimes a client just wants to talk, Alkan said. Others just want a space to cry, or a companion to watch a movie with. Each room at Cuddle Up To Me, a cuddling "studio" in Portland, Ore., has a full-sized bed and a TV. Professional cuddler Samantha Hess, founder of Cuddle Up to Me and the first person to open a cuddling brick and mortar, got the idea of cuddling as a service in 2013. She'd watched a Free Hugs Campaign video on Facebook and decided there needed to be a place that was like a "Starbucks for Hugs." She was 28 and recovering from a difficult divorce from a man she'd begun dating at 15. After more of a decade of "touch bankruptcy," she decided to leave him. The beginning to her business was endearingly analog she went door-to-door around her neighborhood and posted flyers around town. She met people for cuddling sessions at homes, parks, and movie theaters. Within a month, after an Oregonian reporter caught wind of her enterprise, her story went viral. She was contacted by 40 news stations, was booked two months in advance, and cuddled Nick Cannon on "America's Got Talent." Most of her clients are regulars. Close to 90 percent are people who have feelings of loneliness on a regular basis, she said. Many of her clients have never had sex. She received three marriage proposals in the first year of her work. "We are genetically coded to be pack animals," she said. "Touch is a shortcut to know you exist. And if you exist, you must matter. When someone else can touch me, feel me I know that I'm in the world. And that makes me instantly feel less alone." Erika Kapin Photography At the Cuddle Party, pitted against the promise of play is a quiet air of loneliness. "I'm here because I just was really feeling like I need a cuddle," the woman in glasses says, choking on her words. She pauses for a moment, and her eyes well up behind her thick frames. "Sorry," she says, on the precipice of tears. The somber air doesn't linger though, at least not for long. At this point, we split off into trios. We play another flash-round of a scripted consent game, after which we're set off into the wild the safe, authorized wild of non-sexual cuddling. We're encouraged to start with our trios but are reminded that we can move to any group with their consent, of course. I look over to my trio: a man in silky silver pajamas and platinum blonde hair a spitting image of Zosia Mamet and a man probably nearer to my age, with trendy glasses and a Hypebeast aesthetic. We pragmatically discuss what kind of cuddling we would like to do with each other, the throuple of the hour. The man in silk starts. "I'd like to be laying down, ideally. I'd also like to be near a window, if that's possible? I don't know if I'm just like, going through menopause or something, but it's really hot in here." Our other group member nods silently in agreement and so do I. I find myself in a kind of automatic trance, feeling like I'm walking on water, as the three of us head over to one of the large airbeds, the one with the best ventilation. The man in silk jumps on the bed. He seems carefree, comfortable with this cuddling session. I feel stiff mentally and physically. I lay down, partially my feet are off the bed and touching the floor. I realize this must look unnatural and amateur, but I don't know how else to be. We decide to start slowly, holding hands in a row. We are silent. I think about how unpleasant my hand sweaty and emotionally unavailable must feel to this sincere young man. I can't shake the feeling that I am disappointing both of them, that this is not what they want, that I am not what they want. That what they want is something or someone more connected, more open, whose hands are more moisturized. I decide to break the silence by sitting up and facing both of them. We fall quickly into conversation and are still holding hands. I feel even more vulnerable when the man in the silk tells me he is a cuddle veteran. He had spent the weekend in Chicago with Alkan, attending an international cuddle conference called CuddleExpo. We are the least touchy corner of the Cuddle Party. The group next to me has extended out the futon are all nuzzling each other in a close embrace, like a lioness meeting her cubs. At our feet is a very active massage train. A man with a low blonde ponytail is spooning with two women, a move called the spoon drawer. His eyes are closed in delicious delight. After the party, this man tells me he briefly heard about Cuddle Parties about a decade ago, when he was living in Chicago. He said it seemed like that kind of thing that he was "desperate for." But it was only until a year and a half ago that he actually began to attend Cuddle Parties; the organizer of a polyamorous "munch" mentioned it as a way to meet new people. That period of his life had been very difficult, he said, and he spent most nights feeling lonely and sad. He went to go see a professional cuddlist, and after a session with her, he remembered feeling "very OK and warm and floating." At this point, he's attended more than 20 Cuddle Parties. To him, they serve as a way to develop and enforce boundaries, encourage others to do the same, and most importantly, as a playful place to explore. When I ask him if he tends to follow a similar routine at parties, he admits he can be strategic; he identifies women who he is attracted to, and makes it a goal to cuddle with at least one during the party. He often leaves with a few phone numbers, either for platonic cuddle partners who he calls Cuddle Buddies or, if the opportunity arises, for more. At his first Cuddle Party, he met the woman who, one month later, would become a serious girlfriend. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Romantic partners through Cuddle Parties have also been an unintended consequence for Alice Liu, a engineer in San Francisco, who estimates she's been to at least a dozen of Alkan's Cuddle Parties. She's met four of her romantic partners at Cuddle Parties, including at the first one she went to. She said she didn't realize it, but her partner later told her she was "moaning pretty hard" during their cuddle. The parties have been undeniably fruitful for developing crushes something she says can be challenging to regulate amid the parties' emphasis on platonic and non-sexual touch. But they also serve a larger purpose: they've helped her feel more in control of her life, and more confident about her desires and her boundaries. Later, the woman with the frank energy approaches me, somewhat abruptly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but, I wanted to ask," she says. "Would you like to cuddle?" She immediately establishes herself as the dominant one in our cuddling dynamic, which is completely fine by me because I have no idea what I'm doing. We sit next to each other on the couch, smiling politely like acquaintances who've just run into each other in the Pottery Barn checkout line. "I'm having an impulse to have you in my arms," she says in a warm, direct tone. "Would that be OK with you?" I say yes. Her arm is around me; my head and neck are thrown back on the top of the couch. I feel like the Tin Man. I am envious of her ease. We are silent for a few seconds, then check in with each other about how it's all feeling. The past year, she says, has been a difficult one; she went through a breakup and the death of her cat in a week. She explains that touch is extremely important to her and, without a romantic partner, she's been feeling out-of-sorts at not being able to experience it. She's 46, she says, and time always feels like it's ticking. We're talking closely now, about the tribulations of courtship and social isolation. Her breath smells faintly of garlic and inexplicably, this gives me a feeling of comfort. For the first time in the night, I start to feel warm. My body is almost fully relaxed before we're asked to gather for the closing circle. Alkan asks us to briefly share how we felt before and after the Cuddle Party. Nearly everyone describes feeling some variation of "warm." One woman says she'd been dreading the party, that the thought of it had started to feel like an errand, but that tension almost immediately dissipated. The reticent man from my original cuddling trio says he'd felt "confused" before arriving, and now felt "confused, but in a different way." As we inch closer toward the end of the night, Alkan puts word to the ember of warmth that has permeated the room: oxytocin, aka the "love hormone." For some people, he said, the effects of the hormone can last through the evening for others, it can stay for as long as weeks. He tells us to be careful getting home, whether we're driving, walking, or taking the bus. Cuddling, he said, puts us in an altered state of mind. As soon as I get home, the effects perhaps placebo, perhaps real are still there. I feel lighter. My brain feels cozy. My roommates, awaiting my arrival with bated breath, ask me how the Cuddle Party was. For some reason, it feels impossible to even begin to explain, and that feeling of blankness lasts for days. "This is not a cure for loneliness, but people feel better," Alkan said during our final conversation. "This is not self-defense ... but people get their agency in saying what they want. This is not therapy, but people learn to ask for what they want and find their true selves." I've spent the past week huddled over my computer like a futuristic monk, scouring the cuddle internet. I've spent hours reading the bios of cuddle professionals and "Cuddlemonials." I have withdrawn from everything in pursuit of distilling the mystifying world of cuddling. As a human, I find I need a category under which to sort a Cuddle Party. I desperately want it to make sense but, in the end, it doesn't. Read Annie Vainshtein's latest stories here. Email her at avainshtein@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @annievain NASA requires Boeing and SpaceX to demonstrate that theres no more than a one in 270 chance for a fatal accident during a flight. The Space Shuttle program lost two shuttles in 135 launches. John Mulholland, vice president and program manager for the commercial crew program at Boeing assessed three separate requirements, including the overall loss of crew as well as ascent and entry risks and loss of mission. SpaceX and Boeing increased micrometeoroid and orbital debris protection. Visually one of the biggest changes to the SpaceX Crewed Dragon is changing from solar panels on wings to having solar panels directly on the lower body of the spacecraft. Long-road for NASA,Boeing and SpaceX to Safer Manned Flight In September 2014, NASA awarded firm-fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX, valued at up to $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability phase. About a month away from the first orbital test flight of crew Dragon https://t.co/U01Oxu3M7E Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2019 Yes, will be extremely intense. Early flights are especially dangerous, as theres a lot of new hardware. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 6, 2019 NASA, Boeing and SpaceX Report on Safety There is a 52-page report from the Government Accountability Office on safety work and improvements by NASA, Boeing and SpaceX. Boeings spacecraftCST-100 Starlineris composed of a crew module and a service module. The crew module will carry the crew and cargo. It also includes communication systems, docking mechanisms, and return systems for Earth landing. The service module provides propulsion on-orbit and in abort scenarios as well as radiators for thermal control. In 2018, the Commercial Crew Programs top programmatic risks identified for Boeing include challenges related to its abort system performance, parachutes, and launch vehicle. SpaceXs spacecraftDragon 2is composed of a capsule, which we refer to as the crew module, and a trunk, which we refer to as the support module. The crew module is composed of a pressure section and a service section. This module will carry the crew and cargo. It also includes avionics, docking mechanisms, and return systems for a water landing. The support module includes solar arrays for on-orbit power and guidance fins for escape abort scenarios. In 2018, the Commercial Crew Programs top programmatic risks identified for SpaceX are in part related to ongoing design and development efforts related to its launch vehicle design, the Falcon 9 Block 5. Composite Overwrap Pressure Vessel: This Block 5 design includes SpaceXs redesign of the composite overwrap pressure vessel, which is intended to contain a gas under high pressure. SpaceX officials stated the newly designed vessel aims to eliminate risks identified in the older design, which was involved in an anomaly that caused a mishap in September 2016. SpaceX plans to qualify the updated design for flight prior to the uncrewed flight test design certification review. Engine Turbine Cracking: The Block 5 design also includes design changes to address cracks in the turbine of its engine identified during development testing. NASA program officials told us that they had informed SpaceX that the cracks were an unacceptable risk for human spaceflight. SpaceX officials told us that they have made design changes to this Block 5 upgrade that did not result in any cracking during initial testing. However, this risk will not be closed until SpaceX successfully completes qualification testing in accordance with NASAs standards without any cracks. As of March 2018, SpaceX had not yet completed this testing. Propellant Loading Procedures: Both the program and a NASA advisory group have raised SpaceXs plan to fuel the launch vehicle after the astronauts are on board the spacecraft to be a potential safety risk. China has a monster miss on its future national and economic plan. Instead of having 20 million babies born in 2018, the babies born will only be 14 or 15 million. The failure of Chinas two baby policy will hit home in a few weeks when the 2018 baby birth statistics are officially released. Official statistics will show the number of children born last year was the lowest since 2000. The final figure could fall below 15 million and will be more than two million fewer than in 2017. Baby Policy Failure China shutdown the Family Planning Commission in 2018. The new National Health Commission will take over responsibility for population management from the National Health and Family Planning Commission. The family planning authoritys had previously estimated there would be up to 20 million births in 2018. Currently, the 2018 births are expected to be 14 or 15 million. The 2017 numbers extended through 2050 would have already meant Chinas workforce would shrink by about 20% by 2050. The 2018 numbers trended through 2050 would have already meant Chinas workforce would shrink by about 30% by 2050. $100 to $500 Billion Per Year Mobilization to Boost Babies A 30% decline in Chinas workforce would be like $4.5 trillion today and would be about $10-20 trillion in 2050. China will need to mobilize policy, healthcare and science to counter this crisis. If China matches Denmarks levels of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) by 2030, then China would have about 2 million IVF births per year. China had more than 40 million patients with fertility problems in 2016, according to statistics from Chinas National Health and Family Planning Commission. China will probably surpass Denmark IVF percentages and reach 20% IVF babies. China could race to Denmark levels by 2023 with a massive increase in spending. China will lift all birth restrictions and provide government support for IVF. This could boost Chinas birthrate by 10-40 million each decade starting in 2030. There will likely be a 4-7 million population boost through the 2020s in China from IVF. The number of working age people in China is set to fall to 700 million by 2050 a decline of nearly a quarter. This number was before adjustments based on the new 2018 baby bust number. The working-age population has been in decline since 2012, with the number of people aged 16-59 predicted to be 830 million in 2030. Maintaining Chinas workforce in 2050 would require adding 150 million more than the expected 50 million from the two-child policy. A massive IVF boost could offset the workforce decline by 25-40 million in 2050s and then help a workforce recovery from 2060 onwards. Europe and Japan Pro-Birth Have Been Effective But too Timid Europe and Japan have shown that massive welfare programs for state-funded child support and state-funded bribes to couples who have babies are needed to increase the birth rate. There will need to be coverage of all fertility treatments, freezing of eggs and in-vitro fertilization. Ren Zeping, chief economist at property developer Evergrande Group, wrote that China has a demographic crisis as the second-child policy relaxation has failed to the boost fertility rate. Chinas National Bureau of Statistics stopped publishing fertility data in 2016. China must immediately lift birth controls and encourage people to have babies, Ren wrote. IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty will give the CES 2019 Keynote on Tuesday by discussing how technologies such as AI and quantum, when built on a foundation of trust and transparency, will drastically change business and society for the better. Nextbigfuture interviewed Dr. John Smith, Head of AI Tech, IBM Research to discuss what IBM has been able to do in AI Research in 2018 and the three predicted dominant AI trends that will start in 2019. From Narrow AI to Broad AI to AGI Dr John Smith, Head of IBM Research, sees AI progressing from Narrow AI to Broad AI to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This is pursuing advancing in three main ways 1. More fairness and accuracy 2. Providing explanations which can build trust in the answers 3. Robustness. This means not having right answers or completely wrong answers. Completely wrong answers is where the system does not get the answer and does not get the context. Building better models will allow systems to not provide an answer of ice cream when talking about naval engineering. IBM See Three AI Trends 1. IBM believes AI will move from identifying correlations to causation. I believe this means that they are able to increase the statistical certainty of the relationships but also generate virtual confirmation tests. They would need to split the data into learning data sets and testing of causation data sets. 2. They will improve the trustability of AI. This means solving the explanation problems. 3. They see a growing role and importance for quantum computers with AI. 40X Growth in Ten Years for AI Allied Market Research predicts will AI will go from $4 billion in 2016 to $169 billion in 2025. AI will be a global surge in self-driving autos, image and speech recognition, and data analysis. In 2019, dozens of companies led by Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google will drive the growth of AI-powered devices in homes. At CES 2019, Samsung C-Lab will introduce the biggest number of projects it has ever unveiled in a single show since its CES debut in 2016. Eight new C-Lab projects include: an in-video virtual ad service Tisplay, an ASMR sound recording solution aiMo, an instant video making service MEDEO, an AI news analysis service PRISMIT, a custom perfume making service Perfume Blender, an auto-adjusting monitor Girin Monitor Stand, an AI desk light alight, and a hearing assistant solution SnailSound. Eight start-ups which have been spun off from Samsung C-Lab MOPIC, LINKFLOW, lululab, WELT, Cooljamm company, MONIT, BLUEFEEL and analogue plus will participate at CES 2019 to showcase their newly released commercial products and explore global business opportunities. Three of these C-Lab spin-offs have been recognized as CES 2019 Innovation Awards winners. One notable example is the wearable camera FITT360 by LINKFLOW, which was given an award in the Digital Imaging category for two consecutive years. MOPIC and lululab also received awards in the Portable Media Players and Accessories, and Biotech categories Syracuse, N.Y. -- A brief shot of winter weather could make for difficult driving across much of Upstate New York today and into Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories for most of Upstate, beginning in Western New York this morning and in the eastern half of the state this evening. The storm could bring a mix of ice and snow, along with high winds, and make for a potentially hazardous evening commute. The storm could linger into the Mohawk Valley and western Capital Region Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories (purple) for much of Upstate New York today and Tuesday. Ice accumulations of a light glaze and total snow accumulations of less than one inch (are) expected, the weather service said. Winds could gust up to 45 mph, especially on hilltops. Roads could be slippery, and the ice and wind could bring down tree limbs and lead to scattered power outages, the weather service said. The first advisory goes into effect at 10 a.m. today for Western New York, including Buffalo, Niagara Falls and the western Southern Tier. By mid-afternoon, the storm is expected to reach the Finger Lakes, and Tug Hill. Advisories kick in in Central New York at 7 p.m., the eastern Southern Tier at 10 p.m., and the Mohawk Valley and eastern Catskills at 1 a.m. The snow and ice are expected to last about 12 hours, so the evening commutes could be a problem to the west, and the morning commutes could be slippery in the east. Temperatures rise Tuesday into the 40s, which should melt away any remaining ice and snow on untreated surfaces. The ice probably wont be very thick -- a couple hundredths of an inch -- and thats unlikely to be a problem on salted roads. It could be enough to make untreated roads and sidewalks very slippery, though. As this storm moves through Canada, it will weaken as a new storm forms off the coast of Massachusetts Tuesday night, said Mark Wysocki, New York state climatologist and atmospheric sciences professor at Cornell University. That storm will generate strong winds and bring an inch or two of snow Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, he said. A light coating of ice -- up to 2 one-hundredths of an inch -- is possible across Upstate New York today and into Tuesday morning. Winter makes a return to Upstate New York this week Company's Rapid Florida Expansion Continues into 2019 TITUSVILLE, Fla., Jan. 7, 2019 /CNW/ -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCBB: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading vertically integrated cannabis operator in the United States, today announced the opening of Titusville's first medical marijuana dispensary, bringing the number of Curaleaf dispensaries in the state of Florida to 20. Curaleaf has the largest cannabis dispensary footprint in the US, with 38 dispensaries across the country. The opening in Titusville extends Curaleaf's position as a leading provider of medical marijuana in Florida. During 2018, Curaleaf became the first and only company in the state to introduce medical marijuana drive-thru service, an option offered at its Palm Harbor and East Orlando dispensaries. Also, in 2018, Curaleaf was the first medical marijuana company in Florida to earn its Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level II certification, inline with its commitment to produce safe and reliable products. "Today we are proud to be the first company to bring a full medical marijuana dispensary experience to the Titusville community," said Curaleaf Florida President, Lindsay Jones. "In 2018, Curaleaf fulfilled its promise to Florida's patients to provide them with access to premium-quality medical marijuana products by opening 17 dispensaries from Miami to Tallahassee. Our team continues to pursue aggressive growth throughout the state, including increasing our capacity to provide premium quality products developed through groundbreaking technology in our new 275,000 square foot state-of-the-art cultivation facility in Central Florida." Located at 200 South Washington Avenue, Curaleaf's Titusville dispensary offers patients, physicians and community members medical marijuana educational seminars and resources in its community meeting room every month. All patients have access to Curaleaf's line of superior medical marijuana products in a 4,700 square-foot safe, accessible and comfortable environment that includes two private consultation rooms. Curaleaf also operates dispensaries in Daytona Beach, Deerfield Beach, Fort Myers, Fort Pierce, Jacksonville, Lake Worth, Lakeland, Lutz, Miami, Ocala, Orlando, Palm Bay, Palm Harbor, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and Tampa. All dispensaries' operating hours are Monday through Friday, 10am 7pm; Saturday, 10am 5pm; and Sunday, Noon 5pm. Throughout the year, discounts are offered to senior citizens, military veterans, pediatric patients and recipients of government financial assistance. The State of Florida's Office of Medical Marijuana Use Registry requires an order from a qualified Florida ordering physician and a State of Florida medical marijuana card to obtain medical marijuana products. All dispensary visitors must show a State of Florida medical marijuana card. Patients may call 877-303-0741 for more information. About Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. The Company is the parent of Curaleaf, Inc., a leading vertically integrated cannabis operator in the United States. Headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Curaleaf, Inc. has a presence in 12 states. Curaleaf, Inc. operates 38 dispensaries, 12 cultivation sites and 10 processing sites with a focus on highly populated, limited license states, including Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. In fulfilling its mission to help people lead better lives every day, Curaleaf, Inc. leverages its extensive research and development capabilities to distribute cannabis products in multiple formats with the highest standard for safety, effectiveness, consistent quality and customer care. Curaleaf is committed to being the industry's leading resource in education and advancement through research and advocacy. Curaleaf, Inc.'s Florida operations were the first in the cannabis industry to receive the Safe Quality Food certification under the Global Food Safety Initiative, setting a new standard of excellence. For more information please visit www.curaleaf.com. Media Contact: Lauren Garcia-Velez [email protected] 305.443.3500 Investor Contact: KCSA Strategic Communications Valter Pinto, Managing Director PH: (212) 896-1260 [email protected] Company Contact: Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. Christine Rigby, SVP, Investor Relations PH: (781) 451-0145 [email protected] SOURCE Curaleaf, Inc. Related Links https://www.curaleaf.com A longer Fuxing bullet train made its debut on Saturday whose 17 cars make room for 90 additional passengers. The train, which carries a maximum of 1,283 passengers, travels on the Beijing and Shanghai high-speed rail line at a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour. It has 22 business class seats, 148 first-class seats and 1,113 second-class seats. The first of these longer Fuxing trains left Beijing on Saturday at noon and arrived in Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station at 4:36 pm. The Fuxing, or Rejuvenation, is China's self-developed bullet train. Before the launch of the 17 carriage-train, the longest Fuxing had 16 carriages. Fuxing trains took to the rails in June 2017, first with eight carriages, and in July 2018 with 16 carriages. The 17-carriage version is 439.9 meters long. Miao Zheng, the driver of the first 17-carriage Fuxing, said the train added an extra carriage between the 15th and 16th carriage, expanding the total length of the train from 414 meters to about 440 meters, according to Beijing News. China began using a new national railway schedule on Saturday that adds 16 services on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line. As the high-speed rail network expands, the bullet train has become one of the Chinese people's favorite means of travel. Some 20.6 million trips were made on Dec 30 and 31, the first two days of the New Year holiday, a year-on-year increase of 549,000, according to CRC. The company estimated some 413.3 million trips will be made between Jan 21 and March 1, the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, a year-on-year increase of 8.3 percent. Some 10.33 million trips are expected to be made each day, setting a new record. Spring Festival is China's most important holiday and also the most challenging time for transportation departments. Tickets can be brought 30 days in advance via the internet and by phone. On Sunday, tickets went on sale for Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, Feb 4. With 29,000 km of high-speed rail track, China has more than two-thirds of the world's high-speed railways, according to CRC. The company plans to put 3,200 km of new high-speed rail track into operation this year, putting it one year ahead of its schedule for having a 30,000-km high-speed rail network. Editors note: In his final session with the Hearst Connecticut Media Groups Editorial Board, Gov. Dannel Malloy defended his record, took digs at his Republican colleagues, and mused about Connecticut as the place where the glass that can only be half empty was invented. On his low approval ratings: I never tried to be popular. Im comfortable in the knowledge that Ive spent my hours here trying to make the state better, even if people dont understand that yet. On his better ratings in other states: I am celebrated in every state but Connecticut. You go to any state and talk about corrections reform and they point to Connecticut. You go to any state and ask about criminal justice reform and they talk about Connecticut. You go to any state and talk about education reform and theyll talk about Connecticut. Health care reform, theyll talk about Connecticut. ... The inability of people in Connecticut to give themselves credit for what theyve actually done is incredible. On recent campaign trail rhetoric: Every candidate said the state is bleeding jobs when the state was actually adding one hundred thousand jobs. ... Pfizer now has more employees in the state of Connecticut than it had in January of 2011. Electric Boat now has more employees than they had. Pratt and Whitney now has more employees than they had. Sikorsky has more employees than they had. You cant get good news out. On the states crippling pension liability: People dont understand this. Weve actually solved the immediate problem with the state pensioners. First of all, we actuarially funding the pensions. Im the first governor to do that. ... Now its part of a fund thats not partially funding, but we have solved the problem going out into the future. On transportation: This unwillingness to do what we really need to do on transportation on the Republicans part is nothing but signing ones own death warrant. On his final political strategy: One of the things I did to make sure a Democrat got elected in this state was to keep my mouth shut this last year. The stupidity of the Republicans campaign was that they were running against a guy who already said he wasnt running anymore. And they never offered policy. It was really one of the dumber concepts of how to win an election in the time of Trump. On President Donald Trump: The brilliance of Trump is he lied to everyone and everyone could decide which lies they wanted to accept. On Republicans: Republicans have somehow forgotten how many people are gay, lesbian, transgender. How many people have religious belief other than theirs. How many people have come from another nation in a single generation. On Gov.-elect Ned Lamont: Hes a very decent soul, he really is. We went head to head in 2010, but I never thought he was anything but a very good person. On plans to continuing as a champion of gun safety: Im always happy to take on the NRA. On leaving office: Im going to love being in a car by myself. Love going to a grocery store or CVS and not have someone a few feet away from me following me, watching me. On moving: Ive got so much crap. On his future: My future is not in electoral politics. But Im not going away. Im not going to change what I think and what I say. There is much discussion right now about making it easier for Connecticut residents to vote; proposals center around no-excuse absentee voting and early voting in particular. But perhaps just as important is making sure that voters have real choices come Election Day. Connecticut has some of the most arcane ballot access laws in the country, as I found out when I ran for state Senate this past cycle. In order to qualify for the primary ballot in Connecticut, a candidate must either gain at least 15 percent of the party convention delegates or, failing that, go the arduous petition route. For the latter, candidates for statewide office and Congress are required to get the signatures of 2 percent of party registered voters in their constituency. Uniquely for state legislative candidates, this stipulation rises to 5 percent. What makes this a nearly impossible obstacle is that legislative candidates are boxed into an arbitrary two-week window in late May and early June to gather all these signatures. In my district, I needed the signatures of 1,014 registered Democrats. My volunteers and I spent two grueling weeks crisscrossing Branford, Guilford, Madison, North Branford, Killingworth and Durham, in the baking sun and pouring rain. Given the tight time frame, a single thunderstorm nearly sabotaged the entire effort. The vast majority of people we spoke to were willing to sign; it wasnt necessarily a statement of support, but an acknowledgment that democracy requires real choices and a fair hearing. We came excruciatingly close. While we turned in 1,120 signatures, some were inevitably discounted as incorrectly registered or illegible. In one extraordinary case, a woman had passed away between the time she signed and the time the petition was handed in, and her signature was sadly tossed out. By the registrars count of validated signatures, we were 32 short. By our campaigns internal count, we were only nine shy. With the number of valid signatures I had, I could have run for governor of Ohio, to be a member of Congress from Pennsylvania or for U.S. senator from Oregon, among many other distinguished offices. Most states simply allow candidates to pay a modest filing fee to secure a spot on the primary ballot or collect a token number of signatures within a much more reasonable time frame. Connecticuts ballot access laws drastically tilt the playing field toward party insiders and those with great wealth. For instance, self-funding candidates can hire an army of paid canvassers to gather signatures and be assured ballot access. I certainly didnt have that luxury. Indeed, raising money itself becomes difficult when having to petition; understandably, many potential supporters hold off on donating until ballot access is assured. Even if one did qualify for the primary ballot after petitioning, the party convention candidate will have had a months lead time to raise money and qualify for Citizens Election Program grants. So what would a better system look like? Ideally, the antiquated conventions themselves would be abolished and all candidates incumbent or challenger, establishment favorite or grassroots star would be required to secure a small number of signatures. Even less radical change, though, could greatly aid the democratic process. Simply expanding the petition time frame from 14 days to a month or two would make it much more realistic to qualify. And even though 17-year-olds who turn 18 by the general election are eligible to vote in the primary, they are irrationally barred from signing or circulating petitions; this should be changed. Simplifying the cumbersome and confusing verification procedure for circulators would be another common sense reform. A number of eligible voters couldnt sign because they were away from the district during the petition period; some method of absentee signing would only be fair as well. Critics of gerrymandering are fond of saying that politicians shouldnt get to choose their voters. By that same token, politicians shouldnt get to choose the candidates either. This session, the General Assembly should open up the process and at long last return power to the voters. Andy Gottlieb is a Democrat from Guilford and former candidate for state Senate in the 12th District. His op-ed first appeared in CTMirror.org President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could meet in Vietnam's capital for their second summit on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo said. Denuclearization talks have sputtered since Trump and Kim held an unprecedented June meeting in Singapore, with Washington and Pyongyang each calling on the other to take action. A second summit could address concerns to global security after Kim piled pressure on Trump by threatening in his annual New Year's address to take a "new path," if the U.S. didn't relax economic sanctions. U.S. officials have met their North Korean counterparts in Hanoi for discussions to adjust scheduling for the talks, the newspaper said, citing high-level diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington it did not identify. Government officials haven't commented on the report. Such a summit would be certain to grab global attention and help boost the profile of the host nation. But it also presents enormous security challenges for Trump, the leader of the world's biggest economy, and Kim, head of arguably one of the world's most paranoid states. Vietnam is a long-standing ally of Pyongyang that has good relations with Washington. Speculation about the country's prospects as a summit site grew following North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's visit there from Nov. 29-Dec. 2. The South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo previously reported that Mark Lambert, a senior U.S. State Department official handling North Korea issues, visited Vietnam in December. It was unclear whether he was in Vietnam at the same time as North Korea's foreign minister. Hanoi -- about a four-hour direct flight from Pyongyang and in airspace over countries friendly to North Korea -- boasts several top-class hotels. Vietnam's ruling Communist Party also has the security apparatus to squelch protests and keep curious onlookers far away from Trump and Kim. Trump has previously said he plans to hold a second meeting with Kim as early as this month, although a date and location have not yet been announced. Other places floated as hosts include Singapore, Mongolia and Switzerland. --With assistance from Youkyung Lee. To contact the reporter on this story: Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. DANBURY Former Redding school board chairwoman Sara Sobel was led out of a Danbury courtroom in handcuffs Monday afternoon. She will spend the next eight years in prison for her role in the abuse of a young child by convicted sex offender Stephen Overby when he lived with the Sobels. In the pews behind the prosecutors team, Overbys children, the victims family and the victim sat quietly or embraced one another as Sobel stood silently in her handcuffs, never looking back toward them. Justice is served, Assistant States Attorney Sharmese Hodge said after the two-hour hearing. I think Judge (Kevin) Russo recognized that this is a unique case and the sentence is appropriate. Sobel, 48, pleaded guilty in August to allegations she repeatedly left the child with Overby, who has been convicted of abusing the child, and took pornographic photographs and videos of the child that she provided to Overby via text message. She pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a minor and guilty under the Alford Doctrine to promoting a minor in an obscene performance, meaning she questions some of the facts of the case but admits there is enough evidence for a conviction. Superior Court Judge Kevin Russo sentenced Sobel to 10 years for the first charge and 20 years for the second. Each will be suspended after four years and served consecutively, for at least eight years in prison followed by probation. Russo also issued a protective order that prohibits Sobel from any contact with the victim until 2022, when the child has turned 18 years old and can decide as an adult whether to ever contact Sobel as part of a therapeutic healing process. The family of the victim and Overbys family, who have supported the victim in this case and told the court of their own abuse, declined to comment outside the courtroom. Prosecutors have repeatedly called the sentence a gift, arguing Sobel should serve more time behind bars but that they hoped to end the case before it goes to trial and potentially inflicts more pain on the victim. Russo emphatically agreed. I do not want to put the victim here in a position where (the victim) has to decide whether (the victim) would take a witness stand like the one to my right and testify to all the details, Russo said. On Monday morning, Hodge read just a few of the explicit text messages Sobel exchanged with Overby in which he openly fantasized about the child and requested images. In all, the pair sent more than 150,000 texts over a two year period or more than 200 per day, attorneys said. Sobels defense attorney Vicki Hutchinson argued Sobel was simply another in a series of women manipulated by Overby into providing sexual material and even victims for him to abuse. She also has pleaded guilty, lets not leave out that little detail, Russo interrupted Hutchinson to say during the explanation. Sobel delivered a tearful final statement to the court just before she was sentenced in which she accepted responsibility for the crimes but contended she was scarred by her own troubled childhood. But Russo argued the case was far more than just poor judgment, as the defense has tried to claim. Those texts and the sum and substance and invitations within them was not poor judgment, Russo said. It was criminal behavior. The case has shocked the small community that once considered Sobel a local leader. She resigned from the Region 9 Board of Education and from the town Democratic committee in September 2017. Overby pleaded guilty in February to several charges including first-degree sexual assault of a minor under the age of 13 and has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com China has approved the country's third group of pension target funds, allowing 14 more such funds to play a bigger role in meeting the retirement planning needs of an aging population. E-Fund Management, an asset management company based in Guangzhou, obtained approvals for issuing two more such funds while 13 other fund management firms including China Southern Asset Management and China Asset Management were authorized to issue one more each, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The new round of approval brought the number of authorized pension target funds to 40. Pension target funds are mutual funds that encourage long-term holding by investors, adopt mature asset allocation strategies and control the risk of volatility to seek long-term, stable returns on retirement savings. Currently, China's retirement plans mostly rely on state- and corporate-sponsored programs. The country is looking to develop pension target funds, part of individual retirement plans, to complement the system amid pressure from the aging society. The number of people aged 60 or above reached 241 million in China at the end of 2017, accounting for 17.3 percent of the total population. The number is expected to peak at 487 million in 2050, accounting for a third of the total population, according to the Office of the National Working Commission on Aging. HARTFORD Members of the Criminal Justice Policy Advisory Commission (CJPAC) held their final meeting last week and took time to reflect on what many said were monumental, positive changes to the system they helped manage. While the Malloy administration certainly has its critics, one of the of pluses of his eight-year tenure as governor that even some of his naysayers give him credit for is the sharp decrease in the number of prisoners. At last weeks meeting, outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and members of CJPAC took a few bows for that accomplishment while acknowledging there is still much work left to do for Gov.-elect Ned Lamont and his administration. Outgoing Under Secretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Michael P. Lawlor referred to the most recent statewide crime trends report that showed overall reported crime in 2017 in Connecticut was the lowest in 50 years. The report, which is based on the most recent 2017 data, said there were 71,883 index crimes, which are crimes involving victims, i.e. murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson. The highest year for those type of crimes was 1990, the report said, when 177,068 occurred. The total number of statewide arrests for all crimes dropped by 41 percent between 2009, when statewide arrests peaked at 138,719, and 2017, when there were 81,408 arrests - a drop of 7.5 percent from 2016. By analyzing recent trends, the criminal justice policy and planning office is projecting that there will likely be about 6 percent fewer arrests when all statistics are compiled for 2018 than there were in 2017. The report said that since Malloy took office in 2011, statistics show that the overall crime in the state has declined 19 percent, including a 19 percent decline in violent crimes. Addressing members of CJPAC, Malloy said the group got amazing things done. He added: When it comes to criminal justice reform and prison reform Connecticut is the leading state in the nation. He said the state has been successful in shutting down the high school to prison pipeline during his tenure in office. Lawlor, who was thanked by his fellow CJPAC members for his tireless efforts in tackling criminal justice issues, said he sometimes reflects back to his days as a state legislator in the 1980s when bringing up the issue of criminal justice was radioactive. Lawlor, who will be teaching criminal justice as a tenured professor at the University of New Haven, even brought an old campaign slide he used when running in East Haven for the state legislature in the 80s which had a photo of a campaign pamphlet which said: Mike Lawlor is making sure they do the time, with a picture of a prisoner in handcuffs. Times have really changed, Lawlor said, referring to the fact that President Donald Trump recently signed into law the First Step Act, an act which enacts prison and sentencing reforms, giving judges more leeway in sentencing, retroactively applying earlier sentencing reforms and paving the road for earlier pre-release custody for certain inmates. The First Step Act had bipartisan support, a rarity these days in Washington. Lawlor said the federal law is very similar to what Gov. Malloy led the way on in Connecticut. CJPAC was established under Public Act 06-193 . It held its first meeting in February of 2011. It was formerly the Prison and Jail Overcrowding Commission. Members of CJPAC heaped praise on Lawlor for his stewardship of the committees work the past eight years. Your ability to bring everybody together to work collaboratively, was one of your biggest strengths, Judge Patrick L. Carroll told Lawlor. The news wasnt all rosy at CJPACs last meeting as Lawlor and outgoing Corrections Commissioner Scott Semple said the incoming administration will be saddled with the ongoing problem of too many imprisoned being granted special parole. The legislature in 2016 approved legislation designed to re-focus use of special parole sentences on high risk, violent and sexual offenders. The measure was suppose to address the overuse of special parole sentences on non-violent offenders, while allowing parole officers to focus their attention on the highest risk offenders. But Lawlor and Semple said the problem is far from fixed. While many of members, besides Lawlor will be leaving their work as the new administration takes over January 9, the members said the mission of reducing crime, reducing prison population and reducing spending will continue. Members said Lamont has made a good first step by nominating nominating Rollin Cook to be his Department of Corrections Commissioner, replacing outgoing Semple. Cook most recently served as the executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections. Cook will begin serving as the Commissioner-designate when Lamont is inaugurated. His nomination will be sent to the General Assembly for its advice and consent. Rollin Cook is a national expert and a leader in his field, and brings to this role experience as both a correctional officer and as an executive manager, said Lamont. Semple, also a member of CJPAC, said Lamont couldnt have made a better choice to replace him. Semple said he has worked with Cook in the past and hes highly respected on a national level. I am very, very pleased that Rollin has agreed to come here, Semple said. He was highly recruited around the country. Hes probably the best candidate in the country. Lamont has expressed an interest in carrying on many of Malloys criminal justice reforms. Saray Ruiz saw something in the little house-like building off Route 37. The one with the small parking lot and everyday architecture. The one others drove by thousands of times without a second glance. I'm going to open a restaurant there one day, she'd tell her twin sister, Noemi Ruiz, and anyone else who would listen to her dream. "It's not going to happen," Noemi would say. At the time, a few years back, the spot was home to a Mexican restaurant. Saray had a feeling that would change and thought the cozy spot could host a restaurant inspired by her childhood in Lleida, a small town in the Catalonia region of Spain, within driving distance of Barcelona. This past fall, when she and her once-skeptical twin opened Gaudi Tapas and Wine, her dream became a reality. And what a dream it is. For the restaurant, the Ruiz sisters recruited chef Juan Flores, whose experience includes working for celebrated Connecticut chef Arturo Franco-Camacho at Shell & Bones in New Haven. Flores' ambition is to earn a coveted Michelin star, and after one eats here, it is clear he has the skills to make that goal laudable rather than laughable. He's joined in the kitchen by his brother, Oscar Flores, who handles desserts and worked under Michelin-starred chef Luis Bollo. Together they have created a diverse, tapas-centered menu ranging from cold and hot to seafood and meat. We loved everything we tried, but would order all new dishes next visit because the place encourages culinary explorations. The talents of the Flores brothers in the kitchen combined with the enthusiasm of the Ruiz sisters have turned Gaudi into a destination, and one that, like the best restaurants, provides a great meal but also something more. "We try to put our soul and our personality into the restaurant," Noemi says. "Lots of people that come in say that it's really different, and they feel like they are in another country. That's actually what we try to do, to give people an opportunity to have an experience that is not only culinary but you get a cultural experience as well." The truth of this statement is literally pounded home to us when a flamenco dancer arrives unexpectedly sometime between our third and fourth course. In the center of the dining room, she twirls and spins, her arms and legs a blur as she accents the beat with emphatic stomps on the wood floor that could be felt as well as heard. Her unexpected arrival is further proof that entering this restaurant is like eating out in Europe or some exotic locale. (We'd later learn the dancer's name is Sandra Hernandez and it was a scheduled performance we were not aware of.) The restaurant is located near Danbury's border with New Fairfield, and next door to Pembroke Deli, an excellent and also recently opened American and Mexican deli. Inside Gaudi's front door, you see a fountain built into the wall. It is inspired by a similar fountain at the entrance to the Park Guell in Barcelona. The famous park is one of the signature works of the architect who is the restaurant's namesake, Antoni Gaudi. It is the first of several nods to Gaudi's architecture. The trencadis, a frequently imitated, recycled-mosaic style that Gaudi developed, inspired the design of the high-top tables in the bar. In the dining room are white tablecloths and a painted brick fireplace. The whole place is upscale in appearance but casual and family friendly in its feel. In Spain, the culture of tapas encourages patrons to "restaurant hop," trying one or two tapas from multiple restaurants in an evening of food, drink and camaraderie. Gaudi encourages you to have that type of experience all in one place, to eat slow and enjoy each course as it arrives. The tapa las ramblas is a perfectly cooked hanger steak topped by chimichurri sauce that was recommended by our waiter and lived up to his enthusiastic endorsement of "so good!" The tortilla Espanola is a wonderful marriage of omelet and potato. The l'alegria de la huerta (cucumber salad) and the pescaito frito (an assortment of fried seafood including calamari, shrimp and sardines) are equally strong tapas. More Information Gaudi Tapas and Wine 52 1/2 Pembroke Rd, Danbury See More Collapse There are a handful of entrees; seven, to be exact. We only have room for the macarrons al forn, a delectable pasta with a tomato and chorizo sauce. On a subsequent visit, we were impressed by the paella, one of the restaurant's signature dishes. The tapas are accompanied by a coconut mojito, and the restaurant's housemade red and white sangria. Both versions are good, but the red is perfection in a glass. When the parade of dishes comes to an end, it is time for dessert, which would be worth a trip on its own. The peach brazo de gitano, a Spanish cake roll, was another recommendation from our waiter that could not have been more on point, while the sufle de chocolate served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melted in our mouths. The once-plain house on Route 37 has been transformed. Noemi is happy to have been proven wrong to doubt her sister's dream. Today both sisters often repeat the story. "You have to be positive and dream because dreams come true," Noemi says. This article appeared in the December 2018 issue of Connecticut Magazine. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said the troop pullout in Syria is happening "quickly". Trump's remarks came after his National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters that the US will not bring its troops back unless the Turkish government guarantees that it would not attack the Syrian Kurdish forces. Syrian Kurdish forces are backed by the US and are a critical American partner in the fight against ISIS. "It's going quickly," Trump told reporters here when asked how long it will take to pullout troops from Syria. Trump said there was no need for US forces in Syria now that the ISIS has been defeated there. ALSO READ | US Syria pullout must be done with allies' defence 'assured': Bolton "We've wiped out ISIS in Iraq, we've wiped out ISIS. Iran hates ISIS more than we do if that's possible. Russia hates ISIS more than we do. Turkey hates ISIS, maybe not as much as we do. But these are countries that hate ISIS," he said adding that these countries can now do the fighting themselves. Earlier, Donald Trump surprised the world and his country as well when he suddenly announced that the US is pulling out its troops from Syria. "In Syria, Erdogan said he wants to knock out ISIS, whatever's left, the remnants of ISIS. And Saudi Arabia just came out and said they are going to pay for some economic development. Which is great, that means we don't have to pay. We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven't even heard about. Frankly, it's ridiculous," Trump added. Trump's sudden decision sparked turmoil in his administration, prompting the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, as well as of Brett McGurk, the special envoy to the anti-IS coalition. Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, resigned in protest over President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, a US official said, joining Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security figures. ALSO READ | Need to deal with Democrat leaders to end shutdown, says Donald Trump McGurk had said it would be "reckless" to consider IS defeated and therefore would be unwise to bring American forces home. McGurk decided to speed up his original plan to leave his post in mid-February. Appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2015 and retained by Trump, McGurk said in his resignation letter that the militants were on the run, but not yet defeated, and that the premature pullout of American forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to IS. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Sunday said that the American withdrawal from Syria must be done with the defence of allies "assured". "We're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw, but to do so from northeast Syria in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again," John Bolton said when meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. "And to make sure that the defence of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." ALSO READ | Need to deal with Democrat leaders to end shutdown, says Donald Trump Israel is especially worried over whether it will allow its main enemy Iran to expand its presence in the neighbouring country. Bolton told journalists travelling with him earlier in the day that conditions such as guarantees on the safety of Kurdish allies must be met before American troops are withdrawn from Syria, NBC News reported. Earlier, Donald Trump surprised the world and his country as well when he suddenly announced that the US is pulling out its troops from Syria. "In Syria, Erdogan said he wants to knock out ISIS, whatever's left, the remnants of ISIS. And Saudi Arabia just came out and said they are going to pay for some economic development. Which is great, that means we don't have to pay. We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven't even heard about. Frankly, it's ridiculous," Trump added. Trump's sudden decision sparked turmoil in his administration, prompting the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, as well as of Brett McGurk, the special envoy to the anti-IS coalition. Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, resigned in protest over President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, a US official said, joining Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security figures. ALSO READ | Lose some kilos or... : PIA warns 'obese' cabin crew McGurk had said it would be "reckless" to consider IS defeated and therefore would be unwise to bring American forces home. McGurk decided to speed up his original plan to leave his post in mid-February. Appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2015 and retained by Trump, McGurk said in his resignation letter that the militants were on the run, but not yet defeated, and that the premature pullout of American forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to IS. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Sunday acknowledged that weekend shutdown talks led by his vice president would not break an impasse, as newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump is showing no signs of budging on his demand for US Dollar 5.6 billion for a wall along the US-Mexico border. I can make the deal with Democratic leaders in 20 minutes if they want to," Trump said. Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax funds. ALSO READ | 30 dead, 15 injured after gold mine collapsed in Afghanistan Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. "Democrats and now a growing number of Republicans are coming together and saying let's open up the government and debate border security separately," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters in New York. Earlier, Donald Trump had threatened to "entirely close" the Southern border with Mexico and change the immigration laws if the opposition Democrats did not agree to his demand of funding for a border wall. The Trump administration is seeking more than US dollar 5 billion for the construction of the border wall. Trump also threatened to end all US aid to three Latin American countries--Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras-- arguing that these nations have done nothing to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. Donald Trump made a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking a key campaign promise in the 2016 election when he said it would be paid for by Mexico. "We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve," Trump had said in a series of four tweets. ALSO READ | US agencies launch probe after woman in vegetative state gives birth "The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a 'profit making operation'," the US President had tweeted. "We build a wall or close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border..," Trump had said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. US electric carmaker Tesla announced on Monday that it has started construction of its plant in Shanghai's Lingang area, marking an important step to further accelerate its development in China. During a groundbreaking ceremony held in Shanghai today, Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc, said they will produce cars including Model 3 in the Shanghai plant its first factory outside the United States to better serve Chinese buyers. Elon Musk said on Twitter hours before the ceremony that Tesla aims to finish initial construction of the Shanghai Gigafactory this summer and begin Model 3 production at the end of the year, reaching "high volume production" next year. In July 2018, the electric carmaker signed an agreement with the Shanghai government to build a wholly owned factory, which will be the city's largest foreign-invested manufacturing project. The factory will initially have an annual capacity of around 250,000 vehicles and battery packs, eventually rising to 500,000 cars, the company said. In October, Tesla secured land in Shanghai's Lingang area. It bid 973 million yuan (US$142.1 million) to use the land for 50 years. Berlin: US chipmaker Qualcomm said that it had fulfilled the requirements set out by a court in a patent dispute case against Apple to ban the sale of older iPhone models in Germany. The court in the German city of Munich had ruled in favour of Qualcomm last month but said an injunction banning sales of affected iPhones could only be imposed immediately if the company laid down a security deposit. "(Qualcomm) has posted security bonds totalling 1.34 billion euros (USD 1.53 million). The bonds are required for Qualcomm to be able to enforce the remedies ordered by the Court on December 20, 2018," it said. ALSO READ | Be aware! WhatsApp Gold is nothing but a virus The court set the large sum as it could be the amount awarded to Apple in terms of revenue losses if the iPhone maker manages to get the Munich ruling overturned by a higher court. A court spokeswoman said she could not confirm the payment as the case is no longer in the tribunal's remit. An Apple spokesman told AFP that it had been "disappointed" by the Munich ruling and would appeal. "All iPhone models remain available to customers through carriers and resellers in 4,300 locations across Germany," he said. "During the appeal process, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models will not be available at Apple's 15 retail stores in Germany." The two Californian tech giants have been locked in a long-running battle over patents and royalties that has played out in courts and administrative bodies worldwide. At the heart of the dispute in the German case are chips made by one of Apple's suppliers used in iPhones, with both parties at loggerheads on how the chips actually work, said the court. ALSO READ | Highly anticipated Huawei Y9 2019 to be Amazon Exclusive Among the functions of the chip is the conservation of battery power. The Munich court said it had to go with Qualcomm's explanation of how the chip worked as Apple would not give details on its functioning, citing the industrial secrecy interests of its supplier. New Delhi: Greenland ice sheet emits tonnes of methane, according to a new study. It showed that the sub-glacial biological activity impacts the atmosphere far more than it was thought previously. The study, led by a team from United Kingdom's University of Bristol, found that ice sheet beds, which hold large reserves of carbon, liquid water, microorganisms and very little oxygen -- the ideal conditions for creating methane gas -- are also atmospheric methane sources. "What is also striking is the fact that we've found unequivocal evidence of a widespread sub-glacial microbial system. Whilst we knew that methane-producing microbes likely were important in sub-glacial environments, how important and widespread they truly were was debatable," explained lead researcher Guillaume Lamarche-Gagnon. ALSO READ | Scientists to start hunting for lives beneath Antarctic ice sheet "Now we clearly see that active micro-organisms, living under kilometres of ice, are not only surviving, but likely impacting other parts of the Earth system. This sub-glacial methane is essentially a biomarker for life in these isolated habitats," Ms Lamarche-Gagnon added in the research paper reported in the journal Nature. Earlier, satellite data by the European Space Agency (ESA) showed that the pace at which Greenland is losing ice is getting faster. The research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, used radar altimetry data gathered by the European remote sensing satellite (ERS), Envisat and CryoSat missions between 1992 and 2016. "A pattern of thinning appears to dominate a large fraction of the ice sheet margins at the beginning of the millennium, with individual outlet glaciers exhibiting large thinning rates," Louise Sandberg Sorensen, the lead author of the research paper had said. "Over the full 25-year period, the general picture shows much larger volume losses are experienced in west, northwest and southeast basins of Greenland compared to the more steady-state situations in the colder far north," Sorensen had said. ALSO READ | NASA spacecraft beams back first images of Ultima Thule Methane gas (CH4) is the third most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after water vapour and carbon dioxide (CO2). Although, present in lower concentrations than CO2, methane is approximately 20-28 times more potent. The Greenland ice sheet is an important cog in the global climate system with its meltwater, for example, influencing ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, they said. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Receiving widespread backlash from several opposition parties, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday revealed details about the role of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in 2013 Uttar Pradesh sand mining case. The agency claimed that Yadav, then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh had cleared 13 "illegal" mining leases on a single day, violating the 2012 e-tendering policy. The ongoing CBI investigation against the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief raked up a huge storm in Rajya Sabha, forcing an early adjournment of the House. The development came after the SP chief and other opposition parties accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of misusing the investigation agency for its political gains. To elaborate further, the CBI also said Yadav, who had been the mining minister of Uttar Pradesh between 2012 and 2013, had cleared a total of 14 "illegal" leases, of which 13 were cleared on February 17, 2013. Addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Sunday, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the BJP was using the CBI as a tool for arm-twisting the opposition party leaders, some of whom are trying to forge an alliance against the ruling party. Read | UP sand mining case: CBI raids 12 locations including IAS officer B Chandrakala's house "Now we have to tell the CBI as to how many seats we have distributed in the 'gathbandhan' (alliance). I am happy that at least the BJP has shown its colours. Earlier, the Congress gave us the chance to meet the CBI, and this time it is the BJP, which has given us this opportunity," Yadav was quoted as saying in the press brief. "The Samajwadi Party is making efforts to win the maximum number of Lok?Sabha seats. Those who want to stop us, have the CBI with them. Once the Congress did CBI probe, and I was questioned. If the BJP is doing all this, the CBI will question me, I will answer (them). But, the people are ready to give an answer to the BJP," he added. Yadav held the mining portfolio during 2012-13 and was succeeded by Gayatri Prajapati. Prajapati was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot. Meanwhile reacting strong to the CBI action, BSP chief Mayawati dubbed the reports as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP and advised Yadav not to be "shaken by such gimmicks". Read | Seat-sharing deal with Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh may be announced in a week: Akhilesh Yadav Condemning the CBI probe against Yadav, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "such politics and dictatorship cannot be allowed in India". "Where was this government in the last over four-and-a-half years? This (CBI) action comes at a time when elections are approaching," Azad added. The Congress leader further alleged that the investigation was a means to intimidate Mr Yadav and stop him from forming an alliance with Mayawati which would lead to the BJP's defeat in the state. Taking to Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote, "In its last weeks in office, Modi govt shamelessly unleashing CBI on Akhilesh Yadav is a reminder to all that we must not forget what Modi's political opponents have faced during last five years. Time to throw out this dictatorial and undemocratic regime". In its last weeks in office, Modi govt shamelessly unleashing CBI on @yadavakhilesh is a reminder to all that we must not forget what Modi's political opponents have faced during last five years. Time to throw out this dictatorial & undemocratic regime Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 7, 2019 Read | Arvind Kejriwal warns people against voting BJP, Congress in Lok Sabha polls The CBI on Saturday conducted searches at 14 locations across Uttar Pradesh, including the residences of IAS officer B Chandrakala, MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit in connection with the multi-crore sand mining case. The agency had taken up the case on the instruction of the Allahabad High Court in 2016. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: On the second last day of Winter Session of Parliament, the ruling BJP will make another attempt to get the contentious Triple Talaq Bill passed in Rajya Sabha. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 that seeks to criminalise the practice of instant divorce among Muslims will be tabled in the Upper House on Monday even as the Opposition remained firm on its stand to send the bill to a select committee. According to reports, if the government again fails to get the legislation passed in the house, it may reintroduce an Ordinance to criminalise the instant divorce practice. Earlier on December 31, 2018, the revised Triple Talaq Bill failed to get Rajya Sabha nod and the House was adjourned till January 2 following uproar by Opposition parties. In a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court in 2017, the practice of instant divorce by saying the word 'talaq' (divorce) thrice was held unconstitutional. Following the Supreme Court verdict, the Centre had drafted the triple talaq bill which had already been passed by Lok Sabha. However, the biggest hurdle for the bill is Rajya Sabha, where the BJP lacks numbers as some of its allies also sided with the Opposition over the issue. Also Read | Withdraw Triple Talaq Bill or send it to select committee: AIMPLB official Nitish Kumar' Janata Dal-United (JD-U), BJP's key ally in Bihar, has also decided to support the Opposition's demand of sending the bill to a select committee of the House, saying "the issue is related to a big community" and there should be no hurry in bringing the legislation in Rajya Sabha. JD-U Rajya Sabha MP and partys Bihar unit chief Bashistha Narain Singh made it clear that if the voting takes place in the Rajya Sabha, his party will vote against the government. The JD-U has six members in Rajya Sabha, including the Deputy Chairman Harivansh. Lack of support from the party will further reduce the NDAs chances of getting the bill passed in the Upper House, where it is already short of majority. Also Read | Winter Session of Parliament 2018: List of bills to be introduced, considered and passed The JD(U) enjoys considerable support from minority muslims and Nitish Kumar had last month obliquely disapproved the idea of an ordinance to start the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Raking up the political storm over Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, the decade-old socio-religious debate between Hindus and Muslims, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Monday raised question over the birth of Lord Rama. The diplomat-turned-politician was addressing a gathering at 'Ek Shaam Babri Masjid Ke Naam' programme organised by the Social Democratic Party of India in New Delhi. Speaking on the construction of Ram Temple on the disputed land of Ayodhya, Aiyar said, "There were 10,000 rooms in King Dasharatha's palace. How are they sure that Lord Ram was born where". "Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress, speaks on #RamMandir at 'Ek Shaam Babri Masjid Ke Naam' programme organised by Social Democratic Party of India in Delhi," the news agency ANI reported this evening. #WATCH Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress, speaks on #RamMandir at 'Ek Shaam Babri Masjid Ke Naam' programme organised by Social Democratic Party of India in Delhi pic.twitter.com/QtckaUdW70 ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 During his address, Aiyar also dubbed the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid a downfall of India. Elaborating further, the senior leader said, I'm from the Congress and we did a mistake. (The then Prime Minister PV) Narasimha Rao didn't take the right steps at the right time and a mistake happened". Describing the destruction of Babri Masjid the second attempt to divide the country, Aiyar alleged, Hindu-Muslim unity was torn apart when the Babri Masjid was demolished". In a related note, Aiyar had earlier said it was then prime minister Narasimha Rao's "pro-Hindu mindset" that resulted in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. You are those who proved your loyalty to this nation when you decided to stay back during Partition. Questioning you and doubting you mean questioning the integrity of this country, questioning the Constitution, the Congress leader added. They are trying to destroy the foundation of this Constitution and you should make sure that doesn't happen. I am a Hindu and I support you, Aiyar went on to claim further. In an apparent reference to the disputed land of Ayodhya, the senior leader said those who want a mandir can make one but how can they say mandir wahin banayenge'. The vociferous Congress leader has developed a status of being controversy's favourite child over the years and is at the centre of all talking points in every now and then. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir recorded 2,936 instances of ceasefire violations by Pakistan in 2018 -- the highest in the past 15 years with an average of eight cases dailyin which 61 people were killed and over 250 injured, officials said on Monday. Shelling and firing by Pakistani troops was very heavy in 2018, virtually making the 2003 India-Pakistan border truce redundant, they said. Pakistani troops repeatedly targeted forwards posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to create a fear psychosis among the people, a senior police officer said. Pakistani forces have violated the ceasefire 2,936 times in 2018, in which 61 people were killed and 250 injured, a senior Army official told PTI. The violations continued despite Pakistani troops vowing to maintain peace on the border during more than 20 brigade commander-level and flag meetings with the Indian forces. Pakistan vows to maintain peace and strengthen border relations, but they do not keep their promises, the Army official said. Also read | Modi government approves 10 per cent reservation for economically backward in general category The number of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in 2018 were over three times that of 2017, when 971 cases were reported. In 2017, 31 people -- 12 civilians and 19 security forces personnelwere killed and 151 suffered injures. People living near the border in Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts were severely hit by firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Fear gripped the border populace due to frequent shelling, which prompted thousands of people to migrate to safer places. The officials said that due to shelling and firing incidents, people had to migrate to safer places three times last year, which affected education and farm activities. To protect border residents in view of increasing ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the central government sanctioned Rs 415 crore for the construction of over 14,400 underground bunkers along the LoC and the IB and made efforts to speed up the work last year. Over 300 bunkers have been constructed under the programme in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and tenders have been floated for more such bunkers, the officials said, adding that over 4,000 bunkers would be constructed this year. Giving details of cases of ceasefire violations in the past decade, the officials said that in 2015, 405 cases of ceasefire violations were reported and 583 such instances were recorded in 2014. Also read | HAL given contracts of Rs 1 lakh crore but most in pipeline: Nirmala Sitharaman tells Parliament There had been a gradual increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan between 2009 and 2013. The corresponding figures for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 were 347, 114, 62, 44, and 28. In the previous three years, the numbers of such violations were?77 in 2008, 21 in 2007 and three in 2006, according to official data. For three years - 2004, 2005 and 2006 - there was not a single such violation on the border. The Indian government led by the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee entered into a border ceasefire agreement with Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 26, 2003. India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan, of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the financial crisis of Indias largest public sector defence unit Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Congress president claimed that the Modi government has not paid the HALs dues of Rs 20,000 crore for completed projects but paid almost the same amount to Dassault Aviation a company responsible for manufacturing Rafale fighter aircraft for undelivered planes. The Modi Govt has not paid HAL's dues of 20,000 (till March 31st) crore for goods already delivered, almost exactly the amount Dassault that has already been paid for goods not yet delivered. Is PM Modi trying to bankrupt HAL to help Double A, Gandhi told reporters. The Congress chief said that the Modi government made payment to Dassault despite objections from the Defence Ministry officials who had asked the French manufacturer to provide a Sovereign Guarantee by France. Also Read | HAL given contracts of Rs 1 lakh crore but most in pipeline: Nirmala Sitharaman tells Parliament The payment to Dassault was made over the objections of Defence Ministry officials, who had asked for (as is norm) Bank Guarantee from Dassault or a Sovereign Guarantee by France. Neither of which were provided. Did PM Modi make such a huge exemption for Double A? Gandhi said. The Congress president also took on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for lying in Parliament about the Rs 1 lakh crore contracts to HAL. DM Nirmala Sitharaman claims they are helping HAL, but Dassault has received Rs 20,000 Cr without even delivering the aircraft, whereas Govt owes HAL 15700Cr on completed projects, the Congress chief said. Earlier in the day, Sitharaman rejected Rahul Gandhi's accusations and reitarated that the Rs 1 lakh crore order have been given to the state-run defence manufacturer but with a twist. She said that most of the orders were in pipeline. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Responding to Congress president Rahul Gandhis accusation that she lied about the Rs 1 lakh crore order to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday claimed that the defence manufacturer was indeed given the contracts but added that most of them were in pipeline. The defence minister termed the Congress chiefs allegations as incorrect and misleading. "I would like to set all doubts to rest... the doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading. I have received confirmation from HAL that contracts during 2014-18 worth Rs 26,570.80 crore have already been signed with HAL. Orders worth Rs 73,000 Cr approximately are in the pipeline," Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha. On Friday, responding to the Congress partys allegations of corruption in the procurement deal of 36 Rafale fighter jets, Sitharaman had told Parliament that the Narendra Modi government had given contracts worth Rs 1 lakh crore to HAL. "The Congress is shedding crocodile tears for HAL. The Congress government gave 53 waivers to HAL... We have given contracts worth Rs. 1 lakh crore," the defence minister had said. Also Read | Rahul Gandhi on Rafale: Congress will launch investigation if voted to power in 2019 However, following her statement, media reports quoting HAL officials claimed that not a single rupee of the said Rs 1 lakh crore has gone to the defence manufacturers. HAL is a listed company now. You are free to verify our order books, where you will find not a single rupee of the said Rs 1 lakh crore has come to HAL, since not a single order, as claimed, has been signed till now. We have a responsibility to shareholders who cannot be led to believe we have orders when we dont, The Times of India quoted a senior HAL officer as saying. The report also added that as per the Lok Sabha records, Sitharaman did not claim that the orders were signed. Quoting the report, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday had dared the defence minister to place documents of government orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore to HAL before Parliament or submit her resignation. The Congress chief, quoting a media report, claimed that the HAL didnt receive a single rupee or contract of the said amount and even took a loan to pay the salaries of their employees. Also Read | Contracts are in pipeline: Nirmala Sitharaman on Rahul Gandhis challenge to prove HAL orders When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign, he had said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The disgruntled NDA ally Shiv Sena, who has been at loggerheads with the BJP for quite some time over several issues, has once again come up against the saffron party. This this the issue is the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Senior Shiv Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut on Monday warned the BJP that the Citizenship Amendment Bill would change the demography of Assam and may create the conditions for the civil war. Raut said that his party, which supported the Oppositions demand for the JPC probe into Rafale deal, will also oppose the bill as it was not just a Hindu-Muslim thing. We're also opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill, Asom Gana Parishad leaders met Uddhav ji and explained everything. It's not just Hindu-Muslim thing, Assam has its own culture and demography and this Bill would change that which may again create conditions for civil war, ANI quoted Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut as saying. Also Read | Assam NRC: Filing of claims to begin on September 25, says Supreme Court The final report of the joint parliamentary committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The bill seeks to make minority (or non-Muslim) immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan eligible for the citizenship. The Opposition parties expressed their disagreement saying that linking of religion to citizenship wasnt a good idea and raised objections about the functioning of the committee. However, all amendments moved by the opposition in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), headed by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, of the Bill were defeated on December 31, 2018. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. Also Read | Emotional closure or more tension: Experts divided on NRC While addressing a rally at Silchar on January 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, will be passed as soon as possible in Parliament as a penance for past injustices. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday is scheduled to deliver its verdict on CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma's plea against the Centre's decision to divest him of powers and sending him on leave. The Centre had taken a decision against Verma and CBI's Special Director Rakesh Asthana after their feud become public as they made allegations of corruption against each other. Verma has sought to quash of three orders of October 23, 2018 - one by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and two by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), as being without jurisdiction and in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. CBI's Joint Director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, was given the charge of interim chief of the probe agency. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on December 6 reserved the judgement after hearing arguments on behalf of Verma, the Centre, the CVC and others. The court had also heard the plea moved by NGO Common Cause which had sought a court-monitored SIT probe into the allegations of corruption against various CBI officials, including Asthana. Verma's two-year tenure as the CBI director ends on January 31. He has moved the top court challenging the Centre's decision. Read | AgustaWestland Scam: Armed with Christian Michels 'Mrs Gandhi' statement, BJP plans media blitz The Centre had justified its decision to divest Verma of his duties and sending him on leave before the apex court saying he and Asthana were fighting like "Kilkenny cats", exposing the country's premier investigating agency to "public ridicule". Attorney General K K Venugopal had told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, that the Centre was well "within its right to intervene" and send both officers on leave by divesting them of their powers. Venugopal had told the court that "only the God knows where and how this fight between the two top officers would have ended" if the government would not have taken the action which was aimed at restoring the public faith in the CBI. Read | Christian Michel has pressure to name a particular family, ED has no credibility left: Congress on AgustaWestland case Challenging the government's decision, Verma's counsel and senior advocate Fali S Nariman had argued that the CBI Director was appointed on February 1, 2017, and "the position of law is that there will be a fixed tenure of two years and this gentleman cannot be even transferred". Nariman had said there was no basis for the CVC to pass an order recommending that Verma should be sent on leave. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Home prices in Chinese cities increased at a slower pace in 2018 and are expected to remain stable, according to the China Index Academy, a property research institution. The average price of new homes in 100 cities rose 5.09 percent last year, a milder growth than 7.15 percent in 2017, according to a statement from the institution. Meanwhile, second-hand homes in the country's 10 major cities saw their average price drop 0.11 percent, compared with an increase of 8.03 percent in 2017. In December alone, the average new home price for 100 cities edged up 0.25 percent month on month to 14,678 yuan (about 2,139 U.S. dollars) per square meter. The growth was down 0.02 percentage points from that in November. The statement said regulators are expected to remain focused on market stability in the future, predicting home prices to continue to stabilize. The annual Central Economic Work Conference held last month called for a long-term mechanism to maintain the sound development of the real estate market and adhering to the principle that "housing is for living in, not speculation." New Delhi: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday announced its decision to snap ties with the BJP over the Citizenship Bill. We have met almost everyone including the Joint Parliamentary Committee, President, Prime Minister and requested them to scrap the bill but unfortunately that didnt happen. As we were part of the government, we tried our best to stay with the government. But we have realised that the BJP government is bound to pass the bill. After meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh, we are sure about that, AGP president Atul Bora announced after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi. The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The decision followed an AGP delegation's meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, who asserted that the government will ensure its passage in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Bora said. Also Read | These 11 parties left PM Narendra Modi since 2014 Lok Sabha elections "We made a last ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance," Bora said. The announcement followed AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's statement in Guwahati that the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in passed by Lok Sabha. The Bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper documentation. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Normal life is likely to be hit as Central Trade Unions on Monday said around 20 crore workers will go on a two-day (January 8-9) nationwide strike from Tuesday to protest against the government's alleged anti-worker policies and unilateral labour reforms. "As many as 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs) have joined hands to go on a two-day nationwide strike from tomorrow. We expect 20 crore workers to join the strike. This is the largest number of workers from formal and informal sectors joining the strike against anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led central government," Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of AITUC, told reporters in a joint press conference of the 10 CTUs. She said sectors like telecom, health, education, coal, steel, electricity, banking, insurance and transport among others are likely to support the strike. "We will go on protest march from Mandi House to Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Similar protests would be done across the country," she said. Heres all you need to know about two-day nationwide strike: # The general strike has been called by the central trade unions demanding fulfilment of a 12-point charter of demands including inflation control, minimum monthly salary of Rs 18,000, equal pay for equal work, social security provisions, discontinuation of foreign investments in railways, banks and insurance sectors and jobs for unemployed youths, among others. # The 10 CTUs going on strike include INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC. RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will not participate. # "The government has failed to create jobs and grossly ignored unions' 12-point charter of demands. The Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on labour issues has not called unions for any discussion since September 2, 2015 strike. This has left us with no other option but to go on strike," Kaur said. # In a joint statement, the CTUs also alleged that the government undermined tripartism and continued its "aggressive attack with arrogance on the lives and livelihood of the working people." # They are also opposed to the proposed amendments in Trade Union Act, 1926 saying those are irrational and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions. # The unions claim that farming communities through their associations have also extended support to the strike. Student and teacher organisations of various universities have also declared support, the statement said. Schools, colleges closed in Odisha # All educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities in Odisha will remain closed on Tuesday in view of the two-day nationwide strike called by central trade unions. A notification to this effect was issued by the Higher Education department on Monday. # "All schools in the state will remain closed on Tuesday due to the general strike called by central trade unions. The decision regarding the closure of schools on Wednesday will be taken tomorrow, said School and Mass Education Secretary PK Mohapatra. # The state's BJD government and its trade union front -- Biju Sramika Samukhya (BSS) -- have extended support to the two-day nation-wide strike. Tripura Govt to oppose # The Tripura unit of the BJP said on Monday it would oppose the nationwide strike. Pratima Bhowmik, the general secretary of Tripura BJP, said the strike would inconvenience common people. # She also requested the state government to alert the police and the administration and ensure that the supporters of the strike do not harm people or damage vehicles and destroy properties of government or private firms. Karnataka likely to be affected #Normal life is likely to be affected in the city and several parts of Karnataka on Tuesday, with state transport buses likely to stay off the roads. Hence, commuters, office goers who use the service may face the brunt. # However, the metro service in Bengaluru, as also auto and taxi service, are likely to function as usual. # Hotels, malls and film theatres are also likely to function as usual, with their unions extending "moral" support to the strike. # Bank services are likely to be disrupted. # District administrations have been given the authority to declare a holiday for schools and colleges depending on the situation there. Some universities have defered the examinations. Enough is enough, no bandh in Bengal: CM Mamata Banerjee # West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that trade unions called general strike would have no impact in the state. # "I do not want to spend a single word on this. In WestBengal, we have taken a stand of not supporting any bandh. Enough is enough. In the last 34 years, they (Left Front) have destroyed the state by calling bandh. There will be no bandh," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat. BEST employees firm on strike # Around 29,000 employees of the civic run transport service BEST are going on an indefinite strike beginning from Monday midnight for various demands despite an industrial court restraining them from taking the step. # Due to the strike, around 25 lakh passengers who travel by 3000 BEST buses that ply on streets of Mumbai city and the metropolitan region every day will be inconvenienced, a union official said late night. SBI likely to remain operational # The banking sector may only see a partial shutdown on the two-day general strike called by central trade unions on January 8 and 9, a banking union official said on Monday. # The State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank with 85,000 branches, is likely to remain operational on the two days, along with a few other nationalised banks, the official said. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Former union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha said leaders of the Oppositions Grand Alliance will take out a march towards the Bihars Raj Bhavan on January 10 against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his sadak chaap remarks on Mahagathbandhan. The opposition parties will demand an apology from Kumar for his comments. It was decided in the first meeting of the Oppositions Grand Alliance in Bihar at the resident of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday. Kushwaha also said the parties discussed seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. The final announcement on the respective number of seats to be fought by each constituent will be made soon. They also identified constituencies best suited for each alliance partner. The meeting was attended by all constituents of the 'Mahagathbandhan' that comprises the RJD, the Congress, former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM and veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav's LJD. Tejashwi Yadav is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. Sources with the Grand Alliance told news agency PTI that a final agreement in this regard may be deferred till the release of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases judgment on whose bail application has been reserved by the Jharkhand High Court. Leaders of the Grand Alliance, however, have been saying that a formal announcement about the seat-sharing arrangements will be made only after January 14, when the inauspicious month of 'Kharmaas' comes to an end. On Sunday, Jitan Ram Manjhi rubbished some reports that claimed that he might return to the NDA, as he was not getting his due in the Grand Alliance. "This is nonsense. Only on Saturday, I was in Ranchi to meet Lalu Prasad. It is another thing that because of his poor health, I avoided getting into any detailed discussions on political matters," he told reporters. In an alliance, all constituents have to be ready to make some sacrifices, the former chief minister said. "We are not at all insistent on a particular number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls, and though we maintain that we are in a good position in at least 20 out of 40 in the state, we will work for the 'Mahagathbandhan's' victory even if we end up fighting not a single seat," Manjhi said. Itanagar: Union minister Prakash Javadekar has assured the Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) Dr B D Mishra that seven proposed Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) in the state would be opened this financial year, according to an official statement released on Sunday. The Union human resource development minister gave the assurance when the governor called on him in New Delhi and discussed issues regarding education in the state on Saturday. Javadekar said the seven KVs would be opened within this financial year and the requisite cabinet proposal will be moved shortly. The proposed KVs are in Kurung Kumey, Dibang Valley, Namsai, Upper Subansiri, Anjaw, West Siang and Upper Siang districts. Read | HRD introduces 70-point grading index to assess quality of school education The minister stated that the Centre is committed to improve primary education and overcome the dropout rate in Arunachal Pradesh. Mishra requested the minister for three Navodaya Vidyalayas for the three newly created districts of Shi Yomi, Lepa Rada and Pakke Kessang and Javadekar assured him that the proposal would be moved in the next Cabinet meeting, the release said. Read | NEET UG 2019: NTA to start form correction process from January 14, check details here The governor also spoke to Bar Council of India (BCI) on the lone Government Law College of the state, which was scheduled to be opened last year but that could not be done as the BCI did not approve it. BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra assured Mishra to send a team for inspection of the college at the earliest. New Delhi: Indias one of the most popular and best-selling premium hatchback Maruti Suzuki Swift gets beaten by Hyundais i20 Elite in number of units sold in the month of December. The top three car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors registered a marginal fall in sales in the last month due to increasing fuel prices, one-time insurance payment. Several car companies offered huge discounts to clear the old stock. Swift and i20 Elite has been one of the biggest rivals in the premium range hatchback section. Both Maruti Suzuki Swift and Hyundai i20 Elite suffered a small decline in the sale in December 2018 where i20 Elite surpassed Swift sales in the month. Hyundai sold 11940 units of i20 Elite while Maruti Suzuki sold 11790 units of Swift in last month, making i20 the number three in the list of top 10 best-selling cars in December 2018. Also read | Maruti Suzuki Wagon R with 1.2-litre engine to launch soon, know more In the list of top 10 best-selling cars for the month of December 2018, there are seven Maruti Suzuki cars and three Hyundai cars in the Standings. Maruti Suzukis Alto was the best-selling car for the month of December 2018 with 25,121 units sold across the country. In the month of December 2018, Hyundais i20 Elite even surpassed Maruti Suzukis Baleno where i20 Elite recorded a total sales of 11,940 units while Balenos total sales were 11,135 units last month. Here is the list of best-selling cars in December 2018: Maruti Suzuki Alto 25121 units Maruti Suzuki Dzire 16797 units Hyundai Elite i20 11940 units Maruti Suzuki Swift 11790 units Hyundai Grand i10 11450 units Maruti Suzuki Baleno 11135 units Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza 9667 units Maruti Suzuki Celerio 9000 units Maruti Suzuki Eeco 8532 units Hyundai Creta 7631 units The only sedan in the list of top 10 best selling cars in December is Maruti Suzukis Dzire with 16,797 units and the SUV in the list also comes from the same automaker which is Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza with 9667 units. Please purchase a subscription read this premium content. If you have a subscription, please sign up for a digital website account or log in. Shamokin, PA (17872) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Partly cloudy. High 73F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 51F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Thailand says it won't attempt to deport a Saudi teen who says her life is in danger back home, after the case sparked international outrage. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, was transiting through Bangkok airport on her way to seek asylum in Australia when she was stopped by Thai authorities "for violating the law" in the weekend. Saudi officials then seized her passport and told Thai authorities she "had run away from her parents and they feared for her safety". Thai immigration officials tried to send Ms Mohammed al-Qunun, who has renounced Islam, back to Kuwait, where her family was visiting when she ran away. But she refused to get on the flight and barricaded herself inside an airport hotel room. "My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things," Ms Mohammed al-Qunun told Reuters. After international pressure from rights groups, Thailand says Ms Mohammed al-Qunun is now in the care of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which was checking her refugee status. Women in Saudi Arabia will be notified by text message if they are divorced under a new law designed to protect them from having their marriage ended without their knowledge, the country's government says. The new law, which came into effect on Sunday, is seen as a way to end secret divorces and ensure women are fully aware of their marital status so they can protect their rights. The move comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has started to give women more rights in the conservative kingdom, including the lifting of a ban on women driving last year. "Saudi courts have started to send such (divorce) notifications ... a step aimed at protecting the rights of female clients," the Saudi Ministry of Justice said in a statement on their website. It said women could check their marital status on the ministry's website or visit the relevant court to get a copy of divorce papers. Global rights group Equality Now's Suad Abu-Dayyeh said the new law was a positive step. "At least women will know whether they are divorced or not. It is a tiny step, but it is a step in the right direction," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Reuters. BYD, China's global pace-setter in the development of electric road transportation, has won a bid to provide the Colombian city of Medellin with 64 pure e-buses. This will become the largest e-bus fleet in Colombia and the second largest in Latin America. BYD, facing competition from three other manufacturers, won the tender with local operator Metroplus (BRT system). BYD's 12.5-meter K9G pure electric buses will be delivered in the second-half of 2019, accelerating Medellin's efforts to become the regional capital of electricity-based mobility. City Mayor Federico Gutierrez said the BYD order was part of Medellin's contribution to the network of world megacities known as C40 to combat climate change. He said the 64 buses would begin operating in August. The bus fleet will require less than two hours of recharging daily and will then be able to cover more than 300km, carrying up to 80 passengers. Charging points will be established in different areas of the city to support the operations. Metroplus bought the city's first 18-meter pure electric articulated BYD K11 bus as early as 2017. The articulated vehicle achieved excellent results during its operations since then, covering more than 50,000km in the first nine months. In addition, it demonstrated a 60% saving in costs as well as a 75% saving in maintenance compared to a standard diesel-powered articulated bus. BYD has been active in Colombia for several years. In September 2013, the largest pure electric taxi fleet in Latin America consisting of 45 e6s officially hit the streets of Bogota, followed in September 2015 by the purchase of the first BYD pure electric bus for the city's El Dorado International Airport. In April 2017, BYD signed an agreement with the Colombian car rental company Localiza to deliver seven e6 taxis, giving the country a total of 80 pure electric taxis at present. A young Saudi woman trying to flee her family after renouncing Islam is stranded in Bangkok. Eighteen-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun says a Saudi diplomat seized her passport on arrival. She is trying to reach Australia, amid fears her family will kill her. She has a visa to enter Australia, and says she's trying to escape a marriage. Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch says Thai officials need to intervene. "Thailand should allow the UN refugee agency to have access to her." She is currently in a hotel in the transit area, BBC News reported. "I shared my story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this," she told the British news broadcaster. "I can't study and work in my country, so I want to be free and study and work as I want." Thai police said she doesn't have a visa to enter Thailand, and were planning to send her back on the same airline she arrived on - Kuwait Airlines. An American woman has died after doctors in Virginia mistook her rabies symptoms as signs of a panic attack. The 65-year-old had been on a seven week yoga retreat in India last year when she was bitten by a puppy, LiveScience reported. The bite was washed with water, but no other treatments were given to her. Six weeks after she returned to the US, the woman was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome after she experienced pain and tingling in her right arm. The following day, she went to the emergency room with shortness of breath, sleeping troubles, anxiety and difficulty swallowing water. According to LiveScience, she was given anxiety medication and sent on her way. Just a day later, she was back with the same symptoms. A heart examination indicated she may have a problem with blood flow, and she had emergency surgery. But the truth was much more tragic. As the day progressed the woman grew "progressively agitated and combative", as well as gasping for air as she tried to drink water. Difficulty in drinking, or fear of water are symptoms of rabies. Once symptoms begin to present, rabies is almost always fatal. Doctors asked the woman's family if she had been exposed to any animals, and her husband told them about the bite, LiveScience reported. The vaccination for rabies is only effective before symptoms present themselves. Once a person begins to show symptoms, it is almost always fatal. The woman died shortly after her family decided to withdraw advanced medical support. Out of 250 staff that had contact with her, it was recommended that 72 of them undergo rabies vaccinations, to ensure that they had not contracted rabies via the woman's' saliva. The CDC recommends that travellers consult a health specialist before venturing overseas, and making sure they receive all the vaccinations they need. Newshub. "Since the decision was announced to try for phased eradication, we have been working with a number of properties who are potentially at risk of being infected with M. bovis, the vast majority of which are tested and found to not have the disease," he said. "For those that do have the disease on their property, you are taking a big hit for the industry and I assure you, it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated," said Mr Gwyn. He said while the latest evidence shows things are looking positive for eradication, many farmers are still struggling. "I know that a number of people are still doing the hard yards and this news may be of little consolation to them." "We remain committed to ensuring our farmers and their families are at the centre of all our efforts as we continue to work towards eradication of M. bovis." Newshub. There has been another big blow to trans-Tasman relations as Australia's clampdown on Kiwi criminals looks set to get even worse. On Monday the country's government revealed it plans to strengthen current immigration rules, meaning more people will eligible for deportation. That means more Kiwis are set to be sent back - deported even if they haven't set foot in New Zealand since early childhood. In the last four years, 1500 Kiwis have been kicked out of Australia. For many sent back, it has been life changing for the worse. Now Australia's set to toughen its already strict immigration laws. When parliament resumes, it will debate plans to strengthen current laws. Right now, anyone who serves a prison sentence of 12 months or more can be deported. New laws could target people who commit specific crimes, but aren't given a prison sentence. "It's a very simple message, if non-citizens commit crimes in Australia, they should expect to have their visas cancelled," says Australia's immigration minister, David Coleman. And that's likely to affect New Zealanders the most. Filipa Payne is an advocate for those already sent here, often to what is effectively a foreign country they left as children. She fears the move will affect thousands more. "Most of these people have been raised in Australia, are a product of Australia and now Australia is denying they have any moral obligation for the outcome," she says. Even before the tighter rules come in - there's been a steady flow of deportations. Newshub has obtained information showing charter flights continue to arrive in Auckland. One flight in the second half of 2018 carried citizens arrested for crimes like attempted murder, possessing child abuse materials, assaulting police officers, as well as drug and theft crimes. Police in New Zealand are also acknowledging the problems deportees face. In a briefing to Police Minister Stuart Nash, officials say the policy has both a negative impact on the New Zealand community and those being deported. But Australia is unswayed, saying they will not tolerate crimes against Australians. A crackdown, with no sign of slowing down. Newshub. Police and emergency services were called to the caravan crash just south of Wellsford shortly after 1pm on Monday. One woman has been seriously injured and is being airlifted to hospital. Motorists are being asked to avoid the area where possible, as it is expected that the road will remain closed for some time. Police advise drivers to use State Highway 16 as an alternative route. Newshub. NIWA says 2018 was the second-equal hottest year on record, with new "extreme temperatures" around New Zealand. It warns it's part of an "alarming trend" - and increases in greenhouse gases are to blame. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research released its Annual Climate Summary on Tuesday morning, showing the average temperature hit 13.41degC - the highest average behind only 2016. "Overall there were 73 high maximum and minimum temperature extremes, while only one low maximum extreme occurred," NIWA says. This means annual average temperatures were as much as 1.2degC above the 1981-2010 average for the majority of New Zealand. "A small strip of well above average (>1.20degC from average) temperatures were observed in southern Manawatu-Whanganui," NIWA says. "Elsewhere, near average (within -0.50degC to +0.50degC of average) temperatures occurred in parts of southern Canterbury, Otago, small parts of Auckland and the Far North." NIWA forecaster Chris Brandolino says it's part of a larger trend for New Zealand. "What's really alarming is that four of the past six years have placed in the top five for mean warm temperatures in New Zealand," he told media on Tuesday. 2017's average temperature was 13.15degC - the fifth-warmest on record, behind 2016, 2013, 1999 and 1998 - which was the second-equal warmest. Mr Brandolino says overall it was "a very warm year", with many places hitting new highs since records began in 1909. "Six months we saw temperatures above average. Six months we saw temperatures near average and zero months we saw temperatures below average," he says. "January was the warmest month of any month of any year on record with an alarming 3.1degC temperature anomaly." He says the "record warmth" had three main components - sea surface temperatures, air flow from tropic and sub-tropic areas and an increase in greenhouse gasses. "The increase in greenhouse gases that we continue to see is warming in the background," he says. "In other words, we are seeing a long-term tailwind of temperatures. Our changing climate is acting as a long-term tailwind for high temperatures." Parts of southern Canterbury had well above normal rainfall (over 149 percent of normal), while rainfall was also above normal across much of the eastern and upper South Island, as well as parts of Wellington, Wairarapa, Bay of Plenty, northern Waikato, and Auckland. Rainfall was near normal for the rest of New Zealand. Newshub. Laura Josephine (Conrad) Wilson, 94, of New Albany, Indiana, passed away on Saturday, June 12, 2021. Laura was a member of Grace Lutheran Church and the New Albany VFW Posts 1693 and 3281 Ladies' Auxillary. She was born on November 10, 1926 in English, Indiana to the late John and Stella (Un But dogs are largely immune to political ugliness. The angriest complaints I get about my dog tweets from people on both the left and right are that Im wasting apparently scarce resources on dogs when I could be expressing my anger about whatever outrage the complainers demand I be outraged about. This is one of the reasons I love dogs. Because it is an occupational hazard in my line of work to be constantly drenched in the muck of politics, dogs are a safe harbor. They dont care about political correctness. They dont want to Make America Great Again or join the resistance. They just want to pursue doggie goodness as they see it. It strikes me that all of these things are connected. The increasing nastiness of our politics is a byproduct of our social isolation. We look to politics to provide the sense of meaning and belonging once found in community and religion, which is why everything is becoming politicized. The problem is that politics, particularly at the national level, is necessarily about disagreement, which is why it cannot provide the sense of unity people crave from it. And thats one reason why dogs are so appealing. In an era when everything is a source of discord and politicization, its good to have something that stands and sits and fetches apart. Because theyre all good dogs. Goldberg is an editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Email him at JonahsColumn@aol.com. When a geek's game turns into an investment tool for the public, it is time for the regulators to walk in. Financial regulators across the world are watching with bated breath every time investors in crypto-assets incur sharp losses or post unreal profits. The year 2017 saw more than $4 billion being raised through initial coin offerings or ICOs around the world. That figure outstripped what blockchain startups raised through the more traditional channels like venture capital. Global investors called 2017 "the year of the token". ICO entails fund-raising in terms of crypto-assets through issuance of tokens. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple had increased to 1,335 by 2017 from only 66 in 2013, according to a report from the People's Bank of China, the central bank. Some analysts said the new technology is developing rapidly like the financial derivatives of the 1990s. And the common feature is, very few outside the financial circles understand these tools and instruments. ICOs, the newest form of raising capital, became popular in China after a short development period. According to the central bank's Financial Stability Report 2018, by July 18, 2017, there were 65 ICOs made in China. They raised 2.62 billion yuan ($380.5 million) in all, or more than 20 percent of the global total. Like with most other money-related technologies, some illegal activities, frauds, money laundering and terrorist financing are said to be within the realm of possibility, in the context of cryptocurrencies. So, financial regulators in advanced and developing countries are now intensifying scrutiny of ICOs to ensure that such offerings are in compliance with the laws. Chinese financial regulators never stopped clamping down on token-backed capital raising activities, such as ICOs, and security token offerings or STOs. This has been the case from the very beginning of cryptocurrencies' emergence in the country. Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the central bank, said on Dec 8 that ICOs and STOs are essentially illegal in China. "No matter how fancy the technical terms are, they are illegal." Internet finance and fintech-related tools don't change the basic risk attributes of the financing activities, said Pan. "They should be under even stricter supervision." So, tighter regulations will be maintained in the future to prevent and reduce risks, he said. Chinese financial regulators started measures to shutter ICO trading platforms in September 2017, after trading in domestic ICOs was ground to a halt and the platforms were made to refund investors. "Similar to how equity investors check a company's financials before buying its shares, a crypto-asset investor should look for a healthy amount of transactions on its network," said Justin Chan, a digital currency expert with Data Driven Investor, a fintech consulting company. "But the lack of adequate regulation has led to many scams and questionable fundraising practices in the field of cryptocurrencies," said Chan. One of the most crucial steps that can be carried out before a new therapy can be introduced to humans is preclinical research. One of the most common methods of discovering how a therapeutic treatment interacts with cellular distributions and single cells through high-resolution visual representations is the utilization of imaging techniques. Many imaging techniques are not perfect however, and research typically needs multiple techniques to quantify what is occurring with the uptake of therapeutics into cells. Non-Invasive Imaging Technique In the webinar presented in this article, Assistant Professor in Imaging and Pathology at The KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Dr. Greetje Vande Velde, will discuss the utilization of microcomputer topography (micro-CT) as a non-invasive imaging technique at the pre-clinical research stage. Dr. Velde will discuss how this technique can be employed to improve the ethics of pre-clinical research by minimizing the number of animals needed to perform tests and to produce high quality results on dynamic disease processes. The webinar is run in association with both KU Leuven and Bruker, the webinar begins by introducing Dr Greetje Vande Veldes work. This is quickly followed by a general overview of non-invasive imaging techniques, animal groups for therapy, disease models, and the issues with many other methods when working with animals. The webinar then gives an overview of what micro-CT is and why Dr Veldes research group is using micro-CT as their imaging method of choice, even though at KU Leuven they have access to a huge range of imaging techniques through the Molecular Small Animal Imaging Centre (moSAIC). What diseases can microCT be used to study? Watch the webinar now Regarding the operating principles, Dr Vande Velde observes both the computing and physical scanning functions that allow a 3D image to be generated without damaging the samples in question; and also demonstrates how micro-CT can give more than just a conventional anatomical representation, unlike other CT methods. This is also a very flavorful section of the talk. Micro-CT: A Powerful Imaging Technique One of the main areas of application where micro-CT is a powerful technique is in imaging lung fibrosis and emphysema. Introduction into the technique aside, Dr Velde looks at this technique using relevant publication examples. This way of imaging is described through the creation of a longitudinal 3D model aerated and non-aerated lung tissues to determine whether the animal in question has lung fibrosis. One major difference for these applications is that by utilizing the micro-CT you can build up 2D and 3D models at separate time points, and additionally the tissues can be quantitatively analyzed as a function of their aerated volume and so can be used to distinguish the efficacy of a therapeutic treatment. The low radiation dose is another reason to choose micro-CT above other imaging techniques. Dr Velde often works with animals over long time periods, frequently for weeks at a time, and the more invasive techniques dispense too much radiation across these time-frames which can damage the obtained data and quality of the image. This is not a problem with micro-CT and is the reason it can be employed for extended time frames for the sample animal model. Dr Vande Velde also discusses another key application as lung infection, and how it supplies a novel approach in establishing the extent of lung infection, even before symptoms have begun to show. The longer time frames also provide a way to follow how these diseases progress within the lungs from both quantitative and visual perspectives. Micro-CT Helps Quantify Treatment Results Next the webinar gives insight into some of Dr Veldes colleagues in Barcelona who are examining the morphology of children faces with Downs syndrome and how particular therapies can aid these childrens cognitive abilities. Micro-CT provides a way to quantify the treatment results when used for this application, instead of simply providing an observation, like other methods that have been employed. To learn in more detail about Bruker BioSpins product, Skyscan 1278 micro-CT, to observe how utilizing this technique could help your research, and to see why micro-CT is perceived as better than the current gold standard, please click here to register and watch to the webinar. About Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging Bruker BioSpin offers the world's most comprehensive range of NMR and EPR spectroscopy and preclinical research tools. Bruker BioSpin develops, manufactures and supplies technology to research establishments, commercial enterprises and multi-national corporations across countless industries and fields of expertise. Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments. Modern prostheses offer patients who have had a hand amputated much greater capability in everyday life than was possible with previous prosthetic reconstructive techniques. Redundant nerves from the amputated extremity can be surgically transferred to provide a much better connection between the patient's body and the prosthesis. This technique has proven to be successful, although the specific reasons for its success were not fully understood. A team of researchers led by Konstantin Bergmeister and Oskar Aszmann from the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Recovery of Limb Function at MedUni Vienna, demonstrated, in an animal model, that the key to success lies in the muscle undergoing a change of identity triggered by the donor nerve. Bionic prostheses are mentally controlled, in that they register the activation of residual muscles in the limb stump. Theoretically it should be possible for the latest generation prostheses to execute the same number of movements as a healthy human hand. However, the link between man and prosthesis is not yet capable of controlling all mechanically possible functions, because the interface between man and prostheses is limited in terms of signal transmission. "If we could solve this problem, the latest prostheses could actually become an intuitively operated replacement that functions just like a human hand," underscore the researchers. To enable the prosthesis to move at all, nerves have to be surgically transferred during the amputation procedure to increase the total number of muscle control signals. This involves connecting amputated peripheral nerves to residual muscles in the amputation stump. This method is very successful, because these muscles regenerate after a few months to provide better control of the prosthesis. However, until now, it was not clear what specific changes this nerve transfer technique produces in muscles and nerves. Previously unknown neurophysiological effects discovered As part of an experimental study conducted over several years, a research team led by Konstantin Bergmeister and Oskar Aszmann from MedUni Vienna's Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Head: Christine Radtke) and Christian Doppler Laboratory for Recovery of Limb Function have now shown that this nerve transfer technique has previously unidentified neurophysiological effects. These result in more accurate muscle contractility and much more finely controlled muscle signals than previously thought. It was also found that muscles take on the identity of the donor nerves, that is to say the function of the muscle from which the nerve was originally harvested. This means that muscles can be modified very specifically to achieve the desired control of the lost extremity. This information will now be used in follow-up studies to refine the surgical technique of nerve transfer and adapt it more accurately to fine control systems. The vision of an intuitively controlled prosthesis that can perform all the natural manual functions could become a reality within the next few years. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have found two biomarkers that could be used to identify a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation in patients who have three 'clinical risks'. Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around 1.6 million people in the UK. Those with atrial fibrillation may be aware of noticeable heart palpitations, when their heart feels like it is pounding, fluttering or beating irregularly. Sometimes atrial fibrillation does not cause any symptoms and a person who has it is completely unaware that their heart rate is irregular. Now scientists have identified patients are more at risk of atrial fibrillation if they have three 'clinical risks' - they are older aged, male and have a high Body Mass Index. These patients, say the scientists, could be screened for atrial fibrillation by testing their blood to see if they have elevated levels of two biomarkers - a hormone secreted by the heart called brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and a protein responsible for phosphate regulation called fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23). The research was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham's College of Medical and Dental Sciences and is published today (Jan 7th) in European Heart Journal. First author Dr Winnie Chua said: "People with atrial fibrillation are much more likely to develop blood clots and suffer from strokes. To avoid strokes it is important for them to take anticoagulant drugs to prevent blood clotting. However, atrial fibrillation is often only diagnosed after a patient has suffered a stroke. "Therefore it is important that patients at risk are screened so that they can begin taking anticoagulants to prevent potentially life-threatening complications." Joint First author Yanish Purmah added: "An electrocardiogram (ECG), a test which measures the electrical activity of your heart to show whether or not it is working normally, is usually used to screen patients for atrial fibrillation. "ECG screening is resource-intensive and burdensome for patients therefore it is important that the right patients are selected for this type of screening "The biomarkers we have identified have the potential to be used in a blood test in community settings such as in GP practices to simplify patient selection for ECG screening." Until now, most studies identifying biomarkers in patients with atrial fibrillation have been hypothesis-driven and involved the analysis of a single or small selection of blood biomarkers. In this study, the scientists analysed 40 common cardiovascular biomarkers in a cohort of 638 hospital patients who were recruited between September 2014 and August 2016. To obtain the results, the scientists combined traditional statistical analysis with completely new and innovative machine learning techniques. Senior author Dr Larissa Fabritz said: "The research outcomes were surprising. While BNP is already a known and widely used in clinical practice biomarker, the results around the effectiveness of the FGF-23 biomarker was an unexpected and new finding. FGF-23 is only currently used in a research based environment, but we have shown how its use could be invaluable in a clinical setting." Corresponding author Professor Paulus Kirchhof, Director of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said: "We hope that, as the result of our findings, more people with what can often be a silent disease are diagnosed so that any complications can be prevented." Funded by the University of Birmingham, the research was supported by CATCH ME, an EU-funded consortium led by the University of Birmingham, the British Heart Foundation and Leducq Foundation. The research was carried out in collaboration with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the European Society of Cardiology, The German Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET), and Health Data Research UK. Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), added: "Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke, a serious condition that causes over 36,000 deaths in the UK each year, but is often detected too late. This research has used sophisticated statistical and machine learning methods to analyse patient data and provides encouraging evidence that a combination of easy-to-measure indices may be used to predict atrial fibrillation. "The study may pave the way towards better detection of people with AF and their targeted treatment with blood-thinning medicines for the prevention of stroke and its devastating consequences." The research, which began in 2013, is ongoing and next steps will involve follow-up appraisals of the patients recruited to the study in order to further improve the prevention and treatment of atrial fibrillation. In the current issue of Family Medicine and Community Health (Volume 6, Number 4, 2018; DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 15212/ FMCH. 2018. 0115, Nnenna A. Osuji, Oluwaseun Solomon Ojo, Sunday O. Malomo, Peter T. Sogunle, Ademola O. Egunjobi and Olufisayo O. Odebunmi of the Family Medicine Department, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Nigeria describe how Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries are currently experiencing a rapid increase in the incidence of noncommunicable diseases, especially diabetes mellitus (DM), as a result of increasing urbanization and changing lifestyles. People with diseases such as DM that require lifelong management may be tired of taking medications and adhering to the lifestyle modifications over time. This underscores the importance of motivation in people with DM. The authors consider whether support from the family can motivate people with DM to improve self-management behaviors and ultimately their glycemic control? Few studies have looked at the relationship between perceived family support and glycemic control among people with type 2 DM. Source: http://fmch-journal.org/ Sudden, unpredictable drops in personal income during young adulthood are associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease and/or dying from any cause, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation. In the United States, the recent rise in income inequality suggests that a larger proportion of the population faces poverty and economic difficulties. In addition, while most people experience some income change, income volatility has been on the rise and has reached a record high level since 1980. The study found that the biggest fluctuations in personal income were significantly associated with nearly double the risk of death and more than double the risk for cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes, heart failure or death during the following 10 years compared to a similar group of people with less fluctuation in personal income. Women and African-Americans were more likely to experience high income volatility and income drops than white men. "Income volatility presents a growing public health threat, especially when federal programs, which are meant to help absorb unpredictable income changes, are undergoing continuous changes, and mostly cuts," said study lead author Tali Elfassy, Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida. "While this study is observational in nature and certainly not an evaluation of such programs, our results do highlight that large negative changes in income may be detrimental to heart health and may contribute to premature death," Elfassy said. The study analyzed data from the ongoing Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study that is following 3,937 people living in four diverse U.S. cities - Birmingham, Alabama; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Oakland, California. Participants were aged 23-35 years old in 1990 when the study began. The researchers collected data on changes in income in five assessments from 1990 to 2005. They measured income volatility as the percent change in income from one measurement to the next, and income drop as a decrease of 25 percent or more from the previous assessment. Between 2005 and 2015, the researchers assessed fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events and all causes of death using medical records and death certificates. The study was not able to determine the cause of the association between income volatility and health because it was observational and not designed to prove cause and effect. About one in every 5,000 babies is born without enteric neurons in distal colon resulting in Hirschsprung's disease. Because of the lacking neurons, contents of the gut cannot pass normally resulting in constipation and enlargement of colon. The condition is treated with a surgical removal of the affected gut part, but the patients remain at high risk of enterocolitis, or inflammation of the gut. This is the major life threatening complication of Hirschsprung's disease. About half of the Hirschsprung's disease cases are caused by mutations in a gene called RET. RET is a receptor, a large protein molecule, which is located at the surface of the cell to receive signals from other cells. During development, a complex formed by two proteins called GDNF and GFRa1 binds to RET and activates signaling required for normal development of the enteric neurons. For developing new treatments, animal models of the disease are most often a prerequisite. This work lead by Associate Professor Jaan-Olle Andressoo describes generation and characterization of the first viable mouse model of Hirschsprung's disease and associated enterocolitis with a defect in GDNF/GFRa1/RET signaling thus representing most patients. This is important because so far animal studies of Hirschsprung's disease have used model systems that represent a minority of the genetic mutations in Hirschsprung's disease. Using the new mouse model scientists at the University of Helsinki were now able to shed further light on the chronology of events in enterocolitis. They found that mucin producing goblet cells, a specific type of cells responsible for lubricating the inner surface of the gut, may be a potential target for preventative treatment. Scientists also conclude that reduced expression of GFRa1 can contribute to susceptibility to Hirschsprung's disease. The new mouse model will serve as a useful tool for enhancing understanding of the disease and for defining treatment in the future. Yet another study has revealed that more time spent on social media translates into higher rates of depression especially among young girls. The new study reveals that girls are worst affected by depression due to poor sleep and online bullying compared to boys. The results of the study were published in the journal EClinicalMedicine, published by the Lancet. Image Credit: Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock The study from researchers at the University of Essex and University College London, finds that 14 year old girls sleep for seven hours or less each night because they are awake and active on social media. These girls are also unhappy with their appearances. Professor Yvonne Kelly, from University College London, and leader of this study said, it seems, are struggling with these aspects of their lives more than boys, in some cases considerably so. The team and other experts warn that this could be an indicator of the range of mental ailments seen in young women when compared to young men. They warn about self harm and suicidal thoughts among young woman as a result of these factors. The team interviewed around 11,000 14 year olds who were part of the Millennium Cohort Study. They noted that girls spent more time on social media than boys and these girls had more pronounced signs of depression than boys. Their depressive moods could directly be correlated with the time they spent on social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. Kelly added, The link between social media use and depressive symptoms was stronger for girls compared with boys. For girls, greater daily hours of social media use corresponded to a stepwise increase in depressive symptoms. The participants of the study were provided with questionnaires to fill up. These asked about their social media use and assessed their mental health. Symptoms of depression were measured using the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. The participants had to agree or disagree to statements such as, I felt miserable or unhappy, I felt so tired I just sat around and did nothing and I didnt enjoy anything at all. Their perception over the last two weeks was assessed using the questionnaire. Results showed that girls used the social media more than boys and around 40 percent of girls and 20 percent of boys were using it for more than three hours per day. Total abstinence from social media was seen in only 4 percent girls and 10 percent boys. The team was alarmed to note the amount of sleep deprivation among these 14 year olds. They found that only 5.4 percent of girls and 2.7 percent of boys slept for seven or less hours per night. Among those with depression and low mood, 48.4 percent girls and 19.8 percent boys said that they got less than seven hours sleep. They noted than one in two girls and one in four boys had a disrupted sleep most of the time. Social media could be blamed for the sleep disruption say the authors of the study. These adolescents often sleep with their phones by their bedside and are woken up by the social media alerts. They found on analysis that 12 percent of the light social media users and 38 percent of the heavy social media users were suffering from symptoms of depression. Results revealed that adolescents spending three to five hours of social media per day had a 26 percent increase in depression scores in girls and a 21 percent rise in depression scores in boys. This was in comparison with teenagers who used it for one to three hours/day. Among kids who used social media for over five hours per day, the depression scores rose by 50 percent in girls and 35 percent in boys compared to the light users. They noted that apart from sleep deprivation, online bullying was another underlying cause for depression. The researchers write, The most important pathways were via poor sleep and online harassment. For example: more social media use linked to poor sleep which in turn was related to depressive symptoms; experiencing online harassment was linked to poor sleep, poor body image and low self-esteem; and that girls and boys with poor body image were more likely to have low self-esteem. The authors of the study write as a conclusion of their study, There is moderately strong evidence for an association between screen time and depressive symptoms. This association is for overall screen time but there is very limited evidence from only one review for an association with social media screen time. There is moderate evidence for a dose-response effect, with weak evidence for a threshold of 2 hours daily screen time for the association with depressive symptoms. As part of the plans for a long term development of the NHS, large funding strategies are being devised that would focus on General Practitioners as well as community care and mental health services. As these services get the much needed boost, the health officials hope that the reliance on hospitals would go down. The NHS with this strategy could be preventing ill health and saving lives of up to 500,000 individuals. Image Credit: BasPhoto / Shutterstock With the future plans in place, the hospitals could be facing a cut in funds while preventive health is the main focus. According to senior doctors however, this was a near-on impossible task. They explain that the three wait time targets are for Accident and Emergency care, cancer care and routine operations. They explain that at present most trusts are unable to meet these wait time targets. It is still a long way off to reach what is currently being planned, they explain. The 10-year plan is to be soon released by the NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens and Prime Minister Theresa May. The NHS says that one third of the extra 20bn given to the NHS in 2023 would be diverted to the GPs, mental health care and community care. At present the amounts spent on these sectors is less than a quarter of the whole budget. Hospitals at present take up more than half of the 114bn NHS budget. Mr Stevens said that this would be a practical, costed and phased route map for the next 10 years. The plan is that mental health care would receive 2.3 billion extra of the 20bn of the NHS budget while the community care and GP services would be receiving 4.5 billion. Mental health care would focus on mental health care support in schools as well as 24-hour access to mental health crisis care via NHS 111. Community care would include support in the communities for patients to ensure early discharge from hospitals. GP services would be improved by digitalizing access to health services and online GP booking. Preventive health care would focus on healthy living programmes and therapies. The focus would also be on genetic testing for children suffering from cancers and rare genetic diseases so that appropriate treatment can be provided for them. Once in place, this new policy could prevent heart disease, strokes, cancers and other health problems by early detection and also help save 500000 lives. Speaking about the 10 year plan, yesterday (6th January 2019), Mrs May called it a historic moment for the NHS and said that it would go on to provide world class treatments to the population. Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth was not too sure about the plan though. He said that there was a lack of staffing and funding and said that there was mismanagement in health services. He said, The NHS needs a credible fully-funded plan for the future, not a wish list to help Theresa May get through the coming months. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers said that this plan would take off some pressure from the hospitals. He added however, If we are serious about helping people to stay well and live independently for as long as possible it is vital that we also see appropriate investment and support for social care and public health. This investment is a significant part of our ambition to deliver true parity between physical and mental health, said Mrs May. We have already done a lot to end the stigma people with mental ill-health face and make sure they can reach out for help, and this expansion part of our Long Term Plan for the NHS will make a real difference and make the UK a world leader when it comes to both the money it spends on mental health services and the support and treatment it offers those who need it, she said. You are here: Business German automaker BMW has announced a recall of 279 vehicles due to defects with drive shafts, according to China's top market regulator. The recall, which started on March 29, involves a portion of imported vehicles including M3 and M4 models made from June 29 to Sept. 30 in 2016, according to a statement on the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation. The defects with drive shaft may bring abnormal noise from the chassis or keep the vehicle from being able to accelerate, resulting in safety risks, the regulator said. The automaker will check all recalled vehicles and replace defective parts free of charge. Should death be defined in strictly biological terms as the body's failure to maintain integrated functioning of respiration, blood circulation, and neurological activity? Should death be declared on the basis of severe neurological injury even when biological functions remain intact? Or is it essentially a social construct that should be defined in different ways? These are among the wide-ranging questions explored in a new special report, ("Defining Death: Organ Transplantation and the Fifty-Year Legacy of the Harvard Report on Brain Death,") published with the current issue of the Hastings Center Report. The special report is a collaboration between The Hastings Center and the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Editors are (Robert D. Truog), the Frances Glessner Lee professor of medical ethics, anaesthesiology & pediatrics and director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School; (Nancy Berlinger), a research scholar at The Hastings Center; Rachel L. Zacharias, a student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a former project manager and research assistant at The Hastings Center; and (Mildred Z. Solomon), president of The Hastings Center. Until the mid-twentieth century, the definition of death was straightforward: a person was pronounced dead when found to be unresponsive and without a pulse or spontaneous breathing. Two developments prompted the need for a new concept of death, culminating in the definition of brain death proposed in the Harvard report published in 1968. The first development was the invention of mechanical ventilation supported by intensive care, which made it possible to maintain breathing and blood circulation in the body of a person who would otherwise have died quickly from a brain injury that caused loss of these vital functions. The second development was organ transplantation, which "usually requires the availability of 'living' organs from bodies deemed to be 'dead'," as the (introduction) to the special report explains. "Patients determined to be dead by neurologic criteria and who have consented to organ donation . . . are the ideal source of such organs, since death is declared while the organs are being kept alive by a ventilator and a beating heart." While the legal determination of death in all 50 states includes death by neurological criteria - the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain - the concept of brain death remains contested, most recently by the case of Jahi McMath, who was declared dead by neurological criteria but continued to have unexpected biological development. In the new special report, leading experts in medicine, bioethics, and other fields discuss and debate areas of continuing and new controversy, including: Each of the seven California Democrats who flipped Republican congressional seats in the midterm election campaigned for more government-funded health care with most of them calling for a complete government takeover. So when they join the Golden State's delegation this week, they will make it the largest state bloc to support "Medicare-for-all" in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Democrats, of course, will control the House. Despite this political shift, the reality is that there's probably not going to be much progressive health care legislation coming out of Congress in the next two years a point on which even Democratic lawmakers agree. "We need to do the things that are doable that aren't pie in the sky," said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and the dean of the California delegation. Democrats will hold 46 of the state's 53 congressional seats in the House. It's the largest contingent of Democrats the state has ever sent to Congress, according to membership rosters on the congressional History, Art & Archives website. All but seven of them have publicly supported, at one time, some form of government-financed health care whether a sweeping Medicare-for-all program that would provide health insurance to all Americans, or an optional "public option" plan for those who want it. California's Democratic junior senator, Kamala Harris, who is contemplating a presidential bid, also supports Medicare-for-all, calling it the moral and ethical thing to do. But the U.S. Senate will remain under Republican control, and Republican President Donald Trump has lambasted the idea of more government involvement in health care. Because of that political reality, Feinstein and others have said, the state's freshman lawmakers who are eager to push forward on Medicare-for-all or a public option ought to refocus. In a midterm election where health care ranked as the No. 1 concern of many voters, congressional newcomers Josh Harder, Katie Porter, Katie Hill, Harley Rouda and Mike Levin won their elections after campaigning for Medicare-for-all, the concept of one government-run health care program made popular by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during his 2016 presidential bid. Meanwhile, candidates Gil Cisneros and T.J. Cox promoted a public option, which would allow consumers to voluntarily buy in to a government-financed health care plan, such as Medicare or Medicaid. None of the seven freshmen Democrats agreed to an interview to discuss their ideas about health care in the new Congress, nor would they provide a spokesperson. It's unclear whether they'll make a big push for the progressive causes they pitched on the campaign trail. In a twist, a mid-December ruling by a Texas judge that declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional could actually help Democrats. Instead of arguing for Medicare-for-all, they can now pivot to protecting the law and its popular provisions, including protections for people with preexisting conditions. "A conservative judge in Texas may have given new Democratic representatives in California a lot more leeway on health care than they had a week ago," said Dan Schnur, a University of Southern California professor and former Republican strategist. "There's a lot of potential health care legislation that's going to be very popular in their districts." In the weeks leading up to the election, Harder, who beat Republican incumbent Jeff Denham in the Central Valley, was already tempering expectations about how effective Democrats could be next year. "I think the reality is under a Trump presidency, it's probably not going to be passed in the next two years," Harder said about Medicare-for-all. "But we need to be making it very clear what we're standing up for, and we're standing up for the fact that every individual needs to be covered." A day after she won her congressional seat, Porter, who made Medicare-for-all an integral part of her campaign, told supporters it would have to wait. "I think until we pass campaign finance reform, doing anything on health care is going to be a big challenge," she said. Part of the challenge for Porter, along with the rest of her new colleagues, is that they hail from swing districts. Each of them flipped Republican seats, and they will need to adopt a more centrist tone if they want to stay in Congress, political observers say. "The reality of advocating for single-payer and the actuality of what it means is sobering," said Lanhee Chen, director of domestic policy studies at Stanford University. "If you're vulnerable, on Day One, by the nature of demographics of your district, I think it becomes harder to embrace." And while California voters ushered in a new class of progressives, they also gave a sixth term to Feinstein, who has openly warned against the cost and feasibility of a Medicare-for-all system. And likely incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has said she intends to focus on fixing lingering issues with the federal health care law, not push ahead with Medicare-for-all. Other centrist Democrats say Congress ought to work out how to stabilize the health care markets or allow Americans 55 and older to buy into Medicare, which is currently open to those 65 and older. Feinstein, for example, also supports giving Medicare the ability to negotiate the price of drugs. "Let's build off of the gains we made in the Affordable Care Act," said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove), "but let's also address some of the things Republicans did to undermine the ACA markets." This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. Perry Village Mayor James Gessic doesn't try to hide his satisfaction about the progress made on the Hidden Village subdivision project in 2018. Crime Euclid police officer fired following Willoughby bar fight set to be sentenced Attendance was up at Lake History Center in 2018 the most since the centers 2009 move to Marc Bradley, external and constituent affairs director Age: 41 Education: St. Lawrence University Experience: Campaign manager for Ned Lamont Salary: $100,000 Lives: Norwalk He will lead outreach to constituents across the state, including community leaders and local elected officials. He previously served as Lamonts campaign manager, and also worked as a senior adviser to Lamont during his 2006 run for U.S. Senate. Robert W. Clark, chief legal adviser Age: 47 Education: University of Connecticut and UConn School of Law Experience: A former longtime assistant state attorney general and special counsel to outgoing Attorney General George Jepsen, Clark worked for the Hartford-based Day, Berry & Howard law firm. Salary: $165,000 Lives: Durham He will oversee legal operations for the office of the governor and will be a top adviser to the governor. Rollin Cook, commissioner of the Department of Correction Age: 51 Education: Columbia College (Missouri); University of Phoenix. Experience: Most recently executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections. Began prison career as a corrections officer and advanced through the ranks. Salary: $167,500 Lives: Wethersfield Cook will head the Connecticut prison system and comes to the Lamont administration as a reformer with a national reputation, expected to continue reforms started under Malloy. Ryan Drajewicz, chief of staff Age: 39 Education: Barry University (Miami) Experience: Special assistant to former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd; Senior management at Bridgewater Associates Salary: $155,000 Lives: Fairfield Drajewicz has spent his entire professional career working arm-in-arm with two of the most powerful men in America, becoming one of their most trusted confidants. Now he enters the same role for Lamont, but dont expect him to be a public face, though he will certainly play an influential role in the Lamont administration. Vannessa Dorantes, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families Age: 49 Education: Teikyo Post University, Waterbury; masters from the University of Connecticut Experience: 27 years in the department, most recently as a regional administrator Salary: $172,291 Lives: Bristol DCFs first African-American commissioner, Dorantes has deep experience in social work between her job at the Department and as an adjunct professor of social work at Central Connecticut State University. Katie Dykes, commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Age: 41 Education: Undergraduate degree at Yale and law degree from Yale Law School. Experience: Served as DEEP deputy commissioner for energy; general counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality; and legal adviser to the general counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy. Salary: $175,000 Lives: West Hartford Dykes will run an agency charged with protecting the environment, fining polluters and enforcing the states energy policies, including awarding contracts for clean power. Joseph Giulietti, commissioner of the Department of Transportation Age: 66 Education: B.A. Southern Connecticut State University, MBA at the University of Connecticut in progress Experience: former president of Metro North Salary: $240,000 Lives: Coral Springs, Fla. When we spoke in late December, he was starting to house shop in Connecticut. Giulietti, whose selection signifies Lamonts commitment to rail, is respected for improving Metro-Norths safety and reputation after a series of accidents in Bridgeport, New Haven and the Bronx in 2013 and 2014. Colleen Flanagan Johnson, senior adviser to the governor Age: 36 Education: B.A. University of Connecticut Experience: Executive communications leader for Cignas chief marketing officer Salary: $150,000 Lives: West Hartford Johnson was Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's first communications director, and held the same post with U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Maribel La Luz, communications director Age: 43 Education: The New School, New York; also holds a masters degree in secondary education Experience: Communications director for the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. Held the same job for the city of Hartford under former Mayor Pedro Segarra. Salary: NA Lives: Hartford La Luz will be the primary spokesperson for Lamont and his office, and will direct a team that manages the flow of information about Lamonts policies and activities. Melissa McCaw, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Age: 39 Education: Wesleyan University, B.A.; also holds a masters in public administration from UConn Experience: Was chief financial officer and budget director for the city of Hartford for the last three years. Previously worked in budget roles at the University of Hartford and OPM, the office she will now head. Salary: $198,000 Lives: Hartford McCaw will be the states chief budget official, responsible for creating the governors budget and also for a variety of policies across the executive branch including finance, criminal justice and outreach to municipalities. Paul Mounds, chief operating officer Age: 33 Education: Trinity College Experience: Former director of policy for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and most recently was vice president of policy and communications for the Connecticut Health Foundation. Also worked for U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. Salary: $120,000 Lives: Glastonbury Mounds, in the new position of COO, will coordinate state agencies and the way they serve the public. James Rovella, commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Age: 60 Education: Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice, University of Hartford Experience: Retired police chief for the City of Hartford Salary: $183,340 Lives: Hartford He retired earlier this year and took a job as head of the police force at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection before being tapped by Lamont for the commissioner post. Chris Soto, legislative affairs director Age: 37 Education: Bachelors in operations research from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a masters in public affairs from Brown University Experience: One-term Democratic state representative for New London Salary: $100,000 Lives: New London Soto, a well-regarded young legislator, will resign his position in the House before the legislature opens its 2019 session, creating a vacancy to be filled by a special election. You are here: Business A total of 1,442 freight trains traveled between Chongqing and European countries last year, an increase of 117 percent compared with the previous year, the YUXINOU (Chongqing) Logistics Co., Ltd announced on Saturday. The number of trains traveling from Europe back to Chongqing reached 728, surpassing the number of outbound trains for the first time, according to the company. Chongqing launched more cargo train routes last year, connecting the city with Belarus, Vietnam and Iran, said Qi Dan, general manager of the company. Currently, the outbound train reaches over 30 European countries, and the goods brought back can be transferred to other Chinese cities and Southeast Asia, Qi said. In May 2011, a rail route was opened between Chongqing and Duisburg in Germany, marking the start of the China-Europe cargo train service. The varieties of goods transported via the trains have expanded to electronic products, cars, mechanical products, coffee beans and clothes, Qi added. New Milford Public Library will present a screening of What Lies Upstream Jan. 24. The program will begin with a light buffet at 5:30 p.m., followed by an introduction to the film by water expert Marc Cohen who previews the content as it relates to Connecticut, and the film at 6:15 p.m. A snow date of Jan. 30 is planned at the Main Street library. The documentary by filmmaker Cullen Hoback investigates the drinking water in America and tracks down the culprits behind water contamination. Cohen will discuss why safety on winter highways and streets have eclipsed discussions of the soaring levels of road salt in ground and surface water. The film tells the tale of residents of West Virginia who begin to notice their tap water has a peculiar smell. A chemical leak with a sinister background is suspected. The film moves from West Virginia to Flint, Mich., where theres also contamination in the water. The program is funded by a grant obtained by Sierra Club Connecticut. The event is appropriate for teens and adults. For information and RSVP, call 860-355-1191. Contributed / Orange Police Department ORANGE A Greenwich man was arrested last week and charged with stealing more than $1,000 in merchandise from a Burlington Coat Factory at 80 Boston Post Road. According to police, on Wednesday, officers responded to the story in regards to a larceny in progress. Police said officers stopped and searched Brandon M. McLaughlin, 25, of Greenwichs Cos Cob neighborhood. They allegedly found that he had taken $1,078.75 in merchandise without paying for it. Officers also reportedly found that he was in possession of drug paraphernalia and devices used for shoplifting. Reopening the federal government is her top priority, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, told constituents at the opening of her district office in Pa Help support your local hometown newspaper/website. Independent local news reporting matters. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, for as little as $3, so we can continue to provide independent local reporting on our communities. Asian economies will witness significant growth in the next 15 years, according to a new analysis. China is set to overtake the United States to become the world's largest economy by 2032, according to the World Economic League Table, published annually by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, or CEBR, in London. The table tracks the size of economies over the next 15 years. It predicts that three of the top five global economies by 2033 will be Asian, with China in top position, India third and Japan fourth. The US will be second and Germany fifth. Other Asian economies will rise during this period, with South Korea becoming the 10th-largest, Indonesia (12th), Thailand (21st), the Philippines (22nd), Bangladesh (24th) and Malaysia (25th), all making the top 25. "Despite global uncertainty and tightening in US monetary policy, which have pushed down some of the emerging market currencies, the 21st century is still likely to be the Asian century," said Douglas McWilliams, CEBR deputy chairman and founder. China is now the world's second-largest economy, while its per capita income is still only about one-fifth of the average in areas with high incomes. With the US economy growing faster than expected, the stage at which China takes over top spot has been put back two years from 2030, which was forecast by the World Economic League Table in 2017. The new analysis indicates that China's Belt and Road Initiative could be an important growth driver. Infrastructure spending is set to increase from $11.5 billion, or 13.5 percent of global GDP last year, to $27.4 billion, or 15.5 percent, by 2032. "We think the initiative will be seen as one of the world's great transformational projects," McWilliams said. Singaporean academic Kishore Mahbubani said it is clear that Asia is on the ascendancy, with China's economy growing at an average of 9.5 percent over the past three decades and India's by 6.6 percent. "For the past three decades, several Asian countries have done exceptionally well. There is no doubt that this momentum will continue," he said. David Morris, chair of the United Nations Asia Pacific Business Forum, agrees that Asia is now vitally important to the global economy. "We are in the midst of the biggest global economic shift in memory, with East Asia now driving growth in the world economy," he said. The report also suggests that the United Kingdom could be hit hard by Brexit this year, with the chance of it losing its 5th place ranking to France. But it concludes that even if the UK lost Scotland and Northern Ireland as a result of Brexit fallout, the new country, comprising just England and Wales, would overtake France by 2026. This is because it would have a more dynamic economy than that of France, which would still be handicapped by a bloated public sector and high taxes. "There could be many benefits as well as costs from leaving the EU," McWilliams said. "The UK can move out of its comfort zone of trading with the EU and increase its trade with the world, including China." Report will aim to cover 'as many possible impacts as possible' WEST Berkshire Council is drawing up contingencies for a no deal Brexit. However, the contents of the report have not been shared as the council said the document is still in the draft stage. Council leader Graham Jones (Con, Lambourn Valley) said: The council has prepared a draft no deal report in an effort to cover as many possible impacts to West Berkshire as possible. However, given the fluidity of the situation, it is currently impossible to create a firm plan. We continue to work with the Local Government Association, LEP [Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership] and South East England councils to monitor this uncertain situation. The council said it intended to publish the report within the next few months. In August, the asked the council whether it had drawn up a risk assessment for Brexit. At the time, the council said one was under discussion as the UK prepares to leave the EU in March. East Sussex County Council said it was concerned about Brexits impact on social care, while Bristol Council warned of possible social unrest. At the time, Newbury MP Richard Benyon said: The council delivers local services social care, education, carries away our waste. Its hard to see how any of those will be impacted by any sort of Brexit other than a wider economic impact. I want to avoid a hard Brexit in any way I can. I think that would be very damaging for our economy and the country. I hope we wont see that. I cant on the face of it, see West Berkshire being hard hit. I think some of the risk assessment is motivated by people who are furious we are leaving the EU. Im quite bored of people trying to scare the public into thinking theres this great looming crisis. Mr Jones previously said that Brexit could have some positive effects for West Berkshire residents and businesses. Members of the public have until January 20 to claim their free beverage CHRISTMAS may be over but in order to banish those festive blues, pubs in West Berkshire are giving away up to 33,000 free drinks this month. Whether you fancy a pint, a gin and tonic, or if youre doing Dry January and would prefer a non-alcoholic beer or soft drink, you can take up the offer from Ei Publican Partnerships. The pub company is giving members of the public an excuse to visit their local in the New Year as part of its Cheer Up January campaign. Drinks included in the offer are Coors Light, Carling, Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime low alcohol cider, J2O, Strongbow, Bulmers, John Smiths, Amstel, Heineken 0.0, Guinness and Gordons gin. Members of the public have until January 20 to claim their free drink, which can only be obtained by downloading a voucher on a smart phone from www.freedrinkoffer.co.uk before showing it at their nearest participating watering hole. West Berkshire pubs taking part in the initiative include the Old London Apprentice, The White Hart in Thatcham, The Angel Inn, Woolhampton and Badgers Wood in Baughurst. Nick Ligh, managing director at Ei Publican Partnerships, said: Were wishing everyone a Happy New Year and are encouraging people to be social in January. The pub is the original social network, where you can catch up with friends and be a part of a local community and just because Christmas is over doesnt mean you cant go out and enjoy yourself. We recognise that many people are saving money in the New Year having indulged at Christmas so were making it easier by giving the nation a free drink. Newburyport, MA (01950) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Rain and scattered thunderstorms for the afternoon. High around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. A World War II veteran from Vermont received the highest award Congress can bestow upon a civilian. Al Besser of Morrisville was praised for his dangerous duty overseas during the war, which included spy missions behind enemy lines. My wifes done a lot of things, but she really pulled this one off, Besser remarked, describing how his wife, Gretchen, kept the news of the honor a secret until Monday. Besser received the elite Congressional Gold Medal, which other members of his WWII unit were also honored with. The 94-year-old retired attorney was part of a unit called the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS. It was a precursor to the CIA. He was still a teenager during the war when he volunteered for hazardous duty. Bessers language skills meant he was sent to Asia, to gather intelligence behind enemy lines and work with local forces in China to undermine Japan. Im in awe, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, said of Bessers bravery during World War II. Welch was part of an effort in Washington to have the OSS recognized collectively with a Congressional Gold Medal. The unit long went without fanfare, because of its secret work, the Democrat said. Now, Besser is one of just a hundred or so surviving members, Welch noted and received a replica of the OSSs collective medal for him and his family to keep. Today, Vermont was able to honor one of our great people, the congressman told necn and NBC10 Boston. It brings back a lot of memories, and it makes me feel how very, very, very lucky I am to be here, Al Besser said of the Congressional Gold Medal he and his unit received. There were so many others who deserved honorswho were in much greater peril than I was. Bessers honor was met with a standing ovation inside Montpelier City Hall, from friends and neighbors who gathered to celebrate his accomplishments. The way hes received this honor is the real lessonhis humility, observed Rabbi David Fainsilber of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, which counts Besser as a member. He sees his life as a blessing. And we are so indebted to his service. As a state and country said thank you, the former spy joked he will stay much more alert to any potential tricks his proud wife may try pulling on him. A police officer had to be airlifted by a medical helicopter after a crash Monday in Walpole, Massachusetts. Walpole police said one of its officers crashed a cruiser around 2 p.m. in the area of 399 South St. The officer was flown to a Boston hospital "for precautionary measures," the department said. According to police, the cruiser was the only vehicle involved in the crash. South Street was closed as police investigated the cause of the crash. Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael told NBC10 Boston the officer, whose identity has not been released, remained hospitalized Monday evening. "The officer is doing much better than earlier and in good spirits," said Carmichael. The police chief said state police will investigate the cause of the crash to avoid any conflicts with the Walpole Police Department. No further information was immediately available. A Utah police officer killed in the line of duty over the weekend is being remembered in his native Massachusetts. Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Shinners, originally from Everett, was shot while trying to apprehend a dangerous fugitive Saturday night. He later died in a hospital. The Everett Fire Department expressed their sorrow where Shinner's father is a retired captain. "John is a member of our family so to see something like this happened to his family is just devastating," said Everett Fire Chief Anthony Carli. He said he didn't know the slain officer but his father, John Shinners, spent 36 years with the department while raising his family in Everett. "Im not surprised from seeing the press conference from the Provo Police that's the type of person Joe was," said Carli. Joseph Shinners was living in Utah and was a three-year veteran of the Provo Police Department. "He exemplified the nobility of policing. He was the very best of the Provo police department," said Provo Police Chief Richard Ferguson. "I'm heartbroken. I'm shocked." Authorities described the 40-year-old suspect in the shooting as a violent fugitive who made recent threats against police. The suspect was injured and apprehended after a shootout with Shinners. "He was never in it for his own glory. He was always out there working hard and he was willing to give everybody else the credit for it," said Provo Police Det. Nick Dupaix. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, police in neighboring Orem have identified the suspect Monday as 40-year-old Matt Frank Hoover. At the Haverhill Police Department, where Shinners' brother is an officer, flags were at half-staff on Monday in his honor. Carli said another brother recently started working as a police officer in South Carolina. "I think he was proud that his sons chose public service, just as he did," said Carli of Shinners' father. Shinners was promoted to Master Officer after his death. He is survived by his wife and 1-year-old son. A police officer killed in the line of duty on Saturday night in Utah was originally from Massachusetts. Joseph Shinners, 29, was shot while trying to apprehend a dangerous fugitive at approximately 10 p.m. Saturday night and died in the hospital just after midnight, according to Provo Police Chief Richard Ferguson. Shinners was living in Provo, Utah, but was from Everett, Massachusetts. "He exemplified the nobility of policing. He was the very best of the Provo police department," Ferguson said. "I'm heartbroken. I'm shocked." Shinners leaves behind his wife and young son, according to Ferguson. The Boston Police Department tweeted their condolences for Shinner on Sunday evening. The men and women of the #BPD extend heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of @ProvoPolice Officer Joe Shinners, 29, who was shot and killed in the line of duty while attempting to arrest an armed fugitive. Shinners, a Mass native, leaves behind his wife and young son. pic.twitter.com/fgOqMXeHyc Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) January 7, 2019 Everett Firefighters took to Facebook to remember the officer, who was the son of a former Everett Fire Captain. "We have suffered a terrible tragedy within our fire family...Provo Police Officer Joseph Shinners, the son of our Retired Everett Fire Captain John Shinners, was tragically killed in the Line of Duty last night as he attempted to arrest a wanted fugitive," the post read. "We are extremely saddened by this difficult news and our thoughts and prayers are with the Shinners family, as well as the Provo Police Dept. during this very difficult time." Lowell police are searching for a couple after an unleashed pit bull attacked another pit bull and its owner Wednesday night. The attack, which happened at the corner of 10th and Myrtle streets at about 9 p.m., left Killian Minch and his 5-year-old pit bull, Blue, bloodied. Minch said the pit bull, which was about twice the size of his dog, was extremely aggressive, attacking without warning. I started punching the other dog as hard as I could, maybe like three or four times, he said. I started kicking it instead, and it was just totally unphased by what I was doing. After biting his dogs front leg and left ear, he said the pit bull turned toward him, biting his forearm. I felt totally helpless, he said. I had blood all over my hands; she was drenched in blood. Minch said he tried to talk with the dogs owners, but they took off. That was my biggest problem, he said. I dont understand why a dog that was so big and clearly so powerful why it wouldnt be on a leash. Minch said he and his dog received medical treatment, including a rabies vaccine. There is a leash law in Lowell. Police said theyre searching for a silver Honda SUV, but they dont have a plate number. Performers of the new Peking Opera production, Liang Xiang, strike a pose onstage at Tian Le Yuan Theater in Beijing on Dec 19. [Photo provided to China Daily] The reopening of an old theater in Beijing may mark a revival for Peking Opera, especially with shows infusing contemporary elements such as hip-hop and ballet, Chen Nan reports. The grey-brick Tian Le Yuan Theater in the capital's ancient Qianmen area has served as a stage for creative culture since 1785-and will reopen in March, after six years of renovation. Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) performed there for four years, starting from age 17. Cheng Yanqiu (1904-58), who shared the title of the four great dan roles with Mei, Shang Xiaoyun (1900-76) and Xun Huisheng (1900-68), premiered four of his classic Peking Opera shows there from 1923 to 1927, including The Legend of Hongfu and A Red Mole. The famed artists were performers of nandan-that is, men who played female roles because women were then forbidden to appear onstage. The theater also produced one of the country's first female Peking Opera troupes, Chong Ya She, in 1916. Tian Le Yuan will present a new Peking Opera show, Liang Xiang, as its resident performance. The show will debut at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center on Jan 18 and run through Jan 20 before moving to Tian Le Yuan. The 5,000-square-meter Tian Le Yuan Theater will also host exhibitions of historical photos and other displays about Peking Opera. Visitors can don stage costumes and makeup. Tan Zhengyan, who belongs to the seventh generation of the distinguished Tan family in Peking Opera, will open the show, playing the role of Guan Gong, a legendary and mythical figure worshipped by many Chinese as a symbol of safety and wealth. The new show tells the story of a struggling 1930s Peking Opera troupe that has survived until today. Classic Peking Opera pieces such as Farewell My Concubine and The Drunken Concubine will mix in contemporary performance arts like hip-hop and ballet. "I am prepared for different reviews-positive and negative," Tan says. The 39-year-old started learning the art form as a child and has performed with the Jingju Theater Company of Beijing since 2001. Jingju refers to Peking Opera in Chinese. Members of the Tan family, which began to flourish in Peking Opera circles in the 18th century, are known for playing laosheng (elderly male) roles. As they exited their first meeting of 2019, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka put up a cohesive front. "We will be working and working together to get the job done," Spilka said. But the buzz on Beacon Hill is that the relationship between the chambers could become contentious. Spilka is calling for bold action in response to constituent frustrations with small and incremental change a veiled reference to the leadership of Baker and DeLeo. Baker's response? "I would argue the last four years have been bold in many ways," he said. Baker points to work on Bridgewater State Hospital, the opioid epidemic and gun legislation as proof of strong change, but others feel clashes are coming. "It is going to be a challenging year, because you do have a different political dynamic," said Arline Issacson, Exec Director of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political caucus. Rep. Patrick Kearney of Scituate is a freshman lawmaker who hopes the two chambers will be able to work together. "I think that the stigma around both houses fighting each other, it needs to stop," Kearney said. "I think that words like 'clashing' makes it sound like it's a battle." One measure of just how bold lawmakers will be is whether they will support new taxes. Baker has said no to new taxes, but some lawmakers feel the time has come. "I'm hopeful we can raise taxes, progressive taxes, to invest more in the transportation system," argued Acton Sen. Jamie Eldridge. Spilka has shown definite interest. "I have stated before that I think that it might be time to look at some of our tax structure," she said. DeLeo could be the tiebreaker. "Obviously, you all know, I am not a fan of any broad-based taxes," he said. Train tracks have been reopened after a reported fatal car crash in Rhode Island early Monday morning. Police in Providence tell WJAR that a man was killed in the crash, which happened near Dike Street just before 4:30 a.m. An overturned car on the tracks interrupted service between Kingston and Providence west of Route 128 Station in Massachusetts. The train tracks west of Route 128 are in the process of opening back up as of 7:30 a.m., according to Amtrak officials. Commuters are being warned of residual delays. The investigation into the crash is ongoing. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was sworn in Monday and immediately drew sharp battle lines with President Donald Trump, pledging to enact "progressive, principled" policies as the antidote to the White House's "corruption and incompetence." "People's lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance," Newsom, 51, declared to a crowd of hundreds packed into a tent outside the Capitol.[[504014192, C]] Newsom took the helm as California's 40th governor with a speech laced with bold pronouncements about California's values and the direction he envisions for the nation's most populous state. But there were few specifics on how he'll get there. He never mentioned Trump by name, but said the president's administration is "hostile to California's values and interests" and blasted plans to build a wall along the nation's border with Mexico. "The country is watching us, the world is watching us. The future depends on us, and we will seize this moment" he said. PHOTOS: Gavin Newsom Sworn-In as California's 40th Governor Newly installed U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, was among those in attendance for the inaugural address. She got a standing ovation when she entered, an affirmation of the strong backing her opposition to Trump has in California's Democrat-controlled capital. A church choir from Compton got the crowd on its feet with upbeat renditions of popular songs to kick off the event, reflecting the younger, flashier style Newsom will bring compared to his 80-year-old predecessor, Jerry Brown. In another sign of the generational shift, Newsom's 2-year-old son Dutch wandered on stage during the speech. Newsom, who has four children, picked him up and continued delivering his speech. The boy then walked around stage dragging a blanket, drawing laughs from the crowd until Newsom's wife took him off stage. Even as he needled Trump, Newsom offered an overture to voters in rural California, millions of whom voted for Trump and John Cox, Newsom's Republican rival in November. "I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesn't care about them doesn't even really see them," he said. "I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride." While touting the California Dream and strong economy, Newsom also acknowledged the state has problems, from a homelessness crisis to a gulf between the state's wealthiest and poorest residents to failing schools, all of which he called "moral imperatives." Beyond Trump, he pledged to take on drug companies, the gun lobby, polluters and payday lenders. Newsom praised Brown, a longtime family friend, but indicated he would strike out a separate path from the fiscal restraint Brown made a hallmark of his last eight years in office. Brown sometimes angered legislative Democrats by rejecting big-ticket social spending items. Newsom, meanwhile, already has pledged to expand access to early childhood education, reduce the cost of community college and extend family leave. He suggested Brown's method of resisting more spending in favor of saving needed rethinking. "For eight years, California has built a foundation of rock," he said. "Our job now is not to rest on that foundation. It is to build our house upon it he said. More specifics on Newsom's plans including a "Marshall plan" for affordable housing, a reduction in drug prices and criminal justice reforms will be outlined in the coming days. When he introduces his first budget on Thursday the public will get a chance to see how he plans to pay for his plans while keeping his promise to maintain the state's healthy reserves. Newsom's inaugural address and celebration highlighted California's diversity. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, delivered opening remarks in Spanish and a Mexican-American band from Richmond, California, performed. Throughout his speech, Newsom sharply contrasted Trump's rhetoric on immigrants, saying California will not have "one house for the rich and one for the poor, or one for the native-born and one for the rest." Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento contributed to this report. Read Gavin Newsom's inaugural speech in full below: The story of our state is the story of a dream one that has drawn strivers and seekers here forever. Its what brought my family to California three generations ago the promise not just of a better life, but a bigger one, with opportunities they couldnt find anywhere else in the world. So deep does the California Dream run in the history and character of our state that it can feel as enduring as our primeval forests or our majestic mountain ranges. But there is nothing inevitable about it. Every dream depends on the dreamers. It is up to us to renew the California Dream for a new generation. And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it. And thankfully we have our champion Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But there is an administration in Washington hostile to Californias values and interests. California has always helped write Americas future. And we know the decisions we make, would be important at any time. But what we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. California is a giant engine of commerce the most creative and entrepreneurial in the world. We have the resources to ensure a decent standard of living for all. Its not a question of whether we can do this, but whether we will. At a time when so much of America is divided, we are united. Our people are big-hearted and fair-minded, when those qualities are more vital than ever. Ive seen that again in just the past few weeks. I visited Paradise after the fires swept through, and met people who literally lost everything they owned but were still reaching out to help others. I went to San Diego and met volunteers providing relief to desperate migrants who others treat like criminals like the 3-year old girl, just a year older than my youngest, at a shelter who captured my heart. I spent time with farmers in Fresno who rise and grind before the sun comes up to feed the world. There are everyday heroes all over our state who work hard, then come home and care for aging parents or new-born children, or who open their homes to foster kids, like my mother Tessa did. She was a single mom raising two children and working three jobs, and she still had room in her heart for more. Thats the California I know. Thats the California I love. And thats why I am so confident in our future. Make no mistake, there are powerful forces arrayed against us. Not just politicians in Washington but drug companies that gouge Californians with sky-high prices. A gun lobby willing to sacrifice the lives of our children to line their pockets. Polluters who threaten our coastline and pay-day lenders who target our most vulnerable. In other places, interests like these still have a tight grip on power. But here in California, we have the power to stand up to them and we will. We face serious challenges some that have been deferred for too long. Even in a booming economy, there is a disquieting sense that things are not as predictable as they once were. That we must now run faster just to stay in place. Stagnant wages. Costs that keep rising rent, utilities, visiting the doctor the basics are increasingly out of reach. We face a gulf between the rich and everyone else and its not just inequality of wealth, its inequality of opportunity. A homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night. An achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids. And too many of our children know the ache of chronic hunger. Ive met families across the state who have to improvise where to tuck their babies in at night making nests out of blankets on the floor, or turning dresser drawers into makeshift cradles because they cannot afford a crib. These arent merely policy problems. They are moral imperatives. So long as they persist, we are all diminished. We are all touched by the human condition whether we ourselves are homeless or jobless, whether we ourselves can pay the bills or have safe drinking water at home. We all have our own frailties and vulnerabilities were all susceptible to suffering and disaster. So let us resolve to follow the example of rescuers and rebuilders in Paradise and Malibu and Santa Rosa and Ventura and make sure our fellow Californians share in the compassion and empathy that connect us and make our burdens and anxieties easier to bear. Our politics doesn't always reward taking on the hardest problems. The results of our work may not be evident for a long time. But that cannot be our concern. We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, pay down debt, and meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history. But let me be clear: We will be bold. We will aim high and we will work like hell to get there. Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith, and firm will can still come together to achieve big things. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. This will take courage. Thats a word that means different things to different people. To me, courage means doing what is right even when it is hard. That will be the mission of our Administration. We will be a "California for all." We will not be divided between rural and urban or north and south or coastal and inland. We will strive for solidarity, and face our most threatening problems together. It is with deep faith in our state and our future that I ask you to join me in the work ahead. Let us be pioneering optimists who look to the future not with trepidation but with creativity and boundless energy. This is a time for courage and we will rise to meet it. Our state has been on a journey together since the worst of the Great Recession. Back then, we were $27 billion in debt. Unemployment above 12 percent. The worst credit rating of any state in our nation. Today, our economy is larger than all but four nations in the world. Weve created nearly 3 million jobs and put away billions for a rainy day. Where Washington failed on the epochal challenge of climate change, California led, extending our cap-and-trade system and setting bold targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, then beating them. So much of this progress has happened under the leadership of Governor Jerry Brown. It has been an honor to serve with him these past eight years and to learn from him, not just as his Lieutenant Governor, but throughout my lifetime. When Jerry last took the oath of office, he reflected on a parable from the Sermon on the Mount. It tells of a foolish man who built his house on sand. A storm washed it away. But a wise man sought a sounder foundation. And when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house he built, it did not fall. For it was founded upon a rock. For eight years, California has built a foundation of rock. Our job now is not to rest on that foundation. It is to build our house upon it. Now more than ever, we Californians know how much a house matters as so many of our neighbors have lost theirs. Together, let us build a house stronger than the coming storms, yet open to the world. A house that provides shelter to all who need it and sanctuary to all who seek it -- where opportunity abounds for all who will work for it. A true California house, sun-kissed, dream-soaked, and built with the sweat of honest work. We will not have one house for the rich and one for the poor, or one for the native-born and one for the rest. We will build one house for one California. Because what is a house but a home. And California is our home. In our home, every child should be loved, fed, and safe. My wife Jennifer and I have four children, and there is nothing more important to us than giving them a good and happy life. But all kids not just the children of a governor and a filmmaker should have a good life in California. Not ripped away from their parents at the border Not left hungry while politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built. We will support parents so they can give their kids the love and care they need, especially in those critical early years when so much development occurs. In our home, no one should live in constant fear of eviction or spend their whole paycheck to keep a roof overhead. We will launch a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a state-wide mission. In our home, every person should have access to quality, affordable health care. Far-away judges and politicians may try to turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed health care for all Californians. We will use both our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs. We will stop stigmatizing mental health and start supporting it. And in California we will always protect a woman's right to choose. In our home, we believe in justice for all. We will defend the progress weve made to reform our criminal justice system. We will continue the fight against over-incarceration and over-crowding in our prisons. And we will end the outrage of private prisons once and for all. In our home, working people deserve fair pay, the right to join a union, and the chance at a middle-class life for themselves and their families. We will fight not just for growth at any cost but for inclusive, sustainable growth. We will shape the future of work and connect higher education and skills training to the next generation of middle-class jobs because in this time of swift and unsettling change, all Californians should be able to count on a measure of security and a real shot at opportunity. And those who dream of building something of their own a restaurant, a bookstore, a family farm they will get our support. Our small businesses help explain why we have one of the biggest economies on Earth. For me this is personal. I will never forget the day I got a $20 tip bussing tables at Ramona's restaurant in San Rafael. I was 16 years old. Trust me, busboys don't get tips like that. I know it sounds strange, but it changed my life. It meant that my hard work mattered and it motivated me to keep going. Eight years later, I started my own business. So I know how much hard work and sacrifice is behind every small business in this state and how good it feels when that hard work pays off. California must never turn its back on the entrepreneurial spirit that has always defined us. And in our home, when trouble comes, we will stand together. When fires strike or the earth shakes, we will be there for each other. As a former mayor, I learned the wisdom of the African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. To my friends in the legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike, I promise you an open door and an open mind. Californians didnt send us here to bicker or sulk they get enough of that from Washington. And lets not forget that it is not only in the corridors of the Capitol that change is being forged. I will partner with mayors, sheriffs, and supervisors all over this state, I know the pressures you face. Ive been there. The only way to fix our problems is if you are empowered to lead the way. I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me. I will be a governor for the dock worker in Long Beach, and the farm worker in Lost Hills, the small business owner in Corona, and the teacher in Compton. I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesnt care about them doesnt even really see them. Well, I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride. That notion that were all in this together is a powerful one. Its also how I was raised. Some of you may know that I lost my father just before Christmas. He was a judge. Justice Bill Newsom. For him, Justice was more than a title. It was in his bones. He believed to his core that all people should be treated fairly and with respect. Thats always been a bedrock California value to me. So 15 years ago, when I was a new mayor and I heard politicians in Washington sneering at California values and attacking our LGBT community, I remembered what my father taught me: Its never the wrong time to do the right thing. And thats what we did. In San Francisco, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, two women who had been in love for nearly 50 years, had the courage to stand up and say those two powerful words: I do. Thousands more followed in their footsteps. It took a long time, but love won. Just like fifteen years ago, this is a time for courage. We will stand up for whats right, and we will defend our people. My pledge to every Californian is this: no matter what comes at us, I will have your back! If we do this right, the progress we make will never be unmade. As Cesar Chavez said, You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. There is a story we tell about our history, from Sutters Mill to Steve Jobss garage, about how this is the place where anything is possible. This is the coast of dreams. And thats true. But you shouldnt have to find gold or make it in the movies or create a billion-dollar start-up to live the California Dream. It is for everyone. Everyone in California should have a good job with fair pay. Every child should have a great school and a teacher who is supported and respected. Every young person should be able to go to college without crushing debt or to get the training they need to compete and succeed. And every senior should be able to retire with security and live at home with dignity. That is the California Dream. Not to get rich quick or star on the big screen, but to work hard and share in the rewards. To leave a better future for our kids. The work we have spoken of today cannot be the job of a governor alone, or a legislature, or even the entire government. It will only be achieved if all of us share the spirit of the young DREAMer from Los Angeles I heard recently. She said: I wasnt born in California, but California was born in me. Theres a spark of California hope and California courage born in all of us. Its up to us, what we do with it. The eyes of the world are upon us. Now more than ever, America needs California. It needs the guiding light of our values and the progress they make possible. This is where Americas future is made. This is our charge. That is our calling. Lets get to work. Thank you and may God bless California. A 19-year-old Loudoun County, Virginia, man accused of driving drunk and hitting and killing a woman out walking Friday morning will be held without bond. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 12 for Zachary L. Frye, 19, of Purcellville. A preliminary investigation revealed Frye was driving eastbound on Morrisonville Road in Lovettsville when he struck Lauren McDarby, went off the road and crashed into a tree, the sheriff's office said. Friends said McDarby died right in front of Zion Lutheran Church, which she had attended for 15 years. A passerby came upon the scene about 7:30 a.m. and saw a vehicle off the road, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said. One of the first people to arrive at the scene said the suspected drunken driver was screaming, crying and hitting his head on the stone wall of the church after he saw that McDarby had died. Police said Frye's breath smelled of alcohol and he had glassy, bloodshot eyes. He told police he had been drinking at a friend's house. Frye was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated. Deputies said Frye had minor injuries. Courtney Nunnally scrolled on her phone in the back of the Richmond police SUV. The fluorescent lights from the strip centers, gas stations and cheap motels lining Midlothian Turnpike shined through the tinted window, barely cutting the darkness that had already descended by 5:30 p.m. on the Wednesday before Christmas. Officer Ben Frazer scanned the illuminated parking lots as he drove, looking for familiar faces. Nunnally had been in the back of more police vehicles than she could count, many times on the way to jail and dreading the inevitable detox that would set in when she went too long without a heroin fix. It was like having the flu, only a hundred times worse. But she has been clean for six years now, ever since she became pregnant and Richmond police Sgt. Frank Scarpa and Chesterfield County police Sgt. Matt Dunn had helped her get treatment that put her on the path to recovery. Now, when Nunnally rides in the back of a police car, she's working with the police as a peer recovery specialist, talking to people trapped in the throes of addiction about how to get help, and serving as living proof that getting clean is possible. The initiative, which launched in October, is one of the first of its kind in Virginia as the state grapples with an opioid epidemic that has killed more people than gun violence every year since 2013, and as law enforcement agencies try to find their role when crime and the disease of addiction meet. "Arresting and rearresting and arresting again is not really the (right) direction," said Capt. Emmett Williams, commander of special investigations for the Richmond Police Department. "Substance abusers are out there doing their thing. They're not receptive to talking to us. ... We're still kind of the enemy to them." That's where Nunnally comes in. After a few years of being clean, Nunnally decided she wanted to use her own experience to help others. She started volunteering at the Chesterfield jail last year, working with heroin addicts to regain hope for their futures. Then, in April, she was hired as a police and court liaison for Recovery Unplugged, a drug addiction treatment center with facilities in Florida, Texas and Virginia. But Nunnally wanted to do more. Inspired by the Angel Program, an initiative started in 2015 by police in Gloucester, Mass., that guaranteed people with addiction problems immediate recovery assistance, Nunnally started her own nonprofit: Addiction Uncuffed. Over the past several months, Nunnally worked with RPD leadership and secured permission to ride along with officers and offer the people they come in contact with a chance at recovery. Frazer spotted someone he recognized as an opioid user sitting on the curb of the Taqueria Panchito on Midlothian Turnpike and pulled his vehicle into the parking lot of the crowded taco joint. Nunnally, Frazer and his partner officer, Nick Odehnal, all filed out of the vehicle and approached the man, who sat with his knees pulled up under his heavily-tattooed arms. Nunnally hung back for a moment as Frazer took the lead. "Courtney's riding with us tonight. You've talked to her before," Frazer said. Still hunched on the curb, the man told Courtney about how he'd been prescribed pills for back pain and had gotten addicted to fentanyl, the deadliest drug in the U.S. and responsible for half of the 1,538 fatal drug overdoses recorded by the Virginia Department of Health in 2017. He talked about how he'd been cut off from his daughter and had alienated family members who'd tried to help him. "I think I'm a lost cause," he said. "That doesn't make you a lost cause," Nunnally countered. "I went through treatment three times." "I went through treatment eight times, at least," Nunnally persisted. "Look, man, tonight's the night. I see you out here all the time," Frazer jumped in. "You're the type of people we want to help." "I gotta do it for my daughter," the man acknowledged, looking down at the asphalt. "How old is your daughter?" Nunnally asked. "Six." "There's still plenty of time with her ... don't wait until she's 13 and hates you," Nunnally pushed. ... She gave him her card with her cellphone number on it. "I will gladly give you a call," the man said with a smile. Nunnally and the officers climbed into the SUV, and Frazer maneuvered it back onto the turnpike. Nunnally pulled out a miniature notebook and wrote down the man's name and relevant information so she could follow up with him. "There's a chance with that one," Frazer said. So far, Nunnally's efforts have put five people through treatment programs. Four of them were still on track, as far as she knew. One was back on the streets. Nunnally knows from experience that the road to recovery is rarely a straight one. Between 40 and 60 percent of people recovering from substance use disorder relapse, which is similar to relapse rates for chronic illnesses such as hypertension and asthma, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. To further complicate the matter, resources for people recovering from substance use disorder are limited in the Richmond area, Nunnally said. She works with one detox center and a few recovery programs, but they are often full, forcing a person to go to an emergency department to detox. And even if Nunnally can get a person into an outpatient treatment program, it's difficult to find affordable, safe housing. "Your successes are going to be one at a time," said Williams, the RPD captain. "One this month, one next month ... it's just so hard to get people to buy into it to want to move toward recovery. You've got to catch them right at the perfect time." When Nunnally, now 38, originally agreed to receive treatment by methadone, a medicine that blocks the effects of opiates a standard step to protect the unborn child of a pregnant woman trying to get clean she had no intention of staying clean. She figured she would go through the motions and eventually get back to the drug that had taken hold of her life. But while she was in treatment, she started seeing a counselor. Then, her baby girl, River, was born. She began to make amends with her teenage son, Seth. Soon, she'd been clean a year, and then two years. By then, she'd made it too far to turn back. She credits Scarpa and Dunn, the two police sergeants who gave her the push she needed at the right time, for the turn her life took. Nunnally is confident she wouldn't be alive if fentanyl had been as prevalent when she was using as it is now. "Some people need somebody to believe in them," Nunnally said. Somebody like Frazer, for example. "You just can't give up on these people," he said as he drove up and down a short stretch of Midlothian Turnpike, where he has patrolled for the past 10 years. "I, personally, don't think anybody is a lost cause." Frazer can name the people he sees hanging around the area known for its high rates of violent crime, drugs and prostitution, and he speaks to them with a combination of teasing humor and scolding. Two years ago, the RPD formed the Violence Suppression Team, which was specially assigned to focus on reducing violent crime in the Midlothian neighborhood. In its first year, violent crime in the area dropped by 31 percent and dropped an additional 20 percent in 2018, according to RPD Capt. Christopher Gleason. Nunnally's presence adds another layer to the team's attempts to clean up the neighborhood. One of Williams' goals is to team up with the Richmond Health District to hire a peer recovery specialist and expand outreach targeted at drug users who overdose repeatedly. Law enforcement agencies across the state are piloting different approaches to addressing drug addiction, said Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and a member of Gov. Ralph Northam's special task force on opioids. These approaches are often limited by available resources, and rural areas are less likely to have access to these kinds of programs than urban areas like Richmond. Even as the programs develop, state leaders are still defining law enforcement officers' role when they encounter drug users. "We'd like to see people with substance abuse problems get the help they need to keep them from being involved in the criminal justice system," Schrad said. But at the same time, "we can't ignore the fact that it is illegal to traffic drugs." After a traffic stop and a break for burritos, Frazer and Odehnal returned to their nighttime patrol with Nunnally in tow, U-turning up and down the turnpike, searching license plate numbers for criminal hits and keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. Frazer turned into the parking lot of the Regal Inn Motel, a tan, two-story building with glaring fluorescent lights and so many letters missing from the roadside sign meant to entice customers that the advertisement was incomprehensible. The officers know this place well. Earlier that night in the same parking lot, they had arrested a man who had several outstanding warrants for shoplifting and drug offenses. They found a crack pipe in his car after he admitted he had something there. Tears fell from the handcuffed man's face as he leaned against the police car and waited for a van that would take him to jail. Nunnally stood with him, bracing herself against the cold air and talking to him about treatment between drags from her e-cigarette. Before he was taken away, she put her card in his sweatshirt pocket. "Let me know," she said. Hours later, in the same parking lot, Frazer and Odehnal, upon questioning two men sitting in their car, found they had marijuana on them and one had an outstanding warrant. As they waited for backup to take the one with the warrant to jail, Odehnal stood with the man while Nunnally and Frazer talked and joked with a woman staying at the motel. When the woman's three dogs ran out into the parking lot, Frazer dropped to his knees to play with them, jokingly trying to entice the pit bull to jump into the police car and patrol with him. "If you don't have fun in this job, you'll go crazy," Frazer had said earlier, by way of explaining his constant jokes and light tone. Turning serious, Frazer pointed to a motel across the turnpike from the Regal Inn and said that he once saw a woman there who was turning blue as she overdosed. He and Odehnal broke her ribs trying to save her and administered four doses of Narcan, a drug that reverses an opioid overdose. A few days later, he saw her out looking for another fix. It's tough watching people succumb, over and over again. It'd be easy to give up on them. Understandable, even. But then he thinks of Nunnally and remembers what's possible. Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch A Phoenix woman accused of stalking a man she met on a dating site and sending him more than 65,000 text messages apparently sent more than twice that many. Jacqueline Ades sent a man more than 159,000 text messages some of which were threatening over the course of nearly 10 months, according to police records The Arizona Republic obtained via a public records request. (That would break down to about 530 texts a day given an average 30-day month.) The two went on a single date. Ades has pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking and criminal trespassing. The man, whose name has not been released, called police after he found Ades parked outside his home in July 2017. Paradise Valley officers escorted her off his property and that's when police say Ades began threatening the man. One text read: "I'd make sushi outta ur kidneys n chopsticks outta ur hand bones." In April 2018, Ades was arrested for trespassing inside his home while he was out of the country. In a jailhouse interview, Ades said she met the man on Luxy, an online dating service that caters to millionaires, The Arixona Republic reported. In a police interview, she seemed to understand the man didn't want to be with her. "It's OK if that's how [he] feels," Ades said, according to The Arizona Republic. "Somebody else should love him. He has so much to love. He's so cute. I can't believe I scared him." Ades was first reported to police when they found her parked outside the home in the Phoenix suburbs, police said. Soon after the incident, she allegedly began sending threatening texts to the Paradise Valley man. She was reported at the residence in December but police didn't find her there, according to police. The victim was out of the country when she allegedly broke into his house, but he saw her through home surveillance video and called police, according to a police statement. Officers found her taking a bath and arrested her; she was charged with trespassing and released, but allegedly continued to text the victim threatening messages. Ades was found outside the victim's business in nearby Scottsdale, claiming to be his wife and removed by that city's police. When Paradise Valley police found out about the incident, officers searched for her and took her into custody without incident. Ades' trial was scheduled to begin Feb. 5. What to Know "House of Cards" actor Kevin Spacey was arraigned at Nantucket District Court for a charge of indecent assault and battery. Last year, former WCVB-TV news anchor Heather Unruh publicly accused Spacey of groping her son at a Nantucket restaurant in July of 2016. Unruh told NBC News that she and her son would not be attending the arraignment. Wading through a crowd of journalists to walk into the courthouse, Kevin Spacey faced a judge in a Nantucket courtroom Monday morning after being accused of sexually assaulting the son of a former Boston news anchor. A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the 59-year-old actor, who appeared at Nantucket District Court on a felony charge of indecent assault and battery. Spacey was released after his attorney and the lead prosecutor had a brief back-and-forth over preserving data from the phone of the alleged victim and someone else. The judge also set another hearing for March 4, for which Spacey is not required to appear. Neither Spacey nor his attorneys commented as they left the courthouse. The former "House of Cards" actor was ordered to stay away from the young man accusing him of groping him at the Club Car Restaurant in July of 2016. The allegations surfaced in November 2017 after former WCVB-TV anchor Heather Unruh accused Spacey of groping her then-18-year-old son at the Nantucket restaurant where he worked as a bus boy that summer. Unruh accused the "House of Cards" actor of assaulting her son at the Club Car Restaurant. According to state police documents, Unruh's son claims he was groped by Spacey after he allegedly bought the teen several drinks at the restaurant. When Unruh's son was drunk, Spacey allegedly stuck his hand inside the teenagers pants and grabbed his genitals, according to documents. "I want to make it clear - this was a criminal act," Unruh said when she first publicly accused Spacey in November of 2017. "It harmed him, and it cannot be undone." Spaceys accuser may have filmed the alleged assault, according to state documents. The alleged victims girlfriend did not believe him when he said the actor was making advances at him. Unruh's son then sent her a Snapchat video that showed Spaceys hand near the teens crotch, according to the documents. Unruh told NBC News that she and her son would not be attending the arraignment. "We have decided as a family that we will not make any statements until trial," Unruh told NBC News. "We want to preserve the integrity of the case." "By reporting the sexual assault, my client is a determined and encouraging voice for those victims not yet ready to report being sexually assaulted," Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for the accuser, said in a statement. "My client is leading by example." NBC isn't naming the accuser because it does not identify the victims of alleged sexual assault. Spacey's arraignment comes after his attorney tried to have him excused from the proceedings, a motion that was denied by a Massachusetts judge. The Boston Globe reports the actor's attorneys had a chance to fight the indecent assault and battery charge during a secret hearing on Dec. 20. The groping accusation is one of several sexual misconduct allegations made against Spacey in the last year. He was fired from the final season of his Netflix show "House of Cards" and replaced in a movie, "All the Money in the World," in the wake of the allegations. His representative has said he was seeking treatment. On Christmas Eve, Spacey released a video in which he appeared to address allegations against him as his "House of Cards" character, Frank Underwood: "Despite even my own death, I feel surprisingly good and my confidence grows each day that soon enough you will know the full truth." Sex assault resources are available at the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. Since it was first created in 1994, the National Sexual Assault Hotline has helped more than two million people, according to its website. French authorities have dropped a sensitive investigation into the plane crash that sparked Rwanda's 1994 genocide, citing lack of sufficient evidence. Several people close to Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, had been under investigation. Rwanda's government denounced the probe as an attempt to deflect responsibility from France's suspected role in the genocide, and welcomed the decision to end it. A French judicial official said Wednesday that investigating judges decided last week to close the case, based on a request from prosecutors. The official provided no details about the decision. The April 6, 1994 plane crash killed Rwanda's then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu. Militants from the Hutu majority blamed minority Tutsis for the death, sparking the ethnic slaughter of some 800,000 people. France was Rwanda's longtime benefactor, and the plane had a French crew. The cause of the crash has long been a contentious issue. The Rwandan government says the plane was shot down by Hutu extremists who opposed the government's efforts to forge a peace deal with Tutsi-led rebels. Kagame led the Tutsi rebels at the time. An initial French investigation completed in 2012 found that the missile came from a Rwandan military camp. But France re-opened the probe after a prominent Rwandan exile said he had evidence that Kagame ordered the plane shot down, which Kagame denies. The Rwandan government praised the definitive end of what it called a "politically motivated investigation." "We welcome this decision which brings to an end a brazen attempt over two decades to obstruct justice for the genocide against the Tutsi, and prevent accountability for both the perpetrators and their wilful accomplices," Foreign Minister Dr. Richard Sezibera said in a statement. Critics say France was too supportive of Rwanda's Hutu-led government whose supporters carried out the genocide, and that France turned a blind eye to the killings for too long. Rwanda's government has named 22 senior French military officers accused of helping plan and carry out the genocide through support for the Rwandan army. France denies complicity, but has launched several investigations in recent years into the genocide in an effort to come to terms with its role. They notably involve Rwandans who fled to France after the killings but also some French figures. Associated Press writer Ignatius Ssuuna contributed. A murder-for-hire suspect till the end, John Litchfield -- the longtime lover of a fellow Galveston cruise ship captain imprisoned for stealing an infant's identity -- has died of mad cow disease in a Friendswood nursing home. The Houston Chronicle reports the 70-year-old was never charged or even arrested in connection with the 1988 slaying of his sweetheart's husband in California, but for decades authorities probed the murder of Harold "Skeeter" Lyerla as a possible hired hit that netted a hefty insurance payout. Even after another man -- landscaper Victor Perea -- was convicted in the brutal stabbing, police kept the case open, hoping to snare Litchfield and his lover, Cynthia Knox. Now, even with Litchfield dead and Knox in prison for identity theft, investigators have not given up. "We wanted to see this through and potentially put both of them in custody," said Lompoc police Sgt. Kevin Martin, who's overseeing the investigation in the California town that was the site of the slaying. "Up until his death he was a suspect in a murder-for-hire and Cynthia is still a suspect in that investigation," he added. "We are still working that." Matt Alford, the attorney who represented Litchfield, bristled at the suggestion. "There was no proof whatsoever that he was a killer," Alford said. "Absolutely he was not guilty of that crime." For the slain man's sister, Linda Pickarts, Litchfield's death seemed a "little suspicious" and a bit of a let-down. "I wanted him in prison," she told the Houston Chronicle this month. "He escaped justice here on Earth, but he's getting his justice now." The aging case ended up back in the headlines in 2017. That year, federal agents swarmed South Shore Harbor and arrested Knox for identity theft after discovering she'd been hiding under a stolen name pilfered from a dead, one-day-old baby. The intrigue had started three decades earlier, when Lyerla -- Knox's then-husband -- was found stabbed to death in the couple's Lompoc home, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles. After picking up Perea's print on a faucet at the murder scene, police arrested the landscaping contractor. But before trial started in California, Knox disappeared and could not be subpoenaed, then Litchfield took the Fifth on the stand. The two got married not long after the killing -- only to divorce two months after Perea's trial ended, a coincidence that led an attorney for Lyerla's family to suspect the pair married to avoid having to testify against each other. Perea was convicted and sentenced to 56 years in prison, though initially he said he'd been "set up." It wasn't until 2012 during a parole hearing that he began claiming Litchfield had paid him $4,000 to pull off the slaying. Adding to the intrigue and tragedy, not long after the stabbing, Knox and Lyerla's 13-month-old daughter, Kajsa, drowned in a shallow fishpond. Then, in 1992, Lyerla's mother sued Knox and Litchfield, accusing them of conspiring to kill Harold and Kajsa Lyerla to get a $279,000 life insurance payout. The case was tossed after a court found Lyerla's mother did not have standing. In the years that followed, Knox nabbed the birth certificate of an infant named Christina White, moved to League City along with her lover, and built a new life with a cruise ship business. For more than two decades, the presence of the friendly Capt. White didn't raise any eyebrows on the island, where she was known as a beloved mariner. But then in 2016, she went to renew her passport -- and her manufactured life came crashing down around her. Authorities wouldn't say what about the application aroused their suspicions, but ultimately officials linked the fingerprints on White's application to Knox. In July 2017, she was sentenced to three years in federal prison. In court, prosecutors repeatedly laid out ties between Knox and the California slaying, and defense attorney John T. Floyd framed it all as a "heavy-handed approach trying to get her to cooperate in some way that she's not able to do." Even after Knox was sent to prison, investigators still sought to connect her and Litchfield to the killing. "The case is not closed," Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Steve Foley said at the time. "We are still interested in pursuing a case against Mr. Litchfield and Ms. Knox if enough evidence comes to light to prove the case. Then in late 2018, Perea called a Houston Chronicle reporter from a California prison, intent on breaking the news of Litchfield's death. But the mariner had been staying under the radar, and even the man's lawyer couldn't offer any details on what happened or when. Lompoc police said he'd died, and confirmed they were still investigating the decades-old case. Eventually the Galveston medical examiner's investigator D.J. Florence confirmed more details: Litchfield died on July 27. He had been living in a nursing home, and had suffered Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- better known as mad cow. His death was 29 years to the day after Kajsa's. A Chinese language adaptation of celebrated late Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin's comedy "Winter Funeral" is on stage from Jan. 2 to 6 in Beijing. Dubbed the premiere Chinese version of "Winter Funeral," it is considered one of Levin's most brilliant family comedies. Its Chinese adaptation is a collaboration of Israeli director Yair Sherman and students at The Dome Studio in Beijing. Levin, who died in 1999, was one of Israel's most prolific and influential playwrights, creating more than 60 plays in his life. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages and shown around the world. Levin was the first Israeli playwright to have his works brought to the Chinese stage. His most famous play "Requiem" has been staged three times in China. Sherman said in "Requiem" Levin revealed his insight into life and death through long dialogue. But in "Winter Funeral," the same insight is hidden in the joyful but a bit absurd drama. Matthew Herrick, a restaurant worker and aspiring actor in New York, claimed that for months an ex-boyfriend used the dating app Grindr to harass him. His former partner created fake profiles on the app to impersonate Herrick and then direct men to show up at Herricks home and the restaurant where he worked asking for sex, sometimes more than a dozen times per day. Herrick took action against his ex, filing 14 police reports. The alleged harassment continued for months, even after Herrick obtained a temporary restraining order against Grindr that required the company to disable the impersonating profiles. Herrick is pursuing an unusual legal theory as he continues to push back against Grindr, arguing that tech companies should face greater accountability for what happens on their platforms, NBC News reported. His lawsuit alleges that the software developers who write code for Grindr have been negligent, producing an app thats defective in its design and that is fundamentally unsafe and unreasonably dangerous echoing language thats more typically used in lawsuits about, say, a faulty kitchen appliance or a defective car part. If successful, the lawsuit could bring about a significant legal change to the risks tech companies face for what happens on their platforms, adding to growing public and political pressure for change. U.S. troops will not leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected, a top White House aide said Sunday, signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. While U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said there is now no timetable, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to withdrawing U.S. troops, though he said "we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." Trump had said in his Dec. 19 withdrawal announcement that U.S. forces "have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," and added in a video posted to Twitter, "Now it's time for our troops to come back home." Bolton said in Israel that the U.S. would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of ISIS in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists. In Washington, Trump told reporters at the White House that "we are pulling back in Syria. We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly." But in that Dec. 19 video, the president had said of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria: "They're all coming back, and they're coming back now." And officials said at the time that while many details were yet to be finalized, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. "I think this is the reality setting in that you got to plan this out," said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "the bottom line here is we want to make sure we get this right, that ISIS doesn't come back. And I applaud the president for re-evaluating what he's doing. ... He has a goal in mind of reducing our presence. I share that goal. Let's just do it smartly." Trump's decision last month drew widespread criticism from allies, led to the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on the Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. 'There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement." He was to be in Turkey on Monday, accompanied by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, for talks with government officials. Bolton said the U.S. wants its Kurdish allies in Syria protected from any planned Turkish offensive a warning to be delivered to Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States," Bolton said. He said that in upcoming meetings with Turkish officials, he will seek "to find out what their objectives and capabilities are and that remains uncertain." Bolton said Trump has made clear he would not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds. "That's what the president said, the ones that fought with us," Bolton said. Bolton said the U.S. has asked the Kurds to "stand fast now" and refrain from seeking protection from Russia or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. "I think they know who their friends are," he added, speaking of the Kurds. Jim Jeffrey, the special representative for Syrian engagement and the newly named American special envoy for the anti-Islamic State coalition, is to travel to Syria this coming week in an effort to reassure the Kurdish fighters that they are not being abandoned, Bolton said. Turkey's presidential spokesman called allegations that his country planned to attack the U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria "irrational" and said Turkey was fighting terrorism for national security. In comments carried by the official Anadolu news agency, Ibrahim Kalin said the Kurdish fighters oppressed Syrian Kurds and pursued a separatist agenda under the guise of fighting ISIS. "That a terror organization cannot be allied with the U.S. is self-evident," he said. U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the conditions raised by Bolton were "obvious," and Smith criticized the conflicting messages from the Trump administration. "We don't want ISIS to rise again and be a transnational terrorist threat and we don't want our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered by Erdogan in Turkey," said Smith, D-Wash. Bolton said U.S. troops would remain at the critical area of al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region. He defended the legal basis for the deployment, saying it's justified by the president's constitutional authority. The U.S. is also seeking a "satisfactory disposition" for roughly 800 ISIS prisoners held by the U.S.-backed Syrian opposition, Bolton said, adding talks were ongoing with European and regional partners about the issue. Bolton was to have dinner with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday to discuss the pace of the U.S. drawdown, American troop levels in the region, and the U.S. commitment to push back on Iranian regional expansionism. Bolton was expected to explain that some U.S. troops based in Syria to fight ISIS will shift to Iraq with the same mission and that the al-Tanf base would remain. Bolton also was to convey the message that the United States is "very supportive" of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, according to a senior administration official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss Bolton's plans before the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House has sent national security adviser John Bolton on a mission to allay Israel's concerns about President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. The pullout announced before Christmas was initially expected to be completed within weeks, but the timetable has slowed as the president acceded to requests from aides, allies and members of Congress for a more orderly drawdown. Bolton planned to meet with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials on Sunday before traveling to Turkey. Israeli officials have expressed alarm that a swift withdrawal of the roughly 2,000 troops could enable Iran to expand its influence and presence in Syria, wracked by a yearslong civil war and the Islamic State militancy. Trump's move has raised fears about clearing the way for a Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria who have fought alongside American troops against IS extremists. Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. A Trump administration official told reporters traveling with Bolton that Bolton intended to discuss the pace of the drawdown, as well as American troop levels in the region. Bolton was expected to explain that some U.S. troops based in Syria to fight IS will shift to Iraq with the same mission and that some American forces may remain at a key military outpost in al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region. Bolton also was to convey the message that the United States will be "very supportive" of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss Bolton's plans before the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the talks. Bolton warned Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, not to use the U.S. drawdown as a pretext to use chemical weapons against Syrians, saying there is "no change" to the U.S. position that their use is a "red line." Trump has twice carried out airstrikes in Syria in response to apparent chemical attacks, with the intention of deterring Assad. "We've tried twice through the use of military force to demonstrate to the Assad regime the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable," Bolton said while en route to Israel. "And if they don't heed the lessons of those two strikes, the next one will be more telling." Trump's announcement about the intended troop withdrawal was greeted by surprise and condemnation from many U.S. lawmakers and allies, and prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the U.S. special envoy for the anti-IS coalition in protest. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is following Bolton to the Mideast this coming week for an eight-country tour of Arab allies to shore up support for the administration's partners in the region. While in Israel, Bolton planned to encourage officials to take a tougher stance against Chinese electronics manufacturers ZTE and Huawei. The U.S. has expressed concerns about potential cyber-penetration by those companies. Joining Bolton in Turkey will be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. In meetings with Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and other officials, they are expected to warn against an offensive targeting the Kurdish fighters in Syria. A federal judge on Monday scolded a lawyer for a Russian company charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election by special counsel Robert Mueller, NBC News reported. Judge Dabney Friedrich told attorney Eric Dubelier that a recent court document he filed for Concord Management, which quoted the movie "Animal House," was "inappropriate and unprofessional and ineffective," undermining his credibility in Friedrich's Washington, D.C., court. Concord Management is one of three companies charged last February with carrying out a massive disinformation campaign on social media to create discord among American voters and boost Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The company's lawyers have sought to have the charges dropped, and Dubelier defended the filing Monday. He suggested Friedrich, a Trump appointee, was biased and said he may withdraw from the case. What to Know Actor Kevin Spacey will be arraigned at Nantucket District Court Monday to face charges of assault and battery. The charges stem from allegations that Spacey groped the son of former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh in July of 2016. The arraignment comes after the actors attorney tried to have him excused from the proceedings. Actor Kevin Spacey will be arraigned at Nantucket District Court Monday to face charges of assault and battery. The charges stem from allegations that Spacey groped the son of former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh in July of 2016. The arraignment comes after the actors attorney tried to have him excused from the proceedings. A Massachusetts judge denied Spaceys motion that he be excused from appearing at his arraignment Monday. On Christmas Eve the Cape & Islands district attorney announced that a criminal complaint had been filed against the 59-year-old actor the previous week. In the police report, the actor is accused of assaulting Unruhs son at the Club Car Restaurant on Nantucket. Unruhs said her son was 18-years-old at the time. State police documents say Unruhs son claims he was groped by Spacey after the House of Cards actor bought him drinks while he was working at the restaurant. On the same day the charges were announced, Spacey tweeted a video of himself playing his killed-off character on the show, Frank Underwood. Because I can promise you this. If I didnt pay the price for the things we both know I did do, Im certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn't do," Spacey said in the video. "Of course theyre going to say Im being disrespectful, not playing by the rules. Like I ever played by anyones rules before. The report also alleges that the victim said his girlfriend didnt believe him when he texted her that Spacey was hitting on him, so he sent a Snapchat video of the alleged assault. The allegations come after Spacey was fired by Netflix over accusations of sexual assault and harassment. He was also cut from the Ridley Scott film "All the Money in the World" and was replaced by Christopher Plummer just one month before the films release. A representative for Spacey did not return the NBC News request for comment after the charges were announced. After Spacey was fired by Netflix in 2017, his representatives said he would seek evaluation and treatment. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama is getting withering criticism on social media after rescinding its decision to honor political activist and scholar Angela Davis. Davis is a Birmingham native who has spent decades fighting for civil rights. She was an active member of the Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Communist Party USA. She's also an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel's treatment of Palestinians. BCRI President and CEO Andrea Taylor said in October that the Institute was "thrilled to bestow this honor" on Davis who she described as "one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak." But the institute announced Saturday that in late December, "supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision." "Upon closer examination of Davis' statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria" for the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. The statement didn't indicate what criteria it found Davis didn't meet, nor did it identify the origin of the complaints. Many people responded with outrage Monday on Twitter and Facebook. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the protests came from the "local Jewish community and some of its allies" in a statement expressing "dismay." He called it a reactive and divisive decision and offered to facilitate a community dialogue in response. Michael Che is leaving his "Weekend Update" desk to help raise money for New York City's public housing authority. Che is headlining a comedy benefit on Friday at Irving Plaza to raise money for The Fund for Public Housing, he posted on his Instagram account. He also posted a GoFundMe for those who aren't able to attend the show and said if it raised the $10,000 goal, he would match it. It had raised more than $6,800 by Sunday night. The "Saturday Night Live" star grew up on the Lower East Side and spent time in buildings run by NYCHA, where many of his relatives lived, The Wall Street Journal reported. It's time to say sayonara to the Rockefeller Center tree. The 72-foot Norway spruce went dark on Monday night, marking the end of the holiday season in New York City. Crews dismantled it through the night. But the tree's service continues: It will be given to Habitat for Humanity to help build homes. [Watch: How Rockefeller Center Tree Was Transformed Into Home] The tree dazzled crowds of onlookers with 5 miles of multicolored LED lights and a 900-pound Swarovski crystal star. It was even the centerpiece of a wedding: a couple from Woodbridge, New Jersey, got married in front of the glittering boughs on Dec. 26. The 75-year-old tree was donated by a couple in Wallkill, 60 miles north of the city. What to Know - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday in calling for codifying abortion rights in NY state law They want it as a bulwark against any potential court challenges to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision made 46 years ago this month Cuomo and the Legislature's top Democrats have sought passage of the Reproductive Health Act for years Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday in calling for codifying abortion rights in New York state law as a bulwark against any potential court challenges to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision made 46 years ago this month. The Democrats shared the stage at Barnard College in Manhattan, where members of the state Legislature and women's rights advocates cheered Clinton as she said the struggle for women's equality "continues to be the fight of our lifetime." Efforts to put federal legal protections of abortion rights into New York law were blocked for years by state Senate Republicans, who lost control of the chamber in the November elections after a decade in power. With Democrats now in control of the Senate by a wide margin, coupled with the party's longtime control of the Assembly and Cuomo starting his third term, codifying Roe v. Wade in state law is expected to occur during the legislative session that starts Wednesday. Cuomo vowed to get stronger abortion rights into state law this month, while Democrats in the Legislature have said they want to pass legislation by Jan. 22, the 46th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cuomo and the Legislature's top Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, have sought passage of the Reproductive Health Act for years. During an appearance that was essentially a pep rally for an issue that appears to be a slam dunk for Democrats in Albany, Clinton called expanding women's rights "the great unfinished business of the 21st century." "Our right to make the most deeply personal decision is facing the most significant threat in recent memory," she said, a reference to Republican President Donald Trump's support of overturning Roe v. Wade and the confirmation last year of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the nation's highest court. New York made abortions legal in 1970, but the law didn't give women the same rights guaranteed under Roe v. Wade three years later. New York Democrats say the state law needs to be updated by removing abortion from the penal code and placing it under state law, thereby protecting women's access to abortions should Roe v. Wade be overturned or altered on the federal level. Senate Republicans contended a bill backed by Cuomo would expand access to abortions later in pregnancy, and they managed to stymie the legislation until Democrats picked up eight seats in the recent election to take control of the 63-seat chamber. Cuomo, considered a possible candidate for president in 2020, said protecting abortion rights was a key component of his progressive agenda in response to Trump administration policies. "We have led the way on women's rights like no other state, period," he said. This is a real gift to the new superintendent, Friedman said. The new person will come in knowing that the heavy lifting part of the referendum is done and over, and that person can focus on working magic with the budget. Its quite a bit different than walking through the door with both of those pieces (unresolved). What to Know President Trump stood by his demands for funding for a border wall as another round of shutdown talks failed to break an impasse Kevin Spacey is heading to court after a former Boston news anchor accused the actor of sexually assaulting her then-18-year-old son in 2016 In a Golden Globes chock full of upsets, the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" took best picture, drama over 'A Star is Born' Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here. No Break in Shutdown Talks as Trump Stands by Border Demands President Trump stood by his demands for funding for a border wall as another round of shutdown talks failed to break an impasse, while newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers by passing legislation this week to reopen parts of the government. Trump, who spent part of the day at Camp David for staff meetings, showed no signs of budging on his demand more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. White House officials affirmed that request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought also formalized Trump's declaration that the wall would be built from steel, rather than concrete, asking for funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." Democrats Plan More Pressure on Trump to Reopen Government With no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged partial government shutdown, President Trump is standing firm in his border wall funding demands and newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, though on Sunday he did offer to build it with steel rather than concrete, a concession Democrats panned. With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." Kevin Spacey Plans Not-Guilty Plea in Sexual Assault Case Kevin Spacey is heading to court after a former Boston news anchor accused the actor of sexually assaulting her then-18-year-old son in July of 2016. The 59-year-old actor will face charges of indecent assault and battery at Nantucket District Court, more than a year after former WCVB-TV anchor, Heather Unruh, accused Spacey of groping her son at a Nantucket restaurant. He said he would plead not guilty. Unruh accused the "House of Cards" actor of assaulting her son at the Club Car Restaurant. State police documents say Unruhs son claims he was groped by Spacey after he allegedly bought the teen several drinks at the restaurant. When Unruhs son was drunk, Spacey allegedly stuck his hand inside the teenagers pants and grabbed his genitals, according to documents. "I want to make it clear - this was a criminal act," Unruh said when she first publicly accused Spacey in November of 2017. "It harmed him, and it cannot be undone." Spaceys arraignment comes after his attorney tried to have him excused from the proceedings, a motion that was denied by a Massachusetts judge. Glenn Close Upsets Lady Gaga at Golden Globes, 'Bohemian' Wins In a Golden Globes chock full of upsets, the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" took best picture, drama, over Bradley Cooper's heavily favored "A Star is Born" and Glenn Close bested Lady Gaga for best actress. Few winners were seen as more certain than Lady Gaga as best actress in a drama at the ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. But the veteran actress Close pulled off the shocker for her performance in "The Wife," as the spouse of a Nobel Prize-winning author. Close said she was thinking of her mother, "who really sublimated herself to my father for her whole life." "We have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams," said Close, drawing a standing ovation. "We have to say I can do that and I should be allowed to do that." Minutes later, the surprise was even greater when "Bohemian Rhapsody" won the night's top award, shortly after Rami Malek won best actor for his prosthetic teeth-aided performance as Mercury. What to Know An FDNY firefighter died helping victims of a car crash on the Belt Parkway after he fell more than 50 feet off the Mill Basin overpass Steven Pollard, 30, who had been with the FDNY for a year and a half, is the 1,151 member of department to die in the line of duty Pollard's brother is also an FDNY firefighter and his father is a retired FDNYer who served more than 30 years UPDATE: Funeral Arrangements for Fallen FDNY Firefighter Announced Throngs of firefighters stood at emotional salute Monday as they watched an ambulance carry away the body of a 30-year-old FDNY firefighter who died when he fell off a Brooklyn bridge while helping car crash victims the night before. Steven Pollard, a probationary firefighter who came from a family of FDNY firefighters, plunged 52 feet to the concrete below the Mill Basin overpass when he responded to an overturned wreck on the westbound Belt Parkway. He went to jump over a 3-foot gap in the road to get from the eastbound to the westbound lanes to help the crash victims but slipped through, officials said. Pollard, who was assigned to Ladder Company 170 in Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Hours later, hundreds of FDNY personnel and vehicles lined highways and side streets for the procession from the medical examiner's office to a funeral home. Many bowed their heads in prayer; FDNY boats also spouted huge plumes of water, some colored blue, from the river. Pollard had been on the job for a year and a half, and just finished probation; he's the 1,151st member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty. "It's an incredibly sad night for the Pollard family, for the Fire Department family, and for our city," FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said early Monday. "He lost his life tonight in the process of helping others." The crash victims were taken to hospitals but are expected to survive. Pollard's captain at Ladder 170 said that in just 14 months, Pollard proved himself a great firefighter. "Any job we gave him, he accomplished it," said Ladder 170 Capt. James Quinn. "Any job we asked him to do, he did it well." "It's a painful day for the Pollard family. Painful day for the Canarsie family, and most of all for the fire department." Pollards father, Ray, is a retired FDNY firefighter who was on the job for 31 years for Ladder Company 102 in Brooklyn. His brother, Ray Jr., is currently an FDNY firefighter and has been for 11 years for Ladder Company 114. He is also survived by his mother. Mayor de Blasio went to the hospital after the accident. "This is a family who has done so much for New York City and now they're going through this loss and this pain. It's a very, very tough situation," de Blasio said, adding "Think about what his mom and dad are going through right now losing their son at just 30 years old." Pollard's captain said the department was in the process of presenting him his Ladder 170 patch. "It was going to be on his frontpiece," he said. "He earned this patch. He passed his probation with flying colors. This patch will be on his helmet that we will present to his family at the funeral." Two men inside one of the crashed vehicles were seriously injured, Nigro said. The road was shut down for hours following the crash, but has since reopened. The NYPD said on Twitter that "our hearts are with our @FDNY colleagues tonight." Fellow firefighters are not the only ones mourning Pollard's death. The Canarsie neighborhood where he worked is also stunned by the loss. Juan Tejeda, who works in the deli directly across the street says he immediately recognized Pollard when his son showed him a picture after news broke of the tragedy. "Last night he showed me on his cellphone and I recognized him," Tejeda said. "So sad, oh my God." Tejeda said Pollard, who was a frequent customer, came in just hours before the tragedy. "He never talked too much, you know, but he was a nice guy," he said. Another deli employee, Ahmed Almashriqi, said Pollard deserved to be among New York's bravest. "A person who didn't think twice about his life, but just jumped to help others I think is a hero," he said. The last time an FDNY firefighter was killed in the line of duty was last year when 15-year veteran Michael R. Davidson died battling a blaze at an Edward Norton film shoot in Harlem last March. Funeral arrangements are pending. What to Know The #BirdBoxChallenge based on the Netflix original film has become a trending challenge on social media. The challenge has gone viral and consist of people blindfolding themselves and navigating their way. Netflix issued a statement warning people to be safe and not hurt themselves attempting this challenge. With the #BirdBoxChallenge becoming the latest viral stunt to take off on social media, it was only a matter of time before New Yorkers would film themselves attempting it. The challenge has gone viral in the week since the film "Bird Box" premiered on Netflix, and consists of people putting on blindfolds and trying to navigate the world, similar to the characters of the movie. In the film, Sandra Bullocks character is seen trying to save her children's lives by leading them around while blindfolded. If they were to remove their blindfolds, a supernatural entity would lead them to die just by looking at it. In a video posted to Twitter from Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, a group of men are seen attempting the #BirdBoxChallenge while heading to the subway. The group shuffles along the sidwalk until one man takes off running around the corner. It's not clear what happens next, but when the cameraman catches up, the man is seen on the ground at the bottom of a stairwell into the Kingston-Throop Avenue subway station, landing at the bottom of the stairs. It's not clear if the man was injured or if he was simply playing it off as a joke, but Netflix isn't taking any chances with the potentially dangerous challenge. In a tweet Tuesday, the streaming service asked fans not to hurt themselves attempting the challenge. Cant believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We dont know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019 Top Tri-State News Photos What to Know A man wanted in connection with at least three sex attacks in Manhattan dating back to 2014 has been arrested, the NYPD said Rashaun Kelley, 35, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged in connection with three attacks on young women Police had linked the same man to at least two other sex attacks in the East Village, but Kelley hasn't been charged in those An attorney has been charged in three sex attacks that took place in Manhattan more than three years ago, the NYPD said. Rashaun Kelley, 35, of Brooklyn, was arrested Friday night in connection with three attacks in 2014 and 2015, police said. In the attacks, the women were grabbed, touched and, in one case, the woman's pants were pulled down. Kelley has his own Park Avenue law firm and previously was a partner in Carrion, Soto, Viruet and Kelley, said his lawyer and former partner, Christopher Carrion. A convicted murderer who insisted he wanted to die after his execution was twice postponed was found dead in a Nevada prison cell. KRNVs Ben Margiott reports. "If this is true, it's the first I've heard of him behaving this way -- and we intend to mount a vigorous defense, Carrion told NBC 4 New York. Kelley was arraigned Saturday and bail was set at $200,000 cash or bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 10. Police say a 19-year-old girl was walking into an elevator in the lobby of an apartment building on Roosevelt Drive in the East Village after midnight on Dec. 16, 2014, when Kelley allegedly grabbed her buttocks and breasts and tried to kiss her. Video of cows struggling through snowdrifts up to their heads in Kleinarl, Austria, is going viral. (Credit: Bio Aus Dem Tal) After a struggle, the girl managed to flee the elevator, according to police. Kelley allegedly grabbed her buttocks again before fleeing the building, police said. A day later, on Dec. 17, 2014, a 20-year-old woman was walking into her apartment building somewhere in the 30th Precinct, which includes Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill and West Harlem, around 4:25 a.m. when Kelley allegedly went into the building behind her, covered her mouth and started touching her back and buttocks, the NYPD said. Kelley fled the scene after the attack, according to police. A Wisconsin woman awakens to find an intoxicated intruder sleeping next to her 120-pound mastiff. WTMJs Kristin Byrne reports. And on Jan. 14, 2015, a 31-year-old woman was opening the door to her apartment building somewhere in the 5th Precinct, which includes Chinatown, Little Italy and the Bowery, around 2:30 a.m. when Kelley allegedly approached her from behind, grabbed her waist and pulled her pants down, police said. Investigators believe the 7-year-old boy may have been dead since May; his mother has been charged. KUSAs Jennifer Meckles reports. Kelley pushed the woman away and fled the area when the woman screamed, according to police. Police say Kelley was wearing a black Yankees hat during all three of the attacks. Hes been charged with two counts of burglary and two counts of sex abuse for the Dec. 16 and Dec. 17, 2014, incidents, and attempted rape, burglary and sex abuse for the Jan. 14, 2015, incident. Attorney information wasn't immediately available. Police had previously linked Kelley to sexual assaults that took place in the East Village on Dec. 9 and Dec. 28, 2014, but Kelley had not been charged for those attacks as of Saturday morning, the NYPD said. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More Gabon's government has retained control of the West African country after an attempted military coup early Monday in which two plotters were killed, the government said. Five army officers who took over state radio in the coup attempt have been arrested, government spokesman Guy-Betrand Mapangou, told Radio France International. Authorities regained control of state broadcasting offices and a major thoroughfare in the capital, Libreville, which were the only areas taken over by the officers, the spokesman said. Two of the coup participants were killed when security forces took over and freed some hostages, according to a presidential statement reported by RFI. Earlier Monday a soldier who identified himself as Lt. Obiang Ondo Kelly, commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the military had seized control of Gabon's government in order to "restore democracy." He was flanked by two other soldiers holding weapons; all were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets. Those soldiers have been taken into custody and President Ali Bongo's government remains in control, the government spokesman said. A curfew has been imposed over the capital, Libreville, and the internet was cut. The city on the Atlantic Ocean coast was being patrolled by military tanks and armed vehicles. The African Union affirmed its support for the Bongo government. "The African Union strongly condemns the coup attempt this morning in Gabon," the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said on Twitter. "I reaffirm the AU's rejection of all anti-constitutional change." Bongo, in power since 2009, has been out of the country since October amid reports that he had a stroke. He recently addressed the country in a New Year's message that was filmed in Morocco, where he has been receiving medical treatment. Gabon, which is sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer, has been ruled for more than half a century by Bongo and his father, Omar, who died in 2009. Critics have accused the family of profiting from the country's natural resources while not investing enough in basic services for the population of more than 2 million. About one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. In his brief New Year's address, the 59-year-old Bongo declared that the country was "indivisible" and acknowledged his health problems without giving details. "A difficult period," he called it, and a challenge that he surmounted "thanks to God." He promised to put all of his efforts into improving the daily quality of life for Gabon's people. The French-educated Bongo, who was the country's defense minister before becoming president, narrowly won re-election in 2016 in a vote opposition rival Jean Ping claimed was plagued by irregularities, and he continues to call himself the country's real president. CORRECTION (Jan 7, 2019, 7:30 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this story misstated from where Bongo gave his New Year's address. Police are trying to determine whether an ambulance crew was targeted with gunshots during an early morning call. Sarasota police spokeswoman Genevieve Judge said in an email that a crew from the Sarasota County Fire Department responded to a call around 4 a.m. Monday. A resident at the address told the crew they didn't call them. After the crew returned to the ambulance, someone fired a shot at the vehicle. Judge says the two paramedics were inside the vehicle when several shots were fired. At least two bullets struck the ambulance. No one was injured. She says the suspect, who was wearing a hoodie, ran from the scene. An investigation continues. A Florida stripper has been charged with threatening a mass shooting. Lakeland Police say 31-year-old Brien Basarich, an exotic dancer at at Showgirls Mens Club in Plant City, posted about her homicidal urges on social media under the username "taking-lives." According to an arrest affidavit, she said she had a vision of a bar or club with only one entrance and exit and that she planned to purchase an AR-15 "soonish." Bay News 9 reports she described herself as a great admirer of serial killers and mass murderers. She was charged this week with written threat to kill or injure and arrested at home. It's unclear if she had retained an attorney who could comment on the charges. What to Know The cameras will reportedly be placed in 36 schools deemed to have the highest security needs and will cost $621,000. Browards decision comes just one week after the MSD Public Safety Commission recommended better safety equipment. If you plan on stepping foot on the campus of over 30 schools in Broward County in the near future, be prepared to be videotaped and possibly have your image saved as part of a new security measure. The school district has approved a plan to install a surveillance system that includes 116 high-def "smart cameras." The cameras will reportedly be placed in 36 schools deemed to have the highest security needs and will cost $621,000 with over $460,000 of that being paid as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The Broward County Commission, which must approve the grant, will take of the matter at their Tuesday meeting while the school board will vote on it at a later meeting. The schools have not been identified, however the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland where 17 students and faculty were killed on February 14th is expected to be one of the schools where they will be installed. Browards decision comes just one week after the MSD Public Safety Commission recommended better safety equipment in the wake of the shooting but did not specifically mention facial recognition technology in their report given to the state. What to Know The start of the work week is here, South Florida and NBC 6 has your top six stories for Monday, January 7th. The start of the work week is here, South Florida and NBC 6 has your top six stories for Monday, January 7th. Weather wise, a beautiful day is in the First Alert forecast with high temperatures in the upper 70s ahead of another cold front scheduled to arrive by the middle of the week. No. 1 - A possible "Peeping Tom" in Pembroke Pines has concerned one family. A man was caught on camera pacing back and forth in the backyard of a Pembroke Pines home. In at least one video, it appears that he looks through a window. No. 2 - A federal judge is holding a hearing over whether to give a former South Florida elections official her job back. Embattled former Broward elections supervisor Brenda Snipes will square off Monday in federal court against Gov. Rick Scott and Senate President Bill Galvano. No. 3 Miami-Dade County students return to classes on Monday after the holiday break. Broward County students will return to classes on Tuesday. No. 4 - A Florida stripper has been charged with threatening a mass shooting. Lakeland Police say 31-year-old Brien Basarich posted about her homicidal urges on social media under the username "taking-lives." According to an arrest affidavit, she said she had a vision of a bar or club with only one entrance and exit and that she planned to purchase an AR-15 "soonish." No. 5 - In a Golden Globes chock full of upsets, the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" took best picture, drama, over Bradley Cooper's heavily favored "A Star is Born" and Glenn Close bested Lady Gaga for best actress. Few winners were seen as more certain than Lady Gaga as best actress in a drama at Sunday's ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. But the veteran actress Close pulled off the shocker for her performance in "The Wife," as the spouse of a Nobel Prize-winning author. No. 6 - Police arrested a Key Largo couple after they failed to pay more than $10,000 in hotel bills. Lee Thomas Roe, 36, and Ashley Roe, 34, were charged with grand theft after police say they were staying at a Hampton Inn in Key Largo on five separate occasions. According to the FBI, which is serving as the lead agency in the investigation, a woman, wearing a black jacket with the hood up, glasses and a gray scarf, entered the bank branch inside of Jewel-Osco, 7525 W. Lake St., at about 10:50 a.m. and demanded money. She then left the business on foot, officials said. CRAB CAKES, CRAB BISQUE, crab dip, crab salad? You'll see such from-the-not-so-deep classics on seafooderies' menus throughout the calendar. But the crab feed is a different story: These one-night-only events aren't just about rolling up of sleeves and crackin' crab, though; community is a focus, as is, quite often, fundraising. The crab feed also, at least 'round the Golden State, is very much a wintertime thing, and we say "wintertime" we do mean mid-January to late February, as a loose window. And while not every local club nor service organization'll be feedin' it up over those well-spiced weeks, plenty will, in towns, villages, and shore-close counties throughout Northern California. IS THERE ONE NEAR YOU? Little River Inn, in Mendocino County, just added a second 2019 crab feed, after the first one on the schedule sold out (Saturday, Jan. 19 is the date). The Great Sonoma Crab and Wine Fest is ready for its 30th go-around, all to give love to "scholarships, agricultural education, and advocacy," on Saturday, Feb. 2 in Santa Rosa. Heading to the USS Hornet on Saturday, Feb. 16? There's a crab feed that's doubling as a fundraiser, and, yep, you'll get to eye the Hangar Bay exhibits (there are VIP tickets, too, which include a tour). And at the Old City Hall Restaurant in Gilroy on Saturday, Jan. 26? It's a crab feed fundraiser for Operation Freedow Paws. OF COURSE, if you crave lots and lots of crab, spread out over several days, in one of the most crab-tastic California places, best make for Mendocino County from Jan. 18-27. That's where it'll be all crab all of the time, or, rather, lots of crab most of the time, in addition to cool events, fun outings, and chance to take in the spectacular county in myriad ways, from the Skunk Train to horseback riding. It's not unexpected this time of year, but influenza activity is increasing. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported an elevated number of people visiting their doctors with flu-like illness. During the final week of 2018, the most recent reporting period, 15 percent of flu tests in Dallas County were being returned positive. In the week leading up to Dec. 1, 2018, there were 36 positive flu cases reported in Dallas County, seven of which required hospitalization and three of those patients were sent to the ICU. During the final week of the year, positive cases were more than 13 times higher with 475 positive cases reported, 67 of which required hospitalization and 14 of those patients were sent to the ICU. The Tarrant County Health Department reported a similar increase in cases, jumping from 61 confirmed cases during the first week of December to more than 600 just before Christmas. According to the CDC and Texas Department of State Health Services, the predominant strain of flu reported by labs is influenza A (H1N1) though influenza A (H3N2) and influenza B are also circulating. Shortly before New Years, NBC 5 reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 11 states were seeing widespread cases of the virus. While Texas was not on the list, DFW-area doctors NBC 5 spoke with were concerned due to the uptick in local cases. Experts advise it is still not too late to get a flu vaccine. U.S. health officials have traced a food poisoning outbreak from romaine lettuce to at least one farm in California, which voluntarily recalled red and green leaf lettuce as well as cauliflower because they may be contaminated with E. coli. Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County said Thursday it was issuing the new recall, for the listed products harvested between Nov. 27 and Nov. 30, "out of an abundance of caution." The Food and Drug Administration cautioned Thursday that other farms are likely involved in the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak and consumers should continue checking the label before purchasing the product. The Food and Drug Administration said 59 people in 15 states have now been sickened by the tainted lettuce. That's seven more cases than previously reported, but regulators said they are fairly confident that the lettuce which first triggered the outbreak has been removed from the market. The FDA told consumers to avoid romaine lettuce just before Thanksgiving. Officials said a water reservoir at Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County tested positive for the bacterial strain and the owners are cooperating with U.S. officials. Officials from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not determined how the water reservoir which is used to irrigate lettuce became contaminated. Adam Bros. said in a statement that "sediment from a reservoir near where the produce was grown tested positive for E. coli" but said that while harvested produce may have come into contact with filtered, treated water from the reservoir, none of that water tested positive for the bacteria. The company said that there have been no illnesses reported in the recall of red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce and cauliflower. Those products were distributed across the country; find identifying product information here. A man who answered the phone at Adam Bros. Farms Thursday said he could not comment on the government announcement. According to the company's website, it only grows vegetables products, including broccoli, cauliflower, celery and various types of lettuce. Not all Adam Bros. products have been recalled, according to the statement. E. coli can get into water and soil through multiple routes, including waste from domesticated animals or wild animals, fertilizer and other agricultural products. The FDA's Dr. Stephen Ostroff said investigators have linked the tainted romaine lettuce to multiple distributors and processors, suggesting it must have come from several farms. The government also narrowed the source of the outbreak to three California counties: Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Benito. That's down from six California counties under investigation when regulators began warning the public last month. Regulators said people should only buy romaine lettuce with a label listing where and when it was harvested. Lettuce from outside the three California counties that was harvested after Nov. 23 should be safe to eat. Romaine harvesting recently began shifting from California's Central Coast to winter growing areas, primarily Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California's Imperial Valley. Those winter regions weren't yet shipping when the illnesses began. E. coli, the bacteria often associated with food poisoning, usually causes sickness two to eight days later, according to health authorities. Most people with the infection get diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Some cases can be life-threatening, causing kidney failure and seizures. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday that the powers of his Democratic replacement will remain among the strongest of any governor in the country, even if he signs bills fellow Republicans approved in a lame-duck legislative session. The lengthy Facebook post , where Walker praised the measures without saying whether he will sign them, is the clearest signal yet that the outgoing Republican governor is generally supportive of the bills restricting powers of the office. The post comes as Walker faces increasing pressure from Republicans , including a prominent donor and former governor, to veto the measures. Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers said over the weekend that he had made a personal plea to Walker to veto the bills but that the governor was noncommittal. Evers and other Democrats are weighing lawsuits to block some of the measures. The bills would limit early voting to no more than two weeks before an election; shield the state's job-creation agency from Evers' control until September; limit his ability to enact administrative rules; block Evers from withdrawing Wisconsin from a multistate lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act; and weaken powers of incoming Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. But Walker's Facebook post downplayed the scope of the measures the Republican-controlled Legislature passed last week, less than five days after they were introduced. "Let's set the record straight the new governor will still have some of the strongest powers of any governor in the nation if these bills become law," Walker wrote. He noted that the new governor's broad veto power, including a line-item veto on budget bills, remains unchanged. Walker also highlighted the governor's ability to appoint members of his Cabinet and other positions, including judges, district attorneys and sheriffs. And, Walker said the governor's ability to present a two-year state budget and pardon convicted felons something Walker has never done over his eight years in office would remain unchanged. Walker delineated what he called "straightforward criteria" for deciding whether to sign the bills. That includes whether they improve transparency, increase accountability, affirm stability in government and protect taxpayers. In each category, Walker cited examples from the bills that he supports, such as requiring a report on who had been pardoned and requiring all money obtained from lawsuit settlements to be deposited in the state's general fund. Walker also said it "makes sense" to require legislative approval when the governor seeks a federal waiver. One bill would require that for any health care-related waivers, a new hurdle that Walker did not have to abide by but he also worked closely with Republicans who controlled the Legislature all eight years he was in office. Evers will have to work with a Republican controlled Legislature at least his first two years in office. Walker was also on the defensive over the weekend, after former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum joined the call from conservatives for Walker to veto the bill. Others, including prominent GOP donor Sheldon Lubar and conservative commentator Charlie Sykes, have said Walker will tarnish his legacy by signing them. Walker issued a series of tweets on Saturday each beginning with "OUR LEGACY" where he spelled out his accomplishments in office, such as eliminating the state property tax and cutting college tuition. The bills will be automatically sent to Walker by Dec. 20 if he doesn't request them from the Legislature sooner. Walker hasn't responded to questions about whether and when he will call for the bills before Dec. 20. Once he has them, he has six days not counting Sunday to sign or veto them. The latest plunge in oil prices has dealt a heavy blow to Iraq's stagnating economy, threatening the new government's ability to rebuild after the war with the Islamic State group and provide basic services to areas roiled by recent protests. Brent crude oil, used to price international purchases, briefly rose above $85 a barrel in October but has since plummeted to less than $55 a nightmare for a country like Iraq that derives 95 percent of its revenue from oil exports. A $111.9 billion draft budget sent to parliament in October projects crude exports of 3.8 million barrels per day to be sold at $56 per barrel. The bill, which includes a 23 percent increase in spending, would leave a deficit of $22.8 billion. But that won't even begin to address the colossal challenge of reconstruction after years of war. Some 1.8 million people have yet to return to their homes, according to the United Nations. Mosul, the country's second largest city, lies partly in ruins, as do many other cities, towns and villages once held by IS militants. Iraq's Planning Ministry estimates the country needs approximately $88 billion for reconstruction. In February, donors at a Kuwait summit pledged $30 billion in loans and investments to finance a portion of the bill, but little progress has been made to fulfill the pledges. In Iraq's oil-rich south, meanwhile, which was spared from the war's devastation, protests have erupted in recent months over unemployment and poor public services. Rolling power outages have been a nationwide problem going back to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and in the south the tap water is undrinkable. "We were surprised by the plunging oil prices and we have fallen into a big problem," said lawmaker Haneen al-Qado, who chairs parliament's Economy Committee. "The government is not in an enviable position." Iraqis elected a new government earlier in 2018, but it is dominated by the same bickering political factions that have governed the country for the last 15 years. Lawmakers have rejected the draft budget, calling for a new one that would estimate an even lower oil price and allocate even more funds for public investments. Qado says they may not be able to approve a budget until sometime in the first quarter of next year. Until then, the government can only spend one-twelfth of the previous year's allocation each month. While international attention has been focused on the devastation in northern and western Iraq, and the protests in the south, the budget crisis has also taken a heavy toll on Iraqis living in more stable areas. Construction projects across Baghdad have been stalled for years, with half-finished buildings turned into neighborhood garbage dumps. Kadhim Nima Khudair's construction company signed contracts in 2014 to build four schools at a cost of $5 million. By the following year, three of them were 80 percent complete, but then public funds dried up as the government launched the costly war against IS. When oil prices started to recover in 2017, the government began paying installments again, but only for the projects that were mostly completed. Now the payments have stopped again pending the budget negotiations. None of the schools have been completed, and Khudair has fallen deeply into debt, forcing him to lay off some 500 workers and sell family homes and cars. "I don't want any profit now, I only want my capital back," Khudair said. "We have been struggling all these years. People are still knocking on my door, asking for their money." Sami al-Araji, the head of the National Investment Commission, told an economic conference in December that hundreds of projects worth an estimated $54 billion are delayed. He called for a major overhaul of the economy that would promote investment and lessen the country's reliance on oil. "We have to think of all alternatives," he said. "The country has promising opportunities." That's easier said than done. Efforts to diversify the economy have been stymied by political infighting and corruption going all the way back to 2003, fueling cycles of war and instability. "Our fate is attached to oil," Khudair said. "When it's down, our blood pressure rises." An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family over alleged abuse and barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room in a desperate bid for asylum will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case is evaluated by the U.N. refugee agency, immigration authorities said Monday. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun grabbed global attention when she sent out pleas for help via social media, saying she feared for her life if she were put on a plane back to Kuwait, where she had slipped away from her family, or her homeland. Instead, she has been allowed to enter Thailand temporarily under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency, which was expected to take about five to seven days to study her case and her claim for asylum. She said she wants to go to Australia to seek refuge there. "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law," said Thai Immigration Police chief Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. Alqunun's plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families and other obstacles they face in the conservative kingdom. Photos released Monday night by immigration police showed Alqunun with Thai and U.N. officials after she left the airport transit hotel room where she had been holed up over the weekend, sending her pleas for help on her Twitter account. She later tweeted that she feels safe under U.N. protection and has gotten back her passport, which had been taken from her earlier. Alqunun's ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabia's restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a man's consent. Upon arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man whom she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room, and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online, sending out pleas for assistance over Twitter, and also barricaded her hotel room door. Global attention was sparked by social media and she did not get on the scheduled morning flight to Kuwait. Alqunun wrote of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her father's retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the U.N. refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian lawmakers, Germany's ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow U.N refugee officials to meet with her. The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it expected to take at least 5-7 days to evaluate her case and claims, according to Surachate, the Thai immigration police chief. Giuseppe De Vincentiis, the UNHCR representative in Thailand, told journalists he did not know where Alqunun would be staying but that she would be safe because she was under his agency's protection. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with her, but De Vincentiis noted "a good spirit of collaboration so far" with Thai officials. Surachate said Alqunun's father was due to arrive Monday night, and officials would see if she was willing to meet with him. "As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She won't be sent anywhere tonight," Surachate said at a news conference. "She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles," he said. He noted her tweets mentioned "she does not want Islam," adding that "this type of thing, in her country, is a hard crime." Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press that Thailand should let Alqunun continue her journey to Australia. "She has a valid Australian visa," he said. "The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harm's way." Surachate challenged parts of Alqunun's story, including that she had an Australian visa. "The fact is she didn't have any money. She intended to come here and didn't have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless," he said. He later said Kuwait Airways had been at fault for allowing her to board her flight to Thailand without having proper travel documents. The airline did not immediately comment. Earlier, Surachate had said that the Saudi Embassy had said she had run away from her parents and said she could be in danger. The embassy did not mention that she had rejected Islam. Her case highlighted Saudi Arabia's male guardianship laws, which require women who want to travel, obtain a passport or marry to have the consent of a male relative usually a father or husband no matter what their age. It also underscored the limits of the reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the grisly killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always trying to escape male relatives. In 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom triggered a firestorm online when she was stopped en route to Australia, where she planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts. Despite efforts by the Saudi government to curtail the scope of male guardianship laws, women who try to flee their families in Saudi Arabia have few good options inside the kingdom. They often are pressured to reconcile with their families, sent to shelters where their movement is restricted or face arrest for disobeying their legal guardian. While the Saudi Embassy in Thailand denies Saudi authorities were involved in trying to stop Alqunun from going to Australia, the kingdom has in the past forced its citizens to return home. Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Bangkok, Abdullah al-Shuaibi, was quoted in Saudi media as saying that Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. He said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that such a decision would rest with Thai officials. "She was stopped by airport authorities because she violated Thai laws," he was quoted as saying in Sabq, a state-aligned Saudi news website. "The embassy is only monitoring the situation." Associated Press writers Tassanee Vejpongsa, Grant Peck and Sam McNeil contributed. The U.S. Supreme Court is leaving in place a decision that vacated a murder conviction against Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. The high court on Monday declined a request from the state of Connecticut to hear the case. Skakel was convicted in 2002 after decades of investigations into the 1975 bludgeoning death of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, who lived across the street from the Skakel family in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her body was found in her family's backyard. Skakel and Moxley were both 15 when she was killed. We appreciate the Supreme Courts consideration of the States petition. Any further comment on the matter will be made to the court to which the case will be returned and only after the Moxley family has been informed. We extend our condolences to Mrs. Moxley and her family on their tragic loss, the State Of Connecticut Division Of Criminal Justice said in a statement. Martha Moxleys mother, 86-year-old Dorthy Moxley, said she is disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Courts decision, wants to see Skakel back in prison and will support whatever decision Connecticut prosecutors make about whether to retry Skakel. Skakel's attorney Roman Martinez released the following comments to NBC Connecticut: "Over the past 10 years, two Connecticut courts including the Connecticut Supreme Court have painstakingly reviewed every detail of Michael Skakels case. Both reached the same conclusion: Michaels conviction violated the US Constitution. It was the result of a deeply unfair trial. The evidence shows that Michael spent 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. We hope that the State of Connecticut will give Michael the chance to move forward with putting his life back together. The Supreme Courts decision rejecting review should end this case once and for all," Martinez wrote in a statement to NBC Connecticut. Skakel is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy. His lawyers said he was miles away at the likely time Moxley was killed. The next leader of the Department of Children and Families will be a veteran of the agency, marking a shift in the direction of the department which has faced the ire of lawmakers and the Office of the Child Advocate in recent years. Vanessa Dorantes has worked for DCF for 27 years, most recently as the person in charge of the region that includes Danbury, Torrington, and Waterbury in Western Connecticut. Dorantes, who lives in Bristol, says her primary goal will be to ensure agencies work better together when addressing a DCF case. Connect with our other stakeholders of other either sister agencies, the education system, healthcare system, law enforcement and the courts to kind of all be moving in the same direction so I think collaboration will pay stronger dividends and outcomes for kids and families if we can bridge some of those relationships, she said. Dorantes will follow Joette Katz, who will leave the agency after serving as commissioner since 2011, the same year Gov. Dannel Malloy took office. Her tenure saw highs and lows, drastically reducing the number of children that were in institutional care. She was also criticized by the Office of the Child Advocate and some members of the General Assembly for her handling of some individual cases, which in some instances were related to the deaths of children. Dorantes acknowledges the thankless nature of the position, and how she will inevitably deal with serious consequences. Its not if theres going to be a tragedy, its when, she said. If and when that happens, Governor-Elect Ned Lamont says he has her back. She gives us the best opportunity to make sure our kids are safe and their wellbeing is looked after, Lamont said. I stand by her in the sense that I want commissioners like Vanessa to have room to run and room to lead. Dorantes says her experience on the ground level of the agency, and working directly with families is what will help her lead the department. She says she was not angling for the job of commissioner when she was approached about taking the job. I do the work. Im a proud social worker. Im a proud educator and I love children, I love the community and I understand that they get stronger when their families get stronger and their communities are stronger. The other stuff sometimes from us on the front line feels like noise and I want to make sure that that noise is lowered so kids can be elevated. Executive nominations must go before the Connecticut Senate, a process that will begin in earnest this week as the 2019 General Assembly gets underway. One early ally for Dorantes could turn out to be Republican Leader Len Fasano, who will become Minority Leader on January 9. Fasano was the loudest and sharpest critic of Katz when she led DCF. He said he does not know Dorantes personally, but says he likes what hes heard about her so far. I think this commissioner thats been appointed was someone whos been on the front lines whos dealt with the clientele day in and day out, understands the real life implications of DCF and understands where the shortcoming are so I think thats a very good first step toward getting control over DCF, Fasano said. Middletown Police are investigating after dead puppies were found in a bag on Sunday. A couple out walking their dog found the bag on the side of Preston Avenue, a quiet street in a heavily wooded area, and contacted police just before noon to report what they found. Investigators said the four puppies were approximately two weeks old and were black with some white on their chin, chest and feet. The puppies were all male and appeared to be a possible poodle or cocker spaniel mixed breed. According to police, the puppies were transported to Pieper-Olson Veterinary Hospital, where they were examined and stored until they could be transported to the lab for a necropsy to determine the cause of death. Officials estimate the puppies had been dead for a few hours. Police said the puppies would have been too young to adopt and should have stayed with their mother. Middletown Animal Control officers are investigating the death of the puppies. Police said they are processing evidence from the scene. Police said the person who left the puppies had several options, including bringing them to a vet, calling animal control or bringing them to police or the fire station. If you know of a dog that just had puppies and they are no longer around, or if you have any other information, you're urged to contact Middletown Animal Control at (860) 638-4030. Elwood asked that a pretrial conference scheduled for Monday be continued, as he was still waiting on a video and other items needed for discovery in the case. He said David Urbanski, the deputy prosecutor on the case, was aware of what was needed. Cook County Board President and Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle issued a statement strongly denouncing Alderman Ed Burke on Sunday night, calling on the embattled official to resign his office. Preckwinkle, who is also the Chairman of the Cook County Democrats, emailed key party leaders on Sunday night to announce major changes related to a federal investigation into allegations that Burke attempted to extort local business leaders. Preckwinkle announced in the email that she has removed Burke as the Chair of the Cook County Democratic Party Judicial Slating Committee, and she also announced she would return the $116,000 that was raised in a fundraiser at Burkes house while she was running for re-election as Cook County Board President last year. Preckwinkle also demanded that Burke resign his position as the Democratic committeeman of the 14th Ward, and that he step down immediately from the Chicago City Council. Cynics say that corruption and Chicago politics go together, she said in the email. I have never accepted that. Ive dedicated my life to fighting for change and will continue to fight for all Chicagoans. Preckwinkle also criticized Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza and fellow mayoral candidate Gery Chico, as well as Bill Daley, for their connections to Burke. I wont have my name dragged through the mud over the alleged criminal conduct of Susana Mendozas mentor, Gery Chicos best friend, and Bill Daleys long-time political ally, she said. Burke recently said that he still fully intended to run for re-election to the City Council despite his resignation from his post as Chair of the Finance Committee. A French citizen accused of falsely claiming to have a bomb at OHare Airport was admitted to a hospital for mental evaluation. Jerome Osselaer, 41, was charged with felony disorderly conduct in connection to a false bomb threat made Friday evening at the airport, Assistant Cool County States Attorney Rachel Mabbott said at a Sunday bail hearing. About 6 p.m., Osselaer confronted an employee, pointed to his jacket and said, Im detonated, Mabbott said. Osselaer also said he had a bomb in his duffel bag, Mabbott said. Police responded and found the bomb threat to be false, Mabbott said. Osselaer was taken to Resurrection Hospital in Park Ridge for mental evaluation, according to a Chicago police officer present at the Osselaers bail hearing Sunday. Osselaer was still admitted to Resurrection Hosital on Sunday when Judge Mary C. Marubio ordered him held in lieu of $1,000 bail. Osselaer is a resident of Malta and holds French citizenship, Mabbott said. Prosecutors said Osselaer had no criminal record, but could not say where he had flown from, where he was going, or how long he had been in Chicago. Osselaer was scheduled to appear in court Jan. 11 in Skokie, Marubio said. He was in the process of being transferred to Cermak Health Services at Cook County Jail, the officer said. (Natural News) Corruption within the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now so prolific that many are calling for new legislation in the form of a Clean Soil Act to address the many loopholes that allow big industry to pollute our soils. But would more regulations actually fix the problem? According to Focus for Health, a Clean Soil Act would accompany the Clean Air and Clean Water acts that were passed back in the 1970s, helping to fix the nefarious spread of toxic elements via biosolids, also known as biosludge. As it currently stands, the EPA barely even looks at biosludge. The agency admits that it doesnt know the full extent of the chemicals found in biosludge, nor does it even have the capacity to study them hence calls for a Clean Soil Act. EPA can only regulate an infinitesimally small fraction of all the environmental pollutants that may play a role in causing cancer, birth defects, neurological disorders and other environmentally triggered diseases and disorders, warns Focus for Health, which sees biosludge and the lack of regulation surrounding it as a likely cause of the current onslaught of chronic disease. The futility of our current regulatory approach is becoming increasingly evident as the incidence of cancer, autism, Alzheimers disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinsons disease, ALS and other environmentally triggered diseases and disorders rises, and as their onset begins to occur earlier in life. For more biosolids news, be sure to check out Biosludge.news. Sewage industry too powerful to be held back by Clean Soil Act, says biosludge expert But would a Clean Soil Act actually fix the problem? Not necessarily. According to biosludge expert Craig Monk, who spoke with us in an exclusive interview as part of the Biosludged film project you can watch the official Biosludged trailer at Brighteon.com the sewage industry is now so powerful and wealthy that it likely cant be stopped by mere legislation. It would just be another act or document that the sewage industry would find some way to get around if it even made it to an actual rule, Monk explained during the interview, which you can watch below. Its just one more rule on a stack of hundreds and hundreds of other rules, and theyll always find a loophole in it. The sewage industry came up with the word biosolids to get around existing rules on toxic waste disposal Keep in mind that the word biosolids was conjured up by the sewage industry to bypass laws already on the books that prohibit the careless dumping of toxic waste on soil. By changing the name from sewage sludge to biosolids, the multi-billion-dollar sewage industry has basically pulled a fast one on the general public and thus far, the government has done nothing to stop it. The word biosolids to me is comical, says Monk. Its sewage sludge. Its always been sewage sludge. But the sewage industry got together back when it was all started and created biosolids to lull the public into a false sense of safety. Even at the local level, government authorities such as those in charge of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are jockeying around the words used to categorize biosludge in an attempt to make it more palatable to the public. Now the TCEQ is wanting to change sewage sludge to sewage residuals,' warns Monk, revealing that the entire charade is nothing more than corrupt officials playing what he calls Chemical Russian Roulette with public health. Be sure to check out the full Biosludged film for FREE at Biosludged.com. You can also learn more about the film by visiting BrighteonFilms.com. Sources for this article include: FocusForHealth.org NaturalNews.com Brighteon.com Biosludged.com BrighteonFilms.com (Natural News) In the aftermath of Hillary Clintons loss to Donald Trump in November 2016, Americans were treated to waves of stories making claims that Russia was responsible for the presidents victory and that Trump and Vladimir Putin had secretly worked together to undermine Clintons campaign to steal the election. In particular, we were told, Russian troll farms deployed bots aimed at meddling in the election via a massive influence operation designed to push fake news and sway opinions on key candidate positions. But it turns out that, while meddling certainly did occur, those behind the operation were not Russians. They had no ties whatsoever to the Kremlin, in fact. They were Americans. As reported by Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist nearly a year ago, a tool ostensibly used to track Russian bots on Twitter and other social media called Hamilton68 after No. 68 of the Federalist Papers, which was written by Alexander Hamilton was devised by The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a group whose advisory council that includes #NeverTrump stalwarts like conservative Bill Kristol and a gaggle of other neocons and veterans of the Obama administration such as John Podesta, who ran Hillarys campaign. Hemingway noted at the time that Hamilton68s success in tracking bots is impossible to assess, but leading Democrats like the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, nevertheless used the projects findings to form the basis of their claims that Russian bots helped POTUS Trump defeat Clinton. Democrats uncorroborated claims, likely fabricated by the Hamilton68 project, also formed the basis of numerous stories in the establishment media uncritically echoing claims by Schiff and others and always without verifying the information that they were referencing. Deep State establishmentarians are behind the Russian bot hoax One journalist who was critical, however, and remains so, is Glenn Greenwald of Edward Snowden fame. Though a liberal, he has been a consistent critic of Democratic claims of Russian election interference because so few of them have ever been corroborated. The U.S. intelligence communitys assessment that the Kremlin tried to interfere in the 2016 election is essentially meaningless as well, given that Russia has been conducting influence operations in America for decades. Less than a year ago, Bill Kristol joined with ex-CIA officials, Marco Rubios top aide & a few Dem hawks, and created a new group purporting to track Russian Twitter activity based on secret designations. It now dominates every headline, every pronouncement uncritically accepted, he tweeted on Feb. 19, 2018. Less than a year ago, Bill Kristol joined with ex-CIA officials, Marco Rubio's top aide & a few Dem hawks, and created a new group purporting to track Russian Twitter activity based on secret designations. It now dominates every headline, every pronouncement uncritically accepted https://t.co/Lo3Nrt5y1b Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 19, 2018 As SHTFPlan reported further, Greenwald also referenced Hemingways piece in a separate tweet a few days later, noting that Hamilton68 is probably the single most successful media fraud & US propaganda campaign Ive seenIts truly shocking. From the way it was formed to the secrecy of its "methods" to the blatantly false assumptions on which its claims rest, "Hamilton68" is probably the single most successful media fraud & US propaganda campaign I've seen since I've been writing about politics. It's truly shocking. Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 22, 2018 Theres more. Just a week before Christmas, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that was highly critical of Russia, accusing Moscow of suppressing Democratic voter turnout by targeting blacks on social media. The report was written by members of a small technology firm, New Knowledge. As The New York Times reported Dec. 19, the firms CEO and co-founder, Jonathon Morgan, and his staff ran a Russian bot operation of their own in Alabama during a special election to replace then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That race pitted GOP candidate Roy Moore against Democrat Doug Jones; the latter won a narrow victory. (Related: Did Russian-style meddling in Alabama election by Dem operatives hand victory to Doug Jones?) So the same firm that wrote the Senate report critical of Russian bot interference in 2016 then ran a Russian bot interference campaign in the Alabama race, calling it an experiment. The point is, the entire Russian bot narrative was created out of whole cloth by Deep State establishmentarians and then echoed dutifully by a compliant media. It was never a Moscow operation, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has repeatedly said. Read more about this Russian election meddling hoax at Hoax.news. Sources include: NYTimes.com TheNationalSentinel.com TheFederalist.com SHTFPlan.com Watch the trailer for a new film by Story in Progress following a team of scientists, explorers and conservationists surveying the effects of climate change on a remote region of the Great Barrier Reef. The full film is available to watch now. By Emmanuel Dhyne, Senior Economist, National Bank of Belgium, Jozef Konings, University of Liverpool Management School, University of Leuven and CEPR Research Fellow, Jeroen Van den bosch, PhD Candidate in Economics, University of Leuven, and Stijn Vanormelingen, Assistant Professor of Economics, KU Leuven. Originally published at VoxEU. Although information technology has reshaped the way businesses operate, measuring IT capital in firms is challenging. Using an exceptionally rich firm-level dataset from Belgium, this column finds that large firms benefit more from IT than small firms, and that IT explains about 10% of the productivity dispersion. IT has contributed to Belgian GDP and productivity growth prior to the Global Crisis, but the recession seems to have led to firms to forego investment in IT. Achieving optimal IT investment levels could reinvigorate productivity growth. The interest from economists and politicians in information technology (IT) is not new. However, opinions among economists about the importance of IT are divided. While Robert J. Gordon, macroeconomist and economic historian at Northwestern University, has been arguing against techno-optimism for a long time, MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee suggest in their recent book, The second machine age, that most of the productivity gains from IT are still to come. In our recent study (Dhyne et al. 2018), we provide new insights on the returns of IT by constructing firm-level IT capital stocks from an exceptionally rich data set of all Belgian business-to-business transaction data on IT purchases. This allows us to investigate which firms benefit most from IT. Furthermore, our work provides insights into the Solow paradox, which refers to the fact that we do not see much effect of IT on macroeconomic GDP growth. Since we use the universe of Belgian firms, we are able to show the micro channels of the aggregate impact of IT on macroeconomic productivity growth. Large Firms Benefit More from IT Do all firms benefit equally from IT, or do some benefit more than others? We show that for very small firms with fewer than five full-time employees, an increase of IT capital by 1% pushes the firms value added up by 0.08% on average. For firms with more than 250 employees, the impact is more than twice as high with an average increase in value added of 0.17%. We would therefore expect that large firms invest a larger share of their revenues in IT than small firms. However, it turns out that they do not, and consequently their return on IT is higher. Figure 1 shows the differences in the return of investing one additional euro in IT (the gross marginal product of IT capital) across the firm size distribution. Increasing the IT capital stock by 1 in very small firms with fewer than five full-time employees results in a 0.92 increase in value added. The same investment in firms with more than 250 employees has a 2.55 return.1 This suggests that there is an untapped potential for productivity growth by investing in IT, especially for large firms. As large firms employ about 40% of the working population, higher IT investments in large firms would also boost economy-wide productivity growth. Figure 1 The relation between the marginal product of IT capital and firm size (size of circles indicates share of the working population) The Return on IT Depends on the Activity of the Firm Another piece of the puzzle on the economy-wide impact of IT is understanding how the return varies across industries. Figure 2 displays the gross return of investing an additional euro in IT. The horizontal axis ranks the industries according to their productivity, expressed in value added per employee. Figure 2 The marginal product of IT capital across industries (size of circles indicates share of the working population) The productivity of firms in industries with a high marginal product of IT capital increases when they invest more in IT. Graphically, this results in moving towards the lower right corner of Figure 2. Only a few industries are located in this region such as information and communication, and financial and insurance which are amongst the most IT-intensive industries. As indicated by the size of the circles, the largest part of the working population can be found in industries with lower productivity levels. Fortunately, in many of these industries with relatively low productivity, the marginal product of IT capital is relatively high. For example, the transportation and storage, manufacturing and wholesale, and retail industries all realise about 1.5 added value for 1 of extra investment in IT, while altogether these industries employ 35% of the working population. The positive relation between IT intensity and productivity suggests that these industries would realise substantial productivity gains by investing in IT. Underinvestment and Misallocation of Investments Explain (Part of) the Productivity Paradox Next, we decompose GDP growth into primary input growth (capital and labour deepening) and productivity growth to assess the importance of IT capital at the macro level. First, we look at the contribution of capital and labour deepening to GDP growth. Figure 3 shows all the mechanisms at work, and their individual contribution to Belgian GDP growth over the period 2002-2013. While the Belgian economy grew (on average) 2.2% per year between 2002 and 2013, the contribution of IT capital deepening was only 0.08%. This is especially driven by a decline in IT investments during and after the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Before the recession, the contribution of IT capital deepening was on average 0.19%, but afterwards, in 2010-2013, there was no contribution to GDP growth from IT capital deepening. This suggests that the Great Recession resulted in firms foregoing investments in IT. This post-recession underinvestment in IT explains the low overall contribution of IT capital deepening to GDP growth. Figure 3 Decomposition of GDP growth in the private sector in Belgium for the period 2002-2013 Second, we look at the contribution of productivity growth to aggregate GDP growth. While productivity growth was only 1.29% (on average) between 2002 and 2013, it accounted for the largest part of GDP growth. Despite the post-2000 decline in productivity growth (Van Ark 2014), firms generally increased their IT investment intensity. As shown in this study and earlier firm-level studies, IT investments provide large returns to firms. So how can these two findings be reconciled? To understand how IT relates to productivity growth at the country level, we distinguish between: (i) within growth, which occurs when all firms become more efficient, and (ii) reallocation when there are more (fewer) investments in firms where the potential return on investments is high (low). IT reallocation contributed, on average, 0.73% to Belgian productivity growth. So, the mechanism by which those firms with high returns on IT actually invested in IT accounted for more than half of total productivity growth. What is particularly striking is that this number is entirely driven by the pre-recession period. For the years 2010-2013, the average contribution of IT capital reallocation to the productivity growth fell back to a mere 0.09%. This indicates that IT did contribute to Belgian productivity growth. However, this was particularly the case before the recession, while afterwards firms that should have invested in IT did not do so. This suboptimal allocation of investments is one part of the puzzle of the slowdown in productivity growth after the Great Recession. IT Explains 10% of the Productivity Dispersion across Firms Not all firms are equally productive. Even among firms that produce very similar products, there are large differences in production efficiency. The dashed vertical lines of Figure 4 show the 10th and 90th percentiles of the productivity distribution,2 and the green line shows the average IT investments per employee. A firm in the 90th percentile of the productivity distribution is about four times as productive as a firm in the 10th percentile of the productivity distribution, while average IT investments per employee are about five times as high for a firm in the 90th percentile compared to a firm in the 10th percentile of the productivity distribution. For the US, the earlier literature found that IT explains 8% of dispersion in productivity across firms. For Belgium, about 10% of the productivity dispersion between firms can be explained by IT. Figure 4 Productivity dispersion and IT intensity Concluding Remarks The key takeaway is that IT and the productivity of firms are very closely related. While all firms benefit from IT, it is the largest firms that benefit most. Furthermore, the gross marginal product of IT capital is relatively high, with 1.5 added value for 1 of extra investment in the majority of relatively low-productivity industries. When reconciling firm- and industry-level returns of IT investments with the growth of the Belgian economy, we find that IT did contribute to national GDP and productivity growth. However, this was only so until the Great Recession of 2008-2009. The recession seems to have had a scarring effect and resulted in firms foregoing investing in IT. The policy implication is that providing an economic environment which facilitates achieving optimal IT investment levels could help to invigorate productivity growth. References available at original. How cattle can help save the birds of the Great Plains National Geographic Wettest-Year Records for 2018, Take Two Weather Underground 23AndMes Pharma Deals Have Been the Plan All Along Wired (DK). What a Student Loan Bubble Bursting Might Look Like Vice Brexit Lorries to park at Manston airport this morning in test of post-Brexit travel plans if there is disruption at the Port of Dover Kent Online Backstop letters between London and Brussels to be scrutinised Irish Times Brexit CRISIS meeting: Will Theresa May CANCEL MPs weekends and holiday time? Express THERESA MAY: Jeremy Corbyn didnt even read my Brexit deal before he rejected it. His policys a cynical tissue of incoherence Daily Mail Increasing Number Of Tory MPs Are Considering No-Deal Brexit As A Viable Plan B HuffPo. A Leave-backing former cabinet minister: We wont be able to get certain foods like bananas or tomatoes but its not like we wont be able to eat. And well be leaving at a time when British produce is beginning to come into season so its the best possible time to leave with no deal. Commons revolt over No Deal: More than 200 MPs will tell Theresa May to rule out leaving without an agreement even if her proposals are rejected Daily Mail The Dutch love to plan. But even they may not be able to avoid the chaos of a no-deal Brexit. WaPo How groupthink polarized Brexit Politico. The article doesnt match the headline. Or if it does, not in the way the author means. Matt Stoller warned back in 2012 that insurers would increasingly induce, then force, customers to agree to surveillance. But a Wall Street Journal story tonight describes how insurers and medical providers, meaning your doctors employers, are actively cooperating, so as among other things, to help Big Pharma peddle more drugs to you. Stoller warned that over time, insurance companies would make it prohibitive and eventually impossible to refuse to agree to intensive monitoring: Profit-driven surveillance does not start and stop with young adults. It is, in fact, becoming pervasive. The main theme of a recent IBM consulting document on the future of the insurance industry is how much more money an insurance company can make if it tracks and tags its customers. This is particularly true for auto insurance companies, some of whom like Allstate and Progressive are experimenting on new technologies. For instance, IBM suggests that A pay-as-you-live product would trade some location and time-of-day privacy data for lower insurance bills overall. IBM is recommending these companies stick a sensor in your car, measure where you go and when, your speed, acceleration and deceleration, etc. The progression over time could be to withdraw traditional insurance products, so that you wont be able to get an insurance product without sensors attached. As this presentation offers, The aforementioned rising tide of technology also empowers insurance underwriters to bring their products closer to realtime interaction via sensor networks and enlightened privacy regulations. Now at least this progression has the appearance of being consensual. First you are paid for giving up your privacy, then over time, the positioning changes so that customers have to pay a premium for non-monitored products, and then as their usage falls (and you get a lot of adverse selection), the insurer can pretend to be justified in getting rid of the privacy products, having set them up to fail. And even though far too many people are perfectly happy to wear devices that monitor some health measures on an ongoing basis, at least they chose for the data to be collected and hopefully have some appreciation that promises about privacy too often arent what they appear to be. But the Wall Street Journal describes what amounts to a full bore war on individual medical privacy, including linking medical histories to credit records. And the author puts a big smiley face on this effort by depicting it as breaking down silos. Silos is a dog-whistle word in Corporate America. Silos are bad! Sharing is good! From the article: Although technology exists to make AI a potent tool, there is a snag. Data relevant to answering specific questions often reside in various locations, from hospitals to diagnostic labs to pharmaceutical companies. These information silos are typical in the health-care field, leaving scientists and other medical professionals at a disadvantage to harness the full predictive power of AI. Small businesses such as PatientMatters LLC and Prognos Health Inc. are overcoming the data-gathering obstacles to provide insights to medical customers including health plans. For Prognos to do what we do, you need to have large data sets, said Sundeep Bhan, co-founder and chief executive of Prognos, which helps insurers predict their members disease risks. Lovely. So now we have medical pre-crime, since these data-diggers are making it sound as if they are doing more than projecting out the typical trajectory of pre-existing conditions. Again from the article: Prognoshas teamed up with diagnostic labs to accumulate diagnostic data on 200 million patients, which it marries with information from health plans to answer questions such as which members are likely to develop a specific condition. Diagnostic labs, which hope their data will be used to solve medical problems, share the entrepreneurs dreams of seeing medicine take a leap forward, Mr. Bhan said. At the end of the day, in health care, thats what we care about, he added. If you believe that, I have a bridge Id like to sell you, as the story itself demonstrates: Prognos, which has about 100 employees, aids pharmaceutical companies marketing efforts by helping them identify health-care providers that have patients who could benefit from their drugs. Companies such as PatientMatters have crafted services.aims to help health systems gauge patients ability to pay bills and identify financial-aid candidates. PatientMatters, based in Orlando, Fla., and formed in 2012, analyzes medical information from clients as well as publicly available financial data from credit-reporting agencies and other sources Increased use of high-deductible insurance plans means health-care providers must collect more of their revenue from patients. By gathering data and applying AI and machine learning, PatientMatters, which has 235 employees, can help clients anticipate peoples payment behavior The article describes how the data hounds have had some success in getting hospitals to hand over emergency room data as well as medical images. Some issues: How much of this will wind up being a garbage-in, garbage out exercise? Most of this data is presumably from electronic health records. Weve regularly published cross posts from Health Care Renewal on this topic, describing in depth what a train wreck they are. The short version is that EHRs were designed for billing purposes, not with medical care in mind. Two of many examples: Health Care Information Technology: A Danger to Physicians and to Your Health and How Electronic Health Records Degrade Care and Endanger Patients. How much has Obamacare with its neoliberal shopping imperative, undermined this data gathering and mining? In theory, if you have opted to be in an HMO, all of your records ought to be under the same roof. But what if thanks to Obamacare, you switched HMOs, or went from an HMO to a PPO and then back, or even went without coverage? Your medical records are supposed to go from your old provider to the new ones, but how often does that happen well? I know of people who insist on getting copies of all of their blood and other major tests to carry with them to doctor visits, since theyve found too often the doctor either doesnt have all of the information or doesnt have ready access to it. How much will this effort be used to further corporatize care and reduce doctor input? It is a safe bet this sort of data will be used to advance the corporatiation of medicine, which we first discussed in a 2013 post, citing Dr. David Edelberg at Whole Health Chicago (emphasis original): The health industry hopes that individual medical practices and small medical groups will ultimately disappear from the landscape by being financially absorbed into larger groups owned by hospital systems. Physicians are expected to spend a limited amount of time with each patient, and are encouraged to see as many patients as possible during a workday. The insurance companies, sometimes with the token cooperation of a few physician-employees, create vast books of patient-care guidelines to which they believe their physicians must be accountable (remember this word, it will crop up again). These guidelines might mean documented Pap smear and mammogram frequency, weight management and exercise, colonoscopies for patients over 50, and getting that evil LDL (bad cholesterol) below 99 by any means possible If the chart audit system discovers that a physician, for whatever reason, is an outlierthat shes either not following the guidelines exactly or not getting the results anticipated for her patient populationshell be financially penalized. A quick example of what might occur: if your LDL is 115, you may be on the receiving end of a statin sales pitch from your doctor, not because bringing it down to 99 will improve your longevity, but because your refusal to do so will impact her financial bottom line. the subtext of standardized always includes the unspoken spend less money on the patient. Thus, a doctor might be financially penalized for recommending nutritional counseling to lower cholesterol (counseling is expensive) instead of writing a generic statin drug (cheap). Or recommending psychotherapy (therapy is very expensive) instead of generic Prozac (cheaper than M&Ms). Or referring patients for massage, acupuncture, or even chiropractic (expensive, expensive, expensive!) instead of pushing an over-the-counter antiinflammatory (free to the insurance company, as its OTC). And the connection to credit data is cringe-making. Just wait for the articles saying that a better credit score means better health, when if there is any causality, it almost certainly runs the other way. Theres an even more immediate possible use for this information, as Wall Street Journal reader Michael Heinzmann pointed out: With the GOP hell-bent on eliminating protections for patients with preexisting conditions from guaranteed access to health insurance any leakage of personal/private healthcare data would have devastating effects upon millions of patients. Healthcare organizations have a very poor track record on protecting their customers data (and none have suffered any significant sanctions). Even thought I am pretty well insulated from this data hoovering by a combination of happenstance and habit, it makes me very uncomfortable to know it is going on, particularly since I wont be able to continue to be a refusnik once I reach Medicare age unless I become an expat, which is likely to be too high a hill for me to climb. And if you think these concerns are overwrought, please read a Financial Times article Lambert flagged yesterday, a review of Shoshana Zuboffs The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. A key section: Although Zuboff is a professor emerita at the Harvard Business School, her account is as much polemical as it is academic. She is determined to awaken our sense of astonishment and outrage about how this rogue capitalism has evolved to dominate and degrade our lives, largely unnoticed and unchallenged. She also makes one other more worrying and highly contentious claim: that surveillance capitalism has created a new kind of unaccountable power: instrumentarianism. She defines this as the instrumentalisation of behaviour for the purposes of modification, prediction, monetisation and control that threatens to challenge some of the functions of the state and usurp the sovereignty of the people. Instrumentarianism can determine the ends, because it can manipulate the means. Zuboff warns the state wont do much to stop this trend, because it is often a beneficiary and co-conspirator. So it falls to us to throw sand in the gears when we can. This post was first published on December 12, 2011 By Andrew Dittmer, who recently finished his PhD in mathematics at Harvard and is currently continuing work on his thesis topic. He also taught mathematics at a local elementary school. Andrew enjoys explaining the recent history of the financial sector to a popular audience. Many readers wrote in warm and thoughtful comments on the series I wrote interviewing Code Name Cain. I was unfortunately away when the series first posted, and so was not able to respond immediately. Here are some reflections. The word libertarian originally meant anarchist, or libertarian socialist, in the sense of someone who is wary of authority in general, whether coming from the state or from property rights arrangements. However, libertarian as used today more typically refers to right-libertarians like Robert Nozick, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and Murray Rothbard. For a more complete discussion of the different uses of the word libertarian, Karl Widerquist has written a nice essay on the subject. Widerquist points out that it is perhaps poetically appropriate that property rights advocates have appropriated a term that was already being used by people who subscribe to the idea that property is theft, and that these property rights [advocates] now accuse anarchists of trying to steal [the term] from them. Fairly or not, most people today think of right-libertarians when they hear the word libertarian, and so I will from now on use libertarian to mean right-libertarian. I have personally known many libertarians, and one is a good friend of mine. I became particularly interested in libertarianism when I started to realize how powerful such ideas have become in America today. One major political party is strongly influenced by think tanks like AEI and the Cato Institute, in which libertarian ideas are extremely prominent. Although members of the Tea Party do not fit a single stereotype, they do have a strong penchant for libertarian rhetoric. Barack Obama frequently expresses his support for the free market and talks about the burden of taxes; Republican candidates feel no corresponding obligation to express verbally their support for democracy, or for the existence of some taxation. If candidates of both parties now talk in ways that are conditioned by libertarian preferences, it is clear that libertarianism has made great strides. During the series, one reader made a comment about the outlandishness of libertarian thought, to which reader Foppe appropriately replied, That doesnt matter the question is whether they influence policy. What is Libertarianism? The critics of libertarianism often describe it as a theory that privileges liberty, or freedom, over other values like equality, or social justice, or tradition. They often respond by agreeing that liberty is important, but that it is important to balance liberty with other essential commitments. However, after reading a number of libertarian authors, such as Hayek, Friedman, and Nozick, it started to seem to me that libertarianism is not a theory of freedom at all. Reader Marat cited an example by libertarian Walter Block, in which a person is hanging for dear life to a flagpole protruding from the 15th floor of a high-rise. Block says that if the apartment owner demands that the person let go, and the flagpole hanger attempts instead to climb down into the balcony, then if the occupant shoots him for trespassing the answer is clear. The owner is in the right, and the trespasser is in the wrong. In my experience, libertarians often enjoy citing examples like this, in which the freedom of the flagpole hanger to survive is trumped by the right of the owner to maintain sovereignty over her apartment. Is is possible that libertarianism is a theory of sovereignty, and not a theory of freedom? Libertarian Sovereignty If libertarianism is a theory of sovereignty, it is natural to wonder whether libertarian sovereignty can be just as tyrannical as the kind of governments that libertarians dislike. If libertarianism defends the rights of corporations to govern themselves as they see fit, will some people end up signing contracts that effectively make them quasi-slaves? Many libertarians specify that no one will be allowed to sign a contract to make themselves a slave. However, what if people sign contracts that effectively make them into slaves without doing so explicitly? Then they could be slaves in a rights-respecting manner would that be okay? If not, what is the alternative? Should the government be allowed to police every possible contractual arrangement and annul the ones that it thinks could lead to effective slavery? John Holbo of the blog Crooked Timber made an argument along these lines, arguing that a certain form of libertarianism can become something close to feudalism. On the other hand, Widerquist has written an interesting article (A Dilemma for Libertarianism) taking this observation in a slightly different direction. He points out that the same arguments that libertarians use to defend the sanctity of property rights can be used just as easily to defend the rights of governments to tax individuals and to regulate businesses or the rights of a hereditary, unconstitutional monarch. At this point it becomes to seem like libertarian ideas of sovereignty can justify many different possible societies. Some of these societies would not be considered very free by normal definitions of the word. Reader Susan the other initially wondered if the series would help us understand how to balance freedom and equality. She later decided that in Code Name Cains ideal world There is no freedom and there is no equality? Hoppe-Libertarianism is so over the top it wipes dilemma off the plate. No worries at all about how to balance everyones freedom with everyones equality because emotional democracy is out of the question. CNC takes the instinct for freedom and crushes it forthwith. I was expected him to crush equality first. Frustrating Contradictions Most libertarians are not in favor of restoring the property rights of native peoples who were dispossessed. But if we get rid of the claims of American Indians by arguing that their lands were taken away so long ago that we cant possibly fix it, then (as Widerquist points out) it becomes hard to argue that governments (many of whom got their powers long before the discovery of America) should not also get to keep their rights to tax and regulate. Since pretty much no libertarian would say that governments have the right to tax and regulate as they see fit, there is a problem: it is very difficult to make the legitimacy of property rights argument work so that the correct rights are legitimate, and the incorrect rights are illegitimate. Code Name Cain wrestles with this tortuous problem in parts IV and V of the series. The libertarian Lamont Rodgers produced a rejoinder to Widerquists Dilemma. While his counterarguments did not seem very convincing to me, his commenters were very excited. One said: I was pondering this problem earlier with regards to the notion that aboriginal property rights inevitably force libertarians to violate their own principles. But gladly someone has already done the hard thinking for me! Argumentative Strategies Although certain libertarians are forced to deal with frustrating contradictions when trying to defend their views, they have a wide array of strategies at their disposal in order to make up for this seeming disadvantage. One is simply to ignore all signs of discomfort in the listener and proudly continue. The estimable John Medaille, who read the series before it was posted, confided that what scares me is that libertarians will read it and take it seriously; they might find the questions perplexing, but they will find the answers brilliant. This prediction was duly confirmed by one reader, who found that the interviewers questions and replies to CNC are often childish and emotional. CNC seems like a very smart fellow, though he does have several mistakes in his axioms and conclusions. Another approach is to attack other people for using specific terms in incorrect ways, so that the discussion gets mired in questions of proper linguistic usage. Code Name Cain provided some examples of this strategy he became angry when I said that his future society would make people slaves, or involve coercion. Fortunately, I was able to satisfy him by referring instead to people being made effective slaves in a rights-respecting manner, and to noncoercive coercion. A few readers also provided examples of this approach, insisting vehemently that it is wrong to call Rothbard, Hoppe, and CNC libertarians when they are really anarchists, or anarcho-capitalists, or neoliberals. Other readers rebutted that only libertarians who insisted on complete elimination of the state could truly call themselves libertarians. Hans-Hermann Hoppe might agree with this last view. A somewhat similar technique is to take advantage of the fact that no two libertarians ever think exactly alike. The key is to listen to what is being said, and then announce that it doesnt apply to real libertarians (i.e. libertarians like you) at all. Then you condemn the author for shoddy and possibly dishonest writing. If you use the phrase straw man a few times, there will be no need to ask questions about whether any of the authors arguments apply to your type of libertarianism. Code Name Cain naturally thinks of his own libertarianism as the correct variety. However, the interview series went to some lengths in order to make clear that many other (right)-libertarians have different views. See the beginning of part II and the criticism of left-libertarians in part III. Curiously, some readers decided that the interview series was presenting CNC as the most typical libertarian imaginable. They then complained about straw men. The main point of the Rodgers response to Widerquist seems to be that (authentic?) libertarians dont really believe that libertarian-style natural rights require a minimal (or nonexistent) government they just believe that natural rights permit such a government. Even if that were true, it doesnt seem like much of a rebuttal of Widerquists main point. However, by claiming that Widerquist had misunderstood the libertarian position, Rodgers made it possible for his commenters to happily dismiss Widerquist as a fairly unintelligent individual. As we have just seen, another important argumentative strategy is to slip in casual insults at someone who does not agree. CNC likes to say things like maybe you havent realized it yet and if logic is difficult for you. Some readers followed his example. Libertarians are not the only people who sometimes try to make up for the lack of a substantive responses by courageously offering anonymous abuse. Some of the most entertaining insults came from the readers who thought that I was the same person as CNC, or that I shared his views. One such reader said what a bunch of crap. So some kid fresh out of his PhD has a wet dream about a society where brilliant people get their fair share and bad evil government are kept in check. [] Stop imagining the world from your math dept. Another reader reminded others that these are the thoughts of an overeducated elementary school math teacher, describing me as an apologist for the manifestly failed libertarian economic model. There seems to be a lot of anitpathy towards mathematicians and elementary school math teachers out there. I knew that seventh graders frequently make fun of kids who like math, but I was a little surprised to read these kind of comments on Yves blog. A Parody? Hans-Hermann Hoppe is quite real. While one reader identified Code Name Cain as John Denson (adjunct scholar at the Mises Institute), it is my opinion that he is the fruit of my imagination. However, CNC was not intended to be satire in the normal sense of the word. Reader Chad, who has some familiarity with Hoppes work, declared that even if this is an apocryphal interview, its not satirical hyperbole. StPaulite added, the direct quotes in red are without fail more batshit than the rest of the text. In fact, I found Hans-Hermann Hoppes ideas fascinating, but it would have been quite difficult to construct a dialogue entirely from snippets of his book. Even if I had done that, there would still have been a risk of misrepresenting his thought. Code Name Cain was created so that I could try to fill in missing or uncertain details of a Hoppe-like philosophy in the most logical manner I could think of, without attributing these additions to Hoppe himself. Some fine points that a couple readers thought I personally invented were actually adapted (rather faithfully) from Hoppes book: in particular, the graphs in part VI showing time-preference curves for different types of individuals (compare p. 8 of Hoppes book). In defense of readers that thought CNC was simply a satire, reader RanDomino cites Poes law: [] it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and an exaggerated parody of extremism. Do Many Libertarians Agree with Hans-Hermann Hoppe? Rothbard, Lew Rockwell, and Hoppe prefer to abolish the state, while libertarians like Nozick, Rand, and others would opt for an extremely small government that protects contracts and property rights. This is the famous dispute between libertarian anarchists and minarchists. While the distinction is certainly important, the different kinds of (right)-libertarians often manage to coexist surprisingly well. Part II of the series quotes two non-anarchist libertarians on this subject Bryan Caplan explains how anarchist libertarians play a symbiotic role in the libertarian world, helping other libertarians to seem more moderate, while Tibor Machan urges libertarians not to let their differences on this issue distrac[t] from the far more significant task of making the case for libertarianism in the face of innumerable bona fide statist challenges. In general, however, it is surprisingly difficult to tell how extreme or absurd a given libertarian actually is. In Rothbards confidential 1961 memo, he advocated infiltrating key intellectual strata, keeping in mind that one scholar is worth a thousand housewives, in the matter of influence, import, etc. Rothbard emphasized that libertarians should make a point of never acting in a manner, or speaking in a manner, inconsistent with the full libertarian position. To be inconsistent, in the name of practicality is to betray the libertarian position itself, and is worthy of the utmost condemnation. Thus, suppose that one is writing about taxation. It is not incumbent on the libertarian to always proclaim his full anarchist position in whatever he writes; but it is incumbent upon him in no way to praise taxation or condone it; he should simply leave this perhaps glaring vacuum, and wait for the eager reader to begin to question and perhaps come to you for further enlightenment. But if the libertarian says, Of course, some taxes must be levied, or something of the sort, he has betrayed the cause. If libertarians are often careful to leave the more surprising parts of their vision of the future unsaid, then it becomes hard to tell what a given libertarian actually believes. Looking at public figures under Rothbards litmus test, there might be quite a few politicians who have never given a hint that they think some taxes must be levied such politicians could have sympathy to Hoppe-like views, but of course we dont necessarily know. This might explain why reader wunsacon says my closest, devout, highly educated libertarian friend sounds like he has much in common with CNC interviewed here. And you wouldnt know how radical his views are until you talk with him at length and then some weird comments slip out. Is Discussing Hans-Hermann Hoppe Evil? Is It a Novel Form of Red-Baiting? The preceding discussion may bring to mind the Cold War, with libertarians in the unexpected role of communists, and critics of libertarians in the unexpected role of anti-communist inquisitors. This similarity is not accidental in fact, Rothbard says in his memo that we can learn a great deal from Lenin and the Leninists in planning for a libertarian revolution. However, if Rothbard was happy to learn from Lenin, not all modern critics of libertarianism are eager to take on the role of Joseph McCarthy. Some readers picked up on this parallel. Thus reader RugbyD worried that Holding up an anarcho-capitalist as the torch-bearer for libertarians [is] like equating all people with socialist tendencies with Stalin. On one interpretation, this argument seems to imply that anarcho-capitalists like Rothbard and Lew Rockwell are as dangerous as Stalin. If so, Ron Paul, who has strong links with both of them, should be treated as a frightening menace. But I think this is not quite what these readers had in mind. Instead, these readers are perhaps proposing a new era of respectful civic discourse. For decades, anyone in America who proposed a new kind of economic system was immediately brought face to face with the threat of being labeled as a communist or a Stalinist. Speeches would immediately be made about how the noble intention to create a better society often leads down the road to serfdom. Even today, there are many circles in which bringing up something like a national health care system is taken as the first step to totalitarianism. These readers might be offering us all an effective truce. In the future, minimal-state libertarians will be free to discuss their ideal society without anyone confusing them with anarcho-capitalists like Rothbard. In exchange, other people that propose other ideal societies, whether anarchist or gift-exchange or socialist or whatever, will also be able to discuss them freely without anyone confusing them with Soviet planners. New ideas will flourish. Everyone will win out. Is Hans-Hermann Hoppe Too Absurd To Be Worth Discussing? CNC is quick to identify certain populations of humans as being so defective that they are perhaps better considered subhuman. Ayn Rand is of course famous for denouncing people who are scum and lice and looters and moochers, while Walter Block has worried about immigration leading to forced integration with [] the dregs of the world. Some readers suggested ignoring extreme or absurd libertarians like Hoppe (and Rothbard? and Lew Rockwell?). It is a little hard to know what constitutes extreme sometimes. The last conversation I had with a Ron Paul supporter involved complaints about how it was unfair that taxpayers are coerced into paying for the food and shelter of prison inmates. Would you prefer that they do forced labor? I asked. Taxpayers should not have to pay again for the maintenance of people who have already sapped the resources of society, he said. So yes, inmates were going to do forced labor. Later in the conversation, my acquaintance explained that this would make prison less pleasant, therefore creating an incentive for less crime. I pointed out that some people would already consider prisons to be unpleasant places. Obviously theyre wrong, he replied. If prisons were really that unpleasant, incentives would operate and crime would decrease. Take the example in part V where Code Name Cain dispossesses an African tribe in order to produce large gains for his hedge fund. Before writing that part of the series, I ran this example by one of my libertarian friends. He agreed with CNC that CNC had not violated natural rights, and that instead the natives had violated CNCs natural rights by refusing to be evicted. In any event, readers who thought that some libertarians were too extreme to be worth discussing came to this conclusion through different routes. Some readers (including at least one libertarian) seemed to feel the same scorn for Hoppe that CNC feels for other subhumans. Others seemed to think that even presenting Hoppes views clearly was equivalent to keeping us distracted with contrived enemies, or presenting an obscene and grotesque image of the infamous libertarian . Apparently these readers seemed very offended by Hoppes view of the world and did not think anyone could take it seriously but I still wondered why they found it difficult to say: I denounce Hoppe and believe his ideas would create a terrible society. There are other kinds of libertarians, like X, who are totally different because they believe in x, y, z, which Hoppe does not. I support them, or at least think they are people I can talk with. No, I Dont Think So However, I disagree with readers who think Hoppes views are unworthy of comment. I often disagree with Hoppe, but I still found studying his book to be helpful in understanding certain ideas. As reader Alex points out, Hoppe [] probably just thought it all through to the logical ends and made no effort to be politically correct or tactical in his arguments; and this lack of reticence makes Hoppe extremely interesting How do we treat with respect perspectives with which we really disagree? Is it best to pretend as if we agree, or as if we are above all of this? I would say that these responses can be rather patronizing. Isnt it more respectful to argue with the other perspective directly, and to try to find the root of the conflict? There are a couple areas where I actually agree with Code Name Cain. First, in part V, CNC makes an argument that the preferred society of minimal-government libertarians is very unlikely to be stable. As some readers pointed out, minimal-government libertarians typically oppose an incestuous relation between corporations and government regulation, and worry that regulations will be designed to benefit the stronger corporations. If a minimal government does not involve a vastly different campaign finance system than what we presently have, I do not understand how it will not involve a regulatory system full of corporate welfare and special advantages for well-connected corporations. Second, in part VI, CNC and Hoppe argue that we cannot actually decide which economic theory is true by just examining the historical record. I dont think this is actually true at least, I think examining the historical record can help a lot. However, what does seem true to me is that the overwhelming majority of people choose which economic theory they support without making a detailed examination of all of the relevant historical data. Take also global warming how many of the readers of NC have actually immersed themselves in the relevant climate science? Clearly, these allegiances are often decided for other reasons. Now I happen to think that CNC/Hoppe/Mises praxeological approach is not a good response to this uncertainty. But at least these figures are doing us a valuable service by pointing out that we decide which theories to believe in through a procedure that is often much less like the strict scientific method than we might prefer to imagine. Criticisms of the Arguments in the Interview In some places my responses to CNC form a coherent argument about particular aspects of libertarian ideas; in other places CNC himself furnishes an argument against the beliefs of certain other libertarians. In the hundreds of comments on this series, surely some libertarians pointed out flaws in these arguments, or showed how CNC could have replaced his arguments with stronger ones? No. In a couple cases, people brought up arguments that were later addressed. Aside from these, there was only one attempt at a counterargument. This was from reader indio007, who suggested that The wrongdoing [in an anarcho-capitalist society] could never match the breadth and scale of wrong doing done by organized governments. Even if we had a lawless society of dog eat dog there would be less injustice than those cause by organized war. Given that the security GLOs will have their own private armies and private intelligence services, Im personally not convinced they wont fight horrible wars but at least indio007 and I are actually having an argument. No other critic of the series made an attempt. Is It Already Happening? Other readers were able to profit from a critical reading of Code Name Cains views. Reader Jill decided that At some points Cain gives an accurate description of what is occurring. His remedies never seem to line up with reality. While working on this series, I also ended up reassessing the relevance of CNCs views. In part II, Cain explains how the key step in creating his form of ideal libertarian society is by delegitimizing democracy by constantly endeavoring to show that problems in politics are not about personalities, but about democracy as a system. While writing part II, it occurred to me that this part of CNCs strategy is well under way in the real world, with public choice theorists playing a key role. Reader propertius pointed out that the idea of having insurance companies carry out surveillance of consumers is already starting to be implemented: Progressive, of course, is already doing this offering lower rates in exchange for bugging your car so they can keep track of your driving habits. Reader Walter Wit Man noted an ongoing transition of security functions to private entities with less oversight and democratic control, citing e.g., Blackwater type military contractors has exploded the last 10 years. Other readers started to consider the possible upsides of living in CNCs future world. Reader TGS liked the cool lasers, comparing Dr. Evils mutated sea bass with frickin lasers strapped to their back. Reader craazyman announced that I am coming under Mr. Cains spell, reluctantly, like being struck suddenly by an arrow from Cupid [] I want my own GLO and my own oasis and harem and the right to engage in drunken mayhem. I have to be honest about that. But I want it to be all voluntary, with no church ladies telling me Im sinning. These readers naturally assumed (in the words of reader Blissex) that they will be part of the superior/creative few not the inferior/looter many. Readers Try to Sum Up Many readers tried to sum up what they saw as the fundamental inconsistencies in Code Name Cains approach. Reader drugstoreblonde asked, So everything in the current system is invalid except the wealth hoarded under it? Reader Sauron made an analogy: A kid tags another then calls out no tag backs or home free. In short, Im winning, so I invoke a rule that says I stay ahead. Reader Kukulkan commented succinctly the violence [that libertarians consider legitimate] is always someone elses fault. Readers also focused on the distinctions between governments, corporations, and individuals. Reader Sauron concluded, Libertarians seem to rely on one or both of two premises: all government is repressive and/or all repression is governmental in origin. In reader YankeeFranks opinion, A libertarian is someone who prefers to be dominated by a faceless corporation rather than an at least somewhat accountable government. Reader TK421 summed up a CNC-like position as Which corporations have broken the law and should be disbanded? We can never know. Its just too hard, so no point in trying. Which people have broken the law and should be exiled to Siberia? That ones easy. For other readers, the true problem with Code Name Cains views lies in his understanding of human nature. Some, like rotter, saw a pitiless social Darwinian ethic: the freemarketers imagine themselves as sleek black panthers,solitary killing machines staking the economic jungle. Reader Jill wondered, What does it mean to say a child gets what they deserve? There is no room in Libertarianism for the recognition that every human life begins in vulnerability. But for other readers, CNCs survival-of-the-fittest attitude was actually full of naivete. Reader craazyman worried about the moment when our Mr. Cain gets gunned down in a financial dispute with his heavily armed security team. According to ScottS, [l]ibertarians seem to constantly forget that their own selfish impulses apply evenly to everyone, citing the fact that Alan Greenspan never imagined that a trader for an investment bank would do anything to benefit himself at the expense of his company. Thought-Provoking Comments from Readers There were so many interesting and enjoyable comments besides the ones quoted above, and readers did a wonderful job clearing up the misunderstandings of other readers. Here is a small selection of additional comments that I thought were interesting. Nine officials from the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) were arrested this morning as the Union took to the streets to force the government to pay teachers salaries in US dollars. A statement released by the ARTUZ reads as follows: Nine participants in the #Salarycamp have been arrested and are detained at Harare Central. No charges have been preferred. The arrested Cdes are, Obert Masaraure, Robson Chere, Fortune Jamela, Regai Chinhuto, Gerald Tavengwa, Lawrence Mapengo, Andrew Munguri, Munyaradzi Ndawana and Christine Jubane. Our Vice President and our negotiator Descent Bajila are locked in negotiations with the employer. ARTUZ had earlier on indicated that its members are not going back to work, with schools set to be opened this Tuesday. The Union vowed to picket at Mthuli Ncubes offices until the government pays teachers salaries in foreign currency. Pindula Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Exiled former G40 Kingpin Professor Jonathan Moyo has threatened to expose embattled telecoms guru Strive Masiyiwa of being a two timer who played double standards between MDC and ZANU PF. As a former government minister and a former Zanu PF election campaign manager, Ill tomorrow morning (Monday) do a thread with information exposing Strive Masiyiwas two-timer dalliance with Zanu PF and MDC when he purported to be anti ZanuPF and in support of human rights and democracy.Moyo said. https://twitter.com/ProfJNMoyo/status/1082029558122115072 This comes after Strive Masiyiwa has been embroiled in a heated argument with Professor Moyo and other civil society officials who are accusing him of being sympathetic to Emmerson Mnangagwa. Strive Masiyiwa recently defended himself saying he has a long history of supporting democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe and he even funded and housed the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in his own house. Trouble began when Masiyiwas wife Tsitsi write on Twitter that many people who are calling for justice are not sincere but paid activists. When Twitter members descended on her she quickly closed Twitter and her husband followed suit. Masiyiwa then took to Facebook to accuse civic society activists including Human Rights Watch Director Dewa Mavhinga of bullying his wife. He also did a charge sheet listing down six crimes that Jonathan Moyo allegedly committed against him. Bulawayo24 Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News REPRESENTATIVES of teachers unions across the board have made their positions known ahead of a crucial meeting today with government: schools will only open if the demand for salaries in US dollars is met. Schools are opening tomorrow, and teachers are demanding a salary of $3,000 local currency, or equivalent in US dollars at the parallel market rate, among other demands. They claim that the economic downturn has eroded their salaries so much that they are incapacitated to return to their workstations. In a last-ditch effort to stem the crisis, government has called for a meeting today with representatives of the teachers unions. The meeting takes place at a time striking doctors are also meeting to decide their next course of action after government failed to break their month-long industrial action. This was after government made a few more concessions at the weekend, but representatives of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association refused to counter-sign the agreement before consulting their membership. Teachers have threatened a crippling strike when schools open for the first term tomorrow, demanding to be paid in United States dollars or at least $3 000 local currency, among other demands. Shaken by the prospect of a looming crippling strike, acting Labour and Social Welfare minister July Moyo on Friday invited all public servants unions and four fellow Cabinet ministers to todays crunch meeting with union leaders. Besides the Ministry of Labour, ministries of Finance, Primary and Secondary Education, Higher and Tertiary Education and the chairperson of the Public Service Commission will also attend the meeting. Most teachers unions, however, yesterday said they would go ahead with the industrial action with the unions umbrella body, the Apex Council, saying the meeting would determine their next course of action. Apex Council secretary-general David Dzatsunga said the civil servants umbrella body would consult its members on the next move after the meeting, adding that they would not stop individual unions from making independent decisions. We have agreed that every other action will be premised on todays meeting with the five principals [ministers] from our employer, Dzatsunga said. The decision to go for a strike comes from the members. Some unions can unilaterally declare a job action if that is what their membership has proposed. That will not necessarily be the position of the Apex Council. The apex body will sit down and make an apex position. He said the Apex Council has already advised government that their members may not be able to report for work because they were incapacitated due to the increased cost of living that has eroded their earnings. The meeting would be first this year after the National Joint Negotiating Council met on December 7 last year, where Apex Council leaders walked out in protest after failing to get satisfactory answers from their employer. Obert Masaraure, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union Association of Zimbabwe president said his union would send a representative to the meeting, but that would not stop preparations for tomorrows proposed strike. The strike will go ahead. Teachers will not attend the preparatory meetings today and will not report to work on Tuesday. The only thing that can stop us from going on strike is a reflection of US$ salaries in our accounts, Masaraure said. He accused government of exhibiting a contemptuous attitude when dealing with civil servants. Zimbabwe Progressive Teachers Union president Takavafira Zhou also said the meeting would not stop the job action, but an increment of their salaries would do. Our salaries are enough to take us to work for two days. We are deliberating the two days we should report to work and the three we should stay at home. We are very clear about that. The purchasing power parity of our salaries can no longer allow us to do so. We cannot subsidise our employer, Zhou said. The largest teachers union, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta), at the weekend announced that its members would start their strike action tomorrow, regardless of the outcome of todays meeting. Zimta president Richard Gundani said: Talking wont capacitate teachers. They need money. The strike is going ahead -Zoom Zimbabwe Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF party have ignored calls for dialogue by opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa even as the countrys economic meltdown continues. MDC spokesman Jacob Mafume confirmed the rebuff at a press conference last Friday, warning that without dialogue, Zimbabweans would have to resort to the constitution which allows for demonstrations or a collective action that ensures their voices are heard. The disputed July 30 elections have been followed by a deepening of the countrys economic meltdown with foreign currency shortages resulting in fuel shortages as well as demands for salaries to be paid in foreign currency by public service workers. A strike by junior doctors is now in its second month while teachers have also warned that schools may not re-open for the new school term this Tuesday if government does not agree to pay wages in US dollars. Chamisa blames the economic crisis on President Mnangagwas lack of legitimacy after what the opposition describes as a stolen election which was also followed by deadly violence that claimed the lives of six people when soldiers opened live fire on protesters. The legitimacy question is still on, Mafume told reporters in Harare last Friday. As long as it is not resolved, problems in this country will remain in place. We are able to restore this nation. We have done it before. Our former Minister of Health (Henry Madzorera) has done it well before and he can do it again. We need to re-engage with the international community on a basis that is rational where we are able to comply with the international norms and standards, where we are able to have foreign direct investments (FDI) and tap into international finance as a way forward and that needs to be done as a matter of urgency. He added; However, that cannot be done when we are not talking to each other. We have put the dialogue issue out there and our President Nelson Chamisa has talked about it. Our leadership has talked about it yet, there has been no reciprocal desire to dialogue by the current regime. Chamisa and the MDC have lately been touting the need to establish a transitional authority to take over government, a proposal rejected by Mnangagwa and Zanu PF. The ruling party argues that it secured a clear mandate in the July 30 ballot which was also confirmed by the highest court in the land after Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed Chamisas challenge against presidential election results. The opposition leader is however continuing to pressure the administration for dialogue and recently met South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa over the issue. The economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is worsening and what is important is that this affects our neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa, said Mafume, explaining Chamisas visit to Pretoria. We feel that Zimbabwe is becoming a regional security threat because of the failure by Mnangagwas government to solve the political stalemate over his illegitimacy. The economic crisis has the effect of causing a burden to South Africa owing to the exodus of people that are fleeing the worsening economy. Mnangagwa has refused to listen to our concerns, so we felt it was better for us to meet President Ramaphosa to listen to our concerns and also to relay our message to Mnangagwa. The people of Zimbabwe continue to suffer and, as a party that was voted for by millions of people, we will do what we can to offer solutions. NewZimbabwe Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News DALOM music founder Dan Ndivhiseni Tshanda, who died in South Africa at the weekend, will be laid to rest in Soweto on Saturday, family spokesperson, Moudy Mudzielwana has said. Tshanda succumbed to heart failure and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Sandton MediClinic on Saturday afternoon. Mudzielwana yesterday told NewsDay from Johannesburg that the Dalom music icon would be laid to rest in Soweto. We are working on the burial arrangements as we speak. We would like to lay him to rest in Soweto on Saturday. We will finalise everything once all the family members have arrived, he said. According to Mudzielwana, Tshanda was born on January 28, 1964 in the Matangeni area of Venda. He then moved to Chikowelo near Thohoyandou before shifting base to the Tshiawelo in Soweto. Tshanda launched his music career in 1985 when he formed his first group, the Flying Squad, which released the inaugural album titled Mr Tony. He worked with the likes of Ray Phiri of Stimela before launching the Dalom Music stable where he worked with Patricia Majalisa, Dalom Kids, Peacock and Matshikos, among others. Under the Splash label, Tshanda went on to produce hit albums such as Eye For An Eye (1990), Why (1994), Cellular (1995), and Double Face (1997). He also produced albums such as Ndivhuwo (2001) and Sethopha (2003). In 2009, The Big Husband, as he was affectionately known, Tshanda released his double album titled Tolovela. In 2014, Tshanda made waves in the music industry when he released the album Delele. One of his recent albums contained hits such as Mudzunga, Bayekele, with the hit of all time coming from his collaboration with Botswana-based artiste, Vee, with whom he produced the popular hit track Siyazenzela. As the news broke on Saturday that Tshanda had passed on, some of his followers and media personalities from across the region took to social media to express their pain on the icons passing on. Desire Moyo, director of Victory Siyanqoba Trust, said: Dan is a musical revolutionary. He was an architect whose own invention is timeless and indispensable. He was a gifted rare species as exhibited in the big footprints of his legendary social commentary music which appeals across ages, moods, festivities and emotions. He must be celebrated beyond his musical career. Dan was the boss! Splash music will always live, he groomed, he nurtured, he supported, he guided, he established and freed. As a musical leader, he produced other musical leaders through Splash, Dalom Kids, Matshikos, Peacock, among others. We, in the Zim arts sector, must emulate Dan. Our music must not die with us like many have done. Kalale ngokuthula (Let him rest in peace). NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News A GROUP of 15 suspected border jumpers reportedly stoned a member of the Zimbabwe National Army and beat up his police colleague for allegedly trying to block their passage to South Africa through an illegal crossing point near the Chikwarakwara Irrigation Scheme, 120km east of Beitbridge Border Post. Beitbridge Rural Police officer-in-charge Inspector John Mabhungu could neither deny nor confirm the incident which occurred at the weekend, but referred questions to his provincial Press and liaison office in Gwanda, which was closed yesterday. Sources at the irrigation scheme said a group of about 15 border jumpers arrived at the illegal crossing point at about 4am and found the policeman and an armed soldier who tried to block them, making undisclosed demands. The border jumpers then pelted the security officers with stones. The border jumpers then crossed the (Limpopo) river into South Africa. The injured soldier was taken for attention at the Chikwarakwara Clinic and a report made at Tshitulipasi Police base, a source who declined to be named said. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News President Donald Trump takes solace from his high approval rating among Republicans. That, however, has come at the expense of support among women, the college-educated, nonwhites, independents, the young, etc. And that dichotomy will increasingly put him at risk for a simple reason: The GOP isn't what it once was. Gallup reports: "Significantly more U.S. adults continued to identify as political independents (42%) in 2018 than as either Democrats (30%) or Republicans (26%). At least four in 10 Americans have been political independents in seven of the past eight years, including a record-high 43% in 2014. ... "In just the past decade, an increasing proportion of adults have identified as independents, reaching 40% for the first time in 2011 and generally maintaining or exceeding that level since then. As a result, since 2011, the percentage of independents has exceeded the percentage identifying with the Democratic Party by 11 points on average, and the percentage identifying as Republicans by 14 points." "Eighty percent of Republicans" may sound good, but if the GOP is only 26 percent of the electorate, that gives Trump just under 21 percent of the entire pie. That's awful, to put it mildly. Well, you say, independents aren't truly independent; they tend to lean toward one party or the other. That's accurate - and unhelpful for Republicans. ("47% of Americans on average in 2018 were Democratic identifiers or Democratic-leaning independents, and 41% were Republicans or Republican-leaning independents.") Republicans win only when they can turn out a disproportionately high percentage of their side and/or Democrats fail to do the same. That's the formula that allowed Trump to win in 2016. Two years later, however, his pool of Republican voters has shrunk, and independents in poll after poll overwhelmingly disapprove of his performance. If Republicans run Trump or another candidate equally dependent on a shrinking share of the electorate, a good Democratic turnout is likely to produce a Democratic president. That's what happened on a congressional level in 2018. Democrats should keep in mind three things. First, not that Trump needs much encouragement, but baiting him into taking more and more extreme, base-pleasing positions certainly helps Democrats. The shutdown, for this very reason, should (and likely does) thrill Democrats. Take an unpopular position (the wall) and try to obtain it through unpopular means (a shutdown) while engaging in unpopular tweeting (even his GOP supporters would rather he lay off Twitter)? Democrats will respond, "Where do we sign up for that!?" This leads to the second imperative for Democrats: Chase Trump to the fringe, but keep grounded with the electorate that delivered them huge wins in the 2018 midterms. That includes women, college-educated voters and suburbanites. No wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to focus on health care, wages and reasonable gun-safety measures. Staying on those topics is a lot less risky than talking about impeachment, which turns off a majority of voters. When Trump is railing, Democrats should be reasonable and methodical. When Trump is tossing invectives, Democrats should fact-check him in real time. The Democrats' base, when the time comes, will crawl over broken glass to turn out in 2020; their bigger risk is in losing a flock of voters who gave them a chance in 2018. Finally, Republicans' available pool of voters - old, white men - is fixed, and indeed declining. The pool of Democrats' persuadable voters continues to grow. Democrats cannot afford to sit on their hands after successful outreach to irregular voters (Hispanics, young voters) in 2018. Registration and turnout of new voters are not one-election propositions. If Democrats aren't spending the next two years doubling down on registration and engagement of such voters, they're throwing away a big advantage. In sum, the crazier Trump gets, the nuttier and smaller his base becomes. That's good news for Democrats - provided they don't copy his strategy on the left (chasing winnable independents away) or lose momentum in their registration efforts. The suspect who kidnapped and raped a 16-year-old girl on the West Side remains at large more than three months after the attack, police said. According to a Crime Stoppers report, the man approached the victim at about 7:50 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2018, in a Walmart parking lot in the 11200 block of Potranco Road. He asked if he could take some pictures of her in exchange for money. A San Antonio Police Department detective was arrested Monday on a domestic violence charge, officials said. Bexar County sheriff's deputies took Detective Daniel Pue into custody at about 9 a.m. in the 11000 block of Barclay Point. According to a preliminary report, the victim of the assault had visible facial bleeding after the attack. Pue is an 11-year veteran of San Antonio police and is assigned to the Repeat Offenders Unit, according to Michelle Ramos, a spokeswoman for the department. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox "We were just notified of this incident and are awaiting further details," reads a statement from the department's Public Information Office. "BCSO is handling the criminal investigation and we have opened up an administrative investigation." Pue will be placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. This is a developing story. Check back with mySA.com for more details. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus refuted reports of an active shooting at North Star Mall during a news conference Sunday night. Officers responded to North Side mall sometime about 6 p.m. after security guards at Macy's observed two individuals they suspected of shoplifting, according to police. One of the individuals was apprehended by store security and handcuffed, according to McManus. The second individual then pulled a gun. "No one was injured. No shots fired," McManus said. "There was someone who saw the man pull a gun and they were running through the mall shouting that somebody had a gun. And I guess it got blown up into an active shooting scenario." RELATED: Family of missing S.A. baby slam SAPD as authorities search a West Side park Police had earlier, through a social media post, asked people to avoid the mall and area around it. McManus said security guards backed off after the gun was pulled. The individuals then ran from the store - one of them in handcuffs - and currently are at large. He described them as light complected people and in their late 20s to early 30s. The incident is being classified as an aggravated robbery. McManus said initial reports of a fight at the mall were also inaccurate. Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report. A man was found fatally shot early Monday in the parking lot of a West Side apartment complex, police said. Officers responded to a shooting call at 12:50 a.m. at the Castleridge Apartments in the 8000 block of West Military Drive. Upon arrival, they discovered the body of a man in his 20s who had suffered a gunshot wound to his chest. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox According to a lieutenant at the scene, police had not identified any witnesses immediately after the shooting. Detectives are now investigating the shooting. The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said the victim has not yet been identified. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns An 18-year-old man was arrested on a charge of manslaughter in connection to a fatal crash late Saturday on the Northeast Side of San Antonio. Rueben Justin Trejo is accused of running a red light at a high rate of speed at about 11:40 p.m. at the intersection of North Foster Road and FM 78. A former Fort Bend substitute teacher who applied to teach English for the Islamic State overseas has reportedly been captured in Syria by Kurdish rebels. Warren Christopher Clark, 34, who used the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Ameriki, along with five other alleged ISIS supporters, including another American man, an Irish man and two Pakistanis, according to an online news release Sunday from the Syrian Democratic Forces. A letter ostensibly written by Clark offering his service to the Islamic State was previously obtained by a team of sleuthing counterrorism scholars at George Washington University. Rarely are ISIS sympathizers so formal in their offers of support, said Seamus Hughes, a counterterrorism expert at GWUs Program on Extremism, who previously served as senior counterterrorism advisor for the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. According to a resume previously obtained by the university scholars, Clark graduated from the University of Houston just over a decade ago and was a substitute English as a Second Language teacher in Fort Bend for more than a year before he moved onto similar assignments in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Hughes said in an online post Sunday that Clark appeared most interested in helping support the Caliphate a utopian state building project unlike some Americans, who sought to join the jihadists in combat after viewing brutal images of civilians impacted by bombings by the Assad regime. Military officials with Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, knew about the SDF release, but were unable to confirm whether it was accurate, according to Stars and Stripes. The incident is under investigation, Army Col. Scott Rawlinson told the U.S. military publication. Publicly available federal court records do not indicate that Clark has been charged in the case, but charges in terrorism cases are often kept under seal. U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick in Houston declined to comment Sunday about whether Clark was being extradited to the Southern District of Texas, which includes Houston. Hughes, who meticulously tracks cases of homegrown terrorist support through the GMU program, said Clark would be the 15th American to return to the U.S. on federal charges of supporting ISIS. The Houston region has pursued three cases involving U.S. support for ISIS in recent years and landed two convictions. The case of a third defendant is pending. Copies of the letter and resume retrieved from a house in Mosul, Iraq obtained by Hughes and two colleagues at GWU indicate that Clark wanted a job as an English teacher for Islamic State terrorists. The author, who signs off in his breezy cover letter as Abu Mohammad, says he has always loved teaching others and learning from others. A blurry reprint of the letter was published in a February 2018 report from the Washington D.C. university, The Travelers: American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq, by Hughes, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Bennett Clifford. GWU last year was the first to report that Clark had sent the letter and a resume to the group that became famous for videos of jihadists beheading Americans. The GWU study examines in-depth the cases of 64 of more than nearly 300 Americans whom intelligence officials believe traveled abroad to join ISIS fighters. The English-language cover letter, which begins Dear Director, adopts the upbeat tone of someone looking for an overseas teaching position. As a teacher, it would be my goal to create a supportive classroom environment and to guide my students in building a solid English foundation, the author writes. I have a long background in teaching a variety of different subjects and have instructed students of all ages at several schools. In the resume, which also appears to be a reproduction, Clark indicates he completed certification with 140 hours of training as an ESL teacher through Oxford Seminars in Houston and worked from January 2009 to November 2011 as a substitute teacher in Sugar Land. He then taught elementary and intermediate pupils at a construction college in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between January 2012 and November 2014 and for four months taught reading, speaking and listening, to 20 students aged 18 to 40 in Konya, Turkey. The resume does not go beyond June 2015. A friend of Clarks told the GWU researchers that they assumed that Clark was an FBI informant because, No one is that open about liking terrorism, Hughes wrote in a Lawfare blog post Sunday. Hughes wrote that Clark left Texas to join ISIS but stayed off radar until Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces in the summer of 2017. UH spokesman Mike Rosen that Warren Christopher Clark, who majored in political science and minored in global business, graduated from UH in 2007, according to the university registrar. He began his studies in 2003, records indicate. Voting and vehicle records for Fort Bend County show a Warren Christopher Clark of the same age at a Sugar Land address. Were going to see more Americans like Clark returning home to face the consequences of their choices, said Hughes. With his time withing the terrorist group, he should have a wealth of information that would be interesting for law enforcement and intelligence officials. Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com and follow her on Twitter. gabrielle.banks@chron.com WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is ramping up his efforts to make a public case for his border wall as the partial government shutdown is now in its third week, planning a prime-time address Tuesday night and a visit to the border Thursday. Trump announced the news of the presidential address in a Monday tweet. "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border," he said. "Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern." Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Trump will travel to the border with Mexico on Thursday. "President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis," she said. "More details will be announced soon." The presidential speech and visit come amid the partial government shutdown and Trump's insistence that any funding bill to reopen federal agencies include $5.7 billion for his border wall. They also come three weeks ahead of Trump's State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 29. As of 7 p.m. EST on Monday, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox News and Fox Business Network had confirmed that they would carry Trump's speech, which was expected to run about eight minutes long. The Fox broadcast network did not respond to a request for comment. In a joint statement Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said Democrats deserved airtime as well to rebut the president's message. "Now that the television networks have decided to air the President's address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime," they said. Ahead of Trump's speech from the Oval Office, Vice President Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will meet with House Republicans on Capitol Hill early Tuesday evening to discuss the border situation, according to two House GOP aides. Pence told reporters Monday that Trump has invited Democrats back to the White House this week for further talks. "Our position is very simply this: There is a humanitarian and national security crisis at the southern border," Pence said during a briefing in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He added that the White House has "been negotiating to open the government and address that border crisis" as well as "taking steps to mitigate the effects of the shutdown." Some Democrats responded to the news of Trump's address with concern that he would mislead the American people about the situation at the border. "I expect the president to lie to the American people," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said. "Why do I expect this? Because he has been lying to the American people." Nadler was part of a delegation of Democratic lawmakers who toured a Border Patrol facility in Alamogordo, N.M., on Monday to investigate the death of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, the second child to die in December after being apprehended crossing the border illegally. Trump made his first visit to the border as president 10 months ago. During that trip, Trump toured 30-foot-tall steel and concrete prototypes of the border wall in California and strongly condemned jurisdictions that offer "sanctuary" to undocumented immigrants. The White House did not immediately release details Monday on the site of Trump's planned visit. But the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that airspace in the McAllen, Texas, vicinity would be restricted Thursday due to a "VIP movement." The border city of 142,000 people is home to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility where migrants who have crossed illegally into the country have been detained. First lady Melania Trump also visited a shelter for migrant children in McAllen in June. Trump and congressional Democrats remain at an impasse on crafting a deal to reopen the government, which is in its 17th day of a partial shutdown. Democrats, who retook control of the House last week, have passed measures that would fund the federal agencies affected, but Trump has balked at any legislation that does not meet his demand for border wall funding. Tuesday's speech shapes up as both a policy issue and a political stunt - an attempt by the president to persuade the public that his vision of a border wall trumps Democratic opposition to it. As such, the White House's request for airtime is more problematic than other kinds of presidential addresses, such as a response to a national defense emergency, an economic crisis or the annual State of the Union speech. The networks also have to balance their obligation to inform viewers about current affairs versus their desire not to preempt lucrative prime-time entertainment programs for the speech. In fact, the broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC - didn't show President Barack Obama's immigration speech in November 2014, when he outlined changes in immigration policy. That speech was delivered during a "sweeps" month, in which ratings for prime-time programs are used to set future ad prices. While the broadcast networks typically carry presidential addresses, there is no requirement or regulation compelling them to do so. "This isn't state television," in which authorities control the airwaves, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a veteran communications attorney at the Georgetown University Law Center. Nor are the networks' hundreds of affiliated local stations required to air programs distributed by their network partners. On the other hand, they can choose to air a presidential speech even if their affiliated network isn't airing it. A spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents local stations, said "traditionally and typically" networks and stations will carry a presidential address "since we are committed to our role as first informers." As the new Congress convened, Pence called House Republicans last week and urged them to vote against Democratic measures that would have reopened the government without wall funding. Tuesday's meeting comes ahead of votes that Pelosi has planned on a piecemeal reopening of the government, beginning with the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service. This week's votes will put Republicans in a particularly challenging spot, as they will spotlight the issue of whether millions of Americans get their tax refund checks. In a sign that the Trump administration is worried about a potential public backlash on the issue, the White House decided Monday that it is legally permissible to process tax returns during the shutdown, reversing past IRS policy. Yet talks between the White House and congressional aides over the weekend showed no signs of a breakthrough, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain furloughed. Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in an appearance on MSNBC on Monday afternoon that federal employees "have really been kicked into the middle of a political fight that they didn't create and that they don't have the authority to try and resolve." "This has gone way too far," added Reardon, whose union represents 150,000 members at 33 federal agencies and departments. "Get these people back to work and get them paid." Trump said Sunday that he understood the predicament facing federal workers who are not receiving their paychecks. "I can relate, and I'm sure the people who are on the receiving end will make adjustments; they always do," he told reporters outside the White House. He also claimed that "many of those people agree with what I'm doing": refusing to reopen the government without obtaining funding for the wall, one of his signature campaign promises. With the effects of the partial shutdown rippling across the country, acting White House budget director Russell Vought sent a letter to congressional leaders Sunday detailing the administration's demands. The letter called for $5.7 billion "for construction of a steel barrier for the Southwest border" but also proposed "an additional $800 million to address urgent humanitarian needs" and unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border. In a tweet Sunday night, Trump sought to put a positive spin on the ongoing negotiations, describing them as "productive" and declaring that "we are now planning a Steel Barrier rather than concrete." But a Democratic official said no progress was made over the weekend, in large part because the White House has not been forthcoming about how the money would be used or why the request is for so much more than the administration sought only a few months ago. Trump has said in recent days that he might seek to unilaterally secure border wall funding by declaring a national emergency, a move that experts say would be of questionable legality. Pelosi, sharply criticized Trump on Sunday for raising that possibility, suggesting in an interview with CBS News that the president "would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress so the only voice that mattered was his own." - - - The Washington Post's Robert Costa and John Wagner contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: President Trump on Jan. 6 reiterated his argument for building a wall on the southern border.(The Washington Post) Embed code: North Chicago police officers were dispatched shortly after 8 a.m. to the 1700 block of Greenfield, where they found the man with what appeared to be a gunshot wound, according to Lake County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the task force. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Moscow, ID (83843) Today Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies and light rain after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies and light rain after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Three days after most of the federal workforce was furloughed on Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona. The following day, Christmas, a man died at Yosemite National Park in California after suffering a head injury from a fall. On Dec. 27, a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee. The deaths follow a decision by Trump administration officials to leave the scenic - but sometimes deadly - parks open even as the Interior Department has halted most of its operations. During previous extended shutdowns, the National Park Service barred access to many of its sites across the nation. National Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email that an average of six people die each week in the park system, a figure that includes "accidents like drownings, falls, and motor vehicle crashes and medical related incidents such as heart attacks." "Throughout the year, the National Park System offers a wide range of visitor experiences in unique landscapes with potential hazards that may exist at parks across the nation," Barnum said. "Visitors can reduce their risk of injury if they plan ahead and prepare properly, select the most appropriate activity that matches their skill set and experience, seek information before they arrive at the park about hazards and environmental conditions, follow rules and regulations and use sound judgement while recreating." In 1995 and 2013, respectively, the Clinton and Obama administrations made the decision to close the parks altogether. Officials came to the conclusion that it would jeopardize public safety and the parks' integrity to keep them open, but the closures also became a political cudgel for Democrats because they exemplified one of the most popular aspects of federal operations that had ground to a halt. In January 2018, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made the decision to keep national park sites as accessible as possible in the event of a shutdown. Trump officials forged ahead with the plan - but that shutdown only lasted for three days. The current shutdown enters the third week on Saturday. Several former Park Service officials, along with the system's advocates, said in interviews that activities such as viewing animals and hiking outdoors can carry a greater risk when fewer employees are around. Diane Regas, president and chief executive of the Trust for Public Land, said the group has sent a letter to President Donald Trump calling on him to close all national parks. In an interview Friday, she said administration officials may have underestimated the broad scope of what it takes to maintain these sites. "I think we all know that not having bathrooms is a nuisance. What I think people forget is, not having adequate sewage treatment can be dangerous," Regas said. "When you bring people together, running these parks is like running a small city. "We are taking risks with some of our most treasured natural resources without knowing that we're doing our best to protect people, that we're doing our best to protect park resources," she said. "When it comes to our national parks, I just don't believe that's acceptable." The Park Service estimates that up to 16,000 of its 19,000-person workforce is furloughed during the shutdown. Officials said services such as cleanup and maintenance vary from park to park, due to agreements with concessions and surrounding municipalities that are donating services, such as trash collection and road clearing. Still, roughly half a dozen rangers are currently available to patrol Yosemite National Park, for example, which is about the size of Rhode Island. Officials said skeleton crews are working to close off hazardous areas covered in snow and ice. On Christmas Eve, the 14-year-old girl raced from the lot where her parents parked to see the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, a dramatic cliff that looks out to a peninsula of jagged rock. After a long search, her parents reported her missing about 5 p.m., triggering an emergency response, according to the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. She was discovered near the cliff near dark, forcing authorities to wait and retrieve her body the next morning. National Park Service officials said rangers responding to an emergency call found the second victim at Yosemite with a head wound, apparently from a short fall. They did not confirm social media chatter from other visitors that he ran after a dog that he illegally brought into the park. The man, who was not identified, died of his injuries. A spokesman for the Pacific West Region of the Park Service said the public wasn't notified of the Yosemite death because of the shutdown and that it is also delaying an investigation into its causes. "We aren't releasing more details because the incident remains under investigation, said Andrew Munoz, acting chief of public and congressional affairs for the region. Two days after the Yosemite incident, 42-year-old Laila Jiwani was killed by a falling tree on Porter Creek Trail in the Smoky Mountains. One of Jiwani's two children, a 6-year-old, was airlifted to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to a Park Service spokesman. Frank Dean, president and chief executive of the Yosemite Conservancy, said in a phone interview that the park's staff is doing its best under challenging circumstances. "This is the first time in a long-term shutdown where the parks have remained open," said Dean, who served as a park ranger and assistant to the superintendent in Yosemite before going on to become superintendent for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. "What we're finding now is it's not really working, because you've got understaffing. As this thing drags on, you've got free access and no guidance." Daniel Wenk, who served as Yellowstone National Park's superintendent until retiring in September, said in an interview that not having a robust presence could impede the agency's response to an emergency. "A casual cross-country skier would want to go to Tower Falls" in Yellowstone, Wenk said. "If they suffer a heart attack - every year you have that - we wouldn't be able to quickly respond. You might be dramatically delayed. It's correct, people die in national parks all the time. If you can attribute [the shutdown] to people not being able to get to them for an hour and a half, that's another story." While a handful of major parks have remained open during past shutdowns, many agency staffers had not anticipated that the budget impasse would persist this long. Now some superintendents are closing off areas of their parks as it drags on, having determined that they cannot adequately protect either the habitat, wildlife or visitors. Mount Rainier's National Park Inn has been cleaning toilets and collecting trash at its own expense, but will stop doing that after breakfast on Sunday. Melinda Simpson, operations manager at the concessionaire Rainier Guest Services, said that after that point, the National Park Service "will be then closing the park and locking the gates." "We couldn't continue to operate under these conditions, and really wish we could. It's very disappointing," she said, noting that the operation's 45 employees would have to go without pay while it was shut down. "We are just waiting and looking forward to welcoming the guests when they open up the park again." Kristen Brengel, vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that superintendents need the freedom to shutter parks if they determine it is no longer sustainable to keep them accessible. "The political pressure to keep the parks open is overriding some of these judgment calls," she said in an interview. "We need a release valve here for the Park Service, so they can do the right thing." In addition to restrooms not being maintained and visitors not being properly warned and guided by staff, crews cannot work to prepare parks for the summer season and fix roads. Vehicle accidents ranked second behind drowning as a cause of death in parks in 2007, according to the last comprehensive tally released to the public. The United States seemingly entered the new year with a new strategy for the war in Syria: It's time to get out. President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement last month that the Islamic State militant group had been defeated in Syria and that U.S. troops in the country would be coming home. That decision caught Washington off guard and sparked considerable controversy. But in the ensuing weeks, both Trump and administration officials have offered conflicting - and often confusing - statements about the timing of the exit and what the U.S. strategy in Syria now entails. So what is actually going on? Here's a rundown. 1. How did this start? Trump tweeted Dec. 19 that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, had been defeated in Syria - a goal that he said had been the only reason for a U.S. presence there. The White House later confirmed that the United States would move quickly to withdraw all its forces from Syria. "They're all coming back, and they're coming back now," Trump said in a video message. Trump framed his decision to pull U.S. troops out as the fulfillment of a campaign promise. The president was a longtime critic of the Obama administration's policy on fighting the Islamic State in Syria, writing in 2013 that the United States "should stay the hell out of Syria." 2. Is that still the policy? It's hard to say. After his announcement sparked a loud backlash, Trump extended his initial 30-day deadline for the pullout to four months - and then said publicly that he didn't approve of a four-month deadline, either. "I never said fast or slow," Trump insisted at a Jan. 2 Cabinet meeting. Trump's allies have also suggested that the pullout plans are up in the air. After a meeting with the president on Dec. 30, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters that it was a "pause situation" rather than a pullout. At the moment, it seems that no one really knows when a pullout might occur. During a visit to Israel on Sunday, national security adviser John Bolton said that a number of objectives would have to be met before a withdrawal takes place. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement," he said. And Sunday, Trump appeared to contradict his own prior statements about the timing of any pullout. "I never said we're doing it that quickly," he told reporters. 3. Why was there so much resistance to withdrawing the troops? Many of Trump's foreign-policy advisers and allies support a strong line against Iran and view the U.S. presence in Syria as key to checking Tehran. As recently as September, the State Department's special representative for Syria engagement, James Jeffrey, told reporters that the U.S. mission in Syria included the departure of all Iranian military and proxy forces and the installation of a stable new government. "That means we are not in a hurry," Jeffrey said. Among the Iran hawks was Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned the day after Trump announced his Syria move. In his resignation letter, Mattis said the president deserved a Pentagon chief who was "better aligned" with his views. 4. How many U.S. troops are in Syria at the moment? About 2,200 U.S. service members are in Syria at this time. Though the Pentagon has released little information about the deployment, some details have spilled out: During the push to retake the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's self-declared capital, in 2017, Special Operations forces and artillerymen were deployed there. Army Rangers also were sent to Syria to keep the peace between Syrian Kurdish fighters and forces loyal to Turkey. There are also roughly 5,200 U.S. troops in neighboring Iraq, where they assist the government in the fight against the Islamic State. When Trump visited those troops on Dec. 26, he suggested that "we could use this as the base if we wanted to do something in Syria." 5. Has the Islamic State really been defeated? The organization has lost almost all of the territory it held at its peak in 2014 and 2015. The U.S.-led military intervention that began during the Obama administration has certainly helped with this, particularly the use of American air power. But estimates released over the summer suggested that the group may still have more than 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State has shifted to insurgency tactics, carrying out kidnappings and assassinations in Iraq and defeating U.S.-backed fighters in Syria. Some U.S. military leaders have suggested that the group is well-positioned to reemerge. 7. What effect could a pullout have on Syria's warring parties? Turkey has emerged as a potential winner. Meanwhile, the prospect of a pullout has deeply alarmed the Syrian Kurdish forces allied with the United States. Turkey considers them terrorists and has vowed to drive them out of northeastern Syria. Bolton said Sunday that an agreement would be reached to keep the Kurds out of "jeopardy," but Kurdish officials have told reporters that they are seeking a deal with President Bashar al-Assad's government just in case. Any agreement with the Kurds would be a boon for Assad, who has retaken control of much of the country. It would also be a win for Assad's allies in Russia and Iran. The Trump administration had earlier made countering Iran one of its key goals in the Middle East, but at a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump suggested that he wasn't worried about Iranian influence in Syria. "They can do what they want," Trump said of Iran in Syria on Jan. 3. President Donald Trump View Photos President Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: So we had a productive meeting with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer. I thought it was, really, a very, very good meeting. Were all on the same path in terms of wanting to get government open. I want to thank a lot of the Border Patrol people and ICE people who came up yesterday. They had a tremendous impact on, I think, a lot of Democrats, frankly, but a lot of people, because they were able to lay out exactly what the problem is. And one of the problems described to me as an example, you have ports of entry. Were going to agree with Chuck and Nancy and Steny, and Dick Durbin was there. And were going to agree that and we want to make the ports bigger, more powerful, able to handle more traffic; have very, very powerful drug equipment there. So they make very good stuff now. We dont have it because of budgets and other reasons. But were going to make our ports of entry very powerful, very strong. Were going to have the best drug-finding equipment anywhere in the world. They make it much better today than they made it even two years ago. And I explained to them the problem is, though, we can have a wonderful port of entry, but you have 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico. And if you take a look and you see, like we do, through certain technology including cameras and airplanes, not just drones youll see vast numbers of vehicles driving through the desert and entering where you dont have a very powerful fence or a wall. That happened this week, where a wonderful, young police officer I spoke to his wife yesterday where he was shot, viciously shot, for simply stopping a person that came over the border illegally. Got shot. Killed. And took the most beautiful picture just hours before a Christmas picture. We dont want that happening. But I was explained too, and I explained to people because its really common sense: So you have ports of entry, and we have great security at the ports of entry, and then you may have fencing or walls, up and down, left and right, east and west. But they stop because we dont have proper border security. These people have vehicles and they drive to the right. Theyre not going through where we have great Border Patrol officers and ICE officers, and military now. I tell you, the military has done a fantastic job. They dont stop. They go right to the easiest part and the weakest part, sometimes out in desert. But you have miles and miles and miles of unprotected area. And you can see where they drive over. You even have people walking that track. And thats a very dangerous trek. And they bring children or even worse, they use children. You know, children are the biggest beneficiaries of what we want to do. Children are hurt more than anybody else. These coyotes, what they do with children, all because we have open borders, because they think they can get away with it. They dont come in through the port, where we have a lot of protection. They come in through empty areas, vast spaces empty areas just like this terrible person came in when he shot Officer Singh. They come in through these vast, open areas. You dont even have a sign saying Mexico/U.S. Theres no sign designating you have just entered the United States. Its just open space. And I explained that to the meeting today with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and a lot of other people at the meeting. And I said, one of the things that happens there is human traffickers maybe thats the worst of all where youll have traffickers having three and four women with tape on their mouths and tied up, sitting in the back of a van or a car, and theyll drive that van or the car not through a port of entry, where we have very talented people that look for every little morsel of drugs, or even people, or whatever theyre looking for. Not going to go there. They get off the road and they drive out into the desert, and they come on, they make a left turn. Usually its a left, not a right. Most of them come out because in San Diego and in areas of California, we just finished brand-new walls. Beautiful walls. Steel walls. And they wanted them badly. They were asking us. Thats why we did it there. I said, Lets not do it in California. California always complains through their great governors. Theyre always complaining. I said, Lets not do it. Let the governor ask us. But we did it anyway because they really needed it. They were having tremendous problems. So we built a brand-new wall in San Diego, and its working really well. You should go and look at it. Its amazing. Its incredible how well it works. But these coyotes and these human traffickers, they make a right turn before they get to the port of entry. They go as far as the wall is, or as far as the barricade is, and then they make a left: Welcome to the United States. And what they do with usually the women sometimes children that theyre trafficking with, and in, you dont want to know about. So the only way youre going to stop that is by having a solid steel structure or concrete structure, whether its a wall or some form of very powerful steel. Now, the steel is actually more expensive than the concrete, but I think were probably talking about steel because I really feel the other side feels better about it. And I can understand what theyre saying. It is more expensive. We mentioned the price that we want $5.6 billion very strongly. Because numbers are thrown around 1.6, 2.1, 2.5. This is national security were talking about. Were not talking about games. Were talking about national security. This should have been done by all of the Presidents that preceded me. And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it. So were not playing games. We have to do it. And just remember, human traffickers. Remember drugs. The drugs are pouring into this country. They dont go through the ports of entry. When they do, they sometimes get caught. When we finish and the Democrats do want this; they want ports of entry strengthened, and I want to do that too. In fact, we have it down. Its about $400 million. And we can have the best equipment in the world. Now what theyll do if we have the protection and we have strong ports of entry, with this incredible drug-finding equipment, I dont know what theyre going to do, because theyre not coming in through past the steel gates or the steel walls, or the concrete walls, depending on whats happening. So now, when they make that turn, they make it. And now, all of a sudden, they cant go any further and they have to go back. And thats going to stop the caravans for two reasons. Number one, theyre not going to be able to get through. But when they realize they cant get through, whats going to happen? Theyre not going to form and theyre not going to try and come up. And they can apply for asylum and they can most importantly, they can apply for citizenship because the companies that I told you, that created these great job numbers theyre incredible job numbers, beyond anybodys expectations. I dont think there was one Wall Street genius of which I know many of them, but theyre not geniuses theres not one that predicted anywhere close to these job numbers. I thought they were going to be good. But there wasnt one that I saw. So now we have everything so beautifully handled. We need to have, however we need border security. And all of this security, if we do what I think what the Democrats want, all of the border things that well be building will be done right here in the good, old USA by steel companies that were practically out of business when I came into office as President. And now theyre thriving. You call up the heads of U.S. Steel, and I could name 10 companies. If you look at whats going on with the steel industry, its almost a miracle. It was a dead industry. We need steel for defense. We need steel for a lot of things. Steel and aluminum. But those industries were in deep trouble. The steel industry was almost dead, and now its a very vibrant, vibrant industry. So were at 5.6. If you look at it $5.6 billion. But we are able to also, in addition to that because what we want to do has to be done properly, and were negotiating very tough prices. Very, very tough. Because you heard much higher numbers. Those higher numbers were very much a misnomer. You heard twenty and twenty-five billion in DACA. What happened is, when a judge incredibly because it was an incredibly, I will say, wrong decision. In fact, President Obama, when he signed the DACA with the executive order, made a statement to the effect, this isnt going to work. And some judge from the Ninth Circuit here we go again upheld it. And then it was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Appellate, and now its going before the United States Supreme Court. And hopefully, that will be properly adjudicated. Because if it is, talks will begin on larger immigration matters having to do with DACA, having to do with other things. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. "We always had a lot of happiness in the room," said Viita, the head of kids and teen services. "We wanted to make the space seem bigger if we could, but still keep that welcome." Embarking on strike does not automatically ... For those people not from Morgan County or Scott County, the name Mauvaisterre seems oddly out of place, not to mention being difficult to spell and to pronounce. At some point, probably in the 1830s or 1840s, someone took the already established place name and corrupted it, changing both its spelling and its pronunciation. Originally, the word, which is French, was two words: Mauvaise Terre, which is correctly pronounced Mo-vez-tehr. The original spelling remains on some maps. Translated into English, it means bad land, or bad earth. The French believed the land around the creeks mouth, where it emptied into the Illinois River, to be of poor quality. In the early 1800s, settlers in this region retained the French spelling but combined the two words. Then, within a few decades, the common spelling of the word became what is seen today Mauvaisterre and people began pronouncing it Mo-vuh-star. A possible explanation for the erroneous pronunciation is found in two traditions about the origin of the name. One tradition says that Mauvaisterre is of Indian origin, while the other claims the name came from the words moving star. A story says that pioneers coming into this region followed a star, and when they lost their way, concluded the star they were following was moving. In reality, Mauvaisterre Creek was named by French explorers about 1720, and, previous to that time, appeared on maps as an unnamed river. The name of the creek appears in the French records of the District of Cahokia in connection with a 1786 lawsuit, according to a 1928 Jacksonville Daily Journal story. A description of a journey in Illinois in 1796 mentions the bad land, the Mauvaise Terre. On the earliest U.S. surveys, the name appears as Mauvaise Terre River. The French called most creeks in America rivers, just as they called streams in France rivers. Many of the French rivers of which we heard much during the [First] World War carry no more water than did the Mauvaisterre in pioneer days, before forests were removed and quick drainage effected, wrote an unknown Jacksonville journalist in 1928. Even today, many streams no longer than the Mauvaisterre in the dry Southwest are called rivers. The wooded areas along creeks such as the Mauvaisterre were where many Illinois pioneers built their first cabins. Seymour and Elisha Kellogg, the earliest settlers in what would become Morgan County, constructed a home near the upper part of the north branch of Mauvaisterre Creek, about 7 miles east of present-day Jacksonville. Mauvaisterre Creek has its source in the prairies some 30 miles east of its mouth at the Illinois River. Two of the creeks three branches unite a short distance northeast of Jacksonville, and the Mauvaisterre then winds westward through rich farmland before breaking through the river bluffs and emptying into the river south of Naples. The creek meanders around Jacksonville, and the city of Jacksonville constructed two artificial lakes Morgan and Mauvaisterre as reservoirs along the creeks south fork. In the 1800s, mills were built on the creek at Exeter and Oxville. In the days when advocates of railroads and canals were contesting over which mode of transportation should dominate the settlements, Scott County spent $2,000 to improve the creek from its mouth to Oxville, and docks were built at that village to make it a river port, wrote Jacksonville historian Frank J. Heinl. Despite the efforts of entrepreneurs, Mauvaisterre Creek never proved to be much of a commercial waterway. Perhaps, poet John Bryant, an early Morgan County resident, best described the creek in a poem he penned in 1831. Though its smooth, winding banks are rich, our Mauvaiseterres a muddy ditch. This Way We Were story was first published April 17, 2006. CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) For the first time in six months, Sami Bayless mounted her horse, a moment she thought shed never experience again. It was amazing because in my mind, what I had focused my whole life on was over, she said. I forgot how hard it was to ride a horse, and it was different this time because my legs werent as strong. It was exhausting but worth it. Exhausting and difficult because Bayless, an 18-year-old from Lockwood, has spent the past six months hundreds of miles from her horse at a hospital in Denver, recovering from a June car accident that left her with injuries to her spine and legs. Injuries included a 1.5-inch laceration on the forehead; broken femur, tibia and fibula in the left leg; broken kneecap and femur fracture in the right leg; vertebrae fractures; and spinal cord damage. She underwent 15 surgeries many of those all in one month and faced complications along the way. She encountered frequent blood clots, and at one point she received 23 units of blood in a 48-hour period. It got pretty scary there at times, Charity Bayless, Samis mother, said. It was quite the roller-coaster ride. The medical roller-coaster ride would eventually return to its loading platform, when Sami Bayless was cleared to begin physical therapy in September. She was staring down a long and winding road, one that led to the ability to walk again. Last month, Sami returned home to the surprise of her friends and family. One of the first stops was to visit her grandmother, Marilyn Baugh, the outgoing Jasper County clerk who recently celebrated her retirement at the courthouse in Carthage. There were many times when Bayless was ready to call it quits. Lying in bed waiting patiently for the body to heal is no easy task for an otherwise active teenager, one who has spent her life on horses competing in rodeos in both the Missouri Family Rodeo Association and the Missouri Junior Rodeo Circuit. The initial recovery was difficult, and she felt trapped. Her body rejected food, even though she was hungry all the time. I was scared to get better because every time I got better, something would happen, and I would crash and burn, she said. At one point, I lost all hope. I was depressed. Throughout the recovery, the Bayless family has faced logistical and financial hurdles. Charity Bayless lost her job as she stayed in Denver, while her husband stayed home to work and care for the rest of the children. Theyve all handled it in stride. We take it day by day, and my kids have all stepped up to the plate big time, Charity Bayless said. The journey has taught the kids to enjoy the little things and enjoy the time you have with those around you because you never know when thats going to be taken away. An outpouring of love from the community helped Sami Bayless and her family forge onward. Individuals and groups came together to hold fundraisers, from custom-candle sales to pancake breakfasts, for Sami over the summer. Without the support of the communities, we would sink, Charity Bayless said. The support helped relieve some worries; I didnt have to worry about how I was going to live for six months. They were our fuel on days that we felt like we couldnt go any more. All of the letters from friends and family helped, too. Every time I got mail, it reminded me that people cared, Sami Bayless said. I was loved, even if I didnt feel like it. The extent of Bayless injuries should have left her with little to no function at all. Today, she can walk 500 feet with assistance and is focusing on balance and endurance in her physical therapy. Her days are packed from sunrise to sunset as she works to regain mobility first weightlifting, then occupational therapy, then a support group, then recreational therapy, then lunch, then physical therapy, then another round of weightlifting and finally a wheelchair class. Every hour, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., is filled. Hopefully after balance and endurance improves, I can start walking without assistance, Bayless said. I like physical therapy because it gives me something to do. Of course, there are days when I want to nap. The family has remained hopeful along the journey, leaning on their faith to get them through difficult times. Based upon her injuries, she shouldnt have hand function, arm function, the balance she has, and thats by the grace of God and the blessings that have been bestowed upon her that she has that, let alone the leg function, Charity Bayless said. Just because paper says one thing, you cant ever give up. A recent X-ray showed bone regeneration in Samis legs, a good sign that she wont require another surgery. She and her mother will return to Denver on Jan. 5 to continue therapy. But before that, she entered Lucky J Arena for a Barrel Bash, where she walked her horse around the pattern and marked a return to the sport she loves. It will never be the same, but thats OK because at least I can still do it, Bayless said. I think its going to be a start to something new. The new chief of the South Jacksonville Fire Department that was sworn in by the village on Thursday said he hopes to connect with the community he has known his whole life. South Jacksonville native Richard Evans Jr., 37, was named chief in December to replace the resigning chief David Hickox. The son of a firefighter, Evans said that he grew up hanging out around the South Jacksonville Fire Department and knew for a long time that he would become a firefighter himself. I grew up with it, I watched my dad do it and I could tell it was something I wanted to do, Evans said. I enjoy helping people and being involved with the community. Its just something I really enjoy. Evans is a Jacksonville High School graduate and attended Lincoln Land Community College before taking his firefighter courses at the Illinois Fire Service Institute. He joined on with the South Jacksonville Fire Department around 2001 as a firefighter and in October he was promoted by Hickox to acting assistant chief. When it comes to replacing Hickox, Evans said he knows he has big shoes to fill. He really helped me along the way and would always give me extra responsibilities since Ive been here, Evans said. Ive learned a lot from him. One of Evans primary goals is to get new volunteers to come on with the department. Currently, he said, the department has a shortage of volunteers which is something he said is a nationwide problem. We hired one last night and we have some other applications, he said. Were looking to do an open house or volunteer day where we open the firehouse up and the community can come in and see what we do and do some hands-on stuff so we can drum up some interest for people out there who might want to volunteer with us. Additionally, Evans said he hopes to get more training for the department to keep everyone brushed up on the latest firefighting information. He also intends to implement the Be Alarmed! Smoke Alarm Installation Program through the Illinois Fire Marshalls office that will help homeowners install their smoke detectors properly. Most importantly, though, he said he hopes to improve the visibility of the department and to connect with the community. Evans, an employee with Golden Eagle Distributing, currently lives in South Jacksonville with his fiance Dana Jokisch who is also a firefighter with the department. He said he looks forward to serving the community of South Jacksonville with the support of his family and his staff. Everyone down here enjoys what they do and loves helping the community, Evans said. I have total faith in everybody. Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper. In case he wants to attend, he said he tries to have a flag with him. Once on a vacation in Mexico, he learned about a Rotary meeting in Huatulco and went. Besides exchanging flags, he responded when members said they were trying to build a library and asked if Deerfield could help. FREDERICKSBURG, Texas (AP) Landowners in Texas Hill Country are scrambling to figure out how to reroute or stop a $2 billion natural gas pipeline proposed by Houston-based Kinder Morgan. The San Antonio Express-News reports that the company is surveying the possible route from the Permian Basin oil and gas field in West Texas to a Houston suburb. Property owners in Hill Country and Hays County are looking into their rights and the company's ability to utilize eminent domain. The Big Oil company Chevron dedicated its newest crude oil supertanker as an homage to the city of Houston to start the new year. The new Houston Voyager is a "very large crude carrier" designed to hold 2 million barrels of oil. The tanker is one of seven new vessels being added to modernize Chevron's global shipping fleet for more efficient transportation with fewer emissions. Armed with a box cutter, police say a man demanded a cashier give him all the money in the register at the Roses in Morganton, but only made out with a Sun Drop. Heath says her prices are very reasonable even though each piece is an original. She doesnt want the assumption that paintings, like these, are expensive to keep people away from her gallery. The three artists that she is showing are T. Brentano from Brazil , who focuses on oil paintings, Clailda Savedra from Brazil , who retired from teaching art for 30 years , and Moema, who also does oil paintings. (T. Brentano) has shown her artwork in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, Heath said. Heath got her start in painting 30 years ago as a hobby, even though her degree is in biology. She found her calling was in a different direction. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} I liked it and I started painting more and more, Heath said. Then my friends liked (the paintings) and they asked if I could paint this and that for them and I found myself painting more and more. While still living in Brazil, she started taking classes and going to workshops to learn more about the art of painting. I do more of the contemporary art and I like to paint still life and cityscapes, she said. As for where her inspiration comes from , when she has a brush in hand, it comes from multiple places. Reed, who said she has lived in Deerfield for 35 years, has been intimately involved with downtown for a long time. She managed the Farmers Market for 22 years from its inception until she stepped aside three years ago. She knows about businesses no longer around and wants to know if people would like to see them return. A month-long movement to encourage women to ditch traditional trends and grow out their body hair is underway. 'Januhairy' was kicked off by British university student Laura Jackson who is using the month much like Movember to raise money for a body-positive education programme. "When I first started growing my body hair my mum asked me, 'Is it you just being lazy or are you trying to prove a point?'" Ms Jackson wrote on Instagram. "Why should we be called lazy if we don't want to shave?" While writing a description for each charm so that potential buyers would know what they were getting, the woman used a bit of creative flair and a whole lot of passion when writing about them. "Bride & groom dancing - not that we ever danced. He hated dancing but I loved it. Oh and god forbid some guy approached me on the dance floor. The one time I didn't move a guy on quickly enough, a scotch glass came hurtling through the air at me to let me know of my ex's displeasure. Safety chain with 14ct yellow gold hearts - designed to keep the bracelet together better than our marriage. Chick - like the babies he was trying to force me to have because he wanted babies before he was 30 and wouldn't entertain the discussion about what I wanted. Heart with a 14ct yellow gold arrow - symbolising the pain in my heart when I found out about the lies. And then again, when I found out how long they'd been going on for." Concluding her advert, the seller said: "The pieces are all in very good condition (much like I am now after the divorce)." Bandhan Bank Ltd on Monday said its board has approved a scheme of amalgamation of Gruh Finance Ltd. The Bank also appointed Anup Kumar Sinha as its part-time chairman for next three years. Gruh Finance is a unit of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC). Reacting on the merger, Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, says, "Today Bandhan and Gruh will create one of India's largest rural and semi urban platform. The merger of Gruh Finance and Bandhan Bank is a semi-arranged bank." This merger will allow Bandhan Bank to reduce promoter shareholding from 82.28% at present. Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank has been looking to take the M&A route to bring down the stake of Bandhan Financial Holdings to 40% as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandate. The share exchange ratio for the amalgamation of Gruh Finance with the Bandhan Bank is 568 shares (credited as fully paid up) of face value of Rs10 each of Bandhan Bank for every 1,000 shares of face value of Rs2 each of Gruh Finance. Gruh Finance has total assets of Rs15970.97 crore, turnover of Rs1687.19 crore and networth of Rs1380.92 crore as on March 2018. Bandhan Bank has total assets of Rs44310.06 crore, turnover of Rs5508.48 crore and net worth of Rs9382 crore as on FY2017-18. Gruha Finance is engaged in the business of providing home loans, with a retail network of 195 branches across 11 states and one union territory with almost 50% of the existing loan assets in the rural areas. Bandhan Bank is present in 34 states and union territorires and has 978 branches. The five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, in September last year, had restricted the mandatory use of Aadhaar to welfare programmes for which the money has been provided from the Consolidated Fund of India. The apex court also struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act that had allowed banks, telcos and other private entities to use Aadhaar. However, notwithstanding the Supreme Court judgement, the government is trying to make sure that private entities continue to use Aadhaar. In addition, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the law minister, has said that the government will bring a Bill to make it mandatory to link driving licences with Aadhaar. But more about it later. Last week, the Narendra Modi-led government passed the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha with very little debate or scrutiny. The Bill is now in the Rajya Sabha. On an earlier occasion, when the upper house has rejected Aadhaar Act, the government got it passed as money bill by bypassing the Rajya Sabha. Legal scholar, Dr Usha Ramanathan, says, "The Aadhaar Act was passed as a Money Bill. The Court was able to uphold the Act only after they struck down Section 57, which allows business interests to use the Aadhaar system. This new amendment attempts to get past that by a convoluted methodoffline verification as may be specified by regulations, leaving it to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to experiment on us, and includes things like virtual ID, and other forms using the number." Rethink Aadhaar campaign says it is alarmed by the government misleading Parliament on the Aadhaar Amendments Bill, and on the purported savings resulting from linking Aadhaar to various welfare schemes. "Mr Prasad claimed the amendments proposed in the Bill are 'in compliance with the SC order'. This is not true, and the SC has nowhere directed the government to frame laws for linking Aadhaar to mobile or banking services. Right from the day of the SC judgment the government has manipulated the Court's directions with an aim to expand Aadhaar applications, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the day after the judgement hinting that the government may bring a new law to allow continued use of Aadhaar by private companies," it added. According to Dr Ramanathan, the amendments allow not only offline verification, but also authentication, supposedly with the consent of the individual. She says, "After the judgement of the apex court, the use of the Aadhaar system by private and business interests is prohibited. Using 'voluntary' and 'consent' as a cover does not make it right. In Para 367 of the majority judgment, the judges had only said, 'if such a person voluntary wants to offer Aadhaar card as a proof of his/her identity, there may not be a problem'. That does not allow the use of the Aadhaar system, not even voluntarily." The Supreme Court had allowed the use of Aadhaar for Section 7which is for delivery of services, benefits and subsidies. On the issue of failures in linking and in authentication which has resulted in starvation deaths, the apex court merely said that the attorney general had stated that the government would take care of this. "Now, in this amendment, they say only this: provided that the requesting entity shall, in case of failure to authenticate due to illness, injury or infirmity owing to old age or otherwise or any technical or other reasons, provide such alternate and viable means of identification of the individual, as may be specified by regulations". This amendment, in other words, does nothing for the poor, only for business interest, which the court said could not be done using this project, Dr Ramanathan added. Over the years, the government has been trying to make big claims on savings due to Aadhaar which were found to be not true. In fact, both Mr Prasad and finance minister Arun Jaitley's claims of Rs90,000 crore saving due to Aadhaar, are based on a report from the World Bank, although the Bank itself had debunked the report. "The report from the World Bank talks about total extrapolated value of direct benefit transfers was misrepresented as savings. As Dr Reetika Khera pointed out, the World Bank only perpetuated claims that were subsequently disowned by the government. The latest claims are again false and an attempt to mislead Parliament," Rethink Aadhaar says in a statement. The Govt. estimates that Rs.90,000 crore have been saved by the use of Aadhaar till March, 2018. Several duplicate, fake, & non-existent beneficiaries have been eliminated. According to the @WorldBank Digital Dividend Report India can save Rs.77,000 crore /year by using Aadhaar . Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) January 6, 2019 According to Dr Anupam Saraph, a renowned expert in governance of complex systems, who also advises governments and businesses across the world, neither the ministry of finance nor any government ministry or department has provided any indication of the steps in the flow of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to the hands of the beneficiaries. "UIDAI and ministry of finance must certify that this money has been transferred to real and genuine beneficiaries. Neither the recipients database nor the money transfers have been audited or seem to have been verified by the CAG. Furthermore, no beneficiary database, or even the basis for inclusion or exclusion of beneficiaries from this database, is available with the public. The UIDAI has stated unambiguously that it takes no responsibility for the use of Aadhaar. It cannot recognise the use, or the absence of use, of Aadhaar in any business process. Neither can it certify the beginning, progress or completion of the business process," Dr Saraph, says in his article published by Sunday Guardian In her article in the Economic Times , Dr Khera and Jean Dreze say the numbers touted as saving due to Aadhaar by the government have no solid basis. "...the savings estimates do not pertain to Aadhaar as such but to the use of digital technology in subsidy transfers. Indeed, the smart cards study invoked in the said footnote does not involve Aadhaar at all. Even in the direct benefit transfer for liquefied petroleum gas (DBT-L) experiment, Aadhaar is only one component of the project, and a direct bank transfer can itself increase enforcement, irrespective of unique ID. The $11 billion figure (quoted in the World Bank report) is routinely construed as an estimate of Aadhaar-enabled savings," the article says. Earlier in August 2016, a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), said, 92% of the Rs23,316.21 crore the government saved in subsidy payout in FY15-16 occurred due to a drop in crude oil prices and both the government and oil marketing companies had overstated savings under the scheme. The actual subsidy payout during April-December 2015 was Rs12,084.24 crore against Rs35,400.46 crore during the same period in 2014. ( Read: Ghost Savings in DBTL: 99% gap between Jaitleys claims and actual savings ) Moneylife had reported that Aadhaar and DBTL savings for FY2016 were less than 1% or Rs121 crore, excluding the costs of implementation, as against finance minister Mr Jaitley's claim of an estimated saving of Rs15,000 crore. The news report was based on a revelation by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) based on publicly available information. Delivering his address at the 106th Indian Science Congress, Mr Prasad, the minister for law, electronics and information technology, has said the government will soon make it mandatory for linking Aadhaar with driving licences. "At present, what happens is that the guilty person who causes an accident flees the scene and gets a duplicate licence. This helps him go scot-free. However, with the Aadhaar linkage you can change your name but you cannot change your biometrics, neither iris nor fingerprints. So the moment you go in for a duplicate licence, the system will say this person already has a driving licence and should not be given a new one," the minister was quoted as saying in a report Read: #Aadhaar: UIDAI cannot make any assertion about the uniqueness of identity, RTI reply show s ) The only problem with this, according to Dr Saraph, is that the UIDAI does not certify the biometric or demographic data associated with any Aadhaar number. "It (UIDAI) seems to have no view about the number of unique records based on biometric or demographic fields. It does not even know if there was an enrolment operator, belonging to a private agency appointed by one of the 20 registrars whose enrolments make up most of the Aadhaar numbers, in the 600,000 villages, 5,000 towns and cities, or even the 707 districts where enrolment allegedly happened. It has no information about the original documents of proof of identity, address or birth used to capture the demographic data for Aadhaar. Furthermore, the Aadhaar database has never been verified or audited. It is the worlds largest database of ghosts and duplicates. Using the Aadhaar to create or modify any database can, therefore, entail the risk of populating those databases with duplicates and ghosts," he added. ( In that case, nobody seems to ask how the linking of Aadhaar with driving licence will help reduce number of accidents. Or whether the government want to reduce number of accidents or bulldoze Aadhaar into driving licence system. While Aadhaar is unverified, unaudited and unauthenticated number, an official from the regional transport office (RTO), by signing on the driving licence, is liable for the information. No official from any government authority or even UIDAI neither signs on Aadhaar nor is liable for genuineness of the information and data recorded in their database. Rethink Aadhaar, along with eminent civil society members, petitioners in the Aadhaar matters that were the subject of the 26 September 2018 judgement, as well as other citizens of India, demands that members of Parliament (MPs) in the Rajya Sabha should immediately send the Bill for a legislative review by a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha, and public consultation. You may also want to read... American airstrikes in Yemen killed a top al-Qaeda leader responsible for the deadly USS Cole bombing in 2000 in which 17 US sailors had lost their lives, the Pentagon said. Seventeen American sailors were killed and at least 40 others injured in the terrorist attack on the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole on October 12, 2000, while it was being refuelled in Yemen's Aden harbour. Jamal al-Badawi, a "legacy al-Qaeda operative in Yemen" involved in the USS Cole bombing, was wanted by the US for his role in the attack. Spokesman of the US Central Command Capt Bill Urban said: "Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Marib governate on January 1". "US forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process," Urban said. President Donald Trump praised the US military for "delivering justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole". "We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi. Our work against al-Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!" the president said. Badawi was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003, charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of US nationals and murder of US military personnel. China kicked off its annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival on January 5. The month-long spectacle set in Heilongjiang Province in northern China is one of the world's largest ice festival, featuring frozen castles, snow sculptures and other spectacular installations and activities. (Image: Reuters) Despite being one of the coldest city in the East Asian country, with the average temperature in January dropping to -12-degree Celsius, more than 10 million people flock to Harbin each year to witness the grandeur, which officially runs from January 5 to February 5. (Image: AP) While there is plenty to enjoy in the teeth-chattering cold, the most popular attraction is the Harbin Ice and Snow World, constructed with ice blocks pulled from the nearby Songhua River. (Image: Reuters) This year, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the festival, the magnificent monument was built across 600,000 square meters of land, featuring more than 100 landmarks. The snow castle is made of 110,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 cubic meters of snow. (Image: Reuters) Apart from the gigantic illuminated ice castles, the festival also boasts of an exquisite snow Buddha statue a 3D light show and the 340-meter-long Northern Lights-themed ice slides. (Image: AP) The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival will also feature a competition where sculptors from 12 different countries will present their opus. (Image: AP) Entrance for the annual festival this year costs RMB 330, or Rs 3,340. Visitors can also enjoy plenty of free activities around town, including 2,019 snowmen of different shapes and sizes built along the river. (Image: Reuters) The annual festival was first celebrated in 1985, inspired by Heilongjiang's traditional lanterns, which were carved out of ice and illuminated by candles. (Image: AP) Sheikh Hasina will be sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister for a record fourth term on January 7 after her Awami League's landslide victory in the December 30 election. Hasina's ruling alliance won more than 90 per cent of the seats contested in the election, which was marred by accusations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence. Hasina, 71, and her ruling Awami League party have dismissed the accusations. On January 3, she was chosen as the leader of the House for the fourth time. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is termed by many as the country's iron lady. Bangladesh on Sunday named a council of ministers with several new faces in the 47-member Cabinet of Prime Minister Hasina. Several veterans were dropped from the council of ministers amid speculation about the inductions as major portfolios like defence were retained by Hasina herself. The Jatiya Party, a key partner in the Awami League-led Grand Alliance of Hasina, on Friday decided to occupy the opposition benches in Parliament after the main opposition BNP led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia rejected the results of the general election. Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg interacts with schoolgirls during her visit to a government-run school in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis - RC156423B5F0 India and Pakistan are big enough countries to ensure that they can decrease bilateral tensions without help from outside, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. Solberg made the remarks during a media interaction after the inauguration of a new green compound at the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Asked if Norway could play the role of a mediator having a reputation of resolving conflicts, she said Norway had done a lot of work on mediation for peaceful settlement of disputes, but her government's policy was clear --to help someone when asked for it. "Nobody from the outside can create peace or make changes. It has to come from inside," she said. So if there is a movement in India and Pakistan for greater talks together, other countries may help, but the process has to be "partner driven", Solberg said. "It has to be those who are part of the conflict. I think both Pakistan and India are big enough countries to make sure that they can decrease tension between them without help from outside," the Norwegian prime minister said. Later, Norwegian ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvag, in a tweet, clarified that Solberg had not offered to mediate between India and Pakistan. Norway has neither been asked nor offered to mediate, he said. Solberg, while replying to a question on whether a military solution was possible in the Kashmir Valley, said, "I personally don't believe that military solutions can solve problems, I believe in peaceful solutions. I believe in the participation of women and youth in peace negotiations." She said military solutions are not always long lasting. Solberg said that good relations with neighbours can also provide an opportunity for using less money on military and allocating more funds on health and education sectors. The Norwegian prime minister, who arrived here this morning for a three-day visit, will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday on a host of issues with an aim to expand the multi-faceted bilateral partnership. To another question, Solberg said there is a long tradition of cooperation with India and she was looking forward to further collaboration in Tuesday's meetings with the Indian leadership. "Most of the political meetings will be tomorrow. This day we are starting with our business meeting and a record number of Norwegean businesses have come here to find Indian partners to increase cooperation with India," Solberg said. Asked how Norway can help India in clean energy sector, she said that some of the technologies that her country has are applicable in India. With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook-acquired WhatsApp is one of the most preferred messaging apps across the world. The app has many features that have made it popular in India as well but like any big tech company running an app - the updates haven't stopped. Heres a list of updates that the company may release over the year 2019: 1. WhatsApp Dark Mode This highly anticipated feature will turn the background colour of the app dark. Social media websites like YouTube, Twitter already have the dark mode feature available which makes content viewing easier to the eye at night. This feature has been under work for a while and was seen being tested on iOS and Android devices. 2. Consecutive Voice Messages Voice notes are one of the most popular features on WhatsApp, and the company plans to make it better. Currently, users have to play voice notes one-by-one. The expected update will allow users to play two or more voice notes automatically, one after the other. 3. Vacation Mode This feature was seen tested by WABetaInfo on the iOS app and is under works. This feature will allow a user to mute chats for as long as they want. 4. Linked accounts This unannounced feature is said to link a users WhatsApp account to external services. Although this is more focused towards WhatsApp Business but there have been some references seen by WABetaInfo on regular accounts as well. 5. Sharing files to multiple contacts Currently, WhatsApp allows a user to select multiple images and videos and send it to one user at a time. With the latest update to curb fake news, the app allows a user to forward a message to five users at a time. With an update expected, a user will be able to share a file with multiple users and even show a preview of the message before sending it. 6. Video Preview Currently, WhatsApp only allows GIFs and images preview in the notification tray. With the new update, videos too can be previewed. 7. Security There have been rumours that WhatsApp will introduce a new layer of security over the existing one wherein users can unlock the app using their fingerprint or face recognition. Currently, there are some apps on the App Store and Play Store that provide this feature. 8. Sticker Search After images and GIFs, WhatsApp will allow users to search and even recommend stickers. Like for emojis and GIFs, a user will be able to search for stickers just by typing relevant words. 9. Sharing contact info via QR This new feature will allow you to share your contact information. The new update will generate a QR code and will fill in your contact information. This feature is similar to the Nametag user introduced on Instagram 10. Contacts ranking According to WABetaInfo, this feature will rank contacts based on your interaction with other users on the app. Texting, media sharing will determine the ranking of a contact. Higher the communication, the higher the rank. Representative image Ravi Krishnan Long before Swacch Bharat was a gleam in Prime Minister Narendra Modis eye, Chinas Mao Zedong started a hygiene campaign in 1958. Prime among the measures: the citizenry was encouraged to kill four pests mosquitoes, rats, flies and sparrows. To whip up fervour, the government also declared birds as the public animals of capitalism. As enthusiastic Chinese killed sparrows leading to a near extinction of the species, locusts multiplied and led to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961. Later, the government changed the fourth pest from sparrows to bed bugs. The key lesson from the four pests campaign is this: policy makers have to think through the effects of changes they want to introduce. Often, policy changes, that on first blush look like they would have great benefits, could have unintended consequences. They could have unintended costs. As Milton Friedman said, One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. India has rich examples of such policies with supposedly good intentions but unintended consequences. In the current climate, there are two that spring to mind. One is, of course, farm loan waivers, which is supposed to provide succour to the indebted and impoverished agriculturist. Such waivers end up vitiating the credit culture as farmers (usually, the richer ones get bank loans, others still go to moneylenders) borrow in the hope that some political party down the line will waive off these loans. The second is banning cow slaughter. It will have the unintended consequence of increasing the fiscal deficit, debilitating the dairy economy, shutting down industries and in general being a drag on the economy. The first manifestation of this can be seen in Uttar Pradesh where the state government has imposed a gau kalyan (cow welfare) cess of 0.5 percent on alcohol, toll taxes and profits of public sector infrastructure companies to fund and maintain cow shelters. UP is not the only state to collect a cow cess. In Punjab, such a cess is levied on electricity in urban areas and liquor. Indeed, according to Vikas Rawal, associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Universitys Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, India will have to spend 1.5 times its current defence budget to take care of unproductive cows and bulls that are abandoned by farmers. Others have warned that the cow itself will disappear over time. Thats because the economics of owning a cow is not favourable anymore. Earlier, once the productive life (milk-yielding for females and physical work like pulling a cart or plough for males) of cattle is over, farmers would typically sell them. The money they get from the sale of such cows would be used to buy newer heads of cattle. Typically, the unproductive cattle would end up in the abattoir, but farmers would turn a blind eye because they were not the ones killing the cow. Now, with the rise of cow vigilantes and lynch mobs, trade and transport of cows, unproductive or otherwise, is fraught with danger. Several people have been killed by the cow vigilantes. As a results, the prices of cattle have come down because people are afraid to do even legitimate trading of bulls and buffaloes. With no money to spend on the upkeep of unproductive cows, farmers have taken to abandoning them, or shutting them in public schools and warehouses to protest. Stray cattle have taken to pilfering fields hitting the livelihood of farmers. In a bid to contain the menace of these feral bovines, the state wants to build cow shelters, but where will this end? According to some estimates, Uttar Pradesh alone had a million head of stray cattle in 2012. The number would have only gone up since then. The state government is now trying to impose fines on farmers for abandoning cattle. Clearly, pandering to the vote bank that venerates the cow has backfired because it has deeply affected another powerful vote bank - that of farmers. Besides the unintended economic costs, this move could hurt the government, both at state and centre. While the government is at last trying to find sensible alternatives to farm distress (reports say it is considering income/investment support schemes), it has to find a way to tackle the stray bovine menace. Curbing cow vigilante lynch mobs and ensuring that trading of bulls and buffaloes doesnt get affected would be a good start. John S. Arrichiello was talking with an employee inside the BP gas station at 6501 Route 34 for approximately 90 minutes early Monday morning, police said. He then exited the store and when the 28-year-old male employee stepped outside, Arrichiello allegedly approached him and punched him repeatedly until the employee got away and locked himself inside the store. Your brightly coloured tea cup/coffee mug could be leaching lead and cadmium into warm beverages. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, researchers from Assam University, Silchar, have found a high concentration of lead and cadmium -- the most common metals used in ceramics and glazed pottery -- in double distilled water that leached from both old and new glazed, colourful ceramic cups heated in the microwave (convection mode) at 140 degree Celsius for two-and-a-half minutes. The report, titled Leachable lead and cadmium in microwave-heated ceramic cups: possible health hazard to human, was published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research in November 2018. It assumes importance given the widespread use of glazed colourful ceramic cups and mugs as well as microwaves in homes and workspaces to heat food and beverages. These highly toxic and carcinogenic metals breached the US Food and Drug Administrations (USFDA) permissible limits of 0.5 milligrams per litre (mg/l), according to the report. As per the study, average concentration of lead was 15 times and six times higher in new cups (7.69 mg/l) and old cups (3.15 mg/l) than USFDA norms, respectively. Similarly, average cadmium concentration stood at 1.57 mg/l and 1.97 mg/l, respectively, which is four and three times higher than permissible limits. India is yet to prescribe permissible standards. The Bureau of Indian Standards specifies limits for both these metals but only in enamelware. However, these are only voluntary and do not cover ceramics. The research findings also apply to beverages prepared using a gas stove as the temperature of boiling water is enough to leach the metal from the cup wall. Suchismita Das, Principal Investigator, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, told the newspaper: Glazed cups with colourful paints are very popular in India. These coats are fired on to ceramics at high temperature, but improper firing often results in loosely adherent glaze, which is readily dissolved by the leaching medium. Researchers warn that regular consumption of beverages from popular Made in China cups can be extremely harmful for children, pregnant women, or women of child bearing age, the report stated. The report goes on to quote studies that show that prolonged exposure to lead could lead to memory loss, prolonged reaction time, reduce ability to comprehend. Children could see a drop in IQ, behavioural anomalies, lack of concentration and learning disorders. Similarly, exposure to cadmium can reduce cognitive development in children and damage kidneys and the reproductive system. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Fiat Chrysler has accused M&M of using the grille design of its Jeep model on the Roxor off-road model built and sold by the Indian company in the US. In a letter to the stock exchanges, M&M stated, "In the complaint filed by Fiat Chrysler (FCA) before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) the administrative law judge has passed an initial determination order. The order holds that the complaint filed by FCA will not be dismissed at this stage, as sought, and that the investigation by the ITC will continue." In August last year, M&M had sought to block Fiat from participating in the ITC claim through an injunction. The Mumbai-based company had accused Fiat of using the ITC to create negative publicity about the Roxor. In November the investigative staff appointed by the US Trade Commission had barred FCA from pursuing the investigation further. "The Commission Investigative Staff believes that Mahindra & Mahindra and Mahindra Automotive North America, Inc. met their burden of establishing that FCA US LLC is contractually barred from enforcing its intellectual property rights against Mahindras importation of the accused vehicle," a statement from the Staff has stated. Though exact details are not made public, more than 4,000 units of the Roxor are believed to have been retailed till now in the US. Fiat Chrysler has termed Roxor sale as unlawful and unauthorised. M&M launched the Roxor, an off-road but not street legal, SUV in March 2018 in the US. Priced at $15000 and powered by 2.5 litres, 4-cylinder diesel engine, the Roxor is based on the Thar with no doors and no hard top roof and without a windscreen. The United States International Trade Commission passed an initial determination order to continue investigation in the Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles case, without rejecting the latter's complaint. With automobile tech improving day by day, the competition between car manufacturers has grown fiercer than before. Cars being produced are cutting edge concerning technology, design, purpose or sheer luxury. Google threw its hat in when it said it is in the process of launching Waymo - an automatic system to robotise taxis - which are essentially self-driving vehicles, for customers. This has caused car giants like General Motors and Volkswagen also to plan and enter the taxi business. Not wanting to miss out on the robotaxi bandwagon, Mercedes Benz is gearing up to develop the self-driving tech. Although the German manufacturer aims to perfect the technology, it does not seek to be the pioneer in the same. Googles Waymo division has completed the most test miles with prototype vehicles, and with promising results on the charts, it has sparked a fierce fight among car manufacturers. In an interview with German paper Welt am Sonntag, Mercedes-Benz executive Christoph Schroeder said, We need to be among the top two competitors who are in a position to scale up the technology and bring it into series production. Mercedes is known for being a pioneer in car technologies, with masterpieces like the AMG GT-R, SLS and SLK series under its belt. Also, Mercedes is also a segment leader when it comes to heavy-duty luxury vehicles, like the GLA class. Now, it will be interesting to see which segment Mercedes prefers for the driverless car technology. Although the concept is still under wraps, it could be assumed that Mercedes could choose the rather economical A-class as its contender. Whether Mercedes stands true to its word will be seen later, but the acceptance of the robotaxi challenge by the German car maker is indicating towards an advanced, driverless car-hailing service in the future. Inquiry against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami has started ...Inquiry against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami has started, Madras HC informed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on January 7 lashed out at the DMK for not getting the Cauvery tribunal's order on sharing of the river water notified in the gazette in 2007 when it was part of the then ruling UPA at the Centre. The final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal should have been notified in the gazette within the mandatory 60 days, but DMK took no steps, he told the state assembly. Intervening Leader of Opposition M K Stalin of DMK who raised the issue of Karnataka's proposal to construct a dam at Mekedatu across river Cauvery, Palaniswami underlined his government's commitment to uphold Tamil Nadu's rights. The state has filed a contempt plea against Karnataka in the Supreme Court for 'violating' its orders on the Cauvery dispute by proposing the new dam while the AIADMK MPs were stalling proceedings in Parliament over the issue, he said. Tamil Nadu is strongly opposed to Karnataka's proposal to construct a balancing reservoir at Mekedatu, saying it will affect the farmers in the lower riparian state. The state assembly had recently passed a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw its permission to Karnataka for undertaking a detailed project report. Seeking to turn the tables on the DMK, Palaniswami said the Congress-led UPA was in power with the DMK being a key constituent when the tribunal's final award was given in 2007. "Members of your party were (central) Ministers too. It was your government in Tamil Nadu as well. You failed to uphold the rights (on sharing of the river water) given to us in the final award... in those 60 days, you took no steps," he said. Detailing the steps take by his government against the Mekedatu project, he said it would support the Centre on projects that would benefit Tamil Nadu, but oppose schemes that were detrimental to its interests. The 2007 tribunal award was notified by the Centre in February 2013 following a Supreme Court direction on a plea by the then Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government. Representative Image Pakistan on January 7 summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh and condemned the alleged "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian troops across the Line of Control which resulted in the death of a civilian. Director General (South Asia and SAARC) Mohammad Faisal, who is also the foreign ministry spokesman, summoned Singh and "condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the Line of Control," the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. The firing in the Bagsar Sector along the LoC resulted in the death of a civilian and injured a woman, it said. Faisal said that the Indian forces along the LoC and the Working boundary are "continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons." "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1970 ceasefire violation," it alleged. "The deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the statement said. Faisal urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire, in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC and the Working Boundary. The Pakistan Army confirmed the killing of a civilian and said the Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing targeting the civilian population. It said Pakistan Army troops responded effectively to those posts targeting civil population. He urged that the Indian side should permit UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions. India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC. Imran Khan, PTI leader, Pakistan Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been criticised by the Chief Minister of Sindh province for travelling around the world to "beg" for financial support for the cash-strapped country which is currently battling serious economic crisis. Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg (for financial aid)," Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said at a rally in Matli, Badin on Sunday. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader also claimed that those without any experience in politics were given a seat in the government, Samaa TV reported. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) finalised a USD 6.2 billion support package to help Pakistan address its balance of payments challenge. The package involved USD 3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, besides a USD 3 billion cash deposit, Dawn newspaper reported. The daily had cited a government official as saying that the package was similar to that given by Saudi Arabia. With this, Pakistan would get a total saving of about USD 7.9 billion on oil and gas imports from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about USD 12-13 billion, the report said. The government had also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that was at an early stage, the report said. Khan had also visited China in November to seek economic assistance and Beijing is reported to have approved USD 2 billion. Nirmala Sitharaman CNN-News 18 In an exclusive interview to CNN-News 18, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal and Congress' relentless attack on the Modi government. Edited excerpts: Marya Shakil: You spoke for two hours and you put out facts in the public domain. There was no rhetoric in that speech. But Rahul Gandhi is not convinced. Do you think this battle is more political in nature - less on facts and more on perception? Nirmala Sitharaman: The battle can be defined by you by the way you want, but the battle is not about less facts, It's rich with facts. I'm giving all the facts, Arun Jaitley is giving the facts. Unfortunately, Rahul Gandhi, the leader and Congress chief is scared of facts. This is something I said in the House also. I don't want to sound sarcastic but I think the Congress party is not giving him enough briefing on the matter. So when the facts are given, and still if he has some more questions, he is welcome to ask. But he is asking the same questions for which in the first stage, answers are given. You build it on and go to the second stage, I don't mind. But none of the fundamental facts that have been given are ever taken cognisance of and he harps on the same thing. Sometimes - with an element of sarcasm, if you permit me - if Congress party is unable to tutor him, I don't mind arranging for a tutorial. But please, get yourself tutored. Haven't I said not just once but 2-3 times that if he only sits with AK Antony and gets the details, I'm sure he would understand the fundamental facts. He is neither getting tutored by Antony nor is he probably reading newspapers. Even yesterday, the report carried the fact that I have said in the floor of the House that these are in the pipeline. You accuse me of "show me where the contract money has gone." Money from ministries or army headquarters reaches HAL through the process and the process has been granted. 'N' number of contracts have been signed for this amount. We have to say yes before the money is released also. But you should understand that these are stages. That's why I used this langauge - they are in the pipeline. But you don't listen and say "Oh, she claimed that this much was given." Marya Shakil: You said Rahul is probably scared. What makes you think that he is scared? Nirmala Sitharaman: I think so because they started a campaign on falsehoods. It starts with the premise that the PM is a chor. Now what is that? The process works, a decision is pending, you reached a deadlock, the urgency with which the Air Force wants the aircrafts, then the process works, all this will have to be understood by us before you conclude saying so-and-so is a chor. This is wrong. You don't besmirch people who are holding positions. Here is a man out on bail, calling others chor? Clear your record first. There was not even a whisper of allegation when all the years he was CM, and the he's led a clean govt and you go on calling him 'corrupt,' 'chor', etc. That's why I'm saying, he's scared of facts. If he gives the facts, the language that he's used, the brazen campaign on falsehood that he has conducted, will all fall flat. Marya Shakil: Rahul Gandhi says he wants a 15-minute debate with PM Narendra Modi. Nirmala Sitharaman: The Finance Minister is the leader of the house in Rajya Sabha and also the former Raksha Mantri. He's held that position twice before Parrikar took over and before I came, and then I'm here in the capacity of the Raksha Mantri. He fielded us because we have held this portfolio and I'm holding the portfolio now. Hence it is only appropriate that the concerned minister speaks. Marya Shakil: Do you think the PM will speak? Nirmala Sitharaman: Marya, I also want to ask you - Are we going to just go with the narrative Congress gives, or will the media please - like you requested me and I am talking to you - make the Congress chief sit and ask him the questions? Saying "Hang on, the former Raksha Mantri, current Raksha Mantri have all given you detailed replies. Have you heard them? Will you give some answers to them rather than throwing meaningless challenges?" Wouldn't you want to do that for the sake of the people of this country? Someone sets the narrative saying "All right, I don't care." Let me remind you. When I stood up to give the answer, the very same Congress party and its leadership in the Lok Sabha stood up to say what? "We want the PM to answer." Well, I'm the concerned minister. You asked for a debate in the House and House's procedures says "After you and all respective leaders of the other parties speak, it is for the concerned minister to give a reply." You asked for a debate, and what was your conduct? When the minister gets up to answer -- it can be me, it can be anybody -- the concerned minister gets up to answer and you say "No no, we want the PM." And when the Finance Minister gives it...see, the process, you know it well, somebody moves the motion, they speak. Then somebody from the treasury benches, somebody else is asked to speak. That person speaks. In this case, it was former Raksha Mantri, current FM Jaitley, who stood up to speak. Then the turn would be of other parties to speak, then everybody finishes and teh concerned minister replies. You started the debate and Rahul Gandhi spoke. After that, from the treasury benches, Jaitley gets up to respond or participate in the debate. What was the scene where the Congress and the other parties were seated? Papers were given to young MPs to make aeroplanes to throw at us. Jaitley is talking, papers are being passed and arrows were being thrown at us. Photographs were taken with phones with poses. There, when the House was not adjourned, when Jaitley was speaking. Would you feel hurt, would you feel let down, would you feel disappointed? You asked for a debate. You have made serious allegations against the government. We are ready to give answers. But are you listening? Marya Shakil: The BJP feels that they did not lose the recent elections because of the 'chowkidaar chor hai' jibes. Then why is the party's senior ministers like you and Jaitley engaging with Rahul Gandhi, who is not interested in facts? Nirmala Sitharaman: But it is a debate in the House. It goes by certain rules. Once we have agreed for a debate, we have to do so. That's not engaging with X or Y. In the House, Speaker sitting there conducts it and we are participating in it. Marya Shakil: What happens now ? What will the BJP do? Nirmala Sitharaman: I also want to ask, if in the Parliament we have come out to give all the facts, people will have to make up their minds where the truth lies. Is Rahul Gandhi living in an era of post-truth? Facts are being given,. Beyond facts is something he wants to believe in. What's that? Would the media please question and get answers for them? Marya Shakil: Your cabinet colleage Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that Rahul Gandhi is under pressure from Rafale's competitor Eurofighter and that's why some middlemen like Christian Michel and Haschke were pushing Eurofighter's case. Do you have proof to substantiate these allegations? Nirmala Sitharaman: Being a minster, I can only say this much. I really can't understand how after so many stages we have crossed, and with the urgency with which the Air Force needed those aircrafts with squadron numbers of aircraft coming down rapidly, neighbourhood building up their force rapidly, etc., I can't understand why the deal was not concluded. I said this in the house, Parliament is in session, I'm conscious. I'm repeating only what I've said in the House and not anything outside before or after the debate. Why did the then Raksha Mantri in February 2014 come out to say "Where is the money?" I did refer to this. When negotiations happen within the ministry, the short period I have been here, I understand. Even as the process is on, you're very clear as to what is the amount to be paid as advance the moment you signed the contract and the ministry makes provisions for it. After that, things like within six months how much, within eight months how much, date of first delivery, etc., are made in the ministry. WIthout that, you won't spend time negotiating. Once the agreement is signed, you know how much is to be released. Marya Shakil: You said Congress stopped this deal because when it was in power, it did not get the money. Nirmala Sitharaman: I get the feeling that there is something more to it. Otherwise why would the Raksha Mantri then say where's the money? From the ministry, if you're on the verge of getting an agreement done, you'd know what is the advance to be paid. You'd keep the provisions ready in your budgetary matters. For him to say at that stage, and even today, aren't we being reminded that the entire thing was tied up? Tied up in what sense? Without money, you went ahead to talk with these parties? Marya Shakil: Talking about transparency, as the Raksha Mantri, shouldn't you put out all these facts? Nirmala Sitharaman: They didn't even have a deal. This is the fact I am also highlighting. The way in which they speak, then finance minister, the then defence minister everybody says Air Force wanted 126 and why did you reduce to 36. Actual Air Force wanted something like 500- 600. Now I can ask why did they decide on 126 then. The total requirement during their time was 500-600. Why did you only agree for 126? Marya Shakil: In that case, going by that logic, the link that is being bought in is of Christian Michel and that is the reason why Rahul Gandhi tried to derail it. Is the government really sure about it because there are certain reports which are suggesting so? Nirmala Sitharaman: The government is not even talking about this. I read a media report today that the person being bought to India for Agusta Westland scam is also saying there was something to do with Eurofighter and rafale leads to a lot of questions which now Congress should answer. Are these the reasons why you didn't sign? Are these the reasons you didn't think you were ready with money to buy it? On one hand, the then Raksha Mantri gives permission to go on for negotiation and on the same paragraph he says but come back and let the finance ministry look into the methodology at that stage. What is that then? Are these the ways you are delaying and halting the purchases? After the technical committee gave a clearance, you appointed the committee again in 2011 to see everything is okay or not. And they cleared it for you. Marya Shakil: What about the file notings? Nirmala Sitharaman: On what? Marya Shakil: Rahul Gandhi talked about it. He raised this question also. Nirmala Sitharaman: He seems to have all the ministries' file, but he is creating tapes fraudulently attributing to many others. What is that? Is he sitting over the files? What are the file notings he is talking about? If he knows the file notings, I'll ask him. After all, it was during their time that file notings and other things didn't matter. Everybody cleared it. They said it is a perfect deal, go ahead and buy it. Marya Shakil: So who do you think leaked the file notings ? Nirmala Sitharaman: I'd like the Congress to answer. Why are you asking me? You should ask him. There are so many questions you should ask him. Why didn't they agree, despite the technical committee clearing it. They throw questions at us now, saying: "It was all over, why didn't you buy it?" Arrey, you could have bought it. Did they give the contract to HAL? Even Agusta Westland, why did they have to go there? Helicopters are made by HAL, they could have made it for them. No. And the kind of delays they have done. Marya Shakil: If it is about middlemen, because Michel is already in ED's custody and Haschke as Mr Prasad was alleging, also... Nirmala Sitharaman: Yes, the reports are in the media. Marya Shakil: Then for the sake of fairness, do you think this should be investigated? Nirmala Sitharaman: Very interesting, but would you want to ask Rahul Gandhi first if there is anything to do with their party on this? Let me voice my gripe for a minute, if you permit me, Marya. Any number of questions on Rafale, I'm willing to answer. But I'll also ask you, how is it that for every question Rahul Gandhi asks, at least for the period which pertains to their government, when the non-deal is what we should be talking about, one question is not being thrown at him? Why didn't they finalise it? They constantly keep asking me and the PM same "Why didn't you finalise, why didn't you give it to HAL? Why did you decide on Rafale? Will you all go back to him and ask: "Why didn't they tie up the agreement? Air Force was waiting with bated breath." You didn't serve the Air Force. You left them high and dry. Wouldn't you want to ask a party which was in power for 10 full years watching this depletion of squadrons. Why wouldn't you want to ask him even one question, Marya? Marya Shakil: I certainly hope Rahul Gandhi gives me an interview and I can ask him. But this question, Rahul Gandhi certainly won't let go off. Today he tweeted, quoting a newspaper report: "HAL does not have enough cash to pay salaries and it is surprising Anil Ambani has Rafale." Then he linked it with salaries and how this would lead to poaching. How would you respond to this fresh allegation? Nirmala Sitharaman: It's not fresh at all. In fact, you'll probably say "Why are you going back?" But I will go back. For all that they have done to HAL, the company today is sitting, wanting more and more orders just to keep them running. This is a rough comparison for 10 years. Each year, they gave something like Rs 10,000 crore to HAL. We have been here for only five years. For each year, we have given orders worth Rs 20,000 crore to them. You never attended to HAL and its problem from the point of view of 1) bringing better machinery, giving greater skills, order books. No concern whatsoever. The management of HAL is struggling to cope with a lot of things and we are trying to help them out. But you didn't do any of that. Today, you quote all these statistics as though they cropped up overnight. For a company of the size of HAL, problems don't crop up overnight. They continue over the years and they rise like that because today HAL is in spotlight and you're seeing this. That is why I asked one question. HAL in Bengaluru is very well for you all to go and see it. Symbolic of the way in which the Congress baselessly alleges. Symbolic is the fact that there is an HAL in Amethi. Marya Shakil: Yes, there is one. Nirmala Sitharaman: Have you ever been there? Really, because as a Member of Parliament, he should be concerned about the institutions, companies, particularly public sector undertakings in his constituency. Therefore, when you say this whole thing is about politics, would you ask: "Is it about politics, or is it about genuinely wanting to do something?" Marya Shakil: Someone would argue that one of the reasons why Rafale-HAL deal fell was because Dassault was informed that HAL will need 2.7 times more man hours. How does holding back Rs 20,000 crore help the defence PSU? Nirmala Sitharaman: Which is the one you're referring to? The Air Force and the others who have not paid them? I wouldn't want to put it in black-and-white but there is a grey to it also. That is, it may not be a complete answer, but I will also highlight that there are many cases in which HAL probably, for justifiable reasons, delayed the delivery. I'm not just defending the Air Force, in this case they can also be the Army and Navy. In a year, each of these forces budget their expenditure. Just as they demand the Finance Ministry and get it. If the delivery was not made within the year in which you have budgeted the money for it, and next year or there is delay of two years, they wouldn't in advance know when that is going to come. So they would move to something else. As a result, payments do get delayed. Not justified at all, I agree. But I'm giving you the reasons why this could have happened. So when delayed delivery happens, the year in which the delivery is expected, for which the budget provision exists, if it comes within the year, they will pay. If it doesn't come, they couldn't anticipate that it'll come the next year or second year after that. So provisioning budget for the delayed payment cannot be done and then they just keep moving, and sometimes they get around paying it. This is huge, and I'm not justifying it. I've already called, and I'm probably saying it here, I've already called a meeting with the three forces and with HAL. The CMD is being requested to come here so that we sit and sort that out. It's not as if I didn't know about it earlier also. I've held meetings. But to say that someone is sitting over that money is, if you ask them, they have their reasons for it. Marya Shakil: Last question. This is a political issue and you have ruled out a JPC. Is the govt open to an idea of Rahul Gandhi challenging the PM for a debate? In the run-up to the elections, there will be debates. Nirmala Sitharaman: Why should I even comment on it? What have you done with the replies given till now by the former Raksha Mantri, by me? You wanted a debate in the House, I responded. What have you done with all that? No, you haven't done anything with it. Even today, following up on the reply, he is only doing a personal attack on me, which I don't mind at all. He is very welcome to do it. But it tells me how completely desperate and agitated he is, because his false campaign has been called out. Always a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you so much. Ten major trade unions across India will go on a 48-hour-long nationwide strike on January 8 and 9 to protest against what they call 'anti-worker' and 'anti-trade union' policies of the Narendra Modi government. These include the All India Trade Union Congress, CITU, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), SEWA and LPF. They are deeming this strike as a 'historic event'. The idea for this two-day general strike came up during the National Convention of Workers (NCW) held on September 28, 2018. "In the two-day national bandh of 2013, around 13-14 crore workers took part. This year, with employees from state and central governments, along with various other sectors, the number is going to be more than that," CITU Kerala state president Anathalavattom Anandan reportedly said. Also expected to participate in the 48-hour-long strike are employees of Railways, banks, electricity departments and workers of the unorganised sector including auto, taxi drivers and street vendors. The trade unions are miffed with the Modi government for not fulfilling its promise of creating over 1 crore jobs a year. According to Labour Bureau statistics, 1.55 lakh jobs and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 2016, respectively. According to a statement by the NCW, a large number of small-scale industries were shut down in the past four years. "Over 2 lakh small-scale industries have been shut down. A unit can consist of between 50 and 300 employees. People, who already had jobs, lost a way to earn because of this," Anandan said. "The implementation of GST has further compounded the hardships. Even essential and lifesaving medicines have been subject to hefty GST," he added. Accusing the Centre of having 'malafide intentions', Ashok Singh, vice president of INTUC, said, "We are not happy with the policies of the government. These policies are anti-working class, pro-capital but not (in favour of) employees." To meet its divestment target, the government plans to sell some public sector undertakings. The trade unions are against this move as they believe many of these units were formed by the labour of thousands of workers. They call it "people's property" and claim that the government has no right to sell it. Workers have critiqued that the government has been ignoring the 12-point charter of demands on issues such as minimum wage and universal social security. They have raised concerns about the new pension scheme, the four modified Labour Codes and the introduction of a fixed-term employment. Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left peasant wings would also join the two-day strike against the government. "The All India Kisan Sabha and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will observe 'gramin hartal', rail roko and road roko on January 8 and 9, the day trade unions are observing nationwide general strike. This move is against the Modi government's failure to address rural distress issues, to save rural farmers' lands from the corporates. The farmers will extend all support to the ensuing general strike," said Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha. (With inputs from PTI) Narendra Modi The Union Cabinet on January 7 approved a 10 percent reservation for economically backward upper castes in government jobs. A constitutional amendment bill would be moved in Parliament to this effect on January 8. The benefit would be extended to those whose family income is under Rs 8 lakh per annum. According to a report by PTI, Cabinet nod also included 10 percent reservation in educational institutions for the section, besides government jobs. Moneycontrol could not independently verify this report. This reservation will be over and above the existing 50 percent reservation. The section currently does not get reservation. The government wants to extend the Winter Session, which ends on January 8, by two days, News18 has reported. Political observers suggest that the move is a step to consolidate upper caste votes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in April-May. Reacting to the development, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi termed the move as an "election gimmick" and asked what the government was doing for the past four years and eight months. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that his party will support the government if it decides to go for a Constitutional Amendment in Parliament "before elections." "Otherwise, it will be clear that this is just a political stunt of government before election (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav said that reservation is not to improve financial condition but for the "representation of the socially backward people." "If financial condition was to be improved... Modi ji should have given Rs 15 lakh and jobs," Yadav said. Gujarat-based leader Hardik Patel echoed the Congress' sentiments, stating that the move is "Modi government's last arrow" before the elections. "If this is a lollipop given to the people, that will be wrong," Patel told News18. "This will open a pandora's box... others will also demand reservation now. But we welcome the move... The Parliament is very much in power to raise the ceiling," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Udit Raj told news agency ANI. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj (R) before the start of their meeting in New Delhi, India, January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RC125786F700 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on January 7 held strategic dialogue with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during which they reviewed the progress in ties and exchanged views on regional and global issues. At the start of the 10th India-Japan Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue, both sides agreed that the visit of Foreign Minister Kono at the beginning of the New Year has provided an important opportunity for them to identify the agenda of bilateral relations in 2019. The visit also marks an important beginning for a series of high-level bilateral exchanges this year to take the bilateral relationship to newer heights, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said. During the talks, the two foreign ministers discussed follow up actions on the decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in October last year, which had opened new vistas of bilateral cooperation in areas such as regional connectivity, economic partnership, new and digital technologies, health care, renewable energy, defence cooperation, maritime security etc. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and global issues of common interest, the MEA said. They reaffirmed that based on shared values and interests, the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership has acquired a broader significance in the current global context and has become a factor of prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The last round of the dialogue was held in Tokyo in March 2018. Swaraj also congratulated Kono for Japan's hosting of the G-20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019, and promised India's full support for Japan's G-20 Presidency. Following the strategic dialogue, Foreign Minister Kono also called on Prime Minister Modi. Kono briefed the prime minister about the follow-up action taken in recent months after the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Japan. Prime Minister warmly recalled his successful visit to Japan and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan. From why Rice Krispies snap, crackle and pop, to foods that explode when microwaved, to the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, here are 36 fun food facts you have no reason to know but will enjoy knowing anyway. (Kaitlin Miller and Bianca Sanchez, The Daily Meal) India has taken over operations of the strategic Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province of energy-rich Iran's southern coast, the government said on January 7. This is the first time India will be operating a port outside its territory. "The Government of India took over the operations of a part of Shahid Beheshti Port, Chabahar, in Iran during the Chabahar Trilateral Agreement meeting held there on December 24, 2018," the Shipping Ministry said in a statement here. The heads of Indian, Iranian and Afghanistan delegation jointly inaugurated the office of the Indian SPV - India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ) at Chabahar. "The physical take-over of the terminal area, cargo handling equipment and Office building was completed by December 29, 2018," the statement said. Commercial operations began at IPGCFZ with the arrival of a vessel, it said adding, a Cyprus registered bulk carrier had arrived at Chabahar with 72,458 MT of corn cargo. The vessel MV Macheras berthed at the terminal at 0130 hrs on December 30, 2018, and IPGCFZ carried out its first cargo operation by discharging the imported cargo(ex Brazil) using pneumatic un-loaders, it added. "This step marks the beginning of a long journey. India has written a history with its engagement in Chabahar and is now leading the regional cooperation and joint efforts to support land locked Afghanistan. This is the first time India will be operating a port outside its territories," the statement said. India started interacting with Iran on Chabahar Port around 2003 but a major push was received in the second half of 2014, resulting in the signing of an MoU between the two countries for the development of Chabahar Port in May 2015. This MoU translated into a formal 10-year contract for Equipping and Operating the Chabahar Port, which was executed on May 23, 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tehran. "Since there were challenges in activation of the said contract, the foundation of an interim period contract was laid during the visit of Hassan Rouhani, President of Islamic Republic of Iran to New Delhi in February 2018. Resultantly, a formal short term Contract between the two sides was signed on May 6, 2018," the statement said. The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 km from Chabahar. The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. Parliament A Joint Parliamentary Committee is set to submit its report on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha on January 7. With the Winter Session set to end on January 8, it is unclear if the bill would be taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is keen on passing the bill. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was working to ensure the proposed legislation gets Parliament nod. The committee had adopted the report on January 3 despite objections from some Opposition members. According to reports, the JPC rejected all amendment proposals proposed by the Opposition. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to be able to grant citizenship by naturalisation to communities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs, fleeing persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Citizenship would be granted for those who have lived in India for six or more years, even if they do not have the required documents. The government has argued that the bill is intended for those escaping persecution and not for economic migrants. Also read: Citizenship Bill glimmer of hope for Hindu, Sikh refugees from Afghanistan The Bill was referred to a joint select committee in August 2016, after it was discussed in the lower house of Parliament. The idea gathered steam when the BJP promised to grant citizenship to Hindus persecuted in neighbouring countries during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign. The party had promised to welcome Hindu refugees and give shelter to them. Also read: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016: All you need to know BJP is keen on passing the bill in Parliament ahead of Lok Sabha elections. However, its ally Shiv Sena, on January 6, said it would oppose the bill after the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) appealed the Maharashtra-based party to do so. The AGP an ally of the BJP in Assam had threatened to part ways with the saffron party if the Bill is passed. AGP does not have a single member in the Lok Sabha. On January 5, protests erupted in Assam over the bill, a day after PM Modi said his government was working to ensure the proposed legislation gets Parliamentary nod. Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the bill as they believe it would harm their cultural identity. Around 70 organisations, led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), took out protest rallies in the state capital in the morning. Communist Party of India (Marxist)s Mohammad Salim, Biju Janata Dal (BJD)s Bhartruhari Mahtab and Samajwadi Party (SP)s Javed Ali Khan, all of whom are members of the joint committee, had submitted dissent notes. Most opposition parties, including the Congress, have opposed the proposal of granting citizenship on the basis of religion. The opposition has argued that the move would nullify the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is currently under way in Assam. (With inputs from PTI) The Cabinet is likely to consider this month a framework for monetisation of assets held by CPSEs which have been selected for strategic sale. The 'Asset Monetisation Framework', being drafted by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), will help the administrative ministries to fast track hiving off and sale of non-core assets of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) under their administrative control. To begin with, the guidelines would be applicable for those central public sector undertakings which are likely candidates for strategic disinvestment. However, any state-owned company which wants to sell its non-core assets too can follow the framework, an official said. "The draft Cabinet note has been floated for inter-ministerial comments. We hope to place the asset monetisation framework before the Cabinet this month," the official told PTI. The framework, among other things, would stipulate the quantum of funds that would accrue to the CPSEs following the sale of assets and how much would go into the exchequer, the official said. The government already had already given in-principle approval for strategic sale of 24 state-owned companies. These include Dredging Corporation of India, HLL Lifecare, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, Units/JVs of ITDC, Bhadrawati, Salem and Durgapur units of SAIL, Nagarnar Steel Plant of NMDC, Central Electronics and Ferro Scrap Nigam. DIPAM, after consulting ministries and CPSEs, has already identified huge tract of land and other assets of 9 state-owned companies which will be hived off before they are put on the block for strategic sale. The sale process of these assets has to be taken forward by the concerned administrative ministries, the official said. The nine CPSEs whose non-core assets have been identified for hiving off are Pawan Hans, Scooters India, Air India, Bharat Pumps & Compressors, Project & Development India Ltd (PDIL), Hindustan Prefab, Hindustan Newsprint, Bridge and Roof Co and Hindustan Fluorocarbons. Most of the assets identified for separate disposal are land parcels and residential flats owned by the CPSEs. With regard to Pawan Hans, the assets identified are Rohini Heliport and Bellman Hangar situated at Safdarjung Airport that was taken on lease from the Airports Authority of India (AAI). For Air India, the assets to be hived off include at least four subsidiaries of the loss-making carrier, including Airline Allied Services Ltd (AASL) and Hotel Corporation of India (HCI). Besides, the headquarter building of Air India in the national capital as well as various other land assets and buildings in different parts of the country would be hived off for separate disposal. Various art works and artefacts owned by the airline too would be put up on the block. The asset monetisation framework would also draw out guidelines on valuation for sale of shares of enemy property, the official added. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in November last year gave 'in-principle' approval for sale of shares which are part of 'enemy property'. Over 6.50 crore shares in 996 companies of 20,323 shareholders are under the custody of Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI), under the Home Ministry. Of these 996 companies, 588 are functional/active companies -- 139 of these are listed, while 449 companies are unlisted. In the current fiscal, the government has targeted to raise Rs 80,000 crore from PSU disinvestment. So far, it has raised Rs 34,142 crore through PSU share sale. The lowest literacy rate was recorded in Andhra Pradesh with 66.4 percent. (Image: PTI) Some of Britain's leading universities struggling with a funding crunch in the face of Brexit are expected to increasingly turn to recruiting more overseas students, who pay much higher fees than locals. China and India are expected to be at the forefront of this overseas student influx, with university chiefs expecting their figures to surpass that of British students across UK campuses. Anton Muscatelli, vice-chancellor of Glasgow University and chairman of the Russell Group, which represents the UK's 24 leading institutions, told 'The Sunday Times' that leading universities were now likely to try to recruit many more overseas students - particularly from China and India - to offset a series of financial challenges. Muscatelli, who is considering increasing the proportion of Glasgow's European Union (EU) and overseas students to up to half the total, said, "Many universities will try to do this because it will be the only way to respond to a sudden fall in income". According to the report, the UK's higher education sector faces "a triple whammy" as if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, university leaders say it would be "catastrophic", with the UK cut out of 1.3 billion pounds of EU research funding and a collapse in EU student numbers. In addition, an imminent government review is expected to recommend lowering the fees universities can charge undergraduates from the UK to 6,500 pounds a year. Professor Michael Arthur, president of University College London, said it might have to boost EU and overseas students to 50 per cent and cut its proportion of UK students in the face of deep uncertainty about the sector's financial future. Exeter University is already seeking to boost overseas student numbers by up to seven per cent. Steve Smith, its vice-chancellor, said universities made money on overseas students but only broke even on UK students. In London, foreign students already outnumber British ones at the London School of Economics, where almost two-thirds are from abroad, and at Imperial College. Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, told the newspaper that British students may feel increasingly uncomfortable at universities dominated by Chinese and Indian students. He also warned that the government would face pressure for migration rules to be changed to allow overseas students to work after they finished their degrees. "That would impact on the job prospects of British students," said Smithers. At top universities, overseas students pay more than 30,000 pounds a year for a five-year medical degree, nearly four times as much as UK students whose fees are capped at 9,250 pounds. thakor_alpesh Congress MLA and prominent OBC leader of Gujarat Alpesh Thakor claimed his community and supporters were feeling "cheated" and "ignored", in remarks seen as a criticism of the state leadership of the opposition party preparing for the Lok Sabha polls. Without taking any names, he said some "weak leaders" were at the helm of party affairs in Gujarat, an apparent reference to state party president Amit Chavda. The BJP quickly latched on Thakor's critical comments and said Congress MLAs not happy in the party were welcome to join the ruling outfit. In an open threat to the state party leadership, Thakor said he will now play politics like a "shrewd person" as he claimed some party leaders in Gujarat were trying to "suppress" him and his Thakor community. While senior Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki tried to play down Thakor's remarks, Gujarat BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the main opposition party will be divided into several groups in the "near future". Asked if he would join the ruling BJP, Thakor replied in the negative, saying he is confident Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take necessary action after listening to his grievances. "I feel my community is being ignored. My community is not being given proper representation in the party. We are being blamed for anything bad that happens in the state. "I will not sit quiet or continue as an MLA if my people gets nothing," Thakor told media persons here. The popular OBC leader from the Thakor community was inducted into the Congress ahead of the December 2017 assembly polls in Gandhi's presence. Thakor, who heads community outfit 'Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena', was subsequently given a Congress ticket and he won from the Radhanpur assembly seat in Patan district. "This is not about joining BJP. My fight is against the system (in the party). "What you (Congress leaders) want to prove by ignoring and suppressing a mass leader like me? The Congress can win 9 to 10 Lok Sabha seats (out of 26 in Gujarat) only if strong leaders are given important responsibilities," said Thakor. The young OBC leader then headed to Delhi to make a representation to Gandhi. "My community and supporters are feeling cheated. We have not received anything for joining Congress. Our respect is not maintained in the party. "We are sidelined. I am going to Delhi today to make Rahuljee aware about what is going on here," said Thakor to reporters before leaving for the national capital. Thakor said the Congress will not fare well in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls under the current state leadership. "Some weak persons are leading the party in Gujarat. They can never win seats in the Lok Sabha polls. You will need a strong leader. "Lakhs of youths are with me. But, they are being ignored by some party leaders. I think the time has come I have to do politics like a shrewd person," he said. Commenting on Thakor's barbs, Solanki, a former Gujarat Congress chief and a relative of Chavda, claimed the media is making "speculation" about the first-time MLA. "Alpesh is a seasoned leader and we all will work together to make the party victorious in the Lok Sabha polls. He is also trying to strengthen the party. "The Congress is a huge party and its natural that some small things happen. The media is blowing it out of proportion," Solanki claimed. Nitin Patel said Congress MLAs like Thakor wanting to defect are "welcome in the BJP". "Some Congress leaders are trying to dominate others. One group is trying to dominate other. The opposition party is divided in many groups. The party will see a huge division in the near future," Patel told media persons. "Some Congress MLAs are getting attracted towards BJP, as the MLAs feel it will help the people of their constituencies in getting the work done. "Congress MLAs who want to serve their people in a better way are always welcome in the BJP," Patel added. Earlier last month, Thakor along with some other disgruntled party leaders and legislators had met at the residence of senior leader Arjun Modhwadia and expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the GPCC leadership. The meeting was held following the heavy Congress defeat in assembly by-election in Jasdan, a seat in Rajkot district held by the main opposition party for decades. At that time too, Thakor, referring to Chavda, had said "some lacuna" existed in the leadership which needs to be corrected before the Lok Sabha polls. No.1| Amazon |The biggest e-commerce company has made its name from scratch and now works on major technological advances like artificial intelligence and streaming. The company was the second company to cross a trillion dollar valuation (Reuters) Sounak Mitra The proposed change in e-commerce regulations has not just made things tougher for Amazons online business in India but also threatened to halt the American firms plan to own 49 percent equity in More supermarkets. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reportedly sought details from Samara Capital on how the proposed deal will comply with the revised e-commerce norms. The revised norms bar foreign e-commerce marketplace companies to own or control inventory sold on their marketplaces. They also prohibit e-commerce marketplaces or their group companies from having equity ownership in firms that sell goods on their marketplace platform. If Amazon guarantees that More will not be a seller on its online marketplace, that could perhaps be enough to win CCI approval. Amazon could also pin its hope on getting some leeway in engaging better with More as the new norms are silent on whether indirect equity participation by the owner of an e-commerce marketplace is permitted in a seller. Under the current deal structure, More supermarkets will be bought by Witzig Advisory Services, in which Samara will own 51 percent and Amazon will hold the rest. The norms further note that in case marketplace entities exercise control over the inventory of sellers, the same will be treated as an inventory model. However, there is no clarity on how control over inventory is to be determined. Representative image The government has received over 100 proposals under the third phase of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme and will announce the final allotments soon, a senior government official said on January 7. "The bidding process has been completed and we have done the evaluation. We will place the results before the minister soon," a senior official said. The official said that the third phase received approximately 111 initial proposals by 15 airlines. Of these, six airlines participated in counter-bidding process through which 17 counter proposals were received. UDAN was launched by the government in 2016 to make traveling via airways affordable for common man. The regional connectivity scheme (RCS) nudged airlines to operate over routes that were either undeserved or not served at all. The aim of the scheme is connecting major cities with tier-II and tier-III cities at a price of Rs 2,500 per one-hour flight. According to the official, the government did due diligence before accepting bids during UDAN-3 after airlines like Air Odisha and Air Deccan were found incapable of flying over the routes due to financial incapability. "We did not consider proposals by Air Odisha and Air Deccan as valid proposals and decided to avoid opening their financial bids Their technical bids, however, were considered by the ministry," the official said. According to data by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Air Deccan and Air Odisha managed to fly only 3,000 and 1,000 passengers, respectively, between July and October 2018. In November 2018, Airports Authority of India (AAI) cancelled licence of Air Odisha on two routes (Chhattisgarh and Chennai) and of Air Deccan on one route (Maharashtra). According to sources, Air Odisha has submitted technical five proposals and Air Deccan has submitted three technical proposals. The official also said that the cancelled routes of UDAN 1 and 2 were re-bid under UDAN-3 and were given priority treatment during this round of bidding. Of the nine cancelled routes under UDAN-1, five belonged to Air Odisha and four belonged to Air Deccan. Of these, six have been re-bid under UDAN-3. Between 2016 and 2018, 122 air-routes have been made operational under the RCS, serving 21 underserved and 14 newly operated airports. On December 3, while on one of his any Twitter tirades, this one against former attorney Michael Cohen, Trump tweeted, Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time. You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get.....his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. #ScottFree got a life of its own on the microblogging site. (Image: Reuters) President Donald Trump on January 7 sought to end fears of an abrupt US pullout from Syria, saying the fight against the Islamic State group was not over and that withdrawal would be done in a "prudent" manner. "We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" Trump tweeted. The US President has come under withering pressure both at home and in allied capitals after previous statements indicating that he considered the IS group vanquished and that he wanted US troops out of Syria imminently. Trump's new statement follows a trip by his national security adviser John Bolton to Israel in which he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on January 6 that withdrawal would not happen before "ISIS is defeated and not able to revive itself." The reassurances followed a diplomatic storm caused by Trump's surprise announcement in December that appeared to signal a rapid withdrawal from Syria, where US special forces play an important role in supporting local forces fighting IS. "We've won against ISIS," he said at the time. "We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. We've taken back the land. And now it's time for our troops to come back home." Allies like Britain and France warned that IS was not defeated. Questions were also raised over the fate of Kurdish groups that have done much of the fighting alongside the United States in Syria, but now fear attacks from Turkey. The initial pullout promise also sparked outspoken opposition from within Trump's Republican party and the resignation of respected defense secretary James Mattis. In the statement, Trump complained that media coverage had skewed his original words, saying that his latest position on Syria was "no different from my original statements." Currently, about 2,000 US forces are in Syria, which is in the grips of a complex civil war. Most of the US soldiers are there to train local forces fighting the hardcore-Islamist IS. It is likely to be a strong start to the market on Monday morning, tracking good moves in Asian markets as well as on the SGX Nifty. After a volatile session, the Nifty 50 managed to close above the 10,700 levels on January 4, tracking positive sentiment in global peers ahead of trade talks between the US and China next week. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 181.39 points to 35,695.10 while the Nifty 50 climbed 55.10 points to close at 10,727.40. For the week, indices fell 1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, and formed 'Bearish Engulfing' pattern on the weekly charts. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, top market experts recommend which stocks to bet on for good returns: Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com Buy Vedanta buy with a stoploss of Rs 188, target Rs 202 Buy Syndicate Bank with a stoploss of Rs 38, target Rs 45 Buy PNB with a stoploss of Rs 79, target Rs 86 Buy LIC Housing with a stoploss of Rs 480, target Rs 505 Buy JSPL with a stoploss of Rs 148, target Rs 160 Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com Buy UPL with a stoploss of Rs 745 and target of Rs 770 Buy RBL Bank with a stoploss of Rs 560 and target of Rs 582 Buy Engineers India with a stoploss of Rs 125 and target of Rs 127 Buy Bata India with a stoploss of Rs 1105 and target of Rs 1135 Sell Balkrishna Industries with a stoploss of Rs 910 and target of Rs 880 Mitessh Thakkar of mitesshthakkar.com Buy Bharat Electronics with a stoploss of Rs 89.70 and target of Rs 96 Buy Apollo Hospital with a stoploss of Rs 1278 and target of Rs 1326 Buy Bharti Airtel with a stoploss of Rs 318 and target of Rs 334 Buy PNB with a stoploss of Rs 79.9 and target of Rs 84.5 Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com/CNBC-TV18 are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. The resolution professional of Reid & Taylor India has sought permission from the Mumbai bench of NCLT to file criminal a complaint against Nitin Kasliwal, the promoter of the bankrupt premium apparel brand, for fraudulent transactions worth Rs 3,524 crore. The matter is likely to come up at the tribunal on January 8, when it will hear a bid by company's employees to take over the crippled company. The resolution professional Venkatesan Sankaranarayan of EY had on January 1, 2019 filed an application with NCLT after a special audit by KPMG has found that promoter Nitin Kasliwal had carried out fraudulent transactions worth Rs 1810.11 crore by undervaluing many inter and intra-company purchases and additional write-off of Rs 1,713.88 crore without any evidence. The application has been moved under Section 66 (1) of the bankruptcy law. The total fradulent transaction is vlaued at Rs 3,523.99 crore. "A transaction review by KPMG, submitted on December 17, 2018, based on the financial statements from October 1, 2014 to April 6, 2018, has found reduction of asset base to the tune of Rs 1,810.11 crore by showing fictitious sale and purchase in its books, to establish inflated sale and purchase activity without any movement of actual goods," the RP said in his application. He further said, according to the KPMG report, board knowingly and frequently entered into such fraudulent transactions with potentially non-operating entities and has also written off Rs 1,713.88 crore from the book for which it does not have any documentary evidences." It also reviewed select transactions from April 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014 and observed a reduction of asset base of the company due to increase of purchases, which was to the tune of Rs 2,076.66 crore. Of this Rs 1,810.11 crore were recorded at its Bhiwandi division, the RP said. The report ahs also found that according to the documents filed with the corporate affairs ministry, no fixed assets were recorded in the books of accounts of all the entities and other current assets and debtors constituted 99 percent of the company's assets for all entities. "However, there was no list of debtors and breakup of other current assets in the financial statements," the RP said, adding financial statements and audit report of all the entities from which purchases were made at Bhiwandi were not signed by its statutory auditors and directors. The company management has informed KPMG that as per the annual returns for the year ending March 2016, the reduction in the carrying value of stocks was due to sale of goods at steep discounts or due to goods returned after end- of-season-sales. The review noted that the entries in the books of account have revealed that total advance has not been paid by the company directly but were made by its vendors and related parties on behalf of the company. Further, the report has also found two related party entities-- Multi Vision and Sijcon Consultants-- have common directors--Harinaxi Siddarth Jasubhai, Viral Siddarthbhai Jasubhai, Moneesha Siddarth Jasubhai and Avisha Viral Jasubhai--since November 24, 1981. The report also observed that some of the shell companies to which these purchases have been made did not exist at the registered address, instead two entities named Siddarth Consulting and Jasubhai Engineer were found to be functioning from the said premises. Image: Reuters It's been 10 years since B Ramalinga Raju, former CEO and Chairman of Satyam Computers, first admitted to have inflated the company's revenue to attract investors. The scam sent shockwaves across the corporate sector and led to a series of policy changes in India. The man behind the collapse of the tech giant is out on bail and is using his once celebrated entrepreneurial skills to mentor his sons and oversee family businesses. Raju stepped down after admitting to embezzlement of financial figures to the tune of Rs 7,136 crore, including Rs 5,040 crore of non-existent cash and bank balances. "He is as occupied as he was in his heyday when he was heading the fourth-largest software services company in the country," sources close to Raju told Business Standard. Although his public life shrunk significantly after he was convicted of fraud in 2015 by a Hyderabad court, he still meets people close to his family and business regularly at his Hyderabad home. He has taken to research and reading following the case and avoids meeting people, reports suggest. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have attached close to 6,000 acres of Raju's properties, which can only be accessed by him if a higher court suspends his conviction. However, he reportedly owns land which have turned profitable with the surge in real estate prices in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Raju's family members have been "facing a lot of flak and are caught in the crossfire" even after the Supreme Court exonerated them from a case filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), another report claimed. Raju's immediate family members and their businesses are flourishing. The family is one of the richest in Hyderabad, with his older son and daughter-in-law running successful businesses in agriculture and healthcare, respectively. Implementation of regulatory reforms such as RERA and GST has had a positive impact on the residential market with the top three cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR showing signs of recovery in 2018. While Bengaluru and Mumbai recorded 81 percent and 22 percent annual growth respectively. Delhi NCR led with 71 percent year-on-year growth in sales, says a new report. There has been a rise in the number of launches across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru in 2018 compared to 2017. According to JLL Research, Delhi-NCR witnessed 114 percent year-on-year growth in new launches at 17,660 units, which is the highest among the three markets. While Bengaluru recorded annual growth of 81 percent at 37,286 units, Mumbais housing market saw a healthy 22 percent rise in launches. While new launches across these three key metros recorded strong growth, positive consumer sentiment in the post-reforms regime has resulted in higher sales. In percentage terms, Delhi-NCR topped with 71 percent y-o-y growth in sales at 24,725 units. However, the jump in sales was due to low base effect. While sales in the first half of 2018 continued to be slow in Bengaluru, it picked up significant momentum in the latter part of the year, expanding at 17 percent on an annual basis. Post a consistent drop in sales since 2016, the offtake of residential units in Mumbai revived and grew at 10 percent during 2018. The rise in launches has, however, added to the number of years that is needed to sell (YTS) the existing unsold inventory in the three cities. As a result of the higher quantum of unsold inventory and sluggish demand of past few years, housing prices have remained steady across the three markets. The stability in the rates is likely to push the sales momentum in 2019, the report says. New launches in Delhi-NCR more than doubled during 2018, led by heightened activity in Gurugram and Ghaziabad. However, launches continued to be significantly lower than the momentum of around 70,000 units seen in 2014 and 2015. While Noida constituted a majority share in total launches, its share reduced significantly to 39 percent in 2018 from 65 percent in 2017. As for sales, after a gap of four years, Delhi-NCR recorded robust sales growth of over 70 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. However, this is still lower than the sales volume of 2014 and 2015, when the region witnessed sales volume of more than 40,000 units. Gurugram, followed by Noida-Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, reigned the robust recovery in the offtake of housing units. Launches in Mumbais Navi Mumbai and Western suburbs II (Malad, Kandivali, Borivali, Dahisar) witnessed significant traction in terms of launches. The rapid ongoing infrastructure developments such as metro rail network, coastal road and extension of suburban rail network Nerul-Seawoods-Uran across the city, suburban and the peripheral areas have propelled the interest of developers. In the Mumbai bullion market, the yellow metal saw a gain of rs 19 in prices to Rs 38,450 per 10 gram of 24-carat gold (plus 3 percent GST), on the back of festive demand. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Highlights - Valuations stretched after a recent price rally- Jewellery segment to do well- Margins in the watches segment to remain under pressure - Eyewear, lifestyle products on the right path -------------------------------------------------- The management of Titan Company seemed pretty upbeat about its Q3 numbers, a recent exchange filing suggests. The stocks upward price trajectory in the last three months, however, limits scope for a re-rating. To make the most of a seasonally strong quarter, store additions and introduction of new product variants across the three segments (jewellery, watches, eyewear) were accelerated. As on December 31, 2018, the company's total retail area crossed the 2 million square feet mark. Healthy same-store sales growth, market share gains and strong traction during the Diwali-Dussehra period should aid revenue growth and result in operating leverage. The company launched its Utsav range of heritage gold jewellery, Preen collection of party diamond jewellery and Aveer 2 range of men's jewellery. 27 new Tanishq outlets were added and three were shut in 9M FY19, thus taking its total store count to 280 stores as on December 31, 2018. The management estimates top-line growth of 22 percent year-on-year by FY19-end in this segment. Product launches across the three brands (Titan, Fastrack, Sonata), coupled with strong offtake in the modern retail and e-commerce formats, should keep the revenue momentum (observed in H1 FY19) going. Owing to significantly higher spends on marketing, EBIT margins will contract in Q3. Emphasis on selling affordable products, commencement of frame manufacturing and new assortments (in prescription eyewear and sunglasses) will be the key revenue drivers in this segment. It remains to be seen if these initiatives translate in a noticeable uptick in margins.SKINN, a premium perfume brand, has been one of the best-selling ones in departmental stores, in spite of discounts offered by some international names. Investments in brand-building are also underway. Taneira, the companys saree brand, has witnessed a positive response at its newly opened store in Delhi (it is the fourth Taneira outlet in India). By virtue of a digital promotional campaign, a new collection of bridal wear (lehengas, sarees) has been made available too. Given Titans strong fundamentals, an edge over its competitors, a robust brand appeal and promising long-term prospects in the jewellery space (constituting around 80 percent of annual sales), it will continue to trade at a premium. After hitting a 52-week low as recently as October 9, 2018, the stock has been on a steady upmove. At current levels, it trades at 47 times its FY20 projected earnings. Considering the heady valuations and sharp rally, we advise buying on market volatility-triggered downsides. Follow @krishnakarwa152 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Here are stocks that are in the news today: Titan: Company expects the full year growth in jewellery business to be around 22 percent; with significantly higher spends on advertising, the EBIT margins in watches segment will be substantially subdued in Q3. Sobha Q3: Sales value drops to Rs 698.8 crore versus Rs 750.9 crore; average price realisation slips to Rs 7,689 per square feet versus Rs 8,045 per square feet. Sunteck Realty: Company issued commercial paper of Rs 35 crore. Reliance Home Finance: Company completes repayment of interest on NCDs of Rs 273 crore. Reliance Industries: RBI approves company's application for proposed amalgamation of Reliance Holding USA with Reliance Energy Generation & Distribution. ONGC: Subsidiary ONGC Videsh Limited achieved second consecutive success in an onshore well lndico-1 X, Colombia. IDFC Bank: Bank announced allotment of 1,37,71,09,057 equity shares of it to the eligible equity shareholders of Capital First Limited pursuant to the Composite Scheme of Amalgamation of Capital First, Capital First Home Finance Limited and Capital First Securities Limited with IDFC Bank Limited. Punjab & Sind Bank: Government amalgamates three regional rural banks - Punjab Gramin Bank, Malwa Gramin Bank And Sutlej Gramin Bank. Crest Ventures: Company's stake in Crest Finserv Limited has increased from 99.99 percent to 100 percent and as a result, CFL has become a Wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Dhanlaxmi Bank: CARE has reaffirmed its ratings of the unsecured, non-convertible, redeemable bonds issued by the bank. Simplex Infrastructures: Shareholding of promoters increased to 49.83 percent from 49.29 percent after conversion of warrants. Cera Sanitaryware: CRISIL reaffirmed its A1+ rating on the Rs 30 crore commercial paper. BHEL: Company successfully commissioned a 800 MW thermal unit within a record time of 46 months, at Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGENCO). Bandhan Bank: Pursuant to appointment as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India, Krishnamurthy V Subramanian tendered his resignation from the office of Independent Director of the bank. Satra Properties: Company has divested its entire 51 percent stake in material subsidiary i.e Satra Buildcori Private Limited (SBPL). Consequent to the same SBPL ceases to be subsidiary of the company. Bharat Road Network: Brahm Dutt has resigned as chairman of the board of directors and as a director of the company with immediate effect due to purely personal reasons. Ceinsys Tech: Company has received letter of award/intent of Rs 102.69 crore. Future Lifestyle Fashions: Board increased foreign investment limit from 24 percent to 49 percent. Force Motors December sales: SCV & LCV sales at 922 units, and UV, SUV & Tractors sales at 775 units. Prime Securities: Vineet Suri has tendered his resignation as an Executive Director of the company. Zydus Wellness: Company gets shareholders' nod for issue of shares to True North, Pioneer Investment Fund, Cadila Healthcare & Zydus Family Trust. Vishal Bearings: Company has fixed the record date as January 15 for the declaration of interim dividend. Makers Laboratories: CARE assigned BBB+ rating with stable outlook for company's long term bank facilities. Bulk Deals on January 4 Hind Rectifiers: Darashaw & Company sold 1,15,316 shares of the company at Rs 105.24 per share on the NSE. PG Electroplast: Jhaveri Trading and Investment Pvt Ltd sold 1,55,000 shares of the company at Rs 118.13 per share on the NSE. (For more bulk deals, click here) Analyst or Board Meet/Briefings DB (International) Stock Brokers: Board meeting is scheduled on January 9 to consider to increase the borrowing limit. Zensar Technologies: Company's officials will be meeting institutional investors on January 7 in US. SBI Life Insurance Company: Board meeting is scheduled on January 18 to consider the unaudited accounts for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Asian Paints: Board meeting is scheduled on January 22 to consider audited standalone financial results of the company for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Tata Motors: Company's officials will be meeting Premji Invest on January 7, SBI Life Insurance and Antique on January 9. Bharat Bijlee: Board meeting is scheduled on January 24 to consider unaudited financial results of the company for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Bombay Wire Ropes: Board meeting is scheduled on January 21 to consider the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended December 2018. Mahindra & Mahindra: Company's officials will be meeting Nomura Asset Management on January 7, LIC Mutual Fund on January 8 and Birla Sunlife Insurance on January 9. Aarti Industries: NCLT convened meetings of the equity shareholders of the company on February 8, 2019. Amtek Auto: Board meeting is scheduled on January 21 to consider the audited financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2018. Apcotex Industries: Company's officials will be meeting HDFC Securities on January 10. Speciality Restaurants: Board meeting is scheduled on January 15 to consider the standalone unaudited financial results of the company for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Kirloskar Industries: Board meeting is scheduled on January 22 to consider standalone un-audited financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Cyient: Board meeting is scheduled on January 17 to consider the un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 2018. Prakash Industries: Board meeting is scheduled on January 14 to consider the unaudited financial results with limited review for the quarter & nine months ended December 2018. Infomedia Press: Board meeting is scheduled on January 11 to consider the unaudited financial results of the company for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. Mahindra Logistics: One-on-one conference call is scheduled to be held with Hillhouse Capital, Institutional Investor on January 7 at Mumbai. Mahaveer Infoway: Board meeting is scheduled on January 12 to consider the proposal for sale of investment in material subsidiary company. i.e., (Minfy Technologies Private Limited). Allied Computers International (Asia): Extra-ordinary general meeting to be held on January 28. Bharat Gears: Board meeting is scheduled on January 22 to consider the un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 2018. Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. Indian markets witnessed a smart rebound in November and December which helped the benchmark indices recoup losses and close with single-digit gains for the year 2018. Nifty gave merely 3 percent return in INR terms and (-6) percent return in USD terms, and S&P BSE Sensex gave about 6 percent return in INR terms. Now, as we step into 2019, hopes are building up for a string pre-budget rally. So will the market surprise investors in the first month of 2019? Taking reference from the past bulls were able to take control of D-Street in five of the last 10 years in the month of January. Bulls pushed the S&P BSE Sensex higher by 10.8 percent in January, 2012, followed by 6.3 percent monthly return seen in 2018, and 6.09 percent gain recorded in 2015. Meanwhile, Sensex was lower by 10.8 percent in January 2011, followed by 6.8 percent drop seen in 2010, and about 5 percent fall in January, 2016. Sensex returns chart over past 10 years The Nifty50 and Sensex registered a drop of over 1 percent in the first week of 2019 which suggests that we are not out of the woods. If we look at the global setup, it remains fairly weak. Fears of a global slowdown, upcoming FOMC meeting on January 29-30, and Budget 2019 or Vote on Account have the power to throw bulls off-track. In terms of technicals, Nifty is now trading below crucial short-term and long-term moving averages which suggest that bulls would now have to do more work to put the house back in order again. Technically speaking, the markets shall remain rangebound between 11,000 and 10,500 in January unless a breakout or breakdown is witnessed going forward, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol. Events like Vote On Account may not majorly influence market direction as it mainly accounts for expenditure side of government for the next couple of months before the election without scope for announcing big-ticket reforms as priorities to differ from one government to other, he said. Institutional Activity: Foreign investors (FIIs) have mostly shied away from Indian markets in January. Anecdotal evidence suggests that FIIs pulled out money from Indian markets in 6 out of the last 10 years. They were net sellers in Indian markets in the year 2008 when they pulled out Rs 17,326 crore, followed by Rs 10,968 crore in the year 2016, and in the year 2011, FPI were net sellers for January to the tune of Rs 6,330 crore. FPIs were net buyers in January 2013 when they poured in over Rs 20,000 crore, followed by 2015 when they invested Rs 17,689 crore, and in 2018, FPIs poured in over Rs 14000 crores. Even though foreign investors were mostly net sellers in the month of January in the last 10 years, experts feel that the India story still remains intact among the emerging market space which would attract more flows in near future. Foreign investors are bullish on Indias growth story. Investors are likely to focus on fundamentals of the economy rather than elections noise to make their investment decisions, Vipin Khare, Director-Research, William O'Neil India told Moneycontrol. FIIs/FPIs were net sellers as they have sold stocks worth Rs 84,946 crore in 2018 till date, while in 2017, they bought stocks worth INR two trillion. April to October months FIIs were net sellers, but the trend has reversed in November, where FII/FPIs were net buyers, he said. Fund managers remained net buyers in India markets for the month of January in five out of the last 10 years. MFs poured in nearly Rs 9,000 crore in the month of January in 2018, followed by 2016, and 2017, and 2008 when they bought more than Rs 5,000 crore. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More It would have been an year of negative returns if not for the up move seen in last two months of 2018. On October 26, Nifty50 was down 4.7 percent year-to-date, but thanks to November rally, it closed 2018 with a gain of 3 percent. Even for broader markets, the November rally helped BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices cut losses and end the year lower by 13.4 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively. The sharp slide in crude oil prices, rupee appreciation from historic lows, hope of rate cut on favourable macros, etc. helped the benchmark indices turn positive and broader markets cut losses. Now the year 2019 is likely to be good for midcaps and smallcaps, experts said, the return could be in double-digits and many stocks are expected to show better earnings growth. "Sharp decline in crude prices, appreciation in INR versus USD, and fall in bond yields augur well for the market, however, uncertainty regarding elections in 2019 might keep markets volatile," Equirus Securities said. Mid and small-cap earnings were hurt more due to crude, currency and interest cost increase. "Therefore, reversals in the same should lead to better earnings revival. We believe 2019 will be a good year for small & midcaps," the research house said. Harendra Kumar - Managing Director, Institutional Equities, Elara Capital also told Moneycontrol that midcaps and small caps have seen sharp correction in 2018 and several companies with solid fundamentals are available at reasonable valuations now. Here is a list of 15 mid and small-cap stocks that could return 15-34% return in 2019: Brokerage: Religare Broking Akzo Nobel India | Target: Rs 1,955 | Return: 21% Indian paint industry is expected to grow by 13 percent CAGR over FY18-21E to reach Rs 80,089 crore, driven by government initiatives, increase in rural spends, boost in infra projects, favourable automobile industry trends, etc. This, along with demand uptick, stabilization of input cost, and higher contribution from decorative segment is likely to boost Akzo's revenue. Also, recent reduction of GST rates in paints sector from 28 percent to 18 percent is a positive for consumer demand. Moreover it has an added advantage of being a debt free company with negative working capital and strong balance sheet. Emami | Target: Rs 496 | Return: 22% We expect the companys growth to be driven by revival in rural demand & wholesale distribution channel, improved product mix, new launches and focus towards introducing more healthcare products. We estimate its revenue and PAT to grow by 8.7 percent & 12.3 percent CAGR respectively over FY18-21E on back of its focus on growing its power brands such as Kesh King, Navratna, Zandu and Fair & Handsome. Indraprastha Gas | Target: Rs 315 | Return: 20% Low penetration of CNG/PNG provides significant expansion opportunity for IGL in its existing areas. Further, governments focus on CNG/PNG, network expansion as well as economic benefits of CNG/PNG will lead to sales and PAT CAGR of around 20 percent and around 18 percent respectively (FY18-21E). The companys ability to pass on increase in gas cost, low working capital and leveraging of existing infrastructure will support future growth. Rallis India | Target: Rs 216 | Return: 25% In Indian agriculture, utilization of crop protection and agrochemicals in improving farm productivity is still low. This provides an immense scope for market expansion for Rallis. In addition, the government has set an ambitious target of doubling farmers income by 2022, which could lead to increase in demand for agri inputs. Improvement in returns (ROE and ROCE) and efficient working capital management are the other key positives. The key risks to our rating are 1) deficient north-east monsoon may temporarily impact the domestic business in the coming quarters 2) weak crop prices and surplus channel inventory. TeamLease Services | Target: Rs 3,244 | Return: 15% Going forward, we expect TEAM's strong performance to continue given strong industry trends, its stellar past record of 20 percent plus growth, diversified portfolio (26.7 percent business from top 10 clients), wide pool of candidates (10 million), debt free balance sheet and healthy return ratios. Voltas | Target: Rs 697 | Return: 27% Led by revival in the consumption and capex cycle and companys efforts towards brand building, enhanced product offerings and widening reach, Voltas' consolidated net revenue and PAT are estimated to grow by 11.5 percent & 13.9 percent CAGR respectively over FY18-21E. The growth is likely to be driven across business segments. Volume offtake in Unitary Cooling Products is likely to improve in the coming quarters post the recent cut in the GST rates of ACs (from 28 percent to 18 percent). Further, with healthy and better quality order book, the revenue growth and margin trajectory in EMP business should improve going forward. Whirlpool of India | Target: Rs 1,590 | Return: 22% WIL remains optimistic on delivering a double digit growth over the next few years given low penetration levels, rising disposable income and higher GDP growth. We believe with positive industry growth trends and recent GST rate cut coupled with WILs expanding distribution network, new product launches, in-house manufacturing facilities, healthy return ratios and negative working capital makes it one of our preferred pick in the sector. Brokerage: ICICI Direct City Union Bank | Target: Rs 225 | Return: 22% CUB's lending philosophy of giving small ticket secured loans helps controlasset quality. Around 1:1 loan to collateral ratio was maintained with unsecured loans at 1 percent of loans. It did not go overboard on growth in peak years of 2007-08. The bank maintains its RoAs more than 1.5 percent & RoE more than 15 percent consistently on the back of healthy credit growth, strong NIMs & controlled asset quality. CUB is well placed among regional players and on the capital front with tier I ratio at 14.7 percent. It has historically traded at a premium to other regional banks led by better return ratios. Jyothy Laboratories | Target: Rs 240 | Return: 20% Jyothy Laboratories (JLL) has six power brands (Ujala, Henko,Maxo, Pril, Exo, Margo). Its planned expansion in the ayurveda segment isexpected to enhance its revenue from personal care segment in the foreseeable future. JLL has directed its focus primarily to power brands in a bid to improve visibility and aid brand recall. It has been able to reduce its debt over the years thereby resulting in net profit CAGR of 28.5 percent. The stock is trading at around 25 percent discount to our FMCG universe thereby making it an attractive investment opportunity. Ramco Cement | Target: Rs 760 | Return: 19% The Ramco Cement is well placed to benefit from rising cement demand in southern region. In addition, Ramco's penetration in the eastern region is expected to further boost cement volumes (CAGR of 14.0 percent) in coming years. Ramco is also one of the most cost efficient cement producers in south India, with cost advantage emerging from captive power of 175 MW and strategic plant location (split grinding unit near the markets and clinker plant near the mines). On the cost front, the changes in axle load norms would provide additional loading capacity, thereby reducing freight costs by 6-8 percent. The sharp fall in crude oil prices (down 30% from recent high) will also help reduce petcoke prices and freight costs going forward. Somany Ceramics | Target: Rs 410 | Return: 27% Volume growth should pick up in second half FY19 and FY20. Additionally,strict credit control measures incorporated by the company have made it structurally strong. Thus, we expect double-digit volume growth in FY20. Somany took price hikes across product portfolio to the tune of 2.0-2.5 percent for tiles and 5-6 percent for sanitaryware & faucets in Q3FY19. Secondly, the 3.5 MSM GVT capacity addition in Andhra Pradesh is expected to be commissioned in February, 2019, which will increase share of value-added products in its portfolio (around 21 percent currently). Thirdly, gas prices (currently around Rs 40/SCM) are expected to drop due to the recent sharp fall in crude oil prices. Thus, we believe EBITDA margins have bottomed out at 6.7 percent in Q2FY19 and could improve to 10 percent in FY20. Brokerage: Rudra Shares and Stock Brokers Amara Raja Batteries | Target: Rs 875 | Return: 18% Brand AMARON continued to perform exceptionally well in the four wheeler and two wheeler segment, with wider market reach and dynamic product portfolio management. Introduction of electric vehicles in India has been slow, and is expected to gain speed in the coming years providing tremendous opportunities for battery players, directly benefitting Amara raja. Having said that, several risks do exist - One is a prolonged slowdown in automobile sales and secondly, the rise in input costs. Rupee depreciation has put pressure on costs. Although, after rising sharply and impacting profitability in the first half, prices of lead, a key raw material, softened recently. This has stoked hopes of a revival in profitability. India Glycols | Target: Rs 400 | Return: 28% Company holds the distinction of being the only green petrochemical company of its kind. Barring tepid profitability, September quarter results stood remarkably good. Owing to deficit of Mono Ethylene Glycol in India, company has a ready market available. Also, Major rehaul in the Govt policy in the state of Uttar Pradesh for portable alcohol has opened up an opportunity. In addition, multiple initiatives have been taken to develop more Green products to meet the rising demand of environment-friendly surfactants and specialty chemicals based on renewable resources like Rice bran oil, Coconut oil, Groundnut oil, Soybean oil, Palm oil, Cashew-nut shell liquid etc. Apart from the negative global event, outlook for FY19 looks promising both in value and volume terms for IGL. Uflex | Target: Rs 370 | Return: 34% Management has maintained its guidance for double digit volume growth in FY19, on the back of additional focus to develop high-margin value added products. In coming 3-4 years, company see additional revenue of around Rs 1,200 crore from sales of Aseptic Liquid Packaging Material & Rs 300 crore from sales of Aseptic Filling Machine. Fast tear strip foil will prove to be a game-changer for Pharma industryglobally & has potential growth market of 5000 tones annually in India. With patent issuance, company gets exclusive right of manufacturing & sale of this special BOPET film in US, Europe and India. Although, in India NGT had already issued an order banning the use of PVC. Still there was no substitute available. However, this patent will substitute the PVC. Pondy Oxides & Chemical | Target: Rs 510 | Return: 34% Company has a large clientele which includes big names like Amara Raja Batteries, Exide Industries, J K Tyres, Supreme Industries, Kisan, Shriram EPC, Chemplast, MRF Ltd, Tata Yuasa to name a few. About 50% of cos production is exported to numerous international customers. Due to continuous growth in automobile industries, demand for lead for next 5 years will continue to be in momentum. On the numbers side as well, POCL has performed quite well during Q2FY19. Looking ahead, POCL seeks to maintain balance sheet liquidity and implement plans to boost operational cash flow for long-term profitability. Cash generation and preservation remain a key focus. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. BHEL | Company reported loss at Rs 893.1 crore in Q1FY21 against loss Rs 218.9 crore, revenue fell to Rs 1,990.9 crore versus Rs 4,532.5 crore YoY. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Share price of Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) added more than 2 percent in the early trade on Monday after company commissioned a 800 MW thermal unit within a record time of 46 months. The 800 MW set has been commissioned at Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGENCO). BHEL has executed this project on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis, which includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, civil works and erection & commissioning of Steam Turbines, Generators, Boiler and associated Auxiliaries and electricals, besides state-of-the-art controls & instrumentation (C&I), Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and Balance of Plant (BoP) packages. At 09:20 hrs Bharat Heavy Electricals was quoting at Rs 72.80, up Rs 1.45, or 2.03 percent on the BSE. Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Moneycontrol News The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das on January 7 said that banks and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will have to "work together" towards restructuring of the latter's bad loans. "The banks have been asked to look at the viability of individual MSME before making (the restructuring scheme) applicable to MSMEs... We hope that the banks and the MSME units work together so that the scheme is implemented in letter and spirit," Das said. Das said that "viability" of each of the MSME unit will be the key parameter to judge the applicability of the restructuring scheme. "The effort, of course, is to see that maximum number of units get the benefit... But then, while extending the benefit, the viability aspect also has to be considered. Without going into the viability aspect, obviously, it would not be possible to implement the scheme," he said. The banks, now, have to place their findings before their boards and put forth the guidelines to "examine the viability of individual proposals and monitor the performance of such restructured assets". The Governor held a two-hour meeting with the MSME representatives on Monday after the RBI issued a circular in the last week of December pertaining to restructuring of MSME loans up to Rs 25 crore. According to the statement issued by RBI, such MSME units have been permitted one-time restructuring of their existing loans that are up to Rs 25 crore as on January 1, 2019 and are in default but 'standard'. The restructuring has to be implemented by March 31, 2020. Das also said that the representatives from the sector pointed out certain issues (that affect the sector) which mostly lie in the domain of the government. "We have prepared the list of issues, which will be examined internally," he said. The new circular is being considered as watering down the institution's previous circular issued on February 12, last year. The circular had mentioned strict timelines to implement faster resolution in case of a default. The revised framework of the circular said that all lenders, either singly or jointly, should take steps towards restructuring of the asset within a day of non-payment of the dues. Das, however, said that the decision to issue the new circular was taken considering the "present situation of the economy". Moneycontrol News The apex bank will inform about its decision to transfer interim dividend to the government "as and when it is taken", Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on January 7. "As and when the RBI takes decision on the matter, we will inform," Das said while addressing the media. The statement comes after media reports suggested that the central bank was planning to transfer Rs 30,000-40,000 crore as interim dividend to the government. "We are absolutely sure that an interim dividend of more than Rs 300 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) would be paid before March-end," one of the sources told Reuters. On being asked if the government had made any request for the same, the newly appointed governor said that "lot of correspondence" happens between the government and the RBI and that the RBI would not "delay announcing the decision". Das was appointed last month after former RBI Governor Urjit Patel put in his papers. His resignation was seen as a result of brewing tension between Mint Road and North Block over various issues including liquidity situation, resolution of non-performing assets, deployment of RBI's surplus reserves and dilution of prompt corrective action (PCA) framework. While the RBI has set up a committee, led by Bimal Jalan, to look at the excessive surplus and capital framework of the central bank, it has constituted another committee, led by UK Sinha, to study loan restructuring in the MSME sector. The Governor said that RBI has received inputs on the liquidity situation and was monitoring situation in the market and was aware of the condition. "After holding interactions with various stakeholders, we have a sense of current liquidity situation," he said. The RBI has announced additional open market operations (OMO) of Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal to maintain the monetary situation in the economy. Das also said that while it was necessary to inject funds in the economy, it was also important to make sure that there exists no situation of "excess supply". "The RBI is constantly monitoring and will take steps whenever there is a need. At the same time, the Reserve Bank would not like a situation where liquidity is resulting in lose money (in the market). Any infusion of liquidity will have to be very carefully considered and has to be need based," he said. Das is slated to meet representatives from NBFC sector on January 8 to discuss areas of concern. About 230 daily flights will be cancelled as the Mumbai airport closes for six hours a day, over 22 days. The closure, spread over February and March, will allow the airport to re-carpet the intersections of its two runways. "There will be no flight movements at Mumbai Airport between 11 am and 5 pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from February 07 to March 30, 2019. However, the airport will operate the whole day on Thursday, March 21," a spokesperson of Mumbai International Airport, told Moneycontrol. Festival of Holi falls on March 21. The partial closure may lead to rise in fares, especially in the Mumbai-Delhi route, the busiest. The airport had earlier shut in October last year. But that was for a day. the move impacted about 300 flights. The upcoming closure has already led to significant reschedule and cancellation of flights in the airport, which handles 946 flights a day. The spokesperson added that the most impacted routes will be Delhi, with 33 flights a day cancelled to the capital. The other major routes to be most impacted are Goa (18 flights) and Bengaluru (16). While all impacted flights have been either rescheduled or cancelled, most international ones have been rescheduled, added the spokesperson. The two runways together handle about 85 flights an hour. While the primary runway handles about 50 flights an hour, the second one sees 35 flights take off. Essar Shipping | The share price has risen 62 percent in the last three trading sessions. On August 12, the stock closed at Rs 11.64 against a close of Rs 7.19 on August 7, 2020. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Essar Global Fund, the holding company of the Ruias-held Group, on January 7 repaid Rs 12,000 crore to its lenders, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. "Over the past two years, Essar Group has repaid more than Rs 137,000 crore (US$21 billion) of debt (including Essar Steel), a majority of which is to the Indian banking system. This is more than 80 percent of its group debt," the company said in a statement. Sources told Moneycontrol the group debt is at about Rs 35,000 crore after the latest repayment. Essar Global repaid approximately Rs 6,300 crore to ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. "With this, these banks have been repaid their entire facility of Rs 31,500 crore, which they had provided to Essar Global to fund its capital expenditure programme in 2008-14," the statement said. Russia's VTB is the only continuing lender to Essar Global. The latest deleveraging happens after a major round in 2017, in which Essar Global paid back Rs 86,000 crore of liabilities after the sale of Essar Oil to a consortium led by Rosneft. The Group later also sold its business outsourcing business, Aegis, for Rs 6,000 crore, and Equinox Business Parks to Brookfield Asset Management for Rs 2,400 crore. Essar's steel business, which has a debt of Rs 45,000 crore, is now in the insolvency courts. While ArcelorMittal has made a bid of Rs 42,000 crore, the Ruias have submitted a proposal of Rs 54,389 crore. The Essar Group at present has annual revenues of $11.5 billion, with a presence in sectors such as energy, infrastructure and metals & mining. A comeback in Minnesota? The holding company also announced it had come to a settlement with "all lenders who had provided debt facilities to erstwhile Essar Steel Minnesota Ltd and were beneficiaries of unsecured guarantees from Essar Global." The lenders include ICICI Bank and State Bank of India. Essar Global had acquired Minnesota Steel in 2007, giving it access to rich iron ore reserves. But a commodity slowdown and delay in projects led Essar Steel Minnesota to file for bankruptcy in 2016. The firm was later taken out of bankruptcy by Mesabi Metallics in 2017. But there were several claims on the project. In the latest move, Essar Global has purchased $260 million face value notes issued by Mesabi Metallics Inc. "These notes substantially constitute all of the debt of Mesabi, and paves the way for Essar Global to once again participate in the low-cost iron ore mining and pellet manufacturing project that is under construction in Minnesota, USA," the company said. While a source confirmed Essar Global will be "soon back" in Minnesota, he declined to give more details. Image: Reuters live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More On January 7, 2009, Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of Satyam, wrote to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the company's shareholders admitting that he manipulated the company's accounts to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore, shocking the global corporate community. Nearly 94 percent of the reported cash reserve of the company had been fictitious. The confession blew the lid on what came to be known as India's Enron. Satyam's shares fell from a high of Rs 180 to a low of Rs 76, dragging down the Sensex 7 percent. As Raju explained, the company had started off by inflating some of its financials, and got caught in the quagmire of ever-increasing expectations on how to keep up the performance. "It was like riding a tiger, without knowing how to get off without being eaten". Satyam's backstory Satyam Computers was India's fourth-largest IT company, behind TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Raju was held as one of the torchbearers' of the Indian IT story. Satyam had won several awards for corporate governance. But something was amiss. A few months before Raju confessed, Satyam had announced it would take over its group company Maytas Infra (Maytas' name was Satyam's spelled in reverse). The proposal led to a lot of consternation among investors. Why would an IT company want to acquire an infrastructure company? Were there not enough opportunities left in IT? In hindsight, this was a last-ditch attempt by the Satyam promoters to merge two companies -- a move that would have helped Raju continue to cook his books more effectively with an asset-heavy infrastructure firm. The evening the announcement came out, Satyam shares sold off in US trading, sealing the fate of the proposed acquisition. With the share price depleted, Satyam couldn't use its stock to buy Maytas. The next morning, Raju confessed. Events since After the scam came to light, independent directors, auditors, banking partners and related entities to Satyam became the center of attention. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) were independent auditors of Satyam when the news of the scandal surfaced. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined the Indian arm of the auditor $6 million, slamming its failure to detect such a fraud. In 2018, SEBI banned the company from auditing any listed company in India for two years. The Company Law Board disbarred the board of the company and appointed 10 nominal directors in 2008. The then Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said the board failed to do their duty and at their expense, the credibility of India's IT industry should not suffer. Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik, and former SEBI member C Achuthan were nominated by the government to Satyam's board. In April 2009, Tech Mahindra bought a 46 percent stake in Satyam via a public auction process, to form the country's fifth largest IT exports company. It subsequently merged within Tech Mahindra in June 2013. What happened to Raju? Raju was arrested by the police in January 2009, along with his younger brother B Rama Raju and got bail from the Supreme Court in 2011, as the CBI failed to file a chargesheet. The market regulator slapped a fine of Rs 1,849 crore on Raju and barred him from the markets for 14 years. In 2015, Raju and nine others were found guilty under various counts of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to seven years in prison by a Hyderabad court. Raju is currently out on bail and lives in Hyderabad. Satyam Raju's Letter to... by on Scribd I found the Jan. 1 Boomers, remember your commitment, theres still time to save the world to be condescending and in many places inaccurate. Yes, we were not the Greatest Generation. My generation was engaged in a very unpopular war. Some of us protested, others fought with no appreciation, some did both, but all were affected. Thanks to baby boomers, we are seeing more gender equality and acceptance of diversity although the press often times reports differently. Many of us are still productive in work while others volunteer. Numerous nonprofit organizations benefit from our philanthropy. Baby boomers are also the sandwich generation, caring for elderly parents and helping to raise grandchildren when their parents work while providing financial support to them. No, we dont just sit at home streaming movies until naptime. FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA The key employees are the schools more than 200 teachers, who will vote this month on whether to unionize through the Illinois Federation of Teachers. The customers are students, whose change.org petition was launched Oct. 23, the day after the school announced it would sell one of main locations a building in Lincoln Park it has owned for 50 years, and which served as its headquarters until 1998 when the school added its Lincoln Square location. (Im the student who, after 18 years of music classes, posted that petition.) We had the same routines. He was organized. And he used to say, Life is organization, and organization is life. And how true is that, she said. He was so kind and always was so good to everyone. And he was a great teacher who gave information in a very kind way, and you knew he was honest. "They're using federal workers in a game of chicken. Who's going to blink first? We're a pawn," he said. "I didn't sign up for this. I signed up for this job to protect society and to have a good government job so when I retire I can have a pension, not to be used in a game of chicken." Preckwinkles ties to Burke have been under scrutiny amid the powerful aldermans federal legal troubles and her candidacy for Chicago mayor. In the weeks since the FBI raided Burkes City Hall and ward offices, Preckwinkle has sought to distance herself from the alderman, returning thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and saying she has had little contact and no relationship with the alderman despite him having hosted a fundraiser for her at his home. She had previously declined to return all the money from the fundraiser, limiting it to just money she received from Burkes committees, despite calls from opponents to do so. Wind gusts should increase over the western half of Lower Michigan during the second half of this morning. Those stronger wind gusts will sweep across eastern Lower Michigan during the afternoon. Heres the animation of a computer model wind gust forecast. The wind gusts may be five mph overdone, but the timing and location of strongest gusts should be accurate. Wind gust forecast for today shows the red areas of 50 mph+ gusts. The wind gust forecast above shows two areas of 50 mph gusts moving across Lower Michigan. One area develops in central Lower Michigan north of Lansing and moves east-southeast into the Thumb. Another area of strong gusts should develop over northwest Lower Michigan around the Traverse City region and then move into northeast Lower Michigan. Heres the wind gust forecast for noon today. Wind gust forecast at noon shows 50 mph+ gusts around Traverse City area, and developing around Saginaw and Flint areas. The strong wind gusts continue to move east at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Strongest gusts are around Mancelona and northwest Lower and the Saginaw Bay region. Much of Lower Michigan will have at least 40 mph gusts. By 6 p.m. the strongest gusts will have moved off to the east. The strongest wind gusts will have moved east into Canada by 6 p.m. this evening. Winds will still be gusty this evening in the southern half of Lower Michigan, but with gusts only topping out around 40 mph. The large-scale storm is still on track to move through Michigan Monday. Air with temperatures above freezing will eventually move into all of Lower Michigan, but the U.P. wont break away from winter. Heres a look at what you can expect. First off, its a big snowstorm for the U.P., and all of the U.P. Here is the total snowfall expected by midnight Tuesday. Most of the U.P. should have over six inches of snow. Northern Lower Michigan should get one to three inches of snow Monday morning before changing to a brief one to two hour period of freezing rain. After the short period of freezing rain, precipitation will change to rain over northern Lower. Southern Lower may have up to an inch of snow the first few hours of precipitation. But the Upper Peninsula will get smacked hard with a bunch of snow. Most areas of the U.P. should get over six inches of snow, with the highest amounts near one foot. Winter storm warning in effect for the U.P. for Monday and Monday evening. The pink area in the eastern two-thirds of the U.P. has a winter storm warning. The purple shaded areas are under a winter weather advisory for Monday. Also notice Huron and Sanilac County also have a wind advisory for gusts to near 50 mph Monday afternoon and evening. The will still be lots of Michigan colder than freeze Monday morning. If any precipitation is falling, it should be in a wintry form. Warming temperatures through the day Monday will help travelers if you are staying out of the U.P. At 8 a.m. the freeze/thaw line sits from Grand Rapids to Flint. Areas south of this line will be inching up above freezing between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Temperatures will continue to warm at noon Monday. Look to see where the areas below freezing are, as that will be the travel trouble spot. By noon, the southern half of Lower Michigan shouldnt have any icy roads with temperatures in the mid-30s to low-40s. Temperatures will continue to warm at 6 p.m. Monday. Monday evening will almost be warm by January standards. Look for temperatures to warm well into the 40s across southern Lower. Just below is an animation that gives you a feel of the transition from snow to freezing rain to rain. Radar forecast from midnight Monday to midnight Tuesday. The best advice still is to wait until temperatures warm above freezing at your location. If you do wait on warmer temperatures Monday, all youll have to deal with is rain. After this storm passes we actually get four days of winter cold, with temperatures in the 20s. Freshman Representative Rashida Tlaib celebrated her swearing in to the 116th Congress by shooting off some choice swears of her own. Tlaib caused a stir when a recording of her saying of President Donald Trump "we're going to impeach the motherf***er" during an afterparty surfaced. Many politicians were shocked by the representative's language, saying she was encouraging discord within the new Congress. Others said she hadn't said anything nearly as bad as what the president has said in the past. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES The Washington Post reports that the president's allies were quick to decry Tlaib's language, saying it was unbefitting of her new role as a U.S. Representative. Some commentators pointed out these same pundits don't hold members of the GOP to the same standard. Reporter Erik Wasson pointed out that Liz Cheney, the House GOP Chair and daughter of the former Vice President, criticized Tlaib, while her own father was unrepentant about swearing on the Senate floor. House GOP Chair Liz Cheney condemns @RashidaTlaib for foul language at presser. Her dad Dick Cheney told Sen Leahy to go f@@k yourself on the Senate floor when he was VP Erik Wasson (@elwasson) January 4, 2019 Other representatives said Tlaib was being disrespectful. I asked @RepCummings if comments like impeach the motherf*cker are productive: You can not accomplish much of anything unless you have civility & show respect for your colleagues. I think those kind of comments do not take us in the right direction...they are inappropriate. Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 4, 2019 However, when compared with what the president himself had said, Tlaib's comments seem somewhat tame. Yes, there is a double standard. Trump "speaks his mind" or does worse, and his fans cheer and defend him. When others do it, his fans are outraged and speak of decency and values. 1/2 GlycerineGrey1886 (@GGrey1886) January 5, 2019 Newly elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said that while she did not agree with Tlaib's language, she did not disagree with the sentiment. Representative Jerry Nadler went on CNN on Friday to decry Tlaib's language, saying it was too early to even be mentioning impeachment. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Rashida Tlaib's vow to impeach Trump: "I don't really like that kind of language, but more to the point, I disagree with what she said. It is too early to talk about that intelligently. We have to follow the facts" https://t.co/Ctwc5n4hGK pic.twitter.com/OsCOTQnuj2 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 4, 2019 Many people felt the whole controversy was overblown and hypocritical. If Congresswoman Talib cursing at a private rally is outrageous to you but Trumps many rude, obnoxious and racist comments are justifiable in some way then hypocrisy probably gave you a wedding ring and yall are married. Toure (@Toure) January 4, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. KALAMAZOO, MI Nearly three years after Uber shooter Jason Dalton drove across Kalamazoo County, shooting and killing people as he went, the murder case brought against him was resolved Monday when Dalton pleaded guilty to all charges. Six people were killed and two others were injured in Daltons shooting rampage on Feb. 7, 2016. Dalton was driving for Uber at the time and picked up fares between shooting people, police have said. Dalton pleaded guilty to all charges Monday, Jan. 7, including six counts of first-degree murder. The pleas came after a drawn-out legal process that took a lot of work from police and prosecutors, Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting said. Im very happy we were able to reach this resolution without there having to be a trial," Getting said during a Jan. 7 news conference. This protects the case from appellate issues that couldve been raised during the course of proceeding. "This is our best case outcome, him pleading guilty to all of the charges without any form of plea agreement whatsoever. This is whats best for the case. This is whats best for the victims. Getting said he is sort of surprised about the plea. He and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Williams talked about the possibility of a plea and made arrangements to allow Dalton to enter the guilty plea if he so chose. It is an unusual plea because the consequence is mandatory, life in prison without possibility of parole, Getting said. We dont typically see that happen, Getting said about Daltons guilty plea to a first-degree murder charge, and he is aware of a few instances in the community, ever, when it has happened before. An hour and a half before the news conference, Dalton appeared in court and answered the judges questions about his guilt in the multiple counts against him including multiple murder charges. Dalton admitted to killing each of the people and said he understood that his guilty plea means he is waiving his right to a trial. Getting said he doesnt know why Dalton chose to kill. I dont know if he will ever say why, Getting said. Much time, effort and preparation went into the case, Getting said. The prosecutors office would have called 30 or more witnesses, he said, and about 130 exhibits were marked in the case. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Williams, who has been with the office for a decade, said the work to prepare to prosecute the case was unprecedented compared to other cases he has worked on, with multiple crime scenes, multiple vehicles, multiple guns and witnesses. It was a lot of work, he said. We had a lot of information to take in and organize. He and Getting mentioned the impact the case had on the community. Williams said he looked at GPS evidence and saw that Dalton drove past Williams Kalamazoo residence during the rampage. I was glad to be able to have the opportunity to do this from the office, Williams said. Prosecutor responds to Jason Daltons guilty plea in Uber shooting trial Posted by Kalamazoo Gazette on Monday, January 7, 2019 The prosecutors office did not make any plea offers to Dalton, but would not object to a guilty plea. Dalton spoke with his attorney before entering the guilty plea, Getting said. Dalton wanted to plead guilty to the charges against his attorneys advice, Getting said. The prosecutors office contacted family members of victims to give them a chance to be in court after fining out Dalton intended to plead guilty. Daltons choice was placed on the record, Getting said, noting that it is Daltons right to have a trial but he chose not to. The surviving victims and their families have helped the prosecutors office, Getting said. For example, he said, Alexis Cornish, Tyler Smiths girlfriend, witnessed the double homicide of Tyler and Rich Smith. She reached into her Tyler Smiths pocket to get his phone and call 911 to report the incident, Getting said. It was just so extraordinarily brave, Getting said. He thanked her and other victims for their support in the prosecution of the case. OTSEGO, MI The Department of Environmental Quality has announced the results of a round of re-testing of residential water wells in the Otsego area. The DEQ previously announced, in October, that testing of residential water wells revealed the presence of dioxin or dioxin-like chemicals in 61 residential water wells, but said the results were suspected to be inaccurate. The retest of 21 private residential wells found no presence of dioxin in most of the wells that previously tested positive for the contaminant, the DEQ said in a Jan. 7 news release. Only one of the wells showed trace amounts of dioxin well below drinking water standards, the DEQ said in a news release. The new results show the highest dioxin level within the 21 wells was 0.13 parts per quadrillion (ppq) -- well below the MDEQ Part 201 drinking water standard of 30 ppq, the DEQ said. The DEQ announced the news together with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Allegan County Health Department. Dioxins include a group of chemicals that can be formed during chemical and paper manufacturing and are harmful to human health. The DEQ said it uses the term dioxin to describe dioxin as well as other dioxin-like substances. The DEQ began testing residential drinking water in the area after residents raised health concerns and asked if they could be tied to former industrial materials in the environment. Citizen efforts caught the attention the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies, leading to environmental testing to search for chemicals used historically by industries in the area. The city of Otsego had its water tested, revealing a trace amount of dioxin that the city manager said is well below advisory levels and safe to drink. The initial results were announced during an Oct. 20 public meeting in Otsego. DEQ officials at the meeting told residents about the dioxin found in private water wells, and said they planned to retest because they suspected the testing results were inaccurate. The DEQ said the retesting was done because the earlier results were invalid due to contamination in laboratory testing equipment, the DEQ said in the Jan. 7 news release. A different laboratory was used for the October resampling effort, the DEQ said. PFAS testing During the latest round of testing, the DEQ also sampled five monitoring wells and 20 residential wells in and around the former Menasha Corporation Landfill in Otsego for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the groundwater. The PFAS testing in the area was spurred by earlier testing of some ponds immediately adjacent to the landfill, which identified PFAS at levels exceeding MDEQ Part 201 drinking water criteria. All of the 20 residential well samples in the latest round of testing came back negative for PFAS, the DEQ said. MDHHS will provide PFAS sampling results to individual homeowners via letters, the DEQ said in its news release. Results from earlier tests detected PFAS in 11 wells, and those results are not in question, Kalamazoo Remediation and Redevelopment Division District Supervisor David Heywood said. All of those detections were below health advisory levels, according to the DEQ. The DEQ has not released details about the locations samples were taken in the latest round of testing. The agency has also not released full testing results. The next phase of the investigation will involve collecting soil samples to test for both dioxins and PFAS, the DEQ said. The results will be shared with the community at a future public meeting, the DEQ said. Otsego residents with additional questions about test results can call the DEQ Kalamazoo District Office at 269-567-3500 or MDHHS at 800-648-6942. KALAMAZOO, MI The day before they expected testimony to start in the trial of the man accused of killing their loved ones, family members of six people killed in a February 2016 shooting rampage in Kalamazoo County rushed into a courtroom to hear the man responsible plead guilty. Jason Brian Dalton, 48, of Cooper Township, pleaded guilty to 16 felony counts against him six counts of premeditated, first-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder and eight felony firearm counts. Dalton faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Feb. 5. Roy Smith, the brother of victim Richard Smith and the uncle of victim Tyler Smith, traveled from Florida and had planned to stay for the duration of the trial. The plea came as a bit of a surprise on the third day of jury selection in Daltons trial. Before jury selection started Monday, Kalamazoo County prosecutors said in court they were not offering Dalton a plea but would accept his guilty plea if he wanted to offer it. Dalton decided, against the legal advice of his defense attorney, Eusebio Solis, to plead guilty to all 16 counts. Smith said he preferred the plea to a trial, but called it a big surprise. I think it should have come almost three years ago, Smith said. Cant forgive a person for dragging all of these people through this. Its been hard on everyone and (Daltons) family too. Smith said he doesnt think hell have justice until he sees Dalton in hell. We are glad that its over and we hope the justice follows through and it will be for life without parole because we dont want it to happen again," Smith said. "Its happening so many places that it has to stop, it just has to. Standing next to his attorney at the judges bench, Dalton told Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander C. Lipsey his pleas were being offered voluntarily. Yes. Ive wanted this for quite a while, he said. Solis acknowledged, given the charges Dalton was facing, that a guilty plea at this stage was rather unusual. Ive been practicing law for 30 years and have never pleaded to life in prison without parole," Solis said after the hearing. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting called it the best case scenario" at a press conference following the plea. He acknowledged the plea is unusual because the consequence of being guilty of first-degree murder is mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. Im very happy we were able to reach this resolution without there having to be a trial," Getting said at the Monday afternoon press conference. This protects the case from appellate issues that couldve been raised during the course of proceeding." Tracy Reynolds, a daughter-in-law of victim Judy Brown, called the plea a step forward and a relief. We are relieved that we dont have to sit through a drawn-out trial and listen to details that Id rather not hear, Reynolds said. A relief for us, a relief for everybody involved. Bart Nye, the son of Mary Lou Nye and the nephew of Mary Jo Nye, said he is glad the proceeding is over. I kind of wish he wouldnt have dragged us through almost three years of this nonsense," Nye said. "Im glad he did admit to it and everything, just to take almost three years to figure out he didnt want to put the whole family, all the victims through this, is ridiculous. He knew from the get-go what hed done and that hed done it. With the pleas, Dalton admitted he shot Tiana Carruthers, 25, in the parking lot of the Meadows town home complex, 5066 Meadows Blvd,, just before 6 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2016. Dalton shot and killed father and son Rich, 53, and Tyler Smith, 17, in the parking lot of Seelye Kia on Stadium Drive just after 10 p.m. that same evening. He then shot four women and a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, 5581 S. 9th St. in Texas Township. Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda; Mary Jo Nye, 60, Dorothy Judy Brown, 74, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, all of Battle Creek, were killed and the 14-year-old girl, Abigail Kopf, survived but was critically injured. Dalton drove erratically that afternoon, picking up Uber fares between the shootings. Daltons case was on hold for nearly three years as it wound its way through appellate courts. In an interview with detectives, Dalton said the Uber app literally took over his mind and body on Feb. 20 when the color of the apps symbol changed from red to black. Dalton told the detectives the app symbol changed colors when he spoke the name of the Eastern Star symbol. In appeals, Daltons attorney argued detectives violated his Miranda rights in interviews the day after the shooting. Ultimately. the Michigan Court of Appeals decided the interviews would not be allowed at trial. On Monday, Solis withdrew an earlier motion to pursue an insanity defense, explaining an independent forensic examination showed Dalton did not meet the legal requirements for insanity. Mondays guilty pleas came before the prosecution and defense were expected to question 112 potential jurors as part of the jury selection portion of the trial. I just thought about, well, he should have a fair trial, said Kalamazoo resident Launda Wheatley, a potential juror. If you have to do jury duty, this would probably have been the case to do jury (duty) with. It would be interesting to see what the defense was going to be if they had a defense. Had a jury been seated Monday, opening statements and testimony in the trial were expected Tuesday, Jan. 8. UPDATE: Jason Dalton pleads guilty to murder charges in Kalamazoo Uber shooter trial KALAMAZOO, MI The prosecutor and the defense attorney will question potential jurors in the Jason Dalton murder trial today in an attempt to seat a jury. Jury selection in the case started Thursday, Jan. 3. Just over 200 prospective jurors were summoned, and the prosecutor and defense attorney whittled that down in a closed courtroom Thursday and Friday before voir dire started in open court Monday. Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander C. Lipsey has issued a decorum order stating the courtroom will be closed to media and the public during the first stage of jury selection and would have access to a remote-operated pool video feed to observe voir dire. After MLive filed a motion requesting access to cover jury selection in the courtroom, Lipsey ruled a pool reporter would be allowed in the courtroom to cover voir dire but not hardship questioning. Dalton, 48, faces six counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and several felony firearms charges for a shooting rampage that crossed Kalamazoo County Feb. 20, 2016. His case has been on hold for nearly three years as it wound its way through appellate courts. In an interview with detectives, Dalton said the Uber app literally took over his mind and body on Feb. 20 when the color of the apps symbol changed from red to black. Dalton told the detectives the app symbol changed colors when he spoke the name of the Eastern Star symbol. Daltons trial has been delayed as his defense attorneys appealed a piece of the case, arguing detectives violated his Miranda rights in interviews the day after the shooting. Ultimately, the Michigan Court of Appeals decided the interviews will not be allowed at trial. The trial could last up to two weeks. Police say Dalton shot Tiana Carruthers, 25, in the parking lot of the Meadows town home complex, 5066 Meadows Blvd,, just before 6 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2016. Dalton allegedly shot and killed father and son Rich, 53, and Tyler Smith, 17, in the parking lot of Seelye Kia on Stadium Drive just after 10 p.m. that same evening. Police say he then shot four women and a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, 5581 S. 9th St. in Texas Township. Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda; Mary Jo Nye, 60, Dorothy Judy Brown, 74, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, all of Battle Creek, were killed and the 14-year-old girl, Abigail Kopf, survived but was critically injured. Dalton allegedly drove erratically that afternoon, picking up Uber fares between the shootings. Diversity in who is making decisions for our communities is essential, Villivalam said in the release. I am also proud to join one of the most diverse groups of legislators this state and country have ever seen, a group that will work for and with our communities to ensure the needs of all residents are considered and respected. JACKSON, MI A man sentenced to serve the next quarter century in prison for his role in ambushing and robbing a man of everything until he was naked has been denied an appeal. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the 25- to 40-year prison sentence of Antoine Williams, Jan. 3, according to an order released by the court. Circuit Judge Susan Jordan sentenced Williams, July 26, 2017, after a jury found him guilty of one count each of armed robbery and felony firearms. He was convicted, June 20, after prosecutors successfully argued that on Nov. 15, 2016, Williams was one of three armed men who robbed and beat another man inside an apartment in 300 block of W. Franklin Street. Williams, 26, argued the court made an error in his pre-sentence report, giving him more points than he believed his case deserved. The points in question regarded Williams overall role in the robbery, giving him additional points for being a leader in the offense, according to the appeal. The 30-year-old victim in the case was robbed of everything, including his clothes, when the men ambushed him inside the apartment after a female acquaintance who lived there allegedly called him asking him to deliver a half an ounce of cocaine, according to court records. After being stripped of everything and pistol whipped on the back of the head, the victim escaped from the apartment naked and ran past Frank's Finer Foods where he was offered a ride home by someone leaving the store, records show. Based on testimony from a co-defendant in the case stating Williams said for them to go along with it and Ill hook you up, the court found Williams had an influential role in the robbery, thereby affirming his sentence, record show. (Williams') actions displayed a greater amount of initiative in robbing the victim than that of his co-defendants, the court wrote. Williams was sentenced as a habitual offender. He was on parole at the time of the incident, records show. JACKSON, MI A Jackson man convicted of breaking into a vacant apartment twice, starting a fire and crashing through a celling while high on methamphetamine isnt leaving prison anytime soon. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Jan. 3 upheld the conviction and sentence of Clifford Schoening, according to an order issued by the court. In early 2017, a jury found Schoening, 33, guilty of one count each of first-degree arson, second-degree home invasion and resisting police. He was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. In his appeal, Schoening argued there wasnt sufficient evidence to convict him of first-degree arson, that his attorney failed to adequately pursue an insanity defense and that his sentence was unreasonable. The appellate court disagreed, stating the jury found the evidence sufficient and Schoening had already underwent a mental evaluation which had found him competent to stand trial. The evaluation found no evidence of a current psychotic break or any other phenomenon that would remove defendants culpability, the court wrote. It was apparent that (Schoenings) symptoms had been greatly exacerbated by his consumption of a considerable quantity of methamphetamines and he functions quite well when abstinent from illicit drugs. Voluntary consumption of controlled substances does not constitute legal insanity, the court wrote. In the early afternoon of March 21, 2016, Jackson police and fire crews responded to the fire at an apartment unit at 325 W. Washington Ave. An on-site maintenance worker who smelled smoke in the building, opened a door to a vacant unit and met Schoening who later fled on foot. The maintenance worker told police he did not recognize the man. Fire fighters and investigators ultimately found a dresser drawer full of clothes burning on the stove top inside the unit and extinguished it. The unit suffered minimal damage as the fire was contained in the kitchen, police said. Four days later, March 25, fire crews were called to the apartment building again after a resident reported seeing a man set fire in the upper level of the apartment, police said. The fire was already out by the time fire crews got inside, police said. Police discovered Schoening, who was homeless at the time, had broken into the vacant unit and was hiding in the attic. While in the attic, Schoening broke through the ceiling of one of the apartments and caused an estimated $30,000 worth of damage to the building. Citing his mental health issues, Schoening argued his sentence was unreasonable. Whether such a sentence in the Department of Corrections is in the best interests of society or the state is a decision left to the legislature and not properly before this court, the court wrote. FLINT, MI Four people aboard a private plane escaped injury Sunday afternoon during an emergency landing at Bishop Airport in Flint. Airport police and fire personnel were notified around 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6 of a Cessna 210 Centurion with a potential landing gear issue in the area of the airport off West Bristol Road. Pat Corfman, Bishop Airport spokeswoman, said the landing gear may have collapsed on the plane carrying four people, including the pilot, and approximately 75 gallons of fuel. The plane could be seen partially on its side at the west end of a runway. All four people exited the plane without injury and were escorted to the Avflint Flint, Corfman said. No information was immediately available on where the plane was coming from or its scheduled destination. One runway was closed to allow for the incident to be cleared, but Corfman said it has not caused delays or cancellations at the airport. Flint police, Flint Township police, and Genesee County Sheriffs deputies responded to assist Bishop Airport first responders at the scene. FLINT, MI -- Another former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality official charged with Flint water crisis crimes has struck a plea deal. Liane Shekter-Smith, former chief of the DEQ Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, pleaded no contest to disturbance of a lawful meeting, a misdemeanor, in exchange for the dismissal of other charges. Shekter-Smiths misdemeanor charge will be dismissed provided she keeps up her agreement to cooperate with prosecutors. Special prosecutor Todd Flood said Monday, Jan. 7, that "her candor and truthfulness to date has been refreshing. Shekter-Smith had been facing a potential charge of involuntary manslaughter and charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty. Flood outlined the deal before Genesee District Court Judge Jennifer Manley on Monday, the date Shekter-Smith and Patrick Cook, the last two DEQ officials facing charges, were in court for continuations of their preliminary examinations. The Shekter-Smith deal is similar to those prosecutors struck with Stephen Busch, a DEQ environmental supervisor, and Michael Prysby, a DEQ engineer who reported to Busch, just two weeks ago. The new deal includes a provision for Shekter-Smith to plead no contest to misconduct in office, a felony, if she is found to have knowingly and intentionally misled either the special prosecutor or Genesee County Prosecutors Office. Cook, a specialist for the DEQs Community Drinking Water Unit, could still reach a plea deal. He is charged with willful neglect of duty, misconduct in office and conspiracy, but his preliminary exam continued briefly Monday. The Shekter-Smith plea deal comes just days after Attorney General Dana Nessel said she wants to replace Flood as special prosecutor in the criminal water crisis cases. Flood would not comment on his future or on any conversations hes had with the new attorney general. Nessel said in a statement Friday, Jan. 4, that she has asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to take over the water prosecutions. Worthy said shes expecting to only review the pending criminal cases. There are eight cases now that Shekter-Smith has taken a plea deal. In brief testimony Monday, Shekter-Smith told Manley that she became aware of an uptick in cases of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County in October 2014, the same time the city of Flint was using the Flint River as its water source. She said she told others in the DEQ, including former Director Dan Wyant, about the increase in cases of Legionnaires' at the same time. In January 2015, she said, staff members in the Office of Drinking Water reported to her that they participated in a conference call about the Legionnaires' issue in the Flint area and that state Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon participated in the call. Lyon is facing charges, including involuntary manslaughter, that are related to the water crisis in Genesee Circuit Court. Wyant has not been charged with any crime. He resigned from his cabinet position in December 2015 after a state task force laid most of the blame for the citys water crisis at the feet of his agency. ANN ARBOR, MI - University of Michigan alum Darren Criss couldnt resist giving props to his University of Michigan roots while accepting another major award at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 6. Criss will need to make more room on the awards mantel after capturing a Golden Globe for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television category. Criss, a San Francisco native, earned his Golden Globe for his role as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story." Just a few months after Criss threw out a Go Blue! during his acceptance speech for winning best actor in a limited series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards for the same role, Criss made sure his college days were recognized at the Golden Globes. This is totally awesome, Criss exclaimed, concluding his speech with a nod to A Very Potter Musical, a UM Basement Arts production that Criss co-wrote the music and lyrics for, along with A.J. Holmes in 2009. The production went viral when it became available online a few months later, leading to the formation of the theater troupe Team StarKid, which followed up with A Very Potter Sequel, as well as a world premiere, puppet-filled production of Starship, which featured music and lyrics by Criss. Criss gained popularity on TV on Fox's "Glee" in 2010. His other TV credits include "American Horror Story: Hotel" and "The Flash." He also starred in Broadway revivals, including "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" in 2015. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, came after Ryan Murphys fictionalized retelling of O.J. Simpsons murder trial. Ryan Murphys The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story won for both best limited series and Criss' lead performance. Check out Criss' acceptance speech for the Golden Globe below. CENTRE, ALA. -- Police in Alabama are warning people not to consume or pick up any chicken found near a crash site where a truck wrecked Sunday afternoon as it is unsafe to eat and taking the chicken could lead to criminal charges. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT| The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office is asking that no one try to stop to get the chicken... Posted by Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency - Alabama on Sunday, January 6, 2019 According to the Associated Press, the truck spilled several boxes of chicken onto the road Sunday near the Georgia border. Several motorists then stopped to pick up the chicken, taking boxes from the crash site. Now, officials are warning those who stopped not to eat the chicken as it was on the ground for several hours and is potential unsafe to consume and its illegal to slow down traffic in order to pick up something from the side of the road. It is also a crime to take the chicken from the crash site and anyone caught doing so faces possible criminal charges. Police in Indiana had to issue a similar warning last year when thousands of dollars flew out of the back of a Brinks truck. In that case, people were stopping to gather cash that was on the ground and police had to remind citizens that it was illegal to keep any money found near the site. Just before a suspected drunken drivers pickup collided with an SUV carrying a Michigan family of 5 on Kentuckys I-75 - killing everyone in both vehicles - witnesses said the trucks driver was absolutely flying the wrong way down the highway. One man told a Kentucky TV station that he had to swerve out of the way to miss the speeding pickup just before it smashed head-on into the vehicle carrying the Abbas family from Northville, engulfing the familys SUV in flames. I thought I was seeing something, honestly, Kenneth DeGraaf told WLEX-TV, describing how he saw the wrong-way pickup coming at his vehicle moments before the fiery crash. He was in the center lane. I was in the center lane. I had to merge out of the way at the last second to get to the right lane. I mean, he was flying. Absolutely flying. Authorities have identified the Michigan family members who died in the crash as Issam Abbas, 42 and Rima Abbas, 38, along with their children, a boy,av Ali Abbas, 14; and girls Isabella Abbas, 13, and Giselle Abbas, 7. The family was returning from a vacation in Florida when the collision happened early Sunday, the Fayette County coroners office said, according to the Associated Press. The driver of the white pickup was Joey Lee Bailey, 41, of Georgetown. His pickup was traveling south in the highways northbound lanes when it struck the familys vehicle around 2:30 a.m. Authorities believe Bailey was driving under the influence at the time of the crash, the AP reported. Toxicology tests were planned. Services for the Abbas family are being held through Tuesday at the Islamic Center of America of Dearborn. A relative of the family, Habib Abbas of Dearborn, told The Detroit News that when he first heard about the crash he didnt believe it was true. I thought it was a rumor or something and then saw it again and called her sister. She and the family are even more in denial, Abbas said, according to the AP. Issam Abbas was a lawyer and Rima Abbas was a doctor, he said. You dont expect a whole family to get wiped out, he said. You think to yourself Whats the worst case scenario? and thats it. Dr. Rima Abbas was a family practice physician at Beaumont Medical Center - Garden City. We are devastated by the tragic loss of Dr. Rima Abbas, her beloved husband and children. She was a caring mother and a dedicated family practice physician. Our hearts go out to all of her family, friends and patients during this difficult time," Dr. David Wood, Beaumont Healths chief medical officer, said in a statement. Her Garden City office will be closed today, and hospital staff are in the process of notifying her patients. WASHINGTON -- Another newly elected Congresswoman is speaking out against President Donald Trump as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called Trump a racist in an interview that aired Sunday night. While speaking with Anderson Cooper during an interview on 60 Minutes Ocasio-Cortez said she doesnt talk about President Trump very often because she says hes a symptom of a problem. When Cooper asked what that symptom was she responded with the charge of racism. The President certainly didnt invent racism, but hes certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things, Ocasio-Cortez said. Cooper followed up to ask if she believes Trump is a racist, to which she quickly responded yeah, no question. When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog-whistles of white supremacy. When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident where neo-Nazis murdered a woman versus how he manufacture crises like refugees immigrants seeking legal refuge on our border, its night and day, Ocasio-Cortez said. The 29-year-old Congresswoman has quickly become one of the most talked about members of the House because of her background and meteoric rise from bartender to Representative despite never running for public office prior to 2018. She unseated a 10-term representative in the 2018 Democratic primary. GRAYLING, MI - Members of the military who were patrolling Michigans Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources when they suspected a hunter was trespassing on the property. DNR Conservation Officer Mike Hearn took the call in late November and headed out to the military center, where personnel had found fresh shoe prints in the snow. It showed the person had climbed a fence and entered Camp Graylings tank base, according to a recent DNR law enforcement report. CO Hearn responded and set out on foot following the foot tracks. After nearly a mile, the trespasser was located seated in full camo under a pine tree with a rifle in hand, the report said. The man was arrested and taken off the property. Camp Grayling is the largest National Guard training center in the United States. Based just off I-75, it sprawls into three counties, and offers military and other groups the chance to practice their skills with four-season training. LANSING, MICH. -- State health officials are asking residents to be aware of the spread of the potentially dangerous norovirus as Michigan is seeing an uptick in cases. In a press release issued Monday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services warned residents about increased reporting of norovirus cases and what to be on the lookout for if they or someone they know starts to feel ill. Norovirus often causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping, but infected people may also have a low-grade fever, headache, weakness and muscle aches, reads a portion of the release. Symptoms can begin as early as 12 hours after exposure to the virus or as late as 72 hours. While the symptoms can often feel the same as the onset of the flu, they are two different things. Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that can spread very easily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It causes gastroenteritis, which causes inflammation of a persons stomach and intestines. Some people might refer to norovirus as the stomach flu, but the flu is a respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus. Norovirus symptoms typically last for one to three days and often go away without medical attention being necessary. However, the elderly, young children and those with weakened immune systems are at risk for possible hospitalization due to dehydration. If you believe you have norovirus or have been diagnosed, youre encouraged to drink plenty of liquids. To prevent contracting the virus, youre encouraged to frequently wash your hands thoroughly. especially after youve been in public places as the virus can remain on objects such as door handles, telephones and counters for extended periods of time. For more information about the disease, visit the Center for Disease Control website. Last year, Lang left his leadership post after a former medical marijuana advocate accused him of retaliation, verbal abuse and inappropriate behavior. Months later, the legislative inspector general wrote that evidence does not support the complaints, after the woman who made the accusations didnt participate in the resulting investigation. MACOMB COUNTY, MI - Two inmates at a Michigan prison near Detroit may face new charges after authorities say the prisoners left makeshift mannequins in their bunk beds Saturday in what may have been an escape attempt. The investigation at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven, northeast of Detroit, began when a guard in one of the prisons towers saw two inmates walking toward a fence while other inmates were headed inside to eat, according to the Associated Press. This sparked an emergency inmate count, which led authorities to discover the homemade mannequins in the cells belonging to two prisoners. The inmates allegedly rolled up sheets to make them appear there was someone in the bunks. They were found in the bunks of Chakaris Loury, 24, who is serving 25 years for assault with intent to commit murder, and Darious Culpepper, 27, who is serving eight years for armed robbery, the AP said. The Macomb Correctional Facility sits on 100 acres. It can house about 1,400 inmates. DETROIT Detroit police are looking for a 65-year-old man who has been missing for several days. Eric Harris was last seen leaving his home in the 19700 block of Oakfield Avenue at approximately 10 a.m. on Jan. 5, but he never returned. Harris is described as a 59 black male with medium brown complexion, long gray hair and a gray beard. He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt, gray pants and white Jordan-style shoes. He is in poor physical and mental condition, according to police. Anyone who has seen Harris, or knows of his whereabouts, are asked to please call Detroit Police Department's 8th Precinct at 313-596-5800. Detroit police are also still looking for Linda Hurston, 62, was last seen on Dec. 28 at approximately 6:48 p.m. when she dropped an item off to a friends residence in the 10000 block of Stoepel Street and never returned to her residence in the 10000 block of Monica Street. Hurston, who has white hair and no teeth, was last seen wearing a black coat with brown fur around the hood, light blue sweater and black jogging pants. Anyone who has seen Hurston, or knows of her whereabouts, are asked to call the Detroit Police Departments Tenth Precinct at 313-596-1000 Dana Nessel, Michigans new attorney general, is soliciting interested parties to submit legal briefs or memos on the legality of PA 359, the legislation passed last month involving plans to run an oil and gas pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. Nessel and Gretchen Whitmer, the new governor, have voiced concerns about the deal, which creates a Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority to oversee replacement of the 65-year-old Enbridge Energy Line 5 pipeline. Snyder finalizes Line 5 tunnel deal There are serious and significant concerns regarding PA 359, which the previous governor and legislature initiated and passed without the care and caution one would expect for an issue that will have a monumental impact on our state, Nessel said in a press release. Whitmer has asked Nessel to issue an opinion on the legality of PA 359, and Nessel said shes encouraging "any interested or concerned party to forward a brief or legal memo on the issues raised by the opinion request. In the past, the Michigan attorney generals office has not sought outside input before issuing an opinion. In this case, this particular issue has been raised by a number of groups and Attorney General Nessel wanted to be very clear that the door is open, said an email from Kelly Rossman-McKinney, Nessels spokeswoman. Nessel has also cautioned against relying on PA 359 to move forward with any plans related to Line 5. Let me remind those who stand to benefit from this Act: take heed that this request raises serious legal concerns. In no way should any entity rely on this Act to move forward unless and until these matters have been resolved," the press release said. While there is not a specific timeline for issuing the opinion, Nessel said it is a top priority for her office. WYOMING - An initiative sponsored by State Rep. Tommy Brann, R-Wyoming, and other local lawmakers to honor three fallen servicemen from the city by renaming portions of highway U.S. 131 was recently signed into state law. With the passage and signing of Public Act 568 of 2018, the portion of U.S. 131 between exits 78 and 79 will now be known as the Army Spc. Eric T. Burri Memorial Highway; the portion between exits 79 and 80 will be the Marine Cpl. Ross A. Smith Memorial Highway; and the portion between exits 80 and 81 will be known as the Army Pfc. Nicholas H. Blodgett Memorial Highway. All three men grew up in Wyoming and died at the age of 21. Burri, who was assigned to the 623rd Quartermaster Company, 1st Corps Support Command based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lost his life when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Baghdad. Smith lost his life when an IED detonated as he was conducting combat operations near Fallujah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, California. Blodgett, who was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment based in Schweinfurt, Germany, lost his life when his patrol vehicle hit an IED in Abdalluyah, Iraq. This memorial highway will recognize the bravery of these young men, and their dedication to their community and country, Brann said. We owe our freedoms to servicemen like Eric. T Burri, Ross A. Smith and Nicholas H. Blodgett, who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The law was co-sponsored by state reps. Steven Johnson, R-Wayland; Chris Afendoulis, R-Grand Rapids Township; Thomas Albert, R-Lowell; and Rob VerHeulen, R-Walker. An American man who deserted the U.S. Army nearly two decades ago has turned up working as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant in Indiana, police say. Robert Eugene Brodbeck's cover was blown late last week after voluntarily walking into the Clinton Police Department and talking to officers due to a scuffle he had with a co-worker the day after Christmas. "He worked jobs in things where he was paid in cash," Larry Keller, dispatcher and records clerk for the Clinton Police Department, told the Indianapolis Star. "Nothing that ever required a Social Security number. He lived in a low-rent apartment. He walked everywhere and never had a driver's license. He was really no trouble." But during conversations with police, the 46-year-old gave them the name Robert Eugene Bowmen -- an alias that returned no matches in their databases. Brodbeck eventually gave them his real identity after he learned they were preparing to arrest him for providing false information, the Indianapolis Star reported. A search of Brodbeck's past uncovered that he is wanted in Texas for dodging police and failing to appear in court -- and that he deserted the Army in 2000, it added, although details of that alleged action weren't immediately available. Brodbeck was being held at the Vermillion County Jail on Thursday while waiting to be transferred into the custody of the U.S. Marshall's Service, according to the Indianapolis Star. Kurdish-led forces battling Islamic State militants in Syria say they captured five foreign fighters, including an American who once sought to become an English teacher in the jihadi group's Iraqi capital. The American, a Texan named Warren Christopher Clark, 34, was one of two reputed U.S. citizens captured in a counterterrorism raid near the Iraqi border, where U.S.-backed forces are continuing to battle a pocket of the terrorists, the Syrian Democratic Forces said in a release on Sunday. The group of jihadis had been preparing to attack masses of civilians fleeing the area, the SDF said. Also captured were two Pakistani fighters and an Irish man. Officials with Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, were aware of the SDF release, but could not confirm the information it contained, a spokesman said via email. "The incident is under investigation," said Army Col. Scott Rawlinson, the spokesman. While nearly all of the territory ISIS once claimed Syria has been liberated, and President Donald Trump has called for a withdrawal of Americans from the country in the coming months, the U.S. and its allies continue to battle a remaining pocket of fighters along the Middle Euphrates River Valley. In Iraq, where the government declared victory over the group in late 2017, ISIS fighters have launched insurgent attacks, ambushes and kidnappings, and some officials have warned of a possible resurgence of the group, which has long drawn hundreds of foreign fighters to its ranks. Clark, who has one glass eye, had sought a nonmilitary role with the group, according to researchers with George Washington University's Program on Extremism who, in a February report, named him as one of at least 64 Americans from 16 states who had traveled to Iraq and Syria since 2011 to join jihadi groups, mainly ISIS. Under the alias Abu Muhammad al-Ameriki, Clark had submitted an application seeking to join ISIS as an English teacher in Mosul, which had served as the Iraqi capital of ISIS's physical caliphate from summer 2014 until it was liberated by U.S.-backed and trained Iraqi forces in summer 2017. Using the application's resume and sources in Texas, researchers identified Clark as a University of Houston graduate who had converted to Islam in 2004 and was radicalized after viewing jihadist videos online, NBC News reported earlier this year. He had worked as a substitute teacher in Texas before traveling to Saudi Arabia to teach English for two years and then going to Turkey. The second American the SDF captured was identified as Zaid Abed al-Hamed. The 35-year-old, who reportedly went by the alias Abu Zaid al-Ameriki, does not appear to have been one of the fighters -- mainly U.S. citizens and legal residents -- identified in the Program on Extremism report. As with Clark, Al-Hamed's Arabic nom de guerre, or "kunya," contains a term traditionally used to identify Americans, but several fighters dubbed with the same term and appearing in jihadi propaganda materials since 2011 were not mentioned in the February report because their true names or backgrounds could not be verified, wrote Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Seamus Hughes and Bennett Clifford, the report's authors. Some 300 Americans tried to leave or did leave the U.S. to fight in Iraq or Syria since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the report said, citing the FBI. Of the 64 who were named, the whereabouts or status of 28 were publicly unknown, more than 20 were believed to have died overseas, 12 were apprehended and three had returned to the U.S. without facing charges. The SDF identified the other foreign captives as Fadel al-Rahman Jad, 48, of Lahore, Pakistan, Abed al-Azem Rajbout, 19, of Sialkot, Pakistan, and Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, 45, of Dublin, Ireland. It's not yet clear what will happen to the American prisoners, but it isn't the first time the SDF has caught U.S. citizens on the battlefield. In late 2017, they captured a fighter with dual Saudi-U.S. citizenship whom they accused of fighting for ISIS. After holding the unnamed man as an "enemy combatant" on a military base in Iraq for months, the U.S. planned to release him first to Saudi Arabia, then back into Syria under "safe conditions" in the area where he was captured. Describing the planned release in Syria, a Pentagon official said in a court filing that such actions are "a traditional military practice" used in U.S. Central Command, but the American Civil Liberties Union, which took on the man's case, called it a "death warrant." In November, a court filing shows that the Defense Department released him in Bahrain following negotiations with the ACLU. Military Wants to Use Rockets to Deliver Cargo Anywhere in the World in Less Than an Hour The Air Force announced that "Rocket Cargo" will be the fourth experiment under its Vanguard program. Tensions were high as aldermen held their own dueling news conferences to call for packages of ethics reforms to try to take advantage of the sudden public appetite for change following Burke getting charged last week with attempted extortion. With Burke on the defensive, his colleagues who long feared and deferred to the 50-year incumbent are moving into the power vacuum by trying to highlight their own efforts to prevent the kind of abuse hes alleged to have committed. EAST HAMPTON In the heart of the historic village center sits a tiny coffeehouse whose owner is quietly changing the way people think about the environment, sustainability and artistic abilities of those with disabilities. Eco Coffeehouse, owned by Susan Popielaski of Portland, is an organic espresso bar committed to selling Connecticut-made products, as well as crafts, jewelry, artwork, accessories and more created by people with physical or invisible disabilities at 82 Main St. She launched the business in late October 2016 after spending two years slowly and wisely purchasing items she had budgeted for down to the last penny. Her Instagram and Facebook accounts are filled with enticing photographs of her coffee creations. Customers will come in with their smartphones, displaying a drink such as a latte with single-origin cacao shavings from Switzerland photographed from the top in an eye-catching orange mug and saucer. Smell, Popielski said, handing a customer an espresso in a tiny glass cup. When it hits your tongue, its so delicious. People who dont like espresso will like this. Its very complex, between the sugar and the cream and the bourbon barrel-aged orange, she said. I pull it right onto the sugar cube, and then I break it up a little with a demitasse spoon, Popielaski said in a voice that makes her beverages sound like a fine bottle of wine. This coffee is very low acidity-wise, she said of Shearwater Roasters in Trumbull, which she uses exclusively. (The owners) coffee is so smooth he knows how to roast the beans to perfection, said Popielaski, who grew up in Marlborough. This is the first foray into business ownership for Popielaski, who was employed for nearly 20 years as an office manager at a health care agency working for those with disabilities. She left that job intent on showcasing the talents of the clients shed come to know. I packed my truck like you would not believe with all their (arts and crafts), and I would bring it to farmers markets. She would take 35 percent of sales and deposit it into a savings account, with the intention of opening a store selling these types of handmade goods. Popielaski researched how to create a business proposal and came up with a 22-page plan, which she presented to the Connecticut Small Business Development Center. She was told that concept wouldnt sustain her business, as it depended on a steady stream of customers. By that time, Popielaski was managing a coffee shop. I saw their books and saw the markup. People love coffee, and I love coffee. Theres a lot of chemistry involved, and science, which I love, so she arrived at the coffee/retail proposition. I can bring people in who really, really love my coffee, and hopefully theyll go over there and make a purchase from these folks. And its working, said Popielaski, whose sales have steadily increased. Her menu items are all gluten-free, and include vegan options. Her milk is delivered fresh from Mountain Dairy in Storrs, and her maple syrup from Winding Brook Sugar House in Hebron. I only sell things that are made or roasted or created right here in the state. I want to keep my money here, she said, pointing to Cross Culture Kombucha of Danbury, which boasts the first kombucha tasting room in Connecticut. Popielaski sells the beverage on tap along with her cold brews, which take 18 hours to brew. Her creations include a Tulsi orange cranberry ginger iced tea and green tea mango seltzer, both using Brookfields Simpson & Vale tea. Her double espresso a lorange is a shot of espresso with bourbon barrel-aged orange bitters and a rock of organic sugar. Her exotic tea flavors such as apple cinnamon French toast, African Red Rooibos and Blueberry cinnamon crumble and baklava teas. Popielaski purchased a kegerator to make cold brew and nitro coffee. That got her thinking about a different type of brew. In the back of my head, I always wanted to do something with beer, she said. In the past, there was a dive bar with apartments in the space she occupies. As a result, the town created an ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcohol within 500 feet of a church basically the entire village district. Since January, Popielaski has been working to get the ordinance entirely lifted. In November, she was granted a public hearing, during which customers, owners of the Fat Orange Cat Brew Co. in town as well as other business owners spoke on her behalf. It worked. They dont want any bars down here, but now I can accessorize with beer and wine (once she obtains a liquor permit and amendment to her lease), she said. Some of the vendors in the adjoining room include kindness rocks, knitted and crocheted dishcloths and shower scrubbers, jewelry, womens clothing and accessories, framed art, fabric, soaps and much more. Popielaski frowns upon the use of plastic cups, straws and lids. One day she brought some reusable stainless steel straws into work and began encouraging people to enjoy their beverage there rather than take a to-go cup. I feel like telling people, Just make the commitment. Just stay here and drink it, like the Europeans, Popielaski said. One of her taps will be a designated one. It will be called Disabled Ale with Dis crossed out, Popielaski said. For every beer she sells, a percentage will go to Eco: Waste Not, a nonprofit she set up to help parent caregivers of adult children with disabilities. Right now, if you have an adult child who ages out of the school system, you cant get them into group homes unless theyre a harm to themselves or the family. The equipment they need, this adaptive equipment is so expensive, she said. My goal Im putting it out in the universe is $3,500. They can apply for this once-in-a-lifetime thing, they can get this money, no questions asked, and use it on something like a summer campership for those with disabilities. I make so much money Im able to give it away. I see no shame in making money. I want to be able to make money, because I want to retire, but I want to make so much I can give it away to someone who really needs it, Popielaski said. For information, call 860-853-8590 or visit https://eco-coffee-house.business.site and ecowastenot.org . CLINTON Residents are invited to support Adam Stanton House and General Store by attending a Benefit Night, sponsored by Scottish Daves Pub at 24 East Main St., Clinton. The event at the publ will be held Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. Attendees can enjoy live music by the Corbys, bagpipers, raffle prizes and an appetizer buffet. Reservations are not required. For more information e-mail us at adamstantonhouse@gmail.com or visit our website at www.adamstantonhouse.org MIDDLETOWN Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater in Middletown has announced its winter 2019 programs in the arts for young people ages 6-20. Programs begin in early January and range from classes in theater, music, and visual arts to mainstage theater and circus productions. This winter the Playhouse will be offering young people of all ages opportunities to create, train and perform. Programs for teenagers include the Middletown Teen Talent Search, the Teen Repertory Company and Circophony Teen Circus. The Middletown Teen Talent Search will be held on Saturday, Jan. 19, and is open to Middletown young people ages 12-19. The event is hosted by Connecticut State Troubadour Nekita Waller and the top act will win a cash prize of $500. For details about any of the programs and more, including tuition and financial aid, or to register, go to www.oddfellows.org or contact Oddfellows at info@oddfellows.org or call 860-347-6143. The Teen Repertory Company, the Playhouses senior company for ages 14 -20, is developing an original, ensemble-created performance piece with music and dance this winter and spring. This Is Important: An Ensemble Creation Experience, offers five winter workshops in which students will develop text, movement and music based on their own experiences of navigating contemporary life as a teenager. The work will be developed into an original, mainstage show which will have auditions in March and be performed in May. Circophony Teen Circus, open to ages 12-19, is a collaboration between ARTFARM and Oddfellows Playhouse and will be mounting a mainstage production this winter called Circus Botanicus. Auditions are Jan. 8-9 and performances will be March 21-23. Circophony is open to all teens, regardless of circus experience, though a background in gymnastics, dance, theater, parkour, improvisation or any physical discipline may be helpful. Middle School students and home schoolers are served by the Junior Repertory Company (ages 12-14), which will be producing the classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters. A feast of slapstick, disguises, mistaken identity, misguided romance, rebellious teens and clueless parents, auditions are January 10 and the show will hit the main stage March 14 - 16. Ages 12-14 may also join weekly Improv Jam, held on Saturday mornings starting Jan. 19 and run by Carmine Lavieri. Young people ages 6-11 are offered a host of classes in the after-school hours Monday through Thursday. Classes for ages 6 - 8 include Stories from the Middle East, Junior Circus, Creating Characters and Slapstick & Clowning. For ages 9 -11 there is Circus Arts, a visual arts class called Beads, Baubles, Boxes and Beans, Scene Study, and a Mini-production (which rehearses two afternoons per week) called Fairytale Fantasy. All classes and the mini-production begin the week of January 14. Middletown Public School students ages 6-14 can sign up for Oddbridge, an extended-day program in which students take the bus directly from school to Oddfellows and participate in an hour of Arts Programming before formal classes start at 4:30pm. Oddbridge is designed to take you from the school bus to performing arts classes, while preparing you for successful class and production experiences. The winter program at the Playhouse also features Le Petit Studio, conceived and directed by Congolese theater artist Toto Kisaku. This unique theater experience is for kids ages 8 - 14 and their families. The class will be from 10 am to noon on Saturdays Jan. 26, Feb. 9 and Feb. 23; students may sign up for one Saturday or all three. Oddfellows programs are tuition based, but the Playhouse is committed to making these experiences available to every young person, regardless of ability to pay. Please refer to the website for financial aid information. Weight loss program offered BERLIN Weight Loss In Three January Nights at New England Hypnosis & Weight Loss center at 1436 Berlin Turnpike in Berlin, will be held Thursdays Jan. 10, 17 and 24 at 7 p.m. Dr. William McEvoy will offer integrated weight loss and nutritional education programs in small groups to help participants become empowered to lose weight and take an active role in their day-to-day health and wellbeing. In under 10 hours, participants are given the emotional and psychological tools, willpower, and ongoing support to have a positive and practical weight-loss experience. For more information, visit https://www.nehypnosis.com, or call Dr. McEvoy at 860-438-8788 or email to info@nehypnosis.com. Boy Scout Troop 16 holding dinner MIDDLETOWN Boy Scout Troop 16 Middletown will hold its annual ham dinner on Saturday, Jan. 19, 5-7 p.m. at the Third Congregational Church, Miner Street, Middletown. Tickets are $12 per person, $8 for seniors and children ages 8 and up, and $5 for scouts in uniform. The dinner includes baked ham, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, vegetables, ice cream and cookies. The dinner is all-you-can-eat. Take out is available. A silent auction will also be held, with proceeds to be used to purchase new tents and camping equipment for the troop. For more information, call Robert Olenick at 860-347-4208 CARO Two people were injured in a three-vehicle crash that involved a school bus on East Caro Road near Cameron Road. According to the Michigan State Police Caro Post, troopers were dispatched to the scene around 3:51 p.m. Friday, where a Ford F-150 pickup truck traveling east on East Caro Road failed to stop for a school bus. The bus was stopped with the red flashing lights and stop signal activated, preparing to discharge students at the bus stop, when the pickup rear-ended a Chevrolet Trailblazer that was stopped behind the school bus, causing the Trailblazer to crash into the school bus. At the time of the crash, the bus was carrying nine children ranging in ages from 5 to 12 years old. As a result of the crash, minor injuries were sustained by the driver of the Trailblazer a 63-year-old Decker man and one 11-year-old child, who was seated in the last seat on the bus. The driver of the Trailblazer was transported from the scene to a local hospital. All children were treated at the scene and then released to parents. The driver of the Ford F-150 was cited on scene and released. Troopers believe fatigued driving may have been a contributing factor in the crash. East Caro Road was closed for around 30 minutes while the crash was being investigated and the roadway cleared. Troopers were assisted at the scene by representatives from Caro Community Schools, the Tuscola County Sheriff's Office, Caro Police Department, Caro Fire Department, and Mobile Medical Response Ambulance Service. Michigan offers automotive mobility and IT job seekers free resume and career advice at NAIAS Future Automotive Career Expo Michigan offers automotive mobility and IT job seekers free resume and career advice at NAIAS Future Automotive Career Expo First-come, first-served opportunity to speak with prospective high-tech employers and professional development experts includes free preview of AutoMobili-D exhibit CONTACT: Erica Quealy, 517-582-2961 January 7, 2019 Detroit, MICH.If youre looking for a new job or apprenticeship in automotive and information technology or to transition to a new career in the emerging high-tech mobility and automotive sectors, the state of Michigan has a free opportunity for you. The Future Automotive Career Exposition (FACE) that brought industry talent and hundreds of car enthusiasts to the North American International Auto Shows (NAIAS) AutoMobili-D at Detroits Cobo Center in 2018 returns for a second year. The expo is planned for 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. FACE is a partnership between the NAIAS, Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Talent and Economic Development Department of Michigan (Ted) that puts attendees in touch with leading employers and professionals in the automotive mobility and information technology industries and allows them to gain valuable advice to improve their future career search. Together, we are continuing Michigans climb as a national leader in talent development and investment in automotive mobility and Professional Trades with an emphasis on workforce training and talent attraction by connecting potential high-tech workers with employers for the jobs of today and tomorrow, said Ted Acting Director Stephanie Beckhorn. The FACE event is an open invitation to high school students seeking apprenticeships, college students starting their job search or adults looking to transition into new career paths, Beckhorn said. This is a terrific and free opportunity to meet with potential employers and also learn from some of the best experts Michigan has to offer on developing or refining resumes and improving interview skills. The first 225 registrants who RSVP at naias.com/automobili-d/face can pursue a number of benefits: Opportunities to talk with human resource representatives from world-renowned automotive companies and suppliers. New this year is a Sherpa style panel featuring young automotive-sector professionals who will share their stories on how they got started on their career track and why they chose to live and work in Michigan. Mike Magolan, a training specialist at Oakland County Michigan Works!, and additional talent development specialists will lead mock interviews and provide critiques to prospective job applicants. The Dos and Donts of Using Social Media in Your Job Search is a forum where Chad Wiebesick, vice president of integrated marketing and communications at Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Michigan.gov Statewide Social Media and Digital Content Administrator Andrew Belanger will discuss how to make your social media presence an asset, not a liability. Damien Rocchi, founder and CEO of Grand Circus, will present on the Grand Circus boot camp model and how it can help automotive professionals begin a career in mobility. Free professional photos for social media profiles will be available to those who join one of the stage panels or presentations during the expo. Resume critiques and more mock interviews will be provided by Michigan Works! experts. FACE is one of the states efforts to grow and develop talent and raise awareness of rewarding, good-paying careers. Michigan employers are looking to fill high-skill jobs in many industries, with more than 811,000 career openings in high-demand, high-wage fields expected through 2024. The FACE event is open statewide, including to students from southeast Michigan high schools and colleges such as Oakland University, Oakland Community College, Macomb Community College, Henry Ford College, Wayne County Community College, Monroe County Community College, Washtenaw Community College, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Schoolcraft College, Lawrence Technological University, Michigan State University and many more. Highlighting the employment opportunities available to professionals and future aspirants in the automotive industry and Michigan is important, and were proud to do this through the FACE program, said Bill Golling, 2019 NAIAS chairman. FACE allows professionals to get an inside look into the innovation and designs at the forefront of mobility in our industry and connect with the companies driving the change. NAIAS attracts a global audience to Michigan, the world center of the auto industry and home to 16 global automakers, more than 1,800 suppliers and 75 percent of the worlds automotive research and development. These local employers are looking for top talent to fill jobs, including positions requiring science, technology, engineering, arts and math skills. To learn more and register for FACE, visit naias.com/automobili-d/face. Browsers that can not handle javascript will not be able to access some features of this site. Of the 15 candidates remaining in the race, six have released their full tax information. Another three have released partial information, such as only the top two pages of their Form 1040 or information from a few years. Daley is in that group, releasing just two pages of his tax return from 2017 and no more. That showed he made $2.5 million in 2017, but did not include the schedules that would show where his investment income is derived from and what deductions he took. Federal prosecutors have accused Burke of trying to influence out-of-town restaurant executives seeking renovations at a Burger King in his ward into hiring his private law firm for tax work. Burke, who appeared before a magistrate judge on the charge Thursday, is continuing to run for re-election next month and disputes the charge. The city council has a good plan. The narrower lanes will slow traffic. Narrower vehicle lanes will make it too difficult for larger vehicles. A separate pedestrian solution should be constructed away from any vehicular traffic. Widening the sidewalk could work best if a barrier is put up between the sidewalk and vehicular traffic. Vote View Results For those close to Burke, theres been a lot of zigging and zagging to create some distance. Aldermen facing re-election, along with Mayor Rahm Emanuel who isnt, are coming out hard for reforms that might thwart the future mixing of government and private business that is at the heart of the allegations against Burke. As a reminder, Burke, a 50-year City Council veteran, appeared in a Facebook video on Friday to announce that, despite being charged in federal court with attempted extortion, hes still running for re-election. We express our deepest sorrow for the passing of Nikos Mouyiaris. A patriot and philanthropist who contributed greatly to inspiring and mobilizing the Greek American community, to improving Greece-US relations and to the causes of Hellenism. He leaves behind a unique legacy for Greek-Americans to follow someone who achieved the American Dream while keeping Hellenism at the forefront of his heart and soul. His establishment of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) was one of his great gifts to Hellenism and we are sure it will carry on in his footsteps. Sincere condolences to his family and loved ones. Netflix is synonymous to binge-watching, and we've all done it. The company pushes the complete season of a show all at once so we don't have to wait for weekly episodes. Start watching a show, and after hours you'll end up completing the piece in one go. This trend has given rise to the infamous "Netflix and Chill" lifestyle that millennials are so fond of. 13-year-old Damir Carter from Delaware was doing the same. His mother asked him to go to bed early, but in defiance, he continued binge watching The Flash on Netflix. He was supposed to sleep by 9.30 PM, like every good kid, but his resistance ended up saving the family from a house fire. WPVI At 1 AM he heard things breaking and thought it's just the house cat messing around with things. Soon, he noticed smoke coming from the hallway and discovered a huge fire in the house. He immediately started yelling and woke up his mother, thankfully the family and he made it out of the fire unhurt. And then I saw smoke in my hallway, and then I saw the fire. When I saw that, I started yelling for my mom because she was asleep at the time, Damir told WPVI. If Netflix wasn't there, I probably would have gone to sleep. WPVI Authorities believe it was a power strip that had overheated and sparked the fire. This is not the first time the family has lost a home to a fire. Around four years ago, another blaze destroyed their old home, Borden said. The family has lost all its possessions in the fire and the mother said she was just happy she and her son were safe. On a light note, the mother said Carter won't be getting grounded this time for defying the bedtime rule. MarketWatch I don't know where we would have been if he listened and went to sleep, Damir's mom said via a post on Facebook. Our house is gone, but we are still standing. While Netflix too is being credited for saving the family, things haven't been going well for the streaming site in the past few days. Since the release of Bird Box on the site, many have tried to imitate the fictional characters, endangering their lives. Netflix even had to issue a warning after video of a blindfolded person falling down a subway stairwell surfaced on Twitter. The trailer of this year's highly-anticipated movie, 'Sonchiriya', is out and after watching it, we can say that there couldn't have been a better way to start this year. Unlike the teaser of 'Drive', where Sushant Singh Rajput was nowhere to be seen, this one has him take the centrestage as a rebel among the rebels in this dacoit drama, which is set in the valleys of Chambal. RSVP Films Set during the 1975 emergency, this gritty trailer narrates the dreadful tale of the dacoits in the Chambal valley and the differences that arise amongst the dacoits when one of them decides to surrender to the police. Right from the dialogues, the accent to the action-packed scenes, everything is brilliant about this film that is directed by Abhishek Chaubey who is known for making films like 'Udta Punjab' and 'Ishqiya'. The movie also stars Ashutosh Rana, Manoj Bajpai and Ranvir Shorey; a dream team almost every director wants to work with. 'Sonchiriya' also stars Jatin Sarna from 'Sacred Games' and Bhumi Pednekar and is expected to release on February 8th. VANCOUVER Nevada Colorado California Tim Spencer Las Vegas, Nevada California Colorado California Colorado's Stephen F. Austin State University Texas Chris Rebentisch USA Las Vegas the United States Canada Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. , Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - 1933 Industries Inc. (the "Company" or "1933 Industries") (CSE: TGIF) (OTCQX: TGIFF) a licensed cultivator and producer of cannabis flower and concentrates and manufacturer of hemp/CBD products inand, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr.as Master Grower with the Company's subsidiary, Alternative Medicine Association ("AMA"). Mr. Spencer will be overseeing AMA's cannabis cultivation facility as it relocates its operations into a soon to be completed expanded facility, located inMr. Spencer is a seasoned agriculture specialist with more than 20 years of professional experience. In addition to working with some of the largest names in the agricultural industry, Mr. Spencer brings 10 years of experience specific to the legal cannabis sector inand. Mr. Spencer began growing medical cannabis inin 2008, went on to operate his own cannabis facility and later worked as Director of Cultivation for The Green Solution, one oflargest cannabis companies. In this role, Mr. Spencer oversaw 250,000 sq. ft. of five tier vertical indoor production with more than 45,000 plants and over 180 employees, as well as one million sq. ft. of outdoor and greenhouse production totalling four cultivation sites.In his new role, Mr. Spencer will be responsible for managing all aspects of AMA's operation, from production planning to cultivation and harvesting, in order to maximize sales, output and profitability. Mr. Spencer holds a Bachelor's Degree in Horticulture from thein"Tim has expertise at a scale rarely seen in the cannabis sector," commented Mr., the Company'sChief Operations Officer. He brings technical knowledge and hands-on experience to ensure productivity and efficiency in large-scale commercial cultivation environments. We are confident that Tim will be instrumental in the successful launch of our new operations in."1933 Industries Inc. is a vertically integrated cannabis company with operations inand. Operating through three subsidiary companies, 1933 Industries owns licensed medical and adult-use cannabis cultivation and production assets, proprietary hemp-based, CBD infused products, CBD extraction services and a specialized cannabis advisory firm supporting clients in security, intelligence and due diligence. The Company owns 91% of both Alternative Medicine Association and Infused MFG. and 100% of Spire Global Strategy.Please visit our website at http://www.1933industries.comThis news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. 1933 Industries undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1933-industries-hires-master-grower-for-its-nevada-operations-300773604.html SOURCE 1933 Industries Inc. An experimental therapy has shown promising results in fighting a particularly aggressive breast cancer with limited treatment options. Share on Pinterest A new experimental treatment shows promise for people with triple-negative breast cancer. A recent study has revealed that the novel treatment decreased the growth and spread of triple-negative breast cancer in mice. The approach uses a protein to block two growth mechanisms that help the breast cancer cells to multiply and migrate. The protein, which has the name tubulointerstitial nephritis antigen-like 1 (TINAGL1), occurs naturally in the body. The study suggests that a synthetic, or recombinant, version of TINAGL1 could reduce the growth and spread of triple-negative breast cancer. A report on the findings now features in the journal Cancer Cell. People have tried, says senior study author Yibin Kang, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University in New Jersey, to block the spread of this form of cancer, but attempts so far have failed because if you try one approach, the cancer cells compensate by finding a way to escape. With this new approach, the treatment blocks both pathways at the same time, he adds. Triple-negative breast cancer Breast cancer is a disease that develops when cells in breast tissue grow abnormally and multiply. The hormones estrogen and progesterone and excess levels of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein are known drivers of breast cancer. By testing samples of breast cancer tissue for hormone receptors and HER2 levels, doctors can recommend therapies that work by reducing the strength of these drivers. Around two-thirds of breast cancers will test positive for either estrogen or progesterone receptors, or both. Around 20 percent will test positive for excess HER2. However, in 1217 percent of people who receive a breast cancer diagnosis, the test will be negative for both hormone receptors and high HER2. In other words, it will be triple-negative. Treatment options for triple-negative breast cancer are limited, as the cancer is unlikely to respond to hormone therapy such as tamoxifen or HER2 therapy such as trastuzumab. Triple-negative breast cancers also tend to be more aggressive. They are more likely to spread to other parts of the body and come back following treatment. TINAGL1 works in two ways The recent study suggests that synthetic TINAGL1 could be a promising candidate for a much-needed new triple-negative breast cancer treatment. One way that TINAGL1 works is by reducing the activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein. Certain mutations in the EGFR gene increase growth signals to cells to promote tumor growth and spread. However, treatments that target EGFR in triple-negative breast cancer usually result in the cancer cells finding alternative growth pathways. The other way that TINAGL1 works is by interfering with a pathway involving the protein focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and a group of molecules called integrins. This interference upsets the ability of the cancer cells to grow, migrate, stick to each other, and establish new tumors in other parts of the body. Non-sugar sweeteners have been at the center of a fierce debate for decades. Do they benefit health or increase risks? A recent study fans the flames once more, claiming that there is little evidence of benefits or harms. Share on Pinterest Sweeteners have been under the microscope for years. As the evidence demonstrating the adverse effects of sugar became irrefutable, a race to find alternatives began. Consumers enjoy sweet foods and drinks. So as the public pushed to become healthier sweet, non-sugar options had to be designed. Today, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have approved a number of non-sugar sweeteners that are sweeter than sugar but have little or no caloric value. Because these compounds, which are also called artificial sweeteners, are relatively new inventions, there is still debate about their potential benefits and side effects. Some studies claim that replacing standard sugar with non-sugar sweeteners can help individuals lose excess weight and lower their diabetes risk. On the other side of the conversation, some researchers have concluded that non-sugar sweeteners might, in fact, increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disorders. Non-sugar sweeteners have also been implicated in cancer risk, although evidence that supports this relationship is scant . by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 7, 2019 In a major decision regarding free speech on social media, a federal appeals court has ruled that an official from Loudon County, Virginia violated a constituent's rights by briefly banning him on Facebook. The ruling, issued Monday by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, appears to be the first time a federal appellate court has addressed whether government officials can legally ban critics on social media. In the ruling, the judges said that the ban -- which was in effect for around 12 hours -- marked unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The decision stems from a lawsuit dating to July of 2016, when Loudoun County, Virginia resident Brian Davison alleged his rights were violated when he was banned from commenting on a Facebook page operated by Phyllis Randall, chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Randall instituted the ban after Davison made a post on Randall's page about alleged corruption and conflicts of interests at the local school board, according to court documents. advertisement advertisement Randall later said she banned Davison because she was offended by his criticisms. The ban only lasted for one night. U.S. District Court Judge James C. Cacheris in Alexandria ruled in July of 2017 that Randall violated Davison's free speech rights with the ban, writing that she committed a cardinal sin under the First Amendment. On Monday, the 4th Circuit upheld that ruling. Randalls decision to ban Davison because of his allegation of governmental corruption constitutes black-letter viewpoint discrimination, the appellate judges wrote. The judges added that the interactive portion of Randall's Facebook page was a public forum -- comparable to parks or other venues where the government can't ban speech based on its content. One reason for that holding was that Randall had expressly invited members of the public to comment on her Facebook page. Randall placed no formal limitations on the ability of Facebook personal profiles and Pages to access [her] and make comments and posts to the interactive component of the page, the judges wrote. On the contrary, she expressly invited posts to the page 'from ANY Loudon citizen on ANY issues, request, criticism ... or just your thoughts.' Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman notes that Randall's solicitation of comments from local residents bolstered Davison's argument in several respects. Among others, her invitation to discuss issues on Facebook supports the idea that her page is a public forum. The facts made it easier for the court to rule in Davison's favor, he says. The judges could simply quote the politician's words against her. The decision comes as a different federal appellate court -- the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York -- is gearing up to hear arguments on whether President Trump violated critics' free speech rights by banning them on Twitter. U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York ruled against Trump last year, holding that it's unconstitutional for government officials like Trump to block Twitter users based on their political views. The Department of Justice has asked the 2nd Circuit to reverse that decision. Raised in the old Italian-American enclave known as "the Patch" on the Near West Side, Panozzo and Koroluk have criminal histories that stretch back decades, court records show. In 2006 they were both sentenced to seven years in prison for a string of burglaries targeting tony north suburban homes that netted millions of dollars in jewelry and other luxury items. Police at the time described the burglars as some of the most sophisticated they'd ever seen, from the disabling of state-of-the-art alarm systems to the cutting of phone lines. by Melynda Fuller , January 7, 2019 Last year, Kalmbach Media, home to publications like Discover and Astronomy, an nounced plans to reinvent itself through revenue-garnering expansions, rebrandings and new partnerships. In its latest move, the publisher has entered into a marketing partnership with Chicago-based media company Curiosity. Our brands with Curiosity are more than the sum of our parts, Tim Paulson, GM, Science Brandsat Kalmbach Media, told Publishers Daily. Curiosity offers a unique suite of digital options for advertisers that marries well with Discovers current science offerings. advertisement advertisement One of those options is Curiositys highly engaged app audience, which brings new opportunities to both advertisers and Kalmbach. The partnership expands Kalmbachs science audience of 10 million to over 19 million, offering marketers a deeper audience across all platforms, including magazines, web sites, email newsletters and social platforms. The two companies also share a healthy overlap in the science category, while the partnership boosts ad opportunities for marketers with the addition of travel, technology and mind and body content verticals from Curiosity. Paulson noted that Kalmbach and Curiosity are both in the process of developing native content programs across platforms. Kalmbachs ecommerce business is complementary to Curiositys audience. Were very like-minded in a fragmented and disparate science media space, he said. Helping to harness the newly expanded advertising base is Barista Media, an adjunct to [Kalmbachs] sales force that brings expertise in national media. Barista will help us tell a powerful story around the size and quality of our combined audiences and incorporate Curiositys offerings, said Paulson. Were already well along the way. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 7, 2019 Weight-loss marketer Roca Labs has been ordered to pay more than $25 million for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices, including attempting to prevent consumers from writing bad reviews. In an order issued Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven in Tampa, Florida also directed Roca Labs to permanently refrain from attempting to suppress reviews, among other illegal practices. The order brings an end to a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission in 2015, when the agency alleged the company engaged in a host of deceptive and unfair business practices. Roca Labs, which touts its weight-loss products as more effective than gastric bypass surgery, allegedly said in a prior version of its sales terms that any negative online reviews would be considered defamatory. The company also told consumers they would be subject to $100,000 in damages for posting reviews, and followed up on its threats by suing at least four customers, according to the FTC. advertisement advertisement The agency's complaint also included allegations that Roca Labs paid users to post positive reviews, and violated consumers' privacy by disclosing their personal health information in court filings and other documents. After the FTC filed suit, Congress passed the Consumer Review Fairness Act, which invalidated standardized terms of service that restrict consumers' ability to post reviews. Roca Labs attempted to defend itself by arguing that it wasn't illegal to suppress bad reviews before the Consumer Review Fairness Act took effect. The company also contended that its alleged review-squelching effort didn't harm consumers. Scirven rejected those arguments last year. "The record demonstrates that some consumers paid hundreds of dollars for the Roca Labs products and unsuccessfully sought refunds because of defendants practice of issuing threats under the guise of enforcing the gag clause," she wrote last September, in an order awarding the FTC summary judgment. Report Description This report analyzes the clinical intelligence market by type (CDSS, quality improvement), component (service, software), application (clinical, RCM), end user (hospitals, clinics, Tpas); it also studies the top manufacturers in the market. The clinical intelligence market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 12.5% during the forecast period. The major players in clinical intelligence market include: IBM (U.S.) Cerner Corporation (U.S.) Epic Systems Corporation (U.S.) Allscripts (U.S.) QSI Management, LLC (U.S.) General Electric Company (U.S.) eClinicalWorks (U.S.) McKesson Corporation (U.S.) Greenway Health, LLC (U.S.) The market revenue and share have been analyzed with respect to the following regions and countries: Americas North America U.S. Canada South America Europe Western Europe U.K. France Germany Italy Spain Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe Asia-Pacific China Japan India Australia Republic of Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific Middle East & Africa United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Oman Kuwait Qatar Rest of The Middle East & Africa Request Sample Report at https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3496579-clinical-intelligence-market-research-report-global-forecast-till-2023 On the basis of type, the clinical intelligence market has been categorized into the following segments: CDSS Quality Improvement On the basis of component, the clinical intelligence market has been categorized into the following segments: Service Software On the basis of application, the clinical intelligence market has been categorized into the following segments: Clinical RCM On the basis of end-user, the clinical intelligence market has been categorized into the following segments: Hospitals Clinics Tpas Research Methodology The analysis is conducted by industry experts who offer insight into industry structure, market segmentation, technology assessment, competitive landscape (CL), and market penetration, as well as on emerging trends. Besides primary interviews (~80%) and secondary research (~20%), their analysis is based on years of professional expertise in their respective industries. Our analysts also predict where the market will be headed in the next five to 10 years, by analyzing historical trends and current market positions. Furthermore, the varying trends of segments and categories in different regions are estimated based on primary and secondary research. Both the top-down and bottom-up approaches were used to estimate and validate the size of the market and to estimate the size of various other dependent sub-markets. The key players in the market were identified through secondary research, and their market contributions in the respective regions were determined through primary and secondary research. This entire process included the study of the annual and financial reports of the top market players and extensive interviews for key insights with industry leaders such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and marketing executives. All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns were determined using secondary sources and verified through primary sources. All the possible parameters that affect the market covered in this research study have been accounted for, viewed in extensive detail, verified through primary research, and analyzed to arrive at the final quantitative and qualitative data. This data has been consolidated, and detailed inputs and analysis added before being presented in this report. Table of content Report Prologue Market Introduction Research Methodology Market Dynamics Market Factor Analysis Global Clinical Intelligence Market, By Type Global Clinical Intelligence Market, By Component Global Clinical Intelligence Market, By Application Global Clinical Intelligence Market, By End User Global Clinical Intelligence Market, By Region 11 Company Landscape 12 Company Profiles About Us: Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Contact Us: NORAH TRENT sales@wiseguyreports.com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) Robert Kramer, 93, of Cochranton, passed away June 10, 2021 at Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community. He was born June 25, 1927, in Meadville; a son of Irvin and Mabel Moyer Kramer. Robert attended Cochranton High School and then enlisted in the United States Army on September 12, 19 As we enter into the fifth week of the government shutdown, it appears there is no end in sight. Yet there could and should be, and the soluti A 13-year-old Marietta girl was one of two young victims of a Canadian man sentenced for coercing and enticing the production of child sexual After a short but inspiring run, Markay Gallery on the Marietta Square will close its doors at the end of this month as its owner, Amber Marka Okay readers. We really want to hear from you. What single technological invention or advancement was not available when you began your career I would see my mom struggling to push her cart through the snow and if she can do that, who am I not to try or seek solutions? she said. It kind of shaped me into the woman that I am because Im really not afraid of working, Im not afraid of finding solutions because I know that my mom was able to make something out of nothing. What happens when you put about 20 of the regions best chefs in one room? They will turn up the heat until someone emerges as the culinary victor. Worcesters Best Chef competition, which asks Central Massachusetts best chefs to compete against one another for a chance to face off in an Iron Chef battle, is returning for the 12 year. The competition began in 2007 as a way to showcase the culinary expertise and creativity in Worcester and across Central Massachusetts. Each year, the event draws more than 1,200 foodies who taste small bites from a variety of the areas best restaurants and then watch three top chefs compete for the Iron Chef title. Local high schools also have a chance to prepare dessert for the competition. Worcesters Best Chef is on Sunday, Jan. 27 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Worcesters Mechanics Hall. VIP entry begins at 3:45 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online. The Masters of Ceremonies for the evening are WXLO hosts Jen Carter and Rick Brackett. The narrators of the live Iron Chef portion of the competition are two-time Worcesters Best Chef Champion Christopher Rovezzi and Food Network Cooks Vs. Cons Chef Jay Powell. The competition features two categories: Judges choice and peoples choice. Guests sample dishes at the event and vote for their favorite. Three winners will receive peoples choice awards. The judges will also submit votes, and the top three chefs will move on to the Iron Chef round. After competing in that live cooking challenge, the judges will vote for Worcesters Best Chef. Judges this year are Steven Blair and George Malavasic of Johnson & Wales University, Denny Corriveau of The Wild Cheff, Alina Eisenhauer, the former owner of Worcester restaurant Sweet who has appeared on Chopped and Cupcake Wars, Peter Eco of Off the Common Restaurant and Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Barbara Houle, who writes the Table Hoppin' column for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Jim Nicas of Castle Restaurant. Those competing include: Barry Keefe of Dinner & Co. Gourmet Catering Bill Bourbeau of The Boynton Joao Neto of Allora Ristorante Kenneth OKeefe of Publick House Elliot Williams of 110 Grill Ian Hunte of Amaia Martini Bar Shane Anderson of Ellers Restaurant Kim Haslam of Depot St. Tavern Barry Bartlett of Maddis Cookery & TapHouse Brian Treitman of B.T.'s Smokehouse Bill Nemeroff of Lettuce Be Local Jason Veilleux of Peppers Artful Events Josh Brown of Prezo Grille & Bar Rick Araujo of Civic Kitchen & Drink Josh Swerling of Volturno Michael Arrastia of Broth Michael Winslett of Samuel Slaters Drew Day of Flying Rhino Cafe & Watering Hole Jared Forman of simjang High schools creating desserts for the competition are Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School and Tantasqua Regional High School. Last year, OKeefe of the Publick House took home the Iron Chef award. Judges choice awards went to Chef Robin Clark from deadhorse hill, Chef Brian Treitman from B.T.'s Smokehouse and OKeefe of the Publick House. The peoples choice awards went to Chef Chris OHarra, formerly of the Flying Rhino, Treitman from BTs Smokehouse and Chef Michael Arrastia from the The Hangover Pub and Broth. Tantasqua Regional High School took home the first place award for peoples choice best dessert. Police are investigating the discovery of a body at the Salvation Army store on Cambridge Street in Worcester Monday morning. Worcester Police said it is unclear if the death was from natural causes or foul play. Police did not release the gender of the deceased. Police were called to the store, located at 72 Cambridge St., around 9:45 a.m. The body was located near a donation bin, police said. Investigators searched the area and the bins Monday and remained at the scene late in the afternoon. President Donald Trump will address the nation Tuesday on U.S. border security -- the issue at the center of debate between Democrats and Republicans that resulted in the partial federal government shutdown . The president announced on Twitter Monday that he will address the nation on the humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border. I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019 The address, he noted, will take place Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. The presidents tweet came just hours after White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Trump will travel to the United States' border with Mexico later this week. President (Donald Trump) will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis, she tweeted. More details will be announced soon. President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon. Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 7, 2019 The shutdown, which is now entering its third week, began late last month when funding ran out for nine Cabinet-level departments and various agencies after Congress and the White House failed to reach an agreement on a spending measure. Trump has pledged to oppose any spending bill that does not include $5 billion for his proposed border wall. Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, have refused to support any measure that includes border wall funding. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. In late-September, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren first hinted at her 2020 presidential aspirations during a Holyoke town hall, telling supporters she would take a hard look at a White House run after the 2018 midterm elections. Although the senator did not definitively say whether she would enter the presidential contest, the idea of a Warren 2020 campaign stuck with Holyoke City Councilor Jossie Valentin. At that very moment, I said to myself, If this is what shes doing, Im on board with her,'" said Valentin, who was on stage for Warrens town hall announcement. "And here I am. Warren, who has formed an exploratory committee to look at a 2020 presidential bid, introduced Valentin as her top dog for Massachusetts" as former campaign staff and supporters met in Cambridge last week. The Holyoke city councilor said shes very honored to hold the informal title and serve as a Massachusetts liaison to the exploratory committee as the senator mulls a White House run. As a woman, as a Puerto Rican, as a lesbian, this is all huge in terms of my identities and how I can bring these communities to the table in a very significant manner, she said. "When I got the call with this offer to work on her (expected) campaign in this senior role, it was a no brainer. Valentin, who announced on Facebook that she will keep her council seat, but resign as a senior academic counselor at Holyoke Community College, would not say specifically what she will be doing for Warrens exploratory committee or possible presidential campaign. Ill still be based in Holyoke, but I will be responsible for certain aspects throughout the state. Thats all I can share at this point. ... Ive basically been asked to be a liaison, be in the role of a liaison for the state," she said. Just on Tuesday, Sen. Warren had a big event with volunteers in Cambridge and she said that because were in the exploratory phase, theres no titles, but she introduced me as the top dog. So Ill stick with that." Valentin, however, offered that her work could help put Western Massachusetts on the map in a very significant way and lauded the senators focus on the region. Many times when we think about these opportunities, they usually kind of stay in Eastern Mass. I think its a really strong message that the senator is looking to be as inclusive as possible, she said. Valentin, who was an active supporter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign in Massachusetts -- introducing the Democrat on stage at a University of Massachusetts Amherst rally and serving as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia -- further noted that she has received encouragement from several Sanders surrogates and activists she worked alongside during the last presidential cycle, despite speculation that the Vermont senator may also seek a 2020 bid. Everyones been really supportive, saying I wish you the best, this is great for you its really important Sen. Warren has someone like you at the table,'" she said. Theres been no hard feelings. Its been very positive, and I think that 2016 taught us all many, many lessons and we hope that as we move forward we remember those lessons because we cannot afford more years of this dysfunction." Warren announced in a Dec. 31 video message that she had formed an exploratory committee as a prelude to a run for president in 2020 -- ending months' of speculation as to whether the Massachusetts Democrat would pursue a White House bid. The senator, who was officially sworn-in to her second term on Capitol Hill just days later, traveled to Iowa Friday to meet with voters in the early caucus state. Warren, who ended 2018 with more than $12 million in the bank, is expected to use the exploratory committee to ramp up her high-dollar fundraising as she mulls a possible presidential bid. The growing use of exploratory committees in recent cycles has allowed contenders to hire operatives and court donors outside the gaze of the Federal Election Commission and other potential challengers. The Washington Post ANKENY, Iowa - The line to get into the final event of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens weekend tour of Iowa began forming 2 hours in advance. Standing at the very front were Kristin Wesner and her daughter Alaina. Arriving for the Sunday morning forum extra-early was Alainas idea. Despite the January chill, the 9-year-old wanted to be absolutely sure she would get a prime spot to see the all-but-announced Democratic presidential candidate. Her mom, Kristin, a psychology professor, is hoping Warren can do what Hillary Clinton, whom she supported in 2016, could not: be the first woman to make it all the way to the White House. Though there may be upward of two dozen presidential contenders coming through Iowa over the 13 months between now and its first-in-the-nation caucuses, shes at the top of my list right now, Kristin said. The political-insider chatter is already suggesting that Warren might have a likability problem, just like the one that supposedly was Clintons downfall. And if two or three other women join the race, which appears likely, they will no doubt hear that as well. As a headline on the humorous McSweeneys website put it: I Dont Hate Women Candidates - I Just Hated Hillary and Coincidentally Im Starting to Hate Elizabeth Warren. Judging by the packed houses at Warrens events over the weekend, however, insiders may be selling Democratic voters short. People decided 20 years ago whether they liked Hillary Clinton, back when her husband was president, Kristin said. On the other hand, she sees Warren offering a fresher appeal: Her message is consistent, and shes looking out for the middle class. Were it not for the fact that they are both women - and frequent targets of President Donald Trump, those two things not necessarily being unrelated - its hard to imagine a reason that Warrens bid would already be freighted by associations with Clintons. The populist Massachusetts senator has made no secret of her disdain for Clintons brand of politics, which she says was too cozy with big banks and powerful interests. During the 2016 Democratic primaries, Warren pointedly waited until after President Barack Obama formally endorsed his former secretary of state, who was by then the presumptive Democratic nominee, before throwing her support behind Clinton. Warren represents a stark contrast from Clinton in a more fundamental way. While Clinton had a 20-point plan ready for every question, she failed to weave it all together into anything that resembled a coherent rationale for her candidacy. At one point, her campaign, floundering to articulate what she stood for, put together a document of 84 ideas for slogans. By the end, her message seemed to be only that Trump was not fit to be president. Warren, on the other hand, diagnoses virtually every issue - from student debt to climate change, gun control to retirement security - with the same blunt prescription. The answer is corruption, pure and simple. We have a government that works for those at the top, she says. When we get organized, when we push back, we can make some real change. It is noticeable that Trumps name rarely crosses her lips, a sign she believes this message can connect with some of the same frustrated middle-class voters who flocked to him in 2016. She is the first major Democrat to announce an exploratory committee. No doubt the enthusiasm that greeted her this past weekend in Iowa partly reflects how energized her party is, and how determined Democrats are to find a champion who can defeat Trump. But there was also plenty of evidence that Warren has an appeal all her own. In every audience, there were women wearing T-shirts (and in one case, a 9-month-old girl in a onesie) emblazoned NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED - a now-famous complaint by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., about his efforts to silence Warren in a 2017 Senate debate. At this early stage, Warren is in a relatively strong position in Iowa. A December Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers found 65 percent have a favorable opinion of her. She is already lining up some of the states most highly regarded political operatives for her team. Warrens events also had the personal touch that Iowans like, leaving plenty of time afterward for her to pose for selfies with anyone who wanted them. And she gamely took questions, even uncomfortable ones, from her audiences. In Sioux City, the first one was about her highly criticized decision to take a DNA test to answer Trumps taunts about her claims to Native American heritage. My decision was: Im just gonna put it all out there, she said. Maybe that is really the lesson other female candidates should take from Hillary Clinton: Your enemies are coming after you anyway. Moving with caution only gives them a better chance to run you over. WESTFIELD -- The Westfield Fire Commission on Monday night is scheduled to discuss "complaints or charges" against Deputy Chief Patrick Egloff and then decide whether he should be appointed the city's next fire chief. Although the city has not disclosed details of those complaints or charges, a lawsuit filed in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield by three Westfield firefighters reveals a department riven with dissension and operating without a permanent chief for six months. The plaintiffs -- Capt. Rebecca Boutin and firefighters David Kennedy and Kyle Miltimore -- were told by the deputy chief Seth Ellis that "Westfield Fire Department is left with no alternative but to terminate" them on August 7. The plaintiffs sought and received a temporary restraining order to keep their jobs by Hampden Superior Court on Aug. 29. The court documents say discord exploded because of tension related to who would become the next chief. Court documents show that a private attorney hired by the city of Westfield alleged in a report that three firefighters conspired to accuse Egloff of sexual assault and deserved to be fired. Egloff has not be charged with any crime and remains on active duty. That report was written by Dawn McDonald of the Springfield firm Cooley Shrair PC. Why the municipality hired an outside attorney rather than conduct the investigation in-house has not been disclosed. City Solicitor Susan C. Phillips on Monday acknowledged receiving a list of questions about the investigation from The Republican and said they would be forwarded to the city's records access officer. Questions about the city's use of outside counsel were briefly discussed at last week's City Council meeting. And although the McDonald report was completed last summer, no one from the city disclosed how much her firm was paid. The matter was referred to a subcommittee. In her report, McDonald asserted Boutin, Kennedy and Miltimore either wrote or knew of an anonymous letter that the lawyer alleged was part of "a plot to have Egloff arrested for rape." In their lawsuit, the three firefighters reject those allegations, saying they were smeared by the McDonald report and falsely accused. Boutin, Kennedy and Miltimore are represented by attorney Maurice Cahillane of the Springfield firm Egan, Flanagan and Cohen PC. Their lawsuit alleges they were retaliated against for speaking to police involving a criminal investigation that targeted Egloff. Their lawsuit refers to Egloff, without naming him, as "a high official of the Westfield Fire Department" and the alleged perpetrator of indecent assaults against two women. The lawsuit also references a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint filed against the city, but includes no details. Much of the McDonald report has been sealed by the court. The unsealed portions discuss violations of "the Employee Manual." The unsealed documents of the McDonald report do not include information that could show whether she was hired to ascertain whether city policies were followed relating to sexual assault allegations. One unsealed portion of the McDonald report states: "Adding fuel to the fire are Egloff and the Chief (Mary Regan), who have gathered up their minions of support and have perpetrated Egloff's side of the story, getting much of the department to turn against Miltimore and his co-conspirators. Miltimore is already saying the Chief is retaliating against him." Regan retired July 1. She was chief when the McDonald investigation was underway. Regan replaced Chief William Phelon, who retired in 2011. Deputy Chief Andrew Hart is currently listed on the department's website as interim chief. A policy that Phelon approved in 2010 states: "any retaliation against an individual who has complained about harassment or retaliation against individuals for cooperating with an investigation of a harassment complaint is similarly unlawful and will not be tolerated." The lawsuit says the fire commissioners met behind closed doors on Aug. 6 without Boutin, Kennedy or Miltimore present. The commissioners determined they had "no alternative" but to fire them, court records filed by the city show, according to an Aug. 7 letter written by Ellis. Judge Constance Sweeney ruled the attempt to fire them broke the law. During an Aug. 29 hearing, the judge nullified "the Commission's actions on August 6, 2018, and its directives to Ellis with respect to Boutin, Miltimore and Kennedy." In addition to filing the lawsuit to save their jobs, the firefighters sought, and were granted, a temporary restraining order against commission Chairman Albert J. Masciadrelli, Secretary Patrick Olearcek and member Carlo Bonavita that bars them from terminating the plaintiffs based on the board's actions in August. That temporary order was still in effect as of Friday. Sweeney also ruled that the commissioners violated the state's Open Meeting Law during the Aug. 6 executive session. The court held an evidentiary hearing in September to determine whether the commissioners "intentionally" violated the Open Meeting Law and, if they did, whether the municipal body should be fined for doing so. As of Friday, Sweeney had not issued a decision. The commission meets at 6 p.m. Monday in the Community Room of the Little River Fire Station, 366 Little River Road. The posted agenda says the commissioners plan to discuss in executive session "the character, reputation ... and/or complaints or charges brought against Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Egloff for the purpose of determining viability for either temporary or permanent promotion to chief of the fire department." Next on the agenda is "Discussion of options related to filling the vacant chief position; including potential consideration and vote to temporarily promote Deputy Chief Egloff." Kevin Spacey is scheduled to be arraigned in Nantucket District Court Monday morning for allegedly groping the 18-year-old son of former WCVB news anchor Heather Unruh during the summer of 2016. A live stream of the arraignment, scheduled for 11 a.m., can be viewed here: Unruh publicly accused Spacey of assaulting her son during a televised news conference last year, saying the actor got her son drunk and took advantage of him at Nantuckets Club Car bar and restaurant. Massachusetts State Police launched an investigation and on December 20 a criminal complaint was issued against Spacey. Unruhs son, then an employee of the Club Car, told investigators that he met Spacey when the actor visited the restaurant on July 7, 2016. He said Spacey bought him a series of drinks, made sexual comments toward him and then fondled him while they were standing near the restaurants piano. The teenager told police he attempted to shift his body away, but Spacey continued to reach down his pants. Unruhs son did not walk away from the alleged assault, telling police that the room was crowded. [Unruhs son] didnt know what to do. He didnt want to get in trouble at work or get his work in trouble, the investigating trooper wrote in a report filed in Nantucket District Court. He knows hes only 18, hes not supposed to be drinking, and hes not supposed to be drinking at work. Unruhs son also recorded Snapchat video of Spacey touching the front of his pants that night, which he sent to his girlfriend to prove what had happened, according to the police report. Multiple men came forward last year to accuse Spacey of sexual misconduct after Star Trek: Discovery" actor Anthony Rapp said that Spacey had made sexual advances toward him in 1986, while Rapp was 14 years old. This is the first accusation to result in criminal charges against Spacey, who lost his role as Frank Underwood in Netflix' House of Cards in the wake of Rapps allegations. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition on Monday by actress Olivia de Havilland to review the dismissal of a lawsuit she brought against the makers of FXs Feud: Bette and Joan. The 102-year-old Oscar winner, best known for roles in the classic films Gone With the Wind" and The Heiress, has objected to Catherine Zeta-Jones' unflattering portrayal of her made in the FX miniseries. Although a Los Angeles judge had allowed de Havilland to proceed with her defamation complaint, a California appeals court reversed that decision on First Amendment grounds last March. Publishing a fictitious work about a real person cannot mean the author, by virtue of writing fiction, has acted with actual malice," the California appellate court ruled. Recognizing this, in cases where the claimed highly offensive or defamatory aspect of the portrayal is implied, courts have required plaintiffs to show that the defendant intended to convey the defamatory impression. De Havilland must demonstrate that FX either deliberately cast her statements in an equivocal fashion in the hope of insinuating a defamatory import to the reader, or that it knew or acted in reckless disregard of whether its words would be interpreted by the average reader as defamatory statements of fact. The actress is famed in legal circles for helping bring down Hollywoods old studio system by successfully challenging her contract with Warner Bros. in the 1940s. BOSTON The Boston Globe has sued the state to obtain birth and marriage data of Massachusetts residents spanning a period of decades. The Supreme Judicial Court will hear the case, Boston Globe Media Partners vs. Department of Public Health, on Thursday. The case stems from a public records request that the Globe submitted to the department in May 2013. Globe reporter Todd Wallack asked for electronic copies from the Registry of Vital Statistics of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. The Department of Public Health provided divorce and death data, but would not give the birth and marriage data. The request asked for birth data from 1953 to the present and marriage data from 1983 to the present. According to DPH, this would cover birth data for around 4.6 million individuals and marriage data for 2.2 million individuals. The information is already public, in the sense that it is available for the public to access and search on computer terminals in the Registrys research room. But the information is not accessible as one large database. Certain information that is confidential such as the name of biological parents after an adoption is not on those terminals and would not be included in the records. The Department of Public Health says it would be an invasion of privacy for the state to reveal the personal information of so many individuals, and the information is exempt from the states public records law. Disclosure of the indexes would reveal detailed personal information of millions of private citizens, but would shed no light on whether public servants are properly performing their duties, which is the goal advanced by the public records law, attorneys for the DPH wrote in a court brief. The indexes would disclose intimate personal information that the courts have long considered private, such as marital status, family relations and names of parents. The DPH said releasing the information would greatly increase the risk of identity theft for millions of citizens and make them likely targets of marketing schemes and other unwanted contacts. A Superior Court judge ruled that DPH does not have to release the data. Attorneys for the Boston Globe say the data is important for things like identifying trends, conducting background checks on political candidates and verifying that Massachusetts is correctly recording births and marriages. In one case, for example, the Globe requested birthdates of state police troopers to match them up with driving records and identify troopers who had been arrested for driving under the influence. The Globe argues that the exemption from the public records law applies only to intimate details of a highly personal nature, and basic information about births and marriages does not meet this threshold. The newspapers attorneys say DPH offered no evidence that making the information public would pose a risk of identity theft. A coalition of media and media groups, including the New York Times Company, the New England Newspaper and Press Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and others, filed a brief supporting the Globes position. Aggregating non-intimate, publicly available individual records does not inherently transform the compilation into highly intimate or embarrassing information, the coalition writes. The coalition said there is a public interest in disclosing the information. This dataset can be used to facilitate government accountability, gain new insights into the systemic questions about the welfare of Massachusetts citizens, and inform localized news reporting by news outlets of all sizes, the coalition wrote. The states highest court will hear arguments Tuesday in a high profile case regarding whether convicted serial child rapist Wayne Chapman should be freed from prison. Chapman was convicted of raping two boys in Lawrence in the 1970s. He faced additional convictions of child rape out of Rhode Island, and was convicted of sexually abusing three boys in Pennsylvania. He has admitted to raping as many as 100 children, MassLive previously reported. Chapmans prison sentence ended in 2004, but he has remained locked up, civilly committed to a state treatment facility after he was deemed a sexually dangerous person. In June, Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Scott Kafker ruled that Chapman should be allowed to go free, after an exam by two qualified mental health examiners found that he is no longer sexually dangerous. Their report found that at age 70, Chapman was too old and frail to attack again. The case spurred a public outcry. But before Chapman could be re-released, he was arrested again on charges of exposing himself and masturbating in front of prison staff in the jail where he was being held. In one case that will be heard by the SJC, the victims of Chapmans attacks have asked the court to prevent Chapmans release. They said Kafker did not follow proper procedures when deciding to release Chapman. A second case involves whether prosecutors should be allowed to hold a trial regarding whether a sexually dangerous person should be released if both qualified examiners say he is no longer sexually dangerous. The court ruled previously that when two qualified mental health examiners find someone is no longer sexually dangerous, a judge cannot continue to order the person held. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey office is urging the SJC to overturn that precedent, which she said gives judges no leeway to cross-examine the mental health examiners or scrutinize their conclusions. There is pending legislation, which Gov. Charlie Baker introduced and Healey supports, that would require a court trial before a sexually dangerous person is released, not just an examination by two examiners. But that bill, if it passes the Legislature, would not apply retroactively to Chapmans case. Chapmans lawyers are arguing that the victims have no standing to challenge his release. They said the SJC should adhere to the precedent, and someone must be released if qualified examiners have deemed the person to no longer be sexually dangerous. But in the 23-page ruling issued Monday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said those arguments did not hold up. Not only was the evidence properly introduced, the court wrote, but also the jurys finding that Proano had acted outside the bounds of his training was completely reasonable given the video of the shooting. Actor Kevin Spacey, who faces arraignment on a sexual assault charge in Nantucket Monday, was allowed a special hearing to review his case in a closed mini-trial-type setting where his charges could have been dropped and kept out of the public view. Though Spaceys lawyers failed on Dec. 20 to derail the criminal case, concerns remain about why the actors attorneys were given the opportunity at all. The questions around Spaceys show-cause hearing were first reported by The Boston Globe. Massachusetts show-cause hearings are used to examine whether cases have enough evidence to bring charges. Suspects have a legal right to these hearings in misdemeanor cases. But, Spacey is facing a felony charge. The often-secret part of the Massachusetts criminal justice system has been the focus of a Globe Spotlight Team investigation. The hearings are overseen by clerk-magistrates and typically closed to the public. Spacey, 59, is accused of groping the teenage son of a former WCVB anchor in 2016. He also faces more than a dozen sexual assault allegations in other cities. Heather Unruh accused of the actor of assaulting her son in a press conference. She says the actor got her 18-year-old son drunk at The Club Car bar and restaurant where he worked in July 2016 and forced his hand down her sons pants. A Massachusetts State Police report says authorities obtained video evidence in the case. The criminal complaint on file in court said Unruhs son first reported the assault to Nantucket Police on Oct. 31, 2016. After that, prosecutors said they would speak to the alleged victim. A spokeswoman for OKeefes office told MassLive that a state trooper traveled to Nantucket District Court on Sept. 20 and handed over written results of an investigation to presiding clerk, Donald Hart. As is customary with felony charges in district court, the trooper was required to get the clerk to sign off on the complaint for Spacey to be formally charged. The troopers application for a criminal complaint showed he had interviewed Unruhs son and others who he had spoken to about the night of the alleged assault. He also review a Snapchat video of the incident. Prosecutors told MassLive that Hart raised questions about whether the 18-year-old may have consented to the encounter and wanted to speak with him. The Trooper presented the facts of an investigation into alleged inappropriate behavior by Kevin Spacey Fowler. After reviewing the materials for a time, Magistrate Hart indicated he had questions concerning the issue of consent and wanted to hear from the complaining witness and would require a show cause hearing, Tara Miltimore, a spokeswoman from OKeefes office told MassLive. The trooper told Hart that the alleged victim was studying abroad and would not return until December, Miltimore said. The Globe says Spaceys show-cause hearing is notable because he was facing a felony charge of indecent assault and battery. Massachusetts court rules say that in the case of such a serious charge the more informal, and closed clerk-magistrate hearing can only be ordered by police. Hart, who retired in December, declined to speak to the Globe about the case. Another clerk-magistrate, Brian Kearney, who held the hearing after Harts retirement, told the Globe that Hart told him police requested the hearing. During the hearing, which was never listed on a public calendar, the alleged victim was present but was never called to testify, the newspaper reports. Spaceys attorneys, Boston lawyer Juliane Balliro and Los Angeles lawyer Alan Jackson, also did not respond to requests for comment from the Globe. The criminal complaint is filed under Spaceys true name, Kevin S. Fowler. Court records reflect the prosecutors account. The application for the criminal complaint filed by Trooper Gerald Donovan does not show he requested such a hearing. SPRINGFIELD City Councilor Justin Hurst, the newly elected council president, said Monday he will continue to fight for a civilian Police Commission among other contentious issues with Mayor Domenic Sarno, while also seeking to improve cooperative efforts with Sarno in 2019. Hurst listed some of his goals for the New Year after being elected president by unanimous vote of the council at the annual organizational meeting at City Hall. Family, friends, city officials, and residents filled the council chambers to launch the new year . Hurst, an at-large member of the 13-member council, said that his inspiration for his speech Monday arose from a recent trip he took to Israel, where a guide repeatedly stated that issues facing that country are complicated. What I ultimately arrived at was that the issues facing Springfield are just not that complicated, Hurst said. He vowed to continue the fight to create a five-member civilian Police Commission to oversee the Police Department with the hopes of changing a department that is clearly broken. The ordinance creating the commission passed in 2016 and 2018, but is strongly opposed by Sarno. Sarno has stated the ordinance is legally invalid, and plans to extend the contract of current Police Commissioner John Barbieri who has full oversight of the department including discipline. Hurst said Monday that the Police Commission is not the perfect solution, but fits into issues that are not that complicated in Springfield. For example, it is not that complicated to see that a change is needed when the FBI and State Attorney General are investigating our Police Department because rogue police officers are acting with impunity, while your average tax payer bares the brunt of their actions and last year it was the tune of over a million dollars in victim settlements." Hurst said. Hurst said, however, that in order to achieve many of its priorities, it is incumbent upon this legislative body to work together with the executive branch. And to that end, I must admit, it might be a little complicated. Hurst said that he is confident that working with the executive branch can be accomplished on issues, citing an example from Friday. Sarno had recently vetoed a council proposal for earmarking marijuana sales revenues to a Neighborhood Stabilization fund, believe the percentage proposed was too high. On Friday, councilors pushed for a 35 percent allotment, and Sarno was holding on a 30 percent allotment, when the sides reached a compromise hours later on Friday -- 33 percent, Hurst said. While I understand that the Mayor and City Council wont be able to compromise on everything this year, he proved to me Friday that he is open to working with the City Council and I look forward to doing the same, Hurst said. Hurst replaced Councilor Orlando Ramos as council president. The council on Monday also elected Ward 5 Councilor Marcus Williams as vice-president for 2019. Hurst praised Williams as the lead sponsor of a city ordinance to create a chief diversity officer in Springfield to help expand workforce diversity. Hurst also praised Sarno for appointing city lawyer Talia Gee as the citys new chief diversity officer last week. Ensuring diversity is also not a complicated issue as long as we all agree that it is imperative to the entire city flourishing, Hurst said. Sarno initially vetoed the appointment of the chief diversity officer and defended his record on workforce diversity. He timed his appointment of Gee last week with the planned retirement of long-term Equal Employment Administrator Dan M.C. Hall. Among other issues, Hurst said he was appointing Williams as chairman of the new Council Committee on Diversity to work with Sarno and Gee on diversity issues. Hurst also said that he has appointed Councilor Michael Fenton as chairman of the councils Committee on Marijuana Regulations. Regarding the legalization of marijuana, Hurst said the Springfield ordinance that regulates marijuana locally was aided greatly by a fact-finding trip to Denver, which was denied city funding by Sarno. Councilors went on their own, but Hurst said he will ask Sarno to fund professional development initiatives for the council next fiscal year. Sarno attended Mondays council meeting shaking hands with Hurst and many others. The organizational meeting included a vote to change the time of regular council meetings to 6:30 p.m., rather than 7 p.m. Hurst was given the oath of office for president by Judge Charles W. Groce III. The ceremony included local vocalist Vanessa Ford singing God Bless America, and the Pledge of Allegiance by Hursts son, Justin Hurst Jr., and u.S. Army Veteran Jonathan Crane. There were opening and closing prayers by Pastor L.A. Love and the Rev. Gordon C. ONeal Jr. Actor Kevin Spacey has been arraigned on a sexual assault charge following allegations that he groped the 18-year-old son of former WCVB news anchor Heather Unruh during an alcohol-fueled night at Nantuckets Club Car bar and restaurant in 2016. Spacey arrived on Nantucket by chartered plane and left the airport in a silver SUV at 10:30 a.m., arriving at Nantucket District Court 15 minutes before his 11 a.m. arraignment. He was mobbed by a crowd of camera operators and television news reporters as walked into the courthouse. He did not speak a word during his arraignment, as he stood next to his attorney Alan Jackson. Spacey is facing a single count of indecent assault and battery and has been ordered to avoid contacting and stay away from the alleged victim. He has entered a not-guilty plea. Neither Spacey nor his attorneys commented on the charge at the courthouse Monday morning. But in a motion to preserve digital evidence, Jackson described the assault allegation as patently false and suggested the accusation had been driven by Unruh rather than her son. The only physical evidence produced by the Commonwealth in this case is a single fraction-of-a-second video purportedly taken by [the alleged victim,] Jackson wrote in the motion. Notably, this video does not show anything that could be remotely described as assaultive behavior, and it therefore does not support the prosecutions claim of indecent assault and battery. Judge Thomas Barrett set the next hearing in the case for March 4. Spacey will not be required to attend in person A criminal complaint was issued against Spacey on Dec. 20 -- the first criminal charge to be filed against him since a series of men came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct last year. He is currently also under investigation for sexual misconduct allegations in Los Angeles and London, according to CNN. The charge comes over a year after Unruh publicly accused Spacey of assaulting her son. Over the course of a 30-minute televised news conference, Unruh said that Spacey got her 18-year-old son drunk at the Club Car restaurant in Nantucket in July of 2016 and forced his hand down her sons pants. Kevin Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink and when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him, she said during the press conference. According to a Massachusetts State Police report filed in Nantucket District Court, Unruhs son first reported the assault to Nantucket Police on Oct. 31, 2016. The investigation did not move forward until the alleged victim spoke with Massachusetts State Police on Nov. 22, 2017. He told State Police that on July 7, 2016, he was working as a bus boy at the Club Car when Spacey visited the restaurant and bar. Unruhs son asked to be introduced to the actor and they began to chat. At one point, Unruhs son told Spacey he was 23 years old, according to the report he gave police. Spacey then offered to buy him a drink, Unruhs son told State Police. The drinks continued constantly through the whole night. Things started to get a little fuzzy when [Unruhs son] and Spacey went over to the piano, Donovan wrote in his report. "[Unruhs son] said he had at least four or five beers before Spacey said they should switch to whiskey adding, Lets get drunk. " They began singing songs at the piano, he told police. Unruhs son said he told Spacey about his girlfriend, who he had been dating for five months at the time, at which point Spacey allegedly told him to stop texting her and began talking about the size of his penis. That sexual comment made Unruhs son uncomfortable, he told police. Around 1 a.m., they went outside to smoke a cigarette. Spacey allegedly asked Unruhs son to come back to the house where he was staying -- a request the alleged victim told police he denied because of Spaceys previous sexual comment. He told police he only wanted a picture with Spacey and fended off multiple requests to come home with him. When they went back inside, Spacey allegedly sexually assaulted him. Spacey alleged began rubbing the teenagers thigh while standing in a crowd of people around the piano. Unruhs son told police Spacey then unzipped his pants and touched him without consent. [Unruhs son] didnt know what to do. He didnt want to get in trouble at work or get his work in trouble, the trooper wrote in his report. He knows hes only 18, hes not supposed to be drinking, and hes not supposed to be drinking at work. The teenager told police he attempted to shift his body away, but Spacey continued to reach down his pants. Unruhs son did not walk away, telling police that the room was crowded. Unruhs son told State Police that as the alleged assault continued for several minutes, he captured Snapchat video of Spacey touching him on his phone to prove what had happened and sent the video to his girlfriend. His girlfriend confirmed to State Police that she had received a video of Spacey touching the front of her boyfriends pants. Unruhs son told police that when Spacey went to the bathroom, he took the opportunity to leave the bar and run home. His sister told State Police that he told her about the incident that night, describing it as rape. In December, on the same day news broke about the felony charge, Spacey released a video on his Youtube channel, seeming to address the allegations against him in the character of his former House of Cards role Frank Underwood. But you wouldnt believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldnt rush to judgments without facts, would you? Did you? Spacey says in the video. Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen men last year, as the Me Too movement sparked a wave of long-buried allegations against celebrities, businessmen and media personalities. He was first publicly accused by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who said that Spacey made sexual advances to him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old. Spacey was fired in 2017 from the lead role in Netflix' political drama House of Cards and was cut from the motion picture All the Money in the World. SPRINGFIELD Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has appointed three residents to serve on an 11-member MGM Springfield Community Advisory Committee, with the task of providing recommendations to MGM and the city relating to the $960 million casino. Sarno said he has appointed the following residents: Leo Florian, president of the South End Citizens Council; Jose Claudio, chief operations officer for the New North Citizens Council; and Denise Jordan, executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority who is Sarnos former chief of staff. The community advisory committee is a requirement under the citys Host Community Agreement with MGM Springfield in the aftermath of its opening. which occurred Aug. 24. The committee is scheduled to meet quarterly and will offer non-binding recommendations on casino matters, the agreement states. On Friday, 2018 City Council President Orlando Ramos and 2019 President Justin Hurst jointly announced three council appointments to the casino advisory committee. Those appointments by the presidents were Daniel Patrick Morrissey, Vanessa Otero and Johnnie Ray McKnight. The full membership of the committee is in the process of being organized. Of the remaining five members, three will be appointed by MGM Springfield, and one each will be appointed by the president of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield and the Massachusetts Latino Chamber of Commerce. SOUTH DEERFIELD Fast-casual bakery cafe Au Bon Pain will close its two locations at the Yankee Candle Village flagship store in South Deerfield at the end of business Tuesday. And locally owned Hillside Pizza will take over the Au Bon Pain in-store cafe as of Wednesday, Jan. 9, said Jamie Hargraves, associate manager for communications for Newell Brands, the parent company of Yankee Candle. Hillside Pizza is a local, family-run business that has built a strong and trusted reputation in the Pioneer Valley for the past 19 years, she stated. Hillside uses locally sourced, locally grown products whenever possible which helps support nearby farms and small businesses. They promote sustainability by supporting organic agriculture methods using only natural and organic ingredients in all of their products. Hillside Pizza Cafe will be open during Yankee Candle Village store hours and will serve pizza, wraps, salads, soups, coffee and baked goods. Craig White, an owner of Hillside Pizza , differed most comments to Yankee Candle, but said he was approached because of Hillside Pizzas involvement in the community. White is also a founder of the I.N.S.P.i.R.E. School for Autism, a Brattleboro, Vermont, school for students with autism ages 7 to 22 from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Weve been able to hire many of those students and have them employed with us, White said. Thats something we hope to continue. Hillside has locations in Hadley, Bernardston and near Yankee Candle on Greenfield Road in South Deerfield. Besides the in-store cafe, Au Bon Pain will also close its restaurant in the former Chandlers restaurant space, also on the Yankee Candle Village property. Au Bon Pain took over from Chandlers in 2017. The old Chandlers will be vacant, at least in the short term as Yankee Candle evaluates opportunities, according to employees there Monday. Longtime Chandlers customers were distressed in 2017 at the loss of a full-service sit-down restaurant and its replacement with a fast-casual concept like Au Bon Pain. Based in Boston, Au Bon Pain has 20 Massachusetts locations, but none of the others are in Western Massachusetts. Michael J. Kittredge II, the founder of Yankee Candle, started Chandlers in 1995 as he expanded and developed Yankee Candle Village. into one of the regions top tourist attractions.Today, it welcome about a million visitors annually. Kittredge founded Yankee Candle in his parents' garage in South Hadley in 1969. He sold 90 percent of his shares in the company in 1998 for an estimated $400 million. His son, Michael J. Kittredge III, is president of Kringle Candle Co., which is headquartered in Bernardston with a store in MGM Springfield. A Utah police officer who grew up in the Boston area was killed while trying to arrest a man threatening law enforcement Saturday night, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Provo Police Officer Joseph Shinners, 29, was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a 40-year-old man Saturday, according to the newspaper. Officials have not identified the suspect, but said he is being treated in a Utah Valley Hospital where he is under guard. He will face multiple charges, possibly including aggravated murder of a police officer, Orem Police Chief Gary Giles told The Salt Lake Tribune. Police released few details about the circumstances of the shooting, but say more information will be available as the investigation continues. Shinners was working a patrol when he was called to help with the arrest of a wanted fugitive who had been threatening police for several months, police told the newspaper. At about 9:53 p.m. Saturday, police received information that the wanted man was in a parked car near a Bed Bath & Beyond in Orem, according to the newspaper. Police said Shinners was hit when gunfire broke out. It appears Shinners returned fire at least once, police told the newspaper. Shinners was on the force for three years. He leaves behind a wife and a 1-year-old son. Joe Shinners was intelligent. He was honorable. He was hardworking, Provo Police Chief Richard Ferguson said Sunday, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. He is the officer who you would want to show up at your door in your biggest crucible moment. Ferguson told reporters Shinners was from the Boston area. His father is a retired Everett fire captain and his brother works as a police officer in Haverhill, according to records. As with the loss of every officer, his fellow officers and his family are in the thoughts of every member of the Haverhill Police Department. However, in this case we hold this officers family even closer in our thoughts tonight, as Officer Joseph Shinners is the brother of both a current and former officer with our department, Haverhill police wrote on Facebook. Authorities are investigating the death of a 31-year-old man in Taunton and are calling his death a homicide, according to the Bristol District Attorneys office. Taunton police received a 911 call for an assault 9A Wilson St. around 11:15 p.m. Saturday, the district attorneys office said in a statement Monday. When officers arrived at the address, they found the injured person was no longer there and had been taken to Morton Hospital, the statement said. The victim was flown from Morton Hospital to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Officials identified the victim as Justin Paulo of Taunton. Authorities did not release any information about the cause or manner of Paulos death or explain how he was injured. The death remains under investigation by Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Bristol County District Attorneys office and the Taunton Police Department. On Friday, TSA officials said they were monitoring reports that the nations airports were experiencing an increase in sick-outs, as the partial federal government shutdown entered its third week, according to the Washington Post. The TSA said the sick calls so far were having minimal impact, though lines have since been reported at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. A 32-year-old Martinsville woman was killed in a Sunday night two-vehicle crash in Henry County, Virginia State Police report. The wreck occurred shortly after 8:30 p.m. Sunday on Va. 57 about a quarter of a mile west of Va. 720. According to state police, a 2009 Honda Civic driven by Heather Marie Ivey, 32, of Martinsville, was traveling west on Va. 57 when the vehicle abruptly crossed the center line and struck a 2014 Chevrolet Equinox traveling east head-on. Ivey was not wearing a seat belt and died at the scene, a news release stated. Brandon Carson Heath, 32, a passenger in the Honda, was transported to a hospital for treatment. He was wearing a seat belt, police reported. The Chevrolet was driven by Tre Dionte Jackson, 26, of Martinsville. Police report Jackson was wearing his seat belt and transported to hospital for treatment. The crash remains under investigation. A Martinsville man has been charged in Sunday's deadly shooting in Axton, the Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office reports. Officers were called to 2521 Martin Drive in Axton shortly after 4 p.m. for the report of a man being shot, according to a news release. The victim was identified as 23-year-old Deon Jawan Peatross, of Eden, North Carolina. After an investigation, authorities arrested DeVon DreCol Smith, 27, of Martinsville, on a count of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. The body will be transported to the Medical Examiners Office in Roanoke for an autopsy. Smith is being held in Pittsylvania County Jail under no bond. His first court appearance is set for Monday. Authorities are investigating a fatal crash in the 3200 block of Va. 57 in Henry County, the Virginia State Police reports. Troopers responded to the reported crash at about 8:40 p.m., according to a news release. The wreck involved two vehicles. As of about 9:30 p.m., the road was closed. There is one confirmed fatality. The Virginia State Police Reconstruction Team has been called to the scene, the news release stated. More information will be released once notification of next of kin has been made, police said. LENOX TWP. Two Macomb prisoners accused of trying to escape Two Macomb prison inmates use 'dummy-in-bunk' ruse in effort to escape featured EASTPOINTE/SHELBY TWP. First homicide, traffic fatality of the year happen over the weekend Macomb County has first homicide, traffic fatality of the year over the weekend Holmes, who often used her salon in the 4100 block of North Broadway as a venue to publicize or host community events like back-to-school parties for young students, was well known in Uptown, colleagues said after the murder. She was always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need, family and friends said. Meditation may help people on the autism spectrum to reduce their reactions to outside stimuli. MetroCreative Connection Ensure you get a print copy of the Loudoun Times-Mirror delivered weekly to your home or business! Complete online access is included with all print subscriptions purchased online. Plus, up to four other members of your household can share online access through this subscription with their own, individual linked accounts at no additional charge. (Are you a current advertiser? Ask your sales rep for our special advertiser rate code!) It seems that supporters of the Syrian regime in Lebanon never miss an opportunity to push for normalization with Damascus. And as the Arab Leagues economic summit is taking place in Beirut on Jan. 20, the March 8 Alliance is using the upcoming meeting to call for the reinstatement of Syria into the Arab League and, ultimately, its reintegration into the Arab World. The call to reinstate Syria into the Arab League appears to some in diplomatic circles as merely wishful thinking. A well informed Arab diplomatic source, who spoke to LOrient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity, said that it is a talking point for politically oriented media ranting and that Syria is unlikely to be reinstated, at least at the moment. The process of allowing Syria to come back to the Arab League is more complex than what appears in media articles of some countries, in this case, Lebanon, Iran and Russia, the source added. The confusion around the topic comes from the recent announcement that the United Arab Emirates is reopening its embassy in Damascus, which came shortly after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the Syrian capital. The succession of events pushed "certain parties to exploit this subject by placing it in the perspective of efforts that would be deployed for the reintegration of Syria to the Arab League, according to the diplomat. The Arab League is not discussing Syrias potential reinstatement, and the subject has not even been raised within the organization, the diplomat continued, and likely will not be anytime soon. "As long as Syria's future is being defined by non-Arab countries, the return of Damascus to the League is hardly possible, the source said. Some countries are using the media to try to push the reinstatement agenda precisely because they do not have an effective political lobby card, the source added. Hezbollahs pressure In response to the regimes crackdown on peaceful protests, the 22-member Arab League suspended in November 2011 the membership of Syria in a vote supported by 18 countries and opposed by Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. At the time, the move was a severe snub for the Syrian regime, which refused to comply with the Arab Leagues plan to end the crisis. In March 2013, the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, sat in Syrias seat in the Arab League during a summit in Qatar. But the seat has been left vacant ever since. In recent days in Lebanon, pro-Syrian parties such as Hezbollah and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) have been calling for Syrias exoneration and direct or indirect return to the Lebanese political scene. At the Hezbollahs parliamentary blocs meeting last Thursday, members of the party said that Lebanon should invite Syria to the upcoming Arab League economic summit given the positive Arab climate in favor of Syrias return to the diplomatic scene. Hezbollah did override the fact that Lebanese officials cannot undertake such an initiative before the Arab League does so itself. The decision belongs solely to the Council of the Arab League, the organizations principal institution, which brings together the foreign ministers of the member states and decided to freeze Syrias membership in 2011. Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), made clear on Friday that inviting Syria to the Economic Summit is the Arab Leagues responsibility, not Lebanons, while voicing support for Hezbollahs position. "Lebanon can take the initiative of Syrias return to the Arab League It is in the interest of Lebanon, he said. Bassil also said that Lebanons interest in normalizing ties with Syria is linked to the possibility of participating in Syrias reconstruction, a topic he hopes to raise at the Economic Summit. But according to the diplomatic source, the topic is not listed on the summits agenda, which was set on Dec. 20. "Only the questions relating to the economic and social situation of the member countries will be mentioned," the source said. "Lebanon is ready to host the summit" The issue of whether or not Syria should be reinstated as an Arab League member seems to preoccupy Lebanese political circles more than elsewhere in the Arab World. So much so that we now have the impression that this political topic could almost replace the real, exclusively economic agenda planned for this summit, the diplomat continued. However, a source close to the Lebanese committee organizing the summit confirmed that Beirut cannot take the initiative to invite Syria. "Any decision that is not endorsed by the Arab League could provoke a boycott against Lebanon and lead to an alteration in the number of participants and the level of state representation. And, contrary to what has been said, the Syrians understand the Lebanese point of view, the source said. Sixteen countries have already confirmed their participation in the summit. "None of the 22 invited members has canceled to date, a source close to the presidential palace in Baabda, which is coordinating the logistics of the event, told OLJ. The same source also dismissed rumors regarding a possible cancellation due to the ongoing failure to form a new government. The rumors were unfounded, the source said, adding: "Lebanon is completely ready to host this summit. The government taking care of current affairs is still operational. It is still unclear, however, who will represent the Arab Leagues member states at the summit. Theoretically, the heads of state, kings and emirs of the various members should attend. But some states may send lower level delegations. So far, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has confirmed his participation as well as the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who will preside over the summit. (This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 5th of January 2019) Local News, Crime, Health & Wellness, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 07 2019 Stories from Suffolk to Focus on, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Options. Suffolk County, NY - January 7, 2019 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Rockefeller Institute of Government today announced Stories from Suffolk a policy conversation among leading experts in the field on substance use and opioids to assess the next steps that should be taken to combat this epidemic. The first of its kind forum will be held on February 6, 2019 from 9:00 AM 1:00 PM at Kimisis Tis Theotokou Church in Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Rockefeller Institute of Government today announced Stories from Suffolk a policy conversation among leading experts in the field on substance use and opioids to assess the next steps that should be taken to combat this epidemic. The first of its kind forum will be held on February 6, 2019 from 9:00 AM 1:00 PM at Kimisis Tis Theotokou Church in Southampton County governments are the laboratories for developing smart public policy to combat the opioid crisis in New York, said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. This forum will bring together leading experts in the field to share their experiences and discuss next steps in addressing this epidemic. The event will convene leading experts across New York State including medical providers, academic scholars, community advocates, faith leaders, state officials, local law enforcement and criminal justice advocates. The program will consist of two separate panels: Prevention methods and honing in on treatment and recovery options. With a focus on large-scale suburban counties, the event is modeled off the Stories from Sullivan series, which shines a light into how rural upstate New York communities are addressing the opioid crisis. The keynote address will be delivered by Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini, a national leader on developing innovative strategies and partnerships among law enforcement agencies. Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said: This forum will cover a broad range of topics, both about what has been accomplished so far and what the challenges are ahead. We will be discussing everything from prevention and treatment opportunities to new technology and law enforcement strategies being employed to combat the opioid epidemic. Dr. Jim Malatras, President of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, said: In more than a year of studying New Yorks opioid epidemic, our researchers have found that to move the dial and tackle this crisis, policymakers must listen to the people on its frontlines. I commend County Executive Bellone for convening this forum to push the conversation forward on Long Island and identify evidence-driven solutions to this growing crisis." Breakfast and Registration will begin at 9:00 AM. Dr. Jim Malatras, President of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, will provide opening remarks. Some of the participating moderators and panelists also include: Dr. Jim Malatras President, Rockefeller Institute of Government Patricia Strach Director for Policy and Research, Rockefeller Institute of Government Hon. Timothy D. Sini Suffolk County District Attorney Dr. Leslie Marino Columbia University Stuart Cameron Chief of Department, Suffolk County Police Department Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds CEO, Family and Childrens Association Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez Commissioner, NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services John Venza Vice President of Residential Services, Outreach Anthony Ferrandino Counselor, Northport-East Northport Community Drug & Alcohol Task Force Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: January 07 2019 The program will also assist drivers whose licenses have been suspended due to non-payment of tickets. Centerport, NY - January 7, 2019 - Legislator Spencer is getting the word out that Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violation Agency (TPVA) has enacted an amnesty program providing drivers, with past violations, the opportunity to pay their overdue traffic tickets including; parking, moving violations and red-light camera tickets without late fees and penalties. Residents have until February 20th to take advantage of the program. Administrative costs and late fees can make it nearly impossible for some to come up to date with unsettled violations. I encourage county residents to use this window of opportunityfor reliefand begin the New Year with a clean slate, stated Legislator William R. Spencer, M.D. The program will also assist drivers whose licenses have been suspended, due to non-payment of tickets, as they will now have a less costly opportunity to come into compliance and regain their driving privileges.The amnesty program will not apply to cases where a judge has suspended the drivers registration or ability to register a motor vehicle in New York State and cases in which a hearing for suspension is pending. Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: January 07 2019 Bill Will Retroactively Restore Full Deduction of State and Local Taxes. Long Island, NY - January 7, 2019 - Today, Congressmen Tom Suozzi and Peter King announced bipartisan legislation - the King-Suozzi bill - that would provide tax relief for Long Islanders. The bill, H.R. 257, would retroactively reinstate a full deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). In 2017, a $10,000 cap was put on SALT deductions that has negatively affected middle-class families, particularly those living in high cost of living areas like Long Island. Reinstating a full SALT deduction will provide these families with tax relief; not more tax burdens. The tax bill was a punch in the gut for Long Islanders, and all New Yorkers, who already subsidize other states by paying more in taxes than we receive back from the federal government, said Congressman Suozzi. The limitation of this critical deduction has resulted in a devasting tax increase for the middle class. My district is in the top ten in America state and local tax deduction claims. In New Yorks third district, over 250,000 families, or 43 percent of households, claim this deduction at an average rate of $18,300. "Eliminating deductions for local and state taxes will have a devastating effect on Long Island, said Congressmen King. We give far more to Washington then we get back. For every dollar we give, we get $.79 back. Thats a $48 billion shortfall and hurts our middle class Long Islanders. This legislation is critical. Long Island was particularly hard hit by the $10,000 cap on SALT deductions. In the Congressmens districts, nearly half of all tax filers claimed the deduction with an average of nearly $20,000. Capping the deduction has cost Long Islanders, and all New Yorkers, billions more in additional taxes. The average SALT burden is above the $10,000 cap in 52 of 62 counties in New York. The additional tax burden is especially unfair because New York is already a net donor to the federal government, sending $48 billion more in taxes to the federal government than we receive in return. Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 07 2019 Thomas Barton, 54, is accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 16 year-old former student, police say. SCPD arrested Thomas Barton of Medford, 54, for sexual contact with a student. Brentwood, NY - January 7, 2019 - Suffolk County Police on Friday, January 4 arrested a teacher from the North Middle School located in Suffolk County Police on Friday, January 4 arrested a teacher from the North Middle School located in Brentwood for having sexual contact with a former student. Special Victims Section detectives, assisted by Computer Crimes Unit detectives, arrested Thomas Barton at his home located in Medford at approximately 4:45 p.m. for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a former student who is 16-years-old. Barton, 54, was charged with Rape 3rd Degree, Criminal Sex Act 3rd Degree, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. The investigation is continuing. Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact the Special Victims Section at 631-852-6531 Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. The HSE has said the names of GPs offering abortion services will not be published. Those wishing to use the service are being advised to contact the dedicated My Options helpline where they will be directed to a service in their local area. From January 1 abortion services became available to women here in Ireland. Currently 179 GPs across the country are signed up, but it is also understood there are four counties in Ireland where no GP abortion service is available. The Health Service Executive says details of where they can get abortion care are provided directly to people who need it, through the new My Options helpline on 1800 828 010 and will not be made public. The myoptions.ie website provides very clear, accessible information for people experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Myoptions.ie also gives detailed information on abortion services and how they work, helping to answer the questions and concerns of people experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.Abortion care will be free of charge to people who need it. The HSE says there have been quite a lot of calls to the helpline already. The HSE said the following maternity units are providing abortion care: - National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin - Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar - Rotunda Hospital, Dublin - Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda - University Hospital Galway - Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar - University Maternity Hospital Limerick - Cork University Maternity Hospital - University Hospital Waterford What abortion services will be provided? The law allows abortion in the following cases: This video from a dashboard camera of a Chicago police squad car shows Officer Marco Proano shoot at a moving car, wounding two teens inside it, on December 22, 2013 near 95th and LaSalle streets in the Princeton Park neighborhood. (Courtesy of the Chicago Reporter) It appears that we can finally see the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and that Amer Lockport, NY (14094) Today Showers early, then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 72F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Clear skies. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. No stretch of the Pedway is more filthy than the one along the Macys basement, said Hillel Levin, who uses the Pedway daily. He said in an email that he saw a pile of human waste linger for days in an alcove opposite the department store. Pedestrians sometimes can be seen holding scarves against their noses to block out the smell in the area, and walking carefully to avoid sticky spills on the cracked floors. The mother of a missing San Antonio baby says a search team of relatives and friends found a baby bottle near Rodriguez Park Sunday morning, prompting a large police presence at the West Side park. "I honestly believe it's my baby's bottle," said Jasmine Gonzales. 8-month-old King Jay Davila was abducted Friday night from a corner store parking lot. San Antonio police reported that the car was left running and the door unlocked when the father went into the Friends Food Mart at 351 Enrique Barrera Parkway Friday evening. San Antonio police posted on their Twitter feed at 5:43 p.m. that the search for Davila is ongoing and that officials are conducting a more thorough search of the area as part of the investigation. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus confirmed a bottle was found but said it is unknown if it belonged to Davila. McManus also disputed that a body had been found at the park. RELATED: S.A. police respond to North Star Mall after man pulls out a gun "There's been reports of a body being found at Rodriguez Park and that is not the case, there was no body found," McManus said at a briefing for a separate incident across town on the North Side. "Detectives are doing their due diligence in searching everywhere in that park including the body of water that's in there and will be back there again tomorrow to continue that search. " Bexar County Sheriff's Department deputies and San Antonio Fire Department personnel were seen assisting police. SAPD confirmed that firefighters were helping with a water search and a BCSO spokesman said deputies were called to the park. At 4:30 p.m. deputies shut down the park as an SAFD crew launched a watercraft into Leon Creek nearby and a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter searched from above. Police released a surveillance video Saturday showing a woman at the gas station getting into the father's Dodge Dart with the baby inside and driving away without hesitation. The car was found later that night in the same area where family members found the bottle Sunday morning. A family member who did not want to be identified said they were searching the park Sunday morning because they were told by police that is where the car was found after the abduction. RELATED: Video shows missing 8-month-old abducted from San Antonio corner store San Antonio police charged the father, Christopher Davila, with child endangerment. Police have said the parents are estranged and the family has been uncooperative, something the family disputes. "The family is not cooperating, as is the father Christopher Davila, not cooperating," McManus said Saturday evening at a news conference. Gonzales and other family members adamantly rejected those allegations Sunday and lambasted the police department. She said she and the father are engaged and remain together, and that family has been searching for the child since Friday. "The police is saying a whole bunch of bull****," Gonzales said at the park. "That's why I'm disagreeing with them and disputing them and everything." FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox Police have focused on the father since the start of the investigation. "We believe right now that (the father) knows the woman who took the baby," McManus said Friday evening. But Sunday several family members said no one in the family recognized the woman in the video. The baby's mother also blasted San Antonio police as they searched the park. "They need to stop (expletive) putting some blame on someone that's innocent and worry about finding my baby, that's what they need to do," Gonzales said. "I'm assuming they couldn't do their job so now the FBI is stepping in." San Antonio police reported Saturday evening that the FBI began assisting in the investigation but also that local law enforcement has not paused in their search for the child. "Detectives have been working around the clock since this happened last night and they continue to work as we speak," McManus said Saturday. Christina Gonzalez, the father's sister, said he loves his kids. "They're too focused on my brother," she said Sunday. The bottle, which prompted the police presence at the park, is decorated with multicolored stars and a blue lid and was found near the park's Leon Creek Trail by Gonzales' stepmother, the child's mother said. The family called police immediately after finding the bottle. "The case remains under heavy investigation," McManus said Sunday night. There will be more on this breaking story as news develops. A driver crashed into a police car while officers investigated a major wreck Monday morning on the Southwest Freeway, according to Metro Video. A pickup truck first slammed into the back of a small SUV around 2:30 a.m. on Interstate 59 at Texas 288. MEXICO CITY (AP) Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coast resort city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday. State and local police said the attack occurred late Sunday at the "Las Virginias" bar in a low-income section relatively far from the beachside tourist zone. Six men were found shot to death in the bar, and another died at a local hospital. One man was wounded but survived the attack. He told police he was drinking beer with friends when gunshots broke out. The attackers have not yet been identified. READ ALSO: 28 Texas DPS most wanted fugitives captured in 2018, including 4 along the Texas-Mexico border Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, Playa del Carmen has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighborhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway. The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more than double in the last year, with 688 killings in the first 11 months of 2018, compared to 322 in the same period of 2017. At that rate, Quintana Roo could end 2018 with a homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000, on a par with El Salvador. The Caribbean coast especially Cancun and the area south known as the "Riviera Maya" had long been largely spared the drug violence affecting other areas, but that no longer appears to be the case. Local sources report that the feared Jalisco cartel has moved into the region, disputing control with local gangs. In September, two Mexican marines were found stabbed to death in Cancun. In a single day in August, police found eight bodies strewn on the streets of Cancun. In January 2017, gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in Cancun, killing four people. A day before that, a shooting at a music festival in Playa del Carmen left three foreigners and two Mexicans dead. RELATED: Shootout claims lives of Mexican marine, 2 gunmen near Nuevo Laredo The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a brief travel warning for Playa del Carmen in March. A February 2018 blast on a ferry apparently caused by an explosive device injured 26 people, including several American citizens. That has sparked fears that the Caribbean resorts could come to resemble the faded Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The bloody violence in Acapulco that flared in 2006 eventually earned it a level-four "do not travel" warning from the U.S. Department of State. Still, violence in Playa del Carmen is still far from Acapulco levels. In 2017, Acapulco had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Mexico and the world. You may have witnessed this scene at work, while socializing with friends or over a holiday dinner with extended family: Someone who has very little knowledge in a subject claims to know a lot. That person might even boast about being an expert. This phenomenon has a name: the Dunning-Kruger effect. It's not a disease, syndrome or mental illness; it is present in everybody to some extent, and it's been around as long as human cognition, though only recently has it been studied and documented in social psychology. In their 1999 paper, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, David Dunning and Justin Kruger put data to what has been known by philosophers since Socrates, who supposedly said something along the lines of "the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing." Charles Darwin followed that up in 1871 with "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." Put simply, incompetent people think they know more than they really do, and they tend to be more boastful about it. To test Darwin's theory, the researchers quizzed people on several topics, such as grammar, logical reasoning and humor. After each test, they asked the participants how they thought they did. Specifically, participants were asked how many of the other quiz-takers they beat. Dunning was shocked by the results, even though it confirmed his hypothesis. Time after time, no matter the subject, the people who did poorly on the tests ranked their competence much higher. On average, test takers who scored as low as the 10th percentile ranked themselves near the 70th percentile. Those least likely to know what they were talking about believed they knew as much as the experts. Dunning and Kruger's results have been replicated in at least a dozen different domains: math skills, wine tasting, chess, medical knowledge among surgeons and firearm safety among hunters. During the election and in the months after the presidential inauguration, interest in the Dunning-Kruger effect surged. Google searches for "dunning kruger" peaked in May 2017, according to Google Trends, and has remained high since then. Attention spent on the Dunning-Kruger Effect Wikipedia entry has skyrocketed since late 2015. There's also "much more research activity" about the effect right now than immediately after it was published, Dunning said. Typically, interest in a research topic spikes in the five years following a groundbreaking study, then fades. "Obviously it has to do with (President Donald) Trump and the various treatments that people have given him," Dunning said, "So yeah, a lot of it is political. People trying to understand the other side. We have a massive rise in partisanship and it's become more vicious and extreme, so people are reaching for explanations." Even though Trump's statements are rife with errors, falsehoods or inaccuracies, he expresses great confidence in his aptitude. He says he does not read extensively because he solves problems "with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had." He has said in interviews he doesn't read lengthy reports because "I already know exactly what it is." He has "the best words" and cites his "high levels of intelligence" in rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. Decades ago, he said he could end the Cold War: "It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles," Trump told The Washington Post's Lois Romano over dinner in 1984. "I think I know most of it anyway." "Donald Trump has been overestimating his knowledge for decades," said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at the University of Michigan. "It's not surprising that he would continue that pattern into the White House." Dunning-Kruger "offers an explanation for a kind of hubris," said Steven Sloman, a cognitive psychologist at Brown University. "The fact is, that's Trump in a nutshell. He's a man with zero political skill who has no idea he has zero political skill. And it's given him extreme confidence." Sloman thinks the Dunning-Kruger effect has become popular outside of the research world because it is a simple phenomenon that could apply to all of us. And, he said, people are desperate to understand what's going on in the world. Many people "cannot wrap their minds around the rise of Trump," Sloman said. "He's exactly the opposite of everything we value in a politician, and he's the exact opposite of what we thought Americans valued." Some of these people are eager to find something scientific to explain him. Whether people want to understand "the other side" or they're just looking for an epithet, the Dunning-Kruger effect works as both, Dunning said, which he believes explains the rise of interest. The ramifications of the Dunning-Kruger effect are usually harmless. If you've ever felt confident answering questions on an exam, only to have the teacher mark them incorrect, you have firsthand experience with Dunning-Kruger. On the other end of the spectrum, the effect can be deadly. In 2017, former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison for maiming several patients. "His performance was pathetic," one co-surgeon wrote about Duntsch after a botched spinal surgery, according to the Texas Observer. "He was functioning at a first- or second-year neurosurgical resident level but had no apparent insight into how bad his technique was." Dunning says the effect is particularly dangerous when someone with influence or the means to do harm doesn't have anyone who can speak honestly about their mistakes. He noted several plane crashes that could have been avoided if crew had spoken up to an overconfident pilot. "You get into a situation where people can be too deferential to the people in charge," Dunning explained. "You have to have people around you that are willing to tell you you're making an error." What happens when the incompetent are unwilling to admit they have shortcomings? Are they so confident in their own perceived knowledge that they will reject the very idea of improvement? Not surprisingly (though no less concerning), Dunning's follow-up research shows the poorest performers are also the least likely to accept criticism or show interest in self improvement. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP A 23-year-old Sandusky man was injured in a single-vehicle accident that took place on Sanilac Road near Shrine Park Road. According to the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to the scene around 3 a.m. Monday, where Coty Sopha was traveling west bound on Sanilac Road when he crossed over into the oncoming lane and entered a ditch, striking a field drive embankment, and overturning the vehicle. One of two teens charged in a west Houston drive-by shooting that sent a 7-year-old to the hospital is scheduled to have his next court date on Tuesday morning. Harris County Sheriffs Office Violent Crimes Unit investigators sought charges against a second man in connection with the drive-by shooting that wounded a 7-year-old on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018. Bailey allegedly fired a handgun several times at a vehicle, striking it and the complainants 7-year-old brother in the back seat. Omarion Bailey, 19, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; deadly conduct-discharging a firearm at a habitation, building or vehicle; and aggravated assault from a motor vehicle at a habitation, building or vehicle. Bailey is currently being held on bonds totaling $185,000. The Tuesday hearing is scheduled in Abigail Anastasios 184th Criminal Court. Brandon Wayne Savoie, 18, was charged with tampering or fabricating evidence in relation to the shooting incident. Investigators allege that Savoie allowed Omarion Bailey to drive his vehicle, while he was riding in the passenger seat of the 2003 Infiniti. RELATED: Suspect who shot 7-year-old in back turns himself in Savoie is being held in jail under no bond. He was on probation for felony drug possession. His next court date is scheduled for Feb. 6, also in Anastasios courtroom. It is believed that the two spotted an 18-year-old male they had a previous altercation with, driving a late model Cadillac at the intersection of Fort Stanton and Gray Hawk in west Harris County. The boy was driven to Katy Memorial Hermann Hospital and later transported by life-flight to Texas Childrens Hospital in the Medical Center, where he was reported in good condition and is expected to make a full recovery. The other child and male were not shot. After the shooting, it is alleged that Savoie tried to hide his vehicle and remove Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) from the car. Savoie is on deferred adjudication for a felony marijuana possession charge from September of 2018. He was placed on community supervision on Dec. 6, 2018. The state made a motion for high bond. Anyone with information on the incident is urged to call the Violent Crimes Unit at 713-274-9100. rkent@hcnonline.com Harris County Precinct 3 residents could have a new community center within a year to replace the flood-damaged Bear Creek Community Center. Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said he plans to seek bids soon for the center which will be located on about five acres on the north side of Clay Road west of Barker Cypress Road. The property is located west of the Westlake RV Resort. At the Dec. 18 Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, Radack asked for authorization to submit an application to the Rebuild Texas Fund for a $3.8 million grant, with no required match, for the Bear Creek Community Center project. The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in collaboration with the OneStar Foundation created the Rebuild Texas Fund. The fund has divided communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey into five regions and focuses on six areas, including community and economic development, through the end of 2019. Funding through the Rebuild Texas Fund will be provided to eligible nonprofit, government, corporate, and philanthropic organizations working on the ground in Texas communities, big and small, that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey, according to the groups website at www.rebuildtx.org Were looking at a number of sources of money for the community center, said Radack. He talked of money from insurance claims, possible Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and the possible transfer of park funds. The project estimate right now is about $6 million, he added. The community center had been located at Bear Creek Park. The 2016 Tax Day floods caused $750,000 damage to the building. The rebuilt center opened in December 2016 only to be flooded when Hurricane Harvey visited the area in August 2017. Harris County Engineer John Blount did not recommend rebuilding the center. The Bear Creek Community Center temporarily is housed at the Glazier Senior Education Center, 16600 Pine Forest Lane in west Houston, and is offering limited classes/events. Glazier hours were expanded to accommodate the additional programs. Radack said plans being finalized call for a much larger community center. The building will include an early voting center inside, he said. The building can be used for other things. The interior is very much like the Trini Mendenhall Community Center on Wirt Road, Radack said. Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. (LAN),a civil engineering firm, has designed a 24,500-square-foot building to replace the damaged Bear Creek facility. The original Bear Creek Community Center was about 8,000 square feet. Jeff Thomas, senior associate/facilities team leader at Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc., said the precinct was interested in prairie-style architecture for the center. Currently, the project is planned as a pre-engineered metal building with a brick wainscoting facade and a high open entry on the front. Estimated construction time is 9 to 12 months. The property will include a walking trail. Well detain the flood waters in the parking lot and wont waste extra property, added Thomas. It will serve the needs of the community to provide a space to gather for voting and for all the activities a community has in those facilities. I think its going to be a very needed facility, said Radack. Its going to be very well-received. While construction could start in a few months, the new center will not be renamed Bear Creek. It will have a new name, said Radack. No timeline exists for converting the former Bear Creek Center and Agriculture Extension Service office into a park pavilion within Bear Creek Park. The LAN website, https://lan-inc.com, talks of having developed schematic design proposals to salvage the existing building structures and re-purpose the facility into a park pavilion with amenities. Were going to try to make use of that structure, said Radack, who added Thats not a big priority project. Dunkin' is expanding in San Antonio and it want locals to join the celebration. The coffee and breakfast chain is offering free medium hot or iced coffees all day Monday at all participating San Antonio locations to celebrate its growth. Find the locations here. As a fashion extravaganza, the 76th Golden Globe Awards began and ended with Lady Gaga in a billowing Valentino Haute Couture gown in a shade of pale blue with a hint of lilac. The dress required its own team of wranglers to manage the extravagant train, and her necklace - the massive string of Tiffany diamonds dubbed the Aurora - came with its own security guards. Her hair had been molded into something akin to a Henry Moore sculpture and dyed to match her dress - providing vindication for all those ladies of a certain generation who still demand a blue rinse at the beauty shop. When Gaga stepped up to the E! microphone for her red-carpet interview about filming the remake of "A Star Is Born," for which she was nominated for her role as Ally, she waxed on about having studied method acting as a child, but she said it was the making of this movie that taught her to "go to the nectar of your being." No one else stood a chance - especially after eagle-eyed fans on social media noticed Gaga's dress resembled one worn by Judy Garland in the 1954 version of the film. Gaga was a fashion plate, a showstopper and not just an actor but a thespian, doggonit, all rolled up in a thousand yards of silk taffeta. Oh, the men tried to compete. And they made a strong showing. Gaga won by a hair. A single blue hair. Not only is it time to ask the men, "Who are you wearing?" But at long last, the answer is worth knowing. Billy Porter, nominated for his work in FX's "Pose," arrived on the red carpet in a dove-gray cape that was embroidered and bedazzled with flowers. He flung that cape open to reveal a tailored suit and shirt, which were equally abundant with sparkling flora. It was ostentatious and indulgent; it was a smorgasbord of eccentric delights. He was fabulous, dammit! While the other men of Hollywood were not quite as foot-stompingly adamant about reveling in their glory, many of them loosed their imagination and their adventurousness. Idris Elba was a vision - well, Elba is always a vision, and that's a fact. But no matter - he was especially striking in a pine-green jacquard, shawl-collared tuxedo that he said had been made for him by British designer Ozwald Boateng, who is known for bringing a streak of creative subversiveness to the tradition-bound tailoring of Savile Row. Darren Criss, who was nominated for his work in "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," was wearing a dinner jacket emblazoned with cherry blossoms from Dior Homme. Director Spike Lee, nominated for his film "BlacKkKlansman," wore purple; Chadwick Boseman was in a crystal-studded white suit; Timothee Chalamet wore a jet-black beaded harness from Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh. The men - and the women, too - seemed to make their style choices based on what delighted them. They chose freely, or at least as freely as actors can when many of them are paid ambassadors for a brand and are contractually obligated to wear something from the label that is writing the big check whenever they attend certain major press events. There was politics, to be sure. There were (hash)TimesUpx2 bracelets and ribbons, and references to diversity and declarations about the importance of free expression. And some folks, such as Lena Waithe, cloaked themselves in their politics, wearing black in a continued campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault and harassment across industries. There was plenty of white: Julianne Moore in sculptural Givenchy, co-host Sandra Oh in Atelier Versace, and Jamie Lee Curtis, whose platinum hair matched her gown. The color harks back to the women's suffrage movement and has been embraced as a form of resistance to the silencing of women's voices. But white also looks especially terrific on a red carpet and against bronzed skin. And there's no arguing that Justin Hartley of "This Is Us" looked dashing in his white Brunello Cucinelli dinner jacket. There was a last gasp or two from Raf Simons' version of Calvin Klein. The Belgian designer recently parted ways with the company - creative differences, poor sales - but Hollywood still loves him. Amy Adams and Lupita Nyong'o both wore Calvin Klein By Appointment. Adams was in a spare, teal blue, off-the-shoulder sheath. Nyong'o was in a glittering, cobalt-blue, chain-fringed, flapper-style gown. If only stars would buy the darn clothes! In many ways, the Globes are the fashion warm-up for the Oscars, when most every actress shows up in couture and the men are often in bespoke tuxedos. We can expect more Celine and Louis Vuitton and Valentino. More white. More velvet. But the bigger lesson of the Globes is that increasingly the men on the red carpet are just as interesting as the women - if not more so. The men are not suddenly releasing some long-caged inner peacock. Their flamboyant side has been out and strutting for quite some time. It's that the women's clothes overall just aren't quite as exciting anymore. Lady Gaga was a one-off. The balance of fashion is shifting to the fellas. Oil notched its longest stretch of daily gains in more than 17 months as fresh trade talks between the U.S. and China added to optimism that a global supply glut will be averted. Futures closed 1.2 percent in New York, reaching their highest settlement in three weeks. A U.S. delegation began new negotiations in Beijing as representatives of the world's largest economies sought to ease tensions. That followed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's assurances on Friday that interest-rate hikes may be paused if the economy weakens. Crude has rebounded this month after its worst fourth-quarter performance since 2014. Shipping data shows OPEC is following through on a pledge to curb supplies, and traders who had given up on the market late last year have come back in a buying mood in 2019, said Vikas Dwivedi, global oil and gas strategist for Macquarie Capital Inc. in Houston. PREVIOUSLY: Oil set for biggest weekly gain since 2016 on Saudi supply cut "It's just a broadly reinvigorated market," Dwivedi said by telephone. "A lot of these guys just said, 'I'm going to turn it off' at the end of last year and talk to their investors. But they've come back with a green light." While Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its 2019 oil-price forecasts on Monday, citing a re-emerging glut and resilient American shale output, the bank said the late-2018 price drop was excessive. West Texas Intermediate for February delivery rose 56 cents to settle at $48.52 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have risen almost 7 percent so far this month, erasing most of December's 11 percent decline. RIGS: California leads rig count dip Brent for March settlement advanced 0.5 percent to $57.33 on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange in London. The global benchmark crude traded at an $8.51 premium to WTI for the same month. Powell's dovish remarks helped push the U.S. dollar to its lowest level since October, a positive development for commodities such as oil that are denominated in the greenback. Bullish Sentiment "The statement from the Fed chair was in the direction of what the market bulls have wanted," said Kim Kwangrae, a commodities analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul. "At the same time, there's increased expectation that OPEC+ will cut its production from this month." Traders still have to weigh the prospects of surging American supplies. Stockpiles at the key crude storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, probably rose by 700,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. Still, data from oilfield services provider Baker Hughes last week showed working oil rigs in the U.S. contracted for the first time since mid-December. American and Chinese officials began negotiations on Monday in the hope of reaching a deal during a 90-day truce in the trade war between the administrations of President Donald Trump and counterpart Xi Jinping. --With assistance from Tsuyoshi Inajima, Sharon Cho and Grant Smith. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Photo taken from a high-speed video camera during a firing of an electromagnetic rail gun (EMRG) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia, on Jan. 31, 2008. China appears to have beaten the U.S. in the race to mount a rail gun on a battleship, as Popular Mechanics reported Dec. 31. Does it matter? Sort of. Maybe. Rail guns are devices that use electromagnetism to hurl projectiles over long distances, speeding them on much faster than gunpowder-based weapons of similar size. They're useful if you want to kill a lot of people far away from you before they have time to detect that you shot at them. They're particularly useful for naval warfare, where most of the killing is accomplished by destroying the big death machine your enemy is riding around in before your enemy can destroy your big death machine. Or, they would be particularly useful for that, except that it's quite difficult to get them to work. See more Rail guns, as reported in August by USNI News (published by the nonprofit U.S. Naval Institute), require very-large-capacity batteries; in addition, their barrels tend to fall apart. The U.S. hasn't yet managed to make one with a battery small enough or a barrel sturdy enough for it to be installed on a warship though it has been trying for more than a decade. [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare] The Chinese navy, it seems, has beaten the U.S. to the punch (though as Popular Mechanics noted, it's not actually clear whether the Chinese rail gun works). According to news reports, a Chinese naval ship called Haiyang Shan sporting a seeming rail gun on its bow, was spotted leaving the Yangtze River for testing in the Pacific. This is, on a certain level, a big deal, because both countries' giant seaborne killing machines have been menacing one another in the South China Sea lately. On the other hand, given that both countries are nuclear superpowers, it's hard to imagine that the outcome of a war between them would be decided by the types of guns that fired the first shots. Originally published on Live Science. The drug "did not seem to do much for suicidal ideation and that was somewhat disappointing, but the thing what was mind-blowing was that it actually worsened nightmares," McCall said in a university news release. "Maybe its not for everybody." When Amelia Earhart took off in 1937 to fly around the world, people had been flying airplanes for only about 35 years. When she tried to fly across the Pacific, she and the world knew it was risky. She didn't make it, and was declared dead in January 1939. In the 80 years since then, many other planes have been lost around the world and never found again including the 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, over the Indian Ocean. As flight instructors and aviation industry professionals, we know that increasingly advanced technologies are getting better at tracking planes, even across great expanses of water far from land. These systems allow aircraft to navigate much more easily, and many allow real-time flight tracking across much of the globe. Getting from place to place From the early years of aviation up until about 2000, the main way pilots navigated was by playing connect-the-dots across a map. They would use radio direction-finding equipment to follow a route from an airport to a radio-transmitting beacon at a fixed location, and then from beacon to beacon until reaching the destination airport. Various technologies made that process easier, but the concept was still the same. That system is still in use, but decreasingly so as new technologies replace it. In the first few years of the 21st century, pilots for major airlines began to use the United States' Global Positioning System and other similar systems that use signals from orbiting satellites to calculate the plane's position. GPS is more accurate, letting pilots land easily in bad weather conditions, without the need for expensive ground-based radio transmitters. Satellite navigation also lets pilots fly more directly between destinations, because they need not follow the routes from one radio beacon to the next. There are six satellite-based navigation systems in operation: GPS, run by the United States; Galileo, run by the European Union and the European Space Agency; and the Russian GLONASS cover the whole planet, and China's BeiDou system is expected to span the globe by 2020. India's NAVIC covers the Indian Ocean and nearby areas; Japan has begun operating the QZSS system to improve navigation in the Pacific. The systems operate independently of each other, but some satellite navigation receivers can merge data from more than one of them simultaneously, providing pilots with extremely accurate information about where they are. That can help them get where they're going, rather than going missing. Tracking aircraft When planes do get lost, the company or country responsible for them often starts searching; some efforts, like the search for MH 370, include many nations and businesses. When all is going well, most planes are tracked by radar, which can also help air traffic controllers prevent midair collisions and give pilots directions around severe weather. When planes fly beyond the range of land-based radar, like on long-haul trips over oceans, though, they're tracked using a method devised more than 70 years ago: Pilots periodically radio air traffic control with reports on where they are, what altitude they're flying at and what their next navigation landmark is. Over the past few years, a new method has been rolling out around the world. Called "Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast," the system sends automatic position reports from airplanes to air traffic controllers and nearby aircraft, so everyone knows who's where and avoids collisions. By 2020, the FAA will require most aircraft in the U.S. to have an ADS-B system, which is already mandatory in several other countries. At the moment, though, ADS-B flight tracking doesn't cover remote areas of the world because it depends on ground-based receivers to collect the information from planes. A space-based receiver system is being tested, which could eventually cover the entire planet. In addition, many airplane manufacturers sell equipment that includes monitoring and tracking software: for instance, to analyze engine performance and spot problems before they become severe. Some of this equipment can transmit real-time data on the location of the aircraft while it's in flight. Data from those systems were used in the search for MH 370, and also gave investigators early insight into the 2015 Germanwings 9525 crash in the French Alps, before the plane's "black box" flight data recorder was found. GPS, ADS-B and other navigation and tracking systems might have helped save, or at least find, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan either by preventing them from getting lost in the first place or by directing rescuers to their location after the plane went down. Eight decades later, planes still go missing but it's getting harder to fly off the map. Brian Strzempkowski, Assistant Director, Center for Aviation Studies, The Ohio State University and Shawn Pruchnicki, Lecturer, Center for Aviation Studies, The Ohio State University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science. Modern Icelandic horses are likely descended from the horses that Vikings were buried with, more than 1,000 years ago. Vikings who settled in Iceland more than 1,000 years ago valued their horses so much that the men were buried with their trusty steeds. And DNA analysis of these treasured animals recently proved that the horses consigned to the grave with their manly owners were males, too. For decades, archaeologists have studied the contents of hundreds of Viking graves in Iceland. Many of these graves also contained the remains of horses that appeared to have been healthy adults when they died. Because the horses seemed well cared for in life before they were killed and buried, that is they were considered to be important to the men whose remains lay nearby. Recently, scientists conducted the first ancient DNA analysis of bones from 19 horses in Viking graves, and found that nearly all of the animals were male, a tantalizing clue about vanished Viking culture. [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Culture] Iceland is home to 355 known Viking graves dating from the late ninth century to the early 11th century A.D., and the occupants are mostly middle-age men, researchers reported in a new study. Horses are common in these graves more than 175 horses appear in 148 graves. The majority of the animals were clearly associated with the human skeletons, and they appeared to have been slaughtered "specifically for burial," the scientists reported. A sliver cut from a horse's molar found in Berufjorur, Iceland provided enough ancient DNA to reveal the sex of the animal, buried by Vikings long ago. (Image credit: Agata Gondek) Prior interpretation of horses' remains from other Viking sites suggested that male horses played an important role for Vikings. And researchers suspected that learning the sex of the buried Icelandic horses would provide valuable insights into funeral rituals. Experts can differentiate between the remains of male and female horses by looking at the shape of the animal's pelvis and from the canine teeth, which typically appear only in males, according to the study. But this type of analysis works only if the remains are in good condition, study co-author Albina Hulda Palsdottir, a doctoral candidate with the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo in Sweden, told Live Science in an email. "Since horses are so hard to sex morphologically unless fairly well-preserved, whole skeletons are found, we know very little about the varying roles of male and female horses in the past," Palsdottir said. The scientists turned to ancient DNA, or aDNA, to reveal the sex of the horses, which they were able to accomplish with small quantities of genetic material. They examined 22 horses from 17 sites, and of the 19 horses found in graves, 18 were males. This suggests that male horses were favored for ritual burial by the Viking noblemen whose graves they shared, Palsdottir said in the email. "The sex ratio and age distribution of the killed horses suggests that there was a well-formed structure behind the rituals, in which the chosen horse acted as symbolic representative," she explained. "The conscious choice of males was perhaps linked with the characteristics of stallions; virility and aggression could have been a strong symbolic factor," Palsdottir added. However, the remains of three horses that were found outside graves had not received the ceremonial treatment of the buried horses. All of these animals were found to be female, and they had probably been eaten, the study authors concluded. In further analysis of their samples, the scientists will compare them with evidence of horses from other Northern European countries dating to the Viking age, Palsdottir told Live Science. They hope to find the geographical origins of Viking horses and physical traits such as the horses' colors, she added. The findings were published online in the January 2019 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. Original article on Live Science. A History of Magic (Image credit: Phoenix illustration by Jim Kay; Copyright Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2016. Original design by the British Library 2017.) Harry Potter fans rejoice there are two tours about our wizarding hero in New York City right now. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is showing at the New-York Historical Society through the end of January. And Museum Hacks The Boy Wizard tour is magicking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the de Young Museum in San Francisco year round. Both delve into the history of magic seen at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For instance, did you know "hocus pocus" seen in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" when Harry menacingly teases his cousin Dudley likely comes from the religious blessing "Hoc est corpus meum"? According to Museum Hack, the shorter "spell" is likely a perversion of the original Latin phrase, which means "this is my body." Bezoar stone (Image credit: Part of the Wellcome Collection, which is cared for by the Science Museum; Copyright The Board of the Trustees of the Science Museum, London) In Harry's first potions class, Professor Snape exposes our hero's ignorance of the wizarding world by asking him about bezoars (BE-zors), supposedly powerful antidotes to poison. But these stones aren't unique to witches and wizards; bezoars also also appear in the Muggle (non-magical) world. Bezoars are indigestible fibers that clump together in the digestive system, especially in those of goats, cows and elephants. Here is one encased in a 17th-century gold filigree case. There are other bezoars at the Met, Museum Hack pointed out. But don't expect bezoars to cure you if you're poisoned. They're not really antidotes. Sorcerer's stone (Image credit: General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University) In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (Scholastic Press, 1998), the evil wizard Voldemort is after something powerful (beware, spoiler ahead): A stone that makes gold and bestows immortality on its owner. But the sorcerer's stone also known as the philosopher's stone isn't a new idea. The famous 16th century Ripley Scroll, shown here, is a nearly 20-foot-long (6 meters) scroll that offers a detailed recipe about how to make such a prize. You can see the whole scroll here. In real life the stone was also thought to convey immortality upon its finder. Nicolas Flamel (Image credit: Copyright Paris, Musee de Cluny - Musee National du Moyen Age) Nicholas Flamel is a key character in the Potterverse. After all, he created the Sorcerer's stone. But Flamel was actually a real person who died in 1418. His tombstone is above. Flamel was a landlord in medieval Paris, and there were many rumors that he had discovered the Sorcerer's stone. Even more intriguing, when his grave was exhumed, the body was missing. Mandrakes (Image credit: Copyright British Library Board) Harry Potter and his friends come across the mandrake when they take herbology at their magic school. It is truly a peculiar plant. Harry learns that its cries can kill a person, so he dons earmuffs to protect himself. Luckily, these magical plants can also cure people who have been petrified, as we learn in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (Scholastic Press, 2000). In antiquity, the resemblance of the mandrake's root to the human form prompted many cultures to attribute special powers to the plant, according to the New-York Historical Society. In reality, the mandrake's roots and leaves are poisonous and can cause hallucinations. Abracadabra (Image credit: Copyright British Library Board) In ancient times, "abracadabra" was thought to be a charm with healing powers. In the 13th-century medical book "Liber Medicinalis," readers are instructed to write out the entire word and omit one letter on each subsequent line. Then, the charm could be worn as an amulet around the neck to drive out malaria-induced fever. According to a 2004 interview, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that the killing curse "avada kedavra" comes from abracadabra. Astronomy (Image credit: Copyright British Library Board) Harry Potter studied astronomy at Hogwarts, and he was in good company. Here's the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci's, one of history's great astronomers and innovators. In the notebook, written between 1506 and 1508, da Vinci wrote backwards in Italian from right to left, so that his work wouldn't be plagiarized. Here, da Vinci shows the sun and moon revolving around Earth, reinforcing the (incorrect) view that Earth was at the center of the universe. Da Vinci also (wrongly) believed that the moon was covered with water and that its surface reflected light like a convex mirror, according to the New-York Historical Society. Star-filled map (Image credit: General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University) Harry Potter studied the night sky with Professor Aurora Sinistra, the witch who taught astronomy at Hogwarts. Perhaps he would have benefited from this celestial globe, which shows the position of the stars in the sky, created in Venice in 1699. It was made by Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan friar and cosmographer who was considered one of the greatest globemakers in the world. Oracle bones (Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of A.W. Bahr, 1923) Forever logical, Professor Minerva McGonagall calls divination "one of the most imprecise branches of magic." But J.K. Rowling didn't conjure this branch of magic out of thin air. Here is a Chinese oracle bone dated to the Shang Dynasty, which lasted from 1600 B.C. to 1046 B.C. The oxen shoulder blade was engraved and then heated with metal sticks, which caused the bone to break. Then, a shaman read the resulting patterns (reportedly made from the spirits of ancestors) to answer questions about the emperor's health and affairs, as well as warfare, agriculture and natural disasters, according to the New-York Historical Society. Werewolves (Image credit: Jim Kay/On loan from Bloomsbury Publishing Plc) Remus Lupin, who teaches defense against the dark arts, is one of Harry's favorite professors. But Lupin is also (spoiler ahead) a werewolf. In this illustration, Lupin averts his gaze from the viewer while the full moon is ominously shown in the background. The surname Lupis is Latin for wolf and the name Remus is from one of the legendary founders of Rome, who was suckled by a wolf. Owls (Image credit: John James Audubon; New-York Historical Society, Purchased for the Society by public subscription from Mrs. John J. Audubon) Students at Hogwarts can have a pet cat, toad or owl, Harry learns as he prepares for his first year at school. Much to Harry's delight, Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper, buys him a snowy owl named Hedwig. Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) shown here in a 1829 watercolor painted by John Audubon hunt during the day and the early evening. In this watercolor, the owls are shown at twilight with a gathering snowstorm in the background. Read your June horoscope to reveal what's in store for you, from the astrologers at Tarot.com. With the Solar Eclipse in Gemini on June 10, there's definitely a sense of new ideas waiting to be born in our lives. Less fortunately, Mercury will be retrograde during this eclipse, forcing us to remain in an uncertain incubation period for a little while longer. On June 22, Mercury turns direct and we'll start to get some of the clarity we need to flesh out our plans and move forward with them. By Tarot.com Astrologers In the drama, a pair of retired nuclear scientists are startled by a visit from a former colleague, who digs up old jealousies and reveals a dangerous and chilling plan. "Untitled Morning Show," Apple. The tech giant made a huge move when it negotiated Jennifer Aniston's return to television alongside new small-screen darling Reese Witherspoon. The duo will star and executive produce, joining other big name talent behind the camera, including showrunner Kerry Ehrin and director Mimi Leder. The subject matter that goes meta to look at television production, as well as the impact of the #MeToo movement, only adds to the anticipation. A lot is on the line for the show, given its big budget, as well as untested foray into the scripted arena for the company. Expectations could not be higher, but and sources say they are now in production, so let's hope they bring this one to screens sooner rather than later. The chemical company Oxea has lifted its declaration of force majeure for products from Oberhausen, Germany. The production units there are running at normal capacity again. The declaration of force majeure had become necessary because of an incident beyond Oxea's control at an important raw material supplier at the Oberhausen site on November 18, 2018. As a result of this operational disruption, Oxea had to temporarily restrict supplies of certain products that the company manufactures in Oberhausen. The site partner has now successfully rectified the operational disruption. As a result, Oxea now has sufficient raw material at its disposal again and will be able to gradually meet its delivery obligations. Oxea has already informed its customers and distributors. MORE THAN 700 Leaving Cert students from across Munster are to carry out practical biology and physics experiments in the state-of-the-art laboratories at the University of Limerick this week. Students will get the opportunity to conduct the laboratory practical experiments set on the Leaving Certificate Biology and Physics curricula, in workshops run by the UL Department of Biological Sciences and the UL Department of Physics. This Monday, 110 Biology and Physics students, from Limerick, Clare, Galway and Tipperary, visited the UL campus. "This is a great revision opportunity for our students as they get to retake the practical experiments in the Leaving Certificate syllabus using the state-of-the art facilities, said Jason Comerford, a biology teacher at Glenstal Abbey School. In addition to preparing students for their Leaving Certificate exam it gives them an insight into life as a university student, creating an added impetus to strive to reach their full potential." Many students throughout the country do not get the opportunity to carry out experiments included in their course as their schools dont have the facilities, according to Professor Sean Arkins of the UL Department of Biological Sciences. Our biology laboratories have the most up to date experimental equipment to facilitate in depth research and experimentation. It's a great opportunity for secondary school students to practically engage with the University also, said Prof Arkins added. A LEADING digital agency headed by a Limerick man has carried out a study warning that business websites in Ireland are significantly behind the industry speed standard. Agent Digital, run by managing director Kevin Meaney, has created a website speed report surveying the page loading times of over 1,000 individual Irish web sites. The survey highlights that the average website loading time in the domestic e-commerce sector was the slowest of all sectors looked at. Websites take on average 10.35 seconds to load fully on a mobile device. Mr Meaney said the research represents a wake-up call for all Irish businesses online. Average load time for Irish websites is over three times the recommended standard. Research shows 53% will leave a mobile page if it takes longer than three seconds to load," Mr Meaney said. He added: More than 64% of Irish people are searching and in excess of 16% are purchasing goods and services online through mobile devices every week. But our data shows that Irish business websites are not fast enough to adequately serve this traffic. The study was compiled using Googles web performance and speed test tools, with the Agent Digital team periodically testing the speeds of 1,081 individual Irish websites across 29 business sectors over a 12-month period. Mr Meaney added: It was important for us to create this speed report to highlight the issue to Irish businesses. Many Irish brands are simply not aware that their websites are too slow. Once the issue is highlighted it can be quickly addressed through effective website speed optimisation techniques. TRIBUTES have been paid to the formidable warrior Dr Adrienne Cullen, the Limerick woman who campaigned for open disclosures in cases of medical error, following her untimely passing. Dr Cullen, a former resident of the Ennis Road, challenged the Dutch health system and campaigned for a no-gagging clause after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer following a medical error in the Netherlands. At the beginning of December, Dr Cullen was presented with an honorary doctorate by her alma mater, University College Cork. Silence and denial have no place, Dr Cullen said as she was conferred at UCC. Its only when patients and their doctors stand together that change happens. UCC president Professor Patrick OShea paid tribute to the late Dr Cullen, crediting her for her bravery and conviction and for her pursuit of transparency in healthcare. She used the most challenging of circumstances as a catalyst for change to improve the policy of open disclosure in cases of medical harm for others, Prof OShea said. Her bravery, her conviction, her perseverance, her resilience her compassion, and her quiet, respectful pursuit of honesty, transparency and accountability exemplify the very best qualities any of us could hope to possess when facing such difficulty and tragedy. Dr Cullen passed away on Monday December 31 at the age of 58. She actively campaigned for more transparency following her misdiagnosis at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, where test results that showed she had cervical cancer were lost in 2011. By the time they were found two years later, her condition was terminal. Ms Cullen and her husband Paul Cluskey, a former journalist with RTE and the Irish Examiner, refused to sign a gagging clause as part of their settlement against the hospital. Mr Cluskey said his wife was appallingly treated and it made Dr Cullen a formidable warrior. AROUND 200 people attended the annual commemoration of the death of republican figure Sean Sabhat in Limerick at the weekend. The main speaker at Sundays event, which was organised by Limerick Sinn Fein, was Sligo-Leitrim TD, Martin Kenny. Led by a lone piper, the procession began at Bedford Row in the city centre and finished at the republican plot in Mount St. Laurence Cemetery where a number of speeches were made and a wreath laid. Poems were also recited. Many people live their lives until they are old and grey and they go to their graves without ever being asked to make a stand for anything and those who make a stand inspire others, said Deputy Kenny. The stand that he made was obviously a very costly one for him and his family. People arent asked any more to make those kind of stands, he added. Sinn Fein councillors from across Limerick attended the commemoration as did Limerick city TD Maurice Quinlivan. Its an important tradition, its nice and simple and I do think its fitting that we remember him every year. He didnt have to go and fight for what he believed in the unification of Ireland he did and he lost his life, he told the Limerick Leader. Sean Sabhat, who grew up on OConnell Avenue, was one of two IRA volunteers who were killed after they crossed the border into County Fermanagh on New Year's Day 1957, to launch an attack on a joint RUC/B Specials barracks. ROLE models, making science relevant and extracurriculars are encouraging more young women than ever to pursue science, maths, technology and engineering subjects, Limerick city teachers believe. For the eleventh year in a row, more girls than boys are set to compete in the 2019 finals of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE). And while this indicates a positive trend in the numbers of girls studying STEM subjects at second level, the latest figures from the CSO still suggest that men make up the majority of third level graduates in the field. Colaiste Nano Nagle, an all-girls secondary school on Sexton Street, Limerick city, offers three science subjects for the Leaving Cert cycle, according to teacher Kelly Walsh. It can be difficult to encourage the students in, Ms Walsh said. But weve found doing initiatives, such as the Young Scientist or Scifest, it really does encourage them. Colaiste Nano Nagle is set to exhibit two projects at the RDS; Cookies for Rookies, an awareness campaign started by students Lauren Kelly, Abbey OKeeffe and Buki Adejomehin, seeking to educate the public on what they are consenting to as they browse the internet. Planet Project, an app designed by Hafza Abdiwali and Elizabeth Patskhawa, aims to teach young students about the environment, including topics like global warming, pollution and the extinction of bees. Colaiste Nano Nagle also works closely with TeenTurn, an organisation focusing on how girls identify with a tech career through hands-on experience, Ms Walsh added. They have been absolutely fantastic. We make it a fun event to really encourage the girls in. I think from this, they will go back into the younger year groups in school, and show off how they are making science relevant to them. Projects like BTYSTE and SciFest also definitely help to encourage female students, Ms Walsh added. We recently visited the Eir Mobile Headquarters with the students, she said. They gave a really good talk about the science of the future, showing all the girls the different career options, making it relevant to them. Eir took a survey at the beginning, to see how many of them would like to work in the field one day and less than a third said they would like to go that road. By the end of the tour, all hands went up so they were all converted to that career path. The co-ed Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh is set to send seven students to the BTYSTE RDS showcase, with three projects created by young women. Memory Aid, a project by second year students Niamh Hennessy and Ciara Nic Uiginn looks at dementia, while fourth year students Elaine Ni Treasaigh, Eva McMahon and Clodagh Hannon carried out an investigation into the aluminum levels in Limericks water supply. Seoda Ni Chaoimh and Muireann Ni She, also in fourth year, studied the use of antibiotics in County Clare. Once they get the exposure and the encouragement, girls can do anything, their teacher Ciara Ni Dhrisceoil said. In our case at the moment, all of the teachers for Junior Cycle Science are female as well. That does help as well. They have role models who are scientists. Theres no shortage of opportunities for girls, especially in Limerick, and its just about exposing them to those possibilities, and encouraging and supporting them along the way, she added. A lot of them go on to study science at third level as well. It's been very strong in the school. We expose them to everything thats available, boys and girls, and they all get equal opportunity. The important thing is that all students are given the opportunity to go further than just the classroom content. It's up to them after that, and we will support them. Their biggest influences are each other. When they see other girls, and every year the numbers are growing, they want to do it too. Influencers have a massive role in this too. We're sorry that the ministry you were looking for is no longer available on LightSource.com. However, below are some great ministries that offer related content. Enjoy the inspiration, encouragement, and Biblical challenge from these LightSource.com ministry partners! Premises partaking in a race to the bottom competition over alcohol prices in Bundoran were warned by Judge Kevin Kilrane to return to a level playing field or face the consequences come the annual licensing court in September. Premises partaking in a race to the bottom competition over alcohol prices in Bundoran were warned by Judge Kevin Kilrane to return to a level playing field or face the consequences come the annual licensing court in September. A Donegal solicitor took to the stand in Ballyshannon District Court last Friday, June 1, to voice her concern as a parent over the pricing competition going on in Bundoran between bars. Conor McEniff, owner of the Paris Nightclub, Bundoran, had a special exemption application before the court to allow the premises to stay open late last weekend (during the Rory Gallagher Festival held in Ballyshannon). Inspector David Kelly said the state were objecting to the exemption. Inspector Kelly said the bar had advertised prices of drinks extraordinarily low on Facebook and the concern is that it may lead to anti social behaviour. Solicitor Brian McMullin said his client was happy to work with the Gardai. He noted that he was not aware of any pricing restrictions. Applicant Conor McEniff told the court that he is eleven years managing bars. He said If we cant price competitively, then we cant pay wages. He said his staff are trained and know when to stop serving, he also said he had security, doormen and CCTV. Inspector Kelly put it to Mr McEniff that the Gardai had visited his home trying to speak to him about this application. Mr McEniff said he was unaware of that but said the Gardai have my phone number when they are looking for CCTV. Solicitor Cathleen Dolan took the stand. She said she was speaking on behalf of concerned parents in Ballyshannon. She said parents are outraged by what is going on in Bundoran. She said Facebook was advertising Vodka, Jagermeister, Sambuca, Tequilla, Red Bull and Lucozade and all Stiffy Shots including Cola Cube for 50c and bottles of Bud and Sex On the Beach Cocktail for only 1 ... Captain Morgans, Jack Daniels and Tia Maria only 2. She said it was like giving smarties to children. Mrs Dolan asked Do we have to wait until a teenager is lying on a slab at Sligo Hospital? She said there was a competition war between Paris Night Club and Jumping Jacks. Mrs Dolan said Jumping Jacks another club in Bundoran was having a free bar (with a 20 cover charge) on Saturday night. She said parents want to support the Gardai against this. Parents feel disempowered she told the court. Ms Dolan said they were not looking to close down clubs but that special exemptions should not be granted unless stringent conditions are attached. Following Mrs Dolans appeal, Mr McEniff said he would return to normal pricing. He told the court after listening to Mrs Dolan I will go back to normal pricing, I hope the other McEniff will do the same. Conor McEniff is a first cousin of Seanie McEniff who owns rival nightclub Jumping Jacks in Bundoran. Judge Kilrane emphasised to the traders of Bundoran this is not a race to the bottom. He said that Conor McEniffs decision to return to normal pricing gives a level playing field. He granted Conor McEniff the late bar special exemption. He said all bars in the town will be under scrutiny for their behaviour and this will be used at the annual licensing court in September. He acknowledged these are desperate times but told the applicant Conor McEniff the price war was no good for you or your premises. Judge Kilrane also warned that if he found any unfair competition going on bars may not get exemptions again. Judge Kilrane praised Mr McEniff who he said met the case honourably. He told him to take down the previous pricing notification on Facebook and wished him a successful weekend. A new research report on the future of the Leaving Certificate was published today by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD). The report entitled Senior Cycle Reform What do you want? surveys the attitudes and views of students, parents, teachers and principals on the Leaving Certificate and its future reform. Key findings include: 97% of parents want reform, compared to 65% of principals, deputy principals & teachers. 79% of students do not feel that the current senior cycle programme encourages active learning methodologies 28% of principals, deputy principals & teachers, 4% of students and 15% of parents feel the Leaving Certificate is fair and accurately assesses students. Students are the only group who would support a teacher correcting their own students assessment (51%) compared to 30% and 22% of parents and principals, deputy principals & teachers respectively. Speaking about the research, NAPD Director Clive Byrne said, This publication is the result of four months of comprehensive research and information gathering. Initially, it was quite unsettling to see that only 4% of students and 28% of principals, deputy principals and teachers feel that the Leaving Certificate in its current format is fair and accurately assesses students. However, and more importantly, what it also points to is a huge appetite for a change amongst all stakeholders. For example, 76% of students support a move towards continuous assessment. While almost one in four of all principals, deputy principals and teachers support the concept. Read Also: Watch: Seamus O'Rourke looks forward to farming in 2019 - with music The reports research is also bolstered by personal contributions from opinion leaders in the third level and business community including Professor Philip Nolan, President of Maynooth University, Barry Napier CEO Cubic Telecoms, Rose Mary Hogan Head of Graduate Programme in Glanbia and Lewis Purser Director of the Irish University Association. Speaking about the importance of education, Professor Nolan states in the report, "Education should stimulate this sense of a joy in learning, a curiosity to find out new things, an openness to thinking differently, and an openness to admitting you might have been incorrect in the past and have learned something new now. That love of learning, curiosity, a confidence in your capability, an openness to learning and thinking differently, are the most valuable things to take from time spent in education, and an important thing for both students and teachers to focus on." There are many variances in responses between each group. For example, only 22% of principals, deputy principals and teachers support the practice of correcting their own students work, with many having concerns that a teacher would be biased against a student. That number increases to 30% of parents who would support such a change, and 51% of students. However, when it comes to reform, the numbers are striking, with 65% of principals, deputy principals and teachers wanting reform in its entirety, 78% of students wishing to move away from one final exam, or allow other factors to be included, and a massive 97% of parents supporting reform. Oisin Hassan, Vice President of Academic Affairs in the Union of Students in Ireland, whose members also participated in the research, commented on the findings saying, "Almost 700 USI members engaged in this research project. They are currently completing the Leaving Certificate or have done so within the last five years and have very strong opinions on how the examination needs to be reformed. "For a large majority they do not believe that the current system is fit for purpose or meets their needs and the challenges they face outside of education. There has been much talk about reform of the Leaving Certificate for many years. Yet each year another class completes the exam without any meaningful change occurring. Relying on just one single exam to determine the work of each student across all their years in second level education is unfair on students. It needs to change. We need to move beyond just talking about reform to actively embracing it. I am hopeful this research will help to accelerate this process, added Mr. Hassan. In response to the reports findings the NAPD has set out three key recommendations to support senior cycle reform. These are: The establishment of a new Citizens Assembly Education Forum bringing together all stakeholders to fast-track the senior cycle reform process; The inclusion of an additional practical component as part of the Leaving Certificate examination assessment process; and To ensure equality for all ringfence funding for traineeships and apprenticeships to ensure the Leaving Certificate is not largely focused on further and / or higher education. Discussing their recommendations, Mr. Byrne said, "The three recommendations as laid out in our report, are realistic, achievable and most importantly, will modernise our education system which has fallen behind the technological advancements in all other sectors. We have no doubt that many resources, funding, training, and hours of planning and dedication are needed to accomplish any reform, but it must be prioritised by both Minister McHugh and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. "What is important about senior cycle reform is that the conversation is starting, people recognise change is needed, and people are starting to think about practical solutions. We have seen small changes over recent years with the introduction of the new subjects such as Politics and Society or the recent two-day extension to the Leaving Certificate timetable to ease pressure on students. "However, we need more than small steps. We in the NAPD want to lead the voice for change, and to ensure this critical conversation continues, Mr. Byrne concluded. Read Also: Four local Wind Farm Community Funds now open for applications EirGrid, the operator of Irelands electricity transmission system, is planning a significant upgrade to the network supplying power to Intels manufacturing plant in Leixlip. The project will involve the development of a new 220 kV electricity substation adjacent to the Intel plant and new circuits to the facility. An upgrade of the Maynooth-Woodland 220 kV electricity line located to the north of the plant will also be required at a later point. EirGrid and its team of consultants are currently carrying out technical and environmental analyses. Once these are complete, a best-performing solution will be identified and a planning application will be submitted later this year. David Martin, EirGrid spokesperson, said: This is an important project that will provide ongoing electrical support for Intel. We are holding a public information day in the Court Yard Hotel in Leixlip on January 23 for anyone who would like more information on the project or who would like to provide feedback to the project team. The new substation will connect to the existing Maynooth Woodland 220 kV transmission line located to the north of the facility. This connection will be made either by a short, new overhead line or an underground cable." Cllr Mark Wall has welcomed confirmation from the HSE that a design team has been appointed for St Vincents Hosptial in Athy According to Cllr Wall the HSE has confirmed that planning permission for a new 50 bed unit at St Vincents will be sought in 2019. This is very welcome news and will provide St.Vincents Hospital with the modern facilities of a new 50 bed Unit that marks a 21st century health care system. The major upgrade is set to cost approximately 9.3 million. The new unit was previously to be completed by 2021 and with planning permission being sort this year, this must continue to be a realistic target for the HSE," he said. The investment is to include a new 50 bed unit, built alongside the existing hospital where it is expected that 66 beds will be maintained , ensuring that all 116 beds in St Vincents will remain open and available to those most in need of them. St Vincents hospital is described as a model of public service with a county wide, and beyond excellent reputation. "This news will be welcomed by staff and Management and most importantly those who have loved ones in the existing facility or will need to use its new and existing facilities into the future. This is further positive news for the town of Athy, Cllr Wall concluded. READ ALSO: Appeal made over Monasterevin development A Laois man has been allowed to appeal a prison sentence for stealing diesel, on condition he make a 1,000 donation to a local charity. Before Portlaoise Circuit Court was Michael OReilly (46). State solicitor, Mr Donal Dunne gave evidence that the appellant was given a ten-month sentence in Portlaoise District Court for the theft of diesel from machinery in Mountrath. The machinery was parked up and during the night he attended at the compound and stole diesel to a value of 100. Mr Dunne said that the appellant was the driver of the car that went to the scene and there was someone else with him. The appellant had four previous convictions. Defence, solicitor Mr Philip Meagher said his client was a married man with ten children, six of whom live at home. Mr Meagher said the diesel wasnt taken to sell on, it was taken to be used in a burner at the appellants home as the family were going through a tough time. Mr Meagher explained that the appellant kept horses in a field at the rear of the forest and he passed by the equipment with his son and temptation got the better of him and he decided to commit this offence on the spur of the moment. Mr Meagher said his client had 250 in court by way of compensation. Describing it as a mean offence, Judge Keenan Johnson directed the 250 go to the injured party and told the appellant to pay 1,000 to the Block Project. If paid, the judge said he would suspend the prison sentence. The deal is signed on a location for the new Laois branch of JYSK, with the number of staff also confirmed by the company. The international Danish homewares retailer is expanding to the Ireland market in 2019, and Portlaoise is one of the first four towns to get stores. JYSK, pronounced 'yusk' is confirmed to open in Laois Shopping Centre this summer, with contracts now confirmed as signed by the shopping centre owners Harcourt Developments. It will open in a long vacant 1,000sqm unit on the external lower ground floor near Petworld. The company said it is looking for about 13 staff for the Portlaoise store. JYSK confirmed the news to the Leinster Express on Monday. Our store will be located at Portlaoise Shopping Centre. We will have one store manager, one deputy store manager, one trainee store manager plus approximately 10 sales assistants, they said. Salaries will be up to 35,000, with interviews to take place this January. It is advertising online for staff for all four of the shops it will open in Ireland in 2019. The other three stores to open in Ireland this year are Naas in early April and Drogheda and Navan in May. The company plans to open 15 branches across Ireland by 2020, creating 200 jobs. JYSK staff viewed several units around Portlaoise last summer. An initial announcement by Laois Shopping Centre last week on its Facebook page has since been confirmed both by JYSK and by Harcourt Developments. "More positive news for Portlaoise. JYSK the latest rival for IKEA is set to create a new home at Laois Shopping Centre, the shopping centre posted. JYSK is an international retail chain, in the style of IKEA, that sells 'everything for the home', owned by the original founder, billionaire Lars Larsen. The store was first opened in 1979, and today has more than 2,700 stores and 23,000 employees across 51 countries worldwide. JYSK head of retail Roni Tuominen said the Irish market was a very important one, given the prominent position the retail industry holds in the country. As a company, we focus on entering a new market each year, and we are excited that 2019 is the year we bring our brand to Ireland, he said. I find it interesting that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wont support building a wall or fence on the U.S.-Mexican border when 54 Senate Democrats voted in 2013 for $46 billion for border security, including 700 miles of border fencing. In 2015 Schumer stated that a refugee pause might be necessary. Now its immoral and not good for the country. Do they think we are all stupid not to see this is all political and aimed at the current president? Its time to get over the fact that Donald Trump was elected president and move on to make this country safe. A new Democratic House member from Michigan states were going to impeach the m-f and thats OK, along with all the other nonsense spewed by some of these so-called legislators. Can you imagine if this had been said of the last president? Its time for the fake news outlets, including this paper, to start reporting the facts and truth. Why no coverage of Ronil Singh, the California police officer killed by an illegal immigrant? At a meeting with the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Pelosi stated I reject your facts, which has been stated by others in Congress, that there are gang members, drugs, etc. coming across the border. Pelosi should tell that to the family of Singh, Sabrina Starr, Mollie Tibbitts, Rocky P. Jones and many more. Im sure they would tell her the facts are true. Judith Bray-Garrison Phillipsburg A 36-year-old Stockertown woman who was jailed for 10 years after a federal drug prosecution is back in prison after being charged again with selling crack cocaine, court papers say. Rose Eileen Caban, of the 100 block of Werkheiser Street, was arrested Thursday by Palmer Township police at 16th and Jefferson streets in Wilson Borough, records show. She was arraigned before District Judge Alicia Rose Zito on two counts of possession with intent to deliver crack, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, records say. She remained behind bars Monday morning in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail. The charges involve selling crack in a controlled buy to a confidential source, police said. Her preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Jan. 18 in District Judge Richard Yetter IIIs court in Wilson. Caban pleaded guilty in 2009 to three federal drug counts involving crack that led to her 2008 arrest and was in federal prison until Feb. 27, 2018, records show. She was part of a drug distribution network run by Sean Rogers, who also pleaded guilty in 2009. Caban, a street-level dealer, sold drugs for Rogers from August 2006 to January 2008, authorities said at the time. She remains under five years of federal supervision, but as of Monday morning, federal authorities had not placed a detainer on her. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorneys office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania couldnt be reached due to the partial government shutdown. Court papers did not list an attorney for Caban. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The Social Security Administration has issued a phone scam alert after receiving reports that thieves have been cold calling people claiming to represent the agency and spoofing the caller ID to make it appear the call originated Social Securitys 1-800 customer service number. While the warning about the fraud scheme was first issued last month by the Office of the Inspector General, the New Jersey chapter of the AARP called on its members last week to be wary of any phone contact by someone claiming to be from Social Security. Some of the fraudsters have sought to intimidate people with threats of prosecution over phony problems with accounts. Unfortunately, scammers will try anything to mislead and harm innocent people, including scaring them into thinking that something is wrong with their Social Security account and they might be arrested, acting Inspector General of Social Security, Gale Stallworth Stone said in a statement. "We will continue to track these scams and warn citizens, so that they can stay several steps ahead of these thieves. Scam Alert 1-4-19.mp4 SCAM ALERT: Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Gale Stallworth Stone, is warning citizens about phone call scams in which impersonators are copying SSAs 1-800 number so that it appears as a legitimate call on a caller-ID screen. These scammers then identify themselves as SSA employees, request a persons Social Security number and threaten to terminate the persons benefits. If you receive a call like this, do NOT provide any personal information. Instead report this scheme by calling 1-800-269-0271 or visit the SSA Office of Inspector General website, http://spr.ly/6181Ezv7S. Posted by AARP New Jersey on Friday, January 4, 2019 Social Security employees do sometimes contact people by phone, Stone said, but those are generally for ongoing customer service issues. Often, these calls show up as the Social Security Administrations official national customer service phone number, 1-800-772-1213, on caller ID. However, SSA employees will never threaten you for information; they will not state that you face potential arrest or other legal action if you fail to provide information, the Social Security Administration said in a press release. In those cases, the call is fraudulent, and you should just hang up. The reports of the fraud calls have been received from around the country. Anyone who receives a scam call, may report it to the Office of Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or at oig.ssa.gov/report. Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips The victim of a South Side Easton shooting said Monday he was no longer sure who shot him, so charges against the defendant were dismissed. Rashad Jones, 28, of Easton, allegedly shot a 31-year-old man in the leg May 20 at the bar in the Rice Ebner American Legion hall at 423 Davis St. in Easton. The victim was the sole witness to the shooting but told Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Abraham Kassis on Monday he was no longer sure he could identify the gunman because he was highly intoxicated Kassis said he cold no longer ask a jury to convict Jones based on the victims conflicting statements. We certainly believe he has become an unreliable witness, Kassis said. Judge Samuel Murray agreed to dismiss the case. Rashad Jones (Courtesy photo)EXT This is at least the second time Jones evaded a shooting conviction. In May 2011, Jones was accused of firing three gunshots during an argument with another man in Eastons West Ward. The case was initially dismissed in July, but the charges were re-filed in September and withdrawn three months later. In November 2011, Jones pleaded guilty to robbery in Northampton County Court for carjacking a man in the West Ward. Jones was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in state prison, records show. Jones was briefly a fugitive after the May 20 shooting but turned himself in to police on May 30. He was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person. Staff at the American Legion hall reported the shooting happened in the back corner of the bar, police said. Police were summoned to the bar around 1:50 a.m. May 20 and were called for a gunshot victim at a local hospital at 2 a.m. May 20. The victim reportedly told police the shooting happened during an argument at the bar. The victim described the shooter and later identified Jones from a photo lineup, police said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, has shut down her Whitehall Township office, saying the move will help save taxpayer dollars and serve a larger area of her constituents. Boscola will instead host community outreach office hours in locations across her district, she tweeted last week. Her offices in Bethlehem and Easton will keep their current hours -- 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday in Bethlehem and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Easton. Kurt Derr, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Senate Democrats, told LehighValleyLive rent in the Whitehall office was more than $825 monthly, in addition to utility costs. The community outreach hours will begin Jan. 7. In an effort to save tax payer dollars, I have CLOSED my Whitehall office location & will be replacing it with Community Outreach Offices as listed below. My Bethlehem & Easton offices will remain OPEN & keep the same hours. pic.twitter.com/G3OPNXlGhJ Senator Lisa Boscola (@SenLisaBoscola) January 4, 2019 Boscola has set these office hours throughout the 18th Senatorial District: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays (with the exception of the last Monday of the month, which will be until 2 p.m.) at the Emmaus Public Library, 11 E. Main St., Emmaus. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Catasauqua Borough Hall, 90 Bridge St., Catasauqua. 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Northampton Community Colleges Fowler Family SouthSide Center, 511 E. 3rd St., Bethlehem. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays at the Whitehall Township Municipal Buildings public meeting room, 3219 MacArthur Road, Whitehall Township. Boscola currently is serving her fifth term representing the 18th Senatorial District, consisting of Northampton and Lehigh Counties. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. - As strike takes a toll on Nigerian universities, ASUU and FG held a crucial meeting to find a a lasting solution - ASUU president has expressed hope that there would be good news soon Representatives of the federal government are currently holding a very crucial meeting with officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in an urgent move to resolve the lingering industrial action embarked upon by lecturers in the country. Multiple reports say the federal government delegation is led by the labour and employment minister, Chris Ngige. The team is also scheduled to meet with the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) following a threat by the latter to commence mobilisation of workers and citizens ahead of a planned strike over issues relating to minimum wage. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The meeting with ASUU was earlier scheduled for 3.30 pm but only started at about 5.06 pm. Legit.ng understands that Ngige, who summoned the meeting, said the event would not take long since much effort had been made previously. Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, the ASUU president expressed hope that there would be good news judging from Ngiges expression. A mild drama ensued, however, when the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Danielson Akpan, asked that members of the association and journalists should not be barred from the meeting. He argued that this would help curb speculations and discordant tunes from the ASUU and the government delegation. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates Reacting, Ngige pleaded with the NANS president to have confidence on members of the conciliatory meeting. He assured the NANS president that he would be happy with the outcome of the meeting. Legit.ng earlier reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress promised to hold a nationwide protest on Tuesday, January 8, to drive its demand for the upward review of the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. The general secretary of the NLC, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, said in a statement that there would be no strike for now. Ozo-Eson, therefore, asked members of the public to disregard reports that the strike would begin on January 8. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV Source: Legit - Rotimi Amaechi said the PDP has nothing to offer Nigeria - The former governor accused the opposition party of only being interested in looting the country - The minister said the Buhari administration needs more years to fulfil its promised change The director-general of President Muhammadu Buharis re-election campaign organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, has lashed out at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing the opposition party of looting the country dry. The minister of transportation spoke for the first time following the controversy of a leaked audiotape by the opposition party where he reportedly criticised the government of President Buhari. Premium Times reports that the former governor spoke during the inauguration of the presidential campaign council on Monday, January 7. Amaechi said when he was in the PDP, the focus was about sharing money. READ ALSO: Coup attempt in Gabon foiled He said: I was in the PDP, the slogan was Share the money. But here we are not sharing money. And because we are not sharing money they are saying vote buying. Because they ran election with government money, eating, buying cars with government money and nobody cared. I appeal to Nigerians; dont give one vote to the PDP, they are hungry, they cant stand poverty, they cant stand not touching government money. Where money is given for prayers in Nigeria, I can pray in my church, nobody is giving me money to go and pray." Amaechi promised that the All Progressives Congress will save the country and that the opposition party has nothing to offer the people. He said: The president said he will fight corruption; that he is doing. We met a tattered economy that if we did nothing, Nigeria would be at a mess. But today the economy has been growing. In fixing the economy we promised infrastructural development. When I took over as Minister of Transportation, GE approached me and said we have approached different governments for 11 years to allow us to take over the rail with our own money but nobody agreed, this government agreed. The minister said the change promised by his party cannot be completed in four years which is why the party is asking for more time. Anybody that says we can do so in four years must be a magician. What we are pleading with Nigerians for is another four years to consolidate on what we have started, he added. Legit.ng previously reported that an audio recording which featured the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, allegedly criticising President Muhammadu Buhari, was causing disquiet in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The national publicity secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, when contacted, said: I have not seen the leaked tape to listen to it and as such cannot comment on it. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app When he was asked by Daily Sun for his comments on the audio, Amaechi said: Nothing. I am not aware of any audio recording. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Rotimi Amaechi says he is busy on the streets | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - Nigerian Labour Congress said it will hold a nationwide strike on Tuesday, January 8 - The NLC clarified that it has not decided to embark on strike yet - The labour union, therefore, urged the public to disregard the report that the strike would begin on January 8 The Nigeria Labour Congress says it will hold a nationwide protest on Tuesday, January 8, to drive its demand for the upward review of the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. The general secretary of the NLC, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, said in a statement that there would be no strike for now, The Punch reports. Ozo-Eson, therefore, asked members of the public to disregard reports that the strike would begin on January 8. READ ALSO: Coup attempt in Gabon foiled The statement read in part: It has come to our attention that some sections of the news media have largely misrepresented our action plan in reaction to the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari. It should be recalled that the National Executive Council of the NLC met on December 17 last year and directed that we hold nationwide mobilisation of workers and our allies if, by December 31, 2018, the bill on the national minimum wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an Act of Parliament. We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike. It is on record that each time we had cause to embark on a national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation. We still dont understand where the story about a strike commencing tomorrow came from. Already, all our state councils, affiliate unions and allies in other pro people mass organizations now popularly referred to as Civil Society Organizations have been fully informed and mobilized to ensure the success of tomorrows mass protests in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory. When a date is decided for the commencement of a strike subsequently, we will inform the public appropriately. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the federal government was to resume its meeting with the leadership of the organised labour in Abuja in a bid to avoid a planned nationwide strike by the unions. The governments meeting with labour was scheduled for Monday, January 7, after talks the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, had with the unions on January 4, failed to reach a conclusion. The Friday meeting also had in attendance other government officials including the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed and that of the budget and national planning, Udo Udoma. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria Emerging reports have claimed that Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, has returned to his office at police headquarters in Abuja. The Cable reports that Idris, who was expected to retire on Tuesday, January 3 when he reached the mandatory 35 years in service, arrived at his office at 11:40am. Legit.ng gathered that he arrived in a convoy of at least six vehicles with his private car marked NPF 01. It was learnt that he was greeted by the parade guards within the force headquarters entering his office. READ ALSO: Soldiers stage coup in Gabon There have been speculations that his tenure might be extended till the elections are over but that has cannot been confirmed. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the police faulted PDP for demanding that the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, should resign his position over alleged political bias. Jimoh Moshood, the police spokesperson on Thursday, November 29, described the call by the PDP for the resignation of Idris as laughable. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The police spokesperson also dismissed the allegation that the police was working in favour of any political party, insisting that the force has remained neutral. Moshood said the police are only focused on law enforcement and ensuring that the forthcoming elections were conducted peacefully. In a related development, the All Progressives Congress reacted to the recent calls by PDP, demanding the resignation of chairman of the INEC Yakubu Mahmoud and Idris Ibrahim. The APC described the call made by the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, as suspicious, describing the opposition party as a caricature of a political party. In a statement sent to Legit.ng on Sunday, December 2, by the spokesperson of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC said the reasons given by Secondus for his call were baseless suspicions. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) | Legit TV: Source: Legit - Top politicians in PDP have held a crucial meeting over the recent appointment of Amina Zakari as head of the collation of presidential election result - The party bigwigs during the meeting also discussed strategies necessary for their victory ahead of the 2019 presidential election - It was gathered that the meeting which took place in Lagos had Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku Abubakar and Bukola Saraki in attendance A former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, his then vice and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, on Sunday, January 6, held a crucial meeting in Lagos. This Day reports that the meeting was held to perfect strategies for the forthcoming 2019 presidential election. It was gathered that the meeting which lasted for three hours followed a recent call by the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation on the General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd)-led National Peace Committee, the United Nations and the world in general against the appointment of Amina Zakari as the head of the collation of presidential election result. Source privy to the meeting said: It was a strategy meeting towards 2019 and how to give the country a fresh direction. The source added that the political bigwigs during the meeting discussed issues on national development. The discussion is not about South-west alone; it was a broad-based political arrangement that covers every part of Nigeria. It was a national thing. The basic concern is about how to give Nigeria a new lease of life by enthroning a leadership that will give the citizenry better lives," the source said. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the PDP had warned the National Peace Committee to call President Buhari to order. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The party says Buharis desperation for self-succession has become a major threat to Nigeria's national unity, stability and peaceful electoral process. PDP further alleged that the Buhari presidency has been overheating the polity with its recent actions. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The tyre of an Air Peace aircraft blew off while it was already taxiing for take-off according o reports - According to reports, the incident happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday, January 6 - Passengers on the aircraft were heading to Benin from Abuja, when the the incident occurred Tragedy was reportedly averted in the Nigeria aviation sector as the tyre of an Air Peace aircraft blew off while it was already taxiing for take-off on the runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday, January 6. According to reports, passengers on the aircraft were heading to Benin from Abuja, when the the incident occurred. The report stated further that the pilot struggled to control the airplane before it was eventually towed to a safe location at the NAIA. Punch reports that it was a Boeing 737 aircraft belonging to Air Peace that was involved in the incident, which happened around 5:40 pm at the Abuja airport on Sunday. READ ALSO: Soldiers stage coup in Gabon The aircraft was already running on the runway in preparation for take-off and suddenly one of the tyres blew off. The tyre burst while the plane was in the process to take off. This created panic among passengers but the pilot was professional enough as he controlled the plane before it was towed to a safe location, a passenger, who was quoted to have said. A source at the airport was reported to have adddd that: This happened around 5:40 pm and the airline is Air Peace. The aircraft involved is Boeing 737 and the tyre burst was so loud because the aircraft was already moving on the runway. This caused some form of panic among passengers and other people at the airport. The situation was, however, controlled and the plane was towed out of the runway and the terrified passengers alighted safely. The aircraft is out of use for now and engineers are now observing the plane at the airport. Meanwhile, the incident was reported to have been confirmed by the spokesperson for Air Peace, Chris Iwarah. What we had was a low speed reject and that means that the aircraft was taxiing when the pilot realised that one of the tyres had punctured and because of that he had to reject further taxiing for take-off. Now once this happens, the affected tyre will be changed; not by just anybody but by qualified engineers. However, the flight was from Abuja to Benin and once it is 6.30pm you cant operate into Benin because of sunset. But if it were Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja or Lagos airports, you could operate into any of them and to some extent Kaduna. But other airports in the country, once it is sunset you cant operate into them. Iwarah added: Now this incident happened close to sunset and when they were changing the tyre that got punctured, we realised that it was already sunset. So we had no option than to cancel the flight. This was done in time so that people could return to their homes before it gets dark. The flight was rescheduled to take off tomorrow (Monday). However, no specific time was given because Benin currently experiences a lot of weather issues and so we have to be sure about the time before we send it to the passengers. But we are certain that the flight is for tomorrow (Monday). PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) disclosed that beginning from February 2019, airplanes that operate in and into Nigeria will start landing at two of the countrys busiest international airports during periods of poor visibility. The disclosure was made by the agency's managing director, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, during an interview in Abuja. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Abuja Airport closed for 3 months - on Legit TV: Source: Legit.ng - Governor David Umahi, on behalf of governors in the southeast, has charged troops taking part in the Operation Python Dance III, to be more professional - The governor also urged the troops to remain neutral in the discharge of their duties for the duration of the operation and also during the forthcoming general elections - Umahi said the only way Nigeria would exist beyond 2019 was for credible elections to hold where all security agencies are seen to be neutral The military has been advised by southeast governors, to be more professional in the discharge of their duties. The advise was given by the governor of Ebonyi state, David Umahi, on behalf of the South East Governors Forum, during a visit by the general officer commanding (GOC), 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Abubarka Maikobi, to the Government House in Abakaliki, The Nation reports. Legit.ng gathers that the message comes on the heels of the launch of the Operation Python Dance III in the southeast zone. Umahi pointed out that southeast had been greatly troubled by the military presence, especially because of the recent clash between the Army and members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). READ ALSO: Soldiers stage coup in Gabon He urged the troops deployed to the region to maintain a high level of professionalism and remain neutral in the discharge of their duties for the duration of the operation. The governor further urged them to remain neutral in the coming general election in the state and, by extension, the southeast and challenged them to come up with workable policies that would earn them the confidence of the people of the zone. Umahi stated that as long as the troops keep to the ethics of their profession of protecting the people instead of being seen or accused of killing them, the zone will not have any problem with the place the Army may deem fit to establish its operational headquarters. He said any attempt to rig the general election would be resisted by the state and the southeast. Umahi further insisted that the only way Nigeria would exist beyond 2019 was for credible elections to hold where all security agencies are seen to be neutral. On his part, Gen Maikobi said he was in the state to inform the governor about the Army's plan to begin Operation Egwu Eke III, and also to familiarise himself with the governments and people of the south-east. He said: I am also here to inform you that I have been mandated by the chief of Army staff to formally inform you as the chief security officer of the state that exercise Egwu Eke III was flagged off in Maiduguiri, Borno state. "The exercise is scheduled to take place from January 1 to 28 February, 2019. We have selected Ebonyi under your purposeful leadership as the location for the step-up headquarters for the exercise." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app He assured the people of Ebonyi state that the Nigeria Army will remain neutral, professional and totally apolitical, adding that the Nigerian Army will not compromise its constitutional roles under any guise. Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that the chief of Army staff, General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, flagged off the third phase of the Exercise Egwu Eke, better known as Exercise Python Dance for the south-eastern part of Nigeria with a plan to begin operation on January 1, 2019. Buratai promised that the Nigerian Army would continue to conduct internal security operations in the country to help tackle issues with criminality. He stated further, that the operation is a reassurance that the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria will work with sister security agencies to maintain law and order as the country approaches the 2019 general elections. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have updated to serve you better! Soldier shares battleground experience, dedicates song to colleagues - on Legit TV: Source: Legit - Hollywood actor Christian Bale causes stir on social media after he gave his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes - The actor gave thanks to Satan for his performance in the movie Vice - In the film, Bale acted the role of Richard Cheney who was the 46th vice president of the United States The 76th Golden Globes Award took place on Sunday, January 6, at the Beverly Hilton in California, United States. Social media has been buzzing about the wins, the fashion and the acceptance speeches, but nothing has trended as much as what Christian Bale said during his acceptance speech for his second Golden Globes win. Christian Bale, an A-list Hollywood actor, won the award for best actor in a comedy or musical for his role in the movie, Vice. He shocked everyone after he gave thanks to an unconventional figure during his acceptance speech. READ ALSO: Australian man shares heartwarming experience with a Nigerian family The popular actor gave thanks to Satan for inspiring his role as Richard Cheney in the movie. He said: Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role." Bale also thanked his wife and children. He said: She knows the dumb cr@p that can come out of my mouth at times. I can sink and ruin a perfectly good movie and so-so career in one speech. So thank you for that advice, my love. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Richard Bruce Cheney is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. The actor's acceptance speech not only got mixed reactions on social media, it also got a response from the Church of Satan. PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group In a tweet, the group reacted positively to Bale's thanks to Satan. "To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr. Bale's own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!" READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda It could be assumed that the actor thanked Satan due to how he played his role as Richard Cheney or it could due to his religious beliefs. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported a story of a man who doubted the existence of God. The man had dared God to kill him to prove he truly exists. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Primate Ayodele releases 2019 prophecies, says B/Haram will infiltrate the army - on Legit TV Source: Legit - Governor Umahi has said Ebonyi state is a sovereign state and was not part of the state that formed Biafra - The governor also alleged that he received threat that he and other southeast governors will be kidnapped by the IPOB - The governor, however, said some of the agitations of IPOB members were genuine but the approach is very bad Governor David umahi of Ebonyi state on Sunday, January 6, said Ebonyi is not one of the states that formed the Sovereign States of Biafra, as claimed by the proscribed group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The governor, who said this at the Nkwegu Military Cantonment in Abakaliki, the state capital, during the inauguration of Operation Python Dance (Egwu Eke) phase III, by the Nigerian Army, also said the IPOB group has threatened to kidnap him and other southeast governors. Umahi, who is the chairman of the southeast governors forum said although some of the agitations of IPOB members were genuine, their approach isn't good enough, Punch reports. READ ALSO: Just in: FG orders Army to vacate Daily Trust He said: The GOC, you are coming at a time we had our brothers and sisters of IPOB sending text messages that, there will be no elections and insulting the leaders, particularly the South-East governors. "Just few days back, they sent text message to my wife that the five governors of the South-East would be kidnapped and that their security would be overpowered and that after ransoms were paid, they would kill them and kill themselves. That is laughable; although as a leader in the zone, I must say that some of their complaints are genuine; but the approach is very bad. That is why the leaders of south-east are not in support of their approach. So, we are not against them, but their approach. And as the Chief Security of the state, I do not welcome them; Ebonyi state is not part of Biafra, we are a sovereign state, and we dont want to be colonised again, as we are a state demanding better treatment in the affairs of our nation." PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng earlier reported that Umahi said that the meeting of his colleagues and leaders of the southeast with President Muhammau Buhari was not an attempt to campaign for his re-election bid. Umahi, who is also the chairman of the southeast governors forum said instead, that the meeting was to seek for 50 percent release of contract sum to the firm working on the second Niger Bridge. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Between Buharis Next Level And Atikulate - Nigerians React| Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - Youths have been cautioned by Oba Ewaure II to desist from evil activities capable of ruining their futures - The monarch said that for the young ones to excel in life, they must eschew all forms of youthful delinquencies - Oba Ewuare further reassured the people of the Benin kingdom of a better life Oba Ewuare II of Benin has cautioned youths to desist from evil activities capable of ruining their futures. The monarch gave the advice at a lavish reception for the youth on Saturday, January 5, at the palace ground in Benin, NAN reports. READ ALSO: Buhari meets with Amosun, Akinlade in Aso Rock Legit.ng gathers that he said that for the young ones to excel in life, they must eschew all forms of youthful delinquencies and focus on virtues that would make them future leaders. Oba Ewuare also cautioned them to always be diligent in their behaviours, noting that obedience to parents instructions was key to generational blessings. He added that the palace had concluded arrangements to host the event twice a year. The monarch further reassured the people of the kingdom of a better life, stressing that the it would do everything within its powers to ensure that peace and tranquility reigned in Benin kingdom and Edo, at large. The event also featured a dance competition and various prizes given to winners, while white pigeons were released as a symbol of peace and tranquility in the state. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the curse placed on human traffickers in Edo state by the Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare II, led to the death of three persons including a young man from the state who was based in Napoli, Italy. The young man was said to be a notorious human trafficker. The other two deceased persons were armed robbers who died in their sleep after returning from a robbery operation. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! 2019: What's your New Year resolution? - on Legit TV: Source: Legit.ng A Niger Delta militant group, that styles itself Koluama Seven Brothers on Sunday, January 6, said it carried out a warning strike on an oil facility owned by energy company Conoil in Bayelsa. The attack was carried out on Friday, by the new group at 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 4 at Conoils Angle 2 Field. The group said the attack is just a warning. The organization said it had no other option than to launch a strike to shut down Conoil if demands were not met. READ ALSO: Armed soldiers shut down Daily Trust office in Borno, arrest workers The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps confirmed that a blast was heard on Friday around a Conoil pipeline in Bayelsa. The militants threatened a production shut down at the facility owned by Mike Adenuga. The Koluama Seven Brothers said in a statement it would carry out further strikes if its demands, including job creation, were not met by the company and a traditional leader. Conoil Producing Nigeria operates six highly prospective blocks in the Niger Delta and produces over 80,000 barrels of oil per day, according to information on its website. Attacks on pipelines and other facilities in the Niger Delta reached a peak in 2016, cutting Nigerias crude production from as much as 2.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) to near 1 mbpd the lowest level seen in at least 30 years. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Maikanti Baru, said that the countrys refineries had not undergone Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) for an aggregate of 42 years. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Baru disclosed this in his New Year message issued by the corporation spokesman, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, on Monday, December 31, 2018. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have updated to serve you better! Can Nigeria solve its power problems? Top engineers offer solutions | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria Nigerian crossdresser, Bobrisky, has indeed come a long way in his battle with gender identity and sexual preference. He has gone from out rightly denying being gay stating he just loves to wear feminine clothing to openly admitting to dating 'big men in Nigeria'. Nigerian male barbie, Okuneye Idris, popularly known as Bobrisky, sure knows how to get people talking. Not only has the controversial cross dresser who has had quite a battle with his gender identity, altered his looks to look more feminine, he openly talks about his escapades with men now. Currently trending is his recent comment about American rapper and estranged husband to Cardi B, Offset. According to Bobrisky, he has always dreamed of dating the rapper and hopes his dreams will come true eventually. READ ALSO: Personal letter from the Editor-in-Chief of Legit.ng (former NAIJ.com) The comment reads: "I use to dream I will date Offset not even marry yet pls let my dream come true." See post below: Screenshot of his comment Source: Instagram Recall a while ago, the effeminate celebrity took to his Instagram page to refer to himself as a second wife, stating that his man got him a house in Lekki. Speaking more about his lover who was coming in from overseas, he took to the platform to reveal that he was going to welcome his 'husband' with a homemade indigenous vegetable dish called Efo Riro. Well it appears the male barbie has since moved on from that lover and now has his eyes set on getting the award winning rapper. With Cardi B out of the way now, Bobrisky might actually have a chance with his dream lover. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News App Get the hottest gist on Africa Love Aid HELLO! NAIJ.com (naija.ng) upgrades to Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better Bobrisky bares it all | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - 1500 members of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger state - 3,000 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also defected to the PDP in Niger About 4500 defectors joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger state over the week after 1500 members of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDP) and 3000 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) decamped from their respective parties. The 1500 PDM defectors from Chanchaga local government area of the state were led by local government chairman of the party, Hon. Suleiman Alhassan and were received by the PDP chairman in the local government, Hon. Jamilu Saidu in a ceremony in Minna on Friday, January 4, The Sun reports. READ ALSO: Kidnappings, killings not enough reason to vote out Buhari - Sani PDP chairman in the state, Alhaji Tanko Beji, had earlier received no fewer than 3,000 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from Edati local government who defected into the party. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that more than 25,000 members of the Kwankwasiyya movement of the PDP from Kano South had joined the camp of the APC. Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, receiving the decampees, presented flags to all candidates contesting for seats in the House of Representatives and state Assembly in the 2019 general polls. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app The defectors claim that they were in Rano local government area to witness the formal presentation of flags to Senator Kabiru Gaya and other candidates from Kano South by Governor Ganduje, during the final grand rally for all candidates from the zone. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. News Nigeria Today: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - INEC has raised the alarm that eight million would-be voters are yet to pick up their PVCs - This was disclosed by one of INECs national commissioner, Dr. Mohammed Lecky - The INEC chief said there is no state in the country where the electoral body has achieved 100 per cent distribution of PVC Barely five weeks to the start of this years general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said about eight million would-be voters are yet to pick up their Permanent Voters Card (PVC). This was disclosed by one of INECs national commissioner, Dr. Mohammed Lecky, during an interview with THISDAY on Saturday, January 5. His words: There is no state in the country where we have achieved 100 per cent distribution of PVC. The distribution of PVC is the biggest headache for us. We need the media to help us encourage the people to come and collect their PVCs. People are not coming forward to pick their PVCs. We have about eight million PVCs yet to be collected by Nigerians. READ ALSO: Allowing President Buhari beyond 2019 will be disastrous, says Atiku group He, however, expressed concern about the media becoming a conveyor of fake news in Nigeria. He said: We are very concerned when we saw that the media, particularly newspapers, carried a news that is not true on the front page - something that could have been easily verified on our website. We have been doing our best to ensure fake news does not impact on the forthcoming elections. We have been embarking on various voter education campaigns and advertisements and engagement with the media; as well using various social media platforms to counteract fake news. We are also using youth ambassadors to ensure the right information is passed to the public. We are also making ourselves available to be engaged - if you want to interview the chairman or any of the commissioners. We are also open to suggestions from the media on how to carry out our national responsibility. He also dispelled a rumour that the electoral body would not post election results at each polling unit. This is not true. In our new regulation, that particular requirement is mandatory - its not optional. Its mandatory that results must be posted at every polling unit. We are urging the media to remain nonpartisan in the coming elections. They should be circumspect in their reportage. INEC is ready to work with the media to ensure the elections are credible and fair, he added. PAY ATTENTION: Access your favourite news site Legit.ng instantly in 3 simple steps Meanwhile, sources in INEC have told Legit.ng that contrary to speculations going round, Mrs Amina Zakari will only be in charge of the administration of the presidential collation centre, as against rumours that she will be in charge of the process. Mrs Zakari's role, they say, is basically to oversee issues around the administration of the venue of the collation. There have been rumours that Mrs Zakari is a blood relation of President Muhammadu Buhari prompting the protests over her appointment. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Buhari, Atiku, Sowore, Ezekwesili? Who will win if election is held today? | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Front-page New Congress is the most diverse ever, except on religion When the new Congress convened last week, it included several firsts with its youngest elected member, its first two Muslim women and its first two Native American women among them. Women now make up about a quarter of Congress, while the Senate and House of Representatives together include more blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans than ever before. But even as Congress takes steps toward reflecting the gender and racial makeup of the country, it lags behind significantly when it comes to religion, according to an analysis released this week. Using self-reported information about the religious affiliations of the 534 members of Congress, the Pew Research Center found that about 88 percent call themselves Christians. The number is a slight dip from the 115th Congress, in which 91 percent of members were Christians. The race in North Carolinas 9th District has not been certified amid allegations of electoral fraud, which is why Pew counted one less person than the typical 535 that make up Congress. While the number of self-identified Christians in Congress has ticked down, Christians as a whole and especially Protestants and Catholics are still overrepresented in proportion to their share in the general public, Pews report said. Indeed, the religious makeup of the new, 116th Congress is very different from that of the United States population. Overall, the U.S. population is about 70 percent Christian. People who are atheist, agnostic or identify with no religion now make up close to 23 percent of the population, while Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religions together constitute about 6 percent of the U.S., according to Pew. The nonpartisan research groups report used data from Roll Call, which asked members of Congress which religious group, if any, they identified with as part of a larger questionnaire. Pew did not attempt to measure how religious members of Congress are or how religion influences their politics. Heres how the religious makeup of Congress breaks down: Christians Data show that Congress has become slightly less Christian over the years. The new Congress has 14 fewer Christians than the previous one, and 20 fewer than the Congress that was in session in 2015 and 2016. Still, Christians dominate Congress. About 55 percent are Protestants, while 30 percent are Catholics and 15 percent align themselves with unspecified or other movements of Christianity. The latter group includes those who said they were Christian, evangelical Christian, evangelical Protestant or Protestant but did not indicate a denomination. By themselves, Protestants make up a majority in the House and Senate. Among Protestants, Pew counted 72 Baptists and 42 Methodists. Among Presbyterians, Lutherans and Anglicans/Episcopalians, there were 26 members from each group. Ten members said they were Mormons. Pew counted five politicians who are Orthodox Christian. And while Christians are the majority in the Republican and Democratic memberships of Congress, they overwhelmingly make up the Republican side. Out of 253 Republicans, only two are not Christians. Reps. Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee are Jewish. Not Christians The growth of non-Christian members of Congress is nearly completely among Democrats or independents. Jewish members make up the second-largest religious group at 6 percent. In the 116th Congress, there are 34 Jewish members, an increase of four. The number is far from the highest. That came in 1993, when there were 51 Jews in Congress. Muslims and Hindus were the next biggest groups of non-Christians, with three members from each. Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are the first Muslim women in Congress. They join Democratic Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana. The total number of Muslims is an increase of one over the previous Congress, when former Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison served. Among Hindus, each is a returning member. They are Rep. Ro Khanna of California, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. All three are Democrats. There are two Buddhists, one less than before. Thats because former Democratic Rep. Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii did not seek re-election and instead ran unsuccessfully for governor. The Buddhists currently serving are Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. Both are Democrats. Among Unitarian Universalists, there is one more in the new Congress for a total of two. Although the faith has roots in Christianity and some Unitarian Universalists identify as Christians, Pew does not categorize the tradition under Christianity. Its members in Congress, both Democrats from California, are Reps. Ami Bera and Judy Chu. In a previous CQ Roll Call survey, Chu did not answer the religion question. There is only one person in Congress that Pew counted as having no religious affiliation. That is Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Sinema previously served three terms in the House. Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California said in 2017 that he was a humanist and unsure of whether God exists but Pew did not count him as an religiously unaffiliated member because he did declined to state his religious identity in the CQ Roll Call survey. In addition to Huffman, 17 other members of Congress did not identify their religion in the questionnaire. Tribune News Service Santa Clara, CA In late 2018, R. Ross and C. Rogus filed a class action In late 2018, R. Ross and C. Rogus filed a class action California unpaid wages lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) that describes a pattern of gender-based pay discrimination. Its hardly news, you think, that tech giants underpay women. The Ugly Facts about Pay Discrimination Salary History Pay Secrecy Opaque Wage and Promotion Structures But what may be most important about the lawsuit is the pervasiveness and typicality of the illegal behavior described in the Complaint Three issues jump out: how wage history perpetrates discrimination; how employer policies that discourage employees from talking about salary prevent them from learning that they have been the victims of discrimination prohibited under Californias Equal Pay Act ; and how secret wage classification and promotion systems make meaningful reform easy to avoid.Ms. Ross went to work for Hewlett-Packard (HPEs corporate predecessor) in 2001. She began as a business analyst and eventually became Director of Sales Operations. In the latter position, she had access to salary information that indicated that the base pay of male employees who joined HPE exceeded the base pay of female employees who joined around the same time, including female employees who had more extensive work experience at HPE. When she left the company in 2018, a superior told her that she was underpaid compared to male peers.Ms. Rogus joined H-P in 2013 and, after the companys reorganization, went to work for HPE as an Implementation Project Manager. Following the death of her Project Manager, she was asked to take on those increased duties. She understood that her title and compensation would be adjusted to reflect her new responsibilities. However, she received only a 2 percent performance-based raise. Her title was never changed, nor was she ever paid what her male Project Manager had been paid.These are not isolated facts. In this California unpaid wages lawsuit, HPE is accused of systematically paying its female employees less than similarly situated males and failing to advance them at the same rate as male employees performing similar work. These practices allegedly exist throughout California and are possible because of preexisting practices.Since January 1, 2018, California employers have been prohibited from asking job applicants about salary history or using that information to determine what salary to offer a new employee. The goal is to short-circuit the continuing effects of past salary discrimination.The law does not address the situation of workers hired before that date, however, or current employees seeking internal promotions . As currently drafted, it may not really help long-term workers who have made a career with a single employer. The Complaint alleges that long-term employees of HPE tend to remain at a the lower-paid job level 1 or 2, in contrast to new hires who start at or quickly rise to a better paid level 3.Raises at HPE perpetuate and widen the gender pay gap because they are based on a percentage of the employees existing HPE salary. The longer a woman works at HPE, the less she is paid compared to similarly situated men, even men performing substantially equal or similar work in the same job. This is a place where the ill effects of gender discrimination combine with the ill effects of age discrimination to leave long-term female employees at a double disadvantage.It remains a common practice, especially in the tech industry for employers to discourage employees from discussing salary with their co-workers.HPEs website reportedly advises employees, Dont compare yourselves to your co-workers. Your compensation should be about you and your performance. By talking about your co-workers, you detract from that point. Don't start the discussion by telling your boss I know Gary makes X more dollars than me.Policies that require silence about pay have been prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act in most industries since 1935.California Labor Code section 232 also bans pay secrecy policies and employer discipline based on disclosure. Since 1985, the law has specifically prohibited requiring an employee to refrain from disclosing his or her wages; requiring an employee to waive the right to disclose his or her wages; and discharging, formally disciplining, or otherwise discriminating against an employee who discloses the amount of his or her wages.Many employees are likely unaware of their rights or fearful of the consequences of being labeled a troublemaker, but the consequences of a culture of pay secrecy are far reaching. Employees cannot enforce their rights if they are unaware that they have been the victims of illegal policies. Many will remember that Lily Ledbetter, for whom the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was named, was precluded from pursuing a remedy for pay discrimination through the court system, because the statute of limitations had elapsed. Finally, workers cannot organize collectively around pay issues if they cannot share information without fear of retaliation.If workers are prevented from acting because they are reluctant to share information among themselves, they are doubly harmed by opaque employer pay scales.HPE has common, companywide policies and practices for setting compensation that applied to all HPE employees in California, male and female. These policies and practices, however facially uniform, do not result in equal pay for women and men for two reasons: the range of salaries paid for a particular job level is very wide and each job level may contain many more specific salary bands.HPE does not publicly disclose its pay-grade or job level structure. But women predominate in less-well paid jobs. Even within the better-paid job classifications, they allegedly tend to find themselves in the lower salary bands.Women who work for HPE in California are far from alone in suffering the effects of gender-based pay discrimination. But until legal enforcement mechanisms take on the underlying practices that make it possible, the best solution may be litigation. Washington, January 7: The United States is an educational hub and presence of globally renowned colleges attract students from all around. However, US students themselves look at education with a different perspective. The latest 2017 Religious Landscape Study survey reveal that among all the religious groups, the Hindu community is the most educated one in the United States, followed by Jewish. According to the survey, both Hindus and Jewish stand at equal percentage when it comes to education at four-year graduate degree level 29 percent, but Hindu Community beats the Jewish by a margin of 17 percent at post-graduate levels and stand at the first position with 48 percent in the list. Standing in the third position is the Buddhist community, which stands at 20 percent. The religious community which stands at the bottom is Jehovahs Witness (3%), followed by Historically Black Protestants (6%). KCR Lists Medical Health, Education, Irrigation as Priority. A graph, showing the percent of communities in US, opting for higher education. | Image: Pew Research Center. Attainment of a four-year college degree in the United States, often regarded as a key asset for economic success, varies by race and gender. But the share of people completing a college education also differs by religion, with members of some faith groups much more educated, on average, than others. All the groups listed in the graph are by education attainment and based on the data of study conducted by Pew Research Center. A graph, showing the percent of communities in US, opting for higher education based on economic status. | Image: Pew Research Center. The research centre states that the preference towards education attainment and economic success are correlated. Both the Jewish and Hindus, on average, have a high household income exceeding $100,000. On one side 44 percent Jewish communities earn more than $100,000, while 36 percent of Hindu communities have a similar income. On the other hand, Jehovah's Witness (4%) and Historically Black Protestants (8%) barely cross the $100,000 income mark. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 07, 2019 12:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Rome, January 3 - A clash between Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and centre-left and left-leaning mayors on the minister's recent security and migrant decree continued on Thursday and the minister called on the rebel officials to quit. As Salvini said the mayors would have to change their allegedly lenient ways regarding migrants, a new front was opened over a migrant ship that has been seeking landfall for over a week. Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris said Thursday he was ready to open his port to Sea Watch, an NGO ship that has been roaming the Mediterranean for days with 32 migrants on board. "I hope this boat comes to the port of Naples because unlike what the government says we will put into the field a rescue action and we will let it into the port," he said. He said "I will be the first to lead the rescue actions". Italian ports are closed to NGO migrant rescue ships, Salvini reiterated after de Magistris's promise. "Italian ports are closed, we have already accepted too many fake refugees, we have enriched too many migrant smugglers!," he said. "Let the leftwing mayors think of their citizens in difficulty, not about clandestine migrants". The party is over for some leftwing mayors who allegedly benefited from migrant reception business, Salvini went on to say. "With the (Democratic Party) it was chaos and clandestine migrants, with the League it is order and respect," said the leader of the anti-migrant League party. "Certain mayors look back fondly on the good old times of immigration, but for them too the party is over!". Salvini was commenting on a rebellion against his migrant-security decree by mayors including Palermo's Leoluca Orlando who say it unfairly strips some migrants of access to healthcare and other local services and allegedly ejects thousands of migrants from the system creating potential criminals. Orlando, for his part, said his perceived rebellion against Salvini's allegedly "inhuman" migrant clampdown had been "a dutiful institutional act". "Don't call me a rebel. My action is a dutiful institutional act, against a decree that authoritative men of the Church have described as inhuman", he said in press interviews. Orlando has been joined by other left-leaning mayors including de Magistris in Naples, Dario Nardella in Florence, and Federico Pizzarotti in Parma in saying they will not apply some allegedly unconstitutional norms in the decree. Orlando went on to say that he would turn to a judge to raise the issue of whether the decree complies with the Italian Constitution. He said he hoped raising the issue at a judicial level would lead to the Constitutional Court examining the decree. The other deputy premier, Salvini's ruling partner Luigi Di Maio of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, accused the mayors of indulging in "electoral spots". "It's just electioneering on the part of mayors who have to feel a bit leftwing by making a bit of noise," said Di Maio, who is also labour and industry minister. Salvini said the mayors who did not agree with him "should resign". He said "Orlando and de Magistris, just quit". In reply, Orlando said: "It's proof that Salvini has not understood anything and that we're living in different worlds. "I'm acting as a mayor". The European Commission has been in touch with some member States to find landing spots for the 32 migrants on board NGO rescue ship Sea watch, an EC spokesman said Thursday, adding that the contacts also concerned another ship, Sea Eye. The spokesman said Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos "directly contacted member States in the last few days". He said the commissioner "is asking member States to help this joint effort to disembark those on board safely and as soon as possible". Bari mayor Antonio Decaro, head of the Italian municipalities association ANCI, on Thursday noted that Salvini in the past called for the kind of civil disobedience, on civil unions, that he is now condemning over his migrant security decree. Decaro noted that "a short while ago, before becoming minister, he himself blatantly urged mayors to disobey a State law, that on civil unions," said Decaro. "Now he is threatening mayors" for doing the same thing, said the ANCI chief. Decaro said the new rules on migrants and security placed mayors in a position of "objective difficulty" and said he did not want to feed the clash with Salvini. "The mayors are asking for dialogue, they're not partying," he said in reference to Salvini's assertion that "the party is over" for mayors and their migrant activities. Milan Mayor Giuseppe 'Beppe' Sala said "Salvini should listen to us and change the decree". The Italian partisans association ANPI said it was "with the mayors who are resisting" and said the officials were trying to defend basic rights enshrined in the Constitution. Rome, January 7 - Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti said Monday he would not close SPRAR asylum seekers' assistance centre. He also said the regional government was weighing an appeal to the Consultation Court against the government's migrant-security decree that allegedly strips asylum seekers of their right to healthcare, social housing and other local services. Zingaretti said he had instructed Lazio health agonies not to stop treating anyone "no matter what their social and economic conditions are". Rome, January 7 - A row over the government's migrant-security decree continued on Monday with the governors of Piedmont and Umbria saying their regions would appeal against the package to the Constitutional Court. The legal move comes after some leftwing mayors rebelled against the decree, including Palermo's Leoluca Orlando, who said his local authority would not apply it. The decree was drafted by Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who has said it will create order in the management of asylum seekers and boost security. Critics, however, say it unfairly strips some migrants of access to healthcare and other local services and will see thousands of people ejected from the legal reception system, creating potential criminals. "I've had confirmation from our legal department, which is discussing this issue with their colleagues in Tuscany, that the legal conditions exist for an appeal to the Constitutional Court," Piedmont Governor Sergio Chiamparino told Sky television. "By impeding the renewal of permits to stay for humanitarian reasons, the decree will have repercussions on the management of health and welfare services that are our responsibility". The Umbria regional executive, meanwhile, approved a motion to challenge the legislation, saying it was "clearly unconstitutional". Rome, January 7 - A study released on Monday by business association Confturismo and the Istituto Piepoli market-research agency said that over seven in 10 Italians went on holiday in 2018, up 6% on the previous year. It said that 24% of people interviewed said they spent more on vacations last year than in 2017, while just 12% said they spent less. The poll suggested that 2019 could be even better for tourism in Italy than 2018. It also said that Italian destinations were preferred by 80% of the people planning to go on holiday in the coming months. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 77F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 51F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Steve Garbacz is editor for The News Sun. After appearing on Jeopardy! and starting a family in 2018, the only life goal he has left is to write and publish a novel. Email him at sgarbacz@kpcmedia.com. If you are old enough to remember the hit comedy movie of 1980, Caddy Shack, then you will recall that a gopher infestation was threatening a golf course in Nebraska. The somewhat deranged groundskeeper was tasked with getting rid of the pest. His efforts at eradication include shooting, f Photo: Josh Winquist Grab your shovels and salt, snow is falling and sticking in the North Okanagan. According to Environment Canada, temperatures will drop this week and snow will continue to fall. Environment Canada is calling for flurries today and continuing into the week. Between 2 and 4 cm will fall today, clearing this evening and temperatures dropping overnight down to -9 for the low. Tomorrow flurries are expected to return in the afternoon, with the predicted high of -4. Flurries are expected tomorrow night and continue into Wednesday evening. According to Environment Canada, Thursday and Friday could see a mix of rain showers and flurries. This undated booking photo provided by Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriffs Office shows Jacqueline Claire Ades. Authorities say the Phoenix woman became obsessed with a man she met after only one date, sending him more than 65,000 text messages and breaking into his home. Ades remained jailed Friday, May 11, 2018, on charges of stalking, threatening and harassment by communication. (Maricopa County Sheriffs Office via AP) North Korea is getting increasingly angry at the US, as talks are deadlocked and tensions between the two countries are on the rise, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. Photo: The Canadian Press Dominique Jacobs Quebec's human rights commission is recommending a suburb south of Montreal pay four members of a black family $86,000 and implement anti-discrimination training for its police officers following an alleged incident of racial profiling. The family members had filed complaints against the city of Longueuil and two of its police officers, alleging they were mistreated during a police intervention in Nov. 2013. The commission's written decision alleges that one of the two officers used "excessive and unjustified force" in stopping the then-17 and 19-year-old complainants as they walked away from a bus station in Brossard, on Montreal's South Shore. "They grabbed them, threw them against the police car, handcuffed and searched them, before even informing them of the reason for intercepting them," reads a summary of facts presented in the commission's decision. The complainants said they were the only black people who were present, and that others who behaved in a similar manner were not treated the same way. The documents suggest the two police officers decided to stop the teens because they were standing apart from the crowd and because the bus stop is a known drug trafficking location. The city of Longueuil did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claims, none of which have been proven in court. The commission also suggested compensation for the 17-year-old's mother and her partner, who complained that the two officers entered their home without permission and treated them disrespectfully following the interaction with the teens. The mother, Dominique Jacobs, said she still remembers when the police banged on her door at 1:30 a.m., demanding her son's identification. She said the officers swore when she asked why her son was arrested, and later laughed at her partner when he asked for their badge numbers. Jacobs said the officers eventually told her that her son had been stopped for jaywalking. "We were treated disrespectfully. I was treated disrespectfully, not just because I'm black but maybe because I'm a woman too," Jacobs said in a phone interview. "It was disgusting." In all four complaints, the commission found there was enough evidence of racial discrimination to recommend compensation, and to follow that up with legal action if the resolution is unsatisfactory. It recommended compensation of $29,000 for each of the two teens and $14,000 for Jacobs and her now ex-boyfriend. It also suggested the force adopt measures to fight discrimination, including more training for officers and gathering data on the racial background of people who are arrested. Because of a deadline for filing suit, the commission decided to immediately submit the case to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, a court body that has the power to order a defendant to pay compensation, according to the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations. ROCHESTER, Minn. Seneca Foods, which owns the land the corn painted water tower sits on, is now offering to donate the 149-foot-tall corn cob to The City of Rochester. In its letter to City Council, it also asks for the city to move the tower off company property. That is what was hoping. Thank you, Seneca, that was really nice, Kelly Schoeberl, a Rochester citizen who has been with the effort to save the tower, said. Before Senecas new letter to Rochester leaders, Schoeberl was encouraging other citizens to write letters telling City Council why the corn water tower means so much to them. Over 50 people sent letters in support of the corn tower and that may not sound like a lotbut 50 long, heart-felt letters, she said. The letters are not only written by people in Rochester, but from people all over the country. One letter expresses how the tower is a way for a young girl to find her Aunt Bessies house. Another letter explains how the tower helped ease a students anxiety on her way to school. Schoeberl is hoping Rochester takes the deal. I really want it to be a no brainer, like 'duh.' We have to do this. The next question will be how fast can we do this, she said. According to the letter, Seneca is giving the city 30 days to decide. Although the company suggests the tower be moved to the fairgrounds, there is no word yet on where the tower would go, or how much it would cost to move, if the city takes up the deal. The conversation will go in front of City Council on Monday, January 7. Learn more about this story and quick facts about the corn water tower, here. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The 2019 Minnesota Legislature convenes at noon Tuesday with a new governor, new balance of power and a $1.5 billion surplus that might make deals easier to reach. Gov.-elect Tim Walz takes office Monday. He portrays himself as a leader who can bridge ideological and rural-urban divides. Democrats will take control of the House, while Senate Republicans will have a two-seat majority, making Minnesota the only state with a divided Legislature. Divided government may function differently under Walz than under Gov. Mark Dayton, who found it hard to work with the GOP-controlled House last year. It'll be up to Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka and his committee chairs whether ideas from Democrats get anywhere in the Senate. He's been sounding conciliatory while cautioning there are things his caucus won't accept. CLINTON, Iowa (AP) - One firefighter died and another was critically hurt while fighting a fire at a grain storage facility in eastern Iowa. The Quad-City Times reports Clinton City Administrator Matt Brooke says 33-year-old Lt. Eric Hosette died in Saturday's fire at the ADM grain facility in Clinton, Iowa, and 23-year-old Adam Cain was injured. Clinton Fire Chief Mike Brown says firefighters were called to the ADM facility before 6 a.m. Saturday. While firefighters were battling the blaze inside a silo, there was an explosion. The cause of the fire is under investigation. ALBERT LEA, Minn. A battery fire temporarily forced a man from his home over the weekend. Albert Lea Fire Rescue, Albert Lea police, and Gold Cross Ambulance were sent to the 1200 block of Virginia Place around 8:42 pm on Sunday and arrived to find smoke coming out of a garage and the front door of a home. The homeowner was outside and told emergency crews that lithium batteries in the basement were on fire. Firefighters entered the home and quickly put out the flames before they could spread to the rest of the building. The Fire Department says there was minimal damage to the home and no one was injured in this incident. According to authorities, the homeowner had just bought new large cell lithium batteries and was charging them for use, but after 10 minutes he went downstairs to find the batteries where popping like fire crackers. The Fire Department says the homeowner was able to return to his home Sunday night. NBC News national security investigator William Arkin raised eyebrows last week by how he walked away from the network. He left a parting message urging his TV news colleagues to avoid the "circus" of constant reporting about the president and provide more in-depth reporting on America's wars. On CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday, Arkin discussed the 2,228-word farewell letter he wrote to his NBC colleagues. and the reasons behind his departure. He said "management decisions," "horse race" coverage and a lack of in-depth reporting made him discouraged. "Investigations just fell to the wayside, and I needed to go and do something else," Arkin said. His critiques are not specific to NBC. "We need to have Trump-free days," he said. "We need to have actual investigative correspondents working on actual investigations. We need to have some courage to criticize the military and criticize the national security community." NBC News declined to comment. Arkin worked for NBC on and off for three decades, sometimes as a military analyst, sometimes as a reporter and consultant. He said he chose not to renew his contract with the network. Arkin has authored numerous books about national security, most recently "Unmanned," subtitled "drones, data, and the illusion of perfect warfare." He is currently working on another book. "I am concerned about the status of our national security," Arkin told Brian Stelter on CNN. "I just don't believe that Donald Trump is the complete and utter story behind it. The national security community itself has gotten stronger and has gained strength under Donald Trump, and part of our responsibility as journalists is to cover the government, not just the president." Arkin argues that reflexive opposition to Trump has helped institutions like the Pentagon, the FBI or CIA gain strength. "Even amongst liberals today, they look at the CIA or the FBI as institutions that are somehow going to save them," he said Sunday. But every arm of the government "deserves the same kind of scrutiny that the president receives, and it just doesn't happen." Arkin has been a critic of "perpetual war" for years. He argued in his goodbye note that "ho-hum reporting" about military conflicts essentially condones those conflicts. "On a day-to-day basis, right now... we are bombing nine countries around the world," Arkin said on CNN. "I defy you to even name what they are." "I can't," Stelter responded. "That's how bad our coverage of warfare is," Arkin said. Arkin said the United States is "mucking around in all parts of the world." In a follow-up email, he named nine countries where there has been US military action in the Obama and Trump years: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Niger, and Mali. "Frankly, when Donald Trump says, why are we in Syria, or what are we doing in Africa, or can't we change the situation in North Korea, I am sympathetic to him. I would just like to have a more intelligent debate about those very issues," he said. Stelter said on "Reliable Sources" that he thinks there are some top-notch Pentagon correspondents and outstanding news outlets devoted to covering the military, but newsrooms don't always prioritize coverage of foreign entanglements. Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin has expressed his sadness on the death of former Mayor of Waterford, originally from south Kilkenny, Jack Walsh following a very short illness. Jack Walsh was a brother of Cllr Tomas Breathnach, Kilmacow, Kilkenny. Mr Howlin expressed his condolences to Jack's family, friends and former constituents. "I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of my colleague, former Labour Waterford City Councillor and local area representative Jack Walsh who only recently had been selected in September to contest the upcoming local elections for Waterford City East. Just two months ago, Jack Walsh was on the podium at our party conference in Dublin speaking with the great insight he always had when addressing issues of importance to Waterford and wider society. "I want to express my sympathy to his wife Vera, children Nina and Lynn, his brothers - serving Labour Cllr Tomas Breathnach, and former Kilkenny Cllr Joe Walsh, his extended family, friends and constituents. I know they will miss him greatly and may he rest in peace. "Jack had a distinguished career in local Government serving as a Waterford City Councillor for ten years, and was Mayor of Waterford City from 2008 to 2009. He was also during this time, a distinguished Chairman of the City of Waterford V.E.C. "Originally from Kilmacow in Co. Kilkenny, public service ran in his family, and while he served as Mayor of Waterford in 2008, his brother, sitting Cllr. Tomas Breathnach was simultaneously elected Chairman of Kilkenny County Council, while another brother Joe Walsh had also previously served as a Councillor in Kilkenny. Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump waves as he departs after speaking on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. With no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is standing firm in his border wall funding demands and newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, though on Sunday he did offer to build it with steel rather than concrete, a concession Democrats panned. With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice-President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. The letter includes a request for $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs," a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants travelling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress, saying Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. Gardai in Kilkenny are investigating two burglaries in the early hours of Sunday morning where a criminal gang raided two businesses within a 30-minute period. At 3.20am the gang, who were travelling in a grey Audi with false 06 LS plates , hit the Spar in Johnstown. The raiders smashed a side window and stole a quantity of alcohol and cigarettes. At 3.45am the raiders hit again, this time in neighbouring Urlingford, where they smashed the front window of the Centra shop on the Main Street and stole a quantity of alcohol and cigarettes. CCTV was obtained and examined and it is understood that three males were involved. Anyone with information is asked to contact Kilkenny gardai on (056) 777 5000. SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Wayfair is set to open a new sales and service center in Springfield, and the hiring search is underway. The online home goods store plans to offer more than 600 full-time jobs at the new location, which is scheduled to open in spring. Springfield city officials said Wayfair will be located within the new PacificSource business campus -- the old Symantec building on International Way. We're excited to see jobs move into Springfield, said Courtney Griesel, the Economic Development Director for the city of Springfield. We're always excited to whether its an existing company that's growing or a company that's moving into the community. Community members are also welcoming the opportunity for new jobs and economic growth. New jobs are never a bad thing, said Seth Grueshow, a community member.So that's great, and with everything else happening in Springfield, the downtown revitalizing itself and a lot of new business coming here, it really makes a lot of sense. The timing couldn't be better." "It's gonna help a lot of people out with being homeless, said Deven Martin, a community member. They get a fresh start. People that are in job training, transition such a veterans or even myself if I wanted to go for a different role of employment. RELATED: PACIFICSOURCE TO BUY SYMANTEC BUILDING IN SPRINGFIELD Springfield is pleased to welcome Wayfair to the community, and excited for the career and partnership opportunities it will bring to our community members, Mayor Christine Lundberg said. It is affirmation of our hard working and value driven workforce that a leader in world-class customer service chooses our community as home. Wayfair is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and has operations throughout North America and Europe. They employ more than 10,900 people. If you would like to apply for a customer service, sales, human resources or management position, click here. Photo: The Canadian Press Kevin Spacey arrived at a courthouse on a resort island Monday to answer accusations that he groped a young man in a bar there in 2016. The two-time Oscar winner has said he will plead not guilty in Nantucket District Court to felony indecent assault and battery. The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the former "House of Cards" star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teen worked as a busboy. Spacey's lawyer, Alan Jackson, has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager didn't immediately report the allegations. If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison. The civil attorney for the accuser said in a statement ahead of the hearing that his client is "leading by example." "By reporting the sexual assault, my client is a determined and encouraging voice for those victims not yet ready to report being sexually assaulted," said lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of clergy sexual abuse victims. Garabedian is not a part of the criminal case against Spacey. Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quiets down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold. When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear in late morning. It's the first criminal case brought against Spacey, 59, since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017. A judge denied Spacey's bid to avoid appearing in person Monday. Spacey had argued his presence would "amplify the negative publicity already generated" by the case. Television anchor Heather Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the incident. She said her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the bathroom. The Associated Press does not typically identify people alleging sexual assault. After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix's "House of Cards," in which he said, "I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn't do." It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. Spacey has also faced other allegations. 39 Shares Share Recently, news broke about a disturbing act of medical battery carried out by doctors at St. Joes Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. The case began when police officers conducted a pretext stop and elected to harass their victim about a small amount of marijuana. As the situation escalated, the cops took the man to St. Joes Medical Center for him to be searched for more drugs. After initial resistance, the cops obtained a search warrant demanding that doctors conduct a sigmoidoscopy to search the victims rectum for cocaine. Spoiler alert: They didnt find anything. Im not a legal expert and I wont speak to the legal status of what happened. But as a physician, Im appalled that a physician would assault their patient simply because a court gave some rogue cops a warrant. While police are accustomed to committing acts of assault against unarmed minorities, as physicians, we should hold ourselves to a higher ethical standard. Informed consent is central to our ethical code. We are not agents of the police, nor agents of the courts. We act to heal the sick, not violate unconsenting prisoners. I would never conduct a medical procedure on a patient against their will because my personal and professional integrity means something to me. The physician who completed the procedure, however, saw things differently. In his note, he writes, Its a valid warrant, and we are obligated to help the police under any means to retrieve the object. Obligated? In what way? The hospital could fire you, I guess. But do you want to work for a hospital that requires its employees to commit medical battery on behalf of brutal and corrupt police? You could possibly be charged with contempt of court, perhaps even be jailed. But Id rather do jail time for contempt of court than violate my professional ethics and the rights of my patients. Thats called having a conscience and taking seriously ones ethical responsibilities. While the search warrant may protect this doctor from criminal charges, from an ethical standpoint he has clearly committed an act of medical assault, for which there is no excuse. Search warrants obtained by abusive police are no excuse for violating one of the most important principles of medical ethics: informed consent. When a decisional patient says no, it means no. It doesnt matter what your hospitals lawyer, a group of cops or a careless judge have to say. As doctors, we know what constitutes ethical and unethical behavior, and it is up to us to do the right thing, even under pressure. Other health care workers have nobly stood up to abusive police in defense of their patients. Take the example of Nurse Alex Wubbels, who got a $500K settlement after she was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient on the behest of an abusive cop. Admittedly, there was no warrant in her case, but the ethical principles are the same. Physicians are not the only ones to face legal pressure to commit unethical acts. In the United States, journalists are routinely jailed when courts order them to reveal confidential sources, and they refuse. They refuse because they believe very strongly in their integrity as journalists and would rather suffer in a jail cell than behave unethically. When reporters do a better job of sticking by their ethical principles than doctors, we have a major problem. Kyle Varner is an internal medicine physician who blogs at his self-titled site, Dr Varner, He can be reached on Twitter @Doctor_Varner. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 8 Shares Share As a physician who has spent his career taking care of people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and various blood disorders, this is an amazing time to be working in these overlapping fields of medicine. I began my training when roughly half the people diagnosed with HIV were destined to develop cancer, and nearly everyone died shortly after they progressed to AIDS. In resource-rich countries today, HIV care is often as simple as the patient taking one pill daily. When I started my fellowship in hematology and oncology, few treatments meaningfully modified the natural and devastating progression of metastatic cancer. Most chemotherapy treatments were exceptionally toxic. With a few notable exceptions such as lymphoma or testes cancer, too many patients were destined to die of their disease. The treatments often hastened rather than delayed death. The agents we now take for granted to minimize side effects, including antiemetics, antibiotics, bone-strengthening agents and myeloid stimulants, were not yet available nor routinely incorporated into treatment strategies. We waged a metaphorical war with the hope our patients could live longer and better. Our objective was to attack our common enemy with the armaments at our disposal, including radical surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. We told our patients to imagine that chemo resembled small pizzas with a slice cut out for the mouth like figures in the then-popular Pac-Man arcade game. The army was deployed from an intravenous bag, marched through a vein and into enemy lines, and took bites out of cancer. But so often the collateral damage manifested by low blood counts, infections, nausea, and vomiting were more problematic to our patients than our common enemy. And so many patients still died. I remember vividly one patient I helped care for during my first year out of medical school. He was in his early to mid-20s and diagnosed with metastatic testes cancer. He had a strong interest in non-traditional supplements. Even 30 years ago, his cancer was highly curable. With his first treatment cycle he suffered intractable nausea and refused further chemotherapy. Despite the efforts of our team, including my senior resident, our attending oncologist, a social worker, and psychiatrist, our pleas were ignored. He chose to seek care in Mexico, trying laetrile and dying a few months later. Sadly, this was a pattern I saw repeated over the years. I reflected on this and more as I put thoughts to paper while flying home from the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). The meeting included several big and important themes. The National Cancer Institute announced it is revamping how it conducts clinical trials so more people, including children and adults with rare tumors, can have access more quickly to potentially life-saving therapies. Moreover, companies like Amazon and Microsoft were present. They are entering the cancer field by introducing artificial intelligence (AI) to solve complex medical problems. I heard a presentation by experts from the Cleveland Clinic who explained that by using AI and genetic sequence data, physicians there can better predict which patients with myelodysplasia are destined to develop acute leukemia. By capitalizing on this information and using new drug targets, we were told, many patients can improve their critically low blood counts and be less likely to succumb to acute leukemia. I also heard how machine learning is developing algorithms to more expertly curate medical information, enhance the ability of scans to detect cancer and more efficiently deliver radiation therapy to difficult-to-target tumors. One symposium focused on physicians who use social media to connect with colleagues and patients in novel, exciting and impactful ways. As a doctor who works with patients with cancer and HIV, I have struggled to get the word out about clinical trials for this specific and small group of individuals. It was inspiring to hear how one physician used social media to inform patients about a clinical trial that will examine the benefits of yoga for individuals with the rare blood disorder polycythemia vera. In seven days, hundreds of patients sought to enroll. I was excited to learn how this approach can keep me better connected to my patients and thought leaders in my field. While I marvel at how far weve come, challenges related to the cost of care and care equity remain. There are huge disparities in cancer care because of challenges with health insurance coverage, racial and economic issues, misconceptions regarding what is healthy behavior and what is not (for example, vaping), and difficulties rolling out commonly accepted screening procedures for early diagnosis of breast, lung, colon and cervical cancers. Many of my patients must make therapeutic lifestyle changes and embrace harm-reduction strategies despite scarce resources, such as social services and psychiatric care, to make these changes a reality. While many novel drugs are more effective and often have fewer side effects than the drugs they are supplanting, the newer ones have this in common extremely high prices. For example, CAR T cells are effective for some cancers but cost $1 million per treatment. Several surveys have shown that for many patients their biggest concern is not how long they will live but how they can afford treatment without leaving their families bankrupt. Thus, a new term has emerged when describing treatments financial toxicity. I worry the high cost of care will drive inequities even further. Determining how best to deliver appropriate care even-handedly, efficiently and affordably is one of the largest, yet least discussed, challenges in cancer care. This is the elephant in the room. It is a potential barrier to the remarkable strides underway in medicine. David M. Aboulafia is a hematology-oncology physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 92 Shares Share Patient access to care is a high priority for all neurosurgeons. Unfortunately, many of our practices are thwarted in these efforts from unwarranted insurance denials. Know, you are not alone. Take this common scenario: When Ms. Mary Smith (not the patients real name) started her new job several years ago, she purchased the premium insurance policy that her company provided. Recently, she developed severe neck and left arm pain. Imaging of her neck with a Cervical MRI demonstrated a large disc herniation at C5-C6 pressing on her left C6 nerve root. Despite attempted non-surgical management including steroids, pain medication, and physical therapy, Mary continued to suffer severe intractable pain and weakness in her left arm. Nearly three months after onset of her symptoms, she presented to a neurosurgeon. Clinical evaluation and review of radiological imaging suggested intractable, severe radiculopathy caused by the C5-C6 disc herniation. She was scheduled for surgery the following week. However, her premium insurance company denied her surgery, claiming that a physician to physician (peer-to-peer) conference call was needed. The denied claim cited lack of sufficient non-surgical management and lack of documentation. Looking back at the patent medical record all these items had been addressed. Still, the claim was denied and the surgery delayed-leaving the patient to suffer needlessly. Starting in the 1980s and continuing today, all health care insurers, including Medicare, workers compensation programs and private health insurance carriers, have increasingly relied on utilization management (UM) strategies to contain costs. Such strategies have included physician gatekeeper programs, the necessity of second surgical opinions before operative intervention, and prior authorization (PA) for diagnostic tests as well as treatments. Physician practice time associated with UM is estimated at 14.6 hours of dedicated time per practice per week, totaling more than $68,000 per year per practice. Although dependent upon the particular test or intervention, there is evidence that the rate of first-time insurance denials is increasing over time. A recent retrospective review of 1,054 patients evaluated at a single institution for laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery demonstrated the rate of first-time insurance denial for surgery nearly doubled between 2001 (9.9 percent) and 2005 (19.9 percent). Another recent report demonstrates a wide range of denial rates, from very low for patients with cauda equina syndrome (multiple nerve root compression) to nearly 17 percent for lumbar fusions, highlighting the variable nature of such denials even within the relatively narrow field of lumbar spine surgery. Six-fold variation in denial rates, related to geographic region and payer, have also been documented in the literature. As a result of their often unpredictable nature, physicians are increasingly investing more time and resources toward strategies to combat UM and PA denials. This UM/PA process is extremely frustrating for patients waiting for care and physicians. A December 2017 survey of 1,000 physicians conducted by the American Medical Association found: 92 percent of the patients requiring pre-approval experience a delay in treatment; 84 percent of physicians reported high or extremely high UM/PA burden, with 86 percent of physicians reporting this burden has increased over the past five years; and 30 percent of physicians reported waiting at least three business days to receive a UM/PA decision from health plans. Given the above findings, it appears the time may be ripe for physicians to approach the PA process with a more standardized and nuanced approach to obtain more seamless pre-authorization and subsequent patient care. Advocacy is one part of the solution. The AANS and CNS have joined with the medical community in calling for the standardization of the PA process across diagnostic tests, interventions, payers and providers. Unfortunately, the diversity and complexity of unifying such processes will likely take much time and investment of resources from all parties. Until these are fully realized, there are a number of helpful strategies that physicians can employ to help ease the burden on themselves as well as their patients and staff as they approach prior authorizations, including: Adopt standardized forms including a checklist highlighting the necessary tests and interventions that have already been performed on the patient. Back-up the checklist with associated documentation of prior services, including, for instance, documentation of physical therapy sessions or other non-operative interventions that may have been directed by another provider. Create templates for the electronic medical record (EMR) to include progress notes and prior authorization forms. Seek out and become familiar with the specific guidelines and algorithms used by the most frequent payers in your practice. Familiarity with these guidelines can inform the development of internal, standardized forms to expedite processing. Physicians should school their staff on the preparation and submission of documents and ensure proper coding. Your staff can expedite most appeal discussions by scheduling them in advance; thus circumventing the many minutes spent on hold and navigating complex answering systems. During the appeal process, physicians can ask for the credentials of the payer representative who initially denied the request. Often these representatives are either not physicians or not in active practice within the same field of subspecialty. In such cases, the requesting physician may ask to speak with a representative active in practice and within the same subspecialty. Requesting physicians can ask to record their conversation for documentation purposes and/or speak directly to the payers medical director. Such strategies, though not yet rigorously tested, have anecdotally reversed a notable proportion of initial PA rejections in the authors practices. Additionally, the AMAs Prior Authorization Toolkit provides some outstanding resources and approaches. At a time when it has become increasingly difficult to obtain first-time pre-authorization for necessary diagnostic tests and interventions, physicians must be increasingly facile in maneuvering UM processes. By increasing our familiarity with national and payer guidelines, standardizing our practices documentation, and aggressively rebutting denials, we may continue to advocate for our patients best interests and provide outstanding quality and outcomes within our complex and ever-changing health care environment. Debraj Mukherjee and Chaim B. Colen are neurosurgeons. This article originally appeared on Neurosurgery Blog which is a publication of The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). Image credit: Shutterstock.com Photo: CTV News Two Vancouver-area police officers acquitted of sex assault charges in Cuba now face an investigation on Canadian soil. The B.C. Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner is opening its own investigation into the case, CTV News reports. Vancouver Police Const. Mark Simms was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old Ontario girl in Cuba, while Const. Jordan Long of the Port Moody Police was accused of being an accomplice. They were acquitted in November, but were prohibited from leaving Cuba while the acquittal was appealed. They arrived home over the weekend and will now face the new probe. with files from CTV Vancouver Photo: The Canadian Press David Rhodes, president of CBS news division, participates in the CBS News panel at the CBS Summer TCA Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. CBS said Sunday that its news division president, David Rhodes, is stepping down following a troubled year that saw morning anchor Charlie Rose and the top executive at "60 Minutes" lose their jobs following misconduct reports, and is being replaced by veteran producer Susan Zirinsky. Zirinsky, who started work at CBS in the Washington bureau as a 20-year-old in the early 1970s and is currently the executive producer at "48 Hours," will take over in March. "It's a very humbling and daunting role," said Zirinsky, 66, in an interview Sunday. "When you've been working someplace for 40 years, it's a moment." Rhodes will work as an adviser to CBS News after leaving, said interim CBS Corp. leader Joseph Ianniello. In a memo to his staff, Rhodes said Sunday that "the new year is a time for renewal, for new goals. The world we cover is changing, how we cover it is changing and it's the right time for me to make a change too." Rhodes came to CBS News from Fox News Channel and, together with former CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager, saw success in emphasizing a newsier approach than its rivals. The launch of "CBS This Morning" with Rose, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell was a particular success. But in November 2017, Rose was abruptly fired following reports of improper behaviour involving female staffers at CBS News. The show's ratings have taken a tumble since then, and that show's executive producer recently exited. Rhodes last fall also had to oust his former partner, Fager, who had returned to his original job as executive producer of "60 Minutes." Fager had sent a message regarded as threatening to a CBS reporter who was working on a story about alleged bad behaviour at the show and by Fager. "It was a cultural shift in the country and CBS had a piece of it, no doubt about it," Zirinsky said. "But we've taken it head-on." Ianniello owes his job to a more sordid sexual misconduct involving former CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves, who was ousted last fall. The CBS board is currently trying to halt a multi-million dollar payment Moonves was to receive upon leaving. A closer look at the four victorious post-war Democrats shows that their age was really a symbol for a much larger issue. Their youth helped shape their narratives, the stories they told voters about their past experiences and their plans for the future. In all four cases, those future presidents captured something profoundly important about America, about our eternal search for something new and fresh and different. They embodied perhaps the best slogan in our entire political history: Its Time for a Change! (So did Trump, even though he was 70 in 2016.) Thirteen years before he was elected president, Barack Obama published a best-selling memoir, Dreams From My Father, which told a new version of an old American story: a biracial child overcoming adversity and achieving success through his own merit and motivation. The book foreshadowed his timeless campaign theme of Hope and Change, two of the most resonant words in the American political lexicon. Obama has met with ORourke since the election, and in an interview with his close adviser David Axelrod, the former president praised the defeated congressman as an impressive young man who ran a terrific race in Texas. She was the only adult at the house at that time. Around 6 p.m., the mother received a strange text message from Tietsort: the babysitter said a local news site had posted a story on child abuse charges that had been filed against her. She was not supposed to be alone around children, Tietsort told the mother, so the babysitter asked the mother not to tell anyone she was watching the kids. Following the baby's death, when investigators interviewed Tietsort, she claimed the 2-month-old had died before her boyfriend returned home around 6:30 p.m. The criminal complaint does not state whether she offered any explanation for how the child died. "She stated that Victim felt cold and she knew he was dead," the criminal complaint stated. "She said she did not check for a pulse, she did not reach out for help and she did not perform any resuscitation efforts. Tietsort admitted that she put the Victim's lifeless body on the floor in the hallway of her home, grabbed his snowsuit from the car seat, dressed him in the snowsuit and then placed his body in the car seat with his blankets." According to the preliminary autopsy, Albrecht said, metal fragments were found in Hernandezs neck, but the gunshot was not fatal. Additionally, there were injuries to Hernandezs torso, including contusions of his right lung, and traumatic injuries to his head, including a fracture of his right nasal bone, fracture of an eye socket and a fractured tooth was found in his throat. Albrecht said the autopsy report revealed that Hernandez died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Melissa Callahan, 36 of Elm Creek also was alleged to have been seen on the video footage. About four hours after the shooting, Albrecht said, Juarez-Mendez and Callahan allegedly enter the back door of the house with a large section of burlap, which he said appeared to be similar to the material that Hernandezs body was wrapped in. Juarez-Mendez then turned off the video recording. Callahan was charged in January 2017 with felony accessory to a felony and has since pleaded not guilty to the charge. She awaits a pre-trial hearing Friday and a jury trial on Feb. 12, both scheduled in Dawson County District Court. If convicted and not placed on probation, she faces up to 20 years in prison. @erikadpritchard In a hands-on exercise, she showed pictures one by one of a bluejay, red-tailed hawk, female cardinal, dark-eyed junco and male house sparrow and had the children find them in the field guide. Abigail had used a field guide before. But I didnt really know how to use it. I just flipped through the pictures, she said. The children also practiced using binoculars by watching birds and one fat, active squirrel hanging around the bird feeders outside the Nicolson Center window. We want the kids to notice what birds they can see in the winter, Yates said about another goal for the Christmas count event. Most people dont know whats here. That includes birds in south-central Nebraska year-round and others, such as several types of sparrows, that migrate from Canada. At the end of Fridays program, the children were shown how to add their bird count to the eBird website. Having heard only the sounds of a few distant birds during the trail walk confirmed what Yates said is another benefit of coming to Rowe Sanctuary or other outdoor places in the winter. items of an emergency nature, the agenda shall not be altered later than 24 hours before the scheduled commencement of the meeting. The Planning Commission shall have the right to modify the agenda to include items of an emergency nature only at such public meeting. Individuals requiring physical or sensory accommodations who de- sire to attend or participate please contact the City Clerk at City Hall or call (308) 233-3216 no later than By CATHERINE LUCEY and LISA MASCARO , Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) With no breakthrough in sight to end the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is planning to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday to highlight his demands for a border wall. Newly empowered House Democrats plan to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump maintains that more than $5 billion for a wall is necessary to secure the border. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Monday that Trump will use the visit to "meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis." As the shutdown lurched into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. Trump has offered to build the barrier with steel rather than concrete, billing that as a concession to Democrats' objections to a solid wall. They "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel," he has said. But the Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed-upon levels. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. The administration letter includes a request for $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs," a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure Americans receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. Among the Republicans expressing concern was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Over the weekend, the federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work. But Trump and the Department of Homeland Security pushed back on any suggestion that the call-outs represented a "sickout" that was having a significant effect on U.S. air travel. At the White House, on Monday, spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp complained that Democratic leaders have yet to define what they mean when they say they are for enhancing border security. "Democrats want to secure the border? Great. Come to the table," she said. "We are willing to come to a deal to reopen the government." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." Trump asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. WEED, Calif. UPDATE: Once found, Rosemarie McNeal told authorities that she got lost in the woods near Carrick before a local family took her in, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office (SCSO). Officers from the Weed Police Department found McNeal late Tuesday morning, SCSO said. She was located in the 200-block of Main Street in Weed. "SCSO Deputies responded to the scene and confirmed the person contacted by WPD was in fact the subject of an extensive search that was initiated by SCSO on January 6, 2019, after she was reported missing by a family member," the agency said in a statement. McNeal reportedly told investigators that on the night she had gone missing, she got lost in a wooded area before eventually finding shelter with a family in Carrick. She traveled back to Weed after that. We are very pleased the search for Ms. McNeal had a happy ending and she was found alive and well," said Sheriff Jon Lopey, thanking the different agencies that helped in the search. McNeal has since been brought back to the home of a relative in Dunsmuir and is apparently in good health, SCSO said. (Updated 1/8/19 at 1:10 p.m.) UPDATE: The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office says that Rosemarie McNeal "has been located and is safe." They posted on Facebook thanking everyone for their assistance in the search for McNeal. (Updated 1/8/19 at 6:21 a.m.) UPDATE: Authorities have just released more details regarding the ongoing search for Rosemarie McNeal clarifying some details from their initial statement. According to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, 52-year-old Rosemarie "Marie" McNeal of Dunsmuir was reported missing by a family member around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 6. She was last seen on January 4, walking in the Maple Street area of the "Carrick Edition" outside of Weed. "SCSO patrol deputies, supervisor, and detectives of the Major Crimes Unit have been investigating her disappearance and have reason to believe Ms. McNeal may be endangered," the agency said. The search is ongoing, with detectives, deputies and Search and Rescue (SAR) personnel looking in the Carrick and Dunsmuir area for any trace of McNeal. Searchers found a dark blue mini-van with Oregon license plates in Carrick and may be connected to McNeal "or her associates," SCSO said. "We are very concerned about Maries welfare, based on the duration of his absence and the fact there are some suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Our detectives, deputies, and SAR personnel are working hard to locate her but we need anyone with information about Maries whereabouts to contact the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office 24-hour Dispatch Center at (530) 841-2900, said Sheriff Jon Lopey. McNeal is described as a white female adult, with long, dark brown hair, and brown eyes. She is 55 in height and weighs 120 to 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black-colored jacket, blue jeans, and black boots. (Updated 1/7/19 at 11:50 a.m.) INITIAL REPORT: The recent disappearance of a Siskiyou County woman is "suspicious in nature, and she may be in endangered" according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office (SCSO). 52-year-old RoseMarie McNeal was last seen on January 4 at a house on Maple Street in Carrick near Weed. While SCSO has released very little information on the case as yet, their statement indicates a sense of urgency for finding McNeal soon. "If you have any information at all about RoseMarie McNeal or her current location, please call the Sheriff's Office," SCSO said. They can be reached at 530-841-2900. McNeal is described as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes, 5'5" and weighing 140 pounds. ROGUE RIVER, Ore. --Just before 3:15PM Sunday afternoon, the Rogue River Fire Department says crews were dispatched to a fire on 200 block of West Savage Creek Road. Crews say they found a large smoke column in a detached shop about 50% involved in fire and called for a 2nd alarm. Crews from the Evans Valley Fire District, Grants Pass Fire, Rural Metro and Fire District 3 came for aid. The Rogue River Fire Department said the home owner stated he was heating up coconut oil on the stove as part of his essential oil business. He stopped to help his son with a flat tire and noticed the shop on fire. There was about 6 gallons of oil in an 8 gallon pot that was on the stove. The owner added it is very likely that the oil got too hot and boiled over onto the stove. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Photo: Facebook Supporters of an Indigenous camp blocking access to a planned pipeline in northern British Columbia say they are anticipating RCMP action over an injunction filed against them. Jennifer Wickham, a member of the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, says police have gathered in Smithers, B.C., and Houston, B.C., which are the closest towns to the Gidimt'en checkpoint. TransCanada has said it has signed agreements with all First Nations along the pipeline route to LNG Canada's $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, B.C. But Wickham says the company does not have the authority to build through Wet'suwet'en territory because the house chiefs, who are hereditary chiefs rather than elected band council leaders, have not given consent. "We face the real and imminent threat of forcible removal from our own homelands ... We are not protesters. We are Wetsuweten," a post on the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidumt'en Territory Facebook page reads. "We are lawfully and peacefully living on our lands as we have since time immemorial. We call for all that can join us to do so immediately, on our homelands or where you stand." On Dec. 14, the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs issued a statement saying they were deeply concerned by the National Energy Board's decision denying their request to participate in a jurisdictional challenge to the permits issued to TransCanada's Coastal GasLink pipeline project, which would cross Wet'suwet'en territories. A GoFundMe page for those in the blockade has raised more than $34,000 in 19 days. The RCMP and TransCanada did not immediately respond to a request for comment. KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- A robbery and carjacking led to police firing shots right outside a church, but thanks to a volunteer security guard, the suspect is in custody and everyone else is safe. You know what I did is what any other Christian gentleman would do for any other, this is what were supposed to do this isnt anything special, explained Douglas Otto, Head of Security at Midtown Baptist Temple. Sunday, Otto was training a new volunteer and saw something that didnt seem right with one of the churchs members. He came out and blocked her and that concerned me so I started my pace a lot faster. I started to jog down there and then he came over and he talked to her he looked in the back of her car then looked up at me, said Otto. It happened near 40th and Walnut. The man took off when he didnt get the womans car. Otto called 911 then went after him. As this was happening, he tried to rob another church member in the parking lot. Police arrested James Bullock a couple blocks away at 39th and Baltimore after a struggle. They say he tried to grab an officers gun, thats when another officer shot him. Bullock will be okay, and the officers werent hurt. Otto has volunteered for the churchs security team for a few years now and Pastor Sam Miles couldnt be happier with the way he responded. Im super proud of Doug and really the whole team they do a great job, said Sam Miles, Senior Pastor at Midtown Baptist Temple. They dont take security lightly at Midtown Baptist Temple. They train with outside companies and try to make sure they have an eye on everything happening in and around the church. Miles says god doesn't promote a lifestyle of fear. He doesnt want this to stop people from coming to the church to worship. The reality is everybody has to wrestle with bad days there are storms you know those are realities of life and the God that we serve is more than able to take us through anything and so weve had similar, said Miles. Miles says police asked him not to talk about what happened with church members during the service on Sunday. He says theyll go over safety and security procedures with members during service Tuesday. The storms Friday packed an especially powerful punch in Excelsior Springs. Thousands of people were left without power so the fire department stepped in to help with a food drive for residents as many continue to clean up the mess. On Wednesday morning, they suggested that it does not appear the region is in line for heavy snowfall, but perhaps an extended period of light wintry precipitation Saturday into Sunday. The best chance for heavier snow rates looked possible Sunday morning, though it was still too early for a firm prediction, the forecasters said. Sabrina Tapp-Harper: A top commander and spokeswoman in the Baltimore sheriffs office, Tapp-Harper publicly said she submitted her name for the job in June. Sources said she also met with the panel of police executives. She said Monday that she is still interested in the job but declined to comment further. Includes 2.05 Mt at 19.32% ZnEq of Indicated & 2.03 Mt at 20.61% ZnEq of Inferred Resources THUNDER BAY, ON, Jan. 7, 2019 /CNW/ - Wolfden Resources Corporation ("Wolfden" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a Mineral Resource estimate for its 100% owned Pickett Mountain high-grade zinc-lead-copper-silver massive sulphide deposit ("the Deposit"), located in Penobscot County in north-eastern Maine, U.S.A. Highlights Indicated Mineral Resource of 2.05 million tonnes at 9.88% zinc, 3.93% lead, 1.38% copper, 101.58 g/t silver & 0.92 g/t gold (19.32% ZnEq). Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.03 million tonnes at 10.98% zinc, 4.35% lead, 1.20% copper, 111.45 g/t silver & 0.92 g/t gold (20.61% ZnEq). Continued expansion and infill diamond drilling on the Deposit has the potential to upgrade and expand the mineral resource. The resource estimate utilized up to hole PM-18-29 from the 2018 drill program that included 27 intersections. Hole 32, a step-out in the West Lens, and hole 35, a step-out in the East Lens, were subsequently completed following the cut-off date. Both returned impressive intercepts of massive sulphides with assays pending. A potential new mineralized lens situated 180 metres to the North and parallel to the East Lens was discovered by hole 31, where assay results are pending. "This mineral resource estimate supports our belief that Pickett Mtn. is one of the highest-grade undeveloped massive sulphide (VMS) deposits in the base-metal sector in North America", stated Don Hoy, Senior Vice President of Exploration for Wolfden. "Our goal is to further upgrade and expand the resource while we consider various scenarios that could be used to develop a mining operation on the project. These types of deposits often occur in clusters and future exploration will test for additional satellite massive sulphide lenses that could occur elsewhere on the property and in the large prospective volcanic belt that hosts the Pickett Mtn. deposit. The past producing Buchan's mine in Nfld., which occurs within the same Appalachian orogenic belt as Pickett Mtn., produced 16.2 million tonnes of ore from five lenses, that averaged 14.5% zinc, 7.6% lead, 1.3% copper, and 126 g/t silver and 1.4 g/t gold over 58 years and was one of the highest grade base metal camps in Canadian history." The estimate was completed utilizing data from 70 historic drill holes completed by Getty and Chevron during the period of 1981 to 1985 and 27 recent drill holes completed by Wolfden over the last year and utilized wireframe models created by Gems 3D modelling software. The wireframes were then imported into Hexagon/MineSight software and validated. The resulting geological model and estimate will form the basis for further infill and expansion drilling and assist in prioritizing regional exploration targets. Much of the drilling to date has been at a spacing (+50 m) that is not quite tight enough to allow for measured and indicated resources. There remains a significant opportunity to upgrade the resource with infill drilling and confirming the optimal drill spacing via a test pattern program. The recent deep drilling results (+600 m depth) exhibited some exceptionally high grades and thereby underscores the potential to further expand resources at depth. The Mineral Resource Estimate The Mineral Resource estimate has been prepared, supervised and reviewed by Independent qualified persons ("QP") Finley Bakker, P. Geo., Jerry Grant, P.Geo., Brian LeBlanc, P. Eng., of A-Z Mining Consultants and has an effective date of January 7, 2019. The estimate also included the input and review of Andre Labonte, a resource technician. The technical report to be authored by A-Z Mining Consultants, as prescribed by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, will be posted on Wolfden's website and SEDAR within 45 days from the date of this news release. The Mineral Resource estimate was classified into indicated and inferred categories in accordance with CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves adopted by the CIM Council on May 10, 2014. A number of potential cut-off grades for Zinc Equivalent were calculated for each resource category as represented in the tables below. The tonnage and grade are robust over the intervals chosen. A 9% Zinc Equivalent cut-off was considered to be conservative until further technical studies have been completed. INDICATED MINERAL RESOURCE - January 7, 2019 % ZnEq Cut-off Grade Tonnes % Zn % Pb % Cu g/t Ag g/t Au Density % ZnEq 3% ZnEq 3,970,000 6.03 2.38 1.02 65.39 0.68 4.02 12.39 5% ZnEq 2,820,000 7.89 3.12 1.21 83.61 0.81 4.00 15.79 7% ZnEq 2,320,000 9.11 3.62 1.32 95.04 0.88 3.98 17.99 9% ZnEq 2,050,000 9.88 3.93 1.38 101.58 0.92 3.99 19.32 11% ZnEq 1,770,000 10.77 4.29 1.41 109.32 0.96 4.00 20.79 INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE - January 7, 2019 % ZnEq Cut-off Grade Tonnes % Zn % Pb % Cu g/t Ag g/t Au Density % ZnEq 3% ZnEq 4,020,000 6.59 2.58 0.94 69.91 0.68 4.03 13.03 5% ZnEq 2,980,000 8.35 3.29 1.06 87.12 0.79 4.01 16.14 7% ZnEq 2,450,000 9.67 3.83 1.15 99.99 0.86 4.00 18.43 9% ZnEq 2,030,000 10.98 4.35 1.20 111.45 0.92 4.00 20.61 11% ZnEq 1,740,000 12.06 4.77 1.24 121.42 0.97 4.00 22.39 Mineral Resource Estimate Parameters and Assumptions Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. Resources are presented as undiluted and in-situ for an underground mining scenario and are considered to have reasonable prospects for economic extraction. The metal prices used to determine Zinc Equivalent (ZnEq) grades where US$1.20 /pound for zinc, US$1.00 /pound for lead, US$2.50 /pound for copper, US$16.00 /troy ounce for silver, and US$1200 /troy ounce for gold. The base case utilized a calculated cut-off grade of 9.00% ZnEq. /pound for zinc, /pound for lead, /pound for copper, /troy ounce for silver, and /troy ounce for gold. The base case utilized a calculated cut-off grade of 9.00% ZnEq. Indicated Resources were estimated using a maximum distance of 25 metres from a drill hole and meeting a single hole minimum. Inferred Resources were estimated utilizing a no hole minimum and using a minimum of 25 metres and maximum of 200 metres from a drill hole. The MRE encompasses 3 mineralized massive sulphide lenses. A total of 148 drill holes comprise the database including 2550 samples; of these 940 samples were utilized in the estimate. Grade capping was not utilized as it was noted that the general uniformity of grade was fairly consistent with no significant outliers in the assay results. The specific gravities used in the MRE were based on a total of 253 physically measured specific gravities within the mineralized lenses. Wolfden is not aware of any legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the mineral resources. Exploration Target Based on the current geological model, an exploration target for the Pickett Mtn. deposit is in the 8 to 10 million-tonne range at a grade of 12 to 20% ZnEq. This target is derived from the interpretation of the drilling, surface geology and structure, as well as from sampling carried out in the locale of the deposit. The potential quantity and grade of an exploration target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource of this size and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource of this magnitude. Future Work Exploration in 2019 will focus on the continued expansion and upgrading of the deposit that remains open at depth and where folding may lead to the discovery of additional massive sulphide lenses. Down-hole EM surveying will be utilized to assist in targeting possible extensions of the known and recently discovered massive sulphide lenses. Additional testing of the recently discovered footwall lens (north of the East Lens) and other regional targets could further expand the mineral resource. In order to upgrade the inferred resource, a limited infill drill program with a 25 m by 25 m pattern is required to confirm if the current 50 by 50 meter drill pattern is sufficient. Quality Assurance / Quality Control Wolfden adheres to strict Quality Assurance and Quality Control protocols including routine insertion of blanks and certified reference standards in each sample batch of drill core that is sent to the lab for analyses. Drill core samples are split in half using a diamond saw with one half saved for reference and the other half shipped via secure transport to Activation Laboratories sample preparation facility in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Core samples are analyzed for zinc, lead and copper utilizing sodium peroxide fusion, acid dissolution followed by ICP-OES (Code 8). Gold is analyzed by fire assay (30 g) utilizing AA finish (Code 1A2) and samples with over 5 g/t are analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish (Code 1A3). Silver is analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish (Code 8-Ag). The information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Finley Bakker, P. Geo., Jerry Grant, P.Geo., Brian LeBlanc, P. Eng., of A-Z Mining Consultants, Don Hoy, P. Geo., SVP Exploration and Ron Little P. Eng., President and CEO, who are Qualified Persons' under National Instrument 43-101. About Wolfden Wolfden is a Canadian Exploration and Development Company focused on advancing high-quality polymetallic projects in Canada and it's high-grade (Zn, Pb, Cu, Ag) VMS Pickett Mtn. Project in Maine, USA. Pickett Mtn. consists of a 100% ownership in a 6,800 acre property, close to excellent infrastructure, that includes the land, all access and rights to minerals and timber without any historic or aboriginal encumbrances. The Company plans to complete sufficient exploration, definition drilling and various technical studies in order to demonstrate the economic potential for an underground mining scenario on the Project. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain information that may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking information"), including but not limited to information about future activities at the Pickett Mountain Project that include: the timing and completion of future studies including those related to mining scenarios; the timing of future infill, expansion and exploration drill programs; the potential to discover other lenses or mineralization on the Project either locally or regionally based on all information gathered to date; the potential to significantly expand and upgrade the resource; the timing and work required to verify the conceptual exploration target; and the scope of and the anticipated effect of the 2017 mining legislation in Maine. This forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties that are based on current expectations and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such information. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the global economy; the price of base metals and minerals generally; operational, funding and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; the degree to which factors which would make an underground mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with mineral exploration and mining operations; and the ability of Wolfden to fund its substantial capital requirements and operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada available at www.sedar.com. Readers are urged to read these materials. Wolfden assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Accelerating near-term cash flow by monetizing cobalt, and solidifying Cobalt 27 as the battery metals proxy for the electric vehicle and energy storage revolution. TORONTO, Jan. 7, 2019 /CNW/ - Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. ("Cobalt 27" or the "Company") (TSXV: KBLT)(OTCQX: CBLLF)(FRA: 27O), announces the acquisition of a royalty of 1.5% of gross revenues and A$2 per tonne of ore mined under the Reed Industrial Minerals Pty Ltd ("RIM") sub-lease agreement (the "Royalty") held by Westgold Resources Limited ("Westgold"), on the producing Mount Marion Lithium Mine located in Western Australia. Cobalt 27 is acquiring the Royalty from Westgold for total consideration of A$250,000 (CAD$240,400), plus 200 metric tonnes of physical cobalt metal to be delivered to a LME-bonded warehouse of Westgold's choice. "We are committed to becoming a proxy for the large-scale transition to battery-based electric vehicles and energy storage systems. We are also intensely focused on accelerating near-term cashflow from battery metals streams and royalties. The producing Mount Marion lithium mine has the world's second largest high-grade lithium concentrate - spodumene reserves. Production of lithium concentrate from the open-pit mine began in early 2017. Acquisition of the Royalty is being largely funded by a small percentage (7%) of our existing holdings of physical cobalt. This transaction diversifies our portfolio of battery metals into lithium and exemplifies our core strategy of solidifying Cobalt 27 as the leading battery metals streaming and royalty company," commented Anthony Milewski, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cobalt 27. The Mount Marion lithium mine is jointly owned by one of China's largest lithium producers, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd (43.1%), Mineral Resources Limited (43.1%) and Neometals Ltd (13.8%) ("Neometals"). In 2015, Neometals, through its 70%-owned subsidiary RIM, entered into an agreement to lease the lithium mineral rights over a portion of the Hampton Area Location 53 from Westgold. The lease applies to a 3 kilometer by 1 kilometer portion of the Hampton Freehold Location 53, containing extensions to the Mount Marion Lithium Projects Deposit 2 and 2 West, and the former WMC Deposit 3. The initial lease period is 10 years, with options for two 5-year extensions. According to mining industry consulting firm CSA Global, the area is highly prospective, with the potential for additional, unmodeled ore in the Hampton Area Location 53. Lithium is a critical ingredient in all key electric vehicle ("EV") battery chemistries; approximately 40% of lithium demand is attributable to EV and energy storage systems. EVs are expected to account for the majority of lithium demand by 2025. Spodumene has a theoretical lithium oxide content of 8.03%. Due to its high lithium content it is considered the most important lithium ore mineral. According to the 2016 Feasibility Study, Mount Marion has a life of mine ("LOM") lithium carbonate equivalent cash cost of US$5,345/tonne, which is below the Australian Spodumene peer average of approximately US$5,600/tonne. Management believes the Royalty has the potential to provide Cobalt 27 with considerable cash flows over a 17-year term. Advisors and Counsel Scotiabank is acting as financial advisor to Cobalt 27. Stikeman Elliott LLP is legal counsel to Cobalt 27. About Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is a leading battery metals streaming company offering exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and energy storage markets. The Company owns 2,905.7 Mt of physical cobalt and a 32.6% Cobalt Stream on Vale's world-class Voisey's Bay mine, beginning in 2021. Cobalt 27 is undertaking a friendly acquisition of Highlands Pacific which is expected to add increased attributable nickel and cobalt production from the long-life, world-class Ramu Mine. The Company also manages a portfolio of nine royalties and intends to continue to invest in a cobalt-nickel-lithium-focused portfolio of streams, royalties and direct interests in mineral properties containing battery metals. For further information please visit the Company website at www.cobalt27.com or contact: Betty Joy LeBlanc, BA, MBA Director, Corporate Communications +1-604-828-0999 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains certain information which constitutes 'forward-looking statements' and 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation: timing of cash flow from the Royalty, cash cost and mine life of the Mount Marion lithium mine, the occurrence and timing of mining on the Hampton Area Location 53 lease, the demand for lithium and the use of lithium in EVs and energy storage systems,. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the Company's control. For more details on these and other risk factors see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the heading "Risk Factors". Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties underlying these forward-looking statements materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 94F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early. Skies will become mostly clear late. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. Classes in the Wilkes County Schools will start on Aug. 23 and end on May 25 in 2021-22 as a result of a calendar approved by the Wilkes Board of Education on Feb. 1. Americas premier space agency made history on Jan. 1 as NASAs New Horizons spacecraft zipped by Ultima Thule, a small, icy object in the far-away Kuiper Belt, 4 billion miles from Earth. The celebration at the Johns Hopkins Universitys Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, where flight operators, scientists and hundreds of observers in a spillover auditorium were monitoring the arrival, was loud. I dont know about all of you, but Im really liking this 2019 thing so far, lead scientist Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute told his colleagues. Im here to tell you that last night, overnight, the United States spacecraft New Horizons conducted the farthest exploration in the history of humankind, and did so spectacularly. We hadnt known much about Ultima Thule the nickname given to what is officially known as 2014 MU69 before, but data transmitted revealed it to be a contact binary essentially, two stones fused together about 21 miles in total length. Observers compared its appearance to that of a snowman. Its thought to have formed 4.5 billion years ago, when the solar system was first taking shape. It took about 10 hours for signals from New Horizons to reach Earth. Well learn more as data is transmitted back to Earth through the dark expanse of space over the next 20 months or so. "POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive." Mitt's attack on the president was more than a little hypocritical, given that he had unsuccessfully begged him for a Cabinet position and had happily accepted his support last fall when he was running for Utah's senate seat. There may be many Republicans who agree exactly with everything Romney said, but that's not the point. It was stupid of him to write a column excoriating the president two days before he even took his Senate seat. He wants to be treated with respect in the Senate, and this is the way he starts? He should have showed up in Washington, taken his Senate seat and said and done nothing. If he has complaints or comments about the president, he should have made them to Trump in private. Trump quickly put Mitt in his place with his tweets and now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to do it in the Senate. For the next two years or so McConnell will have to remind Senator Mitt exactly who he is and isn't: If Democrats dont relent, clearing the current backlog will still take between five and six months working around the clock. (And center-right judges of a certain age should think about retiring sooner rather than later. Personal vanity should not be placed before the need to further infuse the judiciary with young judges who take the Constitution seriously.) Staying in session around the clock is hard work, but it is what Republican and the conservative grass roots expect. Some senators facing potentially tough reelections may have to make it home more often than others, but anything less than a full commitment from Senate Republicans to clearing the nominee decks will be seen as business-as-usual-Inside-the-Beltway. McConnell did the most of any senator of the modern era to renew the courts, saving the Constitution as we know it by holding open the seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalias death in 2016, and hes made judicial confirmations his priority. He, outgoing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and their colleagues did a great job these past two years. The final days of 2018 saw a perplexing trifecta of events affecting our countrys federal workforce. The government shutdown, affecting the pay of about 800,000 federal employees, headed into its third week. In the middle of that shutdown, the president bragged about giving a nonexistent 10-percent pay raise to the military during a surprise visit to service members deployed overseas. Soon after returning from that trip, the president issued an order halting automatic pay raises for civilian federal workers in 2019, noting the need to maintain efforts to put our Nation on a sustainable fiscal course. The message to the furloughed government employees (as well as those whose jobs are deemed essential and are still required to report to work without pay) is clear: You dont matter because youre not in the military. I proudly served in the military and have written about the distinct honor of representing my country while in uniform and the risks of serving in harms way to defend its interests abroad. But I also fervently believe that national service doesnt require a military uniform. There will always be instances of unwise government spending as there are in any large organization and I encourage and applaud efforts to reduce waste, redundancy and inefficiency. And heaven knows he's been bleeding taxpayers for plenty more money, between Secret Service hotel bills at Mar-a-Lago and above-market-rate rent for the military at Trump Tower. Like those GoFundMe donors, Trump could model putting America first by donating all that money back, plus anything he has collected from the political fundraisers and dubious international business coming through his hotels. (Trump pledged to donate the Trump Organization's profits from foreign government patronage to the U.S. treasury, but the amount of this "voluntary donation" last year -- about $150,000 -- was both nontransparent and almost certainly low-balled, given that we know the Saudi government alone spent about $270,000 at his D.C. hotel over just the several months around his inauguration.) Trump could probably claim a charitable deduction for the cost of the wall, even if he paid for it directly rather than giving funds to Treasury first. This would be aggressive but still less ridiculous than some other tax maneuvers he has claimed. Republicans acknowledge the changing dynamics but still hold a majority of seats in the House and Senate and have done so since 2011. Some argue it's up to Cooper and legislative Democrats to find places where they can agree with the GOP, not the reverse. In 2019, both parties are going to have to start working together, Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican, said as Republicans last month overrode another of Cooper's 28 vetoes since early 2017. "The governor's going to have to learn to talk with this body and the minority party is going to have to work constructively, instead of just casting stones from the sidelines," Lewis said. Cooper and Republicans already showed last fall they can get along when necessary, approving recovery legislation after Hurricane Florence's record rains and floods. But they still disagree strongly on big-picture items. Republicans have cut income tax rates for all, but Cooper said reductions for corporations and the wealthiest individuals must stop so more funding can go to public schools. The governor wants to choke the GOP's expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers for children to attend private schools, but Republicans are aiming to award nearly 35,000 of these scholarships annually in less than 10 years. One of his favorite activities when they visit Boston, or anytime at a curbside, is to direct the traffic. Jessicas friends suggested during a meeting to help organize the race that he take on the same responsibility at the race, directing runners either at the start or across the finish line. Elliott has secured some help from Boston Childrens Hospital, where she regularly takes Cam for a series of doctors appointments, and is already looking to others in the state who have experience working with kids with Apert syndrome. Its really great that we could be able to host a symposium for children with Apert syndrome, especially since a lot of them cant get the care that Cam gets in Boston, said Catherine Williams, a friend of the Elliotts who is helping organize the race. Ideally, the conference would take place over two days, potentially a Friday and Saturday, that would include some sort of formal event for families to mingle the first night followed by the educational portion with experts and panels the next day. Judge Rudolph Contreras, of the District of Columbia District Court, issued a permanent injunction. However, Contreras chose to allow DHHS and the advocacy groups to submit more information before determining how to implement his ruling. While in certain circumstances the secretary could implement the rate reduction at issue here, he did not have statutory authority to do so under the circumstances presented, Contreras wrote. Contreras agreed with the plaintiffs requests that the court vacate Azers rate reduction. The plaintiffs also requested that DHHS pay health-care providers the difference between the reimbursements they received in 2018 under the new rates and the reimbursements they would have received under the previous rates. This decision is a win for patients and the communities we serve, the N.C. Healthcare Association said in a statement. More than half of all acute care hospitals in North Carolina rely on the 340B drug discount program to stretch scarce resources and support access to affordable health care for our most vulnerable citizens. Allen K. Baker, 74, Stark City, MO, entered into rest on June 13, 2021, at his home, following an extended illness. Allen was born October 31, 1946, in Stella, MO, and was a graduate of Midway High School. He entered the United States Air Force in 1966 and served until his retirement in 1986 Johanna Love steers the newsroom as editor. Her time off is occupied by kid, dog, biking, camping and art. She loves to hear from readers with story tips, kudos, criticism and questions. Whenever I think about King's dream, I think about the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy who captured eloquently the spirit of that dream, when he said: For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. Kylie Mohr covers the education and health beats. Mohr grew up in Washington and came to Wyoming via Georgetown. She loves seeing the starry night sky again. Park Police are investigating the crash. An officer who answered the phone at agency headquarters in Washington apologized but said employees who normally speak to the news media are not working during the shutdown. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution today. Subscribe or contribute Microsoft's disastrous roll-out of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update was put into stark focus last week when published data showed its adoption was only an eighth that of its 2017 predecessor. According to statistics gathered by AdDuplex, a Lithuanian company whose technology is embedded in thousands of Windows Store apps, Windows 10 October 2018 Update - 1809 in Microsoft's yymm labeling format - had been installed on just 6.6% of all Windows 10 systems by year's end. That was a small fraction of the 53.6% powered by 1709 - Windows 10's second feature upgrade of 2017 - at the close of that year. Windows 10 1709 was released Oct. 17, 2017, and was being distributed and downloaded to, and installed on, Windows 10 PCs for almost 11 weeks by the end of December 2017. Windows 10 1809 was initially released on Oct. 2, 2018, but within days Microsoft purged it from the distribution pipeline after reports of upgrade-caused data loss. Although the company returned 1809 to testing that same month, it wasn't until Nov. 13 that it announced the upgrade was again being delivered to the general public. The re-release date was seven weeks before year's end. In a more apples-to-apples comparison, Windows 10 1709 was on 20.4% of all Windows PCs by the end November 2017, a stretch of about six weeks. Even then, though, 1809's adoption represents less than a third of 1709's. No matter which start date is chosen for Windows 10 1809, its adoption has been the slowest of any feature upgrade recorded by AdDuplex. That data included 2016's single upgrade, designated 1607, the two from 2017, and the two from 2018. The same data also illustrated Microsoft's increasingly rapid roll-out of Windows 10 upgrades. While 1703 was installed on a smaller percentage of Windows 10 PCs after seven weeks than its immediate ancestor, 1607, from 1703 to 1803 - a run of three releases - each follow-up upgrade landed on a larger portion of available PCs than its precursor within approximately the same length of time. That is, until the brakes locked up on 1809. Only Microsoft knows whether it was pushing too hard, too fast. From the outside, the upward trending line - every upgrade besting the one before it - hinted that Microsoft was lured into arrogance or lulled into complacency. (A sign of the former: Six weeks after 1803's release, the company boasted that it was the "fastest version of Windows 10 to reach 250 million devices.") Windows 10 1809 blackened Microsoft's eye - by AdDuplex's data, it's still punching - but it has also put users in a bind. Unmanaged Windows 10 personal computers, including but not limited to those running Windows 10 Home, receive and install each feature upgrade on Microsoft's schedule, not the customer's. Those systems are not only locked into every six-month upgrade schedule, but in the absence of any user-initiated action - so-called "seekers" who manually trigger an update request - Microsoft decides when to serve each PC. If everything remained consistent - that could happen - a Windows 10 Home machine or an unmanaged Windows 10 Pro PC would migrate at six-month intervals. The extremely slow roll-out of Windows 10 1809 revealed a problem with this lockstep strategy: Failing modification of 1903's arrival schedule, users will be pushed onto that upgrade not long after they've had to deal with 1809. If, for example, Microsoft opened the throttle such that half of all Windows 10 users ran 1809 by the end of January - admittedly, an extremely aggressive pace, considering - and 1903 was distributed on a more typical schedule and tempo, it's possible those users would have been on 1809 for as few as two and a half months before being dragged into the 1903 future. That's not exactly the six months Microsoft's promised users. Computerworld has marked this schedule compression before, but 1809 has become the first real example of significant consequences. And like traffic that stops and starts at odd intervals - the "accordion effect," aka the "slinky effect" - Microsoft's failure to meet the 1809 deadline will have follow-on impact on later feature upgrades. Will Microsoft push back the delivery of 1903 to compensate? Or will it try to restore the schedule by shortening the time available on 1803? IDG/Gregg Keizer Windows 10 1809 was on fewer than 7% of Windows 10 systems, a small fraction of the deployment tempo of prior feature upgrades. (Data: AdDuplex) Fortunately for customers running Windows 10 Enterprise (or Education), the deployment delay of 1809 won't be, well, much of a delay. Thank Microsoft's September 2018 support change for that. Then, Microsoft rejiggered support yet again by saying that feature upgrades issued each fall, those marked as xx09, would be supported for 30 months rather than the standard 18 months. Windows 10 Enterprise 1809 will receive security and non-security updates until May 2021; a few months out of that won't make as much of a difference as it would to the shorter span. And managed systems - including Windows 10 Pro PCs - that can skip an upgrade can often bypass fiascos like 1809. Hackers gained access to the database of a New South Wales-based company that sends free weather warnings on the weekend, through the use of stolen credentials and sent bogus alerts to some users of the system. Early Warning Network said in a statement on its website on Monday that the unauthorised alerts were sent on Saturday night. It said the alerting system was accessed at about 9.30pm on 5 January, and a "nuisance message' sent out to some subscribers whose addresses were in its database. Email, text and landline messages were sent. "EWN staff at the time were able to quickly identify the attack and shut off the system limiting the number of messages sent out," the company said. "Unfortunately, a small proportion of our database received this alert. Our systems are back up and running providing ongoing alerts for severe weather and natural hazard events. Investigations are continuing with police involvement." The bogus messages said: "EWN has been hacked. Your personal data is not safe. Trying to fix the security issues." The statement said the police and the Australian Cyber Security Centre had been notified. EWN said no personal information had been exfiltrated as a result of the hack. Ithaca, NY (14850) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Overcast with rain showers at times. High 66F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. News Three Suspects Charged With Murder in Comedians Death The suspects in the killing of Aung Yell Htwe arrive for a hearing at Thingangyun Township Court in Yangon on Jan. 18, 2018. / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe Yangon Eastern District Court on Monday officially charged three suspects with the murder of Aung Yell Htwe, a year after the Facebook comedian was beaten to death. The prosecution and defense made their final arguments on Dec. 24. Than Htut Aung and Pyae Phyo Aung were charged under Section 302 (2) of the Penal Code for allegedly fatally beating Aung Yell Htwe. Kyaw Zaw Han was charged under Section 302 (2)/114 for allegedly aiding and abetting the crime. If found guilty, the accused face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison with hard labor, plus a fine under Section 302 (2) of Penal Code. The next trial session is scheduled for Jan. 15, when witnesses will testify. A forensic pathologist from Yangon General Hospital testified in the murder trial last month that Aung Yell Htwe died from severe head trauma including skull fracturing and hemorrhaging of the membranes surrounding the brain resulting from blows with a hard, blunt object. Aung Yell Htwe, a popular comedian on Facebook, was severely beaten by a group of men at a New Years Eve party on Dec. 31, 2017. He underwent surgery at Yangon General Hospital for his injuries but died hours later. The Eastern District Court had previously dropped the case after questioning only 14 witnesses and before hearing from either the pathologist or police investigators, or reviewing CCTV records. Yangons attorney general at the time, U Han Htoo, who approved the dismissal, said there was no solid evidence against the suspects. President U Win Myint ordered the case re-investigated following a public outcry. Yangons Eastern District Court then resumed the trial in October last year. U Han Htoo was dismissed from his position and is on trial with five other court officials for allegedly taking bribes from a relative of one of the three suspects to drop the case. News Surveying Begins on Muse-Mandalay Railway A stretch of the road linking Mandalay and Muse in Shan State / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy YANGONGround survey work began Sunday on the Myanmar-China high-speed railway, a project that will link two economic centers in Myanmar with Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in southwestern China, as part of Beijings grand infrastructure plan for the region. A joint team is working on a study of the railway alignment, Ministry of Transport and Communications permanent secretary U Win Khant told The Irrawaddy. In October, two state-owned companiesChina Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (China Railway Group Ltd) (CREEG) and Myanmar Railwayssigned a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct a feasibility study as a part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), which is itself part of Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Mandalay-Muse railway project will be 431km (268 miles) long and pass through armed conflict areas in Shan State. U Win Khant said, There are some places [in Shan State] that are not accessible to the study due to security concerns. We are still negotiating with the state minister and Home Affairs [Ministry] officials on security issues in order to access those areas, U Win Khant said. According to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the survey will work on the Naung Cho (Nawnghkio)-Lashio section of the railway from Jan. 6 to April 13 and the Lashio-Muse section from January 15 to April 2. Muse, on Myanmars border with Yunnan province, is the largest trade portal between the two nations. Mandalay is central Myanmars commercial center and the countrys second largest city. The railway is expected to become a lifeline for China-Myanmar trade. The Muse-Mandalay railway is also the initial stage in a strategic railway link that Beijing plans to build, with a parallel expressway, from Ruili in Yunnan province to Kyaukphyu in Rakhine, along with a separate road running through northern Myanmar, Indias northeastern states, and Bangladesh. In 2011, Beijing and Naypyitaw signed an MoU agreeing to build a railway from Ruili to Kyaukphyu via Muse. The entire rail line was to run 810km. However, the government of then-President U Thein Sein suspended the project following strong local objections. The agreement expired in 2014. Under a new MoU, CREEG will cover the full cost of the study, which will assess the environmental and social impacts of the proposed railway line. While the agreement calls for a study period of two years, U Win Khant said the study is expected to be finished in six months to a year. Currently, Mandalay is connected to Muse via Lashio by the national highway. The trip takes more than eight hours. According to the ministry, electric trains will run at speeds of 160 kph, cutting the travel time to roughly three hours. The ministry expects to construct at least seven freight stations and five passenger stations along the route. According to U Win Khant, the ministry will announce details on the number of bridges, tunnels and the exact locations of stations on the railway after the first stage of the survey is complete. Despite warnings from critics that the project could burden Myanmar with unsustainable debts and provoke more armed conflict in the project areas, Minister of Transport and Communications U Thant Sin Maung said the railway is a priority project and part of Myanmars national transport master plan. Currently, Myanmar is implementing five priority transportation corridors. The Muse-Mandalay railway would be part of the South Transportation Corridor section of the Trans Asian Railway Network (TAR), a project implemented by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. News Govt Accuses AA of Having Ties with ARSA AA troops on the march / AA Info Desk YANGONThe Myanmar Presidents Office on Monday accused the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group responsible for last weeks deadly attacks on four police outposts, of having ties to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya insurgent group denounced by the government as a terrorist organization. The AA has been fighting Myanmar government forces in northern Rakhine State for several years with the aim of establishing a federal state system. Since last month, it has intensified its military activities. ARSA launched a series of attacks on police outposts in 2017 in northern Rakhine, claiming it was defending the rights of Rohingya Muslims. The attack led to clearance operations by security forces that prompted nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to nearby Bangladesh. Presidents Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said at a press conference on Monday that AA and ARSA officials met in Ramu, Bangladesh in July last year. He said the government had learned from sources that the meeting was likely held to discuss the groups respective areas of control within Myanmar. We learned they agreed that areas west of the Mayu mountain range [close to Bangladesh] would be controlled by ARSA, while areas to the east would be for the AA, he said. The spokesperson added that the AA currently has two bases on the Bangladeshi side of the border, while ARSA has three. The Myanmar government has lodged a complaint with Bangladesh over the issue, he said. Citing a different source, he said the two organizations have a common interest in the illegal drug trade, but didnt elaborate. Northern Rakhine is notorious for frequent seizures of huge amount of yaba and other drugs. I think the recent [AA] attacks [on police outposts] are the outcome of their meetings in July, said U Zaw Htay, adding that the Myanmar government had ordered the military to implement effective counter-insurgency measures against the AA. AA spokesperson U Khaing Thukha denied the accusations, saying his organization had nothing to do with ARSA and was not involved in any illegal businesses, including drug trafficking. We have our own mission. The Myanmar government is trying to ruin our image by saying that we have an affiliation with ARSA. Its dirty politics by them to portray us a terrorist organization, he said. U Maung Maung Soe, an expert on ethnic affairs in Myanmar, told The Irrawaddy he was doubtful that the AA would be affiliated with ARSA, as the AAs stated cause is the protection of the Rakhine people and their state. So, alleging a connection with ARSA is the best way to attack AA politically. It wont solve the problem [however], he said. The Presidents Office spokesperson urged the AA to end its alleged alliance with ARSA, and invited them to join peace talks. The AA has not officially joined the governments peace process, but has held informal meetings with its Peace Commission. AA has to decide what they want to see for Rakhine States future. I want to ask them whether they want to see Rakhine State caught in a vicious cycle of war. The Irrawaddy reporter Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint contributed to this report. Environment Salween Peace Park to Keep Lands in Local Hands A group of ethnic Karen and Karenni gathers in Kheshorter Forest in Papun District (Mutraw District), Karen State, to learn and share how they protect their forests from destruction in November 2016. / KESAN Representatives of the Salween Peace Park have said there is no vacant land in Karen State and that all land and its natural resources are managed and belong to Karen indigenous communities. The Salween Peace Park Steering Committee has officially announced plans to establish a 5,485-square kilometer park covering the basin of the Salween River, a river sometimes called by its Burmese name, Thanlwin. The park is to be located in the Papun (known locally as Mutraw) area which is home to the Karen National Liberation Armys (KNLAs) Brigade No. 5. The region has seen much armed conflict between KNLA and Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) troops over the Tatmadaws attempts to build a road through it for military use. The Myanmar government also have eyes set on the area with plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the Salween River. The name to be given to the park, Salween Peace Park was announced on Dec. 18, just days after the governments announcement of amendments made to the Vacant Land Law. The amended law is seen as a threat to many ethnic groups in Myanmar who tend to deal with land ownership through their own customary laws. Karen customary land laws are defunct under the amended law which requires landowners to register with the government. Land which is not registered may be given to anyone who applies for the rights to work on the land. According to local rights groups, this issue may give rise to further armed conflict in the area between Karen groups and the Tatmadaw. If we look at [the governments] land law, it is not appropriate for our plan (to build a park). However, if we look at the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, our Karen indigenous people have the right to protect their land, said Saw Paul Sein Twa, executive director of Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), a group which supports the parks Steering Committee. We do not want to go directly against the governments lawwe want them to change their law, he said. Karen rebels are part of the countrys longest-running civil war with the central government which has continued for over 60 years. For many years, Karen people have not been able to actively protect their environment. Park organizers say they are now calling for all Karen to actively protect the environment. Under the Salween Peace Parks charter, the Salween Peace Park Steering Committee targets various levels of environmental protection. Through these actions, the SPP intends to reach the targets. Along the way, this strategy will also help the Karen community for [the protection of their] environment, he said. The Karen have long-established customary laws in place to protect their lands and environment. The laws allow for areas where wildlife lives freely, but also zones where locals can cut small amounts of timber for their cooking needs. They also have untouched forests. For the implementation of the park, the Salween Peace Park Steering Committee is forming a governance body which includes members of the local community, civil society organizations (CSOs) and members of the Karen National Union (KNU), with the locals to take a leading role in decision-making. The Salween Peace Park Steering Committee has worked hard to establish the park, first defining the border of the park and then mapping the area using GPS. They are in the process of recording the names of each river, area and village. This will help to define the borderline areas and therefore decide what land belongs to who in order to avoid territorial disputes in the future. Traditionally, locals define land borders using natural landmarks like rocks or trees, but this does not accurately track land ownership. The organizers of the Salween Peace Park will use GPS to track specifically which areas belong to who. After mapping the areas, we can then decide which area will be for wildlife and which areas will be for local peoples use. We will have the road names and river names and this will become the evidence the locals can use to show they own the land, said Saw Paul Sein Twa. If the government tries to carry out development in our Karen area, we can show our maps and which areas belong to who, he said. The park will cover around 300 villages with over 60,000 residents who will be mainly responsible for the care of their lands. The governing body of the Salween Peace Park will support the existing systems and regulations that locals are already using to care for the land. The Salween Peace Park governance body will work together with local people to map areas and define zones for forestry, cutting timber, mining and growing food. The park will continue to follow customary Karen laws for the protection of the park. As Karen customary laws are traditionally passed from generation to generation orally, with no official paper records, people usually go on their elders advice for the protection of the environment. We will let them write their law, and let them respect their written law. If someone violates the law, they will punish the person for it. If the bottom level cannot solve the problem, then they can go to governance body level, said Saw Paul Sein Twa. This plan, however, could lead to misunderstandings with the KNUespecially with the KNUs forestry department. In order to avoid this, representatives of the KNU have been invited to join the parks governance body. As a park to be created by an ethnic group amid ongoing armed conflict, it will be the first of its kind in Myanmar. Similar projects do exist abroad, however, including in Canada and the Amazon where indigenous peoples have formed and maintain their own protected parks. These examples formed part of the inspiration to initiate the Salween Peace Park project. The Salween Peace Park Steering Committee believes that the local indigenous people can work effectively to establish the park without government input. Historic examples have shown that the government often abuses ethnic rights when they create national parks in ethnic areas. Saw Paul Sein Twa said that people may even destroy land when control of their lands is to be taken from them for the benefit of another group. The park area is home to different types of wildlife and many tigers, according to KESAN. The Karen Wildlife Conservation Initiative (KWCI) is a group of forest and wildlife experts and rangers that has been tasked with monitoring wildlife in the area. KWCI will work with international wildlife groups and they expect the wildlife population to grow under the initiative. As the Karen community undergoes more political and social changes, the environment is increasingly under threat. Since the KNU signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015, the state has seen an increase in mining businesses. Non-indigenous hunters who attempt to hunt in the area also threaten the environment and wildlife population. The Salween Peace Park aims to use modern methods alongside customary laws to protect the Karen environment. We cant continue anymore in the old style of the last five decades. Our Karen need new methods to protect their environment, said Saw Paul Sein Twa. A recount of the launch of Salween Peace Park A number of journalists, activists and environmentalists were invited to Papun for the official launch of Salween Peace Park. Here, freelance writer Scott Ezell, recounts his impression of the land in which the Salween Peace Park is to be established. We got off a longtail boat at a small Karen village on the banks of the Salween, north of the Thai border at Mae Sariang. We rode a large goods lorry straight up the face of a line of mountains and from the top, we could see for miles in all directions. The landscape was made up of fold after fold of mountains and valleys running north-south in Karen State and also across the Salween in Thailand. In Thailand the forest was cut and replanted 10 or 20 years ago, but in Karen State, locally known as Kawthoolei, the forest was closer to being whole and in its original state. The roads in the area are not paved and there is no cell phone reception, so entering Karen State is like going back in time. The landscape inside the Salween Peace Park is lush and green with streams and rivers running through. The mountains rise up from the rivers so when you are in the valley you feel enclosed there. There is no electricity except for generators and some solar panels. Construction in the villages is mostly bamboo, thatch and wood, with little concrete in the area and very few motorbikes. People work with their hands and with the natural materials from the environment, especially bamboo and wood. Most of the women and men wear traditional Karen clothing. There were KNLA soldiers at the peace park launch, and they served as a reminder that even though the lifestyle here is simple, organic, and based on the natural materials of this land, these people are also enclosed within a war zone. The tribute made to Saw O Moo, who was killed by Tatmadaw soldiers in 2017, was a reminder that there is a constant threat of danger here. The peace park is a project to build peace from the ground up, and not to wait for it to come from Naypyitaw. At the same time, peace for the Karen also means being able to live in their land in the way they desire. To send Karen people to refugee camps, or to Chiang Mai or Canada, might protect them from military violence, but it is another way to remove them from the land where they belong. Since Karen State holds the largest amount of remaining biodiversity in Myanmar, it is clear that the traditional Karen means of livelihood and land management feeds directly into global goals such as protecting forests and biodiversity, as well as making claim to the rights of indigenous peoples promised by the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to which Myanmar is a signatory. Leaving the Peace Park was like leaving behind another worlda world where the central government and corporations have not yet arrived, where people and forests and animals are all still living in balance, without outside forces extracting resources for profit. It is not true that Karen State is entirely untouched by development and mega-projects are planned, including the Hat Gyi Dam on the Salween. However, seeing how the Karen people have preserved their culture and the natural landscape, make it clear that the Salween Peace Park would be an ideal way to manage this large area of Karen State communities and forests, as well as other areas in the world where indigenous peoples still live on the land which is their home. Additional reporting by Scott Ezell, a freelance journalist who visited Papun district last month. News Court Acquits 8 Farmers Sued by Owner of Unused Land in Irrawaddy Region A group of farmers acquitted in a land dispute case by the Nyaungdon Township Court on Jan. 3. / The Irrawaddy PATHEINA court in Irrawaddy Regions Nyaungdon Township on Jan. 3 acquitted eight farmers involved in a land dispute case. In 2006, the Irrawaddy Region Peace and Development Council, the regional branch of the then-military government, granted 999 acres of land in Byaw Tha Lan village tract in Nyaungdon Township to a businessman. The businessman failed to develop the land for industrial purposes, however, and the original owners began farming it again in 2014. In 2016 the businessman sued eight farmers under the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law. After a trial lasting more than two years, the court acquitted the farmers. The businessmen hadnt used the land for [the four years stipulated under the law]. So, according to the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law, the land automatically reverts to state ownership. The farmers use of the land was intended to support their livelihoods. Considering these points, the court acquitted them, defense lawyer U Nyein Chan Myo told The Irrawaddy. According to the Myanmar Legal Aid Network, the case marks the first acquittal of farmers sued by a businessman in a land dispute in Nyaungdon Township. In most such cases, farmers are either sentenced to prison or fined, it said. During the two-year trial, there were many days we had to skip lunch to cover transportation costs to go to court. This is the truth. We are very happy that the Nyaungdon Township judge delivered a fair verdict, said Ko Khin Maung Lwin, one of the eight farmers. However, another 20 farmers have been sued by the businessman and his managers for farming on the land, he said. I welcome the verdict of Nyaungdon Township court. Since the new government threatened to take back unused land, businessmen have started growing things on such land; they had neglected it for many years, while suing those who tried to farm it, lawmaker U Kyaw Hsan, who represents Nyaungdon Township in the Irrawaddy Region Parliament, told The Irrawaddy. Farmers incur heavy costs when they face trial. There are many similar cases in Maubin District. It seems that farmers are at the mercy of the courts, the lawmaker said. Meanwhile, 38 farmers from Pa Long village in Maubin Township are facing trial at the township court on similar charges under the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law for farming on land owned by a private company. In the 2000s, the military regime granted over 170,000 acres of land in Nyaungdon, Maubin, Danubyu and Pantanaw townships in Maubin District to over 270 private companies. After coming to power in 2016, the National League for Democracy-led government reviewed those lands and found that over 6,700 acres had been developed by the companies, with the remaining 130,000 acres lying idle. Asia Vietnam's Viettel Seeks to Double Myanmar Customer BaseCEO Customers wait in line inside a Mytel shop in Yangon on June 13. 2018. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy HANOIVietnams largest telecommunication company, Viettel, is seeking to double its five million subscribers in Myanmar by the end of the year, its president and chief executive officer Le Dang Dung told Reuters an in interview on Friday. Viettel, whose $1.22 billion unit Viettel Global Investment is trading on the Unlisted Public Company Market, has also shown interest in investing in North Korea and Cuba. The growth seen in Myanmar is rare in the telecom market, Dung told Reuters at his office in Hanoi. We still have room to grow there. Myanmar, where Viettel and its local partners launched a $1.5 billion 4G network in June last year has emerged as one of the most promising markets for the company, Dung said. The Mytel network, jointly developed by Myanmar National Holding Public Ltd and Star High Public Co Ltd, has amassed around five million subscribers, a figure which Dung said he expects to double by the end of this year. Viettel is also in talks to buy stakes in existing telecommunication firms in Malaysia and Indonesia, Dung said, without giving further details due to the sensitivity of the deals. The company will be the first to develop a 5G network in Vietnam, Dung said, in anticipation of rapid development of data services. He said Viettel had earmarked $40 million for the development of its own 5G chipset, but was also considering using technology from Ericsson and Nokia. The military-run firm, formally known as Viettel Group, has around 60 million subscribers in Vietnam and over 30 million users across 10 other countries predominantly in Asia and Africa. The company is also in talks to buy a 20 percent stake in a European mobile carrier, Dung said, without elaborating. Dung said Viettel plans to stop expanding its investment in the African market, however, where the company has struggled to make a profit due to poor economic growth. Closer to home, Viettel is looking to invest in North Korea, said Dung, where Koryolinka joint venture between the North Korean state and Egypts Orascom Investment Holdingshas amassed millions of subscribers since its 2008 launch. We first sought permission from North Korea to build a mobile network there in 2010, he said. But were still waiting for sanctions to be lifted and for the country to open its market to foreign investors. News Alleged Rohingya Drugs Peddlers Murdered in Coxs Bazar Rohingya refugees walk on a bamboo bridge in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on November 21, 2017. / REUTERS DHAKABangladesh police on Saturday recovered the bullet-riddled bodies of two Rohingya men and seized 10,000 contraband pills on Coxs Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive Road in the Tekhnaf sub-district of Coxs Bazar, a town on the border with Myanmar. Teknaf police officials said the murdered men were involved in peddling drugs from Myanmar and are identified as Khairul Amin, 35, and Abdullah, 40, of Block-D in Unchiprang refugee camp in Teknaf. Both of them have lived in Unchiprang camp in Tekhnaf since their arrival to Bangladesh after fleeing the Myanmar military crackdown in northern Rakhine State which began on August 25, 2017. Over 700,000 people have fled Myanmar following the military crackdown. According to the district police headquarters, they are the first Rohingya to be killed over drug peddling since the latest influx of refugees began in August 2017. Pradip Kumar Das, the officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station, claimed that locals informed them of finding the two bullet-riddled bodies at Mitapanirchara Point on Coxs Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive Road at about 11 a.m. on Saturday. A team of Teknaf police rushed to the spot, recovered the bodies and sent them to the district hospital in Coxs Bazar for post-mortem examinations. Pradip Kumar Das said the police seized 10,000 contraband yaba pills from their possession but no firearms were found. The Myanmar-made yaba pill contains a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine and is widely used in Bangladesh in recent years following a crackdown on the sale of Indian-made cough-syrup called Phensedyl. The district police additional superintendent Iqbal Hossain suspected these two were killed in gangland fighting over sharing of money earned through drug peddling. However, he said investigations would be launched into their roles in the transporting of drugs from Myanmar. Iqbal Hossain said many Rohingya are being used as drugs mules for moving yaba from Myanmar to Bangladesh through land and river routes. A Rohingya leader of Unchiprang refugee camp confirmed that both men were living in the camp and said he heard they had been detained beforehand. Talking to The Irrawaddy, Abdullahs son Mohammed Arakan said his father was arrested by six to seven police officers near the camp in Unchiprang at about 8 p.m. on Friday, and since then his whereabouts was not known to them. We later identified him by seeing the photos on Facebook. We are not allowed to see the bodies, said the 20-year-old. Khairul Amins brother Mohammed Rafiq claimed that police arrested his brother at the house of a suspected drug peddler Shah Alam in Block-A of the Unchiprang camp at about 9 p.m. on Friday. He said his brother was arrested over enmity. Mohammed Rafiq said Shah Alam has been in prison for over a month. Bangladesh authorities launched an anti-drug drive in May 2018, and over 300 people were killed in gunfight or crossfire and bullet-riddled bodies have been found in different parts in the country. Several thousand alleged dealers were arrested in the aggressive campaign that some rights activists have compared to President Rodrigo Dutertes controversial war on drugs in the Philippines. Immediately after the launch of the anti-drug drive, on May 2, 2018, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Coxs Bazar conducted raids in Balukhali camp in the Ukhiya sub-district and Jadimura camp in the Tekhnaf sub-district, arresting four Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals who had 30,000 yaba pills in their possession. Over a dozen Rohingya, along with several Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested in separate operations carried out by RAB since then resulting in an overall seizure of 250,000 yaba pills. In 2015, a small number of Rohingya refugees were killed in Coxs Bazar for their alleged connection with human trafficking. News AA Backstabbed Govt Forces in Jan. 4 Attacks: Border Guard Officer An officer guards the Gotepi police outpost on Jan. 6, 2019. The station was one of four attacked by the AA on Jan. 4. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy SITTWEThe commander of the Border Guard Police in Rakhine States Maungdaw has described as backstabbing the Arakan Army (AA)s coordinated attacks on four police outposts in Buthidaung Township on Jan. 4. The Border Guard Police cooperate with the Tatmadaw on security and protection of Rakhine State against threats from ARSA [the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army]. But the AA orchestrated [attacks] to undermine stability in Rakhine State. I view this as stabbing us in the back, Police Brig-Gen. Myint Toe told reporters on Sunday. Everybody knows whether the [AA] should have done this. [The AA] attacked while the Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military]s units were off guard, and while there were fewer military units [in the area] as they were performing other duties. Under such circumstances, they attacked with heavy forces. I think it is an act [aimed at] taking political advantage, he added. The Tatmadaw declared a four-month unilateral ceasefire on Dec. 21 in five military regions. The ceasefire does not cover Rakhine State, which is overseen by the countrys Western Command. The government said 13 police were killed and nine others injured in the AA attacks on Jan. 4 as Myanmar celebrated the 71st anniversary of independence from British rule. Police lost 40 small arms, over 16,000 rounds of ammunition and a walkie-talkie in the attacks, the government said. Khaing Thu Kha, the AAs information officer, said the armed group launched the attacks because the Myanmar Army stationed troops at the police outposts. He also accused police of helping the Tatmadaw conduct artillery attacks on the AA. Police Brig-Gen Myint Toe denied the AAs claim. We provided fire support only after they [the AA] launched attacks. Our Border Guard Police force No. 8 provided fire support for the Nga Myin Baw police outpost, and the Tatmadaw provided fire support for the Kyaung Taung police outpost. We didnt engage in artillery fire, he told reporters. The AA abducted 18 people, including security personnel and some of their family members, in the Jan. 4 attacks but later released them. The Myanmar Police Force announced on Saturday that it had filed cases against those involved in the attacks under the Counter Terrorism Law. If found guilty, the accused face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison. Dateline The Tatmadaw Makes a Bold Move -- Kyaw Kha: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the Tatmadaws four-month-long ceasefire. Im The Irrawaddys chief reporter Kyaw Kha, and Im joined by Thayninga Institute executive director Dr. Naing Swe Oo and ethnic affairs and political analyst U Maung Maung Soe. On Dec. 21, the Tatmadaw [Myanmars military] announced it would impose a ceasefire for four months in five military regions in order to hold political talks. Dr. Naing Swe Oo, what is your assessment of this? Naing Swe Oo: Our country has experienced conflict and instability for 70 years. There have been decades of clashes between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations [EAOs]. The [new] government has focused on peace since it took office. The previous government was able to initiate the NCA [Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement] process. At the event to mark the third anniversary of the signing of the NCA, the commander-in-chief of Defense Services [Senior General Min Aung Hlaing] said he wanted to complete the peace process by 2020 and deliver peace to the people. So, in order to achieve that goal, the Tatmadaw has ceased its military activities in five military regions. KK: Both signatories and non-signatories to the NCA released statements welcoming the Tatmadaws ceasefire declaration. The FPNCC [Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee] ethnic bloc and the KIO [Kachin Independence Organization] released statements. And 10 signatories also released statements. But it is notable that some EAOs in their statements implied that the Tatmadaws ceasefire should be welcomed with caution because the ceasefire is not effective across the whole country. Why did they say this, U Maung Maung Soe? Maung Maung Soe: Firstly, as they have fought for 70 years, it is normal that they still have doubts. It is impossible to build trust overnight. Secondly, the EAOs, whether they are participating in political dialogue or not, will have reservations regarding issues related to the [establishment of a] single army and non-secession. Thirdly, the ceasefire is restricted to five military regions, and is not effective in the military region [overseen by] the Western Command, where the Tatmadaw is clashing with the AA [Arakan Army], and the refugee crisis is taking place. Another area is that controlled by the KNU [Karen National Union], which has signed the NCA but suspended participation in all NCA-related talks. Thats the military region of the Tatmadaws Southeast Command. These two areas are not covered by the Tatmadaws ceasefire. Because of this, the Tatmadaws ceasefire is being treated with caution. Of course, the ceasefire is good. We have always called for a ceasefire. In 1963, the Tatmadaw declared a nationwide unilateral ceasefire and called for peace talks. Now, the KNU and KIA [Kachin Independence Army] have urged the Tatmadaw to declare a nationwide ceasefire. The KNU might have concerns that the Tatmadaw will attack it, as it has suspended [its participation in the] peace talks. And the AA might have concerns that the Tatmadaw plans to launch large-scale attacks on it, as it has halted military operations in five other military regions. Despite all these concerns, what is necessary is dialogue. The Tatmadaw said a delegation led by Lieutenant General Yar Pyae will hold talks with seven groups based in northern Myanmar, as well as 10 NCA signatories. If it holds talks as soon as possible, it will help dispel the suspicions. KK: The Tatmadaw has established six conditions [for the EAOs to join the peace process], but in its ceasefire declaration, it removed twoto abide by the 2008 Constitution and to embrace the Three Main National Causes. In its statement, it said [EAOs] must not put a burden on local ethnic people and must not oppress them [during the four-month ceasefire]. It said it would take action if the EAOs violate those points. What does it mean by taking action? NSO: The Commander-in-Chiefs Office has adopted six principles, and in its statement, the Tatmadaw asked [EAOs] to follow four of them including avoiding putting a burden on local people. There are clashes between the EAOs themselves in some conflict areas in Shan State. Under such circumstances, the Tatmadaw might need to intervene to prevent clashes. The Tatmadaw will halt its military operations but will carry out its duties if it is necessary for the security of local ethnic people. So, it will take the necessary action for the sake of local people. KK: Does it mean the Tatmadaw will launch attacks if [the EAOs] do not follow those principles? NSO: No, it doesnt. The Tatmadaw has formed a team led by Lt-Gen. Yar Pyae. My understanding is that it will mediate as necessary. KK: Do you think this is so, U Maung Maung Soe? MMS: I think the Tatmadaw will try mainly to resolve the problem through negotiation if the EAOs fail to follow [its lead] for the four months. But, if negotiations fail, there may be clashes before the four-month ceasefire ends. But if negotiations make progress, it may reduce [the risk of clashes]. It is important that informal talks are held as soon as possible to build [trust]. My understanding of the Tatmadaws ceasefire is that it has halted major military operations. So, Tatmadaw troops may conduct regular activities around their outposts. So will the EAOs. And there may be skirmishes. But I dont think they will impact upon the peace process. This problem will remain until bilateral ceasefire agreements are signed and [the EAOs] join the path of political dialogue. The most important thing is that the body that is responsible for handling that problem responds promptly. The JMC [Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee] handles that problem, but experience shows that it is not good at responding in real time. KK: It appears the Tatmadaws ceasefire declaration followed its talks with the TNLA [Taang National Liberation Army], the Kokang group [the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army] and the AA. But the ceasefire doesnt cover Rakhine State, the military region of the Western Command. The Tatmadaw gave several reasons for that, including the threat posed by ARSA [the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army]. But the AA and some observers are concerned that the Tatmadaw is in fact targeting the AA by halting its operations elsewhere. What do you think, Dr. Naing Swe Oo? NSO: The Tatmadaw has announced a ceasefire in areas according to the formation of military regions. Its ceasefire is mainly effective in the area of the Northeast Command in northeastern Shan State. Both ARSA and the AA are active in the area of the Western Command. There were attacks by ARSA in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, it launched coordinated attacks on 30 outposts and a military headquarters. It was an organized attack. Halting military operations in such a place would affect national security. ARSA has been inactive for some time. But I heard recently that it is training young Bengalis [Rohingya] in refugee camps like Kutupalong in Bangladesh. Whether those reports are true or not, we should be careful. They may cross the border and launch attacks again in Rakhine. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to halt military operations there. So, the military region of the Western Command was left out [of the ceasefire], as the border guard force and military have to ensure regional security. KK: What is your view on this, U Maung Maung Soe? MMS: ARSA was formed as a terrorist group, and is different from other ethnic armed groups. Other groups have their own forces, bases and territories. ARSA is different in that regard. I think it would be best to form anti-terrorism units to respond to ARSA. Military operations should only be a second priority. The ceasefire doesnt cover Rakhine because the AA has infiltrated it since 2015. The AA previously operated in Chin States Paletwa on the Indian border. But over the past few months it has entered into the outskirts of Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun townships. There have been fierce clashes, and the number of displaced persons has risen to over 3,000. If the Tatmadaw were to announce a ceasefire without reaching an agreement in the ongoing talks, it would have to acknowledge the existence of AA troops in those places. While there is still no agreement, it would be difficult to acknowledge it. As the AA is one of the Northern Alliance members that are holding talks with the government, I hope those talks will find a way to stop the clashes. KK: You mean in the next four months? MMS: Yes. KK: How much do you think the four-month ceasefire will contribute to the peace process? NSO: As Ive mentioned, the commander-in-chief of Defense Services said that the peace process would be completed by 2020. The four-month ceasefire stems from that pledge. There is a need for the Tatmadaw, government and EAOs to hold productive talks for four months. The Tatmadaw said it would hold separate talks if necessary. I think the ceasefire will contribute a great deal to the peace process. I am optimistic that the EAOs will sign the NCA. KK: What is your assessment, U Maung Maung Soe? Four months is in fact a very short time because we are not yet sure if talks with NCA non-signatories have really started. And with the NCA signatories, implementation of the NCA has stalled. So, do you think the four-month ceasefire will have an impact on the peace process? MMS: What should be done is to sign bilateral ceasefire agreements over the next four months. For example, in northern areas, four groupsthe KIA, TNLA, AA and Kokanghave not signed bilateral ceasefire agreements. If ceasefire agreements could be signed, it would not be difficult to move forward. So, there wouldnt be clashes even after the four-month ceasefire ends. Similarly, the Tatmadaw has to negotiate with the RCSS [Restoration Council of Shan State] about the JMC. And it has to negotiate with the KNU. If those issues can be settled in four months, there are good prospects for peace. There is time, if signing the NCA is discussed only after signing bilateral ceasefire agreements. But based on our experience at previous peace talks, I would like to see more informal talks held regarding bilateral ceasefire agreements. I would like to see formal discussions held only after agreements are reached in informal talks. I have seen many formal talks in which the two sides could not reach any agreement due to [both sides] insistence on their own principles. So I would like to see informal talks that are not aimed at achieving a [preconceived] decision held first, in order to arrive at an agreement. Another thing that should be done in those four months is the relocation of displaced persons. Villagers along the road from Bhamo to Myitkyina in Kachin State are living in camps. They dare not go back to their villages because they fear landmines. Villagers along the road from Bhao to Mansi are also in camps. There is a need to focus on relocating displaced persons in these four months. Only then will we be able to ease the troubles of hundreds of thousands of local people who are suffering. KK: Thank you for your contributions! A Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family will not be sent anywhere against her wishes, the head of Thailand's immigration police said. 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand under the protection of the UN refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and claims for asylum status. Thai immigration police released photos of Ms Alqunun after she left the room at a Bangkok airport hotel where she had been holed up. Ms Alqunun had stayed in the room while sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. She began posting on Twitter late on Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. The agreement allowing her to leave the airport came after officials from the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, met Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn, and then with Ms Alqunun. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with Ms Alqunun, but its representative in Thailand Giuseppe De Vincentiis noted "a good spirit of collaboration so far" with Thai officials. According to Maj Gen Surachate, Ms Alqunun's father was due to arrive in Bangkok on Monday night, and officials would then see if she was willing to depart with him. "As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She won't be sent anywhere tonight," Maj Gen Surachate said at one of several news conferences at the airport. "She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles," he said. "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law." On Twitter, Ms Alqunun had written of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her father's retaliation. Ms Alqunun's planned forced departure on Monday morning was averted as she stayed in her hotel room, with furniture piled up against the door, photos she posted online showed. Her plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee allegedly abusive families. Ms Alqunun's Twitter account attracted more than 50,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments as well as the UN refugee agency. Her pleas for asylum have also brought international attention to the obstacles women face in Saudi Arabia under male guardianship laws, which require that women, regardless of their age, have the consent of a male relative - usually a father or husband - to travel, obtain a passport or marry. They also show the limits of reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. Ms Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she was fleeing beatings and death threats from her male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Thailand should give Ms Alqunun back her passport and let her continue her journey to Australia. "She has a valid Australian visa," he said. "The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harm's way." Maj Gen Surachate challenged parts of Ms Alqunun's story, including her claim that she had an Australian visa. However, he did not show her passport. "The fact is she didn't have any money," he said. "She intended to come here and didn't have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless." Ms Alqunun had been travelling with her family in Kuwait, from where she may have chosen to flee because it has fewer restrictions than her homeland on women's travel. - Press Association There was such a personal drive in why they wanted to do this project. They were doing it in honor of Hunter and that made it noteworthy. Lastly, it was seeking to honor a group of people who I consider unsung heroes; people who are often overlooked but who make a huge impact. Vanuatu turns the Corner LETS USE THIS AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR THE FUTURE Provo Police(PROVO, Utah) -- Police departments across the country are offering an outpouring of support after a young Provo, Utah, police officer was gunned down in the line of duty. Officer Joseph Shinners, 29, was shot in the nearby town of Orem trying to apprehend a fugitive Saturday night, authorities said. Shinners, who was on the job for three years, is survived by his wife and 1-year-old son, Provo Police Chief Richard Ferguson said. As chief of police, I'm furious," Ferguson told reporters Sunday. "Im heartbroken. Im shocked." Shinners, who was from the Boston area, came from a family of service. His brother is a police officer and his father was a fire captain in Everett, Massachusetts. Among those offering condolences was Shinners' father's former department. "We have suffered a terrible tragedy within our fire family," the Everett Firefighter Department said on Facebook. "We are extremely saddened by this difficult news and our thoughts and prayers are with the Shinners family, as well as the Provo Police Dept." Law enforcement from Florida to New York to Ohio to Tennessee were also among those offering their support. Shinners managed to shoot the suspected killer, who was injured and is under guard at a hospital, authorities said. The suspect, whose name has not been released, allegedly made recent threats of violence toward police, authorities said. The suspect was in stable condition and is set to face multiple charges, authorities said Sunday. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Update: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used a prime-time address to again dismiss a series of corruption allegations against him. In what was billed as a "dramatic announcement", Mr Netanyahu said it would be "unjust" for him to be indicted ahead of early elections called for April 9 without a chance to respond to the claims against him. He said authorities had denied his requests to confront state witnesses in person, and he offered to do so on live television. "What are they afraid of? What do they have to hide?" he said. Police have recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu on an array of charges stemming from three corruption investigations, but it falls to his hand-picked attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to decide whether to bring charges. The premier has denied any wrongdoing and branded the investigations a "witch hunt" orchestrated by his political opponents and a hostile media. He has said he will not give up his re-election campaign or resign from office if indicted. The Israeli media scrambled to cover his address on Monday, running it live on all major stations, only to have commentators widely dismiss the brief address as a ploy by the prime minister to again attack the investigation. In a terse statement, the Justice Ministry defended its probes, saying they had been handled professionally. Last month, police recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu on bribery charges, saying they believed he had used his connections with the controlling shareholder of Israel's telecom giant Bezeq to promote regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of pounds in exchange for positive press coverage on Bezeq's popular news site Walla. Police said they believed there was sufficient evidence to charge him and his wife Sara with accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. Police have also recommended corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favourable coverage. During the investigations, three former senior aides to Mr Netanyahu have turned state witnesses against him. He said on Monday he was "certain of my innocence". "I request to confront all the witnesses who stated things that don't align with my position, the truth," he said. Earlier: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will deliver a "dramatic announcement" set to coincide with the evening news broadcast. Mr Netanyahu said in a statement on Twitter that he would broadcast a "special announcement to the press". The embattled prime minister's mysterious statement left even veteran political reporters baffled as to its nature. There was speculation it was related to investigations into alleged corruption by Mr Netanyahu. Police have recommended that Mr Netanyahu be indicted in a series of corruption probes. Mr Netanyahu called early elections last month and is seeking re-election under the shadow of a possible indictment. He has denied any wrongdoing and has said he would not give up his re-election campaign or resign his office if charged. - Press Association Last October, we marked the centenary of Irelands worst maritime disaster, the First World War sinking of RMS Leinster, shortly after it sailed from Dun Laoghaire. A German submarine condemned 564 souls to watery graves. The death toll from the worlds worst industrial accident, at Bhopal, in Madhya Pradesh, in December 1984, officially cost 3,787 lives, but local sources insist more than 16,000 lives were lost when the pesticide methyl isocyanate leaked from a Union Carbide plant. Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of Irelands worst industrial accident and our greatest peacetime maritime disaster. In the early hours of January 8, 1979, 50 lives were lost when the oil tanker Betelgeuse became an inferno, one that led to explosion after explosion at the Whiddy Island oil terminal. So ferocious was the fire that when rescue workers arrived, they could not, no matter how brave they were, even approach the fire. It was simply too dangerous. It was also immediately obvious that none of those caught in it could survive. In all, 51 lives were lost 42 Frenchmen, seven Irishmen, and one Englishman died on that night, while Dutch diver Jaap Pols was lost later in a salvage operation. That death toll was shocking, but for hours after the fire began a contested point at the subsequent tribunal there were very real fears for the town. So intense was the fire that when firemen hosed one of the refinerys holding tanks to prevent it spreading, the tanks were so hot, each holding 80,000 tonnes of oil, that the water turned to steam. There were explosions and fire going into the air every five minutes... for it to heat the metal in those tanks, it was some heat, said fireman Brendan ODonoghue years later. The details of that night are still harrowing, but events before and after it were shocking, and remain so. A decade earlier, Gulf Oil removed a Bailey bridge connecting the jetty to Whiddy Island so two tankers could berth at once, doubling the jettys capacity. It has long been contended that had that escape route existed, fewer lives might have been lost. If that profit-before-people decision seems a familiar theme, the tribunal under Mr Justice Declan Costelloe raised the kind of issues faced by nearly every tribunal since. He described evidence offered by five Gulf employees about the time the fire began as fallacious. Gulf employees failed to tell the truth, he wrote in July 1980. The following March, four local men were charged with perjury, but the case was thrown out at Bantry District Court. Subsequent efforts to have the case heard in the Circuit Criminal Court also failed. Any sense of deja vu is sharpened by an accusation from award-winning international lawyer, Michael Kingston, who lost his father, Tim, in the catastrophe. He points out that many of the reports recommendations have not been put in place. Government has not enacted laws on corporate manslaughter which, he says, could have been used after the disaster. Why not? What are they afraid of? he asks. That these questions are unanswered 40 years after the catastrophe, and after many other hard lessons, shows where real power resides and how dishearteningly feeble government can be. A new biography on Winston Churchill has much to recommend it but, from a purely Irish perspective, it is disappointing, writes Ryle Dwyer. The latest biography of Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, has been widely acclaimed, but it is disappointing from a purely Irish perspective, because the author tends to gloss over Churchills failings in dealing with both the War of Independence and Irish neutrality during the Second World War. As minister for war from 1919 to 1921, Churchill attempted to crush the rebellion in the south through the use of two paramilitary forces, notes the author. As minister, he was largely responsible for the behaviour of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. In fairness, the author is not uncritical. He provides an insight into how things might have been even worse if Churchill had been allowed to deal with Irish protesters as he desired. I see no objection from a military point of view, Churchill argued on July 1, 1920, to airplanes being dispatched with definite orders in each particular case to disperse them by nmachine gun fire or bombs, using of course no more force than is necessary to scatter and stampede them. One of the initial outrages the sacking of Balbriggan and beating to death two republican prisoners on the night of September 21, 1920 actually shocked field marshall Henry Wilson. Churchill saw very little harm in this, Wilson noted in his diary, but it horrifies me. Comparing the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans with anti-gangster units of the New York and Chicago police departments, Roberts argues that Churchill justified using them to meet terror with terror. However, those forces often reacted blindly, striking at totally innocent individuals. They were so violent and ill-disciplined, notes Roberts, that they repulsed the Irish people and undermined the British campaign. In December 1920, the Black and Tans burned down a large area of the city of Cork, driving moderates into the arms of Sinn Fein, he writes. Michael Collins thought Churchill and Field Marshall Henry Wilson were chiefly responsible for the whole reign of terror. Churchill was much more responsible for the heavy-handedness of the Black and Tans in the south or the B Specials in the north than Henry Wilson, who was a critic of both forces, Paul Bew, professor of Irish politics at Queens University, Belfast, concluded in his 2016 book, Churchill and Ireland. When Churchill suggested arming around 20,000 Orangemen mainly B Specials to relieve British troops in the North, for instance, Wilson warned it would lead to civil war and savage reprisals. It would also cause difficulties with the US and the Vatican. Winston does not realise these things in the least and is a perfect idiot as a statesman, said Wilson. That a bellicose soldier such as Wilson actually adopted a more statesmanlike view than Churchill on this issue must be as damning an assessment that anyone could make of any purported statesman. Although Roberts later cites Bew to support arguments in relation to Irish neutrality, he essentially glosses over the failings that it highlighted during the earlier period. Once it was clear that his attempt to crush the IRA had resoundingly failed, Churchill was the first to champion a wide and generous offer to the south, contends Roberts. He does not back up this conclusion with convincing evidence. Churchill did play an active part in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty, but serious questions must be asked about his role in the lead up to the Civil War. Many, including Baron Bew, believe Collins was behind the murder of Henry Wilson in London in June 1922, and Churchill essentially used this to spark the war. Contending that those occupying the Four Courts were responsible for the murder of Wilson, Churchill sent Collins, the head of the provisional government, an ultimatum to clear out the Four Courts. When asked, that same day, in parliament about 17 Loyalists who police had taken hostage in Belcoo, Co Fermanagh, in March 1922, Churchill replied: We have proof that some of them are being held at present at Athlone. Athlone was under the control of Collins, so Churchill was asked what he was doing about the men being held there. I am addressing the provisional government on the whole matter, he said. The British army had gone into Pettigo, Co Donegal, and seized 15 soldiers of the provisional government on June 4, 1922. Those men were brought to Northern Ireland, where they were essentially held to compel the provisional government to release the Belcoo policemen. I think they are very anxious to get back their own 15 men of the Free State forces whom we are at present holding, Churchill told parliament. He essentially admitted that the men taken at Pettigo were being held as hostages. Bew believed Churchill was aware of the Big Fellows likely involvement in the Wilson murder, and was using this to make Collins move against the Four Courts, which was what ignited the Civil War. But Roberts ignores the whole thing. Churchills antics in Ireland during the early 1920s were, of course, only a small part of his overall involvement in international affairs, as was his later attitude to Irish neutrality, but those issues have been seriously distorted. This detracts from the overall biography. Roberts unquestioningly accepts Churchills distorted views on the denial of Irish bases to Britain during the Second World War. Owing to the actions of Mr de Valera, said Churchill, the approaches which the southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by hostile aircraft and U-boats. When the Royal Oak was sunk on the night of October 14, 1939, at Scapa Flow, with the loss of 1,234 lives, Churchill called for the seizure of Berehaven. This was absurd, because that Cork port could no more have protected Scapa Flow, off the north-east coast of Scotland, than it could have protected Pearl Harbour against the Japanese. Churchill was just using the issue to detract attention from the drowning of 833 boy sea-cadets on the Royal Oak that night. In 1938, Chamberlain renounced Britains right to Irish bases in order to secure the goodwill of de Valera. Following the outbreak of hostilities with Germany, de Valera quietly assured the British that he would provide all possible help short of war. After the fall of France in 1940, the British shipping route around the south of Ireland became so vulnerable to attack from German aircraft based in France that the shipping moved around Northern Ireland instead, as it was not nearly as exposed to German aircraft. De Valera helped the British by authorising an extraordinary degree of security and intelligence co-operation, and by secretly allowing them to set up radar stations in Cork and Donegal, as well as permitting British aircraft based on Lough Erne to fly directly over Donegal to and from the Atlantic. In addition, the Admiralty was secretly allowed to station an armed tug at Killybegs for air-sea rescue purposes. In 1943, Churchill and US president Franklin D Roosevelt toyed with the idea of asking for Irish ports, as a means of discrediting de Valera for being nunhelpful. But British and American service authorities blocked the idea. They warned that de Valera had been so helpful that he might give them the ports, which would be a liability to the Allied war effort. The Allies did not really want the ports, but the issue was later grossly distorted in a naked effort to deceive the British and American people. Roberts has allowed himself to be similarly deceived in this biography, which is a great pity because the book does have a lot to recommend it. Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, Alan Lane, 38. T Ryle Dwyer is author of Behind the Green Curtain: Irelands Phoney Neutrality During World War II, published by Gill Books. Oliver and John Reel lost over 200k on a development in the Costa Del Sol. Its been a long journey but theyre helping others recoup their losses, writes Dan Buckley. In common with many Spanish property investors, Oliver Reel felt a mixture of anger and embarrassment after he and his three brothers lost over 200,000 on what they hoped would be a good investment. He was the principal investor, putting up 145,000 for a development on the Costa Del Sol. He sill laments that decision. A financial adviser encouraged me to remortgage my home and use the equity to buy an off-plan property, he says. Like an eejit, I bought two. The Reel brothers, from Silverbridge, Armagh, chose a development called Estepona Beach and Country Club. Nothing was ever built on the site of the development and 395 people lost their deposits. However, being UK residents, Oliver and his brothers were luckier than most Irish investors and succeeded in getting 70,000 of their deposit back through Britains Financial Services Compensation Scheme. My UK claim was based on me having received poor financial advice from a financial adviser, says Oliver. Unfortunately, there is no such government scheme in the south of Ireland to claim in this way. Getting the rest back was a more tortuous process until they secured the services of Spanish lawyer Martin de la Herran of Abolex lawyers in Benidorm. Working in tandem with the Claims Bureau, a British claims handling agency, he helped secure the rest of their deposit. It was a life-changing moment for Oliver. I left my teaching job of 24 years to help others throughout Ireland and the UK to try to reclaim their deposits. He and his brother John now act as consultants for Reclaim In Spain, a claims agency based in Dundalk. We started work in late 2016 and, to date, we now have over 700 cases for victims of Spanish property losses at various stages of the process in the recovery of their money, says Oliver. That is almost one a day since we started helping people. We also have helped over 150 people from Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Dubai who have been caught up in the same developments as Irish people and weve flown over to Norway twice this year to meet some of those victims in Stavanger and Trondheim. It has been a fantastic feeling helping people to finally have light at the end of the tunnel and, having lost out myself and gone through a lot of hardship because of it, I know that the recovery of this money will be life-changing for many. We have had some brilliant testimonials from some overjoyed clients who have been sharing their stories and are just so relieved to be able to get on with their lives. Among Reclaim In Spains happy clients are Nick and Nalina Jones, from Killiney, Co Dublin. They could hardly believe it when, after 12 months of court hearings, they finally got their deposit back in full. It was like winning the Lotto, says Nick, a car dealer. Overall, though, they had a 14-year wait. They invested in a Spanish development in 2004, after a presentation they attended in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin. It wasnt too long before we realised that the development was in trouble even though not a sod had been turned, says Nick. A group of investors started a recovery initiative but that fizzled out and it looked like there was no hope of anyone getting their money back. At this stage most people felt dejected, hurt, and ultimately embarrassed, says Nick. A chance interview heard on the radio led him to contact Oliver and John in Dundalk. My initial impressions were that these guys did not carry on in a highbrow way, says Nick. We set up a meeting in Dundalk with Martin and, once I told them my story they got straight to work in establishing the validity of a potential claim. It was done on a no-win, no-fee basis. Incredibly after a process that took some 12 months, we have received our money back in full and we are eternally grateful to all involved. Its a process that does take some patience but is now a proven one, in fact, my wife and I are so grateful we have been happy to assist others in our development to realise their money back too. We plan now to put the money into our childrens education fund, and nothing else. Things havent been quite so straightforward for retired garda detective inspector Pauline McDonagh from Sligo. In 2005, she and her husband Pat Forde decided to buy a retirement home in Spain. Pauline contacted an agent for Spanish property based in Westport whom she knew from a previous posting there. We looked at the glossy brochures, met the agent, and heard how beautiful the place was so we bought into the dream like so many others, she says. She and her husband were persuaded to put a substantial deposit on two apartments off-plan in Almeria, near Malaga. Things began to go pear-shaped very quickly, she says. I got suspicious when I began to get emails and letters telling me that the development would not be finished on time. Soon the emails I sent back were not even being replied to and I began hearing that the developers had gone bankrupt. Like most investors, Pauline engaged the services of a Spanish law firm that pursue cases on a no-win, no-fee basis. They do not charge commission but keep the 4.5% interest per year that investors are entitled to under the new ruling. Unfortunately, my claim has not been settled as yet, she says. My lawyers have received confirmation of our payment from the bankruptcy administration and they have presented our case in court. Im hoping that well get good news in 2019. Its an extremely slow process and even slower than I had anticipated. Everyone wants to save the planet from global warming, and the focus has been on reducing fossil fuels for energy creation. This trend is likely to continue, but its not the only way to combat climate change. Actions to protect wildlife, to improve water quality in rivers and lakes, or to grow more native, broadleaf trees, so as to increase forestry cover, could also have an impact. The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has made a submission to the Committee on Climate Action, calling for recognition of the important role that better protection of nature can play in mitigating climate impacts and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Ireland, and the world at large, are also experiencing a nature extinction crisis: Both crises can be dealt with at the same time. There are two important ways in which better protection for nature can help us in our climate challenge, according to the IWT. Firstly, healthy rivers, soil, forests, and seas lessen the impacts of extreme weather. We have 600 specially protected (Natura) sites under EU law, covering 13% of the land. However, the regulations have been poorly implemented, with few management plans for protected areas and most habitats and species in poor condition. Theres is an urgent need to invest in an independent nature authority, as well as in other conservation initiatives, the IWTs Padraic Fogarty says. And nature can achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. A 2017 Nature Conservancy study found that nature-based solutions such as rewetting bogs, expanding natural forests, and better-managing farmland so that soil absorbs carbon can provide up to 37% of the emissions reductions needed to meet global targets under the Paris Climate Agreement. Were unlikely to see a better carbon-capture and storage technology than that which nature provides; we just need to give it the best chance to do its job, the study points out. UK research has found that if total forest cover was upped to 18%, and if all bogs, grasslands and agricultural lands were managed in the best way possible, they could account for one-third of the required cuts by 2050. No comparable figures are available for Ireland, but, Mr Fogarty says, a similar scale could be expected here. In Ireland, forestry has been seen as part of the solution to emissions reductions, though it is based largely on non-native trees, which are not always helpful to nature and can lead to water pollution. Studies have found that mixed forests are better at absorbing carbon, while native woodlands can provide multiple benefits, from wildlife habitat to water-purification and flood-alleviation. This is the time of year when the media is full of tips on how to get through the grim weeks ahead. But we are ignoring the mental health benefits of a good wallow. The wallowing-mud in this case is words that annoy. I have always had bugbears. (By the way, the original bugbear was a medieval bogeyman for scaring children, so this article wont be a complete waste of your time, if wallowings not your bag). But every so often, a different word provokes a reaction. And so it was that when someone said beverage on the radio last week, I started to twitch. Its not exactly onomatophobia a fear of certain words but its definitely onomatocantstandia. It does depend on who is talking. I have a friend who says pacific rather than specific and I just let it slide, whereas if someone I didnt like or didnt know said it, it would be paddling time. Similarly, I have a mild form of misophonia. Its mild in the sense that I havent killed anyone for eating open-mouthed while breathing through their nose. Yet I would sit for hours listening to my one-year-old splap-splap-mash-squerch a banana. She is my baby, so everything she does, including the unspeakable things to fruit, is miraculous. But if you tried that kind of noise, Id spoon out your eye like it was a kiwi fruit. If youre the type of person who gets on with their lives and doesnt let this type of stuff bother you, this next bit, like all parts of your life, is two minutes you wont get back, so maybe go and have a cup of tea. But dont slurp it. If, on the other hand, you feel theres been enough self-care and wellness so far in January, then crack open a beverage and join me in the mud. I know some of you suffer from onomatodontlikeia, because I did some research. I say research, but, really, I just asked people on Twitter what words they hated. I crowd-sourced. Crowdsourcing may be one of the words that trigger your onomatophobia. In fact, trigger-word might be one of your trigger words. But how and ever that last one was deliberate to see whose temple starts pulsing next I asked Twitter. No-one likes the word moist. Whether its the oi sound of it (ointment is another word that rubs salt in wounds) or some sort of association with ick, moist seems universally hated. Of the hundreds of responses I received, a number of categories emerged. Over this week and next I am really dragging this out I will outline some of those categories, so that you can avoid them, or deliberately pepper your conversation with them to irk a loved-one. The first is the moist-ointment category of perfectly innocent words that have unfortunate connotations for people. Discharge is the perfect example of these. Even though discharge can mean the end of a hospital stay or of your decorated army career, for most people it seems to mean some sort of oh, that cant be a good sign liquid. Hard on the heels of moist was gusset. I take it they didnt mean the steel plate for connecting beams to columns. The level of gusset-disgust-discussion suggested they were talking in a trouserly sense. Perhaps because gusset, moist and, oh dear, undercarriage were already mentioned, later respondents moved on to other evocative words, like flannel, swab, and sponge, with a brief diversion to, of all things, giblets. This mud is getting dirtier. Next week, in part two, we wallow in the cleaner spaces of words that drive you mad in the office. Colm ORegans first novel, Ann Devine, Ready For Her Close Up, is published on February 7. Monday, January 7, 2019 at 5:33AM So, Samsung is trying to bring more value to its new TVs. On top of its support for iTunes and AirPlay 2, Samsung is also bringing support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. But theres a caveat to this. The new TVs will respond to voice commands from these two digital assistants through Alexa- and Google Assistant-powered smart speakers. The built-in voice assistant and one you can talk to through the remote will still be Samsungs Bixby Assistant. The commands it can execute is rudimentary at the moment. Using Google Assistant or Alexa, youll be able to turn on the TV, change channels and volume, or switch between inputs. Theres no word yet if richer features are coming, but Samsung should update us if they are bringing more. Source: Engadget Successive governments have failed to act on recommendations made following the Whiddy Island disaster, which killed 51 people 40 years ago. International lawyer Michael Kingston, whose father Tim died in the incident, said this Government is not doing enough to protect maritime workers. Representatives of many of the victims of the Whiddy Island disaster will attend tomorrows 40th anniversary commemoration in Bantry. On January 8, 1979, a localised fire led to a series of explosions on the oil tanker Betelgeuse, owned by Total Oil SA, at the oil terminal in Whiddy, which was operated by Gulf Oil Corporation. Fifty people died that night. Later, a Dutch diver working on the salvage operation also died. Francoise Letellier, who was then the honorary French consul in Cork, will accompany 44 French visitors for the commemoration, including wives, siblings, and grandchildren of many of those who died, as well as two of the French divers who searched for bodies. The group is due to arrive in Cork this afternoon and to have dinner tonight in the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry, which became the hub of operations in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Then, at 11am tomorrow, a Mass will be held at St Finbarrs Church, in the town, in memory of those who died, to be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony. That afternoon, the families will be taken by boat to the offshore jetty for prayer and to throw flowers into Bantry Bay. A tribunal of inquiry, under Mr Justice Declan Costello, heard evidence from 184 witnesses. Its report criticised named individuals and both Gulf and Total for shortcomings that contributed to the disaster. However, Mr Kingston said that while Ireland ultimately ratified the Solas Convention (International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea) following the disaster, the Government was still not doing all it could to improve marine safety. They are still doing it today, in relation to other outstanding conventions in relation to marine safety, he said, adding that other conventions were sitting on government shelves as we speak. He said the Government had failed to introduce laws relating to corporate manslaughter, which could have been used, had they been in place at the time, against the companies involved in the Whiddy disaster. The Indian Embassy in Ireland has confirmed the name of the student who fell to his death from the Cliffs of Moher on Friday, as Anand Goel. In a Facebook post, the Embassy said: Deeply saddened by tragic death of promising Indian student of Trinity, Anand Goel, who accidentally fell off Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare yesterday. Very grateful to Irish Coast Guard/Search & Rescue helicopter and boat teams for recovering body. Heartfelt condolences to bereaved family. Their loss is our loss. Embassy assisting with all formalities. Earlier: Trinity College 'deeply saddened' by death of student in Cliffs of Moher fall Trinity College Dublin has expressed deep sadness at the loss of one their students who died after falling from a cliff in Co Clare on Friday. The 26-year-old Indian national was killed after he lost his footing while taking photographs at the Cliffs of Moher. The Indian Embassy in Dublin is working to repatriate the victims body back to his home country while staff at TCD are providing support to the victims family, friends and fellow students as well as their own staff. Gardai, who have been working closely with the Indian Embassy as well as staff at TCD since the accident, have confirmed that the victim has been formally identified and his family informed. The mans name has not however been released. A representative of the Indian Embassy is understood to have visited Co Clare yesterday and travelled to the scene of the tragedy. The alarm was raised at around 3.15pm on Friday when a man was seen falling from the cliff. Eye-witnesses are understood to have told gardai that the man was taking a selfie at the time and lost his footing. The mans body was recovered from the sea by the crew of Rescue 115 and flown to Doolin Coast Guard station. The victim was formally pronounced dead before his remains were removed to University Hospital Limerick for formal identification and post-mortem examination. Gardai interviewed a number of eye-witnesses following the tragedy and have confirmed that at this stage, they are treating the death as a tragic accident. A Garda spokesman said: A post-mortem examination has been carried out while we have been working closely with the Indian Embassy and Trinity College. The man has been identified and his family in India has been notified. In a statement today, Trinity College Dublin said: We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of one of our students at the Cliffs of Moher on Friday afternoon. We are doing all we can to provide support to them following the shocking news of the accidental death of their son. "We are also reaching out to his fellow students, friends and staff here at Trinity supporting them during this distressing time. "We are working closely with the Indian Embassy and An Garda Siochana in doing so. Students, parents, and teachers are in agreement on the need to radically reform the Leaving Certificate but quite divided on the ways of doing it, new research suggests. In surveys conducted for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), all three groups agreed with the need for change. However, while 97% of the 251 parents support changes, this was the view of 78% of students and a much lower 65% of nearly 600 teachers, principals and deputy principals. More than two-thirds of the 694 Union of Students in Ireland (USI) members surveyed did the Leaving Certificate in the last three years, but one-in-five did it before 2014. Only 4% of all students believed the exam is fair and accurately assesses them, compared to 15% of parents and 28% of principals, deputies and teachers. Just over three-quarters of students support a move towards more continuous assessment for the Leaving Certificate, perhaps influenced by their experience of such practices at college. This method of assessing students is favoured by 45% of parents, with nearly one-third supporting the use of factors other than Leaving Certificate results alone to allocate places on third-level courses. For school staff, however, continuous assessment is not quite as strongly backed, being favoured by just 23% as the reform they would choose around the Leaving Certificate. Almost the same proportion believe reducing the number of subjects to be the best option, but the biggest support (38%) was for allowing interviews, admission exams or other factors to help decide college places. The poor backing among education staff for continuous assessment could be a reflection of experiences of similar approaches being introduced in the junior cycle. Just 22% of surveyed teachers and school leaders said they would support teachers correcting their own students work as part of any continuous assessment for Leaving Certificate. Although such a move did not have strong support from any group, it was somewhat stronger among parents. However, most of the 70% opposing it would have concerns about a teachers possible bias against a student coming into play. The latest study was undertaken by Amarach Research for NAPD, which noted the variation in views on some topics but also what it described as a huge appetite for change among all stakeholders. Our objective in this report is clear. We need to start thinking, talking, planning and ultimately implementing reform. This must be a priority, said NAPD director Clive Byrne. The study comes during the early stages of consultations by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment on possible changes to the two-year senior cycle leading to the Leaving Certificate. It has taken over 11 years and intense political pressure but a step-down facility for recovering addicts, which has lain vacant for over a decade, is finally set to open in Cork on Wednesday. The Cuan Mhuire charity confirmed that it will open a 16-bed step-down facility for clients exiting its residential detox and rehab programmes, in a former bed and breakfast on the citys Western Rd. The Teach Mhuire facility, which is designed to break the cycle of homelessness, will provide them with a roof over the heads and a supportive environment while they continue their recovery. The long-awaited opening follows a breakthrough before Christmas in a long and protracted funding stand-off which had prevented the charity from opening the doors of the much-needed facility. The property was bought by Cuan Mhuire in 2007 on, what it says was, an understanding that state funding would be forthcoming to fund its operation. But when the recession hit, the money never materialised and the charity was forced to mothball the property. It has lain vacant since, in turnkey condition, complete with furniture and bedding. As the homeless crisis escalated in recent years, the charity began to highlight the scandal of such a facility lying idle and an intense campaign was mounted to secure funding. However, the HSE and Cork City Council each side-stepped responsibility for funding the project, with the HSE arguing that it favoured a step-up project. But in late November, came the breakthrough. In a briefing to local politicians, the HSE said it was now supportive of the project. Confirmation that 300,000 was being made available to fund the centres opening this year came just days before Christmas. Cuan Mhuire, founded by Sr Consilio, provides stepdown, or transition, houses in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, and Monaghan. Almost half of those who avail of Cuan Mhuires treatment services have been homeless at the time of admission, and almost a third have nowhere to go once treatment finishes. A charity spokesman said the proposed facility would provide 6,000 bed nights in Cork annually and would deliver immediate savings of some 180,000 in the cost of providing emergency accommodation, and even greater long-term savings to the State by preventing or reducing long-term homelessness in the first instance. The swine flu has officially returned to Ireland. The HSE says there has been a significant increase in cases of the H1N1 strain reported at hospitals in recent days. The increase is due to people returning to work following the Christmas break. It comes as Read More: Health Minister Simon Harris is urging people to stay away from hospitals if possible. "It is not too late to get vaccinated and the good news is that the vaccination is very effective in relation to this strain of flu," said Mr Harris. "We are entering a challenging period, as we knew we always would. The figures remain better then they were last year and we continue to do all that we possibly can to help the health service and I would again repeat my call to citizens to help support front-line staff by keeping our emergency departments for emergencies." PM rejects call for second vote amid uncharted territory warning Theresa May has warned that the UK will be in uncharted territory if MPs do not back her Brexit plan. The British prime minister, who is still seeking more guarantees from Brussels in an effort to win over critics ahead of the vote expected on January 15, warned Brexiteers they risked derailing the UKs departure from the EU if they did not back her deal. And she again rejected calls for a second referendum, saying it would be disrespectful to people who voted for Brexit in 2016. As MPs prepare to return to Westminster with the crunch House of Commons vote looming on the Withdrawal Agreement thrashed out with Brussels, Ms May said no alternative plan was able to respect the 2016 referendum result, protect jobs and provide certainty to citizens and businesses. She promised more moves specific to the North and a greater role for the UK parliament, and said we are still working on getting extra assurances from Brussels as part of her drive to secure support for the deal. She repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether she would keep putting the deal back to MPs if it gets rejected, instead saying: If the deal is not voted on, this vote that is coming up, then actually we are going to be in uncharted territory. I dont think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we will see in Parliament. She said Labour was playing politics and opposing any deal to create the greatest chaos possible. We have got people who are promoting a second referendum in order to stop Brexit, and we have got people who want to see their perfect Brexit, she said. I would say dont let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good because the danger there is that we end up with no Brexit at all. On her own future, Ms May refused to put a timescale on her departure. She said: I was clear before Christmas with my colleagues on two things: One, Im not going to call a snap election and secondly, Im not going to be leading the party into the 2022 general election. What colleagues have said they want me to do is to deliver Brexit, which is what I am working on doing and also deliver on the agenda I set out when I first became prime minister. Officially slated for the week of January 14, the House of Commons vote is expected to be held on January 15. May said it would be that sort of time. Earlier, speaking in Los Angeles, British international trade secretary Liam Fox said: Parliament needs to understand that if were not able to come to Parliament and get a deal, then we may end up leaving the EU with no deal. Most people seem to say thats not what they want to see, well they better make up their minds before we get to a week on Tuesday because thats going to be a very key decision-making point. However, Labours international trade secretary Barry Gardiner suggested the party could offer a referendum on a renegotiated Brexit deal. He said Labours plan remained to push for a general election if Mays deal was rejected. The reason Theresa May has had such a botched set of negotiations is because of her red lines, he said. If we as a new, incoming Labour government were to go to Europe without those red lines we know that we could get a different, better deal and thats what we want to try and achieve. John Gilligan is set to go to the UK's highest court in a bid to be released from custody. He is in prison in the North awaiting trial, after being arrested with a suitcase containing over 20,000. John Gilligan was arrested last Summer at Belfast International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Spain, with a suitcase containing 23,000. The 66-year-old has been in prison in the North since then, on a charge of attempting to remove criminal property. He has been denied bail several times. His case was due back before the High Court in Belfast again this morning where his lawyers said he has suffered discrimination compared to those awaiting trial in other parts of the UK. They said at 140 days, Gilligan has been held twice as long in custody compared to others. But the judge refused leave to take an appeal to the UK's Supreme Court. However, Gilligan's solicitor has confirmed he will now petition directly for a hearing in London saying they will take the case to the Supreme Court and ask it to rule on the issue of detention time limits for the north of Ireland. Monday, January 7, 2019 at 10:15AM Mastercard is dropping its name in select branding and becoming something more, a symbol. The company announced it is dropping its name from its iconic brand mark in select contexts. With this latest milestone in Mastercards rebrand, which started in 2016, the interlocking red and yellow circles will now stand on their own. Reinvention in the digital age calls for modern simplicity, said Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communication officer at Mastercard. And with more than 80 percent of people spontaneously recognizing the Mastercard Symbol without the wordmastercard, we felt ready to take this next step in our brand evolution. We are proud of our rich brand heritage and are excited to see the iconic circles standing on their own. The red and yellow interlocking circles have been the hallmark of the Mastercard brand for more than 50 years, symbolizing the brands promise to connect people to Priceless possibilities. The instantaneously recognizable circles are a powerful symbol that bring people closer to their passions and give them the confidence and trust that their transactions are secure. Claims worth more than 35m have been lodged in Spanish courts by Irish investors who lost heavily in that countrys property market crash. An Irish agency is handling more than 700 cases on behalf of investors in Ireland and the UK who collectively lost millions in deposits on unbuilt Spanish holiday homes. Thousands of off-plan purchasers who paid deposits to developers ended up losing their money after the financial crash in 2008 as Spanish property deals crumbled and developers failed to complete properties. However, after more than a decade of legal wrangling, a ruling by the Spanish supreme court has paved the way for an estimated 60,000 Irish people to claim directly from the banks rather than property developers, most of whom went bankrupt. According to investor Oliver Reel, who along with three brothers, lost over 200,000 in an off-plan development, many Spanish banks are now settling cases rather than risk the cost of full court hearings. Mr Reel and his brother John are consultants for Reclaim in Spain, a Dundalk-based case-handling agency they helped establish, working with a lawyer in Spain. The success rate of their Spanish lawyer has also seen investors in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Dubai sign up. The losses are huge, with over 35m being claimed in these cases to date, said Mr Reel. The Spanish banks are reeling as they know that they will have to pay out millions more, but they continue to contest the cases as they dont want to be seen to be giving in. Martin de La Herran, our expert Spanish lawyer, has a 100% record in winning these cases and we have had the pleasure of helping many more people on the road to recovering money they thought was lost forever. To date, we now have over 700 cases for victims of Spanish property losses at various stages of the process in the recovery of their money. That is almost one a day since we started helping people in late 2016. Reclaim in Spain works in tandem with a UK operation, The Claims Bureau, and its title reflects the fact that it is only banks in Spain that are being held liable for lost deposits. This is due to a specific law introduced in 1968 during the dictatorship of General Franco. In 2015, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that the banks had an obligation to safeguard buyers money. Flu has been blamed for a surge in the number of patients on trolleys waiting to be admitted to a hospital bed yesterday. There were 541 admitted patients on trolleys in emergency departments and on wards yesterday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. The worst hit hospitals were University Hospital Limerick, with 44 patients waiting on trolleys while Cork University Hospital and Letterkenny University Hospital each had 36. The INMO's Trolley Watch counts the number of admitted patients in EDs and on wards who are waiting for a free bed. Health Minister, Simon Harris, said a surge in the number of patients on trolleys was expected: Obviously, that has now happened. We have seen a significant increase in the number of patients waiting for hospital beds in our health service today." He said the HSE's TrolleyGAR shows that 382 admitted patients were on trolleys in EDs - an 8% decrease compared to the same day last year. But the flu has now arrived and the strain of the flu that has arrived is H1N1, which obviously is the swine flu, he said. Last week the HSE warned that swine flu could become a potentially serious health issue. The minister urged everybody to take the public health information given by the HSE very seriously. It is not too late to get vaccinated and the vaccine has been shown to be very effective in relation to the H1N1 flu strain. Groups, particularly at risk from this strain of flu, are pregnant women and people under the age of 65 with pre-existing conditions. We are entering a challenging period as we knew we always would. Earlier the HSE's national director of acute operations, Liam Woods, said they are now seeing an upshift in the rate of hospital admissions and they believe it is associated with the flu. Mr Woods said the National Treatment Purchase Fund has approved 1,300 orders for the provision of diagnostics in the private health sector to support patient flow. The NTPF is also supporting a number of specific procedures to free up hospital beds. Mr Woods said urgent elective surgical and medical care continues but other electives are not booked in during the first few weeks of January to allow for the impact of flu and increased demand. Assistant national director of public health at the HSE, Dr Kevin Kelleher, said there will be a big surge in flu in the coming weeks as schools reopen and people return to work: The big issue for us is how it will impact on the elderly." The minister was also asked about the announcement today by the INMO of strike dates following a two-day meeting of their elected council. The strikes will see INMO members withdraw their labour for 24-hour periods. The last thing the health service needs is a strike. I also don't believe that our nurses want to see strike action. He said he hopes that they will be able to engage with the INMO through the appropriate structures in the coming days on how they should consider matters. However, any engagement has to be cognisant of the fact that they have a public sector pay agreement, he noted: Signing up to an agreement comes with benefits but it also comes with obligations. I really hope that everybody could put their shoulder to the wheel to work to avert a dispute. The Environmental Protection Agency is coming under pressure to tackle long-standing issues with illegal dumping on the northside of Cork city. A number of locations around the city have been particularly badly affected. A huge volume of household waste has accumulated at Spring Lane and the adjacent Ellis's Yard in Blackpool, while discarded bin bags of overflowing waste and even an abandoned, burnt-out car have been left near Boyce's Street. Similar dumping issues are evident elsewhere throughout the historic Blackpool and Shandon areas of Cork city. Local councillor Kenneth O'Flynn has previously reported issues in the area to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He made formal contact with the environmental watchdog last summer regarding Spring Lane and Ellis's Yard but said that he is dissatisfied with the response to date. In addition to posing a health and safety risk to nearby residents, the rubbish pile at Ellis's Yard has frequently been the site of fires, he added. "There were 90 fire brigade call-outs to the site in 2018," Mr O'Flynn said. "Since New Year's Eve, there has been another three, often warranting two or three units per call. This is a huge waste of time and resources. We have had signage and CCTV damaged and I am not at all happy with this as an ongoing situation. It is high time that these problems were finally sorted once and for all. The concerns raised by Mr O'Flynn reflect those outlined in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) Anti-Litter League. The report labelled the northside of Cork city as 'littered', ranking it 38th out of the 40 areas surveyed. It described the north ring road as 'almost landfill-like' in places and stated that 'long-term littered sites that have been repeatedly highlighted in previous surveys are not being dealt with'. File image of illegal dumping in Cork. Cork City Council previously spent more than 500,000 on large-scale clean-ups at Ellis's Yard between 2003 and 2014, with several other initiatives, including CCTV and new signage, employed since. Valerie O'Sullivan, the head of environment at Cork City Hall, said that members of the public need to play their part in solving the dumping problem. This is a behavioural issue by certain members of the public who choose to illegally dump waste, choose to deface the public realm, choose to be a burden on public funding and possibly to cause risk to public health. "Behind every incident is a person who decided to engage in this behaviour," she said. Health Minister Simon Harris said he found it pretty darn despicable that somebody would take to social media and try to create a public conversation about an individual patient's care. He was referring to commentary on Twitter that an abortion was due to take place in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in Co Louth today. Economist Prof Ray Kinsella had tweeted that an abortion was to be carried out at the hospital this morning and urged people to pray for the woman. Please pray hard that the #mother will recognise the #baby as a gift from God, Prof Kinsella wrote. I must say I find it extraordinarily unedifying. I find it pretty darn despicable actually that somebody would take to social media that anyone would take to social media and endeavour to create a public conversation about an individual patient's care, said Mr Harris. Any service that is provided legally here in our country deserves to be treated with absolute respect and the confidentiality of a patient must be to the fore, said the minister who knew that the HSE also shared his view. We will defend and protect patient confidentiality for any woman or indeed any citizen accessing any health service. And the idea that people would in my view effectively try and incite harassment of women and of healthcare staff through online discourse is despicable. It's offensive and I don't think it is in any reflective of the way the large majority of people in this country feel. It's an attempt to drag us back to a pre-Repeal place and that is one place we are not being dragged back to. If information had been leaked from the health service that was a very, very serious matter and the HSE would act accordingly, said the minister. But I want women to know that these services are legally available in our country and we are going to make sure that women can access them in a free, safe and legal manner. Mr Harris said that the number of GPs who had signed up to provide an abortion service had increased to about 200. "We are seeing week on week an increase in the number of GPs across the country willing to provide the service." The Irish Family Planning Association started providing the new service today and the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street Dublin had started accepting referrals. I have always said it was going to take time for these service embed and evolve and become a part of the Irish health service and I think that is what you are seeing happening now. We are in a very different place to where we were just over a week ago. Women can now phone a 24/7 helpline; they can talk to qualified professionals who can alert them to all of their options. No longer is the internet or the Ryanair flight the only option for an Irish woman with an unexpected pregnancy. He encouraged people to go go to myoptions.ie for factual information on the range of legal services available in Ireland. In a tweet today Professor Kinsella reaffirmed his position and said abortion services were a deflection from the "life affirming" health services which, he suggested, should be the primary responsibility of health provision. A health system fixated on delivering death to infants is deflected--in its mind-set and its focus---from its primary responsibility: supporting staff in delivering life-affirming health services across our country. Ray Kinsella (@ProfRayKinsella) January 7, 2019 Responding to the controversy today, the HSE said: We will defend and protect patient confidentiality for any woman or indeed any citizen accessing any health service. Anne O'Connor, HSE deputy director of general operations, said they do not support a breach of any confidential information about any patient. Five drugs companies together made in excess of 2m in payments to 1,200 named doctors last year, disclosure records show. The same five, AbbVie, Menarini, MSD, Novartis, and Pfizer, also transferred 1,010,997 in at least 623 payments to unnamed doctors. Those doctors cannot be named because they have not given consent for the payment to be disclosed, so only aggregate figures can be made public by the firms. Whether those doctors object to disclosure or simply omitted to provide their consent is unclear although, in most cases, consent is only a matter of ticking a box when a payment is agreed. The figures are recorded by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) in its Transfers of Value register, which has collected data from 44 drugs firms for the last three years. It is part of a voluntary initiative from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations which required member groups, such as the IPHA, to make disclosure part of their code of practice. In total, the 44 companies made 29,424,793 transfers of value in 2017, a similar figure to the 30.1m made in 2016 and the 27.2m in 2015. As in other years, the amount paid to individual healthcare practitioners last year 6.6m worked out at about a quarter of the total. About one third went to healthcare organisations such as hospitals, colleges, and research foundations, and the rest took the form of research and development funding, including clinical trials support, to personnel outside of the companies. Payments to named practitioners fall mainly under the categories of contributions to the costs of attending events, such as registration fees and travel and accommodation expenses, and fees for service and consultancy including related expenses. Amounts vary greatly from under 100 to over 20,000. Some doctors were in receipt of payments at the higher end of the scale from several different companies. Many patient and professional organisations also received payments, mainly in the form of grants, donations,and event sponsorship. AbbVie Ltd, which has three manufacturing facilities and two sales offices in Ireland, paid the most to healthcare organisations last year, a total of 1,144,358 to 61 organisations. They included payments under the heading of donations and grants of 48,000 to Beaumont Hospital, 49,735 to the Mater University Hospital, 109,533 to NUI Galway, 100,000 to the Royal College of Physicians, 56,000 to the St James Hospital Foundation, 185,000 to the UCD Foundation, and 57,400 to University Hospital Limerick, as well as sponsorships worth 65,588 to the Irish Society for Rheumatology and 50,880 to medical conference organisers Medical Spaces Ltd. The biggest total sum disclosed by a firm last year, 3,883,068, was from Allergan Pharmaceuticals Many payments were made to research foundations attached to hospitals both public and private, but in a number of cases, the recipients were named as HSE public accounts. A convicted rapist left the country after he was the subject of a ministerial removal order - only to return within weeks having changed his name. Ioan Munteanu, of 2 Mill Road in Millstreet in Co Cork, was convicted of rape in Manchester Crown Court on June 25, 2004 and sentenced to six years in prison. After his release, he moved to Ireland and, now aged 34 and father to three children, had been working with a waste disposal company near Cork City. He was arrested on December 30 and today appeared before Macroom District Court, where he pleaded guilty to failing to provide information to gardai, including his address, as required by the Sex Offenders Act 2001. The court heard that Mr Munteanu - who now goes by the name of Ioan Kovacs - had failed to comply in "unusual circumstances". Judge James McNulty said Mr Munteanu had been the subject of a five-year Ministerial removal order in 2014 and had left the jurisdiction voluntarily, returning to Romania. He recalled the court had been told that Mr Munteanu had then returned to Ireland just seven days later, although the defendant's barrister, Donal O'Sullivan, said his client had returned here within a matter of weeks. Regarding that previous court appearance following his arrest on December 30, Judge McNulty said one garda concern had been that Mr Munteanu would have to surrender his passport if granted bail. "He candidly admitted that on his return to Romania he had changed his name and had secured a new passport in that name," the Judge recalled. Mr O'Sullivan said that while his client had breached the Ministerial removal order, that was not a criminal offence. He also said that unless that order was enforced within two years of being issued, it could not be enforced now unless the Minister was satisfied that the same conditions which prompted it to be issued in the first place still applied. Mr O'Sullivan said the breach of the removal order was an administrative matter that the Department of Justice would have to address. "It may not be enforceable at this stage," he said. The court heard Mr Munteanu had 29 previous convictions between 2004 and 2013, mainly for road traffic offences but including the rape conviction in Manchester, and a six month jail sentence, suspended, handed down in Sligo District Court in January 2012 for not complying with terms of the Sex Offenders Act such as notifying gardai of his address. In December 2011 at Macroom District Court he was convicted of failing to inform his employer of a sexual offence conviction and given a six-month jail sentence, also suspended. Judge McNulty sentenced him to nine months in prison. Mr Munteanu lodged an appeal on his own bond of 2,000 and an independent surety of 3,000, one-third in cash. Bail conditions were imposed including that he surrender his passport. The Judge also said Mr Munteanu's new name should be recorded by the courts and gardai. Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has cautioned anti-abortion campaigners against protesting at GP surgeries that offer abortion services. However, Dr Martin defended the right of campaigners to protest in line with their legal and constitutional entitlements. He also said GPs opposed to abortion may have to come into conflict with the law on the requirement to refer women to a GP who is willing to help them. The law allows for an opt-out from the service on the grounds of conscientious objection, but says GPs must refer women to a GP who will provide the service, or risk sanction. Dr Martin said he hoped no doctor would end up in that position. Respecting conscientious objection, even where they come to clash with the law, is a very important thing in any democracy, said Dr Martin. When you begin to trample the rights of conscience, then youre moving into a very different form of government. He said the Church should focus on supporting women with crisis pregnancies, considering its cruel treatment of them in the past. One of the things in Government policy that was constantly stressed was that abortion should be rare, he said. We have to do something to make sure that is the case and that people who want to keep their child can do it and can do it with dignity. Dr Martin was speaking on RTEs This Week, where he also addressed the question of Church involvement in the running of hospitals, following the controversy over possible religious influence in the new National Maternity Hospital. Dr Martin said there was a role for the religious in providing pastoral care, particularly as the hospital cared for women who were grieving the loss of babies, but not in management. He also criticised the Governments approach to the homelessness crisis. He said it worried him to hear politicians arguing over statistics which he described as the classic indicators of spin. Homelessness is something which is a barometer of a whole series of social problems, from mental health, to quality of building, to money and so on, and I think were not really tackling this question, he said. Half a dozen people who are anti-abortion are holding a protest outside Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth today. One of them is Charles Byrne, who took an unsuccessful legal challenge to the outcome of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment. Mr Byrne said today they were a group of concerned citizens and he is protesting because, I deeply and profoundly care about the right to life of every human being...We are here because we believe hospitals need to be places of care through compassion. The group is holding placards saying Abortion is murder, Let him be born, Killing in progress, and Let her be born. Mr Byrne said that it is a quiet protest, we are not going to leaflet people. The HSE said it is not commenting. Dr Peter Boylan criticised messages speculating when abortions are to be carried out in Ireland. The obstetrician, who is the HSEs clinical advisor on the introduction of abortion services, says patient confidentiality must be respected. It comes after the economist Professor Ray Kinsella, tweeted yesterday claiming an abortion was to be carried out in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda this morning and urged prayers for the woman. Dr Boylan says the speculation is out of order. "It's completely inappropriate for somebody who knows absolutely nothing about medical practice to say something like that in the public domain." He added that "patient confidentiality is absolutely critical". Yesterday, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin urged caution Read More: He said that while "everybody has a right to make a protest", GP surgeries were used by everybody for all sorts of reasons. Speaking on RTE Radio 1s This Week programme Dr Martin said: "Protesting within the rule of law and the rule of the constitution - you can't be against it...I would be particularly cautious about protesting against GPs because everybody is going there, and people go there for all sorts of reasons. "I'm not a person personally for protest, what the church should be doing is strengthening its resolve to help women in crisis and to educate people about the broad range." - additional reporting by Digital Desk staff | BY Lynchy | Independent media agency, The Media Shop has hired Jessicca Lyok (pictured left) as the Managing Partner & Media Director and Chia Hui Ru (pictured right) as the Media Manager for the integrated team. Lyok, a veteran brings deep expertise to The Media Shop fast-growing team in Asia with more than 20 years of local and regional Media experience. She will work with Gary Tang, Managing Director of The Media Shop to boost the media offerings, drive the overall business and manage the integrated teams productivity and ensuring quality control of job outputs. After being in the media industry for so many years, my passion in media still drives me to challenge myself further. The Media Shop provides great opportunity for growth and their culture encourages employees to realise their full potential across all levels. I believe with my experience and expertise, I will be able to help the agency to scale greater heights, said Lyok. Prior to joining The Media Shop, Hui Ru has had managed and launched integrated campaigns cutting across all touchpoints at Briq Pte Ltd. I am humbled by the given opportunity to join the most awarded local media agency and the privilege of working with the media veterans here. I am excited to be part of the team and l look forward to working with them to continue providing integrated solutions to address clients brief. Hui Ru said. The new team is not only seasoned and versatile, but also willing to go the extra mile to ensure that our clients needs become the new offerings from The Media Shop. This new team is committed to writing the next chapter of our growth story and they have my full support, said Tang. In the first part of a four-part series looking at finalists for the Cork Company of the Year Awards 2019, Padraig Hoare casts an eye over those competing in the Emerging category. Republic of Work offering world-class business workspace With facilities to suit one-person businesses, SMEs and even multinationals, Republic of Work in the heart of Corks business district has cemented its position as leader of what flexible workspace should look like. Based on the South Mall, Republic of Work describes itself as a business campus and innovation hub in the heart of Corks city centre, not only providing world-class business workspace for its clients, but also a thriving business community. Republic of Work was co-founded by DC Cahalane and Dave Ronayne almost two years ago. Mr Cahalane is well known in the Irish and European innovation and startup communities, having previously worked as VP for growth at Teamwork.com and as chief marketing officer at Trustev. Mr Ronayne is chief executive and chairman of Irish Mainport Holdings, with over 20 years experience in the maritime industry, chairing many different sporting, voluntary and business organisations, including IBEC. Frank Brennan, general manager, Republic of Work. In 2016, Mr Cahalane, having worked in many similar innovation spaces across the globe during his career, decided that the time was right for Cork to have a dedicated business hub for existing Cork businesses to innovate and future-proof their businesses. Approaching Mr Ronayne with his vision, together they formed the joint venture that would become Republic of Work. In its first 18 months, businesses operating out of the South Mall campus created more than 100 new jobs, with over 120 members across more than 40 companies. It expects jobs created to reach over 500 in the next five years. Business represented in the Republic of Work included healthcare, beauty, food, communications, fashion, banking, insurance, fitness, technology, law, accounting, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, hardware and recruitment, among others. It has hosted hundreds of public and community events since opening its doors. General manager of the facility, Frank Brennan, described Republic Of Work as a space for work to happen, not just any work, but your best work; the most productive, innovative, forward-thinking work that you have ever done. Republic of Work describes itself as an environment for dreamers to become doers, for thinkers to bring their vision to the real world, a place to start, scale and grow business. We create the environment to let traditional businesses learn the skills they need to disrupt, innovate and grow like startups, Mr Brennan said. To be nominated in the Emerging category for the 2019 Cork Company of the Year Awards was a source of huge pride for all involved. Were absolutely thrilled and honoured to be up for such a prestigious award, Mr Brennan said. TradeWorkz ingenuity works for customers and tradespeople alike Sometimes the simplest ideas, carried out with precision and ingenuity, are the most innovative and inspiring TradeWorkz is the epitome of that. Founded by Shane and Cian Gould, two brothers in their 20s who have been around the construction industry all their lives, TradeWorkz is an easy-to-use interface connecting tradesmen and customers. The brothers said the idea was born through their own first-hand encounters with various tradesmen and the general public. With 15 years experience between them as tradespeople, the grafters are both working as granite worktop and fireplace installers in the family business owned by their uncle. It meant being at the coalface of the construction industry, seeing what works and what doesnt, and what can be improved and tweaked, from both a customer and tradesperson point of view. There was a pattern of complaints from both sides, the Goulds said, and TradeWorkz was developed as an answer to their problems. The brothers would enter houses to fit, and hear the same complaints from customers that they were finding it hard to get tradespeople. They also heard it from a tradespersons side, that they were sick of calling to jobs and pricing them, only to fail to get them. TradeWorkz is a platform where customers can post jobs they need done and tradespeople can see these jobs and make bids on them without actually having to physically go and see them. In their own words, TradeWorkz wants to revolutionise the way tradespeople find work and how the general public find good, reliable tradespeople. They say a tedious process has been simplified down to an effortless task. It is user-friendly for those who may not be technically savvy, with the brothers striving to deliver a sleek, efficient, easy-to-use model that even a computer novice can use. TradeWorkz creates a direct channel to thousands of tradespeople in multiple professions. Having worked together since they were youngsters, the new business is 50/50 when it comes to decision- making, and is set for further growth in 2019 as the brothers focus more and more on developing the concept. Two years of painstaking planning and honing have gone into the business, and they finished 2018 on a high, with two fully functioning websites made completely to their specs and designed by Cian, as well as office space and company transport. To be nominated as finalists in the emerging category of the Cork Company of the Year Awards was a huge honour for TradeWorkz, according to the brothers. It came as a huge shock. Were delighted to have reached the final and also honoured so many great businessmen and businesswomen from Cork were impressed by our business, said Cian Gould. Verifish fusing decades of marine know-how with best of innovation Fusing the best in cutting-edge technology with three decades of experience in the marine industry, Verifish has emerged as a leader when it comes to sustainability and food safety in the seafood sector in Ireland. As the firm says, seafood is a vital source of nutrition and generates incomes for fishermen and processing companies all over the world, while the seafood eaten must be produced in a manner that protects fish stocks and the environment, as well as being of high quality for consumers. It is not an easy task to bring it all together, but Verifish assists its clients to achieve these goals using the latest technologies to save time, reduce paperwork, and improve the quality of data used in the seafood sector. The firm was founded in 2009 by Frank Fleming, a former commercial fisherman with over 30 years experience in the seafood industry. Verifish has developed over the years to become a key provider of SaaS (software as a service) and advisory services to the seafood sector. The company is based in the Rubicon Centre in the CIT campus, and during 2018 expanded to open a US office in Rhode Island due to its continued expansion and growing reputation. There has been breakthrough after breakthrough since, with the ingenuity of the offering impressing clients throughout the world. In 2014, Mr Fleming identified an opportunity to develop a software platform to assist his clients to achieve certification in a more streamlined and efficient manner through the use of desktops and mobile devices. Verifish grew its client base internationally and now also works with international retail chains, NGOs, and the Irish State using its software certification and sustainability solutions In October 2018, Verifish signed a new contract with the European Space Agency to develop software and hardware products for the Aquaculture industry. It has ambitious plans for the future, having increased employees to eight full time, together with two independent contractors in 2018, and plans to be in numerous international markets by 2023. To be nominated for the Cork Company of the Year Awards is a tremendous boost to the work being done at the firm in the Rubicon, according to Frank Fleming. He said: Verifish works in the dynamic and vibrant world of seafood. Being chosen as a finalist is a testament to the work our team carries out here at the Rubicon Centre. We are in the fortunate position that the work we do with clients, while growing the business, also contributes to the bigger picture of protecting our natural resources. On the journey so far we have received a lot of help and support and we are particularly grateful to our Clients, BIM, Enterprise Ireland, and the European Space Agency. Economic growth will be weaker in 2019, but will be affected even further in the event of a disorderly Brexit, business group Ibec has said. In its quarterly economic outlook, Ibec said it expected the economy to grow by 4.1% in 2019, but will be weaker than recent years as the business cycle matured and the economy came close to capacity. These forecasts assume that an agreement on Brexit is reached. If this does not happen, 2019 will be significantly more challenging, the body added. Ibec said feedback from its members suggests many sectors are facing a more difficult period in the months ahead due to weak sterling and continued Brexit uncertainty. It is crucial that Government now seeks to ramp up no-deal planning by putting further supports for enterprise stabilisation, cashflow and diversification in place, it said in its report. Chief executive Danny McCoy said business investment is at record levels and the global footprint of Irish companies has never been larger. 10 years on from the financial crisis our globalised business model has delivered an improvement in living standards that many did not think was possible. As a result, the Irish economy comes into 2019 on the back of growing employment, wages, and incomes. However, risks to our economy and business model are on the rise, Mr McCoy said, with Brexit and weak sterling top of the pile. This uncertainty is already impacting business decisions with a slowdown in SME lending in recent months as companies hold back investment decisions until there is a clearer understanding of what the final relationship between the EU and the UK will look like. Many companies are also implementing very costly contingency measures such as holding higher stock levels. Almost seven out of 10 exporting firms do not have experience of dealing with tariffs and customs arrangements. Mr McCoy warned against the reliance on corporation tax that had boosted Government coffers last year. While there are no immediate signs that this revenue will fall, there is no guarantee the upward trajectory will continue, he said. Here's your lunchtime bulletin. GET INFORMED ... IRELAND: The Taoiseach has said that 45-year-old Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, captured in Syria by militants fighting Isis, is entitled to consular assistance from the state. IRELAND: Half a dozen people who are anti-abortion are holding a protest outside Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth today. IRELAND: A young man who said it was 'easier to get a bag of coke and a pint than to get help for mental health issues,' has been swamped with support and messages from young people going through the same battle. WORLD: A large convoy of lorries has descended on a disused airfield as the British Government carries out a major test of its plans for UK border disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit. SPECIAL REPORT: In Bantry tomorrow, families from Ireland and France will gather to remember the Whiddy Island disaster of 40 years ago many with questions still unanswered decades later. SPORTS: Stan Collymore has said he is disappointed in Andres Iniesta, who has come under fire for posing in a photo with two people wearing blackface. ... SOME DISTRACTION SHOWBIZ: We salute the most stylish guys from the 2019 Golden Globe Awards FEATURE: In advance of Friday's release of a new film on the comedy duo, John Daly looks back to the day in 1953 when they disembarked from a liner in Cobh and engaged in a mutual charm-fest with locals VIRAL: A model handing out Fiji Water became an online sensation at the 2019 Golden Globe awards after she repeatedly posed in the background of photos on the red carpet. Cardston, Alberta - January 6, 2019 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) American Creek Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AMK) ("American Creek") is pleased to report that Tudor Gold Corp. has hired Ken Konkin, PGeo, as exploration manager. Mr. Konkin will oversee exploration of Tudor Gold's flagship property, Treaty Creek, as well as several other Tudor Gold properties located within the prolific Eskay-Sulphurets-Premier gold belt. The Treaty Creek property adjoins to the north of Pretium Resources' Brucejack-Snowfield property and Seabridge Gold's KSM property, along the geological trend. Drilling at Treaty Creek in 2018 was very successful, especially the final hole which returned a significant intercept of 0.981 gram per tonne gold over 563.8 metres. Mr. Konkin has over 35 years of geological experience throughout North and South America as well as Russia. Mr. Konkin worked for Silver Standard for 19 years and managed advanced exploration programs at Manantial Espejo (Argentina), San Luis and Berenguela (Peru) as well as Snowfields (Pretium) in the Golden Triangle, British Columbia. Mr. Konkin was appointed the project manager for Pretium Resources after it purchased the Snowfields-Brucejack project from Silver Standard in 2010. Subsequently, he was instrumental in the discovery of the Valley of Kings deposit at the Brucejack Lake mine, an eight-million-ounce gold deposit currently in production. He spent seven years managing all aspects of the exploration programs at Snowfield-Brucejack. During his tenure with Pretium, the company received the Bill Dennis award in 2013 for a Canadian discovery (presented by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada); Mr. Konkin was also the co-recipient of the prestigious H.H. "Spud" Huestis award for "excellence in prospecting and mineral exploration in B.C. and/or Yukon" in 2017. Ken Konkin Mr. Konkin stated: "I'm very excited about being given the opportunity to work with Tudor Gold Corp. on all its projects within the Golden Triangle. I look forward to building an exploration team that is capable of fast-tracking and advancing the status of each project as quickly as possible. We will begin immediately with detailed examination of the recent drill results obtained from the 2018 Treaty Creek diamond drill program as well as all the historical drill results for the Treaty Creek project. The goal is to flesh out a sizeable gold deposit at Treaty Creek. In the coming months we will examine drill core in order to determine controls for the gold mineralization and potential pathways for the mineral source. From these studies we will lay out a comprehensive exploration program for 2019 that will include the recommendation of continued diamond drilling. Clearly, when any drill hole program ends on such a positive note as it did for Tudor Gold (hole CB 18-39 averaged 0.981 g/t gold over 563.8 metres) it makes for a very exciting start to the next round of drilling, particularly when the hole bottomed in gold mineralization. Furthermore, Tudor has several very promising gold, silver and polymetallic projects at varying stages of exploration that we will examine this year as well. I thank Walter Storm for this opportunity to work with the Tudor Gold team and provide some of my knowledge from previous years of working in this region." Mr. Konkin will manage exploration programs for all of Tudor Gold's projects located within the Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia. Mr. Konkin initially began his geological career working in the Stewart area as a geological student during the early 1980s. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of British Columbia in 1984 and continued working in the Stewart region for several exploration companies in the 1980s and 1990s. President and chief executive officer of Tudor Gold, Walter Storm, commented as follows: "I am delighted to welcome Ken Konkin to Tudor Gold. He is an outstanding choice to be our exploration manager and he brings to us his vast knowledge of the entire Golden Triangle region. The timing for this was perfect as Ken recently has moved back to Canada from Peru." Darren Blaney, CEO of American Creek stated: "This is a very positive development that we fully endorse and are thrilled about. Ken clearly has the expertise and credibility to bring the Treaty Creek project to the next level. A world class project deserves a world class exploration manager. "We are also very pleased with the recent new appointments to Tudor's Board of Directors. Walter is moving things in the right direction and we are excited for what will unfold in 2019." The Treaty Creek Project is a joint venture between Tudor Gold, Teuton Resources Corp., and American Creek. Tudor is the operator and holds a 60% interest with both American Creek and Teuton each holding respective 20% carried interests in the property (fully carried until a production notice is given.) More information on Treaty Creek can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/treaty-creek/home About American Creek American Creek holds a strong portfolio of gold and silver properties in British Columbia. Three of those properties are located in the prolific "Golden Triangle"; the Treaty Creek and Electrum joint venture projects with Tudor Gold (Walter Storm) as well as the 100% owned past producing Dunwell Mine. The Corporation also holds the Gold Hill, Austruck-Bonanza, Ample Goldmax, Silver Side, and Glitter King properties located in other prospective areas of the province. For further information please contact Kelvin Burton at: Phone: 403 752-4040 or Email: info@americancreek.com. Information relating to the Corporation is available on its website at www.americancreek.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. 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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp VANCOUVER - January 3, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR; NYSE American: GPL) ("Great Panther"; the "Company") announces today that it has filed its management information circular (the "Information Circular") in respect of the friendly acquisition of Beadell Resources Limited ("Beadell") (the "Acquisition"). The mailing of the Information Circular and other materials has commenced, and shareholders of Great Panther should receive them shortly. An electronic copy of the Information Circular is available on the Company's website at www.greatpanther.com, on its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and on its EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov. Your vote is very important regardless of the number of shares that you own. Great Panther encourages shareholders to read the Information Circular in detail. Reasons for and Benefits of the Acquisition The Acquisition of Beadell will create a new emerging and growth-oriented intermediate precious metals producer focused on the Americas. In making its determination, the Great Panther Board considered a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the following: Creation of new emerging intermediate precious metals producer focused on the Americas; Diversified portfolio of producing mines in Mexico and Brazil, and an advanced stage development project in Peru; Significant 2018 pro-forma gold and silver production of 125,000 gold ounces from Beadell to complement Great Panther's 2018 production of 4.1 million silver equivalent ounces (pro-forma ~175,000 gold equivalent ounces or ~14 million silver equivalent ounces)(1)(2); Near-term resource growth potential from Beadell's in and near mine targets to add to the growth potential from Great Panther's advanced-stage Coricancha project in Peru; Addition of extensive reserve and resources, including 1.3 million ounces of gold in reserves, and 2.0 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources(3); Longer-term exploration optionality from Beadell's 2,500 square kilometre highly prospective land package; Strong balance sheet to support a robust growth portfolio; and Attractive re-rating potential. (1) Based on Beadell and Great Panther's latest 2018 production guidance figures (2) Gold and silver equivalents based on an 80:1 gold:silver ratio (3) As at June 30, 2018 Great Panther Special Meeting The Special Meeting of shareholders of Great Panther is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. (Vancouver time) on February 11, 2019 at the Terminal City Club (Terrace Room B), 837 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. The business of the Special Meeting is the consideration of an ordinary resolution to approve the issuance of Great Panther shares in connection with the Scheme Implementation Deed dated September 23, 2018 between Great Panther and Beadell. In addition, Great Panther shareholders will be asked to consider changing the name of the Company to "Great Panther Mining Limited". Shareholder Information and Questions Great Panther shareholders who have questions about the Information Circular or need assistance with voting their shares can contact our proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group: Laurel Hill Advisory Group North American Toll Free: 1 877 452 7184 Collect Calls Outside North America: 1 416 304 0211 Email: assistance@laurelhill.com Shareholders are encouraged to vote today using the internet, telephone, or facsimile. ABOUT GREAT PANTHER Great Panther Silver Limited is a primary silver mining and exploration company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE American under the symbol GPL. Great Panther's current activities are focused on the mining of precious metals from its two wholly-owned operating mines in Mexico: the Guanajuato Mine Complex and the Topia Mine. The Company is also advancing towards a decision to restart the Coricancha Mine in Peru with the initiation of a Bulk Sample Program following the completion of a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment in May 2018. In addition, the Company has signed an agreement to acquire all of the issued ordinary shares of gold producer Beadell Resources Limited. James Bannantine President & CEO CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the timing and completion of the Acquisition, the resource growth potential of Beadell's near mine targets and land package, the timing or positive outcome of a production decision for the Coricancha project, and the benefits of the Acquisition to shareholders of Great Panther. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Assumptions upon which forward looking statements relating to the Acquisition have been made include that Beadell and Great Panther will be able to satisfy the conditions of Closing, that due diligence investigations of each party will not identify any materially adverse facts or circumstances, that the required approvals will be obtained from the shareholders of Beadell and Great Panther, and that all required third party, regulatory and government approvals will be obtained. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political and social risks involving Beadell and Great Panther's operations in a foreign jurisdiction, the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, fluctuations in metal prices, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, physical risks inherent in mining operations, operating or technical difficulties in mineral exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in respect of Great Panther, in its annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2017 and material change reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and reports on Form 40-F and Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov. There is no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove accurate; results may vary materially from such forward-looking statements; and there is no assurance that the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional projects or that any projects acquired will be successfully developed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The Company has no intention to update forward looking statements except as required by law. SOURCE: Great Panther Silver Limited More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp VANCOUVER, BC - January 7, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The Vancouver International Wine Festival is pleased to welcome journalist, author and senior contributing editor at PUNCH, Jon Bonne, as the keynote speaker for the 2019 festival. Bonne will moderate and speak at a number of public and trade-only events over festival week, February 23 to March 3, at the Vancouver Convention Centre and other venues in Metro Vancouver. Tickets for all public events go on sale Wednesday, January 9 at 9:30 a.m. Tickets for the three-day, 12-event Trade Days Conference go on sale Wednesday, January 23 at 9:30 a.m. For ticket information, visit VanWineFest.ca. Jon Bonne is one of the most influential American voices on wine. He is the senior contributing editor for PUNCH, and the author of The New California Wine and The New Wine Rules. Previously Bonne was the lifestyle editor and wine columnist at MSNBC, wine editor and chief wine critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, US columnist for Decanter and wine columnist for Seattle magazine. In 2017, he was honored as Feature Writer of the Year at the Roederer Awards. Jon Bonne will be a speaker at Rhone Around the World, Lessons from California, the keynote speaker lunch, and the wine industry symposium, Canada's Place in Key Wine Markets. As well, vine stars from the 160 participating wineries are travelling to Vancouver to present their wines at the 41st annual festival. They'll participate in educational seminars, team up with Vancouver's best restaurants for exclusive dinners and sample a selection of their wines at International Festival Tastings and Trade Tastings in the Tasting Room. This year the featured region is California. For details on the 54 festival events, check out the interactive Festival at a Glance, updated regularly with sales status. "Each year we welcome top principals to our festival, and in 2019 we have an incredible line-up of owners, winemakers, and other top executives from our featured region, California, as well as from wineries from around the world," says Harry Hertscheg, VIWF executive director. "Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to meet the people directly responsible for the wines they are tasting at seminars, dinners, lunches and, of course, in the Tasting Room." Winery principals are identified by a royal blue lanyard at events. CALIFORNIA VINE STARS All 53 participating wineries from California will have a principal in attendance in the featured region section of the Tasting Room, at the Principals Welcome Lunch on Thursday, February 28, and at a spectacular lunch on Saturday, March 2, Festive California. California wine ambassadors Gina Gallo and Jean-Charles Boisset lead the list of California vine stars at the festival: Jean-Charles Boisset, Proprietor, Boisset Collection Jean-Charles Boisset was born into the world of wine in Vougeot, Burgundy, France. Under his leadership, the Boisset Collection operates 24 wineries in California, France, and Canada. Decanter magazine has included him on its "Power List" of the 50 most important people in the wine world each year of its publication since 2007. His many honours include Meininger's International Wine Entrepreneur of the Year, "Innovator of the Year" from Wine Enthusiast Magazine and the first-ever French-American Partnership Award from the French America Foundation. Meet Jean-Charles at: Napa Valley Cab 2005-2014; Growing Forward in California; Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction; Festival Toast; 16th Annual Awards Lunch. Gina Gallo, Vice President, Winemaking Estate Wines. E. & J. Gallo Gina Gallo developed a deep respect for the land early on. After studying winemaking at the University of California at Davis, Gallo became an apprentice winemaker at E. & J. Gallo Winery, under the careful guidance of her grandfather Julio. Today, as the winemaker behind the Gallo Signature Series, she carves out specific blocks on Gallo's most sought-after vineyards to hand-craft limited batches of wine. Meet Gina at: Explore California!; Growing Forward in California; Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction; Festival Toast; What's Cool in Sonoma?; 16th Annual Awards Lunch; Next Gen California. Gillian Ballance MS, Treasury Wine Estates Portfolio Ambassador Gillian Ballance MS, DWS began her wine career at The Rainbow Room in New York City, followed by stints at Cello in NYC, Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara, Plumpjack Group, Bottega Restaurant in Napa Valley, and Cavallo Point. In 2012, Ballance became a Master Sommelier, one of only 30 women worldwide to earn the distinction. She received her Higher Certificate of Distinction and Diploma in Wines & Spirits from WSET. Meet Gillian at: California Crush; Napa Valley Cab 2005-2014; The Icons of Napa Valley. Jamie Benziger, Winemaker, Imagery Estate Winery Born and raised in Sonoma County's wine business, Jamie Benziger studied marketing at Loyola Marymount University and Sonoma State University. She interned at Gundlach Bundschu, studied the chemistry of wine at St. Francis and Bogle wineries, travelled to New Zealand to drag hoses in the cellar at Villa Maria, and got her hands dirty in the field at Enterprise Vineyards. Now she is back home, working alongside her number one mentor, her dad, Joe Benziger. Meet Jamie at: Unexpected California; Next Gen California. Bob Blue, Winemaker, Bonterra Organic Vineyards Bob Blue is a pioneer in the organic wine arena and the founding winemaker for Bonterra Organic Vineyards. After graduating from UC Davis, Blue joined Mendocino County's McDowell Valley Vineyards and progressed through the lab and cellar. He moved on to become winemaker at the custom crush San Martin Winery, and in 1988 he joined Fetzer Vineyards, where he was mentored by legendary California winemakers Paul Dolan and Dennis Martin. He was named winemaker for Bonterra's first vintage in 1990. Meet Bob at: California Crush; Just Chill; Growing Forward in California. Mark de Vere MW, Master of Wine, Robert Mondavi Winery As Master of Wine for Constellation Brands, de Vere presents fine wine educational programs to consumers and wine trade audiences around the world. He is North American Education Director for the Institute of Masters of Wine and participates as a judge at wine competitions internationally. He is one of only 38 Masters of Wine residing in the US. Meet Mark at: Bacchanalia Gala Dinner + Auction; Discover Robert Mondavi; RMW: A Visionary Journey; The Icons of Napa Valley. Harvest Duhig, Winemaker, Caymus Vineyards, Wagner Family of Wine Harvest graduated from the Viticulture and Enology program at the University of California in Davis. In 2002, after a few years working with some fantastic California wineries, she met Chuck Wagner, who offered her a job working for Caymus Vineyards at a small production facility high on Atlas Peak Road. In addition to her winemaking duties, Duhig is a key player in vineyard development and grower relations for the winery. Meet Harvest at: California Crush; Unexpected California; Hy's Caymus Wine Dinner; The Icons of Napa Valley; Next Gen California. Austin Hope, Winemaker / President, Hope Family Wines After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in fruit science, Hope worked with Caymus founder Chuck Wagner in Napa, learning the nuts and bolts of the wine business. After beginning as the assistant winemaker at his family's winery, Treana, Hope became winemaker for the Hope portfolio in 1998. In 2009, Austin Hope was named "Winemaker of the Year" at the California Mid-State Fair. Meet Austin at: California Crush; Just Chill; Growing Forward in California; Rhone Around the World; Next Gen California. Genevieve Janssons, Chief Winemaker, Robert Mondavi Winery After receiving her National Diploma of Enology, Janssons managed her family's vineyards in Corsica and France, but moved to the Napa Valley in 1978 to join Robert Mondavi Winery as a lab enologist and assistant enologist. In 1989, she became director of production at Opus One Winery. She then rejoined Mondavi as the director of winemaking, where she is now chief winemaker. In 2009, the French government honoured Janssons as an "Officier" of the Ordre National du Merite Agricole. Meet Genevieve at: Discovery Robert Mondavi Winery; RMW: A Visionary Journey. Randy Lange, Co-Founder, LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards Randy Lange is a fourth-generation winegrower. As an industry leader, Randy has served as chairman of the California Winegrape Growers Association, an advocate to create the Lodi Winegrape Commission, a founding member of the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing campaign and an early chairman of Wine Institute's California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. He has also served as a member and chair of the California Agricultural Leadership Program. Meet Randy at: Unexpected California; Zinfandel on the World Stage; Next Gen California. Joel Peterson, Founder, Ravenswood Winery From two single vineyard Zinfandels in 1976, Joel Peterson has shepherded Ravenswood from a small one-man winery, to a respected producer of approximately one million cases of red wine A current member and former president of the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance (SVVGA), Peterson is on the board of directors for the Sonoma County Vintners. In 2011, he was inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame. Meet Joel at: Growing Forward in California; Zinfandel on the World Stage; Ravenswood's Godfather of Zin. Thomas Price MS, National Wine Educator, Jackson Family Wines With more than three decades in the restaurant industry, Thomas Price obtained his Master Sommelier certification in 2012 and joined Jackson Family Wines in February 2014. As National Wine Educator, he dedicates himself to sharing his passion for wine with his guests and friends, one bottle at a time. Meet Thomas at: Napa Valley Cab 2005-2014; Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction; Truth in Terroir; The Icons of Napa Valley. Brooke Shenk, Winemaker, St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery Brooke Shenk's winemaking expertise derives from almost two decades of experience in Napa, Sonoma and New Zealand. Her career began in the fall of 1999 at Sonoma State University. After earning her B.A in Biology, she worked as a harvest intern in Sonoma and then New Zealand, where she was soon managing a prestigious enology laboratory. Shenk joined St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery in 2006 and in 2017, she was promoted to winemaker. Meet Brooke at: The Icons of Napa Valley. Emma Swain, CEO, St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery Emma Swain has more than 20 years of experience in the wine industry. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis. Before joining St. Supery, she worked at Niebaum-Coppola Winery and Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery. Swain currently serves as the Board Chair for Wine Market Council and as a board member for the Napa Valley Vintners. Meet Emma at: Unexpected California, Cioppino's Masters Cali. Randy Ullom, Winemaster, Kendall-Jackson A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Randy Ullom studied crop production with a specialty in Viticulture and Enology at Ohio State University. Hired by Jess Jackson in 1992 as winemaker for some of Jackson Family Wines smaller and international vineyards, Ullom was the appointed winemaster for Kendall-Jackson in 1997. Meet Randy at: Next World Chardonnay; Growing Forward in California; What's Cool in Sonoma? Paul Wagner, Wine educator and writer Paul Wagner has been an instructor for Napa Valley College's Viticulture and Enology department for the past 23 years. In addition, he teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, is a guest lecturer at many universities and has spoken at more than 80 conferences throughout the world on wine, wine education, wine tourism, public affairs, and wine marketing. With Rick Kushman of Capital Public Radio, he hosts "Bottle Talk," a weekly conversation about wine. Meet Paul at: Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction; Gusto Latinoamericana. Karl Wente, Family Member / Winemaker, Wente Vineyards Fifth generation winemaker and winegrower Karl Wente grew up working at Wente Vineyards and expanded his experience at the Peter Michael Winery in Sonoma and Brown Brothers winery in Australia. His education includes a degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and two Master's degrees in horticulture (viticulture) and food science (enology), from the University of California at Davis. In 2013, Karl was named one of Wine Enthusiast's "40 Under 40." Meet Karl at: California Crush; Unexpected California; Growing Forward in California; 16th Annual Awards Lunch; The Shape of Wine; Vintners Brunch. REST OF THE WORLD VINE STARS Wineries from 15 countries are represented at VanWineFest, and the stars are shining just as brightly over the rest of the wine world. The Tasting Room is the place to meet all 160 vine stars, but you'll also find these great personalities at special events during the week. As well, all principals will be present at the Principals Welcome Lunch on Thursday, February 28. Labid Al Ameri, Proprietor, Domaine Bousquet Labid Al Ameri holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from Saint Cloud University, MN, USA and an MBA from Northeastern University, MA, USA. After school, he worked as a Sales Trader in the International Equity desk at Fidelity Capital Markets. In 2005 he created the commercial structure for Domaine Bousquet resulting in a brand presence in more than 30 countries. Meet Labid at: Gustolatinoamericano. Christine Coletta, Co-owner, Free Form by Okanagan Crush Pad Christine Coletta and her husband Steve Lornie own Okanagan Crush Pad, a family-run winery located in Summerland, BC, that is home to their Haywire, Narrative and Free Form wine labels. Christine spent nine years as the founding executive director of the BC Wine Institute and Wines of Canada, where she was instrumental in establishing the region's appellation system and growing market share, and 14 years consulting in the field of marketing, branding and communications. Meet Christine at: Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction; Truth in Terroir. Moreno Coronica, Winemaker / Owner, Coronica The tradition of wine production for the Coronica family began four generations ago. The Coronica winery is located near the tourist town of Umag, on the northwestern coast of Istria in Croatia. The youngest member of the Coronica family, Moreno, with his father Ottavian, continue to follow the family tradition of producing some of the best Teran and Malvazija wines in Croatia. Meet Moreno at: Bacchanalia Gala Dinner + Auction; A Taste of Croatia; Grapes Unknown. Randy Fabian, Sales Manager, USA & Canada, Yealands Family Wines Randy's interest in the alcohol beverage industry began at an early age while lending a hand in his family's neighbourbood liquor shop near Philadelphia. In 2009, Randy began working as senior buyer for the largest liquor retail group in NZ, Super Liquor. After working closely with the NZ wine community, Randy returned to the United States to begin collaborating with Yealands Family Wines as the USA and Canada sales manager. Meet Randy at: Just Chill; Pinot's Siren Call of Seduction. Loren Gil, Family Member / Export Director, Gil Family Wines Loren Gil is a fourth-generation winemaker carrying on a tradition his great-grandfather started over 100 years ago. Loren attended the University of Murcia and studied chemistry, later specializing in Viticulture and Oenology. His first foray into the wine business was with Juan Gil's technical department, creating the first vintages of Clio and El Nido in 2002. Today Loren represents Gil Family Estates wines around the world as both the brand ambassador and export director. Meet Loren at: Just Chill; Rhone Around the World; PICA Kitchen Party; Vintners Brunch. Miron Radic, General Manager, Liliac The Wine of Transylvania Miron was born in the former Yugoslavia and grew up in Austria, where he studied business administration and international wine marketing. He wrote his diploma thesis on Romanian wine, which brought him to Liliac. Miron started in Marketing, developing the marketing strategy for the winery, and was appointed managing director in 2015. Since 2018 he has been the general manager for the Beck Family, the owners of Liliac. Meet Miron at: Grapes Unknown. Maria Sosa, Brand Ambassador, Bodega Garzon Maria "Mele" Sosa is a Uruguayan winemaker. Mele graduated from Chile's Catholic University with a degree in Viticulture and Oenology. She worked for several years at the University of California at Davis' Viticulture and Oenology Department and Food Science, and then St Helena's Spring Mountain Winery as assistant winemaker, before returning to Chile to work for Carolina Wine Brands. She now travels the world as Bodega Garzon Brand Ambassador. Meet Maria at: Grapes Unknown; Truth in Terroir. Sam Temme, General Manager of Sales, Wirra Wirra After graduating with a wine marketing degree, Sam joined Samuel Smith & Son and Negociants Australia. Sam's knowledge of the Australian wine industry led to his appointment as general manager of Lloyd Brothers Wine and Olive Company. His success in management roles with the Galvanized Wine Group and Charles Melton Wines led Wirra Wirra to invite him to become part of the tribe. Meet Sam at: Just Chill; The Shape of Wine; Vintners Brunch. Sergio Zingarelli, Owner / Proprietor, Rocca delle Macie After earning a degree in economics and commerce from Rome's La Sapienza University, Sergio joined his father at the helm of the family winery, concentrating first on the Italian market and, subsequently, on the development of the winery's international distribution network. He became managing director of Rocca delle Macie in 1989 and was named president in 2000. Since 1995, Sergio has been a member of the executive board of the Chianti Classico Consortium and was named president in 2012. Meet Sergio at: Icons of Italy; Dine Italia. BOOK A HOTEL, GET A FREE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL TASTING TICKET! Save, sip, and stay safe! Book a stay at one of StayVancouverHotels.com's 38 downtown hotels and receive a free International Festival Tasting ticket (an $84 to $109 value) to the session of your choice. Quantities are limited and the offer is only available until February 14, so book early to taste for free. The StayVancouverHotels.com initiative is an important cornerstone of the festival's Don't Wine and Drive program. HOW TO PURCHASE TICKETS Online: VanWineFest.ca 24/7 (all events will be off-sale on January 8) Phone: 604-873-3311, toll free 1-877-321-3121 (Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.) In person: 202-162 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver (Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.) All ticket prices include wine, food (if a food event), gratuities, taxes and service charge. Stay in Touch: For more information and to sign up for e-news, go to VanWineFest.ca Twitter: follow @VanWineFest for news on tickets and sold-out events. Join the conversation at #VIWF. Facebook & Instagram: @VanWineFest ABOUT VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL WINE FESTIVAL Canada's premier wine show will mark its 41st edition of pairing wine, food and the performing arts from February 23 to March 3, 2019. The festival features California Wines and will showcase 160 wineries from 15 countries (including 53 wineries from California) pouring ~ 1,450 wines at 54 events to a projected 25,000 admissions. The Bacchanalia Gala Dinner + Auction opens the festival on Saturday, February 23 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The Trade Days Conference runs Wednesday, February 27 to Friday, March 1. The festival has been named the #1 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event In Canada by New York's BizBash for six years running. The festival is produced by the Vancouver International Wine Festival Society, which has three mandates: provide an informative, educational and entertaining wine experience for public and trade; be a premier marketing opportunity for the wine industry and festival partners; and raise funds for the Bard on the Beach Theatre Society. Since inception in 1979, the festival has raised $9.2 million for the performing arts. Major sponsors are Delta Air Lines and the Vancouver Sun; major industry partners are the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, BC Liquor Stores, and the Import Vintners & Spirits Association. The festival is made possible through the gracious support of our participating countries' consulates and embassies. ABOUT WINE INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA Established in 1934 and based in San Francisco, Wine Institute is the public policy advocacy group of more than 1,000 California wineries and affiliated businesses that initiates and advocates state, federal and international public policy to enhance the environment for the responsible production, consumption and enjoyment of wine. Wine Institute's California Wine Export Program has more than 175 member wineries exporting to 138 countries. The program's 15 representative offices conduct activities in 25 countries around the globe. The Wine Institute's Canadian office coordinates a number of promotional activities every year designed to educate and inform media, trade, stakeholders and consumers about the quality and diversity of products available from the Golden State. For more information on the Wine Institute of California, visit the website at www.discovercaliforniawines.com and www.calwine.ca ABOUT BARD ON THE BEACH Celebrating its 30th season in 2019, Bard on the Beach is one of Canada's largest not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare festivals. It is presented on the waterfront in Kitsilano's Vanier Park, adjacent to Vancouver's downtown core. Bard on the Beach offers Shakespeare plays, related dramas and popular special events in two performance tents every June through September. In 2018, attendance was 108,000 and almost 1.9 million patrons have experienced Bard since its inception. Next year's festival dates are June 5 to September 21, 2019, and the lineup includes The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare in Love, All's Well That Ends Well and Coriolanus. Bard also offers a range of education programs, including Young Shakespeareans workshops for 8-18 year-olds at its Vanier Park site during the summer, and the Riotous Youth program for 19 to 24-year-olds. During the school term, Bard also offers workshops for educators and youth in schools and community centres throughout BC's Lower Mainland, as well as at its administrative home, the BMO Theatre Centre (162 West 1st Avenue). Full details and education program information are at bardonthebeach.org. BeverageStocks.com - investing ideas in food and beverage stocks including wine and beer stocks Like Beverage Stocks? View our Beverage Stocks Directory More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp San Diego, CA, January 7, 2019 DS Services of America, in partnership with their broker Beecher Carlson, recently selected American Claims Management (ACM) to handle claims management in a portion of the states in which they operate. In our selection process, we looked at the technology innovations, claims records and service standards of a number of claims administrators to handle the workers compensation and auto liability claims for our client, and ACM exceeded our standards, said Christian Florence, managing director of Beecher Carlson and ZOOM leader. ZOOM is Beecher Carlsons workers compensation loss reduction program. We are delighted to collaborate with Beecher Carlson to deliver optimum claims management results for their client, DS Services of America, said Dhara Patel, ACM president. Patel estimates that in the first year alone, ACM will be responsible for both administration and claims account oversight for approximately 1,000 claims in 31 of the 48 states in which DS Services operates. Some 90 percent of those claims are workers compensation. Additionally ACM will be directly responsible for the administration of all auto liability claims that occur, estimated at 120 annually. DS Services of America, Inc. provides bottled water, coffee and tea and related supplies and equipment, plus equipment and services for water filtration systems, for offices, restaurants, retail outlets and homes across the country. About ACM Since 1988, American Claims Management has been a nationwide third-party claims administrator specializing in both commercial and personal lines. By offering professional expertise in claims administration, ACM is committed to providing superior claims services and innovative solutions. View more at ACMclaims.com. ACM is a subsidiary of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. About Beecher Carlson Beecher Carlson Insurance Services, LLC is a large account risk management broker with 19 offices nationwide. They specialize their deep resources in energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public entities, real estate, retail, technology, hospitality and gaming industries. View more at www.beechercarlson.com. Media Contact Jeffrey Dalessandro, ACM Vice President of Business Development JDalessandro@ACMclaims.com Topics Claims Workers' Compensation The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the attorney general of Massachusetts to obtain records from Exxon Mobil Corp to probe whether the oil company for decades concealed its knowledge of the role fossil fuels play in climate change. The justices declined to hear Exxons appeal of a ruling by the top court in Massachusetts holding that Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, had jurisdiction to seek records to probe whether the company misled consumers and investors. The action by the high court marked the latest setback for Exxon in its efforts to halt the Massachusetts investigation and a similar one by New Yorks attorney general, who in October filed a lawsuit against the company. New Yorks lawsuit accused Exxon of engaging in a systematic scheme to deceive investors about the impact that future climate change regulations could have on its business. Exxon has called the claims meritless. The Massachusetts and New York investigations were launched following 2015 news reports that Exxons own scientists had determined that fossil fuel combustion must be reduced to mitigate the impact of climate change. Those news reports, by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, were based on documents from the 1970s and 1980s. Exxonsaid the documents were not inconsistent with its public positions. (Reporting by Nate Raymond and Lawrence Hurley; editing by Will Dunham) Related: Topics USA New York Climate Change Massachusetts The city of Los Angeles is suing International Business Machines Corp.s Weather Channel unit, accusing the company of misleading consumers about how their location data was being used. In a complaint filed Thursday [Jan. 3] in California state court, the city alleges IBM used detailed location data from users for targeted advertising and to identify consumer trends that might be useful to hedge funds, while at the same time telling consumers their location would only be used to localize weather forecasts. The suit doesnt allege personally identifiable information was sold. Unbeknownst to many users, the Weather Channel App has tracked users detailed geolocation data for years, the complaint alleges, calling the Weather Channels actions unfair and fraudulent. The complaint also says the Weather Channel profited from the data, using it and monetizing it for purposes entirely unrelated to weather or the Weather Channel App. The lawsuit pulls IBM into the broader conversation about how tech companies use consumer data that has roiled the industry in the past two years and prompted intense questions from politicians, users and regulators. IBM has actively worked to paint itself as having better data practices than consumer platforms like Alphabet Inc.s Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. IBM bought the Weather Channels digital assets, including its app and website, in 2015 to help build a pipeline of data it could feed into its Watson artificial intelligence system, John Kelly, who heads IBMs cognitive solutions business, said at the time. Artificial intelligence systems like Watson demand huge data sets to train their algorithms on. The Weather Company has always been transparent with use of location data; the disclosures are fully appropriate, and we will defend them vigorously, Ed Barbini, a spokesman for IBM said in a statement. IBM Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty has used the attention around data privacy to try and differentiate IBM from other tech companies, saying the dominant consumer tech platforms should face more scrutiny from regulators. In a November speech at an event with top European Union officials, Rometty said irresponsible handling of user data by dominant consumer-facing platform companies has created a trust crisis. Corrects to show the suit was filed by the city of Los Angeles on Thursday. With assistance from Daniel Stoller. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Lawsuits InsurTech | BY Ricki Green | Matt James has been appointed global brand president, Zenith. Reporting to Steve King, CEO, Publicis Media, James will take up the role in January 2019 and will be based at Zeniths HQ in London. James succeeds Vittorio Bonori, who was recently appointed Publicis Groupe Italy CEO. With a career in global media spanning over 28 years, James joins Zenith from Publicis Media where he was CEO for Australia and New Zealand. Under his leadership, Publicis Media ANZ has seen significant growth, with key wins including P&G, ALDI, Campbells, Arnott, and Kraft Heinz. Originally from London, James started his career with Publicis Groupe in 2010 as managing director, Starcom UK. After a stint at Nine Entertainment, he returned to Publicis Groupe in 2015 as CEO, ZenithOptimedia ANZ, before becoming CEO, Publicis Media ANZ the following year. Succession plans for ANZ leadership will be announced shortly. Until then James will continue to serve in a Publicis Media leadership capacity in that market in addition to his Zenith remit. James takes up the Zenith leadership role at a time of significant success for the network. In October 2018, Forrester named Zenith as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Global Media Agencies, Q3 2018 report, as well as Campaign recognising Zenith as one of the most influential agencies of the past 50 years, giving it the highest media agency ranking on the list. Further, in 2018, Zenith welcomed numerous new clients including Clas Ohlson Costa, Didi Chuxing, Electrolux, Lactalis and ONCE. Says King: Matt is a highly respected agency leader, who has worked in London, Paris and Sydney and been at the forefront of driving growth for many of the worlds leading brands. He has achieved considerable success during his time at Publicis Media and I know that he will now take Zenith from strength to strength. Insurance services firm, Holmes Murphy, has named Chris Nelson as general counsel in Des Moines, Iowa. Nelson, a Des Moines native, brings more than 15 years of experience as an attorney specializing in corporate and general business law. He has been instrumental over the past seven years as an attorney with Belin McCormick Attorneys at Law in helping guide Holmes Murphy as it pertains to corporate governance, acquisition, and shareholder agreements and strategy. He brings a multidisciplinary approach to his practice. He has earned recognition for his corporate practice from Chambers & Partners and Best Lawyers in America and has passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination. Although Holmes Murphy employs seven other full-time attorneys, Nelson will be the first dedicated general counsel. He will be responsible for leading corporate legal strategy and tactical legal initiatives and will be a key member of the leadership team, providing advice on company strategies and implementation, managing legal functions, business planning and perpetuation, and retaining and overseeing the work of outside counsel. Nelson will also be directly involved in complex business transactions, such as negotiating critical contracts and acquisitions. Holmes Murphy will continue to partner with Belin McCormick for legal advice and consultation on legal matters as needed and directed by Nelson. Source: Holmes Murphy Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of specialist UK insurance broker Stackhouse Poland Group Ltd. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter 2019. Financial details of the deal were not released. Founded in 1974 as a local community broker, Guildford, England-based Stackhouse Poland has since grown organically and through strategic acquisition into a highly successful, large-scale specialist UK insurance broker generating over 55 million ($70 million) in annualized revenues, said Gallagher in a statement. With more than 500 employees, Stackhouse Poland operates from a network of 23 offices across the UK. It has well-established insurance divisions specializing in high-net-worth private clients, real estate, commercial, healthcare and a wide range of specialist insurance sectors, the statement continued. Having begun life as a small, general practice broker, Stackhouse Poland has since grown through a well-managed blend of organic growth and targeted acquisitions, just like Gallagher, said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Rolling Meadows, Ill.-headquartered. With its suite of specialisms and first-class reputation among clients in the UK marketplace, it will make an outstanding addition to our global team. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together our two high-performing businesses, said Michael Rea, CEO of the UK Retail division at Gallagher, which serves customers from more than 50 locations. Weve long admired Stackhouse Poland as an ambitious, well-run insurance broker with an impressive portfolio of specialisms that are highly complementary to our own, such as private clients, real estate, marine, churches and education, he added. In Gallagher we have found the ideal ally to take the business to the next level. It is clear that the Gallagher team shares Stackhouse Poland values putting clients first by employing and developing top class insurance professionals, commented Tim Johnson, Group CEO of Stackhouse Poland. The support we have had from our investment partners at Synova* has seen us grow into a significant business in the UK marketplace, and the time was right to find a long-term global partner. Jeremy Cary, executive chairman of Stackhouse Poland, said: For the last 17 years, initially with business partner James Agnew and more recently in wider partnership with Tim Johnson & Synova, we have resolutely focused on building a private client and specialist commercial broking business, where organic growth has been equally important as growth by acquisition. Stackhouse Polands success has been a consequence of the fantastic clients we serve and the equally fantastic people we employ. The Gallagher business is infused with a similar culture, where it is all about clients and colleagues, and so I am happy to be passing the baton to a great home. * Established in 2007, and headquartered in London, Synova Capital is a European growth investor in companies typically valued at between 10 million and 100 million in the areas of financial services, technology, business services, and health & education. Synova invested in Stackhouse Poland in 2014, providing capital for acquisitions and strategic guidance to Tim Johnson and the wider management team. Topics Mergers Agencies A.J. Gallagher Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday [Jan. 6] that Britain would be in uncharted territory if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament later this month, despite little sign that she has won over skeptical lawmakers. Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29 but Mays inability so far to get her deal for a managed exit through parliament has alarmed business leaders and investors who fear the country is heading for a damaging no-deal Brexit. May said the vote in parliament would be around Jan. 15, as expected, contrary to reports she could delay it. May has already delayed the vote once, in December, when it became clear she would lose unless extra reassurances from the EU were agreed. Describing what would happen if she was defeated, May told the BBC: Were going to be in uncharted territory. I dont think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction well see in parliament. Amid the uncertainty over Britains next steps which range from leaving without a deal to not leaving at all a poll showed more Britons want to remain a member of the EU than leave, and voters want to make the final decision themselves. Mays party itself is divided over her deal, with many fearing that an insurance policy designed to avoid the re-emergence of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely. One of those leading that opposition, lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, said in a newspaper article that it was wishful thinking that time away from parliament over the Christmas holiday could persuade him to change his mind and back the deal. The Northern Irish party that props up Mays minority government called on her to stand firm in demanding that the EU changes its poison backstop provision on Irelands post-Brexit border. Work to Do With the parliamentary debate on her deal due to begin on Jan. 9, May said there was still work to do to get reassurances over the backstop from the EU. She also promised parliament would have a greater say in the rest of the Brexit process and warned that rejecting her deal could prevent Britains exit. Dont let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good, because the danger there is actually we end up with no Brexit at all, May said. She did not answer whether she would, if defeated, make a second attempt to get the deal passed by parliament. May also did not directly respond, when asked, if she was leading the country toward a no-deal Brexit. On Tuesday, her government could face a bid to block an unmanaged exit when a group of lawmakers try to amend budget legislation to deny funding for some no-deal preparations unless they are approved by parliament. It is unclear yet whether the amendment has enough support to pass. May repeated her objections to holding a fresh public vote on the deal. She said a second referendum would be divisive, and also highlighted the lack of time available to hold a new referendum. Practically, actually you couldnt get a referendum in time before the 29th of March youd be talking about extending Article 50, she said, referring to the two-year exit notice Britain sent to the EU in March 2017. (Reporting by William James; editing by Toby Chopra and Jan Harvey) Topics Legislation Europe Uk Brexit Switzerland-based shipping company MSC is pledging to pay the cost of cleaning up hundreds of containers one of its cargo vessels lost in a North Sea storm. The company said Saturday that it was committed to finding and retrieving the containers that went overboard on Jan. 2 until the last one is found. Authorities say two contained potentially hazardous materials. The MSC Zoe, one of the largest freight ships in the world, lost more than 270 containers as it sailed from Portugal to Germany. Dozens have since been spotted near islands off the coasts of Germany and the Netherlands or washed ashore while spilling light bulbs, plastic toys, flat-screen TVs and shoes onto beaches. MSC says it appointed a specialist firm to help coordinate the search with authorities. Related: Containers Carrying Hazardous Materials Fall Off Cargo Ship Near Dutch Coast Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Thailands most powerful tropical storm in decades has weakened after strong wind and flash floods disrupted oil production and flights, leaving thousands of tourists stranded near the nations southern beaches. Wind from tropical storm Pabuk slowed to 55 kilometers per hour (34 mph) from 65 kph Saturday [Jan. 5] before crossing the peninsula to the Andaman Sea at 9 a.m. Bangkok time, the Meteorological Department said in its latest update. Bangkok Airways Pcl resumed flying on Saturday between Bangkok and Koh Samui to pick up stranded passengers after suspending flights on Friday, according to an airline statement. The storm disrupted the peak period for the Thai tourism industry, which makes up for about a quarter of the countrys economy. Overseas visitor numbers had only just recovered after a slump following a tour boat accident off Phuket in July that killed dozens of Chinese holidaymakers. The economic loss from the tropical storm may reach 5 billion baht ($156 million), the Bangkok Post reported, citing local authorities. One fisherman was killed, while another is still missing, according to the newspaper. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha ordered the military, police, civil officials and volunteers to prepare for rescue and rebuilding, the government said on its website. PTT Exploration & Production PCL suspended energy production from its platforms near the path of storm. Output of natural gas and crude oil has dropped and the government is seeking imports to ensure theres no disruption to electricity production, the energy ministry said Wednesday. Related: Thailand Braces for Storm Pabuk; Oil & Gas, Tourism Industries Disrupted Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm I was so intrigued by McKinsey & Companys Women in the Workplace 2018 study that I decided to flip the script for my first column of 2019. From a simple question, What are opportunities for women in the insurance industry? came fascinating answers from three female agency leaders. They are at the forefront of addressing issues of inclusion and diversity. They are advocating for change in ways I believe many insurance organizations can learn from. A Voice Thats Heard Youd be smart not to say the phrase women should have a seat at the table to Barbara Bentley. Twenty years of human resources experience tells her this cliche doesnt age well. As chief talent officer for Catto & Catto in San Antonio, Bentley focuses on attracting, engaging and developing diverse talent. Its more than women just having a voice, she said. Its about women having a voice thats heard. Bentley designed plans for female employees to move beyond being a believer to becoming a builder. With a commitment to equality and engagement, the agencys culture has been forever changed for the better. Diversity began once we expanded the ways we thought about growth, she said. We unlocked a lot of potential. Bentley spoke about an evolving culture where men and women engage in real-time issues, from setting performance excellence standards to working on a project to change the agencys management system. How do you give people opportunities to develop and have leadership? she asks. Invite more voices into initiatives. Breaking Down Barriers Then came my conversation with Karla Combs, chief operating officer at Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance in Memphis. After 25 years with the agency, Combs perspective on the role of women in the insurance industry doesnt start and stop with her own leadership journey. She is proud of the diversity within the agencys sales teams. Lipscomb & Pitts has six very successful female producers across personal lines, commercial lines and employee benefits. Even more notable, four began their careers in account management. We approached them about moving from service to sales, Combs said. All the credit goes to them for turning the opportunity into a huge success. The part Im proud of is initially they didnt necessarily see the potential in themselves, but we did and really wanted to foster their possibilities. Having successful women in sales breaks down barriers and stereotypes. Perception isnt always reality, Combs said from watching two of the producers concentrate in male-dominated verticals like construction and trucking to seeing young male producers co-sell with experienced saleswomen. Shes gone as far as to make sure they hire more men in support positions. Belonging and Mattering At BKS Partners, two of the original founders are women and female representation exists through all levels of the company. Elizabeth Krystyn, founding partner of BKS Partners, said they could rest on their laurels, but they dont. When you look traditional, you have to work harder to be different, she said. In BKS case, we dont look traditional and yet still strive for diversity and inclusion. Were building a colleague-centric, family inside of a larger family small group model, she said. Transparency and communication is respect, a mantra Krystyn said has led to full engagement and productivity for female and male employees. Twice a year, the agency issues a survey of 10 questions categorized around safety, belonging and mattering; topics which she recognizes are important to women. The results provide insight into how well BKS culture fosters inclusion. Its a springboard for employees to share goals and support one another in Welcome Activities. One new hire had 50 emails from BKS employees by her first day. By planting the flag early on for engagement and community [between men and women], were making diversity a part of BKS everyday language. Topics Leadership We give you a login and password, and then every time that you talk to a customer, you can use our platform to sell faster, simpler, quicker, said CoverWallet CEO Inaki Berenguer, referring to insurance agents he hopes will use his tech-savvy small business insurance program that includes access to CoverWallets carriers. They [agents] can get multiple quotes from one quick application, buy [coverage] online, full end-to-end experience, no cost for them, access to top carriersVery simple. Asked about the no cost part, Berenguer said that if an agent sells a policy, CoverWallet keeps part of a commission that is highly competitive with the industry, with the agent keeping the majority. CoverWallet, which has been on a mission to reinvent insurance for small business customers, only recently began offering its platform to insurance agencies. About 16 agencies are already using it and another 100 are on a waiting list, according to Berenguer. CoverWallet makes it easy for small businesses to understand, buy and manage insurance policies ranging from simple business owners policies to more complicated directors and officers liability covers. Berenguer demonstrated the quote process on the original direct-to-customer platform that spawned agents interest, taking seconds to get a quote for a full-service restaurant with a Queens, N.Y. ZIP code. Accessing the Advice section of the CoverWallet website first, he input the industry, number of employees and revenues about a 20 second process and instantly saw the average premium paid by similar businesses for a range of small business coverages and indications of popular purchases (100 percent buy general liability, 80 percent buy BOPs instead, etc.) Checking off the GL coverage for free quotes prompted more questions, many with pre-filled answers, and that generated actual quotes from three carriers in just over one minute. Then, he selected a carrier and limits, answered a question about how he wanted to pay in full or in monthly payments from a credit card and the system returned a policy, certificate of insurance and proof of payment. Agents are an integral part of small business insurance, and we are making it easy for them to leverage technology without needing to build their own complex integrations or to have direct relationships or appointments with carriers, said Aman Khaira, vice president of product at CoverWallet. Agents who are onboarded to CoverWallet for Agents act as subproducers of CoverWallet and gain access to all the carriers that CoverWallet has on the platform, including Chubb, Starr, CNA and AmTrust. As a result, they will be able to generate quotes and bind policies without needing direct appointments from the carriers. In order to be onboarded, they are required to be licensed in the state(s), sign an agreement with CoverWallet, and have $1 million in E&O coverage, said Hally Peck, director of communication at CoverWallet. According to Berenguer, there are 40,000 agencies, in the U.S. and a half million agents that unfortunately dont have access to the same tools that we have. And they dont have the resources to invest in technology. Registering with CoverWallet for Agents can change that, he believes. In essence he says his company is not an insurance company; its a technology company. I think some other competitors are insurance companies that are trying to tech-enable business, he said, noticing that experience in data, design and technology are some of the things that differentiate CoverWallet from Insureon, CoverHound and other insurtechs serving the small business market. Since launching the direct-to-customer site in 2016, CoverWallet has received more than $30 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, Two Sigma, and Foundation Capital, as well as Zurich Insurance Group and Starr Companies. Topics Carriers Agencies InsurTech Tech Small Business Lawmakers Debated More Than 100 Fraud-Related Bills and Passed 33 into Law The introduction of new bills slows down during years when legislators tend to be more concerned with reelection. Thats why 2018 was such a surprise, according to Matthew Smith, director of government affairs and general counsel for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. On the state level, there were 116 new pieces of anti-fraud-related legislation introduced, resulting in 33 new laws, he said. There may still be a slight chance of a couple more slipping in before the ball drops in Times Square on New Years Eve, Smith added. Patient brokering laws were passed in Arizona, Illinois, Utah and West Virginia. These laws ban payment to any medical facility or person in exchange for referring patients to treatment facilities. Workers compensation reform continued to be a hot button issue last year with legislation passed in Arkansas, California and Illinois. One new law in California deals with liability for peace officers working outside the state. Arkansas in March approved a law providing for regulation and licensing of pharmacy benefits managers by the insurance department. Illinois lawmakers decided to require the pre-approval of workers compensation rates by the insurance department. Storm-Chasers Alabama passed a roofing contractor licensing law. When you look at the potential for hurricanes, tornadoes, that face those types of states, we are very much supporting those types of laws that protect against the storm chaser-type of frauds, Smith said. Iowa passed a new law allowing insurers the ability to pursue restitution from fraudsters. This statute clarifyies that insurers can be considered a crime victim in Iowa, which was not previously the case. Airbag Danger CAIF continues to partner with Honda North America to protect American consumers on fraudulent airbags. When an airbag is replaced after an accident with a knock-off there can be a danger to the vehicles driver and passengers. The tragedy of that fraud is the consumer doesnt know theyve been defrauded until the next accident when, literally, their life is at risk as they hit or fly through the windshield because their airbag did not properly deploy, Smith said. Thats a fraud that we dont read about or hear about too often, he said, noting that Rhode Islands governor signed a law to deal with knock-offs. Cyber, Data Privacy Two of the most significant laws were in the area of cyber privacy and came out of South Carolina and California. This year, South Carolina became the first state in the nation to adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) cyber security law. Smith expects other states will either follow suit or create similar legislation for the protection of consumers rights of privacy and data usage. The model bill is very comprehensive, Smith said. For example, it requires every insurance company to designate a person or a vendor responsible for their cyber security programs. It also requires written policies and procedures to be in place on the use of data, and when there are data breaches. He offered an example to highlight the impact to insurers. If a claims person so much as loses a laptop ora smart device that has non-public personal data of an insured or a claimant, that is now unaccounted for because that device has been lost or stolen, it is mandatory to report that to the state DOI, and they have the right to investigate it and, under certain circumstances if there are blatant violations, fine or take licensing action over data breaches and the loss of personal information, he said. California enacted a law protectng citizens data privacy that the industry is monitoring. The California Privacy Law applies to insurers and all other businesses in the state and has very severe restrictions on the use of private data, Smith explained. Were looking at it from the standpoint of what impact it might or might not have on an insurers ability to even report fraud. We think were all right there, but were partnering with others to look to make certain that it does not infringe on the ability to report insurance fraud under the Privacy Act. Several amendments to the law are expected before it becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2020. South Carolina and California passed significant cyber data privacy laws. Fraud Authority The anti-fraud community in Michigan was taken by surprise when, in September, then outgoing Governor Rick Snyder issued an executive order creating a state insurance fraud authority. Smith said its something that had been in the works for years, but had continually stalled. We at the Coalition have tried for years to work with the Legislature in Michigan, because the state desperately, in our opinion, needed an auto fraud authority, especially when you have that type of a personal injury protection (PIP) system and the frauds, abuses, and scams occurring in Michigan, he said. Unfortunately, the bills always failed, not because the legislators were not in favor of a fraud unit, but because it was always joined at the hip with PIP reforms and there could never be a consensus on that. The scope of the fraud authority is much broader than just auto insurance, Smith said. Withouta law on the books, future governors could decide to do away with it, and theres also no funding for it, he said. It doesnt have a funding structure or mechanism underneath it because it was created by executive order. So, one of our priorities wed love to have it yet this year or in 2019 is to work with the legislature to take what the governor created by executive order, a free-standing insurance fraud authority, but created now with an actual legislative structure and with a funding mechanism to make certain that its permanent. ALI Restatement Many in the industry believe that the American Law Institutes revised Restatement on Liability Insurance could create new theories of recovery and new areas of law in states. Even though ALI restatements are not laws, there is concern that this will be relied on as if it is the law. They are probably the most cited authority on issues like liability insurance by judges in issuing decisions and by attorneys in submitting briefs to courts addressing those issues. So, theres grave concern that the ALI Restatement, as they adopted it now, changes dramatically the world of insurance law, said Smith. Ohio passed a law in July that says state courts dont have to follow the new ali version. It remains to be seen if other states will follow suit. Topics California Legislation Cyber Fraud Michigan Illinois South Carolina The California wildfires of 2018 were devastating, burning hundreds of thousands of acres, costing numerous lives and destroying thousands of properties. The California Department of Insurance in early December put the official tally for insured losses from the years major California wildfires at $9.05 billion. That figure is likely to go higher. For now the best thing the insurance industry can do is pay claims, and comfort insureds. But in the long run, the industry and the state can learn a few lessons from the fires, according to Michael Brown, vice president with Golden Bear Insurance Co. The long-time industry veteran spoke with Insurance Journal about the impact of the fires, including the impact on surplus lines and the FAIR Plan, the states property insurer of last resort. Brown offered up five lessons we can all learn from these events. This has been edited for brevity and clarity. No. 1: I think the first thing were learning is the ability of the residual market in California to respond. The California FAIR plan is being, I guess the term would be, inundated with new applications following the severe wildfire seasons, both in 2018 and 2017, which are driving admitted markets out of the brush-exposed urban wildland interface homeowners business. In addition to the FAIR plan we have a number of non-admitted markets very active in that space. That is a great example of a system working the way its supposed to. Admitted markets have, pardon the pun, been burned by this business, and have pulled away a little bit and the FAIR plan and the surplus markets are stepping in to fill the void. No. 2: I think its a great opportunity for California in particular to revisit building codes and requirements for more fire resistant construction in the wildland urban interface. There are areas that dont necessarily have any professional fire departments nearby, theres going to be delays in getting fire support there so making each home as able to withstand heat and fire as possible might help mitigate some of these losses that were talking about. No. 3: I think its a great opportunity for us to learn a little something about forestry management. In the last 30 or 40 years we have done a great job of reducing logging with an emphasis on protecting the environment and keeping sustainable growth in our forest. The pendulum may have swung a little bit too far because we have, depending on who you talk to, from a couple million to many million dead trees in forests in California. Now, a live tree burns relatively slowly its hard to get the fire started a dead tree burns like a match. These dead, unharvested trees are creating an opportunity for a fire to really get a foothold, and if there happens to be a number of them in a small area, build up enough heat and enough momentum to catch the live trees nearby on fire. So I think the takeaway here would be for the U.S. Department of Forestry, and Californias Department of the Interior, Agriculture, or whoever it is thats in charge of that, to step in and say, We need some responsible harvesting of dead fall and dead standing trees just to help minimize the fuel load and maybe slow down some of these wildfires that theyre spreading. No. 4: I think the fourth point, and quite possibly the most serious out of the group, is for the insurance carriers to really monitor their spread of risk. What used to be considered safe from conflagration, these would be homes in some sort of a community with hire hydrants and a fire department, such as Paradise, in California. Were now seeing with the severity of wildfire in the last few years, these small communities can be overwhelmed and virtually destroyed by a wildfire, which is just moving faster and hotter than even a paid, professional fire service with hydrants and access to water can prevent. We saw a company not too far from where our company lives, Merced Property & Casualty Co., get themselves in over their heads with too many losses from the Camp Fire around Paradise. Weve also seen in an AM Best update another carrier has had their outlook turned to negative due to losses from the wildfires exceeding expectations. So spreading risk, making sure that as a carrier youre not taking on more exposure than you can reasonably handle, is gonna be a very important lesson to carry forward for all of us. No. 5: I think the last thing I want leave you with goes out to the agents and brokers out there theres still an awful lot of people with homes and businesses in the brush exposed urban wildand interface areas who need insurance. Its not going to be as easy to place that insurance so be ready to dig in a little bit, its going to be a little bit harder work to find the right coverage and the right carrier. These people need the insurance. The insurance is out there, its just going to take a little extra effort to connect the consumer with the right insurer. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Regulators have accused one of Californias largest utilities of falsifying safety documents for natural gas pipelines for years following its criminal conviction and multimillion-dollar fine for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people near San Francisco. The California Public Utilities Commission said an investigation by its safety and enforcement division found Pacific Gas & Electric Co. lacked enough employees to fulfill requests to find and mark natural gas pipelines. Because of the staff shortage, PG&E pressured supervisors and locators to complete the work, leading staff to falsify data from 2012 to 2017, regulators said. The company had common knowledge among its supervisors that locators falsified data, the commission said. Utility falsification of safety related records is a serious violation of law and diminishes our trust in the utilitys reports on their progress, commission President Michael Picker said in a statement. These findings are another example of why we are investigating PG&Es safety culture. PG&E said it has hired more employees and improved its pipeline tracking system. Were committed to accurate and thorough reporting and record-keeping, and we didnt live up to that commitment in this case, utility spokesman Matt Nauman said in a statement. A U.S. judge fined the utility $3 million after it was convicted of six felony charges for failing to properly maintain a natural gas pipeline that exploded in 2010 and wiped out a neighborhood in suburban San Bruno. Regulators also fined PG&E $1.6 billion for the blast. This is the period immediately following the 2010 San Bruno gas explosion and fire that resulted in eight fatalities, numerous injuries and damage to property, the commission said in its report. This commission would expect that after such a tragedy, caused by multiple proven violations of law, PG&E would have sought to vigorously enhance and increase its effectiveness in all aspects of its gas safety. The investigation was forwarded last month to a judge, who will hear testimony on the findings and will allow PG&E to provide evidence that it didnt violate safety laws. The utility that provides service to millions of people throughout Northern California also is under scrutiny for its role in igniting wildfires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection found that PG&E equipment was responsible for starting 16 wildfires in 2018. While a cause has not yet been determined for the massive fire that wiped out the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people last month, PG&E equipment is being scrutinized. A number of victims have sued the utility, alleging negligence. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California | BY Ricki Green | Publicis Groupe has today announced the appointment of Michael Rebelo as chief executive officer for ANZ. Rebelo started his career in Perth before moving to Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney in 1997 and held various agency leadership roles in Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, London and Australia across the Saatchi & Saatchi network. In 2017, he was appointed as CEO Publicis Communications in ANZ. In this newly created role, Rebelos responsibilities include driving greater integration across the Groupes capabilities to transform its relationship with existing clients and win the trust of new ones, to cultivate and attract the best talents across the Groupes agencies and disciplines, as well as improving its resources management across disciplines and solutions. In his role, Rebelo will be supported by solution hub leadership, John Preston, chairman of Publicis Media, and Sarah Adam-Gedge, managing director at Publicis.Sapient. Says Loris Nold, Publicis Groupe CEO, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa: I am incredibly excited with Mikes appointment. He and I have partnered for years now and I am very confident that he will successfully drive our Groupe across these two exciting, strategic and highly sophisticated markets. Our strategy relies on two very important pillars: a solution-led approach and a country-led approach. This is to ensure that we accelerate on our global game changers while driving acceleration at a country level. The Power of One has generated some great examples of collaboration in Australia and New Zealand and it has transformed the way we work with our clients while bringing great opportunities to our people. With Mike at the helm, working closely with John and Sarah, we have the right team and the right model to accelerate in Australia and New Zealand. Last but not least, I want to congratulate Matt James for his appointment as global brand president, Zenith. Matt has been an incredible partner, working seamlessly with Mike, Henri, Pauly, Phil and I, and I cant think of a better leader to take on this exciting new role. Says Rebelo: Im genuinely honoured to be taking on the role of CEO of Publicis Groupe for Australia and New Zealand. Im also thrilled for Matt as he takes on his new global role and thank him for his partnership and collaboration these past couple of years. From big data and blockchain to autonomous vehicles and new technology that isnt yet on the radar, change is inevitable for the insurance industry in 2019. Insurance companies, insurance producers and insurance regulators alike will be making decisions this year and in the years to come about how we prepare for and implement those changes, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman told Insurance Journal. Some of the change wont come in legislative form per se. According to Altman, Pennsylvania will be watching what she sees as an overlooked concern related to adapting to new technology; that is the insurance industrys workforce. Recruitment, retention, training, attracting new talent and even attracting new types of talent with skill sets steeped in these new technologies will be critical to the success of the insurance industry in this endeavor, she said. East region states cited efforts regarding reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program as a priority in 2019 that, while national in scope, has a local impact. The reauthorization is critically important to anyone purchasing or selling a home within a flood zone, since most lenders require flood coverage in those areas, said Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents President and CEO Nick Fyntrilakis. There have been several temporary reauthorizations, but a comprehensive fix remains elusive, with strong differences of opinion on how best to make the needed structural changes with the program. The focus on the flood program comes as its debt exceeds $20 billion. Its the National Flood Program in debt to the U.S. Treasury. Its kind of like my right pockets in debt to my left pocket, John Tomassi, president-elect of the Professional Insurance Agents of New York, said. So were trying to get something that involves more risk-based pricing. Maine Insurance Commissioner Eric Cioppa beleives consumer-facing products such as app-based insurance are going to be a focus for next year. Many insurers see opportunities to attract younger customers with electronic interfaces and, behind the scenes, to speed up underwriting and claims-handling with technology, he said. Beyond technology challenges and the flood program, health insurance and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have received and are expected to continue receiving lots of attention from states as well. Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer believes the most significant accomplishment for the state in 2018 was implementing a waiver that created a reinsurance program for the individual market, leading to a double-digit reduction in health premiums for Maryland this year. Its too early to tell exactly whats going to pop up regarding legislation, but the cost of health insurance and the ACA continues to be of major concern, he said. Similarly, in Maine, Cioppa cited the approval of the states federal insurance waiver and relaunch of the Maine Guaranteed Access Reinsurance Association as two big accomplishments in 2018 that brought individual market rates down for the 2019 plan year and brought another insurer back to the ACA Exchange. He said health coverage will continue to be a priority next year. In New York, health care costs are also expected to present challenges, according to Scott Hobson, director of government relations at Big I New York, as he sees the public debate around The New York Health Act a proposal to create a single-payer health plan gaining momentum. Reports say the bill calls for $139 billion in new state tax revenue by 2022. That is an issue that is going to be front and center for independent agents in 2019, he said. Were supportive of increasing healthcare coverage. We want people to have affordable health insurance, but were just concerned about it being done entirely by the state. I think there are some major cost concerns there. New Jersey Insurance Commissioner Marlene Caride pointed to two laws signed by Governor Phil Murphy as steps forward in improving access to health coverage. The first law takes effect January 1, 2019, and continues a shared responsibility payment in the state after its repeal at the federal level. The law requires residents to have health coverage or pay a penalty unless they qualify for an exemption. Governor Murphy also signed a law to create a state reinsurance program. Combined, the two laws resulted in an average overall 9.3 percent reduction in rates in the individual market for 2019, Caride stated. The governor and this department believe that access to quality affordable coverage and care plays a key role in creating a stronger and fairer New Jersey for all of its residents, she said. East region leaders are positive about the upcoming year and changes from the November mid-term elections. For us this year in New York, we have a whole new set of players, Tomassi said. Were trying to get our arms around that to see what its like and what their outlook is in regards to some of the insurance issues we have. Marylands Redmer said his administration has always tried to be proactive as well as transparent and collaborative. While there has been a turnover and there will certainly be a learning curve for those new legislators, our process will be the same and the way we conduct business will not change at all, he said. New York Governor: Andrew Cuomo, D, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: Assembly Insurance; Senate Insurance Insurance commissioner: Maria T. Vullo appointed in 2016; stepping down Feb. 1. New Jersey Governor: Phil Murphy, D, elected 2018 Insurance committees: Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance; Senate Commerce Insurance commissioner: Marlene Caride, appointed in 2018. The first Hispanic to head the department, which oversees insurance, banking and real estate. Pennsylvania Governor: Tom Wolf, D, re-elected 2018 Insurance commissioner: Jessica Altman appointed in 2018. Served as chief of staff for former Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller beginning in June 2015. Massachusetts Governor: Charles D. Baker, R, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: Joint Committee on Insurance Insurance commissioner: Gary D. Anderson, appointed 2017. Joined as its First Deputy Commissioner in February of 2014. Connecticut Governor: Ned Lamont, D, elected 2018 Insurance committees: General Assembly Insurance and Real Estate Insurance commissioner: Katharine Wade stepped down on December 19, 2018. Incoming Gov. Lamont will appoint a new commissioner. Life & Health Director Paul Lombardo will serve as acting commissioner in the interim. Maryland Governor: Larry Hogan, R, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: House Economic Matters; Senate Finance Insurance commissioner: Alfred W. Redmer, Jr. appointed in January 2015. His term ends May 30, 2019. Former member of General Assembly and executuve with insurance businesss. Maine Governor: Janet Mills, D, elected 2018 Insurance committees: Joint Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services; House Insurance and Financial Services Insurance commissioner: Eric A. Cioppa, re-appointed in 2017 for another five-year term. Joined the staff in 1988 as a statistician, then served as supervisor of Workers Compensation. New Hampshire Governor: Chris Sununu, R, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: Senate Finance; House Finance Insurance commissioner: John Elias, approved by executive council to serve a five-year term beginning June, 2018. Rhode Island Governor: Gina Raimondo, D, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: House Finance; Senate Finance Insurance commissioner: Beth Dwyer, appointed in 2016. Prior to this appointment, Dwyer was with the Department of Business Regulation for 15 years, first as General Counsel to the Insurance Division and later as Associate Director. Vermont Governor: Phil Scott, R, re-elected 2018 Insurance committees: House Commerce and Economic Development; Senate Finance Insurance Commissioner: Michael S. Pieciak, appointed in 2016. Regulates financial services, including the insurance, captive insurance, banking and securities industries. Virginia Governor: Ralph Northam, D Insurance committees: House Finance; Senate Finance Insurance commissioner: Scott White, appointed in January 2018. Joined in 1998 as a research analyst; later moved to the general counsel office. Delaware Governor: John Carney, D Insurance committees: House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce; Joint Finance Insurance commissioner: Trinidad Navarro was elected in 2016. Topics New York InsurTech Tech Flood Market Training Development New Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland Maine What kept me interested in working in the insurance industry is what tends to anchor any young person to the job that theyre in, and thats being able to see a clear pathway to getting where they want to get to in terms of their career, he says. That means having a management oversight group that recognizes and tries to remove obstacles from their success, ultimately allowing them to progress in their career as quickly as their efforts and their aptitude allow. That was really the key for me. Having a sense of the pressure that every person at the company faces, no matter their role, primed Cortezi to be an effective leader, especially when he witnessed the work of employees in support and infrastructure roles, whom he calls the unsung heroes of the firm. Without them fully engaged, the organization screeches to a halt, Cortezi explains. Being able to speak with familiarity to people who are in support roles gave me more credibility with them. As CEO, Cortezi has seen All Risks grow into the company it is today and has played a significant part in its success. He identifies his election to the board of NAPSLO, where he later served as president, as key to the companys growth. That opened doors for me personally and for us as a small wholesale broker that might not otherwise have been available, he says. Other critical moments in All Risks history include starting its first programs and hiring its first brokerage teams, which changed the future of the company. There was also room for some fun along the way Cortezi has great memories of celebrating All Risks milestone of $100 million in premiums by taking every employee on a cruise to the Bahamas in 2000, a celebration that was replicated when the company crossed $1 billion in premiums in 2013. Culture is key All Risks leadership stands strongly by its commitment to make decisions that are in the best interests of its people and clients. According to Cortezi, the company tries to eradicate any whiff of internal competition, and leaders dont micromanage employees. Hire the best and then free them to do their jobs, he says. Senior managements role at All Risks is really to line up resources for our teams that are getting the job done. In line with that philosophy, the company also invests significantly in employee development. All Risks actively recruits graduates and former military officers into a six-week boot camp, where they receive comprehensive training and engage with the senior management team, top salespeople and each other, which jumpstarts their careers alongside peers they can lean on for support. We have built up our All Risks University program, Cortezi says. About 60 people joined us last year, [mainly] former military officers and risk management majors who had just graduated. We would much rather grow people who understand who we are than grow the company through acquisition we make very, very few acquisitions. It has helped weave a fabric around All Risks culturally. A testament to the team Because All Risks is privately held and has no debt, the wholesale broker can work on building for the coming decade rather than focusing on earnings. It has also crafted a diversified platform that includes everything from brokerage services to binding, programs, personal lines and workers compensation with the intent of making its specialty divisions the best in the country in their areas of expertise. Our investment horizon allows us to invest for the long term and brings us tremendous stability in market downturns, Cortezi says. Our average organic growth rate for the past 25 years has been about 18%. We are now the largest privately held independent broker in the country, and we will close this year at over $2 billion in premium. Remaining a power player in the industry isnt easy. Even though All Risks doesnt make many acquisitions itself, the company still feels the pressure from consolidation brought on by an active M&A market. Cortezi predicts that of the 40 top agents that All Risks worked with a decade ago, half of them have been rolled into larger national firms. Consolidation has always been a feature of the marketplace, but I dont ever remember it being as pronounced as it is today, he says. The tremendous pace of consolidation means that we have to be continually engaged in ensuring that as consolidations take place, our partnerships stay strong. After all, those core relationships are a key reason All Risks has stayed on top. This is truly a testament to the great team we have at All Risks, the strong partnerships that we have formed with our retail insurance clients, and the trust that our carrier partners have in us, Cortezi says. In the last five years especially, those fluctuations in recent exposures make it challenging for carriers to determine where the insured is going. On the excess E&S side, the catastrophic potential for loss is what worries Kilmartin since you dont have the law of large numbers working for you. The losses that a few insureds will experience are funded by the premiums of the many, said Kilmartin. On the excess side, because Im dealing with capacity, meaning Im going to be putting up potentially $5 million or $10 million, Im writing a much smaller number of insureds with much higher limits of insurance and Im getting much less premium relative to a primary carrier. Consequently I cant rely on the law of large numbers principle to underwrite my book. Excess underwriters have to understand the specific story of each risk, and cant apply a box underwriting approach meaning that if its in the box, you write it and multiply it by your exposure to determine pricing, and if its outside of the box, you stay away. What we need to do on the excess side is we need to look into the individual risk does the individual deal make sense for us? explained Kilmartin. Are we able to get our heads around it, do we understand the narrative around that individual risk, do we understand what the placement strategy is, why are we seeing it as opposed to somebody else, do we have a relationship with the broker, and do we understand what the brokers relationship is with their retailer? To protect their business, Venture Underwriters prides itself on an agile response when brokers put risks out to market. You have to be very agile, meaning you have to respond and look at it very quickly. If you dont meet that urgent need, what will happen is youll end up seeing business that somebody else picked over because a competitor is going to embrace that urgency. Thats where Venture Underwriters thrives the company can make a decision immediately to change its direction, whereas some carriers are bogged down by bureaucracy. Starting in 2009, the excess industry also saw a lot of change as carriers entered and exited the market. We were stable and we didnt withdraw from the marketplace we stayed where we were, we kept our finger on the pulse of legislative changes, we changed what we needed to, but we never broke that trust relationship with our distribution, Kilmartin told Insurance Business, adding that the company isnt going to change its underwriting stance once a broker places business with them. Brokers know that they can trust us. Seven people were arrested by Louisiana state troopers in New Orleans for attempting to defraud their auto insurer by staging a car crash and making false insurance claims for injuries and property loss. The fraud scheme allegedly occurred in October 2016 in Louisianas Orleans Parish, and involved an accident between a rented 2016 GMC Sierra truck and a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu. According to a statement released by Louisiana State Police, the seven suspects filed a crash report with the New Orleans Police Department following the crash, and made insurance claims with the intentions of receiving a claim settlement. The fire occurred in July 2016 at a house belonging to Jerry Avants, Sr., who is also one of the suspects arrested. According to WAFB News, fire investigators found places where the fire could have started throughout the house, and eventually deemed the cause as incendiary. However, the investigators found the contents of the home were out of the ordinary, with important personal items such as photos and clothing being absent. Investigators found that Avants had made comments just before the fire occurred about taking a large insurance policy on his home and having someone burn it down. Following the arrests, another suspect, Adrian Lee Everett, confessed to starting the fire for Avants and was promised a part of the insurance payout. According to WAFB News, Everett told investigators all five suspects worked together to stage the home, but he lit the fire. While the corporate regulator backed the proposed ban, it did reportedly not clearly define what conflicted remuneration is, nor did it clarify whether this would affect brokers advising businesses or those advising consumers issues that the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) asked to be clarified, The Australian Financial Review reported. The peak industry body pointed out that there is a difference between conflicted remuneration and commissions, and that banning the former would not prevent the continued payment of commissions to brokers a distribution method that accounts for more than a third of general-insurance products. Commissions have a strong role in the insurance industry, and this will continue, ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller told AFR. Commissions, when controlled and regulated, do not create conflicts. They are ways of allowing experts to provide product guidance to customers and build appropriate packages to protect their assets. Fuller said business clients, smaller businesses in particular, would be most impacted by the ban on commissions because they often require the expertise of a broker to respond to their complicated insurance needs. Unlike large listed companies, which often pay for this service, smaller businesses largely depend on the commissions model. The ICA leader said the commissions model also benefitted consumers. For example, if you are a collector, if you have artworks, if you have several properties, a broker may be able to build you a package, Fuller told AFR. Were concerned about a one-size-fits-all approach to financial services. Dallas Booth, chief executive of the National Insurance Brokers Association, however, believes that the ASIC proposal applies to all commissions and other payments from an insurer to a broker, meaning an outright ban would abruptly end the broking industrys current business model, which he said could put some brokers out of business. Booth said there is no evidence that commissions on general insurance have led to detrimental outcomes, save for some very specific niches of the market such as consumer-credit insurance and add-on insurance sold through car dealerships. Lots of commentators have adopted the principle that commissions are a bad thing, but very few people have done research into the effects of a ban, Booth told AFR, adding that the outcome of such reform could be anti-competition and anti-consumer because it could result in fewer consumers seeking advice and could rob insurers who rely exclusively on brokers to distribute their products of their only distribution channel. Booth also didnt believe that a ban by ASIC would affect business clients because ASICs remit is only for retail products. ASIC has acknowledged there is a grey area on products sold to small businesses, which might fall under the same regulatory regime as consumer products. The corporate regulator is expected to provide clarification on these uncertainties within the next few days, while the Hayne royal commissions final report is set to be handed to the government on February 01, AFR reported. Weaver said there was still significant opportunity for the two sides of Willis Towers Watsons business to cross-sell this despite Australias unusual employee benefits market making a merger of the two global firms a less obvious fit in Australia than in other markets, The Australian Financial Review reported. In markets such as the US and Britain where pensions and other employee benefits such as group life insurance are provided by large employers as a matter of course, the merger had clear benefits as the situation allows the two large employers to cross-sell to each other. But in Australia, the benefits arent as obvious due to the countrys compulsory superannuation system. "There is a big opportunity for us to take more market share on the broking side of the business," Weaver told AFR. "We've got a fabulous global set of analytical risk tools, which can help us analyse the different insurable exposures that businesses have, and I want to deploy those quite aggressively." Although a number of Australian companies set up their own super funds, such as in the case of Telstra and Rio Tinto corporate funds, most companies pay for their employees superannuation into independent super funds, generally not-for-profit. These funds also provide group life insurance, making the company-specific employee-benefits market in Australia comparatively small, AFR said. As a result, most of Tower Watsons clients are super funds, while large and medium-sized corporates make up Williss insurance clients. Weaver said there are "still significant scopes" to cross-sell and this was not limited to designing insurance packages for super-fund clients. "Let's say you're a bank, and you decide to acquire another bank. You're going to have a number of issues," Weaver told the publication. "One is risk. But also you might have employees on different benefit schemes, so how do you blend those benefits schemes, which is something you have to do? And there might be different executive-compensation schemes, and different pension schemes. So, there are a whole range of issues, and it's very hard to find one company that can advise you on all those separate issues. But we can now do that. We can be a one-stop shop for all that." Weaver said another area where both sides of the business could complement each other is Towers Watsons employee-survey business, which allowed employers insights about their workforces. Take cyber for example. We know from our research on our consulting side that one of the key drivers for cyber loss is activities and behaviour of the workforce, so if you've got a disenfranchised workforce you've got a much higher risk of a cyber breach," Weaver told AFR. "So, we think we've got a great opportunity to overlap both the traditional insurance side to what's happening with people. Alex Dunnin, director of research at Rainmaker, said although super funds still employ the services of consultants such as WTW, there was little growth opportunity in the area as super funds grew and increasingly develop in-house expertise. "If you're a bright young person, and you look at where the career opportunities are, it wouldn't be with a consultant. It would be with one of the big super funds, Dunnin told AFR. They [consultants] can't just sit around consulting for not-for-profit industry funds anymore." Meanwhile Darren Cann, who arrived this year, will serve as senior vice president of financial & professional Lines (FINPRO). In charge of running the insurers Bermuda FINPRO team, Cann brings more than a decade of experience from the likes of Aon and Allied World. Both will report to Zac Clammer executive vice president, head of insurance lines, Bermuda. Maybe youve already seen this quote from serial entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Lori Greiner. If not, I bet youve heard a version of it. Startup founders are infamous for busy-bragging. Sometimes it even feels like a competition: Who can work the longest? Who can sacrifice the most? Who will sleep at the office and go a full week without natural light? Yes, starting a business is hard work, and Greiners dedication has clearly paid off (shes created over 700 products and holds 120 patents). But the willingness she describes is really about freedom. Whether theyre chasing a big idea or solving a real problem, most founders also want to call the shots, to make their own money, set their own hours and to create something they care about. So why are we all trying to outwork each other? I dont believe in the 24/7 hustle and grind. Its not productive. And its starting to kill us. I also know first-hand that starting a business is not easy. Ive been on a 12-year entrepreneurial journey, slowly building JotForm into a global company with 3.7 million users and 110 employees. So where is the balance? How can you fulfill your vision without sacrificing yourself? Instead of logging more hours, the answer is to make the most of the hours you work. If youre smart about time management, you might be amazed by how much you can achieve in a sane, focused week. Here are five strategies that help me to avoid overworking even when theres always more to do. 1. Minimize your active projects Time management is attention management. Controlling your work is a matter of focus, not creating a crazy-strict schedule. When you focus your attention, you maximize your time, which increases your motivation. Its a productive cycle that feels really, really good. At any given time, I have no more than three core goals or active projects. Thats it. I say no to everything else. I delegate or save any outside tasks for later. You can also try a more sophisticated approach. In a Fast Company article, Google for Work director Thomas Davies described the problem with most time management strategies: Managing time starts from the premise that your workload is going to be what its going to be, and the best you can do is keep it manageable. But what if you could design your work day instead? Davies decided to create a new strategy. He divided his work responsibilities into four quadrants: people development, business operations, transactional tasks and representative tasks. Then he slotted every task into one of the four quadrants. Once he had a high-level view of what actually occupied his time, he could decide what mattered most and what made him feel most energized. Now he tries to maximize his work in those high-value quadrants. If this method speaks to you, give it a try. As Davies explains, youll soon realize that not all tasks are created equal. Armed with that knowledge, you can be mindful of where to dedicate your attention. 2. Mono-task, dont multi-task Establishing core priorities will narrow your focus. You also need to perform just one task at a time. Thats because, as Phyllis Korkki wrote in The New York Times, multi-tasking is a biological impossibility: Your brain may delude itself into thinking that it has more capacity than it really does, but its really working extra hard to handle multiple thoughts at once when you are switching back and forth between tasks. Your ability to get things done depends on how well you can focus on one task at a time, whether its for five minutes or an hour. To create a mono-tasking environment, Korkki suggests that you remove all temptations even if that means installing anti-distraction programs like Freedom or FocusMe. Also, use just one screen. Work in set chunks of time, and if you lose focus, get up and walk around. You can also try the popular Pomodoro technique, which breaks the day into 25-minute, highly focused intervals, followed by a five-minute break. After four intervals, you take a 15-minute break ideally away from all screens and mobile devices. 3. Cut back on meetings Meetings have become a contentious topic in entrepreneurial circles. Tesla founder Elon Musk told his staff to walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as its obvious you arent adding value. And Basecamps Jason Fried says its hard to come up with a bigger waste of money, time or attention than status meetings. Some meetings are critical, but many are not. Unless the meeting can remove a roadblock or its essential for team cohesion, find another way. Send an email and follow up later. Say no and protect your time. Youll be helping colleagues and co-workers to regain their focus, too. Im honoured to receive a lot of requests for coffee and casual get-to-know-you meetings. I mentor some young entrepreneurs, but I politely decline everything from speaking invitations to networking events as well. I wish I had time to accommodate everyone, but I just dont. I have to draw a firm boundary and you should as well. 4. Make quick decisions Hording decisions creates stress. When your mind is buzzing with many different choices from what to eat for lunch to which job candidate to hire its almost impossible to have a productive workday. Now, imagine your brain is a whiteboard. Every time you make a decision, youre wiping off more scribbles. Soon, its clear and ready for creative thought. When it comes to decision-making, speed is the goal here. There are very few decisions that cant be made quickly. I know that goes against conventional wisdom, but give it a try. If youve already gathered enough information, combine that data with your personal instincts and make a choice now. Dont have enough data? Then forget the decision and gather what you need. Once you have the right information, make your choice and move on. Repeat as needed. 5. Make the most of your work time then step away Vacations and downtime are essential for success. Theres just no way around it. You can hustle with the best of them, but at some point, your body is going to say no. The mind will rebel, too. Youll be less analytical, way less creative, and your emotions will eventually overrule all logical thoughts. Im currently spending the summer in Izmir, Turkey. We have a small office here. Its also a beautiful city by the sparkling Aegean Sea. So Im going to work four-day weeks and explore the nearby beach towns with my family. I realize this is a great privilege and I know you might have a few more questions. Dont you feel pressure to show your face in the office? Do you worry that your team will lose morale and slack off if youre not there? Honestly, Im just not concerned about it. I guess some employees might slip into 'relaxation' mode if Im not in the office, but I also know that our teams love their work. Theyre knee-deep in meaningful projects, and I have great respect for what they contribute to JotForm. I encourage our employees to take time off, too. If you dont take vacations, youll burn out and eventually produce less. As the CEO, my job is to ensure our teams are motivated and they dont hit roadblocks. Our employees wont function well if they dont take care of themselves. How on earth can I ease up when Im just launching or growing my business? I promise its not impossible. Even during the early days of my company, my wife and I took three months off to travel across Europe. Its a matter of planning and sticking to your priorities. For example, if youre working in your business, it doesnt function without you. When you work on your business, you can develop systems and processes that let you step away. You build a company that doesnt break if youre not answering every email or performing every single task. Even as a solopreneur, you can plan to hit pause if it matters to you. I know the details can be tricky, and this is a far easier proposition with an online business. But ultimately, life isnt all about work. I dont know about you, but I dont to want to work, work, work and then retire for a couple years before I die. I want to enjoy my life and my freedom. So, be strategic. Ask for help. Develop systems and safety nets that allow you to step away, even for a short time. You and your business will be so much better for it. Soon, you wont even dream about using the word 'hustle.' Aytekin Tank is founder and CEO of JotForm, an online form creation software with 4 million users worldwide and more than 100 employees. A developer by trade but writer by heart, Tank shares stories about how he exponentially grew his company without receiving any outside funding. This time of year usually means one thing: graduation! Whether students are graduating from high school, community college or from a university, a new crop of talented and motivated individuals is entering the workforce. Workforce development has become a top-three priority for the Tucson Me | BY Martin Trevaskis | Cannes Lions is to distribute 323,280 to the NGO behind the Palau Pledge, the multi-awarded campaign conceived by agency Host/Havas, Sydney. This represents the funds generated from entries into the Sustainable Development Goals Lions and will be distributed to the Friends of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary and the Palau Pledge Legacy Team, the client behind the Palau Pledge which won the first SDG Lions Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2018. The campaign, which was described by 2018 SDG Lion Jury President Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide as proof positive that the true winner in this category is humankind, stamped an environmental pledge to the children of Palau into every visitors passport. Since its launch in December 2017 over 150,000 people have signed the pledge. Says Philip Thomas, Chairman, Cannes Lions (right): We want to help great ideas to scale, and were delighted to fund the growth of the Grand Prix-winning Palau Pledge with the proceeds of the entries into the SDG Lions. We believe that creativity can change the world and its a privilege to support this initiative and contribute to its efforts to have an even greater impact. Introduced with the support of the United Nations, the SDG Lions aim to advance awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals by encouraging the creative industries to focus on harnessing creativity to positively impact the world. In its inaugural year the Lion received 898 entries generating a total of 323,280 in funds, which the Palau Pledge will receive to scale the project and make real change both in Palau and further afield. The funds donated by Cannes Lions, owned by Ascential plc, will be used to implement Phase Two of the Pledge, focusing on three core areas; a world-first Business Accreditation Programme, a Pledge-focussed STEM Educational Curriculum adjunct for school-aged children and Global leadership to scale the programme beyond the island of Palau. The Palau Legacy Project was founded by Palauan based global communications experts Nanae Singeo, Jennifer Koskelin-Gibbons, Nicolle Fagan and Laura Clarke and is chaired by the First Lady of Palau, Debbie Remengesau. Says Palau Legacy Project Co-Founder Laura Clarke: These funds are pivotal to the project continuing and we are thrilled to be able to see the Palau Pledge grow and develop. Weve already seen the local and global impact it can have, with Hawaii and New Zealand introducing similar Pledges and we want to do more to initiate change worldwide. A key element for us as a team is to be able to meet with leaders from countries and organisations all over the world and share the Palau Pledge philosophy. Although the 7th smallest nation in the world by GDP and with a population of less than 20,000, Palau is one of world leaders in conservation. The Palau Pledge has brought global exposure to the plight of the children of Palau. Host/Havas, the Sydney agency involved with the programme will continue to monitor and report the impact of the Pledge via a service-design model that will be scalable for other island nations to implement. Says Seamus Higgins, Executive Creative Director, Host/Havas: As an industry, we have the incredible power to shape conversation and behaviour. With this power comes the responsibility to shape a better world for future generations to inherit. We cant ignore this any longer, and we have to do it at scale and in partnership with business. We are hugely honoured to continue working with the Palau Legacy Project and Palaus government, who had the bravery to do something no-one else had done, to solve a problem no-one else had solved. Thank you Cannes Lions for putting your money where your mouth is. SDG is a truly meaningful category. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova, Supervisors Linda Smyth and Catherine Hudgins, Sol Glasner of the Tysons Partnership and School Board member Dalia Palchik prepare to cut the ceremonial ribbon Jan. 3 for a pair of new sidewalks along Leesburg Pike near Route 123 in Tysons. (Photo by Brian Trompeter) Real-time social media posts from local businesses and organizations across Northern Virginia, powered by Friends2Follow. To add your business to the stream, email cfields@insidenova.com or click on the green button below. The Latest from Barchart Sign up to receive your Watchlist or Portfolio sent to you by email up to 4 times a day; available at market open, mid-day, market close or end-of-day. Premier Members can also receive the results of custom Screeners - alerting to price or trend changes during and after each trading day. Sign up for a risk-free 30-day Barchart Premier trial. In a rather bizarre incident, an NRI woman who was in Mumbai while on her way to Gujarat was attacked by a hotel waiter with a knife. Farzana Mirat, who is originally from Gujarat and currently living in South Africa was on her way to attend a wedding in Porbandar on Sunday. represtrantional image The 30-year-old who was accompanied by her mother went to a hotel in Andheri to celebrate her wedding anniversary. Among several things, Mirat also ordered a cake to mark her anniversary. Representational image But, when the cake arrived there was no knife to cut it. So she asked the waiter Nishant Gowda to get one. Gowda went back and came back with a knife. But instead of handing it over to Mirat, Gowda attacked the woman on her neck with the knife. Lucky for her the knife wasn't sharp to inflict a serious injury. Police who arrested the 23-year-old waiter said he became angry after Mirat kept on ordering things. They also added that he had been upset at work even before the incident. There is nothing new in this New Year for Indian farmers. They continue to survive in miserable conditions as they arent able to fetch proper prices for thousand kgs of their produce. Suffice to say, farmers' march, rallies, fasts, and newly elected Indian National Congress farm loan waiver arent helping the agriculturers. After a furious Nashik farmer sent his paltry income of Rs 1,064 from selling 750 kg onion to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now a potato farmer from Agra has done the same. Times of India reported that a potato farmer by the name of Pradeep Sharma earned a meagre profit of Rs 490 from selling his entire potato produce of 19,000 kg or 19 tonnes. Sharma is a resident of Nagla Nathu village in Baroli Ahir block of Agra district and has sent the money as a mark of protest for the continuous losses that he has suffered. Photo: TOI/ Money order receipt sent to PM Modi "I have sent a money order of Rs 490 to the PM; perhaps he will understand my troubles. If he cannot help me, at least he can give me permission to kill myself," Sharma told TOI. Reportedly, the farmer sold 368 packets of potato for a total amount of Rs 94,677. The total amount spent on loading, unloading, commission, segregation and other supplementary activities amounted to Rs 48,187. After which Pradeep was left with 46,490. He then paid the cold storage centre Rs 46,000 (Rs 125 per packet for 368 packets). Finally, he was left with only Rs 490. This is not the first year that Sharma doesnt have two pennies to rub together. He has been suffering losses for the past four years. The farmer told India Today that the money wasnt sent to disrespect the PM but to remind him of his indifference towards farmers plight. ALSO READ: Tamil Nadu Farmers Join Two-Day Protest, Threaten Naked March If Stopped From Reaching Parliament Reportedly, he had written several letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind that he be allowed to commit suicide. He had even met Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma to seek help so that profit margins could be increased. However, his efforts were all for naught! Photo: Amar Ujala This year he had harvested 1,150 packets of potatoes; sown on 10 acres of land. Each packet weighed 50 kgs. Farmers who spend Rs 700-800 per quintal of potato are getting only Rs 549 per quintal which doesnt even cover the cost of growing the crop. Sharma speaking to HT even alleged that due to corruption in the agriculture department with regard to crop insurance, all the plans meant for the welfare of farmers go down the drain. Meanwhile, a farmer in Madhya Pradesh killed himself on December 31 because he got Rs 10, 440 for 2700 kg of Onion he had grown. Bherulal Malviya had gone to the mandi to sell 27 quintals of onion but due to the price dip, he could only sell his crop for Rs 10,440 at the rate of Rs 372 per quintal. Left shocked with the meagre amount he fetched selling his hard work of the last few months, the 40-year-old farmer suffered a heart attack. In a first, Christian Bale won the award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe award for his performance as Dick Cheney in "Vice" and thanked "Satan" for inspiring him to play the role of the former US vice president. Known for transforming himself physically to get under the skin of his characters, the actor gained over 40 pounds and bleached his eyebrows for Adam McKay's political satire. Bale, 44, thanked McKay for casting him to play someone who was "absolutely charisma-free and reviled by everybody". Reuters He joked that from here on out, he will be "cornering the market" on playing "charisma-free a**holes," adding, "What do you think, Mitch McConnell (politician) next?" "Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role," he added. Agencies It was Bale's fourth Globe nomination. He has previously won Best Supporting Actor in 2011 for "The Fighter". "Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role." - Christian Bale with the official 2019 mood #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/sUM1PMyLZn UPROXX (@UPROXX) January 7, 2019 The actor beat out Lin-Manuel Miranda for "Mary Poppins Returns", Viggo Mortensen for "Green Book", Robert Redford for "The Old Man and the Gun", and John C Reilly for "Stan & Ollie". This is how the internet reacted to the speech. His 'fake' British accent didn't go down too well with people it seems! I am surprised by Christian Bales accent every award season. Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Ph.D. (@sgbuggs) January 7, 2019 no British person has ever seemed like they are doing a terrible fake British accent as much as Christian Bale Helena Fitzgerald (@helfitzgerald) January 7, 2019 Wow. Literally none of you knew that Christian Bale was Welsh. Like. First of all, an male American actor who ACTS? And with those teeth? Honey. Please. Brandon (@brandonlgtaylor) January 7, 2019 RT IF YOU FORGOT CHRISTIAN BALE HAD A BRITISH ACCENT Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) January 7, 2019 Christian Bale's accent always throws me off lmfaoooo nicole will write for money (@NicoleFroio) January 7, 2019 Sioux San to remain under IHS control By Ernestine Chasing HawkNative Sun News Today Staff Writer RAPID CITY The takeover of management of historic Sioux San Hospital by the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens Health Board, which was touted as a done deal, was upended when the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council voted to rescind their support. On December 20, the Indian Health Service issued the following statement, Today, the Indian Health Service informed the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens Health Board that we are ceasing negotiations on contract proposals regarding the Rapid City Service Unit in South Dakota. The Indian Health Service respects tribal sovereignty and is committed to tribal self-governance and self-determination. This action is the result of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe rescinding its authorization for the Great Plains Tribal Chairmens Health Board to enter into agreements with IHS on its behalf." "Therefore, IHS will continue to operate the Rapid City Service Unit and will move forward with plans to construct a replacement facility," the statement continued. "We value our partnership with the tribes we serve and look forward to continuing to work together to provide access to comprehensive, high quality health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Great Plains Area. The Unified Health Board made up of members from the Cheyenne River, Rosebud and Oglala Lakota Nations were given statutory oversight of the Rapid City Indian Health Facility on the Sioux San campus through a series of resolutions passed by the three tribes and the Pennington County Commissioners. The Sioux San Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, will remain under control of the Indian Health Service after the Rosebud Sioux Tribe withdrew from an effort that it had started with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Photo by Kevin Abourezk The three tribes, also through resolutions passed last spring, in turn gave the GPTCHB authority to take control of the hospital via a PL 93- 638 Indian Self-Determination contract and move forward with plans to relocate services to land donated by local developer Hani Shafei. According to the GPTCHB, the land, located east of Rapid City, would better suit the needs of the Indian community. An ad hoc committee from Rapid City called the Mni Luzahan Wicozani Advisory Committee met on regular basis with the Unified Health Board and the GPTCHB and became the decision making body in regard to the future of Sioux San. In June of last year the GPCTHB intervened in the ongoing process of IHS building a new facility by submitting a proposal to run the hospital via a 638 contract which stopped IHS from moving forward in building the new multimillion dollar facility on the Sioux San Campus. According to IHS, Sioux San was approved for a new facility in 2002. In 2016, Congress appropriated $117 million to build a new facility on the Sioux San Campus with plans to demolish many of the existing buildings. A design contract was awarded in 2017 and by June, Indian Health Service had completed 80 percent of the architectural design at a cost of over one million dollars. However many in the Rapid City Indian community maintained that they did not have a voice in the consultation process by which Great Plains Tribal Chairmens Health Board attempted to take over control of Sioux San. Several community meetings were held at the Mother Butler Center sponsored by Rapid City Concerned Indian Community Members which include Charmaine White Face, Mark Lone Hill, Theresa Spry, Jeannie Ashley, Dr. Art Zimiga and Dr. Pat Lee. At those meetings many voiced concern because Rapid City Indians not allowed a vote in tribal elections, and are essentially denied equal representation, a right guaranteed by the U.S. constitution. The issue of voting in tribal elections has been a source of contention between tribes and tribal members living off the reservation for decades. Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at staffwriter@nativesunnews.today) Copyright permission Native Sun News Today Join the Conversation A black man has been charged with murder in the killing of a seven-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting in Houston prosecutors said was a case of mistaken identity. Jazmine Barnes's family had described the gunman in the December 30 slaying as a white man driving a red pick-up, stirring fears among community activists that race played a role in the attack. But during a court hearing yesterday, prosecutors said 20-year-old Eric Black Jr told investigators he was driving the vehicle from which a passenger opened fire. He said he was in a dark-coloured SUV he had rented. Authorities did not explain the discrepancies. Chris Sevilla, Jazmine's father, said he was feeling "a bit of relief right now" after the arrest. Prosecutors said a confidential source had contacted the sheriff by email and told him the killers had "shot the car by mistake," thinking the vehicle Jazmine was in was someone else's that they had seen earlier in the night. Mr Black, who was arrested on Saturday night, was charged with capital murder and jailed without bail. Prosecutors said the 9mm handgun believed used in the shooting had been recovered from Mr Black's home. Jazmine's mother, LaPorsha Washington, had tried to drive to a hospital after the shooting, but one of her front tyres had been shot out. US troops will not leave north-eastern Syria until Isil militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected, a top White House aide has vowed. The announcement by national security adviser John Bolton signals a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month by US President Donald Trump and initially expected to be completed within weeks. As Mr Bolton insisted there was no timetable for the plan, Mr Trump reaffirmed his commitment to withdrawing troops, though he said: "We won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." He had said in his December 19 withdrawal announcement that US forces "have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency", and added in a video posted to Twitter, "Now it's time for our troops to come back home." Mr Bolton said during a visit to Israel yesterday that the US would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of Isil in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists. Mr Trump said: "We are pulling back in Syria. We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly." But in his December 19 video, the president had said of the 2,000 US troops in Syria: "They're all coming back, and they're coming back now." Officials said at the time that while many details were yet to be finalised, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. "I think this is the reality setting in," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "The bottom line is we want to make sure we get this right, that ISIS doesn't come back. And I applaud the president for re-evaluating what he's doing. He has a goal in mind of reducing our presence. I share that goal. Let's just do it smartly." Mr Trump's decision last month drew widespread criticism from allies, led to the resignation of US defence secretary Jim Mattis and raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units a terror group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. Meanwhile, a senior Pentagon official has become the third senior staff member to quit over the withdrawal. Kevin Sweeney resigned as department of defence chief of staff, saying: "After two years in the Pentagon, I've decided the time is right to return to the private sector." He paid tribute to "the men and women of the department of defence" - but made no mention of Mr Trump. An 18-year-old Saudi Arabian woman who fled her family over alleged abuse and barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room in a bid for asylum will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case is evaluated by the UN refugee agency, immigration authorities said. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun grabbed global attention when she sent out pleas for help on social media, saying she feared for her life if she were put on a plane back to Kuwait, where she had slipped away from her family, or to her homeland. She has been allowed to enter Thailand temporarily under the protection of the UN refugee agency, which is expected to take five to seven days to study her case and her claim for asylum. She said she wants to go to Australia to seek refuge there. Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn said: "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law." Expand Close Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) Ms Mohammed Alqunun's plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families and other obstacles in the conservative kingdom. Photos released on Monday night by immigration police showed her with Thai and UN officials after she left the airport hotel room where she had been holed up over the weekend, sending her pleas for help on her Twitter account. Expand Close Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, a Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her country and family and is currently in Bangkok, Thailand, is shown in this undated photo obtained by Reuters from social media. @rahaf84427714/via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, a Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her country and family and is currently in Bangkok, Thailand, is shown in this undated photo obtained by Reuters from social media. @rahaf84427714/via REUTERS She later tweeted that she felt safe under UN protection and has got back her passport, which had been taken from her earlier. Her ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabia's restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a man's consent. On arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online sending out pleas for assistance, and barricaded the hotel room door. Global attention was sparked by social media and she did not get on the scheduled morning flight to Kuwait. She wrote of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her father's retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the UN refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian legistalors, Germany's ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow UN refugee officials to meet her. Giuseppe De Vincentiis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Thailand, told journalists he did not know where Ms Mohammed Alqunun would be staying but she would be safe because she was under his agency's protection. File photo dated 05/02/13 of a Barclays sign. Barclays activist investor Edward Bramson is to seek shareholder approval to make changes at the banks board. Barclays activist investor Edward Bramson is to seek shareholder approval to make changes at the board of Britains third biggest bank as he ramps up pressure on the lender to curtail its investment arm. Mr Bramsons investment vehicle Sherborne Investors has built up a 5.5% stake in the bank and is one of Barclays largest shareholders. Barclays other big investors include BlackRock, Qatar Investment Authority, and Capital Group. In a letter to Sherbornes investors, Mr Bramson said that he will seek a shareholder vote to make changes in the composition of the board after he failed to secure a seat on Barclays board. The letter continued: We have undertaken a long process of consistent engagement, deliberately allowing ample time and opportunity for Barclays to respond to our concerns and to demonstrate that the strategy that it has pursued since 2015 will produce appropriate returns at a reasonable risk. After considering the situation carefully we do not have confidence that continued engagement with the company, strictly as an outsider, will produce any more measurable results in the future than it has to date. It seems increasingly likely that, for any progress to be made on our concerns, we will be required to seek a shareholder vote to make changes in the composition of the board. He said that resolutions for shareholders to vote on could be presented at the annual general meeting or in separate shareholder meeting. Last month, Barclays rebuffed an attempt by Mr Bramson to gain a seat on its board to become a non-executive director. Mr Bramson needs 50% of shareholder support to make changes to the board. New York-based Mr Bramson is pushing to reduce the investment banking arm which has underperformed, in order to increase returns for shareholders. He is also calling on Barclays to sell the assets of the investment arm to free capital to strengthen the bank. The letter added: In order for the board to protect the longterm interests of Barclays PLCs shareholders, it will be required to adopt more conservative capital, leverage, and liquidity levels than strictly required by the regulators. The most expedient way of meeting this objective is through a judicious reduction in the CIBs [Corporate and Investment Bank] assets, which should, we believe, be accomplished before market conditions, now relatively benign, deteriorate. The capital that is released should be retained to make Barclays capital strength undoubted and to protect shareholders over a full cycle. Sherborne and Barclays both declined to comment. Mr Bramson and Barclays chief executive Jes Staley are to meet on March 12 in New York. Thailand halted plans on Monday to expel an 18-year-old Saudi woman fleeing her family after she barricaded herself inside an airport hotel to prevent immigration officials putting her on a flight to Kuwait. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has been at Bangkok's international airport since Saturday when she arrived on a flight from Kuwait. She has said she fears she will be killed if she is returned to her family, which could not be reached for comment on her accusations of abuse. Thai officials now plan to meet representatives of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees to discuss the case, immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters. Expand Close A sign indicating the way to hotel inside transit area at Suvarnabhumi Airport where Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year-old Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her family has barricaded herself inside a room in Bangkok, Thailand January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A sign indicating the way to hotel inside transit area at Suvarnabhumi Airport where Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year-old Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her family has barricaded herself inside a room in Bangkok, Thailand January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha He earlier denied allegations by Qunun that she was being detained at the request of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Foreign Ministry also denied her allegations that its embassy had confiscated her passport, saying in a Tweet she was stopped at the airport for violating Thai immigration laws. Qunun posted a video on Twitter on Monday of her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress. She told Reuters she fled Kuwait while her family was visiting the Gulf country and had planned to travel from Thailand to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was detained after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait. "My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait," Qunun said by text and voice message from the hotel on Sunday. "They will kill me," she said. "My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things." Expand Close Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, a Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her country and family and is currently in Bangkok, Thailand, is shown in this undated photo obtained by Reuters from social media. @rahaf84427714/via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, a Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her country and family and is currently in Bangkok, Thailand, is shown in this undated photo obtained by Reuters from social media. @rahaf84427714/via REUTERS Asked why she was seeking refuge in Australia, she said: "Physical, emotional and verbal abuse and being imprisoned inside the house for months. They threaten to kill me and prevent me from continuing my education. "They won't let me drive or travel. I am oppressed. I love life and work and I am very ambitious but my family is preventing me from living." In her initial social media pleas, Qunun said her family was powerful in Saudi society but she did not identify them. Saudi culture and guardianship policy requires women to have permission from a male relative to work, travel, marry, and even get some medical treatment. The deeply conservative Muslim country lifted a ban on women drivers last year. Thai immigration authorities said Qunun was refused entry because she did not have the proper documents. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Bangkok said it was trying to meet Qunun. "UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers ... cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened," it said in a statement. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thailand should not send Qunun back to her family because she says she faces danger. Qunun said she had obtained an Australian visa and booked a flight. She said she had planned to spend a few days in Thailand so she would not spark suspicion when she left Kuwait. "When I landed at the airport, someone came and said he would process the (Thai) visa but he took my passport. He came back with what seemed to be airport security and said that my parents objected and said I must return to Saudi Arabia via Kuwait Airways," she said. She said she believed she was stopped after her family appealed to Kuwait Airways. A spokesman for Kuwait Airways said he had no information about the case. Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said Qunun was denied entry because she did not have a paid return ticket or hotel reservation. "Thai immigration had to deny her entry," he said, describing the action as standard procedure. An 18-year-old Saudi Arabian woman who fled her family over alleged abuse and barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room in a bid for asylum will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case is evaluated by the UN refugee agency, immigration authorities said. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun grabbed global attention when she sent out pleas for help on social media, saying she feared for her life if she were put on a plane back to Kuwait, where she had slipped away from her family, or to her homeland. She has been allowed to enter Thailand temporarily under the protection of the UN refugee agency, which is expected to take five to seven days to study her case and her claim for asylum. She said she wants to go to Australia to seek refuge there. Hey I'm Rahaf. My father just arrived as I heard witch worried and scared me a lot and I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in But at least I feel save now under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities. And I finally got my passport backai pic.twitter.com/pQER7HDVi7 Rahaf Mohammed UU U U (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn said: We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law. Ms Mohammed Alqununs plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families and other obstacles in the conservative kingdom. Photos released on Monday night by immigration police showed her with Thai and UN officials after she left the airport hotel room where she had been holed up over the weekend, sending her pleas for help on her Twitter account. She later tweeted that she felt safe under UN protection and has got back her passport, which had been taken from her earlier. Her ordeal began when she fled from her family while in Kuwait and boarded a flight to Thailand, apparently taking advantage of being away from Saudi Arabias restrictions on women who cannot travel abroad without a mans consent. On arriving at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday night, she said she was met by a man she identified at various times as either a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi diplomat, who took her passport and said he would help her gain entry to Thailand. Saudi Arabia denies its officials were involved in any way. When the man returned about an hour later with four or five other people, they said they knew she had run away, that her family wanted her back, and she should go home to Saudi Arabia. She was sent to a hotel room and told she would be put on a Monday morning flight to Kuwait. She then went online sending out pleas for assistance, and barricaded the hotel room door. Global attention was sparked by social media and she did not get on the scheduled morning flight to Kuwait. She wrote of being in real danger if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and said in media interviews that she might be killed. She told the BBC she had renounced Islam and was fearful of her fathers retaliation. Her Twitter account attracted more than 66,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments and the UN refugee agency. As the pressure grew, with concern expressed by Australian legistalors, Germanys ambassador to Thailand and human rights agencies, Thai officials agreed to allow UN refugee officials to meet her. Giuseppe De Vincentiis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Thailand, told journalists he did not know where Ms Mohammed Alqunun would be staying but she would be safe because she was under his agencys protection. Lady Gaga arrives at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Lady Gaga is no stranger to red carpets- and despite it being a disappointing night for A Star Is Born in award numbers, the singer and leading actress stole the show on the Golden Globes red carpet this year. Expand Close 76th Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Saoirse Ronan REUTERS/Mike Blake / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 76th Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Saoirse Ronan REUTERS/Mike Blake Dressed in a billowing Valentino Haute Couture gown adorned with Tiffany & Co jewels (believed to be worth almost $5 million), the songstress missed out on Best Actress to Broadchurch star Olivia Colman for her performance in The Favourite. Dublin native Caitriona Balfe, who was nominated in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Drama category for her work on Starzs Outlander, opted for a burgundy velvet gown by Moschino and Jimmy Choo shoes. Despite lacking nominations on the night, Saoirse Ronan looked effortlessly glam in a plunging Gucci gown. Expand Close Caitriona Balfe arrives at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Caitriona Balfe arrives at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Best Actor winner Rami Malek, who nabbed an award for his performance as the legendary Freddie Mercury, opted for a classic black and white tuxedo on the night. Gaga's dress drew a comparison with one worn by Judy Garland in the 1954 iteration of "A Star Is Born." Last year's ceremony saw an all-black look on the red carpet as celebrities showed support for the #MeToo movement that roiled Hollywood. This year saw blues, golds, reds and lots of metallic, but several stars wore bracelets and pins in support of the Time's Up movement against sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace. Expand Close Sandra Oh, left, and Jodie Comer arrive at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sandra Oh, left, and Jodie Comer arrive at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Read More "Killing Eve" star and co-host of the ceremony Sandra Oh donned a long white gown, while People magazine's "sexiest man alive" Idris Elba chose a dark green and black tuxedo. Glenn Close, winner of Best Drama actress for her role in "The Wife," was among the few who opted for darker hues and wore a black gown adorned by a diamond ribbon at the neck line. "The Assassination of Gianni Versace" star Penelope Cruz chose dark colors, stunning in a black glittery dress by Ralph & Russo that featured a big bow on the back. Nicole Kidman, who played a troubled detective in "Destroyer" that has earned her a nomination for best drama actress, appeared in a long burgundy sequin dress. Both Amy Adams in a shoulder-revealing dark blue gown and Laura Dern in long-sleeved red gown chose vibrant colors for the ceremony, which officially kicks off Hollywood's awards season. Here is a full list of winners: Best Actor, TV Musical or Comedy - Michael Douglas Best Motion Picture, Animated - Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse Best Actor, TV Series Drama - Richard Madden, Bodyguard Best TV Series Drama - The Americans Best Supporting Actor, Limited Series/TV movie/Series - Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal Best Actress, Limited Series/TV movie - Patricia Arquette - Escape at Dannemora Original Song, Motion Picture - Shallow, A Star Is Born Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture - Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Best Actress, TV Series Drama - Sandra Oh, Killing Eve Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture - Mahershala Ali, Green Book Best Screenplay - Green Book Best Supporting Actress, Series/Limited Series/TV Movie - Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects Best Actor, Musical or Comedy - Christian Bale, Vice Best Motion Picture Foreign Language - Roma Best Actor, Limited Series Or TV Movie - Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Best Director, Motion Picture - Alfonso Cuaron, Roma Best Actress, TV Series Musical Or Comedy - Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy - The Kominski Method Best Limited Series/TV Movie - The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama - Olivia Colman, The Favourite Best Motion Picture, Musical Or Comedy - Green Book Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama - Glenn Close, The Wife Best Actor, Motion Picture Drama - Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody Best Motion Picture Drama - Bohemian Rhapsody With reporting from Reuters A model walks the runway at the Fashion East / Robyn Lynch show during London Fashion Week Men's January 2019 at the BFC Show Space on January 6, 2019 in London, England. A model walks the runway at the Fashion East / Robyn Lynch show during London Fashion Week Men's January 2019 at the BFC Show Space on January 6, 2019 in London, England. Robyn Lunch at the Fashion East / Robyn Lynch show during London Fashion Week Men's January 2019 at the BFC Show Space on January 6, 2019 in London, England. A model walks the runway at the Fashion East / Robyn Lynch show during London Fashion Week Men's January 2019 at the BFC Show Space on January 06, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by John Phillips/BFC/Getty Images for BFC) Menswear designer Robyn Lynch was behind the counter at her fathers sandwich shop, Pearl Deli in Baldoyle Industrial Estate, Dublin, making breakfast rolls when she received the news that she secured a place at London Fashion Week Mens in January. I found out when I was there and my mom and I started screaming," she told Independent.ie Style. Lynch, 26, from Malahide, joined designers Stefan Cooke and Mowalowa Ogunlesi, at the Fashion East show on Sunday. Fashion East is a designer incubator initiative which supports and mentors young talents, offering them guidance and the opportunity to present to an international audience during London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Mens. Its a huge opportunity for me. They provide more than just show support tooits everything from the show to sales advice and much more. Past guests have included Simone Rocha, J.W. Anderson, and Roksanda Ilincic. Preparation for the show was well underway from early December and she was taking every precaution to prepare for any eventuality, "Im taking extra time to prepare everything in case theres another Beast from the East and my samples get delayed. Lynch studied Printed Textiles at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin before pursuing the MA Menswear course at Westminster University in London. Lulu Kennedy MBE, the founder of Fashion East, spotted her Ireland-inspired graduate collection which featured the tricolour. We spotted Robyns graduate show and were very impressed by how edited and slickly-presented her collection was she took one idea and then worked into it very thoroughly, which I love, Ms Kennedy told us. I also loved the pride and literalness of her showing the Irish flag in her colour palette it felt clever, fresh, and cheeky, all at the same time which is exactly how I found Robyns personality when we met up. Shes a great girl, really professional attitude and I feel she will go far with her talent and attitude. Lynchs aesthetic is a thoroughly modern rendition of sportswear tinged with a historical edge. She spent hours trawling archival footage on RTEs website. It popped up on my Facebook one day and I fell into this rabbit hole, spending hours watching it. Id pause it and look at what these young, carefree guys were wearinglooking at how they tucked their pants into their socks or the way they wore their jackets over their shoulders. Id imagine what they were doinggoing to the shops, going to PE after schooland build outfits around that idea. I think hes like a 17- or 18-year-old lad in 1997 in Dublin, before Facebook and Twitter, having fun. I think people had more fun then and had more character. Its a celebration of Irish culture, she says emphatically. One of the biggest hurdles for emerging designers is access to fabric. In order to utilise certain fabrics, designers must order large quantities. Designers endeavour to offset the cost against future sales. This was my first time buying fabric for a show because I finally have the capability to produce. I went to Premier Vision Paris which is a fabric show and I selected some fabrics from Portugal and Spain. As for the future of Irish design? Lynch acknowledges the reality of the Irish case: a lack of government involvement - or remote interest - in the fashion industry. Its unfortunate there are no support schemes in Ireland but its too difficult to compete with the London [industry] which is so close. There are some great Irish designers here in London and Irish fashion does have great potential. It would be great to see more of that. It was in a Kilkenny pub that I heard about China's great cosmological breakthrough in landing a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon. I honestly thought it was a joke, because I hadn't heard or read anything about the Chinese Space programme. The first image that flashed in my mind was of a crass movie I'd seen about super scientific Nazis in the dying days of WWII, managing to colonise the dark side of Earth's romantic satellite and threatening another blitzkrieg to conquer the world, this time from way up there. But this landing was true. What an achievement. I have written letters to the press in the past denouncing China's brutal authoritarian regime, its repression of Tibetan culture and its odious political and military bullying of breakaway Taiwan... but fair play to the Chinese for pulling off this 21st-century space odyssey. I am old enough to recall the 1969 Moon landing - the unforgettable, jaw-dropping moment when a human being set foot for the first time on that mysterious orb that has beguiled poets and scientists for millennia. Further Apollo missions and space probes followed, but now China has upped the ante in being the first nation to land a craft on the far side of the Moon. Will America feel obliged to trump China's technological coup? It could really impress us by launching a rocket containing its ambitious and deeply patriotic president into space, to plant the Stars and Stripes on both the near and far side of the Moon. I know that Nasa is concerned about the astronomical cost of manned lunar trips but that shouldn't be an issue. The Mexicans can pay for it. John Fitzgerald Callan, Co Kilkenny The Church caused first breach in 'communion' Bishop Kevin Doran states politicians who had supported the repeal of the Eighth Amendment had "chosen a position which is clearly out of communion with the Church". He seems blithely unaware that daily revelations of worldwide sex abuse by clergy and the cover-up by bishops and the Vatican show the first breach of communion was not committed by ordinary Catholics - but by the Church. In Ireland, the appalling treatment of women and children in Church-run institutions exacerbated the breach of communion, especially with the poor and the vulnerable. The massive decline in Mass attendance and the near-empty seminaries show the effect of the Catholic Church's breach of communion with its members. Rather than being judgemental of two-thirds of the electorate who voted for repeal (and who will pay no attention to Dr Doran's comments), the good bishop would be far better occupied in finding ways to stop his Church's continuing slide into moral irrelevance for most of the population - a population which is notionally three-quarters Catholic. Anthony O'Leary Portmarnock, Co Dublin Varadkar's policies leave thousands going hungry THE guff continues to come thick and fast (''Nobody will go hungry': Varadkar's warning on food supply', Irish Independent, January 4). Does Leo Varadkar really not know there are already thousands of citizens going hungry and Brexit has nothing to do with it? It is all down to the ideology that informs the policies pursued by an administration that he oversees. Jim O'Sullivan Rathedmond, Sligo Conscientious objection a human right for all THE denial of the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, to a considerable number of healthcare staff following the enactment of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, will one day be seen as a human rights abuse. Conscientious objection is a right derived from the human and constitutional right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission recommended that the conscientious objection provisions in the bill be extended to a broader range of healthcare personnel than doctors and nurses. However, conscientious objection is provided only for doctors and nurses following the enactment of the abortion legislation. Only doctors and nurses have the protection of the legislation in this matter. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. All healthcare staff are equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others. "The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened." - John F Kennedy Bernadette Flood Kilcock, Co Kildare Robinson flies in the face of what she preaches When Mary Robinson made her mad dash to Dubai to access and pronounce on the mental and physical condition of Princess Latifa on behalf of the globe, did she for one minute consider her carbon footprint that she keeps banging on about to the rest of us - did the Dubai rulers take care of that for her? Or does her assumed saintliness exempt her from the stuff she warns us about every time a camera points at her? Robert Sullivan Bantry, Co Cork We have had the debate about whether women have the right to end their pregnancies should they choose to, and now we must ensure that money isn't a problem for those who want to avoid getting pregnant in the first place. Birth control is one of the greatest inventions of the modern world, and Health Minister Simon Harris had promised to increase access to free contraception alongside new abortion services. The Government must do this soon. Contraception is already free in much of Europe - though not Spain or Ireland. Just before the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, an expert group was tasked with considering what kind of contraception should be available and if it would be possible for the State to pay for long-term reversible female contraceptives. The expert group is still considering these issues and the HSE is preparing to provide free condoms. The Government is also considering giving out free condoms from vending machines in bars and clubs. It will get far worse before it gets any better and the 11 weeks between now and the Brexit witching date of March 29 will be very fraught. The Irish Government has won many battles to minimise inevitable damage - but, almost three years on, this war is far from over. Veteran politicians often talk about the value of time to allow for reflection and for tempers to cool. Over the seasonal holidays, it is clear embattled UK Prime Minister Theresa May was giving the whole farrago that is Brexit time to cool and, in hindsight, she clearly hoped things would look much better at the resumption. But no. After just a few days back at work last week, the UK PM found the post-holiday 'rhetoricometer' was doing much the same handstands as it did after a very acrimonious month of December. You are forgiven if you feel as if you are drowning in Brexit. So, I'll be brief and skim over some of those back-to-school questions on this most distressing topic, some of which you may by now be afraid to ask. Brexit was narrowly passed by British voters on June 23, 2016. The UK national figure was 52pc Leave to 48pc Remain. EU-UK negotiations finally opened on March 29, 2017, fixing a two-year deadline, expiring on March 29 next, to put a Withdrawal Agreement in place. Last year things dragged and a series of deadlines were missed in March, June and October. Finally, Mrs May cut a Withdrawal Agreement deal on November 25 with the other 27 EU leaders. From a purely Irish standpoint, it was not as good as keeping the UK inside the EU. But it did several key things for Irish interests. Firstly, it ensured there would be no return of a hard Border in Ireland. Secondly, it secured lucrative Irish-UK trade, because all of the UK, and not just Northern Ireland as originally mooted, would stay inside the EU customs area and stay close to EU single market product standards. That would apply at least until January 2021 but signs were it very probably would last longer. Meanwhile, things were set fair for longer-term EU-UK trade negotiations on a deal for a post-Brexit world. We can only guess what it would be like and various models were mooted, like EU-Norway and EU-Canada, with a suite of add-on or delete modifications. And yes, you rightly guessed it would take time to finally work out. The EU-Canada deal, for example, took seven years. But more optimistic pundits suggested the main thrust of it could be done in about two years, with more tricky sectoral deals straggling on for several more years. For Ireland and the rest of the EU, it was making the best of a bad situation. But in London things had continued to be as divisive and acrimonious as could be. Mrs May just cannot sell this deal. She had planned a vote in mid-December but had to cancel it because she was set to lose by a three-figure margin of MPs. Latest news is that she will try again on January 15 - and very probably lose. She is looking for help from the EU, who are probably going to furnish some kind of additional stand-alone guarantees. These will be to the effect that the backstop arrangements will always be temporary - though not given a specific expiry date - and that everyone wants a longer-term EU-UK post Brexit trade deal. The view among Brussels diplomats is there is no point in furnishing any kind of letters of comfort to Mrs May ahead of this month's vote. But they might help win a second run at the vote - very possibly in mid-February. This would come as the UK MPs were staring at the economic carnage of a no-deal Brexit and money markets were battering sterling. Granted, there is no majority among the 650 UK MPs for a no-deal Brexit which would wreak havoc. The problem is that there is no clear majority for anything else either. By one calculation, up to a quarter of the UK parliament would go for another referendum. It is very unclear how we would get that far, even with an extension of deadlines. And its outcome would be uncertain. A survey yesterday for the polling firm YouGov suggested 46pc in favour of Remain and 39pc backing Leave. It's very far from a landslide reversal. About one third of MPs would like to see the Article 50 Brexit process stalled - but that requires London to formally seek an extension and the unanimous approval of the other 27 member states. EU approval for an extension would require a clear resolution plan and it's impossible to see that emerging any time soon. Finally, it's fair to guess that about one third of MPs want a soft Brexit with an EU-UK relationship mimicking the EU Norway relationship. The problem there is the UK would first have to accept Mrs May's draft deal before that Norway scheme could be negotiated. Clearly, the continuing anxiety for Ireland is the continuance of the Northern Ireland backstop amid all this lack of clarity. Yesterday, Mrs May told BBC presenter Andrew Marr that MPs were concerned the backstop could become permanent or indefinite. "They need to know that it can be replaced if it's put into place," she said. The British prime minister added that it is not intended to use the backstop at all - or at maximum for a temporary period. Mr Marr put it to Mrs May that the Irish Government has said it won't put up a hard Border and the DUP also said it doesn't want one either. So, he asked: "Therefore, why does there need to be a backstop?" Mrs May said the UK government did not want a hard border in Ireland. But wishing it away was not enough: "Actually a 'no-border' doesn't happen simply because people sit around and say 'well, we won't have a border'." She said business needed guarantees - not aspirations. But as quickly, she was back on the political tight-rope insisting that Northern Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom. So, cue more warnings from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who yet again called on Mrs May to stand firm in demanding that the EU changes its "poison" backstop provision on Ireland's post-Brexit Border. The DUP leader at Westminster, Nigel Dodds, said that since the EU appeared unwilling to change, it was the duty of the UK government to stand firm against the EU's "bad deal". "The backstop remains the poison which makes any vote for the Withdrawal Agreement so toxic," he said. "The coming days will show if this government is made of the right stuff," Mr Dodds added. Now there's another key reason why Theresa May is in for a very tough couple of weeks - assuming she can continue at all. Right now, her greatest asset for survival is the total confusion which pervades the air around the Westminster complex. And as we have noted, things will get worse before they get better. Hill-walking and mountain climbing are amongst the biggest outdoor activities in the country, with the number of dedicated visitors to the sport having risen from 168,000 in 2003 to 2.3 million in 2017. I'm not big on commitments, particularly those vowed in a hangover haze during the first week of January. An elderly mate puts it best: "New Year resolutions are like crying babies in church, they should really be left in the playpen." That said, though, I am up for the notion of personal challenges - pushing the envelope and facing the fear. In my case, that would place heights at the top of the list. In fact, I may be the only person who ever fainted in the Eiffel Tower elevator, even before it reached its half-way ascent. Which is why, later this week, my flabby urban limbs will be heading for the altitude of the McGillycuddy Reeks to test my fortitude on Howling Ridge - a place whose name says it all, really. It presents as an all-in experience of jagged rock terrain demanding a mixture of climbing, scrambling and nimble-footed stepping along loose shale and narrow slabs of ancient red sandstone. Cutting up along the north-east face of Carrauntoohil and adjacent to the equally severe Primroses Ridge, Howling's narrow notch begins just beyond the aptly named Heavenly Gates. Warned in advance that "this is a challenge requiring full commitment and once you're 30 minutes into the climb it's not an option to turn back", I'm left in no doubt that Howling will laser-lock directly on to my long held fear of heights. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was on his travels over the weekend, flying to Africa to visit Irish troops on a European Union mission in Mali. Ironically in the era of Brexit, Mali is the first place Irish and British troops were deployed together on a joint mission to train troops under the EU banner. Before travelling to Africa, Mr Varadkar was in Germany where he delivered a speech to Bavarian politicians on the challenges facing Europe. No prizes for guessing that Brexit topped that list - at least from an Irish perspective. And now we're facing into yet another crunch period in the seemingly never-ending saga of the UK's divorce from the EU. Westminster will debate and vote on British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal with the EU. There are serious doubts that it will be passed amid the row over the backstop to avoid a hard Border in Ireland. The chaos of a no-deal Brexit is potentially less than 12 weeks away. After delivering his speech in Germany, Mr Varadkar sat down with journalists. He was asked questions on domestic issues, the State's volatile corporation tax receipts, and the threat of a strike by nurses. His responses vividly show how Brexit dominates everything the Government does. He defended Fine Gael's plans to cut income tax when challenged on how it was used to cover a massive overspend in the health budget last year. Fine Gael wants to increase the point at which people pay the higher rate of tax over the next five years. At the weekend, Mr Varadkar laid out how it would be paid for by increasing income tax receipts due to more people working and higher salaries. He said half of the increased income tax revenue of some 1.2bn a year would be used to fund the cuts, so the yield for the Exchequer would still go up. He said: "If the economy continues to grow, if we continue to have more people working, people earning more, we can afford to give some of that back in tax concessions." Though unspoken, the "ifs" in that sentence will largely depend on Brexit. On the next domestic topic, Mr Varadkar warned nurses threatening strike action that any extra State funds may be needed to save private sector jobs in industries that would be worst hit by a hard Brexit, not to fund their pay demands. If nurses' pay demands aren't possible to meet due to the threat of a hard Brexit, then Fine Gael's tax promises - or at least the scale of them - are surely at serious risk of being scuppered too. Fine Gael will be hoping the kind of Brexit - be it hard or soft - and its impact on the Irish economy will be well-known by Budget day, when income tax decisions are announced. After all, the tax pledge is likely to form a major part of its election manifesto. The two issues are further proof - as if it were needed - that Brexit overshadows almost everything in Irish politics. The Kingdom may have a new crown, with Rough Guides naming Kerry's Reeks District as one of the world's best places to visit in 2019. The newly rebranded tourism region features at No.3 on the 'Six Regions on our Radar' list, behind Yunnan in China and Argentina's Ibera Wetlands. Canada's Yukon Territory, Jordan's Wadi Rum and Alabama, USA, round out the holiday hotspots "that most excite" the guides authors for the coming year. "Kerry has been on the tourism map for so long, its easy to be jaded about the regions beauty," Rough Guides says. But "the spectacular MacGillycuddys Reeks refresh the brand by taking you inside that postcard scenery". Visitors can drive, walk, hike, climb, bike, kayak, surf and sail around the mountains, lakes and coast of a rugged region formerly marketed as 'Mid Kerry', it adds. Killorglin's Puck Fair, Blue Flag beaches at Inch and Rossbeigh and the 1,038m Carrauntoohil are listed as highlights, as are its live music pubs, warm welcome and the "modern Ireland of trendy coffee shops, young designers and boutique B&Bs." We are both astounded and delighted to have been selected as one of Rough Guides Best Places to Visit for 2019," said Jens Bachem, Chair of the Mid Kerry Tourism Cluster, the not-for-profit which drove the re-branding in 2018. "We always thought the Reeks District had much more to offer visitors." Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Treasure: Ard na Sidhe close to the Ring of Kerry. Caragh Lake, Co Kerry. Photo: ReeksDistrict.com Climbing in Kerry's Reeks District. Photo: KerryClimbing.ie Yoga at Aloha House in Kerry's Reeks District / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Treasure: Ard na Sidhe close to the Ring of Kerry. The district stretches around Kerrys Castlemaine Harbour from Inch Beach to Rossbeigh Strand. Locals are promoting it as an outdoors and adventure haven, rather than just a quick stop on the Ring of Kerry or Wild Atlantic Way. One one of its standout stays, Ard Na Sidhe (above), was listed among The Irish Independent's 50 Best Places to Stay in Ireland last year. Other 'Best Places to Visit' on the Rough Guides' 2019 list include Durban in South Africa, Japans Osaka, the Seychelles and Norways Tromso. See reeksdistrict.com or visit Rough Guide here for more. Read more: You might hate Monday, but you'll love our weekly pick of Ireland's top travel offers... 9.99: Winter airfare wars January and February are among the year's cheapest months for airfares. This month, Ryanair has one-way fares from Dublin to Vienna from 9.99, Faro from 14.69 and the Canary Islands from Cork from 28.41. It's also offering up to 50pc off car hire. All deals available on ryanair.com. 142: Sneaky staycation in Ireland Athlone's Hodson Bay Hotel has 20pc off some residential packages, with one night's B&B and dinner from 142 per room (midweek) or 171 per room (weekend) this month. 090 644-2004; hodsonbayhotel.com. Meanwhile, in Belfast, the five-star Fitzwilliam has B&B plus dinner from 175/195 per room. +44 28 9044 2080; fitzwilliambelfast.com. 529pp: Four night mini-cruise Want to see what cruising is all about? Cassidy Travel has a four-night taster cruise departing Barcelona on the MSC Orchestra on September 28. Ports of call include Genoa, Marseilles and Ibiza. Flights extra. 01 290-1000; cassidytravel.ie. Read More Family holidays from 995 GoHop.ie has a 'Plan Your Next Escape' summer holiday sale, with prices starting from 190pp for a seven-night, 3-star Algarve package in May. Family deals include a week in Majorca's 3-star Club Sa Coma from 995 for two adults and two children sharing, departing June 17. 01 241-2389; gohop.ie. 25pc off ferry travel Stena Line has limited offer of 25pc off ferry travel to Britain and France. Fares must be booked by January 15 to avail. stenaline/newyear. PS. Exclusive holiday discounts Have you seen Independent Discounts? The site has a host of special offers and discount codes, with travel brands ranging from Aer Lingus to ClickAndGo.com, Irish Ferries and Expedia.ie. This week, save up to 300 per couple on summer holiday bookings with TUI. See discountcode.independent.ie/travel-accommodation. NB: All travel deals subject to availability/change. "How many other guys out there that have this machismo, this mind-set about them, are in my shoes as well? (stock) A 30-year-old American bodybuilder has opened up about how years of steroid use has rendered him infertile. Bradley Goldman told Time magazine how he began taking muscle-building steroids when he was 18. Anabolic steroids are manufactured drugs that mimic the effects of the male hormone testosterone. Long-term use can carry huge risks, such as a weakened heart, liver disease, kidney disease and infertility. Now Goldman and his wife are trying to get pregnant, and though fitness and nutrition consultant in Los Angeles gave up steroids two years ago, the damage is done. A semen analysis last March showed that his sperm count was at zero. It was earth-shattering, he says. I feel like Im your stereotypical masculine-looking man, he added. Im tattooed. I have muscles. I work out. And Im infertile. How many other guys out there that have this machismo, this mind-set about them, are in my shoes as well? Goldman, who has over 10,000 followers on Instagram, has never spoken about his infertility before. In Ireland, the illegal use of anabolic steroids by athletes seeking to enhance performance, and men wanting a more muscular body, is believed to be at an all-time high. Goldmans account of how steroids have impacted his health will send warning signals to men worldwide. Hes considering making a YouTube series about his experience. It doesnt make you soft to talk about it, he says. It doesnt make you less of a man. He added: "Putting my story out there and being vulnerable is totally worth it if men in a similar position no longer feel alone. Although she is only 19, Tammy Donaghy has experienced more of the dark side of life than most people three times her age. But she doesn't let that stop her when it comes to forging a better life for herself and for those around her. Tammy's childhood was punctuated by some difficult circumstances. Her parents were quite young when she was born, and she ended up in foster care. There were drug problems in her neighbourhood and there was tragedy in her immediate family. Her father, Thomas (Tommy) Donaghy, was, in her own words, "very caring, but he was in and out of jail". For example, he would save whatever money he could when he was in prison, so he could send her little presents. She volunteers that his life was bedevilled by depression and an addiction to drugs. By the time she was seven years old, Tammy was already in the foster care of her paternal grandparents, Irene and Thomas Donaghy. "After senior infants, I saw very little of my mother," she says. When she was in first class in Finglas, Tammy joined a club for children who had lost someone close to them. "One of my uncles died by his own hand when he was 20; he suffered from depression," she explains. A few years later, her dad also took his own life. She believes this tragedy was brought on by a psychosis caused by drugs. It's hard to imagine the impact this traumatic event would have on an 11-year-old child. Luckily, Tammy had the support of her devoted grandparents. "They're really young at heart and they're very loving," says Tammy. "Even though they lost two children so tragically, they never turned to substance abuse, and that taught me not to." Tammy says her personal experiences growing up in Dublin have convinced her that much needs to be done to tackle the issues of substance abuse and mental health. "Although I have never taken drugs, they've ruined my life. I've always been against them," she says. "When I was growing up, they were everywhere. There are not nearly enough services for people with problems. Many good people want to change, but they don't know how; they desperately need help and guidance." When Tammy was about 13, she began to slip into a dark hole of depression. "I started wondering why my life was the way it was," she recalls. "I felt I had been rejected. I had a lot of bad thoughts; I was anxious, and began self-harming." This darkness would haunt Tammy sporadically over the next few years. Staff at St Michael's Secondary School in Finglas arranged for her to have counselling. But, unfortunately, it wasn't entirely successful. However, Tammy was also getting good support at the Youth Resource Centre in Finglas. She joined a music group, she did a junior leader's course, and she became a member of a youth forum. As time moved on, Tammy's depression worsened, and she began to be plagued by panic attacks. Her school's concerned vice-principal eventually persuaded Tammy to see a particular counsellor whom she felt would be helpful. "I'd seen a few over the years, but none of them worked out for me," Tammy concedes. But she hadn't bargained on Charlie Traynor's innate ability to reach a troubled young person's inner core. "I thought I was really screwed up in the head, but he made me realise that my bad feelings and thoughts were because of the difficult things I'd been through," she explains. "I had decided there was no point doing the Leaving Cert. But Charlie encouraged me to do it at ordinary level, and I passed." Tammy had always wanted a career that involved working with young people, and in order to do that, she needed a Bachelor of Social Science degree. So, the logical next step was a one-year PLC course at Liberties College. A good result would get her access to third-level education. "I needed five distinctions to get into Maynooth University to do social sciences," she explains. She was in Spain last May, with her family, when the results of the exams came out. She had, in fact, achieved not five, but a whopping 10 distinctions. "I started crying," says Tammy. "That was the happiest moment of my life." Charlie says this astounding result is down to Tammy's own sheer determination and guts. "She had already stopped going to school when I first met her; she was anxious and having panic attacks. The resilience she has shown in overcoming all the obstacles facing her has been unbelievable. She doesn't shy away from anything. Her very greatest support is herself," he says. Last July, Tammy spent two months in Slovenia as part of the European Voluntary Service programme. "It was a great experience," she says. One day, while swimming in the sea at Piran [a resort city on Slovenia's Adriatic coast], she began to feel blissful. "I couldn't believe I was swimming in the Adriatic Sea - it was so beautiful," Tammy says. "I thought, 'This is mad. And it's only the start. I can't wait to see what comes next'." Tammy realises that she will always have to watch her emotional and mental health. "I go to the gym and I still see Charlie on a regular basis," she says. "If I don't do those things, I feel really crap." As she approached her 18th birthday, Tammy began to look online to see what services would be available to her when she was no longer officially in the care of her grandparents. That's when she came across SpunOut which is, according to its website, focused on providing online youth information. Its tagline is, 'By young people, for young people'. "It's just what I needed," says Tammy. "It's full of information about all the things that affect young people." A quick scan of the website produces information about abuse, sexual health, recipes, politics, LGBTI issues, mental health, climate change, drugs, study/exams - all of it in a format and language that young people can relate to. So, now that she is a full-time university student with a terrific future ahead of her, the question has to be asked - what advice would she give a young person who is facing tough challenges? "Even if you've had a very difficult beginning, you decide where your own story goes," Tammy says. "Finish that old hurtful chapter, turn the page and move on to the next one, which will hopefully be bigger and better. I want to show people that no matter how bad things get, there are other options, and you can turn your life around." She is certainly doing that. For more information, see spunout.ie To contact Charlie Traynor, child and adolescent psychotherapist MIACP, email charlietraynor@gmail.com A nine-year-old Kildare boy's dream came true when he was described as a "real-life hero" by actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. The American semi-retired professional wrestler recently welcomed PJ to the set of his Fast & Furious spin-off 'Hobbs & Shaw'. PJ is living with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue, and requested a meet-up with 'The Rock' through the Make-A-Wish foundation. "I'm really excited to be here, my wish is coming true," PJ told the crew as they waited for 'The Rock' to arrive. PJ (9) from Kildare is living with Ewing's sarcoma and recently had his wish to meet Dwayne Johnson granted! Check out the video below to see PJ meet his idol. Many thanks to @TheRock for granting PJs wish! #MagicalMonday https://t.co/F0PXPW2fFP via @YouTube Make-A-Wish Ireland (@MakeAWish_ie) January 7, 2019 PJ was joined by two other children, Cameron (11) and Lucy (6), for the on-set experience. "We are on the set of Hobbs & Shaw and it's a very special day," 'The Rock' said as he arrived. "We have some very special visitors on set and I've been waiting a very long time to meet them." Speaking to the children, he continued; "We are lucky enough to play heroes, but these are the real-life heroes." 'The Rock' showered the three children with gifts, including sweaters, hats, headphones, shirts - and even a batch of his "special signature chocolate cookies". And when PJ declared he "didn't have an Xbox" for the year's supply of video games, 'The Rock' returned with Xboxes for the three children. "I got these made for you, I told them I was going to meet some really cool kids," he said. The Make-A-Wish Foundation have thanked Dwanye Johnson for granting PJ's wish, with PJ's mum Tanya adding; "This moment is a chance of a lifetime, he's just so happy, he really is." Anand Goel died when he fell at the Cliffs of Moher The young Trinity College student who fell to his death while taking a selfie at the Cliffs of Moher was travelling around Ireland documenting scenic views on his social media accounts. According to witnesses, Anand Goel (26), from Delhi in India, was seen stepping towards the edge of the cliffs in Co Clare last Friday when people heard a scream and he vanished from view. His body was later recovered by the crew of the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 115 helicopter. It is understood he had arrived at the tourist attraction on a tour bus and was travelling alone. Mr Goel had documented his recent trips to Galway, Killarney and Wicklow on his Instagram account. Kostas Tsamis, a member of staff at the LIV Student complex on Church Street in Dublin where Mr Goel lived, said he would be missed by everyone there. "He always attended the in-house community events and social occasions, where his enthusiasm touched everyone he met," Mr Tsamis said. "He brought a great deal of colour to our lives during his time here and his kindness and respect will always stay with us." Political ambition: Anne Rabbitte is keen to have more women join and take part in politics. Photo: Gareth Chaney Women don't need a husband to succeed in politics - it's "fire in the belly" that makes the difference, according to Fianna Fail TD Anne Rabbitte. Her remarks come after Fine Gael minister Josepha Madigan advised aspiring female politicians to "get a good husband". Ms Rabbitte - a widow and mother of three teenagers - said her own message to women considering entering politics was: "Once you have the bit between your teeth and fire in the belly, you will succeed. "You don't need to have a husband there, you don't need to have a wife there. If you actually feel that this is a right match for you, and you feel you can do it, you can do it." The Irish Independent reported how Culture Minister Ms Madigan warned of the "relentless pace" of political life being a "sacrifice and privilege at the same time". She encouraged women to enter politics and advised them to speak to those who had done it before: "Get good childcare, get a good husband, have the confidence and don't over-think it." Ms Madigan has previously told of the support offered by her own husband, Finbarr Hayes, during her career. Ms Rabbitte said her own comments were not a criticism of Ms Madigan's remarks or experience. But she said she would like the message to go out that "you don't need to have a strong partner" to succeed in politics. Ms Rabbitte's husband, Paddy Callan, died in 2011. She has three children: Fiachra (17), Caoimhe (15) and Aoibhinn (13). Ms Rabbitte was a full-time bank worker before she was first elected to Galway County Council in 2014. She won her Dail seat for Galway East in 2016 and praises a network of good friends, family and staff who help her balance family and work commitments. A neighbour stays with the three children on days when Ms Rabbitte is in Dublin during the Dail term and others get them to and from school. Ms Rabbitte says she's there at weekends and is the driver "if one of them wants to go to a teenage disco". She reschedules constituency clinics "depending on who's got a rugby or camogie match". She said constituents were understanding about this and how she was "mummy first and the politician second when I'm down home". Ms Rabbitte insists nothing is compromised by her dual role as a parent and politician, adding that having three teenagers "keeps me very rooted". Fianna Fail's children spokesperson said her advice for women considering entering politics is: "Put your name forward if you have a desire, willingness or belief that you could make a difference. "Get out there and get your team of women and men behind you and get on the doors." She also said the backing of other women was necessary, saying: "Women aren't great at supporting other women." Ms Rabbitte said at the start of her career she had women saying "has she not enough to be doing?" and "should she not stay at home and mind her kids?" She said she still gets questions on how the children "cope" without her. She added: "We need to encourage women and not judge them for wanting to step forward." A former Commander at New Scotland Yard is to speak at the Builders Merchants Federations All-Industry Conference in Dubrovnik in June. Richard Walton led Londons Counter Terrorism Command both during the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. He spent the majority of his thirty-year policing career in the counter-terrorism field, was Head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) from 2011-2016. In 2015, he featured in the Debretts 500 list of most influential people in Britain in recognition of his contribution to countering terrorism. Since leaving the Met he founded Counter Terrorism Global Ltd, a company that facilitates the design and implementation of solutions for countering terrorism and extremism to public, private and non- government sectors. He has also provided advice to governments in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Walton not only speaks at international conferences on counter-terrorism and counter-extremism, he also regularly presents on these subjects on British and international media networks. BMF CEO, John Newcomb said: Our conference theme is Building Excellence and will explore excellence from many different angles. Businesses have to protect themselves against all manner of different threats including many, particularly in the cyber-world, that no-one would have imagined just a few years ago. Im looking forward to a fascinating presentation and I have no doubt that we will learn a great deal by discovering how to see everyday events through Richards eyes. The sold-out BMF All Industry Conference takes place in Dubrovnik from 13-16 June 2019. Further details are available on the Conference website, www.bmfconference.co.uk Year 13 students who were shortlisted for the Vanuatu Government funded scholarship scheme in counseling at the MOET Conference Room yesterday Struggling: Minister Eoghan Murphy wont be drawn into remarks that are factually untrue. Picture: Collins Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has rejected speculation that his relationship with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has soured. According to reports, Mr Varadkar has lost confidence in the embattled Housing Minister, with whom he enjoys a close working relationship. However, speaking in Mali on the first leg of a week-long trip to Africa, the Fine Gael leader gave the suggestion short shrift. He denied that his confidence had been shaken in the Dublin Bay South TD, and said: "I've heard it a million times now, but I really don't know where it's coming from." Meanwhile, a source close to Mr Murphy described the idea, detailed in a Sunday newspaper, as "total and utter nonsense". Mr Murphy is considered a key ally of the Taoiseach and worked on his leadership campaign, shoring up a steady stream of support before the starting gun had officially been fired on the contest. However, throughout his term in Housing, Mr Murphy has proved a lightning rod for Opposition criticism and has previously been forced to face down a no-confidence vote in the Dail. Previously, Mr Varadkar declined to be drawn when asked if he was considering moving Mr Murphy out of the Department of Housing during a planned reshuffle this summer, saying he would not discuss individual ministers. A spokesman for Mr Murphy also rejected the suggestion that he had fallen out of favour with Mr Varadkar and defended the Government's performance on housing. "Housing remains one of the single biggest issues facing this Government and Minister Murphy is absolutely committed to addressing the many challenges in his portfolio," he said. "Every indicator on new homes available for families is trending upwards, including both private and social housing. "The minister won't be drawn into personal remarks that are factually untrue and remains completely focused on the job at hand." An Irish mother-of-three has died in New Zealand following a tragic horse-riding incident. The 54-year-old, named as Ingrid Louise De Hoedt, disappeared on New Year's Day after going out on a horse in the rural area of Karaka in South Auckland. According to the 'New Zealand Herald', concerned family members reported her missing at 3.50pm. A search and rescue team found her at 8.10pm. Ms De Hoedt, who was originally from Monaghan, attended Trinity College Dublin as a medical student in the 1980s and later moved to New Zealand. Since news of the tragedy broke, friends have written touching tributes to her online. "You blazed like a comet through our world and brightened every life you touched," one friend said. "Ingrid had a powerful personality and a sense of fun that made her a much loved and appreciated member of our medical year at TCD," said another. "We shared a Cavan/ Monaghan connection as well and I so enjoyed catching up with her at our recent reunion - her enthusiasm for the whole event was infectious and I was impressed by how much she had experienced and achieved since the day we tossed those mortar boards into the air from the steps at Trinity." Her funeral takes place in Auckland on Wednesday. A memorial will be held in Monaghan in April. A Liveline caller has appealed for help in identifying the three people who saved his life - after he "died three times". Patrick Sweeney (60), who is living in Wexford, suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday, December 7 while driving in south Dublin. He crashed into the car in front of him, which happened to be driven by a doctor. The doctor, along with two paramedics who arrived on the scene within minutes, provided CPR to Patrick until an ambulance arrived. Speaking on RTE Radio One's Liveline today, Patrick told Joe Duffy that he would like to thank these people personally. "The doctor and two paramedics brought me back to life and kept me there until an ambulance arrived and brought me to St James's," he said. "I don't remember crashing into her, at that stage I was gone. "She jumped out, my adult son was in the car with me, she knew it was serious and she helped my son get me out of the car. "It was a female doctor, I have no idea what age she is, this is only what I've been told, I've never seen her. "I don't know what happened, Joe," he continued, "they were just there in the right place at the right time and, if they weren't, I wouldn't be here today." Patrick remained in a coma for three days after the incident and had two stents put in. "I died three times, these three people brought me back to life. "When I woke up, I hadn't a clue what happened, or anything else, but I was alive. "I had no memories whatsoever, and there was nothing to indicate that there was any problem whatsoever." Patrick said he "keeled over" in the car when he suffered the cardiac arrest, and said his son thought he was "joking" until he crashed into the car in front of them. "Lucky all round Joe, lucky all round," he said. Patrick believes the doctor's name may be Dr Ashlyn/Ashling Lou/Loy, but said the insurance company could not share her details due to GDPR. Patrick is now recovering at home after two weeks in hospital and said he is getting stronger everyday. Consultants have hit out at "complacency" in tackling overcrowding in the country's hospitals. Dr Donal O'Hanlon, president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), said he was concerned that the reduction in the number of people on trolleys in the past week compared to the start of 2018 was being presented as something akin to significant progress. He pointed out that elective but essential surgery appointments have been deferred in most hospitals for part or all of January because of extreme overcrowding - despite there being 70,000 patients on surgical waiting lists. "It is unacceptable that, in a developed economy such as Ireland, hundreds of critically ill patients who are admitted to hospitals on a daily basis cannot be provided with a bed and are being treated on trolleys," said Dr O'Hanlon. "In 2018, over 108,000 ill patients were admitted to hospital yet had to wait on a hospital trolley for an acute bed to become available. This is the highest number ever." Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week said the health service was in "a somewhat better position than we would have been this time last year". "We have about 250 more beds than this time last year, and as well as that, the number of patients who are on trolleys is roughly half what it was this time last year," he said. However, Mr Varadkar also warned that trolley figures would rise in the coming weeks as more patients present with flu symptoms. As of last Friday, the latest trolley count figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation showed there were 389 patients waiting on trolleys compared to 592 on the same day last year. In a statement, the IHCA pointed to a number of hospitals - including St James's Hospital in Dublin and Cork University Hospital - where operating theatres had been closed for a period of time due to a shortage of beds, despite lengthy waiting lists. It also called for 2,600 beds to be delivered within the next five years to create space for the 70,000 people currently on surgical waiting lists. A spokesperson for Health Minister Simon Harris said his department was taking measures to introduce 2,600 beds in the next 12 years up to 2031, bringing the total number of beds to 11,000. It also plans to introduce a total of 202 new beds by the end of 2019, they said. "There have been a number of positive initiatives in the minister's winter plan to reduce overcrowding this year which, combined with mild weather and lower flu rates, has meant there have been fewer patients on trolleys this year so far", they said. In response to the IHCA's concern over closed operating theatres, the spokesperson said: "This is a feature of every winter as it helps to free some capacity for the extra pressure in the emergency department." Last week, the HSE said there had been an increase in the number of patients presenting with flu symptoms. Health minister Simon Harris said this year's strain is H1N1, otherwise known as swine flu Photo: Steve Humphreys HOSPITAL Accident and Emergency departments have seen the biggest surge in patients on trolleys so far this year - with 541 were left waiting for a bed. The ominous rise in the trolley toll comes after the Government claimed a series of measures helped prevent the annual dangerous spike in overcrowding after New Years day. But todays gridlock shows this will be difficult to maintain as more elderly patients need to be hospitalised and hospitals cope with an increase in the numbers of people suffering from flu. The figures came from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation who are meeting over two days to work out a plan for a series of work stoppages in pursuit of their campaign for pay increases. The figures today show there were 392 waiting in hospital emergency departments and 149 were in wards elsewhere in the hospital. The worst-hit hospitals today are: *University Hospital Limerick - 44 *Letterkenny University Hospital - 36 *Cork University Hospital - 36 An additional 550 homecare packages have been over the winter to ease the trolley crisis but they only benefit only nine hospitals. These hospitals have been earmarked for more investment after an analysis of overcrowding and so-called bed blocking. The extra homecare packages were designed to move as many patients who no longer need acute care back to their homes over the coming weeks. Around 300 were be used in the run-up to Christmas to empty as many beds as possible. Meanwhile, HSE officials have warned of a rise of hospital admissions due to flu and expect a further "surge" over the coming weeks. Health minister Simon Harris said this year's strain is H1N1, otherwise known as swine flu. He said pregnant women and those under-65 with pre-existing conditions are most at risk of catching this strain and said it's still not too late to get vaccinated. Despite the rise in both the INMO and official HSE trolley numbers, Mr Harris argued that the figures are still down on last year. The HSE said there are 393 patients on trolleys today, 8pc down on the same day in 2018. However, the INMO figures of 541 are higher than the HSE's as they count those waiting on trolleys on wards as well as in Emergency Departments. The HSE said the number of delayed discharge patients is up from 471 on Christmas Day to 526 today. Mr Harris was asked if he was trying to put a positive spin on the increased numbers on trolleys by highlighting the fall in numbers year-on-year. He replied: "It's still far too many but I find the question a bit interesting because if we were standing here and it was an 8pc increase in hospital trolleys you'd be saying 'it's terrible, they're up 8pc'. "I'm just making the point that they're down 8pc. "Of course there's far too many on hospital trolleys. Of course we need to do everything we possibly can to help patient flow." "But let's remember what's happening in the health service today... people are coming into hospital. "They're often very sick with flu. "They need to get assessed. "It takes longer perhaps to find them an appropriate isolation space in the hospital therefore they're detained within the emergency department for longer and that obviously impacts on the flow of other patients. "It's really important that the HSE prioritises isolation, that it does everything it possibly can to make sure that we don't spread the flu throughout the hospital and throughout the community and we need the public's help in that regard as well. "The Government, the HSE, people working right across our health services are working as hard as they possibly can. I don't think there's any doubt about that in terms of the work of people in our hospitals. "We say that a surge will come. The surge has come. We're doing everything we possibly can to manage it." Women who regularly eat fish during pregnancy may increase their chances of having children who perform better in developmental tests, new Irish research has found. A rethink on the current advice to pregnant women about consuming fish may be needed following the findings. The research by Teagasc said women consuming large amounts of fish during pregnancy have children who outperform in developmental tests at nine and 30 months. However, there is considerable controversy about consuming oily fish during pregnancy due to concerns about methylmercury (MeHg) exposure and neurodevelopmental impairment of the child. Research carried out by Teagasc, the University of Ulster, the University of Rochester in the US, and the Ministry of Health in the Seychelles suggests the benefits of eating oily fish during pregnancy outweigh the risks of MeHg exposure. The research examined 229 babies in the Seychelles. On average, pregnant women there eat 537g of fish each week. In three large mother-child cohorts followed since the 1980s, no adverse associations were found between MeHg exposure during pregnancy and later development. Indeed, any associations found were in the opposite direction, suggesting mothers who had greater MeHg exposure, by consuming more fish, had children who did better in a range of developmental tests than children from mothers who consumed less fish during pregnancy, said Teagasc researchers Catherine Stanton and Conall Strain. YES MINISTER: Health Minister Simon Harris at the launch of the Vote Yes to Repeal the Eighth Amendment in April last year in the run-up to referendum on abortion a month later. Photo: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie HEALTH Minister Simon Harris has branded social media posts purporting to identify the location where the the first abortion is taking place as "despicable". He said: "I find it extraordinarily unedifying. "I find it pretty darn despicable that that... anybody would take to social media and endeavour to create a public conversation about an individual patient's care. "A service that is provided legally here in our country deserves to be treated with absolute respect and the confidentiality of a patient must be to the fore. "I've spoken to the [HSE] director general about this this morning and I know the HSE shares this view." He also said that such social media posts should not be taken as fact. Mr Harris said the number of GPs offering abortion services has grown to 200 and the Irish Family Planning Association and National Maternity Hospital are coming on board today. He said he is working on legislation for safe access zones to restrict protests outside medical facilities offering terminations but could not give a timeline for when it would be introduced. An Irish citizen captured by Kurdish-led forces in Syria was regarded as a "serious player" by gardai investigating the activities of suspected jihadis when he lived here. The man, who is 45, held an Irish passport and lived in south Dublin for a couple of years. He was closely monitored by members of the Garda Special Branch and its Intelligence and Security section until he left this country with his family in 2013 and travelled to Syria. The suspect was named last night as Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, who is thought to have originally come from Belarus. He worked in a fast-food business in Dublin, but was suspected by anti-terrorist Garda units as being a key player in providing logistical support to activists linked to Islamic State (Isil). Bekmirzaev was one of half a dozen people who left here to fight for Isil and are believed to be still alive and operating in Syria. He was regarded by the gardai as a "person of interest" and was described by one officer last night as "a lot more than a sympathiser". The officer said Bekmirzaev had been "hanging around with a number of people who we regarded as the main [Isil] players in this country and who had been top of our monitoring list". Bekmirzaev was also said to be "of interest" to other agencies. He was suspected of being heavily involved in providing logistical support to Isil fighters. This generally involved producing false or forged documentation, including identity papers, and fundraising for those involved with Isil in Syria and Iraq. He was arrested by the Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as he and four others, two US citizens and two Pakistanis, fled towards a region controlled by the Kurds and US forces to avoid capture by Syrian government forces. The captures were made on December 30 but details of the operation only became known here publicly yesterday. The SDF said they arrested the five suspects in Deir al-Zor during an operation to protect a large convoy of civilians, who were being targeted by Isil. The other four were named as Warren Christopher Clark (34), also known as Abu Mohammed al-Amriki, from Houston, Texas; Zaid Abed al-Hamed (35), also from the US; Fadel al-Rahman (48), from Lahore, Pakistan; and Abdul Adhim Rahjoud (19), from Sialkot. The SDF said all five had been arrested for alleged membership of Isil. It said Isil was now cornered in a small area after being cleared from large swathes of territory it once held, and was suffering heavy losses. The threat level posed by international terror groups here remains moderate and the biggest danger is seen as likely to come from a "lone wolf", somebody who has been radicalised and operates alone. Asked about the arrest in Syria, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: "The information we have is that an Irish passport-holder, an Irish citizen, has been taken into custody, has been held in Syria. "We don't know the details of that so I can't comment on it in any detail but what I can say is that any Irish citizen around the world is entitled to consular assistance and will get that." BEIJING (PTI): Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the army to enhance its combat readiness to make sure it is always ready for a battle, saying risks and challenges are on the rise as the world is facing a period of major changes never seen in a century, state media reported Saturday. The People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest with two million troops, last year doubled the training period for new recruits from three to six months in a bid to improve their combat capabilities. President Xi, who also heads the PLA besides the ruling Communist Party, told a meeting of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the Chinese military, that "the world is facing a period of major changes never seen in a century, and China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development". Xi is the Chairman of the CMC. He is the only civilian in the high-power military body comprising top defence officials. Preparedness is vital in the era of drastic changes, unpredictable risks, Xi said Friday, official media reported. He ordered the armed forces to continue strengthening their combat preparedness and to make sure they are always ready for battle, state-run China Daily reported. The entire armed forces should have a correct understanding of China's security and development trends, enhance their awareness of danger, crisis and war, and make solid efforts on combat preparations in order to accomplish the tasks assigned by the CPC and the people, Xi said. Regarding combat capability as the only and fundamental criterion, Xi ordered all work, forces and resources to focus on military preparedness and ensure a marked progress in this regard, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Xi stressed the armed forces' ability to respond quickly and effectively to contingencies, asking them to upgrade commanding capability of joint operations, foster new combat forces, and improve military training under combat conditions. Party and government departments and agencies at the central and local levels are required to support the defence and military development, he said. Xi signed Friday an order to open the annual training session of the armed forces. The order demands that troops hone their combat capability and that military units organise events on a regular basis to verify soldiers' ability. The armed forces must also strive to strengthen their readiness to respond to emergencies. Commanders must take the lead in studying the art of war and also must be the first to carry out training and exercises, according to the order. Exercises must be conducted based on real combat scenarios and should involve the simulation of complicated situations and the deployment of multiple weapons and equipment from different services, it stipulates. His call for battle preparedness came as acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan told the US forces that he sees China as a key priority. "While we are focused on ongoing operations, Acting Secretary Shanahan told the team to remember China, China, China," reports from Washington quoted a US defence official as saying. Besides launching the ongoing trade war to force Beijing to cut the US$ 375 billion trade deficit, US President Donald Trump has been increasing pressure on China on a host of fronts including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to relent and give up nuclear weapons programme. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. The US has accused China of military and economic espionage and termed Xi's pet project Belt and Road Initiative to fund infrastructure projects as an attempt to coerce smaller countries with debt trap. Chinese officials as well as trade bodies were deeply concerned over the continued trade war with the US as Washington has already imposed additional tariffs on over US$ 250 dollars of Chinese exports. China too retaliated in equal measure. Both sides agreed on a truce till March 1 as officials hold talks to narrow down the differences. Since he took over power in 2012, Xi, who is now regarded as the President for life, has been pushing the PLA to enhance its combat capability with real time military drills. With over US$ 175 billion defence budget, the PLA is also focussed on massive modernisation, especially the expansion of the navy with two aircraft carriers to increase its reach far from the shores of China. The decision to return to education is a difficult one. It can be filled with feelings of self doubt and anxiety. For most adults, but especially those who have been away from education for a long time, the thought of fitting education into a life full of family and work commitments is overwhelming. That is before we even begin to look at the application process. However, every year, thousands of mature students take the leap. They all fear they will be the only person over 20 years of age in the classroom. They all fear they will not be good enough, but they enter anyway. They discover that they are not the only person over 20. They discover they are good enough. But, most importantly, they discover that they can access education in a way that they could not the first time round. They discover that they can succeed. Last year, 9,689 CAO applicants - about one in eight of all applicants - were in the 'mature' category. If returning to education is something that has been playing on someone's mind for a while, why not take the leap and commit to returning this year? For a full list of 2019 CAO courses, click here A student is generally regarded as mature if they are 23 or over on or before January 1 last. However, some colleges have a different age requirement, so it is worth checking. Like all CAO applicants, those who wish to enter third level this autumn should complete the form by February 1. It is possible to apply for some courses after this deadline, but applicants may find their options reduced. If an applicant wishes to be assessed as a mature student, they must list the course on the CAO by February 1 - they do not have the same level of choice as other applicants during the 'Change of Mind' period. This allows institutions to invite mature students to attend an interview or participate in some testing. Applicants should also contact the institution(s) they are considering so as to ensure they understand all elements that will be required for application. For example, some colleges require applicants to apply through CAO and also to make a separate, direct application. Mature applicants should carefully read page seven of the CAO handbook, which clearly explains the whole mature student applicant process. There will be lots of information sessions and open days this month, so it is not too late to access information and get support from the institutions an applicant is interested in attending. As well as that, all institutions welcome enquiries from mature students and the admissions office is always available to answer questions. It is always better to check with the college if applicants are in anyway unsure. First years who have to leave home to attend college are advised either to stay with a family in a 'digs' arrangement or, if possible, live on campus. All third-level colleges have accommodation offices to help students find somewhere to live. All the universities, and some other colleges, have campus accommodation. Booking arrangements vary but here is a guide: DCU Applications are expected to open early April for two weeks. Preference is given to students who achieve at least 575 points and the remainder of rooms are allocated by lottery. There is a 50 non-refundable registration fee, which wll be included in the deposit where an application is successful. Rates to be confirmed in February. The rate for 2018/19 for a bedroom in its Larkfield apartments is 5,395 and a single room in Hampstead apartments is 5,729. Maynooth University Pre-booking opens May 1. This is a first come, first served online process, with a booking deposit of 500, refundable in October if no CAO offer in Round 1. Bookings cancelled after Round 1 will be re-offered on Tuesday, August 20. Rates for 2019/20 will be 4,600/4,900/6,370 depending on whether it's a shared room with ensuite/single room with shared bathroom/single room ensuite. Charge includes booking fee, which covers utilities. For a full list of 2019 CAO courses, click here NUI Galway Applications for 2019/20 open the week of February 18. Rates for 2018/19 at the Corrib Village complex range from 3,490-5,700 and at the new Goldcrest Village, the rates were 6,250 and 6,400. Trinity College Dublin Incoming students are mainly accommodated in college residences at Trinity Hall, Dartry - a 20-minute cycle or public transport journey from the college. Applications from Leaving Cert students will be accepted from mid-April onwards. Provisional offers of accommodation will be made in advance of CAO course offers. Firm offers will be made to students who receive a place on a course in Trinity. In 2018/19, prices started at 5,462. UCC Applications may be made between February 6 and March 6 and are included in a lottery soon afterwards. Criteria for eligibility include living more than 45km from UCC. Rates for 2019/20 available this month. After the lottery, rooms will be offered to successful applicants by email. An offer must be accepted within one week and a 300 booking deposit paid. Remaining applicants are placed on a waiting list. UCD A waiting list opens in May. When CAO offers are published in August, there is an opportunity to book a room based on waiting-list ranking. For 2019/20, a room in its Belgrove or Merville Apartments will be 7,114 including utilities and insurance. UL Rooms are allocated on the basis of a lottery system. Incoming first years will be able to apply online for the lottery in February - it will be open for applications for about three weeks. There is a non-refundable booking fee of 50. After the lottery closes, successful applicants will be advised. Anyone who is unsuccessful will be placed on a priority waiting list. Mildred Enyagborue qualified for social care in DIT via a PLC course in Marino College Photo: Frank McGrath since coming to Ireland in 2014, Mildred Enyagborue has packed in a lot of learning and is in second year of the Social Care course in DIT, now TU Dublin. When she arrived from Nigeria, Mildred went into fifth year in Mount Carmel school in Dublin's north inner city, and adjusted to a new education system. Nursing was her first love, but she didn't get enough CAO points and didn't have a science subject. Mildred (20) was disheartened, but a guidance counsellor recommended a post-Leaving Cert (PLC) pre- nursing course as an alternative route in, "although she told me there was no guarantee." She enrolled and got distinctions in all modules. The following year, she applied to the CAO for nursing and social care degree programmes, taking the precaution to apply also to the DIT Access Programme, which allows entry on reduced points. For a full list of 2019 CAO courses, click here Through the Access route, Mildred secured a place on Social Care, which includes work experience, such as with the homeless organisation, Focus Ireland. "It is really nice, working in the coffee shop talking to homeless people," she says. When she graduates, she will "try out social care for a year and if I decide it is not for me, I might do a master's in nursing in the UK." She adds: "It doesn't matter how you get through, but the route you take moulds you. The experience you have makes you become the person you want to be." The apprenticeship landscape in Ireland is undergoing major transformation and a wide variety of new opportunities are opening up for school-leavers, and others, to pursue a qualification while getting paid at the same time. Gone are the days when this earn-and-learn approach was limited to craft trades, such as the construction and motor industries, and new apprenticeships coming on-stream are in fields as diverse as auctioneering, insurance, accounting technician, ICT, biopharma lab analyst, hospitality and logistics. Some qualifications are at degree level. One of the big pluses of this route is that apprenticeships are employer-led, so these roles are being created in areas where there is a demand for staff, which suggests some certainty about future job prospects. Apprentices are recruited by employers and then work and study - either in an institute of technology or a college of further education run by a local education and training board (ETB) - over a period of up to four years. For a full list of 2019 CAO courses, click here In the case of a popular apprenticeship introduced by the insurance industry in recent years, lectures are done online, making it widely accessible. Currently, there are 41 different apprenticeships, including 16 launched in the past couple of years. and more are due on-stream in the coming weeks and months. Among the new-style apprenticeships is the Level 6 Logistics Associate, which had its first intake last September and is being delivered by the DIT School of Management, Aungier Street. Last autumn also saw the launch of a two-year, Level 6 programme in auctioneering and property services - a collaboration between City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) and industry. In the current year, it is running in Ballsbridge College of Further Education and Cork College of Commerce, and apprentices are on salaries of 20,000-22,000. There is more information on the apprenticeship.ie website, run by the State training authority, Solas. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has acknowledged that low pay is an issue for the Irish Defence Forces but said it is a career choice that is "always about more than money". Amid ongoing criticism about the pay and conditions facing Irish soldiers Mr Varadkar has mooted overseas allowances as one area that could be looked at to boost pay for members of the Defence Forces, but warned the public service pay deal is at the upper limit of affordability for taxpayers. This week, Ger Guinan, the General Secretary of PDFORRA, told RTE on the first day of the Taoiseach's visit to Mali that he would find it hard to recommend a career in the Defence Forces. Mr Varadkar said he was "a little bit disappointed to hear that comment". "Because joining the Defence Forces is always about more than money. Its an opportunity to serve your country, an opportunity to travel the world and an opportunity to learn new skills which of course can bring you to future careers. But I acknowledge that low pay is an issue for the Defence Forces," he said. Mr Varadkar said that allowances for Defence Force members are being considered by the Public Service Pay Commission, with a report expected in spring, but said the suite of pay increases already slated for public servants was at the top limit of what taxpayers can afford. A number of pay increases are scheduled to come into effect this year including a special pay increase for low paid staff. "Weve factored in hundreds of millions of euros worth of pay increases for next year. Its pretty much at the limit of what tax-payers can afford." Mr Varadkar said he believes the pay increases are deserved for public servants but warned "we cant get into a situation whereby were funding pay increases with borrowed money". However, he said: "We do have a public sector pay commission and what they can do is look at specific areas that are very specific to particular parts of the public service and there are specific parts of the Defence Forces that are different for example to other public servants. "Irish Defence Forces are different from other public servants, [such as] the fact that they serve overseas. They might be the things the Public Pay Commission might be able to recommend in terms of increases over and above the ones due," he said. Meanwhile, the Taoiseach also said he believes that a consensus can be built around the best way to increase carbon taxes for Irish households that will avoid the type of backlash seen in the wake of the ill-fated attempt to introduce water charges. He said he has studied the situation in Australia and Canada, as well as the water charges debacle and will bring forward proposals shortly for all-party consideration. "We need to get this right in terms of having a proposal that works in terms of reducing emissions, that doesnt hit people disproportionately in their pockets, and one that we can explain to the public," he said. He has already mooted the idea of a carbon cheque or using revenue raised to fund an increase in child welfare. The Fine Gael leader said the increase would be a means of encouraging people to live low carbon emitting lifestyles. He was speaking in Mali where he visited with Irish troops serving as part of an EU training mission, that has been ongoing since 2013. He witnessed Irish soldiers run drills with Malian forces on IED detection and urban warfare. Minister for Culture and Heritage Josepha Madigan said she "acknowledges" the concerns outlined in a letter sent to her by some 300 actors, directors and playwrights about the Abbey Theatre. Ms Madigan issued a response to the letter, which was addressed to her and published earlier today. She said she understood the Abbey will "engage directly" with the matters raised in the letter, with representatives of the signatories. Well-known actors Aidan Gillen, Mark Huberman, Peter Coonan and Sarah Greene were among those who signed the letter. The letter stated they wished to "apprise" the minister of the "deep concern and dissatisfaction with the direction that the Abbey Theatre has taken since the appointment of its directors, Neil Murray and Graham McLaren". "The grace period since their arrival is well and truly over and the situation in which the Irish theatre community finds itself is now critical. While the institution may be financially buoyant and due congratulations for this the freelance theatre community, in particular, has been cast adrift. "The changing artistic model of producing fewer in-house productions and presenting or copresenting more has caused devastation amongst our ranks. "Although the managements strategy of offering diversity to their own audiences is admirable in theory, it offers up several problems in practice. The national theatre reducing its own production output means less diversity, and reduced employment, not more. "There will not have been an Ireland-based actor in an Abbey Theatre production on an Abbey stage since Jimmys Hall ended on 8 September 2018 until The Country Girls opens on 23 February 2019. That is five and a half months without an Ireland-based actor directly employed by the Abbey." The letter stated that in 2016, the Abbey directly employed 123 actors in productions, and 90 actors in readings and workshops. In 2017, the Abbey directly employed 56 actors. They believe the figure for 2018 is 65, but stated this figure is only approximate as the casting and employment statistics have been removed from the Abbey's website. The minister acknowledged she had received the letter, adding she welcome the commitment to dialogue and was looking ahead to a "satisfactory outcome". "I acknowledge the wealth of talent available among Irish theatre practitioners and the concerns they have raised, while at the same time recognising the need for The Abbey to strike a balance in terms of its programming. "I understand that The Abbey will engage directly on the matters raised in the letter with representatives of the signatories. I welcome that commitment to dialogue and engagement and look forward to a mutually satisfactory outcome." A statement issued by the Abbey Theatre confirmed they would be seeking a meeting with representatives to discuss the concerns raised in the letter to the minister. However, the statement defended some of the changes made in recent year. "It should be noted that the Abbey Theatre continues to produce a significant number of in house productions.... "On a specific point raised, it is important to note that between the 8th September and the 23rd February there are 78 Irish actors in employment either directly or with our co-producing partners during those dates both on the Abbey stages and on touring. There are 51 Irish/Irish based actors on the Abbey and Peacock Stages. We also had an additional seventeen Irish actors on tour with Mise, Micheal , Jimmys Hall and Two Pints and ten actors begin employment for rehearsal of The Country Girls on the 14th of January." "Prior to the appointment of Graham McLaren and Neil Murray there was a perception, real or otherwise, that the Abbeys programme was lacking diversity and urgency in its productions and that it was not an institution open to many of Irelands theatre practitioners. "Over the past two years, the Abbey has opened its doors to many companies and artists who had not previously gained access to their national theatre and we have led on gender equality in the theatre sector... "The work that has been made at the Abbey and welcomed in from Irish companies and artists has been of the highest quality. This appears to be borne out by audience figures..." The statement also referenced the theatre's improved financial position. "The financial position inherited by the current directors is also worth noting. In the two years prior to their inaugural 2017 programme, the Abbey Theatre had incurred an accumulated deficit of 1.4m. "Programming in 2017 and 2018, in which both Abbey and Peacock stages have been in full operation, often simultaneously, has delivered modest surpluses and re-introduced the financial stability essential for the continued operation of the theatre. It has also allowed us to engage with a much bigger pool of artists. "All of the above said, we understand entirely how artists and practitioners will feel strongly about all of these issues and, as stated, we are very willing to engage directly with representatives of the signatories to discuss their concerns." Criminal John Gilligan is set to go to the UK's highest court in a bid to secure release from custody. Gilligan, who is accused of money laundering offences, was arrested at a Belfast Airport last summer with a suitcase containing nearly 23,000. The 66-year-old has been on remand in prison since then, with repeated bail applications denied. His lawyers told a High Court judge he has suffered discrimination compared to those being held while awaiting trial in other parts of the UK. They contended that unlike a 70-day maximum period operating in England and Wales, Gilligan has now been detained twice as long. Refusing leave to take an appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr Justice McAlinden ruled today there was no point of law of general public importance. "The court is satisfied that there is no discrimination in this particular case," he said. But following the verdict Gillian's solicitor confirmed he will now petition directly for a hearing in London. Niall O'Murchu said: "We will be taking Mr Gilligan's case to the Supreme Court and asking it to rule on the issue of detention time limits for the north of Ireland." The accused, with an address at Greenforth Crescent, Dublin, was detained at Belfast International Airport on August 23 as he was about to board a flight to Alicante. At the time The National Crime Agency (NCA) said officers recovered around 23,000 from his luggage. He faces a charge of attempting to remove criminal property. At previous hearings the prosecution alleged he had "sold up" and was leaving Ireland behind for a new life in Spain. The money in his suitcase was said to have come from donations and the sale of belongings. One man had allegedly purchased a watch from him for 5,000, the court was told. Gilligan's legal team insisted he only intended to rent a property in Spain for a limited period of time. Fresh attempts to secure his release in bail centred on claims of delay in the case. When that was turned down last month, defence lawyers launched the application for leave to go to the Supreme Court. They cited the maximum periods in England and Wales, and also Scotland, for an accused to be held in custody between a first court appearance and committal proceedings. Gilligan, it was contended, is now approaching 140 days detention. Counsel argued: "The applicant has been treated different in Northern Ireland than he would have been in Scotland or in England. "That is a difference in treatment on the basis of his status as a prisoner on remand in Northern Ireland." Actor Kevin Spacey arrives to face a sexual assault charge at Nantucket District Court in Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder Kevin Spacey has arrived at court to answer accusations that he groped a young man in a bar on a resort island in Massachusetts in the US in 2016. The two-time Oscar winner has said he will plead not guilty in Nantucket District Court to felony indecent assault and battery. The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the former House Of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teenager worked. Spacey's lawyer Alan Jackson has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager did not immediately report the allegations. If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison. Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quietens down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold. When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear. It is the first criminal case brought against Spacey, 59, since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017. A judge denied Spacey's bid to avoid appearing in person. Spacey had argued his presence would "amplify the negative publicity already generated" by the case. Television anchor Heather Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the alleged incident. She claimed her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the toilet. After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix's House Of Cards, in which he said: "I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn't do." It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. Spacey has also faced other allegations. His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Mr Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologised if the allegations were true. A FORMER sales manager with a pet food supplier has secured a temporary High Court injunction requiring his ex-employers to stop publishing allegedly defamatory statements about him. The orders were secured by Gerard Flannery who had been the Sales Manager in the Republic of Ireland for Northern Ireland based Nutts About Pets Ltd and a related firm Speedritedog Food Limited. On December 7th last he claims he was summarily dismissed without any prior notice. A week later statements were posted on Nutts About Pets Ltd website and Facebook page. The company statements refer to "misleading rumours and speculation" regards to Mr Flannery's dismissal and that Nutts About Pets would "like to set the record straight". The statements add that Mr Flannery was sacked after "a lengthy investigation financial irregularities" within the office where he worked. Mr Flannery's counsel Margaret Nerny SC told the High Court on Monday that the statements are "defamatory" of her client, who had worked very hard on behalf of the company during his tenure. Mr Flannery claims the statements are an attempt to destroy his reputation in order to distract from the defendant's own financial irregularities and shortcomings. The court heard that Mr Flannery was suspicious of the VAT regime and general accounting regime being operated by the two companies. Counsel said her client was well known in the greyhound sector, had increased product sales and had earned a promotion during his tenure with the company. He said in a sworn statement that in 2017 he was informed by Head Office not to be present in his office and to remove sales books and associated documentation when revenues officials carried out an inspection at the office he was based at. Counsel said matters had been exacerbated several days after the statements were published when readers of the web pages were asked to "share this post." As a result of the publications Mr Flannery from Ballinakill, Eyrecourt, Co Galway, secured an injunction against the two companies, and the firm's owner Mr Basil Thompson. The orders require the defendants to remove and delete the company statement posted on both the Nutts About Pets website and facebook pages on December 13th last. The orders also require the defendants to remove and delete a post made on December 23rd entitled "please share this post" in regards to the statement posted on the sites December 13th. The defendants are further prevented from publishing any statements about Mr Flannery and the termination pending further order from the court, The injunction was granted on an ex parte basis, where one side was present in court, by Mr Justice Richard Humphreys who said he was satisfied to grant the orders sought. The Judge made the matter returnable to later this week. Only a day into its existence, the 2019 awards season is already mired in controversy. Not that it came from the Golden Globes impeccable hosts, Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, who explained that theyd only got the gig because were the only two people left in Hollywood who havent gotten in trouble for saying something offensive. Last year, while being presented her lifetime achievement award, Meryl Streep said plenty, but there were no overt broadsides against Donald Trump this time around, just polite jokes about inclusivity. No, the controversy came from the surprise success of two films, Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody. The Freddie Mercury biopic might have gone down a treat with audiences, but was considered lightweight and flippant by many critics, and was also accused of whitewashing the saltier aspects of Mr. Mercurys covert gay lifestyle. Nevertheless, it beat out such films as BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk and the much fancied Star is Born to win the Best Motion Picture/ Drama award. And Bohemian Rhapsodys star, Rami Malek, thanked the beautiful Freddie when he won Best Actor in a Drama. Expand Close Rami Malek (C) poses backstage with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Brian May (L) and Roger Taylor. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rami Malek (C) poses backstage with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Brian May (L) and Roger Taylor. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Almost as surprising was the success of Green Book, a perfectly enjoyable but rather twee and old-fashioned comedy about an Italian-American bouncer and a refined black musician who embark on an eventful tour of the profoundly racist Old South in the early 1960s. Its based on a true story but its veracity has been questioned, as has its failure to show just how bad things were in the Jim Crow South. But that didnt stop the Golden Globes venerable judges from making it Best Motion Picture/Comedy, and giving Mahershala Ali the Best Supporting Actor gong. Bradley Coopers Star is Born, meanwhile, walked away with only one award, for Best Original Song, having been widely expected to sweep the board. If this is any indication of how the Oscars are going to go, we could be in for a crazy year. Expand Close This image released by NBC shows Olivia Colman accepting the award for best actress in a comedy film for her role in "The Favourite" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This image released by NBC shows Olivia Colman accepting the award for best actress in a comedy film for her role in "The Favourite" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) Christian Bale was a worthy winner for his portrayal of warmongering Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice, and introduced a bracing dose of politics to the evening when he amusingly thanked Satan for giving me the inspiration to play this role. So did Glenn Close, when she used her immensely popular Best Actress in a Drama win for The Wife to bang the drum for girl power. Expand Close This image released by NBC shows Christian Bale accepting the award for best actor in motion picture musical or comedy for his role in "Vice" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This image released by NBC shows Christian Bale accepting the award for best actor in motion picture musical or comedy for his role in "Vice" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) The speech of the night, though, was undoubtedly given by Olivia Colman, after winning Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for the Element Pictures/Ed Guiney-produced The Favourite. Im not going to cry, she explained, because my whole table will point and laugh at me, then thanked, among others, me bitches, her co-stars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. And in a nice touch, Sandra Oh, who did a charming job as co-presenter, won an award of her own for her work in the hit TV drama, Killing Eve. What did it all prove? That only a fool would bet on the outcome of this years Academy Awards. Lady Gaga poses in the press room with the award for best original song, motion picture for "Shallow" from the film "A Star Is Born" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Director Peter Farrelly accepts the award for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Glenn Close, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Rami Malek, winner of Best Actor - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts his award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS This image released by NBC shows Christian Bale accepting the award for best actor in motion picture musical or comedy for his role in "Vice" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) 76th Golden Globe Awards Show Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Regina King, winner of Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Olivia Colman poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy for "The Favourite" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Brian May, left, and Roger Taylor, right, of Queen, and Rami Malek pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture, drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Olivia Colman, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Rami Malek (C) poses backstage with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Brian May (L) and Roger Taylor. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Here are some of the top moments from the Golden Globes last night, the first in an annual string of Hollywood award shows. Olivia Colman's brilliant acceptance speech The Broadchurch star said she prefers to kiss women in movies as she doesn't feel unfaithful to her husband. She was hailed for her humorous acceptance speech after nabbing the top Best Actress in a Drama award last night. "Cor blimey, thank you so much. I'm not going to cry because my entire table will point and laugh at me as I've been crying all evening," she said. Paying tribute to director Yorgos Lanthimos and her co-stars, she added: "Yorgos, thank you the most muchly and ma bitches, Emma and Rachel, thank you, every second of working with you was such a joy and I was so sad that it finished. Expand Close Olivia Colman (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Olivia Colman (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) "I would like to tell you how much this film meant to me but I can't think of it because I'm too excited." She added: "I went on a private jet and I ate constantly through the film and it was brilliant and I promise I will keep on enjoying this, because it's amazing." Bohemian Rhapsody beats fan favourite A Star Is Born for top award Bohemian Rhapsody was a surprise winner that took away the title of Best Drama film last night. The Queen biopic was one of the biggest winners of the night, with Rami Malek also scooping the best actor in a drama prize for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury. Expand Close 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Rami Malek, winner of Best Actor - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts his award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Rami Malek, winner of Best Actor - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts his award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS He also thanked Queen and the band's late frontman, saying: "Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of my lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for - and because of - you, gorgeous." Idris Elba fuelled the Bond rumours with a snap of Daniel Craig He's been long tipped as the new James Bond, and actor Idris Elba sent fans into a frenzy this morning after sharing a selfie with Daniel Craig this morning. The picture, alongside the caption 'Er..' and 'Awks', features the two actors with pensive looks during the ceremony. The speculation was further enhanced after Elba's fiancee Sabrina Dhowre, also shared the snap of her husband eyeing up Mr Bond. Expand Close Idris Elba, left, and his daughter Isan Elba arrive at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Idris Elba, left, and his daughter Isan Elba arrive at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Presenter Sandra Oh hails 'moment of change' for being first Asian presenter One of this year's ceremony presenters Sandra Oh hailed the evening as a "moment of change" as she became the first Asian woman to present this year's Golden Globes. The Killing Eve star and co-host Andy Samberg made an unlikely pairing fronting the Globes, but they carried off the job with a light touch. Not to mention her well-timed jab at actress Emma Stone for her role as an Asian woman in Aloha. Expand Close 76th Golden Globe Awards Show Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg host.Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 76th Golden Globe Awards Show Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg host.Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS "Crazy Rich Asians is nominated tonight for best picture. It is the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost In The Shell and Aloha." Emma Stone, who starred in Aloha as Allison Ng (a character who was written as part Chinese and part Hawaiian) could be heard shouting "I'm sorry!" immediately after from the audience. Christian Bale thanks Satan for the 'inspiration' in his award-winning role The Batman star scored the best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as the former vice president Dick Cheney in Vice. He thanks director Adam McKay for giving him the role, joking that McKay was looking for someone "charisma-free", and joked about having unusual inspiration for the role. "Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role," he said. With reporting from PA Lady Gaga poses in the press room with the award for best original song, motion picture for "Shallow" from the film "A Star Is Born" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Director Peter Farrelly accepts the award for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Glenn Close, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS 76th Golden Globe Awards - Show - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Rami Malek, winner of Best Actor - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts his award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS This image released by NBC shows Christian Bale accepting the award for best actor in motion picture musical or comedy for his role in "Vice" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) 76th Golden Globe Awards Show Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Regina King, winner of Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Olivia Colman poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy for "The Favourite" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Brian May, left, and Roger Taylor, right, of Queen, and Rami Malek pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture, drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) 76th Golden Globe Awards Show Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg host.Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Olivia Colman, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, accepts her award. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Olivia Colman, Richard Madden and Christian Bale were among the big winners at the 2019 Golden Globes, where Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book were the big winners of the night. Broadchurch star Colman took home the best actress in a comedy or musical prize for her role as Queen Anne in black comedy The Favourite, produced by Irish production company Element. Colman thanked her co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, who she referred to as "ma bitches". Expand Close This image released by NBC shows Olivia Colman accepting the award for best actress in a comedy film for her role in "The Favourite" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This image released by NBC shows Olivia Colman accepting the award for best actress in a comedy film for her role in "The Favourite" during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP) She added: "Every second of working with you was such a joy and I was so sad that it finished. "I would like to tell you how much working on this film meant to me but I can't remember because I'm too excited." She added: "I went on a private jet and I ate constantly through the film and it was brilliant and I promise I will keep on enjoying this, because it's amazing." The film was produced by Element Pictures run by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, with offices in Dublin, Belfast and London. The Irish production, distribution and cinema company were up for five awards for The Favourite last night. Colman's win comes a year after she was awarded the Golden Globe for best supporting actress for her part in the BBC drama 'The Night Manager'. Expand Close Rami Malek (C) poses backstage with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Brian May (L) and Roger Taylor. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rami Malek (C) poses backstage with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Brian May (L) and Roger Taylor. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Accepting the award for best actress in a musical or comedy, she said: "Cor blimey, thank you so much. I'm not going to cry because my entire table will point and laugh at me as I've been crying all evening." Paying tribute to director Yorgos Lanthimos and her co-stars, she added: "Yorgos, thank you the most muchly and ma bitches, Emma and Rachel, thank you, every second of working with you was such a joy and I was so sad that it finished. "I would like to tell you how much this film meant to me but I can't think of it because I'm too excited." She added: "I went on a private jet and I ate constantly through the film and it was brilliant and I promise I will keep on enjoying this, because it's amazing." She concluded with a shout-out to her husband Ed Sinclair, saying: "Ed and the kids, look! Yay!" Expand Close Glenn Close, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts her award from presenter Gary Oldman. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Glenn Close, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama, accepts her award from presenter Gary Oldman. Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal/Handout via REUTERS Among the Irish presence on the night was Saoirse Ronan and Outlander nominee Caitriona Balfe. Scottish star Madden was awarded the best actor in a TV drama prize for the BBC series Bodyguard. Madden paid tribute to the BBC hit's cast and crew as he collected his prize, including co-star Keeley Hawes and writer Jed Mercurio. He said: "I didn't see this coming at all, I wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for the amazing cast and crew who worked really hard and thank you to Keeley Hawes, who is the best actress I could ever work with, who is amazing and generous." He also had a few words for his parents: "Mum and dad, who flew all the way from Scotland, I wouldn't be here without you." Bale scored the best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as the former vice president Dick Cheney in Vice and thanked his director, Adam McKay. He joked the filmmaker chose him because he thought "I have got to find someone who can be completely charisma-free and reviled by everyone, it's got to be Bale". He joked he would play Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell next, adding: "Thank you Satan, for giving me inspiration for this role." Expand Close (From L) Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson pose backstage with their Best Original Song Motion Picture award for "Shallow" from "A Star is Born." REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (From L) Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson pose backstage with their Best Original Song Motion Picture award for "Shallow" from "A Star is Born." REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Meanwhile Ben Whishaw was honoured in the best supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie category for playing Norman Scott in A Very English Scandal. Whishaw thanked the BBC for continuing to make "idiosyncratic and powerful work", as well as his co-star Hugh Grant and writer Russell T Davies as he collected his gong. He dedicated the award to Scott, praising him for "taking on the establishment with a courage and a defiance that I find inspiring," calling him "a true queer hero and an icon". Bohemian Rhapsody was the big winner of the night, scooping the prize for best drama and best actor, which was awarded to Rami Malek for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury. "I am beyond moved, my heart is pounding out of my chest right now." Addressing his castmates, he said: "I am going to tackle you in a moment, I am going to jump all over you guys." He also thanked Queen and the band's late frontman, saying: "Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of my lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for - and because of - you, gorgeous." There was also triumph for Green Book, which won best musical or comedy, best screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali. Glenn Close triumphed in the best actress in a drama category for The Wife, while Regina King won best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk. It was a disappointing night for A Star Is Born, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper losing out in the acting categories and Cooper losing out on the directing prize to Roma filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. The film's only win was best original song, for Shallow, which was collected by Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson. Gaga told the packed ballroom at the Beverly Hilton: "I just want to say as a woman in music it is really hard to be taken seriously as a musician and as a songwriter, and these incredible men lifted me up and supported me." Read More The ceremony was hosted by Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg, who largely stayed away from political topics. The pair joked they had been chosen to host due to being the only people left in Hollywood who haven not got in trouble for "saying something offensive". While last year's ceremony saw the majority of women wearing black for the launch of the Time's Up movement for gender equality, this year a smaller number of women wore wristbands for Time's Up X 2, encouraging companies to double the number of women in decision-making positions. Oh also enjoyed a moment at the winner's podium, as she collected the gong for best actress in a TV drama for Killing Eve and thanked her parents in Korean before bowing to them. The show, penned by Briton Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was also nominated for best drama series, alongside Bodyguard, but lost out to The Americans, who finally picked up the prize for its final series. Elsewhere in television, Michael Douglas won best actor in a TV comedy for his Netflix series The Kominsky Method, which also took the best TV comedy prize. And Rachel Brosnahan was named best actress in a TV comedy for The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Here is a full list of winners: Best Actor, TV Musical or Comedy - Michael Douglas Best Motion Picture, Animated - Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse Best Actor, TV Series Drama - Richard Madden, Bodyguard Best TV Series Drama - The Americans Best Supporting Actor, Limited Series/TV movie/Series - Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal Best Actress, Limited Series/TV movie - Patricia Arquette - Escape at Dannemora Original Song, Motion Picture - Shallow, A Star Is Born Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture - Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Best Actress, TV Series Drama - Sandra Oh, Killing Eve Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture - Mahershala Ali, Green Book Best Screenplay - Green Book Best Supporting Actress, Series/Limited Series/TV Movie - Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects Best Actor, Musical or Comedy - Christian Bale, Vice Best Motion Picture Foreign Language - Roma Best Actor, Limited Series Or TV Movie - Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Best Director, Motion Picture - Alfonso Cuaron, Roma Best Actress, TV Series Musical Or Comedy - Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy - The Kominski Method Best Limited Series/TV Movie - The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama - Olivia Colman, The Favourite Best Motion Picture, Musical Or Comedy - Green Book Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama - Glenn Close, The Wife Best Actor, Motion Picture Drama - Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody Best Motion Picture Drama - Bohemian Rhapsody Britain scored most wins in a decade at the Golden Globes (Chris Pizzello/AP/PA) Britain has notched up the most number of wins at the Golden Globe Awards in a decade, bagging a total of six awards. Olivia Colman and Richard Madden were among the big winners at the ceremony in the most successful year since 2009, the year of Slumdog Millionaire, when Britain had a total of seven wins. Broadchurch star Colman took home the best actress in a comedy or musical prize for her role as Queen Anne in black comedy The Favourite, while Madden was awarded the best actor in a TV drama prize for the BBC series Bodyguard. Christian Bale scored the best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as the former vice president Dick Cheney in Vice, and Ben Whishaw was honoured in the best supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie category for playing Norman Scott in A Very English Scandal. Music producer Mark Ronson won the best original song prize for Shallow from A Star Is Born, which he co-wrote with Lady Gaga and American musicians Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt. Bohemian Rhapsody, a British-American co-production, won the best drama film accolade. Colman thanked her co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, who she referred to as ma bitches, while telling the audience: I would like to tell you how much working on this film meant to me but I cant remember because Im too excited. Scottish actor Madden paid tribute to the cast and crew of TV hit Bodyguard as he collected his prize, including co-star Keeley Hawes and writer Jed Mercurio. Bale jokingly thanked Satan in his acceptance speech, quipping he would play Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell following his role as Mr Cheney. He said: Thank you Satan, for giving me inspiration for this role. Meanwhile, Whishaw thanked the BBC for continuing to make idiosyncratic and powerful work. Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the biggest winners of the night, with Rami Malek winning the best actor in a drama prize for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury. He also thanked Queen and the bands late frontman, saying: Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of my lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for and because of you, gorgeous. Another big winner was Green Book, which tells the story of jazz pianist Don Shirleys concert tour through the segregated Deep South in the 1960s. The film won the best musical or comedy award, as well as best screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali, who portrays Shirley. Glenn Close triumphed in the best actress in a drama category for The Wife, while Regina King won best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk. It was a disappointing night for A Star Is Born, with Gaga and Bradley Cooper losing out in the acting categories and Cooper losing out on the directing prize to Roma filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. The ceremony was hosted by Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg, who largely stayed away from political topics. They joked they had been chosen to host due to being the only people left in Hollywood who have not got in trouble for saying something offensive. While last years ceremony saw the majority of women wearing black for the launch of the Times Up movement for gender equality, this year a smaller number of women wore wristbands for Times Up X 2, encouraging companies to double the number of women in decision-making positions. Oh also enjoyed a moment at the winners podium, as she collected the gong for best actress in a TV drama for Killing Eve and thanked her parents in Korean before bowing to them. The show, written by Briton Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was also nominated for best drama series, alongside Bodyguard, but lost out to The Americans, which picked up the prize for its final series. Elsewhere in television, Michael Douglas won best actor in a TV comedy for his Netflix series The Kominsky Method, which also took the best TV comedy prize. 'In my end is my beginning," Mary Stuart famously embroidered shortly before her brutal death by beheading in 1587. It was a reference to what the devoted Catholic saw as her impending spiritual immortality, but little could she know that over 400 years after her death in 1587, her legend would still live on, enduringly capable of fascinating. Most recently, she has been reimagined in Saoirse Ronan's latest film, Mary Queen of Scots, to be released later this month. Mary was the great-niece of Henry VIII, he of the six wives and father to her cousin, the future Queen Elizabeth I. The two girls had wildly different formative years. Elizabeth, the elder by nine years, was an instant disappointment to her father, on account of her gender. Ironic, given the mettle she would later display as a ruler. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed when the child was not yet three, and Elizabeth was instantly demoted from the status of Princess, deemed illegitimate, and sent away from court until she became queen at the age of 25. Mary, on the other hand, was named Queen of Scotland at just six days old, in December 1542, when her father, King James V, died of a fever. A female ruler wasn't a prospect that delighted all of Scotland at that time. It is speculated that the possible threat this might pose to her young daughter's safety was what caused her mother, Mary of Guise, to send her child to live with their powerful relatives at the court of France. Expand Close One of the Sheffield House portraits of Mary, who was the great niece of Henry VIII / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp One of the Sheffield House portraits of Mary, who was the great niece of Henry VIII The actions of Henry VIII of England at this time were probably also a contributing factor; in an effort to wed the young queen to his son, he engaged upon what became known as the Rough Wooing - a war between Scotland and England. Safe in France at the court of King Henry II, Mary enjoyed a cultured, luxurious upbringing, probably quite different from the one she might have experienced at the less salubrious Scottish court. She learnt to dance and hunt, very successfully in both cases, wrote poetry, and enjoyed a varied education, covering Latin, Italian, Spanish and Greek. Mary's beauty is the one undisputed aspect of her legend. Unlike her cousin Elizabeth, who courtiers knew to flatter at the expense of all other women, Mary seems to have been a genuine beauty. Unusually tall for the time (five foot 11), she was slender, with clear pale skin and red/gold hair. Both cousins took great care in maintaining their complexions; Elizabeth using white chalk-like make-up made of lead and vinegar (used to cover the scars of smallpox, it is thought to have had a poisonous effect), Mary using white wine. In 1558 she married King Henry II of France's eldest son, the Dauphin Francis. Life must have seemed secure then to the young Mary. After a tumultuous start, her fate was sealed in this dynastic marriage to a young boy she was said to have been fond of, although history deems the marriage unconsummated. Later that same year, her cousin Elizabeth became Queen of England, an event which made Mary next in line to the English throne. In the eyes of many English Roman Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate. By this reasoning, Mary was in fact now the rightful queen of England. It was a state of affairs which did not recommend the Scottish royal to her cousin, a woman who spent a lifetime fixated on solidifying the legitimacy of her claim to the throne. The two queens had varying levels of success as women ruling in the most patriarchal of societies. Elizabeth built her power on her idea of being the Queen Bee at court, seemingly using her female-ness as a source of strength. Where womanhood was a boon for the English Queen, for Mary, repeatedly used by others as a pawn, it was a bane. The traditional interpretation of the pair is of Elizabeth as a cold, calculating, natural politician; sexless, ruthless. The Virgin Queen, disgusted by Mary's sexual antics. Mary, in this telling, is painted as a passionate, sexual, loving creature, politically naive. One ruled with her head, the other her heart. Where Elizabeth was the original stateswoman, Mary was a frivolous fool. Or, if you are Catholic, then the former was a heartless conniver, the latter a wronged martyr. More recent interpretations, particularly that of biographer John Guy, whose book My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, was the source material for the new film, would suggest that it was bad luck rather than lack of political nous that brought about her demise. Mary's father-in-law, King Henry II of France, died in 1559, making her husband the king, and she the queen consort. Tragically, Francis died in 1560, and the following year, now a widow, the 18-year-old Mary returned to Scotland. Like Elizabeth, who took up to four hours to get dressed, Mary understood the need to dress for the part of Queen. She travelled in a fleet of 12 ships. One carried Mary and her ladies-in-waiting, a second her cooks, grooms, maids and servants. The further 10 ships bore the Queen's possessions, furnishings, her wardrobe, jewellery, pets, and furniture, including 45 beds. Things on her return were not straightforward. Scottish nobles were a fractious, quarrelsome bunch. "I am their queen and so they call me, but they use me not so," she complained at this time. In her absence, Scotland had adopted Protestantism as its official religion. This put Mary, a devout Catholic, and essentially a foreigner, in a difficult position. Elizabeth refused to name her heir of the English throne, further weakening her position. Despite the inauspicious circumstances of her return home, Mary reigned successfully for the first few years, due in part, possibly, to her oft-referenced charm. She herself had strongly held Catholic beliefs, but as a ruler was, like her cousin, tolerant of others' spiritual persuasions. Five years after arriving home, she married again, this time to her cousin Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley. It is this event that her biographer, Antonia Fraser, marks as the starting point of the "fatal train of events" that would lead to her demise. Fraser describes the marriage as a reckless act on Mary's behalf; she married for love. Mary herself later described her new husband as the "lustiest and best proportioned" man she had ever seen. Said to have been handsome, and at six foot unusually tall for that era, Darnley was recorded by Mary's courtiers as arrogant and petulant, a weak-natured womaniser capable of great cruelty, who was a heavy drinker. The marriage was a tumultuous affair. On March 9, 1566, the Queen and a group of close associates were having supper in a room off her bedroom, when Darnley, accompanied by a group of armed noblemen, burst into the small room and accused David Rizzio, the Queen's Italian private secretary and close confidant, of having an affair with her. Mary was then six months' pregnant, and reports have it that during the fracas a pistol was aimed at her stomach. Rizzio was murdered before the eyes of the pregnant Queen, the men stabbing him over 50 times. Expand Close Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots Later that year, Mary gave birth to a much-longed-for son, James, the heir to both the English and Scottish thrones. The line secured, it seemed that her troublesome husband's usefulness was entirely at an end. Critics of the Queen claim it was now that an adulterous relationship between Mary and James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, began, with accusations that the pair planned her husband's murder, claims bolstered by letters allegedly sent between the lovers, letters now proved to be fake. On February 10, 1567, when their son James was one year old, Darnley's house just outside of Edinburgh was blown up, and Darnley strangled while trying to escape. In fact, history would suggest that Mary herself was not involved in the plot that killed her husband, but her lack of urgency in subsequently hunting down his killers was enough for her critics. What happened next remains open to interpretation. Mary married the chief suspect in her husband's death, Bothwell, three months after Darnley died, but accounts of the events leading up to that marriage differ. In April, on her way to Edinburgh, the Queen was met by Bothwell, accompanied by a force of 800 men. He declared that there was trouble in the city, and that he was taking the queen under his protection. As a woman, what else could she do, writes Kate Williams, whose book Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots argues that Mary's gender was the defining factor of the events of her life. Accounts describe how once at his residence, Bothwell, who could be described as having abducted the queen, "ravished her and laid with her against her will". Raped her, in other words. Mary now became the most famous, if most terminally undiagnosed, case of victim blaming. It was widely thought that she did not protest at Bothwell's unlooked for attention, and that in fact given her sexual proclivities she most likely welcomed it. Asking for it, to use modern-day parlance. That she went on to marry him was used as further proof of her wanton ways. In fact, there is a suggestion the Queen was pregnant with twins she went on to miscarry. Williams points out that marrying Bothwell was the only means by which Mary could dissipate the shame of rape and possible pregnancy. Scottish nobles had disliked Darnley, but neither did they favour Bothwell, the Queen's third husband. The pair were separated on June 15, 1567, and Mary was forcefully deposed, her one-year-old son declared king, and his mother imprisoned on the small island of Loch Leven. She escaped, but the army she put together was defeated, and she was forced to flee. She ran to England, to Elizabeth. "Be as my sister," Mary had begged her cousin in letters, and she no doubt expected the English Queen's full support. Instead, Elizabeth, who ruled until her death aged 69, and who never saw Mary as anything other than a threat to her own security on the throne, imprisoned the Scottish Queen for the next almost two decades, until her cousin's death. Williams describes Mary's life until her execution as wasting away in a gilded cage. She was allowed to order clothes and furniture from Paris but the days were long and dull, and her movements highly restricted. There was her religious practise, embroidery, and her dogs. Her beauty waned, lack of physical exercise meant she lost her famously sylph-like figure. Always a sufferer of bad health, by the end it seems walking had become difficult. Pleas and plots against her cousin took up much of her time, it is said. In 1586 a plot to kill the Queen and stage a Catholic uprising was discovered. Elizabeth seized the chance to get rid of Mary, this lingering threat to her rule. Reluctant to decree the death of a fellow queen, she had her cousin tried by the English parliament. Mary's son, now with hopes of his own of succeeding Elizabeth, did not object. After her death, her son, then King James I of England, ordered a huge monument built for his mother at her tomb in Westminster Abbey. In 1587, Mary, aged 44, was executed after being found guilty of plotting the murder of her cousin. "This bewitching Princess... abandoned by her son, confined, by her cousin, abused, reproached and vilified by all... firm in her Mind, Constant in her Religion; & preparing herself to meet the cruel fate to which she was doomed, with a magnanimity that could only proceed from conscious Innocence," Jane Austen wrote of the Queen of the Scots. Descriptions record Mary as showing huge dignity at her execution. "You will do me much good in withdrawing me from this world, out of which I am very glad to go," she said at the time. Approaching the block "cheerful and smiling" according to witnesses, she cast off her black gown to reveal a red dress underneath, the shade of Catholic martyrdom. It took her executioner several attempts to actually decapitate the Queen. Lifting her head aloft, to his shock it fell to the ground and rolled away, leaving him grasping just a red wig. Mary was an animal-lover, and at her execution, her small terrier dog ran from where it had hidden in her skirts, howling desolately. He refused to leave his mistress's side and, legend has it, broken-hearted, he died shortly afterwards. Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to groping an 18-year-old restaurant worker in the first criminal case against the disgraced actor after a string of sexual misconduct allegations that crippled his career. Spaceys court appearance came more than a year after former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh accused the former House Of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son in a bar on the Massachusetts resort island of Nantucket. Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett ordered Spacey to stay away from his accuser and the mans family. Expand Close Kevin Spacey in court with his lawyer Alan Jackson (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kevin Spacey in court with his lawyer Alan Jackson (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror/AP) The Hollywood star will not have to appear at his next hearing on March 4, but must be available by phone, Judge Barrett said. He also ordered Spaceys accuser and the mans then-girlfriend to preserve text messages and other data on their phones from the day of the alleged assault in 2016 and six months after. Spaceys lawyer Alan Jackson told the judge they believe the phones contain information that is likely exculpatory for Spacey. The actor and his lawyers declined to comment as they left the courthouse amid a crush of reporters. Expand Close Kevin Spacey leaves the court (Steven Senne/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kevin Spacey leaves the court (Steven Senne/AP) Spacey, wearing a grey suit, navy waistcoat and polka dot tie, did not speak during the hearing and his lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. In court documents, his lawyers called the accusations patently false and noted that prosecutors have no witnesses to the alleged groping. The lawyers said the teenager lied about his age, welcomed drinks bought by Spacey, left the bar with him to smoke a cigarette and gave Spacey his phone number. At best, this describes two people engaged in mutual and consensual flirtation, nothing more, his lawyers wrote. If convicted of felony indecent assault and battery, the 59-year-old two-time Oscar winner could face as many as five years in prison. Ms Unruhs son told police he wanted to get a picture with the star and went over to talk to him after his shift ended at Club Car, a popular island bar and restaurant, according to court documents. The man said Spacey bought him several drinks and tried to convince him to come home with him before unzipping the mans trousers and groping him for about three minutes. The accuser told police he tried to move Spaceys hands, but the groping continued, and he did not know what to do because he did not want to get in trouble for drinking. The man said he fled when Spacey went to the toilet. Lawyers for Kevin Spacey have entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a Massachusetts court on charges he groped an 18-year-old in 2016. The actor faced a charge of indecent assault and battery during a hearing at Nantucket District Court and the judge set another hearing for March 4. Spacey does not have to appear, the judge ruled, but he needs to be available by phone. He must stay away from his accuser and his accusers family, the judge also ordered. Spaceys lawyer Alan Jackson said there is data that is likely exculpatory for Spacey. The actor and his lawyers declined to comment as they left the courthouse amid a crush of reporters. Expand Close Kevin Spacey with his lawyer Alan Jackson in district court in Nantucket, Massachusetts (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror via AP, Pool) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kevin Spacey with his lawyer Alan Jackson in district court in Nantucket, Massachusetts (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror via AP, Pool) The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the former House Of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teenager worked. Mr Jackson has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager did not immediately report the allegations. If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison. Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quietens down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold. When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear. Expand Close Members of the media outside the Nantucket Town and County Building, awaiting arrival of actor Kevin Spacey (Steven Senne/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the media outside the Nantucket Town and County Building, awaiting arrival of actor Kevin Spacey (Steven Senne/AP) It is the first criminal case brought against Spacey since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017. A judge denied Spaceys bid to avoid appearing in person on Monday. Spacey had argued his presence would amplify the negative publicity already generated by the case. Television anchor Heather Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the alleged incident. She claimed her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the toilet. After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflixs House Of Cards, in which he said: Im certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didnt do. It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. Spacey has also faced other allegations. His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Mr Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologised if the allegations were true. Richard Madden said he constantly doubts himself as an actor (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Richard Madden said he constantly doubts himself as an actor as he picked up a Golden Globe for his role in Bodyguard. The Scottish actor, 32, won the best actor in a TV drama prize, seeing off competition from Ozarks Jason Bateman, Homecomings Stephen James, Poses Billy Porter and Welsh star Matthew Rhys, who was recognised for his part in The Americans. Speaking after accepting the honour on stage at the ceremony in Los Angeles, Madden said the award was a wake-up call that will give him more self-confidence. Expand Close Richard Madden won a Golden Globe for his role in Bodyguard (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Richard Madden won a Golden Globe for his role in Bodyguard (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) He said: You constantly question yourself as an actor, if youre good enough, if youre real enough or if youre deserving of anything and thats a constant thing that youre doing for yourself. Kind of questioning your ability, so to even be nominated was a real confidence boost in terms of thinking I am doing this, I can do this. And then Ive won it. So Im kind of blown away by it because Ive been active for 20 years, never thinking youre good enough, I suppose. And then to receive something like this, I suppose its a wake-up call to me to be like, believe in yourself more because other people do. Following his roles in Game Of Thrones and Bodyguard, Madden has been named as a potential successor to Daniel Craig as James Bond. When asked about taking the job of 007, Madden said: They are just rumours. Budget carrier Norwegian Air posted smaller than expected passenger growth in December and recorded additional losses from fuel hedging positions, its monthly traffic report showed on Monday. The airline, which has been courted by Aer Lingus owner IAG, has rapidly expanded its transatlantic business in recent years, but has struggled to turn a profit amid tough competition. While the airline's capacity grew by 34pc year-on-year in December, revenue-generating passenger kilometres increased by only 24pc, lagging a forecast of 32.9pc in a Reuters poll of analysts. Meanwhile for the October-December quarter, Norwegian Air estimated an unrealised loss from fuel hedging amounting to NOK1.99bn (202m), an increase from the preliminary October-November loss reported last month of NOK1.46bn (194m). The airline said it has implemented a series of cost-reduction measures to boost its financials in 2019. The company carried 37.34 million passengers in 2018, an increase of 13pc compared to the previous year. The full-year load factor was 85.8pc, down from 87.5pc in 2017. "The 2018 traffic figures demonstrate that our international footprint continues to grow stronger, in line with the Norwegians strategy. The company has made considerable investments this year and will now enter a period of slower growth," Norwegian CEO Bjrn Kjos said. "Continued tough competition, high oil prices and operational challenges in 2018 combined with the issues with Rolls Royce engines, which have particularly affected our long-haul operations, have had an impact on our financial results in the latter half of 2018." "We have launched a series of cost-reduction measures to boost our financials in 2019 which will have an immediate and continued positive influence throughout the year" Mr Kjos added. During 2018, Norwegian took delivery of 25 brand new aircraft and launched 35 new routes, primarily between Europe and the US. The airline also launched a direct route between London and Buenos Aires. (Additional reporting Reuters) Imports of US soya beans by the European Union increased by 112pc over the current market year (July-December 2018), compared to the same period in the previous year. With a share of 75pc of EU soya beans imports, the US remains Europe's number one supplier. Conversely, Europe remains by far the top destination of US soya beans exports (28pc), followed by Argentina (10pc) and Mexico (9pc). This is part of the implementation of the Joint Statement agreed between Presidents Juncker and Trump in July 2018. In the Joint Statement, the two sides agreed to increase trade in several areas and products, notably soya beans. As a result, the European Commission is now regularly publishing figures on EU imports. These latest significant developments in the second half of 2018 contribute to cementing the U.S.' leading position in supplying the EU with soya beans for the entire calendar year, well ahead of Brazil, Europe's traditional main supplier. In 2018 (January to December), 50pc of Europe's imports originated in the U.S. and 36pc in Brazil (37pc in 2017). European imports of U.S. soya beans are bound to increase even further, following the decision by the European Commission to launch the process for authorising the use of U.S. soya beans for biofuels. In December 2018, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the decision to authorise the use of U.S. soya beans for biofuels in Europe. According to the Commission's assessment, the "U.S. Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol" submitted by U.S. soya exporters meets the mandatory sustainability requirements of EU legislation for their use in biofuels. The Commission has said the draft implementing decision has been published for feedback until 16 January on the Better Regulation website and should be adopted in the coming weeks. It said this will allow US exporters to further diversify their European markets whilst contributing to the EU's objectives in the field of renewable energy. The last 100,000 of 330,000 of the rural-fibre-to-the-home connections being built by Eir will be completed in June It seems that every year is a crunch year for rural broadband. But 2019 really is shaping up to be do or die for the State's National Broadband Plan, the pledge to connect 540,000 businesses and homes in rural areas to state-subsidised fibre internet. On balance, a contract with the current bidder, Granahan McCourt, still looks likely to be given the green light. But if this doesn't happen, the Government has a very serious infrastructural deficit to address, even if a small percentage of those without proper broadband will get it through market sources next year. Inevitably, attention will shift to alternative options. One such option that is often mentioned is 5G, the next-generation mobile technology that is currently being trialled by Irish operators. At peak, this can deliver speeds of 500Mbs, several times faster than the fastest Eir 'eFibre' phone broadband. And some operators are even setting up rural trials, with broadband access specifically targeted. For example, Vodafone Ireland is dipping a toe into rural 5G mobile broadband with trials in Roscommon, Wexford, Tipperary and Waterford, with 250 homes and businesses given roof antennae and equipment that can translate that 5G signal into a speedy wifi connection. Eir also says that it will look at 5G trials next year, while Three is expected to do the same. However, don't expect 5G to swoop in where the National Broadband Plan fails to deliver. Senior government and industry personnel have all dismissed the idea, pointing to the need for fibre backhaul for such wireless infrastructure. "It would be complementary," said Vodafone Ireland chief executive Anne O'Leary. The 19 cases of non-compliant carcase trim specification revealed so far may only be the tip of the iceberg, according to the Beef Plan Movement, which is calling for farmer representatives to be allowed factory access to supervise. The suspicion many beef farmers have, it says, is that the 19 identified non-compliant trim cases are only the tip of the iceberg. Last year 19 carcasses were found to be non-compliant with trim regulations and now the Beef Plan Movement group is also advising farmers to request the images of cattle killed in the last six months in order to have them examined by a trained grader to establish if the trim has been non-compliant. It also said that it is part of the Beef Plan to have farm representatives trained to the same standard as the Department graders to provide more supervision of the vital area on the kill floor between the hide puller and the scales. "This is now necessary to ensure fairness," it said in a statement. Before Christmas, the Department of Agriculture detailed information that 19 carcasses, or 0.05pc of the carcasses inspected in 2018, and the factories where the non-compliant carcases were processed. It also said it was introducing a new system where Veterinary Public Health Inspection Service staff will assist staff of the Beef Carcase Classification Unit to provide additional assurance in relation to the regulation of trimming of carcasses by factories has been established. It says the additional monitoring of carcase presentation by the Department veterinary public health staff will provide further assurance to stakeholders that the appropriate dressing specification is being applied. Last year, 1.7m carcasses have been slaughtered to December 2018. To date in 2018 there have been 521 inspections across 32 slaughter plants and 44,332 carcasses have been inspected by classification officers. On average, each factory has been inspected 16 times to date with an average of 85 carcasses per inspection. To date in 2018, a total of 19 on-the-spot fines were issued for non-compliance with the EU reference carcase trimming specification. Under legislation, non-compliance with the carcase trim specification attracts a maximum on the spot fine of 200 per carcase. In 2016, 28 on-the-spot fines were issued for non-compliance with the EU reference carcase trimming specification. The Minister also said that processors will introduce a payment to the farmer supplier to reflect any loss in each case where his Department applied a trim fine on a particular carcase. "Such payment will be identified on the payment remittance docket, so that farmers will be aware of the penalty. In addition my Department has had a number of seminars to ensure the rules around trim are clearly understood and properly executed, and these have been well attended by plant personnel. Minette Batters, the new president of the National Farmers' Union has said frictionless trade with the EU is vital (Adam Fradgley/NFU/PA) British farmers must aim to effectively cut out all greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades, according to the head of the National Farmers Union (NFU). In a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, NFU president Minette Batters said such ambitious measures were essential to compete with other nations on green standards. She said emissions must reach net zero by 2040, meaning any remaining gases produced are removed from the atmosphere. Agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, and is responsible for 10 per cent of the UKs greenhouse gases. Farm emissions come not only from CO2, but also from methane and nitrous oxides released by livestock and fertilisers. Ms Batters compared British farming favourably with other nations when it came to environmental credentials, but said British farmers must still strive to do better. The FAO [Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations] estimates UK beef production is 2.5 times more efficient than the world average, and compared with South America four times more efficient, she said. Competitors in our market from Ireland to New Zealand have laid down the gauntlet, and I am here to pick it up today. I believe we can match and beat their lead our aim must be ambitious, to get our industry to net zero across all greenhouse gas inventories by 2040 or before. The move marks a significant increase in ambition compared with previous industry-wide targets. Government adviser the Committee on Climate Change released two reports in November laying out a strategy for decarbonising British agriculture. It recommended radical changes to land use that rewarded farmers for helping to curb climate change, while also maintaining food production. The government has announced plans to pay farmers for preserving public goods, for example promoting clean air and water, and restoring habitats that can act as carbon sinks. Some campaigners say the current strategy being proposed does not go far enough in encouraging all farmers to look after Britains vulnerable habitats. They have called for tough minimum standards that all farmers must follow to preserve the environment, and assistance from the government to aid their transition. However, the NFU has expressed concern that too much focus on environmental services may compromise the UKs food security following Brexit. Farms are valuable assets, and like any business, maximising the value from that asset makes good commercial sense. Just like humans with individualised passports, farm animals can be uniquely identified through a numbered tag that is pierced into their ears. The purpose of the tagging is for traceability on the one hand, so that all meat can be tracked from farm to fork. That unique number stays with the animal all through its life and beyond, as it makes its way through the food chain. This is very comforting for consumers, particularly in the light of some scandals in recent years. The current national cattle herd is 6.5 million and with 2.8 million calves born every year, it's a tidy niche industry. Cormac Tagging TJ Gormley was a sheep farmer in Tuam, Co Galway, with an added passion for innovation in farm equipment and accessories. He has won many agri innovation awards over the years, some of these products included weighing scales, foot baths and other livestock handling equipment. All these concepts needed to be showcased and sold, so he set up a farm supply retail store in Tuam. From 2001, the company added sheep, goat and pig tagging to the portfolio and now holds 33pc of that market in Ireland. The supply of cattle tags however is awarded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and it was only possible to access the market through a tender process, which came up every two years. The company engaged in every tender without success. For 14 years, the tender was won by just one Irish company which meant that during this time, farmers did not have choice of supplier or product. And in a market-driven economy, that scenario wasn't to last. Business: Cormac Tagging Set up: 2005 Founder: Thomas and Cathleen Gormley Turnover: 2m No of Employees: 22 Location: Tuam, Co Galway The Business Model Ursula Kelly is the eldest daughter of five girls and she joined her father TJ in the business in 2014. An accountant, she went through various business development programmes, such as the 'Enterprise Ireland Going for Growth' and 'AIB Women in Business Growth Academy'. "This gave me the added confidence and drive to just go for it and to take the business to the next level," she said. In December 2016, the company was awarded a contract to supply cattle tags. Cormac Tagging is the sole importer and distributor of Caisley tags in Ireland, a German-designed tagging system. As it claims it is such a superior quality cattle-tagging product that the company guarantees replacement tags for free, for the full life of the animal. Because farm animals get up to all sorts of mischief, such as rolling around the ground and getting their heads stuck in wire, the tags take lots of abuse. However, the Caisley cattle tag's replacement rate is less than 1pc proven across 17 countries in Europe. Lightweight and flexible in design, and with live patents on the products, the tagging system is far superior on the world animal-traceability stage. This has to be a big attraction for farmers, as they currently replace over half a million tags annually. It's not just that farmers save on the replacement cost, but also the potential penalties if there are animals without tags during inspections by the department. The tags are laser printed with a 15-digit number that is allocated by the department. If you've ever seen a human's ears being pierced, you'll be familiar with this system. The tag is attached to the ear using a punch-type applicator. However, it also takes a tissue sample from the ear at the same time, which is then sent off for testing, as part of the BVD disease eradication programme. BVD virus is the cause of an important viral disease of cattle that is estimated to cost Irish farmers around 102m each year, according to Animal Health Ireland. The business is very heavily weighted from November to January. Due to our weather and grass growth, Irish farmers plan their calving season for the start of the year. Roughly 70pc of the country's new-born calves arrive in an eight-week period from about now. Given that calves must be tagged within 28 days of birth, that puts pressure on the production process for the company. The Future Selling is done directly to farmers through online ordering and the telephone, and the company has more than doubled its turnover in tags in the last year. It is a very price-sensitive market with low margins, so costs have to be managed tightly. In an emerging Ag Tech sector, the company will continue to innovate and add to the portfolio of products. Ursula has ambitions to be the number one animal identification supplier in Ireland and knows that it will take work and dedication. They are more than prepared for the effort having spent the last 30 years in the agri industry. Lorries taking part in the trial arrive at the Port of Dover in Kent, following their journey from the former Manston Airport site. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire A convoy of nearly 90 trucks rolled through the southeast English countryside to Britain's main port to continental Europe on Monday in a government test-run for a potentially chaotic Brexit that was mocked as a farce by opponents of the split. Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to force her Brexit deal through parliament but lawmakers are expected to reject it. If so, business chiefs and investors fear the world's fifth-largest economy will leave the European Union at 2300 GMT on March 29 without an agreement on their future relationship. With parliament deadlocked, the ultimate destination of the Brexit project remains unclear. Possible outcomes range from another referendum on European Union membership to a disorderly departure with no deal. May's government has repeatedly warned that a no deal will lead to severe economic disruption, and Monday's exercise was part of preparations to ensure essential supplies can keep flowing through Dover, Europe's busiest ferry port. The transport ministry said it was testing Manston airfield as a holding facility for lorries and traffic congestion on Kent roads in the event of disruption at the border. Setting off from Manston, 87 trucks drove the 20 miles (32 km) to Dover and back again. They then drove again to Dover. Hiring the lorries cost 48,950 pounds ($62,484), the transport ministry said. The 'war game' was criticised by lawmakers as a waste of time and money and mocked on Twitter as "a fake traffic jam ... to show the EU we are ready for no deal". Britain's Road Haulage Association (RHA) said the trial was too little, too late and would need to be repeated to properly stress-test the management of thousands of lorries. "Less than a hundred lorries is a drop in the ocean compared to the more than 10,000 that go to the channel ports every day," said Charlie Elphicke, a Conservative lawmaker for Dover. "Sending lorries across Kent on a wild goose chase to Manston airport and then to the port of Dover by small and winding, often single track 'A roads' through Kent villages is not the right plan." Dover has been Britain's most important gateway to Europe since Roman times and the port now handles 17 percent of the United Kingdom's goods trade. Up to 10,000 trucks a day pass through with everything from perishable food to medicines. Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker who wants another referendum on EU membership, said the truck journey would not convince the EU that Britain was ready for no deal. "This is a taxpayer-funded farce," Moran said. Brexit supporters say that, while there may be some short-term disruption, in the long-term the UK will thrive outside the EU, which they cast as a doomed and excessively bureaucratic project dominated by Germany. But pro-Europeans fear Britain's exit will hammer the economy and undermine the West as it grapples with Donald Trump's unpredictable U.S. presidency and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. "Todays trial cannot possibly duplicate the reality of 4,000 trucks being held at Manston airport in the event of a no-deal Brexit," the RHA's chief executive Richard Burnett said in a statement. "It's too little too late -- this process should have started nine months ago. At this late stage it looks like window dressing." "EXISTENTIAL THREAT" Facing defeat in parliament last month, May postponed a vote on the withdrawal agreement she negotiated with the EU and pledged to seek further political and legal assurances from the bloc. The EU has signalled it may try to allay the fears of May's critics but will not renegotiate the deal. May said on Sunday that Britain would be in uncharted territory if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament. A vote is due around Jan. 15. "It's still hard to see any upside to Brexit," said Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which said new car sales in 2018 fell at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis a decade ago. "Everyone recognises that Brexit is an existential threat to the UK automotive industry and we hope a practical solution will prevail," he said, calling for lawmakers to support May's deal to guarantee a transition period. Britain's main opposition Labour Party is expected to back a proposal on Tuesday that could mean the government needs parliamentary approval for a no-deal Brexit. The European Commission repeated on Monday that EU leaders would not renegotiate the Brexit deal agreed with May, who said she was seeking further assurances from Brussels on the deal. "The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible," chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters when asked about a phone conversation on Friday between May and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. "This deal will not be renegotiated." In St Jamess Hospital, Dublin, four of the 13 operating theatres are closed because of bed and staff shortages (Julien Behal/PA) Hospital consultants have expressed concern about the Governments complacency over addressing the overwhelming capacity deficits in the health service. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said it was worried that the reduction in the number of patients being treated on trolleys in the past week compared with the start of 2018 was being presented as something akin to significant progress. The remarks were made following claims by Health Minister Simon Harris last week that there was a reduction in the number of patients on hospital trolleys. It is unacceptable that, in a developed economy such as Ireland, hundreds of critically ill patients who are admitted to hospitals on a daily basis cannot be provided with a bed and are being treated on trolleysIHCA president Dr Donal OHanlon IHCA president Dr Donal OHanlon said: It is unacceptable that, in a developed economy such as Ireland, hundreds of critically ill patients who are admitted to hospitals on a daily basis cannot be provided with a bed and are being treated on trolleys. According to IHCA figures, in 2018 more than 108,000 ill patients were admitted to hospital but had to wait on a hospital trolley for an acute bed to become available. This is the highest number ever, he said. Mr OHanlon said the capacity issues in the countrys public hospitals were caused mainly by a severe shortage of hospital beds and the large number of permanent consultant posts that cannot be filled. He said essential surgeries were being cancelled in many hospitals as a result. In St Jamess Hospital, Dublin, the largest cancer hospital in the country, four of the 13 operating theatres are closed because of bed and staff shortages. At University Hospital Limerick, all elective surgical operations were stopped from December 21 to January 7. Further extensive curtailment is likely after January 7 due to a severe bed shortage. More than 70,000 patients remain on surgical waiting lists. Dr OHanlon said that a realistic plan needed to be put in place to expand the public hospital bed capacity within five years, by 2,600 beds. He claimed that the Governments current policy regarding new consultants was driving highly trained specialists abroad and exacerbating the recruitment crisis. He said it was unacceptable that Mr Harris and his officials had not engaged in discussions with the IHCA on a solution to the crisis, despite the commitment to do so two months ago. He added that if the policy was not addressed now, by restoring parity for new consultants and international competitiveness in filling posts, it would cause irreparable damage that would affect patient care for decades. Gale force winds are set to batter parts of Britain on Monday as forecasters warn of widespread travel disruption. A Met Office yellow weather warning has been issued for Scotland as very strong winds of up to 75mph are expected to sweep across northern and eastern areas until Tuesday. The high winds are likely to cause delays to bus, rail, air and ferry services and make journeys longer in affected areas, according to the Met Office. There is also a risk of power cuts across Scotland, and possible delays for high-sided vehicles on exposed road routes and bridges. The Met Office said: Very strong winds are expected to affect northern and parts of eastern Scotland on Monday and Monday night. Gusts of 65 to 75mph are likely, particularly in the far north and northeast, before winds gradually ease from the west during Tuesday. Some coastal and seafront routes in Scotland could also see spray from large waves. Met Office meteorologist Mark Wilson said: Winds will strengthen across all areas [of the UK] but particularly in northern Scotland. Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Show all 24 1 /24 Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany Workers clear snow from the tracks around a classic steam locomotive AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany German Army Soldiers clear roof of a grammar school from the snow in Berchtesgaden EPA Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A track vehicle of the German army provides food to a village near Berchtesgaden AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Czech Republic A man with a snow cutter cleans a road during a heavy snowfall in Velka Upa, Giant Mountains AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Austria Cars drive on the motorway near Kufstein AFP/Getty Images Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A snowplough train is seen during heavy snowfalls in Miesbach Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A car covered with snow in the Bavarian village of Kaufbeuren AFP/Getty Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A woman removes snow from a car in Berchtesgaden Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A car of German Automobile Club ADAC is seen after heavy snowfalls near Irschenberg Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A child climbing stairs next to a bicycle covered with snow in Ilmenau AFP/Getty Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Austria A sign is seen on a closed road after heavy snowfall near Obertauern Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany Cars jam on the motorway A8 between Salzburg and Munich after heavy snowfalls near Irschenberg Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A man and a bus make their way on a street in Berchtesgaden AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A truck sits on the Autobahn A8 after a crash near Bernau AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A road in a forest is cleaned from snow in Schongau AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A worker removes the snow next to a regional train at the train station in Berchtesgaden Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Greece Snow covers the statue of Alexander the Great at the seaside promenade of Thessaloniki Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Greece People take part in a snowball fight during snowfall, at the seaside promenade of Thessaloniki Reuters Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany Media people are covered with snow as they interview politicians during the winter meeting of the Christian Social Union in Seeon AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Austria Tourist cars queue on the main road out of a valley that was blocked after heavy snow falls in Vilzmoos AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Lithuania Wild ducks sit on the snow-covered banks of the Neris river in Vilnius AP Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany A snow-covered car is seen at a parking lot during heavy snowfall in Obertauern, Austria, 05 January 2019. Austria and southern Germany are expected to receive heavy snowfalls over the weekend. Weather forecasts warn that the snowstorm could cause roadblocks and increased avalanche danger in many parts of the affected region. EPA Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Germany German supporters wait ahead of the trainings and qualifiers of the fourth stage of the Four-Hills Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Bischofshofen, Austria on January 5, 2019. - The trainings and qualifiers have been cancelled dur to heavy snow falls. AFP/Getty Heavy snowfall blankets Europe weather in pictures Switzerland Cars drive on a snow-covered road near the town of Taegerwilen Reuters The rest of the UK will remain largely cloudy at the beginning of the week, but it is set to feel much colder as the week progresses. A chill could see temperatures of around -2C or -3C in Scotland on Tuesday morning while northern England, Wales and the Midlands will stay just above 0C. A bitterly cold start is expected on Wednesday morning with temperatures of -3 or -4C in Scotland, around -3C in Blackpool, Manchester and the Lake District, while Newcastle could manage 2C to 3C. There could also be some freezing fog in northern areas on Wednesday. Blizzards covered much of Greece in Snow (Reuters) (REUTERS) A cold snap in central and eastern parts of Europe saw heavy snowfall and travel chaos over the past week. Three people died in Greece after blizzards swept across much of the country. The body of the 66-year-old woman was recovered from an overturned car in the southeastern region of Keratea on Saturday. Two men including the womans husband were found dead close by to the vehicle. It is thought the car was swept away by flood waters caused by the bad weather. Heavy snow also caused significant travel problems in Germany and forced the evacuation of one town in Austria. The case of 18-year-old asylum seeker, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun from Saudi Arabia who has been held since Sunday against her will at Bangkok airport sheds a welcome light on the plight of women in Saudi Arabia. Following Rahafs plea for help to the UN, she has finally been granted UNCR refugee access at Bangkok airport to assess her need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation. Her harrowing story and twitter feed, where she revealed disturbing alleged abuse from her family, is a reminder of the extent of human rights abuses in her home country and demonstrates the lengths to which women must go to seek protection. In Saudi Arabia, women are discriminated against in all spheres of their life. Their social and cultural roles are almost completely circumscribed by strongly patriarchal norms. All women are expected to spend their lives under the guardianship of a closely related male family member. For a young woman, this would be her father; for a married woman, her husband; and for a widow, her son. Recommended Saudi woman seeking asylum barricades herself inside Thai hotel room This guardianship is intended to preserve both the womans and her familys honour, since, in Saudi society, an individuals behaviour is thought to reflect upon their familys status and honour. All women are expected to marry the person chosen for them by their families. Saudi men, under Sharia law, can have four wives if they treat them equally. Saudi Arabia is one of 117 countries around the world where child marriage is legal. In 2017 the government announced that marriages for girls under the age of 17 had to be approved by a special court and marriage applications submitted by the girl, her mother, or her legal guardian. But in August 2018 a Saudi court refused to nullify the marriage of an eight-year-old girl to a man in his late 50s. Women who complain about domestic violence (most commonly perpetrated by extended family members/partners) are rarely taken seriously. Legislation is not adequately enforced and the resources necessary to achieve its aims are not readily available. Marriage, for Saudi women, is almost inescapable; it is a major life-cycle ritual for women that fundamentally alter their status, group affiliation and future actions. However, it is not necessarily a nurturing space, but a potentially dangerous one, full of emotional and social contradictions and ambiguity. Parents who force their offspring to marry often justify their behaviour in terms of protecting their children, building stronger families, and preserving cultural and religious traditions. The honour code is not only a social or moral standard in communities such as Saudi Arabia but also ensures that women are ever mindful of their actions and how their behaviours are perceived. Consequently, womens sexual modesty, particularly the virginity of unwed women, becomes the ultimate measure of a familys reputation. In many such situations, the concept of honour (ird/namus/sharaf) is not one of individual morality, but a measure of the relationship between a family and the wider community. Direct community and societal pressure therefore bears heavily on individuals who are believed to have transgressed or broken their family/community honour code. Rahaf knows the risks she faces after leaving her family and the implications of not only rejecting a forced marriage but also renouncing her religion and her ability to ever return to Saudi Arabia. Freedom of religion is not legally protected in the Islamic kingdom, and people who convert to another religion from Islam risk being charged with apostasy or abandoning their religious beliefs. The crime is legally punishable by death, although courts have not carried out a death sentence in recent years. Rahaf is very aware that in Saudi society, women are treated as subordinate citizens whose identities are defined mainly by their marital and familial responsibilities. There exists a pattern of female behaviour characterised by compliance with authority (i.e., male family members and the patriarchal society), passivity, obedience, self-deprecation and self-sacrifice. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events This means that when women like Rahaf go against cultural norms, by being independent or strong, travelling to college without a chaperone or seeking redress from the world via social media and from UN refugee agencies for harms against her, this could lead to the disapprobation of her family and society. The UN refugee agency has intervened in Rahafs case and for now it seems there is hope she will be protected. The world is watching and the global interest in this case has led Thailand's Chief of Immigration police to state that the country would protect her as best we can Since she escaped trouble to seek our help... we will not send anyone to their death. This brave and desperate young woman must not be left to languish in police custody in Thailand. We should do everything we can to ensure she can have safe passage to a third country to seek asylum such as Australia, where she was heading. She must not be returned back to her abusers. The #SaveRahaf hashtag should not only be a trend on Twitter, but also and more importantly a message of hope for other women in her situation. Professor Aisha K. Gill is Professor of Criminology at the University of Roehampton and the author of Forced Marriage: Introducing a Social Justice and Human Rights Perspective The darkness rose like a theatre curtain over the Kent horizon and what the gathered audience saw was a piece of national performance art that will echo down the ages. There was Britain, standing fully naked in a disused airfield, drawing over itself in felt tip pen, pointing at its pale puckered flesh and howling like an illegal Eighties raver at the apex of an MDMA overdose. What was happening was a Potemkin traffic jam. A government-organised tailback, put on to frighten the European Union into believing Britain is ready for no-deal Brexit, and not, as was palpably obvious, in the grip of a full on nervous breakdown. Some background: in the event of a no-deal Brexit that nobody in the cabinet or the shadow cabinet wants but may still happen anyway, Manston airfield in Kent is scheduled to be used as an overflow lorry park, to hold 6,000 vehicles stuck in the backlog at the Port of Dover. So what happened on Monday morning, is that the government paid 150 lorry drivers to turn up and have a practice go. A practice go at waiting on the out-of-service runway, and a practice go at crawling the 40-mile round trip to Dover. Or more accurately, it paid 89 lorry drivers, because, in yet more encouraging scenes, the full 150 didnt turn up. The purpose of the exercise was not immediately clear, and given it was the brainchild, which is to say orphan, of Chris Grayling, its likely to remain unknowable. If it was to prepare for no deal, through the staging of a traffic backlog less than one 60th of the size we are planning for, it was rather like preparing for a fight with Mike Tyson by having a not especially aggressive game of Hungry Hippos with a toddler. If it was to frighten the EU into believing we are serious about no deal, it was rather like watching a man with suicidal thoughts bungee jump off Beachy Head to prove hes not bluffing. As we waited in the darkness for this demented dawn chorus to reveal itself, certain sounds and images illuminated the state of the nation at the start of the most perilous hours in its recent history. If the Great British public stand ready to summon the blitz spirit that is needed to get us through this, well someone will have to tell the woman behind the wheel of a Fiat 500 who slowed inexplicably approaching the junction of Manston Road and the A256 to aggressively sound her horn at the gathered masses and at best mouth and at worst bellow the words: F***ing f*** off. The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty On a personal note, from my car radio the morning news bulletins informed me that Boris Johnsons Telegraph column says that no-deal Brexit is closest to what the British people voted for. It is so very tedious to have to say, yet again, that the British people were consistently told, by Boris Johnson, that a deal with the European Union would be the easiest thing to achieve in human history. And yet here we were, not only with no deal literally appearing on the horizon with terrifying intent in all its demented glory, but being told to f*** off by a middle aged woman from the Home Counties driving the least threatening motor vehicle ever made. Anyway, where were we? Independent analysis that is not seriously contested by either Leave or Remain shows that customs delays of just ten minutes per lorry at the Port of Dover will decimate the just-in-time supply chains on which vast amounts of UK manufacturing, from cars to consumer goods, are totally dependent. So it is unfortunate to have to report that this entirely contrived Eddie Stobart carnival, whose vehicles carried no goods, and were not being checked for anything, still managed to set off around 14 minutes after the scheduled departure. Independent analysis that is not seriously contested by either Leave or Remain shows that if a fake traffic jam, organised to make the EU think were serious about doing something we dont want to do, fails to avoid the kind of delay it has been set up to prove it can avoid, whatever nanoscopic vestige of credibility we might theoretically have had will be destroyed in an instant. Which it was. The worlds first, and presumably last, HGV circus was back at Manston in about 90 minutes, having driven to a pre-specified roundabout by the entrance of Port of Dover and come back again. Because it turns out a model traffic jam a 60th of the anticipated size of the real thing isnt really a traffic jam at all. It was, we must assume, the easiest mornings work in haulage history. It proved nothing, other than that there resolutely remains absolutely no high-water mark the madness of Brexit cannot reach. The House of Commons returns to work today. So, what has changed after the Christmas break in regard to Brexit? Nothing, save for the fact that we are just 11 weeks away from the theoretical departure date yet none the wiser as to how we would leave the European Union, or whether we will leave at all. We cannot carry on with this gridlock while the clock ticks down to the potential disaster of no deal. Parliament must not allow it now is the time for the UKs legislature to assert itself like never before. As it happens, it is in the prime ministers interest for parliament to seize the initiative in this way. Whereas the government or an insurgent opposition is usually the controlling mind in the Commons, currently neither frontbench is in control of events. I saw this for myself when ministers capitulated to the demand Anna Soubry and I made through our amendment to the Finance Bill, forcing the government to publish economic impact assessments comparing the various Brexit scenarios against the baseline of EU membership. MPs expect ministers to make more such concessions to avoid being defeated on legislation in the coming weeks. So what happens next? First, the government must not be allowed to delay any further in holding the meaningful vote on her withdrawal agreement with the EU, originally planned for the week of 10 December before the break. The PM said on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show yesterday that the vote will definitely go ahead next week, on 14 or 15 January. But there is no time to waste, and she should hold the vote immediately. The concern is it still might not happen as promised. In any event, MPs have a variety of parliamentary tools at our disposal to illustrate the view of the Commons on the withdrawal agreement. If we dont get the vote, working from the backbenches and cross party, be in no doubt we will use these tools if she seeks to dodge it. If May delivers on her promise to hold the meaningful vote and is defeated as we all expect there has been a suggestion that the government will simply seek to run down the clock and bring her agreement back to the Commons again and again until it is approved. May was asked several times on Marr whether this was her intention and she failed to categorically rule it out. According to Erskine May (the guide book on the rather archaic rules which govern how the Commons works) she shouldnt be able to do it anyway: A motion or an amendment which is the same, in substance, as a question which has been decided during a session may not be brought forward again during that same session. The speaker of the House would be left to decide if some underhand semantics sought to sidestep that rule. Therefore, unless the PM secures substantial and material changes to the withdrawal agreement, the government will very likely be barred from repeatedly putting forward the same motion to approve the same agreement. But what if, having failed to secure Commons approval of her agreement, May announces she is to pave the way for our exit from the EU without a deal? The impact of no deal has been neatly summarised by the independent House of Commons Library here higher trade barriers, delays caused by customs checks of trucks from the EU potentially causing 17-mile queues at the port of Dover, a hard Irish border, possible food shortages and so on. We have a public duty to stop this disaster. There is a majority against a no-deal Brexit in the country and in the Commons but how, legally, can such a scenario be stopped? Domestically, the exit date of 29 March would have to be changed in law. For this to happen it is unclear whether a vote of the Commons will be needed but it almost certainly will need the government to act. More than 200 MPs from across the Commons wrote to May today asking her to rule out no deal. The challenge is that she has already made it clear she will not do so. Also, one thing that did happen during the Christmas period is that Whitehall stepped up its planning for no deal on her instructions. Several ministers have said privately that they will resign if the PM follows this course. Their resignations may reduce what little is left of the PMs authority, but they will not stop the ticking clock in law it will not force her legally to act. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events When it comes to forcing the governments hand, political declarations, non-legally binding motions, symbolic resignations and letters simply will not work. The usual political rules that precipitate action do not seem to apply because if they did then May would have ceased being PM months ago. For example, she was defeated three times on a single day before Christmas, an extraordinary event, and carried on regardless afterwards. If MPs want to change the trajectory we are on, we will need to act with legal teeth. So those of us who have been working cross party to avoid this scenario are going to use guerrilla tactics in the Commons to prevent it from happening we will start by using the Finance Bill again, which returns to the House tomorrow. Two cross-party, backbench amendments to the bill (which implements the Budget) are swiftly gaining support across all sides. Amongst other things, the bill seeks to give ministers special powers to change the tax system to address the scenario of no deal. My Labour colleagues Yvette Cooper and Chris Leslie have put down amendments to make the exercise of these powers subject to parliamentary approval. I have added my name to both amendments Chriss amendment already has more than 40 MPs supporting it. Both will almost certainly be supported by the opposition frontbench and gain enough Tory rebels to be able to carry. The same coalition of MPs could then refuse to allow ministers to exercise these Finance Bill powers if the PM pursues no deal. This, the government cannot ignore. We will employ these kinds of tactics on all legislation from hereon in. The other side of the coin is the need, at an EU level, to secure an extension to the Article 50 process. The EU has been clear: an extension of the Article 50 process for a democratic vote, yes; an extension for more negotiation, no. We may not currently have enough MPs that would vote for a Peoples Vote to make it a reality but once the PMs agreement falls, there is all to play for we believe we could secure the numbers if the opposition whipped its MPs to back it. Uncommitted colleagues on all sides of the Commons who are sympathetic but have misgivings about a Final Say referendum do at least believe a no-deal Brexit must be avoided. The Commons resolving to hold a new public vote really is now the principal way to avoid jumping off that cliff this is the reality as parliament resumes today. Golden moment It was great to see a wealth of UK success overnight at the Golden Globes. This January sees a slew of films where women dominate. We went to see The Favourite, which came out on Friday, starring Olivia Colman (a Golden Globe winner!) as Queen Anne, Rachel Weisz as the Duchess of Marlborough and Emma Stone as the ambitious courtier Abigail Hill. It is a superb, quirky but gripping period drama on the monarch who reigned from 1702 until 1714. This will be followed by Colette, out this Friday, starring Keira Knightley, who plays the French novelist in the lead role, and Mary Queen of Scots, due out next week, with Margot Robbie playing Elizabeth I and Saoirse Ronan as Mary. In all these films it is the women driving events and the story, which is something to be celebrated. Chuka Umunna is the Labour MP for Streatham Hostilities between aviation workers and their employers have resumed across Europe, with thousands of passengers caught up in the first major stoppage of the year. Security workers at Berlins Tegel Airport took industrial action between 5am and 8.45am, the busiest time of the week for outbound departures. The strike triggered cancellations that will disrupt travel through the morning. Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Eurowings are hardest hit, with multiple flights to Frankfurt, Cologne and Munich grounded. Services to Paris, Copenhagen, Basel, Zurich and Vienna are among the international flights cancelled. The airport told passengers: From 5am to 8.45am there will be severe disruption in air traffic. Enquire about the current status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport. Ryanair cabin crew employed in Spain are planning strikes on 8, 10 and 13 January after failing to reach an agreement with Europes biggest budget airline over employment conditions. As is customary in Spain, the government has stipulated a minimum level of operations, which means that all domestic flights and 35 per cent of international services must run. The airline said it planned to operate a full schedule of flights to, from and within Spain on Tuesday 8 January but urged passengers to arrive at the departure airport at least two hours ahead. The latest strike to be called is in Italy on Friday 11 January. Eurocontrol said the four-hour strike, timed for the busiest afternoon of the week from 1-5pm will affect domestic, European flights and long-haul departures, but not overflights or incoming intercontinental flights. Passengers whose flights are disrupted are entitled to a duty of care meals and accommodation until they reach their destination, but the right to cash compensation is disputed. Isis, defending its last strongholds in Syria, has been emboldened to carry out counter-attacks like the one which injured two British SAS soldiers this weekend, by Donald Trump declaring that he is pulling out US forces out of the country, western officials say. The presidents announcement of the Syrian withdrawal, after claiming victory over Isis, and the parallel drawdown in Afghanistan, were the key reasons behind the resignations of defence secretary James Mattis and Pentagon chief of staff Kevin Sweeney, as well as Brett McGurk, Washingtons envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis. Mr Trumps decision has led to grave concerns among US allies, including Britain, which have forces in Syria. His national security advisor, John Bolton, on a visit to Israel a country which fears US forces leaving would spread Iranian hegemony in Syria maintained that the withdrawal would not take place until Isis is defeated and that it would not put Americas partners at risk. But Isis is taking advantage of the uncertainty and confusion to motivate its fighters and launch assaults, according to a number of western military sources. A senior British official drew a comparison with the early announcement of a pullout of the international forces in Afghanistan which was criticised for giving the Taliban the incentive to hang on and keep fighting. Recommended Two British soldiers seriously injured in Syria after Isis attack The attack which injured the two soldiers show that the fight against Daesh [Isis] is by no means over. What happened shows Daesh still have access to potent weaponry, stressed the British official. There is now a real question over whether Daesh are ramping up their operations ahead of the US troop withdrawal to prove that they drove American forces out. It could be similar to what the Taliban tried to do in Helmand in Afghanistan. In the view of a senior American security official: We have got Daesh demoralised, pushed right back, but the mission isnt over and the message must be that we keep hammering them to the end. Instead we get a thing [Trumps statement] like this, saying we are pulling out. It encourages Daesh to stay in the fight and demoralises our allies. We have to continue the campaign to destroy Daesh to end its territorial control. They are a threat to Britain and it is far safer to strike at the threat in places such as Iraq and Syria Gavin Williamson, British Defence Secretary Countries in the anti-Isis coalition, caught by surprise at Mr Trumps withdrawal announcement, are examining what steps to take. The British defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, has stated that the UK commitment will continue. We cannot be complacent about the threat of Daesh. We recognise that we have got to continue to keep a foot on the throat of Daesh. We have to continue the campaign to destroy Daesh to end its territorial control. They are a threat to Britain and it is far safer to strike at the threat in places such as Iraq and Syria, he said recently. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has also indicated that French forces will remain engaged. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Speaking of Mr Trumps move, he said: I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria. To be allies is to fight shoulder to shoulder, its the most important thing for a head of state and head of military. An ally should be dependable. British and European officials have pointed out that, as well as an overall threat posed by the Islamists, there are still foreign fighters in its ranks who can return to carry out terrorist attacks in the west. Among Isis prisoners captured in the latest skirmishes, security sources say, were a group of foreign jihadists including Alexander Rosatovic from Ireland, Warren Christopher Clark and Zaid Abed al-Hamid from the US, and Fadhel Rahman Jad and Abdul Azim Rachout, from Pakistan. Contingents of foreign special forces are deployed alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria where Isis is hemmed into two towns east of the Euphrates River in Deir ez-Zor province. Two injured SAS soldiers now receiving medical treatment in a neighbouring country were on patrol with Kurds when they were said to have been hit by a missile strike during a clash. Although the SDF have been a potent partner for the west against Isis, it is seen by Recep Tayyip Erdogans government as attempting to create a Kurdish state at its borders. Turkish forces have been massing for a projected move against the SDF along with another Kurdish group, the YPG. Trump says Syria is sand and death A Turkish attack against the Kurds risks western special forces being drawn in. Mr Bolton has said: We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully coordinated with, and agreed, to by the United States so they dont endanger our troops and also the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered. The Kurdish groups have begun talks with the Assad regime as well as Vladimir Putins government to handover border areas to Syrian forces in return for a guarantee of internal autonomy for the Kurdish region, Rojava. The Kurds point out they had been left with no alternative following Mr Trumps withdrawal decision. No timetable for the pullout has been drawn up, but Mr Trumps initial demand that it should be within 30 days is not deemed to be feasible for logistical reasons, not least because of the effect of the winter conditions on large-scale road moves. Military planners are said to have asked for a minimum of 120 days to execute a pullout, but the US president insisted that he has not agreed to extending the timeframe. Meanwhile, US officials pointed to a lack of clarity about the future faced by US forces in Syria and Afghanistan. General Robert Neller, the marine commandant, was asked during a Christmas visit to US forces in Afghanistan about Mr Trumps plans. He responded: Thats a really good question, and the honest answer is I have no idea. In another meeting with marines he added: I dont think anybody really knows exactly whats going to happen. Ive read the stuff in the newspaper you did, I have a little more knowledge than that, but not a whole lot more. British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed in Iran since 2016, says guards have cancelled her weekly phone calls with her husband and reduced her food rations, just days after announcing a hunger strike against being denied urgent medical care. The British-Iranian dual national, who turned 40 behind bars over Christmas, was not permitted to make her weekly Sunday phone call with her husband, Hampstead resident Richard Ratcliffe. Guards in Tehrans notorious Evin prison said they would ban communications for any female inmates on Sundays and Thursdays. Her food rations have also been curtailed, a measure said to have been implemented as a cost-saving measure, and one which is affecting the whole ward, her family have said. It came just a few days after she said she would start a hunger strike on 14 January in protest of being barred access to doctors for a breast cancer scare and a painful neurological condition. The women have been told that there will be no phone calls allowed on Sundays and Tuesdays (Nazanins days for calling Richard). Calls on other days will be restricted to 10 minutes. Its not yet known whether Nazanin will be permitted to call her husband again, said Free Nazanin, a support campaign run by her family and friends. Nazanin also confirmed to her family that her food rations in prison have been reduced. This reduction affects the whole ward, and is understood to be a cost saving measure, read the post written on Facebook. Fellow prisoner and hunger striker Narges Mohammadi, one of Irans most prominent activists, was also not permitted to call her husband and children in France. Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 as she attempted to return home to London after holidaying in the country. The Thomson Reuters Foundation employee was separated from her toddler daughter and held in solidarity confinement for eight months, which left her at risk of suicide. She was later handed a five-year jail sentence on espionage charges in a short trial where she was barred proper access to legal representation. Last Friday foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has visited Nazanins family in Tehran, called her incarceration monstrous and totally unjust saying she had been behind bars for half of her daughters life. He added she was being held as pawn of diplomatic leverage. The mother-of-one has been denied treatment for a painful neurological condition in her neck, arms and legs which causes temporary numbness and paralysis. Prison guards have also refused to refer her to specialists after she found lumps in her breasts. Last week she announced that together with Ms Mohammadi, who is serving a 16-year jail sentence, they would start an extendable three-day hunger strike. Ms Mohammadi, 46, has also been barred urgently needed medical assistance. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures 2018 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her daughter Gabriella, in Iran after she was allowed to leave the Iranian prison, she is being held in, for three days. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. Iranian authorities accuse her of plotting against the government. Her family denies this, saying says she was in Iran to visit family. Free Nazanin Campaign/AP Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella. Nazanin is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow Iran's government. PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures June 2016 Richard Ratcliffe's daughter Gabriella had her British passport confiscated and was stranded in Iran with her grandparents after her mother Nazanin was jailed. He left left a giant birthday card on the doorstep of the Iranian embassy in central London to mark her second birthday in June 2016. PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin has spent some of her prison sentence in solitary confinement. PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella. Family Handout Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures July 2016 Richard Ratcliffe delivering a letter of petition with his mother Barbara Ratcliffe and MP Tulip Siddiq, to 10, Downing Street on the 100th day of her detention, on July 12, 2016. Getty Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Supporters of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe held a vigil outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to mark her 707 days in captivity. Getty Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures January 2017 Richard Ratcliffe holds a '#Free Nazanin' sign and candle during a vigil for for wife on January 16, 2017. The vigil, being held outside the Iranian Embassy in London marks one year since the Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and other US-Iranian dual-nationals were released from prison in Iran. Getty Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin with her daughter Gabriella before they were detained by Iranian authorities. Change.org Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures September 2017 Gabriella, who is three-years-old in this picture, has now spent two years away from her mother. Richard Ratcliffe Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures November 2017 Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meets with Richard Ratcliffe over Nazanin's case. They meet just days after Johnson told a parliamentary committee that she was in Iran "training journalists". WPA Pool/Getty Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures November 2017 Actor Emma Thompson braved pneumonia to support Richard Ratcliffe in leading demonstrators before a march in support of Nazanin in November. Reuters Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures November 2017 Richard Ratcliffe after the march said: 'It is profoundly moving to see so many people here.' REUTERS Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures November 2017 A picture of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe shown on Iranian state TV as part of a report that made fresh allegations against her. They said she had been recruiting for banned broadcast services, as well as 'opposition cyber teams'. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures December 2017 Iranian president Hassan Rouhani greets British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at the presidential office in Tehran, Iran. Johnson visited Tehran to discuss the fate of detained Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. EPA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella. PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures December 2017 Photos of Richard Ratcliffe and his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on display at their home in north London. Mr Ratcliffe said he believed there was "still a chance" she may be released from an Iranian prison in time for a dream Christmas together. Unfortunately that didn't happen. PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures February 2018 Richard Ratcliffe delivers a petition and a letter addressed to the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to demand her release, at the Iranian Embassy in London on February 21, 2018. He also left support letters for his spouse in the country's embassy, amid a visit by a deputy foreign minister. AFP/Getty Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures August 2018 Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt meeting Richard Ratcliffe. Hunt has pledged to do everything possible to secure the release of a charity worker jailed in Iran Jeremy Hunt/PA Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in pictures August 2018 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her daughter Gabriella, in Iran after she was allowed to leave the Iranian prison, she is being held in, for three days. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. Iranian authorities accuse her of plotting against the government. Her family denies this, saying says she was in Iran to visit family. PA Mr Ratcliffe told The Independent the family feared his wife was not strong or well enough to survive the strike. He has called for an urgent meeting with the Iranian ambassador to London to discuss her case. I think it could be a really tough January for us we are still half hoping that something moves so that [the hunger strike] doesnt happen, he added. The Free Nazanin campaign, meanwhile, urged the authorities to allow the women contact with their families fearing it could have a serious psychological impact on them. They have suffered enough, the group said. Egypt inaugurated one of the Middle Easts largest cathedrals on Orthodox Christmas Eve, just a day after a deadly bomb blast targeted a church in the capital. Security was tight as President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi opened the Nativity of Christ in Egypts New Administrative Capital, 45 kilometres east of Cairo, ahead of Coptic midnight mass. On the same day, the countrys former military chief also opened one of the regions largest mosques in the same area. It was a bold move in Egypt where extremist groups including Isis have repeatedly attacked the countrys embattled Coptic community, who make up an estimated 10 per cent of the 100 million-strong population and face mass discrimination. Just a day before the inauguration a policeman was killed, and two others injured, trying to defuse a device which had been placed on the rooftop of a mosque near a church in the Nasr City district of Cairo. "This is an important moment in our history," President Sisi said at the event which was attended by several foreign dignitaries including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit. We are one and we will remain one," he added, referring to Egyptian Christians and Muslims. Coptic Pope Tawadros II, who later led the mass, said: On this day we see you have fulfilled this promise and here we are witnessing a great opening on this grand occasion. US President Donald Trump was quick to applaud the opening. "Excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East. President Al-Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future," he tweeted on Sunday. The security forces were taking no chances at the event which was held in a nearby hotel. Worshippers had to pass through three sets of metal detectors, while armoured vehicles and dozens of ambulances were stationed nearby. A documentary screened at the opening said that the cathedral has the capacity to hold 8,000 people, making it the largest in the Middle East. The nearby Al-Fattah al-Aleem Mosque can hold nearly double that number. Both are located in the new administrative capital, a major development the Egyptian government hopes will supersede crowded Cairo in the coming years. President Sisi attends the inauguration of what Egypt claims is the largest cathedral in the Middle East (MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images)) But many fear the cathedral will only become the target of future attacks in the country that since the 2013 military overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi has been rocked by shootings and suicide bombings claimed by groups like Isis. Mr Sisi stormed to power in 2014 promising to protect the Christian community, who make up one of his most loyal support bases. But religious rights activists say that Christians in Egypt do not enjoy the same rights as their Muslim counterparts and are not properly protected by the security forces. More than 100 Copts have been killed in jihadist attacks since December 2016 alone. In November Isis claimed to be behind the deadly shooting of a bus of Christian pilgrims in Minya, in which six Copts and one Anglican were killed. Militants killed a further 40 people in twin church bombings in April 2017, and an Isis gunman in December of that year gunned down nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb. Christian worshippers attend Orthodox Christmas mass and the inauguration of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Egypt's New Administrative Capital (MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images) Many fear Mr Sisis fierce crackdown on Mr Morsis Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders have been rounded, killed or forced to flee, has only radicalised islamist youth which has fed recruitment drives by extremist groups. Several major military operations in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where most of the jihadi groups are anchored, has also failed to curb the killings. Hundreds of tourists, police officers and soldiers have also died in the attacks. In late December, a roadside bomb near the famed Giza pyramids killed three Vietnamese visitors and their Egyptian guide. In 2015 militants claimed to have detonated a bomb on a Russian passenger jet after it left the South Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. No one claimed responsibility for Saturdays bomb, which was placed inside a bag on top of al-Haq Mosque in Nasr City, Cairo. A French cardinal will go on trial for his alleged failure to report a paedophile priest who confessed to preying on Boy Scouts. Nine alleged victims of the Reverend Bernard Preynat have summoned Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 68, as a defendant in France's most prominent clergy sex abuse case yet. Another archbishop, a bishop and the Vatican official in charge of sex abuse cases also are among the defendants ordered to court in the southeastern city of Lyon to answer allegations of a cover-up. This trial is an action to move justice forward, said Alexandre Hezez, 44, who spoke to the cardinal directly about Preynat and is among those who brought the case to trial. Mr Barbarin sought counsel on how to handle abuse accusations against Preynat from the Vatican official, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who recommended disciplinary measures while avoiding a public scandal. Recommended Pope expels cardinals implicated in sex abuse cases from adviser roles However, Mr Ladaria won't be present during the three-day trial since the Vatican has invoked his diplomatic immunity. It could not extend the same protection to Mr Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon since 2002. Pope Francis has praised him as brave and said French justice should take its course. Mr Barbarin, who maintains his innocence, encouraged Preynat's alleged victims to take their reports of being abused during the 1970s and 1980s to judicial authorities. Preynat, who is in his 70s, wrote letters to some families confessing the abuse, and is to be tried separately on sexual violence charges involving 10 children. The victims' allegation of a cover-up that allowed Preynat to be in contact with children until his 2015 retirement was thrown out in 2016 for insufficient evidence. They took the matter into their own hands and put it back on the docket through a direct approach available as a recourse in France. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The difficulty in bringing the case to trial reflects the challenges that victims of clergy abuse encounter. It also comes as demands are soaring for a public reckoning for both abusers and those in the church hierarchy who hid such acts. There has been a dramatic change in the zeitgeist. The #MeToo movement has come for the pope and his bishops, said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a victims' group. The demands for accountability and transparency are coming faster than the Vatican can contain them. For his part, Mr Barbarin expects to be acquitted, his lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani, said in an interview. He said his client never obstructed justice because the statute of limitations had passed on the acts in question by the time Mr Barbarin was informed. The tableau depicting the Lyon diocese as protecting Father Preynat is false, Mr Luciani said. It's very difficult for him to be accused of things he didn't know about. If found guilty of failing to report the priest's actions, the defendants could face up to three years in prison and a 45,000(40,282) fine. Mr Barbarin and some other defendants are also charged with failing to assist a person in peril. Numerous child sex abuse claims have been made against Catholic clergy in France since the end of the 1990s. In a first in Europe, a Normandy bishop, Pierre Pican, in charge of Bayeux and Lisieux, was given a suspended three-month sentence in 2001 for failure to denounce such crimes. The priest in question, Rene Bisset, was given an 18-year prison term. Years of news about the Lyon case due to the dozens of heinous acts alleged by victims and the high stature of Mr Barbarin have cast a shadow over the diocese and the French Catholic Church. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Last November, the Bishops of France created an ambitious commission aimed at shedding light on sexual abuse of minors in the church since 1950. A report is due in 2020. That same month, however, a Catholic priest claimed he was punished by church leaders in France after he gathered more than 100,000 signatures for a petition urging Mr Barbarin to resign over his handling of the Preynat case. The Reverend Pierre Vignon said he was told he'll no longer be considered for the church court where he has served as a judge since 2002. The 12 bishops overseeing southeast France where he ministers gave no reason. But for Mr Vignon, it showed that church leaders are still divided about how to deal with sexual predators in the clergy and the whistleblowers who demand action against them. For Ms Barrett Doyle, the trial will put accountability for alleged injustice into the hands of the law. Whatever the outcome of the case against Barbarin, his presence in a secular courtroom ... will mark the victory of the rule of civil law over the Vatican's failed strategy of containment and secrecy, she said. AP A Belgian ban on the Muslim and Jewish ways of ritually slaughtering animals went into effect on New Years Day, as tensions grow across Europe over the balance between animal welfare and religious freedom. With both animal welfare advocates and right-wing nationalists pushing to ban ritual slaughter, religious minorities in Belgium and other countries fear they are the targets of bigotry under the guise of animal protection. It is impossible to know the true intentions of people, said Yaakov David Schmahl, a senior rabbi in Antwerp. Unless people state clearly what they have in mind, but most anti-Semites dont do that. Laws across Europe and European Union regulations require that animals be rendered insensible to pain before slaughter. For larger animals, stunning before slaughter usually means using a captive bolt device that fires a metal rod into the brain; for poultry it usually means an electric shock. Animals can also be knocked out with gas. But slaughter by Muslim halal and Jewish kosher rules requires that an animal be in perfect health which religious authorities say rules out stunning it first and be killed with a single cut to the neck that severs critical blood vessels. The animal loses consciousness in seconds, and advocates say it may cause less suffering than other methods. Most countries and the EU allow religious exceptions to the stunning requirement. Ann De Greef, director of Global Action in the Interest of Animals, a Belgian animal welfare group, insisted that stunning does not conflict with kosher and halal doctrine, and they could still consider it ritual slaughtering, but the religious authorities refuse to accept that. Belgium, with a population of about 11 million, is home to roughly 500,000 Muslims and more than 30,000 Jews. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Leaders of both groups say they hope that lawsuits they have filed in Belgiums Constitutional Court might lift the ban on slaughtering without stunning later this year. The government asked for our advice on the ban, we responded negatively, but the advice wasnt taken, said Saatci Bayram, a leader of the Muslim community. This ban is presented as a revelation by animal welfare activists, but the debate on animal welfare in Islam has been going on for 1,500 years. Our way of ritual slaughtering is painless. New York Times Australian model and actress Annalise Braakensiek has been found dead at her home in Sydney. Police were called to her apartment on Sunday afternoon after friends and family raised concerns about her whereabouts. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the 46-year-olds death, according to the ABC. Braakensiek found success modelling in the US and Europe after being discovered as a 16-year-old by a photographer at Sydneys Bondi Beach, and later began acting starring in Australian soap opera Home and Away as well as the SBS program Fat Pizza. She also made regular appearances on panel shows and in comedies. Between 2002 and 2003, she was a co-host alongside Bruce Forsyth on UK game show Play Your Cards Right. She had also been a lingerie and jewellery designer, as well as promoting animal and cancer charities. She was a high-profile figure in Australia and fought a public battle with depression. She split from her husband stockbroker Danny Goldberg last year after 16 years, posting to her 39,000 Instagram followers afterwards: I dont know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces. In December she wrote: Lifes challenges have been deep, dark, difficult, demanding and down right scary lately. In 2017 she became an ambassador for RUOK? An organisation which encourages people to ask questions about mental health. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty On their website, she wrote: I urge you to remember that even the smallest gesture, the simple sincere question of R U OK? can quite literally turn a life around. On learning of her death, the organisation said she was loved and respected. We are still processing the news we have heard today, said chief executive Brendan Maher. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events We couldnt have asked for a more genuine, kind and sincere spokesperson, he added. A US guided-missile destroyer has conducted a patrol near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, which are claimed by China, to challenge excessive maritime claims, a Navy officer said. The USS McCampbell carried out a freedom of navigation operation, sailing within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Island chain, Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr said. The operation was not about any one country or to make a political statement, she added. China lodged stern representations over the action, its foreign ministry said. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular briefing the US operation had violated Chinas law and urged the US to stop such actions. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty It comes as US officials join talks in Beijing during a 90-day truce in a bitter trade war. Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed to put a spiralling trade dispute on hold in December. Mr Trump has imposed tariffs on China to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from corporate espionage to market access and industrial subsidies. China retaliated with tariffs of its own, sparking a tit-for-tat exchange that has raised prices on goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars. China condemns presence of US warship in South China Sea China claims almost all of the strategic waters in the South China Sea and frequently complains about the US and its allies carrying out freedom-of-navigation operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Competing claims in the region have been made by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan. China and the US have repeatedly quarrelled over what Washington says is Beijings militarisation of the South China Sea, through which around $3trn (2.3trn) of shipborne trade passes each year. China has built military installations on artificial islands and reefs, constructions it defends as necessary for self-defence. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Beijing contends Washington is responsible for increasing tensions in the region by sending warships and military planes close to islands it claims. Several Jewish teenagers have been arrested in connection with the fatal stoning of a Palestinian woman in the West Bank, Israels internal security agency said. The agency, the Shin Bet, said in a statement that the suspects, who were not identified because they are minors, were under investigation for grave terrorism offences, including murder. The Palestinian woman, Aisha Rabi, who was in her 40s, was struck in the head by a stone as she rode in a car with her husband and two daughters near the settlement of Rehelim, in the occupied West Bank, on the night of 12 October. Her husband, Yaqoub Rabi, who was driving, said at the time that he believed the culprits were Jewish settlers and that he had heard them speaking Hebrew. The Shin Bet said Aisha Rabi was the mother of nine children. The five suspects are students of Pri Haaretz, a yeshiva high school for Orthodox boys in Rehelim, according to authorities. The morning after the Friday night attack, the Shin Bet said, activists set out by car from the settlement of Yitzhar for Rehelim, where they briefed the students on how to prepare for, and deal with, Shin Bet interrogations. That journey would have aroused suspicion, officials said, since driving on the Sabbath is generally forbidden for observant Jews, and Yitzhar is a religious settlement. Lawyers representing three of the detained minors, who were arrested a week ago, were first granted access to them at around midnight on Saturday. As we have asserted from the start, our clients are not connected in any way to the case, the lawyers said in a statement after the visit, adding that the Shin Bet had no evidence connecting the suspects to the act. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Our clients underwent trying days and suffered the extremely inappropriate conduct of the Shin Bet interrogators, said the three lawyers, Adi Keidar and Nati Rom of the right-wing legal aid organisation Honenu, and Itamar Ben Gvir. There has been speculation that the students suspected of throwing stones at cars were taking revenge for an attack a week earlier, when a Palestinian gunman fatally shot two Israeli workers in an Israeli-run factory in the West Bank. New York Times Authorities in Saudi Arabia will not say what has become of Saud al-Qahtani, a powerful royal adviser who Saudi prosecutors allege played a major role in the events that led to Jamal Khashoggis killing in Istanbul three months ago. In the seven weeks since the government said he was under investigation, only rumours have filled the silence. He was spotted recently in the coastal city of Jeddah, a resident said, and in the offices of the royal court in the capital, Riyadh, according to a person who works with the government. Other accounts put Mr Qahtani, once a top aide to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, in a remote corner of the kingdom, laying low. The governments treatment of Mr Qahtani is being closely watched in Washington and other foreign capitals as a test of whether Saudi Arabia is sincere about prosecuting everyone found to be involved in Mr Khashoggis killing, including senior officials. Recommended UN questions fairness of Saudi Khasoggi murder trial Even then, the many unanswered questions surrounding Mr Qahtanis role include whether he helped hatch the plot, as some Saudi officials allege, or is a fall guy served up by the government. The CIA has concluded with medium to high confidence that Crown Prince Mohammad likely ordered the Khashoggi operation. Saudi officials say the crown prince was unaware of the plot, and some of them privately suggest it was a misguided plan by Mr Qahtani to demonstrate his loyalty to his boss. The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment about whether he is free, detained or under indictment. Mr Qahtani did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on his whereabouts. A person close to the Saudi royal court said he believed Mr Qahtani was under house arrest but could not be sure. On Thursday, Saudi Arabias general prosecutor said 11 defendants had appeared in court for the first time, but the prosecutors office did not release their names, or say if Mr Qahtani was among them. A US official said in a conference call with reporters that the Trump administration was pleased to see the beginning of the trial but added that the legal process had not yet hit that threshold of credibility and accountability. Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Show all 7 1 /7 Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Jamal Khashoggi Washington Post journalist who was critical of the Saudi regime and the young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he was murdered on 2 October in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul AFP Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Heir to the Saudi throne, Mohammed bin Salman has been implicated in the murder, with US officials claiming that he must have known of the plot AFP/Getty Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures 15 man hit squad Turkish police suspect these 15 men of being involved in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, issued 10 October, 8 days after the journalist disappeared EPA Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Saud al-Qahtani Aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saud al-Qahtani is claimed to have ordered Khashoggi's murder Saud Al-Qahtani/Twitter Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb A former diplomat who often travelled with the Crown Prince, Mutreb was initially claimed to be the leader of the hit squad and is pictured here entering the Saudi consulate on the day of the murder AP Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Mustafa al-Madani First implicated in the 15 CCTV photos released by the Turkish police, al-Madani was later found to have been used as a body double for Khashoggi, leaving the Saudi consulate dressed in his clothes on the day the journalist was killed CNN Jamal Khashoggi death: key figures Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi (L) Son of the murdered journalist met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on 23 October EPA The last detailed government comment on Mr Qahtani was on 15 November, when prosecutors said he was under investigation and had been forbidden from leaving the kingdom. That same day, the Trump administration said it had imposed sanctions on Qahtani, calling him part of the planning and execution of the operation that led to the killing of Mr Khashoggi. The Saudi government said Mr Qahtani had been fired from his post as royal court adviser. But the lack of clarity on his status and the various reported sightings of him have raised questions about whether he continues to wield influence behind the scenes. Some argue that Mr Qahtanis fate is beside the point. They say the more urgent question is whether Saudi Arabia has taken steps to repudiate the repressive policies that he has come to represent. According to human rights groups, Mr Qahtani was intimately involved in the governments arrests of critics and rivals to the crown prince, alleged torture of detainees and aggressive pursuit of the kingdoms critics abroad. Saudi officials have called Mr Khashoggis death a tragic mistake but cast it as an isolated incident that does not represent the governments policies. A cabinet shakeup last month that added a few seasoned ministers was seen as a tacit acknowledgement by the Saudi leadership that the crown prince was in need of more prudent counsel. But it was a far cry from reforming the system, said Hala al-Dosari, a longtime Saudi human rights activist who lives in the United States. The only thing they changed is the people, she said. They didnt take any steps to revise the portfolios he handled since he was appointed, including the arrests and abuse of the women activists and other prisoners of conscience, she added, referring to Mr Qahtanis role in the detention and alleged abuse of a group of womens rights activists. Saudi Arabia has promised a transparent investigation into the killing of Mr Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post who vanished soon after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Saudi and Turkish authorities both said the culprits were members of a 15-person team of Saudi agents that were sent to Turkey and that Mr Khashoggis body was dismembered after he was killed. Attention focused on Mr Qahtani almost as soon as the killing was revealed. From his powerful post as a media adviser to the crown prince, he was a pugilistic defender of his policies on social media and the ringleader of an online effort to harass the kingdoms critics. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Mr Qahtani had also played a central role in the Saudi effort to bring exiled critics, like Mr Khashoggi, back to the country. Saudi government officials have said that effort was focused on returning dissidents through negotiations despite what happened to Khashoggi and accounts of forced repatriations. After initially denying any role in Khashoggis disappearance, the Saudi government acknowledged in mid-October that he had been killed by Saudi agents and said Mr Qahtani and several other officials had been fired, for unspecified reasons. The government added more detail weeks later, when prosecutors announced that their investigation had found the killing was the result of a botched attempt to bring Mr Khashoggi home alive. Prosecutors said that members of the Saudi team in Istanbul had disobeyed their orders and decided to kill the journalist if he did not accompany them willingly. Recommended Saudi crown prince bin Salman confronted over Khashoggi murder at G20 Mr Qahtani, who knew Mr Khashoggi, met with the Saudi team before they left for Turkey to share with them information relevant to the mission based on his specialisation in media, according to a government summary of the prosecutors investigation that referred to Mr Qahtani only as the adviser. Mr Qahtani expressed his belief that the victim was co-opted by organisations and states hostile to the Kingdom and that the victims presence outside of Saudi Arabia represents a threat to national security, the summary said, referring to Mr Khashoggi. Some Saudi officials, shaken by the global backlash, have privately invoked Mr Qahtanis name as a way of assigning blame for decisions that have embarrassed the crown prince, including the brief detention in 2017 of Lebanons prime minister while in Saudi Arabia. Mr Qahtani had served the royal court for more than a decade, but his reputation as a nationalist, hawkish enforcer coincided with crown princes rise to power, analysts said. He embraced the role with zeal. People familiar with the detention conditions of Saudi womens rights activists who were imprisoned last year have in recent weeks said that Mr Qahtani personally supervised the torture of at least two of the women. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events One of them, Loujain al-Hathloul, was abused by six security officers in a secret detention facility several months ago. As they forcibly kissed her while subjecting her to electrical shocks, Mr Qahtani sat in the room watching his men and taunting her, according to two people who were briefed on her detention. In the past few weeks, some Saudi citizens have vocally defended Mr Qahtani on social media. One person posted a message on Twitter saying a rumour campaign had targeted Mr Qahtani and Ahmed al-Assiri, a former senior intelligence official who prosecutors have also named in the plot that killed Mr Khashoggi. Fahad al-Ahmadi, a Saudi journalist with 272,000 followers, retweeted the message, and added: No one doubts their loyalty to the homeland. Washington Post The British government has warned tourists visiting the Indian state of Kerala to "remain vigilant" and to avoid "large public gatherings" as unrest over women being admitted to the Sabarimala temple continues. "If you're in Kerala or due to travel there, you should monitor media reports closely," the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned in updated advice for people travelling to the state, which remains a popular tourist destination. Kerala was thrown into disarray in September after India's Supreme Court ordered that a ban on women entering the pilgrimage site should be lifted. Two women, Bindu Ammini and Kanaka Durga, made history by becoming the first women to enter the temple earlier this week. They travelled under the cover of darkness and were escorted by police officers. A third woman, from Sri Lanka, entered the temple with her husband on Thursday night. Millions of Indian women in Kerala form 385-mile 'wall' for gender equality The women are now in hiding and the news has caused a major public outcry, involving violent clashes, protests and a state-wide strike. Until last year women had been banned from the Sabarimala temple, which is one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites. The temple is devoted to the celibate Hindu god Ayyappan, and the ban on women aged between 10 and 50 has long been justified by worshippers who point to the god's celibacy and argue that menstruating women are unclean. Clashes between police officers and protesters have erupted this week, with Kerala's left-wing state government supporting feminist groups who say that the ban is discriminatory. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party both support temple authorities, who have refused to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling. One person has been killed and 15 injured in the uproar as demonstrators call for the ban to be reinstated. Women are now allowed to trek to the second highest peak in the southern Indian state of Kerala sparking concerns that a new crisis looms. Violent protests swept Kerala last week after two women entered one of the holiest temples in India. One person was killed and 15 injured after clashes and schools across the state were closed and public transport suspended. Women of menstruating age defined as between 10 and 50 had been legally barred from praying at the Sabarimala temple in Kerala since 1972. An informal ban existed before that but Indias Supreme Court caused outrage in some quarters by lifting the ban in September 2018. The state forest department has also lifted a long-standing ban on women trekking to Agasthyarkoodam a peak in a popular trekking trail in the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary after the Kerala High Court revoked the ban in a landmark judgment on 30 November. The top of the Unesco heritage site has been informally off limits for women for decades but the Kerala forest department issued a circular in 2016 explicitly saying women could not apply for a trekking permit. Alarm bells have been raised that local tribesmen could retaliate if women hike towards the mountaintop. Officials said scores of women registered online for permission to trek to the pinnacle when bookings opened for the January-March hiking season on Saturday. But this is despite an unnamed regular trekker telling Indian newspaper The Hindu that the website remained mysteriously offline. Neyyar tribes are furious about the lifting of the ban because they believe the peak is the home of a celibate god. The Kerala High Court acted on a petition filed by womens organisations when it overturned the ban. The court said there was nothing offensive about women trekking to the peak, which is named after the mythical Hindu sage Agastya, and there was no aim to wound the religious sentiments of the tribes. Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Show all 40 1 /40 Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India A man removes debris from a collapsed house after floods in Paravur Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An ariel shot of Kerala from Thiruvanpuram Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Murgan and his family clean up their house in Mundancavu village at Chegannur upon returning home after the flood waters receded Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India People assess damage caused by floods on the outskirts of Kochi AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Men paddle their boat through the lawns of a partially submerged church at Kuttanad in Alleppey district Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Sandhya Biji and her son in front of their damaged house on the banks of Pamba river Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Border Security Force distribute food food and water to the residents who are stuck in their houses as well who have not vacated houses because of the flood water in interior places at Allapy Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India A damaged house on the banks of Pamba river Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Murgan cleaning up his house Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An aerial view shows partially submerged houses at a flooded area in the southern state of Kerala Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Murgan and his family clean up their house Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India People are airlifted by the Indian Navy soldiers during a rescue operation Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India People wait for aid on the roof of their house Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian volunteers and rescue personal evacuate local residents AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian people use a boat to rescue an elderly man in the flooded water in Kochi EPA Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An aerial view shows partially submerged houses at a flooded area in the southern state of Kerala Reuters Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An Indian woman watches residents walking through flood streets next to their marooned houses AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian army personal evacuate local residents AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian commuters wade through flooded streets AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India People move past a flooded road in Thrissur AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Water gushes out following heavy rain and landslide in Kozhikode AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Fire and Rescue personnel evacuate local residents in an inflatable boat from a flooded area at Muppathadam near Eloor AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian residents look at the Shiva Temple submerged AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Roads and houses engulfed in water following heavy rain and landslide in Kozhikode. AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India People look at vehicles stuck in the mud AFP/Getty Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India A young man wades through a flooded street in Kochi EPA Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Rescue operations being conducted at the landslide location at Kuttampuzha AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An elderly woman is rescued in a cooking utensil AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Local residents look at a partially destroyed house after heavy monsoon rains led to a landslide in Kannappankund AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An Indian woman sits inside her house immersed in flood waters in Ernakulam district of Kochi AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian fire and rescue personnel evacuate local resident AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India A woman stands at the door of her flooded home in Kochi EPA Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India India residents stand on the shore as Periyar river flooded AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India An Indian man carries a basket of bananas next to houses immersed in flood waters AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Laborers hailing from northern states wade through flood waters as they shift to higher ground AP Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan (L) along with opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala (2L) visit relief camp in Chengamanadu Government Higher Secondary School AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Athirampally Falls EPA Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India EPA Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Indian residents look at houses destroyed by flood waters at Kannappankundu AFP/Getty Images Kerala floods: heavy monsoon rains lead to deaths in India Kochi's International airport apron flooded AFP/Getty Images However, it said no puja the act of worship or religious offerings should be made at the Agastya temple atop the mountain. The forest department has said there will be no special consideration for women trekkers indicating that no additional facilities would be provided for them while hiking. While they say women were not allowed to trek to the peak because of the difficult terrain, the Kani community, which has been opposed to womens entry, argued it would infringe on their traditional rights of worship. Forest officers have increased security along the path. This comes after the police were forced to intervene in clashes between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules India, and Communist Party workers last week. The BJP opposes the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, while the Communist government of Kerala is in favour of womens right to pray there. Millions of Indian women in Kerala form 385-mile 'wall' for gender equality The two women escorted by police and dressed in black entered the gold-plated temple, which is on a hilltop in a tiger reserve and is one of the countrys largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, to pray early last Wednesday. Bindu Ammini, 40, and Kanaka Durga, 39, who are in hiding and have been given police protection, entered the shrine around dawn making history by becoming the first women to do so. A third woman, a Sri Lankan national named Sasikala, is thought to have entered the temple at around 11pm on Thursday. Hostility between Hindu traditionalists and supporters of the lifting of the ban has remained high in Kerala in recent months. Thousands of Hindu devotees, many of whom were female, succeeded in stopping women from accessing the site in the weeks after the ruling. Some flung stones at police and assaulted female journalists. Ancient people had test tube babies, guided missiles and a range of aircraft, according to controversial claims made at a gathering of leading Indian scientists. And what's more, Einstein and Newton were wrong, the same meeting has been told. A major conference in India has been the subject of vociferous protests after it allowed a series of speakers to make a range of "irrational and unscientific" claims. The Indian Science Congress was opened by prime minister Narendra Modi this week, but has been overshadowed by the various, widely-ridiculed suggestions made by some speakers. Those included suggestions that Einstein had tricked the world, that Newton was mistaken about the theory of gravity he proposed, and that a range of newly invented technologies were actually discovered in India a long time ago. One session saw a researcher mock the claims of many of the world's greatest physicists and claimed that he had reached bigger breakthroughs that proved them wrong. He also suggested that gravitational waves should be renamed "Narendra Modi waves". And the most controversial of the claims came during a lecture in which a researcher attempted to link current science with ancient Indian texts. Gollapalli Nageswara Rao, the vice chancellor of Andhra University, suggested that Hindu mythology contained many of the advances that were actually discovered far more recently. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary He referred for example to a story in the Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit text, in which a woman gives birth to 100 children. Such a breakthrough was only possible because of stem cell technology of the kind only recently pioneered, he said. Even today, many people dont understand what stem cell is, he said according to local reports. But thousands of years ago we had this technology. In an angry blog post, the government's science advisor K VijayRaghavan blasted the decision to invite the speakers. He said Rao's claims were "scientifically completely untenable" and that it was unfortunate he had given the talk at the congress. He called on other scientists to reject the claims, which he labelled pseudoscience, and to stop allowing such absurd claims to enjoy such significant attention. The speeches have been met with outcry from India's scientific community, which is holding a variety of protests in an attempt to stem the spread of the claims. The organisers of the conference also distanced themselves from the speeches, saying that the talks were "unfortunate". A Saudi teenager who fears her family is trying to kill her fought off a deportation attempt in Bangkok by barricading herself in a hotel room and calling for help on social media. Eighteen-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was detained by Thai immigration officials on Saturday while she was on her way to Australia to claim asylum. She was due to be sent back on a flight on Monday, but she instead blocked the doors of her room and took to Twitter to appeal to the United Nations and human rights organisations to prevent her being sent back. Im calling for all people inside the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me to Kuwait, she wrote on Twitter. Please I need u all. Im shouting out for help of humanity. Following a flurry of attention and demands from rights groups that her deportation be halted, Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said Ms Qunun would be allowed temporary entry to the country for the UN to evaluate her case. "We and UNHCR will talk to her and ask her what her wishes are, whether she wants to request asylum," he told a news conference. The United Nations' refugee agency said it has been in contact with Ms Qunun in order to asses her "need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation". Images later emerged of her being led from the airport with UN staff. The incident comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is under increased scrutiny over its rights record in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the use of rendition against activists to silence opposition. Women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from travelling without the permission of a male guardian. Ms Qunun was only able to travel on her own because she had been in Kuwait, which doesn't have the same law. Ms Qunun said she was fleeing her abusive family, and regularly suffers beatings and death threats from her brothers. My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait, Ms Qunun told Reuters on Sunday. They will kill me. My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things. She added that she had been imprisoned for months inside her house, and suffered "physical, emotional and verbal abuse." Rights groups had called for Thai authorities to remove the threat of deportation and allow her to apply for asylum. Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee, said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will, he said. Thai immigration authorities said Ms Qunun was refused entry because she did not have the proper documents. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not at the Supreme Court today as it convenes for the first day of oral arguments in 2019 - the first time she's missed a day at court in more than 25 years. Although Ms Ginsburg is still recovering from her surgery last month to remove two cancerous nodules from her lung, she will be able to vote on cases by reviewing the oral arguments transcripts, the court said. The 85-year-old was released from the hospital two weeks ago following her surgery in December. Doctors discovered the cancerous nodules when she was hospitalised for fractured ribs from falling in her office in November. Ms Ginsburg returned to work shortly after the falling incident. The court said there was no evidence of any cancerous disease following her surgery. The justice has won two bouts against cancer in the past: In 1999, she underwent surgery for colorectal cancer, and in 2009, she received treatment for early stages of pancreatic cancer. Recommended Ruth Bader Ginsburg back to work 72 hours after lung cancer surgery Ms Ginsburg has said she will continue to serve on the Supreme Court as long as she is able to do so. I said I will do this job as long as I can do it full steam, Ms Ginsburg said in December at an interview following the New York City screening of On the Basis of Sex, a feature film about the justices younger years as a young lawyer. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events It was reported last year that Ms Ginsburg has hired law clerks for two more court terms, hinting that she plans to stay on the Supreme Court through at least 2020. In addition to championing civil rights and womens rights issues, the Notorious RBG is also known for her rigorous daily workout routine. She is also known for never missing a day of oral arguments in her 25 years of sitting on the court. Former vice president Joe Biden is in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president, and has told allies he is sceptical that another candidate could defeat Donald Trump. Mr Bidens assessment anticipates a clash between the veteran Washington insider and the more liberal and fresh-faced contenders for the partys 2020 nomination. Many Democratic voters, and nearly all major Democratic donors, are keenly interested in Mr Bidens plans because of their consuming focus on finding a candidate who can beat a president they believe represents a threat to American democracy. Mr Biden would instantly be the early front-runner if he ran. But he would have to bridge divides in a primary that would test whether Democrats are willing to embrace a moderate white man in his seventies if they view him as the best bet to oust Trump. He has the best chance of beating Trump, hands down, said senator Tom Carper, Mr Bidens long-time friend and former colleague. On a scale of one to 10, thats probably about a 12 for us. Recommended Joe Biden has a strategy for the presidential run However, Mr Bidens scepticism about the field could alienate female and minority voters who are excited that several women and African-Americans are expected to run. Nominating a white man may also rile some Democrats who are already torn about whether a woman could win in 2020 after Hillary Clintons loss. Some Democrats are sceptical that a relatively moderate candidate like Mr Biden, who has baggage such as supporting the 1990s crime bill which is loathed on the left, would prevail in the primary. It is expected he would deliver a message of unity and national healing, rather than the fiery and uncompromising brand of populism that Democratic primary voters elevated in the midterm elections. In 2020, Biden-style centrism will become a toxic and losing brand of politics in Democratic primaries, said Waleed Shahid, a left-wing activist. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The 76-year-old former vice president, who leads the field in initial national and Iowa polls, has not yet told his allies that he has decided to run. But Mr Biden has indicated that he is leaning towards running and will most likely make a decision within the next two weeks, according to Democrats within and beyond his inner circle who have spoken to him recently. New York Times The man who shot and killed six people during a 2016 shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan pleaded guilty on Monday. Jason Dalton, a former Uber driver, opened fire in a series of seemingly random shootings at an apartment complex, car dealership and outside a restaurant on February 20, 2016. The string of shootings killed six people and injured two others. Prosecutors said they would accept his plea if the 45-year-old defendant took responsibility for his actions and plead guilty on all counts against him. The motion came during jury selection. Dalton plead guiltyagainst the advice of his attorney Eusebio Solison all counts to protect his family and spare grief for the victims families who are reliving the tragic incidents, CNN affiliated WOOD reported. Daltons sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 5. He faces a mandatory life in person sentence without the possibility of parole, the Kalamazoo County prosecuting attorney said. During Daltons preliminary hearing in May 2016, Tina Carruthersa survivorrecounted the moments before he shot her when she took her daughter and four other children to a park nearby her apartment complex. Speaking to the court, Ms Carruthers said she and others were walking through a parking lot when a silver SUV nearly ran them over. The man driving the vehicle then asked if she was Macy or Maisie. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Dalton then interrupted Ms Carruthers in court. No, they gave bags, these old people, they have these old black bags, that are called -- theyre black, theyre black bags that people drive around and people look at them, Dalton said. It gets real bad, its time people look and thats when they tell the people its time to get to temple. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Dalton then attempted to stand, but court officers quickly restrained him before dragging him out of the courtroom, CNN reported. Ms Carruthers, still on the stand, screamed. She was quickly surrounded and comforted by her legal team and supporters. They escorted her out of the courtroom. Young Muslim men across the United States spent their weekends cleaning up litter and trash from national parks impacted by the partial government shutdown that has gone on for 17 days and counting. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Associationa nationwide youth organisation of young Muslimsgrabbed their brooms and trash bags and cleared trash from parks operating with very limited staff. The group were seen cleaning up Independence Hall in Pennsylvania, Everglades National Park in Florida, Joshua Tree in California, and Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio. On Sunday, the National Park Service said it would be using funds derived from entrance, camping, parking and other fees collected from park visitors to provide immediate assistance and services to highly visited parks. Typically, those funds are used to pay for future park projects. Recommended Muslim youth group helps Houston residents during Harvey We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services, the park service said in a statement. But the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association is giving a helping hand. Its just what we do, Sarmad Bhatti, 23, told The Washington Post while taking out the trash from bins alongside Independence Avenue in the nations capital. If theres an opportunity to serve, that is what Muslims do. A volunteer in Philadelphia told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the cleanups were an opportunity to challenge growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the country and around the world. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Theres a lot of false things that are against Islam and how they teach hatred and to hate your neighbour, but were actually told to love our neighbour and to help the neighbourhood around us, Zubair Abaidullah, 17, told the Inquirer while cleaning up wet cigarette buts and litter. Madeel Abdullah, the associations president, released a statement saying that the most important parts of Islam include service to our nation and cleanliness. We could not sit idly by as our national parks collected trash, the statement said. We will lead by example and dispose of this garbage appropriately and invite all Americans to join us in these parks and others across the nation. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The association consists of Muslims following the Ahmadiyya secta religious movement founded in India in 1889 that believes its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and not Prophet Muhammad, is Islams final messenger. Some mainstream Muslim groups often accuse Ahmadis for perverting Islam since it is widely believed that Jesus is the messiah and Prophet Muhammad is the last messenger of God. In result, a lot of Ahmadi Muslims are often persecuted in countries, like Pakistan, by the government and vigilantes. Despite this theological schism, Ahmadislike the other Islamic Sunni, Shia, and Sufi sectsalso believe in the five pillars of Islam and all of the other major principles of the faith. There are about 20,000 Ahmadi Muslims, including Academy Award winning actor Mahershala Ali, living in the US. With the partial US government shutdown running into its third full week, the impact that a withheld paycheck can have on services is starting to show in the form of chaos and massive lines at airports where maintaining personnel is becoming something of a challenge. While President Donald Trump has dug his heels in on his demand for $5.6bn to fund his long-promised border wall and Democrats have refused to budge on the issue themselves agents with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) whose paychecks are threatened have been staying home and calling out sick, leaving behind big lines in a system that is already known for crawling at a snails pace. If you don't have a check to pay your bills, what are you going to do? Rudy Garcia, president of the American Federation of Government Employees 1040 local, the union for Dallas TSA employees, told NBC News. You will look for something outside of what you're doing now. At the Dallas Fort Worth airport, for instance, 5.5 per cent of the TSA agents there called out on Friday, compared to the 3.5 per cent who call out on a typical day, TSA assistant administrator for public affairs Michael Bilello wrote on Twitter on Friday. In New York Citys LaGuardia International Airport, meanwhile, TSA call outs led to massive lines that snaked around terminals on Sunday. One employee of Delta Airlines could be heard pleading with travellers to be patient with the agents who had come to work. Recommended Muslim youth groups clean up national parks during government shutdown Ive never seen the line in LaGuardia that bad, John, a traveller who asked that his last name not be used, told ABC News. And I probably take the shuttle 40 to 50 times each year, 25 round trips. The partial government shutdown began at midnight on the Friday before Christmas Day, and has forced hundreds of thousands of government workers to work without pay or be told to stay home until funding is re-established. For some, including government contractors who cannot expect back pay once the government shutdown ends, the shutdown has forced them to grapple with creative ways to pay rent and keep food on the table. one worker, Juli Burr, told CNN that she had set up an online fundraiser to help with her expenses. "I was given the advice to set up a GoFundMe and I made a goal of approximately two months of salary because I wasn't sure how much this would last," Ms Burr said. "That's going to help get us through. It helped with my January rent and more than likely will have to help with February rent also. So right now I'm relying on that". As difficulties continue on the ground in airports, pilots and pilot associations have urged politicians in Washington to end the shutdown citing concern for passenger safety should the circumstances persist indefinitely. "At the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) there are fewer safety inspectors than are needed in order to ensure the air traffic control infrastructure is performing at its peak levels of performance, Captain Joe DePete, the president of the pilot union the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a statement. There are also airline and aircraft manufacturing oversight activities that either stop or are significantly reduced. These safety and oversight inspections will potentially allow for the introduction of safety issues that put passengers and airline crews at risk". Beyond those immediate impacts, the shutdown is expected to have lasting consequences for other aspects of aviary travel, with air traffic controller associations noting that they are already understaffed and disruptions to their training programmes could have a ripple effect that lasts for years. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty We are already in a critically staffed situation, and with the shutdown, the training pipeline has been cut short and there is no relief in sight, Andrew LeBovidge, the leader of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNN. Training has stopped ... and we will feel the ripple effects of the lack of personnel for months if not years to come. Mr Trump and congressional leadership have shown little sign that the standoff over the $5.6bn in border funding will conclude any time soon, with the president saying last week during a meeting at the White House that he would let the shutdown last months or years if necessary. That threat came just after Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives on Thursday, ushering in the second speakership of Representative Nancy Pelosi who has vowed to deny Mr Trump his wall funding. But, while Democrats have officially taken more power in Washington, the president has ramped up his messaging to try and gain support for funding for his cornerstone campaign pledge. Just after Ms Pelosi was sworn in as speaker, Mr Trump appeared in the White House press room alongside representatives from one of the leading Border Patrol unions, who all asserted that a physical barrier is needed to secure the American border. Mr Trump plans on continuing that campaign to build public support for his wall, and on Tuesday plans on addressing the nation from the Oval Office during a rare prime time speech to explain his position. He is scheduled to then visit the border himself later in the week. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Democrats, for their part, quickly passed a government funding bill on Thursday evening in the House, but the measure has not been approved by the Senate or sent to Mr Trumps desk for consideration. At least two Republicans have indicated that the government shutdown has lasted long enough, and that Mr Trump should sign a bill to fund the government and end the disruption. An Arkansas police officer has been placed on administrative leave after he was shown on video shooting a small dog in the face. The Faulkner County Sheriffs Office said Deputy Keenan Wallace was relieved of his duties after footage of him opening fire on the Chihuahua while responding to reports of an aggressive dog began circulating on social media. County Sheriff Tim Ryals said in statement that Mr Wallace had numerous opportunities to de-escalate the incident. Our department is [saddened] about this incident and apologise for any distress and disappointment this incident has caused anyone who was affected by this disheartening event," he said. We will keep Reeses in our thoughts through the recovery process. In the video, Mr Wallace can be seen speaking to a resident as two small dogs run around on the grass after he arrives at the property in Shiloh Estates subdivision in Conway, located about 30 miles north of Little Rock. He then asks the dogs owner, Doug Canady, to come to the road to speak with him. When Mr Canady refuses, the deputy begins walking to him as the dog begins barking. He then threatens to shoot one of the dogs if it became too aggressive. About 20 seconds later he does just that. Deputy Keenan Wallace was 'relieved of his duties' after footage emerged of him opening fire on the Chihuahua (Faulkner County Sheriff's Office) In the video, Mr Canady can be heard saying: Im recording you right now. I just recorded you shooting that dog in front of me putting me in danger. The deputy responded, saying: "No, I didnt, the shot hit the dog, what I aimed at. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The dog, named Reeses, survived the shooting with a broken jaw and bullet in the face. He is currently under the care of a Little Rock veterinarian. A GoFundMe has been set up for the canine has almost raised the $14,000 (11,000) goal. Close Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty to groping charge Actor Kevin Spacey appeared at a Massachusetts court over a criminal charge that he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old male at a bar in Nantucket. The Nantucket allegations were first raised by former Boston television journalist Heather Unruh, who told reporters the former House of Cards star groped her teenage son on July 7, 2016, at a restaurant and bar where he worked. Spacey pleaded not guilty. He is charged with indecent assault and battery, which is a felony. If convicted, the he faces a maximum of five years in prison and would be required to register as a sex offender. Spaceywearing a paisley shirt, blue tie and a grey suitentered the small standing-room only courtroom crowded with locals and journalists. He did not speak throughout the entirety of the hearing. Although Spacey said earlier that he would plead not guilty, he was not asked to enter a not guilty plea. Recommended Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty to sexually assaulting a teenager Under Massachusetts law does not require the defendant to state their not guilty plea. In the arraignment hearing, Judge Thomas S Barrett granted Spaceys attorney request to preserve cloud and cellphone information for six months after the date of the alleged crime for evidence. The evidence in question is a one-second Snapchat video the alleged victim sent to his girlfriend. The video footage reportedly shows a hand grabbing a clothed area. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The alleged victim is being represented by Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer with a prolific history of prosecuting predatory priests in the diocese. The House of Cards actor tried to avoid appearing in court for his arraignment hearing, arguing that his presence will amplify the negative publicity already generated in connection with this case, in a motion filed by his legal team. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events But on Monday, Judge Thomas S Barrett said Space will not be required to appear in physical form for his preliminary hearing. Instead, he must be available to reach by phone. Prosecutors did not request bail for Spacy. He was told to not contact the alleged victim or any witnesses. His next court date is March 4. Follow events from the court appearance as they happened Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, as he appeared in court for the first time to face charges that he groped an 18-year-old in 2016. The 59-year-old actor and former artistic director of Londons Old Vic theatre is accused of inappropriately touching an employee of the Club Car, a restaurant and bar on Nantucket an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts on the evening of 7 July. He is charged with indecent assault and battery, which is a felony. If convicted, the Hollywood star faces a maximum of five years in prison and would be required to register as a sex offender. Spaceywearing a paisley shirt, blue tie and a grey suitentered the small standing-room only courtroom crowded with locals and journalists. The actor did not speak during the hearing, and was not asked to enter a not guilty plea. Under Massachusetts law, this happens automatically, and the defendant does not have to state it. The two-time Oscar winner had tried to avoid appearing in court for the arraignment, with his lawyers arguing that his presence would turn the hearing into a circus. But on Monday, the Judge Thomas S Barrett said Spacey will not have to be physically present for his preliminary hearing, his next court date, on March 4. Instead, the actor must be available by phone. The prosecutors did not request bail for Spacey. He also nodded slightly when told he was to have no contact with the alleged victim or witnesses. The judge also granted Spaceys lawyer request to preserve the alleged victims cloud and cellphone data for six months after the date of the alleged assault for evidence. The evidence in question is a one-second Snapchat video the alleged victim sent to his girlfriend. The video footage shows a hand grabbing a clothed area. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The star had to fight through a huge media scrum to make it from his car to the courthouse for the ten-minute hearing. During his hurried walk out of the courtroom, reporters shouted questions at Spacey. "What are you feeling today Mr Spacey?" one person asked. The actor did not answer the question, or any at all, and did not mutter anything else as he walked to his car. As he got into his SUV, an onlooker can be heard shouting "Underwood 2020!" a reference to his hit Netflix television series House of Cards. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The downtown Nantucket courthouse is a couple of blocks from the water and a short walk from the lounge where the alleged incident took place. His accuser is being represented by Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer known for leading the prosecution of predatory priests in the diocese. Sexual misconduct allegations were first brought forward in October 2017 at the height of the #MeTooMovement, which centered on allegations against former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Actor Anthony Rapp said that Spacey made sexual advances towards him about 31 years ago. Mr Rapp said that the House of Cards actor allegedly climbed on top of him at a bed during a party. At the time, Mr Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. In response, Spacey said he did not remember the alleged incident, but apologised for his deeply inappropriate drunk behaviour. At least 22 immigrants have died in the custody of US immigration enforcement since President Donald Trump took office, including some individuals who had been longtime legal residents of the United States from all over the country. Thats according to a new analysis from NBC News, which found that the deaths in American detention centres included individuals from far-away places like Vietnam, or from countries a bit closer to home like Mexico. The analysis follows less than a month after two high profile deaths of immigrants in US custody, both children under the age of 10. One death is too many, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said last month during congressional testimony after the death of the first child. The 22 deaths include at least one transgender woman, Roxana Hernandez, who died within two weeks of being taken into US custody. Hernandez had travelled from Honduras to the US-Mexico border, where she sought asylum. The deaths appear to highlight shortcomings in the American immigration detention system, which has been cited in at least three Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General reports as having poor treatment and lax oversight. But Ms Nielsen said during her testimony that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres have some of the highest standards in the world. The 22 deaths in the past two years are among the 188 detainee deaths in ICE custody since 2003, when the Department of Homeland Security was formed. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Since becoming president, Mr Trump has overseen a shift in Americas approach to immigration enforcement that has been criticised by some for eliminating discretion from the process. The policies pushed forward by the Trump administration has included practices of separating families at the US border, even those seeking asylum in the US. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Trump administration has also seen an uptick in the number of non-criminal undocumented immigrants being targeted by US immigration services, even though deportation levels have dropped compared to the rate seen during the Obama administration. A Tennessee woman who was convicted of murdering a man who picked her up for sex during a time when she says she was a trafficking victim has been granted clemency, nearly 15 years after being sentenced to life in prison. Cyntoia Brown, 30, was tried as an adult at the age of 16 for killing a 43-year-old man while they were in bed. Brown said that she believed at the time that he was reaching for a gun, and that she feared for her life before she shot Johnny Allen in 2004. Allen was said to be paying her for sex. Governor Bill Haslam granted her full commutation to parole on Monday, making her eligible for release on 7 August. Brown will then remain on parole for 10 years. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16, Mr Haslam said in a statement. He continued: Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Recommended Tennessee executes death row inmate using electric chair Browns case had become a rallying point for criminal justice reform advocates, leading more than a half million people to sign petitions for her release online. Among those advocating for her release have been a slew of celebrities including LeBron James, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian West, Meek Mill, and Amy Schumer. Brown, who has earned her GED and an associates degree while in prison, thanked Mr Haslam and her supporters in a statement released on Monday. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Thank you, Governor Haslam, for your act of mercy in giving me a second chance, Brown said. I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The news was met with praise from Democratic politicians in the state, and by members of the black clergy there. Justice has been served, thank you Governor Bill Haslam for granting Cynthia Brown full clemency offering a second chance at life, state Senator Brenda Gilmore wrote on Twitter. Reverend Davie Tucker, who leads a Nashville church, told USA Today that the news was emotional and tells a tale of redemption and forgiveness. Im crying, said Tucker, who pushed for clemency. For her to get another chance at life and the political pressure that Gov Haslam had to wade through to come to this decision, that brings tears to my eyes. Soldiers attempted to seize power in oil-rich Gabon by taking over a national radio station and calling on the people to rise up while ailing president Ali Bongo is out of the country. The group, calling itself the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabon Defence and Security Forces, stormed into a studio in the capital Libreville early on Monday morning. Its leader, who identified himself as Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, deputy commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the army wanted to restore democracy. Flanked by two other men holding weapons and dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets, he also called on the Gabonese to join Operation Dignity and take over airports, ammunition bunkers and means of transport. A few hours later government spokesperson Guy-Bertrand Mapangou claimed the situation was under control. Describing the plotters as a group of jokers, he said two suspects had been killed and seven had been arrested. However, activists supporting the coup insisted it was still ongoing. Mr Bongo, 59, has been away from Gabon since he suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia in October. He recently addressed the country in a new year message while receiving treatment in Morocco and insisted he was feeling better. In his statement, Lieutenant Obiang said that the Mr Bongos appearance reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events It is time to take our destiny in hand, he said. The time has come when the long-awaited day has arrived. This day the army decided to stand with its people to save Gabon from chaos. Wake up your neighbours rise up as one and take control of the street. He also said the coup was being carried out against those who, in a cowardly way, assassinated our young compatriots, a reference to deadly clashes between protesters and police after Mr Bongo was declared the winner of the 2016 election. The president won by fewer than 6,000 votes but the European Union said it found anomalies in the province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 per cent on a 99.9 per cent turnout. Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory Show all 10 1 /10 Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A supporter of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping prays in front of security forces blocking a demonstration trying to reach the electoral commission in Libreville as another protestor lays on the ground in distress AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A wounded supporter of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping lies on the ground in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory Supporters of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping face security forces (unseen) blocking the demonstration trying to reach the electoral commission in Libreville, as part of a protest sparked after Gabon's president Ali Bongo was declared winner of the contested election AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A man reportedly wounded during unrest in Libreville is attended to by paramedics at a hospital AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A Gabonese soldier runs to take position as supporters of opposition leader Jean Ping protest in front of security forces blocking the demonstration trying to reach the electoral commission, in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A supporter of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping, holding a flag of Gabon, faces riot policemen blocking the access to the electoral commission in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A protester runs amid tear gas canisters during confrontations with the police in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory Gabonese soldiers run to take position as supporters of opposition leader Jean Ping protest in front of security forces blocking a demonstration trying to reach the electoral commission in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory A distressed supporter of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping is carried away as protestors clash with anti riot policemen in Libreville AFP/Getty Images Violent clashes break out in Gabon as President Ali Bongo declares victory The flash of an explosion is pictured amid flames and smoke billowing from the National Assembly building in Libreville after it was set ablaze by demonstrators protesting after Gabon's president Ali Bongo was declared winner of the contested election Gabon's national assembly was set ablaze on August 31, 2016 evening by angry protestors who took to the streets after an announcement that President Ali Bongo had been re-elected, witnesses said."The whole building is catching fire," a man at the scene who gave name as Yannick told AFP. / AFP PHOTO / MARCO LONGARIMARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Witnesses described hearing sporadic gunfire in the capital Libreville and said soldiers fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 300 people who gathered outside the radio station to support the attempted coup. Military tanks and armed vehicles patrolled the streets, a curfew was imposed and the internet and electricity were cut. Services were restored at around 8.30am local time. The coup was condemned by both the African Union and former colonial power France, which still has a permanent military force of 300 soldiers in Gabon. We condemn any attempt to change government outside constitutional rules, French foreign ministry spokesperson Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement. Gabons stability can only be ensured in strict compliance with the provisions of its constitution. The 8,900 French citizens registered in the country were advised to avoid moving around Libreville. I reaffirm the AUs total rejection of all unconstitutional changes of power, said African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat in a tweet. Mr Bongo took over as president in 2009 following the death of his father Omar, who ruled Gabon for 42 years. The attempted coup comes just days after Donald Trump announced that US armed forces had been sent to Gabon because of the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eighty personnel were deployed in response to the possibility that violent demonstrations may occur following the elections on 30 December, he said. Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press A leading human rights lawyer has warned a no-deal Brexit would be be illegal because of the real and immediate risk to life. Jonathan Cooper, who was awarded an OBE for his work in 2007, says the government would be knowingly putting the British public in danger if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement. Citing threats ranging from a shortage of medicines to a breakdown in law and order, he argues the result will be unlawful under the Human Rights Act and the international human rights treaty obligations. As a matter of human rights law, as well as the common law, the UK Government cannot deliberately expose people to policies that risk a loss of life, he argues in an article for The Independent. The fact that a no-deal Brexit will mean deaths that would not have occurred otherwise, demands that the UK Government cannot contemplate no deal. The Government knows that there is a real and immediate risk to life by pursuing no deal. As a matter of the UKs constitutional framework, no deal is simply off the table. No deal breaks the law. Mr Cooper, a member of Doughty Street Chambers, says that litigation to stop a no-deal Brexit will be inevitable and cases may end up before the European Court of Human Rights. The prospect of British cancer patients standing before the European Court simply pleading to stay alive and to put a no-deal Brexit on hold will be the ultimate indignity for Theresa Mays Brexit strategy, he adds. Worse still for the prime minister is that, in the event of no deal, investigations into the loss of life under these circumstances will be carried out in public and responsibility for deaths will be attributed. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events He also claims that the UK could be held to account at the UN and before the European Court of Human Rights even if an act of parliament was passed mandating a no-deal Brexit. Human rights laws would not prevent Brexit, but they do require a human rights-compliant Brexit, he writes. The warning came as the government began testing its contingency plans to ease congestion on roads to Dover in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village, said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters Police are preparing for disorder and protests and defence secretary Gavin Williamson has said 3,500 troops will be on standby in the event of a crisis. Plans to stockpile vital blood products and medicines were announced last year but last month health secretary Matt Hancock said there could be up to six months of drug shortages. Boris Johnson has caused a major stir with his one of his first appointments as the new Conservative leader, after asking the highly controversial "mastermind of Brexit" to be his senior adviser in government. Dominic Cummings, who chaired the Vote Leave campaign and was previously an adviser to Michael Gove, will return to government in the coming days - this time in No10 as one of Johnson's most influential aides. Cummings is seen by many as the evil genius who delivered Brexit, a role that became the basis of Channel 4 drama The Uncivil War about the referendum campaign. To others, he is a brilliant thinker with a record of driving through radical policy changes. Cummings was the brains behind the notorious 350m-a-week for the NHS claim emblazoned on bright red buses, despite it being proven to be false, and the winning take back control slogan. As the head of Vote Leave, he also made a show of refusing to work with Brexit bad boys Nigel Farage and Arron Banks while admitting his campaign relied on their toxic anti-immigration messages. Intriguingly, just one year after the referendum that turned Britain on its head, he was branding it a dumb idea and admitting that future generations might well view leaving the EU as an error. Recommended Theresa May wrestles with EU and Tory rebels in scrambles to save deal Cummings was found in contempt of parliament in 2018 after MPs said he had refused to appear in part of a Commons committee to give evidence about Vote Leave campaign as part of an investigation into fake news. Parliament's committee of privileges condemned his failure to appear before the digital, culture, media and sport committee and concluded that "his attitude did not serve the interests of civilised public debate". It means that parliament could, in theory, instruct the serjeant at arms to apprehend Cummings if he enters the Palace of Westminster in his new role. A number ofcomments made by Cummings in recent years also make his return to government particularly controversial. In an article earlier this year, he described some members of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Eurosceptics, who Mr Johnson will need to do a better job than Theresa May of keeping onside, as "useful idiots". Writing in The Spectator, he attacked the "narcissist-delusional subset of the ERG, who have spent the last three years scrambling for the 8.10am Today slot while spouting gibberish about trade and the law across SW1". He added: "You were useful idiots for Remain during the campaign and with every piece of bulls*** from [veteran Tory Brexiteer] Bill Cash et al. you have helped only Remain for three years." Last year, he said the government's management of Brexit was a "train wreck" and claimed that Ms May's decision to trigger Article 50 without a clear negotiating position was like "putting a gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger". He has previously described David Davis, the former Brexit secretary and a supporter of Mr Johnson, as "thick as mince" and "lazy as a toad". People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS Cummings is also likely to face questions over his past support for a second Brexit referendum. In 2015, a year before the Leave vote, he wrote: "As a matter of democratic accountability, given the enormous importance of so many issues that would be decided in an Article 50 renegotiation a far, far bigger deal than a normal election it seems right to give people a vote on it." He is one of several senior figures in the Vote Leave campaign who are expected to be given key jobs by Johnson. Rob Oxley, the campaign's head of media, is expected to become the new prime minister's press secretary, while Lee Cain, Vote Leave's head of broadcast and a long-time ally of Johnson, is tipped to be director of communications. Oliver Lewis, the Leave campaign's research director, is likely to be appointed as the new government's main Brexit negotiator in Brussels. Before his pivotal role in the Brexit campaign, Cummings was chief of staff to Michael Gove, the then education secretary. He was seen as being behind a series of contentious reforms to the education system. In the one-off Channel 4 drama The Uncivil War, Cummings, feared in Whitehall for his bruising style, is played by Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch. Some reviewers thought he is portrayed as reckless or even unhinged, but accepted Brexiteers might, in fact, believe Cummings was being painted as a charismatic and brilliant hero. The writer, James Graham, has said he aimed to capture the views expressed of the campaign director at Westminster which varied from antichrist and pseudo-intellectual to genius and the messiah. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Cummings himself, speaking in February 2017, was in no doubt that his decision to campaign on the alleged NHS bonanza while benefiting from the unscrupulous Farage approach was the trump card. Would we have won without immigration? No, he wrote. Would we have won without 350m/NHS? All our research and the close result strongly suggests no. Would we have won by spending our time talking about trade and the single market? No way. But the genius who delivered Brexit? Boris Johnson himself might have something to say about that. Reassurances by the EU to help Theresa May get her Brexit deal through parliament could be limited to a non-binding exchange of letters, under plans being considered by the European Commission. Such a limited move which would not include any actual changes to the agreement would be highly unlikely to convince Tory MPs to back the plan, which looks set to be rejected by a large margin when it comes before the Commons next week. Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker are expected to speak on the phone this week to discuss the state of play, as the formal Commons debate kicks off ahead of the vote next week. But the EU has once again ruled out even meeting with UK negotiators to discuss any actual changes to the agreement, with a spokesperson telling reporters in Brussels on Monday: There wont be any meeting as such, because negotiations have been completed. The spokesperson added that Brussels would follow closely the ratification process in the UK. The Independent reported at the weekend that any further reassurances are not expected to go as far as the full legally binding commitment as demanded by Tory MPs. Such a text with legal status would require yet another summit which EU leaders are not prepared to hold after having already been dragged back to Brussels in November for an extra meeting. Downing Street confirmed they were seeking written reassurances in the coming days but said that what form they might take was subject to discussion. The Guardian reports that officials are considering an exchange of letters containing a written but non-binding pledge to try and secure a trade deal by 2021 the end of the transition period. This date is important because it would be the point the controversial backstop kicks in if no trade deal is negotiated by under which Northern Ireland and Great Britain would be placed under different regulatory regimes. Unionists are opposed to such a state of affairs because they see it as a breach of the UKs sovereignty. The content of the letter would be a political commitment and not legally enforceable and is unlikely to be enough to assuage rebellious Tory MPs. They cannot expect a legal commitment to land complicated negotiations by December 2021, one EU official told the newspaper. We do not want to make ourselves legally culpable for a situation that we cant control. At the December meeting of the European Council in Brussels EU leaders already confirmed that it was the blocs firm determination to work speedily on a subsequent agreement that establishes by 31 December 2020 alternative arrangements, so that the backstop will not need to be triggered. "Brexit betrayal" march in London Show all 43 1 /43 "Brexit betrayal" march in London "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a sign in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carrying a noose at the "Brexit betrayal" march. The man carrying it told a reporter: "That's what the traitor May deserves." AP "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit supporters hold a sign opposed to Nigel Farage Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters carry a defaced British flag on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson addresses a rally after taking part in a Brexit 'betrayal' march in central London PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London Police officers attempts to keep rival protesters from clashing at the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London Victoria Jones/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-Theresa May sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator and his dog Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator at the protest Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit demonstrators endorse UKIP Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A Brexit 'betrayal' march protester wearing a Make Britain Great Again hat in London on 9 December 2018 Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The "Brexit Betrayal" march passes through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson tells protesters to join Ukip via their mobile phones on stage next to leader Gerard Batten (right) at the Brexit 'betrayal' march Gareth Fuller/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester speaks thorugh a megaphone on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator walks in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carries a Union Jack on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator wrapped in the Union Jack Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro brexit demonstrators move through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator marches with sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a rude sign in the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march passes down Victoria Street near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A festive protester marches near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a mock noose as the march passes down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester wrapped in the Union Jack marches down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester makes some noise on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester dressed as a dinosaur holds a sign rallying against "Davocracy" - in reference to the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a pro-brexit sign on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march approaches parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester distributes pro-brexit lapel badges Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A demonstrator wears an anti-EU poster and holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A smoke bomb is deployed in Parliament Square as the march comes across the counter-demonstration Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A flag bearing the Arms of Plantagenet flies in theprot Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent One official described any further letter as a copy and pasting exercise based on material that was already present such as the withdrawal agreement and the statement issued in December. A previous phone conversation between Mr Juncker and Ms May on Friday was described by a Commission spokesperson as friendly, though no details were provided about what was discussed. They spoke to each other, by telephone, it was a friendly conversation, theyll be talking again this week. There is no negotiation because everything on the table has been established as approved, achieved. The priority now is to await events, monitor what is happening, the ratification procedure on the UK side, the spokesperson said More than 200 MPs from across the Commons have signed a letter to the prime minister urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. The letter, which has been signed by both Leave and Remain supporters, was organised by the former Conservative cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labours Jack Dromey. Dame Caroline told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour: Crashing out of the EU without a deal will cause job losses and bring to an end the renaissance of manufacturing that weve seen in regions like mine in the West Midlands, and both Jack Dromey and I know the human interest and impact of this. All signatories to the letter have been invited to meet Theresa May in Downing Street on Tuesday. The prime minister is also hosting drinks receptions for Tory MPs on Monday and Wednesday as part of a charm offensive to win support for the Brexit deal. While the letter does not bind the signatories to supporting the prime ministers deal, Dame Caroline said it offers a platform which would stabilise the economy and offer reassurance to businesses. We are united on one thing we want to protect jobs and livelihoods by making sure we dont crash out without a deal, she said. If parliament gives expression to not wanting to crash out without a deal, it means effort has got to be renewed to find an agreement which is acceptable to a majority of parliamentarians. Taking a step back and at least agreeing were not going to crash out without a deal means that on 29 March were not just going to fall over the cliff edge. Ms May has warned that the UK will be in uncharted territory if the deal is rejected in the vote, expected on 15 January. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events However, the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has dismissed warnings against a no-deal Brexit, branding them downright apocalyptic while claiming leaving the EU without an agreement in place is an outcome that is by some margin preferred by the British public. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said: We must hope that Theresa May really does remove the backstop from the withdrawal agreement, in such a way as to give real legal protection to the UK. Failing that, we should approach the challenge of leaving on WTO terms in a way that is realistic and sensible, but also with the optimism and self-confidence displayed by the majority of the British public. He said the UK didnt vote for anything like Theresa Mays withdrawal agreement, adding: It is no deal or WTO terms that actually corresponds to their idea of coming out, and they view that option with a confidence that is now directly proportional to the growing strength of the governments warnings against it. The prime ministers hopes of getting her deal through parliament were dealt another blow on Sunday as it emerged parliamentary rules will prevent her bulldozing her Brexit deal through by staging multiple repeat votes until the Commons surrenders. The tactic increasingly seen as the prime ministers only hope of rescuing her unpopular agreement is explicitly barred by procedures to stop the government bullying the legislature, they say. Additional reporting by agencies Theresa May faces battles on two fronts as she scrambles to secure support for her Brexit plans ahead of a critical vote next week. It emerged on Monday that despite Ms Mays push for more substantial concessions to win over Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, Brussels will offer little more than a letter with additional non-binding assurances over British concerns. In London she also needs to head off a cross-party attempt on Tuesday to bind the governments hands over tax policy in the event that her government heads for a no-deal Brexit. Recommended The fatal mistake Theresa May made when selling her Brexit deal to MPs On the first day back in the commons after Christmas, Brexit speculation over Ms Mays next steps intensified, with aides continuing a push to garner support for her proposals from Conservative rebels, some of who were invited to another meeting at No 10. Part of her strategy will likely be a pledge that the UK will sign a new trade deal by 2021 at least, in a bid to persuade MPs that the UK would not be stuck in an indefinite customs union with the EU after Brexit. To bolster this, the EU would also publish a letter containing a non-binding pledge to secure the trade deal by that time, the end of the transition period. Downing Street confirmed they were seeking written reassurances in the coming days but said that what form they might take was subject to discussion. But in a sign of the EUs resistance to providing anything more substantial, an official said in Brussels on Monday that there would be no meeting between British and EU Brexit officials, because negotiations have been completed. Anna Soubry stops BBC interview as Brexit protesters call her a Nazi The Independent reported at the weekend that concessions likely to be offered by Brussels would not be substantial enough to require the sign off of a full European Council summit. Minister Margot James warned Tory Eurosceptics that if they opposed Ms Mays deal, the prime minister may have to delay Brexit. Boris Johnson arrives to a reception at No 10 (EPA) But one Conservative MP, speaking to The Independent, said of the 2021 pledge: Clearly this wont be enough to avoid defeat next week. She or the EU will have to come up with more or its difficult to see where, if anywhere at all, her plans go after that. Asked if people were likely to change their minds about Ms Mays deal, another MP heading to Ms Mays drinks party at No 10 joked: Im pretty sure the prime minister is wavering. "Brexit betrayal" march in London Show all 43 1 /43 "Brexit betrayal" march in London "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a sign in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carrying a noose at the "Brexit betrayal" march. The man carrying it told a reporter: "That's what the traitor May deserves." AP "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit supporters hold a sign opposed to Nigel Farage Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters carry a defaced British flag on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson addresses a rally after taking part in a Brexit 'betrayal' march in central London PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London Police officers attempts to keep rival protesters from clashing at the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London Victoria Jones/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-Theresa May sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator and his dog Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator at the protest Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit demonstrators endorse UKIP Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A Brexit 'betrayal' march protester wearing a Make Britain Great Again hat in London on 9 December 2018 Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The "Brexit Betrayal" march passes through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson tells protesters to join Ukip via their mobile phones on stage next to leader Gerard Batten (right) at the Brexit 'betrayal' march Gareth Fuller/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester speaks thorugh a megaphone on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator walks in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carries a Union Jack on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator wrapped in the Union Jack Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro brexit demonstrators move through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator marches with sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a rude sign in the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march passes down Victoria Street near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A festive protester marches near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a mock noose as the march passes down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester wrapped in the Union Jack marches down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester makes some noise on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester dressed as a dinosaur holds a sign rallying against "Davocracy" - in reference to the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a pro-brexit sign on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march approaches parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester distributes pro-brexit lapel badges Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A demonstrator wears an anti-EU poster and holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A smoke bomb is deployed in Parliament Square as the march comes across the counter-demonstration Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A flag bearing the Arms of Plantagenet flies in theprot Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Brexiteers Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers were even heading to Downing Street as the event kicked off on Monday. On Tuesday MPs will move two amendments to the Budget-enacting Finance Bill in a bid to restrict the governments ability to pursue a no-deal Brexit. One tabled by Labour former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper and Conservative ex-education secretary Nicky Morgan, would restrict Ms Mays freedom to make Brexit-related tax changes without parliamentary safeguards. The measure is likely to be backed by the Labour party and also has the support of Tories Sir Oliver Letwin, Nick Boles and Sarah Wollaston as well as Labour chairman of the Brexit Select Committee Hilary Benn. Treasury select committee chairwoman Ms Morgan said: Many of us have been clear that parliament will not allow a no-deal situation to unfold, and with less than 12 weeks to go until March 29 it is time for parliament to show our opposition to a no-deal exit. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events There were indications on Monday night that the government may simply accept the amendment with some experts arguing it would not be as restrictive as some of the MPs pushing it claim. Either way, the governments acceptance of yet another motion put forward in parliament served to highlight the growing confidence of MPs in steering the Brexit debate and the weakness of Ms Mays administration in the commons. A separate measure backed by the Liberal Democrats and other opposition parties would prevent the government collecting key taxes unless parliament has approved its approach to Brexit. Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said his amendment, which has support from the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Green MP Caroline Lucas, allow MPs to assert their authority by making it impossible for the government to collect crucial taxes if they do pursue a damaging no-deal. Responding, Theresa Mays official spokesperson said: In terms of the amendments that are selected, thats obviously a matter for the speaker. As I would say in relation to any amendment, we will look at it. But its important that we are able to take any steps necessary to prepare the UK for leaving the EU, and that includes in a no-deal scenario. Police are investigating whether any criminal offence was committed after an MP was branded a Nazi by Brexit protesters outside parliament. Conservative MP Anna Soubry was verbally attacked while doing live interviews on College Green on Monday. During a discussion on the BBC, people off-camera could be heard shouting Soubry is a Nazi. The development came as dozens of MPs wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to express their "serious concerns" about the "deteriorating public order and security situation" outside Parliament. A cross-party group of at least 55 MPs signed the formal letter to Cressida Dick criticising a "lack of co-ordination" in the response from the police and appropriate authorities despite assurances incidents before Christmas would be dealt with. John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, has also called on police to step in after the incident, which was filmed while the Tory politician was speaking to the BBCs Simon McCoy. While discussing the prospects for Theresa Mays deal with the European Union, Ms Soubry paused the interview to draw attention to the abuse being shouted at her. A small group of far-right protesters could be clearly heard shouting: Soubry is a liar, Soubry is a Nazi. Breaking off mid-sentence and pointing at the protesters, Ms Soubry said: I do object to being called a Nazi, actually. This is astonishing. This is what has happened to our country. But lets try and move on and be positive about things. Mr McCoy was forced to apologise to any viewers who were offended by the clearly audible abuse before continuing with the interview. Mr Bercow told the Commons on Monday he was keeping a close eye on events involving aggressive and threatening behaviour towards MPs. There had been what seems to be a pattern of protest targeted in particular at women, he said, before adding that female MPs and journalists had been subjected to aggressive protest and what many would regard as harassment. He added: The House authorities are not technically responsible for the safety of members off the estate. That is and remains a matter for the Metropolitan Police, but naturally I take this issue very seriously and so, I am sure, do the police who have been made very well aware of our concerns. "Brexit betrayal" march in London Show all 43 1 /43 "Brexit betrayal" march in London "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a sign in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carrying a noose at the "Brexit betrayal" march. The man carrying it told a reporter: "That's what the traitor May deserves." AP "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit supporters hold a sign opposed to Nigel Farage Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters carry a defaced British flag on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson addresses a rally after taking part in a Brexit 'betrayal' march in central London PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London Police officers attempts to keep rival protesters from clashing at the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London Victoria Jones/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-Theresa May sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator and his dog Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator at the protest Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit demonstrators endorse UKIP Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A Brexit 'betrayal' march protester wearing a Make Britain Great Again hat in London on 9 December 2018 Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The "Brexit Betrayal" march passes through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson tells protesters to join Ukip via their mobile phones on stage next to leader Gerard Batten (right) at the Brexit 'betrayal' march Gareth Fuller/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester speaks thorugh a megaphone on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator walks in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carries a Union Jack on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator wrapped in the Union Jack Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro brexit demonstrators move through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator marches with sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a rude sign in the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march passes down Victoria Street near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A festive protester marches near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a mock noose as the march passes down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester wrapped in the Union Jack marches down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester makes some noise on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester dressed as a dinosaur holds a sign rallying against "Davocracy" - in reference to the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a pro-brexit sign on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march approaches parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester distributes pro-brexit lapel badges Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A demonstrator wears an anti-EU poster and holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A smoke bomb is deployed in Parliament Square as the march comes across the counter-demonstration Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A flag bearing the Arms of Plantagenet flies in theprot Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: Police received a third-party report of a public order offence on Monday 7 January, in the area of College Green, SW1. Officers are assessing if any crimes have been committed. There has been no arrest at this stage. A key figure in past far-right protests has been activist James Goddard, who films his encounters and crowdfunds his activities online. He was also part of a demonstration in Westminster over the weekend. A livestream of that protest posted on Facebook showed him shouting: If they want a war well give them a war, lets give them a f***ing war. A 13-year-old girl taking part in the same yellow vest demonstration was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. In December Mr Goddard filmed himself verbally abusing Ms Soubry as a traitor the same word used by neo-Nazis to label the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events After Ms Soubry finished her interview on Monday she was swarmed by protesters while walking back into parliament. A video posted online by the pro-EU activist Femi Oluwole, who walked alongside her, shows the small group shouting abuse at Ms Soubry, accusing her of betraying her constituents and being a fascist. One of the activists tells Mr Oluwole he also is a traitor and then says Move out of the way Lammy, apparently confusing the 28-year-old for Labour MP David Lammy. Mr Lammy later tweeted: I shouldnt really be surprised that the thugs who today verbally abused and harassed Anna Soubry cant tell the difference between me and Femi. I wonder what it is that confused them? Ms Soubry said: Apparently MPs and politicians are meant to accept it as part of the democratic process. I fail to see why journalists and technicians should be subjected to the same abuse and intimidation as the police stand by and do nothing. They tried to stop me getting into parliament. A toddler who was snatched with the car she was sitting in may have been given extra clothing by the suspect before she was abandoned, detectives say. Seventeen-month-old Maria Tudorica was sitting in the passenger seat of her uncles Audi A5 when a man pretending to be interested in buying the vehicle sped off in it. A police hunt was sparked when the car was later discovered ditched in Hatherway Crescent, in Newham, east London, without Maria inside. Officers confirmed she was found safe and well on Sunday and revealed she was wearing an additional item of clothing to the white top and red trousers she disappeared in. Scotland Yard said on Monday: Officers believe that either the suspect put the clothing on the child before abandoning her, or that a member of the public dressed her due to the cold, but who at the time did not wish to contact police. Marias car trader uncle Gheorghe Stelica, 25, said he felt born again after learning she had been found. Earlier that day, he had asked his brother, 35-year-old Claudia Stelica, who is Marias father, to show the car to the prospective buyer as a favour because he was out of London. I put the car on sale today and one guy called me on my phone, the car trader said. He didnt seem suspicious on the phone, he was talking very nicely. I said to him, If you dont want to wait for me, no problem. Police at the scene in Nine Acres Close, Newham, east London, where 17-month-old Maria Tudorica was snatched while sitting in a car on 6 January, 2019. She was later found safe and well. (PA) Claudia Stelica met the stranger outside his brothers home in Nine Acres Close, Manor Park, and put Maria in the black car as he demonstrated the engine. The supposed customer asked to try the vehicle, listed on Gumtree for 4,650, before getting inside and taking off. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events He jumped up in the drivers side and boom straight away he went with the car, Gheorghe Stelica said. I feel over 1,000-times relief, he added. [My brother] is happy. He thanks so much the police for their service. Teacher Nazneen Saleh, a 25-year-old visiting her parents in the street, said a woman she believed was Marias grandmother was in a frenzy. Police are still searching for the suspect, described as a slim Asian man dressed in black clothing. Anyone with information should call the police or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Additional reporting by Press Association Tomatoes could be genetically modified to produce spicy chilli varieties, new research has suggested. Scientists believe it is possible to tweak the genes of the tomato to make it produce capsaicinoids, which give chilli peppers their spicy taste. In an article in the journal Trends in Plant Science, researchers from the Federal University of Vicosa in Brazil said the latest gene-editing techniques showed promise. Engineering the capsaicinoid genetic pathway to the tomato would make it easier and cheaper to produce this compound, which has very interesting applications, said the senior author of the paper, Agustin Zsogon. The aim of the modification would not be to make spicy tomatoes available in supermarkets, but to mass produce capsaicinoids more easily. The fiery substance has many useful nutritional and antibiotic properties and is found in everything from painkillers to pepper spray. Chilli peppers and tomatoes evolved from a common ancestor about 19 million years ago. Researchers who have sequenced the genome of the tomato discovered it still had the genes needed to produce capsaicinoids, but lacks the ability to switch them on. In theory you could use these genes to produce capsaicinoids in the tomato, Dr Zsogon said. Since we dont have solid data about the expression patterns of the capsaicinoid pathway in the tomato fruit, we have to try alternative approaches. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty One is to activate candidate genes one at a time and see what happens [and] which compounds are produced. We are trying this and a few other things. Chilli peppers developed their spicy flavour as a defence mechanism to stop them being eaten by some animals. The capsaicinoids trick the brain into thinking the tongue is burning by activating specific nerve cells. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events It is thought chilli peppers include them to deter small mammals from eating them, in favour of birds which are better for dispersing seeds far and wide as they do not experience the spiciness as pain. Although the researchers have not embarked on the process to create spicy tomatoes to offer them to the public for eating, they note that should their endeavours be successful a side effect could be new varieties of tomatoes on sale in the future. A black and white portrait of Che Guevara casts a watchful eye over a room adorned with socialist memorabilia from all over the world. A sculpture of two giant marble fists bound by a broken metal chain inscribed with the name Marinaleda has pride of place on a grand wooden desk. Behind it sits a small, bearded man wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf and a multicoloured shirt. His name is Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, mayor of the last communist town in Spain. Capitalism is like King Midas, he tells me, everything it touches turns to gold, commodity, trade and death. I think the capitalist system is necrophilous. The 70-year-old has run Marinaleda, near Seville, for almost 40 years, having spent decades fighting the system to create his utopian village. Many are starting to question whether this paradise will last much longer, after the Socialist PSOE failed to gain an absolute majority in Andalusias regional elections in December for the first time in history. For four decades, Marinaleda has been granted free rein under the Socialists but that would not be guaranteed under a right-wing coalition, which could soon be formed between the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and far-right party Vox. An ambitious 10-year plan for the NHS unveiled by Theresa May relies upon recruiting thousands of nurses and doctors a year from overseas a practice widely criticised for draining developing countries health services of vital qualified staff. The prime minister revealed parts of the blueprint detailing how the extra 20bn a year she announced last summer will deliver improvements in patient care across the beleaguered service, which has had to cope with years of real-terms cuts under austerity. It includes targets to diagnose three-quarters of cancer cases early enough for successful treatment, treat more emergency patients and send them home on the same day, and a right for every patient to have online GP appointments via apps by 2024, among other initiatives. However, to fulfil these commitments, it makes clear a significant uplift in international recruitment is needed right away to fill the more than 100,000 vacancies that currently exist. This will mean a step change in the recruitment of international nurses to work in the NHS and we expect that over the next five years this will increase nurse supplies by several thousand each year, the plan states. The NHS is already recruiting thousands of GPs from overseas, and the plan says it will expand foreign exchange schemes for doctors from developing countries and elsewhere to spend time in the NHS, as well as making it easier for trusts to recruit. As well as attracting criticism for causing a brain drain in the countries from which staff are recruited, the strategy flies in the face of a government pledge to become self-sufficient in staff, made just two years ago. The health services vision to transform out-of-hospital care, and specialities like cancer and maternity services, does include some measures to boost homegrown staff over the next decade. A new online nursing degree which will cost substantially less than the current 9,250 a year will be launched as early as next year in a bid to attract those put off after the government scrapped NHS bursaries. However, nursing leaders warned the new recruitment plans could harm health services in developing countries. Overseas recruitment might be a short-term solution, but it will not be enough to solve the burgeoning workforce crisis thats jeopardising safe patient care in England, Dame Donna Kinnair, acting chief executive at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), told The Independent. We need immediate investment in nurse education to grow the domestic workforce it is neither sustainable nor ethical long term to rely on other countries to provide our nurses. She added that the RCN welcomes the ambitions of the plan, but is concerned an online degree is being seen as a magic bullet to the crisis while there is no money for current staff to specialise into new roles. Among the ambitions for the next decade included in the plan are: Targets to diagnose 75 per cent of cancer cases early, before they have spread around the body Genetic testing for every child with cancer to help personalise their treatment Provisions to see the NHS take over key public health roles like tackling obesity, drinking and smoking New emergency treatment targets for mental health, including a 24-hour helpline available through NHS 111 Asking the government to tear up reforms implemented by Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley which force NHS providers to compete with private groups for contracts Health chiefs argued that without a fix for the workforce crisis, these commitments and an accompanying pledge to save 500,000 lives with prevention and better care would be fatally undermined. NHS figures show 111,000 full-time vacancies in the NHS in England, 41,000 of them nurses, and at the weekend health and social care secretary Matt Hancock was unable to explain how these would be filled. Brexit has added to this crisis. Over the summer the prime minister belatedly committed to allowing EU citizens resident before 29 March to stay and NHS staff were given a two-week window to apply for settled status in December, before general applications opened. The announcement came after two years of botched negotiations, which have resulted in 3,000 fewer nurses from the EEA working in the NHS in 2018, and a collapse of new applicants. While doctors and nurses are recognised as shortage roles and exempted from visa caps, there is still no clarity over how the proposed low skilled visa threshold on those earning less than 30,000 will affect EU applicants after 29 March. The plan says part-time medical degrees and a shift to train more generalists and GPs will help the NHS attract more staff equipped to manage rising numbers of elderly patients with more than one condition. This is in addition to changes to make a 25 per cent expansion in the numbers of nursing and medical training places that the government has already announced. Theresa May addresses the NHS 'long term plan' However, given the length of time it takes to train new staff three years for nurses and five for doctors overseas recruits will undoubtedly be needed if the gaps are to be filled. Recommended Theresa May already had a chance to bring world class care to the NHS In addition to filling existing vacancies, more staff will need to be brought in if the NHS is to care for more patients at home and help them avoid A&E, as well as expanding neglected areas like mental health, experts say. However, the detailed workforce plan which was due to be published alongside the long-term vision has now been delayed until later in 2019. Reforms of flagship waiting time targets, which could see patients waiting longer at A&E for less urgent issues, have also been removed and social care reforms pledged in 2017 have still not materialised. At a speech today at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said the plan included immediate and longer-term ambitions. Some of the improvements that patients will see will happen quite quickly new genetic tests for children with cancer this year, new options to see your GP online, radical reforms to avoid 30 million outpatient visits, guaranteed support for older people at home in the community, he said. Some of these changes are going to take a bit longer, he added, referring to goals to halve maternity deaths and diagnose more cancers at an early stage. However Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, said he was worried by the lack of detail. NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images Its a major concern that we will have to wait longer to get the comprehensive plan that is needed here, he said. Liberal Democrat former health minister Norman Lamb also expressed scepticism that the plan would deliver everything it was advertising. Delivering this ambitious plan is likely to be fatally undermined by insufficient resources, a staffing crisis and a failure to address the disastrous situation with social care, he said. China urged the US to ensure good conditions for progress in trade talks that began Monday in Beijing, complaining over the sighting of a US warship in what it said were Chinese waters. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang confirmed on Monday during a routine briefing that the talks had begun. Officials at the American Embassy and China's Ministry of Commerce provided no details on the meeting. Both sides have expressed optimism over the potential for progress in settling their tariff fight over Beijing's technology ambitions. Yet neither has indicated its stance has changed since a 1 December agreement by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to postpone further increases. The Foreign Ministry said Chinese military aircraft and naval vessels were dispatched to identify the US vessel and warn it to leave the area near disputed islands in the South China Sea. We have made stern complaints with the US, Mr Lu said. He said the warship, which he said was the destroyer the USS McCampbell, had violated Chinese and international law, infringed on Chinese sovereignty and undermined peace and stability. As for whether this move has any impact to the ongoing China-US trade consultations... to properly resolve existing issues of all kinds between China and the US is good for the two countries and the world, Mr Lu said He added, The two sides both have responsibility to create necessary and good atmosphere to this end. There was no immediate comment from the US side about the Chinese complaint. The American side in the trade talks was being led by a deputy US trade representative, Jeffrey Gerrish, according to the US government. The delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials. The Chinese government gave no details of who would represent Beijing. The talks went ahead despite tensions over the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Canada on US charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions against Iran. Mr Trump imposed tariff increases of up to 25 per cent on $250bn of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110bn of American goods, slowing customs clearance for US companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses. Washington, Europe and other trading partners complain Beijing's tactics violate its market-opening obligations. The standoff also reflects American anxiety about China's rise as a potential competitor in telecommunications and other technology. Mr Trump wants Beijing to roll back initiatives like Made in China 2025, which calls for the state-led creation of global competitors in such fields as robotics and artificial intelligence. American officials worry those might erode US industrial leadership. The ruling Communist Party is reluctant to give up initiatives it sees as a path to prosperity and global influence. China's leaders have tried to defuse complaints by emphasising its potential as an export market and by promising to increase foreign access to their auto, finance and other industries as well as the technology initiatives. Economists say the 90-day postponement of additional tariff increases that had been meant to take effect 1 January may be too short to settle the disputes bedevilling US-Chinese relations. Beijing's goal may be to show enough progress to persuade Trump to extend his deadline, they say. Cooling economic growth in both countries is turning up the pressure to reach a settlement. Chinese growth fell to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 per cent in the quarter ending in September. Auto sales tumbled 16 percent in November over a year earlier. Weak real estate sales are forcing developers to cut prices. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.4 per cent in the third quarter, and unemployment is at a five-decade low. But surveys show consumer confidence is weakening because of concern that growth will slow this year. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Beijing has tried in vain to recruit France, Germany, South Korea and other governments as allies against Trump. They criticise his tactics but echo US complaints about Chinese industrial policy and market barriers. The European Union filed its own challenge in the World Trade Organisation in June against Chinese rules that the 28-nation trade bloc said hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their own technology. For their part, Chinese officials are unhappy with US curbs on exports of dual use technology with possible military applications. They complain China's companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged. Some manufacturers that serve the United States have shifted production to other countries to avoid Trump's tariffs. AP With the bills from Christmas starting to land on Britons doorsteps, the TUC has issued a timely reminder about the scale of the nation's addiction to turning to lenders to address them. Its analysis reveals that unsecured debt had run up to 15,400 per household by the third quarter of 2018, an increasr of 886 over the previous year. We're literally mainlining the stuff. The figure excludes mortgages but includes everything else; so credit cards, personal loans, payday loans, and, its important to note, student loans are all in there. The Bank of England leaves the latter out of its calculations, which is why its figures come out lower. But student loan repayments start when people earn as little as 21,000 and take 9 per cent of anything those burdened with them earn above that. They thus constrain living standards and make people paying them back prone to other forms of borrowing to make ends meet. I therefore lean towards the TUCs view on their inclusion. With them in the mix, the total comes out at 428bn. To put some context on what would otherwise just be an unfathomably big number, that's more than three times what it costs to run the NHS in England, the 2017/2018 budget for which was just under 125bn. Its more than four times the 90bn education budget. You could cover the 6.2bn cost of Britains two Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers 69 times. So that number is actually rather scary. Using the TUC's methodology, it's also well above the 286bn the pre financial crisis peak, and now represents a staggering 30.4 per cent of household income. It's worth remembering too that that number covers just the third quarter. Any additional borrowing to pay for Christmas isnt in there. The Bank has pointed out that its growth is at least slowing. But it was still running at an annualised rate of 7.1 per cent in November. So that's about as comforting as being told your toes are ok after breaking both legs. How to address the problem? A higher minimum wage, part of the TUCs prescription, could help. It would be far better for people to spend their own money than someone else's. The best way to facilitate that is to get more money into their pockets. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. You wouldnt be surprised to hear general secretary Frances O'Grady calling for more power for unions to bargain over pay. Theres been a modest pick up in its growth recently, but given the near full employment Britain enjoys it ought to be increasing at a faster clip. Part of the reason for it not doing that is that workers lack bargaining power. Give the economy a job with more investment? Sure. Some more investment for organisations like the Money Advice Service wouldnt hurt either. But before you can do any of that, or even consider alternative solutions, the Government actually needs to, you know, wake up to the problem. Thing is, all that borrowing has helped to keep the economy just about growing while the Government has been messing around with Brexit. So you can see why its motivation to act might not be all that strong. The trouble is, when you look at the numbers the word "unsustainable" keeps coming to mind. We could easily be approaching a tipping point, and the last thing you need when you're creating a godawful mess is another one like that. But it's what ministers are going to get. One day at Roast, a restaurant I set up 13 years ago, a young Lithuanian woman came and said to one of our managers: Ive never worked in a restaurant but if you give me a chance, Ill show you I can do it and I think Id be really good at it. Egle started with us as a runner and worked her way up to being a manager. The hospitality sector like many others is panic-stricken by the B word (Brexit), with its potential closing off of the pipeline for the Egles of the world to keep our businesses going, let alone growing. We never imagined that over 70 per cent of our workforce would end up being mainland European. Out of a 100-strong staff theres hardly anyone whos an indigenous Brit (ironic for a restaurant celebrating traditional British food). The easy, lazy and wrong conclusion that many employers come to is that the UK youth of today are work-shy; uninterested in taking up jobs that involve long hours and low, entry level wages. Its certainly true that our celebrity-obsessed culture means that many schoolkids I meet aspire to be the next Ariana Grande or Rio Ferdinand. And its also true that they find inspiration in people from humble backgrounds who attain millions of fans and millions of pounds. Yet the underlying problem is that our education system fails our young people by neglecting to prepare them for a world of work and, in turn, massively fails our businesses by not delivering us the talent we need to grow. Ask the head of any busy restaurant what their biggest challenge is and youll invariably get the same answer: staffing. I remember a few years back asking the vice chancellor of a London university why he doesnt make preparing his students for a world of work from guidance in how to apply for a job, how best to handle an interview and then how to adapt to a work environment a core part of the curriculum. His answer was astonishing: I dont see it as my role as an educationalist to get my students into jobs. And there you have it. Its not our young people who are the problem its the structures that surround them. But business must also do more. More than ever, firms not only need to step up to the plate by engaging more directly with schools, colleges and universities many of us need to clean up our act too. It no longer washes to say that long hours, harsh treatment and low starting pay didnt stop us from making it. Even when we employ people with the necessary entry-level requirements we are often missing out on what deeper potential might exist in our workforce. Let me explain. Since I first started in the restaurant business in 2001 Ive held monthly lunches with junior members of the team to hear their stories and to ask what they would do differently if the firm was theirs to run. Theyre always going to be much more open with the founder than their line manager. And Ive often taken up the ideas that emerge. I also once found out that a waitress we employed had a degree in human resources at exactly the same time as the general manager was recruiting for an HR manager. Lucia got the job. Saj Jetha runs a flourishing business called The Smarty Train which goes into large corporations and shows them how to unlock the often hidden potential in their people. This month he launches a book called The Smarts, which I wish Id been clever enough to write myself. Whether youre starting your first job, moving to a new one or just trying to break out of the same-old, there are ways of working that can give you a big advantage, he says. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In bitesized chunks Sajs book guides people who wish to get on, but who are not sure on the best ways to make the most of themselves. If it takes too long to get to the point, you never will make it, he advises. We all know someone like that! Saj has written for millennials rather than managers: You just love putting together videos. Or maybe youre a genius with a spreadsheet, or crafting a slideshow. Colleagues will queue at your desk. Youll be the go-to person because youve got the hammer when everyone else has a nail. Youre in your hook-zone. Rightly, he warns of the downsides of hook zones. I myself encountered this working on The Independent around 30 years ago when I got through the door as a reporter claiming inside knowledge of Asian communities which no one else at the newspaper, at that point, had. It was the time of the Salman Rushdie affair so commissions were brisk. But when the author came out of hiding that was basically the end of my days as a journalist as I was perceived as a one-trick pony by editors. Jetha has a list of clients as long as your arm, from the Bank of England to the NHS, eager to know what they dont know about the people around them. Whilst small businesses may find they cant afford his firms services they can all buy a copy of his book to share amongst their employees so they can find the smarty not just in themselves, but in their company too. The Smarts by Saj Jetha is published by Ebury on 10 January The universality of moral concern is not something we learn by being universal, but by being particular. Because we know what it is to be a parent, loving our children, not children in general, we understand what it is for someone else, somewhere else, to be a parent, loving his or her children, not ours Rabbi Jonathan Sacks It is often assumed that some religions are universal in spirit, such as Christianity, while others are more particular, such as Judaism. Yet, it wont be a surprise to regular readers/listeners of this A-Z of Believing that the picture is more complicated, and that generalisations like this suffer from over-simplification. For example, Christianity does indeed possess particularities of faith, a term which refers to those points religions regard as being of fundamental significance and, in a sense, non-negotiable elements of their relationship to the divine. From the Christian perspective, particularities include the Christian conviction that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God acted decisively for all humanity. In other words, Christianity is a religion that combines a claim to be universal in scope with the particular demand of exclusiveness in belief: Christ is lord of all and the saviour of all. Is it a gun holster? Is it a harness? Who cares its Timothee Chalamet, the 23-year-old star of Beautiful Boy, who showed up to the Golden Globes in an all-black ensemble accessorised with a sparkly chest-strap that confounded the internet. According to Louis Vuitton, who dressed him for the event, the garment was in fact an embroidered bib. But this did nothing to assuage the roaring debate over his outfit, with Twitter divided over whether he looked like he was about to go bungee jumping, or deserved praise for wearing something other than a boring suit. Others were quick to point out the resemblance to American figure skater Adam Rippons outfit at the Oscars last year, which featured a bondage-themed leather harness under a traditional tuxedo. Rippon himself seemed to enjoy the actors look though, tweeting simply LOVE with a link to coverage of Chalamets outfit. Chalamet cemented his status as Hollywoods most swoon-worthy pretty boy by attending alongside his mother, who was also styled head to toe in Virgil Abloh (artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton). He posted a photo of the two of them on his Instagram with the caption momma, which received hundreds of thousands of likes and almost 15,000 comments. The actor made history last year, becoming the youngest Best Actor nominee at the Oscars in 80 years for his role as Elio in Call Me By Your Name. In this years Golden Globes, Chalamet was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beautiful Boy. Despite him being a fan favourite, the award went to Mahershala Ali for Green Book. Thousands of female penguins are being stranded along the coast of South America because of water pollution and fishing, research shows. A new study of Megellanic penguins, which breed in Patagonia in southern Argentina, explains for the first time why so many become stuck on beaches hundreds of miles further north. Researchers found the man-made threats encountered as the birds moved north during the winter increased significantly. Takashi Yamamoto, a scientist from the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo, was part of the team which published the findings. [Human-caused] threats have been considered to threaten wintering Magellanic penguins along the coasts of northern Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil, he said. These include water pollution caused by oil development and marine transport, as well as fishery-associated hazards, such as by-catch and depletion of prey species. Magellanic penguins are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who first identified the species in 1520. It is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as near threatened, which means although it is not currently endangered it is at risk of becoming so in the near future. The new research was published in the scientific journal Current Biology. It had long been noticed the penguins stranded on beaches hundreds of miles from home tended to be female, but it was not known why. Gay penguin couple Sphen and Magic on the ice Dr Yamamoto and his colleagues attached geo-locators to eight male and six female Magellanic penguins and found they split up during the winter after breeding around the southern tip of South America. The female birds the scientists were tracking travelled further north than males and also did not dive as deep. This is believed to be because competition for food resources is forcing the females to go further afield males are larger and heavier and so may be grabbing the best feeding grounds nearer home. But as the females moved up the coast towards more heavily populated parts of South America, they become exposed to more and more human activity. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Water pollution, shipping, and increased fishing by humans which the penguins like to eat are among the threats which can leave them stranded and struggling to return to their breeding grounds when the winter is over. Dr Yamamoto said the loss of females could in time threaten the viability of the entire species, as there would be fewer and fewer breeding pairs able to produce the next generation of penguins. Researchers needed to understand how exactly Magellanic penguins move around in between the breeding seasons in order to put in place a conservation programme, he added. Silent, water-emitting hydrogen-fuelled trains are to become reality in less than three years on some main lines across the UK, under ambitious plans to convert existing diesel rolling stock. Polluting diesel engines are to be stripped out and replaced with hydrogen tanks on as many as 100 trains, under the preliminary terms of the deal. The arrangement between UK rolling stock owner Eversholt and French firm Alstom will convert existing Class 321 trains, which were built in 1988 and are used on the Greater Anglican network. The new trains will have a top speed of 90mph and the project has been named Breeze. The technology could be in use on commuter lines across the country by 2022. The Department for Transport is understood to be supportive of the programme, as the upgrades move it closer to its 2040 goal of stripping diesel engines from the rail network altogether. In addition to using clean energy, the hydrogen-fuelled trains can run on existing track without the need for expensive overhead power cables required for electric operation. Just over 40 per cent of the UKs rail network is currently electrified, with the vast majority of trains running on diesel. The dependence on diesel means some parts of the UKs rail network are far over legal air quality thresholds. Alstom said the deal will create new engineering jobs at their facility in Widnes, Cheshire. The company has already built an entirely new hydrogen powered train due to begin public service in Germany in September this year. Nick Crossfield, Alstoms UK managing director, said: The Breeze will be a clean new train for the UK with a stylish, modern look. The railways need to decarbonise and the government has rightly set out a goal to eliminate diesel rolling stock by 2040. Hydrogen trains offer an ideal solution for routes which are unlikely to benefit from electrification, and our innovative engineering solution means they can now fit within the UK loading gauge and can quickly be ready to roll on Britains railways. UK rail minister Andrew Jones said: Hydrogen train technology is an exciting innovation which has the potential to transform our railway, making journeys cleaner and greener by cutting CO2 emissions even further. We are working with industry to establish how hydrogen trains can play an important part in the future, delivering better services on rural and inter-urban routes. Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Show all 12 1 /12 Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? The train's debut made waves in Japan AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? The futuristic observation car Japan Rail East Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? The futuristic design has galvanised Japan Japan Rail East Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? The train will add a lux touch to Japan's landscape AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Entrance to a suite AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Bathroom of the Shiki-Shima suite AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? No boring train food here Japan Rail East Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? You may not want to leave the observation car AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Rooms are more like hotel rooms than train cabins AFP/Getty Images Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Log fires on trains are the new norm Japan Rail East Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? Expect fine dining on board Japan Rail East Shiki-Shima: The world's most luxurious train? The suites are perfect for working, reading and relaxing Japan Rail East Claire Perry, the minister for energy and clean growth also welcomed the deal between the two companies. The Breeze will have a top speed of 90mph, and emit only water (Alstom) She said: Transport in the UK has evolved over centuries from the worlds first steam train to the tens of thousands of electric vehicles on our roads today thanks to our nation of innovators. This new hydrogen powered train, which will only emit water, is further proof of the UKs continued creativity to transform the way we travel as we continue to move to a greener, cleaner economy. The UK is on track when it comes to growing a world-leading hydrogen economy, and through our modern industrial strategy we are providing 23m to power our ambition to be the go-to place for first-class hydrogen transport. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Independent understands the government is not funding the Breeze project. Boby has lost track of the precise number of times she has been gang-raped. She thinks it is between eight and 10. Every time it has been without condom, she says. Every time I was badly beaten. As a trans sex worker in Indias capital city Delhi, the smiling, unabashed 25-year-old lives under a constant threat of HIV infection which she can only do so much to control. She speaks to The Independent at the Samarth clinic, an outwardly unassuming centre on the outskirts of the capital run by the India HIV/AIDS Alliance and supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Samarths goal is to target communities that have been missed by the behemoth of Indias public anti-Aids operation. For while the country as a whole reports a relatively low prevalence rate of just 0.2 per cent, that rises to 7.4 per cent among transgender women. Boby first started to identify as a woman at the age of 12, but living in a small town in northern Himachal Pradesh state she didnt know anyone else who felt the same. One of her elder brothers used to insult and beat her regularly, and her parents though they were not abusive themselves did nothing to intervene. She says she felt like an alien before she came to live in Delhi, at the age of 18. In the capital, she says, she can dress as she pleases and no one will pick on me in the street. Boby fell into sex work by chance, when she was struggling for a place to stay and a boyfriend offered to start paying for her accommodation. It is a common trope among members of the LGBT+ community, says the Alliances associate director Abhina Aher. Trans women end up struggling to earn a living because of the stigma they face in the workplace. The charity says an estimated 87 per cent of trans women in India earn money either as sex workers or by begging in the street. You still see a lot of bullying in the educational institutions, if you are a gender-variant child or expressing a different sexuality, and there are no supportive environments to stop them dropping out. And so these children are already trapped into a vicious circle of poverty, says Ms Aher. Boby is a trans woman who earns a living as a sex worker in Delhi. She regularly visits the Samarth clinic supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation for testing and guidance on protective measures (Adam Withnall for The Independent) Because you dont have an education, you cannot seek employment and youre trapped in a situation where you cant earn money, youre not contributing to the economy, and at the same time you are indulging in high-risk sexual behaviour. What would you do? Would you like to keep indulging in high-risk behaviour while earning extra money for your family? Why not? Boby says she now has sex with between 15 and 20 clients a night. She comes to the clinic for regular testing, as well as for its sense of community. She is not HIV positive, which she attributes to the support and education provided by Samarth. A safe space for Delhi's trans community Show all 7 1 /7 A safe space for Delhi's trans community A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-hair A trans woman receives a haircut at the Samarth clinic in Delhi, where members of the LGBT+ community can go for HIV testing, counselling and support Photos Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-mirror In Indias conservative society, trans women still face huge hurdles with stigma in the workplace and bullying in institutions. At Samarth they find a community that accepts them for who they are The Independent/Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-team The Samarth clinic is a community-led project, meaning members of target groups are employed as outreach workers and project managers to ensure its services are helping the most at-risk communities The Independent/Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-boby Boby is a trans woman who earns a living as a sex worker in Delhi. She is not HIV positive, but regularly visits the Samarth clinic - supported by the Elton John Aids Foundation - for testing and guidance on protective measures The Independent/Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-test The Samarth clinic offers free initial HIV testing. Kits cost just 6 rupees and the whole process is over in a matter of five minutes The Independent/Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-wajood Underneath the Samarth clinic in Delhi, there is a safe space for members of the LGBT+ community to relax and receive beauty treatments The Independent/Adam Withnall A safe space for Delhi's trans community Samarth-paperwork The safe space under the clinic offers support to the LGBT+ community with workshops, advice on legal issues and crisis management The Independent/Adam Withnall She says she now always insists on clients using a condom. Someone from the team is continuously in my ear, telling me protection, protection, protection. Even in the event that there is a client that pushes, after everything, for unprotected sex, at least I know where to go afterwards. So that security is there. Inevitably, not everyone who uses Samarths testing, counselling and follow-up services is doing so in a preventative capacity. Yoginder, 27, worked as an office boy for an architecture firm in Delhi. She identifies as a transgender woman but was forced to hide this at work, wearing mens clothes. The only time she could express herself was at night, when she would go to popular cruising hotspots and pick up men. These were random hook-ups, she says. Sometimes I would go to their home, sometimes they would come to mine, but if they were ready to do it in a public park then wed do that also. After some years she fell sick, so sick that she was unable to talk or walk, never mind work. She was lucky at least that an outreach worker from Samarth heard she had become unwell and was able to get in contact, asking if she had been tested for HIV. When the initial test showed as reactive for the virus, her first thought was of suicide, she says. I thought my life was over. Samarths counselling saved her life and gave her a new family. She calls the member of the team who first talked her through that time her mother, and the others at the clinic sister. Slowly, slowly I came to understand that my life is important, I dont want to die. My health is now much better, and I am able to support my [biological] family. She has even found a new job as a security guard for a college which puts on workshops with the Samarth clinic, where she wont have to hide her identity. I am HIV positive and I am a member of the [trans] community, she says. And I accept both those things. At some point or another, every entrepreneur suffers pangs of self-doubt: They question their capabilities, agonize over their choices, and wonder about their craft. No one is immune to the emotional turmoil -- just ask Brian Koppelman, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, producer, and co-creator of the hit television series Billions. In a poignant Twitter thread, Koppelman revealed his own struggle with self-doubt -- and the way he managed to overcome it can be instructive to all entrepreneurs, regardless of their industry or background. 1) If you're looking back at 2018 today and feeling bad about the things you failed at, the things that didn't go as well as you'd hoped they would, at the ways in which you let yourself, your dreams, your ideals down, know this: you are not alone. And you are not defeated. -- Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) December 31, 2018 "Every artist I know has felt lost, beaten, let down by the business or themselves or both at the same time," Koppelman writes. "Every one has considered they might not be up to it, might not be good enough, smart enough, deep enough, tough enough." Pressing through those rough patches can be the single greatest force that keeps entrepreneurs from folding. It takes courage, passion, and deep commitment to ride out the tumult and unpredictability of running a business. The numbers tell the story. According to recent data from the Small Business Administration, roughly half of all small businesses fail to reach their five-year mark, while only one in three makes it past 10 years. Line your path with small wins After feeling like his work had taken a "fall" six years ago, Koppelman regained his groove with small steps and consistent effort. "I wrote a little bit each morning. And then a little more," he says, noting that "something in me knew I had to press on." That commitment to consistency can give entrepreneurs the strength to stare down uncertainty. Success rarely explodes as a sudden burst. For most people, it's more like a slow drip. "Each physical step felt like hope," says Koppelman. "If I made it across, that meant I had gotten myself out of bed, that meant I was trying, that meant I hadn't yet been counted out." But as every entrepreneur can attest, there's no guarantee those efforts will be fruitful. "I couldn't have known then that the thing we were working on (the Billions pilot script) would change my entire life," Koppelman writes. Sound familiar? Whether you're pitching a new product, offering a new service -- or, like me, drafting a new book or keynote -- you can never be sure that things will turn out as you hoped or planned. You pour all of your creativity, time, and energy into something you believe in, desperately believing it will amount to success. The key, according to Koppelman, is to stay focused on the process even when it feels bumpy and winding. Seen another way, setbacks are just lanes for future travel. They not only help you make your next move, they can also make them better -- something Koppelman felt personally as he rose from self-doubt: "Small steps forward erased the backward steps." The hard data show that "soft skills" are in high demand. In a new LinkedIn analysis, "persuasion" was one of the top skills "most worth learning" in 2019. "Strengthening a soft skill is one of the best investments you can make in your career, as they never go out of style," according to the study. After conducting dozens of interviews for Five Stars, my new book on persuasion, I've concluded that it's time to stop referring to public speaking and the art of persuasion as "soft skills." A wealthy entrepreneur at Y-Combinator, the iconic investment firm behind startups such as Reddit and Airbnb, persuaded me to stop using the term. During our conversation, he called out my mistake. "Let's talk about a soft skill like storytelling," I said. "Soft?" he shot back. "If an entrepreneur can't tell a convincing story, I'm not investing. You call it soft. I call it fundamental." Warren Buffett would agree. Whenever Buffett is asked about the one most valuable skill that anyone can build today, he says public speaking. He even puts a value on it, which I wrote about in this article. "The one easy way to become worth 50 percent more than you are now -- at least -- is to hone your communication skills -- both written and verbal," Buffett says. The Growing Value of Changing Minds In a world built on ideas, the persuaders -- the ones who can win hearts and change minds -- have a competitive edge. I've spoke to economists and historians like Deirdre McCloskey at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She conducted an impressive research project to prove that old-fashioned rhetoric -- persuasion -- is responsible for a growing share of America's national income. McCloskey analyzed 250 occupations covering 140 million people in the U.S. She created a statistical model based on the amount of time people in each category spent on public speaking and persuading another person to take action. In some cases, persuasion played a more limited role than others (think firefighters versus public relations specialists). McCloskey reached the following conclusion: Persuasion is responsible for generating one-quarter of America's total national income. She expects it to rise to 40 percent over the next 20 years. McCloskey's research was taken up by another economist in Australia who reached a similar conclusion. To understand why persuasion is no longer a soft skill, we need a short history lesson. In 1840, nearly 70 percent of the U.S. labor force worked on farms; today fewer than 2 percent of Americans work in agriculture. Manufacturing's share of the labor force has dropped from 40 percent in 1950 to under 20 percent today. Individual income from manufacturing continues to fall as robots replace workers and artificial intelligence takes over repetitive tasks once handled by humans. The main task of the jobs that are left -- and the new ones created -- is to change minds. As McCloskey explains, "Nothing happens voluntarily in an economy, or a society, unless someone changes her mind. Behavior can be changed by compulsion, but minds cannot." Even in the "hard skills" jobs, persuasion sets people apart. "A coder who only knows technical skills might start at $40,000 to $80,000 in Silicon Valley. A coder who can speak to the client can easily command $120,000 and up," says McCloskey. She's right. I've interviewed young business professionals in their 20s and 30s whose careers are soaring and who get promoted much faster than their peers largely because of their ability to deliver presentations more effectively. Here's the key. They work at it. Public speaking is a skill anyone can build. In Warren Buffett's office, he has one diploma on display. It's not his business degree. It's a certificate he earned after completing a public-speaking course. Buffett says it's the most valuable degree he has. For a man who's worth $80 billion, that's saying something. Imperial Valley News Center CENTCOM Statement on Death of USS Cole Bombing Operative Tampa, Florida - U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban released the following statement today on the death of Jamal al-Badawi: U.S. Central Command has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Marib governate [Yemen] on January 1. Jamal al-Badawi was a legacy al Qaeda operative in Yemen involved in the USS Cole bombing. U.S. forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process. Jamal al-Badawi was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003, charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of U.S. nationals and murder of U.S. military personnel; was wanted by the U.S. for his role in the Oct. 12, 2000, terrorist attack against USS Cole; and was also charged with attempting with co-conspirators to attack a U.S. Navy vessel in January 2000. (The Center Square) Illinois state lawmakers are back this week to continue the regular session and energy legislation is expected to top the agenda, but there could be some differences in what the governor wants versus what lawmakers actually pass. Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation2@journalnet.com for help creating one. We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation@idahopress.com for help creating one. We're always interested in hearing about your Opinion. Let us know yours. Submit This is all under careful examination by some of New Zealands top legal experts as they gather for the upcoming Employment Law Masterclass. Register now to get in-depth insights on discrimination on mental health grounds in the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001, as well as psychological harm and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Andrew Vrba, 19, of Houston, appears in Courtroom A of the Texas County Justice Center for arraignment in the murder of a teenager. A free chance to win $1 million or more in lottery Free tickets to sporting events A paid day off work I'm anti-vax and think incentives are a distraction Vote View Results Briana Calderas, of Cabool, is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. Her trial was recently delayed until May 2019. Deputies from the Texas County Sheriff's Department were called to several investigations in the last week. Patience has apparently already run out for some Democrats waiting on Beto ORourke to announce whether hell run for president. A group of Democrats led by a key South Carolina Democrat and a TV actress have created a Draft Beto campaign with a goal of raising $1 million and setting up a grassroots network to help ORourke get a jump start on 2020 if he were to run. We believe by building the grassroots infrastructure and financial resources we'll be able to not only convince Beto to run for the Democratic nomination but give him a head start, the group states on its new website. That's why every single dollar we raise is put into an escrow account, which immediately transfers to Beto's campaign if he decides to run. Nate Lerner, a co-founder of the group based in Brooklyn, said other groups are trying to also draft ORourke to run, but what makes Draft Beto different is the group is building a network of operatives and volunteers that could easily transfer over to an official ORourke campaign. No other candidate has anything remotely like this, said Lerner, who worked on President Barack Obamas 2012 re-election campaign. Opinion pieces only at HoustonChronicle.com: For 2020, Beto O'Rourke is plainly uninspiring For his part, ORourke, who once said he would not run for president in 2020, has since changed his tune. When asked at a town hall meeting in El Paso about running, ORourke said he and his wife Amy would talk about what their next move will be and did not discount the possibility. Since then, ORourke has been among the leaders in some early polls and even came out ahead in a straw poll from MoveOn.org an influential group that helped propel Bernie Sanders upstart campaign in 2016. ORourke has stoked more anticipation that he will run by posting videos on social media accounts opposing President Donald Trumps proposed border wall, specifically along the Rio Grande River. Among those behind the new Draft Beto campaign is former South Carolina State Rep. Boyd Brown, who was an early supporter of then-Sen. Barack Obamas presidential campaign in 2008. Also part of the effort is Misha Collins, an actor in the hit television series Supernatural. Already another Texas Democrat has announced hes considering running for president. Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro last month created a presidential exploratory committee. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has also already taken steps to run in 2020. ORourke, now a former Congressman from El Paso, lost his 2018 U.S. Senate campaign against Ted Cruz by about 3 percentage points. While ORourke lost, it was the closest a Democrat has come to winning a U.S. Senate seat in Texas since Democrat Lloyd Bentsen won his final term in 1988. jeremy.wallace@chron.com Houston Astro George Springer and Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis will be the grand marshals of Houston's Martin Luther King Day Parade. The grand marshals and the route of this years parade were announced by Mayor Sylvester Turner, who noted last July that the 40-year-old tribute begun by the Black Heritage Society would become an official city event. The downtown parade will be Jan. 21 on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Lewis, of Georgia, marched with King and about 600 others through Selma, Alabama in 1965, after which he and others were attacked by white state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At a Monday press conference, Turner said the parade will "unite people from different faiths and cultures" as a "new tradition in honor of (King's) life and legacy." Turner and others also dedicated this year's parade to Ovide Duncantell, the longtime Houston civil rights activist and founder of the Black Heritage Society. Duncantell died in November at 82. "Ovide, this one is for you," Turner said. Duncatell began the societys annual MLK parade in 1978, by some accounts the first such parade in the country. Since 1995, a second group launched by a former Black Heritage Society volunteer has put on a competing parade and schedule of events known as the MLK Grande Parade. The result was an annual competition as both groups jockeyed for parade permits and participants, as well as repeated accusations between the two groups founders that the other was profiteering on parade proceeds. The rancor and dueling events prompted repeated calls from civic leaders over the years for the two groups to unite for a single MLK parade. Frustrated by the competing events that asked Houstonians to divide their time between two parades, Turner last year put the citys backing behind the Black Heritage Societys parade. robert.downen@chron.com twitter.com/RobDownenChron WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps evolving definition of a border wall animated negotiations to end a partial government shutdown Sunday, while House Democrats moved to increase pressure on the president by vowing to pass individual bills to reopen targeted departments that handle critical functions like tax refunds and food stamps. I informed my folks to say that well build a steel barrier, Trump told reporters after returning to the White House from a senior staff meeting at Camp David, Maryland. He added of the Democrats, They dont like concrete, so well give them steel. The president characterized the second day of talks between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic congressional aides as productive after saying earlier in the day that he did not anticipate much progress. But Trump also said that, if no deal could be reached over his demand for $5.7 billion for the border wall, he was still considering using emergency authority to build the barrier with other government funds. For their part, Democrats said there was no progress as the shutdown entered its 16th day, and asked again that the government be reopened before negotiations on border security money begin. A day before, they had asked the administration for a detailed plan of how such money would be used, and the Office of Management and Budget responded with a letter Sunday evening reiterating the presidents request for $5.7 billion for the construction of a steel barrier along the southern border. Democrats have rebuffed that figure. But the letter also provided a fuller picture of Trumps border demands. In a small gesture to Democrats, it said the president wanted $800 million to address urgent humanitarian needs, including enhanced medical treatment. It also asked for funds to support 52,000 detention beds and 2,000 more law enforcement agents. The shutdown, which is threatening to become the longest in U.S. history, is affecting about 800,000 federal workers, many of whom will soon miss their first paycheck, and has curtailed the functions of numerous government agencies. The impasse has also added another crisis to Trumps turbulent presidency as he adjusts to working in an era in which he must now share power with Democrats. The partys leaders gave little indication that they would come to terms with the president if he simply changed the materials used to construct the wall. Trump has been talking at least since mid-December about building a wall made up of artistically designed steel slats instead of concrete, but he seized on the idea Sunday to a new degree. Theres no requirement that this government be shut down while we deliberate the future of any barrier, whether its a fence or a wall, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on CBS Face the Nation. But Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said that while he thought the shutdown was going to drag on a lot longer, Trumps shift in wall materials could provide a semantic opening to advance the talks. If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, See? Hes not building a wall anymore, that should help us move in the right direction, Mulvaney said on NBCs Meet the Press. If thats not evidence of the presidents desire to try and resolve this, I dont know what is. While Trump had expressed little hope for the talks Sunday, he indicated that the coming days would offer a chance to show that resolve. I think were going to have some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, he said. Democrats believe they have a plan to bring new leverage to the negotiations. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would begin considering individual appropriations bills this week that would reopen the government, starting with legislation that would return workers to the Treasury Department, including the IRS, followed by measures to open the departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and the Interior. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, said on Meet the Press: Well do it bill by bill so we can help taxpayers, we can help people who need food assistance, we can help people who need housing vouchers, people who need flood insurance. Those bills have little chance in the Senate, where Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has held fast to his pledge that he would not put any legislation on the floor that the president would not approve. Congressional Republicans employed a bill-by-bill strategy of their own in 2015 on the brink of a government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, only to have Democrats block all 12 spending bills approved by the Appropriations Committee. The president said last week that he opposed that approach, and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said last month that the president would need to publicly support any funding measures before they were considered, adding that we cant have another situation when the president signals support at first but then reverses himself. Trump did just that in December after the Senate passed bills to avert the shutdown. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., whose state has one of the highest concentrations of federal workers, has suggested that Democrats block the consideration of all bills unrelated to opening the government until Senate Republicans allow a vote on the House bills. There may be added pressure on McConnell from his own ranks. Three Senate Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have called for reopening the government. Two other Republican senators who have been critical of the shutdown, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Pat Roberts of Kansas, have announced that they will not seek re-election in 2020, so they would not face the electoral consequences of incurring Trumps wrath. However, some other lawmakers, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is continuing to advocate a deal in which Trump would get his wall funding and Democrats would get new protections for the young immigrants known as Dreamers, view the shutdown with less urgency. I do want to open the government, but the goal is not to open the government. The goal is to fix a broken immigration system, Graham said. He added later, It was pretty clear to me that were never going to have a deal unless we get a wall as part of it. Pelosi, in her first sit-down interview on network television since reclaiming the speakers gavel last week, blasted Trump for suggesting that he may unilaterally move to build the border wall. The impression you get from the president is that he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress so the only voice that mattered was his own, Pelosi told Jane Pauley in the interview, which aired on CBS News Sunday Morning. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the new chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Trump did have the power to declare a national emergency to build the wall. Unfortunately, the short answer is yes, he said on ABCs This Week. But he said the president would face a court challenge asking, Where is the emergency? This article originally appeared in The New York Times WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump vowed a "prudent" withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, embracing a new, more cautious timeline on Monday while appearing to deny that he had ever ordered an immediate troop departure in the first place. "We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" Trump said in a morning tweet. That was "no different from my original statements," he said, accusing the news media of inaccurately reporting "my intentions on Syria." Last month, Trump declared the Islamic State defeated in Syria and said troops would be "coming back now." Since then, senior officials have issued a series of statements that have cast doubt on his promise of a quick departure. The president's endorsement of a flexible departure, conditioned on the still-to-come defeat of the Islamic State, was the latest indication of his administration's zigzagging foreign policy, in which decisions are often made by dramatic presidential tweets and followed by more circumspect policies reflecting top advisers' views. The initial plan for a quick withdrawal, which would require turning over the U.S.-supported effort against remaining militants to NATO ally Turkey, was met with dismay among officials and lawmakers who feared the Islamic State could return in force. A day after Trump's announcement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in protest. Trump's new remarks appeared to endorse a revised proposal, floated by national security adviser John Bolton a day earlier, that would allow U.S. troops and their local allies to extinguish a small but stubborn militant force before they depart. It would also require Turkey to refrain from attacking Syrian Kurdish troops who are the chief U.S. partner on the ground. The evolving plans came as Bolton traveled Monday to Ankara, Turkey's capital, for talks with Turkish officials on the U.S. withdrawal, including protection of the American-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkey has vowed to expel from northeast Syria. He was expected to be joined by Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Officials across the government have scrambled in recent days to keep up with shifting statements from administration leaders, even as they continued to make plans for a near-term military exit that they cautioned could squander the fruits of a four-year military effort. While Trump initially demanded a 30-day departure, officials said the administration later settled on an exit within 120 days to give troops more time to break down bases and safely remove equipment and personnel. The latest comments from Trump and Bolton intensified uncertainty about what would occur. Joshua Geltzer, who served as a White House counterterrorism official during the Obama administration, said the back-and-forth was an obstacle for diplomats and military planners. There are more than 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. "It's hard enough to plan military operations when there's a clear sense of the assets and resources available. It's even harder with this persistent uncertainty," said Geltzer, who is now at the Georgetown University Law Center. Trump's pullout plan fueled concerns among allied nations, including France and Britain, who have sent their own troops to Syria. It also drew criticism from his own party, including from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who on Sunday said Trump had "made a mistake" with his initial pronouncement but was now "slowing down." On Monday, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee accused Trump of "changing course like a drunken sailor." "It shows that our president literally doesn't know what he is doing. He is making it up as he goes," Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told CNN. "The way he is going about it is disastrous." But Trump and his top advisers were defiant Monday as they denied that their Syria plans had changed. "The Failing New York Times has knowingly written a very inaccurate story on my intentions on Syria," Trump said in the same tweet, referring to articles on Sunday from numerous publications, including the Times and The Washington Post, that noted the shifting accounts of the military exit. "No different from my original statements." Trump kicked off weeks of confusion with his declaration last month, bucking the advice of top advisers who urged patience as U.S. and allied troops sought to eradicate remaining militants. Since he was a candidate, Trump has vowed to end the Syria mission. "Our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back and they're coming back now. We won," Trump said in a Dec. 19 video message on Twitter. More recently, Trump and other senior officials have backed away from asserting victory over the Islamic State, as the military continues to conduct hundreds of airstrikes against a still-potent militant force. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is also traveling to the Middle East this week, said Monday that "there is no change" in the administration's commitment to defeating the Islamic State or countering Iranian influence in Syria. "It's a change in tactics," Pompeo said in an interview with CNBC. "We're going to withdraw our 2,000 soldiers from Syria, but the mission . . . remains in full," with some activities being carried out by "allies." Military officials are awaiting decisions from Trump and others about the withdrawal, including whether the United States will continue its current air campaign in Syria and how the administration planned to position Special Operations forces to enable periodic missions against militant leaders. "We've seen a slight exhale among those in the Pentagon who were worried about planning and executing a withdrawal," said Mara Karlin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who previously served as a senior Pentagon official. In an opinion piece published Monday by the New York Times, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that his nation would fill the gap left by the United States. He noted that Turkey, unlike the United States, had sent ground troops several times to directly battle the Islamic State in northern Syria. Erdogan voiced support for an American exit but said it should be "planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners to protect the interests of the United States, the international community and the Syrian people." "Turkey, which has NATO's second largest standing army, is the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task," he wrote. Under current White House plans, Turkish-backed forces would press into areas now controlled by the SDF, a notion that American officials have cautioned could lead to deadly Turkish-Kurdish battles. Erdogan, who has called the SDF a terrorist group, has vowed to send his own troops, along with allied Syrian fighters, across the border to push out the SDF. Bolton's revised plan appears to link the U.S. withdrawal to Turkish guarantees to refrain from such an incursion. Trump, who has rarely mentioned the Kurdish fighters, last week said, "We want to protect the Kurds, but I don't want to be in Syria forever. It's sand. And it's death." Bolton, during a weekend stop in Israel, said the United States wanted to ensure that the Kurds were not put in "jeopardy" by the U.S. withdrawal. Hours before Bolton's arrival in Ankara, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar insisted that Turkey's problem was not with Kurds in general but with those belonging to the People's Protection Units, or YPG. "The fight of the Turkish armed forces is not against our Kurdish brothers, with whom we have shared the same geography and the same bread for centuries," Akar said. The Kurdish ethnic group is spread across a contiguous area that includes portions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. In Turkey, a Kurdish group allied with the Syrian YPG has fought for autonomy for decades. But YPG fighters make up the bulk of the SDF, which the United States has trained, armed and advised as the primary ground force against the Islamic State in Syria. As northeastern Syria has been cleared of the militants, the Kurds have set up a provisional government that now borders Turkey. The YPG has been in contact with both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and with Russia, Assad's primary backer, as a backstop against a U.S. withdrawal. With the administration scrambling to present an organized approach to a pullback and vowing that it will protect its allies, both Turkey and Israel now appear to believe they have some leverage. In addition to demanding that the administration sever its alliance with the Kurdish fighters - or at least move them from the border and downgrade their influence in eastern Syria - Ankara plans to ask for U.S. air and logistical support in exchange for fighting against remaining Islamic State militants. Israel, which has launched repeated airstrikes into Syria against Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces allied with Assad, appealed to Bolton to compensate for the pullout by recognizing its sovereignty over the Golan Heights as a buffer zone against Iranian expansion. The plateau was captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War by Israel, which later effectively annexed it. Syria has consistently demanded its return, and the Israeli occupation has never been recognized by the international community. In another twist, Bolton also suggested that the United States might not withdraw all its forces after all, and instead could leave some at a garrison in southeast Syria. The tiny, remote base, Tanf, is on a key ground route from Tehran to Damascus and has been seen as an important tool in constraining Iran's expansion in Syria. It remained unclear whether Trump supported keeping troops there. - - - The Washington Post's Paul Sonne contributed to this report. WASHINGTON A U.S. airstrike in Yemen last week killed one of the suspected plotters of the deadly Qaida bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole in 2000, President Donald Trump and military officials confirmed Sunday. On Friday, the militarys Central Command said it had conducted a strike Tuesday in the Marib province of Yemen that targeted the militant, Jamal al-Badawi, but added that it was still assessing whether he had been killed. By Sunday, the military was confident that al-Badawi was dead, Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the command, said in an email. Sundays Golden Globes red carpet was a noted change from last years somber, yet powerful, style event in which stars wore all black in solidarity with #MeToo victims of sexual assault and abuse. This year, celebrities arrived at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in bold, bright colors, from vivid green to icy blue. Although there was little talk about the Times Up movement, stars still wore Times Up X 2 ribbons and bracelets on the red carpet. Crazy Rich Asian star Gemma Chan was the belle of the ball in a petrol blue Valentino haute couture gown. The dress had a voluminous skirt and train, slit to reveal short shorts. It looked elegant, yet wearable. The London-born actress has captivated the attention of style-watchers after her portrayal of the super-rich, pedigreed Astrid in the movie. Also in blue was Lady Gaga in a Valentino strapless gown with a massive train, a 20-carat Tiffany & Co. diamond necklace and Giuseppe Zanotti platforms. Her hair was dyed the same color, prompting the Twitterverse to dub her look Smurf-inspired. But for the Star Is Born actress, the look was tame in comparison to her attention-seeking theatrical looks like the Victorian Alexander McQueen gown she wore at the London film premiere. On Sunday, Lady Gaga praised her Star Is Born co-star Bradley Cooper, saying, he taught me how to be really present on set. Black Panther star Lupita Nyongo arrived, with co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Danai Gurira, wearing a Calvin Klein By Appointment chain fringe gown with a metallic silver-box clutch. Nyongo brings magic to the red carpet with every stroll. Glow actress Alison Brie wore a pale-blue custom Vera Wang with a black, silver bandeau. This year Im in a pretty dress, Brie said. White dresses also made a statement. Jamie Lee Curtis chose an all-white, long-sleeve gown with high slit and short platinum locks to match. Dakota Fanning arrived wearing a Giorgio Armani strapless white gown, while award-show host Sandra Oh channeled Old Hollywood in a white draped Versace gown and a wavy bob. The Golden Globes also brought a sea of green. Catherine Zeta-Jones dazzled in an Elie Saab gown with a high slit. Crazy Rich Asians star Michelle Yeoh chose an emerald leather gown with the emerald ring she wore in the movie. Taraji P. Henson wore a plush, velvet green gown with a plunging neckline and a silver choker. It was a look that showed off her toned physique. But the deep V is getting to be boring. Hensons podium partner, Gina Rodriguez, took the plunge in a Reem Acra gown dripping with Chopard diamonds. Nicole Kidman stunned in a skin-tight, custom burgundy sequined Michael Kors gown that only a few could wear, even in Hollywood. As well, Charlize Theron chose a classic form-fitting Dior. Julia Roberts pulled off a half gown/half pants combo with style. The few misses of the night included the Monique Lhuillier strapless noir gown worn by Heidi Klum, who could have pulled off the look with a more prim updo. The tousled beach waves didnt fit the dress. Anne Hathaways Elie Saab V-neck leopard-print gown, with its mix of sequins and organza, seemed more fitting for the edgier Grammy awards than the refined Golden Globes. The cut-out look hasnt fizzled yet, as demonstrated by Thandie Newton, Lucy Liu and Rosamund Pike, whose black Givenchy Couture cut-out gown was oddly paired with a silver jacket. joy.sewing@chron.com Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer For most people, salads are fairly commonplace. But I had never laid eyes on lettuce until I arrived in North America. If there was anything raw on our dinner table growing up in India, it was chopped cabbage or onions with a squeeze of lime. My first experience with a salad was a memorable one cold and crisp lettuce lightly coated in an olive-oil-lemon vinaigrette, topped with crumbled goat cheese and crunchy nuts. Over the years, I have infused salad dressings with every imaginable seed, added minced mango chutney and even incorporated assorted pickles to dressings to brighten flavors. Exxon Mobil said Monday it began drilling new exploration wells offshore of Guyana as the nation's biggest energy company continues to expand its efforts near the tiny South American nation. The new drilling comes about two weeks after Exxon Mobil abruptly halted some of its seismic data gathering activities offshore of Guyana - but nearer to the Venezuelan border - when a contracted vessel fled after being confronted by the Venezuelan navy. Irving-based Exxon Mobil, and its New York-based partner Hess Corp., insisted the naval incident would not stall its exploration and drilling activities elsewhere off of Guyana's shore. Exxon said Monday it started drilling the Haimara-1 exploration well, which is located almost 20 miles east of the previous Pluma-1 discovery in the southeastern portion of what's known as the Stabroek Block. Exxon is using the Stena Carron drillship that's operated by the United Kingdom's Stena Drilling. And Noble Corp., which operates out of Sugar Land, will use its Noble Tom Madden drillship to drill a second exploration well in January, the Tilapia-1 well, which is about three miles west of the Longtail-1 discovery. The Tilapia-1 well is located in the growing Turbot area, Exxon Mobil said. "We continue to prioritize high-potential prospects in close proximity to previous discoveries in order to establish opportunities for material and efficient development," said Steve Greenlee, president of Exxon Mobil Exploration. RELATED: Exxon Mobil efforts halted after Venezuela confrontation Exxon Mobil also is progressing with the Liza Phase 1 development offshore of Guyana that is expected to transition into production mode in early 2020. Drilling efforts are ongoing and pipeline installation will begin in the spring. The Liza Destiny vessel - a floating, production, storage and offloading ship, or FPSO - its expected to arrive in the fall after being built in Singapore. Exxon Mobil said the Stabroek Block could eventually support up to five FPSOs producing more than 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2025. Despite the naval incident with Venezuela, which disputes its offshore boundaries with Guyana, Exxon Mobil said it will soon deploy a seismic vessel to the Turbot region, but seismic activities won't resume for now in the northwestern portion of the Stabroek that's nearer Venezuela. Outside of West Texas' booming Permian Basin, Exxon Mobil's biggest growth area is offshore Guyana. Late last year, Exxon and Hess Corp increased their reserve estimates offshore of Guyana by 25 percent after making a 10th discovery in the region. They hiked their reserve estimate from 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent up to 5 billion. Gibbons Creek Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant about 20 miles from Bryan near College Station, put the states grid operator on notice that the plant will not operate this summer. The closure reduces the states already tight power reserves and is sparking forecasts of higher electricity prices. The Texas Municipal Power Agency, a group comprising the cities of Bryan, Garland, Denton and Greenville, owns the plant and notified the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that it will suspend operations of the 470-megawatt plant through at least the summer. The move follows the shutdown last year of three coal plants with a combined generation capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts enough to power at least 800,000 Texas homes by Vistra Energy of Irving. The loss of Gibbons Creek will cut the projected power reserve margin from the already record low of 8.1 percent to 7.4 percent, just over half of ERCOTs reserve margin goal of 13.7 percent. The reserve margin measures additional power supplies available to meet unusually high demand, fill in for generators that break down unexpectedly, or both. The lower the power reserves, the higher the risks of shortages, price spikes and in worst case scenarios, disruptions to the power system in the form of blackouts and brown outs. DeAnn Walker, chairman of the Public Utility Commission, has called the shrinking power supply cushion very scary. On HoustonChronicle.com: ERCOT predicts lower reserve margin for electricity this summer Futures markets, which allow utilities and retail power companies to contract for power months in advance, are reaching similar conclusions. The August contract is trading at about $170 per megawatt hour, more than 60 percent above last summers peak wholesale price of $105 per megawatt hour, according to the Intercontinental Exchange, which operates commodities markets. Such an increase would eventually filter down to household bills. This tells you the financial futures market is expecting shortages, said Ed Hirs, energy economist at the University of Houston. ERCOT is anticipating more periods of price spikes, given the tighter reserve margins compared to last summer, said spokeswoman Leslie Sopko. Coal-fired power plants have shut down in Texas and across the nation in recent years as they were undercut by cheaper natural gas and the rapidly falling cost of renewable energy, such as wind and solar. For the past two years, Gibbons Creek has operated as a peaker plant, dormant except during the scorching summer months when demand soars, supplies dwindle and prices spike. In recent years, however, additional supplies from other sources, particularly wind, have moderated the summer price spikes that made it worth the cost of keeping peaker plants ready to go into operation. Peaker plants now face the growing likelihood that they may never be called upon to produce power, even as they maintain and staff them. Gibbons Creek did not return calls for comment. Andrew Barlow, spokesman for the Public Utility Commission, said regulators are concerned about the impact of the loss of the Gibbons Creek plant on electricity supplies this summer. The commission is awaiting an update from ERCOT on the power situation, he said. The Texas Municipal Power Agency has been trying to sell Gibbons Creek since 2016 and announced it reached a deal that year, according to financial reports from the nonprofit company. But the deal unraveled, according to the reports. The changing power market is upending traditional business models that banked on summertime price spikes to generate profits. As a result, traditional generators are arguing they have little incentive to invest in new plants and maintain older ones to have them available when demand soars. They have proposed changes in the way the market operates, including advocating for additional payments during peak demand periods, which would boost electricity prices by as much as $4 billion statewide. On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas power companies lobby for higher prices The Public Utility Commission has asked ERCOT to investigate and identify power reserves that may be overlooked in their calculations. Many large retailers, manufacturing firms and other companies have installed emergency back up generators that can be put into operation quickly if severe weather knocks out power or peak summer demand sends wholesale prices, which they pay, to exorbitant levels. In Texas, wholesale prices are allowed to rise to as much $9,000 per megawatt. Reliant Energy reported in June that wholesale prices during the hottest time of the day which is typically late summer afternoons when air conditioners are going full blast were running about $200 a megawatt hour. lynn.sixel@chron.com twitter.com/lmsixel (Bloomberg) -- Palantir Technologies Inc. has always been a different sort of company. It didnt hire salespeople; it seemed largely unconcerned with pedestrian headaches like turning a profit; and it was co-founded and backed by Peter Thiel, techs reigning contrarian. But as the data-mining company preps for its long-awaited initial public offering -- which is expected as early as this year -- the 15-year-old startup has taken a cue from other, more traditional tech companies. It has trimmed runaway expenses, revamped its product aimed at large companies and has even begun building a sales team, a function it has long disdained. Now, according to public filings in Europe reviewed by Bloomberg, there are some signs that -- in that region at least -- the strategy has started to pay off. Revenue in Europe was up 57 percent in 2017, the filings show. In recent months, Palo Alto, California-based Palantir has brought on dozens of sales staff to pitch its new product, slowly changing its mix of employees, said many current and former Palantir employees and investors. Bloomberg spoke to nearly a dozen people, all of whom asked not to be identified because the details of the companys plans are private. Palantir declined to comment for this story. The sales push is a marked departure from Chief Executive Officer Alex Karps long-held philosophy. For Karp, it was a point of pride that the tech was good enough to sell itself. Karp once said publicly the only way hed hire a sales team was if investors forced him to, or if he was "hit by a bus." As recently as 2017 he told CNBC, Almost everyone here is an engineer. Im a PhD in philosophy," and "We have no salespeople. Some of the new hires have been top salespeople at major American companies like Oracle Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. And additional hiring is underway: more than five dozen global positions with business development or leverage in their titles are now listed on the companys website. Those positions, said several people, often perform functions that are typically handled by sales teams, despite the absence of "sales" in their titles and job descriptions. The product that most of the new employees are selling is called Foundry, data analytics software aimed at large corporate clients. Current Foundry customers include Morgan Stanley, which uses it to deter insider trading; Merck KGaA, which uses it to speed drug discovery; and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which uses it to identify faults in its cars before they cause problems. Foundry, and its predecessor Metropolis, performs the same type of big data analysis Palantirs Gotham does for government groups -- helping users sift through troves of data to mine for patterns and specific information. Compared to Metropolis, though, Foundry requires less customization and far fewer engineers, resulting in a potentially lower cost to customers and fatter margins for Palantir. Foundry took years to develop and is now one of just two products Palantir offers. The other is Gotham, used by federal, state and local agencies and nonprofits around the world. But by pouring resources into Foundry, the company has signaled a change of priorities, moving beyond a focus on government work, toward more seriously pursuing the larger and potentially more lucrative corporate market. The stakes are high for the new product. Everything rests on Foundry and the ability to sell it, said one Palantir investor who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Its what makes Palantir a software company instead of a consultancy. Worldwide, the company is still unprofitable, according to several people familiar with its financials. But the strategy appears to be gaining traction in Europe. According to public filings in the U.K., the company is hitting notable financial milestones in the region. The company made money in Europe in 2017 as revenue soared to 129.7 million pounds ($175 million) from 82.6 million pounds the year before. Thats thanks to Foundry and large deals with the likes of German health care giant Merck and airplane manufacturer Airbus SE, among others. Now, the companys sales method in Europe is being duplicated worldwide, several people said. This involves dispatching a three-person team -- including one engineer and two other people in jobs that would typically be considered sales employees -- to pitch clients on the software. Its still far from a traditional sales meeting, though. Even with the increasing pressure to turn a profit, Palantirs pitch to clients remains fiercely technical. One recent hire tasked with wooing new customers said that after the first two months on the job, all training has been on the Foundry software itself, with no sales instruction. Palantirs historic reticence toward salesmanship, and its CEOs very public disparagement of the profession, could make building a global sales force difficult. Without cultural buy-in, especially from the CEO at the top, it can implode, said Matt McGraw, founder of San Francisco-based sales recruiting agency TheLions. If you have a CEO who is nauseous dealing with someone whos slicker than they are, then that can be a problem. But Palantirs is not an uncommon evolution: Other engineering-first companies including Slack Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corp.s GitHub and Dropbox Inc. all went through similar phases of this anti-sales culture, said Mark Cranney, a former operating partner for venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Despite being much older than its peers, Palantir could pull off the same transformation, he said. With maturity, they will bring in the right people. --With assistance from Giles Turner. To contact the reporter on this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMey 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Travis Scott and Jordan Brand will continue their partnership in 2019 with several new sneaker collabs, including a unique, white and brown Air Jordan 1 with a backward Nike swoosh. La Flame recently provided a closer look at the kicks during a Rolling Stone photo shoot, which you can check out in the IG post embedded below. Jordan Brand has not yet announced official release details for the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 but rumors suggest the kicks will be arriving in April. Additionally, there is a low-top rendition featuring a tan and black colorway with the familiar flipped Nike swoosh in white on the lateral side. In addition to the upcoming Air Jordan 1s, sneaker source @PY_Rates reports that a Cactus Jack Air Jordan 6 is also slated to launch in the Spring. The rumored Travis Scott x Air Jordan 6 comes in an "Olive, Black, Sail & University Red" colorway, similar to one of his exclusive Air Jordan 4 collabs. Last week, Future gave us perhaps the first big release date announcement of 2018. The album's title is still unknown, but it's less than two weeks away, arriving on January 18th. More importantly, as far as Top Tracks is concerned, that announcement was accompanied by the release of a new single entitled "Crushed Up." Coupled with the unofficial leak of the French Montana-assisted track "NASA" earlier in the week, this entailed a pretty massive week for Fewtch. Along with Future, Layzie Bone is the only other artist who has two appearances inside the top ten this week. New tracks barely missing out on spots this week include Skillz and Lil Duval's "2018 Rap Up" (#11), Lil Pump's "Butterfly Doors" (#12), Fetty Wap's "Trippin Baby" (#13), and YBN Cordae's "What's Life" (#14). ---- 10. 8Ball & MJG - Take A Picture Memphis legends 8Ball & MJG just dropped a live album called Classic Pimpin, and included on there was one new cut: "Take A Picture." This one debuts at #10. 9. R. Kelly - Born to My Music Now that multi-part documentary Surviving R. Kelly has laid bare all of the atrocities he's committed over the course of his wildly-successful career, you'd think most people wouldn't go out of the way to listen to any of his music, let alone new releases. However, they still do. His new single "Born to My Music" debuts at #9. 8. Ncredible Gang Feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Jacquees & Nick Cannon - Nobody Else What a random trio! For his latest track released under the Ncredible Gang collective umbrella, Nick Cannon recruits R&B mainstays Ty Dolla $ign and Jacquees for some "Still Not a Player" interpolation. Entitled "Nobody Else," this one debuts at #8. 7. Layzie Bone - Let Me Go Migo Thanks to his ongoing beef with Migos, Layzie Bone enjoys a second consecutive rare appearance inside of the top ten, this time doubly so. The first of his two entries is also the only repeat from last week's chart. In its second week out, "Let Me Go Let Migo" is down six spots from #1 to #7. 6. Fetty Wap - Trap God Where has Fetty Wap been? The once-hot melodic rapper has as of yet failed to re-approach his 2015 heyday level of fame, but he's off to a decent start this year. His second of two new tracks from last week, "Trap God," debuts at #6. 5. Uncle Murda - Rap Up 2018 Like he always does at this time, NY veteran Uncle Murda delivered his lengthy "Rap Up" of the past year in the form of a nine-minute-long track. His "Rap Up 2018" debuts at #5. 4. Layzie Bone - Annihilation Layzie Bone's second entry on the chart this week is also get this a Migos diss record. "Annihilation" also managed to rack up way more views than is usual for Layzie at this point in his career, but it still seems unlikely to garner an official response from Migos. "Annihilation" debuts at #4. 3. Future - Crushed Up As previously mentioned, Future had quite an eventful week, with several leaked tracks popping up, and rumor of a new album surfacing before he got ahead of everything with this well-polished new track. "Crushed Up" came complete with an icy video, so you know it's real. This one debuts at #3. 2. Chris Brown - Undecided R. Kelly's not enough, why not throw in another accused abuser! Chris Brown charted his first solo track in quite some time last week, and judging by its performance, it seems like people didn't get enough of him on last year's 40+ song behemoth Heartbreak on a Full Moon. "Undecided" debuts at #2. 1. Future Feat. French Montana - NASA Before "Crushed Up" and the accompanying album announcement arrived, Future's archive sprung some leaks, including this French Montana-assisted track "NASA." It's unclear when this was made, or if it's intended for the upcoming album, but one thing's for sure: Future's team got it offline very quickly. Nevertheless, "NASA" debuts at #1. Rae Sremmurd's trip to New Zealand is one for the books. The brothers have already gotten in a bloody brawl that led Slim Jxmmi to respond to the negative headlines and now Slim can check 'swimming in a toxic lake' off his bucket list. The "Black Beatles" rapper shared a video on Instagram that sees him jumping head first into a lake to swim to some paddle boats, but the waters are said to be extremely toxic. "They asked me what SremmLife was so I jumped into the lake (Adelaide)," he captioned the video. Slim's little show off came with some consequences since the lake he so willingly swam in is certified toxic by the Adelaide city council. Apparently, the 10,000+ fans attending FOMO Festival at Elder Park were warned about the nearby lake and its toxic algae and they run the risk of being arrested if seen swimming. According to AllHipHop, local authorities let Slim off the hook by not pressing charges since they seemingly weren't aware of the risk. We do, however, strongly discourage people from swimming in the river given the water quality and safety issues which are a potential health and safety risk, a spokeswoman for Adelaide City Council said. Here's to making better decisions abroad. As the new year gets underway, a host of upstarts are looking to throw their hats in the ring early on and join the conversations of might prove to conquer the year. Enter Leigh Paris, a New York-bred emcee who has offered up his first selection of the year with his catchy "Wood Grain" cut, which sample's Belizean rapper Shyne's Barrington Levy-assisted "Bad Boyz" cut. It's a nod to Paris' own Belizean roots and lends a modern take on a classic cut. The original Bad Boyz" peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release in 200. Only time will tell if Leigh Paris on road to such success. RIght now, the song serves as a look at what s to come of Ligh Paris' upcoming EP, but until it arrives, get acquainted with "Wood Grain." Quotable Lyrics Wood grain Cartier Wood grain in the air I grow out my hair I go everywhere Although this year's red carpet at the Golden Globes was taken over by the Fiji Water Girl who strategically positioned herself in the frame behind and beside many of the night's stars, overshadowing them with her not-so-innocent smile. However, there were still some actual actors and directors who made an impression. Here are a few of them: There is, of course, Halle Berry, who looked her usual not-a-day-over-29 self in a lacy, red dress by Zuhair Murad. She was at the Globes to present an award with Lena Waithe. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Taraji P. Henson was there too, and apparently had a bit of a rough night, losing (and later finding) her wedding ring and permanently losing her jacket (on her Instagram story she writes, "I guess my jacket grew legs...wasn't in the lost and found"). She shared a table with the mogul Tyler Perry. Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images Lady Gaga won best song for "Shallow," the same award that the original version of A Star is Born won in the 30s. She also chose a Valentino dress that echoed the one worn by Judy Garland way-back-when. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Also on the throwback tip was the one and only Sandra Oh, who won best actress in a TV Drama for Killing Eve and wore a timeless, ivory Versace dress upon her arrival but later changed into this shiny-armed Stella McCartney gown: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Janelle Monae also channelled a different era, or two. She wore a Chanel tweed dress a-la-1920s and an ancient looking gold thing on her head: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Although every came out with bells on, nobody was dressed to impress quite as much as Billy Porter, who gave new meaning to the song "Gucci Gang," wearing the designer head-to-toe, including a pair of velvet, heeled slippers. He didn't win the Golden Globe, but he definitely wins best dressed. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 814-368-3173 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com. Based in Dallas, Texas, Aimbridge is North America's leading third-party hotel operator, with a management portfolio that includes approximately 800 upscale, independent and branded hotels with more than 100,000 rooms across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority ownership interest in North America's leading third-party hotel operator Aimbridge Hospitality from Lee Equity Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm, and General Atlantic. Aimbridge's senior management team will continue to lead the company and will retain a meaningful equity stake in the business. The transaction is expected to close by February. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Dallas, Texas, Aimbridge is North America's leading third-party hotel operator, with a management portfolio that includes approximately 800 upscale, independent and branded hotels with more than 100,000 rooms across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Aimbridge provides property management, asset management, development, renovation and consulting services to the most respected hotel brands in the industry, including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Wyndham. "Over the past 15 years Aimbridge has grown to become one of the most respected independent hotel managers in the industry, while creating a positive guest experience and generating operational excellence for our hotel partners," said Dave Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality. "We appreciate Lee Equity's strategic guidance over the past several years, and with Advent's financial and strategic support, we look forward to building on our proven track record of delivering superior results for some of the most prestigious hotel owners and developers across the U.S. and beyond." Since 2013, Aimbridge has made significant progress on its growth strategy, expanding its properties under management from 8 to over 800 and penetrating full-service and select-service properties at attractive growth rates. With its market-leading position and the support of Advent in partnership with Lee Equity and the Aimbridge management team, Aimbridge will be well positioned for continued growth and international expansion. "Aimbridge has emerged as the clear leader in the fast-growing and fragmented U.S. third-party hotel management industry, and we are thrilled to partner with the organization as we invest in Aimbridge's next chapter of growth," said Jeff Case, a Managing Director at Advent International. "Aimbridge has a unique opportunity to expand its reach globally through both organic growth and strategic opportunities while leveraging technology to better serve its hotel partners." "It's been a pleasure to work with the Aimbridge management team," said Yoo Jin Kim, Partner at Lee Equity Partners. "Under Dave Johnson's strong leadership, the team has grown the business consistently during our partnership and established a prominent market-leading position. We look forward to their next phase of success." "Over the past several years, Aimbridge has expanded significantly both through organic growth and strategic acquisitions," said Peter Munzig, Managing Director of General Atlantic. "We have been proud to work in partnership with Dave and the Aimbridge team and wish them continued success." Advent has extensive investment experience in the business and financial services and retail, consumer and leisure sectors. Over the past 27 years, Advent has invested $9 billion in 75 business and financial services companies and $11 billion in 75 companies in consumer, retail and leisure. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Dusit International has continued its expansion by soft opening two new resorts under its dusitD2 brand - dusitD2 Yarkay Thimphu, Bhutan and dusitD2 Ao Nang, Krabi (Thailand). Dusit International has continued its expansion by soft opening two new resorts under its dusitD2 brand - dusitD2 Yarkay Thimphu, Bhutan and dusitD2 Ao Nang, Krabi (Thailand). Opened on 15 December 2018, dusitD2 Ao Nang, Krabi puts guests within walking distance of the beach and other major attractions in this popular beach town, in Southern Thailand. Besides 173 guest rooms and suites with a choice of sea, mountain or pool views, the family-friendly resort includes an All-Day-Dining restaurant, a lobby bar, an outdoor swimming pool with a separate children's pool, a fitness centre, a spa, a 200 sq m ballroom, and an extensive children's playground. Rock climbing excursions, jungle treks, and boat trips to nearby paradise islands can all be easily arranged at the hotel. Opened on 19 December 2018, meanwhile, dusitD2 Yarkay Thimphu, Bhutan serves as the first and largest internationally-branded hotel in the enchanting kingdom. Drawing inspiration from the Four Harmonious Friends, a beloved national folktale about four animals working together to harvest fruit from a magical tree, each guest floor of the hotel is dedicated to a different animal from the tale. Colourful and contemporary motifs of the creatures adorn the walls of each of the 83 well-appointed guest rooms and suites. Alongside a beautiful lobby showcasing local artworks, current hotel offerings include a Thai spa, a fully equipped gym and an international all-day-dining restaurant. A vibrant bar and the first authentic Thai restaurant in Bhutan will follow soon. Popular attractions such as Buddha Point (Kuensel-Phodrang), the iconic Tashichho Dzong, the Royal Botanical Park, and Clock Tower Square are all easily accessible from the hotel's prime inner-city location in the kingdom's capital, Thimphu. "Designed to reflect and anticipate the needs and desires of today's hyper-connected travellers, our dusitD2 resorts feature a unique combination of comfort, convenience and style, creating vibrant places for guests to socialise and interact," said Mr Lim Boon Kwee, Chief Operating Officer, Dusit International. "We are delighted to welcome dusitD2 Yarkay Thimphu, Bhutan and dusitD2 Ao Nang, Krabi to our fast-growing portfolio of global hotels, and we look forward to delighting guests with our unique brand of gracious hospitality." Special Opening Offers at both properties include 40% off the Dusit Best Available Rate, daily breakfast, exclusive dining discount and more great benefits. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Rotana has signed a hotel management agreement with Mullion Contractors Limited to manage a new five-star hotel and hotel apartments in Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Set to open in 2022, the new property will be situated in Upper Hill, a popular business district in the city of Nairobi. Rotana has signed a hotel management agreement with Mullion Contractors Limited to manage a new five-star hotel and hotel apartments in Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Set to open in 2022, the new property will be situated in Upper Hill, a popular business district in the city of Nairobi. With 200 hotel rooms and 100 hotel apartments, the upcoming hotels will be operated under the "Rotana Hotels & Resorts" and "Arjaan hotel apartments by Rotana" brands. The agreement for the new hotel comes a month after Rotana signed up for its first property in the Republic of Zambia. The planned five-star hotel is scheduled for opening in 2021 in the heart of the south-central African country's capital city Lusaka. When opened, the new properties in Kenya and Zambia will join the company's portfolio of operating hotels in the African continent that includes Al Salam Rotana, Khartoum, Sudan; Kin Plaza Arjaan by Rotana, Kinshasa, DR Congo; and Grand Rotana Resort & Spa, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Commenting on the agreement, Nasser Al-Nowais, Chairman, Rotana, said: "Setting foot in Kenyan market with a five-star hotel and hotel apartments is closely aligned with our vision of strengthening Rotana's presence in Africa and bolstering our global portfolio further. We will continue to seek new opportunities to offer Rotana's branded accommodation on the continent that is increasingly becoming popular among tourists and corporate travellers from around the world. On behalf of Rotana, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Mullion Contractors Limited for placing their trust and confidence in our abilities to manage the upcoming hotels." Selim El Zyr, Vice Chairman, Rotana, added: "With its promising economic growth projections of around 6 percent, Kenya remains one of Africa's most buoyant markets and thus offers bright prospects for the hospitality sector. The signing of the hotel management agreement for a new hotels in Nairobi's thriving business district is a key milestone for Rotana. We are optimistic that this strategic step will fuel our ambitious expansion drive in the African continent." Offering guests with all the comforts and the luxury for a pleasant and memorable long stay experience, both hotels in Nairobi will feature key hospitality offerings, including signature dining restaurants, executive lounge, ballroom, state-of-the-art meeting facilities, and generous indoor and outdoor space thoughtfully designed for formal and informal gatherings. Other amenities will include pool and terraces, as well as a fully equipped fitness & wellness club. The new hotel and hotel apartments will bring Rotana's total inventory in Africa to 2,028. With an eye to capitalizing on the potential of the continent's burgeoning market for the hospitality sector, Rotana has planned new hotels in Angola, Mauritania, Nigeria and Tanzania which are scheduled to open by 2022. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced the opening of Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall, marking the reintroduction of the Hyatt Regency brand to Kuwait. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced the opening of Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall, marking the reintroduction of the Hyatt Regency brand to Kuwait. The opening marks the first of two Hyatt properties in collaboration with Tamdeen Group, the second of which is Grand Hyatt Kuwait, set to open in 2020. The Hyatt Regency brand offers a seamless experience that connects guests to everything they need under one roof with a full range of services and amenities, including notable culinary experiences, technology-enabled facilities for collaboration, expert event planners with exceptional attention to detail, and flexible spaces to work, engage or relax. Located in Kuwaits thriving oil and gas district within the citys largest waterfront retail and leisure destination, Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall provides guests with easy access to the shopping centers additional offerings including Al Kout Mall, Souq Al Kout, Al Kout Marina, Al Kout Fishermans Wharf, and Al Kout seaside promenade. The property is located 25 minutes away from Kuwait International Airport and within a 45 minute drive to the Saudi Arabian border. With the convenient location of the property and our exceptional hotel facilities, we are thrilled to welcome guests to Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall, an ideal space for our guests to work, engage or relax, said Fadi Akeel, general manager Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall. It has been a great pleasure to continue our relationship with the esteemed Tamdeen Group and we look forward to continued success. We are excited to welcome the Hyatt Regency brand back to Kuwait, said Mohammed Jassim Khalid Al Marzouq, chairman of Tamdeen Group. We are certain that the Hyatt Regency brand, known for its superior facilities and seamless service, will resonate with business and leisure travelers visiting Kuwait, and look forward to our continued collaboration and future openings in this dynamic city. Advertisement Guestrooms and Suites Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall offers 200 contemporary and spacious guestrooms, including 53 Junior Suites, 67 Regency Suites and 14 two-bedroom Premium Suites. All guestrooms and suites feature a workspace and exceptional views over the Arabian Sea or vibrant Fahaheel city. Suite guests enjoy an apartment style space with a separate living room, kitchen or kitchenette, and complimentary access to the hotels exclusive Regency Club Lounge. Drinking and Dining Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall features a range of culinary experiences that meet guests diverse needs and preferences. Andiamo, the hotels elegant Italian restaurant centers around the lively theatrics of Italian cooking, featuring a dynamic open kitchen display and authentic signature dishes. Guests can refresh and relax over healthy juices and smoothies at the rooftop pool lounge or enjoy a casual meal in The Lobby Lounge a contemporary outlet offering freshly brewed coffee, infused teas and trendy mocktails. Meetings and Events The property features 25,833 square feet (2,400 square meters) of flexible meeting spaces, including five co-working spaces equipped with standard office supplies, accommodating up to 22 people. Four meeting rooms spanning 4,520 square feet (420 square meters) boast ample natural light, breakout rooms, an outdoor terrace and the latest audiovisual technology, whilst the beautiful 5,113 square foot, (475 square meters) pillarless Regency Ballroom with generous high ceilings is ideal for weddings. A dedicated expert event manager is available to ensure flawless execution and a stress-free experience. Wellness and Relaxation Guests are invited to reenergize at Club Olympus, located on the hotels rooftop, boasting panoramic sea and city views. The 24-hour fitness center features the latest technology, including strength, cardiovascular and weight training machines, along with its own sauna. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Press Release 7 January 2019 Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), producers of Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC), announced that attendee online registration for its third-annual HITEC Europe is now open. The event is the first of three HITEC events in 2019, which bring together thought leaders, practitioners and vendors to cover hospitality technology trends and practices. HITEC Europe will take place from 09-11 April 2019 at the Palau de Congressos in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. Advertisements "HITEC Europe in 2019 will be located in the premiere travel destination of Palma, Mallorca a locale with hundreds of hotels and headquarters to numerous hospitality companies," said Carl Weldon, HFTP COO - Europe. "Not only is the island a draw due to its large hospitality market, but the program for HITEC Europe will be a cannot miss event for industry professionals who are involved in the technology operations at hotels, resorts and more." A highlight to the program is the keynote presentation on Wednesday, 10 April by award-winning futurist Rohit Talwar. Talwar is an entrepreneur and specialist advisor on business transformation, disruptive strategies and radical innovation. Profiled as one the top 10 global future thinkers by the Independent newspaper, his controversial and inspiring keynote speeches enable teams to think differently, act fast and be first to the future. "Rohit includes a good mixture in his presentation of technology, as well as management and business strategies to cope with the various disruptors that will be coming our way," said HITEC Europe Advisory Council Chair Derek Wood. HITEC Europe full registration attendees will have access to two full days of education, two full days of exhibits and access to the Entrepreneur 20X (E20X) pre-conference event and Welcome Reception. The full schedule of events is available on the HITEC Europe website. Education. Full registration attendees will have access to two days of educational training and best practices, carefully planned for the European hospitality market by the HITEC Europe Advisory Council, including the keynote presentation. Exhibits. Full Registration attendees, as well as those purchasing an exhibits only attendee pass will have access to two days of exhibits. Do not miss the only opportunity to see a number of new products and high-caliber existing products all in one location. The education program does not conflict with exhibit hours, but attendees will also have access to educational opportunities right on the show floor with the new Spotlight Presentations. View the current HITEC Europe floor plan to see which companies are exhibiting. Stands for the 2019 exhibition are still available for companies interested in participating. Entrepreneur 20X (E20X). This pre-conference event features ambitious, unfunded technology entrepreneurs presenting breakthrough business concepts to a room full of HITEC attendees as well as a panel of expert judges. All HITEC badges, including exhibits-only badges, will have the opportunity to watch some of the most innovative startups the hospitality technology industry has to offer compete in the European version of the globally recognized pitch competition. The application process for participating in the competition is now open through 08 February 2019. In addition to the opening of HITEC Europe registration, the HITEC Europe website offers information on travel and hotel reservations. Following HITEC Europe, HFTP will host the larger HITEC Minneapolis on 17-20 June 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. Registration for HITEC Minneapolis is open as well. For more information about HITEC and HFTP's other international activities, contact the HFTP Meetings & Special Events Department at [email protected]. Press Release 7 January 2019 On January 6, 2019, Disneyland Paris unveiled the logo of the new Disney's Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel, during an epic celebration of the resort as it is heading into its ambitious renovation. Advertisements Opening summer 2020, it will infuse the dynamic, inspiring art world of Super Heroes including Iron Man, The Avengers, and Spider-Man among others, to the elegant and vibrant Big Apple atmosphere. Since 1992, the Disney's Hotel New York welcomed millions of guests and immersed them into New York culture, the design of architect Michael Graves and the atmosphere of the Big Apple. As it's preparing for the most spectacular transformation in its history - it will reopen in summer 2020 as Disney's Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel - Disneyland Paris celebrated the Cast Members and heritage of the resort and unveiled new exciting details on the upcoming new chapter of the hotel's history. WOW News Today "It is a new chapter, marked by unforgettable memories, both for our guests who stayed there and for all our Cast Members who worked there." said Martina Sardelli, Vice President Operations Hotels & Disney Village, "Disneyland Paris always keeps moving forward, to be at the forefront and exceed expectations. It is precisely this taste for innovation and this avant-garde spirit that we celebrate today." The hotel reimagining will create an environment evoking a luxury and contemporary Manhattan establishment. Its interior design will be sleek and cosmopolitan in the style of Tony Stark and the Avengers Headquarters and will showcase the "Art of Marvel" in a way that reinvents the idea of an "art hotel". Custom created art will adorn the walls of rooms and suites. Bold pieces on display in public areas will showcase the diverse wealth of art from the Marvel universe: comic art, film, design, sculpture, costume all displayed in the style of a contemporary New York art gallery. Pieces will include comic book covers, posters, concept art from films, storyboards, production design, props, original sketches, media, and more! The hotel will offer 476 standard rooms, 65 executive rooms and 8 standard suites. The room interiors reflect the sophisticated urban style of Tony Stark's tastes, with a color palette reminiscent of his Iron Man suit and art featuring Marvel Super Heroes. One-of-a-kind suites are each meticulously fashioned around Marvel Super Heroes and New York City themes. For these unique suites, a Marvel artist will be commissioned to create stunning pieces featuring the Super Heroes. New York and Marvel come together in an environment that is both sophisticated and fun, showcasing the Art of Marvel in a new and exciting way. Disney's Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel will open in summer 2020. Now Open 7 January 2019 The new hotel represents a market entry for Hyatt, strengthening the brand's presence in Africa. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the opening of Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa, the first Hyatt branded hotel in Ethiopia and the seventh in Africa. The 188-room property is centrally located on Meskel Square, near shopping centers, restaurants, bars, and tourist attractions, including the National Museum. With the United Nations Conference Center and African Union Headquarters only a short walk away, the largest conference facility in the country, the hotel serves as the ideal stay for business travelers. Those visiting for leisure can enjoy local attractions including the National Palace and Africa's biggest open market in the lively Mercato district. The Holy Trinity Church, one of the most important places of worship in the country, is only 2.5 miles (four kilometers) from the hotel. Additionally, undoubtedly rich in culture and within a 15 minute drive sits the Anwar Mosque, Ethiopia's largest mosque. Carefully designed to provide guests with everything they need, the hotel boasts six unique dining outlets, perfect for a quiet meal, lively drinks or for those on the go. Accommodations The 188 spacious guestrooms include 12 luxury Regency suites, two Executive suites, one Presidential suite and one Royal Presidential suite with four bedrooms. Regency Club room and suite guests can enjoy complimentary use of the boardroom and exclusive access to the Regency Club lounge, which serves continental breakfast, evening cocktails and snacks. Drinking and Dining With six restaurants and bars to choose from, Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa offers something for every taste. Guests can enjoy delicious Levantine signature meals in the hotel's The Kitchen or a wide array of coffees and cocktails in Cascara Coffee & Cocktails, while taking in the stunning courtyard views. For business meetings, The Lobby Lounge allows guests to indulge in fresh fruit and delicious pastries from The Market. The hotel also features a Pool Bar and Lounge overlooking the inner courtyard. The Oriental serves western style barbeque and fine Asian cuisine in a casual yet contemporary setting. In addition, The Metro Bar, located in the basement, offers live music. Wellbeing Guests wishing to relax and revitalize can visit the outdoor pool or enjoy a massage at the spa. The 2,530 square foot (235 square meter) fitness center will provide the perfect workout with state-of-the-art equipment. Meeting and Events The 18,300 square feet (1,700 square meters) of flexible meeting space overlooking the legendary Meskel Square leads to the open air inner courtyard of the hotel. The magnificent Regency Ballroom adjoining the courtyard offers the best setting for memorable occasions. Further, the hotel features multi-functional meeting spaces equipped with high-tech audiovisual and lighting equipment, making Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa the best place for any occasion. Now Open 7 January 2019 Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced the opening of Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall, marking the reintroduction of the Hyatt Regency brand to Kuwait. The opening marks the first of two Hyatt properties in collaboration with Tamdeen Group, the second of which is Grand Hyatt Kuwait, set to open in 2020. The Hyatt Regency brand offers a seamless experience that connects guests to everything they need under one roof with a full range of services and amenities, including notable culinary experiences, technology-enabled facilities for collaboration, expert event planners with exceptional attention to detail, and flexible spaces to work, engage or relax. Located in Kuwait's thriving oil and gas district within the city's largest waterfront retail and leisure destination, Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall provides guests with easy access to the shopping center's additional offerings including Al Kout Mall, Souq Al Kout, Al Kout Marina, Al Kout Fisherman's Wharf, and Al Kout seaside promenade. The property is located 25 minutes away from Kuwait International Airport and within a 45 minute drive to the Saudi Arabian border. Just scan and upload a photo of your completed "news story" and you'll be entered for a chance to have your story published. Click here to find out where to get a COVID-19 vaccine or test. To find out how many local residents have been vaccinated for COVID-19, click here. Use the map to find numbers for individual counties. Find detailed statistics about COVID-19 tests, cases and deaths by county and for the state as a whole on the Indiana State Department of Health's online dashboard. Lima, OH (45805) Today Sunny to partly cloudy. Brief afternoon shower possible. High 77F. Winds NW at 5 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 52F. Winds NE at 3 to 6 mph. You bet - Ill be there all weekend. I plan to be there at least part of the time. Im still a little leary because of the crowds. Vote View Results Q uestion: What happens to the family home on divorce? Does it really have to be sold? Answer: Not necessarily. It will depend on the individual circumstances of the family concerned. For many couples the family home is their most valuable asset and is where the family have lived and so what happens to it on divorce is often the cause of disputes and much acrimony. It is important to remember that it is irrelevant whose name is on the title deeds to the property as each party to a marriage has a legal right to live in the family home unless the couple have varied this right by way of a pre- or post-nuptial agreement. How does the court split assets? Divorce settlements can include a range of possible outcomes to ensure that each settlement is tailored to meet the needs of the couple or family concerned. In order to achieve this a divorce settlement should take into account matters such as whether or not there are children of the family, if there are any other assets in addition to the family home, and if the couple work etc. The options available depend on the individual circumstances in each case e.g. the parties could agree to sell the family home and split the proceeds of sale either equally or unequally; one party could buy out the other so that one of them can remain in the family home; the property could be transferred into the name of one party in return for the other party receiving other matrimonial assets or being released from any related mortgage secured on the property. Although there are options, if there are children of the family their needs are considered by the Court to be paramount. What happens to the family home? In such circumstances a Mesher Order may be appropriate providing for the family home to remain in the joint names of the couple but allowing the party who has primary care of the children to occupy it until a certain event occurs, such as, the youngest child reaching 18 or the occupying spouse dying or remarrying. As an alternative to a Mesher Order, the property could be transferred into the name of the primary carer with the other party retaining an interest in it by way of a charge back. In an ideal world a divorcing couple would reach an amicable agreement regarding the family home, the division of assets, maintenance etc. but in reality, couples are often unable to do this. If the couple cannot agree then an application to Court will be needed so that the Court can make an appropriate Order stating how the matrimonial assets are to be divided. This will be costly for both parties and so divorcing couples should try to reach an agreement if at all possible. Even if an amicable agreement is reached it must be the subject of a Consent Order and approved by the Court for it to be legally binding on both parties. Divorcing couples may wish to seek independent legal advice to ensure their interests are properly protected. These answers can only be a very brief commentary on the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor. Inside Seventh Army headquarters on the southern coast of Sicily, a scowling Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., greeted Lieutenant General Omar Bradley with bad news. Weve received a directive from Army Group, Brad, Patton said between puffs on a cigar. Montys to get the Vizzini-Caltagirone road in his drive to flank Catania and Mount Etna by going up through Enna. This means youll have to side-slip to the west with your 45th Division. My God, Bradley replied angrily, you cant allow him to do that! But Patton had nothing else to say on the subject. Sorry Brad, he said evenly, but the changeover takes place immediately. Monty wants the road right away. To Patton, Bradley, and just about every other senior United States Army officer, British General Sir Bernard Montgomery got his way entirely too often. This time, just four days into Operation HUSKY (the code name for the Allied Invasion of Sicily), Montgomery had convinced 15th Army Group Commander General Sir Harold Alexander to grant his Eighth Army exclusive use of a highway previously promised to the Americans. Patton and Bradley considered the decision an insult to American military prestige. On July 10, 1943, Allied ships had deposited Pattons Seventh U.S. Army on the beaches along the Gulf of Gela, on Sicilys southwest coast. Montgomerys British Eighth Army went ashore to the east, south of Syracuse. The Allies targeted the city of Messina, at the northeast tip of the triangular island. Capturing Sicily would eliminate persistent Axis attacks on nearby Mediterranean supply routes, and if Messina could be taken quickly, the invaders would snare thousands of Axis prisoners and gain a convenient jump-off spot for the upcoming invasion of Italy. By July 13, Bradleys II Corps had advanced inland to within 1,000 yards of the Vizzini-Caltagirone road (Route 124)a major transport route that cut east to west across the center of the island. Meanwhile, dug-in German troops had blunted Montgomerys advance up the islands east coast, hemming Eighth Army in on the plain of Catania between towering Mount Etna and the sea. In a sudden change of plan, Montgomery decided to send a flanking force west around Etna. To do so he needed Route 124, and Alexander, who had overall command of HUSKYs ground forces, gave it to him. The Americans, one of Pattons frustrated staff officers said, were left tosit comfortably on our prats while Montgomery finishes the goddam war! The British generals thought little of American fighting ability. In February, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommels Afrika Korps had thrust across the hot sands of North Africa and smashed through inexperienced and poorly led U.S. troops at Tunisias Kasserine Pass. The unfortunate performance of the young Americansmany of whom had never before seen battledistressed the British commanders. Alexander declared, they lack the will to fight. Montgomery believed they have no confidence in their Generals. In the wake of the disaster at Kasserine Pass, the Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, sent Patton to Tunisia to take over U.S. II Corps. Patton quickly injected discipline and his fighting spirit into the corps and led it to victories at Gafsa and El Guettar. In mid-April as the Tunisian Campaign neared its end, Patton left the corps in Bradleys hands and returned to French Morocco to take part in planning for the Sicily operation. Despite the Americans improvement on the battlefield, Alexander and Montgomery remained unimpressed. For their part, Patton and many of his colleagues resented British impertinence, especially on the part of Montgomery. Arrogant, self-centered, and pushy, the 56-year-old general in the natty black beret irked his colleagues with outlandish statements and demands. In many ways he was not unlike Patton. At the age of 58, Patton was deeply religious, swashbuckling, human dynamo who strutted around in a polished steel helmet with a pair of ivory-handled revolvers strapped to his waist. His vigor was always infectious, his wit barbed, his conversation a mixture of obscenity and good humor, Bradley wrote. He was at once stimulating and overbearing. George was a magnificent soldier. By the time he waded ashore on Sicily, Pattons antipathy toward his British counterparts had also come to affect his relationship with his boss, Eisenhower. Pattons long-time friend had the difficult job of holding together the young Anglo-American alliance. But Patton felt that American interests and honor too often took a back seat to British demands. God damn all British and all so-called Americans who have their legs pulled by them, Patton wrote in his diary in Tunisia. Ike is more British than the British and is putty in their hands . . . . For the first invasion of the Axis home turf, Patton commanded the new Seventh U.S. Army, including Bradleys II Corps. Patton welcomed the chance to assert U.S. military might. Initially scheduled to land on the islands northern coast and capture Sicilys capital Palermo, American troops expected to go on the offensive in Sicily. But Montgomery favored a less dispersed landing to the south and in the end, his plan won out. Patton still expected Seventh Army to make its mark. But to Alexander, it was clear that Eighth Army would have the glory of capturing the more obviously attractive objectives of Syracuse, Catania, and Messina . . . . From the outset Eighth Army strategy left little room for Patton to operate, and Montgomery essentially imposed his will on Alexander. Montgomery reasoned that if the Americans could simply hold firm against any action from the west I could then swing hard with my right with an easier mind. If they draw enemy attacks on them my swing north will cut off enemy completely. Two days later, Alexander transferred use of Highway 124 to Montgomery. They gave us the future plan of operations, Patton wrote bitterly, which cuts us off from any possibility of taking Messina. Patton considered himself, with good reason, the best damn ass-kicker in the U.S. Army, but he accepted this outrageous decision without a protest. This was not the time to raise a fuss. For the moment he saved his invective for his diary. Ike has never been subjected to air attack or any other form of death. However, he is such a straw man that his future is secure. The British will never let him go. Yet Patton did not simply give up Highway 124 with a smile. He slyly secured authorization to expand the American perimeter west. Patton had his eyes set on Palermo, and, ultimately, Messina. The next day Patton and Major General Lucien K. Truscott, who headed up the 3rd Infantry Division, discussed a westward reconnaissance in force toward Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. Truscott felt that Alexander would not object to such a move, and Patton, Truscott wrote, with something of the air of the cat that had swallowed the canary, agreed . . . . Patton had his foot in the door and he meant to swing it open. On July 16 Alexander issued another directive that positively infuriated Patton. The order stipulated that Montgomerys Eighth Army would advance on Messina on three fronts. The Americans were officially left with the distasteful task of protecting Montgomerys left flank. Alexander lamely authorized Seventh Army to capture Agrigento and Porto Empedoclesomething Truscott had done that very day. Patton blamed Montgomery. Monty is trying to steal the show, he wrote to his wife, Beatrice, and with the assistance of Divine Destiny [Eisenhower] may do so . . . . Patton had had enough. Alexander clearly had no intention of assigning Seventh Army anything other than mop-up duty in Western Sicily, while Montgomerys Eighth marched to Messina and glory in the east. Patton felt his superior lacked any conception of the power or mobility of the Seventh Army. On July 17 he climbed aboard a B-25 and flew to 15th Army headquarters in Tunisia to confront Alexander. Patton told the army group commander in no uncertain terms that he wanted his army unleashed. He explained it would be inexpedient politically for the Seventh Army not to have equal glory in the final stage of the campaign. Patton asked for authorization to drive north to split the Axis forces and to clear out remaining resistance in the west. Alexander agreed, providing Seventh Army hold a crucial road network near Caltanissetta in the center of the island. If I do what I am going to do, Patton confided to his diary, there is no need of holding anything, but its a mean man who wont promise, so I did. Patton wasted no time putting his new plan into action. He created a Provisional Corps under the command of Major General Geoffrey Keyes, his deputy commander, and sent it northwest towards Palermo while Bradleys II Corps set out for the north coast, knifing across the islands center through tough German defenders. Facing light resistance from largely dispirited Italian troops, Keyes troops moved so fast that often the German and Italian 88s [88mm anti-tank guns], which they captured en route, had not been pointed around or set up to shoot against them. On July 22 Truscotts Division entered Palermo after covering an astonishing 100 miles in just 72 hours. Wild celebrations and ebullient Sicilians greeted the Americans. Support for Italys Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini was nowhere to be seen. The next day the 45th Division of Bradleys II Corps reached the coast at Termini, 25 miles to the east. Until he took matters into his own hands, Patton wrote in his diary, Monty was trying to command both armies and getting away with it. Now Seventh Army was making its mark. Meanwhile, Patton pushed his personal competition with Montgomery to comical new heights. On July 25 he flew across the island to Syracuse for a meeting with Alexander and Montgomery. On seeing his erstwhile British rival, Patton noted, I made the error of hurrying to meet him. He hurried a little too, but I started it. At the end of the conference, during which, Patton noted, he didnt receive lunch, Monty gave me a 5 cigar lighter. Some one must have sent him a box of them. When Montgomery visited Palermo a few days later, Patton sent an escort to meet him at the airport and greeted him at his headquarters with a full band. I hope Monty realized that I did this to show him up for doing nothing for me on the 25th, Patton wrote. At Syracuse, Montgomery surprised Patton by suggesting that Seventh Army capture Messina. While Keyes and Bradley had raced across Sicily, Montgomerys Eighth Army had become completely bogged down in the east. Dug-in German troops continued to hold Montgomery at Catania, while his circling movement west around Etna proceeded slowly. With Seventh Army now poised, cat-like, ready to strike east, Montgomery realized that Patton was best positioned to take the city. Besides, by attacking east Patton would relieve the pressure on Eighth Army and allow him to finally punch past Catania. Patton doubted Montgomerys motives, but he needed no further urging. This is a horse race in which the prestige of the US Army is at stake, he wrote to 45th Infantry Division Commander Major General Troy Middleton. We must take Messina before the British. Please use your best efforts to facilitate the success of our race. Montgomery made little of this race, but to Patton it became a personal crusade to win acclaim and respect for his much-maligned troops. British soldiers and officers undoubtedly wanted to beat the Americans into Messina. But Patton definitely hyped the contest. On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III, supported by leading Italian political figures, deposed dictator Benito Mussolini, and Italy began to negotiate peace terms with the Allies. (Italy would pull out of the Axis in September.) As German commanders planned to evacuate Sicily, Patton and Montgomery began squeezing Axis defenders into the islands northeast corner. Eighth Army continued to probe German defenses at Catania while Canadian and British troops drove in a left hook around Etnas western slope. To the north, the 1st and newly arrived 9th American Divisions advanced east from the islands rugged center, while the 3rd Division attacked down the north coast road. The mountains are the worst I have ever seen, Patton wrote on August 1. It is a miracle that our men can get through them but we must keep up our steady pressure. The enemy simply cant stand it, besides we must beat the Eighth Army to Messina. On August 3, Patton stopped by an army hospital outside Nicosia and chatted with several injured soldiers; All were brave and cheerful, he noted. Then he encountered a 1st Division infantryman who seemed unhurt. Patton asked him what was wrong. I guess I cant take it, the soldier replied. Patton erupted. Cursing the soldier as a coward, he slapped him with his gloves and pushed him out of the tent. Such men, Patton wrote,should be tried for cowardice and shot. A week later at another hospital Patton came across another alleged nervous patient, a private in the 13th Field Artillery Brigade whose case was diagnosed as severe shell shock. Again Pattons anger overcame him; again he slapped and cursed the soldier. I cant help it, he said, but it makes my blood boil to think of a yellow bastard being babied. Patton didnt realize the seriousness of what he had done, but the incidents would soon change his life and career. Pattons relentless push for Messina also took its toll on his relationship with Bradley, a straight-laced subordinate who deplored Pattons use of profanity and flamboyant style of command. He traveled in an entourage of command cars followed by a string of nattily uniformed staff officers, Bradley wrote. His own vehicle was gaily decked with oversize stars and the insignia of his command. These exhibitions did not awe the troops as perhaps Patton believed. Instead, they offended the men as they trudged through the clouds of dust left in the wake of that procession. Where Patton was eager to outshine Montgomery, Bradley failed to see the point in capturing Palermo. Certainly there was no glory in the capture of hills, docile peasants, and spiritless soldiers, he wrote. To Bradley, racing Montgomery to Messina was equally unnecessary, for However rapidly we pushed into that city, we could not cut the enemys escape route across to Italy. Yet Patton wanted more than a cheap victory over Montgomery. Despite galling BBC reports (soldiers called them Badly Biased Comments) that the Seventh Army has been lucky to be in western Sicily eating grapes, the capture of Palermo had been a publicity coup for Pattons army. The troops morale soared. The Americans non-stop marching and ability to operate tanks and other armored vehicles in rough terrain began to open the eyes of their Eighth Army counterparts. Capturing Messina promised more of the same. As the final phase of the Sicily Campaign heated up, Patton drove his officers to push as hard as they could. Troina fell on August 6. To the south, British forces captured Adrano andfinallyCatania. Fighting a brilliant rearguard action, German army units crept back from their narrowing front toward the beaches of the Straits of Messina. There, German and Italian ships waited to ferry troops and equipment across the two-mile passage to the Italian mainland. In an effort to by-pass enemy positions and speed up his advance, Patton authorized two amphibious landings along the north coast. On the night of August 7-8 Americans swept ashore virtually unopposed behind German lines at St. Agata. At the same time, troops from Truscotts 3rd Division launched an attack on the high ridges inland and took 1,500 prisoners, bringing Seventh Army 12 miles closer to Messina. The second landing nearly proved a disaster. Truscott felt he would not have time to get his infantry up in time to support it, and wanted to postpone the attack for one day. Bradley agreed. But Patton was having none of it. Messina lay around the corner, and this wasnt the time to slow down. Early on August 11 elements of Truscotts 30th Infantry regiment went ashore at Brolo, 12 miles behind a German front. The Americans were quickly pinned down on a hill just above town. Nearly 30 hours passed before the balance of Truscotts troops could relieve them. Progress had again been made, but at a high price. On August 13 American troops captured Randazzo. To the south, British and Canadian troops forced the Germans from the slopes of Mt. Etna. Axis forces flooded toward Messina. On the night of August 15-16 Montgomery tried an amphibious landing of his own, putting elements of his commando and armored units ashore at Scaletta, just eight miles from Messina. Patton ordered a third leap-frog operation for that same night, but by then American troops were moving so fast that they had already passed the scheduled landing site by the time the ship borne force arrived. Around 10:00 p.m. on August 16 elements of Truscotts 3rd Division entered bomb-scarred Messina. Patton immediately notified Eisenhower and Alexander, and called Bradley to tell him we would enter Messina in the morning at 1000 hours. Early the next morning as the last of the Axis troops slipped off the island, Patton met Truscott, Keyes, and a host of reporters on a hill outside town. What in hell are you all standing around for? he bellowed. Bradley remained conspicuously absent. This is a great disappointment to me, Patton later wrote, as I had telephoned him, and he certainly deserved the pleasure of entering the town. But Bradley wanted no part of Pattons pomp and ceremony. Minutes later, a procession of army vehicles led by Pattons command car roared into Messina, chased all the way by exploding shells fired by Axis guns on the Italian mainland. After fighting their way over mined roads and around blown-up bridges in the early-morning hours, Lieutenant Colonel J.M.T.F. Churchills British commandos reached the city only to find the Americans already there. At about 10:30 a.m., Patton pulled into the city square just as a squadron of Brigadier J.C. Curries British 4th Armored tanks rumbled into town. Both Churchill and Currie had brought along a set of bagpipes to celebrate beating the Americans into town. I think the general was quite sore that we had got there first . . . . Patton wrote. Currie climbed out of his Sherman tank to shake hands with a glowing Patton. It was a jolly good race, Currie said with a smile. I congratulate you. Pattons victorious, hell-for-leather drive on Messina restored some luster to an otherwise badly managed campaign. Rather than firmly coordinating the moves of Seventh and Eighth Armies, Alexander had vacillated, first backing down to Montgomery and then allowing, almost forcing, Patton to set his own course. Poor decisions, such as the reassignment of Highway 124 to Montgomery (and poor air cover over the Messina Straits), ultimately cost time, and allowed Axis ships and ferries to evacuate roughly 60,000 Italian soldiers, 40,000 Germans, 10,000 vehicles, and 17,000 tons of equipment from the islandall of which would soon be used against the Allies in Italy. The race had significant, if less tangible, repercussions for Patton and American fighting men. The fast-moving Seventh Army had proved itself the equal of Eighth Army and set a new standard in mobile warfare. The Americans, Montgomery admitted after the war, had proved themselves to be first-class troops. It took time; but they did it more quickly than we did. Patton was entirely satisfied with his own performance. Of course, had I not been interfered with on the 13th of July by a full change of plan, he wrote to his wife, I would have taken Messina in ten days, but then I would have had to turn back to get Palermo, so it all came out O.K. Although Alexander would continue to rate British troops above the Americans, Patton had effectively exorcised the demons of Kasserine Pass. Yet the Sicilian campaign almost ended Pattons 34-year army career. Reports of the two slapping incidents made their way to Eisenhower and, even worse, a small group of reporters. Eisenhower was furious. He ordered Patton to apologize to the soldiers involved and warned him that such behavior will not be tolerated in this theater no matter who the offender may be. Meanwhile he asked the reporters to refrain from publishing the story for the good of the Allied cause. Patton was his best general and would be needed again. They agreed. The story finally broke in November but Eisenhower refused to relieve his old friend. Still, the public furor over the slapping incidents doomed Patton to many months of glum idleness while the war passed him by. Eisenhower dropped him from consideration for command of American ground forces in the inevitable invasion of European honor that eventually went to Bradley. When Patton finally returned to action in France in command of Third Army in August 1944, he was subordinate to both Bradley and Montgomery. Yet to Patton, that was secondary. Destiny had beckoned him and he would soon become, as one German officer said, the most feared general on all fronts. This article was written by Eric Ethier and originally published in the April 2001 issue of American History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today! Historians and medical researchers usually hesitate to diagnose historical figures with disabilities and disorders post hoc, but contemporary understanding of human behavior can actually inform our analysis of various Civil War successes and failures. Case in point: Braxton Bragg. By many accounts, Bragg has been recognizedby his contemporaries and oursas possessing extraordinary intelligence, a superior memory, and a talent for drilling and organizing his men, yet almost all of the battles in which he engaged during the war ended in defeat, save for Chickamauga. Indeed, Bragg is often considered among the worst generals of the Civil War, even dubbed the most hated man of the Confederacy by his biographer Earl Hess. It is possible to reconcile Braggs gifts with his failures, if we consider, as some have speculated, that Bragg may have been on what we know today as the autism spectrum. The American Psychological Association definition of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, in its simplest form describes it as a neuro-cognitive condition that affects behavior, communication, and social functioning. In fact, a list of common behaviors associated with ASD almost reads like a short biography of Bragg: difficulty with peer relationships; difficulty expressing emotions appropriately; failure to read body language and understand others; obsessive habits; inflexible adherence to routines; being prone to unexpected aggression; and seeing everything in terms of black and white. Some of the best-known anecdotes about Bragg seemingly illustrate these characteristics quite well. In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant recalls an episode from the old army in which Bragg, stationed at a post of several companies, each commanded by a field officer, was himself commanding one of the companies while also acting as post quartermaster and commissary officer. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermasterhimselffor something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself! Many historians have questioned whether this incident actually occurred, yet even if it is apocryphal, Grant added that the anecdote was very characteristic of [Braggs] nature. He was thoroughly upright, Grant wrote. But he was possessed of an irascible temper, and he was naturally disputatious. A man of the highest moral character and the most correct habits, yet in the old army he was in frequent trouble. As a subordinate he was always on the lookout to catch his commanding officer infringing his prerogatives; as a post commander he was equally vigilant to detect the slightest neglect, even of the most trivial order. Another widely told anecdote supports the portrait of Bragg as obsessively rigid with military rules, even to absurdity. In this instance, during the Mexican War, he and his men were enduring an artillery barrage at Monterrey when Bragg witnessed an American horse driver fall dead from his saddle. Bragg ordered his retreating men to halt, and ordered one of the other horsemen to dismount, turn around, and recover the dead mans sword because it was public property that had been issued by the government. The horseman also took from the corpse a pocket knife, fearing that if he did not, Bragg would send him back for it. Nearly every biographer has deemed Bragg his own worst enemy because of his lack of interpersonal skills, or his unusual obsession with organization and discipline. One of Braggs men, Samuel B. Church, admitted to placing a loaded and fused 12-pounder shell outside Braggs tent on August 26, 1847, attempting to kill him because he was such a strict disciplinarian. The explosion miraculously didnt injure Bragg, which must have frustrated Church, because he tried again in October, only to fail once more. In his 1991 biography Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Grady McWhiney noted that even at the United States Military Academy, Bragg prided himself on being the ugliest man in the corps and expressed his opinions on all occasions and all subjects in a most tactless manner. This was his way; he would always be outspoken, never able to conceal or moderate his views. As a consequence, some cadets thought him uncouth, brusque, and rude. This sort of social crudeness is emblematic of ASD individuals, likewise the poor personal relationships it breeds with others. The inability to read or understand social cues, also a standard ASD attribute, is evident in Braggs handling of criticism from his commanders after his retreat from the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) in January 1863a move that drew sharp criticism from his subordinates, the press, and even the public. Goaded by such denunciation, McWhiney wrote, Bragg decided to ask his subordinates what they really thought of his military ability. According to McWhiney, on January 10, 1863, Bragg read to his staff an article from the Chattanooga Rebel opining that Bragg had lost the confidence of his Armythat a change was necessary & that the retrograde movement from Murfreesboro was against the advice of his general officers. Bragg asked his staff to consider the charges and informed them that if he had lost the confidence of his Armyhe would retire. The staff met and did, in fact, conclude, to Braggs surprise, that he should ask to be relieved, which he did not. A host of circumstances influenced Braggs campaign failures, and not least among them were his poor relationships with men at all levels of service in the Confederate Army. Indeed, uncooperative subordinates are often cited as contributing to Braggs defeats. Doubtless some of his commanders, such as Leonidas Polk and William Hardee, shared in the blame, but its possible to reexamine their response to Bragg in a new light if we consider him on the spectrum in current parlance. Concluding that Bragg was on the spectrum does make sense. He was obviously quite intelligent; he was an effective administrator; he is even called a good soldier by many respectable contemporaries when you are able to dig into the less-biased records. There were no logical reasons for Bragg to fail in the ways he did given the advantages he should have had. Perhaps lack of charisma was actually impaired social functioning; his obsession with organization actually a desire to maintain comforting routines in response to disability; generals who criticized and quarreled with Bragg were perhaps responding to their own inability to understand him as much as to Braggs inability to communicate effectively and understand them. In other words, he was very likely on the spectrum, and we should consider reinterpreting his critics now since they had little idea with what they were dealing. Perhaps we do. Jack Trammell is professor of sociology, criminal justice, and human services at Mount St. Marys University in Emmitsburg, Md. He specializes in disability and social history. Andy Thomas has a way of making history come alive on canvas, particularly history in his own back yard. One of his recent paintings involves the Osage Indians, who once lived along the Osage River in western Missouri. The painting shows a Missouri hill in the early 1800s and a party of tall Osage Indians-in full war makeup, their heads shaved except for roach clips, some brandishing muskets they have traded for with the Frenchwho appear ready to fight another band of Indians. The 24-by-36 oil-on-canvas is untitled-Ive got to get a real poetic title for this one, the artist says but does what Carthage, Mo., painter Andy Thomas does so well: Capture a moment in Western history. They were unusual, Thomas says of the Osage. They averaged more than 6-feet tall, some of the Indians were described as being 6-foot-7, 6-foot-5, and one image always struck me was, How would a 6-foot-5 Indian look riding on an Indian pony, which was probably 13 hands? I always wanted to paint that, but when I go to paint it, it looks so comical, I think, This cant be right. But I do try to paint ponies as small as I can bring my conscience to paint them. Thomas, 49, grew up with an interest in art, pursuing a career after high school by working in advertising as a commercial artist and attending night school at Missouri Southern State University. He stayed in advertising for 16 years, working his way up to department manager, but by the time he was 33, he got the itch. I had always wanted to just paint, he says. I said Id better try it now while I still had some energy and if it failed, I would go back to work. Sixteen years later, hes still at it. Ive been extremely lucky, he says. I had worked in the corporate world, putting in 50-60 hours a week, so I had good work habits. When I woke up that first day, I clocked in and sat right down and painted. Probably that first year, I painted an average of 12 hours a day. I know a lot of people who try to be artists, and they work just a few hours a day, and I think that at some point you have to kinda count your wages. Thomas paints various subjects, including portraits, nudes and still life, but his one constant has been historical subjects. I think almost every man likes history to some degree, he says. The marriage of art and history is too tempting not to delve into it. Those historical moments include Wild Bill Hickok facing Dave Tutt in Springfield, Missouri, in 1865; artist Frederic Remington with the 10th Cavalry; action at the Little Bighorn in 1876; and plenty of Civil War scenes. That first year I left work, I got a commission to paint a Civil War mural, and that started me painting quite a lot of Civil War, he says. Its tapered off some, but I still do a lot. None of the (trans-Mississippi) battles had been painted, so inherently there was a great value in just documenting battles west of the Mississippi. Now Im doing more Westerns than Civil War paintings. One of his favorite subjects is Abraham Lincoln. They always talk about how sad his face was, Thomas says, and how he aged a lot in office, and thats all true, but he also laughed a lot. The reason he doesnt smile in those pictures is because the exposure was a very long time. Nobody smiled, and he had those droopy hound-dog eyes. But I wanted to draw him like hed just told me an off-color joke or something. His favorite subject, though, is Kit Carson. A portrait of Carson served as the Wild West cover in April 2007. I was moved to paint his portrait as a guy youd not want to tangle with, Thomas says. He doesnt look mean, but I believe thats not a guy I want to bump when Im in a bar. Any dream projects? Really, he says, I wake up and I get to pick and choose the subjects I want to paint. I have that luxury. Its really a great life. Its not really work, I guess. A shorter version of this story appears in Art of the West in the October 2007 issue of Wild West Magazine. Also please visit www.andythomas.com. FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF NORTH AMERICA, it can be easy to forget that World War IIwith its familiar fronts in North Africa, Europe, and across the Pacificwas indeed a globe-encompassing cataclysm. Few countries asserted neutrality and no continent or region remained untouched. In The Tango War, author and journalist Mary Jo McConahay offers a kaleidoscopic vision of just how profoundly this conflict shaped the Western Hemisphere. Throughout American history, politicians and businessmen in the United States have long conceived of Latin America as their backyard, provisioned with riches to which they claimed to be providentially entitled. Its hardly surprising then that war quickened the tempo of U.S. initiatives to extract oil, tin, zinc, and rubber from the regions oil fields, mines, and rainforests. Such arrangements required high-level cooperation between U.S. and Latin American governments. So while U.S. industries zeroed in on Latin American mines, Washingtons propaganda agencies gathered individual minds and collective imaginations from Hollywoodfrom Orson Welles to Mickey Mouseand sent them south to help foster better relations between peoples not always on the friendliest of terms. Disneys garish efforts to engineer mutual enchantment, steeped in stereotypes of Latin exoticism and machismo, may make contemporary toes curl. But the books most poignant chapters concern a secret program that went beyond mental captivation to wholesale bodily capture. In July 1942, multiple U.S. government agencies concocted a scheme, dubbed Quiet Passages, to kidnap Latin American citizens of Japanese ancestry and spirit them into confinement at internment camps in the United States. In part, this clandestine venture was inspired by racial animosity that sharpened fears of subversion in a region long home to substantial Japanese communities. But Washington was also in the business of securing human materiel with which to effect prisoner trades with Tokyo: holding Japanese Peruvians, for example, as collateral to broker the release of Americans captured in Asia. As a result, several thousand predominantly Spanish-speaking youngsters found themselves behind barbed wire in Crystal City, Texas, schooled in a language they barely knew as they were primed for repatriation to Japana country in which they had never set foot. Written with the verve and pace of a lively cha-cha, The Tango War benefits from McConahays skill as a journalist, endowed with a sharp pen and a sympathetic ear. She draws stories not only from archives, but from personal encounters with survivors of the Quiet Passages program; veterans of Brazils Battle for Rubber (as the Brazilian government styled its campaign to drum impoverished recruits into backbreaking work collecting rubber in the Amazon), Latino compatriots who fought alongside the U.S. Army in Italy. As she convincingly demonstrates, the wars Latin dimensions werent confined to that region alone, nor were they restricted to the 1940s. Washington continued its intrusive interventions across the Western Hemisphere for decades thereafter: a treacherous entanglement that has left an indelible imprint on millions of lives. Susan L. Carruthers is a professor of history at the University of Warwick and author of The Good Occupation: American Soldiers and the Hazards of Peace (2016). This review was originally published in the February 2019 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the Indians the two explorers encountered are, to say the least, the favorite subjects of sculptor Richard V. Greeves. When the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebrations ended in 2006, it would have seemed easy for Greeves to walk away from that subject. After all, he helped close the festivities at the Autry National Centers Museum of the American West in Los Angeles with an exhibit, Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, featuring more than two dozen of his sculptures, including Bird Woman, a life-size bronze of the Shoshone Sacagawea. He also took part in a symposium at the museum, The Art and History of Lewis and Clark, observing the 200th anniversary of the conclusion of the famed expedition. But the 72-year-old Greeves, who has completed perhaps 35 sculptures of the Lewis and Clark expedition, says he isnt done. Ive come to the conclusion that Ill probably work on it the rest of my life, he says from his studio in Fort Washakie, Wyoming. Ive worked on it the first half, so why shouldnt I just keep going on it? Theres so much material there. My gosh, that was one of the epics in history of the United States. I had originally thought 40 pieces of work might cover the journey, but theres just so much material it just keeps going on and on and snowballing and, besides that, its what Ive been interested in. That interest began as a child in St. Louis. I wasnt born very far away from one of the largest depositories of Lewis and Clark memorabilia thats in existence at the Missouri Historical Society and as a kid, why, I was within a bike ride of that place, and I just haunted that place to the point where the people in the museum there would just see me hanging around and theyd just give me gopher work, which also gave me the opportunity to rummage through all their stuff. Wonderful place for a guy whos interested in the things that I am. He was also interested in art. His mothers family included Venetian marble cutters and mosaic artists. His fathers family included ornamental plaster workers. So Greeves figures his art career began when I was waiting in line to be born. When he was 15, he decided to strike out on his own. That was kind of interesting for my mom, he recalls. Being a good 100 percent Italian mother, she almost went to the ceiling when I told her I was leaving. But that dont matter even if youre 30 years old, if you have an Italian mother and you tell her youre leaving. By his mid-20s, he had bought a local trading post on Wyomings Wind River Reservation, converting it into his home and studio, complete with 26-foot-high ceilings, plenty of room for a sculptor. And, for Greeves, no better location could be found to find inspiration. Everything all went hand in hand, he says. A member of the National Academy of Western Art, Greeves has exhibited his work at the Prix de West at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City (winning the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award in 2000), as well as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, home to one of his most popular pieces, The Unknown. Weve all been out in the hills somewhere, sitting and looking off at a wonderful vista and wondering what it was like when the first man ever saw that, he says of the 14-foot sculpture depicting six Indians, from a young boy to an old man, looking onto a horizon. Its kind of fun to listen to different people who look at it, because each person comes up with their own conclusion, Greeves says. Some of them say theyre busy looking at a wagon train or something like that. I never myself had that thought, just thought what it would be like to be with some of your close buddies, sitting on the side of the mountain, looking out on a whole valley. But its Lewis and Clark for which Greeves is best known. There isnt one page you cant turn to in the journals and find it just fascinating, he says. When they left there wasnt even a real map of the area. It was totally unknown. I know we cant quite pull that one off on Earth anymore. It wasnt so long ago eitherthats the thing of it. And it didnt take long to change it, did it? A s Harriett Griffith strolled around the Stine Farm on Winchesters northern outskirts in the summer of 1861, the sight of an earthwork fortification under construction awed her. While troops labored on Fort Collier, named in honor of the Confederate lieutenant who supervised its construction, Griffith investigated every nook with her father and brother. I have this day visited the breastworks or fortifications out on the Martinsburg Pike Was exceedingly interested. First work of the kind Id ever seen, Griffith penned excitedly in her journal on August 21. She continued: It seems real strong and well built.They have completely surrounded Stines House. Near the end of her lengthy diary entry Griffiths excitement about the visit transformed into a reflection about Fort Colliers ultimate purpose. Confronted with the reality that this earthwork fortification could at some point be attacked, that men could be killed and the families of those slain left to deal with wars tragic consequences, Griffith wrote wishfully: Surely it is something to be remembered, but I hope it will never be used. Throughout the conflicts first three years it seemed that Griffiths hope might be fulfilled. In a community that had already endured two battles, numerous skirmishes, and incessant occupations during that period, Fort Collier was never the scene of any major action. Troops camped in and around it at various points and Confederates from Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseurs Division sought its protection on July 20, 1864, after defeat at the Battle of Rutherfords Farm, but it had up to that point avoided being the scene of any significant combat. By the wars fourth summer it seemed that Griffiths hope that Fort Collier would never be used might be realized. Little Phil:In this 1864 photo, Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan poses with Union cavalry commanders including Third Winchester participants Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, far left, and Brig. Gens. James Wilson and Alfred Torbert seated at right. (Library of Congress) But the naive wish of the young Valley resident ended on the afternoon of September 19, 1864, as the Stine Farmand environs to its east and westbecame part of one of the most dramatic scenes to ever unfold on any of the Shenandoah Valleys battlefields when the largest cavalry charge of the war swept down the Martinsburg, or Valley, Pike and over the walls of Fort Collier. The charge not only changed the tenor of the Third Battle of Winchester and secured a major victory for the North, it also inspired great postwar works of art, as veteran troopers and infantrymen waged new battles over the memory of the engagement. Sheridan saw an opportunity to use his cavalry in a grand charge On that bloody September day, while infantry from Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridans Army of the Shenandoah battled against Lt. Gen. Jubal Earlys Confederates east of Winchester along the Berryville Pike, over the Dinkle Farm, Hackwood Farm, and the bloody Middle Field in the Third Battle of Winchesters opening stages, two of Sheridans cavalry divisionsBrig. Gen. Wesley Merritts and Brig. Gen. William Averellstried to secure various crossings on the Opequon Creek north of Winchester, Merritt in Frederick County and Averell in Berkeley. Throughout the morning, Federal cavalry confronted varying levels of resistance from Confederates under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridges command and elements of Maj. Gen. Lunsford Lomaxs cavalry division. That morning, as Confederates defended the Opequon crossings, Early ordered Breckinridge to pull his command closer to Winchester. When Breckinridge failed to appear by about noon, Early sent Lt. Col. Alexander Sandie Pendleton to find him and immediately pull Breckinridges troops closer to the city. When Pendleton found Breckinridge and relayed Earlys order, Breckinridge initially expressed his reluctance to obey. He believed that a complete withdrawal would only encourage the Union cavalry to be more aggressive. Although Pendleton may have sympathized with the Kentuckian, the order had to be obeyed immediately as Early needed Breckinridge to bolster the armys weak right flank. Early desperately wanted Breckinridges regiments to move toward the right, where our forces were weakest and the enemy was making demonstrations in force. Time was of the essence not only to aid in supporting Earlys right flank, but to prevent Breckinridge from being cut off by Averells cavalry, which was thundering south toward Winchester along the Martinsburg Pike. While moving Breckinridge might, in Earlys estimation, have solved the dilemma on his right flank, Old Jube still understood the importance of checking Averells and Merritts divisions north of Winchester. Early turned to the chief of his cavalry corps, Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, and told him to take charge of all the cavalry north of Winchester and check the enemys cavalry. Now, on the ground where the Second Battle of Winchester ended in 1863 and where Ramseur met defeat at Rutherfords Farm, Fitzhugh Lee, with support from Colonel George S. Pattons brigade, had to do the unimaginable. As Lee formed his four cavalry brigades, about 2,000 troopers, north of Winchester across the Martinsburg Pike and concealed by an open pine forest, Lee plainly understood that success was unlikely. Although the Confederate horsemen might have appeared somewhat protected in the pine forest, the trees were so widely separated that they offered virtually no impediment to an attacking force. One Union cavalry officer who spied Lee moving into position noted that, the forests were so open as to offer little or no hindrance to a charging column. Lee knew the ground invited a cavalry charge. The pending disaster, Lee explained, was from the very open nature of the country clearly perceptible, and he searched for a way to counter such an attack. That afternoon, as Lee observed Merritts and Averells cavalry brigades, he simultaneously felt awe and fear. With retreat not an option and staying put undesirable, Lee believed that his only alternative was to attack the Federal cavalry to shock the Union horsemen and cause disarray. Some of the Federals he attacked, however, were not surprised. Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who commanded a brigade in Merritts division, believed Lee did precisely the right thing. The enemy wisely chose not to receive our attack at a halt, but advanced from the wood and charged our line of skirmishers. Lieutenant Colonel Caspar Crowninshield of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry recalled that as Lees regiments galloped toward Merritts and Averells skirmishers, the whole line of the enemys cavalry was just in front of us Soon the Rebel Cavalry charged and drove back our skirmishers on the right and left of the road [Martinsburg Pike]. Custer admitted our skirmishers were forced backa short but closely contested struggle ensued. It mattered nil, however, as the Union cavalry regrouped, repulsed Lees advance and ultimately compelled him to pull his command closer to Winchester. As Lees regiments withdrew south toward Winchester, Earlys entire force contracted to Winchesters eastern and northern edges. Confederate artillerist Milton Humphreys wrote of Earlys final defensive position, which assumed the shape of an inverted L: Our army was now two sides of a rectangle of artillery, with the main body of infantry scattered over the space within the angle there was nothing but cavalry and very little artillery placed across the Martinsburg road to protect our left. With Earlys army hugging that thin line near Winchesters boundaries Sheridan saw an opportunity to use his cavalry in a grand, traditional charge, something that had never occurred before in the conflict. The ground was open, and offered an opportunity such as seldom had been presented during the war for a mounted attack, Sheridan observed. Although Sheridan believed the flat, open terrain north of Winchester and the broken condition of Earlys army invited a massive cavalry assault, Averell did not concur. Averells men had been in the saddle for already 15 hours that day, fighting and chasing Confederates from Berkeley County, W.Va., south to Winchester. Through one of his aides Averell explained to Sheridan that his division had been chasing the rebels in from Martinsburg and Bunker Hill [our] horses couldnt move faster than a walk. Sheridan cared little for that complaint, however, and ordered the attack. Tell [Averell] to charge, Sheridan snapped, I dont carefor horse flesh today. Additionally, Averell believed that Maj. Gen. George Crooks corps had already secured victory with its attack, therefore making the cavalry assault needless. It became at once visible, Averell wrote, to both armies that we had gained the day. Averell, who wrote his report of Winchester after Sheridan removed him from command following the Union victory at Fishers Hill several days later, harbored significant animosity against Little Phil and used the report to try and diminish Sheridans reputation, which rose significantly in Winchesters wake. An irate Averell believed that the broken ground, intersected by deep ditches and high embankments gave the enemy a chance to save his left flank. Opposed by stubborn infantry and well-handled artillery our cavalry on such ground could make but slow progress. If Wesley Merritt harbored similar concerns he didnt share them with Sheridan. At about 3 p.m., as Merritt peered across the open ground to his front and gazed at the Confederate line facing north, he too believed the setting perfect for a massed cavalry charge. At this time (3 p.m.) the field was open for cavalry operations such as the war has not seen, Merritt wrote, such as all good cavalry officers long to engage in. As Averells and Merritts cavalrymen readied themselves for this hammer blow, some troopers reflected on the joy they felt that for the first time in the conflict, cavalry was being used for its proper purpose. Colonel James H. Kidd was ecstatic that he would be involved in the first proper use of this armin a great battle. Other troopers, too, were impressed with the advances martial air. The scene of regimental bands playing, flags flapping in the breeze, and sabers glistening in the late afternoon sun inspired Custer. Slash Deficit: Tactical and firearm changes often forced Civil War troopers to keep their sharp blades in their scabbards. The saber-driven Union attack at Third Winchester that overran Fort Collier and its supporting earthworks, depicted by artist James Taylor, was a rarity. (The Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio) Gazing at the line of troopers Kidd estimated extended more than half a mile from Averells right to Merritts left Custer wrote, This furnished one of the most inspiring as well as imposing scenes of martial grandeur ever witnessed on a battlefield. No encouragement was needed to inspirit either man or horse. As the cavalry advanced one could not clearly discern where one regiment or brigade ended and another began. In Custers estimation the men were so closely connected that a separate account of the operations of a single brigade or regiment is almost impossible. Although moving as one mass, each brigade had a particular point of the Confederate line facing north to assault. While Averells two brigades aimed at Confederate positions west of the Martinsburg Pike, Merritts brigades focused on points in the Confederate line on or to the east of that important transportation route. The sabers glistening in the late afternoon sun inspired Custer For three years Fort Collier had stood silently on the eastern edge of the Martinsburg Pike. Now on the afternoon of September 19, 1864, Fitzhugh Lees command, elements of Breckinridges infantry, and Captain George Chapmans artillery sought its protection as Union cavalry descended like a besom of destruction from the north. As troopers from Colonel Charles Russell Lowells brigade advanced toward Fort Collier the fire from Chapmans artillery initially stymied them. A withering fire staggered the head of his column, Merritt remembered. Soon, however, the 3rd U.S. Artillery unleashed a furious barrageone that wounded both Lee and Chapman (Chapmans wound proved mortal). Now, Lowells brigade, as Merritt explained, dashed down, broke through the enemys lines, and swept it away in confusionit was a noble work well done. Once the Confederate line began to crack under the weight of the assault some Confederates fled as fast as possible from the field, while others determined to stay and fight regardless of how desperate the situation. Merritt observed: Many of them threw down their arms and cried for mercy; others hung tenaciously to their muskets, using them with their muzzles against our soldiers breasts. Merritt even observed some Confederates taking refuge in a house and shooting through the doors and windows. Whether or not this was Stines home located in Fort Colliers interior is unknown. While Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridans infantry attacked the right flank of Lt. Gen. Jubal Earlys army, 8,000 Union troopers thundered down the Martinsburg Pike and overwhelmed the Confederates holding Fort Collier and the Star Fort. (Map Graphics DFL Group 2018) Two days after the battle a correspondent for the New York Daily Herald recognized that the cavalry assault proved the battles significant moment. Above the roar of artillery, musketry and cheers, and the fierce yells of the contending armies, the Herald observed, could be distinctly heard the shrill notes of the cavalry bugle, sounding the charge which was the death knell of Earlys army. Put simply, the Herald unequivocally concluded that the cavalry assault secured us the victory. But not all the Federal veterans of Winchester agreed. William Haroff, a private in the 126th Ohio Infantry, part of Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wrights Sixth Corps, may have thought the three infantry corps that fought with Sheridan were overlooked when he penned a postwar poem simply titled, The Battle of Winchester, September 19th, 1864, which ignored the cavalrys critical role. The poem, published weeks after the battle, heaped all credit for Sheridans victory on Crooks, Wrights, and William Emorys corps. We charged the Rebs position and nobly won the day/Crooks boys, with Wrights and Emorys, were also in the fray. Fifty-one years after the battle Thomas H. MCann a veteran of the 90th New York, part of Emorys Nineteenth corps, simply excluded the cavalrys important role in a chapter he penned about Sheridans 1864 Shenandoah Campaign in his The Campaigns of the Civil War. In describing the final advance at Winchester, MCann wrote that at 4 p.m. the final attack was made the 6th and 19th Corps rushed and in a short time Early saw his whole left wing giving away in disorderthus the battle was won for the Blues. Not all infantry veterans sought to minimize the cavalrys role during the battle. The 8th Vermont Infantrys George Carpenter was among those who was amazed at the scene of five brigades of Union cavalry charging. In solid columns, Carpenter penned in the regimental history published in 1886, with drawn sabers flashing in the sun [the] troopers burst at a gallop upon the surprised enemy. It was like a thunder-clap out of a clear sky, and the bolt struck home. Merritts and Averells veterans seemed to monitor much of what was published about the fight. Whenever an infantry veteran failed to properly credit the cavalry, the former horse soldiers possessed no qualms about using articles in The National Tribune, like A Blast From a Cavalrymans Bugle, to note that excluding cavalry from any discussion of the Third Battle of Winchester, or any of Sheridans victories in the Valley for that matter, was like giving the play of Hamlet, with the character of Hamlet left out. Childrens textbooks used the cavalry attack as an exemplar of courage Although some of Sheridans veterans might have downplayed or ignored the significant role cavalry played in the battle, Merritts and Averells troopers had little to fear as their late afternoon assault emerged as one the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaigns two most iconic momentsSheridans ride at Cedar Creek being the other. Childrens textbooks and popular histories of the conflict penned in the half-century after the war used the cavalry attack at Winchester as an exemplar of courage and patriotism. Authors such as Charles Carleton Coffin, a correspondent whose wartime musings offer great insight into the Army of the Potomacs campaigns, wrote of the charge in his Freedom Triumphant published in 1890, thousands of horsemen were now riding across the fields.The sun, descending the western sky, glints from the gleaming sabres of the cavalrymen. The earth trembles beneath the hoofs of the horses the Union cavalry was in good condition. Five years earlier, poet Henry Horton mused in his Sheridans Battles in the Shenandoah that the Cavalry with movements deft/And swift and strong, smote Earlys dazed men so/That they recoiled dismayed beneath the blow. The cavalry assaults romanticism proved too strong to resist for the chromolithograph publishing firm of Louis Prang & Co. In the mid-1880s Prang published a series of 18 images depicting battles scenes. Six portrayed naval actions, six illustrated battles in the Western Theater, and the remainder provided snapshots of significant moments in the east. Among the six scenes chosen to represent the war in the east was Sheridans Final Charge at Winchester painted by Swedish-born Thur de Thulstrup. Captain Theodore F. Rodenbough, wounded in the assault and depicted in the painting astride a brown horse next to Lowell mounted on a white steed, believed it an excellent depiction. I heartily congratulate you upon the fidelity with which you have reproduced the scene as I remember it, Rodenbough wrote in a letter to Thulstrup after the paintings release in 1886. He continued in admiration, you have attained an exceptional degree of realism in the composition of your picture. Even Sheridan, who cared little for Thulstrups depiction of his famed Cedar Creek ride released the same year, admired the depiction of the cavalry assault. Amid all of the items proudly displayed in Sheridans office in the War Department was Thulstrups portrayal of the charge. A journalist who visited Sheridan in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1888 noted the painting seemed to hold prominence among all of the large cases filled with curious pottery, Indian blankets, bows, arrows, clubs and other things as Sheridan displayed Thulstrups work on a small easel just beyond [his] desk. Twenty-four years later, Thulstrup completed another depiction of the cavalry assault for the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh, Pa. The painting, which a correspondent for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described as a decorative canvas of unusual power and beauty, focused on Col. James N. Schoonmaker leading a cavalry charge against Star Fort. The cavalry charge also took center stage in a 1913 film adaptation of Bronson Howards play The Greater Shenandoah, which first hit the stage three years after Thulstrups initial painting. Advertisements for the film, which ran about 30 minutes, touted as one of its main features the awe-inspiring Battle of Winchester with charging cavalry. While at times Merritts and Lowells veterans might have felt their efforts at Winchester slighted, authors, artists, and playwrights solidified it as one of the conflicts most iconic moments. In the end then Wesley Merritts official report of the battle proved not only informative, but prophetic when he wrote that the assault was indeed a theme for the poet and a scene for the painter. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah Universitys McCormick Civil War Institute. Prof. Noyalas, author or editor of 11 books, is also editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. HE ROSE FROM HUMBLE ORIGINS to supreme power, tried and failed to conquer the world, and killed millions. Yet even today some refuse to take Adolf Hitler seriously. The man called the Fuhrer is still a caricature in many histories of World War II: a carpet-chewing madman frothing at the mouth, a jumped-up corporal issuing inane orders to his polished, professional commanders, a bumbling amateur who lost a war that Germany could have won. Respected scholar Stephen G. Fritz is having none of it in The First Soldier. While offering zero justification for anything Hitler said, planned, or did, Fritz demolishes the Hitler was an idiot school of World War II history. Hitler had many strengths as a military commander, Fritz notes: openness to new ideas (especially those of mechanized warfare, as in the 1940 campaign), strength of will, and a concept of strategy that ranged well above that of his commanders. Fritz also notes where the notion of Hitlers bumbling came from in the first place: the German officer corps, seeking an excuse for its own complicity in the wars aftermath. Trying to explain away their second lost war within a generation, German military leaders had a perfect fall guy, and they went after the dictator with a will in their widely read memoirs. As the most hated man of the 20th century, Hitler was unlikely to find many defendersand he didnt. The fact that the officers themselves had helped bring the dictator to power, supported his launch of the war, and slavishly obeyed his orders to the end were all inconvenient truths, conveniently omitted. Like most military commanders since Napoleon, Hitler believed in going on the offensive whenever possible and in mounting a tenacious defense when necessary. He launched a war when he thought he enjoyed a strategic advantage and then hung on grimly when things turned south. He often failed, not because he was a fanatic, but because he was indecisive and could not make clean choices between clashing courses of action proposed by his officers. In all this, we read echoes of the great and not-so-great commanders of the past, present, and future. Fritzs most interesting insight is that the real German problem was not Hitler as military leader, but Hitler as political supremo. All the operational prowess in the world could not make up for Germanys flawed political aims: conquest of a great empire, enslavement of subject races, and racial purification. Hitler the commander failed to prosecute the senseless war dreamed up by Hitler the Nazi Fuhrerbut anyone would have. In the end, Fritz notes, Hitlers vision of absolute dominance inevitably gave rise to absolute resistance. Wise words from a wise book, one that offers us a historical portrait of the dictator, and not a caricature. Robert M. Citino writes this magazines Fire for Effect column and is the National WWII Museums Samuel Zemurry Stone senior historian. This review was originally published in the February 2019 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. BRITISH AUTHOR JAMES HOLLAND excels at writing engaging, accessible books, while weaving the latest scholarship in with personal accounts gleaned from diaries, archives, and interviews. Here he turns his narrative talents to the struggle for air superiority over occupied Europe in 19431944, culminating with Operation Argument, the February 1944 assault on the German aircraft industry better known as Big Week. This is far more than a simple battle study. Holland spends nearly two-thirds of the book setting the stage. He covers prewar thinking about air power, the slow buildup of the Combined Bomber Offensive, and the gradual realization that defeating the German air force was an absolute prerequisite for an invasion of the Continent, and for Allied victory. His treatment of the battles issues and controversiesthe late 1943 command shakeup at the U.S. Eighth Air Force, the debate about U.S. Army Air Forces fighter escort tactics, and the development of technologyis judicious. And the authors coverage of the Luftwaffes air defense effort is more accurate than that found in many accounts. The German defeat stemmed from many long- and short-term causes, not just Nazi bungling (though there was plenty of that). At bottom though, Big Week is a story about people. Many of Hollands protagonists are familiarHollywood star and B-24 squadron commander Jimmy Stewart, Luftwaffe ace Heinz Knoke, and P-47 legend Bob Johnson to name a few. Yet Holland almost always manages to say something new. His examination of Luftwaffe fighter commander Adolf Galland, for example, relies not only on the pilots memoirs but on Gallands much more candid 1945 interrogation. Holland also brings less celebrated figures to the fore. We encounter two inseparable brothers, both captains in British heavy bomber crews; only one would survive the war. He describes the slumping morale in the Army Air Forces bomb groups through the poignant memories of a chaplain, ministering to aircrew and removing burned bodies from a crash scene. Holland does not neglect the ordinary crew dogs, unaware of the controversies swirling at the higher headquarters. Vignettes from German civilians round out the story. The last third of the bookBig Week itselfbrings together all of the personalities and narrative threads. Holland emphasizes not only the Eighth Air Force aspects of the story, but the Forgotten Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy and RAF Bomber Command. The book offers no startling revisionist conclusions. Nor does it plow new ground in examining the morality of the air war or the bombing campaigns impact on the Nazi war economy. Its major accomplishment is to firmly place Big Week and the events surrounding it within the larger historical narrative of the Allied campaign in Western Europe. It was, Holland argues, the turning point of not just the air battle, but the entire war. Richard R. Muller is a professor of military history at the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. This review was originally published in the February 2019 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. Marylanders For Dixie! THE BORDER STATE of Maryland sent men to both the Union and the Confederate armies. Southern sympathies were strongest in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore regions of the Old Line State, but hundreds of men from the western counties cast their lot with the Confederacy as well. Though incomplete records make it impossible to determine how many Marylanders fought in gray, about 5,000 soldiers made up the two infantry regiments, four artillery batteries and two cavalry troops that were Maryland-designated units, and thousands more joined units from other Confederate states. The rare artifacts pictured here are all from Daniel D. Hartzlers unique collection of items that belonged to the Maryland Band of Brothers who fought for the South. (All photos by Sarah J. Mock) Cartridge Box Increase and Multiply A brass plate with the Maryland state seal adorns a cartridge box made in Massachusetts before the war. The seal features a farmer and a fisherman flanking the states crest and the Latin words crescite et multiplicamini, which, translated, is the heading for this caption. Some Confederates from Maryland went to war wearing similar cartridge boxes. Flags Cross the River Not every Marylander served in a unit from his home state. The 1st Virginia Cavalry was raised in Winchester, but in 1861 Company K of that regiment was composed primarily of troopers who had crossed the Potomac River to join in the Confederacys fight. Sword and Scabbard War Trophy The throat of this swords scabbard is engraved: Captured at Battle of Winchester from 1st Lieutenant, 5th Rhode Island Battery by John C. Carroll 1st Maryland Cav. C.S.A. Pin Confederate Cross Maryland Cross pins, adapted from the crosses on the state seal, were worn by many Old Line State troops as the unofficial symbol of Confederate Marylandand more practically as ID tags. Private Gresham Hough of the 1st Maryland Cavalry wore this example. Watch and Fob Whose timepiece? This engraved watch, with a rosette from a horses halter used as a fob, came from the Blackistone family, which lived near St. Marys. Six Blackistone men served in the Confederate Army, but its not possible to determine if this watch belonged to George, Thomas, Wellington, Samuel, William or Henry. Cockade Bonnie Blue Some Marylanders wore secession cockades to show their allegiance. This silk cockade is set off with a Maryland state button. Secessionist Charm City defender A Baltimore militiaman wears two secession cockades similar to the one pictured above. Buckle Buckle up John Eager Howard wore this beautiful Maryland state seal belt buckle. Howard enlisted in the 1st Maryland (CSA) in 1861, and later became a captain and the quartermaster of the 2nd Maryland Infantry. The Gilmor family of Baltimore County sent eight brothers and cousins into the Confederate Army. Harry, the most famous of the lot, served in several Virginia cavalry units before being given command of a partisan troop, the 1st Maryland Battalion, later known as the 2nd Maryland Cavalry. Gilmors men caused a great deal of trouble in the Shenandoah Valley and along the Potomac River, and Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan authorized a mission to capture him in Moorefield, W. Va., after which he was imprisoned in Boston. He chronicled his exploits in Four Years in the Saddle (1866). Harry Gilmor Daring Raider Harry Gilmor made a number of daring raids into his native state. On July 11, 1864, his men wrecked a railroad bridge northeast of the city of Baltimore and captured a train carrying Union Maj. Gen. William Buel Franklin. Revolver Shoot Straight Graham Gilmor, Harrys brother, modified his .44-caliber Remington revolver with a loop at the base of the grip for a lanyard, and more uniquely, with a custom rear sight. Sight The large round sight would make it much easier to focus on a target while riding a horse. The crosshairs appear to be made of a natural fiberperhaps silk or even horsehair? Cocked A gunsmith had to mill a groove into the flat top of the Remingtons frame to install the sight. The small hole in the top of the sight let in a bit of light. Handle Inscription Colonel Harry Gilmor carried this pistol made by the Southern firm of Leech & Rigdon. The revolver was a copy of the Model 1858 Colt Navy Revolver. Sword Hilt Made in France This French officers cavalry saber belonged to Harry Gilmor. The top suspension ring has been replaced with the brass chin strap from a horses halter. The chin strap hooks into a hole in the quillon of the sword hilt. This portfolio was originally published in the April 2014 issue of Civil War Times. C onfederate General Braxton Bragg was arguably the Civil Wars most hated commander. Long afflicted by painful rheumatism, chronic stomach ailments, and severe migraines that helped fuel his unpleasant disposition, Bragg was short-tempered, aggressively argumentative, publicly critical of superiors, quick to berate subordinates, and exercised a strict-disciplinarian command style that alienated the Civil Wars mostly volunteer soldiers. He generally was obnoxious to everyone, in fact. Even President Jefferson Davis, who gave him command of the principal field army in the wars Western Theater, didnt much like Braggand, perhaps more important, neither did Braggs senior subordinates. Tellingly, in the wake of the Confederates hard-won tactical victory at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, Braggs major subordinates petitioned Davis to relieve their despised leader of his command. One of those subordinatesthe Souths brilliant, fiery Wizard of the Saddle, Nathan Bedford Forrestreportedly even threatened to kill Bragg! Yet it is a military maxim that subordinates, whether they love or despise their commander, must do one all-important thing: promptly carry out legal orders. At Chickamauga, Braggs senior subordinates ignored this basic leadership precept, thereby helping turn a much-needed tactical victory into a strategic disaster for the South when two months later, nearby Chattanooga, Tenn., was transformed from a starving, besieged Union enclave into the vital launching pad for Union Maj. Gen. William T. Shermans 1864 Atlanta Campaign and devastating March to the Sea. During the Mexican War, Bragg won three brevet promotions and received well-deserved laurels after the Battle of Buena Bista. Braggs principal subordinateshis armys wing, corps, and division commandersmust share responsibility with him for arguably losing the war in the West. Among those contributing to Braggs strategic defeat (each of them to a greater or lesser degree) were: Lt. Gens. Leonidas Polk, Daniel Harvey Hill, and James Longstreet; as well as Maj. Gens. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Thomas C. Hindman, John Bell Hood, Alexander P. Stewart, W.H.T. Walker, and Joseph Wheeler. Although later historians tend to place full burden for strategic defeat on the easiest target, the much-despised Bragganother military tenet, of course, is that the commander is ultimately responsible for all his unit does or fails to doseveral of his subordinates actions reveal that blame should not be borne solely by the Confederacys most hated commander. Born March 22, 1817, in Warrenton, N.C., the beetle-browed Braxton Braggwho by 1863 sported large patches of gray in his dark hair and beardhad admirably finished fifth in his 50-member West Point Class of 1837. Classmates included Union Generals William H. French, John Sedgwick, and Fighting Joe Hooker, and Confederate Generals Jubal Early, John C. Pemberton, and W.H.T. Walker (as well as class dropouts Lewis A. Armistead and St. John R. Liddell). Like many West Pointers, Bragg excelled during the 1846-48 Mexican War, winning three brevet promotions (no U.S. officer won more). Notably Bragg, 29 at the time, received well-deserved laurels as an artillery battery commander at the crucial 1847 Battle of Buena Vista. During that battle, Maj. Gen. Zachary Taylor famously exhorted Bragg to repel a dangerous Mexican assault by giving the enemy a little more grape[shot], Captain Bragg!more likely, Taylor ordered, Double-shot your guns [with anti-personnel canister], and give em Hell! Nevertheless, Braggs cannons turned a potentially disastrous defeat into a resounding victory, making him a national hero (he would be individually honored in New York, Washington, and New Orleans). General Albert Sidney Johnston rallies the 9th Arkansas at Shiloh, where Bragg served as a corps commander. (Troiani, Don (b.1949)/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images) Following the Mexican War, Captain (Brevet Lt. Col.) Bragg endured routine duty at isolated frontier garrisons until, effective January 1856, he resigned from the Army. Not quite 40, Bragg settled upon a slave-worked Louisiana sugar plantation, while also serving as a state militia colonel. After Louisiana seceded on January 26, 1861, Bragg (who opposed secession) was appointed by Governor Thomas O. Moore as a major general and commander of Louisianas military forces until March when he accepted a Confederate Army brigadier generals commission. After training troops in Pensacola, Fla., and southern Alabama, Bragg was promoted to major general in September. Sent to the Western Theater in 1862, he creditably led a corps under General Albert Sidney Johnston at the April 6-7 Battle of Shiloh, was promoted to full general (effective April 6), and on June 17 given command of the Western Department (including the Army of Mississippirenamed the Army of Tennessee in November). Prior to the Battle of Chickamauga, Bragg led his army in two battles whose longterm outcomes revealed his and his principal subordinates inability to turn tactical victories (or near-run draws) into strategic success. After winning a narrow tactical victory over Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buells Army of the Ohio at the October 8, 1862, Battle of Perryville in the key border state of Kentucky, Bragg withdrew all his forces to Tennessee, handing Buell a crucial strategic win. In what became an ominous pattern, several of Braggs subordinates severely criticized his leadership, prompting Davis to summon him to Richmond to explain his actions, though ultimately retaining Bragg in command. Bragg repeated his disappointing performance at the 1862-63 Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) against Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans Army of the Cumberlanda tactically inconclusive draw that again found Bragg retreating. As at Perryville, Bragg was severely criticized by several subordinates in Stones Rivers wake, notably Lt. Gens. Polk and William Hardee, and Maj. Gens. John C. Breckinridge and Benjamin F. Cheatham. Polk petitioned Davis, a fellow West Pointer from the late 1820s, to remove Bragg. Davis reportedly wanted Joe Johnston to replace him, only to have Johnston decline. Hardee was sent away (missing Chickamauga), but Breckinridge, Cheatham, and especially Polk remained thorns in Braggs side. Not only did Bragg abandon Stones River to Rosecrans, he unaccountably left Union forces unmolested for six months, giving them time to rest, reorganize, and resupply. When Old Rosy finally moved, he befuddled Braggs off-balance army during the stunning Tullahoma Campaign (June 24-July 3, 1863). By rapidly outmaneuvering Braggs forces, Rosecrans suddenly had the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanoogas gates. Rosecrans brilliant display of maneuver, flanking marches, and feints and deceptions quickly propelled his army 100 miles forward from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga. Caught off-guard, Bragg retreated into northern Georgia and Alabama. Moreover, Rosecrans army was not the only Union force Bragg facedMaj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnsides Army of the Ohio, then forming to threaten Knoxville and eastern Tennessee, forced Bragg to guess how best to meet the threats. Bragg retreated south of the swift-flowing Tennessee River, which at places was more than a half-mile wide, thereby evacuating the campaigns strategic prize, Chattanooga, when Rosecrans army managed to surge across the river uncontested. Eventually, Bragg concentrated his army near LaFayette, Ga.30 miles south of Chattanooga. By early September, Rosecrans had maneuvered the enemy army out of Tennessee and, importantly, out of Chattanooga (though Buckner still had troops facing Burnside at Knoxville). The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862January 3, 1863. (Library of Congress) Yet Rosecrans made a potentially fatal errorsending his three corps across the rugged mountains west of Chattanooga over three widely separated roads. By September 10, those corps were spread out more than 40 miles southwest of Chattanooga, none within supporting distance of the other. Prompt counterattacks by Braggs army certainly could have defeated Rosecrans force in detail. Recognizing Rosecrans predicament, the suddenly energized Bragg seized a golden opportunity on September 10 by ordering a coordinated attack on Rosecrans most exposed unit: Maj. Gen. James Negleys 4,600-man division of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas centrally positioned 14th Corps (with Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCooks 20th Corps to the south and Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittendens 21st Corps north near Chattanooga). A half-days march from support, Negley sat dangerously exposed at Davis Crossroads. Bragg ordered a two-division assault to annihilate Negley, with Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindmans Division (Polks Corps) leading the attack, supported by Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburnes Division (Hills Corps). Attacking Negley from flank and front should have pushed the Union commander into a fatal cul-de-sac, but despite Braggs explicit orders, nothing happened. Hill prevaricated, claiming Cleburne was ill and his approach road blocked by felled trees. Bragg ordered two divisions from Buckners Corps to attack, but they took hours moving into position. Meanwhile, Hindman, not pressed by Polk to attack, got cold feet when Cleburne failed to appear. When an exasperated Bragg finally compelled his recalcitrant subordinates to move, Negley had been reinforced and had safely withdrawn from destruction. Braggs subordinates undermined and frustrated his overall tactical plan, resulting in one of the wars most flawed victories. Albeit belatedly, Negleys near-miss had alerted Rosecrans to the danger his widely spread corps faced. To concentrate his men, Rosecrans frantically ordered Thomas and McCooks corps to rush northeast and Crittendens southwest. Thus, Braggs best chance to destroy Rosecrans was needlessly thrown away by his insubordinate subordinates. As Rosecrans hurried to concentrate his still-vulnerable corps southwest of Chattanooga, he gave Bragg another golden opportunity to strike a potentially fatal blow which, if successful, would regain control of all-important Chattanooga. At dawn on September 13, Bragg ordered Polk to lead a two-corps attack (his own and Walkers Corps) to destroy Crittendens 21st Corps as Crittendens exposed flank passed along Braggs armys front. Once again, nothing happened. Hours after ordering Polk to attack, but hearing no battle sounds, an incensed Bragg rode to Polks headquarters, discovering neither Polk nor Walker had made any attack preparations. By then it was too late. Crittendens corps had safely passed. Importantly, these failed efforts to seize golden opportunities reveal Braggs recalcitrant subordinates had effectively rendered his hold on army command tenuous, at best. The disputatious and authoritarian Bragg on September 15 uncharacteristically held a council of war with his principal subordinates. That conference accomplished two vital things. First, Bragg established the armys overall tactical plan (certainly the proper one) for defeating Rosecranscut his army off from Chattanooga, drive it southwest, and annihilate it. Second, Bragg secured the public concurrence of all his senior commanders, making it difficult for them to justify future recalcitrance, delay, or disobedience of his orders. Whether this second accomplishment was Braggs principal intention cannot be known, but the council of war clearly had that effect (as Braggs post-Chickamauga command house-cleaning would certainly show). The Confederates tactical victory at Chickamauga was due more to the valor of individual soldiers (and to Rosecrans egregious mistake on September 20) than to Braggs tactical brilliance. Indeed, the inability to get his wing, corps, and division commanders (principally Polk, but significantly others as well) to obey his orders promptly continued throughout the main battle. In fact, Braggs subordinates undermined and frustrated his overall tactical plan, resulting in one of the wars most flawed victories. Braggs failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough on september 19 was inevitably exacerbated by his flawed organization. On September 18, combat erupted as the two armies faced off along both sides of the underbrush-choked West Chickamauga Creek. Braggs army finally made multiple crossings of the creek in the face of determined resistance by Union units. Colonel John T. Wilders mounted infantry Lightning Brigade, armed with the excellent Spencer seven-shot repeating rifles, turned back an attempt by Walkers Corps to cross at Alexanders Bridge. After a day of mostly inconclusive fighting, characterized by both sides fumbling in the dense woods searching for the others flanks, neither side had gained much advantage, although Bragg did succeed in getting his army onto the creeks west side. Braggs men fire away from a treeline during the battle. (North Wind Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo) Braggs plan for September 19 supported his tactically sound overall plan of flanking Rosecrans on the north (the Union left) and pushing him southwest away from Chattanooga. But Bragg had badly misjudged the Union armys northernmost positions, as Thomas units already had reinforced Crittenden, seizing good defensive terrain. That resulted in locally fierce attacks that by sundown had pushed Union forces west, though they still held along a strong, generally north-south line about a mile west of the creek. Cleburnes Division attacked shortly after sundown, gaining some ground. But no major Confederate breakthrough had been achieved. Combat ended that night in a standoff. Notably, Confederate attacks were piecemeal and none concentrated sufficient combat power to break Rosecrans line. Braggs failure to concentrate and achieve a decisive breakthrough on September 19 was not caused simply by his misjudgment of the strength and position of Rosecrans left flank; instead, it was inevitably exacerbated by his flawed organization. Bragg began that days battle with eight subordinate corps and reserve units reporting directly to himan impossibly large span of control to reasonably expect prompt execution, particularly given his subordinates demonstrated reluctance to obey. Today, only three to five subordinate units are considered the maximum number any commanderregardless of competencecan effectively control (and todays orders are instantly transmitted via radio, computers, or electronicswhereas Bragg relied on junior officer couriers on horseback, hand-carrying written orders that frequently went astray, were misinterpreted, or were simply ignored by his subordinates). Bragg, in an attempt to rectify this span of control problem, reorganized his army into two wings (Polk commanding the Right Wing, Longstreet the Left). Yet he failed to ensure that all of his corps commanders knew the changed command structurefor example, Hill belatedly learned he was now a subordinate in Polks Right Wing at 6 a.m. on September 20, and Longstreet discovered he was Left Wing commander only upon his 11 p.m. arrival at Chickamauga on September 19. Although Bragg theoretically fixed his span of control problem, he failed to implement it properly. Adding another command layer inevitably introduced more delays in transmitting his orders to the divisions executing them. Fate, however, intervened to diminish Braggs command failures. Braggs plan to win the battle on September 20 followed his tactically sound plan to push Rosecrans southwest and away from Chattanooga. He correctly ordered a strong daybreak attack on the Union left by Polks Right Wing in which eight divisions were to step off en echelon. An attack by Longstreets Left Wing was to follow. Understandably, Longstreet spent hours the morning of September 20 familiarizing himself with the battlefield, attempting to place his divisions in proper order, and preparing his units to attack. Yet Polk once again frustrated Braggs intent by unaccountably delaying the Right Wings attack. In fact, when Bragg rode to Polks headquarters in late morning to find out why the attack had not been launched at dawn, as ordered, he found Polk calmly eating breakfast. With Longstreet still sorting out his own units, nothing in Braggs plan was going right. That would change about 11 a.m. Perceiving a dangerousthough nonexistentgap in his front line, Rosecrans jumped the chain of command and directly ordered Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood of Crittendens 21st Corps to withdraw his division from the front line and immediately reposition it farther north. Wood realized the order was a mistake, but compliedwith disastrous consequences. Finally prepared to attack, 10,000 menled by Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnsons Provisional Division, of Hoods Corps in Longstreets Left Wingadvanced across the Brotherton Farm and hit the gap in the Union line just vacated by Woods division. In that instant, Rosecrans lost the Battle of Chickamauga but not, as it turned out, the strategic prize of Chattanooga. Johnsons troops, followed closely by those of two other divisions, poured through the gap, fatally collapsing the Union line and nearly overrunning Rosecrans headquarters. Fully one-third of Rosecrans army fled toward Chattanooga as Braggs Confederates swept them along in disarray. Yet letting the Yankees flee toward Chattanooga was the last thing Bragg wanted. Instead of cutting off Rosecrans army from the strategic city and driving it to the southwest and utter destruction, Polk, by failing to attack vigorously on the north, produced the opposite result. Longstreets dramatic breakthrough merely pushed Rosecrans defeated army north to the safety of Chattanooga. Despite Polks failure to implement attack orders on the right flank, Braggs army had won a stunning tactical victory. But again, due to Polks abysmal failure, the victory proved incomplete as Thomas rallied his corps and other Union units in a last stand on Snodgrass Hill/Horseshoe Ridge that prevented the annihilation of the Federal army. Perhaps convinced that Johnsons breakthrough had secured victory, Longstreet did not strongly press his advantage to destroy Thomas Snod-grass Hill defense, leaving this significant roadblock in position. Despite Polks failure to implement attack orders, Braggs army had won a stunning tactical victory. Seething that his overall plan was coming apart, Bragg summoned Longstreet to his headquarters and demanded action while also exclaiming in frustration at Polks continued incompetence: There is not a man in the right wing who has any fight in him! Longstreet, found calmly eating a lunch of yams and bacon, was taken aback and belatedly turned his attention to Thomas stubborn defense. Longstreet reported launching 25 separate assaults on Thomas Snodgrass Hill defenses on September 20. Thomas stand, which famously earned him the nickname Rock of Chickamauga, saved Chattanooga for the Union. It allowed Rosecrans time to rally his defeated army inside the citys defenses while helping dissuade Bragg from launching a vigorous pursuit that could have cut off the Federals before they passed safely into the city. Had Polk not disobeyed Braggs orders by unaccountably delaying his September 20 attack, Thomas defense would never have materialized. The Breaking Point None of Braxton Braggs poor subordinate relations matched the one he had with the fiery Nathan Bedford Forrest. In the days or weeks after Chickamaugawhen exactly has not been substantiatedForrest reportedly confronted Bragg, angry that Bragg had halted pursuit of the beaten Federals at the end of the battle. According to a possibly apocryphal story by regimental surgeon J.B. Cowan, Forrest snarled, Youare a coward.You may as well not issue any orders to me, for I will not obey them.If you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life. Only Nathan Bedford Forrest seemed eager to press Rosecrans fleeing army and annihilate it, realizing that any tactical victory at Chickamauga was meaningless for Confederate fortunes if Chattanooga remained in Union hands. After his cavalrymen fought brilliantly as dismounted infantry on Braggs northern flank, Forrest launched a vigorous pursuit, capturing hundreds of fleeing Federals while attempting to cut off Rosecrans retreat. But Bragg, as he had done with other commanders at Perryville and at Stones River, proved unwilling to support Forrest. Claiming that the Army of Tennessee was exhausted and lacked wagons and transport, Bragg exerted no effort to block the Union withdrawal (eliciting the disgusted Forrests exclamation, What does [Bragg] fight battles for?). Frustrated time and again by his recalcitrant subordinates in his effort to win a decisive victory at Chickamaugabut himself unwilling to launch a spirited pursuit once Rosecrans army began to fleeBragg settled for besieging Chattanooga. The command chaos plaguing the Army of Tennessee during the Chickamauga Campaign continued. On September 29, Bragg dismissed both Polk and Hindman. Next, on October 4, a dozen of his senior subordinates signed a letter to Davis (likely authored by Buckner) demanding Braggs relief (Longstreet similarly wrote Secretary of War James Seddon). Davis arrived October 9 at army headquarters, interviewed Braggs disgruntled subordinates, and again backed Bragg. Davis support prompted Bragg to relieve three more subordinates who had signed the letter: Hill (effectively demoting him to major general) and both Walker and Buckner (each relegated to division command). Meanwhile, Longstreet and his corps departed for Knoxville to face Ambrose Burnsides Union army, and Forrest, at his own request, transferred to Mississippi. Frustrated time and again by his recalcitrant subordinates in his effort to win a decisive victory at Chickamauga, Bragg settled for besieging Chattanooga. Braggs army command tenure finally ended after the Chattanooga debacle. On December 1, he asked to be relieved and this time his request was accepted. Bragg went east for the wars remainder, first as Davis military adviser ( Bragg, predictably, quarreled with senior CSA officials) and later leading division-sized units during the Carolinas Campaign. After the war, Bragg found minor civilian success, briefly holding jobs in Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas but, inevitably, arguing with his bosses before moving on. On September 27, 1876, Bragg died, probably of a stroke, in Galveston, Texas. He was 59 years old. Edwin L. Kennedy Jr. is a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, retired U.S. Army infantry lieutenant colonel and former professor at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff Colleges History Department and Combat Studies Institute. Since 1994 he has led countless staff rides, including ones of the Battle of Chickamauga. Jerry Morelock is senior editor of ACW. With a few stark lines on paper, cartoonist Gene Basset captures colliding cultures IN 1965 GENE BASSET shipped out for Vietnam, not as yet another American GI but as a political cartoonist for the Scripps Howard News Service. But like a GI, Basset found out what it meant to come under enemy fire. Despite the danger, or maybe because of it, Basset caught the fever of other great combat artistsfrom Alfred Waud in the Civil War to Bill Mauldin in World War II. Bassets sketches have the simplicity and elegance of Japanese ink paintings, and he used a similar technique. Nobody else had done much with spontaneous drawing like this, he says, at least not in a war setting. They were done in ink, so it was definitely a case of first impression. I couldnt significantly change anything later. The following images are from a book on his work, Gene Bassets Vietnam Sketchbook, by Thom Rooke (Syracuse University Press). With a few stark lines on paper, Basset captures the moments of pathos, absurdity, humor, brutality, and even beauty that occur when cultures collide and everyday life is surrounded by war. Cartoonist Gene Basset covered the war in Vietnam and offered this take on the famous British cartoon of two Tommys in a mudhole, one telling the other, If you know of a better ole, go to it. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Cartoonist Gene Basset covered the war in Vietnam and offered this take on the famous British cartoon of two Tommys in a mudhole, one telling the other, If you know of a better ole, go to it. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Tell Him to Get Out Before We Torch the Place: In the Montagnard highlands at the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam border, Basset spent time with a Green Beret patrol. When the patrol was ambushed, the Americans retaliated by burning a village used by the Viet Cong. Here, a Montagnard soldier, under orders from his American commander, warns a family to get out before their home is torched. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Tell Him to Get Out Before We Torch the Place: In the Montagnard highlands at the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam border, Basset spent time with a Green Beret patrol. When the patrol was ambushed, the Americans retaliated by burning a village used by the Viet Cong. Here, a Montagnard soldier, under orders from his American commander, warns a family to get out before their home is torched. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Follow the Leader: A cigar-puffing, chest-thumping Green Beret sergeant leads a patrol of motley Montagnards. One of them wears sandals, hardly fit for marching much less for protecting against hidden enemy punji sticks. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Follow the Leader: A cigar-puffing, chest-thumping Green Beret sergeant leads a patrol of motley Montagnards. One of them wears sandals, hardly fit for marching much less for protecting against hidden enemy punji sticks. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Tight Squeeze: An American warship looms above the junks, rowboats, and smaller U.S. vessels crowding Da Nang Harbor. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Tight Squeeze: An American warship looms above the junks, rowboats, and smaller U.S. vessels crowding Da Nang Harbor. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Dig for Your Dinner: The leftovers from military base camps in Da Nang made tempting leavings for locals. Here, they scavenge in the refuse for edibles and more tangible items that can be sold in street markets. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Dig for Your Dinner: The leftovers from military base camps in Da Nang made tempting leavings for locals. Here, they scavenge in the refuse for edibles and more tangible items that can be sold in street markets. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Clear for a Bombing Run up North: An A4 Skyhawk waits for the signal to take off aboard the carrier Bonhomme Richard in the South China Sea. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Clear for a Bombing Run up North: An A4 Skyhawk waits for the signal to take off aboard the carrier Bonhomme Richard in the South China Sea. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Salvo Over the 17th Parallel: Patrolling the coast from Da Nang to the 17th parallel demarcation line between North and South Vietnam, the captain of the Coast Guard cutter Point Welcome sends a machine-gun greeting to enemies on the other side of the parallel. Soon enough, they respond in kind. A year later two crewmen die when the cutter came under friendly fire. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Salvo Over the 17th Parallel: Patrolling the coast from Da Nang to the 17th parallel demarcation line between North and South Vietnam, the captain of the Coast Guard cutter Point Welcome sends a machine-gun greeting to enemies on the other side of the parallel. Soon enough, they respond in kind. A year later two crewmen die when the cutter came under friendly fire. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Waiting for ChopperOne Dead, One Wounded: The Viet Cong ambush on Bassets Green Beret patrol left one Montagnard soldier close to death from a head injury (at left) and an American medic with severe leg wounds (on stretcher). I dived behind a rock and managed to escape serious injury, Basset recalls, although one of my sketchbooks bears a bullet hole from the attack. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Waiting for ChopperOne Dead, One Wounded: The Viet Cong ambush on Bassets Green Beret patrol left one Montagnard soldier close to death from a head injury (at left) and an American medic with severe leg wounds (on stretcher). I dived behind a rock and managed to escape serious injury, Basset recalls, although one of my sketchbooks bears a bullet hole from the attack. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Contraband Inspection: Vietnamese fishermen are stopped for questioning by American crewmen aboard the Point Welcome. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Contraband Inspection: Vietnamese fishermen are stopped for questioning by American crewmen aboard the Point Welcome. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Night Patrol: Like a sitting, or moving, duck, this patrol boat made night runs up and down tributaries of the Mekong. By flying the South Vietnamese flag, it hoped to draw enemy fire that would reveal Viet Cong positions. (Courtesy Gene Basset) Night Patrol: Like a sitting, or moving, duck, this patrol boat made night runs up and down tributaries of the Mekong. By flying the South Vietnamese flag, it hoped to draw enemy fire that would reveal Viet Cong positions. (Courtesy Gene Basset) You #%@*! Next Time Don't Forget the Beer!: Stuck in the highlands, a Green Beret cusses the crew of a supply plane for neglecting its beer-run duties, even as the plane fades toward the horizon. Basset felt this cartoon "summed up the war experience well: The routine of killing the enemy, the routine of shooting rats with a crossbow, training the Montagnards, the waitingand no beer." (Courtesy Gene Basset) You #%@*! Next Time Don't Forget the Beer!: Stuck in the highlands, a Green Beret cusses the crew of a supply plane for neglecting its beer-run duties, even as the plane fades toward the horizon. Basset felt this cartoon "summed up the war experience well: The routine of killing the enemy, the routine of shooting rats with a crossbow, training the Montagnards, the waitingand no beer." (Courtesy Gene Basset) Send us your comments! MHQeditor@HistoryNet.com Jackie Cochran and the Origin of the WASPs It took three years for pilot Jacqueline Jackie Cochran to convince the U.S. military that qualified women pilots could free men for combat duty by performing non-combat missions. Supported by Eleanor Roosevelt and Army aviation chief General Henry H. Hap Arnold, Cochrans goal was achieved in 1943 with the formation of the Womens Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs). Before deactivation on December 20, 1944, 1,074 WASPs logged 60 million miles flying for the U.S. Army Air Forces. This 1957 photo shows Jacqueline Cochran standing next to her plane, with Chuck Yeager and Bill Longhurst, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Image: Air Force Flight Test Center History Office Four numbered artist prints, crisply told in stark black-and-white from the watercolor and ink originals created more than a half-century ago, tell the story of the working cowboys West at least, Max Evanss vision of the working cowboys West. And few, if any, have ever argued with Max Evanss vision. Today, hes best-known as a writer, author of The Rounders and The Hi Lo Country (both turned into critically acclaimed movies), the irascible rapscallion who once broke director Sam Peckinpahs ankle I was trying to break his neck. (Evans had a small role in Peckinpahs The Ballad of Cable Hogue), winner of multiple Spur Awards, multiple Western Heritage Wrangler Awards and the 1990 Levi Strauss Saddleman Award for lifetime achievement in Western literature. Hes also the subject of Slim Randles biography, Ol Max Evans: The First Thousand Years. During ten centuries of living (in Max Evans years), he has done it all: working cowboy, soldier (he hit Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944), miner, actor, mystic, but mostly, writer. Yet before he became a literary icon, Evans was an artist in Taos, New Mexico. His knowledge of cowboys is quite evident in the numbered series of prints. Evans describes his creations: Late For Supper: A weary cowhand rides to the bunkhouse in late night. Working cowboys like this one because they know how that ol boy feels. In My Valley: A mystical city rises on a cowboys once-spartan ranchland. That was a prediction I had 57 years ago: the building up all around the ranches. I had this vision of what was going to happen to the ranches. Look Out Ma!: A mare strains against barbed wire to eat hay during a snowstorm while her colt stands guard. I actually saw this on my way from Taos. It was cold, and this late colt was just watching me, like he was protecting his mama. Bustin Drifts: A cowboy herds along a cow, all weary from being pounded by snow and wind. I did a lot of this myself, cowboying on Glorieta Mesa and up in the Hi Lo Country, the name he gave mostly northeastern New Mexico because of the landscape and a popular poker game. Born in Ropes, Texas, in 1925, Evans arrived in Taos in 1949 with this vague idea of becoming an artist. I dont have any idea how I got interested in art, he says. As a little kid, I was always sketching or drawing something, but Id had only three art lessons in my whole life. He brought one painting, a World War II scene titled Normandy Night Fire. The expressionistic oil-on-canvas not only was accepted into a juried art show, it won the honored placement alongside several Taos masters. Eventually, he met Potawatomi Indian artist Woody Crumbo, who became Evanss mentor. Honing his craft, Evans learned to mix mediums and take chances, which he would also learn to do in his fiction. It was Crumbo who told Evans to have some limited prints made of his work. I was barely selling, just had enough to starve on, and Woody told me if I went to see this master printer in Taos Pueblo and have some prints made, I could sell those as limited edition numbered prints and I could peddle those and that would help until I started to sell. And he was exactly right. The prints still sell. A recent set went for $1,000 at an auction in Cimarron, New Mexico. Of course, I was so naive, I think I sold the first 150 without any numbers on them, he says. I started numbering them at 151. Other paintings followed. Working cowboy scenes such as Moment of Truth, painted with a pallet knife, and a painting of his story One-Eyed Sky, which I traded for a bunch of worthless mining stock. He did landscapes such as The Lonesome Land, The Lonely Place, and The Edge of Taos. But mostly, nocturnal scenes that became his trademark, such as Meeting by Moonlight and Ghost Rider in a Ghost Town. I like the night, Evans says. I like moon shadows. Theres a mystery in it, a wonder in the moon shadows. And some of the greatest fun Ive ever had has been in the moon shadows. Eventually, Evanss literary career took off, and he put aside the pallet knife, the oils, the watercolors. I chose writing, and Im glad I did, he says. There were stories already eating at me, that I knew I had to write. Stories like My Pardner, Shadow of Thunder, Xaviers Folly, Bluefeather Fellini, and his one historical novel Faraway Blue, about buffalo soldiers pursuing the legendary Apache Nana. Yet now, Evans is returning to painting. I want to concentrate on short stories, which has always been my first love, and articles, and painting, he says. There are a lot of similarities in painting and writing. Youre telling some story of yourself. Heres the way the sun shines off a bluff or a cloud in my vision. Those kinds of stories dont have to have plots. Theyre complete within themselves. Im just thankful Im going to get another crack at (painting) 1021 years later. Some of Evanss drawings and paintings have been printed in Slim Randles biography, Ol Max Evans: The First Thousand Years, as well as Evans collection of articles, essays and fiction, For the Love of a Horse, both published by the University of New Mexico Press. This day I conquer or die. Thus spoke English Capt. Gen. John Churchill (16501722), duke of Marlborough and distinguished ancestor of future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He uttered those words on Aug. 13, 1704, as he rode to battle at Blenheim in the Holy Roman electorate of Bavaria (present-day southeast Germany). The occasion was Churchills attack on the French army and its Bavarian allies in a gamble to preserve Hapsburg rule over the Holy Roman empire during the War of the Spanish Succession. Aiding Marlborough was imperial Gen. Prince Eugene of Savoy. Marking the first major defeat of the French in more than a half-century, their victory spared the imperial capital at Vienna, knocked Bavaria out of the war and preserved the alliance of England, Austria and the Netherlands. As historian Charles Spencer notes, it was the greatest land victory on foreign soil won by an English general since Henry V at Agincourt in 1415. In the words of poet Robert Southey, twas a famous victory. The allies sought to prevent a union of the French and Spanish crowns and thus preserve the balance of power in Europe. Fearing the war might be lost in the German empire before it could be won in Flanders, Marlborough disengaged his army and marched 250 miles to unite with imperial forces. Marlboroughs English, Scottish, Hessian and Hannoverian Redcoats impressed all with their discipline. Joining them on the battlefield (near present-day Blindheim, on the Danube River north of Augsburg) were allied contingents of Prussian, Dutch, Danish and Austrian troops. Marlborough and Eugenes allied army of 52,000 faced nearly 60,000 French and Bavarian troops under Camille dHostun, comte de Tallard, who did not expect his numerically inferior foe to attack. The French deployed behind the Nebel River tributary, their right wing (36,000 men under Tallard) on the Danube at Blenheim, their left (24,000 men under Marshal Ferdinand de Marsin and Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria) on hilly ground at Lutzingen. Eugene and 16,000 troops opened the battle with a diversionary assault on Marsin and Maximilian, while Marlborough led 36,000 men on two unsuccessful assaults against Blenheim. Tallard had to call up reserves to defend the town, weakening the French center. As Eugene kept Marsin and Maximilian occupied, Marlborough thrust across the Nebel. His cavalry ultimately broke through, dividing Marsin and Maximilian from Tallard before sweeping the latters men into the river. Tallard and many of his men fell prisoner even as Marsin and Maximilian withdrew from the field. The allies suffered more than 12,000 casualties, but inflicted some 13,000 on the enemy, while capturing another 14,000 men. Blenheim was a stupendous victory over absolutism and proved the armies of the French Sun King Louis XIV were not invincible. It also began the victorious association of Marlborough and Eugene, who continued to harry the French throughout the war. In one of historys delicious ironies, Germanys imperial First Reich was given another century of life by an ancestor of the man who two centuries later worked tirelessly to destroy the Third Reich. Slavery was the foundation of the antebellum South. More than any other characteristic, it defined Southern social, political, and cultural life. It also unified the South as a section distinct from the rest of the nation. John C. Calhoun, the Souths recognized intellectual and political leader from the 1820s until his death in 1850, devoted much of his remarkable intellectual energy to defending slavery. He developed a two-point defense. One was a political theory that the rights of a minority sectionin particular, the Southneeded special protecting in the federal union. The second was an argument that presented slavery as an institution that benefited all involved. Calhouns commitment to those two points and his efforts to develop them to the fullest would assign him a unique role in American history as the moral, political, and spiritual voice of Southern separatism. Despite the fact that he never wanted the South to break away from the United States as it would a decade after his death, his words and lifes work made him the father of secession. In a very real way, he started the American Civil War. Born in 1782 in upcountry South Carolina, Calhoun grew up during the boom in the areas cotton economy. The son of a successful farmer who served in public office, Calhoun went to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1801 to attend Yale College. After graduating, he attended the Litchfield Law School, also in Connecticut, and studied under Tapping Reeve, an outspoken supporter of a strong federal government. Seven years after Calhouns initial departure from South Carolina, he returned home, where he soon inherited his fathers substantial land and slave holdings and won election to the U.S. Congress in 1810. Ironically, when Calhoun, the future champion of states rights and secession, arrived in Washington, he was an ardent federalist like his former law professor. He aligned himself with the federalist faction of the Republican party led by Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky. He also became a prominent member of the partys War Hawk faction, which pushed President James Madisons administration to fight the War of 1812, the nations second war with Great Britain. When the fighting ended in 1815, Calhoun championed a protective national tariff on imports, a measure he hoped would foster both Southern and Northern industrial development. After the War of 1812, Congress began to consider improving the young republics infrastructure. Calhoun enthusiastically supported plans to spend federal money, urging Congress to bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space. We are under the most imperious obligation to counteract every tendency to disunion. Calhoun left the legislature in 1817 to become President James Monroes secretary of war and dedicated himself to strengthening the nations military. He succeeded, spurring revitalization of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point under the leadership of Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer and improving the armys administrative structure with reforms that endured into the 20th century. If ever there was perfection carried into any branch of the public service, one federal official wrote, it was that which Mr. Calhoun carried into the War Department. Calhouns success in improving the countrys war-making capabilities came at the price of a stronger, less frugal federal government. Not everyone was pleased. His schemes are too grand and magnificent, a detractor in Congress wrote. If we had a revenue of a hundred million, he would be at no loss how to spend it. Calhoun hoped to use his accomplishments as war secretary as a springboard to the presidency. When that dream fell through, however, Calhoun had no problem accepting the vice presidency under staunch federalist John Quincy Adams in 1824. Adams was glad to have Calhoun in his administration, having held him in high esteem since their days together in Monroes cabinet. Adams was particularly impressed by Calhouns ardent patriotism, believing Calhoun was above all sectional and factious prejudices more than any other statesman of the Union with whom I have ever acted. This was an image Calhoun cultivated during the 1824 election campaign. It turned out that Calhoun was late in publicly promoting his commitment to federalism. By this time, Southerners were increasingly taking an anti-federal-government stance. In the North, industry and the economy it created grew in influence and power every day. Meanwhile, the rapidly expanding cultivation of cotton and other cash crops was committing the South to an agrarian economy and culture, which depended on slavery. The country was dividing into two increasingly self-conscious sections with different priorities. And as the issue of slavery came to the fore in American politics, the South found itself on the defensive. Because of the Souths investment in large-scale agriculture, any attack on slavery was an attack on the Southern economy itself. The issue came to a head in 1819 with the debate over whether to allow the Missouri Territory to become a state. The result was the historic Missouri Compromise of 1820, which permitted the territory to enter the Union as a slave state while Maine entered as a free state, maintaining the balance between free and slave states at 12 each. The compromise also prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of Missouris southern border. On the surface, the Missouri Compromise seemed to heal the sectional breach that slavery had created. But the fact that the debate had divided along sectional lines awakened the South to the reality that it was a distinct section a section that was apparently inevitably destined to be a minority in the Union, while the Northern states enjoyed increasing political representation and power born of rapid population growth. In the 1820s, Southerners grew increasingly anxious about the North controlling the federal government and about how that situation threatened the South and its distinctive institutions. They looked to leaders who would limit federal power. Calhoun unexpectedly found himself the target of sharp criticism from leading South Carolina figures, including Thomas Cooper, the president of the state college. In 1824, Cooper published a widely circulated pamphlet attacking Calhoun. He spends the money of the South to buy up influence in the North, Cooper grumbled. If Calhoun wanted to maintain his status as a Southern leader and reach his political goals, he could not ignore the changing political landscape. He recognized it would be a mistake to maintain his association with Adams, whose ideas to expand the use of federal power to promote national economic, intellectual, and cultural development drew a cold reception in South Carolina. So when Andrew Jackson began preparing to challenge Adams in the 1828 presidential election, Calhoun switched sides. The Democrats rewarded Calhoun by making him their candidate for vice president, and the ticket won. That same year, Congress passed a highly protective tariff that Southerners bitterly opposed, viewing the measure as sacrificing Southern agrarian interests to benefit Northern industry. The protest against the so-called Tariff of Abominations grew particularly strong in South Carolina, and in response to a request from the state legislature, Calhoun secretly wrote an essay titled South Carolina Exposition and Protest. In it, he asserted that states had a constitutional right to nullify any federal government actions they considered unconstitutional. Calhoun had become the chosen mouthpiece for Southern rights. Confirmation of his new status came when Congress adopted another high tariff in 1832 and South Carolina legislators used the principles Calhoun had voiced in his Exposition and Protest to declare the tariff null and void. To no ones surprise, Jackson refused to accept South Carolinas defiant stance, and the Nullification Crisis of 1832 was born. By now, relations between Jackson and Calhoun were crumbling fast. Problems had been brewing well beforehand, but now, personal conflicts and Jacksons commitment to the supremacy of the national government made it impossible for the two men to work together. When it became clear that Calhouns chief cabinet rival, Martin Van Buren, was Jacksons choice to succeed him as president, Calhoun quit the administration. Back in South Carolina, the state legislature chose Calhoun to fill the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by Robert Y. Hayne. Now, Calhoun had a new and even more influential bully pulpit for his pro-Southern arguments. As a senator, he openly led the fight against the tariff, which he viewed as a zealous attempt by Congress to dictate economic policy. This, Calhoun protested in repudiation of his earlier views was an overextension of federal power. Jackson was no fan of the high tariff, either. But he was furious with Calhoun and considered his behavior treasonous. He loudly threatened to march down to South Carolina and personally hang Calhoun and his fellow nullifiers. Congress responded to the nullification by drafting the Force Bill, which authorized the president to use military power to compel South Carolina to comply with the tariff. The bill became the target of Calhouns first speech upon returning to the Senate. He expressed outrage at the thought of this government, the creature of the States, making war against the power to which it owes its existence. A major crisis seemed imminent until Senator Henry Clay fashioned the Compromise Tariff of 1833. The act gradually lowered the offending tariff, but it confirmed Congresss authority to enact such protective tariffs. South Carolina responded by repealing its nullification of the tariff, but in a final act of defiance, it nullified the Force Bill. For Calhoun the tariff controversy had two important results. The first was his emergence as the leading political and intellectual defender of the South. The second was his development of a political philosophy to limit the federal governments power and thus protect the minority agrarian South and its institution of slavery. Though it was the tariff controversy that brought Calhoun to the forefront as the leading spokesman for Southern interests, slavery was the most important issue to the South. I consider the tariff act as the occasion rather than the real cause of the present unhappy state of things, he confided to an associate early in the Nullification Crisis. The truth can no longer be disguised, that the peculiar domestick institution of the Southern States and the consequent direction which that and her soil and climate have given her industry, has placed themin opposite relation to the majority of the Union. There were some pockets in the South that supported a high tariff, but all the slave states were unified on the slavery issue. So it made political sense for Calhoun to devote himself to the cause of slavery. From 1833 to 1850 as a member of the U.S. Senate, a private citizen, and during a stint as President John Tylers secretary of state in 1844-1845 he worked to insulate the institution from any sort of attack, ranging from abolitionist rhetoric to perceived overextensions of federal power. At stake for him was nothing less that the survival of the South. I have ever had but one opinion on the subject, Calhoun wrote. Our fate as a people is bound up in the question. Calhouns political thinking had taken a complete turnabout from the federalism of his early years. Now, his goal was to insure the power of the local agrarian elite by limiting the power of the federal government. My aim is fixed, he proclaimed. It is no less than to turn back the Government to where it commenced its operations in 1789on the State Rights Republican tack. He felt that keeping governmental power as decentralized as possible would allow the planters to maintain power and protect the labor system that made their great wealth and status possible. To do this, Calhoun developed two major ideas that are perhaps his greatest legacy: the concepts of state interposition and concurrent majority. State interposition was first presented in the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to protest the anti-Republican Alien and Sedition Acts. In these documents Jefferson and Madison applied the social contract theory formulated by 17-century English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke to the U.S. Constitution. They argued that because representatives of the states had written the Constitution, the power of constitutional interpretation rested with the states. So if a state believed the federal government was violating the terms of the national charter, it had the right to interpose itself between its people and the federal government to provide protection from tyranny. The Fort Hill Address of July 1831 was the first time Calhoun openly and unambiguously identified himself with the nullification cause. In that speech, he proclaimed that the right of state interposition was the fundamental principle of our system and that the federal government must accept that right in order to keep the Constitution and the Union secure. The Constitution of the United States is, in fact, a compact, to which each State is a party, he argued. Since, in his view, the Statesformed the compact, acting as Sovereign and independent communities, the several States, or parties, have a right to judge of its infractions. By embracing state interposition, Calhoun dismissed the 1803 Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v. Madison, a ruling that claimed the power of constitutional interpretation exclusively for the judicial branch. He also contradicted his own earlier distaste for those who dabbled in constitutional interpretation. The Constitutionwas not intended as a thesis for the logician to exercise his ingenuity on, he proclaimed in 1817. Now, in defending the Souths unique economy and society, Calhoun was exercising away. Calhouns exercise went beyond mere theorizing. He helped develop a procedure for states to use their power of interposition. He suggested a state should first call a convention to consider any federal action in question. If the convention determined that the action violated its understanding of the Constitution, then it could declare the action null and void, denying the federal government the power to execute the law within that state. The federal government would then have to either amend the Constitution to legitimize its action or repeal the measure. And if the Constitution was amended in a way the state considered unacceptable, the state had the right to leave the Union. In developing the concept of nullification, Calhoun did not intend to encourage states to secede. He sought only to give them a way to ensure a strict interpretation of the Constitution and lead the nation away from the dangerous and despotic doctrine of consolidation and back to its true confederative character. This was especially important for the minority South. The major and dominant party will have no need of these restrictions for their protection, Calhoun wrote. The minority, however, required a construction [of the Constitution] which would confine these powers to the narrowest limits. The role of nullification in any future debate over slavery was clear: with the ability to define the terms of their membership in the Union, states would be able to deny the federal government any regulatory power over slavery. Slavery was an essential condition of Calhouns second major contribution to American political thought the concept of the concurrent majority. In a nutshell, requiring concurrent majority would safeguard slavery in a political climate that was increasingly anti-slavery and in which the slaveholding South enjoyed too little representation to defend its interest. From Calhouns viewpoint, the purpose of the concurrent majority concept was to prevent the North, with its population majority, from ruling the nation as a tyrant. To govern by the numerical majority alone is to confuse a part of the people with the whole, he argued. To turn the concept of concurrent majority into law, the Constitution needed to be formally amended. The amendment Calhoun envisioned would also include a provision for each region to have a chief executive invested with veto power over any congressional action, and the power to execute any federal law in accordance with the interests of his region. During the 1830s and 1840s, the growth of the Northern abolition movement and attempts by Northern politicians to push the federal government to act against slavery confirmed for Calhoun that the North intended to exercise its power as a majority to the detriment of Southern interests. He responded to these attacks with the argument that the Constitution gave Congress no regula-tory power over slavery. To Northern politicians who dismissed this argument and continued to push antislavery measures through Congress, he warned that the South cannot remain here in an endless struggle in defense of our character, our property, and institutions. He said that if abolitionist agitation did not end, we must become, finally, two peoples. Abolition and the Union cannot co-exist. Even compromise was not possible, in his opinion. As the antislavery movement continued to build up steam, Calhoun continually found himself having to defend slavery on moral, ethical, and political grounds. By the 1830s it had already become unsatisfactory for Southern politicians to apologize for slavery and excuse it as a necessary evil; to do so would have been to admit that slavery was morally wrong. So a major shift in the Southern defense of slavery occurred, one that Calhoun had a large role in bringing about. Calhoun endorsed slavery as a good a great good, based on his belief in the inequality inherent in the human race. Calhoun believed that people were motivated primarily by self-interest and that competition among them was a positive expression of human nature. The results of this competition were displayed for all to see in the social order: those with the greatest talent and ability rose to the top, and the rest fell into place beneath them. The concepts of liberty and equality, idealized during the Revolutionary period, were potentially destructive to this social order, Calhoun believed. With the stratification of society, those at the top were recognized as authority figures and respected for their proven wisdom and ability. If the revolutionary ideal of equality were taken too far, the authority of the elite would not be accepted. Without this authority, Calhoun argued, society would break down and the liberty of all men would be threatened. In his manifesto A Disquisition on Government, he asserted that liberty was not a universal right but should be reserved for the intelligent, the patriotic, the virtuous and deserving. Calhoun believed the liberty Southerners enjoyed depended on slavery. Contrary to the writings of those who unabashedly celebrated the Norths free labor system, antebellum Southern society, though definitely stratified, was highly fluid. Fortunes could be and were made in a single generation. Agriculture, specifically cotton, was what made that society so mobile. Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, and as a farmer acquired greater cotton wealth, he required a greater number of field hands to work his expanding fields. So the ownership of slaves became a measure of status and upward mobility. To destroy slavery, according to Calhoun, would be to destroy a powerful symbol of what motivated the Southern man to improve himself. In the end, Calhoun supported the institution of slavery for many reasons, but at the bottom of all his argument was this: he believed the African race was inferior. He shared the prevailing prejudices of the day held in both the North and South that black people were mentally, physically, and morally inferior to whites. This inferiority necessitated that they be slaves. There is no instance of any civilized colored race of any shade being found equal to the establishment and maintenance of free government, Calhoun argued. He pointed to the impoverished living conditions of Northern free blacks as proof that black people lacked the ability to exercise their freedom positively. In Calhouns view, slavery benefited black people. Never before has the black racefrom the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually, he asserted in Congress. It came to us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions. Slavery provided black people with a quality of existence Calhoun believed they were incapable of obtaining for themselves. To his mind, despite all the progress the race had supposedly made in America, to free the slaves and place them in situations where they would have to compete with white people on an equal basis would only result in catastrophe. The freed slaves inherent inferiority would place him at such a disadvantage that he would not be able to achieve the quality of life he enjoyed as a slave, Calhoun insisted. Calhoun noted that slave-owners provided for their slaves from birth to infirmity. He urged critics of slavery to look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poor house in Europe and the North. In support of his argument, he cited census figures indicating that free blacks were much more likely to suffer mental or physical disabilities than were slaves. In the long run, Calhoun believed, regardless of what happened with slavery, the progress of civilization would in time doom the inferior African race to extinction. Until that time, he asserted, slavery at least gave black people security and made them useful. When confronted with the argument that slavery was an exploitative labor system, Calhoun replied that in every civilization a propertied class emerged and exploited the labor of the others. This enabled the master class to pursue intellectual and cultural endeavors that advanced the progress of civilization. Slavery is indispensable to a republican government, he proclaimed. In the South it was inevitable, Calhoun argued, that the African race would be the exploited class. The South merely institutionalized this into a system that benefited both master and servant. The master got his labor and the slave received a standard of living far above what he could achieve on his own. While Calhoun was defending slavery, he extended his argument to indict the North and industrial capitalism. He asserted that the slave system was actually superior to the wage slavery of the North. He believed that slavery, by intertwining the economic interests of master and slave, eliminated the unavoidable conflict that existed between labor and capital under the wage system. The amount of money a master invested in his slaves made it economically unfeasible to mistreat them or ignore their working and living conditions. In the North, the free laborer was as much a slave to his employer as was the black man in the South, Calhoun argued, but he lacked the protection the black slave enjoyed from a paternalistic master. With or without Calhoun, the Southern institution of slavery would have disappeared, but it will always remain a black mark on the history of the United States and on Calhouns reputation. Still, Calhoun deserves a prominent place in the history of American political thought if only for this irony: while he fought to protect the Southern minoritys rights and interests from the Northern majority, he felt free to subordinate the rights of the African American minority to the interests of the Souths white majority. After Calhouns death on March 31, 1850, one of his greatest foes, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, sternly rebuked an associate who suggested that he honor Calhoun with a eulogy in Congress. He is not dead, sir he is not dead, remarked Benton, a staunch Unionist. There may be no vitality in his body, but there is in his doctrines. A decade later, a bloody civil war would prove Benton was right. This article was written by Ethan S. Rafuse and originally published in the October 2002 issue of Civil War Times Magazine. For more great articles, be sure to subscribe to Civil War Times magazine today! American volunteers took up arms again in the 1948 War of Independence IN 1945, amid revelations about Hitlers Final Solution for Europes Jews, many Holocaust survivors emigrated to the United States. Others, convinced of the need for a Jewish homeland, clamored to go to Palestine. That region, bounded by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Trans-Jordan, comprised most of the biblical Holy Land. The Muslim conquest of Palestine in the 7th century had left the population largely Arab. In the 1880s, however, Jews from across Europe, weary of persecution and embracing Zionism, a movement espousing the restoration of a Jewish nation, began settling in Palestine. Over millennia, many nations had controlled Palestine. Since the 1920s, under a mandate from the League of Nations, Britain had been administering the region, trying to maintain peace between Arab and Jew. In 1948 Jews in Palestine declared a land of Israel there. War broke out as adjoining Arab states arrayed their armies against the new state. The fledgling Israel Defense Forces, which came to total nearly 118,000 troops, included some 1,250 Americans, mostly World War II veterans. Under League of Nations Mandate governance, Palestine had been a cultural and political powder keg, with British authorities constantly snuffing fuses lit by Arabs, the regions majority, and Zionist militiasthe Lehi, or Stern Gang, the Irgun, and the Haganah. The first two were rough-and-tumble guerrilla fighters, the last a more mainstream creation of the Jewish Agency, the unofficial government of Jewish Palestine. In 1939, seeking to cosset its Arab allies in the Middle East, Britain set quotas on Jewish immigration. Jewish activists countered by sending toward the region shiploads of European refugeesa Haganah operation, known as Aliyah Bet, or plan B, that recruited American volunteers. World War II interrupted that flow, which resumed in 1945, with the Royal Navy intercepting most Aliyah Bet vessels before they could land. In Palestine, the Stern Gang, the Irgun, and the Haganah were conducting irregular operations against British forces and Arab opponents. By 1947-48, Zionism was enjoying increasing support in the United States. The first North American volunteers to put themselves on the line numbered about 240. These Americans and Canadians helped man Aliyah Bet ships, many of them acquired in the United States by F & B Shipping, a Haganah front whose initials stood for F___ Britain. One of these seamen was Paul Kaye, a Jewish U.S. Navy veteran who was living in New York when he answered his phone to hear a voice he did not recognize. We would like to know if you would like to help your people, the caller said. Be on the corner of 39th Street and Lexington Avenue on Thursday at 4 p.m. Youll see a man with a black leather jacket. If he puts a newspaper under his arm, follow him. If he throws it out, walk awayyoure being followed. Kaye followed instructions, watching his contact until the man put a newspaper under his arm. Following the fellow into a building, Kaye found himself face to face with a third man. We would like you to run small ships between Cyprus and Palestine, the recruiter explained. If the British catch you, theyll hang you. Lets go! answered Kaye. Kayes first berth was HatikvahHebrew for Hopewhich sailed from Baltimore, Maryland, to board 1,500 Holocaust survivors at Marseilles, France, then make a run at the British blockade. The Royal Navy prevailed. Mandate authorities detained the Hatikvah passengers at a camp near Haifa. Kaye escaped to France, where he worked with the Jewish underground. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Arab and Jewish irregulars responded with bombings, sabotage, and ambushes. Arab volunteers from neighboring countries began to enter Palestine and organized into the Arab Liberation Army. In the United States, President Harry S. Truman sympathized with the Jewish cause. However, many high-ranking State Department officials feared recognition of a Jewish state would cause Arab oil-producing nations to restrict oil supplies to the United States and trigger instability, perhaps boosting the Soviet role in the region. There are 30 million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other, said Defense Secretary James Forrestal. In December, the United States embargoed sale of American arms to anyone from Palestine. To maintain a clandestine flow of weapons and materiel to its personnel in Palestine, the Haganah sent emissaries to the United States. Si Spiegelman, born in Belgium and brought to New York as a child refugee, belonged to a religious Zionist youth group. He recalls how, with a friend, he collected military weapons brought home as souvenirs by ex-GIs sympathetic to the cause and shipped them to contacts in Palestine labeled machinery. In Los Angeles, California, Elihu King, another former Zionist youth group member, wrote in a memoir about degreasing army surplus machine guns for use by Jewish forces in Palestine. American supporters of the Haganah came from all over, including the underworld. Jewish mobster and Las Vegas kingpin Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, introduced to a Haganah fundraiser, asked, Jews are fighting? Yes, the Haganah man said. Fighting, as in killing? Yes. Satisfied, Siegel supplied cash by the suitcase full. To recruit fighters, Haganah emissaries set up the group Land and Labor for Palestine. Officially, Land and Labor was placing American volunteers in industrial and agricultural jobs in Palestine to free resident Jews for military duty; in reality, when Yanks arrived, they went into the IDF. As had been so in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War, Americans joining this fight were violating a federal ban on citizens participating in combat on behalf of a foreign power. The U.S. State Department warned that those who did could lose their citizenship, although this rarely happened. Encounters between American Jews and Jews born in Palestine could be tense. The latter, who called themselves sabras after a species of desert cactus, stereotyped diasporic Jews in general as timid and complacent and American Jews in particular as whiners. Sabras resented Americans intense ties to their homeland, insisting volunteers set aside national identity and regard themselves foremost as Jews. Land and Labor opened its first branch in New York City at the Breslin Hotel. Soon L&L had operations going in all major American cities with large Jewish populations, according to David J. Bercuson in his 1984 book The Secret Army. Recruiters often worked through Jewish veterans organizations, sometimes obtaining lists of Americans who had served during the war and telephoning those with Jewish-sounding names. Merely phoning was risking surveillance and arrest; in 1947-48, American passports bore the message, This passport is not valid for travel to or in any foreign state for the purpose of entering or serving in the armed forces of such a state. American volunteers for the war in Palestine sometimes belonged to Zionist youth groups. These ranged from the socialist Hashomer Hatzair, or Young Guard, which espoused a binational Jewish-Arab state, to the right-wing Betar, advocate of a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan. Others, raised in assimilated families, had had little connection to Jewishness until the war. Women volunteered, usually as nurses. A handful of non-Jews volunteered as well. Not all American volunteers came through Land and Laborthey joined the Haganah in Europe and in Palestine itself. In 1947, Zipporah Porath, an American, was studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. At a student hangout someone passed Porath a note asking her to set up an appointment with a stranger. At their first meeting, the man asked, Are you ready to defend Jerusalem? Eventually, in a high school basement, Porath underwent interrogation and, taking a Bible in one hand and a pistol in the other, recited the Haganah oath of allegiance. Most recruits passed through the Land and Labor suites at the Hotel Breslin for a brief interview and perfunctory medical exam. Spiegelman recalls that just before he embarked for Palestine, he and other recruits underwent indoctrination at a farm near Peekskill, up the Hudson River from New York City. The reason they held it there was so nobody would talkthere were no telephones, Spiegelman says. If they held it in New York City, somebody would have said something. When interacting with the authorities or anyone suspected of snitching, volunteers soft-pedaled information about their destination and reasons for travel. Spiegelmanwhose parents had lived in Poland before they moved to Belgium, where he was born, eventually escaping Europe and coming to New Yorkhad obtained a Polish passport that circulated among shipmates. To avoid snags over their countrys ban on serving in a foreign military, as American volunteers boarded ship they surreptitiously passed the Polish identity card hand to hand, each in turning presenting it. Typically, volunteers reached Palestine through Marseilles, France. Early arrivals sailed to Haifa aboard Marine Carp, a former Liberty ship. Elihu King remembered the accommodations as frugalwomen slept six to a cabin; men, in huge compartments full of bunks. Marine Carp was en route in May 1948 when Israel declared statehood and surrounding Arab countries, along with Saudi Arabia, declared war. When Carp docked at Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanese troops imprisoned the ships Jewish male passengers. At Haifa, Spiegelman and companions underwent a few days of sketchy military training. Trainers issued them uniforms or parts of uniform and offered rudimentary instruction in Hebrew, Israels official language. The Haganah was now the Israel Defense Forces. Some IDF units were heavy with English speakersmainly Americans, Canadians, and South Africans. If you wanted an English-speaking unit, said Spiegelman, you went to the 72nd or 79th Battalion. In Machal: Overseas Volunteers in the Israels War of Independence, author Yaacov Markovitzky reports that in summer 1948 the 7th Armored Brigade had 170 English-speaking volunteers, a tally that by October was nearing 300. Canadian WWII veteran Ben Dunkelman commanded the brigade, which as soon as Israel declared statehood saw plenty of action, since five Arab armies had invaded the new state from many points on the compass. When Operation DekelPalm Treein July resulted in the capture of Nazareth from the Arab Liberation Army, Dunkelman refused to obey orders to expel Nazareths Arab residents. In Octobers Operation Hiram, the 7th and other brigades captured the Upper Galilee from the Arab Liberation Army and a Syrian battalion. In the aftermath of Hiram, allegations arose of atrocities against Arab civilians, especially at Safsaf, where more than 50 villagers died; IDF inquiry results remain classified. Americans could be found almost everywhere in the IDF (See Wings Over the Desert, and Brothers in Arms, below). Spiegelman joined a unit that fought in the Bet Shean, an area in northeast Israel. After serving aboard two clandestine refugee ships, Paul Kaye joined an underwater demolition team in the fledgling Israeli navy. During the siege of Jerusalem during the first half of 1948, residents of Jewish west Jerusalem, cut off from the rest of the country by Arab forces, lived on canned sardines, powdered milk, and crackers. Zipporah Porath was a nurse and medic in besieged Jerusalem. Elihu King, after rotating through several units, ended up in the Negev Brigade, named for the desert where it fought the Egyptian Army. American volunteers encountered problems expected and unexpectedsuch as friction with the military establishment, going unpaid, fluid policy toward them and their role, and not knowing Hebrew. To integrate them, the IDF set up the Mahalor Machaldivision, named for a Hebrew acronym meaning Overseas Volunteers and dedicated to smoothing the way. Machal published newspapers and training materials in English, French, and other languages and opened a social center in Tel Aviv where volunteers could meet. The best-known American volunteer may have been David Mickey Marcus. A West Point-educated New Yorker who served as a U.S. attorney in his hometown in the 1930s, Marcus, a colonel in the U.S. Army, was an advisor at the Allied conferences at Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam. In late 1947, the Jewish Agency recruited him. Though he spoke little Hebrew, Marcus wrote training manuals for the Haganah and the IDF and in the Negev Desert formulated a small-unit doctrine that focused aggressive nighttime hit-and-run tactics against a well-equipped Egyptian army. Marcus helped break the Arab siege of Jerusalem by supervising construction of the Burma Road, a bypass around Arab positions that reconnected the city with the rest of the country. In May 1948, the IDF made Marcus a general. He located his headquarters in a former monastery near Jerusalem. Late on June 10, Marcus, draping himself in a white blanket against the evening chill, told the sentry on duty he was going for a stroll. The general was in uniform but wearing no insignia. While Marcus was out, the sentry he spoke to went off duty, replaced by an 18-year-old who only spoke Hebrew. Seeing a figure dressed like an Arab approach, the young soldier asked in Hebrew for the password. Marcus answered in English. The sentry fired a warning shot. Marcus ran for the monastery, prompting the sentry and other soldiers to fire, killing their commander. Marcus is buried in the cemetery at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. In March 1949, Israeli forces secured the southern Negev, ending the war, during which 119 overseas volunteers, 40 of them North Americans, had died. Surviving American volunteers mostly returned homesome satisfied at having helped birth Israel, others wincing at the culture clash they had encountered fighting on behalf of a Jewish state. For years, Israel did little to recognize foreign volunteers who served in the War of Independence. The countrys leaders emphasized self-reliance, a stance at odds with accepting help from abroad. But in 1993, at Shaar Hagai, near the old Burma Road, Israeli officials dedicated a monument honoring the overseas volunteers killed in Israels struggle for survival. The story of 1948s American volunteers is carried on by the American Veterans of Israel Legacy Foundation, whose ranks include a dwindling number of veterans and family members and which maintains a virtual museum at israelvets.com. Wings Over the Desert In the Israeli fight for independence, American volunteers were key to the air war. Until late 1947, the Jewish state-in-the-making had few pilots and only a handful of small planes. Al Schwimmer, a Trans-World Airlines flight engineer, got into the act when Yehuda Arazi, a Jewish Agency representative, asked for help procuring aircraft. From his work, Schwimmer knew of surplus military planes stored on the West Coast available for sale to any American veteran. He left TWA and moved to California. With Arazi, Schwimmer and Florida-born Irv Schindler, who had ferried planes from the States to Europe during the war, set up Service Airways. The company bought C-46 and C-47 transports and Lockheed Constellations. Schwimmer and compatriots shuttled the planes to New Jersey as the Haganah was setting up an air base in Italy from which to fly to Palestine. In February 1948, Schindler and other volunteers began ferrying Service Airways planes to Europeduty that included nightclubbing in Rome. In the 2014 documentary Above and Beyond, director Nancy Spielberg shows the American airmen in the air and on the town. American authorities suspicions of a Haganah connection caused the route to the Middle East to meander through country upon country before planes touched down in Palestine. Eventually, the United States moved to impound the Service Airways fleet. However, Schindler, using connections in Panama, formed a new airline, and kept flights going. Pilots also flew C-46s to Czechoslovakia, which had an arms deal with Israel. The Czechs had sold the Israelis 25 Avia S-199 fighters, a variant on the German Messerschmitt Bf-109, and, later on, a large quantity of British-made Supermarine Spitfires. Former U.S. Marine aviator Lou Lenart described the S-199 as the worst piece of crap I have ever flown, jerry-rigged from wartime parts. Israeli mechanics disassembled the cobbled-together fighters, packed the components into C-46s, and flew them to Palestine to be reconstituted. The rebuilt planes saw action in May 1948. Egyptian forces were 30 miles from Tel Aviv, making their way north until Lenart led a flight of four S-199s on a bombing and strafing run that surprised the Egyptians, who had thought the Israelis had no air power. The next day, American pilot Milton Rubenfeld, who like many of his dual-allegiance compatriots spoke no Hebrew, was flying in tandem with Israeli pilot Ezer Weizmann. When the two attacked an Iraqi column in north-central Israel, unfriendly fire disabled Rubenfelds S-199. He had to bail out over the Mediterranean. In the water Rubenfeld extricated himself from his plane and began swimming toward shore. Armed kibbutzniks there, mistaking him for an Arab, opened fire. Shabbos! Rubenfeld shouted, exclaiming the Yiddish for Sabbath. Gefilte fish! Hearing familiar words, his attackers put down their rifles and rescued him. In time Rubenfeld returned stateside, where his son Paul changed the family name to Reubens, became a comic actor, and achieved fame as Pee-Wee Herman. Brothers in Arms My fathers name was Harlow Geberer. He and his brother Milton were born in the Bronx, New York, in 1922 and 1920 to Benjamin and Minnie Geberer, who had emigrated to the United States from Romania. The boys had a sister, Beatrice. Milton, who in his teens joined a left-wing Zionist youth group, briefly attended college, but at a young age married and became a father. He studied Hebrew and Arabic. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Harlow also joined up, becoming a sergeant in the military police and participating in the Normandy invasion. After the war, Harlow became involved in a Zionist group, among whose members he met my mother. In 1947, traveling aboard the vessel Marine Carp, Milton and family moved to Jerusalem, where he worked in the Jewish Agency publications department. When the war for independence started, Milton joined the Haganah, which prized his language skills and promoted him to major. In May 1948, a reporter interviewed him. The Arabs are good shots, but lousy fighters, Milton said. When we move in, they usually move out, but their snipers hurt us. On May 17, near the Jerusalem railroad station, an Arab sniper shot him dead. Harlow volunteered in New York and also sailed for Palestine aboard Marine Carp. He was at sea when Israel declared independence and troops from five Arab states, including Lebanon, invaded the country. The Carp was to dock in Beirut, then sail to Haifa, Israelbut Lebanon was now at war with Israel. The ships captain radioed the U.S. consul in Beirut that he had many young Jewish men aboard and feared for their safety. The consul assured him there would be no trouble. At Beirut, officials took the ships Jewish male passengers into custody and detained them at Baalbek. The Carp then sailed for Haifa. Many suspected the State Department had tipped off the Lebanese. While my father and the rest were behind bars, he learned of his brothers death. When Marine Carp returned to Beirut, authorities ordered the imprisoned volunteers to return home. Some disembarked at Palermo, Italy, and made their way to Israel to fight, but my dad returned to the States. In 1949, he and my mother went to Israel. They stayed a year, but my mothers asthma landed them back in New York. Raanan Geberer This story was published in February 2019 in American History. A compound Latin word creates a false impression of the complex prewar decades N o person in the United States from the 1830s through the 1850s thought in terms of an antebellum era. Latin for before the war, the word came into use only after the Civil War ended and participants, historians, and others sought to label the decades preceding the outbreak of fighting at Fort Sumter. Commonplace in the historical literature for many generations, it summons thoughts of a young republic lurching toward political collapse. Deployment of antebellum can create an impression of inevitability, of citizens increasingly obsessed with sectional differences, and of time ticking inexorably toward bloodshed on a massive scale. Indeed, the word can drain all meaning, except as prelude to four years of war, from a 30-year swath of national events and trends. We should be wary of such retrospective historical framing. As always with the past, Americas prewar decades present an immensely complicated story rather than one pointing clearly toward secession and military conflict. An observer seeking interpretive themes between 1830 and 1860 could craft a narrative largely devoid of sectional issues. One theme involved a revolution in communications and transportation that dramatically shrank time and space. The electrical telegraph, first demonstrated by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844, opened breathtaking possibilities. By 1861, Western Unions lines connected the Eastern seaboard and California. Railroads expanded exponentially from just fewer than 3,000 miles of track in 1840 to more than 30,000 in 1860. The telegraph and trains allowed information, goods, and passengers to move much faster, increasing the pace of life and commerce in ways that left observers somewhat flabbergasted. A second theme centered on demographics. Population growth maintained a dizzying pace, averaging more than 33 percent a decade between 1830, when Americans numbered just more than 12,800,000, and 1860, when the total approached 31,500,000. Of the latter figure, more than 4,000,000 were foreign-born and approximately 10 percent Catholicmajor increases as percentages of the whole population and due largely to German and Irish immigration. The observer similarly could focus on headlines dealing with significant events unconnected to sectional disputes. Toward the end of the prewar period, for example, the Panic of 1857 and the Colorado gold rush of 1858-59 garnered massive attention throughout the nation. Part of a wider world economic crisis, the panic hit the North much harder than the South and caused considerable dislocation in the railroad industry, agricultural markets, and the banking sector for more than a year. For many caught in its pernicious grasp, the panic far exceeded in importance the Supreme Courts Dred Scott decision of the same year. The discovery of precious metals in Colorado, which inspired the cry Pikes Peak or Bust, lured more than 100,000 immigrants to the Rocky Mountain region (a roughly comparable number had flooded into California during the initial year of gold fever in 1848-49). In 1859, news from Colorado easily could overshadow John Browns abortive raid at Harpers Ferry in October. To put it another way, most prewar Americans did not wake up every morning focusing on how the North and South differed. They looked first to their jobs, to their businesses, and to their families without knowing that a gigantic war lurked in the years ahead. New York lawyer George Templeton Strongs diary reveals that sectional issues did not always prevail. In 1857, Strongs voluminous entries contain no mention of the Dred Scott decision but accord detailed coverage to the economic collapse. We seem floundering, he recorded on October 10. Affairs are worse than ever today, and a period of general insolvency seems close upon us. Four days later, with Wall Street blue with collapse, Strong exhibited great uncertainty: Whether weve really reached the nadir, no one can tell. Toward the end of the month he lamented that the Depression continues.the tide is still running out and everything is drifting down with it, or else stuck fast already on the black mud flats of insolvency and destined to rot there and perish long before the tide comes back again. None of this is to say that sectional discord did not roil the national waters. Major disruptive moments that punctuated the timeline of North/South wrangling are well known: the Missouri controversy of 1820, the Mexican War in 1846-48, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate in 1856, the Dred Scott decision in 1857, and John Browns Raid. Less overtly political factors such as the establishment of William Lloyd Garrisons The Liberator in 1831, Nat Turners rebellion the same year, publication of Harriett Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin and Hinton Rowan Helpers The Impending Crisis of the South in 1852 and 1857, respectively, and splits in major Protestant denominations such as the Baptists and Methodists, create a portrait of Union disintegration. Some people certainly predicted calamity long before the election of Abraham Lincoln. West Point cadet Stephen Dodson Ramseur of North Carolina, the son of a slaveholder, stood among these individuals. In the wake of James Buchanans triumph in 1856, Ramseur, though a staunch Democrat, adopted a gloomy stance. Typical of many young people, who more often than older Americans tended to be less forgiving of those across the sectional divide, he believed any man of the smallest observation can plainly see, that the Union of the States cannot exist harmoniously; that there must, & can & will be a dissolution, wise, peaceful & equitable, I hope, but at whatever cost, it must come. Look out for a Stormy time in 1860, he added: In the mean time the South ought to prepare for the worst. Let her establish armories, collect stores & provide for the most desperate of all calamitiescivil war. Witnesses such as Strong and Ramseur remind us to rely on contemporary sources, in their sometimes baffling complexity, to gauge the degree to which we should understand the antebellum era as one dominated by sectionalism. Mortally wounded at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, Ramseur never thought in terms of an antebellum world and, unlike Strong, did not live to experience the postbellum epoch. OSS Deer Team members pose with Viet Minh leaders Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap during training at Tan Trao in August 1945. Deer Team members standing, l to r, are Rene Defourneaux, (Ho), Allison Thomas, (Giap), Henry Prunier and Paul Hoagland, far right. Kneeling, left, are Lawrence Vogt and Aaron Squires. (Rene Defourneaux) In the mid-1940s, the Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, looked to the West for help in its independence movement and got it. As U.S. Army Major Allison Thomas sat down to dinner with Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Giap on September 15, 1945, he had one vexing question on his mind. Ho had secured power a few weeks earlier, and Thomas was preparing to leave Hanoi the next day and return stateside, his mission complete. He and a small team of Americans had been in French Indochina with Ho and Giap for two months, as part of an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) mission to train Viet Minh guerrillas and gather intelligence to use against the Japanese in the waning days of World War II. But now, after Hos declaration of independence and Japans surrender the previous month, the war in the Pacific was over. So was the OSS mission in Indochina. At this last dinner with his gracious hosts, Thomas decided to get right to the heart of it. So many of the reports he had filed with the OSS touched on Hos ambiguous allegiances and intents, and Thomas had had enough. He asked Ho point-blank: Was he a Communist? Ho replied: Yes. But we can still be friends, cant we? It was a startling admission. In the mid-1940s, the Viet Minh leadership, under Ho Chi Minh, looked to the West for help in its independence movement and got it. As World War II ended, the United States and its allies, most of them former colonial powers, now confronted a new problem. Independence movements were emerging all over the East. But former colonial powers had lost their military muscle, and the Americans simply wanted to bring the boys home. During the war, the United States had sought any and all allies to combat the fascist powers, only to find, years later, it may have inadvertently given birth to new world leaders either through misconceptions or missed opportunities. Vietnams independence leader, Ho Chi Minh, had been only a relatively minor figure just a few years earlier. In 1945, Ho became the leader of a movement that would result in revolutionary tumult for decades to come. Deer Team Meets a Mr. Hoo Two months before Thomas farewell dinner with Ho and Giap, he and six others from Special Operations Team Number 13, code-named Deer, had parachuted into a jungle camp called Tan Trao, near Hanoi, with directions to proceed to the headquarters of Ho Chi Minh, whom they knew then only as a Mr. Hoo. Their mission, as they understood it, was to set up a guerrilla team of 50 to 100 men to attack and interdict the railroad from Hanoi to Lang Son to prevent the Japanese from going into China. They were also to find Japanese targets such as military bases and depots, and send back to OSS agents in China whatever intelligence they could. And they were to provide weather reports for air drops and U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) operations on an as-needed basis. Thomas had parachuted in on July 16, 1945, part of a three-man advance team that also included radio operator 1st Sgt. William Zielski and Pfc Henry Prunier, their interpreter. Not knowing who or what to expect when they reached the drop zone, Thomas and his team soon found themselves surrounded by 200 guerrilla fighters who greeted them warmly and showed them to their huts. They then met with Ho Chi Minh, who called himself C.M. Hoo, at his headquarters to coordinate operations with him. Thomas had no idea that Ho was a Communist, spoke Russian or had visited the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, Ho openly discussed politics with Thomas, stressing not only the abuses by the French, but also his desire to work with the French toward a solution. In his first official report to OSS director Archimedes L.A. Patti in Kunming, China, the following day, Thomas noted, referring to Ho: He personally likes many French but most of his soldiers dont. This may have been one of Hos ongoing ruses to ingratiate himself with potential but temporary allies. In his mid-50s, Ho apparently thoroughly convinced the Deer Team commander of his sincerity. In an effort to further dispel OSS or U.S. government concerns about Ho, Thomas emphatically wrote in the report: Forget the Communist Bogy. VML [Viet Minh League] is not Communist. Stands for freedom and reforms from French harshness. On July 30, the remainder of the Deer Team parachuted in, consisting of the assistant team leader, Lieutenant Rene Defourneaux, Staff Sgt. Lawrence R. Vogt, a weapons instructor, photographer Sergeant Aaron Squires and a medic, Pfc Paul Hoagland. Defourneaux, a French expatriate who had become a U.S. citizen, had parachuted into France earlier in the war to help the Resistance before joining the OSS. The first person that Defourneaux met when he reached the drop zone was a Mr. Van, General Giap, who seemed to be in charge. Ho was not around much, but when Defourneaux saw him, his first impression was of a sick old man clearly suffering from some disease. In one of the ironies of history, the Vietnam War, at least with the Communists under Ho Chi Minh, might never have happened if the Americans hadnt arrived when they did. Ho was so ill he could not move from the corner of a smoky hut, Defourneaux said. Ho didnt seem to have much time to live; Defourneaux heard it would not be weeks but days. Our medic thought it might have been dysentery, dengue fever, hepatitis, he recalled. While being treated by Pfc Hoagland, Ho directed his people into the jungle to search for herbs. Ho shortly recovered, attributing it to his knowledge of the jungle. In other reports to the OSS, Thomas had raised a number of political concerns, from Hos allegiances, to Indochinas struggle with the French, Vichy, Japanese, Chinese and the British. In a July 27 report, Thomas had stated that Hos league was an amalgamation of all political parties that stood for liberty with no political ideas beyond that. Thomas added, Ho definitely tabooed the idea that the party was communistic since the peasants didnt know what the word communism or socialism meantbut they did understand liberty and independence. He noted that it was impossible for the French to stay, nor were they welcome since the Vietnamese hated them worse than the Japs.Ho said he would welcome a million American soldiers to come in but not any French. (Read more about the OSS and Ho Chi Minh here) Control of French Indochina During WWII French Indochina during World War II was a simmering cauldron of colonial powers on the decline, of colonial powers divided and other powers on the rise. Comprised largely of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, French Indochina had become in the late 19th century the jewel in Frances crown in Southeast Asia. Among the several competing global, regional and internal interests in French Indochina during World War II were: Vichy France, which controlled its colony only with permission of its Japanese ally and German dominator; followed then by the French Republic, which sought to reclaim its colonial territories; the United States, which was fighting against Japan; and Japan, which sought to maintain its regional hegemony. Also involved were the warring Communists and Nationalists in China, which sought to influence the region to their south; and a variety of independence-seeking indigenous factions that all wanted to remove the yoke of any colonial or imperial power. Vietnam itself was divided into three main regions with their own factions fighting for control: the northern Tonkin, central Annam and southern Cochinchina. French control over Indochina was challenged only when France fell to the Germans in 1940 and was divided into two governmentsoccupied France, and to the south the nominally neutral, German-dominated Vichy government under World War I hero Marshal Henri Philippe Petain. Vichy retained control of most of the French overseas territories during the war, including Indochina. However, the French remaining in Indochina were less loyal to the German puppet Vichy government than they were to Petain. As Japan expanded into the Pacific and Asia early in World War II, it ironically found itself hamstrung by its own alliance with Nazi Germany. For, so long as both the Vichy government and Imperial Japan were tied to Germany, the French retained de facto control of Indochina, although Japan was permitted to establish military bases. As the war in the Pacific wound down, however, the Allied invasion of Normandy and liberation of Paris resulted in the fall of Vichy France in August 1944 and, with it, any claims on colonial territories. Throughout most of World War II, the United States was finding and supporting allies in China and other Southeast Asian regions, including French Indochina, to pose a threat to the Japanese military wherever possible. With the liberation of France in 1944, the U.S. government turned to its primary coordinator of intelligence during the war: the OSS, created in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. OSS to Ho: Work With Us Against the Japanese At the time, the OSS was operating a base in Chinas wartime capital, Chungking. With the growing military complications in Indochina, William Donovan, the director of the OSS, instructed his staff to use anyone who will work with us against the Japanese, but do not become involved in French-Indochinese politics. The Viet Minh, a liberation movement that had emerged under Ho Chi Minh in the early 1940s, was seeking not only Vietnams independence from France, but also freedom from the Japanese occupation. In mid-1944 the OSS approached Ho to help organize an intelligence network in Indochina to help fight the Japanese and to help rescue downed American pilots. By then, Ho had been cooperating with the Americans in propaganda activities, wrote Captain Archimedes Patti, head of the OSS base in Kunming, China, and later Hanoi. The American association with Ho had actually begun in December 1942 when representatives of the Viet Minh approached the U.S. Embassy in China for help in securing the release of an Annamite named Ho Chih-chi (?) [sic] from a Nationalist Chinese prison, where he was being held for having invalid documents. In September 1943, when Ho was finally released, he returned to Vietnam to organize Vietnamese seeking independence. An October 1943 OSS memo proposed that the United States use the Annamitesto immobilize large numbers of Japanese troops by conducting systematic guerrilla warfare in the difficult jungle country. The missive went on to suggest the OSSs most effective propaganda line was to convince the Annamites that this war, if won by the Allies, will gain their independence. As the Axis retreated in Europe, and what remained of the Vichy French government fell, Japan was no longer restrained in Indochina by its ties to Germany. The Japanese quickly made inroads into Vietnam, staging a coup detat in March 1945 that dissolved the French government and established a puppet government. On March 11, Emperor Bao Dai proclaimed Vietnams independence and his intent to cooperate with the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh was surprised by this development, and regarded another independence movement as a threat to the Viet Minhs. At the same time, with the Japanese coup against the French, the OSS realized it was cut off from the flow of intelligence from French Indochina to its base in Kunming, and it urged Ho to work with the United States. The coup has produced many new and perhaps delicate problems which will demand considerable attention, the OSS officers in China reported to headquarters. The French are no longer in power. There are 24 million [Vietnamese] in Indochina [offering] support for the new nationalistic regime. Militarily, it calls for an alteration of military plans; we cant count on French and native troops. The Japanese did not have the military strength to defend all of Vietnam, however, and the Viet Minh began to organize themselves as the provisional government in all but the largest towns, where the Japanese had strongholds. Also in March 1945, Viet Minh guerrillas rescued a U.S. pilot who had been shot down in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh himself escorted the pilot back to the American forces in Kunming, where the Fourteenth Air Force was based. Rejecting an offer of a monetary reward, Ho asked only for the honor of meeting Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, founder of Chinas legendary American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, and now commander of the Fourteenth Air Force. During the meeting on March 29, Chennault thanked Ho, who, after promising to help any other downed American pilots, requested only an autographed photo of the general. Ho would later cannily show the picture to other nationalist Vietnamese factions as proof of his warm relations withand implied support fromthe Americans. At this time, few knew that Ho (whose real name was Nguyen Ai Quoc) was a long-time Communist who had been trained in the Soviet Union. Even the Office of War Information reportedly was impressed by Ho and his English, intelligence and obvious interest in the Allied war effort. On April 27, Captain Patti met with Ho Chi Minh to ask him for permission to send an OSS team to work with him and the Annamites to gather intelligence on the Japanese. Welcome, my good friend, said Ho in greeting Patti. He agreed to work with an OSS team and asked Patti for modern weapons. Ho then set up a training camp in the jungle, at place he called Tan Traothe former hamlet of Kimlung and the new location of Viet Minh headquartersabout 200 kilometers from Hanoi. There he prepared for the Americans arrival. Deer Team Begins Training the Viet Minh Captain Pattis OSS group, the Deer Team, was established on May 16 and made its way from the United States to the OSS station in Kunming, where it waited two months for permission to enter French Indochina. Finally the decision was made for Major Thomas and the teams six other members to parachute to the Tan Trao training camp in July. Captain Patti had served with Thomas in North Africa and thought he was a fine young officer but understandably unsophisticated in the way of international power struggles. Thomas became quick friends with Ho and Giap at Tan Trao, often ignoring the rest of the team. Part of the teams mission was to indicate targets for the USAAF, but Thomas spent most of his time with Ho and Giap, and even redirected USAAF targets against the Japanese based on Hos recommendations, in direct conflict with orders he had received from the OSS. Defourneaux, who had assumed the alias of Raymond Douglas, the son of a Franco-American mother, to protect him from the locals, had a different experience with Ho. The leader continually probed Defourneaux and challenged his cover story, wary of him. Ho told Defourneaux he hoped the United States would handle Vietnam the way it had the Philippines. We deserved the same treatment, said Ho. You should help us reach the point of independence. We are self-sufficient. Defourneaux did not believe that Giap and Ho were on the same wavelength, and that Giap was doing things independently. At the time, he did not know that Giap, or Mr. Van, another of the OSSs friends of the forest, was running an indoctrination school on communism. As Thomas friendship with Giap and Ho grew, his relationship with his own men deteriorated, and Defourneaux became wary of them. Ho, and especially Giap, had full control over our leader, said Defourneaux. In his diary, Defourneaux wrote of Thomas: I stay with the boys and cannot help hear their conversations. They hate him, personally I hate him more and more every day. He said that Thomas thought Ho and Giap were simply agrarian reformers, but Ho didnt know how to use a shovel and Giap didnt know how to milk a cow. Deer Team members supervise small-arms training at Ho's Tan Trao jungle camp in August 1945. (National Archives) The members of the Deer Team had to wait a couple of weeks for supply drops in early August before they could start small-arms and weapons training for the guerrilla forces. Once the arms arrived, the Americans showed the Viet Minh (most were recently civilians) how to fire the American M-1 rifle and M-1 carbine, and how to use mortars, grenades, bazookas and machine guns. For training, they used U.S. Army field manuals, and focused on guerrilla warfare. Japan Surrenders and Ho Declares Vietnamese Independence Shortly after training began the second week in August, Sergeant Zielski, the teams radio operator, picked up a broadcast on August 15 announcing the Japanese surrender, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, and Nagasaki on the 9th. Realizing its training mission was over, the Deer Team issued arms to the soldiers and prepared to leave the following day. Under the terms of Japans surrender, the British would occupy the south of Vietnam, and the Chinese would move to the north to disarm Japanese soldiers and return them to their homeland. The Americans left camp on August 16 and traveled on foot with Giap and his troops to Thai Nguyen, the French provincial capital. There, the guerrillas fought the French and the Japanese until the French governor capitulated, on August 25, and the Japanese, finally realizing their homeland had surrendered, accepted a truce the next day. During this fighting, Giap had arranged for the Deer Team to stay hidden away in a safe house on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, the Viet Minh had planned to hold a conference in Tan Trao on August 16, the National Peoples Congress. About 30 delegates from Vietnam, Thailand and Laos had assembled in the village to discuss their concerns. Over the next several days, amid political uncertainty, several of the delegates had attempted to seize control. Ultimately Ho Chi Minh claimed leadership and was elected president of the provisional government on August 27. They proposed and voted on a new national anthem, and a new national flag with a gold star on a red background, which would become intimately familiar to most U.S. ground troops two decades later. A week later, on September 2, the same day General Douglas MacArthur received the formal Japanese surrender aboard the battleship Missouri, Ho Chi Minh was in Hanoi and declared Vietnamese independence from all colonial powers, using the American Declaration of Independence as his template. Banners of Welcome to the Allies (specifically, the United States) flew in the citys Ba Dihn Square, the OSS contingent in Hanoi photographed the occasion and Minister of the Interior Giap recognized U.S. support in a speech. Coincidentally, the same day of Hos declaration of independence, Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, the nephew of two-time presidential candidate Thomas Dewey, arrived in Saigon. The colonel was commander of another OSS team in Indochina, code-named Embankment, which was overseeing intelligence in the Saigon area. As the month wore on in Saigon, the British, free from hostilities with the Japanese, became politically involved, chaos ensued and civil war raged. Dewey was ordered out of Vietnam by the British, who suspected him of working with the Viet Minh. Before leaving, Dewey wrote in a report to the OSS: Cochinchina is burning, the French and British are finished here, and we ought to clear out of Southeast Asia. On September 26, two days after the Viet Minh led a national strike in response to British-imposed martial law, Dewey was ready to depart Saigon. Leaving in an unmarked jeep for the airport, he was ambushed and killed a few yards from an OSS house, thus becoming the first American casualty in Vietnam, nearly two decades before full U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Although there was wide speculation on the shooters, ranging from conspiracies involving allies to cases of mistaken identities, an investigation failed to produce an answer. Captain Patti informed Ho Chi Minh of Deweys death, and Ho expressed his regrets to U.S. headquarters in Saigon. OSS Ends Its Mission in Indochina With the war in the Pacific over, the OSS ended its mission in Indochina. The Deer Team had stayed in Thai Nguyen for a few days following the Viet Minh victory there, getting fat, getting a sun-tan, visiting the city and waiting for permission [from Patti] to go to Hanoi, said Defourneaux. The Viet Minh did everything to make our stay as pleasant as possible for us. Once they arrived in Hanoi, the Americans prepared to return to the United States. The night before leaving, Major Thomas had his private dinner with Ho and Giap. In the years that followed, Ho Chi Minh continued to write letters of a diplomatic nature to President Harry Truman, asking for U.S. aid, but the letters were never answered. Ho didnt break with the United States until the Americans gradually became involved with the French in working against the Vietnamese in the 1950s. Although OSS agents clearly played a role in Indochina during the World War II, clear causes and effects with regard to the future U.S.-Vietnamese conflict are far more cloudy. First, working with individuals or organizations that did not share American values or interests was not uncommon, particularly during World War II. Perhaps the best example was the U.S. alliance with the Soviet Union, specifically with Josef Stalin. Second, the United States needed to reach out to an established and recognized organization within Indochina. There was no natural indigenous U.S. ally in that region, nor was there an embedded colonial interest because France itself was divided. Third, through its in situ OSS team, the United States had little immediate effective tactical, operational or strategic impact on Ho Chi Minh, the future General Giap or the Viet Minh. Was America, through the OSS, responsible for the rise of Ho Chi Minh and his subsequent war against the United States? No, but neither was it completely free of such responsibility. Ho manipulated the inexperienced leader of the Deer Team as well as U.S. diplomatic officials in Kunming to serve his unstated needs. Having a personal photo of Chennault or having OSS agents stand by his side demonstrated his international standing among the Vietnamese. Also, the failure to identify Ho Chi Minh as Soviet-trained and a Communist ideologue was a major American intelligence shortcoming that smoothed the way for Hos emergence as a national leader and in the end, an enemy of the United States. In later years when asked by journalists or historians about his relationship with Ho, Thomas was defensive: I was friendly with him and why shouldnt I be? After all, we were both there for the same purpose, fighting the Japaneseit wasnt my job to find out whether he was a Communist or not. Ultimately, out of the chaotic and momentous conclusion of World War IIalmost imperceptiblythe die was cast for the coming storm that over the next three decades would pit the worlds greatest superpower against an indigenous movement led by men who, at its birth, sought the friendship and support of the United States. Claude G. Berube teaches at the United States Naval Academy and is the co-author with John Rodgaard of A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution. Robert Maves, forensic anthropologist with Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), sifts through a pile of old dog tags in a Ho Chi Minh City shop in 2008, looking for clues about the authenticity of dog tags being hawked in Vietnam. (Courtesy of Robert Mann) As far as we knew, Elvis Presley had never been to Vietnam, but we found his dog tags and they appeared to be genuine. The temperature was climbing in Ho Chi Minh City. It was mid-December 2008 and we were in Vietnam running down leads, interviewing local witnesses and searching for American crash sites and graves as part of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). On our off-hours a few of us worked what you might call the Dog Tag Watch. My partners in Vietnam are language specialists and MIA investigators Robert C. Bulldog Maves and Ron Ward. Key to our efforts is personnel records investigator Dr. Niels J. Zussblatt, a senior analyst at the National Personnel Records Center back in St. Louis. I am Dr. Robert W. Mann, forensic anthropologist. As always, we were on the lookout for U.S. dog tags and went to a shop wed heard was selling them. The shop owner pointed out her stash, and we began sorting through hundreds of dog tags, looking for clues about their authenticity. Thats when we found two of the most intriguing of the many unusual dog tags that have confounded researchers throughout the years trying to solve the puzzle of the ubiquitous dog tag trade in Vietnam. They both read: PRESLEY, ELVIS AUS53310761 USA BAPTIST O POS. As far as we knew, Elvis Presley had never been to Vietnam. But the tags appeared to be genuine. This is a story about scientists, linguists and analysts working together in pursuit of the truth about the authenticity of dog tags that are being peddled today in Vietnam and how and why so many of them were left behindor in the case of the Elvis dog tags, how they got to Vietnam in the first place. Whenever we travel to Vietnam, our in-country teamMaves, Ward and myselfcanvasses shops and vendors looking for dog tags, while Zussblatt searches through personnel files in St. Louis to corroborate the information stamped on them. Its an efficient working relationship that often allows us to reunite soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines with their lost dog tags. I became interested in dog tags when I visited a small souvenir shop in Da Nang in 1993. My search and recovery team was staying at the Bach Dang Hotel along the riverfront, and in my off hours I visited the local shops in search of interesting items left behind during the war. My first visit to one of the shops next to the Bach Dang Hotel ignited my interest in dog tags because I had always heard that the vast majority of them were fakes, produced by some enterprising Vietnamese for sale to tourists. The problem, as I saw it, was that most of the dog tags for sale on the streets looked genuine; they appeared to be the same size, weight, appearance and metal composition as those issued to U.S. troops during the war. Most of the tags were rusty, dirty, bent, scratched, nicked, burned or torn. Still, I firmly believed that some Vietnamese were producing fake dog tags for sale to tourists after the war, and, from our many visits to souvenir shops, we knew that items could be made to look old and authentic. To us, an authentic dog tag is one issued to and worn by a U.S. service member or Department of Defense civilian in Southeast Asia. In contrast, we consider a fake dog tag to be one either composed of locally made metals, or one that the Vietnamese stamped with incorrect information, specifically for sale to unsuspecting foreign tourists. But weve learned over the years that a misspelled name or other incorrect information doesnt necessarily mean that a dog tag is fake. These observations and unanswered questions led us down a path of scientific research in trying to figure out which were authentic and which were not. Elvis Presley tags found in 2008 appear to be "genuine" to the Vietnam War era. (Courtesy of Robert Mann) What we knew early on, or at least what had been reported to us, was that the Vietnamese had gotten their hands on old addressograph machines that the United States abandoned when American troops departed Vietnam in 1975. Following this logic, the Vietnamese could have stamped the vital information on dog tags and then antiqued the tags by rubbing them on concrete, burying them in dirt or dipping them in acidcertainly possible, but a lot of work for a couple of dollars, especially if genuine dog tags were readily available. We deduced that such detailed biographical information on the tags could only have come from abandoned or discarded U.S. records bearing the names of GIs, their military service number (or social security number), blood type, gas mask size, date of last tetanus shot, branch of service and religion. Unless thousands of personnel or medical records were left behind in 1975, there does not appear to be any way such data could have been obtained. Frequently, as recovery teams excavate aircraft crash sites and isolated burials, or as local citizens clear ordnance, dig a house foundation or cultivate their rice fields, a dog tag is pulled out of the ground. Not surprisingly, unless the tags are recovered by American search teams during repatriation work, they are typically turned over by the locals and sold for about a buck and a half each to the nearest vendor or scrap dealers passing through. The tags usually end up in small souvenir shops and street vendor stands, along with old Zippo lighters, compasses, eyeglasses, aircraft parts, belts, buckles, uniforms, jungle boots, U.S. canteensyou name itto be peddled to tourists. As researchers, we know that the best way to understand something is to systematically study it and let the evidence speak for itself. To try to get to the bottom of the matter over the years, we have interviewed many Vietnamese shop owners and U.S. service members, weighed and measured dozens of dog tags, performed elemental analysis to determine their composition and tested a few to determine if there were any traces of blood left on them. We have even superimposed dog tags purchased in Vietnam with authentic ones from family members and service members who survived the war and returned home. Based on this work, we have concluded that the vast majority of dog tags being sold in Vietnam are authenticthe owners wore them when they served in Vietnam and were either killed in action, went missing in action or simply lost them before returning home. But what was the case with Elvis dog tags? Elvis dog tags werent the only unusual ones we found. From a batch of about 1,000 weve culled through on our trips to Vietnam over the past three years, we ended up purchasing more than 100 of them. They reveal the resourcefulness, sentimentality and unreserved iconoclasm of our soldiers through the practical names or creativesometimes crudemessages stamped into them. These non-ID dog tags are what we call gag tags, made for almost every conceivable practical reason and just for fun. The practice of using dog tags for purposes other than personnel identification was not confined to Vietnam, however, and even today, the military uses dog tags to tag such things as vehicle keys, building keys and tool boxes. In our analysis of the Elvis dog tags, Zussblatt found that other than the religion, the information stamped on them was accurate. Elvis personnel record lists his religious preference as Pentecostal, while Baptist is stamped on the tag. The format, spacing and alignment of the lettering and information on both dog tags are identical, indicating that the same machine stamped both. Elvis didnt serve in Vietnam and as far as we know never traveled there, so the Vietnamese would not have had access to his personal and biological information from abandoned or discarded personnel or medical files to then create a set of fakes. We attempted to contact the Presley family and Elvis Presley Enterprises about the Elvis tags, but have not received a reply. Because Elvis Presley is deemed a person of exceptional prominence and has been dead for at least 10 years, and since a military service number is not protected like a social security number, the Army Record Manager gave permission to the National Personnel Records Center to fully open Elvis record. Zussblatt looked up Presleys military record. He entered the U.S. Army on March 24, 1958, in Memphis and served with Headquarters Company, 32nd Armor in Germany. Sergeant Presley was released from active service at Fort Dix, N.J., March 5, 1960, and was transferred to the Army Reserve (Inactive) to serve the rest of his six-year military service obligation. At the time of his discharge, he was single and living at Graceland, Highway 51 South, in Shelby County, Tenn.a long way from Vietnam. Although there is no way to know for sure, there is the remote possibility that these dog tags were made for and issued to Elvis, and that he may have later given them to an American GI who carried them to Vietnam as a souvenir or memento. If, as we suspect, this isnt the scenario, we would put these in the category of gag tags, likely created by a prankster GI during the Vietnam War. While it is possible that someone stamped this dog tag after the war and antiqued it sufficiently to look genuine for sale to tourists, the circumstances in which we found the tags makes that seem highly unlikely. Since we dug the Elvis dog tags out of a pile of hundreds of othersrather than finding them on display or priced at a premiumthe shopkeeper obviously didnt know their significance. The shop owner told us that she began selling military artifacts and genuine dog tags 15 years ago and that people continue to bring in dog tags for sale from Cu Chi, Nha Trang, Bien Hoa, Da Nang, Hue, Khe Sanh, My Tho, Tay Ninh, Ben Tre and Can Tho. In fact, while I was there, a man delivered a batch of 20 dog tags wrapped in newspaper. The owner admitted she knew of one shop that started making fakes in the last few years to sell to foreign tourists. She said the small company in Cholon, which produces license plates for motorbikes and signs for advertising, also uses a machine to stamp out and curl the edges of dog tags, using sheet metal used for roofs and walls. The owner of the shop claimed she didnt like to buy fake tags, but that they often came in with batches of old dog tags, so she had to take them. While weve seen obvious fakes over the years, this was the first time we got solid confirmation that at least some Vietnamese citizens are producing them. During his latest trip to Hanoi in 2009, Ward visited with a Vietnamese war memorabilia vendor hed known for years named Trung. He invited Ward to see the dog tags he had at his shop along one of Hue Citys tree-lined sidewalks. Not wanting to pass up a good opportunity, Ward purchased 27 of the more unusual tags. He then interviewed Trung about the dog tag business in Vietnam and was rewarded with an interesting revelationanother piece in the puzzle. Trung explained to Ward that the dog tags which have smaller and shallower letters than those we typically find on authentic tags were actually stamped using a different type of machine at an American base in Thailand and issued to U.S. service members on their way to Vietnam. Despite the accurate information on them, the tags bearing those different stamping characteristics have long been thought to be fakes. As Americans travel to Vietnam in increasingly greater numbers, concerns about the propriety of purchasing authentic U.S. property such as dog tags and other artifacts have arisen. In March 2009, American Andrew Wietecha walked into the U.S. Consulate General Office in Ho Chi Minh City and turned over more than 500 dog tags that he bought while visiting Hue and nearby Hoi An. The Michigan resident, whose father served in Vietnam, wanted to purchase the dog tags and try to reunite them with their owners. The consulate office turned the tags over to Maves at the U.S. MIA Office in Hanoi, and he passed them to me while I was in Vietnam. I contacted Wietecha to ask him to elaborate on how, when and why he bought the dog tags. I was very aware that buying the dog tags was only perpetuating the selling of war articles, which is a practice that I believe borders on being immoral, Wietecha said. I also feel very strongly that any item that clearly has a servicemans name on it should be repatriated to the respective government of the man who once owned that item. I decided the lesser of two evils was to purchase the dog tags so as to repatriate them. I sent Zussblatt a partial list of the names on the dog tags that Wietecha had purchased. He then found recent mailing addresses for their owners and sent them letters explaining how they could get their dog tags back through the JPAC office in Hawaii. Within two weeks, we had received letters from seven servicemen requesting their dog tags back. JPAC researchers screen metal debris at a crash recovery site in Vietnam in 2008. (Courtesy of Robert Mann) Despite what some say, our research has shown that the vast majority of the thousands of dog tags for sale on the streets and in the small shops throughout Vietnam are authenticmade in the United States or in Vietnam, stamped and worn by our service personnel who served in-country, many of whom were killed in action. The simple fact is, tens of thousands of dog tags were lost in the heat of battle or during medical treatment, and left behind. There is no doubt that there are plenty of fake dog tags in Southeast Asia and more than a few shop owners who will say anything to make a couple of bucks. But, as we observed firsthand, Vietnamese shopkeepers regularly receive bags full of genuine dog tags that have been found, so there is little need for the Vietnamese to produce fakes. In an effort to reunite the tags with their owners, JPAC is now entering the names on dog tags weve retrieved into its database and posting them on its website: jpac.pacom.mil, which provides instructions on how to go about authenticating and retrieving an owners dog tag. (See below for details.) To date, JPAC has more than 1,000 dog tag names on the list, and it has reunited 86 tags with their owners or loved ones. The firsthand details of when, where and how service members lost their dog tags is fascinating. Some were removed in aid stations when their owners were wounded, others were left in-country when GIs rotated out of Vietnam, others were lost when a dog tag chain broke in the midst of battle. Each story helps to solve the mystery of the dog tags left behindand serves as a poignant reminder of the war and how it changed peoples lives. H How To Retrieve a Lost Dog Tag The Joint POW-MIA Accounting Commands Dog Tag Project is attempting to reunite more than 1,000 dog tags that have been found in Vietnam with their owners or family members. An alphabetical list of the names stamped on these tags is posted on the JPAC website. Go to www.jpac.pacom.mil and click on the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) tab and select Dog Tag Project from the pull-down menu. Those who believe their dog tags, or those of a family member, are on the list, are encouraged to contact JPAC via information found on the web site or call using their toll-free phone number 1-866-913-1286. In addition to JPACs project, Cana Mission is a private effort to reunite dog tags with their owners. The nonprofit organization was the brainchild of a Vietnam vet and his wife who have acquired hundreds of tags in Ho Chi Minh City over the last decade. Cana Missions searchable list of names is posted at www.canamission.com. Robert W. Mann was the Central Identification Laboratory deputy scientific director for 10 years before assuming the position of director of the Forensic Science Academy in 2008. Robert C. Maves is chief of the JPAC Southeast Asia Analytical Section. Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Ron Ward is the casualty resolution specialist at the U.S. MIA Office (JPAC, Detachment Two) in Hanoi. Retired Army Lt. Col. Niels J. Zussblatts major focus at the National Personnel Records Center is assisting children who were born to foreign nationals and American military personnel uncover information about their fathers. The views expressed by the authors are their own and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense or National Archives. On Friday, October 26, 1962, one day before Black Saturday, the most terrifying day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, CIA Director John McCone gave President John F. Kennedy more bad news about the Soviet military build-up on the island. He explained that the Soviets were spending an estimated $1 billion on their military installations and that rapid construction activity was continuing. More alarming was the discovery of a Soviet FROG-7 missile launch system (also referred to as a Luna-M), a tactical nuclear weapon that could be used against an American invasion or the U.S. outpost at Guantanamo Bay. This information prompted Strategic Air Command (SAC) to authorize a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance flight over Cuba for October 27. U.S. Air Force U-2s and Navy Vought RF-8 Crusaders had been used extensively in the prior days to photograph medium-range ballistic missile sites, SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and a variety of Soviet military installations and troop barracks. While the Crusaders were used for the low-level surveillance and close-up photographs, the high-flying U-2s could cover a much broader area with their high-resolution cameras. Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. returns from a flight in a North American F-86. In October 1962, his high-altitude Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba. (Courtesy of the Anderson Family) Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. returns from a flight in a North American F-86. In October 1962, his high-altitude Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba. (Courtesy of the Anderson Family) With its 103-foot wingspan and lightweight frame, the U-2 looks something like a sailplane on steroids. It can fly so high73,000 feetthat the pilot must don a specialized pressure suit and fishbowl-style helmet, similar to what astronauts wear. Should the single-seat cockpit lose air pressure, the suit is designed to inflate and keep the pilot alive. Otherwise in the thin air of the stratosphere the pilots blood would literally begin to boil. While the U-2s cruising altitude put it safely beyond reach of Soviet MiG fighters, the spyplane was vulnerable to SAMs. Francis Gary Powers had been shot down in his U-2 just two years before the Cuban crisis. Consequently, President Kennedy and his military advisers were well aware of this risk, and they had agreed upon a course of action should a U-2 be shot down over Cuba. Kennedy secretly recorded all of his Cabinet Room meetings during the crisis, and on the tape recordings Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara gave his opinion on the subject: We are maintaining aircraft on alert that have the capability, if you decide to instruct us to do so, to go in and shoot the SAM site that shot down the U-2. We would recommend that we send eight aircraft out to destroy the site, and have it destroyed within two hours of the time the U-2 itself was struck. The president agreed and added details to the strategy, saying, [W]hen we take out the SAM site we announce that if any [other] U-2 is shot down, well take out every SAM site. This agreement brought a measure of satisfaction to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had been clamoring for a more robust military response to the Soviet build-up on the island than the naval quarantine that Kennedy had earlier implemented. The naval blockade would stop new equipment from arriving in Cuba, but would do nothing to curtail ongoing work to bring the nuclear missiles on the island to operational status. U.S. military leaders advocated a massive series of airstrikes followed by an invasion, and continued reconnaissance was essential for success. On Saturday, October 27, SAC flight planners decided to send a U-2 to photograph the eastern part of the island. Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., stationed at McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando, Fla., was ready. The night before, he had asked operations manager Tony Martinez to put him on standby in case a pilot was needed the next day. Technicians load a type A-2 camera set into a U-2s equipment bay, or Q-bay. (U.S. Air Force) Technicians load a type A-2 camera set into a U-2s equipment bay, or Q-bay. (U.S. Air Force) Once in the cockpit of his U-2, Rudy Anderson and a technician went through several checks, followed by more checks from Captain Roger Herman, who found everything in order and cleared him for launch. Herman slapped the pilot on the shoulder and said, Okay, Rudy, here we go, have a good trip. See you when you get back. Anderson responded with a thumbs-up, and Herman closed the canopy. The pilot had taped two photos above his control panel: one of his smiling wife, the other of his two boys. Staring at the photos, he must have truly believed that his mission could save their lives and those of millions more around the world. Leaving McCoy AFB at 9:10 a.m., Anderson enjoyed relatively clear skies. While he had performed five recon missions over Cuba during the crisis, none of the pilots who flew multiple missions viewed them as routine. His flight path would take him over the easternmost third of the island, coasting in from the north, initially in a straight line heading south-southeast. He would be passing within range of no less than eight SAM sites. Anderson flew at the usual 72,000 feet, first crossing over Cuba at the northern coastal islands of Caya Coco before continuing his trajectory over Esmeralda and Camaguey. So far so good. The weather was a mix of sun and clouds, the cameras were working fine and Anderson knew the extreme importance of the mission. His photos might reveal that warheads had been put on the missiles, indicating they were ready for firing. In 24 hours the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Kennedy himself would likely be examining some of his film to guide them in planning their next steps. On the ground in Cuba, Soviet radar was tracking Andersons U-2, and the Russians labeled this intruding aircraft target 33. Nerves were frayed: Both the Soviets and the Cubans expected the United States to launch an all-out attack at any moment. And there was anger, too, particularly among the Cubans. Why let the Americans invade their airspace in the high-flying U-2s when they had the capability to shoot them down? Many of the Russians on the island agreed with their Cuban counterparts. After all, the Cubans and Russians toiling in Cubanot those in Moscowwould pay the ultimate price if the U.S. attacked. They could not understand Moscows reluctance to let them defend themselves, but their orders were to withhold fire unless under attack. Some Soviet commanders on the ground thought this gave them a bit of leeway to use their judgment to shoot down the offending American planes if they sensed an attack coming during the overflights. Monitoring target 33 were Soviet forces deputy commander Maj. Gen. Leonid Garbuz and deputy commander of air defenses Lt. Gen. Stepan Grechko, both stationed in a command center in Havana. Our guest has been circling above us for more than an hour, said Grechko. I think we should give the order for downing the plane. The two generals decided to propose the action to General Issa Pliyev, who commanded all Soviet forces in Cuba. But a phone call to General Pliyevs headquarters proved futile, as his aide-de-camp said he was unavailable. Pliyev, known to be ill with kidney disease, was possibly too sick to take the call. Meanwhile Anderson flew over the town of Guantanamo, just north of the U.S. naval base there, his cameras recording Soviet military activity on the ground. This was an especially sensitive area, since it housed the troops and weapons, including the tactical nuclear missiles, that would be used to attack the naval base if the Americans launched an invasion. Once past Guantanamo, Anderson made a slight turn to the east-northeast and continued to Jamal (just south of Baracoa). He was now close to the easternmost tip of Cuba. Over Jamal he made a wide U-turn (now heading west-northwest). By then Anderson had covered approximately 70 percent of his prearranged miles over Cuba. At about this time Generals Garbuz and Grechko agreed they had the authority to decide whether to fire their SAMs. They believed an invasion was imminent, and the reports of large numbers of Crusaders buzzing the island, to which the Cubans responded with anti-aircraft fire, added to their apprehension. They were in communication with Colonel Grigory Danilevich at a command outpost in Camaguey, who also had target 33 on his radar screen. The two generals wanted to be sure the Camaguey men were tracking the same target on their monitor. Danilevich later said the anxiety was enormous, as was the uncertainty of action: It [authorization for use of SAMs] was not a clear one. Where there is such great tension between two superpowers, why should there also not be confusion at the division level? The generals had watched target 33 come down from the north, turn toward the east and now make yet another turn that would take the U-2 over additional military installations before heading to safety over the ocean. The spyplane appeared as a light dot on a huge 5- by 10-meter screen, called a firing chart. As the dot moved across the screen, the two generals worried the plane would escape back to the U.S. with its intelligence. The men made another call to General Pliyev, but again he could not be located. If the two lower-ranking generals were to act, they must do so immediately. The men felt Pliyev would agree with them; the commanding general had repeatedly asked Moscow for permission to shoot down spyplanes, but had not received the go-ahead. Grechko announced, Well, lets take responsibility ourselves. The Russians at the Banes SAM site had their missiles trained on Andersons U-2. They were ready to fire, worried that if the orders did not come soon, the spyplane would be out of the targeting zone. Then over the radio came the command: Target 33 is to be destroyed. Two SA-2s were launched, at least one of them by Lieutenant Alexy Raypenko, a member of the Soviet antiaircraft rocket unit. A task is a task, he later said, and you have to do it well. I just happened to be at the end of the chain. One of the missiles exploded close enough to Andersons U-2 that shrapnel hit the aircraft and pierced his pressure suit. That would have caused decompression, and he likely died immediately. Anderson never had time to eject from the aircraft or hit the destruct switch, which would have blown the aircraft to pieces after a short delay to allow him to bail out. When a U-2 has been damaged but not torn apart it pinwheels to the ground, like a leaf falling from a tree. This is what likely happened to Andersons plane, and as it spun toward the earth the tail and the wings were sheared off. The fuselage, still mostly intact, plummeted into the ground. Villagers and military personnel ran to the crash site. They found the smoldering ruins of the strange-looking aircraft, and inside the cockpit, still strapped to his seat, was the dead pilot. Cuban personnel examine the remains of Andersons U-2 after he was shot down and killed by a Soviet surface-to-air missile. (Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) Cuban personnel examine the remains of Andersons U-2 after he was shot down and killed by a Soviet surface-to-air missile. (Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) Back in the U.S., SAC knew almost immediately that something was amiss with Andersons mission. SAC technicians could monitor the flight paths of their U-2s mile by mile, and when Andersons aircraft disappeared from the screen and he didnt send the secret radio signal that all U-2 pilots routinely transmitted when leaving Cuban airspace, they knew with certainty that an accident or missile strike had forced the aircraft down. Reconnaissance planes patrolling just off the islands shore reported that they did not spot Andersons U-2 on their radar, nor did they see it crash. They searched the ocean but found no debris. Crusader pilots risked their lives flying directly over Banes in search of the downed spyplane. Some hoped that Anderson might have bailed out and was hiding in the jungle, ready to shoot off a flare if friendly aircraft appeared. But the Americans located neither the pilot nor the wreckage. SAC labeled Anderson missing in action, but almost no one held out hope that he had somehow parachuted safely to the ground. That fear was soon realized when Cuban radio stations began boasting of the shootdown of an American plane and the death of the pilot. Air Force chief of staff General Curtis LeMay immediately ordered his North American F-100 fighter pilots at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida to be briefed and prepare for attack flights to Cuba. They carried Zuni air-to-ground rockets that could obliterate the SAM sites, killing both Soviet and Cuban defenders. Launch awaited only the presidents final approval. Kennedy was informed of Andersons shootdown only after Cuban radio confirmed it, about three hours after SAC knew the U-2 was missing. In fact, it came up at a Cabinet Room meeting of the Executive Committee (Kennedys team to deal with the crisis) in an almost offhand way, after the meeting had been going on for some time. McNamara brought up the incident first, saying, I think the rush is what we do. A U-2 was shot down. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was stunned, and spoke up first: A U-2 was shot down? Was the pilot killed? McNamara answered yes. Then President Kennedy responded, almost in a subdued manner, saying Well now, this is much of an escalation by them, isnt it? After more discussion the president decided not to immediately strike back and destroy the offending SAM site as he had agreed to earlier. He wanted to give Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev one last chance to come to an agreement that would resolve the crisis. Most members of the Executive Committee disagreed and advocated retaliation. General LeMay, who was not at the meeting but quickly learned of the presidents decision, said in disgust, Hes chickened out again. How in the hell do you get men to risk their lives when the SAMs are not attacked? Bobby Kennedy wrote that the despair and tension at the Executive Committee meeting that afternoon was palpable. There was a feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on all Americans, on mankind, and the bridges to escape were crumbling. Andersons wife, Jane, receives the burial flag as he is laid to rest in Greenville, S.C., on November 6, 1962. (Courtesy of the Anderson Family) Andersons wife, Jane, receives the burial flag as he is laid to rest in Greenville, S.C., on November 6, 1962. (Courtesy of the Anderson Family) In an interview by this author with Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchevs son, he explained that the shootdown of Anderson had a profound effect on his father. The Soviet premier, like the U.S. president, feared that a single incident might cause the leaders to lose their grip on the situation. That event had now happened, and the two leaders had to come to an agreement before they lost control of events and the world hurtled toward nuclear Armageddon. The key to the deal was Turkey, where the U.S. had nuclear missiles that Khrushchev wanted removed. JFK did not see this as an unreasonable demand, and in an evening meeting of the Executive Committee on Black Saturday he said as much: We cant very well invade Cuba with all the toil and blood its going to be, when we could have gotten them [the Soviet missiles] out by making the same deal in Turkey. The president knew the missiles in Turkey were not essential to U.S. defenses, as nuclear-armed Polaris submarines off the Turkish coast could provide the same destructive force. That night Bobby Kennedy relayed his brothers proposal to the Soviet ambassador, essentially saying that if the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba the U.S would promise not to invade the island, and in a very short time would remove the missiles from Turkey. The agreement could not be made public because of the potential political fallout for JFK and the need to inform both NATO and the Turks about the presidents plans. Khrushchev knew this might be the last offer before military conflict engulfed Cuba, potentially leading to nuclear war between the two superpowers. His response to Kennedys offer was swift, and he did so publicly over Radio Moscow so as not to waste a single second. In an open letter to Kennedy, he announced the Soviet governments intention to dismantle the arms which you described as offensive, and to crate and return them to the Soviet Union. War had been avoided, but not before Major Rudy Anderson had paid the ultimate price. The Cubans released his body to the Swiss on November 5, and he was buried in his hometown of Greenville, S.C., the following day. In recognition of Andersons valor, President Kennedy posthumously awarded him the first Air Force Cross and the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. Michael Tougias is the co-author, with Casey Sherman, of Above & Beyond: John F. Kennedy and Americas Most Dangerous Spy Mission, from which this article is adapted. Visit michaeltougias.com for more info. This feature appeared in the January 2019 issue of Aviation History. Click here to subscribe today! Central castings version of a fighting general. James F. Hollingsworth, a 1940 graduate of Texas A&M University, made his early reputation in World War II as he fought across two continents and six countries with the 2nd Armored Division and 3rd Army of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Always leading from the front, he was wounded five times. After Germanys surrender in May 1945, Holly, as he was known, remained in the Army and served in positions of increasing responsibility. In December 1965, Hollingsworth was promoted to brigadier general and subsequently assigned to Vietnam as assistant division commander of the 1st Infantry Division, known as the Big Red One after the design of its shoulder patch. In Danger 79er, a biography of Hollingsworth, historian James H. Willbanks shows how the generals inspiring leadership in that assignment helped make him one of the Armys legendary commanders. Brig. Gen. James F. Hollingsworth joined the 1st Infantry Divisions Vietnam headquarters near Di An, about 10 miles north of Saigon, in March 1966. A new division commander, Maj. Gen. William E. DePuy, arrived on April 1 to replace a commander who had been promoted. DePuy had been the chief of operations at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, under Gen. William Westmoreland, the top commander for U.S. combat forces in South Vietnam. De Puy graduated from the ROTC program at South Dakota State University in 1941 and served in World War II with the 90th Infantry Division. He took command of 1st Battalion, 357th Infantry Regiment, at age 24 and led it from Normandys Utah Beach through the Battle of the Bulge. DePuy saw firsthand how poor senior leadership resulted in extremely high casualties and was unflinching in his assessment of military leaders. He had no patience for those found wanting. Under the personnel system in Vietnam in 1966, division commanders had little say in the assignment of their assistant division commanders, and DePuy did not know Hollingsworth, except by reputation. When he met Holly, DePuy said: General, I want only the best officers for my division. I dont want any softies, or behind-the-lines listeners, on my staff. If you cant hack it out here, just pack your bags and go back home. Hollingsworth, undaunted, grinned and replied: Ill let you know if I cant handle the job, but dont bother looking for a replacement. You wont need one. DePuy stared at him in silence and then said, Okay, well find out. From that somewhat testy beginning, Hollingsworth and DePuy developed a close personal and professional relationship that made the 1st Infantry Division one of the most potent fighting forces in Vietnam. On the surface, the two men were an unlikely pair. DePuy did not waste a lot of words. Holly was, as retired Special Forces officer Henry Gole wrote in his biography of DePuy, a character right out of Hollywoods central casting version of a fighting general.profane, bombastic, brave, and the antithesis of a diplomat. Lt. Gen. Phillip Davidson, who served as Westmorelands chief of intelligence, described Holly as a big, brash, tough, loud-mouthed Texan, given to excessive braggadocio, whose every utterance was dogmatically delivered with supreme self-confidence to an accompaniment of profanity. There was no middle ground in views about Holly. People either admired and liked him immensely or disliked him just as intensely. Hollingsworths detractors accused him of consciously modeling himself after Patton, Davidson pointed out, but noted that what separated Holly from most of the rest of the Patton imitatorsis that when the bullets start to whine and the shells fall, Holly always made good on his boasts. The Big Red One was to see that firsthand. As the divisions 1st Brigade prepared for an operation along the Cambodian border in an area known as the Parrots Beak, Hollingsworth, who adopted the radio call sign Danger 79er, sat in on a briefing for battalion commanders. When the briefer was finished, Hollingsworth stepped to the front of the tent and launched into an animated lecture on what he expected from his commanders. Urging speed and firepower, he said: We gotta keep going, like a good fighter, we keep going. These sonsabitches are going to be surprised all to hell. We dont get em like that often. We will be in control, and goddamit I want to think were pushing a mean pointed stick out there against those sonsabitches. Get your men ready, get em mean. There are times to go slowly, and there are times to lock and load kick ass. This is that time. Gotta get in there fast and move fast. Kill fast. This was vintage Hollingsworth. In war there was only one way to goas hard and as fast as possible. DePuy tended to be less dramatic, but he was no less driven than Hollingsworth and found a kindred soul in his assistant division commander. Only a few months after Holly arrived, DePuy told Associated Press reporter Peter Arnett, I have 1,000 per cent confidence in Hollingsworth. He is completely fearless [and] extremely aggressive. Hollingsworths tactical philosophy was much like that of DePuyfind the enemy and pile on. After the war, Hollingsworth elaborated on this approach: Its always been my view that if one little patrol gets in trouble out there, we ought to give him the whole division, or well never get a patrol to go out 100 yards at night. The only way youre going to get patrols to go out is [to let them] know that theyre going to be supported. And the only way top commanders could know what the troops needed was to be on the spot. The generals got to be there at the time of crisis, always, Hollingsworth was fond of saying. And if you are there, and youre talking to the little guys, and they know youre there, boy they will stick with you. That approach won Holly the undying loyalty of his soldiers, who knew he would do everything in his power to provide the combat support they needed when in trouble. The divisions first big operation under DePuy and Hollingsworth was Operation Abilene, a search-and-destroy mission that began on March 30 in Phuoc Tuy province, east of Saigon. On April 11, as the two generals monitored the situation, the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, found a Viet Cong base camp. Late in the afternoon, Company C, isolated in the thick jungle undergrowth, came under a heavy mortar barrage followed by a strong enemy ground attack. The hastily dug-in infantrymen beat back several attacks throughout the night. Early the next morning, two companies of reinforcements made their way through the jungle to Company Cs position. By the time they arrived, however, the VC had withdrawn, leaving 41 dead on the field, but 35 Americans also died, primarily because close-quarter fighting limited the type of firepower that could be used, according to the official account. When Operation Abilene ended on April 15, the division had recorded 48 killed and 135 wounded. DePuy and Hollingsworth lamented the casualties, but from their point of view the operation was a success. The enemy had been brought to battle and experienced serious casualties. Operation ABILENE demonstrated conclusively that the 1st Infantry Division can moveand move rapidlyby airmobile operations, DePuy stated. The Vietcong have suffered a tremendous loss of prestige in Phuoc Tuy Province. Not everyone agreed with DePuys assessment of Operation Abilene. Gen. Harold K. Johnson, the Army chief of staff, came to Vietnam shortly after the operation and chastised DePuy for the heavy losses in Company Cs battle. The American people wont support this war if we keep having the kind of casualties suffered by Charlie Company, Johnson warned. DePuy agreed to make changes to hold down casualties, but this was just the first incident in a series of things that would poison the relationship between the Army chief of staff and the senior leadership in the Big Red One. DePuy followed Operation Abilene with other operations designed to find enemy forces and bring them to battle. The next large one, Birmingham, was launched on April 24 northwest of Saigon in Tay Ninh province. It brought Hollingsworth his first scrutiny from the press. When his troops were being hit by enemy gunners from the other side of the Vietnam-Cambodian border, he directed artillery units to fire across the border, a violation of rules of engagement that forbade attacks in supposedly neutral Cambodia. Later, a reporter asked Hollingsworth if it was true that he had called in artillery on targets in Cambodia. Holly replied, Sure, I am the guy that fired into Cambodia, but Im going to protect our soldiers, implying that he would do it again if necessary to save American lives. Holly was brutally candid with the press, a tendency that did not always serve him well. After Operation Birmingham ended on May 16, DePuy considered it a success and initiated ever-larger search-and-destroy operations. Holly, as DePuy biographer Gole observed, was intimately engaged at battalion level and in frequent direct contact with soldiers on the ground in squads and platoons. However, unlike some senior officers, he did not try to take over the squads and platoons. He thought generals should be with the troops in the middle of the battle, where they could see him providing inspiration and encouragement and making sure the necessary support arrived on time. Mostly, though, he just relished being in the thick of the fighting. Hollingsworths colorful ways were the subject of several news stories, and he was featured in a report by CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite on May 5, 1966. The report summed up Hollingsworth this way: Clearly, this is no armchair general. He didnt fare as well in a story a month later in a London paper, The Sunday Times. Reporter Nicholas Tomalin spent a day with Hollingsworth as he oversaw a search-and-destroy mission in the Iron Triangle, an area northwest of Saigon with a heavy concentration of Viet Cong. Tomalins article, The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong, portrayed Hollingsworth as a Texas redneck whose primary pleasure was shooting up the countryside from his personal helicopter, nonchalantly and indiscriminately killing Cong. Hollingsworth thought he was treated unfairly and later insisted he was only doing what I have done throughout my military careersaving as many lives as possible while destroying the enemy. In a letter to his wife, Nickie, he wrote that the article was lousy as hell and full of misquotes, adding presciently, If General Johnson sees that, my ass is out a mile. Shortly thereafter, DePuy received a letter from the Armys chief of public affairs suggesting Hollingsworth had been less than judicious in his comments to The Sunday Times. DePuy wrote back that Holly is the best soldier in Vietnam and, effectively, could say or do what he wanted as far as DePuy was concerned. The Army chief of staff himself also wrote to DePuy, requesting a comment on a news story that said DePuy and Hollingsworth had been chasing Viet Cong in their helicopters. If I had wanted a lead scout in command of the 1st Division, Johnson wrote, you would not have gotten the job. Your value and Hollys is proportional to the responsibility that you have for something over 15,000 men. Your job is not to shoot VC. Your job is to see that other people shoot VC. At least, that is the way I look at it. DePuy and Hollingsworth continued to push forward with their aggressive approach to fighting the war. William J. Mullen III, one of their company commanders, said after the war: Morale in the division was very high. We knew we were in a well-led, aggressive, fighting outfit.We were in the Armys premier unit. Not everyones morale was high. Goles book describes the Byzantine atmosphere that pervaded DePuys command as officers on the division staff jockeyed for attention and favor, as well as the personal discomfort and fear felt by staff officers in such a command climate. However, one staff officer who later became a general recalled that Holly often provided an irreverent antidote to DePuys intensity. He said Hollingsworth was a task master, but did not bully the staff officers and always had a humorous way to look at every situation, lightening the mood in briefings. The headquarters staff officers were not the only ones treated mercilessly. DePuy and Hollingsworth had especially high expectations for the officers and senior noncommissioned officers in the field. They wereruthless in cutting loose commanders who were not worthy of the soldiers they commanded, according to Gole. They fired seven battalion commanders and many majors, captains and sergeants major, for a total of 56 during DePuys tenure in command. The dismissals piling up in the Big Red One contributed to the broadening gap between the divisions senior leadership and Johnson. Although Hollingsworth was brutally demanding of company, battalion and brigade commanders, he loved the troops he called the little fellers soldiers down in the mud fighting nose to nose with the enemy. Holly went out of his way to recognize their bravery. On his command helicopter, he carried a box of Purple Hearts, Army Commendation Medals, Soldiers Medals and Bronze Stars. His aide-de-camp kept the box filled and made sure the follow-up paperwork was sent to the division personnel office. After one of Hollys favorite company commanders was gunned down while charging a Viet Cong machine gun, Hollingsworth put the captain in for the Distinguished Service Cross and personally wrote to the mans wife and parents to express his condolences. Such losses seemed to motivate Hollingsworth even more. In July 1966, he landed with the first troop lift of 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, in a big battle between An Loc and Minh Thanh, near the Cambodian border. The troops immediately came under intense fire. Moving forward with the infantry assault element, Holly came upon an 18-year-old soldier from Company A who was clearly frightened. Holly told the young soldier, Son, you come with me and well kill every son of a bitch that we see. He later reported that the soldier stuck to me like a leech. When a firefight broke out to the generals right, he moved through the 5-foot-tall elephant grass to get closer to the fight. The young soldier followed right behind him. During the battle, three VC were killed in the immediate vicinity of their position. When the firing died down, the general and the soldier went forward. The soldier approached one of the dead VC, touched the body with his boot, and said: General, he is a dead son of a bitch. I would like to rejoin my squad and I am not afraid anymore. Holly, replied, I am not afraid either when I am with soldiers like you. John Lesko, as a young lieutenant with the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry, went into a particularly hot landing zone being hit with Viet Cong crossfire. He remembers seeing an old man get out of a helicopter that had landed As the chopper departed, the figure began walking across the landing zone like he was out for a stroll, despite enemy tracers and mortars falling all around. He flopped beside Lesko on the ground and asked the lieutenant what he needed. Lesko, without looking up, excitedly uttered an obscenity and said he needed some artillery. Then he turned and saw the single black star on Hollys helmet and thought that he had just cussed out the assistant division commander. Hollingsworth put an arm on his shoulder and said: Son, calm down. Ill get you some artillery. Nearly 50 years later, Lesko still marveled at the generals calmness under fire. Retired Gen. Dick Cavazos, who worked for Danger 79er as a lieutenant colonel commanding a battalion in the Big Red One, once observed that Hollingsworth was the only soldier he had ever met that really had no fear. In early December 1966, it was announced that Army chief Johnson would visit Vietnam. He had already expressed his unhappiness with DePuy and Hollingsworth over the heavy casualties, their style of forward command in battle and the divisions elaborate use of firepower. The issue this time was the growing number of officers being relieved of their command. Sometime before the trip was scheduled, Johnson complained to subordinates, If every division commander relieved people like DePuy, Id soon be out of lieutenant colonels and majors.He just eats them up like peanuts. Johnson wrote DePuy a letter admonishing him to slow down on the dismissals and give people a second chance. On a Christmas Day trip to Vietnam in 1966, the Army chief met with DePuy at the divisions headquarters near Di An to address the issue in person. Johnson, DePuy and Hollingsworth went to DePuys quarters for a private meeting. Some 40 years later, Hollingsworth recalled what happened. Johnson looked at me and said, You are relieving too many battalion commanders. You are supposed to train them. A heated exchange ensued. The fallout from the confrontation soon became apparent. DePuy wanted to be reassigned as the commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he thought he could make his greatest contribution to the Army. Johnson, apparently did not want him at Fort Benning because DePuy was reassigned to a position assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff. DePuy turned over command of the 1st Infantry Division to Maj. Gen. John H. Hay on Feb. 10, 1967. The partnership between DePuy and Hollingsworth, which had forged the division into a very effective combat unit, had come to an end. Hollingsworth secretly hoped he would get command of the 9th Infantry Division but was instead named deputy commanding general, Test and Evaluation Command, at Aberdeen, Maryland, with orders to report there on June 15. Westmoreland had wanted Holly to remain in Vietnam for another year, but Johnson decided Hollingsworth would not get the opportunity to command a division in combat. It is likely Hollingsworth suffered both from the unflattering news reports that plagued him during his tour and the often contentious relationship between the Army chief of staff and the Big Red Ones leadership. During his 15 months with the 1st Infantry Division, Hollingsworth achieved almost legendary status among the troops. He became known as a soldiers soldier, fearless in combat and compassionate about his troops. He and DePuy mentored a long list of officers who would go on to lead the Army in the years after Vietnam. Although Hollingsworth continued his career and eventually became a lieutenant general, the Big Red One occupied a special place in Hollys heart for the rest of his life. Jim Willbanks is a decorated Vietnam veteran, retired lieutenant colonel and former General of the Army George C. Marshall Chair of Military History at the Armys Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author or editor of 19 books. This article was published February 2019 in Vietnam. "A couple of the guys dozed off....What we were doing was wrong. Not wrong enough, however, to keep me from lying back and swigging the last of a canteen of Kool-Aid water (Loudmouth Lemon!)." (Courtesy Joe Holt) On a very warm morning in the summer of 1965, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. I was 18 years old, fresh out of high school and bored, really bored. I also felt useless. My future? I didnt have a clue. Living in San Jose, California, my buddy Ron and I would drive over the hill to Santa Cruz almost every day. We were jobless and usually so broke we had to scrounge for old soda bottles to turn in for the deposit and then buy gas with the change we got. We were pretty proficient at rationing our gas; wed get to the summit of the mountains, turn off the ignition and coast down most of the far side to the Pacific Ocean. Wed have to fire up again as we crested the slight rise near Santas Village in Scotts Valley, but we could get to Santa Cruz and back on three gallons of regular. More than once we ran out of gas on my street coming home, and had to push my 51 Ford the last few yards into my driveway. With little else to do that summer, Id often go downtown to see all the movies that were showing. Starting at Williams Street at the Studio, Id watch my way down to the Crest Theater, at the St. James end of 1st Street. The Marine Corps recruiter was located upstairs on the second floor of the Liberty Building on North 1st Street, next door to the Crest. A life-sized cardboard cutout of a stern-faced Marine in dress blues stared down through the glass door from the top of the stairs, beckoning to young men like me who were looking for a future. I doubt if that cardboard Marine influenced me all that much, but at least I knew where the recruiter was when I went looking. And so one afternoon, after watching an endless stream of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies, I climbed those stairs and asked to be in the Marine Corps. (Yes, I had lost my mind.) Before 1965, Id never even heard of Vietnam. By the summer of 1966, I was fighting in a war in Vietnam. My first rifle company, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was rather instrumental in the grand scheme of things in July 1966, being the Battalion Landing Team destined to be knee deep in Operation Hastings at the DMZ. In October 1966, I transferred farther south to Charlie 1/5 to 60mm mortars, where we were always in the middle of the excitement. Firefights, heat, thirst, leeches, rain, heat, immersion foot, mosquitoes, thirst, heat, ambushes, heat and always, always, thirst. I was certainly no longer bored. Between operations, back around Hill 54 north of Chu Lai, just about everybody had to go on regular daytime patrols. The rifle companies did all the nighttime ambush stuff outside of our wire, and they were responsible for listening posts and outposts at night. But even a sorry-assed mortarman (thats me) occasionally had to go out on routine patrols around our hill. Simple enough. In the morning somebody assigned guys to the daily patrols. Times varied, but we typically had patrols out all day. Sometimes Id get a morning patrol, sometimes the later patrol, which was a bit worse because of the heat. It needed to be done, but considering how well secured we felt our area of responsibility was, it got to be little more than a mundane daily routine. Wed muster at the command post at the appointed time loaded down with our weapons, cartridge belts, two full canteens and soft covers. Usually there were eight or 10 of us. One of us would always be packing a radio. Our patrols were in predesignated areas, and wed go out a couple of clicks, rarely more than three, patrol the area for an hour or two, then return to the hill. The Hill 54 area was pretty flat so the walking was easynot like the east, Cigar Island and the like, where you had to be on your toes every second. We kept our separation, quietly moving ahead, always looking around for something suspicious. That was the routine we followedmost of the time. But one spring day, somebody had other ideas. We knew our area was secure and wed all been on working parties that morning filling and humping sandbags, and now here we were on what seemed to be a somewhat worthless patrol. As we prepared to go outside the wire, somebody quietly suggested we go out the two clicks and then find ourselves a nice shady spot, set up a radio watch and get some much-needed shut-eye. That sure made sense to me, barely concerning myself with our responsibility, or lack of it. It was a gorgeous sunny dayhot, as always. We patrolled out a couple of clicks, passing a water buffalo or two while carefully avoiding any hooches or villages. We then swung around toward a hedgerow of sorts where some trees hid a depression full of dry leaves and stuff. The perfect spot, we all agreed. We carefully formed a perimeter, arranging ourselves so we could see out through the foliage. Tucked in the shade, hidden from everything and everybody, we settled in to relax. A couple guys dozed off in no time. I felt a bit uneasy, however. Not because of dangerthere wasnt anybody around for a mile at leastbut because I knew what we were doing was wrong. Not wrong enough, however, to keep me from lying back and swigging the last of a canteen of Kool-Aid water (Loudmouth Lemon!). Lying there with no sound but the hiss of the radio got me just about ready to doze off. Then without warning, what sounded very much like a buffalo came charging through the brush to my right! Everybody sat up quickly, rifles swinging around at the ready, prepared to blast away at anything and anybody! Seconds later I was astonished to see a little Vietnamese kid walk right into the middle of our secure, shady nestand just stand there with a big grin on his face. In that instant, as I struggled to process what was going on, the kid yells out, You want Coca-Cola? What!? What did he say? Whats a kid doing here? How did he find us? Are we fucked up or what, that a kid can just walk on in without us knowing? This is embarrassing. All of these thoughts raced through my mind in that moment. This situation was rather disconcerting to us all, but back then I didnt know the word disconcerting so I used the only terms I knew to cover the situation: Jeeesus H. Keeriist! What the hell?!! The kid was selling Coca-Cola! Ice cold Coca-Cola! This little half-pint was hauling around one of those big woven straw bags, filled with rice husks to keep the big chunk of ice from melting too quickly, and under the layer of husks were about a half-dozen big bottles of Coke. He looked to be about 10 years old, weighing in at about 50 pounds soaking wet, clad in light shorts, T-shirt and thin sandals. This situation wasnt covered in our training. Again, I started wondering and thinking: I dont have any money. I dont think anybody has any money. I want one of those Cokes! Hes only a little fella. Ill just take the Cokes. Here again not one word of this had passed my lips when one of the guys muttered, Ive got money. Problem solved, and a hell of a load off my mind. We bought everything he had. Ice cold Cokes. Geez, were they good! Only while we were sitting back and sweating out the Cokes did it occur to us: The nerve of that kid! He didnt even seem remotely intimidated by our capacity as trained killers. He was treating us as little more than customers! How insulting was that!? Im thinking the reason why I remember this incident so well is because of how stupid we were. There we were, the baddest of the bad, professional killers out on a combat patrol, in control of the entire world around us. But it only took a 10-year-old kid to remind us that we were really just a bunch of silly knuckleheads. Thirsty silly knuckleheads. And, Im thinking, that kid is probably a millionaire todaysomewhere. Marine Joe Holt rotated home from Vietnam in April 1967 and concluded his four-year tour as a seagoing Marine serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. This story was originally published in the April 2010 issue of Vietnam magazine. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow sat in their Ford V-8 coupe on a quiet Texas country road on Saturday evening, January 13, 1934. They were waiting for Floyd Hamilton and an ex-convict named Jimmy Mullens to return. The two men had slipped through the barbed wire perimeter surrounding Eastham prison farm, part of the Texas prison system, to hide an old inner tube beneath a drainage culvert near the prisons camp 1. Inside the tube were two Colt .45 automatics and several clips of ammunition, placed there in preparation for a jailbreak planned for January 16. At one point the camp dogs started howling and barking in their kennels, but the guards paid no attention. Hamilton and Mullens rejoined Bonnie and Clyde a few minutes later. Barrow then drove to Dallas and dropped off Hamilton, but he kept Mullens in the car so he could keep an eye on him. He didnt trust Mullens. Floyd Hamilton returned to Eastham the following day for his regular biweekly visit with his younger brother, Raymond, who was serving 266 years in prison for auto theft, armed robbery, and murder. During that visit, Floyd filled Raymond in on the details of the proposed prison break. On Monday, an inmate named Aubrey Skelley set out to retrieve the weapons. Skelley was a building tender, a trusty position that allowed him to move about the prison with a certain amount of freedom. He managed to smuggle the inner tube into the camp 1 dormitory and deliver it to Joe Palmer. Palmer, serving 25 years for robbery, hid the inner tube and its contents in his mattress. (Other sources swear the guns were hidden in one of the brush piles Eastham work squads would clear the next day.) Word that the break would take place the following morning reached the two other prisoners who would take partHenry Methvin, serving 10 years for robbery and attempted murder, and a killer named Hilton Bybee. Tuesday, January 16 dawned damp and chilly. A thick fog rising from the nearby Trinity River blanketed the countryside. South of camp 1, Parker, Barrow, and Mullens waited in a thickly wooded area on the edge of a country road. By the dim filtered light of early morning, they could see a clearing in the trees to the north, just beyond a creek that cut across the road. Barrow and Mullens got out of the car and walked toward the clearing. Parker stayed in the vehicle. Barrow carried a Browning automatic rifle capable of firing a 20-round clip of 30.06 armor-piercing shells in less than three seconds. The two men crouched along the creek bank and waited. Through the morning haze, they detected movement, followed by voices and the sounds of tools and horses. Two work crews of prisoners, combined because of staff shortages, slowly moved toward Barrow and Mullens, spreading out and getting down to the business of clearing the brush piles in preparation for spring planting and cutting wood to stoke the camp stoves. Among the workers were Hamilton and Palmer, both of them armed and dangerous, and both of them aware of who was waiting not far awayBonnie and Clyde. In the span of 18 months, starting in the summer of 1932, Bonnie and Clyde had become inseparable and somewhat legendarynot for their robberies, which were mainly petty thefts involving grocery stores and filling stations, but as dangerously tenacious and wily fugitives. By the time the couple arrived at Eastham on that January morning in 1934, Barrow had shot his way out of numerous confrontations and had been linked to the deaths of five lawmen and several civilians. Texan Clyde Barrow was born near Telico in 1910, according to the Barrow family Bible. Bonnie Parker was born the same year in Rowena, Texas. The pair met in early 1930 at the home of a mutual friend in West Dallas. Bonnie blue-eyed, small, and slim with reddish-blond hair and a good sense of humorimmediately caught Clydes eye. Bonnie, in turn, was attracted to the 5 6, dark-haired, headstrong young man. They began seeing each other regularly. Barrow was already heavily involved in an interstate crime ring, and within a few weeks police arrested him at Bonnies home. He was subsequently sentenced to 14 years in the Texas State Penitentiary for two counts of burglary and five counts of auto theft. After a few months in Huntsville prison, Barrow was transferred to the 13,040-acre Eastham prison on the Trinity River 20 miles north of Huntsville. Barrow called Eastham that hell hole, and for good reason. He saw prisoners beaten by guards, stuffed in tin sweat boxes under the blazing sun, and murdered, sometimes for the $25 reward for the capture of escaped prisoners, other times for revenge. It made Barrow so angry that he immediately began conspiring with another prisoner, 19-year-old Ralph Fults, to one day get out of prison, raise a gang, and return to Eastham. Id like to shoot all these damned guards and turn everybody loose, he told Fults. Along the way, the two men decided to break out buddies Palmer and Methvin, who were also housed in Eastham. Bybee, who arrived later at Eastham, was added to the conspiracy as a favor to Fults. Raymond Hamilton wasnt even in the picture initially. But that would soon change. Due to prison overcrowding, Fults and Barrow received conditional pardons, in August 1931 and February 1932 respectively. They met up again in West Dallas and began recruiting a gang for the prison raid, first approaching a friend of Barrows, 18-year-old fugitive Raymond Hamilton. At first, he agreed to take part, but after the men staged several successful robberies to finance the raid, Hamilton took his cut and backed out. I dont care about no cons on no prison farm, he said. On April 19, 1932, Fults was shot and captured during a gun battle in Kaufman County, Texas. Bonnie Parker was captured too, but Barrow escaped. Fults pleaded guilty to auto theft and armed robbery in exchange for Bonnies release. Bonnie, still an unknown, was set free and quickly rejoined Clyde. Fults once again returned to prison. That summer Raymond Hamilton briefly rejoined Barrow. He was arrested in December and began serving a lengthy prison term at Eastham. Barrow held a grudge against Hamilton for backing out of the proposed Eastham raid, and the irony of Hamiltons incarceration there no doubt struck the sometimes laconic Clyde as funny. Several others floated in and out of the so-called Barrow gang throughout 1933, most notably Clydes older brother Buck, Bucks wife, Blanche, and another character named W.D. Jones. Between April and July, the five outlaws were involved in a number of widely publicized incidents, including four gun battles that resulted in the deaths of three police officers. Then Buck and Blanche were captured in Iowa, and Buck died just a few days later from wounds received in a previous gunfight. Jones left the Barrow gang in August, and police arrested him a few weeks later near Houston. As Christmas came and went, Barrows thoughts turned again to the idea of raiding Eastham. Someone else was thinking about the raid tooEastham inmate Raymond Hamilton. A 48-year-old eight-time loser named Jimmy Mullens, about to finish a three-year sentence for burglary, bunked next to Hamilton at Eastham. Raymond promised Mullens $1,000, payable after his escape if he would find Barrow and arrange to have a number of weapons planted in the prison farm compound. Once released on January 10, 1934, Mullens went immediately to Floyd Hamiltons West Dallas home to ask for help locating Barrow. Floyd had a clean record at the time, but he listened to the plan. Later that same day he took Mullens to meet with Bonnie and Clyde. Barrow hesitated about getting involved. Something bothered himJimmy Mullens. Barrow had known Mullens in prison and remembered him as an unreliable and unpredictable drug addict and stool pigeon. Looking at Mullens, Barrow could think of only one thinghe was being led into a trap. Finally, he agreed to help with the raidbut only if Mullens took part. Ill help you out, but I want Mullens to plant the guns himself, Barrow declared. Mullens stiffened. Im not doing it alone, he said. Turning to Floyd, he demanded, Youre coming with me. Floyd reluctantly agreed. Then late in the evening of January 13, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde dropped off Hamilton and a trembling Mullens less than a mile from the main prison compound of Easthams camp 1. Three days later Barrow and Mullens were waiting in the early morning fog for the prison break to begin. The routine at Eastham was that a group of guards collectively called the shotgun ring oversaw each work squad, while a long-arm man, a guard on horseback armed with a high-powered rifle, positioned himself at a distance from the detail. According to the instructions of Colonel Lee Simmons, general manager of the Texas Prison System, the mounted guard had no duty except to stay well clear of the convicts and be in the background ready with his Winchester in case of excitement. Should a convict break past the shotgun ring, the long-arm man would pick him off. Thats the way it was supposed to work. Prisoners Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer knew that one of Easthams more notorious long arm men, Major Crowson (Major was his given name, not a title), routinely disregarded the policy. Crowson had a reputation for leaving his post to beat prisoners. In fact, Palmer had once received a severe beating from Crowson. On the morning of the break, Raymond Hamilton jumped squads, meaning he left his 16-man work crew and joined the crew that included Palmer, Bybee, and Methvin. Guard Olan Bozeman, assigned to Palmers squad, noticed Hamiltons presence even before the inmates started for the fields from camp 1. Hamilton and Palmer suspected that would happen but figured Bozeman would delay taking any action until he was in the field. Once there, out of earshot of the main camp, he would probably summon Crowson to help him deal with Hamilton. Sure enough, Bozeman called Crowson over as soon as the work crews arrived in the field. As the two guards conversed, Palmer strolled up to them as if he wanted to ask a question. Instead, he pulled out a weapon. Dont you boys try to do anything, he said. There are conflicting reports about what happened next. Some witnesses said Palmer deliberately shot Crowson for revenge; others claimed Crowson fired the first shot. Another source quoted Palmer as saying, I told the guards to sit still. Dont move and there wont be no shooting. I really thought the guards would stick their hands up. Regardless, at some point Palmer shot Crowson in the stomach. Mortally wounded, the guard turned his horse around and rode back to camp 1 to sound the alarm. Palmer then fired at Bozeman but missed. Bozeman pulled a pistol and returned fire, but his bullet only creased Palmers temple. Palmer fired again. This time the bullet struck Bozemans holstered shotgun and sliced deep into his hip. Bozeman and his mangled weapon fell to the ground. Meanwhile, Raymond Hamilton was fumbling around in the mud. In the excitement, he had accidentally ejected the clip from his own weapon. At that point, Clyde Barrow, still concealed in the nearby creek, stood up and fired a volley from his automatic rifle over the heads of everyone in the field. Guards and prisoners alike dived for cover. Back in the car, Bonnie Parker leaned on the horn to signal the escaping men. Palmer, Hamilton, Methvin, and Bybee began running south toward the sound. Two guards ran away, completely deserting their posts and Bozeman. They were found hiding 500 yards from their squads. Only one guard, Bobbie Bullard, stood his ground, perhaps preventing a mass escape. The first man to raise his head will have it blown clear off! he shouted. Nevertheless, one other convict managed to flee. J.B. French, serving time for robbery, attempted murder, and auto theft, ducked into the underbrush until things quieted down, then slipped into the woods. Guards recaptured him shortly after midnight. French knew nothing of the escape plan and didnt even meet those responsible for his brief taste of freedom. Police later recovered the escape car from a ravine 10 miles northeast of Hugo, Oklahoma, shortly after the robbery of a nearby filling station. By then, Crowson had died from his wound, and state officials were publicly questioning the prudence of placing convicts like Raymond Hamilton and the other escapees on a prison farm so accessible to the likes of Bonnie and Clyde. Lee Simmons, profoundly embarrassed by the raid, responded by firing the two Eastham guards who fled under fire. He also told the dying Major Crowson that he would be resettling accounts . . . . Those fellows had their day. Well have ours. I promise I wont let them get away with it. It didnt take officials long to decide that Bonnie and Clyde were behind the break. It is just a natural conclusion that [it was] his [Raymond Hamiltons] former partner, said Simmons. And if Barrow was there, then Bonnie could not have been far away. And, of course, he was right. Hilton Bybee was recaptured on January 30, 1934, two weeks after the break. In 1937, he escaped again from Eastham. Later that year an Arkansas posse shot and killed him. Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer were recaptured separately and returned to prison. Palmer was tried and convicted of the murder of Major Crowson. Hamilton was tried as a habitual criminal. Both men were sentenced to death. Jimmy Mullens was the states key witness against Palmer and Hamilton and received immunity from prosecution. But in 1938, a judge sentenced him to 75 years in prison for a $36 holdup. On July 22, 1934, Hamilton and Palmer escaped from Huntsvilles death house, creating nationwide headlines and further embarrassing Lee Simmons and the Texas Prison System. The embarrassment was short-lived, however, for both fugitives were soon recaptured and returned to Huntsville. On May 10, 1935, they died in the electric chair. Floyd Hamilton received two years in Leavenworth prison for harboring Bonnie and Clyde. After his release, he embarked on a bank-robbing spree, and in 1938 police captured him in Dallas. Floyd was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 55 years in prison. In 1940, he was transferred to Alcatraz, where he tried to escape. The attempted jailbreak cost him nine years in solitary confinement. In 1958, after being incarcerated for 20 years, Hamilton was released from prison. For Bonnie and Clyde, the Eastham break meant the beginning of the end. On February 1, 1934, 17 days after Crowsons death, Simmons met with Frank Hamer, a tough 49-year-old retired Texas Ranger. I want you to put Clyde and Bonnie on the spot and then shoot everyone in sight, he told Hamer. Simmons then told the ex-lawman he had been commissioned as a state highway patrolman. Hamer took to the road within 10 days. Before long he was on his way to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where Henry Methvins parents lived. There, Hamer met with the local sheriff, Henderson Jordan. The sheriff told Hamer that an intermediary named John Joyner had approached him on or about March 1 to let him know that, in exchange for a pardon from the state of Texas, Henry Methvin would deliver Bonnie and Clyde to the authorities. Sheriff Jordan soon delivered a pardon agreement to Joyner. On May 21 Joyner contacted Hamer with the ambush details. Henry Methvin would find some pretext to part company with Bonnie and Clyde, knowing that the outlaws would plan to rejoin him at his parents home. Hamer and five other law enforcement officers would hide by the side of the graded road leading to the Methvins house and wait for Bonnie and Clyde to drive up. After two days of waitingon May 23, 1934, at about 9:10 a.m.Hamers team heard the steady roar of a rapidly moving vehicle. They knew that only Clyde Barrow would hurtle along a country road at such speed. As the tan Ford V-8 sedan approached, Bob Alcorn, the only officer who could identify Barrow on sight, called out quietly, Its him, boys. This is itits Clyde. As added insurance, Henrys father also signaled his recognition of the fugitives. The officers opened up with a deadly fusillade. When the shooting stopped, Bonnie and Clyde were dead. Both had been shot more than 50 times. An Oklahoma court later tried and sentenced Methvin to death for the killing of police officer Cal Campbell, a murder Methvin committed after making the pardon agreement. The court commuted his sentence to life, however, when officials disclosed Methvins part in the Bonnie and Clyde ambush. In April 1949, after Methvins release from prison, an unknown person knocked him unconscious and placed him on a Louisiana railroad track. A passing train cut the informer in half. With the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde and the execution of Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer, Colonel Lee Simmons had fulfilled his promise to the dying Major Crowson. He had indeed resettled accounts. This article was written by John Neal Phillips and originally published in October 2000 issue of American History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today! Louisa was 15 when the revolution began and her enthusiasm was undimmed when she wrote her memoirs 60 years later. She recalled the spectacle: houses illuminated with candles, bells ringing, tar barrels burning, flags waving. Most of all, she remembered the people. I can never forget how those men used to look standing on some impromptu platform, she wrote, with the wild light of the bonfires on their faces, and their hair which men wore longer in those days, blown back from their faces by the wind, or the energy of their own movements. Their vitality still thrilled her: Such light in their eyes! So much hope and so much courage. These stirring scenes might evoke a campus protest in 1968, but they took place in South Carolina in December 1860, during the revolution for Southern independence. Louisa McCord Smythe was the daughter of writer and lawyer David J. McCord and Louisa McCord, an accomplished author, fierce proslavery theorist, and ardent secessionist. Smythes recollection reminds us that secession was especially popular among younger Southern whites. It demonstrates that although it was a defensive, reactionary move, it also inspired hope among those who saw the Confederacy as what historian Michael T. Bernath has called a moment of possibilityan opportunity to effect a strikingly diverse variety of changes, from improving womens education to rolling back democracy by imposing property requirements for suffrage. It also exemplifies a neglected visual emblem of secessionist sentiments: long hair. Trimmed, wavy hair was fashionable for white men in late antebellum America, so those with longer locks stood out. Not all were fire-eating disunionists, of course, but during and after the 1860-61 secession crisis, particularly in cities along the troubled UnionConfederate border, long hair marked the class, section, and ideology associated with secession. From Virginia to Arkansas, secessionistsmany in their 20s and 30ssent a political message just as powerful as that of a century later. In the 1960s, long hair signaled a provocative, bodily challenge to behavioral norms and political elites. In the 1860s, secessionists long hair made a comparably defiant statement, albeit on behalf of preserving, not subverting, the Souths peculiar social and political hierarchies. Unionists and secessionists alike identified long-haired men as members of the chivalry: the vehemently proslavery Southern elite. The image became a stereotype familiar to reporters, law enforcement officers, and anyone parsing regional differences. Northerners regularly associated long hair with Southerners, especially those of elevated rank and extreme politics. In his autobiography, Bostonian Charles Francis Adams Jr. recalled that Lucius Q.C. Lamar, a fierce secessionist congressman from Mississippi, looked the Southern college professorlank, tall, bearded, long-haired, and large-featured. A newspaper correspondent covering Abraham Lincolns March 1861 inauguration described the audience as a massive crowd of old and young, of male and female, with but few Southerners, judging from the lack of long haired men in the crowd. A wartime passenger on an Ohio River steamboat looked askance at a very Southern looking young man with long hair, and an extensive display of very suspicious looking jewelry, who was denouncing Lincoln as a racial egalitarian. To a Union prisoner of war, Confederates in Charleston were long haired secession devils. Perhaps no one epitomized the secessionist image better than Virginian politician and newspaper editor Roger A. Pryor, who traveled to South Carolina to press for an attack on Fort Sumter in hopes that this would propel his own state out of the Union. Contemporaries regarded the long-haired and heavily armed firebrand as the very embodiment of Southern chivalry. Authors used the long-haired secessionist image to spice their narratives or vent their anger, but for Union spies on the border, identifying friends and foes was deadly serious. Albert D. Richardson, a New York Tribune correspondent who was captured and then escaped from a Confederate prison camp, read Kentuckians loyalties in their appearance. The sinewy, long-limbed mountaineers passing through Louisville were likely traveling to Indiana to enlist in the Union Army, while the pale, long-haired young men heading the other direction were Confederate recruits. Hairstyles even offered vital clues to Allan Pinkerton, the famous detective who uncovered a plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore en route to Washington in early 1861. Pinkerton recalled that Barnums Hotel was the favorite resort of Baltimores Southern sympathizers, and he identified them by their hair. During the evenings, the corridors and parlors would be thronged by the tall, lank forms of the long-haired gentlemen who represented the aristocracy of the slaveholding interests. Pinkerton believed that the plots mastermind was hotel barber Cypriano Ferrandini, who allegedly had said that the hireling Lincoln shall never, never be President, and declared his readiness to die for the rights of the South Pinkerton depicted Ferrandini as a fitting representative of so desperate a cause, complete with his sallow faceand his long hair brushed fiercely back from his low forehead. From flappers bobbed hair to the forced haircuts inflicted at Indian boarding schools, hairstyles are closely tied to our identities and our ideals. After the Civil War, secessionists hairstyles were largely forgotten, though they are echoed in the Southern outlaw image which, like other recent long-haired figures, emerged in the 1960s. Ironically, the style of the chivalry was reborn among the rural working class. Michael E. Woods is associate professor of history at Marshall University. He is the author of Bleeding Kansas: Slavery, Sectionalism, and Civil War on the MissouriKansas Border (Routledge, 2016) and Emotional and Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States (Cambridge University Press, 2014). This post originally appeared on July 31, 2018, in Muster, the blog of the Journal of the Civil War Era. On September 17, 1862, George B. McClellans Army of the Potomac attacked Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River outside Sharpsburg, Maryland. At the end of the day, 23,000 Americans were dead, wounded or missingstill the greatest single-day casualty total in Americas history. In this short video presentation, park rangers from the Antietam National Battlefield Park describe the days events. On the evening of April 4, 1967, civil rights leader Martin Luther King lent his full-throated oratory to a growing chorus of opposition to the rapidly expanding American role in the Vietnam War. Kings sharp rebuke of U.S. policy and call to protest brought him into direct conflict with President Lyndon Johnson, who was an ally of Kings in the struggle for equal rights for African Americans. From the pulpit of New Yorks Riverside Church, King eloquently speaks of breaking the betrayal of my own silences and goes on to reveal the seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. With this pivotal address, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner sought to bridge the movement for civil rights and justice to the antiwar movements: I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commissiona commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of man. One year later, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. Guerrilla raids and massacres of innocents were condemned as violations of the rules of war The Civil War, which cost roughly 750,000 lives, including more than 200,000 battlefield deaths, remains Americas deadliest conflict and is considered historys first total war. In The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War (Harvard, 2018), Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred C. Frey professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University, argues that it could have been much worse, if both sides had not aspired to fight a just war. 1 Where did the Just War doctrine come from and what does it mean? European historians would say it starts with theologians such as St. Augustine trying to reconcile war with Christian ethics. Seventeenth-century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius argued that nations can wage war justly only by keeping violence within the bounds of Christian morality. Grotius influenced 18th-century writer Emer de Vattel, who was read by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The Revolutionary War generation was conversant with these theories, most importantly that violence should be aimed only at soldiers in uniform, not civilians. 2 Talk about Francis Lieber and the Lieber Code. Francis Lieber was a German immigrant who taught at Columbia College and became a consultant to the Union Army. In 1863, he wrote what has become known as General Orders No. 100, which translated his European predecessors arcane just war theories into 19th-century American practicalities. The orders he set for the Armys use were bullet pointswhat you can and cannot do. These were the first rules of engagement. 3 What does the Lieber Code allow? Standard tactics such as besieging cities, destroying fortifications, and bombarding factories making war materiel were allowed. Targeting civilians or destroying institutions such as hospitals, schools, and libraries was prohibited. Lethal violence was restricted to those people who were under arms. 4 Did the opposing armies violate the laws of war? Many Confederates regarded the Emancipation Proclamation and enlistment of black soldiers as violations of the laws of war because they supposedly encouraged servile insurrection on the home front. The Confederate leadership believed that black soldiers were not protected by the rules governing treatment of prisoners. Jefferson Davis believed that if former slaves were captured, they should be reenslaved or executed under state laws that imposed the death penalty for slave uprisings. Many black soldiers were killed trying to surrender. In July 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in which he said that for each Union soldier unjustly enslaved or executed after surrender, Union commanders would take a corresponding action against a captive Confederate. Lincoln was threatening to escalate the war dramatically; he put enough pressure on the South that at least some black soldiers were treated like whites. 5 But unjust killings continued, right? At any moment, a division or even a brigade commander had considerable autonomy. At the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg in 1864, Confederate Brig. Gen. William Mahone famously sanctioned the killing of hundreds of wounded black men. 6 Did the North perceive the actions of Southern guerrillas as a violation? On this, Lieber gives no wiggle room whatsoever. His code articulates a variety of ways of identifying guerrillasmen who dont wear uniforms, or operate under the regular command of officers, dont live in an army camp, and commit hit-and-run attacks. Those men, Lieber said, are to be considered highwaymen and summarily executed. There is no reliable count, but my guess is that thousands of guerrillas were executed, but thousands more were captured and sent to Northern prisons. It depended on the conditions. If men were captured with guns and horses but were not in the midst of committing an attack, they might be sent to prison. If they were caught in the act of or just after killing a Union sentry, they were probably executed because what they had done was considered murder. 7 How did the contrabands and freed people keep the war from getting worse than it was? This is a fascinating yet little explored part of the story of emancipation. The enslaved who left plantations pursued freedom rather than revenge. In hindsight, its possible to see how people held in bondage who get an opportunity for retaliation could have taken the chance. The people freed during the Civil War didnt do so, in part because they were starving, weak, and had no weapons. But there was also a religious dimension. The prophesies of Jubilee central to Afro-Christianity called on people to liberate themselves but did not justify perpetuating the violence rife in slavery itself. It seems that African Americans, both enslaved and free, clearly recognized that their goal was freedom, and defeating slavery was the militarys job. 8 In what ways did each side attempt to keep the war within bounds? Both armies policed themselves. Soldiers were prosecuted for violating the laws of war. We have all Union court-martial records, but most of the Confederate records were destroyed when Richmond burned. Union soldiers were prosecuted for rape and the killing of noncombatants, and theres a whole range of crimes under the heading of conduct unbecoming or dereliction of duty. There was also an extensive effort to communicate across the lines to complain to an opposing commander about alleged violations. These letters would usually threaten retaliation unless the actions were explained. Some of these parleys lasted for months and sometimes reached as high as Lincoln or Davis, allowing tempers to cool. Retaliatory executions were rare. Thats something distinct about how democracies fight. Civilians were aware that the armies were policing themselves. If there was no adequate explanation for a suspicious action, there was usually public condemnation. 9 How does the Just War doctrine explain the Lost Cause? The Lost Cause is predicated on the belief that the North fought an unjust war. Its part of popular myth that Sherman laid waste to the South and in doing so must have killed many civilians. In fact, we know he didnt. At Atlanta, five weeks of around-the-clock shelling killed probably 20 civilians. Also, the Lost Cause sets up a clash between rapacious Yankees and Christian gentlemen like Lee who fought according to the laws of war, a decision that was noble but led to the Souths defeat. 10 Can any war be just? Its impossible to say that any war is fully just. I think that the armies of democracies are much more likely to behave justly. We see this today with the U.S. military. Today, as in the Civil War, there is a public feedback loop that helps keep things honest. The Army is us. It represents our values. Its unpleasant to have to try individuals accused of violating the laws of war, but in general the U.S. Army adheres to a very high standard and has a very public accounting system. This is a dramatic difference from past generations and is certainly not the same in autocracies. If there is a just war in the future, it will be waged by a democracy with a watchful public. US President Donald Trump said his administration is now planning a steel barrier on the US border with Mexico rather than a concrete wall, even as he renewed a threat to invoke a national emergency as a way to circumvent Congress on border funding. Trump told reporters that his next move may depend on what happens in coming days on attempts to end a partial government shutdown now into its third week. He declared a meeting on Sunday chaired by vice president Mike Pence productive, even as Democrats said no progress had been made and no further meetings of the group were scheduled. I may declare a national emergency dependent on whats going to happen over the next few days, Trump told reporters Sunday before departing to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for what he termed meetings on Border Security and many other topics with senior White House staff. Its unclear which of Trumps aides attended the meeting beyond Bill Shine, deputy chief of staff for communications. Also Read: US shutdown enters third week, talks on between Trump team, Congress fail to make much headway After returning from Camp David Trump told reporters were looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency and that were looking at it very strongly. We have a crisis at the border of drugs, of human beings being trafficked all over the world, Trump said. Theyre coming through, and we have an absolute crisis -- and of criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. Its a national emergency. Democrats have already threatened a legal fight if Trump tries to declare a national emergency. Hell face a challenge, Im sure, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said Sunday on CBSs Face the Nation. Another Meeting Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama said on Fox News that Trump has some inherent powers to bypass Congress, but that border funding must be done the right way, via legislation. A delegation of top White House aides led by vice president Mike Pence met again with congressional staff on Sunday after a lengthy discussion Saturday was unable to forge a deal. Trump said on Twitter that not much headway was made on Saturday, and he told reporters on Sunday that the next meeting was unlikely to produce results either. Trump later tweeted that the meeting was productive with many details of border security discussed. But no progress was made, and while there are places both sides can work together, Trump wont budge on Democrats request to re-open the government first, said a personal familiar with the discussions. Democrats were given a list of the the administrations proposals that include the wall, and Republicans reiterated their resolve to re-open the entire government while dealing with border security, aides said. Democrats have not received the full budget justification they requested, and another meeting of the group is not scheduled, according to a Democratic official familiar with the meeting. Also Read: Donald Trump confirms key plotter in USS Cole attack has been killed Trump said on Friday he could declare a national emergency to circumvent lawmakers and build the wall, though budget experts said Congress would still need to allocate the funds. Asked about it on Fox News Sunday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said whatever action he takes will certainly be lawful, and were looking at every option. Washington Democrat Adam Smith, the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Trump has the authority to declare an emergency and have the US military build the wall but that such an action would likely be challenged and would be a bad use of defense spending. In this case, I think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying, Where is the emergency? Smith said on ABCs This Week on Sunday. You have to establish that in order to do this. Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, disputed that the president has the power to act on his own. Concrete or Steel Look, if Harry Truman couldnt nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesnt have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border, Schiff said of the former president on CNN. Trump and Democrats are at an impasse over the presidents demands for $5.6 billion to build a wall, which has caused a partial government shutdown that entered its 16th day on Sunday. While Democrats have offered funding for border security, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called a wall immoral. Trump is willing to rule out concrete for the wall if that helps reach a deal with Democrats, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said in an interview taped on Saturday. If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, See? Hes not building a wall anymore, that should help us move in the right direction, Mulvaney said on NBCs Meet the Press one of two appearances on Sunday morning political shows. Trump told reporters the steel barrier would give us great strength. He tweeted that steel is both stronger & less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the U.S.A. Earlier, Trump said he would phone the chief executive of U.S. Steel Corp. While the substitution of a steel fence for a concrete wall was presented as a fresh attempt to compromise, Trump has been tweeting about a steel barrier for weeks, and on Dec. 21 showed a prototype of a tall structure topped by sharp spikes. House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press that the suggestion of a steel fence versus a concrete wall will be discussed, but that we need to open up the government first before talking about it. Democrats on Sunday released the text of four appropriations bills to immediately fund key parts of the federal government. The House is expected to consider each of the measures this week. In an interview on NBC, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine called the debate about whether the barrier should be constructed out of concrete or steel bizarre, and said she was frustrated that both sides appear to be intransigent. Collins, one of at least three Senate Republicans whove called for reopening government while the debate over the wall continues, said shed like to see Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bring House-passed appropriation bills to the floor. Trump said in December that he would take the mantle of shutting down the government over border security, and he believes the standoff could be solved in 10 minutes, Mulvaney said in an appearance on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday. But the White House and congressional Democratic negotiators cant even agree on basic facts, and Democrats are stalling because they think Trump is losing the battle over public opinion, he said. The Democrats, for better or worse, think they are winning this battle politically, Mulvaney said. Sundays negotiating session followed a two-and-a-half hour meeting Saturday between Pence, senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and staff for House and Senate leadership. Meanwhile, the shutdown is having wide-reaching effects. About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed or working without pay. Airlines cant get permission to add new planes to their fleets, mortgage lenders cant verify the income of borrowers and the Food and Drug Administration cant accept many new drug applications. Trump tweeted about the wall early on Sunday, quoting past comments in support of a barrier by former president Barack Obama, whose name he misspelled, and Senator Hillary Clinton and insisting the wall will end illegal border crossings and crime. The only reason they do not want to build a Wall is that Walls Work! Trump tweeted. Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as Bangladeshs prime minister for a third consecutive term on Monday after her Awami Leagues landslide victory in the December 30 election. President Md Abdul Hamid administered the oath of office to 71-year-old Hasina at the Bangabhaban. It is Hasinas fourth term in office. The president then administered the oaths for the new ministers, ministers of state and deputy ministers who will form the Cabinet. Hasina will lead a Cabinet of 24 ministers, 19 ministers of state and three state ministers. Her ruling Grand Alliance won 96 per cent of the seats contested in the election, which was marred by accusations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence. Hasina and her ruling party have dismissed the accusations. Hasinas cabinet is mostly made up of new faces. Thirty-one members of the new Cabinet are first-timers. The Cabinet exclusively consists of members of the Awami League. On Thursday, she was chosen as the leader of the House for the fourth time. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladeshs founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is termed by many as the countrys iron lady. Several veterans were dropped from the council of ministers amid speculation about the inductions as major portfolios like defence were retained by Hasina herself. The Jatiya Party, a key partner in the Awami League-led Grand Alliance of Hasina, on Friday decided to occupy the opposition benches in Parliament after the main opposition BNP led by ex-premier Khaleda Zia rejected the results of the general election. Leo Varadkar, the Indian-origin prime minister of Ireland, has emerged as a key player as British prime minister Theresa May tries to get her controversial withdrawal agreement though parliament next week in the face of continuing opposition. The obstacle to the agreement being passed is the so-called backstop that affects Ireland and Northern Ireland. Varadkar has insisted and secured Mays agreement in previous talks that there cannot be a hard border between the two in the island of Ireland. German chancellor Angela Merkel held prolonged talks with Varadkar last week as the latter tries to find a fix so that Mays agreement wins the support of recalcitrant MPs, who believe the backstop will tie the UK to EU rules indefinitely. EU officials in Brussels insisted that the agreement is not open for re-negotiations, but May claimed on Monday that there was further movement on the backstop. A likely statement from EU that the backstop will not be in place indefinitely is expected to assuage concerns. Germany foreign affairs minister Heiko Maas is to fly to Dublin on Tuesday for Brexit talks with Varadkar, who believes a hard border between the two regions will jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement that has kept peace since 1998. Since Ireland and the UK are currently both EU members, movement of people and goods between Ireland and Northern Ireland is frictionless in the absence of a border, but the situation may change after March 29, when the UK leaves the EU. Varadkar has a key position in the Brexit discourse given the unique and conflict-ridden history of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain. Achieving a balance between not having a hard border and the UK leaving the European single market and the customs union is central to the current impasse in Westminster. The Northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party that props up the May government is opposed to the agreement, along with several pro and anti-Brexit ministers, MPs and lobbies that continue to put forth the version of Brexit they would like to see. Meanwhile, anticipating new checks at the UK-France border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, British authorities on Monday tested measures to deal with traffic queues at Dover in east England, which is the entry point for thousands of lorries from France and Europe. The lorries crucial to trade currently move in and out of the UK without border checks, but after March 29 the UK will become a non-EU country, necessitating new border checks if future arrangements are not agreed. A large number of lorries joined the test, but Conservative MP for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, questioned its usefulness: Weve got to remember 10,000 lorries visit the Channel ports every single day so a test with less than 100 is not even a drop in the ocean. Parliament resumed its session on Monday with ministers and MPs intensely debating the way out of the impasse on the controversial withdrawal agreement, which will be put to vote on January 15. If it is passed, it will take the form of a treaty with the EU, but strong opposition to it continues. Fervent Brexiteer Boris Johnson reiterated his opposition to the agreement, insisting that leaving the EU without a deal would be the closest to what people actually voted for in the 2016 EU referendum. A no-deal Brexit is deemed to be the worst-case scenario, with serious implications for the UKs GDP, prices, stock and supply of medicines produced in Europe, movement of British and European citizens within Europe, and the ability of major UK-based banks and financial institutions to operate across Europe. Johnson wrote in his column in the Daily Telegraph: Of all the options suggested by pollsters staying in the EU, coming out on Theresa Mays terms, or coming out on World Trade terms it is the last, the so-called no-deal option, that is gaining in popularity. In spite of or perhaps because of everything they have been told, it is this future that is by some margin preferred by the British public. What is going on? What is it that gives so many of the electorate the confidence to dismiss these prognostications? The most obvious answer, perhaps, is that this option is closest to what people actually voted for. When 17.4 million chose to leave the EU, they didnt vote to stay locked in the customs union or the single market. There was no suggestion that we would pay 39 billion for nothing, without even a sniff of a trade deal with Brussels. Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi discussed insurgent attacks on Myanmar police on Monday in a rare meeting with the military chief, and her administration called for the armed forces to crush the rebels, a government spokesman said. Fighting between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine has displaced thousands of people since early December, according to the United Nations. The Arakan Army wants greater autonomy for Rakhine, where the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group makes up the majority of the population. Rakhine State saw a military-led crackdown in 2017, following attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents that prompted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee westwards into neighbouring Bangladesh. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other cabinet members met military leaders, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy and the military intelligence chief, to discuss foreign affairs and national security. The presidents office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists, Zaw Htay told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw. While Suu Kyi is barred from being president by a military-drafted constitution, Win Myint is a loyalist and she is seen as de facto leader of the civilian government, while the military remains in charge of security. The insurgents killed 13 policemen and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on Friday, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported. An Arakan Army spokesman outside Myanmar told Reuters last week the group attacked the security forces in response to a broad military offensive in northern Rakhine State that also targeted civilians. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 4,500 people were sheltering in monasteries and communal spaces after being displaced by the fighting in the past month. Cycle of violence Zaw Htay described the Arakan Army as a terrorist organization and said it had surprised security forces on guard against Rohingya insurgents. He said the Arakan Army could destabilise Rakhine State for years to come and warned people not to give it support. Do they want to see a cycle of violence lasting decades? he said. I want to tell Rakhine people who are supporting (the Arakan Army): Dont think about yourself, but think about your next generation. Myanmar governments have battled various ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements. Zaw Htay also accused the Arakan Army of meeting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group of Rohingya insurgents that Myanmar also considers terrorists but added that Myanmar was unable to eliminate the groups as they had bases across the border in Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi foreign ministry official and two Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers denied the accusation. One BGB officer asked Myanmar to provide evidence of militant camps in Bangladesh. All the terrorism is taking place on the other side of the border, said Lieutenant Colonel Manzural Hasan Khan, a BGB commander in Coxs Bazar, the district where more than 900,000 Rohingya Muslims are sheltering having fled bouts of violence that have drawn international condemnation against Myanmar. The world knows what happened on the other side, he said. The Myanmar government and military leaders also discussed a temporary ceasefire the military announced last month in other parts of the country, where other insurgent groups operate, Zaw Htay said. The meeting was held at the request of the presidents office, he said. Hindus are the most educated based on college degrees among US religious groups, followed by Unitarians Universalists, Jews, Anglicans and congregants of the Episcopal Church, according to a new study. They are ahead also of atheists and agnostics. The study by Pew used the four-year college degree as the marker, saying it is generally regarded as the key asset for economic success. Hindus accounted for the largest share of those with college degrees, with 77%. Unitarians, a religious group that says it has no creed and draws inspiration from a range of sacred scriptures Indian American lawmaker Ami Bera is one came second with 67%. Jews and Anglican church adherent were a joint third at 59%, and Episcopal church rounded off the top five with 56%. Atheists and agnostics accounted for 43% and 42% respectively and Muslims were 39% and Catholics 26%, which was under the total for all US adults. The United States doesnt keep an official count of its population based on religion, but an estimated 0.7% of America's 325 million population could be Hindus, according to a 2014 study by Pew. There are other estimates that put the number between 2 million and 3 million. While a large number of Hindus in the United States are of Indian descent, coming here from India or diasporas in Africa and the Caribbeans, there other such as Tulsi Gabbard, a member of the US House of Representatives from Hawaii. As the larger Indian American community has made a mark as the wealthiest in the United States and the most educated, so have its largest cohort, the Hindus. The Pew study made the connection between the high level of education among Hindus, and Jews, to project why they are also the richest in the country. Given the strong correlation between educational attainment and economic success, it is not surprising that Jews and Hindus, on average, have high household incomes, with four-in-ten Jews (44%) and roughly a third of Hindus (36%) living in households with annual incomes of at least $100,000, it said citing its 2014 study. A Saudi woman being held at Bangkok airport on Monday appealed for asylum and for other passengers to help protest her looming deportation, in desperate tweets from the hotel room where she barricaded herself. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has also released a video saying that the plane has gone and that she needs a country to protect her. The incident comes against the backdrop of intense scrutiny of Saudi Arabia over its investigation and handling of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdoms rights record. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. Watch: Saudi womans desperate appeal to Thai authorities She said she had planned to travel to Australia and seek asylum there, and feared she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The 18-year-old said she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. She tweeted that she was due to be deported on a Kuwait Airways flight to Kuwait due to depart at 11.15am (0415 GMT). The last time a Saudi woman trying to escape was forced back despite fearing for her life, she disappeared. Here's @HRW on the case: https://t.co/uYnsIOXTjY As the BBC said, "Her fate on arriving back in Saudi Arabia remains unknown." https://t.co/cIunsGguAe pic.twitter.com/HobDcKX33h Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) January 6, 2019 I ask the government of Thailand... to stop my deportation to Kuwait, she said on Twitter. I ask the police in Thailand to start my asylum process. Shortly before the scheduled departure, Qunun posted a plea for people within the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me. Please I need u all, she wrote. Im shouting out for help of humanity. In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Qunun posted video of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is sure 100 percent her family will kill her, she told AFP. A senior Thai immigration official said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because she lacked further documents such as return ticket or money and Thailand had contacted the Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate. Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said Qunun faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia and Thailand should allow her to see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and apply for asylum. Given Saudi Arabias long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored, he said. The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. The UN Refugee Agency has been following developments closely and has been trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet with Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, to assess her need for international protection, it said in a statement. The ultra-conservative kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the worlds toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for moral crimes, women can also become the target of honour killings at the hands of their families, activists say. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge daffaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, acknowledged in an interview with Saudi-owned channel Rotana Khalijial that the womans father had contacted the diplomatic mission for help to bring her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. Saudi Arabia has come under fierce criticism following the murder of dissident journalist Khashoggi inside the kingdoms Istanbul consulate on October 2 -- a case that stunned the world. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. Faced with continuing opposition from political friends and foes alike, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said she is working on getting further assurances from the European Union to ensure the Brexit agreement is passed in parliament on January 15. The first day of the winter session saw a repeat of the cut-and-thrust between pro and anti-Brexit forces, as a spokesperson of the European Union in Brussels said the agreement will not renegotiated, everything on the table has been approved and... the priority now is to await events in the UK. Without legally binding assurances that the so-called backstop for Northern Ireland will not be in place indefinitely, the agreement is unlikely to be endorsed by parliament. Its passage through parliament is necessary to turn it into a treaty between the UK and EU. The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, adding pressure on various stake-holders to ensure that an agreement is in place to overseen future arrangements between the two that have had a symbiotic relationship since 1973, when the UK joined the EU. May said she is working on getting further assurances from the EU so she can satisfy recalcitrant MPs. According to her, there has been some further movement from the EU, but did not elaborate. The further measures, she said, would be set out before the vote on January 15. May did not respond to an urgent question tabled by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on progress made in achieving legal changes to the EU withdrawal agreement and the timetable in this House for the meaningful vote, but is due to face him during Prime Ministers Question Time on Wednesday. Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay responded to Corbyn, insisting that EU leaders went further than before in giving assurances that the backstop would be temporary during their summit in December. He said May has had further conversations with EU leaders over the holiday period, adding that the government will set out the assurances it had received before the debate starts on Wednesday. As Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar stepped up efforts within the EU to help May gain the support to pass the agreement, fervent Brexiteer Boris Johnson reiterated his opposition to the agreement, insisting that leaving the EU without a deal would be the closest to what people actually voted for in the 2016 EU referendum. A no-deal Brexit is deemed to be the worst-case scenario, with serious implications for the UKs GDP, prices, stock and supply of medicines produced in Europe, movement of British and European citizens within Europe, and the ability of major UK-based banks and financial institutions to operate across Europe. Johnson wrote in his column in the Daily Telegraph: Of all the options suggested by pollsters staying in the EU, coming out on Theresa Mays terms, or coming out on World Trade terms it is the last, the so-called no-deal option, that is gaining in popularity. In spite of or perhaps because of everything they have been told, it is this future that is by some margin preferred by the British public. What is going on? What is it that gives so many of the electorate the confidence to dismiss these prognostications? The most obvious answer, perhaps, is that this option is closest to what people actually voted for. When 17.4 million chose to leave the EU, they didnt vote to stay locked in the customs union or the single market. There was no suggestion that we would pay 39 billion for nothing, without even a sniff of a trade deal with Brussels. Its been a little over a decade since this revolutionary idea took form and travellers had more to look forward to than a regular hotel room with a TV, a minibar and a fancy bathroom. Airbnb that started out as a bed and breakfast option now provides a variety of properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, tipis, igloos, private islands. Its like you name it, and youll have it! Thats not all, home owners welcome travellers like members of their own family and theres hardly ever a chance for a visitor to feel out of place or unwelcome. Theres warmth and love that you get which might become the fondest part of your travel memories. As an avid solo traveller, I too have explored certain places on Indias map but have been clear about wanting to find an accommodation in an Airbnb with preferably a superhost. The idea has begun catching up over the last two-three years and the one thing that you know youll find is certain likemindedness. How, you may ask? Because you have a super-cool filter that lets you find what youre looking for. Its nearly spiritual. Like Rumi has been quoted often times, what you seek is seeking you. Here are some of the Airbnb homes we found on their official Instagram page, located around the world that are a must-visit for every creative soul where you can do what you want to, with zero intrusion and the only sound you hear will probably be that of your beating heart. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter A crane collapsed during metro work near Nashik Phata flyover (JRD Tata flyover) on Saturday afternoon and the incident was caught on a CCTV camera. The authorities were forced to close the road for some time to clear the spot. Maharashtra Metro Rail (Maha-Metro) claimed that there is no casualty reported due to the accident, but it has decided to impose a fine on the contractor. The footage appears to have been taken from a CCTV camera at a shop overlooking the flyover where the crane was deployed in construction work. It shows motorists and pedestrians escaping death by a whisker as the crane, weighing as much as about 40 elephants, appears to lose balance and swoops down into the ground. Maha-Metro officer Ramnath Subramanian, said, No casualty and loss to life and property has been reported due to this accident. It was an unfortunate event and Maha-Metro will enquire into the incident and a strict warning will be issued to the contractor to adhere to safety norms. Watch: Horrifying moment, metro crane topples inches away from motorists, pedestrians Maha-Metros quick response team and traffic wardens reached the accident spot immediately to ease traffic congestion. Metro later issued the press statement and said that as the land where this structure was put is not hard due to this accident happen. Cranes from other metro works reached the spot to remove clear the road at the accident spot. Police and Metro introduced traffic diversion for some time through service road. Maha metro safety officials and general consultant safety team were on the spot to verify things. Maharashtra Metro Rail (Maha-Metro) officials later said the ground underneath the crane wasnt hard enough to withstand its weight because of which it lost balance, adding they had imposed a fine on the contractor. The Andheri police on Sunday arrested a 23-year-old waiter, Nishant Gowda, for allegedly attacking a woman with a knife after she had asked for one to cut her cake.Thirty-year-old Farzana Mirat, an NRI, who was celebrating her anniversary, suffered a cut on her neck. According to the police, Mirat had come to India from South Africa on Sunday morning and was supposed to go to Porbandar for a wedding later. She had gone to the hotel at JB Nagar with her mother on Sunday. It was Mirats marriage anniversary. She ordered for a couple of things and called the waiter some six-seven times. After that, they also ordered for a cake, said an officer. However, Gowda brought only the cake, without the knife. She then asked Gowda to get her a knife quickly. The police said the way she ordered Gowda irked him. He did not say anything initially. Gowda then returned with the knife, and instead of giving it to Mirat, he attacked her with it, leaving her with a cut on her neck. Mirat was in a state of shock. The police was then informed, said the officer. The police then arrested the accused and a case was registered under section 326 of the IPC. Deputy commissioner of police, zone 10, Navinchandra Reddy confirmed the developments. Police took Mirat and her mothers statements and are investigating the case further. A gang-rape victim in Shamli districts Kairana town has alleged one of the accused set her ablaze on Saturday night when she and her family members refused to succumb to pressure to go in for a compromise, according to her complaint filed with the police. The woman, who sustained burns on her waist and legs, was out of danger. She lodged a complaint against the accused at the Shamli kotwali police station, on Sunday. Contradicting the womans allegation, superintendent of police, Shamli, Ajay Kumar said on Twitter the womans saree caught fire when she was boiling milk on Saturday night. He claimed the police had a video recording of her husbands statement in this regard. The woman, in her complaint, told the police that the three men who raped her a month and a half ago came to her house on Saturday night and mounted pressure on her for a compromise. When her husband and she refused, one of the accused set her on fire after sprinkling petrol on her, the woman said in her complaint. She blamed the police for not arresting the accused even a month and a half after the gang rape. However, SP Ajay Kumar said investigation in the gang rape case was in the final stages and action will be initiated on the basis of the probe findings. While there is no final word on an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet, the Shiv Sena has begun its preparations to go solo, if needed, for the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections. According to a Sena leader, the Sena has begun identifying candidates for all 48 constituencies in Maharasthtra. Despite overtures from the BJP for a pre-poll alliance before the general elections, the Sena is in no mood to give in. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is likely to play hardball with the BJP. Reportedly, senior Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai and senior BJP leader and union environment minister Prakash Javadekar have had a few rounds of talks, but they have not yielded any outcome. Senior Sena leaders, however, maintain that there have been no talks. When asked about reports of Sena demanding half the LS seats as part of the pact , CM Devendra Fadnavis had said last week that those were talks going on only in the media. Any party has a right to start planning for elections, so we are no different. We have started gearing up at the ground level; we are engaging with booth-level workers. We are chalking out details for all constituencies and preparing a list of probable candidates. The exercise to plan rallies is also on. Alliance or no alliance, we have to start preparing, said a Sena leader. Another party worker, however, said that this does not mean that the party will surely go solo in the election, but the preparations will help put pressure on the ally, while negotiating for seats. The BJP and Sena contested the 2014 LS polls in an alliance. Out of the 48 seats, BJP contested 24 and won 23; the Sena contested 22 and won 18. Read | If there is no tie-up, BJP will defeat ex-allies, says Amit Shah Though the BJP has been insistent on the alliance and has not replied to Senas barbs, the latest attack by Sena leadership against PM Narendra Modi has been taken seriously by the BJP. The Sena attacked Modi over his statement that any decision on an ordinance for the construction of Ram mandir in Ayodhya can be considered only after the judicial process is over. The Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna that Modi spoke the truth for the first time in the past four years. Fadnavis said a fitting reply will be given at the right time and in right fashion. Even BJP chief Amit Shah, during a meeting last week, had asked party MPs in the state to prepare to go solo . The Sena is expected to continue its attack on the BJP on several issues including farm distress, the Rafale fighter jet scam, in the coming days. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will visit drought-affected Beed on January 9. Next week, Thackeray is also scheduled to address party workers, leaders, MPs and MLAs to lay out a plan for the polls. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said he is going to New Delhi on Tuesday to step up his efforts to stitch up an grand alliance against the BJP at the national level. His latest visit comes as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party indicated they have firmed up their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections without the Congress. I am going to Delhi tomorrow to meet important regional party leaders as part of my efforts to build an anti-BJP platform, Naidu, who is also the Telugu Desam Party president, said at an interaction with media at the Polvaram irrigation project site. Asked whether he would meet SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, Naidu said he would seek their time and meet them, if possible. Watch: INTERVIEW || PM Modi on 2019 LS elections: Itll be voters versus gathbandhan The TDP chief is likely to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Janata Dal (Secular) president HD Deve Gowda and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and others. Naidus Delhi visit comes in the wake of the latest outburst against him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during video conferencing with BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh. Modi accused Naidu of nurturing Prime Ministerial ambitions though he had miserably failed to run his own state. He even alleged that the Andhra chief minister was pushing the state into sunset with his corrupt administration to see his son rise. The Prime Minister also ridiculed Naidus efforts to build the grand alliance saying it was an alliance of family-ruled parties. After repeated feelers to stitch together an alliance with the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said it would defeat the Sena hands down in Maharashtra if the party does not enter into an alliance before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJPs national president Amit Shah and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed a meeting of booth-level workers from Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Hingoli in Latur city, with Fadnavis setting his party workers a target of winning 40 of the states 48 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has openly expressed its desire to mend ties with Sena and forge an alliance, however, Sena leaders said no BJP leaders have met the Sena leadership. The Sena and BJP had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as allies, but split at the time of Assembly elections. The Sena joined the state government later. The Sena has been critical of BJP, and leaders of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party have often spoken of contesting the elections alone. Shah told party workers to not worry about an alliance and instead prepare to root out the opposition. Nobody can beat the BJP, which has 11 crore workers. We shall fight and win all seats in Maharashtra. The party workers should work for the candidates with all their strength in the forthcoming elections, he said. The BJP would put candidates even in seats contested by allies. So, I urge all party workers to get on the ground and commence preparations in earnest. It is not the job of a party worker to worry about alliances. These matters are the concern of the top brass. Our preparations must be to ensure that the party is victorious in at least 40 of the 48 seats, Fadnavis said at the closed-door meeting . Shah had reportedly told party MPs from the statelast Thursday that they should be ready to contest the coming elections without an alliance. The arrogant statement by Amit Shah has exposed him and his party. By boasting about winning 40 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the BJP has announced its alliance with the EVMs. The Sena is ready to take on anybody if attacked. Maharashtra will see to it that you will be routed in the election, a Shiv Sena spokesperson said. (With agency inputs) Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawas expanding list of cash-fueled bragging rights includes Picassos, Bugatti supercars and a ticket on Elon Musks rocket to the moon. He can now add to that collection the mantle of having the most-ever retweeted Twitter post. For the honor, the founder of Japans second-largest online shopping site Zozo Inc. will be paying out a total of 100 million yen ($920,000) to 100 lucky people who shared the post. Seeking to be one of the randomly chosen winners, Maezawas audience retweeted his post a record 4.4 million times, and gave it more than 1.1 million likes. The previous record holder for retweets was a college student in the U.S. whose goal was to get a years free supply of chicken nuggets from the Wendys fast-food franchise, according to Statista. That post had 3.6 million retweets and 990,000 likes. HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3 Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017 Ellen DeGeneress 2014 Oscars selfie with Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was second with 3.3 million retweets. If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014 To participate, all you have to do is follow me and RT this tweet, Maezawa wrote on Jan. 5. The tweet featured a picture of a man astride a rocket silhouetted against full moon, in a style of the iconic image from the movie E.T. Maezawa also touted that his shopping site Zozotown reached 10 billion yen in merchandise volume during a New Years sale. The business is the main source of the 43-year-olds $1.7 billion in net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zozos shares jumped as much as 6.9 percent in Tokyo. A woman and her one-year-old daughter were trampled to death as a herd of 18 elephants went on a rampage through a village in Jharkhands Gumla district early on Monday, forest officials said. The deceased were identified as Archana Baghawar, 26, and her daughter Ishita. Four people of the family were sleeping in the asbestos-roofed mud house, when the incident took place around 4 am. Recounting their terrifying experience, Archanas mother in-law Luisa Devi, 50, said , We were four people sleeping in two different rooms of the house as my son James was in Bokaro since Sunday. Around 4 am, we heard elephants trumpeting. Moment after, the herd razed a portion of the house wall. My sister in-law and I escaped from northern side of the house. Archana, holding her daughter, tried to flee from another side but they were trampled to death by elephants, as they stepped out of the house. Hearing the trumpeting, villagers chased away the elephants to the nearby forest, around one kilometre from the village. However, the elephants again returned to the village pond around 10 am and then moved towards Bano forest range in Simdega. We have given Rs 50,000 to the family of the deceased immediately on Monday, while remaining Rs 7.5 lakh compensation would be given to the family after official formalities, Gumla divisional forest officer (DFO), Srikant Verma said. He said the herd entered the Rampur village from Palkot wildlife sanctuary where it was staying for over a week. The herd had entered Sakiya village on Sunday afternoon. The forest team chased them away from the village and kept vigil till the evening. The herd, however, entered the Rampur village on Sunday night through the forest route, Verma said. Gumla forest ranger John Robert Tirkey said the herd went to Bano forest range by Monday afternoon, 10-12 km from the village. We have asked the villagers to be alert and avoid going out of home at night. We have equipped them with torches and fire crackers to help them to fight the elephants in case they enter the village again, he said, adding, villagers were also asked not to store grain or Mahua flower, an ingredient to make country liquor, at home. The incident caused panic in Rampur, a village of 398 houses as per the 2011 census. However, the house where the incident took place is located alone around 400 metres away from the main village, a forest official said. We are not safe even at home. Forest department must ensure safety of the villagers from elephants. Another herd of five elephants have been found in Majhkera village, which is not far from this village, said Raju Soreng, a village resident. In Jharkhand, an average of 62 people were killed by elephants every year since 2009-10. As per the forest department, a total of 610 people were killed from 2009-2010 to November 2018, of which 53 people were killed from April to November 2018 How many women have gained entry into Keralas Sabarimala temple so far two or 10? A war of words seem to have erupted among a section of the Kerala police, the Tranvancore Devaswom Board and the supreme priest who runs the Ayyappa temple after the police claimed 10 women have entered the shrine, while the tantri (supreme priest) insisted only twoBindu Ammini and Kankadurga have gained access. People close to the tantri have accused the police of tampering with the numbers to make their case strong by showing that more women have entered the temple even as the Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a bunch of review petitions in an open hearing on January 22. The court on September 28 had allowed entry of women of menstruating age into the temple lifting a centuries old ban that prevented their entry due to a belief that the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is a celibate. According to them, after the publicised entry of Sasikala, a Sri Lankan woman, two days ago, the tantri had checked the CCTV visuals to carry out a fresh round of purification rituals but abandoned the plans after failing to obtain any evidence of her presence near the sanctum sanctorum. These are lies. The government wants to create an impression that there is a steady stream of women visitors after the entry of the two women, said activist Rahul Eswar who is at the forefront of the agitation against the court verdict. We have checked the visuals in detail. In the case of the Sri Lankan woman, the visuals do not match, he said. The Sabarimala Karma Samithi, an umbrella organisation of several Hindu outfits which is spearheading a movement against the verdict, also said the claims of the police were farfetched. Details have emerged on how police trained these two women for more than 10 days prior to their temple entry. Vijayans (Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala chief minister) police will get only such activists, not real devotees, said its leader KS Sasikala. Kadakampally Surdendran, Devaswom minister defended the police saying that if they said more women visited the temple, then it could be true. However, he added that he did not have any evidence to prove this. BJP , Congress trade charges The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday blamed the Kerala government for failing to ensure law and order in the state and condemned the attack on the residence of its Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan. Union minister Smriti Irani accused Kerala government of detaining Sabarimala temple devotees who had raised voices against the state government. The social, political and law and order situation in the state has deteriorated and neither the citizens nor MPs are safe, she said. Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a statement on Sunday accused the BJP, RSS and the ruling government CPM of throwing the peaceful society of Kerala into an endless cycle of violence. We also want to say that the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee is only espousing long held traditions of people of Kerala in a peaceful and in an amicable fashion in order to arrive at a solution, which is justifiable and acceptable to everybody, he said. Two miners were found dead on Sunday in Meghalayas East Jaintia Hills district, who police suspect were killed by falling boulders that hit them while they were trying to extract coal, even as the fate of 15 people trapped in a flooded mine since December 13 is unknown. The dead were identified as Elad Bareh and Monoj Basumatry from Mooknor in Jalyiah village. The matter is under inquiry and efforts are on to find the owner of the quarry, police said. Police have uncovered another four cases of illegal mining in the coal-rich East Jaintia Hills district, an area where a National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on such activities has been in place for more than four years. Illegal mining has been rampant after the Supreme Court extended the date to transport coal that was already supposed to have been extracted prior to the NGT ban in 2014. Also Read: Meghalaya rat-hole mining tragedy: Politicians have a lot to answer for As soon as we arrest 10 (illegal miners), 20 more turn up in the district, superintendent of police of East Jaintia Hills S Nongtnger said while speaking to the Hindustan Times over the phone. Meanwhile, police have been conducting raids on illegal coal mining and during one such incident, a person called Abdul Hussain, who was allegedly operating a crane to lift fresh coal from a mine in Sankilo Umlawang village, was apprehended. A case was registered against him in Khliehriat, the district headquarters. In another case, three men, Binod Basumatary, Bikram Sonal and Arjun Rai, were apprehended while allegedly illegally extracting coal in the Sankilo area. The owner of the mine was identified as Willingness Latam of Moopala village. On Saturday, police had arrested four labourers, Prakash Basumatary, Jogan Boro, D Narzary and Ram Kumar Rai, while they were allegedly mining coal illegally near Lelad Junction. The owner of the mine has been identified as Brojoy Dkhar. Also Read: Absence of blueprint posing hurdles in rescue of trapped Meghalaya miners: Centre tells Supreme Court Meanwhile, the rescue operation for the 15 miners trapped in a flooded illegal coal mine in Ksan village of East Jaintia Hills district was affected on Sunday as the two high-powered pumps engaged in dewatering faced technical glitches. Rescue officials at Ksan said that more than 12 lakh litres of water have been pumped out of the flooded mine, but even on Sunday the reduction in the level of water was only two feet after seven hours of running the pumps. This was due to seepage of river water from other parts of the mine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday exchanged New Years greetings and discussed bilateral cooperation in key areas including defence and counter-terrorism. The two leaders also agreed that India-Russia cooperation plays an important role in the global multilateral order. Both countries, therefore, will continue their close consultations in the United Nations, the BRICS, the SCO and other multilateral organizations, a statement from the prime ministers office said. The prime minister also wished the president and Russian citizens on the occasion of Christmas, which is being celebrated in Russia Monday. The two leaders appreciated the major milestones achieved in the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries in the past year. Recalling successful wide-ranging discussions in Sochi in May and during President Putins visit to New Delhi in October for the annual summit, the leaders agreed to maintain the momentum in the bilateral relations. President Putin reiterated the invitation to the annual Eastern Economic Forum in September 2019, the statement said. Bilateral cooperation in the key areas including defence and counter-terrorism was also discussed, it said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is open to infusing need-based liquidity into the financial system, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday ahead of a meeting with the shadow banking sector, which has been hit hard by a funding crunch. Government officials have pressed the RBI over the past few months to ease lending and capital rules for banks and provide more liquidity to shadow banks. They have also urged the RBI to step up lending support for small businesses and allow the government to use more of the central banks surplus reserves to boost the economy. Das said the RBI constantly monitors liquidity conditions and would take steps to address any deficit in the banking system. But he said it was also keen to prevent the creation of excess liquidity. The Reserve Bank would not like a situation where liquidity becomes kind of loose money, he told reporters in New Delhi. Any infusion of liquidity will have to be very carefully considered and has to be need-based. He said the central bank would meet representatives of non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) in Mumbai on Tuesday. Defaults by big NBFC Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) on some of its debt obligations late last year triggered declines in stock and debt markets, and led to concerns about broader risks in the financial sector. There has been a lot of discussion and a lot of views have been expressed about the issue of liquidity faced by the NBFCs, Das said. So in tomorrows meeting we will utilize the opportunity to get a perspective from the NBFCs. He also said the RBI was considering governance reforms for state-owned banks, which dominate the banking sector with over two-thirds of its assets. Governance reforms are an important component of the revival of public sector banks, he said. There is definitely improvement noticed in the reduction of the non-performing asset levels of the banks as a whole and the public sectors in particular. But he added improvements will have to be sustained if the banks have to fulfill their responsibilities. A 20-year-old engineering student from Odishas Rourkela was allegedly raped by at least six men in Jharkhands Chakradharpur for two days before being dumped in a forest, police said on Monday. According to the complaint lodged with Government Railway Police station in Rourkela, the woman was abducted by her brothers friend and then raped by the men for two days in a house in Lotapahar area of Chakradharpur. The men then dumped her in a nearby forest on January 1. Rourkela GRP superintendent of police Ajay Pratap Swain said no one has been arrested so far. Swain said the woman was waiting for a train at the Rourkela railway station on December 30 to go to her home in Jharsuguda district. She met her brother friend, who reportedly advised her to board a particular train along with him to reach Jharsuguda. When the girl boarded the train along with the youth, she soon realised the train was not heading towards Jharsuguda but towards Chakradharpur. The youth then advised her to get down at Lotapahar railway station in Jharkhand and take a bus to reach Jharsuguda, said Swain. However, the youth took her to a house after both reached the station. Five other friends of the youth arrived at the house and allegedly gang-raped the girl for two days, he said. The woman was released by the men on January 1, following which she lodged a police complaint in this regard. She is currently undergoing treatment in a government hospital in Rourkela and her brother said she is in a critical condition. Police said two teams have been formed to probe the incident and one has gone to Chakradharpur. Two days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in Odisha of being negligent towards the safety and security of women in the state. Official data shows there have been 5,422 cases of rapes of minor and 671 cases of gang rape between 2014 and 2017. Only 135 people have been convicted during this period. Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi in a letter to Patnaik in April last year had suggested training of police officials for faster and efficient investigation of rape cases. Norway on Monday said it is ready to mediate on the Kashmir issue only if such an intervention is desired by India and Pakistan though tensions between the South Asian countries could result in lower investments in key sectors such as health and education. Over the years, Norway has played a key role in mediating in hot spots such as Palestine and Sri Lanka, and former Norwegian premier Kjell Magne Bondeviks visit to Srinagar last November triggered speculation that Oslo could be eyeing a role in mediating in the Kashmir issue. Asked whether Norway could play a role in mediating between India and Pakistan on Kashmir in view of its role in neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said that nobody from the outside can make peace or make changes. So, if there is a movement in India and Pakistan for having talks together, of course, weand other countries that would say we can help in anything if there is a possibility. But it has to be partner driven, it has to be those who are part of the conflict, she said during a media interaction after inaugurating the new green building of the Norwegian embassy. Our government policy is very clear if we are going to help somewhere, they have to ask for it, its not an initiative thatcomes from the outside, she added. Solberg said India and Pakistan were big enough countries to make sure that they can also decrease tensions between them without help from the outside. Former premier Bondeviks visit to Srinagar was as a private citizen and not part of a governmental plan to start any negotiations, she added. She acknowledged that Norways efforts in Sri Lanka werent a success. Im sorry to say I dont think our Sri Lanka efforts led to a big success and Im still sorry for the way that the conflict in Sri Lanka ended up, she said. Solberg said she did not personally believe that military solutions solve problems, whether it was in Kashmir or in Syria. She added, I believe in participation of women and youth in peace negotiationsYou can have a victory through a military but you will still have the problems within Both India and Pakistan have to find the time for when they want to start talking about things but all countries that have higher military expenditure because you are not so friendly with the neighbours face the possibility of using less money on key sectors such as education and health, Solberg said. Norway has a long tradition of cooperation with India and a record number of Norwegian businesses are looking to find partners in India to produce goods for the burgeoning Indian markets and to create jobs in both countries, Solberg said. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday claimed that the Centre has not sanctioned the funds required to acquire land for the construction of the Kartarpur corridor. Government of India has not sanctioned funds to even acquire land there. How will we finish the work before November, ANI quote him as saying. In November 2018, the government had announced its decision to develop the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjabs Gurdaspur district till the gurdwara at Narowal in Pakistan. Making the announcement, union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the 3-4 kilometre long corridor would be funded and built entirely by the Central government. The announcement was welcomed by the Sikh community in India and by the Pakistan government led by Imran Khan, who laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan on November 28. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had attended the event along with union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri. The corridor is to be built at a cost of Rs 85-100 crore. Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case, used to force girls to dance with scanty clothes on vulgar songs and have sex with his guest, revealed a 73-page charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The charge sheet was filed before the special POCSO court of additional district judge RP Tiwari on December 19. Those refusing to entertain the guests were offered only roti and salt at night, while those who danced were given good food, noted the charge-sheet, a copy of which is with HT. To be sure, the charge sheet is silent on the roles of officials who, despite knowing about the horrors in the shelter home, could not protect the girls. The investigation revealed that the girls were drugged and sexually abused by Thakurs guests. As many as 21 people, including Thakur, were named as accused in the charge sheet, and 101 others, including 33 victims, listed as witnesses. Child rights activist and advocate KD Mishra, however, wondered why the CBI let off officials, including those from the social welfare department and its directorate. Section 19 of the The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act clearly stipulates that any person having the knowledge of an offence shall provide information to the police. Why the officers did not report the matter even as they were aware of it since the beginning of 2018? asked Mishra. He also sought to know from the CBI as why it did not investigate the roles of senior officers, even as they were deemed to be penalised under section 21 of the POCSO Act. I have filed complaints in the Sachiwalaya police station and the office of director general of police (DGP), Bihar. But neither of them was taken note of, said Mishra, adding that he would take the issue to court. The accused named in the charge sheet are Indu Kumari, Minu Kumari, Manju Devi, Chanda Devi, Neha Kumari, Hema Masih, Kiran Kumari, Saista Pervin alias Madhu, Dr Pramila, Kiran Kumari, Ramanuj Thakur alias Mamu, Ramashankar Singh alias Master Saheb, Ravi Kumar Roshan, Vikas Kumar, Dilip Kumar Verma, Vijay Kumar Tiwari, Guddu Kumar Patel alias Gudddu, Krishna Kumar Ram alias Krishna, Rozy Rani, and Dr Ashwini alias Asmani . The CBI stated that Thakur was the owner of the shelter home, which was run by the non-governmental Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti. He was charged with sexually abusing the girls. Thakur used to beat the girls on their private parts if they refused to have sex with guests. Ravi Kumar Roshan and Mamu often assisted Thakur in course of making girls to dance in front of guests and raping them, noted the charge sheet. Roshan, who was a child protection officer, also allegedly exploited the girls. Vikash Kumar, a member of the child welfare committee (CWC), often raped the girls after drugging them with sleeping pills. Dilip Kumar Verma, CWC chairman, who was referred by the victims as ganda aadmi (dirty man) was accused of sexually assaulting the minors. Rozy Rani, assistant director in the child protection unit of the government, alleged kept blind to the horrors. Dr Pramila, who was roped in for health check-up of the inmates, also took no pains to report the matter and instead offered them abortion pills, according to the charge sheet. The sexual abuse case came to light in April 2018 after a social audit report prepared by TISS on the status of all state-funded shelter homes in Bihar. The report found that the inmates were sexually exploited. Medical tests found that as many as 34 of the total 44 girls were sexually abused in the shelter home over a period of four years. Following the report, the Muzaffarpur police lodged an FIR against 11 people. Nine of them, including seven women, were arrested and sent to judicial custody on June 2. The police filed a charge sheet in July by and transferred the case to the CBI. Investigations have revealed that Thakurs NGO was selected to rune the shelter home as he had political connections with the ruling party and some bureaucrats. The Supreme Court had described Thakur as a very influential man and recommended shifting him to Punjab jail from Bihars central jail. The Muzaffarpur municipal corporation has dismantled the four-storey shelter home structure as it violation of building laws. The NDA government has given its nod to a 10 per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker sections (EWS) among general category. The proposed quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 per cent. A constitutional amendment bill would be required as the constitution does not provide for reservation on the ground of economic conditions. It envisages amendment to Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. But who all can avail the 10% quota? A senior minister in the NDA government said the criteria will be similar to that of non-creamy layer in Other Backward Caste (OBC) reservations. So people with an annual family income of less than Rs 8 lakh per annum are eligible. Family may include the person seeking the benefit, his/ her parents and siblings below 18 years and also spouse and children, below 18 years. Those with less than five acres of farm land would also be covered under the EWS quota. Other criteria are having a house which is less than 1000 sq ft and a residential plot not exceeding 100 yards in a notified municipality. In case of a residential plot in a non-notified municipality area, the residential plot should be below 200 yards. Government sources said Mondays decision would benefit aspirants from the general category across all religions provided they meet the economic criteria. The ruling BJP expects the bill to help consolidate its support among the upper castes as it begins campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Read more| 10 per cent reservation for general category historic, says PM Modi at cabinet meet Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said on Monday his party has no objection or opposition to writer Nayantara Sahgals presence at a Marathi literary meet, after its organisers withdrew the invitation over threats by a member of his party. The Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad said the decision to revoke the invitation to the 91-year-old author was taken to avoid any untoward incident after a political outfit threatened to disrupt the event if she was invited. The sentiments behind the resistance by my colleague were stemming from the fact that the very essence of Marathi language needs to be safeguarded. Though his sentiments are correct, one has to take into account the very fact that a very senior and noted writer like Nayantara Sahgal is going to be present at the literary meet, Thackeray said in his note. When in her presence, our profound culture and traditions stand unveiled, it can become a medium to exhibit our culture to the rest of the world. Keeping this in mind, my party and I have no objection to it, he said. Thackeray also expressed his sincere apology to the organisers of the meet for any inconvenience and strain. I want all the sainiks to discuss such sensitive topics and issues with me before taking any stand in future, he said. The official stand of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena regarding the ongoing controversy pertaining to the presence of acclaimed writer Nayantara Sahgal at the 92nd Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan pic.twitter.com/uQQx6u2V4o Raj Thackeray (@RajThackeray) January 7, 2019 Sahgal, a Sahitya Akademi winner, was at the forefront of the award wapsi or return of the awards campaign in 2015 against the growing intolerance in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. The niece of the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was invited to inaugurate the 92nd literary meet in Yavatmal in the presence of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Modi govt has suddenly woken up to woes of economically poor: Congress Congress party has always supported every step for reservation and extending support to the economically poorest poor sections of the society bereft of cast, community or creed. We will continue to support any step that provides opportunity and employment to the economically backward sections of the society. The truth, however, is that in last 4 years and 8 months, Modi government has suddenly woken up to the woes of economically poor.. it raises questions on the intent of the Modi government: Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala Youth asking when will they get jobs: Congress The government accepted in the Parliament that there are 24 lakh vacant posts, that have not been filled by the Modi government. We are in favour of reservation in jobs, but the youth is asking when will they get the jobs: Randeep Surjewala Without jobs, creating reservations for jobs: Congress Without jobs, creating reservations for jobs could be another jumla, says Randeep Surjewala. Move raises questions on intention of govt: Congress When less than 100 days are... Modi govt remembered the economically backward, it raises questions on the intentions of the government: Randeep Surjewala For four years and eight months, Modi has continuous attacked the shopkeepers, farmers, middle-class, small businessmen with demonetisation and Gabbar Singh Tax GST has alone impacted 2 crore jobs: Surjewala. Congress dubs govt decision as election gimmick Congress described the governments decision as an election gimmick and accused the BJP of posturing ahead of the national elections. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the government did not think about this for four years and eight months and brought this just months before the model code of conduct coming into effect. Ceiling will be raised to 60% I welcome wholeheartedly reservation given to economically... Now the ceiling will be raised from 50 to 60 per cent... Parliament is very much empowered to raise this ceiling, BJP MP and Udit Raj said. Masterstroke, says Ramdas Athawale Union minister for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale has welcomed the Narendra Modi-led governments move to clear a 10 per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker sections among the upper castes. Bill to be introduced tomorrow Sources said the government is ready with a bill which will be introduced in parliament tomorrow, the last day of the Winter Session. Cabinet approves 10% reservation for economically weaker upper castes The government has cleared a 10 per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker sections among the so-called upper castes. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi success in connection with the parliamentary elections in India during a phone conversation, a statement from the Russian embassy said. The conversation between the two leaders focused mainly on bilateral cooperation and current international issues and they congratulated each other on the New Year, the statement said. Vladimir Putin wished Narendra Modi success in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections in India, the statement added. Modi and Putin appreciated milestones in the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries in 2018. Recalling their successful discussions at an informal summit at Sochi in May and during Putins visit to New Delhi in October for the annual summit, the two leaders agreed to maintain the momentum in the bilateral relations, said a statement from the external affairs ministry. The leaders also confirmed their mutual willingness to increase cooperation in fighting international terrorism and solving other pressing world issues, the Russian embassy statement said. Putin reiterated the invitation to the Indian premier to the annual Eastern Economic Forum in September. Modi expressed his best wishes to the Russian people on the occasion of Christmas, which was celebrated in Russia on Monday. The leaders agreed India-Russia cooperation plays an important role in the global multilateral order and that the two sides will continue their close consultations at the UN, Brics, SCO and other multilateral organisations, the external affairs ministry statement said. The government will try to push the bill to criminalise the practice of instant divorce among a section of Muslims over the two remaining days of Parliaments winter session, which ends on January 8. It is also open to reintroducing an ordinance or an executive order to criminalise the practice if the legislation is not passed, according to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries. A united Opposition on Monday last thwarted the governments attempt to push the bill in Parliaments upper House or Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha or the lower House earlier passed the bill on December 28. The government had earlier been forced to issue an ordinance to criminalise the practice in September 2018 after failing to have an earlier version of the bill passed in Rajya Sabha. The revised bill includes bail provisions as part of attempts to soften some aspects of the proposed law. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had last month opposed the introduction of the fresh bill saying it has no procedural safeguards to prevent its misuse. He added the bill conflates civil law with criminal law by criminalising a wrong form of divorce and by criminalising an act which is already legally null and void. The apex court banned the instant divorce practice in August 2017. Parliamentary affairs minister Narendra Singh Tomar told HT on Sunday that the government will focus on the bill to criminalise the instant divorce along with two others to replace three existing ordinances. He appealed to the Opposition help pass the bill to criminalise instant divorce. The Opposition wants a joint select panel to review the divorce bill. Tomar pointed out that the bill has been amended to address the concerns of different members. During the debate in Lok Sabha in 2017, some members raised important points and thereafter the bill was amended. While it is a tradition to send bills for review by committees, such a reference is not a mandatory requirement for passing bills, he said. The House is supreme and much more important than a committee. We have debated it twice in Lok Sabha. Derek OBrien, Trinamool Congresss parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha, said panels scrutinise bill. With all respect, he [Tomar] is a trainee minister. Bills are scrutinised in Parliamentary committees, not on the floor of the House. Earlier governments sent 65-70% of bills for scrutiny. The figure for this government? A dismal 20% The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, provides for three-year imprisonment and fine for any Muslim man, who abandons his wife through instance divorce. The government has made little headway in the Upper House on the revised bill in the face of the opposition from the Congress and a large number of Opposition parties, which enjoy a cumulative majority in Rajya Sabha. BJP functionaries indicated on Sunday that the Centre may explore the option to bring another ordinance to keep the law alive if the bill fails to go through in Rajya Sabha. ...the Rajya Sabha may be prorogued after Tuesday, said a BJP functionary requesting anonymity. An ordinance lapses unless it is converted into legislation within 42 days of commencement of a Parliament session. The government may also table the National Register of Citizens report in Parliament. The draft report, published in July, had left out 40 lakh people in Assam. The other two bills to replace related ordinances include the Indian Medical Council (Amendment), Bill. It proposes to allow a board of governors to exercise the councils powers. With the winter session of parliament nearly over and no sign of the promised amendment to help restart iron ore mining in Goa, things are increasingly bleak for the industry that was hoping to be up and running before this years Lok Sabha elections. Shut since March 15, after the Supreme Court ruled that the renewals of 88 mining leases by the state government in 2015 were illegal, the industry has pinned its hopes on an amendment to either the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act or the Goa Daman and Diu (Abolition of Concession and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987 in order that it can avoid the process of auction as is now mandated by the MMDR Act. On Monday, a group of around 300 mining dependents -- a bulk of whom are drivers and operators of trucks and other mining machinery now out of work -- confronted Goa public works department minister Sudin Dhavalikar over the continued impasse and no solution in sight to restart mining. Dhavalikar, in turn, promised them that he would secure an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before January 16. The dependents had organised a protest in Delhi to coincide with the start of the winter session of Parliament -- effectively the last full-fledged session of this governments tenure-- hopeful that the amendment would be passed before it concludes. With the session drawing to a close, that dream appears over. We are trying all possible means to restart mining, South Goa BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar said declining to comment further when asked what the fate of the promised amendments was. Once the code of conduct comes into force, the decision will have to be put off until the new government takes charge. Besides the Lok Sabha elections, Goa is due for by-polls in two constituencies, whose dates could be announced over the coming days. Puti Gaonkar, who leads the mining dependents, said that despite the session nearly ending, there was yet hope. They can yet pass an ordinance, Gaonkar told Hindustan Times when asked whether he still held out hope that the amendment would be passed. There is time. we will wait and see, he said. He has in the past warned that a failure to restart mining would politically be the doom of the BJP in Goa. With mining the mining industry the source of income to 75,000 families, the resumption of mining is a politically sensitive issue in Goa. Earlier when reacting to news reports that the Union Law Ministry had rejected a proposal for an ordinance to help resume Goas mining, Sawaikar had assured that if not an ordinance, the amendment would be passed. It could be because they dont want an ordinance but a regular bill, Sawaikar had said adding that ultimately even an ordinance would have to be placed before Parliament. This was before the winter session of parliament could begin. The opposition Congress has meanwhile scoffed at the governments inability to find a solution to the problem despite promising they would do so. We had travelled to Delhi to express solidarity with the protesting dependents. But even leaders of the ruling party were sitting in protest. Protest against whom? Its in their own hands to bring out a solution. Its a shame that union ministers have to sit in protest against their own government, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar said. The party said they have been promised an all-party meeting to take stock of the situation. When the Supreme Court lifted its ban on mining in Goa is 2014, it had ordered the state government to grant fresh leases and presented it with an opportunity to start with a clean state. Instead, the state government renewed the leases the SC had deemed to have expired in 2007, leading to the SC to strike down these renewals in a judgement issued in February last year. Faced with no option but the grant fresh leases through an auction, the state government is seeking to either undo amendments made to the law in 2015 which mandated the auction or -- as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar sought in a letter to Union mines minister Narendra Singh Tomar -- by altering the very basis of the Supreme Court judgement and through legislative cure extending the validity of Goas mining leases. Goas mining industry dates back to the 1930s when mining began through Portuguese concessions and at its peak before it was banned in 2012 for large-scale illegalities the state was producing 54-million tons annually making it the biggest exporter. As Kerala reeled under a spate of shutdowns and violence over the entry of women of reproductive age in Sabarimala temple, the Kerala High Court on Monday banned the practice of calling shutdowns at a moments notice. Expressing strong disapproval at the practice, the court said that a shutdown without prior notice was unconstitutional and can be challenged in a court of law, and that such protests can be declared only after giving a prior notice of seven days. The Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry had moved the court in the wake of many shutdowns in the state, which witnessed four statewide work disruptions after the Supreme Courts September 28 verdict which allowed women of all ages in hill temple. While hearing the plea, the division bench of Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and A K Jayshankaran Nambiar said the government should explore a legislation to regulate frequent shutdowns. It also held that damages to public and private properties during such a protest will be realized from the party or persons who sponsored it. The latest shutdown on January 3 to protest against the entry of two women in their 40s into Sabarimala led to widespread violence across the state and police have arrested more than 5000 persons in connection with it. After three days of violence, peace returned to the state on Monday with no major violence is reported from any part. Police have recovered 20 powerful country-made bombs from north Keralas Kannur district, notorious for recurring violence between cadres of the RSS and the CPI(M). Meanwhile, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed the BJPs threat to dismiss his government saying his government would not cower in fear in front of any threat. He said his government will mercilessly suppress any move to foment communal trouble in the state. They cant intimidate us using Presidents rule threat. Forces that are threatening us are inimical to the constitution and rule of law, he said. The government has also decided to bring an ordinance to prevent destruction of public and private properties during protests. Challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a debate in parliament on the Rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the government of working to weaken the state-run aerospace major HAL and destroying Indias strategic capability. Speaking outside Parliament, he claimed that though the defence minister had said a lot of things in Lok Sabha while replying to his questions, she had not answered any of them. Did the defence minister question the PMs interference in the Rafale deal? When the bypass surgery was done and the number of planes reduced from 126 to 36, did the IAF officers object to it or not? The defence minister gave a long reply in Lok Sabha but did not answer yes or no to the question whether PM interfered or not, Rahul said. Watch: Rahul Gandhi dares PM Modi to a 15 minute debate on Rafale in Lok Sabha Picking on defence minister Nirmala Sitharamans statement in Lok Sabha that the defence ministry was helping the beleaguered Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Rahul said she was lying when she made that statement. The defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman lied in Parliament claiming Modi government has given Rs 1 lakh crore to HAL, he said. Terming the Congresss doubts over her statement on HAL contracts as incorrect and misleading, defence minister Nirmala Sitharman in a brief statement in Lok Sabha, said, over Rs 26,000 crore worth of contracts have been awarded and work amounting to Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline. Not accepting Sitharamans statement in Lok Sabha, Rahul said the government hasnt paid HAL the Rs 15,700 crore it owed the public sector body for the planes and helicopters it had delivered. Dassault, which has not delivered a single plane, has been already been paid Rs 20,000 crore, whereas HAL, to which the government owes Rs 15,700 crore for finished projects, is still waiting for its payment, Rahul said. At the same time, he targeted the prime minister on the issue of a deal that has been given to industrialist Anil Ambanis company. Anil Ambani hasnt made anything, yet he has been given the contract. HAL, which has made planes, helicopters etc, is not being given the contract, Rahul claimed. The strategy of the government is - weaken HAL, do not give it money, destroy Indias strategic capability and give gift to Anil Ambani, Gandhi alleged. He reiterated his demand for a one-on-one debate with Prime Minister Modi. Give me 15 minutes with PM Modi for a debate on Rafale, the country will know the truth, Rahul said. Five members of a dance troupe in Odishas coastal district of Kendrapara were killed on the spot Sunday night when the vehicle they were travelling hit a stationary truck from behind amid dense fog. Members of the Royal Dance Troupe were on their way to Panikoili in Jajpur district at around 1 am after finishing a programme in Kendrapara town, said Derabish police station inspector Sudhir Kumar Sahu. The car probably could not see the truck standing near a weigh bridge at Alabanka square due to dense fog and hit it from behind. All the five died on the spot, said Sahu. One person was critically injured and has been sent to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Officials said the impact of the accident was so severe that the front portion of the vehicle was completely mangled. We had to cut away the metal parts of the vehicle to recover the bodies. The flesh of some of the deceased are still stuck to the vehicle, an official said. The truck which was hit from behind has gone missing. In the first week of 2019, there have been a series of accidents involving picnickers. Two days ago, 30 picnickers travelling from Bhadrak district to Ganjam were injured while going on a picnic. Fatalities have been on a steady rise in Odisha over the last five years even as the state government has begun impounding the driving licence of offenders for speedy driving under the directions of Supreme Court committee on Road safety. In November last year, Odisha transport minister Nrusingha Charan Sahu told the state assembly that 43,312 people had died in road accidents between 2008 and September 2018 in over 1.04 lakh accidents. Since 2013, the annual road accident death toll has not dropped below 4000. As per the SC committee order, Odisha has been penalising truckers and bus owners for carrying excess goods carriage and passengers, said transport department officials. Besides, those using mobile phones while driving and those driving udner the influence of alcohol are also being penalised. The air force has got a go-ahead to construct 108 modern shelters to house fighter aircraft in forward areas on Indias northern borders at a time when China has ramped up activity in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which overlooks Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Ladakh. The Union Cabinet had recently allocated about ~5,500 crore for the project to build the Next Generation Hardened Aircraft Shelters (NGHAS), said three senior officials aware of the development who asked not to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media. In the past few months, there were reports of increased activity by the Peoples Liberation Army (air force), which has carried out several exercises, including moving troops at a rapid rate in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has now spread its fighters in disparate bases in the eastern sector. While the fighters can be scrambled as when required from different bases, it will be difficult for the enemy to target every base, a senior IAF officer said, explaining the decision. Majority of the hardened shelters will be designed to house the Russian made Su-30MKi jets the mainstay of IAFs fighters. In 2016, a parliamentary committee on defence pointed to the fact that IAF did not have protective shelters to keep the Su-30Mki. Hardened shelters are not available for even the limited numbers of aircraft that is available with the Service, the committee observed. Apart from the hardened shelters, IAF has also inducted new technology to repair damaged runways in a few hours. The combination of the hardened shelters and capability to repair damaged runways quickly gives us an operational edge, said a senior defence ministry official. NGHAS are specialised structures comprising layers of reinforced concrete, sand and steel. They can protect aircraft from direct hits by a 2,000-pound bomb. IAF bases in the western sector have blast pens tunnel-shaped concrete structures covered with a layer of earth and protective walls near their openings, which are supposed to protect aircraft from the effects of blasts in case of an attack. However, with the change in warfare technology the blast-proof pens may not be enough to protect assets, the officer quoted above said, explaining why IAF needs NGHAS. To underline the importance of the hardened shelters, a second defence ministry official said IAF told the Union government that during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, nearly 60% of the air forces loses were of fighters that were on the ground. After the 1965 war, India started building blast-proof pens. The blast-proof pens ensured that fighters on the ground were safe during the Bangladesh liberation war. No aircraft on the ground was lost during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war, he said, adding that IAF told the government that the need of the hour now was to upgrade to NGHAS. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam has welcomed the constitution of a nine-member high-level committee by the Centre to implement a clause of the Assam Accord of 1985 despite reservation from several groups. The move to constitute the committee headed by former Union tourism secretary MP Bezbaruah follows a Union cabinet decision in this regard. Many students and indigenous groups in Assam have derided the move as it comes at a time when the central National Democratic Alliance government is pushing to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. A joint parliamentary committee on the bill will submit its recommendations in Parliament on January 7. While the bill seeks to grant citizenship to religious minorities from three neighbouring states who came to India till December 2014, Clause 6 of the Assam Accord seeks to protect Assams cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of Assamese people. Both are contradictory, say indigenous groups. Theres fear among a large section of Assamese if the bill is passed, Hindu Bangladeshis would pour into the state and threaten the indigenous communities. Several organisations in Assam and across the northeast have called for an 11-hour shutdown on Tuesday to protest the bill. All Assam Students Union (AASU), which led the six-year agitation against illegal Bangladeshis that culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord, has decided not to send its representative to be a member of the high-level committee. But the ruling BJP in the state seems unfazed. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) and Clause 6 are complementary and not contradictory to each other, said Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam cabinet minister and senior BJP leader. If CAB is not brought then 17 Assam seats will go the Jinnah way, said Sarma. Asked if he meant Muslims, I am not naming any community, he said. He gave the example of Sorbhog, an assembly seat in lower Assam which elected BJP state president Ranjit Dass and has a sizeable number of Bengali speaking voters including Hindus. If those people are not there those 10,000 crucial votes are not there in Sorbhog and that seat will go to Jinnah, said Sarma. He said the committee, which will submit a report within six months, has been formed after a cabinet decision and he has been assured that the recommendations will have constitutional status following his discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If something leads us to make Badruddin Ajmal the chief minister then we will have to check that policy. That is why all this exercise is going on, Sarma said. Ajmal, a member of Parliament is the president of the India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a political party which is believed to have the support of Bengal-origin Muslims among other sections. Sarma said the committee will also give some attention to the contentious issue of who is an Assamese even as the Centre and the state government are working towards defining it. To define the Assamese people we support any cut-off date which is 1951 or prior to it, Sarma said. Students of a primary school in Bhadivar village in Uttar Pradeshs Prayagraj district were forced to attend their classes in the cold outdoors after agitating farmers locked up stray cattle inside the school premises on Monday. Principal Kamlesh Singh said that when he reached at 9am, he found over 100 stray cattle locked inside the premises of the school in Shankergarh development block. The school starts at 10 am. As the school gate was locked and over two dozen agitating farmers, armed with sticks, were sitting outside the gate, as many as 40 students were made to sit and study outside the premises. The agitating villagers were not in favour of opening the gates, he said. Sub-divisional magistrate, Bara, DS Pathak said the villagers were agitated as the stray cattle have been destroying their crops for the last several months. We got the school premises vacated by 1.30 pm. Measures will be taken to ensure that such an incident is not repeated, he said. According to reports, residents of Bhadivar village and its surrounding localities in Shankergarh block have been suffering from the stray cattle menace for the last few months. Failing to get any relief despite lodging a complaint with tehsil officials, they were forced to lock as many as 100 animals inside the primary school. Asked about the issue, district magistrate Suhas LY said an FIR will be lodged against villagers who locked up the cattle, thus hindering the functioning of the school. The incident came barely a few days after chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed all the districts magistrates to ensure that farmers dont face any problems due to stray cattle menace and also to shift the cattle to Gau Sanrakshan Kendras by January 10. China has firmed up an outline to sinicise Islam by 2022 in an effort to redefine the practice of the religion and align the beliefs of Muslims with the Communist Party of Chinas (CPC) policies and traditional Chinese culture. The five-year plan (2018-2022) was discussed and agreed upon by eight Islamic associations and government officials at a conference held in Beijing on Saturday. Sinicisation of religion could be defined as an effort to mould religious beliefs and doctrine to bring them in line CPCs objectives and the culture of the majority Han community. Details of the plan were not shared in a report on the conference in the nationalistic tabloid, Global Times, which only said the outline will soon be released. President Xi Jinping in 2015 had spoken about sinicising the five major religions practised in China: Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism and Daoism. The CPCs focus has been on Islam in the remote Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where, according to the United Nations, a million Uyghur Muslims could be interred in re-reduction camps to pledge first loyalty to the Party. At Fridays seminar, government-appointed Islamic officials and clerics agreed that their religion needs to follow the CPCs lead. They agreed that the outline is the basic policy for Islamic sinicisation covering the next five years, according to a statement published on the official website of the Chinese Islamic Association. Yang Faming, head of the Chinese Islamic Association, said at the seminar that relevant measures should be implemented including holding lectures and providing training on socialist core values, laws and traditional culture as well as guiding Muslims through vivid stories with a positive spirit. Gao Zhanfu, the vice-dean of the Beijing-based China Islamic Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday that sinicisation of Islam had matured since the concept was brought forward in 2015 by President Xi Jinping. Sinicisation of Islam is not about changing the beliefs of Islam, habits or ideology but to make it compatible with a socialist society, Gao said. In October, a CPC leader said in Xinjiang that the Partys leadership over religious work must be upheld, and that the infiltration of religious extremism must be guarded against. You Quan, a member of the CPC central committee secretariat, one of the top decision-making bodies of the party, and head of the partys powerful United Front Work Department, expressed hope that people in religious circles can inherit and carry forward the fine traditions to love the motherland and their faith, lead religious believers to follow the right faith and abide the law and contribute to the healthy development of Islam. The Delhi High Court on Monday set aside the ban on anti-inflammatory medicine Ace Proxyvon, used for painful rheumatic therapy, ruling that the centres decision to ban the drug had been taken without application of mind. Justice Vibhu Bhakru also said the ban order was passed without following certain procedures. Justice Vibhu Bakhru said that the sub-committee was required to give sufficient reason for its recommendation, as its report was required to be considered by the Centre for determining the question whether to proscribe or restrict a Fixed Drug Combination (FDC). this Court is of the view that the impugned notification cannot be sustained. The same is set aside. The matter is remanded to DTAB/Subcommittee constituted by it to examine the issue regarding the said FDC in accordance with the directions issued by the Supreme Court, the judge said. Ace Proxyvon was one of the 328 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs banned by the Centre in September last year. The health ministrys ban on FDCs included painkillers, anti-diabetic, respiratory and gastro-intestinal medicines, covering 6,000 brands. FDCs are two or more drugs combined in a fixed ratio into a single dosage form. This is the one of the first petitions against the centres ban order to be decided by the high court. The court was hearing a petition by Wockhardt Limited, which had challenged the Centres notification of September 7 banning Ace Proxyvon, which is prescribed for people with painful rheumatic conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Ace Proxyvon, sold in a tablet form, is a mixture of three salts -- aceclofenac, paracetamol and rabeprazol -- a combination which is banned. Also Read | 64 per cent of antibiotic cocktails sold in India illegal: Study The pharma major had argued that it had not been provided with the report of the Drugs Technical Advisory Board, or DTAB, that formed the basis of the decision to ban the medicine. The health ministry had banned manufacture and sale of 349 fixed dose combination medicines in March 2016. Pharma companies had then appealed in the high court, which cancelled the ban. The Centre appealed against the ban in the Supreme Court which asked DTAB to re-examine the case. The expert panel had concluded that there was no therapeutic justification for the ingredients contained in 328 of the 349 FDCs and may also involve risk to humans. Protests erupted across Assam and ripples were felt in other north-eastern states as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government cleared changes to the Citizenship Act, a decision that also prompted one of its regional allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), to break ties. The amendment proposes to give citizenship to people from neighbouring countries who are religious minorities there, letting those who have lived in India for a particular period of time be naturalised. This has become contentious because it can potentially inflame ethnic divides in the north-east, where the influx of immigrants from Bangladesh has been a major issue over three decade. We met [Union home minister] Rajnath Singh today. He said the bill will be passed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. We had no other option but to withdraw, said Ramendra Kalita, general secretary, AGP. Earlier, the AGP president led a delegation to the home minister to tell him about their decision to withdraw from the alliance. In Assam, protesters burned copies of the legislation in angry marches, and announced a shutdown for the region on Tuesday the first serious threat to the BJP. The BJP has emerged as the biggest party in the north-east over the past two-and-a-half years. The BJPs now estranged ally, the AGP, has its roots in the 1985 Assam Accord, which stated that anyone who entered the state after March 1971 would be seen as an illegal immigrant and should be deported. The AGP has 14 legislators in the 126-member assembly. Its withdrawal will not affect the state governments stability as the BJP has 61 MLAs and enjoys the support of the 12 MLA-strong Bodo Peoples Front. The bill will allow citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. To be naturalised, applicants must have in India during the 12 months leading up to December 2014 and for 11 of the 14 years prior to that. While the Union Cabinet cleared the redrafted amendments, a joint parliamentary committees (JPC) report, submitted to Lok Sabha, also endorsed the proposed law. Headed by BJPs Rajendra Agarwal, the JPC added the considered view that since the matter is still subjudice, the government have to tread with caution and take recourse to all legal precautions lest it causes embarrassment at a later date. The committee, its report added, also believes the primary objective of the Assam Accord to protect the cultural, social and linguistic identity of the Assamese would not be impeded by the new law. The report, however, saw sharp political rifts as eight MPs Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD), Derek OBrien and Saugata Roy (TMC), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), and Bhubaneswar Kalita, Pradip Bhattacharya, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Sushmita Dev of Congress submitted dissent notes. According to the Congress, the bill would create ethnic divisions in not just Assam but the entire north-east and could lead to a resurgence of extremist groups. Assam BJP president Ranjit Dass refused to comment but general secretary Dilip Saikia said the amendment was a national commitment by the party. It will have some impact on our fortunes but we are hopeful people will eventually see the good work done by the Narendra Modi government, he said. In Assam, several organisations staged protests, with demonstrators in some instances stripping naked to protest against the bill. Protesters shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and two of the north-easts biggest students groups the North East Students Organisations (NESO) and the All-Assam Students Union (AASU) announced a shutdown on Tuesday. The BJPs other allies, Meghalayas National Peoples Party (NPP) and Mizorams Mizo National Front (MNF), also opposed the proposed law. We are going to support the NESO bandh. Mizoram will be completely shut. We are vulnerable if people can get citizenship so easily. Mizoram has immigrants from Bangladesh and Burma (Myanmar), Zoramthanga, Mizoram chief minister and president of the MNF told HT, adding the proposed amendment will encourage illegal immigration. We as a state government have passed a resolution in the cabinet (against the bill) and that is the most aggressive stand any government has taken, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma told journalists on Monday evening. Asked if the NPP will withdraw support to NDA, Sangma said, Our side we have been clear to NDA government that this is something we will not support. We will see when the time comes but as of now we have made our stand clear we are not supporting this amendment bill. Meanwhile in Nagaland, the cabinet of the NDPP-BJP alliance government decided to request the Centre to reconsider the Bill. (With input from David Laitphlang in Shillong) Three years after India brought the speech-and-hearing impaired woman back from Pakistan, a couple from a Hawasa village in north Bihars Darbhanga district, has claimed that she is their daughter. After Geeta was brought back to India in October 2015, several attempts were made to reunite her with her family. However, the efforts proved futile as none of the families that had come to claim Geeta as their flesh and blood could establish their claim. Early this week, the Darbhanga based familys claim reached the local district administration office. The family from Hawasa village under Hayaghat block submitted evidence to substantiate their claim that Geeta is their lost Guddi. Authorities have forwarded details of their claim to the home department. Geeta currently stays at Indores Mook Badhir Sangathan, an NGO. The Indore NGO recently made Geeta talk to Hayaghat block development officer (BDO) Rakesh Kumar via a video call. The BDO with the help of an interpreter showed Geeta several places of the village to help her recall her memories if she hailed from Hawasa. Geeta seemed to have recognised several places in the village, which, she felt, were similar to her native village. She now desperately wants to travel to the village during weekends because of her studies. I am hopeful that whenever she visits the village, she would be able to relate herself more to the place, and may be, she would also recognise her parents and unite with them too, the BDO said. The couple was also present during the BDOs video call with Geeta, but the latter did not recognise Shobha Devi as her mother. The BDO said she identified the spots like pond, local hospital, a mill and brick kiln situated in vicinity as very much identical to her native place. She said railway tracks passed close by her village home and there was a temple situated on a cliff. The temple and railway tracks are located a little faraway from Hawasa village. The BDO said the Darbhanga district magistrate (DM) also spoke to his Indore counterpart and briefed him about the claim of the Hawasa family, whose differently-abled daughter had got lost in Haryana where they had gone to work as migrant labourers a decade ago. Assuming that the woman might have a faded memory of her childhood, the BDO showed her various spots in the village through video calling. She talked about mutter and machchli (peas and fish) which are found abundantly in this part of the state. I went to Chandanpatti village, situated at a distance and showed her a temple of lord Hanuman. She, however, appeared confused, the BDO said. A DNA test is the only hope to establish the authenticity of the claim, he added. On whether Geeta could be brought to Hawasa village, the BDO pointed out that these measures could be initiated only after approval from the ministry concerned. In a petition submitted to the DM office, Shobha Devi, wife of Sheet Manjhi, contended that their six-year-old speech-impaired daughter had gone missing from Bhora Kalan in Gurugram 12 years ago. When I had gone to serve meal to my husband in the farm, my Geeta was playing with 8-10 girls. However, when I returned I did not find here there. All efforts to trace her turned futile. We returned home and now my husband works in a factory in Haryana, Devi said. The family claimed that Geeta has striking resemblance to their lost daughter. Her appearance resembles Devis father and maternal grandfather, a native of Manoratha village in the same block. Devi has two sons, one of them born after her daughter went missing. In the village Anganwadi centre, the age of Devis daughter was mentioned as 5-year-old in 2006. Neighbours of Sheet Manjhi and his elder brother Kamlu Manjhi said Geetas video clip and available photo of their lost daughter Guddi bears striking resemblance. Earlier, the Hayaghat MLA, Amaranth Gami, who met the couple recently, assured to provide the family all help. He said Geeta could be the daughter of Devi. I will arrange their travel and write a letter to the Indore based NGO, where Geeta is staying. A meeting between them will clear all confusion. If necessitated, DNA sampling will be done to verify the claim, Gami said. The Narendra Modi-led government has cleared 10% reservation in college admissions and government jobs for so-called economically weaker sections (EWS), with the benefit likely to go to upper caste groups and once-dominant agrarian communities such as the Patidars, Jats, Gujjars and Marathas who have been lobbying for reservation. As many as 190 million people could benefit from this. The Union Cabinet approved this quota and will introduce a constitution amendment bill in Parliament on Tuesday, three senior ministers said on condition of anonymity. The Cabinet didnt officially announce this on Monday because such announcements cannot be made when Parliament is in session. A constitution amendment bill needs two-thirds of both Houses present to pass it. The 10% quota, the government believes, will clear the legal hurdle such reservations face. The National Democratic Alliances (NDA) move on the quota comes months ahead of Lok Sabha elections and, according to analysts, is targeted at the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) traditional support base, some of whom have grown disenchanted with the party in recent months. They add that this may have been one reason for the partys recent loss in the Madhya Pradesh state elections. The bill defines EWS households as those with an annual income less than Rs 8 lakh, having land under five acres, a house less than 1000 square feet; a residential plot less than 100 sq yards in notified municipalities; and a residential plot less than 200 sq yards in other municipalities, according to the first minister. This is the same criteria used to exclude the so-called creamy layer from quotas for Other Backward Classes or OBCs. It will benefit the poor among upper castes, and other communities such as Marathas, Jats and Gujjars, even the economically weaker among minority communities who are deprived of existing reservation benefits, the first minister added. Currently, the Scheduled Castes (15%), Scheduled Tribes (7.5%) and the Other Backward Classes (27%) get reservation benefits. That adds up to 49.5%, and the Supreme Court (and some high courts) have shot down proposals to introduce new quotas. This follows a 1993 Supreme Court ruling. However, states with a higher reservation preceding the ruling, such as Tamil Nadu (69%), have retained those. The government is confident that its bill will withstand legal scrutiny because the Supreme Court judgment is with regard to quota on the grounds of social and educational backwardness. We have tried to carve out a new category economically backward section and provide reservation to them through provision in the Constitution, the second minister said. Not everyone is convinced. The Congress dismissed this as election gimmick. Why did you not think of this for four years and eight months? Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi tweeted. So obviously thought of as election gimmick three months before the model code. You know that you cannot exceed 50 per cent maxima so it is done only to posture that you tried. Asked whether the Congress will support the bill in Parliament, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: The son or daughter of a person who is economically poor should get their share in education and employment. We will support all steps for this. The BJP leaders dismissed any possibility of a backlash from the SC or OBC communities since the latest provision does not alter their share in the quota. Moreover, it will help us consolidate support among upper caste voters. To be blunt, what is the harm if we are trying to do so? the second minister said. Constitutional expert and senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan dismissed the government proposal as a gimmick. This move of the government does not correspond to any thing legal, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his Cabinet colleagues the decision was historic and fulfills the long pending demand of a large section of population that was poor and had no access to reservation benefits. This is a big social change, the third minister quoted Modi as saying in the Cabinet meeting. It comes months ahead of Modi seeking another term as prime minister and plays to the concerns of upper castes. The Modi government faced opposition from upper caste leaders for reversing a Supreme Court order, which diluted provisions such as immediate arrest under the SC/ST atrocities act. The second minister said that bill will seek to amend articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution that deal with reservation in employment opportunities and educational institutions, both government and private. A new clause to provide for 10% reservation to the economically backward will be inserted, the minister said. Through this, the Modi government is giving constitutional recognition to deprivation and poverty among upper castes. The ministers were at pains to point out that the Constitution does not cap reservation. The upper castes have a significant share in population in northern and central India states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and others. The Jats and Gujjars dominate Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. With Modi, a leader from the backward community, as the prime minister and partys most prominent face, the BJP reaped benefits of its growing acceptance among the non-Yadav backward communities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and others. All this while, the upper castes, the BJPs traditional voters, remained loyal to the party. A BJP general secretary said that the party suffered in Chhattisgarh because of a complete shift of OBC votes towards the Congress. Of late, there was a realisation about a sense of disenchantment among the upper castes too. The Congresss ability to draw upper caste voters towards itself in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh was a worry. We needed to correct this situation, the first minister said. Union minister Shiv Pratap Shukla said, This is not an attempt to placate the upper castes. We are trying to give them their right. We are not doing a favour to them. It is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modis motto of sabka sath, sabka vikas. Those who do not want to get this bill passed in Parliament may go ahead. We will try to get this bill passed, he said. Union minister and Dalit leader Ramdas Athawale, head of the Republican Party of India, a constituent of the NDA, and a Dalit leader, welcomed the move. The issue of reservation caused a lot of conflict between Dalits and upper castes, he said, adding that the reservation for upper castes would end friction between them and Dalits. We expect to pass this with two-thirds majority... other parties should not be opposed to the bill. It is a masterstoke, but many strokes are still pending. Modi is a strong batsman; there will be many sixes and fours, said Athawale who is the minister of state for social justice and empowerment. The exam season is round the corner and the preparations for board exams are going on in full swing. While students are heading closer towards the D-Day for exams, the boards are also working towards taking all the important steps to conduct free and fair exams. Bihar Board will conduct its board examinations from the month of February while the practicals will begin this month. The practical exams for Bihar Board 2019 intermediate exams will begin from January 15, 2019 for which the admit card has already been uploaded on the boards website. On the other hand, the final admit card Bihar Board exam 2019 for matriculation has also been released and is available for download from January 7, 2019. The final admit card for Bihar Board 2019 intermediate exam (Theory) that is beginning from February 6, 2019 and conclude on February 16, 2019 will release very soon. According to an official of Bihar Board the final admit card for BSEB 2019 intermediate exam will be released after January 20, 2019 and before the end of the month. The board official said that the BSEB 2019 intermediate practicals will be held from January 15 to 25, 2019 and the final admit card will surely be issued by the end of January. Generally, the admit card is released at least 10 days before the date of exam. Important Links Bihar Board 2019 Class 10th and 12th date sheet Bihar Board 2019 Admit Card for Matric Exam Bihar Board 2019 Admit Card for Intermediate Practical Exam Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out a template for the unification of Taiwan with mainland China recently. The Chinese leader last Friday said the Taiwanese could have their own private assets, religions, beliefs and legitimate rights under the sovereign rule of Beijing. Mr Xis offer was similar to the two systems, one country offer that preceded the takeover of Hong Kong. But it has less credibility. Hong Kong was told it could keep its democratic political institutions. Today, the ex-British colonys press is repressed, power lies with whosoever Beijing chooses, and democratic activists are harassed or in jail. Today, at a time when China is ruled by an increasingly heavy iron fist, there is no likelihood a communist-ruled Taiwan would enjoy any of the democratic rights it currently enjoys. Mr Xi was honest enough not to promise any political freedom, saying only that the Taiwanese would find greater development space. While Mr Xi said he would use military force if necessary, he was relatively reserved compared to early last year when, speaking of Taiwan, he declared China would never cede a single inch of our land and was ready to fight a bloody battle against our enemies. His moderation probably derives from the recent electoral setbacks of Taiwans ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Previous heavy-handed attempts by Beijing to influence Taiwanese politics have backfired. Polls continue to show a quarter of Taiwanese favour unification. With the pro-independence party facing likely defeat in upcoming presidential elections, Mr Xi sensibly decided to put forward a political unification plan. While sharp words between Taipei and Beijing have been par for the course, the regional environment is much more tense. Mr Xi has repeatedly said the takeover of Taiwan is at the top of his legacy list and is open to both peaceful and warlike means to do so. After Chinas illegitimate capture of the South China Sea, his comments are being taken as more than just rhetoric. The Trump administration has been moving slowly to formalising what has so far been an unwritten US defence understanding with Taiwan. Last year, the US legislated the formal exchange of high-level meetings, including military officers, with Taiwan. Recently, President Donald Trump signed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, which reaffirmed the US commitment to Taiwans defence and pledged regular arms sales to the island nation. Taiwan is not yet a flashpoint, but in an Indo-Pacific increasingly overshadowed by Sino-American tension, the island has become yet another heat source at a time of rising geopolitical temperatures. George Orwells famous dystopian novel, 1984, turned 35 in the year 1984. To mark the occasion, the Toronto Star asked another famous writer to indulge in some predictions for what the world might be like 35 years from then. Isaac Asimov, one of the worlds most famous science fiction writers, wrote about what he thought 2019 would look like at the start of that Orwellian year; and, as it turns out, he wasnt all that much off the mark. Even if Earth has not managed to live under the faint semblance of a world government by co-operation or solve the industrial waste problem by shifting industry in a wholesale manner out of the earths surface to space, many of his predictions are almost eerily on point. Thirty five years ago, he appears to have clearly foreseen the human races increasing reliance on computers and the mobile computerized object penetrating the home. He predicted a vast change in the nature of education and the need to teach everyone on the planet how to deal with a high-tech world. The consequences of human irresponsibility are another thing Asimov saw clearly. Writing about waste and pollution, he saw how these consequences would have become more apparent and unbearable by now; but he optimistically believed that humans would have figured out a way to deal with it. He had hoped that by 2019, our technologies would have helped not just reduce, but reverse the deterioration of the environment. Asimov writes, Waste would not even remain in Earths vicinity, but would be swept outward far beyond the asteroid belt by the solar wind. He believed that human beings would have found ways to defeat overpopulation, pollution and militarism by 2019; and that education would have been so revolutionised that it would become fun because it will bubble up from within and not be forced in from without. The other big miss, of course, is that Asimovs famous robots (he is credited with having coined the term robotics) are not nearly as ubiquitous as he may have foreseen. As a professor of biochemistry and a prolific science fiction writer, Asimov was always at the cutting edge of science, technology and their possible future applications. And as 1984 was dawning, the Cold War between the US and the USSR raged on, and nuclear war was a real threat. This meant that even if the communist dystopia of George Orwells novel had been averted, another kind of dystopia seemed imminent. Today, 35 years since Asimov hoped humanity would have figured out more and better ways to deploy its technological prowess, his predictions are a moral compass, showing us where the path could have led, and where we might yet strive to go. The Union and Delhi government are working on putting a daily cap on the number of vehicles that can be registered in the national capital, aiming to fight traffic congestion and air pollution through a radical mechanism that could make it harder to own a new vehicle in the city. According to senior officials and government documents accessed by Hindustan Times, the move comes on the direction of a department-related parliamentary committee, which on December 14, 2018, also asked the Delhi government to conduct a study on the impact of non-personal cars and taxi aggregators on the citys traffic. On December 26, 2018, the Union government wrote to Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev to convene a meeting on the issue. The committee has desired to know the plan to restrict the number of vehicles being registered every day in Delhi , restricting the number of vehicles entering Delhi every day, and the impact of non-personal cars and taxi aggregators on the flow of traffic, reads the letter sent by Govind Mohan, additional secretary (Union Territories) in the ministry of home affairs. A copy of the letter has been seen by HT. Approximately 1,850 new vehicles are registered in Delhi every day, according to the state transport department. Delhi has over 11 million registered vehicles the highest in India. An additional 80,000 vehicles enter the city every day. Dev did not respond to calls and message seeking a response. His office, however, confirmed that the chief secretary has asked the file to be put up at an urgent meeting to be held this week. To assess the impact that taxis have on the citys traffic load, the Centre has already asked the chief secretary to ask Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) to conduct a study. The Delhi government has 50% stake in DIMTS, which is an urban mobility planning body. A senior state government official who asked not to be named said the Delhi government is yet to decide the ways through which vehicle registrations could be capped and their entry to the national Capital restricted. The directions have just reached the Delhi government. It will take a lot of consultations with civic agencies and traffic police, before coming out with a final plan, the official said. Experts said that though it would be a mammoth task, restricting the registration of new vehicles could help immensely in solving Delhis traffic and pollution problems. Putting a cap on new registrations will take immense political will, but it is possible. Singapore has done it recently, where it has now completely stopped issuing car certificates which are mandatory while buying a new one or driving one. So, people there now have to wait for other drivers to give up their certificates in order to get permission, said S Gangopadhyay, former director of the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). To have control over its vehicular population, several cities in China have introduced a lottery system, he added. One cannot just go and buy a new car in Beijing. One has to participate in a monthly lottery conducted by the authorities to get a car permit. Though Delhis annual winter pollution is caused by a variety of reasons, vehicular pollution is blamed for about 23% of it, according to a 2018 report published by The Energy and Resources Institute and Automotive Research Association of India. Vehicular emissions also lead to a spurt in NOx (nitrogen dioxide) and carbon monoxide levels, apart from PM2.5 particulate matter. Talking of ways through which the number of cars on city roads could be restricted, Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment said: The government should reconsider its old proposal of making parking proof certificates mandatory while buying a new car. Car owners should also be given a chance to tie up on annual basis with parking agencies for daily parking spots. Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said he is yet to see the letter. I havent seen it, but the Delhi government is already working on a lot of measures to curb vehicular congestion. A lot of it will be addressed once the Delhi parking policy will be notified, he said. A 30-year-old man was shot dead after he allegedly threw a stone at a pet dog in northeast Delhis Welcome on Sunday evening. The deceased has been identified as Aafaq Ali, a tailor by profession. The police have registered a case of murder against the dogs owner, identified as Mehtab. Police said Mehtab, a habitual criminal, has been missing after the crime. Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur confirmed that the murder took place after an altercation took place between the two men over throwing a stone at the pet dog. Prima facie, the dog belongs to the accused, said Thakur. Police said Aafaqs father-in-law called the police control room around 7pm and reported that his son-in-law had been shot by someone. When the police team reached the crime spot, they were told that Aafaq was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. A police officer said that initial investigations revealed that Aafaq was walking past Mehtabs house when the dog started barking at him. When the dog allegedly tried to bite Aafaq, he picked up a stone and threw it at the dog. Mehtab, who had seen Aafaq throwing the stone, brought his gun and after a brief argument, shot Aafaq. Mehtab saw Aafaq throwing a stone at his dog and got annoyed. An argument broke out between them. Mehtab brought a gun and shot Aafaq, said a police officer associated with the case. Delhi Police on Sunday claimed to have safely rescued a nine-month-old baby from Firozpur in Punjab, nearly 50 days after he was kidnapped from a pavement near Bangla Sahib gurdwara in central Delhi. A 20-year-old woman, who had kidnapped the child, and her 45-year-old male associate were arrested. The child had gone missing on November 18 last year. But a police case was registered only on January 2 this year, a day after the childs parents had allegedly already traced and nabbed the 20-year-old woman from near Palika Market parking lot on their own. The parents of the abducted child claim that they had informed the Parliament Street police station about their sons kidnapping on November 18, as soon as they figured that he had gone missing with the woman. When we went to the police, the personnel there asked us to trace the woman since only we had seen her and had no photographs of her. They also assured us that they will register a case and make efforts to trace our son and the woman, the childs mother said. Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Madhur Verma claimed that the parents of the missing child approached them only on January 1. The parents came to the police station and reported about their missing child only on January 1. We immediately registered a case and sent our team to Punjabs Ludhiana and Kurukshetra in Haryana, on indication of the accused (womans) presence there, to rescue the child. The woman initially tried to mislead us but later broke down and took us to a village in Firozpur from where the child was rescued. The infant, police said, was found inside the jhuggi of 45-year-old Ajit Singh, a resident of Haraj village in Firozpur. The woman, Sapna alias Kajal, had kept the child at his home. The two wanted to raise him as their own child, police said. Police said Sapna told them that she had kidnapped the child because she was unable to conceive even four years after her marriage. Sapnas husband had been arrested in a crime three years ago and is in jail. After her husbands arrest, Sapna went to Punjabs Amritsar and started living on a footpath outside the Golden Temple (gurdwara). There she met Ajit Singh, a pavement dweller, and they started living together. When she again failed to conceive, Sapna returned to Delhi and began living on pavements outside Bangla Sahib gurudwara and in Paharganj near the New Delhi railway station, said a police officer. The childs parents Pooja Devi and Mangal Singh said that Sapna had been living with them on pavements near the gurdwara for the past two-three months. Sapna often used to babysit the child when his parents were away for work. Pooja said that on the morning of November 18, Sapna came and took her son away, saying she was going to have tea and wanted to play with the child for some time. I got worried when Sapna went missing with my son. I alerted my husband and we launched a search in our locality. When we failed to find our child, we approached the Parliament Street police station, she said. On January 1, the couple spotted Sapna near Palika Market and nabbed her. She was brought before the police. The police interrogated her and later recovered the child. A resident of Kurukshetra, Sapna had fled her home around five years ago. Her parents are slum dwellers. Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is never short of energy, no matter the time or the place. The actor who returned home from his honeymoon in Sri Lanka with wife, actor Deepika Padukone, on Sunday was spotted at the citys Gaiety Galaxy theatre as he came to watch the late night show. Simmba has emerged as his highest solo earner. Soon after his arrival in Mumbai, the actor headed straight to the movie theatre to watch the film with his fans. He was spotted in all black while hiding his face with dark shades and a mask. However, he was seen outed by his fans and later photographed by paparazzi as he left the theatre. The Rohit Shetty film hit the theatres ahead of the New Year on December 28. According to a report in Boxofficeindia.com, the film has collected Rs 190 crore in 11 days and is expected to enter the Rs 200 crore club later this week. However, the cop drama will face competition from Uri: The Surgical Strike and The Accidental Prime Minister on January 11. The year gone by has been huge for Ranveer on both personal and professional fronts. His two biggest earners -- Padmaavat and Simmba -- were released this year and the actor also went on to get married to Deepika. Ranveer will now be seen as a rapper in the film Gully Boy, which will be screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film is based on the life of rapper Divine and stars Alia Bhatt as the female lead. Follow @htshowbiz for more The wedding celebrations are still not over for Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, who are yet to throw one more wedding reception for their Hollywood friends in Los Angeles. The starry bash is reportedly scheduled to take place in the last week of January. Until then, the couple are busy holidaying with their families in the Alps while their unseen wedding pictures continue to make way to the internet. Amid the countdown to their lavish LA bash, designer Sabyasachi shared new pictures from the actors bridal photo shoot on her wedding day. Other wedding photos also emerged online. The former Miss World wore a red Sabyasachi lehenga for her Hindu wedding on December 2. The photos shared by the designer give us a closer look as she poses in all her bridal glory for the camera. One of the pictures from the wedding show her walking down the stairs as she heads to the mandap. Her official wedding photographer, Stories by Joseph Radhik, also shared a very dreamy picture of the couple. Priyanka and Nick had tied the knot at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur in a Christian wedding ceremony on December 1, 2018 followed by a Hindu wedding ceremony a day after. A dance face-off during the sangeet had also taken place as part of the pre-wedding celebrations, which saw the brides relatives emerging as the winners. This was followed by one reception in Delhi and two in Mumbai. The actor will soon resume work on her next Bollywood film, The Sky Is Pink. Directed by Shonali Bose, the film also stars Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim. It is based on the life of motivational speaker Aisha Chaudhary who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. Have a look at some more unseen wedding pictures that have surfaced on her fanpages. Follow @htshowbiz for more Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor is back in Mumbai with husband Anand Ahuja. The actor, who will now be seen sharing screen space with father Anil Kapoor for the first time in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, was spotted with husband in Mumbai. The three were spotted together in Bandra and were happy to pose for the paparazzi. While the couple was twinning in white, Anil opted for orange. Sonam Kapoor with husband Anand Ahuja. (Viral Bhayani) Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja spotted in Mumbai. (Viral Bhayani) Actor Kangana Ranaut was also spotted at the airport in a black and white dress. The actor is currently promoting her film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi and looked pretty in the short dress paired with black stockings. Actor Shahid Kapoor was also spotted at the airport with wife Mira Rajput. Kangana Ranaut at the airport. (Viral Bhayani) Shahid Kapoor at the airport. Mira Rajput was spotted seeing him off. (Viral Bhayani) Choreographer turned filmmaker Prabhu Deva was also spotted at the airport. He looked charming as usual and sported a salt and pepper look that went well with his casuals. Actor Raveena Tandon was also spotted returning from Rajkot in a stylish peach tracksuit at the airport. MS Dhoni: The Untold Story actor Kiara Advani also looked winter-ready as she headed to the airport. Prabhu Deva and Kiara Advani at the airport. (Viral Bhayani) Malaika Arora was captured by the paparazzi in the city. The diva was in black casuals as she carried on with her daily routine. Janhvi Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan were also spotted during their respective gym sessions. While Simmba actor Sara sported a black vest and shorts, Janhvi was seen in a pink top and shorts paired with kolhapuris. Bigg Boss 12 first runner-up Sreesanth was also seen in the company of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and daughter Pooja Bhatt during the promotions of the film Cabaret. Sreesanth with Mahesh Bhatt, Pooja Bhatt and Gulshan Grover. (Viral Bhayani) Sushant Singh Rajput and Bhumi Pednekar were spotted together as they geared up to promote their film Sonchiriya in Mumbai! Sushant Singh Rajput and Bhumi Pednekar in Mumbai. (Viral Bhayani) Follow @htshowbiz for more Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form Uniontown, PA (15401) Today Areas of patchy fog early. A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers this afternoon. High 73F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 49F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Staff reports The Herald-Mail Light amid darkness: James C. Murray, your letter printed in the Opinion section of Dec. 24, 2018, was a joy to read, a light amid great darkness. Brenda Hardin, Hagerstown Crime of collusion: If you want collusion to be a crime, then you ought to pray Hillary doesnt get arrested. The Democrats are the ones colluding with the Russians via the dirty dossier. Collusion is not a crime. ... And, the people who have been convicted of lying or charged with lying have nothing to do with Russia in the case of Michael Flynn, not even the FBI believe he lied. The whole thing is a hoax. The entire investigation is garbage. Shawn Moore, Chambersburg, Pa. Love people who are still here: It seems that sometimes people are so busy mourning the death of a loved one, which I do understand, but they forget us who are still living. Kind of crazy in a way. Were still alive. We still have feelings. I know how it is to lose someone important, but I also know how it is to love people who are still here. Ruth Harvey, Big Pool Thanks for breakfast: I would like to thank the kind lady and gentleman who paid for my breakfast Wednesday morning at the Family Diner on the Dual Highway. Clara Hovermale, Clear Spring Thanks to Meritus: I wanted to thank Meritus for providing meals over the holiday season. I was the recipient of one, and I thank you. Merry Christmas to one and all. Warren Sipes, Hagerstown Tree taken down before first of the year: I went through the square today and noticed that the tree is down. I think thats very ignorant. Its not the first of the year yet. Theyve always left it up. I think that our towns going downhill. Marlene Willman, Hagerstown Tim Shea tims@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.Va. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morriseys office provided staff members at Berkeley Medical Center with intense training to target and reduce human trafficking. The training, which occurred Friday at the hospital, provided attendees with information about human trafficking. Medical professionals can be key in recognizing human trafficking, Morrisey said in a news release. They are among a small number of people a victim may encounter who can recognize and report suspected trafficking as they provide treatment following an injury or abuse. Without rescue, these victims are reduced to property and forced into dangerous situations that may go undetected for years. The training is part of a broader initiative to educate physicians, nurses, emergency-medical technicians and others across West Virginia on identifying the warning signs of human trafficking. Social factors are very important in determining the health of a person and a community, said Dr. Terrence Reidy, health officer with the Berkeley County (W.Va.) Health Department. Though we dont want to think about the horror of the kidnapping and slavery of human trafficking, we need to learn more to recognize persons trapped in this situation and to help them get out of it. Changes in West Virginia law inspired the attorney general to take the lead in combating this emerging crime. His office has conducted similar training sessions across the state for social-service and child-protective-service workers, law enforcement, prosecutors, educators and the community. Human trafficking is defined as commercial sex or labor induced by force, fraud or coercion. It is considered the fastest-growing and second-largest criminal industry in the world today, second only to drug trafficking, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. West Virginias increased rate of drug addiction and poverty, and its large number of children in foster care, make the state especially susceptible to human trafficking. Morrisey believes the training offered by his office will equip attendees with the necessary resources to better identify suspicious activity and tackle the growing criminal industry. Jennifer Fitch jenniferf@herald-mail.com School safety grants available in Pennsylvania HARRISBURG, Pa. Pennsylvania municipalities, colleges and community groups may apply for grants to boost safety and reduce the risk of violence. The grants will be offered as part of a new program to improve school safety and combat community violence. A total of $7.5 million will be awarded statewide through June 30 to support community-violence-prevention programs. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 7. Eligible uses for the grants include mentoring services and other intervention services for at-risk children and families; promoting communication between school entities and law enforcement; linking the community with local trauma support and behavioral-health systems; and other programs designed to reduce community violence. An additional $52.5 million in grants will be awarded to school districts to improve school safety throughout the fiscal year. Applications and more information about the grants are available on the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquencys website at www.pccd.pa.gov under the School Safety and Security link. Jennifer Fitch waynesboro@herald-mail.com New lawmaker opens Chambersburg office CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. Newly elected Pennsylvania state Rep. John Hershey added an office west of Chambersburg to address constituents issues. The office for the 82nd District is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Hamilton Township, Pa., complex at 1270 Crottlestown Road. Providing in-person access to all residents, without them having to drive for hours to my office, is one of my top priorities, so I am thankful to be opening the Franklin County office, Hershey, R-Franklin/Juniata/Mifflin, said in a news release. The office can be reached at 717-263-1053. Jennifer Fitch waynesboro@herald-mail.com HARRISBURG, Pa. Thousands of people trekked Sunday to the Pennsylvania Farm Show for the 103rd annual celebration of the states agriculture industry, with exhibits, food, competitions and opportunities to get close to animals. Linda Gilbert of Williamson, Pa., will be at the farm show each day through Saturday. Her position with Pennsylvania Dairy Princess and Promotion Services tables places her near the calving corner, where cows were in labor. One was in the midst of delivering a calf at lunchtime Sunday. When people come to see the miracle of birth, that never gets old, Gilbert said. Gilbert, who grew up on a dairy farm, was the Franklin County (Pa.) Dairy Princess in 1978. For two years, she has been program director for the statewide organization promoting the dairy industry. Gilbert has enjoyed interacting with Dairy Princess Brooke Emery and alternate dairy princesses Samantha Haag and Kara Stultz. Emery, of Huntingdon County, Pa., described the groups preparation for the farm show, which is open to the public through Saturday. We brushed up on current happenings in case there are questions, she said. The girls were crowned dairy princesses in their respective counties, then, in September, competed with skits, recipes, meetings with judges and a dairy-knowledge quiz. Haag, of Berks County, Pa., performed a skit called Dr. Moolittle. I talk to my cow puppet and she tells me whats wrong, she said. Those involved with dairy princesses not only do presentations at the farm show, but also Ag Progress Days and the All-American Dairy Show. They participate in leadership training for youths and events for the public. Our focus is definitely doing more consumer-based events, Gilbert said. The competition is open to those ages 16 to 24 who have links to the dairy industry, whether that be from a farm, business or retailer of milk products. Gilbert enjoys spending the week at the farm show, despite getting uncomfortable when spending all day on her feet. Come and experience the many different facets of agriculture, she said. Pennsylvanias midwinter show is billed as the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country. It draws hundreds of thousands of visitors for nearly 12,000 competitive exhibits, more than 5,200 of which are animal competitions. C.J. Lovelace cj.lovelace@herald-mail.com SMITHSBURG A weekend fire that damaged a former church building converted into a home in Smithsburg has been ruled accidental. In a news release Monday, the Maryland State Fire Marshals Office said Saturday afternoons fire began in the sanctuary area of the single-story converted residence at 12514 Bradbury Ave. Jim Riffle, who has owned the building and lived there for the past 14 years, said investigators told him the fire ignited from an electrical problem with stereo equipment. Riffle said he had just left with his sister before the fire started. The two were headed to his fathers house in Thurmont. As my sister and I were pulling into Thurmont, the firetruck was leaving to go to my house, he said. Firefighters from numerous companies were dispatched just before 3:30 p.m. for the fire, which was reported by a neighbor. The smoky blaze was brought under control in about 20 minutes. Damages were estimated at $165,000 to the structure and $82,500 for the contents, according to the fire marshals office. The majority of the damage was contained to the sanctuary area, Riffle said, which includes his living room, dining room, office space and kitchen. The master suite, to the rear of the building, was relatively unharmed. Riffle said he expects the insurance adjusters to come this week, as well as structural engineers, who will decide what he can do with the property. He would prefer to renovate it and continue living there, although its unlikely he can restore everything to its original condition. I cant get every historical detail back because people dont make things like that anymore, Riffle said. It was over 100 years old. ... I want to get back in there. Im not ready at this point to scrap it unless somebody tells me I have no other choice. The 1,200-square-foot building with 17-foot ceilings dates to 1897. It was initially built as a Hagerstown Church of the Brethren, Riffle said. The church outgrew the building and sold it in 1915 to a local Seventh-day Adventist congregation, which had the building moved to its current location on Bradbury Avenue in Smithsburg, he said. It operated as a church until, what Im told, the mid to late 60s, Riffle said. In 1979, the building was purchased by Erika Thimey, a German immigrant and modern dance pioneer who lived in Hagerstown, and her sister, according to a story in The Washington Post following Thimeys death in 2006. The sisters used the space as a dance studio and living quarters. Thimey lived there until 2001. A few years later, the property went up for auction and Riffle bought it for $60,000, he said. Riffle, who works for Experient, an events management company in Frederick, said he will stay with his father in Thurmont while he waits to learn the fate of the historic structure. He said hes thankful he wasnt home at the time of the fire, and its helped him realize that stuff is just stuff. More than one firefighter told me, if I had been there, there was nothing I could have done, he said. My little 14-inch fire extinguisher was going to do nothing against this fire. Im grateful that I wasnt there and I can buy more stuff. This photo provided by the FBI shows Jamal al-Badawi, an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors, including two from Washington County. An American military spokesman said a U.S. airstrike in Yemen targeted al-Badawi. You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close No one knows exactly why Chinas economic growth may be slowing, or, given the unreliability of official statistics from Beijing, how much. After Apples announcement Wednesday of lower-than-expected sales in the Peoples Republic, Hong Kong and Taiwan, however, there is less reason to doubt that a deceleration in the worlds second-largest economy will be a major economic challenge in 2019. Unless President Donald Trump deals with the U.S.-China relationship wisely, the spillover effects from Chinas economic situation could be serious for this country and the entire world. Some of Chinas apparent slowdown reflects factors beyond outsiders control, such as the nations continued reliance on inefficient state-owned industries rather than the more dynamic private sector, and some of it actually reflects necessary Chinese policies, such as a tightening of credit to the overheated real estate market. Yet in downgrading investor expectations for his companys sales, Apple chief executive Tim Cook also cited the threat to China from rising trade tensions with the United States, which is very much a result of U.S. policy, specifically, Trumps imposition of tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese exports to the United States and his threat to impose more. Widner will graduate in May with a double major in environmental thought and practice and environmental science, with a minor in anthropology. Helm, a native of the mountainous region of Craig County, Virginia, graduated in 2018 after earning a degree in environmental science and anthropology. He has also visited with students in his home county, letting them know college is a viable option for them. Widner often relates his own stories to the younger students, giving them an honest and authentic glimpse of what its like to be a student at the university. Part of that discussion is a candid talk about his background and how he made up his mind that college was in his future. My family is fifth-generation tobacco farmers. I remember a conversation I had with my dad one day after we had labored on the farm. He asked me if this was what I wanted to do in life. As a child, I didnt realize the depth of the question at the time, but it was a very defining moment. I think he saw something in me that I could do more than the generations before me had done, Widner said. I tell the students that you are a product of your circumstances, but you dont have to be your circumstances. Seeing changes BRISTOL, Va. A series of events are planned this month to mark Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21. That morning includes volunteer opportunities to help construct the walls of homes on each side of the state line, followed by a planned march to the Bristol Train Station, according to a written statement. That will be followed by a program at the Train Station. That evening, nationally known minister, author and civil rights leader John Perkins is to speak at Lee Street Baptist Church. He is also slated to speak Tuesday morning at King University. Construction projects will occur at two home sites downtown near First Christian Church on Spencer Street on the Virginia side and near the YWCA in Tennessee. The work is sponsored by Holston Habitat for Humanity and is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., according to the statement. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Lunch is to be served at each site, and participants will then march the short distance to the Train Station at 2 p.m. The planned one-hour program includes videos and readings as well as dialogue involving local youth, school resource officers and other adults. Music will be provided by the King University Choir and MLK community choir. The program is expected to conclude at 3:45 p.m. Virginia State Police are asking for the publics help in finding the driver in a fatal hit-and run crash. The incident occurred just after 9 a.m. Sunday, when a vehicle struck a house in Smyth County, killing the woman inside. The driver fled the scene, according to a written statement. A gold 1993 Honda Accord was traveling west on Riverside Road when it ran off the right side of the highway and crashed into a house in the 500 block of Riverside Road, according to the statement.. Margaret A. Poe, 87, was at home at the time of the crash and died at the scene. She was the only one inside the residence. State police are working with the Smyth County Sheriffs Office to search for the driver. The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information about the suspect driver or this incident is encouraged to call the Virginia State Police at 276-288-3131 or #77 on a cell phone or by email at questions@vsp.virginia.gov. BRISTOL, Tenn. Starting with the first Bristol Tennessee City Council meeting of the year on Tuesday, city residents can livestream council meetings from the comfort of their homes. The first livestream of the 7 p.m. meeting can be viewed on computers, smartphones, tablets or other internet-connected devices, according to a news release from the city. Council began filming its general business meetings as early as December 2011, and made audio recordings since long before that, but this will be the first time the city has experimented with livestreaming. Terrie Talbert, director of community relations for the city, said livestreaming is meant to ensure maximum public access to meetings and allow residents to be as involved with city government as they want to be. However, councils monthly workshop meetings, which are held at 5:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of every month, will not be filmed. Talbert said thats because the atmosphere of those meetings is more casual, and it would make the city annex buildings conference room, where those meetings take place, a little too cramped. Residents who want to livestream the meeting can visit the citys website, www.bristoltn.org/, and click on City of Bristol, TN City Council Meeting Live or go to the citys official YouTube channel, WatchBTNTV. Puerto Vallarta IFC's Huichol Scholarship Fund Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - This lovely young lady is Geydy Bautista Diaz. She comes from an indigenous community in Jalisco's Sierra Madre mountains where the poverty rate is three times higher than that of the non-indigenous population and where over one third of the children between the ages of six and fifteen work. Geydy, however, is in her fourth year of university in Tepic where she is studying logistics engineering and holds a 9.6 GPA. Amazing! Geydy and four other Huichol university students, named Isaias, Aquileo, Angel and Herminio, recently received scholarships of $5,000 pesos each from the Huichol Scholarship Fund of the International Friendship Club (IFC) in Puerto Vallarta, to help support them in their university and college studies. The others are studying forest engineering, electromechanical engineering, financial administration and law, respectively. How these five students beat the odds and arrived at this point in their lives is a mystery that your humble scribe plans to unravel in the future. The Huichol, or Wixarika, like other Indigenous peoples in Mexico, are very poor. Their home communities in the mountains have worse living conditions, educational and social services than those enjoyed by other Mexicans; and that's saying something! Huichol usually marry between the ages of fourteen and seventeen and marriages are arranged by the parents when the children are very young. Extended Huichol families live together in rancho settlements, consisting of individual houses built of stone or adobe and thatched with grass. Each settlement has a communal kitchen and the family shrine, called a xiriki, which is dedicated to the rancho's ancestors. The buildings surround a central patio. It's a very simple and rural life. World-wide, Indigenous students face greater barriers to entering and completing college and university programs than others because they are poorer, tend to have access to inferior primary and secondary education, face more pressure to leave school and work, must leave isolated home communities to attend university in a culturally different community, and are required to study in a second language. So how does someone like Geydy or Isaias wind up studying logistic engineering and forestry engineering? It must take a huge amount of dedication and foresight to do that. Brian McDougall, who is the IFC member driving this program, was recently asked why these students want to change their lives so drastically. His answer was, "I can't answer that question for the five HSF students. However, based on a decade of work with indigenous students in Canada, I can tell you that a higher proportion of them, compared with non-indigenous students, are motivated by social concerns, instead of being focused solely on personal advancement. They often have ideas about how they can contribute to the survival and advancement of their communities. One of the five recipients, Isaias, asked for the names of the other recipients because he viewed them as potential members of a team who could cooperate to advance their communities. That's a pretty good indicator of the mind-set many of these students will have." In the future we hope to find out what role the university trained Huichol students are playing in their communities once they graduate. More specifically, what role they play in defending the Huichol nation from the many threats it faces, including resource extraction projects on their lands; ongoing disputes about their land with governments, companies and local ranchers; increasing presence of drug cartels in their territory, and the loss of community members to cities due to a lack of local employment opportunities. IFC's mandate includes the enhancement of educational opportunities and these Huichol scholarships certainly fit into that goal. The success of helping these five young Huichol adults is possible only by the cooperation between IFC, Volcanes Community Project, Rotary Club Sur, all from Puerto Vallarta, and the Wixarika Research Centre in San Diego. More information on the Huichol Indians and the IFC Scholarship Fund, and a discussion of the paradox in our expat community, where we experience the omnipresence of Huichol art and symbols, but know little about their history or current circumstances, will be presented by Brian McDougall at 10:30 am on Friday, January 25th at the IFC for a donation of $80 pesos for IFC members or $100 for non-members. If you would like to contribute to this scholarship program, please follow THIS LINK, and click "Donate to IFC Scholarship Fund." You will be doing nothing less than changing a life and, maybe, a community. It will help a poor but gifted student beat the odds and make a difference to their world. Again, my friends, even more important than reading this column go online and read about the proposed Bristol Resort and Casino yourself. Regardless of your current opinion, please educate yourself. (Yes, I am a teacher.) Visit bristolcasinoresort.com. Our entire city council and school board have already both unanimously voiced their full support of this venture, for very good reasons. Please research this project with an open mind, my friends, so you will be well-informed and wont fall prey to mere hearsay or fear. OK, so I have personally researched this proposed project (and considered all its possible impacts) quite thoroughly. I have looked up statistics regarding gambling and crime. I have viewed the aforementioned website above. I have talked to many residents. And with a very open mind, I have come up with a very solid conclusion my faith in this project is much stronger than any fear I may have once had. Speaking of faith, a local pastor came along with Jim, Clyde and me on our recent tour. I will not reveal his name here, but I can tell you that he came away, like me, with an invigorated and very real faith in what this venture can do for all our citizens. Support local journalism We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story. Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email customercare@heraldandnews.com for help creating one. A hard border in Ireland will not be avoided simply with good intentions, both Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British prime minister Theresa May have warned. With only a week left to whip up enough support to wrangle her Brexit deal through parlia- ment against all odds, Mrs May warned that avoiding a post-Brexit hard border in Ireland will not happen "simply because people sit around and say 'We won't have a border'". She made the remarks while defending the so-called backstop in her deal with the EU, which has proved the key stumbling block to securing agreement in the House of Commons on the deal. Threatening Her sentiment was welcomed by the Irish Government, with Mr Varadkar saying he hoped she would be listened to. "We need more than good intent and warm words. We need a treaty that can give effect to the practical considerations that are necessary to avoid a hard border," he told reporters while visiting Irish UN peacekeeping troops Mali. "That's why we put so much work into that agreement over the past 18 months. Whether people wish to understand it or not, they need to accept that by voting against the agreement they are threatening that possibility." Pressed on what would happen in the event that the deal falls in Westminster, in relation to planning to avoid a hard border, Mr Varakdar said they would need to go back to the table. "We are very much of the view that we will need to have an agreement to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland - we have that agreement," he said. Speaking on the BBC to signal the start of a final week of trying to sell her deal, Mrs May reiterated that the UK is committed to avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. "First of all, we're very clear that we will do everything, whatever the circumstances, everything in our power not to have a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," she said. "You say, 'Well, it won't happen'. Actually, no border doesn't happen simply because people sit around and say, 'Well, we won't have a border'." Mrs May said it is "about more than that. It's about businesses knowing what they do". "So, if you're in a situation where you're operating different tariffs, how do businesses deal with that in terms of customs?" she said. "So actually, as ever, this isn't just about aspiration. It's about practicality. "And that's the point. It's about making sure that we can guarantee that there will be no hard border. That's important to us. "Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, we owe it to the people of Northern Ireland." Ahead of the crunch vote, Mr Varadkar said he did not believe Ireland should be trying to directly win support for the deal in the UK, which he said could backfire. In a bid to help the deal through, Ireland was working with the EU on "guarantees, assurances and explanations" to assuage concerns on the backstop. Asked if he was disappointed in the quality of debate over the deal in Westminster, Mr Varadkar said: "I don't think it would be proper for me to be critical of another parliament, given the kind of things that happen in our own parliament from time to time." Mrs May said the previously postponed Westminster vote on the deal will take place by January 15. Temple to pre-Hispanic Flayed God Unearthed in Mexico Puebla, Mexico - Archaeologists in Mexico have found what is believed to be the first temple dedicated to a pre-Hispanic deity known as Xipe Totec, a god of fertility, war and agricultural cycles, who was worshipped with ritual sacrifices. Historians have long known that Xipe Totec, whose name translates roughly as "the Flayed Lord," was worshipped by numerous peoples across what is now central and western Mexico and the Gulf coast. But th discovery - made among the ruins of the Ndachjian-Tehuacan archaeological site in the central state of Puebla - is the first time a temple dedicated to the god has been found, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement. According to the institute, priests sacrificed captives on one of the temple's two circular altars, then flayed them on the other and draped themselves in their skin to imitate Xipe Totec, who is often depicted wearing the skin of a sacrificial victim. Stone Sculptures Artifacts uncovered at the site include three stone sculptures of Xipe Totec: two depicting skinned heads and one of a torso, whose back is covered with engravings representing the sacrificial skins worn by the god, the institute said. "Sculpturally speaking, [the torso sculpture is] a very beautiful piece. It measures approximately 80 centimeters tall and has a hole in the belly, which according to historical sources is where a green stone was placed to 'bring it to life' for ceremonies," Noemi Castillo Tejero, the lead archaeologist on the project said. The skulls measure about 70 cm in height and weigh some 200 kg. According to the institute, the objects were found at a site built by the Popoloca people, who began building in the area around CE 900 and were later assimilated into the sprawling Aztec kingdom, and would have been used from around the year 1000 until about 1260. The Flayed Lord According to the institute, Xipe Totec was one of the most important gods in pre-Hispanic Mexico and was worshipped in a ceremony called Tlacaxipehualiztli, which means "to wear the skin of the flayed one" in the indigenous Nahuatl language. Sacrificial victims, who were often prisoners of war, were killed either through gladiatorial combat matches or by being shot with arrows, before being flayed to glorify Xipe Totec. Their skins were later buried at the foot of the altars. Cult worship of Xipe Totec and other deities gradually died out following the expansion of the Aztec kingdom and the Spanish takeover of Mexico, which began in 1519 with the arrival of the conquistador Hernan Cortes. (CNN) U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he might declare a national emergency imminently to secure money for his border wall. "I may declare a national emergency dependent on what's going to happen over the next few days," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Camp David. A White House official told CNN on Saturday that Trump was leaning towards declaring a national emergency to use military funding for his wall. Trump has demanded Congress appropriate money for the wall, and his dispute with Democrats over the issue pushed the government into an ongoing partial shutdown. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with congressional leadership staff on Sunday afternoon, where, according to two congressional sources, aides would be given the White House's budget justification for about $5.7 billion for the border wall. Trump also said Sunday that he planned to call the head of U.S. Steel and other steel manufacturers to ask them to design a steel barrier for the southern border. Trump spoke to reporters again on Sunday afternoon and offered few details, but he reiterated he was "looking at a national emergency," adding, "We'll be letting you know fairly soon." Trump said that he would consider a deal that involved protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients, but indicated that he preferred to wait until the Supreme Court ruled on the issue. "I would rather have the Supreme Court rule and then work with the Democrats on DACA," Trump said. Trump said on Friday he "may" attempt to invoke emergency powers to build the wall, although such a move would be expected to face legal action. Schiff: 'A non-starter' The idea has met pushback from some, including California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that he did not think Trump would be able to use emergency powers to build a wall at the southern border. "Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this President doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion dollar wall on the border," Schiff said. "So that's a non-starter." Schiff said the burden remained on Trump to move and reopen the government, saying Trump had painted himself into a corner and needed to "figure out how he unpaints himself from that corner." The congressman also said that if Democrats give into Trump's demand, it would incentivize the President to attempt further shutdowns in order to extract concessions. "We just can't afford to do business that way," Schiff said. WH: Weekend talks unfruitful Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said in a separate interview on the same program that talks on Saturday to reopen the government "did not make much progress." Trump, in his comments to reporters Sunday morning, said he and Pence did not "expect to have anything happen" at further shutdown talks between Pence and congressional leadership staff Sunday afternoon. Trump said, however, that he expected "very serious talks" early this week and that he "can relate" to federal workers affected by the shutdown. "I am sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustment, they always do," Trump said. This story was first published on CNN.com "Trump: 'May declare a national emergency' to build wall" families who rent are being "locked out" of the housing market because they cannot get a mortgage, one of the country's leading county council bosses has said. Fingal County Council chief executive Paul Reid said a large number of families are unable to buy a home because they cannot save for a deposit. Mr Reid said these families are above the 75,000 a year threshold, meaning they do not qualify for the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme that allows those eligible to borrow up to 90pc of the property's market value. In an interview with the Herald, he said that while the market had been stuck at the developers' end, it is now stuck at the borrowers' end as councils try to tackle a spiralling housing crisis. "So, while you have a lot of these active developments, you don't have queues out the door, which you'd expect," Mr Reid said. "We have homes in Balbriggan for sale, new developments with Glenbeigh, very nice developments - 260,000 to 280,000 - certainly at the better end of affordable that you'd see around the place, but not flooding in at the door either." He added that "borrowers who are in the rented sector can't save up to the extent they need for the deposit and they're over and above the qualification for the Rebuilding Ireland home loan". "They can't apply for the Rebuilding Ireland loan. They're above it, they're renting, can't save up the other bit," he added. To qualify for the loan, a single person must be earning less than 50,000, while a couple cannot exceed 75,000. Mr Reid, who previously worked in central government, hit back earlier this year at a letter from Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy over the work of the four Dublin councils in addressing the homelessness crisis. Despite insisting he has a good relationship with the minister, and that funds are released quickly for housing projects, he has called on Mr Murphy's department to loosen the shackles on local authorities to help speed up the building process. He said more services should be devolved to local authorities, saying there has been a "parent-child relationship" between central and local government. Duplication "There can be a lot of duplication between us doing something and an equivalent set of architects in the department looking at it," he said. He added that central government is good at developing policy but less effective at implementing, which he believes is a strength of local authorities. "We're probably weaker on evaluation and options and economic assessment and impact but we're actually good at doing," he said. "Certainly from a Dublin region perspective, unlocking controls can only help." For years it has been shunned as a dated, dowdy and verging on dirty method of washing one's hands. But for the first time in a century, barred soap is making a comeback, emerging as a luxurious and classier alternative to bottled soaps. Following decades of decline, UK sales of barred soap have risen by nearly 3pc over the past year, retail data collected by Kantar Worldpanel has revealed. In the year to September 2018, supermarket shoppers in Britain spent 68.3m (76.2m) on barred soaps, up by 2.9pc on the previous year, the data showed. Backlash Sales of bars of soap grew faster than both liquid soaps and shower products over the period, suggesting shoppers are again warming to them. It comes amid a major consumer backlash against unnecessary plastic waste, as households are searching for more eco-friendly versions of everyday items - such as bags for life instead of plastic carriers, reusable coffee cups instead of paper ones, loose fruit and vegetables instead of those wrapped in plastic, and now bars of soap instead of plastic pumpers. Bottled pump soap became popular on the mass market in the late 90s as it was seen as a more hygienic alternative to bars, which were viewed as potentially harbouring germs and dirt. Since then, multiple scientific studies have proved this is a myth. Much of the increased demand for barred soap is coming from the higher end of the market, as luxury toiletry brands are expanding their ranges of barred soap to please their customers. A spokesman from Jo Malone said it had recently grown its range to include new scented Bath Soaps, which retail at 24 (27) for a 180g bar. Tim Nancholas, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: "After a long-term decline in traditional bar soap due to the rise of squirty hand soaps and gels, it is now outperforming the market." An Irish citizen captured by Kurdish-led forces in Syria had been on a "security watch list" when he lived here, the Herald can reveal. Gardai believe that the 45-year-old man - a naturalised Irish citizen who had lived in South Dublin for a number of years and worked in the security sector here - was one of five men who were arrested in Syria on December 30, allegedly fighting for Islamic State (IS), also known as Isis. The man, who has been named by numerous international news agencies as Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, left Ireland with his family, which included a young child, in 2013. It is understood that he had come to Ireland from Belarus at least a decade earlier. Gardai have confirmed that before he left this country, he had been on a "security watch list", which would have been drawn up by specialist counter-terrorism intelligence officers in the force's Special Detective Unit. "It can be confirmed that this individual had come across the radar of specialist gardai during his time living in Dublin. He was on a security watch list before he left the country," a senior source told the Herald. "It is not thought that he had any criminal convictions while residing here, but that needs to be confirmed, and it is also unclear exactly how long he had been living here, but it was certainly for a number of years for him to be able to become a citizen of the country," the senior source explained. Operation The Kurdish-led SDF has issued a statement claiming it arrested five men - including one from Ireland, two from America and two from Pakistan. "The operation Jazeera Storm, carried out with the aim of liberating the last regions under the occupation of Isis, continues steadily towards clearing the last bastions of the group," the SDF said. "Isis, which is now cornered in a small area after being cleared from large swathes of territory it once held, is suffering heavy losses due to operations of our forces. "Recently, in order to prevent the advance of our forces, terrorists have attempted to carry out attacks several times. "In this context, a group of terrorists who had been preparing to attack the civilians who were trying to get out of the war zone in masses was detected. Following long-term technical and physical follow-up, an operation against the cell was carried out by our forces. "As a result of the operation, five terrorists originally from the United States, Ireland and Pakistan were captured." SDF commanders estimated last year there were 4,000 to 7,000 IS members in the last IS-held pocket, with most of the militants being foreign-born. The threat level posed by international terror groups here remains at moderate, and the biggest danger is seen as likely to come from a "lone wolf" - someone who has been radicalised over the internet and operates alone. THE sun glistened on the river, mulled wine and bacon rolls kept spectators warm on the terrace as Leander held their annual turkey sculls on the Saturday before Christmas. Leanders director of rowing Mark Banks pulled names out of a hat to select the nine crews to race in quadruple sculls, mixing juniors, seniors, men and women together with many athletes donning Christmas fancy dress outfits. The winning crew in the final was Harry Leask, Callum Johnson, Olivia Caesar and Matt Peters. Leask, who stroked the crew, has been at Leander now for six years since joining aged 16 and made his debut in the GB senior team this summer with distinction, finishing fourth in the world in the mens single scull. Leask was also named as Leanders athlete of the year at the Christmas dinner that evening. Peters is on a gap year at Leander having come through the clubs junior squad while Caesar is a member of the womens squad having joined from Monkton Combe School in September and Johnson a member of the mens development squad. Each of the winning crew was presented by Mr Tom Copas with a Copas free-range turkey, donated by The Copas Partnership of Cookham. PVR Int'l Airport Served 4.76 Million Travelers in 2018 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The Gustavo Diaz Ordaz airport was pretty busy last year. According to the facility's operator, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, the Puerto Vallarta International Airport received about 4.76 million travelers in 2018. This represents a 5.3 percent increase in the number of visitors to the destination since 2017. Of all the flights, 66 percent of the traffic was international and 34 percent was domestic. Puerto Vallarta is becoming a highly popular destination for international travelers. This is no surprise as a route recently opened between Puerto Vallarta and Panama, and the airport now has routes from Manchester, England, as well as Helsinki, Finland. During the winter season, the airport will serve 53 routes, out of which 41 are international and only 12 are domestic. Just as impressive is how much the airport has grown since 2009. The airport went from 36 routes in 2009 to 53 in 2018-2019. That's an 80 percent growth in traffic over the last 9 years, or 9 percent per year. Now offering flights to more than 50 destinations around the world, including Quebec, Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago, and transporting nearly 5 million passengers a year, the Puerto Vallarta International Airport is getting its due investments. Passengers now have access to a free wireless Internet network and a new International VIP Lounge. And now a new terminal building, with more space, excellent services and commercial areas is in the works. The new terminal will span more than 200,000 square feet and include five new jetways and six security lines, according to Raul Revuelta, the general director of GAP. "Through these improvements to the International Airport of Puerto Vallarta we seek to contribute to the economic and tourist development of the States of Jalisco and Nayarit. By offering better service, we hope to add to international visitors' positive image of both destinations," Revuelta said. ALMOST 12,000 has been awarded to Oxfordshire Lowland Search and Rescue, which is based in Henley. The money from the Government will help the organisation continue to search for vulnerable people who go missing. The volunteers also help out after extreme weather and storms in Britain. Henley MP John Howell welcomed the funding, which is part of a 1 million package being awarded to dozens of charities working to keep inland waterways around the country safe. The money will go towards new equipment. Mr Howell said: I am delighted that we have recognised the fantastic work done by Oxfordshire Lowland Search and Rescue here in Oxfordshire, and in the Henley constituency in particular, and are providing support to allow them to continue doing so. The work they do, for example if someone with dementia goes missing, is invaluable and a great asset to the police. The volunteers of this charity really are unsung heroes. Their commitment saves lives and on behalf of the whole community, I extend my sincere thanks to them for their work. Oxfordshire Lowland Search and Rescue helped in the search for Frederick Lawson, 82, of Mill Lane, Shiplake, in April last year. His body was recovered from the River Thames two weeks later. When the manager ordered the customer to leave, the customer reportedly assaulted another employee on the way out. The defendant kicked the victim in the stomach while she was standing near the exit door, the police said in a statement. The first victim, James, is now looking to speak out against violence against women and violence in the workplace. I didnt know if he had a gun, a knife or what was he going to do to me. I felt very alone because no one helped me or anything, James told the HLN news channel. I was very overwhelmed and stressed because a man just grabbed me and tried to attack me. A representative from McDonalds said the company is working closely with investigators. Our highest priority is always the safety and well-being of our employees and customers at our restaurants, the company said in a statement. Press release HELENA Applications for Montana Community Foundation scholarships for the 2019-20 academic year are now available for Montana students. Last year, MCF awarded more than $430,000 in scholarships to 138 Montana students. These scholarships are made possible by the generous donors who have established scholarship funds at MCF. Scholarship awards generally range between $500 and $20,000, some of which are renewable for multiple years. Qualifications vary widely, resulting in scholarship eligibility for a diverse range of students. Both traditional and non-traditional Montana students are encouraged to apply. Students can apply online with a submission deadline for most applications of March 15. Our scholarship program is one of the most important things we do here at MCF, said Mary Rutherford, MCF president and chief executive officer. As our tagline says, were all about Montanas future, and we know the success of our students is critical to that future. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, deserving students across the state will be able to pursue their academic dreams this year. To apply or for detailed information on eligibility, deadlines, and awards for specific scholarships, visit http://www.mtcf.org/applications or contact Scholarship Manager Jenny Lou Stark at 406-441-4946 or [email protected] For guidance counselors and others interested in promoting these scholarships to their students, marketing materials are available by contacting Marketing & Communications Director Riley Meredith at 406-441-4952 or [email protected] Montana Community Foundations mission is to cultivate a culture of giving so Montana communities can flourish. Founded in 1988, MCF manages more than $100 million in assets and administers more than 1,100 philanthropic funds and planned gifts. MCFs accreditation through the Council on Foundations National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations ensures MCF complies with the strictest standards in gift administration and grant making. Since its founding, MCF has reinvested more than $61 million in Montana through scholarships, grants, and operations. With the federal government shutdown entering its third week, Fort Belknap Indian Communitys contingency plan went into effect Sunday, impacting workers and services at the reservation. I really appreciate the cooperation and commitment that all my tribal employees have demonstrated during this shutdown issue, Fort Belknaps Chief Administrative Officer Delina Cutstherope said Friday. She added that she believes that the Fort Belknap community wouldnt be as strong as it is and provide the services that is does without the employees. I think that they do an excellent job at the work that they do for the tribal government and our community, she said. I appreciate their sacrifice and their hard work during this difficult time. The contingency plan consists of an approximately one-third reduction in the workforce, she said. Approximately 240 employees will be working, with 83 of them working part-time, Cutstherope said, adding that the government will furlough 113 employees and lay off 40 temporary employees. Fort Belknap Indian Community President Andrew Werk Jr. said this morning that this is not his first time dealing with a contingency plan. He said the plan was something good for the community to have, and it is similar to the ealrier versions, although it has been updated. He added that under the plan, the tribe will maintain essential services that are in place as much and as long as possible. Its a good plan, Werk said, adding that the people who were working on the contingency plan put a lot of time and thought into it and have good prior experience. Cutstherope said several of the government-funded programs, such as public safety and health-related programs, core emergency programs, road maintenance, low-income energy assistance, food commodity and Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, will remain open during the shutdown and maintain usual office hours. Cutstherope said 20 other programs will also remain open and maintain usual office hours. These programs, she said, will have fewer available staff members or reduced client services. Transportation is another program that will have fewer staff members but will retain usual office hours, she said. Prairie Mountain Utilities, which provides water, sewer and garbage disposal services for the reservation; the tribal finance department; fish and wildlife department; tribal maintenance, and tribal land department, she said, will be monitored as the shutdown continues. She said the tribal government has a concern for the services that are client assistance driven, adding they are monitoring the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, very carefully. SNAP will be funded until Jan. 18, she said, adding that she understands the tribal government will have funds to maintain the program until March if the federal government shutdown continues. Werk said the tribal government has its own unemployment insurance program which is independent from the state and people who are furloughed or laid off are eligible for unemployment benefits during this time. Werk said other organizations or economic development organizations that are independent from federal funding, such as the casino and Island Mountain Development Corp., will not be affected. Cutstherope said the tribal government has been working with all the employees of the tribally based programs and tribal government officials, as well as the Blaine County commissioners, the Department of Health and Human Services and the governors office. She said they are working with the Blaine County commissioners because their two governments are intertwined and it is important that they work together. The last time the Fort Belknap Indian Community had a government shutdown similar to this one, she said, was in 1996 when the shutdown lasted for almost a month. Cutstherope said that they had a similar contingency plan then, although some programs and employment have changed so the impact to the work force now is greater. I think the difference between the previous shutdown (October 2013) would be the lack of confidence of when it would be resolved, she said. She added that with how the House and Senate and the president are communicating, resolution for the shutdown is still unclear, with no end in sight. I expect leadership in Washington, D.C., to resolve the issue so that federal employees can continue to get paid and not have to make a sacrifice for terms that cannot be agreed upon, she said. I think that while Congress continues to get paid many families are going to be negatively impacted by not being able to rely on a steady income that they work hard for otherwise and that they do a good job for. I think that our tribal government is going to continue to monitor our contingency plan as time goes on, daily, and make modifications as necessary to our contingency plan, which will have to be a reaction of further reduction, Cutstherope added. It may mean more people getting laid off over time, which is very concerning to our community and the services that our community relies on. Werk said that they will wait and see what happens, although he hopes that Congress and President Donald Trump will be able to come to a compromise so people can go back to work. He added he appreciates Gov. Steve Bullock reaching out to Fort Belknap and offering any assistance he could provide. Other impacts of the federal government shut down A representative of Rocky Boys Indian Reservation, who declined to give her name, previously said the shutdown will not affect the operations of Rocky Boy, which is a self-governing reservation. A request for additional comment from the tribal government had not been returned as of print deadline this morning. The shutdown is also continuing to affect other federal government programs such as the Farm Service Agency. Farm Service Agency said Market Facility Program payments for producers who have already certified production with the FSA will continue past Jan. 1. It said signup for the program ends Jan. 15, although this deadline may be extended. The bulletin said that also due to the lapse in federal funding, all commodity loan activity has been ceased as of Jan. 3. Farm Loans and Farm Storage Facility Loans programs, it said, will not process loan repayments, loan disbursements, refunds and termination of transfers during the shutdown. It adds that loan applications will also not be processed or considered until the lapse in federal funding has been resolved. The Bureau of Land Management offices are closed due to a lapse in government funding. Not all programs that rely on federal funding were impacted. Some federal agencies also continued full operations because their funding was approved prior to the shutdown and state-based programs that rely on federal funding will also be continuing. A Bureau of Reclamation representative, for example, said that agency was not affected by the government shutdown. The governors office worked prior to the Dec. 21 shutdown to ensure money would be available for state programs that use federal funding. Hill County Health Officer Kim Larsen said the county health department was not affected by the government shutdown and that WIC is still running as usual. Christine Muller fights back tears Friday while talking about the house fire that took her Kremlin home Dec. 18 in Rudyard. It has been three weeks since the Muller family lost their Kremlin home in a house fire and since then the Hi-Line community has rallied around the family in support. "We live in the best community ever," Christine Muller said. "I mean, I've always know that it was a nice community, but I didn't realize how awesome it was till this happened." "The Hi-Line community has been beyond amazing. The support, the outreach, the outpouring, has just been phenomenal," she added. John Muller grew up in the area, he said, living in Kremlin since 2003, when he moved from Havre, and Christine Muller said she has been in this area since 1999. John Muller said his parents have a house in Rudyard that was sitting empty, and after the Dec. 18 fire his family moved in. "Which is nice, having someplace to go, but it's not home," he added. "We loved our house, we absolutely loved it," Christine Muller said. She added that they did a lot of remodeling to the house, which was originally built in 1912. She said its age gave it a uniqueness and a lot of different characteristics that no other home would have. But now that they have lost their home, Muller said, they have to look at what options are available before deciding to do anything on their property. She said the community support has been great. Within hours after the fire, they had some clothes, Muller said. "People just immediately started gathering things so we could leave the hospital and have clothes to wear," she said. She added that the community concern, people calling trying to see what they can do to help, has been phenomenal. "We would like to personally thank everybody," she said, "although we can't possibly thank everybody." John Muller said someone organized a Pizza Hutt fundraiser Thursday for them, which he greatly appreciates. He added that he is also thankful for his neighbors. Kody and Gabe Peterson and Rachel Berg were there the whole time, he said, and really helped lead the effort to get donations to them. "They did an amazing job," Christine Muller said. John Muller said numerous businesses around town have also offered replacement of basic items, such as shoes and underwear. "It's just been amazing," he said. Christine Muller said the whole thing is a lot to process, and she is happy that her family has the basics of what they need. She added that now it is just dealing with insurance companies and things like that. John Muller said the fire happened on a Tuesday and by Wednesday night five garbage bags of clothes for them were on the front steps of his parents' house. "I don't know who brought them," he said. He added that their family has received about 10 bags or more of clothes and some people have also brought them food and provided some basics, such as hair brushes. "It gets so overwhelming that we just have to make short lists and try to get those done," Christine Muller said. John Muller said they are lucky they live in a small community. In big cities, community support of this magnitude just doesn't happen. "The volume of people that have come out in support ... people that I never expected," he said. He added that someone started a Wells Fargo Bank account for his family where people have been donating money to help support their family during this difficult time. "There has just been so many things. I just can't think of everything, and I can't thank everybody personally, which we would like to do," Muller said. The help has come from far along the Hi-Line, Christine Muller said. People as far away as Malta have reached out and given support. "We live in a really great community," Muller said. The fire John Muller - a Kremlin volunteer firefighter - said he woke up because he heard an unusual noise and decided to go downstairs to see what it was. Once he was downstairs, he said, he saw that the deck of his house was on fire. He said he then yelled to his wife and nephew Justin, who was sleeping in the basement, to get up and get out of the house. Muller said at this time the house still had power inside but the smoke detectors were not activated, because the fire was outside the house. As he was going to get Justin out of the basement, Muller said, an explosion cut the power and shattered the window of his office. He said that after the explosion, the house filled with smoke instantly. Muller said he knew they only had a short window of time to get his family out of the house before it was too late. He ran outside to grab a couple of breaths of air, then ran back in and up the stairs, he said, and grabbed his wife. Christine Muller said she made it out of the bedroom by the time her husband got to her, but the smoke was so thick that she couldn't breathe or see. "There was no power, I couldn't see, smoke was so thick that I couldn't even move. It was terrible," she said. "I heard him yell, 'You've got to come downstairs now, whatever you do you have to come down,'" Muller said. "It was beyond terrifying." She added that he grabbed her then carried her down the steps and outside of the house. "If he had not come up and got me, I mean, he literally saved my life," Muller said. "They are not kidding when they say you have seconds to get out of the house," she added. "It felt like an eternity, but I know from the time I woke up until we were outside it was less than three minutes," John Muller said. "You think that you're prepared for that or you know you have a plan on how to get out," Christine Muller said, "but when you can't see and you can't breathe, it's, 'What do I do? Jump out a two-story window?' I don't know how people can plan for that." She said after she had gotten outside she tried yelling for Justin, but the smoke made it nearly impossible. She said she was very worried, but Justin had already made it outside safely. John Muller said that we walked around the corner and Justin was already on the phone with 911. He added that the explosion woke a few of the neighbors up. He said that once everyone was out of the house safely, he grabbed a couple of his Carhartt bibs and his old hunting jacket and gave them to his wife before he went to the firehall. He said he then got into his firefighter gear drove the fire truck to his house and began trying to extinguish the flames. As a volunteer firefighter - Muller said he has volunteered with Kremlin's Volunteer Fire Department for 16 years and before that volunteered with the Rudyard Department, as well - he has had to respond to several house fires, but it is completely different when it is your own home. The house was a loss, as were the family pets. "We are lucky to be alive and I'm grateful for that, but I wasn't able to save my pets, and that was devastating," Christine Muller said. The Muller family lost their two pyredoodles, a bichon and a bichon-poodle cross, named Loe, Lilly, Milo and Maverick. They also lost Justin's two cats, Judy and Yayo. "They were pretty special. They were part of our family," she added. John Muller said the fire began before 2 a.m. and it was not long before their 3,000 square-foot two-story home was reduced to rubble. "We don't have anything, we've lost all of our history, we lost those keepsakes and mementos you can't replace," Christine Muller said. "Children growing up, photos. The furniture, I mean the stuff that are materials, are replaceable, but there are some things that just aren't." Justin, Muller said, is dealing very well with the aftermath of the fire, although it's been hard losing everything that he has known. "He is such a good kid though," She said. "He's funny, he makes us laugh. I think he has helped us not fall down in these fits of depression because he can't. He has been a definite blessing." John Muller added that his nephew has been a trooper through the whole thing The aftermath Muller said that before the fire, his family had already planned on going to Florida for the holidays, visiting his wife's mom for Christmas. He said his wife travels a lot for work and her passport was in her purse when the house burnt down. All she had after the fire, he said, was a paper driver's license and her birth certificate. He added that they didn't know if they were going to let them on the plane, but they found out the day before they were scheduled to leave that they would be able to go. "I would be in worse shape now if I hadn't been able to go and spend some time with my family," Christine Muller said. Havre Daily News/Ryan Berry The remnants of the Muller's home continue to smolder in Kremlin, 18 days after the house burned down in an early morning fire. Leaving, she said, and getting away was a good thing for them to be able to do and get a little bit of a break. She added that she works as a human resource director for CoreCivic out of Tennessee, and travels quite a bit because of the size of her district. After the fire, she said, she will not be traveling and will be working from home. CoreCivic has been very understanding and supportive to her situation, she said. She added that she also really has to commend the Havre, Kremlin and Gildford fire departments and the Hill County Sheriff's Office for responding very quickly and taking control of the situation during the fire. "I don't think we'll ever know what started (the fire)," Muller said. "We are grateful that we are alive, but we also cling to the fact we live in a really good community that truly cares," she said. "We are very lucky that way." A Senate panel voted Wednesday to give themselves and their colleagues a big increase in their allowance and do it as soon as possible. You voted: Published on 2019/01/06 | Source Kara's Goo Ha-ra seems to be well after the controversy involving her ex-boyfriend. Advertisement She posted a picture of her recent self on Instagram on the 6th saying, "I keep to myself", which is a phrase she extracted from the book "Getting Used to It". She added, "I am careful about what I am about to begin because that just increases pressure on me. The things I was sure were going to be great failed miserably before. I just wish I never said anything about them. What you say can't be taken back and I have decided to keep to myself now". Goo Ha-ra looks flawless with her perfect skins and big clear eyes. She looks better and brighter and it looks like she's overcome the difficult stages of her past. Goo Ha-ra was in the news due to a physical brawl she had with her boyfriend last year. However, she began working again beginning with the Japanese fan meeting on the 24th of December. Published on 2019/01/06 | Source Pastor Lee Jong-rak at Joosarang Church poses with his baby box in Seoul on Dec. 30, 2018. A "baby box" at Joosarang Church in southern Seoul where destitute mothers can place their baby and ring a bell to alert staff marks its 10th anniversary this year. Advertisement As of Wednesday 1,515 babies had been abandoned in the box. Around 1,000 came with a letter from the mother saying she was sorry. Pastor Lee Jong-rak said, "I've never encountered a mother who abandoned her baby if she had the means to support the child. This is the last place mothers come to after looking for every other option to raise their baby". The idea dates back hundreds of years, when churches and monasteries all over Catholic Europe had similar boxes. When the church first set up the box, it was accused of encouraging mothers to abandon their babies. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the district office demanded that the church take it down since mothers who leave their babies there can be charged with abandonment. There were also phone calls from incensed citizens. But Lee stuck to his guns, telling critics that destitute mothers will continue to abandon their babies without the box, and that would be worse. He also refused to install security cameras that could provide evidence to prosecute them and regularly cleaned up fingerprints left on the box. Every effort is made to dissuade the mothers. An alarm goes off each time a baby is placed in the box, prompting the pastor or volunteers to rush outside to see if they can reason with the destitute mothers, offering financial assistance. Some 30 percent of the mothers who leave their babies end up deciding to continue caring for them, according to the church. Many are teenagers and often give birth secretly in public toilets or friends' homes. The babies who are left are cared for by Lee and four volunteers for about a month and then sent to orphanages. The volunteers are instructed not to hold the babies too often lest they grow too attached to them. Seo Si-on, a volunteer at the church, said, "We don't want the babies to get hurt if they lose the love and attention once they're sent to an orphanage or foster home". Lee started operating the box with his own money, but a decade on he has 1,300 sponsors who send between W10,000 and W20,000 a month or donate baby formula and diapers (US$1=W1,120). For the last four or five years the government has stopped demanding the church shut the baby box down. "I want to protect the babies, and the box will disappear only once society is willing to accept single mothers". A law allowing single mothers to keep newborn babies off their or the father's family records is currently awaiting National Assembly approval to prevent discrimination due to their illegitimate birth. Published on 2019/01/06 | Source The government wants to toughen regulations to prevent leaks of core technologies overseas from July. Advertisement Under the draft regulations announced Thursday, punitive damages will be sought and the culprits will be fined up to three times the value of the technology. Companies with what are deemed core technologies will need government approval when they are taken over by or merge with foreign firms. Currently they only have to report their M&A deals to the authorities. The new regulations were hammered out jointly by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Justice Ministry, and the Korean Intellectual Property Office in a meeting on Thursday. Currently, industrial spies face up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to W1.5 billion for leaking core technologies overseas, but the government now wants to set an additional minimum term of three years (US$1=W1,127). It will also toughen punishment for those leaking business secrets overseas from the current up to 10 years in prison or up to W100 million in fines to 15 years or W1.5 billion. Laws against concealing criminal proceeds will be tightened so the government can confiscate them in the event of overseas leaks of industrial technologies and business secrets. The government will encourage reporting of overseas leaks by increasing the reward from the current W100 million to up to W2 billion. Published on 2019/01/06 | Source The Seoul Gangnam Police revealed on the 7th that Son Seung-won, who is being charged for risky driving under the Specific Crimes Act, the 'Yoon Chang-ho Law', was sent to prosecution on the 4th. Advertisement Son Seung-ho hit other cars while driving his father's Mercedes under the influence of alcohol on the 26th of December in Sinsadong, Seoul. After hitting the cars, he drove 150 meters more while crossing the centerline in the process. His reckless driving was put to a stop when citizens and a taxi blocked his way Son Seung-won lied that his fellow actor Jung Hwi, who was in the car with him, drove the car and refused to do a sobriety test, but later admitted that it was him. When he was arrested, Son Seung-won's alcohol level was over 0.206%, which could get his license terminated. He also has 3 accounts of drunk driving and his license had been terminated when he was caught drunk driving in September last year. This is the first case where the Yoon Chang-ho Law, which increases the punishment on drunk driving, has been applied to a celebrity. He is also being charged with driving off under the Specific Crimes Act and driving without a license under the Road Traffic Act. Son Seung-won was released right after he was arrested, but was booked again when it turned out he committed the same crime repeatedly. The Court said, "The crime is called out, and the reason for the arrest and the need are recognized". Meanwhile, police are investigating Jung Hwi for suspicion of assisting drunk driving. Giving that Jung Hwi was sitting in the car first because Son Seung-won had apparently called the substitute driver and tried to stop him when he decided to drive the car himself, it's hard to say that Jung Hwi assisted in this case. Police say, "It would not have been easy for Jung Hwi to stop him as Son Seung-won is a senior and the accident occurred in just 1 minute into driving". Its no wonder 60 percent of Maryland students fail MSDE assessments when so much instructional time is disrupted and so much funding is squandered because of the self-interested whims of non-elected bureaucrats. I hope the one-day-a-year testing limit makes sense to The Suns readers and that we all remind our elected officials that the decision is up to them, not up to the Maryland State Department of Education. Haiti - Security : The Haitian coastguard intercept a boat of 70 illegal migrants On Sunday, Vigilant cutter (WMEC-617) from the US Coast Guard's 7th District, based in Port Canaveral, Florida, helped the Haitian coastguard intercept a boat that was packed with about 70 Haitian migrants. It was around 1:30 am that the Vigilant crew spotted the boat about 40 feet about 26 miles north of Cap Haitien. The Vigilant crew continued to follow the boat and made contact with the Haitian Coast Guard before forcing the Haitian boat to change course. A maritime unit of the coastguard of Haiti arrived at the scene around 9:30 am and took over, accompanying the boat in its return to Haiti with its 70 passengers safe and sound. SL/ HaitiLibre BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The red carpet is a flurry of activity as everyone prepares for the deluge of stars, and, thankfully not rain, at the 76th Golden Globe Awards Sunday. With temperatures a little chilly and the red carpet still a little soggy from the rains the night before, the crowd is a little more bundled up than usual, especially in the fan bleachers where many are wrapped in coats, scarves and hats. How the weather might affect Sundays fashions is yet to be seen, but one thing is certain: There will be no coordinated fashion statements like last years black dresses in support of #MeToo and Times Up. There may, however be some celebrities sporting ribbons in support of safe, fair and dignified workplaces on behalf of Times Up equality efforts. Standing on the red carpet just a few hours before the Golden Globe Awards begin Sunday, "Eighth Grade" star and best actress nominee Elsie Fisher says that she's still in shock that she was nominated. The 15-year-old actress is a first-time nominee is sporting a red velvet suit by Kenzo. She says, "It's so comfortable but it looks great," which she laughed were her two requirements. Fisher says she'd love to meet Lady Gaga at the awards Sunday, but that afterward she has some math homework to look forward to. Eighth Grade writer-director Bo Burnham, standing beside his star, assured her that no one here is good at math. Youre in good company. Huawei announced its new high-performance ARM-based CPU for servers called Kunpeng 920. It aims to improve the overall performance and efficiency of computing in big data, distributed storage and ARM applications. The Chinese tech giant was able to put together a 64-core CPU ticking at 2.6GHz and since it's based on the 7nm manufacturing process, its performance per watt will be significantly improved. The chip is based on the ARMv8 architecture standard and can speed up branch prediction algorithms. Huawei claims that performance is 25% better than industry's standard and 30% more energy-efficient. In addition, the platform supports 8-channel DDR4 memory with 46% more memory bandwidth compared to its rivals. PCIe Gen4 and CCIX interfaces are present as well allowing for up to 640 Gbps bandwidth. The Kunpeng 920 CPU is expected to arrive inside TaiShan servers in three models - one focused on storage performance, one offering great storage density and one that balances on both. Serving the 150th district has been one of the greatest honors of my life. When I was first elected in 2014, I had much to learn about the General Assembly and the challenges awaiting us in Hartford, but I went into my first session, and each since, prepared to advocate for all of my neighbors no matter what. The learning curve was steep, but I developed a better understanding of the issues and a greater appreciation for the legislative process as a whole. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to meet and help so many outstanding people in our district who often shared their concerns about state government, and their ideas about how to fix these problems. With that in mind, my advice to my successor and the 2019-2020 Legislature is simple: listen. Its easy to come out of the gate with your own ideas and its even easier to grab the mic and talk about your proposals at length but doing so will not help you in the long run. Your constituents need you to hear them, and when you do, youll find some of the best solutions come from them. Remember, they elected you to represent their best interests not yours, not the lobbyists and not your partys. Although I had hoped for a different outcome this past November, I leave knowing that we accomplished a lot these past four years. The most recent budget cycles saw historic budget reforms such as a borrowing cap to limit spending, mandatory votes on future union contracts, and the restoration of our states all-important Rainy Day Fund. We saved the Medicare Savings Program and fully funded the Retired Teachers Health Care fund. We also prioritized transportation and education without raising taxes, strengthened our laws fighting domestic violence, and expanded resources available to our war heroes. As Ranking Member of the Labor committee, I helped facilitate passage of a bill reducing the gender pay gap by bringing all interested parties to the table. We also honored the memory of Greenwich native Emily Fedorko with the introduction and passage of Emilys Law a bill providing for safer boater recreation. Im also proud of the lead role I took with our Greenwich delegation to successfully secure funding for the new New Lebanon School. Although the governor and his administration vowed that they would never allow for a new school in Greenwich to be funded, our hard work paid off and our delegation prevailed. I cannot thank Sen. Scott Frantz, Rep. Livvy Floren and Rep. Fred Camillo enough for their support and extraordinary efforts throughout the reimbursement process. What a team! Greenwichs new state-of-the-art elementary school is scheduled to be completed and opened next month. I wish the students, teachers, staff and administration all the best in your new home. You truly deserve it. The challenges facing our state will require everyones undivided attention, and solving these problems is not the sole responsibility of our elected officials. We all have a responsibility to build a better Connecticut, and as I embrace the opening of new doors in my life I can assure you that as a private citizen I will not sit idly by and allow our beautiful state to continue down a path of fiscal destruction, and neither should you. Make your voices heard and stay involved. Finally, I wish all the newly elected legislators success in their roles, and I wish everyone in the 150th district and the entire town of Greenwich much happiness in the New Year ahead, but most of all I wish you all good Health. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. I will always treasure that time. Id like to give special thanks to my family, especially my wife Shannon and my two sons, Michael and Sean, whose love and support over the years has meant more to me than anyone will ever know. Ladies and gentleman, Elvis has left the building. Mike Bocchino has served two terms representing the 150th district. But lets look at what this shutdown is costing in concrete terms even a cave man or woman could understand. The one time expenditure amounts to less than 15 cents out of every $100 of the fiscal 2019 budget. To further put things in perspective as an example, the government funds NASA year after year for about 50 cents per $100. While as a retired scientist, I value scientific research but certainly cannot equate the search for space rocks in outer galaxies as being as important as prevention of unlawful migration, drug smuggling and other criminal activities that have gone on for decades. The saga of Martha Moxleys murder has been told in newspapers and magazines, fictional novels, several true crime books (including one by a disgraced police detective), a USA cable flick, the transcript of the trial that declared Michael Skakel guilty of the crime and in Robert Kennedy Jr.s recent book presenting an alternate narrative of events of 41 years ago. Given the Cain-and-Abel backstory between brothers Michael and Tommy Skakel, it might as well be staged in the form of an opera. The latest renditions are dueling narratives by seven Connecticut Supreme Court justices who delivered a decision Dec. 30 that could send Skakel back to prison after three years in purgatory leashed to a monitoring device at a relatives home in Bedford, N.Y., free from prison but not from presumed guilt. The real drama in this new telling is in the footnotes of the 69-page majority decision written by Judge Peter Zarella and the 61-page dissent by Judges Richard Palmer and Andrew McDonald. Though the law says Skakel should pick up in prison where he left off after 11 years in on his 20-year-to-life sentence, my read between the judges legalese is that he may never return to the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. The purpose of this process is not to determine guilt, but whether defense attorney Mickey Sherman did an adequate job of defending Skakel. Skakels team requested a reconsideration of the decision Friday, as they should have. Zarella, chief architect of the ruling, delivered it just hours before leaving the court Dec. 30. The remaining judges on the panel are technically left deadlocked at 3-3. The two sides are so entrenched in their views that they turn on each other in the paperwork, slinging insults in a verbal dodgeball game between seven judges in black robes. The majority expresses its displeasure with my characterization of its analysis of the alibi issue as transparently one sided and unfair, Palmer writes. The dissenters continue that The majority goes to great lengths to try to rationalize Shermans indefensible failure and question the basic fairness and objectivity of the majoritys analysis and conclusion. The majority hold their best jabs for the footnotes, reserved by academics for a special brand of cynicism: The dissent attempts to distract the reader ... while at the same time misstating the majoritys views. Given such broadsides, its hard to imagine any of the judges changing their vote. A tie wont go to the felon, so Skakels fate could be determined by a stranger. Skakels team wants a reconsideration to be made after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy appoints a new judge. That will almost certainly be Eric Coleman, a popular Democratic state senator from Bloomfield who submitted his resignation last week so he would be eligible for the new post. Justice Dennis Eveleigh was added to what had been a six-member panel back in March, eliminating the possibility of a deadlock. While the panel could deny Skakels request, the timing of Zarellas stroke-of-midnight decision makes a hasty call of the new petition unlikely. The dissenters 61-page argument about Shermans incompetence can be shorthanded to these two issues: His decision not to focus on Tommy Skakel instead of tutor Ken Littleton as a more likely murder suspect; and his failure to summon a witness who might have provided an alibi for Michael Skakel. The other Skakel The three judges use the word compelling to describe the argument that Tommy could have killed Martha. They seem unable to resist the catnip to play detective as they circle around Tommys behavior in the days around Oct. 30, 1975. Tommy himself reportedly described leaving Martha with her pants around her knees after they engaged in sexual activity, the way her body was found on Halloween. They also point to Tommys history of mental instability and violence. Its hard to blame the judges for being drawn into the mystery. Tommy, after all, started creating false alibis before Marthas body was even found. The dissenters ignore the Gitano Bryant premise Kennedy embraced in his book about two other men committing the murder, while the majority disregard it by simply noting Bryant also had a reputation for deceit. The alibi The starring role in the dissents script seems to belong to Denis Ossorio, a 75-year-old former Greenwich resident and psychologist who lives just over the New York line. They deem Shermans decision not to track him down baffling, as he is the only non-member of the family by some accounts who could have placed Michael 20 minutes from the crime scene watching Monty Python on television. Ossorio has said he never came forward with the dubious explanation that he never paid much attention to the case. On Friday, the Skakel teams latest motion includes sarcasm of its own, opining that contacting Ossorio would have cost only 14 presses of phone buttons by Sherman. The tenuous timeline The majority opinion does not obsess over Ossorio, pointing out that he would only have been able to provide a partial alibi for Michael. And a partial alibi is no alibi at all. My issue with the alibi as with a lot of theories about the case is that it is based on an unreliable timeline. The state has clung to the theory that the murder occurred between 9:30-10 p.m., but the Connecticut medical examiner in 2002 testified Martha could have died as late as 5:30 the following morning. The truth Of course, proving Sherman was negligent is not the same as proving Skakel is innocent. That wont really matter in the near future. It is possible Skakel will be hustled back to prison, only to be paroled when he becomes eligible after a few months. Or another Supreme Court vote could swing the other way, starting the path to a new trial that would be another generation in the making. The lesson for judges accustomed to getting the last word is this: There are no last words in matters related to the death of Martha Moxley. John Breunig is editorial page editor of The Advocate and Greenwich Time. John.breunig@scni.com; 203-964-2281; twitter.com/johnbreunig. STAMFORD A new era began Friday for two positions Mayor David Martin believes are among the most underappreciated in the city. Walter Bud Seely was promoted to chief fire marshal and Chad Armstrong was appointed assistant fire marshal. During a ceremony at the Government Center, Martin said fire marshals often do not receive the credit they deserve because most residents see them as code enforcers. So you get that friction and pushback every day and the rewards are, you save lives. But you never get to meet the person whose life you save because they never even know you did it, Martin said. And so let me be the one to say on the behalf of the people in the city of Stamford, most of whom have not a clue of what you are doing, I want to thank you for your service. Fire Chief Trevor Roach said most people dont realize the importance of the fire marshals office, which helps to save lives by enforcing codes and educating the public on fire safety. Seely, 63, is a 43-year member of the Stamford Fire Department after serving as a volunteer at the Turn of River Fire Department for three years. He said he looked forward to taking over for former Chief Fire Marshal Charles Spaulding, who retired this month. It is a great challenge. I love my job, Seely said after his wife, Lorraine, pinned the new badge to his jacket. Ive never had a day that I did not want to come to work. This is a job where you get paid to help people all the time. It has been a dream come true my whole career. A fire marshal for the past 10 years, Seely is a fourth generation public servant. Seelys father, Walter C. Seely, was a member of the Stamford Police Department for nearly 30 years before retiring as a lieutenant. Seely is named after his grandfather, Walter F. Seely, who was a Stamford firefighter. Seely said his great grandfather served as a Stamford police officer. Im a lucky guy, Seely said. Armstrong, 43, has been a member of the fire department for 18 years and has served as fire marshal for the past seven years. Armstrong said he wants to help Seely make their office one of the best and most respected in the state. I think it is a good next step for me and we are going to progress in our division and bring it to the next level, Armstrong said after his father, John, pinned on his badge. The office has one chief, two assistants, including Robert Sollitto, and nine fire marshal positions. Director of Public Safety Ted Jankowski said the promotions were a big achievement for Seely and Armstrong. You are being promoted into a position of greater responsibly and greater impact at a time when the construction and fire department is changing, he said. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com GREENWICH State Rep.-elect Stephen Meskers (D-150) will put his banking experience to work after he is sworn in as a member of the state Legislature on Wednesday. The freshman legislator has been appointed to three committees for the next legislative session. Meskers, who is the first Democrat elected in the 150th in over a century, will be vice chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and will sit on the Aging Committee and the Energy and Technology Committee. House Democrats released committee assignments last week. Im very honored, Meskers said of his leadership position. The retired banking professional said his background in bonding will come into play on the Finance Committee. Meskers said he has already met with credit rating agencies in preparation for his new role. Being on the Aging Committee is significant because of where we are as a country and as a state in making sure we are providing proper services to seniors, he said. Greenwichs aging population and new standards of care in aging in place will be better served with a representative sitting on the committee, Meskers said. The newly elected legislator said his goal for serving on the Energy and Technology Committee is to get our green bank straightened out and better our carbon footprint. Meskers and the rest of Connecticuts new lawmakers will be sworn into office in Hartford on Wednesday. Meskers defeated Michael Bocchino, a Republican, in the November election. Alexandra Bergstein, who defeated L. Scott Frantz in the fall election, is the first Democratic state senator from the 36th District since 1930. STAMFORD The owner of a photo booth business used for weddings and other parties has been accused of creating lewd videos of the occasions for himself. Timothy Gemelli, 52, of Taconic Road, Greenwich, has been charged with three counts of voyeurism and was released after posting a $50,000 court appearance bond. The charges stem from a complaint filed by a woman Gemelli knows, police said. According to his four-page arrest affidavit, the Stamford woman went to the citys police department in November with videos she claimed Gemelli took without her consent and evidence he filmed other unsuspecting women. The woman told police Gemelli used photo booths through his Greenwich business, The Photo Booth Lounge, to take upskirt videos of women at various parties in New York City and Westchester and Fairfield counties, the affidavit said. The woman, whose relationship to Gemelli was redacted from the court documents, was seen showering and having sex in some of the videos without her consent, the affidavit said. Timothys method of filming the shower videos was to hide behind the bathroom door and extend his arm with his iPhone in his hand to record video without being detected, the affidavit said. In several computer folders named upskirting with event names and dates, police said there were videos recorded by a camera pointing up from the floor of Gemellis photo booth. The camera was angled upward as people walked past the recording device to enter the booth, the affidavit said. The events occurred between December 2011 and March 2015, the affidavit said. A message left Monday at Gemellis business was not immediately returned. Gemellis case was transferred to the Part A docket at the Stamford courthouse where the most serous cases are adjudicated. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com There were some other opportunitiesand they passed by, but all I can do is be hopeful, Dougherty said. Theres a lot of potential at the site. Dougherty said the property features 1.3 million square feet of buildings, a biomass facility, a natural gas line, connection to the Transco pipeline and an abundance of water and electric supply. He added that some investment would be needed to operate an extant wastewater facility or run a new sewer line to the acreage. This years severe storms have also done damage to the facilities rail system. But its a potentially rail-served site and there are not many of those in the Triad, Dougherty said. Every bit of utility everything you would need is already there, for the right operation, or you could have multiple operations because youve got so much land. Dougherty said MillerCoors has been a very good corporate citizen that employed Eden residents for 38 years and are still sponsoring city events. The Democrats are attacking President Trump and many are trying to blame him for the deaths of two children whose parents entered the United States illegally. And of course, some are saying, Trump has the blood of these children on his hands. Its pure, hyperbolic nonsense, of course. But the number of Americans who hear such things from the medias so-called immigration experts and believe it is staggering. Ignorance, it seems, has become a virtue among the left. Kevin McAleenan, Border Patrol commissioner, said many of the 50 children per day being admitted to U.S. urgent care facilities along the border appear to have been ailing before the parents set out on their trek to the border. Many are suffering from tuberculosis, parasites and other maladies that did not develop during the trip, but prior to the departure from their home countries. The parents believed a sick child would garner them sympathy from U.S. customs officials and that they would be more inclined to catch and release them while the child stayed in the medical unit. The economic impact of these projects has also been nothing short of spectacular. Reports by the Abell Foundation and others have consistently shown a remarkable 8 to 1 return on investment for Maryland taxpayers and nearly 90 jobs created for every $1 million in rehab work. As a result, the program has quietly created nearly 30,000 jobs and yielded almost $3.5 billion in economic activity in just over 20 years of its existence. It has been a wise and fruitful investment for Maryland not something we can say about every tax credit the state has created. It has also saved and revitalized important architectural landmarks in Baltimore, such as 10 Light Street, the American Brewery, the mills of the Jones Falls and hundreds more. Elsewhere across the state, the program has also played a major role in revitalizing places like downtown Frederick and more recently Cambridge, where the credit is providing an economic boost to the renaissance of the historic downtown and nearby Phillips Packing Plant. In his new book, The Fifth Risk, author Michael Lewis describes the importance of little-known functions of federal agencies inside the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Energy. These range from providing food aid to our neediest citizens to monitoring the disposal, storage and security of nuclear waste. It may not be particularly glamorous work, but if its not done, people go hungry and hazardous material can pollute our environment or fall into the hands of nefarious actors. Every other federal agency provides some form of similarly unknown yet vital function to keep services flowing. Some federal employees work for the National Park Service or the Smithsonian Institution, ensuring that travelers can enjoy the natural wonders of our country or its impressive galleries over the holidays. Government doctors and scientists analyze troves of data to prevent epidemics or mitigate the effects of calamitous weather. Other federal employees may toil away at processing tax returns or Social Security checks, ensuring their fellow citizens receive necessary entitlement benefits in a timely fashion. In embassies and consulates around the world, government employees work to promote the institutions of democracy and assist U.S. expatriates and travelers in need while abroad. In all instances, they embody the concept of service to their nation and its citizens. Triad residents might see the first snowfall of 2019 on Saturday as forecasters are calling for a wintry mix in Forsyth and Guilford counties. Saturdays forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of snow with a high temperature of 35 degrees. It will be around 30 degrees Saturday night with a 30 percent chance of snow. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Raleigh havent predicted yet how much snow may fall in Winston-Salem, said Scott Sharp, a weather-service meteorologist. Its too early to say, Sharp said. The weather service may predict Saturdays expected accumulation of snow on Wednesday, Sharp said. Dan Kottlowski, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather in State College, Pa., said that the Triad might get a coating of up to 1 to 2 inches of snow and sleet on Saturday. The track of the storm will determine how bad (it) will be, Kottowski said. There is a lot uncertainty here. We may not see any accumulation. A low-pressure system, which was over the Pacific Ocean on Monday, will move across the western and mid-western states before it arrives Saturday in the Southeast, Sharp said. A woman was found dead at a home in Kernersville after a man turned himself in to authorities more than 300 miles away. Jaron Alan Kubler, of 5823 Loradale Drive in Kernersville, was in Washington, D.C., on Sunday about 1:50 a.m. near the Capital One Arena on F Street NW, when he approached an officer, according to a report from the Metropolitan Police Department. Kubler told the officer he killed someone in North Carolina, the report states. That officer contacted an officer in North Carolina, who entered the house Kubler referenced and confirmed a possible homicide occurred there, according to the report. The Forsyth County Sheriffs Office has said it responded to a death investigation at 5823 Loradale Drive on Sunday but has released few details. Spokeswoman Christina Howell said the agency responded to the address to check on someone inside. A woman was found deceased, she said. Information hasn't been released about the womans name or whether she lived at the address. Additional questions were referred to the Forsyth County District Attorneys Office. Jennifer Martin, chief prosecutor, said her name is not being released pending notification of her family. Kubler was jailed Sunday on a fugitive from justice warrant by Metropolitan police. snewell@wsjournal.com 336-727-4068 @s_k_newell on Twitter A man wanted on multiple outstanding warrants was arrested Sunday following a foot and vehicle chase as well as an apparent exchange of gunfire with police. Winston-Salem Police officers received information about 4 p.m. on the whereabouts of Michael Lorenzo King, 40, of Cherry Street, police said in a press release early Monday. King had outstanding warrants for three counts of misdemeanor probation violation, breaking or entering with the intent to terrorize/injure the building occupant, larceny after breaking and entering, assault on a female, and two counts of communicating threats. Officers D.L. Sparks and J.T. Williams found King in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 137 Columbine Drive, police said. As officers approached, the suspect drew a handgun and pointed it at Sparks while running away, police said. Sparks and Williams ran after the suspect and during the chase one of the officers reported possibly hearing a gunshot. King ran to a nearby residence where he knew the occupants, police said. Authorities were told that King brandished a handgun while at the residence and then fled the area in a vehicle belonging to an occupant of the home. HIGH POINT Guilford Countys first homicide of the year brought law enforcement agencies together Monday with a plea for their communities. We are here because of the ongoing gun violence weve been experiencing in Guilford County over the past several years, said Sheriff Danny Rogers, who organized a news conference with troopers, police and community partners. What we want to do, and we need the help of the community, is that we need to be able to give citizens of Guilford County what they need and deserve, a better quality of life, to better serve and protect, but we cant do it all alone. Deputies are still trying to learn what led to the death of 26-year-old Terrazi Kadeem Smith who, on Saturday, was fatally shot on Interstate 85 near the Groometown Road exit. Sheriffs Capt. G.R. Moore said Smith and two friends had just left a party and were traveling south on the interstate when the shooting happened. A deputys report stated that an unknown vehicle pulled up alongside the 2012 BMW 5281 that Smith and his friends were riding in and at least one person inside the other vehicle began firing. The gunfire fatally struck Smith, and hit 24-year-old Ricky Meaders-House in the leg. In 1789, America held its first presidential election as voters chose electors who, a month later, selected George Washington to be the nations first chief executive. In 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Company of London announced that the telegraphed letters CQD would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced with SOS). In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London. In 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. In 1959, the United States recognized the new government of Cuba, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. In 1963, the U.S. Post Office raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 4 to 5 cents. In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government. GREENSBORO A supermarket chain that hasnt operated around here in decades is making a return. A Piggly Wiggly is planned for Freeman Mill Square Shopping Center. Were going to submit the plans to the city and hopefully be open by this summer, said Shezad Quamar, who owns the franchise for the store. Quamar also owns the shopping center along with Shahzad Akbar. Quamar said they were struggling to get a grocer to anchor the shopping center so they decided to open their own store. They approached Piggly Wiggly about purchasing a franchise. We have enough experience in retail grocery that we were able to qualify, Quamar said. Piggly Wiggly is a chain of supermarkets operated in the Southeast and Midwest. They are known for their freshly cut meats. Its not the first time Piggy Wiggly has called Greensboro home, though its been many years. There are dozens of stores in North Carolina, mostly in the eastern and coastal area of the state. There are Piggly Wiggly stores in Siler City and Danville, Va. The approximately 14,000-square-foot store will anchor the shopping center at the intersection of Freeman Mill Road and Florida Street. Financial woes prompted the theater to take a hiatus in the summer of 2018. But according to its website, the theater is working to bring back The Sword of Peace and Pathway to Freedom this year. Hardy earlier served as general manager of The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island and Horn in the West in Boone. In 2002, he was given the Institute of Outdoor Dramas Mark Sumner Award for his lifetime contributions to the field. Hardy graduated from the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering in 1943. During World War II, he served in the Pacific as a lieutenant on the submarine U.S.S. Billfish. After the war, he taught engineering at Duke until he changed professions to the theater. He received his masters degree in drama at UNC-Chapel Hill. He taught drama at Texas Western University in El Paso, Texas, and at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. In 1963, he returned to Chapel Hill as a professor in UNCs Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. Most of the angry responses are clearly rooted in the fact that they do not wish to be reminded of this obvious truth. But others seem to have convinced themselves that Mr. Trump is a man of good character, and they take personal offense at the insult, even though I usually offer it as little more than an observation. They rush to rebut the claim, citing banal or debatable propositions: He loves his children! He's loyal to a fault! He's authentic! Never mind that many bad men love their children, that loyalty to people or causes unworthy of loyalty is not admirable, and that authentic caddishness is not admirable. Moreover, he is not remotely loyal to his wives or the people who work for him. Police corruption also flourished under commissioners of the past. A federal investigation revealed abuse at the hands of cops dating back years. (It was something that citizens in poor, African American neighborhoods had complained about way before that.) Several cops who were part of the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force have gone to prison for racketeering and other offenses for, among other things, shaking down drug dealers for drugs and cash.. All of this happened under somebodys watch, even though no commissioner was ever punished for it. David Carroll is a Chattanooga-based reporter and columnist. His website is ChattanoogaRadioTV.com, and you may contact him at 900 Whitehall Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405 or 3dc@epbfi.com. She was passionate about her work on behalf of the Catholic Church and the East Baltimore community, her sister said. She was a lifelong member of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, the first African-American Catholic church in the U.S., where she was an active member and leader in many church groups. She served as president of the churchs Pastoral Council, on the finance committee and as an adviser to the churchs youth ministry. Like grandmother Nellie Mello, she was a Grand Lady of the Ladies Auxiliary Knights of St. Peter Claver. She served in numerous roles in the Catholic Daughters of the Americas,.a womens organization founded in 1903. Under a ranked choice system, city voters would make their top pick for an office, but then could rank the other candidates for that office in order of preference. There are different methods for how to count the votes but, generally, if a candidate doesnt receive a majority once everyones No. 1 choices are counted, elections officials count voters second choices and then third choices until a candidate has a majority. Call in the next two candidates that were part of the initial interview process, Kelly said. Hold a public hearing to let them address residents and the community, as well as the City Council representatives, to present what strategies they plan to use, answer the questions that came about at the Saturday hearing, and make sure the process is transparent and accessible, and the final choice is community-informed. Submit An Obituary Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation@skagitpublishing.com for help creating one. Myers said one of her first priorities in February will be to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the department. She said she specifically wants to look into the departments emergency preparedness, ensuring officers have the training and equipment needed for emergencies that can range from an active shooter to extreme weather. (CNN) When Xi Jinping ascended the stage in the Great Hall of the People in March, officially the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the country's future seemed his to shape. Just months earlier, he had been re-appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the country's most powerful position. Now he had begun a second term as the nation's president and secured the scrapping of term limits on the post effectively allowing him to rule for life. Just two members of the National People's Congress voted against the change, out of 2,980. Nine months later however, storm clouds are gathering. China's economy has faltered in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war, and tensions with Washington have spread to political and military issues. There have even been rumors that Xi himself has come in for criticism behind closed doors for failing to adequately handle Trump and his policies. "I don't think Xi's position is in any way under threat but he has a lot of enemies and critics and the collapsing relationship with the U.S. is a stick they can use to beat him with," Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at Australia's Lowy Institute, told CNN. Unfortunately for Xi, the trade troubles come ahead of possibly his most important year yet. The Chinese leader must navigate a series of critical and controversial dates for the Communist Party, including the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At the same time, the clock is ticking on his trade truce with Trump, reached during their face-to-face meeting in Argentina early December, with just over two months left to bridge the gap between the two sides. Xi's handling of events in 2019 could determine the future of China's economy and his place in the pantheon of Communist Party leaders. Communist legacy Every ten years, a series of important or controversial anniversaries creates a perfect storm for Beijing. For Xi and the Communist Party, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1 will be a seminal occasion. The party will celebrate both its economic success and its unexpected longevity surpassing the lifespan of the Soviet Union, the one-time communist superpower which collapsed in 1991 after 69 years. Rana Mitter, director of the University China Centre at Oxford University, told CNN that in the lead-up to the anniversary, Beijing would focus on glorifying the leaders of the Communist revolution. "Xi will seek to tie his current achievements to their legacy," he said. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the May 4th student protests in China, which were mainly a response to the betrayal of the country by Allied powers in the Treaty of Versailles following World War I but which the Communist Party now claims as a precursor to its own creation. Anniversaries for the Chinese government aren't only about celebration and ceremony. They're often used as highly symbolic milestones for progress or new policies. For instance, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in 2021 has been set as the date for China to create a "moderately well-off society." "There's obviously a sense that there will be a reckoning, a calculation up to this point of how the first 70 years have gone and plans for the next 70 years," Mitter said. Crackdown looms Not all important dates next year will be occasions to celebrate there are some Xi would rather the world forgot. June 4 marks 30 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, which caused possibly thousands of civilian deaths across the city in 1989 following pro-democracy protests. There are few more sensitive events in China and no one on the mainland will be allowed to mark the occasion publicly. Any attempt to do so will quickly be shut down. "As in recent years, even the most roundabout references to the event get censors worked up and maybe even lead to arrests," Jeff Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at UC Irvine, told CNN. "While images of a man standing before a line of tanks are shown and described in various newspapers outside the mainland, on the Chinese internet even the word 'today' may be treated as subversive content." This year also marks 20 years since Beijing's brutal crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners began and 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, both occasions which the government will hope pass without mention. But it isn't only sensitive dates which threaten to cause a headache for Xi in 2019. After decades of unprecedented growth across a number of fronts, the economy is slowing. Attempts to tackle soaring debt levels across the country have led to a slowdown in infrastructure and investment spending, while GDP growth rates have also slowed. Even the Communist Party's usually relentlessly positive official statements have become tinged with increasingly grim language. The readout from the top-level Central Economic Work Conference in December spoke of "profound changes in the external environment" and added the party had "worked hard to meet difficulties." In Communist Party bureaucrat speak, this is the equivalent of a warning klaxon. "These achievements were hard won," the readout said. As China's unchallenged leader on all matters economic, it will be Xi's job to turn the ship around. 'The Chinese would take hardship again' While Xi faces extensive domestic problems and challenges in 2019, it could be external factors which weigh the heaviest on him. Beijing faces growing pushback from the United States across a range of fronts, from economic to politics and the military. Throughout 2018, Trump steadily ramped up U.S. tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods while demanding Beijing end its massive fiscal support for industrial research and development. Currently the trade war is on hold until March 1, following personal negotiations between Trump and Xi. This leaves the Chinese President with a stressful start to the year trying to placate the U.S. while not giving too much away. Even if Xi can end the trade crisis, the Trump administration has opened new fronts in its disputes with Beijing, including a growing presence in the South China Sea and pushback over Chinese economic espionage. There have been hints Xi may not expect a quick resolution to the Trump trade standoff. In a key speech in the Great Hall of the People on December 18, he seemed to be trying to prepare his domestic audience for a more lengthy dispute, warning how greatness was achieved through "hardship." Cables leaked to the New York Times, revealing details of a China summit with the European Union, quoted Xi as saying,"China (has) been through poverty and hardship when it was under the blockade. The Chinese would take hardship again." Wasserstrom said Trump's opposition to China's economic development might be the one silver lining for Xi in a difficult situation. "Economic times are going to get tougher in China and this leads to discontent. But now there's an ability to blame a lot of those hard times on the U.S.," he said. Trouble brewing Ironically it was Xi's victory in removing presidential term limits which has left him vulnerable as the trade war intensifies. In the past two years, power in China has increasingly been concentrated in the hands of the Communist Party. Inside the party, Xi has clearly consolidated his control. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his removal of term limits. But by placing himself so clearly at the top of the pyramid, experts said Xi has left himself vulnerable to criticism when things go wrong. "The Party Secretary is responsible for the relationship with the United States and the way it's run off the rails exposes Xi to a lot of criticism," McGregor, the Australian China expert, told CNN. There is a growing impression in Beijing, and among experts, that the Chinese government underestimated Trump, believing they had the U.S. leader under control after waging a charm offensive in 2017. Trump's rapid action against China has left its leaders reconsidering their approach to international diplomacy, with some questioning Xi's tough rhetoric and aggressive stance in recent years. Meanwhile, economic liberals are beginning to use the Trump tariffs as an excuse to push for greater liberalization of China's economy, contrary to Xi's desire for greater state and party control. Heading into the new year, the Chinese leader must maintain a delicate balance between conciliation, patriotism, pro-market reforms and government control as pressure grows on him. If Xi fails to lead his country successfully through the coming troubles, his dreams of a lengthy spell at the top could be cut short, Mitter said. "Making it possible to have more than two terms doesn't make it certain that person will have more than two terms," he said. This story was first published on CNN.com "China's Xi Jinping begins his most important year at his weakest point" NAPPANEE [mdash] Daniel F. Chupp, 89 of Nappanee, Indiana, died at 9:46 a.m. Thursday, June 10, 2021 at Goshen General Hospital. Cremation will take place and a memorial service will be held at a later date. The setting sun darkened the sky and the flashing red and blue lights became brighter. A gunshot could be heard in the distance. A woman on Martin Drive let out a wail that echoed across a field in the darkness. Thirty-five-year-old Marcus Hairston told the Danville Register & Bee the victim was his cousin and had a son about to turn 2 years old. He was an outstanding young man, Hairston said. He worked hard and enjoyed his family. Hairston identified the victim as 21-year-old D.J. Peatross Jr., of Eden, North Carolina. The two cousins were close, and sometimes went fishing together, he said. Me and him was tight, Hairston said. He just had a good sense of humor. He always made everybody laugh. I just cant believe hes gone. A lady at the scene declined to speak to the Register & Bee. He was my nephew, she said as she walked away. Gloucester, MA (01930) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Some passing clouds. Low 58F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Ukraine Has No Platform for Dialogue Between UOC-MP, 'New Church' - Archbishop Sputnik News 12:50 06.01.2019(updated 13:02 06.01.2019) KIEV (Sputnik) - There is currently no platform for dialogue between the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the unrecognized "new Ukrainian Orthodox church," UOC-MP Archbishop Clement told Sputnik on Sunday. "We have the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches a platform for dialogue. Since [the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of] the Kiev Patriarchate and the UAOC [the unrecognized Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church] have been dismantled, it is unclear in what format this organization will continue to operate Now the format of the dialogue is unclear," Archbishop Clement said. The archbishop also stated that the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate wouldn't hold church services with the recently created "new Ukrainian church." "The new church is a non-canonical religious organization. This means that compared to an Orthodox church, which has the authority to perform sacraments, this religious organization is not [such a church]. Therefore, there is no way we could hold services together with the religious leaders of this church," the archbishop said. Prior to the so-called unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox church, the church in the country was split into three major groups: the canonical UOC-MP and the two non-recognized structures the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On Sunday, the "new church" received the Tomos from Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, officially stipulating its independence. The Russian Orthodox Church, along with other canonical Orthodox churches, except for Constantinople, have refused to recognize the results of the "unification council" that took place in Kiev on December 15 and resulted in the election of the head of the new Ukrainian church. Sputnik Decree On Independence Handed Over To New Orthodox Church In Ukraine January 06, 2019 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has handed over a "tomos" of autocephaly to Metropolitan Epifaniy of the new Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Bartholomew presented the document at a church service in Istanbul on January 6, after signing it during a ceremony the previous day. The historic document grants the Orthodox Church in Ukraine independence, or autocephaly, and ends more than 330 years of Russian religious control in Ukraine. The patriarch urged the new church in Ukraine to "strive for unity and peace" with believers who remain under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and to "help them understand that Ukraine deserves a united church body." "Unity has been restored," Metropolitan Epifaniy said during the ceremony in Istanbul's St. George's Cathedral. "Now we are united." At the January 5 signing ceremony, Bartholomew said that Ukrainians could now enjoy "the sacred gift of emancipation, independence, and self-governance, becoming free from every external reliance and intervention." Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who attended the two-day events, said on January 6: "The 'tomos' is one more act declaring the independence of Ukraine." Following the mass, both Poroshenko and Epifaniy attended a traditional Orthodox event on the Bosphorus in which dozens of men braved the cold and jumped into the waters to grab a cross flung by Patriarch Bartholomew. Metropolitan Epifaniy was expected to take the document back to Kyiv later, where it will be displayed on January 7 in the Sophia Cathedral complex. Bartholomew announced the decision to recognize Ukraine's request for an autocephalous church in October. In December, Ukrainian Orthodox leaders agreed on the creation of a new national Orthodox church and elected the 39-year-old Epifaniy to head that church. Russia long opposed such efforts by the Ukrainians for an independent church, which intensified after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and began supporting separatists shortly thereafter in parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The announcement by Bartholomew, who is considered the leader of the 300-million-strong worldwide Orthodox community, came amid deepening tension over efforts by Ukrainian Orthodox churches to formally break away from Russia's orbit. It also prompted the Russian Orthodox Church to announce days later that it was ending its relationship with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in protest. Vladimir Legoida, a Russian Orthodox Church spokesman, denounced the tomos on January 5 as "a document that is the result of irrepressible political and personal ambitions." It had been "signed in violation of the canons and therefore not possessing any canonical force," Legoida said in a statement. With reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASS Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-bartholomew-presents -tomos-chirch-independence/29693771.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. UK PM warns Brexit can be cancelled if parliament rejects her deal Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 01:33PM British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned that growing criticism of her European Union withdrawal agreement and opponents' attempt to discard it in a parliamentary vote this month would finally lead to the cancellation of a 2016 popular decision to leave the bloc. "Don't let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good, because the danger there is actually we end up with no Brexit at all," May told BBC on Sunday, while speaking about a planned vote in the House of Commons in mid-January on her Brexit deal. The premier said Britain would be in "uncharted territory" if the Commons reject the Brexit agreement she signed with the EU in November, a situation that she warned was going to have unknown consequences for the country. "We're going to be in uncharted territory. I don't think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we'll see in parliament," said May, who has been struggling over the Christmas time to win over critics of the her Brexit agreement. The PM again rejected calls for a fresh Brexit referendum that could allow Britain to stay in the EU. "Practically, actually you couldn't get a referendum in time before the 29th of March - you'd be talking about extending Article 50," she said while referring to Britain's official departure date from the EU and a clause in EU's Lisbon treaty which allowed London to trigger Brexit two years ago. May's comments come as many still think she would finally fail to go through the parliament with her Brexit deal. The premier delayed an original vote in the parliament in early December out of fears she would lose over a controversial clause in the withdrawal agreement that concerns the future of the Irish border. The deal's opponents say the so-called "backstop" clause undermines the UK's sovereignty because it effectively separates Northern Ireland from the mainland Britain. The EU insists it should be able to include Northern Ireland in its customs union and move the border to the Irish Sea until a mechanism is found for bilateral trade. There are several scenarios awaiting Britain in March if the Commons reject May's Brexit deal with the most probable being a disorderly exit, or what has been called a no-deal Brexit. May, who has repeatedly reiterated that her government would be ready to bring the UK out of the EU with no agreement, did not directly respond to a BBC question on whether she was leading the country toward a no-deal Brexit. However, British health Minister Matthew Hancock said Sunday that chances for May to win the parliament's vote had increased. "I certainly hope that the chances of the deal going through have improved. I think if people (MPs) have gone back to their constituencies, as I have, and talked to normal people then they will have found an overwhelming sense of 'please can we just get on with it'," Hancock said in a Sky News interview. The comments on political uncertainty surrounding Brexit came after results of a fresh poll published on Sunday showed that most of Britons were in favor of remaining in the EU. Come on, Maryland, we can do so much better! We need all eight Maryland House members to sign on to the resolution. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin has already signed on. If all the other house members claim to care about climate change, then please sign on. Turkey Rejects New US Offer to Cancel Purchase of Russian S-400 Systems - Report Sputnik News 04:56 06.01.2019(updated 05:00 06.01.2019) ANKARA (Sputnik) - According to the Yeni Safak newspaper, a US delegation has tried to convince Turkey to give up on purchasing the Russian missile systems during the visit to Ankara earlier this week. However, the Turkish authorities reportedly rejected the offer since it did not include a discount on the price set or a transfer of technology. The Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday that the United States had submitted a proposal to sell Patriot missile systems to Ankara. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on December 18 the US State Department had approved a possible sale to Turkey of 80 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM-T), 60 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles and other related equipment for an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on December 19 that there were no connection between the possible acquisition by Turkey of the US Patriot missile systems and the purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense systems, stressing that Moscow and Ankara will continue implementing the contract on S-400 deliveries. The S-400 is a next-generation mobile missile system which can carry three different types of missiles capable of destroying a variety of aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range, from reconnaissance aircraft to ballistic missiles. Sputnik Terrorists Storm Opposition-Held Town in Syria's Aleppo - Reports Sputnik News 06:54 06.01.2019(updated 07:07 06.01.2019) DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - Terrorists from the Hayat Tahrir Ash-Sham group (former Jabhat al-Nusra) have clashed with the armed opposition groups in the town of Atarib in the west of Syria's Aleppo province, media reported on Sunday. According to the Lebanese Mayadeen broadcaster, Hayat Tahrir Ash-Sham has seized settlements located west of Aleppo previously held by the Nour al-Din al-Zinki militant group. The broadcaster reported that Hayat Tahrir Ash-Sham attacked Atarib, with the Syrian military aircraft allegedly carrying out three strikes targeting terrorists' positions. As a condition for stopping the attacks on the city, the terrorists demanded that local fighters surrendered their arms and handed over control of all checkpoints and strategic infrastructure in Atarib, Mayadeen reported citing a source. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Sputnik US Doesn't Want Turkey to Take Military Action in Syria - Bolton Sputnik News 14:04 06.01.2019(updated 16:45 06.01.2019) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Thursday that Washington's key priority would be to avoid a regional massacre between the Turkish military and Kurds. US National Security Adviser John Bolton said Sunday that the US didn't want Turkey to take any military actions in Syria unless they're fully coordinated with Washington. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered," Bolton told reporters, as quoted by the NBC News. Speaking further, the senior official said that the US would withdraw its forces from Syria only if Turkey provided assurance to protect Kurds. "There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," Bolton told reporters during his visit to Israel. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement." Commenting on the US position on Turkey's role in Syria, Erdogan's spokesman said that Ankara only targeted Daesh and Kurdish YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist organisation, but not all Kurds. US President Donald Trump has faced tremendous pressure to protect US-backed Kurdish forces belonging to the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, the most effective American-backed force in liberating the city of Raqqa and other areas seized by the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia). Senator Lindsey Graham, a critic of US withdrawal plans, has also said that Trump personally assured him that the fate of Kurdish militias would be considered in withdrawing American forces. Sputnik Netanyahu Says Israel to Continue Withstanding 'Iran's Aggression' in Syria Sputnik News 20:10 06.01.2019(updated 20:18 06.01.2019) TEL AVIV (Sputnik) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would continue to confront Iran's military activities in Syria. "Our position is clear. We will continue to act against the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, including at present, and we will act against any element that undermines, or attempts to undermine, the security of Israel", Netanyahu said a government meeting, as quoted on his Twitter. The prime minister added that he intended to discuss a number of important issues with US National Security Adviser John Bolton later in the day. "This evening I will meet with US National Security Adviser John Bolton. I will discuss with him the efforts to block the Iranian aggression in our region, the situation in Syria in continuation of both [US] President [Donald] Trump's decision and the conversation I had with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin last Friday, and the deepening of intelligence and operational cooperation between Israel and the US, which is becoming closer all the time", Netanyahu said. In December, US President Donald Trump said that the US forces would pull out of Syria since the Daesh* terrorist group had been defeated there. * Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia Sputnik Syria sends reinforcements to Hama, Idlib amid clashes Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 11:31AM The Syrian army has reportedly dispatched military equipment, including artillery, armored vehicles and personnel carriers, to the outskirts of the western provinces of Hama and Idlib. An informed military source, cited by Russia's Sputnik news agency, said the military build-up is meant to boost readiness against any possible change on the ground following the fresh bout of infighting among terrorists. Syrian army bases and residential areas have come under stepped-up attacks by terrorist groups, especially al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which is currently engaged in fighting with Turkish-backed militants. The military source said the Syrian government cannot remain indifferent to the assaults which breach a ceasefire brokered between Russia, Turkey and Iran in September 2017. The so-called safe zones declared in Idlib have seen HTS terrorists attacking Turkish-backed militants from the so-called National Front for Liberation (NFL) in a bid to seize key roads in the province and gain ground in neighboring Hama. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has put the death toll from the skirmishes in the upwards of 100, including civilians, but pan-Arab al-Mayadeen television has cited a fatality count of more than 500. The clashes have raised concerns that the deal to set up de-escalation zones in the region could unravel. In a joint declaration issued on Friday, local councils in Syria called for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor as clashes spread to urban areas. The tensions come amid contradictory statements made by US officials about the American military pullout from Syria. US President Donald Trump ordered a quick withdrawal of all 2,000 American forces from Syria last month but then said troops would get out slowly "over a period of time." On Saturday, a senior administration official said some US troops could remain in southern Syria for an unspecified amount of time. Those who leave Syria would be sent to Iraq, he added. With Syria reinforcing troops in Idlib, US national security adviser John Bolton struck the familiar aggressive note, warning Damascus against the use of chemical weapons. The official was traveling to Israel when he expressed that there was "absolutely no change" in the US stance on the matter of chemical weapons, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last September as the Syrian army geared up to drive out terrorists from Idlib, Washington claimed that Damascus planned to carry out a chemical attack which the West has used as a pretext in the past to hit government positions. Syria surrendered its entire chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN. Trump's hawkish aides are also frustrated at calls by Syrian Kurdish leaders for a deal with the Syrian government following the US president's announcement to withdraw troops. Turkey slams 'irrational' US accusation that it attacks Syrian Kurds Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 03:01PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman has denounced as "irrational" US claims that Turkey was attacking Kurds in Syria's northeastern parts. Ibrahim Kalin said Sunday that Ankara's military campaign in the neighboring Arab country, besides Daesh, has only targeted members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the PKK, which regularly clashes with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey. Kalin argued that the YPG and the PKK did not represent Syrian Kurds, which he called as "brothers." "To argue that a terrorist organization represents Kurds is, above all, disrespectful to our Kurdish brothers," Kaln said, adding, "One of the goals of Turkey's struggle against the PKK and its Syrian offshoots is to save the Kurds from the tyranny and oppression of this terror group." The YPG is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which maintains close military cooperation with the US. US President Donald Trump's decision last month to leave Syria has exposed the Kurdish group to possible Turkish attacks. Kalin's remarks came after John Bolton, the US National Security Advisor, said earlier on Sunday that American forces were going to stay in northeastern Syria until Turkey pledges not to go after US-allied Kurdish groups. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum," he told reporters in Israel. This, he said, was to make sure that Turkey meets Trump's key condition to follow up on his withdrawal plan. While Trump had originally promised to pull out all American troops within a month, Bolton refused to provide a clear timetable and said the evacuation would go ahead as planned once all "conditions" were met. "This is a cause-and-effect mission," Bolton said, adding, "Timetables or the timing of the withdrawal occurs as a result of the fulfillment of the conditions and the establishment of the circumstances that we want to see. And once that's done, then you talk about a timetable." The White House's top national security official is expected to travel to Turkey on Monday, where he is supposed to discuss Ankara's plans to fight Daesh. Trump has suggested that Turkey could take on America's military responsibilities in Syria. Fear of a Turkish assault has led the Kurds to strike an agreement with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave the Syrian town Manbij in exchange for military support in case they come under attack from Turkey. Syria may join Arab League again soon: Tunisian presidential advisor Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 05:56PM Tunisian Presidential advisor, Lazhar al-Qorawi al-Chabi, says the Arab League is currently studying the possibility of restoring Syria's membership in the 22-member regional organization amid promising signs that the incumbent Damascus government led by President Bashar al-Assad is being admitted back into the Arab world. "There are some positive signs with regard to restoring Syria's membership in the Arab League especially after the latest move by some Arab countries to re-open their embassies in Syria," the Tunisian presidential advisor said in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Sunday. Al-Chabi said that this is the right time for Syria to be back to the Arab League. "Syria cannot remain outside the Arab League anymore. This is its normal place," the senior Tunisian official pointed out. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in November 2011, citing alleged crackdown by Damascus on opposition protests. Syria has denounced the move as "illegal and a violation of the organization's charter." On December 28, 2018, Bahrain's Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that work at the kingdom's embassy "in the Syrian Arab Republic is going on whilst the Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Kingdom of Bahrain is carrying out its duties and flights connecting the two countries are operational without interruption." The statement also affirmed "the Kingdom's keenness on the continuity of its relations with the Syrian Arab Republic and stresses the significance of enhancing and activating the Arab role in order to maintain Syria's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and avert the hazards of regional interference in its internal affairs and progress." It came a day after the United Arab Emirates officially reopened its embassy in Damascus. The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said the reopening of its embassy "reaffirms the keenness of the United Arab Emirates to restore relations between the two friendly countries to their normal course." The move "will strengthen and activate the Arab role in supporting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to prevent the dangers of regional interference in Syrian Arab affairs," the ministry pointed out. On December 16, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir became the first Arab League leader to visit Damascus. Syria's official news agency SANA said Bashir was greeted by his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad upon arrival at Damascus International Airport, before they both headed to the presidential palace. The two leaders discussed bilateral ties and the "situations and crises faced by many Arab countries," the Syrian presidency said in a statement. SANA quoted the Sudanese leader as saying during the meeting that he hoped Syria will recover its important role in the region as soon as possible. He also affirmed Khartoum's readiness to provide all it can to support Syria's territorial integrity. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country. Syrian Army foils terrorists' attempt to sneak into military points in Hama IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Jan 6, IRNA -- An army unit has thwarted terrorist groups' attempt to sneak into safe villages and military posts in Hama northern countryside in a new violation of the demilitarized zone agreement in Idleb. SANA reporter in Hama said that an army unit positioned in the vicinity of Shaliot village in Merdeh northern countryside on Sunday targeted with precision fire a terrorist group linked to the so-called 'Al-Ezza Batallions" that attempted to sneak from al-Zakat village into safe villages and military points in the area, SANA reported. The army unit foiled the infiltration attempt, inflicted heavy losses upon terrorists' ranks and destroyed their weapons while the remaining fled away. On Saturday, the army units carried out precise operations against terrorist groups that tried to infiltrate and attack military points and safe villages and towns from the directions of Latimnah and Hasraya in Hama northern countryside. 8072**2050 US House panel to probe Saudi links to Trump's finances Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 09:18AM A US House of Representatives panel plans to investigate ties between the sprawling business conglomerate owned by President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia. A member of the House Intelligence Committee said it will aggressively investigate the links, including "hundreds" of hotel rooms Saudi lobbyists booked at the new Trump Hotel in Washington after the president's election victory. "What I would like to know is, again and you could see this through his tax returns, you could see this through bank records whether there is an ongoing relationship financially with the Saudis," said Eric Swalwell on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. A spokesman for a public relations company working for Saudi Arabia told The Wall Street Journal that the lobbyists were trying to stonewall a bill that allowed Americans to sue foreign governments for responsibility in the September 11 attacks. The campaigners would offer the rooms to US military veterans, whom they would send to Capitol Hill to lobby against the bill, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal reported, citing veterans and organizers. The PR firm working for Saudi Arabia spent "nearly $270,000 on lodging and catering" at the hotel, the MEE added. Saudi feeding Trump's ego? Swalwell went on to say that Trump was absorbed with Saudi Arabia due to Riyadh's satisfying of the president's sense of self-importance. "You have a narcissistic personality, and they're throwing him this massive welcome ceremony, and I think we all can see, you know, why he would kind of gravitate toward them," the congressman said. The reception came during Trump's first foreign visit, which he paid to Saudi Arabia of all other countries in May 2017. It saw Saudi King Salman attending a sword dance with the kingdom, and Washington signing a $110-billion arms deal with Riyadh. The US has been the main Western patron of the Saudi-led war on Yemen. It also lends logistical support to the war, which has killed tens of thousands and raised the specter of outright famine over the already-impoverished country. Trump has refused to downgrade the support in defiance of an international outcry. The murder in October last year of prominent US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has also failed to affect the US relations with the kingdom, despite allegations that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. Swalwell blasted Trump's failure to assert "American values" in holding Saudi Arabia responsible for the killing. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Arrives in Pakistan, $3 Billion Deal Expected - Reports Sputnik News 01:37 07.01.2019(updated 01:41 07.01.2019) DUBAI (Sputnik) - Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has arrived in Islamabad for a two-day official visit, media reported on Sunday. The crown prince has already held a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The sides discussed political and economic relations between Abu Dhabi and Islamabad, according to the Emirates News Agency. During the visit, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to sign a multi-billion dollar support package for Pakistan. In late December, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development said that the UAE planned to deposit some $3 billion in Pakistan's Central Bank to help Islamabad cope with its balance of payments crisis. Pakistan is currently facing a balance of payments crisis after the exchange rate of its national currency against the US dollar fell 5 percent in November. The decision was announced several days after Pakistan took part in the US-Taliban talks that were held in the United Arab Emirates. Sputnik Baker said ecologists worry that 2018 offered a preview of what is to come for the bay if precipitation continues to increase and federal oversight continues to decrease. Among the Trump administration proposals bay advocates say could have the biggest impact is one to cut back federal jurisdiction over intermittent streams and other small or temporary waterways. Farmers argue the Obama-era rule, known as Waters of the United States, was overreaching and overburdening. Pakistan's fleet docks at Iran's Bandar Abbas port on friendly visit Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 02:28PM A Pakistani naval fleet has berthed in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on a friendly four-day visit to further improve military relations and good neighborliness between the two countries. The Pakistani peace and friendship flotilla, comprised of PNS Khaibar, PMSS Zhob, PNS Madadgar and PNS Rah Naward, docked at the Iranian port on Sunday. An Iranian Navy commander, Mojtaba Mohammadi, said the Pakistani fleet's crew planned to meet with local Iranian Navy officials, attend joint cultural and training courses, and visit naval facilities in Bandar Abbas. He added that Iran has so far dispatched several fleet to Pakistan with the purpose of strengthening cooperation between the two neighboring countries. The 43rd flotilla of the Iranian Navy participated in a joint relief and rescue drill with Pakistani naval forces in waters off the port city of Karachi in October 2016. Several exercises were carried out during the joint maneuver such as search and rescue training, helicopter vertical reference training, telecommunication exercises using flags, lights, radiographs, and the formation and combination of the surface vessels of Iran and Pakistan according to pre-determined scenarios. Bolton Reassures Netanyahu of US Support for Israeli Right to Self-Defense Sputnik News 01:01 07.01.2019(updated 01:04 07.01.2019) TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday reiterated US commitment to Israeli self-defense, during his meeting with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem. "For the US, a sovereign nation's ability to defend itself is the ultimate mark of sovereignty. President Trump has said repeatedly that he backs Israel's right to self-defense," Bolton told reporters. He said the United States would make sure that the Daesh terror group is "defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again" before pulling troops from Syria. In a show of support for Syrian Kurdish militia in the country's northeast, who were taken aback by Trump's surprise decision to withdraw all 2,000 personnel, Bolton said they would be taken care of. He promised that Washington would "make sure that defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS[Daesh]." In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for reimposing sanctions on Iran and moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said he planned to take Bolton on Monday to the Golan Heights a strip of Syrian land occupied by Israel to show why it meant a lot for Israeli security. Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia. Sputnik Iran, Russia to hold joint military drill in Caspian Sea Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 10:44AM The commander of the Iranian navy says Iran and Russia will hold joint drills in the Caspian Sea as he underlines opposition to the military presence of any country from outside the region. "Relief and rescue, tactical, and anti-piracy exercises between Iranian and Russian naval forces are being planned and will be carried out in the near future," Rear-Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said on Sunday. "Joint drills with Russia will surely take us to a new level of cooperation in strategic, tactical, and operational areas at sea," he added. Iran and Russia have held several naval drills in the Caspian Sea. Khanzadi said cooperation among the naval forces of the Caspian states has "tremendously deepened" in recent years. According to the commander, relations have now assumed a traditional format, where regional states enjoy good mutual understanding. Khanzadi asserted that the presence of foreign forces in the waters is ruled out and will certainly be confronted. "The Caspian is the sea of peace and friendship, and all its littoral countries follow this approach." Last time the Iranian and Russian navies held joint drills in the world's largest enclosed inland body of water was in July 2017. A Russian naval fleet berthed in Iran's Bandar Anzali for the purpose, becoming the fifth Russian flotilla to make the port call in 10 years. In March 2018, a flotilla of Iranian warships, comprising the domestically-manufactured destroyer Damavand and the missile-launching frigate Derafsh, sailed to the Russian port of Makhachkala. The Iranian navy has celebrated significant advances over the past years and expanded its global operating range. On December 1, the country inaugurated Sahand, its most advanced-yet military vessel with radar-evasion properties and the capability to take on long-term voyages without resupply. On Friday, the navy said it is to dispatch a flotilla, including Sahand, to the Atlantic Ocean on a five-month mission. The fleet will depart for the waters early next year on the Iranian calendar, which begins on March 21, Rear-Admiral Touraj Hassani-Moqaddam, the navy's deputy commander told IRNA. Brazil deploys troops to contain criminal violence in northern city Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 06:02AM Troops have been deployed to the northern Brazilian city of Fortaleza to stop widespread criminal activity in the area. State-run media cited officials as saying special troops had been deployed on Saturday to stop a surge of criminal attacks on banks, buses, and shops in Fortaleza in recent weeks. Agencia Brasil news agency said 300 troops would be patrolling Fortaleza and other towns in Ceara State in a bid to halt the violence. The move is seen as President Jair Bolsonaro's first attempt at restoring order to the country since he took office last Tuesday. A right-wing former paratrooper, Bolsonaro has made law and order a centerpiece of his presidency. He has vowed to fight rampant crime in the country by extending immunity to soldiers and police using lethal force, as well as easing gun laws so "good" citizens can defend themselves against armed criminal gangs. Mission: Ending impunity Bolsonaro's Justice Minister Sergio Moro said earlier that ending the impunity of powerful criminals was his top priority. Moro, a former judge who led the "Car Wash" investigation into a huge corruption scandal that indicted two former presidents, ordered the deployment of the troops after concluding that Ceara police had been overwhelmed by powerful gangs. This week, about 80 attacks by three gangs were reported in towns across Ceara State. In Fortaleza alone, dozens of attacks were reported, which forced residents to stay home. Some 50 suspects have been arrested. The three rivaling gangs wreaking havoc in the region are the so-called Red Command (known as CV, its abbreviation in Portuguese), which grew out of organized criminal activity in Rio de Janeiro, the so-called First Command of the Capital (PCC), based in Sao Paulo, and a group calling itself the Guardians of the State (GDE). The CV and the PCC gangs are said to have agreed on a truce with each other in Ceara to focus against the government troops. UN Calls on Bahrain to Free Imprisoned Human Rights Defender By Lisa Schlein January 06, 2019 The U.N. Human Rights office is calling on Bahrain to immediately release human rights defender Nabeel Rajab who has been in prison for two-and-a-half years after tweeting criticism about Saudi Arabia's airstrikes in Yemen and alleging torture inside Bahrain's Jau Prison. The U.N. agency says Rajab is being jailed for exercising his freedom of opinion and expression. Bahrain's highest court upheld Nabeel Rajab's conviction and five-year sentence last Monday for "spreading false news and rumors in time of war" and related charges. Last year, the U.N. Working Group of Arbitrary Detention declared Rajab's detention to be arbitrary. The U.N. human rights office accuses the Government of Bahrain of employing harsh measures to suppress the voices of its critics. Human Rights spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said the government will go to great lengths to keep human rights defenders from speaking out. She cited the case of Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei who tried to participate in a session of the Human Rights Council in 2017. She told VOA the authorities prevented him from attending by arresting three of his family members in Bahrain on terrorism charges. "All three of them reportedly suffered torture and ill-treatment while in detention So, we have several emblematic cases that we are able to highlight. And, this, of course, leads to the concern that if even prominent human rights defenders are subjected to these kinds of intimidation and legal actions what can the less prominent ones be subjected to without international scrutiny," said the spokeswoman. This case is included in a report on reprisals issued by the U.N. secretary-general in September. The report highlights specific cases where activists and their families in Bahrain have suffered reprisals for seeking to engage with U.N. rights mechanisms. Shamdasani said the government of Bahrain is violating its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it has ratified. As spokeswoman for the human rights office, she urged the government to stop criminalizing dissenting voices. WFP Calls for Biometric System to Prevent Food Aid Theft in Yemen By Lisa Schlein January 06, 2019 The World Food Program is calling for a biometric-based registration system in Yemen to prevent the theft of food rations meant for hungry people. A week ago, the World Food Program uncovered evidence that people entitled to food aid were not receiving their rations in the Yemeni capital Sana'a and in other parts of the country controlled by the Houthi rebels. The Houthi leadership has since stated it would undertake an investigation. While welcoming this statement, WFP says concrete steps must be taken to make sure humanitarian assistance is not misused. It is calling for a biometric registration system of beneficiaries. WFP spokesman, Herve Verhoosel, tells VOA his agency has implemented such a system in Aden with the permission of the Yemeni government. He says the program has successfully weeded out people who were not entitled to food assistance. "We have proposed since a few months to do the same to the Sana'a de facto authorities," he said. "For the moment, they have not accepted yet. But it is the best way to make sure that the support reaches the people who need to receive that support." The United Nations warns about 14 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine. The World Food Program provides food assistance to three million people a month in Yemen. The agency's monitoring system found that a local partner organization that distributes much of this aid was involved in misappropriating some of the food. WFP does not accuse the local organization itself of being corrupt. But it says individuals within the organization found to be involved in this illicit practice must be sacked. The agency notes the misuse of food aid also happens in areas controlled by the Government of Yemen, but at a lower volume than in Houthi-held areas. It says WFP is not the only victim of larcenous practices. It says all aid agencies working in Yemen and in war zones everywhere are vulnerable to abuse and must remain vigilant. US: Airstrike Killed Alleged USS Cole Attack Mastermind By VOA News January 06, 2019 U.S. military officials have confirmed that a U.S. airstrike last week killed one of the alleged masterminds of the USS Cole bombing which killed 17 sailors in 2000. "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi," Trump tweeted Sunday, adding that U.S. efforts against al-Qaida will continue. "We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!," he said. U.S military officials said a precision U.S. airstrike in Yemen's Marib governorate Tuesday targeted al-Badawi, one of six al-Qaida operatives convicted of the bombing and a fugitive on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. "Jamal al-Badawi was a legacy al Qaeda operative in Yemen involved in the USS Cole bombing. U.S. forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process," said a statement Sunday from the U.S. Central Command. In October 2000, 17 American sailors from the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole died in a suicide bomb attack at Aden harbor. Dozens more sailors were wounded. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility. Al-Badawi was arrested by Yemeni authorities in 2000, escaped from a prison in 2003, was recaptured by Yemeni authorities in 2004, and escaped again in 2006. Al-Badawi was charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of U.S. nationals and murder of U.S. military personnel. In addition to his role in the bombing, he has been charged with attempting to attack a U.S. Navy vessel in January 2000. Trump Confirms Al-Qaeda Terrorist Badawi Killed in Yemen Strike Sputnik News 18:36 06.01.2019(updated 21:50 06.01.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm reports on Sunday that Jamal Badawi, an operative of the al-Qaeda terrorist group (banned in Russia) responsible for a 2000 attack on the USS Cole, had been killed in an airstrike. "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi." Trump wrote on his Twitter. The US Central Command confirmed hours later that Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Yemen's Marib governate, Jan. 1. US media reported on Saturday that Badawi, who was indicted by a grand jury in 2003 for orchestrating the October 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors, had been killed in the strike in Yemen on January 1. On October 12, 2000, a small boat loaded with explosives crashed into the side of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 39, leaving a gaping, 40-foot hole in the side of the ship. Badawi, along with Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Ali al-Harithi and Fahd al-Quso, were named by the incoming George W. Bush administration as conspirators who organised the attack on behalf of al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the act. Tawfiq bin Attash has also been accused of organising the attack. Sputnik Israel Strikes Two Hamas Military Posts in Gaza - IDF Sputnik News 19:34 06.01.2019(updated 20:57 06.01.2019) In late December, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had detected a rocket launch from the Gaza Strip, which was the first attack from the Palestinian enclave on the Israeli territory in over a month, and responded to it by striking a Hamas post in the south of Gaza. The IDF posted a photo of a suspicious cluster of balloons, saying that it had explosives attached to it. The plane with explosives landed near the settlement of Sdot Negev in the Southern District of Israel and was defused by police sappers. According to the IDF, it's helicopters attacked two Hamas positions in Gaza following the attempted attack. One strike hit an observation point for Hamas's armed wing, while another one occurred east of Gaza City, AFP reported, citing a Hamas security source. Tensions on the Israeli border with Gaza flared up during the Great March of Return rally, which began on March 30, 2018, on the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Israel and in protest against the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem, which Palestinians consider to be their capital. Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 following Fatah's defeat in the 2014 parliamentary elections. Sputnik Bolton Says U.S. Syria Withdrawal Conditioned On IS Defeat, Turkish Protection For Kurds By RFE/RL January 06, 2019 The United States has said its decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria was conditional on Turkey ensuring the safety of Kurds in Syria, U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton has said. Bolton also said on January 6 during a visit to Israel that the U.S. withdrawal was conditioned on defeating remaining elements of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization in Syria. Bolton said there was no timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement," he said. He added that President Donald Trump "wants the [IS] caliphate destroyed." Bolton added that Trump has stated he would not allow Turkey to attack the Kurds who worked with U.S. troops in Syria. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States," Bolton said. Turkey has charged that the Kurdish militias in Syria are allied with Kurdish fighters inside Turkey whom Ankara considers terrorists. Bolton said the United States has asked its Kurdish allies in Syria to refrain from seeking protection against Turkey from Russia or the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "I think they know who their friends are," Bolton said. In a video message posted on Twitter on December 20, 2018, Trump said U.S. troops are "all coming back and they're all coming back now." "We have won against [IS]," he said. "We have beaten them, and we've beaten them badly." The withdrawal plan was originally expected to be completed in a matter of weeks, but Trump told reporters on January 6: "We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we were doing it that quickly." "We're pulling out of Syria... and we won't be finally pulled out until [IS] is gone," he added. Trump's defense secretary, Jim Mattis, resigned over the decision, while NATO allies, including France and Germany, said the drastic change of course by the United States put the fight against IS at risk and endangered the Kurdish militias fighting IS. Bolton's remarks were the first confirmation from the U.S. administration that the withdrawal plan, which was originally expected to be completed in a matter of weeks, has been delayed. With reporting by AP and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/bolton-u-s -syria-withdrawal-defeat-turkish-protection- kurds/29694052.html Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. Police said three people in the car jumped out of it on Highgate Drive as it was moving toward Northern Parkway. One of the persons from the car was struck and killed by another county police cruiser that had responded to the scene; Vinson said the person was pinned underneath the car. A white sneaker could be seen lying in the street behind the police tape. Both the stolen car and a police cruiser, its hood crumpled from impact, remained on the scene Sunday as officers blocked eastbound traffic on West Northern Parkway. US continues Syria airstrikes despite Trump's troop withdrawal order: Military Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 01:44AM US forces have conducted hundreds of aerial and artillery strikes in Syria and will continue to do so indefinitely despite President Donald Trump's order to withdraw American troops from the country, the US military's regional command has announced. In a Friday press release, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) unveiled that US and coalition forces carried out 469 strikes with either air or artillery in Syria between December 16 and 29 in support of the US-sponsored militant group so-called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria and against what it proclaimed as "a range of ISIS (Daesh) targets," military.com reported Saturday. There is no immediate cutoff date for the air and artillery strikes, added the CJTF-OIR statement, further insisting that US forces "will continue to target ISIS" and "will remain committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region." According to the US military statement, the strikes were carried out using a variety of platforms, including fighters, attack aircraft, bombers, rotary-wing and remotely piloted aircraft, rocket-propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery. Civilians main victims of US air strikes in Syria Despite US claims of targeting the Daesh (ISIL) terrorists in Syria, UK-based group known as Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on December 21 that American airstrikes killed at least 27 mostly civilians including eight children in the village of al-Sha'afa in Syria's eastern Dyr al-Zawr province, also injuring scores of others. Contrary to Washington's repeated claims of battling the ISIL terrorist across Syria, local press reports have documented that it was in fact the Syrian army that led the operation to liberate Dayr Al-Zawr city from the grip of the foreign-backed militants in November 2017. This is while the US-led aerial assaults across Syria have been carried out without authorization from the government in Damascus or a UN mandate. Additionally, they have failed to fulfill their declared aim of countering terrorist forces, but have mostly destroyed much of Syria's infrastructure -- in line with Israeli regime's anti-Damascus policies and left many civilian casualties. Meanwhile, Syria has authorized Iraqi air force to run aerial operations against Daesh terrorists still remaining in pockets of its territory. Last week Iraqi F-16 jet fighters struck an ISIL command center near its western border inside Syria. The last Monday attack came a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he had no objections to Iraqi cross-border strikes that were limited to the remnants of ISIL in eastern Syria. Syrian forces in Manbij despite US claim of patrol runs The report by the US-based military.com further cited SOHR as claiming on Friday that US troops were conducting patrols in the northeastern Syrian town of Manbij, near the Turkish border, pointing out that it was yet another sign that the US is continuing to support the SDF's mostly Kurdish militants. However, Syrian army announced last week that its forces entered Manbij on December 28, marking the return of the town held by the US-backed militants to the government fold for the first time in years. The announcement came moments after the city's residents asked the Syrian government to retake Manbij following Trump's pledge to withdraw US troops from the Arab country. Since Trump's announced US troop withdrawal from Syria, which prompted the resignation of his Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, he has repeatedly backed up his vow to bring home American forces from Syria but later noted that the withdrawal would be "slow and coordinated." At a White House Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump claimed: "We've had a tremendous success in Syria and "we're slowly bringing people back." He further boasted, "We are doing something that, frankly, if I would have told you two years [ago], when we first came into office, that we would have had that kind of success, nobody would have believed it." Taliban seek venue change for peace talks with US to Qatar Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 03:13PM Taliban militants say they will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month and want a shift of venue to Qatar, the political headquarters of the group. A senior Taliban member told media outlets on Sunday that the militant group had sought to counter Riyadh's push to include the Afghan government in talks. "We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month," the Taliban official said. "The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia," he added. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed the group had cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia. The upcoming negotiations are scheduled between the leaders of Taliban and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and are to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and a possible ceasefire in 2019. Another senior Taliban leader said the group had explained to Saudi Arabia that it was not possible for Taliban to meet the Afghan government at this stage. "Everyone is aware of the fact that the Afghan government wanted the US and its allies not to leave Afghanistan and we have paid a heavy price to expel all foreign forces from our country." "Why should we talk to the Afghan government?" Leaders of the militant group reject the Kabul government's offer for direct talks. Khalilzad earlier confirmed he had held "productive" meetings in Abu Dhabi with Afghan and international partners "to promote intra-Afghan dialogue towards ending the conflict." The Kabul government has stepped up efforts to convince Taliban to end the 17-year militancy amid Washington's failure on the battleground. Taliban have previously said the presence of foreign troops is the biggest obstacle to peace in Afghanistan. Khalilzad said Taliban's demand remained an agreement over the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan. The US, meanwhile, has sought assurances from the militant group that its forces would not be attacked. Yemeni ballistic missile hits Saudi mercenaries' base in Ta'izz: Report Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 03:26PM Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have hit a military base in Yemen's southern province of Ta'izz with a domestically-manufactured high-precision ballistic missile as Saudi Arabia presses ahead with a campaign of military aggression against its impoverished southern neighbor. Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed military official from the missile unit of the Yemeni army, reported that Khalid military base, located in the western flank of the province, had been hit with a short-range and solid-propellant Badr P-1 missile on Sunday. It added that the projectile had struck the designated target with precision, leaving an unspecified number of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi either killed or wounded. The explosion also inflicted damage to the hardware and equipment of the base. Over dozen civilians injured as Saudi mercenaries shell Hudaydah Separately, more than a dozen civilians have been injured after Saudi mercenaries lobbed a barrage of mortar shells at residential areas in the Hali and Hawak districts of the western Yemeni province of Hudaydah. A provincial security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shells left at least 14 people injured, adding that some of the injured are in a critical condition. The development took place irrespective of a UN-brokered ceasefire in Hudaydah. The United Nations said on December 17, 2018 that a ceasefire had taken effect in Hudaydah, located 150 kilometers southwest of the capital Sana'a, at 3:00 a.m. local time (2400 GMT). The truce was agreed at the UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden last month. The two warring sides welcomed the ceasefire in Hudaydah, and said they would comply with it. The truce was supposed to be followed by the withdrawal of Houthi fighters as well as pro-Hadi militiamen. A prisoner swap, involving some 15,000 detainees, was also planned and a "mutual understanding" to facilitate aid deliveries to the southwestern coastal city of Ta'izz has been reached. Delegates from the Ansarullah movement and Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists have also agreed to meet again in late January for more talks to define the framework for negotiations on a comprehensive peace settlement. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah movement. According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis. The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years. A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance. Yemeni fighters complying with Stockholm agreement: Houthi official Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 06:50PM A senior official from Yemen's popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been defending the nation against a Saudi-led war, says the movement will comply with the Stockholm agreement on a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, made the pledge during a meeting with UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths in the capital Sana'a on Sunday. "We informed the UN envoy that we are ready to implement all the terms and conditions of the Stockholm agreement without any retreat or moving away from it," Yemeni satellite TV channel al-Masirah quoted Houthi as saying. Elsewhere in his remarks, Houthi said a second round of negotiations between the warring parties could be hosted "soon" in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Talks on Yemen's failed economy "could take place soon in Amman or by video conference, which I discussed with the UN envoy," Houthi said. Senior Ansarullah officials also told the visiting UN envoy that the Saudi regime had repeatedly violated the UN-brokered ceasefire in Hudaydah over the past two weeks. Griffiths arrived in Sana'a on Saturday for talks with Houthi leaders to shore up a ceasefire in the country's lifeline port city. He will later travel to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to meet with former Yemeni government officials. The UN envoy's trip is part of a new round of talks to follow up on progress made in the Swedish capital in December, when both sides agreed to a prisoner exchange and a truce in Hudaydah. The city, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the Saudi-led war, which Riyadh began in March 2015. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched the Hudaydah offensive in June 2018 but have been facing strong resistance from Yemeni armed forces led by Houthis as well as the city's residents. The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemeni people and made the country the world's worst humanitarian disaster. The imposed war initially consisted of an aerial campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of mercenaries to Yemen. The efforts have gone down the drain, forcing the kingdom to push for peace with Yemen's Houthis and their allies in the Yemeni army. Israel's military helicopters strike Hamas posts south of Gaza Strip Iran Press TV Sun Jan 6, 2019 07:15PM Israeli attack helicopters have struck two posts belonging to the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, in southern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip, the regime's military says. "Earlier today, an explosive device attached to a large cluster of balloons was launched on a model airplane from the Gaza Strip into" the Israeli-held Palestinian territories, the military said in a statement on Sunday. No damage was inflicted by the cross-border "attack" purportedly from the Gaza Strip. The drone-shaped device landed unexploded in a carrot field. It added that in response to the "balloon-borne explosive device," the military dispatched its "attack helicopters," striking "two observation posts" run by Hamas, on Sunday evening. According to a Hamas security source, one strike occurred east of Khan Younis and the other was carried out east of Gaza City. The source added that no injuries had been reported following the airstrikes. Meanwhile, Palestinian media reported that in addition to the Hamas posts, the Israeli military attacked "targets" in the vicinity of Jabalia, in northern Gaza, and in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City. The Israeli military, however, refused to comment on those reports. Tel Aviv bombards Gaza from time to time, claiming the assaults are in response to rocket attacks by resistance groups. The Gaza Strip has been witnessing tensions since March 30, which marked the start of the "Great March of Return" protests demanding the right to return for the Palestinians driven out of their homeland. Those tensions saw a sharp rise on May 14, marking the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which this year coincided with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds. More than 240 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry. The territory has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty. Usually, she explained, calves come out of the birth canal with their front legs first. If the vet or farmer notices otherwise, they have to enter their arm into the birth canal in order to adjust the position of the calf so that it is born without harming itself or the mother. Sat Saturday 97 /66 Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 90s and lows in the mid 60s. Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU for laptops announced with Max-Q technology News oi-Vivek Laptops with Nvidia RTX GPUs will start to ship from 29th of January At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nvidia has finally spoken about the laptops or notebooks with RTX GPUs for the first time. According to Nvidia, more than 40 laptops from different OEMs will come with Nvidia RTX GPUs will be launched in 2019 with 100+ configurations. Laptops with Nvidia RTX GPUs will start shipping from the 29th of January 2019. Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo Legion, MSI, Razer, and Samsung are the some of the OEMs, which will launch laptops with the RTX GPU. Jensen Huang, founder, and CEO of NVIDIA said Laptops are the fastest growing gaming platform - and just getting started. The world's top OEMs are using Turing to bring next-generation console performance to thin, sleek laptops that gamers can take anywhere. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide - an entire generation - are growing up gaming. I can't wait for them to experience this new wave of laptops. Features Out of 40, 17 laptops will come equipped with Nvidia RTX Max-Q GPUs, which helps the laptops OEMs to offer high-end gaming laptops with a slim form factor (under 20mm). These laptops will also come with state of the art 144Hz refresh rate display. These laptops will be equipped with Nvidia Optimus technology, which helps these laptops to offer up to 2x battery life compared to other laptops with the last generation Nvidia GPUs. Laptops with Nvidia RTX GPUs will be capable of offering PS4 Pro (Play Station 4) level performance which can Battlefield V (with ray tracing) @60fps. To encourage games, Nvidia is offering free Battlefield V and Anthem games for free of cost with the purchase of a select laptop with Nvidia RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 GPU. Best Mobiles in India The charge of misconduct in office is a misdemeanor, Davitt said. There is no set sentence if convicted on that charge, he said. Even though its a misdemeanor, the state says the sentence is any penalty that is not cruel or unusual. That is for the court to determine. Davitt said the case would be set for a new trial in Worcester County Circuit Court. The League of Women voters of Corvallis, in partnership with the city and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition, is offering a series of three Thursday night forums this month that are intended to help residents get to know their city government better. All three sessions will be held at 7 p.m. at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 NW Monroe Ave. The Know Your City series starts this Thursday with a session on the city charter and the structure of city government. Panelists include former Ward 9 Corvallis Councilor Hal Brauner and Courtney Cloyd, president of the Central Park Neighborhood Association. The city budget and how the city pays for city services will be the subject of the Jan. 17 event. Presenting will be Nancy Brewer, the citys longtime finance director, and City Manager Mark Shepard. Land use and the impact it has on how the city is designed will be discussed Jan. 24. Speaking will be Paul Bilotta, director of Community Development, Karen Emery, director of Parks and Recreation, and housing and neighborhoods coordinator Tracy Oulman. All of the sessions are free and will include time for audience questions. Light refreshments will be served. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Throop, who was at the mission center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland for the flyby, said the most tense moments of the flyby for the team came after it already had happened: the spacecraft was not communicating with Earth for four hours while it collected data near the asteroid, and then it took six hours for its communications to reach Earth after it passed the asteroid because it is so distant from the planet. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} So for the team, the most dramatic moment came at around 10:30 a.m. EST Tuesday. Throop said he was with around 1,000 other people who were gathered around to observe the 20 or so engineers working in the main control room. He said they were waiting on Missions Operation Manager Alice Bowman to announce the spacecrafts status and they finally heard the craft had executed its tasks perfectly. We were relieved and really excited, he said. Throop said unlike the New Horizons spacecrafts previous flyby of Pluto, there werent really any surprises. While the Pluto flyby revealed that the dwarf planet is warmer and more geologically active than expected, the asteroid fit with all the predictions for what objects in the outer solar system should look like. ALBANY A Philomath man wanted on multiple felony warrants was arrested Friday afternoon by Albany police officers after a foot chase that included a race through the bar at Pop's Branding Iron. After his arrest, Asa Alan Williams, 33, was lodged in the Linn County Jail. He was wanted for multiple felony warrants including possession of methamphetamine, attempting to elude and reckless endangerment. Earlier in the week, the Albany Police Department had put out information on social media seeking information about Williams. Jennifer Butler of Albany said she was driving a vehicle that was stopped at a stoplight near Starbucks on Pacific when the incident occurred, at about 1:15 p.m. I looked into my mirror and saw an older Mercedes behind me and behind that car were two Albany police cars, Butler said. The Mercedes was pulling over to the side and I thought he was trying to make room for the police cars to get around him. But, Butler said, she then saw Williams running away from the Mercedes. leaving the passenger side door open. He ran through the Starbucks parking lot, across Pacific and towards Pops, Butler said. She said a police officer was in pursuit. Fort Wayne, IN (46808) Today Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 79F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. The areas around the Security Square Mall in Woodlawn and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Arbutus are both designated opportunity zones. Sydnor said he thought other areas in his district (44B) could have benefited from this designation I believe we will want to leverage the program to benefit those communities within the district that are in need by supporting beneficial projects within the opportunity zones. He said Woodlawn would be a good candidate for such a zone. A Richmond man faces a variety of felony charges in Culpeper following a reported high-speed chase in a stolen car Saturday night on Route 3 that reached 132 miles per hour. Sgt. Shawn Walters stopped a vehicle traveling at a reported 78 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone around 9 p.m. near Carrico Mills Road and Route 3, according to a news release from the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office. The driver lacked ID, providing several different names and conflicting information when dispatch alerted the sergeant that the license plates on the car were stolen. The driver then handed Walters a piece of paper from a Virginia inspection with a vehicle ID number on it that when checked came up as a stolen vehicle, according to the sheriffs office. With backup on the way, Walters started giving commands for the driver to step out of the vehicle when the suspect fled east on Route 3 in the car. After crossing into Orange County, the driver attempted a high speed right turn onto Flat Run Road, just past the Locust Grove Walmart, and lost control. The car crashed into a wooded area and the driver fled on foot. One more temperature rollercoaster and then January arrives for good in Fredericksburg. The warmer than normal weather that has stuck around for a while is being replaced by more typical January conditions this week. The graphic shows the setup with four (numbered) pushes of cold Canadian air poised to swing through Fredericksburg and vicinity over the next several days. But before all that arrives one more temperature rollercoaster will necessitate keeping the door to the coat closet busy with wardrobe switching. Today (Monday) will feature afternoon temperatures topping out right around January averages in the low 40s. Some sunshine will be available this morning - albeit filtered through high clouds - but those rays wont hang around for long as that cloud deck thickens and lowers later today. The cold front that swept through yesterday will return north as a warm front tonight, ushering in Gulf moisture that will foster those clouds. Im a sixth-generation farmer and fifth generation here, said the Virginia Tech grad. The Smiths 800-acre Charity Hill Farm is on winding Golansville Road, a few miles southeast of Ladysmith. From the road, a long, straight drive runs over undulating fields up to the old house, which is white with a prominent front porch and surrounded by ample shade trees. Off to the right are barns and silos. A pretty farm. They farm an additional 1,200 acres in corn, wheat and soybeans. Originally called Hamptonville and later Smith Dairy Farm, the name Charity Hill is relatively new. Steve explained at the kitchen table that when his daddy, Floyd S. Smith Jr., went to buy an additional five acres a number of years back, the seller said, As poor as that land is, youll need charity to get anything off it! Steve, Cindy and Chris laughed at the telling of the old story. The name Charity Hill stuck. I mention that the cows looked particularly content when I passed one of the herds driving up to the house. This gets another laugh. The cows are less work than grain farmin, said Steve, as long as you look after em like youre supposed to. Recent grants ranging from $25,000 to over $1 million are expected to generate new business activity and opportunities for several historic and environmental groups in the region. Localities along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries stand to benefit from a $1.08 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Chesapeake Conservancy. The money is expected to allow the organization to update and improve land-use data critical to the restoration of the Bay. This project will give states, counties and local jurisdictions critical information on how the landscape is changing over time and how these changes impact progress towards achieving restoration of local waters and the Chesapeake Bay, said EPA Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. It will also provide more accurate information about how water moves through the landscape which will help the partners plan restoration efforts. The Annapolis-based Chesapeake Conservancy, working with project partners and the Chesapeake Bay Partnership, will use the grant to help provide state and local jurisdictions updated, high-resolution and high-quality data. That data is expected to include changes to landscapes and the locations of headwaters, streams and other water features to assist in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and local waters. Last week, the Baltimore Firefighters Union warned residents that two Northwest Baltimore fire units were out of service and could slow down response times. Chief Roman Clark, the spokesman, and the union said both units were in service again by Sunday. Keep the conversation about local news & events going by joining us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recent updates from The News-Post and also from News-Post staff members are compiled below. Delta Disaster Services of Denver Named to Qualified Remodeler and Top 500 for 10th Consecutive Year January 07, 2019 // Franchising.com // ARVADA, Colo. - Delta Disaster Services of Denver, a nationally recognized and award-winning restoration and remodeling business that provides restoration services to commercial and residential properties, has been ranked 275 among Qualified Remodelers (QR) Top 500. Notably, this is the tenth consecutive year that Delta Disaster Services of Denver has been named to the prestigious list. Since 1978, the QR Top 500 has been the leading benchmark of growth and success among companies in the remodeling industry; Qualified Remodeler is one of the most respected publications covering the industry. Candidates for the list are judged by gross sales, remodeling gross sales and remodeling jobs. The ranking is highly regarded due to the applications required third-party verification of revenue volume. Im thrilled that were once again ranked by Qualified Remodeler, said Michael Mastous, president and founder of Delta Disaster Services. This respected ranking is a strong reflection of how far the company has come, our outstanding team and our dedication to providing the best service in the industry for our clients. Its been rewarding to see us move up in the ranks over the past decade, and were excited to see how we perform in the future as we continue to grow our brand. Delta Disaster Services has earned several additional prized designations, including recognition by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the country and Colorado Governors Companies to Watch list. In addition to Delta Disaster Services of Denver, which is a corporately owned location, the Delta Disaster Services brand has franchise operations in 30 markets, including Northern, Southern and Western Colorado; Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah; Northern Los Angeles; Brazos Valley, Texas; Dallas; Jefferson City, Missouri; Palm Springs, California; and the Gulf Coast areas of Northwest Florida, Southern Mississippi and Alabama. For more information about the Delta Disaster Services of Denver, visit www.deltadenver.com or call 303-848-2345. About Delta Disaster Services Delta Disaster Services is a nationally recognized, award-winning franchise brand in the 60-billion-dollar restoration industry, providing restoration services to commercial and residential properties for water, fire and environmental damage, including reconstruction. Their rigorous training regimen puts their franchise owners in the top one percent of all restoration companies nationwide. Delta Disaster Services franchise offices, located in 30 markets across the United States, are certified in all restoration services they offer. Delta Disaster Services is part of HRI Holdings portfolio of franchise brands, which also includes the Chem-Dry Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning and N-Hance Wood Refinishing businesses. For more information about Delta Disaster Services, please visit https://trydelta.com. Media Contact: Jenna Giragosian All Points PR Office: 847-897-7474 SOURCE Delta Disaster Services ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus EASLEY, SC (FOX Carolina)- The Easley Police Department says that is searching for a man they say was involved a hit and run incident that took place on June 3, according to a post from Easley PD on their official Facebook page. TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) The road to this years Westminster Kennel Club dog show passed through a pandemic and a major change of date and venue. The road also proved dangerous for one of the nations best known dog handlers. His wife and fellow star handler said Saturday that Bill McFadden wa (CNN) -- A man faces a charge of capital murder in the shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, who was killed as she rode in a car with her family in Texas. Investigators identified Eric Black Jr., 20, as a suspect based on a tip. He was arrested and has admitted to taking part in the shooting, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "Investigators are continuing to pursue evidence that could possibly lead to other suspects being charged in this case," the statement said. "At this time, investigators do not believe Jazmine's family was the intended target of the shooting, and that they were possibly shot as a result of mistaken identity." Barnes was riding in a car with her mother, LaPorsha Washington of Houston, and three sisters on December 30 about 7 a.m. when a man drove up next to their vehicle and opened fire. Jazmine was fatally shot in the head. Washington, 30, was shot in the arm, while Jazmine's 6-year-old sister was hit by shattered glass. Jazmine's two teenage sisters were not harmed. Before the arrest, police had released a sketch of the suspect Thursday compiled from descriptions from Jazmine's mother and three sisters. At the time, authorities had said it showed a white man in his 40s. The Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted Saturday night that their homicide investigation had taken a "new direction," without providing specifics. "Detectives are in the process of interviewing persons of interest. More details will be released as soon as possible." Attack 'was totally unprovoked' Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has previously said that investigators believe the attack "was totally unprovoked." The girls were still in their pajamas, traveling to Joe V's Smart Shop to get supplies for breakfast. Washington said Jazmine would have celebrated her birthday next month. On Saturday, hundreds attended a rally outside the Walmart near the road where Jazmine was killed. A series of speakers, including members of Jazmine's family and community leaders, expressed dismay and shock at the murder of the young girl. "I'm telling you, every time I see one of y'all reach out for me, I can hold my head up," Jazmine's mother said. "I can get up in the morning." The impact of Jazmine's death has been felt far and wide, and supporters have come together to support the family. More than 2,700 people have donated to a GoFundMe account set up for Jazmine's funeral expenses and family. Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins has said he'll donate his playoff game check to the family. Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins pledges playoff game paycheck to family of murdered 7-year-old DeAndre Hopkins, a star wide receiver with the Houston Texans, pledged Thursday to donate his playoff paycheck this week to the family of the late Jazmine Barnes, the 7-year-old who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Texas. Jazmine will also be remembered Tuesday during a "Justice for Jazmine Barnes Community Rally" honoring "all murdered victims in Houston/Harris County," according to organizers. Services for Jazmine are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday with a viewing at Green House International Church. Her funeral is at noon. Mourners plan to release purple balloons -- Jazmine's favorite color. Jazmine's father, Christopher Cevilla, this week thanked the countless supporters. He appealed to the public for information about the attack. "I just want anybody, whoever, out there that knows anything about the murder of my daughter, to just please step up as if it was your own," he said. "Just put yourself in my shoes, in my family's shoes." Please either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. I never had to tell that community to focus on what we are doing for the poor or what we are doing for social justice, Smith said. They were always ahead of me on that. They really sought out opportunities to be of service. BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WALA) - Nicholas Young, the primary suspect in the stabbing death of Foley man Jeff Higginbotham is not cooperating with investigators upon his extradition back to Baldwin County, police say. Young had been arrested in Florida on Nov. 29 after he allegedly stole Higginbotham's vehicle following Higginbotham's October death inside his Bay Villa Apartments. Young had been staying with Higginbotham in the days leading up to his death, according to Higginbotham's brother. At the time of his initial arrest in Florida he was being a little bit cooperative but soon after that he did request an attorney so he has invoked his right on this case," Baldwin County Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack said. At this point in time there has been no cooperation and no statement. Jail records show Young does not have a bond. Right now, he faces charges of receiving stolen property and driving with a suspended/revoked license. "Mr. Young is the primary suspect in the homicide death," Sheriff Mack said. "We did collect several amounts of forensic evidence from the scene, as well as some other locations over the course of the investigation and that evidence is now being reviewed by the Department of Forensic Sciences." No preliminary court date has been set for Young on his charge of receiving stolen property, according to the Baldwin County Jail. MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - There has been another development in the ongoing dispute between the Mobile City Council and Mayor Sandy Stimpson. On Monday, January 7, Stimpson filed an amendment to a complaint he first filed against the council in early December. In an interview with FOX10 News, the Mayor said he was trying to stop the council from rehiring its communications spokesperson Marion Steinfels. She was fired by the mayor in a surprise move in October, but the council has since rehired her. Mayor Stimpson told FOX10 News the issue was deeper than a personnel move. He said he's trying to establish, through the courts, that only the executive branch of the Mobile city government has the power to hire. His amended complaint comes a week after the Mobile City Council overrode Stimpson's veto of a transparency ordinance. The ordinance mandates that all contracts of more than $7500 are brought before the council, so council members, and citizens, can see them. The Mayor's office claims this action violates state law and is an attempt to shift power away from the Administration. This action is necessary to stop an unprecedented overreach by the Council into the administration of city government, Stimpson said in a statement. Make no mistake: This is all about control. We must stand firm to protect the separation of powers as defined by state law. The amended complaint filed in Mobile County Circuit Court can be viewed below. NASHVILLE (WSMV) - Gov. Bill Haslam has granted executive clemency to Nashville inmate Cyntoia Brown. Brown will be released on parole supervision on Aug. 7, 2019, after serving 15 years in prison. Bellow is the full statement from the governor: This decision comes after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Transformation should be accompanied by hope. So, I am commuting Ms. Browns sentence, subject to certain conditions. Brown issued this statement reacting to the news: Thank you, Governor Haslam, for your act of mercy in giving me a second chance. I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me. I want to thank those at the Tennessee Department of Corrections who saw something in me worth salvaging, especially Ms. Connie Seabrooks for allowing me to participate in the Lipscomb LIFE Program. It changed my life. I am also grateful to those at the Tennessee Department of Corrections who will work with me over the next several months to help me in the transition from prison to the free world. Thank you to Dr. Richard Goode and Dr. Kate Watkins and all of you at Lipscomb University for opening up a whole new world for me. I have one course left to finish my Bachelors degree, which I will complete in May 2019. I am thankful for all the support, prayers, and encouragement I have received. We truly serve a God of second chances and new beginnings. The Lord has held my hand this whole time and I would have never made it without Him. Let today be a testament to His Saving Grace. Thank you to my family for being a backbone these past 14 years. I am thankful to my lawyers and their staffs, and all the others who, for the last decade have freely given of their time and expertise to help me get to this day. I love all of you and will be forever grateful. With Gods help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been. Thank you. Mayor David Briley issued this statement about the announcement: I am deeply grateful to Governor Haslam for his decision to commute the sentence of Cyntoia Brown today. He has yet again demonstrated that mercy, redemption and forgiveness have an important place in our democracy and criminal justice system. I also want to thank my former colleagues at Bone McAllester Norton and the advocates and organizations who fought so hard for Ms. Browns freedom. This is a great day for social justice and our city. Brown's case has garnered attention from multiple celebrities, including Kim Kardashian West, who weighed in on Twitter on Monday. Thank you Governor Haslam https://t.co/rAiru84fgn Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 7, 2019 Haslam has previously granted five commutations, 15 pardons and one exoneration. He continues to review and consider additional clemency requests. "While we have spent a considerable amount of time studying and implementing sentencing and criminal justice reform in our state, there is more work to be done," Haslam said. "I am hopeful serious consideration of additional reforms will continue, especially with respect to the sentencing of juveniles." Stay with News4 for updates on this developing story. I know there have been discussions about alternators and wiring and the things to look for, but those conversations have always been part of other threads. then the threads i did find pertaining to alternators were really about something else, or one very specific issue. so what i would like to do is have a thread about how they work, how to test them, what things can go wrong and what symptoms to look for. I am not the expert on this, i just want to get the ball rolling so that we can have an easily searchable thread with good info for everyone. i also have an issue with mine at the moment that I am hoping this discussion will help clear up.i will start with what i know, and how i got there.These were the basic diagrams that helped me understand what I was looking at, how it was all connected, and what was initially wrong with my setup. It didnt really help me understand how it worked, or why my system still isnt working.A bit about what i found with my set up and what that led me to:My battery died. I put the battery on the charger overnight, put it back in the truck, checked voltage with engine off ( 12.7, just right). Started the truck and tested between the battery posts (12.1, not good). the battery voltage will drop a bit during start up and while running because there is power being drawn from it, so the voltage goes down a bit. But when the truck is running there should be around 14 volts measured between the battery posts. this is because your alternator should be adding more voltage (amps are more important at this point, but semantics). Anything higher than the voltage you measured with the engine off means there is something coming from the alternator. Anything less than means nothing coming from alternator.The simple things to check are the alternator itself which unbolts fairly easily, take it to a parts store, they will test it. Doesnt mean the thing is 100%, and if you are questioning whether that test was 'correct' take it to another shop with another machine and see what theirs says. If you alternator is bench tested as outputting 14 ish volts and close to the correct amps for its size its ok. It still might be good to replace it, you are already there, its already out, they arent that expensive. Up to you. BTW all this sage advice is only what i am compiling from the great many sources I used on my journey.If you think your Alt is good, or you want to start with the simpler things first (like i did) we can check the voltage regulator. Mine looked like garbage, was the original mechanical style, and there was some discoloration on the backside so i just replaced it. Only like $10 for a new solid-state one. Now for my first question that someone else can hopefully answer. Solid state vs mechanical: are there any instances where this would matter for making your alternator work?A better way to actually TEST your voltage regulator is to jumper the F wire (field wire, sometimes its orange) to the A (sense wire input). you do this with the connector removed from the external regulator. You can do this with the engine running, but if you are squeamish about getting zapped add the jumper with the IGN off then start the truck. With the jumper in place you are bypassing the regulator and forcing the alternator to make power. Now measure the voltage across the battery terminals. If there is more voltage there now, you regulator is suspect, but not 100% confirmed bad. I did not do this test because i bought a new regulator, but turns out this test also tests whether your ground circuit for your alt is good, and whether it will make power based on the v-belt rotation, and its current situation in the vehicle. so i should have done this test as well, and will as soon as I get home from work.The next step is to test the inputs to the regulator. there are really only two. The constant voltage from the battery, and the keyed-on power from the ignition switch. With the Key on but not running there should be Battery voltage, whatever that is at the moment, on two of the connectors for the regulator. One of those is coming directly from the battery, and the other is coming from the ignition switch. If you are missing one of those, something is wrong. Mine was wrong so i had to go find it. Mine was because the ignition switch was wired WRONG, so wrong. But i figured it out and you can too. Use the diagrams all over the internet, follow the wires, seperate the looms, trace them out. Here is where we need some more expertise. with the key on but not running there should also be some voltage (3 ish?) on either the Field or Stator wire? That voltage is basically showing you that the alternator is 'primed and ready.' but if you dont get this voltage it wont be charging when you do start the engine.the next step is to confirm your wiring. I figured out the wire that goes from the ALT to the battery was open/broken/not connected. I did this by removing the battery terminals and checking for resistance between the + battery lead and the 'A' alternator input at the regulator. When that was no good i went between the starter solenoid and the regulator 'A.' and when that was no good I took the wiring out and went through the whole thing. I wish i had a picture of what was done before, but it was garbage. Fixed all that and since I had to remove the Alt to remove the wires anyway, i took it to the store to get tested. they ran it three times and it showed good voltage and good current (amps). so i figured it must have been because of the garbage soldering on the charge cable that my system was not working and that once i put it all back in it would work. I had picked up a new V-belt while i was at the store since the old one was rotten. turns out i have to tell the clerk that my truck is an F100 (even though it is DEFINITELY a 250) in order to get most of my parts correct the first time. Got the right belt, installed the Alt and new belt, tightened everything up and started the truck. Still no voltage from the alt. But this time I have all the correct voltages going to the regulator. So why no worky-worky?i did some more digging around.I have an alt-light (dummy light) set up. Maybe the wiring was set up for an alt gage? removed the Alt again to confirm the connections on the back were in the right spot and to confirm they match the Alt-light set up for my truck. yup, checks out. What i mean is pay attention to where your Constant voltage and keyed voltage are going into your regulator, and where those wires are ending up on the back of the Alt.So more digging. I read that the voltage regulator needs to be able to compare the voltage the battery has to the voltage that the system is sending back to the regulator (testing how much power is lost after it goes through some other systems). that this comparison is what tells the alternator to start charging. So i went back under the dash to try to figure it out. Everything i read said that the dummy light was vital to the charging system, that it would not charge without the light installed. UNLESS, there is a resistance wire in parallel to that light curcuit. So i had to find out if this was the case. this lead me to remove most of the electrical tape that was the 'wire looming' under the dash. I then traced the purple resistance wire from where it starts in the ignition switch all the way to the connector near the glove compartment where it meets up with its counterpart the green/red wire from the alt light. It was all in place and resistance from that wire all the way to the regulator was good. Good as in it was not broken/open, but could it be too good? not enough resistance? No because the light is coming on which means that part of the circuit is good. I also figured out why this is so important. If there is no light bulb, or the bulb has burnt out the circuit is broken, meaning that start-up power isnt getting to the regulator. and the resistance wire just gives another route for that power to get there if the bulb is blown or missing. As long as the Alt light comes on while the key is on but not running, and then goes out after its running your system is good. If the light comes on but doesnt turn off after running you at least know power is getting to the regulator through that curcuit.more digging. how does the light turn on, and then how does it turn off. This is where my electrical training came in handy. If you are applying power to the alt light it has to have somewhere to go in order to actually turn on the light. the power has to flow. So where is the flow going? turns out it flows into the voltage regulator. So if the light turns on (in ACC) the regulator has power. NOW, how does it turn off? Well, once the alternator is making power the voltage regulator doesnt just remove the ground to turn off the light, because that would interupt the alternator circuit and turn it back off. the regulator actually sends power back the way it came. This is basically like two rivers meeting. If they both have the same amount of force the flow will stop. this is what happens with the light. Once the Alt makes power it turns off the light by sending more power to it but from the opposite direction. (head=blown emoji).That brings me to the reason for this whole write-up, and hopefully you like what ive started and some of you can add more intelligent thoughts/wisdoms to make it worth reading. While researching this again i realized i never tested to see if jumpering power straight to the alternator would make it turn on. I didnt think i needed to because i had already bought a new regulator. but then i thought, if all the power is getting to the regulator, and none of the power is getting out of the regulator, maybe the problem is the regulator!! I should know better than to trust "new" parts.Im a CIWS technician in the Navy, I once had to order a $300 part basically overnight super-express shipping mode because we wanted to shoot the gun the next week. Part arrived just in time, installed, still didnt work. Months of troubleshooting, thousands of dollars spent trying to fix it, experts from across the country, nobody could figure out what was wrong. Thats when i got the bright idea to step back and look at the whole picture like you do when a problem first happens. Turns out the $300 part we got new was worse than the broken part we removed. Installed a good one and got to shoot down a simulated missile the next week. Moral: dont trust new parts, test them too.Lets just say that my voltage regulator isnt bad. What else should i, and anyone else with this type of issue, be looking for and how can we test to eliminate things? Check out the latest GE earnings call transcript. What happened General Electric (NYSE:GE) shares are soaring again today -- up 6.8% as of 1:20 p.m. EST -- and once again, investors have JPMorgan to thank for it. Last month, as you may recall, JPMorgan sparked a rally in GE stock when it withdrew its sell rating on GE shares for the first time in more than two years, saying investors finally knew enough about GE's potential bad news to make an informed decision about whether to buy or sell the stock. Today, JPMorgan explained how the situation might clarify even further, saying we may be approaching the time when GE will resume looking like a more "normal" company, generating positive free cash flow from its business and getting a handle on its "$100 billion of net liabilities." So what Mind you, JPMorgan isn't saying we have reached that point yet. The analyst still sees GE's mammoth debt load, and its lack of free cash flow, as serious problems that need to be overcome. But JP also thinks that if GE gets serious about taking "more tangible" steps to fix its business, "perhaps shrinking the balance sheet," for example, then the company should become easier to value. Now what Another thing to bear in mind, though, is that GE investors (who are buying the stock hand over fist today) might not be entirely pleased with GE's value once it becomes clear. A full "cleanse" of the company's accounting structure, warns JP, could yield a "substantially lower run rate fundamental anchor than many appreciate." Thus, while many investors are jumping on JP's comments today as an excuse to bid up GE stock as high as $8.70 and more, JPMorgan itself is still not comfortable assigning the shares anything more than a neutral rating and a $6 target price. Momentum buyer beware. Xiaomi launched the Mi A2, the companys second Android One smartphone in India back in August last year starting at Rs. 16,999, later it got a Rs. 1000 price cut in November. Today the company has announced a second price cut in the country. The is available for Rs. 13,999 for the 4GB+64GB version, after a Rs. 2000 price cut and the 6GB+128GB version is available for Rs. 15,999, after a Rs. 3000 price cut on Amazon.in and Mi.com. To remind you, the phone packs a 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 display, is powered by Snapdragon 660, has a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.75 aperture, Sony IMX486 sensor along with a 20-megapixel secondary rear camera with Sony IMX376 sensor to capture depth information for portrait shots with AI, has intelligent scene detection and has auto sensor section . It also has the same 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 sensor for the front camera with soft LED flash and AI beautification. It recently got Android 9.0 (Pie) update. The 20MP sensor on both front and back uses pixel binning technology, combining the information from four pixels to create one large 2.0m pixel. It has a unibody metal design, fingerprint sensor on the back, has USB Type-C audio and packs a 3010mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+. Check out the Mi A2 review here. Its pretty impossible to ask all of the organizations to do the important work theyre doing and also warehouse all of these things that their families need, Weiskerger said. Now, they know they have this resource. What they tell us is, when a family walks in and they can hand them clothes, diapers, the things they really need at that moment, there is a sense of calm. Anxiety and stress levels come down, and they can do the important work they do. Geneva, NY (14456) Today Cloudy. Periods of light rain this morning. High near 70F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. The statement by Xi Jinping marks the culmination of several statements and actions by China aimed at enhancing the capability and positioning of the armed forces. It is the measure of a countrys strength that a statement by its head on possible war and conflict sends shivers down the spines of leaders everywhere. Chinese president Xi Jinping did just that in his first address of 2019 to top officials of Central Military Commission where he reportedly warned of the possibility of war and unprecedented risks and challenges. Unease is also rife in the immediate neighbourhood of China, since days earlier, he had also called upon the people of Taiwan to accept that China must and will be reunified on the principle of one country, two systems. That would still have been swallowed with some difficulty, but he then went on to warn that China "reserved the right to use force". Taiwan expectedly rejected this, arguing that the status which is similar to that of Hong Kong was not in line with the wishes of the people. Thats all very well. The point is who is likely to come to Taiwans aid should China decide to actually use force. The Chinese armed forces have been steadily strengthening under Xis watch ever since he came to power in later 2012. The statement by Xi marks the culmination of several statements and actions aimed at enhancing the capability and positioning of the armed forces. Structural reforms have been made to ensure the PLAs absolute loyalty to the party and to him personally, as its head. Recently, reports noted the promotion of 35 Colonels to the rank of Major General who were handpicked by the president himself. Operationally, the PLA under Xi has received the highest boost ever since the days of Deng. A detailed paper by RAND points out that the PLA is likely to achieve all its major objectives by 2035 if not earlier, to contest all domains of conflict including sea, air, land, space, cyberspace and electromagnetic in the India-Pacific. Xis statement seems to indicate that the moment of confidence has arrived. Xis statement is reinforced by the PLAs own public papers on preparedness. The navys weight in this regard was apparent in a recent statement that As of 24 December, 2018, the Chinese navy has sent 31 escort fleets, 100 ships, 67 shipborne helicopters and more than 26,000 soldiers to escort more than 6,600 Chinese and foreign ships over the past decade. PLAN has also held about 40 exercises with 30 countries in 2018. Thats quite an achievement for a force that was negligible a decade ago. This might is apparent in the fact that notwithstanding increased US pressure, Chinese patrols around Taiwan increased significantly, with the most recent including deployments of Su-30s, Tu-154 recce, H1-6K bomber and IL-78 aerial tankers. The same source also reported an alarming statement from the defence ministry spokesman noting that resisting unification with force is a path leading to death. No one can say that the country doesnt speak with one voice. Similarly, the land forces have also been tasked with new training schedules, new capabilities like a claimed stealth drone, and the slow trimming of its bloated strength to develop into a far more streamlined force, under a system of military commands rather than the old military regions. Like the navy, the land forces have also been encouraged to conduct exercises with other countries. The most recent was a special forces exercise with Pakistan at Kharian in Punjab for three weeks. Earlier, in December 2018, a joint air drill together with pilots and air defence controllers was carried out. That marks the coming out of the Chinese Air Force, once made up of obsolete license built aircraft, into one that now fields operational stealth aircraft, thus being the only other country other than the United States to do so. The J-20 is the core of this squadron, with other follow-on designs in the pipeline. Less publicised is the modernisation of the Rocket Forces. After its upgradation from an independent branch to a full service, the Rocket Forces have steadily increased their reach, with the DF-31 AG first displayed in 2017, and the road mobile DF 41 with improved and new warheads, namely multiple independently targeted warheads and glide vehicles. A nuclear bomber force also seems to be envisaged, as also the strengthening of the submarine force with a reported testing of a submarine launched missile in November 2018. Chinas nuclear deterrent ambitions are not unlike Indias. The watchword is lean and mean. The difference, however, is that Beijing also achieves deterrence by arming others. The steady support to Pakistans missile program was always meant to deter India from stepping out of its South Asia envelope, and there is no sign that cooperation in this area has reduced. Indeed, with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the web of cooperation appears to have strengthened. For India, there is a perplexing question to be faced. Is Beijings new (relative) bonhomie reflected in the increasing bilateral visits, not to mention the first high-level people-to-people exchange mechanism in December 2018 a function of its fears of a war-like situation developing around Taiwan, under the watch of the irrepressible United States president Donald Trump? In simple terms, is China keeping India as a friendly as it faces up to a possible high voltage conflict with the United States? Or does Xis New Year address where he warned of a period of major change never seen in a century also include direct dangers to India, in the North East in particular? The answer is probably a little of both. No country, no matter what its size, will look to have enemies towards both east and west, and it would vastly prefer a peaceful border with Delhi for the duration. The problem is that Beijings anxiety to see India boxed into South Asia has led it to announce the building of advanced naval frigates to ensure the balance of power in the region. Nothing is more likely to ensure that New Delhi tilts towards Washington as part of the new Indo-Pacific construct. Meanwhile, despite the public calling out of possible war by a neighbour, it would perhaps be wishful thinking to hope that the Opposition would desist from continuing allegations against the Rafale deal, which are likely to worsen the already delayed modernisation of the Indian Air Force. In times of danger, it would be natural for all to unite. But then, politics in India has hardly ever been about logic or patriotism. It is unsurprising then, that China dismisses India as a poor competitor. The proposal is part of an ambitious tax plan dubbed the 'Green New Deal' that aims to eliminate carbon emissions by 2030. The self-described Democratic Socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested taxing the ultra-wealthy up to 70 percent in order to finance the plan. Washington: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez began her term as the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress with a bang this week by proposing to tax the ultra-rich at 60 or 70 percent. The daughter of hardscrabble working-class parents, the 29-year-old New Yorker was working toward making good on a campaign promise. "People are going to have to pay their fair share of taxes," she told CBS television's "60 Minutes" on Sunday. The proposal is part of an ambitious tax plan dubbed the "Green New Deal" that aims to eliminate carbon emissions by 2030. The self-described Democratic Socialist, nicknamed AOC, suggested taxing the ultra-wealthy up to 70 percent in order to finance the plan. "You look at our tax rates back in the 60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, let's say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera," Ocasio-Cortez explained. "But once you get to, like, the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more." The top marginal tax rate is now 37 percent, following President Donald Trump's fiscal reforms. It was previously at 39.6 percent. Even though it has little chance of success, the proposal backed by the young lawmaker has already garnered significant support. It landed her on the front page of the New York Daily News, an image of which Ocasio-Cortez was quick to retweet. A Washington Post analysis found that if the approximately 16,000 Americans who earn more than $10 million each paid 70 percent income taxes for any revenue above that marker, the federal government would rake in around $72 billion per year. But the sum would likely be much lower because individuals falling in that bracket would find ways to avoid the heavy tax burden. In a New York Times op-ed, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman backed Ocasio-Cortez, rejecting "the constant effort to portray her as flaky and ignorant." "On the tax issue, she's just saying what good economists say," he added. Undeterred by her youth Ocasio-Cortez's surprise victory during Democratic primaries in June over Joseph Crowley has made her a key figure of the liberal wing of the party. Crowley had run unopposed for more than a decade and was seen as a contender to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives. She rarely attacks President Donald Trump but when questioned, she told CBS there was "no question" he was a racist. "The president certainly didn't invent racism. But he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things," she said. In response, the White House told CBS Trump has "repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms," dismissing Ocasio-Cortez's "sheer ignorance." But the 29-year-old is no stranger to criticism and has repeatedly demonstrated she can respond swiftly to her detractors. To suggestions her proposals are unrealistic, she told CBS: "We pay more per capita in healthcare and education for lower outcomes than many other nations. "And so for me, what's unrealistic is what we're living in right now." And when Republican campaign consultant Ed Rollins called her a "little girl" on a conservative television talk show, Ocasio-Cortez shot back on Twitter: "If anything, this dude is a walking argument to tax misogyny at 100%." On Friday, a video released online by a detractor showing a young Ocasio-Cortez dancing with fellow Boston University students to the Phoenix song "Lisztomania" in a remake of a mashup of scenes from the Brat Pack movies. But rather than embarrass Ocasio-Cortez, the release ended up having the opposite of its intended effect. The congresswoman, who has over two million Twitter followers and 1.5 million on Instagram, responded by posting a new video of her dancing in front of her office on Capitol Hill, writing: "I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too!" With her past as a New York bartender, Ocasio-Cortez is a figurehead of the new wave of young lawmakers who entered Congress after the midterm elections, bringing fresh perspectives and more diversity to the legislature. Asked if she considers herself to be a radical, Ocasio-Cortez told CBS, "You know, if that's what radical means, call me a radical." "I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country," she explained. "Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security. That is radical." By Steve Holland JERUSALEM (Reuters) - White House national security advisor John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. By Steve Holland JERUSALEM (Reuters) - White House national security advisor John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States' Kurdish allies. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pull-out from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be targetted by their long-time enemy Turkey. Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be safeguarded. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered," Bolton told reporters ahead of talks with Israeli officials. Asked whether a U.S. withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said, "Basically, that's right." The Syrian YPG militia has been highly effective in the war against Islamic State, a part of the wider Syrian conflict pitting a range of insurgent groups against President Bashar al-Assad's forces and sometimes against each other. But Turkey has long castigated Washington for its military relationship with the Syrian YPG militia. Ankara regards the YPG an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish group which has waged a 34-year-old insurgency in Turkey. The YPG has indicated that it might seek a deal with Damascus after the U.S. forces have gone. Bolton, who will travel to Turkey on Monday, said the United States will talk to Ankara to find out what its objectives and capabilities were. Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey's targets were the YPG, the PKK and Islamic State. "One aim of Turkey's fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group," state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Kalin as saying, in comments that emerged after Bolton made his remarks. "Turkey will continue decisively its efforts to end the war, provide security, and implement the process of political transition without discriminating between our Syrian brothers on the basis of religion, ethnicity or sect," Kalin said. DECIMATING In Washington on Sunday, Trump reiterated that the United States would be pulling its troops out of Syria but suggested the move might not happen soon. "I never said we are doing it that quickly. But we are decimating ISIS," Trump told reporters. Bolton was due to hold talks later on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the discussions would focus on Iran's role in the region and the situation in Syria. "We will continue to act against the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria...and we will act against any element that undermines, or attempts to undermine the security of Israel," Netanyahu said in public remarks to his cabinet. Israel has often voiced alarm at the clout of Iran, an ally of Assad, in the Syrian civil war. The Israeli air force has struck scores of targets it describes as Iranian deployments or arms transfers to the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which also backs Assad. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Angus MacSwan) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. DUBAI (Reuters) - An aide to Iran's supreme leader said on Monday U.S. officials approached him during a December visit to Afghanistan to request talks with Tehran, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, but the U.S. State Department denied the report. DUBAI (Reuters) - An aide to Iran's supreme leader said on Monday U.S. officials approached him during a December visit to Afghanistan to request talks with Tehran, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, but the U.S. State Department denied the report. Tensions between Iran and the United States have increased since May, when President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and later reimposed sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the pact. "During my visit to Kabul last month, the Americans ... asked to hold talks," Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a close aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying, without specifying what the U.S. side wanted to discuss. "This report is not accurate," said a State Department spokeswoman on condition of anonymity. While denying it made a specific overture to Shamkani, the spokeswoman repeated that Trump is open to a dialogue with Iran on "urgent national security issues" and wants Tehran to "make fundamental changes in their destructive behaviour." Washington accuses Tehran of destabilising the region by projecting its power via proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. In 2001, Iran worked with the United States to help set up a new Afghan government to replace the Taliban, which had been toppled by a U.S.-led military campaign following al Qaedas September 11 attacks on U.S. cities. Shamkhani was in Kabul last month for talks with the Taliban "to help curb the security problems in Afghanistan." He said the Kabul government had known of his talks with the Taliban. Majority-Shi'ite Iran has long had close ties to Shi'ites in neighbouring Afghanistan whose militias have fought the Taliban's Sunni militants. Washington accuses Iran of trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan by providing military training, financing and weapons to the Taliban, a charge Tehran denies. Shamkhani's comments came days after reports of talks between U.S. and Taliban officials over proposals for a ceasefire in Afghanistan and a future withdrawal of foreign troops ahead of possible peace negotiations. Khamenei slapped down an offer of direct talks made by Trump last year and Iranian officials have said Washington's crippling sanctions would fail to wreck the economy. In July, Iranian authorities said Tehran had rejected eight U.S. requests for a meeting between Trump and President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in Sept 2017. (Additonal reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Gareth Jones and Tom Brown) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Eighteen-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun said she was fleeing her 'abusive' family while travelling in Kuwait, and had flown to Thailand in the hopes of reaching Australia to seek asylum Bangkok: An injunction has been filed at Bangkok's Criminal Court to prevent a Saudi woman held in Thailand's airport from being deported, a lawyer said on Monday. Eighteen-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun said she was fleeing her "abusive" family while travelling in Kuwait, and had flown to Thailand in the hopes of reaching Australia to seek asylum. But she was stopped on Sunday when she deplaned in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport by Kuwaiti and Saudi embassy officials, she said, and has since been held in an airport hotel awaiting deportation. Qunun said she feared that she would be killed if she is repatriated to Saudi Arabia. Human rights lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman said she filed an injunction at 1:00 pm (1400 GMT) to Bangkok's criminal court to prevent Qunun's deportation. "In the event when we suspect that someone might be illegally detained, we request for the court to call the relevant authorities (in) for questioning," said Bergman. "For now, I just called for the immigration and Rahaf herself, and the staff at the hotel" to be questioned, she added. Bergman said she was awaiting the court's decision, and that Thai authorities had no grounds to hold Qunun if she had a passport and a visa for travel to Australia. Thai immigration chief said Qunun was stopped for a lack of documents, and she had "bought the ticket" to return to Saudi Arabia herself. The Saudi embassy in Bangkok has issued a statement denying its role in holding her, and said Thai authorities stopped her for "violating the law". FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus (Reuters) - Hundreds of Greek Cypriots marked the religious holiday of Epiphany on Sunday in a rare vigil to the fringes of an abandoned town wrecked by a war which split the island 45 years ago. Against the backdrop of crumbling hotels and homes ringed with barbed wire, a Greek Orthodox priest cast a cross into the sea off the coast of Famagusta, symbolizing a blessing of the waters, and the manifestation of Jesus as the son of God. Earlier, a liturgy was held within the walled medieval city of Famagusta FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus (Reuters) - Hundreds of Greek Cypriots marked the religious holiday of Epiphany on Sunday in a rare vigil to the fringes of an abandoned town wrecked by a war which split the island 45 years ago. Against the backdrop of crumbling hotels and homes ringed with barbed wire, a Greek Orthodox priest cast a cross into the sea off the coast of Famagusta, symbolizing a blessing of the waters, and the manifestation of Jesus as the son of God. Earlier, a liturgy was held within the walled medieval city of Famagusta. Varosha, a southern suburb of Famagusta, has been fenced off and abandoned since Turkey invaded northern Cyprus after a Greek-inspired coup in 1974. Religious ceremonies in the north require permission from Turkish Cypriot authorities. Ringed by a fence which extends into the sea, the former holiday resort has been off limits to anyone but the Turkish military since its 39,000 Greek Cypriot residents fled advancing Turkish troops. "This is part of our being and we want to reunify the island," said Greek Cypriot Anna Marangou, who is from Varosha. "We want peace, we want to bring up our kids and grandkids in ways where people are safe...It's a wish for a new year, its a wish we get our act together to do it," she said. Cyprus peace talks collapsed in mid-2017. The island's Greek Cypriots live predominantly in the south, and Turkish Cypriots in the north since the 1974 war. (Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Angus MacSwan) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The United States is now planning to install a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall along its border with Mexico, US president Donald Trump said on Sunday indicating his administration and the opposition Democratic party are closer to resolving their difference on the issue, which led to a partial government shutdown a fortnight ago. Washington: The United States is now planning to install a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall along its border with Mexico, US president Donald Trump said on Sunday indicating his administration and the opposition Democratic party are closer to resolving their difference on the issue, which led to a partial government shutdown a fortnight ago. We are now planning a steel barrier rather than concrete (wall). It is both stronger and less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the USA, Trump said on Sunday afternoon. The presidential comment came soon after US vice president Mike Pence held a meeting with representatives of the top Democratic Congressional leaders House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Trump described it as productive meeting. V-P Mike Pence and group had a productive meeting with the Schumer and Pelosi representatives today. Many details of Border Security were discussed, he said. We've been in touch with a lot of people, and I informed my folks to say that we'll build a steel barrier. Steel. It'll be made out of steel. It'll be less obtrusive, and it'll be stronger. But it'll be less obtrusive, stronger, and we're able to use our great companies to make it, by using steel, Trump told reporters at the White House on his return from Camp David. So we're going to be doing a steel barrier, and that gives us great strength at the border, he said. Responding to a question, Trump said the opposition Democrats did not like the option of a concrete wall along the Mexico border, so he has offered them a steel one. Trump argues that a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border is essential to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. The entry of illegal immigrants into the country in hundreds and thousands results in a big drain on the economy of the US running into billions. They don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel. Steel is fine. Steel is actually more expensive than concrete, but it will look beautiful and it's very strong. It's actually stronger, Trump told reporters explaining the reasons for moving towards a steel-based physical barrier rather than a concrete one. What we need is we need a strong border. We have criminals coming in. We have human traffickers coming in. We have drugs pouring in. We have things happening that you don't want to even know about. And it's been that way for decades, and we can't have it anymore, Trump said. Because of the strength of our economy the stronger it is it's probably the greatest economy we've ever had. And because of that, it's happening even more so. We have to stop it, he asserted. By Catherine Lagrange LYON, France (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon goes on trial on Monday charged with failing to act on historical allegations of sexual abuse of boy scouts by a priest in his diocese. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is the highest-profile cleric to be caught up in the paedophile scandal inside the Catholic Church in France, and will stand trial alongside five others from his diocese By Catherine Lagrange LYON, France (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon goes on trial on Monday charged with failing to act on historical allegations of sexual abuse of boy scouts by a priest in his diocese. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is the highest-profile cleric to be caught up in the paedophile scandal inside the Catholic Church in France, and will stand trial alongside five others from his diocese. While most of the recent focus in the Church's global abuse crisis has been on Australia and Chile, Barbarin's trial puts the spotlight on Europe's senior clergy again, just as Pope Francis prepares to host a meeting of senior bishops from around the world in Rome next month to discuss the protection of minors. Barbarin is accused of failing to report allegations of sexual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s by Father Bernard Preynat - a priest who has admitted sexual abuse, according to his lawyer, and is due to go on trial later this year. The charges carry a potential three-year prison sentence and fines of up to about $50,000. Barbarin told the newspaper Le Monde in August 2017 that he had never concealed allegations against Preynat, but acknowledged shortcomings in his handling of them. "I myself realise that my response at the time was inadequate," he said. Barbarin's lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani, said he expected Barbarin to be acquitted. "He's accused of covering up for Preynat, whereas in fact it was Barbarin who triggered this whole process," Luciani said. "You don't repair one injustice with another." "KNOCKED ON DOORS" Barbarin told Le Monde in 2017 that he had previously opened an investigation of Preynat under church or canon law because a judicial investigation was moving so slowly. Barbarin, who moved to the Lyon diocese in 2002, has said he became aware of Preynats activities in 2007. He eventually removed the priest from his post in 2015. Barbarin told Le Monde that he had suspended two other priests and called in the judiciary "when I learned of allegations of recent abuses, in 2006 and 2014". But faced with allegations of abuses said to have taken place 15 or 20 years earlier, he said he "knocked on doors" for advice, but received no satisfactory answer. Lyon prosecutors had previously investigated Barbarin but dropped the probe in the summer of 2016 without a detailed explanation. However, an association of alleged victims called Parole Liberee ("Freed Word") used a provision of French law to compel the cardinal to stand trial. Pope Francis has come under fire over the Church's handling of the spreading sexual abuse crisis. In September, researchers said they had found indications of sexual abuse in Germany by 1,670 Catholic clerics over the course of seven decades. On Friday, the Vatican said an Argentine bishop working in a top Vatican financial department was under preliminary investigation for sexual abuse. Pope Francis himself met Barbarin in early 2016, and later told the Catholic newspaper La Croix that it would make no sense for the cardinal to resign before any eventual trial. "According to the information at my disposal, Cardinal Barbarin took the appropriate measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary," Francis was quoted as saying. (Reporting by Catharine Lagrange in Lyon and Richard Lough in Paris; writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Kevin Liffey) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. I know what the interim commissioner said in October that, at age 54, he did not have the five to seven years he felt it would take to fix the Baltimore Police Department. I know he withdrew from consideration for the top job. I know that Brandon Scott, a member of City Council and vice chair of its public safety committee, said he did not believe Tuggle had sufficient support to get the councils confirmation. (CNN) Kevin Sweeney has resigned as Pentagon chief of staff after serving the U.S. defense secretary for two years. "I've decided the time is right to return to the private sector. It has been an honor to serve again alongside the men and women of the Department of Defense," Sweeney said in a short statement posted on the Department of Defense website late Saturday night. Sweeney retired as a rear admiral in 2014. Sweeney served under former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who announced his resignation December 20 on the heels of President Donald Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria. "Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," Mattis wrote in his letter to the President. Trump said he moved Mattis' departure date up to January 1, two months earlier than originally planned. Mattis is the latest senior administration to leave Trump's Cabinet. Jeff Sessions was pushed out as attorney general the day after the midterm elections in November, Rex Tillerson was unceremoniously fired as secretary of state in March and national security adviser H.R. McMaster was replaced. Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White announced last month that she's leaving her post, a move that while it coincided with Mattis stepping down, came amid an internal Defense Department investigation into her conduct. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Pentagon chief of staff Kevin Sweeney resigns." Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said that Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun should be allowed by Thailand to see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and apply for asylum. Bangkok: A Saudi woman being held at Bangkok airport on Monday appealed for asylum and for other passengers to help protest her looming deportation, in desperate tweets from the hotel room where she barricaded herself. The incident comes against the backdrop of intense scrutiny of Saudi Arabia over its investigation and handling of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. My name is Rahaf Mohammed Mutlaq Alqunun, and this is my picture pic.twitter.com/RHsnnPWUjL Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 6, 2019 Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP that she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. She said she had planned to travel to Australia and seek asylum there, and feared she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The 18-year-old said she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. She tweeted that she was due to be deported on a Kuwait Airways flight to Kuwait due to depart at 11.15 am (0415 GMT). Please help @TLHR2014 @sunaibkk I am in bangkok about to be forced on a flight back to Saudi where my life is in danger Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 6, 2019 "I ask the the government of Thailand... to stop my deportation to Kuwait," she said on Twitter. "I ask the police in Thailand to start my asylum process." Shortly before the scheduled departure, Qunun posted a plea for people within "the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me". "Please I need u all," she wrote. "I'm shouting out for help of humanity." In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Qunun posted video of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is "sure 100 percent" her family will kill her, she told AFP. She has even appealed to Donald Trump for help. @realDonaldTrump please help me Im hopping that you heard about me Im Saudi girl who fled from her family Now I could be killed if they drag me back to my male guardian Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 6, 2019 A senior Thai immigration official said on Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because she lacked "further documents such as return ticket or money" and Thailand had contacted the "Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate". Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said Qunun "faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia" and Thailand should allow her to see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and apply for asylum. "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored," he said. The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. "The UN Refugee Agency has been following developments closely and has been trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet with Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, to assess her need for international protection," it said in a statement. The ultra-conservative kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, acknowledged in an interview with Saudi-owned channel Rotana Khalijial that the woman's father had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" to bring her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. Saudi Arabia has come under fierce criticism following the murder of dissident journalist Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on 2 October 2 a case that stunned the world. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. Reuters Mercedes-Benzs is not aiming to be the first manufacturer to develop a self-driving car but it wants to be among the first two players able to scale up the technology, Mercedes-Benz executive Christoph Schroeder told German paper Welt am Sonntag. Carmakers and tech companies like Uber, Google, General Motors, Volkswagen are vying to roll out robotaxi services for paying customers as a way to enter the ride-hailing business. Googles Waymo division has completed the most test miles with prototype vehicles, leading rivals including Volkswagen to acknowledge that Waymo is ahead of the pack in terms of developing a prototype. Mercedes-Benz, which is owned by German car and truck maker Daimler is undeterred by Waymos progress. We need to be among the top two competitors who are in a position to scale up the technology and bring it into series production, Schroeder told the paper. tech2 News Staff Asus has started a new trend at CES 2019 with the launch of its ZenBook S13 laptop. Instead of taking the usual alternative approach to thinner bezels by moving the camera below the display, Asus decided to add a notch on the bezel itself, leaving its display clean and notch-less. The ZenBook S13 laptop features a reverse notch, which means the usual notch that eats up into smartphone displays has been inverted and now adds a bump on the bezel instead. The display remains clean and the bezels remain ultra-thin save for the small bump at the top which honestly does not look all that bad considering that it's on a laptop (and not a smartphone). This reduces the need for placing the webcam in odd places, like in the keyboard (Huawei MateBook X Pro) or below the display (2018 Dell XPS 13) that ends up looking into your nostrils or your body instead of your face. As for those bezels, they are pretty slim at just 2.5 mm on the left and right sides with Asus claiming a 97 percent screen-to-body ratio. The internals includes an 8th Generation Intel Core i7 chipsets, with up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of PCIe SSD storage. What's cooler is the presence of discrete graphics. Asus has managed to cram in Nvidia's GeForce MX 150 GPU which should let users game at low resolutions. Huawei's MateBook X Pro also featured a GeForce MX 150 GPU inside. There are the usual USB-C ports a single USB-A port and a slot for reading microSD cards. The usual fingerprint reader is also embedded into the trackpad and the laptop comes with Windows Hello support. The pricing details for the same are not out yet, but Asus has plans to launch the ZenBook S13 in Q1 this year, at least for the US markets reports The Verge. CES 2019: To catch up with all the announcements from the world's largest consumer electronics show, head here. With AGP's exit over Citizenship Amendment Bill,2016, the fate of BJPs dream to win 20 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the North East will depend on which of the two ideologies Hindu nationalism and Assamese sub-nationalism draw a bigger crowd to the polling centres After the Asom Gana Parishad resigned from the BJP-led coalition government in Assam on Monday, it's now confirmed that the two political ideologies Assamese sub-nationalism and Hindu nationalism are going to confront each other in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The fate of BJPs dream in the northeastern region would depend on which of the two ideologies draw a bigger crowd to the polling centres in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The reason behind the end of the three-year-old relationship between the saffron party and the regional player is the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, proposed by the Centre in the lines of the ruling BJPs Hindutva agenda. The Bill, which would allow illegal Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh to avail citizenship in India, is seen in sharp contrast with the ideology of the AGP, a regional party formed in 1985 after the historic Assam agitation, vowing to free Assam from infiltrators from the neighbouring country irrespective of their religious affiliations. Soon after the breaking of the alliance, AGP president Atul Bora said to media, "We have made our best efforts to convince the BJP leadership about the negative impact of the Bill and the stand of the people of Assam. But the BJP has decided to go ahead with the Bill leaving us with no option but to quit the alliance." In fact, the AGP-BJP alliance in Assam had been on a rocking boat soon after the Centre proposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill in 2016. We have been increasingly facing pressure from the people at large to resign from the government. Had we not resigned, we would have been seen as traitors to the 'Assamese' cause," said Balendra Bharali, a senior leader in the AGP. Though the breaking of the alliance is unlikely to pose any threat to the Sarbananda Sonowal-led state government, it would certainly have far-fetching ramifications in state politics in the near future. The reason behind BJPs success in 2016 Assembly polls in Assam was the partys Hindutva ideology marrying Assamese sub-nationalism and agreeing to enter into a seat-sharing agreement with the AGP. The Assamese sub-nationalism is caste and religion agnostic ideology, which takes pride in Assamese linguistic identity. The AGP which embodies this ideology ushered this particular emotion into the states electoral politics in 1985. Since then, the Assamese sub-nationalism remains a powerful discourse in the states electoral politics. The BJPs success story in the 2016 Assembly polls was scripted by re-calibrating its Hindutva ideology to fit into the narrative already set by the Assamese sub-nationalism. With the AGP facing leadership crisis from within, the BJP had been frequently using two Assamese words 'jati and mati' in its campaigns. These two words, often used by Assamese sub-nationalist forces to evoke chauvinistic sentiment among the mainstream Assamese, refer to the indigenous peoples right over the land and local resources. Not only have both the parties arrived at an ideological compromise, but also a seat-sharing agreement which resulted in the sharing of middle-class Assamese votes. As per the agreement, the BJP had left 24 seats for the AGP, out of which AGP had won 14. On the other hand, the BJP had won 60 seats, hinging broadly on the AGPs support base. "Without the seat-sharing arrangement, the BJP would not have won such a large number of seats in Assamese-dominated constituencies. For both the BJP and the AGP have more or less the same constituency of voters and the division of votes would not have allowed this success," said a tribal leader unwilling to be named. As a result of their campaign and arrangement, polling booths had seen massive voter turnout. The mainstream Assamese-dominated Gauhati East Constituency, that had witnessed a voter turnout of 56.45 percent during the 2011 Assembly Election, saw 79.21 percent voters reaching out to vote in 2016 Assembly polls. The immigrant Muslim-dominated Janiya constituency saw 88.72 percent voter turnout crossing its earlier 83.86 percent mark. The total voter turnout in the entire state increased by 12.34 percent as compared to the Assembly Election held in the year 2011. The magic figure to form a government in Assam is 64. BJP with 60 of its legislators along with 12 in the Bodo Peoples Front, an ally in the Bodo-dominated constituencies, still rests safely in power. But the electoral politics for the saffron party is likely to change with the AGPs exit. Massive protests which have broken out across Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, recently, clearly show that the saffron party would no longer be entitled to the Assamese sub-nationalism narrative. On the other hand, sans the alliance with the AGP, the vote-sharing arrangement with the AGP which led to the saffron partys comfortable win in 2016 will also cease to exist. In the light of this changing circumstances, the BJP is likely to switch to its hardline Hindutva narrative in Assam, which, till now, it had refrained from using in a pronounced manner in the state. A preview of this emerging politics was seen at a press conference addressed by BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, where he evoked Jinnah to support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016. People are concerned that we are trying to bring somebody, which is false. Without that Bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah, he had said. In a veiled reference to the increase in Muslim population in Assam and indicating that the said Bill is an attempt to correct the demographic imbalance int he state, Sarma said, "We cannot have detection and deportation to make Badruddin Ajmal (an MP from the AIUDF, which enjoys a large support among Bengal-origin Muslims in the state) the chief minister of Assam. If something leads us to make Ajmal the chief minister, then we will have to check that policy. If the Bill is not passed, 17 Assamese seats, which elect Assamese people, will go the Jinnah way.... We are trying to save Assam from Jinnah. We are not apologetic.... I am against Jinnah." The fate of the BJP in the North East where it aims to win 21 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats will depend on which side of the ideological divide the voters in Assam swing. In this ideological divide, almost all the parties including the Congress may find themselves on the same plank as the AGP, as most of them have already declared their opposition over the Citizenship Amendment Bill. At present, the saffron party occupies seven out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, a major stakeholder state in the region. The single bench of Delhi High Court asked the petitioner demanding the ban on The Accidental Prime Minister trailer to go to the division bench. The single bench of Delhi High Court has refused to entertain the plea demanding a ban on the trailer of Anupam Kher's upcoming film The Accidental Prime Minister. The petitioner, who alleges that the film maligns and twists' the image of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was asked by the court to go to the division bench, reports ANI. Single bench of the Delhi High Court refuses to entertain the plea seeking ban on the trailer of the movie 'The Accidental Prime Minister. Court asks the petitioner to go to the division bench. ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 The petitioner also alleged that the trailer was jepopardising foreign relations with other countries, and affecting the "sovereignty and integrity of India." As per reports in India Today, the plea also mentions how the trailer is in violation of Rule 38 of the Cinematography Act and depicts living people such as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh without their consent. The plea was also directed towards platforms like YouTube, Google, the Union government and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Kher plays Manmohan Singh in the biopic based on the book The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjay Baru, who was Singh's media advisor. There was considerable backlash from Congress, with many party members stating that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is using the feature to malign Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, Congress later issued a gag order to its party members, asking them not to speak on the film till further notice. In the wake of violence in Kerala over the entry of women in the reproductive age group into the Sabarimala shrine, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP government should bring a law that marries the rights of women of Kerala to the long-held traditions of society there. New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday accused the BJP of instigating violence in Kerala over the Sabarimala issue and blamed the CPM government for failing to maintain law and order in the state. In the wake of violence in Kerala over the entry of women in the reproductive age group into the Sabarimala shrine, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also said the BJP government should bring a law that marries the rights of women of Kerala to the long-held traditions of society there. Attacking the ruling CPM in Kerala for allegedly "failing" to protect law and order in the state and the BJP for allegedly fomenting trouble, the Congress said the law was necessary to find a solution to the problem. Surjewala said Congress leader KC Venugopal had last week moved an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha demanding such a legislation. "While the BJP is creating trouble and the CPM has failed to maintain law and order in the state, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee is espousing the long-held traditions of people of Kerala in a peaceful manner. "We believe that law and Constitution is supreme, but, belief and tradition of people, particularly the people of Kerala, have to be married in congeniality with the existing law and the constitution," he told reporters. The Congress leader said the faith of the people of Kerala cannot be segregated from the rigours of law and from the Constitution. "It is for this reason that the Congress suggested in Parliament that let the BJP government bring in a piece of legislation," he said. Surjewala said the idea was also suggested to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all MPs. "Let that legislation be debated. Let rights of women be stated on the floor. Let the traditions of Kerala, the practice that has carried on for centuries, be also espoused and stated on the floor and let a path be found, which is bereft of violence yet acceptable to everyone," he said. The responsibility for finding a peaceful solution lies upon the Central government "which is only adding fuel to the fire rather than finding a solution", and on the CPM government in Kerala "which is only using muscle power and power of the State rather than the intrinsic power of conversation and dialogue to settle the issue", he charged. "The Congress party expresses its deep anguish and concern over the concerted violence that is being perpetuated by the RSS and the BJP cadre in the state, as also complete abdication of its duty to maintain law and order on part of the CPM government. "Between the CPM, the BJP and the RSS, they have thrown the peaceful society of Kerala into an endless cycle of violence. The CPM government unfortunately remains a mute and a mock spectator to the endless cycle of violence," he said. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Narendra Modi, cleared the Citizenship Amendment bill and it is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Monday cleared the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill and it is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, an official privy to the development said. The move came within hours of the presentation in Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. Large sections of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. The fresh bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. Eight influential students' bodies of the North East, besides more than 40 socio-cultural organisations of Assam, have called an 11-hour "bandh" on Tuesday in protest against the central government's move to amend the Citizenship Act. The JPC report was prepared with a majority vote as Opposition members have opposed the move to grant citizenship on the basis of religion saying it is against the Constitution. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion as India is a secular nation. Some Opposition members have even given dissent notes in the report. Interestingly, BJP's ally Shiv Sena and JD(U) have announced that they would oppose the bill in Parliament. Speaking in Silchar in Assam on Friday, the prime minister reiterated the Centre's commitment to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill. "The Citizenship Bill is an atonement of the wrong that was done during India's Partition. I hope this bill is passed soon in Parliament. India will safeguard all who had been victims of the Partition," he said. The penultimate day of the Winter Session of Parliament progressed like most other days this session amid chaos and constant sloganeering by MPs over various issues. Lawmakers made little headway in the agenda set for the day in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, though the Lower House passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by Minister of State for Law PP Choudhury. The penultimate day of the Winter Session of Parliament progressed like most other days this session amid chaos and constant sloganeering by MPs over various issues. Lawmakers made little headway in the agenda set for the day in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, though the Lower House passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by Minister of State for Law PP Choudhury. The highlights of the day include defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement in the Lok Sabha on the government's orders to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge's response to her statement; the passage of the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill in the Lower House; the suspension of four Lok Sabha MPs; and the JPC report on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill being tabled in the Lok Sabha. Another unproductive Rajya Sabha session All the highlights of the day are from the Lok Sabha as the Rajya Sabha barely functioned for 30 minutes. Before adjourning the House around 11.10 am, 10 minutes into convening, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he had received notices from some members under Rule 267 for suspension of business to take up discussions on issues but has not allowed any of the notices. After MPs didn't pay heed to his appeals to take their places and allow the House to function, he adjourned the Rajya Sabha, saying: "This is not the parliamentary way of functioning. You can discuss all the issues under relevant rules." The Rajya Sabha was, once again, adjourned within minutes of reconvening at 2 pm, with Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh in the chair. MPs protest over various issues Proceedings in both Houses were stalled due to sloganeering by MPs over a number of issues, including a CBI investigation against Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on alleged illegal mining and the Rafale deal. Members of the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were up on their feet as soon as listed official papers were presented in the Rajya Sabha, crying "political vendetta" over the CBI initiating an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the mining of minor minerals during 2012 and 2016, when Akhilesh held the mining portfolio in the Uttar Pradesh government along with that of the chief minister. Members also raised the issue of violence by the BJP in Kerala over the entry of two women in the Sabrimala temple. The BJP, in turn, brought up the incident of its MP Muralidharan's house in Kannur being attacked during the protests over the Sabarimala issue. At the same time, Congress MPs continued to demand an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Rafale fighter jet deal, with chants of "chowkidaar chor hai" being raised once again. Slogans such as "tote se gathbandhan bandh karo" and "CBI BJP ka tota hai" (stop collusion with parrot CBI and the CBI is BJP's parrot) disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha repeatedly by SP leaders, one of whom also reminded the saffron party in Parliament that the agency would not vote in the 2019 polls, the people of the country would. Sitharaman's statement in Lok Sabha on HAL Rejecting "doubts" raised by the Congress on her statement on HAL contracts as "incorrect and misleading", Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha that the government-run defence undertaking has been awarded works worth over Rs 26,000 crore, and that projects amounting to Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline. Her clarification came amid a political furore over her statement in the House regarding orders placed with HAL, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleging that she had "lied" that government orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore were provided to the company. Amid protests by Opposition members, Sitharaman told Lok Sabha: "I would like to set all doubts to rest... The doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading." The minister said she has received confirmation that contract amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore have already been signed between 2014-18. The procurement order specifically mentions 83 Tejas aircraft worth Rs 50,000 crore, 200 helicopters worth Rs 20,000 crore, 19 dornier aircraft worth Rs 3,400 crore, other helicopters worth Rs 15,000 crore and aero-engine worth Rs 8,400 crore. She pointed out that with the orders worth Rs 73,000 crore in the pipeline, the total comes to Rs 1 lakh crore. "The documents clearly confirm correctness of my statement and the doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading," Sitharaman said. Congress MP KC Venugopal then brought up that his party has moved a breach of privilege against the defence minister for "misleading the House". To this, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the notice was with her. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge quoted HAL CMD R Madhavan to support his party's contention that the company was struggling financially, demanding a JPC probe into the matter. He also claimed that Sitharaman had sought to correct her statement and said wrong facts should not be put before the House. Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal questioned whether Kharge would authenticate the report he was quoting, while some other BJP leaders took a jibe at the party while referring to a defence dealer, who is wanted in criminal cases. Speaker suspends four MPs The Lok Sabha Speaker suspended four parliamentarians three from the AIADMK and one Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lawmaker for two days for disrupting the proceedings of the House. AIAMDK MPs KN Ramachandran, P Venugopal and KK Gopal were protesting in the Well over the proposed construction of a dam by Karnataka on the Cauvery river, while TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad, whose party has been raising the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, played a Tamil song in the House. Sivaprasad, known for sporting different costumes in Parliament, was dressed like former Tamil Nadu chief minister MG Ramachandran and held a whip in his hand. This time, he also played a khartal, a percussion instrument mainly used for devotional songs, in the House. Mahajan ordered suspension of the four members for "abusing the law of the House" after giving them several warnings. Last week, the Speaker had suspended 45 members for unruly behaviour, including 24 AIADMK members. On Thursday, Mahajan had suspended 21 MPs of the AIADMK, TDP and an 'unattached' YSR Congress member. Statements outside Parliament While proceedings were adjourned in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, political leaders and ministers held a number of press conferences, addressing issues that they were unable to bring up in Parliament amid the din. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad flayed Rahul Gandhi over his allegations related to the Rafale deal, claiming that the Congress' opposition to the fighter jet agreement with France was just for show, and that the party was putting national security at risk by doing so. He also brought up the alleged role of the Congress and its high command in the AgustaWestland case. Prasad claimed that it was now clear that middlemen had been pushing the Congress to go for Eurocopters over the Rafale jets in 2011. "Rahul Gandhi can't deny his relations with Christian Michel," he said, referring to the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland case. Soon after, Rahul spoke to reporters, and said Sitharaman had not answered his questions in her address to the Lok Sabha on Friday. He accused the defence minister of lying in the Lok Sabha, "When I asked her a yes or no type of question, she started a drama. I am not asking her to speak for hours... Sitharaman didn't answer whether IAF had objected to Narendra Modi's interference in the Rafale deal. She also didn't answer on what basis Reliance Defence was given Rs 30,000." Asking why the government was not paying its dues to HAL, Rahul also took a dig at the prime minister. "Desh ke chowkidar Lok Sabha mein aane se darte hai (the country's watchman is scared to come to the Lok Sabha. Give me 15 minutes with Modi. He won't come (to the Lok Sabha) because chowkidar ne chori kari hai (the watchman stole from India). He also said that Sitharaman was less of a defence minister and more a spokesperson for the defence ministry and Narendra Modi. He questioned whether the ministry had objected to Modi's interference in the Rafale deal. Earlier in the day, soon after the Houses the adjourned within minutes of convening, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad addressed the media: "Many parties were against Rajiv Gandhi, too, but he never said cases will be filed against them. So why all this against the mahagathbandhan... This kind of dictatorship will not work." He added that four and a half years ago, Modi had spoken about employment, farmers' issues and women's security, but the government had actually worked on how to use the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department. On the agenda The Congress and BJP had both issued a three-line whip to their MPs to be present in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The three-line whip is a strict instruction to MPs that necessitates their presence in the House and participation in any voting. Any breach of the whip has consequences including disciplinary action. The bills that were on the agenda in the Lok Sabha were the DNA Technology Regulation Bill 2018, the National Medical Commission Bill 2017, the Dentists (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018, NCTE (Amendment) Bill 2018, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill 2018. In Rajya Sabha, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 was on the agenda, along with the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill 2019, the National Commission for Homeopathy Bill 2019, the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Consumer Protection Bill 2018 and the Appropriation (No.6) Bill 2018. With inputs from PTI Amarinder Singh was responding to questions from media persons during an informal chat after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday ruled out the need for an alliance with the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, but added that the decision on a coalition with the party would be taken by the Congress high command. Singh was responding to questions from media persons during an informal chat after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. The Punjab chief minister stated "till now there is no question of Congress allying with the AAP as the party does not have its presence in Punjab." He also added that the present AAP is different from what it was in last general elections. "The AAP now has been split as many of its leaders have resigned. However, any decision on a coalition with AAP or any other party would be taken by the Congress high command, keeping in mind the national perspective and electoral compulsions, and would be followed by PPCC", he added. Amarinder further alleged that the Central government has not provided any funds for the land acquisition for the Kartarpur Corridor, which is why Punjab adminsitration is facing trouble in meeting the deadline for the completion of the corridor. "While Pakistan has already started work on the construction of the road on their side, development work is yet to start in the Indian Punjab, as the state government had not received any funds so far from the Centre for acquiring land for building the infrastructure," he said. Singh further clarified, that he had given permission to his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu to visit Pakistan for their ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor. "No minister can leave without the chief minister's approval. Sidhu wanted to go there in his personal capacity and hence, he had given permission to the minister," he said. However, he later reiterated that Sidhu was adviced by him not to go, as Singh himself had turned down the invite in view of Pakistan funneling terrorist into Kashmir. Fearing low voter turnout due to the escalation of violence in Jammu Kashmir and the recent snowfall which has cut-off most areas in south Kashmir, political parties and election officials in the state have urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to hold simultaneous state Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in April Srinagar: With the maximum number of CRPF personnel who were deployed in the state for the urban local body and panchayat polls having been already withdrawn, election authorities, as well as political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, have urged the home ministry to go for simultaneous Assembly and parliamentary polls in the state in April 2019. Though Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh recently said that the Central Government is ready for the elections in the state, the fact that withdrawal is still continuing and in view of the escalation of violence in Kashmir in recent past, political parties have urged the ministry to hold the election after March. Political parties have also said that the volatile situation in Kashmir as well as the snowfall which has left most areas cut-off and could lower the voter turnout". Kashmir has seen an escalation of violence with seven civilians and three militants getting killed in December during an encounter at Sirnoo area of Pulwama. Subsequently, militants and the security forces have engaged in long drawn battles in many areas of the southern part of Kashmir. Moreover, election officials in Kashmir are of the view that since re-deployment of security personnel is not possible in a "short span" of time, the Assembly polls could be held simultaneously along with the Lok Saha polls in April. The recent snowfall, officials added, could further hamper the movement of security personnel if Assembly polls are held before April. A CRPF spokesperson in Srinagar said that "the maximum number of security personnel who were deployed for the Urban Local Bodies and Panchayat polls have been withdrawn". Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmirs Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Raman Kumar Kesar, said that the electoral rolls for the Assembly polls are not still complete as the updating process is still going on. Although the Election Commission of India (ECI) had last month sought the list of officers who could be deployed for the Assembly and Parliament election duties, Kesar said that the revised list of electoral rolls will be completed only 22 January. Centre didn't want early Assembly polls, claims state political parties Meanwhile, political parties in the state have slammed the Central Government and Governor Satya Pal Malik for not holding the Assembly elections earlier and instead "deciding to conduct the Urban Local Bodies and the Panchayat polls". The Assembly elections are due in the state since 22 November, 2018, after the Assembly was dissolved by Governor Malik following rival claims by People's Democratic Party-National Conference (PDP-NC) combine and the Peoples Conference and BJP to form the government in the state. Before that, the Assembly was kept in suspended animation after BJP withdrew its support to PDP on 19 June leading to the fall of the government headed by the former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. NC general secretary, Ali Mohammad Sagar, slammed the government for delaying the elections saying it should have been held immediately after the fall of PDP-BJP government. He said that it could have also been done within the 40 days since the dissolution of Assembly". People prefer to have political government rather than the Presidents rule in the state. But it is the Home Ministry which decides the elections in the state rather than the Election Commission of India. Otherwise, why didnt they hold the Parliament elections in Anantnag? At that time it was the direction of the government not to hold the Anantang elections. So, they didnt. They knew that the candidate of the coalition is going to lose. If there were conditions feasible for the local bodies and panchayat elections, why werent the Assembly polls held? he said. Political parties have said that the BJP was interested in ruling the state directly so that it could carry on with the killings and pursue its agenda for vote bank politics". Congress vice president, GN Monga, said the Central government "should have held the polls before the dissolution of Assembly". "The BJP is directly ruling the state and it has carried out killings wantonly. The Kashmir has been kept boiling for the vote bank politics, said Monga. PDP chief spokesperson, Rafi Ahmad Mir, said that Assembly and Parliament polls in the state should be held simultaneously. The security scenario is not so very good and it would be ideal if a large number of people take part in the polls. But at the same time, we cant have a continued Presidents rule. An elected government is a requirement. The Assembly and Parliamentary elections should be held together in April, he said. PDP vice-president, AR Veeri, said that since most of the areas like Gurez, Tangdhar, Keran and Kargil remain cut off due to the snowfall, the elections should be held only after winter is over". Former state minister and National Conference provincial president, Nasir Aslam Wani, said that his party was looking at the ECI timeline of April for the Assembly and Parliament elections in the state. The Presidents rule is not an alternative to the peoples government. Even if the notification is issued shortly, the working out of the phase-wise polls can only be done after March, he said. Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) chairman, Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen, said the Central government was not interested earlier in holding the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the Centre has preferred to rule the state through Malik as he has been trying to weaken the special status of the state and it was only due to our protests that he chose not to make any changes in the state subject laws". "The government chose to conduct the elections for the Urban Local Bodies as well as Panchayat which were not important. The government has its political compulsions, which is to harass the Muslims of Kashmir. The governor has failed to deliver and civilian killings have increased manifold during his rule. Earlier, political parties including NC and PDP protested against the governor for what they termed as "attempts to settle outsiders in Kashmir as well as the intervention in the functioning of Jammu and Kashmir bank by making it "accountable to the Assembly". Malik, however, later issued a statement that there was no plan to do away with the autonomous structure of the bank as well or to make changes in the state subject laws. Raut, the executive editor of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', wrote in his Sunday column in the newspaper that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stature has 'declined' while that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi has risen. Mumbai: BJP ally Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut claimed Sunday the country was heading for a "fractured mandate", and Union minister Nitin Gadkari would be "waiting" for such an eventuality. Raut, the executive editor of the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', also wrote in his Sunday column in the newspaper that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stature has "declined" while that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi has risen. "The country is heading for a fractured mandate and prime minister Narendra Modi is responsible for it," he said, adding that the full mandate Modi won in 2014 was "an opportunity wasted". Raut wrote that in 2014 there was a wave in Modi's support as voters were determined to defeat the Congress, but "the picture has changed today". "Modi's larger-than-life image has lost the shine now. Rahul Gandhi's leadership is not as towering as Modi's but he has gained importance as people are disappointed with the current government," the Sena MP said. "While senior leaders in the BJP are worried about its possible poor performance in coming elections, Nitin Gadkari's statements are an indication of which way the winds are blowing. A leader like Gadkari has equal acceptance in the RSS as well as among other BJP leaders," Raut said. "Political conspiracies" were hatched to deny Gadkari a second term when he was the BJP president (from 2009 to 2013)," he claimed. "He also faced several allegations in Purti group scam and a second term was denied to him. That memory still rankles with Gadkari," Raut said. "Gadkari is now waiting for the hung Lok Sabha of 2019," Raut added, suggesting, indirectly, that in that case the Union minister could become the consensus candidate for the top post. Akhilesh Yadav, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13 apparently bringing his role under scanner, according to the FIR. New Delhi: Drawing flak from Opposition parties, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) laid out details about the illegal mining case in Uttar Pradesh on Monday and claimed that then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's office had cleared 13 projects on a single day, officials said. The agency said Yadav, who also held the mining portfolio for sometime, had cleared 14 leases, of which 13 were cleared on 17 February, 2013, in violation of e-tendering process. The CBI claimed that on 17 February the leases were granted by the district magistrate of Hamirpur, B Chandrakala, after getting approval from the chief minister's office in violation of its 2012 e-tender policy, which was ratified by the Allahabad High Court on 29 January, 2013. The CBI gave details about the role of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav after he and other Opposition party leaders accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of misusing the probe agency for its political gains. Yadav had held a press conference in Lucknow on Sunday alleging that the BJP was using the CBI as a tool for arm-twisting the Opposition party leaders, some of whom are trying to forge an alliance against the ruling party. "Now we have to tell the CBI as to how many seats we have distributed in the gathbandhan (alliance). I am happy that at least the BJP has shown its colours. Earlier, the Congress gave us the chance to meet the CBI, and this time it is the BJP, which has given us this opportunity," Yadav had said. "The Samajwadi Party is making efforts to win maximum number of Lok Sabha seats. Those who want to stop us, have the CBI with them. Once the Congress did CBI probe, and I was questioned. If the BJP is doing all this, the CBI will question me, I will answer (them). But, the people are ready to give an answer to the BJP," he had said. The CBI had carried out searches at 14 locations on Saturday in connection with its FIR against 11 people, including IAS officer B Chandrakala, Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit (who unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket), to probe alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16. Yadav, who was the chief minister of the state between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13 apparently bringing his role under scanner, according to the FIR. He was succeeded by Gayatri Prajapati, who took charge as mining minister in 2013 and was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot. This is the third FIR pertaining to illegal mining cases which were registered by the agency on 2 January, 2019, nearly two-and-a-half years after it was directed by the Allahabad High Court to probe the matter. In a veiled warning to the Shiv Sena, BJP president Amit Shah said on Sunday that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Mumbai: In a veiled warning to the Shiv Sena, BJP president Amit Shah said on Sunday that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Shah's statement came after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis set the BJP workers a target of winning 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Reacting to the statements, the Shiv Sena said it was ready to take on whoever challenges it. Shah and Fadnavis addressed BJP workers from Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Nanded districts in Latur city on Sunday. "Party workers should get rid of confusion about (prospects of) alliance (with the Shiv Sena). If the allies join us, we will ensure their win, or else will defeat them too ("patak denge"). Party workers should start preparations at every booth," Shah said. He compared the coming elections to the third battle of Panipat, in which Maratha forces were defeated by the army of Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Durrani (Abdali). The BJP chief said after this battle, the country was "enslaved" for 200 years. "If we win this election, our ideology will continue to rule for next 50 years. We should put in extra efforts to win this election," Shah said. "In 2014, the BJP won 73 seats (in Uttar Pradesh). This time even if SP and BSP join hands, we will win 74 seats," he said. Shah also said, "We should aim to win at least 40 out of 48 seats (in Maharashtra)." This is for the first time the BJP has taken an assertive stand in the matter of alliance with the Shiv Sena. The Sena has been regularly hitting out at the BJP despite being part of the government in the state and the Centre. Its leaders have often said they would contest the next polls on their own. Speaking before Shah, the chief minister said, "The party president will decide what to do with the Shiv Sena and the proposed alliance. But the BJP should aim to win 40 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state." "The victory of 2019 will be bigger than 2014. Last time we won 122 seats in (state) Assembly and received 1.50 crore votes. We need two crore votes to attain power on our own. The number of people who have benefited from the state government's policies is more than that." Shah had reportedly told party MPs from Maharashtra at a meeting in Delhi last Thursday that they should be ready to contest the coming elections without an alliance, though efforts to forge a pre-poll tie-up with the Sena were on. The Sena and BJP had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance but split up at the time of Assembly elections. The Sena joined the state government later. Late Sunday evening, the Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP, saying its plan to win 40 seats meant it would rely on manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). "The Sena is ready to take on opposition. Those who attack us, we will surely defeat them," said an aide of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. "The BJP's boast of winning 40 seats is evidence that it is going to form alliance with EVMs. The BJP has been unnerved by the results of assembly elections," he said. "Amit Shah's arrogant and boastful statements have exposed that party. Shiv Sena talked about Hindutva and Ram temple but it seems our stand did not go down well with the BJP," the leader said. "The BJP does not want anybody who talks of Hindutva," the Sena leader said. Congress MP Priya Dutt on Monday announced that she would not contest the 2019 elections and spend more time with her family Mumbai: Ending speculations over her future political move months after she was 'relieved' as an AICC secretary, high-profile former Congress MP Priya Dutt on Monday announced that she would not contest the 2019 elections and spend more time with her family. In a statement, the former Congress MP said she had shared her decision to take a break from active politics with Congress president Rahul Gandhi a couple of months ago. The Congress leader also said that she was committed to work for the party and its candidate, but "would not support anyone against her conscience". "I will not be contesting the 2019 General Election. Politics needs a particular mindset that I do not have. However, I have great respect for those who do," she stated. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Dutt was defeated by BJP's Poonam Mahajan from the Mumbai North Central seat. Dutt, daughter of actor-turned-politician late Sunil Dutt, stated that she had decided in 2005, when she entered politics, that she would "step out for a while" after contesting three terms. In 2005, following the death of her father, Dutt contested from his Mumbai North West seat and defeated Shiv Sena veteran Madhukar Sarpotdar. In 2009, she emerged victorious from the Mumbai North Central seat. In her statement, Dutt has hailed and thanked her "mentor" UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. She also praised Rahul Gandhi for being a "good human being and a compassionate leader" the country needs. Dutt was relieved as AICC (All India Congress Committee) secretary in September-October 2018, raising speculations over factionalism in the Mumbai Congress unit. Dutt noted that being a politician was a 24/7 job and that one has life, family and privacy while serving the nation. "So it is my humble request to those who hate all politicians because of the misdeeds of a few to not judge all by the same yardstick. I have served honestly and selflessly, and so have many others," she stated. @PriyaDutt_INC: I will not be contesting the 2019 General Election https://t.co/mrKKiVgU8x Dilip Chalil (@chalil) January 7, 2019 Dutt said the past years had been "enlightening" for her, but added that she struggled to keep a balance between her personal and political life. Dutt said she did her best in the electoral politics which took a toll on many aspects of her life. "My boys are now 13 and 11 years old. I had missed so many special moments in their lives and want to be there for them more than ever before...My husband has steadily supported me all these years and has sacrificed much of his life to adjust to mine. It was time for me to be together with and for them," she said. The meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament House on Monday was short lasting barely half an hour, but it included a monumental decision that will impact the lives and mobility of crores of Indians. The meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament House on Monday was short lasting barely half an hour, but it included a monumental decision that will impact the lives and mobility of crores of Indians. What should also be noted is the fact that Cabinet meetings in Modi government take place on a Wednesday (an unwritten norm). But in this case, the meeting was advanced to Monday and the venue was the Parliament, in order to conduct the meeting during the lunch break of the day's sitting, so that it could meet during the lunch break of the day's sitting and put forward an agenda. This agenda could go on to become the single largest talking point ahead of the Lok Sabha election. According to a source, the meeting was called on Monday because the ongoing part of the Winter Session of Parliament is to be prorogued on Tuesday. By making this decision and letting it be known unofficially (no official briefing could take place because Parliament is in session and any policy decision taken during the session has to be placed before Parliament first), Modi stuck to his trademark secrecy that surrounds all major decisions. There was no inkling nor speculation that anything like this was in the offing. Also, this was required because it was a decision that had to be accompanied by a Cabinet note for approval at the meeting and also a draft constitutional amendment bill prepared for tabling in the Parliament. He took everyone by complete surprise. His political opponents were left stunned. A constitutional amendment bill to this effect will be introduced in Parliament, on last day of this part of the Winter Session. By tabling the bill, the government will send a message that the Modi government was conscious of the concerns of the upper castes and communities, and had taken a giant step forward in fulfilling their several decades-old demand. Since this session is ending on Tuesday, the government will make all efforts to have it passed when it meets again, towards the end of this month for the presentation and passage of the Interim Budget. In effect, this bill will be passed, if at all, just days or weeks ahead of announcement of polls by the Election Commission for the Lok Sabha polls. Just as it was difficult for any political party to publicly oppose reservation for the OBCs and continuance of the quota for SCs and STs, inside or outside of Parliament, no party will have the appetite to oppose this constitutional amendment bill in Parliament as and when it is put to vote. If the bill is stalled by the Congress and its allied parties, then the BJP will go to the elections making it as a huge electoral issue. The ruling BJP is not entirely wrong in believing that this will prove to a game changer for the upcoming polls. The decision comes at a time when there were substantives reports from the ground from across the country, particularly from northern Indian states that upper castes were unhappy over the way the government had overruled the Supreme Court verdict on the SC/ST Act. The BJP faced an upper caste backlash in the recent Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan. In several constituencies, NOTA numbers were higher than margin of defeat of BJP candidates. The Modi government's decision to provide reservation to economically weaker classes (and castes) will change that situation and once again make, perhaps with greater vigour, upper castes gravitate towards the BJP. The OBC, SC and ST communities will not be hurt because their share in reservation in government jobs of 27 percent, 15 percent and 7.5 percent respectively (total of 49.5 percent) will not be touched as the government is proposing to amend the Constitution and make relevant rules to give additional reservation of 10 percent to economically weaker sections in upper castes. Article 15 (4) says: "Nothing in this Article or in clause ( 2 ) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes". This has to be amended with the insertion of "economically weaker". Article 46 says: "the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation". The government also has to take care of the Supreme Court of India ruling in 1992 that reservations could not exceed 50 percent, anything above which, it judged, would violate equal access as guaranteed by the Constitution. But then some states have made their laws in such a way that they have provided reservation beyond 50 percent ceiling imposed by the Apex Court. Tamil Nadu, for instance, has 69 percent caste-based reservation. It should be noted that despite several political parties and governments, both at the Centre and in states talking about it for the past decades, nobody has ever made any substantive move in this regard. This could well turn out to be a hugely emotive issue for crores of Indians of all ages, more so among upper caste youth eligible for jobs and their elderly parents. Modi's political rivals have a conundrum: They can neither be seen opposing it, nor can they be seen praising the government. The Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD and others have had a difficult time in formulating their first response. We'll have to wait and see what, if anything, their reaction will be on Tuesday. BJP's ally in Assam Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to walk out of the National Democratic Alliance, reports said on Monday. The development comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was working to ensure the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 gets Parliament nod. BJP's ally in Assam Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to walk out of the National Democratic Alliance, reports said on Monday. The development comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was working to ensure the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 gets the Parliament's nod. Around 70 organisations, led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), staged protests in response, putting pressure on the AGP to snap ties with the BJP. AGP president Atul Bora confirmed the news to reporters in Delhi. According to sources, Bora along with the AGP delegation met home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi before making it official. "We made a last-ditch attempt on Monday to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance," Bora said in New Delhi after meeting the home minister. Bora was earlier quoted as saying by The Sentinel that the party will write to Modi on Monday. We will fight against this Bill, he said. If the Bill is passed, it will not take much time to move out of the coalition." The announcement followed AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's statement here that the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in passed by Lok Sabha. AGP joins list of crucial allies that the BJP has lost over policy and ideological decisions Chandrababu Naidu's TDP quit NDA earlier in 2018 and Upendra Khushwaha's RLSP was recently in news for breaking alliance with the NDA. Not officially, but Shiv Sena has been more of critique than an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant nationality to people belonging to minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the Bill as they believe it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord which had fixed 24 March, 1971 as the cut off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. Flagging off BJP's Lok Sabha poll campaign in the North East, Modi said on 4 January: "It (the Bill) is linked to emotions and related to peoples' lives. It is not for the benefit of anyone but a penance for the injustices done in the past," he said. He continued, "Where will a persecuted person, who has faith in Mother India, go? Does only the colour of the passport matter and not any blood relation? The country was partitioned; people believed in those who divided it and some stayed back for the love of their land and home but their hopes and aspirations were crushed. "Will Mother India not embrace them under such circumstances? Will their cries not be heard? Mistakes may have been made in the past during partition. I do not want to dwell on those, but penance for past injustice is necessary," he said. Modi said the Bill was brought in 2016 after deep thinking and long discussions. "I hope that the bill will be passed as soon as possible in Parliament. There is immense responsibility on those having faith in Mother India to keep in mind the interest of all concerned". With inputs from PTI While opposition Congress welcomed the AGP's decision to break its partnership with BJP over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, BJP expressed sadness saying the regional party had 'fallen into the Congress trap' Guwahati: The BJP Monday expressed sadness over its ally AGP deciding to break the partnership over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, saying the regional party had "fallen into the Congress trap". While opposition Congress welcomed the AGP's decision, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) proposed to form a united platform taking along the regional party to fight the "communal and divisive" politics of the BJP. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) invited the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to join the ongoing agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Congress and the AIUDF also lashed out at senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for claiming that the state will "go Jinnah's way if the Citizenship Bill is not passed". The proposed Citizenship Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. BJP Spokesperson Rupam Goswami said, "We have not got any information officially. The alliance with the AGP was made by our national president (Amit Shah), so I think only he will be informed." "We are definitely hurt seeing it on TV because we did not want them to leave the alliance. We got a hint that they have fallen into the Congress trap," Goswami told PTI. Another alliance partner, the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF), did not come out with any official reaction, but its MLA and Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma termed the AGP's decision as "correct", adding that it was her personal view. "The party (AGP) was born for the cause of the indigenous people and cannot go against them. Responding to peoples' call, it has withdrawn the support," she said. Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi of the Congress said the AGP should join hands with other parties to protest against the Bill. "We should forget all our differences and aim towards fighting against the Bill," he said Though the Congress leader ruled out any "political equation" with the help of the AGP. On Sarma's Jinnah comment, Gogoi said it reflected the communal politics of the minister. However, state Congress president Ripun Bora accused the AGP of carrying on with the alliance for the "sake of power" and noted that the damage to the state had already been done. "The AGP left the alliance when no alternative was left. They stayed for so long only for the sake of power. The decision is too late as the damage has already been done," Bora said. Had the AGP not partnered with the BJP, the saffron party would have not bagged so many seats in the Assembly election and formed a government in the state, he added. AIUDF spokesperson Aminul Islam said, "We now hope that we can form a united opposition front, including the Congress, the AGP, the BPF and the Left to fight the communal and divisive politics of the BJP." The AIUDF legislator also criticised Sarma asserting that Muslims who supported Jinnah went to Pakistan during the partition and those who stayed back in India were opposed to his politics. Meanwhile, All Assam Students Union (AASU) General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said, "The AGP became power hungry. It is unfortunate that they realised it so late. Along with AGP, now we appeal all political parties to come out and join the protest (against the Citizenship Bill)." The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) too said that it was time for all parties against the Bill to unite and find an alternative to communal politics. "Talking about Jinnah at this time is deliberately done to polarise the society before the polls. By doing so, he (Sarma) is trying to spread the communal agenda of the RSS," KMSS adviser Akhil Gogoi said. In 2014, Sutapa Sanyal became the Director General of Mahila Samman Parishad Prakoshth Gender bias, domestic violence, lack of opportunities and the list, unfortunately, goes on. These are a few problems millions of women in India and around the world face on a daily basis. There is an old saying in Hindi, "If a woman is educated then an entire household will be educated". Now imagine, if every woman had the freedom to follow a path of their own choosing? Along with prosperous households, the nation would prosper too. And we have a great example for our claim in the form of Sutapa Sanyal. As a young woman, she always wanted to be in a position to serve the common people which inspired her to become an IPS officer. Back in the 80s, being a police officer like many professions was typically male-dominated, but that did not deter Sutapa from achieving her goal. She became an IPS officer and went on to serve the country for over three decades. In 2014, Sutapa Sanyal became the Director General of Mahila Samman Parishad Prakoshth - a unique police initiative dedicated to the safety, security, dignity and empowerment of over 140 million women and children in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Watch the video below for Sutapa Sanyal's #RoarForChange! This is a partnered post. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said political parties should focus on development instead of doling our freebies during the time of elections. New Delhi: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said political parties should focus on development instead of doling our freebies during the time of elections. Addressing a function organised by the textiles ministry, he said, "Rather than focusing on freebies, that too at the time of the election, we should focus on long-term growth stories, developmental stories so that the people can stand on their own. These temporary things will be temporary lollipops only." Talking about the functioning of Parliament, particularly Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session, the vice president and the Chairman of the Upper House said he is "ained by our inability to ensure convergence of different agendas into a national agenda". "Parliamentary institutions cannot be held captive to the competitive agenda. The Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha, could not function for 14 days because of competition between two parties," Naidu said. The vice president noted that civility of proceedings in the parliamentary institutions is a parameter of an aspiring nation finding its feet and fulfilling its quest. Stressing that before electing their political representatives people should look if "4 Cs" character, calibre, capacity and conduct are available, Naidu said unfortunately some politicians have brought in four other "Cs". "Caste, community, cash and criminality. If these things influence the society, it's a gone case. We must bring back the agenda to development," he said. Observing that discrimination on the basis of gender and social identities is prevalent even now, the vice president called for a change in the mind-set and commitment and go back to "our original roots where we used to give respect to women". Talking about the role of the agriculture, Naidu said a huge population of the country is engaged in the sector. He observed that the colonial rule created problems for India and the countrymen must let go of the colonial mind-set. The vice president exhorted people to go back to their roots and practice physical exercise, while promoting Indian heritage through their dressing sense. "Our forefathers had so much knowledge. Years of civilisation have taught us so many things. Our dress, our food habits, our lifestyle and so many things. Unfortunately, because of colonial mind-set we have abandoned them. Now the time has come to go back to roots," he said. Observing that yoga has now become an international attraction and brings unity between the body and the mind, Naidu said, "Unfortunately, we have cynics in our country. What is yoga, they are trying to connect it with religion, yoga has no connection with any religion at all." Citing an example, he said a boy told him yoga is very good but he has a problem with doing "Surya" Namaskar. Naidu said he told the boy to do "Chandra" Namaskar if he has a problem doing "Surya" Namaskar. "We have to change attitude. Merely bringing legislations, bringing new schemes alone will not suffice," Naidu said. Naidu said the continued growth of the textiles sector can drive the economy to new heights. However, he said, the sector has to improve supply chains and internal systems, focus on research and development, cost optimisation and command a higher share in export of top items traded in global markets. "I would like the sector to focus on improving quality and then tapping the opportunities in the global market to increase India's share in exports," he said. He urged the industry to discard outdated technology and focus on creating global brands. "I understand that India's export performance has not been up to expectations for a variety of reasons. It cannot be a business as usual and the industry has to rise to the occasion and ensure that the share of India's exports reaches double digits," the Vice President said. He urged the industry to diversify its products and tap newer markets, observing that the Indian textile industry is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country, has only 3621 functioning PHCs a shortfall of 30%, as there is a requirement of 5194 PHCs in the state. These existing PHCs, as few as they are, are also providing only inadequate services. A Planning Commission report found that 66.67% of all beneficiaries expressed non-availability of medicines as one of their primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the functioning of PHCs. We have to buy medicines from private pharmacies, PHCs dont give us most of them, says Chunni Lal, a Jabrapur resident who had travelled to the Naveen Primary Health Centre in Fatehganj, Banda. He visited the PHC to get a treatment for the marks that had started to spread from his back and arms to his face, but had to leave only with a prescription and a request asking him to buy the necessary medication from the market. Devised by the National Health Mission to be the first point of contact for medical care in rural India, Primary Health Centres, or PHCs, are supposed to be well-equipped to deal with in-and out-patient care, with an ambulance service, a functional operational theatre and a labour room. The Indian Public Health Standards for PHCs clearly state that all the drugs required for national health programmes, as well as emergency management, should be available in adequate quantities, as to ensure completion of treatment for all patients. The under-stocked PHC in Fatehganj is only one of the many centres in the country failing to meet this most basic requirement. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country, has only 3621 functioning PHCs a shortfall of 30%, as there is a requirement of 5194 PHCs in the state. These existing PHCs, as few as they are, are also providing only inadequate services. A Planning Commission report found that 66.67% of all beneficiaries expressed non-availability of medicines as one of their primary reasons for dissatisfaction with the functioning of PHCs. Apart from a handful of medications, we currently have everything stocked in our pharmacy cetzine, paracetamol, antibiotics, informs Premchand, pharmacist at Fatehganj PHC. But Anarkali, who had visited the same centre with complaints of fever, cold and cough fairly minor illnesses, often treated with the same medicine compounds Premchand had listed was asked to buy medicines from outside the centre. Arpita, from the village of Jarkadha, flagged a similar problem, I bought a syrup for Rs 200 from the pharmacy outside the hospital. Rs 200, for one round of one medication, is not a small expense for people of a state where 30% population is living below the poverty line. They are not providing us with required medicines, which are generally provided in every other hospital, says another Jarkadha resident, Bhagwati, her frustration palpable. Research has shown that 4.49% of the total consumption expenditure by households was made on out-of-pocket (OOP) medicines significantly on the uptick in the last few decades making it the largest component of total OOP payments. Since PHCs dont provide proper services, we are forced to visit private hospitals for a decent check-up, explains Bhagwati. OOP medical expenditure, including paying for private hospitals, pushed 50.6 million people into poverty between 2004 and 2014 of which 27% lived in Uttar Pradesh. In 2011-2012 alone, 38 million Indians were pushed below poverty line because of OOP medical expenditure. According to an Indiaspend study, India spent the least on public health among all the BRICS nations in 2014. It also ranked 147 among 184 countries in this regard, only 31.3% of the total healthcare expenditure being done by the government that year. Meanwhile, the budget allocation for National Health Mission has seen a 2.1% decline from Rs 31,292 crores in 2017-18 (revised estimates) to Rs 30,634 crores in 2018-2019 (budget estimates). The widely-publicised Prime Ministers Ayushman Bharat Yojana, launched in September 2018, is supposed to be the solution to all rural healthcare woes, its flashiest promise health protection cover of Rs 5 lakh per poor family per year. But research has shown that insurance-based government initiatives have been largely unsuccessful in easing the burden on citizens. In fact, households in districts where central and state governments target insurance policies are more likely to fall below the poverty line. How can an insurance scheme help if the service provisions themselves are sorely lacking? Our own reporting on this policy is a proof of this systemic flaw in the plan. Medicines for allergies and many other illnesses are still not available, says Premchand, after some persistent nudging from our reporter. But we are assuring our patients that all of these medicines would be made available by the end of December, he adds. And as for the protocol of prescribing and giving medicines, he says, If the medicines arent available, we ask the patients to come back again in fifteen days. And if theyre unavailable then as well, we ask them to either go to the district hospital or to buy it from outside. But healthcare isn't a leisurely activity; it is often a matter of urgency. When asked what they do if medicines are required immediately, Premchand has no answer. Our reporter asks Bhagwati if she has ever complained about the services, or the lack thereof, in Naveen PHC, she replies with a sense of resignation, Who listens to poor people? Khabar Lahariya is a women-only network of rural reporters from Bundelkhand. Opposition parties accused the BJP of using probe agencies for 'executing its political strategy' after it emerged that the CBI may quiz Akhilesh Yadav in a case of illegal mining, even as the ruling party asserted that he must explain the 'loot' during his tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. New Delhi: Opposition parties on Sunday accused the BJP of using probe agencies for "executing its political strategy" after it emerged that the CBI may quiz Samajwadi President (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in a case of illegal mining, even as the ruling party asserted that he must explain the "loot" during his tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. Akhilesh may face a CBI probe, according to the agency FIR made public on Saturday, the day SP and Mayawati-led BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had also carried out searches at 14 locations. UP government minister and BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh asserted that instead of questioning the timing of the raids, Yadav should answer why so much "loot" had happened under his government. The BJP demands that the CBI investigate him and call him for probe, he told reporters at a press conference. "If you loot public money, then law will take its own course," Singh said, adding that the CBI is reporting to the Allahabad high court, which had ordered a probe in 2016. In Lucknow, Akhilesh put up a brave front, saying he is ready to face the CBI and attacked the BJP, claiming that people will answer it in the Lok Sabha polls. Suggesting that the CBI action is linked to his talks with the BSP, he said he may have to tell the probe agency details of his alliance with Mayawati. "Now, we have to tell the CBI how many seats we have distributed in the gathbandhan (alliance). I am happy that at least the BJP has shown its colours. Earlier, the Congress gave us the chance to meet the CBI, and this time it is the BJP, which has given us this opportunity," he said. In the national capital, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari accused the BJP of practising a politics of "fear" against its rivals and said the country will rid itself of this in the polls. "Those who are carrying out their political strategy through probe agencies do not last long," Tewari said, adding that even a nursery child can comprehend the political motive behind the CBI's move. The BJP said the Akhilesh Yadav government during its tenure between 2012 and 2017 was "hand-in-glove" with the accused in the case of alleged mining scam.' Rejecting the charge that the CBI's searches on Saturday in connection with the alleged scam was politically motivated because of the alliance talks between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP, UP government minister Sidharth Nath Singh also told reporters that the BJP has no threat from them. The two opposition parties are fighting for survival, he said, adding that those who are "langde-lulhe" (physically handicapped) need "baisakhi" (crutches). The SP chief said the BJP is leaving a "culture", which may be used against it in the future. "The Samajwadi Party is making efforts to win maximum Lok Sabha seats. Those who want to stop us, have the CBI with them. Once the Congress did the CBI probe, and I was questioned. If the BJP is doing all this, the CBI will question me, I will answer (them). But, the people are ready to give an answer to the BJP," Yadav told reporters in Lucknow. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray clarified that his party had no objection to Nayantara Sahgal's presence at the literary meet Organisers of the All India Marathi Literary Meet have withdrawn the invitation extended to noted author Nayantara Sahgal, who was at the forefront of the "award wapsi" campaign, after threats to disrupt the event. The decision was taken to "avoid any untoward incident and in view of the controversy that has cropped up against her name", after a political outfit threatened to disrupt the function, the organisers said Sunday. Sahgal (91), a Sahitya Akademi awardee, was at the forefront of the 2015 "award wapsi" campaign against the "growing intolerance in the country" under the Narendra Modi government. Sahgal was to inaugurate the 92nd literary meet on 11 January in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Noted Marathi author Aruna Dhere will preside over the event. In a press release issued Sunday, working president of the literary meet's reception committee Ramakant Kolte said the organisers have taken cognisance of the threat issued by a member of a political outfit. "Nayantara Sahgal's name was proposed by the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal chief Shreepad Joshi of Nagpur which was accepted by the organisers. A follow-up was taken by sending her a formal invitation," it stated. The release stated the organisers have decided to revoke Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet". "We have sent her a letter cancelling the invitation," Kolte said, adding that the new name for the inauguration function is yet to be finalised. #NewsAlert | Lit fest withdrew invite extended to author Nayantara Sahgal post protests. pic.twitter.com/ig4MG1badS News18 (@CNNnews18) January 7, 2019 The Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal (ABMSM) said in a statement in Nagpur that the decision to withdraw the invite was taken by the local level organisers. "There were newspaper reports about objections and (likely) protests to Nayantara Sahgal inaugurating the event. It was being said that some people would not let the literary meet function. Hence, to avoid any obstruction and untoward incident, the organising committee at the local level decided to send a withdrawal letter to Sahgal. "This is not the directive of the Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal. It is the local organising committee which has taken the decision," it stated. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray clarified that his party had no objection to Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. He also apologised for the statement of an MNS party worker in Yawatmal threatening Sahgal. The full statement released by Thackeray can be read here: Sugar mills in Maharashtra only managed to pay 39 percent (Rs 2,875.37 crore) of the farmer dues by 31 December, with Rs 4,575.53 crore left as arrears. The sugar industry in Maharashtra is in a state of crisis as several mills are struggling to pay sugarcane farmers in state. The situation has mounted amid the crushing season, which goes on till March. By 31 December, 2018 sugar mills in Maharashtra should have paid the farmers Rs 7,450.9 crore for cane at the fair and remunerative price or FRP, according to the state governments Commissionerate of Sugar. However, mills in the state only managed to pay 39 percent (Rs 2,875.37 crore) of the dues, with Rs 4,575.53 crore left as arrears. The Sugarcane Control Order says that the FRP should to be paid within 15 days of buying cane from the farmer. Till 15 December, last year Rs 1,469.49 crore had been paid to the farmers as FRP. Why did the outstandings accumulate? Poor profit margin has been associated with the current sugarcane payment crisis. In simpler words, the factories are, mainly, unable to pay the farmers due to the declining sugar price. The Indian Express quoted the chairman of a leading Kolhapur-based cooperative sugar mill as saying: Normally, we pay the FRP as a first instalment to farmers within 14 days of their supplying cane. Depending upon the factorys earnings from sugar and by-products, they get a second payment close to the end of the crushing period and a third before Diwali. This is the first time we havent been able to pay even the first instalment. The Centre had set Rs 245 per quintal as FRP for the 2018-19 season, but, according to the report, is somewhere around Rs 280 to 300 per quintal in southern Maharashtra. The chairman further said in the report that the farmers did not agree to a proposal put forward by millers on splitting the FRP to pay Rs 230 first and the balance amount during Diwali season. Business Standard reported that surplus of sugar in international market was among the reasons for the build up of outstandings. All India Sugar Trade Association chief executive officer RP Bhagria claimed in the report the short margin issue was affecting sugar exports "to a large extent". The short margin norm is when the sugar prices fail to cover advances extended to mills by banks. Need for action On 1 January, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetti lashed out at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and said that the sugarcane farmers would launch a "halla bol" agitation if the properties of sugar mills defaulting on payments to farmers were not seized by 28 January, The Times of India reported. A delegation led by Shetti had submitted a memorandum to the commissionerate on 24 December, demanding action against mills which had failed to pay the dues to farmers within the 14-day bracket. Sugar deputy commissioner at Kolhapur division Sachin Rawal was quoted as saying in the report that when the authorities held hearings for 29 sugar mills, the millers said that they were neither able to sell sugar in the market nor were the banks giving then loan to pay the arrears. Union minister Nitin Gadkari recently advised farmers to stop cultivating sugarcane or use their produce for ethanol production instead of sugar. However, the government is yet to find an actual solution to the crisis. In December, former Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar demanded a package of Rs 500 crore for the state's sugar industry to clear the payments. To ensure that farmers get FRP for cane, we will back the industry in every possible way, he was quoted as saying by Economic Times. The sugar sector affects the livelihood of about five crore sugarcane farmers, and around five lakh workers employed in sugar mills in India. The situation in Maharashtra is similar to that in Uttar Pradesh, where mills are yet to pay Rs 1,770.18 crore to sugarcane farmers in the 2017-18 season (October-September). Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Goolihatti Shekar from Karnataka on Sunday attempted to kill himself as a mark of protest against the alleged harassment of his supporters by the police. Hubli: Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Goolihatti Shekar of Hosadurga constituency on Sunday attempted to kill himself as a mark of protest against the alleged harassment of his supporters by the police. According to reports, he attempted self-immolation after a verbal spat with the police over booking his followers in illegal sand business cases. Shekhar tried to set himself ablaze in front of Hosadurga Police Station, following which he was shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment. He is currently said to be out of danger. The BJP lawmaker alleged that the police had filed cases against his followers despite them being innocent. A report by The New Indian Express said that Shekhar and the police have had frequent tussles after he was elected from the constituency. Hosadurga has been the centre of sand mining in the district and reportedly, many illegal miners operate in the constituency. More details of the incident are awaited. The report was prepared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee by a majority vote as Opposition members in the panel had objected to the provisions saying Indian citizenship cannot be granted on the basis of religion and it is against the Constitution. New Delhi: A report by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan was tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill is expected to be discussed in the Lower House on Tuesday. The report was prepared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee by a majority vote as Opposition members in the panel had objected to the provisions saying Indian citizenship cannot be granted on the basis of religion and it is against the Constitution. Some of the Opposition members have also given dissent notes over this. BJP allies, the Shiv Sena and the JD(U), have already said that they will also oppose the Bill. The Bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the Bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion. Various members from Opposition parties have been asserting that citizenship is a constitutional provision and it cannot be based on religion, as India is a secular nation. Rather than resolving the situation in Assam, this Bill is making the situation more volatile in the already tense state, an Opposition member in the panel had alleged. Echoing similar sentiments, a Congress member had said if all the proposed amendments come into force, then the Centre has to nullify the Assam Accord under which anyone, irrespective of religion, entering the state illegally after March 1971, should be declared foreigner and deported. A large section of people and organisations in the Northeast have also opposed the Bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed 24 March, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Even the governments of Meghalaya and Mizoram have strongly opposed the Bill and adopted resolutions against it. During the course of its examination and study visits, the committee met a cross-section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Daily bulletin: Tension over Sabarimala violence likely to continue in Parliament between BJP and CPM; Rafale issue to be brought up as Congress and BJP face-off over facts; day's top stories Tension between BJP and CPM over Sabarimala likely to continue in Parliament today At least 5,700 people have been arrested in Kerala as incidents of violence over the Sabarimala issue continued over most of the weekend. Workers of BJP-RSS and ruling CPM clashed as a number of houses and shops in the politically volatile Kannur district were attacked. Several houses and shops of rival leaders and workers were attacked on Saturday forcing the district administration to impose prohibitory orders. Amid incidents of vandalism, Governor P Sathasivam briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the law and order situation in the southern state. BJP members are likely to raise the issue of continued violence in Kerala during the Zero Hour in Parliament on Monday after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at BJP. After the BJP threatened the state government with consequences under "constitutional provisions" over the incidents of violence, the chief minister, in a Facebook post on Sunday wrote, "It is strange that those who are trying to create violence to torpedo the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict are threatening the government that it would face consequences under constitutional provisions. Threatening a government which is implementing its Constitutional responsibility is against the Constitution." BJP and Congress likely to face-off over Rafale issue in Parliament As Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman continued to exchange barbs over the details of Rafale issue, Congress and BJP are likely to continue the debate in Parliament on Monday. Rahul, on Sunday, slammed Sithamaran for "lying" in Parliament after the defence minister countered the Congress' claims on Friday. Rahul demanded Sitharaman's resignation, and tweeted, "When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM (Raksha Mantri) lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign." Gandhi questioned her over a media report that said that India's leading defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is keenly awaiting formalisation of orders adding up to Rs 1 lakh crore mentioned by Sitharaman during the discussion on the Rafale fighter deal in the Lok Sabha on Friday. However, Sitharaman asked the Congress president to "read the complete report" pointing out that it mentioned, "Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works". Final JPC report on Citizenship Amendment Bill to be submitted in Parliament today The final report of the joint parliamentary committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which will be submitted in Lok Sabha on Monday, does not have the approval of at least four opposition parties whose members on the panel have moved dissent notes, according to a PTI report. Members of the Congress, TMC, CPM and the Samajwadi Party have moved dissent notes to the JPC report on the bill, sources across these parties said. "As members of the joint committee on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, we can state that there was no consensus in the committee on the final report. We had been opposed to the bill as it brings out the ethnic divisions in the state of Assam," one of the notes said. Two miners die in second mine collapse in Meghalaya In another incident reported only after a missing complaint was lodged, two miners were killed in a second coal mine collapse in East Jaintia Hills. The fresh accident at Mooknor, Jalyiah village came to light after one Philip Bareh filed a report that his nephew Elad Bareh (26) had been missing since Friday. A search was conducted and his body was found in front of an illegal rat-hole' coal mine. "When we further checked inside the narrow mine, another body was found. The second man was identified as Monoj Basumatry," said Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtnger. Police suspect that boulders hit them when they tried to extract coal. Mine owner not yet identified. The fate of 15 miners trapped in the first flooded mine still remained uncertain. Rain plays spoilsport on Day 5 of Sydney Test India's hopes of registering a comprehensive win at Sydney were beginning to fade after rain washed out the morning session on Day 5 of the fourth Test. Australia are still 316 runs behind, with Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja having put six runs on the board before bad light stopped play on Sunday. Despite the likelihood of the Sydney Test ending in a draw, Virat Kohli and company are all but set to celebrate India's first-ever Test series victory in Australia. Follow live updates on the day's play here. Illegal assets worth Rs 11 crore seized in Karnataka producers tax raid Raids by income tax sleuths on properties owned by four actors and three producers in Karnataka across Bangalore from 3 to 5 January resulted in the seizure of undisclosed assets valued at Rs 11 crore, including Rs 2.85 crore in cash and 25.3 kilograms of gold jewellery, the department said on Sunday. The four actors are Shivaraj Kumar, his younger brother Puneeth Kumar, Sudeep and Yash. The three film producers are Rockline Venkatesh, CR Manohar and B Vijay Kiragandhur. Actors Shivaraj and Puneeth are the sons of Kannada matinee idol and thespian Rajkumar. Fuel prices drop Fuel prices are on a decline since 4 January with diesel prices cut by 10 paise on Sunday. Petrol was retailing at Rs 68.29 in Delhi on Sunday, Rs 73.95 in Mumbai, Rs 70.43 in Kolkata while it was sold at Rs 70.85 per litre in Chennai. Diesel was retailing at Rs 62.16 per litre in Delhi, Rs 65.05 in Mumbai, Rs 63.93 in Kolkata, and Rs 65.62 per litre in Chennai. Since mid-October, petrol prices have fallen by Rs 14.18 per litre and diesel by Rs 13.03 per litre. Two-day bank strike on 8 and 9 January Banking services are likely to be affected for two days 8 and 9 January, as a section of public sector undertaking bank employees, may go on a two-day strike in support of the nation-wide strike call given by 10 central trade unions against the government's alleged anti-work policy. The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India have informed the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) of the two-day nationwide strike, IDBI said in a filing to the BSE. In a stock exchange filing, Allahabad Bank said the issues and demands are of industry-level and the strike call is also given at the industry-level. Ten central trade unions INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA have also called for a nationwide general strike on 8 and 9 January against what they call 'anti-people' policies of the Centre and have placed a charter of 12 demands before the central government. With inputs from agencies Less than a week after Bengaluru saw a minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius, Kerala's Munnar recorded sub-zero temperatures over the weekend, resulting in a blanket of frost across the popular hill-station on Saturday. Less than a week after Bengaluru saw a minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius, Kerala's Munnar recorded sub-zero temperatures over the weekend, resulting in a blanket of frost across the popular hill-station on Saturday. According to reports Chendura, Chittuvara and Lakkad areas of Munnar recorded a temperature of -3 degrees Celsius on Saturday. A thick layer of frost and dense fog descended on Munnar on Saturday. The Times of India reported that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that minimum temperatures were falling below the usual in Malappuram and Kollam districts. Idukki, Wayanad, Alappuzha, Kannur, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram districts recorded a sharp fall in minimum temperatures on Sunday. Even though Munnar is welcoming an increase in tourists, The News Minute reported that tea plantation owners are concerned about the possibility of tea leaves wilting due to the heavy frosting. Tea plantations are a large part of livelihood in Munnar. We woke up to a chilly surprise this morning. Take a guess where; it's perhaps our most popular hill station. pic.twitter.com/W1Rn6JeFqG Kerala Tourism (@KeralaTourism) January 4, 2019 On Saturday, reports also said that the IMD had predicted ground frost in Nilgiris, Coimbatore, and Dindigul districts in Tamil Nadu. Places like Ooty, Valparai and Kodaikkanal recorded single digit temperatures, with minimum temperatures dipping as low as 4 degrees Celsius at some places. According to a report by The News Minute, an extensive frosting was also seen in these areas. Weather blogger Tamil Nadu Weatherman wrote in a Facebook post, "With Jet stream expected to dip again and then with High pressure expected to dominate the Indian peninsula, the cold days are expected to continue in interior Tamil Nadu. Bangalore, Mysuru too will be colder than normal." Jet streams are panels of strong winds that create a border between hot and cold weather. Cold wave in south India On 4 January, cold weather with minimum temperature below 7 degrees Celsius accompanied by fog disrupted flights in Bengaluru. IANS quoted Director of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) GS Srinivasa Reddy as saying, "A minimum temperature of 6.3 degrees Celsius was recorded on Friday morning in Bengaluru, the lowest temperatures witnessed in the past few years." "The cold waves from the northern part of the country towards the south have brought down the temperature in the city and is likely to continue for another week," Reddy said. At least 50 flights were affected since early on 4 January through delays, diversions to other airports and cancellation of services at the Kempegowda International Airport on the city's outskirts as a result of fog, according to the airport's website. "As many as 42 flights were delayed and eight flights were diverted due to fog," a statement from the airport said. Besides the state capital, cold weather also gripped Karnataka's northern districts including Bidar, Kalaburagi and Vijayapura. "As the cold winds from states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh flowing towards south India hit the northern districts of Karnataka first, they have been witnessing colder temperatures," assessed an official of the KSNDMC, which is the state-run IMD Bengaluru centre. As a result of the low temperatures, the grape crop which is predominantly grown in the northern parts of Vijayapura has been affected. "Grape crops, which are highly sensitive to low temperatures, have been hit due to the cold temperatures," Reddy said. On 2 January, several parts of Telangana, including Hyderabad, continued to experience cold conditions with the lowest minimum temperature of six degrees Celsius recorded in districts of Adilabad and Medak. Severe cold wave conditions prevailed in isolated places in the districts of Peddapalle, PTI reported. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) decided to distribute blankets to the homeless who sleep on the pavements. The Corporation Commissioner M Dana Kishore said about 700 people were taking shelter in about 15 night shelters already set up here. He asked the civic body officials to provide shelter to the roofless in community halls and night shelters, according to a press release. Cold wave in central India The cold wave also swept over parts of Maharashtra in the last week of December, with as many as five locations in the state, including Pune, breaking a 10-year record of minimum temperatures. A cold wave warning was also issued for isolated places in Vidarbha and North Maharashtra. Officials had said that there could also be ground frost in the adjoining areas of Nagpur and a few other places in Vidarbha. Nagpur was the coldest in the state, recording 3.5 degrees Celsius at night, an almost 9-degree deviation from the norm. It was colder than places like Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Patiala in Punjab and Banihal in Jammu and Kashmir on 29 December. At 5.9 degrees Celsius, Pune recorded its coldest morning in 18 years on 29 December. Reports from Mahabaleshwar also indicated ice and ground frost formation around Venna Lake. Cold wave in north India While Delhi saw the third coldest December in the past 50 years last year with an average minimum temperature of 6.7 degrees Celsius, the winter chill gripped several other parts of northern, western and central India. The IMD has predicted heavy snowfall in the hills of Uttarakhand over Monday and Tuesday, prompting the state government to ask all district magistrates to make necessary arrangements to help the people. Heavy snowfall is likely to occur at isolated places in Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts during the next 24 hours, IMD said. Hailstorm is also likely at isolated places, especially in Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar, Nainital, Champawat and US Nagar districts during the period. The sky was mostly overcast in Dehradun, where it drizzled towards the evening, causing the chill in the air to intensify. Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat asked district administration to take precautionary measures like lighting bonfires in public places, including bus stands and railway stations, besides making necessary arrangements at shelter homes to protect the poor and homeless from the cold. The chief minister asked the Garhwal and Kumaon commissioners to take help from municipal corporations, if necessary, and ensure that no one suffered due to the cold. Shimla, the Himachal Pradesh capital witnessed snowfall on Sunday, the second time this season, while the state's higher reaches received snow overnight intensifying cold wave conditions in the region, the IMD said. The first snowfall of the year in Shimla brought cheers to tourists, hoteliers and horticulturists. The sky is still overcast indicating that it may snow again. Hundreds of tourists gathered at the historical Ridge and the Mall road in Shimla to enjoy the snowfall. Shimla received 5 centimetres of snow between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Sunday and recorded a maximum temperature of 3.7 degrees Celsius, while tourist spots Narkanda and Kufri in the district also witnessed light snowfall, the director of the IMD centre said. In Punjab and Haryana, several parts remained engulfed under a thick blanket of fog on Saturday which adversely affected the air, rail and road traffic in the region, according to a PTI report. The cold wave in Kashmir intensified on last week as mercury slipped several degrees below freezing point in most places of the valley with Gulmarg recording the lowest night temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius. With inputs from agencies The SC was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who has said that persons with mental illness were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Budaun in violation of the provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017 New Delhi: The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that 17 mentally ill people, who were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Uttar Pradesh, have been released from the 'dargah'. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer was told by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta that the authorities have taken cognisance of the matter and a team was constituted which went to the asylum in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh. "It is not a mental asylum. It appears to be a 'dargah'. There seems to be a belief that persons who are possessed can be cured by keeping them there. Persons are chained there so that they do not run away. There were 17 chained persons and they all have been released and are now with their families," he told the bench. The top court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who has said that persons with mental illness were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Budaun in violation of the provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017. During the hearing, Mehta said authorities have asked a woman, who claims that she could cure such patients, not to do such activities and a hoarding has also been put there that no such type of curing takes place. He said family members of such patients had themselves brought them to that place. "It is not the people taken there, but the people who take them there are mentally ill," the bench observed and asked, "Is such practice prevalent across the country?. To this, Mehta responded, "Yes, all over the country and across religion." The bench said even if a person was suffering from mental illness, there was a process to cure them. "All of us are temporary abled. No body knows what will happen tomorrow," Justice Sikri observed. In a lighter vein, the SG said in America, it is believed that every fourth person is under some psychiatric help. Bansal told the apex court that issue regarding non-implementation of provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017 by states and Union Territories (UTs) should be dealt with by the bench. The court issued notices to all the states and UTs seeking their replies on the plea which has said that chaining a person suffering from mental illness was a blatant violation of a provision of the 2017 Act, which says that every such person will not only have a right to live with dignity but he or she will be protected from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The court has posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks. The top court had last week said chaining of mentally ill people cannot be allowed and had termed as "atrocious" and "inhuman" such conduct in a faith-based mental asylum in Uttar Pradesh. The court had said that chaining people with mental illness was violative of their rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which deals with life and personal liberty, and their dignity cannot be compromised. In his PIL, the petitioner has referred to the National Mental Health Survey 2016 and claimed that around 14 percent of India's population requires active mental health interventions and around two per cent Indians were suffering from severe mental disorders. He has also sought a direction to all the states and UTs to start a programme to provide mental health care and treatment to persons with mental illness placed near or inside faith-based mental asylums. Besides these, the PIL has sought direction to states and UTs to establish state mental health authority as also a fund as per the provisions of the Act. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has agreed to the government's request and extended the proceedings by a day. New Delhi: The government on Monday extended the Rajya Sabha proceedings during the winter session of Parliament by a day till 9 January to enable the House to take up a proposed legislation to provide 10 percent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, sources said. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has agreed to the government's request and extended the proceedings by a day, the sources added. The winter session of Parliament that started on 11 December was to end on Tuesday, 8 January. The decision came after the government approved a 10 percent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes. "The government now seeks to bring a constitutional amendment bill in this regard in Lok Sabha on Tuesday and in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, for which the session has been extended," they said With the Congress and some other parties already extending their support to a legislation to provide jobs for the economically weaker sections, the bill is likely to see through in the lower house and will be taken up the next day in Rajya Sabha. In a major move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet Monday cleared a 10 percent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. The proposed reservation will be over and above the existing 50 percent reservation enjoyed by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 percent. The constitutional amendment bill would be required as the constitution does not provide for reservation on the ground of economic conditions. It envisages amendment to Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. The Centre approved a 10 percent reservation in government jobs and education for economically backward upper castes on Monday, which is speculated to be a major strategic move by the NDA government ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Centre approved 10 percent reservation in government jobs and education for economically backward upper castes on Monday, which is speculated to be a major strategic move by the NDA government ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The quota will apply to people whose annual salary is less than Rs 8 lakh. India Today reported that the government will move a Constitution amendment bill on Tuesday in Parliament, and that Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution will be considered for amendment. The two amendments will provide the basis of reservation of 10 percent to the "economically weaker sections among the upper castes" or those who fall under the general category. Other criteria for eligibility, according to the report, also include ownership of less than five hectares of agricultural land and houses smaller than 1,000 square feet. The Narendra Modi-led government is open to the idea of extending the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament by two days to move the amendments, CNN-News18 reported. The report also said that the proposal for the reservation was approved in a Cabinet meeting at 1 pm on Monday. Almost none of the attendees knew the agenda for the meeting. However, the move is likely to hit a roadblock because of the Supreme Court ruling which put a cap on the percentage of reservation and said that quotas cannot exceed 50 percent. The demand for reservation based on economic criteria and not only based on caste has been a long-standing demand. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had also supported the demand. Reportedly, Dalit leader Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd said that he had "no problem" with the "pro-poor decision" taken by the Modi government. A report by News18 said, "The move is likely to evoke strong reactions from Dalit intellectuals and Opposition parties such as the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, Akhilesh Yadavs Samajwadi Party and the Left parties." Battle for reservation The BJP has been grappling with demands for reservations from several caste groups traditionally considered dominant ones including Marathas in Maharashtra and Patels in Gujarat. On 26 September, the Supreme Court paved the way to grant quota for promotions in government jobs to the SC/ST communities, holding that the states were not required to "collect quantifiable data" reflecting the backwardness among these communities. The unanimous judgment was pronounced by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by former CJI Dipak Misra. However, the apex court did not comment on two other conditions given in a 2006 verdict which dealt with the adequacy of representation of SC/STs in promotions. The verdict cleared a major hurdle that was cited by the central government in granting reservation in promotion to its employees belonging to the communities. BJP lawmaker Udit Raj had welcomed the Supreme Court decision and said the communities were under-represented in various categories of the central government. In June 2018, BJP president Amit Shah had said that the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and the reservation system in jobs will remain in force till the party-led government is in power. An NDTV report said, "A large section of upper caste and middle-class voters were seen to be upset with the ruling BJP over quotas only for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (SC/STs and OBCs)." Monday's move of granting reservation to the economically backward upper castes is seen as a bid to placate the community ahead of the 2019 general elections. The Maharashtra Assembly on 29 November accepted a decades-long demand for a Maratha quota in the state and unanimously passed a bill granting the community 16 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutes. The state government had received the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC) report on 15 November, which has suggested 16 percent reservation for the socially and economically backward (SEBC) community. Marathas have inadequate representation in services under the state, the panel report said. They are entitled to reservation benefits and advantages enshrined in the Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution, it said. With inputs from agencies The Centre has approved a 10 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutes for the economically backward strata among the upper castes, on Monday. The reservation benefit is likely to be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs 8 lakh and who have only up to five acres of land. The Centre has approved a 10 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutes for the economically backward strata among the upper castes, on Monday. The reservation benefit is likely to be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs eight lakh and who have only up to five acres of land. The government is likely to bring a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament on Tuesday. This quota will be over and above the existing 50 percent reservation and Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution will have to be amended for implementation of this decision. The Narendra Modi-led government is open to the idea of extending the ongoing Winter session of Parliament by two days to move the amendments, said reports. Reportedly, Dalit leader Kancha Ilaiah said that he had "no problem" with the "pro-poor decision" taken by the Union Cabinet. However, the Opposition has already termed the move as 'political appeasement' before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. He said that though the Congress party has always supported every step for reservation and extending support to the economically poor sections of society bereft of caste community and creed, Modi government has suddenly woken up in last 4 years 8 months faced with imminent defeat in 2019 elections and with just 100 days left for polls. "This questions the honesty of the Modi government altogether," Surjewala said. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a press conference on Monday said that Modi government is giving reservation without creating jobs and hence it is nothing more than a "jumla". Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked why the government had not thought of this in the four years and eight months it has been in power. He also asked if NDA had the majority needed for constitutional amendments. #Forwardreservation a gimmick 2fool ppl-c last tweet. #Balaji 50% maxima continues 2b law. #TN exception an aberrationchallenge pending in sc. #modi never did 4five years+hs no majority 4ctal am. Only misleading nation. AP &Raj exceeding 50% 4jats &Muslims also struck down. Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 7, 2019 Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to get the constitutional amendments passed before the general elections. If the government passes the amendments, the Aam Aadmi Party will support it, else it will be clear that this is just an election gimmick, Kejriwal tweeted. Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said that the proposal was nothing more than a jumla [gimmick]. It is bristling with legal complications and there is no time for getting it passed through both Houses of Parliament, he wrote on Twitter. Government stands completely exposed. Whereas, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said that the bugle announcing the elections has well and truly sounded. Harish Rawat,Congress on 10% reservation approved by Cabinet for economically weaker upper castes: 'Bohot der kar di meherbaan aate aate', that also when elections are around the corner. No matter what they do, what 'jumlas' they give, nothing is going to save this Govt pic.twitter.com/PXBwWvNKTY ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 Patidar leader Hardik Patel said that the decision was the governments last arrow and a lollipop being offered by it. While, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said that, "Reservation is not to improve the financial condition. It is for representation of socially backward people. If the financial condition is to be improved, Narendra Modi should give the promised Rs 15 lakh and jobs to the people." Meanwhile, BJP MPs Ramdas Athawale, Udit Raj and NDA ally LJP's leader Chirag Paswan welcomed the move. Athawale called the decision a masterstroke. However, NCP leader Nawab Malik pointed out that this decision won't benefit the poor as the "middle class will benefit more". "If they want to give benefit to the poor, the limit should be reduced," he said. Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani said that if "employment is not there what will they do with quota?" RJD leader Manoj Jha said: "I am saying it with deep sorrow. If you see the article 15 and 16, it talks about the reservation for SC, ST, socially and back ward classes. If you want to bring such a law, you have to talk in Parliament. It's just rhetoric." AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted that "reservations are meant to correct historical injustice" (to Dalits) and that the Constitution doesnt permit reservations on economic grounds. Reservations are meant to correct historical injustice to Dalits. For poverty alleviation, one may run various schemes but reservations are meant for justice. Constitution doesnt permit reservations on economic groundshttps://t.co/KrHNruMXse Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) January 7, 2019 Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi, on the other hand, termed the decision a "joke" and accused the Modi government of trying to "fool the people". Tulsi also expressed doubts of whether the Modi government would be able to get the Constitutional amendments passed in Parliament. With inputs from PTI Various trade unions and farmers' and teachers' associations across the country have started the tw0-day nationwide strike. The Left parties have called affiliate unions to participate in the strike to protest against the Narendra Modi government. Various trade unions and farmers' and teachers' associations across the country have started the tw0-day nationwide strike. The Left parties have called affiliate unions to participate in the strike to protest against the Narendra Modi government. Trade and farmers' unions have said they will stage rail and rasta roko (stop traffic and trains) protests in their respective areas. Almost 20 crore workers from formal and informal sectors are protesting against the central government's alleged anti-worker policies and unilateral labour reforms, a group of 10 central trade unions said on Monday. "As many as 10 central trade unions (CTUs) have joined hands to go on a two-day nationwide strike from tomorrow. We expect 20 crore workers to join the strike. This is the largest number of workers from formal and informal sectors joining the strike against anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led central government," Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), told reporters in Delhi in a joint press conference of the 10 CTUs. She said sectors like telecom, health, education, coal, steel, electricity, banking, insurance and transport among others are likely to support the strike. "We will go on a protest march from Mandi House to the Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Similar protests would be held across the country," she said. Scores of transport workers, demanding social security and a monthly salary of Rs 24,000, will also participate in the two-day strike on Tuesday, Live Mint reported. The transport workers who have threatened to join the nationwide protests include employees of Mumbais BEST buses, Bengalurus Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. It is not yet clear whether Uber and Ola services will be affected or not. Kaur added that the CTUs are also opposed to unilateral labour reforms. "We have given suggestions on labour codes. But during the discussion... trade unions' demands were rejected. We went on strike on 2 September, 2016. We also did three-day mahapadav (agitation) from 9 to 11 November in 2017. But the government did not come for dialogue, rather it went ahead with unilateral labour reforms," she said. The 10 CTUs going on strike include Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), AITUC, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will not participate. "The government has failed to create jobs and grossly ignored the unions' 12-point charter of demands. The Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on labour issues has not called unions for any discussion since the strike on 2 September, 2015. This has left us with no other option but to go on strike," Kaur said. In a joint statement, the CTUs also alleged that the government undermined tripartism and continued its "aggressive attack with arrogance on the lives and livelihood of the working people". They are also opposed to the proposed amendments in Trade Union Act, 1926, saying those are irrational and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions. "The unions claim that farming communities through their associations have also extended support to the strike. Student and teacher organisations of various universities have also declared support," the statement said. With inputs from PTI The PMO had filed a complaint in the CBI after an advertisement was published in the Hindustan Times on 11 July, 2016, offering loans under the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Kalyan Yojna' without any file charge, guarantor, collateral or mark sheet to people across the spectrum. New Delhi: The move by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to initiate action against the misuse of Prime Minister Narendra Modis name to dupe unsuspecting citizens in the name of a loan scheme has come to naught, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report on the FIR lodged on 25 October, 2017. Joint Deputy Director in the PMO Pritendra Kumar had filed a complaint with the CBI on 6 December, 2016, informing the premier investigative agency that a Bengaluru-based group was promoting an alleged money-lending business in the guise of a prime minister's scheme. The PMO had taken an umbrage to an advertisement published in the Hindustan Times on 11 July, 2016, offering loans under the "Pradhan Mantri Jan Kalyan Yojna" without any file charge, guarantor, collateral or mark sheet to people across the spectrum. The loan was being offered with 40 percent rebate in repayment, 0 percent interest and at the doorstep of the borrower within 12 hours. The PMO sprang into action by dispatching a letter to the CBI alleging that the scheme was fake and a sham. "This appears to be a clear case of forgery/impersonation wherein the name of the prime minister has been misused. Accordingly, the CBI is requested to lodge a complaint to initiate an investigation as per the law," read the PMO complaint signed by the joint deputy director. The advertisement issued in the name of SatyamGroup and contained toll free number and website URL. According to sources, the websites server was based in the US and after the CBI looked into it, it was taken offline. The domain name too was disabled and at the time of writing, it is up for sale. The PMO had taken the matter seriously since scamsters take advantage of the government's welfare schemes in a bid to dupe citizens. Once gullible citizens get trapped in their net, such groups of organised crime demand money in the name of processing fee for loans. In this case, the target was a popular social welfare scheme. The CBI's policy division had forwarded the complaint to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the zonal office for necessary action on 9 December, 2016. But the agency took almost 10 months to file an FIR in the case against unknown persons, charging them with criminal conspiracy and cheating. However, after more than a year, the investigators decided not to pursue the case and filed a closure report. On a notice by the trial court seeking objections, if any, on ending the investigation, the complainant in the PMO, on 12 December, 2018, firmly stated that he would not protest the closure report. The court is likely take a final call on 27 March, 2019, on whether to accept the closure report, or proceed with the case. Speaking about Asaram Bapu's influence, Ushinor Majumdar said that many godmen have a symbiotic relationship with powerful political leaders, where both feed off each others clout. He says this is where the line needs to be drawn, especially since politicians may not know what the godman is up to behind closed doors After it was taken to court, journalist Ushinor Majumdars book God of Sin (Penguin India), which details the rise and fall of convicted godman Asaram Bapu, was recently cleared for publication. Majumdar spoke to Firstpost about his research, the reason Asarams clout grew undeterred, the pressures of working as an investigative journalist and what the downfall of self-proclaimed godmen in recent times might suggest for the future. To establish influence in multiple states like Asaram did, surely, much more is needed than just clout. How did he build his empire across state borders? Asaram is a great orator. If you listen to his sermons, his voice has a soothing timbre and he delivers easy-to-grasp packets of wisdom. These resonated with his followers, such as his slogan: Sabka mangal, sabka bhala. He preached practical spiritual principles and easy ways of how to practice them through simple stories and anecdotes. His followers were his greatest capital they supplied money and support. Popular mass support ensured that political leaders would be eager to please him, and I have recorded how state ministers twisted rules to accommodate his land grab. The ashram at Motera became his lab for almost all kinds of projects. Thats also where he began his parallel world of offences as well. Of course, when you are a god, illegal actions are not considered crimes by your followers but seen as the mysterious ways in which you work. While researching for the book, what parts of his story did you struggle to make sense of? Surely, there are aspects in Asarams narrative as with other godmen that may seem too obvious, yet somehow remain obscure. Can you think of any? The most challenging part was exploring the death of the Vaghela cousins in 2008. Their families are convinced that occult practices were involved; in the book, I have described the forensic evidence that suggests foul-play. Based on the material I could access, it is perhaps going to remain a mystery for multiple reasons. The Justice DK Trivedi Commission went into many details about the godman for five years till 2013, much before Asaram was prosecuted and convicted in the sexual assault case. I cannot imagine a reason why a government would keep from making the report public for more than five years even though its been a year since Asarams conviction in April 2018. When did Asaram's downfall start? In the case of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, for example, it began with a letter by one of his victims. Where did it all begin for Asaram and his son? The trigger was the mysterious death of the Vaghela cousins and the public outrage which finally led to the state government establishing the Justice Trivedi Commission. By the time the commission was in place, there were enough former devotees and ex-aides who had stories to tell, which they did during their depositions before the Commission. The downfall of godmen, like Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Asaram Bapu, are important stories that national media only belatedly focuses on. Why? Is it merely the risk involved, or the fact that babas often work in collusion with the political class? Not just media houses but even investigating agencies, which are subject to control of the political executive, tend to employ a hands-off approach when it comes to religious institutions and leaders. One cannot downplay the risk involved for reporters Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is being tried for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati for the last 15 years. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had his own squad of hitmen who trained inside his deras. In comparison, how did Asaram exercise his power? Do we see similarities in the rise and fall of different godmen, or does Asaram's case stand out for some reason? Asarams former aides have testified that he used goons to recover pending instalments for his side-business of lending cash and they also threatened his ex-aides-turned-whistle-blowers. The hitman who attacked several of the witnesses in the cases emerged much after Asaram and his son were in custody, so there is no direct evidence to suggest that the godmen trained them. The fall is identical for both Asaram and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and came about thanks to the women who stood up to them. But their rise is distinctly different. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh took over the already well-entrenched Dera Sacha Sauda; Asaram established his own religious order from scratch. When the rise of such men is so smoothly manufactured through corruption and collusion, one would think escaping downfall would be just as easy. Where and why does the buck then stop? Asarams downfall might have happened much earlier, when details about his misdeeds emerged before the Justice Trivedi Commission. There is perhaps enough material in there to have set up a proper SIT to probe all his crimes under one unit. However, it was only when the minor victim and her family approached the police that it had a truly spiralling effect on his fate. As I mentioned earlier, it is unfathomable as to why the Gujarat government has neither made the report public nor started an investigation into the allegations made before the commission. There was a demand in the assembly last year by Jignesh Mewani, who, as an activist, had also participated in protests that followed the mysterious deaths of the Vaghela cousins. There is a chapter in God of Sin on Rampal the godman who held an entire state hostage and it took massive effort and huge expense on the part of the state government to arrest him. Two different chief ministers did not take action till the Punjab and Haryana High Court intervened. Does the fall of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Asaram Bapu and their ilk signal a decline of godmen in the near future? Or will they continue to emerge, grow and flourish, and if so, why? There are godmen of all kinds and it is not fair to paint all of them with the same brush. Nevertheless, there are many that have a symbiotic relationship with powerful political leaders where both feed off each others clout. That is perhaps where the line needs to be drawn very clearly, especially since the politicians may not know what the godman is up to behind closed doors. For instance, there are photographs of almost all major political leaders of the day prostrating before Asaram. Were you always mentally prepared for any opposition the book was always likely to receive? Does it drain an author/journalist's resolve to have to fight legal battles besides the writing, or has it only added to its relevance? The grievous assault on journalists such as Gopi Maniar in Ahmedabad (in 2008) is recorded in my book. A journalist in Uttar Pradesh who had reported on Asaram has security cover. I took precautions while reporting for the book, and as an investigative journalist, you learn on-the-job how to keep yourself safe. There was intensive trolling after we posted on social media about the book. There were other threats too, but it comes with the territory, especially the threat of legal action. The account in the book is an objective one and is a description of events. Some of Asarams devotees took umbrage at the title and the preface and attempted to sue me, the publisher and the distributors at a court in Chandigarh. They wanted to censor it before publication. Thankfully, the judge was convinced by our arguments and did not stay the books release. The veteran social activist Anna Hazare had earlier announced he would launch a hunger strike on 2 October, 2018 at his village over non-appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states. Mumbai: Social activist Anna Hazare Monday said he would stage protest beginning 30 January against state governments allegedly not bringing in Lokayukta Act after the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act was enacted over five years ago. In a statement, Hazare criticised the Centre for not appointing Lokpal to combat corruption. The anti-corruption crusader said he would launch the protest in his village Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district, around 240km from Mumbai, and asked his followers to do so in their respective states. He said both the Houses of Parliament had passed the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill in December 2013 and it was enacted on 1 January, 2014. "But the Centre is not implementing the Lokpal Act. As per the Act, the states were to bring Lokayukta Act within a year. But the states have not yet brought the Lokayukta Act. Hence, I will stage protest in Ralegan Siddhi seeking the law in Maharashtra," a statement quoted Hazare as saying. The veteran social activist had earlier announced he would launch a hunger strike on 2 October, 2018 at his village over non-appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states. He, however, had withdrawn the proposed protest after the Maharashtra government assured to look into his demands. The senior BJP leader stood by his 'Jinnah's legacy' remark and said those who are protesting against him do not know the history of Assam and its formation during the partition of India. Guwahati: A day after stoking controversy with his "Jinnah's legacy" comment, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said Hindus in the state will become a minority within five years if the Citizenship Bill is not passed. The senior BJP leader stood by his "Jinnah's legacy" remark and said those who are protesting against him do not know the history of Assam and its formation during the partition of India. "I strongly believe that if this Bill is not passed, then Hindus in Assam will become a minority in just next five years. That will be advantageous to those elements who want Assam to be another Kashmir and a part of the uncertain phase there," Sarma told PTI. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant nationality to people belonging to minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India. Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the Bill as they believe it would harm their cultural identity. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Saturday asked the people to keep calm as the state government would never do anything to harm their interests. The finance minister said those aware of the history of Assam know that the Muslim League had wanted it to be a part of Pakistan but first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi and the then Congress leaders had foiled that attempt. "It was not only the Muslim League that wanted to have Assam in that plan, but the same demand was also raised from inside the state at that point of time. Those elements are still there. "When I say it, I say it from historical perspective and what is happening in Assam. So, it has nothing to do with politics," Sarma said. On Sunday night, the senior Assam Minister commented that the state will go "Jinnah's way" if the Citizenship Bill is not passed and people are opposing it in a reactionary way with the intellectuals trying to build a wrong narrative. "Without that Bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah. If those people are not there, the Sarbhog seat will go to Jinnah. Do we want that? This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy," Sarma had said. Sarbhog is an assembly seat in Barpeta district. BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass is the MLA of Sarbhog. "So, let the Bill be passed and we will see if there is a provision of welcoming Bangladeshis in it. And I am sure, that is not there," he had said at a press conference. The powerful All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) have described Sarma's comments as an attempt to polarise the Assamese society ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that trade talks with China were going very well and that weakness in the Chinese economy gave Beijing a reason to work toward a deal. U.S. By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that trade talks with China were going very well and that weakness in the Chinese economy gave Beijing a reason to work toward a deal. U.S. officials are meeting with their counterparts in Beijing this week for the first face-to-face talks since Trump and China's President Xi Jinping in December agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled international markets. Trump imposed import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from industrial subsidies to hacking. China retaliated with tariffs of its own. Trump said the U.S. tariffs had hurt China. "I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy's not doing well," Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding the Marine One presidential helicopter. "I think that gives them a great incentive to negotiate." Beijing on Friday cut bank reserve requirements amid slowing growth at home and pressure from the U.S. tariffs. Asked what he expected to come out of this week's talks in Beijing, Trump sounded a positive note. "The China talks are going very well," he said. "I really believe they want to make a deal." (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Private labels -- often sold at lower prices -- allow e-commerce companies to control quality and even offers better margins than big, established brands. New Delhi: Traders' body CAIT Sunday urged the Commerce and Industry Ministry not to allow private labels to be sold on e-commerce marketplaces and desist from extending the 1 February deadline for implementation of the changes to FDI policy for the e-commerce sector. In a letter to the Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ramesh Abhishek, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) requested him to make it explicitly clear whether private labelling or branding is allowed under the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the e-commerce sector. "It is submitted that if it (labelling) is allowed it will run contrary to the intention of the government to make e-commerce free from evils and malpractice and to provide an equal level playing field with the fair competition. "Such e-commerce companies will continue their ulterior motives through such loopholes as they are doing since last many years and small retailers will be killed," CAIT alleged. The government, earlier, had clarified that private labels were not banned from being sold on e-commerce marketplaces. One of the big players, however, stated that private labels are a small component of the business and that the government needs to address the larger issues at hand. Private labels -- often sold at lower prices -- allow e-commerce companies to control quality and even offers better margins than big, established brands. Over the last few years, e-commerce players have introduced private labels across a variety of categories including apparel, home furnishing and grocery. Large e-commerce marketplaces could approach the government seeking the extension of the 1 February deadline as compliance with the recent changes would require at least 4-5 months at an operational level, multiple sources said earlier. However, in the letter to the DIPP Secretary, CAIT said it will strongly oppose any such extension. "The modus operandi of these e-commerce companies for seeking extension is to keep delaying fair execution of the policy and they may continue with their sinister designs of operating all kinds of malpractices...," it said. "Therefore, it is strongly submitted not to fall prey under malicious agenda of such e-commerce companies and no extension should be allowed under any circumstances," the traders' body claimed. The government's move to tighten norms has hit Amazon and Flipkart the hardest as the new regulations bar online marketplaces with foreign investment to sell products of companies where they hold stakes as well as ban exclusive marketing arrangements. Another provision states that the inventory of a vendor will be seen as controlled by a marketplace, if over 25 percent of the vendor's purchases are from the marketplace entity, including the latter's wholesale unit. The move is aimed at ensuring that the marketplace entity or its related companies cannot control inventory under the FDI rules. Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex on Monday climbed over 155 points to close over 35,850, tracking positive cues from global markets coupled with a dovish tone from the Federal Reserve and hopes of better China-US trade relations. Besides, an improvement in liquidity situation in domestic markets and high optimism with regard to the upcoming earnings season boosted investors' sentiment. The 30-share Sensex opened higher and continued its upward march to regain the 36,000-mark, hitting a high of 36,076.95. It, however, lost some ground towards the fag-end due to profit-booking and a weak trend in European markets and settled 155.06 points, or 0.43 percent, higher at 35,850.16. The gauge had gained over 181 points in the previous session on Friday. Similarly, the broader 50-share NSE Nifty gained 44.45 points, or 0.41 percent, to end at 10,771.80 after touching a high of 10,835.95 and a low of 10,750.15. Gains in realty, teck, IT, power, consumer durables, banking and oil and gas stocks helped both the key indices to score gains. Both the US and China have expressed an interest in settling their tariff war. Envoys of both nations will have discussions during meetings on Monday and Tuesday. "Domestic market gained on back of positive global cues led by dovish comments from the Fed and strong US jobs data. While oil prices gained some strength on the back of supply cut OPEC and on the hope of an agreement between US-China on trade talks this week. On the domestic front, easing liquidity situation, appreciation in INR and selective buying in FMCG, IT and private banks on the expectation of strong earnings," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd. Top software services exporters TCS and Infosys scheduled to report their results for the December quarter on 10 January and 11 January, respectively. Investor sentiment also got a boost after China's central bank announced an easing in policy Friday, with 100 basis points of cut to bank reserve requirements freeing up around USD 116 billion for new lending, market analysts said. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors bought equities to the tune of Rs 240.60 crore, while FIIs sold shares a worth Rs 157.72 crore Friday, according to provisional data. Private lender Axis Bank was the best gainer among Sensex components, surging 2.84 percent followed by Tata Motors 2.64 percent. Other big gainers include Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, ONGC, TCS, PowerGrid, HCL Technologies, Asian Paint, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, M&M, RIL, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Hind Unilever, Vedanta, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and HDFC Ltd, rising up to 1.57 percent. In contrast, Bajaj Auto, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, SBI, Coal India, L&T and Tata Steel ended lower up to 2.82 percent and limited the gains. Among Sectoral indices, realty emerged top performer by surging 1.55 percent, followed by teck 1.16 percent, IT 1.11 percent, consumer durables 1.06 percent, power 1.03 percent, infrastructure 0.38 percent, bankex 0.37 percent, FMCG 0.25 percent, oil & gas 0.18 percent and PSU 0.18 percent. However, healthcare, metal and auto indices ended in the negative zone. The market rally lifted the mid-cap and small-cap indices higher as ivnestors raised their bets. Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei surged by 2.44 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.82 percent. The Shanghai Composite index was up by 0.72 percent and Korea's KOSPI gained 1.34 percent. European markets were trading in negative zone in their early session with Paris CAC faling by 0.30 percent while Frankfurt's DAX down 0.30 percent. London's FTSE shed 0.38 percent. SAIL manufactures 260-metre-long rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant, and Naveen Jindal-led JSPL makes 121-metre-long track rails at its Raigarh unit and can weld these rails up to 480 metre. New Delhi: Indian Railways would require 14 lakh tonne of steel during 2018-19, of which state-run SAIL expects to supply 10 lakh tonne, Parliament was informed on Monday. "SAIL expects to supply 10 lakh tonne of steel in 2018-19 and 12 lakh in 2019-20 to Indian Railways for doubling of rail lines, gauge conversion, new lines and track renewal works," Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The railway has indicated its demand of about 14 lakh tonne during 2018-19 and 17 lakh tonne in 2019-20, he informed the Lower House. In India, only two steel companies manufacture rails. Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) manufactures 260-metre-long rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant, and Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) makes 121-metre-long track rails at its Raigarh unit and can weld these rails up to 480 metre. SAIL was the only supplier of rails to the Railways until JSPL bagged an order in July 2018 to supply 1 lakh tonne rails to the national transporter. Indian Railways is looking at 4,000 km of track renewal in each financial year 2018-19 and 2019-20. It had invited the global tender for procuring around 4.87 lakh tonne of rails after anticipating that SAIL would not be able to supply the required amount of rails. S&P has removed IDBI Bank's ratings from 'CreditWatch', where they were placed with negative implications on 17 August, 2018. New Delhi: S&P Global Ratings Monday affirmed its ratings on IDBI Bank, saying it expects the lender to meet the regulatory capital requirement and fast track bad loan write-offs following the fund infusion by LIC. The rating agency has removed IDBI Bank's ratings from 'CreditWatch', where they were placed with negative implications on 17 August, 2018. "We affirmed the ratings because we expect IDBI Bank to meet the regulatory capital requirement following a capital infusion by Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC)," S&P said in a statement. IDBI Bank has announced that it received fresh capital amounting to Rs 14,500 crore from LIC on 28 December, 2018. This is part payment for LIC's proposed acquisition of a 51 percent controlling stake in IDBI Bank. The total infusion from the transaction is likely to be Rs 17,000-20,230 crore, greater than the bank's total capital of Rs 13,860 crore as of September 30, 2018. "Such a large capital infusion supports our view of a very high likelihood of support for the bank from the government (and government-owned entities such as LIC). The infusion could enable IDBI Bank to accelerate write-offs and make sufficient provisions against stressed assets. However, we believe de-risking of the balance sheet and a substantial cleanup of the bank's large stressed assets may take at least a couple of years," S&P said. S&P said, IDBI Bank has been by far the weakest bank in our pool of rated Indian banks, with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) a close second. "IDBI Bank and IOB are the only two banks in our pool that have a very weak risk position, largely due to their substantial stressed assets and extremely high credit costs resulting in losses over the past few years," it said. S&P said IDBI Bank's asset quality remains weak and reported gross non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of 31.8 percent as of 30 September, 2018. "We expect a gradual improvement in asset quality for the banking industry in India. The RBI has significantly tightened bad loan recognition norms over the past three years," S&P said. It said the stable outlook on IDBI Bank reflects S&P's expectation that the capital infusion from LIC will help the bank meet its regulatory capital requirement on a sustained basis. "At the same time, we expect the likelihood of support to the bank from the government of India to remain very high," S&P said. Besides HDFC Ltd, 64-year-old Mistry is also on the board of four other group firmsHDFC Bank, HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd and Gruh Finance Ltd. New Delhi: Top industrialist Keki Mistry, who has become the first person to hold a board position at listed Indian firms having market value of over Rs 17.5 lakh crore, believes the upcoming national elections would give a big boost to the rural economy. Mistry, vice chairman and CEO at financial sector conglomerate HDFC Ltd, also said a host of reforms initiated in India over the past decade would lead to positive outcomes over the next years for the economy. "Historic trends have shown that Union elections spur up rural economies and help local entrepreneurs. The upcoming elections are expected to help rural demand," Mistry told PTI on his expectations about opportunities before the Indian economy in 2019 and beyond. The general elections are due in the next few months and there have been apprehensions in some quarters that the performance of the Indian economy and the markets may get impacted due to the uncertainties generally associated with the poll season. Mistry also said the thrust on housing by the government, the demand for housing finance and the visible benefits of reforms, such as those from the new regulatory regime of RERA (Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act), would be positive for the real estate sector, particularly affordable housing. Besides HDFC Ltd, 64-year-old Mistry is also on the board of four other group firmsHDFC Bank, HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd and Gruh Finance Ltd. Outside the group, he is also on the board of Torrent Power, while recently he was appointed as independent director on the board of Tata group behemoth TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), which is the country's most valued listed company. Mistry is scheduled to attend his first board meeting of TCS, which has a whopping market cap of over Rs 7 lakh crore, next week on 10 January. HDFC Bank, the country's third most valued firm, itself has a market capitalisation of about Rs 5.75 lakh crore, while that of HDFC Ltd (sixth most valued among listed Indian firms) is approximately Rs 3.39 lakh crore. HDFC AMC commands a market valuation of over Rs 32,000 crore, while HDFC Life is currently valued at about Rs 79,000 crore. Gruh Finance has a market cap of over Rs 23,000 crore, while that of Torrent Power, where Mistry is an independent director, is about Rs 12,500 crore, as per BSE data. Together, these seven listed Indian firms have a market cap of close to Rs 17.7 lakh crore -- the highest for any person to hold board positions there. A Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Mistry has over three decades of experience in the banking and financial services domain. He joined HDFC Ltd, the country's leading housing finance company, in 1981 and was inducted to its board as an executive director in 1993 after holding several positions over the years. He became Managing Director in 2000, then the Vice Chairman and Managing Director in October 2007 and the Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Ltd in January 2010. As part of the top management team, Mistry has played a critical role in the successful transformation of HDFC into India's leading financial services conglomerate by facilitating the formation of various group companies, including HDFC Bank Ltd, HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd and HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Ltd. He began his career with AF Ferguson & Co in 1975, followed by short stints with Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Indian Hotels Company Ltd. Besides the seven Indian listed firms, he is also on boards of CDC Group (London), Greatship (India) Ltd, Griha Investments - Mauritius and Griha Investments Pte Ltd - Singapore. He is also on the advisory boards of some Indian corporates as well as on various committees including those formed by regulatory bodies like Sebi. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das Monday said any generalised farm loan waiver adversely impacts the credit culture and the behaviour of borrowers, amid various state governments announcing waivers. New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das Monday said any generalised farm loan waiver adversely impacts the credit culture and the behaviour of borrowers, amid various state governments announcing waivers. The statement assumes significance in view of three newly elected state governments implementing farm loan waivers in their states in pursuance of poll promises. When asked about his views on loan write-off for farmers by state governments, he said farm loan waiver is related to the fiscal space that a particular state government has. "Elected governments have the constitutional mandate to take decisions with regard to their finance but every state government, before taking decisions on any kind of farm loan waivers, has to very carefully examine its fiscal space," he said. "It's also for the individual governments to examine whether they have the fiscal space to meet the requirements and release the money to the banks immediately. Any generalised kind of write-off obviously has an adverse effect on the credit culture and the future credit behaviour of the borrowers," he said. About Rs 1.47 lakh crore of agricultural loans are outstanding in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, which announced waivers recently. In 2017, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab announced to write off unpaid loans. Earlier this year, the coalition government in Karnataka also announced a farm loan waiver. Asked about phasing out of Rs 2,000 notes, Das said the economic affairs department has clarified on the issue and there is nothing more to add to that. Last week, the government had indicated that printing of Rs 2,000 bank notes, introduced after demonetisation in November 2016, has been stopped for now as there is enough stock in circulation. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had said printing of notes is planned as per the projected requirement. "We have more than adequate notes of Rs 2,000 in the system with over 35 percent of notes by value in circulation being of Rs 2,000. There has been no decision regarding 2,000 rupee note production recently," the secretary had said. On the interim dividend, Das said "as and when the RBI takes any decision on any matter, you will come to know about it." The government has requested the RBI to give interim dividend as was done in the past. In the previous financial year, the central bank gave Rs 10,000 crore as interim dividend to the government. "Lot of correspondence goes on between the government and the Reserve Bank. A lot of discussions do take place, whether there is an individual letter or not, that is not really relevant. As and when any decision (on interim dividend) is taken the Reserve Bank will not delay in announcing the decision," he said. Asked if banks being given a target to come out of the non-performing asset problem, he said there is no such target given by the RBI. "Reserve Bank takes the final decision on matters which are in its own domain, after considering all the aspects. So, Reserve Bank will listen to everybody. (It) will interact with everybody including the government but the final decision will be taken by the Reserve Bank in an objective manner to the best of its judgement," he said. Currently OYO has in all 68 Townhouse hotels in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Ghaziabad, Jaipur and Pune. New Delhi: Hospitality firm OYO is looking to add up to 500 Townhouse hotels across India during 2019 as part of its expansion plan, a senior company official said. In all, the company has 68 Townhouse hotels in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Ghaziabad, Jaipur and Pune. "In 2019, OYO will be adding 400 to 500 Townhouse across key metros and leisure destinations in India," OYO Townhouse COO Ankit Tandon told PTI. OYO's Townhouse hotels enjoy over 90 percent occupancy while witnessing a strong repeat from customers with nearly 50 percent of them choosing to return to a Townhouse for their next trip, he added. "OYO is an urban innovator that continues to innovate and transform the world for its customers. Our focus is on availability, affordability and predictability," Tandon said. The company has been devising a new-age technology to map a customer's journey and standardising the experience for them, he added. "It is clear that Indian travellers are using smartphones and applications for their travel requirements and hence, we use big data analytics and AI to personalise customer experience," Tandon said. OYO has presence in over 500 cities across India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK, the UAE and Indonesia. Nepal has asked the RBI to declare newly circulated Indian currency notes of denominations higher than Rs 100 legal tender in the country, according to a media report on Sunday. Kathmandu: Nepal has asked the RBI to declare newly circulated Indian currency notes of denominations higher than Rs 100 legal tender in the country, according to a media report on Sunday. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the country's central monetary authority, has written a letter on Friday to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), asking it to make Indian bank bills Rs 200, Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 legal tender in Nepal, The Himalayan Times reported. The NRB has asked India's central bank to issue a notification under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which will make Indian banknotes of denomination more than Rs 100 legal tender in Nepal and to provide the exchange facilities to get bills of such denominations, it said. The RBI has only allowed the circulation of Indian currency notes of Rs 100 and less in Nepal and provides exchange facilities for bills of this denomination. Before the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes in November 2016, the RBI had issued a FEMA notification allowing Nepali citizens to carry Rs 25,000 worth of such bank notes. After the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 Indian currency notes, circulation of new banknotes of denominations Rs 200, Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 was started by the Indian government. The RBI did not issue the notification for the newly circulated bank notes, making their use illegal in Nepal. "As the RBI was not allowing the circulation of the higher denomination Indian notes, we had to ban their use in Nepal to protect our citizens," Chief of Foreign Exchange Management Department at the NRB. "However, after we received complaints from people in various sectors, especially those who have to visit India frequently, we asked the Indian central bank to make such bank notes legal tender in Nepal." The circulation of such notes in Nepal, according to Dhungana, will solely depend upon the RBI and Indian government's will. Also the NRB, in the same letter, has asked the Indian central bank to provide exchange facility to Nepalis holding the banned Indian currency in the country. The central bank has said the country's banking system, including banks, financial institutions and NRB, hold Indian currency denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 worth Rs 48 million. But the actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalis were previously allowed to carry Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 Indian bank notes worth up to Rs 25,000. Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to go to Indian markets frequently to buy goods. To make exchange facility available to Nepalis holding banned Indian currency, NRB has already prepared software to keep a database of names of people who sought exchange facility, serial number of bills of 00 and Rs 1,000 submitted by the people, and their identification numbers, among others. But the Indian government is yet to take a decision, it said. In 1938, National Herald (NH) was promoted by free Indias first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and a clutch of other Congressmen and women to give Congress a mouthpiece that would instil in its readers a fiery national spirit. In 1938, National Herald (NH) was promoted by free Indias first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and a clutch of other Congressmen and women to give Congress a mouthpiece that would instil in its readers a fiery national spirit. Sadly, its circulation and advertising revenue dwindled so much so that it had to stop its publication in 2008. But in the meanwhile it had come to acquire an envious portfolio of real estate including the prime NH building in Delhis Bahadurshah Zafar Marg apart from the ones in Panchkula, Lucknow and Mumbai thanks to state governments munificence in allotting land to newspapers at throwaway prices on the ground that newspapers are purveyors of news and makers of public opinion and not profit-making bodies. The Congress Party, more specifically the All India Congress Committee (AICC), had tried to bail out the beleaguered Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by extending it an interest-free loan of Rs 90 crore which it failed to repay. Indeed, this was the genesis of the whole saga of NH casescriminal and income tax reassessment. Against this backdrop let us understand what happened to NH and the key personalities in the Congress Party in a question answer format. Q: What was the criminal case filed by the BJP MP Subramanian Swamy that led to the Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi being convicted? First, the AICC being a political party enjoying income tax exemption had no business to lend money even to its own mouthpiece. Second, the borrower namely, Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) that ran National Herald had become a real estate company, deviating from its main object of incorporationpublishing newspaper. In fact, it was conferred the not-for-profit status on the grounds of which it also got income tax exemption. Its forays into real estate not only belied its not-for-profit character but also tantalized the Gandhis into usurping it. Thus a devious plan took off. And this was the third criminal act, the most serious one that attracted the ire of the trial court. A closely-held company (a company which is strictly a family affair with a couple of friends from the charmed circle thrown in) called Young Indian (P) Ltd (YI) in which Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi owned 76 percent equity took over AJL, again a closely-held company, for a paltry sum of Rs 50 lakh. AJL shareholders, all from the Congress, didnt demur to this hijacking of considerable real estate, estimated to be worth a whopping Rs 2,000 crore at that time. In return, AJL was let off the hook i.e. the AICC benignly agreed to waive the loan of Rs 90 crore. The bottom line was: 1) The Gandhis came to lord over considerable prime real estate estimated to be worth Rs 2,000 crore by investing a paltry sum of Rs 50 lakh; 2) The Congress Party lost Rs 90 crore from a business it was strictly prohibited from dabbling in under the terms of income tax exemption conferred to political parties; 3) The other shareholders of the AJL who didnt find place in YI were shortchanged but they took it in their stride. The trial court held the Gandhis among others guilty, forcing them to seek bail. Q: Why did the income tax authorities launch reassessment proceedings against YI? The then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had brought a new anti-avoidance provision to the Income-tax Act 1961 section 56 (2) (viia) w.e.f. 1 June 2010 (new provision) which sought to tax as income from other sources of a closely-held company the difference between the market value of the shares received by it from another closely-held company and the consideration actually received by the latter. This squarely covered YI and hit Gandhis. With AJL real estate then estimated to be worth Rs 2,000 crore at a conservative estimate, the Income Tax Department launched reassessment proceedings against YI relating to the assessment year 2011-12 for acquiring the formidable portfolio of real estate for a song (Rs 50 lakh) and not disclosing it in its income tax return. The department said the market value of shares vested in YI by NJL was worth Rs 2,000 crore given the fact that shares always represent the value of underlying assets. The Delhi High Court had given its thumbs-up to the reassessment proceedings when Young India sought its intervention to quash them. The Supreme Court, on appeal, too permitted the department to proceed with its reassessment but subject to its decision when its appeal is heard on 8 January 2019. Q: Having launched reassessment proceedings, why did the CBDT find it necessary to shoot itself in the foot through its 31st December 2018 circular? The CBDT issued a circular on 31 December 2018 apparently in an effort to contain the damage cause by the new provision saying that it could be invoked only when there was a transfer of shares and not when capital was contributed afresh. It was obfuscation at its worst trying to mix up issues to pull wool over eyes of people. The disingenuous attempt was to say that since there was no transfer of AJL shares but only its takeover by YI, the new provision couldnt be invoked. Without getting into the polemics of the issue, the CBDT obviously courted infamy by dancing to someones tunes and worse having the audacity to believe that its circular would influence the SC verdict in its favor. The orchestrated attempt was a belated attempt to derail reassessment. In law what matters is the substance and not form. The substance of transfer of control from AJL shareholders to YI shareholders was clearly to benefit a tight clique of people. The bottom line was YI's considerable real estate landed on the laps of the Gandhis though not directly but through their shareholding in AJL through YI. And all that they had paid for this largesse was peanuts---Rs 50 lakh. Thus the new provision was squarely attracted. On 4 January 2019 the CBDT, without batting an eyelid but sounding distinctly sheepish, withdrew its 4 day old circular on the ground that the matter was subjudice! In the past, the CBI has been alleged to be dancing to the tunes of its political masters. It now turns out that the CBDT allowed itself to be manipulated by those facing the heat of the tax administrations reassessment proceedings. Thank goodness the mischief was nipped in the bud thanks to the alert Modi government which reportedly rapped the CBDT on its knuckles. And by the way, the then finance minister P Chidambaram must be ruing his decision to introduce the new provision. Little did he realise that it would recoil on his political benefactors, the Gandhis. And little did he realise that his political benefactors would become the test case of the efficacy of the new provision in plugging tax evasion. (The author is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan) The demand has come against the backdrop of semi-finished or crust leather makers approaching the commerce ministry to permit export of the product as finished leather. New Delhi: Leather garment and footwear manufacturers have asked the government not to treat semi-finished leather as finished product for export purpose as the move would impact availability of raw material, industry sources said. The demand has come against the backdrop of semi-finished or crust leather makers approaching the commerce ministry to permit export of the product as finished leather with a view to increasing shipments. "Allowing this will impact domestic manufacturing and availability of raw material for leather garment and footwear makers. It will also hit the government's Make in India campaign," sources said. Investment and technology upgradation are required to make finished leather from semi-finished one. While exports of semi-finished leather attracts 60 percent export duty, there is no duty for shipment of finished leather. "Exporters of semi-finished goods also want to avoid the export duty. Treating semi-finished as finished for exports will severely affect domestic as well as export of shoes and leather products," the sources added. About 10 lakh people are employed in the finished leather industry. In 2017-18, India's outbound shipments of finished leather stood at $874 million. The India's share in global leather exports and imports is about 3 percent. Former Union Finance Minister P Chidamabaram appeared at 11.30 am at the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the INX media money laundering case. Former Union Finance Minister P Chidamabaram appeared at 11.30 am at the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the INX media money laundering case. Earlier, he was called on 19 December by the ED for questioning related to the same case. Chidambaram's alleged role has come under the scanner of investigating agencies in connection with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance of Rs 305 crore given to INX media - a venture promoted by former media baron Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani. Earlier, the ED had attached Karti, Chidambaram's son's properties collectively valued at Rs 54 crore. Besides his properties in India, properties in London, and Spain have been attached, too, media reports said. The central probe agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attachment of Indian assets in Kodaikanal and Ooty in Tamil Nadu and a flat in Delhi's Jorbagh. Karti was arrested on 28 February by the CBI for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the Union Finance Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Later, Karti was granted bail. Karti's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was arrested in the case by the ED and he was later granted bail. Both Karti and Chidambaram have denied all allegations made by CBI, as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The CBI initially alleged that Karti received Rs 10 lakh as bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media. It later revised the figure to $1 million. The other accused in the case include then INX Media Director Indrani Mukerjea and then INX News Director Peter Mukerjea. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier attached assets worth Rs 54 crore of Karti Chidambaram in India, Spain and the UK in connection with a money laundering case related to INX Media, an action termed "bizarre and outlandish" by him. --With inputs from agencies Following the plea, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday issued notices to RHC Holding and other parties and directed them to file their replies. New Delhi: HDFC has challenged an NCLT ruling that dismissed the mortgage lender's insolvency plea against RHC Holding, an entity promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh. Following the plea, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday issued notices to RHC Holding and other parties and directed them to file their replies. A two-member bench headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhaya listed the matter for next hearing on 1 February. HDFC Ltd had challenged the 6 December, 2018 order of the Principal bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had dismissed its insolvency plea against RHC Holding, observing that it was a non-banking financial company does not come under the purview of the IBC Code. HDFC Ltd, had moved the NCLT to recover an amount of Rs 41 crore. RHC Holding, promoted by the Singh brothers, had taken a loan of Rs 200 crore from HDFC in April 2016. RHC Holding had paid the interest for the first quarter on time but later started defaulting on it. According to HDFC, even after adjusting the proceeds from the sale of the pledged share, a substantial amount of Rs 41.09 crore remained due. To recover the remaining amount, HDFC filed an insolvency plea against RHC Holding before NCLT. Subsequently, Japanese drug major Daiichi Sankyo had moved NCLT to stay the insolvency proceedings against RHC Holding. NCLT Had observed that RHC Holding was a non-banking finance company as per the certificate of registration issued by the banking regulator RBI. Currently, businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh are exempt from the Goods and Services Tax (GST). A ministerial panel under the GST Council has decided to hike the exemption threshold for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) beyond an annual turnover of Rs 20 lakh, a media report said. The panel, headed by Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla, however, has not decided the new limit, leaving that decision to the GST Council, headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley, The Times of India reported. Currently, businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh are exempt from the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Modi, who is a member of the panel on MSME relief, said the GoM was unanimous that the exemption limit for the MSMEs which are a supplier of goods should be increased but there was no unanimity among states. Hence, it was left to the GST Council to decide. While Delhi suggested that the limit should be hiked to turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh, Bihar suggested it at Rs 50 lakh. Another suggestion was to levy GST of Rs 5,000 for MSMEs with turnover between Rs 50 to Rs 60 lakhs, and Rs 10,000-15,000 GST for those businesses with turnover between Rs 60-75 lakhs "Under the earlier excise duty regime, businesses with a turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore were exempt. So it was felt that there was a need to give relief to the MSMEs under GST," Modi said. Another ministerial panel has cleared the decks for levying state-specific calamity cess. The panel under Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi approved a levy of 1 percent 'calamity cess' by Kerala for a period of two years to fund rehabilitation work in the state hit by floods. The goods and services, which will attract the 1 percent cess, would be decided by Kerala, Modi said, adding that if any other state wants to levy the 'calamity cess' it has to approach the GST Council for approval. Besides, the Group of Ministers under Modi has also suggested to the GST Council to allow states hit by natural calamity to borrow more than the permitted limit. The GST law provides for the levy of special taxes for a specified period to raise additional resources during any natural calamity or disaster. While the GoM on MSME was constituted in August last year, the same for 'calamity cess' was set up in September. The GST Council in its meeting on 10 January will discuss the recommendations of the two ministerial panels. The Shukla-led GoM has also suggested to the Council to allow businesses with a turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore to avail composition scheme, up from the current Rs 1 crore. It also suggested that dealers under the composition schemes be allowed to file returns annually, even as they would continue to pay their taxes. Currently, composition scheme dealers file returns and pay taxes quarterly. Also, it suggested that a composition scheme be extended to service providers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 50 lakh. Such service providers can pay GST at 5 per ent. The GoM has also suggested that businesses with a turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore be provided with a free accounting and billing software by the GST Network. --With PTI inputs Speaking at the launch of second bid round for 14 exploration blocks under open acreage licensing policy, Dharmendra Pradhan said Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and OIL will have the freedom to decide which of their currently producing fields they want to retain and in the ones where they would like to induct a partner New Delhi: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said the government will allow state-owned ONGC and Oil India to induct private and foreign partners in oilfields to raise output and also give special incentive to make their discoveries in difficult areas viable. Speaking at the launch of second bid round for 14 exploration blocks under open acreage licensing policy, Pradhan said Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and OIL will have the freedom to decide which of their currently producing fields they want to retain and in the ones where they would like to induct a partner. This is a climb down from the 2017 position where the oil ministry's upstream technical advisory body Directorate General of Hydrocarbons identified 15 fields -- 11 of ONGC and four of OIL -- for giving out 60 percent stake to foreign and private companies. The move couldn't go through because of tough resistance from the state-owned firms. Then again in October last year, the ministry wanted ONGC to concentrate on large fields as they contribute to 95 percent of its production and leave out the rest for private firms. "They can decide on the fields they want to retain and the stake they want to give (to foreign and private firms)," he said. Pradhan said "special incentive besides the incentive already provided" will be given to difficult fields of ONGC. "Previously, the government objective was revenue maximisation but now enhancing production is the only motive," he said. He, however, did not elaborate on the special incentive. Natural gas discoveries in difficult areas like deepsea currently command a higher price but this is applicable only for future finds and not currently discoveries of ONGC. ONGC and OIL haven't been able to develop some of their discoveries or bring them to production as the current gas price of $3.36 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) is way lower than the cost of production. ONGC has about 35 billion cubic metres of recoverable reserves in discoveries in the shallow sea off Andhra Pradesh on the east and off Gujarat and Mumbai on the west coast blocks. The three blocks in Krishna Godavari basin, Gulf of Kutch and Mumbai offshore can produce about 10 mmscmd of gas and an equivalent amount can be produced from its onshore discoveries in blocks like Bantumili, Mandapeta and Bhuvanagiri. About 5 mmscmd of production can be added by making some investment in existing fields like Mumbai High South, Neelam and B-127 Cluster in the Arabian Sea. Oil India has an onland discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh with over 3 billion cubic metres of recoverable reserves but needs a higher price to bring it to production. Pradhan said ONGC and OIL will soon come out with production enhancement contracts (PECs) wherein foreign or private companies will be allowed to take a stake in identified currently producing fields in return for raising output beyond an agreed level. The state-owned firms, he said, would device the contracts and implement them. "They will be given autonomy and freedom but will have greater accountability," he said. In October 2017, the DGH had identified 15 producing fields with a combined reserve of 791.2 million tonne crude oil and 333.46 billion cubic metres of gas of national oil companies for handing over to private firms in the hope they would improve upon the baseline estimate and their extraction. The plan, however, could not go through as ONGC strongly countered the DGH proposal with its own proposal that it be allowed to outsource operations on the same terms as the government plan, which involved pricing and marketing freedom. The fields identified in 2017 Kalol, Ankleshwar, Gandhar and Santhal -- the big four oil fields of ONGC in Gujarat. The DGH also had identified 44 other fields of ONGC and OIL which could take on partners for production enhancement work where bidders would get the 'tariff' that they bid as a return for increasing the output 'over the baseline production' for an initial period of 10 years. The oil ministry has been unhappy with the near stagnant oil and gas production and believes giving out the discovered fields to private firms would help raise output as they can bring in technology and capital. It has been tasked by the prime minister to cut dependence on oil imports by 10 percent by 2022 from the over 77 percent dependence in 2014-15. But the dependence has only increased and is now over 83 percent. The tag of an economic offender ostracises Mallya not only from the financial system but even makes access difficult for the baron from otherwise available civil rights to fight his cases Its official now. Vijay Mallya is Indias first official fugitive economic offender under the recently enacted Act. This immediately does three things. First, the tag empowers banks and investigators to lay their hands on each and every asset that is in the name of Mallya or even his benamis, both in India and abroad. This wouldnt be as easy as it appears though since Mallya may still challenge the order in a higher court of law. Second, the tag of an economic offender ostracises Mallya not only from the financial system but even makes access difficult for the baron from otherwise available civil rights to fight his cases. Third, this is a big setback for him in UK courts, where Mallya is currently fighting an extradition case with the Indian government. Mallyas assets, at least a good part of them, are in the names of his family members. For instance, according to The Times of India report, Mallys estate and London house belong to his children and mother respectively. Mallya himself had said once that he didnt own much in the UK apart from a few cars and items of jewellery. Such clever handling of high-value assets by the tycoon had put bankers in a spot in their bid to sell and recover assets to make up for the money Mallya owes to them. That situation will change with the latest development. Mallyas failed airline, Kingfisher, owes around Rs 10,000 crore (this is an estimated figure since interest amount keeps adding to the principal) to bankers and till date, banks havent managed to recover any meaningful amount yet. The loans had become NPA on banks books in 2012, the same year Kingfisher was grounded. Mallya left India in March 2016 just before a clutch of banks moved to the Supreme Court to seek his detention after close to Rs 9,000 crore loans were given to erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines. Since then, Mallya has been fighting a bitter legal battle with Indian authorities and investigative agencies after his passport was revoked and multiple courts in India issued summons to him. Political gain for Narendra Modi That India got its first fugitive economic offender in Mallya just a few months prior to the Parliament elections is a big boost to the Narendra Modi government, particularly given that there is no certainty yet on the final status of Mallyas extradition process. This gives enough ammunition for BJP and Modi to claim in the election rallies that there is tangible progress in governments much-hyped fight against absconding, large corporate defaulters. The ruling of PMLA court has had an immediate impact with Enforcement Directorate initiating the recovery process. Also, Mallya bagging the honour of first ever economic offender tag is a strong message to other high profile fraudsters who have fled the country after defrauding banks. It sends a message to them that the country has now a potent weapon to finish the battle in style. The economic offender tag is a deadlier weapon than the wilful defaulter tag. The latter only barred the offender from the financial system but the latest weapon even strips them of their civil rights. Once a person is declared an economic offender, his property will be confiscated, managed and disposed of. Any offences involving funds over Rs 100 crore will be dealt with under this law. Investigative agencies can even seize properties that are not only in the name of the offender but also the ones that are benami. But remember, Mallya is only one case and only a small fish among large loan defaulters and fraudsters thriving on the corporate-banker nexus. There are bigger fishes out in the pond. For instance, one can argue that compared with what the uncle-nephew duo of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi did to the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Mallyas charges would be less serious in nature. What put the spotlight on Mallya was the way he approached the loan settlement issue with banks. So far, the embattled liquor king managed to put up a defiant face, refusing to return and openly challenging Indian authorities. By taking my passport or arresting me, they are not getting any money, he said in an interview to London-based Financial Times. Such defiance turn him into medias darling and a political headache to the ruling government, forcing action. Mallya has undoubtedly paid the price for his defiance and confrontational approach against the banks and the investigators. Public sector banks (PSBs) ought to step up hiring at junior and middle levels to ensure there is no vacuum following the retirement of a large number of employees in the near future, the lawmakers said in a report to Parliament. New Delhi: Public sector banks (PSBs) ought to step up hiring at junior and middle levels to ensure there is no vacuum following the retirement of a large number of employees in the near future, the lawmakers said in a report to Parliament. In PSBs, 95 percent of GM level employees, 75 percent of Deputy GM level employees, and 58 percent of Additional GM level employees will retire in 2019-20. The Standing Committee on Finance has observed there has been "strangely a discernible" fall in the number of candidates registering for clerical, probationary officer and specialist officer positions at PSBs as per data available from the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. "The committee believes that while banks reducing their recruitment could be a factor, undue stress and work pressure from long hours and difficult working conditions without commensurate compensation/incentive package may be discouraging prospective candidates," said the report tabled in Parliament last week. The panel headed by veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily has expressed apprehension that there could be "sudden vacuum" because of a large number of retirements in the near future in state-owned banks at various levels. "The committee desires that proper manpower planning and human resource development strategies should be put in place in PSBs, so that the staff/officers groomed into the system, remain motivated and a sudden vacuum is not created at the junior/middle levels due to manpower shortage," it said. Further, the committee has made a case for more incentives and a better remuneration package for senior management of PSBs to reduce the wide gap in their compensation package and that of the private sector peers. As per the report, the committee has desired that in case the lateral mobility policy of senior officers in PSBs at the Board level is being considered by the government by promoting DMDs of SBI, then the "movement should be made both ways, that is from SBI to PSBs and from PSBs to SBI". Essar Global has now repaid about Rs 6,300 crore to ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. This repays entire Rs 31,500 crore of loans availed from these banks during 2008-14. New Delhi: Essar Global Fund Ltd, the holding company of Essar Group, Monday said it has repaid all its overseas debt after it paid back the last tranche of Rs 12,000 crore ($1.75 billion) to its various Indian and foreign lenders. This is in addition to Rs 30,000 crore ($5 billion) repayment made in August 2017 to various lenders from the proceeds from the sale of Essar Oil to Rosneft of Russia, the company said in a statement. With this, Essar Global has now repaid about Rs 6,300 crore to ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. This repays entire Rs 31,500 crore of loans availed from these banks during 2008-14. Over the past two years, Essar Group has repaid more than Rs 1.37 lakh crore ($21 billion) of debt (including that of Essar Steel), a majority of which are to Indian lenders. "This is more than 80 percent of the group's debt," the statement said. Russia's VTB is the only continuing lender to Essar Global. Giving details of the Rs 1.37 lakh crore debt repayment, the group said in 2017, Essar Global repaid about Rs 86,000 crore of liability, including Rs 72,600 crore to banks, from proceeds of sale of Essar Oil to a consortium led by Rosneft and Trafigura. Additionally, BPO arm Aegis has been sold for about Rs 6,000 crore and Equinox Business Parks for Rs 2,400 crore. These proceeds have been used to deleverage the group. "A further Rs 45,000 crore of group debt relating to Essar Steel India is being addressed through the ongoing insolvency and bankruptcy process," it said. "In this regard, lenders have already received an offer from ArcelorMittal offering them cash repayment of Rs 42,000 crore." A subsidiary of Essar Global has separately offered Rs 54,389 crore to fully pay all outstanding of lenders and operational creditors. In addition, Essar has paid Rs 3,955 crore to minority shareholders of Essar Oil and Rs 1,400 crore to minority shareholders of Essar Ports. "Over the past two years, we committed ourselves to a massive deleveraging programme and have repaid more than Rs 1,37,000 crore to our lenders, most of which will go to the Indian bankers and lenders. The premium valuations being placed on various assets that have been sold by Essar are a testament to the quality of these assets and businesses we have built over the years. "With the deleveraging programme now drawing to a close, and with a much stronger and sustainable balance sheet, we look forward to repositioning ourselves for growth," said Prashant Ruia, Director, Essar Capital. In 2008, he said, Essar had commenced a massive Rs 1,20,000 crore investment programme across sectors of energy, infrastructure, metals and mining, and services. "Adverse regulatory and governmental actions -- including cancellation of natural gas supply by the Government of India, and of coal mine allocations between 2010 and 2015, which were both unanticipated and outside of Essar's control -- affected some of Essar's businesses. "This resulted in a build-up of excessive leverage across the group, even as Essar committed to providing a substantial infusion of new equity in its businesses," he said. Essar Group's revenues now stand at $11.5 billion and will continue its focus on energy, infrastructure, metals and mining, and services sectors and will evaluate more opportunities in existing, as well as new sectors, the statement said. Essar said it will continue its relationship with Russia's VTB, which has executed deals over past three years to monetise the group's assets, strategically lighten the balance sheet, deleverage the group and reposition it for growth in the future. Essar Global had also concluded a settlement with lenders for the debt of Essar Steel Minnesota. The lenders here include Indian banks led by ICICI Bank, SBI, as well as a consortium of international funds led by Davidson Kempner. Also, Essar Global had purchased $260 million face value notes issued by Mesabi Metallics Inc, which substantially constitute all of the debt of Mesabi, and enables Essar Global to once again participate in the low-cost iron ore mining and pellet manufacturing project that is under construction in Minnesota, USA. The nine major Indian carriers together took deliveries of over 120 planes comprising both twin and single aisle as well as regional jets in the just-concluded year as against 88 planes inducted in 2017. Mumbai: Domestic carriers inducted, for the first time, over 100 planes in 2018 with budget carrier IndiGo accounting for nearly half of them, according to industry figures. The nine major Indian carriers together took deliveries of over 120 planes comprising both twin and single aisle as well as regional jets in the just-concluded year as against 88 planes inducted in 2017. Significantly, domestic passenger traffic has been growing at about 20 percent for more than four years now and capacity addition along with other factors has played a key role in this robust growth. Majority of the planes inducted by the carriers last year, according to available figures, were Airbus A320 neos, with four carriers IndiGo, GoAir, Air India and Vistara taking deliveries of more than 60 of these planes besides other types of aircraft. At present, these carriers together have over 660 planes. Budget carrier IndiGo has 206 planes including A320 neos, while both Air India and Jet Airways have 125 and 124 aircraft, respectively, in their fleets. IndiGo inducted a total of 55 aircraft, including its first long-range A321 neo; Air India and its subsidiaries took deliveries of 18 planes followed by GoAir 16 and SpiceJet 14 in 2018. While IndiGo and GoAir A320 neos are powered by Pratt &Whitney engines, Air India and Vistara have CFM engines in their A320 neo planes. Five carriers combined IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir, Vistara have placed orders for around 1,115 planes with global aircraft makers since 2011. "With a total of 1,055 aircraft on order, as many as 100 planes consisting of wide-body, narrow-body and regional ones are to be delivered to Indian carriers each year for the next five years," Sydney-based aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) had forecast in 2017. However, its forecast had not included the Vistara order of 60 planes in July last year. The Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways, which is part-owned by Gulf carrier Etihad, has not been paying salaries on time to about 15 percent of its over 16,000 employees since August last year due to a liquidity crunch. Mumbai: After defaulting on payment of salary to its senior management along with pilots and engineers, loss-making carrier Jet Airways has now failed to disburse the December salary to some other categories of employees as well, a source said. The airline has not paid salaries of managerial employees and those above for December, the source said. The Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet airline, which is part-owned by Gulf carrier Etihad, has not been paying on time to about 15 percent of its over 16,000 employees since August last year due to a liquidity crunch. When contacted, a Jet Airways spokesperson did not give a direct reply. "Jet Airways would like to clarify that except for informed groups, all salary payments are up to date," the spokesperson said, without elaborating on who falls in the "informed groups". Meanwhile, the airline is close to reaching a deal with State Bank of India for a fresh loan of 15 billion rupees ($215 million) to meet its working capital needs, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters. The airline has scheduled a meeting on 8 January with its vendors and lessors, many of whom are getting increasingly concerned over non-payment of dues, and officials from State Bank of India (SBI) to discuss the debt restructuring plan, the first source with direct knowledge said. The bankers are being called to the meeting to reassure the creditors, some of whom are expected to come to India from overseas, that Jet is working toward securing funding and has a repayment plan which it will share with them, said the first source. Jet, Indias biggest full-service carrier by market share, owes money to pilots, lessors, banks and vendors. Its problems have been exacerbated by higher oil prices and intense pricing competition in the domestic market. The airlinewas in talks with the Abu Dhabi-based carrier to infuse more equity, but any money would be conditional on Jets founder Naresh Goyal ceding control, sources have told Reuters. Lessors have already forced the airline to ground at least four of its new fuel-efficient Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over non-payment of dues, the first source said, adding more planes could be grounded if lessors are unconvinced by the plan Jet presents next week. Jet did not respond to various Reuters queries for this article but late on Friday, after the story was published, a company spokesman said none of its 737 MAX planes have been grounded. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) ("Defiance") and ValOro Resources Inc. (TSXV: VRO) ("ValOro") are pleased to announce that their friendly merger ("Transaction") under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) to create a leading diversified explorer with an advanced portfolio of Mexican silver and gold projects was completed effective 11:59 pm on Monday, December 31, 2018. The name of the combined company is Defiance Silver Corp. and its trading symbol is DEF with no changes to its CUSIP number or ISIN. It has approximately 120.07 million common shares outstanding, of which shareholders of Defiance own 86.07% and the former shareholders of ValOro own approximately 13.92%. Letters of Transmittal have been mailed to ValOro's shareholders so they can exchange their ValOro shares for Defiance shares. Peter J. Hawley, President and CEO of Defiance, stated "We are pleased to complete the merger with ValOro and look forward with a shared common vision to unlock further exploration potential at the San Acacio silver project and Tepal gold project. Given the rise in precious metal prices and with these two advanced projects, we believe the time is right to unlock their value to shareholders". Dunham Craig, former President and CEO of ValOro, stated "We are pleased with the closing of the transaction and wish to thank all the participants and shareholders. With two drill ready projects in Mexico and recent news indicating the new Mexican government will be supportive of mining, we look forward to a dynamic and exciting 2019". The combined management team is being led by Mr. Peter J. Hawley as President and Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Evelyn Abbott as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary and Ms. Gillian Kearvell as Vice President of Exploration. Defiance's new Board is comprised of Mr. Peter J. Hawley, Mr. Darrell Rader, Mr. Paul Smith, Mr. Randy Smallwood and Mr. Ron Sowerby (who replaced George Brack, appointed to Defiance's board at the closing of the transaction, who resigned as a director of Defiance to avoid any conflicts from his role as chair of Capstone Mining Corp. and the proximity and similarity of Defiance's major project to Capstone's Cozamin mine.). Dunham Craig will be an advisor to the Board and join the Board at Defiance's next annual general meeting slated for March 27, 2019. The ValOro Shares are currently halted from trading and are expected to be de-listed from the TSX Venture Exchange shortly. In support of this transaction, Defiance's principal lender has agreed to increase its loan facility from $700,000 to approximately $1.50 million, on similar terms. As partial consideration for the increased loan facility, Defiance will issue 2,346,790 bonus warrants to the lender, each warrant entitling the lender to acquire one common share of Defiance at $0.18 until December 21, 2019. The issuance of the bonus warrants is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Defiance has deferred its previously announced financing, as provided for in the Arrangement Agreement and in ValOro's information circular, until market conditions warrant. About Defiance Silver Corp. Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (OTC: DNCVF) (FSE: D4E) is a silver explorer and developer advancing the San Acacio Deposit, located in the historic Zacatecas Silver District of central Mexico. Defiance is managed by a team of proven mine developers with a track record of exploring and developing 7 operating mines to date. Defiance's corporate mandate is to expand San Acacio to become one of Mexico's premier high-grade wide vein silver deposits. A Panoramic Video on the San Acacio Deposit is available on our website. About ValOro Resources Inc. ValOro Resources Inc. (TSXV: VRO) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing mineral resource opportunities with the potential to host profitable mining operations. The Company's primary focus is the 100% owned Tepal Gold/Copper Project in Michoacan state, Mexico. On behalf of Defiance Silver Corp. "Peter J. Hawley" Interim President & CEO Chairman of the Board, Director For more information, please contact: Sunny Pannu - Corporate Development 604-669 7315 or via email at pannu@defiancesilver.com www.defiancesilver.com Tel: 604-669-7315 Email: info@defiancesilver.com On behalf of ValOro Resources Inc. "Dunham L. Craig" President, CEO & Director For more information, please contact: Dunham Craig, President & CEO 604- 694-1742 or via email at dcraig@valoro.ca www.valoro.ca Tel: 604- 694-1742 Email: ir@valoro.ca Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - Tidal Royalty Corp. (CSE: RLTY.U) ("Tidal Royalty" or the "Company"), a leading provider of royalty financing to licensed U.S. cannabis operators, is pleased to report that Tidal Royalty's registration statement on Form 20-F is now effective in the United States and a Form 211 application for a quotation on OTC Markets has been filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), which regulates the OTC Markets. On December 21, 2018, the Company was advised by letter by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") that the SEC had completed its review of Tidal Royalty's registration statement on Form 20-F, which has become effective. The effectiveness of the registration statement on Form 20-F rectifies the filing deficiencies of Tidal Royalty's predecessor entity, subjects Tidal Royalty to continuous disclosure requirements in the United States, and will permit FINRA to reinstate Tidal Royalty's eligibility for quotation on the OTC Markets. Tidal Royalty is now working with a broker-dealer and FINRA to reinstate Tidal Royalty's quotation on the OTC Markets, and a Form 211 application was filed with FINRA today. Tidal Royalty expects to resume trading on the OTC Markets promptly following approval from FINRA. The Company filed its initial registration statement on Form 20-F on October 17, 2018, Amendment No. 1 to the registration statement on Form 20-F on November 29, 2018 and Amendment No. 2 to the registration statement on Form 20-F on December 18, 2018. A copy of each of these filings is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Shareholders seeking to trade their shares of Tidal Royalty may do so over the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE"). The CSE publishes a directory of dealers who have access to the trading facilities of the CSE on their website, which is available at https://thecse.com/en/trading/dealer-directory. Background Further to Tidal Royalty's press release dated September 11, 2018, the OTC Markets ceased listing Tidal Royalty's common shares under the symbol "TDRYF" as a result of an October 12, 2010 order issued by the SEC revoking the registration of the common shares of a predecessor company to Tidal Royalty, Elkhorn Gold Mining Corp. ("Elkhorn"), for filing deficiencies pursuant to Section 12(j) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"). As a result, broker-dealers in the United States are currently unable to effect transactions in the United States markets under the trading symbol TDRYF. Tidal Royalty's common shares continue to trade publicly on the CSE under the symbol RLTY.U. The effectiveness of the registration statement on Form 20-F rectifies such filing deficiencies and should facilitate the quotation of Tidal Royalty common stock on the OTC Markets. About Tidal Royalty Tidal Royalty provides royalty financing to the United States regulated cannabis industry. Led by an executive team with extensive industry experience in Canada and the United States, Tidal Royalty provides operators with the funding they need to grow their business. Operators benefit from non-dilutive capital and investors get top-line access to a diversified portfolio of companies that will form the future of this transformative industry. For further information, please contact: Tidal Royalty Corp. Terry Taouss, President Email: terry@tidalroyalty.com This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "hope", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking information contained in this news release is not based on historical facts but instead is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, but is not limited to: the restoration of trading of Tidal Royalty's common shares on OTC Markets, the timing for the restoration of trading of Tidal Royalty's common shares on OTC Markets, the causes underlying OTC Markets no longer listing Tidal Royalty's common shares under the symbol "TDRYF" and the ability of Tidal Royalty to generate revenue or realize profit through royalty agreements or equity investments with any future investee companies. Forward-looking information contained herein is based on the opinions and reasonable assumptions and estimates of management as at the date hereof and is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Tidal Royalty, that could cause actual events or results of Tidal Royalty to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Such factors include: delays with FINRA's review and approval of the Form 211 application, the nature and extent of regulatory oversight of the SEC, speed of the interactions between the applicable U.S. regulatory authorities, the U.S. regulatory landscape and enforcement related to cannabis, including political risks and risks relating to regulatory change, risks relating to anti-money laundering laws and regulation, other governmental and environmental regulation, public opinion and perception of the cannabis industry, risks related to the enforceability of contracts, the requirement by Tidal Royalty to obtain additional financing, the limited operating history of Tidal Royalty, timeliness of government approvals for granting of permits and licences needed by any future investee companies, including licences to cultivate cannabis, the actual operating and financial performance of any future investee company, competition and other risks affecting Tidal Royalty in particular and the U.S. cannabis industry generally, and the risk factors effecting Tidal Royalty disclosed in the listing statement of Tidal Royalty available at www.sedar.com, the registration statement of Tidal Royalty available at www.sec.gov and in periodic securities filings with the SEC and Canadian securities commissions. Because of such risks, uncertainties and other factors, investors should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained herein. Tidal Royalty is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. The foregoing statements expressly qualify the forward-looking information contained herein. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of, nor a solicitation for offers to buy, any securities in the United States. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - American CuMo Mining Corporation (TSXV: MLY) (OTC Pink: MLYCF) ("CuMoCo" or the "Company") announces that as a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Company is issuing the following news release to clarify its previous disclosure. As a result of the Company's assay detailed verification program, it was discovered that there was high variability between individual assays, especially for silver. Also, several assays indicated no precious metals present within the sample where samples were within 20 feet of previous historical samples containing precious metals. The detailed verification program is part of the overall quality assurance program the Company enacts as part of its assay procedures described below. The entire core for the hole was sampled and cut in half using a diamond saw located in a Company secure facility. Half the core was sent for analysis and the other half has been kept and stored at the core facility located on site. Following cutting, the samples were delivered directly by Company personnel to ALS Chemex located in Elko, Nevada, a fully accredited independent analytical laboratory. They were first analyzed for 47 elements using a four (4) acid digestion with analysis by Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Optical Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). Gold and silver are measured through a 50-gram sample using fire assay methods. Every 10th sample is re-analyzed including any samples considered to have significant values. In addition, duplicates, blanks, and standards were analyzed to ensure analytical accuracy and reproducibility. All rejects are being kept for further analysis and for use in metallurgical testing. As a result of these discrepancies, upon completion of the drill program and the receipt of all assays, including checks and duplicates, the Company submitted seven core samples for microscopic analysis to Vancouver Petrographics Ltd of Langley, BC. The results of the analysis indicate two major points: Native silver was observed in samples that assayed low-grade silver A large portion (60 to 90%) of the copper-bearing sulphides were completely replaced by iron oxides. The Vancouver Petrographics report has been placed on the Company's website, including photographs of the samples. The Company has determined that the assay variation was due to a "nugget effect" created by the irregular distribution of the precious metal grains in the samples, such that taking a standard 50-gm assay split from 8 to 15 kg samples was not representative of the precious metal (Au and Ag) contained in the sample. Also, it should be noted that the results revealed that this is a fine-grained effect, and therefore standard techniques, such as metallic assays, are not applicable. Having established the presence of precious metals in the samples, the Company then submitted an entire sample from one of the better intersections to Process Mineralogical Consulting Ltd. of Maple Ridge, BC for detailed metallurgical analysis. The results from this sample indicated the presence of twelve (12) fine grains of native gold, ten (10) grains of Electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver with trace amounts of copper and other metals, (average 75.4% gold, 24.6% silver, ranging from 61 to 93% gold) and four (4) grains of native silver. The observed gold grain size was below eight (8) microns, with the majority reporting to the minus 38-micron fraction. Twelve (12) % of the copper grade reported as sulphide. These results confirm the presence of precious metals within the system. The report is available on the Company's website. The head grade of the sample from the study was 1.2 ppm Ag and 60 ppb Au, which is higher than the assay grade for the sample of 0.27 ppm silver and 3 ppb gold. Hole collar information is as follows and a plan can be found on the Company's website. Hole east north elev pad az dip length (m) Length(ft) target CA17-01 6020.00 9000.00 6800.00 W3 180 -45 172.4 565.5 Main CA17-02 6020.00 9000.00 6800.00 W3 180 -60 110.3 361.8 Main CA17-03 6020.00 9000.00 6800.00 W3 210 -45 185.6 609 Main CA17-04 6020.00 9000.00 6800.00 W3 210 -60 101.3 332.5 Main CA17-05 4950.00 8970.00 6782.00 M1 180 -45 142.3 467 Main CA17-06 4950.00 8970.00 6782.00 M1 210 -50 144.9 475.5 Main CA17-07 4950.00 8970.00 6782.00 M1 210 -65 130.9 429.5 Main CA17-08 4135.00 8905.00 6735.00 M3 200 -50 111.3 365 Main CA17-09 4135.00 8905.00 6735.00 M3 200 -65 74.1 243 Main CA17-10 4135.00 8905.00 6735.00 M3 170 -50 36.6 120 Main CA17-11 4135.00 8905.00 6735.00 M3 170 -65 101.5 333 Main CA17-12 4135.00 8905.00 6735.00 M3 70 -50 79.9 262 Main CA17-13 4505.00 8920.00 6760.00 M2 210 -60 101.5 333 Main CA17-14 4505.00 8920.00 6760.00 M2 170 -60 146.0 479 Main CA17-15 5650.00 8955.00 6827.00 w4 200 -65 107.4 352.5 Main CA17-16 5650.00 8955.00 6827.00 w4 170 -65 94.2 309 Main CA17-17 6295.00 8845.00 6823.00 W2 170 -65 96.0 315 Main CA17-18 6295.00 8845.00 6823.00 W2 170 -65 100.0 328 Main CA17-19 6815.00 9200.00 6528.00 F1 230 -45 175.3 575 Main CA17-20 6815.00 9200.00 6528.00 F1 200 -50 214.3 703 Main CA17-21 7530.00 9025.00 6625.00 R2 230 -50 214.7 704.5 Main CA17-22 7530.00 9025.00 6625.00 R2 180 -50 138.2 453.5 Main CA17-23 7650.00 10510.00 6160.00 NP07 245 -50 148.4 487 Calida CA17-24 7650.00 10510.00 6160.00 NP07 210 -50 160.8 527.5 Calida The following table lists the grades of the intersections of the mineralized zones within the 2017 drill program: List of Significant Intersections for the Calida Gold Drill Program Hole From to length True Thickness*** Cu Ag Au vein name feet meters feet meters feet meters Feet Meters % PPM PPB name CA17-01 185 56.39 205 62.48 20 6.10 14.13 4.31 0.55 0.30 257 Main CA17-01 230 70.10 235 71.63 5 1.52 3.53 1.08 0.40 0.23 14 Main CA17-02 150 45.72 155 47.24 5 1.52 2.50 0.76 0.27 0.58 9 Main CA17-02 220 67.06 225 68.58 5 1.52 2.50 0.76 0.93 0.21 5 Main CA17-03 105 32.00 125 38.10 20 6.10 14.13 4.31 0.05 0.06 ND Main CA17-04 110 33.53 115 35.05 5 1.52 2.50 0.76 0.16 0.09 25 Main CA17-04 205 62.48 215 65.53 10 3.05 7.07 2.15 0.12 1.93 34 Main CA17-05 95 28.96 110 33.53 15 4.57 10.60 3.23 0.08 0.06 12 Main CA17-05 145 44.20 150 45.72 5 1.52 3.53 1.08 0.27 0.21 52 Main CA17-08 23 7.01 50 15.24 27 8.23 17.34 5.29 0.06 0.10 nd* Main CA17-08 165 50.29 175 53.34 10 3.05 6.42 1.96 0.24 0.33 36 Main CA17-09 90 27.43 95 28.96 5 1.52 2.11 0.64 0.16 0.27 222 Main CA17-09 165 50.29 170 51.82 5 1.52 2.11 0.64 0.23 0.31 17 Main CA17-10 60 18.29 65 19.81 5 1.52 3.21 0.98 0.02 0.86 nd* Main CA17-11 105 32.00 110 33.53 5 1.52 2.11 0.64 0.22 0.09 nd* Main CA17-13 180 54.86 190 57.91 10 3.05 5.00 1.52 0.11 0.14 nd* Main CA17-15 185 56.39 235 71.63 50 15.24 24.98 7.62 0.29 0.53 nd* Main CA17-16 190 57.91 220 67.06 30 9.14 12.67 3.86 0.19 0.09 nd* Main CA17-17 223.5 68.12 235 71.63 11.5 3.51 4.86 1.48 0.25 0.43 17 Main CA17-17 255 77.72 290 88.39 35 10.67 14.78 4.51 0.33 0.54 53 Main including 270 82.30 278 84.73 8 2.44 3.38 1.03 0.66 0.89 21 Main CA17-18 210 64.01 275 83.82 65 19.81 27.45 8.37 0.60 0.27 30 Main including 245 74.68 250 76.20 5 1.52 2.11 0.64 2.14 0.99 52 Main including 265 80.77 270 82.30 5 1.52 2.11 0.64 1.59 0.27 3 Main** CA17-19 382 116.43 385 117.35 3 0.91 2.12 0.65 0.18 1.02 nd* Main CA17-20 221.5 67.51 227 69.19 5.5 1.68 3.53 1.08 0.28 0.70 nd* Main CA17-21 415 126.49 430 131.06 15 4.57 9.64 2.94 0.14 0.22 nd* Main CA17-21 443 135.03 448 136.55 5 1.52 3.21 0.98 0.26 1.62 nd* Main CA17-22 335 102.11 366.5 111.71 31.5 9.60 20.24 6.17 0.33 0.54 169 Main CA17-23 391 119.18 402 122.53 11 3.35 7.07 2.15 0.33 0.56 74 Calida Notes * nd - assay below detection limit ** Metallurgical work shows 1.2 ppm Ag and 60 ppb Au *** True thickness is based 3D model of vein/breccias Currently, the Company cannot confirm the actual precious metal grade of the mineralized zones. The oxidation and subsequent destruction of minerals due to surface water penetration have significantly changed the original mineral composition. The Calida structures are extremely broken, which has not only led to penetration of the mineralizing fluids into the rocks but also extensive surface water penetration and subsequent destruction and leaching of a large portion of the metals contained within the upper parts of the structures. The 2017 drilling program was designed to examine the upper 350 feet of the 1.5-mile-long vein/breccia structures. The drilling intersected the structures as expected, and all intersections contained visible copper mineralization. To get an accurate estimate of grades present at Calida Gold, additional drilling is required to find fresh, unaltered zones below the level of oxidization. The presence of the two forms of gold (native and Electrum) and native silver, together with copper, encourages continued work. Mr. Shaun M. Dykes, M.Sc. (Eng), P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company, is the designated qualified person for the CuMo Project and the Calida Gold project and has prepared the technical information contained in this news release. About CuMoCo CuMoCo is focused on advancing its CuMo Project towards feasibility. CuMoCo is also advancing its Calida Gold project. Management is continuing to build an even stronger foundation from which to move the Company and its projects forward. For more information, please visit www.cumoco.com, www.idahocumo.com and www.cumoproject.com. For further information, please contact: American CuMo Mining Corporation Shaun Dykes, President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: (604) 689-7902 Email: info@cumoco.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this new release. Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation including, but not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "projects", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the transactions contemplated under the Private Placement, the completion of the Private Placement, Technical Report Environmental Studies and NSR Amendment and the revocation of the Cease Trade Order. Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, and contingencies. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, including but not limited to: the requirement for regulatory or Exchange approvals or third-party consents, the impact of general business and economic conditions, and the absence of control over the completion of certain aspects of the Technical Report or Environmental Studies and the issuance of a full revocation of the Cease Trade Order. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. BOULDER, Colorado, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyland Analytics, a leader in intuitive, cloud-based data analytics and data management solutions for biopharma companies and their manufacturers, today announced its release of Skyland PIMS v3.0 with the latest CRC (Charting, Reporting & Compliance) module. New capabilities include segmented control charts, process capability, and additional analytical features. The CRC module, together with the existing CLM and PDC modules, completes the Skyland PIMS CPV suite, providing emerging and global drug sponsors and CMOs a collaborative, end-to-end workspace to seamlessly combine product, process and batch data management with analytics, charting and reporting. "We are excited by the release of Skyland PIMS v3.0 and the capabilities of the newest module," said Caroline Dugopolski, Histogenics' Vice President of Technical Operations. "This release provides a comprehensive data management package that supports process knowledge management and CPV using robust data integrity controls within a centralized, validatable environment." Skyland PIMS was designed and developed to maintain data integrity and improve transparency throughout the supply chain by providing a "single source of truth" for accumulating process data knowledge and efficient tech transfer among internal and external partners. PIMS is ideal for companies who are looking for an alternative to paper-based records, spreadsheets, and general-purpose statistics packages. PIMS is easily validatable, deployed in hours and is more affordable and user-friendly than enterprise software systems. "With disparate systems, thousands of variables to monitor and an increasingly complex supply chain, drug manufacturers are challenged to manage their process and remain compliant," said Joe Ruth, Skyland's Chief Software Architect. "The addition of the CRC module is a testament to Skyland's mission to provide the life science industry with the best Part 11 compliant, lightweight process data management solution with all the benefits of cloud computing." To learn more about Skyland PIMS visit skylandanalytics.net or catch us presenting with bluebird bio at Phacilitate Leaders World Stem Cell Summit in Miami, January 22-25th. About Skyland Analytics Skyland Analytics develops cloud-based SaaS data analytics and data management solutions for life science companies managing manufacturing processes and product quality across internal and external networks. The core Skyland team created the very first informatics and data analytics software for drug manufacturers and now brings new functionality to the cloud. Media Contact Christina Wasik, Senior Director, Marketing cwasik@skylandanalytics.net 720-877-1724 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/698967/Skyland_Logo.jpg TechnipFMC (NYSE: FTI) (PARIS: FTI) (ISIN:GB00BDSFG982), in consortium with MMHE (Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd), has signed a Long-Term Offshore Agreement with Saudi Aramco. This agreement, valid for 6 years, covers engineering, procurement, fabrication, transportation and installation of offshore facilities for the development of Saudi Aramco's offshore projects. This agreement builds on the long-term relationship between TechnipFMC and Saudi Aramco, as well as the strong partnership between TechnipFMC and MMHE which has a proven track record of successful project execution and delivery. In support of this project, TechnipFMC will continue hiring and training Saudi engineers, supporting the on-going Saudization initiative. Nello Uccelletti, President of TechnipFMC's Onshore/Offshore business, commented: "We are very pleased to extend our partnership with Saudi Aramco and to support their ambitious offshore development program. Along with our partner MMHE, we firmly believe that success is achieved through collaboration and that this agreement, leveraging the know-how and expertise of all parties, will be beneficial to the Saudi industry." Important Information for Investors and Securityholders Forward-Looking Statement This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words "believe", "estimated" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. For information regarding known material factors that could cause actual results to differ from projected results, please see our risk factors set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any of our forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. About TechnipFMC TechnipFMC is a global leader in subsea, onshore/offshore, and surface projects. With our proprietary technologies and production systems, integrated expertise, and comprehensive solutions, we are transforming our clients' project economics. We are uniquely positioned to deliver greater efficiency across project lifecycles from concept to project delivery and beyond. Through innovative technologies and improved efficiencies, our offering unlocks new possibilities for our clients in developing their oil and gas resources. Each of our more than 37,000 employees is driven by a steady commitment to clients and a culture of purposeful innovation, challenging industry conventions, and rethinking how the best results are achieved. To learn more about us and how we are enhancing the performance of the world's energy industry, go to TechnipFMC.com and follow us on Twitter @TechnipFMC. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005948/en/ Contacts: Investor relations Matt Seinsheimer Vice President Investor Relations Tel: +1 281 260 3665 Email: Matt Seinsheimer Phillip Lindsay Director Investor Relations Europe Tel: +44 203 429 3929 Email: Phillip Lindsay Media relations Christophe Belorgeot Senior Vice President Corporate Engagement Tel: +33 1 47 78 39 92 Email: Christophe Belorgeot Delphine Nayral Director Public Relations Tel: +33 1 47 78 34 83 Email: Delphine Nayral Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - Lions Bay Capital Inc. (TSXV: LBI) ("Lions Bay" or "the Company") is pleased to provide a corporate update on recent activities and important upcoming milestones. Corporate Update Montan Mining Corp. (TSXV: MNY) Consolidated Potash Corporation (Unlisted: CPC) Elementos (ASX: ELT) Kalina Power Limited (ASX: KPO) Jervois Mining Limited (ASX: JRV) Seed Positions Overview Lions Bay was recently established to focus on high return investment opportunities, principally in the mining, clean energy and clean technology sectors. The business strategy is based on leveraging the transaction experience and network of the board, in order to identify, structure and execute, strategic transactions where the board is of the belief that substantial value can be created through the involvement of Lions Bay. Throughout 2018, Lions Bay led a number of important transactions, mostly within investee companies, which provide the Company with a strong platform for sustainable near-term value creation. Montan Mining Corp. (TSXV: MNY) In mid-2018, as a major shareholder (and control-person) of Montan Mining, Lions Bay led a strategic review to determine an appropriate strategy to reposition the company for future growth. Lions Bay has supported Montan Mining during this transitional period, through a restructure and recapitalisation initiative that is approaching completion. These initiatives have allowed Montan Mining to concurrently pursue an active new ventures program, as the company works towards the restart of Cerro Dorado, a small 45TPD (permitted to 115TPD) CIP gold processing plant, in Southern Peru. With the support of Lions Bay, on December 6th 2018, Montan Mining announced the acquisition of the highly prospective, Greater Las Huaquillas (GLH) project located in Northern Peru. The GLH project provides Montan Mining with a substantial and immediate position in a world-class mineral province within the Andean Copper Belt. Montan Mining has moved swiftly to more than double the footprint of the GLH project since the acquisition announcement and is on track to relaunch the company, with a renewed focus and determination, in early 2019. Consolidated Potash Corporation (Unlisted: CPC) Lions Bay is in the process of acquiring the balance of Consolidated Potash, an important step in being able to position the company for a planned IPO in the first half of 2019. Further to the detailed update provided in the November 16, 2018 news release, Consolidated Potash continues to make important progress on a number of important fronts. Consolidated Potash has now completed the acquisition of an initial 50% interest in a highly prospective North American potash and lithium project where CPC's aMES technology is particularly well suited to an integrated and accelerated development schedule; should mineral resource definition studies progress satisfactorily. Consolidated Potash has made similarly encouraging progress with company's flagship Karinga Lakes potash project in Australia, where Consolidated Potash is earning up to a 40% interest. Preliminary findings of an internal scoping study envisaging development of the Karinga Lakes project with the aMES technology, provide Lions Bay with strong encouragement of the substantial advantages of this next generation brine processing technology. Elementos (ASX: ELT) As a major shareholder of Eurotin (TSXV: TIN) the owner of the advanced stage Oropesa tin project in Spain, in July 2018, Lions Bay facilitated a transaction envisaging the acquisition of the Oropesa project by Elementos. Lions Bay has been supporting the efforts of Elementos to build a multi-project, tin company that is of a scale capable of attracting major investor interest. In addition to the flagship Oropesa project, Elementos has been progressing the development of the Cleveland tin project in Australia as well as the Temengor project in Malaysia. Lions Bay is optimistic that as Elementos completes the acquisition of Oropesa and progresses each of its projects towards important milestones, the strategic value of a portfolio of advanced stage tin projects, will be recognised by the market. Kalina Power Limited (ASX: KPO) After an extensive business development period, Kalina Power has emerged with a portfolio of high-calibre project opportunities focused on Western Canada. Kalina Power is pursuing the development of multiple combined cycle power plants utilising KALiNA Cycle technology with established industry players. The pipeline of project opportunities is material in size and has the potential to position Kalina Power as a key catalyst to addressing major energy related challenges and building a profitable business underpinned by the company's patented technology. Jervois Mining Limited (ASX: JRV) The directors of Lions Bay played a pivotal role in recapitalising and repositioning the company as an agile junior focused on advanced stage nickel and cobalt projects. Jervois Mining is focused on the finalisation of the Nico Young Pre-Feasibility study, as well as pursuing an aggressive new ventures program. Given the extensive experience of the Jervois Mining team, Lions Bay remains confident that in time, Jervois Mining will assemble a portfolio of high-quality assets. Seed Positions (various) Lions Bay holds a number of small, but potentially strategic seed investment positions in a number of junior listed and unlisted companies. Whilst these positions are not material from a balance-sheet perspective, they provide the Company with a number of proprietary opportunities and optionality which the Company intends to pursue, at the appropriate time. Comment from the Chairman "The 2018 calendar year has been one of foundation building. During our first year as a listed company, Lions Bay has made significant progress in establishing seed positions in several prospective companies and working with the management teams of our investee companies. After our successful turnaround of Jervois Mining, we are pleased to have been able to set-up Montan Mining on a similar trajectory, instigate M&A activity with Elementos, whilst incubating Consolidated Potash to the point where we believe we are ready to float the company. With foundations in place, and following a recent rebalancing of our portfolio, we are excited about the opportunity of executing additional transactions in 2019 and building on the foundations we have put in place throughout 2018." said John Byrne, Executive Chairman of Lions Bay Capital Inc. About Lions Bay Capital Inc. Lions Bay Capital Inc. is a TSXV-listed Investment Issuer that is focused on high return investment opportunities, principally in the mining, clean energy and clean technology sectors, where it will provide public and private companies early-stage financial support by way of equity or debt. On behalf of the Board of Lions Bay. John Byrne Director Tel: +61 3 9236 2800 Email: jbyrne@lionsbaycapital.com Bahay Ozcakmak Director Tel: +61 3 9236 2800 Email: bahay@lionsbaycapital.com For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.lionsbaycapital.com or contact the above. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, forecasts, estimates, expectations and objectives for future operations that are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "will", "plan", "intends", "may", "will", "could", "expects", "anticipates" and similar expressions. Further disclosure of the risks and uncertainties facing Lions Bay and other forward-looking statements are discussed in Lions Bay's Management's Discussion and Analysis which is available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include, for the Company and the companies it is invested in, but are not limited to, commodity prices, fluctuations in revenues and expenses, need for additional funding, availability of such additional funding and that funding will be on acceptable terms, retention of key employees, economic conditions, currency fluctuations, competition and regulations, legal proceedings and risks related to operations in foreign countries. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date they are given and, except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - Silver One Resources Inc. (TSXV: SVE) (OTC Pink: SLVRF) (FSE: BRK1) ("Silver One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announce private placement financing (see news releases dated December 27, 2018 and January 3, 2019) by issuing 4,158,334 Units at a price of C$0.15 per Unit for gross proceeds of C$623,750. Silver One also wishes to comment on the recent high level of trading activity that has occurred. The Company is not aware of any other specific factors, other than information previously disclosed in its public filings, news releases or statements, which would result in the levels of trading activity and change in the share price recorded in recent days. Under the private placement, each Unit consists of one common share ("Share") in the capital of the Company and one-half of one share purchase warrant (each whole warrant being a "Warrant" of the Company). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one share at an exercise price of C$0.20 per share for a period of three years from the date of the issue of the Warrants. Directors and officers purchased 134,667 Units under the private placement. The sale of securities to the Company's directors and officers is exempt from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions as the fair market value of the securities purchased in the private placement by the Company's directors and officers is less than 25% of the Company's market capitalization. Under the Private Placement, the Company issued to a finder a total of 20,000 Warrants. The securities issued in connection with the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period of 4 months from the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities laws. The net proceeds from the Private Placement are expected to be used to conduct drilling on the Penasco Quemado project in Mexico and for working capital. The securities issued under the private placement have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws. Accordingly, any securities issued under the private placement to United States purchasers may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and any applicable state securities laws, or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. The Company does not intend to file a registration statement in the United States with respect to the securities issued in the private placement. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States. The Company announces that it has entered into an investor relations agreement with Wallace Hill Partners Ltd. ("Wallace Hill") to provide digital marketing services to the Company. Under the terms of the engagement, the Company has agreed to pay US$50,000 for the services to be provided for a period of two months. Neither Wallace Hill nor its directors or officers own any securities of the Company. About Silver One Silver One is focused on the exploration and development of quality silver projects. The Company holds an option to acquire a 100%-interest in its flagship project, the past-producing Candelaria Mine located in Nevada. Potential reprocessing of silver from the historic leach pads at Candelaria provides an opportunity for possible near-term production. Additional opportunities lie in previously identified high-grade silver intercepts down-dip and potentially increasing the substantive silver mineralization along-strike from the two past-producing open pits. The Company has staked 636 lode claims and entered into a Lease/Purchase Agreement to acquire five patented claims on its Cherokee project located in Lincoln County, Nevada, host to multiple silver-copper-gold vein systems, traced to date for over 11 km along-strike. In addition, the Company also holds a 100% interest in three significant silver assets located in Mexico - Penasco Quemado, Sonora; La Frazada, Nayarit; and Pluton, Durango, acquired from First Mining Gold, one of the Company's largest shareholders. For more information, please contact: Silver One Resources Inc. Monica Hamm - VP, Investor Relations Phone: 604-974-5274 Mobile: 778-389-9928 Email: mhamm@silverone.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Silver One cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Silver One's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Silver One's limited operating history, ability to obtain sufficient financing to carry out its exploration and development objectives on the Candelaria Project, obtaining the necessary permits to carry out its activities and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Silver One undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Meet Kuzzle at Booth #50859 in Eureka Park at the Sands Expo Center Kuzzle, a French publisher of an open source backend platform for mobile and Internet of Things (IoT), today announced plans to showcase their expanded backend suite with ready-to-use advanced features at CES Las Vegas, January 8-11. Kuzzle will exhibit from Booth #50859 in Eureka Park in the Sands Expo Center. Kuzzle will present this year's latest and most advanced IoT and mobile features like geospatial search and geo-fencing. By 2020, 20 billion connected objects will become active, up from the 8.5 billion presently in use. From energy and utilities to healthcare and smart buildings, Kuzzle's backend platform supports digital transformation by dramatically simplifying and accelerating application development, reducing product time-to-market by 40 percent while delivering a seamless customer experience. The Kuzzle solution has been deployed for Biogen pharmaceuticals in the USA, William Reed Business Media in the United Kingdom, the EKO mobile bank of Credit Agricole, the SNCF Railway company in France and more recently, the European search engine Qwant. "The challenge today for companies is their ability to release digital products and services quickly in response to innovations led by more agile startups," explains Jacques Le Conte, CEO at Kuzzle. "Kuzzle's backend drastically accelerates the time to market of IoT and mobile innovations by offering functionality that brings value to the end user, such as real-time notifications or device geolocation. With this framework, our goal is to provide businesses and organizations the same tools as those available to the big tech companies of today." The company's open source backend includes a scalable server, multi-protocol API that allow applications to run on multiple devices and platforms, an administration console, real-time data storage in a cloud database, advanced search (text, geospatial, facets, etc.), the ability to filter the data subscribed, geolocation, geofencing, mathematical functions, device provisioning, user authentication turnkey features and the ability to visualize data analytics in real time. About Kuzzle Kuzzle is a French Tech start-up launched in 2015. It edits an installable and cloud-agnostic open source backend that allows the development of digital applications. The solution is equipped with advanced features for IoT and Mobile such as security and authentication, API and real-time data management, geolocation or geofencing. Further information: https://kuzzle.io/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005209/en/ Contacts: Press contacts Sophie Imbach Communication Marketing Manager simbach@kuzzle.io Marion Chanson Agence Hikou: marion@hikou.fr +33 (0)6 15 71 16 76 Regulatory News: In conformity with market best practices, Air Liquide (Paris:AI) announces today that its Pre-Full Year 2018 Results Communication document is available on the company's corporate website under the "Investors" section: https://www.airliquide.com/investors/2018-annual-results This quarterly document aims to assist in the financial modeling of the Group's performance. The Full Year 2018 results will be published on 14 February 2019 A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 65,000 employees and serves more than 3.5 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquide's scientific territory and have been at the core of the company's activities since its creation in 1902. Air Liquide's ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The company's customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders. Air Liquide's revenue amounted to 20.3 billion euros in 2017 and its solutions that protect life and the environment represented more than 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (compartment A) and belongs to the CAC 40, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE4Good indexes. www.airliquide.com Follow us on Twitter @airliquidegroup View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005859/en/ Contacts: Investor Relations Aude Rodriguez +33 (0)1 40 62 57 08 Jerome Zaman +33 (0)1 40 62 59 38 Corporate Communications Media Relations: +33 (0)1 40 62 58 49 Airliquide-media@airliquide.com Cardston, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - American Creek Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AMK) ("American Creek") is pleased to report that Tudor Gold Corp. has hired Ken Konkin, PGeo, as exploration manager. Mr. Konkin will oversee exploration of Tudor Gold's flagship property, Treaty Creek, as well as several other Tudor Gold properties located within the prolific Eskay-Sulphurets-Premier gold belt. The Treaty Creek property adjoins to the north of Pretium Resources' Brucejack-Snowfield property and Seabridge Gold's KSM property, along the geological trend. Drilling at Treaty Creek in 2018 was very successful, especially the final hole which returned a significant intercept of 0.981 gram per tonne gold over 563.8 metres. Mr. Konkin has over 35 years of geological experience throughout North and South America as well as Russia. Mr. Konkin worked for Silver Standard for 19 years and managed advanced exploration programs at Manantial Espejo (Argentina), San Luis and Berenguela (Peru) as well as Snowfields (Pretium) in the Golden Triangle, British Columbia. Mr. Konkin was appointed the project manager for Pretium Resources after it purchased the Snowfields-Brucejack project from Silver Standard in 2010. Subsequently, he was instrumental in the discovery of the Valley of Kings deposit at the Brucejack Lake mine, an eight-million-ounce gold deposit currently in production. He spent seven years managing all aspects of the exploration programs at Snowfield-Brucejack. During his tenure with Pretium, the company received the Bill Dennis award in 2013 for a Canadian discovery (presented by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada); Mr. Konkin was also the co-recipient of the prestigious H.H. "Spud" Huestis award for "excellence in prospecting and mineral exploration in B.C. and/or Yukon" in 2017. Ken Konkin To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/682/41966_0dbe7ae6148e6bc5_001full.jpg Mr. Konkin stated: "I'm very excited about being given the opportunity to work with Tudor Gold Corp. on all its projects within the Golden Triangle. I look forward to building an exploration team that is capable of fast-tracking and advancing the status of each project as quickly as possible. We will begin immediately with detailed examination of the recent drill results obtained from the 2018 Treaty Creek diamond drill program as well as all the historical drill results for the Treaty Creek project. The goal is to flesh out a sizeable gold deposit at Treaty Creek. In the coming months we will examine drill core in order to determine controls for the gold mineralization and potential pathways for the mineral source. From these studies we will lay out a comprehensive exploration program for 2019 that will include the recommendation of continued diamond drilling. Clearly, when any drill hole program ends on such a positive note as it did for Tudor Gold (hole CB 18-39 averaged 0.981 g/t gold over 563.8 metres) it makes for a very exciting start to the next round of drilling, particularly when the hole bottomed in gold mineralization. Furthermore, Tudor has several very promising gold, silver and polymetallic projects at varying stages of exploration that we will examine this year as well. I thank Walter Storm for this opportunity to work with the Tudor Gold team and provide some of my knowledge from previous years of working in this region." Mr. Konkin will manage exploration programs for all of Tudor Gold's projects located within the Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia. Mr. Konkin initially began his geological career working in the Stewart area as a geological student during the early 1980s. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of British Columbia in 1984 and continued working in the Stewart region for several exploration companies in the 1980s and 1990s. President and chief executive officer of Tudor Gold, Walter Storm, commented as follows: "I am delighted to welcome Ken Konkin to Tudor Gold. He is an outstanding choice to be our exploration manager and he brings to us his vast knowledge of the entire Golden Triangle region. The timing for this was perfect as Ken recently has moved back to Canada from Peru." Darren Blaney, CEO of American Creek stated: "This is a very positive development that we fully endorse and are thrilled about. Ken clearly has the expertise and credibility to bring the Treaty Creek project to the next level. A world class project deserves a world class exploration manager. "We are also very pleased with the recent new appointments to Tudor's Board of Directors. Walter is moving things in the right direction and we are excited for what will unfold in 2019." The Treaty Creek Project is a joint venture between Tudor Gold, Teuton Resources Corp., and American Creek. Tudor is the operator and holds a 60% interest with both American Creek and Teuton each holding respective 20% carried interests in the property (fully carried until a production notice is given.) More information on Treaty Creek can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/treaty-creek/home About American Creek American Creek holds a strong portfolio of gold and silver properties in British Columbia. Three of those properties are located in the prolific "Golden Triangle"; the Treaty Creek and Electrum joint venture projects with Tudor Gold (Walter Storm) as well as the 100% owned past producing Dunwell Mine. The Corporation also holds the Gold Hill, Austruck-Bonanza, Ample Goldmax, Silver Side, and Glitter King properties located in other prospective areas of the province. For further information please contact Kelvin Burton at: Phone: 403 752-4040 or Email: info@americancreek.com. Information relating to the Corporation is available on its website at www.americancreek.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Imperial X Plc - Result of GM, Name Change & Strategy in Medical Cannabis 7 January 2019 Imperial X Plc (formerly Imperial Minerals Plc) ("Imperial" or the "Company") Result of GM, Name Change andNew Investment Strategy in the Medical Cannabis Sector The Company is pleased to announce that at the General Meeting of the Company held today at 11.00 a.m., all resolutions were duly passed. As a result of the resolutions being passed, the Company's name has today changed to Imperial X Plc. The ticker symbol will remain as IMPP. The Company will now pursue an Investment Strategy in the medical cannabis sector. The Directors believe that the market for products which are based on, or contain, cannabis derived cannabinoids is growing strongly due to the increased awareness of the benefits of cannabinoids to various aspects of health and because of the accelerating trend towards legalising the use of medicinal cannabis products not only in the UK but also in other countries around the world. A copy of the Circular with further details is available at: https://www.nexexchange.com/member'securityid=1024283 The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the content of this announcement. For further information please contact: Imperial X Plc Michael Langoulant +44 (0)7899 249990 Peterhouse Capital Limited Guy Miller and Mark Anwyl +44 (0)20 7220 9796 Regulatory News: On 5 December 2018 the Board of Directors decided to separate the duties of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CLASQUIN (Paris:ALCLA) with effect from 1 January 2019: Yves REVOL retains his position as Chairman of CLASQUIN's Board of Directors; Hugues MORIN is appointed Chief Executive Officer. As a reminder, in 1982 Yves REVOL purchased CLASQUIN, which generated sales of around 1.5 million at the time. He served as Chairman and CEO of the Group from 1 January 1983 and was appointed Executive Chairman on 1 January 2019. Born in 1969, married, a graduate of the European Business School, Hugues MORIN joined CLASQUIN in 1992 and was successively posted to Sydney, Osaka and Tokyo. He returned to France in 2002, where he was appointed Regional Director for the South of France and later promoted to Managing Director France, Italy and Germany. Since 1 January 2016, he has been responsible for all worldwide Front Office functions (operations and sales) as Group Executive Vice President. In January 2018, his remit was extended to Back Office functions (finance, HR, IT, etc.) under the direction of Group Corporate Secretary Laurence Ilhe. Hugues MORIN is a key shareholder holding 5.2% of the share capital both directly and indirectly via his personal holding company. For information purposes, Group governance is based on four main bodies: the Board of Directors (Board), responsible for Group strategy, overall policy and organisation the Executive Committee (Execom), responsible for managing the Group the Monthly General Management Meeting (MGMM), responsible for the operational implementation of Group projects and activities the World Management Committee Meeting (WMCM), an annual meeting attended by the Executive Committee, Country Managers and heads of Group functions to work on strategy, overall policy and organisation in order to share best practices and successful achievements, improve economic performance and strengthen the sense of belonging. "These changes materialise a state of affairs that has been developing over several years; Hugues MORIN has spent his entire career at CLASQUIN and it is a truly outstanding one; naturally, I myself, the Board of Directors and all Group managers are fully confident in his ability to implement CLASQUIN's strategy and overall policy over the coming years; this appointment has been in the pipeline for some time and is a totally natural step forward." Yves REVOL "I am full of enthusiasm about taking over management of Group operations today. Backed by the exceptional commitment of our staff worldwide, our unflagging client focus and CLASQUIN's unique market positioning, we are determined to pursue our corporate mission driven by our performance culture and winning mindset." Hugues MORIN UPCOMING EVENTS (publication after-market closure) Thursday 21 February 2019: Business report as at 31 December 2018 Wednesday 20 March 2019: 2018 Annual results Monday 29 April 2019: Business report as at 31 March 2019 Thursday 29 August 2019: Business report as at 30 June 2019 Monday 23 September 2019: 2019 Half year results Wednesday 30 October 2019: Business report as at 30 September 2019 CLASQUIN is an air and sea freight forwarding and overseas logistics specialist. The Group designs and manages the entire overseas transport and logistics chain, organising and coordinating the flow of client shipments between France and the rest of the world, and more specifically to and from Asia-Pacific and the United States. Its shares are listed on EURONEXT GROWTH, ISIN FR0004152882, Reuters ALCLA.PA, Bloomberg ALCLA FP. For more information, see www.clasquinfinance.com CLASQUIN confirms its eligibility for the new share savings plan for MSCs (medium-sized companies) in accordance with Article D221-113-5 of the French Monetary and Financial Code established by decree number 2014-283 of 4 March 2014 and with Article L221-32-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code which set the conditions for eligibility (less than 5,000 employees and annual sales of less than 1,500 million euros or total balance sheet of less than 2,000 million euros). CLASQUIN is part of Enternext PEA-PME 150 index. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005791/en/ Contacts: CLASQUIN Philippe LONS Deputy Managing Director/Group CFO Domitille CHATELAIN Group Head of Communication Tel: +33(0)4 72 83 17 00 Fax: 04 72 83 17 33 Global Bioenergies Welcomes France's Decision to Increase Biofuel Mandates Evry (France), 7 January 2019 - Global Bioenergies (Euronext Growth: ALGBE) welcomes the French deputies' vote for the country's 2019 finance bill, which stipulates an increase in the minimum amount of biofuels to be incorporated into motor vehicle fuel. This minimum will rise from 7.5% in 2018 to 7.9% in 2019 and then 8.2% in 2020. France's roadmap provides for an incorporation rate of 15% by 2030, giving priority to local feedstocks. Biofuel players will thus be able to continue building plants and creating jobs in rural environments while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Last December, the French National Assembly passed the 2019 finance bill, which stipulates an increase in the proportion of biofuels in road transport. The minimum incorporation rate of biofuels, which in 2018 was 7.5% in energy density (corresponding to around 10% in ethanol volume in gasoline), increases to 7.9% in 2019 and 8.2% in 2020. The bill includes heavy incentives to encourage distributors to effectively incorporate the legal minimum amount of biofuels. Lawmakers also give priority to local feedstock used to manufacture these biofuels. Additional provisions have been adopted in support of biofuels that come from residual or lignocellulosic matter; a specific segment that will represent 0.2 point in 2019 and then 0.4 point in 2020 is reserved for non-extractible sugars. Bernard Chaud, Head of Industrial Strategy at Global Bioenergies, said: "This ambitious, sustainable progression will enable a continual increase in the consumption of biofuels in France. Over the course of this ramp-up, when the time comes, distributors will incorporate increasing volumes of high-performance biofuels blendable at a high proportion into gasoline, such as those produced by Global Bioenergies." Marc Delcourt, CEO of Global Bioenergies, said, "France has chosen the incorporation of sustainable biofuels as one of the main ways to accomplish its energy and environmental transition. Other European countries are adopting the same approach, in some cases even more intensively: for example, Finland is promising an incorporation rate of 40% in 2030, and Norway has decided to implement the first worldwide mandate of biofuel incorporation into jet fuel, in an amount of 0.5% in 2020. Our technology for producing renewable and sustainable hydrocarbons for the road and air transport sectors will be needed to continue this transition at the sustained pace environed in Europe." About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES Global Bioenergies is one of the few companies worldwide, and the only one in Europe, that is developing a process to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons. The Company initially focused its efforts on the production of isobutene, one of the most important petrochemical building blocks that can be converted into gasoline, jet fuel, cosmetic ingredients, plastics and elastomers. Global Bioenergies continues to improve the performance of its process, to operate its demo plant in Germany, and to prepare the first full-scale plant through a joint venture with Cristal Union, named IBN-One. Global Bioenergies is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0011052257 - ALGBE) Stay informed! Subscribe to our newsfeed on www.global-bioenergies.com (http://www.global-bioenergies.com) Follow us on Twitter: @GlobalBioenergi (https://twitter.com/GlobalBioenergi) Contact GLOBAL BIOENERGIES Bernard Chaud Director of Industrial Strategy Tel: +33 1 64 98 20 50 invest@global-bioenergies.com Press release (http://hugin.info/166909/R/2230674/876609.pdf) This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: GLOBAL BIOENERGIES via Globenewswire Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Stunt showcases refreshed DXB brand's vision of pushing boundaries and creating new experiences DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dubai Airports has partnered with action sports brand XDubai to deliver an incredible one-of-a-kind stunt by Emirati athlete and skydiver Mohammed Baker, as part of the new DXB brand which aims to position the world's busiest international airport as a major destination for culture, hospitality, and entertainment. The stunning showcase, captured in a short film released by both Dubai Airports and XDubai, just following the refreshed brand reveal recently, captures what is believed to be the world's longest skydive swoop under a fixed structure. As showcased in the video, skydiver Mohammed Baker jumps out of a helicopter with a parachute emblazoned with the new DXB brand, gliding through the Dubai sky before performing one of the world's longest skydive swoops - measuring 112m - under the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge. With Downtown Dubai providing a stunning backdrop, the video also showcases various stunts performed by six XDubai athletes including Hollywood stuntman, Damien Walters; wakeboarder, JB O'Neill, parkour athletes Lynn Jung and Kie Willis; BMX rider, Ola Selsjord; and obstacle course racer, Barbara Company. A stunning cliff dive from Sheikh Zayed Road bridge into the Dubai Canal was also performed by Murilo Galvez, engaged by XDubai specifically for the occasion. Commenting on the stunt showcase Anita Mehra, VP - Marketing & Corporate Communication, Dubai Airports said: "With the refreshed direction we are taking at DXB, our aim is to create the best of experiences for our esteemed customers - one that connects different cultures and captures the true spirit of Dubai. Our partnership with XDubai and this stunt are in line with that direction, symbolising Dubai's spirit of adventure and ambition, as well as our vision to push boundaries and create exciting new experiences." The stunt was showcased at an official event attended by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Airports, as well as VVIPs and global media. Mohammed Javad, General Manager of XDubai commented, "Since our inception, XDubai has not only inspired people around the world to defy their limits, but also put the spotlight on our home base of Dubai. Both Dubai Airports and XDubai are a product of the emirate's ambitions - to show the world just what is possible with innovation, collaboration and determination - and this partnership to showcase the new DXB brand once again, did just that." The refreshed DXB brand embodies the unique values of its home city, Dubai, demonstrating unmatched hospitality, a culture of vibrant imagination, openness to fresh ideas, and a mesmerising mosaic of exciting and inspiring experiences. As such, DXB's new visual identity takes the shape of two arrows meeting to form a three-dimensional 'X' in DXB - representing the 'space in between' landing and take-off, and all the thrilling opportunities available to discerning travellers. Watch Stunt Video Here Editors Notes Dubai Airports manages the operation and development of both of Dubai's airports - DXB and DWC. As integrator, Dubai Airports works to balance the interests of all stakeholders to maintain aviation growth, protect operational resilience and ensure that service providers collaborate to provide a safe and secure service and improve the experience of our customers whilst maintaining a sustainable business. DXB is the world's number one airport in terms of international passenger traffic and number three globally in terms of total passenger traffic as reported by Airports Council International. Some 75 passenger carriers connect DXB to 220 airports in 214 cities across 94 countries. Contact info: Hannah Burden Hamer Manager - Corporate Communication | CO Communication & Reputation T: +9714-5044394 P.O. Box: 2525, Dubai, UAE E: Hannah.BurdenHamer@dubaiairports.ae W: dubaiairports.ae ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / January 7, 2019 / Findit, Inc. a Nevada corporation (OTC PINK: FDIT) has closed out 2018 and is looking forward to 2019. Many of the projects that will conclude in 2019 have been under development for the better part of 2018. Findit is a publicly traded company under the stock symbol FDIT. The stock performance over the last year performed as follows. As of December 31st, 2017 the company had 342,530,032 of common stock outstanding. On the last trading day of 2017, the stock closed at 0.0106. The market cap as of that date was $3,630,818.33. Over the past year the company converted one hundred million (100,000,000) shares of common stock to preferred and issued 4,200,000 shares of common stock. The common stock outstanding had a net reduction of 95,800,000 shares from 342,530,032 to 246,530,032. With the increase in price from the last trading day of 2017 to the last closing day of 2018 with the reduction of common stock, the market cap for the company saw an increase from $3,630,818.33 to $4,419,540.57. The stock price showed an increase from the last trading day of 2017 to last trading day of 2018 of a 69.8% gain. Findit is currently developing a new version of the Findit: Right Now App, which is available now on Android and IOS devices in the Google Play Store (GOOG) and in the Apple App Store (AAPL). When the new app is rolled out in 2019, Findit is looking to increase users. Users do not need to create an account on Findit to use the app - anyone who downloads the App has the option of viewing content posted without signing in. If a person who downloads the App wants to post or leave a comment or like a post they are required to login at that point. By not requiring people who download the App to join Findit, many people having concern over their personal data, can be relieved that they can still view content posted to Findit without disclosing their information. This is a great way for Findit to get traffic from these viewers even if they do not want to post content. Other social sites require you to create an account once you download their App. With the current state of uncertainty regarding social networking sites selling membership data to third parties, it is incredibly important that Findit makes it abundantly clear that we never sell data to third parties and we do not have any plans to. By clearly stating that as the new Findit App rolls out it is our goal to attract many of these users that have abandoned some of these other sites or reduced the amount of content they are posting and sharing with others due to fear of their privacy being compromised. In addition to the launch of the newly improved Findit App in 2019, Findit, Inc., is exploring opportunities within the CBD industry. Findit is currently providing marketing to CBD Unlimited, Inc. OTC Pinksheets (EDXC), and have discovered revenue streams that Findit believes it can enter into that will require a relatively small investment with potential of a high rate of return. The area that we are looking into within the CBD landscape will not deter us from our core online business model that revolves around social networking and search. We want members to post content inside their Findit sites that they want indexed in Findit search, as well as having the capabilities of having the content posted shared to other social networking sites and indexed by other search engines. These sites include; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo and Bing, but are not limited to them. In December of 2018, Findit rolled out a newly revised landing page for Findit Vanity Keyword URLs. With the roll out, we offered a special rate of $7.95 per Findit Vanity URL which is down from the $79.00 yearly price. Anyone can now reserve as many Findit Vanity URLs they want at the rate of $7.95. We are still offering Findit Prime that includes one Vanity URL along with 4 press releases distributed over Findit and several of our news sites along with a promoted release that Findit promotes to its social networking accounts on outside social networking sites. The purpose of these social promotions for members utilizing Findit press release distribution is to increase readership of the press releases submitted. Findit prime is available for $99.00. All services included in Findit Prime can be used immediately. With the 4 press releases included in Findit Prime, once they are used up members can purchase more releases at a 50% discount or purchase additional Findit Prime packages. Some members have multiple Findit Vanity URLs so purchasing additional Findit Prime packages may be a more cost effective approach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4wZoJUVHw Raymond Firth President and CEO of Findit, Inc. stated "We are looking forward to a great 2019 and out performing 2018. 2019 is filled with opportunities for Findit, Inc. We want to to provide growth that will be beneficial to our shareholders along with services that our Findit members will love and benefit from too. With the services offered in Findit and the rollout coming of the revised Findit App along with the research that has us looking into an opportunity within the CBD space, we are conservatively optimistic that are existing members will love the new updates in the revised App and post even more from their mobile devices. We know that the more posting that occurs, the more indexing happens, the more search results Findit members content show up in, which often turns into more sharing. All of this results in more page views which can result in more income from ad revenue, as well as driving new members who want to gain more online exposure under a unique Vanity URL on Findit." About Findit, Inc. Findit, Inc., owns Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit offers News and Press Release Distribution. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increased brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc., trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed by such forward-looking statements. This press release speaks as of the date first set forth above, and Findit, Inc. assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to factors such as the lack of capital, timely development of products, inability to deliver products when ordered, inability of potential customers to pay for ordered products, and political and economic risks inherent in international trade. Contact: Peter Tosto 1-404-443-3224 SOURCE: Findit, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/531993/Findit-Begins-Exploration-into-the-CBD-Industry LONDON, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The British Army isn't the only company backing snowflakes; Camp America also recently released a social video targeting snowflakes, as part of its recruitment drive. The travel program, which sends young people to work in America every summer; recognises millennials strengths in its latest video campaign; which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n7Mz6OeX60&feature=youtu.be (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804781/Camp_America.jpg ) "Millennials are getting a lot of stick at the moment," says Kerry McSweeney, Vice President at Camp America. "We've been hiring and sending young people to work at summer camps across America for years and they are still amazing camp counsellors today. We're getting tired of hearing how they can't do things. They work at summer camps each year and yes, they have fun, but they are also incredibly resilient, and amazing role models for the young kids they look after. They work hard and care about the job they are doing and the positive effect they have on the children. We wanted to celebrate these young people and the amazing job they do with us." Camp America recruits young people to work for a summer at an American kid's camp, looking after children and teaching activities. It provides an opportunity for young people to; experience another culture, make friends all over the world and gain life-long skills. Their recent video showcases the negative associations young people are dealing with at the moment and flips these negatives to showcase the positives; fighting back at the 'snowflake' name. "We wanted to have a bit of fun with the video," explains Katy Phillips, Marketing Director at Camp America. "We'd been hearing the snowflake term banded around and we thought it was unfair on young people. We send thousands of amazing young people to camp each summer and they inspire and make a difference to children all over the States. We wanted to let them know we believe in them. Working at a summer camp is an incredibly rewarding experience, where participants gain skills for life and get to have fun exploring another country. However, participants need to be ready to work long hours, in a high energy environment and our participants prove time and time again that they are dedicated, patient and hard-workers." Camp America is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. The first Camp America flight took off, the same year as the first space launch; 1969. They will be hosting their annual recruitment fairs in January, with the biggest one in London on the 26th January at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference centre. "The recruitment fairs provide an opportunity for young people to get placed at a camp on the spot and get their summer sorted!" Says McSweeney. "We're hoping the video will inspire more young people to come along and use their 'snowflake' skills to get placed at a summer camp." For more information or to sign up to Camp America, participants can apply online at http://www.campamerica.co.uk Notes to Editor: Camp America recruits international staff for American summer camps. Established in 1969, we are the biggest international summer camp staff provider recruiting thousands of young people each year to work on hundreds of summer camps across the USA! The program allows young people with a unique summer job abroad, and 30 days to travel afterwards. We have three recruitment fairs in the UK. We will be hosting press at the recruitment fair who wish to film or schedule interviews. Please get in touch with Lauren Rees, if you would like to attend on the day. Manchester 24thJanuary 2019 11am - 3pm Old Trafford Stadium Sir Matt Busby Way Manchester M16 0RA Edinburgh 22ndJanuary 2019 11am - 3pm Our Dynamic Earth, 112 Holyroad Rd Edinburgh EH8 8AS London 26thJanuary 2019 12pm - 3pm Queen Elizabeth II Centre Broad sanctuary Westminster London SW1P 3EE For more information contact: Lauren Rees, Marketing and PR Camp America +44-02075817349 Lrees3@campamerica.co.uk http://www.campamerica.co.uk Intelligent device accelerates care with hands-free communication and secure messaging Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognised leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced the launch of a new category of wearable communication devices that enables clinician agility and accelerates patient care. The Vocera Smartbadge combines smartphone usability with the hands-free freedom of the Vocera Badge to redefine healthcare communication again. "Vocera has been on a mission to improve the lives of patients, families and care teams for more than 18 years; and based on customer feedback, we have thoughtfully designed a sleek, light-weight, wearable, and intelligent device that will make it even easier for care teams to communicate and collaborate," said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. "The new Smartbadge is purpose-built to leverage the full software capability of the expanded Vocera Platform voice calling, messaging, clinical alerts and alarms, and more with its larger, touch-screen display." The biggest advantage of the new Vocera Smartbadge over earlier versions of the wearable communication device is the size of the 2.4" touchscreen, which enables clinicians to receive and read notifications with more patient context. For example, a nurse who receives a sepsis alert can see the patient room number, plus the patient's name, age, and vital signs. The larger screen also enables clinicians to view contact lists, as well as read and send text messages right from their Smartbadge. While the device's screen is larger than the original Vocera Badge, the new Smartbadge is still small, lightweight, wearable, and ideal for busy clinicians needing their hands free to provide patient care. Improved microphones and speakers enable high-quality audio while communicating with colleagues in both hands-free and hand-set mode. A new, dedicated, one-touch panic button is designed to make it faster and easier for staff to get help in emergency situations. Additionally, the Smartbadge boasts extended battery life, USB charging and headset ports, and a durable and water-resistant design. "The Vocera Smartbadge is a gamechanger for healthcare and will enhance the way care teams connect, collaborate and provide care to patients," said Tom Stafford, vice president and CIO at Halifax Health. "I am impressed by how the Smartbadge is still small and lightweight even with a larger notification screen, which is also now a touchscreen. Vocera really listened to its customers to design this new device that meets all the mobile communication needs of nurses, physicians and other team members." Clinicians can communicate hands-free, receive contextual patient information, reach the right person by name, role or group, and get help in an emergency with the touch of a button. The Smartbadge will integrate with more than 140 clinical and operational systems, including electronic health records, nurse call systems, physiologic monitors and more. Powered by the Vocera Platform, data is aggregated from most systems used in hospitals today. Patient information, prioritised clinical events, and care team availability can be presented on the Smartbadge. The intuitive mobile device will help increase workflow efficiencies, reduce interruption fatigue, and improve patient care and experience. Additionally, the Vocera software platform now has unique capabilities designed specifically to support the well-being of healthcare workers. During times of high stress or emotional exhaustion, care team members can use the Smartbadge to "call a Code Lavender." This simple voice command will send an alert to members of a multi-disciplinary group that will quickly respond, offering physical, spiritual and emotional support to patients, families and staff in need. For overwhelmed care team members who need a brief moment to relax or return to purpose, three guided meditations are available on the new mobile device. About Vocera The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,700 facilities worldwide, including nearly 1,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities, have selected our solutions for team members to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 140 clinical and operational systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, aged care facilities, nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. In 2017, Vocera made the list of Forbes 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter. Voceraand the Vocera logo are trademarks of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005422/en/ Contacts: Shanna Hearon Vocera Communications, Inc. 669.999.3368 shearon@vocera.com CytoReason, a leader in machine learning for drug discovery and development, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) that will leverage CytoReason's cell-centered models of the immune system. CytoReason will receive from Pfizer payments potentially equaling up to low double digit millions of US$ for technology access fees, research support and certain success-based payments. CytoReason's proprietary platform helps rebuild lost cellular information from gene expression data and associates genes to specific cells. This information is then integrated with additional omics and literature data to create a cell-based model of the trial-specific immune response. Integration with the CytoReason disease model empowers the study analytics and allows the model to learn and improve, leading to robust target discovery, drug response biomarkers and indication selection. "We believe that CytoReason's platform has the potential to offer valuable insights that may be applied to our research into the human immune system," said Michael Vincent, Chief Scientific Officer, Inflammation Immunology, Pfizer. "Leveraging technologies such as this can help us understand disease and prioritize targets, and support our mission of bringing innovative new therapies to patients who need them." "The collaboration with Pfizer will further strengthen our models in our core therapeutic areas. This will be our fifth major partnership, which we believe will help make our model unparalleled in its accuracy for assets across the pipeline," said David Harel, CytoReason's CEO. "CytoReason's model brings together thousands of samples on a cell-protein-gene level, allowing for fast and accurate insights." About CytoReason Based on more than 10 years of research, CytoReason's technology uses a proprietary data and machine learning model to reconstruct cellular information from bulk tissue, to train an immune-specific NLP engine, and to integrate multi-omics data. The company's platform organizes and standardizes collaborators' data (gene, protein, cell, and microbiome) and integrates it into CytoReason's proprietary disease model to generate mechanistic understanding of the immune system, leading to novel insights. CytoReason's technology has yielded 2 pending patents, 10 commercial and scientific collaborations and 16 peer reviewed publications. Fully applicable to cancer immunotherapy, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and infectious disease research, CytoReason is at the cutting edge of society's boldest attempts to improve health outcomes through better understanding of the immune system. See more: www.cytoreason.com / CytoReason on Twitter CytoReason on LinkedIn View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005421/en/ Contacts: Media: CytoReason Rob Cohen Tel +972 (0)54 888 6095 Email - rob.cohen@Cytoreason.com Patented Technology Makes Cell Phones Virtually Water Proof, Offers Comprehensive Protective Nano Coating for the Latest Electronic Devices LAS VEGAS, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Favored Tech, a leading provider for the next generation of multi-functional Nano Protection technology for an ever-growing world of electronic devices, today previewed its revolutionary coating technology at CES19. The solution is designed to provide top to bottom, inside out protection for electronic devices including consumer electronics, automotive, drones, surveillance cameras, Internet of Things, Industrial, computers/laptops and more. Favored Tech will be exhibiting at CES in Las Vegas, NV, at Booth No. 43774, Jan. 8 - 11, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. "CES is showcasing the most advanced electronic devices in the world and yet, electronic manufacturers are still facing the challenges to protect their products from various environmental factors in terms of effectiveness and cost," said James Zong, Founder, CEO and President, Favored Tech. "Our coating solution offers a revolutionary approach to coat all functional parts of electronics devices such as charging ports, cameras, earpiece mesh, USB connectors, preassembled devices and the entire devices and at a significantly lower TCO." Favored Tech's solution leverages patented plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition chemistry to provide a unique and simple coating solution like no other on the market today. It renders cell phones virtually water proof by organically combining chemical vapor deposition technology with low-temperature plasma technology. The solution is accomplished at just 40-deg C with no environmental impact or associated costs. Benefits of this pioneering technology include: Highly scalable and flexible. With the same coating machine, it can coat the device inside out, top to bottom, including the motherboard, USB, FPC/Board/Male plug, earpiece mesh, preassembled or entire device. Tailored for different levels and types of protection from water, corrosion, sweat, mold, humidity, and more. Covers all levels of coating protection including water protection from IPX2 - IPX8. Programmable solution offers the highest performance and fastest turnaround on the market today. Rapid coating cycles of just 1-2 hours. Solution has a negligible impact on conductivity, heat dissipation and signal transmission. No expensive masking or demasking required. Negligible environment impact or associated cost. The Company designs and manufactures all the equipment needed to coat electronic devices or electronic parts. Favored Tech's patented technology is designed for mass production and the solution is inherently flexible with no need for expensive integration. It can be easily modeled to suit individual electronic company's processes and manufacturing needs. Solutions range from seamlessly fitting into various manufacturing flows to fully standalone solutions. In addition, Favored Tech creates an offsite solution managed in the labs of Favored Tech. Currently, more than 5 million units globally are coated daily based on Favored Tech's solution. About Favored Tech Founded in Wuxi, China in 2016 and launched in the United States at CES19, Favored Tech delivers the industry's most advanced level of coating solution for water protection. Contact: Phyllis Guo + 1 408 203 4105 media@favoredtech.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) -Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) (FSE: TUC) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") announces the hiring of Mr. Ken Konkin, P.Geo. as Exploration Manager. Mr. Konkin will oversee exploration of Tudor Gold's flagship property, Treaty Creek, as well as several other Tudor Gold properties located within the prolific Eskay-Sulphurets-Premier gold belt. The Treaty Creek property adjoins to the north of Pretium Resources' Brucejack-Snowfield property and Seabridge Gold's KSM property, along the geological trend. Drilling at Treaty Creek in 2018 was very successful, especially the final hole which returned a significant intercept of 0.981 g/t gold over 563.8 meters. Mr. Konkin has over 35 years of geological experience throughout North and South America as well as Russia. Ken Konkin worked for Silver Standard for 19 years and managed advanced exploration programs at Manantial Espejo (Argentina), San Luis and Berenguela (Peru) as well as Snowfields (Pretium) in the Golden Triangle, BC. Mr. Konkin was appointed the Project Manager for Pretium Resources after it purchased the Snowfields-Brucejack Project from Silver Standard in 2010. Subsequently, he was instrumental in the discovery of The Valley of Kings deposit at the Brucejack Lake Mine, an 8 million ounce gold deposit currently in production. He spent seven years managing all aspects of the exploration programs at Snowfield-Brucejack. During his tenure with Pretium, the company received the Bill Dennis Award in 2013 for a Canadian discovery (presented by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada); Mr. Konkin was also the co-recipient of the prestigious H.H. "Spud" Huestis Award for "excellence in prospecting and mineral exploration in B.C. and/or Yukon" in 2017. Mr. Konkin states: "I'm very excited about being given the opportunity to work with Tudor Gold Corp on all its projects within the Golden Triangle. I look forward to building an exploration team that is capable of fast-tracking and advancing the status of each project as quickly as possible. We will begin immediately with detailed examination of the recent drill results obtained from the 2018 Treaty Creek diamond drill program as well as all the historical drill results for the Treaty Creek Project. The goal is to 'flesh-out' a sizeable gold deposit at Treaty Creek. In the coming months we will examine drill core in order to determine controls for the gold mineralization and potential pathways for the mineral source. From these studies we will lay out a comprehensive exploration program for 2019 that will include the recommendation of continued diamond drilling. Clearly, when any drill hole program ends on such a positive note as it did for Tudor Gold (Hole CB 18-39 averaged 0.981 g/t gold over 563.8 meters) it makes for a very exciting start to the next round of drilling, particularly when the hole bottomed in gold mineralization. Furthermore, Tudor has several very promising gold, silver and polymetallic projects at varying stages of exploration that we will examine this year as well. I thank Walter Storm for this opportunity to work with the Tudor Gold team and provide some of my knowledge from previous years of working in this region." President and CEO of Tudor Gold, Mr. Walter Storm, commented as follows: "I am delighted to welcome Mr. Ken Konkin to Tudor Gold. He is an outstanding choice to be our Exploration Manager and he brings to us his vast knowledge of the entire Golden Triangle region. The timing for this was perfect as Ken recently has moved back to Canada from Peru." Mr. Konkin will manage exploration programs for all of Tudor Gold's projects located within the Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia. Mr. Konkin initially began his geological career working in the Stewart Area as a geological student during the early 1980's. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 1984 and continued working in the Stewart region for several exploration companies in the 1980's and 1990's. About Tudor Gold Tudor Gold is a precious and base metals explorer in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, an area that hosts past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The Company has a 60% interest in both the Electrum and Treaty Creek properties, and a 100% interest in the 18,300 hectare Crown project, all of which are located in the Golden Triangle area. "Walter Storm" Walter Storm President and Chief Executive Officer For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com or contact: CHF Capital Markets Cathy Hume CEO Tel: 416-868-1079 x 231 Email: cathy@chfir.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statements regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the hiring of the Company's Exploration Manager,potential mineralization and geological merits of the Treaty Creek Project and other future plans, objectives or expectations of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. LONDON, January 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Equal parenting campaign group Fathers4Justice (F4J) has called for new 'pet custody' laws ahead of 'Divorce Day' on January 8th. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804340/Fathers4Justice_Nadine_OConnor.jpg ) This follows the introduction of a new pet custody law in California on January 1st of this year. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 2274 which authorises courts in divorce cases to assign sole or joint ownership of pets. In the US, 88% of pet custody fights involve dogs, with cats accounting for just 5% of cases. In 81% of cases, pet custody is granted to women. In the UK, there have been recent high-profile cases in which celebrities have fought pet custody battles with their ex-partners. F4J, which campaigns for shared parenting, says an increasing amount of its casework includes disputes involving pets, mostly dogs, and has set up a new advisory service to cope with the enquiries. F4J campaign director Nadine O'Connor, is calling for a principle of 'shared pet custody' or a 'joint ownership order' to be introduced in law alongside mandatory mediation. Nadine, who owns six dogs - including an 11 stone Irish Wolfhound called "Guinness" (see pic below) - says pets are integral members of any family, and need to be treated as such, with joint or sole ownership decided by the court during family proceedings. "Shared care of pets is as common in some US states as it is for children, and pets will often travel back and forth between homes with the kids." "Pets are integral family members and can be an important source of continuity and stability for children. This is something the courts should take into account when making child welfare decisions." "We believe that as with children, the default position of the courts should encourage shared custody." Basilea Pharmaceutica AG / Basilea reports strong, higher than expected preliminary revenue of CHF 133 million for financial year 2018 . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Basel, Switzerland, January 07, 2019 - Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today the unaudited preliminary revenue for the financial year 2018. Total revenue is expected to increase by 31% over 2017 to approx. CHF 133 million (FYR 2017: CHF 101.5 million), with contributions of approx. CHF 82 million (FYR 2017: CHF 52.5 million, + 56%) from Basilea's two marketed products, the antifungal Cresemba (isavuconazole) and the antibiotic Zevtera (ceftobiprole). Basilea had guided for total revenue of CHF 120-130 million and contributions from Cresemba and Zevtera of CHF 75-85 million for the financial year 2018. David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer of Basilea commented: "We are very pleased with our preliminary revenue of CHF 133 million, which exceeds our guidance. The increase of 56% in the revenue contributions from our two marketed products, Cresemba and Zevtera, confirms in particular the continued strong sales ramp-up of Cresemba, both in established markets and the more recently launched markets. Against the background of the continued high unmet medical need of patients suffering from invasive mold infections and the significant number of upcoming country launches, we are very positive for the future sales prospects of the brand." He added: "In addition to exceeding our top line revenue target, we have achieved several important strategic milestones in 2018. Amongst others, we have initiated both phase 3 studies for ceftobiprole required to support a potential U.S. registration and have successfully expanded our oncology R&D portfolio through the in-licensing of the panFGFR kinase inhibitor derazantinib, which is currently recruiting patients in the registrational phase 2 study in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Our solid cash position of approx. CHF 223 million as of December 31, 2018 (preliminary, unaudited) provides us with the financial flexibility to execute on our strategy towards achieving the upcoming key value inflections in our R&D pipeline." The audited full financial statements as well as the annual report 2018 will be published on February 19, 2019. The final audited revenue for 2018 and the cash position as of year-end 2018 may differ from the reported preliminary numbers. About Basilea Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company, focusing on the development of products that address the medical challenges in the therapeutic areas of oncology and anti-infectives. With two commercialized drugs, the company is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Additional information can be found at Basilea's website www.basilea.com (http://www.basilea.com). Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For further information, please contact: Peer Nils Schroder, PhD Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations +41 61 606 1102 media_relations@basilea.com (mailto:media_relations@basilea.com) investor_relations@basilea.com (mailto:investor_relations@basilea.com) This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com (http://www.basilea.com) . Press release (PDF) (http://hugin.info/134390/R/2230513/876478.pdf) After receiving several queries relating to Ammbr, its technologies, and FORK's role in the project, the Company has decided to launch an AMA session on Reddit, in which interested parties can publicly ask questions directly to Ammbr CEO Derick Smith. The timeframe to ask questions is presently open, and will remain open until 6:00 pm EST on Wednesday January 9, 2019. This session is being held to provide greater transparency into the Ammbr project, as part of FORK's continued effort to actively engage shareholders on its projects. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 7, 2019) - GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN MINING CORP. (CSE: FORK) (OTC: GBCHF) ("FORK" or the "Company") has received considerable interest relating to its partnership with Ammbr Foundation Pte. Ltd. ("Ammbr"), the Singapore-based firm leveraging blockchain technology to build a global-scale wireless mesh network. By creating an autonomous marketplace in which Internet bandwidth can be bought and sold seamlessly as a background process, Ammbr's technology will enable the creation of a worldwide decentralized Internet service provider. This will solve many of the last-mile connectivity problems which leave many parts of the world without a reliable Internet connection. As there are profound social and economic implications related to the introduction of this technology, there have been many types of questions about Ammbr from FORK shareholders and the general public. To address this, the Company has arranged to host an Ask-me-Anything (also known as an "AMA") on Reddit, featuring Ammbr's CEO Derick Smith. Interested parties will have the opportunity to ask original questions, and add follow-ons to existing questions in the Reddit discussion thread that has been created for this AMA session. The timeframe to ask questions is presently open, and will remain open until 6:00 pm EST on Wednesday January 9, 2019. Questions will be answered by Mr. Smith either during the session, or shortly after the question period has elapsed. No registration or login is required to view the AMA session, however an account on Reddit's website will be required to make postings. Accounts on Reddit can be opened instantly at no cost, and without an email address. Prior to asking questions in the AMA session, participants are encouraged to read the Company's press releases dated November 12, 2018 and November 26, 2018 (available on its website www.forkcse.com), as well as the Ammbr crowdsale webpage and whitepaper (available at www.ammbr.com). It should also be noted that only questions directly related to Ammbr will be permitted in this AMA session. As Mr. Smith cannot answer any questions about FORK, such queries should be addressed to FORK's own investor relations department. FORK President and CEO Shidan Gouran said "Ammbr is an amazing application of blockchain, because it really represents what distributed ledger technologies are all about. It truly is perspective-changing when you come to realize that Internet access infrastructure actually isn't world-wide, and that many third-world countries have severely limited means to access the Internet because of such infrastructure deficits. For example, in Eritrea, Internet users make up less than 3% of their population, compared to more than 76% in the United States. Ammbr's ability to distribute Internet connectivity into these so-called 'dark spots' with its blockchain network and proprietary hardware products will bring a lot of changes to a lot of parts of the world, and we at FORK are thrilled to be part of making that happen. We hope that this AMA session with Mr. Smith will answer any questions the public has about the project, and we look forward to making great strides with it in 2019 and beyond." The Ammbr AMA session can be accessed at the following link: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmmbrPlatform/comments/acktgh/ama_with_ceo_of_ammbr_tech_derick_smith/ On behalf of the Company: Shidan Gouran, President and CEO info@globalblockchain.io For more information please contact: Global Blockchain Mining Corp. Investor Relations ir@globalblockchain.io About Global Blockchain Mining Corp. Global Blockchain Mining Corp. is a technology company that is engaged in the business of mining blue-chip cryptocurrencies through the deployment of hardware and associated infrastructure to mine these coins. Investors, through their investment in the Company, are provided with exposure to these cryptocurrencies without the lengthy, and complicated process that interested investors must undergo in order to gain exposure to these cryptocurrencies. The Company is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "FORK". Additional information relating to the Company is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, the CSE at www.theCSE.com as well as on the Company's website at: www.forkcse.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Forward-Looking Information: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect","may", "will", "would", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed onthe forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this News Release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SINGAPORE, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Kamakura Corporation is pleased to announce that RHB Banking Group, (http://www.rhbgroup.com/), the fourth largest fully-integrated financial services organization in Malaysia, has chosen Kamakura Risk Manager to manage its Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) requirements. NSFR is the second standard of the Basel III liquidity rules designed to promote stable long-term funding. With Kamakura's NSFR module, the bank will be able to measure, manage, and control its long-term liquidity risk. The solution allows the bank to customize reports for both regulatory compliance and internal use and includes access to subject-matter consulting. Patrick Ho, RHB Group Chief Risk Officer, said Monday, "When we implemented Kamakura's LCR module in 2017, it not only helped us meet our regulatory submission timeline but gave us the ability to forecast our future LCR ratios. Adding the NSFR module will make our bank fully compliant with Basel III. Kamakura's unique ability to generate simulated NSFR projections will ensure that we are prepared for any economic scenario. With the suite of Kamakura modules, including LCR, NSFR, FTP and ALM, we have now a holistic view of both internal and external risk metrics, all within a single solution." Ng Sew Cheng, RHB's Head of Group Asset & Liability Management, said, "Kamakura Corporation's professional approach to implementation was key to the successful upgrade. Their team has a proven track record in implementing the NSFR module both locally and overseas and with the subject-matter expertise provided, it ensures that we follow best practices for risk management for years to come. Their solution will also allow us to project future NSFR ratios in any situation, even if we change our business strategy, our divisional assets, or the structure of our balance sheet profile." Tan Chee Hian, Kamakura's Managing Consultant to RHB, said, "We have a very stable implementation team that fully understood RHB Bank's data and requirements. Mutual trust between RHB and Kamakura made the implementation smooth and successful. Our NSFR module follows the same principle as other modules in the system, giving users the flexibility to configure rules to meet current compliance guidelines and users can easily make changes to respond to future regulatory changes. In addition, our solution allows the bank to conduct stress tests and sensitivity analyses monthly or on an ad hoc basis. Results are transparent and allow users to drill down to the account level for greater detail." Dr. Clement Ooi, Kamakura's Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific Operations, said, "Today's ever-changing regulatory landscape means that banks need to look beyond just automating regulatory reports and to a solution that manages many aspects of risk. RHB, like other sophisticated banks, needs advanced forecasting and simulation capabilities to prepare for adverse market movements. Kamakura provides a fully integrated ERM solution that allows RHB to actively manage its cash flow positions and profiles. The NSFR module fits seamlessly into the bank's existing architecture and integrates perfectly with its existing simulations." About RHB Banking Group The RHB Banking Group, which incorporated in Malaysia in 1994, was established following the merger of Kwong Yik Bank, DCB Bank, Sime Bank, and Bank Utama Berhad-institutions that were incorporated more than a century ago. RHB Capital, as it was then known, was listed on the Main Board (now the Main Market) of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in 1994, and assumed its present name in 1997. RHB provides financial products and services through its main subsidiaries RHB Bank Berhad, RHB Investment Bank Berhad, RHB Insurance Berhad and RHB Islamic Bank Berhad, while its asset management and unit trust businesses are managed by RHB Asset Management Sdn. Bhd. and RHB Islamic International Asset Management Berhad. In 2005, RHB became the first domestic financial group in Malaysia to set up an Islamic banking subsidiary, known as RHB Islamic Bank Berhad. In 2012, RHB acquired OSK Investment Bank Berhad (OSKIB). The following year, the merger of OSKIB with RHB Investment Bank (RHBIB) made RHBIB the largest investment Bank in Malaysia by assets. With the recent merger of OSKIB and RHBIB, the investment banking business now extends to six ASEAN countries and Hong Kong. About Kamakura Corporation Founded in 1990, Honolulu-based Kamakura Corporation is a leading provider of risk management information, processing, and software. Kamakura was recognized as a category leader in the Chartis Report, Technology Solutions for Credit Risk 2.0 2018. Kamakura was named to the World Finance 100 by the editor and readers of World Finance magazine in 2017, 2016 and 2012. In 2010, Kamakura was the only vendor to win two Credit Magazine innovation awards. Kamakura Risk Manager, first sold commercially in 1993 and now in version 10.0.3, is the first enterprise risk management system for users focused on credit risk, asset and liability management, market risk, stress testing, liquidity risk, counterparty credit risk, and capital allocation from a single software solution. The KRIS public firm default service was launched in 2002. The KRIS sovereign default service, the world's first, was launched in 2008, and the KRIS non-public firm default service was offered beginning in 2011. Kamakura added its U.S. Bank default probability service in 2014. Kamakura has served more than 330 clients with assets ranging in size from $1.5 billion to $3.0 trillion. Its risk management products are currently used in 47 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. To follow risk commentary by Kamakura on a daily basis, please follow: Kamakura CEO Dr. Donald van Deventer (www.twitter.com/dvandeventer) Kamakura President Martin Zorn (www.twitter.com/riskmgrhi) Kamakura's official twitter account (www.twitter.com/KamakuraCo). For more information, please contact: Kamakura Corporation 2222 Kalakaua Avenue, Suite 1400, Honolulu, Hawaii 96815 Telephone: 1-808-791-9888 Information: info@kamakuraco.com Web site: www.kamakuraco.com Press Contacts: Martin Zorn President and COO 1-808-791-9888, extension 8700 pressroom@kamakuraco.com www.kamakuraco.com www.kris-online.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804478/Kamakura_Corp_Patrick_Ho.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804481/Kamakura_Corp_Ng_Sew_Cheng.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804479/Kamakura_Corp_Tan_Chee_Hian.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/804480/Kamakura_Corp_Dr_Clement_ooi.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/657972/Kamakura_Logo.jpg Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has completed its implementation of Phase 1 of Modernized Economic and Financial Statistical Reporting (EFS) using Wolters Kluwer's OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting. EFS is an ambitious regulatory change program, managed by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). OneSumX Regulatory Reporting uses a single source of data to ensure consistency, reconciliation and accuracy and includes the firm's Regulatory Update Service. This unique service is maintained by Wolters Kluwer experts who actively monitor regulation in approximately 30 countries, helping to ensure the solution is current at all times. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank specifically use the Regulatory Reporting functionality for its Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution in Australia. "During our program Wolters Kluwer's experts have assisted the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank implementation team, keeping within budget and delivering on schedule," said Patricia Zeitz, Divisional CFO, Consumer Banking, for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. "We look forward to delivering the APRA reporting automation in full and keeping ahead of future regulatory changes with assistance from this expert team. Using a number of Wolters Kluwer solutions to benchmark our submissions to regulators, the bank will continue to assist regulators by producing their required information in the most unified and expedient way possible." David Rule, Australia and New Zealand Account Manager at Wolters Kluwer's Finance, Risk Reporting (FRR) business, added: "Working with the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank finance team has been a mutually rewarding experience for us all. Their professional and dedicated approach meant the first deliverables of the project were signed off and ready for production well ahead of time. Wolters Kluwer is now positioned to benchmark the bank's reporting to our other clients across a wide range of regulators." Wolters Kluwer FRR, which is part of the company's Governance, Risk Compliance division, is a global market leader in the provision of integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions. It supports regulated financial institutions in meeting their obligations to external regulators and their own board of directors. Wolters Kluwer FRR receives frequent independent recognition of its excellence and innovation. In mid-2018, Risk magazine awarded the company its coveted Regulatory Reporting System of The Year Award and Central Banking magazine recently named OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting its Best Technology Solution For Regulatory Compliance. Wolters Kluwer FRR is also this year's Category Winner for Regulatory Reporting in the annual RiskTech100 report. This comprehensive study of the world's leading risk and compliance technology companies is compiled by Chartis Research. Notably, this is the seventh time in eight years that Wolters Kluwer FRR has achieved this honor. About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk Compliance Governance, Risk Compliance (GRC) is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, stay competitive and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance. Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005014/en/ Contacts: Paul Lyon Director of Global Corporate Communications, Banking Regulatory Compliance Governance, Risk Compliance Wolters Kluwer Office +44 20 3197 6586, Mobile +44 77 6539 1824 Paul.Lyon@wolterskluwer.com The Theatrical Rights According to the report, the Tamil Nadu distributions rights for the film have been sold for a massive price of 55 Crores. The film has reportedly fetched 40 Crores as overseas rights. At the same time, the Kerala and Karnataka rights stand at 12 Crores and 8 Crores respectively. Audio Rights The songs of Petta, set to tune by Anuirudh Ravichander has already turned out to be a huge hit and the audio rights of the film have been acquired by Sony Music.. Going by the report, the film has already fetched approximately 3.5 Crores in terms of Audio Rights as well. Satellite and Digital Rights Satellite and Digital Rights of the film are reportedly with the SUN TV. The movie has already fetched 45 Crores in terms of these rights. On the other hand, the Telugu version of the film has done a pre-release business 25 Crores. Huge Profits According to the report, Petta has already done a huge pre-release business of approximately 218.5 Crores in terms of all the right against a total budget of 161 Crores. The report suggests that Petta has already made a table profit of appropximatley 57 Crores, which are indeed huge numbers. Yash Remembers Ambarish Yash and Ambarish held a very warm and close relationship. Yash always looked up to the iconic actor, who supported him through his career. In the video that Yash shared on his social media, he tells his fans that he won't be celebrating his birthday tomorrow as he's still mourning the loss of a senior member of his family, Dr Ambarish. He Apologises To Fans Yash also told his fans that he knows how excited and thrilled they are about his birthday. He issued apologies to them for not celebrating the special this year. He requested his fans to respect his decision and corporate. He also thanked them in advance for showering upon him immense love. Fans Will Meet Him During KGF Tour Yash assured his fans that though he won't be able to meet them tomorrow, he will be seeing them in person soon. The actor along with his KGF team will be travelling to different regions of Karnataka as a part of 'Yasho Yatra' tour, during which he will be meeting his beloved fans. Darshan Might Not Celebrate His B'day Too Darshan is another Sandalwood actor who was extremely close to Ambarish. The actor's birthday is nearing too, but seems like he won't be celebrating hs special day similar to Yash for the same reason. Darshan who was abroad, left his shoot for the film Yajamana in between and flew down to India upon hearing about Dr Ambarish's death. Mahershala Ali thanked the most important women in his life for their constant support as he received his first ever Golden Globe Award. The actor won the trophy in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture category for "Green Book". This was Ali's second Globe nod. He was nominated for his performance in "Moonlight" in 2017. In "Green Book", which is set in the '60s, Viggo Mortensen plays Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga, a New York City bouncer who ends up working as a driver for Ali's character, "Doc" Don Shirley, a famed pianist, driving him on a tour of venues through the American South. In his acceptance speech, Ali said, "I have to thank my wife, my mother, and my grandmother. I thank you for your prayers. I've needed each and every one of them. Peace." The actor also thanked the real Shirley, Mortensen who he called an "extraordinary scene partner", director Peter Farrelly, his other co-star Linda Cardellini who he called a "beautiful person" and other colleagues. He bested Timothee Chalamet ("Beautiful Boy"), Adam Driver ("BlacKkKlansman"), Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?") and Sam Rockwell ("Vice") to win the award. PTI The Delhi High Court on Monday disposed off a plea seeking a ban on the trailer of Anupam Kher starrer 'The Accidental Prime Minister.' Justice Vibhu Bakhru observed that the petitioner, Pooja Mahajan, a Delhi-based fashion designer, has no personal interest in the matter. The plea, filed by Mahajan through her counsel Arun Maitri, said the trailer violated Section 416 of the Indian Penal Code as impersonation of a living character or living persons is not permissible in law. The film is based on a similarly titled the book by Sanjaya Baru, the former media advisor of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Advocate Maitri said the film's producers have not taken any consent from Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi to perform their characters or perform their political life or to dress up in the same way as they had been doing in their normal life or copy their voice in any manner. As per Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) guidelines on films based on real-life characters, a 'no objection certificate (NOC)' is required, but for the trailer, no such NOC was obtained, the petitioner said. In the plea, Mahajan has requested the court to issue direction to the Centre, Google, YouTube and CBFC to take steps to stop the exhibition and display of the trailer. However as per the latest reports, the single Bench of Delhi High Court refused to entertain the plea seeking a ban on the film's trailer and instead, directed the petitioner to PIL bench. The court did not pass any strictures aginst the film too. Starring Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna, 'The Accidental Prime Minister' is slated to release on Friday. (Inputs from IANS) Simmba: Rohit Shetty Reacts To Criticism Over Having 'Rape' As A Part Of The Film's Story! Nick Jonas, Are You Listening To This? When Karan Johar asked Shahid what piece of advice would he give to Nick Jonas after his marriage to Priyanka Chopra, the actor quipped, "Never back down buddy, you're with the original Desi Girl (wink)." A Tale Of Exes For the uninitiated, Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra were rumoured to be dating while they were shooting for Kaminey. However, the actors never confirmed their relationship on record. Let Bygones Be Bygones Later when Priyanka got engaged to Nick Jonas, Shahid had told reporters, "Many, many congratulations to Priyanka and Nick. Marriage is a beautiful thing, I can say that from my experience and I wish her all the best." He also attended her wedding reception in Mumbai with his wife Mira Rajput proving that all's well in tinsel town. When Karan Throw A Googly At Ishaan Not just Shahid, KJo has some controversial question for Ishaan as well. The filmmaker asked the young lad if he's dating his 'Dhadak' co-star Janhvi Kapoor. Shahid Comes To Ishaan's Rescue On The Show The actor told Karan Johar, "Janhvi is not special like that. He buzzes around a lot of people. And it started many years ago with his mother and me and now you (Janhvi) are one of those people he buzzes around. He's a buzzy guy." One of Bollywood's most beautiful leading ladies, Bipasha Basu turns a year older today. Born on 7 January 1979, she was spotted at a hotel in Kolkata by model Mehr Jesia, who suggested she take up modelling. Bipasha won the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel Contest and soon stepped into the world of modelling. Late actor Vinod Khanna wanted to launch her alongside his son Akshaye Khanna in Himalay Putra. But, she turned down the role since she felt she was too young to act. He even declined a role opposite Suniel Shetty in Refugee. In 2001, Bipasha finally debuted in Bollywood with Abbas Mastan's Ajnabee for which she bagged the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Her next film, Raaz was a blockbuster success and since then, there was no looking back for the actress. On Bipasha Basu's 40th birthday today, we bring you some drool-worthy pictures of the actress which will leave you asking for more. When Time Stood Still Bipasha Basu pulls off the 'Audrey Hepburn' look with so much grace that we just can't stop staring at her. Bipasha Basu's Net Worth, Lifestyle, Property, Income | FilmiBeat O Bipasha, You Had Stolen Our Hearts The actress aces the traditional look like a pro in this picture and she's an epitome of beauty here. That Perfect Black & White Capture! The Bong beauty goes retro again and her classic avatar is dripping with elegance. Bipasha Exudes Confidence & How! The actress earlier recalled in an interview that she was often ridiculed in her younger days for her dusky skin. But over the years, Bipasha silenced all her detractors and proved that dusky is beautiful! Nailing The No-Makeup Look Even sans make-up, the Bong actress is beauty personified in this picture. Oh My Gorgeous Lady! Bipasha is literally making us green with envy in this beautiful click. Saaho: This New Still Featuring Prabhas Will Make Your Wait For The Film Harder! Shah Rukh Khans latest release Zero may not have impressed one and all but the film sure offered some powerful performances from its lead stars. Truly unmoved by films failure, King Khan is now all set to begin shooting for the Rakesh Sharma biopic Salute. The biopic based on the life of astronaut Rakesh Sharma earlier had to go on floors in May this year. However, makers of have now decided to start rolling February onwards. Produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, films first schedule is expected to begin in Mumbais Film City. We hear that the construction work for films huge set has already started there. If a report in a daily is to be believed, SRK decided to prepone films shoot schedule to shift his focus from Zero debacle. The decision taken by the actor and producer aims to wrap up the films main schedule before summers. Considering the crucial scenes will be filmed outdoors in bulky costumes, it will be better for them to shoot it before. We hear that Shah Rukh Khan will soon start prepping up for his role in the film. Films next schedule is planned to be wrapped up at an undisclosed location by June this year. Starring SRK in the lead, Salute will be helmed by Mahesh Mathai. What is a Jalsa Salana? Since 1891, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has held its annual convention, or Jalsa Salana, in countries around the world. The U.S. event was most recently held in July 2018 at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which has hosted it for 15 years. During the 10 years prior, the event was held at the Dulles Expo Center, according to county documents. "The principal aims of the annual convention are to facilitate greater spiritual awareness among community members, strengthen ties and promote peace," according to the application the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community filed with Fauquier County. NFU Scotlands hustings tour kicks off this week which will see three candidates contesting for the farming union's two Vice President roles. NFU Scotland's President, Andrew McCornick said the elections come at an extremely uncertain time for Scottish agriculture. Current Vice President Martin Kennedy, Livestock Chairman Charlie Adam and Combinable Crops Chairman Ian Sands have put their names forward to contest for the vice-presidential positions. Mr McCornick said: There has never been a more important time for members to get out to these hustings, listen to the candidates and make sure their vote counts. All three candidates have the skills and experience to do a fantastic job for NFUS and Scottish agriculture and this is their opportunity to convince members they have a role to play as we tackle the major challenges ahead. With Brexit decisions looming and future agricultural policy in the UK and Scotland up for debate, we need the right people in place to drive forward policies that are in the very best interests of our farmers and crofters, he said. The hustings will start on Monday (7 January) at McDiarmid Park, near Perth. Over the course of the following 16 days, the candidates will also speak at meetings in Stepps, Tarbert, Castle Douglas, Carfraemill, Galston, Inverurie, Kirkwall, Lerwick and Dingwall. Voting for the positions of the two Vice Presidential posts will take place at the unions Council meeting at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on Friday 8 February 2019. The unions AGM, conference and annual dinner will be staged at the same venue the previous day (Thursday 7 February). Two MSPs lobbying for stricter sentencing for livestock worrying crimes have met with the victim of one of Scotland's worst-ever cases of dogs attacking sheep. Michael Russell MSP and Emma Harper MSP met with Argyll & Bute farmer Brian Walker, who, on 4th March 2018, found out that 17 of his ewes had been attacked during the night. Although he found six sheep were able to be saved, four were already dead and seven were so badly maimed they had to be put down. The cost to the farmer was estimated to be around 4,000, but Mr Walker never received compensation despite charges being brought against the dog owner, who was also allowed to keep the dogs involved in the attack. Both MSP's met with Mr Walker at his farmhouse and took part in a round table discussion on the incident and livestock attacks in general. This meeting was an important opportunity for the experiences of Mr Walker, and the local dog warden and Police Scotland officials involved in the case, to be taken into account by Ms Harper ahead of the forthcoming launch of an online public consultation on dogs attacking livestock. Ms Harper, an SNP MSP for the South Scotland region, announced earlier this year in the Scottish Parliament that she would be bringing forward proposals for a Members Bill to toughen the law in the area of livestock being attacked by dogs. According to figures revealed this year by NFU Mutual, the number of dog attacks on sheep has risen by 67% in two years, and such attacks bared a cost of 330,000 to Scottish farmers in 2017 alone. Following the meeting, Ms Harper said: It was important to meet with Mr Walker and to listen to his account of this horrific attack first hand on the farm where it happened. Mr Walker is just one of hundreds of farmers across Scotland whose farms are affected by dogs chasing and attacking their livestock every year. The farmer in this case has been left out of pocket by 4,000, which doesnt include the future money the offspring and future generations of the now deceased ewes would have raised for the farm. She added: What was particularly distressing about this case was the number of sheep attacked and the extent of the injuries which were mainly focussed on the faces of the sheep involved. The 11 sheep which died as a result of this attack, as well as the six who survived, would have went through an unimaginable amount of trauma and suffering during this prolonged attack. Brian Walker added: I feel there is now momentum with the changing of the law to tackle livestock worrying and because the last significant law in this area [Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953] was passed 65 years ago, this feels like a once in a lifetime moment to get this legislation right, and I and other farmers will support Emma Harper MSP in doing that. The farming community is small in terms of the overall population so Im grateful that there are MSPs who are willing to take notice of what issues affect those working in the rural economy. NFU Scotland is backing Emma Harper's proposal of a Members Bill to tackle the high number of livestock attacks which occur throughout the Scottish countryside. Government work has started on a programme to combat future droughts and extreme weather, including ways to protect water demands for the agricultural sector. Work has now started on the development of a water resources national framework that will guide the development of new plans. The Government has been urged by farmers to recognise the role that water plays in farming, being a vital ingredient in food production and essential to the economic performance of the agri-food sector. Increasing water demands from other sectors, and a greater risk of water scarcity caused by droughts and climate change, already threaten the farming industrys ability to sustain and increase efficient, high quality food production at affordable prices. Growers of high value fruit and vegetables are particularly reliant on access to secure supplies of water. Analysis shows that water resources will face significant pressures resulting from climate change, population growth and increasing environmental aspirations. The new programme by Defra will involve plans that improve co-ordination between public water companies and other sectors, including farming, to identify solutions. The framework represents a significant step forward for the agricultural sector because it recognises the importance food production in a multi-sector approach in delivering resilience to drought and water scarcity. This process gives the NFU the opportunity to make the case for agriculture as an essential user of water. In some regions, engagement in the planning process may provide farmers with opportunities to access water being imported into the region, and may benefit abstractors with increased licensing flexibility. Today, corn producers out-yield demand. What can be done? Use more ethanol, says Jim Seurer, CEO of Glacial Lakes Energy, LLC, during his 2018 state convention presentation to SDFU members. by Sean Fitzpatrick | Sun, Jan 6th 10:56pm EST Just days after agreeing to an offer sheet with the Cavaliers and the Warriors allowing him to sign with the team, the Cavaliers waive G Pat McCaw on Sunday. Cameron Payne signs a 10-day to take his spot. (Shams Charania on Twitter) Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., an offshore energy services company, provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry primarily in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, the Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. The company operates through three segments: Well Intervention, Robotics, and Production Facilities. The company engineers, manages, and conducts well intervention operations that include production enhancement and abandonment, and construction in water depths ranging from 200 to 10,000 feet; and offers remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), trenchers, and ROVDrills for offshore construction and well intervention services. It also provides intervention engineering; inspection, repair, and maintenance of production structures, trees, jumpers, risers, pipelines, subsea equipment, and related support services. In addition, the company offers reclamation and remediation services; well plug and abandonment services; pipeline abandonment services; and site inspections. Further, it engages in the installation of flowlines, control umbilicals, and manifold assemblies and risers; trenching and burial of pipelines; installation and tie-in of riser and manifold assembly; commissioning, testing, and inspection activities; and provision of cable and umbilical lay, and connection services. Additionally, the company offers oil and natural gas processing facilities and services to oil and gas companies; and fast response system. It serves independent oil and gas producers and suppliers, pipeline transmission companies, renewable energy companies, and offshore engineering and construction firms. The company was formerly known as Cal Dive International, Inc. and changed its name to Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. in March 2006. Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Read More (CNN) Change is coming to men's restrooms in New Yorkand it's going to be a big help to fathers all over the state. A new law requires all new or renovated buildings in New York that have bathrooms used by the public to make changing tables available to both men and women. The rule, which passed in April 2018 but didn't go into effect until the new year, applies to restaurants, stores and movie theaters as well as state facilities such as parks and offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles. At least one changing table must be available to both genders on each floor of a building that is accessed by the public, according to the law. The legislation also states that building managers should post clear signs showing the location of the nearest available changing table. There was no previous state law that required changing tables in bathrooms used by the public, according to a statement from the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo when the legislation passed. "Parents and caregivers of young children often struggle to find a safe, sanitary place to change their child's diaper," the statement said. "In addition, when changing tables are available, they are disproportionately available in only women's restrooms." State Sen. Brad Hoylman, who wrote the legislation, said in a statement, "It's not just moms who change diapers. Dads need to step up and do their part of the dirty work, too." Hoylman is one of the fathers who took to social media to document the difficulty men face when changing their children's diapers. Hoylman, who is gay, also said in the statement the new law is a step in "recognizing new parental norms, including a new generation of gay dads like me who no longer should have to change their babies on the bathroom floor because there's no changing station in the men's restroom." According to the Pew Research Center, fathers are much more involved in child care than they were 50 years ago. Data analysis of American Time Use Survey from 2016 shows fathers reported spending about eight hours a week on child care -- triple the time they reported in 1965. Last year, a Florida father went viral after sharing photos of himself squatting on the restroom floor of a steakhouse while changing his son's diaper. "What's the deal with not having changing tables in men's bathroom as if we don't exist!!," Donte Palmer wrote on Instagram. He used the hashtag #SquatForChange, which has become a social media campaign raising awareness about the lack of changing tables in men's restrooms. In 2016, President Barack Obama signed a Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, or the BABIES Act, which requires diaper-changing tables in all restrooms in public federal buildings, such as courthouses and post offices. According to the BABIES Act, if a bathroom doesn't have a changing table, hallway signs must direct parents to the nearest facilities. This story was first published on CNN.com, "New York now requires changing tables in public men's restrooms." The following companies are subsidiares of Whirlpool: 1900 Holdings Corporation, ADC, Aeradriatica S.p.A., Airdun Limited, B. Blend Maquinas e Bebidas S.A., BUD Comercio de Eletrodomesticos Ltda., BWI Products Limited, Bauknecht AG, Bauknecht Hausgerate GmbH, Bauknecht Limited, Beijing Embraco Snowflake Compressor Company Limited, Bill Page Orchestra, Bill Page Orchestra Inc., Brasmotor S.A., Brunson Place Properties, Brunson Place Properties LLC, CNB Consultoria Ltda, Cannon Industries Ltd., Centro de Desarrollo Tecnologico e Innovacion WHM S. de R.L de C.V., Comercial Acros Whirlpool, Comercial Acros Whirlpool S. de R.L. de C.V., Consumer Appliances Service Limited, Ealing Compania de Gestiones y Participaciones S.A., Elera Delaware, Elera Delaware Inc., Elera Holdings Corporation, Embraco Europe S.r.l., Embraco Eurosales S.r.l., Embraco Industria de Compressores e Solucoes em Refrigeracao Ltda., Embraco Luxembourg S.a r.l., Embraco Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Embraco Mexico Servicios, Embraco Mexico Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Embraco North America, Embraco North America Inc., Embraco RUS LLC, Embraco Slovakia S.r.o., Everest Campus, Everest Campus LLC., General Domestic Appliances Holdings Ltd, General Domestic Appliances International Ltd., Guangdong Whirlpool Electrical Appliances Co., Guangdong Whirlpool Electrical Appliances Co. Ltd., Haceb Whirlpool Industrias S.A.S., Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric, Hefei Whirlpool Enterprise Management Service Co. Ltd., Hoover Comercial Limitada, IRE Beteiligungs GmbH, Indesit Argentina S.A., Indesit Company, Indesit Company Beyaz Esya Pazarlama A.S., Indesit Company Beyaz Esya Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Indesit Company Ceska S.r.o., Indesit Company Domestic Appliances Hellas Mepe, Indesit Company International Business S.A., Indesit Company Luxembourg S.A., Indesit Company Magyarorszag Kft, Indesit Company Nordics AB, Indesit Company Polska Sp. zo.o., Indesit Company Singapore Pte. Ltd., Indesit Company UK Holdings Ltd., Indesit IP S.r.l., Indesit International ZAO, Indesit Ireland Ltd., Indesit Middle East FZE, Indesit Ukraine LLC, Industrias Acros Whirlpool S. de R.L. de C.V., Industrias Acros Whirlpool S.A. de C.V, Jackson Appliances Ltd., Joint-Stock Company Indesit International, KitchenAid, KitchenAid Australia Pty Ltd, KitchenAid Australia Pty Ltd., KitchenAid Delaware Inc., KitchenAid Europa Inc., KitchenAid Global, KitchenAid Global Inc., KitchenAid Inc., KitchenAid Korea Limited, KitchenAid Promotions, KitchenAid Promotions LLC, KitchenAid Trading Co., KitchenAid Trading Co. Ltd., LAWSA S.A., MLOG Armazem Geral Ltda., Maytag Corporation, Maytag Limited, Maytag Properties, Maytag Properties LLC, Maytag Sales, Maytag Sales Inc., Maytag Worldwide N.V., Merloni Domestic Appliances Ltd., Nineteen Hundred Corporation, Polar S.A., Qingdao EECON Electronic Controls and Appliances Co., Qingdao EECON Electronic Controls and Appliances Co. Ltd., South American Sales Partnership, THC Assets Corporation, Up Points Servicos Empresariais S.A., Vitromatic S.A. de C.V., WCGP Nova Scotia Co., WHirlpool EMEA Finanace S.a r.l., Whirlpool (Australia) Pty. Limited, Whirlpool (B.V.I.) Limited, Whirlpool (China) Co. Ltd., Whirlpool (China) Investment Co., Whirlpool (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Whirlpool (Hefei) Trading Co., Whirlpool (Hefei) Trading Co. Ltd, Whirlpool (Hong Kong) Limited, Whirlpool (Japan) Co. Ltd., Whirlpool (Thailand) Limited, Whirlpool ASEAN Co., Whirlpool America Holdings Corp., Whirlpool Argentina S.r.l., Whirlpool Asia B.V., Whirlpool Asia Holdings S.a r.l., Whirlpool Asia Inc., Whirlpool Asia LLP, Whirlpool Belux N.V./S.A., Whirlpool Bermuda Euro Ltd., Whirlpool Beyaz Esya Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.S., Whirlpool Bulgaria Ltd., Whirlpool CIS Ltd., Whirlpool CR, Whirlpool CR spol. s.r.o., Whirlpool CSA Holdings S.a r.l., Whirlpool Canada Co., Whirlpool Canada Co. (post 9/1/05 amalgamation company), Whirlpool Canada Holding Co, Whirlpool Canada Holding Co. 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Ltd., Whirlpool Technologies LLC, Whirlpool UK Appliances Limited, Whirlpool UK Pension Scheme Trustee Limited, Whirlpool Ukraine LLC, Whirlpool WW Holdings B.V., Whirlpool do Brasil Investements B.V., Whirlpool do Brasil Ltda., Whirlpool of India Limited, Whirlpool Osterreich GmbH, Whirlpool Osterreich GmbH, Xpelair, Xpelair Ltd., Yummly, Yummly Canada Ltd., and Yummly Inc.. Wall Street analysts have given iShares Latin America 40 ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Latin America 40 ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. ANSONIA-A Mariachi band provided a Latin flare to the conventional Ave Maria and Gloria Nasturtium. A live donkey led the procession of the three kings into the church before being penned into a live manger, complete with ducks, goats, rabbits and a sheep off to the left of the altar.. And the priest, likening himself to a shepherd tending his flock, held a three-week old sleepy lamb close to his chest during the Homily. At a time when Catholic churches have been wrestling with a decline in attendance, a standing room only crowd of about 600 parishioners filled the Church of the Assumption Sunday during its 10:30 a.m. Mass celebrating the Feast of the Epiphanyone of the Roman Catholic churchs holiest Sundays. I think it gave the parishioners a feeling of what it was like in Bethlehem, the Rev. James Sullivan said following the Mass. The Feast of the Epipheny is a very important holy day for Catholics in Europe and Latin America. We have a big European and Latin American population in the Valley. I wanted to make them feel important by bringing their culture and traditions here. So the church brought in six members of the Mariachi Mexico Antiguo band from Wallingford using their vihuela, guitarron, trumpet, three violens and performed the hymns and the responses. It turned out so beautiful, said Mary Cardenas, an Ansonia resident. I am speechless. I already told the band they will be back next year. Sullivan called on a grade school friend, Kelly Cronin of Prospect, who operates Farm on Wheels and Kellys Kids, a summer camp and therapeutic program for special needs and foster children. This is the first time weve done something like this inside a church, Cronin said. It was a little difficult. The animals are not used to this. However children flocked to the pen following the Mass touching and asking about the animals. We put this all together in a matter of days, Sullivan said. When you do something from the heart everything falls into place. And such accomplishments are nothing new during Sullivans nearly four year stay at Assumption. In 2016 he bicycled 372 miles from the church to Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal to raise money While the band often performs in Hispanic churches upstate, this was the first time they played at Assumption. It was wonderful, amazing, said Margeret Steczkowski, who attended the Mass with her husband Kamil and their daughters, Nicole, 10 and Megan, 8. In Europe this is our second Christmas. Father Sullivan brought God to life today. . MILFORD-Police are seeking the publics help in identifying a woman they believe robbed the Oxford Jewelers kiosk in the Connecticut Post Mall on Oct. 31. Surveillance photos show a female prying open a kiosk jewelry case, taking several items and then leaving the Mall at about 10:30 p.m. She then comes back and takes several more items be0819burfore entering a dark colored sedan waiting for her in the parking lot. HARTFORD Its rare that a group of advocates and frontline workers would gather to support the nomination of a Department of Children and Families Commissioner, but thats what happened Monday. Colleagues and advocates whose work intersects with the Department of Children and Families came to support Vannessa Dorantes at a press conference where Gov.-elect Ned Lamont nominated her to the position. After a national search, Lamont said some of the best and the brightest are already on the frontlines already doing the work. Dorantes, 49, said she was offering the search committee information she thought would help inform their decision about who best to choose to lead the department. She didnt necessarily go into this looking to apply for the job. Connecticuts children need us rowing in the same direction regardless of our different roles, Dorantes said. Professional relationships are not always easy, theyre not always agreeable, but theyre built upon mutual respect. We have common goals and child well-being is one of them. She said as head of the agency she believes children thrive in nurturing and supportive families and to that end the department will continue to focus on community-based, culturally responsive, trauma informed services. She said shes also committed to improved data collection services so we all evolve to meet children where they are. She said Connecticuts children want stakeholders to work together. She said collaboration will pay dividends for children and families. Dorantes, who was hired 27 years ago as a social worker in the department, said it was the year after the Juan F. federal court order went into effect. The same consent decree the department is still under to this day. The Juan F. complaint filed in 1989 and settled in 1991 alleged that the department failed to provide adequate child protective services, failed to make reasonable efforts to keep families together and failed to provide minimally adequate staffing and appropriate care for children. Im not going to commit to an end date because no one has been able to successfully get there, Dorantes said. But weve going from 22 outcome measures down to the last five and the last five are practice related and thats where my skill set is. She said they will get there by making sure the agency maintains strong ties to the community and community organizations. Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, a critic of the departments previous leadership, said shes thrilled with Dorantes. Shes representative of the staff because she rose up from the ranks, Walker said. She said she also has credibility within the community because when shes presented with a concern or a problem she tackles it head on. She said a parent was struggling to get their child, who was under DCF care at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, services and no one in the administration would address the issue, except for Dorantes. Vannessa took the case. She met with the young man and his parent and the child is now thriving in a system thats community and family based, Walker said. Dorantes serves as a Regional Administrator in the Department of Children and Families, where she is responsible for the leadership and development of 475 professional and support staff members in a 43-town area in northwest Connecticut. As commissioner she will oversee about 3,200 employees and she will be paid the same as former Commissioner Joette Katz, whose salary was around $172,200 a year. Connecticuts Democratic U.S. senators plan to re-introduce a universal background check bill this week that was first proposed six years ago as a response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Back then to the dismay of family members of Sandy Hook victims who watched the vote from the Senate gallery the background check bill failed to win enough votes, even though the chamber was controlled by Democrats at the time. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 vote majority in the Senate, but most legislation in that chamber requires 60 votes to pass. At a press conference in Hartford Monday, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was cautiously optimistic about the bills prospects. I think the stronger the bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, the more pressure there will on Republicans in the Senate, Murphy said. It is not an easy road to get to 60 in the Senate, but it is not impossible and I dont think you can calculate how much energy will be created by this bill passing the House of Representatives for the first time. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said public sentiment about gun control has shifted and the National Rifle Associations grip on members of Congress has slipped. We have reached that tipping point when we are breaking the grip of the NRA and the special interests who have been in our way up to now on this issue, Blumenthal said. The senators bill would extend FBI background checks, which are now conducted when someone purchases a gun from a store, to people buying weapons at gun shows and through the internet. Murphy said the bill will make sure that every single person that tries to buy a gun in this country proves that they are not a dangerous criminal before they get their hands on a dangerous weapon. It is simply common sense that you should not be able to get your hands on a deadly weapon if you have a history of violence, if you have a history of serious illness, Murphy said. Murphy launched a successful filibuster, holding up work in the Senate, in 2015 to force GOP leaders to schedule votes on the universal background check bill and other gun-related legislation. But, once again, the background check bill failed to garner enough support to pass. However, leaders in the new Democratic-controlled House have planned votes on more than a dozen gun-related bill, including the universal background check legislation. Despite the obstacle GOP leadership in the Senate poses to Democrats who seek to tighten federal gun laws, Blumenthal said they are not settling for background checks alone. He also plans to introduce bills that would require safe storage of weapons and extend Connecticuts red flag law to the rest of the nation. That bill would allow family members and others to seek the temporary confiscation of guns from people who could be a threat to themselves or others. Background checks are a beginning, they are a bare minimum, Blumenthal said. Last year, San Antonio received a gift that seemingly keeps giving scooters. They arrived and we began to loosely regulate them and they keep arriving. The proliferation of scooters has to be addressed to accommodate them while protecting the people of San Antonio, as well as the nature and character of our neighborhoods and city. I believe the last three months of the pilot program provides an opportunity to try new layers of strategies. Parking and riding scooters on sidewalks has proven problematic, dangerous and disruptive to pedestrians. It is time to create a framework, where none now exists, and pilot some ideas that can work in San Antonio. Here are some suggestions we can implement quickly: Parking zones We should look at existing on-street infrastructure, like No Parking/No Standing areas, or a dedicated public parking space, in which an exclusive dockless parking area can be created. We know what one unit of parking costs per day, and we can easily calculate the value of such spaces. Scooters can be deployed with more attention to detail, and we can clean up the visual and spatial clutter, mitigate accessibility issues and show riders the types of places where parking is acceptable. Scooter parking areas must not impede sidewalks and should be placed away from pedestrian travel, especially in areas that have accessibility components like ADA ramps and bus stops. We must leverage data that scooter companies collect have about rides to identify designated public/private parking spaces as pick-up and drop-off zones, located in easily identifiable areas distributed throughout the city downtown and neighborhoods. This will reduce the clusters of scooters on sidewalks and establish a network of designated scooter parking areas. Centro partnership Private partnerships can help the city deploy this effort quickly and effectively. Our downtown public improvement district Centro can help the city of San Antonio partner with private property owners to designate areas for scooter parking on their properties. Centro ambassadors can help marshal busy intersections while engaging and informing the public of scooter rules with support from the San Antonio Police Department. 311SA app Our newly revamped 311 system was created to easily report problems and issues. By adding a section for scooters to the app, we can create a bridge of communication between residents, the city of San Antonio and scooter companies through data sharing. Citizen input should help shape policy. Better reporting means better response. Innovation and Technology Committee Although scooters are a form of transportation overseen by the Transportation Committee, they are also a product of innovation and technology. The newly formed Innovation and Technology Committee is made up of council members and residents from technology fields, and can help review issues and concerns during the pilot period. Both committees should be informed by city briefings and involved in decisions moving forward. Pedestrian mobility officer The citys new pedestrian mobility officer, or PMO, position recognizes the growing need for one or more staff positions specifically charged with ensuring policies, codes and projects that impact pedestrians are consistent with city policies. The city of San Antonio will implement projects according to national and international best practices in land-use planning and street design. The issues we face with scooters demonstrate the need for new expertise and accountability as cities continue to experience disruptive technologies and business models. The city and council should immediately task the newly hired PMO with providing data on the safety implications of allowing individuals to ride scooters on sidewalks. This has been a contentious issue for residents, and our decision needs to be reflective of what is best for public safety. Sidewalk master plan We must complete the in-progress sidewalk master plan with an emphasis on cultivating a non-automobile centric focus. The lack of bike lanes and incomplete network of sidewalks demonstrate that we have prioritized cars at the expense of people. As residents rediscover the urban core of our city as a vital and vibrant place to live and visit, this automobile-oriented focus exposes the weaknesses of our infrastructure and lack of preparation for other modes of transit. Going forward, our priority must be to harmoniously and safely balance the interaction of pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and those using other vehicles by meaningfully connecting all modes of transportation without sacrificing safety or accessibility. We have multimodal needs that must replace the choices of our past planning. I am aware the city is increasing its efforts to respond to concerns about scooters. However, I would like to see the ideas Ive outlined explored as quickly as possible. During the remaining three months of our pilot program, lets not only be creative about how we continue to regulate scooters, but also responsive to the public. That is the purpose of the pilot program. New and alternative modes of transportation provide our city more options for getting around, but we must ensure we accommodate these options with smart planning that emphasizes safety, accessibility and sensibility. Thoughtfully building useful infrastructure is the key to solving the challenges of today and tomorrow, but we must evolve more than just our infrastructure. We must evolve our way of thinking. I will work with residents, Centro and the Center City Development Office to make adjustments in the first weeks of the new year, including advocating for the Innovation and Technology Committee to discuss dockless vehicles in our January meeting. Lets remember that scooters are a last-mile transportation option, they dont need to be a last 3 feet option. Accessibility and safety must coexist with innovation. By adopting some commonsense adjustments to the pilot program, we will be in a stronger position to craft permanent regulations that will work for residents and the city when the pilot program ends. Roberto Trevino represents San Antonio City Council District 1, which includes downtown. San Antonio businessman and philanthropist Guillermo Nicolas has been holding on to big news, anxiously awaiting to talk about his donation to Texas Public Radio. Hes both giddy and nervous. TPR will announce his gift Tuesday and name its new downtown headquarters the Irma and Emilio Nicolas Media Center in his parents honor. Nicolas wouldnt reveal the figure but said its in excess of seven numbers and among the largest donations the station has ever received. Its the largest donation Nicolas has ever made. TPRs $12.5 million construction project will provide the station a modern new home in a downtown hot spot, with 40,000 square feet of space on four floors in what was the unfinished stage house behind the historic Alameda Theater. It was once an area where Mexican and Mexican American culture met commerce and where the Nicolas family has deep roots. By 2020, the theater complex will fuse with the San Pedro Creek Cultural Park, the new Frost Bank Tower and other developments. TPR expects to move in by December and be able to double its staff in about six years, said station president and CEO Joyce Slocum. Were super excited about that, she said. We are among the fast-growing newsrooms in the public radio sphere. Commercial radio may be declining, but public radio is growing, she said. TPR is part of a larger $23 million public-private project in which the City of San Antonio and Bexar County each contributed more than $9 million, a sum that includes the theaters renovation. TPRs headquarters will honor Nicolas parents, whose accomplishments in media are long and national and have been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution. The Nicolases birthed the nations first Spanish-language TV station in San Antonio and the nations fourth TV network after ABC, NBC and CBS. That network grew into Univision. Emilio Nicolas, now 88 and ailing, set up his Spanish-language broadcast network to operate like CNN later would. It was the first satellite-interconnected network in the country, distributing content across the country. OnExpressNews.com: Panel OKs San Pedro Creek apartment complex near downtown San Antonio His sons gift to TPR is a sentimental one that touches on both maternal and paternal roots. Irma Cortez Nicolas, 86, Guillermos mother, is the daughter of Raoul Cortez, who founded KCOR-AM Radio, which operated next to the Alameda Theater. His Sombrero Radio Network brought caravans of Mexican acting, comedy and music giants to San Antonio. They traveled to his other stations from here to Los Angeles. Those stars including Cantinflas, Lola Beltran, Pedro Infante and Maria Felix performed live on radio in the morning, then appeared on the Alameda stage at night. Guillermo Nicolas sees his mother as an unsung hero in his media familys story. His father wouldnt have achieved such successes without her. She was a rock, the son said. Nicolas, president of 3N Group, a commercial real estate management and development company in San Antonio, says his gift to TPR is meaningful in a broader way. Its important to our young Mexican American kids who dont know the sky is the limit to see that a person from Rosita, Coahuila, can come to San Antonio, get an education, then build the fourth (television) network in the United States, he said. The gift complements the $2 million contribution made by Carlos and Malu Alvarez. The black box theater named for them will be inside TPR headquarters. Two Mexican families, now two Mexican American families, Nicolas said of U.S. Hispanic philanthropy, now a subject of national study. Nicolas is slightly worried about how his parents will react to having their names on a building. For them, a good deed isnt one if others know of it, he said. But Nicolas makes clear his gift isnt a good deed. On ExpressNews.com: Foundation of the late theater chain owner John Santikos donates $3 million Its a tribute and thank you for being wonderful parents and allowing me to be the person I am, he said. For what theyve done for the country and other Hispanics; for (KWEXs) open-door policy, which is why people know Cesar Chavez and Willie Velasquez. Like so many important Latino figures, they had access to the air waves because of Dad, he said. Elaine Ayala covers religion and minority affairs in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala The mother of a missing San Antonio baby says a search team of relatives and friends found a baby bottle near Rodriguez Park Sunday morning, prompting a large police presence at the West Side park. "I honestly believe it's my baby's bottle," said Jasmine Gonzales. 8-month-old King Jay Davila was abducted Friday night from a corner store parking lot. San Antonio police reported that the car was left running and the door unlocked when the father went into the Friends Food Mart at 351 Enrique Barrera Parkway Friday evening. San Antonio police posted on their Twitter feed at 5:43 p.m. that the search for Davila is ongoing and that officials are conducting a more thorough search of the area as part of the investigation. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus confirmed a bottle was found but said it is unknown if it belonged to Davila. McManus also disputed that a body had been found at the park. RELATED: S.A. police respond to North Star Mall after man pulls out a gun "There's been reports of a body being found at Rodriguez Park and that is not the case, there was no body found," McManus said at a briefing for a separate incident across town on the North Side. "Detectives are doing their due diligence in searching everywhere in that park including the body of water that's in there and will be back there again tomorrow to continue that search. " Bexar County Sheriff's Department deputies and San Antonio Fire Department personnel were seen assisting police. SAPD confirmed that firefighters were helping with a water search and a BCSO spokesman said deputies were called to the park. At 4:30 p.m. deputies shut down the park as an SAFD crew launched a watercraft into Leon Creek nearby and a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter searched from above. Now Playing: San Antonio Police Department released surveillance footage of a suspect believed to be connected with the abduction of the missing baby. Video: San Antonio Police Department Police released a surveillance video Saturday showing a woman at the gas station getting into the father's Dodge Dart with the baby inside and driving away without hesitation. The car was found later that night in the same area where family members found the bottle Sunday morning. A family member who did not want to be identified said they were searching the park Sunday morning because they were told by police that is where the car was found after the abduction. RELATED: Video shows missing 8-month-old abducted from San Antonio corner store San Antonio police charged the father, Christopher Davila, with child endangerment. Police have said the parents are estranged and the family has been uncooperative, something the family disputes. "The family is not cooperating, as is the father Christopher Davila, not cooperating," McManus said Saturday evening at a news conference. Gonzales and other family members adamantly rejected those allegations Sunday and lambasted the police department. She said she and the father are engaged and remain together, and that family has been searching for the child since Friday. "The police is saying a whole bunch of bull****," Gonzales said at the park. "That's why I'm disagreeing with them and disputing them and everything." FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox Police have focused on the father since the start of the investigation. "We believe right now that (the father) knows the woman who took the baby," McManus said Friday evening. But Sunday several family members said no one in the family recognized the woman in the video. The baby's mother also blasted San Antonio police as they searched the park. "They need to stop (expletive) putting some blame on someone that's innocent and worry about finding my baby, that's what they need to do," Gonzales said. "I'm assuming they couldn't do their job so now the FBI is stepping in." San Antonio police reported Saturday evening that the FBI began assisting in the investigation but also that local law enforcement has not paused in their search for the child. "Detectives have been working around the clock since this happened last night and they continue to work as we speak," McManus said Saturday. Christina Gonzalez, the father's sister, said he loves his kids. "They're too focused on my brother," she said Sunday. The bottle, which prompted the police presence at the park, is decorated with multicolored stars and a blue lid and was found near the park's Leon Creek Trail by Gonzales' stepmother, the child's mother said. The family called police immediately after finding the bottle. "The case remains under heavy investigation," McManus said Sunday night. There will be more on this breaking story as news develops. Luis Vega, a vigorous 87-year-old Korean War Air Force veteran, was unleashing his best merengue moves Sunday at the annual Puerto Rican Heritage Societys celebration of Three Kings Day with a pink bundle of great-granddaughter pressed to his shoulder. Thats Camilla, Vega boasted, over a raucous band. Shes 2. This is a long tradition in my family. Everyone danced. I won trophies for dancing. Its in my blood. And now, in hers. Hundreds of Puerto Ricans both long-established San Antonians and new immigrants torn from the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017 gathered at San Fernando Cathedrals Community Center to commemorate the Epiphany tale of three kings following a star to baby Jesus manger. While Three Kings Day is celebrated throughout the Hispanic world half of U.S. Hispanics acknowledge the event, according to a poll by ThinkNow it consumes Puerto Rico even more than Christmas and its festivities seem to be growing, from Miami to Brooklyn to Chicago. Sundays event in San Antonio was the heritage societys 25th celebration of Fiesta de los Reyes Magos. When I come to this each year, said Vega, a lithe diminutive man dressed in a crimson Cuban guayabera shirt, it reminds me of home and the old traditions. When we were little we would put grass under our bed on the eve of January 6 and in the morning there might be gifts. The grass or hay is for the three kings camels. I collect Three Kings things, like ceramics, wood carvings, said Nereida Burgess, a local educator who lived in Puerto Rico for 26 years before leaving in 1986. These childhood memories are important to remember and pass down. Echoing through the hall were the familiar sounds of Puerto Rican instruments like the guiro, a hollow gourd with notches on one side that sounds like ratcheting when rubbed with metal tines, or el cuatro, a lute-like small guitar shaped more like a violin. The Puerto Riquenos of a certain age were singing by heart the old hits played by the band as attendees strolled through the crowd of old friends or waited in line for a feast of traditional dishes. The aromatic food included such quintessential Puerto Rican fare as arroz con gandules, the fluffy rice with a type of lentils often seasoned with diced ham; pasteles, a traditional Christmas type of tamale made with pork in adobo sauce encased in green banana masa; and pernil, a delicate seasoned pork that is slowly cooked for hours. But despite the overwhelming joy of the gathering and the constant smiling of children decked out in golden paper crowns, the reality of Hurricane Marias devastation and its effect on family members was still on many minds. We just take so much for granted here, said Maria Perez, the director of health services for the North East Independent School District. Outside of San Juan, in the hills, there are many people who still do not have basic services like electricity, cell phone service and sanitation. Perez, who moved often as a child in an Army family, said she moved her mother out of Puerto Rico last year to Tampa, Florida. Perez hopes to return to her hometown of Caguas in March to see relatives and help in rebuilding efforts. Its so sad to see the people living there who seem to have been forgotten, said Burgess, recalling an island still dominated by blue FEMA tarps. And theres not much awareness by Americans that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. and they pay taxes. The death toll is now estimated by academic researchers to be around 3,000. As she looked around the hall and soaked in the spirit of community that seemed to unite everyone, Burgess said the one word that came to mind was resiliency. We are a resilient people, and among the happiest in the world, she said. But we do need more people to be aware of what has happened and that things in Puerto Rico are not OK. bselcraig@express-news.net A special election has been set to replace former Rep. Justin Rodriguez in the Texas House, and at least two candidates have already confirmed that they plan to run. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the election Monday. It will take place Feb. 12, and early voting will begin Jan. 28. Candidates have until 5 p.m. next Monday to file the necessary paperwork to appear on the ballot. Rodriguez, a Democrat, effectively resigned his seat Friday when he accepted an appointment as the Precinct 2 Bexar County commissioner, replacing the late West Side political icon Paul Elizondo. Rodriguez had represented House District 125 since 2012, and he cruised to re-election in November without a Republican challenger. State Elections Director Keith Ingram said no one has filed paperwork yet, but three people told the San Antonio Express-News they intend to run: Ray Lopez, who served for eight years on the San Antonio City Council; Art Reyna, who held the seat from 1997 through 2002 and served on the Leon Valley City Council; and Coda Rayo-Garza, a policy advocate who works in education. All three have reached out to Rodriguez and state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the dean of the Bexar County delegation, to discuss the race. The vacancy leaves the Bexar County delegation down one member as newly elected legislators are set to be sworn in Tuesday. Lawmakers will begin their work in the legislative session as a frenzied, five-week election campaign takes hold in San Antonio. I think everyone is transitioning to governing, Martinez Fischer said. When you throw a special election in the middle of that to fill a seat that I would say is critical to Bexar County, from our perspective, it sort of divides our focus and concentration. District 125 is a heavily Democratic area that covers a swath of the West and Northwest sides. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro held the seat before Rodriguez. Castro was 27 when he defeated Reyna in the 2002 primary election to start his political career. Candidates for the seat must be U.S. citizens 21 or older who have lived in Texas for at least two years and in the district for at least one year. The filing fee is $750. Both Rodriguez and Martinez Fischer declined to elaborate on the campaigns prospects, but they said it would be a sprint. With the scheduling as aggressive as it is, Martinez Fischer said, it will weed out candidates that wont be able to compete in such a short time period. Rodriguez said a head start will be beneficial: Whoever gets organized quickly will have a leg up. Dylan McGuinness covers local politics and the Bexar County government for the Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness When newly sworn-in Judge Stephanie Boyd presides over the first trial in her new courtroom, she will have come full circle. It was there, in 187th state district court, where she tried her first case as a new lawyer. But this time shes on the bench. Thats going to be wow, she saidabout upcoming cases on her docket, as her new staff prepared for today, when panels begin showing up for jury duty. Its going to be surreal. As most people were ringing in the new year last week, Boyd and other jurists who rode the Democratic wave in Bexar County were taking their oaths and putting on their robes many for the first time. Among the judicial newcomers is Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who is openly gay and will preside over County Court-at-Law No. 13. County courts handle misdemeanor cases, while state district courts have jurisdiction in felony criminal, civil, criminal juvenile and family law cases. Each of those judges are elected to four-year terms. This year, incumbents were re-elected in just 10 of 32 judicial races. Twelve district judges werent on the ballot this year. The every-four-year wave isnt unusual, said Judge Sid Harle, a Republican who spent 30 years as judge of the 226th state District Court, which now will be led by Judge Velia Meza, a Democrat. Bexar County didnt used to be that way, said Harle, now the presiding judge of the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region. Incumbents, if they did a good job, didnt get opponents. And most (voters) didnt go straight down the ticket to vote. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Harle as the presiding judge for a four-year term. Responsibilities in that role include assigning visiting judges and handling motions for recusal. Another part of that job is to advise local judges on judicial management. Harle said candidates could spend millions on their campaigns, but if its all about the top of the ticket, youll get a lot of (voters) who could care less about the bottom of the ticket, and the judicial candidates get lost. Some courthouse watchers lament the years of experience that left the courtrooms this time around, but Harle dismissed that. What stays the same is the facts and law that motivate rulings in the cases, Harle said. Everybody will grow into their jobs. He said these days, new judges have tremendous resources to help them in their new roles. The resources I had when I took the bench was to either ask Judge Pat Priest or Judge Jim Barlow, Harle, referring to two experienced judges who died in 2018 and 2010, respectively. They were great mentors. Harle said judge these days must attend what he called judges school, instruction conducted by the Texas Center for the Judiciary in Austin. Boyd had her bench book on her desk in her chambers Friday. Any type of situation that arises is in this book, said Boyd, who added she looks forward to her new role. As a defense attorney, your job is to represent your client. As a prosecutor, your job is to seek justice, she said. Now, as a judge, a great part of my job is to make sure everybody has a level playing field. Gonzalez, like Boyd, was getting her courtroom, office and chambers ready Friday. She has practiced family law, and her court will focus on domestic violence cases. Her courtroom also will be a little different than the others. She has the rainbow flag standing alongside the American and Texas flags near her bench, in front of the Bexar County seal. The rainbow flag, a pride symbol recognized by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, is there, she said, so LGBTQ defendants know they will be treated just like everyone else. San Antonio and Bexar County have some of the highest numbers per capita of LGBTQ, families living here, Gonzalez said. For that population to see the rainbow flag in court is to show them they are no longer excluded from the justice system, that they are equal, as opposed to people who arent worthy of justice. The new year is bringing other changes, including the return of equalization in assigning criminal cases in state district courts, which should result in all courts having the same number of cases on their dockets. Previously, some courts had heavier caseloads than others. The judges voted for equalization at a meeting last month conducted by state District Judge Ron Rangel, the administrative judge for criminal courts. Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 The Bexar County Sheriffs Office has hired a law enforcement psychologist to help reset the agencys culture and tackle a pervasive issue of employee misconduct that saw 26 staffers arrested last year. Brandi Burque, who had been a staff psychologist for San Antonio police since 2013, has become the first person in nearly 30 years to hold that role for the Sheriffs Office. At the San Antonio Police Department, Burque was known for pioneering a wellness initiative called the Performance and Recovery Optimization (PRO) program. It drew on other areas of psychology to improve the training process and teach officers to recognize the physiological signs of stress. She said it was unique because officers helped her write it. Officers know what they need, said Burque, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology. We just need to give the right resources to them in order to handle the stress of the job. The hiring comes after 23 deputies and three civilian employees of the Sheriffs Office were arrested in 2018, many for violent crimes. The majority of those arrested were detention deputies who work in the county jail. Sheriff Javier Salazar announced Burques hiring Monday. He said shes a key part of a broader plan to address that behavior, which he said has been an issue at the agency for at least a decade. I think if you use terminations and arrests as your only approach to this situation, its really a one-dimensional approach, Salazar said. Its not as effective as if youre attacking it on several fronts. The psychologist will provide clinical treatment for BCSO staff and their families, teach training sessions and assist in crisis negotiations and other critical situations. It is a role that is almost identical to the responsibilities she had with San Antonio police. She will be bringing that skill set with her, Salazar said. A major part of her job will be to screen all applicants who want to become deputies, Salazar said. Currently, applicants undergo a physical examination through University Health System. Those exams do include a psychological test, but Salazar said it will be beneficial to have screening from a dedicated law enforcement psychologist. That will help weed out people who arent fit to join the agency and flag potential concerns for incoming deputies to work on, the sheriff said. In addition to screening candidates before theyre hired, Salazar said, he wants Burque to check them again when they are set to graduate from the initial six-month probationary period. Salazar, himself a veteran of San Antonio police, has said he was shocked that the Sheriffs Office didnt have a psychologist on staff when he became sheriff in 2017. SAPD has three staff psychologists. In September, he asked county commissioners to approve $118,000 in funding for the position, and the court granted it in its $1.7 billion budget. Burque is tasked with building an office dedicated to handling deputies psychological needs. Salazar said the agency will be asking for additional funding in the next budget to expand the program, though he isnt sure yet whether that will mean adding another psychologist or providing other resources. She is who we are building our program around, Salazar said. She is my centerpiece, and were going to continue to give her the tools that she needs to help us change the culture of this agency. John Price, who heads SAPDs psychological services team and recruited Burque to the office, said the sheriff made a great pick. He first met Burque when she was a postdoctoral fellow at the office researching ways to better predict who would succeed at the police academy. We hate to see her go, frankly, Price said. But this is a great opportunity. Price said Burques work developing the PRO program drew on information from other areas of research, including sports psychology and military psychology, to improve outcomes for officers. We dont have to reinvent the wheel, we just have to pull the elements together to make it fit, Price said. Part of the program focused on training officers to recognize the physiological signs of stress while in the field and the effect they have on health and performance, Burque said. If your heart rate is too high, you may start yelling or you may have some issues with that, she explained. A lot of that goes into de-escalation training as well because if you can recognize your stress level, you can recognize it in somebody else. It also helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which Burque said is the leading cause of death for those in law enforcement. She said officers are 25 times more likely to die from heart disease than as a result of a suspects actions. Burque said her career has focused on first responders since she was in graduate school. She called the new gig her dream job. My passion has been officer safety and officer wellness for a very long time, Burque said. To be a part of the sheriffs vision for this agency is a huge honor for me. Dylan McGuinness covers local politics and the Bexar County government for the Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness A police chief tasked with evaluating security at a Florida school district where 17 people were killed in February and a survivor of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs shooting are among the panelists headlining a discussion today on whether East Central Independent School District should consider allowing select teachers and staff to carry firearms. The four panelists are David Colbath, who survived the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs shooting in 2017; Laura Aten, a retired East Central teacher; Mary Beth Fisk, executive director of the Ecumenical Center; and Rod Ellis, police chief of Glynn County Public Schools in Georgia. Ellis has assessed mass casualty events for the nonprofit security firm Safe Havens International, which was hired by Broward County Public Schools in Florida after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at its high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Hes part of a team currently reviewing school safety in that district, East Central ISD spokeswoman Ashley Chohlis said. OnExpressNews.com: Opponents skeptical of East Central ISD quest for gun proposal Todays discussion is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the East Central High School. Trustees called for the panel after a tense board meeting in November, the first time many parents said they became aware of the districts consideration of the Guardian Plan, a legal option that allows Texas school boards to arm employees. Under the Guardian Plan, school boards set all their own rules for how to maintain firearms in the schools and training and other requirements for volunteers who are selected. Some parents who spoke at the November meeting were against the Guardian Plan. Others were upset the agenda allowed for a vote to be taken when they thought enough community input was not sought. In December, the district posted an online survey and surveyed faculty internally. The district posted results of both surveys. Community survey results showed 636 votes for the plan, 665 against and 77 were neutral. The district said 338 faculty members agreed with the plan while 261 did not. Trustees could vote on the measure at their Jan. 17 meeting. WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, rolled back Sunday Trumps decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave U.S. forces there for months or even years. Bolton, making a visit to Israel, told reporters that U.S. forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of the Islamic State group were defeated and Turkey provided guarantees that it would not strike Kurdish forces allied with the United States. He and other top White House advisers have led a behind-the-scenes effort to slow Trumps order and reassure allies, including Israel. We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they dont endanger our troops, Bolton said in Jerusalem, where he was traveling before a visit Tuesday to Turkey. Boltons comments inserted into Trumps strategy something the president had omitted when he announced Dec. 19 that the United States would depart within 30 days: any conditions that must be met before the pullout. The remarks also reflected the disarray that has surrounded the presidents decision, which took his staff and foreign allies by surprise and drew objections from the Pentagon that it was logistically impossible and strategically unwise. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned within hours of the announcement, and the Pentagon chief of staff, Kevin Sweeney, said Saturday evening that he was also leaving. While Bolton said Sunday that he expected U.S. forces to eventually leave northeastern Syria, where most of the 2,000 troops in the country are based for the mission against the Islamic State, he began to lay out an argument for keeping some troops at a garrison in the southeast that is used to monitor the flow of Iranian arms and soldiers. In September, three months before Trumps announcement, Bolton had declared that the United States would remain in Syria as long as Iranians were on the ground there. Asked on CBS News Face the Nation if Boltons comments amounted to an admission that Trump had made a mistake, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who at times has been one of the presidents staunchest supporters, said, This is the reality setting in that youve got to plan this out. Graham, who described the dangers of making the announcement first and then considering the longer-term implications, added, The president is slowing down and is re-evaluating his policies in light of those three objectives: Dont let Iran get the oil fields, dont let the Turks slaughter the Kurds, and dont let ISIS come back. The move to reverse course on Trumps promised swift withdrawal picked up in recent days, even as Bolton worked to avoid openly confronting the president the way Mattis did. On Friday, in a briefing for reporters about a forthcoming trip to the Middle East by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a senior State Department official said there was no fixed timetable for the U.S. withdrawal. Asked about the shifting timeline Sunday as he left the White House for meetings about border security at Camp David, Trump told reporters that he had never said we were doing it that quickly. In a video on the evening of his announcement in December, he had said that our boys, our young women, our men theyre all coming back, and theyre coming back now, though he later extended that to four months. Now, the four-month schedule appears highly in doubt. The conditions Bolton described, including the complete defeat of the Islamic State and the guarantees from Turkey, could easily stretch out. Bolton will meet Tuesday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who argued to Trump in a phone call last month that the Islamic State had been defeated, and that U.S. troops were therefore no longer needed to aid Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces a terrorist body bent on carving out a separate nation. Before the Turkey visit, Bolton was expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over dinner Sunday evening. Netanyahu has also been concerned about the U.S. plan, for fear it will leave a vacuum and embolden Iran. In Jerusalem, Bolton described the conditions as policy decisions that we need to implement, and he said a timeline for a withdrawal would be necessary only once those stipulations were met. He said that Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would negotiate with Turkish officials this week over the protection of the Kurdish fighters. Boltons comments seemed to expand on a classified memo he wrote to Cabinet officials on Dec. 24 that outlined a strategy for Turkish troops to replace the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops conducting counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, according to two Defense Department officials. Boltons memo came after Trump and Erdogan spoke by phone on Dec. 23. After that conversation, Trump tweeted: I just had a long and productive call with President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. Bolton also wrote in the memo, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that the administrations objectives in Syria remained consistent. Those goals have included routing the Islamic State group from its last enclaves in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, ousting Iranian-commanded forces and pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the countrys civil war. Pentagon officials almost immediately expressed skepticism that the Turkish military, which has struggled to carry out limited operations along its border with Syria in the past two years, could execute expansive counterterrorism operations deeper into Syria, toward the border with Iraq. Moreover, U.S. military planners said any Turkish movements into northeastern Syria would lead to clashes with the Syrian Kurdish-Arab coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The Pentagons skepticism about the plan only heightened in recent days when in response to Boltons memo, Turkish authorities asked the United States for significant military support, including airstrikes, logistics and transportation. Three Defense Department officials said that despite Boltons memo, there had been no planning for any turnover of counterterrorism operations to the Turks. U.S. forces are beginning the preparations for a withdrawal from northeastern Syria, even as the timetable has become increasingly fluid. After meeting in Iraq on Dec. 26 with Lt. Gen. Paul LaCamera, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and Syria, Trump agreed to increase the time for the drawdown from 30 days to four months. That would provide enough time to decide where else in the region to move the huge amounts of military equipment, how much, if any, would remain behind with Kurdish-Arab allies, and what might be disabled to avoid falling into the hands of the Syrian government or its Russian and Iranian allies. This article originally appeared in The New York Times Food origins are often undocumented, and thats a shame, because they have to be a treasure trove of good stories. Kudos to the first person to crack open and swallow a raw oyster or eat a wild mushroom without falling to a deadly poison. One story that can be documented is the moment of brilliance Ernest H. Wright had in the late 1800s in Kansas City, Missouri. According to a 1923 story in The Rotarian, Wright discovered a black liquid dripping out of a pipe attached to a wood-burning stove. Naturally, he decided to taste it, and found that the potent liquid had taken on the smell and flavor of the wood. Eureka liquid smoke was discovered. Wright developed a condensation system to create the liquid out of the smoke fumes in mass quantities and launched his commercial line of liquid smoke in 1895. The product was originally intended to be used to help preserve meats, but it ended up turning into a kitchen staple for cooks in more modern times that craved smoke flavor without the fire. You can still find Wrights Liquid Smoke, as well as many other brands, in most grocery markets. Most are flavored with mesquite or hickory wood, and there is little difference between the two. Its a product that levels the playing field somewhat from pitmaster to pantry steward, allowing the injection of smoke flavor into pretty much anything. On ExpressNews.com: Boerne startup Grain4Grain turns beer byproduct into flour, pancake mix A little bit of liquid smoke goes a long way. Most recipes call for no more than a couple tablespoons, so a 4-ounce bottle can be enough for 20 or more uses. And a single sniff of the bottle will sting your nose as if you spent the night in front of a campfire. Because of the strength of the flavor, you have to be really careful with it, said Brian West, a San Antonio chef and restaurant consultant. For me, the best way to use it is to add it to sauces. It also helps make a good spritz. That taste will come through. West suggests a spritzof a pint each of water and soy sauce, with only a tablespoon of liquid smoke. Barbecue purists tend to distance themselves from liquid smoke. When you have a high-dollar pit system, you tend to use it, and a long blast of smoke from a smoker will deliver a more authentic flavor than liquid smoke replicates. If Im going to smoke something, Ill throw it on the pit and do it the old-fashioned way, said Christopher Haynes, a competition cook who recently opened the 1836 BBQ trailer in New Braunfels. Im not aware of anybody that uses it. But the use of liquid smoke is good alternative for apartment dwellers and folks that dont have access to traditional outdoor devices. It can also be a tremendous time saver, no matter how devoted you are to traditional pit smoking. Dont have time or the space to smoke a brisket for 15 hours? Toss it in the oven, wrapped in aluminum foil with a few tablespoons of liquid smoke, and it will deliver a finished product in about five hours. The pairings of meats and liquid smoke in slow cookers is another winning combination. Ribs, whole chickens and large pork shoulders for pulled pork do well overnight on the low setting, producing a smoky aroma that will fill the entire house. You wont get that bark taste obviously (in a slow cooker), but it will deliver the smoke flavor. Ive eaten some good ribs that have been cooked that way, Haynes said. Going back to Wests suggestion, liquid smoke is a noticeable addition to pasta sauces that incorporate ground meat (chicken, pork or beef), and adds a huge boost to the flavor profile of an old-school meatloaf recipe and heartier sides like mac and cheese and stewed greens. When experimenting, a good rule of thumb is to start with 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke and go from there. And if you choose to use it for a boost on those outdoor smoked meats, your secret is safe with me. Recipe: Liquid Smoke Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe: Liquid Smoke Meat Sauce Recipe: Liquid Smoked Meatloaf Chuck Blount is a food writer and columnist covering all things grilled and smoked in the San Antonio area. Find his Chuck's Food Shack columns on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com, or read his other coverage on our free site, mySA.com. | cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver Its not every day that people who dream of reaching for the stars actually get to. But Scott Bolton is one of those people who has been able to push projects that reach far into our solar systems past. The 60-year-old has been involved in space exploration missions for decades and is currently the associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute. He is also the principal investigator of NASAs Juno mission to Jupiter, which successfully arrived at the solar systems largest planet in July 2016. Bolton worked on Galileo, an earlier spacecraft that launched to Jupiter in 1989 and arrived in 1995. Its mission lasted until 2003. For the Juno mission, Bolton and the teams working on the project had to plan how the spacecraft would survive one of the most hostile environments in our solar system, including Jupiters dangerous radiation. Its also the farthest solar-powered spacecraft ever sent by humanity. OnExpressNews.com: UTSA's Eighmy has big plans for university, San Antonio's downtown Quick facts on Scott Bolton What is your typical morning routine? I wake up about 6:00 a.m. and make coffee. Then within about 15 minutes, if my daughter isn't up, I go make sure she's awake for school, and let my son sleep an extra 15 minutes because he doesn't need as much time to get ready. Then I make sure they go off to school on time, and then I drive to work. What is your favorite restaurant? Cured What book are you reading right now? "The Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant What was your first job with an actual paycheck? Working at a gas station. What is your passion or hobby outside of work? Art and music, and outdoor activities. If you had to pick an entirely different career in an entirely different industry, and there were no limitations to what you could do, what would it be? Being an artist or musician of some kind. See More Collapse Last month, Bolton sat down for an interview with the San Antonio Express-News at the Southwest Research Institute. Here is an edited transcript of the interview: Q: What was it about Jupiter that draws you in? A: Its a planet on steroids. Everything about it is extra. I think it became more interesting because it seemed to fall into an area that was maybe between planets and stars. If it was twice as big; it might have been able to be a star. I think now it probably has to be a lot bigger than that, but that was my initial draw, was that it was so large. It was a class of its own and nothing like the Earth. Q: Why is it that Jupiter is thought to have been the first planet? A: Most of it is size and mass. The idea is that the solar system formed from the leftovers after the sun formed. And Jupiter was first at the table, and so it used up most of the leftovers. And so its hard to imagine forming the rest of the solar system and then later forming Jupiter. One, the leftovers have been spread around by the formation of the other planets, but also, if you form Jupiter, if you had a solar system, almost certainly its giant mass and gravity field would disrupt the orbit and the natural harmony of the solar system that existed, and so things would get thrown into chaos and you might have planets lose their orbit, go into the sun, whatever. Q: Jupiter creates a challenging environment to study. What are those challenges, and how did you and your team overcome them? A: If you want to investigate the interior (of Jupiter), you have to get really close to it, and Jupiters a very hazardous place. Some of the challenges that we had to overcome was power. How do we get power for the spacecraft and the instruments if were that far away from the sun. Wed never had solar power running the spacecraft that far away from the sun. In fact, all of the missions that went that far away previously were run by nuclear power sources. There was no nuclear power source available, so we had to figure out how to use solar. One of the other challenges has to do with the radiation environment. Jupiters a very, very hazardous place because its massive and it has an incredibly strong magnetic field. Its surrounded by really, really, high-energy particles that normally kill any kind of electronics, and certainly would kill a human if you got near it and you werent shielded. And so we had to figure out how to shield the spacecraft, shield its brains, its computer, shield the instruments. I mean, very much, Juno is an armored tank sent to Jupiter. Neither NASA or any other country that had been exploring space had ever built an armored tank with that much shield in it before, so that was a challenge of how do we do that and how do we ensure that it can survive? And how do you make instruments that can work inside that environment. Theyre peeking out from behind the shields, so everythings got to be shielded. The navigation was a challenge because normally you need a camera looking at the stars, and it was going to be hard to take pictures of the stars in the middle of this radiation environment. So even the camera had to be very special. OnExpressNews.com: Scaleworks co-founder talks venture capital and what he looks for in a CEO Q: How has the spacecraft fared? A: Its all held up really well. We havent seen any problems yet from radiation, but we also designed the orbit in a way so that the beginning part of the mission, the first half is a lot easier and less hazardous than the second half. So I didnt really expect that we were going to run into problems in the first half or it meant our designs were really in trouble. The second half and in the next year or two is when it gets really tough, and thats because Jupiters gravity field is not perfectly symmetric. So each time the spacecraft goes around Jupiter, its orbit gets pushed around and it gets moved into more hazardous parts of the territory that its going around. And so thats the thing that keeps me up at night, hoping that Im not going to get a phone call or a text message in the middle of the night from my team saying, Were in trouble. So far we havent. Q: Whats it like to work with NASA, especially planning missions that can take a long time from start to finish? A: One, it takes patience. This is not a job where you go set up something, and a year, everythings fine and you do it and youre done. It takes almost a generation. Youve got to watch your kids grow up while youre waiting for a mission. You need a lot of patience. Along with that, you also have a very large team. These things arent done by one person. When you have a really large team, and youre going to work together for a long time, you need to make sure theres really good communications among the team, people feel appreciated, people are really working hard. We work very hard to make sure that the team works well together and that everybody works as one team. There arent different teams competing with each other. There are people from different companies, different institutions, different universities everybodys got to be working under sort of the Juno umbrella. Theyre all part of one team all trying to get the best even though they might be competing for resources occasionally. We try to work hard to make sure that they understand that, and that in fact, we all just want the best for society. We just want to learn the most science we can. Q: Do you think that space exploration organizations like NASA have goals? What are they? A: Were reaching out not just to the beginning of our Earth or our solar system but the beginning of the whole universe. I think those are NASAs goals. They do evolve over time. More importantly, the goals may not evolve as much as the method and what the plan is to learn. Thats partly because when you learn one thing, you get a few more questions answered. You raise other new questions. You now need to evolve your program and evolve the next events based on what your new knowledge is. What are the new questions that you want to ask? Which theories now have been proven wrong? Which theories are now more in vogue? Are there new ideas out there that we need to go explore? The program that the world is doing as far as space exploration not just NASA but other countries as well has to constantly evolve based on new discoveries and new ideas. I think the long-term goals sort of stay the same. They might get focused a little bit differently depending on politics but also on our discoveries. We discover oceans on other planets or in moons, and so we think, Oh wow, if there are oceans there, thats a little bit like the Earth. Maybe we should go look and see what kind of life might be there if there is life there. Could you have life form there? OnExpressNews.com: Alamo Community Group executive discusses housing policy, segregation, San Antonio's affordable housing crisis Q: Speaking of life, we have companies like Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin pushing the limits of private spacecraft capabilities. Musk wants humanity to become an interplanetary species. What are your thoughts on this? A: I think if you want humans to live forever, the species, then you absolutely need to figure out a way to get off the Earth and move on. I hope we have a while before that happens. I dont see something that means you have to get off right away. We do have to learn how to evolve to a changing Earth. I mean, the Earths climate changes, and it changed before we ever got here, and its going to change after we leave, if we die out. We may also be able to cause the change, which is also not necessarily an advantage. So we have to learn how to evolve and deal with the Earths changes anyway. But being able to reach out and try to become an interplanetary species seems like a good idea to me. I mean, growing up in the Star Trek generation, I wanted to be on the Enterprise, cruising around the galaxy. I wanted to go to other galaxies. I wasnt even satisfied with Star Trek; I wanted to go past where they were. And I believe that if humanity lasts long enough, we will reach that. It seems like theres some basic barriers when you look at the simple laws of physics, as far as the speed of light and how far away things are. Can you actually do that? But I believe you should just keep pushing it and keep getting out there. And reaching out to Mars, as Elon Musk likes to advertise, or Jeff Bezos, I think is a good goal. And I think the way theyre doing it is innovative, and I appreciate it. Q: Would you take up an offer to go to space? A: I would go out for a ride. And I think initially, it would just be to go up and see the Earth, which I think would be cool. But Id like to go further, and Id go for a ride out to the Moon or to Mars if I thought it was going to be safe. I dont have a death wish. Im not one of the people that says, Ill go to Mars even if you have no way to bring me back home. Im not sure I would jump on that. Monday, January 7, 2019 Theres one thing Ive been doing for the past 20 years that has skyrocketed my creativity, and productivity I call it my creativity and productivity hack. Its the thing thats helped me write and publish more than a dozen books, create award-winning programs, global trainings, countless blogs and articles, webinars, website pages, etc. Its also what many of my clients have used to write as many as 20,000 words in a week, complete and publish their book, create and sell new offerings for their business, and much more. This creativity and productivity hack." will work for you too for anything YOU want to create. But before I reveal what the hack." is and how I discovered it on December 2, 1998 I want you to think about something first If I could wave a magic wand right now and grant ONE of your creative projects complete what would you want it to be? Would you want me to grant your book manuscript done? Your reflective journal or workbook complete? Your talk/speech/webinar written? A full year of blog posts ready to go? A new marketing initiative done (podcast, website, lead magnet, etc.)? Think about what creative wish youd like me to grant and write it down! Got it? Okay. This creativity and productivity hack can help you do exactly what you wrote down in less time than you think itll take. Its something so simple, yet so few people do. Why? Because it feels decadent, selfish, and impossible to do amidst everyday life. Because we think we shouldnt need this hack to get things done, like writing our books but, we need it more than we can imagine! Because life takes over and time flies by while we let that blur keep us from what we know we need to do. I need not go on. You get the picture. But as I said, its a game-changer if you do it! In fact, I wrote this blog using my hack. So, what is it? Its something I discovered on December 2, 1998 after a bad breakup with a boyfriend and I needed a day to myself. I craved time to reflect, write and be fully present with what I wanted to create next for myself, my business and my life. With the encouragement of my good friend, Tish, I cancelled all my clients and checked myself into the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa for my first ever spa day. I brought my journal, and my favorite pen and set an intention that the day would flow with ease, joy and an abundance of creativity. That one-day creative retreat at the spa exceeded my expectations. I finished it feeling like a different person, excited that I found my center again and thrilled that I created a ton of great writing for my business too. It worked so well, that from December 2, 1998 to now I consistently take creative days, or weeks. Because, you can get more accomplished in a few focused creative days than in months at home or in your office. This gift of time and space to create what YOU want to create is the hack." that keeps on giving. Giving yourself the gift of TIME and SPACE to write, plan, create, and develop whats important for you and your business is not a luxury. Stay with me here If you are up to great things in the world and know you are here for a purpose And you know that in order to fulfill that purpose you must allow the creative flow to pour through you into whatever it is you are creating Creative days are a NECESSITY. Not a luxury. Like my client Judi, who was struggling big time with the decision to join me at my Creative Author and Leader Mastermind (for Women) in the Bahamas this May. The questions and doubts were troubling her How could I leave my kids? What would my neighbors think if I do this for myself? Do I really deserve it? Well, yes! Judi has an important message to share with women across the globe. Yet, if she doesnt gift herself with focused, uninterrupted creative days that message will never get onto the page and into the world. Harsh, but true. It can feel uncomfortable to give yourself this gift. (Until you get used to it then its all ease and joy to treat yourself and your creative projects like the priorities they are.) So, my friend, its time for you to get uncomfortable and make your priority project exactly that a priority! So when will you schedule a day of focused, uninterrupted creative time? It doesnt need to be at a spa (though that is my personal favorite). You could go to the library, a cafe, a friends house, etc. The key is that you do it! So put a day in your calendar now. As I said, this is a game-changer for anyone who does it! And if youre a woman whod like to join me in the Bahamas like Judi is for six-nights and five full creative days then I highly encourage you to check out my Creative Author and Leader Mastermind here. Ive made it super simple for you to create more in the next six months than you have in the past six years! What do you say? Will you do this for yourself? Comment below and let me know how youll implement this hack. I love hearing from you! Love, Christine More people applying for a visitor visa, for a study or work permit, or for permanent residence in Canada will need to provide biometric information from the 31st of December.Applicants from Europe, the Middle East and Africa already need to do so since July, and now the collection programme is being extended to those from Asia, Asia Pacific and the Americas.It means that they will need to give their fingerprints and a photo when applying for these documents and they will need to go in person to give their biometrics. Most will do this at a visa application centre (VAC) before they leave for Canada.Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen explained that having biometrics makes it easier for immigration and border services officers to stop individuals who pose a risk to the safety and security of Canadians.It also helps officials verify travellers identities, makes processing applications easier and simplifies entry for legitimate travellers.The Government of Canada has been taking steps to make the biometrics process as smooth as possible. This includes expanding its worldwide network of VACs and there are now 152 VACs in 103 countries and allowing applicants to go to any VAC in any country they are legally allowed to enter. If already legally in the United States, applicants can go to one of 135 Application Support Centres.Hussen pointed out that the Government of Canada continues to closely monitor the impact of requiring biometrics to ensure that the level of service available meets the needs of applicants. Canada will be providing periodic biometrics collection services in specific locations as needed. More information on additional services will be announced at a later date.There are also facilitative measures for those who make repeat visits to the country. For example, those coming to visit, study or work temporarily will only need to give their biometrics once every 10 years.Privacy will be protected and the Canadian Government has been working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to protect applicants personal information when collecting, using and sharing biometric information. Canadas policies are based on the best practices of international partners, who are increasingly relying on biometrics.Collecting biometrics from most foreign travellers coming to Canada makes sense on so many levels. It strengthens the integrity of our immigration system, while helping protect the safety and security of Canadians, said Hussen.Not only does biometrics collection give us a reliable, accurate tool to establish a travellers identity, but it also improves our ability to process applications and the entry of people upon arrival in Canada, he added.Biometrics have been required from applicants in support of temporary resident visa, work permit or study permit applications from 29 countries and one territory since 2013.There are some exemptions to biometrics expansion such as Canadian citizens, citizenship applicants, including passport applicants, or existing permanent residents, US visa holders transiting via Canada, children under the age of 14 and applicants over the age of 79.Heads of State and heads of Government are also exempt along with cabinet ministers and accredited diplomats of other countries and the United Nations, coming to Canada on official businessVisa-exempt nationals coming to Canada as tourists do not have to give their biometrics. However, they will need to give biometrics if applying for a study or work permit, or for permanent residency. Pound (GBP) Exchange Rate Range Bound as May Looks to Salvage Brexit Deal The Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate traded in a narrow range on Monday as Theresa May told the media she was still working with the EU on gaining further assurances on her Brexit deal ahead of a vote next week. The PM was forced to delay the vote back in December after it became clear she would lose the vote due to overwhelming opposition from MPs. In delaying the vote, May suggested that the opposition to the deal was mostly down to the vagueness regarding the Brexit backstop agreement, which appeared to suggest the UK could remain in an EU customs agreement indefinitely. While May has so far struggled to get any solid assurances from the EU, she appeared confident that formal assurances will be in place before next weeks vote. May said on Monday: In the coming days what we'll set out is not just about the EU but also about what we can do domestically, so we will be setting out measures which will be specific to Northern Ireland; we will be setting out proposals for a greater role for Parliament as we move into the next stage of negotiations. And we're continuing to work on further assurances, on further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that's been expressed by Parliamentarians. Australian Dollar (AUD) Steady as Commodity Prices Strengthen Meanwhile the Australian Dollar (AUD) held steady at the start of this weeks session as an upswing in commodity prices helped to buoy demand for the trade sensitive currency. While the continued uptrend in oil lent some support to the currency, the Aussies gains appeared to be mostly driven by a rise in iron ore prices as benchmark 62% fines jumped 1.2% to $73.09 a tonne. Analysts suggest the rise in iron ore prices were a mix of optimism regarding demand in China as well as a broader lift across commodity markets. Darren Toh, a data scientist with Tivlon Technologies suggests: Our data analytics model shows low iron ore inventory at steel mills warehouses. So, they are looking to replenish. Given that iron ore accounts for around 20% of Australias total exports the rise should help to reassure AUD investors that the countrys trade balance remained healthy at the start of 2019. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Forecast: Brexit Debate to Dominate Sterling this Week? Looking ahead, UK MPs will debate the EU withdrawal bill this week ahead of a vote on 15 January, something that will likely prompt some significant volatility in the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate throughout the session. The main focus for GBP investors will be on whether or not Theresa Mays Brexit deal is likely to survive a parliamentary vote next week, with Sterling likely to sink if it appear she may still face defeat. In the meantime, AUD investors are likely to pay close attention to the US-China trade discussions taking place in Beijing this week. These will be the first formal talks since late 2018 when the two super powers agreed to a 90 day truce on further tariffs to allow for dialogue. While this has allowed tensions to ease somewhat, there are doubts that a breakthrough will be seen this week, given their differences. Julian Evans-Pritchard, economist at Capital Economics explains: There are concerns about how far apart the two sides still are. The main sticking point is going to be on industrial policy and intellectual property rights. Given Australias reliance on trade and its close trading relationship with China, the talks could lead to the Australian Dollar softening if progress appears slow. this news is not available Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have launched one of the largest international efforts to prevent and treat maternal anaemia in developing countries. The study will also investigate the impacts of iron deficiency on the developing infant brain Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have launched one of the largest international efforts to prevent and treat maternal anaemia in developing countries. The study will also investigate the impacts of iron deficiency on the developing infant brain. The trials, which have just opened in Malawi and Bangladesh, are aiming to recruit more than 6000 women and children. The research is being led by Institute haematologist Dr Sant-Rayn Pasricha, along with collaborators at the University of Melbourne in Australia, University of Malawi in Africa, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research in Bangladesh. Anaemia is one of the most avoidable causes of illness and death in the developing world, with serious health implications for hundreds of millions of mothers and babies. Dr Pasricha said The World Health Organization (WHO) had set an ambitious target of halving the prevalence of anaemia in women by 2025. "There has been almost no progress towards achieving the WHO target. Our efforts are aiming to change that. Through these pivotal trials, we want to find efficient and effective treatment strategies to help women and children reach their full iron needs," Dr Pasricha said. "We hope our findings will provide governments and the WHO with vital knowledge to improve public health policy and tackle this major challenge to global health," he said. Current oral options failing mothers The current oral treatment approaches in lower-income communities in Africa and Asia are having a particularly devastating impact on global maternal health. Dr Pasricha said current iron pill programs in poorer areas were ineffective because they required multiple healthcare centre visits over an extended period of time. "The level of diligence required to keep up a full course of iron pills, limited access to medical centres and poor health infrastructure means an overwhelming number of pregnant women aren't getting the iron they need," he said. Hope for intravenous iron booster Working with colleagues at the University of Malawi, and with the support of AUD $4 million in grants from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a Malawi-based trial is now underway to test the impact of an intravenous iron treatment used successfully in developed countries such as Australia which can safely and rapidly boost iron count to recommended levels in one 15 minute session. "In addition to the life-saving benefits for mothers, previous studies have shown that successful iron interventions increased gestation periods by half a week, almost halved the incidence of prematurity, and improved birthweights by 150 grams," Dr Pasricha said. Backed by more than AUD $7.5 million in funding from the NHMRC, a further two trials in Malawi and Bangladesh will gather world-first evidence on the risks and benefits of mass iron intervention for babies in developing countries. Impacts on development and disease Dr Pasricha said the positive impacts of iron on brain development and physical growth had been widely assumed for decades, but there was no existing data to support the theory. "With the help of trained psychologists, we will gather evidence on the impact of iron on cognitive development, behaviour and physical growth measures such as height and weight. "In addition to brain development, the studies will assess the associated risks of iron intervention in children in poorer communities, such as increased susceptibility to diseases that thrive on iron in the blood, including malaria and some bacterial infections such as salmonella and E. coli," Dr Pasricha said. The findings could help to improve global health policy, said Dr Pasricha. "We hope to provide a rationale for the prudent allocation of government funds and resources, as well as improvements for administering iron through public health programs worldwide." Professor Kamija Phiri, chair of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Malawi, said the studies would inform a clinical rationale and cost-benefit analysis for implementing the best treatment methods in any low-to-mid-income country setting. "We are excited about the possibility of making an important contribution to one of the biggest challenges facing women and children in underserved populations, with broader lessons about the impact of iron on the brain and body," Professor Phiri said. ### The research is supported by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). A recently completed research project led by University of Wyoming researchers allowed novel socio-economic analysis aimed at finding out if ecological infrastructure investments are feasible in various scenarios to improve reliability of the Panama Canal. Fred Ogden, a professor in UW's Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, was the principal investigator on the research. He is currently a visiting senior scientist and academic-in-residence at the Office of Water Prediction at the U.S. National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala. "Our study created a large team that included hydrologists, botanists, forest ecologists, soil scientists, geochemists, geophysicists, civil engineers, social scientists and economists -- all with the objective of improving our understanding of how people make land management decisions affecting tropical watersheds," Ogden says. "In particular, we focused on desirable outcomes of increased stream flow during extended dry periods and reduced erosion. This paper represents a summary of the results of our comprehensive study to inform and improve land management decisions providing hydrologic benefits in the tropics." Ogden contributed to the paper, titled "Assessing Ecological Infrastructure Investments," that was published Jan. 7 (today) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The journal is one of the world's most prestigious multidisciplinary scientific serials, with coverage spanning the biological, physical and social sciences. The project leveraged existing research infrastructure provided by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Agua Salud Project, which provided an experimental setting for testing hypotheses related to the effects of land cover and land use on hydrological response in the watershed that provides all of the river flow that powers the Panama Canal. Seaborne commerce between the United States and other countries represents the dominant use of the Panama Canal. "Tropical watersheds around the globe are under stress because small watersheds normally provide large amounts of water for large populations and are at risk to drought or other climate stresses," Ogden says. "The Panama Canal Watershed is very important for U.S. commerce and is one of the few places in the tropics that has both a long-term hydrologic record, and an active system of land management-driven decision making that involves landowners and parties interested in maximizing hydrological benefits." This new paper synthesizes the results of a large multiyear, multi-institution, multidisciplinary project. The level of synthesis achieved to make conclusions would have been impossible without the significant contributions from each person involved with the study, Ogden says. Other contributors to the paper were from the University of Alberta, Yale University, University of Saskatchewan, the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Mission Area in Boulder, Colo.; and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Jason Regina, a UW Ph.D. student from Kansas City, Mo., helped collect and analyze hydrological data. Crunching the Numbers The research project met its goals to advance hydrological understanding in the steep humid tropics; understand factors affecting landowner decisions relative to paid land management plans; and combine these findings into an integrated assessment of the potential of long-term payments for hydrological ecosystem services in the Panama Canal Watershed. The economic analysis, based on years of intensive hydrological and behavior study, was headed by researchers from Yale, the University of Alberta, Canada, and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. "I think our results support the location the Panama Canal Authority has been working, so it gives some solid hydrological-economic analyses to that decision," says Eli Fenichel, associate professor of bioeconomics and ecosystem management at Yale, and the paper's corresponding author. "It also provides a sense of how far the Panama Canal Authority can go with ecological infrastructure. We provide a few different options that depend on exactly what their goals are and probably some noneconomic challenges they may face. We do show that the Panama Canal Authority faces real challenges to get more water into the canal in the dry season." According to the paper, the Panama Canal Authority could offer contracts to private farmers to change land use to increase dry-season water flow and reduce sedimentation. Physical and social constraints limit market supply and scalability. Service delays, from the time payments must be made to landowners to the time services are realized, occur because of lags in ecological change that hinder program feasibility. Feasible ecological investment depends on the value and demand for the services the ecological infrastructure provides; the ability to change an ecosystem to produce a greater level of service; and the ability, right and willingness for an entity to make changes to an ecosystem. In many instances, the beneficiaries of ecosystem services lack the ability to implement changes to supply, necessitating a voluntary contracting system that enables payments from water user to water supplier. These systems are called "payments for ecosystem services" or PES. This is a system of agreed-to monetary or in-kind payments made to land holders, who agree to manage their land in an agreed-upon way, such that the land provides benefits to the person making the payment for some kind of service provided by the landscape. This service could include reduced nutrient, sediment or contaminant runoff; more river flow during droughts or nonrainy periods; and habitat for wildlife. Vic Adamowicz, one of the paper's co-authors and a professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta, says his role was to help design and implement the survey of landowners in the Panama Canal Watershed. The study collected a variety of information on landowners, including demographics, land area and farming systems. However, he adds the most important element was the determination of landowners' willingness to accept payments in exchange for changing their land use and providing hydrological benefits. This identified the cost for these people to provide hydrological services. The survey design provided cost information for different land-use changes for land that is currently pasture, but could be changed into a silvopastoral (wood pasture) regime or used to grow coffee or timber. The survey also included a number of ways to ensure the responses were valid and realistic. "We feel this helps the Panama Canal Authority in assessing the costs of payments for ecosystem services programs and the benefits, in terms of transit revenue, of PES programs," Adamowicz says. "This is a challenging natural and social science issue that requires understanding of the natural and social systems, and how they interact. We also have described the importance of targeting spatially and landowner preferences for technical assistance and insurance." Fenichel says that the team figured out what a centimeter of water in Gatun Lake was worth to the Panama Canal Authority. Gatun Lake is a large artificial lake located to the south of Colon, Panama. It forms a major part of the Panama Canal, carrying ships for 33 kilometers of their trip across the Isthmus of Panama. In a market where supply equals demand -- known as a market clearing equilibrium -- a quantity-price pair is experienced. Fenichel used the analogy of a bakery making cookies at a certain price to explain this concept. For example, if a bakery charges $5 per cookie, it might sell 10. However, if the bakery charges $4 per cookie, it might sell a dozen. Putting these price-quantity pairs together creates the demand curve. On the other hand, it might cost the bakery $3 to make the 10th cookie, but $4 to make the 12th cookie. This is the supply curve. The bakery would certainly choose to make the 10th cookie because it would net $2 on that cookie, Fenichel says. The bakery likely would continue making up to the 12th cookie because it breaks even on that cookie and makes money on every cookie made before that. "In our analysis, we find a constant amount that the Panama Canal Authority would be willing to pay for a centimeter of water in Gutan Lake but that every centimeter costs more in contracted land-use change," Fenichel explains. "We order the hectares that could be contracted to make a supply curve. The market clearing equilibrium is the quantity of land that the Panama Canal Authority would contract with at the price that is exactly equal to the willingness to pay for the additional water that adding a hectare provides." "As a synthesis paper, it builds on our hydrology research results and uses them to place values on different land management decisions," Ogden says. ### The National Science Foundation funded the study, which took place from 2013-17. Trees are a hallmark of vibrant neighborhoods. So why did nearly one-quarter of eligible residents in Detroit, Michigan, turn down free street trees? That's the mystery University of Vermont researcher Christine Carmichael solves in one of the first studies to explore opposition to city tree planting programs. As cities from New York to L.A. embark on major tree planting initiatives, the research helps to explain why more than 1,800 of 7,425 eligible Detroit residents - roughly 25% - submitted "no-tree requests" between 2011 and 2014 alone. The study was published January 7 by Society and Natural Resources journal. "This research shows how local government actions can cause residents to reject environmental efforts - in this case, street trees - that would otherwise be in people's interests," says Carmichael, a postdoctoral researcher at UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Carmichael found that the opposition in Detroit resulted primarily from negative past experiences with street trees, particularly in low-income neighborhoods grappling with blight from vacant properties. In 2014 alone, the city had an estimated 20,000 dead or hazardous trees, following the contraction of Detroit's once-massive tree maintenance program from budget cuts and population decline. For many long-term residents, wariness of the new trees was driven by past experiences of caring for vacant properties in their neighborhood. They believed responsibility for maintaining the trees would eventually fall to them. "Even though it's city property, we're gonna end up having to care for it and raking leaves and God knows whatever else we might have to do," said one woman interviewed for the study. Carmichael also found that skepticism of the program was tied to wider distrust of the city government and outside groups in parts of Detroit. As a result, residents wanted greater decision-making power in selecting which trees to plant in particular locations, adds Carmichael who completed the three-year study for her PhD with co-author Maureen McDonough of Michigan State University. Greening Detroit Urban greening projects offer health benefits to residents, from improved air quality to decreased crime, and seek to boost the typically lower amount of tree cover in low-income neighborhoods, Carmichael says. For these reasons, many cities have launched major tree planting initiatives in recent years, including MillionTreesNYC, Grow Boston Greener, The Chicago Tree Initiative, and The Greening of Detroit. To avoid past mistakes in the city's tree planting and maintenance approach, staff at The Greening of Detroit, a non-profit contracted by the city to plant trees, selected tree species that could survive in urban environments and guaranteed maintenance of trees for three years after planting. However, the group relied primarily on educating residents about the benefits of trees and their program, which failed to address people's concerns. "By not giving residents a say in the tree planting program, they were re-creating the same conflicts that had been happening in the city for a long time," says Carmichael. Carmichael says simple steps, such as allowing residents a choice over which kind of tree will be planted in front of their home, can reduce tensions. Investing more effort in follow-up communication with residents who receive trees would also help to ensure that trees are cared for, and residents do not feel overburdened with tree maintenance. One man interviewed for the study said, "I've left several messages. My tree was planted last August. My wife loved it. I was told that they would come back out and either water it or fertilize it. Haven't seen anyone. So, I've been doing the best that I can. Where do I go from here?" Lessons for non-profits Monica Tabares of The Greening of Detroit says that increased spending by the City of Detroit's forestry department, as well as a change in the organization's leadership, has led the group to focus more on community engagement. Since Carmichael presented her findings to The Greening of Detroit, the organization has instituted community engagement training for the youth they hire to water street trees and interact with residents. "As a result of our refined focus, [our program] has brought thousands of residents together to not only plant trees, but gain a greater understanding of the benefits of trees in their communities," says Tabares. Carmichael's study is gaining attention from city planners across North America hoping to learn Detroit's lessons. Local governments and non-profits in Austin, Denver, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Toronto and Vermont have reached out for help implementing her research. The study also offers lessons for how non-profits and donors measure successful outcomes, Carmichael says. With limited resources and watchful donors, some non-profits often focus on narrow outcomes -- such as the number of trees planted per year - without also prioritizing deeper community engagement, which might slow the immediate work of planting trees, but create more a sustainable outcome. "We need to broaden the measurable outcomes that we can gauge success by," says Carmichael. "Healthy urban forests cannot be measured just by the number of trees planted. We also have to capture who is involved, and how that involvement affects the well-being of people and trees in the long-term." ### Two groundbreaking discoveries by USC researchers could lead to medications and a vaccine to treat or prevent a hemorrhagic fever transmitted by a new tick species before it spreads across the United States. In the Jan. 7 Nature Microbiology, researchers describe the molecular mechanisms used by the virus to infect and sicken humans, a puzzle that has stumped scientists since the disease emerged in rural China in 2009. In a related discovery published in Nature Microbiology last month, researchers at USC and in Korea found that aged ferrets with the virus exhibit symptoms similar to those seen in older humans, while young ferrets show no clinical symptoms. An animal model in which to study the virus, a crucial tool in vaccine or drug discovery, has been elusive, until now. "The ticks are already in the United States. If they start spreading the virus, it will be a major problem," said Jae Jung, the study's senior author and chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "I started studying this virus five years ago because once it appeared in China, I knew it would eventually appear in the United States." The findings come at a time when health officials are increasingly concerned about the growing danger of tick-borne illnesses. In the United States, Lyme disease accounts for most cases, but other illnesses are on the rise. The total number of reported cases has more than doubled in the past 13 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new threat comes in the form of a bug new to North America -- the Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis. It's a tiny, parasitic arachnid that's a major livestock pest in East and Central Asia, where it thrives under temperate conditions. After a blood meal, females drop off their host to produce 2,000 eggs at a time, with or without the help of a male. It can transmit severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an illness that causes nausea, diarrhea and muscle pain. The illness is often lethal, killing up to 30 percent of hospitalized patients. The virus depletes blood platelets as it replicates, which prevents clotting and leads to hemorrhage similar to Ebola virus infection. The disease has spread to Japan and Korea since it appeared in China. The SFTS virus has not been detected in the United States yet, but the Asian longhorned tick was found in nine states during the past two years, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The CDC considers the presence of the Asian longhorned tick in the United States an "emerging disease threat" and is recommending ongoing surveillance efforts and testing for pathogens. A virus genetically similar to SFTS virus, Heartland virus, and causing similar human illness was also recently discovered in the United States. Globally, the SFTS disease has caused infection of thousands of people a year in China. Jung and his colleagues found that the virus targets a gene called TPL2, which is involved in the body's inflammatory response. In a healthy person, the body's natural inflammatory response helps fight off an infection. With SFTS infection, the virus directs the TPL2 gene to switch off that protective inflammatory response at the site of the tick bite - creating a protected spot in which the virus can amass copies of itself and spread throughout the body. In animals, the researchers disabled TPL2 with an inhibitor; as a result, the body's healthy immune function kept viral replication in check, resulting in a milder infection - and suggesting that the TPL2 gene's signaling pathway presents a potential target for a therapy. "We're very optimistic that these findings will help us get a vaccine up and running within several years," said Younho Choi, a post-doctoral researcher in the Jung lab and the study's first author. "We're already developing various vaccine candidates in mouse and ferret animal models. The idea behind the vaccine is to outsmart the virus by putting a roadblock, allowing the body's immune system to keep doing its job." ### In addition to Jung, authors of the Jan. 7 study are Younho Choi, Ji-Seung Yoo, Sumanth Pudapakam, Suan-Sin Foo, Woo-Jin Shin and Sally Chen, all of USC; Su-Jin Park and Young-Ki Choi of Chungbuk National University in South Korea; Yinyan Sun and Wenhui Li of the National Institute of Biological Sciences in China; Philip Tsichlis of Tuft Medical School in Boston; Won-Ja Lee of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jong-Soo Lee of Chungnam National University in South Korea; and Benjamin Brennan of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (CA200422, CA180779, DE023926, DE027888, DE028521, AI073099, AI116585, AI129496, AI140718, AI140705) the Hastings Foundation, the Fletcher Jones Foundation, the Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award 099220/Z/12/Z and a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Henry Dale Fellow grant, the Korean National Research Foundation (MEST 2015020957), the National Science and Technology Major Project China (2013ZX09509102) and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (HI15C2817). Researchers at the University of Sussex, Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have for the first time used game theory to enable robots to assist humans in a safe and versatile manner. The research team used adaptive control and Nash equilibrium game theory to programme a robot that can understand its human user's behaviour in order to better anticipate their movements and respond to them. The researchers believe the breakthrough could help robots complementing humans for sport training, physical rehabilitation or shared driving. Lead author Dr Yanan Li, Lecturer in Control Engineering at the University of Sussex, said: "It is still very early days in the development of robots and at present, those that are used in a working capacity are not intuitive enough to work closely and safely with human users. By enabling the robot to identify human users' behaviour and exploiting game theory to let the robot optimally react to them, we have developed a system where robots can work along humans as humans do." In a paper published today in Nature Machine Intelligence, the researchers outline how they adapted game theory for the physical interaction of a robot with a human, and how this can be used to help an impaired stroke survivor retrain their motor control. Game theory is commonly used to understand how economic agents decide and interact with each other in order to maximise their own gain. To successfully apply game theory to the interaction of a robot and its human user, the researchers had to overcome the issue that the robot cannot know the human's intentions. The researchers thus had to develop a method enabling the robot to identify the human partner while safely and efficiently interacting with their motion. The reactive robotic programming system enables a robot to continuously learn the human user's control and adapt its own control correspondingly. The robot is able to understand the human user's action and then respond to and assist them to perform tasks successfully and with minimal effort. Professor Etienne Burdet, Chair in Human Robotics in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London and senior author of the paper, added: "Game theory has had important impacts in economics during the last century and lead to several Nobel prizes such as Nash's one. To apply it for human-robot interaction, it was necessary to understand how the robot can identify the human user's control goals simultaneously to smoothly interacting with them." ### A growing number of genomic studies have generated important discoveries regarding human health and behaviour, but new research from the University of Oxford suggests that scientific advancement is limited by a lack of diversity. They show that the people studied in genetic discovery research continue to be overwhelmingly of European descent, but also for the first time reveal that subjects are concentrated in a handful of countries - the UK, US and Iceland, and have specific demographic characteristics. The authors caution that this lack of diversity has potentially huge implications for the understanding and applications of genetic discoveries. The study published in Communications Biology contributes to a richer understanding of a multitude of facets which shape genomic bias over time. The work reviewed nearly 4,000 scientific studies between 2005 and 2018, curated by the NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalogue, which contains all Genetic-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) to date. These studies have identified multiple genetic groups related to diseases such as type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, to psychiatric disorders, physical, behavioural and psychological traits. The study examined the explosion in the number of people studied, number and strength of genetic association discoveries, and growth and variation in the number of outcomes (or 'phenotypes') studied. It also looked at who was being studied in terms of ancestral background, geographical location and demographics, but also who was conducting the research, including the networks and characteristics of the researchers themselves. Despite a staggering growth in sample sizes, the number of traits and diseases studied and genetic discoveries, findings from the study reveal that ancestral diversity has stalled and that non-white groups are still massively under-represented. By extending research in this area they show that this has varied considerably over time and that when non-European ancestry groups are included, it is often only to 'replicate' results, as opposed to fundamental new genetic discoveries. Moving beyond ancestral diversity, the authors estimate for the first time that 72% of the (often repeatedly) utilised data came from individuals recruited from just three countries; the UK (40%), US (19%) and Iceland (12%). Data was subject not only to geographical concentration, but also featured a higher than anticipated proportion of older people, women and in some of the most prominently used data, also subjects with higher socioeconomic status and better health. Prof Melinda Mills (MBE FBA), lead author and Nuffield Professor of Sociology, said: 'The lack of ancestral diversity in genomic research has been an on-going concern, but little attention has been placed on the geographical and demographic characteristics of the people who are studied, who studies them, and exactly what they study. Genetic discoveries offer exciting medical possibilities, but without increasing the diversity of people studied and environments they live in, the usage and returns of this research are limited. There is increasing recognition that our health outcomes are a complex interplay between genes and the environment - or in other words nature and nurture - yet most discoveries have been taken from populations that are very similar, with limited environmental variation. ' The authors also analysed the core funders of this work (primarily UK and US sources) and revealed gender disparities in scientific authorship, estimating that up to 70% of authors in the senior 'last author' position are male. They also provide evidence of a tightly knit core network revolving around providers of access to the data, such as researchers working as Principle Investigators of longitudinal cohorts and senior members of large biopharmaceutical companies. They provide a number of core policy recommendations for editors, funders and policy-makers. These include: prioritising multiple types of diversity and strategies for monitoring diversity, warnings regarding the interpretation of genetic differences between ancestral groups, calls for local participant involvement, and strategies for reforming incentive structures that intertwine the roles of authorship, data ownership and access to results. Professor Mills adds: 'We were able to harness different types of data and link them together in new ways to empirically demonstrate the inner workings of this important research area for the first time. It is our hope that the ten evidence-based policy recommendations will be taken up in order to further enhance the power of the on-going genomic revolution'. ### Notes to editors: For more information please contact Lanisha Butterfield, Oxford University Media Relations Manager on 01865 280531 or email lanisha.butterfield@admin.ox.ac.uk Contact Prof Mills on melinda.mills@nuffield.ox.ac.uk, Twitter: @melindacmills For a detailed description and discussion of this paper in accessible terminology, see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document at: http://sociogenome. org/ fag-sgwa . The Open Access article can be found at: https:/ / nature. com/ commsbio . A study from the University of Notre Dame has found that the properties of a material commonly used to create conductive or protective films and encapsulate drug compounds - and the conditions in which this material will disassemble to release that medication - may be different than initially thought. Published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the study aimed to identify the conditions under which polyelectrolyte complexes, or PECs, would assemble and stay assembled. The researchers found new, important differences between strong and weak PECs. "The mechanism of weak PECs is completely different than that of strong PECs," said Jonathan Whitmer, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and principal investigator for the study. "During our research, we found that when each of the weak polyelectrolytes came together in a solution, the presence of an oppositely charged polymer resulted in a strong pKa shift, enabling both polyelectrolytes to become highly charged and to stay stable. On the contrary, pH has relatively little influence on the charge and assembly of strong PECs, whose strong binding to salt ions determines most of their assembly." Weak PECs have been studied for many uses, including as a material to create capsules that hold medications. Weak PECs have a unique ability to bond and release in certain environments, but Whitmer's team found that pH affected the overall assembly of weak PECs, as well as the conditions in which these materials may release. "This study completely changes our perspective on the formation of weak PECs and how this material can be used," said Whitmer, an affiliated member of NDnano. "Not only does this study point out physical mechanisms that will enable us to engineer better PECs, but it also has the potential to improve how this material can be utilized in industry, including the 'smart' encapsulation and delivery of medications, thin conductive materials and protective coatings." In conducting the study, Whitmer and his team also developed a novel simulation algorithm. This algorithm allowed the researchers to analyze certain aspects of weak PECs that were not possible before, including the proper replication of solution conditions. ### The first author on the study is Vikramjit Rathee, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering graduate student. Additional collaborators include Hythem Sidky, a former chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student and now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, and Ben Sikora, former postdoctoral scholar in the Whitmer lab and currently employed at Honeywell FM&T. The study was supported by the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Material Sciences and Engineering Division, and by startup funds provided by Notre Dame. The Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) at the University of Notre Dame promotes collaborative research in science and engineering to address unsolved scientific and technical questions with an aim to promote the greater good. NDnano is where Notre Dame faculty, researchers and students meet to broaden understanding, discuss multidisciplinary research opportunities and shape future research directions. To learn more about NDnano, visit nano.nd.edu. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have found two biomarkers that could be used to identify a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation in patients who have three 'clinical risks'. Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around 1.6 million people in the UK. Those with atrial fibrillation may be aware of noticeable heart palpitations, when their heart feels like it is pounding, fluttering or beating irregularly. Sometimes atrial fibrillation does not cause any symptoms and a person who has it is completely unaware that their heart rate is irregular. Now scientists have identified patients are more at risk of atrial fibrillation if they have three 'clinical risks' - they are older aged, male and have a high Body Mass Index. These patients, say the scientists, could be screened for atrial fibrillation by testing their blood to see if they have elevated levels of two biomarkers - a hormone secreted by the heart called brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and a protein responsible for phosphate regulation called fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23). The research was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham's College of Medical and Dental Sciences and is published today (Jan 7th) in European Heart Journal. First author Dr Winnie Chua said: "People with atrial fibrillation are much more likely to develop blood clots and suffer from strokes. To avoid strokes it is important for them to take anticoagulant drugs to prevent blood clotting. However, atrial fibrillation is often only diagnosed after a patient has suffered a stroke. "Therefore it is important that patients at risk are screened so that they can begin taking anticoagulants to prevent potentially life-threatening complications." Joint First author Yanish Purmah added: "An electrocardiogram (ECG), a test which measures the electrical activity of your heart to show whether or not it is working normally, is usually used to screen patients for atrial fibrillation. "ECG screening is resource-intensive and burdensome for patients therefore it is important that the right patients are selected for this type of screening "The biomarkers we have identified have the potential to be used in a blood test in community settings such as in GP practices to simplify patient selection for ECG screening." Until now, most studies identifying biomarkers in patients with atrial fibrillation have been hypothesis-driven and involved the analysis of a single or small selection of blood biomarkers. In this study, the scientists analysed 40 common cardiovascular biomarkers in a cohort of 638 hospital patients who were recruited between September 2014 and August 2016. To obtain the results, the scientists combined traditional statistical analysis with completely new and innovative machine learning techniques. Senior author Dr Larissa Fabritz said: "The research outcomes were surprising. While BNP is already a known and widely used in clinical practice biomarker, the results around the effectiveness of the FGF-23 biomarker was an unexpected and new finding. FGF-23 is only currently used in a research based environment, but we have shown how its use could be invaluable in a clinical setting." Corresponding author Professor Paulus Kirchhof, Director of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said: "We hope that, as the result of our findings, more people with what can often be a silent disease are diagnosed so that any complications can be prevented." Funded by the University of Birmingham, the research was supported by CATCH ME, an EU-funded consortium led by the University of Birmingham, the British Heart Foundation and Leducq Foundation. The research was carried out in collaboration with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the European Society of Cardiology, The German Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET), and Health Data Research UK. Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), added: "Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke, a serious condition that causes over 36,000 deaths in the UK each year, but is often detected too late. This research has used sophisticated statistical and machine learning methods to analyse patient data and provides encouraging evidence that a combination of easy-to-measure indices may be used to predict atrial fibrillation. "The study may pave the way towards better detection of people with AF and their targeted treatment with blood-thinning medicines for the prevention of stroke and its devastating consequences." The research, which began in 2013, is ongoing and next steps will involve follow-up appraisals of the patients recruited to the study in order to further improve the prevention and treatment of atrial fibrillation. ### For more information or to arrange interviews with the researchers please contact Emma McKinney, Communications Manager (Health Sciences), University of Birmingham, email: e.j.mckinney@bham.ac.uk or tel: +44 (0) 121 414 6681, or contact the press office out of hours on +44 (0) 7789 921 165 or pressoffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk. Notes to Editor: * Chua et al (2018). 'Data-driven discovery and validation of circulating blood-based biomarkers associated with prevalent atrial fibrillation'. European Heart Journal. DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehy815 * The authors of this research were Winnie Chua, Yanish Purmah, Victor Cardoso, Georgios Gkoutos, Samantha Tull, Georgiana Neculau, Mark Thomas, Dipak Kotecha, Gregory Lip, Paulus Kirchhof and Larissa Fabritz. * The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 5,000 international students from over 150 countries. Northwestern Medicine received a $10 million gift to fund the creation of a new multidisciplinary institute dedicated to urologic cancers. The Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute) will offer the most comprehensive approach to treating urologic cancers, including prostate, bladder, kidney and testicular cancers. Northwestern Memorial Hospital's urology program has been ranked No. 1 in Illinois for the last 21 straight years by U.S. News & World Report. The new Institute was made possible by a commitment of $10 million from the Polsky family. Clean energy entrepreneur Michael Polsky, Founder & CEO of Invenergy, and Tanya Polsky, philanthropist and former finance executive, and their children, are longtime friends to Northwestern Medicine. "This gift to create a Urologic Cancer Institute at Northwestern Medicine symbolizes my family's commitment to help others facing cancer come out on the winning side -- and to ultimately eradicate the disease. With this gift, we support Northwestern Medicine's vision to be the world's leader in diagnosing, advancing research breakthroughs and creating revolutionary treatments for urological cancers," said Michael Polsky. Led by Edward "Ted" Schaeffer, MD, Chair of Urology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Professor of Urology at Northwestern University, the institute will provide personalized, integrated and innovative care to individuals with urologic cancers through a disease centric program of research, education and discovery. "We are extremely excited to partner with the Polsky family in forming this Institute to transform how we treat urologic cancers in Chicago and Worldwide. We believe that a patient-centric program that inspires leading-edge research will transform our field," said Dr. Edward Schaeffer. "The Polsky Family Urologic Cancer Institute will become a multidisciplinary access point for cancer treatments including surgery, chemo-, radio- and immunotherapy as well a resource for genetic counseling, nutritional guidance and lifestyle management." The Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute will bring together a multidisciplinary team of renowned physicians and scientists to leverage their expertise - driving breakthroughs in treatment and accelerating new discoveries. Patients will have access to some of the country's leading urologic cancer specialists and a wide range of services. The institute is scheduled to open early 2019. The institute will expand its current location in Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Galter Pavilion, providing patients with streamlined access to specialized treatment, new technologies and one-of-a-kind support programs. "I am confident that the talent and depth of our multidisciplinary team will fuel the Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute, and its impact for our patients across the spectrum of care," said Maha Hussain, MD, deputy director of the Lurie Cancer Center, the Genevieve E. Teuton Professor of Medicine, and an internationally renowned clinical researcher and expert in genitourinary oncology. ### National Cancer Institute estimates that over 165,000 new cases of prostate cancer and 81,000 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed annually. Men have more than a 15% chance of developing a Urologic cancer in their lifetime and, in total, urologic cancers result in more than 10% of all cancer deaths. In a new paper published in The Clinical Neuropsychologist, McLean Hospital's Laura Germine, PhD, and her colleagues describe the many ways in which cognitive tests conducted with computers and smartphones might improve upon traditional "pencil-and-paper" tests. The researchers also present a critical overview of modern testing technology to help neuropsychologists understand and benefit from new methods. "Digital technology could improve cognitive testing and might change the way we understand and measure brain functioning in health and disease," said Germine. Germine, who is the technical director of the McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry and director of the Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Health Technology, explained that "digital neuropsychology," or the assessment of neuropsychological function using digital devices such as smartphones, represents "a critical and potentially game-changing set of methodologies that can get at aspects of cognitive functioning that were previously inaccessible." "We can, for example, measure the way cognition might change or fluctuate over time, or be affected by different sorts of environments," she said. Germine said that tests conducted on digital platforms can capture subtle and important information about test takers--information that would be impossible to capture with paper-and-pencil assessments. "You can measure moment-to-moment changes as a person moves their finger across the touch screen," said Germine. "If that movement is not smooth, if there's jerkiness, we can get all that. We can record certain dynamics or 'micro behaviors' with digital assessment. It's amazing." In the paper, Germine and her colleagues also explain how digital tools allow researchers to test people's neuropsychological functions in their natural environments. This is significant, she said, because "much of neuropsychological testing is getting at someone's optimal performance, determining how well could they do if you structured everything right." However, according to Germine, digital testing "lets you ask the question of how well they actually do in their everyday environments." This ability to assess cognition in everyday life, she said, has long been a goal of clinicians, researchers, and computer scientists. The paper grew out more than ten years of work by Germine and her colleagues to deploy digital tools in the service of cognitive testing. With research funding coming from the National Institutes of Health and other sources, Germine and her fellow researchers have consulted on projects to evaluate or recommend digital tools for measuring neuropsychological functioning. In addition, the researchers worked to create one of the first online neuropsychological research laboratories in 2005 and launch the testing website TestMyBrain.org in 2008. The site, she explained, "is now being used across more than 150 research and education sites internationally, and more than 2 million people have completed tests on the site." Despite years of work showing the great promise of digital neuropsychology, Germine and her colleagues are calling on clinicians and researchers to be cautious as they move forward. She pointed out that "variations in devices, hardware, and software and how we interact with them could be in some ways greater than with paper and pencil, and taking a test on a laptop as opposed to a smartphone could yield different results." The researchers encourage neuropsychologists to "maintain the right degree of skepticism and understand the scope of what is possible." "The paper was meant to be a primer for clinical researchers and neuropsychologists and introduce them to these new opportunities in digital neuropsychology," said Germine. The authors, she explained, "also hope to help software and technology developers build the right tools that solve the right problems for neuropsychologists." Building on this work, Germine and her colleagues are now engaged in a large-scale project with the National Institute of Aging for developing a nationwide infrastructure to perform neuropsychological testing with mobile devices "We're bringing together the brightest minds and innovators to create a standard set of tools for mobile devices that will help move the needle in our understanding of brain health and how neuropsychological functioning contributes to physical and mental disorders," said Germine. ### McLean Hospital has a continuous commitment to put people first in patient care, innovation and discovery, and shared knowledge related to mental health. In 2017 and 2018, it was named the #1 hospital for psychiatric care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information, please visit mcleanhospital.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-led research team has demonstrated, for the first time, how solid stress - the physical forces exerted by the solid components of a tumor - impacts the tissue surrounding brain tumors and contributes to resulting neurological dysfunction and neuronal cell death. In their report published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the investigators identify characteristics of tumors most likely to impose solid stress, describe a potential way of distinguishing patients with such tumors, and identify the neuroprotective drug lithium as a promising treatment strategy. "The mechanical abnormalities of cancer affect tissue and biology through multiple mechanisms," says Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, director of the Steele Laboratories of Tumor Biology in the MGH Radiation Oncology Department, senior and corresponding author of the report. "Over the last decade, our team has identified and characterized solid stress as a new biomechanical abnormality in tumors, but little has been known about how these forces affect tissues surrounding a brain tumor, potentially impairing neurological function." While the deformation of normal brain tissue by a growing tumor has been associated with greater disability and increased risk of death, the impact of specific patterns of tumor growth has not been understood. Evidence has suggested that nodular tumors - those that continue growing as a single, well-defined mass - exert greater solid stress than do infiltrative tumors, which invade surrounding tissues as individual cells. To pursue this observation, the researchers implanted either nodular or infiltrative glioblastoma cells into the brains of mice and measured the stresses that had developed within and around the tumors 20 days later. They found increased compression and deformation of brain tissue around the nodular but not the infiltrative tumors. Analysis of MR images from 64 glioblastoma patients taken prior to any treatment was able to distinguish those with more nodular tumors, determined by perfectly defined tumor margins, from those with infiltrative tumors. Patients with nodular tumors had exhibited significantly poorer results than did those with infiltrative tumors on a standard assessment of functional impairment. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of tumor size or of edema caused by accumulation of excess fluids. To get a better understanding of how solid stress exerts its effects on brain tissue, the investigators used advanced imaging technology to assess blood vessels surrounding the tumors of mice with either glioblastomas or breast cancer brain metastases. They found that nodular but not infiltrative tumors reduced the perfusion of blood vessels around and at the edges of tumors. The stress induced by nodular tumors also deformed the nuclei of neurons in the surrounding tissues, leading to signs of cellular death. MR imaging also revealed reduced vascular perfusion in healthy tissue surrounding the tumors of about half the 64 pre-treatment glioblastoma patients, an observation confirmed in another group of 14 patients. In both groups, patients with reduced vascular perfusion around their tumors had greater neurologic impairment than did those in whom perfusion was unchanged. Again, tumor size and edema had no impact on vascular perfusion of surrounding tissue, and neither did pre-treatment with steroids. Reduced perfusion was most commonly seen around nodular tumors. Corroborating analyses of data from a group of 34 patients with breast cancer brain metastases, which are typically nodular, also revealed significantly reduced perfusion in surrounding healthy tissues. The researchers then used a specially designed compression apparatus to apply gradual pressure to the brains of living tumor-free mice and found that 14 days of compression, gradually increased at a rate like that of nodular tumors, produced similar effects - deformation of cortical tissues, reduction in vascular perfusion and blood vessel density, and signs of cellular distress within neurons. Behavioral testing of the animals revealed reduced movement and coordination in those with cortical compression. To investigate the effects of relieving cortical compression, which would simulate surgical removal of a tumor, the investigators used two approaches. Both removal of the cranial windows that allow direct observation of brain tissue in tumor-bearing mice and removal of apparatus-applied compression in tumor-free mice led to increases in vascular perfusion and some restoration of the appearance and number of neurons. While there was limited improvement in the animals' physical coordination, it proved to be temporary. These experiments allowed the investigators to separate the mechanical effects of solid stress on healthy brain tissues from biological effects, such as inflammation or the release of toxic factor by tumors. To investigate whether neuroprotective drugs could help preserve function in compressed brain tissue, the researchers then treated mice during chronic, gradual compression and for two weeks after decompression with four drugs known to have neuroprotective effects. Only lithium - a drug used to treat bipolar and other psychiatric disorders - appeared to protect against damaging effects, reducing neuronal death, the amount of compressed cortical tissue and other signs of cellular distress. Lithium-treated mice also performed significantly better on tests of movement and motor coordination than did untreated animals. "The neurological consequences of brain tissue deformation are the major cause of life-threatening neurological symptoms in patients with brain cancers," says Jain, the Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School. "Preservation of neurological function and maintaining patients' quality of life are critical goals of brain tumor treatment. The results of our study strongly support application of neuroprotection to patients with nodular brain tumors that compress surrounding tissues. Even patients with advanced or inoperable tumors may be able to benefit from such a strategy." ### Co-lead authors of the Nature Biomedical Engineering paper are Giorgio Seano, PhD, and Hadi T. Nia, PhD, Steele Labs, MGH Radiation Oncology, and Kyrre Emblem, PhD, Oslo University Hospital, Norway. Support for the study includes National Institutes of Health grants P01-CA080124, P50-CA165962, R01-CA129371, R01-CA208205, U01-CA 224348, and F32-CA216944; National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award R35-CA197743; and grants from the Lustgarten Foundation, the Ludwig Center at Harvard, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, the European Research Council and the Gates Foundation. Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with an annual research budget of more than $900 million and major research centers in HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, genomic medicine, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, photomedicine and transplantation biology. The MGH topped the 2015 Nature Index list of health care organizations publishing in leading scientific journals and earned the prestigious 2015 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service. In August 2018 the MGH was once again named to the Honor Roll in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals." ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The percentage of women who are screened for cervical cancer may be far lower than national data suggests, according to a Mayo Clinic study recently published in the Journal of Women's Health. Less than two-thirds of women ages 30 to 65 were up-to-date with cervical cancer screenings in 2016. The percentage is even lower for women ages 21 to 29, with just over half current on screenings. Those figures are well below the 81 percent screening compliance rate self-reported in the 2015 National Health Interview Survey. "These cervical cancer rates are unacceptably low," says Mayo Clinic family medicine specialist Kathy MacLaughlin, M.D., the study's lead author. "Routine screening every three years with a Pap test or every five years with a Pap-HPV co-test ensures precancerous changes are caught early and may be followed more closely or treated." In addition to lower-than-expected screening rates, Mayo Clinic researchers also found racial inequities in terms of who is getting screened. "African-American women were 50 percent less likely to be up-to-date on cervical cancer screening than white woman in 2016," says Dr. MacLaughlin. "Asian women were nearly 30 percent less likely than white women to be current on screening. These racial disparities are especially concerning." Mayo Clinic researchers reviewed medical records using the Rochester Epidemiology Project database to determine cervical cancer screening rates for more than 47,000 women living in Olmsted County, Minn., from 2005 to 2016. An estimated 13,240 new cases of invasive cervical cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2018, according to the American Cancer Society. Another 4,170 women died from cervical cancer last year. January is Cervical Health Awareness Month. Dr. MacLaughlin says these study results should prompt health care providers to start considering new ways of reaching out to patients to help ensure they get screened. Ideas could include setting up Pap clinics with evening and Saturday hours, or offering cervical cancer screenings at urgent care clinics. For women who qualify for the newest screening option of primary HPV screening, clinics could explore the option of giving patients at-home testing kits. "We, as clinicians, must start thinking outside the box on how best to reach these women and ensure they are receiving these effective and potentially life-saving screening tests," she says. Cervical cancer death rates have dropped dramatically in recent decades thanks to the development of the Pap test in the 1950s. That test involves collecting cells from a woman's cervix and examining them under a microscope to look for precancerous and cancerous cells. A second type of cervical cancer screening -- called the HPV test -- detects the presence of high-risk HPV, which can lead to precancerous changes and cervical cancer. In 2012, national cervical cancer screening guidelines were updated to recommend Pap testing every three years for women ages 21 to 65 or Pap-HPV co-testing every five years for women ages 30 to 65. The study results show high rates of adoption by Olmsted County health providers of the 2012 guidelines in regards to appropriate use of co-testing and in appropriately not screening women under 21 or over 65. A limitation of this study is that Olmsted County is less ethnically and racially diverse than the U.S. population, but the county's demographic makeup is reflective of the Upper Midwest. The study's findings related to racial disparities in screening are consistent with several other studies from across the country. Another limitation is the potential for over counting young women as not screened who are insured by their parents and have an Olmsted County address but may have gone to healthcare providers outside of Olmsted County for screening. ### The research was supported by the Rochester Epidemiology Project, Mayo Clinic, the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health. Co-authors of the study were Robert Jacobson, M.D., Carmen Radecki Breitkopf, Ph.D., Patrick Wilson, Debra Jacobson, Chun Fan, Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., and Lila Rutten, Ph.D. About the Rochester Epidemiology Project The Rochester Epidemiology Project is a collaboration of clinics, hospitals and other medical facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and involves community members who have agreed to share their medical records for research. Using medical record information, medical scientists can discover what causes the diseases, how patients respond to medical and surgical therapies, and what will happen to patients in the future. Research studies conducted in the local community may improve the health of people both locally and globally. About Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network. Experimental research into the fundamental building blocks of nature and the technologies required for this purpose by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will be funded with a total of EUR 7.6 million by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from 2019 to 2021. With these funds, scientists will be able to push research within the international large-scale experiments at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland or KEK, Tsukuba, Japan. Elementary particle physics is aimed at studying the fundamental building blocks of nature and their interactions to draw conclusions with respect to the mechanisms of the big bang. In the area of elementary particle physics, BMBF has now decided to fund participation of German universities in the large-scale experiments at the European laboratory CERN near Geneva or at the High-energy Accelerator Research Organization KEK in Tsukuba north of Tokyo. Researchers of KIT's Institute of Experimental Particle Physics (ETP) have now been granted new funding for their contributions to the experiments CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) at CERN and Belle II at KEK. In addition, BMBF approved funding for the upgrade of the CMS experiment and development of new methods to handle the large data volumes of the experiments. Total funding amounts to approx. EUR 7.6 million in the next two and a half years. CMS - Detector at the World's Largest Particle Accelerator The CMS experiment is one of four big experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN. Since the beginning of planning and construction of the experiment, ETP has been involved with a team of about 90 persons. This is the biggest university group conducting research at CERN. Major components of the detector, in particular those based on silicon technology, were manufactured at the laboratories of KIT. Moreover, KIT developed algorithms to analyze the large data volumes. The highlight of research at CERN so far has been the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. The CMS group from Karlsruhe contributed largely to this success. The CMS Upgrade Program Preparations for the future CMS experiment as of 2026 already are in full swing. Researchers of KIT are building highly precise silicon particle detectors, by means of which conclusions can be drawn with respect to the trajectories of elementary particles inside the CMS experiment. "This project will combine physical fundamental research with technology development, often at the limit of what is technically feasible," says Project Head Professor Ulrich Husemann. Belle II - Kollisionen im japanischen Superbeschleuniger Preparations for the future CMS experiment as of 2026 already are in full swing. Researchers of KIT are building highly precise silicon particle detectors, by means of which conclusions can be drawn with respect to the trajectories of elementary particles inside the CMS experiment. "This project will combine physical fundamental research with technology development, often at the limit of what is technically feasible," says Project Head Professor Ulrich Husemann. "In the past years, we found strong evidence of electrons and their "cousins," the myons and tauons, having a behavior other than we expected," says Project Head Professor Florian Bernlochner. By late 2021, the Belle II experiment will have recorded sufficient data to get to the bottom of this mystery. Pilot-ErUM-Data - Efficient Infrastructures and Machine Learning The Pilot-ErUm-Data joint project contributes to the digital agenda of the Federal Government. Within this project, scientists of KIT and other universities conducting research in the areas of astroparticle physics, hadron physics, nuclear physics, and particle physics work on the development of more efficient computing infrastructures, improved data evaluation using machine learning methods, and more efficient algorithms for data evaluation and simulation. "The challenges associated with the big data volumes of our experiments will require new, more efficient computing concepts," says Project Head Professor Gunter Quast. "Research is carried out worldwide and the members of our team come from all around the world. The new funds will help us continue to fulfill our role in society and to not only develop new technologies for the search for fundamental building blocks of nature, but mainly to qualify young researchers in high technologies and international collaboration," underscores the Head of ETP, Professor Thomas Muller, who also coordinates the ongoing CMS activities. ### Press contact: Denis Elbl, Internetredaktion, Phone: +49 721 608-48750, Fax: +49 721 608-45681, denis.elbl@kit.edu Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 25,100 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. by Mathias Hariyadi After days of torrential rain, on the evening of December 31, mud and debris submerged the village of Cimapag. Rescue teams saved the lives of 64 people. In the last 10 years there have been at least 132 landslides in Sukabumi regency. Jakarta (AsiaNews) - At least 32 people have died in a landslide that struck the village of Cimapag in the province of West Java on New Year's Eve. This is stated by the National Agency for the Mitigation of Disasters (BNPB), one week after the start of rescue operations. After days of torrential rains, mud and debris submerged the mountain village. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesperson for the BNPB, confirms in a statement yesterday that all the victims have been identified. The official added that in the last 10 years there have been at least 132 landslides in the Sukabumi regency, where Cimapag is located. "At the moment - he says - about 100 people have been hit by the landslide and rescue teams have saved the lives of another 64 inhabitants". The West Java police headquarters sent a special team of female agents to the site to offer psychological support to the survivors. Prior to last week's natural disaster, the village of Cimapag was known as a popular tourist destination, where visitors could come into contact with the tribal traditions of the natives. The village boasts cultural attractions and ritual ceremonies that attract Indonesian and foreign tourists. In experiments in rats and human cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have added to evidence that a cellular protein signal that drives both bone and fat formation in selected stem cells can be manipulated to favor bone building. If harnessed in humans, they say, the protein -- known as WISP-1 -- could help fractures heal faster, speed surgical recovery and possibly prevent bone loss due to aging, injury and disorders. A report on the experiments was published online Oct. 23 in the journal Scientific Reports. "Our bones have a limited pool of stem cells to draw from to create new bone," says Aaron James, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the study's senior author. "If we could coax these cells toward a bone cell fate and away from fat, it would be a great advancement in our ability to promote bone health and healing." The regenerative group of cells, known collectively as stem cells, all have the potential to develop into a variety of cell types including those that make up living tissues, such as bones. Scientists have long sought ways to manipulate the growth and developmental path of these cells, in either a living animal or the laboratory, to repair or replace tissue lost to disease or injury. Previous studies by others, James points out, showed that a particular type of stem cell -- perivascular stem cells -- had the ability to become either bone or fat and numerous studies since then have focused on advancing the understanding of what signaling proteins drive this developmental change. From past studies of his own, James also knew that the protein WISP-1 plays a key role in directing the stem cells. In his new experiments, James and his team genetically engineered stem cells collected from patients to block the production of the WISP-1 protein. Looking at gene activity in the cells without WISP-1, they found that four genes that cause fat formation were turned on 50-200 percent higher than control cells that contained normal levels of the WISP-1 protein. The team then engineered human fat tissue stem cells to make more WISP-1 protein than normal, and found that three genes controlling bone formation became twice as active as in the control cells, and fat driving genes such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR) decreased in activity in favor of "bone genes" by 42 percent. With this information in hand, the researchers next designed an experiment to test whether the WISP-1 protein could be used to improve bone healing in rats that underwent a type of spinal fusion -- an operation frequently performed on people to alleviate pain or restore stability by connecting two of the vertebrae with a metal rod so that they grow into a single bone. An estimated 391,000 spinal fusions are performed in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. "Such a procedure requires a massive amount of new bone cells," says James. "If we could direct bone cell creation at the site of the fusion, we could help patients recover more quickly and reduce the risk of complications." In their experiments, the researchers mimicked the human surgical procedure in rats, but in addition, they injected -- between the fused spinal bones -- human stem cells with WISP-1 turned on. After four weeks, the researchers studied the rats' spinal tissue and observed continued high levels of the WISP-1 protein. They also observed new bone forming, successfully fusing the vertebrae together, whereas the rats not treated with stem cells making WISP-1 did not show any successful bone fusion during the time the researchers were observing. "We hope our findings will advance the development of cellular therapies to promote bone formation after surgeries like this one and for other skeletal injuries and diseases, such as broken bones and osteoporosis," says James. According to the Office of the Surgeon General, 1.5 million Americans suffer fractures from bone disease every year. James cautions that while transplanting stem cells to affected bones to help them heal is an increasingly popular therapeutic goal, it has not yet been proved safe or effective in humans. The researchers also plan to explore whether reducing the level of WISP-1 protein in stem cells could preferentially favor the development of fat cells for soft tissue wound healing as well. ### Other researchers involved in the study include Carolyn Meyers, Jiajia Xu and Kristen Broderick of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additional authors on the paper include Greg Asatrian, Catherine Ding, Jia Shen and Kang Ting from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Chia Soo and Bruno Peault from UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center. The study is supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R01 AR070773, R01 AR061399, R01 AR066782, K08 AR068316), the Department of Defense (W81XWH-18-1-0121, W81XWH-18-1-0336), the American Cancer Society (Research Scholar Grant, RSG-18-027-01-CSM), the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund and the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation. The authors declared competing interests: Ting, Soo and Peault are inventors of perivascular stem-cell-related devices with patents filed from UCLA. Ting and Soo are founders of Scarless Laboratories, which sublicenses perivascular stem-cell-related patents from the University of California Board of Regents, and they hold equity in the company. Soo is also an officer of Scarless Laboratories. High-energy X-ray beams and a clever experimental setup allowed researchers to watch a high-pressure, high-temperature chemical reaction to determine for the first time what controls formation of two different nanoscale crystalline structures in the metal cobalt. The technique allowed continuous study of cobalt nanoparticles as they grew from clusters including tens of atoms to crystals as large as five nanometers. The research provides the proof-of-principle for a new technique to study crystal formation in real-time, with potential applications for other materials, including alloys and oxides. Data from the study produced "nanometric phase diagrams" showing the conditions that control the structure of cobalt nanocrystals as they form. The research, reported November 13 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and used U.S. Department of Energy-supported synchrotron X-ray beam lines at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. "We found that we could indeed control formation of the two different crystalline structures, and that the tuning factor was the pH of the solution," said Hailong Chen, an assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Tuning the crystalline structure allowed us to control the functionality and properties of these materials. We believe this methodology could also be applied to alloys and oxides." In bulk cobalt, crystal formation favors the hexagonal close-pack (HCP) structure because it minimizes energy to create a stable structure. At the nanoscale, however, cobalt also forms the face-centered cubic (FCC) phase, which has a higher energy. That can be stable because the high surface energy of small nanoclusters affects the total crystalline energy, Chen said. "When the clusters are small, we have more tuning effects, which is controlled by the surface energy of the OH minus group or other ligands," he added. "We can tune the concentration of the OH minus group in the solution so we can tune the surface energy and therefore the overall energy of the cluster." Working with researchers from the two national laboratories and the Department of Materials Science at the University of Maryland, Chen and graduate research assistant Xuetian Ma examined the polymorphic structures using theoretical, experimental and computational modeling techniques. Experimentally, the researchers reduced cobalt hydroxide in a solution of ethylene glycol, using potassium hydroxide to vary the pH of the solution. The reaction takes place under high pressure - about 1,800 pounds per square inch - and at more than 200 degrees Celsius. In the laboratory, the researchers use a heavy steel containment vessel that allowed them to analyze only the reaction results. To follow how the reaction took place, they needed to observe it in real time, which required development of a containment vessel small enough to allow for X-ray transmission while handling the high pressure and high temperature at the same time. The result was a reaction vessel made of a high-strength quartz tube about a millimeter in diameter and about two inches long. After the cobalt hydroxide solution was added, the tube was spun to both facilitate the chemical reaction and average the X-ray signal. A small heater applied the necessary thermal energy and a thermocouple measured the temperature. Ma and Chen used the setup during four separate trips to beam lines at the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven, and the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. X-rays passing through the reaction chamber to a two-dimensional detector provided continuous monitoring of the chemical reaction, which took about two hours to complete. "When they started forming a detectable spectrum we captured the X-ray diffraction spectrum and continued to observe it until the crystal cobalt formed," Ma explained. "We were able to observe step-by-step what was happening from initial nucleation to the end of the reaction." Data obtained by varying the pH of the reaction produced a nanometric phase diagram showing where different combinations produced the two structures. The X-ray diffraction results confirmed the theoretical predictions and computational modeling done by Yifei Mo, an assistant professor in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Mo and colleagues Adelaide Nolan and Shuo Zhang used density functional theory to describe how the crystal would nucleate under differing conditions. The success with cobalt suggests the methodology could be used to produce nanometric phase diagrams for other materials, including more complex alloys and oxides, Chen said. "Our goal was to build a model and a systematic understanding about the formation of crystalline materials at the nanoscale," he said. "Until now, researchers had been relying on empirical design to control growth of the materials. Now we can offer a theoretical model that would allow systematic prediction of what kinds of properties are possible under different conditions." As a next step, the Georgia Tech researchers plan to study alloys, to further improve the theoretical model and experimental approach. ### In addition to those already mentioned, the research also included Jianming Bai and Lijun Wu from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Wenqian Xu from Argonne National Laboratory. CITATION: Xuetian Ma, et al., "Guiding Synthesis of Polymorphs of Materials Using Nanometric Phase Diagrams," (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2018) https:/ / pubs. acs. org/ doi/ pdf/ 10. 1021/ jacs. 8b11029 Support was provided by the National Science Foundation under grant number 1605692 and 1739884. Support was also received from the National Science Foundation under award 1550423 and from the computational facilities from the University of Maryland supercomputing resources, the Maryland Advanced Research Computing Center (MARCC), and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) supported by National Science Foundation award DMR150038. This research used resources of the beamline X14A of the National Synchrotron Light Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under contract no. DE-AC02-98CH10886, and Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by National Laboratory under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. TEM work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, under contract DE-SC0012704. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor organizations. Magma could rise from the upper mantle into the middle and upper crust beneath the Laacher See Volcano (Rhineland-Palatinate). This is the result of a study conducted by the Seismological Survey of Southwest Germany (Erdbebendienst Sudwest), together with GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Seismological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia. For the first time, the scientists present evidence of deep and low-frequency earthquakes caused by magma movements under the Laacher See Volcano. However, there are presently no signs of any upcoming volcanic activity in the near future. The researchers report their findings in Geophysical Journal International (DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggy532). "The detected earthquakes are generated at large depths and are characterized by unusually low frequencies. Their magnitudes are below the limit of human perception," explains Professor Joachim Ritter of the Geophysical Institute (GPI) at KIT. The scientists speak of "deep low-frequency" (DLF) earthquakes. They are generated at depths between ten and over forty kilometres, i.e. in the Earth's crust and upper mantle. Their dominant oscillation frequencies are between one and ten Hertz, which is significantly lower than tectonic earthquakes of comparable magnitude. "DLF earthquakes are regarded worldwide as an indication of the movement of magmatic fluids at great depths," explains Professor Torsten Dahm, head of the GFZ section Physics of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. "Such earthquakes can be observed regularly beneath active volcanoes, for example in Iceland, Japan or Kamchatka." The results of the study in the East Eifel region suggest that magmatic fluids from the upper mantle of the Earth could rise into the Earth's crust under the Laacher See Volcano. This can be interpreted as an indication for the existence and ongoing slow recharge of magma chambers in the crust beneath the volcano. In their study, the scientists of KIT, GFZ, Erdbebendienst Sudwest - the joint seismological services of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wurttemberg - and the State Seismological Service of North Rhine-Westphalia determined that these earthquakes occur episodically in groups that are narrowly limited in time and space and line up along a line between 10 and 45 kilometres depth The scientists conclude that fluids and magmas, i.e. molten rock, could rise from the upper mantle into the middle and upper crust of the earth beneath the Laacher See Volcano. "Due to extensive improvements of the seismological monitoring networks in Rhineland-Palatinate and the adjacent regions, deep low-frequency earthquakes could be registered beneath the Laacher See Volcano for the first time in 2013," says Dr. Martin Hensch, head of the study at the Erdbebendienst Sudwest. "In the past five years, a total of four spatially well constrained clusters of such DLF earthquakes have been detected in the East Eifel region." The clusters align along an approximately 80 southeast dipping line south of the Laacher See Volcano. In addition to the spatial separation, the temporal occurrence of the DLF earthquakes is also sharply limited: So far, the experts have observed eight episodes of DLF earthquakes lasting between 40 seconds and eight minutes. However, the researchers do not interpret the observed DLF earthquakes as an immediate precursor signal of any upcoming volcanic activity in the near future. "The rise of magma into the shallow crust is usually accompanied by swarms of high-frequency earthquakes. Such activity has not yet been observed in the Eastern Eifel," reports Joachim Ritter. "Further, there is no sign of deformation at the Earth's surface, which should be clearly detectable during massive magma ascents," adds Torsten Dahm. Dating of the magma produced during the last eruption 12,900 years ago show that the filling and differentiation of the upper magma chamber under Laacher See Volcano could have taken about 30,000 years before the actual eruption took place. This means that the magmatic processes take an extremely long time before an eruption occurs. As the technical requirements for the detection and localization of DLF earthquakes in the East Eifel region have only reached a sufficient quality in the last few years, it is not possible to determine retrospectively since when DLF earthquakes have occurred in the region. It can be assumed that this was already the case before 2013. Following the first observation of deep earthquakes in 2013, KIT, GFZ and Erdbebendienst Sudwest installed a seismological research network. The joint use of seismic registrations now allows detailed scientific analysis of microseismicity. In order to better investigate the interrelation of DLF earthquakes and possible magmatic activity beneath the East Eifel region, the researchers recommend to intensify geochemical monitoring to analyse emitted gases, as well as repeated geodetic measurements to detect possible deformations of the earth's surface. Specific geophysical investigations should also be conducted to map and characterize possible magma reservoirs under the Laacher See Volcano. Further, the scientists advise a reassessment of the volcanic hazard of the Eifel. ### Original publication: Martin Hensch, Torsten Dahm, Joachim Ritter, Sebastian Heimann, Bernd Schmidt, Stefan Stange and Klaus Lehmann: Deep low-frequency earthquakes reveal ongoing magmatic recharge beneath Laacher See Volcano (Eifel, Germany). Geophysical Journal International, 2018 DOI: 10,1093/gji/ggy532 Facts and background information (in German language): http://www. lgb-rlp. de/ aktuelles/ detail/ news/ detail/ News/ ungewoehnlich-tiefe-erdbeben-geben-hinweise-auf-bewegungen-magmatischer-fluide-unter-dem-laacher-see. html http://www. erdbebendienst-suedwest. de Further materials: Americans are happier in states where governments spend more on public goods, among them libraries, parks, highways, natural resources and police protection, a Baylor University study has found. "Public goods are things you can't exclude people from using -- and one person using them doesn't stop another from doing so," said researcher Patrick Flavin, Ph.D., associate professor of political science in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences. "They're typically not profitable to produce in the private market, so if the government doesn't provide them, they will either be under-provided or not at all." Public goods spending makes communities "more livable, with more amenities," Flavin said. "If roads are completed and kept up, so that people aren't stuck in traffic, they have more time to do things they enjoy doing. Large parks are social spaces -- and one clear finding of happiness studies is that people who are more socially connected tend to be happier." Another benefit of spending money on public goods is that such amenities generally boost home values -- and "while higher property taxes generally accompany higher home values, it seems that the good outweighs the unfortunate part about having to pay higher taxes," Flavin said. In his study, published in the journal Social Science Research, Flavin analyzed data on respondents' self-reported levels of happiness for 1976-2006 from the General Social Survey, a representative sample of Americans that monitors social characteristics and attitudes of Americans and is a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Flavin also analyzed detailed government spending data for states from the U.S. Census Bureau for 1976-2006. Revenues to fund state public goods are raised from a combination of state taxes and transfers from the federal government to states, averaging 22.5 percent of total state revenues for that 30-year period. "We can look at the city where people live, their neighborhoods, and see how public goods spending predicts happiness after taking other important factors, such as marital status, health, education and income, into account," Flavin said. He also found that public goods spending has broad benefits across income, education, gender and race/ethnicity lines. "Compared to a lot of the other government spending, public goods tend to be less controversial between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, compared to poverty assistance or unemployment benefits, where there is definite disagreement between political parties," Flavin said. "I think there is less political conflict over public goods spending simply because if they government doesn't provide them, they won't be provided at all." Flavin cautioned that there is not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between public goods and happiness. "It could be that happier citizens self-select by moving to states that spend comparatively more on public goods," he said. "It also is possible that happier citizens support higher spending on public goods and elect state officials to deliver on that policy." Because some spending for public goods comes from local government, Flavin hopes to do a study linking citizens to their local city instead of only to the state. And because living a happy and satisfying life is a nearly universal human goal, he predicts that better understanding of how policies concretely impact quality of life will receive increasing attention from researchers in the years to come. ### ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University's oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. I never said well withdraw from Syria quickly, says Trump US troops will not leave Syria until Daesh militants are defeated and US-allied Kurdish fighters (YPG) protected, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. White House national security adviser John Bolton stated a new condition on Sunday to the US withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States Kurdish allies- which Turkey called YPG terrorists. Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that YPG terror forces must be protected. Ahead of talks with Israeli officials, he told reporters the pullout would be done in a way that guaranteed the Daesh terror group is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again. WE WILL MAKE SURE THE DEFENSE OF ISRAEL IS ASSURED And it would be carried out in such a way as to make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups. Asked whether a US withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said: Basically, thats right. Trump, who has declared the battle won against the Daesh militants and just two weeks ago said he refused military entreaties for more time, said Sunday that he remained committed to the withdrawal but told reporters: I never said were doing it that quickly. 7 Palestinians arrested in West Bank raids More than 6,000 Palestinians continue to languish in Israeli prisons Israeli forces rounded up seven Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military on Monday. The individuals were arrested for suspected involvement in popular terrorist activities, the army said in a statement, without elaborating on the nature of these activities. The Israeli army frequently carries out wide-ranging arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem on the pretext of searching for wanted Palestinians. According to Palestinian figures, more than 6,000 Palestinians continue to languish in Israeli detention facilities, including six parliament members, 52 women and 270 minors. TONKAWA Celebration of Life Services for Les Grimm, 72, will be Saturday, June 19, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. in Anderson-Burris Funeral Home Chapel. Private family burial will be at a later date in Lamont Cemetery. www.andersonburris.com. Entertainment Editor | Copy Editor | Astronomy Writer Hi, I'm Joe. I've been with the Enid News & Eagle since June 2009. I design many of the pages you see each week in your newspaper. I love writing and talking about space, and I love listening to and writing about music as well. by Vladimir Rozanskij The delivery ceremony of the Tomos of autocephaly yesterday in Istanbul had a strongly "national" character, with Poroshenko sitting next to the altar, together with his family and various ministers. For Ilarion and Chaplin of the Moscow Patriarchate, Bartholomew is "schismatic" and "heretic". The possible rejection of the Polish, Serbian, Czech Orthodox Churches. In Ukraine religion is intermingled with national politics, as in Russia. Today Christmas celebrated in the cathedral of Kiev. Fears of possible struggles for the possession of ecclesiastical structures. Moscow (AsiaNews) - The new autocephalous Ukrainian Church is a reality, consecrated by the Tomos of autocephaly delivered in a solemn liturgy yesterday, January 6, on the eve of the Orthodox Christmas, in the small church of the Phanar in Istanbul. For one day the small structure of the patriarchate of Constantinople became the true center of media attention for the 250 million Orthodox in the world. The celebration was co-chaired by the Patriarch Bartholomew (Archontonis) together with the new metropolitan of Kiev Epifanyj (Dumenko). Also present was Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, for whom the "imperial" chair next to the altar was reserved, together with his wife Marina and his sons in the Ukrainian national costume, the ex-president Viktor Yushchenko, the president of the Verkhovnaja Rada, Andrij Parubij and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak. The "national" and not only religious character of the ceremony was evident, putting a strain on the nerves of the historic Muscovite adversaries. The delivery of the Tomos sanctions the divorce between the patriarchate of Moscow and that of Constantinople, after many centuries-old quarrels. The most radical exponents of the Russian Church, such as Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev) and Protoierej Vsevolod Caplin, would like an open condemnation of Bartholomew as "schismatic" or even as "heretical", but the Synod presided over by Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) has limited itself for now to the interruption of Eucharistic communion, pending further developments. The break, however, appears difficult to rebuild, at least in the immediate furture. Even the head of the Polish Orthodox Church, the metropolitan of Warsaw Savva (Hrycuniak), has added his complaints to those Muscovites, sending a letter to Constantinople criticizing Ukrainian autocephaly, which instead of resolving the schism further aggravates it. The Polish Orthodox Church, like that of former Czechoslovakia and the Serbian one, has always been very close to the sentiments of Moscow. In fact, with the conclusion of the autocephalous process, religion assumes a pre-eminent social role in Ukraine, directly inspiring national politics. The former Soviet republic, which broke away from Moscow in 1991, is only mimicking the dynamics of Russia itself, which in the marriage between the Putin presidency and the leadership of Patriarch Kirill has rebuilt its national self-consciousness in the last 20 years. The difference is that in Ukraine one can speak of "orthodox nationalism"; instead the Russian ambitions are rather "imperialist" and supranational. The consequences of the "religious" radicalization of the former Communist countries could lead to internal conflicts in Ukraine, where a strong competition for the appropriation of different ecclesiastical structures (parishes, monasteries, cultural and social institutions) is expected in the coming years (if not decades) ). At the same time there is a long phase of opposition between Moscow and Constantinople in the world Orthodox diaspora, which will inevitably involve the faithful of other nationalities (Moldavians, Romanians, Baltics, Balkans), often aggregated to the churches of the "dominant" patriarchate. According to the script prepared by Poroshenko, today, the feast of the Orthodox Christmas now provides the "birth" of the new Ukraine, in another spectacular celebration at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, returned to the function of primatial church. Tomos will be shown as a Christmas gift, granted according to the official text from the "Center of Orthodoxy" to be preserved "in eternity" to testify of the canonicity of the new Church. It is the beginning of a new era of universal Orthodoxy, divided between the "federalist" Constantinopolitan era and the "autonomist" one led by Moscow. And it will be to be seen how they will resist the claims of the various political leaders who, even if long lasting, never remain "forever". BEIJING (PTI): China is building the first of four most advanced naval warships for its all-weather ally Pakistan as part of a major bilateral arms deal to ensure among other things balance of power in the strategic Indian Ocean, state media reported. Equipped with modern detection and weapon systems, it will be capable of anti-ship, anti-submarine and air-defence operations, China Daily quoted state-owned defence contractor China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) as saying. The under-construction ship is a version of the Chinese Navys most advanced guided missile frigate, it said. The CSSC did not specify the ships type but said it is being constructed at its Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai. China, an all-weather ally of Islamabad, is the largest supplier of weapon system to Pakistan. Both the countries also jointly manufacture JF-Thunder a single engine multi-role combat aircraft. The ships class is Type 054AP, which means it is based on the Type 054A of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the report quoted the Pakistani Navy as saying. The Pakistani Navy previously said four such ships had been ordered, according to the report. Once constructed, the warship will be one of the largest and technologically advanced platforms of the Pakistani Navy and strengthen the countrys capability to respond to future challenges, maintain peace and stability and the balance of power in the Indian Ocean region, the report said. It will also support the Pakistani Navys initiative of securing sea lanes for international shipping by patrolling distant waters, the daily quoted the CSSC as saying. The mention of the Indian Ocean is regarded as significant as China, which has already taken over Pakistans strategic Gwadar port under the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), looks to assist the Pakistani navy to restore the balance of power in Indias backyard. China has acquired the logistical military base in Djibouti and taken over the Hambantota port of Sri Lanka under a 99-year debt swap deal. China recently denied a New York Times report that it finalised a plan to build advanced fighter aircraft under the CPEC in Pakistan, adding a military dimension to it. India protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Pakistan became the first country to hook on to Chinas BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, a rival to the US Global Positioning System (GPS) which went global recently. The system was expected to be used for military applications. The report said Type 054A is the best frigate in service with the PLA Navy. Military sources said the ship has a fully loaded displacement of about 4,000 metric tonnes and is equipped with advanced radars and missiles. About 30 Type 054As are in service with the PLA Navy. An insider in Chinas shipbuilding sector with knowledge of the Type 054AP programme told the Daily that the ship is the largest and most powerful combat vessel China has ever exported. Based on pictures circulating on the internet, the ship will have vertical launch cells that can fire Chinese HQ-16 air-defence missiles and other kinds of missiles. Vertical launch cells will bring flexibility to the user in terms of weapons portfolio, thus giving it a stronger fighting capability, he said, adding that the Type 054AP is the best frigate Pakistan can access in the international market. The service of Type 054APs will double the combat power of the Pakistani Navys surface fleet, he said. Commenting on the ships construction, Cao Weidong, a senior researcher at the PLAs Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said in the past, the Pakistani Navy would ask its Chinese contractors to use Western radars or weapons on ships constructed by the Chinese shipbuilders because it believed the Western naval technologies were better than Chinese ones. But it seems that all weapons and radars on the new ship will be Chinese products, which reflects our progress in the industry and the Pakistani Navys confidence in our technology and capability, he said. Cao said there are many nations selling frigates in the market, so Pakistan must have made thorough comparisons in terms of combat capability and costs. I believe the reason they chose our type is that ours is one of the few that can carry out all of the air-defence, anti-ship and anti-submarine tasks, he said, expecting the service of the Chinese frigate to substantially boost Pakistans defence capability. Asuncion, Jan 7 (epa-efe).- The Paraguayan government announced Monday that this year it will propose a reform to the 1975 law establishing compulsory military service for all males that will include repealing the tax levied on conscientious objectors who decline to serve in the armed forces. The announcement was made Defense Minister Gen. Bernardino Soto, after a meeting with National Ombud Miguel Angel Godoy and members of Congress' Standing Committee. "Although it's true that the military taxes were used for a time to improve the infrastructure situation in the barracks, for some time they have not been generating additional resources due to the impossibility of forcing them to be paid," the minister said. Enacted in 1975 during the 1954-1989 dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, the law requires all males between the ages of 17 and 20 to do military service for a period usually ranging from 30 to 90 days. In 2010, Paraguay adopted legislation establishing the right of conscientious objectors to refuse military service on religious or ethical grounds. "There is no way to coerce a young person to do military service or to pay the military tax. A law that does not have a specific punishment is a dead letter," Soto said. The defense minister also denied that "roundups" of young people to sign up for military service were being conducted and accused people on social media of creating a "situation of psychosis" in recent weeks. According to the information provided by the minister, the budget for compulsory military service only allows 4,067 young people to participate in the training next year. Meanwhile, Godoy acknowledged that the National Conscientious Objection Council is working to prepare over the next six months the appropriate public agreements allowing objectors to perform community service in lieu of military training. Late last month, hundreds of youths stood in line for hours outside a government office in Asuncion to apply for recognition as conscientious objectors amid a mobilization against conscription. The heightened interest came after statements by conservative President Mario Abdo Benitez praising mandatory military service. "I have signed the authorization for my son Santiago to do Mandatory Military Service. I'm proud that he can serve his country with patriotism. I'm convinced it will be an experience that will serve him for the rest of his life," the president wrote on Twitter. To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Sponsored By: St Anthony's Hospital The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest in professional development providers who will train teachers on high quality curricula, the philanthropy announced this afternoon . The announcement fleshes out the curricular prong of the education improvement strategy the influential foundation laid out in late 2017 , a major pivot away from its prior focus on teacher performance . The investment, at around $10 million, is a tiny portion of the approximately $1.7 billion the philanthropy expects to put into K-12 education by 2022. Nevertheless, its likely to attract attention for inching closer to the perennially touchy issue of what students learn every day at school. Who Else Has Gates Funded on Curriculum? Apart from its newly announced grant competition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has long supported some curriculum providers and quality-control groups. Heres a look at what it funded in that category in 2018. RAND Corp. $349,000 To support curriculum Open Up Resources $667,000 To support capacity-building Pivot Learning Partners $1.23 million To support instructional materials Illustrative Mathematics $2.85 million To support student learning and teacher development EdReports.org, Inc. $7 million To provide general support PowerMyLearning, Inc. $500,000 To explore connections between tier one and supplemental instructional resources Achieve, Inc. $999,548 To increase availability of high-quality science materials State Educational Technology Directors Association $299,752 To support state education leaders in their selection of evidence-based professional development and quality instructional materials Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grants database Gates officials emphasized that the new grants wont support the development of curricula from scratch. Instead, grantees will work to improve how teachers are taught to use and modify existing series that are well aligned to state learning standards. We want to identify the content-specific professional development services, products, and models that are working really well for young people, and also study the attributes of those solutions that make them effective so we can share that learning with the field, said Bob Hughes, the foundations director of K-12 education. The grants build on the foundations earlier support for shared standards, notably the Common Core State Standards. All grantees, for instance, would have to orient their teacher training around a curriculum with a high rating from EdReports.org, a nonprofit that issues Consumer Reports-style reviews , or on similar tools developed by nonprofit groups like Student Achievement Partners and Achieve. Those tools were directly crafted in the wake of the common standards movement with heavy support from the Gates Foundation. EdReports has received more than $15 million from the foundation since 2015, while Student Achievement Partners has received about $10 million since 2012. Achieve has received various Gates grants since 1999, most recently $1 million in September to support its reviews of science lessons. Education Week has received Gates Foundation funding in the past for capacity-building and for covering specific topics, including academic standards and school improvement, but does not currently. Two Trends Gates latest request for proposals will fund partnerships of professional development providers and schools. Its open to groups in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and North Carolina that must work with teachers in secondary schools serving a student population thats at least 50 percent black, Latino, low-income, or learning English. Districts serving at least 50,000 students can also apply. All of the grantees will focus on middle or high school math or English/language arts, or middle school science. In addition to orienting the training around a high-quality curriculum, grantees will have to show that they can sustain their efforts after the grants end. Theyll also participate in a research study. The foundation envisions making up to 10 grants of $1 million apiece. Gates investment comes in the middle of two diverging national trends in curriculum that have been unleashed, respectively, by the common-standards movement, and by an explosion of online, downloadable, and often teacher-made lessons . The first trendthe one Gates is most associated withis affiliated with the proponents of shared standards. Its focus is improving the alignment of curricula to standards, the overall coherence of curriculum across grade levels, and helping educators make better curriculum selections in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Conversely, the other curriculum trend has been fragmentation. Millions of teachers cobble together lessons from Pinterest, Twitter, and online collections offered by a motley crew of for-profit companies, nonprofits, and teachers unions. For instance, a nationally representative 2017 survey from the RAND Corp. found that 60 percent of math teachers had used materials from the for-profit Teachers Pay Teachers, which allows teachers to post and sell their own lesson plans. The recent popularity of so-called personalized learning has further atomized curriculum at the classroom level, with students in the same classes sometimes accessing different content based on interest or need . (Gates has also funded some groups supporting personalized learning.) Linking Curriculum and PD The funding announcement also comes as a number of recent reports conclude that teacher training suffers by focusing on general teaching strategies rather than on how to use a specific curriculum . One proponent of a stronger link between the two is David Steiner, the executive director of the Institute of Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University. No ed. school has a course on assembling your curriculum on the internet. We have got to change the mind-set around curriculum, because that is damaging to kids, theres just no question. Its very, very difficult to create a coherent curriculum over months and years, he said. Steiners group does not directly receive Gates funding. So what would a partnership like the one Gates envisions look like? Possibly its like the ones that PD provider LearnZillion is now pursuing. Initially created to host a looser collection of lessons, LearnZillion now offers districts a free common-core-aligned middle school math curriculum and services to help teachers understand how to use it effectively. CEO Eric Westendorf said he sees the new grants as a natural progression for Gates. After its focus on teacher evaluation and standards, the time is ripe for a focus on teaching materials. Theres been this assumption ... that if we put something thats a B- in a good teachers hands, theyll do something wonderful with it. I think thats now been challenged, he said. (The organization currently doesnt receive Gates funding.) Its unclear whether Gates new efforts will be met with the same level of resistance that complicated its prior work on standards. Some educators said that theyd welcome the help. A curriculum can be rated highly, but still require a lot of work, said Mark Anderson, a former special educator who now trains New York City teachers in the citys Bronx borough. He recalled putting a popular curriculums lesson plans up against his school calendar and realizing they would never fit without adaptations. You cant just do it out of the box; any curriculum you have has to be modified. Political anger over the common core has noticeably subsided, possibly because some two dozen states have renamed, replaced, or tweaked the standards since their 2009 launch. (Most states instructional expectations continue to share significant DNA with the common core.) But in linking the grants to a curriculum rated high quality, the foundation is implicitly making a values judgment about materials not all educators are likely to share. Among teachers, theres still a huge resentment and backlash to the [common-core] standards, so if were saying this is specific PD around a curriculum thats standards-aligned, there could be some reaction to that, Anderson said. But my sense with teachers is that theres those vocal few online who kind of dominate, but on the ground most teachers, if you give them something thats going to help their work, theyre pretty appreciative and dont care where it comes from. Megan Tompkins-Stange, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Michigans Ford School, sounded a dual note of optimism and caution about Gates curriculum-improvement aims. The great power and pitfall is that they have this capacity to act as the idea-broker: to adjudicate types of curriculum, and whats high quality and whats not, she said. They should just be mindful of ensuring theyre engaging with people on the ground who are going to be affected by this. That was the thing that was most criticized in their last few big bets. In the speech to the diplomatic corps, Francis lists concerns over crisis of multilateral diplomacy and violations of respect due to each person. Thanks to the agreement "all the Bishops in China are in full communion with the Successor of Peter and with the universal Church". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The crisis in multilateral diplomacy and violations of the respect due to each person is what most concerns Pope Francis. Crisis that causes the rebirth of tensions and violations that are expressed in wars and conflicts, including religious ones, but also in the refusal of aid to migrants and refugees, in the disinterest for the needy, young people and women. These are all themes that Francis addressed in the long discourse this morning to the representatives of the 183 States that currently have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, received for the exchange of good wishes for the New Year. It is an event in which, traditionally, the popes give their State of the World address from the perspective of the Holy See. This year, the Pope traced a picture with a few highlights and many shadows. In these, he placed a long list of countries on every continent. Among the highlights, the agreement with China, "he result of a lengthy and thoughtful institutional dialogue that led to the determination of certain stable elements of cooperation between the Apostolic See and the civil authorities". Recalling that he had "readmitted to full ecclesial communion" the " bishops ordained without a pontifical mandate", Francis wanted to thank the Lord that, for the first time after so many years, all the bishops in China are in full communion with the Successor of Peter and with the universal Church." "It is to be hoped that further contacts regarding the application of the signed Provisional Agreement will help resolve questions that remain open and make needed room for an effective enjoyment of religious freedom." In his speech, Francis stressed the numerous anniversaries, starting from the centenary of the League of Nations, remembered in particular as a significant step for the launch of multilateral diplomacy, " that way remains full of difficulties and obstacles, nor is it always effective, since conflicts persist even today, yet it cannot be denied that it provides an opportunity for nations to meet and seek common solutions". This requires " An indispensable condition for the success of multilateral diplomacy is the good will and good faith of the parties, their readiness to deal with one another fairly and honestly, and their openness to accepting the inevitable compromises arising from disputes. Whenever even one of these elements is missing, the result is a search for unilateral solutions and, in the end, the domination of the powerful over the weak. The League of Nations failed for these very reasons, and one notes with regret that the same attitudes are presently threatening the stability of the major international organizations". It is evident, in fact, " It is clear, though, that relationships within the international community, and the multilateral system as a whole, are experiencing a period of difficulty, with the resurgence of nationalistic tendencies at odds with the vocation of the international Organizations to be a setting for dialogue and encounter for all countries." This is partly due to a certain inability of the multilateral system to offer effective solutions to a number of long unresolved situations, like certain protracted conflicts, or to confront present challenges in a way satisfactory to all. artially the outcome of the growing influence within the international Organizations of powers and interest groups that impose their own visions and ideas, sparking new forms of ideological colonization, often in disregard for the identity, dignity and sensitivities of peoples. In part too, it is a consequence of the reaction in some parts of the world to a globalization that has in some respects developed in too rapid and disorderly a manner." Then recalling the theme of his message for the 52nd World Day of Peace "Good politics is at the service of peace" Francis called "an essential aspect of good politics" the "pursuing the common good of all". It is in this perspective that the Church has promoted " the humanitarian initiative in Ukraine on behalf of those suffering, particularly in the eastern areas of the country, from the conflict that has now lasted for almost five years" and that the Pope renewed the appeal to the international community to promote a political solution to the war in Syria, "a conflict that will eventually only be defeated". This conflict, moreover, saw the generous help offered by Jordan and Lebanon to the refugees. "Among those affected by the instability that for years has marked the Middle East are especially the Christian communities". " It is extremely important that Christians have a place in the future of the region, and so I encourage all those who have sought refuge in other places to do everything possible to return to their homes and in any event to maintain and strengthen their ties to their communities of origin. At the same time, I express my hope that political authorities will not fail to ensure their security and all else needed for them to continue to dwell in the countries of which they are full citizens". The events of the Middle East, but also those involving Europe and America, have prompted Francis to "appeal to governments to provide assistance to all those forced to emigrate on account of the scourge of poverty and various forms of violence and persecution, as well as natural catastrophes and climatic disturbances, and to facilitate measures aimed at permitting their social integration in the receiving countries". And speaking of Europe, the Pope also said that "marked by new centrifugal tendencies and the temptation to erect new curtains, may Europe not lose its awareness of the benefits the first of which is peace ushered in by the journey of friendship and rapprochement between peoples begun in the postwar period." (FP) Fresh air, clean surroundings and greenery all around this is the kind of atmosphere that students of Kongu Engineering College in Erode, Tamil Nadu study in. And their academic game is just as strong. Accredited by NAAC with an A grade, an overall ranking of 57 in the year 2017 by National Institutional Ranking Framework and many other recognitions have been accorded to this college. But its not all about academics at Kongu. They are also developing the entrepreneurial spirit of students and encouraging them to think outside of the box. We discovered this and much more when we sat down for a chat with Dr R Parameshwaran, Professor and Head, Department of Mechatronics Engineering and Dr P Navaneethakrishnan, Head of Department of Mechanical at TNIEs Indian Education Fair 2018 in Dubai. Excerpts: What makes the college different? We are a 35-year-old college. We have 13 plus UG branches and out of the 13, around three branches are specialised ones BE Mechatronics Engineering (in line with Industry 4.0), BE Electronic Instrumentation (process control, process implementation and so on) and BE Food Technology (where people learn to process and preserve food among other things). Our placements are also very good. And the campus is not in the city, it is outside it. Hence, the lifestyle is very good. We have excellent hostel facilities and it is especially safe for girl students as well, thanks to the discipline we believe in maintaining. In addition, we have a conducive environment for learning, which not many people have. Research is something we are focusing on. All our departments have approved research centres under Anna University, Chennai. So far, 194 candidates have completed their PhD research from our centres. In addition to this, 250 candidates are pursuing their research in our college. So, the research culture, scenic atmosphere and fresh air provides students with a conducive environment. The college offers 13 UG programmes, 19 PG programmes and 16 research programmes under seven different schools Parents always look for the overall development of their children. What does your college offer in terms of extracurricular activities? There are two parts to this, one is co-curricular and the other is extracurricular. Our academics is aligned with co-curricular activities. Every year, we conduct an open house exhibition where students can exhibit their talents and innovative findings to the public. They develop working models for this exhibition which is open to the public for three days. Colleges and schools in and around our college also visit the exhibition and it is much appreciated. These models are converted into technical papers and are presented. So, we create a platform for them to innovate and exhibit their findings. They also travel throughout India and exhibit their models and this is a part of the co-curricular activities. Out of this exhibition, we have got ten patents. This ensures that the resumes of students are packed as well. We have been conducting this exhibition for 19 years now. We also have different types of clubs. We have photography, cultural, aeromodelling and several others. About 25 clubs form a part of their extracurricular activities. Each domain has a club where students get in, form teams across departments and come up with fresh ideas. We also have a community radio. In this way, we focus on the all-round development of the students which includes academics, co-curricular and extracurricular activities. All smiles: The duo interacting with the chief guest | (Pic: Express) What about nurturing entrepreneurship? We have established a Technology Business Incubator with the help of which, if a student has an idea of establishing a start-up, they can start developing it using our facilities. They can develop and launch it. Till date, our students have launched around 87 products. So, if anyone is looking specifically for an entrepreneurial culture, we provide that as well. Once, an enthusiast came with an idea to detect impurities in jewellery, which could be very minute. We sponsored the idea and this product has been a success. This is a machine with sensors which detects all other metals except gold and is one of the best start-ups to come out of here. Check out their labs - IoT Lab (C-DAC) - Embedded System Lab (Freescale) - DSP Lab (Texas Instruments) - Open Source Lab (Cognizant Technology Solutions) For more on them, click on kongu.ac.in As the government shutdown continues into a third week, the Interior Department has made the controversial and unprecedented decision to use visitor fees collected at national parks to help deal with the maintenance and safety issues that have emerged as iconic public lands remained open but understaffed when the government failed to pass a budget in December, The Washington Post reported. "We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services," National Park Service (NPS) Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith wrote in the NPS statement announcing the plan Sunday. The unusual decision, formalized by a memorandum signed by acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt Saturday, authorizes park managers to use entrance fees to pay staff to clean restrooms, remove trash, patrol parks and reopen areas closed to tourists during the shutdown, The Washington Post reported. [Read how 5 iconic national parks have been facing a "nightmare scenario" due to the government shutdown.] The Trump administration had broken with past precedent by deciding to keep the parks open to the public while a majority of their staff has been furloughed. When shutdowns took place during the Clinton and Obama administrations, the parks had closed their gates. The decision to keep them open has put the safety of wildlife and visitors at risk as trash and waste piles up and unsupervised guests endanger protected habitats. At least seven visitors have died since the shutdown began, including one man who fell to his death in Yosemite after breaking the rules by bringing his dog on a trail. Searchers for missing persons have also been delayed due to the shutdown, according to the Twitter feed for the Democratically-controlled House Natural Resources Committee. Private companies and individual volunteers have stepped up to carry out maintenance activities to the tune of more than $2 million in donations and services, Smith acknowledged in the NPS statement, but the problem is bigger than these informal networks can manage. "As the lapse in appropriations continues, it has become clear that highly visited parks with limited staff have urgent needs that cannot be addressed solely through the generosity of our partners," Smith wrote. However, some park advocates say the decision to use visitor fees to meet those needs is bad for the long-term financial health of the parks. Under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, entrance fees are supposed to be funneled towards long-term projects to enhance the visitor experience, not day-to-day functioning, The Washington Post explained. The national parks system is already struggling financially, the National Parks Conservation Association pointed out in a statement. It has a $11.6 billion backlog of maintenance work to carry out, has handled a 19 percent increase in visitors over the past five years with a staff reduced by 11 percent and has already lost at least $6 million in entrance fees because no one has been on hand to collect them during the shutdown. "Diverting this money will dig our parks into an even bigger financial hole. This will hurt rangers, parks, visitors and the tourism economy long after the shutdown is over," NPCA President Theresa Pierno said in a statement. "Instead of robbing from park funds, the president needs to work with Congress to fully reopen the federal government, including our national parks. And he should propose budgets that will authentically help operate parks and address their maintenance needs in the long-term. Budget antics are not the way to fund our parks." Some members of Congress think the use of fees to fund day-to-day operations could even be illegal, since that is not what the government has earmarked them for. "The Department of Interior is very likely violating appropriations law," Democratic Minnesota Representative and incoming chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior, environment and related agencies Betty McCollum told The Washington Post. "I want to see our parks open, but I want to see our entire government open the right way, following the law." House Natural Resources Committee Chairman and Democratic Arizona Representative Raul M. Grijalva also said his committee would investigate the decision. Negotiations between Congress and President Donald Trump do not look likely to end the shutdown any time soon, The New York Times reported Saturday. Trump has said the shutdown will last "months or even years" if Democrats don't pass a budget that includes $5.7 billion for a border wall, something House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer have vowed will not happen. Pelosi called the wall an "immorality." Environmental and human rights groups have said that a wall would put 93 borderland endangered species at risk of extinction and further imperil the lives of immigrants who would have to travel farther into the desert to cross the border. Mariame Kaba on Twitter: @PrisonCulture #FreeThePeopleDay thread: Here's how you can support #FreeThePeopleDay Today: 1. Look through this directory of local bail funds: https://t.co/EQWj5RaKGK 2. Donate the cost of a drink or 10 to the bail fund(s) of your choice. 3. Your donation will be MATCHED. 4. Share the fact that you participated. pic.twitter.com/kdYXMwzJD6 #Prisonculture (@prisonculture) December 31, 2018 Information aobut Miriames new book Missing Daddy is available HERE. Alexander Kaufman at Mother Jones: Beto ORourke Says Hes Supportive of the Concept of a Green New Deal Beto ORourke has just announced his support for the concept of a Green New Deal the announcement follows reporting by @CapitalandMain & @readsludge exposing his pro-fossil-fuel votes and him breaking his No Fossil Fuel Money pledge. Journalism matters. https://t.co/I7I4VJj18C David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 4, 2019 Joe Dwinell at The Boston Herald: Elizabeth Warren: Billionaires not welcome in 2020 Democratic presidential race Jordan Zakarin on Twitter: @JordanZakarin Progressives Everywhere on Twitter: @Progressives50 Progressives Everywhere website: ProgressivesEverywhere.org Jordans new project: Election-Calendar.com Give us a five-star review at iTunes! The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE! Music clips Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: Theyre Everywhere by Jims Big Ego Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins by Paul Wang The cardinal was bishop of Hong Kong from 2009 to 2017. The decision has caused some controversy over Mgr Joseph Has role. His not being chosen as apostolic administrator means that he is a possible candidate for the post of ordinary bishop. Pope Francis sent his condolences to the Diocese over the passing of Mgr Yeung. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Card John Tong Hon has been appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Hong Kong "with the responsibility of governing it during its vacancy and until further notice" by the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, under whose authority the diocese has been placed. Card Tong, 79, is bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, having led the Diocese from 2009 to 2017. The cardinal is among the architects of dialogue with China and among the most positive supporters of the Sino-Vatican agreement. The appointment of an apostolic administrator became necessary following the death of Mgr Michael Yeung Ming-cheung on 3 January. Several faithful wonder why the Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong, Mgr Joseph Ha Chi-shing, was not appointed. In their view, the choice of Card Tong and the exclusion of Mgr Ha is due to the desire of the Vatican and the Diocese to avoid frictions with China. Mgr Ha is known for his support for the release of jailed Chinese bishops, vigils in memory of those killed in Tiananmen, and support for the territorys demands for democracy. In reality, according to some priests, Card Tong was picked because of the need for a neutral apostolic administrator, someone who is not among the possible candidates for the ordinary episcopate of Hong Kong. This means that Mgr Ha is a possible candidate for such a post. On Saturday, together with the appointment of the new apostolic administrator, Pope Francis sent a telegram of condolences to Hong Kong for the death of Mgr Yeung. The telegram, signed by the Secretary of State, Card Pietro Parolin, expresses unity with the diocese "in prayerful thanksgiving for Bishop Yungs years of priestly and episcopal ministry. It goes on to say that His Holiness commends his soul to our heavenly Fathers merciful love. To all who mourn the bishop's passing, Pope Francis cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge consolation and strength in the Risen Lord." Where are the best places to shop? Who gives the best haircut? Who cooks the best burger? Join our readers in selecting the "Best of Windham." Make your picks! Have any questions? Please give us a call at 928-428-2560 Readers Survey As our valued readers, we want to hear from you. Please take a moment to fill out the survey below. - Thank you, Eastern Arizona Courier Click Here 9 million was collected in Local Property Taxes in Louth in 2018, according to statistics released today by Revenue. 50,500 properties in the county made a return, the totalling 9 million represents a compliance rate of 95.6%. While this may appear a high compliance rate, it is behind the national compliance rate of 97%. The Dundalk Democrart spoke to Louth Councillor Conor Keelan, who gave some insights into the LPT in Louth. The collection of the Local Property Tax (LPT) has been outsourced to the Revenue Commissioners, said Cllr Keelan. Based on my understanding the collection rates have been of a similar pattern over the past number of years. Louth is one of 21 local authorities that are net recipients of the LPT. We currently benefit from an Equalisation Fund into which wealthier Councils give a top-up payment and this is re-distributed across the state. The Dundalk councillor continued,there is a review of the LPT ongoing at present. Based on soundings emanating from the Fine Gael Government, and press leaks, it is likely that properties built since 2013 will lose their present exemption. It is noteworthy too that property values have risen significantly since the introduction of LPT so this will likely be a significant factor during and after the review. As LPT is now such a significant revenue source it will remain in place. Since 2014, in particular, this revenue stream has been of ever increasing importance for local authorities such as Louth; currently accounting for over 9% of our projected income for 2019. For sometime now several of the wealthier Councils, particularly Dublin, have expressed opposition to the Equalisation Fund and recently the Government have said they are looking at scrapping it. In the absence of significant improvements in Local Government funding from Central Government this could have significant implications for Councils like Louth going forward, Cllr Keelan concluded. POTTSBORO [ndash] Thelma Irene Toney passed away on June 11, 2021, in Denison, Texas. She was born on Feb. 28, 1924, in Francis, Oklahoma to John Franklin and Essie Akins Scroggins. She attended grade school at Cedar Grove School and then attended and graduated from Francis High School. She Two subjects have been apprehended and a third is at large in a manhunt related to a drive-by shooting in Ozark on Sunday afternoon. A Dale County Sheriffs Office deputy spotted a suspect vehicle that was just involved in a drive-by shooting, according to a posting on the DCSO Facebook page. The deputy attempted a traffic stop and the vehicle fled. The pursuit ended behind a residence on County Road 20 in the Ewell Community. The occupants fled on foot. Houston County Sheriffs Office and Dale County Sheriffs Office K-9 units, with assistance from Ozark Police Department, apprehended two subjects. One subject was still at large. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is also involved in the manhunt. Get Breaking News Alerts Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. by NAT da Polis The ceremony yesterday at the Phanar. Poroshenko: Today Ukraine assumes spiritual independence, after having won the political independence of 1991. Bartholomew: Fighting for unity and peace of the Ukrainian flock, but also working for the peaceful coexistence with the patriarchate of Moscow. Istanbul (AsiaNews) - With the delivery of the Tomos of Autocephaly to Metropolitan Epifanios, proclaimed Metropolitan of Kiev and Ukraine, the adventure of a new Church begins in the difficult and troubled Orthodox world. In the so-called Diptycha, the order in the ranking of the Orthodox Churches, the Ukrainian Church takes last place, the 15th, since the last arrived, which includes about 23 million. The Tomos was delivered during the Orthodox liturgy, concelebrated by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the new primate Epifanios, in the presence of the Ukrainian President Poroshenko, a Christian of Greek-Byzantine Catholic confession. After the signing of the Tomos by the ecumenical patriarch, President Poroshenko declared that today Ukraine assumes spiritual independence, after having won the political independence of 1991. Autocephaly is granted according to the orthodox canons codified in the Fourth Ecumenical Synod (451 AD). It should be remembered that the first millennium the universal Church was managed by the so-called pentarchy (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Church of Cyprus). After the first millennium and the schism between Rome and Constantinople, the autocephalias that emerged from the fall of Byzantium were granted by Constantinople. The first autocephaly was that of Moscow in 1586; then followed Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Georgia, etc., all granted by Constantinople. In his homily, Bartholomew said to all those present that a new page opens for Ukraine and then turning to the new primate Epifanios reminded him that Divine Providence reserved a great privilege for him, making "part of the autocephalous churches as the 15th autocephalous Orthodox Church ". "Therefore - added the patriarch - you are asked to fight for the unity and peace of their faithful and at the same time to work for peaceful coexistence with those brothers who must continue to remain in the ranks of the Church that belongs to His Beatitude and brother the patriarch of Moscow. So you have to create all those conditions for achieving the reconciliation of everyone. In short, you must operate with only ecclesiological criteria, dominated by charity and sacrifice. And you must never forget the benefits you have drawn from your Mother Church of Constantinople ". "The history of the Orthodox Church - the patriarch continued - is a story of freedom and salvation. And above all remember that this Tomos of autocephaly that is given to you, does not constitute a symbol of power, but is a symbol of charity, of sacrifice for the salvation of the flock of our Lord throughout Ukraine ". "And we - he concluded - from our modest headquarters in the Phanar, center of Orthodoxy, will follow you with affection and offer help when you seek it. Because we want sincere cooperation for the glory of our Lord and the salvation of His flock " In his reply, Metropolitan Epifanios recalled that the Ukrainians received their faith from the mother Church of Constantinople which, as he said, "gave us the Orthodox Christian faith, the succession of the Apostles, the magisterium sanctioned by the Ecumenical Synods and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church". The ball now passes to the Synods of the other 13 Orthodox Churches for the approval of the autocephaly granted by Constantinople. The Russians have already expressed their "no" and it seems that it will be followed by the Poles, Czechoslovakians, Serbs and Antiochines. The reasons seem more geopolitical than ecclesiological. But as the great old sages say, everything in the Orthodox planet is smoothed over time. A Texas man has been arrested and charged for his role in the 2003 Dothan murder at a local motel. Douglas Tyrone Armstrong, 48, of Donna, Texas, was arrested Jan. 6 and charged with the 2003 murder of Debra Hopey Wilson. Wilson, 40, suffered a fatal injury from some type of blunt force trauma injury to the head at the Bee Line Motel on North Oates Street. A motel cleaning crew found Wilsons body. Armstrong was serving time on Death Row in the Texas prison system until recently when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 5-4 opinion, determined that Armstrongs defense counsel failed to conduct a constitutionally adequate investigation of mitigating evidence connected to his case. According to previous information obtained through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, Armstrong was on Death Row for killing a man who was between the age of 50 and 60 by slashing his throat with a box cutter during a robbery on April 21, 2006. In 2013, a Houston County grand jury returned an indictment charging Armstrong with Wilsons murder. New research shows that residents in Donegal are more than half an hour's drive from the nearest hospital emergency department. Donegal was the third-worst county with an average distance of 36km, followed by Longford and Mayo at 32km and 31km respectively according to the analysis which is based on Eircode data. Councillor Martin McDermott said that the people of Donegal pay the same tax as those in other counties and deserve the same level of service. Designed by Studio North in Windermere, Canada, this wooden hut has been conceived to host birds (and also humans). Immersed in the tree canopy, the hut can accommodate two people, twelve varieties of birds, and whatever inquisitive critters that come by to visit. The materials, form, and orientation of the birdhut were designed to offer nesting opportunities for as wide a variety of local birds as possible. Read the full article Mumbai court declares Mallya fugitive economic offender A special court in Mumbai on Saturday declared liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who fled to the United Kingdom following the registration of cases against him in loan fraud cases, a fugitive economic offender (FEO). The court decision, which comes on a plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), makes Mallya the first businessman to be declared FEO under the provisions of the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. The ED had requested the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court that the absconding Mallya be declared a fugitive and his properties be confiscated as per the provisions of the FEO Act, which came into existence in August last year. Special judge MS Azmi declared Mallya an FEO under Section 12 of the Act after hearing extensive arguments from the lawyer of Mallya and the ED counsel. Mallya, accused of defaulting on loan repayments and money laundering, had left India in March 2016. Bengaluru to host pharma and medical devices conference on 18-19 Feb The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) under the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers, along with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is organising the 4th International Conference on Pharmaceutical and Medical Device sector on 18-19 February 2019 in Bengaluru. The theme for India Pharma 2019 is Enabling Quality Affordable Healthcare and that of India Medical Device 2019 is Med-Tech India: Gearing up for Ayushman Bharat. Gowda will inaugurate the two-day event, which is Indias biggest Global Conference on Pharma Industry and Medical Devices, and address the distinguished gathering in the presence of minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers and road transport and highways and shipping Mansukh L Mandaviya. Endevour of the government is to provide affordable quality healthcare for all and boost indigenous pharma sector through Make in India. In this direction, cabinet has given approval for 100 per cent FDI under automatic route for manufacturing of medical devices, said union minister for chemicals and fertilisers and statistics and programme implementation D V Sadananda Gowda while addressing the media during the curtain raiser press conference for India Pharma 2019 and India Medical Device 2019. He said the endevour of government is to provide affordable quality healthcare for all and boost indigenous pharma sector through Make in India. Gowda will also hold a roundtable of pharma and medical devices CEOs to discuss government policy and challenges facing the industry. During the curtain raiser, Gowda said the flagship event would bring key stakeholders of the pharma and medical devices sectors under one roof and provide an opportunity to discuss government policy and challenges facing the industry. The government is striving to make the processes in the sector transparent and easy, he added. The 4th edition of the event will have brainstorming sessions on various aspects of pharmaceuticals and medical device sector and in its 4th edition the event will help in resolving the bottlenecks of growth in the sectors. He invited the industry, media and the healthcare fraternity to participate in a big way at the event. Talking on the rationale of holding the annual conference, Secretary (Pharmaceuticals), JP Prakash said the event, which is held annually to get new and innovative ideas from all stakeholders, helps the department to prepare the annual action plan for the Pharma and Medical Device Sectors. During the conference, the annual action taken report on the issues raised at the last edition of the event, along with new areas of concern, will be discussed, he added. In the main event in Bengaluru, over 150 CEOs of the global pharma and medical device industry are expected to participate. International Drug Regulators from 15 countries have been invited to the event for interaction with Indian Drug Regulators and Industry Regulatory Officers. Thematic sessions will be held on areas of Artificial Intelligence in Pharma, Import Export issues, Biologicals, Biopharmaceuticals and New Chemical Entities (NCEs) for the pharmaceutical sector. For the medical devices sector, thematic sessions will be held on Diagnostics Ecosystem, Ease of Doing Business and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) framework. Technical workshop by World Health Organization will help in addressing key challenges before the industry and will also provide tremendous business linkages to the participating companies. The Department of Pharmaceuticals will also confer annual India Pharma & Medical Device Awards for various categories, including India Pharma Leader Award, Innovation of Year Award, Bulk Drug Company of the Year Award and Medical Device Company of the Year Award. Nafed eyes PPP model for 100 bio-CNG plants; ties up sales with IOC National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed), the apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India, plans to set up 100 bio-CNG manufacturing facilities, with an estimated investment of Rs5,000 crore, across the country, under the public-private partnership model. Nafed has also entered into an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd for purchase of bio-CNG from the plants at a rate of Rs48 per kg. The first three facilities are expected to come up at Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, which is the largest sugarcane producing state where waste from sugar mills is available in abundance, Nafed Managing Director Sanjeev K Chadha said. An agreement has already been signed with 4-5 private investors like Reliance, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and technology providers. Initially, 100 units will be set up across the country with an estimated cost of about Rs5,000 crore, Chadha told reporters. Another agreement has been signed with Indian Oil for purchase of bio-CNG from the plants at a rate of Rs48 per kg, he said. Nafed presently is in the process of mapping farm waste from sugar mills, mandis and other areas to ensure assured supply, Chadha said, adding that collection of farm waste will be done through farmer aggregators. Already, work is in progress in setting up of first three units in Muzaffarnagar, which is expected to be completed soon, he added. Nafed chief further said that each unit will have a capacity to process at least 100-300 tonne agri-waste, from which one-tenth of the CNG will be produced. The focus initially will be in Delhi and NCR. Gradually, the number of units will be increased in other parts of the country, he said. Nafed is primarily engaged in procurement of notified oilseeds and pulses at minimum support price mandated by the government either under the PSS or PSF schemes. It is also into production and marketing of certified seeds, bio-fertilisers, sale of milled pulses, organic products, among others. Nafed had a turnover of Rs3,213 crore and a gross profit of Rs252 crore during the 2017-18 fiscal. Govt launches Round-III of oil exploration bids under OALP; expects Rs45,000-cr from Round-II The government today launched the third round of Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) bid round-III with an area of approximately 30,000 sq km on offer to the investor community under the investor friendly HELP (Hydrocarbon Exploration Licencing Programme) regime, minister of petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. Union minister of petroleum and natural gas & skill development and entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan launched the notice inviting offer (NIO) and MRSC for OALP Bid Round-II, which offers 14 exploration and prospecting (E&P) blocks, with an area of approximately 30,000 sq km. Of these, 10 blocks are based on expressions of interest submitted by the bidders, and 4 blocks have been carved out by the government based on data received through the National Seismic Programme and the Resource Reassessment Study carried out by the government. With the launch of NIO, bidders can study the data available in National Data Repository (NDR) and select blocks for the bidding. The bidders would be able to submit their bids through an online e-bidding portal starting 8 January 2019 and the bidding round would continue till12 March 2019. The blocks are spread across 7 sedimentary basins, 14 blocks are on offer under OALP-II which includes 8 blocks (onland), 5 blocks (shallow water) and1 block (ultra-deep water). It is expected that OALP Round II would generate immediate exploration work commitment of around $500-600 million (around Rs3,500 crore) . The government expects gross estimated revenue of Rs45,000 crore from discovered small field bid round-II on 25 contract areas and Rs9,000 crore under discovered small field bid round-I from 30 contract areas. The gross estimated revenue is based on estimates of oil and gas hydrocarbon in place reserves, assumption in terms of hydrocarbon recovery factor, hydrocarbon sale price, etc, from 25 contract areas considering project life of 15 years. However, actual revenue realisation from these fields may vary based on actual award of contract areas, development strategy adopted by the contractor, actual production realised and techno-economics of the individual field. The last date of bid submission under Discovered Small Field Round-II has been extended by one month, ie, till 18 January 2019, on account of requests received by the prospective bidders. Under the DSF Policy, only those hydrocarbon discoveries of national oil companies which could not be monetised for a long period of time are offered for bidding, although ONGC is continuing to make endeavours to optimise production from its operational fields. The total gas accretion of ultimate reserves in financial year 2017-18 is 83.74 billion cubic meter (BCM) and the total gas ultimate reserves established by the public/private sector oil companies in the country as on 1 April 2018 is 2,313 BCM. Commercial production from most of the newly identified reserves is yet to commence as the time required for development of hydrocarbon discoveries varies from 3 to 8 years depending upon various factors such as location/size of discovery, availability of infrastructure facility besides other oil fields services. Government has taken steps for development of gas based economy in the country which include plan for expansion in natural gas supply with the help of additional domestic gas production, expansion of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) terminals in the east and west coasts of the country, nationwide gas grid, including North Eastern states and policy initiatives for the promotion of use of natural gas, ie, clean fuel by all sectors of the economy. For all exploration activities in the onland blocks, the respective state government grants petroleum exploration licence (PEL). With this successful roll out of the HELP/OALP regimes, together with the National Data Repository (NDR), the Government has achieved a massive addition to the exploration acreage of India. The acreage which stood at approximately 90,000 sq. km. in 2017 was increased to 150,000 sq. km. after OALP I and would touch 2,10,000 sq km after OALP Round II and III bidding exercises by May 2019 and is expected to touch 300,000 sq km by the end of the year 2019, with another two rounds of bidding expected to be finalized (IV and V) in 2019. The licensing programme under HELP which adopts the Revenue Sharing Model is a step towards improving the Ease of Doing Business in the Indian Exploration and Production (E&P) sector. It comes with attractive fiscal terms like reduced royalty rates and no oil cess, marketing and pricing freedom, submission of Expression of Interests (EoIs) round the year, bid rounds commencing every six months and a single licence to cover conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Lenders ask Jet Air to submit revival plan by month-end Lenders to Indias second-largest carrier Jet Airways India Ltd want promoter Naresh Goyal to act fast and submit a formal revival plan after the company sought a fresh loan of Rs1,500 crore after defaulting on loan repayments last month, reports quoting people involved in the negotiations said. The banks have reportedly asked Jet Airways to submit a revival plan by 21 January as the existing loan account would be more than 30 days overdue by then. After their meeting earlier this week to discuss the loan default, the lenders consortium had sought a revival plan that included proposal for fresh equity infusion and part monetisation of the companys assets. Jet Airways owed banks Rs8,414 crore as of March last year, according to its annual report. Hit by high fuel prices and a highly competitive market, the airline reported three straight quarters of losses and delay salaries. After delaying payment of salary to its senior management along with pilots and engineers, the loss-making carrier has now failed to disburse the December salary to some other categories of employees as well, according to reports. The Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways has not paid salaries of managerial employees and those above for December, say reports. Jet Airways, which is part owned by Gulf carrier Etihad, has over 16,000 employees. The airline has been in exploratory talks with the Tata Group to sell a controlling stake, following the cash-crunch, which also took away nearly 70 per cent of its market value in 2018. Jet Airways said it is optimistic about the outcome of the discussions with its lenders. The talks are progressing well and we hope to reach a positive resolution at the earliest. But, lenders led by State Bank of India are sceptical about getting their money back in the absence of a firm revival plan. The lenders have informed the promoter that the revival plan must be submitted within three weeks of the date of default since it would enter the special mention account category of loan classification after 30 days of remaining in default. Under the Reserve Bank of Indias loan classification norms, an account falls in special mention account-1 category if its in default for 30-60 days, in SMA-2 if the borrower fails to repay for 60-90 days and a non-performing asset beyond 90 days. Lenders, however, are wary of taking Jet Airways to the National Company Law Tribunal for insolvency proceedings since they are not sure of the value of its assets. They said the promoters could either arrange additional funds themselves or convince partner Etihad Airways PJSC to buy more stake in the company. Goyal controls 51 per cent in the company, while Etihad owns 24 per cent. Trump suggests wall of steel for a budget deal with Democrats US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered a steel option to the planned wall along the US-Mexico border even as he refused to bend on his demand for a wall along the southern border. The barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete Trump said as a potential bait for Democrats to reopen talks for a deal. Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Sunday, the President repeated his threat that if negotiations fail to deliver in the next few days, he could declare a national emergency and use the military to construct a wall, circumventing Congress. He also said he was willing to accept a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall, although there is no reason for him to lower his demand for $5.6 billion in border security funding. White House also signalled on Sunday that President Donald Trumps move away from his demand that a proposed barrier along the southern border be a concrete wall, could reopen talks for a deal with the Democrats. The so-called concession comes at the partial government shutdown resulting from the dispute that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers idle or without paychecks, entered the third week and looked set to "drag on a lot longer." Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said in an interview on NBC's `Meet the Press programme that agreeing to a steel separation would allow Democrats to stick to their refusal to fund a wall. "That should help us move in the right direction," said Mulvaney, who heads the office of management and budget. Democrats have signalled they could accept a deal that precluded a concrete wall but provided funding for a steel barrier. But they would likely demand other concessions, like protections for immigrants brought to the United States as children, otherwise known as Dreamers, or changes to other spending provisions. Mulvaney said negotiations between his staff and congressional Democrats were bogged down in technical requests after the two sides met on Saturday morning. "I think this is going to drag on a lot longer. I think that's by intention," said Mulvaney, who is serving as the top White House aide in an acting capacity. Democratic Senator Doug Jones, appearing on the same program, said the White House has not presented a plan to use the money. "I think that we have to talk about border security. We haven't seen a plan to talk about border security," Jones said. "Im not going to give wall money just to give wall money. I'd like to see a plan for how that money is going to be spent." Democrats, who took control of the House of Representatives last week, passed a bill to reopen the government without providing additional funding for the wall, and have insisted that reopening the government should not be contingent upon wall construction funds. The shut-down of parts of the federal government started on 22 December after lawmakers and the president hit an impasse over Trump's demands to build a wall. About 800,000 government workers are either furloughed or working without pay. Trump is demanding that any funding to keep the federal government operational also include $5.6 billion to begin building a $23 billion a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump said on Sunday that he should not have to lower his demand for $5.6 billion in border security funding. Trade unions to strike nationwide on 8-9 Jan over labour reforms Ten national trade unions representing about 200 million workers have come together for a 2-day nationwide strike on 8 and 9 January in protest against the governments alleged anti-worker policies. AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said 10 CTUs have joined hands to go on the strike and 200 million workers are expected to participate in the Bharat Bandh. "This is the largest number of workers from formal and informal sectors joining the strike against anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led central government," Kaur said while addressing a joint press conference of the trade unions. Kaur said sectors like banking, education, coal, steel, telecom, health, electricity, insurance and transport, inter alia, are likely to extend support to the strike. "We will go on a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Similar protests would be done across the country," she said. The trade unions are protesting against the governments unilateral moves for labour law reforms, Kaur said: We have given suggestions on labour codes. But during the discussion...trade unions' demands were rejected. We went on strike on September 2, 2016. We also did 3-day 'Mahapadav' (agitation) from November 9-11 in 2017. But the government did not come for dialogue rather went ahead with unilateral labour reforms. The 10 central trade unions supporting the strike include Indian National Trade Union Congress, All India Trade Union Congress, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Trade Union Coordination Centre, Self Employed Women's Association, All India United Trade Union Centre, All India Central Council of Trade Unions, Labour Progressive Federation, and United Trade Union Congress. "The government has failed to create jobs and grossly ignored unions' 12-point charter of demands. The group of ministers headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley on labour issues has not called unions for any discussion since September 2, 2015 strike. This has left us with no other option but to go on strike," Kaur said. The trade unions also claimed that the government went on with its "aggressive attack with arrogance on the lives and livelihood of the working people". They also raised their voice against the proposed amendments in Trade Union Act, 1926, calling them irrational. Student and teacher organisations of various universities are also supporting the strike. Traders have rejected the Bharat Bandh call, saying they will keep their establishments open on 8 and 9 January. RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) also will not participate in the strike tomorrow. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun sends updates in real time. She fears that if she is returned to Saudi Arabia, she would be killed. Thai authorities want to send her to her relatives in Kuwait. For the Thai government she is not a refugee and has broken immigration laws. Another Saudi woman, 24-year-old Dina Ali Lasloom, experienced the same fate. Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) A desperate young Saudi woman who says she has fled her family in fear for her life has barricaded herself in her hotel room at Bangkok airport, asking to meet the UN refugee agency to claim asylum. "My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait," said the 18-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun. "They will kill me. My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things." On her twitter account, used by a friend who is tweeting live about her the situation, the young woman had planned to leave Thailand for Australia on a regular flight She is still involved in a tug-of-war with Thai and Saudi authorities because the latter want to put her on the first plane for Kuwait where family members and an uncertain future are waiting for her. Her life is at stake. And her case echoes that of another Saudi woman who was in transit to Australia in April 2017. Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, was en route from Kuwait via the Philippines but was taken back to Saudi Arabia from Manila airport by her family. She used a Canadian tourist's phone to send a message, a video of which was posted to Twitter, saying her family would kill her. Her fate on arriving back in Saudi Arabia remains unknown. Dinas story confirms all the fears surrounding the fate of the 18-year-old woman locked up in a hotel room in Bangkok, in desperate search for a contact with UN officials. According to a Thai lawyer, a Thai court turned down an urgent appeal filed this morning to block the extradition and there is nothing to stop the Thai government from returning the young woman to Saudi Arabia. Local sources say that Thailand helped Saudi envoys who intercepted the young woman and prevented her from boarding a flight to Australia. Thai authorities dismissed the accusations, saying only that she stopped because of certain irregularities in her entry visa. The young Saudi woman said in one of her many tweeter messages that she never wanted to stay in Thailand, and that her final destination was Australia where she wants to rebuild a life. Thai Police Major General Surachate Hakparn said that she was escaping a marriage, and called the case a "family problem". "I shared my story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this... I can't study and work in my country, so I want to be free and study and work as I want," she said. Now that she had "nothing to lose she decided to speak out about her situation. In Saudi Arabia women are under male tutelage. Despite recent reforms sponsored by the Kingdoms crown prince, like letting women to drive, women activists are victims of repression. In Rahafs case, it appears Thai authorities have prevented UN officials in Bangkok from meeting the young woman. Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Twitter that "time is short & she faces dire peril". (CNN) At least 40 people were killed when a gold mine collapsed Sunday in northern Afghanistan, authorities said. Ten other miners were injured in the incident, which happened as they searched for gold in the Kohestan district of Badakhshan province, Afghan parliament member Fawzia Koofi said in a statement. Provincial official Nek Mohammad Nazari said all of the victims were mine workers. This story was first published on CNN.com, "40 people killed in Afghan gold mine collapse." Tata Nexon pips Ford EcoSport as India's 2nd best-selling SUV in 2018 Tata Nexon with its `safest Indian car tag has bet rival Ford EcoSport to become the second best selling compact SUV in 2018 while Maruti Suzukis Vitara Brezza continued to reamin the top-selling compact SUV of 2018. Tata Motors sold 52,519 units of Nexon in 2018 compared to 51,973 units of Ford EcoSport sold in Jan-Dec 2018 period in India. The sales difference between both these models are minor as the EcoSport was leading till November but the downward growth is much more than Nexon, as it is one of the consistent models in its segment. It may be noted that Nexon managed this with just one change got last year when it introduced AMT transmission in July and some limited edition models but Ford introduced a new top-end variant of EcoSport and the company re-introduced the EcoBoost engine in May. The EcoSport, which started off well with its facelift model towards the end of 2017, however, saw were coming down since June as the compact SUV registered negative growth each month. Ford also entered into a marketing partnership with Mahindra to improve sales in 2019 and Mahindra has started selling EcoSport from its dealerships in selected places where the Ford doesnt have dealerships or in the current ones, which perform really bad and these dealerships will service Ford vehicles also. Tata Motors, meanwhile, is reported to be working on a new petrol hybrid variant of Nexon along with upgrading current diesel engine to meet the upcoming BSVI emission norms. One of the reasons for the success of Nexon is its design theme, which is similar to the concept model and it comes with lots of features and powerful as well as efficient engines. The company also priced the Nexon aggressively against competitors as well. Program purpose: To increase outdoor shooting range capacity for youth shooters and the general public, by providing matching grant funds to recreational shooting clubs open for public use. Eligible projects: Projects that develop, expand, improve, or upgrade existing trap or skeet shooting ranges, rifle/pistol ranges, and 5 stand shooting ranges. New range development will be prioritized in rural areas of MN, for new grantees through this grant period. Who may apply: Local recreational shooting clubs in Minnesota that allow public access to shooting. A facility rehabilitated, enhanced or improved with a grant must be open to the general public at reasonable times and for a reasonable fee on a walk-in basis for a period of not less than 20 years following project completion. Scoring: Grant applications will be scored based on project location and need, financial contributions of funding partners and the applicant, and the feasibility of the project. Level of assistance: The Shooting Range Grants program provides grants from $2,500 to $25,000 for listed projects eligible for expedited funding. The grants must be matched 1:1. All grantees must comply with the State of Minnesota grant laws and policies. These funds are from the 2019 Minnesota Session Law, Chapter First Special Session, Chapter 4, Article 1, Section 3, Subdivision 6(h) appropriation. For 2020, $100,000 in matching funding is available. Funding is available on a first-come, first served basis, based on current priorities. A similar sign up period will be conducted later in 2020, when an additional $100,000 becomes available. How to apply: Use the application form supplied in this Shooting Range Grant Application Packet, and include all documentation at the time you submit your written application. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted. Three complete sets of the application with original signatures and supporting documentation and plans must be submitted. The materials and documentation must be on standard, letter-sized 8.5 x 11 paper. Completed grant applications, including any supporting documentation, will be funded on a first-come, first served basis as funding remains available. All work funded now must be completed by June 30, 2020. For questions, contact Chuck Niska, DNR shooting range coordinator, at 612-756-4165 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Mail applications to: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Chuck Niska, Shooting Range Coordinator Division of Enforcement 500 Lafayette Rd., Box 47 St. Paul, MN 55155-4047 Subscriber content preview SEATTLE The Tup Tim Thai restaurant site, at 118 W. Mercer St. , has sold for $3.75 million, according to King County records. The seller was RMJ Holdings LLC, associated with SeaLevel Properties, which acquired the property in 2017 for just under $2 million. . . . Subscriber content preview Rendering by Johnson Braund [enlarge] BlackRidge will start construction soon on the 177-room hotel. Johnson Braund designed it, and Key Construction is the contractor. Almost 3.5 acres of vacant land at 345-515 Industry Dr. in Tukwila have sold for $6.2 million, according to King County records. . . . Subscriber content preview CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) An Illinois company has won a $92 million contract to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to accommodate larger oil tankers. The Port of Corpus Christi on Thursday announced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers selected Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company. The federal government and the Port of Corpus Christi are funding the overall $360 million ship channel project. . . . Subscriber content preview Contractors remain optimistic about 2019, according to a recent poll of 1,300 members of the Associated General Contractors. The survey by AGC of America and Sage Construction & Real Estate showed that 79 percent of U.S. construction firms plan to expand their workforce this year while only 2 percent said they will decrease the headcount. . . . Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry worldwide. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution. It also distributes regulatory reports and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions; and provides end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and multi-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services. In addition, this segment offers financial reporting document composition and management solutions; SEC disclosure and filing services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; customer communication solutions; cloud-based marketing and customer communication tools; customer and account data aggregation and reporting services, as well as creates sales and educational content, including seminars and a library of financial planning topics; and mutual fund trade processing services. The company's Global Technology and Operations segment offers desktop productivity tools, data aggregation, performance reporting, portfolio management, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearance and settlement, asset servicing, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral optimization, compliance and regulatory reporting, and accounting. It also provides capital market, wealth management, asset management, and international securities processing solutions; managed services; and customizable advisor Websites, search engine marketing, and electronic and print newsletters. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York. Read More Islamabad has also received billions of dollars in Chinese loans to finance ambitious infrastructure projects in the country. Islamabad: The red carpet was rolled out for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Islamabad to announce a support package of about $6.2 billion for Pakistan on Sunday. Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the crown prince at the Nur Khan airbase, where an artillery unit honored him with a 21-gun salute, and the PM himself drove him to the Prime Ministers House in Islamabad where he was given a guard of honour and a fly-past of JF-17 Thunders. Moreover, all relevant terms and conditions have been finalised before UAE inducts $3 billion cash into the economy of Pakistan and another $3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payments for one year, thereby enabling the country to recover from its economic crisis. Al Nahyan, who is also deputy chief of the UAE s armed forces, held a one-on-one meeting with PM Khan, followed by a high-level delegation talks. The UAE prince also met members of the federal cabinet including foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, finance minister Asad Umar, information minister Fawad Chaudhry and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood. The two sides discussed bilateral relations, matters of mutual, regional and international interest. In December 2018, UAE officially announced that it would assist Pakistan to help it overcome international payment crisis and to avoid the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which contained strict terms and conditions. UAE has announced its intention to deposit US$3 billion (equivalent to AED11 billion) in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to support the financial and monetary policy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) said in a statement. The Pakistani rupee had plunged almost five percent to a record low at the end of November, after what appeared to be the sixth devaluation by the central bank in the past year. Islamabad has also received billions of dollars in Chinese loans to finance ambitious infrastructure projects in the country. In November, a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had visited Pakistan to discuss a possible bailout with officials but talks ended without an agreement. The crown prince departed for the UAE around 3pm on Sunday after conducting back-to-back meetings. The crown prince last visited Pakistan in January 2007. NVIDIAs CES 2019 press conference turned out to be a bit different this year. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang came onto the stage and set the record straight from the get go, this years CES was going to be all about gaming. Jensen Huangs keynote shared quite a few similarities with his Gamescom 2018 address, it started off with him revisiting the graphics revolution seen in the past 15 years and how it was primarily focused on rasterization in the past and the shift towards more real time processing. It wouldnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that we were about to see the announcement of a new graphics card with real-time ray-tracing capabilities. Before getting to the juicy part, Jensen took us through some of the features such as reflections, global illumination, facial animation, area lights, character animation and super resolution, etc which according to him, are required to make video game graphics appear more realistic. These very features were part of the Turing architecture that was announced at Gamescom 2018 in the form of the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 and the RTX 2070. The demo reel that followed saw these very features put in use, in real time. One of them was the announcement for Anthem incorporating DLSS. Then there was one about how Battlefield V has made use of ray tracing and DLSS. After nearly 20 minutes of demo reels, Jensen finally let the cat out of the bag. All the demos run during the event were all on a brand new GPU, the RTX 2060. Heres everything that NVIDIA announced at their CES 2019 keynote. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Having made a significant leap in gaming hardware with the latest Turing architecture based graphics cards, namely the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070. NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang, at their CES 2019 press conference announced the latest member in the RTX family, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. The RTX 2060 will reportedly rival the previous gen GTX 1080 in terms of performance. Unlike predictions made by industry analysts, the RTX 2060 does indeed have 30 RT cores giving it real-time ray-tracing capabilities. Heres the rundown of the GPU structure. GTX 1060 RTX 2060 SMs 10 30 CUDA Cores 1280 1920 Tensor Cores N/A 240 Tensor Flops N/A 51.6 RT Cores N/A 30 Texture Units 80 120 ROPs 48 48 Rays Cast 0.44 Giga Rays 5 Giga Rays RTX OPs N/A 37 Boost Clock 1708 MHz 1680 MHz Memory bandwidth 8 Gbps 14 Gbps Memory capacity 6144 MB GDDR5 6144 MB GDDR6 Memory bus-width 192-bit 192-bit Memory bandwidth 192 GB/sec 336.1 GB/sec TDP 120 Watts 160 Watts NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Availability & Pricing Jensen Huang announced that the RTX 2060 will be available for sale from January 15, 2019 in all major markets. The cards should be available in India around the same time frame. As for pricing, the GeForce RTX 2060 will be priced at $349 globally. The RTX 2060 Founders Edition will be priced at Rs.32,500 in India. Autodesk Arnold support Since gaming graphics cards have increasingly been used for use cases such as video editing, NVIDIA has finally decided to officially support enterprise editing software on the new RTX graphics cards. The only one to be announced was Autodesk Arnold, an advanced Monte Carlo ray tracing renderer. Its assumed that NVIDIA wont be supporting all the multimedia authoring tools on the GeForce RTX graphics cards since that would cannibalise the sales for the Quadro graphics cards. Nevertheless, this is a welcome move from NVIDIA. 8K RED Video Editing Another major announcement to the benefit of prosumers and studios is that NVIDIA RTX cards will now support 8K video editing for footage shot with RED cameras. All RTX graphics cards, not just the newly announced RTX 2060, will allow users to perform editing, colour correcting and rendering with 8K RED footage. OBS pro-quality broadcasting on single PC NVIDIA also announced that theyll be working closely with the developers of OBS, the most popular video game streaming software to make the software more optimised on NVIDIA GPUs. Currently, running OBS can rack up quite the compute overhead leading to stuttering during game play if youre streaming from the same machine. With the new improvements, NVIDIA promises to make it all go away. Turing VRWORKS with HTC Vive NVIDIA also announced that theyll be working closely with HTC to improve user experience on the VR HMDs made by the company. NVIDIA 2000 series Mobility Another major announcement was the introduction of the new mobility GPU lineup based on the Turing architecture. GeForce RTX-powered laptops will be available starting Jan. 29 from the world's top OEMs, including Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo Legion, MSI, Razer and Samsung. The individual manufacturers will be unveiling their SKUs in the coming days. Highlight: Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro spotted on Geekbench website. Listing shows the phone with Snapdragon 660 SoC and 6GB RAM. The phone is also seen running Android 9 Pie. Xiaomis Redmi Note series have steered the company to the top spot in the Indian market but when the company oddily launched an upgrade within just 8 months of launching the Redmi Note 5 Pro, it was said to be playing catch up with its competitors in the same price bracket. The Chinese company now seems to be looking to up-the-ante and as seen on Geekbench, it is working on the Redmi Note 7 powered by the Snapdragon 660 mobile platform. In November, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 6 Pro featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 in India. It is the same processor that the company used in its predecessor. Meanwhile, in terms of price, its competitors, like the Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M2) and Realme 2 Pro, use the Snapdragon 660 SoC. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 is a more powerful chip than the Snapdragon 636. Xiaomi seems to have sensed that it needs to deliver more power in that price bracket, and not only is it seen working on the Redmi Note 7 with a more powerful processor, as per the Geekbench listing, the company is also bringing the latest Android 9 Pie OS on it. The Geekbench listing also shows that the Redmi Note 7 has 6GB of RAM. In the single-core and multi-core tests, the device has scored 1462 and 4556 points respectively. No other information has been revealed by the listing. The listing appears a few days ahead of Redmis launch event on January 10. Xiaomis sub-brand could be announcing a Redmi phone with a 48MP camera sensor at the event. While some claim that the company may launch the Redmi Pro 2, some say that the phone could be the Redmi 7. A recent report suggested that this upcoming phone may have a USB Type-C port for charging - something that has been lacking in Xiaomi branded phones. Related Read: Xiaomi Redmi Pro 2 official renders leaked Highlights: HP Omen 15 laptop now comes in an optional 240Hz display version. The Omen X Emperium 65 is a 64.5-inch display with 144 Hz refresh rate, Nvidia G-SYNC HDR support and a soundbar. HP also announced refreshed OMEN Obelisk Desktop While CES 2019 is yet to begin, announcements from various manufacturers have started pouring in. HP has also announced a slew of new devices ahead of the event and the most notable ones from the lot include the HP Omen 15, which is supposedly the worlds first gaming laptop with a 240Hz display. The company also debuted its OMEN X Emperium 65-Inch G-Sync HDR monitor that features 144Hz refresh rate and comes equipped with a soundbar. HP also announced new HP Pavilion displays, EliteBook x360 830 G5, refreshed OMEN Obelisk desktop and more. HP Omen 15 The HP Omen 15 laptop has been announced in a 240Hz display panel option. The new device comes with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs and an optional 802.11ax Wi-Fi adapter. The laptop features a 15.6-inch display and also comes in display options of 144hz 1080p, 60Hz 4k, or 60Hz 1080p and NVIDIA G-SYNC technology on select configurations. The refreshed versions of the laptop are expected to be available in the US from February at a starting price of $1,369.99 (Rs 95,411 approx) and the devices optional 240Hz display version is expected to be made available in July. Omen X Emperium 65 Launched under HPs Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD) initiative, the Omen X Emperium 65 comes with Nvidia G-SYNC HDR support and a soundbar. The device is equipped with a 64.5-inch display with 144 Hz refresh rate and comes with a bundled OMEN X Emperium Soundbar that has 120W of output power. The soundbar comes with a three way stereo crossover system, Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology and Vibration Reduction Technology (VRT), which are said to negate the need for a dedicated subwoofer. The OMEN X Emperium 65 with Soundbar is expected to hit the shelves in March in Asia-Pacific at a starting price of $4,999 (Rs 3.48 lakhs approx). Refreshed OMEN Obelisk Desktop The newest version of the OMEN Obelisk Desktop will now come with up to 64GB of HyperX Memory, and with options of up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphic card. The company is also including support for up to 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K CPU on the device with dual SSD w/ RAID0, and the liquid cooling. The new OMEN Obelisk Desktop is expected to be available in March for a starting price of $2,249.99 (Rs 1.57 lakh approx). New Pavilion displays and accessories HP has also announced a new line of its Pavillion displays. There is now the HP Pavilion 37 Quantum Dot, which the company claims is the worlds first Quantum Dot on glass display, which is also capable of displaying over a billion viewable colours. The company also announced a Full HD version of the 27-inch HP Pavilion that features built-in B&O audio and a pop-up privacy camera, along with the QHD HP Pavilion 32. The company also announced two new accessories, the HP Envy USB-C Hub that enables pass-through charging with two USB-A charging ports and features an HDMI 2.0 port with 4K resolution support. The other accessory is the HP 15.6 Odyssey Backpack that comes in three geometric color patterns. The HP Pavilion 27 FHD Display and the Pavilion 27 Quantum Dot Display are expected to be available in March for $329 (RS Rs 23,000 approx) and $399 (Rs Rs 27,800 approx) respectively. The HP Pavilion 32 QHD Display is expected to be available in April in Asia-Pacific at starting at $379.99 (Rs 26,535 approx). The HP 15.6 Odyssey Backpack is expected to be available in March starting at $69.99 (Rs 4,890 approx) and the HP Envy USB-C Hub is expected to be available in March starting at $79.99 (Rs 5,585 approx). HP EliteBook convertible, EliteDisplay monitor and EliteOne AIO With a focus and privacy and security, HP announced its new Elite lineup of devices featuring HP Sure View privacy screen. First up is the HP EliteBook x360 830 G5, which is said to feature the brightest display on a business convertible. The company also announced the HP EliteDisplay E243p Sure View Monitor, which is claimed to be the worlds first display with an integrated privacy screen. In the All In One space, HP announced the EliteOne 800 AiO G5 that along with the privacy screen is equipped with a discrete graphics card. The HP EliteDisplay E243p is expected to be shipped in February for $379.99 (Rs 26,535 approx) and while theres no word on the pricing of the HP EliteBook x360 830 G5 and the HP EliteOne 800 AiO G5, they both could be made available in March and June respectively. Their pricing will be announced closer to availability. Related Reads: HP Omen 17 Review Ooredoo Myanmar has selected Nokia to secure its telecom and ICT networks against cyber threats. Nokia is providing its Managed Security Services to operate and manage all aspects of security. The cyber-attack detection and response capabilities are provided remotely from the Nokia Security Operation Centre. Security attacks on networks are continuously growing, and there is a steady rise in advanced malware which can no longer be deterred by traditional measures. This creates a pressing need for operators to gain visibility and intelligence on actions both in the external world and within business infrastructures, applications, data and people, to be able to detect security risks and breaches and respond to them. As part of its holistic service, Nokia first analyses security risks and gaps across various security domains by using its Security Risk Index, then implements suggested performance improvements using the Managed Security Service. This ensures that the critical information assets are adequately protected against known and unknown threats, and that the operator meets applicable security compliance standards and regulations. Vikram Sinha, Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Myanmar, said: Our network carries a huge amount of sensitive and personal data that we need to safeguard. We chose Nokia because its holistic Managed Security Services enabled us to assess the security of our network and implement the latest measures to protect against any breaches. Friedrich Trawoeger, Head of the Operate & Managed Services unit at Nokia, said: With the modernisation of networks there are newly emerging risks for security breaches. It is therefore important to encompass all areas of security, including the assessment and protection of cross-technology networks operating in multi-vendor environments. Russias MTS has begun the deconstruction of its network infrastructure in Turkmenistan after failing to reach a settlement with the countrys authorities. Eurasianet reported that the operator group had started dismantling its network in December and expected the process to take several months. The group has filed a legal case in a bid to recover $750 million in lost investment funds. MTS involvement in Turkmenistan has been marked by clashes with the countrys government and other state-owned organisations. The operator suspended its services in 2010 after a dispute with regulators over licensing, and resumed normal operations in 2012. However, this was not the end of its difficulties in the market, and MTS again discontinued its services in September 2017. The operator claimed that state-owned Turkmentelekom had barred it from accessing third-party international and long-distance zonal communication services, forcing it out of the market. With MTS exiting the market, Turkmentelekom branded as TMCell is now the countrys sole operator. When it closed operations in 2017, MTS had 1.7 million subscribers in Turkmenistan. OREM A man with a lengthy criminal history potentially faces a charge of capital murder for the shooting death of a Provo police officer, investigators say. Matt Frank Hoover, 40, is suspected of shooting Provo police officer Joseph Shinners, 29. Hoover was last known to live in the Fillmore area but had recently been staying at various locations throughout Utah and Salt Lake counties, according to police. Hoover remained under guard at Utah Valley Hospital on Monday. He was being treated for a gunshot wound and was stable, according to Orem Police Lt. Trent Colledge. Police did not reveal Monday how many times Hoover was shot or where on his body he suffered his injury. Colledge did not know when Hoover would be released from the hospital, but said he doubted it would be on Monday. He said preliminary investigation shows that Shinners was the only officer who fired his weapon during the deadly confrontation. Also on Monday, Provo police announced that the funeral for Shinners will be held in Orem Saturday at Utah Valley University in the UCCU Center. Hoover has an extensive criminal history of mostly drug-related crimes, according to court records. In 2017, he was convicted of drug distribution. In January of 2018 he was sentenced to 120 days in jail for violating his probation. During a progress report in drug court in April, Hoover was found to be noncompliant, court records state. He was determined to be clean and compliant in June, but just a month later, on July 11, a warrant was issued for his arrest for missing a mandatory court appearance. Another warrant was issued for his arrest on Oct. 5 for failing to comply with the terms of his probation on a conviction of felony joyriding. Hoovers criminal record dates back to at least 1997. Over the past 20 years, he has been convicted of felony drug possession, attempted forgery, retail theft, failing to respond to an officers commands, theft and burglary, court records indicate. Orem police say he now faces potential charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, possession of a weapon by a restricted person and drug possession. As of Monday, no official charges have been filed against him. Saturday night, Orem and Provo police officers responded to the parking lot of Bed Bath and Beyond, 50 W. University Parkway in Orem, after apparently learning that Hoover was nearby. "Provo Police Department received information he would be in that area, so they called for our assistance to help them," Colledge said. Investigators don't know why Hoover was in the area, but noted there were not any reports of crimes happening at that time. Police say Hoover, who had warrants out for his arrest, had made recent threats against officers. "We had received information from a third party that he had made comments before that he wasn't going to go back to prison. And that third party had felt he had insinuated he would have a confrontation with police," Colledge said. A witness recorded cellphone video of the confrontation. In the video, officers can be seen on both sides of Hoover's pickup truck. Shinners was standing by the passenger side door when he was shot and apparently fired a shot at Hoover. "The cops were yelling in the very beginning (of the video), 'Put the gun down! Put the gun down!'" said Delene Ostler, who recorded the video. Shinners can be seen stumbling around the truck, then he kneels down on the ground. "There were several officers that walked past him. I don't think anyone knew that something was wrong. Eventually an officer knelt down beside him and then he helped the injured officer up," she said. Shortly afterward, officers can then be seen rushing him into an SUV and speeding away with lights and sirens activated. A female passenger in the truck with Hoover was questioned but was not arrested, according to police. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 48 S. 300 West in Provo. A GoFundMe has been set up in memory of Shinners and to support his family. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert commented on Shinner's death while speaking at the Utah Taxpayers Association conference Monday. "It's just such a tragedy. There's no words to express the dismay and I know we've offered condolences to the family," he said. "It reminds us that life is dangerous, life is short. It's unpredictable. Give everybody a hug today that you love, and even those you don't love. We certainly appreciate those men and women in uniform that go out there and every day, out the door to serve and protect and know that they may not be coming home." Contributing: Sean Moody, Lisa Riley Roche SALT LAKE CITY A new study from the Rand Corporation suggests that focusing on immigrants as a source of potential "jihadist terrorism" in the United States could miss the majority of potential terrorists. Thats because, according to the study, the more prominent threat is inside the country already: native-born Americans. The study, Trends in the Draw of Americans to Foreign Terrorist Organizations from 9/11 to Today, found that in recent years the most common demographic profile for an accused terrorist motivated by radical Islam describes a native-born American, either white or African-American. Our analysis of the demographic profile of U.S. persons drawn to Islamist terrorism since the rise of ISIL may not match the mental image held by law enforcement, policymakers, and the general public, the authors, Heather Williams, Nathan Chandler, and Eric Robinson, wrote, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS. The changing racial and national demographic of terrorism suggests that the draw of extremism does not necessarily appeal to something unique among the Muslim or Middle Eastern communities. The Rand study identified 476 individuals implicated in cases of jihadi terrorism in the United States in the 16 years following the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the individuals in the Rand study, 206 were of Middle Eastern, North African and/or South Asian background, accounting for about 43 percent of the cases. The study notes that this number is somewhat surprisingly trending downward relative to other demographics. The findings add context to President Donald Trumps claims of a direct connection between terrorism and immigration, especially that of immigrants of Middle Eastern origin. Terrorism-related security concerns underpinned Trump's travel ban, which originally blocked entry to the U.S. from seven countries with majority-Muslim populations. In October 2018, Trump tweeted that criminals and unknown Middle Easterners were "mixed in" with the migrant caravan after a Fox News program floated the possibility that ISIS could have infiltrated the caravan. Trump later acknowledged he had no proof for his earlier statement. The main driver of the trend toward homegrown terrorism appears to have been the rise of ISIS. The study found that in the years 2014 to 2016 when ISIS rose to the height of its recruitment in the U.S. the majority of jihadi terrorist recruits in the country were Caucasian or African-American. Specifically, about 65 percent of U.S. persons drawn to ISIS since 2013 were either African-American or Caucasian, the study notes, two demographics not usually associated with modern immigration to the U.S. ISIS embrace of social media played an important role in the organization's recruitment strategy in the United States, the study notes. The organization utilized Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to proliferate its message across borders, seeming to target a broad audience united by feelings of social alienation rather than by narrow religious, racial or national ideologies and grievances. The study does not suggest that Caucasians or African-Americans are inherently more likely to support ISIS, as the total number from either demographic who have turned toward the militant group is too statistically small to allow such a generalization. It does suggest, however, that terrorism in the United States today could be more of a homegrown American problem than an immigrant problem. The portrait that emerges from our analysis suggests that the historic stereotype of a Muslim, Arab, immigrant male as the most vulnerable to extremism is not representative of many terrorist recruits today, the study states. Instead, recruits are more likely to be Caucasian/white or African-American/black; they are more likely to be U.S. born; and they are more likely to have converted to Islam as part of their radicalization process. For example, Damon Joseph, a 21-year-old Holland, Ohio, man, was arrested by the FBI this December 2018 for pledging to support ISIS and creating online propaganda in an effort to recruit others to join the organization. Joseph, who is white, was also planning to shoot up a local synagogue. In his conversations with an undercover FBI agent, he expressed sympathies for ISIS, as well as admiration for Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October. In a matter of months, Damon Joseph progressed from radicalized, virtual jihadist to attack planner, said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeff Fortunato of the FBI. He ultimately decided to target two Toledo-area synagogues for a mass-casualty attack in the name of ISIS. If there is a connection between immigration and radicalization, it's on a case-by-case basis and even then, it's hard to identify with certainty, said Bennett Clifford, a research fellow at the George Washington University Program on Extremism, which has also produced studies on ISIS recruitment in the United States. For example, if someone immigrated to the United States at the age of 2 and then was recruited by ISIS in their 20s, it is very difficult to parse out when and where and how immigration matters in terms of its influence on his or her choices later in life, he said. Bennett said in most cases, a combination of factors such as psychological challenges, socio-economic issues, and network connections drives people to become engaged in terrorist activity. Indeed, the profile of individuals implicated in domestic jihadi plots in recent years have tended to be younger, less educated, and seemingly driven as much by mental problems as political issues, the study states. A significant number of those implicated in U.S. terrorist plots in recent years, many of them ISIS-related, have had long histories of petty crime, drug abuse, and mental illness, making them vulnerable targets for radicalization. Bennett said it is more relevant to understand radicalization in the United States as a homegrown problem, through and through, rather than an immigration-related issue that should be considered when developing immigration policy. Demonizing refugees and immigrants whether with respect to the Muslim ban or even more recently the unknown Middle Easterners coming from Latin America only serves to dehumanize already marginalized communities. It has nothing to do with national security, Amarnath Amarasingam, a counterterrorism expert and senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think-tank based in London, told The Intercept. But Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that favors low immigration numbers, said it is Americas legal immigration process itself that, in part, protects the United States from terrorist threats. Part of the reason why the president pushes for legal entry of individuals in the United States, as opposed to individuals entering illegally, is that we have a robust system in the United States for screening out people with potential terrorism ties, said Arthur. Thats why Arthur said he doesnt find the results of the study surprising, as Americas immigration screening process would likely have kept out immigrants who might have been inclined to join ISIS in the first place. Of the total nonresident population of 52 people examined in the Rand study, only 19 persons were discovered to be in the country illegally. Similarly, of the 26 individuals responsible for the 23 domestic attacks in the United States since 9/11, only two were nonresidents, both of whom entered the country legally; by contrast, 13 were U.S.-born, seven were naturalized U.S. citizens, and four were legal permanent residents, according to the study. The national conversation on counterterrorism has often focused on enhancing screening of would-be refugees, asylum seekers, or visa holders or on tightening border controls to deny entry of would-be illegal aliens turned terrorists; however, these populations represented only a small fraction of our comprehensive data set, the study notes. Arthur said the studys findings should inform national security policy by ensuring that Americas counterterrorism efforts are considering all potential sources of potential terrorism, not just focusing on one demographic profile. We shouldnt have tunnel vision and look at one population with respect to terrorism. We need to be vigilant about any potential terrorist recruit to ISIS or any other terrorist organization, he said. Amarasingam told The Intercept the solution to radicalization in the United States should come from within. The problem we face is largely homegrown our kids, our citizens who are turning toward these violent organizations, said Amarasingam. Focusing your attention abroad as if terrorists are launching a stealthy ground invasion will almost certainly result in resources and time being wasted, looking for threats in all the wrong places." SALT LAKE CITY The political struggle over Proposition 2 in 2018 was frequently contentious, litigious, and sometimes even personal, peppered with accusations of deceitful tactics, and even formal complaints filed with state elections officials. In large part because of that bitter fight, prominent proponents and detractors of the ballot initiative would later admit a measure of surprise that they were able to come together in the fall and agree to a compromise medical marijuana bill put forward by Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes. The measure would go on to pass overwhelmingly in the Utah Legislature. The bill was crafted over the course of dozens of hours of private negotiations convened by Hughes after, he says, he noticed there was enough common ground obscured among opposing positions to build a tentative consensus. However, it has not been without criticism from some patients' groups that have called it an undemocratic power grab made against the state's voters. As he prepared to to leave office as speaker of the House, Hughes sat down with the Deseret News late last month to discuss the successes and controversies of Utah's medical marijuana grand bargain, and what it took to transform it from an uncertain idea into the state's new reality. Deseret News: First off is the easiest question tell me how you're feeling as you leave office. Greg Hughes: I am sad, but I'm also happy. Really I'm feeling both emotions at the same time. I've developed such incredible relationships with colleagues. Being a lawmaker, not picking your friends, not picking your colleagues, but having people from 75 districts coming together with this common denominator, wanting to be a public servant, and making the place better than you found it, but having very different ideas in many cases about what that means. So my biggest takeaway emotionally, it will be how much I miss my friends and the people that I've worked with, and how much I've enjoyed being around doing all this stuff we've done. But the part that I feel excited about is, I really feel like I gave it all I can give. DN: It might be one of the worst-kept secrets that perhaps you are interested in running for governor. Are you? Hughes: Look, I'm definitely looking at that. Now I was I was very careful because I truly did not want to be preoccupied or to discuss or think about an open seat, open gubernatorial race in '20 when we had work to do, when we had a job to do. If you start looking too far ahead, it can color the decisions you make now in terms of, are people going to be mad, would that hurt my electability in the future? And I've tried to live in the moment and really take on challenges we've had in the House and the Legislature, without regard to those types of things. So I have purposely not dwelt on it. I've not thought about it, not planned for it. I'm more contemplative right now. I mean, I don't have the next battle right in front of me. It's not an announcement, I'm not announcing anything right now. It'd be hard to sustain an announced race two years out, or whatever it is. And, you know, as much as I'd like to think people know who the speaker of the House is, it's not as well-known of a position and so you'd have to see if you could raise the funds necessary to put on a real statewide race. So I don't know the answers to that right now. But I'm willing to look. DN: State legislative leaders around the country who are leaving office I'm sure most of them have been much less busy than you have been. Let's talk about the last few months and what you have accomplished with medical cannabis. How did this agreement come together? Hughes: So at the end of the summer the campaign against Proposition 2 was starting to form, and so I was part of a letter a letter (signed by) people that were opposed to Proposition 2 as written. But I was hearing sentiment from those who were opposed to Proposition 2 that were saying things like "We can support medical cannabis, if we knew (it) was a licensed physician that was recommending the dosage. If we could have a pharmacist, the licensed pharmacist would be there to put the recommended dosage together for the patient, we could actually support a program like that." I had not heard that before August. I'd heard more blanket opposition to cannabis. Certainly the Utah Medical Association had questioned its efficacy, and so I was not I had never heard that before. So I'm saying to my chief of staff ... "Why isn't that a bigger deal? There's been a real pivot that's just happened here and nobody's drilling down on that. Everyone's still talking past each other." So (my chief of staff) Greg Hartley said you could actually bring everyone together, you could get this done. So I agreed that we could try but these are sizable wars. So I met with Marty Stephens the government relations person for the LDS Church. And he'd been one of the voices that's part of this whole opposition to Prop. 2, and I just wanted to know, was there a qualification in (his) position? Is that when the federal government allows it, or is there something else that you mean that's beyond the control of what we're doing, that you're qualifying that with? And I just wanted to know. And he said, No, it isn't. If we had that kind of attention with medical professionals, we could support it. Now again, that was not what I heard in the past, so I thought that was progress. Then I want to meet with Connor Boyack and DJ Schanz, as they were the ones that wrote Prop. 2, are the ones that marshaled the signatures to qualify for the ballot, they're the ones raising the funds for the campaign and running the campaign so clearly the tip of the spear in terms of the pro-Prop. 2 side. And I asked them "Medical cannabis, you support it, but more broadly (would) you just be more comfortable if marijuana was just recreational as well?" I said, "It'd be consistent with a libertarian to believe that, but is that kind of the end goal? And is that what you're really after?" (They) said this is beginning middle and end only about patient access. So with that, with those kind of conversations, I thought, OK, well then there can be overlap. But I wanted to start small. I've been criticized for that, about starting small, but if you fill that room of 20 people, with what had been discussed and how people were talking past one another I already gave us a low percentage chance of (succeeding), even if we started small. And (I) tried to build out from there, but it was worth a try. We started small just to see if we could find just some common ground between, I thought, two of the strongest stakeholders, and if we could find that, then we can start to bring in more stakeholders. And so it took some time but we got there. Once we got to an agreement not agreement, but that common (ground) that's when Utah Medical Association (was invited). We actually invited Christine Stenquist and TRUCE (Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education) to come. She wanted to bring people to come whose stated goal, you know, was to not have an agreement. It was not going to be conducive to that. But I told Christine, if that's what you're insisting on, I think what we'll do is we'll have broader public hearings, formal and informal, and that's where you can kind of really weigh in. But in this part, when we're starting to fan out, we've got the governor's office (and the Senate now coming) in it's really to try and see if it's even possible to problem-solve. Long story short, that's what we worked on, we got to that agreement. It was not easy. It took so long, and after we even got to that we wanted to be very transparent for the voters saying, Look, if it passes or fails, we think we have found enough common ground (that) this common ground agreement needs to be the law and we need to provide this patient access. Well, it ends up passing, right? But there became this immediate narrative that it was everybody that voted for Prop. 2 opposed the agreement. And I'm not saying that I know the minds of everyone that voted. But I'm saying those critics don't either. DN: Do you feel like the program would be more politically stable long term if, for example, TRUCE founder Christine Stenquist had been at the table? Hughes: I know that this agreement is a structurally stronger medical cannabis program (than Proposition 2) and a politically stronger medical cannabis program. As we were getting this done, and we were taking public comment, these weren't boxes we were checking. We were not without patients who gave input. At the end of the day, it wasn't an (exclusion of TRUCE) because I knew that TRUCE would have opportunities, in our formal and informal hearings to, again, share perspectives we didn't have at that time. DN: Are you worried or concerned about patient access? Hughes: Well, it's the unknown. We're in a space where the state's never been before, so everything has to be implemented. So you don't have any certainty. We're the first state to look at a central (fill pharmacy). There's been some concern that because that's not been done before, (or) could be perilous, or that could be not legal and the feds could come in and change it. Two things about that. One, I would argue that states that allow for recreational marijuana are violating the Controlled Substances Act in such an egregious way that a state trying to find safe parameters and ways for patients to dialogue with physicians and pharmacists this isn't the fight to have, federal government. But second to that, we contemplated that in the event that would ever happen, you can step up more walk-up specialized pharmacies. I've seen some chatter with (attorney and former Salt Lake City Mayor) Rocky Anderson about, this is this is against federal law. Well, no kidding. I mean, I think it's the whole world we're in right now. DN: Give us an idea of what it was like inside that negotiating room. There was a lot of time that went into the negotiations. Was there ever a point where it seemed like people were going to walk away? Hughes: Yeah, there was, there (were) many of those. The plant itself one side was not having whole plants in there, because it gets completely away from a dose-able, measurable amount, in their minds. The blister packs solve the issue of dosage and amounts and things like that. Edibles I'm so well-versed in this now, I can give you both sides of that. Edibles you have a brownie or cookie, what's your dose? A bite a day? Is it two bites a day? What is it you're supposed to take? And to the extent that we don't want Joe Camel cartoon characters, or Joe Camel on cigarettes, advertising cigarettes, what's a brownie and a cookie going to look like to young people? That's the one side. The other side is (with) edibles, you can actually dose to an accurate amount, even if it's a cookie or a small brownie or something. And you actually know how much you're getting. So this is how we do it where you got the gummies that are gelatinous. And we didn't want them to be shaped like bears or other things, so they're cubes. But also (we included) lozenges, but then we didn't want the baked items (to be legal), the baked goods, so you have some specific edibles that are allowed, but not all edibles. And so that was a big battle. Including autism on the malady list (was also a battle). There are doctors that say if a child's having over 100 seizures a day, you can talk to me all day about (the developing) brain, but I'm telling you, it's debilitating. They are saying they're having hundreds of (seizures), we're going to take our chances on everything else, because that child needs relief. I have sympathy for that. That makes sense to me. But there's doctors out there that are very adamant about (protecting against child access). So the solution was the Compassionate Use Board is meant (so) that if you have a diagnosis that's outside of (the malady list), it's a rare disease or something else, you could always go to this Compassionate Use Board to make your case. We have all those minors (now required to visit the) Compassionate Use Board and we put two more pediatricians on that Compassionate Use Board to really scrutinize the use of medical cannabis for children. So that is our attempt to try and put those safeguards around the process. DN: So how easy or difficult was it to get members of the House on board with this agreement? Obviously there were a lot of complex factors at play. Hughes: Easier than you would think. And I'll tell you why. If you don't have any agreement, Prop. 2 as passed is going to require legislative action. And that would be consistent with every state that had a medical cannabis bill pass. It was going to come, and there were things you're gonna have to deal with, if Prop. 2 passed. If it didn't pass, it's not going away. And you're going to deal with medical cannabis because it didn't pass. So I think they saw this as addressing a solution now in the right way that that they're not going to have to clean up. So actually it wasn't (difficult). DN: Certainly there have been some groups that have argued that this bill was an inappropriate usurpation of the people's will. What would be your message to Utahns in response to that argument? Hughes: We're lawmakers and we dive into statutes and we amend laws. Every proposition that's ever passed, it's been law as (much as) any other statute passed but it doesn't remove the lawmaker from its relationship with the state code and its ability to make laws. So this is something we've always had, and something that's worked. What I'm proud about with this one is, instead of revisiting the proposition well after it's passed, without announcement, in the subsequent session, we were very clear on Oct. 4 our way forward. So I actually think it's better than the other ways that propositions have been changed by lawmakers. DN: You mentioned in the past that this medical marijuana agreement has been a bit of a feather in the cap for you. Do you consider it your culminating accomplishment? Hughes: I still think Operation Rio Grande. For me, (on medical cannabis) I worked within my lanes in terms of helping forge an agreement. But Operation Rio Grande, I set up a storefront in the summer of 17, in the heart of it. And if you wanted to come meet me on any issue related to the state, you had to come through that area and talk to me, and we (could) see drug dealers across the street, twisting spice joints and selling them to cars, and people on bikes, and other people. The carnage, the lawlessness, the things that were going on, I don't think this state understood very broadly. For me, it was outside my lane, it's not what I typically do, but I'm very proud of how that is coming in. There's much work still left to be done. But I think that's the one that if I think about all the things I've done, at least it's an outlier because of its process. SALT LAKE CITY "Within days," National Park Service personnel will address "burdens born by local communities," such as cleaning restrooms, garbage collection and road maintenance at larger national parks in Utah, Acting Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt announced Sunday. In a letter following requests by members of Utah's congressional delegation that the federal government "take emergency measures to resume operations," Bernhardt wrote that the Office of Management and Budget had agreed to a modified plan that meets the Interior Department's "dual responsibilities of conserving park resources and providing for the enjoyment of the American people." Bernhardt's directive allows for "the use of recreation fee funds, where available, to clean up and maintain restrooms and sanitation, trash collection, road maintenance, which includes plowing, campground operations and emergency operations, and staff entrance gates as necessary to provide critical safety information." Just before Christmas, money ran out for a number of federal agencies when Congress and President Donald Trump hit an impasse over a temporary funding measure because it did not contain funds for the president's border wall. Since then, the state has spent $55,000 to help Zion, Bryce Canyon and Arches national parks open through the end of the year by paying for minimal staffing. Additional state dollars have been spent on cleaning restrooms at Zion, along with money from St. George, Washington County and the nonprofit Zion Forever Project. Similar efforts are underway at Bryce Canyon. The effort has been supported by volunteers. Bernhardt described efforts of Utahns to keep their national parks operating as "amazing." In response to the Department of Interior's actions, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, in a statement, said: I am immensely grateful to the administration for the decision to restore services at our national parks in the midst of this shutdown. Oftentimes, grandstanding and theater can distract us from the important governmental task of providing safety and security. This decision will enhance safety and add protections to all those who choose to recreate in Utahs parks." Bishop signed the letter as the top Republican on the House Committee on Natural Resources. Republican Reps. Chris Stewart and Rep. John Curtis also signed the letter. In a prepared statement, Stewart said, "I am grateful for the quick response to our letter and the extraordinary steps the department is taking to ensure our Utah parks are protected and open for visitors." Freshman Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, sent a similar letter to Bernhardt that said he joined in asking for an alternative approach to keeping the parks open. PROVO Amelia Powers wore a wide grin when she stepped into the Utah County elections office and leaned over the front counter to say hello to the staffers. "I just wanted you to know, I'm not firing anyone," Powers jokingly told the women. They laughed in return. Powers later explaining to the Deseret News that rumors of firings have been flying amid fear of new leadership told the staff the reason why she hadn't met with current employees yet was because she's been focusing first on budget resources for next year. "I've just been too busy putting out fires," Powers said. "But I'll get there." "Does the budget include a scanner?" one staffer asked, only half-jokingly. Powers' answer was immediate: "Yes!" The staffers burst into laughter. "If my budget doesn't include a scanner, then my personal budget does," Powers continued, over the women's laughs. "Even if we have to do a GoFundMe, we'll get one." As she waved goodbye and walked out of the office, Powers said the election's office scanner was so old and worn out it was "literally being held together with a roll of tape," and "it crashes like three times an hour." It's just one of the examples of how the clerk's office is "severely under-resourced," Power said. "They literally have a third of the resources they need," she said. "When I look at an office like that and (see) they've managed to even though disorganized run an election, that tells me that the people are good." That's why, Powers said, she doesn't plan to "clean house." "We need to do a lot of changes we need to do a lot of work but if they're willing to do that work with me, there's no reason to ever get rid of good, dedicated people," she said. Powers' swearing-in as Utah County's new clerk/auditor happens Monday, but she has been a familiar face within the Utah County Administration Building for a while. As she strolls the halls, employees smile and wave. Since her election, Powers said she's been spending 20 to 30 hours a week at the clerk's office, preparing for her transition. Prior to the recent tour of the office with the Deseret News, Powers even poked her head into Utah County Clerk/Auditor Bryan Thompson's office, shook hands and chatted briefly with the man she unexpectedly unseated at the county GOP convention earlier this year. Relations with Thompson have been "amicable" but "tricky," Powers said. Surprise win Powers won so much support from the party, she forced Thompson out even before a primary. As a Republican in red Utah County, Powers' win at the convention meant the seat was easily hers heading into the November election. The 36-year-old's run not to mention her landslide GOP win was unexpected, even to her. In fact, she and her then-fiance, Tobin Gardner, had to delay their wedding from April to August when she decided to run for the post. The win also makes her Utah County's first ever female clerk/auditor or at least that's according to what she can find in the county's early records. "Just the fact that there are no records is killing me," she said. Powers said she didn't plan on running. Initially, in her work as a business consultant, she said she tried to recruit potential candidates. But when she couldn't find anyone willing to take on the challenge, she decided to run. Two hours before the deadline, she filed as a candidate. Why did she care so much about the Utah County Clerk's Office? Powers said she grew up in Utah County and now she wants the place where she and Gardner raise their five kids to have a stable and healthy future. "If we can't figure out how to run elections, we're going to get in a really bad spot here soon," Powers said, noting that projections say Utah County's population may surpass Salt Lake County's by 2030. Prior to starting her own consulting business, Powers worked for a big construction machinery company, Caterpillar, in product support and then as a marketing manager. That work took her to Canada for several years, where Powers said she was struck by the lack of competitive attitudes in a "socialist" society, she said. When she left that multimillion company, and Powers decided she wanted to raise her family at her home Utah County, she said her experience in Canada inspired her to get more involved in local politics. Powers said she followed issues in Utah County's elections, and "it was apparent to me we needed a lot of work in our clerk's office." "We needed more organization, better process flow, and that's really what I specialized in the business world," she said. As for the county's Republican delegates that voted for her over Thompson, Powers said delegates "tend to be pretty in tune" to issues in their local governments. "They're aware of long election lines," Powers said. "They're aware of 68,000 Republican ballots getting sent to non-Republicans. They're aware of results not coming out for weeks." So, Powers said she focused on telling the party "we need to prepare for the future." "Up until this point over the last decade, we've been playing catch-up, every election. Every election we hear problems," she said. "And so what I focused on is as we grow and as we prepare to become the largest county in Utah, we need to have the systems in place now." Vision To start, Powers said she wants to keep Utah County out of headlines for election fiascos, including the more than four-hour waits seen in November. For the presidential election in 2020? "My hopes are not to be the 'epicenter of dysfunction,'" Powers said, referring to Gov. Gary Herbert's criticism of his own home county after this year's election. "I would like to see the longest wait line be less than an hour," she said. "I would like to see Utah County be able to release our results in a timely manner and not constantly be last." Her goals for 2019 are to first "update and modernize the office into the 21st century," she said. That includes allowing forms to be filled out online. Also, she plans to hire an elections director a position that was eliminated years ago. The fact that a county the size of Utah County didn't have an elections director baffles Powers. She said filling that position is her "No. 1 priority." Powers said she also plans to comb through the office's budget and find any and all inefficiencies before if need be going to the Utah County Commission to request more resources for her staff. That includes the duct-taped scanner. "Our county government has been very good at doing more with less, but they are not prepared for the population boom that we're going to experience," she said. This year, facing requests for more resources across all departments, the Utah County Commission considered raising property taxes to increase county revenues. But facing public backlash, the commission voted to delay its consideration until at least next year. Powers, even though she wants more resources for her staff, said she's not so sure yet whether a property tax hike will be necessary. "We definitely need more money," she said. "But we should find it first." "I'm not saying we don't need a property tax increase, but I'm the type of person that says, 'If we do, show me what that money's for, exactly,'" she said. "We can't do that right now because we don't even know how efficient our departments are because our auditor's department hasn't done an efficient job of auditing." Overall, Powers said she's got her work cut out for her. But she's ready to "work her tail off" and "hit the ground running." 'We are now planning a steel barrier. It is both stronger and less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in USA,' Trump said. The presidential comment came soon after US Vice President Mike Pence held a meeting with representatives of the top Democratic Congressional leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Trump described it as productive meeting. (Photo: File) Washington: The United States is now planning to install a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall along its border with Mexico, President Donald Trump said Sunday indicating his administration and the opposition Democratic party are closer to resolving their difference on the issue, which has led to a partial government shutdown for a fortnight now. We are now planning a steel barrier rather than concrete (wall). It is both stronger & less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the USA, Trump said Sunday afternoon. The presidential comment came soon after US Vice President Mike Pence held a meeting with representatives of the top Democratic Congressional leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Trump described it as productive meeting. VP Mike Pence and group had a productive meeting with the Schumer and Pelosi representatives today. Many details of Border Security were discussed, he said. We've been in touch with a lot of people, and I informed my folks to say that we'll build a steel barrier. Steel. It'll be made out of steel. It'll be less obtrusive, and it'll be stronger. But it'll be less obtrusive, stronger, and we're able to use our great companies to make it, by using steel, Trump told reporters at the White House on his return from Camp David. So we're going to be doing a steel barrier, and that gives us great strength at the border, he said. Responding to a question, Trump said the opposition Democrats did not like the option of a concrete wall along the Mexico border, so he has offered them with a steel one. Trump argues that a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border is essential to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. The entry of illegal immigrants into the country in hundreds and thousands results in a big drain on the economy of the US running into billions. They don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel. Steel is fine. Steel is actually more expensive than concrete, but it will look beautiful and it's very strong. It's actually stronger, Trump told reporters explaining the reasons for moving towards a steel-based physical barrier rather than a concrete one. What we need is we need a strong border. We have criminals coming in. We have human traffickers coming in. We have drugs pouring in. We have things happening that you don't want to even know about. And it's been that way for decades, and we can't have it anymore, Trump said. Because of the strength of our economy -- the stronger it is -- it's probably the greatest economy we've ever had. And because of that, it's happening even more so. We have to stop it, he asserted. SPRINGVILLE Hundreds in snow boots and heavy coats lined Springville's Main Street Sunday to pay tribute to Provo police officer Joseph Shinners, who was shot late Saturday in Orem and later died in a hospital. There were hundreds of American flags along the route, some held by small children and others by adults who stood in the cold to honor Shinners, 29. A hearse carrying Shinners remains was accompanied by a procession of law enforcement officers who escorted him from the state medical examiners office in Taylorsville to a mortuary in Springville. Shinners had worked for the Provo Police Department for three years. He was married to Kaylyn Swanson Shinners and was the father of a 1-year-old son. The couple dated while they attended Springville High School, where Shinners was a standout on the schools soccer team. Both graduated in 2008. After Shinners returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to El Salvador, the couple wed. They would have celebrated their seventh anniversary in February, said Craig Jensen, a member of the Springville City Council and family friend. Jensens daughter Karlie Jensen Mitchell is a longtime friend of Kaylyn Shinners. Hes a great kid. He comes from a family of service, Jensen said. Jensen said Shinners was well known among area law enforcement workers who appreciate up and coming officers who serve for the right reasons and have good attitudes. He could be serious when he needed to be but he had a heart. He wasnt in it for himself. He was in it because it was the right thing to do, he said. Provo Police Chief Rich Ferguson said Shinners death left him furious, I'm heartbroken, I'm shocked." "Joe Shinners was intelligent, he was honorable, he was hardworking. He was decent in every single way and he exemplified the nobility of policing," an emotional Ferguson said. "He was the very best of the Provo Police Department." Once, after taking a suspect into custody, Shinners asked the man if he needed anything. The man asked for a hug and "officer Shinners gave him a hug. That was the kind of cop that he was," the chief said. A GoFundMe has been set up in memory of Shinners and to support his family. Orem Police Chief Gary Giles said Provo and Orem officers responded to the Orem Bed Bath and Beyond parking lot, 50 W. University Parkway, around 10 p.m. Saturday with the objective of taking into custody a 40-year-old fugitive who in the recent past had made threats of violence against police officers. The suspected shooter is homeless and was a "dangerous fugitive," police say. It appears Shinners was able to return fire, wounding the suspect. The suspected gunman was taken into custody but Giles declined to name him, explaining that Sunday was a day to honor Shinners. The suspect was at Utah Valley Hospital in stable condition and faces multiple criminal charges, including aggravated murder of a police officer, he said. Bystander video sent to the Deseret News shortly after the shooting shows multiple police officers surrounding a white truck in the parking lot and appears to show an officer stumble away from the truck and then kneel down on the ground. Another officer later appears to help move him toward some parked police vehicles. Officers can then be seen dragging the suspect out of the truck after yelling and a confrontation. Shortly after that, police appear to carry the wounded officer who had been near the police vehicles to an SUV. That SUV is then seen speeding out of the parking lot with lights and sirens activated. Delene Ostler, who lives in Washington state, happened to be traveling along University Parkway just prior to the shooting. After observing a significant police presence and a white pickup truck attempting to take off, her husband pulled over and she shot the video. The Ostlers understood they had witnessed a significant event, but they did not realize at that point that anyone had died until reading news reports Sunday morning, she said. The video shows an officer being helped into a police vehicle. It just took off so fast and we knew that there was a police officer in it, so we figured something was terribly wrong, she said. I immediately thought of his family and wondered, 'Does he have a wife? Does he have a kid? What are his mom and dad doing?' Just a tragic thing, said Ostler, who was in Utah with her husband to visit family, including their newborn grandson. Giles said Orem police will handle the criminal investigation and the officer-involved shooting will be reviewed by an investigative team from the county. "Officer Shinners represents every one of us. He represents every one of us who enjoy peace, who enjoy freedom. Today a little bit of that freedom as been eroded away," he said. Provo Mayor Michelle Kafusi told Shinners' family that citizens of Provo stand with them. "I'm so terribly, terribly sorry," she said, her voice breaking with emotion at times. She said the love and support from Shinners' family helped shape him into the man and officer who honorably served and laid down his life. "To all citizens, I call on you to let this day awaken in us a new sense of gratitude and profound respect for the men and women in our communities who put on this uniform, and to the spouses, children and parents and other family of those brave souls," the mayor said. She added, "Officer Joseph Shinners, with all we have in our souls, we salute you and thank you." Sunday evening, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert issued the following statement: "I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of officer Shinners. It is devastating to mourn yet another death among our brave and selfless police force, and my heart aches for Joseph's wife and young son. We owe an enormous debt to the men and women in uniform who work to protect our communities, and I pray that God will bless this dear family with peace during this very difficult time." The U.S. and Utah flags will be lowered on the day of Shinners' funeral, the governor said. Many local, state and federal officials expressed condolences following the fatal shooting, describing the killing as "heartbreaking" and "gut-wrenching." Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah and former Provo mayor, in a tweet wrote that it is "a sad day in Provo. One of the city's finest was shot and killed outside a business late last night in Orem. I was the Provo mayor for eight years and don't know a more dedicated group of first responders. Thank you. We won't forget." It's a sad day in Provo. One of the City's Finest was shot and killed outside a business late last night in Orem. I was the Provo mayor for 8 years and don't know a more dedicated group of first responders. Thank you. We won't forget. https://t.co/UGVwMsjAno Rep. John Curtis (@RepJohnCurtis) January 6, 2019 He was joined by Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, who wrote: "Its a sad day for Provo police where one of their own was killed protecting the community. Sending my prayers and condolences to the fallen officers loved ones and all who knew him." Its a sad day for @ProvoPolice and all of us. The officer was killed while selflessly keeping the community safe. Sending my prayers and condolences to the fallen officers loved ones and all who knew him. #provo https://t.co/PFaix7x1VE Rep. Ben McAdams (@RepBenMcAdams) January 6, 2019 Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tweeted: Heartbroken with the tragic passing of officer Joseph Shinners last night in the line duty a loving husband and new father. Ann and I extend our deepest condolences to officer Shinners' family, friends and fellow Provo police officers. God bless our men and women in uniform." Heartbroken with the tragic passing of Officer Joseph Shinners last night in the line dutya loving husband and new father. Ann and I extend our deepest condolences to Officer Shinners' family, friends, and fellow @ProvoPolice officers. God bless our men and women in uniform. Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) January 6, 2019 Police officers and firefighters gathered at Utah Valley Hospital early Sunday to show support to Shinners family. Shinners was one of the hardest working persons weve ever had here. He was one of the humblest guys as well. He was never in it for his own glory. He was always out there working hard and he was willing to give everybody else the credit for it," Provo police detective Nick Dupaix said. "He was one of those guys that was always willing to listen to you no matter what walk of life you came from. He was always there to show someone respect as well, didnt matter if you were a criminal or a high class citizen." "Our hearts hurt. This is happening far too often," Payton police tweeted. "Rest in peace, officer. Your brothers and sisters have the watch from here." "This is (happening) far too often and is inconceivable to imagine what this family is going through," police in Wellington, Carbon County, tweeted. U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber wrote on Twitter, "Our hearts are broken as we learn of the death of Provo police officer. Thoughts and prayers for friends and family of this officer." Our hearts are broken as we learn of the death of @ProvoPolice officer. Thoughts and prayers for friends and family of this officer. US Attorney Utah (@DUTnews) January 6, 2019 The Utah Highway Patrol wrote that hearing of the loss of the Provo officer in law enforcement is "gut-wrenching." It is gut wrenching to hear of the overnight loss of one of our brothers from @ProvoPolice. UHP is honored to continue to assist in any way possible while your department mourns this dreadful tragedy. Utah Highway Patrol (@UTHighwayPatrol) January 6, 2019 Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox added: "Our hearts are broken this morning with the death of one of Provos finest. May God bless his family, colleagues and all the men and women in uniform that protect us." Our hearts are broken this morning with the death of one of Provos finest. May God bless his family, colleagues and all the men and women in uniform that protect us. https://t.co/cwZRdqEZJg Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) January 6, 2019 Dupaix said officers are grateful for the support. "We're really sad and heartbroken that he has passed on, but his legacy will continue to live on through each and every one of his brothers here at the police department. Shinners is the sixth law enforcement official since 1951 to die in the line of duty on Jan. 5, according to the website utahsfallen.org. The online memorial describes Jan. 5 as a deadliest day. According to Utahs Fallen, the others include: Ogden police officer Jared Francom, 30, who was shot and killed Jan. 5, 2012 while serving a knock and announce search warrant in the Ogden area. Five other members of the force were shot and injured during the exchange of gunfire with the suspect, who was wounded, apprehended and died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial. Millard County sheriffs deputy Josie Greathouse Fox, 37, who was shot and killed Jan. 5, 2010, during a traffic stop on Highway 50, 1 mile east of Delta. Fox stopped a vehicle and was approaching when she was fired upon with a high-powered rifle. At least one of the rounds passed through her body armor and inflicted a fatal wound. The suspect fled but was later arrested in Beaver County. Cache County Sheriffs Lt. James R. Merrill, 40, was accidentally killed on Bullock Road, south of Smithfield, on Jan. 5, 1974. Merrill had stopped his police vehicle and got out to talk to a friend. He slipped on the icy road and struck his head on his vehicle as he fell. Despite medical attention, he died within a few minutes. Moab police officer August L. Larsen, 21, was shot and killed in the police station on Jan. 5, 1961. Larsen, working a night shift, was seated at a desk with his back to the door when someone entered the station and shot him as he typed his reports. Footprints in the snow led officers to the home of a man with a grudge against law enforcement. Salt Lake Police Sgt. Thomas Stroud, 34, died Jan. 5, 1951, when his pistol accidentally fell from his waistband, struck the sidewalk and discharged. A bullet struck his heart and he died immediately. Stroud and another officer were preparing for a department-sponsored childrens party when the accident occurred. Contributing: Sean Moody, Sam Penrod Correction: A previous version incorrectly stated that slain Provo police officer Joseph Shinners served a church mission to Ecuador. He served in El Salvador. PHOENIX A woman said to have been in a vegetative state for at least a decade at a private health care facility in Phoenix reportedly gave birth recently, triggering a police investigation and reviews by state agencies in a situation that the state governor's office called "deeply troubling." Azfamily.com, a news website for television stations KPHO and KTVK, first reported late Thursday that, according to sources not identified by the website, a woman gave birth Dec. 29 living at a Hacienda HealthCare facility where the staff was unaware that she was pregnant. Two other Phoenix television stations later aired similar reports. According to some reports, the woman was a victim of a near-drowning more than 10 years ago. Her identity hasn't been reported, and it's not known if she has family or a guardian. Sources quoted in the reports said the woman was heard to be moaning and that the baby's head was starting to emerge when a nurse came in. "None of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth," azfamily.com quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying. That person said the baby was said to be alive and healthy. Following the azfamily.com report, Hacienda Health Care and state officials issued brief statements about the situation, expressing concern and describing reviews being conducted and steps being taken. But they did not specifically confirm the reported pregnancy and birth. A Phoenix Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Tommy Thompson, said only that the "the matter is under investigation." He declined to confirm whether the investigation involved a possible sex crime or elaborate on the circumstances that prompted the investigation. Hacienda said it in a statement it was cooperating with law enforcement and reviewing its security protocols after becoming aware of a "deeply disturbing incident and "an unprecedented matter." "While federal and state privacy laws prohibit us from publicly discussing a patient's health or case, Hacienda has and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and all the relevant regulatory agencies regarding this matter," Hacienda said in its statement. Hacienda's website said it serves infants, children and young adults who are "medically fragile" or have developmental disabilities. Gov. Doug Ducey's office said Ducey was briefed on the "deeply troubling" reports as soon as the office learned of them and that state agencies "immediately began taking every measure to protect patient safety." According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, an agency that regulates health care facilities, the 60-bed Hacienda facility was required to tighten security procedures to protect patients in wake of the report. "We are aware of this situation and are actively working with local law enforcement in their criminal investigation," the department said in a statement. The state Department of Economic Security, a social-service agency whose functions include serving disabled people, said it performed health and safety checks on all of the residents at the Hacienda facility after the birth was reported and was working with police on their investigation. SALT LAKE CITY Dont let the government shutdown fool you: You still have to file your taxes. You just not might get a refund, according to The Wall Street Journal. What's happening: USA Today reported the partial government shutdown caused by a deadlock in negotiations between President Donald Trump and Congress over border security could cause the Internal Revenue Service to delay issuing refunds to taxpaying Americans. The agency calls issuing tax refunds a non-excepted activity, which is performed by government workers who are being furloughed because of the shutdown. The IRS generally doesnt issue tax refunds during a shutdown, CNN reported. Only about 1 out of 8 IRS workers work during the shutdown. Thats fewer than 10,000 employees. "It does throw a little bit of wrench into things," said Kyle Pomerleau, economist at the Tax Foundation. "To the extent that individuals are relying on the refund any delay is going to be a negative." However: Several tax returns have been called "Necessary for the Safety of Human Life or Protection of Government Property." And plans for what can and cant be done during the partial shutdown can change, USA Today reports. Whats next?: There will be more pressure on President Donald Trump and lawmakers to strike a deal now that Americans wont receive their refunds. ROSS RAMSEY is executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Mary Elizabeth Clark SSJ, a Sister of Saint Joseph, Philadelphia is director of the Sisters of Saint Joseph Earth Center and Special Assistant to the President of Chestnut Hill College for Sustainability The PPP and PML-N have been cleverer in their relentless focus on Imran, but PPP and N-League attacks are hardly going to hurt Imran. Well, thats probably not the start to the new year Imran expected. Hes been getting it in the neck from all sides and you almost almost feel sorry for the chap. Until you remember that his mistakes are everyone elses pain. Welcome to 2019. Pretty much where 2018 ended and already it looks like its going to be a long, long year. On to the energy crisis. Shortages and gross inefficiencies are a fact of life here and not even from the distant past. From January 16, 2015, in this newspaper: The twin cities and adjoining areas experienced a petrol shortage on Thursday for the third consecutive day. Motorists were seen shuttling between filling stations in search of fuel. Most filling stations suspended sale of diesel and petrol and long queues of cars and motorcycles were witnessed at the few stations where fuel was available. The long queues also caused traffic jams on many small and large roads. From Jan 17, 2015, in this newspaper: The country is left with oil stock of less than three days and its import has totally dried up as the Pakistan State Oil defaults on its payments and says it will need at least Rs 100 billion and eight weeks time to retrieve the situation. From Jan 18, 2015, in this newspaper: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the suspension of three top officials of the petroleum ministry and the PSO chief on Saturday in connection with the week-long petrol shortage in Punjab. On his return from Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister called a meeting to review the crisis which has virtually paralysed life in Punjab. Now all we have to wait for is Imran to suspend a few bureaucrats. Heres the kicker from that farcical fuel shortage in fortress Punjab of the Sharifs, a farce that broke out a year and a half into the third term of an illustrious team: Asked if the federal petroleum minister would be shown the door if he was found responsible for the problem, (Musadiq Malik, the PMs spokesperson) said: A thorough investigation will fix the responsibility. For the few who remember, the minister was Khaqan Abbasi and somewhere between him and Dar lay responsibility for the massive fuel shortage in wintery Punjab. Dar kept his job and went on to preside over the loopiest economic policy in a generation. Abbasi kept his job and went on to become PM. Musadiq is a senator. But enough of the past. Thus far, if theres been a strategy evident an Imran approach, as it were, to the politics of governing its been to let people around him squabble and fight with each other. Ministers and advisers and sundry hangers-on sniping and undercutting may not be great for governance, but it has an unspoken benefit: The ones squabbling among themselves are too preoccupied to have a go at the boss. Most Cabinets are full of opportunists and pretty much are a nest of vipers. There are only so many big jobs and even the most bloated of Cabinets will have a bunch of folk unhappy about a bunch of things and either wanting someone elses job or needing to cover up their own mistakes. But Imran has an additional problem: Hes had to lash together a Cabinet of Johnny-come-lately electables and PTI originals, with few big posts for the originals and significant questions of loyalty and competence of the electables. It can seem distracting and is disorientating to have a shambolic Cabinet lurch from crisis to crisis, and one round of infighting to the next, but for Imran that has to be better than the alternative: His own team turning on him and selling him out to the public. The PPP and PML-N have been cleverer in their relentless focus on Imran, but PPP and N-League attacks are hardly going to hurt Imran. The PPP and N-League attacking Imran probably strengthens the PTI and energises Imran. But listen carefully as the fuel and energy crisis suddenly spiked this week and you can hear a slight change in the critics focus: Imran himself. Not the jokers and clowns around him, not just the inadequacies of his team, but the inadequacy of the man at the top itself. And not that the jokers and clowns havent tried to distract this week either. It makes a kind of sense. The year 2015 was four winters ago and the next three were an improvement on this one. Plus, the first five months of era IK, August-December, were relatively mild weather-wise. But now its a second calendar year, a first winter and a sudden energy crisis as far as the average consumer can tell. Theyre just fewer places to hide. Punjab and KP, the twin pillars on which the PTI government is electorally built on, are shivering in the dark. Its a relatively quick matter to pour more money into the system to make it belch out more electricity and gas. But if Imran has been watching carefully, he would have noticed that its brand Imran that has also taken a hit this week. There are fewer places left to hide. Itll be interesting to see what Imran does next. By arrangement with Dawn Sherin Motawea will present a children's program on Ancient Egyptian Culture at the Aston Public Library on Jan. 14. A senior manager at the Manipal Group was arrested for siphoning off at least Rs 62 crore from the company accounts. Sandeep Gururaj, the deputy general manager of finance at the Manipal Education and Medical Group in Bengaluru transferred the funds to his personal account and his wifes bank account, the police said. Sandeep also transferred funds to his ex-colleague, Amrita Chengappa as well, whom he was having an affair with. He transferred the money to Amrita, and her pilot brother who is based in Dubai. As the incident came to light, chairman of the Manipal Group, Ranjan Pai, filed a complaint with the Cubbon Park police. The police then arrested four individuals including three women. Along with Sandeep Gururaj (38) and wife P N Charusmita (30), both residents of Chikkalasandra, Meera Chengappa (59), a resident of Koramangala and her daughter Amrita Chengappa (34), a resident of Juhu Lane, Andheri West, Mumbai were also nabbed in connection with the case. The mother-daughter duo hail from South Kodagu. The police are yet to arrest Meera Chengappas son, the Dubai based Vishal Somanna, a pilot with Qatar Airways. We have issued a lookout notice for the pilot and he will be arrested soon, said D Devaraju, DCP (Central). According to the police, Sandeep, a chartered accountant, has been working with the Manipal Group for the past 15 years. He used to work in the corporate office on the 15th floor of the JW Marriott building on Vittal Mallya Road. Sandeep had gradually earned the trust of the chairman, Ranjan Pai, and his wife, Shruthi Pai. He was drawing a salary of Rs 48 lakh annually. The Pais' trust in Sandeep was so firm that he was authorised to carry out online cash transactions of the company. Though, when the transaction was involving a huge sum, then the chairmans approval over a voice confirmation was mandatory, the police said. Amrita Chengappa with her mother Meera Chengappa The Pais learnt about the misappropriation of funds recently, after Rs 3.5 crore was transferred to a Dubai based company from their Manipal International Institutions account in Mauritius, without Ranjan Pais approval over voice confirmation. They then learnt that Sandeep had mailed the bank stating the chairman was busy with board meetings and the voice approval could be taken later, after the transaction was done. As this raised suspicion among the Pais, they went through the audit reports of the company. They found multiple misappropriations of funds by Sandeep who had forged the signatures of the board members. Shruthi Pai learnt that many transactions, each of Rs 10 lakh, were made on several occasions and the cash was transferred to unknown accounts. The couple then approached the Cubbon Park police and filed a complaint. Benami companies Probing the case, the police learnt that Sandeep had been siphoning off the company funds over the past three years. Sandeep floated a fake company named Sanctum under his name and used to transfer cash from Manipal Groups account to the Sanctum account. He also floated a fake company in his wife Charusmithas name called Beehives and transferred Rs 7.65 crore into her account from Manipal Groups account. Meanwhile, the police raided Sandeeps house and seized incriminating documents as evidence. Investigation so far has revealed Sandeep had transferred Rs 18.87 crore from the Manipal International Institutions account in Mauritius to a Dubai based fake company named Vedanta General Trading company - a company registered under the name of Vishal Somanna, the pilot brother of Amrita Chengappa. The purpose of the bank transactions was shown as consultancy service charges based on a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two companies, DCP Devaraju said. Later, the police also learnt that Vishal Somanna had transferred Rs 8 crore to his mother Meera Chengappas bank account in Koramangala. Vishal had transferred money to his sister Amrita Chengappas bank accounts as well. Amrita was a former colleague of Sandeep at the Manipal Group. After she married an ex-serviceman, Amrita moved to Mumbai with her husband and worked for Tech Mahindra there. Sandeep, meanwhile, used to lie to his wife Charusmita, that he had to travel to Mumbai for work, 15 days in a month, but was secretly meeting Amrita. Amrita led a lavish life. She shopped from designer outlets in Paris, a senior police officer said. According to the police officer, as Sandeep was having an affair with Amrita, he trusted her family members including her mother and pilot brother. Sandeeps properties Sandeep purchased an apartment for Rs 32 lakh in Padmanabhanagar, a 1,200 sq ft house worth Rs 32 lakh at his wifes native Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, a 1.25 crore apartment in Kanakpuras Prestige Falcon City and a plot worth Rs. 20.25 lakh in Jigani. He also purchased an apartment from the Lodha group worth Rs 94.13 lakh in Thane and had also bought expensive luxury cars. Sandeep invested Rs 6.9 crore in FC Prime Market and AV Pvt Ltd companies, and Rs 10.35 crore in the share market with Pinnacle Assets Investment. He invested Rs 10.35 crore in MEMG International DMCC, a Dubai-based investment company. Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal BJP President, noting this Saturday in a press conference that his bete noire so long, the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is the only capable Bengali to be the Prime Minister of the nation, is one such instance. The statement given in full view of the Bengal media has brought in a bit of a political earthquake in Kolkata, and one also in Delhi lower in the Richter Scale. Interestingly, as the informed political grapevine would have it, Mamata Banerjee had sent sweets and flowers and a message of utmost significance to Rajnath Singh, the Indian Home Minister from BJP, through her trusted aide Bobby Hakim, when Singh was travelling to Bhuvaneswar recently via Kolkata. Indeed we are in uncertain times. The best of 2014 is no more there and the Modi-Shah narrative in governance has all but gone sour which is reflected in the results of the recent 5 State Assemblies and recent by-elections, apart from missed opportunity in Karnataka and a laboured win in Gujarat. The allies, even as small as Lok Janshakti Party and Apna Dal, are flexing muscles and one NDA ally RLSP has recently left the alliance headed by the Modi-Shah dispensation, after 11 others over the last 4 years, TDP being the most significant of all. It is not without reasons that the devout RSS pracharak, and a trusted Nagpur Brahmin, central transport minister of BJP, Nitin Gadkari, has started soft peddling his 'image of benevolence and tolerance' and is being interpreted as he is doing so on RSS bidding, to be able to walk in if BJP and NDA seats tallies are much lower than those of 2014, though being the single largest party/alliance, come May 2019. The allies will demand their pound of flesh in such a scenario, and there could be a change of guard, with RSS putting forth Nitin Gadkari as the new benevolent Hindutva poster-boy. Not if NDA is still weaker, say around 200 seats or less as an alliance, and desperately needs outside support to form the next Central Government in India. In such an exigency, Rajnath Singh, the former UP CM and BJP president, would want his name to be considered, which then can only be done with the tacit or explicit support of the so-called Third Front or Federal Front. And why not, being so-long the muted number two in the Modi cabinet today? This section of the BJP with tacit support of Rajnath Singh, is keeping all its options open to get a multi-party consensus candidate from BJP as PM in the post polls situation in May 2019, if NDA falls short of say 200 seats in the Lok Sabha. Or if it gets too hot to handle, they may even get a Third Front federal leader, like Mamata Banerjee, in the front as the PM for the time being to stop Rahul Gandhi or Mayawati or Modi from coming to power. India had a PM for 8 months in 1990-91, Chandrashekhar who never used a surname, and had less than 30 MPs by his side, but ruled with the external support of many parties, mainly of Congress, till Rajiv Gandhi led Congress pulled the rug from below his feet. It was an impossibility turned possible in a specific situation, which may again be a reality, come May 2019. There can be a minority government of Mamata led Third Front at the Centre, with tacit or explicit support off the BJP hoping that the government falls under its own pressures. And, Mamata is keeping all her tactics in place for a similar situation to come to power. First, she is contesting alone in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal, with the hope that she will do all that it takes to win as many of these possible, or all. Last time she made it in 34 of these in 2014, and allowed Congress to win in 4 others. And now she wants all 42 for herself, sam daam dand bhed, whatever it takes to win. With close to 40 MPs by her side from Bengal, she hopes to win in a couple of more seats from the Northeast riding a likely consolidation of the Bengali electorate therein following the NRC citizens' registration controversy, perceived as anti-Bengali measure of BJP. And this 40+ strength will make her clearly the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after BJP and Congress, and either can come to power only with her support. Or, alternatively she can come to power with the support of either of them, to keep the other away, in a classic case of enemy's enemy is my friend. She neither wants Modi to return to power, one who has let loose the CBI and ED against her and her men, nor does she want to see Rahul Gandhi enthroned who is politically much junior and does not see eye to eye with her. Expect her to tell all the right things ahead. Attack Modi-Shah duo, but spare BJP from bitterness. Call for opposition unity, but be silent on Rahul. Work towards all regional forces to unite, but cold shoulder Mayawati, her only other possible rival within the non-BJP non-Congress camp. Alongside, her agenda will be to speak about the farmers' issues a lot, and show case her Krishi Mitra schemes. There will be a loud campaign around Kanyashree schemes of Mamata government which has won international recognition for pushing the boundaries in girl-child's education in Bengal. Swasthyo Mitra schemes will be told to illustrate her public health commitment. And youth welfare, apprenticeship and unemployment loans and stipends will be touted to exhibit her commitment to the educated unemployed youths. With the BSP-SP-RLD marriage all but solemnised in UP and a resurgent RJD tying up with Congress and RLSP-HAM parties in Bihar, and Shiv Sena possibly going alone in Maharashtra, the prospects of BJP crossing 200 seats look bleak. The small win in Gujarat and defeats in MP, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh only add to that insecurity for the party. It is a phase of glorious uncertainty in which three top BJP leaders are in the race: Modi, Gadkari and Rajnath Singh. And at least three more from the opposition: Rahul, Mamata and Maywati. And any two (one from each camp: ruling and opposition) coming closer, even post-polls, will upset the apple-cart of the four other. Will they be Rajnath Singh and Mamata Banerjee? Only time will tell. The author is a noted media academic and commentator, and is currently the Media Dean of Pearl Academy, Delhi and Pune. Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib was in India on January 3-6 for parleys with Indias NSA Ajit Doval. Soon after the resignation of Americas defence secretary Jim Mattis in December, news broke from official American sources that the United States would withdraw 7,000 troops, out of the 14,000 deployed in Afghanistan, over the next few months. US President Donald Trump followed this up with a tweet that in fact it was Syria from where US troops would withdraw fully, claiming the Islamic State (ISIS) had been defeated completely. Mr Mattis departed prematurely, after Mr Trump discovered belatedly that his resignation letter was in fact an indictment of Mr Trumps entire geostrategic worldview. Mr Trump himself has blown hot and cold over the withdrawals, alternating between a delayed drawdown to possibly an indefinite status quo. His vacillation aside, the Trumpian remarks made most regional powers scurry to protect their own interests, most by playing peacemaker between the Afghan government and the Taliban. In fact, the jockeying had begun with the appointment of ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as US special envoy for Afghanistan and his proactive diplomatic outreach. Russia tried its hand at peacemaking by convening a conference in Moscow which Taliban representatives attended, and to which India sent two former diplomats. The fourth session of a regional conclave was due in Riyadh this month, when the Taliban anno-unced their unwillingness to attend, saying it should be held in Qatar, where the Taliban have their office. The last meeting in the United Arab Emirates in December, attended by the United States and Pakistan, besides the Taliban, was inconclusive as the Taliban refused to sit down with Afghan government representatives. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while hosting Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan, announced last week that both would hold a conclave with the Afghan government in March. Iran has had its first open parleys with the Taliban in December, claiming that the Afghan government was in the loop. Tehrans national security adviser later flew to Kabul to brief the Afghans. According to the Taliban, they discussed post-occupation issues, the use of Chabahar, while the Iranians claimed they insisted on the Afghan governments sovereignty remaining intact. The independent Western assessment is that the Afghan government today controls about 65 per cent of the population and 55 per cent of the territory in the country. The Taliban claim that the number is 70 per cent for both. The former US defence secretary, Mr Mattis, and President Trump differed precisely over this that troop withdrawals could not be talked about till the Taliban had been bled enough to bring them to the negotiating table. President Trump was made to accept this at the start of his term, which varied with his campaign pitch and perhaps his belief and was marketed as rectifying his predecessor Barack Obamas mistaken announcement of deadlines for withdrawal as it emboldened the Taliban to wait out till the American exit. Clearly, the Taliban have now a strategy to play one power against the other to balance pressure on them from the Saudis, Emiratis and Pakistan. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed suddenly surfaced in Islamabad on a one-day working visit on January 6, bearing a $6 billion-plus aid-cum-financial package and the promise of fresh investment in a refinery. The Taliban have been cultivating Iran for years, and now by discussing Chabahar as an alternative access route to the Indian Ocean are degrading Pakistani leverage, besides sticking a finger in the US-Saudi-Emirati eye by ceding Iran influence on Irans east when the trio has been labouring to contain it on Irans west and in Yemen. The government in Kabul has also been circling its wagons to prepare for US abandonment as it enters a crucial year, with a presidential election in April. The home and defence ministers have been replaced by known Pakistan-Taliban baiters. In this context came the snide and inaccurate remarks by President Trump that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him that India had built a mere library for Afghans. Whether this can be attributed to miscommunication or simply Trump-think, the truth is vastly different. Indias assistance tops $3 billion and India has lost lives and earned much goodwill by its projects, ranging from hydropower stations to hospitals and vital roads and even the Afghan Parliament. Two visitors, close on the heels of each other, broaden Indias options, provided the Modi government has overcome its bashfulness in upsetting Mr Trump. Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib was in India on January 3-6 for parleys with Indias NSA Ajit Doval. Mr Mohib was measured but direct during his press interaction, saying that Afghanistan values its strategic partnership with India and sees eye to eye with India on terrorism. Reflecting the 2011 agreement which raised bilateral relations to a strategic level, he said his current visit was not about a wishlist but to discuss strategic issues. He naturally ducked commenting on Mr Trumps swipe at Mr Modi, but conceded that defence training and even equipment had been provided by India in the past and more was in the pipeline. This answers Mr Trumps charge of Indias supposed reluctance to take on a bigger security role. In fact, the US has in the past blocked an excessive Indian role in the security field due to Pakistani objections. India should not put its boots on the ground in Afghanistan, which only earns the hostility of locals, but can and probably would hike the three legs of security cooperation funding, equipment and training. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif visits India on January 7-9 for bilateral talks and to speak at the Raisina Dialogue. India has had to play a balancing game between Iran and the US-Saudi-Emirati trio as President Trump has thrown his weight behind the other two, leading a Sunni alliance, wrongly dubbed an Arab Nato as it excludes Arab Shia powers like Iraq and Syria, as indeed Sunni Qatar and even Kuwait and Oman. With the Narendra Modi government distracted by domestic issues, the coming Lok Sabha elections and rattled by the BJPs defeat in three state Assembly elections, it will perhaps play the Afghan game conservatively, more to avoid misadventures than to scale-up an Indian role to shape outcomes. The main challenge that remains will be to keep riding multiple horses without falling off. Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Parliament Winter Session, in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI) Hyderabad: In a bid to justify her claim that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had received orders worth Rs 73,000 crore during the financial years 2014-18, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reportedly disclosed certain information regarding the aircraft that are to be inducted into the defence forces. Such details are rarely put in the public domain, sources said On Sunday, Ms Sitharaman rebutted Congress president Rahul Gandhis claims that the government was depriving the state-run HAL of the Rafale deal to benefit industrialist Anil Ambanis rookie defence firm. In a series of tweets, the defence minister issued contract details assigned to the HAL, she said. From the documents put in the public domain, it is learnt that the HAL has manufactured 83 products worth Rs 49,797.50 crore plus Rs 432 crore of two simulators for the Indian Air Force. A contract worth Rs 2,911 crore which includes Rs 377.23 crore for infrastructure facilities for the Indian Army was given to the aircraft maker. A deal to build Kamov Ka-226T (a twin-engine Russian utility helicopter) was issued to HALs joint venture company Indo-Russain Helicopter Ltd. Some of the aircraft being manufactured for the Indian Air Force are Dornier Do-228 (14) worth Rs 1,090 crore, 10 helicopters, Rs 7,739 crore worth Advance Light Helicopters (ALHs) and FP engines, Ms Sitharaman said. For the Army, the HAL was manufacturing 40 ALH costing Rs 5,968.49 crore, she said in her tweets. In the last four years, the orders to build aircraft for the Navy were more than that for IAF and Army, according to details provided by Ms Sitharaman. She said the HAL was building 12 Dornier Do-228 aircrafts, 16 ALHs, eight Chetaks and another 16 ALH for the Coast Guard. These aircraft are to be inducted into the forces in phases up to 2021- 22. With such details put in the public domain, the enemy will get access to information regarding the kind of aircraft with the forces, said a source. Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has, for the first time in the state, or any other, held a Cabinet meeting with just one Cabinet minister. After Assembly results were declared on December 11, Mr Rao took oath as Chief Minister of Telangana state, for the second time, on December 13, 2018. Former deputy chief minister Mahamood Ali was sworn in as a Cabinet minister along with him, and later was allotted the home department. For the last three weeks, the state administration has been run by the Chief Minister and home minister. According to secretariat business rules, the quorum required for a Cabinet meeting is half of the full membership of the Cabinet, plus one. The total strength of the Telangana state Cabinet cannot cross 18 members, including the Chief Minister. Though the business rules say that the quorum to hold the Cabinet meeting is half of the full membership, it does not say how many members should be in the cabinet out of the total strength. The present strength of the Telangana state Cabinet is two the Chief Minister and one Cabinet minister. The requirement of the quorum for holding a Cabinet meeting half of the full strength plus one is thus fulfilled with the presence of the Chief Minister and a Cabinet minister, and the attendance is 100 per cent. Hyderabad: The Congress high command has taken a serious view of the partys TS affairs in-charge R.C. Khuntia ordering the suspension of former Union minister Sarve Satyanarayana, who is also a member of the AICC. The high command is unhappy for announcing the suspension without informing the AICC. The TPCC suspended Mr Satyanarayana for using offensive language against Mr Khuntia and TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy. Mr Satyanarayana had even thrown a water bottle at TPCC general secretary Bollu Kishan for questing his foul language at the meeting on Sunday. This is not the first time that Congress leaders came to blows at a meeting. Earlier, Mr Komati-reddy Venkat Reddy had attacked TPCC treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy. No action has been sought against him. Mr Satyanarayana came down heavily against the TPCC on Monday, questioning the partys failure in the recent Assembly elections. Mr Khuntia is an iron leg (bad omen) and Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy is not fit to be the TPCC president, he said, blaming both of them for the partys poor show in the Telangana state Assem-bly polls. He was particularly critical of the way the candidates were issued party tickets just a day before the nominations were to be filed. He alleged that Mr Khuntia had built a new house with money of Telangana Congress leaders and party workers. How can Uttam continue as PCC president, when even his wife failed to win the Kodad seat? When the Ibrahimpatam seat is allotted to the Telugu Desam, how can Uttam give a call to support the BSP candidate? he asked. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Mr Satyanarayana said, The Congress has lost the election under the leadership of Uttam and Khuntia. How can the PCC suspend me? It is a shame, as they dont know that my suspension is in the AICCs hands. Uttam and Khuntia have to resign taking responsibility for the Congress defeat in the elections. He said Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy was apprehensive that he would become Chief Minister if the Congress won. He tried to defeat Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka too. The KCR family is working hard round the clock and not celebrating their victory, he said. Mr Satyanarayana further said, I am the opening batsman and many others will come out soon. Mr Uttam is hand-in-glove with KCR. People thought the Congress will win the election, but Uttam has intentionally defeated it. All Kutami meetings took place in Golkonda Hotel, Golkonda Resorts and Park Hyatt. Is that your money? He didnt stop there. Mr Khuntia and Mr Uttam took money from many but didnt give tickets to all. I will take all of them to Delhi. There is a CID case against Uttam Kumar Reddy and he managed it with the help of a contractor. Chennai: Senior AIADMK minister D Jayakumar on Saturday said the people of Tiruvarur only require the Gaja relief and surely not the by-election to the Assembly constituency that has been slated for January 28. "People in Tiruvarur have lost their houses, their coconut trees, casuarinas, everything. They need relief. It will certainly be bad and very embarrassing to go these people now seeking votes in this by-election", Jayakumar told reporters after distributing cash relief to the victims of a fire mishap at Pulianthope in Chennai. The ministers assertion comes even as the petition from senior CPI MP D Raja against the bypoll is before the apex court and also almost all the political parties have opposed the election as the people in the constituencies have lost their belongings, including the voter ID cards in Gaja. Almost all political leaders,also told the Tiruvarur collector not to hold the bypoll now. Chennai: Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Mr M. Thambidurai has said that elections should not coincide with Pongal festival in January, even as his party, the ruling AIADMK, gears up for bypolls in Tiruvarur. Mr Thambidurai said the polls would come in the way of distributing Pongal gift hampers to the people and make Opposition parties cry foul for no reason. There has been a precedence to postpone by-elections, Mr Thambidurai said. Bypolls to Pennagaram (in Dharmapurai district) were postponed (in 2010, during DMK rule) after then Opposition parties, including the AIADMK, sought its postponement in view of Pongal. He said the Election Commission should have announced dates for the Tiruvarur bypolls after ascertaining the situation. I personally feel it is unwarranted to hold consultation after announcing the dates, with parties speaking in divergent tones. A week ago, he had said that it was unnecessary to hold bypolls in January in view of Pongal and also on account of sufferings brought by cyclone Gaja that ravaged the district. But the Election Commission allowed the government to execute relief work and also agreed to hold the bypolls. This will lead to problems as the Opposition parties are bound to protest against carrying out of rehabilitation work by the government and denying people the rights due to them, Mr Thambidurai said. These are my personal views and not those of my party. The Opposition parties are so wary that they will object to even laying a road or installation of a light and remain unmindful of sanctions by the Election Commission. Hyderabad: Of the 119 MLAs in the previous Telangana state Assembly, around 38 have lost Rs 22.5 lakh each as salary because of the elections having been held early. The remaining MLAs have lost Rs 7.5 lakh each. Each MLA gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month as salary (honorarium), including several allowances. The Telangana Assembly elections should have been held around April-May 2019, according to the schedule. But Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Assembly on September 6, 2018, nine months before its due date. From the day the house is dissolved, MLAs do not get any salary or allowance. In the dissolved Assembly, 39 MLAs lost nine months salary because they were denied tickets by their respective parties or were defeated in the elections. The MLAs in the dissolved assembly who were re-elected to the assembly in 2018 have lost about three months salary. Among the MLAs who lost nine months of salary, a majority are from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Some of them joined other political parties and contested but lost. For example, Ms Konda Surekha and Ms Badiga Sobha were denied tickets by the TRS. Ms Konda Surekha joined the Congress and Ms Badiga Sobha joined the BJP. Both contested and lost. CPI-M MLA in the dissolved house, Mr Sunnam Rajaiah, also lost nine months salary and other allowances. A total of 21 MLAs from the TRS, and 12 from the Congress, including defected MLAs in the dissolved House, lost the elections. From the BJP, five MLAs including defected MLAs in the dissolved House lost the elections. Those who were elected will get salaries and other allowances from the day they were decl-ared elected, irrespective of taking the oath. Vijayawada: Andhra Pradeshs tableau has not been selected for the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi on January 26, in yet another flashpoint between the BJP-led Centre and the Telugu Desam government in the state. State government officials smell a conspiracy. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed displeasure and asked officials to write a strongly-worded letter to the Centre. State government sources said the defence ministry was impressed by the original design based around this years Republic Day theme, Mahatma Gandhi,. They had asked for 3D designs along with a musical theme. But they rejected the latter. The state government had chosen Gandhi Hill in Vijayawada, Pondhuru Khadhi in Srikakulam and Pallipadu Gandhi ashram in Nellore district for depiction in the tableau. Gandhi Hill is a monument to Indias Independence struggle. It is from there that Mahatma Gandhi had given a call to the public to buy wooden charkhas and to collect money for the Tilak Peace Foundation. Responding to his call, a young local widow had donated her gold jewellery, an account on which was published in Young India on October 27, 1927. A stone slab and stupa at the hill are inscribed with quotes from Gandhi. Taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, residents of Pondhuru village in Srikakulam started weaving khadi and are continuing even now. In Pallipadu, too, there is an ashram on the lines of Sabarmati ashram to eradicate untouchability. Joining these three themes, we had come up with designs that the defence ministry was impressed with, a senior government official said. They asked us to submit 3D designs and a music theme, which we did. But surprisingly, the ministry, which was initially impressed with our designs, later rejected them, said a senior government official. This is not the first time the states tableau has been rejected by the Centre. Andhra tableaux were rejected in the past, for various reasons, once when Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was chief minister and thrice when N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was chief minister. But they took part in the parade in the past four years. Hyderabad: The sudden announcement of 10 per cent reservations for economically backward classes by BJP-led NDA government ahead of the elections comes amid the demands of Muslims in Telangana state, the Kapu community in AP and several caste groups across the country seeking quotas. Legal experts said the Centres decision was not tenable. They said there was no scope in the Constitution under Articles 15 and 16 to provide reservations on economic grounds. It was expected that the Centres decision on EBC reservations may provoke the quota movement in the Telugu states. The TS Legislature in 2016 had passed a Bill to increase reservation in jobs and education for Muslims to 12 per cent. Implementing this would have exceeded the Supreme Courts 50 per cent ceiling the reservations. The Telangana state government sent the Bill to the Centre and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself has requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi several occasions on this issue. Given the Supreme Court cap on reservations, the state government asked the Centre to amend the Constitution. The TS government also asked the Centre to include the 12 per cent reservations for Muslims in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution as was done in Tamil Nadu where the overall quota stands at 69 per cent. The Supreme Court cannot adjudicate on matters listed the Ninth Schedule. The NDA government set aside the Telangana Bill and did not send it to the President for his approval. In the recent Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah opposed reservations for Muslims in their campaign speeches. In AP, the Kapu community leaders are demanding 10 per cent reservations to their community. Former minister and Kapunadu leader Mudragada Padmanabham is leading the moment for reservations for the community. The AP government has constituted a committee to look the demand. The Kapu leaders had also requested the Centre to provide 10 per cent reservations to the community. The Centres decision to provide EBC reservations will also the benefit Kapu commuity. But there are conditions to qualify and it is suspected that few will actually be eligible for it. Community leaders felt it would benefit them more if 10 per cent quota was given to them. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi cabinet on Monday cleared the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill and it is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Sources stated that the proposed legislation seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they dont possess any proper document. The government move came within hours of the presentation in Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. Large sections of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. Eight influential students bodies of the Northeast, besides more than 40 socio-cultural organisations of Assam, have called an 11-hour bandh Tuesday in protest against the central governments move to amend the Citizenship Act. The JPC report was prepared with a majority vote as opposition members have opposed the move to grant citizenship on the basis of religion saying it is against the Constitution. New Delhi: The move to provide 10 per cent quota in jobs and higher education to the economically backward upper caste nearly four months before the Lok Sabha polls, could well be a game changer for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The master stroke delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi not merely caught the Opposition off guard, but its a decision that the political rivals might find difficult to criticise. This has been a move, which the Opposition parties ranging from Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party among others had been trying to achieve, but did nothing to take the step. It may be recalled that during 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav had promised to set up an upper caste commission to deal with the issued faced by the economically weaker section among them. The BSP supremo, Ms Mayawati had made similar demands both in 2007 (when she formed government in Uttar Pradesh) and 2011. In 2011 Ms Mayawati wrote to the then Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and urged him to make a provision of reservation for poor among the upper caste. Reports stated that the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu in 2016 indicated that his government was looking at the option of extending reservation to the poor among the upper caste. While the Opposition parties failed to make the move, the Narendra Modi government in a decisive step went ahead and bit the bullet. The decision to push for reservation for poor among the upper caste is not expected to disturb the existing reservation for OBCs, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes. Union minister for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale while welcoming the decision said: It is a masterstroke, but many strokes are still pending. Mr Modi is a strong batsman there will be many sixes and fours. Bharatiya Janata Partys Dalit MP, Udit Raj, who had been critical of BJPs treatment of Dalits also welcomed the decision but told a news agency that This will open a Pandoras Box and others will also demand reservation now. Some Dalit leaders in the ruling NDA too have demanded such a quota for the upper caste poor. Ram Vilas Paswan, Union minister and the chief of Lok Janshakti Party, an NDA ally, said last year that the upper caste poor should be given 15 per cent reservation. Another Dalit leader, Ramdas Athawale, Union minister and president of the Republican Party of India, an NDA ally, rooted last year for 25 per cent reservation to the poor among the upper castes by enhancing the quota limit to 75 per cent. The reservation benefit is likely to be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs 8 lakh and have up to five acres of land, the sources said. Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution will have to be amended for implementation of the decision, the sources added. Influential castes like Marathas, Kapus and Jats have hit the streets in the last few years, seeking reservation benefits. Amit Thackeray is slated to get married on January 27 in Mumbai with Mitali Borude, a fashion designer. Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray Saturday called on his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to invite him for his son Amits wedding. A Shiv Sena source said that the meeting, which lasted for about half an hour, was completely apolitical. After the visit, Raj also met another cousin Jaydev to extend the wedding invite to him. Amit Thackeray is slated to get married on January 27 in Mumbai with Mitali Borude, a fashion designer. According to sources, his wedding will be a low-key affair with the presence of few selected people from political, corporate and film circles. The meeting had assumed significance as despite Rajs earlier attempts to extend his hand for co-operation, Uddhav has cold-shouldered him by ignoring all feelers for Marathi-Manoos parties (MNS SS) joining forces. Raj had a bitter falling out with Uddhav in 2006 when he quit Shiv Sena and formed his own party. Amit and Mitali had campaigned for the MNS in some election rallies. During the 2017 civic polls, Amit started a Facebook page to interact with voters. The page has more than one lakh followers. In recent times, there has been clamour in the MNS to induct Amit into active politics like his cousin Aaditya, who is into full-fledged politics. The unions expressed concern over the deterioration of the economy due to the pro-corporate and anti-people policies pursued by the Central Government and some of the States ruled by the BJP. Bengaluru: The National Convention of Workers, comprising trade unions affiliated to various opposition parties, have decided to go on a nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 to protest against anti-worker and anti-people policies of the BJP-led NDA Government. The decision to go on a two-day strike was taken at a convention held in New Delhi on September 28. The convention jointly organised by 10 central trade unions (INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC,TUCC, AICCTU, SEWA, LPF, UTUC), in association with all independent National Federations of Workers and Employees, of both industrial and service sectors, Central Government and State Government employees. It also includes workers from railways, defence, health, education, postal department and those employed in public sector undertaking such as banks, insurance, telecom, oil, coal, public transport etc. Those employed in unorganised sectors such as construction, street vendors, domestic workers, migrant workers, rickshaw, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, agricultural workers are also expected to take part. The unions expressed concern over the deterioration of the economy due to the pro-corporate and anti-people policies pursued by the Central Government and some of the States ruled by the BJP. They claimed it has grievously impacted the livelihood of workers across the country. The Presidium of the Convention consisted of Ashok Singh, Ramendra Kumar, S.N. Pathak, K. Hemlata, R.K. Sharma, Probir Banerjee, Lata, Santosh Rai and Shatrujeet Singh. The convention noted that the Government has been ignoring the 12-point charter of demands on minimum wage, universal social security, workers' status and including pay and facilities for the scheme workers, and desist from privatization of public enterprises and hiring employees on contract. About 5,769 people have been arrested and 1,869 cases registered so far. (Photo: File) Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala had a peaceful Sunday after four days of widespread violence involving BJP-RSS and ruling CPI(M) workers following the entry of two women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple. About 5,769 people have been arrested and 1,869 cases registered so far. It's the government's duty to implement the Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages into the shrine to offer prayers, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. He added that they would not be cowed down by threats of "constitutional consequences" for Sabarimala violence. Vijayan has asked the BJP national leadership to instruct its cadre in Kerala to stop creating violence in the state. "The state has a constitutional duty to implement the Supreme Court order. There is no violence other than the ones created by the RSS, BJP and the Sangh Parivar. And now they are threatening the state with constitutional consequences," Vijayan said in a Facebook post. The chief minister's post came on a day Union minister Smriti Irani alleged that the CPI(M)-led LDF government was arresting BJP workers for raising their voice against the state. BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao had warned the state government saying it would have to face constitutional consequences. Vijayan also alleged that the Sangh Parivar was trying to implement the same methods that they tried in northern India. "It's not going to succeed in Kerala. The state will deal with all kinds of attempts to create violence and communal riots with iron hand," the chief minister said. Of nearly 5,800 persons arrested in connection with the violence. At least 4,980 persons have been granted bail, a state police chief Loknath Behara said. While in Palakkad, 283 cases have been registered so far and 764 persons arrested, in Kannur district, where crude bombs were thrown at the house of Thalassery MLA AM Shamseer and BJP leader and MP V Muraleedharan, 225 cases have been booked and 394 arrested so far. In Pathnamthitta district, where the Sabarimala temple is located, 267 cases have been registered and 677 people arrested so far. Wishing My friend Mr. @prakashraaj all the very best in his Political Journey. Thanks for walking the talk. #citizensvoice #justasking, Kamal Haasan said in a tweet. Chennai: Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan on Sunday wished Prakash Raj "all the best" for his political journey ahead and said the actor walks the talk. The critically-acclaimed actor Prakash Raj had on Saturday announced he would contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from the Bengaluru Central constituency as an independent candidate. Wishing My friend Mr. @prakashraaj all the very best in his Political Journey. Thanks for walking the talk. #citizensvoice #justasking, Kamal Haasan said in a tweet. Prakash Raj also got the support of the Aam Aadmi Party, which said all good people should come into politics. Renowned Actor @prakashraaj plans to contest Lok Sabha elections, @AamAadmiParty offers open support to him. In a party meeting in Bangalore, Dy CM @msisodia welcomes the decision, says all good ppl (sic) are welcome in politics, the AAP tweeted. Prakash Raj is the latest celebrity to join politics from the south-he has been vociferous in criticizing the BJP Government at the Centre-while veteran Kamal Haasan announced his MNM party and superstar Rajinikanth too said he would launch into politics at sometime soon. #2019 parliament elections. Thank you for the warm n encouraging response to my new journey.. will be contesting from Bengaluru central constituency#Karnataka as an Independent. Will share the details with the media in few days..#citizensvoice #justasking in parliament too, the National Award-winning actor had said on Twitter. He has also been one of those seeking justice for his friend and journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot outside her residence in September 2017. (With PTI report) The Sangh Parivar workers were trying to destroy the law and order situation in the state, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said. (Photo: ANI) Thiruvananthapuram: Hitting out at the BJP-RSS for the alleged violence unleashed in the state over the Sabarimala issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said his government would not be cowed down by "threats and intimidation". Vijayan's response came after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey said in the Lok Sabha that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government should be dismissed and President's rule imposed in Kerala. Dubey had, while raising the issue of violence in Kerala, alleged that the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) was practising the "politics of murder" and many BJP workers were its victims. Talking to reporters, Vijayan said, "Violence is violence and the government will take strong measures to curb it". "In other states, when you (RSS) unleash violence, no action is taken and even those who commit daylight murders are also not brought to book," he said, adding that "such people will not get protection in Kerala". The Sangh Parivar workers were trying to destroy the law and order situation in the state, Vijayan said. He further alleged that during the last few days, workers of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had unleashed violence damaging the media and political parties offices as well as public property. Kerala had witnessed large-scale violence since January 2 when two women in the menstruating age group entered the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. The chief minister also said the cabinet had decided to bring in an ordinance against the destruction of private property during hartals. "In Sabarimala, devotees have started coming for darshan, which shows there are no law and order issues," Vijayan said. So far, 2,182 cases have been registered in connection with the violence unleashed in Kerala and 6,711 people have been arrested till this afternoon, police said in a release. Of those arrested, 5,817 have been granted bail and 894 persons have been remanded. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is currently on a three-day visit to India from January 7 to 9. (Photo: ANI) New Delhi: Norway on Monday said that India and Pakistan could resolve the issue of Kashmir between themselves, and without help from outside. Both India and Pakistan are big enough countries...They can decrease tension between them without help from outside, Norways Prime Minister Erna Solberg remarked while referring to Kashmir in New Delhi on Monday. She said that the controversial visit of former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik to Kashmir was in his private capacity. When it comes to his visit, he went as a private citizen. He has an institute for peace and security. It is a private institute in Norway. He was invited. Our government's policy is clear -- if we are going to help someone, they have to ask for it, she said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had denied Indian governments role in organising the visit and meetings of Bondevik to Jammu and Kashmir in November last year. Bondevik had paid a 'surprise' visit to the state and met top separatist leaders including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. The Norwegian prime minister is currently on a three-day visit to India from January 7 to 9. She is slated to deliver the inaugural address at the Raisina Dialogue. Mumbai: In a veiled warning to the Shiv Sena, BJP president Amit Shah said on Sunday that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Shahs statement came immediately after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis set the BJP workers a target of winning 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Reacting to the statements, the Shiv Sena said it was ready to take on whoever challenges it. Shah and Fadnavis addressed BJP workers from Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Nanded districts in Latur city Sunday. Party workers should get rid of confusion about (prospects of) alliance (with the Shiv Sena). If the allies join us, we will ensure their win, or else will defeat them too (patak denge). Party workers should start preparations at every booth, Shah said. He compared the coming elections to the third battle of Panipat, in which Maratha forces were defeated by the army of Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Durrani (Abdali). The BJP chief said after this battle, the country was enslaved for 200 years. If we win this election, our ideology will continue to rule for next 50 years. We should put in extra efforts to win this election, Shah said. In 2014, the BJP won 73 seats (in Uttar Pradesh). This time even if SP and BSP join hands, we will win 74 seats, he said. Echoing Fadnavis, Shah said, We should aim to win at least 40 out of 48 seats (in Maharashtra). This is for the first time the BJP has taken an assertive stand in the matter of alliance with the Shiv Sena. The Sena has been regularly hitting out at the BJP despite being part of the government in the state and the Centre. Its leaders have often said they would contest the next polls on their own. Speaking before Shah, Fadnavis said, The party president will decide what to do with the Shiv Sena and the proposed alliance. But the BJP should aim to win 40 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The victory of 2019 will be bigger than 2014. Last time we won 122 seats in (state) Assembly and received 1.50 crore votes. We need two crore votes to attain power on our own. The number of people who have benefited from the state governments policies is more than that. Shah had reportedly told party MPs from Maharashtra at a meeting in Delhi last Thursday that they should be ready to contest the coming elections without an alliance, though efforts to forge a pre-poll tie-up with the Sena were on. The Sena and BJP had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance but split up at the time of Assembly elections. The Sena joined the state government later. Late Sunday evening, the Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP, saying its plan to win 40 seats meant it would rely on manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The Sena is ready to take on opposition. Those who attack us, we will surely defeat them, said an aide of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. The BJPs boast of winning 40 seats is evidence that it is going to form alliance with EVMs. The BJP has been unnerved by the results of assembly elections, he said. Amit Shahs arrogant and boastful statements have exposed that party....Shiv Sena talked about Hindutva and Ram temple but it seems our stand did not go down well with the BJP, the leader said. The BJP does not want anybody who talks of Hindutva, the Sena leader said. Schoolgirls are being treated at government hospital at Chevella, RR district, after they exhibited symptoms of food poisoning. (Photo: P. Surendra ) Hyderabad: Sixty-seven schoolgirls from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) were hospitalised with suspected food poisoning in Chevella, Ranga Reddy district on Sunday morning. There are around 206 girls residing in the residential school. The girls were brought to the government hospital after complaining of stomach ache. KGBV is a government-run residential school. Inspector Guruvaiah of the Chevella police said that fruit salad was served in the school in the evening around 4 pm on Saturday and later rice with capsicum curry, dal and curd, at around 8 pm. After study hours, the girls went to bed. On Sunday morning around 67 girls fell sick and started vomiting and were shifted to Government Hospital. Thirty girls were treated and sent back to the school after their condition became normal. Another 37 girls were referred to Niloufer Hospital. Their condition is stable now, the inspector said. The Chevella police have registered a case under section 337 IPC (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) against the principal and cooks of the school based on complaints from parents, and further investigation is underway. The first meeting of Bihars opposition to discuss the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be held at RJD leader Tejashwi Yadavs house in Patna on Monday. (Photo: PTI) Patna: The opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar is likely to hold its first formal deliberation on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls during a meeting on Monday at the residence of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav here. The meeting is likely to be attended by all constituents of the Mahagathbandhan that comprises the RJD, the Congress, former Union minister Upendra Kushwahas RLSP, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhis HAM and veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadavs LJD. Tejashwi Yadav is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. According to sources in the Grand Alliance, the meeting will be marked by broad discussions on the respective number of seats to be fought by each constituent, and identifying constituencies best suited for each alliance partner. They, however, added that a final agreement may be deferred till the release of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad serving sentences in fodder scam cases judgement on whose bail application has been reserved by the Jharkhand High Court. Moreover, leaders of the Grand Alliance have also been stating that a public announcement about the seat-sharing arrangements will be made only after January 14, when the inauspicious month of Kharmaas comes to an end. Meanwhile, Jitan Ram Manjhi rubbished reports that have appeared in a section of the media, claiming that he was toying with the idea of a possible return to the NDA, as he was not getting his due in the Grand Alliance. This is nonsense. Only on Saturday I was in Ranchi to meet Lalu Prasad. It is another thing that because of his poor health, I avoided getting into any detailed discussions on political matters, he told reporters. In an alliance, all constituents have to be ready to make some sacrifices, the former chief minister said. We are not at all insistent on a particular number of seats in Lok Sabha polls, and though we maintain that we are in a good position in at least 20 out of 40 in the state, we will work for the Mahagathbandhans victory even if we end up fighting not a single seat, Manjhi asserted. With Thakur, 20 others have been accused, including the staff, been charged with serious crimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). (Photo: File) Patna: Young girls were forced to dance to vulgar songs, sedated and raped at the government-run shelter in Bihars Muzaffarpur. The shelter home is being investigated by the CBI for a massive sex scandal with links to influential politicians and bureaucrats. CBI in their 73-page chargesheet against Brajesh Thakur, main accused in the shelter scandal revealed the details. The chargesheet was filed before the special POCSO court of additional district judge RP Tiwari on December 19. With Thakur, 20 others have been accused, including the staff, been charged with serious crimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). As per the chargesheet, girls were forced to wear revealing clothes, dance to Bhojpuri songs, drugged and raped in a sedated state by the guests of Thakur. Thakur used to beat the girls on their private parts if they refused to have sex with guests. Those refusing to entertain the guests were offered only roti and salt at night, while those who danced were given good food, noted the chargesheet. The sexual exploitation of girls in the government-run shelter was revealed in a report by TISS. Medical tests revealed that out of 42, 34 girls were sexually assaulted. The Muzaffarpur municipal corporation has now razed the shelter home. According to the Supreme Court, Thakur is a very influential man and recommended shifting him to a jail outside the state to prevent any obstruction to ongoing probe. According to KIA sources as many as 38 departures were delayed while poor visibility forced delays to at least 11 flight arrivals during the early hours during the weekend. Bengaluru: As dense fog engulfed the surroundings of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in the city on Sunday, almost 50 flights got delayed while four were diverted. According to KIA sources as many as 38 departures were delayed while poor visibility forced delays to at least 11 flight arrivals during the early hours during the weekend. The diversions included two Air India flight - one from Dubai via Goa and another from Ahmedabad, both diverted to Chennai, another flight from Vizag was diverted to Hyderabad and an Indigo flight from Delhi rerouted to Hyderabad causing inconvenience to flyers. Though airline companies were keeping the passengers informed, some were agitated and took to social media to express their displeasure. A user tweeted, "We missed the connecting flight to Raipur as the flight faced a 4-hour delay. Please arrange access to Premium Plaza Lounge. Why are passengers taken on a ride at such events all the time?" Another flyer Kartik tweeted that he had faced a similar situation on Thursday as well. "Had to re-book tickets on another airline then and now my flight to Chennai is delayed indefinitely," he tweeted. However, there was some relief from immense cold for Bengalureans on Sunday as minimum temperatures recorded was higher than Saturday. According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), the minimum temperature recorded at Bengaluru Urban and Rural was 13.3 and 12 degrees Celsius respectively. The same was 11.3 and 9.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday. The minister said HAL has confirmed that contracts amounting to more than Rs 26,570.80 crore have been signed between 2014-18. Rahul Gandhi claimed, 'We are not going to allow Rs 30,000 crores of people's money to be taken by Anil Ambani because he is Narendra Modi's friend.' (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: The bitter war of words between the government and Congress party over Rafale deal continued on Monday with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejecting doubts on her statement on HAL as incorrect and misleading even as Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi dispensation of weakening state-run aerospace major HAL and destroying Indias strategic capability to benefit industrialist Anil Ambani. Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, Ms Sitharaman said contracts worth Rs 26,570 crore have been signed by the HAL between 2014-18 and orders amounting to Rs 73,000 crore are in pipeline, which total about Rs 1 lakh crore. Amid protests by the Opposition members, Ms Sitharaman said: The doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading. The minister said HAL has confirmed that contracts amounting to more than Rs 26,570.80 crore have been signed between 2014-18. Shortly after the Defence Ministers statement, Mr Gandhi addressed the media outside the House and accused her of "lying" in Parliament and evading his questions on the Rafale fighter jet deal in the Lok Sabha. He alleged that the government gave Rs 20,000 crore to France's Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale jets, even though it has not supplied a single aircraft. "But why have HAL's dues of Rs 15,700 crore not been cleared?" Mr Gandhi asked. He alleged that it was "necessary" for the government to "destroy HAL because with a strong HAL, you simply cannot give the contract to anybody else". Bombay HC observed that state and civic authorities could not stop merely at registering FIRs and invoking the legal provisions regulating slaughter of animals and sale of meat. (Photo: File | PTI) Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai police to take account of all the complaints received and the action taken so far on illegal slaughter of animals and sale of meat, including cow meat, in the city. A bench of justices BP Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere observed that the state and civic authorities could not stop merely at registering FIRs and invoking the legal provisions regulating the slaughter of animals and sale of meat. The bench said it was imperative that the moment the authorities received complaints of illegal slaughter or violations of the rules regulating the sale and consumption of meat, they must "immediately verify such complaints, check whether the alleged offenders have valid licenses for sale and slaughter, and ensure that the offences are not repeated in the future". The bench was hearing a bunch of petitions filed in 2017, alleging that "beef was being sold openly in areas such as Nagpada, Agripada, and Dongri" in the city. The petitions also claimed that several temporary stalls across the city slaughtered animals and sold meat without licenses and permits under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Food Standards Safety Act provisions. One of the petitioners, Arun Kabadi, claimed in his plea that even though he had made several complaints to the police in this regard, they had failed to take any action. Kabadi's lawyer, Raju Gupta, told the court that in March 2018, another bench of the high court had directed the deputy commissioners of police of zones I and III to take cognisance of the petitioner's complaints and initiate appropriate action against the illegal meat shops. The bench, at the time, had also asked the police to take the help of the BMC's Health department to check the alleged illegal sale of beef in the areas concerned. Gupta alleged that despite the court order, illegal slaughter of animals and sale and of meat including beef continued in the city. The state's counsel, Aruna Pai, however, told the bench that the police had received the above complaints and registered FIRs. She said the authorities took action against the offenders as and when a complaint was received. The bench, however, noted that the authorities must ensure that the offenders did not repeat the violations. "The authorities like the police and the BMC cannot stop just at registering an FIR or invoking legal provisions against the offenders...they have to take immediate steps to verify the complaints, check for licenses, ensure that there are no repeat offenders," the bench said. "The authorities must maintain a list of all complaints received and the action taken on these complaints," it added. The bench also directed the police to put up checkposts on the state's borders to prevent illegal transport and smuggling of meat and cattle. Hyderabad: The mystery over the death of a nine-year-old boy at Shamshabad was cleared after six days with the arrest of the boys 16-year-old cousin. The juvenile is said to have killed the boy after taking him to an isolated area outside the village. Police said he got the idea by watching videos on crime and on measures to avoid being captured in CCTV cameras. On December 30, Dinesh, a Class IV student at TS Model School in Palamakula, went missing after leaving the house along with his elder cousin. Dineshs body was found late at night by his parents M. Chinna Raju and Nirmala in some bushes in an isolated area outside the village. His parents complained to the police and named their nephew as the suspect. Police found that Dinesh left the house along with his cousin to eat food. The police questioned the cousin who confessed to killing Dinesh by throttling him. The juvenile is a Class IX student and was living with his grandmother in Palamakula village. Shamshabad inspector R. Venkatesh said, The juvenile said he had killed Dinesh to take revenge against the boys father Chinna Raju who had scolded him. On the day of the incident, Chinna Raju had scolded the juvenile for being irregular to school and getting addicted to vices. Raju told the Class IX student that he would inform his father. The inspector added that the juvenile was well versed with the Internet. He used to regularly watch crime videos on YouTube and gained knowledge on how CCTVs function and how police use it to obtain evidence. The juvenile would have taken Dinesh to the outskirts to avoid being captured in the CCTV cameras. He throttled his cousin, went home and told his family that Dinesh had left home long back. The 16-year-old was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board for further action, the inspector said. Ranveer Singh, who returned from his honeymoon in Sri Lanka on Sunday, set off immediately to check the response to his film, Simmba. Interestingly, the actor chose to wear a mask rather than go as his real self for this expedition! Ranveer visited the G-7 multiplex, popularly known Gaiety Galaxy in Mumbai, where the tickets are modestly priced to enable a lot of patrons see films. It was rather strange that Ranveer was wearing a mask. He came, saw the screening and went off. Perhaps he may have taken his moustache and beard off to promote Gully Boy. They have a party on Monday night to celebrate Simmbas success and he probably wanted to be in the new look there, says a paparazzo. By the time the crowd realised that it was Ranveer, he had left the auditorium. But judging by the security around him, it was not difficult for people to guess that a celebrity had come a-visiting, the paparazzo adds. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription and are still unable to access our content, please link your digital account to your print subscription If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. STAMFORD Students at two city high schools may switch to eight-period block schedules as soon as next fall. The Board of Educations teaching, learning and community committee plans to discuss the proposal for Stamford and Westhill high schools Tuesday night. According to the proposal, the new schedule will feature eight 85-minute class blocks. Students would have four class blocks each day on an alternating schedule. Stamford High and Westhill students now have seven periods, which rotate through six daily class blocks. Using A-G scheduling allows students to rotate classes with them missing one class every rotation. A high school-level scheduling committee began discussing the plan in 2016, according to the board. Representatives from Stamford and Westhill high schools researched several options and examined scheduling in other districts. According to documents provided to the board, the new, longer class blocks will allow teachers to dive deeper into instruction, as well as longer blocks of professional development and planning time. The research showed students will have the opportunity to develop stronger relationships with teachers and more chances to integrate technology into their work. The longer classes also mimic college-level courses. The full plan will be presented to the Board of Education on Jan. 19. Subcommittees will integrate feedback into the plan gathered from administration, student, and parent groups. According to the board packet, the district will experiment with the new schedule at the end of the school year before being launched at Stamford High next fall and at Westhill in August 2020. A spokeswoman for the district said more information will be released following the meeting, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of the government center. Exuding confidence that his party would win all Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, the CM said the best candidates would be chosen by the party. Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh today ruled out the need for an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state but said the decision on a coalition with the party would be taken by the Congress high command. He was responding to questions from media persons during an informal chat after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi to discuss a host of state government and party related issues, particularly in view of the forthcoming parliamentary elections. The Punjab CM said that AAP was non-existent in Punjab, and there was absolutely no need for the Congress in the state to go in for alliance with the Arvind Kejriwals party. He added that the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) had conveyed these views to the high command earlier though the matter was not discussed at his meeting today with Rahul. AAP had become defunct, with no identity now in Punjab, as against the situation prevailing in the last Lok Sabha elections, Mr Singh asserted. However, any decision on a coalition would be taken by the Congress high command, keeping in mind the national perspective and electoral compulsions, and would be followed by PPCC, said the chief minister. Exuding confidence that his party would win all Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, the CM said the best candidates would be chosen by the party. Replying to a question on a possible reshuffle in his cabinet, the Chief Minister said the issue of any change in portfolios of the ministers was not discussed during the meeting with Rahul. On the issue of the Kartarpur Corridor, Captain Amarinder Singh said while Pakistan had already started work on the construction of the road on their side, development work had yet to start in the Indian Punjab, as the state government had not received any funds so far from the Centre for acquiring land for building the infrastructure. One month after graduating in May with his Bachelor of Computer Science degree, Andrew Sealy was back on campus this time as a student in the Corporate Residency MBA program. He had to hit the ground running. The first few months of the program took him through an intense summer academic term that included the PPE (Personal and Professional Effectiveness) course, which is designed to help students prepare for their corporate residencies by focusing on skills related to leadership development and career management. Building on past success Though it meant giving up on any thought of a lazy summer, it was a really valuable few months for Andrew. He feels the help he received through the resume boot camp and mock interview sessions set him up for job search success. And since the residency was one of the main reasons he chose the program, that was important. The eight-month work term was quite appealing, he says. Dalhousie works really hard to network with a lot of potential employers so they have partnerships with a lot of different companies throughout Atlantic Canada but also across Canada. I think its a really good way to gain some practical work experience while still going through your degree. Andrew knows a thing or two about the significance of work experience. During his Computer Science degree, he participated in three co-op terms. Each one gave him more involvement and took him a bit further out of his comfort zone. His last work term, at Deloitte in Toronto, provided him with larger scale projects and put him in more of a client-facing role. It was that experience that inspired him to pursue his MBA. It also helped sustain him while he participated in a remarkable 15 interviews for his corporate residency in just one week. He admits it was a busy week but says it was also very rewarding. Because hed been through the process, he knew the key to success is knowing yourself. If you really know your unique value proposition and the unique perspective you bring to the table, you'll be able to answer any question that might come your way during an interview, he says. I think it really comes down to knowing yourself and not trying to pretend to be something you're not. When you do that, you can be really successful in any interview. Opportunities to choose from Clearly, his approach paid off he received five different job offers from employers in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver. When he looks back on it, Andrew thinks his background in Computer Science was his main advantage. I was actually surprised in the interviews how many companies, that I wouldn't consider a technology company, actually needed a lot of technology expertise, he recalls. A lot of companies I talked to are trying to position themselves in ways that make them adaptable and flexible to emerging technologies. So, a lot of them are looking for people who know or at least are willing to learn new technologies. After quite a bit of consideration and consultation with his professors, Andrew decided to accept a job with BMO as a marketing coordinator on their Customer Analytics team in Toronto. Hell start this month. I'm looking forward to learning new ways that I can use technologies to gain meaningful insight. I'm going to be working on the customer analytics side, so Ill be working to understand how to determine the best offers for customers based on their past banking behaviours, he explains. Im also looking forward to gaining more presentation skills. Opening up possibilities Once his residency is complete, Andrew will return to Halifax for another year of studying before he graduates. When asked what he thinks of the program so far, Andrew says its been hard work but the relationships hes built with his professors have helped him succeed. And so far, its worth it. Although it has been challenging to learn new subjects in such a short period of time, the program exposes you to both the academic and professional side of business, teaches you how to think on your feet and learn quickly, how to work well in ambiguous environments, and how to open up avenues through the networks you create. When asked about the matter, Indian Government sources pointed out that the Norwegian Ambassador had already clarified on the matter. New Delhi: After a controversy broke out on Monday over certain remarks made at an event in New Delhi by visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in which she indicated that Norway may be ready to mediate between India and Pakistan if there was a possibility, Norwegian ambassador Nils Ragnar Kamsvag tweeted that his countrys Prime Minister has not offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and that neither has Norway been requested to mediate. The Norwegian PM however did say clearly that as per Norways policy, any peace initiative in which it mediates has to be requested for. It may be recalled that Indias consistent stand is that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one between India and Pakistan and that there can be no third-party intervention. When asked about the matter, Indian Government sources pointed out that the Norwegian Ambassador had already clarified on the matter. The Norwegian PM also said that the Norwegian Government had no role in the recent visit of former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik who she described as a private citizen to the Kashmir valley, adding that he had gone there as part of an initiative after an invitation. Speculation had been mounting for the past couple of months when, as per reports from Srinagar in November last year, former Norwegian Prime Minister Bondevik had visited the Kashmir Valley and had met top Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Gilani back then. Mr. Bondevik was also reported to have subsequently visited PoK. Speculation had raged then whether the meetings could be part of any track-two diplomacy. In response to a question, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg said, Nobody from the outside can create peace ... So if there is a movement in India and Pakistan for ... talks together, of course we and Im sure there would be other countries that would say that we can help in mediating if there is a possibility but it has to be those who are part ... (of) the conflict. But both Pakistan and India are big enough countries to make sure that they decrease tension without help from the outside. The Norwegian PM added, Our Government policy is very clear. If we are called to help somewhere they have to ask for it. Initiatives like that do not come from the outside. On whether a military solution could solve the Kashmir issue, she said, I personally dont believe military solutions solve problems. I believe in peaceful solutions. It has to be Pakistan and India together who find the time for when they want to start to talk about things. In a tweet later, the Norwegian Ambassador said, PM @erna_solberg has not offered to mediate between India and Pakistan as has been erroneously reported. Norway has neither been asked nor offered to mediate. The BSP and SP have refused to play second fiddle to the Congress as far as alliances go. New Delhi: The political dynamics of the newly-firmed-up alli-ance between the Samaj-wadi Party and the Bahu-jan Samaj Party spilled over onto the national stage with both joining hands to condemn the possibility of Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav being questioned by the CBI, and BSP supremo Mayawati calling Mr Yadav to express solidarity. However, differences surfaced among the Opposition parties on whether it was the misuse of the CBI that should be raised in Parliament in the remaining two days or the Congress pet issue of Rafale. The ball was set rolling in the morning by none other than Ms Mayawati, who called up Mr Yadav and gave her full support to him, asking him not to be shaken by any gimmicks. Do not be shaken by such gimmicks, she told the SP chief while dubbing any move by the CBI to question him as political animosity of the ruling BJP, a BSP statement said. The two parties later held a joint press conference at Parliament House, where senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav alleged that the CBI was being used by the Centre as the SP-BSP alliance has left the BJP shaken. Since they have no other option, they have found an ally in the CBI, he said. The Prime Minister has to leave his constituency in Varanasi and contest if such a connection is there between the CBI and the government, he said. Interestingly, in her statement, BSP chief Mayawati had also fired a politically-loaded salvo at the Congress, saying that like the Congress, the BJP is misusing the government machinery to trap its opponents in false cases. The BSP and SP have refused to play second fiddle to the Congress as far as alliances go. Both in the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly polls, Ms Mayawati failed to reach a seat-sharing deal with the Congress, though later both parties unconditionally extended their support to the Congress governments. According to sources, the Congress has been left only two seats the Gandhi family bastions of Rae Bareli and Amethi. The Congress also reacted predictably to the newfound bonhomie between the two parties. Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad said the CBI was being misused to settle political scores, his party continued to raise the Rafale issue to disrupt proceedings in both Houses, not the CBI issue which was decided upon at a meeting of the Opposition parties in the morning. A leader from the Opposition camp said other parties had to act as a bridge between the Congress and the SP-BSP. We made it clear to the Congress that while Rafale was important, it had already been discussed, and this issue (misuse of the CBI) is more. Later, in both Houses, as various parties trooped into the Well raising the CBI issue, Congress MPs were heard shouting slogans demanding a JPC on the Rafale deal. Bill to be tabled in Lok Sabha today; nude protests in Delhi, Assam. The AGPs move to snap ties with the BJP, just a few months before general elections, will have little impact on chief minister Sarbananda Sonowals government, but it adds to the perception about the saffron partys inability to keep its allies. Guwahati/New Delhi: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) said on Monday it has decided to exit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in Assam over the Centres stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, even as protests continued across the border state and spilled on to Delhi with some demonstrators stripping naked outside Parliament. The proposed legislation, an election promise made by the BJP in 2014, was cleared by the Narendra Modi-led Cabinet on Monday. The Bill, which seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they dont possess any proper document, is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha today. The AGPs move to snap ties with the BJP, just a few months before general elections, will have little impact on chief minister Sarbananda Sonowals government, but it adds to the perception about the saffron partys inability to keep its allies. The AGPs decision was announced by its president and state agriculture minister Atul Bora after his meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi. He said that his party has conveyed its decision to the BJP and that three AGP ministers, including him, will submit their resignation soon. We have made our best efforts to convince the BJP leadership about the negative impact of the bill and the stand of the people of Assam. But the BJP has decided to go ahead with the Bill, leaving us with no option but to quit the alliance, Mr Bora said after meeting Mr Singh. In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the AGP has just 14 MLAs, while the ruling coalition, which now comprises the BJP with 60 MLAs and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) with 12 MLAs, has a comfortable majority. The AGP and the BJP had forged an alliance in the state just before the 2016 Assembly elections with the sole objective of keeping the Congress out of power by preventing division of anti-Congress votes. The Union Cabinets move to clear the proposed legislation came within hours of the presentation in Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the Bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. Large sections of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the Bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. Protests erupted across Assam and in Delhi on Monday, with some agitators stripping in public over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and tabling of the JPC report on it in Parliament. Members of Asom Yuba Chatra Parishad staged a nude protest against the Bill at Tinsukia in Upper Assam, and in Delhi, too, some of the demonstrators stripped naked outside Parliament. In Delhi, about 10 protesters belonging to the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) from Assam, carrying placards and raising slogans, stripped naked. They were immediately removed from the highly secured Vijay Chowk. Another group of people protested outside the Assam Bhavan in Chanakyapuri, waving black flags and raising slogans. Four Rajya Sabha members of the Congress, led by APCC president Ripun Borah, also staged protest outside the main gate of Parliament against the Bill. Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and leader of the AGP had been if it went ahead with an amendment aimed at allowing Hindu illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries to stay. The AGP is against illegal immigrants regardless of religion. While addressing a protest meeting against the Citizenship Bill in Guwahati on Monday, Mr Mahanta stated that his party was all set to walk out of the alliance with the BJP. Our alliance with the BJP is a pre-poll alliance, so the BJP should have the morality to face the verdict of the people, Mr Mahanta said. The relationship between BJP and AGP had been on the rocks for the past few months following differences over the Citizenship Bill. The AGP, which was born out of the six-year-long bloody anti-immigrants agitation of early 1980s spearheaded by the All Assam Students Union (AASU), had been under pressure to pull out of the government. The leading civil society group Asom Nagrik Samaj, a platform of prominent intellectuals, writers and journalists, on Monday observed Dhikkar Divas (Condemnation Day) against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, in Dighalipukhuri, Assam. AASU and several organisations also observed Monday as a black day. The North East Students Organisation (NESO), the umbrella group of student bodies of Northeast, has called for a Northeast bandh against the Bill on Tuesday. Meanwhile, ignoring the ongoing, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his deputy Himanta Biswa Sarma laid the foundation stone of a new medical college in Tinsukia where they alleged that just a section of vested interests was trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state in order to block development. (CNN) U.S. President Donald Trump fired back at Mitt Romney after the Republican senator-elect penned an op-ed saying Trump "has not risen to the mantle of the office." "Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not," Trump tweeted, referring to retiring Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican who has criticized the President often in the last few years. "Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn't. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!" Later in the afternoon, Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting that he hopes Romney will become a "team player." Romney, who is set to take office Thursday, criticized the President's character in a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday, saying that Trump's "conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the President has not risen to the mantle of the office." "A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. ... And it is in this province where the incumbent's shortfall has been most glaring," Romney wrote. The incoming Utah senator also said that he does not "intend to comment on every tweet or fault," but that he will "speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions." But by-and-large the President held his fire Wednesday afternoon on the onetime presidential nominee, choosing not to issue any overt insults or criticism of a new congressional foil when speaking to reporters during his cabinet meeting. "I wish Mitt could be more of a team player. I'm surprised he did it this quickly. I was expecting something, but I'm surprised he did it this quickly," Trump said during a meeting of his Cabinet. Trump noted he'd endorsed Romney in his election, a nod for which Trump said Romney "thanked me profusely." "I was happy that he won in Utah," Trump said. "I have great popularity in Utah." Trump did suggest the new senator could have won his own presidential bid if he'd been tougher. "I will say this, if he fought really hard against President Obama like he does against me, he would have won the election," Trump said. "If he fought the way he fights me, I'm telling you, he would have won the election. Romney was seen as a "Never Trumper" during the 2016 election. Now with Flake on the way out, Romney could take up the role of being an outspoken Republican critic of the President in Congress. In his speech announcing his retirement, Flake denounced the "complicity" of his own party in what he called an "alarming and dangerous state of affairs" under Trump and blamed the President for setting the tone. Flake pointed to Romney's op-ed on Tuesday as "thoughtful." Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is Romney's niece, slammed her uncle in a tweet about the op-ed, only referring to Romney as a "freshman senator." "POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive," McDaniel tweeted. Romney's relationship with Trump has been complicated over the years. When Romney sought the presidency in 2012, Trump endorsed the former Massachusetts governor, calling him "tough" and "smart." But during the 2016 election, Romney delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump in a speech in which he called the Republican candidate a "phony" and a bully, and criticized his rhetoric about Muslims and Mexican immigrants. Trump retaliated by mocking Romney's 2012 presidential loss and claimed Romney was "begging" for his endorsement during that time. After Trump was elected, the two men seemed to mend fences and Romney was briefly considered for the position of secretary of state. When he announced his run for senator, Romney appeared to take a veiled swipe at the Trump administration's immigration policies. But his criticism of Trump was far more muted and in February, Trump endorsed Romney. Romney will be sworn in Thursday along with the rest of the incoming Senate by Vice President Mike Pence. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Trump fires back at Mitt Romney for scathing op-ed." The bilateral issues discussed included defence and counter-terrorism. New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wished him all the best for Lok Sabha polls, besides discussing both bilateral and international issues. The bilateral issues discussed included defence and counter-terrorism. The two leaders wished each for the new year, with PM Modi wishing the Russian people on the occasion of Christmas, celebrated in Russia on Monday. Significantly, the phone call took place just days after US President Donald Trump took a jibe at PM Modi over Indias development efforts in Afghanistan. Ties between the US and Russia have nose-dived ever since allegations that Russia tried to influence the US Presidential elections of 2016 which Moscow has denied. Russian diplomatic sources said, On January 7, 2019, Mr Putin had a telephone conversation with Mr Modi. The conversation focused mainly on bilateral cooperation and current international issues. ...Mr Putin wished Mr Modi success in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections in India. Russian diplomatic sources further said, Key issues of the bilateral agenda were discussed. It is noted that the relations of traditional friendship and a special and privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India will continue to develop dynamically. ... The leaders confirmed their mutual willingness to increase cooperation in fighting against international terrorism and solving other pressing world issues. Mr Putin also invited Mr Modi to take part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2019 as a main guest. In a statement, New Delhi said, The two leaders appreciated the major milestones achieved in the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries in the past year. Recalling successful wide-ranging discussions, inter alia, in Sochi in May and during President Putin's visit to New Delhi in October for the Annual Summit, the leaders agreed to maintain the momentum in the bilateral relations. ... Bilateral cooperation in the key areas including defence and counter-terrorism was also discussed." The MEA further said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin of Russia exchanged warm greetings for the Year 2019 in a telephonic conversation today. The Prime Minister also wished the President and Russian people on the occasion of Christmas, which is being celebrated in Russia today. Both leaders agreed that India-Russia cooperation plays an important role in the global multilateral order. Both countries, therefore, will continue their close consultations in the United Nations, the BRICS, the SCO and other multilateral organisations." Pinarayi Vijayan has asked the BJP national leadership to instruct its cadre in Kerala to stop creating violence in the state About 5,769 people have been arrested and 1,869 cases registered so far. (Photo: File) Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala had a peaceful Sunday after four days of widespread violence involving BJP-RSS and ruling CPI(M) workers following the entry of two women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple. About 5,769 people have been arrested and 1,869 cases registered so far. It's the government's duty to implement the Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages into the shrine to offer prayers, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. He added that they would not be cowed down by threats of "constitutional consequences" for Sabarimala violence. Vijayan has asked the BJP national leadership to instruct its cadre in Kerala to stop creating violence in the state. "The state has a constitutional duty to implement the Supreme Court order. There is no violence other than the ones created by the RSS, BJP and the Sangh Parivar. And now they are threatening the state with constitutional consequences," Vijayan said in a Facebook post. The chief minister's post came on a day Union minister Smriti Irani alleged that the CPI(M)-led LDF government was arresting BJP workers for raising their voice against the state. BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao had warned the state government saying it would have to face constitutional consequences. Vijayan also alleged that the Sangh Parivar was trying to implement the same methods that they tried in northern India. "It's not going to succeed in Kerala. The state will deal with all kinds of attempts to create violence and communal riots with iron hand," the chief minister said. Of nearly 5,800 persons arrested in connection with the violence. At least 4,980 persons have been granted bail, a state police chief Loknath Behara said. While in Palakkad, 283 cases have been registered so far and 764 persons arrested, in Kannur district, where crude bombs were thrown at the house of Thalassery MLA AM Shamseer and BJP leader and MP V Muraleedharan, 225 cases have been booked and 394 arrested so far. In Pathnamthitta district, where the Sabarimala temple is located, 267 cases have been registered and 677 people arrested so far. The Equal Rights Amendment is one state away from ratification, and all eyes are on Virginia. Ratification is the action of signing or giving formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement. Virginia has already voted five times on the ERA. If Virginia votes to support equal rights, we will be the 38th and last state needed to approve the ERA (assuming all previous votes for approval are allowed to stand). Many women across the country are excited about the possibility of ERA passage. The Virginia Senate has already voted in favor for the ERA, which was first proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul. It has voted many times, actually. On Feb. 9, 2018, The Washington Post reported, "One House committee refused to take up the matter, while a Senate panel defeated it 9 to 5, with all the no votes cast by men. It is expected to be voted on again this month. One way everyone can help the ERA is to always support things you think are right, and always fight against discrimination based on anything. The advisory issued by the two countries was described as an insult to the southern state by tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran. Thalassery/Thiruvananthapuram: Violence involving workers of the BJP-RSS and the ruling CPI(M) workers over the Sabarimala issue continued in Kerala late Saturday night and spilled over into the early hours of Sunday with a number of houses and shops in the politically volatile Kannur district being attacked. A total of 3,282 people were arrested till Saturday night. Police said bombs were hurled early Sunday morning on the house of a non-gazetted officers union leader at Thalassery in Kannur. Houses of some BJP workers were also attacked in the area forcing the district administration to impose prohibitory orders. The BJP alleged a law and order breakdown in the state even as the US and the UK issued travel advisories to their citizens and asked them to remain vigilant while travelling to the troubled state. The advisory issued by the two countries was described as an insult to the southern state by tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran. Ten per cent of Keralas GDP comes from the tourism sector and the industry is worried that the frequent hartals and protests would severely impact the state which is slowly recovering from the massive devastation caused by the August floods. Director general of police Loknath Behara said that 1,286 cases have been registered till Saturday night and 3,282 persons arrested in connection with the violent incidents since the January 3 hartal called against the entry of two women into the Sabarimala temple on January 2. Of the arrested, 487 have been remanded and 2,795 granted bail, he said. Right-wing groups have been staging protest across the state against the state governments decision to implement the Supreme Court order of September 28 allowing women of all age groups in to the hill-top shrine. The BJP has backed protests. In New Delhi, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani said neither the common man nor a member of Parliament was safe in the state as she condemned the bomb attack at the house of partys Rajya Sabha member V. Muraleedharan. There is a state of chaos and anarchy... Such state of breakdown of the law and order that be it a common man or an MP, none are safe, she told a press conference. Ms Irani said that over 1,286 cases have been registered and over 37,000 people named as accused by the state police during protests. BJP workers on Sunday staged a demonstration at the Kerala House in Delhi demanding the resignation of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over his governments role in the Sabarimala issue and the alleged attacks on party workers in the state. The Opposition Congress in Kerala also attacked Mr Vijayan, accusing him of not controlling the law and order situation and preparing ground for the BJP to grow. The chief minister is not trying bring the situation under control. Instead he is issuing statements like a CPI(M) secretary, worsening the law and order situation. His actions help BJP and Sangh Parivar to gain ground in Kerala, said Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala. The chair, which was crafted in Williamsburg, stood in the original Capitol, but moved to Richmond with the government in 1780. It was retired from active service in 1874. Nardo hopes its return will serve as a visual reminder of the history the state will be highlighting this year, the quadricentennial of Virginias first democratic assembly at Jamestown. To mark the occasion, the House also has prepared an online database of the roughly 10,000 people who have served as burgesses or delegates throughout Virginias history. Virginia has long been recognized as the birthplace of America, said House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, in a news release. Leaders of our commonwealth were the founders of the United States ongoing experiment in representative self-government. Even Cox wont be allowed to sit in the old speakers chair, which will be formally unveiled Jan. 24 during a Virginia Capitol Foundation reception. A flyer for the event recounts some of the history, saying the chairs large and ornate form symbolically mirrors the height and reach of the office. The SNP Trust joins nonprofits across the country that are stepping up to clean national park sites during the shutdown. We decided to do it because we are the partner to the national park, Sherman said. Its a time of crisis. We needed to step up to the plate. The National Park Service said Sunday that it will dip into its balance of entry, camping and parking fees to provide immediate assistance at highly visited parks around the country. Its unclear how this will affect Shenandoah. We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services, said P. Daniel Smith, NPS deputy director. Smith said in a statement that the fees will go toward cleaning up the trash that has built up at numerous parks, maintaining the restrooms, bringing in additional law enforcement rangers and restoring accessibility to areas that typically would be accessible this time of year. The following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. Amit Shah assigns key responsibilities to Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari. New Delhi: Formally setting the BJP into election mode, party president Amit Shah on Sunday gave key electoral responsibilities to Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Ravi Shankar Prasad. The party has already launched a social media campaign #Modi OnceMore and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is likely to address nearly 100 rallies across different states ahead of the Election Commissions official announcement of the poll schedule. While home minister Rajnath Singh will head the manifesto committee for the crucial 2019 electoral battle, finance minister Arun Jaitley will head the publicity committee. A committee headed by road transport minister Nitin Gadkari will reach out to social and volunteer organisations while external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will head the committee that will produce literature for the polls. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will head the media committee, while minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, social justice minister Thawarchand Gehlot and railway minister Piyush Goyal are part of the 20-member manifesto committee. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, national general secretaries Bhupendra Yadav and Ram Madhav and Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi are also part of the manifesto committee. Mr Goyal and minister of state for information and broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore are also a part of the eight-member publicity committee headed by Mr Jaitley. The BJP chief formed 17 groups in preparation for the general election, including one on social media amd one that will be in touch with the beneficiaries of key government schemes. Human resources development minister Prakash Javadekar will head a committee that will organise meetings of intellectuals. New Jersey Resources Corporation, an energy services holding company, provides regulated gas distribution, and retail and wholesale energy services. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Distribution, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Services, and Storage and Transportation. The Natural Gas Distribution segment offers regulated retail natural gas services to approximately 558,000 residential and commercial customers in central and northern New Jersey; provides storage management services; and participates in the off-system sales and capacity release markets. The Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns, and operates commercial and residential solar projects located in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Energy Services segment provides unregulated wholesale energy management services to other energy companies and natural gas producers, as well as maintains and transacts a portfolio of physical assets consisting of natural gas storage and transportation contracts in the United States and Canada. The Storage and Transportation segment invests in natural gas transportation and storage facilities. The company offers heating, ventilation, and cooling services; holds commercial real estate properties; and provides solar equipment installation, and plumbing repair and installation services, as well as engages in the water appliance sale, installation, and servicing activities. New Jersey Resources Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is based in Wall, New Jersey. Read More The bench, led by Justice RF Nariman, has given the Centre four weeks to file a response. In 2015, the Supreme Court had scrapped Section 66(A) of the Information Technology Act that prescribed a three-year jail term for online content that could be construed to be offensive or false, holding that this provision violates the constitutional freedom of speech and expression. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the government for not preventing arrests under a scrapped section of a law that deals with cyber crime and e-commerce. The court warned that those who ordered the arrests would be jailed. In 2015, the Supreme Court had scrapped Section 66(A) of the Information Technology Act that prescribed a three-year jail term for online content that could be construed to be offensive or false, holding that this provision violates the constitutional freedom of speech and expression. In its judgment, the court had observed that the section arbitrarily, excessively and disproportionately invades the right of free speech. Despite that, over 22 people have been prosecuted under Section 66(A), non-profit group Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said in a petition. We are going to take strict action, the Supreme Court said. The top court said it is "shocking if true" that people were arrested under Section 66(A) that was declared "unconstitutional". The bench, led by Justice RF Nariman, has given the Centre four weeks to file a response. (With PTI inputs) Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides bandwidth infrastructure solutions for the communications industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company operates in six segments: Fiber Solutions, Transport, Enterprise Networks, Zayo Colocation (zColo), Allstream, and Other. The Fiber Solutions segment provides dark fiber, and fiber-to-the-tower and small cell mobile infrastructure services for carriers and other communication service providers, Internet service providers, wireless service providers, media and content companies, large enterprises, and other companies. The Transport segment offers lit bandwidth infrastructure solutions comprising wavelength, Ethernet, wholesale IP services, and SONET services through its metro, regional, and long-haul fiber networks for carriers, content providers, financial services companies, healthcare, government entities, education institutions, and other medium and large enterprises. The Enterprise Networks segment provides connectivity and telecommunications solutions comprising Internet, wide area networking products, managed products, and cloud based computing and storage offerings to medium and large enterprises. The Zayo Colocation (zColo) segment offers data center infrastructure solutions consisting of colocation space, and power and interconnection services to a range of enterprise, carrier, cloud, and content customers. The Allstream segment provides cloud VoIP and data solutions, such as voice offerings; and unified communications, as well as telecommunications services, including Ethernet, and IP/MPLS VPN solutions. The Other segment provides network and technical resources to customers in designing, acquiring, and maintaining their networks. Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Read More Kibo Energy PLC, together with its subsidiaries, explores for and develops energy projects in Sub Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom. The company holds a 100% interest in the Mbeya Coal to Power project located in Songwe Regio, Tanzania. It also holds an 85% interest in the Mabesekwa Coal Independent Power Project located in Botswana; and 65% interest in the Benga Power Plant Project located in the Tete province of Mozambique. In addition, the company owns a 100% interest in the Bordersley power plant located near Birmingham. Further, it engages in power generation and treasury businesses. Kibo Energy PLC has a collaboration agreement with ESS Tech Inc. to develop energy storage solutions. The company was formerly known as Kibo Mining Plc and changed its name to Kibo Energy PLC in July 2018. Kibo Energy PLC was founded in 2008 and is based in Galway, Ireland. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation. Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, electronic, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Merchant Solutions, Issuer Solutions, and Business and Consumer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization services, settlement and funding services, customer support and help-desk functions, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security services, consolidated billing and statements, and on-line reporting services. This segment also provides an array of enterprise software solutions that streamline business operations of its customers in various vertical markets; and value-added services, such as point-of-sale solutions, and analytic and engagement tools, as well as payroll and human capital management services. The Issuer Solutions segment offers solutions that enable financial institutions and retailers to manage their card portfolios through a platform; and commercial payments and ePayables solutions for businesses and governments. The Business and Consumer Solutions segment provides general-purpose reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts, and other financial service solutions to the underbanked and other consumers, and businesses under the Netspend brand. It markets its products and services through direct sales force, trade associations, agent and enterprise software providers, referral arrangements with value-added resellers, and independent sales organizations. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More $1.7 Trillion Clean Energy Mandate to Deliver Stock Gains in 2021 (Ad) Newly-minted stock market millionaires will be making a tour de force in 2021 by being early on select green energy stocks. This US$0.25 stock just seized control of an ultra-rare clean energy metal America needs to lead the green energy revolution. Smart investors will not be hesitating on this one. Sitharaman said it was a matter of shame that the Congress president is misleading the country on the issue. New Delhi: In an escalation of the political battle between the BJP and the Congress on the Rafale jet deal, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday hit back at Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he accused her of lying in Parliament about procurement orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore for state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In her counter offensive, Ms Sitharaman said it was a matter of shame that the Congress president is misleading the country on the issue. She also tweeted details of contracts awarded to HAL since 2014 when the BJP came to power. Its a shame that the president of @INCIndia is misleading the nation. HAL has signed contracts worth `26,570.8 cr (between 2014 and 2018) and contracts worth `73,000 cr are in the pipeline. Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the House? the defence minister tweeted. In a scathing attack on Mr Gandhi, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani also accused him of hurting the Parliaments and a woman ministers (Nirmala Sitharaman) dignity by winking in the Lok Sabha as the defence minister replied to the Rafale debate on Friday. We do not expect values from him but we do hope that he maintains the dignity of Parliament, Ms Irani told reporters. BJP president Amit Shah also attacked Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi over a court order asking the publishers of the National Herald newspaper to vacate a premises in Delhi Without taking the name of Herald House while addressing party workers in Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mr Shah alleged that the mother-son duo tried to evade `600 crore in income tax and had sought to illegally register a public property worth crores in their name. Those appropriating public property cannot target Mr Modi. When Mr Rahul Gandhi levels corruption charges against Mr Modi, he should first open his eyes. His entire family lineage is mired in corruption charges and there is not a single blot on Prime Minister Modi, Mr Shah said. Earlier, Mr Gandhi alleged that defence minister Sitharaman lied in Parliament that government orders worth `one lakh crore were given to HAL. He demanded that she should either place the documents in support of her statement in the House or resign. Mr Gandhis attack came after a media report claimed that not a single rupee of the said `1 lakh crore has come to HAL, since not a single order, as claimed, has been signed till now. The media report cited senior HAL management officials in order to back its claim. When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PMs Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament, Mr Gandhi tweeted. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing `1 lakh crore of govt orders to HAL. Or resign, he said. Congresss chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted, The lying defence ministers lies get exposed! Defence minister claimed that procurement orders worth `1 lakh crore provided to HAL! HAL says not a single paisa has come, as not a single order has been signed! For the first time, HAL forced to take a loan of `1,000 cr to pay salaries!, he added. The Congress has been targeting the government, alleging that it denied the HAL an offset contract under the Rafale fighter jet deal with France, a charge the government has denied. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has accused the Congress of not supporting HAL during its rule and asserted that the government is now strengthening the defence public sector undertaking. The Congress on Saturday accused Mr Modi of weakening the HAL to help his suit-boot friend, an indirect reference to Reliance Defence owner Anil Ambani who has got an offset contract in the jet deal. Veritiv Corporation operates as a business-to-business provider of value-added packaging products and services, as well as facility solutions, print, and publishing products and services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. The Packaging segment provides custom and standard packaging solutions. The Facility Solutions segment sources and sells cleaning, break-room, and other supplies, such as towels, tissues, commercial cleaning chemicals, personal protective equipment and safety supplies, wipers, can liners, soaps and sanitizers, dispensers, sanitary maintenance supplies and equipment, hazard supplies, and shampoos and amenities. The Print segment sells and distributes commercial printing, writing, copying, digital, and specialty products; and graphics consumables and equipment. It also provides customized paper conversion services of commercial printing paper for distribution to document centers and form printers. The Publishing segment sells and distributes coated and uncoated commercial printing papers to publishers, retailers, converters, printers, and specialty businesses for use in magazines, catalogs, books, directories, gaming, couponing, retail inserts, and direct mail. This segment also provides print management, procurement, and supply chain management solutions. The company also offers logistics solutions. Veritiv Corporation offers its products under the Endurance, nordic+, Comet, Starbrite Opaque Select, TUFflex, Reliable, and Spring Grove brands, as well as other brands to customers in manufacturing, food processing and service, fulfillment and internet retail, property management, higher education, healthcare, entertainment and hospitality, commercial printing and publishing sectors. As of December 31, 2020 the Company operated approximately 125 distribution centers. Veritiv Corporation was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More China Mobile Limited provides mobile telecommunications and related services in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The company offers local calls; domestic and international long distance calls and roaming services; and value-added services, such as caller identity display, call waiting, conference calls, and others. It also provides wireless Internet service, as well as digital applications comprising music, video, reading, gaming, and animation; wireline broadband services; and wireline voice services. In addition, it offers dedicated line and IDC services to corporate customers in a range of industry sectors; and basic corporate communication products comprising corporate VPMN and SMS, and tailor made solutions. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, which includes IDD, roaming, Internet, MNC, and value added business services. Additionally, it offers telecommunications network planning, design, and consulting services; roaming clearance, IT system operation, and technology support services; value-added platform development and maintenance services; mobile data, and system integration and development services; network construction and maintenance, network planning and optimizing, and training services; electronic communication products design and sale of related products; and non-banking financial services. It also provides mobile cloud research and development services; call center services; e-payment, e-commerce, and Internet finance services; and mobile Internet digital content services, as well as operates a network and business coordination center. The company serves 950 million mobile customers and 187 million wireline broadband customers. The company was formerly known as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited and changed its name to China Mobile Limited in May 2006. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. China Mobile Limited is a subsidiary of China Mobile Hong Kong (BVI) Limited. Read More Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, and markets biopharmaceutical products worldwide. The company offers products in hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, and immunology therapeutic classes. Its products include Revlimid, an oral immunomodulatory drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Eliquis, an oral inhibitor indicated for the reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; and Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis, as well as reducing signs and symptoms in pediatric patients with active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The company also provides Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia; Yervoy for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; Abraxane, a solvent-free protein-bound chemotherapy product; mpliciti for the treatment of multiple myeloma; and Reblozyl for the treatment of anemia in adult patients with beta thalassemia. In addition, it offers Onureg for the continued treatment of adult patients with AML; Zeposia to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; Vidaza for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome subtypes; Baraclude, an oral antiviral agent for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B; and Breyanzi, a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma. The company sells products to wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies, retailers, hospitals, clinics, and government agencies. It has collaboration agreements with Pfizer, Inc.; Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; Nektar Therapeutics; AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Huyabio; and DarwinHealth, Inc. The company was formerly known as Bristol-Myers Company. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Read More 'The country is heading for a fractured mandate and prime minister Narendra Modi is responsible for it,' Raut said. Raut wrote that in 2014 there was a wave in Modis support as voters were determined to defeat the Congress, but 'the picture has changed today'. (Photo: File) Mumbai: BJP ally Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut claimed Sunday the country was heading for a fractured mandate, and Union minister Nitin Gadkari would be waiting for such an eventuality. Raut, the executive editor of the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, also wrote in his Sunday column in the newspaper that Prime Minister Narendra Modis stature has declined while that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi has risen. The country is heading for a fractured mandate and prime minister Narendra Modi is responsible for it, he said, adding that the full mandate Modi won in 2014 was an opportunity wasted. Raut wrote that in 2014 there was a wave in Modis support as voters were determined to defeat the Congress, but the picture has changed today. Modis larger-than-life image has lost the shine now. Rahul Gandhis leadership is not as towering as Modis but he has gained importance as people are disappointed with the current government, the Sena MP said. While senior leaders in the BJP are worried about its possible poor performance in coming elections, Nitin Gadkaris statements are an indication of which way the winds are blowing. A leader like Gadkari has equal acceptance in the RSS as well as among other BJP leaders, Raut said. Political conspiracies were hatched to deny Gadkari a second term when he was the BJP president (from 2009 to 2013), he claimed. He also faced several allegations in Purti group scam and a second term was denied to him. That memory still rankles with Gadkari, Raut said. Gadkari is now waiting for the hung Lok Sabha of 2019, Raut added, suggesting, indirectly, that in that case the Union minister could become the consensus candidate for the top post. The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. 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Mumbai: In a veiled warning to the Shiv Sena, BJP president Amit Shah said on Sunday that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Shahs statement came immediately after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis set the BJP workers a target of winning 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Reacting to the statements, the Shiv Sena said it was ready to take on whoever challenges it. Shah and Fadnavis addressed BJP workers from Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Nanded districts in Latur city Sunday. Party workers should get rid of confusion about (prospects of) alliance (with the Shiv Sena). If the allies join us, we will ensure their win, or else will defeat them too (patak denge). Party workers should start preparations at every booth, Shah said. He compared the coming elections to the third battle of Panipat, in which Maratha forces were defeated by the army of Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Durrani (Abdali). The BJP chief said after this battle, the country was enslaved for 200 years. If we win this election, our ideology will continue to rule for next 50 years. We should put in extra efforts to win this election, Shah said. In 2014, the BJP won 73 seats (in Uttar Pradesh). This time even if SP and BSP join hands, we will win 74 seats, he said. Echoing Fadnavis, Shah said, We should aim to win at least 40 out of 48 seats (in Maharashtra). This is for the first time the BJP has taken an assertive stand in the matter of alliance with the Shiv Sena. The Sena has been regularly hitting out at the BJP despite being part of the government in the state and the Centre. Its leaders have often said they would contest the next polls on their own. Speaking before Shah, Fadnavis said, The party president will decide what to do with the Shiv Sena and the proposed alliance. But the BJP should aim to win 40 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The victory of 2019 will be bigger than 2014. Last time we won 122 seats in (state) Assembly and received 1.50 crore votes. We need two crore votes to attain power on our own. The number of people who have benefited from the state governments policies is more than that. Shah had reportedly told party MPs from Maharashtra at a meeting in Delhi last Thursday that they should be ready to contest the coming elections without an alliance, though efforts to forge a pre-poll tie-up with the Sena were on. The Sena and BJP had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance but split up at the time of Assembly elections. The Sena joined the state government later. Late Sunday evening, the Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP, saying its plan to win 40 seats meant it would rely on manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The Sena is ready to take on opposition. Those who attack us, we will surely defeat them, said an aide of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. The BJPs boast of winning 40 seats is evidence that it is going to form alliance with EVMs. The BJP has been unnerved by the results of assembly elections, he said. Amit Shahs arrogant and boastful statements have exposed that party....Shiv Sena talked about Hindutva and Ram temple but it seems our stand did not go down well with the BJP, the leader said. The BJP does not want anybody who talks of Hindutva, the Sena leader said. The Government has amalgamated three Regional Rural Banks Punjab Gramin Bank, Malwa Gramin Bank and Sutlej Gramin Bank into a single RRB with effect from January 1. In a filing to the BSE, Punjab and Sind Bank said the central Government, after consulting the sponsor banks of the three RRBs, felt that in the interest of the banks and the areas served by them, they should be amalgamated into a single RRB. "The Central Government has amalgamated the said Regional Rural Banks in to a single Regional Rural Bank with effect on and from January 1, 2019," the filing said. The sponsor banks of the RRBs are National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Government of Punjab and Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Punjab and Sind Bank, it added. A 68-year-old man identified as Madhu Sudan Choudhary has been arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly causing the death of a 30-year-old woman and severely injuring her husband after his vehicle collided with a motorcycle at Barpula Flyover on Sunday evening. Due to the impact of the hit, the woman reportedly fell off the flyover and landed on a drain. According to police, the woman was identified as Nisha and her husband riding the motorcycle was identified as Sunny. A Police Control Room (PCR) call was received at Hazrat Nizamuddin police station regarding an accident between a car and motorcycle on Barapula Flyover, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said. On reaching the spot, police revealed that they found the body of a woman lying on a drain under Barapula Flyover. She was immediately rushed to the hospital where she was declared brought dead on arrival. The husband Sunny sustained injuries in his head and leg and was admitted to AIIMS trauma center It was found that a Creta car had hit a motor cycle and due to the colliding impact, the woman riding pillion on the motorcycle fell down the Flyover, he said. The driver of the Creta was identified as Madhu Sudan Chaudhary, a doctor who was returning home from his nursing home in West Vinod Nagar. He is a retiree from Indian Air Force in the year 2000. In the year 2014, he opened Manglam Hospital in West Vinod Nagar, Biswal said. According to police, Nisha and Sunny were returning home after attending a marriage function at Trilok Puri. A case under sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by endangering life) and 304 (culpable homicide) was registered. The accused was arrested and released on bail, said the DCP. Renowned environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna who has been associated with the famous Chipko movement of Uttarakhand turns 92 on January 9, 2019. He has devoted a large part of his life to the conservation of the Himalayan region, for its forests and its well-being. He is a representative figure today as far as preservation of natural resources in the Himalayas is concerned. He has been like a guardian angel in this context. Bahuguna was born on January 9,1927 in Maroda village near Tehri. A keen follower of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and Satyagraha, he fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first of all as a member of the well-known Chipko movement in 1970s. In the early 1980s, Bahuguna made the Chipko movement even more popular by undertaking a 5,000-kilometre march through the Himalayas. He visited hundreds of villages in the region to spread awareness and gather support for the cause. Later, he spearheaded the Anti-Tehri Dam movement up to early 2004. He then began taking up environmental issues, like mining and deforestation across the country. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009. Bahuguna, now a resident of the Doon valley, often recalls his first encounter with Sridev Suman, the young man who put up a fight against the King of Tehri. Says Bahuguna, I could know about Gandhi when I was a High School student at the age of 13. My inquisitiveness to know about a strangely dressed young man, who was dressed neither like the officers of the State nor like the poor subjects with loin cloth, but was putting on white Khadi cap, kurta, jacket, dhoti and chappal, inspired me to chase him.He had a small box in one hand and a bag in another hand. I guessed he must be somebody like an archer who had demonstrated his feats in archery and we were so much impressed that we left going to the school for some days and followed him. The idea came to my mind that his small box must contain something of our interest. I along with a few friends asked, what are you carrying in your small box? He very gently replied, Come, I will show you. He sat under a banyan tree, opened the box and demonstrated his feat. He was spinning yarn. Looking at this new wonder, we said, It may take you a year to produce yarn sufficient for a shirt, He promptly replied, whether I get enough yarn for my shirt or not, Gandhi says that we can end the British rule and become independent, if every Indian starts spinning. Asked the young Sunderlal, What else does Gandhi say? How can a spinning wheel bring freedom? Suman said, If you want to know more you can buy these small booklets. Bahuguna spent the whole amount of six annas, which his mother had given him for a weeks breakfast on three small booklets. One was by Gandhi How to achieve Swaraj? Bahuguna sees himself as "a guard of the ecology of the Himalayas. "We have to look after the well-being of the Himalayas not only for Uttarakhand but for the entire country, he says. It may be mentioned here that in 1981, Bahuguna refused to accept the Padma Shri since the felling of trees was rampant in the Himalayas."It was after I refused the honour that the Government banned the felling of green trees," he remembers. Bahuguna believes that all middle Himalayan States needed to come together. In the process of development, it is the local people who suffer the most, the people who have played a crucial role in conserving the Himalayas. "If we want to save the Himalayas, and more importantly, this water reservoir of India, we need to protect people, their land, livelihood, wildlife, forests and rivers. He has been reiterating the need for adopting tree farming in the Himalayas to secure the ecological future of the Himalayan region as well as the entire country. Fruit trees, floral trees and nut trees should be planted across the Himalayas to protect this natural water reservoir of the country, he says. According to him, trees like mulberry, walnut and chestnut prevented soil erosion and nurtured water resources in the mountains. He opines, We have to look after the well-being of the Himalayas not only for Uttarakhand but for the entire country. His famous 5 F formula for the Himalayas is-Grow Trees for Food, Fodder, Fertiliser, Fibre and Fuel. It would be a fitting tribute to Bahuguna on his birth day if we resolve to follow his beliefs and vision about the Himalayan ecology. His views may sound too simple but they are viable and implementable. Uttarakhand is proud of this wonderful man who has the welfare of the people and their environment at heart. Heres wishing him a happy 92nd birthday and many more to come! In a function organised by the Delhi Police held at Nanakpura on Monday, the foundation stone for a new building for Special Police Unit for Women and Children (SPUWAC) and Special Police Unit for North Eastern Region (SPUNER) was laid by Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. The event was organised in the presence of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, and Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik. On the proposal of Delhi Police, the Land & Building Officer, Ministry of Urban Development, 1.21 Acre land was allotted to Delhi Police for construction of new building of SPUWAC & SPUNER, stated Joint Commissioner of Police (SPUWAC & SPUNER) David Lalrinsanga. As a new initiative to cater to safety and security concerns of people hailing from the North Eastern Part of India, Delhi Police also introduced specially mandated patrolling vehicles North East Assistance Team (NEAT) to provide swift assistance to distress callers to natives of North Eastern states residing in Delhi. Lauding the efforts of Delhi Police on their continuing commitment in ensuring a safe and secure environment for women, children and North East Citizens, Kiren Rijiju said that the community should not feel vulnerable as Delhi Police is continuously making efforts to feel them safe and secure. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the old pension scheme will be implemented for employees within 15 days, if AAP is voted to power in Haryana. Kejriwal lent support to the ongoing protest of Haryana Pension Restoration Sangharsh Samiti in Panchkula near here and promised implementation of old pension scheme. While addressing the people at the protest, the Delhi CM said the AAP fully supports their demand. The leaders of Haryana Pension Restoration Sangharsh Samiti has alleged that the existing pension scheme is totally dependent on share market and beneficiaries are not aware what amount they would receive, while in the previous system, an employee got a handsome amount at his/ her retirement. Lashing out at the Haryana Government, he said that since the Manohar Lal Khattar Government took over charge in the state, employees have been less in their offices and more on roads to protest. Kejriwal said that the never-ending protest of the guest teachers in Haryana, the roadways strike and the movement of the Asha Workers have become headlines of the newspapers during present regime in the state. The employees have to resort to demonstrations to raise their justifiable demands and gain their rights, he added. Notably, AAP is gearing up to contest upcoming Lok Sabha polls and assembly polls scheduled later this year in Haryana. Kejriwal has been holding rallies in various constituencies to woo the voters in the state. Chief Secretary Sudhi Ranjan Mohanty said that Government schemes and programmes will be executed from district level. District Collectors and Superintendents of Police will be accountable to ensure implementation in transparent manner within time limit and for law and order respectively. Mohanty was addressing the Divisional Commissioners, District Collectors and Superintendents of Police through video conferencing at Mantralaya on Monday. He mentioned that along with the law and order, electricity and water supply will be monitored daily now from the state level. He gave instructions to the collectors to conduct maximum tour of their respective districts and to keep themselves updated with the status of implementation of schemes. Mohanty said that Collectors and SPs must maintain mutual coordination in connection to food and civil supplies, health, education and potable water arrangements in districts. Mohanty asserted that Mukhyamantri Fasal Rin Maafi Yojana will be implemented in the form of campaign at district level in coordination of all the departments in guidance of Collectors. District level committees have been constituted in this regard. For the scheme linked with approximately 55 lakh farmers of the state, adhaar seeding will begin from January 8 and amount will be transferred in loan accounts of farmers through DBT from February 22. A presentation in connection to implementation of Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign to be conducted from January 15 to February 15 was given during the video conference. Vaccination of 2.25 crore children aged between 9 months and 15 years is to be done under the campaign. Status of potable water in districts affected from low rainfall, arrangement of school level examinations besides MNREGA, school uniform work given to Women Self Help Groups and works related to 14th Finance Commission were also reviewed during the conference. Besides, besides Law and Order, Mukhya Mantri Fasal Rin Maafi Yojana, Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign, Potable water arrangements in rural and urban areas, activities related to examination under the School Education and issues related to Panchayat and Rural Development were reviewed. The new policy proposes to continue with the 20 per cent cap on broadcasters on cross holding of stake in the DTH operations. It is understood that keeping 20 per cent restriction is contrary to government of Indias push for bringing in fresh investment into broadcast distribution sector which is capital intensive. (Representational image) New Delhi: The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry is likely to finalise the DTH policy soon and a Cabinet note on it has been circulated for comments from various ministries. Sources stated that license holders have been given an interim extension till June 2019 till the finalisation of the policy. It is learnt that new policy proposes to continue with the 20 per cent cap on broadcasters on cross holding of stake in the Direct To Home (DTH) operations. It is understood that keeping 20 per cent restriction is contrary to government of Indias push for bringing in fresh investment into broadcast distribution sector which is capital intensive. The decision to put back the 20 percent cross holding restrictions comes despite objection by Niti Ayog and DIPP. Sources stated that the TRAI the regulatory body for broadcasting sector in the country has also insisted on removal of this cross holding cap in their recommendations in the years 2008 and 2014. However, the I&B ministry has decided continued with the cross holding patterns as in the old policy. It is also being viewed as contrary to Government of India policy to encourage foreign direct investment. Sources stated that while 100 per cent FDI is allowed in the broadcast distribution space this 20 per cent restriction on cross holding blocks fresh investment coming into the sector by global distribution companies such as Comcast and Liberty Global. The industry had sought that this 20 per cent cap should be removed from DTH cross holdings. This cross holding restriction is not applicable on other platforms like cable television and HITS and its continuance in DTH looks inexplicable. The government wants to update the decades old DTH policy keeping in view the fast changing technology and current needs of the industry but so far failed as the existing DTH companies are operating under temporary licenses on a year on year basis, which is also contrary to the ease of doing business and creating a stable regulatory and policy roadmaps. As all the major political parties have started their preparation of for upcoming general elections which is scheduled to be held in mid of this year but it seems something is not going well in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as main ally of the State government AJSU Party has announced that it will contest alone all seats of the State Assembly Elections in Jharkhand. Addressing a press conference on Monday AJSU Party Spokesperson Devsharan Bhagat said, The party will contest alone all seats of the State Assembly elections which is scheduled to be held in 2019. The Central Committee of Parliamentary Board will decide on future step of the party on upcoming general elections. The party is always raising voice against the governments decisions on issues like CNT Act, SPT Act, liquor selling issue, para teachers issue etc. As the partys Central Committee president Sudesh Mahto is continuing his Swaraj Swabhiman Yatra and he will visit five thousand people during his yatra. In last week of February the party will hold a rally called Swaraj Swabhiman Sabha at the end of Yatra in Ranchi. The party will announce formally at the rally that what will be the future step of the party Bhagat added. Just a day before the State Congress Chief Ajoy Kumar said that when AJSU Party will leave the government then Congress Party will start talk with the party for any future alliance. Speaking on the issue Bhagat said, There is no need of Ajoy Kumars suggestions and advice for AJSU Party. The party has its own base in Jharkhand and has been attached with culture of the State. AJSU Party has important role in formation of the State. Ajoy Kumar was a bureaucrat and he has no understanding of social and political issues. He became MP on Babulal Marandis party JVMs ticket and when he was defeated in next elections he kicked JVM and joined the Congress Party. Such kind of leader has no moral ground to give suggestion to party like AJSU. As it is known by all that Kumar belongs to Karnataka, such kind of imported leaders have created such awful condition of the State, Bhagat added. Speaking on Mandal Dam issue Bhagat said, The party is always saying that big projects will make a large numbers of people displaced. The party is demanding on the issue that the government should examine the whole issue properly why the project was pending since 1972. The State Government has amended the Odisha Motor Vehicles (Accident Claim Tribunal) Rule, 1960 making payment of compensation to accident victims compulsory in case the vehicle has no third party insurance. The Commerce and Transport Department has amended concerned rules in view of increase in cases of third party accident victims (either killed or injured) facing problems in getting due compensation due to lack of insurance coverage by vehicle owners and notified Draft Rules seeking public opinion within 30 days, said department Principal Secretary G Srinivas. According to the amendment, if the vehicle owner has defaulted in making third party insurance, he/she will compulsorily bear the amount of compensation. The Draft Rules further provides that no court will have the power to release the seized vehicle. In case the owner fails to make payment of the compensation, the vehicle will be auctioned and the amount so received will go towards the compensation. Some provisions have been given importance and some sections have been added. These include scope of the investigating officer, duty of the motor vehicle registering authority, role of the insurance company, police report and action under Section 158 (6) of the Motor Vehicle Act,1988, prohibition in regard to release of the seized vehicle, power to conduct medical test and claim and protection to the claimant of compensation. This draft Odisha Motor Vehicle (Accident Claim Tribunal) Rule 2018 was introduced afresh and notified on December 28, 2018. The department has appealed people to send their opinion within 30 days in its State Secretariat, Bhubaneswar-751001 address. Three criminals allegedly kidnapped an engineer in his car on Sunday night in Ghaziabad. However the accused after driving the car about 50 km towards Meerut dropped the victim on national highway and fled with his car. The incident came to light when the victim on Monday reached Ghaziabad and narrated his ordeal to police. According to a senior police official, the engineer identified as Jay Kumar working with a private company was returning to his home in his Hyundai Creta car when around 8.00 pm on Sunday he was abducted by three unidentified persons. In his complaint Jay Kumar said on the way to his home, he stopped his car on roadside near Vasundhara area and went to urinate. As he returned towards his car three unidentified person came and forcefully pushed him into the car rear seat where he was caught hold by two persons while one drove the car towards highway, said the senior police official. After driving the car about 20 kilometer they filled the petrol in the car and force the victim to pay the bill. Afterward, the accused drove towards Meerut leaving the victim at Partapur area near Meerut bypass, said the senior police official. We have registered a case under appropriate sections and investigation is going on. Police teams are scanning CCTV footage to identify the culprits. The police team is also trying to trace the vehicle, said the SP City Shlok Kumar. In his statement to the police the victim has told that the accused persons were saying that they had committed a murder. So they need his car. They were polite and assured that they will return after reaching in safe haven added police officer who is among the police team investigating the case. More than two lakh employees of Haryana Government will go on two-day strike from Tuesday, which may cripple essential services of power, sanitation, health, transport among others in the state. Peeved over the Manohar Lal Khattar Governments lackadaisical attitude towards their demands, the disgruntled government employees unions have decided to take part in the nationwide strike on January 8 and 9 called by central trade unions against the anti-workers policies of BJP government. In view of the strike, the public transport services across Haryana would also be affected for two days as more than 4000 buses are likely to remain off the roads. The State Government has directed all Head of Departments and all deputy commissioners to monitor the situation and submit report of absentees on Tuesday in view of the strike. More than two lakh government employees will observe two days strike in Haryana as a part of nationwide strike call given by trade unions. Employees of Departments including Power Nigams, Roadways, Municipal, Forest, Public Health & Irrigation, Health among others will participate in the strike. Lakhs of workers from unorganized sectors will also join the strike, said SK Lamba, general secretary, Haryana Sarv Karmchari Sangh while talking to The Pioneer. In Haryana, the employees will observe the strike against the ongoing privatization in various departments and over their pending demands, he said. Lamba said, Our demands include regularization of contractual employees, equal pay for equal work, minimum wage of Rs 18000 per month , old pension scheme, increase in house rent allowance, strict enforcement of labour laws and end to their dilution, recruitment to over lakhs of vacant posts in various government departments. Criticizing the BJP led Haryana Government, the union leader said that the BJP had made several promises to the employees during 2014 assembly polls, but even after four years of their tenure, they have failed to implement it. Notably, various employees unions in the state are at loggerheads with Haryana Government over their pending demands. The State Government had in the past tried to assuage the employees by giving them assurances. However, the tussle between the two sides have continued during the four years tenure of Haryana Government with employees of various departments including Health, Power, Transport, Education among others holding protests time and again in the state. With roadways employees joining the two-day protest from Tuesday, lakhs of commuters are also likely to face a hard time across Haryana. The state roadways has a fleet of more than 4000 buses in which nearly 12 lakh passengers travel daily. Earlier, the roadways employees had held longest ever strike for 18 days against State Governments decision to hire 700 private buses. Sarbat Punia, general secretary, Haryana Roadways Workers Union said that around 4000 buses will remain off the roads for two days in view of nationwide strike. Punia alleged that the State Government has failed to fulfil its promises and continues to implement anti-employee policies. We have been demanding withdrawal of decision of hiring 700 private buses, continuation of night halt of buses at rural areas, regularization of contractual employees, permanent recruitment to vacant posts he added. Meanwhile, the Haryana Government has asked all Head of Departments and all deputy commissioners to submit report regarding absentees in view of the strike. A letter sent to them from the Chief Secretarys office stated, Keeping in view strike called by the Haryana State Employees Unions on January 8 and 9, the situation needs to be monitored closely. No leave of any type shall be allowed. Attendance register or aadhar enabled biometric attendance system would be maintained strictly by all government offices. A status report regarding absentees both regular and contractual employees related to department and district should be at 2 pm on January 8 and 9, the letter added. Yet another partner dumped the BJP on Monday with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) pulling out of the BJP-led Government in Assam in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill after the Centre refused its plea to withdraw the Bill. In the 126-member Assembly, the AGP has 14 MLAs, of whom three, including AGP president Atul Bora, are Ministers. Despite AGPs pullout, the Sarbananda Sonowal-led Government is safe as the BJP has 61 MLAs and it also enjoys the support of 12 MLAs of the Bodoland Peoples Front and the sole Independent legislator. We tried to convince the Centre that the Bill was against the Assam Accord and will nullify the ongoing updating of the National Register of Citizens...But (Rajnath) Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance, Bora told reporters after a meeting Rajnath here. The proposed Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. AGP, Shiv Sena, Congress, TMC among several other political parties and organisations have opposed the Bill contending that it would have an adverse impact on the demography of the sensitive border State. Asked if the Ministers have tendered their resignations, Bora said, We will do that after reaching Guwahati. We felt betrayed at the BJPs attitude towards the Bill as when we entered into the alliance, we were convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants...We regret entering into an alliance with the BJP. The BJP had promised to ensure the passage of the Bill in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The AGP and other groups in Assam have said that the provisions of the Bill will nullify the 1985 Assam Accord, which provides for deportation of all illegal migrants, irrespective of religion, who had entered the State after March 1971. Intelligence agencies have warned about a possible terror strike by fidayeen (suicide) squads of Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) ahead of the day long visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu on January 15. He is scheduled to visit border district of Samba to lay the foundation stone of AIIMS. At least two groups of JeM may try to sneak in through the International Border from Pakistan and the counter-infiltration grid has been further strengthened to thwart any attempt. The input has rung alarm bells in the security establishment as the terrorists are now trying to come in through non-traditional routes like the International Border of Jammu and Punjab. The traditional routes including those in south and north of Pir Panjal ranges have reported almost nil infiltration due to snow and the Army not reducing its troop strength on the Line of Control (LoC). The troop strength is generally thinned out during winter months but this time around the Army wants to maintain its tempo of operations by following a twin-pronged strategy. Giving reasons for the alarm about the new trend of militants using non-traditional routes, officials said all the parameters of terrorism in Kashmir are showing a downward trend. These include more than 270 terrorists neutralised last year, the highest ever, in the last ten years and reduced number of infiltration bids. It came about through the twin-strategy of thwarting infiltration bids on the LoC and relentless operations against militants in the hinterland. Despite these factors, the number of active terrorists ranging, 290-300, have not come down and it is a definite cause of concern, officials admitted. Though suffering high attrition rate, the terrorist tanzeems (organisations) have managed to shore up its fighter strength through infiltration through non-traditional routes, foremost being international border in Jammu and Punjab, they said. As regards the latest threat of a strike by JeM cadres in Jammu region ahead of the Prime Ministers visit, they said one group of three to four JeM terrorists may try to infiltrate through the International Border in RS Pura sector while the other team of seven to eight may come in through Ramgarh sector in Samba. Different intelligence agencies have already alerted the multi agency command centre in the state about the possibility of a major terror strike on a vital installation in the region. Since the venue of the main function to be attended by the Prime Minister is located close to the International Border the security forces are not leaving any chance and have drafted a fool proof security plan to ensure smooth conduct of the VVIP visit in the area. Senior State Government and police officers are stationed in the area to supervise the ongoing arrangements. Meanwhile, Border Security Force (BSF) is maintaining a tight vigil along the International border after noticing suspected movement of heavily armed terrorists near launching pads on the other side of the border. The International Border has come into focus in terms of infiltration after National Investigation Agency (NIA) in December last year is learnt to have submitted a comprehensive report to the Union Home Ministry, highlighting the fact that terrorist outfits, based in Pakistan, are relying more on International Border. The NIA report was based on interrogation of over ground workers engaged in the task of ferrying these infiltrators via Jammu Srinagar National Highway in trucks headed towards Kashmir valley. More than three dozen terrorists were transported by Over Ground Workers (OGWs) or sympathisers through the same route before they came on the radar of the security forces during gun fight between hiding terrorists and the security forces near Jhajjar Kotli on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway last year. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Monday said that there was a "great scope" to develop bilateral partnerships with India in areas such as business, trade and investments. "As India continues to be the fastest growing economy in the G20, we see a great scope for the Norwegian-Indian partnerships in business, trade and investments," Solberg said at the Indian-Norwegian Solutions for Sustainable Growth-seminar here. "It is against this backdrop that Norway has just launched a new strategy for our engagement with India. This reflects the importance we place on our bilateral relations." According to Solberg, the aim of the new strategy is to strengthen Norway's bilateral relations and economic ties with India. She further said that open and free trade were crucial for economic growth. "We are doing what we can to ensure that the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement between EFTA and India will be finalised soon," Solberg said. "This agreement will contribute to increased trade and a better environment for our businesses." The Norwegian Prime Minister is on a three-day state visit to India that began on Monday during the course of which she will deliver the inaugural address at the annual Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference on international issues. During his interview, Prime Minister Modi spoke on a range of topics to address concerns of his constituents. Critics must desist from extracting a pound of flesh A prime ministerial interview is an occasion for the incumbent to address his constituents, not an opportunity for critics to extract their pound of flesh. In an interview to news agency, ANI, Narendra Modi tackled a range of issues with finesse. Deflecting charges of corruption in the Rafale deal, Modi made the subtle distinction that the allegations were not against him, but his Government: If there is any allegation against me personally, let them dig who gave what, when and where and to whom. This is a gentle dare to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to find a link to Modi; the Bofors kickbacks trail led directly to Sonia Gandhi crony Ottavio Quattrocchi, whose London bank accounts were unfrozen by the UPA Government to allow him to withdraw the money. The Rs 30,500 crore offset deal with Dassault, under which the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and nearly 70 private firms will manufacture varied equipment, lacks similar resonance. Modi pressed the point mildly, What is the need for middlemen in defence deals? Had Make in India been initiated 70 years back, the malai khane wala raasta from outside would have been closed. Modi expanded on the surgical strikes: When Uri happened, when our jawans were killed, burnt... there was rage within me I realised that the anger in the Army was much more than mine. For the morale of the forces, they somehow wanted justice to be done Thus, the operation was planned. I gave clear orders that whether you get success or failure, dont think about that, but come back before sunrise. Revealing that he was in live contact that whole night, he said there were anxious moments when the flow of information stopped for an hour after sunrise, until he was finally told the men had returned safely. Thereafter, Pakistan was informed, the Cabinet Committee on Security met and an Army officer briefed the nation. Denying that his Government or party politicised the issue, Modi countered that the very same day, leaders of some parties raised doubts over the surgical strikes. It was necessary for Pakistan to speak like this to keep their morale intact. But what Pakistan was saying, was being said here too. Politicisation started from that point. Regarding overtures to the then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and congratulatory message to Imran Khan, Modi said India, be it UPA or NDA, favours dialogue, but talks are inconsistent with cross-border terrorism. Dismissing criticism of his foreign trips, he said all Prime Ministers have similar travel schedules because of the numerous multilateral forums; If the level is lower than the Prime Minister, the voice is not heard I try that Indias voice reaches the world My visits are noticed because I interact with people and take decisions. Combative over allegations that his Government has weakened institutions, Modi charged that the previous Government created the National Advisory Council against the Prime Minister and Prime Ministers Office; a Cabinet decision was torn up by a big leader (read Rahul Gandhi) at a Press conference; judges were selected on the basis of ideology, and many Reserve Bank of India Governors were forced out before completion of their terms. However, when his Government learnt of the bickering in the Central Bureau of Investigation, the top two officials were asked to go on leave. He insisted Urjit Patel resigned for personal reasons. Denying charges of vendetta raids, Modi hinted at the Sohrabuddin judgement where the Supreme Court observed that the case seemed tailored to implicate political leaders. The Enforcement Directorate secured a razdaar from a foreign country, and a Congress worker turned up as Christian Michels lawyer. Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya fled because tolerance for their activities ended, but international laws are being invoked to bring them back, and their property is being seized even in foreign countries. While those, who absconded under previous regimes, have not returned, Modi promised, those who fled during this Government, will be brought back Those who have stolen Indias money, will have to compensate for each and every penny. Modi said he was the first to raise the issue of black money and banking havens at the G20; this was accepted as a serious concern and a source of terror funding; nations agreed to share information. While many well-connected accused are moving freely, he remarked, those considered first family, who ran the country for four generations, are out on bail, that too for financial irregularities. It is a big thing... The countrys former Finance Minister is making rounds of courts On the generally clubbed issues of Ram temple, triple talaq and Sabarimala, the Prime Minister said the Ordinance was a response to the Supreme Court verdict; triple talaq is an issue of justice and is banned in most Islamic countries; while Sabarimala temple has its own traditions, just as there are temples where men cannot go. Moreover, a woman judge in the Supreme Court has made certain observations.. There should be a debate on that as well sometimes. As for Ayodhya, the matter is at its final stage in the Supreme Court. Urging Congress lawyers not to create obstacles, he promised that once the judicial process ends, whatever be our responsibility as Government, we are ready to make all efforts. Regarding Congress promises of loan waivers for farmers, Modi said these have failed to resolve the farm crisis; farmers have to be saved from incurring debt in the first place. On Opposition plans for a grand alliance, he said parties with no national agenda were uniting on a single agenda of opposing him (Modi). On Uddhav Thackerays criticisms, he said the BJP adhered to coalition dharma in 2014 when it won its own majority, and he was committed to giving space to regional aspirations. Modi condemned lynch mobs in the name of cow protection and the political violence in which BJP workers have been killed in West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Jammu & Kashmir. On Ganga, he said a drain polluting the river for 120 years has been closed and the next step is to cleanse the tributaries that drain into the river. The Prime Minister answered questions on all important and current issues; in the run up to the polls, as in 2014. More televised interviews can be expected. (The writer is Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library; the views expressed are personal) Since its emergence as an independent nation in 1971, Bangladeshs democratic journey has been anything but inspiring. The very fact that the country recently conducted its 11th General Elections in such a short span of its democratic existence testifies how tumultuous its path has been. The outcome of the election further attests to this trend. The Awami League, incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas party, and its alliance partners won more than 90 per cent seats leaving the country more polarised than before. Even before the final votes were counted, the Opposition was calling for fresh polls, accusing the ruling party of mass rigging, use of state power and violent means to influence the electoral outcome. Cholbe Na? Demands are already being raised for fresh elections in Dhaka. (Photo: Reuters) Prime Minister Hasina had been seeking an unprecedented third term after winning the 2009 and 2014 elections in a row. She won the 2014 polls unopposed, as the main political opposition, Khaleda Zias Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotted the contest. Thus, the 11th General Election was of utmost significance. Going into polls, the BNP was leaderless, with Khaleda Zia incarcerated over corruption charges making her ineligible to contest and her son in exile on charges of murder. The united Opposition, called the Jatiyo Oikyo Front, headed by the 82-year Oxford-trained lawyer and former Awami League minister Kamal Hossain, was seen as no challenger to Hasinas political dominance. Yet, given that Hasinas two-term tenure was marked by high-handed measures, such as the arrest of popular artist and journalist Shahidul Alam, and a violent crackdown against protesting students some months ago, and major opposition figures had united against the ruling party, it was expected that the polls would throw up some surprise. Hasina had received flak for high-handed measures, such as the arrest of journalist Shahidul Alam. (Photo: Reuters) However, many analysts are attributing Hasinas complete electoral dominance to her stellar role in maintaining high economic growth, creating millions of jobs and her able handling of the Rohingya refugee crisis. Hasina-fication of Bangladesh! Will such a brute majority for the ruling party advance the cause of democracy in a country that has a long history of political polarisation and violent mobilisation? Unlikely and for many reasons. First, the scale of victory in which the Opposition has just 7 members (the Awami League won 288 out of 299 seats) will hardly allow them to question and corner the government on key policies. This effectively betrays the basic democratic principle of checks and balances. Ironically, the Awami League had won fewer seats 234 in the 2014 poll, which the main opposition had boycotted. This raises serious doubts about the integrity of the electoral process, notwithstanding Hasinas popularity and performance. For instance, key members of the countrys Election Commission openly accused each other during the course of electioneering. Independent sources are now piling up evidence of rigging, and some of these are being prominently circulated on social media. For the record, no opposition party in Bangladesh has won an election when the ruling party was controlling the state machinery Bangladesh has had a popular tradition of having a non-partisan caretaker government to facilitate General Elections. This tradition was stopped by Hasinas government in the 2014 polls. With Khaleda Zia in jail, Bangladesh has no leader to match Hasina's stature. (Photo: Reuters/file) Thus, with the Election Commission having a crisis of credibility and apparently clueless about purported rigging and other alleged malpractices the election results will further harm the countrys fragile democratic space. Second, authoritarian tendencies and strong-arm tactics against the Opposition had marked Hasinas second tenure. She was accused of pursuing vendetta politics by jailing Opposition leaders, clamping down on press freedom and taking many draconian measures, including the arbitrary arrests of protesting students, disappearances of journalists and bloggers. The most recent such development was the passage of the Digital Security Act 2018. Critics called the Act an important instrument of the state encroaching on freedom and political speech in the country. Thus, many analysts believe that an unprecedented third term with a vanquished Opposition might drive Hasinas government towards more authoritarianism and a one-party democracy. The biggest threat to the countrys democracy stems from the shrinking political space. Historically, such closing of political space in a democracy often drives a country to chaos, extremism and a nihilistic path. A weak Opposition, pliable democratic institutions including the judiciary, the election commission, a discredited press and vulnerable civil society organisations allow unprecedented power to the ruling party to dominate political narratives. Will a massive mandate strengthen Hasina's authoritarian tendencies? (Photo: Reuters/file) If this happens, Bangladeshi society will have to bear the consequences sooner than later. It may be recalled that since 1994, Bangladeshs democracy has been mired with fractious politics between two warring Begums. Violence is a persistent phenomenon of this politics, including factional killings and murders of top leaders. The young nation, which will celebrate fifty years of its existence soon, represents a rare kind of political polarisation where two principal parties do not treat each other as political adversaries as observed in most democracies but as enemies. Elections are treated as winning trophies. Where does Bangladeshs democracy go from here? Will another sweeping mandate for Hasina make Bangladesh a model of political stability and resilience? Or will it keep bleeding this highly polarised country, impacting its growth and development? There are no easy answers. But one thing is clear for sure the 11th General Election has left Bangladeshs democracy poorer. The country may emerge as a tiger economy in South Asia but at the same time, it may join the ivy league of illiberal democracies, something that enjoys greater global currency now! Also read: Bangladesh Parliamentary polls: Resounding victory for Sheikh Hasina. But what next? In exciting news this new year, our neighbouring country Pakistan has now got a national dessert the gulab jamun. It was an election and not, as the Pakistanis are often accused of holding, a selection as there was a proper Twitter poll to enable every Pakistani, irrespective of their location, to exercise their democratic rights. What is the National Sweet of Pakistan? Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) January 1, 2019 Gulab jamun was the winner and thus declared 'qaumi mithai'. But was this sweet win hands-down? Well, here are our key takeaways from this poll: 1. Sour question: Was even this poll rigged? Pakistani internet sours over one-sided national sweet poll, demands fresh vote#SamaaDigital #GulabJamun pic.twitter.com/irFsaa5dd2 Samaa English (@SamaaEnglish) January 6, 2019 Well, there is much noise and suspicion over this poll being unfair, even rigged. The official handle of the government of Pakistan posted this poll only on Twitter not on other social media platforms. Hence, claims are abounding that the joy-giving jalebi and the beloved barfi could not give a tough enough fight to the gulab jamun. All hail the quami mithai: Gulab jamun is officially the national dessert of Pakistan. (Photo: Reuters) 2. But the winner is loved across the sub-continent The gulab jamun is popular in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal almost the entire sub-continent. So, its victory was actually destined. But is an Indian gulab jamun the same as a Pakistani gulab jamun? Now, there are various recipes of gulab jamun: some use khoya, some use full cream milk powder. There are even some recipes asking the daring to use yoghurt in a specific quantity! Many Pakistani recipes include one egg in the recipe while making the dough. These are the primary differences the end-result being equally warm, divine and dissolving. In happiness and (others') grief: Imran Khan sharing a gulab jamun with party members after the Panama verdict in 2018. (Photo: Twitter) 3. What about the 'foreign hand'? Well, the Pakistanis have also been pointing out, the gulab jamun is not 'Indian'. There are various theories about its 'foreign identity' though some say gulab jamuns were introduced by Central Asian Turkic invaders to the subcontinent, while others say they were discovered accidentally by Shah Jahans personal chefs, while they were conducting experiments with a Persian sweet dish. The word 'gulab' (rose) is Persian and 'jamun' (berry) refers to a dark subcontinental fruit. So, there have clearly been many influences on the sweet, no doubt. Culinary historian Michael Krondl in his book The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin described the gulab jamun as a round fritter that eventually became gulab jamun. Another theory claims that the gulab jamun is the same as the sweets called Lokma (Turkish) and Loqma (Arabic). Also, this is the same sweet nicknamed as 'ledikeny' in Kolkata a mispronunciation of Lady Canning who apparently loved the sweet. More takers for gulab jamun than joyous jalebis? Hope it was a fair election! (Photo: Reuters) 4. National Poll Only three candidates! Yes, its surprising that only three candidates were in the fray. Arent there are more sweets to take part in this poll? Where's Karachi halwa, by the way? Why aren't Karachi-ites outraged? Or, were they threatened into silence? Sinister indeed. But where is the halwa? Was it threatened into withdrawing its candidature before the election? (Photo: Reuters) 5. And the government of Pakistan isn't sitting idle The election generated a lot of interest on social media also about Pakistans national flower (jasmine), bird (chukar) and animal (makhor). Since the poll was held by the government, now you know what to say when someone asks exactly what the Imran Khan government has been doing in bitter times for that nation. Speaking of sweet things always helps. Also Read: Why there can't be any battle between kaju katli and other sweets 'Give me 15 minutes with PM Modi for a debate on Rafale, the country will know the truth,' Rahul again said. Rahul Gandhi claimed, 'We are not going to allow Rs 30,000 crores of people's money to be taken by Anil Ambani because he is Narendra Modi's friend.' (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday continued his tirade against the BJP-led government over Rafale deal accusing it of weakening HAL and destroying Indias strategic capabilities to benefit businessman Anil Ambani. Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, Rahul Gandhi said, "The strategy of the government is -- weaken HAL, do not give it money, destroy India's strategic capability and give 'gift' to Anil Ambani." Claiming that the Centre is undermining HAL, the Congress chief alleged that while the government gave Rs 20,000 crore to Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale jets, even though it has not supplied a single aircraft, the dues amounting to Rs 15,700 crore to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd were not given. Rahul also accused Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of lying in the Parliament saying, Defence Minister had earlier said that Rs 1 lakh crore was given to HAL. We challenged that and today she said that Rs 26,570.80 crore were given to HAL, Nirmala Sitharaman Ji lied in the Parliament. Asserting that the Congress will protect the HAL, Rahul claimed, "We are not going to allow Rs 30,000 crores of people's money to be taken by Anil Ambani because he is Narendra Modi's friend." He, once again, challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a debate on the Rafale issue. "Give me 15 minutes with PM Modi for a debate on Rafale, the country will know the truth," he said. Rahul Gandhi also asked PM Modi and Sitharaman to answer "did Air Force and Defence ministry senior officers object to your interference in Rafale deal?" Please answer in a "Yes or No," he said. Earlier in the day, Rahul also alleged that the "best" engineers and scientists from cash-strapped HAL will be forced to move to the Anil Ambani group as the state-run aerospace major doesnt have enough cash to pay salaries. Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said: That HAL doesnt have enough cash to pay salaries, isnt surprising. Anil Ambani has Rafale. He now needs HALs brilliant talent pool to deliver on his contracts. Without salaries, HALs best engineers & scientists will be forced to move to AAs venture.#SaveHAL https://t.co/IaqgS3pyJ7 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 7, 2019 Gandhi said this while citing a report whereby cash-strapped HAL has taken loans to pay salaries to its employees. (With inputs from agencies) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) Malacanang is urging Congress to approve the 2019 budget at the soonest time possible, saying its delay would directly affect Filipinos, infrastructure projects and social services. In a statement Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvado Panelo said, "Congress must not shirk from its constitutional duty to approve the General Appropriation Bill." Panelo said the Executive branch submitted the proposed budget earlier than required specifically to give Congress enough time to review it. "Further unreasonable delay on the part of Congress to approve the General Appropriation Bill that will throw a monkey wrench on the program of the administration will be unacceptable to the sovereign people that place them in office," he added. In December, the Senate said it would not have time to pass the budget before the start of the new year. Panelo said "partisan considerations" should be put aside and lawmakers should focus on passing the budget "for the service of the people that they have sworn to protect." "As we face crisis and calamity one after the other, the swift passage of the General Appropriation Bill will merit approbation and accolade to all the members of Congress by a grateful nation," he added. Because the 2019 budget bill was not passed before the year end, the government will have to work based on last year's P3.767 trillion budget. The Department of Budget and Management, in its first circular letter for 2019, set guidelines on how and how much could be spent by government agencies under the assumption that the 2019 General Appropriations Act will be passed by the first quarter. Beaudette Family(LOS ANGELES) -- A man was charged Monday with the killing of a father, husband and scientist who was gunned down while camping with his two young daughters in Southern California last year. Anthony Rauda, a parolee who was arrested in October, is not only accused of killing Tristan Beaudette, but also is suspected of trying to kill 10 other people in shootings over the past two years, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office said Monday. Beaudette, 35, was shot in June 2018 at Malibu Creek State Park. Beaudette died in front of his 2-year-old and 4-year-old daughters inside their tent. No one else was injured. Rauda allegedly fired at "unsuspecting" campers or drivers as far back as November 2016, when he allegedly injured a man sleeping in the Malibu State Park area, prosecutors said in a statement. Rauda, 42, is accused of shooting into a car four days before Beaudette was killed, prosecutors said. Beaudette's killing was unsolved for half a year, sparking a massive investigation and reward. "Tristan was a devoted husband and father whose life revolved around our family, our happiness, and his hopes and dreams for our future," Beaudette's wife, Erica Wu, said in a statement in July. "We met when we were teenagers, grew up together, married, and had two amazing and beautiful daughters. In everything that he did, Tristan was kind, selfless, and giving, and had a natural ability to connect with just about anyone." Wu added: "We supported each other as we pursued our careers while balancing what truly mattered most: spending time with our girls and living life to the fullest. Tristan rejoiced in sharing his love of the outdoors with the girls and believed that campgrounds were the definition of a sanctuary where people could feel safe and secure." Besides the alleged shootings, Rauda is also charged with several 2018 burglaries in the Calabasas area, prosecutors said. Rauda is charged with one count of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of second-degree burglary. He is expected to be arraigned Monday, prosecutors said. Rauda faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. A man accused of murdering a father who was on a train with his teenage son has appeared in court. Darren Shane Pencille, 35, allegedly stabbed 51-year-old Lee Pomeroy to death on Friday, a day before his birthday. Pencille, who is charged with murder and possessing an offensive weapon, appeared in the dock at Staines Magistrates Court wearing glasses and a grey prison-issue tracksuit. He spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, that his nationality is British, and said he had no address at a hearing lasting just over two minutes. Chair of the bench Helen Mattey remanded him in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court on Monday afternoon. A black man was arrested and charged with murder in the killing of a seven-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting that authorities said appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack, as her family feared. Jazmine Barnes family had described the gunman in the December 30 death as a white man driving a red pickup, and believed race played a role in the shooting. But acting on a tip received by a civil rights activist, the sheriffs department zeroed in instead on Eric Black Jr, a 20-year-old black man who admitted he was driving a dark-coloured SUV from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said. Eric Black Jr (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez cautioned that authorities were still investigating, but said: At this point, it does not appear it was related to race. Mr Gonzalez said authorities have identified the second suspect, who is also black, but would not say whether the person was in custody. Chris Sevilla, Jazmines father, said in a brief telephone interview that he was feeling a bit of relief right now after the arrest. Christopher Cevilla, father of seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes (Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle/AP) At a court hearing early on Sunday, prosecutors said a confidential source had contacted the sheriff by email and told him the killers had shot the car by mistake, thinking the vehicle Jazmine was in was someone elses that they had seen earlier in the night. Prosecutors did not say why the killers opened fire. The sheriff said there was a red vehicle nearby at the time of the shooting, but the driver did not appear to have been involved, and Jazmines family apparently mistook the driver for the gunman. Black, who was arrested on Saturday night during a traffic stop, was charged with capital murder and jailed without bail. A sketch provided by the Harris County Sheriffs Office in Houston, Texas, shows an artists rendition of the suspect (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) Court records did not list a lawyer for him. Prosecutors said the 9mm handgun believed used in the shooting had been recovered from Blacks home. During Sundays hearing, prosecutors said Jazmines mother, LaPorsha Washington, had tried to drive to a hospital after the shooting, but one of her front tyres had been shot out. After the shooting, a composite sketch of a white man in a dark hood was widely circulated. #HCSO homicide investigators have filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr. for the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes full release: https://t.co/upLn3yRRgn #HouNews #JusticeForJazmine pic.twitter.com/shYLmXmobT HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) January 6, 2019 Jazmines family and activists had said the shooting was similar to an unsolved incident in the area in 2017 in which a gunman described as white shot into a vehicle carrying at least two black people. The girls killing prompted an outpouring of support for her family from celebrities and ordinary people across the country. On Saturday, hundreds gathered at a rally near where the shooting happened, holding balloons, stuffed animals and signs that read, Justice For Jazmine. A 100,000 US dollar reward was offered for information leading to an arrest. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said the support Jazmines family received provided law enforcement with a sense of urgency and made Jazmines loved ones know they werent alone in their time of grief. We share their deep sense of loss and anger, Mr Turner said. A man has been charged with murdering devoted family man Lee Pomeroy in an attack on a train. Darren Shane Pencille, 35, will appear in court on Monday accused of attacking the father as he travelled between Guildford and London with his son, British Transport Police (BTP) said. He was also charged with possessing an offensive weapon, while 27-year-old Chelsea Mitchell was charged on Sunday with assisting an offender. A man has been charged with the murder of Lee Pomeroy following an investigation at #Horsley station. A 27-year-old woman has been charged with assisting an offender. They've been remanded in custody to appear at Staines Magistrates' Court tomorrow. https://t.co/Cp8MqqXcAw pic.twitter.com/1P8BTDlDrM British Transport Police (@BTP) January 6, 2019 The pair, whose addresses were given as Willbury Road, Farnham, will appear at Staines Magistrates Court. Mr Pomeroy, who lived in Guildford and owned an IT firm, was travelling with his 14-year-old son on Friday afternoon when he was attacked. A police manhunt led them to a flat in Willbury Road on Saturday morning and they made two arrests. Police outside the address in Farnham (Lizzie Roberts/PA) The 51-year-old father, who would have celebrated his birthday on Saturday, was described by his family as an honourable man and would always help somebody who was in trouble. In a statement, the family portrayed him as a cultured man, who loved his 50-year-old wife Svetlana Pomeroy. He was a devoted family man and did everything for his family, they said. Mr Pomeroy and his son boarded the 12.58pm train service between Guildford and London Waterloo at London Road station on Friday afternoon. Police believe a brief row broke out leading to Mr Pomeroys death. Both suspects will appear in court in custody. A family is celebrating after fraught hours where a 17-month-old girl was snatched along with the car she was sat in by a man who pretended to be buying the vehicle over Gumtree. Maria Tudorica was abducted by the man who made a getaway in the Audi A5 from a street in Manor Park, east London, at about 4.40pm on Sunday while she was in a passenger seat. Maria Tudorica was inside her fathers car when it was stolen (Metropolitan Police/PA) The car was ditched without the child as police searched frantically, but police said at about 8pm that she had been found safe and well. Her car trader uncle, Gheorghe Stelica, told the Press Association he felt born again after learning she had been located. Earlier that day, he had asked his brother, 35-year-old Claudia Stelica, who is Marias father, to show the car to the prospective buyer as a favour because he was out of London. I put the car on sale today and one guy called me on my phone, the trader said. He didnt seem suspicious on the phone, he was talking very nicely. I said to him, If you dont want to wait for me, no problem. The father met the stranger outside his brothers home in Nine Acres Close and placed the girl in the black car as he demonstrated the engine. But then the supposed customer asked to try it. The car drove off from Nine Acres Close in Newham (John Stillwell/PA) He jumped up in the drivers side and boom straight away he went with the car, Gheorghe Stelica said. The family were in pieces. Teacher Nazneen Saleh, a 25-year-old visiting her parents in the street, said a woman she believed was Marias grandmother was in a frenzy. The car, listed on Gumtree for 4,650, was found abandoned in Hathaway Crescent but Maria, dressed in a white top and red bottoms, was absent. Scotland Yard, however, announced at 8pm that she had been found safe and well in the nearby Ruskin Avenue area. Delighted to report that missing child Maria Tudorica aged 17months has now been found safe and well in the Ruskin Avenue, E12 area. Thanks to media and all members of the public who have helped with this appeal. Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 6, 2019 God bless, the 25-year-old uncle told PA. I feel born again. He continued: I feel over 1,000-times relief. (My brother) hes happy. He thanks so much the police for their service. Police were yet to apprehend a suspect, who they described as a slim Asian man dressed in black clothing. Anyone with information should call the police or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. An American airstrike killed an al Qaida operative accused of involvement in the attack nearly two decades ago on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors, a US military source has confirmed. The man targeted, Jamal al-Badawi, was wanted for his role in the attack on October 12 2000. Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi. Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2019 The spokesman for US Central Command, Navy Captain William Urban, said the military has confirmed through a deliberate assessment process that al-Badawi was killed on January 1 in the strike east of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. President Donald Trump tweeted that Our great military has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. The Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat while refuelling at the Yemeni port of Aden. Police are searching for a 17-month-old girl who was abducted by a man as he stole her fathers car, Scotland Yard has said. The parent met with the stranger in Manor Park, east London, shortly before 4.40pm on Sunday with a view to selling the Audi A5. But the suspect leapt into the vehicle and drove away from Nine Acres Close, with the girl named Maria Tudorica sitting in the front passenger seat, officers said. The black car registration number FY58UAZ was found abandoned nearby in Hatherway Crescent without the child. The suspect drove away from Nine Acres Close (John Stillwell/PA) A teacher visiting her parents in Nine Acres Close said the missing childs family were distraught when they learned the car had been found without Maria. Nazneen Saleh, 25, had been shocked to read news reports of the events unfolding on the street when she went outside to speak to the girls uncle and a woman she believes is her grandmother. Ive spoken to the childs uncle, he was explaining the situation to me and he wasnt aware that they had found the car abandoned, Ms Saleh told the Press Association. I think the childs grandmother was there and she went into a frenzy. She was like, I cant believe they have found the car but not the child. And then she ran off. Ms Saleh, of Leytonstone, east London, believes the family had not yet been told about the cars discovery while they were searching for the girl. Its absolutely devastating, Im so shocked and Im a teacher so I feel really upset, she added. Police are searching for the missing girl (John Stillwell/PA) Maria, originally from Romania, was said to live locally and was wearing a white top and red bottoms at the time she was taken. Detectives said the man who took the car is described as a slim Asian man, who was dressed in black clothing. Anyone with information should call the police on 999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The Democratic Republic of Congos government has postponed the release of the results of last weekends presidential election, fuelling suspicions President Joseph Kabilas ruling party is trying to cling to power. No new date for announcing the winner of the December 30 election was given. Electoral officials have compiled 53% of the votes and will not release any information until all the ballots have been tallied, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the electoral commission. We handle sensitive data and have to handle it responsibly, he said. DR Congolese President Joseph Kabila casts his vote (Jerome Delay/AP) He asked Congos people to remain patient. We are aware this process has always been surrounded by distrust, he said, referring to calls from the Catholic Church, the African Union, the US and other diplomats for the government to announce accurate results. Mr Kabila, who is stepping down after 18 years in power, had delayed the election for two years. The postponement in announcing the winner was seen by some Congolese as part of an effort by Mr Kabilas party to manipulate the results in order to claim victory. The Catholic Church, an influential voice in the heavily Catholic nation, turned up the pressure by saying it already knows there is a clear victor, based on data compiled by the churchs 40,000 election observers. Ruling party presidential candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary (Jerome Delay/AP) Because Congos regulations say only the electoral commission can announce election results, the church did not name the winner. Congos ruling party, which backs Kabilas preferred candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, called the churchs statement irresponsible and anarchist. The leading opposition candidate is Martin Fayulu, a businessman and politician. This could be Congos first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. For the past week, the government cut off internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who won. The government has also blocked transmissions from Radio France International, which was alleged to have speculated on the winner, and revoked the press credentials of RFIs correspondent. Congolese police officers rest as results are counted (Jerome Delay/AP) Election observers and the opposition have raised concerns about voting irregularities, including the governments decision to bar one million voters in eastern Congo from casting ballots because of what it said was the Ebola outbreak in the region. Eastern Congo is known as a centre of the opposition. Western observers were not invited to watch the balloting, and the US has threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process. While Congo was largely calm during and after the voting, President Donald Trump said about 80 military personnel and combat equipment had been deployed to neighbouring Gabon to protect American citizens and diplomatic facilities in Congo. DR Congolese opposition presidential candidate Martin Fayulu (Jerome Delay/AP) Ahead of the vote, the US ordered non-emergency government employees and family members to leave the country. At stake is a vast country rich in the minerals that power the worlds mobile phones and laptops, yet desperately underdeveloped. Some 40 million people were registered to vote. Mr Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father was assassinated, is constitutionally barred from serving three consecutive terms but has hinted he may run again in 2023. That has led many Congolese to suspect he will rule from the shadows if Mr Shadary takes office. A 61-year-old woman managed to fight off two men who tried to steal her handbag in Livingston. As she made her way home from the supermarket, two men grabbed the womans wrist and attempted to snatch her handbag, but she clung on until the men fled the scene. The attempted robbery took place at approximately 8pm on Friday January 4 in the Burnvale are, as the woman walked home from Asda. The woman suffered minor injuries, according to police, but did not require medical attention. Police Scotland are now appealing for help to track down the culprits as the appeal for any witnesses. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Batten from Livingston CID said: The suspects seem to have targeted the victim believing they could rob her of her possessions. A 61-year-old woman was walking home from Asda when two men attempted to rob her (David Cheskin/PA) However, she refused to surrender her bag and their efforts were unsuccessful. Nevertheless we are treating this matter very seriously and would urge anyone who was in the area of the underpass on Friday evening to get in touch if they remember seeing or hearing anything untoward. Wed also ask anyone who can help us identify the suspects to contact police immediately. The pair are described as white men, approximately 5ft 7ins tall, of average builds, and both were wearing dark clothing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Livingston CID on 101, quoting incident number 2148 of January 5. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can contact the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. The Democratic Unionist Party has stepped up its opposition to the toxic Brexit deal. Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the backstop provision remained the poison affecting any vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons. Mr Dodds said: Theresa May still insists that what she has negotiated is a good deal. She should remember that it would already have been consigned to the bin but for her pulling the vote in December. He made the comments after the Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Sunday that the vote in Parliament would go ahead around January 15, despite speculation that it could be delayed for a second time. Mr Dodds blamed the EU and the Irish Government for rejecting efforts to rewrite the deal or find a compromise. Nigel Dodds said the fundamental problems with the Brexit withdrawal agreement remain unchanged (Michael Cooper/PA) The responsibility for this lies primarily with the EU, he said. EU spokespersons have gone out of their way to reiterate that there will be no renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement. True to form the Dublin Government has quickly shut down any possibility of a breakthrough by its now familiar tactic of a fast and flat rejection of any form of compromise. He added: This is a time for the United Kingdom to make clear what it wants and needs for a Withdrawal Agreement to pass Parliament so that the EU is in no doubt as to whats required for a deal. The backstop remains the poison which makes any vote for the Withdrawal Agreement so toxic. The EU has shown in the past that it will move but only if faced with a resolute red line on the part of the UK Government. The coming days will show if this Government is made of the right stuff. Since Mrs May pulled the vote Mr Dodds said the DUP had engaged with the UK Government in an attempt to move forward towards a deal which could command support in the House of Commons. But he said: So far, the fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed. Tears were shed on an isolated beach in Northern Ireland as two seal pups were released back into the wild after months of recuperation. Grey seals Bran and Thor were given an emotional send off on Sunday morning at the tranquil Knockinelder bay at the tip of Co Downs Ards Peninsula. The pups were saved by Northern Irelands only seal sanctuary at the nearby Exploris Aquarium. They were found dangerously underweight in the early autumn having not received sufficient milk from their mother. After months of rehabilitation and feeding up at Exploris, they gained enough weight and insulating blubber for a return to the Irish Sea. A small crowd gathered at the bay on Sunday to watch as sanctuary staff, who had helped bring the pups back to health, said goodbye. Two children were invited to open the doors of the pups crates to let them make their way down to the waters edge. One of the pups ahead of its release (David Young/PA) Peter Williams, who runs the animal welfare department at Exploris, said it was a time of mixed emotions for his team. It can be emotional for us, he said. Seal pups Bran (right) and Thor ahead of their release (David Young/PA) We love what we do. Its very important for us to keep our distance when working with the animals essentially they are wild animals and thats what they need to stay, so we do interact very little with them. However, each one has their own personality and we all have a favourite and when you say goodbye its almost like sending a child off to university. The sanctuary cares for between 20 to 40 seals every year. Finally back in the sea (David Young/PA) Mr Williams said last year was particularly busy for the team at Exploris because extreme weather conditions presented more problems for seal pups. The sanctuary relies on members of the public to contact it when they find a seal in difficulty. For more information ring 028 4272 8062 or visit www.explorisni.com/seal-sanctuary The accident took place when the fan belt of the water pump snapped, sending its nuts and bolts flying and a nut piercing the boys skull. 'There is no danger to the boys brain after removal of the nut. He will be kept under observation for a few days,' the doctor said. (Representational Image) Bihar: A flying nut from a water pump Sunday pierced the skull of a five-year-old boy and reached close to his brain, but the doctors managed to remove it through a prompt surgery at a hospital in Bihars East Champaran district. The accident took place when the fan belt of the water pump snapped, sending its nuts and bolts flying and a nut piercing the boys skull. Chhabila Kumar, a resident of Kathriya village under the Chouradano police station area of the district, was brought to the Chandra Hospital situated here, with blood smeared over his face and a two-inch-long piece of iron sticking out of his forehead presenting a macabre sight. A group of children were playing close to the water pump which was under repair. During trial of the machine, the fan belt snapped and its nuts and bolts flew into the air and one of these hit the boy, the boys uncle Shravan Rai, who brought him to the hospital, said. Chandra Suvash, an orthopaedic surgeon, who runs the private hospital, said, Tests conducted on the boy revealed that the nut was barely scraping his brain. He was fortunate that a 20 mm washer attached to the nut prevented it from going deeper, which could have damaged his cerebral structure. Luckily for us, neurosurgeon Rohit Kumar who is with the PMCH hospital at Patna and visits our hospital weekly as a consultant was also here. We studied the boys condition and decided to put him under the scalpel right away, Dr Suvash said. There is no danger to the boys brain after removal of the nut, he said. He will be kept under observation for a few days, the doctor said. Theresa May has defended an overhaul of the Governments controversial Universal Credit (UC) programme, saying it was always the plan that the scheme would change as it was implemented. And the Prime Minister said it would still be fully rolled out by the original introduction date of 2023, despite widespread criticism of the extension of the flagship welfare reform. She was speaking after Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd moved to scrap an imminent Commons vote on plans allowing all existing claimants of relevant benefits to be moved onto the new all-in-one payment. Why are you delaying the universal credit roll-out? #marr asks Theresa May about decision to postpone vote for benefit changes roll-outhttps://t.co/0xsXLW1yf6 pic.twitter.com/zGmpw8Uuhs BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 6, 2019 Instead, Ms Rudd plans to seek approval to move just 10,000 claimants onto UC to monitor the way the system works. Influential committees in both Houses of Parliament had raised concerns about the plan to move around three million claimants onto UC and the Government faced losing a Commons vote on the managed migration programme. Allies of the Work and Pensions Secretary insisted the decision to overhaul the migration was not due to fear of a Tory revolt but because it was the right way to handle the change. Amber Rudd is to scrap a Commons vote on plans allowing all existing claimants of relevant benefits to be moved onto the new all-in-one payment (Brian Lawless/PA) The change comes after Ms Rudd took over from Esther McVey at the Department for Work and Pensions in November. UC is an vital reform so I want to roll it out carefully. Im glad charities & colleagues are backing my plans to move & monitor 10,000 people from the old system. It means #UC can proceed on time & be fit for purpose: helping people work & getting support to people quickly. https://t.co/lw7h3ywe6g Amber Rudd (@AmberRuddUK) January 6, 2019 A source said she had taken a no-holds-barred approach and wanted a fresh mandate from Parliament for the roll-out of UC once it had been trialled. The Observer reported she is expected to announce the proposed pilot scheme within days. The Cabinet minister tweeted this morning, saying: UC is a vital reform so I want to roll it out carefully. Im glad charities and colleagues are backing my plans to move and monitor 10,000 people from the old system. It means UC can proceed on time and be fit for purpose: helping people work and getting support to people quickly. And Mrs May, speaking to BBC Ones The Andrew Marr Show, said: Throughout the introduction of Universal Credit weve been clear that we would roll it out as a steady process, learn as we go along, make changes, weve done that. Well be saying more about it in the coming weeks but it will be fully rolled out by 2023 as was originally intended. But Labours shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said: Hopefully the Government is waking up to the devastating implications of its so-called managed migration to Universal Credit. She said the policy is deeply flawed and the Government needs to halt the roll-out as a matter of urgency. The SNP gave a cautious welcome to news of the delay, with work and pensions spokesman Neil Gray saying: Any pause to the botched roll-out of Universal Credit is welcome, but it shouldnt have taken this long for the Tories to listen to the SNP and the huge number of anti-poverty charities who have condemned the system. He added that the Tories must now take this opportunity to overhaul the system and fix the problems that have caused so much misery in Scotland and across the UK. But a Whitehall source said: This is a responsible course of action from the Government to ensure UC is working in the best possible way. The move has also been welcomed by charities such as Shelter and Mind, as well as the Resolution Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Universal Credit replaces six existing benefits Employment Support Allowance, Income Support, income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit with a single payment. Labour could go into an early general election offering to hold a referendum on its own version of Brexit, a shadow cabinet minister has hinted. Barry Gardiner suggested Labour would campaign on a promise to negotiate a better Brexit deal than that secured by Theresa May, and said he personally believed that could then be put to the public. Labours policy is to push for a general election if the Prime Minister fails to get her Brexit deal through Parliament. But Jeremy Corbyn has come under pressure to throw his weight behind a referendum if Labour cannot force an early election. "What's your feeling on a second referendum? Would you like to see one?" - Sophy #Ridge asks @BarryGardiner about the People's Vote, discussed by @ChukaUmunna earlier. Follow the show live here: https://t.co/LOaXgbZT8C pic.twitter.com/lWaUoG2MoR Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 6, 2019 Pressure has intensified after a large-scale opinion poll commissioned by the Peoples Vote campaign indicated Labour could suffer a backlash from voters if it failed to oppose Brexit in Parliament. Labour would crash to a worse defeat than it suffered under Michael Foot if the party enables Brexit, according to our new poll - the biggest survey of opinion on Brexit since the 2016 referendum. https://t.co/QtB4YaOD8W Francis Grove-White (@f_grovewhite) January 5, 2019 The YouGov poll of more than 25,000 people indicated a second referendum is backed by 75% of Labour voters. Barry Gardiner suggested Labour would campaign on a promise to negotiate a better Brexit deal (Danny Lawson/PA) But shadow international trade secretary Mr Gardiner said the quickest way of getting a peoples vote is to have a general election, because legislating for a referendum would take far longer. At an election, Labour would set out what we would seek to negotiate in Europe to try and deliver, he told Sky News Sophy Ridge on Sunday. Then at that stage it makes sense to go to the country with the deal on offer, he said. The reason Theresa May has had such a botched set of negotiations is because of her red lines. If we as a new, incoming Labour government were to go to Europe without those red lines we know that we could get a different, better deal and thats what we want to try and achieve. At that stage it makes sense to go to the country and say here we are, this is what we have managed to negotiate, this is the deal that we have managed to conclude because we dont have the same red lines as Theresa May, we think its a better way forward. And it seems to me, at a personal level, what I would then say is that is the time when we would then say to people now make your decision on what we have managed to conclude. If Parliament rejects the Prime Minister's bad deal - the only sensible course of action is to withdraw Article 50 immediately. People from every corner of our country continue to call for the British people get the final say - with the option to stay in the EU. pic.twitter.com/43B2Hk5Oyg Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 6, 2019 London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the Brexit process should be immediately halted if Mrs Mays deal is rejected by Parliament with the decision put back to the people. If Parliament rejects the Prime Ministers bad deal the only sensible course of action is to withdraw Article 50 immediately, he said. People from every corner of our country continue to call for the British people (to) get the final say with the option to stay in the EU. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry accused the Peoples Vote campaign of seeking to slap the Labour Party around. She told BBC Radio 5 Lives Pienaars Politics: What I would like them to be particularly focusing on is taking the arguments as to why we should remain in the European Union to people who voted to leave and to try to change some hearts and minds. Rather than using it as some people I think do as an opportunity to attack the Labour Party and the leadership of the Labour Party. She added: If there was to be another referendum along the same lines as we had before, I would vote remain. But what I would like, if we are going to have another referendum, is to win that referendum and for us to remain in the European Union. What concerns me about the Peoples Vote movement is that instead of spending their time trying to change peoples minds, they spend their time smacking the Labour Party around the head, some of them. A Peoples Vote spokesman said Ms Thornberry is badly mistaken in her views about the campaign and added: What we are doing is highlighting the biggest poll on Brexit yet which shows that Labour will suffer its worst electoral defeat since the 1930s if it continues promising to enable some sort of Brexit to go ahead. In that situation, it wont be us slapping the leadership but millions of Labour voters who want the party to fight for the public services, rights and living standards that will otherwise be hammered by any kind of Brexit deal. "Let's not forget that a huge number of younger generations voted for the Labour party hoping it would take the country on a different trajectory - I'm not sure we will be forgiven if we don't give them a say" - @ChukaUmunna on #Ridge Follow it live here: https://t.co/LOaXgbZT8C pic.twitter.com/vnq5olOvQ8 Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 6, 2019 Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a prominent campaigner for a second referendum, told Sky News: Lets not forget that in 2017 a huge number of younger generations voted for the Labour Party hoping that we would take the country on a different trajectory and Im not sure that we would be forgiven for robbing them of their futures if we dont actually give them a say on this. An Enniskillen man is walking to Stormont in protest at the lack of a functioning government in Northern Ireland. Dylan Quinn is traversing 90 miles to vent his frustration at the non-governance. He started his trek on Saturday morning from his home in Enniskillen and is aiming to reach Stormont on Monday evening. The father-of-four described the political system in Northern Ireland as dysfunctional. Dylan Quinn, founder of the `We Deserve Better campaign (Brian Lawless/PA) He is hoping to encourage political discourse and wants people to realise that they have the power to change the situation. Mr Quinn said: It is about raising the issue so that when we next go to the ballot box maybe well start to choose a little bit wiser. But also maybe the MLAs and the politicians and the political parties will start to listen and consider the fact that people actually want change here. The rhetoric of the past is not about the future and we need people to move forward. I will only get to the end of it by putting one front in front of the other and moving forward. Going backwards or staying still is not an option. We need political representation that moves forward! #Wedeservebetter #walkingtostormont pic.twitter.com/mJyoDRV55i Dylan Quinn (@iamdylanquinn) January 6, 2019 This month marks two years since the powersharing executive collapsed. Last August, Northern Ireland surpassed a record set by Belgium for the worlds longest peacetime period without a properly functioning government. The day was marked by a series of public protests by the #wedeservebetter campaign group calling for MLAs to return to the Assembly. The group was set up last year by Mr Quinn. The executive imploded in January 2017 amid a bitter row between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein over a botched renewable energy scheme. The rift widened to take in other more tradition disputes such as the Irish language and the parties remain at loggerheads, with no prospect of an imminent breakthrough on the horizon. Enniskillen man @iamdylanquinn is the midst of a 90-mile #walkingtostormont trek to protest the lack of a functioning government in Northern Ireland. He told @PA he wants to encourage political discourse with the hope of bringing about change. pic.twitter.com/FOW4eTklGY Michelle Devane (@michelledevane) January 6, 2019 I dont underestimate the challenges we have to deal with both political, social, cultural historical but they need to be faced up to and at the moment our parties are not doing anything about that, Mr Quinn said. He wants to see a new government formed, but he does not believe the Assembly can be re-established in the same way as it was before. We need to have a proper debate and discussion over an extended period of time of how we operate successfully in Northern Ireland, he said. Until we do that, were going to continue to come up against the same old problems. Some MLAs and members of the public have been joining Mr Quinn at differing stages during his walk. First MLA to join @BeattieDoug and have conversation. Thks to @borubp for stopping with his children and offering support #walkingtostormont #wedeservebetter pic.twitter.com/FimXuv5TQk Dylan Quinn (@iamdylanquinn) January 5, 2019 A complaint was made to the police that Mr Quinns walk amounted to an illegal parade because he had not notified the Parades Commission. While he doesnt believe it amounts to a parade as he is the only one walking the entire journey, Mr Quinn submitted an application to the commission on the advice of the PSNI. The crisis in the region was triggered on January 9 2017 when the late Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness quit. The executive collapsed one week later on January 16 when the deadline for Sinn Fein to nominate a new minister expired. The administration limped on without a first or deputy first minister until March 2, 2017 when a snap Assembly election was held. Since then, there have been a number of rounds of talks between the political parties, but none have been successful. It is now more than 700 days since the Executive collapsed. Belgium was without a properly functioning government for 589 days when prime minister Yves Leterme quit in April 2010, and it went 541 days without any government at all when a new administration was not formed after a subsequent election in June 2010. Theresa May has admitted the NHS has been missing its three major targets, but said the Governments new 10-year plan would help close the gap. The Prime Minister said were seeing more people, were treating more people, but that extra demand had made it difficult to reach objectives on treating A&E patients within four hours, making two-month cancer diagnoses, and overall 18-week waiting times. Speaking to BBC Ones The Andrew Marr Show, she said: Were slipping against the targets because despite the fact were actually doing more, the demand is outstripping that. She said that was why the new 10-year proposals were being introduced, as she promised it will cut waste and focus spending on patients. We've provided 420m to support the NHS through more hospital beds, social care packages and ambulances to ensure it is better equipped for the winter months. Through our #NHSLongTermPlan, we will deliver a health service that's fit for the future. pic.twitter.com/I0DOzaPzs2 Theresa May (@theresa_may) January 3, 2019 Mrs May said the NHS long-term plan will help secure the future of the health service, with measures to support people at all stages of life from birth to old age. But shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth told the same programme: The Tories have been running down the NHS for nine years, starving it of cash, cutting it back, privatising elements of it, failing to get the staff we need. He said the PM was setting out a 10-year plan to clear up the mess she has made, and it doesnt need 10 more years of the Tories, it needs a Labour government to save the NHS. People are waiting longer under this Tory government, because the Tories have been running down the NHS for nine years, starving it of cash Labours Jon Ashworth on govt 10-year NHS planhttps://t.co/X3yqfw0utG#marr pic.twitter.com/unOnjatK1a BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 6, 2019 The long-term plan will be launched on Monday by NHS England, and Mrs May said it would be a historic step for the health service. The PM, who has promised an extra 20.5 billion a year for the NHS by 2023-24, said the plan would ensure that every pound is spent in a way that will most benefit patients to relieve pressure on the system. But speaking to Marr, she was forced to defend against accusations 1 billion had been taken out of public health spending since 2015. She denied the funding had been cut, saying money was being spent elsewhere on prevention, treatment and early diagnosis. Prime Minister Theresa May appears on The Andrew Marr Show (Jeff Overs/BBC) Mrs May said: What youre saying is theres only one way you can address a particular issue, as you may know from the conversations weve had over time that is never the case. Ahead of the launch of the plan, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: We need to see a big shift in the way that health services are delivered so that essentially we focus on prevention as much as we do on cure. The plan will also involve using technology to allow for more precise targeting of public health messages, he told Sky News Sophy Ridge On Sunday. He said: We can target messages at people to try to make sure that they maintain healthier lifestyles. What I dont like in this area is punishing the masses for problems that only a minority have. He also said the repeatedly-delayed Green Paper on social care will be published in the coming weeks and goes alongside this long-term plan for the NHS. "Clearly there's a focus on one other big subject in Parliament at the moment..." - Health and Social Care Secretary @MattHancock tells Sophy #Ridge that the #NHS social care green paper will be published "in the coming weeks". Follow it live here: https://t.co/LOaXgbZT8C pic.twitter.com/ZBkhD0EO9N Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 6, 2019 Measures in the plan include: Greater support for 350,000 children and young people and 380,000 adults with mental health conditions Expanding the use of personal health budgets and giving people more say over their care as they age Giving patients digital access to their GP, including being able to make appointments, manage prescriptions and view health records online Improving maternity safety and giving greater mental health support to new parents Cutting waste, including back office savings of more than 700 million across the NHS. Mrs May acknowledged that the extra money for the NHS means less room for manoeuvre for other areas of public spending. But writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said her own experience as a Type 1 diabetic reinforced the view that it was the right decision to make. Even with the full control of our money that Brexit will deliver, this commitment means we will have less room for manoeuvre in other areas. But when I visit hospitals and meet the NHS staff who devote themselves unsparingly to the care of their patients, when I talk to people who owe their lives to the treatment they have received from their local hospital or GP, and when I reflect on the debt that I owe to an NHS that has helped me every step of the way as I live my life with Type 1 diabetes I am in no doubt that it was the right decision. Theresa May has warned the UK will be in uncharted territory if MPs do not back her Brexit plan. The Prime Minister, who is still seeking further guarantees from Brussels in an effort to win over critics ahead of the vote expected on January 15, warned Brexiteers they risked derailing the UKs departure from the European Union if they did not back her deal. And she again rejected calls for a second referendum, saying it would be disrespectful to people who voted for Brexit in 2016. As MPs prepare to return to Westminster with the crunch Commons vote looming on the Withdrawal Agreement thrashed out with Brussels, the Prime Minister said no alternative plan was able to respect the 2016 referendum result, protect jobs and provide certainty to citizens and businesses. Mrs May promised further measures specific to Northern Ireland and a greater role for Parliament, and said we are still working on getting extra assurances from Brussels as part of her drive to secure support for the deal. She repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether she would keep putting the deal back to MPs if it gets rejected, instead saying: If the deal is not voted on, this vote that is coming up, then actually we are going to be in uncharted territory. Theresa May (Yui Mok/PA) I dont think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we will see in Parliament. She said Labour was playing politics and opposing any deal to create the greatest chaos possible. We have got people who are promoting a second referendum in order to stop Brexit, and we have got people who want to see their perfect Brexit. I would say dont let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good because the danger there is that we end up with no Brexit at all. On her own future, Mrs May refused to put a timescale on her departure. I was clear before Christmas with my colleagues on two things: one, Im not going to call a snap election and secondly that Im not going to be leading the party into the 2022 general election. What colleagues have said they want me to do is to deliver Brexit, which is what I am working on doing and also deliver on the agenda I set out when I first became Prime Minister. Officially slated for the week of January 14, the Commons vote is expected to be held on Tuesday, January 15. Mrs May said it would be that sort of time. Earlier, speaking to the Press Association in Los Angeles, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: Parliament needs to understand that if were not able to come to Parliament and get a deal, then we may end up leaving the EU with no deal. Most people seem to say thats not what they want to see, well they better make up their minds before we get to a week on Tuesday because thats going to be a very key decision-making point. But the DUP whose 10 MPs Mrs May depends on for a majority remained implacably opposed to the deal and the toxic Irish backstop. Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the Government must stand firm and set out a resolute red line to Brussels. The coming days will show if this Government is made of the right stuff, he said. "What's your feeling on a second referendum? Would you like to see one?" - Sophy #Ridge asks @BarryGardiner about the People's Vote, discussed by @ChukaUmunna earlier. Follow the show live here: https://t.co/LOaXgbZT8C pic.twitter.com/lWaUoG2MoR Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 6, 2019 Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner suggested Labour could offer a referendum on a renegotiated Brexit deal. He said Labours plan remained to push for a general election if Mrs Mays deal was rejected, and we would set out what we would seek to negotiate in Europe to try and deliver. The reason Theresa May has had such a botched set of negotiations is because of her red lines, he told Sky News. If we as a new, incoming Labour government were to go to Europe without those red lines we know that we could get a different, better deal and thats what we want to try and achieve. At that stage it makes sense to go to the country and to say here we are, this is what we have managed to negotiate, this is the deal that we have managed to conclude because we dont have the same red lines as Theresa May, we think its a better way forward. "Can you as Health Secretary guarantee now that if a deal can't be reached people will get the medicine they need?" - Sophy #Ridge asks @MattHancock about the #NHSLongTermPlan, who is "confident" supplies will get through. Follow it live here: https://t.co/LOaXgbZT8C pic.twitter.com/HuQ9ayub2h Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 6, 2019 Meanwhile, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said he was confident that medicine supplies would be unhindered in a no-deal scenario as long as the pharmaceutical industry took action. Asked if he could guarantee that no one would die as a result of a no-deal Brexit, Mr Hancock told Sky News Sophy Ridge On Sunday: Im confident that we will have the unhindered supply of medicines so long as the plans that we have in place are properly enacted. A superb innings from England international Joe Denly guided Sydney Sixers to a six-wicket win over defending Big Bash champions Adelaide Strikers. Denly hit an unbeaten 76 from 60 balls to steer his side to their victory target of 151 at the Adelaide Oval and jump them above the Strikers in the table. SIXERS WIN! @joed1986 and @joshphilippe2 get us home against @StrikersBBL with 10 balls to spare! Awesome result! We head to Perth next Sunday before returning home to the SCG on January 16th. Get your tickets here > https://t.co/tSTSR0Tam5 #smashemsixers #BBL08 pic.twitter.com/2uEuXQzGvJ Sydney Sixers (@SixersBBL) January 6, 2019 It was a major upturn in form from the Kent all-rounder, whose previous high score in six innings of this years Big Bash League was just 14. Having been set their target of 151, Sydney lost opener Justin Avendano for a duck before Denly steadied the ship alongside Daniel Hughes. But Denly was far from his fluent best, making a run-a-ball 31 at the halfway stage of the innings, with Adelaide seemingly in control Sydney at 67 for two having lost Hughes for 24. Got it, got it... don't got it. That would've been a super grab from Valente if he held on! #BBL08 pic.twitter.com/zYokkFDPxl KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 6, 2019 The 33-year-old, who featured in Englands T20 series in Sri Lanka, was then handed a reprieve as Cameron Valente dropped a tough caught-and-bowled chance when Denly skied one. Kents Joe Denly delivered a big performance for Sydney Sixers (Gareth Fuller/PA) That let-off appeared to free Denly up and he began to up his strike rate, hitting Liam OConnor for two fours and a six with the first three deliveries of the 12th over. Denlys half-century came from 39 balls but he lost two partners in the next over. Rashid Khan, who played for Sussex in the T20 Blast in 2018 and is set to do so again in 2019, dismissed Moises Henriques and Jordan Silk in the same over. But Denly carried on, and was ably supported by 21-year-old Australian Josh Philippe with a blistering 30 from just 15 balls as Sydney secured their third away victory of the competition. Tom Curran is Class with a capital C! #BBL08 pic.twitter.com/hdLkzff7J7 KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 6, 2019 Fellow England international Tom Curran claimed a solitary wicket in the first innings, finishing with one for 38 from his four overs, and briefly became the leading wicket-taker in the competition before being overtaken by team-mate Steve OKeefe. The Sixers are up to second in the standings, albeit having played two games more than some sides, including leaders Hobart Hurricanes who have a perfect record from their five matches. President Donald Trumps national security adviser says the US military withdrawal from Syria will only happen once the remnants of the Islamic State group are defeated. John Bolton added that Turkey needed to assure the safety of Kurdish fighters allied with the United States in the area. Mr Bolton, who is in Israel to reassure the US ally of the Trump-ordered withdrawal, says there is no timetable for the pull-out of American forces in north-eastern Syria, but insists it is not an unlimited commitment. There is no change to the US position against the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime - any further use will be met by a swift, strong response. John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) January 6, 2019 Mr Bolton said on Sunday that the timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement. His comments mark the first public confirmation the withdrawal has been slowed, as President Trump faced widespread criticism from allies and the resignation of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis for a policy that was to have been conducted within weeks. President Trump announced in mid-December that the US will withdraw all of its 2,000 forces in Syria. National Security Adviser John Bolton (Andrew Harnik/AP) His move has raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria who fought alongside American troops against IS extremists. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. Mr Bolton, who is to travel on to Turkey on Monday, said the US is insisting that its Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State group are protected from any planned Turkish offensive. He is to deliver a warning to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week. We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, Mr Bolton said. President Trump has stated that he would not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds, Mr Bolton said. Thats what the president said, the ones that fought with us. Mr Bolton said the US has asked its Kurdish allies to stand fast now and refrain from seeking protection from Russia or Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government. He said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Joseph Dunford would continue negotiations with his Turkish counterparts this week to seek protection for Americas Kurdish allies in Syria. He added that Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, who has been serving since August as the special representative for Syrian engagement and was named last week as the American special envoy for the anti-Islamic State coalition, would travel to Syria this week in an effort to reassure the USs Kurdish allies that they are not being abandoned. Mr Bolton said US troops would remain at the critical are of al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region. He defended the legal basis for the deployment, saying it is justified by the presidents Constitutional authority, adding Im a strong believer in Article II. MPs return to the Commons on Monday for the start of two weeks of political activity that could define Britain for decades to come. After what is expected to be days of debate, Theresa May will attempt to get her Withdrawal Agreement past MPs in the meaningful vote. But an array of powerful and less powerful figures are lined up both for and against her. These people will be the key players over the next few momentous days as the Prime Minister battles to keep her Brexit agenda, and her premiership, on track. Theresa May The PM backed-off from a crunch Commons vote on the EU Withdrawal Agreement before Christmas in the face of a significant defeat. With just days to go before a second attempt at a vote, and despite a festive period during which she called a slew of European leaders, no further concessions or tweaks to the deal have so far materialised. Without something new to throw to rebellious MPs, it looks like her Brexit deal is completely dead. Jeremy Corbyn The Labour leader has huffed and puffed and threatened to blow Theresa Mays Brexit house down, including an attempted contempt motion against her before Christmas, but has yet to strike in anger. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) He is under pressure from elements of his own party and other opposition groups who, as well as opposing the Brexit deal, want him to move a wider confidence vote against the Government, which could force a general election. But Mr Corbyn also faces division within his party over a second referendum, so far resisting calls from members as many as 72% according to a recent poll who want him to back a new vote, and insisting that Labour would go ahead with Brexit if it came to power. Arlene Foster The DUP leader has been flexing her partys political muscles over Brexit as Mrs May relies on its confidence and supply arrangement for a slender Commons majority. Despite Nigel Dodds, her deputy and Westminster leader, enjoying a post-New Year lunch at Downing Street last week, Mrs Foster and her party continue to insist that the backstop measures are unacceptable and the DUP cannot support them. However, the DUP has said it will back Mrs May if she faces a confidence vote in the Commons, but only if the EU Withdrawal Agreement is voted down or significantly changed. Jacob Rees-Mogg The arch-Brexiteers of the European Research Group, led by Mr Rees-Mogg, were left smarting by their failure to remove Mrs May with a Tory leadership confidence motion in December. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) But a hard core of Conservative opponents to the Withdrawal Agreement are likely to follow his lead and vote it down. Just how many MPs stay with him and how many buckle with March 29s Brexit deadline approaching will be a key test of his influence. Jean-Claude Juncker The European Commission president has been the most hostile of all senior EU figures and has made clear that negotiations will not be re-opened. Mr Juncker has made a point of saying the EU will stand firm with the Irish government over backstop arrangements for the Irish border which would see the UK remain subject to the blocs customs rules if no wider trade deal is agreed before the end of a transition period. He publicly clashed with Mrs May at a European Council summit in Brussels in December, in images which were caught on camera. Donald Tusk The European Council president has been more amicable towards Britain than Mr Juncker. (Leon Neal/PA) Mr Tusk has repeatedly expressed sadness at the prospect of Brexit and its impact on both sides. But he has been just as clear, warning at the same council meeting that he had no mandate to open new negotiations, although he would remain at Mrs Mays disposal. Leo Varadkar Irelands Taoiseach has taken a much tougher stance on Brexit issues since taking over as Irish leader from Enda Kenny in 2017. Heading a minority government and facing possible elections within the next few months, Mr Varadkar cannot afford to be seen to give ground to the UK at home. Citing the need to maintain peace in Northern Ireland, Mr Varadkar has insisted that backstop measures must stay in place after the transition period unless and until a trade agreement is in place. Angela Merkel The German Chancellor will be a major player in any moves on Brexit. However, she is now a weakened figure after standing down as the leader of her CDU party, but remaining as Chancellor. Mrs Merkel will be a key voice in any softening of the EU line, especially as French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to maintain a tough position. Neil Warnock concedes Cardiffs shock FA Cup exit could be a blessing as they battle for Premier League survival. The Bluebirds suffered a third-round upset at the hands of League One strugglers Gillingham on Saturday. A bad day for the south Wales club was compounded by injuries to Kadeem Harris and Danny Ward at Priestfield, damaging Warnocks slim squad ahead of next weekends important relegation battle with Huddersfield. It might be a blessing. We lost a couple of players, and we cant afford to lose any players really, said manager Warnock, whose team are two points above the drop zone. I think I started four players from the last game and theyve come through all right, that was my concern really. Its a big game next week as they all are now. Neil Warnocks Cardiff were shocked by Gillingham on Saturday (Mark Kerton/PA) Midfielder Harris was taken to hospital after undergoing an x-ray on a shoulder problem which required lengthy treatment on the pitch, while forward Ward sustained a cheekbone injury. In the aftermath of the 1-0 defeat in Kent, Warnock vented his frustration at missing out on the loan signing of Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne. He branded the situation a disgrace after claiming to have been promised the player by the Reds before Clyne subsequently moved to Bournemouth. The Bluebirds are working hard in the transfer market and Warnock, who expects to have striker Kenneth Zohore back in training next week following injury, accepts he may have to be patient if he is to increase his options before the deadline. I think weve almost agreed terms for one particular player, said Warnock, who has been heavily linked with Nice defender Adrien Tameze. Theres numerous players weve been linked with, the chairman (Mehmet Dalman) and Ken Choo (CEO) are talking to loads of players as far as Im aware second, third choices to see whos available. But were not going to bring people in that arent better than what weve got. Youve got to get the right ones in. You look at some of the players were looking at and the figures are astronomical. I think its going to be one of those jobs again, late on in the window again where somebody decides to let somebody go. Victory for the Gills, who are a point above the League One drop zone, puts them into the fourth round for the first time in 15 seasons. Manager Steve Lovell is keen for another draw against top-flight opposition. We are all the same we want to play the big boys again, he said. Whoever it is, we are in the fourth round of the FA Cup and I think its a long time since weve been there so Im proud of that. Asked if a cup run could help move the team away from danger, he replied: Maybe, you dont know. Until you actually do it, you dont know. Some clubs in the past, its hindered them because of the FA Cup. I know the group of players Im working with and that will only give them a boost. The boss of stockbroker finnCap has spoken out over the awful working culture in big City firms and said the industry still has a long way to go to get women into the boardroom. Sam Smith, founder and chief executive of finnCap, told the Press Association that parents who work flexible hours or have to leave on time for childcare reasons are often made to feel like second class citizens in the Square Mile. A working mother herself, Ms Smith said finnCap which has just snapped up advisory firm Cavendish Corporate Finance and floated the combined group on Londons junior Aim market has overhauled its maternity leave policy to encourage mums to return to work. FinnCap boss Sam Smith has just sealed a takeover of Cavendish and floated the combined group on Aim (finnCap/PA) But she said finnCap is by far the exception. Big banks make you feel terrible for leaving at 5.30pm. That culture is awful, she said. Her comments come as gender diversity and equal pay have been thrust to the top of the agenda for many companies this year, thanks in large part to new rules forcing companies to reveal their gender pay gap. Last month, Goldman Sachs announced it would be offering London staff emergency nannies to look after unwell children and offer elderly care. It marked the latest move by the investment banking giant to increase the number of women in senior roles as the sector comes under fire over its gaping gender pay gap. Having progressive maternity policies and encouraging flexible working is key to increasing the number of women in Britains boardrooms, according to Ms Smith. For me its about the culture in the firm and wanting to have a diverse workforce its not just about putting a few women on the board. Its helpful to have female chief executives, but taking men out of the picture isnt the answer, she said. Its about educating and getting the men on board you do need to think about how to keep women. Having experienced first hand the struggles of leading a City firm and looking after her young daughter, Ms Smith has changed finnCaps maternity policy to offer staff flexible working for at least the first couple of years. Looking back on her experience, she said: Its pretty hard. We have changed our maternity policy on the back of it, because the first two years are a real struggle. FinnCap practices what it preaches, with 40% of its staff being female while Cavendish also has around the same ratio. The recent deal between the pair and subsequent successful listing has brought together two of the Citys most established names. It marked a milestone for Ms Smith, who created finnCap in 2007 after leading a management buyout of the corporate division of wealth manager JM Finn. The timing of the Cavendish deal and float posed challenges, given Brexit uncertainty and market wobbles, but Ms Smith said finnCap is no stranger to riding out turbulence. She completed the original buyout in August 2007 two weeks before Northern Rock collapsed at the start of the financial crisis. On the recent IPO, she said: It wasnt the easiest thing to close in these markets, but the story is compelling and its a long-term growth story its not just about the next six months. Ms Smith and Cavendish founder Lord Leigh of Hurley have high ambitions to take advantage of the shake-up in the sector, with consolidation rife as stockbrokers struggle amid new EU legislation, a difficult IPO market and a squeeze on commissions. FinnCap a corporate adviser and institutional brokerage for small-cap companies and private firms eventually wants to double the size of the business. After initial integration, it plans to look at securing more deals focused on the UK, but potentially also overseas in the future. We think it will be UK first, but who knows whats going to happen, said Ms Smith. Justice Vibhu Bakhru disposed of the plea which was filed by the petitioner in her personal capacity. The judge made it clear that it has not examined the controversy raised in the plea. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking to suspend the trailer of the upcoming movie "The Accidental Prime Minister" and asked the petitioner to file it as a public interest litigation. Justice Vibhu Bakhru disposed of the plea which was filed by the petitioner in her personal capacity. The judge made it clear that it has not examined the controversy raised in the plea. The plea alleged that provisions of the Cinematograph Act are being misused and the film producer has released the trailer affecting, harming the image of the office of the prime minister and giving a bad name at the national and international level. Detectives have been given more time to question a man suspected of murdering devoted family man Lee Pomeroy, and a woman accused of assisting an offender. The 35-year-old alleged killer was held after a manhunt led police to a flat in Willbury Road, Farnham, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Lee Pomeroy, 51, was stabbed to death on-board a Guildford to London Waterloo train (BTP/PA) British Transport Police (BTP) said on Sunday morning that investigators had been granted another 12 hours to question the man and woman, 27, who remain in custody. Mr Pomeroy had been taking his son, 14, on a trip to London when he was stabbed to death in a horrific and pointless attack on Friday afternoon, police said. The father, who would have turned 52 on Sunday, was described by his family as a an honourable man and would always help somebody who was in trouble. In a statement released by BTP, Mr Pomeroys family said: Lee took his son on a trip to London hoping to spend some quality time with him which was cut short by an horrific and pointless attack. Lee would have had his birthday today but did not get to see his presents. He was an honest, bright person, who loved music very much. He knew history and art and he was a bachelor of science in maths. He was a devoted family man and did everything for his family. He was a loving husband and father. He will be deeply missed by all his family. Mr Pomeroy lived in Guildford with his 50-year-old wife Svetlana Pomeroy and their teenage son. The couple both worked for Datronix Systems Limited, an IT consultancy, where Mr Pomeroy is listed as a programmer and director. Flowers left at Horsley station near Guildford (Lizzie Roberts/PA) Mr Pomeroy and his son boarded the 12.58 train service between Guildford and London Waterloo at London Road station on Friday afternoon alongside the suspected killer, described by police as a slim, black man in his 20s or 30s, who was approximately 6ft tall with a beard. The men became locked in a three to four-minute row moving through the carriage and into another before this escalated into an unprovoked, violent attack, police said. The killer fled the train at Clandon station and headed in the direction of Dedswell Drive while the service continued to Horsley station where police and paramedics attended. At 6am on Saturday a suspect was arrested on suspicion of murder at a flat near Farnham Hospital alongside a 27-year-old woman detained on suspicion of assisting an offender. The woman who was arrested along with the suspect was identified by neighbours as Chelsea Mitchell. Scene of the arrests in Farnham (Lizzie Roberts/PA) Residents said she and her child lived at the flat with the suspect, who one described as very moody. Neighbour Grant Christy told reporters he witnessed the police breaking into the building, taking a couple into custody and leading a young child from the house. He said: At six they smashed the door down, woke me up immediately, obviously. Initially I just heard the banging. Sounded like someone trying to kick the door in, thats what it sounded like to start with. And then I jumped out of bed, put my ear to the door, listened to what was going on. Then I heard the police shouting, put your hands up, turn around, all that sort of thing and then it went quiet. They led her out first with the kid, barefoot, put her in a police wagon over there, then a few minutes later they pulled him out handcuffed. Police said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the killing. Detectives are continuing to appeal for information and asked anyone who was on the train at the time or who has dash-cam footage of the Clandon area after 1pm on January 4 to get in touch as soon as possible. The new 12-sided 1 coin is going global, the Treasury has announced as overseas territories and Crown dependencies will be able to design and mint their own versions of it. The coin, which was introduced in 2017 and boasts features designed to thwart criminals trying to produce copies, has been described by the Government as the most secure of its kind in the world. The move means those living overseas may soon be able to spend the bespoke versions of the new pound coin, replacing the older coins currently in use. Overseas nations can now adopt the new 1 coin, the Treasury has said (Treasury/PA) Many territories and dependencies have coins based on older versions of UK currency and they will now have the choice to use this cutting-edge technology and design to protect their cash, the Government said. Currently, many of the UKs territories and dependencies use their own versions of the pound which are pegged against sterling. To produce their own 12-sided 1-coin, overseas territories and Crown dependencies will inform the Royal Mint, who will ensure that the same security standards are met before approving and supplying them with the necessary blank or struck coins. Features of the new 1 coin to thwart counterfeiters include intermittent milled edges and the denomination and year date incorporated in micro-text on the coin. It replaced the round pound which had become vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters with around one in every 30 in circulation being a dud. The Treasury said the new versions of the coins are expected to feature images celebrating the heritage of the territories, with their history and culture pictured on the reverse side. Ministers believe this will symbolise the close links between the UK and its territories. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are Crown dependencies of the UK. The UK overseas territories include Akrotiri and Dhekelia; Anguilla; British Antarctic Territory; Bermuda; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; St Helena and Dependencies (Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha); Turk and Caicos Islands; Pitcairn Island; and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Robert Jenrick, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said: The Great British pound is internationally recognised and as we extend the new 1 coin to our territories and dependencies, we will see new designs emerge that together symbolise our shared history. In the same way that the rose, leek, thistle and shamrock are used on our coin to represent the four nations of the UK, these new designs will reflect the rich and varying British communities across the world. From the Falklands to Gibraltar, this move sends a clear message of our unshakeable commitment to our territories around the globe. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Overseas Territories, said: This is an exciting opportunity for our currency to reflect the breadth and variety of the British Territories. Each will be able to create a design that reflects their own distinctive heritage as part of the British family. As well as helping to boost their identity, these new coins will also bring increased security to each of these economies. White House officials and congressional aides emerged from talks to reopen the government without a breakthrough on Saturday, though they planned to return to the table the following day. President Donald Trump tweeted: Not much headway made today. The president later tweeted that he planned to go to his retreat at Camp David, Maryland, on Sunday morning to discuss border security and other topics with senior staff. Will be going to Camp David tomorrow morning for meetings on Border Security and many other topics with @WhiteHouse senior staff. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2019 Democrats agreed there had been little movement on Saturday, saying the White House did not budge on the presidents key demand, 5.6 billion US dollars (4.4 billion) to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. The White House said funding was not discussed in-depth, but the administration was clear they needed funding for a wall and that they wanted to resolve the shutdown all at once. Accusations flew after the more than two-hour session led by Vice President Mike Pence. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House (Evan Vucci/AP) Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in an interview with CNNs State Of The Union, accused Democrats of being there to stall. Democrats familiar with the meeting said the White House position was untenable. A White House official said the meeting included a briefing on border security by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Democrats sought written details from the Department of Homeland Security on their budget needs, which the White House said it would provide. With talks stalled, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that House Democrats plan to start approving individual bills to reopen shuttered departments starting with Treasury to ensure Americans receive their tax refunds. While President Trump threatens to keep the government shut down for years, Democrats are taking immediate further action to re-open government, so that we can meet the needs of the American people, protect our borders and respect our workers, Ms Pelosi said. V.P. Mike Pence and team just left the White House. Briefed me on their meeting with the Schumer/Pelosi representatives. Not much headway made today. Second meeting set for tomorrow. After so many decades, must finally and permanently fix the problems on the Southern Border! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2019 In an interview with NBCs Meet The Press, set to air Sunday, Mr Mulvaney argued that the administration was willing to deal. He said Mr Trump was willing to forgo a concrete wall for steel or other materials. If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, See? Hes not building a wall anymore, that should help us move in the right direction, Mr Mulvaney said. The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, referring to slats and other border things. But Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. Mr Trump had campaigned on the promise that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico has refused. He is now demanding the money from Congress. BEIJING (AP) - China has sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. Both sides have expressed an interest in settling their tariff fight over Beijing's technology ambitions. Yet neither has indicated its stance has changed since a Dec. 1 agreement by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to postpone further increases. Envoys will have "positive and constructive discussions" during meetings Monday and Tuesday, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang. The American side is led by a deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish, according to the U.S. government. Neither side gave details of their agenda but Gerrish's delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials. The Chinese government gave no details of who would represent Beijing. The talks are going ahead despite tensions over the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Canada on U.S. charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions against Iran. In this Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, photo, a woman and children play near an art installation at a shopping mall in Beijing. A U.S. delegation led by deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital ahead of trade talks with China. China sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Trump imposed tariff increases of up to 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110 billion of American goods, slowing customs clearance for U.S. companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses. Washington, Europe and other trading partners complain Beijing's tactics violate its market-opening obligations. The clash reflects American anxiety about China's rise as a potential competitor in telecommunications and other technology. Trump wants Beijing to roll back initiatives like "Made in China 2025," which calls for the state-led creation of global competitors in such fields as robotics and artificial intelligence. American officials worry those might erode U.S. industrial leadership. The ruling Communist Party is reluctant to give up initiatives it sees as a path to prosperity and global influence. China's leaders have tried to defuse complaints by emphasizing the country's potential as an export market. They have announced a series of regulatory changes over the past year to increase foreign access to their auto, finance and other industries. Some Chinese officials suggest the technology initiatives might be opened to foreign companies. But they have given no details, leaving it unclear whether that will satisfy Washington. Trump and Xi agreed to a 90-day postponement of additional tariff increases to take effect Jan. 1. But economists say that is too little time to settle all the disputes that bedevil U.S.-Chinese relations. They say Beijing's goal probably is to show enough progress to persuade Trump to extend his deadline. During that 90-day period, agreements "may not be reached until the last day," said Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for World Trade Organization Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. This week's talks will focus on technical details before higher-level leaders "make hard political decisions," Tu said. In the longer term, the final tariffs might "remain for several years," Tu said. "I don't think it will proceed that fast. It must take time." Cooling economic growth in both countries is turning up the pressure to reach a settlement. Chinese growth fell to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent in the quarter ending in September. Auto sales tumbled 16 percent in November over a year earlier. Weak real estate sales are forcing developers to cut prices. The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, and unemployment is at a five-decade low. But surveys show consumer confidence is weakening because of concern that growth will slow this year. Beijing has tried in vain to recruit France, Germany, South Korea and other governments as allies against Trump. They criticize his tactics but echo U.S. complaints about Chinese industrial policy and market barriers. The European Union filed its own challenge in the World Trade Organization in June against Chinese rules that the 28-nation trade bloc said hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their own technology. For their part, Chinese officials are unhappy with U.S. curbs on exports of "dual use" technology with possible military applications. They complain China's companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged. Some manufacturers that serve the United States have shifted production to other countries to avoid Trump's tariffs. UBS said Friday that 37 percent of 200 manufacturers surveyed by the bank have shifted out of China over the past 12 months. The threat of U.S. tariff hikes was the "dominating factor" for nearly half, while others moved because of higher costs or tighter environmental regulation. "Most firms expect the trade war to escalate," the bank said. In this Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, photo, Chinese residents pass by a decor marking the new year outside a shopping mall in Beijing. A U.S. delegation led by deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital ahead of trade talks with China. China sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, photo, members of a U.S. trade delegation including deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish, left, leave a hotel in Beijing. The U.S. delegation led by Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital ahead of trade talks with China. China sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, photo, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert B. Kaplan leaves a hotel in Beijing. A U.S. delegation led by deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital ahead of trade talks with China. China sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) MEXICO CITY (AP) - More than a dozen women and children in dingy clothes encircled a white sedan in front of Mexico's most-important monument, walking away with plastic trucks and dolls individually wrapped in clear plastic bags. After the sedan ran out of presents, a silver SUV pulled up to unload jump ropes and plastic balls. As Christians around the world celebrate the Epiphany on Sunday, which recalls the three kings, or magi, who reportedly followed a star to find the baby Jesus, children throughout Latin America traditionally unwrap holiday gifts that in other parts of the world are delivered by Santa on Christmas Day. But the less fortunate in Mexico City may not receive anything at all. The gift-giving at the base of the Angel of Independence statue is an annual tradition for some, while others have only recently joined the fray. Homeless children who beg for money or accompany their mothers selling trinkets along the avenue flock to the vehicles, while others travel hours from poor suburbs in search of a little holiday joy. Salvador Gonzalez, 33, a construction worker from the State of Mexico, said he was inspired to buy 80 toys in the city center and dole them out near the statue after seeing others do the same last year. His own children received unicorn pajamas and trucks this year; he wanted to share the wealth. Gonzalez appeared overwhelmed as families encircled his white sedan and the bounty ran out. The gifts -- lovingly wrapped new dolls and trucks -- were like a siren call. Children line up by a car of people handing out toys and candy on Three Kings Day at the base of the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. As Christians around the world celebrate the epiphany on Sunday, which recalls the three kings, or magi, who reportedly followed a star to find the baby Jesus, children throughout Latin America traditionally unwrap holiday gifts that in other parts of the world are delivered by Santa on Christmas Day. (AP Photo/Anthony Vazquez) "There were a lot of people waiting here," he said. "You can't choose what to give them." The women in the SUV have their Three Kings routine down to a science. They have been handing out gifts since 2002, marking each recipient's hand with a marker so that nobody double dips. This year they pooled the equivalent of $300 to distribute 250 toys plus bags of candy. Angelica Donato, a stylist sitting shotgun in the SUV, says she relishes "seeing the faces of the happy children." Word of the free gifts has spread far beyond the avenue. Jessica Gonzalez, 18, said she spent $1.50 and traveled more than two hours by bus and train from Chimalhuacan, a gritty suburb of the capital, after a relative told her of the little known tradition. This was her first year looking for gifts, and her first year as a mother. "We didn't have anything to give her," Gonzalez said while cradling six-month-old daughter Alejandra, who made off with a ball and doll. Paulina Miramar gifts a hula hoop to a youth on Three Kings Day at the base of the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. As Christians around the world celebrate the epiphany on Sunday, which recalls the three kings, or magi, who reportedly followed a star to find the baby Jesus, children throughout Latin America traditionally unwrap holiday gifts that in other parts of the world are delivered by Santa on Christmas Day. (AP Photo/Anthony Vazquez) HAVANA (AP) - Jose Ramon Fernandez, a retired Cuban brigadier general who was key in forming the communist country's new army and commanded Cuban defenses at the Bay of Pigs, died on Sunday, state media reported. He was 95. Tall and spindly with the rigid posture of a military man, Fernandez in his final years remained a legendary figure and served for a time as a vice president on Cuba's Council of Ministers, or Cabinet. A founding member of the Communist Party of Cuba, he was reelected to the party's ruling Central Committee in 2011 - at the age of 87. Fernandez ran a cadet school that trained officers after the revolutionary triumph of Jan. 1, 1959, laying the foundation of the communist country's new army. He also played a leading role in one of the great battles of the Cold War, helping command Cuba's nascent militia forces in their victory over invading exile forces at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. Cuba won the Bay of Pigs battle because of "the firmness and decision of this people, not because of a professional army," Fernandez told The Associated Press in an April 2001 interview. Fernandez made fewer and fewer public appearances as the years went by. He also was president of the Cuban Olympic Committee since 1997, helping organize his country's delegations to the 2004 summer games in Athens and the 2008 games in China. FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2017 file photo, Cuba's former Vice-President on the Council of Ministers Jose Ramon Fernandez attends the annual International Book fair opening ceremony in Havana, Cuba. Fernandez, a career soldier who joined Cuba's 1950s Revolution and became a prominent collaborator with the Castro brothers, died on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, according to official media. He was 95. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File) Fernandez, nicknamed "El Gallego" - "The Galician" - for his Spanish parentage, was born in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago on Nov. 4, 1923. He got a college degree in the social sciences before opting for a military career. He graduated from Cuba's School of Cadets in 1947 and went on to study artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In the mid-1950s, he joined the "Movement of the Pure," a group of young military officers determined to clean up corruption in the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a coup. Fernandez was arrested for his activities in 1956 and imprisoned on the Isle of Pines, later renamed the Isle of Youth, off the main island's southwestern coast. He remained behind bars until the revolution triumphed three years later. On Jan. 12, 1959, less than two weeks after Batista fled the country, revolutionary leader Fidel Castro called Fernandez to a gathering of more than 100 former government officials imprisoned for opposition to the old regime. Castro "asked me what I would like" in his new government, Fernandez recalled. Although Fernandez already had found a job at a sugar production plant, Castro asked him to run a new cadet school. However, Castro said he could not match the salary of 1,100 Cuban pesos a month - then worth US$1,100 - that the sugar plant was paying. Fernandez didn't know what to say. "You are right," Fernandez recalled Castro as saying. "I'll go write a book about the Sierra Maestra, you go to the sugar plant, and the revolution can go to hell." "Fidel could be very persuasive, sometimes very rock-like," Fernandez said. "I thought about it for five seconds, and two hours later I was at the school for cadets." Two years later, with 1,900 troops under his command at the school, Fernandez received an urgent call from Castro: enemy troops had entered the Bay of Pigs off Cuba's southern coast. Fernandez commanded militia troops in the battle against about 1,500 Cuban exiles trained and armed by the CIA with the aim of overthrowing the new government. Washington worried that Castro's leftist government would help the Soviet Union establish a beachhead just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from American shores. Three days later, on April 19, Fernandez arrived at Playa Giron on the bay and Cuba declared victory. Fernandez remained with the army and assumed the post of vice defense minister in 1966. He later traded in his uniform for civilian clothes and worked in the Education Ministry from 1970-90. LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - In a story Jan. 7 about a Kentucky traffic crash that killed a Michigan family, The Associated Press reported erroneously who a cousin of the deceased father called about the crash. Habib Abbas, of Dearborn, said he called the dead father's sister, not the dead mother's sister. A corrected version of the story is below: Michigan family of 5 killed in wrong-way crash in Kentucky Authorities in Kentucky say 5 family members from Michigan among six dead in a fiery wrong-way accident on Interstate 75; family was returning from Florida vacation LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A suspected drunken driver heading the wrong way on Interstate 75 in Kentucky struck a vehicle carrying five family members from Michigan early Sunday, killing all six people, authorities said. The southbound pickup truck being driven in the northbound lanes struck the family's sport utility vehicle at 2:30 a.m. in Lexington. The SUV caught fire and all five occupants of that vehicle died, along with the pickup's driver, Lexington police said in a statement. The family from Northville, Michigan, was returning from a vacation in Florida, the Fayette County coroner's office said. Witness Kenneth DeGraaf told WLEX-TV the pickup truck was coming toward him prior to the fiery crash. "I thought I was seeing something, honestly," DeGraaf said. "He was in the center lane. I was in the center lane. I had to merge out of the way at the last second to get to the right lane. I mean, he was flying. Absolutely flying." A coroner's statement identified the family members as Issam Abbas, 42 and Rima Abbas, 38, along with their children, a boy Ali Abbas, 14; and girls Isabella Abbas, 13, and Giselle Abbas, 7. The driver of the white pickup was identified as 41-year-old Joey Lee Bailey of Georgetown. The coroner's statement says authorities believe Bailey was driving under the influence and that toxicology tests were planned. The interstate was shut for hours as the accident investigation opened. According to the Islamic Center of America of Dearborn, Michigan, funeral services for the family are set for Tuesday at the center. Local media reported in Michigan that the death of the family has devastated relatives and friends. Habib Abbas of Dearborn, who identified himself as a cousin of the father, told The Detroit News that when he first heard about the crash he didn't believe it and went about his day. "I thought it was a rumor or something and then saw it again and called his (the father's) sister. She and the family are even more in denial," Abbas told the newspaper. He added that Issam Abbas was a lawyer and that Rima Abbas was a doctor and devoted mother to their children. He said the extended family was close and that his cousin led a "beautiful life." "You don't expect a whole family to get wiped out," he said. "You think to yourself 'What's the worst case scenario?' and that's it." It was the second crash in three days involving multiple deaths on Interstate 75, a bustling north-south corridor crossing the nation's midsection from South Florida to the U.S. border with Canada. Near Gainesville, Florida, an accident Thursday on a relatively flat stretch of the interstate that started between two tractor-trailers killed seven people, including five children on a trip to Walt Disney World in a church van from Louisiana. The truck drivers also were killed and at least eight others were injured. ___ This story corrects age of Ali Abbas to 14. WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Park Service says it is taking the extraordinary step of dipping into entrance fees to pay for staffing at its highly visited parks in the wake of the partial government shutdown. P. Daniel Smith, deputy director of the service, said in a statement Sunday that the money would be used to bring in staff to maintain restrooms, clean up trash and patrol the parks. He acknowledged that the Trump administration's decision to keep the parks open during the weekslong budget impasse was no longer workable and so more extreme measures were warranted. Parks have been relying on outside help for security and upkeep. "We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services," Smith said. Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana warned Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Saturday of "significant risk to property and public health" without funding. Three Utah Republican congressmen also asked Bernhardt to restart regular operations. Democrats want the parks fully opened. But Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the incoming chair of the subcommittee overseeing Interior appropriations, said Sunday that dipping into user fees was "not acceptable" in this situation, and likely violates the law. A woman walks past trash piled next to a garbage bin at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Nonprofits, businesses and state governments across the country are paying bills and putting in volunteer hours in an uphill battle to keep national parks safe and clean for visitors as the partial U.S. government shutdown lingers. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Parks supporters called the administration's move misguided. "Instead of working to reopen the federal government, the administration is robbing money collected from entrance fees to operate our national parks during this shutdown," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association. "For those parks that don't collect fees, they will now be in the position of competing for the same inadequate pot of money to protect their resources and visitors. Draining accounts dry is not the answer." WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. military spokesman confirms that an American airstrike killed an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the attack nearly two decades ago on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors. The man targeted, Jamal al-Badawi, was wanted for his role in the attack on Oct. 12, 2000. The spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Navy Capt. William Urban, says the military has confirmed through "a deliberate assessment process" that al-Badawi was killed on Jan. 1 in the strike east of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. President Donald Trump tweets that "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole." The Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat while refueling at the Yemeni port of Aden. This photo provided by the FBI shows Jamal al-Badawi. An American military spokesman says a U.S. airstrike in Yemen targeted al-Badawi, an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors. The spokesman, Navy Capt. William Urban at U.S. Central Command headquarters, said Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 that the Jan. 1 airstrike targeted Jamal al-Badawi. Urban said U.S. forces are attempting to confirm his death.(FBI via AP) Rosetta Stone, the Arlington, Virginia-based business known for selling foreign language CDs, is now teaching reading in U.S. schools and revamping its core language business. CEO John Hass talked about the changes with The Associated Press. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. Q: Rosetta Stone's language courses are widely known. What else does the company do? A: While we are best known for teaching people a second language and have been doing that for 26 years now, we have a business (Lexia Learning) that we acquired about five years ago that teaches children in K-12 schools, principally in the U.S., to read. That's become the really, really important part of our business. Q: You have changed your traditional language learning business. Tell me how. A: We had to change to be where learners are. The way they learn today, they are primarily on a mobile device - it could be their phone, it could be their iPad. Just a few years ago, we were primarily offering language learning through box sets of CDs. If you go back to 2014, we sold about 750,000 CDs. This quarter, we are out of that business. Our offering today is through the web and through apps. It allows us to price the business in the way customers need. So if somebody's looking to refresh a language that they're familiar with for a trip, they could buy a three-month subscription. Or somebody who's looking to become conversational or more fluent in a second language can buy a two-year subscription. As we continually improve the product, we can push those benefits out to learners, which you could never do when it was just a box of CDs. Now the software product is continually being improved. Q: The stock market has been tumbling lately. Are you worried about the economy? In this undated photo provided by Rosetta Stone, CEO John Hass poses for a photo. Rosetta Stone, the Arlington, Virginia-based business known for selling foreign language CDs, is now teaching reading in U.S. schools and revamping its core language business. Hass talked about the changes with The Associated Press. (Rosetta Stone via AP) A: We see the same signs - whether you're looking at the equity markets or the credit markets - as others do. The benefit that we have across the business is that teaching a kid to read, while not impervious to an economic downturn, we think it will hold up very well. (For the language business), we often see even in an economic downturn that people go back to school, they go back to trying to improve to make themselves more marketable to employers. Q: President Trump's trade policies seem designed to bring businesses back to the United States and reduce reliance on global supply chains. Are you worried that the inward focus will reduce demand for language learning? A: It's certainly relevant longer term. Personally, I think it's going to be very hard to ultimately disrupt those supply chains. We've become so enmeshed with each other. Our real advantage is helping people outside the U.S. learn English. To the extent (U.S. policy makes) that less attractive, that creates less opportunity for us over time. The actress talks about her debut film Kedarnath, her upbringing, her commitment to keeping it real and lots more. Though actress Sara Ali Khan has been receiving a lot of praise for her role in Kedarnath, the actress confesses that she doesnt think of herself as a star. I dont think Im a star yet. But I hope I get there someday, she says. The actress also shares that she likes to stay grounded and honest to herself. When asked about her familys reaction to her performance, Sara says, The family cannot be expected to be objective. They are expected to be nice to me in whatever I do. After all, I am their daughter. But the way the reviewers, critics, and audience have reacted to me is overwhelming. This is a moment I am not going to forget ever in my life. The actress also reveals what it felt like acting in her first ever film. She says, Kedarnath was my first experience working in front of the camera. Of course, I had been on film sets before to see my mother (Amrita Singhs) shoot in Kalyug and my father (Saif Ali Khan) in Omkara, but all I did was play around with my parents co-stars makeup. Kedarnath was my first opportunity to observe filmmaking and be part of the process. Though Sara always wanted to be an actor, the young starlet says that she took her education seriously. Talking about her decision to study at Colombia University, Sara says, To me, education was not a means to get a job. It was my way of widening my horizons. Education has made me a confident person. It gave me a heightened awareness of life, which has helped me become a better actor." The conversation takes a candid turn as the actress talks about her childhood, which saw her spend more time with her mother than her father. I was more than okay with that arrangement. I think having two happy parents in different homes is much more preferable than two unhappy parents in the same home. I think I am the way that I am because my mother didnt let me feel any kind deprivation for even a second. I have a very hands-on mother, reveals the actress, adding that her father too made his presence felt in more ways than one. When my father was living with us, he was completely taken up by me. When he moved away, he was still as caring. Theres nothing he wouldnt do for me. Even when he doesnt live with us, the thought that hed do anything for me makes me feel very special, shares the actress. Known for her forthright demeanor, Sara also shares her thoughts on the medias habit of pitting her against her peer, Janhvi Kapoor. Such comparisons are inevitable. But it is her job to do her own thing, and mine to do my own thing. And its some peoples job to compare us. Weve to respect everyones job, she says. A radical project to clear up plastic pollution floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii may have come to an end. The 2,000-foot (600m) long boom, dubbed Wilson, broke apart under constant wind and waves in the Pacific and will now be hauled back to dry land for repairs. Boyan Slat, who launched the Ocean Cleanup Project, said that the floating pipe will be towed 800 miles (1,300 km) to Hawaii. If Wilson can't be repaired there, it will be loaded on a barge and returned to its home port of Alameda, California. The group had hoped the pipe would collect 50 tons of trash by April 2019 and clean 90% of the world's ocean plastic by the year 2040. Scroll down for video A trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii has broken apart and will be hauled back to dry land for repairs. In this Sept. 8, 2018 file photo, a ship tows The Ocean Cleanup's first buoyant trash-collecting device toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean Mr Slat told NBC News he's disappointed, but not discouraged and pledged that operations would resume as soon as possible. 'This is an entirely new category of machine that is out there in extremely challenging conditions,' the 24-year-old Dutch inventor said. 'We always took into account that we might have to take it back and forth a few times. So it's really not a significant departure from the original plan.' Previously Mr Slat said the boom was moving slower than the plastic, allowing the trash to float away. A ship towed the U-shaped barrier in September from San Francisco to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - an island of trash twice the size of Texas. It had been in place since the end of October. The plastic barrier with a tapered 10 foot (three metre) deep screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are swirling in the patch while allowing marine life to safely swim beneath it. Mr Slat has said he hopes one day to deploy 60 of the devices to skim plastic debris off the surface of the ocean. Boyan Slat (pictured) who launched the Ocean Cleanup Project said that the 2,000-foot (600m) long floating boom will be towed 800 miles (1,300 km) to Hawaii. If Wilson can't be repaired there, it will be loaded on a barge and returned to its home port of Alameda, California (file photo) The group had hoped the pipe , dubbed Wilson, would collect 50 tons of trash by April 2019 and clean 90% of the world's ocean plastic by the year 2040 The first sign of trouble for the project came in November 2018, when it emerged that plastic scooped up by giant pipe was spilling back into the ocean. Wilson did not appear to have any significant interactions with marine life and proved the net can capture small particles within its confines. However, it also revealed that the device can only hold onto the plastic for a relatively short time. The group had hoped modifications to the system would enable it to better retain the floating waste. GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Authorities in Guatemala were holding a member of a U.N.-sponsored anti-corruption commission in the capital's airport on Sunday, refusing him entry to the country in an escalation of tensions between the government and the commission. Colombian national Yilen Osorio was detained by Guatemalan immigration officials upon arrival at the airport Saturday afternoon. The move comes despite a court ruling that Guatemala must grant visas and entry to members of the commission known as CICIG, which has investigated top members of Guatemala's government, as well as President Jimmy Morales' son and his brother. They deny accusations of corruption. Guatemala's attorney general sent more than 30 representatives and security personnel to the airport to protect Osorio. Meanwhile, civic groups protested his detention outside the airport, where more than 100 police were standing guard. On Sunday, two immigration officials were arrested for refusing to allow Osorio through. There was no immediate comment on the standoff from the president's office. Osorio heads an investigation of alleged bribery implicating the vice president of congress and others. He also participated in a campaign finance investigation into the dealings of Morales' political party. Morales, 49, has been in office for nearly three years out of a possible four-year term as president. There are no re-elections for president in Guatemala. Elections are due this year, and some worry that Morales wants to extend his rule. Morales has stated that he would like to remain in office, arguing that little can be done in four years. People rally to show support for the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) outside La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Authorities are holding Colombian Yilen Osorio, a member of CICIG in the capital's airport, refusing him entry to the country in an escalation of tensions between the government and the commission. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy) "What's in play is elections to remain in power," warned Helen Mack, a Guatemalan human rights activist. "CICIG is just an excuse for what they want; they have co-opted various institutions." Nobel Peace Prize winner and indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu accused the executive branch of embodying corruption and impunity. "We can't allow this setback," she said. Morales, formerly a comedic actor on television, rose to power in a landslide 2015 vote amid widespread disillusionment with Guatemala's political class. At the time, Vice President Roxana Baldetti and President Otto Perez Molina had stepped down from office to face fraud and corruption charges. The evangelical Christian's administration, however, has also been dogged by accusations of corruption and money laundering. The U.N.-sponsored CICIG has operated for more than a decade in Guatemala, pressing charges in corruption cases that have implicated more than 600 people. Morales refused to renew CICIG's mandate in the country early last year, and then barred its chief from returning to Guatemala from a business trip to the United States. In October, the commission said the government denied visas for 11 of its investigators. Then, in December, the Foreign Ministry withdrew the investigators' diplomatic immunity and gave them 72 hours to leave the country. However, three days later a court ordered the visas to be issued. People rally to show support for the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) outside La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Authorities are holding Colombian Yilen Osorio, a member of CICIG in the capital's airport, refusing him entry to the country in an escalation of tensions between the government and the commission. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy) Prosecutor Stuardo Campo, from the Attorney General's office, talks with reporters as he leaves La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Authorities are holding Colombian national Yilen Osorio, a member of CICIG, in the capital's airport, refusing him entry to the country in an escalation of tensions between the government and the commission. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy) CLEVELAND (AP) - Several drug manufacturers targeted in lawsuits over the opioid epidemic have asked a federal judge in Cleveland to sanction the man who is Ohio's attorney general and governor-elect, along with two other lawyers, for statements they made in recent television interviews. Friday's motion said statements by Republican Attorney General and Gov.-elect Mike DeWine and the others on an episode of CBS' "60 Minutes" were calculated to taint potential jury pools, Cleveland.com reported . DeWine and attorneys Mike Moore and Burton LeBlanc were part of a Dec. 16 segment on the news magazine show about litigation over the role of big pharmaceutical companies in the deadly opioid epidemic. Correspondent Bill Whitaker explored topics including the value of potential damages and data on pill distribution in states and cities collected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The motion was filed by attorneys for several drug manufacturers and distributors, including Cardinal Health, Endo, AmerisourceBergen and Purdue Pharma. It alleges DeWine, Moore and LeBlanc were part of a "concerted campaign" by lawyers representing state and local governments "to taint potential jury pools . through misleading, inflammatory, and improper public statements." The motion asks the judge to impose a gag order and other sanctions. The defendants claim the men's statements represented "a flagrant violation of their ethical obligations as attorneys practicing before this Court and threatens defendants' rights to a fair adjudication of the claims asserted against them." FILE- In this Nov. 13, 2018, file photo Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine speaks during a news conference in Waverly, Ohio. Several drug manufacturers targeted in lawsuits over the nation's opioid epidemic have asked a federal judge in Cleveland to sanction the man who is Ohio's attorney general and governor-elect, along with two other lawyers, for statements they made in recent television interviews. The motion Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, said statements by Republican Attorney General and Gov.-elect Mike DeWine and the others on an episode of CBS' "60 Minutes" were calculated to taint potential jury pools, Cleveland.com reported. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) Attorney General's Office spokesman Dan Tierney told The Associated Press in an email Saturday night that Dewine "respectfully declines comment." Cleveland.com reports that Moore declined to comment Friday because he hadn't seen the motion and that LeBlanc didn't immediately respond to a voicemail. Phone and email messages seeking comment were left for both attorneys Sunday by The Associated Press. The motion comes amid preparations for a September trial over claims against drug companies by the cities of Cleveland and Akron and their respective counties, Cuyahoga and Summit. The cases are among scores from around the country being heard by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. A group represented by DeWine filed its own lawsuits over fallout from the opioid epidemic. A second, larger group has joined a multistate investigation of the industry. The suits accuse pharmaceutical companies of downplaying the addictive nature of opioids and prescription painkillers largely blamed for one of the deadliest drug crises in U.S. history. Ohio's opioid lawsuit, in which Moore is involved, isn't included among those Polster is overseeing, because it's being heard in a Ross County court. DeWine has participated in settlement talks in the federal litigation. The motion questions Moore saying that "if we try the Ohio case, if we win a verdict against these manufacturers and distributors there, it could bankrupt them" and that a jury may award $100 billion in a trial. It notes DeWine told "60 Minutes" he had seen a set of data from the federal Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System, or ARCOS, database that he wasn't allowed to talk about but that was "shocking." He said distributors should have seen something was wrong. LeBlanc discussed how defendants had access to the ARCOS database, which defendants say was misleading. ___ Information from: cleveland.com, http://www.cleveland.com PARIS (AP) - Several hundred women wearing yellow vests have marched through Paris in a bid to restore a peaceful image to the grassroots protest movement, a day after demonstrations veered once more into violence. Some women carried yellow balloons during Saturday's march from the Place de la Bastille to the Opera Garnier. At one point, they fell to their knees in a minute of silence for the 10 people killed and many others injured since the movement began in mid-November. Women also marched in other cities around France. The movement is losing wind with repeated violence at weekly demonstrations. Some women tried to rebrand the movement as peaceful through signs reading "I am your daughter" or "I am your Grandma." Protesters wear fluorescent yellow safety vests required in French cars. Women donning red bonnets , that symbolizes the French Revolution and wearing yellow vests march during a protest in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Several hundred women wearing yellow vests march during a rally in Paris to give a different image to the movement. (AP Photo//Michel Euler) Women wearing yellow vests observes a minute of silence for the victims of the national yellow vest movement in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Several hundred women wearing yellow vests march during a rally in Paris to give a different image to the movement. (AP Photo//Michel Euler) Women donning red bonnets , that symbolizes the French Revolution and wearing yellow vests march during a protest in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Several hundred women wearing yellow vests march during a rally in Paris to give a different image to the movement. (AP Photo//Michel Euler) Women wearing ballet skirts march with a French national flag during a protest in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Several hundred women wearing yellow vests march during a rally in Paris to give a different image to the movement. (AP Photo//Michel Euler) LOS ANGELES (AP) - Tens of thousands of people lost power Sunday after a powerful winter storm swept through Northern California, while another storm system in the southern part of the state unleashed mudslides in wildfire burn areas and trapped motorists on a major highway. The deluge loosened hillsides where a major blaze burned last year in and around Malibu, clogging the Pacific Coast Highway with mud and debris. A stretch of the scenic route northwest of Los Angeles was expected to remain closed in both directions until Monday while crews tow away stuck vehicles and clear lanes. No injuries were reported. The rapper Soulja Boy was among those whose cars were mired in the muck that was up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep in some areas. The 28-year-old retweeted a photo of the mudslide and posted: "My car got stuck too almost went into the ocean," along with a prayer emoji. An automated rain gauge in the western Santa Monica Mountains showed nearly three-quarters of an inch (nearly 2 centimeters) of rainfall in one hour, said the National Weather Service. In this photo provided by Blake Kessler, Wesley Kepke skis in Alpine Meadows, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. A winter storm swept through parts of California, Nevada and Utah, bringing heavy snow to some communities. (Blake Kessler via AP) "These are heavy rates," the weather service tweeted. Up to 1 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain fell in coastal and valley areas, while mountain communities got heavy snow. Flash-flood watches and warnings were eventually lifted for areas burned by the fires that scorched more than 155 square miles (404 square kilometers) of brush and timber acres in November, destroyed about 1,600 structures and claimed three lives. The sun emerged in Los Angeles on Sunday and the red carpet for the evenings Golden Globe awards were expected to remain dry. Scattered showers were possible later in the night. To the north, wind and rain forced delays or cancelations of flights out of San Francisco International Airport for a second day. A wind advisory was in place until 10 p.m. Sunday. The San Francisco Bay Area could get up to 1 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain, with the heaviest downpours coming after sunset. Strong winds and downed trees knocked out electricity for at least 80,000 customers across the Sacramento region Sunday night. The National Weather Service said Sunday that winds gusted up to 49 mph (79 kph). Saturday's storm brought about a foot (30 centimeters) of snow to the Sierra Nevada and twice that amount was expected Sunday. A winter storm warning was in effect until 4 a.m. Monday. Avalanche warnings were posted in parts of California, Nevada and Utah. The Sierra Avalanche Center issued a backcountry avalanche warning for the Lake Tahoe area stretching south into the Sierra along the California-Nevada line from noon Sunday until 7 a.m. Monday. The National Weather Service says blizzard conditions with gale-force winds could trigger widespread avalanche activity. Two feet (61 centimeters) of snow was reported at Mammoth Mountain 150 miles (241.39 kilometers) south of Tahoe. More than a foot (30 centimeters) fell in the upper elevations around Tahoe, including 19 inches (48 cm) at Squaw Valley. Windstorms that pummeled parts of Washington state and Oregon over the weekend left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. A strong system brought winds that registered gusts of about 60 mph (96 kph) at Sea-Tac Airport in Washington, the National Weather Service in Seattle said. Dozens of flights in the region were canceled or delayed. This photo provided by Michael Patrick O'Neill shows his sons Liam, left, and Finn in the snow at Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. A winter storm swept through parts of California, Nevada and Utah, bringing heavy snow to some communities. (Michael Patrick O'Neill via AP) High-rises of downtown Los Angeles rise above clouds and mist on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, after an overnight storm that brought rain and mountain snow to Southern California. Rains unleashed debris flows from wildfire-scarred areas of the Santa Monica Mountains that inundated parts of Pacific Coast Highway. (AP Photo/John Antczak) In this Saturday, Jan 5, 2019, photo sheriff's deputies work to free their patrol cruiser from mud covering a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif. A winter storm unleashed mudslides in Southern California wildfire burn areas and trapped motorists on a major highway, and the northern part of the state is bracing for more wet weather. Saturday's deluge loosened hillsides in Malibu where a major fire burned last year, clogging the Pacific Coast Highway with mud and debris. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via AP) FILE - In this Nov. 29, 2018, file photo, workers shovel snow off a staircase at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe near Reno, Nev. Avalanche warnings have been posted in parts of California, Nevada and Utah after a winter storm dumped heavy snow on the region. The Sierra Avalanche Center issued a backcountry avalanche warning for the Lake Tahoe area stretching south into the Sierra along the California-Nevada line from noon Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, until 7 a.m. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP, File) PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Sen. Susan Collins is "getting ready to run" for re-election, she said during a television appearance Sunday, but she reiterated that she won't make a decision until the end of the year. Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who was first elected to the Senate in 1996, also said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that she thinks Republicans and Democrats are both at fault for the government shutdown and that a compromise could be brokered soon. Democrats and liberal groups have targeted Collins for her role in the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year. A crowd-funded effort to boost her opponent in 2020 has received more than $3.7 million. Collins has yet to make a firm commitment about whether she's running for re-election. She told "Meet The Press" host Chuck Todd she would prefer to use this year to legislate rather than campaign. "I'm getting ready to run, but frankly I just think it's too early to make that kind of decision," Collins said. "But I am getting prepared, and I'll make a final decision toward the end of this year." Collins was re-elected with ease in 2014, but Democratic organizers have vowed to hold her accountable for Kavanaugh's confirmation if she seeks another term. She announced her support for Kavanaugh on the Senate floor in October in a move that essentially assured the nominee's ascent to the Supreme Court. FILE- In this Oct. 3, 2018, file photo Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairs the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Capitol Hill in Washington. Collins is "getting ready to run" for re-election, she said during a television appearance Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, but she reiterated that she won't make a decision until the end of the year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Kavanaugh's nomination by Republican President Donald Trump was followed by testimony from Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh assaulted her decades earlier. Collins said on the Senate floor that she was compelled by Ford's testimony, but that Kavanaugh deserved the presumption of innocence. Fundraising by liberals to attempt to defeat Collins in 2020 intensified almost immediately. The partial shutdown of the federal government hit its 16th day Sunday. Collins told Todd the shutdown could be ended if Trump and leaders in Congress agree to separate the issue of a wall at the southern border from the rest of the functions of the federal government. "We could reopen much of the government where there's no dispute over issues involving certain departments like ag, transportation, housing, interior," Collins said. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue." BERLIN (AP) - Germany's top IT security official faces a grilling Monday over his agency's handling of an alleged hacking case that saw hundreds of politicians' and celebrities' private information posted online . Daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Sunday quoted Germany's interior minister saying he's summoned Arne Schoenbohm, head of the Federal Office for Information Security, for talks in Berlin. Horst Seehofer told the newspaper that he plans to meet with Schoenbohm and the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Muench, and will inform the public during the course of the week. Several lawmakers criticized Schoenbohm's agency for failing to inform Parliament after it first learned of possible security breaches in early December. The far-right Alternative for Germany party, whose lawmakers were the only ones not affected, condemned the apparent hacking. CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's president on Sunday inaugurated a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region's largest mosques in a highly symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his rule, fighting Islamic militancy while advocating equality between the overwhelming Muslim majority and Christians, who account for 10 percent of Egypt's 100 million people. "This is a historic and important moment," said el-Sissi inside the cathedral. "But we still have to protect the tree of love we planted here together today because seditions never end." The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the world's primary seat of learning for Sunni Muslims, echoed el-Sissi's sentiments in comments also made at the cathedral. The two places of worship, he said, stand as a symbol in the face of "attempts to undermine the country's stability and sectarian seditions." El-Sissi's widely publicized policy to staunch sectarianism, however, has done little to protect Christians in rural Egypt, where Muslim extremists frequently attack their homes and businesses or force them to leave their homes after violent disputes. Critics and activists say discrimination against Christians there is often tolerated by local authorities and branches of the security agencies. Christians also complain of stringent restrictions on the construction of churches. But Sunday's opening ceremony in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, el-Sissi's brainchild that is located in the desert east of Cairo, stressed what the pro-government media like to call the "unbreakable national fabric" of Christians and Muslims. Entertainers and chorus lines took to the stage to sing about the two faiths living peacefully side by side. Short films on the same topic were also screened. A policeman checks a Coptic Christian for metal as he enters Christmas mass at the "Great St. Antony Church" in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The Coptic Christian population are considered to be the largest Christian community in the Middle East and observe Christmas on January 7 according to the old, Julian calendar.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil) The ceremony's presenters portrayed the construction of the cathedral and the mosque, which took 18 months to complete, as a message to humanity. "It is a message to the whole world that Egypt is a nation for all," said one presenter. The ceremony, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and a host of Arab dignitaries, included recorded video messages of support from the region's top Christian clerics as well as Pope Francis. Speaking in Italian, Pope Francis said: "With joy I greet all of you on the joyful occasion of the dedication of the new Cathedral of the Nativity, built in the new administrative capital. May the prince of peace give to Egypt, the Middle East and the whole world the gift of peace and prosperity." The inauguration ceremony, which ended with a display of fireworks, took on added significance because it fell on Christmas Eve for Egypt's predominantly Coptic Orthodox Christians, and just hours after a police bomb squad major was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a Cairo church. El-Sissi and participants observed a minute of silence in memory of the fallen policeman. The late Saturday blast came a little more than a week after a roadside bomb hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian driver. It likely will compel authorities to further tighten security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. Already, armed policemen guard churches and security guards check the identity of visitors. Metal detectors have also been set up outside churches. The heightened security followed a spate of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group which has targeted churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries, killing more than 100 Christians over the past two years. Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, with the army and police now engaged since early last year in an all-out campaign to eradicate them, throwing into battle tens of thousands of troops backed by armor, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and warships. ___ Frances D'Emilio contributed to this report from Rome. The "Great St. Antony Church", right, and the Great mosque, left, are illuminated in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The Coptic Christian population are considered to be the largest Christian community in the Middle East and observe Christmas on January 7 according to the old, Julian calendar.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil) The Cross of the "Great St. Antony Church", right, and the dome of the Great mosque, left, are illuminated in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The Coptic Christian population are considered to be the largest Christian community in the Middle East and observe Christmas on January 7 according to the old, Julian calendar.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil) In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 photo, a forensic investigator uses equipment at the site where a policeman was killed trying to defuse an explosive device, near a church in a residential district of Cairo, Egypt. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas. (AP Photo/Sayed Hasan) In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 photo, police form a security cordon after a policeman was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a church, in a residential district of Cairo, Egypt. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas. (AP Photo/Sayed Hasan) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gavin Newsom will become California's 40th governor on Monday, succeeding fellow Democrat Jerry Brown. Here are 10 things to know about the next leader of the nation's most populous state: -Served as lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019 and San Francisco mayor from 2004 to 2011. -Married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actress, and the couple has four children. Newsom is the son of William Newsom III, a former justice on the state court of appeals. -He is 51 years old. -Opened a San Francisco wine shop in 1992 with Billy Getty, the grandson of the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. It grew into a network of wineries, hotels and restaurants known as the PlumpJack Group. Newsom is placing his ownership into a blind trust run by a family friend and attorney to avoid conflicts of interest while serving as governor. FILE- In this March 21, 2018 file photo, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from right, watches as State Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, right, is sworn in as the new President Pro Tempore of the Senate by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, second from right, at the Capitol, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom,will be sworn-in to office Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, and will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) -Formerly married to Kimberly Guilfoyle, the prosecutor-turned-Fox news host who now dates Donald Trump Jr. -In 2004, as mayor, directed San Francisco city clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, then in violation of state and federal law. A month later, the state Supreme Court halted the practice and voided the licenses. -Proposed and campaigned heavily for the winning 2016 gun control ballot measure that restricted possession of high-capacity magazines and required a background check to buy bullets, among other things. -Supported the 2016 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana, which won passage. -Has dyslexia, a disorder that can make it difficult to read. Newsom said it's forced him to learn how to over-prepare, and he memorizes most of his speeches. -Longtime family friend of Jerry Brown, and recalled licking envelopes for campaign materials during Brown's 1992 presidential bid. FILE- In this Nov. 13, 2018 file photo California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, right, and Gov. Jerry Brown talk with reporters after their meeting at the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018 file photo Governor-elect, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, watches the Assembly session at the Capitol, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, will be sworn-in to office Jan. 7, 2019, and will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump talks with from left, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, FEMA Administrator Brock Long, right, Jody Jones, Mayor of Paradise, and California Gov. Jerry Brown during a visit to a neighborhood impacted by the wildfires, in Paradise, Calif. Newsom who will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, has been a harsh critic of Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2018 file photo, Lt. Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, addresses an election night crowd, in Los Angeles, after he defeated Republican John Cox to become the 40th governor of California. Newsom, will be sworn-in to office Jan. 7, 2019, will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Jan. 18 2012 file photo Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, introduces Gov. Jerry Brown who gave his annual State of the State address before a joint session of the Legislature at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE- In this Nov. 13, 2018 file photo California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, right, and Gov. Jerry Brown talk with reporters after their meeting at the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) A worker tightens the support of one of the tents outside the state Capitol Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in preparation for Monday's inauguration of Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, in Sacramento, Calif. Due to the threat of rain, the inaugural ceremonies are expected to be held inside tents. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) A worker tightens the support of one of the tents outside the state Capitol Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in preparation for Monday's inauguration of Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, in Sacramento, Calif. Due to the threat of rain, the inaugural ceremonies are expected to be held inside tents. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - When Gov. Jerry Brown cedes power to Gavin Newsom, it will be the first time since 1887 that California has had consecutive Democratic governors. But California isn't getting a carbon copy in substance or style. Newsom becomes governor Monday, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms leading the nation's most populous state. The handoff reflects Democrats' dominance in California politics - the party holds every statewide office and huge majorities in the Legislature. And it is the next act in a history between the Newsom and Brown families that spans eight decades. The new governor will stay Brown's course in some areas but is likely to push more ambitious and expensive policies related to health care and education. And he'll be "a little more of a flashy governor than Brown," said Eric Schickler, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Newsom enters office with a strong economy and nearly $30 billion in reserves left from Brown, although a slowing of the national economy could drastically shift the course of Newsom's governorship. For now, though, "he comes in in a pretty enviable spot," Schickler said. Newsom, 51, is a tailored-suit politician with a mega-watt smile and perfectly coiffed hair. Where Brown kept the media at arm's length, Newsom courts the spotlight. FILE- In this Nov. 13, 2018 file photo California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, right, and Gov. Jerry Brown talk with reporters after their meeting at the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) The generational change he brings to the governor's mansion is reflected in the musical headliners for a wildfire victims benefit concert Newsom will host on Sunday - hip-hop artists Pitbull and Common. Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, already has created a change in Sacramento political traditions with her preference for the title "first partner" rather than "first lady," which she said is more inclusive. It's also reflective of her professional experience as an actress and filmmaker focused on gender politics and inequality. The Newsom and Brown families have been intertwined since the 1940s, when Newsom's grandfather helped lead Brown's father's campaign for San Francisco district attorney. Pat Brown went on to be governor from 1959-1967. Newsom's father, William Newsom III, once dated one of Pat Brown's daughters, and Jerry Brown appointed him to two judgeships. The two remained friends until the elder Newsom's death in last month. The long history between the families hasn't always produced warm feelings between the outgoing and incoming governor. When Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, wanted to run for governor in 2010 it was Brown's entrance into the race that foiled his bid, forcing him to settle for lieutenant governor, a job with little power. During Brown's first term, the two butted heads when Brown ignored Newsom's suggestions for reviving the state's economy following the Great Recession and declined to appoint members to an economic development commission chaired by the lieutenant governor. The two also overlapped in their mayoral tenures, when Newsom led San Francisco and Brown ran nearby Oakland. "There was a bit of rivalry," said Jerry Hallisey, a San Francisco lawyer and longtime friend of Brown and Newsom. He described their relationship now as "cordial." Hallisey, said he expects Newsom to pull more expertise from the private sector into his administration than Brown did. Newsom launched a winery in 1992 that grew into the PlumpJack Group, a network of wineries and hospitality businesses that made him a millionaire. He's placing his controlling interests into a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. Brown has in the past batted away questions about his relationship with Newsom, saying the lieutenant governor has a limited role by design and that he talked to Newsom as much as any governor would his lieutenant. The day after the November election, he said Newsom's time as mayor gave him executive experience to lead the state, although he's warned Newsom may have a difficult time controlling Democratic lawmakers' appetites for more spending. "He has a lot of skill, he's got a lot of experience, he's a smart guy," Brown said. But, "It's going to be a challenging four years." On his campaign bus in October, Newsom said he'll always be "the kid" in Brown's eyes and that their relationship has been rocky in part because "it's too familiar." But, he said, that's all wrapped in reverence and "deep respect" for Brown. "It's built into who I am because it's part of my 50 years," Newsom said of the Browns. "My narrative has been their narrative." Newsom will work to chart his own course with more expansive policies on health care and education. His Monday inaugural address will offer a first glimpse at his priorities. He's expected to talk about making California more affordable and ensuring the "California dream" can be reached by everyone. Three days later, he'll introduce his first state budget. Among the new initiatives he'll propose: A nearly $2 billion investment in early childhood education and child care and $40 million more for the state's community college system. It's unclear how much focus he'll put on government-run health care in his first term. He backed a 2017 bill that ultimately died in the Legislature, but said it remains a priority. ___ Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento contributed to this report. FILE- In this Nov. 13, 2018 file photo California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, right, and Gov. Jerry Brown talk with reporters after their meeting at the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE- In this March 21, 2018 file photo, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from right, watches as State Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, right, is sworn in as the new President Pro Tempore of the Senate by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, second from right, at the Capitol, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom,will be sworn-in to office Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, and will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018 file photo Governor-elect, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, watches the Assembly session at the Capitol, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, will be sworn-in to office Jan. 7, 2019, and will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump talks with from left, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, FEMA Administrator Brock Long, right, Jody Jones, Mayor of Paradise, and California Gov. Jerry Brown during a visit to a neighborhood impacted by the wildfires, in Paradise, Calif. Newsom who will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, has been a harsh critic of Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2018 file photo, Lt. Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, addresses an election night crowd, in Los Angeles, after he defeated Republican John Cox to become the 40th governor of California. Newsom, will be sworn-in to office Jan. 7, 2019, will work with a Legislature firmly gripped by Democrats. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this Jan. 18 2012 file photo Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, introduces Gov. Jerry Brown who gave his annual State of the State address before a joint session of the Legislature at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom will be sworn in to office Jan. 7, 2019, concluding the 80-year-old Brown's four terms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) A worker tightens the support of one of the tents outside the state Capitol Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in preparation for Monday's inauguration of Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, in Sacramento, Calif. Due to the threat of rain, the inaugural ceremonies are expected to be held inside tents. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) A worker tightens the support of one of the tents outside the state Capitol Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in preparation for Monday's inauguration of Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, in Sacramento, Calif. Due to the threat of rain, the inaugural ceremonies are expected to be held inside tents. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) The bench then directed R Com to deposit a demand draft of Rs 118 crore in the registry. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Reliance Communication Ltd (RCom) Chairman Anil Dhirubhai Ambani and others on a contempt petition filed by Ericsson India over non-payment of its dues. A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman sought a response from Ambani and others in four weeks. Appearing for R Com, senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi asked the court to accept Rs 118 crore towards outstanding dues to Ericsson India to establish its bonafide. The counsel appearing for Ericsson, however, refused to accept the amount and said the entire outstanding sum of Rs 550 crore should be deposited. The bench then directed R Com to deposit a demand draft of Rs 118 crore in the registry. HELSINKI (AP) - One of Denmark's main newspapers is pledging to reduce to its carbon footprint by ceasing domestic air travel and reducing international flights for assignments to a bare minimum. Christian Jensen, editor-in-chief of Politiken, said Sunday that from now on all international flights by the paper's staff, only when absolutely necessary, should be offset by contributions to climate initiatives. The paper's travel section will be refocused to cover domestic, Nordic and northern European destinations easily reachable by public transportation. Jensen said opinion polls in the environmentally-conscious Nordic country showed that climate change has emerged as the No. 1 issue on voters' minds before Denmark's upcoming general election later this year. Politiken, founded in 1884, is one of Denmark's three main newspapers along with Berlingske and Jyllands-Posten. LAS VEGAS (AP) - The CES 2019 gadget show, which kicks off Sunday, will showcase the expanding influence and sway of China's rapidly growing technology sector. But some of its firms are stepping back from the spotlight amid rising U.S. national-security concerns over Chinese tech and a trans-Pacific trade war launched by President Donald Trump. Last year, a top executive of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei delivered a CES keynote address critical of AT&T's abrupt cancellation of plans to sell a Huawei phone following espionage concerns raised by the U.S. government. This year, Huawei's chief financial officer was arrested in Canada at the behest of the U.S.; Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei's founder, now awaits U.S. extradition . No Chinese technology executives will deliver CES keynotes in Las Vegas this week. There are fewer Chinese entrepreneurs buying up booth space to show off their latest technology - more than 20 percent fewer exhibitors than last year, according to registration numbers tracked by the South China Morning Post. Chinese firms still account for more than a quarter of the conference's 4,500 exhibitors, second only to the U.S. in sheer numbers. But some of the biggest names are taking a more subdued approach. Internet company Baidu last year hosted a flashy event touting its self-driving software, but this year is sticking to a more conventional booth. E-commerce giant Alibaba is eschewing the big outdoor tent it helped erect last year in favor of quieter meetings marketing its voice assistant to business partners. The phone maker Xiaomi is simply skipping this year's event altogether. None of them are citing U.S.-China tensions as a reason, but it's hard to ignore the geopolitical backdrop - even with a 90-day "cease-fire" on tariffs set to expire in March. Trump struck a more conciliatory tone Sunday as American trade negotiators prepared to meet with their counterparts in Beijing. The U.S. and China have imposed import taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other's goods - and Trump has threatened more to come, including tariffs that could make devices like iPhones more expensive. The U.S. is also exploring new export restrictions that would target industries where China is hoping to get ahead, such as artificial intelligence and robotics. And the Justice Department brought charges last month against two Chinese citizens it accused of stealing American trade secrets and other sensitive information on behalf of Beijing's main intelligence agency. FILE- In this Jan. 9, 2018, file photo the Huawei Mate10 Pro phone is displayed at the Huawei booth during CES International in Las Vegas. The CES 2019 gadget show, which kicks off Sunday, will showcase the expanding influence and sway of China's rapidly growing technology sector. But some of its firms are stepping back from the spotlight amid rising U.S. national-security concerns over Chinese tech and a trans-Pacific trade war launched by President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) Of course, plenty of Chinese entrepreneurs are still eager to show off their innovations. Hosts of the 52-year-old trade event have sought to downplay the tensions, noting that they've weathered previous trade tensions, such as those that roiled U.S.-Japan relations in the 1980s. "The Japanese presence used to be very big and it was similar in that the U.S. was in a panic about it," said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES. That ended when the Japanese "bubble" economy burst in 1991 and its tech industry began a long, slow decline. "Japanese innovation from those companies shrunk and those companies consolidated," Shapiro said. "These things are impermanent. So I don't lose that much sleep over it." Shapiro said the trade dispute with China and the Meng arrest in Canada aren't impacting attendance. CES organizers on Sunday wouldn't confirm numbers showing a sharp drop in Chinese exhibitors, but said a decline in small Chinese companies on the show floor was made up by expanded booth presence from bigger firms. Chinese tech firms are increasingly joining their American, South Korean and Japanese counterparts in using CES to build enthusiasm for up-and-coming electronics products, while also connecting with potential new international partners and suppliers. That's especially true for electronics firms like Hisense and TCL, which have increasingly sought to sell their TVs in North America, and Lenovo, which is already a big player in the U.S. laptop market but is pushing to sell other internet-connected devices. Hisense is making a splashier presentation this year as it invests in boosting its U.S. brand awareness, said Jim Ninesling, head of marketing for Hisense USA. Previously, the company, which has a large market share in China, mostly kept on the U.S. sidelines, branding some of its products under the name of the better-known Japanese firm Sharp. Chinese electric carmaker Byton, a startup backed by internet giant Tencent, on Sunday unveiled what it called the "world's most intuitive automotive interface" involving a touchscreen mounted on the steering wheel. AI firm iFlytek - sometimes described as China's Siri or Alexa - is planning to showcase its latest advances in voice recognition and real-time translation services. And a startup expo co-hosted by the Chinese government features a bevy of gee-whiz innovations, from indoor delivery robots and portable karaoke headsets to "smart" suitcases aided by computer vision. In an ideal world, the tech industries in the two countries would be seen as complementary, said venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee, who led Google's subsidiary in China before the company withdrew over censorship and other concerns. "The U.S. strength is deep technologists, universities, academics, people with superior experience," he said. "China's superiority is a larger market, more data, and very tenacious and hardworking entrepreneurs." Lee said his optimism for a more collaborative approach is now "merely a dream" because of the worsening trade dispute. But he said there could still be partnerships between U.S. firms and Chinese companies that, for now, mostly cater to Chinese consumers. "Google feels much, much more threat from Amazon than any Chinese company," he said. "That makes Tencent and Alibaba potential allies, especially when customer needs cross international boundaries." __ AP Business Writer Joseph Pisani contributed to this report. iFLYTEK vice president Steven Li speaks during an iFLYTEK news conference before CES International, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) FILE- In this Jan. 9, 2018, file photo a woman wears Huawei VR2 goggles at the Huawei booth during CES International in Las Vegas. The CES 2019 gadget show, which kicks off Sunday, will showcase the expanding influence and sway of China's rapidly growing technology sector. But some of its firms are stepping back from the spotlight amid rising U.S. national-security concerns over Chinese tech and a trans-Pacific trade war launched by President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) JERUSALEM (AP) - U.S. troops will not leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected, a top White House aide said Sunday, signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. While U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said there is now no timetable, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to withdrawing U.S. troops, though the president said "we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." Trump had said in his Dec. 19 withdrawal announcement that U.S. forces "have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," and added in a video posted to Twitter, "Now it's time for our troops to come back home." Bolton said in Israel that the U.S. would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of IS in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists. In Washington, Trump told reporters at the White House that "we are pulling back in Syria. We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly." But in that Dec. 19 video, the president had said of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria: "They're all coming back, and they're coming back now." And officials said at the time that while many details were yet to be finalized, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, seated front row forth from left, participates in a virtual reality demonstration at the Western Wall on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Jerusalem. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer are sitting alongside. (AP Photo/Zeke Miller) "I think this is the reality setting in that you got to plan this out," said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "the bottom line here is we want to make sure we get this right, that ISIS doesn't come back. And I applaud the president for re-evaluating what he's doing. ... He has a goal in mind of reducing our presence. I share that goal. Let's just do it smartly." Trump's decision last month drew widespread criticism from allies, led to the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on the Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. 'There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement." He was to be in Turkey on Monday, accompanied by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, for talks with government officials. Bolton said the U.S. wants its Kurdish allies in Syria protected from any planned Turkish offensive - a warning to be delivered to Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States," Bolton said. He said that in upcoming meetings with Turkish officials, he will seek "to find out what their objectives and capabilities are and that remains uncertain." Bolton said Trump has made clear he would not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds. "That's what the president said, the ones that fought with us," Bolton said. Bolton said the U.S. has asked the Kurds to "stand fast now" and refrain from seeking protection from Russia or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. "I think they know who their friends are," he added, speaking of the Kurds. Jim Jeffrey, the special representative for Syrian engagement and the newly named American special envoy for the anti-Islamic State coalition, is to travel to Syria this coming week in an effort to reassure the Kurdish fighters that they are not being abandoned, Bolton said. Turkey's presidential spokesman called allegations that his country planned to attack the U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria "irrational" and said Turkey was fighting terrorism for national security. In comments carried by the official Anadolu news agency, Ibrahim Kalin said the Kurdish fighters oppressed Syrian Kurds and pursued a separatist agenda under the guise of fighting IS. "That a terror organization cannot be allied with the U.S. is self-evident," he said. U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the conditions raised by Bolton were "obvious," and Smith criticized the conflicting messages from the Trump administration. "We don't want ISIS to rise again and be a transnational terrorist threat and we don't want our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered by Erdogan in Turkey," said Smith, D-Wash. Bolton said U.S. troops would remain at the critical area of al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region. He defended the legal basis for the deployment, saying it's justified by the president's constitutional authority. The U.S. is also seeking a "satisfactory disposition" for roughly 800 IS prisoners held by the U.S.-backed Syrian opposition, Bolton said, adding talks were ongoing with European and regional partners about the issue. Bolton was to have dinner with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday to discuss the pace of the U.S. drawdown, American troop levels in the region, and the U.S. commitment to push back on Iranian regional expansionism. Bolton was expected to explain that some U.S. troops based in Syria to fight IS will shift to Iraq with the same mission and that the al-Tanf base would remain. Bolton also was to convey the message that the United States is "very supportive" of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, according to a senior administration official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss Bolton's plans before the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity. ___ Associated Press writers Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Catherine Lucey in Washington contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the government shutdown (all times local): 8:15 p.m. President Donald Trump is standing by his demands for funding for a border wall as another round of shutdown talks fails to break an impasse. Newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Trump spent part of Sunday at Camp David for staff meetings but showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. At the White House complex, a meeting with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence yielded little progress. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House while walking to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days. ___ 7:25 p.m. Hundreds of government scientists are missing three major scientific conferences this week because of the partial government shutdown. Attendees of the events describe them as crucial opportunities for scientists from the government, the private sector and academia to exchange research and ideas. Topics include technology, space exploration, extreme weather and climate change. Those attending a conference in Seattle are missing out on the world's largest airborne observatory, also because of the shutdown. The visit of the Boeing 747 equipped with a massive telescope used to study the fundamental mysteries of the universe has been canceled. The other conferences are in San Diego and Phoenix. Scientists say the effects from these missed opportunities will be felt for a long time. ___ 5:40 p.m. Talks led by Vice President Mike Pence to resolve the government shutdown have failed to reach an agreement over President Donald Trump's demand for money from Congress for a border wall with Mexico. Democrats say the administration on Sunday did not present full budget information they had requested on how the White House would use the $5.6 billion Trump wants for the wall. Two Democratic officials familiar with the session say Democrats pleaded with Pence and other officials to re-open government while talks continue. One of the officials says no new meetings have been scheduled. With his negotiators preparing for the afternoon session, Trump said he didn't expect it to produce a resolution. Trump said earlier Sunday that only he could make a deal with Democratic leaders. ___ 12:10 p.m. Top Democrats say President Donald Trump would face legal and political challenges if he tries to declare a national emergency to build the border wall with Mexico. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "Where is the emergency?" the Washington Democrat said on ABC's "This Week." Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called it a "non-starter." The California Democrat tells CNN's "State of the Union": "Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border." ___ 11:55 a.m. Republican Susan Collins of Maine wants the Senate to take up House-passed bills to re-open the government. The GOP senator said Sunday that Congress could "reopen much of the government" while talks continue over building President Donald Trump's promised border wall with Mexico. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Collins is among several Republicans uncomfortable with the shutdown. She has long argued against them and tried to broker resolutions to past stalemates. Collins and others are also up for re-election in 2020 from states including Colorado and North Carolina where views on Trump are mixed. She called debate over border wall types "bizarre." Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will send more bills to re-open government to the Senate this week. ___ 10:25 a.m. President Donald Trump says he plans to call the heads of U.S. Steel and other steel companies to come up with a new design for the barrier he's insisting must be built along the southern border. That's despite the fact that his administration has already spent millions constructing wall prototypes near the border in San Diego. Trump had once vowed to build a concrete border wall, but now says the barrier will be made of steel slats. He tells reporters as he departs the White House for meetings at Camp David that he'll be asking the companies to design "a beautiful steel product" and "we'll use that as our barrier." Trump's demand for billions for the barrier has forced a partial government shutdown that is now in its third week. ___ 9:55 a.m. President Donald Trump says he doesn't expect anything to come out of a second day of negotiations between top administration officials and senior congressional staff trying to end the partial government shutdown now in its third week. Trump insists to reporters as he departs the White House for staff meetings at Camp David that he feels the pain of hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't being paid. A day earlier, he had tweeted he didn't care that "most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats." Trump is still digging in his heels, demanding billions for a border barrier that Democrats won't provide. Trump says he's still mulling declaring a national emergency to try to circumvent Congress. ___ 9:30 a.m. The White House press secretary says President Donald Trump is prepared to bypass Congress if necessary by declaring a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells "Fox News Sunday" that the White House has been looking at "every option available" to get the needed money, and she says Trump will do "whatever it takes to protect our borders." Trump asserted on Friday that he could declare a national emergency to build the wall without congressional approval, but would first try a "negotiated process." Such a move is certain to draw legal challenges. Sanders says Trump is "not going to stop" until he figures out the best way to protect U.S. citizens and that "whatever action he takes will certainly be lawful." ___ 8:20 a.m. A first round of talks between White House officials and congressional aides has made little progress toward ending the government shutdown, with each side accusing the other of giving no ground. More discussions are planned for Sunday. President Donald Trump is scheduled to be at Camp David for a retreat with White House staff on border security and other topics. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says House Democrats intend to start passing individual bills to reopen agencies. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, foreground, Vice President Mike Pence, and White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, walk up the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on the White House complex, to a meeting with staff members of House and Senate leadership, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks to reporters about the government shutdown outside the White House, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) PARIS (AP) - The son of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn said in an interview published Sunday that people will be surprised when his father, detained since Nov. 19 for allegedly falsifying financial reports, recounts his version of events to a Tokyo court on Tuesday. Anthony Ghosn, 24, told France's Journal du Dimanche that his father - who will remain detained until at least Jan. 11 - will get 10 minutes to talk at the hearing, being held at his own request. "For the first time, he can talk about his version of the allegations against him," Anthony Ghosn said in the interview with the weekly paper Journal du Dimanche. "I think everyone will be rather surprised hearing his version of the story. Until now, we've only heard the accusers." The son has no direct contact with his father, and gets information via lawyers. He said his father, who for decades was a revered figure in the global auto industry, has lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) eating three bowls of rice daily, but he reads books and "he resists." Ghosn refuses to cave in, said his son, contending that he would be freed from detention if he admitted guilt to the prosecutor. FILE - In this April 20, 2018, file photo, then Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn speaks during an interview in Hong Kong. A Japanese news report says former Nissan chairman Ghosn will be detained at least through Jan. 11, 2019. Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Co. for two decades saving the Japanese automaker from near bankruptcy, was arrested Nov. 19, 2018, on suspicion of falsifying financial reports.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File) "But for seven weeks, his decision has been quite clear ... He won't give in," Anthony Ghosn said, adding that he would be wearing prison clothes and handcuffs in court. Countering media portrayals, he insisted his father, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, is "not obsessed by money." "He always told us that money is but a means to help those you love, but not an end unto itself." Ghosn is charged with underreporting his pay by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) in 2011-2015, and faces a breach of trust allegation. He led Nissan Motor Co. for two decades and helped save the Japanese automaker from near bankruptcy. He remains head of France's Renault car company, which owns 43 percent of Nissan. Another Nissan executive, Greg Kelly, was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Ghosn on the underreporting of income and was freed Dec. 25 on 70 million yen ($635,600) bail after more than a month in detention. QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani officials say two roadside bombs blasts have wounded eight people in the country's southwestern Baluchistan province. Officer Shams Uddin of the Levies Force said Sunday that the convoy of the force's senior officer Abdul Malik was targeted in Pishin district with a roadside bomb planted in a motorcycle. He said the attack left Malik, his two subordinates and three civilians wounded. In the second attack, a Frontier Corps paramilitary soldier and a civilian were wounded in Panjgur district when a remote-controlled bomb exploded as a paramilitary vehicle was driving by. Police officer Khurshid Dashti said the security vehicle was badly damaged. No one claimed responsibility for either attack. Baluchistan has been a scene of low level insurgency by Baluch separatists who have claimed such attacks in the past. JOHANNESBURG (AP) - The results of Congo's presidential election were delayed Sunday. Some 80 U.S. military personnel have been deployed to Central Africa to protect U.S. assets from possible "violent demonstrations" in Congo over the election outcome. The international community has warned Congo's government that the results must accurately reflect the people's will - and that internet service should be restored. The Catholic Church, a powerful critic during two years of election delays, has angered Congo's ruling party by saying data collected by its 40,000 vote observers show a clear winner. While only the electoral commission can announce results, the church likely has determined that leading opposition candidate Martin Fayulu won. Will Congo's government under departing President Joseph Kabila agree? Here's a look at the election as the country faces what could be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. ___ WHO ARE THE TOP CANDIDATES? Kabila last year ended months of tense speculation by saying he would step aside. He put forward ruling party loyalist Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former interior minister under European Union sanctions for a sometimes violent crackdown on people protesting the election delay. Congo expelled the EU ambassador days before the vote. Shadary, who has predicted victory, is seen by many Congolese as likely to be president in name only while Kabila rules from the shadows to protect his wealth amassed from the country's rich mineral resources. Kabila, barred from serving three consecutive terms, has hinted he might run again in 2023. This photo taken Friday Jan. 4, 2019 shows a blackboard with presidential election results for that specific polling station, in a school in Kinshasa, Congo. Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but election observers and the opposition have raised numerous concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime President Joseph Kabila. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Fayulu, a businessman and Kinshasa lawmaker, leads a coalition backed by two powerful opposition figures barred from running for president, former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and former governor Moise Katumbi. Fayulu has accused Congolese authorities of impeding his campaign by blocking his flights; preventing some political activities in the capital, an opposition stronghold; and assaulting his supporters. Kabila has dismissed the allegations, while Fayulu has urged supporters to stay calm. ___ WHAT TROUBLES HAVE BEEN REPORTED? Congolese election observers, opposition supporters and rights groups have alleged irregularities in the Dec. 30 vote, which Western observers were not invited to watch. Some 1 million voters in the eastern cities of Beni and Butembo were barred from the election, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola virus outbreak. That alone could undermine the vote's credibility, some observers said. Protests followed, with some Ebola facilities vandalized. The Catholic Church, whose mission deployed some 40,000 observers to polling centers, has said 38 percent of the stations were missing electoral materials more than three hours after polls opened. Twenty-three percent of its observers' reports said voting was suspended at some point because of troubles with voting machines, used in Congo for the first time. Overall, it said, the irregularities did not considerably impact voting. Many people could not find their names on voters' lists. Some polling stations were moved at the last minute, while others were in prohibited areas such as military barracks, said the Symotel civil society group, which deployed about 19,000 observers. It said 24 percent of the polling stations it observed closed without allowing people in line to vote. Human Rights Watch says election observers were blocked from "numerous" polling stations and vote-counting centers, and that Congolese soldiers or other armed groups allegedly tried to force people in several areas to vote for Shadary. ___ WHY IS THE INTERNET BLOCKED? Internet and text-messaging were cut off the day after the election in an apparent effort to calm speculation on social media about the results among Congo's 40 million voters. The tactic is increasingly popular in some African nations. The United States has said internet service should be restored, warning that those who undermine the democratic process could face U.S. sanctions. "These efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced," said a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, also noting intimidation of journalists, observers and rights activists. She called for peace at a "very sensitive" time. It is not known if the delay in announcing preliminary results will delay the publication of the final election results, expected by Jan. 15, with the inauguration three days later. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's space agency is complaining that the invitation for its head to visit the U.S. has been cancelled without informing the organization. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Washington Post in a story Saturday that he has rescinded the invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin after several senators raised complaints. Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, when he was a deputy prime minister. Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told state news agency Tass on Sunday that "it seems strange to us that our NASA colleagues dealt with us through the media and not directly." Russian lawmaker Frants Klintsevich said the decision shows that "the U.S. political establishment doesn't intend to change its Russophobic vector." MADRID (AP) - The Latest on Europe's migrant situation (all times local): 2:25 p.m. Pope Francis has appealed to European leaders to show concrete solidarity to 49 migrants stranded aboard a pair of rescue vessels. Francis, addressing faithful in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, noted that the migrants, rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, have been waiting for days for permission for a safe port to let them disembark. The crowd applauded his words. As policy, Italy's populist government has refused to let private aid vessels disembark migrants, rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats, in Italian ports. Malta is also refusing to let the boats dock or the migrants disembark, but has allowed the two boats to enter its waters for fresh supplies. Thirty-two of the migrants were rescued on Dec. 22; the others, days later. In this photo taken with slow shutter speed Pope Francis leaves after celebrating an Epiphany Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Pope Francis has appealed to European leaders to show "concrete solidarity" to 49 migrants stranded aboard a pair of rescue vessels. Francis, addressing faithful in St. Peter's Square Sunday, noted that the migrants, rescued in the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Francis said he was directing a "fervent appeal" to the leaders to "show concrete solidarity toward these persons." ___ 2:10 p.m. Spain's maritime rescue service says it saved 549 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The service says its craft intercepted six small boats carrying a total of 350 migrants on Saturday in waters east of the Strait of Gibraltar. On Sunday another 199 migrants were pulled from five different boats, including two tiny inflatable boats meant for small bodies of water or near the beach. One of those tiny recreational boats was carrying four children. The other was packed with 10 adults. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that 2,262 migrants died while crossing the Mediterranean in 2018. The European Union's border agency says that 57,000 illegal immigrants reached Spain last year, double the figure for 2017. Overall, unauthorized border crossings into Europe hit a five-year low. MADRID (AP) - Spain's maritime rescue service says it has saved 549 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The service says its craft intercepted six small smuggling boats carrying a total of 350 migrants on Saturday in waters east of the Strait of Gibraltar. On Sunday another 199 migrants were pulled from five different boats, including two tiny inflatable boats meant for small bodies of water or near the beach. One of those tiny recreational boats was carrying four children. The other was packed with 10 adults. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that 2,262 migrants died while crossing the Mediterranean in 2018. The European Union's border agency says that 57,000 migrants reached Spain last year, double the figure for 2017. That is partially due to the fact that Italy, Malta and other EU nations have been refusing to let aid boats full of rescued migrants dock at their ports. Overall, however, unauthorized border crossings into Europe hit a five-year low in 2018. In this Monday, Dec. 24, 2018 photo and provided by Sea Watch, a migrants sits aboard the rescue ship Sea-Watch 3. Over 30 migrants saved in the central Mediterranean sea by the German no-profit rescue organization Sea-Watch are still stranded after five days at sea, because no European country is opening its ports to receive them. (Chris Grodotzki/Sea Watch Via AP) In this photo taken with slow shutter speed Pope Francis leaves after celebrating an Epiphany Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Pope Francis has appealed to European leaders to show "concrete solidarity" to 49 migrants stranded aboard a pair of rescue vessels. Francis, addressing faithful in St. Peter's Square Sunday, noted that the migrants, rescued in the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's Shin Bet security service says five Jewish minors have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the killing of a Palestinian woman. The agency partially lifted the gag order on the case Sunday, saying the youths were seminary students suspected of hurling the rocks that killed 48-year-old Aisha Rabi in October. The mother of eight was traveling toward her West Bank home in a car with her husband and two daughters when she was struck in the head. The incident took place near several ultranationalist Jewish settlements. Rabi's husband said he saw a small group of settlers nearby at the time of the attack. Her death came shortly after a Palestinian assailant killed two Israelis in a nearby settlement, raising the possibility of a revenge attack. CAIRO (AP) - Thousands took to the streets in the Sudanese capital on Sunday to call for President Omar al-Bashir to step down, the latest in nearly three weeks of demonstrations against his 29-year autocratic rule. Protesters gathered at several points across Khartoum before they began to march on al-Bashir's Nile-side palace in the city center. They chanted: "Freedom, peace and justice; Revolution is the people's choice." Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who would regroup and resume the march only to be attacked by tear gas again. A video clip shared by activists online purported to show policemen chasing protesters as they pointed their tear gas guns skyward before firing them. Another clip showed protesters running away from the police, seeking shelter in side streets to avoid arrest and the tear gas. "I am fully confident that we will succeed in bringing down this regime and live the life that we deserve," said Mohammed, an unemployed 25-year-old who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals. "My confidence comes from the fact that most protesters are young and persistent like me," he said after screaming at fellow protesters not to run away from the tear gas. Another activist, Romaisa, 40, was out of breath as she ran to escape arrest. "We will triumph at the end despite the excessive use of violence and because we insist on demonstrating," she said. She also declined to give her full name for fear of arrest. The activists said police on Sunday blocked a bridge over the Nile that links Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman to the capital's center in a bid to prevent protesters from joining forces. They said unusually large numbers of police and plainclothes security men were deployed across Khartoum in anticipation of Sunday's protests, which began at 1 p.m. Police have meanwhile arrested at least five Khartoum university lecturers after they staged a brief, on campus protest Sunday in solidarity with the demonstrators, according to activists reached in the Sudanese capital. Authorities have detained scores of activists and opposition leaders during the last two weeks. There were also protests Sunday in the town of Wad Madani south of Khartoum, where police also used tear gas and fired in the air to disperse protesters. There were also protests in Atbara, a railway city north of the capital and a traditional hotbed of dissent. Al-Bashir, an Islamist, has been in power since he led a military coup 29 years ago. He has shown no signs that he might step down anytime soon and continues to blame the country's problems on international sanctions and plots against its Islamic "experience." His rule has been defined by turmoil and conflict while the economy lurched from one crisis to another. The secession of the mostly animist and Christian south of the country in 2011 deprived Sudan of about three quarters of the country's oil wealth. The 74-year-old leader has spoken in public on at least five occasions since the start of the protests, initially sparked by worsening economic conditions but soon shifted to calls for al-Bashir to quit. He has used his speaking engagements to try and placate the Sudanese, promising them better days ahead and seeking to justify on religious grounds the killing of protesters - up to 40 have reportedly died. In addition to using violence to quash the protests, authorities have imposed emergency laws and nighttime curfews in some cities and suspended classes at schools and universities across much of Sudan. Internet sites have also been blocked and journalists are barred from covering the protests on the streets. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysian King Sultan Muhammad V abdicated on Sunday in an unexpected move, after just two years on the throne. The palace said in a statement that the 49-year-old ruler had resigned as Malaysia's 15th king with immediate effect, cutting short his five-year term. No reason was given in the statement. It marked the first abdication in the nation's history. Sultan Muhammad V, ruler of northeast Kelantan state, took his oath of office in December 2016, becoming one of Malaysia's youngest constitutional monarchs. He is said to have married a 25-year-old former Russian beauty queen in November while on a two-month medical leave. Reports in Russian and British media and on social media featured pictures of the wedding, which reportedly took place in Moscow. Neither the sultan, the palace nor the government had officially confirmed the wedding. Speculation that Sultan Muhammad V would step down emerged this past week, shortly after he returned from his leave, but Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday that he was unaware of any abdication plans. FILE - In this July 17, 2018, file photo, Malaysian King Sultan Muhammad V salutes during the national anthem at the opening of the 14th parliament session at the Parliament house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Muhammad V has abdicated in an unexpected and rare move, just after two years on the throne. The palace said in a statement on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, that Sultan Muhammad V, 49, has resigned with immediate effect, cutting short his five-year term, without giving any reasons. Sultan Muhammad V, ruler of northeast Kelantan state, was installed in December 2016 as one of the country's youngest constitutional monarchs. (AP Photo/Yam G-Jun, File) Under a unique system maintained since Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957, nine hereditary state rulers take turns as the country's king for five-year terms. The Council of Rulers is expected to meet soon to pick the next king. The monarch's role is largely ceremonial, since administrative power is vested in the prime minister and parliament. But the monarch is highly regarded, particularly among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, as the supreme upholder of Malay tradition. JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest developments from U.S. national security adviser John Bolton's trip to Israel (all times local): 10:40 p.m. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the U.S to recognize Israeli sovereignty of the disputed Golan Heights. Netanyahu announced that he and Bolton would visit the region on Monday, weather permitting. Standing next to U.S. national security adviser John Bolton before a working dinner in Jerusalem, Netanyahu says: "When you're there, you'll be able to understand perfectly why we'll never leave the Golan Heights, and why it's important that all countries recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights." Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war. It annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, but the international community has not recognized the takeover. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and US National Security Advisor John Bolton, leave the stage after their statement to the media follow their meeting, in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, Pool) Bolton is in Israel to reassure the American ally about the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, which Israel fears could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State there. ___ 10:30 p.m. A top White House aide says U.S. troops won't leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters are protected. That's signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. National security adviser John Bolton says there's now no timetable, and President Donald Trump is reaffirming his commitment to a withdrawal, though he says "we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." ___ 1:10 p.m. American National Security Adviser John Bolton has toured the ancient tunnels beneath the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. Bolton watched a virtual reality tour of the historic site on Sunday and dined there with his Israeli equivalent as well as U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer. Visiting American officials typically avoid holding official meetings in parts of east Jerusalem, which is contested between Israelis and Palestinians. Trump himself, however, also toured the area in a previous visit. Israel captured the Old City from Jordan in the 1967 war. National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis says Bolton "enjoyed a tour of historical Jerusalem provided by his hosts." Bolton is in Israel primarily to reassure the U.S. ally of the Trump-ordered troop withdrawal from Syria. ___ 1 p.m. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, says the U.S. military withdrawal from northeastern Syria is conditioned on defeating the remnants of the Islamic State group, and Turkey assuring the safety of Kurdish fighters allied with the United States. Bolton, who is in Israel to reassure the U.S. ally of the Trump-ordered withdrawal, says there is no timetable for the pull-out of American forces in northeastern Syria, but insists it's not an unlimited commitment. Bolton said on Sunday that "the timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement." His comments mark the first public confirmation the drawdown has been slowed, as Trump faced widespread criticism from allies and the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for a policy that was to have been conducted within weeks. LYON, France (AP) - The Roman Catholic Church faces another public reckoning when a French cardinal goes on trial Monday for his alleged failure to report a pedophile priest who confessed to preying on Boy Scouts and whose victims want to hold one of France's highest church figures accountable. Nine alleged victims of the Rev. Bernard Preynat have summoned Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 68, as a defendant in France's most prominent clergy sex abuse case yet. Another archbishop, a bishop and the Vatican official in charge of sex abuse cases also are among the defendants ordered to court in the southeastern city of Lyon to answer allegations of a cover-up. "This trial is an action to move justice forward," said Alexandre Hezez, 44, who spoke to the cardinal directly about Preynat and is among those who brought the case to trial. Barbarin sought counsel on how to handle abuse accusations against Preynat from the Vatican official, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who recommended disciplinary measures while "avoiding a public scandal." However, Ladaria won't be present during the three-day trial since the Vatican has invoked his diplomatic immunity. It could not extend the same protection to Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon since 2002. Pope Francis has praised him as "brave" and said French justice should take its course. Barbarin, who maintains his innocence, encouraged Preynat's alleged victims to take their reports of being abused during the 1970s and 1980s to judicial authorities. Preynat, who is in his 70s, wrote letters to some families confessing the abuse, and is to be tried separately on sexual violence charges involving 10 children. FILE - In this April 3, 2016 file photo, French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, leads a mass for migrants in the Saint-Jean Cathedral, in Lyon, central France. The Roman Catholic Church faces another public reckoning when a French cardinal goes on trial Monday, Jan. 7, 2019 for his alleged failure to report a pedophile priest who confessed to preying on Boy Scouts and whose victims want to hold one of France's highest church figures accountable. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File) The victims' allegation of a cover-up that allowed Preynat to be in contact with children until his 2015 retirement was thrown out in 2016 for insufficient evidence. They took the matter into their own hands and put it back on the docket through a direct approach available as a recourse in France. The difficulty in bringing the case to trial reflects the challenges that victims of clergy abuse encounter. It also comes as demands are soaring for a public reckoning for both abusers and those in the church hierarchy who hid such acts. "There has been a dramatic change in the zeitgeist. The #MeToo movement has come for the pope and his bishops," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a victims' group. "The demands for accountability and transparency are coming faster than the Vatican can contain them." For his part, Barbarin "expects to be acquitted," his lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani, said in an interview. He said his client "never obstructed justice" because the statute of limitations had passed on the acts in question by the time Barbarin was informed. "The tableau depicting the Lyon diocese as protecting Father Preynat is false," Luciani said. "It's very difficult for him to be accused of things he didn't know about." If found guilty of failing to report the priest's actions, the defendants could face up to three years in prison and a 45,000-euro ($51,300) fine. Barbarin and some other defendants are also charged with failing to assist a person in peril. Numerous child sex abuse claims have been made against Catholic clergy in France since the end of the 1990s. In a first in Europe, a Normandy bishop, Pierre Pican, in charge of Bayeux and Lisieux, was given a suspended three-month sentence in 2001 for failure to denounce such crimes. The priest in question, Rene Bisset, was given an 18-year prison term. Years of news about the Lyon case - due to the dozens of heinous acts alleged by victims and the high stature of Barbarin - have cast a shadow over the diocese and the French Catholic Church. Last November, the Bishops of France created an ambitious commission aimed at shedding light on sexual abuse of minors in the church since 1950. A report is due in 2020. That same month, however, a Catholic priest claimed he was punished by church leaders in France after he gathered more than 100,000 signatures for a petition urging Barbarin to resign over his handling of the Preynat case. The Rev. Pierre Vignon said he was told he'll no longer be considered for the church court where he has served as a judge since 2002. The 12 bishops overseeing southeast France where he ministers gave no reason. But for Vignon, it showed that church leaders are still divided about how to deal with sexual predators in the clergy and the whistleblowers who demand action against them. For Barrett Doyle, the trial will put accountability for alleged injustice into the hands of the law. "Whatever the outcome of the case against Barbarin, his presence in a secular courtroom ... will mark the victory of the rule of civil law over the Vatican's failed strategy of containment and secrecy," she said. ___ Nicole Winfield in Rome, and Elaine Ganley in Paris, contributed to this report. FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2016 file photo, French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, attends to a mass for the Feast of the Assumption at the sanctuary of Lourdes, southwestern France. The Roman Catholic Church faces another public reckoning when a French cardinal goes on trial Monday, Jan. 7, 2019 for his alleged failure to report a pedophile priest who confessed to preying on Boy Scouts and whose victims want to hold one of France's highest church figures accountable. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File) KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo's government Sunday postponed the release of the results of last weekend's presidential election, fueling suspicions President Joseph Kabila's ruling party is maneuvering to cling to power. No new date for announcing the winner of the Dec. 30 election was given. Electoral officials have compiled 53 percent of the votes and will not release any information until all the ballots have been tallied, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the electoral commission. "We handle sensitive data and have to handle it responsibly," he said. He asked Congo's people to "remain patient." "We are aware this process has always been surrounded by distrust," he said, referring to calls from the Catholic Church, the African Union, the U.S. and other diplomats for the government to announce accurate results. Kabila, who is stepping down after 18 years in power, had delayed the election for two years. The postponement in announcing the winner was seen by some Congolese as part of an effort by Kabila's party to manipulate the results in order to claim victory. The Catholic Church, an influential voice in this heavily Catholic nation, turned up the pressure by saying it already knows there is a clear victor, based on data compiled by the church's 40,000 election observers. Because Congo's regulations say only the electoral commission can announce election results, the church did not name the winner. An exhausted Congolese independent electoral commission (CENI) official rests as results are tallied for the presidential election, at a local results compilation center in Kinshasa, Congo, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The winner of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected, the head of the national electoral commission Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press. The electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Congo's ruling party, which backs Kabila's preferred candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, called the church's statement "irresponsible and anarchist." The leading opposition candidate is Martin Fayulu, a businessman and lawmaker. This could be Congo's first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. For the past week, the government cut off internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who won. The government has also blocked transmissions from Radio France International, which was alleged to have speculated on the winner, and revoked the press credentials of RFI's correspondent. Election observers and the opposition have raised concerns about voting irregularities, including the government's decision to bar 1 million voters in eastern Congo from casting ballots because of what it said was the Ebola outbreak in the region. Eastern Congo is known as a center of the opposition. Western observers were not invited to watch the balloting, and the U.S. has threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process. While Congo was largely calm during and after the voting, President Donald Trump said about 80 military personnel and combat equipment had been deployed to neighboring Gabon to protect American citizens and diplomatic facilities in Congo. Ahead of the vote, the U.S. ordered non-emergency government employees and family members to leave the country. At stake is a vast country rich in the minerals that power the world's mobile phones and laptops, yet desperately underdeveloped. Some 40 million people were registered to vote. Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father was assassinated, is constitutionally barred from serving three consecutive terms but has hinted he may run again in 2023. That has led many Congolese to suspect he will rule from the shadows if Shadary takes office. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Congolese police officers rest as results are tallied for the presidential election at a local results compilation center in Kinshasa, Congo, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The winner of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected, the head of the national electoral commission Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press. The electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Congolese independent electoral commission (CENI) officials wait in line to be paid at a local results compilation center in Kinshasa, Congo, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. The winner of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected, the head of the national electoral commission Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press. The electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay) LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that a delayed vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal will "definitely" go ahead later this month, as she promised to set out measures to win over skeptical lawmakers. May told the BBC that in the coming days she will give more details about measures addressing Northern Ireland and concern over the Irish border. She also promised a greater role for Parliament in negotiations over future trade relations with the European Union as a sweetener, and added that "we are still working on" getting extra assurances from Brussels to secure domestic support for her deal. May struck a withdrawal agreement with the EU in November, but that deal needs Parliament's approval. In December, May decided to postpone a parliamentary vote intended to ratify the agreement at the last minute after it became clear that it would be overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons. Lawmakers are resuming debate on the deal Wednesday, before a vote expected to be held around Jan. 15. If the deal is voted down, Britain risks crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no agreement in place, a messy outcome that could plunge the country into its worst recession for decades. May's Brexit deal is unpopular with British lawmakers across the spectrum, and the main sticking point is the insurance policy known as the "backstop" - a measure that would keep the U.K. tied to EU customs rules in order to guarantee there is no hard border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland, which won't belong to the bloc after Brexit. British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves BBC Broadcasting House in London after appearing on the Andrew Marr show, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is warning critics of her Brexit deal that they risk damaging Britain's democracy and its economy by opposing her plan. (Yui Mok/PA via AP) EU officials have insisted that the withdrawal agreement can't be renegotiated, although they also stressed that the backstop was meant only as a temporary measure of last resort. As part of her efforts to win support for her deal, May on Sunday reiterated that the agreement she negotiated was the only one that respects the 2016 referendum result, protects jobs and provides certainty to people and businesses. She warned in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that critics of her Brexit deal risk damaging Britain's democracy and its economy by opposing her plan. Estate Agent boards stand outside properties in London, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. A raft of economic figures released Friday showed the British economy weakening at the turn of the year just as Prime Minister Theresa May delayed a parliamentary vote on the Brexit deal she agreed on with the EU. House prices are down and business optimism in the key services sector is at its second-weakest level since the global financial crisis a decade ago. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves BBC Broadcasting House in London after appearing on the Andrew Marr show, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is warning critics of her Brexit deal that they risk damaging Britain's democracy and its economy by opposing her plan. (Yui Mok/PA via AP) BEIRUT (AP) - A missile attack by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria killed at least one Kurdish fighter and wounded two British soldiers embedded with them, according to reports Sunday, amid fierce fighting in the strategic area near the Iraqi border. A Kurdish-led force announced, meanwhile, that its fighters had captured five foreign jihadists while combating IS in eastern Syria. A spokesman for the group, Mustafa Bali, said they included two Americans, two Pakistanis and one Irish citizen. The U.S.-backed force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces are believed to be holding hundreds of IS foreign fighters in detention centers in northern Syria, as well as their families in SDF-run camps in the north. Their governments have said they are not willing to take them back. The Kurdish-run Rudaw news agency said the two British soldiers wounded in Deir el-Zour were in stable condition. British special forces are known to be on the ground in northern Syria, although the British government does not provide details about their presence. There was no immediate confirmation or comment from the United Kingdom. The injuries would be the first known casualties sustained by Western anti-IS coalition forces since President Donald Trump announced in late December his intention to pull out some 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, declaring that IS has been defeated. The abrupt decision surprised U.S. allies and angered his own national security advisers who disagree with the claim of IS's defeat. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned shortly afterward. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the Syrian civil war, said in a report Sunday that the IS attack occurred the previous day in the village of Shaafa in eastern Deir el-Zour province amid fierce clashes between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, and IS militants. It said a Kurdish fighter was killed and three were wounded, including the two British soldiers who were airlifted by the coalition for treatment. The Syrian Democratic Forces in December captured the last town held by IS in Syria, but the militants still hold small pockets of territory in Deir el-Zour province and there are concerns the group would take advantage of an American troop pullout to regroup. LAS VEGAS (AP) - A twice-convicted murderer who had repeatedly said he wanted to die by lethal injection was found dead in his death-row prison cell from an apparent hanging, officials said Saturday. Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found unresponsive in his solo death-row cell at the state's maximum-security prison in Ely, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Santina told The Associated Press. Dozier's lawyer, Thomas Ericsson, declined to comment immediately. Dozier had said repeatedly he wanted to die rather than live the rest of his life in prison. Nevada officials said he tried to kill himself several times after two scheduled lethal injections were postponed. "I've been very clear about my desire to be executed ... even if suffering is inevitable," Dozier said in a handwritten note to a state court judge who postponed his execution in November 2017 over concerns the untried drug regimen could leave him suffocating, conscious and unable to move. "Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it," the frustrated inmate told The Associated Press in a telephone interview last August, a month after a different judge stopped his execution at nearly the final hour. FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2017, file photo, Nevada death row inmate Scott Raymond Dozier, right, confers with Lori Teicher, a federal public defender involved in his case, during an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. Authorities say the 48-year-old Nevada death-row inmate who wanted for two years to die, but whose execution was postponed twice, has been found dead in his cell on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, from an apparent hanging. (AP Photo/Ken Ritter, File) But his bid to become the first Nevada inmate put to death since 2006 was called off twice amid court fights over a three-drug combination that had never been used in the U.S.: the sedative midazolam, the powerful opioid fentanyl and a muscle-paralyzing agent called cisatracurium. Fentanyl is a drug blamed for illegal-use, drug overdose deaths nationwide. The starts-and-stops in Dozier's case propelled Nevada to the top of a national debate about the death penalty and shed light on extraordinary efforts some states take to try to obtain drugs from pharmaceutical companies that insist they don't want their products used for executions. Dozier gave up appeals for the death sentence he received in 2007 for separate killings of methamphetamine drug trade associates in 2002 in Phoenix and Las Vegas. But he allowed federal public defenders to challenge on his behalf the method that state officials planned to use. Those advocates argued that his lethal injection could be less humane than putting down a pet. Drug companies joined the fight - with cases still pending before state courts and the Nevada Supreme Court. They argue their products should not be used in an execution. Nevada has drawn backing in the state high court fight from 15 of the 30 other states in the U.S. with capital punishment. Friend-of-the-court briefs argue that harassment from advocacy groups and threats of company boycotts are keeping prison officials from enforcing the will of voters in states that have the death penalty. Dozier, meanwhile, made it clear that he didn't like legal limbo. Last month, state lawyers revealed in a separate federal lawsuit over Dozier's treatment behind bars that that he had tried several methods to kill himself in recent months, including attempting to obtain drops of a deadly drug on a piece of paper sent through prison mail. The filings were in a lawsuit that challenged Dozier's housing on suicide watch in an isolation cell. The state insisted the isolation was to protect Dozier from self-harm, but his lawyers argued he was deteriorating due to unconstitutional treatment. They said he was denied prison yard recreation time and the ability to read, communicate with his family or effectively consult with legal counsel. Dozier's lawyers also revealed that he apparently cut his neck and wrist with a razor in October. Prison officials reported that Dozier somehow obtained razor blades behind bars and that they had intercepted mail from Dozier's sister with instructions on how to cut the jugular vein in his neck. Dozier was not on suicide watch Saturday, Santina said. He was found at 4:35 p.m. at the prison in Ely, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Las Vegas. The prisons spokeswoman said she didn't immediately know when Dozier had last been seen by guards. Santina said that would be part of investigations by the department's inspector general and White Pine County sheriff's office. BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died. He was 89. He died Friday from a heart attack and his funeral was being held Sunday, his daughter-in-law, Ligia Iordachescu, told The Associated Press. From 1982 to 1988, thousands of buildings were razed in the heart of Bucharest, the Romanian capital, to make way for a plan by then-Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu to build a giant House of the People and Soviet-style apartment buildings. The urban redesign known as systemization, which occurred all over Romania, was inspired during Ceausescu's 1971 visit to North Korea. Dubbed "the guardian angel" of churches, Iordachescu devised a radical system that placed whole buildings- including churches, monasteries, banks and apartment buildings- on the equivalent of railway tracks and rolled them hundreds of meters (yards) away to save them from destruction. In all, he moved 29 buildings, including Bucharest churches such as the 18th-century Schitul Maicilor, which was relocated 245 meters (804 feet) away from its original site in 1982 and the 16th-century Mihai Voda Church, which was shunted about 300 meters (985 feet). Despite his efforts, the Communists bulldozed some 24 churches in the capital, and the Romanian Orthodox Church was criticized for doing too little to save them. In this undated image provided by Romania's Orthodox Church news agency Eugeniu Iordachescu attends an event in Bucharest, Romania. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. He died Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 from a heart attack and his funeral was being held Sunday, his daughter-in-law, Ligia Iordachescu, told The Associated Press. (Basilica.ro via AP) Iordachescu also successfully relocated multi-story apartment buildings in Bucharest and in the Transylvanian city of Alba Iulia. He eventually owned three patents related to the relocation of entire buildings. Author Hristache Popescu wrote that Iordachescu, who never sought the limelight, was a man of innovation, tenacity and modesty. He managed to secure permission for his plans because Ceausescu didn't want historical buildings and churches to mar his modern urban vision. Iordachescu said he dreamed up his system after seeing a waiter carrying a tray with full glasses. "I realized I had to do the same thing," he told the Libertatea newspaper last year. In 2016, the Romanian Orthodox Church awarded him the "Patriarchal Cross," its highest honor for laypeople. He is survived by two sons. One of them, Adrian Iordachescu, is also a civil engineer. A man walks by the Olari church, saved from demolition during the communist era by Eugeniu Iordachescu, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A man walks by the Olari church, saved from demolition during the communist era by Eugeniu Iordachescu, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) People walk inside the Antim Ivireanul monastery compound, saved from demolition during the communist era by Eugeniu Iordachescu, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A woman walks inside the Antim Ivireanul monastery compound, saved from demolition during the communist era by Eugeniu Iordachescu, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) An exterior view of the Schitul Maicilor church, saved from demolition during the communist era by Eugeniu Iordachescu, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Eugeniu Iordachescu, a Romanian civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, has died at 89. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) HOUSTON (AP) - The Latest on the investigation into the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes (all times local): 3:15 p.m. A Texas sheriff says authorities now believe that a man in a red pickup who was being sought in the shooting death of a 7-year-old black girl was actually just a witness. Authorities said Sunday that the killing of Jazmine Barnes appears to have been a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack as her family feared. The family had described the shooter as a white man in a red pickup. Authorities say the suspects they've identified are both African-American. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says the shooting happened very quickly while Jazmine, her mother and three sisters were at a stoplight. He says it's likely that the red pickup truck was the last thing seen by Jazmine's sisters before gunfire broke out. He also noted that it was dark out at the time. People attend a community rally outside a Walmart on East Sam Houston Pkwy N in Houston on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 for 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, who was killed on Sunday. Jazmine was shot to death nearby while riding in a car with her mother and three sisters. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP) Gonzalez says authorities still hope to talk to the person in the red pickup to get his account of what happened. ___ 2:45 p.m. A local sheriff says race does not appear to be a factor in a drive-by shooting that killed a 7-year-old black girl. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez cautioned Sunday that authorities are still investigating the Dec. 30 shooting of Jazmine Barnes, but said it seems to be a case involving mistaken identity. He says, "At this point, it does not appear it was related to race." Jazmine's family had believed the shooting was racially motivated. Gonzalez said authorities have identified two suspects and that both are African-American. One, 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. is in custody and has been charged with capital murder. Gonzalez would not say whether the second suspect is in custody. He says a person in a red truck whom authorities had been seeking earlier appears to have just been a witness. ___ 12:50 p.m. The father of a 7-year-old black girl who was fatally shot as her family drove to a grocery store in Houston says he's relieved an arrest has been made in his daughter's death. Chris Sevilla said in a brief telephone interview Sunday he was feeling "a bit of relief" after an arrest in the slaying of his daughter, Jazmine Barnes. In a statement, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner thanked authorities for their "diligent work" in arresting 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. Jazmine's family had believed the shooting was racially motivated, but prosecutors said Sunday the killing was a case of mistaken identity. Black is African-American. Prosecutors say he was driving an SUV from which an unidentified passenger fired upon the car Jazmine and her family were in on Dec. 30. ___ 9:40 a.m. Authorities have charged a 20-year-old black man in the death of 7-year-old black girl in what prosecutors are saying was a case of mistaken identity. The family of Jazmine Barnes had believed her death had been racially motivated. They had identified a white man in a red truck as the shooter. But during a court hearing early Sunday, prosecutors said Eric Black Jr. admitted to investigators he was driving a dark-colored Kia SUV when a passenger in his vehicle identified as "Larry" opened fire on the car with Jazmine. Prosecutors say a confidential source told the Harris County Sheriff's Office the suspects had "shot the car by mistake." Black has been charged with capital murder. It was not immediately known whether the other suspect has been arrested. ___ 2 a.m. Authorities in Texas have filed charges against a suspect in the shooting death of a 7-year-old black girl. The Harris County Sherriff's Office say 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. was charged early Sunday with capital murder in the Dec. 30 slaying of Jazmine Barnes. Police say they identified the suspect based on a tip that was corroborated by their investigation. Police say Black "admitted to taking part in the shooting" after he was taken into custody. Investigators had said the case had "taken a new direction" shortly before the charges were announced. ___ 12:55 a.m. Authorities in Texas say "persons of interest" are being interviewed in the investigation into the shooting death of a 7-year-old black girl. Jazmine Barnes was shot and killed in Houston on Dec. 30 after investigators say a suspect pulled alongside the car the girl was riding in with her family and fired into the vehicle. The shooting occurred as the family was heading to a store. The Harris County Sheriff's Office posted on Twitter late Saturday that persons of interest are being questioned, and that the investigation has "taken a new direction." The sheriff's office did not elaborate. Earlier Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at a rally for the girl near where the shooting happened. Jazmine's family has said they believe the shooting was racially motivated. LaPorsha Washington, center, the mother of seven-year-old daughter Jazmine Barnes, who was killed on Sunday, speaks to the crowd during a community rally outside Walmart, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in Houston. Jazmine was shot to death nearby on Sunday while riding in a car with her mother and three sisters. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP) FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 file photo, Christopher Cevilla, father of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, speaks during a news conference, in Houston. Authorities in Texas say on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, "persons of interest" are being interviewed in the investigation into the shooting death of the young black girl. Jazmine's family has said they believe the shooting was racially motivated. (Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle via AP, File) BEIRUT (AP) - The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens up a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. The American decision to pull out its 2,000 troops has forced a reassessment of old alliances and partnerships. The Syrian government, the Kurds, Russia, Iran, Israel and Turkey have all had a hand in the country's nearly eight-year war - each in a way, fighting its own war for its own reasons within Syria. Now all of those conflicts play out in the territory being abandoned by the Americans, creating new tensions, potential chaos and bloodshed. To reassure jittery allies, Washington sent national security adviser John Bolton to Israel on Sunday, where he said U.S. troops will not leave northeastern Syria until IS militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected. The comments put the brakes on a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. The announcement upset regional allies and Pentagon officials who disagreed with the assessment that IS was defeated. "We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly," Trump told reporters in Washington Sunday. Here is a look at what's at stake. ___ FILE -- In this April 4, 2018 file photo, a U.S. soldier stands in a newly installed position near the front line between the U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council and the Turkish-backed fighters, in Manbij, north Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File) THE TERRITORY The area up for grabs is around a third of Syria, forming a rough triangle. To the north is the border with Turkey, to the east the border with Iraq, and the third side is the Euphrates River. This was the heart of the Islamic State group's foothold in Syria until the United States partnered with a Kurdish militia, creating a force of some 60,000 fighters -including some Syrian Arabs and Christian Assyrians - that wrested it away from the militants. The territory is strategically important. For the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and its allies Russia and Iran, regaining it means re-establishing sovereignty. The territory was once the source of Syria's wheat and barley, its dams generated electricity and it holds some of Syria's richest oil resources. Without it, Assad will have a harder time with reconstruction and operating long term. For the same reasons, it's been a source of income for the Kurdish militia. For the Kurds, their hold gave weight to their long-sought goal of autonomy. For the U.S., the troop presence ensured American influence. Turkey sees Kurdish autonomy on its border as an existential threat and has vowed to prevent this, accusing the U.S. of empowering the militia Ankara says is linked to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey. ___ ASSAD and RUSSIA Without the Americans, the door opens for Assad and his Russian backers to move in. "The only obstacle preventing Assad from gaining control of the east was the U.S. presence and the cover that it provided to the (Kurdish militia). With that gone ... there is simply no real challenge that would prevent the regime from re-establishing control over those areas," said Ayham Kamel, of the Eurasia group. Abandoned by the U.S., the Kurdish fighters are forced to move toward Russia and Assad for protection against their more feared enemy, Turkey. Their force, armed and equipped by the U.S.-led coalition, is unlikely to disappear. Instead, it is seeking an arrangement with Assad to continue operating as the government extends control over the territory. Syrian officials boast that the withdrawal is a defeat to America. Controlling the east would help seal Assad's victory in the civil war. The American move also accelerates a trend by Arab states to normalize relations with Assad, whom they shunned for years. The United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. and Saudi ally, recently reopened its embassy in Damascus. ___ TURKEY vs. KURDS, RUSSIA and ASSAD Turkey's military, along with some 15,000 allied Syrian rebel fighters, is poised to launch an offensive in the east to break Kurdish control over the border. But an offensive risks creating friction with Russia. In particular, it could wreck a cease-fire agreement the two reached over Idlib, the northwestern province held by rebels and Islamic militants where Turkey has influence - enabling a Syrian government assault on the province. Russian and Turkish officials have been holding talks, trying to avert tensions. "A massive Turkish operation is not in Russia's interest. It destabilizes the situation, risks undermining Idlib agreements and talks on reconstruction. Plus, if Turkey decides to capture all of the Kurdish areas it will inevitably clash with Russia and Iran," said Yury Barmin, a Russia analyst. Turkey is equally concerned over the prospect of Syrian government control over the east. In the past, Damascus has used the Kurdish militia as leverage against Ankara and could do so again. For nearly 20 years, Syria hosted the main Kurdish leader until he was captured in 1998, now imprisoned in Turkey. ___ IRAN and ISRAEL A Syrian government move east means the spread of Iran as well. It will dramatically widen the land corridor where Iran enjoys free rein for its allied fighters, weapons and supplies across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Already, Iranian-backed militias have expanded control over areas near Syria's border with Iraq and freely cross back and forth. That has alarmed Israel. The likely result will be increased Israeli airstrikes against suspected Iranian-linked targets in Syria. ___ THE U.S., TURKEY and the ISLAMIC STATE GROUP President Donald Trump dismissed the idea that the U.S. needs influence in the conflict, saying Syria was nothing but "sand and death." He claims the U.S. mission there - to fight IS - has largely been completed. But IS still holds pockets and U.S.-led coalition officials warn it could surge again. Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem that the conditions for a U.S. troop withdrawal include the defeat of remnants of IS in Syria, and protections for Kurdish militias who have fought alongside U.S. troops against the extremist group. There has also been growing unrest among Arab tribes in the east, disgruntled by the Kurdish-led administration. They too are likely to be a source of tension and may be leveraged by the different players for their own advantages. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Trump his forces could take over fighting IS. In two previous offensives, Turkish forces and their Syrian allies retook territory in the northwest from IS and Kurdish fighters. But their track record of abuses, forced displacement of Kurds and lawlessness raises concern over whether they can exercise authority in the east. "The force that Erdogan has to offer Trump to replace the (Kurdish militia) in eastern Syria is not large enough, locally legitimate enough, and quite frankly not vettable enough, for the standards of the U.S. military," said Nick Heras, a Syria expert with the Center for a New American Security. FILE - This Wednesday, April 4, 2018, file photo shows a U.S. position, installed near the tense front line between the U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council and the Turkish-backed fighters, in Manbij, north Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File) FILE - This Jan. 28, 2018 file photo, Turkish troops and pro-Turkey Syrian fighters try to take control of Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo, File) FILE -- In this Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018 file photo, a soldier waves a Turkish flag as Turkish troops secure Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo, File) FILE -- In this file photo taken on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, a member of the Kurdish internal security forces holds his weapon during a patrol in Manbij, north Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File) FILE -- In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, members of the Kurdish internal security forces stand on their vehicle in front of a giant poster showing portraits of fighters killed fighting against the Islamic State group, in Manbij, north Syria. The planned U.S. troop withdrawal opens a void in the north and east of Syria, and the conflicts and rivalries among all the powers in the Middle East are converging to fill it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File) HOUSTON (AP) - A black man was arrested and charged with murder in the killing of a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting that authorities said Sunday appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack, as her family feared. Jazmine Barnes' family had described the gunman in the Dec. 30 slaying as a white man driving a red pickup and believed race played a role in the shooting. But acting on a tip received by a civil rights activist, the sheriff's department zeroed in instead on Eric Black Jr., a 20-year-old black man who admitted he was driving a dark-colored SUV from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said authorities have identified the second suspect, who is also black, but would not say whether the person was in custody. Gonzalez cautioned that authorities were still investigating, but said: "At this point, it does not appear it was related to race." Chris Sevilla, Jazmine's father, said in a brief telephone interview that he was feeling "a bit of relief right now" after the arrest. This undated image provided the Harris County Sheriff's Office shows Eric Black Jr. Prosecutors said Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, that the shooting death of a 7-year-old black girl as she rode in her family's vehicle stemmed from a case of mistaken identity. Prosecutors charged Black in the Dec. 30 death of Jazmine Barnes. (Harris County Sheriff's Office via AP) The shooting took place at a stoplight while Jazmine, her mother and three sisters were on their way to the grocery store. At a court hearing early Sunday, prosecutors said a confidential source had contacted the sheriff by email and told him the killers had "shot the car by mistake," thinking the vehicle was someone else's that they had seen earlier that night. Prosecutors did not say why the killers opened fire. The sheriff said there was, in fact, a red truck at a stoplight just before the shooting, but the driver did not appear to have been involved. Gonzalez said it was dark, the shooting happened quickly, and the truck was probably the last thing seen by Jazmine's family. Authorities want to talk to the person in the red pickup to get his account of the crime, Gonzalez said. Black, who was arrested Saturday afternoon during a traffic stop, was charged with capital murder and jailed without bail. Court records did not list an attorney for him. Prosecutors said the 9 mm handgun believed used in the shooting had been recovered from Black's home. During Sunday's hearing, prosecutors said Jazmine's mother, LaPorsha Washington, had tried to drive to a hospital after the shooting, but one of her front tires had been shot out. After the shooting, a composite sketch of a white man in a dark hood was widely circulated. Jazmine's family and activists had said the shooting was similar to an unsolved incident in the area in 2017 in which a gunman described as white shot into a vehicle carrying at least two black people. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a black Democrat who represents parts of Houston, said there was nothing irresponsible about the early suggestions it was a hate crime. She said the case had the positive effect of encouraging people to discuss race in the U.S. The girl's killing prompted an outpouring of support for her family from celebrities and ordinary people across the country. On Saturday, hundreds gathered at a rally near where the shooting happened, holding balloons, stuffed animals and signs that read, "Justice for Jazmine." A $100,000 reward, raised in part by Shaun King, the journalist and activist who received the tip that helped police, was offered for information leading to an arrest. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the support Jazmine's family received provided law enforcement "with a sense of urgency and made Jazmine's loved ones know they weren't alone in their time of grief." "We share their deep sense of loss and anger," Turner said. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70 LaPorsha Washington, center, the mother of seven-year-old daughter Jazmine Barnes, who was killed on Sunday, speaks to the crowd during a community rally outside Walmart, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in Houston. Jazmine was shot to death nearby on Sunday while riding in a car with her mother and three sisters. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP) FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 file photo, Christopher Cevilla, father of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, speaks during a news conference, in Houston. Authorities in Texas say on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, "persons of interest" are being interviewed in the investigation into the shooting death of the young black girl. Jazmine's family has said they believe the shooting was racially motivated. (Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle via AP, File) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump stood by his demands for funding for a border wall Sunday as another round of shutdown talks failed to break an impasse, while newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers by passing legislation this week to reopen parts of the government. Trump, who spent part of the day at Camp David for staff meetings, showed no signs of budging on his demand of more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. White House officials affirmed that request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought also formalized Trump's declaration that the wall would be built from steel, rather than concrete, asking for funding for a "steel barrier on the Southwest border." The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration failed in both the meeting and the letter to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested on the wall, money the president wants from Congress. The letter includes a request for $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs," a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border - which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Still, the request makes clear a wall is a top priority. Vought writes that a "physical barrier - wall - creates an enduring capability that helps field personnel stop, slow down and/or contain illegal entries." President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress as he returned from the presidential retreat in Maryland, saying Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. The seemingly intractable budget showdown marks the first clash for Trump and Democrats, who now control the House. It pits Trump's unpredictable negotiating stylings against a largely united Democratic front, as many Republicans watch nervously from the sidelines and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay. Although Trump tweeted that the Sunday session had been "productive," two Democrats familiar with the meeting gave a different take, saying the White House had not provided the budget details they had requested and again declined to re-open government. One of the officials - neither was authorized to speak publicly - said no additional meetings were scheduled. Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for "some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." While insisting he wanted to make a deal, he also declared he would not give an inch in his fight for funding for a border barrier, saying: "There's not going to be any bend right here." Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Democrats criticized McConnell for waiting on Trump's support, but Collins said she was sympathetic to McConnell's opposition to moving legislation without agreement from the president. Several Republicans pushed the Interior Department to find money to restaff national parks amid growing concerns over upkeep and public safety. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested Sunday that pressure would only mount amid the shutdown, which he said is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations, home loans and farmers in his state. "Democrats and now a growing number of Republicans are coming together and saying let's open up the government and debate border security separately," Schumer told reporters in New York. Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." "Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border," said Schiff, D-Calif. Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. A day earlier, the president had tweeted that he didn't care that "most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats." Mulvaney, sought to frame Trump's support for a steel barrier as progress in the negotiations, saying on NBC that "if he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, 'See? He's not building a wall anymore,' that should help us move in the right direction." Trump said he planned to call the heads of American steel companies in hopes of coming up with a new design for the barrier he contends must be built along the southern border. His administration has already spent millions constructing wall prototypes near the border in San Diego. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York, Jill Colvin in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House while walking to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump waves as he departs after speaking on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is en route to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's Interior Ministry said a policeman was killed as he was trying to defuse an explosive device near a church in a residential Cairo district. The ministry said the blast late on Saturday also wounded the commander of the bomb squad and another policeman. The device was in a suitcase concealed on the rooftop of a building close to the church in the Nasr City suburb in eastern Cairo, added the ministry, which oversees the police. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas. It also came a little more than a week after a roadside bomb hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian driver. Saturday's incident likely will force authorities to further tighten security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. Already, armed policemen guard churches, and security guards check the identity of visitors. Metal detectors have also been set up outside churches. The heightened security followed a spate of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that has targeted churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries, killing more than 100 Christians over the past few years. As was the case last year, the Coptic Christmas mass is expected to be held at a new cathedral in Egypt's new administrative capital that is being built east of Cairo. In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 photo, a forensic investigator uses equipment at the site where a policeman was killed trying to defuse an explosive device, near a church in a residential district of Cairo, Egypt. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas. (AP Photo/Sayed Hasan) No one immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday's blast, which bore the hallmarks of IS, which spearheads an insurgency centered in the northern region of the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, with the army and police now engaged in an all-out campaign to eradicate them, throwing into battle tens of thousands of troops backed by armor, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and warships. In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 photo, police form a security cordon after a policeman was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a church, in a residential district of Cairo, Egypt. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas. (AP Photo/Sayed Hasan) US President Donald Trump refused three weeks ago to sign off on swaths of unrelated government funding for employees as varied as law enforcement officials and museum staff around the country FBI agents and air traffic controllers were among 800,000 federal workers left unpaid Friday after a US government shutdown sparked by Donald Trump's controversial Mexico border wall plan neared record length, bringing the president to the verge of declaring a national emergency. Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to fund border wall construction has morphed from a crowd-pleasing campaign slogan to an epic political fight paralyzing Washington, setting an ominous precedent for the remaining two years of the real estate magnate's troubled first term. He renewed his Twitter barrage Friday, calling the situation on the Mexican border "an invasion" and insisting that without a wall, "our Country cannot be safe. Criminals, Gangs, Human Traffickers, Drugs & so much other big trouble." But unable to persuade opposition Democrats to give him the money, Trump refused three weeks ago to sign off on swaths of unrelated government funding for employees as varied as law enforcement officials and museum staff around the country. On Friday, that partial government shutdown hit the 21-day mark, equaling the record from previous funding freezes and marking the first day in the saga that paychecks failed to appear for many workers. Trump's strategy was to use the shutdown to pressure Congress into giving him the wall money but the Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, haven't budged, saying they won't even discuss wall funding before government is fully reopened. The impasse leaves Trump with few options other than to relent or to declare a national emergency on the Mexican border, giving himself authority to bypass Congress and order wall funds to be squeezed from other budgets. Trump met with border patrol agents and police as he visited the US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas He appears close to taking the second option, which opponents say will be immediately challenged in court as a case of presidential overreach. On Thursday, Trump took his message to the Texas border with Mexico and insisted once more that he has "the absolute right to declare a national emergency." And the top Senate Republican, Lindsey Graham, tweeted that it was "Time for President @realDonaldTrump to use emergency powers to build Wall/Barrier." "I hope it works," he added. In preparation for the possible emergency move, the White House has asked the military to look into diverting funds currently allocated for disaster relief to the wall, US media reported -- a move that would heighten the polemic. - Battle of egos - US government shutdowns since 1990 The standoff has turned into a test of political ego, particularly for Trump, who came into office boasting of his dealmaking powers and making an aggressive border policy the keystone of his nationalist agenda. Democrats, meanwhile, seem determined at all costs to prevent a president who relishes campaign rally chants of "build the wall!" from getting a win. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the US-Mexican frontier presents major challenges, ranging from the hyper-violent Mexican drug trade to the plight of asylum seekers and poor migrants seeking new lives in the world's richest country. There's also little debate that border walls are needed: about a third of the frontier is already fenced off. But Trump has turned his single-minded push for more walls into a political crusade seen by opponents as a stunt to stoke xenophobia in his right-wing voter base, while willfully ignoring the border's complex realities. Trump has made building a wall -- like these prototypes seen from Tijuana on January 7, 2019 -- the central theme of his nationalist domestic policies Using typically polarizing language, Trump spoke in McAllen, Texas, on Thursday of cross-border criminals pouring into the country to commit murder. "They just go where there's no security and you don't even know the difference between Mexico and the United States," he told a meeting of border patrol officers. "They have women tied up, they have tape over their mouths, electrical tape. "If we had a barrier of any kind, a powerful barrier, whether its steel or concrete... we would stop it cold," Trump said. In fact, widely respected studies show that illegal immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States. Also, while some narcotics do enter the country across remote sections of the border, the majority is sneaked through heavily guarded checkpoints, the government's own Drug Enforcement Administration said in a 2017 report. It said that most smuggling is done "through US ports of entry (POEs) in passenger vehicles with concealed compartments or commingled with legitimate goods on tractor trailers." Mehdi Nemmouche's journey from a French foster home to a Brussels court began not in a Middle Eastern desert, but in a run-down industrial town Mehdi Nemmouche stands accused of carrying out Europe's first attack by an Islamist fighter returning from the war in Syria. But his journey from a French foster home to a Brussels court began not in a Middle Eastern desert but in a run-down industrial town. This week, he will go on trial for four anti-Semitic murders during a shooting spree at Belgium's Jewish Museum. Separately, he is also accused of acting as the jailer of four French journalists taken hostage by jihadists in Aleppo in 2013. The trial will last several weeks, but the 33-year-old is already a case study in the radicalisation of some young European Muslims. Belgium and France, in particular, fear the defeat of groups like the Islamic State in Syria will send more angry young men homewards. But Nemmouche seems to have been on a radical path long before he set off, in early 2013, for the so-called "caliphate" on the Euphrates. The investigation into the May 2014 massacre in the museum has pieced together elements of his background. - Troubled and angry youth - Nemmouche was born April 17, 1985, in the northern French town of Roubaix, to a family of Algerian origin. Mehdi Nemmouche, seen here aged 20, appears to have turned from a deeply-troubled youth into a hardened jihadist who allegedly killed four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014 He never knew his father and his mother was judged not "capable" of raising him, investigators say. Aged only three months, he was moved to a foster family in the northern industrial city of Lille, where he would stay -- off and on -- until he was 16. But his upbringing was not stable. He would make difficult trips to stay with his grandparents, and sometimes to care homes or a Parisian orphanage. His foster parents, in documents seen by AFP, describe him as an "angry" youth, "capable of the worst as well as the most kindly" acts. He committed his first known crime at 13, then at 16, he spent three weeks in a juvenile prison for a hold-up with an air pistol after being convicted by a children's court. His criminal record grew ever longer in his late teens, with traffic offences and muggings, and his grandmother lost track of him after his second jail term. In 2007, aged 22, he headed to Provence in southern France after gaining a vocational qualification as an electrician, but soon fell back into trouble. "What an enormous waste," his former lawyer Soulifa Badaoui said after the museum murders, lamenting the fact that the authorities had not helped Nemmouche integrate. "No one knew what to do with an intelligent, lively young man who wanted to get out, become an ordinary French citizen," she told AFP. - 'Strict and violent' - Between December 2007 and December 2012, he spent five years in custody -- and investigators believe this is when his ideas hardened. In prison, he was known as an "extremist proselytiser" who tried to organise group prayer and spoke of jihad and the 1995 "genocide of Muslims in Bosnia". This linked him to the "Roubaix gang" -- French Islamists who returned from the Bosnian war and carried out robberies to fund Al-Qaeda, some of whom he knew. When his grandmother saw him in Tourcoing in December 2012, he had a long beard and was praying daily, something she had not seen before. Less is known about his experiences in Syria, but three former French hostages have identified him as their "strict and violent" overseer. They say he did not hide his admiration for Mohammed Merah, who murdered three French soldiers, a Jewish teacher and three young children in 2012. Nemmouche, who was extradited to Belgium over the museum shooting after being arrested in Marseille, will go on trial in France over the hostages at a later date. Held under tight security at a prison in Leuze-en-Hainaut, his lawyers describe him as a man of "steely will" who was bearing up well under incarceration. "When he greets me with a warm, relaxed smile it's as if we're not in prison," defence counsel Francis Vuillemin told AFP. "The walls seem to slip off him." David Whelan, pictured during an interview with AFP, said the Russian legal system has "no transparency" The brother of an American detained in Russia for alleged spying says the ex-Marine might be caught in a diplomatic tug-of-war between the two powers, and the family fears he could be convicted on flimsy evidence. But in an interview with AFP, David Whelan said they have faith that the US government will be able to bring his brother home. He was arrested on December 28 "while carrying out an act of espionage," Russia's FSB security service said. "There are no details about the circumstances of his arrest, so it's hard not to connect it as merely tugging between the two countries for whatever reason," David Whelan said in Newmarket, Ontario, north of Toronto. "I'm very worried, particularly because there's no transparency for the Russian legal system," the brother said. "We have a great deal of concern that he will be charged without sufficient evidence, he'll be convicted." Despite US President Donald Trump's repeatedly accommodating words towards Russian President Vladimir Putin, the arrest of Whelan is the latest in a series of espionage cases between the two countries. Paul Whelan Asked by reporters on Sunday about Whelan's case, Trump said only: "We're looking into that." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington was trying to learn more about the situation. "We have faith that they're working on it," David Whelan told AFP, adding that the family is hopeful that "the ridiculousness of this whole situation will eventually cause the US government to step forward and to have him brought home." Whelan held a British passport, as well as others, and on Friday Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said "we don't agree with individuals being used in diplomatic chess games." Whelan also holds an Irish passport, although he entered Russia on his US one, an official source told AFP. The Washington Post said Whelan also carries a passport from Canada, where he was born. On Saturday, Russia demanded an explanation from the United States over the arrest of one of its nationals, Dmitry Makarenko, held since December 29 for alleged money laundering and attempting to export defense-restricted goods. Analysts have speculated that Moscow could be hoping to swap Whelan for Maria Butina, a Russian held in the United States, or for another Russian held there. Paul Whelan held UK, US, Irish and, reportedly, Canadian passports US intelligence services have accused Moscow of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. US security experts have raised doubts that Whelan was a spy, given that he was, according to The New York Times, court-martialed in 2008 from the US Marine Corps for larceny and passing bad checks. Whelan worked as director of global security for US-based automotive components supplier BorgWarner. His family said he was visiting Moscow for a friend's wedding. In the interview, David Whelan reiterated his belief in his brother's innocence. This file photo taken on November 18, 2017 shows an ambulance waiting to cross the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the Gaza strip The Palestinian Authority said Sunday it was withdrawing staff from the Rafah border post with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip to protest against "brutal practices" by rival faction Hamas. "This decision comes in the light of recent developments and brutal practices of the de facto gangs" in the Gaza Strip, said the PA's civil affairs authority in a statement, quoted by official Palestinian news agency WAFA. It accused Hamas of "summoning, arresting and abusing our employees", leading it to conclude that their presence was futile, the statement said. Islamist movement Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 in a near civil war with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party. But the Palestinian Authority took control of Rafah in November 2017, as part of a deal that saw Egypt reopen a border that had been entirely shut from August that year and largely sealed for years before that. "Since we took over the Rafah crossing, Hamas has been obstructing the work of our crew there," the statement said. It said Egypt had made the reopening of Rafah -- the only land crossing from the Gaza Strip to non-Palestinian territory beyond two posts with Israel -- conditional on the PA being in charge of it. A Hamas spokesman said the PA's decision to withdraw "constitutes a new step by Mahmud Abbas in separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip". The PA is based in the city of Ramallah and only governs parts of the Israeli occupied West Bank, which is separated from the Gaza Strip by internationally recognised Israeli territory. In late December, a Fatah spokesman accused Hamas of carrying out mass arrests of its members in the Gaza Strip. Hamas denied the allegation. Several attempts to reconcile Fatah and Hamas have failed in recent years. The internationally recognised PA has tightened pressure on Hamas in recent months by reducing the salaries of civil servants in Gaza, which has been squeezed by a long Israeli blockade. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) speaks next to Coptic Pope Tawadros II during the inauguration of a massive cathedral in the New Administrative Capital of Egypt on January 6, 2019 Egypt inaugurated a massive cathedral under heavy security on Coptic Christmas Eve Sunday, a day after a deadly bomb blast near a church in the country where jihadists have repeatedly targeted Christians. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi observed a moment of silence after Saturday's explosion on the eastern edge of Cairo killed a policeman who was trying to defuse the device and wounded two others. Security was tight as Sisi officially opened the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of Cairo, ahead of Christmas mass. Worshippers had to pass through three sets of metal detectors to access the event, while armoured vehicles and dozens of ambulances were stationed nearby. Sisi gave a brief speech saying the simultaneous opening of the cathedral and the major Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque nearby carried a message of unity. "We are one and we will continue to be one," he said. "This moment is very important in our history." Egypt's top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb told those gathered that "if Islamic law requires Muslims to protect mosques, it equally requires Muslims to protect churches". The cathedral's inauguration was hailed by US President Donald Trump, who wrote on Twitter that he was "excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East". "Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future," Trump said. Pope Francis extended greetings to Coptic Pope Tawadros II, saying in a video message that he "was able to give a true testimony of faith and charity, also in times of difficulties". Coptic Christians, who account for around 10 percent of Egypt's population, have been hit by a string of attacks by the Islamic State group in recent years. Christian worshippers attend the inauguration of a massive cathedral in Egypt's New Administrative Capital on January 6, 2019 There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast on Saturday. The bomb was hidden inside a bag that was placed on the rooftop of Al-Haq mosque near the Virgin Mary church in the Nasr City district of Cairo, religious officials and witnesses said. The incident occurred amid heightened security around churches ahead of Coptic Christmas which is celebrated on January 7. - 'Flagrant criminal act' - Massad Saad, the son of the prayer leader at Al-Haq mosque, told AFP he was inside the building when other worshippers noticed "a man going up to the roof carrying a bag" but when they followed him they found "two bags". "We informed the police," Saad, a 35-year-old baker, said in a phone interview. There was no immediate confirmation from officials. Government newspaper Al-Ahram reported Sunday that a bomb had been placed in a bag on the roof of a building in Ezzbat al-Haggan, but it did not mention the church or the mosque. On Sunday morning security forces were deployed around the neighbourhood keeping journalists at bay. Egyptian security forces guard a street leading to the church were an expolosion ocurred leaving one casualty, in Cairo on January 5, 2019 The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, denounced "the terrorist operation that targeted... the church", on his official Facebook page. He said "extremists" had planted "an explosive device on the roof of Al-Haq mosque... near the Virgin Mary church". Similarly, Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest institution of Sunni Islam, condemned the attack. "The targeting of worship places and killing of innocents is a flagrant criminal act that violates teachings of all religions," it said in a statement. It also voiced its solidarity with state institutions against "terrorism" which it said sought to spoil Coptic celebrations. - String of attacks - Sisi often presents himself as a defender of Christians against extremists but activists and some analysts accuse the state of discriminating against them and not providing enough protection. More than 100 Copts have been killed in jihadist attacks since December 2016. A picture taken on January 3, 2019, shows a general view of the newly-built al-Fattah al-Alim mosque in Egypt's new administrative capital, 45 kilometres east of Cairo IS claimed an assault in early November in which six Copts and one Anglican died in the central province of Minya. The jihadists killed more than 40 people in twin church bombings in April 2017, and an IS gunman in December that year killed nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb. Hundreds of police and soldiers have also been killed in attacks. In late December, three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide died when a roadside bomb hit their bus on the outskirts of Cairo. The country has been under a state of emergency since April 2017. In February the army launched a large-scale operation dubbed "Sinai 2018" to rid the Sinai Peninsula of jihadists after an attack on a mosque that killed more than 300 people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with the US National Security Advisor John Bolton, during a statement to the media in Jerusalem on January 6, 2019 US President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Sunday set out conditions for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, saying the defence of allies must first be assured. The comments by John Bolton during a visit to Israel signalled a far more gradual US withdrawal than initially set out by Trump, whose December 19 announcement concerned allies and led to the resignation of defence secretary Jim Mattis. Trump himself has more recently spoken of "slowly" sending troops home "over a period of time", and Bolton laid out some of the conditions required before it takes place. "We're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw, but to do so from northeast Syria in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again," Bolton said when meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. "And to make sure that the defence of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." Israel is especially worried over whether the withdrawal will allow its main enemy Iran to expand its presence in the neighbouring country. Netanyahu has pledged to continue to act against Iran in Syria. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria against what it says are Iranian military targets and deliveries of advanced weapons to Hezbollah, a Shiite Lebanese militia backed by Tehran. Earlier in the day, Bolton told journalists travelling with him that conditions such as guarantees on the safety of Kurdish allies must be met before American troops are withdrawn, NBC News reported. Bolton also said all 2,000 US forces may not be pulled out, according to the report. He said the withdrawal would take place in northeastern Syria, while some forces could remain to the south at the al-Tanf garrison as part of efforts to counter Iran's presence. - 'Condition the withdrawal' - "There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," said Bolton, according to NBC. "Timetables or the timing of the withdrawal occurs as a result of the fulfilment of the conditions and the establishment of the circumstances that we want to see. And once that's done, then you talk about a timetable." Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of Syria's north and northeast, some of it seized from the Islamic State group. Despite backing from the US-led coalition and success in pushing back IS, Kurdish-led forces have at times incurred heavy losses. A US withdrawal could leave them exposed to an attack by neighbouring Turkey -- where Bolton travels on Monday -- and its Syrian proxies. The Kurds have invited Damascus to send troops into some of the territory it controls, to act as a bulwark against pro-Turkish forces. Bolton's visit was part of a US effort to reassure allies after Trump's announcement. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who also met Netanyahu last week, leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day trip to Amman, Cairo, Manama, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh, Muscat, and Kuwait City. Netanyahu used Sunday's meeting to again push for the United States and other countries to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed. He said he planned to take Bolton to visit the Golan before he leaves for Turkey on Monday if weather permits. "The Golan Heights is tremendously important for our security and I think that when you're there you'll be able to understand perfectly why we'll never leave the Golan Heights," Netanyahu said alongside Bolton. "And why it's important that all countries recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. I've discussed this with the president." Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III (C), arrives at the Church of the Nativity in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, to celebrate the Christmas mass with his community, on January 6, 2019 Hundreds of Orthodox Christians began marking Christmas in Bethlehem Sunday, as protesters demonstrated against the sale of church land to Israelis. Greek Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III arrived at the Church of the Nativity, built on the traditionally recognised site of Jesus's birth, as a large deployment of Palestinian police stood guard. Several dozen demonstrators shouted "traitor" and "spy" as they protested against the Greek Orthodox church's sale of property in mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem to groups aiding Jewish settlement. A similar protest took place last year. Bethlehem municipality in the Israeli-occupied West Bank had decided not to welcome Theophilos officially, councillor Anton Salman told AFP. He called on the Greek Orthodox leader "to remain faithful to the cause of the Palestinian people". Israeli purchases of church land and property in east Jerusalem angers Palestinians -- including Orthodox Christians -- who see this Israeli-annexed territory as the capital of their promised state. The church elected Theophilos in 2005 after dismissing his predecessor Irineos over an alleged multi-million-dollar sale of church land to Jewish buyers, but Palestinian critics say the practice continues. Worshippers light candles, inside the Church of the Nativity, traditionally recognised by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, on January 6, 2019 Most Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, while those in the West observe it on December 25 because of differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Earlier Sunday the traditional parade of boy and girl scout marching bands in Bethlehem went ahead in a biting cold wind. "We came to visit Manger Square to celebrate Christmas," said Lissa Bsharat, who had arrived from Nazareth in northern Israel with her son and husband. "The atmosphere is very beautiful." US National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks on December 13, 2018 US President Donald Trump's national security adviser said Sunday during a visit to Israel that the American withdrawal from Syria must be done with the defence of allies "assured". "We're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw, but to do so from northeast Syria in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again," John Bolton said when meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. "And to make sure that the defence of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." Trump's announcement on December 19 that the US would immediately withdraw its troops from Syria led to concerns among allies, and he has since spoken of "slowly" sending troops home "over a period of time". Israel is especially worried over whether it will allow its main enemy Iran to expand its presence in the neighbouring country. Bolton told journalists travelling with him earlier in the day that conditions such as guarantees on the safety of Kurdish allies must be met before American troops are withdrawn from Syria, NBC News reported. Bolton also said all 2,000 US forces may not be withdrawn, according to the report. He said the withdrawal would take place in northeastern Syria, while some forces could remain to the south at the al-Tanf garrison as part of efforts to counter Iran's presence. Yemeni marine police patrol around the damaged destroyer USS Cole as it is towed out of Aden harbor on October 29, 2000 -- US President Donald Trump has confirmed that a key plotter of the attack was killed in a US air strike President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday that the US military has killed one of the architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that left 17 American servicemen dead. The military said Friday that Al-Qaeda operative Jamal al-Badawi was believed to have been killed in a precision strike in Yemen. "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole," Trump tweeted. "We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi." "We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!" On October 12, 2000, a rubber boat loaded with explosives blew up as it rounded the bow of the guided-missile destroyer, which had just pulled into Aden for a refueling stop. Seventeen American sailors were killed as well as the two perpetrators of the attack that was claimed by Al-Qaeda, in an early success for the terror group and its founder Osama bin Laden. The chief suspect in the attack, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is being held in the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Badawi was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 and charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of US nationals and murder of US military personnel. He was said to have supplied boats and explosives for the attack on the destroyer. Badawi was also charged with attempting with co-conspirators to attack a US Navy vessel in January 2000, and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. According to the agency, he was captured by Yemeni authorities but escaped from prison in April 2003. He was recaptured in March 2004, but again escaped in February 2006. Nasr al-Hariri is the Syrian opposition's chief negotiator Syria's opposition chief on Sunday urged Arab leaders not to rebuild relations with President Bashar al-Assad's government, voicing frustration amid apparent efforts to bring the Damascus regime back into the Arab fold. After years of frosty ties, the United Arab Emirates last month reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital, and fellow Gulf state Bahrain has followed suit. "We are surprised that our brothers are reaching out and building relations with this regime," opposition leader Nasr al-Hariri told reporters in Riyadh, where he lives in exile. "We hope that our brothers, the leaders of Arab nations, will not abandon the Syrian people," he added, urging them to reconsider their decisions. Almost eight years into Syria's devastating war, opponents of Assad's regime are watching in dismay as his government looks set to secure a comeback at home and abroad. With backing from Russia and Iran, the government has expelled rebels and jihadists from large parts of Syria, and now controls almost two-thirds of the country. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in November 2011 as the death toll mounted and several regional powers bet on the demise of the Assad regime. Most Gulf states closed their embassies in 2012. But several Arab states are seeking to restore ties with Assad after his forces made decisive gains in the war, in a bid to expand their influence in the war-torn country. Just days before the UAE reopened its embassy, Sudan's president made the first visit by an Arab leader to Damascus since the start of the conflict. Efforts to bring Assad's regime back in from the cold are likely to intensify in the run up to the next Arab League summit to be held in Tunis in March. Sparked by the brutal repression of anti-Assad protests in 2011, the conflict has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions. But fighting has failed to topple Assad, endless diplomatic efforts have been unable to reach a peaceful transition, and the regime now appears stronger than ever. President Donald Trump says the United States has a "very good dialogue" with North Korea US President Donald Trump said Sunday negotiations are underway on the location of his next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while remaining evasive on its timing. Trump, who held a historic summit with Kim in Singapore in June, said earlier in the week he had received a "great letter" from the North Korean leader but declined to reveal its contents. "We are negotiating a location," he told reporters before boarding a helicopter for the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, where he said he would be discussing a trade deal with China. "It will be announced probably in the not too distant future," he said of a summit with Kim. "They do want to meet and we want to meet and we'll see what happens." "With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue," Trump added, saying he had "indirectly spoken" with Kim. The latest letter from Kim came after the North Korean leader warned in a New Year's speech that Pyongyang may change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persists with sanctions. Trump said Sunday the sanctions remain "in full force and effect" and would do so until the United States saw "very positive" results. At the first summit between the longtime adversaries in June, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward the Korean peninsula's denuclearization but with little apparent agreement on what that means. The United States has been pressing for North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons before any easing of economic pressure. Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for 70 years, wants immediate economic benefits and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. Trump has cast his first summit with Kim as a major diplomatic victory, and on Sunday repeated his claim that there would be war in Asia had they not sat down to talk. "Anyone else but me, you would have been at war right now ... You right now would have been at a nice big fat war in Asia with North Korea if I hadn't been elected president." But progress has stalled since the Singapore summit with the two sides disagreeing over the meaning of their vaguely-worded declaration, and the pace of US-North Korean negotiations has slowed, with meetings and visits cancelled at short notice. Culminating in late 2017, the North has carried out six atomic blasts and launched rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland, but has now carried out no such tests for more than a year. jca/ec/jm The latest raids follow strikes by the Israeli army on two Hamas posts on Sunday, after balloons carried an explosive device over the border fence The Israeli army said Monday it had carried out further air raids against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket being fired over its border. The Israeli air defence system intercepted the rocket which was fired overnight from the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, the army said. Planes and a helicopter gunship then raided "terror targets within the organisation's military camp in the northern Gaza Strip," the statement said. A Hamas security official in Gaza said that Israeli aircraft carried out three raids, targeting a position of the armed wing of the movement near Beit Lahia in the north of the Palestinian enclave without causing any casualties. The latest raids follow strikes by the Israeli army on two Hamas posts on Sunday, after balloons carried an explosive device over the border fence. The Gaza border has been relatively calm in recent weeks after a deal in which Israel allowed Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid for fuel and salaries in the blockaded enclave. Following Sunday's strikes, the Israeli army statement said: "Earlier today, an explosive device attached to multiple balloons was launched on a model airplane from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. "In response, (Israeli) attack helicopters targeted two Hamas military posts in the Gaza Strip." A Hamas security source said one strike occurred east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and hit an observation point for Hamas's armed wing, while the second was east of Gaza City. The security source said no injuries had been reported. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. Since March, protests and clashes have occurred along the Gaza border fence. Protesters have been calling for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel. Israelis say that would mean the destruction of the Jewish state. At least 240 Palestinians have been killed since the demonstrations began, most of them by Israeli fire during border clashes but also by air and tank strikes. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period, one by a Palestinian sniper and another during an aborted special forces operation inside Gaza. Protesters wielded signs portraying junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha as a lying Pinnocchio with a long nose Dozens of anti-junta activists gathered in Thailand Sunday to call for the military government to honour a long-anticipated election set for February 24, as rumours abound of the date being postponed yet again. The junta -- which has ruled Thailand since it deposed the government of Yingluck Shinawatra in a coup in 2014 -- has said it will hold the polls on February 24, after several postponements. But Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has yet to sign a decree which allows the Election Commission to announce an official date, raising concerns that the polls will be delayed. Fresh doubts emerged after the Royal Household Bureau announced the king had set his coronation on May 4-6, more than two and a half years after the death of his revered father. The elaborate three-day ceremony will take weeks of planning, leading some to worry that elections could be pushed back yet again in order to accommodate the preparations for the royal rituals. Protesters gathered on Sunday at Bangkok's Victory Monument, wielding signs saying "Delay No More" and portraying junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha as a lying Pinnocchio with a long nose. "It's ridiculous. Why do they keep postponing and how many more years do they want people to wait?" said Darunee, 60, an academic who declined to provide her family name. The government has until May 9, 2019 to hold elections, according to a bill endorsed by the king in September. Thailand's modern history has been rocked by coups and political turmoil, and the era since the putsch that toppled Yingluck's older brother, billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, in 2006 has been dubbed the "Lost Decade", with street protests and instability a feature of political life. Military leaders have argued that taking control has been necessary to restore stability and stamp out corruption. But critics say the new military-authored constitution dilutes the power of elected governments and embeds its role in politics and policy for the next 20 years. Prayut is widely tipped to return as the country's next premier, though he has been coy about his political aspirations. "He wants to manage the country for a long time," protester Nat Marthong, 26, said. "I don't want the military to choose the prime minister in another coup." Fellow protester Natthapatt Akahad was even more blunt. "I feel angry about the army in Thailand," the 30-year-old told AFP, adding, "I would like the army to get out" of political life. In this file photo from December 13, 2018, US National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC US President Donald Trump's national security adviser said Sunday that conditions such as guarantees on the safety of Kurdish allies must be met before American troops are withdrawn from Syria, NBC News said. John Bolton told journalists travelling with him on a trip to Israel that the United States wanted a guarantee from Turkey that Kurds in Syria would be protected, the US news outlet said. Trump's announcement on December 19 that the US would immediately withdraw its troops from Syria led to concerns among allies, and he has since spoken of "slowly" sending troops home "over a period of time". "There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," said Bolton, who travels to Turkey after Israel, according to NBC. "Timetables or the timing of the withdrawal occurs as a result of the fulfilment of the conditions and the establishment of the circumstances that we want to see. And once that's done, then you talk about a timetable." Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of Syria's north and northeast, some of it seized from the Islamic State group. Despite backing from the US-led coalition and success in pushing back IS, Kurdish-led forces have at times incurred heavy losses. A US withdrawal could leave them exposed to an attack by neighbouring Turkey and its Syrian proxies. The Kurds have invited Damascus to send troops into some of the territory it controls, to act as a bulwark against pro-Turkish forces. Bolton also said Sunday all 2,000 US forces may not be withdrawn. He said the withdrawal would take place in northern Syria, while some forces could remain to the south at the al-Tanf garrison as part of efforts to counter Iran's presence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Bolton later Sunday, has pledged to continue to act against Iran -- the Jewish state's main enemy -- in Syria. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria against what it says are Iranian military targets and deliveries of advanced weapons to Hezbollah, a Shiite Lebanese militia backed by Tehran. Both Hezbollah and Iran back President Bashar al-Assad's regime. At a meeting on Tuesday in Brazil, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Israeli premier that the Syria pullout would not affect US support and protection of Israel. "Our position is clear," Netanyahu said on Sunday. "We continue at this time to act against the Iranian military buildup in Syria, and we are acting against anyone who undermines or tries to undermine Israel's security." The results of the December 30 vote were initially scheduled for Sunday, but electoral commissiom president Corneille Nangaa told a news conference that little over half of ballots had been collected The DR Congo was on tenterhooks Sunday, awaiting a new date for officials to announce the results of elections to replace Joseph Kabila as president of the volatile central African country. On Saturday, just hours before Sunday's scheduled announcement of the provisional outcome, the electoral commission announced a delay until next week, without giving a specific date. Amid fears of vote tampering and calls from world powers for voters' wishes to be respected, commission president Corneille Nangaa said little over half of ballots had been collected. Insisting the commission should be allowed time to do its work, Nangaa decried what he referred to as "threats" from diplomats over the December 30 polls. Twenty-one candidates ran in the election to succeed Kabila, who has ruled the vast conflict-ridden country for almost 18 years. Among the frontrunners were Kabila's handpicked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and two opposition candidates: veteran heavyweight Felix Tshisekedi and newcomer Martin Fayulu. At stake is the political stewardship of a mineral-rich country that has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabila was due to step down two years ago, but clung on to power, sparking widespread protests which were brutally repressed, killing dozens. The election, preceded by repeated delays, was carried out in a relatively peaceful manner. But tensions have built over the lengthy counting process amid fears the results could be manipulated to install Kabila-backed Shadary in the presidency. The electoral commission had promised to announce preliminary results on Sunday, followed by a definitive count on January 15. The president was due to be sworn in three days later. There are fears the delay could stoke tension in the unstable African giant of 80 million people. Nangaa has blamed the slow count on massive logistical problems in a country the size of western Europe with poor infrastructure. Since the vote, the authorities have cut internet access and blocked broadcasts by Radio France Internationale, causing widespread frustration. With international concerns growing over the transfer of power in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation, Western powers have upped the pressure. The United States and European Union urged Kinshasa to ensure a peaceful change of power. Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States was sending about 80 troops to Gabon to deploy in the event of election-related unrest in nearby DR Congo. The African Union, which had sent an 80-member team to monitor the vote, insisted that respecting voters' wishes was "crucial". Martin Griffiths (C), the UN special envoy for Yemen, descends from his plane upon his arrival at Sanaa international airport on January 5, 2019 Talks to address Yemen's failed economy could take place in Jordan's capital Amman, a rebel leader said Sunday after meeting UN envoy Martin Griffiths. Discussions on the war-torn country's economy "could take place in Amman... which I discussed with the UN envoy", Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, head of the rebel Higher Revolutionary Committee, told AFP. He added that the meeting may alternatively take place by video conference. The Huthi rebels later released a statement on Sunday clarifying that the official was referring to "economic meetings" that could take place and not a second round of peace negotiations between the rebels and the government. One month after hard-won peace talks on the Yemen conflict, the United Nations faces an uphill battle as it pushes to ensure the warring parties make good on a shaky truce deal. UN envoy Griffiths, who brokered the breakthrough last month in Sweden, returned to Yemen Saturday with a plan to expedite measures agreed between the government and Huthi rebels. Key among them is the redeployment of rival forces from Hodeida, the Red Sea port city crucial for aid and food imports. Griffiths, scheduled to see Yemeni government officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh after meeting the rebels, hopes to bring the warring sides together later this month -- possibly in Kuwait -- to follow up on progress made at December's talks. The UN envoy held talks Sunday with Huthi chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi, spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam said in a statement carried by rebel Al-Masira TV. He said that the two addressed "preparations for the upcoming round of talks". Rebel-held Hodeida was for months the main front line in the Yemen war after government forces supported by Saudi Arabia and its allies launched an offensive to capture it in June. But a precarious calm has largely held in the city since a ceasefire agreement came into force on December 18. Under the deal, both the Iran-backed rebels and pro-government forces should withdraw from the area. UN spokesman Farhan Haq on Thursday confirmed the cessation of hostilities continued to hold in Hodeida, despite mutual accusations of violations by the rebels and Saudi-backed government. But there has not yet been progress on the redeployment of loyalist and rebel forces from Hodeida city. The UN Security Council is expected to hear a report from Griffiths next week, although no date has been set. The war between the Huthis and troops loyal to the internationally-recognised government escalated in March 2015, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi and the Riyadh-led coalition intervened. The conflict has unleashed the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, which says 14 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. US President Donald Trump says his demands for a border wall with Mexico are a matter of national security President Donald Trump stood firm Sunday on his demand for billions of dollars to fund a border wall with Mexico, claiming "tremendous" support inside his camp on the contentious issue which has forced a government shutdown now entering its third week. "We have to build the wall," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for the Camp David presidential retreat. "It's about safety, it's about security for our country. The US president warned once more that he may invoke emergency powers to get a wall built without congressional approval. "I may declare a national emergency, dependent on what's going to happen over the next few days," he said. One prominent House Democrat, Adam Schiff, immediately rejected the talk of a national emergency. He noted that when former president Harry Truman used such language in an attempt to nationalize the steel industry and end a labor strike during the Korean War, he was rebuffed by the Supreme Court. "So that's a nonstarter," Schiff said on CNN. He said Trump had painted himself into a corner and needs to "figure out how he unpaints himself from that corner." An impasse with lawmakers over funding for the border wall -- Trump is demanding $5.6 billion, while Senate Democrats have offered $1.3 billion -- has partially shut down the federal government since December 22. Trump said Friday that the standoff could last "months or even years." The US-Mexico border The shutdown has left some 800,000 federal workers sent home or working without pay. Large numbers of federal contractors are also losing pay in what is already one of the longest shutdowns in US history. Talks aimed at ending the shutdown were to resume Sunday afternoon in Vice President Mike Pence's office, a day after a meeting involving him and representatives of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the top two Democrats in Congress, made little headway. Trump indicated, however, that he was not expecting a weekend breakthrough, saying there would be "very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." - Accusation of 'stalling' - Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, seen here in a recent cabinet meeting, has accused Democrats of 'stalling' in the talks to end a partial government shutdown Trump repeated his claim that many furloughed federal workers "agree 100 percent" with his demands, while asserting he also had "tremendous support within the Republican Party." But Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, seem in no mood to make concessions on a border wall Pelosi has described as an "immorality." Pelosi said in an interview that aired Sunday if the president "doesn't care whether people's needs are met, or that public employees are paid or that we can have a legitimate discussion, then we have a problem." Reflecting the depth of the divide, she added on CBS's "Sunday Morning" that Trump sometimes gave the impression that "he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress, so the only voice that mattered was his own." Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told CNN on Sunday that Democratic negotiators seemed to have come to the talks Saturday "to stall." Both Democrats and Republicans have attempted to pin the blame the other side for the shutdown -- a disruptive political ritual almost unique to the American system. "This shutdown could end tomorrow and it could also go on for a long time," Trump said. "It really depends on the Democrats." Trump's fellow Republicans control the US Senate but are short of the 60 votes needed to pass budget laws, so some Democratic support will be needed for any move to end the impasse. - Trump 'doesn't care' - Democratic leaders (L to R) Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin are seen leaving White House talks over the partial government shutdown with President Donald Trump on January 4, 2019 Building a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border was a central plank in the 2016 election campaign of Trump, who has sought to equate immigrants with crime, drugs and gangs. Mulvaney said he had concluded that Democrats "think they are winning this battle politically and they're vehement because they think the president is paying a price politically. That's unfortunate." But a leading Democrat involved in the negotiations, Senator Dick Durbin, pushed back. "I can't say that we're close (to a solution)," he told CBS, "because the president's made it clear he doesn't care." A sign outside the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery posted on January 2, 2019 notes that the Smithsonian museums were forced to close by the partial shutdown of the US government As the impact of the shutdown spreads -- with reports that it may affect food subsidies for the poor and the tax refunds many people depend on each year -- Trump insisted that Americans, even those directly affected, understood his stance. "I can relate and I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments -- they always do -- and people understand." The shutdown has left transportation security agents and FBI employees, among many others, working without pay. The popular Smithsonian museums, just blocks from the White House, have been forced to close, while national parks have seen trash pile up and bathrooms go uncleaned. Palestinians carry the body of Aisha Rabi who died after a stone-throwing attack, during her funeral in the West Bank village of Bidiya on October 13, 2018 Israeli authorities confirmed Sunday that they have been holding Jewish minors suspected of a fatal stone-throwing attack on a Palestinian woman. The arrests had led to mounting speculation in the Israeli media, but authorities had refused to comment, citing a gag order on details of the case while the investigation continued. There was also a protest of several hundred people on Saturday night outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence over the detention of the Jewish minors. Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency said in a statement that a number of suspects had been arrested on December 30, more than two months after Aisha Rabi was killed on October 12. "The suspects were arrested for serious terrorist offences, including murder," the Shin Bet statement said. It added that the stoning took place near the Jewish settlement of Rechalim, close to Rabi's village of Bidiya in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank. Rabi, a mother of nine, was struck on the head in the attack and died later at a hospital in the city of Nablus, Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported at the time. Her husband, who was driving the car at the time, escaped with minor injuries, WAFA said. Palestinian witnesses and security sources cited by the news agency said the stones were thrown by Israeli settlers. The Shin Bet did not give the number or ages of suspects held, but said they were members of a Jewish seminary in Rechalim. Their parents and lawyers have been protesting since the arrests over what they said was their sons' detention in an undisclosed location without access to lawyers. Israeli investigations into "Jewish terrorism" -- as such cases are often referred to by Israeli media -- are highly sensitive. Israeli authorities have been accused by rights activists of dragging their feet in such cases in comparison to investigations into Palestinian attacks, while far-right Israelis say suspects have undergone coercement and torture. South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma, who was forced out of office by his own party, is still fighting corruption charges in court South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) refused Sunday to rule out corruption-plagued ex-President Jacob Zuma as a candidate in parliamentary elections. Zuma, who led the country from 2009 until he was forced by the party to step down last year, faces 16 charges of fraud, corruption, and racketeering related to a 1990s arms deal struck when he was deputy president. He and other officials allegedly accepted bribes from European arms manufacturers. Zuma also stands accused of fostering widespread nepotism and corruption during his years as president. While some in the ANC finally turned against him, Zuma retains influence in the party in whose name he helped wage the struggle against white-governed South Africa's racist apartheid policy. On Sunday, the ANC reiterated a commitment to clean politics, but declined to rule Zuma out for the legislative polls. Any candidate MP "must have no history of ill-discipline or corruption ... must have no history of involvement in fostering divisions and conflict," spokesman Dakota Legoete told a press conference. Asked if these criteria excluded the former president, he said only: "There is still a stage where every candidate will have to accept or decline" nomination by party members. "We don't have to undermine this process," said Legoete. "We will hear from him, comrade Zuma (and others) if they accept or decline." Zuma has not been convicted of any crime. He could be liable for a legal bill as high as $2 billion, and has been ordered by a court to cover his own costs. He is due back in court in May. Parties must submit their final candidates' lists to the Independent Electoral Commission by the month's end, ahead of likely elections in May. Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma's successor as party leader and South African president, has vowed to root out corruption. The ANC has governed South Africa ever since Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, but could face a strong challenge from opposition parties this year. It has come under increasing criticism from opposition politicians for numerous corruption scandals and the poor state of the economy, with unemployment at nearly 28 percent. Critics also say the party has not done enough to address enduring racial inequalities and strife in the country. The ANC suffered significant losses in 2016 local elections, losing control of the key cities including Pretoria and Johannesburg. Rahaf told AFP she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport A Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport said she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials, who confirmed the 18-year-old was denied entry to the country Sunday. Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun told AFP she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. "They took my passport," she told AFP, adding that her male guardian had reported her for traveling "without his permission". Rahaf said she was trying to flee her family, who subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair," she said, adding that she is certain she will be imprisoned if she is sent back. "I'm sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail," she said, adding that she was "scared" and "losing hope". Rahaf was stopped from entering Thailand when she flew in from Kuwait on Sunday, Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told AFP. "She had no further documents such as return ticket or money," he said, adding that Rahaf was currently in an airport hotel. "She ran away from her family to avoid marriage and she is concerned she may be in trouble returning to Saudi Arabia. We sent officials to take care of her now," he said. He added that Thai authorities had contacted the "Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate". But Rahaf disputed his account, saying that she was in transit to seek asylum in Australia, where she claimed to have a visa, and was accosted by Saudi and Kuwaiti embassy representatives when she deplaned in Suvarnabhumi airport. Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson decried the actions of the Thai authorities. "What country allows diplomats to wander around the closed section of the airport and seize the passports of the passengers?" he said, adding that there is "impunity" within the family unit in Saudi Arabia to abuse women. Immigration head Surachate said Rahaf would be sent back to Saudi Arabia by Monday morning. "It's a family problem," he said of the case. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. An airline security official told activists that Lasloom was heard "screaming and begging for help" as men carried her "with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands" at the airport. The Saudi embassy in Thailand and officials in Riyadh could not be reached for immediate comment. Iran's parliament will investigate claims by a labour protest leader that he was tortured in prison Iran's parliament will investigate claims by a labour protest leader that he was tortured in prison following strikes at a sugar factory, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Sunday. Alireza Rahimi, a member of parliament's presiding board, said his request for an investigation had been accepted by speaker Ali Larijani, according to ISNA. It followed claims by Esmail Bakhshi, written on his Instagram account and reported by the reformist Etemad newspaper, that he was tortured during 25 days in detention in southwestern Khuzestan province late last year. Bakhshi was one of the organisers of weeks-long protests at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in Shush over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by new private owners. Ali Motahari, an outspoken member of parliament, wrote a column in Etemad on Sunday titled "Source of shame", demanding answers from the intelligence ministry. The governor of Khuzestan, Gholamreza Shariati, denied Bakhshi's claims. "I checked with the relevant bodies and the claim of torture was strongly denied," he told the Jamaran news site. Rahimi said Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi will attend the commission hearings in parliament, according to ISNA. The strike at Haft Tapeh, which has around 4,000 workers, largely ended in December after the workers received their wages. Iran has been hit by strikes over working conditions in several key sectors this year, including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside Tehran. In November the head of Iran's judiciary warned restive workers against creating "disorder". "Workers should not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy," Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said, quoted by the judiciary's news agency Mizan Online. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speaks during a news conference with visiting US national security adviser John Bolton at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on August 20, 2018 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would discuss Iranian ambitions in neighbouring Syria when he meets Sunday evening with US national security advisor John Bolton in Jerusalem. Bolton arrived in Israel on Saturday night for talks on the future of Syria in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw all US forces there. The announcement has concerned Israel and other US allies in the region, and Trump has since spoken of "slowly" sending troops home "over a period of time". "I will discuss with him efforts to stop Iranian aggression in our region, the situation in Syria, following President Trump's decision, and the continuation of the conversation I held with President Putin on Friday," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting. The phone call with Putin was the first between the leaders since Trump's surprise statement that he was pulling all 2,000 troops from Syria, declaring that the United States had achieved its objective as the Islamic State group had been "knocked" out. Netanyahu's office said he and Putin "discussed the situation in Syria and recent developments and agreed on continued coordination between the (Israeli and Russian) militaries". "Our position is clear," Netanyahu said on Sunday. "We continue at this time to act against the Iranian military buildup in Syria, and we are acting against anyone who undermines or tries to undermine Israel's security." Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in neighbouring Syria against what it says are Iranian military targets and deliveries of advanced weapons to Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran. Israeli public radio said that Sunday evening's meeting would also include Washington's concerns over Chinese commercial and technological activity in the Jewish state. Netanyahu has been delighted by Trump's hard line on Israel's main enemy Iran and the landmark move of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but the pullout from Syria has caused concern. At a meeting on Tuesday in Brazil, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Israeli premier that the Syria pullout would not affect US support and protection of Israel. "The counter-ISIS campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continue, and our commitment to Middle East stability and protection of Israel continues in the same way before that decision was made," he said using an acronym for the Islamic State group. Among the 49 migrants trapped off the coast of Malta are a one-year-old baby and two children aged six and seven Pope Francis on Sunday urged EU leaders to show "concrete solidarity" with 49 migrants stranded on NGO ships off the coast of Malta who have been refused permission to land. "Forty nine migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by two NGO ships have been onboard for several days now, waiting to be able to disembark," Francis told thousands of people gathered in Saint Peter's square in Rome. "I address a pressing appeal to European leaders that they show some concrete solidarity with respect to these people," he added. Amid growing concern over the plight of the migrants, some of whom have been at sea for more than two weeks, the European Commission earlier this week called on EU member states to admit them. The Netherlands and Germany have offered to take some but only if their EU partners do the same, highlighting again the European Union's long-running deadlock over sharing responsibility for migrants. There are 17 people on board the German NGO Sea-Eye vessel, with another 32 on the Sea-Watch. Among them are a one-year-old baby and two children aged six and seven. Both Italy and Malta have refused port access and on Sunday they reiterated that position. "In Italy, there are no more arrivals. That is the line and it will not change," hardline Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told the Il Messaggero newspaper. "Italian ports are closed and will remain so," he added in a tweet. Bouts of Caci typically involve two men wearing shields, masks and whips made out of rattan Dressed in bright colours and lunging at each other with long, looping whips, martial arts fighters in Indonesia were cheered by spectators as they dueled during a traditional festival on Sunday. A martial art practised by the Manggarai people from southern Indonesia, Caci bouts typically involve two men wearing masks while wielding shields and whips made out of rattan. A fighter wins a duel by hitting his opponent in the face or head A fighter wins by hitting his opponent in the face or the head. The duels are full of symbolism -- the leather-handled whips represent masculinity and the sky, while the round shields stand for femininity, the womb and the earth. The festival -- which took place in Subaya, Indonesia's second largest city -- aims to preserve and promote Caci and the Manggarai culture, the organiser said. In Caci, the whips symbolise masculinity and the sky, while the round shields represent femininity, the womb and the earth It is held so "the tradition won't be eroded by time and the modern life", said organiser Tarius, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. In ancient times, the fighters -- in the Manggarai peoples' province of East Nusa Tenggara province -- were men from different villages who competed against each other to celebrate the harvest season. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been greeted with fanfare in Islamabad The red carpet was rolled out for Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Islamabad Sunday, just weeks after his country offered $3 billion to support Pakistan's battered economy. In a rare gesture, Prime Minister Imran Khan met Al Nahyan at the Pakistan Air Force base and a formation of air force jets marked his arrival with a flyby. The crown prince was also presented with a guard of honour by a contingent of Pakistani armed forces. The United Arab Emirates is Pakistan's largest trading partner in the Middle East and a major investment source, Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of the visit. More than 1.5 million Pakistanis live in the gulf state and send millions of dollars in remittances back home, it added. The crown prince last visited Pakistan in January 2007. Al Nahyan, who is also deputy chief of the UAE's armed forces, had a "one-on-one meeting" with Khan, followed by delegation-level talks, the statement said. "They resolved to take all necessary measures to deal with matters related to trade enhancement, and decided to form a Task Force to achieve this objective," said a joint statement issued after talks ended. The UAE announced in December that it would deposit $3 billion in the central bank of Pakistan to help "enhance liquidity" as the country struggles with a widening balance of payments crisis. The statement quoted Khan as saying that "this financial support shows the UAE's continued commitment and friendship that has remained steadfast over the years". The Pakistani rupee plunged almost five percent to a record low at the end of November, after what appeared to be the sixth devaluation by the central bank in the past year. It also secured $6 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia and struck a 12-month deal for a cash lifeline during Khan's visit to the kingdom in October. Islamabad has also received billions of dollars in Chinese loans to finance ambitious infrastructure projects. A team from the International Monetary Fund visited Pakistan in November to discuss a possible bailout with officials but talks ended without agreement. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne is set to visit India to strengthen ties with the nation to help the Indo-Pacific region. Senator Payne will take part in the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday, meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her counterpart Sushma Swaraj and other senior ministers. India's economy is projected to be the fastest-growing large economy over the next two decades, with trade between Australia and India increasing to $29.1 billion, up 13 per cent, over the past year. Outgoing Labor MP Emma Husar has blasted her colleagues for spruiking the party's positive stance on gender equality while not publicly defending her from accusations of bullying. Ms Husar says many of the Labor party's senior women spoke to her privately to support her, after allegations of bullying and sexual harassment were levelled against her in August. "Well get out there and say it publicly, use your voice to back me up," the Lindsay MP told the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. "Otherwise this will be the same story for the next poor schmuck who comes along, gets plucked out of relative obscurity, out of my single mum life with a child on the spectrum and an estranged ex-partner, and told hey, we are going to use you to show what great people we are. "And then throw me in the deep end and leave me there." While close to 50 per cent of Labor's MPs are women, Ms Husar says the "elders of the party are still predominantly men." A confidential internal Labor investigation found Ms Husar had mistreated her electorate staff but did not find evidence to support claims of sexual harassment or of her flashing another federal MP. Ms Husar is in the midst of a defamation lawsuit against the media outlet that revealed the allegations made against her during the investigation, which included evidence from more than 20 people. The MP launched legal action against BuzzFeed and journalist Alice Workman over their story from early August. Ms Husar announced she would not recontest her Sydney seat at the federal election following the scandal. But she changed her mind and said she was eager to recontest the seat, before being dumped by NSW Labor as the party's candidate last month. Marc Leishman remains well in contention early on in the final round at the PGA Tour's Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. The Australian world No.20 is one under for the round and at 14-under-par he sits just three shots behind leader Gary Woodland. Woodland's final group playing partner, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, has birdied the par-4 third hole to move to 15 under and only two back at Kapalua's Plantation course. Playing in the second-last group at the winners-only US PGA Tour event on Maui, Leishman settled the nerves with pars on his opening two holes but missed an eight-foot birdie putt at the third. However, the four-time PGA Tour winner picked up a birdie at the par-5 fifth hole. Leishman's playing partner, Xander Schauffele, is solo fourth a shot back at 13 under. Meanwhile, Leishman's fellow Australian Jason Day is clawing his way back up the leaderboard, having picked up three shots through 11 holes to climb to seven under. Former world No.1 Day leads the field in birdies, with a total of 21, but will only be able to manage a top 10 result with a hot back nine. The Tournament of Champions is an elite $US6.5 million ($A9.3 million) event for winners on the PGA Tour from the previous year and features no 36-hole cut. Australian hospital operator Healius Ltd has rejected an 'opportunistic' $2.02 billion takeover offer from its largest shareholder, Jangho Hong Kong Holdings. Jangho, which owns nearly 16 per cent of Healius, made an indicative cash offer of $3.25 per share on January 3, which saw an immediate 12 per cent share price spike for the company formerly known as Primary Health Care. But on Monday Healius announced the offer was opportunistic and undervalued, as well as being conditional on a number of regulatory approvals in both China and Australia. As such, Healius chairman Rob Hubbard recommended shareholders take no action on the offer. "The sources of funding are not apparent from the information provided by Jangho and the proposal is conditional on a number of regulatory approvals that are outside of the control of Jangho, including the approval of Chinese and Australian regulators," Healius said in a statement to the ASX. Healius shares were last trading at $2.75, up 18 per cent from a near three-year low of $2.23 on December 31, but still well down from $3.48 a year ago. A former teacher will face court after he was accused of indecently assaulting a student at a primary school in Sydney's southwest. Police say the 32-year-old, who's previously been arrested over abuse allegations, was arrested at a South Nowra correctional facility in November. Officers had received a report of another student being indecently assaulted. The man is expected to face Nowra Local Court on Monday charged with procuring a child under 16 for sexual activity and indecent assault of a person under 16. A young Saudi woman seeking asylum in Australia who is being held in a Bangkok hotel room fears she will soon be deported from Thailand. Rahaf Mohammed Mutlaq Alqunun, 18, claims she was abducted on Sunday and had her passport confiscated by Saudi Arabian diplomatic staff on arrival at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport. On social media she claimed she was being held at an airport hotel by diplomatic and airline staff, despite having a visa to travel to Australia. Ms Alqunun said she had been abused by her family and would be killed if she is returned home. A Thai friend who is with Ms Alqunun at the hotel said Thai Immigration officers came to her room late on Sunday afternoon and told her she would be sent back to Saudi Arabia on Monday. "They said 'you have three minutes to pack, and you will be flown back to Kuwait tomorrow at 11.15am, then returned to Saudi Arabia'," she told AAP. However, the teenager spoke to the officers and later returned to the hotel, human rights workers who interviewed her said. In a Twitter post, Ms Alqunun revealed her identity and passport details, saying she had "nothing to lose". She added she was afraid her family was trying to kill her. Saudi women are subject to strict male guardianship laws and must obtain consent from a male relative for travel documents. A Thai human rights worker who spoke to Ms Alqunun said she told him she had been held in her room by her family for six months because she had cut her hair. She said she had asserted her independence, but had been forced to pray and wear a hijab. Ms Alqunun said she had also been beaten by her brother. He said Ms Alqunun fled from her family two days ago while they were on a trip to Kuwait. Human Rights Watch Asia division deputy director Phil Robertson said the organisation was trying to lodge an asylum claim with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He also questioned a statement by Thailand's Immigration chief to the BBC that Ms Alqunun did not have a travel visa, which prevented her from entering Thailand. Police Lieutenant General Surachet Hakparn said Ms Alqunun was in the process of being repatriated through Kuwait Airlines, the same airline she had arrived on. Mr Robertson said Ms Alqunun was in transit to Australia when she was detained and did not need a visa, which is available on arrival anyway. "What is truly appalling is how the Saudi Arabian government has acted in sending an official to physically seize her passport from her in Bangkok airport international transit," he said. "She is 18 years old, she has an Australian visa, and she has the right to travel where she wishes and no government should interfere in that." Mr Robertson said someone in the Thai government "needs to explain why diplomats from Saudi Arabia are allowed to walk in closed areas of the Bangkok airport, seizing one of their citizen's passports". The Sydney Thunder have moved to within one point of heading the WBBL ladder after notching a hard-fought five-run victory over the Melbourne Stars. Nicola Carey was instrumental on Sunday with both bat (39no) and ball (2-22) to earn player-of-the-match honours, as the Thunder posted 6-122 before limiting the Stars to 9-117 at Bankstown Oval. With the Stars requiring 13 off the last six deliveries, Carey kept her composure with a fine death over, the Stars' bid for victory falling just short. After South African Lizelle Lee was trapped lbw for 12, the visitors looked solid at 1-69 before a 5-17 collapse sabotaged their chase. West Indian Stafanie Taylor's brilliance in the field helped to turn the match the Thunder's way, firstly running out Ange Reakes (33) with a direct hit with one peg to aim at, before snaring an acrobatic return catch to get rid of Mignon du Preez (25). Wrist spinner Maisy Gibson (3-22) proved a handful in conditions where batting wasn't always easy after early-morning showers and an onslaught of hail and lightning which curtailed Saturday's encounter. With the bat, Carey gave the home side plenty of impetus after an early stop-start in their innings. Rachael Haynes (18) and Rachel Priest (12) made starts and Naomi Stalenberg survived two dropped chances en route to a measured 21. Carey and teenager Rachel Trenaman (12no) put on a crucial unbeaten 50 off 31 balls for the seventh wicket to lift the Thunder from a precarious 6-73 in the 15th over to a respectable total which proved beyond the Stars. "I did get dropped early on so I was pretty grateful for that," Carey said. "I was pretty rusty, I haven't batted for some time in a game but really happy to get some runs and get us to a decent total." AUSTRALIA v INDIA DAY 4 Score: India 7(dec)-622, Australia 300 and 0-6. Man of the moment: India's chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, He earned two lbw decisions against Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood to secure the second five-wicket haul of his six-Test career. Stat of the day: India become the first team to have the option of asking Australia to follow on twice in a home summer. Summary: After losing 3-20 following a near four hour delay to the start, Australia got to 300 courtesy of a fighting 44-run last wicket stand between Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, with the latter posting his highest Test score in over two years. Despite being asked to follow on, Australia have some chance of escaping from the match with a draw with rain and bad light shortening play on Saturday and Sunday and a forecast of possible showers on Monday. If the weather improves they face the prospect of having to bat the full day to deny India a win, as they will start the final day needing 316 to make the tourists bat again. Quote of the day: "That dismissal actually says a lot to me about the mindset of the Australian team at the moment. There is no desperation there whatsoever," former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Channel Seven, slamming Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc for not reviewing an lbw decision against Lyon despite Australia having two reviews left. Ellyse Perry has produced a stunning all-round captain's display to pilot the Sydney Sixers to a convincing 32-run away victory over Perth in their WBBL clash. After winning the toss and batting first on Sunday in warm conditions at Lilac Hill, Perry was dominant with the bat, ball and in the field. The Sixers, after posting 2-183, dismissed the Scorchers for 151 to consolidate top spot on the ladder. Perry thumped an unbeaten 80 off 54 deliveries to take her season aggregate to a league-record 617 (at an average of 88.14), moving past the previous benchmark held by Scorchers captain Meg Lanning, who compiled 560 runs in 2015/16. Perry was content to play second fiddle at times as Alyssa Healy (44, two sixes) and Ash Gardner (42, three sixes) teed off, but the Sixers' skipper cranked up late to set the home side a formidable total. Perry opened the bowling and took 2-21, capturing Scorchers opener Amy Jones in her first over before castling Heather Graham for a golden duck. She ran out Lauren Ebsary with a direct hit from mid-on before pouching a catch on the circle. Everything Perry touched turned to gold. "It was a good opportunity to spend a bit of time in the middle, to be honest, on such a nice deck and pretty small outfield," she said. "It was good fun." Lanning (76 off 51 balls) was heroic in the Scorchers' run chase but, aside from a cameo from Mathilda Carmichael (19), there wasn't enough help. "Ideally, if we could have gone (restricted the Sixers to) 160 or under, that would have been a good effort but they got off to a flyer and had wickets in hand towards the end which always makes it difficult," Lanning said. "We tried our best - it just wasn't to be." With Elyse Villani and Nicole Bolton not playing, the target always looked out of reach. Sarah Aley (2-12) and Lauren Cheatle (2-19) provided invaluable support with the ball for the irrepressible Perry. Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell savoured their final day in Guadeloupe on Monday ahead of their long-haul flight back to the United Kingdom. The happy couple welcomed 2019 on the picturesque island of St. Barts, but with New Years Eve already a distant memory they enjoyed one final appearance on the beach just hours before taking the long and winding road back to London. The Beatles legend Sir Paul, who celebrates his 77th birthday in June, looked relaxed in a black T-shirt and white shorts while relaxing on his sun-lounger. A Day In The Life: Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell savoured their final day in Guadeloupe on Monday ahead of their long-haul flight back to the United Kingdom The musician added to his look with a matching Trilby hat, while heavily tinted sunglasses rounded things off. Evidently keen to give Nancy, 59, all his loving, besotted Sir Paul showered her with affection as they savoured their last day in the West Indies. Wrapping his arms around her waist, the British star planted a kiss on Nancy's lips shortly before the couple made their way back to their hotel. All My Loving: Wrapping his arms around Nancy's waist, the British star planted a kiss on her lips shortly before the couple made their way back to their hotel Good Day Sunshine: The Beatles legend, who celebrates his 77th birthday in June, looked relaxed in a black T-shirt and white beach shorts Sir Paul was married previously to photographer and musician Linda McCartney from 1969 to her tragic death from breast cancer in 1998, aged 56. His second marriage to former model Heather Mills lasted just six-years before their split in 2008. He went onto tie the knot for a third time with New Yorker Nancy, with whom he has been happily married since 2011. Every year the couple enjoy taking a trip to the glorious St Barts over the festive season for some winter sun in the red hot Caribbean. Happiness is a warm towel: Sir Paul grinned as he grabbed a large beach towel while relaxing alongside Nancy Hello Goodbye: With New Years Eve already a distant memory the couple enjoyed one final appearance on the beach just hours before taking the long and winding road back to London Paul shared his positive thoughts and hopes for the year ahead with his Twitter followers when he wished them all the best. He tweeted: 'I hope everyone has a really brilliant New Year, with all the fab things theyve hoped for coming true. 'And I hope things work out on all the political fronts that we get more peace than ever, people look after each other and we have a good time! #HappyNewYear.' Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Albayalde on Monday said he has ordered the relief of intelligence officers over the "leak" of an alleged member profiling a teachers' group. In a media briefing Monday, Albayalde noted he has asked for the immediate relief-pending investigation-of the intel officials who were found to be involved in the issue concerning the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). "I already ordered for all the intelligence officers involved to be relieved. Number one is 'yung Intel ng Station 3 ng QCPD (Quezon City Police District). Initially pina-relieve muna namin 'yung mga intelligence officers na ito na sinasabing may nag-leak," Albayalde said. [Translation: I already ordered for all the intelligence officers involved to be relieved. Number one is the intel of the QCPD station 3. Initially, we relieved those intelligence officers who said there were leaks.] The teachers' group on Sunday slammed the police for supposedly profiling its members, saying it was a "grossly illegal and unconstitutional attack" on their right to free expression and self-organization. READ: Teachers' group condemns alleged police profiling of its members In a statement, ACT said the PNP were "making the rounds in schools and offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) to press education officials for an inventory of all ACT members under their jurisdiction." ACT said police either presented or asked school officials to refer to PNP memoranda, so they would give the names of all ACT members in their respective schools. The police, it added, were "citing previous memoranda from PNP Intelligence Departments and the upcoming elections as bases for the order." DepEd, on the other hand, said the agency has not received any request from the PNP regarding the monitoring. "Should any inter-agency request for personal information of individuals be received by DepEd, such request shall be evaluated based on existing laws and regulations, including the Data Privacy Act," the department said in a statement Monday. Albayalde, however, denied he has signed any order on the matter. He added the action was just part of their "intelligence monitoring." "I will look into this, but as far as I'm concerned, wala akong pinirmahan ( I did not sign anything)," the police chief said. "Although this is not profiling. This has been part of our intelligence monitoring." "Ang tanong diyan ay bakit ka takot? Bakit mo ikakatakot kung miyembro ka ng ACT kung wala ka namang ginagawang masama?" [Translation: The question here is why are you scared? Why are you scared to be a member of ACT if you're not doing anything wrong?] ACT said the police action was not only a violation of the members' rights to free expression and privacy, but also of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also earlier slammed the move, and asked for PNP's clarification on the issue. CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said profiling ACT's members is "alarming as it violates rights to privacy and association." Associated with the Left? Meanwhile, the Palace on Monday maintained there has not been any presidential policy regarding the monitoring of teachers. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said there must be a good reason behind the supposed surveillance of the police. "Trabaho kasi ng PNP na mag-monitor (It is the PNP's job to monitor). If you're not doing anything, why should you be afraid? If you're not doing anything, wala namang mangyayari eh (nothing will happen)," Panelo told reporters in a briefing in Malacanang. Panelo added ACT has been associated with leftists and communist groups. "Siyempre titingnan mo na para alam mo kung may balak man, mai-stop mo. Ano bang gusto ng mga rebelde? Ibagsak ang gobyerno," he added. [Translation: Of course you will monitor so that if there is a plan, you can already stop it. What do rebels want? To oust the government.] "Pero (but) if you're doing something irregular or illegal, natural na trabaho ng pulis yun na imonitor yung ginagawa mo. (it's natural for the police to monitor your activities)," Panelo said. The teachers' group, in response, tagged the statements of Panelo and the PNP as "pathetic and ludicrous." "Their statements are very telling of how this regime disregards the basic human rights and civil liberties of the teachers and the people which are guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution and a host of laws such as the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers and the Data Privacy Act of 2012," ACT Philippines Secretary General Raymond Basilio said in a statement. Basilio added the group is consulting with their lawyers regarding possible legal action they could take to "protect their organization." The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) meanwhile reiterated that there is "no crackdown" on ACT members in any school in the country. "What the PNP is undertaking is simply intelligence or information gathering which is one of its major functions," the department said in a statement. "It is the responsibility of the PNP to monitor any and all groups and organizations critical of the government especially those linked to militant organizations whose objective is to overthrow the duly-elected government." DILG Secretary Eduardo Ano is also open to a dicussion with DepEd officials regarding the issue, the statement added. They are the proud parents of two beautiful daughters. And Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes enjoyed a relaxing Sunday taking Amada, two, and Esmerelda, four, to Griffith Park in Los Angeles. It was probably more relaxing for Amada than her 38-year-old dad as he carried the little cutie on his shoulders for their hike. Family fun: Ryan Gosling held his four-year-old daughter Esmerelda's hand as they headed off for a hike in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, followed by mom Eva Mendes and Amada, two Ryan donned a warm shirt in black, grey and cream plaid that he wore over a grey graphic print T-shirt, black pants and heavy boots. Sporting a light beard and mustache, the he Blade Runner 2049 actor pulled a cap over his head. Amada was adorable in a long red, white and blue plaid shirt with jeans, with her brunette hair tied up in tight bunches high on her head. Eva, 44, wore a heavy black knitted sweater over tight jeans and black boots. Doting dad: The 38-year-old found it easier to carry Amada, two, on his shoulders Showing her own distinct style, Esmerelda layered up in a red and black tartan blouse that she wore over a rainbow-hued cardigan and a black dress with multicolored images. She completed her outfit with black leggings and neon pink sneakers. Ryan and Eva met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011. The pair have been together since then, but have kept their relationship private. With awards season underway, Ryan was nominated for a Critics' Choice Best Actor Award for his portrayal of astronaut Neil Armstrong in First Man, last month. It's his second collaboration with director Damien Chazelle, who received a Best Director Oscar for 2016's hit musical La La Land. Ryan was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar that year. Its hard to imagine The Sopranos without mob boss Tony Soprano. Luckily, fans of the classic HBO crime series won't have to, as series creator David Chase, 73, revealed that the iconic character will return in a prequel film, according to Deadline. The Many Saints of Newark will examine the young Tony Soprano's rise to power. He's back: David Chase, 73, revealed on Monday that Tony Soprano will return in a prequel film, according to Deadline; pictured in New York in 2017 The TV writer and creator considered making a follow-up film to the series for years following its startling cut-to-black 2007 finale, but James Gandolfini's death in 2013 ended that possibility. Instead, the idea of a prequel began to take shape. David first announced the project in March of last year, and confirmed in the interview appearing today that a young version of the New Jersey mobster will be part of the film. The TV writer and creator considered making a follow-up film to the series for years following its startling cut-to-black 2007 finale, but James Gandolfini's death in 2013 ended that possibility; pictured on The Sopranos in 1999 The Many Saints Of Newark will be set in the 1960s and will focus on the Newark Riots of 1967. The clashes were sparked after an incident of police brutality in which two police officers arrested and then beat an African American taxi driver. The resulting riots inspired by the beating resulted in 26 deaths, hundreds of injuries and massive property damage. A new beginning: The Many Saints Of Newark will be set in the 1960s and will focus on the Newark Riots of 1967; James Gandolfini and Edie Falco pictured on The Sopranos in 1999 Although he eventually came around on the idea, David revealed he was initially weary of returning to the Sopranos story. 'I was against [the movie] for a long time and I'm still very worried about it, but I became interested in Newark, where my parents came from, and where the riots took place,' he explained. 'I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time. I used to go to down there every Saturday night for dinner with my grandparents. But the thing that interested me most was Tonys boyhood. I was interested in exploring that. 'The movie will deal with the tensions between the blacks and whites at the time, and Tony Soprano will be part of this, but as a kid,' he said. Took some convincing: Although he eventually came around on the idea, David revealed he was initially weary of returning to the Sopranos story Tony Soprano and his mafia brethren often reminisced about the good old days on the show, a time the series creator was interested in finally showing. 'It is going to depict when it was good,' he said. 'The mafia was very polished at that time, how they dressed and what they did. Those traditions were followed more loosely in the series. These werent guys who wore tracksuits, back then.' The writer and director previously had practice with a 1960s-set period film Not Fade Away, his 2012 feature debut, focused on an aspiring rock musician in the late '60s. James Gandolfini even returned to play the character's father for the film. The Sopranos creator will write the new film, though Alan Taylor will take over directing duties. You Were Never Really Here actor Alessandro Nivola is set to appear as Tony's uncle, but the rest of the cast is still being set. He has gone on to find love again following the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Katie Price. And suggesting that things are going well within his new romance, Kieran Hayler was seen ring shopping with girlfriend Michelle Pentecost in Guildford on Monday. The former stripper, 31, put on an amorous display with his new love, as they checked out the diamond rings on offer, with Michelle even trying a few designs on her engagement finger. Engagement on the way? Kieran Hayler was seen ring shopping with girlfriend Michelle Pentecost in Guildford on Monday Browsing through the display of rings, both Kieran and Michelle appeared in high spirits as they stopped by a branch of Ernest Jones. The duo were seen perusing through the glass cabinets intently, with Michelle picking out a glittering rock to try on her engagement finger - fuelling speculation that a proposal could soon be on the cards for the pair. Kieran didn't seem fazed by his girlfriend's eagerness and couldn't have looked happier as he showered Michelle with affection while out in the town centre. Set to wed? The couple sparked speculation a proposal could be on the way, as Michelle was seen trying rings on her wedding finger Food for thought: Kieran didn't seem fazed by his girlfriend's actions, as he was seen looking intently into the glass cabinets Clad in a casual ensemble that paired together a hooded sweatshirt and ripped jeans, Kieran was seen clutching onto his partner's hand, before sharing a kiss with Michelle as they strolled along together. Michelle, meanwhile, cut a glamorous figure in thigh-high suede boots and a glossy black furry jacket. She wore her brunette tresses down in perfectly styled curls and sported a glamorous make-up look. Appearing besotted with her builder beau, Michelle was pictured beaming from ear-to-ear as she stared adoringly at Kieran. Something to tell us? Kieran watched on as Michelle picked out designs to try High spirits: The couple were seen checking out the rings on offer in a branch of Ernest Jones Smitten: They were seen puckering up while strolling along together in the town centre The duo first went public with their romance in September - with confirmation of their relationship surfacing just days after Kieran's ex Katie had split with on/off beau Kris Boyson. Michelle has since been introduced to Kieran's children, Jett, five, and Bunny, four, whom he shares with Katie. Kieran had shared a sweet snap of himself and Michelle with his brood and her son - all clad in festive jumpers - to Instagram on Christmas Day. Maybe next time? Kieran appeared to be empty handed as he left the store - clutching onto a shopping bag from children store JoJo Maman Bebe One last look: Although, Michelle went back for a second look on the couple's exit Having a ball: Kieran was spotted laughing as the duo made their way out of the store Happy: The former stripper was seen clutching onto the hand of his new love It came after a source told MailOnline that Katie and Kieran were at odds over whether he should have Bunny and Jett for Christmas Day, as the 40-year-old had already agreed she would be having all five of her children for the festive occasion. The insider said: 'Katie was always having the children for Christmas. Kieran knew all along that she was having the children. He's just looking for a sympathy vote. 'He tried to collect them this morning but of course Jett and Bunny will be spending this year at their mums with Princess, Junior, Harvey, Amy and the family, and then next year they will spend it with their dads. 'Kieran has to remember it may also be [Katie's terminally ill mother] Amy's last Christmas so he is acting very insensitively.' Content: Romance blossomed for Kieran and Michelle following the breakdown of his marriage to estranged wife Katie Price Besotted: The couple - who first went public in September - seemed enamoured with one another as they locked lips Glamorous: Michelle cut a stylish figure in jeans and thigh-high suede boots, while sporting a furry black coat Katie's mother Amy was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a rare condition that causes progressive and irreversible scarring of the lungs, in 2017. Katie, meanwhile, has reportedly told fans she wants to 'dump' beau Kris, after getting 'cold feet' over their future as a couple. The star launched into a candid rant to pals at her close friend Melodie Pope's New Year's Eve wedding, according to a new report from The Sun, admitting she doesn't want to marry Kris because he's 'too controlling'. The mum of five is also alleged to have told her pals she wants to marry for money next time she walks down the aisle, after three failed marriages. Browsing: When they weren't shopping for rings, the couple were seen checking out baby clothes in a nearby store Cute: Michelle seemed particularly taken with one adorable design Moving on: Kieran and Michelle's outing comes after they spent first Christmas together, along with his children Jett, five, and Bunny, four, whom he shares with Katie Loggerheads: Reports claimed he had locked horns with ex Katie over who would spend Christmas with their two children While Kris was reportedly Katie's date at the glam wedding, Katie allegedly spent much of her night hitting the bar and complaining about her love life, according to the publication. A source revealed the star was visibly drunk 'but she claimed she plans to marry for money and wants a rich husband next time'. They added: '[Katie] said she's got cold feet about Kris because she thinks he's too controlling and only in the relationship to be famous. Katie is worried he just wants to be a celebrity and is using her to achieve that goal.' A representative for Katie was contacted by MailOnline at the time. The former glamour model and Kris first got together in the wake of her split from Kieran. She separated from her estranged third husband after learning he'd had an affair with their children's nanny. Family: Kieran had shared a sweet snap of himself and Michelle with his brood, Jett and Bunny, and Michelle's son - all clad in festive jumpers - to Instagram Split? Katie, meanwhile, has reportedly told fans she wants to 'dump' on/off beau Kris Boyson (above in July) after getting 'cold feet' over their future as a couple Katie and Kieran first tied the knot in the Bahamas in January 2013, with news of Kieran's affair with her former best friend Jane Pountney, while Katie was pregnant with their first child Jett, surfacing in 2014. Despite vowing to divorce him, Katie rekindled her relationship with Kieran and the pair renewed their wedding vows in a romantic beach ceremony in the Maldives in 2017. Katie confirmed their split in May 2018, after learning Kieran had been unfaithful again on a number of occasions. Her relationship with Kris, however, hasn't been plain sailing either. Katie and Kris have split multiple times and the former Loose Women star headed to rehab last year to treat PTSD - after displaying 'concerning' behaviour over a turbulent few months that saw her arrested for drink driving and narrowly avoid bankruptcy. Karl Stefanovic claimed his Instagram was 'hacked' over the weekend - but not everybody is buying his excuse. The 44-year-old told his followers on Sunday that his social media account had been comprised and 'authorities' were investigating, after he appeared to 'like' several comments mocking the Today show's new lineup. But a growing number of fans are starting to question whether any 'hack' took place. 'I don't believe it for a second!' Karl Stefanovic has been mercilessly trolled for claiming he was 'hacked' after liking several Instagram comments mocking the Today show's new lineup 'Did you get p**ed and go rogue again? Classic you,' wrote one follower. Another soon followed with: 'I don't believe it for a second'. One amusing comment in response to the 'hacking' claims stated: '[That] sounds like something fake Karlos would say'. A more sceptical follower wrote: 'Yeah right, somebody gained access to your account and the only thing they did is like a couple of comments...' Hmm! A growing number of fans are starting to question whether any 'hack' took place Several fans jokingly blamed 'the Russians' for logging into Karl's Instagram account and 'liking' posts on his behalf over the weekend. And one follower even suggested that Karl cover the 'investigation' into the so-called hacking as a correspondent for 60 Minutes. It comes after Karl shared a statement to Instagram on Sunday claiming somebody gained unauthorised access his Instagram account while he was on a fishing trip. It's a conspiracy! Several fans jokingly blamed 'the Russians' for logging into Karl's Instagram account and 'liking' posts on his behalf over the weekend 'Sounds like something fake Karlos would say': One follower suggested that Karl cover the 'investigation' into the so-called hacking as a correspondent for 60 Minutes A compelling theory! 'Did you get p**ed and go rogue again? Classic you,' wrote one follower 'While I was out fishing my Instagram account has been hacked. I am investigating this with the authorities and will be back soon. Karlos,' he wrote. His statement was in response to a flurry of social media activity on his account that morning, which was later reported on by Daily Mail Australia and other news outlets. Karl's account had 'liked' two comments on the Today show's official Instagram page which mocked the new lineup featuring Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner. The mystery of the two 'likes'! Karl's account had 'liked' two comments on the Today show's Instagram page which mocked the new lineup featuring Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner Unauthorised access? One comment that the account 'liked' read: 'Won't be watching. Well, Miss Gardiner [sic] got her way. Pathetic, smile, agree and laugh. It's all they do' Whoops! A second comment his page 'liked' read: 'Channel [Nine], the audience want answers' One comment that the account 'liked' read: 'Won't be watching. Well, Miss Gardiner [sic] got her way. Pathetic, smile, agree and laugh. It's all they do.' A second comment his page 'liked' read: 'Channel [Nine], the audience want answers.' On Sunday, Karl's account also 'liked' posts from his brother Peter and sister-in-law Sylvia Jeffreys, and shared a birthday tribute to his younger sibling Tom. Furthermore, his account 'followed' Sir Paul McCartney during the supposed security breach - but it is unclear if this activity was due to Karl or a 'hacker'. How dare they! He later suggested the eyebrow-raising social media activity was the work of nefarious 'hackers'. Pictured: Karl on October 17, 2018 in Sydney 'I can't wait until the ratings drop': Daily Mail Australia first reported on December 27 that Karl's account had 'liked' another scathing Instagram comment about the Today show Daily Mail Australia first reported on December 27 that Karl's account had 'liked' another scathing Instagram comment about the Today show. The comment read in part: 'I can't wait until the ratings drop even lower and they realise it wasn't you that was the problem after all.' Channel Nine announced on Saturday evening that Deborah Knight, 46, would be replacing Karl as co-host of the Today show following his sacking on December 19. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Karl's representatives for comment. Dick Wolf has split from his third wife. The man who created Law & Order and all its spinoffs filed for legal separation from Noelle Lippman in early December, TMZ reported on Monday. The two were wed for 12 years and have two children together. Done: Dick Wolf has split from his third wife. The man who created Law & Order and all its spinoffs filed for legal separation from Noelle Lippman in early December, TMZ reported on Monday. Seen in 2016 The show must go on: (l-r) Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson, Ice T as Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola, Peter Scanavino as Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi, Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins on Law & Order: SVU The site added that he filed on December 3 and she soon after filed her own documents. It is not known when or if they will file for divorce. There will surely be a close look at their finances as he reportedly makes $10m to $15m a month. Also making things more confusing is his latest hit shows: the two wed before his massive Chicago franchise - which includes Chicago Fire and Chicago P - hit the air. The past was perfect: The couple at a Law & Order: SVU screening at PaleyFest 2014 in New York City. The two were wed for 12 years and have two children together But the site also reported that they have a prenup. It was also claimed that it looks like Noelle is not contesting the prenup. Noelle is asking for spousal support and there will be child support, according to the prenup. He is repped by attorneys Joe Kibre and Jacqueline Misho. She is with Laura Wasser, who has worked with Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears. Wolf's lawyer Kibre, told TMZ, 'The lawyers for the parties are in the process of negotiations.' Dick was also wed to Christine Marburg from 1983 until 2005 and they had a 12 year legal battle. His other ex: Dick was also wed to Christine Marburg from 1983 until 2005 and they had a 12 year legal battle. Seen in 2005 Before that he was wed to Susan Scranton from 1970 until 1983. Law & Order debuted in 1990 with George Dzundza and Chris Noth. The franchise has included six dramas and four international spinoffs. The first show ended in 2010. It has been nominated for the most consecutive Emmy Awards of any primetime drama series. Wolf serves as creator and executive producer of the current Law & Order drama series from Wolf Films and NBC Universal Television Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and did so for the four that have been cancelled Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: UK, and Law & Order: Los Angeles. Salvini stands by tough migrant line, Berlin ready to help Standoff over 49 saved by NGOs in Mediterranean (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 6 - Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has reiterated his refusal to allow NGO-run migrant-rescue ships to dock on Italy. The League leader was commenting amid concern about 49 asylum seekers saved in the Mediterranean by German NGOs Sea-Watch and Sea Eye who have not been allocated a port of safety amid a standoff. On Sunday Pope Francis made an appeal to European leaders to "show concrete solidarity" in this case. Malta let the NGOs' rescue ships shelter from bad weather near its coast but refused to allow the asylum seekers to disembark. At the weekend Labour and Industry Minister and fellow Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio suggested Italy could receive the women and children that are among the asylum seekers. But Salvini has said he wants to keep access closed. "I want a country that is open but closed to human traffickers," Salvini said via Facebook. "If we give in... the traffickers will start making money again and the NGOs that don't respect the rules will go back to helping the traffickers". The German government said Monday that it was willing to take in some of the 49 asylum seekers. "The German government expressed very quickly its willingness to participate (in the reception of the asylum seekers on the ships) within the remit of a solution of European solidarity," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told a press conference when asked about the people saved by the a Sea Watch and Sea Eye vessels. He said Berlin was engaged in "intense talks" with the European Commission and was supporting Brussels' efforts to find a solution. (ANSAmed). She recently enjoyed a modern family break with her beau Chris Martin and his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Brad Falchuk in the Maldives. And Dakota Johnson was seen for the first time since her relaxing holiday, as she stepped out for a quick coffee run in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday. The actress, 29, cut a casual figure as she shrugged on an oversized grey jumper over loose-fitting black trousers. Comfy: Dakota Johnson cut a casual figure in LA as she's seen for the first time since trip with beau Chris Martin, his ex Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Brad Falchuk Dakota continued her relaxed look by pairing her comfy ensemble with a pair of black sandals, while she kept a low profile by wearing stylish shades. Her brunette locks were pulled back into a messy half-back-do, and she kept her look natural by wearing light touches of make-up. The Fifty Shades Of Grey star added a glittering touch to her look by accessorising with an array of silver rings and simple earrings. Relaxed: The actress, 29, cut a casual figure as she shrugged on an oversized grey jumper over loose-fitting black trousers Her outing comes after she joined Coldplay frontman Chris on holiday with his children Apple, 14, and Moses, 12, his ex-wife, and her new man. Gwyneth and Chris 'consciously uncoupled' in 2014 after 11 years of marriage, but have remained amicable ever since. So much so, that they spent the Christmas and new year period on a very modern family holiday with their respective partners. Casual chic: Dakota continued her relaxed look by pairing her comfy ensemble with a pair of black sandals, while she kept a low profile by wearing stylish shades Modern family break: Her outing comes after she joined the Coldplay frontman on holiday with his children Apple, 14, and Moses, 12, his ex-wife Gwyneth and her new man Brad According to the New York Post's Page Six, Gwyneth and husband Brad jetted out to the idyllic holiday destination just before Christmas, with Chris and Dakota in tow. Sources claim the two couples spent the festive break together, as well as New Year's Eve. While Gwyneth took to Instagram with a few holiday snaps from her time in the Maldives, she didn't share any snaps with ex-partner Chris or his girlfriend. Instead, the mother-of-two treated fans to a sun-kissed selfie and another shot of herself and husband Brad walking along a jetty. Unconventional: According to the New York Post's Page Six , Gwyneth and husband Brad jetted out to the idyllic holiday destination just before Christmas, with Chris and Dakota in tow Sun-kissed: While Gwyneth took to Instagram with a few holiday snaps from her time in the Maldives, she didn't share any snaps with ex-partner Chris and girlfriend Dakota Ringing in 2019, Goop founder Gwyneth penned alongside her romantic upload: 'Walking into the new year with a lot of gratitude for all of the wonderful moments of 2018, lessons and joys alike. 'Wishing each and every one of you a truly magnificent, happy 2019.' Gwyneth and Chris tied the knot in 2003, but later announced their separation, telling fans they were 'consciously uncoupling' in 2014. Their divorce was finalised two years later in 2016. Stunning: As she embraced the New Year, Gwyneth told fans: 'Walking into the new year with a lot of gratitude for all of the wonderful moments of 2018, lessons and joys alike' Family: Former couple Gwyneth and Chris share two children; daughter Apple, 14, and son Moses, 12 (pictured above) The Oscar-winning actress has since gone on to find love with Brad, with the pair first meeting on the set of Glee, which Falchuk co-created with Ryan Murphy, before going public with their relationship in April 2015. The couple announced their engagement in January 2017 and tied the knot in The Hamptons in September 2018. Speaking to Glamour Magazine shortly after her wedding day, Gwyneth said she felt 'grateful' to have tied the knot with Brad. Sweet: Gwyneth and Brad tied the knot at her Hamptons estate in September in front of family and friends, including Cameron Diaz, Rob Lowe, Robert Downey Jnr and Steven Spielberg 'I feel so lucky, and I am so grateful. It's different to be in your mid-40s; do it again and bring all your experience, your pain, your happiness, sufferingeverything... it's actually very heartening. I feel very optimistic,' she claimed. Coldplay frontman Chris, meanwhile, has been dating Dakota since 2017, after meeting through mutual friends. The notoriously private couple have remained tight-lipped over their romance, with Dakota simply telling Tatler magazine that she is 'very happy' while refusing to discuss her relationship further. Stunning: Gwyneth was seen reflecting on 2018 and thanked those for making her wedding 'so special' as she shared a photo of the happy couple and their wedding venue (above) End of the road: Gwyneth and Chris previously tied the knot in 2003, but later announced their separation, telling fans they were 'consciously uncoupling' in 2014 According to reports, Dakota spent Thanksgiving last year with Chris and his family, including former wife Gwyneth, who joked they had a 'modern family'. Sources told E! News: 'Gwyneth thinks [Dakota] is lovely. She gets on very well with her and is happy for Chris. They've spent a good amount of time together and have a very nice friendship. 'The kids really like Dakota and enjoy spending time with her. [Gwyneth] is very happy she and Chris have been able to make this work so well... it's very special that they're all able to come together like this and make it work.' New love: Gwyneth has gone on to find love with Brad, with the pair first meeting on the set of Glee which Falchuk co-created, before they announced their engagement in January last year Vicky Pattison has hit out at 'bitter' trolls who moaned about her slew of bikini selfies. The 31-year-old former Geordie Shore star is currently in Mexico for her sister's wedding, yet after uploading more than 13 swimwear snaps in three days, she came under fire from some of her followers. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Vicky defiantly shared a series of swimsuit videos as she reasoned that even if she were covered up she would still be criticised. No holding back: Vicky Pattison has hit out at 'bitter' trolls who moaned about her slew of bikini selfies whilst she is currently on holiday in Mexico for her sister's wedding She penned: 'Cheers to 2019 and to nothing but love and positivity... So unfortunately I woke up this morning to quite a bit of negativity and hate on some of my pictures and I just felt so incredibly frustrated!! 'Social media could be an amazing place where we motivate each other, compliment each other, support, share love and experiences but instead people use it to criticise to spread bitterness and bile and Im just abit over it!! 'Yes Im on holiday and Im posting a lot in swimwear but howay, Id post in a tracksuit if I thought it would keep you happy but the people Im referring to would find something to whinge about if I covered up aswell! (Also Id sweat my t**s off and I paid for them so theyre going nowhere if I can help it!)' Stunning: The 31-year-old former Geordie Shore star uploaded more than 13 swimwear snaps in three days, which has seen her come under fire from some of her followers Sharing an empowering body confidence message, she continued: 'Also, Ive chosen to post videos/boomerangs just to fully emphasise that this is my shape- my body isnt perfect- and after Christmas, my baileys addiction, plus 10 days all inclusive Ill certainly be on my way to resembling a fridge with arms but thats ok!! 'Because not only is that life and Ive enjoyed myself but also I like my curves- I have boobs and a bum and i am not going to apologise about this?! Ps I take around 75 pics before I get the pic btw and agonise over my angles too... (Im human dont judge.. LOL!) 'Lets channel love, positivity, Self love, appreciation of others and acceptance this year eh?! Especially between females- Cos pettiness aint cute huns... and remember we rise by lifting others. Have a great day everyone'. Cheers to that! Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Vicky defiantly shared a series of swimsuit videos as she reasoned that even if she were covered up she would still be criticised Just hours earlier Vicky looked like she was having the time of her life as she shared a snap by the pool in a black bikini. She has been continuing to post on social media during her sun-drenched getaway which comes just two months after her split from fiance John Noble. Showing off her sun-kissed glow, the former Geordie Shore star donned a pair of shades and styled her hair into an up-do as she posed playfully for the camera. Fun in the sun: Just hours earlier Vicky looked like she was having the time of her life as she shared a snap by the pool in a black bikini Captioning the snap 'Morning', Vicky winked at her followers as she went to go enjoy some downtime by the pool. She has kept her Instagram followers updated on her antics as she took to Instagram again on Friday in a barely-there neon swimsuit. The TV star recently shared the snap with her 4million followers as she lay on a bed and barely covered up her ample assets which strained against the fabric. Vicky flaunted her newly-bronzed limbs in the snap and noting a tiny slip of nude fabric poking out of her swimsuit, she couldn't help but mention it. Holiday: Showing off her sun-kissed glow, the former Geordie Shore star donned a pair of shades and styled her hair into an updo as she posed playfully for the camera Relaxation: Vicky winked at her followers as she went to go enjoy some downtime by the pool Head-turning: She has kept her Instagram followers updated on her antics as she took to Instagram on Friday in a barely-there neon swimsuit She penned: 'I dont think Ill ever be able to explain quite how much that little bit of lining poking out annoys me.' Vicky showed off her radiant glow and clad her eyes in a pair of quirky sunglasses. Later that day she posted another picture of herself in the head-turning outfit. In this snap Vicky covered up a little as she lay on her front and instead showed off her natural beauty as she stared into the camera with a pout upon her lips. Figure hugging: She shared another snap with her four million followers as she lay on a bed and barely covered up her ample assets Sensational: The reality TV star also took to Instagram Stories to show off another smoldering snap of herself gazing into the camera while flaunting her generous cleavage Smile: Vicky appeared to be having a ball as she sipped on a cocktail while taking a dip The reality TV star also took to Instagram Stories to show off another smouldering snap of herself gazing into the camera while flaunting her generous cleavage. Earlier in the day, Vicky shared a hilarious post showing both her preened Instagram behaviour - and the less glam side of her social media activity. Vicky looked sensational in a brown bikini as she reclined on a hammock before sharing a snap as she tumbled off the net in a hilarious fashion. Hot stuff: Earlier, Vicky shared a hilarious post showing both her preened Instagram behaviour - and the less glam side of her social media activity as she fell off a hammock Vicky pulled her very sexiest pose in the first snap of her slideshow, in which she clutched a drink while showing off her eye-popping cleavage. However in her next snap, she took a dramatic tumble with her legs in the air and an extremely silly facial expression - much to her own delight. She added a caption on the snap reading: 'Instagram versus Reality... I have clearly not got the hang of this hammock malarkey yet- or maybe its the skinful of cocktails Ive had that affected my balance!!... 'My first day has been incredible... Honestly such a beautiful resort! Im in paradise ps my face in that last pic is too much'. Eek! However in her next snap, she took a dramatic tumble with her legs in the air and an extremely silly facial expression - much to her own delight She also posted a number of snaps in which she was downing shots - one of which she used as a tribute to Olly Murs. Vicky arrived in Mexico on Wednesday ahead of her sister Laura's sun-soaked nuptials, as she continues to recover from the 'heartache and humiliation' of John's alleged infidelity. She bravely shirked her love woes to jet away after John was explosively caught getting up close to a bevy of beauties during a lads' trip to Dubai. Happy days! Vicky arrived in Mexico on Wednesday ahead of her sister Laura's sun-soaked nuptials, as she continues to recover from the 'heartache and humiliation' of John's alleged infidelity As she documented her trip through the airport and on to the plane, the former Geordie Shore star revealed she was saying 'goodbye to selfish and w**k people' to see her sister tie the knot. Taking to Instagram, she shared a host of videos from her boozy first night. In November, Vicky officially split from John, two weeks after he was caught getting close to a bevy of women on a lads' holiday. Boozy break! Taking to Instagram, she shared a host of videos from her boozy first night Insiders revealed to MailOnline, as it was revealed that the star decided to part ways with her beau after admitting she was 'heartbroken and humiliated'. She was said to be 'concentrating on her busy work schedule' while trying to stay positive in the midst of the drama. Sources revealed: 'Vicky and John are officially over. She is concentrating on her busy work schedule and surrounding herself with positivity, friends and family... 'Its been a difficult couple of weeks but she is moving on with her life and looking forward to the future. Cheers! She also posted a number of snaps in which she was downing shots - one of which she used as a tribute to Olly Murs He's currently keeping himself busy as he films Paolo Sorrentino's The New Pope series in Italy. And Jude Law, 46, took some time off from his work duties as he enjoyed a water taxi ride with his girlfriend Phillipa Coan, 32, in Venice on Sunday. The Sherlock Holmes actor showcased his eye for fashion as he wrapped against the chilly climes of the city in a snug white beanie. Well-deserved break: Jude Law, 46, took some time off from his work duties as he enjoyed a water taxi ride with his girlfriend Phillipa Coan, 32, in Venice on Sunday Keeping himself warm for his outing, the screen star complemented his look with a brown wool coat and turtleneck jumper. The Anna Karenina actor mixed his appearance with pieces from his summer wardrobe as he accessorised with a pair of kooky circular-framed sunglasses. Meanwhile, psychologist Phillipa looked equally stylish as she sported a black padded jacket, tied in gradient-tinted shades. The blonde beauty wore her tresses in a straight fashion and opted for minimal make-up during the casual outing. Style savvy: The Sherlock Holmes actor showcased his eye for fashion as he wrapped against the chilly climes of the city in a snug white beanie Jude recently opened up about his love life in a rare interview, revealing he was relishing time spent with his girlfriend of four years. 'Shes mine and no one elses. Im very, very happy,' The Holiday star previously told Modern Luxury. 'And our relationship is a very private thing, and I think part of the fact it works so well is exactly because of that.' 'She's mine': Jude recently opened up about his love life in a rare interview, revealing he was relishing time spent with his girlfriend of four years Low-key: 'And our relationship is a very private thing, and I think part of the fact it works so well is exactly because of that', he added While Jude shares no offspring with his current girlfriend, he is the doting father to five children from his former relationships. The father-of-five shares Rudy, 16, Iris, 18, Rafferty, 22, with actress Sadie Frost, 53, from their six-year marriage. In 2009 Jude became a father again for the fourth time when his daughter Sophia was born to model Samantha Burke. Six years later he became a father again to Ada, three, with songwriter Catherine Harding. He has escaped the frosty January weather for his annual excursion to Barbados with family. And Jeremy Kyle looked like he was enjoying himself as he partied with friends and family aboard a pleasure craft on the Caribbean island on Friday. The TV presenter, 53, cut a casual figure for the day out, going shirtless and donning a pair of green shorts. Fun in the sun: Jeremy Kyle looked like he was enjoying himself as he partied with friends and family aboard a pleasure craft in Barbados on Friday The chat show host wore a pair of mirrored shades pushed back on his head, and appeared engrossed in his phone as the group set sail. Jeremy is enjoying a holiday with fiancee Vicky Burton, 36, who used to accompany him to Barbados every year for his annual family festive trip as a nanny to his three youngest children with ex-wife Carla Germaine. Jeremy's 13-year marriage to Carla came to an end in 2015 amid reports emerged his wife had an affair with England polo player James Carr, 25. The ITV personality popped the question to Vicky in January 2018 when the couple were holidaying in the Grenadines Islands. Holiday: The TV presenter, 53, cut a casual figure for the day out, going shirtless and donning a pair of green shorts In June 2018, the father-of-four became a grandfather after his daughter Harriet, 28, whom he shares with first ex-wife Kristy Rowley, gave birth. As well as daughter Harriet, Jeremy has daughter Alice, 15, Ava, 13, and Henry, nine, from his marriage to Carla. Back in October, Jeremy discussed how he is now getting along much better with his ex-wife Carla since becoming a grandad. The presenter also spoke about how his romance with fiancee Vicky has changed his life for the better. Love: Jeremy is enjoying a holiday with fiancee Vicky Burton, 36, who he got engaged to in January 2018 (pictured last week) He said during an appearance on on ITV's Lorraine: 'It's great fun being a granddad. Everyone says its because can give them back. We're babysitting for the whole weekend. It's great fun. He said he and ex Carla have sorted out childcare and sharing the kids, saying: 'It's absolutely fine. We're just getting on with life. 'I did ask Victoria to marry me because she changed my life. There is no shadow of a doubt.' He stunned viewers as he thanked 'Satan' while accepting his award during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at California's Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday. And Christian Bale continued to send fans wild as they claimed he putting on the 'worst Cockney accent ever' during his acceptance speech for his role as Dick Cheney in the film Vice. The Welsh-born actor, 44, who took home for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, caused social media users to take to Twitter in their droves as they commented on his 'odd' voice. Strange: Christian Bale sent fans wild as they claimed he put on the 'worst Cockney accent ever' at the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at California 's Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday Fans were left confused as they listened to his speech, where he credited 'Satan' for inspiration to play the role. One commented: 'christian bale you dont have to keep acting rn on stage accepting this award this fake british accent is hilarious tho'. [sic]. In agreement, another penned: 'no British person has ever seemed like they are doing a terrible fake British accent as much as Christian Bale.' 'Fake': The Welsh-born actor, 44, who took home for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, caused social media users to take to Twitter in their droves as they commented on his 'odd' voice 'Christian Bale does so many great accents but his real accent sounds like me trying to do his accent. #goldenglobes', a third reasoned. During his speech, the American Psycho star said: 'Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role,' an apparent snub to the former vice president. The political satire shows an unrecognizable Bale as Cheney, depicting the previous second-in-command as the ruthless mastermind behind George W Bush's presidency, which has gotten the film large criticism by conservatives. Character: The film depicts former Vice President Cheney (right) as the ruthless mastermind behind George W Bush's presidency, largely criticized by conservatives (Bale as Cheney, pictured left) 'This fake British accent is hilarious': Fans were left confused as they listened to his speech, where he credited 'Satan' for inspiration to play the role While Christian portrays the role of the American native, fans struggled to separate the actor from his character. 'Christian Bales real accent sounds very fake after watching Vice (which I very much enjoyed) #GoldenGlobes', one Twitter used penned. Another wrote: 'I love the crazy accent Christian Bale puts on whenever he accepts awards. So fun. #GoldenGlobes'. 'christian bale is a fake british person and that is my #GoldenGlobes tweet' [sic], a third joked. Confused: While Christian portrays the role of the American native, fans struggled to separate the actor from his character The actor's comment got plenty of laughs from Hollywood's elite, as he continued to joke politics saying, 'What do you think, [playing] Mitch McConnell next?' The line gained the appreciation of the Church of Satan, who wrote on Twitter: 'To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr. Bale's own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!' Moving away from his comedic display, Christian thanked his two children, Emmaline, 13, and Joseph, four, as well as his wife Sibi Blazic, 48. He gushed: 'She knows the dumb crap that can come out of my mouth at times. I can sink and ruin a perfectly good movie and so-so career in one speech. So thank you for that advice, my love.' In favour: The Church of Satan tweeted Bale's praise at his comment, writing 'Hail Christian! Hail Satan!' Family man: Moving away from his comedic display, Christian thanked his two children, Emmaline, 13, and Joseph, four, as well as his wife Sibi Blazic, 48 Gaza's Rafah border closed today due to Fatah-Hamas tensions Fatah cancels rally, calls for release of arrested activists (ANSAmed) - GAZA, JANUARY 7 - The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remained closed on Monday, following tensions between Hamas and al-Fatah. On Sunday, officials who work for the Palestinian National Authority were ordered to withdraw in protest against the arrests by Hamas of various members of al-Fatah. Local sources said the Egyptian side of the border was kept closed on Monday for a national holiday. On the Palestinian side, Hamas took up a position to protect structures. Meanwhile, al-Fatah decided to cancel a large rally it had planned to hold Monday in Gaza City's centrally located Saraya Square for the anniversary of its founding. Local sources said al-Fatah is waiting for Hamas to free the activists arrested in recent days in Gaza. The sources said the activists' release could lead to the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing, which is the only exit route abroad for the two million Palestinians who live in Gaza.(ANSAmed). She narrowly missed out on a second Golden Globe for her portrayal in First Man, with Regina King picking up the gong for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. But Claire Foy, 34, didn't let that stop her from enjoying the rest of her night as she appeared at multiple after-parties in Beverly Hills on Sunday. Swapping into her second glamorous outfit of the night, The Crown star wowed in a glitzy jumpsuit for Universal's star-studded exclusive post-awards bash, showcasing her slender frame with a plunging neckline and cinched waist. Sibling support: Claire Foy, 34, looked radiant as she attended Universal's star-studded after-party in Beverly Hills on Sunday, alongside her sister Gemma She added to her stunning display with a pair of elegant silver drop earrings and a matching watch, while adding a pop of colour to her ensemble with a bright pink lipstick and nails. Claire appeared alongside her sister Gemma, with the two sharing hugs for the cameras when attending the exclusive post-awards bash. The actress also shared a sweet cuddle with actor Richard Gere when attending her second Golden Globes after party, hosted by InStyle and Warner Bros. Good pals: A beaming Claire also shared a hug with Hollywood icon Richard Gere, who donned a Giorgio Armani tuxedo, at her second after party bash, hosted by InStyle and Warner Bros Stunning: Swapping into her second glamorous outfit of the night, The Crown star wowed in a glitzy jumpsuit for the exclusive post-awards bash Fun times: The 69-year-old Pretty Woman star was all smiles as he posed up a storm with the British actress She's in! Claire revealed she was eager to ensure she was allowed into this party after being refused entry to the Emmy's post-Awards bash last year - despite having her Emmy in hand The 69-year-old Pretty Woman star, clad in a dapper black Giorgio Armani tuxedo and matching bow tie, was all smiles as he posed up a storm with the British actress. Claire revealed she was eager to ensure she was allowed into this party after being refused entry to the Emmy's post-Awards bash last year - despite having her Emmy in hand. Speaking to E! News on the red carpet, Claire revealed: 'I've brought my passport, I've got everything I can possibly bring. I have my sister!' Earlier at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony, Claire dressed to impress as she posed in a yellow embellished number, which hugged her slim figure to perfection. All in the details: The actress added to her stunning display with a pair of elegant silver drop earrings and a matching watch when at Universal's bash Sisters: Claire added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a bright pink lipstick and matching nails Pretty in pink: Jameela Jamil wowed in an elegant pink gown when posing with American film director Spike Lee Pals: Charlize Theron also posed up a storm with the director when at the star-studded event Loved up: Topher Grace and wife Ashley Hinshaw were picture perfect as they beamed for the cameras Styling her locks into an old Hollywood style with a wave flicked to one side, the actress exuded glamour for the prestigious occasion. She donned plenty of eye makeup and a dash of burgundy lipstick while showing off her radiant skin against a pair of diamond earrings. Claire was nominated for a Golden Globe for her starring role in First Man, where she portrays Janet Armstrong, wife of Neil (played by Ryan Gosling). Show-stopper: Claire looked confident as she posed in a yellow embellished number on the red carpet for the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards Radiant: The actress exuded glamour as she stepped out in the sparkling number which hugged her slim figure to perfection Smiling: Claire showed off her photogenic side as she struck a wide smile for the cameras Foy and Gosling have won critical acclaim for their portrayal of the NASA astronaut and his wife in the years leading up to the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. The movie is considered a front-runner for the 2019 Academy Awards as well as the BAFTAs. Earlier this weekend Claire attended the star-studded BAFTA Tea Party in LA dressed in an elegant satin dress. Glamorous: She donned plenty of eye makeup and a dash of burgundy lipstick while showing off her radiant skin against a pair of diamond earrings Stunning: She looked worlds away from her role as The Queen in The Crown as she showed off her bare arms and donned mauve nail polish Advertisement They play siblings who are polar opposites in their hit series, Modern Family. Yet Ariel Winter, 20, and co-star Sarah Hyland, 28, proved that they have far more in common off the screen as they were both seen packing on the PDA with their respective boyfriends at HBO's Official Golden Globe Awards afterparty held at Circa 55 Restaurant in Los Angeles on Sunday. The actresses looked sensational on the evening as they lead a host of glamorous guests getting ready to let loose and party the night away after the Globes officially kicked off the party season with a bang. Pucker up: Ariel Winter, 20, and co-star Sarah Hyland, 28, were both seen packing on the PDA with their respective boyfriends at HBO's Official Golden Globe Awards afterparty held at Circa 55 Restaurant in Los Angeles on Sunday Ariel looked phenomenal on the night as she showcased her sensational hourglass curves in a sheer Epuzer satin bustier dress with lace insets that offered a look at her toned stomach. Cinching in further at her slender waist, the garment featured a matching satin skirt with a daring thigh high split that showed off her tanned and toned pins - which had been boosted with a pair of barely-there heels. Ariel - who plays Alex Dunphy in the hit ABC series Modern Family - finished off the look by slicking her glossy raven locks away from her stunning features and styling her locks in a bubble ponytail. Dressed to impress: Ariel looked phenomenal on the night as she showcased her sensational hourglass curves in a sheer Epuzer satin bustier dress with lace insets that offered a look at her toned stomach Cosy: It was no wonder then that her boyfriend Levi, 31, couldn't keep his hands off her as they walked the green carpet together, wrapping an arm around her waist and stopping to plant a kiss on her Brunette beauty: Ariel - who plays Alex Dunphy in the hit ABC series Modern Family - finished off the look by slicking her glossy raven locks away from her stunning features and styling her locks in a bubble ponytail It was no wonder then that her boyfriend Levi Meaden, 31, couldn't keep his hands off her as they walked the green carpet together, wrapping an arm around her waist and stopping to plant a kiss on her. The couple started living together in May after sparking relationship rumors in Fall 2016, however it caused consternation on social media because of her youth and the 11-year age gap between them. Ariel, no stranger to defending herself on the public platform, answered critics back in May in an interview with Refinery29. 'I don't understand why someone would even comment on our situation at all. There are tons of people of all ages that live with their boyfriend,' she said. Delving into their living situation further, Ariel continued: 'There are tons of people that live with their girlfriends, [and] tons of people that don't live together and are super happy. But I'm super happy in the arrangement that we have. We love living together. It's just great.' Gorgeous in green: Also dressed to impress for the night was Sarah, who turned heads in a plunging forest green velour gown in an eye-catching geometric print Chest a glimpse: The stunning garment's slashed neckline showed off her cleavage, whilst an asymmetric hemline put her lean legs on display and showed off her gold strappy heeled sandals All about the accessories: Sarah's look was completed with a silver clutch bag, whilst she also made a statement with her jewellery, donning a silver chain that rested in her cleavage and a pair of oversized ornate earrings that peeked out Watch this space! The actress was inseparable from her Bachelorette star boyfriend Wells Adam at the event - who recently had to deny engagement rumours - but teased that there was definitely one on the horizon Also dressed to impress for the night was Sarah, who turned heads in a plunging forest green velour gown in an eye-catching geometric print. The stunning garment's slashed neckline showed off her cleavage, whilst an asymmetric hemline put her lean legs on display and showed off her gold strappy heeled sandals. Sarah's look was completed with a silver clutch bag, whilst she also made a statement with her jewellery, donning a silver chain that rested in her cleavage and a pair of oversized ornate earrings that peeked out through her voluminous waves. Taking the plunge! Christina Ricci looked phenomenal in a low-cut navy velvet gown with a thigh high split that she teamed with a dazzling gold necklace and a slick of glossy red lipstick Sassy in silver: Thandie Newton looked phenomenal in a glittering silver gown with cut away detailing across the chest and bodice that offered a look at her cleavage and tiny waist without baring too much Radiant in red: Laura Dern dazzled in a scarlet gown with sheer detailing and a billowing skirt in a textured material Like mother like daughter: Laura looked in good spirits as he posed with her equally as glamorous daughter, Jaya Harper Working it! Tiffany Haddish commanded attention in a plunging sequinned gown that boasted a billowing chiffon train that flared out behind her as she stormed the green carpet at the afterparty Who's that girl? Tiffany's glittering iridescent gown changed colour in contact with the light, making it appear to be white at first glance, ice blue the second and even lilac Two's company: Tiffany seemed in good spirits as she posed for hilarious pictures with SNL comedian Pete Davidson Gal pals: Tiffany seemed in high spirits as she ran up to Regina King to wrap the actress up in a hug during the glitzy bash The actress was inseparable from her Bachelorette star boyfriend Wells Adam at the event - who recently had to deny engagement rumours - but teased that there was definitely one on the horizon. While promoting his new Pratt Cast podcast with The Hills star Stephanie Pratt, he said that he does plan on popping the question 'eventually.' 'Everyone thinks [Sarah and I are] engaged right now. We are not engaged, let me just say that,' Wells confirmed to US Weekly. 'We just moved in together, so I think we're still kind of, like, feeling each other out, but it's gonna happen eventually.' He admitted, 'I gotta get the ring,' adding that the piece of jewellery Wells was seen wearing recently in her Instagram story was not an engagement ring. 'She just had a bunch of Claire's rings on when we went to Mexico.' 'We are not engaged,' he continued, 'but it's definitely going to happen. Whimsical: Zuri Hall looked sensational in a cream bustier with a sheer bodice that she teamed with satin trousers, whilst Kathryn Newton looked phenomenal in a billowing baby pink gown with a pleated skirt Gorgeous in green: Barbara Meier clashed with the green carpet in her eye-catching strapless forest green gown Turning heads: Barbara's gown featured a stunning train which billowed out behind her, whilst there was also beaded detailing along her bardot style sleeves It isn't a party without her! Joan Collins looked radiant as she posed for snaps in a billowing black gown with a peplum skirt and silver beaded detailing across the bodice that complemented her glittering kitten heels Sitting pretty: : (L-R) Joan Collins, Kathy Hilton, Nancy Davis, Barbara Davis and Isabella Rickel made for a stunning table of guests as they sat and posed for pictures on the evening Several of the party guests were present at the Golden Globes ceremony itself, where Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book were the big winners of the night. It was a disappointing night for A Star Is Born, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper losing out in the acting categories and Cooper losing out on the directing prize to Roma filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. The film's only win was best original song, for Shallow, which was collected by Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson. Gaga told the packed ballroom at the Beverly Hilton: 'I just want to say as a woman in music it is really hard to be taken seriously as a musician and as a songwriter, and these incredible men lifted me up and supported me.' Victorious: Mahershala Ali bought his gong along to the party after scooping Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Green Book All-smiles: (L-R) Richard Plepler, Patricia Clarkson, Casey Bloys, Amy Adams and Elizabeth Perkins cosied up for snaps together at the bash. Patricia picked up the Best Supporting Actress in a Series gong for her role in Sharp Objects Happier times: They may have been a warring mother-daughter duo in Sharp Objects, but Patricia and Amy proved to be the best of friends off the screen as Amy was seen congratulating the star on her Golden Globe win Terrific trio: After winning the gong for Best Actress in a Limited-Series for Escape at Dannemora, it was no wonder Patricia Arquette looked in good spirits as she posed for snaps with Harlow Jane and Eric White The ceremony was hosted by Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg, who largely stayed away from political topics. The pair joked they had been chosen to host due to being the only people left in Hollywood who haven not got in trouble for 'saying something offensive'. While last year's ceremony saw the majority of women wearing black for the launch of the Time's Up movement for gender equality, this year a smaller number of women wore wristbands for Time's Up X 2, encouraging companies to double the number of women in decision-making positions. Oh also enjoyed a moment at the winner's podium, as she collected the gong for best actress in a TV drama for Killing Eve and thanked her parents in Korean before bowing to them. She has been hailed by critics for her stellar performance in Mary, Queen of Scots. And Saoirse Ronan looked every inch the movie star as she walked the red carpet at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. The Irish actress, 24, stunned in a silver custom made gown by Gucci that featured a plunging neckline and an eye-catching fringed embellishment with crystal embroidery. Silver lining: Saoirse Ronan looked every inch the movie star as she walked the red carpet at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday Adding height to her frame with a pair of nude heels, Saoirse completed the show-stopping look with emerald and silver diamond earrings and a striking red lip. The Atonement star wore her blonde locks poker straight as she worked her magic in front of the cameras. The dress was designed by stylist Elizabeth Saltzman who revealed the significance behind the outfit's shimmering detail after last year's Time's Up and #MeToo movements dominated the red carpet. She told the Hollywood Reporter: 'Last year was such a tumultuous year for so many things. Elegant: The Irish actress, 24, stunned in a silver custom made gown by Gucci that featured a plunging neckline and an eye-catching fringed embellishment with crystal embroidery Chic: Adding height to her frame with a pair of nude heels, Saoirse completed the show-stopping look with emerald and silver diamond earrings and a striking red lip 'There was a lot of negativity, and I kept trying to find the positive. I just said, "Id like a silver lining".' After her star turn at the Golden Globes, Saoirse appeared in a pre-recorded interview on ITV's Lorraine alongside her Mary, Queen Of Scots co-star Margot Robbie. Speaking of her role as Scottish Queen Mary Stuart, Saoirse addressed the longstanding rivalry between Mary and her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, who is portrayed by Margot in the film. She told host Lorraine Kelly: 'Its quite an unusual thing to see two girls in a position of power, and not totally hate each other, they spend most of the film reaching out and trying to work together, but they're kept apart. Talent: The Atonement star wore her blonde locks poker straight as she worked her magic in front of the cameras 'I wanted a silver lining': The dress was designed by stylist Elizabeth Saltzman who revealed the significance behind the outfit's shimmering detail In character: Saoirse told how she felt many of the portrayals of Mary Stuart up until now have been inaccurate 'She loved life, she loved her friends and her people, she was so beloved by the Scots.' Margot underwent a dramatic transformation for her role as Elizabeth, admitting she couldn't animate her face properly with the prosthetics she wore, which came as a benefit for the character. She said: 'It always helps you can do all the pro work in advance, but it's the thing that tips you over the edge. 'Once I'm in costume the thing I was searching for happens physically, the thing of feeling strained and almost trapped by the facade she creates for herself. 'Even wear prosthetics, I couldn't really animate with my face which is great because she had a stony outside.' Latest role: The talented actress has been hailed by critics for her stellar performance in Mary, Queen of Scots Speaking to Deadline, Saoirse revealed she was warned in her teenage years that as she got older the number of acting roles she got would likely decrease. She said: 'For me I think it was a slightly different thing because I started when I was young, so there wasn't that pressure. 'But one of the things that I did experience during my teenage years, and every female warned me, "When you get to about 18, the roles just stop and nothing comes in and there will be nothing interesting out there.' And they were right. 'I made the decision to basically not work at all instead of taking something on that I didn't believe in.' Roles: Saoirse revealed she was warned in her teenage years that as she got older the number of acting roles she got would likely decrease Rami Malek was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Drama for his portrayal of music icon Freddie Mercury in biopic Bohemian Rhapsody on Sunday night. And Queen legends Brian May and Roger Taylor were keen to celebrate the 37-year-old actor's win at the the FOX, FX and Hulu 2019 Golden Globe Awards After Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel. The guitarist, 71, and drummer, 69, looked like they were beside themselves with happiness as they couldn't keep the smile off their face as they posed with Rami and the award. Golden Globes: Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor beamed as they posed with Rami Malek after star's Best Actor win for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury on Sunday night The Bad Robot star cut a classic figure in a black tuxedo, but he added a twist on the general black tie attire, opting for a white bow tie, but otherwise kept everything to the status quo. Brian looked sharp in his black suit, which he complemented with a red velvet scarf and a quirky medallion necklace. While drummer Roger, 69, opted for a more toned down look, as he wore a black suit with a matching tie, and accessorised with a silver badge. That wasn't all that the trio had to celebrate, as the film itself won the gong for Best Drama at the awards show. Happy: The guitarist, 71, was besides himself with happiness as they attended the FOX, FX and Hulu 2019 Golden Globe Awards After Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel Celebrations: The trio were in good spirits as they posed for pictures in the press room during the awards show That guy! Brian showed how proud he was of the actor's win as he pointed in jubilation at him Hold me: Rami put on an animated display as he dramatically held onto the pair for balance The actor was also joined by his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star, and girlfriend, Lucy Boynton who looked drop dead gorgeous in a shimmering gold gown. The glittering ensemble featured a plunging v-neckline and a high slit that showed off her long slender left leg. Her hair was chopped off an inch above her shoulder and she let it fall wildly, perfectly framing her face. She added a couple inches with golden heels, and painted her lips an almost metallic red. Winner! Rami opened his arms wide in happiness as Brian and Roger held his award for him Proud: The actor looked at the two music icons, who were heavily involved in the production of the film, and smiled brightly Sharp: Brian looked sharp in his black suit, which he complemented with a red velvet scarf and a quirky medallion necklace Supportive: The actor was also joined by his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star, and girlfriend, Lucy Boynton who looked drop dead gorgeous in a shimmering gold gown Smitten: Rami planted a kiss on Lucy's cheek at the FOX Golden Globes After Party You did it! Lucy held onto Rami's hand and smiled brightly as she celebrated his win Loved-up: The couple embraced each other warmly during the after party Malek ended up beating out a talented field for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category. He beat out Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate), Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased) and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman). In accepting the award, he began by saying, 'I'm beyond moved,' adding, 'My heart is pounding out of my chest right now.' 'This is a profound honour to receive this, and to be counted among such extraordinary actors,' he added. 'I am privileged to be counted among you.' Cosy: Brian and Rami cosied up for a sweet selfie after the actor had received the award Success! That wasn't all that the trio had to celebrate, as the film itself won the gong for Best Drama at the awards show Grateful: Rami leaned his head on Brian's shoulder sweetly at the after party In good spirits: Rami and Brian smiled brightly after the awards show What a night: The trio looked incredibly happy following the awards show Friendly: Brian gave Lucy, who played Freddie's former girlfriend Mary Austin in the film, a hug as they saw each other at the after party Top of the game: Malek ended up beating out a talented field for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category, including Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born He went on to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for, 'this incredible recognition, while thanking, 'everyone who worked so tirelessly to make this film what it is.' 'In the process, they gave me this incredible family of actors,' adding that he's going to 'tackle you all in a moment.' He also thanked producers Graham King and Denis O'Sullivan, who worked, 'over a decade to ensure this story would be told,' and 20th Century Fox and New Regency for, 'believing in us when no one else would.' What a performance: Rami has been widely praised for his portrayal of Freddie in the film Emotional: In accepting the award, he began by saying, 'I'm beyond moved,' adding, 'My heart is pounding out of my chest right now' Thankful: He also thanked producers Graham King and Denis O'Sullivan, who worked, 'over a decade to ensure this story would be told' Legends: He ended his speech by thanking Brian and Roger, 'for ensuring that authenticity and inclusivity exists in the music and in the world and in all of us' An icon: Rami ended the speech by saying, 'Thank you to Freddie Mercury, for giving me the joy of a lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man' He ended his speech by thanking Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, 'for ensuring that authenticity and inclusivity exists in the music and in the world and in all of us' 'Thank you to Freddie Mercury, for giving me the joy of a lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for, and because of, you, gorgeous,' he concluded. At the end of the night Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King addressed the shocked crowd at the Beverly Hilton as he said: 'The power of movies is that it brings us all together. 'Freddie Mercury and Queen did that so successfully through their music and thats what we always wanted to accomplish in the cinemas. Inclusive: Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King (second right) addressed the shocked crowd at the Beverly Hilton as he said: 'The power of movies is that it brings us all together' Their story: While Bohemian Rhapsody focuses on the life of frontman Freddie, who passed away in 1991, the lives of his bandmates Brian, Roger, and John Deacon are also portrayed Queen on-screen: Rami also celebrated his with with Lucy and their co-stars Joseph Mazzello (far left), Ben Hardy (second left) and Gwilym Lee (right) The gang are here: Brian, Roger, and Rami were joined by Jim Beach (L), Graham (second right), and Mike Meyers (R) after the awards show We did it! The cast were very excited by the film's best actor win and best drama wins Winners: The two awards given to Bohemian Rhapsody came as a surprise, given it was up against A Star Is Born 'To see that magic come alive and see the incredible response of this film is truly humbling Freddie Mercury, thank you for showing us the power of embracing your true self, this ones for you.' While Bohemian Rhapsody focuses on the life of iconic frontman Freddie, who passed away in 1991, the lives of his bandmates Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon are also portrayed in the film. Rami was smitten with his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star Lucy, who he only just confirmed his romance with last week. He did so while accepting the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Film Awards Gala on Thursday. 'Thank you, Lucy Boynton. You have been my ally, my confidant, you are my love,' the actor said. 'I appreciate you so much.' She looked incredible when she wore a grey gown which showed off her ample assets at the InStyle and Warner Golden Globes afterparty, before heading to the Chateau Marmont. But Heidi Klum, 45, might need the assistance of a very good dry cleaner after the long train on her Paolo Sebastian number was left wet and dirty as she headed home. Heidi looked like she didn't have a care in the world as she headed to a waiting car after letting her hair down at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California on Sunday. Oh dear! Heidi Klum's designer gown was left soaking WET and DIRTY as she left a Golden Globes afterparty at the Chateau Marmont with her new fiance Tom Kaulitz Did you keep the receipt? The price of this creation is unknown but the dresses usually cost between $6-12,000 and this one appeared in quite a state at the end of the night Heidi and her fiance Tom Kaulitz made their official red carpet debut as a newly-engaged couple at the 76th Golden Globe Awards earlier that night. The supermodel - who is 16 years older than the bearded musician - looked resplendent in her gown. The daring open neckline of the ethereal dress ensured she commanded attention, whilst the design cinched in under her bust to hug her slim waist. No worries here: Heidi had a big smile on her face as she held hands with her man, who had lent her his jacket, despite the fact her dress appeared ruined There may be trouble ahead: When Heidi arrived at the venue earlier that evening, her dress was in pristine condition But when she left: Heidi let the dress trail on the wet floor and across the car as her night came to a close Heidi displayed a glimpse of her toned pins in the Grecian style gown, which she teamed with metallic silver barely-there stilettos. The elegant frock boasted a delicate train, which trailed behind her as she worked her best angles next to her beau. Earlier in the evening, for the Golden Globe Awards, Heidi had slipped her phenomenal 5ft9in figure into a black ball gown featuring a sheer bustier and floral embellished skirt. Stunning: Heidi's dress was her second look of the night and earlier on, she was pictured kissing Tom at the InStyle and Warner party at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel Before: Earlier in the evening, for the Golden Globe Awards, Heidi had slipped her phenomenal 5ft9in figure into a black ball gown featuring a sheer bustier and floral embellished skirt Wow! The supermodel - who is 16 years older than the bearded musician - looked resplendent in a cleavage-baring silver halterneck gown Sensational: The daring daring open neckline of the ethereal dress ensured she commanded attention at the star-studded event Loved-up: The loved-up couple couldn't keep their lips off each other as they posed on the grey carpet at the Beverly Hilton The mother-of-four's natural ombre locks which had been left down in loose waves, were re-styled for the afterparties. Her second look saw her long tresses scraped back into a sleek ponytail, with the length of her ponytail still displaying the voluminous waves from earlier. A fuchsia manicure and pedicure added a splash of colour to her sleek appearance and dazzling diamond drop-earrings ensured she was dripping in glamour. Colour pop: A fuchsia manicure and pedicure added a splash of colour to her sleek appearance and dazzling diamond drop-earrings ensured she was dripping in glamour Elegant: The elegant frock boasted a delicate train, which trailed behind her as she worked her best angles Bling: The Tokio Hotel guitarist popped the question to the Emmy winner on December 24 with a dark-stone sparkler only nine months after meeting on the set of Germany's Next Top Model Glamorous: The dress cinched in under her bust to hug her slim waist Heidi enhanced her natural beauty with a radiant make-up look, finished off with a subtle smokey eye. Meanwhile, Tom kept things simple, dressed in a sleek black tuxedo complete with bow-tie, and styled his long dark locks into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. The loved-up couple couldn't keep their lips off each other as they posed on the grey carpet at the Beverly Hilton. Dapper: Tom kept things simple, dressed in a sleek black tuxedo complete with bow-tie, and styled his long dark locks into a ponytail at the nape of his neck Happiness: The pair could not have looked happier as they flaunted their recent engagement Work it: Heidi relished in the limelight, taking every opportunity to flash her engagement ring Laughter: The pair beamed with happiness as they posed for photographs After putting on an amorous display at the star-studded InStyle bash, the pair dashed to Amazon Prime Video's, presented by Audi, Golden Globe Awards after party. Tom and Heidi put on an equally affectionate display at the second afterparty of the evening, happily puckering up in front of hoards of photographers. The Tokio Hotel guitarist popped the question to the Emmy winner on December 24 with a dark-stone engagement ring only nine months after meeting on the set of Germany's Next Top Model. Sublime: Heidi looked like perfection with her assets on display in her jaw-dropping gown Next: After putting on an amorous display at the star-studded InStyle bash, the pair dashed to Amazon Prime Video's Golden Globe Awards after party Love: 'I still believe in love and the marriage, even though I've failed twice at it, I'm not very good at it,' Heidi admitted on Wednesday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show Loved-up: 'I found a great person - let's see what happens...he does have an amazing body!' 'I still believe in love and the marriage, even though I've failed twice at it, I'm not very good at it,' Heidi admitted on Wednesday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 'I found a great person - let's see what happens...he does have an amazing body!' As for most major televised events she attends, Heidi posted a time-lapse video of her glam squad session. The former Victoria's Secret Angel likely does so to show her combined 14.9M social media followers that she doesn't just wake up that way, which makes her more relate-able. Family: Tom is to become stepfather to Heidi's four children - daughter Helene, 14; son Henry, 13; son Johan, 12; daughter Lou, 9 - with ex-husband #2 Seal and ex-partner Flavio Briatore Grecian goddess: Heidi looked sensational in her silver gown Bling: Diamond drop-earrings added extra sparkle to her afterparty look Tom is about to become stepfather to Heidi's four children - daughter Helene, 14; son Henry, 13; son Johan, 12; daughter Lou, 9 - with ex-husband #2 Seal and ex-partner Flavio Briatore. It's Tom's (born Kaulitz-Trumper) second engagement after being betrothed to Ria Sommerfeld for a year until their 2016 split. Career-wise, the Halloween enthusiast will next judge the seven-episode spin-off of America's Got Talent: The Champions, which premieres Monday on NBC. Cosy: Tom leaned in to Heidi as they posed for pictures at Amazon Prime Video's afterparty Glam: Heidi's second look saw her long tresses scraped back into a sleek ponytail, with the length of her ponytail still displaying the voluminous waves from earlier the look of love: Tom watched on as Heidi posed solo for photographers Ben Whishaw paid tribute to 'queer hero' Norman Scott in his acceptance speech at Sunday night's Golden Globes. The British actor scooped a surprise Best Supporting Actor in a series, limited series or motion picture win for his portrayal of Scott in BBC drama A Very English Scandal during the glittering ceremony. He dedicated his first Golden Globe to Scott, the former stable hand who claimed to have had an affair with politiican Jeremy Thorpe (played by Hugh Grant). Winner: Ben Whishaw paid tribute to 'queer hero' Normal Scott in his acceptance speech at Sunday night's Golden Globes as he won for his portrayal in A Very English Scandal The BBC's three-part drama tells the story of Liberal Party member Thorpe, who fell from grace after he was put on trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder in connection to an attempted hit on his ex-lover, Scott. 'Wow, thank you so much, Hollywood Foreign Press,' Ben, 38, told the Hollywood crowd. 'I want to thank [director] Stephen Frears. What a legend. Thank you.' 'I want to thank the BBC for continuing to make idiosyncratic and powerful work and for employing me again and again, thank you.' Acclaimed performance: The BBC's three-part drama tells the story of Liberal Party member Jeremy Thorpe (played by Hugh Grant), who was put on trial for incitement to murder in connection to an attempted hit on his ex-lover, Scott (played by Whishaw, pictured) Dedication: The British actor told the crowd: 'There's one person I really, really want to dedicate this award to... He is a true queer hero and icon' 'There's one person I really, really want to dedicate this award to and it's the man I had the privilege to portray in this show, Norman Scott, who took on the establishment with courage and defiance that I find completely inspiring,' Ben said said. 'He is a true queer hero and icon.' The jubilant actor also thanked his costar Hugh, who lost out on a win, saying, 'I have to thank Hugh Grant above all, for such an exquisite performance. It was amazing to watch you do that.' Co-star: The jubilant actor also thanked his costar Hugh, who lost out on a win, saying, 'I have to thank Hugh Grant above all, for such an exquisite performance' Ben previously revealed in an interview with the Radio Times that Scott was 'very moved' when he was shown A Very English Scandal by director Stephen Frears. The actor said he felt the weight of doing justice to Scott, explaining: 'I did feel a responsibility and at the same time I think any time you do something thats based on real events you have to accept that it becomes a kind of fiction' 'Fortunately, we had this incredible script so youre just trying to do the script justice. You cant think much beyond that. But there is a responsibility and I felt a connection to Norman and I wanted for him to like it. Thankfully he does, were told.' Accolade: It was Ben's first Golden Globe win, as he beat out talent such as Alan Arkin and Henry Winkler in the Best Supporting Actor category Ben beat Alan Arkin for The Kominsky Method, Kieran Culkin for Succession, Edgar Ramirez for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, and Henry Winkler for Barry. It was a night of big wins for British stars, especially in the acting categories as Richard Madden won in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama for Bodyguard - another BBC drama. Olivia Colman was also one of the night's big winners - scooping Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her big screen effort The Favourite. Dapper: Ben dressed for his big night in a statement jewel-encrusted blazer She's one of the most in-demand models of the moment. And Iskra Lawrence was putting in a stylish appearance as she attended the InStyle And Warner Bros. Golden Globes After Party 2019 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in LA on Sunday night. The British model wowed in not one, but two different looks as she took to the red carpet like a pro. Glamorous: Iskra Lawrence was putting in a stylish appearance as she attended the InStyle And Warner Bros. Golden Globes After Party 2019 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday night Quick change: The British model wowed in not one, but two different looks as she took to the red carpet like a pro Iskra looked lovely in a blue satin dress with a sweetheart, strapless neckline with sash detailing at the waist and a waterfall skirt. She channeled old-school glamour in the floor-skimming, powder blue number, which she accessorised with dazzling silver earrings. The curvy pin-up wore her long blonde hair in a half-up, half-down style, with voluminous curls framing her face. Beautiful in blue: Iskra looked lovely in a blue satin dress with a sweetheart, strapless neckline Wow: She channeled old-school glamour in the floor-skimming, powder blue number, which she accessorised with dazzling silver earrings Iskra then changed into a voluminous pink tulle dress, turning heads in the gravity-defying number. The striking dress boasted an oversized skirt with a graded purple colour theme and a long train The beauty was born in Worcestershire, England and she was accepted into the National Youth Theatre at the young age of 15. Stunning: The curvy pin-up wore her long blonde hair in a half-up, half-down style, with voluminous curls framing her face Dramatic dress: Iskra then changed into a voluminous pink tulle dress, turning heads in the gravity-defying number Princess style: The striking dress boasted an oversized skirt with a graded purple colour theme and a long train She was also a competitive swimmer on the national level at the same age. Iskra also appeared in the 2017 documentary Straight Curve that focused on body image and presented a TEDx talk entitled Ending the Pursuit of Perfection at the University of Nevada in 2017. The multi-talented star is a global role model for Aerie, American Eagle's lingerie line, and she made her New York Fashion Week debut in 2016 for Chromat. All eyes on her: Iskra ensured she was the centre of attention in the garment Voluminous: Iskra was struggling with her frilly skirt as she took her seat They're the soap star couple who are rumoured to have split for a week in November before getting back together. But now former Home And Away star Dan Ewing and his girlfriend Kat Risteska have taken time out from their busy schedules to celebrate another couple. On November 24, the pair attended the Sydney wedding of Kat's brother to his long-term girlfriend. Wedding bells! On November 24, the pair attended the Sydney wedding of Kat's brother, David, to his long-term girlfriend, Cat Talevska The couple's eyebrow-raising nuptials were complete with drag racing and burnouts. On Instagram, Kat shared footage of the wedding entourage drag racing, with several brightly coloured cars performing burnouts before speeding off. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Kat or Dan did anything illegal. Kat stunned in a silver sparkly two-piece, which featured wide leg trousers and a matching bralette, from House of CB. Hot cars! Posting to Instagram, Kat showed the wedding entourage drag racing Smoke! The bright cars performed burnouts before driving off Loved-up! The couple spared no expense on the lavish event. Pictured is their first dance Her brown tresses were styled perfectly straight and she finished her ensemble with silver stud earrings. Dan cut a cool figure in a black suit, which he wore with a white button-up shirt. Afterwards, Kat posted a moving tribute to her brother on Facebook. Stunner! Kat flaunted her flawless figure in a silver sparkly two-piece, which featured wide leg trousers and a matching bralette, from House of CB 'To watch my big brother marry the woman of his dreams was a blessing and wish come true,' she wrote. 'My brother and best friend who helped raise me and played the most incredible male figure in both mine and mums life... What a beautiful wedding.' Last week, it was claimed that the pair had briefly split up at the end of November. What breakup? Former Home and Away star Dan Ewing has paid a touching New Year's tribute to his girlfriend Kat Risteska - just weeks after their rumoured split Just a few hours after the split claims surfaced, the 33 year-old actor paid a touching tribute to Kat on Instagram. 'I got a hot 5ft 2in chica to carry me into 2019,' he captioned a black and white photo of his girlfriend giving him a piggyback ride. Kat immediately responded to the post with a love heart emoji. Daily Mail Australia has contacted both Dan Ewing and Kat Risteska for comment. Rami Malek was hilariously snubbed by Nicole Kidman during the 76th annual Golden Globes ceremony on Sunday. The 37-year-old actor was on stage when his film Bohemian Rhapsody picked up Best Picture and attempted to converse with presenter Nicole Kidman on several occasions, who awkwardly did not appear to notice him. The funny snub was captured by Twitter user @1AbbyRoad, who cemented the moment's meme status by captioning it: 'Rami Malek trying to talk to Nicole Kidman is like me trying to talk to my crush #goldenglobes'. Rami shut down: Rami Malek gets awkwardly shut down by Nicole Kidman on stage at the Golden Globes after Bohemian Rhapsody's big win Rami was filmed trying to engage Nicole, 51, in conversation twice, before rushing over and placing a hand on the small of her back, which still did not make the Australian actress turn around and acknowledge him. Despite the awkward moment, it was still a big night for Rami, who picked up his first Golden Globe for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The star was overcome with emotion as he beat out a talented field for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category. Rami had been up against Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate), Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased) and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) for the gong. On stage: Despite the awkward moment, it was still a big night for Malek, who picked up his first Golden Globe for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury Taking to the stage to accept his award, he mused: 'I'm beyond moved,' adding, 'My heart is pounding out of my chest right now.' He continued: 'This is a profound honor to receive this, and to be counted among such extraordinary actors... I am privileged to be counted among you.' Rami went on to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for, 'this incredible recognition, while thanking, 'everyone who worked so tirelessly to make this film what it is... In the process, they gave me this incredible family of actors.' Huge honor: In accepting the award, he began by saying, 'I'm beyond moved,' adding, 'My heart is pounding out of my chest right now' Profound honor: 'This is a profound honor to receive this, and to be counted among such extraordinary actors,' he added. 'I am privileged to be counted among you' Rami also thanked producers Graham King and Denis O'Sullivan, who worked, 'over a decade to ensure this story would be told,' and 20th Century Fox and New Regency for, 'believing in us when no one else would.' He ended his speech by thanking Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, 'for ensuring that authenticity and inclusivity exists in the music and in the world and in all of us' 'Thank you to Freddie Mercury, for giving me the joy of a lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for, and because of, you, gorgeous,' he concluded. Giving thanks: He also thanked producers Graham King and Denis O'Sullivan, who worked, 'over a decade to ensure this story would be told,' and 20th Century Fox and New Regency for, 'believing in us when no one else would' Advertisement Now that the Golden Globes are officially over, Hollywood is ready to party. Taylor Swift, Kate Beckinsale, and Jenna Dewan looked absolutely breathtaking as they attended the InStyle and Warner Brothers Golden Globes after-party in Beverly Hills on Sunday. Leave it to Taylor, 29, to get heads turning as she made her way to the bash in a completely sheer black dress that put her cleavage and long legs on full display. Party time! Taylor Swift, Kate Beckinsale, and Jenna Dewan looked absolutely breathtaking as they attended the InStyle and Warner Brothers Golden Globes after-party in Los Angeles on Sunday Taylor rocked the red carpet in the exact same dress she wore earlier to the Golden Globes, where she surprised audience members by presenting the awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song in a Motion Picture. Once again the pop star had all eyes on her as she posed up a storm in her ultra sexy black dress. The stunning beaded dress slipped off her shoulders and flashed plenty of leg with it's thigh high slit. Taylor brought the glam with her hot red lips and sexy yet messy hairstyle, which was scraped away from her face with loose tendrils cascading alongside her cheeks. She loves it! Taylor rocked the red carpet in the exact same dress she wore earlier to the Golden Globes, where she surprised audience members by presenting the awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song in a Motion Picture Her lips are sealed! The songstress stood out thanks in part to her bold red lip Bringing the va va voom: Swift and Dewan were poised to stop people in their tracks Gorgeous! Dewan oozed glamour in her edgy yet sexy look The stars went all out in the glam department for their night out on the town. Kate, 45, was no angel in a sheer white dress that left little of her fabulous figure to the imagination, thanks to the frock's see-through paneling. The star was the picture of glam with her silky brunette locks styled down into loose waves along with bronze blush and shiny lip gloss. Legs get going! Beckinsale ensured all eyes would be on her toned limbs Incredible: Model Mollie Sims, 45, dazzled in a floor-length sheer gown encrusted with dazzling gems Stunning: The Starsky and Hutch actress displayed her sensational frame in a black bodysuit, whilst sheer layers of sparkling fabric draped onto the floor Jenna was chic and sexy in a silky black dress with a revealing slit alongside her outer leg and beside her waist. Rocking a mix of edgy yet classic, the star looked absolutely amazing as she stole the show on the red carpet. Kaley Cuoco and husband Karl Cook were the picture of a couple in love at the after-party. with The Big Bang Theory star, 33, changing into a quirky white strapless frock with a delicate black floral detailing. Highlighting her svelte physique, Kaley stood out in the chic black and white strapless dress, teaming it with thick-strapped black heels. The TV star kept her blonde tresses in the same half-up half-down style from the red carpet, accentuating her flawless complexion with a dramatically lined eye. Happy: Kaley Cuoco and husband Karl Cook were the picture of a couple in love on Sunday night, as they arrived for the InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty All dressed up: The Big Bang Theory star, 33, changed into a quirky white strapless frock with a delicate black floral detailing All the boys: Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuocu was happily on the arm of her husband Karl Cook (left), before catching up with TV personality Brad Goreski, (right) Leaving little to the imagination! Heidi Klum put on a busty display in her glamorous grey ensemble So in love: Klum shared a kiss with her sharply dressed fiance Tom Kaulitz Karl was putting on a far more dapper display in a simple black tuxedo for the bash, as he proudly stood alongside his wife at the event. Heidi Klum, 45, put on a busty display in her glamorous grey dress with a revealing cut-out along the chest. The supermodel was joined at the bash by her fiance, Tom Kaulitz, 29, and the couple could hardly keep their hands off each other. Bling: The Tokio Hotel guitarist popped the question to the Emmy winner on December 24 with a dark-stone sparkler only nine months after meeting on the set of Germany's Next Top Model Happiness: The pair could not have looked happier as they flaunted their recent engagement Elegant: The elegant frock boasted a delicate train, which trailed behind her as she worked her best angles Colour pop: A fuchsia manicure and pedicure added a splash of colour to her sleek appearance and dazzling diamond drop-earrings ensured she was dripping in glamour Heidi - who is 16 years older than the bearded musician - looked resplendent in a cleavage-baring silver halterneck gown. The daring open neckline of the ethereal dress ensured she commanded attention, whilst the design cinched in under her bust to hug her slim waist. Heidi displayed a glimpse of her toned pins in the Grecian style gown, which she teamed with metallic silver barely-there stilettos. The elegant frock boasted a delicate train, which trailed behind her as she worked her best angles next to her beau. Co-stars! Constance Wu and her Crazy Rich Asians co-star Gemma Chan showed off their fabulous eye for style Sparkling: Constance's gorgeous ensemble had a plunging neckline to show off a glimpse of her cleavage, while she kept the look minimal with a small black clutch bag Bold in blue! Maria Menounos brought the wow factor in a bold royal blue dress Modern Family reunion! Co-stars Ariel Winter and Sarah Hyland were the picture of style Smooches: Gaga and Christian were seen sharing kisses as the A Star is Born actress clutched her Golden Globe for Best Song earlier in the evening at the InStyle and Warner Bros party Her big night: Gaga looked incredible in her Valentino Couture gown and matching blue locks Constance Wu looked ready to dance the night away in a skin tight nude frock with an array of glittering beads. The Golden Globe nominee literally dazzled as she made her grand entrance carrying a shimmering black clutch and teardrop earrings. Constance's gorgeous ensemble had a plunging neckline to show off a glimpse of her cleavage, while she kept the look minimal with a small black clutch bag. Her raven locks were brushed into a sleek, straight style and she wore dangling jewel earrings for a glamorous flourish. Style statement: Rumer Willis opted to go braless as she slipped into a Victoriana style sheer maxi dress, which featured a dramatic high collar Dramatic: Orange Is the New Black star Jackie Cruz, 32, turned heads in a unique chartreuse gown with an exaggerated bardot design Loved up! Winter looked head over heels in love as her boyfriend Levi Meaden gave her a kiss Doing her thing: Model Tess Holliday wore a purple sequin number with a pair of gold heels Gorgeous: Lisa Lu, right, brought her daughter Lucia Hwong as her guest to the star-studded after-party Orange Is the New Black star Jackie Cruz, 32, turned heads in a unique chartreuse gown with an exaggerated bardot design. Rumer Willis opted to go braless as she slipped into a Victoriana style sheer maxi dress, which featured a dramatic high collar. The floor-length frock was adorned with angular metallic studs, and the daughter of Bruce Willis accessoried with an eye-catching feathered bag. New parents! Hilary Duff and her boyfriend Matthew Koma enjoyed a rare night on the town Different looks: Abigail Spencer opted for polka-dots, while Alyssa Milano looked sartorial in a one-shouldered Cristina Ottaviano gown, and presenter Cat Deeley commanded attention in a floor-length gown covered entirely in oversized metallic sequins Jokes: Patricia Arquette joked around with Eric White and her daughter Harlow Olivia Calliope Jane, after winning the award for best performance by an actress in a limited series or a motion picture made for television for Escape at Dannemora Will & Grace star Debra Messing dazzled in a glittering gown, while Zoey Deutch oozed elegance in a sheer black maxi-dress and Michelle Monaghan worked a bold split Bold: Janelle Monae teamed a black and gold pencil-length dress with a sweeping floor-length under-layer Suits actress Abigail Spencer opted for polka-dots, while Alyssa Milano looked sartorial in a one-shouldered gown. British presenter Cat Deeley commanded attention in a floor-length gown covered entirely in oversized metallic sequins. Will & Grace star Debra Messing dazzled in a glittering gown, with her fiery locks parted at the centre and styled sleek and straight. While You Were Watching actress Zoey Deutch oozed elegance in a sheer black maxi-dress, with stunning floral embellishments. Michelle Monaghan, 42, looked fierce as she worked a bold split in her simple frock, with sharp shoulder-pads adding an extra dose of power. Flower power! Jaime King took the party by storm in a floral print gown with retro style hairdo Orange crush! Lea Michele brightened things up in a bold orange dress with gold heels Incredible: Lea looked incredible in the tangerine dress which had a sheer gauze section at her tiny waist, giving the illusion of a cropped top Vibrant: 12 Years A Slave star Storm Reid followed suit, in a vibrant orange gown Sleek: Troye Sivan, 23, looked incredibly handsome in a royal blue tuxedo Winning! Ben Whishaw and Regina King shared a moment together after winning awards on the night Maria Menounos brought the wow factor with her stunning royal blue dress with a thigh-high slit. There was a mini Modern Family reunion on the red carpet as Ariel Winter and Sarah Hyland made their way to the event. Ariel showed some skin in a see-through black lace dress with a corset style top and strappy high heels. Wow! Orange Is The New Black star Laverne Cox donned a form-fitting silver gown, while Kristin Cavallari looked radiant in a classic red number Style statements: This Is Us actress Susan Kelechi Watson flaunted her frame in a sheer frock, while stylist Rachel Zoe stood out in bright white, and Michelle Yeoh opted for an elegant green gown Pretty in pink: Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard, 17, was a modern day ballerina as she worked oversized pink ruffles Romance: Orange Is The New Black actress Madeline Brewer cosied up to her boyfriend Spencer Neville on the grey carpet The actress looked head over heels in love as she received a kiss from her boyfriend, Levi Meaden. Sarah Hyland took the plunge in a satiny moss green dress with silver jewelry and coordinating heels. She also made sure to sport a Time's Up pin upon her dress. Hilary Duff enjoyed a rare night on the town with her boyfriend Matthew Koma, just a couple of months after giving birth. Red alert! Newlywed Malin Akerman looked red hot in a revealing dress filled with glittering ruby sequins It takes two! Emily Blunt and her husband John Krasinski enjoyed a night on the town Simply divine! Connie Britton, Julianne Moore, and Rachel Zoe had heads turning in their all-white looks Hello gorgeous! Rumer Wilson and Garcelle Beauvais were the center of attention in their white-metallic looks Rebecca Rittenhouse also got involved with the white frock trend in a pretty floral gown Family affair! Golden Globe winner Patricia Arquette made it a family night as she attended the bash with her boyfriend Eric White and her daughter Harlow The actress rocked a flowing black dress with an elaborate fur coat. Jaime King oozed glamour in a satiny floral print dress that clung to her trim torso with a cinched waist that unfurled into a long, billowing skirt. The former Hart Of Dixie actress wore her blonde locks up into flapper girl style curls and wore a slick of bright pink lipstick. Lea Michele brightened things up in a bold orange dress with strappy gold heels. Sweet: Jim Carey, 56, cuddled up to new love Ginger Gonzaga, 34, on the red carpet for the event It takes two! Gina Rodriguez oozed glamour in a sky blue dress as she posed up with her fiance Joe LoCicero, (left), while Ben Stiller and his daughter were also present (right) Sophisticated! Christina Ricci looked incredible in a shimmering navy blue dress with black heels from Le Silla Newlywed Malin Akerman looked red hot in a revealing dress filled with glittering ruby sequins. Emily Blunt worked a ruffled pink dress as her husband John Krasinski sharpened up in a sleek blue suit. Julianne Moore cut a chic figure in a white halter top with flowing mesh skirt. Golden Globe winner Patricia Arquette made it a family night as she attended the bash with her boyfriend Eric White and her daughter Harlow. Work! Sarah Silverman rocked a flowing black dress with sheer lace cape and shoes while Claire rocked another all-black outfit Good pals: A beaming Claire also shared a hug with Hollywood icon Richard Gere at the after party bash Fun times: The 69-year-old Pretty Woman star, clad in a dapper Giorgio Armani tuxedo, was all smiles as he posed up a storm with the British actress Sparkle! Nicole Scherzinger sparkled in a glittering metallic beaded dress with a an extra low-cut neckline and velvety high heels Party spirit: Nicole flaunted her fabulous figure in the thigh-skimming minidress which she paired with blush pink sandals Turning heads: Bellamy Young cut an elegant figure in a woven, royal blue gown that clung to her torso while Aja Naomi King glammed it up in a vibrant blue number with spaghetti straps and thigh-high slit Dashing: James Van Der Beek and wife Kimberly Brook put on a stylish display as they posed together on the grey carpet Ben Stiller headed to the bash with his daughter Ella, after attending the awards show together. Christina Ricci wowed in a sophisticated navy blue dress with black high heels from Le Silla. Sarah Silverman rocked a flowing black dress with sheer lace cape and shoes. Claire Foy worked her magic in a plunging black outfit with a cinched waist and scattering of white accents. Red hot! Karolina Kurkova, Jamie Chung, and Kristin Cavallari stole the show with their magnetic red outfits Hello sunshine! Chloe Bennett looked on the bright side in her cheerful yellow dress Black Panther reunion! Danai Gurira posed up with her Black Panther co-stars, Michael B. Jordan, who donned a Burberry tuxedo, and Lupita Nyong'o Double trouble! Iskra Lawrence rocked two head-turning looks to the bash Belle in blue: The model slipped into an icy blue gown for her second turn on the grey carpet Nicole Scherzinger sparkled in a glittering metallic beaded dress with an extra low-cut neckline and blush pink velvety high heels. The singer flaunted her fabulous figure in the thigh-skimming minidress which drew attention to her eye-popping cleavage with its low-cut neckline. Bellamy Young cut an elegant figure in a woven, royal blue gown that clung to her torso. Men of style: Machine Gun Kelly rocked a red blazer as he headed to the party with Pete Davidson Boys' night out: Pete Davidson (right) was on top form on Sunday night as he party hopped with best friend Machine Gun Kelly Pink ladies! Sophia Bush looked glam in a silky pink number while Jameela Jamil dazzled in a coral number Date night: Johnny Galecki rocked a suit for his night out with Alaina Meyer Cute couple! Adam Driver looked smart as he headed to the bash with his wife Joanne Tucker Sharp! Richard Gere rocked a smart black suit for the occasion On his arm! Mike Myers smiled as he made his grand entrance with wife Kelly Tisdale Wow! Kat Graham had heads turning in a flashy black ruffle dress Angelic: US model Arielle Kebbel looked angelic in a plunging white gown with thick embellished straps Aja Naomi King glammed it up in a vibrant blue number with spaghetti straps and thigh-high slit. Karolina Kurkova, Jamie Chung, and Kristin Cavallari stole the show with their magnetic red outfits. Chloe Bennett looked on the bright side in her cheerful yellow dress. Full-on glamour: Kate dazzled as she joined actress Andie MacDowell (centre), who sizzled in a semi-sheer gown, and Counting to 1000 star Cailee Spaeny (right), who was class in a sleeveless dress with sparkling detail on its bodice Success: Golden Globe winner Lady Gaga was on cloud nine as she shared a kiss with fiance Christian Carino Radiant: Janelle Monae ensured all eyes were on her as she struck a sultry pose during the bash High spirits: Adam Driver beamed as he shared a hug with wife Joanne Tucker (L), while Kate cosied up to photographer Ellen von Unwerth (R) In good company: Adam later joined BlacKkKlansman co-star John David Washington and screen star Richard Gere (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV/TUNIS, JANUARY 7 - Ahead of the announced regional peace plan of US President Donald Trump, Israel means to ask Tunisia for 35 billion dollars in compensation after Jewish citizens were forced to leave assets and properties in 1948, when the Jewish State was established, according to 'Hadashot', an Israeli private broadcaster. The report was also quoted by Tunisian media outlets. ''The time has come - the Israeli Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel (Likud) told 'Hadashot' - to correct historic injustices of the pogrom in Arab countries and Iran by paying back the hundreds of thousands of Jews who lost their properties. It's a right''. According to the broadcaster, the compensation would total overall 250 billion dollars with different sums to be paid by various countries including Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Libya and Tunisia). Libya will be reportedly asked to pay 15 billion dollars. The agreement should be among conditions for the conclusion of an agreement of regional peace promoted by US President Donald Trump. According to the television, the Palestinians are asking for 100 billion dollars in compensation for the properties they left behind in today's Israel. In 1948, according to the association Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (Jjac), 856,000 Jews fled or were forced to leave the Arab countries where they were living. A subsequent migration wave reportedly totaled an additional half a million people. In 2010, the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, approved legislation according to which any final peace agreement with the Palestinians should include the resolution of the controversial issue of compensation of the assets left behind by Jewish communities in Arab countries and Iran. (ANSAmed) It was a big night for her husband as his media company scored a number of resounding wins. But Molly Sims was the one that got everyone talking while walking the red carpet with Scott Stuber. The 45-year-old model flaunted her cleavage in a colorful floral frock at the 76th annual Golden Globes in Beverly Hills. Gorgeous: Molly Sims was the one that got everyone talking while walking the red carpet with Scott Stuber The floor-length Marchesa gown featured a plunging neckline and she pinned a flower brooch to one side. Decadent magenta earrings fell all the way to her collarbone and she painted her lips a nude pink. Molly pulled her blonde hair tightly back, and then let her long tresses stream down her spine. Flowers: The 45-year-old model flaunted her cleavage in a colorful floral frock at the 76th annual Golden Globes in Beverly Hills Beauty: The floor-length Marchesa gown featured a plunging neckline and she pinned a flower brooch to one side Stunning: Molly pulled her blonde hair tightly back, and then let her long tresses stream down her spine She was joined on the carpet by her husband of seven years Scott, who donned a charcoal-colored suit. He kept things simple with a white shirt, a black tie, and black Oxfords, opting to lets his movies do the talking. Scott is the head of original film at Netflix, and the media company continued to make waves at this year's Golden Globes. Classic: She was joined on the carpet by her husband of seven years Scott, who donned a charcoal-colored suit Big night: He kept things simple with a white shirt, a black tie, and black Oxfords, opting to lets his movies do the talking Netflix's Oscars vessel Roma took home a number of big name awards during the first big bash of Hollywood's annual award's season. Written, directed, and produced by Alfonso Cuaron, the film took home two of the three Golden Globes it was nominated for, including Best Director and Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language. It was also nominated for Best Screenplay Motion Picture, a surprise for a film that was in Spanish. Making waves: Scott is the head of original film at Netflix, and the media company continued to make waves at this year's Golden Globes They soaked in all the pomp and circumstance together at the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night. But once the three-hour plus show ended, Julia Roberts and husband Danny Moder decided to indulge on some fast food at a local In-N-Out Burger. 'Fun Night W My Fella,' the Pretty Woman star captioned in a sweet Instagram snap of the couple sharing a passionate kiss and burger. Showing a keen sense of humor, she added: 'Congratulations to All! And to all a good (burger) night.' Keeping it real: Julia Robert and husband Danny Moder left the 2019 Golden Globes on Sunday night and shared a burger and a passionate kiss at a local In-N-Out Burger In the photo Julia can be seen holding a half eaten burger, better known as a double-double to In-N-Out enthusiasts, as she smooches her man. For his part, Danny appears to be holding up an In-N-Out bag for the shot. The couple, who have been married for over 16-years, are still dressed in their elegant ensembles that they wore to the Golden Globes. Elegant: Before their romp to the popular fast food joint, the 51-year old actress shined under the bright spotlight of the Golden globes in a black and nude pantsuit Honoree: Julia was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -- Drama, for her role in the Amazon Studios series Homecoming Before their romp to the popular fast food joint, the 51-year old actress shined under the bright spotlight of the Golden globes in a black and nude pantsuit. The unique gold top that was cinched off with a gold belt with a gold train and black pants. The actress also wore a pair of simple black heels, with dangling Choppard diamond earrings and a diamond studded bracelet. Shining star: Homecoming was also nominated for Best Television Series -- Drama Julia was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -- Drama, for her role in the Amazon Studios series Homecoming. The hit show was also nominated for Best Television Series -- Drama. The actress plays Heidi Bergman, a woman who works at a facility dubbed Homecoming that helps soldiers cope with their return home and their transition to civilian life. Several years later, she has started a new life, when the Department of Defense starts questioning why she left the facility. Julia stars alongside Bobby Cannavale, Stephan James (who was also nominated for a Golden Globe), Shea Whigham and Alex Karpovsky. Longtime loves: The couple met met on the set of her film The Mexican in 2000 The couple met met on the set of her film The Mexican in 2000, while she was still dating actor Benjamin Bratt. At the time, Danny was married to Vera Steimberg. He filed for divorce a little over a year later, and after it was finalized, he and Julia wed on July 4, 2002, at her ranch Taos, New Mexico. Together they have three children: twin daughter Hazel and twin son Phinnaeus, 14, and son Henry, 11. Going strong: The couple have been married for over 16-years Aussie stars failed to nab a single gong at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Twelve-time nominee Nicole Kidman walked away empty-handed after losing out to Glenn Close for Best Dramatic Actress. The 51-year-old was in the running for her performance in gritty crime drama Destroyer. Nicole Kidman (pictured), Yvonne Strahovski and Troye Sivan are SNUBBED at the Golden Globes as Australian stars fail to nab awards But despite the loss, Nicole is still being tipped for an Academy Award nomination later this month. It was a dismal evening for The Handmaid's Tale star Yvonne Strahovski. The 36-year-old new mum, who stunned three months after giving birth, lost out to Patricia Clarkson for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Limited Series or Television Movie. Disappointment: It was a dismal evening for The Handmaid's Tale star Yvonne Strahovski who lost out to Patricia Clarkson for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Limited Series or Television Movie Post baby body: Earlier in the evening, the 36 year-old new mum, who gave birth just three months ago, stunned in a strapless mint green number Elsewhere, Perth hitmaker Troye Sivan lost out for Best Original Song. Nominated for anthem Revelation from movie, Boy Erased, the 23 year-old was pipped by Lady Gaga who scooped the award for Shallow from A Star Was Born. And Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara failed to pick up a gong for his screenplay for The Favourite. Too bad: Elsewhere, Perth hitmaker Troye Sivan lost out for Best Original Song. Nominated for anthem Revelation from movie, Boy Erased, the 23 year-old was pipped by Lady Gaga who scooped the award for Shallow from A Star Was Born Big winners on the night included Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody which walked away with Best Picture (Drama) and Best Actor (Drama) for star Rami Malek. And picking up a surprise three gongs, Green Book scooped Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali. But there was big upset for A Star is Born which was expected to pick up acting statuettes for stars Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. The Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 22. It was a big night for Green Book at the Golden Globes, winning three awards on Sunday night, the most of any movie. The film won Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, with writers Nick Vallelonga, Bryan Currie and Peter Farrelly winning Best Screenplay and Mahershala Ali winning his first Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for his role as famed pianist 'Doc' Don Shirley. The 44-year-old actor, who won an Oscar in the same category at the Oscars in 2017 for Moonlight, used his acceptance speech at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to thank the women in his life. First Globe: Mahershala Ali wins his first ever Golden Globe for Green Book, which took home three awards at the ceremony on Sunday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel 'I have to thank my wife, my mother, and my grandmother,' Ali said. 'I thank you for your prayers. I've needed each and every one of them. Peace.' He also paid tribute to his 'extraordinary scene partner', Viggo Mortensen and praised his other co-star Linda Cardellini as a 'beautiful person', as well as thanking director Peter Farrelly. Green Book has been hit by a backlash from Shirley's real life family, who have insisted the portrayal of the musician is inaccurate, and Mahershala defended the movie backstage at the ceremony. Cast and crew: Green Book has been hit by a backlash from Shirley's real life family, who have insisted the portrayal of the musician is inaccurate, and Mahershala defended the movie backstage at the ceremony 'I will say this, my job is always the same: I have to look at what I am doing and be responsible for it.' The actor went on to stress how he and everyone else who worked on the movie had put a lot of energy into the project and he doesn't want to 'throw away' what they have done. 'I respect the family ... and Doc Shirley. I spoke to the studio and the family and at the end of the day you wish everyone was happy and you don't want to offend anyone in any capacity.' Farrelly on stage: After winning Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, director and co-writer Peter Farrelly urged audiences to learn from the movie After winning Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, director and co-writer Peter Farrelly urged audiences to learn from the movie, which follows the unlikely friendship between jazz musician 'Doc' Don Shirley and his Italian-American driver and bodyguard Tony Vallelonga. 'All we have to do is talk and not judge people by their differences,' the filmmaker said. 'We all want the same thing.' 'Don Shirley was a great man and underappreciated,' Farrelly said in part, of one of the movie's real-life inspirations. 'He couldn't play the music he wanted to play simply because of the color of his skin.' Yet, he added: 'He went on to create his own genre of music; it sounds so beautiful that it still resonates today. Tony Vallelonga came from an immigrant family in the Bronx and from a culture didn't value diversity or individuality, yet during that trip with Don Shirley, he grew and evolved more than most families do over several generations. Cast and director: 'Don Shirley was a great man and underappreciated," Farrelly said in part, of one of the movie's real-life inspirations. "He couldn't play the music he wanted to play simply because of the color of his skin 'This story, when I heard it, gave me hope, and I wanted to share that hope with you, because we're still living in divided times, maybe more so than ever,' Farrelly added. Screenwriter Nick Vallelonga is the son of Tony Vallelonga, who co-wrote the script with Bryan Currie and Peter Farrelly, using his acceptance speech to thank his late father for his story. 'My father blessed us with this story,' Vallelonga said. 'I can't thank you enough. This is surreal.' Green Book beat out other Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical nominees, Crazy Rich Asians, The Favourite, Mary Poppins Returns and Vice. Golden Globe winner: After winning Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, director and co-writer Peter Farrelly urged audiences to learn from the movie, which follows the unlikely friendship between jazz musician 'Doc' Don Shirley and his Italian-American driver and bodyguard Tony Vallelonga Brianna Randall slapped Jamie Fraser in the face after he attacked the wrong man for raping her on Sunday's episode of Outlander. Bree, played by Sophie Skelton, learned during the episode titled The Deep Heart's Core that Jamie [Sam Heughan] beat up her time-traveling boyfriend Roger Wakefield [Richard Rankin] instead of her rapist Stephen Bonnet [Edward Speleers]. Jamie tried to defend himself and angrily accused Bree of lying about her lust after getting pregnant. Mistaken identity: Brianna Randall slapped and scolded Jamie Fraser on Sunday's episode of Outlander after he attacked the wrong man for raping her She strongly slapped him in the face while setting the record straight. 'I was violated, you self-righteous bastard. By someone else! You beat up the wrong man,' she told him. Bree's mother Claire held her daughter as her lover Jamie realized his mistake. Jamie swore to Bree as her father that he would make amends, but Bree remained outraged. Wrong guy: Jamie promised to make things right after learning that he beat up the wrong guy 'My father never would have said the things you said to me,' she hissed at him. 'He was a good man. You're nothing but a savage.' Jamie and 'Young Ian' Fraser Murray [John Bell] tried to figure out the identity of Bree's rapist, but Claire revealed who it was by putting her old ring on the table. 'It was him,' she said referencing the Irish pirate and smuggler Bonnet. Still mad: Bree remained angry with Jamie and called him a 'savage' The ring: Claire Fraser provided the identity of Bree's attacker by putting her old ring on the table Ian then revealed that he sold Roger to passing Mohawk traders and Bree promptly slapped him across the face, too. Lizzie Wemyss [Caitlin O'Ryan] earlier consoled Bree after she had a traumatic nightmare about her rape and said the man would never hurt her again. 'Your da beat him, nearly beat him to death, he did,' Lizzie reported. 'And he had Ian send him away.' Traumatic nightmare: Bree had a nightmare of being raped again by Stephen Bonnet Strong support: Claire stood by her daughter Bree as she confronted Jamie Lizzie later said she was sorry for misidentifying Roger when Bree gathered everyone for answers. 'You should be,' Bree told her as Jamie knocked over furniture in frustration. Bree then interrupted his outburst and made him stop. Emotional moment: Ian, Lizzie and Jamie reeled as Bree confronted them over their mistakes Bonding session: Jamie and Bree bonded earlier after he demonstrated how she could not defend herself from her rapist 'No!,' she shouted. 'No, you do not get to be more angry than me!' Bree then set a plan in motion to retrieve Roger back from the Mohawk. She asked Claire to go with Jamie and Ian since Roger would recognize her as a friendly face, but Claire was reluctant to leave her pregnant daughter alone. Anger growing: Bree yelled at Jamie as he started throwing furniture around after his mistake was uncovered Jamie suggested Bree and Lizzie stay at River Run and Murtagh volunteered to drive them there and later enjoyed a nice reunion with Aunt Jocasta. Bree also decided to keep her baby after Claire said that she could perform an abortion. 'If there's even a slightest chance it's his, I'm going to keep it. Not just for him, for me, too,' she told Claire. 'And if it's not his, I'll love it anyway. I know I will.' Together again: Aunt Jocasta and Murtagh were reunited at River Run Slight chance: The rape victim said she was keeping her baby after Claire said she could perform an abortion Jamie also gave Murtagh orders to find Bonnet. 'Bring him to me in secret. I'm going to kill him,' Jamie said. Roger meanwhile was being held captive by the Mohawk along with another prisoner who died during the night. Secret mission: Jamie also sent Murtagh on a secret mission to find Bonnet so he could kill him While being marched along by the Mohawk, Roger stumbled off the side of a ravine and made a run for it in the wilderness. Roger managed to elude the Mohawk and came across a clearing with a stone circle. 'Oh my God,' he said as the stones similar to the time-traveling gateway at Craigh na Dun started buzzing. In captivity: Roger Wakefield was being held captive by Mohawk after being traded to them Foot chase: The Mohawk chased Roger after he fell from a ravine and ran away from them Roger with the gems Bonnet paid him still in his pocket then walked toward the largest stone and reached out for it as the episode ended. Outlander is based on the book series of the same name by Diana Gabaldon, 66. The series will return next week on Starz with an episode titled If Not For Hope. Time travel: Roger after escaping came upon a stone circle in a clearing with a buzzing rock Advertisement Olivia Colman vowed to keep enjoying her success as she lead the success of the British stars picking up a Golden Globe award at the The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Sunday. The 44-year-old was the winner of Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her role of Queen Anne in The Favourite, and in her acceptance speech thanked her 'b*tches' Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz before dropping the F-bomb. She said: 'I'm not going to cry because my whole table will laugh at me. Thank you for the sandwiches. Success! Olivia Colman vowed to keep enjoying her success as she picked up a Golden Globe award on Sunday 'Thank you my b*tches Emma and Rachel! Every second working with you was such a joy. So much fun. I'm too excited!' And Olivia, who donned David Morris Jewellery and a striking black gown for the occasion, said she loved making the film - which required her to pile on 35 pounds to play Queen Anne. 'I had a f**king blast!' she recalled. 'I went on a private jet and I ate constantly throughout the film it was brilliant! I promise I will keep on enjoying it, because this is amazing.' The British star, who can next be seen in The Crown playing Queen Elizabeth, then addressed her husband Ed Sinclair and their three children as she smiled and said: 'Ed and the kids, look! Yay!' 'Thank you my b*tches': Colman paid tribute to her The Favourite co-stars, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz Steamy: The critically-acclaimed film was released last month, and features a love scene between Olivia and her co-star Emma Life is good! Olivia, who donned David Morris Jewellery for the occasion, gushed during her speech, 'I went on a private jet and I ate constantly throughout the film it was brilliant!' Her 'b*tches': Colman appeared on stage with her co-stars earlier that evening Award-winning! This year marks the second time Olivia has received a Golden Globe Olivia's critically-acclaimed film was released last month and follows the love triangle Queen Anne forms with two of her female courtiers, played by Emma and Rachel. This year marks the second time Olivia has received a Golden Globe. She received the award for Best Supporting Actress Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her role in The Night Manager in 2017. Winner! Olivia looked delighted as she posed with her gong backstage during the awards after thanking her co-stars in a hilarious and expletive-laden speech. She had long been tipped to walk away with the honour Someone's happy! Olivia made no attempt to play it cool that she is now a two-time Golden Globe winner Loving life: The British beauty proudly paraded her gong around backstage with a giant grin on her face They're her Favourites! Olivia seemed in high spirits as she chatted with her co-stars Joe Alwyn and Nicholas Hoult Fantastic four: The co-stars were also joined by David Greenbaum, President of Production, Film and Television at Fox Searchlight Pictures Double trouble: Olivia cosied up for snaps alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who created BBC hit Killing Eve Among the British stars joining Olivia on the stage on Sunday night were Christian Bale - who was named Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Vice. 'Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role,' he said of his portrayal of Dick Cheney in the political satire. Bale, who scored his second Golden Globe, had first thanked his children and wife, 'who told me less is more.' 'She knows the dumb crap that can come out of my mouth at times. I can sink and ruin a perfectly good movie and so-so career in one speech. So thank you for that advice, my love.' Ben Whishaw won best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture for A Very English Scandal. He dedicated his win to his character, Norman Scott. Among the British stars joining Olivia on the stage on Sunday night were Christian Bale - who was named Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Vice. He thanked his wife wife Sibi Blazic (right) in his speech 'There's one person I really, really want to dedicate this award to and it's the man I had the privilege to portray in this show, Norman Scott, who took on the establishment with courage and defiance that I find completely inspiring,' Whishaw said. 'He is a true queer hero and icon.' Another British winner was Richard Madden, who was named Best Actor in a TV Drama Series. Madden starred as David Budd in Bodyguard, which drama aired on BBC One in the autumn, and then transferred to Netflix, where American audiences enjoyed it just as much. Honored: Ben Whishaw won best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture for A Very English Scandal, whilst Richard Madden (right) was named Best Actor in a TV Drama Series for Bodyguard Richard plays the titular role - Sergeant David Budd, an Afghanistan war veteran and Protection Command bodyguard, tasked with protecting The Right Honourable Julia Montague [Keeley Hawes] the Home Secretary. Picking up his prize the Scottish star said: 'I didn't see this coming at all,' before thanking his mum and dad, who had flown over from Scotland to support him. Meanwhile BBC show Killing Eve scored one win, for Sandra Oh, coincidentally the show's co-host. Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody took two big wins, surprising many with the Best Picture trophy, which had been hotly tipped to go to A Star Is Born. The movie's American star Rami Malek was also named Best Actor in a film. Rumours have been swirling that Karl Stefanovic will be redeployed to Channel Nine's American news desk after being sacked from the Today show. And the 44-year-old's new appointment is looking more likely than ever after Nine's U.S. correspondent Lizzie Pearl recently moved back to Australia, leaving the position vacant. 'It's got everyone at the office talking. Now that Lizzie is back we are just waiting for an official announcement really', an insider told New Idea on Monday. 'We're just waiting for an official announcement': Rumours swirl Karl Stefanovic is replacing Lizzie Pearl as Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent - after being axed from the Today show Nine executives are apparently trying to speed along Karl's appointment to America after his Christmas Day meltdown at Gold Coast Airport proved to be a PR disaster. 'For 14 years, Karl was the main focus of breakfast TV but with all the scandal surrounding him, he needs to be in a role where it's no longer all about him,' the source added. 'If Karl reports from Hollywood then whoever he is interviewing is going to be a much bigger star than he is and that shifts the spotlight.' That's convenient! Nine's U.S. correspondent Lizzie Pearl (pictured) recently moved back to Australia, leaving the position vacant Whoops! Nine executives are apparently trying to speed along Karl's appointment to America after his Christmas Day meltdown at Gold Coast Airport proved to be a PR disaster 'He's tired of all the attention': It comes after Daily Mail Australia reported that Karl had his sights set on escaping the country long before his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough in December It comes after Daily Mail Australia reported that Karl had his sights set on escaping the country long before his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough in December. Several months ago, before he was dropped from Today, the embattled journalist confided in friends that he was considering 'going away for a while'. At the time, he was feeling increasingly 'strained' due to the media scrutiny surrounding his engagement to the 34-year-old shoe designer. See you in the States? Karl would 'ideally... like a job at Channel Nine's U.S. bureau' as he 'loves America', a source previously told Daily Mail Australia 'He wants to get away from it all, he's getting tired of all the attention he gets in Sydney,' said a source familiar with Karl's thoughts at the time. 'Ideally, he would like a job at Channel Nine's U.S. bureau. He loves America and Jasmine lived in Los Angeles for years while working as a model.' It was previously rumoured for months that Karl wanted to relocate to America to be a foreign correspondent for Nine. She's familiar! Karl's wife Jasmine previously lived in LA during her time as a model, and could run her shoe brand Mara & Mine from overseas. Pictured: Karl and Jasmine in November 2017 And considering that he is no longer required on the Today show from 5:30am every weekday morning, the move stateside certainly seems possible. Although he would be moving away from his children, it is believed the TV star has shared custody with his ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn and so could fly back for visits. Jasmine, who has already had a taste of living in California, could run her shoe brand Mara & Mine from overseas and employ staff to manage her Paddington boutique. A bittersweet message posted by Sam Burgess on his estranged wife Phoebe's Instagram account six months ago has come back to haunt him. The rugby league star - who split from Phoebe shortly before Christmas and just weeks after they welcomed their second child - had previously expressed his excitement about spending the festive season with his growing family. Back in June, Phoebe announced her pregnancy by sharing a black and white photo of herself cradling her baby bump while holding her eldest child, daughter Poppy. Oh, dear! A bittersweet message posted by Sam Burgess on his estranged wife Phoebe's Instagram account six months ago has come back to haunt him. Pictured on August 14, 2018 in Sydney 'See you in December Baby Burgess No. 2, we adore you already,' Phoebe wrote in the caption, tagging her husband and adding the hashtag, '15 weeks'. Sam swiftly responded to the post by writing: 'Christmas will be fun this year'. The sportsman's comment is rather ironic in hindsight given the chaos that has befallen the couple over the past few weeks. 'See you in December': Back in June, Phoebe announced her pregnancy by sharing a black and white photo of herself cradling her baby bump while holding her eldest child, daughter Poppy Awkward! Sam's comment, 'Christmas will be fun this year', is rather ironic in hindsight given the chaos that has befallen the couple over the past few weeks Sam and Phoebe's marriage split was announced last week, with an insider describing their separation as 'messy'. A friend with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Telegraph that 'things [had] been bad for a while' in their relationship. The break-up was particularly hard on Phoebe as Sam's mother Julie has reportedly been standing by her son. It's over! Sam and Phoebe's marriage split was announced last week, with an insider describing their separation as 'messy' Hard times: Their second child, son William 'Billy' Mark, was born only last month 'It would have been hard for Phoebe because Julie would have completely stuck by Sam... and there's talk she didn't offer Phoebe much support,' said the source. In September 2018, Sam was cleared of any wrongdoing after a 23-year-old woman claimed two unidentified South Sydney Rabbitohs players sent her lewd images via Sam's Facebook account in May. When news of the sexting scandal broke, Phoebe, who was 28 weeks pregnant at the time, cancelled a scheduled appearance at Sydney's Royal Randwick racecourse. She plays a woman who was wrongly sent to a heavenly afterlife in the Golden Globe nominated series, The Good Place. And there was no denying Kristen Bell looked absolutely heavenly in a plunging baby pink gown with long skirt as she attended the awards show with her husband Dax Shepard, 44. This is the first year Kristen, 38, has been nominated for a Golden Globe, and the actress couldn't have looked any happier celebrating the big night alongside her other half. Dazzling! Kristen Bell looked absolutely heavenly in a plunging baby pink gown with long skirt as she attended the Golden Globes on Sunday with her husband Dax Shepard The actress smiled from ear to ear as she posed up a storm in her gorgeous pink frock with glittering accents. She wore her blonde hair down in loose waves which were coiffed by hairstylist Jenny Cho for Suave Professionals. Explaining the inspiration behind Kristen's 'do for the evening, Jenny explained that she wanted to give her 'a modern take on the classic 70s blonde bombshell look', something that she achieved by layering the Suave Professionals Sleek Anti-Frizz Smooth & Shine Cream and the Firm Control Boosting Mousse to 'add soft body and structure to strands'. The actress's golden glow came courtesy of Vita Liberata's VIP tanner Brittney Gonzalez, who used the brand's Anti-Age Moisture Locking Professional Spray Tan Solution in Ecuador to 'achieve a gorgeous skin finish' for the star. Meanwhile, Kristen's husband looked sharp and sophisticated in a black suit and tie. Even though he looked all business, Dax lightened up the mood as he mimicked his wife's over-the-shoulder pose. Copy cat! Even though he looked all business, Dax lightened up the mood as he mimicked his wife's over-the-shoulder pose Strike a pose! Bell looked gorgeous in her beautiful pink gown Eyes only for each other: Bell gazed lovingly at her husband during a posing break The actor managed to keep a completely straight face as he copied Kristen's sultry pose. In between posing up a storm on the carpet, the couple made time for each other as they gazed lovingly into each other's eyes. Kristen is celebrating a career milestone with a nomination for Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy for her role in The Good Place. The actress plays a woman who dies and ends up in a heavenly afterlife by mistake in the show, which was also nominated for Best TV Series, Comedy. Both of the awards ended up going to Rachel Brosnahan and The Kominsky Method, respectively. It takes two! Dax managed to keep a completely straight face as he copied his wife Let's eat! The couple enjoyed some fine dining once they took their seats Just one day after confirming his relationship with British woman Lindsey Johnston, photos have emerged of Luke Burgess at the beach with his new girlfriend. The outing took place on Friday, with the 31-year-old rugby league player seen relaxing alongside a bikini-clad Lindsey on the sand at Sydney's Little Bay Beach. Joining Luke and Lindsay was his five-year-old daughter, Grace Luna, who he shares with his ex-partner, former Australia's Next Top Model star Yolanda Hodgson. Summer days! Footy star Luke Burgess (left) enjoyed a family beach day with his new girlfriend Lindsey Johnston and daughter Grace on Friday, after splitting with model Yolanda Hodgson Beach babe! Wearing a skimpy red bikini, Lindsey was seen wading through the water as she adjusted her bathing suit Luke and Yolanda were in an on-off relationship for seven years before eventually parting ways for good sometime in 2018. The former couple first announced their split in July 2016, before reuniting for a short period in November 2017. During their beach trip on January 4, Luke and Lindsey were joined by the footy star's 26-year-old brother and fellow sportsman George Burgess. New love: It is unclear when exactly Luke ended his relationship with Yolanda and began dating Lindsey (pictured) Stepmother: Lindsey kept a watchful eye on Grace, who she appears to have developed quite a rapport with, staying close to the little girl as she splashed in the ocean Sensational figure: Lindsey confidently flaunted her curves at the beach Wearing a skimpy red bikini, Lindsey was seen wading through the water as she adjusted her bathing suit. She kept a watchful eye on Grace, who she appears to have developed quite a rapport with, staying close to the little girl as she splashed in the ocean. Lindsey was later spotted lying next to her sportsman boyfriend on a beach towel, with Grace playing at her side. Moving on: The beach outing took place just days before Luke revealed on Instagram he had split from his longtime partner Yolanda Hodgson and was dating Lindsey On and off: Luke and Yolanda had been in an on-off relationship for seven years. It seems he began dating Lindsey sometime in 2018 Ride on: Luke was later seen sitting on a moped while checking his phone It has been a tumultuous couple of weeks for the Burgess brothers. On Thursday, it was revealed that Luke's brother Sam, 30, had split from his wife Phoebe Burgess (nee Hooke) just weeks after the birth of their son, Billy. Only days after his younger sibling walked out on his marriage, Luke debuted his new romance with Lindsey. It's over! Luke confirmed his split from the mother of his child Yolanda Hodgson (left) over the weekend. Pictured right: Luke and his new girlfriend, Lindsey Johnston It's official! The new couple were pictured on Instagram posing below the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, with the former NRL player adding the hashtag 'token tourist photo' New girlfriend: Lindsey hails from Manchester, in the north of England, and it appears she met Luke while he was playing for the British rugby league club Salford Red Devils The new couple were pictured on Instagram on Sunday, posing below the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Lindsey hails from Manchester, in the north of England, and it appears she met Luke while he was playing for the British rugby league club Salford Red Devils. Last week, she celebrated the New Year by sharing another photo of the lovebirds together, alongside the caption 'Happy New Year. Roll on 2019. I love this human.' It is unclear when exactly Luke ended his relationship with Yolanda and began dating Lindsey. Romance: Lindsey shared this photo of herself with the father-of-one in October last year. He is pictured wearing his Salford Red Devils kit Co-parents: Luke, who at 31 is the eldest of the Burgess brothers, shares a five-year-old daughter, Grace, with ex-partner Yolanda, whom he dated on-and-off for the seven years ROME - The German NGO Sea Eye said drinking water is being "rigorously rationed" on its migrant rescue vessel 'Professor Albrecht Penck', which is currently carrying 17 migrants aboard, including a woman and two children. "The 17 survivors are sleeping in the nursing station, in a container on the bridge, and they share only one bathroom," Sea Eye said. "There are no mattresses or changes of clothing, because the ship is not equipped for longer passenger transport," it said. "If this continues, soon we will have to ask Malta for support and restocking of our provisions," said Jan Ribbeck, head of operations aboard the vessel. "Our fuel supply is also gone. We are hoping this situation finds a rapid and positive conclusion," he said. Porsha Williams and Kandi Burruss cursed at each other during a hibachi party on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta. The 37-year-old pregnant reality star called Kandi, 42, a 'b****' and accused her of being 'fake as hell'. 'You don't know how to control yourself, that's the problem,' Kandi retorted while also accusing Porsha of following an 'aggressor' to 'victim' pattern. Hibachi party: Porsha Williams confronted Kandi Burruss during a hibachi party on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta The episode titled The Wrong Road occurred largely in flashback after the hibachi argument occurred. 'How did we end up here again?,' Kandi asked in a confessional after the row. The episode then went back to a week earlier as Kandi got a recap from her friends about her husband Todd's 45th birthday bash. She was told that Porsha started acting aggressive after an ex-girlfriend of her fiance Dennis McKinley showed up at the party. No control: Kandi accused Porsha of being unable to control herself Party foul: The women listened as Kandi explained why Porsha was kicked out of a birthday party she threw for her husband Todd Tucker Different versions: Porsha told Kandi that she was 'wrongfully' kicked out of the party Porsha meanwhile was shown telling her sister Lauren and Dennis her version of how she got kicked out of the party. She also revealed that she was upset about blogs casting her in a bad light. Porsha additionally was hurt that Kandi didn't call her after she was kicked out of the party and admitted that she felt 'set up'. Party story: The pregnant reality star told her family and friends her side of the story 'When the hate don't work, you start telling lies,' Dennis said. Porsha also shared her side of the story with NeNe Leakes, 51, and Cynthia Bailey, 51. She also revealed that she was pregnant after largely keeping it a secret. Blog postings: Porsha was bothered by blogs posting that she got into a fight No truth: Dennis McKinley said Porsha was dealing with 'lies' Big news: Porsha revealed to some of her friends that she was pregnant Happy moment: The reality star was thrilled to share the pregnancy news with her friends Cynthia was looking forward to an overnight visit by new boyfriend Mike Hill after her daughter Noelle went off to college. Mike had told Cynthia two months earlier that he wanted to talk about something with her. Cynthia wondered if he was going to propose, but he instead asked, 'Will you be my lady?'. Post party: Kandi got a rundown on what happened during the birthday party from her friends Big question: Cynthia wondered if her new boyfriend Mike Hill was going to propose to her Different query: Mike instead asked Cynthia if she would be his lady She later said that their exclusive relationship was now 'official'. Shamari DeVoe and her husband Ronnie meanwhile met with their marriage counselors Woodrina and Martez. NeNe and husband Gregg hosted Cynthia's ex-husband Peter Thomas for a visit. Marriage counseling: Ronnie and Shamari DeVoe met with their marriage counselors The counselors: Woodrina and Martez talked to Ronnie and Shamari Cute couple: Eva and her fiance Michael visited Tanya Sam and her fiance Paul Group trip: Tanya was in favor of a group trip with Cynthia before her wedding Catching up: Peter Thomas also visited with NeNe and her husband Gregg Fun time: Gregg and NeNe laughed while spending time with Cynthia's ex-husband Peter Eva and her fiance Michael also visited Tanya Sam and her fiance Paul. Tanya and Eva decided to embark on a group trip to Tokyo and planned to invite the other women during the hibachi party. The episode ended with Porsha and Kandi exchanging insults and expletives at the hibachi party. The Real Housewives Of Atlanta will return next week on Bravo. Fired up: Kandi started to get fired up about Porsha even before she arrived at the hibachi party Advertisement Charlize Theron, Rachel Weisz, Amber Heard, and Kaley Cuoco all looked chic in black and white gowns at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, which aired Sunday night on NBC. It's not surprising Charlize opted for Christian Dior as she has been repping the French fashion house as far back as 2004. The South African 43-year-old showcased her statuesque 5ft10in figure in a Dior black cut-out halter bow blouse attached to a long white skirt and Dior pumps selected by stylist Leslie Fremar. Two-tone dresses: (from L-R) Charlize Theron, Rachel Weisz, Amber Heard, and Kaley Cuoco all looked chic in black and white gowns at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, which aired Sunday night on NBC The Oscar winner accessorized her red carpet attire with Bulgari jewelry and hairstylist Adir Abergel coiffed her sleek blonde partial updo with the help of Virtue hair products and ghd tools. Make-up artist Kate Lee brought out Theron's green eyes with brown eye shadow and bronzed her high cheekbones. Charlize kicked off her morning ahead of the glitzy award ceremony by 'going to town' on caviar from her Fair and Balanced castmate Connie Britton. The Africa Outreach Project founder is competing for the best actress in a motion picture musical/comedy trophy for her role as imaginative mother-of-three Marlo in Jason Reitman's Tully. 'Here we go!' It's not surprising Charlize opted for Christian Dior as she has been repping the French fashion house as far back as 2004 Statuesque: The South African 43-year-old showcased her slim 5ft10in figure in a Dior black cut-out halter bow blouse attached to a long white skirt and Dior pumps selected by stylist Leslie Fremar Blinging: The Oscar winner accessorized her red carpet attire with Bulgari jewelry and hairstylist Adir Abergel coiffed her sleek blonde partial updo with the help of Virtue hair products and ghd tools Former model: Make-up artist Kate Lee brought out Theron's green eyes with brown eye shadow and bronzed her high cheekbones 'Deal with it!' Charlize kicked off her morning ahead of the glitzy award ceremony by 'going to town' on caviar from her Fair and Balanced castmate Connie Britton If the Gringo actress manages to beat Emily Blunt, Olivia Colman, Elsie Fisher, and Constance Wu - it will mark her second Golden Globe win after Patty Jenkins' Monster in 2003. 'I was coming out of the early stages of being incredibly sleep deprived,' Charlize told E! News on Sunday. 'To me, it felt like something that felt super authentic. I think parenthood is incredible but it's messy. We don't see enough of that and I think it's hard on moms and society to feel that pressure.' Theron added: 'If you [put yourself first], you're a terrible mom. I know when I look after myself, I know that I'm a better mom to my kids.' 'I was coming out of the early stages of being incredibly sleep deprived': The Africa Outreach Project founder is competing for the best actress in a motion picture musical/comedy trophy for her role as mother-of-three Marlo in Jason Reitman's Tully Charlize told E! News on Sunday: 'To me, it felt like something that felt super authentic. I think parenthood is incredible but it's messy. We don't see enough of that and I think it's hard on moms and society to feel that pressure' 'When I look after myself, I know that I'm a better mom to my kids': Theron and her mother Gerda Maritz co-parent her two children - Jackson, 7; and August, 3; - whom she adopted in March 2012 and July 2015 (pictured November 24) The March for Our Lives protester and her mother Gerda Maritz co-parent her two children - Jackson, 7; and August, 3; - whom she adopted in March 2012 and July 2015, respectively. Rachel bared her shoulders in a Celine dress featuring a white ruffled bodice and a black column skirt selected by stylist Kate Young. The British 48-year-old posed outside the Beverly Hilton while toting a black clutch and she wore a choker and ring by Cartier. Hairstylist Kevin Ryan coiffed the Oscar-winning wife of Daniel Craig's signature brunette mane into sideswept waves and she sported a cranberry pout. Bardot beauty: Rachel bared her shoulders in a Celine dress featuring a white ruffled bodice and a black column skirt selected by stylist Kate Young Glamorous: The British 48-year-old posed outside the Beverly Hilton while toting a black clutch and she wore a choker and ring by Cartier Ready for her close-up! Hairstylist Kevin Ryan coiffed the Oscar-winning wife of Daniel Craig's signature brunette mane into sideswept waves and she sported a cranberry pout Who will win? For her role as Duchess of Marlborough Sarah Churchill, Weisz will compete against her castmate from The Favourite - Emma Stone (R) - for the supporting actress in a motion picture trophy Presenting trio: Rachel joined the 30-year-old Oscar winner (L) and their shared onscreen leading lady Olivia Colman, who accessorised her gown with David Morris Jewellery, to introduce The Favourite ahead of the best picture category For her role as Duchess of Marlborough Sarah Churchill, Weisz will compete against her castmate from The Favourite Emma Stone for the supporting actress in a motion picture trophy. Rachel joined the 30-year-old Oscar winner and their shared onscreen leading lady Olivia Colman to introduce The Favourite ahead of the best picture category. Meanwhile, Amber showcased considerable cleavage in her strapless Monique Lhuillier creation selected by stylist Karla Welch. The 32-year-old Texan's eighties-inspired frock featured a black velvet bodice and a white princess ball gown skirt. 'Alright Golden Globes!' Meanwhile, Amber showcased considerable cleavage in her strapless Monique Lhuillier creation selected by stylist Karla Welch Back it up! The 32-year-old Texan's eighties-inspired frock featured a black velvet bodice and a white princess ball gown skirt So much bling: The Aquaman action star accessorized with an excess of jewelry by Amwaj, Hanut Singh, Marli New York, and Marco Bicego Green eyes: Hairstylist Jon Chapman gave Heard a big barrel-curl Southern updo and make-up artist Melanie Inglessis applied her rouge lip More than gal pals? The bisexual ex-wife of Johnny Depp brought along StyleCaster columnist Corey Rae as her date for the evening, who called her 'my boo' BTS: Amber later presented the best actor in a miniseries/TV film trophy to Darren Criss for his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story The Aquaman action star accessorized with an excess of jewelry by Amwaj, Hanut Singh, Marli New York, and Marco Bicego. Hairstylist Jon Chapman gave Heard a big barrel-curl Southern updo and make-up artist Melanie Inglessis applied her rouge lip. The bisexual ex-wife of Johnny Depp brought along StyleCaster columnist Corey Rae as he date for the evening, who called her 'my boo.' Amber later presented the best actor in a miniseries/TV film trophy to Darren Criss for his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. 'Showtime!' Like Heard, Kaley also donned the 'dreamiest' Monique Lhuillier design with her Lorraine Schwartz jewelery and Brian Atwood heels selected by stylist Brad Goreski 'I havent walked the @goldenglobes carpet in a few years!' However, the 33-year-old SoCal native's strapless velvet bodice was technically navy blue with a black ribbon belt and a flowing white ball gown skirt with pockets Over the shoulder: Hairstylist Christine Symonds coiffed Cuoco's blondette locks into a partial updo and make-up artist Jamie Greenberg made sure she was ready for her close-up 'I could have had a dreamier date tonight!' The Big Bang Theory beauty proudly posed with her second husband - equestrian Karl Cook - who 'styled himself' in a boxy double-breasted tuxedo BTS in the limo: Kaley - who later presented the trophy to Bodyguard star Richard Madden - wed the son of billionaire Scott Cook seven months ago after they began dating in 2016 Like Heard, Kaley also donned the 'dreamiest' Monique Lhuillier design with her Lorraine Schwartz jewelery and Brian Atwood heels selected by stylist Brad Goreski. However, the 33-year-old SoCal native's strapless velvet bodice was technically navy blue with a black ribbon belt and a flowing white ball gown skirt with pockets. Hairstylist Christine Symonds coiffed Cuoco's blondette locks into a partial updo and make-up artist Jamie Greenberg made sure she was ready for her close-up. The Big Bang Theory beauty proudly posed with her second husband - equestrian Karl Cook - who 'styled himself' in a boxy double-breasted tuxedo. Kaley - who later presented the trophy to Bodyguard star Richard Madden - wed the son of billionaire Scott Cook seven months ago after they began dating in 2016. She has been previously nominated for four Golden Globes, winning one for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film. But Halle Berry was there to present the latest crop of winners with an award, at the award show on Sunday night. The 52-year-old actress held her own against the latest stars, in an award-worthy look as she graced the carpet in a sheer red frock. Dangerous: Halle Berry was just a spectator as she walked the red carpet at the award show on Sunday night The frock featured a plunging neckline that highlighted her ample cleavage and a dangerously high slit that showed off one of her lean legs - and her Loriblu heels. Her caramel-colored locks were pulled into a relaxed ponytail, and her bangs fell to just above her eyes. She added a couple extra inches to her 5ft 5in frame with black heels, and accessorized with hold earrings and rings. Flaunting: Nonetheless, the 52-year-old actress presented an award-worthy look as she graced the carpet in a sheer red frock Stunning: The frock featured a plunging neckline that highlighted her ample cleavage and a dangerously high slit that showed off one of her lean legs - and her Loriblu heels Breathtaking: She added a couple extra inches to her 5ft 5in frame with black heels, and accessorized with hold earrings and rings Halle will be presenting an award during the 76th edition of the Golden Globes, though it remains unknown which award she will be giving out. The X-Men star has been nominated for four awards, taking home the statue Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film back in 2000 for her work in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She was nominated for the same award in 2006, but did not win, for her performance in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hale was nominated twice for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama, in 2002 for Monster's Ball and in 2011 for Frankie & Alice. Presenter: Halle will be presenting an award during the 76th edition of the Golden Globes, though it remains unknown which award she will be giving out This is the first big bash of Hollywood's annual award's season. And the stars of TV and film did not disappoint as they gathered to celebrate the Golden Globes on Sunday. The show took place at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, and was hosted by Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh. While last year's Married At First Sight was filled with drama and scandal, the 2019 season appears to be focused on the contestants' search for true love. In a new trailer for the upcoming sixth series, a group of 'lonely, hopeful singles' are shown preparing to walk down the aisle and meet their spouses for the first time. 'I didn't think I would be my age and be single... but, there is no one,' sighs one brunette bride. 'I didn't think I would be my age and be single': The latest Married At First Sight trailer shows a handful of 'lonely, hopeful singles' preparing to meet their spouses for the first time The trailer also includes a voluptuous bride who has not previously been featured in other teasers. The curvy blonde is shown crying in the back of a limousine, but she looks far more hopeful later on after seeing her husband at the altar for the first time. A string of other confirmed brides and grooms also appear in the trailer, including Jessika Power, Julie Robinson, Cameron Merchant and Heidi Latcham. Fresh face: The trailer includes a voluptuous bride who has not previously been featured in other teasers. (Do you know who she is? Email tips@dailymail.com) The look of love? The curvy blonde is shown crying in the back of a limousine, but she looks far more hopeful later on after seeing her husband at the altar for the first time Despite the emotional moments promised in the latest trailer, the new season of MAFS will also deliver plenty of shocks and scandals. Channel Nine released another jaw-dropping teaser on Wednesday, which showed a man, who appeared to be a family member, potentially ruining his relative's wedding. As a bride and groom prepared to exchange vows at the altar, the celebrant said: 'If anybody here objects, please speak now of forever hold your peace.' Tears and tantrums! Despite the emotional moments promised in the latest trailer, the new season of MAFS will also deliver plenty of shocks and scandals Pre-wedding jitters? A bride was shown breaking down during her wedding dress fitting in another trailer released last week After a brief pause, a male wedding guest sitting in the front row on the bride's side of the church raised his hand to object. At that point, a voice could be heard yelling: 'Oh my God!' Married At First Sight first launched in Australia in 2015. Back then, the show featured just four couples and had only six episodes. Since then, MAFS has become one of the most popular programs on Australian TV - with season five featuring 11 couples and 32 episodes. Married At First Sight returns on Monday, January 28 at 7:30pm on Channel Nine She's up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite. But Olivia Colman looked miles away from her portrayal of the dowdy, sickly monarch as she joined her co-stars Nicholas Hoult and Emma Stone on the red carpet in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. The British actress, 44, looked sensational and sleek in a shoulderless Stella McCartney custom black cady gown, with a black mesh design, featuring split sleeves and satin panelling. Regal splendor: Olivia Colman looked miles away from her portrayal of dowdy, sickly Queen Anne as she joined her The Favourite co-stars Nicholas Hoult and Emma Stone on the red carpet in Los Angeles on Sunday evening for the Golden Globes The floor-length dress fell dramatically to the red carpet, the netted detailing sparkling in the LA sunlight, thanks to the tiny silvery beads it was adorned with. The Broadchruch star added extra glean to the ensemble, with diamond earrings and a matching ring. She swept back her dark chestnut locks and showcased a flawless complexion, highlighted with a sweep of mascara and a jolt of dramatic red lipstick. The look was completed with a boxy black clutch. Olivia will battle it out against fellow Brit Emily Blunt for the gong, with Emily's portrayal of the titular nanny in Mary Poppins Returns landing her a nod. Stunning: The British actress, 44, looked sensational and sleek in a shoulderless Stella McCartney custom black cady gown, with a black mesh design, featuring split sleeves and satin panelling Nominee: Olivia is up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Brits abroad: Olivia cuddled up to her co-star Nicholas, 29, who looked suave in a smart tuxedo They compete against Elsie Fisher for Eighth Grade, Charlize Theron for Tully and Constance Wu for Crazy Rich Asians in the category. Olivia cuddled up to her co-star Nicholas, 29, who looked suave in a smart tuxedo. He slicked his dark mane back, adding to his polished look. Nicholas plays Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer in the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film, which was released in cinemas on New Year's Day. They were also joined by fellow co-stars Emma Stone, who plays Abigail Hill, and Rachel Weisz, who portrays Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough - both of whom are up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture gong. Co-stars: Nicholas plays Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer in the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film, which was released in cinemas on New Year's Day Sickly: In The Favourite, Olivia plays the often bed-ridden monarch, who famously lost 17 children following continual attempts to produce an heir to the throne Silver screen sirens: They were also joined by Emma Stone, who plays Abigail Hill They are against Claire Foy [First Man], Regina King [If Beale Street Could Talk] and Amy Adams [Vice]. In The Favourite, Olivia plays the often bed-ridden Anne, who famously lost 17 children following continual attempts to produce an heir to the throne. The story follows her relationship with Duchess Sarah, who is thought to have manipulated the monarch having struck up a sexual relationship with her. Abigail Hill - a cousin of Sarah's - is then given a job at Queen Anne's palace, where she slowly begins to climb up the social ladder in an attempt to edge Sarah out of favour and take her place. Leading ladies: Olivia will battle it out against fellow Brit Emily Blunt [R] for the gong, with Emily's portrayal of the titular nanny in Mary Poppins Returns landing her a nod. The Favourite co-star Rachel Weiaz [L] is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture Long time coming: The film was originally dreamt up by writer Deborah Davis in 1998, when an early draft was titled The Balance Of Power. But it was put on the back burner for years until pr oducer Ed Guiney showed an interest The film was originally dreamt up by writer Deborah Davis in 1998, when an early draft was titled The Balance Of Power. But the writer admits that she had little knowledge of the Queen and her relationships with Sarah and Abigail, researching them and adding them in later - subsequently altering the direction of the story. But producer Ceci Dempsey - who was keen to bring the script to the screen - faced trouble securing financing for it, due to the lesbian content and a lack of male representation. It was put on the back burner for years until producer Ed Guiney showed an interest. He has said since: 'We didn't want to make just another British costume drama. [we wanted] a story that felt contemporary and relevant and vibrant not something out of a museum.' They often put on coy displays on the red carpet. And Emily Blunt and husband John Krasinski looked as loved-up as ever as they posed together on the red carpet for the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. The Mary Poppins actress, 35 - who is nominated for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy - looked mesmerising in the Alexander McQueen studded silver cutaway dress. Love: Emily Blunt and husband John Krasinski looked as loved-up as ever as they posed together on the red carpet for the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday The high-low dress revealed a pair of silver stilettos and a glimpse of the British beauty's long legs. She opted to keep her hair pinned back in a glamorous updo created by celebrity hairstylist Laini Reeves, who used products from The One by Frederic Fekkai and tools from FHI Heat to achieve the beautiful look - which was inspired by Joan of Arc. Meanwhile John, 39, smouldered in a classic midnight blue coloured tux which he paired with patent leather shoes. Couple: The Mary Poppins actress, 35, - who is nominated for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy - looked mesmerising in the Alexander McQueen studded silver cutaway dress Style: The high-low dress revealed a pair of silver stilettos and a glimpse of the British beauty's long legs Made up well: She opted to keep her hair pinned back in a glamorous updo and donned plenty of makeup The Office star wrapped his arm lovingly around his wife while sweeping his brunette locks out of his face and showing off his facial hair. Earlier on the weekend the couple attended the BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles. Emily wore a black Oscar de la Renta dress with sheer arms and white floral patterns, with her blonde locks neatly pulled back and rounded out her ensemble with yellow Loriblu sandal heels. While John wore a grey checkered suit with a burgundy vest underneath and black shoes. Rugged: Meanwhile John, 39, smouldered in a classic midnight blue coloured tux which he paired with patent leather shoes Look of love: Earlier on the weekend the couple attended the BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles Blissful: Emily wore a black Oscar de la Renta dress with sheer arms and white floral patterns, with her blonde locks neatly pulled back and rounded out her ensemble with yellow Loriblu sandal heels The actor-filmmaker and his spouse posed on the red carpet at the posh event, which was also attended by stars such as Thandie Newton, Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong'o and Sacha Baron Cohen. The London native, who's nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the Disney movie, said her normally-unflappable father Oliver wept watching the movie. 'I think a lot of people cry watching this film,' said Emily, who shares two daughters with John - Hazel, four, and Violet, two. 'It's almost like they just you just instantly remember yourself as a child when you start watching this film and it's so nostalgic and, I mean, my dad cried. He never cries. Never, ever. It's so powerful. It's just wild.' Paired up: While John wore a grey checkered suit with a burgundy vest underneath and black shoes Advertisement It's the first big bash of Hollywood's annual awards season. And Rachel Weisz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rosamund Pike and Emily Blunt led the British stars on the 2019 Golden Globes red carpet. The Favourite star, 48, Ocean's Twelve actress, 49, Gone Girl star, 39, and Mary Poppins Returns actress, 35, made sure they stayed in the spotlight with a collection of stunning dresses. Glamorous: Rachel Weisz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rosamund Pike and Emily Blunt led the British stars on the 2019 Golden Globes red carpet (L-R) Rachel, who is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for her role as Sarah Churchill in The Favourite, wowed on the red carpet. The mother-of-two, who welcomed a daughter with husband Daniel Craig in August, looked effortlessly chic in an off-the-shoulder white ruffled dress with a figure-hugging floor-length black skirt with a slit on the side. Rachel accessorised her look with a silver diamond choker, black stiletto peep-toe heels and a matching coloured clutch bag. The Mummy actress styled her brunette locks into a sleek wavy hairdo swept to one side, she added a slick of make-up which included a dark pink lipstick. The Favourite: Rachel, who welcomed a daughter with husband Daniel Craig in August, looked effortlessly chic in an off-the-shoulder white ruffled dress with a figure-hugging floor-length black skirt with a slit on the side Gorgeous: The Mummy actress styled her brunette locks into a sleek wavy hairdo swept to one side, she added a slick of make-up which included a dark pink lipstick Talented: Rachel is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for her role as Sarah Churchill (pictured) in The Favourite Catherine looked sensational in a one-shoulder emerald green wrap dress with a daring slit on the front, ruffled detailing on the neckline and a dramatic train. She completed her look with a pair of champagne-coloured barely-there heeled sandals, an jaw-dropping emerald ring and matching diamond earrings. Catherine styled her luscious raven locks into a relaxed sweptback hairdo, she added a slick of glamorous make-up to complete her look. Welsh beauty: Catherine looked sensational in a one-shoulder emerald green wrap dress with a daring slit on the front, ruffled detailing on the neckline and a dramatic train Stunning: Catherine caught the eye as she posed for photos at the event in Los Angeles on Sunday night Smitten: Michael couldn't keep his eyes off his wife as they made their way inside the star-studded event The Welsh beauty was joined by her famous actor husband Michael Douglas, 74, who looked stylish in a classic black tuxedo suit with a bowtie. Rosamund showed off her toned abs in a plunging figure-hugging black dress with cut-outs on the waist, a choker and a sheer flared hem. The A Private War star, who is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture award for her role in the movie, layered her ensemble with a tailored sequinned silver cropped blazer to complete her look. Rosamund styled her blonde locks into a sleek sweptback hairdo with a centre-parting, she added a slick of make-up and diamond earrings. Nominated: Rosamund showed off her toned abs in a plunging figure-hugging black dress with cut-outs on the waist, a choker and a sheer flared hem Stylish: The Gone Girl actress layered her ensemble with a tailored sequinned silver cropped blazer to complete her look Talented: The A Private War star is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture award for her role in the movie (pictured as Marie Colvin, right) Emily, who is up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for her leading role in Mary Poppins, oozed Hollywood glamour. The Girl on the Train star, 35, showed off her toned figure in a high-neck embellished and embroidered silver dress with a waterfall-effect hem. Emily styled her blonde locks into a sweptback hairdo, with her front strands left loose, she added a slick of glamorous red carpet ready make-up. She was joined by her The Office actor John Krasinski who looked dapper in a midnight blue tuxedo with a crisp white shirt and a black bowtie. Mary Poppins: Emily showed off her toned figure in a high-neck embellished and embroidered silver dress with a waterfall-effect hem Stylish: The Girl on the Train star, 35, styled her blonde locks into a sweptback hairdo, with her front strands left loose, she added a slick of glamorous red carpet ready make-up Nominated: Emily is up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for her leading role in Mary Poppins (pictured in character, left) Sweet: She was joined by her The Office actor John Krasinski who looked dapper in a midnight blue tuxedo with a crisp white shirt and a black bowtie Also joining the leading British stars was Rachel's The Favourite co-star, Olivia Colman, who is up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for her role as Queen Anne. The British actress, 44, looked sensational and sleek in a shoulderless Stella McCartney custom black cady gown, with a black mesh design, featuring split sleeves and satin panelling. The floor-length dress fell dramatically to the red carpet, the netted detailing sparkling in the LA sunlight, thanks to the tiny silvery beads it was adorned with. She accessorised her jaw-dropping look with David Morris Jewellery for the occasion. Stunning: Also joining the leading British stars was Rachel's The Favourite co-star, Olivia Colman, who looked sensational in a shoulderless Stella McCartney custom black cady gown, with a black mesh design, featuring split sleeves and satin panelling. She accessorised her jaw-dropping look with David Morris Jewellery for the occasion Co-stars: The British actress, 44, couldn't resist posing with her The Favourite co-stars Nicholas Hoult, left, and Emma Stone, right Talented: Olivia is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite Olivia swept back her dark chestnut locks and showcased a flawless complexion, highlighted with a sweep of mascara and a jolt of dramatic red lipstick. The look was completed with a boxy black clutch. The Broadchruch actress revealed on the red carpet that she was determined to wear a gown by a British designer. 'Its Stella McCartney,' Olivia said with a beaming smile, 'Had to be British,' she added pointing to the black dress. British actress, Thandie Newton - who is up for a Golden Globe or her role as sentient android madam Maeve Millay in the hit HBO show Westworld - also walked the red carpet. Stunning: Thandie Newton ensured she stepped out in eye-catching style when she attended the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills on Sunday, wowing in an ab-baring silver sequinned gown Talented: The British actress, 46, is up for a Golden Globe for her role as sentient android madam Maeve Millay in the hit HBO show Westworld (pictured in character, right) Sweet: Thandie effortlessly turned heads as she sauntered down the Beverly Hilton Hotel's red carpet in her ensemble of choice but she only had eyes for her husband of almost 21 years Ol Parker (pictured together) The talented star, 46, ensured she stepped out in eye-catching style when she attended the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills on Sunday, wowing in an ab-baring silver sequinned gown. Thandie effortlessly turned heads as she sauntered down the Beverly Hilton Hotel's red carpet in her ensemble of choice but she only had eyes for her husband of almost 21 years, Ol Parker, who joined her at the star-studded event. Talking about her stunning ensemble at the star-studded event, the Line of Duty star revealed: 'Im going to be disco-dancing the night away!' Wow-factor!: Saoirse Ronan looked sensational in a sheer silver embroidered plunging dress, with eye-catching pendant earrings Golden girl: Lucy Boynton looked incredible in a gold sequinned plunging dress with a daring slit on the front Star-studded: The actress joined Bohemian Rhapsody co-stars and Queen star Brian May Idris Elba looked every-inch the family man as he joined his fiancee Sabrina Dhowre and his Golden Globe Ambassador daughter, Isan, on the 2019 Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night. The Luther star, 46, looked dapper in a black and teal embroidered tuxedo with a matching waistcoat. He teamed the items of clothing with a pair of suede shoes and a crisp unbuttoned white shirt. Idris's fiancee Sabrina Dhowre, 29, looked stunning in a black, orange and white floral patterned floor-length gown with spaghetti straps, which cinched in at the waist with a black belt. The gorgeous beauty queen styled her curly raven locks and fringe into a loose hairdo, she added a slick of make-up. Smitten: Idris Elba looked every-inch the family man as he joined his fiancee Sabrina Dhowre Centre of attention: The actor's daughter Isan Elba acted as Miss Golden Globe on the night Idris and Sabrina looked more loved-up than ever as they put on a cosy display on the red carpet. The couple were joined by the actor's 17-year-old daughter, Isan, who is a Golden Globe Ambassador and who he had with his first wife, Hanne Norgaard. The teenager looked effortlessly chic in a black sequinned floor-length dress with a chiffon skirt. Ahead of her important duties, in which she will hand out trophies to the winners and escort them off stage, Isan's famous father Idris had some wise words. Talking to Ryan Seacrest on the E! Red Carpet show, The Wire actor joked in front of his bemused daughter: 'I told her: "Back straight, elegance, presence. Smile and nod politely even when you can't understand what anyone is playing and if you feel like passing out, don't!"' Father and daughter: Idris looked delighted that his teenage daughter had been bestowed the honour on Sunday evening Meanwhile, Richard Madden practically auditioned for the role of James Bond's 007 as he stepped onto the red carpet at the 76th annual Golden Globes in Los Angeles, sporting a very 'shaken not stirred' tuxedo. The Scottish star, 32, smiled and waved as he posed for snaps, the epitome of dapper in the slick black velvet number. Richard took home the award of Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series Drama for his role as Sergeant David Budd in the Bodyguard. Suited and booted: Richard Madden looked appropriately dapper as he made an appearance at the event on Sunday Winner: The actor claimed the coveted award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series Drama, for Bodyguard Here he comes: Mark Ronson (R) arrived for the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Delighted: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt posed in the press room after winning the award for the song Shallow from hit movie A Star Is Born All mine: Ben Whishaw won the 2019 Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture for A Very English Scandal They are a couple both on-screen and off. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys have received a host of accolades and awards for their roles on the period spy thriller The Americans during its six season run. And on Sunday, the hot and heavy couple showed their amazing chemistry when they hit the red carpet for the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Perfect match: Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys showed off their chemistry on the red carpet for the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday The acting duo were a perfect match in the fashion department. Keri commanded attention in a silver sequin gown that showcased her amazing toned figure with its extreme plunging neckline. Adding contrast, it hung loosely off her upper body but hugged her hips and waistline. The 42-year old actress wore her dark brown tresses long, with an added sense of volume and a part in the middle. Wow effect: Keri, 42, stunned in a silver sequin gown with an extreme plunging neckline Handsome: Matthew, 44, looked every bit the leading man in a classic black tuxedo Her longtime beau looked every bit the handsome leading man in a classic black tuxedo and black bow tire. Matthew, 44, matched it with black leather dress shoes and styled his hair short and pushed back off his face with a right part. On this night, though, the thing the shined the most under the bright lights was their obvious love and affection for each other. It couple: Keri and Matthew have been a couple both on screen and off screen since they started on their hit spy thriller series The Americans And the couple have plenty to be beaming about. The Americans, which ended it's six season run last May, won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series -- Drama. What's more: both Keri and Mathew were nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor in a Television Series in a drama, respectively. The couple, who share a two-year old son together, have been dating since The Americans premiered in 2013. The show was also among the ten television shows to be honored for at AFI Awards 2018. All in the family: Keri and Matthew were both nominated for Golden Globes for their performances in The Americans; the thriller was also up for Best Television Series -- Drama She left her daughter at home for the night. But Amy Adams didn't forget the eight-year-old, joking about embarrassing the watching schoolgirl as she hit the red carpet at the 2019 Golden Globes with husband Darren Le Gallo. After the two gave Aviana a shout out, Amy told Ryan Seacrest: 'Hopefully she's excited and not embarrassed, but I like embarrassing her, so...' The 44-year-old actress is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for her performance as Lynne Cheney in Vice. Adams at the Globes: Amy Adams stuns in a full-length teal gown at the 2019 Golden Globes She is also nominated on the TV side as well, up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Camille Preaker in HBO's hit limited series Sharp Objects. Adams was wearing a shoulder-less full-length teal gown from Calvin Klein as she made her way through the crowded red carpet. She was also wearing unique earrings with matching bracelets on her right wrist. Adams completed her look with a number of rings on her left hand. Red carpet look: Adams was wearing a shoulder-less full-length teal gown as she made her way through the crowded red carpet For her beauty look, Amy turned to celebrity favorite Stephen Sollitto for Pat McGrath Labs. He used the actress's dress as inspiration for her makeup, explaining: 'I was inspired by the combination of Amy's dress, the color of her eyes and the [rose gold eyeshadow I used]. Together they created a beautiful palette.' The rose gold shade in question was Rose Gold 005 from Pat McGrath Labs' Mothership V: Bronze Seduction Palette, which Stephen revealed he 'pressed' onto her eyelids with his fingertip instead of a brush. 'The perfect rose gold brought out the blue in Amy's eyes,' he added. To add some definition to the look, Stephen lined the upper lash line with the brand's Permagel Ultra Glide Eye Pencil in Blk Coffee, which he then smudged out with the dark brown shade Disobedient from the same eye palette as the rose gold shadow. The final touch was to coat the lashes in the FetishEyes Mascara - a product that Stephen describes as a 'one coat wonder' that offers users the 'blackest black, perfect volume' while not being 'clumpy at all'. Her hair, meanwhile, was coiffed into Veronica Lake-inspired waves by TRESemme celebrity hairstylist John D, who used the brand's newly-launched Thermal Creations Blow Dry Accelerator Spray and TRES Two Unscented Extra Hold Hair Spray to create the glamorous look. Adams joins Regina King as the only other actress this year to be nominated in both the film and TV categories. Strangely enough, King is also nominated in the same movie and TV categories as Adams this year. King will be vying for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk and Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her work in Seven Seconds. Dual nominee: Adams joins Regina King as the only other actress this year to be nominated in both the film and TV categories Adams was asked by Ryan Seacrest about what she looks for in casting other actors. Since she also serves as executive producer on Sharp Objects, she spoke about casting Eliza Scanlen as Amma Crellin. 'You know, when we were looking for Amma, and when Eliza came in, I'm looking for flexibility and somebody who is able to maneuver,' Adams said. Adams on casting: Adams hit the red carpet with her husband Darren Le Gallo, and she was asked by Ryan Seacrest about what she looks for in casting other actors 'She was just so mature beyond her years and just really inventive with her choices and fearless. To me, fearlessness is the big thing,' Adams added. Adams had been nominated for seven Golden Globes throughout her career, for her work in films Enchanted, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle, Big Eyes and Arrival. She will return as Gisele from Enchanted in a long-awaited sequel Disenchanted and she also has The Woman in the Window hitting theaters next year. Amy and Darren: Amy Adams poses with her husband Darren Le Gallo at the Golden Globes All smiles: Adams had been nominated for seven Golden Globes throughout her career, for her work in films Enchanted, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle, Big Eyes and Arrival Coming soon: She will return as Gisele from Enchanted in a long-awaited sequel Disenchanted and she also has The Woman in the Window hitting theaters next year They only went public as a couple on Saturday night. And on Sunday, Jim Carrey and Ginger Gonzaga were all loved up as they walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes. The actor, 56, and his Kidding co-star, who's 34, wore matching black ensembles for the awards show. New romance: They only went public as a couple on Saturday night. And on Sunday, Jim Carrey and Ginger Gonzaga were all loved up as they walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes Carrey pulled his new girlfriend close as they posed for photos. He sported a huge grin as he lovingly placed an arm around the happy actress who leaned in towards her beau. Gonzaga wore a black gown with an asymmetrical neckline and one long sleeve as well as a thigh-high split on one side. The Pennsylvania native wore her dark hair styled back from her face and accessorized with chandelier diamond earrings. Happy: Carrey, 56, pulled his new girlfriend close as they posed for photos. He sported a huge grin as he lovingly placed an arm around the actress, 34, who leaned in towards her beau Showcased her figure: Gonzaga wore a black gown with an asymmetrical neckline and one long sleeve as well as a thigh-high split on one side The Pennsylvania native wore her dark hair styled back from her face and accessorized with chandelier diamond earrings Party time: After the awards show, the couple stepped out for the InStyle And Warner Bros. Golden Globes After Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel Smitten: Jim held tightly onto Ginger's hand as they made their way to the gathering at the WME Golden Globe Party Beaming: Jim couldn't stop smiling as he kept Ginger close to his side The star of Dumb And Dumber and Me, Myself & Irene was dressed in a black tuxedo suit with a black shirt and a black bow tie. His hair was gelled up at the front giving him a high forehead. Carrey is nominated for a Golden Globe for best performance in a television series, comedy or musical for his role as Jeff in the Showtime series Kidding. His new romance with Gonzaga is his first public relationship since the death of ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, who died from an overdose in 2015. In November, Carrey told Britain's Radio Times that he was living an isolated life but hadn't given up on dating. Sweet: Jim wrapped his arm around Ginger's waist as she held onto his hand, on the red carpet for the event Loved-up: Ginger posed up a storm with her beau, as she leaned on his shoulder sweetly Dapper: The star of Dumb And Dumber and Me, Myself & Irene was dressed in a black tuxedo suit with a black shirt and a black bow tie Moving on: His new romance with Gonzaga is his first public relationship since the death of ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, who died from an overdose in 2015 Surprise: The couple made their red carpet debut on Saturday night at a Showtime party in Hollywood The actor said: 'You could describe my home life as an isolated life. I spend a lot of time by myself but I like being by myself, so its OK. That might be strange to some people, but I enjoy it. 'I love to read and I enjoy painting and working on sculptures [in my free time]. And I date'. Carrey has been married twice before - first to actress Melissa Wormer and then to his Dumber And Dumber co-star Lauren Holly. He and Wormer were married for 1987 to 1995 and share a daughter, Jane. His 1996 marriage to Holly lasted less than year. He was also previously engaged to his Me, Myself & Irene co-star Renee Zellweger from 1999 to 2000 and was in a relationship with Jenny McCarthy from 2006 to 2010. TV role: Carrey is nominated for a Golden Globe for best performance in a television series, comedy or musical for his role as Jeff in the Showtime series Kidding HERCULANEUM (NAPLES) - Nearly 9,000 people visited Vesuvian archaeological sites on Sunday as part of the Italian Culture Ministry's initiative offering free entrance to state museums and cultural heritage sites on the first Sunday of each month. In Pompei, there were 6,649 visitors, while the Herculaneum archaeological site saw 1,638 visitors. At that site, where volunteers from the association Pro Loco Herculaneum offered drinks and sweets, visitors were able to admire, free of charge, the exhibition titled "SplendOri". The exhibition, set up in the Antiquarium room, displays nearly 100 pieces of jewelry and precious stones that belonged to the site's ancient residents. Some of the jewels on display were found in the area where those fleeing the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. tried in vain to escape by sea, while other jewels were found in the ancient city's residences. At the Oplontis archaeological site there were 141 visitors, and 37 visitors went to the Boscoreale Museum. Overall, a total of 8,465 people visited Vesuvian archaeological sites on Sunday. She's her own best advertisement. Model Candice Swanepoel flaunted her fabulous figure in a barely there bikini on a beach in a tropical location on Instagram that she shared on Sunday. The 30-year-old was showing off one of the designs from her own Tropic Of C swimwear range. 'The new new': Candice Swanepoel shared this snap of herself in one of her bikinis from her own Tropic Of C swimwear range on Instagram on Sunday The mother-of-two launched her brand in early 2018 and has been sharing snaps of her range. 'It's been [in the works] for a couple of years; I was waiting for the right moment,' Candice told Fashionista at a press preview for her resort collection in New York. 'Sometimes when I'm selling someone else's product, I don't know the back-end, but obviously that's part of my job. I love that I can do it in my way and have it be so. A vision in a white one-piece: The mother-of-two, 30, launched her brand in early 2018 and has been sharing snaps of her range since then 'As a model, you have to be a chameleon, and it's nice to be in control of the art direction and involved in every aspect of the business. 'This is like my third baby,' the South African beauty continued. Candice shares her first two children - five-month-old Ariel and Anaca, three - with her ex-boyfriend Brazilian model Hermann Nicoli, 36. The couple met in Paris when she was 17 and he was 23 and got engaged in August 2015. They reportedly called it quits in November although they have yet to confirm it. She's left the nation gripped with her role as stylish assassin Villanelle. And Jodie Comer led the glamour as she joined her Killing Eve co-stars Sandra Oh and Phoebe Waller-Bridge on the Golden Globes 2019 red carpet on Sunday night. The Doctor Foster actress, 25, Grey's Anatomy star, 47, and talented screen writer, 33, looked effortlessly chic. Villanelle: Jodie Comer led the glamour as she joined her Killing Eve co-stars Sandra Oh and Phoebe Waller-Bridge on the Golden Globes 2019 red carpet on Sunday night Jodie wowed in a sheer black embellished floor-length dress with a high ruffle collar and a chiffon hem. She accessorised her look with a collection of eye-catching jewellery including jade earrings and extravagant diamond rings. Jodie's hair was coiffed into a chic updo by celebrity hairstylist Matthew Monzon, who created a 'fresh, modern, minimalist take' on the classic style, using products from Goldwell's to create the chic 'do. After adding volume with the brand's Kerasilk Repower Volume Blow-Dry Spray, he then locked the style in place with the StyleSign Perfect Hold Magic Finish Non-Aresol Hairspray. Leading ladies: The Doctor Foster actress, 25, Grey's Anatomy star, 47, and talented screen writer, 33, looked effortlessly chic Stunning: Jodie wowed in a sheer black embellished floor-length dress with a high ruffle collar and a chiffon hem Meanwhile, Sandra Oh, 47, who stars as Eve in Killing Eve, oozed Hollywood glamour in a stunning figure-hugging white floor-length gown with ruffled detailing on the right shoulder. The Grey's Anatomy star accessorised her ensemble with a collection of eye-catching diamond jewellery. Following her Hollywood glamour theme, Sandra styled her brunette locks into a voluminous curly hairdo swept to one side, she added a slick of sophisticated red lipstick. Work it: She accessorised her look with a collection of eye-catching jewellery including jade earrings and extravagant diamond rings Gorgeous: Meanwhile, Sandra Oh, 47, who stars as Eve in Killing Eve, oozed Hollywood glamour in a stunning figure-hugging white gown with ruffled detailing on the right shoulder Hollywood glamour: The Grey's Anatomy star accessorised her ensemble with a collection of eye-catching diamond jewellery Killing Eve writer, Phoebe, looked incredible in a plunging red sequinned figure-hugging dress which went into a flared hem. Letting the dress speak for itself, the Fleabag actress, 33, accessorised her look with just a pair of diamond pendant earrings. Phoebe styled her raven locks into a sleek sweptback hairdo and added a slick of make-up for her red carpet debut. Killing Eve, which is focused on a bored, deskbound MI5 operative, Eve Polastri (Sandra) and glamorous Russian assassin Villanelle (Jodie) received high reviews when it aired on BBC Three last year. Pals: Following her Hollywood glamour theme, Sandra styled her brunette locks into a voluminous curly hairdo swept to one side Sensational: Killing Eve writer, Phoebe, looked incredible in a plunging red sequinned figure-hugging dress which went into a flared hem Three's a crowd: Letting the dress speak for itself, the Fleabag actress, 33, accessorised her look with just a pair of diamond pendant earrings The show has seen Liverpudlian Jodie's star rise and has earned Sandra an Emmy nomination for the upcoming ceremony. Eve is assigned by her boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) to track the psychotic Villanelle and becomes obsessed with her target. But when Villanelle realises shes being watched she becomes equally fixated with Eve. The two begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game falling in espionage love as writer Phoebe puts it that takes them all over Europe. Huge hit: Killing Eve, which is focused on a deskbound MI5 operative, Eve Polastri (Sandra) and glamorous Russian assassin Villanelle (Jodie) received high reviews when it aired on BBC Talented cast: The show has seen Liverpudlian Jodie's star rise and has earned Sandra an Emmy nomination for the upcoming ceremony 'Espionage love': Eve (L) is assigned by her boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) to track the psychotic Villanelle (R) and becomes obsessed with her target, who becomes equally as fixed with her She was one of the on-carpet commentators for the Golden Globes. But Giuliana Rancic fashion choices were the ones deserving admiration as she interviewed stars up and down the carpet on Sunday in Hollywood. The 44-year-old television personality donned a gorgeous cream-colored Gucci dress. Hosting duties: Giuliana Rancic fashion choices were the ones deserving admiration as she interviewed stars up and down the carpet on Sunday in Hollywood The floor-length frock clung tightly to E! News anchor's figure, highlighting her slender frame. She added an extra touch of glamour with 14 carat diamond earrings and paired with various bracelets. Pulling her blonde tresses behind her head into an intricate half bun, Rancic, painted her lips a nude pink, having prepped her skin with her own clean beauty line, Fountain of Truth. The day before the event, the E! host applied the brand's Honey Glow Mask, as well as the Dream Cream Overnight Repair Mask to achieve 'moisturized, dewy skin' in time for the awards - and it certainly showed in her radiant complexion. Barely visible were a pair of Christian Louboutin heels that added a few inches to her 5ft 9in frame. Diamond: The 44-year-old television personality donned a gorgeous cream-colored Gucci dress Elegant: The floor-length frock clung tightly to E! News anchor's figure, highlighting her slender frame Golden: Pulling her blonde tresses behind her head into an intricate half bun, Rancic, painted her lips a nude pink The RPM Restaurants co-founder joined many other in tying on a 'Times Up X2' ribbon. The ribbon was designed by Arianne Phillips, who designed the Time's Up pins that were worn by many at last year's Golden Globes. Rancic wasn't the only E! red carpet commentator donning a 'Times Up X2' ribbon, either as Ryan Seacrest wore one as well. Front and center: Rancic wasn't the only E! red carpet commentator donning a 'Times Up X2' ribbon, either as Ryan Seacrest wore one as well The 44-year-old American Idol host sported a custom burgundy velvet tuxedo as he spoke to stars up and down the carpet. He opted for a classic look when it came to his black bow tie and white shirt and shiny black Oxfords. Ryan added a touch of glitz with a large-faced gold watch and left a hint of stumble across his jawline. Custom: The 44-year-old American Idol host sported a custom burgundy velvet tuxedo as he spoke to stars up and down the carpet The Golden Globes are the first big bash of Hollywood's annual award's season. And the stars of TV and film and the hosts did not disappoint as they gathered to celebrate. Ryan and Rancic caught up with stars as they walked the carpet, getting their insights into the night. At first glance Georgia Fowler and Jessica Hart appeared to suffer a major makeup fail while stepping out at the same Hollywood event on Saturday night. Attending the Art Of Elysium 'Heaven' Gala in Los Angeles, the glamazons rocked identical cat eye eyeliner. However, the dramatic style was simply a uniform look sported by all the models walking in a fashion show at the star-studded charity gala. Twinning! Models Georgia Fowler and Jessica Hart stepped out wearing the same cat eye makeup while attending Hollywood charity gala on Saturday night Also walking the red carpet, models Hilary Rhoda and Hailey Clauson sported the jet-black wing-tip. And in demand stunner Winnie Harlow turned heads as she offered her gorgeous take on the style. While they wore the same make-up, Georgia and Jessica made sure to stand out on the red carpet in different styles of dress. Who wore it best? Also walking the red carpet, models Hilary Rhoda and Hailey Clauson sported the jet-black wing-tip The Kiwi beauty, 26 put on a leggy display in a glamorous one-shouldered dress, which featured astrological motifs. Georgia complemented her frilled frock with black-and-white strappy heels, keeping her accessories for the outfit to a minimum. Meanwhile, Jessica, 32, turned heads in a bright yellow frock, which featured a lace frill down the front. Stunning: And in demand stunner Winnie Harlow turned heads as she offered her gorgeous take on the style The lithe beauty, who hails from Sydney but is based in the US, teamed the leggy number with a pair of wrap around heels in animal print. Both beauties have stormed the Victoria's Secret catwalk. While Georgia starred in the lingerie extravaganza late last year, Jessica hasn't appeared on their runway since 2013. She's been a new mom for 24 hours. And Jersey Shore star Deena Cortese just can't contain her joy. On Sunday, the reality star, 31, shared a bunch of new photos of her bouncing baby boy to her Instagram with the caption: 'So In love .' 'So in love': She's been a new mom for 24 hours. And Jersey Shore star Deena Cortese just can't contain her joy, sharing a bunch of new pics to social media on Sunday He's here: The reality star welcomed her bouncing baby boy on Saturday with the infant weighing in at 6lbs and 8.5 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long Deena and husband Chris Buckner, 29, welcomed their first child on Saturday. They named him Christopher John with his middle name for Deena's dad who passed away leukemia in 2016. Deena announced on Instagram: 'Our Little Man has finally arrived.' 'Christopher John Buckner (CJ) born January 5th at 4:41 pm at a whopping 20.5 inches..6 Lb 8.5 ounces, she wrote. 'Uhg mommy and daddy love you so much CJ .. youre our everything... I never thought i could love Chris anymore than i did until i saw him hold CJ.' Proud dad: Deena's husband Chris posted a photo of his new son in his wife's arms and gushed: 'I always knew my wife was one of the strongest woman I know but these past 2 days proved it' Their first child: 'I couldnt be a more proud husband, and now a father to our perfect baby boy CJ.' Chris added Chris posted a photo of his new son in his wife's arms to his Instagram and gushed: 'I always knew my wife was one of the strongest woman I know but these past 2 days proved it.' 'I couldnt be a more proud husband, and now a father to our perfect baby boy CJ.' he added. Deena reciprocated, sharing a snap of her husband cradling their baby, and writing: 'My boys. Ive never loved something so much in my entire life #ourlittleprince ..' 'It was a tough two days and I couldnt have done it without my other half .. #wortheverymoment #iddoitalloveragain.' Newborn: Deena shared a snap of her husband cradling their baby, and writing: 'My boys. Ive never loved something so much in my entire life #ourlittleprince ..' Family: The couple have been married since October 2017 and announced their pregnancy last July Legacy: The little boy is named Christopher John with his middle name for Deena's dad who passed away leukemia in 2016 The couple married on October 28, 2017, at the Laurita Winery in New Egypt, New Jersey. Several of Deena's Jersey Shore castmates were on hand for the ceremony including Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino, Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, Jenni 'JWoww' Farley and Paul 'Pauly D' DelVecchio. Deen and Chris had announced the pregnancy in July, promising that their son would be 'the most spoiled little boy ever!' Big moment: Deena announced the birth of her baby son on Saturday via Instagram Awww! The reality star held her newborn son close as husband Chris Buckner leaned in for their first photo as a family The Jersey Shore cast has welcomed many children over the past few years: Snooki is currently expecting her third child with husband Jionni LaValle, as the pair are parents to son Lorenzo, six, and daughter Giovanna, four. JWoww is mother to daughter Meilani, four, and son Greyson, two with her estranged spouse Roger Mathews. Ronnie Ortiz-Magro has an eight-month-old daughter named Ariana with ex-girlfriend Jen Harley, and Pauly D is dad to eight-month-old daughter Amabella, 5, with ex-girlfriend Amanda Markert. The Burgess rugby league dynasty continues to fall apart after Luke Burgess confirmed his split from the mother of his child, Yolanda Hodgson, over the weekend. Just days after his younger brother Sam walked out on wife Phoebe, Luke debuted his new romance with British woman Lindsey Johnston on Sunday. The new couple were pictured on Instagram posing below the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with the former NRL player adding the hashtag 'token tourist photo'. The fall of the Burgess dynasty: Sam's older brother Luke confirmed his split from the mother of his child Yolanda Hodgson (left) over the weekend. Pictured right: Luke and his new girlfriend, a British woman named Lindsey Johnston Luke, who at 31 is the eldest of the Burgess brothers, shares a five-year-old daughter, Grace, with Yolanda, whom he dated on-and-off for the seven years. The former couple announced their split in July 2016, before reuniting in November 2017. But in the past year, Luke and Yolanda have been notably absent from each other's Instagram accounts. It's official! The new couple were pictured on Instagram posing below the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, with the former NRL player adding the hashtag 'token tourist photo' New girlfriend: Lindsey hails from Manchester, in the north of England, and it appears she met Luke while he was playing for the British rugby league club Salford Red Devils Lindsey hails from Manchester, in the north of England, and it appears she met Luke while he was playing for the British rugby league club Salford Red Devils. Last week, she celebrated the New Year by sharing another photo of the lovebirds together, alongside the caption 'Happy New Year. Roll on 2019. I love this human.' It is unclear when exactly Luke ended his relationship with Yolanda and began dating Lindsey. It comes after South Sydney Rabbitohs star Sam, 30, and his wife Phoebe, 29, split before Christmas, just weeks after welcoming their second child, a son named Billy. Romance: Lindsey shared this photo of herself with the father-of-one in October last year. He is pictured wearing his Salford Red Devils kit Co-parents: Luke, who at 31 is the eldest of the Burgess brothers, shares a five-year-old daughter, Grace, with ex-partner Yolanda, whom he dated on-and-off for the seven years The pair's split was confirmed on Thursday and has been described as 'pretty messy'. A close friend of the former couple told The Daily Telegraph last week that 'things have been bad for a while'. Sam and Phoebe, who married in 2015 in the NSW Southern Highlands, also share a daughter, Poppy, who is almost two. She made it to the final five of The Apprentice, but narrowly missed out on a chance to be Lord Alan Sugar's business partner. But Sabrina Stocker looked every-inch the business boss as she stepped out in London on Sunday in a plunging tuxedo-inspired dress. The entrepreneur, 22, rocked the figure-hugging blue button dress which showed off her curvaceous body as she playfully posed for the camera. Flaunting: Sabrina Stocker looked every-inch the business boss as she stepped out in London on Sunday in a plunging tuxedo-inspired dress She teamed her dress with black strappy heels and added a patent leather clutch bag for a touch of glamour. The boardroom regular left her blonde locks loose around her shoulders and opted for plenty of heavy make-up for the dinner outing. Ahead of her stint on the show, she said described herself as 'a mix of Willy Wonka drinking an espresso martini; classy and sophisticated on the outside and inside, a little bit crazy and wacky but full of brilliant ideas.' Stunner: The entrepreneur, 22, rocked the figure-hugging blue button dress which showed off her curvaceous body as she playfully posed for the camera Glamour: The boardroom regular left her blonde locks loose around her shoulders and opted for plenty of heavy make-up for the dinner outing The Middlesex native, who said her role model is actress Emma Watson, has had her eye on making money from the age of 14, when she set up a business selling retro sweets as part of a Young Enterprise Scheme. Meanwhile the BBC show's winner Sian Gabbidon headed for a Christmas celebration in Miami over December to commemorate 250,000 investment from Lord Sugar. Before the finale aired, the swimwear designer spoke to MailOnline about her rivalry with runner-up Camilla Ainsworth whose 'gourmet nut milk' brand didn't quite impress. Winner: Meanwhile the BBC show's winner Sian Gabbidon headed for a Christmas celebration in Miami over December Addressing the cattiness with the Nut Milk entrepreneur, Sian admitted she didn't go on the BBC show to make friends, and asserted that it's sometimes necessary to be 'ruthless' to win. She said: 'We're business people and we're also friends, and what we're great at doing is turning into business women when we're on task and in the boardroom, and off camera everyone was friends and we were cool. Lord Sugar chose Sian despite describing her company as 'a cottage industry', and rightly so given that she had sold only 400 'bespoke' swimsuits during its two years trading. He's managed to keep his relationship with girlfriend Phillipa Coan low-key since they started dating nearly four years ago. And Jude Law looked at ease as he took a break from filming to relax with his beau in Venice, Italy on Sunday. The Fantastic Beasts star, 46, sported a huge smile on his face as he wrapped up against the winter chill in a brown military jacket and black trousers. Chilled: Jude Law looked at ease as he took a break from filming to relax with his beau in Venice, Italy on Sunday He teamed the look with white socks and a pair of matching white trainers while sporting a black scarf. The BAFTA winner clad his head in a white beanie and covered his peepers in a pair of aviator style sunglasses as he gazed adoringly at Phillipa, 32. Meanwhile the blonde bombshell donned a fluffy black coat and showed off her trim figure in casual black jogging bottoms which she paired with black trainers. Beaming: The Fantastic Beasts star, 46, sported a huge smile on his face as he wrapped up against the winter chill in a brown military jacket and black trousers Down-time: He teamed the look with white socks and a pair of matching white trainers while sporting a black scarf She clad her eyes in quirky sunglasses and flashed a grin at Jude as they strolled through the Venetian streets. The loved-up pair put on a rare display as they headed to out to celebrate Jude's daughter's birthday in October. The pair stepped out together to celebrate Iris' 18th birthday during a fun-filled family meal, held at Mayfair's Bagatelle London. Celebrate: The loved-up pair put on a rare display as they headed to out to celebrate Jude's daughter's birthday in October Co-parents: The father-of-five shares Iris with actress Sadie Frost, and the pair are also parents to two sons from their six-year marriage (pictured November 2008) The father-of-five shares Iris with actress Sadie Frost, and the pair are also parents to two sons from their six-year marriage. In 2009 Jude became a father again for the fourth time when his daughter Sophia was born to model Samantha Burke. Six years later he became a father again to Ada with songwriter Catherine Harding. He shot to fame as the lovable Ben Rafter on Channel Seven series, Packed to the Rafters. And Hugh Sheridan, 33, flaunted his fit physique during an outdoor shower on Saturday. Taking to Instagram, the actor ensured all eyes were on him as he flaunted his muscles on the last day of his sun-soaked Mexico getaway. Scroll down for video That's cheeky! Actor Hugh Sheridan strips down naked as he flaunts his muscular physique in Mexico In the racy snap, a fun-loving Hugh has his hands up in the shower while facing the glistening blue Pacific Ocean at the resort town of Zihuatanejo. The actor has obviously been enjoying his time in the luxurious sun-soaked resort with him sporting tan lines in the snap. The House Husbands star went on to show his bulging biceps and a portion of his flat muscular abs in the shot. 'I do believe you are with me, Sherry, and I miss you everyday:' Hugh's sun-soaked holiday was tinged with sadness after the actor paid tribute to his friend Sherry on Thursday 'Adios Zihuatanejo,' Hugh captioned the snap, before adding, 'Young Hearts Run Free,' to the snap. The actor's holiday has been tinged with sadness, with him paying tribute to late Packed to the Rafters make-up artist, Sherry Hubbard. On Thursday, the talented actor shared a video of a beautiful beach sunset in the town where his friend Sherry had once brought him. Muscular: The actor regularly flaunts his gym-honed physique, with him having gained a legion of fans off-screen too. Pictured here in New York Hugh explained he and his make-up artist friend had once visited the beach together and that this week she gave him a 'sign' that she was with him. The actor claimed that after Sherry died in 2016, she continued to visit him in his dreams. 'I do believe you are with me, Sherry, and I miss you everyday,' he said. 'I was like, 'I'm going to do some sit-ups!' I've got my dad bod still in': Hugh said of his appearance in the Sheridan towel advertisements range. Pictured in June, 2018 Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the Australian Fashion Laureate in November, Hugh spoke about getting in shape while fronting the Sheridan towel range. The star was named 'Towel Man' for the brand's 2017 spring/summer campaign - a role he found to be daunting. 'I assumed, like you do, that it was Sheridan sheets... So then I arrived, and they were like, ''There's the towel,'' he told Daily Mail. 'I was like, 'I'm going to do some sit-ups!' I've got my dad bod still in.' They've been happily dating since falling in love on the 2016 season of The Bachelorette. And 2019 could be the year that Bachelorette winner Lee Elliott pops the question to Georgia Love, if the hints he is dropping on social media are any indication. The 37-year-old 'liked' a comment on Instagram, in which a fan suggested it was 'time to put a ring on it'. 'Time to put a ring on it!' Lee Elliott (right) hints he may be gearing up to propose to former Bachelorette Georgia Love (left) ...after admitting he was already saving up for a diamond The fan's comment was in response to a tribute to Georgia, 29, that the mechanical plumber shared on Instagram. Reflecting on 2018, Lee posted several photos of the couple together and wrote: 'We are the perfect match.' In a pun-filled romantic ramble, he added: 'Even when this bright spark decided to get hot under the collar... you could have had a meltdown and given me the third degree but instead you just light up my life and I lava you so much for it'. Keen! The 37-year-old Lee 'liked' a comment on Instagram, in which a fan suggested it was 'time to put a ring on it' Loves her! The fan's comment was in response to a tribute to Georgia, 29, that the mechanical plumber shared on Instagram. Reflecting on 2018, Lee posted several photos of the couple together and wrote: 'We are the perfect match' Always there! One of the photos showed Georgia tending to Lee in hospital on New Year's Eve after he burned his hand with sparklers One of the photos showed Georgia tending to Lee in hospital on New Year's Eve after he burned his hand with sparklers, no doubt inspiring the fire puns. While the pair have yet to confirm whether they are headed down the aisle, Lee has made no secret of his plans to pop the question. Speaking to NW all the way back in August 2017, the hunky tradie said: 'I've already started saving for the ring.' Soon? The pair have yet to confirm whether they are headed down the aisle, but Lee has made no secret of his plans to pop the question. He said: 'I've already started saving for the ring' Home sweet home: While a ring has not yet been forthcoming, in August last year, the pair reached another milestone in their fairy tale romance by getting their first home together 'The worst thing is we have so many weddings this year, and all the brides have ridiculous rocks as well, so I'm like 'Oh my gosh!'' he added. While a ring has not yet been forthcoming, the couple have made progress towards a united future. In August last year, they reached another milestone in their fairy tale romance by getting their first home together. Georgia revealed the joyous news by sharing a photo of herself and Lee posing out the front of their new Melbourne-based abode on Instagram. GAZA - The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remained closed on Monday, following tensions between Hamas and al-Fatah. On Sunday, officials who work for the Palestinian National Authority were ordered to withdraw in protest against the arrests by Hamas of various members of al-Fatah. Local sources said the Egyptian side of the border was kept closed on Monday for a national holiday. On the Palestinian side, Hamas took up a position to protect structures. Meanwhile, al-Fatah decided to cancel a large rally it had planned to hold Monday in Gaza City's centrally located Saraya Square for the anniversary of its founding. Local sources said al-Fatah is waiting for Hamas to free the activists arrested in recent days in Gaza. The sources said the activists' release could lead to the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing, which is the only exit route abroad for the two million Palestinians who live in Gaza. Tayla Damir is renowned for sharing frequent sponsored posts on Instagram. And the Love Island Australia winner, 22, is hoping her star status will secure more freebies on an upcoming trip to Bali with boyfriend Dom Thomas, 26. On Sunday, the brunette shared an open message to her Instagram Story looking for 'brands and companies' wanting to sponsor their holiday. Cashing in! Love Island Australia's Tayla Damir shares a cringeworthy message begging to do sponsored posts in Bali with boyfriend Dom Thomas... after 'fake engagement' 'Heading to Bali on February 7th to February 14th with Dom Thomas,' wrote Tayla. 'If any brands or companies want to work together while we are there inbox us.' The message, posted to Tayla's 360,000 followers, included a picture of the reality personality reclining on the edge of a swimming pool in a bikini. It is believed 'work together' means sharing sponsored or paid for content on Instagram in exchange for free services. 'Inbox us': It seems the reality personality, 22, is hoping her star status will secure her a load of freebies on an upcoming trip to Bali, after regularly sharing sponsored posts Too far? Tayla faced a backlash from fans in November, for appearing to hint she was engaged to Dom in a sponsored post for a jewelry brand Tayla faced a backlash from fans in November for sharing a sponsored post. After going public with her romance with co-star Dom, the brunette hinted they were engaged by sharing a picture of a diamond ring, captioned, 'oh my god.' But the post was simply part of a sponsored deal for a jewelry brand. However, that has not deterred Tayla from monetizing her Instagram audience since. Making the most of her 360,000 followers! Tayla's most recent posts have been endorsed by fashion brands, a Swedish watch company and various luxury hotels Her most recent posts have been endorsed by fashion brands, a Swedish watch company and various luxury hotels. On December 06, Tayla also shared a series of posts for a sun-cream brand. Nothing seems to be off limits, even promoting a colon cleansing in October. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Tayla for comment. Tyga is set to tour across Australia and New Zealand at the end of January. And following a performance at Sydney's Rolling Loud Festival on January 27, a VIP package with the American rapper at an afterparty is available for $10,228. Muscle Bros, who are promoting an 'official afterparty featuring a live performance from Tyga', are selling the pricey tickets for the event at Sydney bar Establishment. Would you pay $10,000 to meet Tyga in Sydney? Kylie Jenner's rapper ex offers fans the chance to party with him Down Under but it's not cheap Their 'Platinum VIP table' package is said to guarantee you '2 artist meet n greet tickets' to get up close and personal with Tyga along with a friend for $10,228. Once you've met the rapper, you also get '10 tickets for a raised VIP section, with VIP waitress and 16 bottles of premium alcohol equivalent to $8000 bar tab.' However, if you wish to simply meet Tyga, the website claims a standard meet and greet ticket is available for $565.39. That's pricey! Following a performance at Sydney's Rolling Loud Festival on January 27, a 'VIP package' with the American rapper, featuring 'meet and greet, your own waitress and $8,000 bar tab', at an afterparty at Sydney bar Establishment is available for the huge sum Daily Mail Australia has contacted Tyga's rep to ensure he is officially associated with the advertised 'official afterparty'. The star, who famously split from Kylie Jenner in 2017, is set to first perform in New Zealand at Auckland's The Trusts Arena on January 25. He will then take to the stage at Melbourne's Festival Hall on January 26, before wowing fans at Rolling Loud Fest in Sydney on January 27. He's coming! The star, who famously split from Kylie Jenner in 2017, will perform in Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from January 25-28. Pictured Tyga with Kylie Jenner on February 13, 2017 at New York Fashion Week Tyga will then complete his Australian tour at Brisbane's Eatons Hill on February 28. The star first performed in Australia while supporting Nicki Minaj in 2012. He later returned in 2014 following the release on his third album, Hotel California, and brought his 'Rawwest Alive' tour Down Under in 2016. Rachael Finch has hit back at trolls who accused her of posting too many sponsored posts. The furor came on Sunday, after the former Miss Universe contestant posted a picture of herself using NormaTec circulation boots on Instagram. Some followers assumed the post was sponsored because Rachael tagged the brand in the photo, however, Rachael denied this in the comments section. 'If you're not going to say something to someone's face, why would you say it online?' Rachael Finch furiously responds to trolls who called her a 'glorified model who will promote anything' after sharing a 'sponsored post' 'Nope, no ad or not sponsored. Just love sharing things I enjoy,' she wrote. One troll claimed Rachael is 'just a glorified model who will plug anything.' In response, the mother-of-two posted a video to her Instagram story condemning the 'mean' comments. 'I just think that is so mean, if you're not going to say something to someone's face, why would you say it online,' she said. Controversy: The furor came on Sunday, after the former Miss Universe contestant posted a picture of herself using NormaTec circulation boots on Instagram Not an ad! Some followers assumed the post was sponsored because Rachael tagged the brand in the photo, however, Rachael denied this in the comments section 'You know, I'm the type of person that can walk away from something like that, even though I'm sharing it with you now, and think nothing more of it. And it won't affect me but for some people it would.' Rachael went on to tell fans that they should be considerate when posting online and insisted she doesn't 'just plug' anything. 'The things that I share in my day to day life with you, are products and services and things that I do, that I love, that I know, I've used them before,' she said. 'They're not just sponsored or plugged or whatever you think they are. But yeah, I just thought that was so mean.' A scroll through Rachael's Instagram indicates that she is no stranger to sponsored content. In recent months, she has promoted various brands including a luxury resort, a restaurant and swimwear. Plug: On a family trip to the Gold Coast in December, Rachael tagged the swimwear brand, SKYE & staghorn, in her post Promotion: In November, Rachael promoted the luxury resort she and husband Michael Miziner stayed at Frequent posts: Across four days, Rachael posted nine photographs and two professional videos of their time on the Island In November last year, Rachael and her professional dancer husband, Michael Miziner, appeared to enjoy a sponsored holiday on Orpheus Island, Queensland. Across four days, Rachael posted nine photographs and two professional videos of their time on the Island - with most of the posts tagging and mentioning the luxury resort, Orpheus Lodge. Another holiday? In June, Rachael, Michael and their two children, Violet, 5 and one-year-old Dominic, promoted their trip to Fiji It was not the first getaway that appeared to be, at least in part, sponsored by a resort - in June, Rachael, Michael and their two children, Violet, 5 and one-year-old Dominic, enjoyed an exotic getaway in Fiji. Throughout their trip, Rachael made it obvious to fans that they were staying - and thoroughly enjoying - their time at the Marriott Resort in Momi Bay. In a post in November, she even went so far as to admit that the blanket her son had been photographed on was a gift from the bespoke knitwear brand, Namely. Tagged: In this post in December, Rachael tagged Fisher-Price, twice Dining out: During a family trip to Townsville, Rachael gushed over the amazing meal she had at The Ville While Rachael's social media channels appear to be far less cluttered by promoted content than many models and influencers, she doesn't shy away from advertising brands. From Violet's 5th birthday cake to toys from Fisher Price, the model often appears to use her influence to promote both local and international businesses. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Rachael Finch for comment. She stormed the runway for Victoria's Secret's famed show in November. And on Saturday, Georgia Fowler ensured all eyes were on her when she attended the Art of Elysium Gala in Los Angeles. The New Zealand-born model, 26, put on a leggy display at the artistic event in a glamorous one shouldered dress which featured astrological motifs. Scroll down for video Heaven sent! Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler puts on a leggy display in a glamorous frock at the Art of Elysium Heaven gala in Los Angeles Lifting one part of the high-low frock up, Georgia looked toned and tanned as she put her best foot forward at the Heaven-themed event. Georgia complemented the frilled frock with black-and-white strappy heels, keeping her accessories for the outfit to a minimum. The catwalk queen opted for heavy make-up for the artsy event, choosing a glossy foundation and dark eye-liner, which she winged. Glamorous: Georgia ensured all eyes were on her as she posed at the event in the high-low gown, which flaunted her shapely pins Georgia opted to wear her brunette tresses in a low ponytail, allowing the dress to be the hero of her look. Hollywood stars Eva Mendes, Kristen Dunst, James Franco and Amber Heard, all serve on the event's committee. Georgia just got back from her native New Zealand, which she spent the Christmas and New Year holidays. Dramatic: Georgia opted for Cleopatra-style dark eye make-up for the 'Heaven' themed event Taking to Instagram earlier this month, the glamorous model donned a skimpy red bikini in a holiday shot while she posed on picturesque Waimarama beach. 'Washed up in my natural habitat', the stunning Kiwi captioned the shot. Georgia Fowler stormed the runway for luxury lingerie brand Victoria's Secret first in 2016, then again in November. Red hot! Georgia Fowler stripped down to a skimpy red bikini earlier this month, while on Christmas holidays in her native New Zealand Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the time, Georgia said the energy at this year's show in New York was 'electric'. 'Everyone was screaming for us and all the girls were screaming for each other. It was very special,' she said. The glamazon, who followed a strict exercise regime prior to the show, said that she and the other Victoria's Secret models indulged in a cheat meal afterwards. 'We all have a little cheat meal after. We've been working for a long time. We were all just enjoying it, letting our hair down at night,' she added. She's the former Victoria's Secret model who is used to commanding attention. And on Saturday, Jessica Hart, turned heads in a bright yellow dress at the Art Of Elysium 'Heaven' Gala in Los Angeles. The 32-year-old dazzled as she worked the red carpet wearing a one shoulder dress, which featured a lace frill down the front. Off-duty chic! Former Victoria's Secret model Jessica Hart flaunts her figure in a thigh-skimming dress at the Art of Elysium Heaven gala in Los Angeles Lots of lace! The 32-year-old dazzled as she worked the red carpet in a bright yellow dress, winch featured frill down the front Jessica, who has modelled for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Guess, offered onlookers a generous glimpse of her slender stems as she posed for snaps. The lithe beauty, who hails from Sydney but is based in the US, teamed the leggy number with a pair of wrap around heels in animal print. Jessica completed her look with maroon nail polish and dramatic eye makeup. Last year, the model spoke about her seven-year relationship with Greek heir Stavros Niarchos III. Leggy display! Jessica, who has modelled for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Guess, offered onlookers a generous glimpse of her slender stems The couple had been dating for seven years and were rumoured to have become engaged. In a Q&A with fans on Instagram last year, Jessica revealed why they split up. Jessica told one of her Instagram followers during a question and answer session that their 'journey ran its course'. Back then: Jess and Stavros are pictured on May 22, 2014 in Cap d'Antibes, France The statement read: 'Yes, I can confirm the split. It was amicable they remain friends and Jessica hasn't been happier!' Rumours surfaced in 2014 that the picture perfect twosome were set to get married in the near future. However, speculation the pair were experiencing woes began in April when Jess was spied without a ring on her finger. At the time, magazine reports claimed that the Australian Victoria's Secret model was 'heartbroken' over the split. 'She mapped out her entire future around Stavros and now she feels like he totally led her on,' source allegedly told NW. It was a star-studded day in the sunshine on Sunday as a bevy of celebrities turned out for the Magic Millions Polo event on the Gold Coast. Among the best in show was Erin Holland, who turned heads in a pale pink, summery frock dotted with pale embellishments. The former Miss World Australia cut a slender figure in the dress, which had a deep V-neck and was tied in flirty ribbons at the shoulders. A royal affair! Erin Holland (right) and Kris Smith (left) cut fashionable figures as they join Zara Phillip at the Magic Millions Polo on the Gold Coast The frilled layers added a whimsical air to the outfit, and a mammoth white straw hat with ribbon detailing certainly commanded attention. She completed the ensemble with a pair of beige, strappy heels and a pale pink YSL shoulder bag with a chain strap. Joining Erin was Kris Smith, who looked dapper in a fitted, bright blue suit in a linen fabric. Pretty: Among the best in show was Erin Holland, who turned heads in a pale pink, summery frock dotted with pale embellishments Sweet: The former Miss World Australia cut a slender figure in the dress, which had a deep V-neck and was tied in flirty ribbons at the shoulders He wore a white shirt underneath, clinging to his muscular form, and paired the look with pale slacks. A pair of smart, brown brogues and trendy aviator sunglasses sat on his famous model features. Kris was all smiles as he posed alongside fellow catwalk star Erin, the pair looking delighted to be invitees at the prestigious event. Posing pair: Kris smith was all smiles as he posed alongside fellow catwalk star Erin, the pair looking delighted to be invitees at the prestigious event Handsome fella! Kris looked dapper in a fitted, bright blue suit in a linen fabric Smart! He wore a white shirt underneath, clinging to his muscular form, and paired the look with pale slacks The British personality and the Australian pageant princess were in the company of royalty on the day, in the form of Zara Phillips. The eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth attended the polo with husband Mike Tindall, as special guests. Looking a natural posing beside a polo mallet, the 37-year-old opted for a lace, high-neck frock for the occasion. Royal guests: Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth attended the polo with husband Mike Tindall, as special guests Day out: Looking a natural posing beside a polo mallet, the 37-year-old opted for a lace, high-neck frock for the occasion Soft: The dress featured tones of off-white and pale pink, embellished with soft, romantic layers of sheer fabric The dress featured tones of off-white and pale pink, embellished with soft, romantic layers of sheer fabric. A pair of crisscross wedge sandals, in a similar shade of off-white to her dress, added a relaxed feel to the outfit. Zara carried a large pale pink, straw hat, which she largely declined to wear, perhaps owning to breezy conditions. Nice touch: The British equestrian carried a small blush-toned clutch bag to complete the tasteful ensemble Summery: A pair of crisscross wedge sandals, in a similar shade of off-white to her dress, added a relaxed feel to the outfit Chic: Zara's husband Mike looked very smart indeed, opting for a navy blue jacket with a chic pocket square Lovely: Zara's hair was worn back in an informal bun, with loose, blonde tendrils gently floating around her face as she walked along with husband Mike The British equestrian carried a small blush-toned clutch bag to complete the tasteful ensemble. Her hair was worn back in an informal bun, with loose, blonde tendrils gently floating around her face. A pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses added a chic, modern edge to the romantic look. All smiles! Zara and Mike smiled and laughed as they chatted together happily at the event Topped off: Zara carried a large pale pink, straw hat, which she largely declined to wear, perhaps owning to breezy conditions Strolling: Mike wore a pair of soft, suede loafers, worn without socks, which added a relaxed and summer-friendly touch to his outfit Pearly whites: While she wore a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses while outside, inside, Zara smiles as she showed off her peachy makeup look Loving it! Wearing diamond studs, Zara's makeup consisted of with rust eye shadow and nude lipstick, and she looked delighted as she posed with other attendees Zara's husband Mike looked very smart indeed, opting for a navy blue jacket with a chic pocket square. He paired the jacket with a pair of crisp, white shorts, and accessorised with a dark belt. A pair of soft, suede loafers, worn without socks, added a relaxed and summer-friendly touch. Say cheese! Billy Slater and his wife Nicole Slater were also in attendance at the Main Beach event, smiling as they posed together for photos Blooming: Nicole chose a bright blue, off-the-shoulder dress with a pastel floral print throughout, and soft, sheer sleeves, gathered at the elbow Neat: Former professional rugby league player Billy looked chic in a white linen shirt and blue shorts, accesorised with a brown belt and leather loafers Billy Slater and his wife Nicole Slater were also in attendance at the Main Beach event, smiling as they posed together for photos. Nicole chose a bright blue, off-the-shoulder dress with a pastel floral print throughout, and soft, sheer sleeves, gathered at the elbow. She carried a small pink shoulder bag, and chose a floppy hat with a blue ribbon matching her frock, wearing her dark hair down and flowing form underneath. Former professional rugby league player Billy looked chic in a white linen shirt and blue shorts, accesorised with a brown belt and leather loafers. Advertisement As bold architecture goes this takes some beating. Malta's famous Azure Window - an iconic archway that features in Game of Thrones and Clash of the Titans - collapsed into the sea after a storm in March 2017, and these designs propose a modern replacement like no other. Known as the 'Heart of Malta', the project is the brainchild of Russian architect Svetozar Andreev, who collaborated with Elena Britanishskaya on the designs. This is the jaw-dropping proposal by a Russian architect for a replacement for Malta's Azure Window Known as the 'Heart of Malta', the project is the brainchild of Russian architect Svetozar Andreev, who collaborated with Elena Britanishskaya on the designs The Azure Window has featured on thousands of Instagram pictures - and a minor U.S TV series featuring Emilia Clarke called Game of Thrones The proposed new arch would take the same form as the previous limestone arch in Dwejra Bay, in Malta's sister island of Gozo, but it would be made of mirrored steel. Svetozar, who worked on the designs for six months, said: 'The sight of the empty Dwejra Bay inspired me to create a monument that would do more than simply copy the natural relief of the Azure Window, but would rather serve as a memorial to it, and at the same time become a significant architectural feature with immaculate compositional integrity.' The architect first visited Malta in 2008 and said he had previously photographed the arch many times. Before its collapse, the Azure Window was one of Malta's biggest tourist draws Svetozar, who worked on the designs for six months, said: 'The sight of the empty Dwejra Bay inspired me to create a monument that would do more than simply copy the natural relief of the Azure Window, but would rather serve as a memorial to it' The Heart of Malta would feature more than 5,000 square meters of exhibition space over five floors, as well as a laser show that would bring Malta's history to life Other than simply replacing a national landmark, Svetozar hopes his proposals would - if created - be a new asset to the region, drawing tourists that might otherwise be lost. The Heart of Malta would also feature more than 5,000 square meters of exhibition space over five floors, as well as a laser show that would bring Malta's history to life. Public polling on the proposals has drawn positive results, Svetozar said, and this has given him confidence that the plans will come to light. Svetozar, who has submitted the plans to the Maltese authorities, added: 'The project objective is to compensate for the loss of the famous Azure Window, and to create a centre of attraction in Dwejra, a new asset to draw tourists, this time to a new architectural and cultural landmark. 'We received actual feedback from the residents of the Republic of Malta as well as people around the world. 'The results of public polling, the project received a great amount of positive feedback.' Ryanair passengers travelling to and from Spain may be hit by travel disruption this week because cabin crew are staging three 24-hour strikes. The first strike will be tomorrow (Tuesday) and further walkouts will be staged on January 10 and 13. But despite the industrial action Ryanair claims that it expects to operate a full schedule of flights tomorrow both to and from Spain and within the country. Ryanair passengers travelling to and from Spain may be hit by travel disruption this week because cabin crew are staging three 24-hour strikes However, unions USO and Sitcpla, whose members are striking over pay and conditions, say they cannot see how the no-frills airline will manage to avoid any disruption. Last year, the Dublin-based carrier suffered a number of strikes by cabin crew and pilots, forcing it to cancel hundreds of flights. However, under an agreement with the Spanish labour authorities, the unions have agreed to operate all flights between Spanish islands and 50 per cent of flights between Spanish islands and the Spanish mainland on those days of strike action. But they will only operate 25 per cent of flights to and from Spain that are over 500 kilometres (310 miles). Ryanair said in a statement: 'Due to the efforts of the Spanish government minimum services regulator and the support of our pilots and cabin crew in Spain, we expect to operate a full schedule of flights to/from (and within) Spain on Tuesday January 8. 'All passengers scheduled to fly should check in online as normal and arrive at their departure airport at least two hours prior to their time of scheduled departure.' Despite the strike, Ryanair claims it will operate a full schedule of flights during the strike set to take place tomorrow However, Mauricio Gabala, a spokesman for the Sitcpla union explained that he did not expect the airline to avoid disruption to passengers. He added: 'Many passengers will have problems.' Last month, both the USO and Sitcpla unions accused Ryanair of 'absurd and childish behaviour' and 'throwing tantrums' for not coming to an agreement on a new pay and conditions deal for their members during mediation. They claim around 1,800 Ryanair staff at Spanish bases 'suffer every day, with worse working conditions than the rest of the workers because Ryanair does not apply Spanish legislation'. Criticism has also been levelled at the Spanish Government for 'failing to tell Ryanair that it has to comply with the law in the country where it operates and from which it obtains a large part of its benefits in Europe'. On September 28, a 24-hour strike by Spanish Ryanair staff affected 30,000 passengers and 250 flights were cancelled. The strikes come just days after the carrier finished bottom of the respected Which? annual airline survey for the sixth consecutive year The unions later hailed the strike as a success although Ryanair said the disruption caused had been minimal and 92 per cent of its services had operated as normal. The strikes come just days after the carrier finished bottom of the respected Which? annual airline survey for the sixth consecutive year. In the consumer champions poll passengers gave the budget carrier the lowest possible rating for boarding, seat comfort, food and drink, and cabin environment leaving it with a dismal overall customer score of 40 per cent. However, despite its terrible Which? scores over the past six years, the airline has only grown in terms of passenger numbers its traffic has grown 78 per cent in the past six years. For about 200 passengers, a flight from London to Thessaloniki in northern Greece took almost 24 hours. Foggy conditions in Thessaloniki airport led Ryanair to divert the flight from London Stansted Airport to the city of Timisoara in western Romania, late on Friday. Many passengers, already grumbling that the diversion was not made to an airport closer to their destination were outraged when the company offered buses to take them the 770-kilometer (480-mile) distance in freezing weather. Ryanair passengers on a flight to Greece were left furious after it was diverted to Romania and they were told they would have to take a nine-hour bus journey to reach their destination Ryanair has scheduled flights to Timisoara, as well as Athens, Greece, and some passengers felt that the decision to divert to the Romanian city was made on the basis of minimizing costs. One of them, Sakis Papadopoulos, told the Associated Press: 'They could have landed us at a Greek airport. 'Our flight was already delayed and then, around 10:30 p.m. (Friday), they informed us we would be landing at Timisoara instead of Thessaloniki.' A total of 89 passengers refused to take up the offer of buses, despite what they said was pressure from airport authorities, who kept them in the baggage area overnight. Passengers took to Twitter to complain about their treatment and question why they weren't taken to an airport closer to their final destination Mr Papadopoulos, who had traveled to London for the festive period, said that the passengers were finally offered a hotel stay at 8am on Saturday but they refused, saying they would stay put until a plane arrived to take them to Greece. 'Some of us contacted Greek media,' he added. Others took to Twitter to complain about their treatment. Ioannis said: '@Ryanair instead of landing the passengers in SKG airport (thessaloniki) in GREECE you've decided to land the plain in Timisoara in ROMANIA?couldn't you find an airport CLOSER?' While Ioannis John Glykos tweeted: 'Last night a flight to #SKG (Thessaloniki, Greece) the worst airline in the world @Ryanair could not land due to bad weather. They diverted to Romania and they left 200 people at the airport with no service at all. 2 GR airports few km away were open for landing SHAME.' Ryanair has scheduled flights to Timisoara, as well as Athens, Greece, and some passengers felt that the decision to divert to the Romanian city was made on the basis of minimizing costs Informed of the passengers' plight, the Greek government arranged with Greek carrier Aegean Airlines to send a plane to Timisoara. Greek transport Minister Christos Spirtzis weighed in against what he said were 'low cost, low social responsibility' airlines. The 89 passengers arrived in Thessaloniki around 5pm on Saturday. The flight normally would have taken around three hours, 30 minutes. Ryanair later issued an apology for the diversion, saying that it was 'beyond our control'. Royoles radical foldable smartphone made its global debut at CES International in Las Vegas on Monday morning, beating Samsung and other top phone makers in the race to bring flexible handheld devices to consumers. The firm showed off its $1300 FlexPai smartphone, which doubles as a tablet when its unfurled making it, in that form, the biggest smartphone in the world right now. While other companies have demonstrated similar concepts in recent months, Royoles FlexPai is the first commercial version of a foldable smartphone. Scroll down for video Royoles radical foldable smartphone made its global debut at CES International in Las Vegas on Monday morning, beating Samsung and other top phone makers in the race to bring flexible handheld devices to consumers The firm showed off its $1300 FlexPai smartphone, which doubles as a tablet when its unfurled making it, in that form, the biggest smartphone in the world right now FLEXPAI SPECS FlexPai is now selling in Beijing for $1,318 (128G) and $1,429 (256G) Dimension 7.8 in. diagonal Type Flexible AMOLED Resolution 1920 x 1440 (expanded mode) RAM 6 GB/8 GB ROM 128 GB/256 GB Supported Memory Card MicroSD Expandable Storage Up to 256 GB Advertisement The firm officially launched FlexPai in Beijing this past fall. During a press conference at the Mandalay Bay at CES, Royole CEO Bill Liu revealed the firms vision to change the way we interact with information. Royole has been developing its Human Machine Interface (HMI) for the past six years, straying from the traditional approach of the rigid, bulky interface to flexible systems that better adapt to the users needs. FlexPai, the CEO explains, is essentially the combination of a smartphone and a tablet. And, the firm says, it still weighs less than typical devices of each kind. The firm officially launched FlexPai in Beijing this past fall. During a press conference in the Mandalay Bay at CES, Royole CEO Bill Liu revealed the firms vision to change the way we interact with information The foldable phone allows you to turn a tablet into a pocket-sized device for the first time The foldable phone allows you to turn a tablet into a pocket-sized device for the first time. You cant put a pad in your pocket, Liu said in reference to other, rigid tablets. In the past decade, theres been so many different portable devices in the world, but most of them are similar a small device that fits in the palm, with a touchscreen, the CEO said during the press conference. So whats next? Everyone is asking the same question. Our mission is to improve the way people interact with the world, Liu said. Weve never changed our mission; thats still the mission today. (ANSA) - Rome, January 6 - Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has reiterated his refusal to allow NGO-run migrant-rescue ships to dock on Italy. The League leader was commenting amid concern about 49 asylum seekers saved in the Mediterranean by German NGOs Sea-Watch and Sea Eye who have not been allocated a port of safety amid a standoff. On Sunday Pope Francis made an appeal to European leaders to "show concrete solidarity" in this case. Malta let the NGOs' rescue ships shelter from bad weather near its coast but refused to allow the asylum seekers to disembark. At the weekend Labour and Industry Minister and fellow Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio suggested Italy could receive the women and children that are among the asylum seekers. But Salvini has said he wants to keep access closed. "I want a country that is open but closed to human traffickers," Salvini said via Facebook. "If we give in... the traffickers will start making money again and the NGOs that don't respect the rules will go back to helping the traffickers". Advertisement SpaceX is putting the final touches to a historic launch of its manned capsule that will see America return to manned spaceflight for the fist time since the Shuttle was retired. 'Preparing to return human spaceflight capabilities to the United States, Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 went vertical at historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida,' SpaceX tweeted, revealed the rocket is now upright on the launch pad. It also showed off the new walkway astronauts will walk down - complete with a 'you must be this tall to ride' sign. It is expected to launch an unmanned test flight for the craft later this month. Scroll down for video 'Preparing to return human spaceflight capabilities to the United States, Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 went vertical at historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida,' SpaceX tweeted, revealed the rocket is now upright on the launch pad. Musk tweeted this image of the entrance to the craft, showing a height restriction believed to be inspired by rollercoaster WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE CAPSULES? After the uncrewed flight tests, both companies will carry out spacecraft abort tests to demonstrate their crew escape capability during an actual on-pad, or ascent emergency. The final test flights for each company will be crew flight tests to the space station prior to being certified by NASA for crew rotation missions. Advertisement The first, uncrewed, test of the craft was due for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 7, NASA - but this has now been pushed back until at least January 17th to allows the return of the Dragon spacecraft from the company's 16th commercial resupply services mission. The first unmanned orbital test flight, however, is 'about a month away,' according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The Demo-1 flight test is a crucial milestone in the space agency's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to launch humans to space from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade. NASA and SpaceX have agreed to move the target launch date of the uncrewed to the International Space Station. SpaceX coordinated with the Eastern Range for a launch on Thursday, Jan 17. The rocket rolling out of the SpaceX hanger to historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida This adjustment allows the return of the Dragon spacecraft from the company's 16th commercial resupply services mission. SpaceX's Demo-1 will provide key data associated with the ground, integrated rocket and spacecraft, and autonomous docking systems, and the landing profile ahead of the company's flight test with astronauts, known as Demo-2. On the launchpad: Rocket and Crew Dragon capsule ready to go The first unmanned orbital test flight, however, is 'about a month away,' according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. 'We still have more work to do as the certification process, hardware development and readiness reviews continue,' said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. 'The key readiness reviews along with NASA's continued analysis of hardware and software testing and certification data must be closed out prior to launch. The upcoming steps before the test missions are critical, and their importance can't be understated. 'We are not driven by dates, but by data. Ultimately, we'll fly SpaceX Demo-1 at the right time, so we get the right data back to support the in-flight abort test and the next test flight when our astronauts are aboard. NASA said SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft - which will shuttle three astronauts to space from the same launch pad that sent Apollo 11's three-man crew to the moon in 1969 - will make its debut flight atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 7 'However, the fact we're coordinating target dates with the Eastern Range is a great example of the real progress we're making with commercial crew and how close we are to actually flying American spacecraft and rockets from American soil again.' While NASA did not detail the flight path, it said the test would provide data on the performance of the Falcon 9, Crew Dragon capsule, and ground systems, as well as on-orbit, docking and landing operations. SpaceX and Boeing Co are the two main contractors selected under NASA's Commercial Crew Program to send astronauts to space as soon as 2019, using their Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft respectively. Since the U.S. space shuttle program was shut down in 2011, NASA has had to rely on Russia to fly astronauts to the space station, a $100 billion orbital research laboratory that flies about 250 miles (402 km) above Earth. The Demo-1 launch is the latest test in a rigorous certification timeline imposed under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. While SpaceX is targeting early January, NASA spokeswoman Marie Lewis said the demo mission could be pushed back because 'flying safely has always taken precedence over schedule.' WHAT IS SPACEX' CREW DRAGON? The capsule measures about 20 feet tall by 12 feet in diameter, and will carry up to 7 astronauts at a time. The Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system (which was tested earlier this year) to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong, experiencing about the same G-forces as a ride at Disneyland. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule measures 20 feet tall by 12 feet in diameter, and will carry up to 7 astronauts at a time. However, the manned flight will have four astronauts on board It also has an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that provides a comfortable and safe environment for crew members. Crew Dragon's displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft's capabilities, showing everything from Dragon's position in space, to possible destinations, to the environment on board. Those CRS-2 Dragon missions will use 'propulsive' landings, where the capsule lands on a landing pad using its SuperDraco thrusters rather than splashing down in the ocean. That will allow NASA faster access to the cargo returned by those spacecraft, and also build up experience for propulsive landings of crewed Dragon spacecraft. Pictured is the Crew Dragon spacecraft simulator. The Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong Advertisement Founded by Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, SpaceX said if the Jan. 7 test is successful, it plans to launch its first crewed mission in June 2019, but the timeline may shift. Boeing plans a similar test launch of the Starliner spacecraft atop its Atlas 5 rocket as soon as March, with a crewed mission following in August. The Jan. 7 launch date announcement comes a day after NASA said it would conduct a 'cultural assessment study' of the companies, 'including the adherence to a drug-free environment,' prior to crew test flights. Female Magellanic penguins are becoming stranded after moving further north to beat competition from rival males to find food, experts say. Water and noise pollution, as well as fishing, are forcing the species to further afield, up to 620 miles (1,000km) away from their breeding grounds. Each year, thousands of penguins are stranded along the South American coast, with females to accounting for 75 per cent of those that get lost. Researchers were puzzled why this was the case, but tracking 14 penguins revealed that females venture further north. Scroll down for video Female Magellanic penguins are moving further north because of water and noise pollution, a study has found. They travel further from their Patagonian breeding ground in southern Argentina to the northern coast of the country - sometimes as far as Uruguay WHAT IS KILLING OFF THE PENGUINS? Data show that the decline began in the late 1990s, coinciding with a major climatic event in the Southern Ocean related to El Nino. This event temporarily affected the foraging capacities of another colony 100 km from Ile aux Cochons, causing it to dwindle. The same process may be responsible for the fate of the Ile aux Cochons colony. Disease is another hypothesis entertained. Avian cholera is currently ravaging populations of seabirds on other islands in the Indian Ocean, like the albatross of Ile Amsterdam and the penguins of Marion Island. Advertisement Scientists from the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo used GPS trackers to monitor eight males and six females in 2017. The penguins finished breeding in Patagonia in late February, after which they began their migration in search of food. Females reached more northern areas than males, who stuck to waters off the Argentinian coast. The researchers said that these behavioural differences between sexes in winter could be related to competition for food resources or factors related to differences in size. Males are larger and heavier than females. They also suggest penguins travelling further north may be at greater risk to a wide range of threats - leading them to become stranded more often. But the greater loss of females from the breeding population could have serious consequences for the viability of the population. Numbers of Magellanic penguins have dropped dramatically since the turn of the century with some colonies halving in the past 15 years. There are thought to be around 1.2 million left in the world. Dr Takashi Yamamoto, who led the research, said: 'Anthropogenic (man-made) threats have been considered to threaten wintering Magellanic penguins along the coasts of northern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. 'These include water pollution caused by oil development and marine transport as well as fishery-associated hazards such as bycatch and depletion of prey species. 'Our results suggest the northward spatial expansion likely increases the probability to suffer these risks - and particularly so in females.' The research shows that every year thousands become trapped through oil spills and falling fish numbers - with females three times more prone Dr Yamamoto says the it highlights 'the necessity of gaining a better understanding of the long-term spatial utilisations of species throughout their annual cycle.' This includes any differences within a population in order to 'facilitate dynamic and adaptive conservation practices.' He also notes young penguins are stranded more often than adults. To further explore this finding, his team plan to track juvenile's movements from the time they leave their place of birth until they return to breed for the first time. Dr Yamamoto added: 'Information during this period is totally missing.' The findings were published in the journal Current Biology. The disgraced scientist that claims to have genetically edited two human children is under continued house arrest as fears grow he may face the death penalty. He Jiankui may face being charged with bribery and corruption - crimes which are punishable by death in the country. Colleagues are peers of Dr He have spoke about the severe punishment the exiled geneticist could face as a result of his abominable research. Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Francis Crick Institute in London, said 'quite a few people have lost their heads for corruption'. Scroll down for video He Jiankui speaks during an interview at a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province. The Chinese scientist claims he helped make world's first genetically edited babies: Twin girls whose DNA he claims to have altered The scientific world and the general public were stunned when Dr He Jiankui released his YouTube video claiming to have successfully created gene edited human twins. Academics condemned his unethical actions and slammed his procedure, intentions and whimsical approach to morality. It is believed he is under constant watch by armed guards following death threats and imminent legal proceedings. Punishment for his actions would likely be severe and some have speculated it could result in the death penalty. William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International, said: 'China executes more people than any other country in the world, and the country's death penalty system is shrouded in secrecy. 'Suspects often do not have access to lawyers during key phases of the legal process and the use of torture to extract forced confessions is rife. 'In highly politicised cases the trial is often a mere spectacle with the outcome already decided.' British-based that academics claim to have had contact with the ostracised scientist say he may be facing charges of bribery and corruption - crimes which come with capital punishment in the Asian superpower. He has been unable to leave his state owned apartment in Shenzhen since December. HOW DID DR HE DESCRIBE THE WORK? 'The gene editing occurred during IVF, or lab dish fertilisation. 'First, sperm was 'washed' to separate it from semen, the fluid where HIV can lurk. 'A single sperm was placed into a single egg to create an embryo. 'Then the gene editing tool was added. 'When the embryos were three to five days old, a few cells were removed and checked for editing. 'Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. 'In all, 16 of 22 embryos were edited, and 11 embryos were used in six implant attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved.' Advertisement 'All the reports suggest he is an university owned apartment and there a quite a number of guards. It's not clear whether he's under guard, meaning house arrest or the guards are there to protect him. I suspect both,' Professor Lovell-Badge said at a conference, The Telegraph reports. 'There is an official investigation led by the ministries of science and health. 'Lots of people are probably going to lose their jobs, he wasn't the only involved in this obviously. So how has he got them to do all this work? 'He could be had up on all sorts of charges of corruption and being guilty of corruption in China these days is not something you want to be. 'Quite a few people have lost their heads for corruption.' Dr He trained as a physicist, not a biologist, and was therefore unqualified and likely unable to carry out the research himself. It is believed he used his own 40 million fortune to fund the project and privately recruited highly-trained scientific professionals to carry out the research. Little is known about the research which staggered scientists for its brazen flaunting of every rule and guideline on ethics and legality in genetics. Professor Lovell-Badge added: 'He really thought that he was doing good, that what he was doing was the next big thing, and really important for the good of mankind. 'Pretty much everyone he talked to had said 'don't do it.' We'd heard he had ethical approval, so we were getting scared. But clearly it was all too late. 'Here you have a physicist who knows little biology, is very rich, has a huge ego, wants to be the first at doing something that will change the world.' This image shows a microplate containing embryos that have been injected with Cas9 protein using the controversial gene editing tool Crispr. The image was taken at Dr He's laboratory in Shenzhen last month The two children, LuLu and Nana, were born in October, it is believed, and were designed to have a resistance to infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. These potentially dangerous changes may then be passed down to future generations, a field of research still in its infancy and widely unknown. He's controversial work, which earned him the nickname of 'Chinese Frankenstein', was condemned by the medical community and Chinese health officials, who said they know nothing of the experiment. Gene editing is banned in Britain, the US many other parts of the world, and researchers said that, if Dr He's claims are true, the 'monstrous' experiment was 'not morally or ethically defensible'. Dr Jiankui, previously of the Southern University of Science and Technology, in Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said at the time his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have - an ability to resist infection with HIV. He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and would not say where they live or where the work was done. There is no independent confirmation of Dr He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. It's 'unconscionable ... an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible,' said Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal. 'This is far too premature,' said Dr Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. 'We're dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. It's a big deal.' This graphic reveals how, theoretically, an embryo could be 'edited' using the powerful tool Crispr-Cas9 to defend humans against HIV infection WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DOUBTS SURROUNDING DR HE'S CLAIMS? Several scientists reviewed materials that Dr He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm. They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes. 'It's almost like not editing at all' if only some of certain cells were altered, because HIV infection can still occur, famed Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church said. Church and Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert, questioned the decision to allow one of the embryos to be used in a pregnancy attempt, because the Chinese researchers said they knew in advance that both copies of the intended gene had not been altered. 'In that child, there really was almost nothing to be gained in terms of protection against HIV and yet you're exposing that child to all the unknown safety risks,' Dr Musunuru said. The use of that embryo suggests that the researchers' 'main emphasis was on testing editing rather than avoiding this disease,' Church said. Even if editing worked perfectly, people without normal CCR5 genes face higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu. Since there are many ways to prevent HIV infection and it's very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Dr Musunuru said. There also are questions about the way Dr He said he proceeded. He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it - on November 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials. It's unclear whether participants fully understood the purpose and potential risks and benefits. For example, consent forms called the project an 'AIDS vaccine development' program. The hospital linked to the controversial project denied approving the procedure and accused Dr He of forgery. Advertisement 'If true, this experiment is monstrous,' said Professor Julian Savulescu, Director of the University of Oxford's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. 'These healthy babies are being used as genetic guinea pigs. This is genetic Russian Roulette.' However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University's Professor George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called 'a major and growing public health threat.' 'I think this is justifiable,' Professor Church said of that goal. In recent years scientists have discovered a relatively easy way to edit genes, the strands of DNA that govern the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one that's causing problems. It's only recently been tried in adults to treat deadly diseases, with all edits confined to that person, meaning they cannot be passed down to their children. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different - the changes can be inherited. In the US, it's not allowed except for lab research. China outlaws human cloning but not specifically gene editing. Dr He Jiankui, who goes by 'JK,' studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the US before returning to his homeland to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, where he also has two genetics companies. Dr He said he chose to try embryo gene editing for HIV because these infections are a big problem in China. He sought to disable a gene called CCR5 that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter a cell. All of the men in the project had HIV and all of the women did not, but the gene editing was not aimed at preventing the small risk of transmission, Dr He said. The fathers had their infections deeply suppressed by standard HIV medicines and there are simple ways to keep them from infecting offspring that do not involve altering genes. Instead, the appeal was to offer couples affected by HIV a chance to have a child that might be protected from a similar fate. Dr He recruited couples through a Beijing-based AIDS advocacy group called Baihualin. Charles Darwin is one of the greatest scientific minds of all time and a controversial new study claims the father of evolutionary biology suffered from Lyme disease. Darwin was ill for the majority of his adult life following his iconic voyage on-board the HMS Beagle where he developed his theories of natural selection and evolution. After returning to his home at Down House in Kent the naturalist married his cousin and fell ill, reporting symptoms of diarrhoea, rashes, vomiting and muscle pain. Detailed in his many notebooks and diaries, Darwin recorded his despair over his varied symptoms, which also included frequent heart palpitations and flatulence. Many historians believe it was a tropical illness he contracted on the Beagle which led to his lifelong poor health. Others have argued his symptoms were largely psychosomatic and anxiety induced. Scroll down for video Charles Darwin (pictured) may have contracted Lyme disease after a tick bite which he contracted in Britain, researchers claim New research suggests that Darwin may have been infected by a tick as he collected specimens from the British countryside, shortly before his voyage. Erwin Kompanje and Jelle Reumer at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam searched online databases of Darwin's notes and correspondence for any mention of symptoms that might give clues to his mystery illness. The Dutch researchers believe his mild fluctuating symptoms, which started to appear before he reached South America in 1835, are consistent with Lyme disease. The study notes that Lyme disease was present in the British Isles in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In his numerous writings, Darwin details his 'many bad attacks of sickness' including 'faintness', 'uncomfortable palpitations', even suggesting that he was 'rapidly dying'. 'He had a lot of different symptoms: swimming of the head, a shortness of breath, trembling hands, and all of them came and went, and that is quite typical of Lyme disease,' said Erwin Kompanje, a clinical researcher at the Erasmus University medical centre in Rotterdam. 'Exposure to a tick carrying Borrelia in Great Britain is much more plausible than exposure to Chagas disease during his travel in South America,' the researchers write. 'Darwin travelled around England and Wales, collecting insects, shooting birds, picking up stones and thus being exposed to ticks,' the authors add. 'There must thus have been ample time during the first three decades of his life to get infected.' However, other scientists are not be convinced by the Lyme disease diagnosis. Misdiagnosis is quite common in the condition because the symptoms mimic other diseases. One common sign of being bitten by an infected tick is a red bullseye-type rash, but such a mark is never described in Darwin's writing. Other scientists are not be convinced by the Lyme disease diagnosis. Misdiagnosis is quite common in the condition because the symptoms often mimic other diseases. One common sign of being bitten by an infected tick is a red bullseye-type rash (pictured), but such a mark is never described in Darwin's writing (stock) WHAT IS LYME DISEASE? Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected black-legged ticks. The most common symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash called erythema migrans. The disease can typically be treated by several weeks of oral antibiotics. But if left untreated, the infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous symptoms and be deadly. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE INFECTED? During the first three to 30 days of infection, these symptoms may occur: Fever Chills Headache Fatigue Muscle and joint aches Swollen lymph nodes Erythema migrans (EM) rash The rash occurs in approximately 80 per cent of infected people. It can expand to up to 12 inches (30 cm), eventually clearing and giving off the appearance of a target or a 'bull's-eye'. Later symptoms of Lyme disease include: Severe headaches and neck stiffness Additional rashes Arthritis with joint pain and swelling Facial or Bell's palsy Heart palpitations Problems with short-term memory Nerve pain Source: CDC Advertisement Richard Wall, a specialist in ticks at the University of Bristol, told the Guardian: 'Borreliosis is a particularly difficult infection to diagnose symptomatically even when the patient is available because of the diffuse and highly variable nature of the clinical signs; some researchers even question the existence of a chronic form of the disease. 'So, retrospective diagnosis at a historical distance of 200 years, while interesting, must be considered as highly speculative.' The ill health of the Darwin family was not restricted to Charles as two of his ten children with his wife and cousin Emma Wedgwood died. It remains unknown if the demise of his children was linked to the close familial relationship between mother and father, a hereditary disease or poor fortune in an age of rudimentary and developing medicine. The findings were reported in Deinsea, the journal of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. Women are better off in more countries than men are, a new study has found. A method that assesses the forms of hardship and discrimination facing men and women has revealed males have it harder in 91 countries out of 134. Women were disadvantaged in only 43. The study looked at 6.8 billion people around the world and scientists developed a new way of measuring gender inequality. The UK, the US and Australia all discriminate against men more whereas Italy, Israel and China are harder environments for women, according to the study. Researchers say this is due to men receiving harsher punishments for the same crime, compulsory military service and more occupational deaths than women. Scroll down for video A study looked at 6.8 billion people around the world from 134 nations and developed a new way of measuring gender inequality. It found that women are better off in more countries (stock) The study was carried out by the University of Essex and the University of Missouri-Columbia and published in the journal Plos One. Scientists created a database which deciphers a nation's discrimination called the Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI). The closer the BIGI score is to zero the greater the level of equality is in the country. Zero is a perfect score, indicating absolute parity between the genders - and Italy came the closest with a score of 0.00021. Slightly favouring males. The top ranked nation to favour women over men is claimed to be Saudi Arabia, with a score of -0.001554. If it is a negative number it indicates females are better off and if the BIGI score is positive it shows males are less discriminated against. For example, Guatemala and Albania came in as the 17th and 18th ranked countries, respectively for equality and had a BIGI score a similar distance from zero. However, Guatemala is a better environment for men with a score of 0.012198 where as Albania is better for women - it scored -0.012889 The index is based on three factors: educational opportunities, healthy life expectancy and overall life satisfaction. A measure called the Global Gender Gap Index has been used as the yardstick for analysing inequality since its inception in 2006. It became one of the most widely-used measures of national gender inequality, used by academics and policy makers across the world Researchers have recently grown wary of the index and claim it does not measure issues where men are at a disadvantage. Professor Stoet also believes the complexity of the Global Gender Gap Index makes it difficult to distinguish whether gender differences are the result of social inequalities or personal preference. The simpler BIGI method, he says, is a much sounder alternative. He said: 'No existing measure of gender inequality fully captures the hardships that are disproportionately experienced by men in many countries and so they do not fully capture the extent to which any specific country is promoting the wellbeing of all its citizens. 'The BIGI provides a much simpler way of tackling gender inequality and it focuses on aspects of life that are directly relevant to all people. 'Used alongside other existing indicators, it provides additional and different information to give a more complete assessment of gender equality, making it easier for policy-makers to introduce changes to improve the quality of life for both men and women.' Nearly eight out of 10 companies and public sector bodies pay men more than women in the UK, a report from April 2018 found Researchers found the most developed countries in the world come closest to achieving true gender equality but there was a slight advantage for women. Inequality was more significant in the least developed countries, with Chad the lowest ranked nation. Women in these nations are at a more significant disadvantage than the men in the more developed nations where women have the edge. The authors of the research say the difficulties faced by women in developing regions is predominantly due to fewer opportunities to get a good education. There are an equal amount of nations with medium-level development that see men and women falling behind. Researchers say men's disadvantage is largely due to a shorter healthy lifespan. Professor David Geary, from the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri in the United States, added: 'We sought to correct the bias towards women's issues within existing measures and at the same time develop a simple measure that is useful in any country in the world, regardless of their level of economic development.' WHAT IS THE GENDER PAY GAP? On average, men working in the UK earn between 9 per cent more than women in the same profession, numbers released by the Office for National Statistics show. But in many professions the gulf is far larger - with female bank managers earning on average 39,995 a year - over a quarter (28.6 per cent) less than men on 58,070. The data reveals that public sector staff are still on an average higher wage than those in the private sector - taking home 599 a week compared to 532. Male farmers take home more than 20 per cent more than women - earning on average 10,59 an hour rather than 8.39 an hour given to females. The overwhelming majority of professions tend to pay more to men than women. And research conducted in October 2017 showed that just three jobs do not have a gender pay gap at all - bar staff, medical and dental technicians, and waiters. From April 2018, all employers with more than 250 staff have been required by law to publish their gender pay gap online. Figures also show that average weekly earnings for full-time employees in the UK were 550, up 2.2 per cent from 539 in 2016 and the highest rise since 2008. TUC (Trade Union Congress) comments say women are essentially working for free for the first 67 days of the year. Justine Greening, women and equalities minister, said: 'Eliminating the gender pay gap is key to building a stronger economy where everyone plays by the same rules. 'It is simply good business sense to recognise the enormous potential of women and to take action to nurture and progress female talent.' She added: 'I'm now calling on employers across the country to get on with publishing their gender pay gap. They have until 31st March to do so. 'By shining a light on where there are gaps, employers can take action and make sure that we are harnessing the talents and skills of men and women.' Advertisement The University of Essex, which performed the research, made headlines in 2016 when it gave female staff a one-off pay rise in order to close the gender pay gap. It moved female professors up three newly created pay levels to raise their average salaries to the same as their male counterparts. Professor Stoet added: 'Were not saying that women in highly developed countries are not experiencing disadvantages in some aspects of their lives. 'What we are saying is that an ideal measure of gender equality is not biased to the disadvantages of either gender. 'Doing so, we find a different picture to the one commonly presented in the media.' Advertisement A headset that helps track your sleep, a smart cat bowl and a motorised suitcase are among some of the innovative gadgets going on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week. The largest technology convention in the world is taking place in a conference hall in Las Vegas, showcasing a mix of aspiring tech companies' innovations and a small handful of gems from established names. Members of the media were given a sneak preview of some of the stars of the show at a 'CES Unveiled' event, held ahead of its official opening tomorrow. CES is one of the biggest dates in the tech industry calendar and is expected to draw more than 180,000 visitors hoping for a chance to see the kind of tech likely to dominate the coming year's agenda. Scroll down for video CES is one of the biggest dates in the tech industry calendar and is expected to draw more than 180,000 visitors hoping for a chance to see the kind of tech likely to dominate the coming year's agenda. Here, the UrgoNight sleep tracking headset which trains your brain to sleep better, is demonstrated at the CES Unveiled 2019 in Las Vegas A headset that helps track your sleep, a smart cat bowl and a motorised suitcase are among some of the innovative gadgets going on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week. Here, the SPECTRA X, a shareable electric skateboard by Walnutt Technologies is displayed the event Members of the media were given a sneak preview of some of the stars of the show at a 'CES Unveiled' event, held ahead of its official opening tomorrow. The Mookkie cat bowl, pictured here, uses visual recognition and will only open up to a specific cat's face, preventing other cats or animals from eating the food WHAT IS CES? The Consumer Electronics Show is an annual technology convention that takes place in Las Vegas. The show typically takes place in early January. It attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees from all over the world, as well as thousands of tech firms, startups and entrepreneurs. Companies show off their latest innovations, ranging from the latest robots, autonomous vehicles and smart assistant-equipped gadgets. Advertisement A recent boom in sleep tech has seen everything from smart pillows and sleep-tracking beds emerging on the market. Urgonight, a sleep-tracking headset by French startup Urgo Group goes one step further by training your brain to sleep better. The headband connects to the Urgonight app and trains your brain into developing wave patterns for healthier sleep. The Urgonight EEG (electroencephalogram) therapy requires three 20-minute sessions per week, which then gives you feedback in the app that shows your session progress in real time. The team say that sustainable results take three months to achieve but that it helps you learn how to produce brainwaves that enhance your natural sleep. Another sleep tech startup Dreamlight unveiled a mask that uses light, sound and genetics so you fall asleep faster and wake up with more energy. The Dreamlight is a heavily padded and contoured strip that wraps around your head and attaches with velcro. The convention showcases a mix of aspiring tech companies' innovations and a small handful of gems from established names. Japanese company Mui Calm lets users control devices such as home lighting and thermostats via touch and voice command, claiming to create a more 'natural interface'. The device costs $600 and claims to cut down on screen time The largest technology convention in the world is taking place in a conference hall in Las Vegas is set to draw in around 180,000 visitors. For those who travel often, on display was the Ovis Suitcase, pictured here, which automatically follows the owner around and even dodges passers-by Plumbing company Kohler stole the show with an 'intelligent toilet' with built-in surround sound speakers, ambient mood lighting, and Amazon Alexa voice controls. It has personalised cleansing and drier functions, built-in speakers, and comes with a promise of 'exceptional water efficiency' Plumbing company Kohler showed off an 'intelligent toilet' with built-in surround sound speakers, ambient mood lighting, and Amazon Alexa voice controls. The Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet, also has personalised cleansing and drier functions, built-in speakers, and comes with a promise of 'exceptional water efficiency'. 'Connected technology is driving innovation in the smart home category, but connectivity alone isn't enough,' said David Kohler, Kohler's chief. 'We believe in leading with design and seamlessly incorporating the right technologies so that our customers can personalise their bathroom experiences to be just right for them.' A recent boom in sleep tech has seen everything from smart pillows and sleep-tracking beds emerging on the market. Startup Dreamlight unveiled a mask that uses light, sound and genetics so you fall asleep faster and wake up with more energy. The Dreamlight Pro is a heavily padded and contoured strip that wraps around your head and attaches with velcro The shareable electric skateboard which focuses on P2P (person to person) sharing. Similar to Airbnb, owners of the skateboard can rent out the right of use to people who are interested in riding. Here, a reporter at the convention gives one a test Ahead of the convention, Samsung announces a partnership with long time rivals Apple before introducing an enormous microLED TV called The Wall, also revealed at last year's CES, Samsung has returned in 2019 with a smaller, 75-inch 4K TV, touted as more 'practical fit for the living room'. Samsung's screen chief Jonghee Han at this year's CES Also on display was the Ovis Suitcase which automatically follows its owner around and even dodges passers-by. After introducing an enormous microLED TV called The Wall at last year's CES, Samsung has returned in 2019 with a smaller, 75-inch 4K TV, touted as more 'practical fit for the living room'. The incredibly thin television uses the same foundation as The Wall, combining 'individual tiles of self-emissive MicroLEDs, featuring millions of inorganic red, green and blue microscopic LED chips that emit their own bright light to produce brilliant colors on screen.' The SPECTRA X, by Walnutt Technologies is a shareable electric skateboard which focuses on P2P (person to person) sharing. Debbie Cohen-Abravanel, CMO at Foldimate, demonstrates the new device that folds your clothes automatically, at the CES Unveiled at CES International. The machine costs a planned price of around $1,000, and analyzes each clothing item to figure out the best way to fold it using AI. Similar to Airbnb, owners of the skateboard can rent out the right of use to people who are interested in riding. Walnutt Technologies claims that the device connects people who share the same interests, enabling more people to enjoy the fun of e-skateboarding while fostering an e-skater ecosystem. A number of smart-home security cameras were also on show, along with a slat of wood which acts as a display to cut down on screen time. Mui Calm lets owners control devices such as home lighting and thermostats via touch and voice command. The UrgoNight sleep tracking headset which trains your brain to sleep better is seen at CES Unveiled 2019 at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas. The headband connects to the Urgonight app and trains your brain into developing wave patterns for healthier sleep Among some of the more unusual gadgets on show were a water bottle with a built-in Bluetooth speaker, and a refrigerator that detects when you are out of beer and orders more. Here, the AQUIO Bluetooth water speakers The $600 (470) piece of wood. It is also a touchscreen display with Google Assistant voice controls that is meant to be a more natural interface than a regular screen. It lets users to check the news and weather and send and receive messages by showing text on the wooden slat. The Japanese company says the technology blends into your home, for a calmer environment. Various fuzzy robots for children were also previewed at the tech event - including a robot that is designed to tell children bed time stories. The Mookkie cat bowl uses visual recognition and will only open up to a specific cat's face, preventing other cats or animals from eating the food. The bowl connects to a local network over WiFi and will send pet owners a notification via the mobile app to alert them that their pet is about to eat. It can also send a short video of the pet in action. The conference began yesterday and showcases latest inventions from thousands of companies and new start-ups ranging from groundbreaking to bizarre The Wilkinson Baking Company unveiled their BreadBot at CES Unveiled 2019 at the Mandalay Bay. Three US grocery chains will begin testing it out in stores later this year, though Breadbot's makers would not specify which ones The automated device starts with dry ingredients and bakes several different types of bread, including white, whole wheat, nine grain, sourdough and honey oat. The bread requires fewer preservatives since it's made on the spot, according The Wilkinson Baking Company It is also said to work with Google Assistant, meaning you can control the bowl's opening mechanism as well as order more pet food by simply using voice commands. The Breadbot a carb vending machine - proved to be another highlight of the show. The automated device starts with dry ingredients and bakes several different types of bread, including white, whole wheat, nine grain, sourdough and honey oat. The bread requires fewer preservatives since it's made on the spot, according The Wilkinson Baking Company. The CES 2019 gadget show is revving up in Las Vegas, bringing the latest in consumer technology from all around the world. La Roche-Posay unveiled their smart PH skincare system My Skin Track UV is a wearable PH tracker from La Roche-Posay seen at CES Unveiled. The CES 2019 gadget show is revving up in Las Vegas, bringing the latest in consumer technology from all around the world. La Roche-Posay unveiled their smart PH skincare system Three US grocery chains will begin testing it out in stores later this year, though Breadbot's makers would not specify which ones. Among some of the more unusual gadgets on show were a water bottle with a built-in Bluetooth speaker, and a refrigerator that detects when you are out of beer and orders more. British company Elvie displayed a breast pump that can be worn in a bra under normal clothes and operates with minimal sound so mothers can go about their normal jobs and routines. The Elvie is already available in the United Kingdom and will start shipping in the United States in February. Japanese company Groove X has just unveiled its Lovot robot, a companion that can ask for attention, shy away from people it's not familiar with and follow you around like a pet It could be the best thing since sliced bread. A family-owned baking business is attempting to disrupt how you get your next loaf at the grocery store with the first, fully automated bread-making machine. Called the BreadBot, Washington-based Wilkinson Baking Company took the wraps off the machine at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which mixes, kneads and bakes bread in just 90 minutes. Up to 10 loaves are ready to pick up from a vending machine every hour and its creators say the BreadBot does as good of a job as a human baker - so good that the machines are expected to land in major grocery stores soon. Scroll down for video Called the BreadBot, Wilkinson Baking Company took the wraps off the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It mixes, kneads and bakes bread in just 90 minutes BreadBot can make just about any kind of loaf you want, including whole wheat, nine grain, honey oat and rye. First, a dry mix is added to a funnel-shaped mechanism, called a hopper. A variety of sensors determine that the yeast is just right, then water is added and the ingredients are mixed for about six minutes, before the dough ball is released onto a conveyer belt and rolled into a log. The loaves are placed into individual pans, where they finish proofing and then proceed through the baking process. When the baking process is complete, a robotic arm lifts the loaf out of the pan and into the vending machine where customers can take it. The company says BreadBot is poised to shake up how we're used to buying our fresh bread from the store. BreadBot can make just about any kind of loaf you want, including whole wheat, nine grain, honey oat and rye. Its creators say the bot-made bread is fresher than the manmade stuff Up to 10 loaves are ready to pick up from a vending machine every hour and its creators say the BreadBot does as good of a job as a human baker - so good it'll roll out in grocery stores 'It's all automated. It can start up at 3:00am when no one is there and by the time you get there, you've got fresh bread,' Randall Wilkinson, CEO of the Wilkinson Baking Company, told Dailymail.com. 'This is the first time that you've been able to take the master baker and make everything happen automatically, so that it comes out with a good quality loaf on a continuing basis.' While the bread comes from a machine, the company says the loaves end up being more fresh than the preservative-filled products usually found on grocery store shelves. Wilkinson said human bread-makers, called master bakers, have expressed concern over machines like the BreadBot taking their job, but that they say the robo-bread tastes just like the manmade stuff. BreadBot is just a prototype for now, but Wilkinson Baking Company is in the process of manufacturing a final version that will be tested as soon as April in some major grocery stores WHAT IS THE 'BREADBOT?' BreadBot is a fully automated bread-making machine that can deliver up to 10 loaves in an hour. The whole machine is encapsulated in a glass case, complete with a hopper, conveyer belt and heating mechanisms. This is what mixes, kneads, proofs and bakes the bread in just 90 minutes. After a loaf is baked, it's sent to a vending machine-like display case where consumers can pick up their bread. It can make a variety of types, including wheat, nine grain, honey oat and more. Wilkinson Baking Company, the firm behind BreadBot, says the device could land in three out of the top five U.S. grocery chains for testing by this year. Advertisement BreadBot is just a prototype for now, but Wilkinson Baking Company is in the process of manufacturing a final version that will be tested as soon as April in three out of the five biggest grocery store chains in the U.S. The machine was already tested in a few small grocery stores around the U.S. and Wilkinson said BreadBot was well-received. In the stores where BreadBot was tested, he said approximately 37 percent of all bread sold there came from its machines. BreadBot isn't expected to venture into the world of cakes, but the company is looking into the possibility of releasing a 'BunBot' that makes hot dogs, baguettes and 'Subway-style' hoagie bread. BreadBot isn't expected to venture into the world of cakes, but the company is looking into the possibility of releasing a 'BunBot' that makes hot dogs, baguettes and 'Subway-style' hoagies And while there are other robots taking over the kitchen, such as Flippy the robot fry cook, which is coming to some Walmart stores, Wilkinson says the BreadBot is more efficient than it's competition. '[Flippy] is a good start, but the reality is, if we want to be robotic...we really need to reinvent it from the ground up,' Wilkinson explained. 'We could've designed a robot to knead the bread like a human, but that wouldn't save time.' In this November 7, 2014, file photo, Charles Merritt, appears for an arraignment hearing at the courthouse in Victorville, California Chase Merritt, who is accused of killing the McStay family, spoke at length to DailyMail.com in 2013 about the family of four, and also described a lie detector test he took. He said at the time 'I was the last person Joseph saw. He came to Rancho Cucamonga on February 4 to talk to me about a huge business deal we had going on in Saudi Arabia. 'We met for an hour-and-a-half for lunch. He was so excited. We had the Saudi Arabian project and a few other things going on. The business had never been so good and we were looking forward to the future. He did nothing to suggest there was anything wrong or untoward. 'We both left and went home and I spoke to him on the phone about two or three times on his drive back to Fallbrook, all standard business stuff. The last time I spoke to him was around 6 o'clock. 'It has been reported that I spoke to him in the evening, but that isn't true. He did call me at 8.28pm, but I was watching a movie with my girlfriend, looked at the phone and decided not to answer. 'When you talk to Joseph it takes about half an hour, so I thought I'd catch up with him in the morning. 'I didn't answer that call and I regret it to this day.' Merritt also said of the lie detector test: 'Very soon after the disappearance, Lt. Brugos who was leading the case, called me and asked if I would take a lie detector test, because he was convinced I knew where Joseph was. 'I declined at first and got some advice from an attorney, who told me not to do it, because if anything at all shows up they will harass you. 'But I spoke to my girlfriend about it extensively and decided, you know what, I'm just going to do the damn test, so they can forget about me and focus on something that might actually help find him. 'About three of them came out to my attorney's office in Palm Valley. They asked me whether I knew anything about the disappearance, and if I did know anything, would I tell them. 'After I'd finished, Brugos's partner said to me, "well there are a couple of inconsistencies" but that was just them trying to trick me into saying something. I didn't hear any more about it after that. 'Was I a suspect? Well, I don't know if I'm the only one they asked to do a lie detector test, but I am the only one who actually agreed. They were certainly on my case.' Merritt said: 'I dont want to upset anyone, I just want people to know the truth. The McStay's were not perfect like some people would have you believe, but they weren't criminals or drug runners like others have said, they were just a normal family. Well, a normal family other than Joseph, who was the nicest man I have ever known.' 'All I want is for them to find the a*******s who did this,' he also said in the 2013 interview. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded a face-to-face meeting the witnesses in his three corruption cases during a televised statement today. Mr Netanyahu said that he has previously insisted upon a meeting with the state's witnesses to 'look them in the eye and show them the truth', but his requests were denied. He used the prime-time address to again dismiss a series of corruption allegations against him, in what was billed as a 'dramatic announcement'. Mr Netanyahu said it would be 'unjust' for him to be indicted ahead of early elections called for on April 9 without a chance to respond to the claims against him. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivering a statement live at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem today He said authorities had denied his requests to confront state witnesses in person, and he offered to do so on live television. 'What are they afraid of? What do they have to hide?' he said. Police have recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu on an array of charges stemming from three corruption investigations, but it falls to his hand-picked attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to decide whether to bring charges. The premier has denied any wrongdoing and branded the investigations a 'witch hunt' orchestrated by his political opponents and a hostile media. He has said he will not give up his re-election campaign or resign from office if indicted. The Israeli media scrambled to cover his address on Monday, running it live on all major stations, only to have commentators widely dismiss the brief address as a ploy by the prime minister to again attack the investigation. In a terse statement, the Justice Ministry defended its probes, saying they had been handled professionally. Police have recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu on an array of charges stemming from three corruption investigations, but it falls to his hand-picked attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit (pictured), to decide whether to bring charges Justice Ministry spokesman said: 'It would be inappropriate for law enforcement authorities to refer to the actions taken in the investigation and the details of testimony in the media, certainly not at this point.' 'In a normal country, the prime minister would not behave in such a way. 'Instead of caring about the security of residents of the south, about the cost of living or the deteriorating health system, Netanyahu is busy saving himself from investigations.' Last month, police recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu on bribery charges, saying they believed he had used his connections with the controlling shareholder of Israel's telecom giant Bezeq to promote regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of pounds in exchange for positive press coverage on Bezeq's popular news site Walla. Police said they believed there was sufficient evidence to charge him and his wife Sara with accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. Police have also recommended corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favourable coverage. During the investigations, three former senior aides to Mr Netanyahu have turned state witnesses against him. He said on Monday he was 'certain of my innocence'. 'I request to confront all the witnesses who stated things that don't align with my position, the truth,' he said. Chairwoman of Meretz, Tamar Zandberg, has since hit out at Mr Netanyahu and said that the only thing 'dramatic' is that he remains as Prime Minsiter while there are three recommends to indict him for bribery. She added that he is no longer fit to purpose his role. Meanwhile, opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich said that Mr Netanyahu's address was a 'cynical and pathetic' elections speech from someone who is trying to dodge the justice system. Pilots of an Israeli F-15 jet faced -49F temperatures and buffeting winds to land the aircraft after its cockpit canopy flew off at 30,000 feet. In a dramatic cockpit voice recording the two Israeli military airmen can be heard shouting to one another over the roaring wind and engine noise. 'Are you all right,' the navigator asks the pilot, identified in the statement as 'captain Y'. An Israeli air force crew fought freezing temperatures and buffeting winds to safely bring down an F-15 fighter jet after its canopy flew open. Stock picture of an F-15 'Yes I'm fine,' he replies. 'We are without a canopy, proceeding for landing at the nearest base,' the pilot says over the radio in a calm voice. Afterward the pilot notified controllers that he is heading to Nevatim air base in southern Israel. The landing went without further incident, according to statement from the Israeli military. The statement stated that the air force chief of staff ordered an immediate halt to training flights in F-15s pending an investigation. Haaretz newspaper said the air force has had a fleet of US-made F-15s since the 1970s and it had been considered the country's top warplane until it began taking delivery of the US F-35 stealth fighter in December 2016. (ANSA) - Rome, January 6 - Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has reiterated his refusal to allow NGO-run migrant-rescue ships to dock on Italy. The League leader was commenting amid concern about 49 asylum seekers saved in the Mediterranean by German NGOs Sea-Watch and Sea Eye who have not been allocated a port of safety amid a standoff. On Sunday Pope Francis made an appeal to European leaders to "show concrete solidarity" in this case. Malta let the NGOs' rescue ships shelter from bad weather near its coast but refused to allow the asylum seekers to disembark. At the weekend Labour and Industry Minister and fellow Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio suggested Italy could receive the women and children that are among the asylum seekers. But Salvini has said he wants to keep access closed. "I want a country that is open but closed to human traffickers," Salvini said via Facebook. "If we give in... the traffickers will start making money again and the NGOs that don't respect the rules will go back to helping the traffickers". The German government said Monday that it was willing to take in some of the 49 asylum seekers. "The German government expressed very quickly its willingness to participate (in the reception of the asylum seekers on the ships) within the remit of a solution of European solidarity," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told a press conference when asked about the people saved by the a Sea Watch and Sea Eye vessels. He said Berlin was engaged in "intense talks" with the European Commission and was supporting Brussels' efforts to find a solution. New data from the Department of Homeland Security show that during the six months between October 2017 and March 2018, border guards intercepted just six people thought to be foreign terrorists crossing illegally from Mexico to the U.S. The rate of one per month falls far short of what White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders claimed Sunday, when she said on 'Fox News Sunday' that 'nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.' The White House distributed material Friday from a congressional briefing, claiming that '3,775 known or suspected terrorists [were] prevented from traveling or entering the U.S. by DHS' during the government fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2017. Reporters pounced on that number Monday, demanding to know during a briefing with Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen whether it was an accurate measure of the level of terrorist incursions from the south. The numbers 'are classified for a number of reasons,' Nielsen responded, 'including on going investigations.' Hours later, NBC News reported that during the first half of fiscal 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered just six immigrants on the U.S-Mexico border whose names were on a federal terror watch-list. President Donald Trump is seeing his national-security rationale for a border wall evaporate with the publication of statistics showing a scant trickle of terrorism suspects New numbers from Customs and Borer Protection show that just one person per month, on average is prevented from crossing the U.S.-mexico border because his or her name is on a terrorism watch-list Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (left) and Vice President Mike Pence, pictured Saturday, briefed reporters on Monday; Nielsen claimed she couldn't address the numbers because they are classified White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders claimed Sunday that nearly 4,000 terror suspects are apprehended coming into the U.S. each year a number that host Chris Wallace found lacked credibility CBP had contact with 41 people on the southern border who matched entries in the Terrorist Screening Database. But 35 of them were U.S. citizens or people who were living in the U.S. legally. The data describe a larger problem on the U.S.-Canada border: In the same period, CBP prevented 41 foreigners from entering the U.S. after their names were found in the database. The State Department's Bureau Of Counterterrorism And Countering Violent Extremism reported in September 2018 that there was 'no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States.' 'The U.S. southern border remains vulnerable to potential terrorist transit, although terrorist groups likely seek other means of trying to enter the United States,' the agency's annual country-by-country terrorism report stated. A briefing the White House offered to members of Congress last week featured the claim that '3,775 known or suspected terrorists [were] prevented from traveling or entering the U.S. by DHS' during the government fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2017 Trump wants giant walls like this segment near Tijuana, Mexico, to be the norm Trump's own State Department reported in September that there is 'no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States' The Trump administration is entering the high-stakes third week of a partial government shutdown caused by a stalemate over funding to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The White House is attempting to paint a dire picture to sway public opinion: President Trump will address the nation Tuesday night and visit the border on Thursday. Pence and Nielsen will brief Republican members of Congress on Wednesday. It's possible Trump will declare a national state of emergency on Tuesday night, asserting his authority to re-allocate budget money Congress has already authorized. That could allow, for instance, the repurposing of Pentagon funds to pay Army Corps of Engineers contractors to complete the border barrier. Trump said aboard Air Force One in September that We have two options: We have military, and we have Homeland Security. Id rather get it through politically -- politically speaking, Id rather get it through Congress. If we dont, Im looking at that option very seriously. Heather Carpenter, 42, (pictured) has been charged with third-degree felony mischief after she admitted to smearing feces on tables and grills where a young student's birthday party was being held in December A Florida substitute teacher has been charged with third-degree felony mischief after she smeared human fecal matter across a pavilion where a young student's birthday party was being held. Heather Carpenter, 42, who was hired in October 2017 as a substitute teacher at Phillippi Shores Elementary in Sarasota, admitted to the disturbing December 1 act that took place at Urfer Park. Law enforcement officials learned about the incident after a witness called police early that morning. The birthday party was scheduled for later that day. The witness saw Carpenter wearing rubber gloves and a face mask at the time she smeared fecal matter across seven picnic tables and two grills. Her reasoning was to settle a score with Phillippi Shores Elementary Principal Allison Foster, who was hosting the party for her daughter. Foster had invited all of the students in her daughter's class, including Carpenter's child. The disturbing incident happened December 1 at Urfer Park in Sarasota Carpenter later admitted to law enforcement officials that she was upset with how Foster handled a recent complaint. Phillippi Shores Elementary could not release details on the nature of the complaint. According to WWSB, the cost for Sarasota County to replace the tables and grills totaled $2,310. Police are currently investigating the substitute teacher. She has been banned from working or volunteering at the school in the meantime. Carpenter's reasoning was to settle a score with Phillippi Shores Elementary Principal Allison Foster, (pictured) who was hosting the party for her daughter On trial: Charles 'Chase' Merritt, 61 (pictured in 2015), is on trial on January 7 for the 2010 murders of the McStay family in California Opening statements are under way in the trial of a Southern California man accused of beating his business partner Joseph McStay, his wife and two young children to death with a sledgehammer in 2010 for financial gain. San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty addressed the jury panel first, saying that the defendant, Charles 'Chase' Merritt, 61, was driven by green when in February 2010 he killed the McStay family, including their two young boys, and buried their bodies in the Mojave Desert. Daugherty showed the jurors images of Joseph, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their sons, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr, 3, and described how wild animals tore at their decomposing remains in their shallow graves near Victorville, where in November 2013 a motorcyclist finally discovered them. The court also heard recordings of Merritt's interview with investigators, in which the defendant referred to Joseph McStay in the past tense, before anyone knew he was dead, Press-Enterprise reporter Richard K. De Atley live-tweeted. The prosecutor talked about the checks that Merritt allegedly forged for himself from McStay's business account, and walked the jurors through cellphone records that placed the suspect on February 6, 2010, near the location in the desert where the family's skeletal remains will later be found. In his opening statement, Merritt's defense attorney James McGee argued that his client and Joseph McStay were best friends, and pointed out that it was Merritt who first raised the alarm about his business partner's disappearance by contacting the man's mother. Summer McStay, her sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr, and her husband, Joseph McStay, went missing from their California home in February 2010 'The only urgency in finding Joseph was from Chase,' McGee stated. The defense attorney also sought to explain away his client's use of the past tense in reference to the McStays during the police interview, claiming that he only did it because a detective asked a question in the past tense. McGee accused law enforcement officials and prosecutors of zeroing in on his client from the outset of the case, instead of following other leads. For years, the disappearance of the McStays puzzled investigators, with no signs of forced entry and the couple's credit cards untouched. In November 2013, an off-road biker made a grim discovery when he came upon the skeletal remains of Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their sons, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr, near Victorville, more than 100 miles away from their San Diego County residence. A year later,Merritt, who knew the family through Joseph's water-fountain business, was arrested for allegedly bludgeoning the married couple and their children to death with a sledgehammer because he owed them $30,000. Merritt is being tried on four counts of first-degree murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The McStays' skeletal remains were found buried in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, in November 2013 (pictured) Authorities have said Merritt's cellphone was traced to the remote gravesites and to a call days later seeking to close out his then-missing business partner's online bookkeeping account. They also have said Merritt's DNA was discovered on the steering wheel and gearshift of McStay's Isuzy Trooper SUV, which was impounded near the Mexican border four days after the family vanished. Defense attorney James McGee said that DNA could have been transferred to the vehicle by McStay from a handshake after he met with Merritt shortly before the family vanished. McGee also said none of Merritt's DNA was found at the gravesites but DNA belonging to other unidentified individuals, among them three men and a woman, had turned up there. Merritt, who was McStay's business partner, is accused of killing and burying the family because he owed them tens of thousands of dollars Joseph (pictured left with son Gianni) allegedly planned to fire Merritt from his company before his death. Pictured right: A photo display at a press conference at the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department headquarters in San Bernadino in 2013 'From the evidence the government is going to present, our argument is going to be: You had the wrong guy,' McGee said. Britt Imes, supervising deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County, said he could not comment on ongoing cases. Authorities have said the McStays were believed to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head inside their home in Fallbrook on February 4, 2010. Their remains were found in San Bernardino County in 2013 along with a rusty 3-pound sledgehammer, a child's pants and diaper, and a bra. Investigators have said they spoke with Joseph's business partner, Merritt, shortly after the family went missing and noticed he referred to them in the past tense. They also have said a customer service representative told them he received a call about McStay's QuickBooks account, which he used to pay vendors connected to his water features business, after he vanished. The call, according to authorities, was placed from Merritt's cellphone. Merritt served time in prison for burglary and receiving stolen property in the 1970s and 80, reported the Los Angeles Times. In 2001, he pleaded no contest to burglary and grand theft, earning him a six-month stint in jail followed by probation. Eventually, he was hired by Joseph McStay's company, Earth Inspired Products, to design decorative water fountain, but his troubles continued as he racked gambling debts and more than $20,000 in unpaid taxes, according to court documents. McStay's other business partner, Daniel Kavanaugh, told investigators that Joseph planned to fire Merritt. Merritt, who has a prior criminal record, denied any wrongdoing, calling Joseph McStay his 'best friend.' His job was designing water fountains for McStay's company Horrified plane passengers were left grounded with a dead body for two hours after a man died on a flight to Auckland. The ANZ80 flight from Hong Kong was diverted to Cairns Airport at 2.30am on Monday morning after the man died due to an unknown medical emergency. When the plane landed, the pilot was unable to connect the plane to the terminal via an aerobridge because there were not enough ground crew to operate it at that time. The Air New Zealand flight arrived at Cairns International Airport about 2.30 on Monday morning (stock image) Instead, he requested a set of stairs for paramedics to enter the plane and remove the body. But the stairs that arrived were too low, meaning the paramedics had to hoist themselves up into the aircraft - while shocked passengers waited in their seats. An airport source told the Cairns Post: 'They found a small set of stairs, which they put up to the aircraft door. They were totally insufficient. 'The paramedics had to put their kit on top of those stairs, and stand on that, and they were still only chest high to the door. They had to climb into that aircraft. 'This occurred for two hours,' the source said. Eventually the body was removed and the flight was able to continue to Auckland where it landed two hours late. An Air New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed the flight had been diverted due to a 'medical emergency'. 'For privacy reasons we're not able to provide further information about the passenger,' she said. 'The aircraft continued on to Auckland, and arrived around two hours behind schedule.' Work ground to a halt last January following a botched private finance initiative deal with the now collapsed company Carillion Three miles from yesterdays NHS launch, a 500million hospital lies empty and unused. The 13-storey building houses top-of-the range scanners and other medical equipment and was meant to have been finished two years ago. However work ground to a halt last January following a botched private finance initiative deal with the now collapsed company Carillion. Prime Minister Theresa May visited the wards at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool, just three miles from an unused 500million hospital. She launched her NHS Long Term Plan from the hospital yesterday The original cost of building the new hospital itself was 335million. Under the contract a further 94million was to be spent on demolishing the old building and landscaping it into new underground parking for patients plus plots for a new science park, bringing the total cost of the project to 429million. However the replacement hospital is now expected to cost a further 100million as a result of the collapse of Carillion. Although a new construction firm has been appointed, the Liverpool hospital is not likely to be finished until next year. Now managers at its trust are having to employ 18 staff to turn the 4,000 taps on and off regularly in a bid to prevent the build-up of deadly legionella bacteria. And warranties on its brand new equipment are rapidly expiring. At the same time, patients at the old Royal Liverpool Hospital next door which the new hospital will replace are facing delays to their care because the existing building is falling apart. Three miles from yesterdays NHS launch, a 500million hospital lies empty and unused. The exact cost to the taxpayer of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital is unknown, as it has been part-funded funded by private firms and the EU The 13-storey building, with its atrium pictured above, houses top-of-the range scanners and other medical equipment and was meant to have been finished two years ago The hospital has been flooded ten times this year due to fractured pipes and ambulances have sometimes had to queue for up to two hours outside A&E. Half of the lifts were rendered out of action during the floods making it difficult for staff to transfer patients to intensive care. The extraordinary situation will be highlighted on Thursday in the BBC documentary series Hospital. Staff cant even switch off the lights in the new building as the electrics are incomplete and they remain permanently on, in a further waste of energy and money. Last night Liverpools Labour mayor Joe Anderson criticised Mrs May for failing to meet him during her visit and said the new hospital could have been open if ministers had heeded his warnings. Ive seen how bad the existing Royal Liverpool Hospital building is myself, he said. The last time I was there, water was leaking out of an air conditioning unit and theyd put a bin underneath to catch it. It makes me feel physically sick to see the state of the exterior, and what staff and patients have to put up with every day is terrible. Managers at its trust are having to employ 18 staff to turn the 4,000 taps on and off regularly in a bid to prevent the build-up of deadly legionella bacteria. And warranties on its brand new equipment are rapidly expiring I wasnt informed that Theresa May was visiting Liverpool or invited to meet her, which I believe is completely unethical. It shows shes running scared of having a debate. If she had met with me, I would have been asking for emergency funding for the existing hospital site. He said he had been warning ministers since before the collapse of Carillion that the project was in trouble. But it was only last September that the Department of Health finally stepped in to bail out construction of the new hospital. Its another effect of the inertia which in my experience has gripped Whitehall ever since Brexit began dominating everything, said the mayor. The exact cost to the taxpayer of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital is unknown, as it has been part-funded funded by private firms and the EU. Staff cant even switch off the lights in the new building as the electrics are incomplete and they remain permanently on, in a further waste of energy and money. Above, the hospital's recovery section Louise Ellman MP and Regional Mayor Steve Rotherham took a look inside the project. Work ground to a halt last January following a botched private finance initiative deal with the now collapsed company Carillion But experts say the figure is at least 120million with a further 100million needed to complete it. In addition, managers at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals trust are having to spend up to 1million a year maintaining the old building. The BBCs Hospital documentary shows how one flooding incident last year was followed the next day by an electrical fault which resulted in medical equipment malfunctioning, although the trust insists the incidents were not linked. Aidan Kehoe, chief executive of the trust said: I am very angry at the way Carillion have behaved. To leave us in this position, I think, is just unacceptable and I do look at it and think these people were taking huge bonuses that they are not paying back and will leave the people of Liverpool waiting years more for a hospital. Labour MP Maria Eagle, who represents Garston and Halewood in Merseyside, said: Why didnt the PM go to the Royal to launch her NHS plan? She could have taken the time to see first-hand the appalling results of her Governments neglect of Liverpools NHS for the patients and staff. Death of face-to-face doctor appointments? NHS 10-year plan reveals millions of GP visits and hospital consultations could be conducted through Skype-style videos to save cash Tens of millions of NHS appointments are to be carried out by video-link instead of face to face. Health chiefs believe up to a third of the 90million outpatient consultations each year do not require a hospital visit. They hope to save time and money by switching these over to Skype-style video services on smartphones or computers. The plans were unveiled in Liverpool yesterday by Theresa May and health chiefs under a ten-year strategy for the NHS, which sets out how a 20billion cash injection will be spent Patients will be encouraged to have online appointments with specialist doctors and manage long-term illnesses themselves. However, GPs have warned that some symptoms can be spotted only by direct contact. And Baroness Altmann, former director- general of Saga, said the scheme could be devastating for the elderly, who are less computer savvy. Sometimes machines really cant replace the human touch older people value that and need it, she added. The plans were unveiled in Liverpool yesterday by Theresa May and health chiefs under a ten-year strategy for the NHS, which sets out how a 20billion cash injection will be spent. Harnessing new technology will be a key part of the blueprint to deliver cost savings. Other policies include: Wearable monitoring equipment and hi-tech devices to save patients from going to hospital; A pledge to save 500,000 lives over ten years with improved care for cancer and heart disease cases; Scrapping bureaucratic bodies introduced by former health secretary Andrew Lansley; Longer waits for patients in A&E if their condition is not urgent; A promise of a new era of personalised medicine; A focus on preventing ill health, targeting alcohol and smoking; Possible curbs on private firms providing NHS services, such as Virgin Care. Outpatient appointments have long been a mainstay of healthcare and around 94million take place annually at a cost of 8billion. NHS England believes the total, which has doubled in a decade, can be cut by a third through service redesign and a revolution in online healthcare. Its plan states the traditional model of outpatients is outdated and unsustainable, adding: We will therefore redesign services so that over the next five years patients will be able to avoid up to a third of face-to-face outpatient visits, removing the need for up to 30million outpatient visits a year. NHS England believes patients with chronic problems could be better looked after through online consultations with specialist doctors e-Clinics. These are already in place for kidney patients in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets in East London and have cut the number of appointments by 50 per cent. HOW WILL THE PLAN SAVE LIVES? THE AMBITIONS IN NUMBERS The NHS and Government say their new 10-year plan will save up to 500,000 extra lives over the next decade. This is how they hope to do it: Using more high-tech treatments and diagnostic testing, including computers with artificial intelligence, to prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases Putting 100,000 people with heart complaints through healthy living and exercise programmes every year, with a view to preventing 23,000 premature deaths Improving diagnosis to catch 75 per cent of all cancer cases 'early' while they'll still respond well to treatment the figure is currently 50 per cent DNA testing for around 30,000 people who have dangerously high cholesterol due to genetic causes Investing an extra 4.5bn a year in primary and community care, reducing pressure on hospitals Investing an extra 2.3bn a year in mental health services and giving help to an two million more people suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental health problems Advertisement Patients have a Skype appointment with a consultant after a scan rather than going to see them in a hospital clinic. In another pilot scheme, patients with Type 1 diabetes have been taught to monitor their condition through wearable sensors to avoid the need for regular check-ups. They can then also be seen online. Officials want GPs to refer more patients to community services rather than hospital consultants. Examples include physiotherapy, mental healthcare, end-of-life care or rehab following a stroke. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: Its using the smartphone technology many people already have in their pockets so they can easily see a GP over the internet and even get expert help from consultants without the need for an inconvenient hospital visit. This is all part of putting more power in the hands of patients in a new era of more personalised and targeted treatment from genetic testing for children with cancer to community nurses visiting the homes of our most frail. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: Technology will truly transform our NHS, with every patient entitled to online GP consultations and wearable technology bringing forth a new era of personalised care. The current model of outpatient services is outdated, wasting too much time and causing too much inconvenience for patients. It also eats into the valuable time of our doctors and nurses. But Baroness Altmann said: Any changes mustnt be at the expense of vulnerable elderly people who could lose out with a focus on new technology. For those older people who never learned how to interact with computers, being cut off from human connection in medical care can be devastating. This is a sensible suggestion but only as long as people are able to use Skype but a lot of older people have not used a computer and never will, especially the oldest elderly. Joyce Robins, of the Patient Concern campaign group, said: Phone and virtual consultations are far from ideal for many of the elderly. They need face-to-face contact. Hospital starts this Thursday on BBC Two at 9pm From childbirth to mental care, what are some of the most important measures laid out in the 10-year blueprint? MATERNITY A package of measures for maternity services promises to make the NHS the best place in the world to give birth. More nurses and specialist staff will be brought in over the next five years as part of a plan to redesign neonatal services from pregnancy to early motherhood. The plans include allowing new mothers to use a smartphone to access the traditional red book issued by the NHS for each new baby, containing their vital details. Up to 285,000 new mothers will have better access to physiotherapy. There will also be moves to improve breastfeeding rates. The measures are expected to halve stillbirths, maternal and infant deaths and serious brain injuries in newborn babies by 2025, saving 4,000 babies lives. SMOKING AND DRINKING Alcohol and tobacco addiction are two of the biggest causes of early death, and NHS chiefs believe they can boost the health of the nation by encouraging Britons to make better lifestyle choices. Doctors and nurses will be on alert for suspected problem drinkers among casualty cases or those in wards or clinics, and patients could be referred to alcohol care teams. Smokers in hospital will be offered prescription drugs or counselling. VOLUNTEERING The NHS wants to double the number of volunteers to up to 156,000 over the next three years. Health chiefs believe they have a huge impact on patients and staff, while greatly enhancing their own lives. Volunteering has been shown to help older people stay active and reduce cognitive decline while younger recruits can gain invaluable experience. The health service plan will urge hospitals to recruit many more younger volunteers, particularly those with mental health problems, learning difficulties or from deprived communities. NHS England will encourage hospitals to offer more volunteering opportunities and by investing 2.3million in Helpforce the charity the Daily Mail launched its Christmas campaign with, encouraging more than 30,000 readers to sign up to give their time to the NHS. Four-hour target for A&E treatment could be axed By Sophie Borland and Daniel Martin for the Daily Mail The four-hour treatment target in A&E may be scrapped and replaced with a two-tier system that could leave non-urgent patients waiting even longer. Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, hinted at the radical change yesterday ahead of the launch of the ten-year plan, claiming the current policy failed to distinguish between the most urgent and the less serious cases. In its place would be separate standards for emergencies, such as heart attacks and sepsis, and less urgent cases such as broken bones. It is three years since the NHS last met its targets to admit to a ward or discharge 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours of arrival. However, doctors last night warned the proposed changes would mean patients continue to suffer from delays and overcrowding. Mr Stevens told Radio 4s Today programme: On A&E services we need a tougher, faster set of standards for major conditions than we have at the moment. The problem is it doesnt distinguish between turning up at A&E with a sprained finger versus turning up with a heart attack. Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking at the launch of the NHSs long-term plan at the Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool, said: We are seeing the NHS treat more people but demand has outstripped that. So we have been slipping against the targets. As we look ahead for the NHS, lets make sure we are setting standards that are right for the future. A review due in the spring will look at whether targets should be changed and there are fears in the NHS that the current standards could be watered down. Last night, Chris Moulton, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: While many patients will benefit [from the plan], those attending A&E will continue to suffer from delays and overcrowding. 'We welcome moves to relieve pressure on emergency departments, [but] it is disappointing to find that despite the proposed measures to do this, it has still not resulted in a firm commitment to restoring four-hour performance to 95 per cent a sensible target that is very much achievable given the right resourcing. Advertisement MENTAL HEALTH The NHS will boost mental health care for under-18s with conditions such as eating disorders, self-harm and depression. Health officials have agreed to increase the proportion of all those with a diagnosable mental health condition who get treated from one in four (25 per cent) to one in three (35 per cent) by 2020-21. The plans include new waiting-time targets for mental health treatment and stronger support for young adults, including a 24/7 helpline. An extra 2.3billion has been promised to pay for talking therapies for an additional 350,000 young people and 380,000 adults within five years. Young people will no longer be forced to restart their treatment with adult services when they turn 18. CANCER Theresa May set the NHS a target to diagnose three quarters of cancer cases early within ten years, saving 55,000 lives. At present, 52 per cent of cancers are diagnosed at stages one and two, when the tumour is small and has not spread to surrounding tissue. This will increase to 75 per cent by 2028. Screening programmes will be more accessible, easier to use, and based on the latest research and technology. New tests for bowel cancer, mobile lung screening units, and the rollout of rapid diagnostic centres across the country with same-day testing will offer cutting edge options for early diagnosis to those at risk. SOUP AND SHAKE DIET A low-calorie soup and shake diet to reverse Type 2 diabetes will be prescribed to 5,000 patients to reverse the condition. NHS England is putting the three-month, 800-calories-a-day regime at the heart of its diabetes strategy after half of patients went into remission in trials. The number of Britons with diabetes has doubled in 20 years. Almost 3.7million people are living with diabetes, up from 1.9million in 1998. Two Irish nationals have had their charges upgraded to murder following the death of a 66-year-old man on Monday morning. Christopher McLaughlin, 24 and Nathan Kelly, 21, from Ireland were initially charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company and affray. The victim was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries at around 8.30am on Monday morning, nine days after the attack. Christopher McLaughlin, 24 and Nathan Kelly, 21, from Ireland were initially charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company and affray (pictured: Christopher McLaughlin) The victim was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries at around 8.30am on Monday morning, nine days after the attack (pictured: Nathan Kelly) Emergency services were called to an intersection in Summer Hill in Sydney at about 12:30am on Saturday, December 29 Emergency services were called to an intersection in Summer Hill in Sydney at 12:30am on Saturday, December 29, where they found the 66-year-old man in a critical condition at the side of the road. He was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he later died. Neither of the attackers were known to the victim. The two men in their 20s were arrested by detectives from Burwood Police Area Command at the time. The men, both Irish nationals, were charged with murder on Monday. Both men were refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday. They remain in custody and are due to appear at Burwood Local Court on Wednesday. The men, both Irish nationals, were charged with murder on Monday (pictured: Nathan Kelly) Everett Simpson, 41, was charged Monday after allegedly forcing a woman and her son into a car in New Hampshire before driving to Vermont where he sexually assaulted her in front the boy A man has been arraigned in a Pennsylvania hospital after he allegedly forced a woman and her son into a car in New Hampshire before driving to Vermont where he sexually assaulted her in front the boy. Everett Simpson, 41, was apprehended on Monday after a manhunt and car chase in a stolen vehicle. His bond has been set at $1 million each on charges of car theft and fleeing justice, while federal prosecutors in Vermont also filed kidnapping charges. Police said Simpson pushed a woman and her child into their car outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester on Saturday and drove to White River Junction, Vermont. The woman told police that he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in front of her son and then left, according to the complaint. That set off a manhunt for Simpson, a former resident of St. Albans, Vermont. The FBI, Vermont State Police and the Hartford Police Department worked together on the search. Police said Simpson pushed a woman and her child into their car outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester on Saturday and drove to White River Junction, Vermont Police said Simpson had escaped from an addiction treatment facility in Bradford, Vermont, and driven to New Hampshire in a stolen vehicle. The woman told police that Simpson said he had learned that his wife was cheating on him and he wanted to find her so he could hurt her. Police from Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, were trying to make an unrelated traffic stop on Sunday when an automated system flagged the car in question as stolen, The car failed to stop and a chase ensued. The car was eventually abandoned and police were searching for the driver when another vehicle was reported stolen. Officers gave chase again and that car eventually crashed into a telephone pole. Police took the driver into custody and he was identified as Simpson. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. Simpson is now facing extradition to Vermont. An honest businessman has handed back $10,000 cash to the rightful owner after a man accidentally dropped it outside an art gallery. Lucas Wells, 20, stopped to take a photo of a sculpture out the front of the Urban Paradise Gallery in Brisbane when the envelope with cash fell out of his pocket on January 3. He was in disbelief when Queensland police called him at 6.30pm that night to say someone had handed the cash in. 'I was so relieved and surprised. The police said to me: ''This is your luckiest day''.' An honest businessman has handed in $10,000 of cash and was returned to the Lucas Wells Lucas Wells (right) dropped the envelope of cash from his pocket outside an art gallery and called manager Fredric Berjot for assistance Mr Wells borrowed the large sum of cash in $100 notes for a car buying business and was on his way to tow his first car. 'I had it in my pocket because I didn't want to leave the money in the car,' he told City South News. Mr Wells drove back to the gallery when he realised he had lost the cash and asked gallery manager Fredric Berjot if someone had handed it in. 'I thought there might be a chance, if it turned up in the first hour,' he said. Upon realising the 20-year-old entrepreneur was a genuine and hardworking man, Mr Berjot asked everyone he saw at the gallery to see if they had found the cash. A businessman came forward and handed in the envelope, which had no name and therefore no way of knowing who the rightful owner was. Mr Wells had stopped to take a photo of a sculpture outside the Urban Paradise Gallery when he accidentally dropped the large sum Mr Berjot handed the $10,000 to Dutton Park Police. 'A lot of people park here because they see the sculpture and stop here to take photos,' said Mr Berjot. Mr Wells has promised to be more careful with his cash in the future. Experts have been left horrified by a record-breaking number of jellyfish swarming Australian beaches this summer. It's been dubbed 'the year of the jellyfish' by baffled specialists after thousands of dangerous and potentially life-threatening stingers were recorded along the Gold and Sunshine coasts in Queensland. So far there has been a staggering 22 hospitalisations from suspected Irukandji stings this season alone, which if left untreated could become deadly. Irukandji are one of the most venomous type of jellyfish in the world and have stingers all over their body Marine Stingers Authority director and co-creator of The Jellyfish App, Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin, spoke to The Courier Mail. 'In the past 10 years, the annual average for the whole season up to January 5, had been 10 [Irukandji stings]. This is more than double the decade-old annual average,' she said. 'There have been no other years in that period where weve seen 22 hospitalisations up to that point.' Irukandji are one of the most venomous type of jellyfish in the world, and unlike most jellyfish they have stingers all over their body. The toxic sting is powerful enough to kill or severely injure a human. Since December, more than 22,000 people have been treated for bluebottle stings in the Sunshine State, which Dr Gershwin noted was an exceptional amount - even if the number of sea swimmers had increased. 'No matter how many people you have in the water [22,000 jellyfish stings this summer] is a lot. Were having tremendous numbers of jellyfish in other areas across the country,' she told the publication. Unusually strong northeasterly swell conditions pushed the bluebottles onshore where they are currently clumped in their thousands along the shoreline This man said the bluebottles decided to 'give him a hug' in the water as they wrapped themselves around his shoulder, leaving nasty raised bumps It's believed the sudden influx of the stingers is due to the unusually strong northeasterly swell conditions that has pushed the bluebottles onshore, coupled with the warmer weather and larger crowds of beachgoers. In the past weekend alone more than 2630 people were stung, with several suffering anaphylactic shock and treated by paramedics. Almost 1000 people were hurt in a matter of hours on Sunday afternoon, with 476 bluebottle stings treated on the Gold Coast and another 461 on the Sunshine Coast. In total, paramedics in the region treated around 13,000 stings. Authorities have warned any beachgoers to be extra careful when in the water, and to keep an eye out incase there are any of the hazardous animals lurking about. Queensland Ambulance took to social media to dispel a myth behind a widely believed treatment of bluebottle stings. 'Avoid using vinegar if it's clearly a bluebottle sting,' they wrote on Twitter. 'If you're stung by a bluebottle try and pick off the tentacles with a towel or other object, rinse the area with seawater, place the affected area in warm water and, if needed, apply ice packs.' An Instagram user posted a picture of Coolangatta Beach featuring plenty of bluebottles Surf Life Saving Queensland said that if stung, remove stingers, take a very hot shower and apply ice Surf Life Saving duty officer Jeremy Sturges described the event as an 'epidemic'. 'I have never seen anything like this - ever,' Mr Sturges said. 'Not everyone reacts the same way but there have been very serious reactions.' Lifesavers have been forced to close a number of beaches including Coolangatta and Northcliffe after the influx. Mr Sturges warned it was not just swimmers at risk with the jellyfish stranded along the tide lines still very much alive. 'People have been hurt as they just walk along the shoreline. Don't pick it up, don't walk on it or you will be stung.' Surf Life Saving Queensland said that if stung, remove stingers, take a very hot shower and apply ice. The husband of a woman who allegedly drove around for 15 minutes with their four-year-old son clinging to the car's roof has broken his silence. The man says the little boy is autistic, does not speak and at times he can be difficult to control, Perth Now reported. He also says his wife is devastated by what unfolded and is reduced to tears every time she watches videos of the alleged incident. The 36-year-old woman, from the Perth suburb of Camillo, was charged with dangerous driving on Monday. A 36-year-old Perth woman was charged with dangerous driving on Monday and will appear in court at a later date She was given a summons to appear in court at a later date after she was investigated by police. Her husband claims she was unaware the boy was not inside the vehicle at the time and the couple believed he climbed onto the vehicle's roof racks through an open car window. He also questioned why drivers had captured footage rather than alerting his wife. Hair-raising video of a woman driving around as concerned motorists tried to flag her down on Friday afternoon shocked the country. Witnesses said she was seen driving through several Perth suburbs and on the Tonkin Highway at speeds of about 80km/h. The woman eventually responded to flashing lights and beeping horns and pulled over. Other motorists called police about 5.45pm. The husband of the woman charged with dangerous driving says their four-year-old son is autistic, does not speak and at times he can be difficult to control Witnesses claimed when the woman got out of the car she genuinely seemed unaware her son was sitting on the roof. She grabbed him and put him in the car before driving off but onlookers say the child holding onto the roof racks was not distressed. Police later tracked down the car at a petrol station on Nicholson Road in Harrisdale and spoke with her. Officers allegedly found the four-year-old unrestrained in the back seat, along with two other young children who were strapped in car seats. (ANSA) - Vatican City, January 7 - Pope Francis' New Year's address to members of the diplomatic corps Monday was devoted to the importance of multilateral diplomacy and good will between nations to avoid the oppression of the most vulnerable. The pope began his multfaceted and lengthy annual address to the Diplomatic Corps by noting agreements that had been ratified by the Holy See and a number of states over the past year, Vatican News said. One such accord was the signing of a Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China on the Appointment of Bishops in China. The Pontiff said he was thankful that, "for the first time after so many years, all the bishops in China are in full communion with the Successor of Peter and with the universal Church. He then added that, "it is to be hoped that further contacts regarding the application of the signed Provisional Agreement will help resolve questions that remain open and make needed room for an effective enjoyment of religious freedom." Taking up the theme of multilateralism, Pope Francis noted that this year marked the hundredth anniversary of the League of Nations which, he said, represented "the beginning of modern multilateral diplomacy, whereby states attempt to distance their reciprocal relations from the mentality of domination that leads to war." The Pope underlined that "an indispensable condition for the success of multilateral diplomacy is the good will and good faith of the parties, their readiness to deal with one another fairly and honestly, and their openness to accepting the inevitable compromises arising from disputes. Whenever even one of these elements is missing, the result is a search for unilateral solutions and, in the end, the domination of the powerful over the weak, he said." Some attitudes, such as nationalism the Pontiff emphasized, could be traced back "to the period between the two World Wars, when populist and nationalist demands proved more forceful than the activity of the League of Nations. The reappearance of these impulses today is progressively weakening the multilateral system, resulting in a general lack of trust, a crisis of credibility in international political life, and a gradual marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations." Pope Francis recalled that Saint Paul VI, at the United Nations, had spoken of "the purpose of multilateral diplomacy, its characteristics and its responsibilities in the contemporary context, but also of its points of contact with the spiritual mission of the Pope and thus of the Holy See." One of those points of contact, he said was the primacy of justice and law, adding that at present, it was troubling "to see the re-emergence of tendencies to impose and pursue individual national interests without having recourse to the instruments provided by international law for resolving controversies and ensuring that justice is respected, also through international Courts." Such an attitude, he added, "is at times the result of a reaction on the part of government leaders to growing unease among the citizens of not a few countries, who perceive the procedures and rules governing the international community as slow, abstract and ultimately far removed from their own real needs." Then, quoting from his Message for this year's World Day of Peace, on the theme: Good Politics at the Service of Peace, he said, "there is a close relationship between good politics and the peaceful coexistence of peoples and nations. Peace is never a partial good, but one that embraces the entire human race Politics must be farsighted and not limited to seeking short-term solutions." Focusing on a point of contact close to his heart, that of defending the most vulnerable, Pope Francis emphasized the Church's commitment to assisting those in need and he called on the international community and its agencies "to give a voice to those who have none. "I would mention", he continued, "the victims of other ongoing wars, especially that in Syria with its high death toll. Once more, I appeal to the international community to promote a political solution to a conflict that will ultimately see only a series of defeats." The Pope also recalled the Christian communities living in the Middle East and displaced persons who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict or hardship in their own countries. Highlighting the plight of migrants, Pope Francis again appealed to governments "to provide assistance to all those forced to emigrate on account of the scourge of poverty and various forms of violence and persecution, as well as natural catastrophes and climatic disturbances, and to facilitate measures aimed at permitting their social integration in the receiving countries." The Pope also paid particular attention to another vulnerable category, that of children, saying, "here I cannot refrain from speaking of one of the plagues of our time, which sadly has also involved some members of the clergy. The abuse of minors is one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable. Such abuse inexorably sweeps away the best of what human life holds out for innocent children, and causes irreparable and lifelong damage. The Holy See and the Church as a whole are working to combat and prevent these crimes and their concealment, in order to ascertain the truth of the facts involving ecclesiastics and to render justice to minors who have suffered sexual violence aggravated by the abuse of power and conscience. My meeting with the episcopates of the entire world next February is meant to be a further step in the Church's efforts to shed full light on the facts and to alleviate the wounds caused by such crimes." Peace and peace building was another key theme in this address with the Pontiff noting that in the course of the past year, there had been some significant signs of peace, starting with the historic agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and an agreement signed by the leaders of South Sudan. Positive signs, he said were also arriving from the Korean Peninsula. Pope Francis remarked that he was following with special concern "the developing situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo." "I likewise express my closeness to all those suffering from fundamentalist violence, especially in Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and from continued internal tensions in Cameroon, which not rarely sow death even among civilians", he said. The Pontiff also expressed the hope that peaceful institutional means could be found to provide solutions to the ongoing political, social and economic crisis in Venezuela and the hope too that dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians would resume. Pope Francis stressed another feature of multilateral diplomacy that of rethinking our common destiny. He stressed that this common destiny involved rethinking our relationship with the planet and underlined that "international relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms." In his concluding remarks the Pope expressed the hope that this New Year would see a "strengthening of the bonds of friendship uniting us and renewed efforts to promote that peace to which our world aspires." A potbellied pig has been found bound and beheaded in a Philadelphia park. A dog crate with the pig's remains was found Monday morning near Pennypack Park in northwest Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says they were called to the scene by Philadelphia police. THE SPCA's director of humane law enforcement said someone 'simply wanted to do something cruel for the sake of cruelty.' A potbellied pig was found Monday morning near Pennypack Park (file image) Animal welfare officials are now seeking the public's help to find the culprit. The pig appeared to be less than 50 pounds, but more details are pending a full autopsy. 'This pig suffered greatly prior to death being bound and then decapitated,' Nicole Wilson, Director of Humane Law Enforcement at the PSPCA, said in a statement. PSPCA spokeswoman Gillian Kocher said owning potbellied pigs in the city is illegal, though the agency does respond to a handful of potbellied pig calls each year. Anyone with information about the case can call the PSPCA's cruelty hotline. A dead newborn baby was found on the side of the road in Georgia on January 6 inside of a cooler bag covered in watermelon print A dead newborn baby was found on the side of a Georgia road on January 6 inside of a zippered cooler bag covered in watermelon print, authorities have said. Deputies from the Troup County Sheriff's Office were notified that someone reportedly found the child's body at 3.20pm on Sunday. 'Witnesses in the area stated the cooler had been on the side of the road near the wood-line for several days, possibly up to a week,' the Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted to Facebook. The body was found inside the cooler on Boy Scout Road, off of New Franklin Road, officials said. The body was found inside the cooler on Boy Scout Road, off of New Franklin Road, the area shown here The cooler is distinct in appearance, as it's light blue in color with pictures of watermelon slices. It zips at the top, front and sides. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab. There was no further information on the gender of the baby or the child's cause of death. Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call investigators with the Troup County Sheriffs Office at 706-883-1616 or Crime Stoppers at 706-812-1000. High-profile model Annalise Braakensiek made a tragic Instagram post just days before she died - while being haunted by demons which friends say also claimed the life of another glamorous star. Ms Braakensiek was found dead in her Sydney apartment about 3.30pm on Sunday after friends and family became concerned for her when she stopped replying to their messages. Her death followed a series of cryptic social media posts, including one in which she paid tribute to those who had supported her during a 'challenging year'. 'The rest you know who you are. I love you. Beyond. Including my bestie in heaven. A day doesn't go by when I don't think about you,' she posted. She also wrote that she was 'hanging in there by the hair on my chinny chin chin'. Ms Braakensiek's battle with depression has been compared to New Zealand-born model and Australia's Next Top Model TV presenter Charlotte Dawson, who died by suicide in February 2014. High-profile model Annalise Braakensiek made a tragic Instagram post just days before she died Ms Braakensiek's battle with depression has been compared to New Zealand-born model and TV presenter Charlotte Dawson (pictured), who died by suicide in February 2014 Her death followed a series of cryptic social media , including one in which she paid tribute to those who had supported her during a 'challenging year' Studio 10 celebrity commentator Craig Bennett said Ms Braakensiek's mental health issues were in contrast to her seemingly confident and glamorous personality. 'Everybody saw her as this absolutely gorgeous soul, still modelling bikinis until recently. Very much like Charlotte Dawson, there was another side to Annalise and it was just a sadness,' he told the Daily Telegraph. In December, Ms Braakensiek made a reflective post looking back on her year in 2018. 'Sheesh it's been a challenging year for so many of us, am I right?!?! My biggest challenge was not having my own home (for a year now) !!!!?!!' she wrote. 'I am uber grateful for all the legends who have taken me under their wings this past year, and into their hearts and homes.' Ms Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg in April last year after 16 years together. Studio 10 celebrity commentator Craig Bennett said Ms Braakensiek's (pictured) mental health issues were in contrast to her seemingly confident and glamorous personality Ms Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg (pictured) in April last year after 16 years together She bought the apartment in Potts Point where her body was found after the break up. In one of the last posts to her 40,000 followers on December 15, she wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment'. 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have helped me though my dark clouds,' she wrote in another Instagram post about her mental health struggles. In a later-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces'. She bought the apartment in Potts Point where her body was found after the couple (pictured) broke up Ms Braakensiek (pictured) previously revealed she'd battled with depression for years and was an ambassador for RUOK? Day in 2017 'A dear friend will kindly fly me over for some R&R to spend time with my American tribe I haven't seen in way too many years,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the time. The TV personality, who described her 16 years with Danny as 'amazing', did not reveal what prompted the breakup. Ms Braakensiek previously revealed she'd battled with depression for years and was an ambassador for RUOK? Day in 2017. A record 16 percent of Americans said they wanted to permanently leave the U.S. for another country in 2018, according to a new survey. That number is consistent with 2017 data, but the desire to flee the nation is significantly higher under President Donald Trump than it was under his two predecessors, according to the latest Gallup poll. Under the Obama administration, 10 percent of Americans reported an urge to move away forever, compared to 11 percent during the George W. Bush administration. Women are also more likely to want to escape the U.S., with 20 percent of them ready to leave in 2018, compared to 13 percent of men. More Americans want to leave the country under Donald Trump than under the previous two presidents, according to a Gallup poll The proportion of men and women who wanted to move didn't differ under Presidents Obama and Bush. Younger people were also more likely share the sentiment, with 30 percent of 15-29-year-olds saying they wanted to leave the country permanently. The gender gap was even more pronounced among that age group: 40 percent of women under 30 said they wanted to move, compared with 20 percent of men. In addition, 19 percent of 30-49-year-olds and 8 percent of people age 50 and older were ready to pack their bags. Poor Americans were also more likely to want a permanent new home country 30 percent of those in the bottom 20 percent of earners said they wanted to move, compared with 8 percent of the richest 20 percent. Experts at Gallup said that Americans were more likely to want to leave the country if they disapprove of the job Tump is doing as president. Overall, 22 percent of Americans who disapproved of Trump's job performance said they want to move compared to 7 percent among those who approved. If they did follow through on their desires, 26 percent of Americans said they would go to Canada up from 12 percent in 2016. Researchers at Gallup stressed the distinction between a desire to leave the country and actually having the intention of doing so. 'It is unlikely that Americans will be flocking to the Canadian border,' they wrote. Outspoken senator Fraser Anning has doubled down on his decision to bill taxpayers to attend a right-wing extremists rally. The rally was run by the United Patriots Front in Melbourne over the weekend and saw a number of attendees giving the Nazi salute Outspoken senator Fraser Anning has doubled down on his decision to bill taxpayers to attend a right-wing extremists rally, despite being slammed by the prime minister for again associating with racism. Both sides of politics have criticised the Independent senator's presence at Saturday's event at St Kilda beach in Melbourne, which was attended by people making Nazi gestures. Scott Morrison condemned 'repeat offender' Senator Anning for attending the rally and associating with extreme and offensive views. 'Australians are not anti-migrant nor racist,' the prime minister said in a statement on Monday. 'Genuine concerns held by fair minded Australians about immigration levels, border protection or law and order should not be used as a cover or be hijacked to push hateful and ugly racist agendas.' Senator Anning dismissed Mr Morrison, along with a chorus of critics from across the political divide. Both sides of politics have criticised the Independent senator's presence at Saturday's event at St Kilda beach Senator Anning is seen with United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell during Saturday's rally 'They're all left-wingers and unfortunately the PM hasn't understood the Australian people want an alternative,' he told Nine's A Current Affair. 'As far as I'm concerned they're all puppets to the United Nations.' Senator Anning said the 'neo-Nazi stuff' was at a separate rally about 150 metres from where he was on St Kilda beach despite being seen with convicted criminal Blair Cottrell who has previously expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler. He said Nazi salutes were abhorrent to him, defending the $2852.80 he spent on flights to get to the rally, which he claimed was about 'Sudanese gangs' being out of hand. Senator Anning said the 'neo-Nazi stuff' was at a separate rally about 150 metres from where he was on St Kilda beach 'There were no Nazi salutes and there was nothing to do with Nazi racist remarks,' he said. He cited media and some police reports of 'Sudanese gangs' as evidence of a problem, but Queensland Police last month said there was no such issue. The senator's comments come as reports emerged he also charged taxpayers to attend at least two other far-right events in 2018. In July, he joined Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern at a rally in Sydney, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Tuesday. Mounted police officers keep protesters apart on the St Kilda foreshore on Saturday Independent Senator Fraser Anning during Senate Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, 2017 'I went to a rally of decent Australians who are sick and tired of what's happening in the city,' the senator said. Senator Anning is adamant he was among ordinary, working Australians at the rally he attended, rather than radicals or skin heads. Costs for the trip included two nights of accommodation for $810, and flights between Sydney and Brisbane costing nearly $1900, Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority figures show. The senator also charged taxpayers for another trip to Melbourne in October to speak at an Australian Liberty Alliance's Rally for Free Speech but the costs have not yet been declared. United Patriot Front founder and leader addresses the crowd at St Kilda beach on Saturday The Senator also repeatedly denied claims of racist behavior at the event and said those in attendance were 'decent Australian people' Senator Anning sparked fury among parliamentarians and the public with his maiden speech in August when he called for a ban on Muslim immigration and a plebiscite, saying 'the final solution to the immigration problem of course is a popular vote'. In St Kilda, he told waiting media that if he were prime minister of Australia, he would refuse entry to any Muslims or people of African descent. Senator Anning sits as an independent after splitting with both Pauline Hanson's One Nation and Bob Katter's Australian Party since entering parliament in November 2017. The Queensland senator (right) tried to defend his appearance at a far-right rally in Melbourne last weekend A suspected cell phone thief was beaten by man inside a Mexico City train station while an auxiliary transit police officer stood and watched from afar. A woman, who goes by the Twitter handle of @k_arener, used her cell phone to capture the shocking moment a subway customer comes to the aid of a woman, whose phone had been stolen a short while earlier. Twitter user @jazmin93045656 shared an image of the alleged cell phone thief, claiming she started chasing Julio, 24, after he had swiped her mobile device. Julio was stomped and stripped naked after a woman at a Mexico City train station accused him of stealing her cell phone A subway customer (right) comes to the aid of a woman, whose cell phone has been stolen by Julio (bottom center), and beats him down while undressing him Mexico City subway rider identified as Jazmin through her Twitter account @jazmin93045656, claims she started running after a man that had swiped her phone off her hands inside at a local subway station The man decides to apply his own justice and lifts Julio from the ground by his underwear at the Lazaro Cardenas station located in the city center. He then drags Julio around as the cop stands by in a corner and takes a couple of steps forward as if to intervene before he restrains himself from doing so. The subway rider then slams Julio against the floor and another man jumps in to stomp the bandit across his face and chest. The 'justice-rendering-train-rider' then manages to retrieve a different phone from Julio's pocket and pulls his pants and underwear down to his ankles. He then hands the phone over to the robbery victim, identified as Jazmin through her social media account. She could be heard on the video saying the phone is not hers since she had already retrieved it. A cop (rear right) looks while a subway rider (front right) beats down Julio (center) Julio (bottom center) cringes on the floor as a man (top center) is about to stomp his head A cop (center) stands over a bruised and battered suspected cell phone thief inside a Mexico City train station A woman then appears in the video savagely kicking the cell phone snatcher in the head. As Julio cringes on the floor from the pain that was inflicted on him, the man kicks him in the back of the head and delivers a head stomp before stepping aside. Finally, the cop steps in to instill order as Julio surprisingly is able to sit up. The video posted was posted on Sunday morning and had registered over 3,600 retweets and more than 6,800 likes by Monday afternoon. One of three people involved in the horrifying rape, dismemberment and murder of a 10-year-old girl in 2016 has taken a plea deal a day before she was due to go to trial. In August 2016, Jessica Kelley was involved in the death of 10-year-old Victoria Martens at her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kelley and her cousin Fabian Gonzales were first said to have raped Victoria while her mother, Michelle Martens, watched, then killed her. All three were charged after Victoria's body was found stabbed, wrapped in a blanket and set on fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Victoria's mother, a meth addict, told police initially that she watched as Gonzales and his cousin raped her daughter then said they killed her. Since then, their stories have changed multiple times and prosecutors now believe that a fourth, as yet unidentified suspect, was involved in the killing. DNA evidence found on Victoria's body belonged to another man and cell phone data revealed that neither the girl's mother nor her boyfriend were in the apartment when she died. On Monday, a day before she was due to go to trial for murder and rape, Kelley pleaded guilty to child abuse recklessly caused, resulting in death, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault. Jessica Kelley (left in a previous court appearance) took a plea deal on Monday for the death of 10-year-old Victoria Martens who she helped rape, dismember and murder in August 2016 Victoria's mother Michelle (right) and her mother's boyfriend Fabian Gonzales (left) were also charged over her death. Michelle is awaiting sentencing on a plea deal and Gonzales is awaiting trial Michelle pleaded guilty to child abuse last year and is awaiting sentencing but faces between 12 to 15 years behind bars. Gonzales is awaiting trial while police hunt the fourth suspect who prosecutors now say killed Victoria while Kelley babysat her as part of a gang dispute that Gonzales was involved in. Victoria was strangled to death and an autopsy report revealed she had been given alcohol and had contacted an STD. Another man's DNA was found on her body and there was no physical evidence to suggest she had been given methamphetamine, as her mother told police. In June, prosecutors dropped murder charges against the trio in a sudden twist of events. At the time, Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez said the evidence did not support what Michelle had said about the killing. 'Everyone in the immediate aftermath of this crime focused on the statement Michelle Martens made and they took it at face value. 'The pieces of this puzzle just didn't fit,' he said, adding the story that Kelley and Gonzales raped and killed Victoria in front of her was 'simply not true.' All three are still accused of child abuse. Some of Victoria's remains were found in a hamper in the kitchen of an apartment her mother lived in. The torched remains that had been set on fire were found in the bathtub. Gonzales has always denied having any role in her murder. Kelley was on parole for rape at the time of the young girl's death. Airport security and National Parks aren't the only casualties of the 17-day border wall stalemate between President Trump and congressional democrats that's caused a partial government closure - alcohol supplies could be next on the list too. Craft beer breweries and wineries across the US - who regularly roll out new and experimental concoctions - may see their seasonal spring flavors abandoned, as the government agency responsible for approving labels for new drinks has been forced to close its doors. Until lawmakers strike a deal to conclude the shutdown, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) will remain inactive, meaning no new varieties of alcoholic drinks will be found on grocery store shelves or in local breweries. Last year, the TTB was responsible for approving over 192,000 new drinks, but following the government's closure on December 22, craft makers are beginning to feel the strain with no end to the stand-off in sight. As Donald Trump continues to lock-horns with Democrats over the funding of his wall, supplies of new ranges of beer and wine could dwindle as the regulatory body responsible for their approval has closed its doors Airport security check points have also felt the strain of the government closure, as unpaid TSA employees calling in sick has resulted in lengthy queues for travellers The TTB acts as the enforcing agency for the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, approving labels, licenses, and new ingredients to beer, wine, and spirits. During the shutdown, companies can continue to submit applications, but 'submissions will not be reviewed or approved until appropriations are enacted,' where a huge backlog is anticipated to accumulate, impacting thousands of drinks and halting innovation. 'We're all kind of waiting with a bated breath to see when we'll be able to apply for labeling again,' said Old Nation Brewing Company co-owner, Travis Fritts, to Buzzfeed. 'What this does is it doesnt really let us rotate from the winter seasonal to the summer seasonal. 'There are breweries that are able to plan six or eight months ahead, but most smaller brewers cant.' Next season's flavors of craft beers could be in jeopardy as a huge backlog of requests to the TTB is expected to accumulate during the shutdown - which shows no sign of ending soon The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is responsible for approving the labels and ingredients of new drink products. In 2018, the approved more that 192,000. No more will be approved until the government resumes full operations Among the chaos, it's the smaller brewing companies who will be most widely effected by the TTB's inactivity, as their business model requires the regular release of new flavors throughout the year to generate a new, and loyal, customer base. In addition, craft brewing start-ups, who require a licence approval from the TTB before they can develop any products, also wait eagerly in limbo. The government has now been shut down for 17 days as Donald Trump and Democrats lock-heads over funding for the President's border wall to separate the US and Mexico. Donald Trump has requested $5 billion in funding to help construct the wall. However Democrats say they refuse to budge from the $1.6 billion already agreed upon in congress Trump has demanded $5 billion to fund the project, but Democrats have refused to budge from the $1.6 billion they previously negotiated with Republicans in Congress. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump declared he was 'proud' of the impasse and said it could last for months - or even years - unless the Democrats acquiesce to his demands. On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered to give Trump $1 towards his wall fund. An Uber driver charged with killing six strangers in southwestern Michigan after claiming the devil was controlling him via the ride-sharing app has pleaded guilty to murder. Jason Dalton's surprise move occurred on Monday as lawyers and a judge planned to pick a jury in Kalamazoo County court for his trial. The 48-year-old pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder without any deal. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. Jason Dalton pleaded guilty on Monday in Kalamazoo, Michigan to killing six strangers in between Uber rides in 2016 'I've wanted to do this for quite a while,' Dalton told the judge. He answered 'yes' to a series of questions, admitting that he shot eight people at three locations - an apartment building, a restaurant and a car dealership - in the Kalamazoo area in February 2016. Four women, a man and a 17-year-old boy were killed. Two victims, including 15-year-old Abbie Kopf, survived the shootings. Kopf suffered a fractured skull after being shot in the head and underwent surgery to have a plastic plate inserted. The teenager's recovery was deemed remarkable given doctors were preparing to harvest her organs when she was injured. Defense attorney Eusebio Solis said he advised Dalton not to plead guilty but he said his client wanted to spare families more grief during a trial. Jason Dalton enters the court room before pleading guilty to six counts of murder and several other charges at the Kalamazoo County Courthouse on Monday Victim family members react as Jason Dalton pleads guilty to six counts of murder and several other charges on Monday Police said he shot six people outside an apartment building, a restaurant and a car dealership in between driving for Uber Police said Dalton had claimed a 'devil figure' on Uber's app was controlling him on the night of the shootings and that it had ordered him to kill. Court proceedings were initially delayed in the case while Dalton's attorney tried to suppress some statements made to police. The Michigan appeals court agreed that some could not be used because a detective continued questioning him after Dalton 'invoked both his rights to counsel and to remain silent'. Dalton was found competent to stand trial, but had made bizarre outbursts at past court appearances. He was dragged out of a courtroom by deputies during a 2016 court appearance when he started screaming while one of his surviving victims was giving her testimony. Sisters-in-law Mary Jo Nye, 60, (left) and Mary Lou Nye, 63, (right) were killed during the shooting spree in a Cracker Barrel parking lot Tyler Smith (right) and his father Rich were killed in the parking lot of the Seelye Kiacar dealership while they were looking at cars Barbara Hawthorne (left), 68, and Dorothy Brown (right), 70, were also killed in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel A bereaved family suing Amazon for $6.5m over the death of a $150,000-a-year HR executive have slammed the firm, and accused it of driving him to an early grave. The Ashley family are suing Amazon for IT manager Ronald Ashley's death in late 2016 when he died of a heart attack, after the company cut off his disability payments. The family's tragedy redoubled when Ronald's older brother also died of a heart attack a year later, which the family believes was brought on by grief. The Ashleys say the company is a 'bureaucratic mess', growing too quickly to look after its workers properly, and that were it not for Amazon's actions, Ronald, 53, would still be alive. 'I'm furious. He needed this disability pay when he was living, and now he's dead. This has been so hurtful to me and my family,' the Amazon worker's younger brother, Dwayne Ashley, told DailyMailTV. Ronald Ashley, 53, worked as an HR exec at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle. He became disabled after suffering a fall in a hotel shower during a business trip in 2015 The family has claimed the company is a 'bureaucratic mess', growing too quickly to look after its workers properly, and that were it not for Amazon's actions, Ronald, 53, would still be alive Amazon billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos attended the 76th annual Golden Globes on Sunday night. The company has faced previous claims of improperly denying employee benefits and mistreating shop floor workers at the firm's sorting warehouses 'It's so disrespectful that the company would treat him like that.' The lawsuit is the first involving a senior member of Amazon's staff. The company has faced previous claims of improperly denying employee benefits and mistreating shop floor workers at the firm's sorting warehouses. The Ashleys ask for at least $6,586,000 from Amazon in their legal complaint filed in New York. Family attorney Michael Kapin, said the case could cost the company 'tens of millions of dollars' if it goes before a jury. 'Every detail I hear about this case makes my stomach cringe,' Kapin told DailyMailTV. 'I feel so much compassion for the family and what they've had to go through.' Dwayne said Ronald was a senior IT manager working in the Seattle headquarters with a salary of around $150,000, an 'incredible' work ethic, and was well-liked at the firm, acting as a mentor for younger staff and often cooking cajun dishes for his colleagues. But when Ronald fell in a hotel shower on a business trip in 2015, breaking bones in his thorax, Amazon delayed and refused to complete his disability payments, the family claim in court documents. The senior human resources business analyst already had health complications from being HIV positive, but offered to work from home, sending emails and taking calls while he recovered. Amazon denied his requests and cut off his disability pay after three months, the Ashleys claim. By fall of 2016, Ronald had run out of money, racking up credit card debt and facing eviction over unpaid rent, and spiraled into a 'crippling depression', the court documents say. 'He didn't tell our family that he was struggling financially because he was a very proud person,' said Dwayne. 'When his savings started to run out the stress started to mount, and it led to the decline of his mental state. 'Ron started to isolate himself from the family. That was not like him at all, he was very close to us. He didn't come home for Thanksgiving, which was odd because he always cooked for the family.' A few days later, his landlord let herself into his apartment in Bellevue, Washington, and discovered his body. The coroner concluded he had lain there for days after dying from a heart attack brought on by stress. The Ashleys have called Amazon's alleged actions 'disrespectful' and 'ironic' as Ronald (pictured far right with his brothers) was 'someone who took care of Amazon employees, and when he needed the benefits himself, they didn't want to give them to him' Ashley (pictured in white with his mother cutting her birthday cake) began to 'isolate himself' from his family after he began struggling financially, his brother claims In their court claim, the Ashleys say Amazon's failure to pay disability benefits was to blame. 'But for Amazon's failure to honor contractually agreed to and/or provide granted benefits and accommodations to Ronald while he was disabled, Ronald would not have passed away,' the court documents say. The family claim the firm's failure to pay shows 'the bureaucratic mess at Amazon as a result of the company's rapid expansion. Due to its fast development this corporate gargantuan is unable to keep pace with the imperative requests made by its employees.' 'This whole thing was so hurtful,' said Dwayne. 'Here's someone who took care of Amazon employees, and when he needed the benefits himself, they didn't want to give them to him. It's so disrespectful and ironic that the company would treat him like that.' Dwayne said that the family's grief was redoubled when he eldest brother, Howard, died of a heart attack while sat on the sofa with his 18-year-old son. The family believe Howard's desperate grief over losing his brother was the cause. Pictured above is the funeral program for Ashley. The family's tragedy redoubled when Ronald's older brother also died of a heart attack a year later, which the family believes was brought on by grief 'Ron was a real leader. Howard was more insecure, more of an introvert. Ron was always his cheerleader. His death impacted Howard greatly,' said Dwayne. 'Ron was very much a family person. He was always the one that cooked for us on the holidays and gave gifts to everyone. Because he worked at Amazon he would buy literally hundreds of gifts for everyone. There would be bags of all these wonderful gifts around the tree at Christmas. He was a very generous person.' Kapin said the Ashleys are adamant that the company rights the alleged mistreatment of their son and brother. 'Someone who was HIV positive and disclosed his status to the company, was a hardworking and dedicated employee, for him to be treated like this... I feel so much compassion for the family and what they've had to go through. 'The Ashley family are determined that no family of an Amazon employee will have to go through this again, and they're going to work hard to make sure Ronald's memory is not forgotten. They want this to lead to change, not only at this one huge company, but for how all corporations treat their employees.' An Amazon spokesperson said the company does not comment on pending legal cases, but added that 'Amazon follows all federal, state, and local laws.' (ANSA) - Rome, January 7 - Deputy Premiers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini said Monday that they were backing the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) protest movement in France. "Yellow vests, don't give up!" read a post by Labour and Industry Minister Di Maio on the blog of his 5-Star Movement (M5S). "The 5-Star Movement is ready to give you the support you need. "Like you, we too strongly condemn those who caused violence during the demonstrations, but we are well aware of the fact that your movement is peaceful. "We can make some of the functions of our operating system for direct democracy, Rousseau, available to you". Interior Minister Matteo Salvini expressed support for the yellow vests while condemning the violence that has marred some of its demonstrations. "I support the good citizens who are protesting against a president who governs against his people but I absolutely, totally and firmly condemn every episode of violence, which is no use to anyone," Salvini said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) is looking into complaints for alleged corruption filed against three members of President Rodrigo Duterte's cabinet. PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna announced the body is currently investigating Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, former Customs commissioner and now Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) head Isidro Lapena, and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) chair Leonor Quintayo. In a media briefing Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Malacanang will await the anti-corruption body's official findings and recommendations for Duterte. "The President's policy ever since is there are no sacred cows in this administration. You violate the law, you are accountable" Panelo said. "Gaya ng sinabi ko, walang mga friendship friendship diyan. Kung may ebidensya, the axe will fall where it should," he added. [Translation: Like what I said, there are no friendships there. If there is evidence, the axe will fall where it should.] Panelo, however, clarified the three will remain in the Cabinet while the probe is ongoing. In a speech in June 2016, Duterte warned he will fire government employees linked to "even a whiff or whisper" of corruption. This is a developing story. The family of a woman who disappeared with her three-year-old son has managed to raise over 3,000 to help cover legal fees. Ellie Yarrow-Sanders, 26, disappeared with Olly Sheridan last year during ongoing custody proceedings with Olly's distraught father Patrick Sheridan, 45, who said he is in a 'living nightmare' after his son was taken in July. Miss Yarrow-Sanders' family are raising money on a GoFundMe page, claiming they are facing prosecution as the High Court believes they may have hidden information. Ellie Yarrow-Sanders, from Basildon, disappeared with Olly Sheridan last year during ongoing custody proceedings with Olly's father Patrick Sheridan, pictured with Olly, has appealed for his ex-partner Ellie Yarrow-Saunders to return the child A statement on the page says: 'Donna and Maddie [Ellie's mother and sister respectively] were recently in court with no representation against five other lawyers and barristers. 'This whole process is bankrupting the mother.' In December, a High Court judge spoke of his grave concern for the young boy and raised the alarm urging anyone with information to come forward. Mr Justice Williams, who oversaw a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, lifted the identity bar in the hope that publicity will help find Olly and Miss Yarrow-Sanders. However, in a letter to her family, which has been shared on social media by her sister Maddie Yarrow, Miss Yarrow-Sanders said running away was 'the only way' she could protect her son and is acting in his best interests. The mother wrote she loved Olly 'more than anything'. Olly is at the centre of a family court dispute between his estranged parents. He disappeared with Miss Yarrow-Sanders weeks before she was due to give evidence in a family court hearing 'This is the only thing I could do for Olly to have any semblance of a childhood with his mum,' she wrote. 'I'm really sorry to leave you all but we have no other choice and I promise we will be ok! I will never let any harm come to Olly.' She addressed the letter to her mother and sister so they would 'understand why I've had to do what I've done'. And her family believe Miss Yarrow-Sanders' side of the story is not being heard. The page was created on December 21 and has so far raised more than 3,500 of the 6,000 goal. It was started by Danny Boyling, Maddie Yarrow's boyfriend. Ellie Yarrow-Sanders, 26, disappeared six months ago with son Olly Sheridan (left, together) - and the boy's father Patrick Sheridan (right, with Olly) has begged them to come out of hiding He wrote: 'The money raised by this campaign will go towards the solicitor costs for Maddie Yarrow and Donna Yarrow. 'They are currently on trial at the hands of the High Court; Ellie has ran away with her child to protect them both. Maddie and Donna are facing prosecution as the High Court believes they are involved and are hiding information. 'Any money raised that goes over the amount required, will be donated to a Woman's charity and various other charities that help all woman abused and let down by the family courts. 'The monies raised will be paid for solicitor costs and fees that occur. The funds will be either directly paid to the solicitor or to a bank account to then be transferred across accordingly. 'We appreciate all the support and Ellie would be so happy that people have heard her side and her voice. We miss them every day.' Miss Yarrow-Sanders denied causing her son 'emotional harm' in a letter (pictured above) A petition has also been set up by friends of the family calling on the High Court to allow Miss Yarrow-Sanders' side of the case be told. It has been signed by more than 24,000 people. Patrick Sheridan issued an updated appeal asking her to come home, saying Christmas has been 'unbearable'. He said: 'I hope that Ellie sees sense and comes forward so that this can be sorted out and Olly can have a normal childhood, not living on the run. 'My boy needs both of his parents in his life and not to live a life undercover, hidden away from his family and the rest of the world. 'Please, if any members of the public who might have seen Olly or have any information, call the police.' The wife of a Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison fears he is on the brink of death ahead of the fourth anniversary of his brutal public flogging. Raif Badawi was arrested in 2012 and convicted in May 2014 of insulting Islam after criticising the kingdoms powerful clerics on a blog he founded in a case that sparked an international backlash. In January 2015, he received 50 lashes before a crowd of hundreds of people in Jeddah and this was supposed to continue with 50 a week for 20 weeks. Scroll down for video Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, 34, pictured, was convicted in May 2014 of insulting Islam and was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison His wife Ensaf Haidar, pictured in 2015, has revealed that her imprisoned husband is severely depressed and making plans for when he dies Further floggings were suspended after he almost died from his first round of lashes and criticism from the EU, United States, Canada, the UN and more. But the 34-year-old, who turns 35 next week, remains imprisoned. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives with their children in Canada, has been campaigning for her husbands freedom ever since. Last year, she had held out hopes for a royal pardon after a human rights group in Riyadh held talks with European lawmaker Josef Weidenholzer. Now, in an exclusive interview ahead of the fourth anniversary of her husbands public flogging, she revealed that Badawi is severely depressed and making plans for when he dies. Raif is very depressed, she said. He informed me that if he died, he wants his body shipped to Quebec so his soul will stay in peace. Mr Bawadi was flogged in front of a crowd of hundreds of people in Jeddah. Pictured: leaked video footage taken on a mobile phone showed the beating in January 2015 She added: He is sick, he has problems with his kidneys and his psychology is very bad. Ms Haidar added that she remains in the dark about her husbands case as authorities in Saudi Arabia have not given her any information. We havent heard anything about his legal status because everything is secret in his case, she said. She has been forced to raise her three children - aged 10, 13 and 14 - with Badawi as a single mother. Although she and her children have become Canadian citizens after the country granted them asylum, she says the whole familys mental state is not good. Their psychological situation is bad. There are no words to explain it, she added. In the spring of last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his serious concern over the continued jailing of Badawi to the kingdom's King Salman bin Abdulaziz in a call. Ms Haidar has been forced to raise her three children aged 10, 13 and 14, pictured with their father Mr Badawi, as a single mother in Canada where they have been given asylum Ms Haidar, pictured at her book launch in June 2015, also revealed that she remains in the dark about her husbands case as authorities in Saudi Arabia have not given her any information Since then, Badawis case has since become the heart of a diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia. Last August, the kingdom froze new trade with Canada, expelled Canadas ambassador and ordered all Saudi students to return home. It came after Canada urged the kingdom to release activists detained for calling for more rights for women, including his sister Samar Badawi, a prominent womens rights campaigner. She was honoured by the US State Department in 2012 with an International Women in Courage Award. Her brother Raif had co-founded the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group. The group promoted free speech and sought an end to the influence of religious leaders on public life in one of the most conservative countries in the world. It comes as Saudi Arabia continues to face the ramifications over the death of Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post journalist, a critic of the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 last year. US intelligence agencies believe the crown prince ordered an operation to kill Khashoggi, whose body was dismembered inside the consulate and then removed. But Saudi officials have denied accusations that the prince ordered the murder. A survivalist has been charged with murdering a father who was shot dead inside his tent in front of his family at a Malibu campsite earlier this year after being arrested in connection with a spate of random shootings and burglaries in California. Anthony Rauda, 42, was charged with the murder of pharmaceutical executive Tristan Beaudette, 35, on Monday. He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of second-degree burglary. Beaudette was murdered in June this year while he was camping with his daughters aged two and four. He was shot in the torso through their tent in a cold blooded random killing which shocked the community. He had had taken his d aughters away from their home to allow their mother to study for an exam in peace. For months, his killing went unsolved along with 10 other attempted murders and burglaries which span two years. Scroll down for video Anthony Rauda is shown at a court appearance in November when he was charged with burglaries. He was wearing a spit guard and had to be wheeled in by guards Tristan Beaudette was shot dead in his tent while camping with his daughters, two and four, in June this year. They had left their home to let his wife study for a doctor's exam Police arrested Rauda in October this year after being caught trying to steal food in a different beach park. He was holding a rifle at the time and was dressed all in black. He was due to make an initial court appearance in Los Angeles on Monday. Rauda is a serial burglar who is believed to have been living in the bush when he was arrested in October earlier this year. At an initial court appearance in November, he had to wear spit guards as he was wheeled into the courtroom by guards. The crime spree began in November 2016 when he started opening fire on unsuspecting campers. On that occasion, he allegedly opened fire on a man who was sleeping in a hammock in another Malibu park. He shot into two cars in 2017 but no one was injured. On June 18, four days before Beaudette's death, he shot into a Tesla. In addition to the shootings, he has been charged with five burglaries in the celebrity-populated town of Calabasas. A Tennessee woman who is serving a life sentence for killing a man who hired her for sex when she was 16 has been granted clemency by Governor Bill Haslam after celebrities including Kim Kardashian rallied for her release. Cyntoia Brown, now 30, was granted full clemency on Monday after serving 12 years in prison for the 2004 shooting death of 43-year-old Nashville man, Johnny Allen, when she was a prostitute. Brown, who was originally ordered to serve at least 51 years in prison before being eligible for parole, will be eligible for release in August. She will remain on parole for 10 years. 'This decision comes after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case,' Haslam said of granting Brown clemency. Brown had run away from home at 16 and linked up with the man who would become her pimp. When the two found themselves homeless, Brown was forced into prostitution by the man, who addition to trafficking the teen also beat and raped her on a near-daily basis. Cyntoia Brown, now 30, was granted full clemency on Monday after serving 12 years in prison or killing a man who hired her for sex when she was 16 years old 'Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms Brown has taken to rebuild her life. 'Transformation should be accompanied by hope. So, I am commuting Ms. Brown's sentence, subject to certain conditions.' The 30-year-old was granted full clemency on Monday after serving 12 years in prison for the 2004 shooting death of 43-year-old Nashville man, Johnny Allen (above), when she was a prostitute Brown, who obtained a college degree from Lipscomb University in prison, said in a statement that she will do everything to justify Haslam's faith in her and thanked her family for their support. 'I am thankful for all the support, prayers, and encouragement I have received. We truly serve a God of second chances and new beginnings. The Lord has held my hand this whole time and I would have never made it without Him. Let today be a testament to His Saving Grace,' she said. 'Thank you to my family for being a backbone these past 14 years. 'I am thankful to my lawyers and their staffs, and all the others who, for the last decade have freely given of their time and expertise to help me get to this day. 'I love all of you and will be forever grateful. With God's help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been.' As part of the conditions for her release, Brown will not be allowed to break any state or federal laws. She will also be subject to a release plan that could include work education, employment and counseling. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia Brown clemency on Monday. Brown will be eligible for release in August and will stay on parole for 10 years Brown (left in her mugshot and right in court in 2006) was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison when she was 16 years old for the 2004 shooting CYNTOIA BROWN'S STATEMENT ON HER CLEMENCY: Thank you, Governor Haslam, for your act of mercy in giving me a second chance. I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me. I want to thank those at the Tennessee Department of Corrections who saw something in me worth salvaging, especially Ms. Connie Seabrooks for allowing me to participate in the Lipscomb LIFE Program. It changed my life. I am also grateful to those at the Tennessee Department of Corrections who will work with me over the next several months to help me in the transition from prison to the free world. Thank you to Dr Richard Goode and Dr Kate Watkins and all of you at Lipscomb University for opening up a whole new world for me. I have one course left to finish my Bachelor's degree, which I will complete in May 2019. I am thankful for all the support, prayers, and encouragement I have received. We truly serve a God of second chances and new beginnings. The Lord has held my hand this whole time and I would have never made it without Him. Let today be a testament to His Saving Grace. Thank you to my family for being a backbone these past 14 years. I am thankful to my lawyers and their staffs, and all the others who, for the last decade have freely given of their time and expertise to help me get to this day. I love all of you and will be forever grateful. With God's help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been. Thank you. Advertisement Brown was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison when she was 16 years old for the 2004 shooting death of the 43-year-old real estate agent. She said Allen had picked her up and took her back to his house to have sex with her. The teen was working as a prostitute at the time. Brown has maintained she killed Allen because he kept reaching under the bed and she thought he was going for a weapon and was going to shoot her. Afterward, she took two of Allen's rifles, stole $172 from him and fled in his truck. Prosecutors argued that the teenager killed Allen in order to rob him. Her lawyers said she was a sex-trafficking victim and feared for her life. 'When I was 16 years old, I did a very horrible thing, and that has been with me for a very long time,' she said during one hearing. 'He didn't deserve to die. I was wrong. I was wrong. And I can't fix it.' Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and other celebrities rallied for Brown as she fought her life sentence. After the news was revealed on Monday, Kardashian tweeted: 'Thank you Governor Haslam'. Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and other celebrities rallied for Brown as she fought her life sentence. After the news was revealed, Kardashian tweeted: 'Thank you Governor Haslam' In the lead up to his clemency decision, Haslam's office was inundated with letters and pleas urging him to show Brown mercy. Several Democratic Tennessee lawmakers held events calling for Haslam to offer mercy, while the lead detective who worked the case urged him against it. 'At the beginning of this investigation, I considered the possibility that Cyntoia Brown was justified in killing Johnny Allen,' wrote Charles Robinson - a homicide detective with the Metropolitan Nashville Police - in his seven-page letter to Haslam in 2017. 'At the conclusion of this investigation my findings were that she was not justified in killing Mr Allen and her only motivation for the murder was robbery.' Several organizations also came to her defense, saying she was a sex trafficking victim who received an extremely harsh sentence. A victim's right advocate - Verna Wyatt, executive director of Tennessee Voices for Victims - went to bat for Brown, while acknowledging that putting her in prison was the right thing to do. 'There has to be accountability for that,' she said. But Wyatt, alluding to Brown selling her body, said Allen wasn't the only victim that night. Wyatt was among a number of unlikely people and organizations pleading for mercy during a clemency hearing in December, saying Brown was a brilliant prison-educated woman who had become a mentor to troubled girls and young women. A former federal prosecutor, along with a lawyer in the state attorney general's office who had once worked to fight one of Brown's appeals, said she had turned her life around. Two representatives from Tennessee-based victims' rights organizations, who normally argue for harsher sentences, defended her. A wife was strangled to death by her husband who then hanged himself in their home in what police are treating as a murder-suicide. Simbiso Aretha Moula, 39, and her husband Garikayi Moula, 51, were both found dead in their home at their home in Lower Mardyke Avenue, Rainham in east London on Friday. Officers were called to at the couple's home at 7.50am and found the cause of Simbiso's death as compression of the neck while Garikayi's death was suspension. Police are treating her death as murder while his death is not being treated as suspicious. Simbiso Aretha Moula, 39, and her husband Garikayi Moula, 51, were both found dead in their home at their home in Lower Mardyke Avenue, Rainham in east London on Friday In the aftermath of the tragic incident, a post-mortem examination took place at Queen's Hospital Mortuary in Romford two days later. Scotland Yard said they are not looking for anybody else in relation to the deaths . A Met Police spokesperson said: 'Police continue to investigate the deaths of two people at a residential address in Rainham. 'Although formal identification is yet to take police, officers are satisfied that the deceased are Simbiso Aretha Moula, 39, and her husband Garikayi Moula, 51, of Rainham. 'Provisional cause of deaths were confirmed as: Simbiso Aretha Moula - compression of the neck; Garikayi Moula - suspension. 'Officers were called to the couple's home in Lower Mardyke Avenue, Rainham by London Ambulance Service at 7.50am on Friday after Mr and Mrs Moula were found deceased. 'Next of kin have been informed and are being supported by officers. 'Nobody else is sought in connection with their deaths. 'Detectives from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Considine said: 'I would like to thank those members of the public with whom we have spoken as part of our inquiry thus far. 'We are ensuring that next of kin are being fully supported at this most difficult of times. 'If you heard or saw anything at the address that seemed out of place or of concern between the hours of 10.30pm on Thursday, 3 January, and 8.00am the following day, please don't hesitate to contact us.' For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, or see samaritans.org for details. President Donald Trump will address the nation Tuesday night in a prime time speech to address the ongoing government shutdown and his demands for a $5.7 billion border wall. But the four broadcast networks were debating whether to give what amounts to free air time to the president, who on Monday unleashed another one of his attacks on the 'fake news' media. CBS announced Monday night it would air the remarks and revealed the address would only be 8 minutes long. Cable networks CNN, Fox News and Fox Business Network also confirmed they will air the president's speech. It was not immediately clear whether the other broadcast networks would comply with the White House request to have them air the speech which would provide some of the dramatic flair Trump is looking for with the event. The president has thus far struggled to break through with in-house video presentations from the South Lawn of the White House where he speaks directly to the camera. The four major broadcast networks were deliberating on whether to carry the speech live, CNN reported earlier Monday. Another consideration was whether to allow Democrats equal time to respond. Trump confirmed the news of his prime time speech on Twitter, shortly after the White House announced Trump will be traveling to the southern border in another high-profile effort to brake through the budget stalemate. 'I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern,' the president tweeted. CNN and Fox News said they would carry the event, while it was under discussion at MSNBC was still deliberating Monday late afternoon. President Donald Trump is heading back to the U.S.-Mexico border with no end in sight to the partial government shutdown Presidents traditionally on occasion make formal requests for time from the networks' carefully planned schedules, and networks who operate under federal license sometimes comply. Before the president confirmed the speech, the New York Times reported that Trump 'wants to address the nation' about the government shutdown, where Trump's demand for a border wall is the primary sticking point. The White House didn't respond to a request for information about when it put in the request to the networks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office didn't respond to a request for comment about whether Democrats would seek time to respond and whether she would offer it. Earlier Monday, Trump tore into the 'fake news' media, accusing the press of making up stories and ignoring positive statistics about job growth. He lashed out at members of the press as 'crazed lunatics.' Although a president can give a speech whenever he wants, it only has maximum impact if carried live, and networks are usually loathe to interrupt their prime-time lineups unless they believe the speech is a legitimate news event, not just talking points. Trump will speak from the Oval Office, Axios, adding to the visual drama although the president has held so many impromptu events there that it could blunt the effect. The president announced the speech on Twitter Last Thursday, the network decided to cut away from Trump at what was billed as a 'press briefing' but where Trump, backed by border patrol officials, did not ultimately take questions and stressed his main talking points. Airtime isn't something the president can simply demand. The task of feeling out the networks would likely fall to Bill Shine, deputy White House chief of staff for communications, to urge network executives to carry the speech. In doing so, the former Fox News exec would have to vouch for the newsworthiness of the speech. Tuesday night's prime time lineup includes a 'Lethal Weapon' reboot on Fox, 'black-ish' on ABC, Ellen's 'Game of Games' on NBC, and 'FBI' on CBS. Networks face giving up ad-revenue for programs that don't air. The networks decided not to air an immigration address by President Barack Obama in 2014 on the grounds that it looked to be more partisan than newsworthy, though they did air a prime-time address by President George W. Bush in 2006. Trump's pitch about what the administration says is a crisis on the border would preempt prime time programming, including Ellen's 'Game of Games' on NBC CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter tweeted about an executive's take on the decision in light of Trump's attacks. 'TV exec texts: 'He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves If we give him the time, he'll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don't give him the time, he'll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don't.' To that, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau responded: 'Except they didnt give Obama time in 2014 because they believed his speech about immigration would be overtly partisan. So this should be a relatively easy decision.' Trump's double-barreled plan to break through the politics of the shutdown comes as the White House revealed he is heading back to the U.S.-Mexico border as he doubles down on his demand for a wall amid the ongoing government shutdown. The president 'will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis,' White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Monday. 'More details will be announced soon.' White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the trip on Thursday as the partial government shutdown was on its third week The move is immediately taken as a signal that Trump intends to dig in on his demand that Democrats provide $5.6 billion for construction of a border wall a 2016 campaign pledge that is at the center of the partial government shutdown. He has stuck by that financial demand even after he said he would show flexibility on the wall being constructed out of steel instead of out of concrete. He said a steel wall would actually be more expensive. 'The barrier or the wall can be steel instead of concrete if that helps people. It may be better,' Trump said Sunday. He also said he would call major steel companies asking them to design a wall which would be a long way from core missions of smelting, procuring materials, and running a factory. A Central American migrant, jumps over the US-Mexico border fence from Tijuana to San Diego in the US as seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on January 1, 2019 A migrant from Honduras looks from the border fence into the U.S. side to San Diego, Calif., from Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019 'I intend the call the heads of United States Steel and a couple of other of our great steel companies. I will have them come up with a template or design of a beautiful steel product, which we now may use and use that as our barrier,' he said. Trump also has said Mexico will pay for the wall, something he says will be accomplished by a new U.S.-Mexico trade deal that has yet to go through Congress. The trip to the border comes after Trump tasked top aides along with Vice President Mike Pence and son-in-law Jared Kushner to try to negotiated an end go the standoff that has kept 800,000 workers from either going to work or getting paid. Even as he demands Congress fund the wall, Trump said on Sunday he's looking at his options to get the wall built,including declaring a national emergency. 'I may declare national emergency dependent on what going to happen in the next few days,' Trump said. 'Congressman Adam Smith, the new Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, just stated, 'Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times.' No doubt, but let's get our deal done in Congress!,' the president tweeted Monday. But Smith also warned Trump 'would be wide open to a court challenge' if he made such a move. President Donald Trump slammed The New York Times on Monday for reporting that his National Security Adviser John Bolton had rolled back his plan for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops for Syria. 'The Failing New York Times has knowingly written a very inaccurate story on my intentions on Syria. No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!,' he tweeted. The Times and other outlets reported that during a visit to Israel, Bolton indicated U.S forces could stay in Syria for months or even years, a direct rebuke to Trump's original directive to have American troops gone in 30 days. Bolton said in Israel that the U.S. would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of ISIS in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists. The report of what Bolton said was carried widely, with the president's tweet showing that he read about it in the newspaper. But Bolton retweeted his boss early on Monday afternoon, joining in the dubious Times pile-on by writing: 'My thoughts exactly.' President Trump slammed the New York Times for reporting U.S. troops may stay in Syria for months or even years But his tweet and other moves by officials in his administration and left confusion about how long U.S. boots will remain on the ground there Bolton implausibly closed the distance between himself and Trump, agreeing with the president's criticism of the Times: 'My thoughts exactly' But what Bolton said was in stark contrast to how Trump had initially described his withdrawal plan. The president said in his Dec. 19 video announcement of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria: 'They're all coming back, and they're coming back now.' But the time frame has been in question from its gestation and Trump's tweet on Monday simply said U.S. forces will leave 'at a proper pace.' Bolton is part of a group of defense hawks in the administration who want to keep U.S. boots on the ground in the war-torn Middle East nation as a way to staunch any advancement by forces sympathetic to ISIS. He and other administration officials have worked to slow Trump's order to remove U.S. forces and to reassure allies like Israel of America's commitment to the region, The Times reported. Staff are outlining a series of requirements to remove U.S. troops that gives wiggle room to leave troops in place for some time. The Times' story said that Bolton has set conditions for troop withdrawal including that the Islamic State is fully defeated and that Turkey promises it won't attack Kurdish forces aligned with the U.S. which could delay the process by months or years. 'The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement,' Bolton said during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump's December 19th announcement that U.S. forces would be leaving Syria left a trail of disarray in its wake. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced his resignation shortly thereafter and slammed the president in his resignation letter, which caused Trump to push him out at the end of the year instead of his original February departure. The Pentagon has struggled with how to implement the president's order. The president originally said U.S. forces would be gone in 30 days. National Security Adviser John Bolton (right) met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) to talk about Syria Bolton said in Israel that the U.S. would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of ISIS in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists He appeared to walk that back on Sunday. 'I never said we're doing it that quickly, but we're decimating ISIS,' Trump told reporters at the White House as he headed for Camp David for a staff retreat. 'With that being said, we're pulling out of Syria. But we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone.' A federal judge has found that Carnival Cruise Line is not responsible for the death of a 33-year-old mother-of-four who fell overboard from one of its ships in 2016. Carnival Cruise Line will not be held liable for the death of Samantha Broberg, who died in May 2016 after falling from a Carnival Liberty cruise ship. Her husband Karl Broberg sued Carnival last year, alleging that cruise line had not protected his wife and continued to serve her drinks when she was visibly intoxicated. On the night of her death, which occurred just 13 hours after she set sail for the four-day Caribbean cruise, Broberg had consumed at least seven double vodka-sodas and two beers. Carnival Cruise Line has been found not responsible for the death of Samantha Broberg (pictured with husband Karl), 33, who fell overboard from one of its ships in 2016 Carnival Cruise Line will not be held liable for the death of Samantha Broberg, who died in May 2016 after falling from a Carnival Liberty cruise ship (pictured) Around 2.04am on May 13, Broberg stepped on a lounge chair so that she could sit on the ship's railing. She then fell into the water. But Carnival Liberty's crew did not realize she had gone overboard until 15 hours later after reviewing the boat's security footage. Broberg's body was never found. Karl Broberg claimed that Carnival had violated the Cruise Vessel Security Act, which requires ships to install automatic overboard detection technology. The judge dismissed the claim prior to trial. Broberg's lawyers presented video, photos, and drink receipts in their efforts to prove that the mother, who was from Galveston, Texas, had been visibly drunk. Curtis Mase, the attorney for Carnival, argued that Broberg was a 'functioning alcoholic', according to the Miami Herald. Her husband Karl Broberg sued Carnival last year, alleging that cruise line had not protected his wife and continued to serve her drinks when she was visibly intoxicated On the night of her death, which occurred just 13 hours after she set sail for the four-day Caribbean cruise, Broberg had consumed at least seven double vodka-sodas and two beers He argued that Carnival continued to serve her drinks because employees did not realize she was dangerously intoxicated. 'Someone who goes totally off the wagon bears responsibility,' Mase added. 'Just because she'd been drinking all day doesn't make you a danger to yourself.' Federal judge Federico Moreno said the case was 'very sad' but that Carnival 'cannot be held responsible for what it did not know'. Carnival releasead a statement following Moreno's ruling, saying the decision 'acknowledges the facts of this case'. Carnival Liberty's crew did not realize she had gone overboard until 15 hours later after reviewing the boat's security footage Video showed Broberg stepping on a lounge chair next to sit on the ship's railing. She then fell into the water 'Our thoughts remain with the Broberg family and out of respect, we will have no further comment,' the statement read. The Coast Guard spent nearly three days and covered 4,300 sq miles in the desperate search for Broberg after she went missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Broberg's two friends had notified staff that she was missing - first sparking a ship-wide search. Dick Cheney's daughter Liz brought up domestic allegations against Christian Bale after the actor said 'Satan' inspired him to play her father in the movie, Vice. The former Vice President's daughter tweeted shortly after Bale's Sunday night Globes speech: 'Satan probably inspired him to do this, too,' and quoted a 2008 headline from British news organization The Independent which read, 'Christian Bale arrested for "assault on mother and sister."' The reference to the decade-old allegation from Liz came after Bale made the controversial remarks while accepting the Golden Globe award for Best Actor Sunday night. 'Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role,' he said of his Dick Cheney character in an apparent snub. US Rep. Liz Cheney came to her father's defense when actor Christian Bale thanked 'Satan' for the inspiration to play Dick Cheney in the movie, Vice, by bringing up Bale's 2008 domestic violence charge The political satire shows an unrecognizable Bale as Cheney, depicting the former second-in-command as the ruthless mastermind behind George W Bush's presidency, which has gotten the film large criticism by conservatives. Bale, who has always denied the allegations from July of 2008, was cleared of charges due to 'insufficient evidence' in August of that year. The domestic violence allegation brought up by Liz, who is the US Representative at-large for Wyoming, stems back to the days surrounding the UK premiere of The Dark Knight, in which Bale played Batman. Bale was accused of lashing out at his mother, Jenny, and sister, Sharon, in front of Sharon's children in his suite at the Dorchester hotel, in Park Lane on July 21, 2008. The following day, the mother and sister decided to go to a police station in Hampshire and make a complaint of assault. Sharon told her friend: I asked them to talk to Christian before he left as we felt his verbal and physical actions especially in front of three children under the age of 12 and no show of remorse afterwards needed to be pointed out to him as wrong. The mother and sister did not elaborate on exactly what the physical actions entailed. Liz Cheney tweeted on Sunday: Satan probably inspired him to do this, too,' and quoted a 2008 headline from British news organization The Independent which read, 'Christian Bale arrested for "assault on mother and sister."' Bale is shown at left during his acceptance speech for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dick Cheney in Vice. US Rep. for Wisconsin Liz Cheney is shown at right last week At the time, Bale asked for privacy on the 'deeply personal matter.' Bale is shown during his acceptance speech for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dick Cheney in Vice Bale voluntarily reported to Belgravia police station in London the following day to give his version of events and was released without charge. Sharon and her mother withdrew their statements two days after the incident. At the time, Bale asked for privacy on the 'deeply personal matter.' On August 14, 2008, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: 'We can today confirm that we have advised the Metropolitan Police Service that the actor Christian Bale should not face any charges following an incident which occurred in relation to his mother and sister at the Dorchester hotel on 21 July this year.' DailyMail previously reported the that confrontation that night stemmed from his mother allegedly hanging up the phone on Bale's wife, Sibi. Bale has always denied the allegations and was never charged. At the time, Bale asked for privacy on the 'deeply personal matter.' On August 14, 2008, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said:Bale is pictured at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2008 Bale was accused of lashing out at his mother, Jenny, and sister, Sharon, in front of Sharon's children in his suite at the Dorchester hotel (pictured), in Park Lane on July 21, 2008 Christian Bale won the Golden Globe for his role as Dick Cheney in the film Vice and thanked Satan 'for giving me inspiration for playing this role' The film depicts former Vice President Cheney (right) as the ruthless mastermind behind George W Bush's presidency, and as such has been largely criticized by conservatives. Bale is shown in character as Cheney at left In addition to the stab from Liz Cheney, Bale's Satanic comment got plenty of laughs from Hollywood's elite on Sunday night, as he continued to joke politics saying, 'What do you think, [playing] Mitch McConnell next?' The line gained the appreciation of the Church of Satan, who wrote on Twitter: 'To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr. Bale's own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!' Bale brought the comedy during his speech, positing himself as a loose lipped geezer who couldn't be trusted on stage with a microphone. The Church of Satan tweeted Bale's praise at his comment, writing 'Hail Christian! Hail Satan!' He thanked his two children and wife, revealing that ahead of the show she told him 'less is more' during his speech. 'She knows the dumb crap that can come out of my mouth at times. I can sink and ruin a perfectly good movie and so-so career in one speech. So thank you for that advice, my love,' he said. '(Vice director Adam McKay) said, ''I've got to find somebody who can be absolutely charisma free and reviled by everybody and so it's got to be Bale in it.''' he said. Though he has made a career off iconic roles using an American accent, such as Batman, Bale is in fact Welsh-born. Isiah McGill, 36, who launched himself through a second floor window to escape A robbery suspect in New York who escaped police custody by jumping from a second-floor bathroom window was finally caught two days later. Isiah McGill, 36, leaped from the NYPD station in Coney Island on Thursday while he was taking a bathroom break. He had elbowed a detective in the face to make his escape after the cop saw him trying to get through the window, the New York Daily News reported. The detective had his glasses knocked off and when he put them back on the suspect had vanished, it is claimed. His disappearance after his arrest on suspicion of robbery sparked a two-day manhunt involving sniffer dogs and a helicopter. But he was finally apprehended again on Saturday evening. McGill has now been charged with assaulting an officer, escape, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. McGill wearing the red tracksuit and running from the precinct (left) with a sweater which says 'GOAT' with a number 23 on the back and standing in the precinct before the escape (right) The NYPD said on Twitter after his second arrest: 'Isiah McGill, wanted for escaping police custody in Coney Island has been apprehended! 'Thank you to all New Yorkers who provided tips.' After his escape he was spotted dashing in a bright red tracksuit through Coney Island towards the Luna Park apartment buildings. A huge police response was focused on the apartment buildings and residents were barred entry as cops rifled through floor-by-floor, according to the New York Post. Police handed out pictures of the suspect who was wearing a red Michael Jordan sweater, with the letters 'GOAT' and number 23 emblazoned across the back. He was last jailed for three-and-a-half years for robbery in 2001, it was reported. Transfer Balls: Arsenal bid 10m over asking price for Cengiz Under Arsenal fans reading about the clubs moves for Romas Turkish forward Cengiz Under will be confused as to what the club has bid. The Press are guessing. So far weve been told that Arsenal have bid anything from 35m to 55m for the player Roma value at, er, 45m: Arsenal have 55m bid for top transfer target Cengiz Under rejected The Sun Jan 2. The paper adds that Arsenal are battling Tottenham, Manchester United and City for Roma striker. They are? Arsenal AND Chelsea target 54m Roma star Cengiz Under for January transfer window Daily Express, Dec 19 The Express lobs Chelsea into the mix. ARSENAL TRANSFER EXCLUSIVE: Cengiz Under latest as Chelsea drop out of race for 45m star Daily Star Jan 6 Arsenal hopes of landing 45m AS Roma ace Cengiz Under dashed Daily Mirror, Jan 5 Arsenal are not expected to make an improved offer for Romas 45m-rated Cengiz Under, having failed with an initial 35m bid for the 21-year-old Turkey winger BBC, Jan 7 UNDER THE HAMMER Arsenal bid 29million for Roma star Cengiz Under rejected with Tottenham monitoring situation The Sun, December 16 Such are the facts. Anorak Posted: 7th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink New York parents are up in arms after it was revealed their children are playing in a community center with lead contamination. Thousands of kids attending clubs at The Harlem Armory could be at risk of lead poisoning after the state-owned building was found to contain poisonous metal within its walls. The center runs health, fitness and performing-arts programs for more than 1,000 youngsters each week. The building is now being targeted for a $2.2 million cleanup - but officials are refusing to disclose details about which parts of the building the lead is located, or how the state plans to remedy the situation. The Harlem Armory on West 143rd Street is being targeted for a $2.2 million lead cleanup job State Assemblywoman Inez Dickens had not been told of the lead-removal job and vowed to probe it today 'Materials found for decades in hundreds of aging National Guard armories across the nation resulted in a 2016 Federal National Guard Bureau directive mandating that those materials be removed,' a spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs told the New York Post. Parents are said to be angered and anxious about the situation and have questioned why authorities have kept details hushed. State Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, who had not been told of the lead-removal job, vowed to begin inquiring about the issue on Monday. More than 1,000 children currently play in the community center each week, despite being at increased risk of getting ill She said: 'I did not know they were doing lead removal at the armory we should have known that they were doing it. 'It's disappointing because of the environmental impact that lead could have on senior citizens as well as children,' she said, vowing to begin making inquiries about the issue Monday. Children are at increased risk of lead poisoning, with even small amounts of the metal being dangerous for them. A Singaporean man has been caught trying to smuggle cats into Malaysia after customs officials heard 'meowing' from a large bulge in his trousers. Checkpoint staff on the Singapore side of a bridge connecting the island city-state with Malaysia had stopped the man in his car for a routine check. Officials were forced to carry out further checks when they heard meowing from a large bulge in the suspect's trousers, a statement by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said. He's packing: The 45-year-old man was caught trying to smuggle several cats from Singapore to Malaysia by hiding the animals in his tracksuit bottoms Upon inspection, checkpoint officers found four kittens stuffed down the man's tracksuit bottoms. The cats were immediately seized and are currently being cared for, officials said. According to local media, the case was referred to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). An investigation has been launched and charges may be brought against the 45-year-old. Checkpoint officials had stopped the man before crossing a bridge from the city-state and were forced to carry out further checks when they heard meowing from a large bulge in the suspect's trousers. Anyone caught smuggling unlicensed live animals and birds into Singapore could face a fine of up to 10,000 SGD (5,780), a one-year prison sentence, or both. The ICA said that the case was a 'cause for concern' and that it is worried that other people may try the same thing. Officials said they are concerned that any trafficking of animals between Singapore and Malaysia may introduce diseases such as rabies to the island state. A six-year-old girl was rescued from her home after she shared photos of her dead father and unconscious stepmother on Facebook. The girl, whose name has not been released, was removed by authorities from her Michigan home after she sent the photos to her grandparents on Facebook messenger. It is believed that her 40-year-old father and 36-year-old stepmother had overdosed on drugs. Officers heard the girl screaming when they entered the home. She told police that a pit bull had been gnawing on her dead father's face. Scroll down for video A six-year-old girl was rescued from her Michigan home (pictured) after she shared photos of her dead father and unconscious stepmother on Facebook Officers heard the girl screaming when they entered the home. She told police that a pit bull had been gnawing on her dead father's face (file photo) He had been dead for at least 24 hours. The young girl told police that she woke up on Thursday morning and thought her parents were still asleep, according to the Detroit Free Press. She tried to wake them up, even splashing water on their face, but nothing helped. The girl later took photos of the couple lying on their mattress and sent the pictures to her grandparents, who live in Tennessee. Her grandparents called the police and the girl was rescued around 10pm on Thursday night. Authorities believe the young girl was unsupervised and had gone without food for 14 to 24 hours. It remains unclear when exactly the couple lost consciousness. 'This is tragic. It could've been a lot worse, but it's tragic,' Mt Morris Township Police Chief Terence Green told WJRT. 'To think about a six-year-old being in the house alone longer than 24 hours, hasn't eaten, doesn't know what's going on.' 'And at some point in time, she witnesses the dog causing damage to her deceased father.' The girl took photos of the couple lying on their mattress at their home (pictured) and sent the pictures to her grandparents, who live in Tennessee Courtesy of WJRT The girl's father was pronounced dead at the scene and her stepmother was rushed to the hospital and placed in the intensive care unit. Green said she remains hospitalized in stable condition and has not been cooperative with police. Authorities believe the couple overdosed based on evidence that was found in the home and a lack of physical trauma to the deceased man and his wife. Green has credited the six-year-old girl's quick-thinking for saving her stepmother. 'Her actions, we believe, actually saved a life,' he said. 'This six-year-old went through a traumatic event - and she saved a life.' Green said the girl is now living with her biological mother and that she remains very upset following the incident. 'She didn't ask to be put in this situation,' he said. 'Thank god she was smart enough and has the intelligence to get on that phone and try to contact someone.' Her father's death is currently being investigated by the Genesee County Medical Examiner's Office. President Donald Trump on Monday bragged that a Democratic congressman said he has the authority to declare a national emergency to build his wall although he left out that the lawmaker also warned such a move would be challenged in court. 'Congressman Adam Smith, the new Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, just stated, 'Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times.' No doubt, but let's get our deal done in Congress!,' the president tweeted. But Smith also warned Trump 'would be wide open to a court challenge' if he made such a move. President Donald Trump bragged that a Democratic congressman said he has the authority to declare a national emergency to build his wall But Trump left out of his tweet that Rep. Smith said such a move would likely be challenged in court The congressman made his remarks Sunday in an interview on ABC's 'This Week.' A portion of the interview was played on 'Fox & Friends' Monday morning. Schiff was asked if the president had the authority to declare a national emergency and have the military build his wall. 'Fox & Friends' played this portion of his answer: 'Unfortunately the short answer is yes. There is a provision in law that says the president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times.' However, in his full remarks, Smith went on to caution about a lawsuit and made it clear he did not support the president in making such a move. Smith told ABC News: 'Well, unfortunately, the short answer is yes. There is a provision in law that says the president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times. But primarily it's been done to build facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this case, I think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying, where is the emergency? You have to establish that in order to do this. But beyond that, this would be a terrible use of Department of Defense dollars. The president spends most of his time talking about how we're not spending enough on national security, now he wants to take $20 billion out of the defense budget to build a wall, which by the way is not going to improve our border security. The president seems unaware of this, but we have actually already built a wall across much of the border, and all border security experts that I talk to say, where a wall makes sense, it's already been built.' The House Armed Services Committee's official Twitter account also offered a response. 'There is no national emergency. Declaring one would be wrong and horrible policy. Dont take 5.6 billion dollars from our troops for a wall we do not need. And remember that the estimated cost for Trumps wall is $20-30B. $5.6B is just a down payment,' it said. Trump said on Sunday he's looking at his options to get his wall built, including declaring a national emergency. 'I may declare national emergency dependent on what going to happen in the next few days,' Trump said. Negotiations are at an impasse as the partial government shutdown enters day 17. Both sides are in a deadlock over funding for Trump's border wall: the president wants $5.7 billion; Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for border security. Neither side has shown any sign of budging. Trump on Friday first floated the idea of declaring a national emergency to take the money he needs for his border wall. Other Democrats criticized the president's suggestion.. Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged Trump with wanting to 'abolish Congress' with such a move. 'The impression you get from the president [is] that he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress so the only voice that mattered was his own,' Pelosi said on CBS's 'Sunday Morning.' Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he didn't think Trump would be able to use emergency powers to build his wall. 'Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this President doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion dollar wall on the border,' Schiff said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'So that's a non-starter.' Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, presidents are allowed to take such an action in times of emergency if they notify Congress, specify the circumstances that make the situation an emergency and document all uses of executive authority. Officials at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense have researched the issue for the president, The New York Times reported. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday said the president has asked his cabinet agencies to examine whether their departments have funds that can be diverted. Democratic Rep. Adam Smith made it clear he did not agree with Trump that a national emergency should be declared to build a border wall The House Armed Services Committee tweeted back that there was no national emergency The Capitol and Washington Monument seen at dawn as the partial government shutdown lurches into a third week with no sign of ending 'Presidents have authority to defend the nation,' he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'The president has asked every single Cabinet secretary, and the Office of Management and Budget, to go out and find money that can be used legally to guard the Southern border,' he noted. The move has come as Trump finds himself between a rock and a hard place: his 2016 campaign promise to build a wall and increasing pressure from Republicans to get the government open. The president on Sunday brushed aside a question on whether he's lost any leverage in the talks as members of his party question on how long the shutdown will go on. 'I have tremendous support within the Republican Party,' he said. Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing their own measures to reopen the government. On Thursday, the first day House Democrats were in power, they passed two pieces of legislation to fund the government: one funded the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8 and the other funded all other closed departments - such as Justice, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Agriculture - for the rest of the fiscal year through Sept. 30. An estimated 380,000 federal employees in those departments have been furloughed and another 420,000 will have to work without pay. The clock is ticking to Jan. 11 - the first pay period for those workers that will encompass the entire time period of the shutdown. This week, Democrats plan to bring up individual bills to fund each department that is closed beginning with the Internal Revenue Service as fears mount tax returns could be delayed if the shutdown continues much longer. 'We'll do it bill by bill so we can help taxpayers, we can help people who need food assistance, we can help people who need housing vouchers, people who need flood insurance,' House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. But Trump has said he will not sign any legislation that doesn't give him $5 billion for his wall. And Senate Republicans said they will not bring up any legislation the president won't sign. Salim Wakil (pictured outside the Old Bailey today) has denied funding terrorism and says the money was for his sister to return home A brother sent his jihadi sister more than 2,000 after she fled the UK to join IS in Syria, a court heard. Salim Wakil, 25, from Hampshire, borrowed his friend's bank details to wire 2,350 to sister Sumaiyyah via Western Union in February last year. She left Britain back in August 2014 aged 16, leaving behind a handwritten letter for her family begging them not to alert the police. In the note, she expressed 'anger' about 'the state of the Islamic community', indicating the only way to help was by travelling to Syria to fight and help those suffering. Jurors at the Old Bailey heard the then-schoolgirl also made clear she wished to die as a martyr. During subsequent telephone exchanges it became clear Sumaiyyah had made her way to IS-controlled areas, the court heard. Wakil, from Fleet, denies funding terrorism over the transfer, claiming the money was meant to help bring her back to the UK. Brett Weaver, prosecuting, said: 'This case concerns an allegation of what amounts to terrorist funding by this defendant, Salim Wakil, that took place in February of last year. 'In a nutshell the prosecution case is that he arranged for 2,350 to be sent via Western Union transfer first to the country of Lebanon in the Middle East, and then ultimately on to his sister Sumaiyyah Wakil who was at that time in Syria. 'This arrangement was made by the defendant in spite of repeated warnings from police that any such transfers sent to Syria could lead to him committing a criminal offence. 'Furthermore, rather than send the money in his own name the defendant sought the help of a friend of his named Robert Chisca who went with him to the Western Union outlet. Mr Wakil face the Old Bailey today, where he denied funding terror 'Robert Chisca provided his details for the transfer although it was the defendant's money that was being sent. 'We, the prosecution, say this was done quite deliberately in an attempt to conceal his actions and thereby demonstrate that he knew perfectly well what he was doing was wrong. 'At the relevant time, the contact that the defendant and other members of his family had had with Sumaiyyah showed that not only was she in Syria but at various times she was in locations that were under the control of the Islamic State, a proscribed terrorist organisation. 'As a result, the prosecution say that sending money to someone in Syria in such circumstances give rise to a clear suspicion, at the very least, that it could end up being available to those engaged in terrorism overseas. 'In response to this allegation, the defendant accepts that he sent money to Sumaiyyah via Western Union, using the help of Robert Chisca. 'He says that at all times his intention was to help with the return of his sister Sumaiyyah from Syria back to the United Kingdom. 'The money was sent in line with instructions she had given to him and which she had told him would allow her to be brought back home. 'He told police he did not believe that the money would be used for the purposes of terrorism. 'However, despite his sending the money to Sumaiyyah for her to leave, she remained in Syria and in fact contacted him in the months that followed to request that he send her more money.' Wakil, of Fleet, Hampshire, denies funding terrorism. The trial continues. A bar in Mexico's Caribbean coast resort city of Playa del Carmen was left in a bloodbath after seven men were killed during a shooting on Sunday. Law enforcement authorities said two gunmen allegedly entered Las Virginias bar in a low-income neighborhood away from the beachside tourist zone and opened fired. The suspects escaped after shooting six men dead inside the bar. Another victim was transferred to Playa del Carmen General Hospital, where he was declared dead. The Quintana Roo General Attorney's office said no tourists were reported among the dead, according to Mexican news outlet Sin Embargo. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Gunmen allegedly barged into a bar in Playa del Carmen on Sunday night and killed seven men. The shooting, which also left one man wounded, did not occur near the beachside zone which is popular with tourists Law enforcement officials canvass a local bar in a low-income neighborhood. The incident brought back memories of a January 2017 massacre at a nightclub in nearby Cancun that left six people dead and 15 injured The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a brief travel warning for Playa del Carmen in March 2018 A male shooting who was wounded during the attack told police he was drinking beers with friends when the gunshots broke out. According to El Sol de Mexico, witnesses said the attackers unleashed gun fire at the same time before they each took turns shooting at their defenseless targets. The suspects boarded a getaway vehicle outside the business and escaped. They have not yet been identified. Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, the tourist attraction has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighborhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway. A crowd quickly descended upon Las Virginias, a bar/restaurant in Playa del Carmen where two male suspects allegedly assassinated seven men The state of Quintana Roo is made up by the top tourist attractions of Cancun, Tulum and Playa del Carmen. It reported 688 killings in the first 11 months of 2018 after 322 were registered during the same period in 2017 The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more than double in the last year, with 688 killings in the first 11 months of 2018, compared to 322 in the same period of 2017. At that rate, Quintana Roo could end 2018 with a homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000, on a par with El Salvador. The Caribbean coast - especially Cancun and the area south known as the "Riviera Maya" - had long been largely spared the drug violence affecting other areas, but that no longer appears to be the case. Local sources report that the feared Jalisco cartel has moved into the region, disputing control with local gangs. In September, two Mexican marines were found stabbed to death in Cancun. In a single day in August, police found eight bodies strewn on the streets of Cancun. Sunday night's attack brought back memories of the January 16, 2017 massacre during an electronic music festival at the Blue Parrot nightclub which left six people dead, including four tourists, and 15 injured. The following day, gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in Cancun, killing four people. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a brief travel warning for Playa del Carmen in March. A February 2018 blast on a ferry apparently caused by an explosive device injured 26 people, including several American citizens. That has sparked fears that the Caribbean resorts could come to resemble the faded Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The bloody violence in Acapulco that flared in 2006 eventually earned it a level-four "do not travel" warning from the U.S. Department of State. Still, violence in Playa del Carmen is still far from Acapulco levels. In 2017, Acapulco had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Mexico and the world. Harrowing footage captured the moment gunfire echoed through one of Puerto Rico's most popular streets when a group of men shot and killed a man after an argument at a nightclub. The shocking footage of the gun battle on Sunday morning shows armed men running back and forth for cover while shooting at Gregorio Cruz Perez, 30, who died on the scene of the brazen attack. Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC) director Carlos Nazario said that there was a row between the suspects and the murdered victim inside Zokkus, a nightclub in one of the island's most popular tourist areas, according to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia. Cruz Perezs murder was the 10th during the Three Kings Day holiday weekend in Puerto Rico. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Gregorio Cruz Perez was killed during a Sunday morning gun battle in Isla Verde, a district popular with tourists visiting Puerto Rico Police reports revealed that Jose Manuel Rodriguez Hernandez was dropped off at a local hospital by the suspects after he suffered a gun shot wound The video of the wild shootout, which quickly went viral on social media, captures Cruz Perez crouching in fear in front of an idle white car as his assailants let off a barrage of bullets while cars drove by on Villa Mar Avenue at 8:44am local time. The shooters momentarily stopped for nearly 10 seconds as three suspects could be spotted running towards their target. The suspects disappear out of the cell phone cameras view before they finally reach Cruz Perez, and spark off more shots. Cruz Perez had prior arrests for extortion and illegal appropriation According to police reports obtained by Primera Hora, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Hernandez, 30, who had a prior conviction for drug dealing, showed up at a local hospital in Rio Piedras where he was treated for a gunshot wound. A suspect stands near a van on a busy roadway in Puerto Rico during a shootout that left one man dead and another injured Police investigators recovered more than 100 bullets shells after the gun battle Gregorio Cruz Perez tries to cover himself from a group of gunmen that were shooting at him following an alleged altercation at a nightclub Residents record the moment an injured man is helped into a car before suspects sped off in multiple cars The police is still determining whether Rodriguez Hernandez had any connections to the assassination. Investigators recovered more the 100 bullet shells. A pair of assassinations were registered on Monday, raising the total of homicides to 17 in the first seven days of the 2019, compared to 25 in 2018 during the same period. 'In the early morning hours of today, [Three Kings Day], there have been unacceptable violence events that do not represent the values of our people,' Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello wrote on his Twitter account. 'As governor I assume as a priority the fight against drug trafficking, violence and crime.' Boosie Badazz is suing Dillard's, the City of Biloxi in Mississippi and a security company for the April 2017 incident The rapper Boosie Badazz is suing Dillard's along with a Mississippi town and police force claiming he was racially discriminated against when he was pepper sprayed as he tried to leave one of its stores in April last year by a white security guard who was then beaten by members of his entourage. Badazz was shopping in Biloxi, Mississippi, last April after performing at a spring break event when dozens of his fans tracked him to the mall and followed him into stores. It caused chaos in Edgewater Mall, forcing some stores to close while he shopped. At the end of his shopping spree, he entered Dillard's with an entourage of around 20. He was planning to buy a shirt then leave in a waiting limousine but was pepper sprayed by security guard Glen Kerley after Kerley told them to leave because there were too many people in the store. Video of the incident shows Kerley pepper spraying a member of the entourage and then Badazz. There is no audio to determine what was said but the men in the entourage were not behaving violently. The rapper (circled in pink) was shopping with his entourage when around 20 people followed him into the store in Biloxi. Security guard Glen Kerley (circled in red) pepper sprayed him and others after trying to throw them out Afterwards, Kerley and a police officer who was called to help deal with the 'unruly crowd' were attacked as they escorted Badazz's entourage out. The rapper insisted he was not involved in the attack but he and several others from the group were arrested. Badazz's charges are due to be dropped in late January. Kerley, who was photographed bloodied and battered afterwards, has filed his own lawsuit against Badazz claiming he assaulted him. Now, Badazz, a kidney cancer survivor, claims the entire incident was racially charged. He is suing Dillard's, the city of Biloxi, and Edgewater Mall and is seeking between $30million and $40million in damages, claiming local authorities in Mississippi are now making it difficult for him to perform. In pre-trial testimony last week, he said: 'You cant blame the celebrity for being a celebrity. And you cant you cant pick him out, you know . . . 'If I was Justin Bieber, I wouldnt have got sprayed in there. If I was another actor, I wouldnt have got sprayedin that mall. 'He would have asked me to take a picture with me, if I was if I was white, if I was a white celebrity,' he said, according to The Sun Herald. Badazz had performed at Black Beach Weekend, an annual event which attracts thousands of African-American spring breakers to Biloxi. After kicking them out the store, Kerley followed the rapper and his entourage outside but was attacked The security guard was left bloodied and battered by the fight. Boosie denied being involved in the fight but Kerley claimed the rapper kicked him The next day, he wanted to shop to celebrate but his fans caught wind of his whereabouts and followed him there. He shopped in peace in Foot Locker after it closed to afford him and his entourage some privacy, but by the time he got outside, the crowd waiting for him had doubled. Badazz said he then decided to leave the mall but wanted to pick up a Polo Ralph Lauren shirt on his way out. 'When I saw the people . . . I said, Im fixing to get out this mall because its getting too crazy, because its getting too packed,"' he said in court last week. He went to Dillard's but a crowd of around 20 people followed him inside and Kerley told them to leave but pepper sprayed them soon afterwards. Boosie, who previously beat kidney cancer, is asking for $40million in damages He told the court that he was trying to avoid an incident in the store. 'Ive been doing this a long time. 'I know what was coming. Im trying to get everybody out because youve got people in the store; you got, at that time there by theperfume, youve got a bunch of glass up in there. 'That did not need to happen in the store,' he said. Tammy Cotton, a former Dillard's employee who was working at the time, testified that Kerley overreacted. She said he was known to target black shoppers in the past. 'I dont feel, from what I saw, as though there was any threat to either the persons on property or the business. 'The only thing that I saw was the massive crowd, who was upset about what was happening in that Polo section. 'I feel, had that situation been handled differently, it would not have escalated to what it did with the mass hysteria of the crowd,' she said. The City of Biloxi has denied allegations of wrongdoing in the past. Dillard's did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's inquiries on Monday morning. The case will return to court on January 17. The lawsuit filed by Kerley will return to court in September. A Massachusetts man's cell phone provided police with details about his responsibility in a street race that led to a crash that killed two people last year. Matthew Peter, 27, was arraigned on Wednesday on two counts of motor vehicle homicide for sparking the race that caused the deaths of engaged couple Angie Goodrich, a 38-year-old mother of two, and Michael Luddington, 48, according to The Enterprise. Police seized the cell phone of the Mansfield, Massachusetts, man allegedly containing video of the crash itself and 'sick messages saying he wanted to kill the couple again and others telling the girlfriend to keep quiet about what happened. Only a day following the horrific crash, he messaged her calling the dead couple 'f---king jackasses' and complaining that he was 'going to revive them just so I can shove them into that f---ing pole again,' according to court documents.' 'Im always gonna know i was the reason they died,' he would then text her minutes afterward eventually texting his girlfriend 'tell no one what happened' later that evening. Matthew Peter, 27, shown, allegedly recorded the fatal crash and sent multiple messages to his girlfriend regarding the incident on his cell phone Angie Goodrich, 38, (left) and , Michael Luddington, 48, were killed when they crashed during an impromptu street race with Matthew Peter in May 2018 Peter, in a Subaru Forester, was racing Luddington driving a GMC pickup in May of last year in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Luddington and his fiancee Goodrich struck a tree at high speed killing both of them. Peter allegedly fled the scene. Along with the homicide counts, Peter faces charges of racing a motor vehicle, speeding, marked lanes violation, mobile phone use while driving and following too closely, The Enterprise reports. Lawrence Peter, 57, his father, who owns the Subaru and allegedly received the video of the crash only 30 minutes after it happened, was charged with impeding a police investigation. Mike Luddington slammed his GMC pickup truck into a tree during his race with Matthew Peter who recorded the collision Lawrence Peter, shown, is Matthew's father, and is charged with impeding a police investigation after he received the video only 30 minutes after the crash Matthew Peters was freed on his own recognizance and is expected to be back in court in April along with his father Angie Goodrich was a mother of two and engaged to Mike Luddington when both of them died in the May crash The video shows Matthew Peter driving erratically and recording himself yelling at other vehicles before he engaged Luddington's pickup truck, according to detectives. When Luddington attempts to accelerate away from Peter, police say he can be heard exclaiming, 'Oh, get back here.' Both vehicles enter an impromptu race on the residential Plain Street that ends with the cell phone camera capturing the pickup truck plow into a tree exploding into a 'massive cloud of debris' according to police. Luddington's truck exploded into a 'massive cloud of debris' when it struck the tree in Peter's cell phone video Plain Street in Stoughton, Massachusetts, has posted speed limit of 35 mph Moments after the crash, Peter sent a voice message to his girlfriend saying he 'literally just witnessed this GM just turn into f---king dust in a power pole right on front of my f---king face.' The 27-year-old apparently has a history of crashes and speeding violations over the past decade, according to his driving record. Both Matthew Peter and his father were released without bail and are due back in court in April. A two-year-old boy was killed in a house fire in Indiana on Sunday morning. The home in the west side of Bloomington became engulfed in flames at around 7.45am while the child's mother and three siblings were in. Pictures from the scene showed firefighters working to extinguish the last of the flames, while the blackened interior of the home was left exposed in the aftermath. A two-year-old boy was killed in a house fire in Bloomington, Indiana, on Sunday morning Firefighters and emergency services assess the damage yesterday following the deadly blaze A fireman works on the property this morning while the home's blackened interior is left exposed The family's 'live-in babysitter' and her young daughter were also in the house during the blaze, which left one of the front rooms completely burnt out. The Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating what caused the fire. Van Buren Township Fire Department, Bloomington Fire Department, Monroe Fire Department, Bloomington Police Department and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office were all dispatched to tackle the blaze. Monroe County Coroner Joani Shields confirmed the two-year-old was killed but didn't release his name. Firefighters walk away from the house. Seven people were inside as it became engulfed in flames An investigation into the cause of the fire is still underway and the boy's name has not been released. Here, firefighters are seen outside of the ruined property Vicky Littell revealed the victim was her great-nephew and said family members had gathered at their family-run restaurant to grieve. 'This is the only place we knew to gather for everyone to know where we're at,' Littell told The Herald-Times. An autopsy is planned Monday in Terre Haute. A Swedish tourist has been forced to have his leg amputated after he was shot during a robbery in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires. Christoffer Persson, 36, was walking through Buenos Aires with his girlfriend Maria Izzo, 35, when they were targeted by a mugger. CCTV footage shows a man jumping out of the back of a car and running over to the couple to rob them of their phones at gunpoint. Mugged: CCTV camera footage shows the moment Mr Persson, 36, is shot by the robber Survivor: Christoffer Persson and Maria Izzo were robbed at gunpoint in Buenos Aires, Argentina on New Year's Eve The couple had been travelling around Argentina to celebrate Christmas, Mr Persson's birthday - which falls on Christmas Eve - as well as the New Year, and had arrived in Buenos Aires on 20th December. The couple's happy holiday turned into a disaster when he was shot during the robbery on New Year's Eve. 'It was a total reflex, his father Jorgen Persson told Expressen. 'He tried to batter away the pistol and a shot was fired, hitting him in the thigh.' Mr Persson, a computer systems engineer, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. Despite several operations, the doctors were forced to amputate his right leg above the knee the following day. Targeted: The couple were walking through the city when they were targeted by a robber who came at them after jumping out of a car Attack: The robber demanded their phones and pointed a gun at them, which Mr Persson tried to 'batter away' when a shot went off and hit in him the leg Hospital director Nestor Hernandez said: 'If the leg had not been amputated, the patient could have died. 'Whether it was here, in United States, Russia or China, the procedure would have been the same.' He added that Mr Persson was recovering well in the circumstances and would remain in the hospital's intensive care unit for the time being. Ms Izzo, said: 'The robber seemed to be on drugs. It looked like he'd never held a weapon before. 'It was like he was scared, I don't think he had any intention of shooting anyone.' Recovering: Mr Persson was rushed to hospital, but despite several operations, doctors decided to amputate his leg the following day She thanked a woman passerby, named only Analia, who rushed to help them and tied a tourniquet around Mr Persson's leg, adding: 'Without her, he would have died.' Ms Izzo is with her boyfriend in hospital while his parents have also flown out to be by his bedside. She added: 'The surgeons are positive, he is ok, and in good spirits. He is a very optimistic person and remains positive despite what happened.' Police have launched an investigation into the incident which happened in the Tacuari area of Buenos Aires. A six-year-old girl had two teeth knocked out and suffered deep cuts to her face which needed stitches after being bitten by a dog at the park. Cora Richter had gone to a dog park in Missouri on Saturday along with her father and grandmother to play with a puppy her mother got her for her birthday last year. But while at the park Cora wandered out of her father's sight and into the path of a lone dog which she decided to pet because it 'looked lonely'. Cora Richter, six, was playing at a dog park with her father and grandmother on Saturday when she wandered off to pet a lone dog and was bitten on the face Cora had one tooth knocked out, had to have another removed because of damage to her gums, and needed stitches to close two deep wounds on her face The dog - described as being similar to an Irish red and white setter - then bit Cora on the face, leaving her with horrifying injuries. Mother Rosalind, who was called to the hospital after Cora was injured, posted details of the attack on Facebook in an attempt to establish whether the dog had been given rabies shots. The aim, Rosalind said, was to avoid having to give Cora painful shots to prevent infection, but nobody came forward. In the end, doctors decided to sedate the youngster while they stitched up her wounds, removed a tooth that was attached to damaged gums, and give her shots. Cora was kept in hospital overnight before the family went home around 7am on Sunday, some 12 hours after the attack happened. Cora's mother Rosalind (right) told of the girl's traumatic experience in a Facebook post as she tried to track down the dog's owner to see if it had been given rabies shots Rosalind said that while she and her husband regularly talk to her about not walking off and playing with strange dogs, she has been forced to learn both of these lessons the hard way. Speaking about her daughter's condition, she added: 'At the moment she is sleeping but she cannot talk well, swallowing is difficult, drinking and eating is difficult as well. 'She has cried asking for it to go away she thinks by Thursday it will all be over with. Unfortunately that is not the case.' Rosalind denied allegations that she had come forward in order to ask for money or to have the dog put down, insisting she did it to try and track down the owners to get the animal's medical history. The city of Blue Springs, where the attack happened, is also trying to locate the dog and it's owner. Anyone with information is asked to contact that city's police department A couple have been left penniless after TV licence scammers emptied their bank accounts in a 'particularly nasty' case of fraud. Jerry Tack, 65, and his wife Carole, 61, had 4,000 stolen from two separate saving accounts, as well as 1,900 from his current account. The couple, from Hampshire, desperately tried to resolve the situation with their building society Nationwide only to be told they couldn't do anything because Mr Tack had willingly given his details. The 65-year-old is one of 5,000 people who have been tricked into handing money over on the premise of a TV licence renewal in the last three months, reports the BBC. Jerry Tack, 65, and his wife Carole, 61 (pictured together), of Hampshire had 4,000 stolen from two separate saving accounts, as well as 1,900 from his current account The scammers, described as 'particularly nasty' by Action Fraud, use 'official-looking' emails with headlines such as 'correct your licensing information' and 'your TV licence expires today' in an attempt to convince targets to click on a link to a website. The website then prompts them to add their payment details, including the Card Verification Value (CVV) code, account number and sort code. The bogus web page may also ask for the victim's name, date of birth, address, phone number, email and even mother's maiden name. How do TV licence scams work? Reports made to Action Fraud show that fraudsters are sending out fake TV Licence emails regarding refunds and payment issues to people across the UK. They will use headlines such as 'correct your licensing information', 'billing information updates' and 'renew now' to trick people into clicking on the link within the email. When a victim clicks on the link, they will be led to a convincing looking TV Licencing website. The website is designed to harvest as much personal and financial information as possible from the victim. Although all the emails are different in style, they all lead to the same website which is being hosted on different domains. The emails claim that TV Licencing has been trying to contact customers regarding the payment of a bill or a change to their personal information. The fraudulent website will prompt victims to add their payment details, including the Card Verification Value (CVV) code on the back of their card, account number and sort code. With this information, fraudsters could drain bank accounts and commit identity fraud. It may also ask for the victim's name, date of birth, address, phone number, email and even mother's maiden name which suggests fraudsters will try to access other online accounts. Source: Action Fraud Advertisement Mrs Tack told the BBC: 'We were left penniless until the end of November. 'Hubby and me fell out big time over it. I didn't speak to him for about a week. 'Christmas for us was a complete wash-out. I didn't even put any decorations up - we didn't feel like it.' In the Tacks' case, Jerry thought he was just renewing his TV licence and filled in an online form with some of his details. Two days later a phone call came from someone pretending be his building society. The scammers asked about two fake transactions and when he said he hadn't authorised them the caller advised him to move his money into a 'safe account'. At this point he was sent a text message from the 'building society' with a code, triggering a password reset. Mr Tack assumed the code had been sent by the person he spoke to on the phone and filled in his details. The scammers then had full access to three accounts, taking every last penny. When the couple realised what had happened they contacted Nationwide, who told them they had fallen victim to an 'authorised push payment' (APP) scam. But because Mr Tack had willingly handed over the details, they have refused to reimburse them. A spokesman said: 'We're very sorry that our member has been a victim of this cruel scam. 'Unfortunately, despite warnings generated by our systems, the member gave away details to the fraudster and originated all of the transactions into the third-party account.' A TV Licensing spokesman said: 'TV Licensing will never email customers, unprompted, to ask for bank details, personal information or tell you that you may be entitled to a refund.' The couple say they accept Mr Tack made a mistake, but expected more protection from their building society. A TV producer was led away from her seat then thrown off an easyJet flight because it was overbooked. Charlotte Barton was looking forward to travelling alone to Geneva on a ticket bought for her as a 50th birthday gift. Ms Barton left home at 2am to drive to Bristol Airport for the 6am flight, but when she boarded the aircraft she was led away from her seat for a 'chat' - then told the 180-seater plane had 181 passengers on board. Charlotte Barton was asked to get off the easyJet flight from Bristol to Geneva Ms Barton, from Exeter, Devon, was then told she would have to leave the plane. The television producer claims the crew offered a volunteer passenger 400 Euros and a taxi to Gatwick to disembark. But when nobody came forward, she was asked to leave. Ms Barton said the experience was 'absolutely mortifying.' A spokesman for the airline said: 'easyJet is sorry to hear of Ms Barton's experience and would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. 'Unfortunately due to a technical issue with the 186-seat A320 aircraft that was scheduled to operate her flight to Geneva, easyJet had to change the aircraft to a smaller 180-seat aircraft. 'This meant that the aircraft was overbooked by one passenger. 'We are currently investigating with our ground team why the matter wasn't resolved before boarding. 'easyJet offered Ms Barton alternative flights, a full refund and has compensated her Euro 400 in line with our obligations under EU261.' It added that in 97 per cent of cases when it overbooks flights, which is not against the law, there is no need to remove any passengers. Ms Barton left home at 2am to drive to Bristol Airport (pictured) for the 6am flight, but when she boarded the aircraft she was led away from her seat Puerto Rico hasn't been spared from the opioid crisis that has plagued the US mainland - a problem that seems to have grown on the island as a result of a devastating hurricane. The government is struggling to keep up, and failed to apply for a multimillion dollar US grant that advocates say could have helped save lives. More than 600 fentanyl-related overdoses and 60 deaths were reported in Puerto Rico in 2017, largely before Hurricane Maria, up from 200 and eight the previous year. While that's much less dire than the crisis in some US states, activists and experts say the problem appears to be expanding rapidly as use of fentanyl, the opioid blamed for much of the problem in the US, spreads more widely here. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and local nonprofit groups also say the official data doesn't reflect the true situation because the island's government is not keeping proper count of deaths and overdoses. Puerto Rico hasn't been spared from the opioid crisis that has plagued the US mainland - a problem that seems to have grown on the island as a result of Hurricane Maria. A drug user turns in used syringes to volunteers from a needle exchange program More than 600 fentanyl-related overdoses and 60 deaths were reported in Puerto Rico in 2017, largely before Hurricane Maria, up from 200 and eight the previous year Despite that, the US territory never applied for a $7.8million award from Congress to help get people into treatment. That money was instead divided up among US states. 'It's ridiculous. There's a lot of need for that money,' said Carmen Davila, a nurse who helps drug addicts in rural Puerto Rico. She worries the number of overdoses will increase, and she questioned the 612 overdoses reported in 2017 by the government. 'I'd say it's three times that amount based on the testimonies of people we've helped, and that's a conservative estimate.' One of those people was Jose Carlos Laviena, 35, who suffered a near-fatal experience in an abandoned trailer in Puerto Rico. Laviena had injected himself with a new type of heroin that his dealer was promoting, but the high was so strong that Laviena thought he had overdosed. 'It's truly something super strong,' he said, referring to what he believes was heroin mixed with fentanyl. 'I felt death at that moment.' Julissa Perez, spokeswoman for Puerto Rico's Administration of Services for Mental Health and Addiction, said it was too difficult for the thinly staffed agency struggling with staffing cuts to apply for the new grant while also coordinating work under earlier grants and programs. 'I am extremely worried, because this represents an epidemic that has not been acknowledged,' said Puerto Rico territorial Sen Jose Vargas Vidot, a doctor known for his volunteer work with drug addicts on the island. 'In the 30 years that I've been on the streets, I have never seen three to four deaths a week in just one neighborhood, in just one street ... Everything changed immensely after Hurricane Maria.' Activists and experts say the problem appears to be expanding rapidly as use of fentanyl, the opioid blamed for much of the problem in the US, spreads more widely in Puerto Rico. A man is seen injecting heroin last month Many patients lacked access to health care for weeks after the hurricane hit, and pharmacies began refilling prescriptions without a doctor's authorization. A man fills his syringe with heroin. He said the infection on his leg developed from repeatedly injecting cocaine there Vargas said the heavy presence of law enforcement on the island after the Category 4 storm hit on September 20, 2017, coupled with a lengthy paralysis of all modes of transportation used by smugglers, led drug dealers to substitute imported heroin with fentanyl. Fentanyl was available at hospitals since it is legally produced in Puerto Rico. He said he and other doctors received anonymous tips that criminals were threatening hospital staff with violence or even death if they did not hand over fentanyl supplies. Meanwhile, many patients lacked access to basic health care for weeks after the hurricane hit, and pharmacies began refilling prescriptions without a doctor's authorization as a humanitarian move, he said. In addition, mental disorders were exacerbated after Maria, with some people waiting up to a year for water and power to be reconnected. 'There was a boom in anxiety disorders and suicides,' Vargas said. 'All these things led to fentanyl and other drugs becoming much more fashionable.' In addition to locally produced fentanyl, authorities say a less-controlled version of the drug is now being smuggled in from China and India, then mixed with heroin, and to a lesser degree cocaine and marijuana. Officials reported a cluster of fatal overdoses in the western coastal town of Mayaguez, followed by more overdoses at a nearby prison in the northwest town of Aguadilla. In addition, mental disorders were exacerbated after Maria, with some people waiting up to a year for water and power to be reconnected. Wilfredo Rivera smokes a cigarette after injecting heroin, in an area popular with users behind an abandoned home in Humacao, Puerto Rico In addition to locally produced fentanyl, authorities say a less-controlled version of the drug is now being smuggled in from China and India, then mixed with heroin, and to a lesser degree cocaine and marijuana. A user's heroin is seen being tested for fentanyl From there, activists say, the use of illegal fentanyl and other opioids has spread to all major cities, including the capital. In the southeast coastal town of Humacao, a group of heroin and cocaine addicts recently gathered around a plastic table near an abandoned house and injected each other and themselves. One of them stuck a thumb in his mouth and blew out, making the vein pop on his neck as he prepared for the injection. On the table were dozens of dirty needles, small water bottles and cookers. Workers with a needle exchange program called Intercambios Puerto Rico approached the group, collected the dirty needles and placed a strip of paper in a couple of the cookers. Minutes later, a red line appeared - a positive test for the presence of fentanyl. Program director Rafael Torruella said he noticed an increase in overdoses after Maria hit and his organization began testing heroin cookers for fentanyl. Now nearly all of them test positive. Laviena was among the addicts who approached the social workers that day. He dropped off 140 used needles, picked up clean cookers and paused to recount his near-death experience before disappearing behind an abandoned building. 'Hardly anyone talks about this problem in Puerto Rico. It's like it doesn't exist,' said Torruella, who also trains emergency officials on how to save people from an overdose. 'Fentanyl is here, and we have to do something about it.' But that is proving hard for an island mired in a 12-year recession and sharp budget cuts forced by a sort of public bankruptcy. Puerto Rico's Administration of Services for Mental Health and Addiction confirmed 40 fentanyl deaths through March, but 75 suspected ones since then have gone untested because of budget cuts. 'Right now we have some serious limitations,' said Suzanne Roig, who oversees the agency. Officials reported a cluster of fatal overdoses in the western coastal town of Mayaguez, followed by more overdoses at a nearby prison in the northwest town of Aguadilla. Volunteers load supplies to give to the needy Intercambios Puerto Rico program director Rafael Torruella said he noticed an increase in overdoses after Maria hit and his organization began testing heroin cookers for fentanyl. Now nearly all of them test positive. Empty heroin bags are seen Alexandra Barcenas (right) from the Intercambios Puerto Rico needle exchange program, talks with 38-year-old heroin user Jimmy Berrios Medina as he enters an area behind an abandoned home. Berrios is seen carrying bags of sterile needles and cookers, gauze and alcohol Officials also are worried about legally prescribed painkillers. Gov Ricardo Rossello declared an alert about overdoses in 2017 and announced the government would track the use of legal opioids such as fentanyl and hydrocodone. In the seven months since that began, officials recorded about 60 prescriptions per 100 people. That's roughly equal to the full-year rate for the US mainland in 2017. 'There's a very big problem of addiction to legally obtained medication,' Roig said. The crisis in Puerto Rico has not reached the epidemic levels of the US mainland, but officials worry it will catch up soon. About 48,000 Americans were killed by opioid overdoses in 2017, with 5,400 fatal drug overdoses alone reported in Pennsylvania, the highest of any state. The US Centers for Disease Control says fentanyl was responsible for the highest percentage of fatal overdoses in 2016, followed by heroin and cocaine. But activists complain Puerto Rico has been slow to take the problem seriously, and it's not just the failure to request federal money. Several legislators in Puerto Rico have been trying for more than two years to pass a measure that would in part allow non-medical and non-emergency personnel to administer naloxone, which can reverse respiratory failures from opioid overdoses. The island's Senate sent a new bill to committee last year, but it has languished for several months. Evangeline Heiliger (pictured), 41, has alleged in a lawsuit that Wichita State University retracted an employment offer after she told them she was pregnant An Ohio professor has alleged in a lawsuit that Wichita State University retracted an employment offer after she told them she was pregnant. Evangeline Heiliger said she revealed her pregnancy for the first time and asked about childcare in March when she was offered a tenure-track job as the assistant professor of women's studies, according to The Wichita Eagle. Heiliger, 41, said she applied for the position in late 2017 and was interviewed in February 2018. In March she was offered the job during a phone call with Center for Women's Studies director Chinyere Okafor. Heiliger, who is a visiting professor of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Oberlin College in Ohio, told the newspaper that during the call with Okafor she asked about childcare. According to the suit, the next day Heiliger received an email from the then-dean Ron Matson who said he 'had become aware that she was no longer available for the position' and was removing her from consideration. The suit claims that Heiliger never indicated she wasn't available. 'At no point during Dr. Heiliger's conversation with Dr. Okafor did she ever indicate she was not available to accept the position,' the suit reads. 'In fact, after she (Heiliger) received Dean Matson's email, she responded to him indicating she was available and eager to begin the position, to which she never received a response.' In December, Wichita State University (pictured) said its investigation into Heiliger's claims determined that no laws were broken In December, the university said its investigation into Heiliger's claims determined that no laws were broken. The investigation 'didn't conclude that the university violated the law', the university's lawyer told The Eagle in a statement. 'The university remains committed to creating a fair and equitable workplace and does not discriminate in its employment practices,' the statement read. Heiliger is seeking more than $75,000 in damages from the university. She's also seeking payment to cover her court costs and attorney fees. Pope Francis has expressed concern over the rise of nationalism in the world, saying leaders are weakening the system of global multilateral diplomacy. In his annual address to ambassadors to the Holy See, the pope lamented national policies favoring 'quick partisan consensus' over committing to working towards long-term goals, but did not cite specific countries or political parties. He said today's rise to power of populist and nationalist leaders mirrors what happened between the two world wars, when international efforts failed to prevent conflict. Warning: Pope Francis said today's rise to power of populist and nationalist leaders mirrors what happened between World War I and World War II 'The reappearance of these impulses today is progressively weakening the multilateral system, resulting in a general lack of trust, a crisis of credibility in international political life, and a gradual marginalisation of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations,' he said. He also said he had noted an increased worry in Europe and North America about migrants, and efforts to limit their entrance across borders. The pontiff said 'partial solutions can't be given to such a universal question.' He praised Colombia for accepting a large number of people fleeing Venezuela's economic difficulties. The pope also voiced dismay over long-running conflicts in Ukraine and in Syria, and praised dialogue between North and South Korea, but warned against an accelerating global arms race. Pope Francis attends an audience with the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See for the traditional exchange of New Year greetings at the Sala Regia, at the Vatican Pope Francis poses for a group photograph with members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, inside the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican Pope Francis also addressed issues within the Catholic Church, specifically clergy sex abuse and covers-ups. In his speech to the diplomats, Francis called the abuse of minors 'one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable.' He said the church was working to combat and prevent abuse and its concealment, to uncover church hierarchy's involvement and to deliver justice to minors who have 'suffered sexual violence aggravated by the abuse of power and conscience.' The Catholic Church's credibility has been eroded by sex abuse by clergy and bishops and its often systematic concealment. Francis called February's meeting 'a further step in the Church's efforts to shed full light on the facts.' His own handling of some cases has drawn criticism. Shocking new footage reveals how far-right protesters screamed abuse in the face of Anna Soubry as MPs urged the police to take action. A selfie video recorded by activist James Goddard shows the group of men crowding around Ms Soubry and blocking her path as she walks alone to the Commons. Mr Goddard is seen mocking Ms Soubry earlier in the video as she gives an interview to the BBC, calling her a 'traitor' and vowing to run against her in her constituency. Ms Soubry was forced to stop talking during the live TV interview while people off camera shouted 'Soubry is a Nazi' and 'liar, liar, liar'. The MP for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire then made her way back to Parliament, pursued by a yellow vest wearing mob shouting 'Anna, you're a fascist'. At one point in the video, a person in the crowd puts their hand on Ms Soubry's shoulder, causing the startled MP to quickly spin round and confront them. Even as she reached the gates of parliament she is blocked from entering by the group, as police officers stand mere yards away without intervening. Now at least 55 MPs have signed a letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick raising concerns about safety outside Parliament - just three years after Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered in her constituency. Anna Soubry was pursued by an aggressive mob, including far-right activist James Goddard (pictured next to Soubry) who shouted in her face and called her a 'fascist' as she made her way back to Parliament Anna Soubry has slammed the police for 'ignoring' the actions of a far-right mob as they verbally abused her outside the Commons and labelled her a 'Nazi' Speaking about the incident to Good Morning Britain, Ms Soubry said: 'The police just stood there. The police were there. Its a definite breach of the peace. 'The policy of the Metropolitan Police is to ignore it and that is the problem. 'This particular group of people is roaming around Westminster intimating people and they are known to police, blocking bridges and setting things off at Downing Street.' Adding that she thought calling someone a Nazi was 'crossing the line', she said: 'I don't have a problem with people coming up and having a go at me. It's the tone. 'We all have a responsibility with the language we use and that includes protesters as well as writers and MPs in Parliament. 'It does appear to be targeted at women. There was an incident involving [BBC journalist] Laura Kuenssberg where no action was taken, and as you know [Parliament] is crawling with police officers. 'Women in part are thinking "why would I want to do a job like that?" and that is really dangerous.' Earlier in the programme, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said people should not 'overreact' and that he had been 'called that and worse every day and no one cared'. A selfie video recorded by activist James Goddard (left) shows the group of men crowding around Ms Soubry (right) and blocking her path as she walks alone to the Commons After the thugs chanted Nazi at Anna Soubry while she was on BBC, I went to check on her. But she had company... pic.twitter.com/II7nIdqMoF Femi (@Femi_Sorry) January 7, 2019 However Ms Soubry fired back: 'I want to say this is not a competition; its willy-waving, saying "I've been more abused". 'Mr Farage is in a different place, he's a member of the elite by the way. I object that because Im apparently "a member of the elite I deserve it"; its not a competition between us.' The MP was then challenged by Piers Morgan over saying about Farage in 2016: 'He looks like somebody has put their finger up his bottom and he really rather likes it'. Speaking about the comment, for which she apologised 'unreservedly', Ms Soubry replied: 'I don't think it's as bad as calling someone a Nazi.' After yesterday's incident, which was criticised by both Remain and Leave MPs, Scotland Yard confirmed they were looking into it and deciding whether or not a crime had been committed. Now at least 55 MPs have signed a letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick raising concerns about safety outside Parliament - just three years after Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered in her constituency. The letter said: 'After months of peaceful and calm protests by groups representing a range of political views on Brexit, an ugly element of individuals with strong far right and extreme right connections, which your officers are well aware of, have increasingly engaged in intimidatory and potentially criminal acts targeting Members of Parliament, journalists, activists and members of the public. 'We understand there are ongoing investigations but there appears to be an ongoing lack of coordination in the response from the police and appropriate authorities including with Westminster borough policing, and despite clear assurances this would be dealt with following incidents before Christmas, there have been a number of further serious and well publicised incidents today.' It added: 'The ability to peacefully protest and express views outside Parliament is a cherished part of our democracy - and we want to retain the right for those who have conducted themselves within the law and a peaceful way to continue to do so. 'It is however utterly unacceptable for Members of Parliament, journalists, activists and members of the public to be subject to abuse, intimidation and threatening behaviour and indeed potentially serious offences while they go about their work. 'Many of these concerns have been repeatedly raised both with officers on the ground, and at senior levels with over the past weeks since the situation worsened, as well as with the parliamentary authorities and ministers and so it is obviously concerning to have to write to you formally in this regard.' Concerns over safety around Parliament come after Jo Cox was brutally murdered while on her way to meet constituents in Birstall, West Yorkshire. The mother-of-two was shot and stabbed by a man with links to far-right political groups including the English Defence League and the National Front. He targeted the Labour MP just a week before the EU referendum, and shouted 'Britain first' before launching his attack. A mob of protesters were branded vile today after they interrupted a live TV interview to hurl Nazi chants at Tory MP Anna Soubry (pictured during the BBC interview today) Many MPs took to Twitter to express their disgust at the incident, while others raised the issue in the Commons. Last night, Miss Soubry tweeted: 'I fail to see why journalists and technicians should be subjected to the same abuse and intimidation as the police stand by and do nothing.' And she called for the protesters to be prosecuted under public order legislation. Labour MP Mary Creagh said the 'really vile, misogynistic thuggery' shown was not an isolated incident, while her colleague Stephen Doughty called for 'proper action' to be taken by Scotland Yard. Tory MP Nick Boles said on Twitter: 'Far be it from me to tell the police their job but I thought that threatening violence was an arrestable offence under the Public Order Act 1986.' Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner added: 'What has our country come to when watching BBC News all you can hear is chants from protesters calling Anna Soubry a Nazi. How disgusting and offensive: they do their causes no good!' After the issue was raised in the Commons, Speaker John Bercow said he was aware of incidents 'involving aggressive and threatening behaviour towards members and others by assorted protesters'. Mr Bercow said it was a matter for the Met Police rather than Parliamentary authorities as it happened in the street, but added: 'Female members, and in a number of cases I'm advised, female journalists have been subjected to aggressive protest and what many would regard as harassment. MPs across the political divide condemned the abuse and said there is no place for such intimidation Tory MP and Theresa May's former deputy Damian Green was among the MPs who condemned the abuse Labour MP David Lammy said the abuse caught on camera is disgusting and accused those hurling it of being historically illiterate 'I can assure the House that I am keeping a close eye on events and I will speak to those who advise me about these matters.' During the BBC interview, Miss Soubry told journalist Simon McCoy: 'I do object to being called a Nazi, actually. I just think this is astonishing, this is what has happened to our country. But let's try and move on and be positive about things.' Protesters also chanted slogans including 'Liar, liar' throughout a live interview by Miss Soubry on Sky News. Yvette Cooper called out the 'completely appalling abuse' that Miss Soubry was subject to while Norman Smith questioned 'Is this what its come to?' Nicola Sturgeon agreed that it was appalling and insisted we need to make a stand against this type of behaviour Andrew Adonis also wrote to Cressida Dick, reminding the commissioner that it is 'less than three years since an MP was murdered in cold blood by a man spouting the very same rhetoric as the men who yesterday attacked Anna [Soubry], Owen [Jones], and Femi' Seb Dance offered his solidarity with Anna Soubry and others while Piers Morgan stated that Britain was 'better than this Harriet Harman called the incident an 'attack on democracy' and Nic Dakin said that he does often disagree with Miss Soubry but finds the 'thuggish behaviour' shocking Over the chants, she told journalist Kay Burley: 'I don't have a problem with people demonstrating and making their views heard. 'I have a real problem with people who call me a traitor or 'Soubry, you Nazi'. That is a criminal offence and I'm a criminal barrister.' Theresa May's spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister has been very clear that nobody involved in the political process should be subjected to abuse or harassment. They should be free to do their job without any form of intimidation and it is clearly unacceptable when that isn't the case.' Last night, a Met spokesman said: 'Police received a third party report of a public order offence on Monday in the area of College Green, SW1. Officers are assessing if any crimes have been committed. There has been no arrest at this stage.' Anna Soubry has needed a police escort after being heckled and harassed by a mob of protesters outside parliament last month (pictured) Sky News presenter Miss Burley also revealed on Twitter that she needed security to escort her from her place of work. She wrote: 'These people are not pro-Brexit. They are pro-intimidation. They specifically target me and scream 'slag', or 'f***ing fascist' over and over and over again, and those are just some comments I can mention in polite company.' A group of anti-EU protesters gathered on College Green in Westminster - where many of the press interviews around Brexit are held - have harassed journalists there before. A few weeks ago Guardian columnist Owen Jones was heckled by protesters as he gave his views on politics and Brexit. Eloise Todd, the head of Best for Britain - the anti Brexit campaign group - said: 'It's downright disgusting to see people baying at an MP like that and throwing around such offensive words simply because they disagree with her position on Brexit. It's awful and it turns my stomach. 'Britain is a place for vigorous and vibrant debate, but, it seems today it turned into pure hate for a few mindless thugs. 'This kind of evil discourse belongs in the sewer and not a stones throw from Parliament.' MPs have been warned not to hold boozy 'lock-ins' at their offices as part of a crackdown on the culture at Parliament. Messages are being sent out to politicians and staff urging them against 'returning to offices to drink after bars shut'. There is also a ban on adverts promoting alcohol across the Westminster estate, while canteens will no longer serve wine, and there will be 'alcohol free' zones introduced. The drive comes amid mounting concern about the culture of excess at Parliament, which has been linked to complaints about bullying and harassment. There are around a dozen bars and eateries on the estate, which can only be accessed by politicians and workers who hold a pass. MPs have been warned not to hold boozy 'lock-ins' at their offices as part of a crackdown on the culture at Parliament Speaker John Bercow (pictured) has previously conceded that there are concerns about the drinking culture on the parliamentary estate A meeting of the ruling Commons commission before Christmas decided that 'alcohol should only be sold in designated bars, retail outlets and restaurants, and for banqueting'. The commission, chaired by Speaker John Bercow, said alcohol-free areas should be 'encouraged and expanded'. Adverts promoting alcohol 'should not be run', it added. In a stark message about the need for a change in behaviour, the commission added: 'A communication should be sent to Members and staff on refraining from returning to offices to drink after bars shut.' Signs have now been put up in outlets including the Members' Tea Room and the Terrace canteen saying 'alcohol is no longer available to purchase'. They say the move is part of efforts to encourage 'responsible alcohol consumption'. Drinks on the estate are significantly cheaper than those charged in pubs and bars in the rest of Westminster, partly because they are benchmarked against hostelries in less expensive parts of the country. A pint of Carlsberg at Strangers' Bar is 3.35, a glass of Merlot is 2.75 and a bottle of Champagne is 35. By contrast at the nearby Red Lion pub a glass of red wine is at least 5. Mr Bercow has previously conceded that there are concerns about the drinking culture on the parliamentary estate. Former MP Eric Joyce was convicted of assaulting a fellow politician during a brawl in Strangers' Bar in 2012, while another ex-member, Mark Reckless, confessed to missing a late-night parliamentary vote in 2010 because he was too drunk. However, Mr Bercow has in the past suppressed internal reports on the scale of the issues at Westminster. Sources told the Mail on Sunday in November that the Speaker wanted a ban on all alcohol sales at the Commons during the day. One of two Wisconsin girls who pleaded guilty to stabbing a classmate 19 times and leaving her for dead to please a fictional horror character called Slender Man is appealing her case. An attorney for Morgan Geyser, now 17, recently filed a court brief arguing that Geyser shouldn't have been prosecuted as an adult because the girl believed Slender Man would kill her family if she didn't stab her sixth-grade classmate. Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were committed to mental health institutions for stabbing Payton Leutner at a Waukesha park in 2014. Payton managed to crawl out of the wooded park and survived. An attorney for Morgan Geyser (above in 2017), one of two Wisconsin girls who pleaded guilty to stabbing a classmate 19 times to please Slender Man, has filed an appeal against her sentence The girls were 12 years old at the time. Geyser's appeal argues that, given her young age, she couldn't understand the rights she gave up when she agreed to speak to detectives while in custody. The girl confessed on video to murdering her classmate. Following her arrest, Geyser was diagnosed as schizophrenic. She was found not guilty of attempted murder by way of insanity in 2016. During her hearing last year, Geyser wept and apologized to the victim and her family. Payton Leutner (above) was stabbed 19 times at a Waukesha park in 2014 but managed to crawl out of the wooded area and survived Morgan Geyser (right) and co-defendant Anissa Weier (left) were both committed to mental health institutions for stabbing Payton Calling Payton 'Ella', as she did during her confession, she wailed: 'I just want let Ella and her family know, I am sorry. 'I never meant for this to happen. I hope that she is doing well.' Payton's mother Stacie submitted a victim impact statement to the judge during the trials of the two girls, saying her daughter slept with scissors for 'months' after the attack because she was so haunted. The victim still has scars from where she was knifed. Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was ordered to spend 40 years in the institution. (Image source from: Thenewsminute.com) 67 Telangana Schoolgirls Hospitalized For Food Poisoning:- A number of 67 school girls from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) from Chevella in Ranga Reddy district have been hospitalized due to food poisoning in Telangana. They were rushed to Niloufer hospital and fever hospital in the city on Sunday. The students were offered fruit salad and rice, dal, capsicum for dinner on Saturday night. 67 students out of 206 students complained of stomach ache on Sunday morning and they vomited at 8 AM after which they were sent to Chevella Government hospital. Soon 37 students were referred to Niloufer hospital. Some of them were sent to Fever hospital in Hyderabad. A case has been registered under section 337 IPC (causing hurt by act of endangering life) and the school principal is taken into custody. The cooks are being questioned and the investigation is currently on. KV Swarajya Lakshmi, District Medical and Health Officer of Ranga Reddy said that they have collected the food sample and sent for investigation. The real reasons are being figured out currently. (Video Source: TV9 Telugu Live) The White House may claim executive privilege to keep parts of special counsel Robert Mueller's report from being shared with the public and Democrats in Congress, it was revealed on Monday. But such a move would likely spark a legal battle that would go all the way to the Supreme Court. Mueller is said to be in the final stages of his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election and whether or not President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow, a charge the president has repeatedly denied. President Trump could claim executive privilege to keep part of the Russia investigation from becoming public Special Counsel Robert Mueller is believed to be in the final stage of his investigation and could hand his report over to the Justice Department as soon as February But once he submits his findings to the Justice Department - which could happen as soon as February - things could get complicated. Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, will demand the report be handed over and likely use their subpoena power to make it happen. But the White House could counter their demand by asserting executive privilege, Bloomberg News reported. Trump and his legal team expect to get an advanced look at the findings. They may use executive privilege to hold back any information related to Trump's time in the White House or during the transition once they see what is in the report. 'We will look at it and see if the president thinks there is a valid claim and if there is, do we want to make it,' Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Bloomberg News. 'We reserve the right. We don't know if we have to, but we haven't waived it.' Giuliani said they would be willing to fight in court to preserve material that they considered privileged. Mueller is only required to submit his report to the Justice Department. His supervisor there - who currently is acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker - decides what to do with it. If William Barr, Trump's nominee for attorney general, is confirmed by the time Mueller submits his report, Barr would make decisions on it. But Democrats do have a counter move: they could call on him to testify before Congress and simply ask what is in his report in a public hearing. 'Trump can't stop Mueller from going to Congress and talking about everything that's in his report,' John Dean, a former counselor to Richard Nixon, told Bloomberg. The White House voluntary handed over tens of thousands of pages of records to Mueller's team and believe - by avoiding a subpoena fight - it gives them the option to assert executive privilege later to argue the information shouldn't be shared outside of the executive branch. The Supreme Court addressed the issue of executive privilege in 1974 in the case of United States v. Nixon. The case addressed a demand by Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox that President Richard Nixon produce the audiotapes of conversations he and his colleagues had in the Oval Office. Nixon invoked the privilege and refused to produce the tapes. 'We reserve the right. We don't know if we have to, but we haven't waived it,' Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said of executive privilege House Democratic Chairman, like Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee, could subpoena Mueller's report or call on him to testify before Congress The Supreme Court did not reject the claim of privilege out of hand but did rule the larger public interest in obtaining the truth took precedence and ordered Nixon to hand them over. Other presidents have also used it. In 1998, President Bill Clinton became the first president since Nixon to lose on the matter in court, when a federal judge ruled that Clinton aides could be called to testify in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. President George W. Bush invoked executive privilege to refuse to disclose Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with energy executives, which was not challenged in court. He also used it to keep aide Karl Rove from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a probe over fired federal prosecutors. President Barack Obama used it to withhold certain documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun walking controversy. Former White House counsel John Dean told Bloomberg News that executive privilege could be a successful 'stalling tactic' that could 'tie it up in the lower courts for a couple of years.' That could keep the report from being made public before the 2020 presidential election. But there are other reasons beside executive privilege that could keep portions of Mueller's report from seeing the light of day. U.S. intelligence agencies are likely to want to redact material related to classified matters. Additionally, Mueller and Justice Department lawyers are required to withhold information that pertains to grand jury proceedings or ongoing law enforcement operations. A newspaper in Vermont's capital city is urging home-state Sen. Bernie Sanders not to make another run for the presidency citing recent allegations of sexual harassment on his 2016 campaign and saying he could split the Democrats. 'All signs point to another run, even with accusations this week that Sanders' campaign staff, during the 2016 run, engaged in sexist remarks, as well as claims of poor treatment and lower pay for women,' according to an editorial in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus. The editorial, in the pages of a daily newspaper with a circulation in the thousands, isn't likely hamstring Sanders' efforts though it could signal challenges he will face in the heavily splintered Demoratic field. The Barre Montpelier Times Argues published an editor urging Sen. Bernie Sanders not to run for president Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who passed on a run in 2016, visited Iowa last weekend. 'We fear a Sanders run risks dividing the well-fractured Democratic Party, and could lead to another split in the 2020 presidential vote,' according to the editorial. 'There is too much at stake to take that gamble. If we are going to maintain a two-party system, the mandate needs to be a clear one. There is strength in numbers, and if anything has been shown in recent years, it is that unless tallies are overwhelming, there can always be questions or challenges raised over what 'vote totals' really mean: popular vote vs. Electoral College results,' it continued. The article urging Sanders not to run also cited recent claims of sexual discrimination from members of his campaign staff though the Vermont independent himself has not been implicated. The paper calls him personally 'abrasive' and 'difficult to work with' FEEL THE SPURN: The editors complain: 'You are more likely to catch Sanders on Colbert, CNN or MSNBC than you are to see him talking to reporters here in Vermont' Sanders is positioned to make another run for the White House, having dramatically exceeded early expectations in his failed bid to beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary 'In recent weeks, a Facebook group for Sanders campaign alumni has become a sounding board for complaints about harassment, lewd comments and gender discrimination,' it notes. 'And while none of the staff accusations have been levied against Sanders himself, his personality is abrasive,' the editorial charges. 'He is known to be difficult to work with. The 77-year-old can be bombastic and prickly,' according to the characterization. 'He can be dismissive and rude in his arrogance. You are either with Bernie Sanders or you are not.' It calls Sanders' response to the charges he said he was 'a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case 'inexcusable and insulting.' The attack continues, citing Sanders' 'ego.' 'Taken together ego, electoral math, a tired message and a prickly media darling Sanders is convincing himself that he's the person who can win the White House in 2020. We are not convinced he should,' the editorial concludes. Another swipe acknowledges its posture is an 'unfavorable opinion, especially among most Vermonters and progressives who support the platform that has come to define him.' 'But at this point, there are more things about another Sanders run at the White House that concern us than excite us,' according to the editorial. It also gripes that he has strayed from home-state concerns, jabbing: 'You are more likely to catch Sanders on Colbert, CNN or MSNBC than you are to see him talking to reporters here in Vermont.' 'Evidently, microphones here don't extend far enough,' the writers complain. The skin care brand now endorsed by Kendall Jenner has a history of misleading commercials and has been found to work no better than its cheaper rivals. Jenner caused a storm on social media when she revealed the 'raw story' she was sharing with her fans was her unveiling as a promoter of Proactiv skin care products. The skin care brand is one of the most recognisable names in the industry, running ad campaigns with celebrities such as Jenner, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. It offers a 'three-step' solution to millions of people suffering from acne, offering subscriptions to its products from $30 a month. But a study in 2011 suggested the brand was no more effective than cheaper and lower-profile alternatives. Kendall Jenner's much-hyped announcement was blasted online after the model announced she was becoming an ambassador for skin care brand Proactiv The research by Consumer Reports found that three-quarters of patients who used the product saw a 35 per cent reduction in blemishes within two weeks. Alternative products - AcneFree and Oxy Maximum - performed just as well in the tests despite a much lower price. In 2014 the FDA named the brand as one of several in the market which could cause 'rare but serious and potentially life-threatening' allergic reactions. The agency said: 'Rare but serious hypersensitivity reactions have been reported with the use of certain over-the-counter (OTC) topical acne products. 'Based on adverse events reported to FDA, it is not possible to determine if these reactions were triggered by the active ingredients benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, the inactive ingredients, or a combination of both.' On its website Proactiv says: 'Side effects are usually mild and may include drying and irritation in some users. 'To test for an adverse reaction to your Proactiv system, apply the products to a small patch of affected skin during the first three days.' Bad skin: Kendall Jenner shared this picture of her spotty face during the advertising launch TV spot: Kendall's big announcement was not what fans expected In 2012 a TV campaign with Perry and Bieber was struck down in the UK after advertising bosses ruled it was misleading. The British regulator said the UK version of the product did not contain the same active ingredient used in the American brand. UK advertising chiefs slapped Proactiv down again in 2017 when an advert was banned from children's TV for suggesting children would be bullied. The brand was invented by dermatologists Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields, and is majority-owned by Nestle in partnership with marketing firm Guthy-Renker. Ahead of the reveal Kris Jenner had ramped up interest as she publicly praised her model daughter, 23, for being 'so brave and vulnerable'. Talking about her acne, Kendall was seen in a TV advert recalling how she was attacked by trolls for her bad skin, as she promoted the skincare line. A TV advert for Proactiv spot cream (pictured) starring Katy Perry was banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority in 2012 after it was branded misleading Amid the backlash to Jenner's announcement one Twitter user recalled a Justin Bieber ad She said: 'When I was 14, I couldn't reach as many people that I can now that I'm 22. Now I have this whole thing behind me, I can speak to so many people and be like: 'I can help you and it's ok.' 'I experience it, I'm very normal, I understand you, I can connect with you...' She added at the end: 'I'm going to try and help' while 'connect with Kendall, Jan 6' came up on the screen. But fans labelled the highly anticipated 'raw story' as 'shameless' after it saw the model unveiled as the new spokesperson for Proactiv. One fan wrote: 'You're joking me. This is the 'big announcement'? This is a pathetic cry for attention. @KrisJenner.' Another added: 'Women are coming forward every day about being victims to rape, sexual assault, abuse etc and Kendall Jenner is gonna hype up and announce her problem with acne.' Fans took to Twitter in the wake of the revelation that Kendall's 'raw story' was part of a commercial The company tweeted: 'Welcome to the family, dahling! @KendallJenner is the new face of Proactiv.' Kris Jenner had earlier built up interest in the announcement, saying: 'I'm so proud of my darling @KendallJenner for being so brave and vulnerable. 'Seeing you share your most raw story in order to make a positive impact for so many people and help foster a positive dialogue is a testament to the incredible woman you've become. 'Make sure to watch Kendall's Twitter on Sunday night to find out what I'm talking about and be prepared to be moved.' She added the hashtags: '#bethechange #shareyourstory #changetheconversation #proudmom #finallyasolution #authenticity #mydaughterinspiresme #getready.' This is the shocking moment a drunk clubber knocks revellers over 'like dominoes' with his 4x4 on a packed dancefloor injuring eight people in revenge for being thrown out by door staff. In CCTV footage shown in court, security guards can be seen trying to stop the vehicle which accelerates into partygoers at Blake's nightclub in Gravesend, Kent. Mohammed Abdul allegedly told bouncers 'I'm going to come back and shut this place down and kill you guys' as he was being ejected from during a grime rap gig, a court heard today. The 21-year-old then returned and, allegedly telling doormen 'I told you I'd be back', he manoeuvred his Suzuki Vitara into a narrow alleyway at the side of the club before smashing through closed metal gates and accelerating into a marquee area at the rear of the club. In CCTV footage shown in court, security guards can be seen trying to stop the vehicle which accelerates into partygoers at Blake's nightclub in Gravesend, Kent Many people who had been enjoying a night out awaiting a guest appearance by grime rap artist Giggs were sent sprawling on impact with the vehicle just before midnight on Saturday, March 17 last year. Among the eight injured either by being struck by the Vitara or in the resulting panic and crush was cameraman Pierre Jermaine Joseph who was there to film the performance. He was one of two seriously injured and suffered a fractured shinbone. The second was 18-year-old Katie Wells who went under the vehicle and suffered a fractured pelvis and bruising to her left arm and legs. She later recalled hearing 'a massive bang' before being hit by the front passenger side of the Vitara. Tyre marks were left on her thighs. Mohamed Adul knocks into revellers with his 4x4 on a packed dancefloor injuring eight people in revenge for being thrown out by door staff Abdul, of Deptford, south east London, was arrested at the scene after being restrained by clubbers and door staff. On trial at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent, he denies denies two counts of attempted murder and several counts of causing GBH with intent. Opening the case today in front of High Court Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and the jury of 10 men and two women, prosecutor Simon Taylor said: 'This course of conduct involved him using his car as a weapon by deliberately driving at a large group of people who were trying to enjoy a night out in Blake's nightclub. 'The manner in which the defendant drove was not short in either duration or distance. It was a determined and indiscriminate effort to cause death to those people present. 'Mercifully, and no thanks to the defendant, death was not caused by his driving but serious injury was.' Abdul drove his 4x4 down the side alley next to Blake's nightclub in Gravesend, Kent, and ploughed into crowds in a marquee and dancefloor behind after being ejected for being drunk Having explained the charges faced by Abdul, the prosecutor added there was 'an obvious intention to kill'. 'Why else deliberately drive at speed into a group of defenceless people offering no threat at all. The Crown's case here is that in reality the defendant could have had no other intention whatsoever,' he explained. CCTV footage played in court was also said to 'speak volumes' as to what Abdul intended that night. Nine minutes long, it captured his ejection from the club, returning in the Vitara and then the dramatic moment the car ploughed past bollards and down the alleyway. Having reached the marquee, the vehicle stopped for nine seconds before careering into unsuspecting revellers on the busy chequered dancefloor. One doorman later described the car swerving 'all over the place' and deliberately trying to hit as many people as possible. CCTV footage played in court was also said to 'speak volumes' as to what Abdul intended that night Mr Taylor said: 'Tyre marks were left by the vehicle as it careered into the marquee. It then reversed, the Crown say, to line up another strike at the occupants of the marquee but that was fortunately stopped by the intervention of clubbers and members of staff'. Abdul had arrived at the club in Queen Street just before 8.40pm and was escorted out three hours later for his 'apparent intoxication', the jury heard. Customers had complained about his 'demeanour and conduct', said the prosecutor. 'In response to being asked to leave, the defendant said words to the effect of 'I'm going to shut you down tonight'. The CCTV footage clearly shows that he is angry while being ejected from the club,' he added. Abdul, described as being drunk, having glazed eyes and smelling of alcohol, was said to be pleading with doormen to be allowed back in. The CCTV footage showed him then walking the short distance to where he had parked his grey and black Vitara before returning and pulling up outside the club. Abdul, of Deptford, south east London, was arrested at the club after being restrained by clubbers and door staff - but denies attempted murder Allegedly revving the engine and shouting 'I told you I'd be back', a doorman realised what was happening and quickly reacted to pull open the driver's door. But Abdul then accelerated at speed down the alleyway and burst through the gates halfway down. Mr Taylor said the 'tight' manoeuvre from the road outside the club was 'careful and deliberate', demonstrating a 'considered piece of driving'. Clubbers screamed and shouted 'He's trying to drive at us' and had to dive for safety, the court heard. One bouncer struck the bonnet and windscreen while a young woman who fell to the ground had to be dragged to safety by door staff as the vehicle hurtled towards her. 'He made no attempt to stop and as he made his way along the alleyway, a number of customers and door staff had to jump out of the way or were pulled out of the way to avoid being hit,' continued Mr Taylor. 'As the defendant approached the entrance to the marquee he slowed down to a stop. 'Having stopped for around nine seconds, no doubt to make a final decision as to what he was going to do next, the defendant then executed that decision by driving into the marquee and across the dancefloor at considerable speed, hitting a number of people. 'In fact, the defendant travelled for a distance of around five to 10 metres and gave the customers and staff who were in the marquee no time to react. 'As a consequence, some of the occupants of the marquee were hit by the car and thrown onto the bonnet and then onto the floor.' One woman dislocated her knee as people scrambled out of the way and tried to flee, screaming and shouting in panic. Others, including people in the alleyway, were left with bruising and cuts. Mr Joseph was hit by the 4x4 and pinned by both his legs to the side of the marquee, the court was told. Miss Wells heard the car revving towards her before being hit to her left-hand side. Her shoes came off and she found herself under the vehicle before being pulled out to safety, said Mr Taylor. Abdul then reversed the Vitara several metres before people surrounded it, smashed a window and dragged him from the driver's seat by his hair. The court heard he was 'abusive and uncooperative' to both officers and paramedics treating him for his own injuries, some caused by those who had restrained him. He later replied no comment when interviewed. The court was told the incident was not terror related. 'This case has been investigated and the Crown make it clear there is no terrorist element to the defendant's action,' added the prosecutor. 'The motivation was revenge and anger at being ejected from the club.' The trial continues. A school in south-east China has implemented a cell phone ban on campus, sparking controversy. Under a 'zero cell phone' initiative introduced by a secondary school in Pingxiang city in Jiangxi province, all students are not allowed to bring their cell phones to school, according to Chinese media. Teachers would conduct full-body scans on students with metal detectors during regular snap inspections. Under a 'zero cell phone' initiative introduced by a secondary school in Pingxiang city in Jiangxi province, all students are not allowed to bring their cell phones to school. Teachers would conduct full-body scans on students with metal detectors during snap inspections Students found carrying a handset would have their phones confiscated. The device would only be given back to parents after end-of-term exams, according to a director at the school Students found carrying a handset would have their phones confiscated. The device would only be given back to parents after end-of-term exams, according to Li Lu, director of the school's administration office. Video footage taken at the school shows students lining up to be inspected by teachers, who would scan their bodies, desks and personal belongings with metal defectors for phones. Staff at the Pingxiang Affiliated School of Pingxiang City confiscated 67 'smuggled' cell phones in three months since the ban was announced, video news site Pear reported. One student even had three of his mobile phones confiscated after refusing to follow the policy, the report added. Students line up to be searched by instructors with a metal detector in a classroom Students found carrying a handset would have their phones confiscated by teachers 'There were many students who tried to bring their phones to school through different ways. However, school staff were able to track them down and confiscate their phones thanks to the surveillance cameras installed around campus,' the school's vice-principal, Jiang Gongping, told reporters. While many net users accused the school's policy of being unreasonable, others supported the ban. 'Isn't this an instruction of the students' privacy? What gives teachers the right to search their body and belongings?' one user said on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. 'Well, a student should be focusing on their students at school, what do you need a cell phone for? Nothing wrong with the school to push this policy,' another said. While many net users accused the policy of being unreasonable, others supported the ban Teachers search students' desks and personal belongings in a classroom Staff at the Pingxiang Affiliated School of Pingxiang City confiscated 67 'smuggled' cell phones in three months since the ban was announced 'Instead of enforcing the ban on students, instructors should show them how to use their cell phones in a proper way and teach them about self-discipline,' one user commented. 'This doesn't make sense - what if students need to communicate with their parents, pay for food and transport, check for bus timetables, etc, before and after school?' another said. In France, all students under the age of 15 are forbidden to use their cellphones during the school day, including meal times, according to a nationwide law passed in July. The law went into effect on August 5 and bans all types of cellphones, as well as tablets and smartwatches. Students have to turn their phones off during the day or put them in lockers. A 66-year-old man was beaten unconscious at a New York bodega on New Year's Day. The victim, whose name has not been released, was arguing with a younger man outside Mike's Family Deli around 4.40am on January 1. He then went into the deli, only to be followed inside by the younger man. Surveillance footage captured the moment the younger man pushed him to the ground inside the bodega. A 66-year-old man was beaten unconscious at a New York bodega on New Year's Day. Surveillance footage captured a younger man following him inside the Bronx store The younger man, who had been arguing with his victim outside before the attack, then pushed him to the ground and knocked him unconscious He then punched the 66-year-old man in the face and head, beating the older man until he was unconscious, according to NBC New York. Footage released by the New York Police Department cuts out the horrific fight, but shows the moment the younger man leaves his victim on the ground. The attacker looks back at his unconscious victim once before he exits the bodgea and flees the scene. Footage released by the New York Police Department cuts out the horrific fight, but shows the moment the younger man leaves his victim on the ground The attacker looks back at his unconscious victim once before he exits the bodgea and flees the scene The elderly man was rushed to the hospital in serious but stable condition. He suffered multiple facial fractures and bleeding on the brain. NYPD has since released footage from the incident in hopes of finding the man's attacker, who remains at large. The attacker has been described as a man around 20 to 30 years of age. He was last seen wearing all dark clothing. Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. A British national has been killed in a popular ski resort in the French Alps, local news report. The 32-year-old was hit by a car while walking by the side of the road in Morzine at around 4am on Monday morning. Emergency services were called to the scene, but the Briton's life could not be saved. The 32-year-old Briton was hit by a car walking by the side of the road in Morzine, pictured, a ski resort close to the Swiss border in the French Alps, at around 4am on Monday morning Local media reports that the British person killed is a man, but this has not yet been confirmed. According to LeMessager.fr, the driver had been on their way home from work and did not see the pedestrian. Morzine is a ski resort close to the Swiss border in the French Alps, which is popular with British tourists. The picturesque ski resort is located near the border with Switzerland and is popular among British tourists Authorities in the commune of Montriond, north of Morzine, has opened an investigation into the incident, TheLocal.fr reports. A UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: 'Our consular staff are in contact with the gendarmerie following the death of a British man in France.' A Swiss woman has been charged with assault after slapping an Afghan migrant who allegedly groped her during a New Year's Eve street party. The unnamed woman, 21, was said to have left the man with a broken nose when he reportedly groped her during a party at the City Hall in the Austrian capital Vienna. After news of the charges against her were made public, a wealthy Swiss businessman has stepped in with an offer to pay the fine on her behalf. Former MP and bigwig of the conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) Christoph Blocher was one of many that defended the actions of the 21-year-old woman. The 21-year-old woman claimed to have been groped by the man during New Year's celebrations at City Hall, Vienna, Austria (pictured) Blocher, an industrialist and influential figure in Swiss politics despite his retirement, said: 'If the woman gets punished, I will gladly pay the fine.' He added: 'How should a woman defend herself otherwise if that is not allowed?' Swiss businessman Christoph Blocher has offered to pay her fine Blocher admitted that he would have reacted in the same way if someone had tried to steal his wallet, for example. Local media alleged that a 20-year-old Afghan suspect was part of a migrant gang who were allegedly assaulting women in the crowd during the New Year celebrations. According to the Vienna Police, the Swiss woman reacted angrily when she was fondled by the migrant and smacked him full in the face. Witnesses called the police at 1.30am to report the incident. At the same time, the suspect went to see cops on the square as he reportedly had a broken nose. He was taken to hospital to be treated and a criminal charge for sexual harassment was filed against the 20-year-old Afghan, and a criminal complaint against the victim for GBH. Under Austrian law, the police have a duty to file a criminal complaint when the alleged offence is of such severity that prosecutors have no choice but to pursue it. Director Peter Farrelly weighed in on the current political climate surrounding Hollywood this weekend - which he says is actually not all that liberal. The screenwriter, whose film Green Book nabbed three Golden Globes Sunday night, says he believes the movie shows that differing parties can, in fact, unite. The film starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortnensen, tells the story of world-class pianist 'Doc' Don Shirely (Ali) as he is protected by Italian-American bodyguard Tony Lip (Mortensen) on a tour of the deep South during segregation in the 1960s. Speaking from the BAFTA Tea Party red carpet on Saturday night, Farrelly, 62, told DailyMail.com: 'You can learn that there are no two points. We're all the same. We're all human beings who want the same things. 'We want love, we want happiness, we want to be treated equally. That's not asking that much and you realize when you talk to each other, you've got the same goals. You're coming at them from different ways and there are hurt feelings, but we are all the same people who want the same things. So if you do talk, you recognize that, and you get closer, and closer, and closer.' Scroll down for video Winners: Peter Farrelly's Green Book, starring Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, and Viggo Mortnensen, took home three Golden Globes on Sunday night Speaking at the BAFTA Tea Party on Saturday, Farrelly said the movie depicts how differing sides can unite and progress Farrelly revealed, however, that working on the movie led him to realize that America has not progressed much since that time period. 'I wish we were showing this movie and looking back and saying, "Can you believe that's what America was like in 1962? God, it's gotten good,"' he added. 'But it hasn't. Things have changed, things have improved, and then things have gotten worse. 'Progress doesn't go like that (up). It goes like this (up and down) and there are downturns and we're in one and that's why I think Green Book is an important movie to remind us that we are all the same people. 'No matter how far we seem to be, all you have to do is talk to each other and there's a common ground in there and there's a way to unite.' The 62-year-old director - famed for comedy hits like Dumb And Dumber and There's Something About Mary - said he feels cable news is not doing much to help the current divide in the country. 'Unfortunately, people aren't talking. People are watching Fox News and they're watching MSNBC and that's not a discussion; that's being talked to,' he said. 'But what we've got to do is talk to each other the way people always did in the past.' The film starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortnensen, tells the story of world-class pianist 'Doc' Don Shirely (Ali) as he is protected by Italian-American bodyguard Tony Lip (Mortensen) on a tour of the deep South during segregation in the 1960s. Mahershala Ali nabbed the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his part in Green Book And despite the wave of anti-Trump bashing in Hollywood, Farrelly admitted that sentiment is not reflective of the industry - insisting Tinsel Town isn't all left-winged. He urged his industry compatriots and Donald Trump to reach middle ground in the future saying: 'Let's work it out because you'd be shocked at how much we have in common.' Many A-list liberal stars from Robert De Niro to Meryl Streep have openly bashed President Trump for his policies, behavior and outlook. It has seen the POTUS fire back at Hollywood celebs and cause more friction. Farrelly added: 'We're just so divided right now. Even in the identity of Hollywood as being the liberal place, when you're in Hollywood, you know that's not all true. 'In fact, if you look at Ronald Reagan, he was not liberal, Clint Eastwood not liberal, Arnold Schwarzenegger not liberal. If you look at most action stars in fact, they're not liberal and they go on to politics. 'Some of the biggest stars in Hollywood aren't liberal; they come from the right. So to be identified as everybody one way is just inaccurate and what it does is it helps people out there say, "They're thinking one way," but they're not. 'I live here, I know there are both sides of the story. I just think it's easy to characterize everybody the same way from Hollywood. 'Well you know, I'm from Rhode Island, not from Hollywood, and I came from where there are both sides and I still believe in both sides. Farrelly (pictured on Sunday night) says he hopes 'that everybody sees this movie, and it's not talking to one side or the other' 'I know there are arguments on both sides, but I believe there is something in between that you can find by just talking and I guess that's the whole point of the movie.' Farrelly does hope Trump will watch Green Book, however. The film won Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy), with writers Nick Vallelonga, Bryan Currie and Farrelly winning Best Screenplay and Mahershala Ali winning his first Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for his role as famed pianist 'Doc' Don Shirley. Farrelly was also nominated for Best Director but lost out to Alfonso Curaon who directed Roma. 'I hope that everybody sees this movie, and it's not talking to one side or the other. I've been asked, "What do you think of the guy in the White House?" I'm not going to answer that. 'I'll tell you why, because no matter what I say, I'm going to lose half the audience, and I want everybody to see this. I want everybody to see it, so yes, that would be a good thing.' Farrelly spoke exclusively at the American Airlines, BBC America and Jaguar Land Rover BAFTA Tea Party held at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. The afternoon event raises awareness and funds for BAFTA's year-round education and new talent programming. A teenager has been refused bail after being accused of stealing $580 from an RSL club and taunting police that he 'always gets bail'. Corey Milgate, 19, was accused of cutting off the power in Coledale club, one hour south of Sydney, and stealing money from tip jars, tills and a labrador-shaped donation box for Guide Dogs Australia. 'Come back and see me later. I'll get bail again. You're wasting your time. I always get bail, I'll be out in two hours,' Mr Milgate allegedly told officers as he was led into a caged police car. Mr Milgate was accused of cutting off the power in Coledale club (pictured) and stealing money from tip jars, tills and a labrador-shaped donation box for Guide Dogs Australia Police allege that Milgate's DNA was found on yellow gloves that were discarded and found by passers-by on the Coledale foreshore, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The labrador-shaped donation box and the tills were also found with the yellow gloves. Police allege the CCTV footage showed a person in a hooded jacket wearing yellow gloves and attempting to get inside the building at around 11.49pm, moments before the power supply was cut off. Police visited Mr Milgate's grandmother's home on Friday morning, where she told them that a yellow pair of gloves were missing from the cupboard. The 19-year-old denied any involvement in the alleged break-in of Coledale club. 'He tells me that the glove may well be a glove that he used at home to wash up and that he didn't commit the break and enter,' Anthony Goodridge, Mr Milgate's lawyer, said on his behalf. Mr Milgate was refused bail in the Wollongong bail court on Saturday. (Image source from: Mirchi9.com) Will Go To Any Extent For AP People Says Chandra Babu:- AP Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu slammed Narendra Modi and his BJP government for ignoring Andhra Pradesh in granting special status for the state. Chandra Babu deferred and walked out of the alliance last year. Modi and Babu has been attacking each other from the past one week with their verbal comments. Babu today slammed Modi once again calling him the reason for walking out of the alliance. "Narendra Modi is responsible and he betrayed TDP along with the people of Andhra Pradesh because of which we walked out of NDA alliance. Right after I questioned about special status and bifurcation promises, Modi and BJP leaders started targeting me. By making false comments on my family, it is clear about which level Modi went down. I am going to any extent for the sake of AP people. Central agencies including CBI and ED are conducting raids after we turned political rivals to Narendra Modi" said Chandra Babu Naidu today. Police have found a body buried at a Florida home where a man lived with his wife before she went missing and he was arrested over the murder of her parents and her brother. Shelby John Nealy, 25, was arrested in Ohio on Thursday after fleeing in a car stolen from the home where his in-laws and their son were found dead on New Year's Day. His 21-year-old wife, Jamie Nicole Ivancic, is still missing in what police described as 'suspicious circumstances'. The couple have two young children, aged 2 and 3, together. Shelby John Nealy, 25, has been arrested over the murder his wife Jamie Ivancic's parents and brother at the Florida home. His wife is still missing in what police described as 'suspicious circumstances' The bodies of Richard Louis Ivancic, 71, Laura Ann Ivancic, 59, 25-year-old Nicholas James Ivancic were discovered last week inside their mobile home in Tarpon Springs. The Pasco Sheriff's Office revealed late Sunday that their investigations into the murders had led to another body being uncovered at a home in nearby Port Richey. The home is where Nealy and his wife Jamie had been living. Police have not yet confirmed if the body found buried at the home belongs to Nealy's missing wife. At a press conference regarding her disappearance last week, Tarpon Springs Police Major Jeff Young said he feared Jamie, like her family, had become a victim of foul play. Police started investigating the slayings after they were asked to conduct a welfare check on the Ivancic family on New Year's Day by their other son who lives out of state. The three bodies were found in a state of 'advanced decomposition'. Police uncovered a fourth body on Sunday that was buried at the home in Port Richey (above) where Nealy and Jamie had been living. Police have not yet confirmed if the body found buried at the home is that of Jamie The bodies of Richard Louis Ivancic, 71, Laura Ann Ivancic, 59, 25-year-old Nicholas James Ivancic were discovered last week inside their mobile home in Tarpon Springs Police have not revealed how they died but the killings likely happened December 19 or December 20. The bodies of three small dogs also were discovered inside the trailer home. Nealy was arrested after authorities were able to track a red 2013 Kia Sorento owned by Laura Ivancic to Ohio. He was taken into custody after police spotted him leaving an apartment and walking towards the car. The couple's two children were found safe inside the apartment. They were taken to a family services agency. Investigators said Nealy admitted to killing his in-laws. It is not yet clear if he admitted any involvement in his wife's disappearance. Nealy and his wife were both charged in 2016 following a domestic violence altercation. Jamie, who was pregnant with their second child, had accused her husband of throwing her against a wall and biting her. Meanwhile, Nealy had claimed that his wife struck and choked him. Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols, 26, was found in a wheelchair squatting inside the Marietta, Georgia, home owned by Janice Henson A family returning from travels over the holidays to its Georgia home the day after the New Year was shocked to discover the locks had been changed and a stranger in a wheelchair squatting inside. Homeowner Janice Henson could not get her key to work on the Vintage Club Circle house in Marietta, Georgia, when she encountered a man in a wheelchair claiming he lived there now and had a gun, according to WSB-TV. Henson contacted the police who say the man, identified as 26-year-old Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols of Canton, Georgia, threatened to shoot them. After a five-hour standoff with the authorities, a SWAT team broke through the front door and sent in a robot to find Nuckols who surrendered peacefully. No weapon was found on him or in the house, according to the police. Henson did not know how long Nuckols was squatting, but found that the food left in the home gone and belongings had been rearranged. Janice Henson's home located on The Vintage Club Circle in Marietta, Georgia, had a unwanted squatter residing inside while she and her family were traveling over the holidays Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols claimed he had a gun and held off police for five hours until a SWAT unit broke down the door and sent a robot after him He also left us notes thanking us for the key and thanking us for letting him live here, and it was his house now,' Henson said to the TV station. 'He moved all the pictures, emptied drawers. He was making this house his.' Henson also said the family would be living in a hotel until the house could be restored back to its former state. Nuckols was charged with first-degree burglary, making terroristic threats and misdemeanor obstruction, and was being held in jail on a $33,220 bond. It was not clear how Nuckols had entered the home situated in The Vintage Club active adult community. Kevin Spacey arrived in a Nantucket courtroom on Monday morning just before 11am to attend his arraignment at the island's courthouse. The actor was all smiles and seemed to be completely at ease as he snuck in the side door of the building, before being arraigned on a single count of Indecent Assault and Battery. That charge carries a sentence of up to five years in jail, and Spacey was ordered to have no contact with the victim or his family. Spacey was seen chatting and laughing with his lawyer before his case was called in front of the packed courthouse, and when it was his turn a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. He was told that he could face 90 days in a prison should he commit a crime ahead of the trial and the judge ordered the actor to stay away from the teenage accuser and his family, referring to the young man as the 'victim.' Spacey's lawyer and the prosecution then argued over a discovery motion, with the actor's team wanting all of the accuser's texts with his then-girlfriend from the 2016 incident until today and the prosecution just offering up the day of and after the the alleged assault. The judge did not rule on the motion yet, and less than 10 minutes after he arrived, Spacey was heading back to the airport to fly home. The actor, who only spoke the words 'thank you' during the hearing, did have to make one quick stop on the way out to see a probation officer. The pretrial hearing in the case was set for March 4, but Spacey will not have to appear in person and can instead call in to the court. Scroll down for video Smiley: Spacey was carefree as he arrived at court on Monday morning in Nantucket (above) No cares: He was all smiles as he and his lawyer entered the courtroom (above) after touching down on the island in a private jet Plea: The actor, 59, was ordered to have no contact with the defendant or his family and told he could face 90 days in prison if he commits another crime (Spacey thanking the judge) Full house: It was standing room only inside the courtroom on Monday when Spacey appeared (on left) Busy day: Crowds line the street outside the tiny courthouse in Nantucket on Monday (above) At the same time, the Boston Globe is reporting that after the officer investigating the case turned in his report to the court, the clerk asked for a private hearing to be held because he felt that the alleged victim, then 18, may have consented to the 2016 incident. In a bizarre twist, the clerk then falsely stated that it was the investigating trooper who called for the secret hearing, which could not be held until last month because the victim was studying abroad and was not available to speak with the clerk. That secret hearing resulted in the case being sent to trial, but Spacey and his team could have potentially been given the chance to have a private trial in which the alleged victim would not have been present. 'After reviewing the materials for a time, magistrate Hart indicated he had questions concerning the issue of consent and wanted to hear from the complaining witness and would require a show-cause hearing,' said assistant district attorney Tara Miltmore. It was during the secret hearing that the trooper was questioned about the lack of eyewitnesses and evidence in the case. And despite claims to the contrary, the young man who alleges he was sexually assaulted by Spacey at a Nantucket bar did not film evidence of the actor groping him or touching him in an inappropriate manner according to court testimony. In the court hearing on December 20, the actor's lawyer tore apart one of the claims made in the police report filed by State Trooper Gerald Donovan. There will be a pretrial hearing in the case on March 4, but Spacey will not have to appear in person The claims in that report were all based on interviews with the alleged victim and potential eyewitnesses at the bar that night. In that report, Donovan writes: '[Redacted] said his girlfriend did not believe him so that's when he snapchatted the video.' That claim, which was submitted with the criminal complaint and filed in Nantucket District Court, led to multiple outlets reporting that there was evidence of the alleged assault, but as Donovan himself testified last week that is not the case. 'What the video shows is a person's hand make contact with the shirt, correct?' Spacey's lawyer Alan Jackson is heard asking in audio obtained by the Boston Globe. 'Yes,' responded Donovan. 'Okay. Not the -- any body part,' asked Jackson. 'Correct, you don't see any body parts,' confirmed Donovan. The case stems from an incident that allegedly occurred in the early morning hours of July 8, 2016 at The Club Car in Nantucket. The then-18-year-old-man accused Spacey of trying to 'jack him off' after the Oscar winner allegedly unzipped this fly, stuck his hand in his pants and began to rub his penis. Jackson questioned why the victim allowed himself to be assaulted by the actor for three minutes, stating: 'Thats an incredibly long time to have a strange mans hands in your pants.' He also used the hearing to address the fact that the alleged victim lied about his age, claiming he was 23, and was drinking heavily when the alleged assault took place. 'He may have been so drunk that he was black out drunk, but he didnt black out at the Club Car, he may have blacked out once he got home,' said Jackson while Donovan was on the stand. 'That's correct,' replied the trooper. Solemn: Spacey got off the plane with his lawyer but not manager Evan Lowenstein, who may have stayed onboard for the 90 minutes or remained at home in Baltimore (Spacey above in court) And he's out: Spacey (above with Jackson), who only spoke the works 'thank you' while appearing in front of the court, also had to meet a probation officer before leaving the island Space case: The judge on Monday referred to the young man accusing Spacey as the 'victim' and not the 'accuser' in the case Charter jet: Spacey chartered a Lear Jet for the day, likely at a cost of around $50,000 (Spacey getting on the plane to fly home) Jackson may soon have a second case on his hands with Spacey as well, which would put him back on his home turf. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office revealed that a probe into Spacey's alleged criminal behavior that was launched back in August is still ongoing at this time. A previous investigation was ultimately dismissed by the DA. Jackson is familiar with the workings of that office, having spent close to two decades as a Deputy Assistant for the same office before going into private practice. A spokesperson for the organization spoke with DailyMail.com and said: 'A sex assault case was presented yesterday to our office by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department involving Kevin Spacey. It remains under review.' This news comes a year after the two-time Oscar winner was accused of sexually assaulting a then-underage Anthony Rapp at his Manhattan apartment. Spacey responded by coming out as gay and entering a rehab facility in Arizona, where he remained for weeks. The incident that spurred Spacey's downfall allegedly took place at Spacey's apartment in 1986 when the actor invited Rapp to a party while they were both appearing on Broadway. In an interview with Buzzfeed, Rapp said that he found himself alone in the apartment at the end of the night and that Spacey then began to make his move. 'He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me,' said Rapp, who detailed being pressed up against the bed before being able to squirm away and ultimately leave the house without being assaulted by Spacey. Spacey made the decision to come out of the closet in a statement apologizing to actor Anthony Rapp, who said in an interview that the actor attempted to sexually assault him in 1986, an incident Spacey says he does not remember. Rapp was 14 at the time while Spacey was 26. Supporters of an Indigenous actor and dancer who was arrested while enjoying a day at the beach with his family claim he was racially profiled. Ruben Yorkshire was stopped by police at a Perth beach last Wednesday while he was with his girlfriend and her children. The up-and-coming actor, who is set to star in ABC's The Heights, was placed under arrest after a simple name check revealed he had over $1,700 in unpaid fines. Ruben Yorkshire (pictured) was stopped by police at a Perth beach last Wednesday while he was with his girlfriend and her children But his mother Cherie for one believes there may have been a darker motivation in his arrest. She claims her 27-year-old son, who dances with the Yirra Yaakin dance company, 'gets picked for no reason' even when he's minding his own business. Her sentiments were echoed by Gerry Georgatos from the National Indigenous Critical Response Service. The up-and-coming actor, who is set to star in ABC's The Heights was placed under arrest after a simple name check revealed he had over $1,700 in unpaid fines He said he was certain Mr Yorkshire was questioned because he was Indigenous. 'He was stopped for being black,' he told the ABC. Ms Yorkshire claims her son has been a beacon of light within the community, offering his services to youth programs in Kalgoorlie, Bidyadang and more youth work in Balga. She said he often dedicates his time to troubled youths. Ms Yorkshire claims her son (pictured) has been a beacon of light within the community, offering his services to youth programs in Kalgoorlie, Bidyadang and more youth work in Balga WA police are adamant Mr Yorkshire was in no way racially profiled during his arrest 'He has never been in prison, he's never been in trouble with the police, and it has really dented his pride and his self-esteem.' WA police are adamant Mr Yorkshire was in no way racially profiled. In a statement, they said upon checking Mr Yorkshire's details, they discovered there were two outstanding warrants for him. 'The WA Police Force is required under law to detain a person in circumstances where they are subject to a warrant of commitment, and arrange for appropriate custody arrangements to be in place.' President Donald Trump teed off on the media Monday morning as 'crazed lunatics' in a pair of tweets as he finds himself under fire for a government shutdown and staring down investigations from the special counsel and Congress. The president launched his attack without naming a particular article or topic that set him off, other than another month of strong growth figures he accused the press of ignoring. 'With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse,' the president wrote. The president called the press 'crazed lunatics' in a pair of angry tweets Monday. On Sunday, Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks to Marine One 'Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH! ... The Fake News will knowingly lie and demean in order make the tremendous success of the Trump Administration, and me, look as bad as possible.' He continued, claiming: 'They use non-existent sources & write stories that are total fiction. Our Country is doing so well, yet this is a sad day in America!' In a third tweet, he resurrected the attack of calling the press the 'Enemy of the People,' a phrase with roots that trace back to the Soviet Union under Stalin and before. 'The Fake News Media in our Country is the real Opposition Party. It is truly the Enemy of the People! We must bring honesty back to journalism and reporting!' the president wrote. Trump's Twitter rant came just hours after he paused on his way to Camp David to take questions from the White House press corps. He also gave what turned into a mini press conference Friday as he fielded questions on the partial government shutdown and other topics. Trump attacked the 'dishonest Media' Monday morning A claimed the 'Fake News' media 'knowingly lie' and demean the 'tremendous success' of his administration Trump blasted the press for ignoring job gains, as the partial government shutdown entered its third week. Here a woman walks past trash piled next to a garbage bin at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Nonprofits, businesses and state governments across the country are paying bills and putting in volunteer hours in an uphill battle to keep national parks safe and clean for visitors as the partial U.S. government shutdown lingers Special counsel Robert Mueller has won a six-month extension for a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the Russia probe Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (R) holds a press conference on the introduction of the anti-corruption bill HR 1 in the Rayburn Room of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, 04 January 2019. Democrats are vowing to probe the Trump administration At that event, Trump revealed that he brought up impeachment while meeting with congressional leaders about the shutdown, which is entering its third week. Trump continues to fume about the Mueller probe, which on Friday got a six-month extension on a federal grand jury hearing evidence as the special counsel probes Russian election interference and other related activities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put out a report Friday indicating non-farm payrolls increased by 312,000 in December beating expectations and extending a string of reports on job gains. Average Hourly Earnings also beat expectations. The news brought a jump in the markets after a December sell-off wiped out market gains. Divers believe they have found the wreckage of a plane that a homesick US Air Force mechanic stole from a UK airbase and crashed trying to fly home to see his wife. American Sergeant Paul Meyer was a Chief Mechanic with USAF based at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk in 1969, but began to miss his wife Jane and requested early leave. Senior officers rejected the application so, after a night heavy drinking, Meyer stole a Hercules C-130, a four-engined military cargo plane. Posing as a captain, he ordered the Hercules be refuelled, set in a course for Langley, Virginia, and took to the skies on the 23rd of May. American Sergeant Paul Meyer was a Chief Mechanic with USAF based at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk in 1969, but began to miss his wife Jane (pictured) and requested early leave. When this was refused, and after a heavy night of drinking, he stole a plane Mayer had a private pilot's licence, but nothing that qualified him to handle the large, cumbersome C-130 across the Atlantic. Eyewitnesses saw one of the wing tips nearly touch the runway on take-off, but Meyer recovered sufficiently and was last seen flying in a south-westerly direction. But somewhere over the English Channel radar contact with the Hercules was lost and Meyer was never seen again. During the flight, Meyer radioed his wife and said, 'leave me alone for five minutes. I've got trouble' - but he was never heard from again. A team of divers have launched a bid to finally solve the 50 year mystery surrounding an unqualified pilot who stole a Hercules which then disappeared in the English Channel The cause of his death has remained a mystery. It is not known whether Mayer simply lost control and crashed or was shot down to prevent him crash-landing into a populated area. Now a team of divers from Deeper Dorset believe they have found the wreckage - but are not revealing the location. A spokesman said: 'We have a David and Goliath situation here and we will stop at nothing to figure this sad story out. 'We now have a real task ahead of us, but as usual we will come at it straight and level, whatever it takes. 'We will treat the aircraft remains as if it were a crime scene - the first job being to map out an image, not just the main site but the various pieces we can see on the sonar around the site. 'Already it is obvious we will learn a lot from what is still there after 50 years. 'However, the work is going to be painstaking as we reverse engineer the sequence of events. Grahame Knott (pictured) from Deeper Dorset, posted on social media that some aviation enthusiasts doubted they had really found the plane. He said they were sure they had found the right aircraft, but they were not releasing any images yet 'We cannot do this alone. We require folks with specialist knowledge and we are working on that very hard right now. 'Having located the aircraft we can already dispel a lot of stupid rumours and conspiracy theories, which is certainly half the battle won. 'It is, though, fairly obvious that many facts regarding that day have been withheld and it would be a really good idea if someone got the file out and started talking to us before we start to tell the story our way.' At the time of the Hercules incident, Meyer, a chief mechanic who had served in Vietnam, was stationed in the UK and was due to return home to Virginia in a month. After his early leave request was rejected Meyer went out for a few drinks on May 23, 1969, and he mounted his daring plan. U.S Army troops wait to board the C-130 Hercules aircraft and fly back home from Kuwait in March 1991 According to the official report on the incident, eyewitnesses saw the plane fall out of the sky and explode upon hitting the water. The report concluded that Meyer was likely dead, but it did not provide an explanation for the crash. A few days after the crash wreckage from the plane, including a liferaft, washed up in Alderney. In July that year a corpse, which looked like it was in a flight suit, was seen floating near Jersey, but it was left to drift away. Deeper Dorset set out to find the wreckage last spring and have now announced that they had located the plane - but they haven't revealed the exact location. Grahame Knott, from Deeper Dorset, posted on social media that some aviation enthusiasts doubted they had really found the plane. He said they were sure they had found the right aircraft, but they were not releasing any images yet. He wrote: 'The images are the only bargaining power we have when it comes to negotiating a deal with a filmmaker, which we are going to need to help fund the next stage.' More than 17,000 people have sympathised with a Tesco customer who ordered eggs benedict but was served a dish he described as a 'monstrosity'. Thomas Hesketh's Tweet has gone viral after he posted a picture of the limp breakfast from a Tesco cafe in Wigan on Saturday. The popular brunch dish, often lovingly presented, looked less than appetising when it arrived: two watery eggs on reformed ham. Several Twitter wags dubbed the disappointing dish 'Eggs Benidorm'. Thomas Hesketh's Tweet has gone viral after he posted a picture of the disappointing breakfast served by a Tesco cafe in Wigan on Saturday ... and how the dish is supposed to look. (Stock image) He captioned the Tweet: 'Ordered eggs Benedict in your Wigan cafe and received this monstrosity.' The image shows two limp pieces of cold ham with what looks like dollops of salad cream and custard on a small piece of bread. Traditionally the American recipe consists of an English muffin topped with thick slices of ham and two poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce to top it all off. The 20 year-old said that he finished the dish despite how it looked because his father's breakfast had arrived and they 'didn't have time to wait for another.' According to Mr Hesketh, from Westhoughton in Wigan, the Hollandaise sauce came straight out of the fridge. He said: 'I could see as it was an open kitchen. The Hollandaise sauce was straight out of a small tub from the fridge.' Twitter users joined in the mockery with Mikey labelling the dish 'eggs benidorm' Mr Hesketh, 20, said the cafe offered to cook him another but warned it would come out looking the same The retailer replied to the tweet, which has now been liked 17,000 times, to apologise The unappetising picture has gone viral with around 17,000 likes and 3,000 retweets. Plenty of people made tongue-in-cheek comments about the dish with more than one questioning the appearance of the eggs. Ross wrote: 'Did they use white Cadbury Creme Eggs?' Helen Wood asked 'who orders eggs Benedict in Tesco?' Cherry Morello said: 'I hear Homer Simpson's asking for his eyes back.' Tesco replied to Thomas' tweet saying: 'I'm very sorry about this happening. Did you tell the cafe staff?' But Thomas was sure to let them know that it wasn't the staff that were the issue but the food itself. He replied: 'Yes, they said they would cook me up another one but it would be the same!' In a statement, Tesco said: 'Our Cafe team are really passionate about serving our customers great quality breakfasts and were sorry this Eggs Benedict didnt meet our usual high standards. 'Weve offered Thomas a gesture of goodwill and would welcome him back into store soon so we can put this right.' A minister today broke ranks with Theresa May to say that Brexit may have to be delayed as MPs remain at war over the deal. Digital Minister Margot James said Britain may have to extend Article 50 - the two year timer on negotiations which runs out on March 29 - to give more time for talks. And she warned that Britain 'cannot afford' to crash out of the Brussels bloc without an agreement - an outcome which looms large as MPs remain deadlocked. But her comments are a stark departure from the position of Number Ten, which has repeatedly ruled out extending Article 50 to buy more time for talks. Asked about it on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mrs May insisted Britain will be leaving the EU as planned in March. Scroll down for video Digital Minister Margot James (pictured right today on the BBC Politics Live programme)said Britain may have to extend Article 50 - the two year timer on negotiations which runs out on March 29 this year Yet speaking on the BBC's Politics Live Show today, Ms James said Article 50 may have to be extended if the PM's deal is voted down by MPs next week. What is the Irish border backstop and why do Tory MPs hate it? The so-called Irish border backstop is one of the most controversial parts of the PM's Brexit deal. This is what it means: What is the backstop? The backstop was invented to meet promises to keep open the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland even if there is no comprehensive UK-EU trade deal. The divorce deal says it will kick in automatically at the end of the Brexit transition if that deal is not in place. If effectively keeps the UK in a customs union with the EU and Northern Ireland in both the customs union and single market. This means many EU laws will keep being imposed on the UK and there can be no new trade deals. It also means regulatory checks on some goods crossing the Irish Sea. Why have Ireland and the EU demanded it? Because Britain demanded to leave the EU customs union and single market, the EU said it needed guarantees people and goods circulating inside met EU rules. This is covered by the Brexit transition, which effectively maintains current rules, and can in theory be done in the comprehensive EU-UK trade deal. But the EU said there had to be a backstop to cover what happens in any gap between transition and final deal. Why do critics hate it? Because Britain cannot decide when to leave the backstop. Getting out - even if there is a trade deal - can only happen if both sides agree people and goods can freely cross the border. Brexiteers fear the EU will unreasonably demand the backstop continues so EU law continues to apply in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland MPs also hate the regulatory border in the Irish Sea, insisting it unreasonably carves up the United Kingdom. What concessions did Britain get in negotiating it? During the negotiations, Britain persuaded Brussels the backstop should apply to the whole UK and not just Northern Ireland. Importantly, this prevents a customs border down the Irish Sea - even if some goods still need to be checked. The Government said this means Britain gets many of the benefits of EU membership after transition without all of the commitments - meaning Brussels will be eager to end the backstop. It also got promises the EU will act in 'good faith' during the future trade talks and use its 'best endeavours' to finalise a deal - promises it says can be enforced in court. What did the legal advice say about it? Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said even with the EU promises, if a trade deal cannot be reached the backstop could last forever. This would leave Britain stuck in a Brexit limbo, living under EU rules it had no say in writing and no way to unilaterally end it. Advertisement She said: 'The only way is for MPs to coalesce around a reasonable deal, which this is, and get it through. 'That is how you stop no deal. 'If that proves to be impossible then I think we need to - we have very little time left but we might have to extend Article 50. 'But I think it is very unlikely that Parliament will stare down the barrel of that particular gun. 'I think it is more likely that MPs will get behind the deal.' She added: 'The issue is we need to get this deal through in order to prevent no deal.' Ms James said the PM's deal is the best Britain is going to get and urged MPs to back it in the crunch vote, expected on January 15. But the deal is widely expected to be rejected as more than 100 Tory MPs and the DUP - who are propping the Conservatives up in No10 - oppose it. Ms James said MPs should stop squabbling and rally round Mrs May's agreement if they want to avoid Britain crashing out of the EU with no deal in three month's time. She said: 'I want to stop no deal but I want to have a deal. The other side of no deal is to have a deal and this is the deal. 'I don't see the European Union renegotiating - certainly not opening the whole thing up again this side of March 29. 'We are where we are, in my opinion we have got as good deal as we are going to get and it is up to MPs to coalesce around it and get it through. That is how you stop no deal. 'This country cannot afford to leave the European Union without a deal in my opinion. 'My opinion is strongly that we do need to honour the referendum and that means getting this deal though or something very similar.' It comes as the PM has to fend off accusations that she has been time wasting in Brexit talks to try to browbeat MPs to back her deal. Mrs May delayed the original planned vote of her deal last month, admitting that she faced an overwhelming defeat. But with just eight days to go until MPs are set to finally vote on her blueprint, she has won no notable from the EU. Speaking at a press conference in Liverpool to launch the NHS ten-year plan today, Mrs May insisted that since postponing the Commons showdown from December 11 she had been working hard to get more concessions from the EU. Asked what 'evidence' she could provide that anything had change since last month, Mrs May claimed that there had been 'some further movement' from the EU at the December summit. She said she had spent the festive period speaking to European leaders - including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron - and Tory MPs. 'In the coming days, what we will set out is not just about the EU but also about what we can do domestically,' Mrs May said. 'So we will be setting out measures which will be specific to Northern Ireland, we will be setting out proposals for a greater role for Parliament as we move into the next stage of the negotiation and we are continuing to work on further assurances on further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that has been expressed by parliamentarians.' Theresa May (pictured delivering a speech on the NHS in Liverpool today) is scrambling to save her Brexit plan from what looks like certain defeat in a crunch vote next Tuesday She confirmed that the debate on her package will 'restart' on Wednesday - with the vote now due next Tuesday, January 15. But Mrs May does not yet appear to have secured her key demand, said to be for Brussels to give guarantees that future trade terms will be finalised by the end of 2021. Downing Street sources indicated they are hoping for written assurances on the Irish border backstop before the crucial vote by MPs, which she is currently on track to lose by a big margin. A young woman has been detained by police in central China for physically abusing her one-month-old daughter. The 22-year-old mother in Hengyang, Hunan province, surnamed Wei, filmed herself slapping her baby daughter repeatedly and trying to smother her. Wei told officers she was feeling lonely and had hoped the video would prompt her husband to come home, according to local police. The 22-year-old mother in Hengyang, Hunan province, surnamed Wei, filmed herself slapping her baby daughter repeatedly and trying to smother her. She then posted the clip online While many net users slammed the young mother's violent actions, others were sympathetic towards her circumstances. The woman was given counselling by police officers The woman filmed the horrific video and posted it online on Saturday at around 3am. It immediately went viral, sparking outrage among net users. The woman eventually turned herself in on the same day at 6:30pm after police were alerted to the incident by concerned net users. 'Due to her husband's absence at home, Wei felt very lonely and used her cell phone to film herself hitting her daughter's face. She also used her hand to cover her daughter's nose and mouth,' according to a statement released by Hengyang district police on Saturday. 'Wei posted the video on social media in hopes that it will force her husband, Liu, to return home. The child is unhurt,' the police added. The baby seen crying (left) in the horrific video. She is now under the care of her grandmother Authorities added that the baby is in healthy condition and is currently under the care of her grandmother. As a result of the incident, officers gave the mother a five-day detention penalty but it is understood that the penalty was not carried out, according to a follow-up statement by the police. She was given counselling. The mother resorted to the extreme measure because her husband wouldn't come home all the time, according to Yangtse Evening News. She told reporters that she and her husband met online and got pregnant shortly after. The young mother receiving counselling following the incident on Saturday While many net users slammed the young mother's violent actions, others were sympathetic towards her circumstances. 'While hitting her daughter is no doubt incorrect, the husband should also be investigated in the incident. The father should be equally responsible for the child,' one net user commented on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. 'Poor baby, you did nothing wrong and didn't deserve this,' another said. 'What is the father doing, not being at home at three in the morning? Both are irresponsible parents,' one user said. Theresa May tonight threw a drinks party for some of her biggest critics on her backbenches - including Boris Johnson - as she tries to win their backing for her Brexit deal. The PM laid on the charm as she hosted Tory MPs and their spouses to Number Ten for the exclusive soiree. She is desperately trying to convince her warring MPs to vote for her under-fire Brexit deal in the Commons in just eight days' time. But more than 100 Conservative MPs are publicly opposed to her plan, and the PM is widely expected to suffer a humiliating defeat when the Commons votes on it on January 15. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson leaves following a drinks reception at 10 Downing Street where Prime Minister Theresa May hoped to schmooze her backbenchers Conservative MP Owen Paterson and Deputy Leader of the DUP Nigel Dodds appear in high spirits as they make their exit from the reception During the get-together Mrs May no doubt tried to convince her warring MPs to vote for her under-fire Brexit deal in the Commons in just eight days' time Business Secretary Greg Clark takes a photo with a woman as he leaves the drinks Mr Johnson, who has become one of the PM's biggest critics since quitting her Cabinet in fury at her Brexit deal last year - was among those who turned up to the bash. Fellow Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers also arrived at the party tonight, as did the Tory Party's vice chairman James Cleverly. Mrs may faces a titanic battle to convince her mutinous backbenchers to U-turn and support her deal. More than 100 Conservative MPs are publicly opposed to her plan, and the PM is widely expected to suffer a humiliating defeat when the Commons votes on it on January 15 Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to dismiss 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, arguing that people could 'sort fact for nonsense' Just hours before Mr Johnson turned up to Downing Street for the drinks, he launched yet another savage attack on her deal in his weekly newspaper column. He insisted that a 'no deal' Brexit is what people voted for in the referendum - rather than what he sees as the PM's bodged compromise. The No10 party comes after Mrs May today insisted that she has not given up hope on getting her Brexit deal past MPs - amid claims the EU will try to save her from disaster by promising to sign a trade deal by 2021. Mr Johnson (pictured today heading to No10) who has become one of the PM's biggest critics since quitting her Cabinet in fury at her Brexit deal last year - was among those who turned up to the bash Conservative Party deputy Chairman, James Cleverly and his wife Susannah also arrived at the bash in No10, where the PM is hoping to charm her backbenchers into backing her deal Ex Tory leader and leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith (pictured in No10 today) was among the many Conservative MPs who went to the party The Prime Minister denied wasting a month since postponing a titanic Commons showdown from December 11, saying she had been working hard to get more concessions from Brussels. She confirmed that the debate on her package will 'restart' on Wednesday - with the vote now due next Tuesday, January 15. Downing Street sources indicated they are hoping for written assurances on the Irish border backstop before the crucial vote by MPs, which she is currently on track to lose by a big margin. A letter could reiterate the EU's desire to seal a pact on future trade terms by the end of 2021, meaning the backstop would never be needed. However, it is believed the language would only flesh out the ambition that is already in the Withdrawal Agreement, and Brussels has repeated its position that the deal cannot be unpicked. The PM defended her handling of Brexit at a speech launching the 10-year plan for the NHS, as Tory splits deepened further. Senior backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin also warned the only thing that could 'change the chemistry' in Parliament would be winning over the DUP, which is propping up the Tories in power. However, he insisted even that would not satisfy hardcore Eurosceptics. Meanwhile, more than 20 Conservative MPs have urged the PM to rule out crashing out of the EU without an agreement. Others have joined calls for a Norway-style relationship with the bloc, as the party threatens to tear itself to pieces over the issue. Theresa May (pictured delivering a speech on the NHS in Liverpool today) is scrambling to save her Brexit plan from what looks like certain defeat in a crunch vote next Tuesday Mrs May visited Alder Hey in Liverpool today (pictured) as she tried to focus on domestic policy rather than Brexit Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay and Chief Whip Julian Smith were among those seen in Downing Street today as frantic activity continued behind the scenes Mrs May is still hoping to get fresh concessions from Brussels over the Irish border 'backstop' that could help her sell the package. But there appears little hope of a major breakthrough, and as MPs returned to Westminster after the Christmas break she has been warned there is no sign of attitudes changing. Asked at a press conference in Liverpool what 'evidence' she could provide that anything had change since last month, Mrs May claimed that there had been 'some further movement' from the EU at the December summit. What is the Irish border backstop and why do Tory MPs hate it? The so-called Irish border backstop is one of the most controversial parts of the PM's Brexit deal. This is what it means: What is the backstop? The backstop was invented to meet promises to keep open the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland even if there is no comprehensive UK-EU trade deal. The divorce deal says it will kick in automatically at the end of the Brexit transition if that deal is not in place. If effectively keeps the UK in a customs union with the EU and Northern Ireland in both the customs union and single market. This means many EU laws will keep being imposed on the UK and there can be no new trade deals. It also means regulatory checks on some goods crossing the Irish Sea. Why have Ireland and the EU demanded it? Because Britain demanded to leave the EU customs union and single market, the EU said it needed guarantees people and goods circulating inside met EU rules. This is covered by the Brexit transition, which effectively maintains current rules, and can in theory be done in the comprehensive EU-UK trade deal. But the EU said there had to be a backstop to cover what happens in any gap between transition and final deal. Why do critics hate it? Because Britain cannot decide when to leave the backstop. Getting out - even if there is a trade deal - can only happen if both sides agree people and goods can freely cross the border. Brexiteers fear the EU will unreasonably demand the backstop continues so EU law continues to apply in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland MPs also hate the regulatory border in the Irish Sea, insisting it unreasonably carves up the United Kingdom. What concessions did Britain get in negotiating it? During the negotiations, Britain persuaded Brussels the backstop should apply to the whole UK and not just Northern Ireland. Importantly, this prevents a customs border down the Irish Sea - even if some goods still need to be checked. The Government said this means Britain gets many of the benefits of EU membership after transition without all of the commitments - meaning Brussels will be eager to end the backstop. It also got promises the EU will act in 'good faith' during the future trade talks and use its 'best endeavours' to finalise a deal - promises it says can be enforced in court. What did the legal advice say about it? Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said even with the EU promises, if a trade deal cannot be reached the backstop could last forever. This would leave Britain stuck in a Brexit limbo, living under EU rules it had no say in writing and no way to unilaterally end it. Advertisement She said she had spent the festive period speaking to European leaders - including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron - and Tory MPs. 'In the coming days, what we will set out is not just about the EU but also about what we can do domestically,' Mrs May said. 'So we will be setting out measures which will be specific to Northern Ireland, we will be setting out proposals for a greater role for Parliament as we move into the next stage of the negotiation and we are continuing to work on further assurances on further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that has been expressed by parliamentarians.' A target date for sealing a future trade agreement could potentially be presented by Mrs May as bolstering her case. But there is deep scepticism on both sides of the Channel about whether it will be enough to save the package. One EU official told the Guardian: 'We have to stick to what is in the Withdrawal Agreement. We can copy and paste but what is the point if it is a copy and pasting exercise?' Jean-Claude Juncker's spokesman, Margaritas Schinas, insisted 'there is no negotiation because everything on the table has been established as approved, established, achieved'. He added: 'The priority now is to await events, monitor what is happening (with) the ratification procedure on the UK side and no, there will not be any meeting between the Commission and our negotiator teams.' Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to dismiss 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, arguing that people could 'sort fact for nonsense'. He said: 'They didn't vote for anything like Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement. They voted to come out. 'It is no deal or WTO terms that actually corresponds to their idea of coming out, and they view that option with a confidence that is now directly proportional to the growing strength of the Government's warnings against it.' A paper written by Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Lilley, along with Labour Leave general secretary Brendan Chilton, also backed a WTO-style Brexit, claiming that concerns raised about the approach were similar to fears about the Millennium Bug. Their report said: 'It would be rash to predict that 'everything will be all right on the night'. 'Unforeseen problems may arise, and some businesses may fail to prepare for foreseable problems. 'But experience suggests that if one prepares for them, what could have been major problems turn out to be minor.' It was 'likely to turn out nearer the Millennium Bug than Armageddon', they said. In preparation for a no-deal Brexit, a major exercise is being carried out in Kent involving nearly 100 lorries. The trial is testing out Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports But 209 MPs from across the Commons have now signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. The letter was organised by Tory former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labour's Jack Dromey. Dame Caroline told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: 'Crashing out of the EU without a deal will cause job losses and bring to an end the renaissance of manufacturing that we've seen in regions like mine in the West Midlands, and both Jack Dromey and I know the human interest and impact of this.' All signatories to the letter have been invited to meet the Prime Minister in Downing Street tomorrow. Mrs May has warned the UK will be in 'uncharted territory' if the deal is rejected in the vote, expected on January 15. She told BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'What we'll be setting out over the next few days is a sort of assurances, is measures in three areas. 'The first is measures that will be specific for Northern Ireland. 'The second is a greater role for parliament as we take these negotiations into the next stage for our future relationship. 'And the third, and we're still working on this, is further assurances from the European Union to address the issues that have been raised.' Mrs May acknowledged she was 'still working on' getting further assurances from the EU to address concerns about the backstop measure aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland. Boris Johnson dismissed 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms Manston airfield near Ramsgate in Kent is being tried out as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports Mrs May held talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday and the pair are expected to keep in touch this week as the clock ticks down to the Commons showdown. PM to chair new Brexit Cabinet committee Theresa May is to chair a powerful new Cabinet committee overseeing the Government's Brexit preparations, Downing Street has said. The EU Exit and Trade (Preparedness) Committee will replace the existing EU XT committee while taking on the Brexit functions of the National Security Council under Operation Yellowhammer. It will also take over the work of the inter-ministerial groups (IMGs) on EU Exit and Borders, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. 'The intention is to streamline the process to oversee the delivery of plans for an orderly exit from the EU,' the spokesman said. Advertisement However, the DUP's deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said the Withdrawal Agreement remained 'toxic' as a result of the Irish backstop measure. 'The fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed,' he said. Eurosceptic Conservative backbencher Sir Bernard, chairman of the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'What would change the chemistry is if the DUP came onside. 'If the DUP were satisfied, that would change the chemistry. But there would still be a hardcore of Conservatives who are probably going to vote against this for a variety of reasons.' Sir Bernard said it was 'lame' for MPs to sign the letter opposing a no-deal Brexit, after Parliament had voted in favour of holding the 2016 referendum and accepting its outcome and had legislated for withdrawal on March 29. 'Leaving the EU is set in the law,' he said. 'Many of the people who have signed the letter this morning saying they don't want a no-deal Brexit have actually voted through the legislation that means we leave on March 29 with or without a formal Article 50 withdrawal agreement.' Sir Bernard played down the likely impact of a no-deal Brexit, but acknowledged: 'There are sectors that will have difficulty in transitioning to the new arrangements, if it happens suddenly.' Chandra Babu Back Stabbed NTR Twice Says Modi:- AP Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned out rivals and they have been exchanging words on each other in the recent times. After Babu took a dig on BJP and Narendra Modi for ignoring Andhra Pradesh, Modi too staged attack. He recently made comments that Chandra Babu back stabbed TDP founder NTR twice in the past and the whole country is aware about this. Modi launched attack on Chandra Babu for the second time in a row this week. Modi made these comments during a video conference with the party workers of BJP from 5 Lok Sabha constituencies. "It was NTR who started an anti-Congress movement in the country with a strong front and today his son-in-law Chandra Babu bowed down his head before Congress to save power. NTR is a true icon of Telugu pride and Chandra Babu Naidu back stabbed NTR twice. This is the second time after joining hands with Congress he betrayed NTR. All those who are rejected by the people are resorting to violence. Our workers in Kerala and in AP are targeted. A bomb was located outside the house of our Kerala MP Muralitharan" said Modi during his speech at the video-conference. People across AP are realising the lies of TDP and the state government. The CM has betrayed the great NTR twice. Telugu pride is about working for the people diligently, not focusing on son-rise and corruption. pic.twitter.com/PitGrCiV6y Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 6, 2019 Modi interacted with BJP workers and volunteers from Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Narasaraopet and Tirupati constituencies in Rayalaseema region through Narendra Modi App. An alleged teenage gang member accused of bashing a stranger with a baton in an unprovoked attack will remain behind bars over a string of assault charges. Mechac Mukanu, 18, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, where he applied for bail over his involvement in two alleged attacks at the St Kilda foreshore last month which left five men seriously injured. The nation was shocked by footage showing a mob of African youths, allegedly including Mukanu, repeatedly stomping on three men before robbing them. Mukanu faces six counts of unlawful assault, two counts of affray and single counts of intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and obtaining financial advantage by deception paying for a taxi fare, according to The Age. Alleged gang member Mechac Mukanu was charged in relation to a string of alleged offences Police allege Mukanu first struck a man with a long metal baton during a group brawl against two men at 10.45pm on December 1. A group of his friends then allegedly set upon the pair and continued to beat them. Just 15 minutes later, police allege Mukanu and a group of roughly 15 mates punched and kicked three men in another unprovoked attack. Police opposed bail for Mukanu (right) with concerns he may reoffend if released from custody CCTV footage, which Detective Senior Constable Sheppard said was 'crystal clear' and showed Mukanu wearing a distinct white T-shirt, captured the entire brawl. The three men were knocked unconscious and then allegedly robbed by the gang. The group allegedly fled the scene but Mukanu handed himself in after police publicly released images of suspects in the alleged assault. The court heard Makunu allegedly told police he attacked one of the men because he had assaulted one of his friends. 'I believe a bad person can become a good person life can change,' church pastor and Mukanu's stepfather Richard Mabiala (pictured) said It's alleged Mukanu, 18, struck a man with an extendable baton in an unprovoked attack on the St Kilda foreshore on December 1 Mukanu's stepfather, Pentecostal Church pastor Richard Mabiala gave evidence at the bail hearing and insisted his stepson was a good boy outside of court. 'No one can be happy seeing your son doing wrong things, you can't be happy for that so it's a disappointment,' Paster Mabiala told Nine News. 'But Mechac is a good boy. I believe a bad person can become a good person life can change.' The court heard that police have also charged a 17-year-old over the alleged assault and were still looking for several other suspects. Police opposed bail for Mukanu with concerns he may reoffend if released from custody. Mechac Mukanu (pictured) will remain behind bars until January 17 after the magistrate adjourned her decision on his bail application 'He poses a significant danger to members of the public that cannot be mitigated,' Detective Senior Constable Nathan Sheppard told the court. Mukanu's lawyer told the court his client was not coping well in prison. He also applied for a suppression order, citing safety reasons and that his client could be at risk of physical harm following recent far-right protests. The request was denied by Magistrate Susan Wakeling, who adjourned her decision on Mukanu's bail until January 17. Muslim volunteers have been helping to clean up national parks across the country after litter-pickers were furloughed during the government shutdown. Dozens of people gathered in Washington DC, Philadelphia, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida on Sunday to help remove trash strewn across national parks. The volunteers came from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, the largest association of its kind in America, with the aim of proving their faith through service. Dozens of Muslim volunteers joined local residents to help clean up national parks across the country left strewn with trash after government litter-pickers were furloughed The trash collectors gathered in Washington DC (pictured), Florida, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, California and Ohio to help clean up The group, which accepts members aged from 15 to 40, aims to increase interactions between different cultures and promote a positive view of Islam. Dr. Madeel Abdullah, president of youth group, said: 'Service to our nation and cleanliness are important parts of Islam. 'We could not sit idly by as our national parks collected trash. We will lead by example and dispose of this garbage appropriately and invite all Americans to join us in these parks and others across the nation.' Meanwhile Saud Iqbal, a 33-year-old IT specialist, told the Washington Post: 'It's our duty to come in and serve - not as a show, but as an act of faith. I don't think a lot of people realise that.' Several national parks - including Crater Lake in Oregon and Point Reyes National Seashore in California - were forced to close or restrict access because of the buildup of trash and human waste that was not being cleared away. The Ahmadiyya group said it hoped their efforts would help to keep the parks open and encourage a dialogue between Muslims and the wider community. There was no end in sight for the shutdown on Sunday, despite President Trump bragging about a 'productive' meeting between his administration and Democrats. Several parks had been forced to close or reduce access to visitors amid a build-up of waste, and the volunteers said their actions should keep the parks open a little longer The volunteers came from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, and said their public service was an act of faith Trump is demanding that a government funding bill include $5billion to build his southern border wall, while Democrats - who now control the House - have offered $1billion for increased security. The government shutdown began on December 22 when Trump vetoed the spending bill, and entered its 18th day on Monday. While Trump has said he could have the government back open 'in 20 minutes', he has also suggested the shutdown could go on 'for years' if he doesn't get his way. Trump said he can relate to furloughed government workers as the partial government shutdown heads into its third week. 'I can relate and I'm sure that the people who are on the receiving end will make adjustments, they always do,' he said. 'But many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I'm doing,' he added. 'They will make an adjustment because they want to see the border taken care of,' Trump said later Sunday as he stood firm that all would be well for federal workers. 'It'll all work out,' he said. An Alabama civil rights institute has rescinded its decision to honor political activist and scholar Angela Davis following criticism from the Jewish community. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute revealed on Saturday that 'supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community' had asked the organization to 'reconsider' celebrating Davis. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the protests came from the 'local Jewish community and some of its allies' in a statement expressing his own dismay at the controversy. It is believed that the criticism was largely based on Davis' vocal support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel's treatment against Palestinians and her comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Davis was selected to receive the prestigious Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award from the institute in September 2018. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama has rescinded its decision to honor political activist and scholar Angela Davis following criticism from the community Davis was selected to receive the prestigious Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award from the institute in September 2018 Past recipients of the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award include actor Danny Glover, Congressman John Lewis, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. The news was announced in October as BCRI President and CEO Andrea Taylor revealed the institute was 'thrilled to bestow this honor' on Davis. 'She's one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak,' Taylor said in a statement at the time. 'We believe the late Reverend Shuttlesworth would also have been proud to see this award in his name bestowed upon her.' But the organization was singing a far different tune on Saturday. 'Upon closer examination of Ms Davis' statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based,' the statement read. The news was announced in October as BCRI President and CEO Andrea Taylor revealed the institute was 'thrilled to bestow this honor' on Davis But the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (pictured) revealed on Saturday that 'supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community' had asked the organization to 'reconsider' celebrating Davis 'While we recognize Ms Davis' stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil rights history, we believe this decision is consistent with the ideals of the award's namesake, Rev Shuttlesworth.' BCRI apologized to its supporters, the community, and Davis for 'the confusion we have caused'. 'We regret that this change is necessary,' it added. 'We will move forward with a keen focus on our mission: to enlighten each generation about civil and human rights by exploring our common past and working together in the present to build a better future.' The BCRI also voted to cancel the gala event in which Davis would have been honored. BCRI's statement did not indicate what criteria it found Davis didn't meet, nor did it identify the origin of the complaints. Many people responded with outrage Monday on Twitter and Facebook and Mayor Woodsin said he was 'dismayed' with the decision. Davis (pictured in 1972) became one of the most prominent activists of the counterculture movement in the 1960s, joining the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party USA She inspired songs by John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones after she was imprisoned in connection to a kidnapping case. She is pictured here after being released in 1972 following 16 months in jail 'I am dismayed because this controversy might have been avoided entirely had it been handled differently,' he wrote in a statement. 'I am dismayed because, as has been the case throughout Birmingham's history, people of good will behaved reflexively, rather than engaging in meaningful discourse over their differences and seeking common ground.' Woodfin specifically hit out at the BCRI's 'reactive decision', saying it did not 'create an opportunity for necessary dialogue'. 'It is my hope that such dialogue can take place, and we, together, choose to take advantage of the opportunity to come together to build a better understanding of ourselves and of each other,' he added. 'I believe that we should be able to expect better, from ourselves and from one another.' Davis became one of the most prominent activists of the counterculture movement in the 1960s, joining the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party USA. Davis (pictured in 1976) was a member of the Communist Party USA until 1991 and ran twice on as the vice president candidate on its party ticket She would remain with the latter until 1991, even briefly losing her professorship at UCLA after Ronald Reagan - who was governor at the time - tried to ban her from teaching at any California university in 1969. Davis made headlines when she was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List after she was accused of buying firearms for a 17-year-old who later used the guns to take hostages at a California courtroom in 1970. The incident led to four deaths and Davis was charged with aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder. Following her arrest, President Richard Nixon congratulated the FBI for capturing the 'dangerous terrorist Angela Davis'. Her incarceration inspired songs by John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. She was found not guilty of the charges in 1972. Davis has also found herself the subject of more controversy in recent years due to her comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Davis has gone on to teach at the likes of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and, most recently, UC Santa Cruz, where she is currently a professor of 'History of Consciousness' a PhD program and of Feminist Studies. But Davis has also found herself the subject of more controversy in recent years due to her comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 'We say no to Israel's ethnic cleansing strategies. In standing up against the racism of the state of Israel, we are passionately saying no to anti-Semitism as well,' she said while speaking at George Washington University in 2017. 'This is supposed to be the dismantling of the era of Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been long and coming.' Nicola Sturgeon today insisted she has 'every right' to call another Scottish independence vote as Brexit has strengthened the case for the break up of the UK. Scotland's First Minister refused to say precisely when she wants to hold an IndyRef2 - but put No10 on notice that she could call it any time in the next three years. The SNP leader also blasted the British Government for 'ignoring' and sidelining Scotland's interests in the crunch Brexit talks. Scotland voted against becoming independent in a referendum held just four and a half years ago in a vote nationalists said would settle the question for a generation. But Ms Sturgeon has seized on Brexit to launch a fresh push for independence, claiming that Scotland is being ripped out of the EU against its will. Nicola Sturgeon (pictured last month in Downing Street) today insisted she has 'every right' to call another Scottish independence vote as Brexit has strengthened the case for the break up of the UK Ms Sturgeon told BBC Good Morning Scotland: 'Everything that has happened over the past couple of years, from Scotland facing exit from the EU against our will to every reasonable attempt at compromise to protect Scotland's interests by the Scottish Government being spurned, to the powers of the Scottish Parliament being eroded, to the UK Government even taking the Scottish Government to court. 'All of that has strengthened and reinforced the case for Scotland to be independent, because these are not just academic arguments, all of this will have a material impact on Scotland's economy and well-being for decades to come.' She added: 'The case for independence is materially strengthened from an already strong base in 2014 because of all of the experience of Scotland in the last two years. 'We were told in 2014 that it was voting for independence that would put in peril our membership of the European Union. 'Because we didn't vote for independence, we now not just find ourselves facing exit - the voice and the interests of Scotland are being completely ignored and sidelined.' Ms Sturgeon - who is determined to see Brexit stopped - also called for another EU referendum to be held. She said there is 'clearly no majority' to crash out of the EU without a deal and that holding another referendum should be the alternative. She said: 'I hope the meaningful vote does go ahead next week so that MPs can once and for all say that they don't support the Withdrawal Agreement. 'And then the House of Commons can coalesce behind the alternative, and in my view that alternative now should be to have another EU referendum. 'I think we will need to see the Withdrawal Agreement voted on in order for MPs to coalesce behind an alternative. Nicola Sturgeon accused Theresa May (pictured today visiting baby Amelia and her mum in the Children's Ward at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, in Liverpool) was accused of ignoring the interests of Scotland in the crunch Brexit negotiations 'I don't take for granted that there is a majority for that, but the SNP will be part of building that majority and if we can get Labour to finally come off the fence then we will be closer to building that majority.' But the SNP leader's comments on independence sparked a furious backlash from her critics, who said Scots do not want another vote. Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: 'One of the experiences of Brexit has been just how difficult and painful it can be to break away from a union, even one that has been place for just 40 years. 'A union that has been in place for 300 years would, in my view, cause considerable economic disruption and there is no appetite from the people of Scotland for it. 'So I think the First Minister should take the earliest opportunity to rule out a second independence referendum.' Controversial Senator Fraser Anning has doubled down on his call to ban all Muslims and Africans from entering Australia. The independent Queensland politician sparked outrage after billing taxpayers to fly to a far-right rally in Melbourne protesting African gang violence. At the event, he told waiting media that if he were prime minister of Australia, he would refuse entry to any Muslims or people of African descent. In an interview with A Current Affair, Mr Anning doubled down on his divisive comments, going so far as to say he knew 'exactly how to address the problem'. Scroll down for video Controversial Queensland Senator Fraser Anning has doubled down on his beliefs that Muslims and Africans should be banned from entering Australia Queensland Senator Fraser Anning (pictured) tried to defend his appearance at a far-right rally in Melbourne last weekend 'I can tell you exactly how to address the problem - stop them (Muslims and Sudanese immigrants) coming into the country and when they commit a crime, deport them with their families,' he said. 'I represent the people of Queensland, and they're very concerned about what's happening in Melbourne and very concerned that the same thing is starting to happen in Queensland.' Mr Anning was criticised by a number of politicians after appearing at the Melbourne rally. Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned his actions and described him as a 'repeat offender' on issues of 'racist views'. Mr Morrison said Mr Anning was 'associating himself with extreme and offensive racist views that have no place in our society'. 'Genuine concerns held by fair-minded Australians about immigration levels border protection or law and order should not be used as a cover or be hijacked to push hateful and ugly racist agendas.' On Monday night, Mr Anning refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, instead shifting the blame onto Australia's current leaders. 'They're all left-wingers and unfortunately the Prime Minister doesn't seem to understand Australians want an alternative,' he said. 'As far as I'm concerned, they're all puppets of the United Nations.' The Today Show's Lara Vella clashed with Senator Anning earlier on Monday as he tried to defend his appearance at the rally last weekend. His attendance cost the Australian taxpayer $2800 and has been heavily criticised. Many attendees were seen giving Nazi salutes and in a heated interview Ms Vella asked Mr Anning to defend his actions. Mr Anning said the protest run by the United Patriots Front was 'no racist rally' and described the other attendees as 'decent Australian people who demonstrated their dislike for what the Australian government has done'. Ms Vella, however, hit back, asking how people giving the Nazi salute could be called 'decent Australians'. 'I can absolutely guarantee no one in the group that I was with was doing anything like that,' Mr Anning retorted. Ms Vella then noted that Mr Anning stood shoulder-to-shoulder with UPF founder Blair Cottrell, who has previously described Jewish people as 'parasites'. The Senator brushed off the claim, saying it was the first time he had met Mr Cottrell, before adding that 'who was there at that meeting was irrelevant'. 'Are you seriously saying the people who were at this event are irrelevant?' Ms Vella then exclaimed. 'Are you seriously saying that it doesn't matter who attended that far-right rally?' The Senator has previously commented on banning certain migrants which he reiterated to Ms Vella: 'I would not bring any Muslims or Sudanese into the country, I would put a ban on that' Mr Anning denied claims that those he was with at the event were giving the Nazi salute The rally was run by the United Patriots Front in Melbourne over the weekend and saw a number of attendees giving the Nazi salute As the clash spiralled, Ms Vella then moved on to earlier comments made by the Senator about Muslims in Australia, and asked if he thought Muslims and Sudanese migrants should be 'run out' of the country. 'I would not bring any Muslims or Sudanese into the country, I would put a ban on that,' he said. 'And any of them that commit a crime I would be shipping them home to where they came from.' Hitting back, Ms Vella then attacked the Senator's unsteady parliamentary position. Ms Vella criticised Mr Anning for standing next to the event organiser, United Patriots Front founder Blair Cottrell (pictured) - to which the Senator said they had only met that day The Senator also repeatedly denied claims of racist behavior at the event and said those in attendance were 'decent Australian people' 'Where does it end with you senator, I'm curious, you have it seems an obsession here with Muslim migrants and members of the Sudanese community,' she said. 'Surely we should be celebrating how rich our multicultural community is rather than that divisive language, you have no chance of being re-elected, are you simply using this kind of rhetoric to gain publicity?' Once again, the Senator denied Ms Vella's claims and stated that he was simply representing the 'hardworking people' of Australia who have 'had enough of being attacked'. Bringing the interview to a close, Ms Vella said the Senator's statements have been making headlines, describing them as the 'publicity' he clearly wanted. The Senator's attendance at the rally cost the taxpayer $2800 and has been heavily criticised Ms Vella suggested Mr Anning's rhetoric - as well as his attendance at the rally - was a way to gain the 'publicity' he 'clearly' wanted South Australia's Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was another of those that criticised Mr Anning's attendance at the rally. 'Taxpayers shouldn't be paying for Fraser Anning to hang out with his Nazi mates,' she said in a Tweet. 'He should pay the money back. The Government should refuse to accept his vote when counting the numbers in Parliament.' Mr Anning needs more than 40,000 votes to win back his senate seat at the next election, a task he has acknowledged to be unlikely without the support of a political party. Scene-of-crime officers were at the property in Kingstanding today where an elderly woman was found dead yesterday A 57-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in her 90s after he was seen running out of her home 'with blood on his hands.' Residents say victim Eileen Lanchester lived in the ex-council house in Kingstanding, West Midlands, with her son and full-time carer Mark. Police were called to the end-terraced property on Chingford Road at 6.45pm on Sunday and discovered Mrs Lanchester's body. Neighbours say a man was seen running out of the house with 'blood on his hands' shortly before officers arrived. Detectives are treating the death as 'unexplained' but arrested a man, 57, - who was known to her - on suspicion of murder. A West Midlands Police spokesperson said: 'Police are investigating after an elderly woman was found dead at an address in Kingstanding, yesterday evening (Sunday 6 January). 'Officers were called to a property in Chingford Road after the body was discovered by ambulance service colleagues at around 6.45pm. West Midlands Police sealed off a house in Chingford Road, Kingstanding, after a elderly woman was found dead A Forensic Investigator removes evidence in a brown bag from the property 'The death of the woman, aged in her 90s, is currently being treated as unexplained and a post mortem will take place in due course. 'A 57-year old man, who is believed to be known to the woman, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.' Neighbours expressed shock at the death of Mrs Lanchester who was a well-known figure in the area. Next door neighbour Christina Tsouvallaris, 48, said: 'She was in the house for years and years. A 57-year-old man is being held by police after a woman in her nineties was found dead One neighbour said: 'My son got a text from a girl who he knows from across the road. The girl told him she saw a man running out of the house with blood on his hands' 'As far as I know she lived with her son Mark and he was her carer. It's not nice because I live here with four children. 'I have been here 15 years it's a little bit like Coronation Street. Everyone knows everyone. I didn't know her to talk to. It was just a 'hello'. 'She hadn't been out for years. 'My son got a text from a girl who he knows from across the road. The girl told him she saw a man running out of the house with blood on his hands. 'It's such a great shame. It's really horrible. How can you do that?' Another resident said: 'I heard from a friend that police believe she was bludgeoned to death. 'It's deeply upsetting because this is an area where people look out for each other. 'There are lots of rumours flying around and the community are trying to help the police as much as possible.' A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'On arrival, crews discovered one patient, an elderly woman. 'Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent nothing could be done to save her and she was confirmed dead at the scene.' Egypt's president has opened a cathedral in a symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the Cathedral of Nativity, east of the capital Cairo, a day after a deadly bomb blast near a Coptic church. The 64-year-old observed a moment of silence after Saturday's explosion on the outskirts of the city killed a policeman who was trying to defuse the device and wounded two others. Al-Sisi also gave a brief speech saying the simultaneous opening of the cathedral and the major Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque nearby carried a message of unity. Under heavy security on Coptic Christmas Eve on Sunday, al-Sisi said it was a 'historic and important moment.' 'But we still have to protect the tree of love we planted here together today because seditions never end,' he added. Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (pictured) has opened a cathedral in a symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country's minority Christians Al-Sisi also gave a brief speech saying the simultaneous opening of the cathedral (pictured) and the major Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque nearby carried a message of unity Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria leads a Christmas Eve mass at the newly inaugurated Cathedral of Nativity on Sunday The 64-year-old observed a moment of silence after Saturday's explosion on the outskirts of the city killed a policeman who was trying to defuse the device and wounded two others The general-turned-president, has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his rule, fighting Islamic militancy while advocating equality between the overwhelming Muslim majority and Christians, who account for 10% of Egypt's 100 million people. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the world's primary seat of learning for Sunni Muslims, echoed Al-Sisi's sentiments in comments also made at the cathedral. The two places of worship, he said, stand as a symbol in the face of 'attempts to undermine the country's stability and sectarian seditions.' Al-Sisi's widely publicised policy to staunch sectarianism, however, has done little to protect Christians in rural Egypt, where Muslim extremists frequently attack their homes and businesses or force them to leave their homes after violent disputes. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (left) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrive for the opening ceremony of the Mosque of Al-Simea Al-Alim and the inauguration of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Egypt's New Administrative Capital Coptic Pope Tawadros II (front, left), Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (front, centre) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (second from right) stood together for the symbolic opening Egyptian Coptic Christians attended a Christmas Eve mass at the newly inaugurated Cathedral of Nativity last night Critics and activists say discrimination against Christians there is often tolerated by local authorities and branches of the security agencies. Christians also complain of stringent restrictions on the construction of churches. But Sunday's opening ceremony in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, Al-Sisi's brainchild that is located in the desert east of Cairo, stressed what the pro-government media like to call the 'unbreakable national fabric' of Christians and Muslims. Entertainers and chorus lines took to the stage to sing about the two faiths living peacefully side by side. Short films on the same topic were also screened. The ceremony's presenters portrayed the construction of the cathedral and the mosque, which took 18 months to complete, as a message to humanity. 'It is a message to the whole world that Egypt is a nation for all,' said one presenter. Assistant Principal Lee Livengood (above) is facing permanent suspension after an alleged transphobic assault on a pupil in November last year, at the Liberty High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia A county school board in West Virginia is deciding whether or not to suspend an assistant principal for allegedly telling a transgender male student he 'freaks him out', during a bathroom dispute. Michael Critchfield, 15, claims Assistant Principal Lee Livengood harassed him as he used the boys' bathroom at Liberty High School, in Clarksburg, on November 27. According to the teenager, Livengood - who was suspended with pay last month - entered the bathroom and asked if any students were in the stall. Critchfield confirmed he was, but said that when he left the stall, Livengood was standing in the bathroom doorway blocking the exit. The sophomore student claims Livengood 'barricaded' him in and demanded to know why he was using the boy's bathroom. Michael Critchfield (above), 15, who identifies as a male, says he was left traumatized by the exchange, after Livengood allegedly told him 'You freak me out', as he went to use to boys' bathroom When he replied it was his legal right as he identifies as a male, Critchfield alleges Livengood used improper pronouns and asked him to use a urinal to prove that he was a boy. '[Livengood] kept raising his voice and saying, "why are you in this bathroom? You shouldn't be here",' Michael told the Huffington Post. Trying to repeatedly explain his gender identity, Michael says he was continually interrupted by the incensed Assistant Principal. 'Come out here and use the urinal,' Livengood allegedly challenged. 'If you can't use the urinal, then you shouldn't be in here'. 'What if a student said you were checking them out in here?' Other students are said to have heard screaming coming from the bathroom and told a chaperone, who saw both Critchfield and Livengood walk out. Livengood later went on to reportedly exclaim: 'I'm not going to lie: you freak me out'. Critchfield says despite feeling 'degraded', he's determined to share his story to ensure other members of the transgender community don't have to endure what he did. He says school should be a safe place for all Critchfield says the transphobic exchange left him feeling 'degraded and discriminated against'. He added: 'Kids like me should never have to go through anything like this. At the end of the day all I wanted was to feel welcome.' Critchfield told The Charleston Gazette-Mail: 'A chaperone found out he had me barricaded in the bathroom. By the time she came, I was breaking down and had quivering lips.' A drummer in the school's band, Critchfield alleges the verbal assault occurred just before a trip to a neighboring school. Other students have reportedly claimed they overheard screaming coming from the bathroom, before seeing Livengood and Critchfield emerge Critchfield's mom, Caroline, said: 'As a parent, that is my child that you are talking to. His job was to provide safety, to protect my son while he was in school. 'Not bully. Not badger. Not to humiliate. Not to tear someone down. Not cause phobia. Not cause discrimination against him. What is this teaching our students?' Livengood was suspended with pay last month, and now Harrison County Board of Education President Frank Devono says the board will meet Tuesday night to consider whether Livengood should be suspended indefinitely - without pay. The Harrison County Board of Education will meet on Tuesday to determine whether or not Livengood will continue to act as Assistant Principal of Liberty High School (seen above) Devono says countywide sensitivity training focusing on transgender rights is also being implemented over the coming weeks. West Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union executive director, Joseph Cohen, called the impending decision a 'life or death issue'. 'The stakes couldn't really be higher here. It's past time that West Virginia schools take LGBTQ issues seriously,' he said. In a press release, Critchfield said: 'Mr. Livengoods behavior in the bathroom that day was terrifying, and no student deserves that kind of treatment. 'Im telling my story so that high school doesnt have to be a scary place for kids like me.' A decision on Livengood's future will be made by the board this week. An artist who specialises in 3D art has created a series of epic hyper-realistic paintings of fish and reptiles. Incredibly, the artist spends up to 10 months on each masterpiece. Hy Young-Sung Kim, 45, from Korea, first took up art in 1993 and continues to shock people with his oil paintings. Kim said which viewers often mistake his work for photography. Each painting, which is usually inspired by nature or city life, takes him three to 10 months to complete. Hy said: 'I shock the people with my art, often people will say 'wow that's not a photo,' when they realise I've painted the image. Each painting, which is usually inspired by nature or city life, takes Hy three to 10 months to complete 'It takes between three to 10 months to complete one piece of artwork. 'I am pursing an advanced extreme hyperrealism that precedes any reality, it will be more real than photographs and high definition monitors.' Hy Young-Sung Kim graduated from Department of Painting, College of Fine Art, Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea, in 1997. 'Kim uses contrasting subject matter to illustrate the distinction between the living and the material,' said a profile on the artist Hongik University is widely regarded as the best architecture and art school in Korea. According to a profile of Kim on PlusOneGallery.com: 'Through his paintings, Young Sung Kim visually critiques the level at which we place value on objects both commercially and ethically. 'Kim uses contrasting subject matter to illustrate the distinction between the living and the material.' His paintings range in price from 17,000 - 34,000. China has passed a plan to make Islam compatible with socialism in the next five years, state media reported. Following a meeting with representatives from eight Islamic associations on Saturday, government officials agreed to 'guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to Sinicise the religion', according to state-run newspaper Global Times. The main purpose of China's five-year plan to sinicise Islam is to 'seek governance that tallies with Chinese practice and it is not only limited to Islam', the newspaper said in a follow-up op-ed, emphasising the initiative is not a violation of religious freedom. The Chinese national flag flies outside the mosque at the Xinjiang International Grand Bazar in Urumqi. China has passed a plan to make Islam compatible with socialism in the next five years Representatives from local Islamic associations from eight provinces and regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces, discuss a five-year outline on the sinicisation of Islam at a conference held in Beijing on Saturday The move is vital for China to 'explore ways of governing religion in modern countries', Global Times said, adding that the outline's content would soon be released to the public after further revisions. The directive, of which a draft was passed in December 2017, has already been distributed to local Islamic associations following the conference on Saturday. China has been seeking to 'Sinicise' religions by infusing them with 'Chinese characteristics' such as loyalty to the Communist Party under President Xi Jinping's 2015 directive. Besides Islam, there are four other officially recognised religions in the country - Taoism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Imams and government officials pass under security cameras as they leave the Id Kah Mosque during a government organised trip in Kashgar. The aim of China's five-year plan to sinicise Islam is to 'seek governance that tallies with Chinese practice and it is not only limited to Islam' Islamic studies students attend a class at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute during a government organised trip in Urumqi. China has come under heavy global criticism after a UN human rights panel said a million or more Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang were being held in camps However, the country has come under heavy global criticism after a UN human rights panel said it had received credible reports that a million or more Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang were being held in what resembled a 'massive internment camp'. Beijing has defended the use of the camps, saying they were used to protect the region from extremist activities. In the meeting on Saturday, representatives of Muslim associations from eight provinces and regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Guangdong and Yunnan discussed the outline of the plan with government officials in Beijing. 'Islam in China should be guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,' according to a news release published by the Islamic Association of China following the conference. Men pray at the mosque at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute. Islam in China should be guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, according to a news release published by the Islamic Association of China following the conference Residents at the Kashgar city vocational educational training centre attend a Chinese lesson. Recently, Beijing has launched an active publicity campaign to defend its policies in Xinjiang in the face of an outcry from scholars, foreign governments and rights experts A resident at the Kashgar city vocational educational training centre attends a Chinese lesson To push a more 'Chinese way' of practice, Yang Faming, head of the association, said relevant measures including lectures and training on socialist core values, laws and Chinese traditional culture would be given to Muslims. Recently, Beijing has launched an increasingly active publicity campaign to defend its policies in Xinjiang in the face of an outcry from activists, scholars, foreign governments and rights experts. In the last two weeks, the Chinese government has arranged for diplomats from 12 non-Western countries to visit the region, as well as organising a trip for a small group of reporters to three facilities, which it called vocational education training centres. Xinjiang officials told Reuters that the de-radicalisation programme had been highly successful in reducing extremism by teaching residents about the law and helping them learn Mandarin but that fewer people would be sent through the system in future. Residents at the Kashgar city vocational educational training centre dance for visiting reporters and officials in a classroom. In the last two weeks, the Chinese government has arranged for diplomats from 12 non-Western countries to visit the region of Xinjiang An elderly man is seen behind a Chinese national flag in the Old City in Kashgar in Xinjiang On Monday, China said it would welcome UN officials to Xinjiang if they follow and respect the appropriate travel procedures. UN officials should also 'avoid interfering in domestic matters' and adopt an objective and neutral attitude, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular briefing. Top UN human rights official Michelle Bachelet in December said her office was seeking access to Xinjiang to verify 'worrying reports' of re-education camps holding Muslim minorities. https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Jews-Genetics-and-the-New-World.html Recent studies indicate that a significant segment of the immigrants who settled the New World were descended from Jews. When my family lived in Providence, Rhode Island back in the 1980s and early 90s, I heard rumors that some of the citys residents of Cape Verdean ancestry had a strange custom. Friday afternoons, they would turn over the traditional Catholic religious paintings common to Cape Verdeans homes to face the wall, and then light candles. Cape Verde is a group of islands off the west coast of Africa that were uninhabited until discovered by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century. Among the immigrants to the islands from Europe, historians contend, were Spanish and Portuguese Jews fleeing the Catholic Inquisitions in those lands. One of the islands towns is called Sinagoga, Portuguese for synagogue, and surnames of Jewish origin can still be found in the area. In the early 19th century, many Cape Verdeans found their way to the New World, and Providence is home to one of the oldest and largest Cape Verdean communities in the U.S. I was reminded of my former neighbors purported practice when reading of a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature, examining the DNA of thousands of members of another population with roots in the Iberian Peninsula: Latin Americans. The researchers sampled the DNA of 6,500 people across Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, which they compared to that of 2,300 people all over the world. Nearly a quarter of the Latin Americans shared 5 percent or more of their ancestry with people living in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, including self-identified Sephardi Jews. That degree of Jewish ancestry is more pronounced than that of people in Spain and Portugal today, indicating that a significant segment of the immigrants who settled the New World were descended from Jews. It is no great surprise that so large a portion of a population that emigrated from Spain centuries ago have Jewish ancestry. It is estimated that when the Spanish Inquisition began in 1478, approximately one-fifth of the Spanish population, between 300,000-800,000 people, were Jews. By 1492, when the Alhambra Decree gave the choice between expulsion and conversion, the number had dwindled to 80,000. Most of the missing Jews had undergone superficial conversions and retained their Jewish identity and practices in secret. They are called crypto-Jews, conversos or anusim. Many of them, though, along with many other Spanish and Portuguese Jews who refused conversion, sailed away from the Iberian Peninsula to seek refuge on new shores. There is no way, of course, to prove that those emigrants were the source of the apparent Jewish ancestry of so many Latin Americans today, but the genetic test results dovetail neatly with the historical record, indicating that a new population began to appear in Latin America around the time of the Inquisitions. Bolstering the genetic connection is a 2011 study that found that several rare genetic diseases (including a cancer associated with the BRCA1 gene and a form of dwarfism) that appear in Jews also show up among Latin Americans. Albert Einstein College of Medicine geneticist Harry Ostrer, one of the studys researchers, said, Its not just one disease this isnt a coincidence. The newer studys results indicate that there may currently be over 150 million Latin Americans with a degree of Jewish ancestry. Some Latinos who believe they have Jewish roots seek to reclaim a Jewish identity, even undergoing conversion ceremonies; some have even converted according to Jewish law. Others just take note, and pride, in their ostensible Jewish genealogical heritage. New Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose family comes from Puerto Rico, recently revealed that her family tradition includes some Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Genetic studies, of course, have no import in Jewish law. And not only because Jewishness depends on the maternal line. Even in analyses of mitochondrial DNA which passes down only through females genetic findings do not meet the halachic requirements for establishing Jewish identity. Yet its intriguing to read stories of people across Latin America whose family tradition is to shun pork and light candles on Fridays and cover mirrors when mourning the deaths of relatives. And stories like the one I heard about some of Providences Cape Verdeans. And depressing to think of all the Jewish families that were lost to Klal Yisrael over history to persecution and the resultant intermarriage and assimilation. But the resurgence of interest and pride in even tenuous Jewish connections is heartening too. For it recalls what the Prophet Zecharyah (8:23) predicts for the time of Mashiach: that ten men from all the languages of the nations will take hold of the tallis of a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. This article originally appeared in Hamodia Magazine. Pope Francis vowed justice for victims of clerical sex abuse Monday, describing paedophilia as one of the 'vilest' crimes ahead of a historic global meet on the crisis embroiling the church. 'I cannot refrain from speaking of one of the plagues of our time, which sadly has also involved some members of the clergy,' he said in his annual address to ambassadors to the Holy See. 'The abuse of minors is one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable. Such abuse inexorably sweeps away the best of what human life holds out for innocent children, and causes irreparable and lifelong damage,' he said. Scroll down for video Pope Francis said he would fight to 'render justice to minors' who had been abused by priests Francis swore to 'render justice to minors', and said a meeting of the world's bishops in February was 'meant to be a further step in the church's efforts to shed full light on the facts and to alleviate the wounds caused by such crimes'. A litany of child sexual abuse scandals has rocked the Catholic church, which has 1.3 billion followers around the world. In December the pontiff had vowed the church would never again treat abuse allegations without 'seriousness and promptness', calling on abusers to hand themselves in to police. The Argentine has struggled to resolve the problem as the steady drip of scandal corrodes the church's authority amid sharp divisions in Rome over how to handle the fallout, and an apparently endless stream of bad news. During his time as Pope the Church has been dogged by allegations of sexual assault at the highest level In the latest case to shake the Catholic church, the highest-profile Catholic cleric to be caught up in a paedophile scandal in France went on trial on Monday charged with failing to report a priest who abused boy scouts in the 1980s and 90s. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, in central eastern France, is accused along with five others from his diocese of helping cover up abuse in one of the parishes in the area. On Friday the Vatican confirmed that an Argentinian bishop who has held a senior position at the Holy See since 2017, is under preliminary investigation over sex abuse claims. Joe Biden has hinted that he is the only Democrat who 'can do what has to be done' to defeat President Trump in 2020. The former Vice President has reportedly said he is happy to step aside for a better candidate, but is not yet persuaded that one exists. Friends of the former Delaware Senator told the New York Times that Biden was likely to decide on a presidential run in the next two weeks. Biden will be 78 on inauguration day in 2021 and would be by far the oldest person ever elected President, surpassing Trump. Joe Biden, pictured in Salt Lake City last month, has hinted he is the only Democrat who can defeat President Trump in 2020, as he considers whether to run for the White House again A colleague quoted him as saying: 'If you can persuade me there is somebody better who can win, I'm happy not to do it. 'But I don't see the candidate who can clearly do what has to be done to win.' Early opinion polls have shown Biden among the front-runners for the 2020 Democratic nomination. His supporters believe his working-class roots could win back blue-collar Democrats who abandoned the party for Donald Trump in 2016. Last month he dropped another strong hint at a 2020 run, saying he was 'the most qualified person in the country' to be President. But many Democrats believe it is time for a younger person to lead the party after a new generation of candidates took them to victory in the 2018 House elections. Supporters of a Joe Biden candidacy believe he could win back working-class Democrats who defected to support Donald Trump (pictured at the White House yesterday) in 2016 Beto O'Rourke, 46, and Kamala Harris, 54, are among the candidates who have attracted interest from voters seeking a nominee untainted by past political battles. Biden considered a presidential run four years ago but decided not to run, just months after his eldest son Beau died of brain cancer aged 46. He launched a presidential campaign in 2008 but quit the race after earning just one per cent of the vote in the Iowa caucus, before Barack Obama chose him as his running mate. Biden also ran for President in 1988 but his campaign ran aground amid claims he had plagiarised a speech by the then-leader of Britain's Labour Party, Neil Kinnock. A 'fit and able' ten-year-old boy admitted to hospital with kidney stones tragically died 72 hours after a routine operation to remove them, an inquest has heard. Luke Glendenning was 'perfectly healthy' when he went in for surgery on November 6, 2017 but fatal complications meant he died just three days later. The hearing was told how doctors had difficulty accessing Luke's left kidney, that a large amount of fluid emerged around his organs and that he suffered internal bleeding. In statement read out in court, his distraught mother Sue Hirst, 35, says she has 'serious concerns' about 'what should have been a routine procedure'. Luke Glendenning, 10, died three days after six failed surgeries at Leeds Children's Hospital In the days after his first operation Luke endured five more surgeries to try and save his life but they were unsuccessful and his family eventually had to turn his life support off. Miss Hirst's statement said: 'We have serious concerns as a family, regarding the death of Luke. 'He was a fit and able young man who's lost his life after what should have been a routine procedure. 'I cannot come to terms with the fact he has died. He was my only child. 'I miss him dearly, it has left a massive hole in our lives.' A report into the schoolboy's death found eight problems with the way doctors handled his operation What are kidney stones? Kidney stones can develop in one or both of the organs. Around three in 20 men and two in 20 women develop them at some stage in their lives. If small, they may go undetected and pass through the urine. Yet, if they become blocked in the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder or in the duct that transports urine out of the body, they can become very painful. Stones form if waste products of the blood crystallize in the liver. The risk increases if you do not drink enough water or take certain medications. If too large to be passed naturally, stones may need to be broken up using ultrasound or laser energy. Keyhole surgery may be required in extreme cases. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement Wakefield Coroners' Court, West Yorks, also heard from Dr Nasim Tahir, a paediatric radiologist at Leeds Children's Hospital, who oversaw the surgery on November 6, 2017. Dr Tahir explained the operation involved inserting a camera into Luke's kidney and then using a laser to break the stones down and remove them. He said surgeons had to make six punctures into Luke's kidney in order to create space for the camera but that ordinarily it would only take one. Dr Tahir said: 'There was no way of knowing for sure that we would encounter the difficulty that we did on the day. 'It's not as if you can plan the whole procedure beforehand.' Dr Tahir said there were discussions between himself and other doctors about whether the operation should have been aborted after five failed attempts at making a hole. He added: 'The decision to carry on was because we had already done the trickiest bits. 'I don't think it was an excessive amount of punctures and there was nothing to indicate we were doing more harm than good. 'Even now I would do the exact same as what I did then.' Surgeons could not remove all of the stones because Luke had an abnormally shaped kidney Towards the end of the five-hour operation, doctors noticed Luke was unable to maintain his own blood pressure, the court heard. His legs had also gone pale and he had suffered a rectal prolapse and a distended abdomen, which means his stomach was severely swollen, doctors said. He also had contracted compartment syndrome, a condition affecting the muscles which can result in death. They told Miss Hirst and Luke's father Richard Glendenning they could not remove all the stones because Luke had an abnormally formed kidney. Scans revealed Luke had fluid on his lungs and in his chest and he underwent another surgery that evening to remove his left kidney. Luke underwent his third operation in under 24 hours in the early hours of November 7, 2017, this time to try and drain some of the fluid from his body. Following that operation the youngster's extremities were cold and his skin was starting to turn yellow, according to a statement provided to the court by Miss Hirst. Doctors were also struggling to find Luke's pulse and he was taken back into theatre to remove packs that had been placed to drain the fluid, but which might have affected his breathing. Following that operation he was taken into intensive care and placed on a machine that supported his heart and lungs. However, Luke's heart stopped beating and he underwent a sixth and final operation to try and restart it, after which he was placed on life support. Miss Hirst, a neighbourhood team coordinator for Leeds Community NHS, and Mr Glendenning, a builder, had to call in family to say their goodbyes to Luke. They switched the life support machine off on November 9. Assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff, presiding over the inquest, said 'the word tragic is probably too light' to be used in this case. The inquest continues. His mother Sue Hirst says she was not made aware of any risks involved in the procedure After his death in late 2017, his mother, an NHS worker, said she had not been warned of the possible complications of the operation. She said 'I still don't understand why doing nothing was not a viable option when Luke had no symptoms? 'He wasn't suffering so why not just leave and monitor him? 'We were 'sold' the procedure as it was the least invasive with the quicker recovery time - not necessarily the case if Luke would have needed to undergo two or three procedures.' Speaking at the inquest at Wakefield Coroners' Court, Miss Hirst questioned whether her son should have been subjected to a dangerous surgery in the first place. she said: 'I did say to a doctor at the time that we didn't feel like we had the option to do nothing. 'There was not really an option just to sit back and monitor Luke. He was just leading a normal, healthy life. 'Do you not think there should have been an option to do nothing?' Dr Junaid Ashraf, a consultant paediatric urologist at Leeds Children's Hospital was the surgeon who dealt with Miss Hurst and ultimately operated on Luke. Giving evidence in court, Dr Ashraf said: 'There is always an option to do nothing but it's not the first option.' He said a clinical team decided to remove the stones because doing so could improve Luke's kidney function. He also described the procedure, called percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), as 'relatively complex'. Dr Ashraf's job on the day of Luke's first operation was to break the stones down using a laser and remove them. He decided to abort the surgery after 90 minutes when he encountered kidney scarring, inflamed tissue and Luke's 'complex anatomy'. Dr Ashraf said: 'Around two or three big stones had been taken but there were more still there. 'I knew this was a complex anatomy. I was not progressing so I thought it was not safe to proceed. I decided to stop.' Dr Ashraf added he didn't notice Luke's abdomen had swollen in size until after he had stopped operating. Miss Hirst questioned whether enough measures are in place to monitor patients while they're undergoing surgery, in response to the doctor's comments. She asked Dr Ashraf: 'What measures do you have to monitor Luke?' She also said that, prior to Luke's surgery, hospital officials told her that she could speak to a kidney specialist called Dr Eric Finlay, who's a consultant paediatric nephrologist. Speaking today Miss Hirst said she never got that meeting. The schoolboy was diagnosed with the condition when he was taken to A&E in June after a playground fall left him complaining of a pain in his side. Doctors were surprised to find the 'perfectly healthy' child had large kidney stones. The condition is common in 30 to 60 year olds, but unusual in children. Luke then went in for surgery at Leeds Children's Hospital five months later after further tests. During surgery, doctors couldn't remove all the stones because Luke had an abnormally shaped kidney. It meant the child was under the knife for nine hours. The following hours after the extensively long surgery were a series of heart plummeting medical dramas where Luke's condition went from bad to worse. Death sparked internal hospital investigation An investigation launched by Leeds Teaching Hospitals found eight 'service delivery problems' with the operation. The report also made 10 recommendations, and the procedure has been suspended by Leeds Teaching Hospitals. One concern in the report was whether the surgeon who performed the surgery - who had recently taken over the paediatric urology service and had only had 'a small number' of cases in the UK - was properly mentored. Other concerns investigated included whether the invasive life support techniques were warranted. The report also said there was a lack of a 'multidisciplinary approach' that meant a professor from Sheffield Children's Hospital, who had been acting as a mentor to the surgeon, was not consulted before the decision was made to go ahead with the operation, nor was a radiologist who was involved with Luke's initial care. Neither attended a 'theatre team brief' held before the original surgery. While the report did not identify a 'single root cause' for his deterioration, it says that due to the effects of the treatment given to Luke when his body filled with fluid after the first operation, combined with bleeding complications 'resulted in his condition being unrecoverable within the first 24 hours' Advertisement He underwent three further operations, in which surgeons had to remove a bleeding kidney, had to stop internal bleeding and then remove packaging packed in his body used to stop bleeding. They then had to attach him to a machine to aid his liver and heart. Luke's heart eventually stopped and they needed to get him to theatre to see if they could restart it. But his sixth and final operation was unsuccessful and his family had to make the decision to switch his life support machine off. He died on Thursday November 9. The Trust, which has given the family a cash settlement of 23,000 for clinical negligence, has not admitted culpability in Luke's death, despite raised concerns. Miss Hirst said: 'It was never about the money for us, it was about them admitting they caused Luke's death. 'We have had apologies from the trust, in the sense that they are sorry Luke had died, but they have never said sorry for causing his death. 'It's difficult to accept what has happened. Luke was a happy and healthy 10-year-old boy. ' Dr Yvette Oade, Chief Medical Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said at the time: 'I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences to Luke's family and to reiterate our sincere apologies. 'We have discussed the findings of the report with Luke's family and would like to offer a further opportunity to address any outstanding concerns that they may have. 'We are continuing to work hard to implement the recommendations from the report and to ensure that lessons have been learned.' Tesla broke ground on Monday for its Shanghai 'Gigafactory' where it plans to begin making its Model 3 electric vehicles (EV) by year-end, a first step in localising production in the world's largest auto market. At a ceremony at the site of the plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, Chief Executive Elon Musk joined the city's mayor and other local government officials to formally begin construction of a factory that Tesla has said will cost around $2 billion. 'We think with the resources here we can build the Shanghai Gigafactory in record time and we're looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year,' Musk said at the event. Scroll down for video Elon Musk (second from right) performs a dance as he and several Chinese officials announced the beginning of construction at the factory site in Shanghai The brand new factory will be the first foreign-owned car plant in China and will produce Tesla Model 3s The so-called Gigafactory is China's first wholly foreign-owned car plant, a reflection of China's broader shift to open up its car market, even amid a trade war with the United States which has seen a rise in tariffs on cars imported from the U.S. Producing cars locally is likely to help Tesla minimise the impact of the trade war, which has forced the EV maker to adjust prices of its U.S.-made cars in China. Keeping prices in check will also help Tesla fend off competition from a swathe of domestic EV startups such as Nio Inc, Byton and XPeng Motors. 'Affordable cars must be made on same continent as customers,' Musk wrote on Twitter ahead of the event. China raised the import tariff on U.S. cars to 40 percent in July, but cut it to 15 percent from the start of this year as part of a trade war ceasefire. The lower rate will last until the end of March pending trade talks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai's Mayor Ying Yong attend the Gigafactory groundbreaking Producing cars locally is likely to help Tesla minimise the impact of the trade war currently going on between the US and China Trade war aside, the carmaker is building the plant in an auto market that likely contracted last year for the first time in decades. However, sales of so-called new-energy vehicles (NEVs) - a category which includes Tesla's battery-powered cars - continue to be strong in a country where the government aims to shift away entirely from combustion engine vehicles. 'Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China. All Model S/X & higher cost versions of Model 3/Y will still be built in US for WW market, incl China,' Musk said in another tweet, referring to the worldwide market. Tesla has been pushing forward its plans for the 500,000 vehicle capacity plant after it secured a site in October, hiring staff, starting procurement for building materials and setting up a local financial leasing company. 'Aiming to finish initial construction this summer,' Musk tweeted. Shares in Chinese suppliers to Tesla, including Tianjin Motor Dies Co Ltd and VT Industrial Technology Co Ltd, rallied on Monday after Musk's tweets. Musk and Shanghai's Mayor Ying Yong wave to the crowd as they stand on stage during Monday's proceedings 'Tesla's sales (in China) have dropped over the past few months because of high price caused by the tariffs. And the competition is getting more and more fierce,' said Alan Kang, Shanghai-based analyst for consultancy LMC Automotive. 'With the construction of the Shanghai factory, the faster the better (for Tesla).' China and the US have been in a trade war for much of 2018 that has seen the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods between the world's two largest economies disrupted by tariffs. The U.S. wants China to address intellectual property theft and other aggressive measures that have driven Beijing's efforts to supplant U.S. technological dominance. Trump and Xi agreed to a ceasefire in the trade war, agreeing to hold off on imposing more tariffs for 90 days on December 1 while they negotiate a deal to end the dispute following months of escalating tensions. Darren Pencille, 35, sketched in the dock today, where he sat on the floor and said he was 'hearing voices' as he appeared accused of murdering Lee Pomeroy in front of his son The suspect accused of knifing to death an IT consultant on a London-bound train in front of his young son hid in the dock today after telling the court he was 'hearing voices' and feeling 'paranoid'. Darren Pencille, 35, from Farnham, Surrey, is accused of stabbing Lee Pomeroy, 51, nine times on the South Western Railway service from Guildford to Waterloo last Friday lunchtime in an attack caught on CCTV. Pencille's girlfriend Chelsea Mitchell, 27, allegedly drove him to safety as he fled Clandon Station and helped change his appearance as police hunted for him. There was speculation at the weekend that a 'trivial' row broke out between Pencille and Mr Pomeroy after the pair accidentally bumped into each other as they boarded the train. Today the murder suspect decided to sit on the floor of the glass dock at Staines Magistrates' Court, claiming he was 'hearing voices' and was 'too paranoid' to stand up. Wearing a grey tracksuit and black, thick-rimmed glasses, Pencille was heard muttering 'get me out of here' to the two security guards flanking him. As he was taken away he told chair of the bench Helen Mattey: 'I'm innocent until proven guilty'. Darren Pencille, pictured, is accused of stabbing Lee Pomeroy, 51, nine times on the South Western Railway service from Guildford to Waterloo last Friday lunchtime Chelsea Mitchell, 27, (left) appeared in court (right in a sketch today) and is accused of helping Pencille get away from the scene in her car and helping change his appearance Mr Pomeroy, who would have celebrated his 52nd birthday on Saturday, was with his son (pictured together) on a trip to London when he was knifed Pencille decided to sit on the floor of the glass dock (pictured) at Staines Magistrates' Court, claiming he was 'hearing voices' and was 'too paranoid' to stand up when the judge told him to Chelsea Mitchell ducks down in her prison van as she is swept from Staines Magistrates' Court today and taken to Guildford Crown Court for her hearing this afternoon Darren Pencille, 35, and his girlfriend were swept into Staines Magistrates' Court today where they appeared in connection with the murder of Lee Pomeroy Pencille, who is charged with murder and possessing an offensive weapon, did not enter any pleas and said he had no fixed abode. But police said when they charged him on Sunday he lived with Chelsea Mitchell, 27, who was also before magistrates accused of assisting an offender. Both appeared again at Guildford Crown Court this afternoon and they were remanded in custody to appear again at the same court on February 7. Police suspect she helped Pencille escape the Home Counties village of Clandon after he fled from the train minutes after the attack. Timeline: The four- minute murder on the 12:58 train to Waterloo Friday January 4 12.58: South Western Trains service from Guildford to Waterloo departs 1.02pm: Lee Pomeroy, boards the service with his son at 1.02pm at London Road station, Guildford. His killer gets on board at the same time and stabs him nine times 1.06pm: Suspect jumps off the train and flees at Clandon via fields and woodland 1.30pm: Train pulls into next stop, Horsley, where ambulance and police are waiting Saturday January 5 6am: Police raid address n Farnham, Surrey, where Darren Pencille, 35, is detained on suspicion of murder and Chelsea Mitchell, 27, on suspicion of assisting an offender. Sunday January 6 9pm: Couple are both charged by police Monday January 7 10am: Suspects appear in court separately and are remanded in custody Advertisement The charge states the mother-of-one also helped to change his appearance on January 4 as police were hunting for him. Today it emerged that officers were called to Pencille's home on Thursday - less than 24 hours before the appalling attack after neighbours complained about his anti-social behaviour and said he was banging on their doors aggressively. Pencille and Mitchell were arrested during a dawn raid by armed officers at their housing association flat in Farnham, Surrey, on Saturday morning. Neighbours said the couple were unemployed, often noisy and kept their curtains shut almost constantly. Pencille, who was born in London, appears to have a 16-year-old son from a previous relationship. Forensics officers were seen examining an ageing small blue car parked close to the flat which is believed to belong to Mitchell. Investigators are believed to have traced Pencille using a combination of ticket information, mobile phone data and CCTV footage from Clandon station and its surroundings. One neighbour claimed that the night before, the scary-looking fellow Pencille had banged repeatedly on his front door. The neighbour said: I dont know why... I had never spoken to him before. I have to admit it was intimidating. Mr Pomeroy's Russian widow Svetlana (pictured) told friends she came to Britain because she admired how civilised it was. The 50-year-old was supported by police family liaison officers Pencille and Mitchell were arrested in a raid on this flat in Farnham and the mother-of-one's blue Vauxhall Corsa (pictured) The murder suspect fled into the surrounding Clandon area - just one stop into the Surrey to London journey (pictured is Horsley Station, where the train pulled in) Witnesses said Lee Pomeroy suffered multiple wounds after an attack on a train following a three-minute argument. His grieving family are struggling to come to terms with his death, which came just one day before his 52nd birthday. It later emerged his Russian widow had told friends she moved to the UK because she admired how civilised it was. Mitchell (pictured) allegedly helped her boyfriend get away from the train where he is accused of murdering a fellow passenger Former journalist Svetlana Pomeroy, 50, who is being supported by police family liaison officers, was too upset to speak. But 12 years ago, she wrote online: I love how people here wish to be hospitable, how they smile, how they take care of nature. People still tend to build families, plus there are laws to support women. The couple married in 2001 and Mrs Pomeroy moved to the UK from the remote Russian region of Chukotka. In her post, she described their son then a toddler as a sweet boy. Police arrested the suspect at a housing association flat occupied by his girlfriend Chelsea Mitchell in Farnham on Saturday morning. Mitchell, who is originally from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. Officers suspect she picked him up and drove him the 15-mile journey home after he fled the commuter train service covered in blood shortly after 1pm on Friday. Mr Pomeroy was attacked minutes after both men boarded at London Road station in Guildford. The suspect is said to have fled the carriage at Clandon, the next stop on the route. Police were alerted to the stabbing at Horsley, the following stop. Investigators do not know exactly what caused the row between the two men but believe it could be as petty as bumping into each other. Villagers later said they saw a man wandering in fields while using his mobile phone. Bloody handprints were left on a wooden gate and a police sniffer dog was used to try to trace him after he abandoned his jacket nearby. Police officers remained at Hosley train station near Guildford, Surrey at the weekend (pictured) as they carried out investigations Pencille, 35, was sketched in the dock today (pictured left), as was Chelsea Mitchell (right) It is understood investigators used a combination of ticket details, mobile phone records and CCTV from the station and nearby streets to identify him. Outside Mitchells home at the weekend, neighbour Grant Christy described how police stormed inside at around 6am. He said the arrest followed a confrontation on Thursday night in which the suspected killer had banged on his front door. Mr Christy said: I told police he had previously started banging on my door and then, at around 9.15pm on Thursday, he started doing it again. My wife looked through the keyhole and it was him again. My next-door neighbours have been driven out by all the drama. They only moved in in the summer and they have managed to upset everyone. Theres always a spat about her parking in other peoples spots. But usually theyre just sat in with the curtains drawn. Other neighbours said the couple were often noisy and kept their curtains shut almost constantly. In a statement released via police, Mr Pomeroys family said: Lee took his son on a trip to London hoping to spend some quality time with him which was cut short by an horrific and pointless attack. It has emerged that in the moments leading up to the violent killing, both men appeared to be involved in an altercation lasting three minutes. Lee would have had his birthday today but did not get to see his presents. He was an honest, bright person, who loved music very much. He was a devoted family man and did everything for his family. He was a loving husband and father. He will be deeply missed by all his family. Police evidence markers are seen on a gate near West Clandon station in Surrey - where the suspect left the Waterloo bound train after a passenger was stabbed to death Father-of-three Ross McKay, 39 (mugshot pictured) was the conveyancing solicitor who gave a 'veneer of respectability' in a series of illicit properties deals masterminded by Scott Rowbotham. He has been jailed for seven years A corrupt lawyer who helped a buy-to-let landlord use dirty money to fraudulently build a 10.8million property empire has been jailed for seven years. Father-of-three Ross McKay, 39, was the conveyancing solicitor who gave a 'veneer of respectability' in a series of illicit properties deals masterminded by Scott Rowbotham. Businessman Rowbotham, of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, managed to build up a portfolio of 88 properties with the help of McKay. Manchester Crown Court heard the pair's scheme yielded 10,842,271 and police managed to seize 3.5million of it in the biggest haul in British history. The pair's trial also heard McKay represented crime lord Billy Black, who was friends with one-eyed police killer Dale Cregan. Black is currently serving 22 year for fraud and drugs offences. Rowbotham accumulated around 500,000 a year in rent from his property empire, getting mortgage lenders to hand over huge amounts by lying about his income. He told clients he was an operations manager for a TV company with a salary of 48,000 a year - but the fake pay slips covered up the reality - that he had only declared 1,000 in income and 18.20 in tax over 11 years. Rowbotham's girlfriend was also pocketing 20,000 in tax credits at the time. McKay, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, who worked for Parker Birds law practise in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire after qualifying in 2004 carried out the conveyances on a 'no questions asked basis' for 81 of the criminal properties belonging to Rowbotham knowing it would enable him to build up a large property portfolio and to live lavishly off the proceeds. Rowbotham drove a Range Rover Sport while Burns had a Mercedes C220 AMG Sport. McKay was arrested in 2014 during an investigation by police and tax officials into the financial affairs of Rowbotham and his associates following Cregan convictions the previous year for murdering two policewomen and two gangland rivals. It emerged the lawyer had also been laundering money for a shell company used as a front by crimelord Billy Black who is currently serving 22 years in jail for fraud and drugs offence. At Manchester Crown Court McKay, of Wilmslow, who now runs a solo consultancy was convicted of money laundering following a seven week trial. He denied wrongdoing. Another lawyer acting on behalf of 52-year old Black was jailed for nine months at an earlier hearing. Sentencing him to seven years in prison, Judge Timothy Smith told McKay: ' You were expected to be of the utmost integrity and honesty in your role. Scott Rowbotham (pictured outside court at an earlier hearing) accumulated around 500,000 a year in rent from his property empire, getting mortgage lenders to hand over huge amounts by lying about his income 'Any applicant for a solicitor must comply with 10 practices, including to uphold the rule of law, act with integrity, and comply with legal obligations. 'These convictions mean you fall short of the qualities expected of a solicitor. You were consistently in breach of each requirement of a solicitor, and failed as your duty to uphold the law. 'In trial you portrayed yourself as being an average solicitor, one that helped to support your family but any outward show of professionalism was a charade. 'You allowed criminal property to be obtained and assisted these people in organised crime. 'You must have known or suspected in continuing to provide them with legal services. 'You were turning a blind eye and you knew the money you were dealing with was criminal property. 'Any case in which the court sees a mature professional man with young children is a tragic one. 'Although the consequences will be harsh and will affect your family, the tragedy is not yours, it is theirs. 'There has been for you as a solicitor a fall from grace. This will have a devastating effect on your family. The professionalism you had will not be there anymore.' The court heard Rowbotham had claimed to be an operations manager for a TV company earning 48,000 a year to get loans when in reality he had earned only 1,000 in declared income and paid just 18.20 in tax in an eleven-year period. The pair were jailed after a trial at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) Nick Clarke QC prosecuting said: 'In brief McKay a practising solicitor throughout, carried out the conveyances on the vast majority of criminal properties belonging to Rowbotham and Burns knowing or suspecting it would enable them to build up a large portfolio of criminal property and to live an expensive lifestyle off the proceeds. 'Properties currently held in Rowbotham's name in which McKay acted as the solicitor, obtained during the years 2005 -2008 show a purchase price total of over 6.6 million. Others were new builds for which we have no price. 'In order to buy the properties Rowbotham obtained mortgages and Re-mortgages amounting to millions of pounds obtained through mortgage fraud. 'The total deposits have come from criminal activities of himself and others and cannot be explained by any legitimate and honest employment. He also obtained mortgages by purporting to sell properties he already owned to other people including his long-term partner, mother of his long-term partner and other associates, in order to raise finance. 'McKay received his instructions from Rowbotham. After Rowbotham's criminal property empire was complete, the defendant was recruited to assist in the management of a loan company, in part used as a front for money laundering some of the proceeds of Billy Black's criminal activities. 'The Company received over 250,000 which after laundering through the company was repaid to Black through dividends and income. 'The role of the defendant was to add a veneer of respectability to the management of that company and the idiosyncratic payment of dividends and wages. The court heard the total benefit from the frauds was 10,842,271. Police seized 3,522,459 in assets from Rowbotham - one of the biggest proceeds of crime recoveries in Britain. In mitigation defence lawyer Mark Rhind said: ' It is sad when a mature man comes before the court with his first conviction and to face his first custodial sentence. 'It is even more sad when he is of good character and has a young family who will suffer badly. 'When that man is a lawyer and facing the end of his career and and may face financial ruin is a tragic set of circumstances. 'Rowbotham had hatched this scheme and was doing this before McKay became involved. 'He would apply for mortgages with false details and McKay had knowledge of that. 'They were all tainted properties and came from Rowbotham being able to buy them. 'McKay may have closed his mind to what the jury believed what in front of him - but he wouldn't ask questions. 'The criminality became obvious over time as Rowbotham kept putting in deposits but he simply closed his eyes to what was in front of him. Mr Rhind added: 'He had given his training contract at the law firm as the boss had just left but the supervision was like a light touch and he was in his early 20s and was left to create a business with little supervision. 'He led the practice on his own and it clearly went badly wrong - it was when he was young, inexperienced and left to his own devices. 'There was nobody in the conveyance department that was qualified other than him. As soon as he was arrested he was unemployed as a solicitor. 'His wife has worked to support the family but she is in debt with tax and the mortgage. 'They now have no family income as she is looking after the new child. She is unable to return to work as she has to look after the children. This will be an extremely difficult sentence for a man of his age to deal with.' Rowbotham, of Stalybridge was jailed for three years and eight months at an earlier hearing after he admitted fraud and money laundering between 2004 and 2014. Council revenues assistant Burns, 36, was given a suspended sentence and is reported to be running Rowbotham's letting operation. A female UFC fighter left a robber bruised and bloodied after he tried to rob her using a cardboard gun. Brazilian star Polyana Viana was waiting for an Uber in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro, when the thief ordered her to hand over her phone, warning that he was armed. But the 26-year-old lashed out, kicking and punching him before putting him in a martial arts chokehold while she waited for police to arrive. UFC president Dana White shared a photo of the man's gruesome facial injuries after his beating. Another shows the 'weapon' was actually just a cardboard cut-out. UFC fighter, Polyana Viana (pictured), left a robber bruised and bloodied after he tried to rob her using a cardboard gun Polyana Viana (left), was waiting for an Uber in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro, when the man ordered her to hand over her phone, warning her he was armed. But the 26-year-old lashed out at the thief, kicking and punching him before putting him in a martial arts chokehold. His injuries are pictured, right Another image shows the 'weapon' carried by the thief was actually a cardboard cut-out Viana asked passers-by to call police and said she remained calm during the incident because the thief did not try to fight back She told MMA Junkie how the man asked her for the time and then saw he was not going to leave. 'So I already moved to put my cell phone in my waist. And then he said, "Give me the phone. Dont try to react, because Im armed". 'Then he put his hand over [a gun], but I realised it was too soft.' 'He was really close to me. So I thought, "If its a gun, he wont have time to draw it". So I stood up I threw two punches and a kick. 'He fell, then I caught him in a rear-naked choke. Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, "Now well wait for the police"'. Viana asked passers-by to call police and said she remained calm during the incident because the thief did not try to fight back. Polyana Viana punches JJ Aldrich in the first round of their straw weight bout during UFC 227 at Staples Center in Los Angeles in August Officers later took the man to hospital and Viana (pictured) later learned that he had only just been released over a separate crime Viana asked passers-by to call police and said she remained calm during the incident because the thief (pictured) did not try to fight back The fighter used a chokehold to prevent the thief from fleeing while police were on their way Viana dished out some justice of her own in Rio de Janeiro last Saturday night, despite the man's claim that he was armed at the time. She added: 'Since he took the punches very quickly, I think he was scared. So he didnt react anymore. He told me to let him go, like "I just asked for the time." I said, "Asked for the time my a**," because he saw I was very angry. I said I wouldnt let go and that I was going to call the police. 'He said, "Call the police, then" because he was scared I was going to beat him up more.' Officers later took the man to hospital and Viana later learned that he had only just been released over a separate crime. The fighter has had to defend herself in Brazil before when a robber tried to take her phone in her home town of Belem. Describing the incident, she said: 'He tried to take it from my hand, I punched him in the face, and he was scared. This time I was scared. I dont know if it was because there were two of them. 'So I was scared, but I think he was more scared than I was, so he jumped on the motorcycle and left.' Eight migrants have been detained after a dinghy was found abandoned on a remote Kent beach this morning. The rigid-hulled vessel was found deserted on a remote beach at Dungeness on Romney Marsh, in Kent, with six life jackets and fuel, just after 8am. After an extensive search the Home Office confirmed eight men have been found, with one person needing hospital treatment, and a ninth man arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into the UK. The latest incident comes amid a recent spike in the number of illegal crossings in the Channel which has prompted increased patrols and the use of Navy vessel HMS Mersey. Kimberly Addy, 31, saw three of the men outside the front of her home, in Lydd, Romney Marsh at 1pm and exclaimed on Facebook: 'Its all happening out front of our house.' These three men were given foil blankets to combat the cold after they were found this morning outside a residential address Another three were held by Border Force officials on the road between Lydd and Dungeness A man being search by Border Force officials by the side of the road after a dinghy was found abandoned by the beach this morning The boat containing six life jackets and fuel has been found by Border Force Police at Dungeness Beach at 8am this morning Police and HM Coastguard have been called to the scene and a search is being carried out in the area. Extra fuel and life jackets (pictured) were found on the vessel The mother-of-two said: 'I was in the lounge feeding my baby when I saw the police outside. 'I saw the men there earlier but I didn't think anything of it. They were all walking around normally as if nothing had happened. 'But when police got here they seemed frail. 'There were only three of them here but I've heard eight of them were seen on the beach earlier.' A man being search by Border Force officials. The latest incident comes amid a recent spike in the number of illegal crossings in the Channel Police search migrants following a search which was launched when an empty inflatable boat was found on Dungeness beach Three men were found outside a residential address, with police and border force officials looking on Kimberley Addy (pictured left) saw the men outside the front of her home at 1pm after police turned up and took this picture of them near her front garden (right) Police, Border Force and paramedics checking over men. Kimberly said the men looked to be in their 30s and were wearing wet coats and woolly hats Two men sit next to a garden wall. Border Force officials attended later, who were in a 4x4 car, had left the scene by 2.15pm Kimberly said the men looked to be in their 30s and were wearing wet coats and woolly hats. She added: 'When the police came, they took their jackets off and police gave them foil blankets. 'An ambulance pulled up and police sent it away. 'I thought it was all a bit strange - I just saw it from my window.' Ms Addy said Border Force officials attended later, who were in a 4x4 car, had left the scene by 2.15pm. She added: 'The men must have crossed through fields because they came in the opposite direction, not from Dungeness.' Three other men were being held alongside the Lydd to Dungeness road by Border Force officials. A spokesman for the Home Office said: 'Border Force was contacted by HM Coastguard this morning, Monday 7 January, at around 8.20am after they received reports of an unattended RHIB at Dungeness, Kent. How visa-free route through Serbia is why so many Iranians are crossing the Channel It is not clear what nationality the men found today are. But the proliferation of Iranian migrants crossing the English Channel to Britain is partly thanks to a new migration route to Europe opened in August 2017 when Serbia started offering visa-free travel to people from Iran. By the time the scheme was abolished in October following pressure from the European Union, more than 15,000 Iranians had visited Serbia. Many of these migrants then moved towards western Europe instead of returning home and many are said to have reached Calais before attempting to cross the English Channel to Britain. Advertisement 'Border Force officers were deployed to secure the vessel. A search of the local area found eight people. Seven of those are now in Border Force care and the eighth has been transferred to hospital. 'A ninth man, who was also found in the area, has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry to the UK. The incident is currently being investigated by officers from Immigration Enforcements Criminal and Financial Investigation team.' A total of 504 people, the vast majority in the last two months, attempted to cross the Channel to Britain in 2018, with 276 successful reaching the UK. Since Christmas Day 131 migrants have tried to enter Britain in 17 different attempts. Home Secretary Sajid Javid was ridiculed after he classified the crisis as a 'major incident' while remaining on a family safari holiday 6,000 miles away in South Africa. He added the issue was a 'very serious concern to him' and announced patrols from Navy and the redeployment of two Border Force cutters. A navy ship, HMS Mersey, was patrolling the Channel on Friday in addition to other French and British coastguard boats which watch over the 21 miles of sea that separate France and Britain at its narrowest point. Two cutters - HMC Valiant and HMC Protector - are due to be returning to the Channel from the Mediterranean for patrols. Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid were said to be wrangling on Wednesday last week over who will foot the 20,000 a day cost of deploying HMS Mersey on patrol. Mr Javid, touted by some as a possible future Tory leader, has criticism over what has been seen as a botched response to the crisis. After the Navy ship's deployment, Mr Javid said: 'My focus continues to be on protecting the UK border and preventing loss of life in the Channel. For these reasons, the Government has decided to deploy a navy vessel, HMS Mersey, to support our existing efforts. What happens to migrants when they are detained? People who are detained are dealt with in line with existing immigration laws. Decisions on asylum and human rights claims are made by the UK Border Agency, an arm of the Home Office. Once someone has made it to the UK an individual must apply for asylum as soon as is reasonably possible. Each specific asylum applicant is given a case officer and then an initial screening interview. To be recognised as a refugee that individual must show they have a real risk of being persecuted. A so-called 'substantive interview' is then held a few weeks later. Asylum seekers whose application is declined are expected to make arrangements to leave the UK. Source: The Law Society Advertisement 'This will be an interim measure while the two Border Force cutters I have redeployed from abroad make their way back to UK waters. 'It is vital that we are working on all fronts to tackle this ongoing situation and I am grateful to Border Force and other agencies for the tireless work they have done in response to this activity.' A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency earlier today said: 'HM Coastguard has been coordinating a search at Dungeness in Kent after an empty RHIB was found on the shore around 8.10am today (7 January). 'Dungeness Coastguard Rescue Team led the beach search and Kent Police has been informed. 'Following an extensive search of the area, HM Coastguard was satisfied that there were no maritime casualties and the search team was stood down. 'HM Coastguard is committed to safeguarding life around the seas and coastal areas of this country. 'We are only concerned with preservation of life, rescuing those in trouble and bringing them safely back to shore, where they will be handed over to the relevant partner emergency services or authorities.' Border Force crews of British Coastal Patrol vessels position their craft in Ramsgate harbour on January 4, 2019 A view of the area on Dungeness beach where an empty inflatable boat was found. Six migrants have been found following a search which was launched after the empty boat was found on the beach in Kent at about 8.10am this morning The rigid-hulled vessel was found deserted on a remote beach at Dungeness on Romney Marsh, with six life jackets and fuel, just after 8am this morning. Some of Britain's leading private schools are looking at expanding to set up in European cities as jobs move from London over Brexit fears. Brighton College and Wellington College are among those which are planning to expand to cater for the boom in demand for English-speaking schools. They are considering setting up branches in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Berlin - European cities which are trying to woo big business from the City of London. It comes amid warnings that many thousands of well-paying posts will be relocated to the EU after Brexit. Many large banks, including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are set to move hundreds of workers each after March this year. Brighton College (pictured) where fees cost up to 45,000 a year, is among the schools which is considering setting up branches in the EU to cater for the expected boom in demand for English-speaking schools This is expected to create and big surge in demand for English-speaking schools. Richard Cairns, headmaster of Brighton College where fees cost up to 45,000-a-year, confirmed they are eyeing up locations abroad. He told The Times: 'We have been looking seriously at Frankfurt and have had positive exploratory meetings there. 'There is considerable demand for high-quality English-speaking schools in cities with a large international professional class. 'I should also like Brighton College to consider Berlin. We are in a more advanced state of negotiations regarding opening a school in an EU capital city in 2020 but the location is confidential. 'We have four schools overseas three in the UAE, one in Bangkok and are shortly announcing two new openings in Asia.' He added: 'The main purpose of these schools is to provide funds to support our charitable activities in the UK, notably the financial support we provide to the London Academy of Excellence and also bursaries for local children in Brighton.' Many English private schools have set up bases in Asia and the Middle East - with China a booming market. Dulwich College is linked with nine schools abroad, including four in China, one in South Korea and one in Singapore. Julian Thomas, headmaster of Wellington (pictured) said he is considering 'European opportunities from Brexit as financial centres move' While Wellington has three international schools in China, one in Thailand and links with two others in China. Julian Thomas, headmaster of Wellington, said he is considering 'European opportunities from Brexit as financial centres move'. He told The Times: 'The interest in Europe is being driven from Europe. There certainly seems to be an appetite for excellent international schools in major cities with large expat populations. 'Major financial hubs such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam are worth considering, particularly if Brexit causes a shift in the financial axis.' And British schools which already have branches in the EU are considering expanding to cater for the expected boom in demand. King's College Frankfurt aid it was the city's first English curriculum school when it opened last year. Nicholas Fry, vice-chairman of King's Group, said: 'We opened in Frankfurt in direct reaction to Brexit. 'We are looking to attract expats who move there because the City of London is shutting down certain jobs.' A Belgian region has banned halal and kosher slaughter unless the animal is stunned before it is killed, despite critics saying it violates freedom of religion. The northern region of Flanders is the first in Belgium to implement the ban, followed by the southern region of Wallonia in September. When proposed, the law was slammed as 'the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights since Nazi occupation' by the European Jewish Congress. Ban: Halal and kosher slaughter without first stunning the animal is now banned in Flanders in Belgium, with Wallonia to follow in September (file photo) Both the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher rituals require that butchers slaughter the animal by slitting its throat and draining the blood. Under the new law, animals will have to be stunned electrically before being killed, which most animal rights campaigners say is more humane than the halal and kosher rituals. Belgium's Muslim and Jewish communities have expressed their opposition to the law, saying halal and kosher requires the animal to be in 'perfect health' when its throat is cut - which would rule out stunning the animal first. Some say that the ban is less about animal rights, and more about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Ritual: According to the rules for halal and kosher meat, the butcher needs to slaughter the animal by slitting its throat and draining the blood (file photo) 'It is impossible to know the true intentions of people,' Rabbi Yaakov David Schmahl, a rabbi in Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, told the New York Times. 'Unless people state clearly what they have in mind, but most anti-Semites don't do that. 'It definitely brings to mind similar situations before the Second World War, when these laws were introduced in Germany,' he said. In January 2018, several religious organisations filed lawsuits to stop the new legislation, including one jointly filed by the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organizations, the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress. The European Court of Human Rights has previously described kosher slaughter as 'an essential aspect of practice of the Jewish religion', their lawsuit notes They hope the lawsuits will see the ban, which they argue violates freedom of religion under EU law, lifted later this year. Several countries including Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand already prohibit un-stunned slaughter. Hundreds of scientists have pulled out of attending the 'Super Bowl of Astronomy' due to the government shutdown which has affected 95 per cent of NASA's staff. Nearly 3,200 astronomers, astrophysicists and other scientists were scheduled to attend the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), which kicked off yesterday and runs through to Thursday at the Washington State Convention Center. The cancellations mean NASA's new telescope-fitted jumbo jet - the world's largest airborne observatory - won't be unveiled. The state of the art Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified Boeing 747, was due to be showcased for the first time at the conference. NASA's new telescope-fitted jumbo jet (pictured) - the world's largest airborne observatory - won't be unveiled at the conference It's thought around 300 to 450 of the scientists won't make it due to the government shutdown which has affected more than 380,000 federal workers including 95 per cent of NASA's employees. The shutdown's impact on science stretches well beyond the empty chairs at this week's conferences, said Keith Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society. He said it means some of the nation's smartest scientific minds are sitting at home, not doing science, for weeks, with no clear end in sight. Seitter said: 'That's difficult to recover from. We'll be seeing ripple effects from this for a long time.' Attendees of the events describe them as crucial opportunities for scientists from the government, the private sector and academia to exchange research and ideas. The gatherings are like three-legged stools, and this week one of the legs is missing, said Kevin Petty, the chief science officer for the private climate company, Vaisala. The state of the art 'Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy', a modified Boeing 747, was due to be showcased for the first time Amanda O'Connor, a satellite imaging expert who is attending a weather conference, said: 'That's the value of these conferences, it's the people I run into in the hallway or the coffee line, start up a conversation and realize there's a connection between what they're doing and what I'm doing.' 'It's those serendipitous encounters that are lost and really important.' Even Jim Bridenstine, NASA's new administrator, and the leaders of the National Weather Service are no longer able to attend the weather conference, and the organizers scrambled to replace their presentations. Until late last week, Fienberg said the astronomical organization had hoped the politicians in Washington could work out a deal to resolve the impasse over President Donald Trump's demands for $5.6 billion to build a wall on the southern border. But on Thursday, employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, were told to cancel their conference plans. Scientists and engineers from NASA and the Smithsonian were also told they couldn't attend. The nation's greatest scientists were due to meet at the Washington State Convention Center (pictured) for the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society Conference organizers have scrambled to shift speakers, relax the rules to allow non-governmental employees to present the work of their federal colleagues and negotiate with hotels to allow government employee to cancel reservations made long ago. 'In the same week that the Chinese government lands a rover (on the far side of the moon) and the U.S. sends a probe to the furthest object ever visited by humanity,' said Kevin Marvel, the astronomy organization's executive officer, 'scores of scientists at all career levels are being prevented from attending our meeting.' One concrete casualty could be the government's ability to recruit and retain the next generation of scientists, said Seitter, with the American Meteorological Society. Take E.L. Meszaros, a doctoral student at Brown University, who had been scheduled to present her research on human-drone communication techniques at the San Diego technology conference. But her work was funded by NASA, as was her trip to the conference. So she's stuck at home in Rhode Island. She always imagined she'd work as a public servant. But now she has scientist friends who work for the government who haven't been paid in weeks and are interviewing at other places. 'If you can't guarantee that you're going to be able to pay your employees,' she said, 'then it does make you second guess whether that's where you want to work.' Despite a growing clamour holding a new vote is a complicated and lengthy process, requiring new laws, agreement on a question - and a delay to Brexit day on March 29. Theresa May has insisted repeatedly that a new referendum would betray Leave voters in 2016 and will not happen on her watch. But Parliament could force the PM into the decision - prompting Nigel Farage to tell Leave campaigners to prepare for another vote. A new referendum would take almost six months - at least - to pass the necessary laws, establish campaigns and actually have the battle at the ballot box Why do people say there needs to be a second referendum? Theresa May's Brexit deal has no majority in Parliament - and it is not clear any other deal has a majority either, even if one could be negotiated. Passing the question back to voters is seen by some as a way to end the impasse and give a clear instruction to politicians on what to do. Some campaigners also say the 2016 referendum was not an informed choice because too many of the implications of Leave were unknown. What do critics think? Many people - led by the Prime Minister herself - say a new vote on Brexit would betray the people who voted Leave in 2016. They insist there was a clear order from the public to Leave the EU and politicians must follow it, working out the details for themselves. Unionists also complain that accepting a new referendum on Brexit would pave the way for another referendum on Scottish independence, threatening the future of the UK. Some politicians also feel it would simply reopen the wounds from the 2016 battle without really deciding anything more clearly. What needs to happen for a referendum to happen? Parliament would need to pass a new law for a referendum to be held. This process alone would take weeks and would likely be very controversial. Before that can even happen, for political reasons there would probably have to be some kind of moment creating a 'mandate' for a new referendum as it is something neither of the main parties promised at the last election. This might be a simple vote of MPs after Mrs May's deal has been rejected. The Government could call such a vote at any time. Labour also has some opportunities to call a vote - though winning such a vote would have less power. It could even be a whole general election where one or more sides puts a new referendum in their manifesto. What would the question and be who decides? Nobody knows for sure - and this is probably the hardest question of all. Some say it should be a simple repeat of last time, with Leave or Remain on the ballot paper. Others say it should be Remain versus Mrs May's Brexit deal. Others advocate a two stage referendum - between Remain and Leave, followed by Mrs May's deal versus No Deal if Leave wins. Still others say there could be multiple questions on the ballot paper, possible using a ranking system known as alternative vote. The Electoral Commission would make a recommendation and MPs would make the final decision on what the question would be. Would exit have to be delayed from March 29? Yes. On the shortest timescale imaginable, a referendum would take almost six months from the point the decision was taken - something which has not happened yet. Exit day is less than four months away. How long does it take to call and fight a referendum? There is no fixed schedule but former Cabinet minister Justine Greening last month set out a 22 week timetable - just under six months start to finish This assumes about 11 weeks to pass the necessary laws and another 11 weeks for the campaign - both a preliminary period to set up formal campaigns on each side and then a main short campaign. This would in theory allow a referendum by mid June 2019 - a full three years after the last one. Lots of factors could cause delays and short of sweeping political agreement on the rules of a campaign almost no way to speed up the process. Would the result be any more decisive? Probably not. Unlike last time, the referendum law could make the result legally binding and the question could be more specific than last time. But polls suggest the country remains just as divided as in 2016 - suggesting the result could be just as close as the 52% to 48% Leave win next time. A judge has ruled that the remains of an alleged paedophile must be removed from a family grave he shares with his wife and her parents because his relatives don't want to be buried next to him. The ruling - believed to be unique - has been made by a judge of the Church of England's Consistory Court which has to approve any applications for exhumation from consecrated ground. Applications to the court for exhumation are invariably refused on the basis of the church philosophy that a last resting place must be just that unless there are exceptional circumstances for allowing exhumation. Applications to the court for exhumation are invariably refused on the basis of the church philosophy that a last resting place must be just that unless there are exceptional circumstances for allowing exhumation. Pictured: stock image In this case though the judge held that the circumstances were truly exceptional. For legal reasons no names of the people involved can be revealed and the church yard where the grave is has not been identified. All that is known is that it is in the Diocese of Lichfield in Staffordshire. After he died the man's ashes were buried in the grave where his wife was buried with her parents. He had been married to his wife for some 40 years when she died in 2008, but both had been married previously. The complaint that he was a paedophile came from a step granddaughter - the daughter of his wife's daughter from the earlier marriage. She claimed that from the age of five to 13 he had sexually abused her and she had told him she intended to report her allegations. No criminal proceedings ever took place. Stephen Eyre QC. Chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield (pictured), said a new vicar forgot about the agreed burial arrangements for the man However, the dead wife's sister, who with her husband, plans to be buried in the same grave when their time comes heard of the abuse allegations and had a solicitor's letter sent to the man in 2014 telling him he no longer had permission to be buried in the grave. They also met the local vicar, explained the situation to him and were assured that the man's remains would never be buried in the church yard. By the time the man died in 2016 the church had a new vicar but the situation was explained to him and he too agreed that the man should not be buried there. However, Stephen Eyre QC. Chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield in his role as a judge of the Consistory Court, said that the new vicar then apparently forgot the conversation and went on to arrange for the man's remains to be buried in the grave after all. Now though Judge Eyre has granted an application by the wife's sister for the ashes to be exhumed and moved to the grave of the man's parents in another church yard. In in ruling Judge Eyre said : 'The grave has become a focus of distress and grievance.' He said if the position has been set out before the ashes were buried in the grave permission would never have been given for the burial to go ahead. Despite the church's normal reluctance to sanction exhumation though, he said that in this case he considered what had taken place amounted to 'exceptional circumstances' which justified him giving the go-ahead for exhumation. He said he was not in a position to judge the validity of the abuse allegations, but added that he had no reason to doubt that the step granddaughter genuinely believed her account of 'prolonged and repeated sexual abuse' which she said had had a lasting and harmful effect on her. He said her account was put forward in good faith and accepted by her parents as being truthful. A man who tackled an armed robber as he fled a convenience store with a wad of cash - forcing him to drop the haul and flee - has been praised for his bravery. Footage obtained by Nine News captured the hooded thief walking into the Slade Point Night Owl store in Mackay, Queensland, after 9pm on Friday. The man jumped the counter and confronted the shop assistant with a weapon, demanding he open the register. Footage captured the hooded thief walking into the Slade Point Night Owl store in Mackay, Queensland, after 9pm on Friday Money could be seen flying out of the bag and the the thief appeared dazed before fleeing The shop assistant appeared terrified, holding his hands close to his chest as he moved to the register to take out the money. The thief shoved $700 into a white bag before making his exit. But as he left the store, he was set upon by the heroic passerby - who launched himself at the man's upper body and slammed him into a wall. Money could be seen flying out of the bag and the the thief appeared dazed and unsure whether or not he should fight back. He eventually fled on foot with only $100. The robber is described about 195cm tall and with an Australian accent. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Advertisement This is the shocking moment a furious hippo attacked a fisherman and launched a violent ten-minute assault, leaving him bleeding and seriously injured. Mathew Wanjiuku had jumped into Lake Naivasha in Kenya - home to some 2,000 hippos - to fish, but was caught off guard by the charging animal. Mr Wanjiuku was effectively held captive by the hippo, and only managed to escape after terrified onlookers banged on metal sheets to scare it off. Attack: A photo shows the moment the hippopotamus opened its jaws to bite down on the fisherman near the shore of Lake Naivasha, Kenya Painful: The huge animal, one of the dangerous in the world, bites fisherman Mathew Wanjiuku several times Shocking video shows Mr Wanjiuku ending up under a fallen tree in an attempt to flee the oncoming hippo, but this instead traps him as the predator attacks. The hippo can then be seen biting down on his arm, shoulder, and torso before finally disappearing after several minutes. The attack was witnessed by Frederico Genovese, 47, a photographer from Italy visiting the lake to capture wildlife. Mr Genovese said: 'I heard the indistinguishable sound of an advancing hippo behind the one guide. The hippo found a wide enough opening, allowing it to bite down. Nowhere to run: The hippo held the man captive and unable to escape for ten minutes Onlookers banged on a metal sheet to scare the huge mammal and eventually it moved off Lucky escape: Mr Wanjiuku, seen while recovering in hospital, managed to escape the hippo and miraculously suffered no internal damage in the attack 'Mathew was grabbed by the head and rattled, the hippo penetrated his ribs. 'Stamping its feet and swinging its head vigorously, the hippo appeared to be trying to trample its victim. 'Some helped to hold an iron sheet up so that others could bang on it with sticks to make noise, which after about ten minutes seemed to work as the beast moved off. 'Mathew appeared from under the tree and fuelled by the fear of being attacked again, decided to make a dash for the safety of the shore. ' Mr Wanjiuku was rushed to hospital where it was miraculously discovered that he had only suffered external injuries. He has since made a full recovery. China has unveiled its first stealth spy drone that is invisible to radar and can fly 40 hours without refuelling. The 'Sky Hawk' warplane is capable of taking a clear picture of a car's number plate while flying at the altitude of 3,000 metres (9,800 feet), according to its developer. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been kept as a top secret by Beijing, and this is the first time any footage of it has been released. Footage of China's first stealth spy drone 'Sky Hawk' has been released by its manufacturer The video, uploaded on New Year's Day, shows the plane taking off at an unspecified location The 'Sky Hawk', or Tianying in Chinese, is the brainchild of Sea Hawke General Aviation Equipment Company Ltd, which was set up in 2012 by state-run China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation to develop and manufacture military drones. CHINA'S 'SKY HAWK' STEALTH SPY DRONE Wingspan: 18m (59ft) Weight: 400kg (880lbs) Maximum cruising altitude: 7,500m (24,600ft) Maximum take-off load: 1.5 tonnes Maximum load: 370kg (815lbs) Maximum flight time without refuelling: 40 hours Manufacturers: Sea Hawke General Aviation Equipment Company Ltd.; China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Advertisement The plane is capable of avoiding radar detection and penetrating key enemy targets in a 'highly threatening battling environment', says Sea Hawke in a post on Chinese social media on New Year's Day. The post also released the first video of the spy drone. While the majority of the footage uses computer-generated imaging of the plane, it contains a 10-second real-life clip which captures the drone taking off from an airport in an unspecified location. The drone is equipped with China's most advanced photo-electric aerial platform, according to the plane's deputy designer Wang Jianping, who spoke to China Central Television Station. The platform contains seven different cameras, including an infrared camera and a multispectral camera, all of which can turn 360 degrees while spying on enemies without being captured by radar. The drone is capable of taking a clear picture of a car's number plate while flying at 9,800 feet The drone is said to be equipped with China's most advanced photo-electric aerial platform With a wingspan of 18 metres (59 feet), the plane can reach a maximum cruising altitude of 7,500 metres (24,600 feet) and carry 370 kilograms (815 pounds) of goods. Its maximum take-off load is 1.5 tonnes. The 'Sky Hawk' is the fourth stealth drone China has unveiled and was kept as a top secret. Before the latest video, the prototype was only shown to the public once during the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai last November. China Central Television Station reported that a factory in Taizhou, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, started building a prototype of the plane in November, 2017. Last February, its developer Sea Hawke announced that the drone had completed its first flight a month before. The company also released a picture to show its staff posing in front of the 'Sky Hawk' prototype, but the plane was purposefully obscured. At the time, the plane's chief designer Ma Hongzhong said: '80 per cent of the technologies used in the Sky Hawk are new, including some that are the world's firsts.' A prototype of the drone was shown during an airshow in Zhuhai, China, last November The developer of the 'Sky Hawk' said the plane completed its first flight in January last year Chinese scientists announced last March they had built an assembly line to mass produce cutting-edge 'super materials' that could render objects invisible. It was widely speculated at the time that the 'super materials' would be used on the country's warplanes, particularly the J-20 stealth fighter jets which were paraded to the public at a flyby last November. Before the 'Sky Hawk', Beijing had unveiled three stealth drones. They are the 'Star Shadow', an attack drone developed by privately owned UAV company Star; 'Sharp Sword' which is said to be able to carry up to two tonnes of bombs; and the CH-805, or Rainbow-805 which is designed to be a target drone for the training of Chinese Air Force soldiers. A practice run for a no deal Brexit traffic jam turned into a farce today as just 89 lorries were used to simulate thousands being delayed by potential chaos at Dover. Manston airfield near Ramsgate in Kent is being tried out as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports. Just 89 lorries took part in a practice run during morning rush hour - fewer than the 150 lorries promised when the test was announced on Friday and a fraction of the 4,000 which could use the site in a no deal emergency. Each driver was paid 550 for their time - making the cost of today's test at least 48,950. The exercise was ridiculed today as a 'taxpayer funded farce' by critics who said it was 'plain stupid' to manufacture a traffic jam to appear ready for no deal. Haulage experts said the test was 'too little too late' and warned 89 lorries was nowhere near enough to simulate the impact of thousands. Theresa May's official spokesman insisted the Government was 'satisfied' with the number of lorries which took part and said the test provided a 'suitable sample'. The test at the disused airfield comes as no-deal preparations are ramped up amid bitter deadlock over Brexit in Parliament. The idea behind the runs at 8am and 11am was to 'establish the safest optimum release rate of HGVs' from the airfield to Dover along the A256. The chances of the UK crashing out have risen dramatically as the PM faces the prospect of disastrous defeat in a vote on January 15 on the deal she has thrashed out with the EU. A practice run for a no deal Brexit traffic jam turned into a farce today as just 89 lorries were used to simulate thousands being delayed by potential chaos at Dover (pictured are some of the lorries at the Dover port today) Manston airfield near Ramsgate in Kent is being tried out as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports. The trucks were sent down the A259 today (pictured) Some 89 lorries took part in a practice run during morning rush hour and again at 11am to 'establish the safest optimum release rate of HGVs' from the airfield to Dover along the A256 Under no deal plans, lorries would first be parked on the M20 to Ashford before being diverted to Manston Airfield (pictured) Each driver was paid 550 for their time - making the cost of today's test at least 48,950 If needed in a no deal scenario up to 4,000 lorries could be parked up on Manston Airfield which has already had parking bays painted on the tarmac (pictured) The idea behind the runs at 8am and 11am was to 'establish the safest optimum release rate of HGVs' from the airfield to Dover along the A256 (pictured is one of the trucks leaving on the second run today) Hundreds of MPs - including more than 20 Tories have signed a letter urging Theresa May to rule out a no-deal Brexit if her package is defeated. What are the no deal Brexit plans which have been enacted? Here are the emergency no deal plans which have been activated: Some 3,500 troops are on standby for no deal Brexit Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the troops could be used by any department as needed - but that no specific requests had yet been made for them. Ministers will book space on ferries to ensure critical supplies, such as medicines, can get in if there are long queues at the borders Families are to to be given advice on how to prepare for a no deal Brexit Up to 10,000 lorries could be parked in Kent if no deal causes delays at the ports The Kent authorities have warned that the gridlock could mean pupils miss school and exams, while bodies could pile up Advertisement But Eurosceptics including Boris Johnson are demanding that the PM pushes on to take the UK out of the bloc even if there is no agreement in place. Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to dismiss 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, arguing that people could 'sort fact for nonsense'. Nearly 100 lorries arrived at Manston Airport near Ramsgate in Kent early on Monday morning to line up along the runway before driving along the A256 towards Dover. The trial, called Operation Brock, is testing out the site as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports. Road signs were erected on Sunday night directing drivers to the test. Lorries from regional and national haulage companies - with Eddie Stobart leading the pack - started to arrive at the airfield from around 7am on Monday to form a queue along the runway. The drivers congregated in a large group before being directed by officials from the Department for Transport (DfT), Kent County Council and police officers. The first practice run began in rush-hour shortly after 8am, with four convoys leaving at intervals between 8.13am and 8.39am. Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, a supporter of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign, said: 'This is a taxpayer funded farce. Liberal Democrat Layla Moran ridiculed the exercise today as a 'taxpayer funded farce' by critics today who said it was 'plain stupid' to manufacture a traffic jam to appear ready for no deal 'No deal doesn't need to be a real prospect but the government are just throwing money down the drain for effect. 'Chris Grayling and his department have spent tens of thousands to create the spectacle of vehicles in a traffic jam to get into a disused airport , who then wait on the site for the green light to then create a traffic jam by snaking their way, interested in convoy, to Dover. 'The idea that creating a fake traffic jam will show the EU we are ready for no deal is just plain stupid. 'On days like this you have to think the UK has made a wrong turn somewhere.' Former Labour Transport Minister John Spellar told the Standard: 'This is another farce. 'Chris Grayling has given a shipping contract to a company that has no ships and now he's held a lorry test without trucks. 'He is starting the year with the same incompetence as he ended 2018.' The lorries - led by an Eddie Stobart-branded truck - formed up on Manston Airfield before dawn to take part in two practice runs The government has paid lorry firms to take part in the trial run of using the airfield today The test at the disused airfield comes as no-deal preparations are ramped up amid bitter deadlock over Brexit in Parliament After an initial run down to Dover at rush hour the convoy of lorries returned to Manston (pictured) for a second run late morning Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said: 'Of course it's good to have a plan in place but today's limited scope trial will need to be repeated to stress-test other aspects of the management of thousands of lorries properly. 'Today's trial cannot possibly duplicate the reality of 4,000 trucks that would be held at Manston airport in the event of a no-deal Brexit. 'It's too little too late - this process should have started nine months ago. At this late stage it looks like window dressing.' A DfT spokeswoman said: 'We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU. 'However, it is the duty of a responsible Government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no deal. 'We will be testing part of Operation Brock to ensure that, if it needs to be implemented, the system is fully functional.' Congestion at the Channel ports caused by the reintroduction of customs checks on goods has been one of the most commonly cited negative effects of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU at the end of March. Also known as Kent International Airport, the site closed in 2014 after owners could not find a buyer. Truck drivers and security staff were gathered on the run way at dawn today (pictured) as the test of Operation Brock began The lorries were sent off of Manston Airfield in convoy to simulate how a backlog of trucks might head to Dover amid delays to Channel crossings Lorries were seen queued up at the airfield, which could be used as a holding point if there is a disorderly exit from the EU In other developments today, former Conservative Party chairman Lord (Chris) Patten told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mrs May's 'rather miserable but gallant deal' should be 'put out of its misery as soon as possible'. He denounced the attempt to persuade MPs that the PM's deal was the only way to avoid a no-deal Brexit as a 'Doctor Strangelove argument'. 'I think it's pretty irresponsible to think that you can get a bad deal through by that sort of threat,' said Lord Patten. 'There used to be the Doctor Strangelove argument that sometimes you could threaten people with doing crazy things in order to get them to back down. That's really what's being suggested at the moment. 'I don't think Mrs May actually thinks that it makes any sort of sense whatsoever to go ahead without a deal.' Lord Patten said that the House of Commons must reject as 'snake oil' the option of a 'managed no-deal' plan and instead vote to extend or revoke Article 50 to allow more time to work out a 'sensible' future relationship with the EU. 'If we can't do that by getting a majority for staying within the single market and customs union, then I think we have no alternative but to go back to the people for another vote,' he said. He added: 'I don't like referendums, but we got into this miserable shambles because of a referendum, and it may be the only way we can get out of it.' Former glamour model Katie Price is pictured leaving Bromley Magistrates' Court today after pleading not guilty to drink-driving Katie Price today pleaded not guilty to drink-driving after allegedly crashing her 75,000 pink Range Rover into a parked car while twice the legal limit. The mother-of-five's 4x4 smashed into a car and a hedge in south-east London following her ex-boyfriend's birthday party in the early hours of October 10 last year. The 40-year-old, from Horsham, West Sussex, who is accused of being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle on October 10 last year, appeared at Bromley Magistrates Court this morning. The court heard when she was breathalysed she had 69 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg per 100ml. In the run-up to the alleged crash, Price had turned up uninvited to her ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party at a Turkish restaurant and bar. Today, wearing a fur coat and oversized glasses, the 40-year-old smiled as she arrived at court to deny being drunk behind the wheel. But the judge hit out at Price when she demanded special treatment. The former glamour model initially refused to give her address in court, but District Judge Nigel Dean ignored her request, and scolded her by saying 'all defendants are treated equally'. Price was arrested last October after reportedly 'turning up uninvited' to her on-off boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party. Pictured is her damaged Range Rover following the incident The former glamour model, pictured right outside court today, was charged in December Price, from Horsham in West Sussex, was charged by postal requisition in December. The 40-year-old was flanked by a private security guard this morning and smiled as she made her way into the court. She appeared in the dock wearing a grey fur jacket, skinny jeans and black high-heeled boots and spoke only to deny the charge and give her name, address and date of birth. Prosecutor Kate Seal said the issue in the case was whether Price was driving in Shooters Hill, Greenwich, at the time of the incident. The court heard there was 'no issue with the reading of breath' but that the 'issue is whether Ms Price was legally in charge of the vehicle' at the time it was found. The court heard CCTV from a nearby block of flats may have captured some of the crash, while the owner of the car that was hit found pink paint on the bodywork the following morning. Police at the time of her arrest in Greenwich, south east London, in October said officers had come across a car showing signs of damage. Price's 75,000 pink Range Rover is pictured Initially refusing to give her address, Price told the judge: 'There are press in court and I don't want them to know where I live.' Her solicitor added: 'The position is she has been trying to become anonymous for some time.' But District Judge Nigel Dean hit back: 'I think the public and members of the press are entitled to know the address of the defendant. 'All defendants are treated equally.' Price (pictured right arriving at court this morning) will next appear at Bexley Magistrates' Court on February 25 for her trial. Judge Dean granted Price bail until her next appearance After her arrest, Price spent 13 hours in a cell at Plumstead police station before being released under investigation. It is thought she was taken out through a back exit of the police station, before returning to her Sussex home with her now ex-boyfriend Alex Adderson. Judge Dean granted Price bail until her next appearance. She will next appear at Bexley Magistrates' Court on February 25 for her trial. China has made 'stern representations' to the US after an American destroyer sailed through waters claimed by Beijing in the disputed South China Sea. Chinese officials spoke to their US counterparts as they arrived in Beijing for talks aimed at deescalating an ongoing trade war. China has long claimed territorial rights over the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, but the US argues it is international waters. The USS McCampbell, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Monday, prompting an angry reaction from Beijing To that end, America carries out what it calls 'freedom of navigation operations' by sailing within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by the Chinese - but which also have rival claims from other nations, including US allies. The U.N. defines territorial waters as being within 12 nautical miles of a country's coastline. On Monday the USS McCampbell, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands 'to challenge excessive maritime claims' by China, Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr said. China has controlled the islands since seizing control of them from Vietnamese forces in 1974, but Vietnam and Taiwan still lay claim to them. They are different to the Spratley Islands - a series of artificial islands constructed by the Chinese and which have been fitted with military bases and airfields. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that the conduct of the U.S. ship had violated China's and international law, and that China had sent military ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the ship. 'We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation,' he said. The statement came as trade talks between China and the United States were under way in Beijing, the first round of face-to-face discussions since both sides agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled international markets. Asked about the timing of the operation during trade talks, Lu said resolving issues would benefit the two countries and the world. China claims sovereignty over the islands and the waters surrounding them, but the US argues the islands are unclaimed and the surrounding ocean is international waters 'Both sides have the responsibility to create the necessary positive atmosphere for this,' he said. China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently lambastes the United States and its allies for freedom of navigation naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan have competing claims in the region. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in December agreed to put on hold a spiraling trade dispute of tit-for-tat import tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of goods. Trump has imposed tariffs to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from corporate espionage to market access and industrial subsidies. China has retaliated with tariffs of its own. Fears have grown in recent months that the dispute is just one vector in a bilateral relationship that is fast cooling across the board, with top administration officials sharply criticizing Beijing for everything from human rights abuses and its influence operations in the United States. The two countries are also at odds over regional security, including Washington's overtures to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own. China and the United States have in the past repeatedly traded barbs over what Washington says is Beijings militarization of the South China Sea by building military installations on artificial islands and reefs. China defends its construction as necessary for self-defense and says that it is rather Washington that is responsible for ratcheting up tensions in the region by sending warships and military plans close to islands Beijing claims. A farmer who attacked 12 children with a kitchen knife at a kindergarten in southern China two years ago has been executed, state media reported Monday. Qin Pengan, 43, went to the kindergarten in Pingxiang city in China's Guangxi province in January 2017 and started slashing and stabbing children. He launched the attack in order to extract 'revenge' for his life not turning out the way he had wanted it to. 'Revenge': Qin Pengan, 43, said he attacked the children at the the kindergarten because his life had not turned out the way he wanted to, according to Chinese media Qin injured 12 children, four of them seriously, before a teacher fended off the attack and called for help as he fled the scene. He later surrendered himself to local authorities. A local court in Pingxiang sentenced Qin to death, and the sentence was carried out on Friday after being approved by the China's Supreme People's Court, the broadcaster said. Knife attacks targeting schoolchildren are not uncommon in China. Last October, a knife-wielding woman injured 14 children at a Sichuan province kindergarten. The attack, which left 12 children injured, took place in Pingxiang city in south China's Guangxi province in January 2017 In April 2017, a man killed nine middle school students as they were returning home in one of the country's deadliest knife attacks in recent years. The suspect in that case, who was later executed, had told police he was exacting revenge because he had been bullied when he attended the school. Such events have forced authorities to increase security around classrooms. Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation's economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly. Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and support systems wither. Max Spiers, 39, died aged 39 while on a visit for a conference to Warsaw in July 2016 A British conspiracy theorist died in Poland after taking a Turkish form of the drug Xanax, an inquest heard today. UFO expert Maxwell Bates-Spiers, known as Max Spiers, died while on a visit for a conference to Warsaw in 2016 - and his death has been shrouded in mystery. The father-of-two from Kent died on July 16 that year aged 39 at the house of Monika Duval, 50, who let him stay there after they met at the conference. It had previously emerged that before he died, he told his mother Vanessa Bates in a message: 'You're boy's in trouble, if anything happens to me, investigate.' The inquest held in Sandwich, Kent, heard he had bought 'eight to ten' boxes of the Turkish form of Xanax during a holiday to Cyprus with Ms Duval, and took several on the day of his death. A statement from Ms Duval, read at the inquest, said he fell asleep on her sofa after taking the tablets, before she saw he had stopped breathing hours later. He then began to vomit as she tried resuscitation while waiting for paramedics, the inquest heard. Vanessa Bates, the mother of conspiracy theorist Mr Spiers who died mysteriously in Poland She said: 'I noticed he had something in his mouth, some remnants of food, so I turned him on to one side and saw gastric fluids pouring out of him - brown liquid, like somewhat tea coloured.' Ms Duval tried resuscitation and paramedics were called but Mr Bates-Spiers died at the scene, the inquest heard. A summary of the Polish prosecutor's office's inquiry, which was read to the inquest, said he had exchanged numbers with Ms Duval after they attended the Earth Project conference. He was described by the Polish prosecutor's office as a journalist 'dealing with the topics of conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena', the inquest heard. Ms Duval agreed shortly after they met to let him stay at her house, rather than take his return plane ticket back to Britain. After picking him up from his hotel, she then took him to a doctor's surgery and bought him medication worth more than 1,500 Polish zloty (about 315). The inquest was told he often suffered illness while staying with her and 'sometimes he felt weak and sometimes he had problems with focus and attention'. She paid for several other medical appointments during his stay, it was said. At one point he also returned to England briefly, from the end of April until May 8, then returned to Ms Duval's home. The inquest heard he bought the Turkish Xanax equivalent during a holiday with Ms Duval to Cyprus from June 27 to July 11, when he visited a pharmacy and found the drug could be bought without a prescription. Mr Bates-Spiers asked Ms Duval to buy the 'entire stock', about eight to ten boxes, of the drug and she 'fulfilled that request', according to the Polish prosecutor's office (PPO). It was said he stopped breathing and a 'dark brown liquid flowed out' of his mouth as Ms Duval and her daughter attempted resuscitation. Ambulance crews arrived after about ten to 15 minutes and also tried to revive him. The PPO said the death 'was caused by natural causes' and 'excluded participation of further persons', the inquest heard. The inquest, which is scheduled to last three days, continues. Shocking footage released by animal rights activists shows hunt members dragging a captured fox from a hole to be hunted by hounds. The video, shot using two cameras on New Year's Day, in Moreton, Oxfordshire, shows members of the Kimblewick Hunt trying to force a fox from a drainage pipe, before being thrown into the woods for the dogs to hunt. The men, known as terriermen, can be seen in the footage discussing which way they want the fox released and taking a look at it underground. The man who was constructing the piping then shoves it into the ground to force the fox towards another man who grabs the fox by the hind legs and pulls it from the hole (pictured), before releasing it into the forest It is trapped using artificial earths, which often consist of two tunnels, often consisting of pipes, and a chamber underground, concealed by grass to disguise the purpose. They were regularly used to ensure hunters have foxes to kill, prior to the hunting ban in 2004. One of the men then says 'he wants it gone as soon as possible Ian', presumably referring to the fox. A man starts assembling piping, which is used to flush the fox out, while the other takes instructions on the phone. After hanging up the phone, shouts of 'hold hard' can be heard in the background. The man who was constructing the piping then shoves it into the ground to force the fox towards another man who grabs the fox by the hind legs and pulls it from the hole, before releasing it into the forest. A few minutes pass before a number of dogs come into view, sniffing and searching for the fox A few minutes pass before a number of dogs come into view, sniffing and searching for the fox. Lee Moon, spokesman for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated: 'Incidents like this prove time and again that hunts throughout the UK are still totally focused on hunting and killing live animals. 'In recent years the South Herefordshire, the Middleton, the Pytchley, the Belvoir and now the Kimblewick have all been implicated in keeping captive foxes to hunt, showing that this behaviour is commonplace amongst hunts.' After viewing the video Chris Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, and a former hunt saboteur, said: 'Hunts up and down the country are routinely flouting the hunting ban. 'This arrogant disregard for the law of the land can only be stopped if the loopholes in the legislation are removed. 'That is why Labour have recently pledged to strengthen the Hunting Act and ghastly incidents like this underpins that commitment. 'Tougher penalties are essential, including prison sentences for persistent offenders, if we are to deliver the wildlife protection that parliament voted for over 14 years ago.' The Kimblewick Hunt covers parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. A spokesman from the Countryside Alliance said: 'All hunts should be operating within the law. 'There are exemptions to the Hunting Act, and other legal options, which can be used to cull foxes and most hunts still offer a fox control service. However unjustified the Hunting Act is it should be adhered to.' A spokesperson on behalf of the MFHA said: 'The Masters of Foxhounds Association has strict disciplinary procedures and will fully investigate any credible allegation relating to Masters, hunt employees or hunts. 'It cannot, however, investigate criminal allegations or take any action that would interfere with or impede a possible police investigation.' A spokesman for the RSPCA said: 'We would encourage those who recorded it to contact the police and work with them.' The video was released by the Hunt Saboteurs Association. Piers Morgan branded a 'flexitarian' Green Party leader a hypocrite for eating meat at Christmas in a heated debate on proposals for a meat tax. A number of Green Party MPs are proposing the Government imposes taxes on meat consumption to help combat climate change. Deputy leader Amelia Womack appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss the issue, enraging host Piers Morgan who claimed her argument is 'pure hypocrisy' when she still eats meat. When asked if she was a vegan or vegetarian, Ms Womack said she is a 'flexitarian'. Scroll down for video Piers Morgan (pictured on GMB today, left) branded 'flexitarian' Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack (picture on the show today, right) a hypocrite for eating meat at Christmas in a heated debate on proposals for a meat tax Probed further on whether she ate Turkey for her Christmas dinner, she replied: 'I am a flexitarian but I had turkey with my Christmas dinner. 'I had a few slices or Turkey for my Christmas dinner.' Piers interjected, but she said what she ate on Christmas day was 'not the point'. Laying into her further, the GMB host claimed flexitarians are the same as meat-eaters 'except they just want to be with the cool kids' - saying they are vegetarian or vegan. He labelled them the 'gender fluid of meat eaters', saying: 'You are the gender fluid of meat eaters, you want to be with the cool kids, but you are a meat eater. Deputy leader Amelia Womack appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss the issue She enraged host Piers Morgan who claimed her argument was 'pure hypocrisy' when she still eats meat 'There is so much hypocrisy on the damage of environment and society for the meat eaters that you want to tax. 'When vegans and vegetarians have no idea about the damage being done to the environment by their cravings.' Ms Womack argued that Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP is proposing wide-ranging policy that look at how meat and other produce is manufactured in the UK. She argued that only a very small percentage of fruit and vegetables Britons eat are grown in British soil and more needs to be done to encourage localism. Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association (pictured, right, with Amelia Womack, left) was also against the proposals But Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, was also against the proposals. He said: 'I think it's fundamentally wrong to apply to a tax to a food product that is inherently sustainable.' She also hit back at Piers, saying he had 'got his knickers in a twist over a small sausage', to laughs from the other presenters. There was a backlash on social media, with people commenting on the 'hypocrisy' of flexitarians and joking whether a tax would be introduced on fruit and vegetables for the sake of equality. One person wrote: 'A tax on meat, what a lot of tosh, let's tax veg? If its good enough for the veggies it's good enough for the meaties #gmb' Another posted: 'A tax on meat? FFS Let's have a tax on the air we breathe because not all of it's good for you either #GMB' Someone else said flexitarian is the 'most stupid label' they'd ever heard, while another person said the idea was a 'joke' and 'absolute hypocrisy'. It followed Piers being forced to try the new vegan sausage roll from Greggs - before he spewed it into a bin. Vegans targeted him on Twitter and accused him of faking his violent reaction to the 'sausage roll' calling it an anti-vegan conspiracy. Piers Morgan has been a vocal opponent to the new Greggs vegan sausage roll but agreed to try one on GMB today A single bite prompted a violent reaction and he ended up with his head in a bin spitting it out Six loyal dogs spent over 24 hours waiting for their homeless owner outside a hospital in Brazil when he was rushed in suffering from a stroke. A video captures the remarkable moment the faithful hounds arrive panting at Accident and Emergency after chasing the ambulance for several miles, right to the hospital's doors. The devoted pets refused to leave the entrance of the Santa Casa Hospital in Cianorte, south Brazil, last Wednesday when the street dweller, known only as Luiz, was suddenly taken ill. They kept vigilant outside the front of the institution and howled for hours, according to observers. Passers-by pictured the dogs sleeping outside the doors of the Santa Casa Hospital in Cianorte, south Brazil last week Luiz, who has been sleeping rough for over 20 years, was discharged the following day but left through another entrance with his brother. The dogs, who he considers to be his family, stayed put waiting for him to emerge. They only left when their master returned to collect them. Simone Zilane, a volunteer with animal welfare group, the Amigos de Patas, filmed the caring canines guarding the hospital door and gasped in delight as they all turned up. She said to Brazilian media G1: 'The dogs were desperate. They followed the ambulance, racing after it down the roads and arrived just as Luiz was being taken into the hospital. They went mad as they took him in and howled non-stop at the entrance. 'After a while they lay down on the ground and refused to leave. When we realised Luiz had been discharged and his pets were none the wiser, one of our volunteers went to fetch him from his brother's house and take him to where the dogs were still waiting for him. Their homeless owner Luiz (pictured) suffered a sudden stroke last week and had to be rushed to the hospital for care The dogs leaving hospital with their owner Luiz after he was finally discharged from the care unit 'He hadn't realise they were outside all this time, but he wasn't too surprised,' she added. The dogs were ecstatic when their owner turned up and yapped and leapt around him in a show of happiness. According to the non-governmental organisation, Luiz has been diagnosed with psychiatric problems but for years he has declined to accept help from homeless charities and his family. Apparently he prefers to live on the streets with his strays. Ms Zilane said: 'We rented a very simple house for him a while ago with a big yard for the dogs but he didn't accept it and refused to enter the house. He said his home is the street. 'At that time, the dogs were also taken to a kennel, which a volunteer from the NGO created, but they escaped by jumping over the wall and going after Luiz. Where ever he is you can guarantee the dogs are never very far away.' After his health scare, the drifter agreed to take a shower and accept a plate of food while his dogs were watered and fed. According to the NGO, all the animals have been neutered, vaccinated, dewormed and chipped. By the weekend, Luiz was already back on the streets with his pack of faithful followers. This is the heartwarming moment a tourist frees a seagull she found with a length of plastic around its neck. Tara Russell spotted the distressed bird when on holiday in St Pete Beach, Florida over New Year. But instead of simply walking past, she decided to launch a rescue mission to save the seagull. Tara Russell stands on a wooden pillar as she attempts to remove a length of plastic from around the neck of a seagull The clip, posted to Facebook by Emily Eleanor Krause, captures Ms Russell as she stands on a wooden pillar at the end of the pier. She holds the distressed seagull and attempts to untangle a length of plastic from around its neck as a friend holds a towel beside her. The camerawoman said: 'Alright Tara! Save it!' Ms Russell then jumps down from the pillar as she twists the plastic over the bird's head and the animal flaps its wings in panic. Ms Russell carefully removes the plastic in St Pete Beach, Florida as her friends cheer her on The tourist struggles with the material for a few moments longer before she finally tugs it from the seagull's head. Ms Russell then lifts the bird into the air and watches as it flies away across the water. The camerawoman shouts 'You're welcome!' after the animal as it disappears. Ms Krause, who posted the video on January 2, wrote on social media: 'Tara Russell saving birds all 2019 boys!! 'DONT LITTER.' The bitter infighting comes as Theresa May (pictured in London yesterday) scrambles to save her Brexit plan from what looks like certain defeat in a crunch vote next Tuesday Tory splits deepened further today as Boris Johnson launched another furious attack on Theresa May's Brexit deal - insisting 'no deal' is what people voted for in the referendum. The former Foreign Secretary delivered the stinging assault despite more than 20 Conservative MPs urging the PM to rule out crashing out of the EU without an agreement. Others have joined calls for a Norway-style relationship with the bloc, as the party threatens to tear itself to pieces over the issue. The bitter infighting comes as Theresa May scrambles to save her Brexit plan from what looks like certain defeat in a crunch vote next Tuesday. Mrs May is still hoping to get fresh concessions from Brussels over the Irish border 'backstop' that could help her sell the package. But there appears little hope of a major breakthrough, and as MPs returned to Westminster after the Christmas break she has been warned there is no sign of attitudes changing. Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to dismiss 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, arguing that people could 'sort fact for nonsense'. He said: 'They didn't vote for anything like Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement. They voted to come out. 'It is no deal or WTO terms that actually corresponds to their idea of coming out, and they view that option with a confidence that is now directly proportional to the growing strength of the Government's warnings against it.' A paper written by Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Lilley, along with Labour Leave general secretary Brendan Chilton, also backed a WTO-style Brexit, claiming that concerns raised about the approach were similar to fears about the Millennium Bug. Their report said: 'It would be rash to predict that 'everything will be all right on the night'. 'Unforeseen problems may arise, and some businesses may fail to prepare for foreseable problems. 'But experience suggests that if one prepares for them, what could have been major problems turn out to be minor.' It was 'likely to turn out nearer the Millennium Bug than Armageddon', they said. In preparation for a no-deal Brexit, a major exercise is being carried out in Kent involving more than 100 lorries. The trial will test out Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass HGV holding bay to ease congestion on roads to Channel ports But 209 MPs from across the Commons have now signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. The letter was organised by Tory former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labour's Jack Dromey. Dame Caroline told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: 'Crashing out of the EU without a deal will cause job losses and bring to an end the renaissance of manufacturing that we've seen in regions like mine in the West Midlands, and both Jack Dromey and I know the human interest and impact of this.' Boris Johnson dismissed 'downright apocalyptic' messages about a Brexit on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms All signatories to the letter have been invited to meet the Prime Minister in Downing Street tomorrow. The meeting is one of a series being organised by Mrs May, who is also hosting drinks receptions for Tory MPs tonight and Wednesday as part of an charm offensive to win support for the Brexit deal. Mrs May has warned the UK will be in 'uncharted territory' if the deal is rejected in the vote, expected on January 15. She told BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'What we'll be setting out over the next few days is a sort of assurances, is measures in three areas. 'The first is measures that will be specific for Northern Ireland. 'The second is a greater role for parliament as we take these negotiations into the next stage for our future relationship. 'And the third, and we're still working on this, is further assurances from the European Union to address the issues that have been raised.' Mrs May acknowledged she was 'still working on' getting further assurances from the EU to address concerns about the backstop measure aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland. Mrs May held talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday and the pair are expected to keep in touch this week as the clock ticks down to the Commons showdown. Mrs May held talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) on Friday as the Commons showdown looms However, the DUP's deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said the Withdrawal Agreement remained 'toxic' as a result of the Irish backstop measure. 'The fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed,' he said. Eurosceptic Conservative backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'What would change the chemistry is if the DUP came onside. 'If the DUP were satisfied, that would change the chemistry. But there would still be a hardcore of Conservatives who are probably going to vote against this for a variety of reasons.' Sir Bernard said it was 'lame' for MPs to sign the letter opposing a no-deal Brexit, after Parliament had voted in favour of holding the 2016 referendum and accepting its outcome and had legislated for withdrawal on March 29. 'Leaving the EU is set in the law,' he said. 'Many of the people who have signed the letter this morning saying they don't want a no-deal Brexit have actually voted through the legislation that means we leave on March 29 with or without a formal Article 50 withdrawal agreement.' Sir Bernard played down the likely impact of a no-deal Brexit, but acknowledged: 'There are sectors that will have difficulty in transitioning to the new arrangements, if it happens suddenly.' A Saudi teenager has gone into hiding following Thailand's promise not to deport her after she barricaded herself in a hotel room to avoid being sent back to her 'abusive' family. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, ran away from her family while they were on a trip to Kuwait three days ago and had flown to Thailand in the hope of reaching Australia to seek asylum. But she was left stranded at Bangkok airport on Saturday when she was barred from entry by Thai immigration officials. The teenager was due to have been marched onto a flight back to Kuwait this morning. But, fearing her family would kill her, she refused to board the plane, instead posting a clip on Twitter of her barricading her hotel door with a table, mattresses and a chair. The UN refugee agency, given access to speak to her today, says she has left the airport after a Thai official said 'we will not send anyone to die'. She is to be housed in a 'secure location' having been temporarily admitted to the country for an evaluation. In a tweet this afternoon, Rahaf, who fears retaliation from her family after she renounced Islam, said she was 'scared' after learning her father had arrived in Thailand - but that she was 'safe' with the UN and Thai authorities. Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has gone into hiding following Thailand's promise not to deport her after she barricaded herself in a hotel room to avoid being sent back to her 'abusive' family. She is pictured shaking hands with Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn after leaving her room today Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun barricaded herself in a hotel room (pictured, today) at a Thai airport, using tables, chairs and mattresses in a bid to avoid deportation Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun (left) finally left her hotel room after talks with the UN refugee agency. She is pictured with Thai Immigration Police Chief Surachet Hakparn (right) at Bangkok airport ahead of being taken to a 'secure location' In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Rahaf posted video of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is 'sure 100 percent' her family will kill her, she said In a tweet this afternoon, Rahaf, who fears retaliation from her family after she renounced Islam, said she was 'scared' after learning her father had arrived in Thailand - but that she was 'safe' with the UN and Thai authorities In another tweet today, Rahaf revealed that her passport had been returned to her and included a picture of the travel document She wrote: 'Hey I'm Rahaf. My father just arrived as I heard [which] worried and scared me a lot and I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in. 'But at least I feel [safe] now under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities. And I finally got my passport back.' She has claimed she was tricked into giving up her passport on arrival in Bangkok - but the Saudi Foreign Ministry denied its embassy had seized the document and say she was stopped at the airport for violating Thai immigration laws. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at Bangkok's Saudi embassy, has, however, acknowledged that the woman's father had previously contacted them for 'help' to bring her back. This morning, Bangkok's Criminal Court dismissed an injunction request from a human rights lawyer to prevent her deportation. But the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees later said it had been granted access to the Saudi national to assess her need for international protection 'and find an immediate solution for her situation'. Rahaf fled her 'abusive' family while travelling in Kuwait, and had flown to Thailand in the hopes of reaching Australia to seek asylum. But she was stopped in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport by Kuwaiti and Saudi embassy officials, she said, and has since been held in an airport hotel awaiting deportation. She said a Saudi official in the Thai airport confiscated her passport after her father reported her for travelling without her male 'guardian'. He claimed she was mentally ill but failed to provide any evidence. Saudi culture and guardianship policy requires women to have permission from a male relative to work, travel, marry, and even get some medical treatment. The deeply conservative Muslim country lifted a ban on women drivers last year. The incident comes as Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny over the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Rahaf (centre, today) said 'I feel save now under UNHCR protection' after holding talks with the UN refugee agency UNHCR representative Giuseppe De Vincentiis (centre) was pictured walking into the transit hotel at the airport ahead of talks with Rahaf Thailand's Immigration Police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn (pictured today) said Rahaf will not be sent anywhere against her wishes Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, has been at Bangkok airport since Saturday when she was denied entry by Thai immigration officials, who deny her accusations that she was detained at the behest of the Saudi government Rahaf made desperate appeals for help and repeated calls to speak to someone from the UN Rahaf has said on Twitter that she fears her family will kill her if she is forced to return to them from Thailand On Twitter, Rahaf had written of being in 'real danger' if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. She said she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her father's retaliation After announcing that Thailand 'will not force her' to leave, Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters that Rahaf would be 'allowed to stay' after a meeting with officials from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. 'She is under the care of the UNHCR now but we also sent Thai security to help take care (of her),' Surachate told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport. He said the teenager had told UNHCR officials she 'wants to stay in Thailand for a while while seeking asylum to a third country'. The agency 'will take five days to consider her status' and another five days to arrange for travel, Surachate said, adding that he would meet with Saudi diplomats on Tuesday to explain Thailand's decision. UNHCR's spokesman in Geneva Babar Baloch confirmed Rahaf had 'left the airport to a safe place in the city' and said agency officials would interview her once she had had some rest. Surachate had told reporters earlier Monday Qunun was stopped by immigration because Saudi officials had contacted them to say she had fled her family. 'Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send anyone to die,' he said. 'We will take care of her as best as we can.' Surachate also acknowledged for the first time Saudi embassy had alerted Thai authorities to Qunun's arrival. 'The Saudi Arabia embassy contacted the immigration police ... and said that the girl had run away from her parents and they fear for her safety,' he said. 'We acknowledged this and checked her paperwork. She had a passport but no return ticket, no travel plan, and no destination or hotel reservation in Thailand... so per airport security procedures, immigration denied her entry.' Rahaf Mohammed al Qunun, 18, sent this selfie to MailOnline from the Bangkok airport hotel room in which she is being held. She believes she will be murdered by her family if she is deported Rahaf accused Kuwait Airlines and the Saudi embassy of working together to take her passport when she arrived in Bangkok The UNHCR said its representative had met her but would not comment on the details of the meeting or its outcome. It said in a statement that Thailand had a responsibility not to expel or return anyone to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. 'This principle is recognised as customary international law, and is also enshrined in Thailand's other treaty obligations,' the UNHCR statement said. Last night, speaking from an airport hotel room guarded by security officials, Rahaf told MailOnline: 'I am scared. My brother told me that he's waiting with some Saudi men. 'They will take me to Saudi Arabia and my father will kill me, because he is so angry. He will kill me. My family do this. I know them. 'They kept telling me they will kill me if I do something wrong - they say that since I was a child.' She, her parents, and her six siblings live in Ha'il in Saudi Arabia, where her father works as a government official. She says she has suffered beatings and emotional abuse from her family, at one point being locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair. When they took a trip to visit family in Kuwait she made her escape, buying flights from Kuwait to Thailand and from Thailand to Australia with help from a friend, and taking a taxi to the airport at 4am after checking her father was asleep. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, had earlier tweeted: 'I have been detained in an airport hotel. I will be forcibly repatriated tomorrow to Kuwait and then Saudi. There is an airport person who constantly follows me. I can't even ask for protection or asylum in Thailand.' She said: 'When I came to Thailand someone told me that he will help me to get a visa for Thailand in the airport. After that he took my passport. After one hour he came back with five or six people, I think they were police or something and then they told me my father is so angry and I must go back to Saudi Arabia. They know I ran away from him.' In a text conversion on the messaging app Whatsapp, her father told an airport employee official Rahaf was mentally ill, but when challenged to provide evidence or documentation, he fell silent. Rahaf demanded her passport back and asked to be allowed to fly to another country, but officials insisted she would be deported. She said: 'They kept telling me I can't get a visa. The airline told me I have to stay here so I can go back to Kuwait. From Kuwait they [my family] will take me to Saudi Arabia. 'They will kill me. I am so scared. I want to go to another country, and stay safe. I have a visa for Australia, I want to go there. I don't know what I will do. I have to fight, because I don't want to lose my life.' Rahaf has shared via Twitter her reasons for fleeing her family and the alleged threatening behaviour of Saudi officials in Bangkok airport. In a video, Rahaf is shown detained in an airport hotel in Bangkok with security officials preventing her from leaving the building The 18-year-old has been appealing for aid from the United Nations refugee agency and anyone else who can help She said: 'My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair,' she said, adding that she is certain she will be imprisoned if she is sent back. 'I'm sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail,' she said, adding that she was 'scared' and 'losing hope'. In another tweet she said: 'I have been threatened by several staff from the Saudi embassy and the Kuwaiti airlines, and they said 'If you run, we will find you and kidnap you, then deal with you' I really don't know how they are going to behave in case I run.' 'There is an airport person who constantly follows me. I can't even ask for protection or asylum in Thailand. Thai police refuse to help me,' she claimed in a separate tweet. Q&A: The hurdles and obstacles Saudi women runaways face Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun is the latest young Saudi woman to attempt to flee her family and seek asylum abroad. Her calls for help on Twitter have grabbed international attention and prompted Thai authorities to say they will not deport her back to her family. With Saudi women runaways increasingly using social media to amplify their desperate pleas for help, here a look at the obstacles they face: WHY ARE SOME SAUDI WOMEN FLEEING? Alqunun has told rights groups and media she's fleeing an abusive family and seeking greater freedoms abroad. Saudi females who flee their families are almost always running away from abusive male relatives, often a father or brother. In a few of the cases, the women have also renounced Islam and claim they cannot return home. They fear they could be killed after publicly denouncing the faith and publicizing their identities online. In other cases, a woman's father might be barring from her marriage or forcing her into marriage. In other cases her salary is being confiscated, or she's facing sexual or physical abuse. WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY? The kingdom has granted women greater rights in recent years, like the right to drive, run and vote in local elections and play sports in school. Ultimately, however, male guardianship laws remain in place. Under these laws, a woman must have her male guardian's permission in order to obtain a passport, travel abroad or marry. From childhood through adulthood , every Saudi woman passes from the control of one legal guardian to another, a male relative whose decisions or whims can determine the course of her life. Legal guardians are often a woman's father or husband, but can also be a brother or her own son. Although King Salman has tried to limit its scope, male permission is sometimes still demanded when a woman tries to rent an apartment, undergo elective medical procedures or open a bank account. HOW OFTEN DO SAUDI WOMEN RUN AWAY? There are no public statistics available for how many Saudi women try to flee abroad each year. The most recent statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social Development show that 577 Saudi women tried to flee their homes within Saudi Arabia in 2015. That figure is likely to be much higher in reality because many families do not report runaways for fear of social stigma. Social media has brought attention to a number of cases of women trying to flee in recent years. Saudi women like Dina Ali Lasloom who was stopped in the Philippines, two Saudi sisters who fled to Turkey, and now Rafah Alqunun in Thailand have all used Twitter and social media to raise awareness of their plight and ask for help. WHAT HAPPENS TO WOMEN FORCED BACK TO SAUDI ARABIA? If women are caught running away, they can be pressured to return home or placed in shelters where often the only way out is to escape again. Others are jailed for violating so-called obedience laws and only a male guardian can sign for their release. Last year, Mariam al-Otaibi spent more than 100 days in prison in Saudi Arabia after her father filed a complaint to police against her for leaving home. She'd moved from the ultraconservative province of Qassim to the capital, where supporters helped her rent an apartment and find work. Women can also be placed in restrictive shelters where they cannot freely access the internet or mobile phones. Their movements are also restricted and often the only way to leave is with the consent of a male guardian. The shelters say they offer women psychiatric care and therapy, but do not take in women who, for example, are pregnant out of wedlock. Premarital sex can lead to criminal prosecution in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. WHAT HAPPENS TO WOMEN SEEKING ASYLUM ABROAD? Saudi women who attempt to apply for asylum face a number of legal hurdles, including proving abuse. Without evidence, such as threatening texts, video or photos of abuse, a woman's case for asylum can be rejected in the United States, for example. Without access to a bank account of their own or a credit card, women can find themselves in dire circumstances in foreign countries where they do not know the local laws. Saudi activists who have successfully fled political persecution in the kingdom do not advise women to flee as a first option, warning that women who run away without a clear plan in place are vulnerable to various kinds of abuse. Often the Saudi women who run away are young and inexperienced, further complicating their ability to navigate lengthy and complex asylum processes. Two young Saudi sisters found dead in New York last year had sought asylum in the U.S., according to detectives. They'd maxed out the older sister's credit card before their bodies were found along the rocky banks of the Hudson River wrapped together with tape. Police did not suspect foul play was involved. Advertisement She also shared a picture of her passport 'because I want you to know I'm real and exist'. Over the weekend Rahaf said she was in a hotel on the airport grounds with multiple security and immigration officials preventing her from leaving the building. At one point she tried to plead with the President of the United States directly, tweeting: '@realDonaldTrump please help me. I'm hoping that you heard about me. I'm Saudi girl who fled from her family. Now I could be killed if they drag me back to my male guardian.' President Trump considers the kingdom's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a close ally, and has rejected the findings of his own intelligence agencies which linked 'MBS', as he is known, to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Thai officials had earlier claimed it is a family matter and said she would be deported to Saudi Arabia - where renouncing Islam is punishable by death, and activists say women are at risk of 'honour killings' by family members. It is a chilling echo of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, a Saudi woman who in April 2017 was held for 13 hours in Manilla airport while trying to flee a forced marriage. She was forcibly taken back to Saudi Arabia by uncles and never heard from again. Rahaf shared this copy of her passport saying on Twitter, 'I'm sharing it with you now because I want you to know I'm real and exist' Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun's tweets are being translated and shared online. She says she is in real danger if she is forced to return to Saudi Arabia It's happened before: Saudi woman fleeing forced marriage disappeared in 2017 In April 2017, Saudi woman Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, attampted to flee to Australia. She posted videos on Twitter saying she was trying to escape a forced marriage and feared violence and even death at the hands of her family if she was returned to the kingdom. Rahaf's situation is reminiscent of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, pictured She said: 'My name is Dina Ali and I'm a Saudi woman who fled Saudi Arabia to Australia to seek asylum. 'Please help me. I'm recording this video to help me and know that I'm real and I'm here. 'If my family come, they will kill me.' Ms Lasloom's passport was confiscated by authorities in the Philippines at Manilla airport, and she was held for 13 hours. Her case received publicity via help from a Canadian tourist, but she was nonetheless reportedly duct-taped before being being forced on a flight back to Riyadh by uncles. She has not been heard from since. Advertisement Thailand's immigration chief Hakparn had earlier said Rahaf would be sent back to Saudi Arabia by Monday morning, adding, 'It's a family problem'. But Rahaf and charity Human Rights Watch said in fact she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport and her passport was forcibly taken from her after a a male guardian had reported her for travelling 'without his permission'. Rahaf said she was trying to flee her family, who subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. She took to Twitter to plead her case, creating a profile with an Arabic bio that reads 'I just want to survive'. During a video livestream showing her walking around a carpeted hallway, Rahaf spoke in Arabic about how her father had told Saudi embassy officials she was a 'psychiatric patient' who had to be returned, even though she had 'an Australian visa'. 'I can't escape the airport,' she said in the live video. 'I tried but there's a security (official) watching me.' Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson told MailOnline yesterday: 'Rahaf faces being sent back to face honor related violence from her family, and openly says that her father will kill her.' On Sunday, Rahaf told the BBC that she had renounced Islam, and feared she would be forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia and killed by her family. Online, Arabic speakers, human rights activists and journalists have attempted to bring a media spotlight to the case on Twitter using the hashtag #SaveRahaf. Her story has all the hallmarks of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, a Saudi woman who hoped to find sanctuary in Australia from a forced marriage. In April 2017 she was detained in Manilla airport by authorities in the Phillipines, taken back to Saudi Arabia by her uncles and never heard from again. In a series of tweets Ms Mohammed al-Qunun described being detained by police at Suvarnabhumi Airport (pictured) and says she fears for her life She used a Canadian tourist's phone to send a message, a video of which was posted to Twitter, saying her family would kill her. Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. If punished for 'moral' crimes, they could become victims of further violence in 'honour killings' at the hands of their families, activists say. A man has been shot and after a wild brawl erupted outside a gym at Clyde in western Sydney. The chaos unfolded just before 5pm on Berry Street with police finding a 48-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound to his foot. Three men have been arrested, with two of the accused, both 22, treated for facial injuries. It is believed the shooting victim is one of the arrested men. A crime scene has been established and the man treated by paramedics and taken to Westmead Hospital. A man has been shot and after a wild brawl erupted outside a gym at Clyde in western Sydney Steven H Pollard fell 52ft to his death on Sunday after slipping through a 3ft-wide gap between lanes of the Mill Basin Bridge A New York firefighter has died after falling more than 50ft from a bridge while responding to a car accident. Steven H Pollard, who was still on probation at the FDNY, was walking between the carriageways of the Mill Basin Bridge in Brooklyn Sunday when he fell to his death. Pollard, 30, slipped through a gap in the road between the carriageways - though it is not clear if he knew the gap was there when he tried to cross. The bridge, which was originally solid the whole way across, was recently rebuilt to include a 3ft wide gap between each side of the road. NYPD Police Commissioner James O'Neill tweeted early Monday that the entire department sends its condolences to Pollard's family, friends and colleagues. '#NYC will never forget your sacrifice,' the tweet read. In statement posted on the department's Facebook page Monday morning FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro and Mayor Bill de Blasio said: 'It's an incredibly sad night for the Pollard family, for the Fire Department family, and for our city. 'He lost his life tonight in the process of helping others.' Nigro said Ladder Company 170 in Brooklyn was called to the two-car accident with injuries on the Belt Parkway, just east of Flatbush, on Sunday at 10 p.m. Pollard was trying to cross from one side of the carriageway to the other when he fell, though it is unclear if he knew the gap was there because it was added during recent building work As the firefighters were going to help the victims Pollard slipped through a gap in the roadway and fell approximately 52 feet to the ground below. He was pronounced dead at a Kings County Hospital. Pollard is the 1,151st member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty, the statement said. He comes from a family of firefighters including his father, Ray Pollard, of Ladder 102 in Brooklyn and his brother Ray Pollard Jr. who is an active member of Ladder Company 114. He is also survived by his mother. De Blasio and O'Neill went to the hospital after the accident. 'This is a family who has done so much for New York City and now they're going through this loss and this pain. It's a very, very tough situation,' de Blasio said. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she wants to model her socialist policies off of European countries and not those of Venezuela. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, the newly sworn-in House Rep laughed when asked if what she has in mind for the US mirrors the oppressive socialist regimes found in the former Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela. 'Of course not. What we have in mind and what my policies most closely re-resemble are what we see in the UK, in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden,' Ocasio-Cortez said. The Congresswoman delved into her policies and ambitions during Sundays CBS 60 Minutes interview, just days after being sworn in as the youngest congresswoman ever elected to Congress at 29. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sat down with Anderson Cooper for CBS 60 Minutes and laughed when asked if what she has in mind for US socialist policies mirrors that of the former Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela During the interview, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on her plans for universal healthcare, tuition-free public college and combating climate change. She shot back at critics who question her progressive agenda, such as Senator Chris Coons who deemed her proposals 'unrealistic'. 'We pay more per capita in healthcare and education for lower outcomes than many other nations. And so for me, what's unrealistic is what we're living in right now,' she said. Asked by Cooper how the US is going to pay for her socialist reform, she replied: 'No one asks how we're going to pay for this Space Force. No one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. 'We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, healthcare and education. How do we pay for it? With the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases for this Space Force.' Instead she said she wants to model socialist policies off of European countries, such as Norway, Sweden and Finland During the interview, Cooper asked if she thinks President Trump is a racist. To which Ocasio-Cortez emphatically said yes At one point, Cooper blatantly asked if she believes President Trump 'is a racist?' 'Yeah. Yeah. No question,' Ocasio-Cortez replied. 'When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy.' 'When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's night and day,' she added. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York's 14th District (parts of Queens and the Bronx), said Trump was a 'symptom of a problem.' 'The President certainly didn't invent racism,' Ocasio-Cortez said, 'but he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things.' the type of socialism found in the former Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela. The White House responded to Ocasio-Cortez's comments, saying: 'Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's sheer ignorance on the matter can't cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform.' Trump 'has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms,' according to the White House. Model Annalise Braakensiek may have laid dead for days before her body was found in her newly-bought inner-city Sydney apartment. The 46-year-old was found dead at 3.30pm on Sunday, but friends said she had stopped replying to their texts on Thursday. The three days of silence prompted loved ones to call emergency services, who arrived to find Ms Braakensiek lifeless inside her Potts Point home. Police are unsure how long Ms Braakensiek had been there, and are awaiting results from a post mortem examination to determine how she died. Neighbours in the Victoria Street residential block said they had been told Ms Braakensiek lived on the top floor, but had never seen her in any of the common areas or even on the street outside. No one knew Ms Braakensiek or even that she lived in the complex. The 46-year-old had been living in a new Potts Point development for three months, yet no one in the building had seen her or even knew of her existence. High-profile Australian model Annalise Braakensiek (pictured) was found dead in her Sydney apartment on Sunday at the age of 46 Friends began to worry about the 46-year-old's wellbeing when Braakensiek failed to respond to text messages or phone calls since Thursday Local business owners said they saw two police cars on Sunday afternoon, but they had never seen the former high-profile model around. The owner of a cafe beside the building said she knew everyone who came in, but had never seen Ms Braakensiek. 'I would definitely remember her,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It is so sad.' Ms Braakensiek's social media feeds became dark and cryptic after she split with her stockbroker husband of 16 years Danny Goldberg in April last year. Close friend and celebrity commentator Craig Bennett, who has known Ms Braakensiek for three decades, said she 'plunged into darkness' after the separation. 'Everybody saw her as this absolutely gorgeous soul, still modelling bikinis until recently,' Mr Bennett said, according to the Daily Telegraph. 'When you have that dynamic when somebody is very frail and vulnerable deep down inside and then to have something as important to her as a marriage collapse it really knocked her for a spin. 'It kind of punched the wind out of her sails and plunged her into a dark place, all of which is evidenced in her social media threads.' As news of his ex-wife's death spread, Mr Goldberg was being comforted at his Bondi Beach apartment by close friends. She spent her final weeks alive alone in her inner city Sydney apartment in Potts Point where neighbours didn't even know her As news of his ex-wife's death spread, stockbroker Danny Goldberg was being comforted at his Bondi Beach apartment by close friends He was seen having an animated conversation with another man on the street outside In the weeks before her death, Ms Braakensiek uploaded a series of eerie Instagram posts. She detailed in one of her last posts how 'life's challenges have been deep, dark, difficult, demanding and down right scary lately'. 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' she posted to her almost 40,000 in mid-December. Ms Braakensiek split with her Mr Goldberg in April last year after 16 years together, and had spoken about her battle with depression. In an Instagram post just weeks before her death, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' Ms Braakensiek in late November had posted on Instagram: 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us' No one knew Ms Braakensiek or even that she lived in the complex and local business owners never saw her around Ms Braakensiek also gave 'thanks to all of you who have carried me though this turbulent year', adding 'time to breathe in the new beginnings and let go of the old... bring on 2019 already I say'. In another post weeks earlier, she said: 'Isn't it incredible how life has such variable highs and lows, and insane contrasts?'. Days prior to that post, Ms Braakensiek, an ambassador for R U OK?, uploaded a post from the suicide prevention charity, where she opened up about her mental health struggles. 'I'm a proud ambassador for this fantastic suicide prevention charity... mental health has so so many misconceptions, criticism, misunderstandings and false judgments still,' Ms Braakensiek said. 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us. (And in the worst situations). 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have helped me though my dark clouds. In one of the last posts to her 40,000 followers on December 15, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment' In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces' 'Now I'm strong enough to help my loved ones who unfortunately are not in the best place right now. But we will get through this. I love you and am your rock. I will never let you down. I am always here.' Police were called to her home in the inner-city suburb of Potts Point about 3.30pm after close friends and family became concerned for her wellbeing. She bought the Potts Point apartment in November last year after separating from Mr Goldberg. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces'. 'A dear friend will kindly fly me over for some R&R to spend time with my American tribe I haven't seen in way too many years,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the time. A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek (pictured) in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat' Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg (pictured) in April after 16 years together The TV personality, who described her 16 years with Danny as 'amazing', did not reveal what prompted the breakup. A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat'. 'I spoke to Annalise on Wednesday night and I thought she sounded okay,' Ms Dib told news.com.au. 'I wasn't worried at all. We discussed the new year and all the wonderful things we would get to conquer and achieve. 'My life was better for having had her in it. We were kindred. I felt very lucky. The world has lost a genuine beacon of beautiful light.' In a statement, the R U OK? organisation said it was 'devastated to hear of the loss of much loved and respected' Ms Braakensiek. 'We are still processing the news we have heard today. Annalise has been a huge voice for suicide prevention in Australia,' chief executive Brendan Maher said. 'Nothing we have ever asked of Annalise was too much, she has stepped up time and time again to share our message, even when she was going through her own tough times. 'We couldn't have asked for a more genuine, kind and sincere spokesperson.' Braakensiek previously revealed she had battled with depression for years and was an ambassador for RUOK? Day in 2017 Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza. The beauty, who had Czech and Norwegian ancestry, began her road to fame one fateful day when a photographer scouted her on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach when she was just 16-years-old. Fellow Pizza star Rob Shehadie paid tribute to Ms Braakensiek on social media. 'So sad and gutted to hear about the passing of Annalise Braakensiek, she was an amazing person. I will always cherish the great memories we had on the set of Fat Pizza and on tour. God rest your soul Annalise,' he tweeted. For confidential support call LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au. Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467 Anyone across Australia experiencing a personal crisis or thinking about suicide can contact Lifeline. A kite surfer has drowned at a popular Melbourne beach after paramedics were unable to revive him on the shore. The man, who is understood to be in his 50s, was pulled out of the waters of Aspendale beach in Melbourne's south-east at 3.30pm. Paramedics were called to the scene near Park Lane but the man was unresponsive and could not be saved. The man, who is understood to be in his 50s, was pulled out of the waters of Aspendale beach in Melbourne's southeast at 3.30pm (pictured) Police will prepare a report for the coroner following post-mortem results, according to a spokeswoman for Victoria Police. The post-mortem results will determine the circumstances surrounding the swimmer's death. The death is the sixth drowning in Victoria in just nine days. The drownings in Australia have doubled compared to the same time last year, with five deaths on New Year's Day alone. Figures by the Royal Life Saving Australia show that 51 people drowned from December to January compared to 36 recorded deaths last summer. A woman has been caught urinating on the floor of a supermarket. Police are hunting for the woman after she relieved herself at the Collinsville Foodworks in north Queensland. The shop owners posted on social media: 'If you need a toilet just ask. Don't pee on the floor of Foodworks please.' Police are hunting for the woman after she relieved herself at the Collinsville Foodworks in north Queensland They informed police after the woman allegedly stole items from the store, reported the Townsville Bulletin. It comes after a man was caught on camera defecating behind the dumpster of a popular fast food restaurant. The man, dressed in a striped shirt, blue shirts and thongs, dropped his pants in the back of the Red Rooster in Townsville last month. A public defecater has been caught on camera dropping his pants behind a dumpster The unidentified man sneaked into the back area of a Red Rooster to excrete on the floor The manager of the store, Michael Jones, took to social media to try and identify the man, while also lamenting that he could have just gone inside to use the restaurant chain's bathrooms. 'Anyone know this disgusting person who left a deposit at the back dock door to Red Rooster Mount Louisa on Sunday morning?' he wrote. 'There is public toilets in the complex so this was completely unnecessary and gross.' The White House continued to insist on a $5.7 billion price tag to end a partial government shutdown on Sunday, declaring for the first time that the U.S. Army will be the primary contractor building President Trump's border wall. The latest demand, which House Democrats have declared dead on arrival, came in a letter to key Democratic House committee chairs outlining Customs and Border Protection's readiness to break literal new ground with taxpayer dollars. 'In concert with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CBP has increased its capacity to execute these funds,' said the letter from the White House budget office. 'The Administration's full request would fund construction of a total of approximately 234 miles of new physical barrier and fully fund the top 10 priorities in CBP's Border Security Improvement Plan.' Trump has argued that a wall between the U.S. and Mexico is needed to block drug cartels and human traffickers from flooding the United States with illegal immigrants and narcotics, and to block unnamed criminals from entering with caravans of Central Americans. President Donald Trump is sticking to his guns with a demand that Congress give him $5.7 in border wall funding, and revealing that he's already using the Army Corps of Engineers to buil it A large military presence on the border has already been supplementing Customs and Border Protection agents for months; a letter to Congress on Sunday made 'no mistake' in mentioning the Army Corps, a White House official said Monday, since it would become the biggest contractor if Trump were to declare a national emergency and fund the project without Congress's assent '[A] physical barrier wall creates an enduring capability that helps field personnel stop, slow down and/or contain illegal entries,' according to the letter from Russell Vought, who became the budget office's acting director when Mick Mulvaney became acting chief of staff. A White House official said Monday morning that the letter's reference to the U.S. Army was 'no mistake.' 'It the president declares a national emergency, the Army Corps of Engineers will kick into high gear,' the official said. 'They're already handing out contracts, and that would speed up a lot.' The Corps began soliciting bids in mid-2017 for companies to produce 'a mix of border fence, border wall, border patrol roads, border access roads, border lights, border gates (for access to border monuments, for maintenance, and for Border Patrol operational use), border drainage improvements, levee walls, and other miscellaneous improvements, repairs, and alterations.' Trump told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One on November 7 that he was considering using military resources to finish construction of his long-promised border wall One recent contract netted a Galveston, Texas company $145 million to build a levee wall that will shore up parts of the Rio Grande River, and to erect new 18-foot steel-slatted walls atop existing concrete barriers. That construction is slated to begin next month. Trump has hinted before that he's ready to hand the entire project over to the Pentagon. DailyMail.com asked him aboard Air Force One in September whether he had a 'Plan B' for his wall if Congress was too stingy with money. 'We have two options,' he said then. 'We have military, we have homeland security.' He was asked specifically about using the Army Corps of Engineers as a taxpayer-funded construction crew. Trump said he would prefer to fund the ambitious construction 'the old-fashioned way get it from Congress but I have other options if I have to.' Sunday's letter to key Democratic House committee chairs (page 1) highlighted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' involvement in the project to date The only concession the president made to Democrats on Sunday was an offer to build a 'steel barrier' rather than a concrete wall. Democrats were unimpressed. The White House said Sunday's letter, as well as details provided during a weekend meeting at the White House, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. The letter also included a request for $800 million for 'urgent humanitarian needs,' a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress, saying Democrats 'don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel.' The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, left, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and Vice President Mike Pence, talked on the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex on Saturday; they hosted a meeting with congressional aides about the partial government shutdown Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. 'Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue,' Collins said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, 'then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night.' Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's 'This Week' that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be 'wide open' to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a 'nonstarter.' Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to 'make adjustments' to deal with the shutdown shortfall. On trial: Charles 'Chase' Merritt, 61 (pictured in 2015), goes on trial on January 7 for the 2010 murders of the McStay family in California Nine years after Joseph McStay, his wife and two young sons vanished from their California home - and nearly six years after their bodies were found in a shallow grave in the Mojave Desert - the man's business partner is going on trial for the quadruple murder. For years, the disappearance of the McStays puzzled investigators, with no signs of forced entry and the couple's credit cards untouched. In November 2013, an off-road biker made a grim discovery when he came upon the skeletal remains of Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their sons, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr, near Victorville, more than 100 miles away from their San Diego County residence. A year later, Charles 'Chase' Merritt, who knew the family through Joseph's water-fountain business, was arrested for allegedly bludgeoning the married couple and their children to death with a sledgehammer because he owed them $30,000. Merritt, now 61 years old, is facing trial on four counts of first-degree murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Summer McStay, her sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr, and her husband, Joseph McStay, went missing from their California home in February 2010 The McStays' skeletal remains were found buried in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, in November 2013 (pictured) On Day 1 of the trial Monday, jurors will hear opening statements and an audio recording of the defendant's interview with the police from 2011, reported the Press-Enterprise. The trial could last until April. Authorities have said Merritt's cellphone was traced to the remote gravesites and to a call days later seeking to close out his then-missing business partner's online bookkeeping account. They also have said Merritt's DNA was discovered on the steering wheel and gearshift of McStay's Isuzy Trooper SUV, which was impounded near the Mexican border four days after the family vanished. Defense attorney James McGee said that DNA could have been transferred to the vehicle by McStay from a handshake after he met with Merritt shortly before the family vanished. McGee also said none of Merritt's DNA was found at the gravesites but DNA belonging to other unidentified individuals, among them three men and a woman, had turned up there. Merritt, who was McStay's business partner, is accused of killing and burying the family because he owed them tens of thousands of dollars Joseph (pictured left with son Gianni) allegedly planned to fire Merritt from his company before his death. Pictured right: A photo display at a press conference at the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department headquarters in San Bernadino in 2013 'From the evidence the government is going to present, our argument is going to be: You had the wrong guy,' McGee said. Britt Imes, supervising deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County, said he could not comment on ongoing cases. Authorities have said the McStays were believed to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head inside their home in Fallbrook on February 4, 2010. Their remains were found in San Bernardino County in 2013 along with a rusty 3-pound sledgehammer, a child's pants and diaper, and a bra. Investigators have said they spoke with Joseph's business partner, Merritt, shortly after the family went missing and noticed he referred to them in the past tense. They also have said a customer service representative told them he received a call about McStay's QuickBooks account, which he used to pay vendors connected to his water features business, after he vanished. The call, according to authorities, was placed from Merritt's cellphone. Merritt served time in prison for burglary and receiving stolen property in the 1970s and 80, reported the Los Angeles Times. In 2001, he pleaded no contest to burglary and grand theft, earning him a six-month stint in jail followed by probation. Eventually, he was hired by Joseph McStay's company, Earth Inspired Products, to design decorative water fountain, but his troubles continued as he racked gambling debts and more than $20,000 in unpaid taxes, according to court documents. McStay's other business partner, Daniel Kavanaugh, told investigators that Joseph planned to fire Merritt. Merritt, who has a prior criminal record, denied any wrongdoing, calling Joseph McStay his 'best friend.' His job was designing water fountains for McStay's company Vanuatu movie star Mungau Dain has died in his late 20s from an untreated leg infection. The actor, who is known for his role in the Australian-Vanuatu film Tanna, passed away in Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, a few days ago, The Guardian reported. Dain leaves behind his wife, Nancy, and their two young children. Vanuatu movie star Mungau Dain (pictured) has died in his late 20s from an untreated leg infection The actor who is known for his role in the Australian-Vanuatu film Tanna passed away in Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, a few days ago Dain leaves behind his wife, Nancy, and their two young children The film's co-directors, Bentley Dean and Martin Butler, and script editor Janita Suter, have honoured Vanuatu's memory, saying he would be remembered as a 'gentle soul'. Tanna is known as being the first film to have been shot entirely in Vanuatu, a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands. The unique feature film was awarded two major prizes at the Venice film festival in 2015 and was nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars. Vanuatu movie star Mungau Dain (pictured) has died in his late 20s from an untreated leg infection Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, Dean recalled how Dain was a first-time actor who had been chosen from his village due to his good looks (pictured: Tanna cast with co-directors Bentley Dean and Martin Butler) Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, Dean recalled how Dain was a first-time actor who had been chosen from his village due to his good looks. 'They called him Vanuatu's Brad Pitt,' script editor Janita Suter recalled. Dean described how the actors were given the chance to travel outside their home country to promote the film, with the actor even staying in the director's home while they were in Australia. 'Our young children got on really well with him; he carried them on all sorts of adventures up waterfalls and the like. He was just a very gentle soul. Mischievous,' Dean said. Co-director Butler spoke of the tragedy surrounding the actor's death, saying it would have been preventable had he been given the right medicine, sooner. 'Had Dain got to the hospital a few days earlier, got some antibiotics in him, almost certainly he would have survived He's now dead,' he said. At the time of his death, Dain alongside his Tanna co-star and good friend Lingai Kowai were seeking a fruit-picking job in Australia or New Zealand. Far-right groups opposed to immigration are sprouting up across Australia, with neo-Nazis among their followers. The groups include the 100 mainly men that gathered at Melbourne's St Kilda beach on Saturday, with several doing Hitler salutes during a protest against African gangs. Other extremists include the Antipodean Resistance, a neo-Nazi group which is only open to white people, and the anti-Muslim Reclaim Australia. A leading counter-terrorism academic has warned these groups, emboldened by social media, are posing an increasing threat to lives on the street. Far-right groups opposed to immigration are sprouting up across Australia, with neo-Nazis among their followers. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting those pictured above are members of extremist groups, only that they participated in the St Kilda rally On Saturday, several men were photographed doing Nazi salutes in an area with a higher-than-average Jewish population and only blocks away from a synagogue, as part of a demonstration organised by the True Blue Crew and the United Patriots Front. Deakin University counter-terrorism expert Professor Greg Barton said far-right groups, whatever their differences, were typically anti-women and consumed by conspiracy theories about ethnic minority groups. 'It's an anxiety about personal identity that finds some sort of solace in identifying some other outside group as the problem - lately it's been so-called African gangs,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. 'Historically, there were other minority communities famously the Jews, more recently Muslims singled out as being the problem.' Less than 100 True Blue Crew and United Patriots Front supporters gathered at St Kilda beach (pictured) in Melbourne on Saturday, to protest against African gangs across the city Professor Barton said personal failures more than any particular ideology often galvanised far-right supporters, increasingly over Facebook chat groups. 'To the extent there's any pattern of people who are drawn to this, generally they're not particularly sophisticated in their thinking,' he said. 'Mostly there's a sense of personal inadequacy in siding with a group of people who seem to be powerful and strong and have that power of attraction as the tough guys.' Professor Barton said rallies like the one in St Kilda potentially posed a danger to life. 'You could see cases of violence get out of hand where there are deaths resulting when maybe that wasn't planned,' he said. 'Every time police prepare for something like Saturday's event they're anxious because it just takes a few things to go wrong.' While their attendance, as estimated by Victorian police, was low, some of their followers displayed extremist tendencies. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting those pictured above are members of extremist groups, only that they participated in the rally Professor Barton feared a bigger rally could occur on Australia Day, similar to the December 2005 Cronulla riots in Sydney, during a period that was usually already busy for emergency services. 'With Australia Day approaching, I think there's real reason to be concerned about somewhere in Melbourne or Sydney or elsewhere a repeat of the Cronulla riots,' he said. 'If you had a perfect storm of violent confrontations and if police resources were stretched, because it happened that weekend there was a bushfire on, and they didn't have as many personnel, you could see lives being lost.' Chris Shortis, who left the United Patriots Front in 2016, said the St Kilda rally was 'stupid' and 'meaningless'. 'I condemn the event because it achieves nothing with immigration, crime or law and order,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'If they wanted to talk about Africans, why didn't they go outside an immigration office? 'There's no political objective. These people just want biffo.' Deakin University's Professor Greg Barton (pictured) said far-right groups, whatever their differences, were consumed by conspiracy theories about ethnic minority groups Mr Shortis was frustrated at the United Patriots Front's reluctance to start a political party and he joined the Australia First Party, which wants a return to the white Australia policy. While he had nothing to do with the rally, he suggested the Nazi salutes were 'clowns taking the p***'. 'I reckon it was stupid,' he said. 'No one says anything when the left-wing raise flags of the hammer and sickle. 'Both Nazism and communism killed tens of millions of people in the 20th century.' The True Blue Crew, which organised the St Kilda rally, formed in 2015 as a splinter group of the Reclaim Australia movement, another anti-Islam group. United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell, who has criminal convictions for stalking, was also there delivering a speech over a loud hailer. United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell (pictured), who has criminal convictions for stalking, was also there delivering a speech over a loudspeaker Australia First founder Jim Saleam said that while he was opposed to the Nazi salutes at the St Kilda rally, he regarded the Melbourne rally organisers as lacking the purity of his white nationalist movement. The 63-year-old former neo-Nazi, who has served jail time, wants a return to the white Australia policy and opposes the other far-right groups' embrace of Vietnamese victims of African gang crime. 'They move on to the territory and they proclaim themselves to be certain things,' he said. 'This is a view we think is not really an Australian possibility. 'They believe that it is. A bit of problem.' While the St Kilda rally organisers claimed to represent non-Muslim Australians of different races, who are disgusted by African gang crime, other more overtly neo-Nazi groups do exist. The Antipodean Resistance, a Melbourne-based group of radicalised neo-Nazis, describe themselves as 'the Hitlers you've been waiting for'. To join the men's chapter, you have to be white, straight, young, monogamous and only interested in dating other white people. The group is spreading to cities and towns across the country. They recently opened a women's chapter to give women 'a choice to live their lives in accordance to their natural roles'. A skydiver has recalled the terrifying moment a plane engine failed at 400 feet, forcing the pilot to perform a crash landing. Remarkably, all four passengers and the pilot survived the impact a few hundred metres from Tooradin Airport, 70km south-east of Melbourne, on Sunday morning. 'We could hear the stall noise going off and we knew we were in s**t,' one of the skydivers told 9News. 'From the engine cutting out, we had almost no time to react. The pilot was forced to perform a crash landing on Sunday - he survived along with the four passengers on board One of the passengers on Sunday seconds before scrambling to safety 'It was pretty much everyone hold on for the ride and just hope for the best.' The skydiver, who asked to remain anonymous, also said the pilot from Skydive South East Melbourne had 'about 30 seconds' to assess the dire situation and then save everyone on board. 'He told us to brace. We waited for impact. Impacted the ground. Went through fences and what-not until we came to a sudden stop,' he said. 'When we hit the ground we were still intact. It was definitely a hard thud, but probably the softest plane crash I'd ever had. 'He did an awesome job, he was a ripper pilot.' Following the emergency landing, the danger levels remained, with fuel from a ruptured left wing pouring over the cabin. Showing amazing poise, all the passengers scrambled their way to safety, knowing they had cheated death. A Victoria Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the cause of the plane malfunction is being investigated. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has also launched its own investigation. One of the passengers bracing herself for impact on Sunday near Tooradin Airport Five people miraculously survived this plane crash (pictured) on Sunday morning Newly sworn-in House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday that there's 'no question' whether or not Donald Trump is a racist. Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat who stunned the political world by winning her party primary last year against an establishment politician, was asked by Anderson Cooper of CBS' 60 Minutes whether she believed the president 'is a racist?' 'Yeah. Yeah. No question,' Ocasio-Cortez replied. 'When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 'When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's night and day.' Newly sworn-in House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday that there's 'no question' President Donald Trump is a racist Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York's 14th District (parts of Queens and the Bronx), said Trump was a 'symptom of a problem.' 'The President certainly didn't invent racism,' Ocasio-Cortez said, 'but he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things.' Trump 'has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms,' according to the White House The White House responded to Ocasio-Cortez's comments, saying: 'Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's sheer ignorance on the matter can't cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform.' Trump 'has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms,' according to the White House. In August 2017, a large group of white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate hero General Robert E. Lee. During a counter-demonstration by anti-fascist protesters, a young woman was mowed down by a white supremacist motorist. She died from her injuries. When asked about Charlottesville, Trump did not explicitly condemn the white nationalists. He denounced 'hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.' The President also said there were 'very fine people on both sides' - the implication being that white supremacists and those protesting against them were on an equal footing. Trump has also used harsh language to describe migrants, saying many of them were 'gang members' and 'invaders.' The President has also been quoted as saying that MS-13, the gang made up of migrants from Central America, were made up of 'animals.' In January, he was quoted as telling lawmakers that migrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa were from 's***hole countries.' 'Why do we need more Haitians?' Trump was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. 'Take them out.' A Surf Life Saving Queensland Westpac Lifesaver Rescue chopper and it's have crew narrowly escaped harm after a drone came within metres of the flight path. Experienced pilot, James Orrom, revealed the incident which occurred above Alexandria Bay on Saturday afternoon was a close-call. Samantha Thornton, a winch operator and Richard McHugh, rescue crewman were also on board the BO 105 chopper heading north from Caloundra towards Alexandria Bay at about 2:30pm. Experienced pilot, James Orrom (pictured), revealed the incident which occurred above Alexandria Bay on Saturday afternoon was a close-call Mr Orrom, a pilot with 11 years experience, spotted the drone 30m away while the helicopter was patrolling a popular swimming spot in the Noosa National Park, commonly known as 'A-Bay'. The incident was over in seconds and it was too late to alter the course of the helicopter flying above the previously nudist beach. The drone flew straight over the top of the chopper in a southerly direction a mere 10m above the disc and rotor blades and there was no damage or injuries. 'It's probably the closest call I've ever had,' Mr Orrom told the Sunshine Coast Daily. Samantha Thornton, a winch operator and Richard McHugh (pictured), rescue crewman were also on board the BO 105 chopper heading north from Caloundra towards Alexandria Bay at about 2:30pm on Saturday before the drone flew above them A crash would have occurred by the drone smashing through the front cabin, entering the engine or hitting a rotor or power blade. Surf Life Saving helicopters fly at 200ft above ground level (AGL). BO 105 choppers are quite loud and it is unlikely the drone operator couldn't see the rescue helicopter. Surf Life Saving helicopters fly at 200ft above ground level (AGL) and are quite loud The drone operator was identified by the crew and a complaint was filed with the police in relation to the incident. Mr Orrom assured the majority of drone operators are very good. 'It's only a small minority (doing the wrong thing),' he said. Common sense prevails with the operation of drones in Australia Common sense prevails with the operation of drones in Australia. Certain restrictions are in place to ensure public safety and drones being flown for fun do not need approval. In order to fly a drone commercially, operators must have a license or be certified. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) A group of Islamic accountants and lawyers on Monday urged the Supreme Court to junk the ongoing petitions against the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) ahead of its scheduled plebiscite in Mindanao this year. In its answer-in-intervention, the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants, along with lawyers Atty. Nasser Marohomsalic and Manuelito Luna, asked the high court to uphold the constitutionality of the measure. They argued the law is a social justice legislation designed to empower the Bangsamoro people---letting them free from "unwarranted encroachment by the majority population of the country." The group added the law is designed to protect the religious minority. "Kami po ay mag-intervene dito sa BOL na case na ito na finile ng province ng Sulu at kami at magsa-side sa gobyerno dahil kami ay naniniwala na ang BOL ay constitutional, legal at dapat para sa ating kapatid na Muslim sa Mindanao," Luna said. [Translation: We will intervene in this BOL case and petition filed by the province of Sulu. We will side with the government because we believe that the BOL is constitutional, legal, and made for our Muslim brothers and sisters in Mindanao.] The Sulu provincial government, through its governor Abdusakur A. Tan II, in October filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition asking the high court to review the constitutionality of the measure. Tan noted the province is "being coerced" to be part of the soon-to-be-established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) without consulting the stand of the majority. Under the measure, Sulu is one of the provinces---regardless of the plebiscite results--- automatically named part of the proposed region together with Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi. In December, the Philippine Constitution Association also asked SC to issue a temporary restraining order on the ratification of the BOL, calling the measure unconstitutional. During a speech in Zamboanga City on July 26, President Rodrigo Duterte announced he had signed the BOL, creating the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao. The region will take the place of the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). READ: The Bangsamoro Organic Law: Everything you need to know Residents from other provinces and cities in Mindanao will, meanwhile, take part of a two-day plebiscite on January 21 and February 6 to determine which other areas will be part of the Bangsamoro region. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body is all set for the referendum, which will happen in two weeks. "We are ready for that. Right now we are entering the final phases of the information campaign, and augmentation teams will be flying into the area from Manila," Jimenez said Monday. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Malacanang is for the implementation of the measure, but maintains it will respect the majority's decision come plebiscite time. "The people will have to decide on that. In those areas affected, sila pa rin magdedesisyon (they will still decide). We will have to respect the sovereign voice," Panelo said in a media briefing Monday. Biggest rally in Jolo, Sulu Thousands of people and multi-sectoral groups, meanwhile, gathered in what is considered the biggest rally so far in Jolo, Sulu Monday, campaigning against the Bangsamoro law. Protesters, who marched at the main thoroughfares of the town, included supporters of federalism, as well as the Royal Council of the Sulu Sultanate. They voiced out how the law is not the solution to the peace problems in Mindanao. In a speech, Tan, who is running for governor anew in the midterm polls, said the BOL will only lead to division in the region. He also expressed support for the government's proposed shift to federalism. The BOL is the result of decades-long peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Muslim rebel groups in Mindanao. CNN Philippines Correspondents Anjo Alimario, Joyce Ilas, Digital Producer Alyssa Rola, and Stringer Marlon Panares contributed to this report. Much of Australia should prepare for a drenching in the first full working week of 2019, but the weekend is set to be a scorcher. The heaviest rainfall will hit the far north east as Cyclone Penny moves into Queensland on Wednesday evening. 'Queensland is at most significant risk and we're expecting bursts of very heavy rainfall,' the Bureau of Meteorology's Diana Eadie told Daily Mail Australia. Much of Australia should prepare for a drenching in the first full working week of 2019, but the weekend is set to be a scorcher The cyclone is initially expected to strike Mackay before moving on to Townsville and then Cairns. Flood warnings are in place in the vast stretch of land from St Lawrence to Cape Tribulation and Ms Eadie expects at least 140mm of rainfall. Cylone Penny is then expected to move West to the top of Western Australia towards the end of the week. Consequently, the Northern Territory is also set for a stormy week of torrential downpour despite temperatures remaining at a clammy 34 degrees. The heaviest rainfall will hit the far north east as Cyclone Penny moves into Queensland on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning - at least 140mm of rain is forecast New South Wales is also headed for five days of torrential rain as thunderstorms are expected to smash Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday Temperatures are expected to hit 29 degrees, but they will be accompanied by strong winds and a more than 60 per cent chance of rainfall until Friday And New South Wales is also headed for five days of torrential rain as thunderstorms are expected to smash Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday. 'Tomorrow and Wednesday we're seeing an unstable air mass around the Sydney area,' Ms Eadie said. 'It's a combination of an upper level trough, instability in the atmosphere and a southerly change coming through.' Temperatures are expected to hit 29 degrees, but they will be accompanied by strong winds and a more than 60 per cent chance of rainfall until Friday. Tasmania's chance of showers remains at around 30 per cent for the next five days with clouds expected to linger and temperatures in the low 20s. But it's not all doom and gloom as come the weekend, much of the country's south looks set for higher than average temperatures 'The highest temperatures are expected to be concentrated over South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria,' BoM's Diana Eadie told Daily Mail Australia But it's not all doom and gloom as come the weekend, much of the country's south looks set for higher than average temperatures. 'We're expecting another burst of warm temperatures, well above average as we head to the end of the week,' Ms Eadie said. 'The highest temperatures are expected to be concentrated over South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.' Perth and Melbourne will hit highs of 33 degrees on Saturday, while Adelaide's high sits at a sizzling 39 degrees on Friday. Tasmania is also expected to experience warmer than average conditions from Friday, particularly in the far north east. Perth and Melbourne will hit highs of 33 degrees on Saturday, Sydney could hit 29 and Adelaide's high sits at a sizzling 39 degrees on Friday CBS said Sunday that its news division president, David Rhodes, is stepping down and is being replaced by veteran producer Susan Zirinsky. The staff change comes after a troubled year that saw morning anchor Charlie Rose and the top executive at 60 Minutes lose their jobs following misconduct reports. Zirinsky, who started work at CBS in the Washington bureau as a 20 year old in the early 1970s and is currently the executive producer at 48 Hours, will take over in March. CBS has revealed that David Rhodes (in 2016) is out as president of the CBS News division and is being replaced by veteran producer Susan Zirinsky Rhodes is being replaced by veteran producer Susan Zirinsky, who has worked at the network for 40 years and is the executive producer at 48 Hours 'It's a very humbling and daunting role,' said Zirinsky, 66, in an interview Sunday. 'When you've been working someplace for 40 years, it's a moment.' Rhodes will work as an adviser to CBS News after leaving, said interim CBS Corp. leader Joseph Ianniello. In a memo to his staff, Rhodes said Sunday that 'the new year is a time for renewal, for new goals. The world we cover is changing, how we cover it is changing - and it's the right time for me to make a change too.' Rhodes came to CBS News from Fox News Channel and, together with former CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager, saw success in emphasizing a newsier approach than its rivals. The launch of CBS This Morning with Rose, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell was a particular success. But in November 2017, Rose was abruptly fired following reports of improper behavior involving female staffers at CBS News. The show's ratings have taken a tumble since then, and that show's executive producer recently exited. During his tenure, Rhodes successfully launched CBS This Morning with Norah O'Donnell, Charlie Rose and Gayle King. Rose was fired in 2017 following reports of sexual misconduct Rhodes last fall also had to oust his former partner, Fager, who had returned to his original job as executive producer of 60 Minutes. Fager had sent a message regarded as threatening to a CBS reporter who was working on a story about alleged bad behavior at the show and by Fager. 'It was a cultural shift in the country and CBS had a piece of it, no doubt about it,' Zirinsky said. 'But we've taken it head-on.' Ianniello owes his job to a more sordid sexual misconduct involving former CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves, who was ousted last fall. The CBS board is currently trying to halt a multi-million dollar payment Moonves was to receive upon leaving. Besides finding a new leader at CBS This Morning, Zirinsky will be charged with appointing a new executive producer at 60 Minutes, television's most popular and influential news program. Bill Owens has been the interim leader and he was considered a top candidate for the job, along with Zirinsky. Rhodes' decision to appoint Jeff Glor as anchor of the CBS Evening News has not succeeded in the ratings. Zirinsky said ratings issues are hardly unique to CBS News and that she's looking forward to the challenge of delivering news in a digital-heavy age heading into a new presidential election cycle. 'I really believe that the power is within us and there's work to be done,' said Zirinsky, who plans to address the CBS News staff on Monday. As a news producer, Zirinsky has had a hand in dozens of major stories over the past four decades, perhaps most memorably in a documentary account of the September 11 terrorist attacks as seen from the point of view of French filmmakers who were nearby making a documentary about firefighters that day. She's also known - as a character - to a generation of moviegoers. She was the model for the hard-charging news producer portrayed by Holly Hunter in the 1987 movie, Broadcast News. 'No broadcast news producer is more highly respected and admired than Susan Zirinsky,' Ianniello said. 'She is an exceptional leader, a creative force, and an outstanding and proven journalist.' Pregnant mother-of-five and babysitter Marissa Tietsort, 28 (pictured), of Wausau, Wisconsin has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of a two-month-old boy who was in her care A pregnant Wisconsin babysitter and mother of five who is accused of killing a two-month-old boy allegedly returned the dead toddler to his mother under the guise that he was sleeping. Marissa Tietsort, 28, of Wausau is said to have caused the infant's death in October, then put him in a snowsuit and car seat to make him appear to be sleeping and let his mother pick him up without telling her the child was dead, according to a criminal complaint filed on Friday. Authorities found the mother trying to revive the boy at a laundromat, but he had died hours earlier of blunt force head injuries. Tietsort, who is now pregnant with her sixth child, is charged with intentional homicide and also faces a felony child abuse charge involving an 11-month-old girl who was in her care that was injured in August. Records also show she has had her own children removed from her home for alleged child abuse, and that officials were unaware she had given birth to a fifth child or that she was pregnant with a sixth child. Scroll down for video Tietsort is accused of causing the infant's death in October, then put him in a snowsuit and car seat and let his mother pick him up without telling her the child was dead,Tietsort is shown in court in Wausau, Wisconsin The mother and two-month-old child were found just minutes after she had picked the boy up from Tietsort's home, authorities said, at a laundromat on North Third Avenue, between West Wausau and West Union avenues. Tietsort has been in custody on a $250,000 cash bond since since October, related to the August incident involving the 11-month-old, named Riley. 'Tietsort admitted that she put the [baby's] lifeless body on the floor in the hallway of her home, dressed him in the snowsuit and then placed his body in the car seat with his blankets,' according investigators. When the boy's mother came to pick up her son, Tietsort allegedly admitted, she 'purposefully put a hat over the his eyes so that the mother would not realize her son was dead.' A complaint said that the mother 'thought [the baby] was sleeping, as he would normally be sleeping at that time of the day.' But when she went to take her son out of the car seat, 'his legs were rigid and remained bent at the knee,' investigators noted. Riley's parents, Megan Royce and Dylan Baum, told WSAW they had known Teitsort for over one year before they let her care for their children. They dropped her off to Tietsort's on August 2 'completely perfect,' Royce wrote on Facebook, and then picked her up shortly after 1pm with purple bruises and red marks all over her face. Tietsort has been in custody on a $250,000 cash bond since since October, related to the August incident involving the 11-month-old, named Riley (pictured). Riley's parents dropped her off to Tietsort's on August 2 'completely perfect,' her mother, Megan Royce, wrote on Facebook, and then picked her up shortly after 1pm with purple bruises and red marks all over her face Riley's parents, Megan Royce (right) and Dylan Baum (left), told WSAW they had known Teitsort for over one year before they let her care for their children 'I had used Marissa for two weeks as a baby sitter, and I never once thought to ... look her up because she was a friend of a friend. She had a baby as well so I figured it was safe,' Royce said. 'It was hard because I had to tell people that my babysitter had done it,' Royce said. 'I have been getting messages that people thought that I could have prevented it. When I was just trying to help my daughter's case and make sure she did get put away and she did get charged for what she did.' Tietsort became a suspect in the death of the two-month-old about one week after the charges were filed in the October case, the Wausau Daily Herald reported. It's been reported that at least two children in her care have also been taken to the hospital with brain bleeds. The children were all part of Tietsort's unlicensed day care operation, which she had been running out of her home, located on the 3600 block of North Sixth Avenue in Wausau. Tietsort has sought a bail reduction twice, and has claimed she's not getting proper prenatal care. She wrote a letter to Judge Jill Falstad pleading her case before her bail hearing on January 3. 'I'm not a threat to society or a monster,' Tietsort wrote to Falstad. 'I'm a great mom and I love everybody.' A message left with the public defender's office hasn't been returned. High school sweethearts who went to prom together have finally tied the knot 57 YEARS after losing contact when the woman's mom died and the man went college. Curtis Brewer and Barbara Cotton, who are both now in their 70s, got married in Wisconsin after going on 'separate life journeys'. The couple finally got their happily ever after they 'never stopped loving each other' and got wed on Saturday in Milwaukee. Loved up Curtis and Barbara got back in touch on a website connecting old school friends and got engaged in July last year. Barbara, 72, told Fox6: 'He had always loved me and I loved him. We were high school sweethearts and I went to his junior prom and senior prom. We dated through high school and went steady. 'No one really loved me as much as Curtis loved me. It was such an unconditional loving relationship and no one was ever able to match that.' Scroll down for video. Curtis Brewer, right, and Barbara Cotton, left, got married on Saturday in Milwaukee The couple dated throughout school and 'went steady' but lost touch before reconnecting online. Curtis, right, finally proposed to his soulmate Barbara, left, last year Babara's mom died she was left to look after her five brothers and Curtis went off to college but they 'never broke up' and simply drifted apart They said they 'never stopped loving each other' but after Babara's mom died she was left to look after her five brothers and Curtis went off to college. It meant that they technically 'never broke up' but drifted apart before being reunited. Curtis said: 'She saw me on classmates.com. I answered her back, I answered her real quick.' After dating for a few years Curtis finally proposed to his soulmate in August last year and the pair got hitched. He added: 'I called her on the phone and said, 'Would you?' That's all I got out, she said yes, would you marry me -- I couldn't get marry out.' Friends set up a GoFundMe for the pair, writing: '57 years from their Prom Night, God found a way to bring them together. They never broke up, but were separated by forces beyond their control. They never stopped loving each other as they continued on their separate life journeys. 'On July 15th 2018, they became engaged! Its still hard for them to actually believe they are together and will be getting married very soon.' Curtis Brewer and Barbara Cotton, who are both now in their 70s, got married in Wisconsin after going on 'separate life journeys' Friends say it is 'still hard for them to actually believe they are together' Curtis, pictured, said he answered Babara back 'real quick' when she messaged him online The couple are now looking forward to their new life together and are raising money for an RV. Cotton said: 'We know that God is in charge. No one could have planned this. We know this was meant to be.' Brewer added: 'It's a beautiful day. I'm blessed.' The largest pilot union in the world is urging President Donald Trump to put an end to the government shutdown. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 61,000 pilots from 35 U.S. and Canadian airlines, wrote a letter to the President warning that the continuing impasse was threatening the safety, security, and efficiency of our national airspace system. The nations airspace system is a complex tranDsportation network that involves government and industry partnerships to function properly, and the disruptions being caused by the shutdown are threatening the safe operations of this network, according to the letter written by Captain Joe DePete, the President of the union. The government agency partners in the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have dual roles. They are both regulators and service providers. The largest pilot union in the world is urging President Donald Trump to put an end to the government shutdown When any of their responsibilities are placed on pause due to a shutdown there are safety, security and efficiency gaps that immediately emerge. The partial government shutdown is affecting the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs air traffic controllers, maintenance personnel, and airline security staff. During the shutdown, they are being forced to work without receiving a paycheck. DePete writes that this places undue stress on these employees. They are dutifully providing safety of life services while facing increasingly difficult financial pressures to provide for those dependent on their paycheck, he writes. The pressure these civil servants are facing at home should not be ignored. At some point, these dedicated federal employees will encounter personal financial damages that will take a long time from which to recover, if at all. The letter, while addressed to Trump, was also carbon copied to the top Congressional leadership - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of the Democrats; and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of the Republicans. On Friday, CNN reported that hundreds of TSA screeners who have also been forced to work without pay during the shutdown called out from work from at least four major airports. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 61,000 pilots from 35 U.S. and Canadian airlines, wrote a letter to the President warning that the continuing impasse was threatening the safety, security, and efficiency of our national airspace system. The letter was also carbon copied to the top Congressional leadership - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of the Democrats; and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of the Republicans As many as 170 screeners called out each day this past week from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport, the head of the national TSA employee union, Hydrick Thomas, told CNN. Hours after the CNN report, DHS denied that there were mass call-outs, insisting security effectiveness will not be compromised and performance standards will not change. A DHS spokesperson lashed out on a personal Twitter account, following an earlier report the non-payment of some 800,000 government employees could harshly effect travelers during the tough period due to the TSA being affected. Alleging 'fake news' had 'grossly misrepresented' the figures related to the air travel industry, Tyler Q. Houlton denied that it was creating a vulnerability and less workers strive to do more than usual. He posted online: 'Security operations at airports have not been impacted by a non-existent sick out.' His angry response was followed by an official statement from the TSA which admitted more workers than usual were quoting illness when taking days off, but appeared to put it down the holiday season. 'Call outs began over the Holiday period and have increased, but are causing minimal impact given there are 51,739 employees supporting the screening process,' the tweet said. 'TSA is grateful to the agents who show up to work, remain focused on the mission and respectful to the traveling public as they continue the important work necessary to secure the nation's transportation systems.' The partial government shutdown is entering its third week with no end in sight. Trump pledged on Sunday not to bend in his demand for a wall along the southern border with Mexico but said the barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete as a potential compromise with Democrats who refuse to fund it. Trump threatened again, without providing specifics on where the funding would originate, to declare a national emergency as an alternative way to build the wall, depending on the outcome of talks in the coming days. Prisoners are said to have taunted guards while eating extravagant holiday meals as the corrections officers worried about putting food on their own tables since they've been working unpaid during the partial government shutdown. On Christmas and New Year's Day, prisoners across the country feasted on fancy fare as about 36,000 federally-employed guards and other prison workers were forced to work without pay and cut vacations short or risk losing wages or even suspensions, according to NBC News. At Illinois' FCI Pekin, inmates were said to have dined on steak and shrimp on New Year's Day, while prisoners in Brooklyn, New York's Metropolitan Detention Center were served Cornish hen, roast beef and Boston Creme pie on both Christmas and New Year's. Prisoners were served lavish meals during the holidays to help keep up morale, while prison employees, including those at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (shown), were left working without pay due to the partial government shutdown Inmates at Illinois' FCI Pekin on steak and shrimp on New Year's Day, while those at Metropolitan Detention Center were served Cornish hen and roast beef at the holidays (stock) At Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida, inmates were served a New Year's Day lunch consisting of grilled steak, garlic macaroni biscuits and various pies. While they ate, Joe Rojas, president of The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 506, said that some of the inmates mocked the staffers. Rojas told the Washington Post that the prisons were 'eating like kings and then laughing at us.' Guards who scanned prisoners emails for safety reasons read notes inmates sent in which they bragged that 'Ima end up fat i been eatin like a boss all week i just had steak, pie, chicken, potatoes, salad mac nd cheese rice all type of (things).' 'They are getting a lavish meal and we are working the holidays away from our families wondering if we can pay the rent or make it home,' Rojas told NBC News. Prisoners at Florida's FCC Coleman were said to have mocked staffers while eating grilled steak, garlic macaroni biscuits and various pies and sent emails saying they were stuffed In a letter Rojas wrote to the Bureau of Prisons, he stated that it was 'like kicking someone when they are down.' It was a similar story at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center. 'A lot of the staff were upset over the fact that we don't know where our next meal is going to come, and these inmates were served so much food they were able to get on the serving line twice,' detention center case manager June Bencebi said, noting that the government appeared to be 'more worried about appeasing' prisoners than paying the employees for their work. Eric Young, an American Federation of Government Employees official, said denying prison staff pay while feeding prisoners lavishly was 'despicable' In a statement to NBC News, the Bureau of Prisons said that the grumbled about extravagant meals were planned weeks before the partial government shutdown, which started on December 22, 2018. The meals, the statement said, were being served to 'promote morale for the inmate population because they are separated from their families.' Forcing staff to serve up these morale-promoting meals while denying them their paychecks and cutting short trips to visit their own families was 'despicable,' according to Eric Young, AFGE's national president of prison locals. 'Imagine doing that at a time when you've got staff who can't put food on the table or put gas in the car,' Young told NBC News. 'You can imagine what that does to the morale' of the employees. Unlike the guards and other prison workers being impacted by the partial government shutdown, prisoners are still being paid by the government for working their prison jobs, including cooking food, mowing lawns and painting buildings. The partial government shutdown began after Democrats declined to give President Trump the $5.6billion he wants to build a border wall, offering up $1.3billion instead. On January 4, Trump said that he would be willing to keep parts of the government shut down for 'months or even years' if he didn't get his wall money. James Bulger (pictured) was murdered by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993 The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has condemned the director of a new film about her son's killers for not consulting her first. Denise Fergus has asked the public to boycott Detainment, a 30-minute film about her two-year-old son's murder. It is made up of almost entirely of verbatim quotes from interview transcripts and shows 10-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson crying and asking for their parents as detectives quiz them over James's death. Today she appeared on ITV's Loose Women to express her shock and disappointment director Vincent Lambe had made the film without speaking to her family about it. She said: 'It takes you right back to that day. 'I have three young men I'm caring for now and we've got a charity. I just don't want to keep going back there all the time. 'Jamess family should have been consulted. In my own personal opinion I think he's just trying to big his career up. 'And to do that under someone elses grief is just unbelievable and unbearable.' Denise Fergus is pictured on Loose Women today with her husband Stuart Fergus Mrs Fergus's son was killed by Thompson and Venables after they snatched him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside in 1993. She says she is devastated the film has been shortlisted for an Oscar and claims 'it shouldn't have been made in the first place'. She added: 'I want something put in place so other families don't have to go through this.' Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Thursday, Mr Lambe admitted he hadn't consulted Mrs Fergus. In a statement to Loose Women he apologised for any distress caused and offered to meet with her, as well as donating proceeds from ticket sales to the James Bulger Foundation. But Mrs Fergus said: 'Hes saying they're human beings and we should try to understand why they did it, but so was James, and they took that human being from his parents. 'I think that the way hes done it, theyre trying to get sympathy. Venables (left) and Thompson (right), played by child actors in the film, were both 10-years-old when they shocked Britain by abducting James, then just two-years-old Detainment (promotional poster pictured) is made up of almost entirely of verbatim quotes from interview transcripts and shows 10-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson crying and asking for their parents as detectives quiz them over James's death 'Everyone knows they tried to abduct a girl before they took James. James would have been married now with his own kids.' 'No I wouldnt meet with him. Its way too late.' It comes after James's father, Ralph Bulger, went on TV to condemn the film. Mr Bulger, who claimed he found it 'offensive', said that nobody behind the making of the drama contacted him or any one else in James' family prior to the release of the film. Although James' father said he has seen many documentaries about the murder which happened 26 years ago he told the Mirror he has been left devastated by this latest portrayal. He said: 'I have never been so cut up and offended by something that shows so little compassion to James and his family. 'I accept this is a murder of such magnitude it will always be written about and featured in the news but to make a film so sympathetic to James's killers is devastating. The couple are pictured with Loose Women panelists Andrea McLean, Coleen Nolan, Stacey Solomon and Jane Moore The father of the murdered toddler, Ralph Bulger, has spoken of his devastation that producers have released a film about his son's killing without the family's consent He said that although he accepts the information surrounding the brutal killing is in the public domain, he could have at least run the idea by the family. Mr Bugler added that it will be terrible if the film is critically acclaimed due to the lack of consideration shown to the family when making the drama. The former police chief who ran the investigation into James' death, Albert Kirby, said that the film lacks 'any form of taste or decency', and has been created without consideration for James' mother Denise Fergus or anyone close to the case. When Lambe appeared on Good Morning Britain to defend his right to make the short film, he was grilled by co-presenters Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway over the decision, admitting that the film would be a 'tough watch for them'. They asked him several times why he had failed to notify Denise of his intention to make the film. Vincent Lambe appeared on Good Morning Britain to defend his right to make the short film Detainment, which has been shortlisted for an Academy Award Asked if he did not ask the family as he feared they would say not to make the film, he said: 'Well it probably wouldn't have been made if she'd have said "no".' He added: 'The reason I made this film, people think they were evil and they were born evil and I don't think it was as simple as that. 'If people don't see them as human, they won't begin to understand. 'It is a short film, it is not a film I made to profit from financially, I was as surprised as anyone when it was shortlisted for the Oscars.' Ben replied: 'For them, the idea of you making this film, which is about what happened to their small child, is abhorrent, undoubtedly. 'There argument will be that "you didn't contact us, you didn't ask us, you didn't talk to us about it".' Mr Lambe said: 'I have enormous sympathy for the Bulger family and when I think about what they've been through it breaks my heart. He added that the film 'isn't meant to bring anymore anguish' to the family, causing Ben to retort: 'You don't think it will?' 'Well I think it will be a very difficult watch for them. I hope they understand,' replied Mr Lambe. Mr Lambe was grilled by co-presenters Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway over the decision, admitting that the film would be a 'tough watch for them' 'It's still one of those cases that can cause public outrage. At the time, it was just unprecedented. 'People couldn't understand how ten year old boys could do this. If it was an adult who killed the child, people would have moved on. 'It was just so unusual and its so deeply ingrained in people's memories.' Good Morning Britain revealed that Denise had told them she was unhappy that the film was made without her consent and would appear on the show tomorrow. Venables and Thompson, played by child actors in the film, were both 10-years-old when they shocked Britain by abducting James, then just two-years-old. The crime made the boys the youngest killers in modern English history and public enemy number one with millions of Brits. The duo snatched Bulger from outside a butcher's shop in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993, while his mother popped into a store for just a few seconds. The toddler's mutilated body was found on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days later. Venables and Thompson were found guilty of killing Bulger in November 1993 and were sentenced to custody until they reached 18. The toddler's mutilated body was found on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days after he went missing They were freed in 2001 after serving eight years behind bars, but by 2010 Venables was back in prison for violating the terms of his release by possessing child porn. It was revealed that he had downloaded and distributed more than 100 images of child abuse, some involving victims as young as two being raped. In one instance he messaged another paedophile claiming to be a married mother who abused her eight-year-old daughter, and offered to sell access to the child. He was freed from prison for the second time in 2013 after a recommendation from the Parole Board. At the time, Denise and Ralph Bulger said they were 'filled with terror' by the decision to grant parole to Venables. Model Annalise Braakensiek spent her final weeks alive alone in her inner city Sydney apartment where neighbours didn't even know her. The 46-year-old had been living in a new Potts Point development for three months, yet no one in the building had seen her or even knew of her existence. Neighbours said they had been told Ms Braakensiek lived on the top floor of the Victoria Street residential block, but they never sighted her in any of the common areas or even on the street outside. High-profile Australian model Annalise Braakensiek (pictured) was found dead in her Sydney apartment on Sunday at the age of 46 Friends began to worry about the 46-year-old's wellbeing when Braakensiek failed to respond to text messages or phone calls since Thursday No one knew Ms Braakensiek or even that she lived in the complex. Local business owners said they saw two police cars on Sunday afternoon, but they had never seen the former high-profile model around. The owner of a cafe beside the building said she knew everyone who came in, but had never seen Ms Braakensiek. 'I would definitely remember her,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It is so sad.' As news of his ex-wife's suicide spread, stockbroker Danny Goldberg was being comforted at his Bondi Beach apartment by close friends. She spent her final weeks alive alone in her inner city Sydney apartment in Potts Point where neighbours didn't even know her As news of his ex-wife's suicide spread, stockbroker Danny Goldberg was being comforted at his Bondi Beach apartment by close friends He was seen having an animated conversation with another man on the street outside In the weeks before her death, Ms Braakensiek uploaded a series of cryptic Instagram posts. She detailed in one of her last posts how 'life's challenges have been deep, dark, difficult, demanding and down right scary lately'. 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' she posted to her almost 40,000 in mid-December. Ms Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg in April last year after 16 years together, and had spoken about her battle with depression. In an Instagram post just weeks before her death, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' Ms Braakensiek in late November had posted on Instagram: 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us' No one knew Ms Braakensiek or even that she lived in the complex and local business owners never saw her around Ms Braakensiek also gave 'thanks to all of you who have carried me though this turbulent year', adding 'time to breathe in the new beginnings and let go of the old... bring on 2019 already I say'. In another post weeks earlier, she said: 'Isn't it incredible how life has such variable highs and lows, and insane contrasts?'. Days prior to that post, Ms Braakensiek, an ambassador for R U OK?, uploaded a post from the suicide prevention charity, where she opened up about her mental health struggles. 'I'm a proud ambassador for this fantastic suicide prevention charity... mental health has so so many misconceptions, criticism, misunderstandings and false judgments still,' Ms Braakensiek said. 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us. (And in the worst situations). 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have helped me though my dark clouds. In one of the last posts to her 40,000 followers on December 15, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment' In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces' 'Now I'm strong enough to help my loved ones who unfortunately are not in the best place right now. But we will get through this. I love you and am your rock. I will never let you down. I am always here.' Police were called to her home in the inner-city suburb of Potts Point about 3.30pm after close friends and family became concerned for her wellbeing after she stopped replying to their text messages on Thursday, news.com.au reported. She bought the Potts Point apartment in November last year after separating from Mr Goldberg. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces'. 'A dear friend will kindly fly me over for some R&R to spend time with my American tribe I haven't seen in way too many years,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the time. A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek (pictured) in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat' Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg (pictured) in April after 16 years together The TV personality, who described her 16 years with Danny as 'amazing', did not reveal what prompted the breakup. A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat'. 'I spoke to Annalise on Wednesday night and I thought she sounded okay,' Ms Dib told news.com.au. 'I wasn't worried at all. We discussed the new year and all the wonderful things we would get to conquer and achieve. 'My life was better for having had her in it. We were kindred. I felt very lucky. The world has lost a genuine beacon of beautiful light.' In a statement, the R U OK? organisation said it was 'devastated to hear of the loss of much loved and respected' Ms Braakensiek. 'We are still processing the news we have heard today. Annalise has been a huge voice for suicide prevention in Australia,' chief executive Brendan Maher said. 'Nothing we have ever asked of Annalise was too much, she has stepped up time and time again to share our message, even when she was going through her own tough times. 'We couldn't have asked for a more genuine, kind and sincere spokesperson.' Braakensiek previously revealed she had battled with depression for years and was an ambassador for RUOK? Day in 2017 Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza. The beauty, who had Czech and Norwegian ancestry, began her road to fame one fateful day when a photographer scouted her on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach when she was just 16-years-old. Fellow Pizza star Rob Shehadie paid tribute to Ms Braakensiek on social media. 'So sad and gutted to hear about the passing of Annalise Braakensiek, she was an amazing person. I will always cherish the great memories we had on the set of Fat Pizza and on tour. God rest your soul Annalise,' he tweeted. A police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia officers were called to Ms Braakensiek's apartment on Sunday after reports of a concern for welfare. When they arrived, just after 3pm, she was already dead. 'There are no apparent suspicious circumstances, however a post-mortem examination will take place to determine the cause of death,' the spokesman said. Police will prepare a report for the coroner. For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14. Anyone across Australia experiencing a personal crisis or thinking about suicide can contact Lifeline. Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg took the helm hosting the Golden Globes, and while they weren't friends before being paired they quickly bonded and kept things light roasting Lady Gaga in the opener. 'It just proves there could be 100 people in the room, and 99 don't believe in you. You need just one, and that one's Bradley Cooper,' both Oh and Samberg' repeated in succession, as Gaga laughingly shouted 'It's true!' The two dubbed themselves the 'nicest people in show business' before launching into the sweetest 'roast' of the crowd including Spike Lee, Jeff Bridges, Amy Adams and Michael B. Jordan. 'Amy, save some for the rest of us you mega-talented piece of dog crap!' Oh joked. 'Hey Jeff, I wish you were my dad,' Samberg added. Oh said she wanted to make this award show lighter than last year's and the duo were careful to avoid politics, or even the Time's Up movement. During last awards season, Hollywood was reeling from allegations against several powerful men in media, including Harvey Weinstein, Louis CK, and Matt Lauer, to name just a few. Every show of last season had heavy undertones about sexual harassment in and outside of Hollywood, by both hosts, presenters and during interviews on the carpet as well. There could be 100 people in the room... and Andy Samberg and Susan Oh will make fun of one of them The hosts kept it light starting the night poking fun at Lady Gaga for her A Star is Born interview question The former Grey's Anatomy star previously said she wants to bring a lighter tone to the Golden Globes after last year's awards show took a much more serious approach centered on the #MeToo movement. Oh said Thursday that she and fellow host Andy Samberg will provide a 'moment of joy' at the show. Samberg and Oh got together to snap some photos for the waiting press and couldn't help but start cracking each other up. The pair seemed to have great chemistry on the red carpet, though, before they headed in to helm the show. Cameras snapped the first shots of the host as they stepped on the red carpet on Sunday before the live telecast. The hosts! Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg had great chemistry on the red carpet before they headed inside to host the live Golden Globes telecast Oh stunned in a sculptural white gown with an asymmetric neckline. The simple A-line cut gathered in structured ruching over one shoulder creating an architectural ruffle over one shoulder. A silver pair of ultra high strappy stilettos that featured a rhinestone encrusted platform completed the look. The actress, who is also a nominee at the show, wore sparkling diamond earrings and an arm of silver bejeweled bangles. Spectacular! Oh stunned in a sculptural white gown with an asymmetric neckline Wonderful in white: The simple A-line cut gathered in structured ruching over one shoulder creating an architectural ruffle over one shoulder Fabulous footwear: The Killing Eve star rocked a sky-high pair of bejeweled platform heels Sandra went for classic Hollywood glam with her hair and makeup. She donned a pop of color with a red lip and had her raven hair coiffed into a retro faux-bob by celebrity hair stylist Ted Gibson. Joining her on the red carpet was her Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-host Andy Samberg. The former SNL star rocked a classic tuxedo as he posed with his wife Joanna. New best friends: The pair have said they're 'soul mates' even though they weren't friends before getting the coveted hosting gig Keeping it light: The pair said their goal is to get some laugh's and keep it fun instead of focusing on more serious issues Happy together: Oh said Thursday that she and fellow host Andy Samberg will provide a 'moment of joy' at the show Hitting it off: Viewers can expect some zany moments between the two who have become fast friends since their pairing Classic man: The SNL star was dashing in a sophisticated traditional black tuxedo His and hers: Andy was adorable as he posed with his wife Joanna She and Samberg were first paired as award presenters during a comical set at the Emmys last year. During the show, Oh ripped up the winner's envelope, and joked about the 2017 Oscars 'La La Land' slip-up before the duo pieced together the card and announced the actual winner. 'I know when Andy and I were talking about the feeling that I really want to bring, and really focus on, is just to have a moment of joy,' said Oh. Reunited! Sandra and her Killing Eve co-star Jodie Comer shared a sweet moment on the red carpet Big night: Oh could take home a Golden Globe award for best actress for her Killing Eve role of Eve Polastri Ladies night: Comer played Villanelle, a stunning killer-for-hire obsessed with Oh's character Viewers can expect some zany moments between the two who described themselves as 'f***in' co-dependent soul mates,' in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. One thing people shouldn't expect is Trump bashing. Since the former Apprentice host moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Hollywood award show hosts and winners have taken shots at the President but this year will be a bit different. Both Samberg and Oh agreed that they weren't interesting in being too political. Beauty: Comer, 25, donned a dramatic black frock with a sheer cape over her bodice that featured tulle adornments Powerful: Oh and Comer's performances were lauded by critics So much fun: There were no signs of the duo's murderous on camera dynamic as they were elated to be together Oh's parents were in the room and received a sweet shout out when Oh won the award for Best Actress for Killing Eve Aside from hosting duties, Oh took home a Golden Globe award for best actress for her Killing Eve role. She cried as she thanked her parents who were in the audience. Jodie Comer who played Villanelle, a stunning killer-for-hire obsessed with Oh's character in Killing Eve, joined her former co-star on the red carpet. There were no signs of the duo's on camera dynamic as they were elated to be together and posted for a adorable moment together. Comer, 25, donned a dramatic black frock with a sheer cape over her bodice that featured tulle adornments. Charlotte Brown, 24, died while on a date with Jack Shepherd The grieving father of the victim of fugitive speedboat killer Jack Shepherd says he has no confidence police are still looking for him. Graham Brown, 55, lost his daughter Charlotte, 24, more than three years ago when she was killed on a date with Shepherd. He said he could not believe the convicted killer is still on the run almost ten months after fleeing while on bail. Mr Brown said: I suspect police havent got a clue where he is. I would question what kind of priority and resources theyre putting into finding him. I believe that if they threw enough resources at it, they would find him I have got no confidence, actually, that the authorities are actively looking. Since Shepherds trial at the Old Bailey in July, which he did not turn up to, Mr Brown has received only one phone call and a handful of emails from officers. Yesterday Mr Brown, a prison manager from south-east London, also hit out at Shepherds family for keeping silent since the trial. He told The Daily Telegraph: Somebody must know where he is. Somebody is supporting him. He and Charlottes mother, his ex-wife Roz Wickens, 53, are set for a meeting with police this week to discuss the case. It came as MPs yesterday demanded urgent action to end the abuse of taxpayers money being spent on Shepherd. MPs yesterday demanded urgent action to end the abuse of taxpayers money being spent on Jack Shepherd (pictured) He is getting tens of thousands of pounds in legal aid despite being on the run to appeal his six-year prison sentence. Last week ministers pledged to review the scandalous loophole. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen demanded the rules be changed so people on the run cannot claim legal aid. Fellow Tory Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, added: I hope the Government will look again at the rules as a matter of urgency. The Daily Mail is offering a 25,000 reward to bring arrogant Shepherd, 31, to justice. He absconded before his trial, when a jury found him guilty of manslaughter for drunkenly showing off to Miss Brown in his boat as they sped along the Thames in December 2015. After it flipped over, web designer Shepherd, from Exeter, called for help for only himself. Miss Brown was later declared dead after being pulled unconscious from the water. A Metropolitan Police spokesman appealed for the publics help as it continues to try to trace Shepherd wherever he is in the world. Malaysian authorities have confirmed plane debris washed up on a beach in Madagascar is 'most likely' from doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The five pieces of debris were handed over to government officials at the Malaysian Ministry of Transport's headquarters in Putrajaya in late November. Relatives of the MH370 victims presented the debris, which was found at Sandravinany, south Madagascar, about three months earlier. Pieces of debris handed over to Malaysian authorities in November have been determined to have 'most likely' come from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Pictured, Grace Subathirai Nathan, daughter of MH370 passenger Anne Daisy, shows a piece of recovered debris The five pieces of debris were presented to the press before being handed over to Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook in November Malaysia Transport Minister Anthony Loke, centre, is pictured holding a piece of debris which was handed over. To his left is amateur wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson The families were joined by amateur wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson, who has found more than half of the debris recovered so far. A key piece of debris handed over in November was a floor panel which still had part of a label attached containing the letters and numbers WPPS61. A report from the MH370 Safety Investigation Team said most of the new debris recovered was from an aircraft and the panel belonged to a Boeing 777, 'most likely MH370', The West Australian reported. 'Don Thompson, one of the Independent Group investigating MH370's disappearance, found the actual identification label for the Boeing 777,' Mr Gibson said. Mr Thompson was then able to work out the full suite of characters were BAC27WPPS61, similar to a floorboard label found among the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Malaysian authorities confirmed the analysis. In handing over the debris, relatives of the MH370 victims believed the five pieces of debris is from MH370, which disappeared in 2014 One of the pieces of debris still had a label on it where letters and numbers could be read Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Pictured, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 Mr Gibson said more debris has since washed ashore in Madagascar but locals are looking to Malaysia for a reward. He said the main body of the aircraft, which has yet to be found, was most likely just outside the search area. Mr Gibson previously said 'the debris proves two things that MH370 crashed violently and it almost certainly is in the Southern Indian Ocean'. The Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014 bound for Beijing but disappeared mid-flight, in a mystery which has gripped the world. There were 239 passengers on board the aircraft at the time. ecutors dropped the murder charge for the lesser offence of manslaughter A father who tortured his one-year-old son before killing him has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Brisbane resident Shane Purssell Akehurst, 35, repeatedly threw little Corby Mitchell up against a timber bed in their Kin Kin home in a bid to stop the youngster crying, police alleged. The toddler began convulsing after the attack before his mother Kylie Woodford called emergency services. Shane Purssell Akehurst (pictured) tortured his own son before eventually killing him Corby Mitchell (pictured) was just one when he died following a violent assault at the hands of his father in 2015 Corby died at Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital as a result of the violent assault in March 2015. Akehurst also pleaded guilty to a torture charge stemming from a series of assaults on the toddler from the previous November. He was originally charged with grievous bodily harm and five counts of assault, with the charges upgraded to murder and torture. On Monday prosecutors dropped the murder charge for the lesser offence of manslaughter. Akehurst was remanded in custody until his sentencing in Brisbane Supreme Court at a date still to be determined. A mother who allegedly drove around for more than 15 minutes with her four-year-old son clinging to the roof has been charged with dangerous driving. The 36-year-old from the Perth suburb of Camillo was given a summons to appear in court at a later date after she was investigated by police. Hair-raising video of a woman driving around as concerned motorists tried to flag her down on Friday afternoon shocked the country. A mother who alleegdly drove around for more than 15 minutes with her four-year-old son clinging to the roof has been charged with dangerous driving Witnesses said she was seen driving through several suburbs and on Tonkin Highway where the speed limit is 100km/h. The woman eventually responded to flashing lights and beeping horns and pulled over. Other motorists called police about 5.45pm. Witnesses claimed when the woman got out of the car she genuinely seemed unaware her son was sitting on the roof. She grabbed him and put him in the car before driving off, but onlookers say the child holding onto the roof racks wasn't distressed. Police later tracked down the car at at petrol station on Nicholson Road in Harrisdale and spoke with her. Officers allegedly found the four-year-old unrestrained in the back seat, along with two other young children who strapped in the car seats. Witnesses who watched on in horror as the toddler clung to a car roof while the woman zipped through traffic claim the incident isn't a one-off. They said this isn't the first time the mother has allowed her child up on the roof while driving, Nine News reported. Footage shows a silver Holden travelling along Wright Road in Harrisdale, Western Australia, before 6pm on Friday night Natalie Sharp commented on Facebook that the mother did know the child was up on the roof and often drives around with him up there. 'She didn't stop when alerted by other drivers,' Ms Sharp said. 'No sympathy for the mother, she knew he was up there as they've done it plenty of times and been caught before,' another person wrote. 'Bystanders have waved the mother down previously, her comment is that she likes it and she does it a fair bit,' another said. Two other children were in the car but properly restrained at the time the young child was seen clinging to roof racks. 'The child seemed fine and looked like he was enjoying himself,' a witness said. Other witness said they felt 'sick to the stomach' after seeing the young child on the moving car. A one-year-old girl has drowned in a ditch 50 metres from her parents' farm house. Emergency services were called to the scene on Maronan Valetta Rd in Ashburton, New Zealand, at 5.20pm on Sunday. The girl was found unresponsive in the body of water. A girl, one, has drowned in a ditch 50 metres from her parents' farm house Emergency services were called to the scene on Maronan Valetta Rd in Ashburton, New Zealand, at 5.20pm on Sunday evening She was flown in a rescue helicopter to Christchurch Hospital on New Zealand's south island, where medical experts desperately tried to save her. However, she was later pronounced dead, Stuff reported. Police investigations were ongoing on Monday morning and WorkSafe has been made aware of the child's death. The incident is not being treated as suspicious at this stage. Senior Sergeant Matt Emery extended his sympathies to the family. The officer said the girl's family have been put in contact with Victim Support, an organisation providing round-the-clock support for victims of serious crime and trauma. Scots Guardsman Stephen McWhirter, 21, claimed his image was used without his knowledge A row has broken out over a soldier who vowed to quit the Army after his picture was used below the word snowflakes in a recruitment poster. Scots Guardsman Stephen McWhirter, 21, claimed his image was used without his knowledge and he had since been ridiculed by other troops and friends. But yesterday defence sources said he had in fact volunteered to be part of the campaign and had known the word snowflakes would be involved. Guardsman McWhirters picture was on one of six posters inspired by the famous First World War Lord Kitchener poster Your country needs you, updated for millennials. The soldier, who has protected the Queen at Buckingham Palace, told friends he has been bombarded with mocking messages since the poster was unveiled last week as part of a 1.5million campaign. He hit out on Facebook, saying the Army had left him open to ridicule. Replying to one post from a fellow soldier which read Imagine the army taking a photo of you and writing snow flake in massive bold letters above your head Id be signed straight off, he wrote: Dont f****** worry, mate, I am. In later posts, he said he would formally submit his resignation as soon as he was able. Another soldier wrote: Chances are he was told to sign a form allowing them to use his image. That being said, he still has grounds for complaint as they have ended his career by corporate bullying and harassment. Potentially even affecting his future employment. Yesterday defence sources said he had in fact volunteered to be part of the campaign and had known the word snowflakes would be involved Guardsman McWhirter, based at Wellington Barracks near Buckingham Palace, replied: Correct. Defence sources said the soldier, from Irvine in Scotland, knew in advance the theme and design of the poster and that the word snowflake would be used, and was kept involved in the decision-making process. He was among 120 who volunteered to take part in the Army recruitment campaign and ten chosen to take part in the poster photoshoot. The sources added that Guardsman McWhirter had not yet indicated he wanted to start the process of leaving the Army. Last night the soldiers father, Stephen Sr, declined to comment. Top brass insist the message of the adverts to persuade snowflakes, phone zombies, binge gamers and selfie addicts to sign up is that the Army sees beyond stereotypes to spot a persons potential. But critics including some veterans suggested it would turn off the audience the Army was trying to reach. NRL veteran Scott Bolton has escaped conviction after pleading guilty to the common assault of a woman in a Sydney bar. The North Queensland Cowboys prop, 31, had formally denied a charge of indecent assault against the woman at Bondi Beach Public Bar in May 2018. In Waverley Local Court on Monday, following discussions with police, that charge was withdrawn and Bolton entered his plea to the lesser charge of common assault. NRL veteran Scott Bolton (pictured arriving at court on Monday) has pleaded guilty to the common assault of a woman in a Sydney bar after this alternative charge was laid by police He was handed a 12-month conditional release order and escaped conviction. 'Mr Bolton is not placed on a pedestal by the court, he is expected to behave as any other member of the public behaves,' magistrate Greg Grogin said. The magistrate noted the high-profile rugby league player has been scrutinised by the media, club officials, the public and 'no doubt his family'. '(But) it can't be forgotten that Mr Bolton put himself in the spotlight by committing an offence,' the magistrate said. At the time of the assault, the Cowboys were in camp in Sydney having played the Penrith Panthers the previous day, May 4. Bolton was charged on May 6 and later fronted reporters to tearfully say he couldn't speak about the matter because of police and NRL integrity unit investigations. The North Queensland Cowboys prop (pictured with wife Michelle), 31, had formally denied a charge of indecent assault against the woman at Bondi Beach Public Bar in May 2018 'What I can say is that I am taking the matter very seriously and co-operating fully with both the police and the NRL integrity unit,' Bolton said at the time. 'I would ask that you respect the privacy of my wife and my family who are supporting me through this difficult time.' Bolton made his NRL debut with the Cowboys in 2007 and helped guide them to the 2015 premiership. He played 13 more games in 2018 after the incident, with the team finishing the season 13th on the ladder. Rental prices in Sydney fell last year due to increased housing stock and lower demand, new data shows. Prices dropped three per cent over 2018 and are set to fall further, according to CoreLogic. In some areas, prices plummeted due to a large number of new developments. Rent prices in Sydney fell last year due to increased housing stock and lower demand, new data shows Prices dropped three per cent over 2018, according to Core Logic (stock image) In Landilo, for example, new houses pushed rent prices down 15 per cent in the year to September. In nearby Luddenham they dropped 13.3 per cent for the same reason. Lower demand means that three per cent of Sydney properties are vacant - the highest proportion in four years. CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said Sydneysiders could expect rents to continue going down over the year. 'There was so much investor purchasing over the preceding years and that's given tenants a huge amount of choice,' Mr Kusher said. CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said Sydneysiders could expect rents to continue going down over the year (stock image) 'Landlords will have to be competitive with their rents if they want to find a tenant.' It comes after a report by SQM research predicted prices will drop by up to 11 per cent in 2019 in some cities. Lower prices in Sydney and Melbourne will force the national average down despite increases in Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra and Adelaide, the report said. Robert De Niro has called Donald Trump a 'white supremacist' and compared him to Adolf Hitler in his latest tirade against the President. The Hollywood star said dictators such as Hitler and Benito Mussolini had 'looked funny' when they first came to power. Asked by the Guardian if President Trump was a white supremacist, De Niro answered: 'Yes.' The 75-year-old, who was one of numerous Trump critics to be sent a pipe bomb last year, also branded the President a fascist, racist, buffoon and con artist. Robert De Niro, pictured in Los Angeles last year, has called Donald Trump a fascist and white supremacist and compared him to dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini Asked whether Trump was a fascist, he said: 'I guess that's what it leads to. If he had his way, we'd wind up in a very bad state in this country. 'I mean, the way I understand it, they laughed at Hitler. They all look funny. Hitler looked funny, Mussolini looked funny and other dictators and despots look funny. 'What bothers me is that there will be people in the future who see him as an example and they'll be affected in some way, but they'll be a lot smarter and do more damage as a despot.' The actor said Trump was 'all smoke and mirrors' and a 'scam artist', saying he himself felt 'upset about what's going on'. De Niro also rejected calls from some Trump critics to respond to the President's tone with a more civil approach. He said Trump's opponents had to 'fight fire with fire', saying: 'You can't be so gentlemanly all the time'. Trump has previously taken aim at De Niro on Twitter after the actor launched an expletive-laden rant against him last year. Donald Trump, pictured at the White House yesterday, has previously taken aim at De Niro on Twitter, calling him a 'very Low IQ individual' The President said last June: 'Robert De Niro, a very Low IQ individual, has received too many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be ''punch-drunk''. 'I guess he doesn't realize the economy is the best it's ever been with employment being at an all time high, and many companies pouring back into our country. Wake up Punchy!' Police in Manhattan intercepted a package addressed to De Niro last October which they said was similar to pipe bombs sent to prominent Democrats. He responded with a call for people to vote in the midterms, saying 'there's something more powerful than bombs, and that's your vote'. The two-time Oscar winner counts hit films such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II and The Untouchables among the highlights of his career. Before the Trump presidency, he had a reputation as being a man of few words off-screen. An anti-Semitic doctor who tweeted that she would 'purposely give all the Jews the wrong meds' has used her public apology to hit out at the 'brutality of the Israeli occupation'. Dr Lara Kollab, 27, has now apologized for her comments, saying she wants to 'sincerely and unequivocally to apologize' following the 'public outcry'. But the medic, who is of Palestinian heritage, still hit out at the 'suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation in her ancestral land'. The former resident at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in now-deleted posts that she hoped 'Allah will kill the Jews' and referred to Jewish people as 'dogs'. In an apology blog post she wrote: 'I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. 'I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. 'The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me, and I believe every champion of human rights owes it to humanity to work towards a just and peaceful resolution of this crisis. 'Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause. 'These posts were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naive, and impressionable girl barely out of high school.' Dr Lara Kollab, 27, a former resident at The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, wrote in now-deleted posts that she hoped 'Allah will kill the Jews' and referred to Jewish people as 'dogs' Dr Lara Kollab issued a public apology after tweets went viral and caused 'pubic outcry' Hatred: Dr Kollab also tweeted that she would give Jewish patients the wrong medication Writing in Arabic, she says she wants to destroy Jewish homes, hashtagging that she 'say this a lot', and that she wishes Allah would end the lives of Jews Dr Kollab had been found to have been posting anti-Semitic messages on social media for years. The Cleveland Clinic has since condemned Dr Kollab, who is reported to have retained her medical license, and confirmed that she is no longer working at the hospital. 'This individual was employed as a supervised resident at our hospital from July to September 2018,' Cleveland Clinic said in a statement, adding that 'in no way do these beliefs reflect those of our organization'. During her time as a medical student, Dr Kollab, from Westlake, Cleveland, posted a series of anti-Semitic and Holocaust-minimizing posts on Twitter under the alias Elle Kay - believed to be representing her initials L.K. In January 2012, she wrote: 'ill purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds' [sic], and in October that year she said the Holocaust had been 'exaggerated'. In August 2013, Dr. Kollab wrote in Arabic, 'May Allah take back [end the lives] of the Jews so we stop being forced to go to those unclean ones,' according to The Jerusalem Post. Citing a series of tweets screen-grabbed by the Canary Mission website, Times of Israel said the 27-year-old had been making anti-Semitic comments on social media from 2011 to 2017. Dr Lara Kollab's apology in full Several social media comments posted on my twitter account years ago have surfaced recently, causing pain, anguish, and a public outcry. I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. This statement is not intended to excuse the content of the posts, but rather to demonstrate that those words do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today. I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me, and I believe every champion of human rights owes it to humanity to work towards a just and peaceful resolution of this crisis. As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land. Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause. These posts were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naive, and impressionable girl barely out of high school. I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance, and humanity. I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture. I have learned from this experience and am sorry for the pain I have caused. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me. I hope to make amends so that we can move forward and work together towards a better future for us all. Advertisement Still practicing: Dr Kollab, pictured here while working in Honduras, on a 'medical mission trip', is said to still retain her license Dr Kollab, from Westlake, Cleveland, posted a series of anti-Semitic and Holocaust-minimizing posts on Twitter under the alias Elle Kay - believed to be representing her initials L.K. A series of Dr Kollab's tweets were screen-grabbed by the Canary Mission website, showing that she made anti-Semitic comments on social media from 2011 to 2017 Pledge: Writing in her Twitter bio, Dr Kollab says she 'will ferment rebellion in our children as yeast in the dough' Dr Kollab, who is of Palestinian heritage, was awarded her medical degree by a Jewish-affiliated college in New York last year. Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine has since expressed their shock at hearing of Dr Kollab's anti-Semitic views. 'Touro College is appalled by the anti-Semitic comments reportedly made by Lara Kollab, a graduate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine,' the medical school said in a statement. Dr Kollab has deactivated all her social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn since her tweets were exposed A majority of the now-deleted tweets were posted while Dr Kollab was a university student, before she went on to get her medical degree from a Jewish-affiliated college in New York Anger: The Cleveland Clinic, pictured, has condemned Dr Kollab and confirmed that she stopped working as a resident there in September 2018 Outrage: Dr Kollab graduated from the Jewish-affiliated Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine last year, and the college has since expressed shock and anger over her comments 'The mission of Touro College is to educate, perpetuate and enrich the historic Jewish tradition of tolerance and dignity. 'We are shocked that one of our graduates would voice statements that are antithetical to Touro and to the physicians Hippocratic Oath.' Dr Kollab, whose medical license currently extends to the year 2021, de-activated or deleted all her social media accounts after her tweets went viral. Firefighters rushed to the Argentinian consulate in Sydney's CBD this morning after a suspicious substance was discovered in a package. A white powdered substance had been found inside clear plastic satchels contained within an envelope. Four police cars, three fire trucks and several paramedics arrived at the scene at 9.30am, according to witnesses. One part of the high-rise building on Market Street was evacuated. NSW Fire and Rescue workers leaving 44 Market Street in central Sydney with bags of equipment Firefighters rushed to the Argentinian consulate in Sydney's CBD this morning after a suspicious substance was discovered in a package NSW Ambulance Inspector Michael Corlis speaks to the media outside the building The main tenants of the building are the Argentinian consulate, Commonwealth Bank, law firm Slater & Gordon and Westpac. The substance, discovered inside several parcels, was handed over to police for testing. It was deemed to be of no immediate danger and the police operation ended by early afternoon, a New South Wales police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. Tests are ongoing to find out what exactly the substance was. NSW Ambulance inspector Michael Corlis said paramedics assessed seven people who were all found to be 'non-symptomatic' and didn't require medical attention. Level 20 of the building was temporarily evacuated as a precaution but workers are now being allowed to return to work. Colin takes over from Frank Schepers who, following a successful tenure leading and transforming the EMEA business over the past few years, has chosen to step into a new role managing large client engagements. Colin Forrest most recently served as leader of the UK Life team within the Insurance Consulting and Technology business. Alice Underwood, Global Leader of Willis Towers Watsons Insurance Consulting and Technology business, said: Colin has a proven track record with outstanding credibility, bringing expertise and a breadth of knowledge across the EMEA insurance space that will ensure we continue to serve the rapidly evolving risk and capital needs of our clients. His deep industry expertise and strong business leadership skills will help us to provide the innovative solutions being sought by our clients, during this time of rapidly accelerating change. Forrest has over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, spanning a range of senior roles across life insurance companies and consulting firms. Before joining Willis Towers Watson, Colin was the Partner at Deloitte leading the firms Predictive Analytics team, as well as spending a period leading the Swiss actuarial practice in Zurich. Commenting on his new appointment, Forrest said: I am excited to be taking on this new role during such a challenging and dynamic period for the insurance industry. I look forward to working with our talented EMEA practice as we help our clients to transform their operations and to identify opportunities for profitable growth as the sector continues to face a volatile and complex risk and regulatory environment. Schepers said: I am immensely proud of what we have achieved at Willis Towers Watson in recent years and glad to have played a leading role at such a transformational time in the companys development. I am also delighted to have Colin as my successor I have no doubt the business will continue to go from strength to strength under his leadership. Underwood said: Franks exceptional leadership and outstanding contribution has reinvigorated our EMEA business with increased focus on technology, strong revenue growth and a portfolio of major projects that are helping clients innovate and transform their operations. Franks support and counsel have also been immensely valuable to me and Im grateful to have continued access to his knowledge and experience as he moves to a new role. A war veteran with brain cancer has been left overjoyed after diggers in the Middle East replaced his stolen Australian flag, which was his momento from his time serving in Afghanistan. Matt Williams, 22, served with the Australian Army as a private and had a flag custom-made by an Afghan tailor while he was serving. Diagnosed with brain cancer in March last year, Williams embarked on a series of tyre flip challenges across the nation, raising more than $50,000 for the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. Private Matt Williams (pictured left) has become an inspiration to many after tackling brain cancer in his own unique way Private Matt Williams (pictured) with his beloved camouflage Australian flag which was stolen in October While raising money for the charity at an event at Semaphore Beach in Adelaide last October, an unsavoury incident left him searching for answers. 'I have a camouflage Australian flag that I had made when I was in Afghanistan and I took it to the event at Semaphore and hung it up at the end with some cable ties,' he told the Adelaide Advertiser. 'But when I was clearing everything up I noticed some cut cable ties and the flag was gone. 'Once I realised it wasn't a joke I was pretty angry, I couldn't believe that someone would take it.' Private Matt Williams (pictured) has raised more than $50,000 for the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation Following his brain cancer diagnosis, Private Matt Williams (pictured) continues to live life to the full A handful of Williams' fellow servicemen and women based abroad became aware of his situation, and resolved it promptly. Last week he was elated after a shipment of camouflage flags from Iraq and Afghanistan arrived on his doorstep. 'It was pretty amazing,' Williams said. 'The boys in Afghanistan and Iraq made it up especially for me.' Egypts president has told CBS that his country and Israel, with whom it fought four wars, are cooperating against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula, a startling and potentially damaging acknowledgment that could explain the Egyptian governments request that the network not air the interview. Excerpts from the interview released by CBS over the weekend also quoted President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as denying there are political prisoners in Egypt, where he has overseen one of the largest crackdowns on dissent in the countrys modern history since the ouster by the military, then led by him, of an Islamist but divisive president. CBS, which is due to air the full interview Sunday on its show 60 Minutes, said it has rejected a request by the Egyptian government not to show it. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is seen above during an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes. The interview was conducted in September It did not say which part of the presidents comments the Cairo government objected to, but the cooperation with Israel, with whom Egypt has a 1979 peace treaty, appears to be the most contentious part. El-Sissi gave the interview in New York about three months ago, when the Egyptian leader was there attending the U.N. General Assembly, but CBS did not say why it was not aired earlier. Egypts foreign ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment. Egypts military last year denied press reports that Egypt and Israel were cooperating against the militants in northern Sinai, a rugged region of mountains and desert bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip where Egyptian security forces have for years battled the extremists, now led by the Islamic State group. According to the excerpts, el-Sissi was asked if his countrys cooperation with Israel was the closest ever between the two countries. Sissi told CBS that his country and Israel, with whom it fought four wars, are cooperating against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian soldiers are seen above in the Sinai in this 2013 file photo That is correct. We have a wide range of cooperation with the Israelis, he responded. The excerpts did not provide the complete question on bilateral cooperation or specifically mention the Sinai militants. Israeli officials have publicly praised security cooperation with el-Sissis Egypt, which has successfully secured Israels permission to deploy troops, armor and helicopter gunships close to the Israeli border to fight the militants, contravening the peace treatys limitations on the number or troops and type of weapons Egypt can have in the region. El-Sissi has since taking office in 2014 met at least twice with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Egypt under el-Sissi has imposed brutal crackdowns on political opponents, according to human rights groups. A Muslim Brotherhood supporter is seen above firing fireworks at police in Cairo in August 2013 Their meetings have received little media attention in Egypt, a country where most people still view their neighbor as their sworn enemy and where trade unions and most political parties are vehemently opposed to normalization of relations with Israel. In the interview, el-Sissi questioned a recent Human Rights Watch report that said Egypt was detaining 60,000 political prisoners. I dont know where they got that figure. I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt. Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology we have to intervene regardless of their numbers, he told CBS, according to the excerpts. El-Sissi has in the past claimed that everyone in detention is facing legal proceedings for a specific crime committed, but rights activists complain of long detentions without charges - as long as two years or more in some cases. They say that the trials that dont follow proper judicial processes and are more concerned with protecting the state - a cornerstone of el-Sissis rule - than enforcing the law. The detentions are part of a large crackdown on dissent that includes tight control of the media, placing draconian restrictions on rights groups and reversing most of the freedoms gained by a 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak. El-Sissi also won a second, four-year term in office last year after running virtually unopposed. A Sydney taxi driver is 'too traumatised to go back to work' after his vehicle was carjacked during a 20km violent crime spree lasting 45 minutes on Friday. Saadi Alsamer, 54, was driving his cab on West Botany St in Rockdale when he was approached by Ayman Fakah, 24, who was carrying a knife. Mr Alsamer did not hesitate to get out of his taxi and co-operate with the carjacker 'okay, I'll get out, I'll get out and take my taxi,' Mr Alsamer recalled saying to 9News. Scroll down for Video A Sydney taxi driver is 'too traumatised to go back to work' after his vehicle was carjacked during a 20km violent crime spree lasting 45 minutes on Friday Saadi Alsamer (pictured), 54, was driving his cab on West Botany St in Rockdale when he was approached by Ayman Fakah, 24, who was carrying a knife The cab driver was not physically assaulted or touched by Fakah but is still traumatised by the ordeal. 'I'm not ready for work now,' he said. 'This is something. A problem.' The chaos began in Bass Hill at about 3pm on Friday. HOW THE CRIME SPREE UNFOLDED - Police tried to pull Ayman Fakah over on the Hume Highway in Bass Hill about 3pm on Friday because he wasn't displaying number plates - Fakah rammed a police car and kept driving - He dicthed his silver Range Rover in Chullora and stole a Woolworths delivery truck - He fled in the truck toward Wiley Park, ricocheting off more than four parked vehicles - The assailant continued fleeing officers towards Rockdale - He got out of the truck near Fitness First in Rockdale and attempted to hijack a taxi - Hassan Rizk confronted the attacker and was brutally stabbed - After stabbing Mr Rizk, he fled - He was finally cornered on Forest Road in Arncliffe about 3.30pm - Police armed with tasers approached him at the intersection of Wardel Street and Forest Road - He turned the knife on himself and died at the scene Advertisement Ayman Fakah, 24, lead police on a 45 minute pursuit across four Sydney suburbs. During the crime spree he stole a Woolworths delivery truck, damaged more than four packed vehicles, stabbed an innocent plumber and carjacked a taxi. Among the victims was Hassan Rizk, a 24-year-old plumber who lives in Bexley. Mr Rizk was on his way home from his daily gym session in Sydney's south on Friday afternoon when he attempted to stop the knife wielding man from leaving the scene. 'Why you holding a knife, bro?' he asked in extraordinary footage aired on 9News. Fakah initially ignored him, but when Mr Rizk asked another bystander to call the police, he turned around and stabbed him in the stomach with a 25cm long kitchen knife. Mr Rizk was rushed to St George Hospital to undergo emergency surgery on Friday night and is now in a stable condition. After the stabbing, the attacker hijacked Saadi Alsamer's taxi and fled the scene. Fakah was cornered on Forest Road in Arncliffe about 3.30pm, near St Francis Xavier's Catholic Primary School when police armed with tasers approached him. Mr Rizk (pictured) asked another bystander to call the police, so Fakah turned around and stabbed Mr Rizk in the stomach with a 25cm long kitchen knife The assailant hijacked Saadi Alsamer's red taxi and fled the scene Before police had the opportunity to arrest him, the attacker repeatedly turned his knife on himself. Officers gave him first aid but he died at the scene and a white sheet was seen being placed over the body. Fakah was known to police due to extensive mental health issues. Fakah was finally cornered on Forest Road in Arncliffe about 3.30pm, near St Francis Xavier's Catholic Primary School NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Mick Fitzgerald said he had a 'mental health background' but not an extensive criminal history. 'It was a man doing everything he could to avoid arrest. His actions, particularly when he stabbed an innocent person, are the actions of someone we believe who had mental health issues,' he said. 'It would appear to us that the offender wasn't trying to intentionally harm people along the way. He could have, if he wished to, harm a great deal of both humans and vehicles.' Before police had the opportunity to arrest him, he repeatedly turned his knife on himself, he died at the scene and a white sheet was seen placed over the body Acting Assistant Commissioner Fitzgerald also praised the people who ran to help the injured hero in a dangerous situation. 'Indeed, the members of the public who came to the aid of other drivers and the victim in West Botany Street are to be commended and will receive formal commendation from police,' he said. A female driver who was in one of the cars hit by the Woolworths truck suffered minor injuries and was also taken to St George Hospital. Acting Assistant Commissioner Fitzgerald also praised the people who ran to help the injured man in a dangerous situation Mr Rizk's sister, Rima Rizk Hareb, has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with medical expenses and time away from work for her brother. "While protecting other civilians, Hassan Rizk will now suffer the repercussions of this horrific incident in the long term as he will not be able to return to his job as a plumber until he recovers," Ms Rizk Hareb wrote. If you or someone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit the website at www.lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000 A glamorous rev-head known for partying with her identical-looking daughters has been spotted at Summernats car festival. Natalie Wardell, 47, has become the unofficial face of the Canberra event billed as Australia's 'biggest horsepower party'. Mrs Wardell took to Instagram this weekend to post a photo of herself seeking refuge from the searing heat during the four-day festival. Her daughter, Jazmyne, 23, was also in attendance, also posted a photo to social media on Sunday, marking the end of the annual event. A glamorous rev-head known for partying with her identical-looking daughters has been spotted at car festival Summernats (Pictured: Jazmyne Wardell) Natalie Wardell (pictured) has become the unofficial face of the Canberra event billed as Australia's 'biggest horsepower party' Her daughter Jazmyne (pictured), 23, was also in attendance, posting a photo to social media on Sunday marking the end of the annual event Natalie (pictured), Jazmyne and Tamika are often mistaken for sisters despite their age gap Another of Mrs Wardell's daughters, 21-year-old Tamika, decided to go a different route, attending the Lost Paradise festival at Glenworth Valley on the New South Wales Central Coast instead. Natalie, Jazmyne and Tamika are often mistaken for sisters, despite their age gap. The entire Wardell family, including husband Brendyn and youngest daughter Montana, have been dubbed the 'car-dashians'. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Natalie said she was trying to beat the heat during the festival. 'Nothing better than shade and slurpees on a 38 degree day,' she posted. Her daughter Jazmyne posted an image of herself sitting in a pink car during the event's final day. 'And just like that Summernats is over for another year, until next year,' Jazmyne captioned her post. In 2017, Jazmyne was crowned Miss Summernats, saying her parents were proud she had won the title as they are also 'massive car enthusiasts'. A self-confessed 'bogan Barbie', Natalie (pictured) previously told Daily Mail Australia she met her husband after stopping to admire his car while out shopping In 2017, Jazmyne (pictured) was crowned Miss Summernats, saying her parents were proud she had won the title as they are also 'massive car enthusiasts' Another of Mrs Wardell's daughters, 21-year-old Tamika (pictured), decided to go a different route, attending the Lost Paradise festival instead lTaking to Instagram on Saturday, Natalie (pictured left, with Jazmyne) said she was trying to beat the heat during the festiva A self-confessed 'bogan Barbie', Natalie previously told Daily Mail Australia she met her husband after stopping to admire his car while out shopping. While many daughters are embarrassed to hang out with their mum once they reach their teenage years, these girls continue to enjoy Mrs Wardell's company, despite the constant comments about their similarities. 'People ask if we're sisters all the time, and some even think Jazmyne is my mum because shes so tall and I'm so short,' Mrs Wardell said. 'I guess it's a compliment to me, but people will say things like "You try to copy them", but I mean I've had long blonde hair since I was 15. It's just genetics.' Created in 1988, Summernats features more than 2,500 modified cars being exhibited against a backdrop of burnt rubber and rock and roll to a crowd of about 100,000 people. The event saw 126 cars light up their rear tires to create huge amounts of smoke and a loud, thunderous roar of engines at the Canberra exhibition to reclaim the world record for the biggest simultaneous burnout. The world record had previously been held by Saudi Arabia, after its National Day activities in 2017 saw 199 cars burn out at the same time. Summernats have reclaimed the world record for the biggest simultaneous burnout at their infamous annual festival The event saw 126 cars light up their rear tires to create huge amounts of smoke and a loud, thunderous roar of engines at the Canberra exhibition The record for 'Largest Simultaneous Burnout' was first set at Summernats in 2013 with 69 cars burning rubber. The annual event ran from Thursday until Sunday and saw more than 107,000 keen petrol-heads descend on the nation's capital. The festival also featured show cars, spectacular burnouts, concerts, driving events and an exhibition and trade show. Rick Werner from the Gold Coast claimed the title of 2019 Summernats Grand Champion after his 1932 Ford pickup hotrod won him the much-sought after award. Motorists braved 37C heat on Friday, while Saturday cooled to around 35C and down to 28C on Sunday. According to event organisers, one or two people required medical treatment for heat-related stress illnesses during the festival. Sales of DIY drug testing kits have soared by 110 per cent following a spate of suspected drug-related deaths in Australia. The makeshift kits claim to test for certain chemicals and their strength. However, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has raised questions about such kits, worrying they could give drug users a false sense of security. Sales of DIY drug testing kits have soared by 110 per cent following a spate of drug-related deaths in Australia The makeshift kits claim to test for certain chemicals and their strength However, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has raised questions about such kits, worrying they could give drug users a false sense of security The sellers of the DIY kits admit they should not be solely relied upon for safety, 7 News reported. However, they also argued it is better to use one, than to not test the drugs at all. There have been five suspected drug-related festival deaths in less than five months in Australia. Joseph Pham, 23, and Diana Nguyen, 21, died after collapsing at Penrith's Defqon. 1 music festival on September 18. Callum Brosnan, 19, died after Knockout Games of Destiny dance party at Sydney Olympic Park in early December 2018. The sellers of the DIY kits admit they should not be solely relied upon for safety However, they also argued it is better to use one, than to not test the drugs at all There have been five suspected drug-related festival deaths in less than five months in Australia Mr Brosnan, from Baulkham Hills, was found in a 'distressed state' at a train station near the event, and rushed to hospital just before 1.30am on December 9. He died a little more than three hours later at Concord Hospital. Josh Tam, 22, died from a suspected overdose at the Lost Paradise music festival near Gosford on NSW's Central Coast before the new year. There have been five drug-related festival deaths in less than five months in Australia. Joseph Pham, 23, and Diana Nguyen, 21, died after collapsing at Penrith's Defqon. 1 music festival on September 18. Callum Brosnan, 19, died after Knockout Games of Destiny dance party at Sydney Olympic Park in early December 2018. Another suspected drug overdose claimed the life of Joshua Tam, 22, (pictured) who died from what was believed to be a mix of alcohol and ecstasy tablets taken at the Lost Paradise festival, near Gosford on NSW's Central Coast Mr Brosnan, from Baulkham Hills, was found in a 'distressed state' at a train station near the event, and rushed to hospital just before 1.30am on December 9. He died a little more than three hours later at Concord Hospital, at 4.30am. Josh Tam, 22, died from a suspected overdose on at the Lost Paradise music festival near Gosford on NSW's Central Coast before the new year. A devoted boyfriend has been captured filming his girlfriend shamelessly posing in front of a store in the middle of a crowded shopping centre. In the cringeworthy clip, the lovestruck man is seen recording his other half as she pulls out all the stops to get the perfect social media shot outside Rundle Mall in Adelaide. He strategically positions himself a few meters away from his girlfriend in order to capture the best angles of her in action. The wannabe social media star, wearing bright orange pants and a white top, begins gyrating and showing off her best dance moves in front of a Nespresso shop window. She starts her performance by confidently shaking her hips and moving her hands, before running her fingers through her hair. The woman then sweeps down toward the floor before swivelling into a pivot for a dramatic finish - all the while appearing oblivious to the staring eyes of passers-by. The clip was posted to Instagram three days ago and has already amassed more than 77,000 views and 300 comments. The woman (pictured right) pulled out all the stops to show off her dance moves for the camera One impressed user noted that her partner should take note of the man's dedication. She wrote: 'We need to round up our men ASAP. They need to more for us and our [Instagram].' Another user didn't feel quite the same and wrote: 'This is cringy'. While another simply questioned 'What is going on?' 'Me while making my first coffee on the new Nespresso machine,' another user joked, referring to the Nespresso shop window. The Today Show's Lara Vella has clashed with Queensland Senator Fraser Anning as he tried to defend his appearance at a far-right rally in Melbourne last weekend. The Senator's attendance at the rally against African gangs in the city cost the Australian taxpayer $2800 and has been heavily criticised. Many attendees of the rally were seen giving Nazi salutes and in a heated interview this morning, Ms Vella asked Mr Anning to defend his actions. The Today Show's Lara Vella has clashed with Queensland Senator Fraser Anning (pictured) as he tried to defend his appearance at a far-right rally in Melbourne last weekend Mr Anning said the protest run by the United Patriots Front was 'no racist rally' and described the other attendees as 'decent Australian people who demonstrated their dislike for what the Australian government has done'. Ms Vella, however, hit back, asking how people giving the Nazi salute could be called 'decent Australians'. 'I can absolutely guarantee no one in the group that I was with was doing anything like that, Mr Anning retorted. Ms Vella then noted that Mr Anning stood shoulder-to-shoulder with UPF founder Blair Cottrell, who has previously described Jewish people as 'parasites'. The Senator brushed off the claim, saying it was the first time he had met Mr Cottrell, before adding that 'who was there at that meeting was irrelevant'. 'Are you seriously saying the people who were at this event are irrelevant?' Ms Vella then exclaimed. 'Are you seriously saying that it doesn't matter who attended that far-right rally?' The Senator has previously commented on banning certain migrants which he reiterated to Ms Vella: 'I would not bring any Muslims or Sudanese into the country, I would put a ban on that' Mr Anning denied claims that those he was with at the event were giving the Nazi salute The rally was run by the United Patriots Front in Melbourne over the weekend and saw a number of attendees giving the Nazi salute As the clash spiralled, Ms Vella then moved on to earlier comments made by the Senator about Muslims in Australia, and asked if he thought Muslims and Sudanese migrants should be 'run out' of the country. 'I would not bring any Muslims or Sudanese into the country, I would put a ban on that,' he said. 'And any of them that commit a crime I would be shipping them home to where they came from.' Hitting back, Ms Vella then attacked the Senator's unsteady parliamentary position. Ms Vella criticised Mr Anning for standing next to the event organiser, United Patriots Front founder Blair Cottrell (pictured) - to which the Senator said they had only met that day The Senator also repeatedly denied claims of racist behavior at the event and said those in attendance were 'decent Australian people' 'Where does it end with you senator, I'm curious, you have it seems an obsession here with Muslim migrants and members of the Sudanese community,' she said. 'Surely we should be celebrating how rich our multicultural community is rather than that divisive language, you have no chance of being re-elected, are you simply using this kind of rhetoric to gain publicity?' Once again, the Senator denied Ms Vella's claims and stated that he was simply representing the 'hardworking people' of Australia who have 'had enough of being attacked'. Bringing the interview to a close, Ms Vella said the Senator's statements have been making headlines, describing them as the 'publicity' he clearly wanted. Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined Ms Vella in condemning the Senator's actions, describing him as a 'repeat offender' on issues of 'racist views', according to Nine News. Mr Morrison said Mr Anning was 'associating himself with extreme and offensive racist views that have no place in our society'. 'Genuine concerns held by fair-minded Australians about immigration levels border protection or law and order should not be used as a cover or be hijacked to push hateful and ugly racist agendas.' The Senator's attendance at the rally cost the taxpayer $2800 and has been heavily criticised Ms Vella suggested Mr Anning's rhetoric - as well as his attendance at the rally - was a way to gain the 'publicity' he 'clearly' wanted South Australia Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was another of those that criticised Mr Anning's attendance at the rally. 'Taxpayers shouldn't be paying for Fraser Anning to hang out with his Nazi mates,' she said in a Tweet. 'He should pay the money back. The Government should refuse to accept his vote when counting the numbers in Parliament.' Mr Anning needs more than 40,000 votes to win back his senate seat at the next election, a task he has acknowledged to be unlikely without the support of a political party. Amazon is trying to appeal to the hearts and minds of New Yorkers who are angry over the hefty subsidies the worlds wealthiest company is receiving to build offices in Long Island City. The retail giant ran an ad in local newspapers as well as online. The ad, titled Our pledge to New York City, is a rundown of the benefits Amazon claims the city will receive as a result of its building of a new headquarters on the Queens waterfront. The ad reads: Happy New Year from your future neighbors at Amazon. The announcement of our new headquarters in Long Island City was the beginning of what we hope will be a long and mutually beneficial partnership between New Yorkers and Amazon. Amazon is trying to appeal to the hearts and minds of New Yorkers who are angry over the hefty subsidies the worlds wealthiest company is receiving to build offices in Long Island City. The retail giant ran an ad in local newspapers as well as online Amazon claims its new offices will generate 25,000 new jobs over a period of 10 years. Well hire people with all different levels of education, including New Yorkers from across the five boroughs, for jobs in software engineering, product management, program management, operations, sales, and marketing, the company said. The company pledged to train local residents while also injecting some $27billion in tax revenue into public coffers. These new tax revenues can be used to help the neighborhood, improve subways and buses, and build more affordable housing, the company said. The way our agreement with New York works, Amazon is eligible for financial incentives only after we make these significant investments and create the jobs mentioned above. The Seattle-based monolith is facing a considerable public backlash over the terms of its agreement with the city and New York State. Last month, Amazon executives faced up to angry protesters as they attended a meeting at City Hall to discuss plans to open a second headquarters in the city. As per the terms of the deal, the state and city are offering $2.8billion in tax breaks for the company that surpassed a $1trillion valuation in September. Members of the public paraded signs and jeered while some New York City Council members showed fierce opposition by trying to block the project. Scroll down for videos Last month, Amazon executives had to face up to angry protesters in New York as they attended a meeting at City Hall Brian Huseman, Amazon's vice president for public policy (second left) and other executives, discussed controversial plans to open a second headquarters in the city 'We have a crumbling subway system, record homelessness, public housing that is in crisis, overcrowded schools, sick people without health insurance and an escalating affordable crisis,' Fox 5 reports City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, said. 'Is anyone asking if we should be giving nearly $3billion in public money to the world's richest company?' However Amazon claims that the move will majorly help residents by injecting 'over $186 billion in positive economic impact' during the course of a quarter of a century. The agreement was made with the blessing of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio. Amazon last year announced that it would split its brand new HQ2 between Long Island City and Arlington, Virginia. In 15 years it's estimated the company could hire 40,000 people in New York. At the time of the announcement last month Cuomo said it was a 'big moneymaker' and that it 'costs us nothing'. On Wednesday the president of the city's Economic Development Corporation CEO, James Patchett, said the plan is 'the single biggest job creation opportunity in New York's history'. Members of the public paraded signs and jeered while some New York City Council members showed fierce opposition by trying to block the Queens borough project They opposed New York State and the city offering $2.8billion in tax breaks for the company that surpassed a $1trillion valuation in September But the City Council Speaker, Johnson, argued that the figures were biased because they were done by someone 'hired by the state of New York, not by neutral third party academics or companies that can provide that economic analysis'. The Council is angry they weren't consulted about a project of this size and many believe that despite promises made by Amazon, they may not benefit the city which is set to rise in population by 131,000. Amazon's executives retorted that if they don't fulfill the job creation agreement they won't be entitled to the tax cuts. However the meeting wasn't so positive. One of the City Councilmen who previously supported the plan expressed concern. 'This is bad for Long Island City, bad for Queens and bad for New York City,' said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, said. 'The mayor and the governor caved to the richest man on Earth and then handed the bill to each and every New Yorker.' Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos has an estimated net worth of $137.4billion. Amazon claims they will create 25,000 jobs in 10 years and 40,000 in 15 years. James Patchett (left) said the plan is 'the single biggest job creation opportunity in New York's history' City Council Speaker, Corey Johnson (right), argued the figures were biased because they were done by someone 'hired by the state of New York, not by neutral third party academics' Flanked by John Schoettler (left), Vice President for Global Real Estate at Amazon, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (right), New York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke about Amazon's decision to bring a new corporate location to New York City, November 13 The Council members, many of them Democrats, broached topics including Amazon providing facial recognition technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although he didn't admit they do, Brian Huseman, Amazon's vice president for public policy replied that the government should have access to the best technology. The Democrats see it as support for President Donald Trump's controversial plan to aggressively crack down on immigration and increase deportation. There was also concern about Amazon's treatment of employees and whether the tech giant uses customers' personal information in a negative way. But Huseman denied it when Councilman Ben Kallos asked if the company had shared his wishlist on the shopping website with the media. Brien Basarich, 31, was arrested on a charge of threatening a mass murder after posting about her urge to kill and buying an AR-15 on social media A Florida stripper was arrested and charged for threatening a mass shooting after she posted about her plans on social media. Brien Basarich, 31, of Polk County, Florida, was arrested January 2 on a charge of written threat to kill or injure, according to Polk County online jail records. Authorities said Basarich posted about her desire to kill people under her tumblr account username, 'taking-lives,' WFLA reported. 'I had a vision... of a very public place, only one way in and one way out. Preferably a bar/club on a busy night,' Basarich allegedly posted on tumblr. '2019 has a lot in store if my plans go according! [sic]' Basarich was also said to have written, in response to a question about whether she had ever had the urge to kill, 'A lot of us have urges, whether they will admit or not is the question. So yes, I have,' according to the Bradenton Herald. A screengrab from Basarich's supposed now-deleted tumblr account, 'taking-lives,' reveals a vision she had of a single-exit location, believed to be a reference to a mass shooting location Basarich is believed to have said that she wanted to buy an AR-15 'for shooting' Basarich wrote of her adoration of convicted mass murderer and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who killed nine black people at a South Carolina church in 2015 Basarich works as a stripped at the Showgirls Men's Club in Plant City, Florida Lakeland Police said in its arrest affidavit that Basarich had also stated that she intended to buy an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the same type of gun that had been used in many mass shootings across the US. Screengrabs of her apparent tumblr account which has since been deleted show her telling an anonymous tumblr user that she wanted the AR-15 'for shooting' and also noting adoration and support for Dylann Roof, the convicted mass murderer and white supremacist who killed nine black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Police said that when questioned about the tumblr posts, Basarich said that she admired serial killers and mass murderers, Bay News 9 reported. Basarich, who dances at Showgirls Men's Club in Plant City, Florida, was released from jail on January 3 on a $5,000 surety bond. A would-be carjacker who drove off with an Uber driver's car was caught using a common phone app, police will allege. The 38-year-old victim was working for the popular ride-sharing service late on Sunday night in Tranmere, east of Adelaide, when his alleged attacker pulled him from his car as he was dropping off another passenger. Desperately clinging to the side of his vehicle, the worker was dragged a short distance up the road as he tried to stop the alleged offender from driving off into the night before he was flung from it. But shortly after, police used the 'find my iPhone' app on the victim's phone to track down the alleged car thief and make an arrest. Police have used a popular mobile phone app to track down a would-be carjacker, they allege The victim's phone was still in his car when the alleged offender drove off, according to police. Officers at the scene used the app to track it to a hotel car park more than 20 kilometres away, where they made the arrest. Senior Constable Mick Abbott told ABC News stopping at the inn was 'mistake number one'. 'So some good work by patrols there,' he said. An Uber driver was allegedly pulled from his car and dragged up the road by a 33-year-old homeless man, who was arrested 20km away at a pub's car park by police Police allege they connected to the victim's phone, which was stowed away in his car, using the Find my iPhone app (stock image shown) The 33-year-old homeless man was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital for assessment and refused bail to appear before a court on Monday afternoon. He has been charged with numerous offences, including aggravated robbery and illegal use of a motor vehicle. The driver himself was taken to hospital to be treated for a graze along his back, sustained when he was allegedly dragged up the road. What is your current role, and how did you end up in it? Im a Partner in LCPs insurance consulting practice. I work across all areas of general insurance actuarial work and Im also Chief Actuary for a number of insurers on an outsourced basis. Ive done a number of different actuarial roles over the years starting my training at Bacon & Woodrow, then working with Mercer in Sydney and London, before finally joining LCP. What is the defining moment of your career to date? My career has very much been defined by the amazing opportunities that have come my way. This has been the case right from the start, for example, when I was posted on secondment in my second week as a graduate. Then later I helped the Department of Finance in Australia set Government policy. More recently Ive been helping my clients set up new actuarial functions and respond to emerging challenges such as Brexit. Throughout all of this, Ive really enjoyed the variety of the work and this has helped me to develop as a consultant by thinking more widely about how to help solve my clients challenges. In your opinion, what prepared you best to take on your current role? Learning from the awesome people I have worked with and hands-on experience of different areas of work. I remember a whole series of firsts that have helped me be better in my role from hearing specific phrases that help explain technical concepts, to learning from how others respond to tricky situations, to the first time I saw actuarial predictions in action with uncanny accuracy! What is the biggest challenge you face in your role within this market? The soft market is a continued challenge for insurers. This is affecting the market in a number of ways including reduced profitability, a focus on expense ratios and increased regulatory supervision. In my role, I am helping my clients to navigate this landscape, including to provide a clear picture of unprofitable areas of business, streamline processes and stay on top of regulatory hot topics. How does your actuarial training and background assist in your day-to-day role now? My actuarial training and background is still an important part of my role, in particular where I am Chief Actuary, or where I advise my clients on technical actuarial work. However, its a much smaller part than it used to be with a lot of my time now spent meeting clients and leading the team. When did you first join the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries, and what advice would you give to those students looking to emulate your career path? I joined the profession in 2000. My advice is to do a role you enjoy, work with people that energise you, and stay curious. Also, regularly ask for honest feedback and think about the variety within your work to ensure you continue to develop yourself both during and after the exams. If you had your time again, what would you do, career-wise? Im very happy with how things have gone so far, so I wouldnt want to change too much. If I hadnt trained as an actuary, then I would have most likely been an IT developer or a lawyer. Please share your favourite piece of trivia with our readers! Im writing this from this years GIRO conference in Birmingham, and Ive just learnt that Birmingham has more canals than Venice so thats definitely my favourite fun fact right now! A Brisbane band has been kicked off the stage by venue management and shocked punters after they displayed swastika flags while performing over the weekend. A witness said the band, punk group Big Bongin' Baby, then credited free speech for the stunt and said Buddhism was an excuse for their actions. The Bearded Lady general manager Jamie Simmonds said staff at the venue swiftly cut the audio from the stage, though he said he was angry he did not react sooner. A Brisbane band has been kicked off the stage by venue management and shocked punters after they displayed swastika flags while performing over the weekend 'We do not condone what they did and we definitely don't accept racism, sexism or homophobia at our venue,' Mr Simmonds told the Brisbane Times. About 50 staff and guests were in attendance at the venue, located in the hip inner Brisbane suburb of West End. 'We are known to be a safe space for not only staff but for punters who enjoy music and for this to happen is not good. I feel like we've let people down in letting these idiots up on stage,' Mr Simmonds said. Brisbane music journalist and author Andrew Stafford told the Brisbane Times that the incident was not representative of the music scene in the city. 'The band has remained on the bottom of bills at club shows for more than 20 years and they might struggle to find gigs after this. Regardless of whose idea it was, they all have to own it,' Mr Stafford said. There is a precedent in the punk genre of high profile bands, such as The Sex Pistols, using similar provocative imagery for it's shock value and to prompt discussion around taboo topics but such stunts have been out of vogue for decades. The incident follows a rally organised by far-right wing groups at St Kilda foreshore over the weekend which prompted a massive police turnout over fears the gathering could turn violent. Drivers forked out $140 million in fines in NSW in just nine months last year with some speed and red light cameras earning $3 million by themselves. Across the state 442,720 motorists were fined an average of $314 for each ticket for speeding or running a red light in January to September 2018. However, revenue for each camera varied wildly month to month, prompting lawyers to call for an audit to ensure fairness. The highest earning camera was on the Eastern Distributor in Darlinghurst, raking in $3.17 million Drivers forked out $140 million in fines in NSW in just nine months last year with some speed and red light cameras earning $3 million by themselve The highest earning camera on the Eastern Distributor in Darlinghurst raked in $3.17 million, according to Roads and Maritime Services data seen by the Daily Telegraph. But it was not evenly spread over the nine months - collecting $641,000 in one month, but just $35,500 in another. A camera on Silverwater Road in Silverwater pinged 84 speeding drivers in August and 75 in September but only two in March and five in July. Lawyers who specialise in getting motorists out of fines, often on technical faults, said there was significant disparity in the data. 'It is not unreasonable to assume that there are serious problems with the function of the cameras,' Jasmina Ceic at law firm Nyman Gibson Miralis told the Telegraph. Another camera on Elizabeth Street in the CBD collected $2.67 million in fines but though it caught more than 500 in both January and February, this dropped to only 165 in July before going back up to 408 in September A camera on Silverwater Road in Silverwater pinged 84 speeding drivers in August and 75 in September but only two in March and five in July 'The RMS needs to disclose the frequency of calibration and the justification for the disparity in figures from month to month, as NSW motorists are entitled to know.' Ms Ceic said a statewide audit should be conducted to ensure cameras were actually performing their deterrent function. Another camera on Elizabeth Street in the CBD collected $2.67 million in fines but though it caught more than 500 in both January and February, this dropped to only 165 in July before going back up to 408 in September. A speed camera on Avoca Street in Randwick got just over 100 drivers in April and June, but then 546 in July and 726 in August. Anzac Parade in Moore Park usually catches about 200 a month, but only had 63 in April and seven in May. The speed camera on Pennant Hills Road in Pennant Hills had more than 400 in July and August but only half that in March. This camera on Stacey Street in Bankstown collected $2.6 million in nine months Another camera on George Street in Haymarket raked in $3.1 million The NRMA managed to get the government to ensure cameras were calibrated and audited every year because it was essential they worked properly. Spokesman Peter Khoury said traffic, roadworks and weather could account for some of the wildly varying number of fines. However, he said the government should be working to the roads around improve camera hot spots to make them safer, not just issue fines. Transport for NSW did not provide any explanation for the anomalies on any particular cameras. 'Variations in offences detected may be the result of several factors, including the date of activation within the month, traffic flows through the period, and other impacts such as school holidays,' it said. Australia's fuel prices could skyrocket if tensions in the South China Sea and the Middle East hamper supplies of imported petrol. More than 80 per cent of Australia's refined crude oil, used to make unleaded and diesel, is imported from Singapore, Japan or South Korea. Alarmingly, Australia has just 22 days of petrol in reserve tanks - the lowest among wealthy nations. Australia's fuel prices could skyrocket if global tensions hamper supplies of imported petrol (stock image) This is significantly below the International Atomic Energy Agency's recommendation of 90 days' fuel supply. Tensions in the South China Sea could potentially affect imported supplies of petrol from Asia, while uncertainty in the Middle East could lead to a cut in oil production. The downfall of the Shah of Iran, 40 years ago next month, caused petrol prices to spike as the new Islamic theocracy, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, dramatically slashed crude oil production and cancelled contracts with U.S. oil companies. This caused global crude oil prices per barrel to double. More than 80 per cent of Australia's refined crude oil, used is imported from Singapore, Japan or South Korea. Alarmingly, Australia has just 22 days of petrol in reserve petrol tanks NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said a similar situation with fuel prices could occur again if geopolitical tensions involving China curtailed Australia's access to imported crude oil. 'It is unlikely that the boats would stop coming but that doesn't mean it won't happen,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. 'There is always the risk and if it does then we are very much left stranded. 'We don't want to delve into Mad Max scenarios but there is volatility in the region now.' Should Australia's petrol supplies dwindle to alarmingly low levels, military and emergency transport would be given priority over the needs of ordinary motorists, causing the economy to grind to a halt. Tensions in the South China Sea (People's Liberation Navy pictured) could potentially affect imported supplies of petrol from Asia 'There's no reason to believe any global situation is likely which would lead to Australia not getting access to petrol but smart countries plan for this occurring,' Mr Khoury. 'Our stockpiles of fuel are not adequate and this is a strategic risk. 'It's a matter that needs to be addressed.' Compared to four decades ago, Australia refines very little crude oil for domestic use, with just four refineries spread across Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Even then, the oil refined in Australia is unsuitable for cars and is mainly exported for industrial use. The downfall of the Shah of Iran, 40 years ago next month, caused petrol prices to spike (pictured are anti-American demonstrators in Tehran in November 1979) A decade ago, the NRMA commissioned a report warning that global crude oil supplies were failing to keep up with demand. 'Making up this shortfall in supply will not be possible in the short-term and there are questions as to whether the world's current energy mix will be able to supply global energy needs in the medium-to-longer-term,' the report by the Jamison Group of energy experts said. Mr Khoury said electric cars and a sophisticated charging network would wean Australia off its reliance on imported crude oil. 'That is the ultimate solution to energy security,' he said. 'We're just not doing enough to get ourselves there yet.' Australian petrol prices in October 2018 shot up the highest level in a decade, but a 40 per cent drop in crude oil prices since then has seen average fuel prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane fall to 115 cents a litre - a 15-month low. A farmer has shared an image of what many believe to be a Tasmanian tiger near a town in Victoria. Local resident Peter Groves spotted the creature while out walking near Clifton Springs on Friday, and managed to take a quick snap on his mobile phone. Having posted the image to social media, a range of theories have been put forward, including suggestions that the creature is the long-lost Tasmanian tiger. Farmer Peter Groves has shared an image of what many believe to be a Tasmanian tiger near Clifton Springs, Victoria Mr Groves said the creature seemed unafraid and stood watching him for around five minutes. 'It could just be a mangy fox, but it seems to be bigger than a fox and it's not shy,' he said. 'There is a lot of bush and a lot of cover and I think it's living quite comfortably there.' Mr Groves was on a walking track between Beacon Point and Portarlington when he glimpsed the strange-looking animal down a gorge, the Geelong Advertiser reports. Tasmanian tigers were the largest known carnivorous marsupials and are widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia in the 20th century The farmer described the animal as 'funny looking' with a 'big long tail and stumpy ears'. This was allegedly Mr Groves' second sighting on the creature in a matter of weeks, and he said he wouldn't write off the theory that it could be a Tasmanian tiger. 'The picture I've got; even though it's a bit fuzzy because it was taken on my mobile, it actually shows the features of the animal quite well,' he said. Tasmanian tigers had the general appearance of a medium-to-large sized dog with a stiff tail, abdominal pouch and dark stripes across its lower back. They were the largest known carnivorous marsupials and are widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia in the 20th century. High-profile Australian model Annalise Braakensiek uploaded a series of cryptic Instagram posts just weeks before she was found dead in her Sydney apartment. Ms Braakensiek detailed in one of her last posts how 'life's challenges have been deep, dark, difficult, demanding and down right scary lately'. 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' she posted to her almost 40,000 in mid-December. Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg in April last year after 16 years together, and had spoken about her battle with depression. High-profile Australian model Annalise Braakensiek (pictured) was found dead in her Sydney apartment on Sunday at the age of 46 Friends began to worry about the 46-year-old's wellbeing when Braakensiek failed to respond to text messages or phone calls since Thursday In an Instagram post just weeks before her death, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment... am I right?' Ms Braakensiek in late November had posted on Instagram: 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us' Ms Braakensiek also gave 'thanks to all of you who have carried me though this turbulent year', adding 'time to breathe in the new beginnings and let go of the old... bring on 2019 already I say'. In another post weeks earlier, she said: 'Isn't it incredible how life has such variable highs and lows, and insane contrasts?'. Days prior to that post, Ms Braakensiek, an ambassador for R U OK?, uploaded a post from the suicide prevention charity, where she opened up about her mental health struggles. 'I'm a proud ambassador for this fantastic suicide prevention charity... mental health has so so many misconceptions, criticism, misunderstandings and false judgments still,' Ms Braakensiek said. 'We have to break the silence on mental health because it happens to the best of us. (And in the worst situations). 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have helped me though my dark clouds. In one of the last posts to her 40,000 followers on December 15, Ms Braakensiek wrote: 'Everything seems to feel twisted and upside down at the moment' In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces' A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek (pictured) in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat' 'Now I'm strong enough to help my loved ones who unfortunately are not in the best place right now. But we will get through this. I love you and am your rock. I will never let you down. I am always here.' Ms Braakensiek was found dead on Sunday. She was 46. Police were called to her home in the inner-city suburb of Potts Point about 3.30pm after close friends and family became concerned for her wellbeing after she stopped replying to their text messages on Thursday, news.com.au reported. She bought the Potts Point apartment in November last year after separating from Mr Goldberg. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: 'I don't know if a broken heart mends or learns to live in pieces'. 'A dear friend will kindly fly me over for some R&R to spend time with my American tribe I haven't seen in way too many years,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the time. Braakensiek split with her stockbroker husband Danny Goldberg (pictured) in April after 16 years together Police officers were called to her apartment in Potts Point (pictured, her apartment building) about 3.30pm on Sunday The TV personality, who described her 16 years with Danny as 'amazing', did not reveal what prompted the breakup. A close friend of the model, Adriana Dib, said she spoke to Braakensiek in the days leading up to her death and she seemed happy and 'upbeat'. 'I spoke to Annalise on Wednesday night and I thought she sounded okay,' Ms Dib told news.com.au. 'I wasn't worried at all. We discussed the new year and all the wonderful things we would get to conquer and achieve. 'My life was better for having had her in it. We were kindred. I felt very lucky. The world has lost a genuine beacon of beautiful light.' In a statement, the R U OK? organisation said it was 'devastated to hear of the loss of much loved and respected' Ms Braakensiek. 'We are still processing the news we have heard today. Annalise has been a huge voice for suicide prevention in Australia,' chief executive Brendan Maher said. 'Nothing we have ever asked of Annalise was too much, she has stepped up time and time again to share our message, even when she was going through her own tough times. 'We couldn't have asked for a more genuine, kind and sincere spokesperson.' Braakensiek previously revealed she had battled with depression for years and was an ambassador for RUOK? Day in 2017 Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza Ms Braakensiek was best known for her modelling career, as well as her television roles in Home and Away, Heartbreak High, and the TV series Pizza. The beauty, who had Czech and Norwegian ancestry, began her road to fame one fateful day when a photographer scouted her on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach when she was just 16-years-old. Fellow Pizza star Rob Shehadie paid tribute to Ms Braakensiek on social media. 'So sad and gutted to hear about the passing of Annalise Braakensiek, she was an amazing person. I will always cherish the great memories we had on the set of Fat Pizza and on tour. God rest your soul Annalise,' he tweeted. A police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia officers were called to Ms Braakensiek's apartment on Sunday after reports of a concern for welfare. When they arrived, just after 3pm, she was already dead. 'There are no apparent suspicious circumstances, however a post-mortem examination will take place to determine the cause of death,' the spokesman said. Police will prepare a report for the coroner. For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14. Anyone across Australia experiencing a personal crisis or thinking about suicide can contact Lifeline. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is in no hurry to find permanent replacements for one-quarter of his Cabinet currently serving in an acting capacity because it gives him 'more flexibility.' 'I am in no hurry,' Trump told reporters as he departed for Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat, for meetings on the partial government shutdown. About one-fourth of the U.S. government has been shuttered for more than two weeks and about 800,000 government workers have been either furloughed or working without pay. 'I like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great Cabinet,' Trump said. He did not elaborate on why they give him more flexibility. Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he prefers acting Cabinet members over permanent appointees because they give him 'more flexibility' There are 24 Cabinet-level positions and six are currently filled by individuals who are serving in an acting capacity after the departure of members confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Other than the White House chief of staff and the vice president, Cabinet-level officials require confirmation by the Senate. Federal law allows presidents to temporarily fill vacancies by appointing acting department heads who are already employees there. Trump said last month he was in no hurry to name a new defense secretary after Jim Mattis quit over policy differences, and he has praised the acting secretary, Patrick Shanahan. David Bernhardt is acting secretary of the Interior Department while Matthew Whitaker is acting attorney general. Andrew Wheeler is acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency while Mick Mulvaney is the acting White House chief of staff. Jonathan Cohen is acting ambassador to the United Nations. In the first two years of Trump's presidency, there has been a 65 percent turnover rate among senior-level advisers, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. An Arkansas sheriff's deputy has been fired after he was captured on video shooting a small dog while on duty. Deputy Keenan Wallace was 'relieved of his duties' after disturbing video showed him shooting a small Chihuahua in the face while responding to a call of an aggressive dog. Wallace arrived at the home in Conway to find two small dogs on the front lawn. Video recorded by the dog's owner Doug Canady, shows Wallace approaching the home while the dogs barked. Wallace can be heard threatening to shoot one of the dogs if it became too aggressive. Video shows that he did just that 20 seconds later. Deputy Keenan Wallace, who is also a K-9 handler, was seen on video shooting a Chihuahua in the face He was responding to a call of aggressive dogs Friday, in Arkansas, when he shot the dog The dog named Reeses survived the shooting with a broken jaw and bullet in the face After Wallace fired his gun, the dog named Reeses can be heard squeeling. Are you f*****g kidding me?' Canady shouts. 'You're f*****g kidding me.' 'I told you,' Wallace responded as he approached Canady with a taser in hand. Canady and Wallace can be heard getting into an argument, while the dog is noticeably shaken in the background. 'I'm recording you right now. I just recorded you shooting that dog in front of me putting me in danger.' The deputy replied with, 'no, I didn't, the shot hit the dog, what I aimed at.' Reeses survived the shooting with a gun shot in his face and a broken jaw. Reeses was taken to a veterinarian and is in stable condition Wallace has been 'relieved of his duties' after serving with the department for less than a year Canady took the pup to a local veterinarian where Reeses is in stable condition. A GoFundMe has been set up for the dog which has raised $11,000 of its $12,000 goal in just one day. 'My heart broke when he shot her. What did that poor dog do?' Canady said told FOX16. 'That's a tough little dog.' Sheriff Tim Ryals said in a statement Saturday that Wallace had been relieved of his duties at the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office. ''I believe there were numerous opportunities to de-escalate the incident,' he wrote. 'Our Department is sadden about this incident and apologize for any distress and disappointment this incident has caused anyone who was affected by this disheartening event,' he added. 'We will keep Reeses in our thoughts through the recovery process.' . A woman who abandoned her four-year-old daughter and her paralysed husband, leaving the little girl to look after the bedbound man alone for two years has recently returned home. The woman's husband Tian Haicheng, now 40, was left paralysed from chest down in March 2016 after a taxi he took crashed into a ditch at a high speed, according to Chinese media. Little Jia Jia, now six years old, started to look after her disabled father in their home in Ningxia Province after her mother suddenly left the house one day, bringing her elder brother. Jia Jia asks his father why her mother brought her brother but not her (left). The girl, now six years old, has looked after his paralysed father alone (right) after her mother left them in 2016 Mr Tian's wife returned to the family about three weeks ago, according to the man's video account on Chinese social media platform Kuaishou. Mr Tian's wife and his son have been helping Jia Jia look after the bed-bound man in the hospital and at home, as videos show Mr Tian and Jia Jia have become famous in China after a social media video account showing videos of their daily life went viral last year. The videos feature how Jia Jia takes care of her father day to day, including feeding him and helping him move around the house using a home-made mobility hoist. A video posted about two weeks ago suddenly featured a woman cleaning Mr Tian at a hospital ward. The woman was later confirmed to be Mr Tian's estranged wife who was said to have come back to Mr Tian and his daughter. 'We had some disagreement about two to three years ago, ' said Mr Tian. 'Now she wants to come back, I feel extremely happy. My daughter has a mother now, and my son has a father. '[She came back] for the family,' the man told Pear Video. Other videos show Mr Tian's wife and his son helping six-year-old Jia Jia taking care of Mr Tian at their home. He said his wife told him she was willing to carry out her duty and live a down-to-earth life after returning home. Six-year-old Jia Jia helps her father eat and move around the house every day. She uses a home-made mobility hoist (right) to help him get off bed and sit onto his wheelchair Mr Tian's daughter Jia Jia has been hailed for her strong will and tenacity after her mother left them. She looked after Mr Tian while still staying on top of her homework. According to Chinese media, Jia Jia got up at 6am every morning to massage his father's muscles for half an hour. She also made sure to brush his teeth and wash his face before she went to school. After she returned home, she fed her father dinner and assisted him in moving around the house - using a home-made mobility hoist. When she was at school, his elderly grandparents, both farmers, minded her father. 'Looking after my dad, I don't feel tired at all,' said the girl to a reporter from Yangtzi Evening News, shared by People's Daily Online. Jia Jia's father Tian Haicheng has set up an account on live-streaming app Kuaishou to broadcast how his daughter looks after him. The account has nearly 480,000 followers It is said that two and a half months after Mr Tian was injured in the traffic accident, his wife of seven years suddenly abandoned him - bringing their eldest son with her. 'She told me on the day that she was going to stay in her mother's home for a few days. But she never returned, and she took our son with her,' Mr Tian told the reporter. Mr Tian is grateful to his daughter for what she did in the past two years, adding 'she is my hands'. He said the most difficult task for his daughter is to move him around the house and help him turn over in bed - because he is so much heavier than her. At the tender age of six, Jia Jia has been the pillar of her family for two years, looking after her disabled father. She poses for a picture while sitting on his father's mobility hoist (right) Jia Jia's grandfather made a mobility hoist using parts he had bought from a hardware shop, and Jia Jia had to use all her strength each time to help her father move from the bed to the wheelchair. She had to first attach Mr Tian to the straps of the hoist while he lay in bed, then slowly lifted him up with the hoist and pushed him towards his wheelchair which was by the bed. Lastly, she had to lower him carefully until he sat securely in the wheelchair before removing straps from him. To complete the daily task, Jia Jia must jump on and off the bed multiple times and balance herself carefully so that she doesn't fall. Tian's Kuaishou videos show his daughter climbing onto his wheelchair so they could go out together and helping him turn over in bed. The girl has been called 'a little angel' by web users And apparently, helping her father shave his beard was what Jia Jia does the best. The girl said: 'At the beginning, I didn't know how to shave and I cut dad's face and it bled. But dad said it wasn't painful. 'Now, I'm very good at shaving his beard. My grandmother says I shave it very clean.' When asked if she missed her mother, Jia Jia said: 'No, because she doesn't look after dad. But I miss my brother. I used to be very close to him. I miss him!' Mr Tian had to rely on his parent's farming income to pay for his living and medical expenses after he lost his ability to work. In order to find more financial support, he set up an account on Kuaishou, one of China's live-streaming apps, to broadcast his life, hoping to get help from kind strangers. His account, which shows how Jia Jia takes care of him every day, has gained nearly 591,000 followers. The public have been touched by the girl's strong will, dedication and courage. They call her 'a little angel'. After Mr Tian's wife returned, many of the pair's followers have sent their wishes to the family. One typical comment reads: 'I'm so touched. I'm happy for you, big brother. I hope you could recover soon and have a happy family.' A woman who is desperate for a baby has been detained by police for stealing a newborn girl from a hospital in north-west China. The woman from Hetian, Xinjiang, could no longer have children after suffering several miscarriages, according to Chinese media. CCTV footage of the chilling incident on December 26 shows the woman pacing up and down a corridor of a maternity hospital before leaving the hospital with an accomplice, who was seen carrying the stolen baby in a blanket. CCTV footage of the chilling incident on December 26 in Hetian, Xinjiang shows the woman pacing up and down a corridor of a maternity hospital before leaving with a stolen baby girl After wrapping the baby in a blanket, the woman then carried her away from the hospital Hospital staff immediately alerted local police after discovering the baby, who was born a day earlier, missing from her cot. Officers checked surveillance footage and traced it back to the female suspect on the same day, according to video news site Pear. 'We identified a suspect based on the hospital's CCTV footage. The woman was seen loitering in the corridor of the hospital and repeatedly entering different wards,' a spokesperson for the Hetian district police said. Suspect seen loitering in the corridor of the hospital and repeatedly entering different wards Video footage shows the suspect and her accomplice leaving the hospital with the baby 'Then, as soon as the mother (patient) was asleep, the suspect took the baby and left the premises,' he said. The pair was seen flagging down and getting on a white saloon near the hospital. The authorities found the driver from the licence plate number. 'We asked the driver to stop the car immediately and keep the passengers in the vehicle before police officers arrived on scene,' the officer told reporters. The woman told officers that she could no longer have children after suffering from multiple miscarriages. The pair was seen flagging down and getting on a white saloon near the hospital The baby girl has been returned to her parents and the incident remains under investigation 'My husband said many times he would divorce me because I couldn't have children,' the woman told reporters. She felt she 'had no choice' but to steal and raise a baby as her own, according to Pear. The baby girl has been returned to her parents and the incident remains under police investigation. A British couple have had a nightmare start to their Australian holiday after claiming they were misled by a Sydney Airbnb host. Tony and Christine Fitzmaurice thought they'd found the perfect Airbnb property to call home while visiting their daughter Sarah in Sydney when they booked online last July. They paid almost $8,000 for a 25 night stay in a two bedroom apartment in North Bondi with balcony views overlooking the famous beach in the city's eastern suburbs. But they received a rude shock when they arrived on Wednesday and were given the keys to a completely different property in the same complex. Tony and Christine Fitzmaurice thought they'd found the prefect place when they came across this North Bondi apartment on Airbnb When they arrived on January 2, they were instead given the keys to another unit in the same complex where the kitchen (pictured) wasn't as spacious Instead of the open plan living areas and spacious bedrooms they were expecting, they had a 'small and pokey' apartment with a much different layout. Photos show the bathroom has seen better days, with rust and mould in the bath. The bedrooms also had no air-conditioning, which was promised in the original property. 'I was devastated,' Mrs Fitzmaurice told Daily Mail Australia. 'We'd spent a lot of time researching and thought we'd found the perfect place. It was in a great location, close to where our daughter was living and we were looking forward to doing some entertaining in the open plan living area. We couldn't believe it when we found out the property that didn't match the description.' Tony and Christine Fitzmaurice are in Sydney visiting their daughter Sarah (right) Her husband Tony added: 'This is not what we paid for. We've rented places all over the world and this has never happened to us before.' The couple claimed the host told them the original property they had booked was 'unhabitable' due to plumbing issues, which they claim is incorrect. 'You can see that someone is living there as there are towels and a dog on the balcony,' Mr Fitzmaurice said. The bedrooms (pictured) in the unit originally booked were a good size for the Fitzmaurices Neither bedroom in the replacement apartment had air conditioning The apartment they originally booked has been leased at $990 a week since October, according to the property report on domain.com.au. However, the unit is newly listed as available for lease on the host's real estate website, which Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to name. An Airbnb spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the couple will receive a full refund, while the host will be given a warning and 'small financial penalty' 'There are an average of two million people staying on Airbnb around the world on any given night and negative experiences are incredibly rare. Even so, we work hard to make sure every guest has a great experience and want to make it right when things don't go as expected,' the spokesman said. 'Our cancellations policy exists to protect hosts and guests. If a host cancels a reservation, guests can get a full refund or transfer the payment to a new Airbnb reservation. In this case, the guests are receiving a full refund and we apologise for any inconvenience.' Tony and Christine Fitzmaurice (pictured) will not let the stressful ordeal spoil their Sydney holiday The bathroom (pictured) was spotless in advertised photos of the apartment originally booked The Fitzmaurices arrived to find that the bathroom in the other apartment had seen better days (pictured) The Fitzmaurices have spent the last two days in the peak holiday season scrambling to find alternative accommodation, which saw them spend the three nights in three different hotels. 'My parents didn't feel comfortable in the other property it was crap and they'd spent a lot of money,' daughter Sarah said. 'Airbnb suggested a few other properties to us but they weren't in the same price range. It was an awful start to their trip I don't think my dad wants to come back to Australia.' While her parents have luckily found a place for the rest of their stay, it has left them up to $5000 out of pocket. Despite stunning views and weather, it's been a tough few days for Christine Fitzmaurice (left) 'The last few days have been horrendous and stressful,' Mrs Fitzmaurice told Daily Mail Australia. 'We were lucky that our daughter is here as we didn't have an Australian phone or access to the internet.' Airbnb have promised the Fitzmaurices a full refund, which will take up to 15 days to process. The couple said their harrowing ordeal has made them think twice about booking with Airbnb again in the future. 'We'd spent a lot of time researching and thought we'd found the perfect place (pictured), Christine Fitzmaurice told Daily Mail Australia 'My advice to everyone is to go and check the place before you book,' Mr Fitzmaurice said. 'But like us, a lot of people are not in that position.' They will decide whether to take further action when they return home. 'It hasn't been the best start to our holiday,' Mr Fitzmaurice told Daily Mail Australia 'But we refuse this to let this ruin our trip as we're here to have a good time.' Intersects Impressive Quartz Lodes at Albury Heath Perth, Jan 7, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cervantes Corporation Limited ( ASX:CVS ) announces drill testing of gold zones at Albury Heath intersect impressive quartz lodes.- Focused drill testing of bonanza grade gold at Albury Heath completed- Seven holes for approximately 440 metres designed to test extent of two newly discovered gold zones:2m @ 67.2 g/t from 27m in AHP116, incl 1m @ 129.3 g/t from 27m5m @ 63.1 g/t from 32m in AHP134, incl 1m @ 202.8 g/t from 33m- Quartz lodes up to 26m downhole width (apparent, true width not known) intersected- Shallow intercepts in saprolite noted- RC drill sample assays awaitedDrilling of two previously unrecognized bonanza-grade gold zones at the Albury Heath Prospect (P51/2937, see Figure 1 in link below) has now been completed. The drilling aimed to test the downdip, updip and strike extent of high grade zones intersected during Cervantes' previous drilling campaign on this prospect (announced on 16 May, 28 June, and 17 July, 2018).Previous intercepts are shown in Table 1(see link below). Drill hole locations are shown in Figure 2(see link below). Of note are two very high grade ("bonanza") zones intersected:2m @ 67.2 g/t from 27m in AHP116, incl 1m @ 129.3 g/t from 27m5m @ 63.1 g/t from 32m in AHP134, incl 1m @ 202.8 g/t from 33mThese intercepts are located outside the historic underground workings and were not known from historic drilling.A typical cross section from the Albury Heath prospect is shown in Figure 3(see link below) with location of the section shown in Figure 2(see link below).Gold at Albury Heath is hosted in massive quartz veins, otherwise termed lodes, or secondary quartz veining within the host basalts, dolerites, and undifferentiated mafics.Geological logging is now completed; with significant quartz lodes and veins recognised. Table 2 (see link below) summarises the quartz lode intercept obtained.All one metre samples have been submitted for gold analysis and results are anxiously awaited. This data will be released once received.Cervantes has an open Prospectus, closing on or before 18 January 2019, to raise $700,000 by issuing 70,000,000 shares at an issue price of $0.01 per share, together with one (1) free attaching New Option for every two (2) Shares subscribed for and issued.The Company is hopeful of receiving and releasing the anxiously awaited assay results prior to closing of the prospectus on or before 18 January 2019. Funds raised will be used to pursue the RAB drilling of five new potential areas, not previously tested, and for follow-up drilling of the current RC drilling programme. Cervantes also intends to pursue a deep drilling programme on the Primrose Project at Paynes Find targeting Gold, Nickel and Cobolt.About the Albury Heath ProjectThe Albury Heath Project is centred on the historic Albury Heath gold mine. Gold production from underground workings during the period 1948 to 1957 totaled 2,204 oz at an average head grade of 47.8g/t or 1.54oz/t.Gold mineralisation is associated with quartz veining, quartz stringers, quartz stockworks, and wall rock alteration located in a major regional fault zone that trends north-northeasterly across the eastern side of the Meekatharra Greenstone Belt. The mineralisation occurs primarily in quartz-sulphide veins that are up to 4m in width. The main vein strikes north-northeasterly and dips steeply at 75o - 80o to the east-southeast.Cervantes wholly owns six Prospecting Licences covering the Albury Heath mine and its surrounds (P51/2937 and P51/2997 to 3001). These comprise an area totaling 10.8km2 that cover the northerly and southerly extent of the main controlling structure.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Cervantes Corporation Limited Cervantes Corporation Limited (ASX:CVS) is an emerging gold explorer and aspiring gold miner. It has built up a portfolio of gold properties in well-known and historically producing gold districts with a strategy to apply novel exploration and development thinking. Cervantes has identified opportunities in those districts that were overlooked by previous explorers. The company is committed to maximizing shareholder value through the development of those opportunities. Aldi has opened a jam-packed week of supermarket Christmas trading updates with some positive numbers as it raked in sales of almost 1billion in December. The UK arm of the fast-growing German discounter said it enjoyed its best ever festive period, with the jump in sales driven by demand for its premium ranges. In a sparse trading update, Aldi pointed out that the week of December 17 was its busiest, during which sales rose 10 per cent year-on-year. It said too that shoppers snapped up 17 million bottles of fizzy wine and 50 million mince pies last month. Winner: The week of December 17 was its busiest as sales rose 10% compared to last year Not all supermarkets are expected to issue as positive results as the cut-price insurgent over the all-important festive period. Waitrose is predicted to be the biggest festive loser, while Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco are expected to be neck-and-neck when they reveal Christmas results on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Also reporting festive sales figures this week are High Street stalwarts Marks & Spencer and Debenhams. The discounters, Aldi and its main rival Lidl, have been winning customers from the UK's big four supermarkets in recent years as their low prices and unique ranges draw in cash-strapped and curious Brits. Aldi is now the fifth biggest supermarket in the UK with an 7.6 per cent share of the whole market, according to the latest industry data. The retailer, which opened its 800th UK store in 2018, plans to expand further in the coming years to reach 1,200 shops by 2025. Aldi said the Christmas sales rise was partly driven by its premium range products Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley said: Although we saw strong growth across all key categories, the standout performance was in our Specially Selected brand where shoppers treated themselves to premium products for a fraction of the price they would have paid elsewhere for similar quality products. Analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com commented: In the closely watched retail sector in the UK, some good numbers out of Aldi this morning can be read two ways. 'On the one hand they could be a concern for the big supermarkets if it suggests more market share loss. On the other, it could just be that the Christmas trading period was a good one. Id probably see the glass half full for now.' Standard Chartered faces an extra three months on probation with US authorities as it haggles over a 1.2billion fine for allegedly busting sanctions in Iran. The City bank will now be saddled with an independent monitor, who oversees its money-laundering controls, until the end of March. If it puts a foot wrong before then, StanChart could be hit with a criminal prosecution which would potentially see it stripped of its licence to handle dollars dealing a catastrophic blow to the business. Probation: StanChart could be hit with a criminal prosecution if it steps out of line The threat of a US prosecution has been hanging over StanChart since 2012, when it was found to have hidden 200billion of illicit deals with Iran which gave drug kingpins and terrorists access to the financial system. It was fined 415million by American regulators at the time and forced to sign a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, which required the bank to install an independent monitor to make sure the law was not broken again. The DPA had been due to finish last month, but has now been extended for three months as regulators investigate further allegations of wrongdoing between 2012 and 2014. StanChart said: The group continues to co-operate fully with an investigation by the US authorities into historical conduct and controls issues, which was first disclosed in 2014. The vast majority of the issues under investigation pre-date 2012, and none occurred after 2014. US investigators believe the banks Dubai branch worked with Iranians after the DPA was signed, violating sanctions meant to cut the country out of the financial system due to its support for terrorism. The US authorities are reportedly seeking a 1.2billion payment over the alleged breach, although the final fine could be lower. It is a fresh blow for chief executive Bill Winters, who has been trying to clean up since he took charge in 2015. He has hired a team of ex-spies and former FBI detectives to catch those breaking rules. StanChart is also under investigation for handling suspicious money transfers from clients in Indonesia. In March it was fined 3.1million for a money-laundering breach in Singapore. And the banks anti-corruption tsar quit last year after he was reportedly quizzed over claims he changed a performance review for a woman he was having an affair with. Are you unhappy at work? Perhaps there's no prospect of getting a promotion or you find yourself easily bored or lacking enthusiasm when you walk through the office door. Whatever your reason for wanting to move on, you're not alone. Millions of UK workers are going into 2019 feeling undervalued in their current workplace according to figures released by online jobs board Totaljobs. Totaljobs' second annual Job Satisfaction Index figures suggest UK workplaces are being blighted by a growing trend of dissatisfaction among the nation's workforce at a time where employers are finding it increasingly difficult to retain loyal, motivated talent. The research indicates that these frustrations are making UK workers increasingly likely to explore their options. Update your CV and make sure it stands out by highlighting achievements and using the right keywords to get past those pesky Applicant Tracking Systems! For example, 69 per cent of workers say they 'don't see themselves' in their current role in 12 months' time, representing a three percent increase from December 2017. If this is how you feel, then perhaps a new job in 2019 may be just the thing you need, especially if you can land a job that you can look forward to doing. Here's ten tips from leading recruitment and employment experts on how you can land a better job. 1. Don't let Brexit hold you back Brexit may be cause for concern as it creates uncertainty and there's no telling what kind of impact it will have, especially if we crash out of the European Union with No Deal. However, employers are telling a different story. Simon Winfield, managing director of Hays UK&I points out: 'The availability of skills is set to be a developing picture, however whilst we wait to hear the outcome of Brexit negotiations employers are demonstrating clear intentions to hire for the year ahead. He adds: 'The outlook is positive for job seekers for the year ahead as in our recent survey of almost 23,000 people, over three quarters of UK employers say they are planning to hire. 'There are a number of areas which are particularly skills short and, as such, job seekers can use this to their advantage.' 2. Update your profiles and CV When last have you updated your LinkedIn profile or CV? The last thing you want to do is find a dream role or get that call from a recruiter only to find that you need to still polish your CV before you can send it off. Career author James Innes explains: 'I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have a strong online brand and this means your LinkedIn profile has to be up to date and keyword rich. 'Update your CV and make sure it stands out by highlighting achievements and using the right keywords to get past those pesky Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS's).' It's also important to take down any negative images or messages you may have uploaded on social media. Few recruiters want to be faced with photos of your drunken New Year pub crawl when they type your name into Google. Innes explans: 'Manage your entire online brand. LinkedIn is the priority but you need to make sure that your other social media profiles are suitable for potential recruiters to view!' 3. Find out where skills are needed If you're still concerned, the trick may be to land a job that is future-proofed to take on any knocks whether it be from Brexit or any other kind of economic hurdle. Winfield points out that in Hays' list of top ten jobs for 2019 (see table blow), technology roles dominate the list as well as roles in finance and construction. 4. Don't call in sick or make up an excuse to attend interviews Top 10 jobs for 2019 1. Cyber security analysts 2. Data scientists 3. Site managers 4. Java developers 5. Part-qualified accountants 6. Full stack developers 7. Building surveyors 8. Quantity surveyors 9. Risk analysts 10. Finance managers Source: Hays It's best to be honest with your potential employer if you're finding it difficult to get time off from work to attend the interviews. Winfield says that if you're working with a recruiter most will understand this dilemma. He says: 'Employers are more flexible than you may think, especially as the availability of talent is scarce many employers will happily conduct interviews either before or after work to accommodate. 'If this isn't possible, your next best option is to book annual leave if you have enough time to do so. 'Taking the day off will allow you to clear your mind ahead of the interview without worrying where your employer may think you are. 'If this isn't an option, then try to avoid calling in sick or making an unrealistic excuse. You can opt to ask for a couple of hours off for an appointment instead and then offer to make the time back.' 5. Learn a new skill If you're finding it hard to land a job within the sector you specialise in why not try and learn a new skill in 2019? According to job search-engine Adzuna, software engineers and quantity surveyors are two of the most in demand roles. Adzuna highlights there are currently 17,887 vacancies currently available for software engineers who earn an average not to be sneezed at 51,300. Adzuna says: 'This has been boosted by huge hiring efforts at tech giants Amazon, Google & Facebook: together currently looking to fill over 2,000 open roles, close to record hiring levels.' Meanwhile, in the quantity surveyor sector there are currently 8,882 job opportunities with average salaries of 51,000. According to job search-engine Adzuna, software engineers and quantity surveyors are two of the most in demand roles. 6. Use apps to look for your dream job There are plenty of job apps and websites out there that will make it easy to bag a new role in the New Year. There's the usual suspects like Monster, LinkedIn and Indeed. But there are some specialist apps being launched that make the jobs application process less formal. Job Today for instance is a mobile hiring app that is revolutionising the way millennials find work. It says it has matched over 100million candidates to over 400,000 businesses and counts the likes of Costa Coffee, Pret A Manger and EAT among its regular clients. Instead of posting an ad on a website, or asking prospective candidates for CVs, the job search app connects employers with future staff, allowing them to message back and forth to discuss roles and speed up the hiring process. 7. Don't job-hunt at work According to Totaljobs, 55 per cent of employees admit looking for a new role during working hours, a marked increase on the 50 per cent who admitted doing so in 2017. It adds that 69 per cent of workers say they don't feel their boss supported their career goals, a marginal increase from last year (68 per cent). But this is the wrong way to go about it and could land you in trouble. To be fair, with all the websites, apps and free WiFi available at most of the major coffee shops there's no excuse not to find a job in your own time. 8. Don't be put off joining the gig economy No full-time job is ever 100 per cent secure. Meanwhile, freelancers or contractor have to deal with the lack of job security and an ever-changing monthly income. But Innes says this shouldn't put job-seekers off. 'The advantages are obvious the flexibility, the variety and, hopefully, the potential to earn quite a bit more.' 9. Apply for the right role Importantly, you don't want to be sitting on New Year's Day of 2020 feeling the same way about your new job as you do about the one you are sitting with now. It's very easy to find jobs because we have better search results, job boards and online job advertisements there are plenty of apps, websites and print adds to choose from. What's more difficult is finding the role that's right for you. The outlook is positive for job seekers for the year ahead as in our recent survey of almost 23,000 people, over three quarters of UK employers say they are planning to hire Winfield explains: 'It can be tempting to take advantage of advanced ways of applying for jobs with 'one click' applications, however unsuccessful candidates are often those who have dived head-first into the job search process, without thinking about what they really want and what exactly they need to do to get there. 'As a result, they end up applying for roles that aren't necessarily right for them at that moment in time.' 10. Come prepared Remember to do your research about the company and the people that are interviewing you. Be informed and come with savvy questions about the role and the company. To get the right role you want to know whether the position is right for you too. If you don't do adequate research you could be in the same boat in 2020. I currently rent a two-bed flat in north London with a friend. We're on a single lease agreement. When we moved in the flat smelled a bit of damp, but we didn't think much of it. Now, several months later, there is mould starting to grow on the walls and the damp is a lot worse. We told our landlord, but she is arguing that it isn't urgent and won't do the necessary work to fix it. We're worried about our deposit when the lease ends, but we're also worried about our health. Is our landlord allowed to ignore this? What can we do to get her to put the flat back into a good condition? Damp is a serious hazard and the RLA believes that all rented properties should be safe from hazards of this kind John Stewart, policy manager for the Residential Landlords Association, replies: The private rental sector has made considerable strides in tackling damp and raising standards over the past 20 years. The proportion of private rented homes with damp has fallen from 26 per cent in 1996 to 8 per cent in 2016. Despite this, damp is a serious hazard and the RLA believes that all rented properties should be safe from hazards of this kind. They should also be legal and secure and landlords should try and identify any issues with damp early on to limit any harm caused to the tenant or damage to the property. While the RLA cannot comment on the individual circumstances of the case, we would suggest that the best practice is to first establish whether there is any way in which to minimise the spread of this problem. John Stewart: The RLA advises their landlords to inspect the property urgently Damp that is caused by structural issues is the landlord's responsibility but it may also be an issue which a tenant can take simple steps to address. Drying clothes indoors, for example, without proper ventilation such as opening a window can lead to the build-up of condensation, damaging the property and ultimately the tenant's health. Tenants should ensure that they address the issue where they can because deductions can only be made from the deposit where it can be shown that the tenant's actions (intentional or otherwise) have caused the damage. Ventilating the property regularly will show that they acted in a considerate manner and the landlord would struggle to make deductions from the deposit as a result. Where these steps fail to stop the issue, then the RLA advise their landlords to inspect the property urgently to find out what work needs to be done. Damp and mould growth is a potentially serious hazard that could lead to health issues for the tenant Not only is damp and mould growth a potentially serious hazard that could lead to health issues for the tenant, letting it build up can damage the property, increase costs and lead to legal action against landlords. If the landlord still refuses to inspect or perform the work, then tenants should contact their local authority as they have the power to issue landlords with improvement notices, forcing them to perform the work. Unfortunately, a number of local authorities rarely exercise their powers to issue improvement notices however, meaning that criminal landlords in that area can undercut the good ones who ensure the homes they rent are safe, legal and secure. Tenants living in an area where the council is limited will, from March of this year, be able to bring actions directly against the landlord in court for breaching their contract if the property is unfit for human habitation. This will be very expensive for the landlord but it is complex for a tenant to act without a solicitor and it is not available just yet. That is why the RLA is calling for the development of a new housing court to help speed up and improve access to justice for tenants and landlords when things go wrong. Hannah Slater, policy and public affairs manager at campaign group Generation Rent says: Unfortunately too many privately rented homes are riddled with damp and mould, which can present a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of tenants over time. Is there a paper or email trail of your all communications with your landlady about the mould in your flat? This will help you with any deposit disputes and is necessary to escalate your complaint to the council. Hannah Slater, policy and public affairs manager at Generation Rent Ensure you've got written evidence of your complaint and your request for the landlady to get this fixed. If you don't get a satisfactory response from her, then contact the environmental health team at your local council. Tell them that you're a private renter and that you need a hazard assessment in your home. Depending on your council, you might have to chase them up to request that they come out to inspect your flat and take enforcement action. You say you're several months into the tenancy, so it sounds like you're still in your fixed term. Outside of a fixed term your landlord can ask you to leave without needing a reason, using a Section 21 notice. Unfortunately too many landlords respond to a request for repairs with one of these Section 21 'no fault' evictions, but your council might be able to protect you, depending on how serious the mould is. If you do get your council to inspect and they find that the mould constitutes a category one (serious) hazard, ask them to issue a formal improvement notice so that you're protected for six months against retaliatory eviction, as informal council action doesn't offer you any protection against eviction. Unfortunately, cuts have meant that many councils fail to provide the protection that tenants are entitled to. Generation Rent estimates that just 18 per cent of tenants whose councils find Category 1 hazards in their home get this protection. You can always take legal action through the courts against your landlord to get them to do the repair work and pay compensation, however this will be costly, take time, and there is no protection from eviction. Unfortunately private renters in the UK have limited power to get their landlords to carry out essential repairs due to the risk of a Section 21 eviction and a lack of council resources to carry out enforcement of safety standards in privately rented homes. If your council doesn't come out to inspect and enforce, and you don't have the financial capacity to go to court, your best bet may be to vote with your feet and move. Make sure that you leave a review of the property and landlady on a website like Marks out of Tenancy or similar. For a low monthly cost you can join a renter union such as ACORN, London Renters Union, or Tenants Union UK, who can offer you support with your housing problems. For centuries, sleep was regarded as a time when nothing really happened, something with which you could dispense. It is an attitude that continues today: Dont sleep any more than you have to, advised Donald Trump in his 2004 book Think Like A Billionaire, claiming to sleep for only four hours a night himself. Among sleep scientists, though, there is a growing consensus that getting enough shut-eye is fundamental to our ability to learn and regulate our emotions. And lack of sleep doesnt just leave us feeling groggy and irritable chronic sleep deprivation is emerging as a major cause of ill-health, from type 2 diabetes to cancer. The fact is, we need sleep to recover, mentally and physically, from daily life and our body clocks are central to this recovery. Among sleep scientists, though, there is a growing consensus that getting enough shut-eye is fundamental to our ability to learn and regulate our emotions (file picture) As I explained last week in Good Health, there is a biological clock ticking in every cell of your body. The normal working of the brain, immunity and bodily functions such as heart rate and digestion are all controlled by these. The clocks respond to signals from a master body clock, a patch of your brain that keeps them synchronised with each other and with the time of day, according to cues it receives from a set of light-responsive cells at the back of the eyes. The clocks trigger various biochemical reactions at different times of day. For instance, scientists recently discovered that, while we sleep, a system flushes out toxins that accumulate in the brain during the day, such as beta-amyloid protein, which is associated with the development of Alzheimers. Night-time and sleep is also important for laying down new memories. These processes are less efficient when we are awake. Try these simple tricks to protect yourself Bright light at night especially blue light from the LED bulbs in computer screens and, increasingly, in ceiling lights and street lights undermines our ability to sleep. Adjusting the light settings on your phone or tablet or installing an app that filters out blue light after sunset can help. Even so, most sleep researchers advocate ditching screens altogether in the half-hour before bed and, ideally, for several hours beforehand because even relatively dim light sources held close to the eyes can inhibit the sleep hormone melatonin. Try to get outside more during the day, particularly in the morning. We measure illuminance in lux, which refers to the amount of light striking a surface. The full moon on a clear night is 0.1 to 0.3 lux, or up to 1 lux in the tropics about the same as candlelight. The illuminance in a typical office is between 100 and 300 lux during the day, whereas even on a gloomy, overcast winters day, it will be at least ten times brighter if youre outside. On a clear summers day, when the sun is higher in the sky, it can reach 100,000 lux. In the West, we spend our daytime in the equivalent of twilight, then keep the lights switched on well after sunset. Some of us even sleep with a nightlight on, while city-dwellers often have light pollution from street lights with which to contend. A recent German study found exposure to bright light in the morning boosted peoples reaction times and speeds and maintained them at a higher level all day. So take a morning walk, eat breakfast next to a large, east-facing window bathed in bright morning light, or quit the gym and instead exercise outside. If its cold or wet, remember there is no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes. Advertisement Humans have evolved to synchronise sleep with when its dark outside. The problem is that those same light-sensitive cells in the back of the eye also respond to artificial light, such as that from electric bulbs and screens. Being exposed to bright light at night has significant effects. First, it delays the timing of our master body clock and suppresses melatonin, the hormone released at night that helps trigger sleep. This means we feel tired later and fall asleep later and, as we still have to get up for work the next morning, we get less sleep overall. As our body clocks have been pushed later, it also means our bodys natural daily low point in mood and alertness, which is biologically programmed to occur before dawn when were asleep, occurs when were awake instead. Is this why you sleep so badly? Its not just indoor light that causes problems. A 2016 study found that people living in areas with elevated levels of light pollution from LED street lights tend to go to bed and wake up later than those living in darker areas. They also sleep less, feel more tired during the day and are less satisfied with the quality of their slumber. Bright light also has a direct effect on alertness its like drinking several cups of coffee. When were exposed to it at night, our heart rate and core body temperature increase. Usually, these are at their lowest during the night. It is thought to affect other important processes that occur at night, too, such as muscle repair and skin regeneration. Also, because we are more active in the evenings, we often eat our largest meal of the day when we are physiologically least prepared to deal with it. Food can also shift the timing of some of our internal clocks and, as a result of all this, our bodies become confused and no longer work as efficiently. Shift work and increasingly bright light at night, as well as social jet lag has been linked to a host of conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression and heart disease. Some academics have even suggested artificial light, which makes it easier for us to work at night, may be the reason these conditions have risen to such epidemic proportions. And, in 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer added nightshift work to the official list of probable human carcinogens. Ban blue light at night What would happen if we reverted to a traditional relationship with light? Kenneth Wright, an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, in the U.S., has investigated precisely that. His studies suggest that removing artificial evening light shifts the body clock several hours earlier, so, by waking-up time, production of the night-time hormone melatonin has switched off. With artificial light in the evening, melatonin production continued for several hours after waking. Professor Wright suspects that this melatonin hangover could contribute towards our feelings of grogginess in the morning. Kenneth Wright, an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, suggest that removing artificial evening light shifts the body clock several hours earlier (file picture) Inspired by such findings, I decided to go cold-turkey on artificial light at night myself and spend more time outdoors during the daytime. I was interested to see whether this would translate into any wider benefits. Before, my sleep routine was fairly typical for a British person: Id go to bed at around 11.30pm or midnight and reliably be woken up at 7.30am by my children. Even though I slept soundly, compared with many of my countrymen the average British adult goes to bed at 11.15pm but gets just six hours 35 minutes sleep a night I often felt groggy in the mornings and would have liked to sleep for longer. Also, like three-quarters of British adults, I had the unfortunate habit of routinely checking my smartphone just before bed, blasting myself with blue light, which inhibits melatonin and pushes the bodys clock later, potentially making it harder to get to sleep. During the first week, I did everything I could to maximise daylight exposure: moving my desk next to a large, south-facing window, loitering in the park after school drop-offs, exercising and eating lunch outside. Another week, I turned off the lights after 6pm, even though this meant cooking in the dark, as it was midwinter. Computers and smartphones were banned in the evenings unless absolutely necessary and then only if they were in night mode, to reduce the amount of blue light they emitted. During a third week, I combined both sets of interventions, keeping things bright in the day and dark at night. Health risks of a weekend lie in The availability of bright light at night delays our body clock and alters our alertness, encouraging us to stay up later, even though we must still go to work or school the next morning. As a result, many of us wake up at a time when our bodies still think they should be sleeping then lying in at weekends to catch up on missed sleep changes our light exposure yet again. The social jet lag these inconsistencies cause is akin to physically travelling across several time zones each week. It is also very common: studies by Till Roenneberg at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich concluded that just 13 per cent of us are free of such social jet lag; 69 per cent experience at least one hour of it each week; while the remainder suffer for two or more hours. Another recent study found that, for every hour of social jet lag people experience each week, their chances of developing cardiovascular disease increase by 11 per cent and they also suffer worse mood and greater levels of tiredness. Adding an hour of social jet lag to your week raises your chances of being overweight by a third, too. In Roennebergs words: The more of it you experience, the fatter, dumber, grumpier and sicker you will be. Advertisement To track my responses, I wore a device on my wrist that captured information on light exposure, activity and sleep. I filled in daily diaries and questionnaires to record my alertness and mood and did a battery of online tests to measure my reaction speed, attention and memory. Finally, on the last night of each week, I sat in the dark, spitting into a tube to work out when I started releasing melatonin that marker of internal time. Cooking by candlelight Overall, cooking by candlelight was a daily challenge. My pledge to avoid artificial light made socialising difficult. Despite the challenges, I did significantly reduce the amount of light I was exposed to after sunset and this did throw up some interesting findings. Light, or illuminance, is measured in lux, which refers to the amount of light striking a surface. At our latitude, the full moon on a clear night is 0.1 to 0.3 lux. During the experiment, the average illuminance in my home between 6pm and midnight was 0.5 lux only a little brighter than moonlight. Meanwhile, on some of the brightest, sunniest winter days, when Id taken a cup of tea to the park and sat on a chilly bench to construct my to-do list for the day, the reading on my light meter was 73,000 lux not far off the sort of reading youd expect on a cloudless day in summer. Back indoors, I took another reading from the middle of my office it was 600 times dimmer than outside. The UKs Health and Safety Executive recommends an average illuminance of 200 lux in most offices. A recent study found that U.S. adults spend more than half their waking hours in light even dimmer than this and only about a tenth of their time in the equivalent of outdoor light. But did doing any of this have a measurable impact on my sleep or mental performance? During the experiment, my early morning mood was noticeably more positive. The grogginess was gone: I felt more energetic and alert. Tests showed my body started releasing the darkness hormone melatonin one-and-a-half to two hours earlier when I cut out artificial light or got more daylight. I also felt more tired before bedtime and tended to go to bed about 30 minutes earlier: I would have turned in even sooner but, in the run-up to Christmas, we often had guests to entertain. The average British adult goes to bed at 11.15pm but gets just six hours 35 minutes sleep a night (file picture) When I correlated my sleep measurements with the amount of light I was exposed to during the daytime, another interesting pattern emerged. On the brightest days, I went to bed earlier. Because of this experience, Im a convert to outdoor exercise and have even come to look forward to certain aspects of winter particularly the bright, frosty days and spectacular sunsets. Forging a healthier relationship with light doesnt mean that we have to ditch all our electronic gadgets. But we need to acknowledge excessive light at night and an absence of bright light during the day is harmful. We evolved over aeons when day was day and night was night. Its time to reconnect with that. ADAPTED from Chasing The Sun: The New Science Of Sunlight And How It Shapes Our Bodies And Minds by Linda Geddes, published by Wellcome Collection and Profile Books on January 10, 2019, at 14.99. To order a copy for 11.99 (20 per cent discount, valid until January 22, 2019), visit this website or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over 15. Is one entitled to ones health records from a private hospital? I am now retired and can no longer afford private health cover. Im being treated on the NHS for a heart condition and would like my private records to be made available to the NHS. Keith Basson, Warrington. In a word: yes. The data held in your records is your data and both the private hospital where you were treated and the practitioner who treated you are legally obliged to provide you with that information. It is possible that part of your records is held at the hospital, while your consultant will also have copies of some of your data and there may also be a degree of duplication. In any event, make your request in writing, initially to the medical records officer at the hospital. A full set of records will include reports of investigations such as X-rays and other scans and laboratory tests, as well as clinical notes from your doctors. The data held in your records is your data and both the private hospital where you were treated and the practitioner who treated you are legally obliged to provide you with that information, writes Dr Martin Scurr (file picture) If there are no notes in the file when you receive it, write a letter to the consultant to request a copy of the notes he holds. Some organisations charge a fee for providing copies of medical notes, which I think is rather irritating. Given what the hospitals charge, they should really provide the service for free, or at least ask for only a very minimal fee. (Many level excessive charges for sending the files, which, in this computer age, cannot take too much admin time.) You may also be requested to collect the files, rather than entrust them to the post. Most facilities will not send such documentation by email on account of the need for confidentiality and the potential problem of them being hacked. When it comes to getting hold of NHS hospital records, contact the records manager, or patient services manager, at your hospital trust. For the past 15 years, I have experienced an intense pain in my gullet, often brought on by eating or drinking. It can cause hiccups for a short while, but these usually end within minutes. However, 18 months ago, the pain was so intense I briefly passed out. Recently, it happened again this time resulting in two cracked ribs and a black eye. Blood tests and an ECG have found nothing. Ian Hughes, Bromsgrove, Worcs. What an alarming turn of events. I think its most likely that the bouts of pain are due to irritability of the oesophagus the muscular tube linking your throat to your stomach because of acid reflux. I note that you do not seem to have suffered the more typical symptoms, such as heartburn (a sense of acid heat or discomfort in the region of the oesophagus this can occur anywhere between the bottom of the sternum and the back of the throat), acid sensations or difficulty swallowing. So I think your oesophagus is being irritated by so-called silent acid reflux. Write to Dr Scurr To contact Dr Scurr with a health query, write to him at Good Health Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email drmartin@dailymail.co.uk including contact details. Dr Scurr cannot enter into personal correspondence. His replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context. Always consult your own GP with any health worries. Advertisement Acid reflux is due to the valve at the top of the stomach malfunctioning, allowing acid to pass up into the oesophagus. Studies indicate that acid reflux is the most common cause of oesophageal pain, even when there are no other obvious signs of reflux, such as hoarseness. The painful sensations you describe occur as a result of acid or hot or cold food triggering pain receptors in the oesophagus wall. This, in turn, can at times cause abnormal movement or spasms in the muscular walls of the oesophagus. One study of more than 900 patients investigated for chest pain, found that 28 per cent had abnormal movements in the oesophagus and 3 per cent had actual spasms. So why did you faint? I suspect an intense spasm of the oesophagus may have over-activated the vagus nerve, which runs from the neck down into the abdomen and supplies both the oesophagus and the heart. This would then trigger the heart rate to slow and blood pressure to drop, and the resulting brief lack of blood could have caused you to faint what we call a vasovagal episode. A trial of acid suppression is called for. This involves taking a proton pump inhibitor (for example, omeprazole, 40mg twice daily) for eight weeks to suppress acid production by the stomach. Most physicians would prescribe this after an investigation by endoscopy, which is where a camera is put down the oesophagus to inspect the lining. However, your doctor may decide to prescribe this anyway. If acid suppression does not help, I would talk to your GP about referral to a gastroenterologist with an interest in oesophageal function for further tests to confirm acid reflux (by measuring the levels in the stomach) and manometry (pressure-testing to see if there are spasms or any other unusual movements in the oesophagus). These additional investigations would help to pin down the exact cause of your frequent bouts of pain. In view of the potential for sudden collapse to cause serious injury, I urge you see your GP promptly. In my view... Men fear it's cancer, but it's more likely a benign prostate problem There is no doubt that, with high-profile examples such as Stephen Fry and growing awareness, prostate cancer is now much more on mens radars. Clearly, greater awareness is vital. But, more often than not, mens urinary problems are not the much-feared cancer. About 50 per cent of those aged 50 and 80 per cent of those aged 80 have urinary symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous condition where the prostate gland becomes larger. The symptoms vary over time but gradually worsen over years, and include hesitancy (difficulty starting), weak stream, a sense of incomplete emptying and getting up at night more than once to pass water. What worries me is that many men become concerned these symptoms are a sign of prostate cancer, when most men with prostate cancer have no symptoms or only minimal ones until the cancer has spread, commonly to the skeleton. Then there is bone pain, weight loss and occasionally pain in the groin area or blood in the urine. About 50 per cent of those aged 50 and 80 per cent of those aged 80 have urinary symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous condition where the prostate gland becomes larger (file picture) The confusion arises because the conditions may occur in tandem, and age is the main risk factor for both. Screening (being checked to see if there is cancer when there are no symptoms) is not as simple as having the blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which leads to too many false positives and a small incidence of false negatives. The best way to screen for prostate cancer is with a digital rectal examination by a doctor, supplemented by the PSA blood test. Abnormalities should be followed up by an MRI scan and a biopsy if there are any suspicious areas. It is no longer considered good enough to carry out a biopsy without an MRI first. In fact, its expected that later this year, MRI scans will officially become a first-line investigation. The message is, be aware. And if you do need screening, ask your GP about a scan. For further information on this issue, visit the Urology Foundation. An eight-year-old boy who was visiting Utah for the holidays was diagnosed with the same deadly brain tumor the late Senator John McCain had - after his parents took him to hospital for suspected altitude sickness. Perryn Miller, from Holly Ridge, North Carolina, began complaining of migraines two months ago, but doctors in his home state told his parents, Jacob and Jaimee, that the pain was just from the prescription of his new glasses and would go away. The family traveled to Utah to visit relatives for Christmas, where Perryn had even worse headaches and began vomiting, KUTV reported. His parents believed his symptoms were still from the glasses, but that the altitude change was exacerbating them, and took him to the emergency room. Doctors ran several tests and diagnosed with Perryn with a rare brain cancer, gliobastoma multiforme, and told his parents that even with the treatment he will undergo, he has just a 20 percent chance of surviving five years. Perryn Miller, eight, from Holly Ridge, North Carolina, had been complaining of headaches for two months, but his parents were told it was just because of the prescription of his new glasses. Pictured: Perryn with his mother Jaimee After arriving in Utah for Christmas, he began vomiting, leading his family to believe the change in altitude might be exacerbating his symptoms. At the hospital, Perryn (left and right) was diagnosed with gliobastoma multiforme, a rare, aggressive brain tumor Perryn began getting headaches about two months ago, but doctors assured Jacob and Jaimee that it was due to his glasses and he would adjust to the prescription. He was given allergy medicine, but it didn't seem to alleviate Perryn's symptoms. Just two days after arriving in Utah, Perryn said he had a migraine and started throwing up. At the local hospital, doctors diagnosed Perryn with gliobastoma multiforme. Also known as gliobastoma, it is a rare, aggressive type of brain tumor that is found in the brain or on the spinal cord. They form from star-shaped cells in the brain known as astrocytes and make their own blood supply, allowing them to grow quickly. Perryn (pictured) was taken by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where doctors performed an emergency seven-hour surgery to remove the tumor The Millers are remaining in Utah so Perryn can undergo chemotherapy and radiation in six-week intervals at Primary Children's. Pictured: Perryn, right, with his five-year-old brother Rayner, left Symptoms include constant painful headaches, vomiting, seizures, double vision and trouble speaking. Approximately 14,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Treatment options to slow and control tumor growth include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation - but the cancer usually recurs. The tumors are grade IV, the most deadly form, and the five-year survival rate is only five percent. Perryn was taken by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where doctors performed an emergency seven-hour surgery to remove the tumor. Pediatric oncologist Dr Nicholas Whipple, one of Perryn's doctors, told KUTV that Perryn's chances of survival are about 20 percent but that he has good odds because neurosurgeons were able to remove all of the tumor. The family has decided to remain in Utah for the short term as Perryn undergoes chemotherapy and radiation in six-week intervals, according to a Facebook post by his grandmother Patricia Miller-Danklef. Recently, Robert Reynolds, who doesn't know the Miller family, traveled cross-country to bring the family's eight-month-old dog Frank to them. Pictured, left to right: Jacob Miller, Jaimee Miller, Rayner, Perryn and Reynolds Doctors say Perryn's chances of survival are about 20 percent but that he has good odds because neurosurgeons were able to remove all of the tumor. Pictured: Perryn, right, with his brother Rayner 'This [has] been a roller coaster of emotions,' she wrote. 'He has a long road ahead, but he is a trooper and has such a beautiful attitude.' Recently, Robert Reynolds, who doesn't know the Miller family, saw their story on Facebook and reached out asking how he could help, KUTV reported. He traveled cross-country to bring the family their eight-month-old dog Frank that they had left behind in North Carolina. A family friend has started a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of Perryn's mounting medical bills. So far, more than $29,000 has been raised out of a $30,000 goal. The study looked at viruses which are spread by mosquitoes and ticks And West Nile Virus is the most likely one to affect North America In Western Europe the most likely virus to break out is Japanese encephalitis They worked out which creatures are most likely to carry certain flaviviruses Researchers analysed all known animal and bird species in the world The countries most likely to be responsible an outbreak of a contagious killer virus such as Zika or dengue have been revealed by scientists. Researchers have created heat maps to show viral hot-spots around the world, by working out which animals are most likely to spread illnesses and where. The maps show where existing flaviviruses infectious viruses spread mostly by mosquitoes and ticks or similar new ones are most likely to surface and spread in the future. For example, Japanese encephalitis is most likely to break out in Western Europe, while the West Nile Virus is a major threat in North America. Information about thousands of bird and mammal species was involved in the study and researchers say it will help predict and track viruses around the world. Scientists from the University of California, Davis, have examined animal and bird species data to figure out where they think the next virus outbreaks could happen they decided West Nile Virus is most likely to affect North America, dengue South America, Japanese encephalitis Western Europe and yellow fever or Zika south-east Asia Researchers from the University of California, Davis, have charted where they think future outbreaks of known viruses or similar strains will happen. Viruses such as Zika, dengue and West Nile tend to be transmitted to people at least in the first instance from warm-blooded animals via mosquitoes. Scientists have compared information about every known bird and mammal species on earth to work out which ones carry different types of viruses. Working out where animals are most likely to be affected by certain viruses can provide clues about where they are most likely to take hold and spread to people. They found Zika and yellow fever are most likely to break out in south-east Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, with other hot-spots in Europe and Africa. People are at highest risk of West Nile Virus in the US, Mexico and the south of Canada, with a lower but not absent risk across Europe and Russia. The St Louis encephalitis and Usutu viruses are also likely to be found in the same areas, the study found. Dengue, which is common and can cause fever, vomiting and rashes, is most likely to break out in South America in Brazil and surrounding countries. Yellow fever (YFV) and Zika (ZIKV) or similar viruses are most likely to break out in south-east Asia (red and orange), with some risk areas in Africa, Europe and South America (yellow) West Nile Virus (WNV), St Louis encephalitis (SLEV) and Usutu (USUV) are all most likely to affect North America, according to the study, with some risk in eastern Europe and Russia as well Tick-borne encephalitis (TBEV), an infection which can damage people's brains, is most likely to surface in Russia and northern Europe, researchers showed According to the research, Western Europe is most at risk of an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis, a brain infection found in pigs which can cause seizures, paralysis and even death in severe cases in humans. Tick-borne encephalitis, another brain infection, is also most likely to break out in Europe, though further to the east and into Russia. When flaviviruses infect people they often cause fevers, headaches, tiredness and rashes, muscle or joint pain and some cause nausea or vomiting. Most people only suffer mild illness and recover quickly but complications can be life-threatening. Less well-known viruses Rio Bravo, Entebbe bat and Dakar bat the latter of which are both carried by bats are also most likely to be found in South America. 'If there's an outbreak anywhere in the world tomorrow, we now know which wildlife species are most likely to be infected in addition to humans,' said lead author Pranav Pandit. Rio Bravo virus (RBV), Entebbe bat virus (ENTV) and Dakar bat virus (DBV) are all most likely to be found in South America in Brazil and the surrounding countries, the study found Dengue, an infection common in tropical countries, is also most likely to break out in South America, according to the study based on the types of animals living there Japanese encephalitis (JEV) is most likely to spread among animals and birds in northern and western Europe, the University of California scientists said WHAT IS MOST LIKELY TO CAUSE THE NEXT EPIDEMIC? In February 2018, The World Health Organization released its annual list of lethal bugs that they warned there is an 'urgent' need to accelerate research into. The ones that they prioritised were: Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever Ebola Marburg virus disease Lassa fever Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Nipah and henipaviral diseases Rift Valley fever (RVF) Zika Disease X Advertisement Around 10,400 bird species and 5,400 mammals were included in the study to work out which were most likely to host contagious diseases. Some animals identified as potential carriers were associated with viruses for the first time. For example, 139 new hosts for dengue were discovered among the 173 species the study predicted could carry the virus. Researchers said the knowledge will be useful for tracking the spread of viruses among animals, because testing for flaviviruses can be difficult. If they target the correct species they can now test for diseases using non-invasive methods like taking saliva samples from sticks chewed by primates, for example. Co-author, Professor Christine Kreuder Johnson added: 'We needed this modeling technique to help us understand the most likely hosts for these viruses in their natural habitat. 'That's important for both global health and wildlife conservation.' The research was published in the journal Nature Communications. A robot that can perform spinal surgery with more accuracy than deemed humanly possible has been developed by scientists. The ground-breaking research could revolutionise surgery for conditions including scoliosis or kyphosis when a patient has a curved back. The device is able to drill holes - part of the operation to straighten spines - within 0.1mm of accuracy, better than ever recorded for humans. Researchers hope to develop the technology further using augmented reality, to allow surgeons to watch what the robot is doing live on a screen. A team at Nottingham Trent University, led by Professor Phillip Breedon, have developed a robot which can perform spinal surgery with greater precision than surgeons The robot, called Scoliobot, has two robotic arms, known as the datum (right) and tooling (left) robots which work in unison to drill holes into the vertebrae in spine straightening surgery Scoliosis affects one in around 250 children, according to statistics. The team at Nottingham Trent University, led by Professor Philip Breedon, of the Medical Design Research Group, designed two robotic 'arms' that do the work normally required by surgeons. In spine-straightening operations, holes are drilled into the each vertebrae. Screws are then attached and a flexible rod passes through. The rod is secured by a screw at the top and bottom of the spine. When the rod is pulled tight, it straightens the spine. The robot, called Scoliobot, has two robotic arms, known as the datum and tooling robots which work in unison. What is scoliosis? Scoliosis is the abnormal curvature of the spine in an S-shape. Signs include a visible curve in the spine, one shoulder or hip being more prominent than the other, clothes not hanging properly and back pain. Pain usually only affects adults with the condition. In most cases, the cause of the scoliosis is not known but it can be caused by cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. In the UK, scoliosis affects three to four children could of every 1,000. It is also thought that as many as 70 per cent of over 65s have some degree of scoliosis. It is more common in women than in men. Most children with the condition do not require treatment as it is mild and corrects itself as the child grows. However, in severe cases the child may need to wear a back brace until they stop growing. Occasionally, a child needs surgery to straighten their spine. In adults, it is usually too late to treat the condition with a back brace or surgery so treatment revolves around reducing pain. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement While on the operating table, the datum robot is secured to the individual vertebrae being operated on with a plate that slips over like a glove. Using a CT scan of the patient's spine, a 3D scan is printed, so that plates can be made for each individual vertebrae. The datum tool is designed to sense the minor natural movement of the patient, for example if the patient needs to be moved slightly or was moved by accident. The goal is to be able to read the patients' breathing movements. It relays this data to the tooling robot, so it can adjust its drilling path accordingly. With better insight into the patients' movements, the tooling robot can ensure it drills in the most accurate spot. Once this process is done, the tooling arm would then use a screwdriver to insert the screws. Professor Breedon told MailOnline: 'All operations rely on the knowledge and skill of the surgeon. But robots are very accurate. 'As long as all the safety protocols are in place, there will be accuracy. We hope to incorporate surgeons into the experience using artificial intelligence.' The team are exploring the use of augmented reality to provide surgeons with live visual feedback to illustrate the depth of each hole as it is drilled. 'It is paramount that spinal procedures are carried out with total accuracy in order to minimise what can be substantial risks to a patient,' said Professor Bronek Boszczyk, head of spinal surgery at Benedictus Krankenhaus Tutzing, Germany, who worked with Professor Breedon. The datum tool collects data from the vertebrae through a plate. It can sense the patients' movements, which leads to a more accurate drilling The team are in the process of testing the robot on spine models 'This technology has the potential to minimise those risks by performing a key part of the operation with accuracy which cannot be achieved by a human hand. 'It's a brilliant example of how robotics can enhance and improve the way in which intrusive operations are carried out, improving patient safety and ensuring efficiency of process.' Some risks that spinal surgery carries are bleeding, wound infection, damage to the nerves or spine and the rods or metalwork failing to attach properly. Scoliosis causes the spine to curve in an 'S' shape, from side to side, and kyphosis causes abnormal rounding of the upper back. Professor Breedon said they are still in their early signs of testing but hopes to see the robot in use within the next five years. He said: 'We've done the original development and programming and created a realistic bone like model to test it on. 'So our next step is to do some testing to show some proof of principle, and that it would work on humans. 'I'd love to say in a couple of years but there is a lot of testing to be done. Hopefully within the next five to ten years, depending on health and safety measures.' Being bullied could shrink the brain and lead to heightened risk of anxiety, a study has found. Scientists claim it is the first time they have found changes in the size of the brain of victims of chronic bullying, compared to those who were not bullied. These changes, the researchers said, can impact a person's behaviours including emotional processing, motivation, learning and attention later in life. One in five children has been, or is being, bullied, according to statistics from the National Bullying Prevention Center in the US. Surveys in the UK have shown half of primary school pupils and one in 10 secondary school pupils in England experience daily bullying. Being bullied could shrink the brain, leading to heightened risk of anxiety, a study has found Psychologists at King's College London conducted the study by analysing brain scans of more than 682 young people from across Europe. The team, led by Dr Erin Burke Quinlan, used questionnaires to assess the mental health of the participants, who were aged between 14 and 19. More than 30 of the youngsters had been chronically bullied, and their brain scans were compared with those who had not been bullied. Bullying was linked to shrinking of brain size and a higher risk of anxiety at age 19, the findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, show. The parts of the brain affected are called the caudate and putamen. The caudate plays a crucial role in how the brain learns, storing memories and using them to influence actions and decisions taken in the future. The putamen, closely linked with the caudate, is involved with movements and learning. Alterations of the activity of the putamen have been associated with worse cognitive performance. Previous studies have found a link between bullying and mental health issues, but these findings shed light on specifically why. The authors said: 'Importantly, these findings were unique to peer victimization and not other types of stress or comorbid depression. 'Together, these results are, to our knowledge, the first to identify a possible mechanism by which adolescent peer victimization impacts the development of anxiety in young adults.' Dr Burke Quinlan said: 'Although not classically considered relevant to anxiety, the importance of structural changes in the putamen and caudate to the development of anxiety most likely lies in their contribution to related behaviors such as reward sensitivity, motivation, conditioning, attention, and emotional processing.' People who are bullied are two to three times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, the authors said, highlighting the importance of prevention. Previously research has found links between bullying and a higher risk of mental health problems during childhood, such as depression and an increased risk for suicide. Jan 7, 2019 | By Cameron Chromoplastic dew collectors were envisioned by Frank Herbert in his 1965 science fiction novel Dune; theyre gadgets used by natives of the desert planet Arrakis to extract moisture from the atmosphere to sustain their agriculture. Today, humans employ similar systems in our deserts to do exactly the same thing, such as the giant nets used in the Atacama Desert of Chile to gather water from fog for farmers. Dew is an ideal source of water as its purified in the evaporative process, and its also present in very dry places. In fact, many plants and animals collect dew from the air, which is why Bharat Bhushan of Ohio State University decided to look to life in the desert for inspiration. Bhushan is an Ohio Eminent Scholar and Howard D. Winbigler Professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State; he explains an early realization, We thought: How can we gather water from the ambient air around us? And so, we looked to the things in nature that already do that: the cactus, the beetle, desert grasses. All those lifeforms collect water from nighttime fog, using different geometries to draw in tiny droplets of water and direct them to reservoirs and roots. Beetles have water-repellant bumps on their backs that collect drops of water; flat surfaces between the bumps allow the water to flow down to the beetles mouth. The tips of desert grasses collect water droplets that then fall down straight channels to the roots. And a cactus collects water on the tips of its barbs, which then direct the water down conical spines to the base of the cactus. As such, the research team designed and 3D printed different surfaces with bumps, barbs, and channels and put them in an enclosed environment with simulated fog created by a commercial humidifier. Their observations confirm that cones collect more water than cylinders, which made sense, given what we know about the cactus, Bhushan explained, referencing the physics phenomenon called the Laplace pressure gradient. Grooved surfaces gathered around twice as much water as ungrooved surfaces, which seems obvious in retrospect, because of what we know about grass, Bhushan commented. The surface material also affects water gathering, as Bhushan relates, The beetles surface material is heterogeneous, with hydrophilic spots surrounded by hydrophobic regions, which allows water to flow more easily to the beetles mouth. The spacing of the cones and bumps was relevant as well. Water supply is a critically important issue, especially for people of the most arid parts of the world, said Bhushan. By using bio-inspired 3D printed dew collectors, we can help address the challenge of providing clean water to people around the globe, in as efficient a way as possible. 3D printing is a fantastic tool for this research as it can quickly and affordably produce different geometries from different materials. Their findings were published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Orest wrote at 2/15/2019 4:30:26 PM:LOL! Ah, Thunderf00t will get crazy when he reads this!Duncan Idaho wrote at 1/8/2019 10:25:53 AM:As an avid Dune fan, I think Frank Herbert would be cool with his name being connected to 3d printed things. Seems like a good home for a mind like his. Pathologist Dr Joy Trueblood (pictured) mixed up Rickie Lee Huitt's prostate biopsy results with those of another patient in January 2017, leading to a prostate cancer diagnosis An Iowa man says he underwent surgery to have his prostate removed to treat cancer - only to learn he never had the disease at all. Rickie Lee Huitt, 67, of Panora, is now suing the Iowa Clinic and pathologist Dr Joy Trueblood, who admitted to mixing up his tissue sample slide with those of another patient in January 2017. Filing a lawsuit in December, Huitt said the debilitating side effects - urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction - have strained his relationship with his wife. According to court records viewed by the Des Moines Register, Iowa Clinic urologist Dr Carl Meyer had performed a blood test on Huitt, then 65, which suggested he may have cancer. Dr Meyer submitted a tissue sample of Huitt's prostate to Dr Trueblood in the pathology department. Based on her inaccurate report, Dr Meyer told Huitt he had prostate cancer and that if he didn't have the gland removed, he had no more than five years left to live. The American Cancer Society says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in US men aside from skin cancer. In 2018, more than 164,600 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 29,400 died from the disease. Prostate cancer typically grows slowly and, if detected early while it's still confined to the prostate gland, there is a successful chance of treatment. The most common surgery to treat prostate cancer is called a radical prostatectomy, which is when the entire prostate gland is removed along with some surrounding tissue. On April 3, 2017, Dr Meyer removed Huitt's prostate at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, also in Des Moines. After the surgery, Huitt said he suffered from urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction, according to the lawsuit. He claimed that the serious side effects strained his relationship with his wife. Huitt, 67, of Panora, was told he had to have his prostate removed or he would die. He underwent the surgery, which left him with serious side effects in April 2017. Pictured: Iowa Clinic where the misdiagnosis was made Another pathologist examined the removed prostate and found no signs of cancer. Dr Trueblood revealed the misdiagnosis was due to a scanner glitch. Pictured: Urologist Dr Carl Meyer who removed Huitt's tumor On April 26, a pathologist at Iowa Methodist examined the prostate that had been removed and found no signs of cancer. A sample of the prostate was then sent to the Mayo Clinic, where doctors confirmed there was no cancer. 'It's mind-boggling. It's a terrible, sad thing,' Huitt's attorney, Randy Shanks, told the Register. Dr Trueblood told Shanks in a July deposition that the mix-up occurred because of a scanner glitch, according to the Register. She explained a barcode scanner matches slides to a patient's records and that the scanner read the code wrong. Dr Trueblood said the glitch has occurred before, but she's caught the errors in the past. She described the incident as a 'horrible situation' that was because of 'human error.' 'Why didn't you catch [the glitch] this time?' Shanks asked her, according to the Register. 'I don't have any idea,' Dr Trueblood said. The Iowa Clinic says the other patient, whose name has not been revealed, was informed of his cancer diagnosis and has since undergone proper treatment. In a statement, the clinic's Chief Marketing Officer Amy Hilmes said in part: 'We implemented changes to make certain such a mistake would not happen again. The pathologist involved in this case continues to be troubled and saddened that her oversight meant a patient faced unnecessary surgery, exposure to anesthesia, and complications during recovery.' Huitt's lawsuit, which was filed in Polk County on December 10, is tentatively set for trial on April 1. Last month, three urologists filed a separate lawsuit against the Iowa Clinic after claiming they were wrongfully fired in September 2018 and not allowed to see their patients. According to the Register, five other urologists resigned from the Iowa Clinic over the matter but Huitt's urologist, Dr Meyer, was not one of them. The family of a cancer-stricken schoolgirl have sparked up a lifelong friendship with the 'guardian angel' who saved her life. Skylah Ballentine-Brain, now eight, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia before she turned one, when her immune system became too weak to fight off colds, leaving her with recurrent pneumonia. After undergoing intensive chemotherapy in South Africa - where the family lived at the time - the youngster was given the all-clear in February 2012, only for the aggressive cancer to return that October. Doctors warned her parents there was little more they could do and told them to 'let her die peacefully'. Refusing to give up, the family flew back to the UK where the youngster was told she was too ill for chemotherapy to have any effect. With a stem-cell donor being Skylah's only hope, the family waited anxiously for three months before mother-of-two Samantha Perry, now 44, was brought forward as a donor in January 2013. The youngster had the transplant that May. Now healthy, Skylah's parents Zelease, 40, and Matthew Ballentine-Brain, 44, claim Mrs Perry 'mended their family', with the youngster even calling the 'guardian angel' her 'second mummy'. Scroll down for video Skylah Ballentine-Brain was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at less than one-year-old. The youngster is pictured right in hospital in November 2012. After being told a stem-cell transplant was her only hope, the youngster met her donor Samantha Perry (left) last year Skylah, her brothers and mother Zelease at Birmingham Children's Hospital, January 2013 The families met up in a hotel in Manchester last September, two years after Skylah sent Mrs Perry a surprise Christmas card. Left-to-right are Mrs Perry's husband John, son Aiden, 14, Mrs Perry, Skylah Ballentine-Brain, Skylah's mother Zelease and her brother Teghan, 11 The families were put in touch by the charity Anthony Nolan, which passed on a Christmas card made by Skylah to Mrs Perry in 2015. Mrs Perry became a donor after losing a loved one to leukaemia as a child, but never thought she would meet the youngster whose life she saved. Strict rules surrounding donation mean direct contact between recipients and donors is only allowed after two years when it will be clear whether or not the transplant was a success. The Christmas card sparked a series of emails, letters and pictures to be sent between Skylah's family and Mrs Perry, who lives in Wickersley, South Yorkshire, with her husband John, 49, and children Aiden, 14, and Sophie, 19. After two years of back-and-forth, the families finally met at the Principal Hotel in Manchester on September 15 last year. WHAT IS ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA? Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a type of blood cancer that starts from young white blood cells in the bone marrow. There are around 810 new cases in the UK every year. In the US, ALL affects approximately 1.7 adults per 100,000. Anyone can develop ALL, however, it mainly affects younger people. Many ALL symptoms are vague and flu-like, such as: General weakness Fatigue Fever Frequent infections Bruising or bleeding easily, including nosebleeds, heavy periods and blood in the urine or faeces Unexplained weight loss Bone or joint pain Breathlessness Swollen lymph nodes Feeling full Paler skin than normal Risks for developing ALL include exposure to radiation, smoking, being overweight and having a weak immune system. Research suggests being breastfed and exposed to childhood infections may reduce a person's risk. The main ALL treatment is chemotherapy. Patients may also have radiotherapy, steroids or bone marrow transplants. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement Although normally shy around strangers after spending so long in isolation, Skylah immediately took to Samantha, who gave her a silver necklace with an 'S' pendant. Mrs Perry was also initially apprehensive but described their meeting as 'wonderful'. 'I was very curious during the years after my donation to know if it had worked so meeting Skylah for the first time was wonderful,' she said. 'For all of us it felt like the final piece in the puzzle, the final part of this long and grueling journey that we both, by chance, became part of. I felt really honoured that they called me Skylah's "guardian angel" and "second mummy". 'Skylah and I share the same blood and I feel a very close connection with her as I would towards my own family.' The meeting was also everything Skylah had expected. She said: 'I knew an angel had helped me to get better when I was ill and I knew she must be very kind. 'When I met her, I knew I was right because she is very beautiful and very kind too.' Last year's Christmas card from the youngster even read: 'Dear Sam and family, Merry Christmas, I love you lots!' Although a happy time, the festive season is also a period of melancholic reflection for Mrs Ballentine-Brain, who spent several Christmases in hospital with her sick daughter. 'We would be apart at Christmas, with Matthew looking after the boys and Skylah and I in hospital,' she said. The couple are also parents to boys Kheya, 13, and Teghan, 11. 'Now though, thanks to Sam, we can be happy again together and start to remember what it's like being a family at Christmas time,' Mrs Ballentine-Brain said. Pictured left at their meeting, Skylah calls Mrs Perry her 'beautiful guardian angel' and even refers to her as her 'second mummy'. The two families met (right), with the Ballentine-Brain's crediting Mrs Perry's selfless donation for saving Skylah's life and 'mending their family' After the Ballentine-Brain's spent years apart while the mother (left) stayed in hospital with Skylah (centre), she said they can finally be 'happy again thanks to Sam' (right) Once diagnosed, Skylah started chemotherapy at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town, where the family moved to be nearer Mrs Ballentine-Brain's parents. Mrs Ballentine-Brain lived with her daughter on the ward, sleeping next to the youngster's cot (pictured) Pictured left on her sixth birthday, the now eight-year-old is healthy and attends school like any other youngster. She is pictured right at Birmingham Children's Hospital in November 2012. The family flew home after deciding she would get the best possible treatment in the UK Skylah's problems began at just six months old in May 2011 when she developed a series of nasty colds. Her parents - who moved the family from London to Cape Town in 2005 to be nearer Mrs Ballentine-Brain's parents - were not overly concerned until Skylah developed persistent pneumonia. Tests carried out in August 2011 revealed the youngster's weak immune system was being caused by acute lymphoblastic leukaemia a blood cancer that affects the white blood cells. Speaking of the diagnosis, Mr Ballentine-Brain said: 'It was absolutely heart-wrenching, an incredible pain that courses through your whole body. 'From then on everything changes. Things you thought mattered before like your job and your mortgage suddenly become irrelevant and your whole life shifts to focusing on one thing getting your child cured.' Not even one-year-old, Skylah - who has dual nationality - started chemotherapy at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town. Her mother lived with her on the ward, sleeping beside her in a cot each night. After being given the all-clear, Skylah's parents' worst fears were realised when doctors told them the highly-aggressive cancer had returned. 'That was appalling,' Mrs Ballentine-Brain said. 'It was worse than hearing she had leukaemia because it just felt like she'd been through so much already and this evil cancer was still doing all it could to take her away from us again. 'The doctors painted a bleak picture, and when asked their personal opinion of whether to restart chemo or stop fighting, they suggested we should go home with Skylah and let her die peacefully, without having to go through more treatment.' But the couple vowed to do everything in their power to help their daughter and decided she would get the best possible treatment in the UK. They therefore sold up and flew to Birmingham, where Mr Ballentine-Brain's operations management company has an office. Skylah is pictured with her mother and brothers at Birmingham Children's Hospital in March 2013. After being told she was too ill for chemo to have any effect, a stem-cell donor was found in January 2013, however, the youngster did not have the transplant until May that year Pictured at the end of last year, Skylah is living at home with her family and excelling at school Skylah is pictured with her father Matthew Ballentine-Brain in June 2013 - a month after her transplant. He described being told a donor had been found as an 'unbelievable moment' Once admitted to Birmingham Children's Hospital, Skylah's family were told she was so ill that chemotherapy would have no effect. With a stem-cell transplant being her only hope, the family were dealt another blow when they learned Skylah has a rare tissue type, with only a handful of donors in the world being suitable. But in January 2013 their luck changed when Anthony Nolan told them a suitable donor had become available. Stem-cell transplants are used to treat conditions, like leukaemia, where the bone marrow is damaged and does not produce healthy blood cells. Speaking of hearing the news a donor was available, Mr Ballentine-Brain said: 'That was an unbelievable moment. 'We knew the chances were small, but we didn't lose hope and being told someone out there, who we didn't know anything about, was going to help Skylah just opened a door and gave us a future.' She finally had the procedure in May 2013 at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. And by September the following year, was well enough to start primary school. The family are pictured during Christmas 2010, before Skylah became unwell Pictured left in August 2011 after just being diagnosed, her parents became worried when her near-constant colds developed into persistent pneumonia. Pictured right on holiday in Spain aged four, doctors initially told her parents to 'let her die in peace' when treatment failed For Mrs Ballentine-Brain, the ordeal has been an emotional rollercoaster. She said: 'I just hope that our story can give hope to people who might be going through hell now and also be a call to action for anyone who thinks about donating stem cells as Matt and I now are. 'Just one person donating helped mend our broken family and make us the happiest parents in the world.' Terence Lovell, director of engagement at Anthony Nolan, said: 'We are happy Skylah is doing so well. None of this would have been possible without Sam, who gave Skylah and her family the greatest gift imaginable, the gift of life. 'We are aiming to raise more funds, more awareness and, recruit more young people to the Anthony Nolan register. 'Anyone wanting to support our work can visit our website and make a donation, which will help give someone like Skylah, a second chance of life in the future.' Find out how to become a stem-cell donor here. Skylah is pictured arriving home - surrounded by family - after her transplant in July 2013 Pictured last year, there is no sign the eight-year-old was once fighting for her life But GPs have warned that some symptoms can be spotted only by direct contact Tens of millions of NHS appointments are to be carried out by video-link instead atients will be encouraged to have online appointments with specialist doctors Tens of millions of NHS appointments are to be carried out by video-link instead of face to face. Health chiefs believe up to a third of the 90million outpatient consultations each year do not require a hospital visit. They hope to save time and money by switching these over to Skype-style video services on smartphones or computers. The plans were unveiled in Liverpool yesterday by Theresa May and health chiefs under a ten-year strategy for the NHS, which sets out how a 20billion cash injection will be spent Patients will be encouraged to have online appointments with specialist doctors and manage long-term illnesses themselves. However, GPs have warned that some symptoms can be spotted only by direct contact. And Baroness Altmann, former director- general of Saga, said the scheme could be devastating for the elderly, who are less computer savvy. Sometimes machines really cant replace the human touch older people value that and need it, she added. The plans were unveiled in Liverpool yesterday by Theresa May and health chiefs under a ten-year strategy for the NHS, which sets out how a 20billion cash injection will be spent. Harnessing new technology will be a key part of the blueprint to deliver cost savings. Theresa May visits Alder Hay Children's Hospital wards. NHS England believes the total, which has doubled in a decade, can be cut by a third through service redesign and a revolution in online healthcare CAN GPS NOW DISH OUT DANCE CLASSES? Health chiefs have also announced social prescribing by GPs will become more common under the new 10-year plan for the NHS. Social prescribing allows family doctors to dish out gardening, dance or cookery lessons and even exercise to their patients. The practice aims to improve patients quality of life, health and wellbeing by recognising health is affected by a range of social, economic and environmental factors. The new NHS plan revealed that the range of support available across the country will widen, with the hope of allowing nearly one million patients to access social prescribing schemes by 2023/24. Advertisement Other policies include: Wearable monitoring equipment and hi-tech devices to save patients from going to hospital; A pledge to save 500,000 lives over ten years with improved care for cancer and heart disease cases; Scrapping bureaucratic bodies introduced by former health secretary Andrew Lansley; Longer waits for patients in A&E if their condition is not urgent; A promise of a new era of personalised medicine; A focus on preventing ill health, targeting alcohol and smoking; Possible curbs on private firms providing NHS services, such as Virgin Care. Outpatient appointments have long been a mainstay of healthcare and around 94million take place annually at a cost of 8billion. NHS England believes the total, which has doubled in a decade, can be cut by a third through service redesign and a revolution in online healthcare. Its plan states the traditional model of outpatients is outdated and unsustainable, adding: We will therefore redesign services so that over the next five years patients will be able to avoid up to a third of face-to-face outpatient visits, removing the need for up to 30million outpatient visits a year. NHS England believes patients with chronic problems could be better looked after through online consultations with specialist doctors e-Clinics. Mrs May met staff and patients at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, where she spoke at midday yesterday to announce the official plan for 'the NHS of the future' COULD BUREAUCRATIC BODIES INTRODUCED BY FORMER HEALTH SECRETARY BE SCRAPPED? The 10-year plan could see the scrapping of the bureaucratic bodies introduced by former health Secretary Andrew Lansley in 2012. Lord Lansley brought in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 branded a disaster by Labour, who have long called for it to be reversed. The move, which provoked controversy when it was announced, allowed newly created clinical commissioning groups (CCG) to tender out bigger contracts. But this has led to many NHS contracts being dished out to private firms, including Virgin Care, critics argue. The NHS plan said that changing current legislation, which could see more than 100 of the local bodies merged, would lead to more rapid progress. It added that current legislation puts considerable weight on organisations working independently while its plans relied on collaboration. Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, warned there are too many NHS bodies working on their own even though they could be more efficient if they worked together. Advertisement These are already in place for kidney patients in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets in East London and have cut the number of appointments by 50 per cent. Patients have a Skype appointment with a consultant after a scan rather than going to see them in a hospital clinic. In another pilot scheme, patients with Type 1 diabetes have been taught to monitor their condition through wearable sensors to avoid the need for regular check-ups. They can then also be seen online. Officials want GPs to refer more patients to community services rather than hospital consultants. Examples include physiotherapy, mental healthcare, end-of-life care or rehab following a stroke. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: Its using the smartphone technology many people already have in their pockets so they can easily see a GP over the internet and even get expert help from consultants without the need for an inconvenient hospital visit. This is all part of putting more power in the hands of patients in a new era of more personalised and targeted treatment from genetic testing for children with cancer to community nurses visiting the homes of our most frail. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: Technology will truly transform our NHS, with every patient entitled to online GP consultations and wearable technology bringing forth a new era of personalised care. The current model of outpatient services is outdated, wasting too much time and causing too much inconvenience for patients. It also eats into the valuable time of our doctors and nurses. But Baroness Altmann said: Any changes mustnt be at the expense of vulnerable elderly people who could lose out with a focus on new technology. For those older people who never learned how to interact with computers, being cut off from human connection in medical care can be devastating. This is a sensible suggestion but only as long as people are able to use Skype but a lot of older people have not used a computer and never will, especially the oldest elderly. Joyce Robins, of the Patient Concern campaign group, said: Phone and virtual consultations are far from ideal for many of the elderly. They need face-to-face contact. From childbirth to mental care, what are some of the most important measures laid out in the 10-year blueprint? MATERNITY 'THE NHS PLAN WILL HELP ALL GENERATIONS' The chief executive of the NHS, Simon Stevens, has said the NHS's 10-year plan, launched yesterday, will benefit people of all ages. Writing in The Times he said: 'The plan means keeping what the public are rightly proud of: high quality care for everyone. 'But it also means tackling the growing pressure on staff as they care for our growing and ageing population and respond[ing] to new health threats such as childhood obesity and young peoples mental health concerns.' The plan has pledged to carry out DNA tests in order to personalise children's treatment for cancers and rare diseases. And it also intends to invest an extra 4.5billion a year in community care, helping older people spend less time in hospital. Digital GP appointments on smartphones and tablets will also be available to all patients who want them, the NHS said. Advertisement A package of measures for maternity services promises to make the NHS the best place in the world to give birth. More nurses and specialist staff will be brought in over the next five years as part of a plan to redesign neonatal services from pregnancy to early motherhood. The plans include allowing new mothers to use a smartphone to access the traditional red book issued by the NHS for each new baby, containing their vital details. Up to 285,000 new mothers will have better access to physiotherapy. There will also be moves to improve breastfeeding rates. The measures are expected to halve stillbirths, maternal and infant deaths and serious brain injuries in newborn babies by 2025, saving 4,000 babies lives. SMOKING AND DRINKING Alcohol and tobacco addiction are two of the biggest causes of early death, and NHS chiefs believe they can boost the health of the nation by encouraging Britons to make better lifestyle choices. Doctors and nurses will be on alert for suspected problem drinkers among casualty cases or those in wards or clinics, and patients could be referred to alcohol care teams. Smokers in hospital will be offered prescription drugs or counselling. VOLUNTEERING The NHS wants to double the number of volunteers to up to 156,000 over the next three years. Health chiefs believe they have a huge impact on patients and staff, while greatly enhancing their own lives. Volunteering has been shown to help older people stay active and reduce cognitive decline while younger recruits can gain invaluable experience. The health service plan will urge hospitals to recruit many more younger volunteers, particularly those with mental health problems, learning difficulties or from deprived communities. NHS England will encourage hospitals to offer more volunteering opportunities and by investing 2.3million in Helpforce the charity the Daily Mail launched its Christmas campaign with, encouraging more than 30,000 readers to sign up to give their time to the NHS. Four-hour target for A&E treatment could be axed By Sophie Borland and Daniel Martin for the Daily Mail The four-hour treatment target in A&E may be scrapped and replaced with a two-tier system that could leave non-urgent patients waiting even longer. Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, hinted at the radical change yesterday ahead of the launch of the ten-year plan, claiming the current policy failed to distinguish between the most urgent and the less serious cases. In its place would be separate standards for emergencies, such as heart attacks and sepsis, and less urgent cases such as broken bones. It is three years since the NHS last met its targets to admit to a ward or discharge 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours of arrival. However, doctors last night warned the proposed changes would mean patients continue to suffer from delays and overcrowding. Mr Stevens told Radio 4s Today programme: On A&E services we need a tougher, faster set of standards for major conditions than we have at the moment. The problem is it doesnt distinguish between turning up at A&E with a sprained finger versus turning up with a heart attack. Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking at the launch of the NHSs long-term plan at the Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool, said: We are seeing the NHS treat more people but demand has outstripped that. So we have been slipping against the targets. As we look ahead for the NHS, lets make sure we are setting standards that are right for the future. A review due in the spring will look at whether targets should be changed and there are fears in the NHS that the current standards could be watered down. Last night, Chris Moulton, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: While many patients will benefit [from the plan], those attending A&E will continue to suffer from delays and overcrowding. 'We welcome moves to relieve pressure on emergency departments, [but] it is disappointing to find that despite the proposed measures to do this, it has still not resulted in a firm commitment to restoring four-hour performance to 95 per cent a sensible target that is very much achievable given the right resourcing. Advertisement MENTAL HEALTH The NHS will boost mental health care for under-18s with conditions such as eating disorders, self-harm and depression. Health officials have agreed to increase the proportion of all those with a diagnosable mental health condition who get treated from one in four (25 per cent) to one in three (35 per cent) by 2020-21. The plans include new waiting-time targets for mental health treatment and stronger support for young adults, including a 24/7 helpline. An extra 2.3billion has been promised to pay for talking therapies for an additional 350,000 young people and 380,000 adults within five years. Young people will no longer be forced to restart their treatment with adult services when they turn 18. CANCER Theresa May set the NHS a target to diagnose three quarters of cancer cases early within ten years, saving 55,000 lives. At present, 52 per cent of cancers are diagnosed at stages one and two, when the tumour is small and has not spread to surrounding tissue. This will increase to 75 per cent by 2028. Screening programmes will be more accessible, easier to use, and based on the latest research and technology. New tests for bowel cancer, mobile lung screening units, and the rollout of rapid diagnostic centres across the country with same-day testing will offer cutting edge options for early diagnosis to those at risk. SOUP AND SHAKE DIET A low-calorie soup and shake diet to reverse Type 2 diabetes will be prescribed to 5,000 patients to reverse the condition. NHS England is putting the three-month, 800-calories-a-day regime at the heart of its diabetes strategy after half of patients went into remission in trials. The number of Britons with diabetes has doubled in 20 years. Almost 3.7million people are living with diabetes, up from 1.9million in 1998. Theresa May and the head of the NHS have hinted the target of treating A&E patients within four hours could be scrapped. The Prime Minister today launched a 10-year plan for the future of the health service, setting out ambitious new plans drawn up by the Government and NHS. Speaking at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, Mrs May said leaving the EU will help fund the array of improvements. The report, published today, breaks down how the 20.5billion a year promised by Mrs May will be spent until 2029, with claims it will save 500,000 lives in that time. She yesterday refused to say the money would cut A&E waiting times, before today adding that health chiefs will 'look at' existing targets in hospital. NHS England chief Simon Stevens also hinted the target of treating 95 per cent of patients within four hours could be rubbished altogether. The plan has instead taken aim at the big killers heart disease, cancer and dementia and pledged to use more technology and DNA testing for diagnosis and treatment. The number of outpatient appointments will also be cut by an overhaul of traditional systems, including offering some patients Skype-style calls. The Prime Minister said 'strong public finances' and not sending 'vast annual sums to Brussels' will finance the NHS of the future. But critics have today attacked the long-term plan. Labour said the ambitions were 'big and bold' but werent feasible because of a staffing crisis. Prime Minister Theresa May announced the launch of the NHS's 10-year plan at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool this afternoon, where she said not sending 'vast annual sums to Brussels' would help to finance the NHS of the future (pictured, Mrs May with NHS staff, Health Secretary Matt Hancock (left) and NHS chief executive Simon Stevens) Dozens of protesters gathered outside the hospital this morning as Mrs May arrived for the much-awaited announcement. The Prime Minister said today marked 'an historic occasion' and would 'secure the health service for generations to come'. Mrs May commissioned the plan last year after pledging to spend an extra 20.5bn per year on healthcare by 2023/24. It was due to have been published in December - but was delayed because of work on Brexit. The first of that rise, an expected 6bn to add to the current budget of around 115bn, will be seen in the next financial year. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme this morning, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens implied there may soon be less pressure on hospitals to treat minor injuries. He criticised the blanket waiting time target which requires hospitals to see, treat and discharge or admit 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours of their arrival. '[The current set of standards] doesnt distinguish between turning up at A&E with a strained finger or turning up with a heart attack,' Mr Stevens said. Mrs May met staff and patients at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, where she spoke at midday to announce the official plan for 'the NHS of the future' WHAT HAVE CRITICS SAID ABOUT THE 10-YEAR PLAN? The 10-year plan has been hugely anticipated since Theresa May last year pledged to spend an extra 20.5bn per year by 2023/24. But critics have today slammed the report, unveiled by The Prime Minister during a trip to Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Good Morning Britain: We dont have the staff to deliver the big bold ambitions were delivering. 'The Government doesnt have a clue how theyre going to deliver the extra staff and nurses we need. Look again at the funding and give us the staff we need.' Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: The long term plan has undoubted strengths So its highly unfortunate that failures outside the plan itself mean that on its own it cannot safeguard the future of the health and social care system. She added: The serious and growing shortages in the health and care workforce are a major threat, and could even make the plan undeliverable. Rachel Harrison, GMB national officer, asked why on earth is there no mention of staffing issues in todays long-awaited plan? She added: The NHS has a staffing black hole of 100,000 people big its the single biggest crisis facing our health service. How does the Government expect to deliver everything promised in the plan if there are no staff to deliver the services? Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, said: This long-overdue plan barely scratches the surface of the huge challenges facing the stretched NHS. While it offers a glimmer of hope for future improvements in cancer care, the promised changes are impossible to deliver without first tackling the ongoing workforce crisis. RNIB said it was not convinced there was enough focus on eye health, including a lack of capacity at eye clinics. Helen Lee, the charitys eye health policy manager, said: Timely treatment for eye conditions is critical when it comes to preventing avoidable sight loss. The Royal College of Nursing said the plan was 'undoubtedly the right direction' - but argued it was 'strange' that it offered no money for nurses to develop the skills patients need. Anna Jewell, director of operations for Pancreatic Cancer UK said: 'We are disappointed about the lack of more specific plans for less survivable cancers like pancreatic cancer. 'One in four people with this devastating disease die within a month of diagnosis. 'In the roll out of the plan we want to see a specific target for increasing the numbers diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at an early stage to ensure resources will not be focused only on making improvements in cancers with a better prognosis.' Advertisement 'So what senior doctors are telling us is that they think the standards should focus particularly on those major conditions thats things like sepsis, heart attack and stroke.' He implied people with conditions not life threatening could be subject to longer waits as a result. A review is currently being done into emergency care. The NHS as a whole has not met the target of treating 95 per cent of patients within four hours since 2014, figures show. After her visit to Alder Hey, Mrs May praised the 'outstanding kindness', 'first class medical care' and 'dedication' shown by staff. And in her speech she admitted the NHS had been 'slipping' when trying to meet its targets, and said improvement was needed. Mrs May said: 'We're actually seeing the NHS treat more people. We're actually seeing the NHS deliver services and care to more people. 'As more people are being treated the demand has outstripped that, so we have been slipping against the targets. 'We do need to see efforts in terms of performance and improving that performance. 'But what the long-term plan is about is saying actually what are the right sort of targets that should be set for the future?' Saying any update on targets would have to be based on 'clinical evidence', she added: 'We've agreed NHS leaders can look at that question.' Among the highlights of the plan are digital GP appointments for all, exercise and healthy living programmes for 100,000 people a year, and interventions for drinkers. In her speech Mrs May claimed Brexit would free up more money to be spent on the NHS, drawing scepticism and echoes of the infamous red bus in the referendum campaign. She said: 'This commitment is possible because of our strong public finances and because, as we leave the EU and take back control of our money, we will no longer be sending vast annual sums to Brussels.' Afterwards, the Prime Minister was asked whether her claim was accurate considering Government forecasts the UK economy will be poorer after leaving the EU. She said: 'No... We currently send significant sums of money to the EU every single year in future that money will be available for us to spend on our priorities. 'And clearly, as Ive set out, the NHS is our key spending priority.' Local Labour MP, Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertree), told The Mirror: 'It is beyond parody that the Prime Minister has the audacity to claim that Brexit benefits our NHS, standing in a hospital that was built using over 50 million of financing available to the UK because of our EU membership. Access to this funding is vital.' The Mirror today revealed Alder Hey hospital received 56million from the EU when it was renovated in 2013. That funding channel will be cut off once Britain leaves the bloc on March 29. Mrs May said in her speech spending more money on mental health care to put it on a par with physical health was one of her six top priorities the plan shows an extra 2.3bn a year will be spend on people's mental health The NHS 10-year plan was launched today, on politicians' first day back after Parliament's Christmas recess the plan was expected to be published in December but was delayed because of negotiations related to Brexit WHO HAS WELCOMED THE PLAN? The Kings Fund said the ambitious plan is a significant step forward but warned there are a number of questions that remain unanswered. Richard Murray, its chief executive, added that trade-offs and difficult choices lie ahead because a few decisions including hospital waiting times have been postponed. Sarah Wilkinson, chief executive at NHS Digital, said: This plan offers a hugely exciting vision for the future of the NHS. The Royal Society for Public Health praised the plan but spoke of how even the best laid plans can go to waste if not backed up by sufficient funding. Mark Rowland, chief executive at the Mental Health Foundation, praised the new commitments to mental health. He said: It is good to see an NHS plan that looks beyond the political cycle and towards what is best for the health of our nation. The British Psychological Society said the plan shows the Government has been listening but also slammed the chronic staff shortages. Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Mental Health Network, said the 2.3billion ring-fenced investment fund for mental health will alleviate severe pressures. And Hilary Evans, chief executive at Alzheimers Research UK, said the long-term plan works towards overcoming the challenge dementia presents today. Diabetes UK said it was 'exciting news and presents a massive opportunity to improve the lives of people with diabetes and those at risk of type 2 in the future'. Advertisement Mrs May used her speech to say she was pleased to see her six priorities for the health service were reflected in the plan drawn up by health chiefs. These included reducing variation across NHS organisations so 'world class care' reaches all patients; better support and recognition for staff, the 'lifeblood' of the service; greater use of technology; and more mental health support than ever. By 2029, the NHS hopes changes made as a result of today's plan will mean 85,000 fewer people die each year from preventable causes. Illnesses in the firing line include childhood cancers, top killers heart disease and dementia, and public health nuisances alcohol and tobacco. Each year DNA sequencing will be offered to around 1,800 children with cancer or rare genetic conditions to develop more personalised medicines. Doctors will also carry out testing to identify patients with dangerously high levels of cholesterol caused by genetics. And the latest artificial intelligence technology will be brought in to better diagnose when patients have suffered a stroke to ensure they get the right treatment quickly. At the same time, digital GP consultations on smartphones or tablets will be made available to everyone who wants them as officials try to slash long waits for appointments. Preventing ill health in the first place will also be key to reducing pressures on the NHS, leaders say, with patients encouraged to adopt healthier lifestyles. Exercise and healthy living programmes will be rolled out to 100,000 people with heart complaints, potentially saving 23,000 people from dying prematurely. Hospital staff will be told to target problem drinkers, offer counselling to patients who are smokers and encourage those at risk of type 2 diabetes to take preventative action. Increasing use of technology was also one of Mrs May's priorities, and computers with artificial intelligence will be used to help treat and diagnose people who have had heart attacks, strokes or are at risk of developing dementia Mrs May said today was 'an historic occasion' and the 'record' investment she promised would 'secure the health service for generations to come' The 10-year plan has set out ambitions to improve maternity care, including hiring more nurses and specialist staff, in order to 'make the UK the best place in the world to give birth' Health bosses also want to diagnose three quarters of all cancers in the early stages when they will still respond well to treatment the figure is currently 50 per cent. Britains survival rates for cancer are among the worst in Europe, with late diagnosis needlessly costing thousands of lives a year. Tens of thousands more doctors and nurses have been promised to alleviate current shortages, although a full workforce plan wont be revealed until later this year. A baby is as 'fragile as glass' due to a rare condition which could leave with broken bones after just a sneeze. Theo Osborne's parents have to care for their baby with 'cotton-wool' after discovering he had osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) during pregnancy. In the womb, Theo had suffered from six rib fractures, a broken left collar bone, and two broken legs. The baby has already suffered from 20 broken bones in his first seven months of life, with the slightest of touch a danger. Mother, Loni Osborne, of Skagit Valley, Washington, US, said she tries to manage her child's pain with CBD oil. The number of people with OI in the US is estimated to be a 20,000 to 50,000, according to the OI Foundation, and one in 15,000 in the UK, according to the Brittle Bone Society. Theo Osborne is as 'fragile as glass' due to a rare condition called osteogenesis imperfecta Parents Loni and Craig Pike Jnr Osborne, both 20, of Washington, US, were told they could abort their child, but had previously been told Ms Osborne couldn't conceive Scans revealed the diagnosis after medics were unable to measure Theo's bones Ms Osborne was advised to have an abortion after Theo was diagnosed with brittle bone disease 20 weeks into the pregnancy. But her and her partner Craig Pike Jnr, both 20, refused after being told he was otherwise healthy. Ms Obsborne said: 'Our little boy is so fragile. It's like he's made of glass. 'Just putting him gently in his cot can cause his bones to break and fracture. We have to wrap him up in cotton wool.' Theo suffered four fractures in June when he was simply put down by his parents, and broke his left tibia three times in two months by sneezing. The couple were shocked but delighted to discover they were expecting soon after their wedding in June 2017, after being told Ms Osborne would be unable to conceive. At a scan in November medics said they couldn't get accurate measurements of the baby's limbs. An obstetrician-gynaecologists asked Ms Osborne to come in for extra scans, which is when Theo was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta. The genetic condition, usually caused by a lack of connective tissue and collagen. It can affect the eyes, height, teeth, bones and breathing, with symptoms varied across cases. Ms Osborne said Theo's bones are as fragile as glass and they must 'wrap him in cotton wool' Theo had suffered from six rib fractures, a broken left collar bone, and two broken legs while in the womb. He was born via C-section a month before his due date Theo, now seven months old, can suffer fractures or broken bones from as little as a sneeze or being laid down. His parents were taught how to care for him in hospital WHAT IS OSTEOGENESIS IMPERFECTA? Osteogenesis imperfecta is a genetic condition characterised by bones that break easily, and often for little or no apparent cause. The condition can vary drastically from sufferer to sufferer. A person diagnosed with OI, also known as brittle bone disease, can suffer anything from a few to several hundred fractures during their lifetime. OI is caused by a genetic mutation that affects how the body produces collagen - a main component of connective tissues found throughout the body. Symptoms include: frequently fractured bones muscle weakness hearing loss fatigue joint laxity curved bones scoliosis brittle teeth short stature respiratory problems bruising It is estimated the condition affects one in 15,000 people in the UK, and is present at birth. Source: Brittle Bone Society Advertisement Ms Osborne said: 'There they confirmed the doctor's worry - Theo had breaks in both femurs, his left tibia and his humerus on his right arm. 'Both legs were severely bowed and his rib cage was measuring small. 'We were brought into a room with a genetic counsellor, sat down and asked what we already knew about Theo's disease. 'We were never warned and we had no clue. 'My heart shattered in my chest when she dropped the diagnosis that would change our lives. 'They told us with his chest being small he wouldn't live and our best option was to terminate. 'After hearing this, I had two questions - "Does his brain work? Are his organs functioning?" Both questions were answered with a yes so we decided that Theo gets to decide. 'We would give Theo a chance to prove these doctors wrong.' Doctors planned to deliver Theo at 37 weeks, but Ms Osborne's waters broke nearly a month early on March 25 and she was rushed for an emergency C-section. Doctors told Ms Osborne the worst case scenario would be that Theo wouldn't be able to breath and that his life would be short. After seven days in NICU, he was transferred to Seattle Children's hospital for more than two weeks, where is parents learned how to care for him as safely as possible. Doctors told Ms Osborne the worst case scenario after the birth, via C-section, would be that Theo wouldn't be able to breath and that his life would be short 'I was taking care of a child made of glass - that's what it often felt like,' said Ms Osborne. 'The NICU was a dark time it was scary and hard and frustrating. But it was all worth it.' The pair were able to take their son home on April 18 - two days before Theo's original due date. Only five people are able to hold Theo in a special way, which involves spreading the fingers wide so there is no pressure on any one spot. Ms Osborne said: 'We can pick Theo up and cuddle him, but not like you would a normal child. We cant use force. We can't pull on any limbs, or apply any pressure. 'Theo has a very high pain tolerance and we try to stay away from opioids and pain killers when we can,' said Ms Osborne. 'We mange pain mostly with CBD oils. 'Whether Theo will ever walk is unknown, but we do physical therapy, occupational therapy, eating therapy, he sees orthopaedics and we do early intervention.' Because there is such a large spectrum of OI, and no two cases are alike, little is known about how Theo will grow and deal with therapy. Ms Osborne said: 'We spend a lot of times in doctors' offices but we do everything we need to do for Theo. 'Our journey has just began but we are determined to give Theo the world. All we want for him is a good normal life. 'Theo's braver than any child I have ever met being nine months old and having 23 breaks, he smiles and laughs like he's never felt pain. He knows he's loved. He knows he's safe.' If you have young children, you should consider asking your guests to take their shoes off at the door, an expert has said. Many people demand a shoe-free home for cleanliness reasons above anything else. But studies show that shoes are home to many bacteria, some of which are a health threat if consumed in large amounts. Children crawling around on the floor are at most risk of picking up these germs, according to Dr Jonathan Sexton. If you have young children, you should consider asking your guests to take their shoes off at the door because of the bacteria they carry, an expert has said He told Live Science: 'For a healthy adult, it's not too big of an issue. I'd be more worried about a child crawling around on the floor.' Dr Sexton is an environmental microbiologist and research specialist based at the University of Arizona. Studies have found bacteria, including faecal matter, which can cause dangerous infection or illnesses, on the bottom of shoes. The average shoe harbours 'hundreds of thousands of bacteria per square inch', other scientific trials have shown. Shoes can be contaminated outdoors, and then bring germs indoors where they dwell on the floors and surfaces. He said: 'The exposure makes the poison. So if you're not exposed to it, you're not going to get sick from it.' The only possible cause of this happening would be if the bacteria were lifted into the air we breathe, such as by a draft from a window. Not only are youngsters playing on the floor at risk - but people who have lower immune systems. 'In a person who is at risk for infections usually someone recently hospitalized attention to good household cleaning can be important,' Professor Kevin Garey from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy told Live Science. Considering we are constantly surrounded by bacteria, those found on the soles of our shoes do not pose an immediate risk - especially in such small amounts. However, if you have a small child, or are more prone to infection, 'it would be a good idea to take your outdoor shoes off when you enter your home,' Dr Garey said. 'For most healthy persons, however, you can make the decision as much based on preference and habit, as potential health concern.' A 2008 discovered that the average shoe contains 421,000 units of bacteria on the outside and 2,887 on the interior. Almost every shoe studied (96 per cent) by the team, led by Dr Charles Gerba, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Arizona, was found to be coated with feacal bacteria called coliforms. A bacteria called Escherichia coli (E.coli) - a subgroup of coliform - was also present on some shoes. E.coli could lead to severe diarrhoea, urinary tract infections and even meningitis. 'Not necessarily on every shoe, but on a good majority, you can find some type of E.coli there,' said Dr Sexton. A mother who was left half bald following treatment for her brain tumour is now showcasing her luscious locks thanks to a 'revolutionary wig fitted with super-glue'. Katie Smith, 33, from Stourbridge, West Midlands, was first diagnosed with a grade 2 brain tumour in 2015. After undergoing surgery and thinking she had beaten the disease, she was devastated to discover the growth had returned last March. Despite enduring a second surgery and radiotherapy, Mrs Smith then received the devastating news her cancer is incurable, with doctors only being able to control the 'ticking time bomb' via chemotherapy. Along with her terminal prognosis, Mrs Smith also had to come to terms with her devastating hair loss, which left her bald at the front part of her head. Convinced strangers were laughing at her, Mrs Smith even avoided her own reflection until hair-loss specialists covered up her bald patch with a semi-permanent wig for free. Katie Smith (pictured left before the 'wig' was fitted) was left half bald following chemo for her incurable brain tumour. Convinced people were laughing at her, the mother-of-one (pictured right with her one-year-old son Eli) had special hair pieces fitted using a 'revolutionary glue' After being diagnosed in 2015, Mrs Smith was relieved when her first surgery seemed to be a success, only for her cancer to return last March. Her scar is pictured after her second operation on June 11 2018. Doctors then said they could only control her symptoms via chemo Speaking of having her 'wig' fitted, Mrs Smith said: 'I was halfway through my treatment and most of the hair on the front part of my scalp had fallen out. 'I looked sort of like Gregory David Roberts and I was nervous about showing my head to people who didn't know me or had no idea about who I was before my hair fell out. 'I'd lost a lot of confidence by this point and I thought people were just going to laugh at me or worse still, give me the pity stare. It massively affected my quality of life as I was reminded of my cancer every time I looked at my reflection.' Mrs Smith was then 'over the moon' when she discovered treatment was available for her hair loss, which would help her feel like herself again. 'I was measured up for the hair piece and a sample was made,' she said. 'It's amazing as it doesn't prevent hair growth if it was to start growing underneath in the future. 'The hair systems they provide are made from real hair that is woven into a membrane, coloured to your preference, and is stuck down to your head. 'The rest of your real hair, if you have any left, is then cut, styled and blended in with the pretend hair. 'This means not only are these hair systems very realistic, but they are also semi-permanent so a person wearing one can swim, shower, go to the gym and basically do anything they like without the fear of a wig falling off.' Optima, the company behind the 'wig', even carried out the procedure free-of-charge after hearing about Mrs Smith's ordeal. As well as coming to terms with her terminal prognosis, her hair loss (seen left) was another blow. She is pictured having hair pieces fitted to the front of her head using specialist glue. Pictured right afterwards, Mrs Smith says she is no longer 'constantly reminded' of her disease Mrs Smith (pictured with her son Eli and her husband Luke on January 3) tries hard to stay positive despite her prognosis. But she still describes her tumour as a 'ticking time bomb' HOW ARE BRAIN TUMOURS GRADED? Brain tumours are graded 1-4 according to the speed they grow and the risk they will spread to other parts of the brain or spinal cord. Around 4,300 people in the UK are diagnosed with a low-grade, slow-growing tumour every year, while 5,000 are told they have a high-grade growth. In the US, around 80,000 people a year are diagnosed with a brain tumour. It is unclear what proportion of these are low or high grades. Low-grade tumours are unlikely to spread and have a low risk of returning if they are completely removed. They tend to have well-defined edges. But they can still press on or damage nearby areas of the brain, and block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid that nourishes and protects the vital organ. High-grade tumours are more likely to spread and come back even if they are intensively treated. Surgery, along with radiotherapy or chemo, is usually required. Some tumours are 'mixed grade' and contain cells of different grades. These are graded according to the highest grade they contain even if the majority is low grade. Source: The Brain Tumour Charity Advertisement Mrs Smith was diagnosed after she began to feel unwell while on her honeymoon with her 35-year-old husband Luke. 'I started suffering from headaches but the pain quickly became so severe that I ended up in A&E,' she said. 'I was diagnosed with a brain tumour after an MRI and needed surgery to remove the mass. 'After being given the all-clear I gave birth to my son Eli in 2017, which was amazing after everything we'd been through.' But Mrs Smith's relief did not last long, with her being told the growth had returned last year and is now incurable. 'It was a shock when I was told the tumour had returned and my diagnosis is now terminal but doctors are trying their best to keep [it] stable with chemotherapy,' she said. 'The brain tumour I have is literally a ticking time bomb but I'm trying my best to stay positive. 'Eli keeps me and Luke distracted, and now that I have my hair back, I'm not constantly reminded of my hair loss which is great.' Mrs Smith has her hair pieces refitted every few months while she continues to undergo chemo. Mrs Smith is speaking out to raise awareness of brain cancer and to help raise money, along with her husband, towards the charity Brain Tumour Research. She is pictured undergoing radiotherapy last year before learning her cancer is incurable Mrs Smith is pictured left having her hair piece fitted. She goes back every few months while she continues to undergo chemo. Pictured right after, she describes the results as 'amazing' 'We want to help families in the future who might find themselves in our position one day,' she said. 'We're going to be vlogging about our experience and doing a series of challenges and events throughout the year with the aim of raising as much money as possible for what has historically been a very neglected cause.' Hugh Adams, head of PR and media relations, at Brain Tumour Research, said: 'We are extremely grateful to Katie for her tireless campaigning. 'Her motivation and courage are so inspiring although, sadly, her story is not unusual. 'Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.' Peter Murtha, CEO and founder of Optima, added: 'Katie came to see us last summer to see if we could help her get back some confidence after losing her hair due to her brain tumour. 'After hearing her story we decided to offer the 2,500 hair-system programme completely free-of-charge. We felt Katie was an inspiration and if we could help her feel better about herself then offering our services free was the least we could do.' A Pakistan airline has allegedly told their obese cabin crew to lose weight or risk losing their jobs. A memo was sent out to 1,800 employees by managers warning that their weight would be measured in upcoming months. The flight attendants will be given 'ground' duties if they do not hit targets within one month, the letter said. Pakistan International Airlines has allegedly received complaints from customers about staff's weight, leading to managers worrying they look 'shabby'. Pakistan International Airlines has told its cabin crew to lose weight or lose their jobs, a leaked memo has revealed The leaked memo, obtained by ARY News, revealed bosses said they have decided to 'gradually reduce waiver of 30 lbs excess weight to zero lbs in upcoming months for the cabin crew'. It reads: 'If any crew found above 30lbs from the desired weight after January 31, 2019, will be grounded and referred to Aircrew Medical Centre for medical evaluation and treatment until weight is reduced up to desired standard/BMI.' The staff then have until July 1 to shift the full weight, the memo said. It is not clear what the 'desired weight' is, but a spokesperson said the memo was to remind staff they need to be 'slim', as well as 'smart and fit'. ARE YOU OVERWEIGHT? Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height. The NHS guidelines are as follows: Standard Formula: BMI = (weight in pounds / (height in inches x height in inches)) x 703 Metric Formula: BMI = (weight in kilograms / (height in meters x height in meters)) Measurements: Under 18.5: Underweight Underweight 18.5 - 24.9: Healthy Healthy 25 - 29.9: Overweight Overweight 30 or greater: Obese Advertisement Mashhood Tajwar, a spokesperson for PIA, confirmed that the memo was real, and furthermore, that is was a 'regular, routine matter', according to CNN. He said that the initiative was to improve both the appearance and health of the staff, and insisted that PIA was not the only airline to be making such demands. 'No one would like to have shabby crew in the aircraft,' he said. According to him, the airline had received complaints about 'obese' flight attendants. The letter would require around 100 people, or five per cent, of the total employers to drop the pounds, according to Mr Tajwar. Crew working for PIA are issued a suggested weight chart. It tells employees that women who are 5ft 7in tall they should weigh between 133-147lbs (60-67kg). In 2015, a similar scenario occurred in neighbouring country, India, when a shocking 130 cabin crew were taken off flights. Air India told 600 of its 3,500 cabin crew to lose weight within six months in 2014, or risk being taken off flights and given a job on the ground. Following this, 130 cabin crew were removed from duty because their body mass index (BMI) was too high. But by the airlines standard, a women's 'obese' value was above 27. An obese BMI is usually defined as 30 or more. The airline said that the 'normal' BMI for an air hostess is between 18 and 22 and 'overweight' between 22 and 27. For male attendants the brackets were 18 to 25, 25 to 30, and above. In the UK, the NHS says a 'healthy' BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. 'People who are fitter can respond quicker and more efficiently in case of any untoward situation', a spokesperson told The Telegraph in Calcutta in 2015. Requirements in UK airlines aren't too different. In a 2014 BBC documentary 'A Very British Airline', it was revealed that the British Airways cabin crew are 'required to look immaculate at all times'. If lipstick is not applied at all times, or a hair out of place, staff could face detrimental consequences. Super-gonorrhoea is becoming more resistant to antibiotics, leaving health officials with limited options to treat the disease. The sexually transmitted infection (STI) is becoming increasing difficult to treat, and is now able to fight off three common drugs. It comes amid a huge rise in cases - there were almost 45,000 diagnoses in England in 2017, a rise of 22 per cent in just one year, figures show. Super-gonorrhoea is becoming more resistant to antibiotics while cases soar Super-gonorrhoea is one of many antibiotic-resistant infections which together kill an estimated 700,000 people worldwide each year. Patients are normally given ceftriaxone and azithromycin to combat gonorrhoea, the third most common STI in Britain. But a report from Public Health England revealed the resistance to these three drugs continues to grow, limiting the options available to treat the disease. Ciprofloxacin is now proving resistant in 36.4 per cent of cases of gonorrhoea, 2017 figures in the Public Health England report show. WHAT IS SUPER GONORRHOEA? When gonorrhoea is resistant to one of two antibiotics recommended to treat it, it is known as super gonorrhoea. All types of gonorrhoea historically called the clap - are caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It is quick to develop and strains mutate every few years to become resistant to drugs. Doctors have frequently changed their recommended treatments to keep up with the changing nature of the bug. It stopped responding to penicillin in the 1980s. Symptoms of gonorrhoea include discharge, bleeding or pain when urinating. But around one in two women and one in 10 men will not experience any signs, which is why the infection is so easily spread. Women who do not get treatment can develop pelvic inflammatory disease an infection of the womb and ovaries which can cause infertility. In pregnancy, it can cause miscarriage, premature birth or lead to babies developing problems with their vision. Patients with super gonorrhoea can be given some other treatments which might work but can have unpleasant side effects. Health experts warn it is only a matter of time before the bug mutates to resist these remaining antibiotics too. They recommend using condoms and regular testing to prevent spread of the disease. Advertisement This is a rise from 33.7 per cent in 2016. Azithromycin was resistant in 9.2 per cent of cases in 2017, compared with 4.7 per cent in 2016. In March last year, the 'worst case ever' of super-gonorrhoea was detected in a British man after he had sex with a south-eastern Asian woman. Laboratory tests revealed the Brit had high resistance to both ceftriaxone and azithromycin. He was eventually treated with ertapenem. The case lead to warnings from doctors that more difficult cases such as this would be seen. World Health Organization experts raised fears two years ago the STI, once known as the 'clap', could become immune to antibiotics in a 'matter of years'. Analysis of STI data around the world previously revealed 97 per cent of countries have reported strains of gonorrhoea that are resistant to ciprofloxacin. And more than 50 countries warned strains were showing some form of resistance to ceftraixone. Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies wrote to GPs in 2015 warning that gonorrhoea could become an untreatable disease. Since then, health officials have urged people to remember to use condoms. But in recent years, it has been revealed that throats act as a 'silent reservoir' for gonorrhoea. Drug-resistant gonorrhoea can spread from an infected person's throat during oral sex without them even knowing they have the STI, experts said. About one in ten infected men and five in ten infected women will not experience any obvious symptoms, according to the NHS. The number of gonnorrhoea cases has risen alongside other sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis and chlamydia. Emergency services are warning against the popular Instagram trend of fireside selfies, claiming they could be potentially deadly. Instagram is littered with 'Hygge' inspired snaps featuring atmospheric candles, snuggly socks and warm blankets, however, Londoners have been warned to be more careful after 340 fires were caused by candles, heaters and electric blankets last year. Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety at London Fire Brigade (LFB), Charlie Pugsley said he avoids lighting candles in his home because 'it's easy to forget about them when snoozing on the sofa.' The social media craze has sparked concern amongst Britain's biggest fire brigade, who have warned that if people aren't careful, it could even become deadly 'When temperatures dive, it's natural to create a cosy atmosphere but those extra blankets, heaters and candles can be a real fire risk,' he warned. 'We are especially concerned about portable electric heaters, all to often we see bedding or furniture being too close to heaters and catching fire. 'While it's cosy to use candles, they are one of the leading causes of fires and it's easy to forget about them when you are snoozing on the sofa. While Charlie usually avoids candles in his home, he warns if you must use them, never leave them on while you are not near. Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety at London Fire Brigade (LFB), Charlie Pugsley, has warned against lighting fires for Instagram content such as this one Picture like above have been posted in their thousands, including shots of atmospheric candles, snuggly socks and warm blankets Londoners have been warned to be more careful when keeping warm this winter after 340 fires were caused by candles, heaters and electric blankets last year. Pictured: An example of an atmospheric snap shared on Instagram 'I normally avoid candles in my home but if you must use them, never leave them on while you are sleeping or out of the room and always ensure they are away from curtains, blankets and furniture,' he added. 'Remember, tea lights need to be sitting in or on a proper fire proof holder - just leaving them burning in their foil cups poses a real fire risk.' When keeping warm and snug at home, it is advised to keep candles and oil burners away from clothes, curtains and paper and keep out of the reach of children and pets. Keeping furniture and clothes a safe distance from heaters, maintaining carbon monoxide alarms and putting out candles before leaving a room are also essential. Lupita Nyongo mixed high and low fashions at the 76 annual Golden Globe Awards like a real pro. The Black Panther actress donned a purple Calvin Klein by Appointment column gown featuring metal fringe. And while luxury designer pumps were probably at the 35-year-old's disposal, the superstar opted for a more affordable option - $90 Aldo shoes. Style Savvy: Black Panther actress Lupita Nyongo donned a purple Calvin Klein by Appointment column gown featuring metal fringe and discounted Aldo shoes Leventer by Aldo, now $45; aldoshoes.com Lupita added inches to her petite frame in the contemporary brand's 'Leventer' heels in silver. The almond-toe sandals which originally were priced at $90 but have been marked down to just $45 were the perfect counterpart to her edgy dress. In a subtle metallic shade, the 5" heels with a 1" platform completed the modern ensemble and looked far more expensive than their price-tag. Lupita is no stranger to dressing to impress and with purpose. Along with showing off her style savvy in budget-friendly shoes, the Academy Award winner chose one of Raf Simons' last creations at Calvin Klein. Raf parted ways from the American brand at the end of December after the label decided on a new direction which differs from the Belgium fashion designer's aesthetic. Lupita echoed the vibrant shade of her dress with her purple mascara. Matchy matchy: Lupita echoed the vibrant shade of her dress with her purple mascara The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will kick off a year of engagements with a visit to Merseyside, it has been announced. Harry, 34, and his pregnant wife, 37, will take part in a number of meetings with community organisations in Birkenhead next Monday, as they return to work following time off over the festive season. The couple have a busy 12 months ahead with their first child together due this spring. Busy year ahead: Harry, 34, and his pregnant wife, 37, will take part in a number of meetings with community organisations in Birkenhead next Monday, as they return to work following time off over the festive season. Pictured, the couple at Sandringham on Christmas Day Harry and Meghan will travel to the Wirral on Monday January 14 to see a number of organisations which support and empower groups within the local community. The duke and duchess will visit Tomorrows Women Wirral, an organisation that supports women in vulnerable circumstances. It was set up in 2011 to support women on their release from prison, and now offers a range of training courses and workshops for more than 6,000 local women, including support groups around mental health issues, domestic abuse and addiction. Harry and Meghan will hear from some of the women about their experiences. A year to remember: The couple have a busy 12 months ahead with their first child together due this spring. Pictured, Meghan at a solo engagement in Twickenham last month The couple will also visit the Hive, Wirral Youth Zone, created by thecharity OnSide Youth Zones, which is developing 21st century youth facilities across the UK. The Hive aims to provide a safe environment for young people to help them build key skills and raise their aspirations and confidence. The duke and duchess will also meet members of the public in Hamilton Square when they view a new sculpture marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Birkenhead war poet Wilfred Owen. Working hard: The Duke of Cambridge, 36, will attend an event marking the 30 years of London's Air Ambulance on 9 January - the Duchess of Cambridge's 37th birthday. Pictured, the couple attending the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham, Norfolk, last year Meanwhile Prince William will carry out his first official engagement of the year on his wife's birthday. The Duke of Cambridge, 36, will attend an event marking the 30 years of London's Air Ambulance on 9 January - the Duchess of Cambridge's 37th birthday. William, a former air ambulance pilot, will meet professionals behind the service on a visit to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, in east London. It comes weeks after it was revealed that the Duke of Cambridge spent fewer days on royal duties in 2018 than either his father Prince Charles, 70, or his aunt Princess Anne, 68. Awards season wouldn't be the same without an awkward blunder or mispronunciation for people to talk about. And Amber Heard proved just that while announcing the winning actor for Best Actor - Limited Series or Motion Picture for the Golden Globes on Sunday night. When she announced the winner, the 32-year-old actress appeared to mispronounce Darren Criss' name by calling him 'Daniel' instead. Oops! Amber Heard, 32, (right) announced the winner of Best Actor - Limited Series or Motion Picture with Taron Egerton (left) at the Golden Globes when she made a mispronunciation My bad: It appears she accidentally called Darren Criss 'Daniel' instead of his name when calling him up to claim his win Honest mistake: Darren (pictured left) won the award for his role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story The clip from the awards show shows Amber visibly excited by Darren's win from his role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, but she then had some difficulties pronouncing the actor's name. Although this blunder doesn't quite compare to when John Travolta called Idina Menzel 'Adele Dazeem' at the Oscars in 2014, it did catch the eye of viewers. One fan wrote: 'Re-watching speeches at the @goldenglobes and notices that @realamberheard misread @DarrenCriss's name as Danielle Criss when he won. Girl had won job...' Other people wanted to confirm the mispronunciation actually happened. 'Please tell me other people caught Amber Heard calling Darren Criss, Daniel,' one viewer named Lauren wrote while watching the show. The reason why people were confused by the moment was because Amber said the name with fellow presenter Taron Egerton, 29, at the same time. While Taron correctly said Darren's full name, it appears Amber got muddled with her own pronunciation. Catching on: Fans noticed the blunder online after Taron said 'Darren' while Amber appeared to say 'Daniel' Unimpressed: People were quick to joke about how Amber's only job was to make sure to say what was on the card correctly Hilarious: Many viewers thought the moment was funny while one person even thought Amber had a little too much to drink Unbothered: Darren didn't appear to notice the blunder as he became the first Filipino American to win a Golden Globe Adorable: During his speech, Darren thanked his mother saying she was 'hugely responsible' for most of the good things that have happened in his life But if Darren, 31, noticed the moment, he didn't make it clear as he celebrated being the first Filipino American to win a Golden Globe. 'I've said this before, but being half Filipino is one of my favorite things about me,' he said backstage at the Golden Globes. 'I feel like I have been given a superhero cape and I am glad to step up to that plate.' During his acceptance speech on stage, Darren mentioned his background and how it brought him to where he is today. 'This has been a marvelous year for representation in Hollywood and I am so enormously proud to be a teeny-tiny part of that as the son of a firecracker Filipino woman,' the actor said. 'So, Mom, I know you are watching this. You are hugely responsible for most of the good things in my life. I love you dearly.' A man who admits to being controlled by his genitals embarked on a ten-year journey of celibacy after years of partying, drinking and having one-night-stands revealed that his challenge came to an end when he paid a prostitute for sex. Self-employed entrepreneur and landscaper, Kevin Sullivan, 44, developed unhealthy sexual behaviors from his early teenage years. Kevin, from Maine, began drinking excessive amounts of alcohol that lowered his inhibitions, and began having numerous one-night-stands with random women. A big change: Kevin Sullivan embarked on a journey of celibacy after developing 'unhealthy sexual behaviors' and spending years of partying, drinking and having one-night-stands Party animal: The 44-year-old from Maine (pictured in his 20s partying) revealed that he had no role models to look up to when he was young, and turned to alcohol and other substances He said: 'Growing up with no real role models of the healthy kind, I developed unhealthy sexual behaviors from early teenage years onward. 'I began using alcohol and other substances to lower inhibitions and express myself both non-sexually and sexually. 'Being a young man who was prone to instant gratification, sensual delights, and mind-altering substances I was quick to develop relations with the opposite sex. He added: 'These relations and the act of relating were unhealthy to say the least; I had spent most of my teenage years and all of my twenties being controlled by my genitals and sought gratification through sexual escapades with women I hardly knew.' Kevin revealed that this was the only form of intimacy he was familiar with at the time. He explained: 'This behavior served to provide the only form of intimacy I was aware of at the time, along with an exploratory inquisitiveness into what I now see as the art of lovemaking which then was nothing more than having sex. Speaking of his many one-night-stands, he said: 'These escapades, while they would temporarily boost my ego, mainly left me feeling alone, empty, and insecure. 'My "ability" to win over women slowly faded and my sexual stamina rapidly decreased due to this insecurity,' he added. The 44-year-old added that he developed a low self-esteem from a young age, which was only lifted each time he had a new 'sexual encounter'. He said: 'I felt like I had achieved the all-important goal of "getting laid". From this "achievement" I felt validated. 'This became a habit to which I increasingly needed more of and subsequently got less of.' Ladies man: Kevin, pictured with friends in his 20s, said that many of his teenage years and early 20s were spent being 'controlled by [his] genitals'. Womanizer: The self-employed entrepreneur, pictured during his 20s with a woman (left) and on vacation with a friend (right) said that his low self-esteem was only lifted through sex He revealed that he decided to become celibate in 2005, after he woke up from a one-night-stand in Hawaii with a woman who revealed that she was battling cancer. He said: 'The last one night stand I had prior to becoming celibate was in Maui, Hawaii. I picked up a girl in a bar and drove across the island in near black out. 'We got to my house, had sex, and fell asleep. The next morning, she told me she had cancer and was dying. This frightened me enough to create changes that would lead to celibacy,' he added. Celibacy is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. A lifestyle change: After having a one-night-stand with a woman who was dying with cancer, Kevin, pictured in his 20s with friends, decided to become celibate Kevin said: 'Celibacy, for me, involves a genuine willingness to heal the relationship between man and woman along with oneself. 'At least this was my motivating intention; to heal the inadequacies of my manhood, to heal the predator like behaviors of a "womanizer" and change the relationship between man and woman and subsequently my relationship to myself. 'How does one heal the inadequacies of ones manhood with abstinence you might ask? Theres no easy way to answer this,' he added. 'However, my experience has taught me that being a man of his early thirties and venturing into a lifestyle of sexual abstinence ones sexual energy does not go away. 'It taunts, it tempts, it frustrates, and it beckons to be utilized. For me, utilizing my sexual energy in a non-sexual manner allowed me to develop a relationship with deeper energetic functioning. 'From this point onward, the benefits began to show themselves such as increased connections with women of all types. Stronger more authentic communication. Inspiration: The now 44-year-old, who said the change to being celibate wasn't easy, embarked on the ten-year celibacy journey to heal his predator like behaviors of a womanizer' Downward spiral: In 2013, Kevin faced challenges with his celibacy, and ended up attending a psychiatric ward for two years, during which time he he attended a Vermont college Bad habits: Kevin, pictured with friends in his early 20s, broke his celibacy in 2013 when he paid a woman for sex while studying abroad in Guatemala. This was the last time he had sex 'Perhaps the benefit that produced all the others was simply lessening and perhaps nearly eradicating my personal interest in bedding each woman I encountered. He added: 'This was and is a game changer. There is a freedom born when a man surrenders his will to seduce a woman.' 'She feels it and he feels it. There is great ease and from that ease the next chapter begins. The transition from celibacy to sex, for me, was a shock to the system and the great ease that had been cultivated.' In 2013, Kevin's journey of celibacy faced some challenges as he fell back into his back habits. He explained: 'A series of events, occurring while deep in spiritual practice, in both time and place brought me through a downward spiral as I fell from grace. Kevin was taken to a state psychiatric ward where he would enter and exit the system a number of times over the next two years. During his time in the hospital, he attended a liberal arts college in Vermont. 'I ended up in and out of a state psychiatric ward while moonlighting at an undergraduate university studying as a non-traditional student. His celibacy game to a halt when he paid a woman for sex while he was studying abroad in Guatemala. He said: 'Life had shifted so powerfully and all the discipline I had garnered vanished in an instant of self-serving gratification. 'Internally I could feel the support force that had guided me through ten years of celibacy were not those that were guiding me through this debauchery. Kevin revealed that this was the last time he has had sex. An ongoing journey: Kevin, pictured now, who wants to find a woman to settle down with, reclaimed his celibacy vow and has honored it since 2015 He said: 'Some time has passed, and celibacy of the non-conscious mainly indifferent kind has prevailed; meaning I have not had sex since and I have not declared to be celibate. 'I am however pleased to say that the indifference has faded and the consciousness regarding accepting my sexuality has been restored in a completely new manner.' The self-employed entrepreneur said that his restored consciousness around sexuality was inspired by something he heard from a chocolate farmer while travelling in central America. While working on the chocolate farmer's farm, Kevin said that one phrase often repeated by the farmer has remained engraved in his head. He said: 'While in central America I visited him to study and work on his farm. One phrase he would repeat again and again has stuck with me to this day. He said, "whats a life without a wife"'. This phrase inspired him to begin his search to find a woman to settle down with. In the meantime, he has reclaimed his celibacy vow and has honored it since 2015, although he is dating. 'My experience has taught me that love is a tangible life force that is cultivated from within, from the heart center. 'Sex is the physical act of making that love energy. Sex without love is empty. Love without sex is incomplete. 'Change is inevitable as life is all about mystery and anything is possible as has been and continues to be seen in my life. Im considering this question more and would like to provide more of a specific answer in time,' he added. Like many of us looking for love, lifestyle blogger Julia Zelg met her partner Eileen De Freest on popular dating app, Tinder - but perhaps a little more unusual is the fact that the lesbian couple have a 37-year age gap. Documenting the journey of their relationship on her YouTube channel, London-based Julia, 24, originally from Brazil, and Eileen, 61, originally from the US, admit they have one main concern - that it's likely one will outlive the other. 'The only thing I can say which is so significant about our age gap relationship is that Ill be old when Julia is still quite young,' said Eileen. 'Shell be moving into the meat of life and Ill be getting quite a bit older, but thats alright. 'We cant have this fantasy that were going to be forever and ever in the same decade of ageing, but love is love and its here and thats what were doing.' The age difference certainly didn't stop the pair getting engaged, they're planning to marry later this year. London-based lifestyle blogger Julia Zelg, 24, met her partner Eileen De Freest, 61, on popular dating app, Tinder. The pair insist that their 37-year-old age gap doesn't bother them Julia introduced her girlfriend to her fans back in September and just over a month later they moved in together and welcomed a new addition into their family - their adopted kitten, Brittney After a whirlwind romance, Smitten Julian, originally from Brazil, got down on one need just before Christmas and popped the question. Eileen said 'yes!' Julia added: 'Were very proud of our relationship. We dont want it to seem like were ashamed of our ages because were not.' Smitten Julia introduced girlfriend to fans on her video site when they first met back in September. 'I've met this woman and she's the most amazing person I've ever met,' she gushed. 'She's just my soulmate.' Since then, its been a whirlwind romance for the pair who moved into their London pad together a little less than a month later. More recently, they have welcomed a new addition into their home - their adopted Kitten called Brittney. Speaking of her age gap relationship, 24-year-old Julia said: 'Were very proud of our relationship.' 'We dont want it to seem like were ashamed of our ages because were not' Julia popped the question to her older girlfriend just before Christmas - and she said yes! The couple plan to marry this year = Julia fell head over heels and believing the moment was right, popped the question to her older girlfriend just before Christmas - and she said yes. Since then, the couple have even flown to Brazil to meet Julia's parents for Christmas. 'Our whole message has always been for people to accept themselves and love whoever they want and to be themselves and just to be happy,' said Julia. 'As long as we're not harming anywhere, its legal and consensual of course, then what's the problem?' But unfortunately, not everyone seems to agree with Julia's viewpoint, as the couple have faced plenty of criticism from online trolls. 'We are both consenting adults,' Julia explained. 'I am not a child or a teenager. 'Some of you may think Im younger than I am because I have colourful hair, but we are literally not doing anything wrong. 'We are two people who just love each other. We are not causing anyone any harm.' Eileen added: 'It doesn't give you the right to start criticising us and start making assumptions and say Julia needs psychological help. Eileen's only concern is that it's likely one will outlive the other, but they will continue to live the rest of their lives together Eileen (right) opened up about how she's been called a 'paedophile' by trolls - but she says she isn't ashamed of their relationship. One troll said Julia needed 'psychological help' 'She's not captive, she's my girlfriend. She's somebody I love.' 'You don't think I went over this for months in my mind - is she too young for me? What's the cost of being with an older woman? I'm not going to take her life away. 'She will go on long after me and I want her to do that. I love her so much.' She added: 'There's very tangible evidence of our love together and people twist that around for their own fear and comprehension and call me a pedophile.' But other fans have flooded Julia's YouTube comments in messages of support for the pair: 'The more I watch Eileen the more I fall in love with her, she's so intelligent! her personality is freaking amazing. I hope my future relationship is as beautiful as this,' wrote one user, while another penned: 'Eileen needs to stop calling herself ugly!! She is genuinely beautiful.' Another added: 'Why woman can have more older man but not older woman? They are happy and thats more important than everything else!' Elisabeth Moss used the red carpet for good at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. Nominated for her work on 'The Handmaid's Tale' the 36-year-old actress helped use her fame to launch the RAD initiative. Rad is an organization that uses global platforms to raise money and awareness for charities and causes in need. Making a statement: Elisabeth Moss used the red carpet for good at the 76th Golden Globe Awards Every designer that Elisabeth wore donated to the ACLU in her name. Styled by Karla Welch, Elisabeth donned a Christian Dior Haute Couture navy blue silk and wool smoking bar bustier dress with navy blue satin lapel. The chic mini redefined the tuxedo blazer dress with a strapless neckline and twisted front. She completed the look with a gorgeous Neil Lane diamond necklace and matching drop earrings, Tamara Mellon pumps and a Roger Vivier bag, This is the first time an actress wore a head to toe ensemble for good. Karla took to Instagram to share the blonde beauty's 'rad' look. Designer donation: All of the label Elisabeth wore donated to the ACLU in her name. They include Christian Dior, Neil Lane, Tamara Mellon and Roger Vivier A month-long campaign encouraging women to grow out their body hair has got off to a flying start, with women from around the world showing their support with social media selfies. Januhairy, started by Laura Jackson, 21, from Warwickshire was launched at the beginning of the month to help women love and accept their natural hair while raising money for charity - similar to a female version of Movember. Just a few days in, women from Brazil to Romania have joined the challenge, sharing the results online under the hashtag #Januhairy, which now has more than 2,300 posts on Instagram. While some are flaunting the natural fuzz on their armpits, others have taken photos of their unshaven legs, saying there's no shame in rocking a natural look. Women from all over the world have already joined in with 21-year-old student Laura Jackson's month-long Januhairy campaign that aims to raise money for a body confidence charity. Pictured: Instagram user alinegooncalves from Brazil shows her support One user, who posted a picture of her hairy underarms, commented: #januhairy and all year long really. #nye #2k19 #noshavenoshame Another said: I believe in my choice of shaving when I want to, not because you think Im disgusting. 'I know a woman can be #sexy with #hairylegs or without. Also men are sexy with #hair or #nohair #romanianvlogger #hairylegs #freedom #freeyourself. The campaign's supporters have been created with their captions - Londoner sophielmee wrote: #januhairy and all year long really #nye #2k19 #noshavenoshame Video creator Alexandra Myth, who lives in London and has over 13,000 Instagram followers, said: 'I believe in my choice of shaving when I want to, not because you think Im disgusting' Another Instagram user shared a longer view with the caption: Im so down for #Januhairy - lets make 2019 the year that women are no longer shamed for their natural body hair. 'Let me be clear, if my pit kitty offends you, that problem is not mine, its yours and you should go away and do some unpacking on that. 'Think its gross on me but fine on men then you need to go check your sexism stat. According to a 2017 study women who shave spend 6,500 and eight weeks of their life managing unwanted hair. The expenditure figure more than trebles if you wax. Think of all the better things we could be doing/spending our money on? Thats a load of holidays you could have gone on, dinners and drinks with friends, spa days etc. Is it really worth it?!' Laila Campelo from Recife in Brazil shared her post with a Brazilian translation of 'Genuine beauty persists. The rest is fake and ephemeral' Others were equally proud posting: 'This ones for all you haters. Love me or hate me, either way I'm on your mind.' Exeter University student Laura said she came up with the idea after growing out her own hair for a performance. 'Though I felt liberated and more confident in myself, some people around me didn't understand or agree with why I didn't shave,' the third-year drama student said. 'I realised that there is still so much more for us to do to be able to accept one another fully and truly.' She hopes to raise 1,000 for charity Body Gossips education program, which teaches young people about body image. The campaign has divided social media users with some saying 'why do they think that making themselves ugly and shaggy will prove anything?' Pictured: user Jennne shows her support User Cobybudridge, believed to be from the US, commented: '#januhairy. I dunno. If I quit shaving, I may quit showers too. A slippery slope' Posting a snap of her armpits on Instagram to kickstart the challenge on 4 January, founder Laura wrote: 'After a few weeks of getting used to it, I started to like my natural hair. I also started to like the lack of uncomfortable episodes of shaving.' But it hasn't all been positive reaction, as though Laura says she feels liberated, she explains that some people around her don't understand why she isn't shaving. 'When I first started growing my body hair my mum asked me "Is it you just being lazy or are you trying to prove a point?". Why should we be called lazy if we don't want to shave? And why do we have to be proving a point?' Exeter University student Laura Jackson, 21, (pictured) started growing out her body hair when preparing for a one-woman show as part of her drama degree The aim of the campaign is to not only empower woman to embrace their body hair, but also to raise money for charity Body Gossip, which encourages people to feel confident in their own skin Having spoken to her mum about it, Laura's mum is now joining in Januhairy, which she describes as 'a big challenge for her'. Social media users have been divided about the challenge, with one writing 'why do they think that making themselves ugly and shaggy will prove anything?' Others have been supportive, with another writing 'I love this! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I stopped removing my body hair about 2 years ago; it suddenly struck me one day that I didn't particularly mind how it looked, so why was I putting in all this effort that men are never expected to? User bargo_sam from Brazil chose a black and white effect for her selfie demonstrating her unshaven armpits 'People often want to know what my reason for growing my body hair out, as if it's a political statement, but really no-one should have to provide a reason for letting their body exist as it does naturally.' Among those taking part in Januhairy is University of Exeter students India Howland. 'I think having body hair is one of many things women should never be made to feel lesser for,' India Howland, 22, from Lymington, Hampshire, said. 'I've heard girls apologise for having hairy legs before. 'But you should be able to embody your femininity any way you want to - no one should feel pressured into shaving. 'It's a choice,' the third-year drama student said. Laura added that her project is 'not an angry campaign for people who don't see how normal body hair is. 'It is an empowering project for everyone to understand more about their views on themselves and others,' she explained. Instagram user Contyvevropskymstylu shared a picture from the Czech Republic, showing herself lounging in the bath An Instagram user by the name of Cfbia from Brazil simply accompanied her image with the word 'confidence' User Mrsbeinfinity captioned her picture of her armpits: 'This ones for all you haters. Love me or hate me, either way I'm on your mind' Instagram user Nomipalony referenced a 2017 study that says women who shave spend 6,500 and eight weeks of their life managing unwanted hair Princess Diana's former butler warned the Duchess of Sussex must 'conform and do as she's told' or risk clashing with senior members of the royal family. Paul Burrell, 60, explained Meghan, 37, is a 'strong and independent woman' who has found herself joining the 'most traditional family in the country'. Speaking on Channel 5 documentary Kate V Meghan: Princesses at War, which aired last night, Burrell claimed Buckingham Palace is like a 'minefield' for anyone new and compared the treatment Meghan has received to that experienced by Princess Diana. He said: 'Meghan has married into the most traditional family in the country, the royal family. How is she going to cope? Princess Diana was brought up in a house that was as big as Buckingham Palace, and even she was lost.' Diana's former butler has compared Meghan's treatment in the royal family to that of Princess Diana, claiming that she 'was not treated very kindly', speaking on Channel 5's documentary 'Kate V Meghan: Princesses at war' which aired on Sunday night Paul Burrell, 60, explained Meghan, 37, is a 'strong and independent woman' who has found herself joining the 'most traditional family in the country'. Pictured, Meghan and Harry at the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham last year Burrell, 60, served as a footman for the Queen and later butler to Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997. In the years since he has spoken often of his connections to the royal family and published a number of memoirs. Describing Meghan as a 'strong and independent woman', the Derbyshire-born former butler acknowledged that she may clash with the royal family if she doesn't 'conform and do as she's told'. He continued: 'Buckingham Palace is a minefield for any person going in there for a first time. People set traps, they weren't very kind to this young girl coming into this world.' 'Who would want to be part of that family?', he added. Burrell urged Meghan to 'stay close to Harry' and get to know the queen, describing her as the one that 'mattered the most'. According to Paul Burrell, even Diana, seen on an official tour of Hong Kong in 1989, struggled with adjusting to life in the palace- despite having grown up in similar surroundings and he claims she was 'treated unfairly' Burrell, 60, served as a footman for the Queen and later butler to Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997. Pictured, the pair days before her death in August 1997 Meghan has hit the spotlight over the past year for allegedly 'shaking up the royal family' due to her passionate nature, which has earned her comparisons to Diana. Meghan has long been vocal of her stance on feminism, politics and human rights, as well as reportedly being unhappy about the royal's penchant for hunting, as she is an avid animal lover. Last year it was revealed Harry and Meghan would be moving out of their Kensington Palace cottage to the grounds of Windsor, to avoid their first child- due in spring 2019, growing up 'in a goldfish bowl'. However behind the scenes reports claimed the move could be due to a rift between the Cambridges and the Sussexes. Then just weeks ago sources claimed Meghan, 37, was 'fed-up' of not being able to 'stand up for herself' as the demands of royal protocol dictate she keeps a dignified silence amid rumours of tension between the sisters-in-law. Meghan has hit the spotlight over the past year for allegedly 'shaking up the royal family' due to her passionate nature, which has earned her comparisons to Diana. Pictured, the Duchess with sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge at Sandringham on Christmas Day An insider told Us Weekly the pregnant duchess is finding it 'frustrating and stressful' having 'no voice' - and finds the constraints of royal life 'debilitating'. Additionally Meghan has had to endure regular public outbursts from her half sister Samantha Markle, and her father Thomas. Last month, Thomas directly appealed on television to the Queen to intervene and end his estrangement from his daughter whom he has not seen since he missed her wedding in May to Harry. And while Meghan has maintained a dignified silence amid his regular demands, experts have claimed she may have an easier life if she does the same when it comes to royal matters. Last month Tom Bower, unauthorised biographer of Prince Charles, spoke out about her passionate nature, appearing on Good Morning Britain. Comparing her to Harry's late mother, he claimed: 'The problem is in my view that she is trying to be Diana. 'She's trying to adopt the new role, and the tragedy of the story is it'll end in the same way unless someone steps in from the Palace and says 'look this is the way it's done here'.' The Duchess of Sussex has 'considerably changed' Prince Harry and he is totally 'besotted' by her, royal insider Lady Colin Campbell has claimed in a documentary exploring rumours of a rift between Meghan and the Duchess of Cambridge. Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary Kate V Meghan: Princesses At War which aired on Sunday night, Lady Campbell revealed that Harry is 'beguiled' by his new wife. Lady Colin, 69, who was a confidante of Princess Diana and still has close royal connections, has published three books about the royal family. The documentary also claimed that while Harry is happier than ever since settling down with Meghan, things between him and Prince William are more strained. While rumours of a feud between Meghan and Kate have swirled, the show claimed that the rift was actually between Harry and William - after the younger brother felt 'criticised' for his choice of bride. Lady Colin Campbell has claimed Meghan Markle has 'considerably changed' Prince Harry, who is said to be 'besotted' by her. Lady Campbell is seen speaking in Channel 5's documentary Princesses at war on Sunday night Speaking on the show, Lady Campbell said: 'Everything I hear is that Harry is completely beguiled by Meghan and completely enthralled to her and has changed considerably.' And arguing that the prince, who according to new reports has given up alcohol for Meghan, has changed for the better, she added: 'People do change when they get married.' But while his relationship with the pregnant duchess was praised, things between him and Prince William are reportedly more strained. Royal author Katie Nicholl claimed that the prince was less thrilled with his older brother William, after he reportedly questioned Harry on whether his romance was moving too fast. According to the commentator, the relationship between the brothers has not been the same since the incident, which was said to have happened after the pair announced their engagement at the end of 2017. Royal author Katie Nicholl claimed that the prince was less thrilled with his older brother William, after he reportedly questioned Harry on whether his romance was moving too fast. Left to right: William, Kate, Meghan and Harry are seen together at Sandringham on Christmas Day 'They will joke about who hasn't done the washing up or William will have a go at Harry for eating him out of house and home but actually a rift over his choice of bride is far more serious,' she explained. 'William was quite concerned that the relationship had moved so quickly and being close to Harry, probably the only person close enough to say to Harry 'this seems to be moving quickly, are you sure?' 'And I think what was meant as well intended brotherly advice just riled Harry. 'Harry is hugely protective of Meghan, he saw that as criticism, he interpreted that as his brother not really being behind this marriage and I don't think things have been quite right ever since.' Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, seen left, warned that Meghan must 'conform and do as she's told' or risk clashing with the royal family as he likened her experience to that of Princess Diana, while broadcaster Carole Malone, right, claimed that Kate could be feeling 'threatened' Speaking on the show about the pair- pictured in Sandringham on Christmas Day, Lady Campbell said: 'Everything I hear is that Harry is completely beguiled by Meghan and completely enthralled to her and has changed considerably.' Addressing rumours of a rift between the two couples, royal broadcaster Carole Malone claimed that Kate could be feeling 'threatened' by the Hollywood star joining the family. She said: 'Kate would very definitely be threatened by Meghan's presence and her appearance on the royal scene.' Describing the duo as very different characters from opposite backgrounds, she explained that Kate had been the 'young gorgeous girl that everyone had been photographing since she first started dating Prince William', adding that she 'might be a little put out when this gorgeous, American Hollywood star arrived on the scene'. Addressing rumours of a rift between the two couples, royal broadcaster Carole Malone claimed that Kate could be feeling 'threatened' by the Hollywood star joining the family Meghan has long been vocal of her stance on feminism, politics and human rights, as well as reportedly being unhappy about the royal's penchant for hunting, as she is an avid animal lover. Last year it was revealed Harry and Meghan would be moving out of their Kensington Palace cottage to the grounds of Windsor, to avoid their first child- due in spring 2019, growing up 'in a goldfish bowl'. However behind the scenes reports claimed the move could be due to a rift between the Cambridges and the Sussexes. There were claims that Kate broke down in tears following Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid's dress fitting, ahead of Meghan and Harry's wedding in May, as well as suggestions the pair had clashed over staff. Then just weeks ago sources claimed Meghan, 37, was 'fed-up' of not being able to 'stand up for herself' as the demands of royal protocol dictate she keeps a dignified silence amid rumours of tension between the sisters-in-law. An insider told Us Weekly the pregnant duchess is finding it 'frustrating and stressful' having 'no voice' - and finds the constraints of royal life 'debilitating'. Once an outspoken feminist who gave speeches at United Nations forums, Meghan has since shut down her social media accounts as part of her transition from actress to duchess. However, royal insiders have insisted that there has been no falling out between the Cambridges and the Sussexes, but admitted the pair are 'very different people'. A source previously told the Daily Mail's Rebecca English: 'While there are some tensions behind the scenes, Kate is pretty unflappable and nothing has become bad enough to make Harry and Meghan want to move out. 'People are genuinely pleased to see them so happy. The truth is that there simply isn't enough room at Kensington Palace for them and I know they have been looking at Windsor as a possibility since before the wedding.' Paul Burrell warns Meghan must 'conform and do as she's told' or risk clashing with the royal family as he likens her experience to that of Princess Diana Speaking on the same Channel 5 documentary Kate V Meghan: Princesses at War, which aired last night, Burrell claimed Buckingham Palace is like a 'minefield' for anyone new and compared the treatment Meghan has received to that experienced by Princess Diana. He said: 'Meghan has married into the most traditional family in the country, the royal family. How is she going to cope? Princess Diana was brought up in a house that was as big as Buckingham Palace, and even she was lost.' Diana's former butler has compared Meghan's treatment in the royal family to that of Princess Diana, claiming that she 'was not treated very kindly'. Paul Burrell, 60, explained Meghan, 37, is a 'strong and independent woman' who has found herself joining the 'most traditional family in the country'. Speaking on the same Channel 5 documentary Kate V Meghan: Princesses at War, which aired last night, Burrell, seen last October, claimed Buckingham Palace is like a 'minefiled' for anyone new and compared the treatment Meghan has received to that experienced by Princess Diana Burrell, 60, served as a footman for the Queen and later butler to Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997. In the years since he has spoken often of his connections to the royal family and published a number of memoirs. Describing Meghan as a 'strong and independent woman', the Derbyshire-born former butler acknowledged that she may clash with the royal family if she doesn't 'conform and do as she's told'. He continued: 'Buckingham Palace is a minefield for any person going in there for a first time. People set traps, they weren't very kind to this young girl coming into this world.' 'Who would want to be part of that family?', he added. Burrell urged Meghan to 'stay close to Harry' and get to know the queen, describing her as the one that 'mattered the most'. Diana's former butler has compared Meghan's treatment in the royal family to that of Princess Diana, claiming that she 'was not treated very kindly'. She is seen in 1989 in Hong Kong Burrell, 60, served as a footman for the Queen and later butler to Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997. As well as the reported feud between the couples, Meghan has had to endure regular public outbursts from her half sister Samantha Markle, and her father Thomas. Last month, Thomas directly appealed on television to the Queen to intervene and end his estrangement from his daughter whom he has not seen since he missed her wedding in May to Harry. And while Meghan has maintained a dignified silence amid his regular demands, experts have claimed she may have an easier life if she does the same when it comes to royal matters. Last month Tom Bower, unauthorised biographer of Prince Charles, spoke out about her passionate nature, appearing on Good Morning Britain. Comparing her to Harry's late mother, he claimed: 'The problem is in my view that she is trying to be Diana. 'She's trying to adopt the new role, and the tragedy of the story is it'll end in the same way unless someone steps in from the Palace and says 'look this is the way it's done here'.' Sandra Oh made history as she picked up a Golden Globe award on Sunday night - but she wasn't the only member of her family to shine in the spotlight at the awards. Quite the opposite in fact. The 47-year-old, who not only co-hosted the award ceremony but also took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Television Series, shared the moment with her proud parents, who captivated Twitter with their incredibly enthusiastic reaction to her win. As soon as Sandra's name was announced as the winner of the category - in which she was nominated for her role in Killing Eve - the cameras panned to show her parents, Oh Junsu and Jeon Young-nam, clapping delightedly, with her father even giving her a standing ovation. The stars of the night: Sandra Oh's parents Oh Junsu and Jeon Young-nam earned viral fame thanks to their enthusiastic reaction to their daughter's Golden Globes win on Sunday night Devoted: The 47-year-old, who co-hosted the ceremony and won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Television Series, thanked her parents in her speech Overwhelmed: Sandra's father Oh Junsu gave her a standing ovation as she took to the stage, before thanking her parents in Korean, and bowing to them as a sign of love and respect Leading lights: Social media erupted with praise for the couple after their sweet reaction was caught on camera and broadcast to the millions of viewers watching at home The sweet moment set social media alight, with hundreds of people taking the time to comment on Sandra's proud mom and dad - whom she ensured received a special thank you in her acceptance speech. Sandra dedicated her award to her parents, who moved to Canada from Korea in the 1960s, before addressing them directly in Korean. She fought back tears as she said: 'There are two people here tonight that I'm so grateful that they're here with me. I'd like to thank my mother and my father.' The grinning couple received their own very loud round of applause from the audience - a sentiment that was echoed over and over on Twitter, as user after user shared images and gifs of the duo clapping happily for their beloved daughter. Some Twitter users even admitted that the moment reduced them to tears of joy, with one person writing: 'I literally started bawling when @IamSandraOh thanked her parents in Korean at the Golden Globes.' One user added: 'Just shed actual human tears watching @IamSandraOh thank her parents,' while another piped up: 'Seeing Sandra Ohs parents give her a standing ovation made my eyes leak.' Winners! Many people were quick to celebrate the moment online, with some claiming that it was the best part of the show, while others said the couple 'made 2019 better than 2018' Important: Others praised Sandra for speaking to her parents in Korean during her acceptance speech, and then bowing to them from the podium Special: Netflix highlighted Sandra Oh's mother Jeon Young-nam specifically in a sweet tweet Many people praised Sandra and her parents for stealing the show at the awards ceremony, with a number of Twitter users claiming it was the most special, and memorable, moment of the whole evening. 'I think we can all say that the highlight of the #GoldenGlobes was Sandra Oh and her parents,' one person commented, while another insisted: 'Sandra Oh's parents won the night #GoldenGlobes' One went as far as to say that the couple's reaction to their daughter's Golden Globes win had done a great deal more than steal the spotlight at the show, writing: 'Sandra Oh's parents have already made 2019 better than 2018.' Others, meanwhile, simply expressed their delight at seeing such a 'cute' moment unfold on the screen in front of them. '@IamSandraOh's parents are so cute,' one person commented, while another chimed in to say: 'The cutest thing at the @goldenglobes was @IamSandraOh's parents!' Needless to say, the couple are now nearly as famous as their daughter - who earned a great deal of praise for her hosting skills on Sunday evening. Teary eyed: Many people said that they were reduced to tears after watching the sweet moment unfold on their screen True champions: Sandra's parents were branded the best part of the awards ceremony by many Twitter users However, although it is perhaps their most high-profile appearance at an award show to date, it is by no means the first time that Oh Junsu and Jeon Young-nam have attended such a glittering event. The couple has been a rather regular fixture on the awards season circuit since the very start of Sandra's career, making a number of appearances at various ceremonies alongside their beloved daughter. Oh Junsu and Jeon Young-nam attended the Primetime Emmy Awards with Sandra both in 2006 and 2008, and have also been pictured with her at a few slightly less glamorous affairs, including the opening night of her off-Broadway play Satellites in 2006. Interestingly, Sandra has spoken out in the past about her parents' disapproval of her pursuit of a career in the arts, revealing in the past their upset after she turned down a journalism scholarship to Carleton University in order to study at the National Theatre School of Canada. 'It was very, very tough,' she told Ellen DeGeneres in a 2007 appearance on her talk show. 'Because, like, you know, my parents at that time looked down on the arts....It's like one step above, you know, prostitution.' Sandra, whose father is a businessman, while her mother is a biochemist, also told the TV host that she is 'the only person in my family who doesn't have a master's in something,' revealing that her sister became a lawyer while her brother holds a PhD in medical genetics. Champion: Sandra is the first Asian woman to win the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Drama Unique: The former Grey's Anatomy star is also the first Asian woman to win multiple Golden Globes, having already taken home an award in 2006 for her role in Grey's Anatomy Family first: Sandra, pictured with members of her family, has said in the past that her parents were disappointed when she chose to pursue an acting career Support: However they appear to have changed their tune, and have been supporting their daughter at various event for years, including this off-Broadway premiere in 2006 Veterans: The couple has attended a number of award ceremonies with their daughter, including the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006 (left) and 2008 (right) But whatever her parents thought of her acting career at first, it appears they have since changed their tune - to the point of doing a complete 180, if their show of support on Sunday night is anything to go by. Despite not having a masters like her siblings, Sandra is at the very top of her field, having earned herself a reputation as one of the most respected and talented actors in the industry, as well as landing herself a place in the history books. In addition to her parents' sweet reaction, Sandra's win at this year's Golden Globes will go down in history for another very important reason. The former Grey's Anatomy star is the first Asian actress to win multiple Golden Globes, after adding her 2006 win, when she took home the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her role in Grey's Anatomy. She is also the first Asian woman to be nominated in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Television Series. This year, the Killing Eve star - who won for her portrayal of MI6 agent Eve Polastri - beat out tough competition from Julia Roberts (Homecoming), Caitriona Balfe (Outlander), Elizabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), and Keri Russell (The Americans). I hope this leads to an avalanche of lawsuits against this scum of a company. It should, just as Microsoft should never have updated systems without permission. One system of ours was and it destroyed a lot of data HELSINKI The Finnish Consumer Disputes Board (CDB) has ordered Microsoft to compensate a Finnish man for unauthorized installation of Windows 10, local media reported on Saturday. In a decision reported by national broadcaster Yle on Saturday, the installation of Windows 10 had started when a computer owner was working with his computer in March 2016. Microsoft had not asked for permission and the person had not given an authorization. Following the installation, the computer started giving at fault messages. The board concluded that Microsoft had no right to install Windows 10 without permission. There was a mistake in the installation and that created a duty for Microsoft to compensate, it said. In its response Microsoft held the view that the man had obtained required help from its free customer support. Microsoft stated that it was not responsible for programs the computer owner had installed on his own for remote surveillance of an object. Noting that Microsoft did not deny that the new operating system could be installed without permission, the CDB stated that Microsoft did not deny the connection between the fault and the damage it cause. The board then decided that Microsoft must reimburse 1,100 euros ($1,253) worth of spare parts and maintenance and travel costs. The board dismissed the owners claims for lost work time, as it had not been specified in the complaint. The CDB members are appointed by the Ministry of Justice. Although the board decisions cannot be enforced through coercive measures, 80 percent of companies fined comply with its decisions. Source: Microsoft to compensate Finnish man for unwanted installation of Windows 10 Chinadaily.com.cn We ended up having to install blocking software to keep the systems from updating against our wishes WtR The tree is down. The kids are due back at school. Outside, its bleak and grey. These are the weeks when super-rich celebrities migrate to the Caribbean to be pictured cavorting against a sun-drenched, palm-fringed backdrop of turquoise sea and vanilla sugar sand. And what of the rest of us? To what do we have to look forward in Dry January? Turnips being in season? A tax bill, perhaps? Assuming a flight to Barbados is not forthcoming, I would advise sitting this month out. Hunker down, curl up and indulge in some armchair escapism. The best novel I have read recently is Normal People by Sally Rooney. I am by no means alone in thinking this: the young authors second novel was Waterstones Book of the Year and the star turn of most end-of-2018 literary round-ups. Author Patricia Nicol shared a selection of the best books on coming of age including Sally Rooney's Normal People (pictured left) and John Boynes The Hearts Invisible Furies (pictured right) The coming-of-age love story of Irish teenagers Marianne and Connell is a deft, thoughtful study of social class and of contemporary sexual mores. It starts in 2011, during Connell and Mariannes final years at school, where both are star pupils, but he is popular and she a bullied social misfit. Outside school, the two are in one anothers orbit: Connells single mother, Lorraine, is Mariannes wealthy, widowed mums cleaner. At Trinity College Dublin, Marianne moves with social ease, while Connell struggles socially. I read it like a moony teenager, itching to be with its vulnerable, fallible characters every second I was duty-bound to be elsewhere. Charles Dickens wrote two great coming-of-age novels in Great Expectations and his most autobiographical, David Copperfield, in which the first-person narrator hero becomes an author. Another big read, which has Dickensian sweep, characterisation and humour, is John Boynes The Hearts Invisible Furies. Like Rooneys novel, it showcases Dublin. It revisits the life of adoptee Cyril Avery every seven years, striving to be not just his coming-of-age story, but that of modern Ireland. Take yourself on an epic trip this month, with none of the guilt over air miles. Australian fitness star and mum-of-one Emily Skye has hit back at trolls who have accused her of editing photos to remove saggy skin and stomach lines. The trainer, who gave birth to her daughter Mia last Christmas, has been working hard to regain her post-partum body - and frequently shares photos of herself with and without stomach lines. In a bid to put paid to claims that she is editing out her saggy stomach, Emily took to Instagram to share a side-by-side image showing her body looking toned, as well as one showing it looking lined. 'Saggy, wrinkly belly skin - sometimes you can see it and other times you can't,' she told her 2.4 million followers. Fitness blogger Emily Skye (pictured left and right) shared this side-by-side photo to Instagram which revealed the differences in her body depending on how she stood Emily gave birth to her daughter Mia (pictured right) in December 2017 The 34-year-old who heads up a fitness empire explained she wanted to highlight how flexing her muscles as well as posture made a difference in order to prove she wasn't 'photoshopping out' lines from her belly. 'I just wanted to show that how I stand, whether I'm flexing and what light I'm in either highlights my excess belly skin or hides it! she said. 'And I don't mind either way which is why I post both.' The 33-year-old regularly shares photos to Instagram of her stunning physique and enviable curves As well as taking a stand to defend herself, Emily also told her followers she was 'weirdly proud' of her body - and all it represents: 'I grew a human in this belly and the whole process into motherhood has made me SO much stronger and also so much more confident in myself and my body,' she continued. 'I couldn't care less whether the stretched skin stays or goes!'. Emily told her followers she was 'weirdly proud' of her body and all it represents An empowering message: The health enthusiast said nobody is perfect and all women have some extra skin, stretch marks or cellulite Emily added she wanted to share an empowering message to others in the hopes they might find a way to be easier on themselves. 'Nobody is perfect and having some extra skin, stretch marks, cellulite or whatever else doesn't make you any less beautiful or amazing!' The fitness blogger's stand has clearly resonated with her followers with the post receiving more than 100,000 likes at the time of writing and a stream of positive comments. 'You are so open and brave and truly inspiring,' wrote one enthusiastic commenter. 'I'm sorry about what happened to you but it's amazing how your experience can help others and you use your profile to do this.' Over the course of her journey to regain her body post-partum (pictured left at six week and right at eight months), Emily has had to defend herself against remarks she bounced back to quickly It's not the first time the fitness star and young mother has spoken out about the criticism she has received online about her post-partum body. On a previous Instagram post, Emily said she had been bombarded with negative remarks since debuting her body. 'I have been getting a fair few comments from women saying that I got back into shape too fast after giving birth to Mia,' she said. 'It's not the case, it's been seven-and-a-half months and while I'm happy with myself, I am nowhere near as fit, strong or lean as I used to be and I didn't 'bounce back'. Twitter users are poking fun at common movie tropes by summing up some of the most ridiculous ones in a series of funny tweets. While they're certainly entertaining, films can often get a lot of details wrong mistakes and oversights that are glaringly obvious to anyone whose job, race, or hobby is show on screen. For one thing, hackers can't infiltrate a government system in minutes. Reporters don't generally spend weeks on the same story. And professors don't typically end each lecture by getting to the pertinent information the moment before the bell rings. Yet time and time again, that's what's shown on the silver screen. Here, FEMAIL has rounded up some of the funniest tweets dissecting inaccurate but popular movie tropes, from the strict sergeant with a heart of gold to the doctor who never seems to use a defibrillator correctly. How did she do it? Twitter users are taking aim at popular and inaccurate movie tropes like a wealthy newspaper columnist (pictured: Carrie in Sex and the City) Um... One have pointed out that writers need to write more than one piece a week to make a living and even if they're working a lot, they can't afford a two-bedroom NYC apartment More complicated than that... Hackers can't 'crash through firewalls and ISPes om seconds' Odd: One Twitter user pointed out how often graduate students sleep with their dissertations and, oddly, commit murder Not so hush-hush: For some reason, on-screen government agents play fast and loose with protected information The drama of law: In real life, jury trials are the exception, not the norm Scientific? In the movies, female scientists all wear sexy clothes and work alone in the lab Takin' it easy: Comedian Patton Oswalt noticed that lawyers and psychiatrists always seem to have a single client Not Josie Grossy anymore! Several reporters chimed in, including ones that seem to have some problems with the movie Never Been Kissed Can think of a few... This woman noted that all figure skaters in movies seem to be straight, white, and female and they all have stage moms Accuracy: In real life, novelists don't hand-deliver their books to their editors and wait while those books are read in front of them Science! Doctors in movies and TV often grab a defibrillator when a patient flatlines which is literally the opposite of what that patient needs Not real: Since writers are romantic figures, they tend to pop up in a lot of movies but actual writers aren't thrilled with how they're portrayed Sure... It's pretty unlikely in any career path that you'll succeed at the top of your field despite being an alcoholic Sound familiar? This woman pointed out how many military sergeants are tough as nails but secretly have hearts of gold There's more: Lots of movies include gay best friends who fit stereotypes and are fairly one-dimensional Close-minded: Human rights activist Qasim Rashid took on Muslim stereotypes and movie tropes Amen: This rabbi has noticed that movie rabbis never seem to know what they're doing Wait a minute! This woman finds it interesting that in movie-world, female pastors don't even exist Ageism: Often, women are cast in roles that they're technically much too young for Perfect timing! Notice in films how professors always perfectly wrap up their lecture as the bell rings? Hand-holding: Literary agents and book editors are two entirely different jobs Rude: The token 'fat girl' is usually upbeat and funny, but never an object of romantic interest Characters: This Twitter user pointed out how black women are 'always ready with an "urban" quote of wisdom' Many will have spent Christmas surrounded by their loved ones, enjoying a well-deserved break over the holidays. But not the hundreds of thousands of NHS staff working all hours to provide care in a health service that is the envy of the world. We salute their commitment. And we owe it to them that as Parliament returns we are getting on with publishing the NHSs 10-year plan. Far from the noise of Westminster debate, the actions set out in this plan explain how the huge financial commitment we have made to the NHS will be translated into actions that deliver better, more reliable, more accessible and more consistent health services across England. Growing our NHS so it is fit for the future. As I said in the Budget, the NHS is the governments number one spending priority and that is why last June we committed to a cash settlement that provides a real terms increase of 20.5bn a year by 2023-24. The funding increase will add to its financial security and support investment in change. And its this financial security that has allowed it to plan for the next ten years - to deliver improving performance, better cancer care, greater access to mental health services and much more. Philip Hammond has argued the health service must drastically improve efficiency to ensure the extra 20billion promised by Theresa May isnt wasted A crucial part of this plan, and one we cant ignore, is ensuring the NHS delivers care efficiently. The public hates waste in the NHS and quite rightly want to know that their taxes are spent effectively, to deliver excellent front-line services to patients. In the Budget, I announced how we would fund the increased spending without placing an additional burden on hardworking families. So the plan sets out how we can improve the NHSs current offer, ensuring that we meet the standards that the public expect, as well as exploring new and ground-breaking treatments. It is only by efficiently delivering the current service that the NHS can free-up resources to begin to expand what the NHS can offer and deliver new treatments, and it is the combination of the two that will put the health service on a sustainable footing. But first we must fix the current system so that it is working effectively for everyone. To meet this challenge, we must go back to our roots. We must be innovative, rekindling the pioneering spirit that saw British researchers in the '50s discover DNA and develop a vaccination programme that eventually eradicated polio; the introduction of CT scans in 1972 and the first heart, lung and liver transplants in 1990. Then there was the relentless fight against cancer, from the introduction of breast screening in 1998 to reduce deaths in women over 50; to vaccination of teenage girls to prevent cervical cancer from 2008, to last years introduction of the ground-breaking CAR-T therapy that works by re-programming the patients own immune system to target their cancer. The fight against cancer goes on, and we will continue to up the pace. We in Britain built a health system which defied the naysayers to deliver comprehensive free healthcare at the point of delivery. A system that pushed the boundaries and must do so again to deliver the needs of an ageing population in the 21st century. He added: 'Only through efficiency will we improve the quality of care and give people the service they need' The leaders of the NHS must now ensure they get the basics right. Alongside greater quality of care and ending waste, the public will demand that progress is made on the back of their investment. That means more efficient services: more digital, less paper; more services available in GP surgeries rather than needing a trip to a hospital; and one person being able to deal with your needs rather than sending you to see different people in different places. One set of questions and answers! Only through efficiency will we improve the quality of care and give people the service they need. Because we believe in the NHS, we must ensure it remains fit for purpose so that people get the right care at the right time in the right setting. That might be at a local GPs surgery, or even in the reassuring comfort of their own home; or it may be in a high-tech hospital. Our country must be match-fit to face the challenges ahead as we leave the EU, and our health system must be ready to support us in that. We are doing our bit building on this governments strong record of investment in public services by providing a record amount of funding. This means money for more doctors, nurses and health professionals. And additional funds for hospitals to buy new equipment. But with this financial backing that can only be afforded as our top spending priority comes responsibility. The leaders of the NHS must now get on and deliver. The country will rightly be looking to them to ensure this great institution is developed to make it safer, more effective and more efficient as it adopts more modern ways of working that reflect how we expect a public service to operate in 2019. We believe in the National Health Service. This plan is testament to our determination to make it fit for the generations to come. This surveillance photo released by police is of the suspect leaving the Walmart store in Longwood, Kennett Square, after attempting to make purchases with the victims credit cards. Remembering Matthew LeTourneau Crowd gathers to honor fallen Philly firefighter Crowd gathers to honor fallen firefighter Matthew LeTourneau one year later Family, friends and first-responders gathered at the site of the fatal fire on the one-year anniversary Bliss, Irene Irene Bliss, 84, of Mayfield, passed away at 7:35 a.m. on Sunday, January 06, 2019 at Mills Health & Rehabilitation Center in Mayfield. Mrs. Bliss was a homemaker and was of the Baptist faith. Mrs. Bliss is survived by her husband, Nathan Bliss of Mayfield; a daughter, Joyce Williams of Mayfield; six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Charlene Olive; three sisters; one brother; and her father, Amp Haley. A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, January 7, 2019 at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery in Graves County. There will be no visitation. Milner & Orr Funeral Home of Paducah is in charge of arrangements. You may leave a message or light a candle at www.milnerandorr.com The following items are based on information provided by officials in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Greene County Woman, 67, dies after being struck by car Max Londberg The Daily American CINCINNATI A pair of co-anchors at a local television station say they are engaged to be married. Sheree Paolello, who co-anchors four evening news broadcasts at WLWT News alongside Mike Dardis, gushed on Twitter that "the man I was looking for has been sitting next to me the whole time." Dardis proposed Dec. 28, a Friday, after asking Paolello out for an ostensible coffee run. He chose a local landmark,the RoeblingSuspension Bridge, because it's Paolello's favorite bridge. Apainting of it hangs in her home. "I know this is a unique situation for Cincinnati and all over for local news," Dardis told The Enquirer. "But I think Cincinnati is this small-big city. ... People love the local news team to be a part of your family, and I think it fits right with the Cincinnati mold." The couple said they shared immediate chemistry when Dardis joined the broadcast team in 2012. "I think people can sense it when you genuinely like someone," Paolello said. During commercial breaks, theyjoin in debates with other staff about issues that come up on air. They use hand signals just before the cameras jump back to them to indicate whose turn it is to talk. About five months before they began dating,during a segment, Paolello asked which song Dardis would selectif they had to sing a duet. He picked Taylor Swift's "Blank Space." "It's either going to last forever or go down in flames," Dardis said then. "I say it's going to last forever, as an anchor team, you and me." "OK, right answer," Paolello said, laughing and fist-bumping her future fiance. Ironically, talk of a professional splitas Dardis mulled leaving Cincinnati launched the pair's relationship. "I said to him, 'I feel like I've taken you for granted.' Because I was really upset about the possibility of him leaving," Paolello said. "When she showed that vulnerable side of her, I thought, wow," Dardis said. Dardis, of course, elected to stay. They started dating in November 2017, and by March, they informed WLWT management about their relationship. Station General Manager Branden Frantz encouraged them from a personal standpoint. But professionally, he said, "You better not break up because if you do, that really messes with the chemistry," Dardis recalled. He and Paolello acknowledged the possibility, and Dardis even promised to be the one to leave if necessary. "She's from Cincinnati. I'll leave,"he told management. It never came to that, and now they're looking forward to a late spring or early summer wedding. "When this all started over a year ago, I was probably more nervous than Mike (about) public perception," Paolello said. "When we decided to share this (engagement), I was nervous. But people have been wonderful to us." "Blown away by the positive reaction," Dardis added. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'The man I was looking for has been sitting next to me': Cincinnati co-anchors are engaged Murray Hospital-Wellness Center Plan Health Events By WestKyStar & Murray-Calloway County Hosptial Staff Center for Health & Wellness Holiday Special Going on until February 28, Join the Center for Health & Wellness with only a $10 Joining Fee and NO Contract. Membership includes: Group Fitness Classes, AquaFit Classes, Equipment for Cardio & Strength Training, Half Court Gymnasium, Exercise/Lap Pool. Health Assessment, Exercise Prescription, and access to health promotion programs and classes. Call 270-762-1348 for more information. Plan To Be Tobacco Free A free 1 hour educational one-time session that will help those interested in overcoming tobacco use and dependence, including a customized quit plan. pre-registration is required Tuesday, January 8th 5:30 6:30 pm Center for Health & Wellness Free Screening: Brookdale Senior Living Osteoporosis Screenings Friday, January 4 9 11 am No appointment required. Free Screening: Center for Health & Wellness Tuesday, January 8 8 am noon and 2 4 pm Center for Health & Wellness, Murray Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Osteoporosis Screening, Pulmonary Function Screening, Waist Circumference, Pulse, Pulse Ox By appointment only. Call 270-7621-348 to schedule. Free Screening: Calloway County Public Library Osteoporosis Screening Tuesday, January 22 8:30 10:30 am No appointment required. Free Screening: Marshall County Senior Center Body Mass Index (Height & Weight) and Waist Circumference Tuesday, January 22 9:30 11:30 am No appointment required. Free Screening: Wesley Living Body Mass Index (Height & Weight) Thursday, January 24 2 3 pm No appointment required. Free Screening: Mayfield Graves County YMCA Blood Pressure & Non-Fasting Glucose Tuesday, January 29 9 11 am No appointment required. Alzheimers Care Giver Support Group Thursday, January 3rd 10 am Weaks Senior Citizen Center For more information, call 270-753-0929 Bariatric Support Group Thursday, January 3rd 10 11 am Bariatric Office For more info call Bariatric Solutions @ 270-762-1547 ALS Support Group Thursday, January 10th 6 7 pm MCCH Board Room For more info call Mitzi Cathey at 270-293-1748 Bariatric Support Group Tuesday, January 8th 5 6 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more information call Bariatric Solutions, at 270-762-1547 Parkinson's Support Group Tuesday, January 8th Noon Weaks' Senior Citizen Center For more info call 270-753-0929 Breastfeeding Support Group Thursday, January 17th 4 5:30 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more info call Alycia Janow @ 270-226-4776 National Alliance on Mental Illness Thursday, January 17th 6:30 pm MCCH Education Building (Corner of 8th and Elm) For more info call 270-748-6133 Breast Cancer Support Group Tuesday, January 22 5:30 pm Culvers For more info call Evelyn @ 270-489-2462 Dialysis Support Group Thursday, January 24 4:30 5:30 pm Weak's Senior Citizen Center For more info call Tasha Mitchell @ 270-759-3080 Stroke and Head Injury Support Group Monday, January 28 5:30 7 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more info, call Cheryl @ 270-293-9442 For more information on programs or free screenings available from Murray-Calloway County Hospital, and the Center for Health and Wellness, call 270-762-1348. MURRAY - The Staff at Murray-Calloway County Hospital and the Center for Health & Wellness will be offering educational health promotion events during the month of January to community members, Wellness Center members and MCCH employees. We've launched a new site for events and entertainment all along the Flight 93 Memorial Highway. Read the latest articles and buzz around town. Keep up to date on upcoming events and submit your own. Visit What's NXT 219 Mariman Elbert Pope, 86, of Cullman, Alabama, passed away at Cullman Regional Medical Center on June 12, 2021. Mariman was born in Clay County, Alabama, on May 8, 1935, to Elva McKay and Ethelyne Smith Pope. He graduated from Clay County high school in 1953 and continued to receive a degree The House and Senate are in session this week, though much of their focus will likely be on trying to come to an agreement to end the partial government shutdown that is now approaching its third week. In addition, party leaders in both chambers are wrapping up committee assignments for the 116th Congress. Over the weekend, House Democrats unveiled four separate spending bills to fund departments such as Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and some other agencies through Sept. 30. This piecemeal strategy comes as the Senate and President Donald Trump said they would not support a funding package passed by the House last week that included six full-year appropriations bills and a continuing resolution through Feb. 8 for the Department of Homeland Security. The president has said he will not sign a bill to fund the government unless it provides money for his proposed wall along the border of Mexico the House has not allocated such funding. NAFCU will keep credit unions updated as government funding discussions continue. Federal prosecutors alleged three men ran a social media group called the God Squad and used Snapchat and Instagram to display money and luxury cars, luring high school students to steal thousands of dollars from six credit unions and a bank throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. An indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 21 charges Darrin Hopkins, 22, Tyrann Chambers, 21 and Jaidan ONeal with 14 felony counts of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They pleaded not guilty to the charges. The high school students were not charged because they were duped into believing the transactions were legitimate. The accused men allegedly targeted students at Grant High School in Portland to deposit more than $140,000 in counterfeit checks at branches of the $1.4 billion Advantis Credit Union in Clackamas, Ore., the $856 million Rivermark Community Credit Union in Beaverton, Ore., the $24 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union in McLean, Va., the $1.6 billion SELCO Community Credit Union in Eugene, Ore., the $1 billion IQ Credit Union in Vancouver, Wash., the $5.4 billion OnPoint Community Credit Union in Portland, Ore., and U.S. Bank. HARTFORD Seven months after Connecticut passed legislation promising its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections, a Republican state representative has filed a bill to repeal the act. State Rep. Kurt Vail, of Stafford, has proposed legislation to withdraw Connecticut from the group of states that are participating in the National Popular Vote compact. But unless they can win over Democrats, Vails effort, along with several other Republican-backed voting bills, are likely to be ignored when the General Assembly convenes Wednesday for its 21-week budget-setting session. Democrats will hold both legislative chambers and the governors office, and they have their own election-related priorities such as increasing access to the ballot box. I want to make it easier for students to vote, said Sen. Will Haskell, a Westport Democrat and incoming first-term vice chairman of the Government Administration and Elections Committee. I want to make the absentee ballot process less burdensome and more modern. State Rep. Daniel Fox, D-Stamford, who chairs the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said Monday it is likely his committee will work on early voting proposals and campaign finance-law revisions, but avoided specific topics. Now is the time when a smorgasbord of ideas are floated about changes to election law, he said. Whenever you come off an electoral season and we just had a contentious electoral season you always have ideas that evoke passion and emotion about election law, Fox said. These are when the best election laws are generated. As committee chair, Fox and his co-chair, Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, will have considerable leeway in deciding what election laws are changed. Committee leaders can decide whether a bill gets a hearing, or a committee vote. Fox doubts that Vails bill on repealing the National Popular Vote compact would advance. Both he and Flexer voted in favor of the joining the compact in 2018; Fox even led its passage in the House. The measure passed in Connecticut in May after a decade of lobbying. It passed the House on a close vote, but received bipartisan support in the Senate. It was such a long battle, Fox said. The National Popular Vote compact is not in effect yet: its activated when states representing 270 electoral votes have signed on. So far, 11 states and the District of Columbia have joined, putting the total at 172 electoral votes. States with 98 more electoral votes would need to pass legislation to enter the compact in order for it to be implemented in 2020, the next presidential election. In 2019, Republicans hope the GAE committee will also consider term limits for state lawmakers and changes to primaries. State Rep. Arthur ONeill, R-Southbury, filed three bills Friday. One piece of legislation would amend state law to no longer require major parties to hold conventions to endorse candidates for certain elected offices, such as governor. More Information Frequently asked questions How do lawmakers submit bills? The most common way is for a member of the House or Senate to file general language with the Legislative Commissioner's Office, the General Assembly's nonpartisan lawyers. Where does a bill go from there? If the proposal is from a senator, the bill, in legalese, goes to the Senate Clerk. If a House member files it, the Legislative Commissioner transfers it to the House clerk. Once the session starts, the bills are sent to committees of cognizance. For instance, an elections-related bill would be sent to the Government Administration & Elections Committee. What is the committee process? Committee co-chairmen and ranking members review proposed bills. The leaders decide what pieces of legislation should be "raised" for public hearings and put bill proposals on committee agendas for votes. When the General Assembly convenes on Wednesday, the House and Senate will adopt rules that set committee deadlines, mostly April and May. Just because a bill is approved in one committee, however, does not assure it makes it to the House or Senate for a floor vote. Other related committees may also review bills. Very often, the last committee to review proposed laws is the Judiciary Committee. Bills requiring state funding need approval from the Appropriations Committee, while tax-related bills must pass the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee. Can legislation pass one chamber and become law? Except for some personnel nominations, no. Both the House and Senate have to approve the same language for new laws to reach the governor for final review. See More Collapse Politicians on both sides of the aisle questioned the need for conventions in 2018. Business executive Bob Stefanowski won the Republican primary for governor after deciding not to participate in the state party convention. He petitioned his way onto the primary ballot. ONeill also filed a bill to move the primary for state elections from August to June. In addition, he proposed using ranked-choice voting in primaries for state or municipal offices. Vail also filed a bill Friday proposing an amendment to the state Constitution to limit the number of years a legislator can serve in one office to 12. The limit would also apply to the governor, attorney general, secretary of the state and other executive branch officers. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson NEW YORK - Emboldened by the Trump administration's denigration and threatened abandonment of traditional U.S. allies in Europe and other regions, China has launched a strategic campaign to woo, gain control over or otherwise undermine nations that have long supported U.S. goals and alliance management abroad. The campaign was outlined in barely veiled terms in a recent speech delivered by China's defense minister to a closed-door meeting in Beijing with U.N. Security Council representatives. The Chinese effort is having growing influence, say experienced diplomats who attended the meeting. "The Chinese have correctly assessed that American allies now doubt they can ever rely on the U.S. again in many areas," said one senior Western diplomat. "President Trump seems to represent enough of American public doubts and distrust of foreign nations that we all have to reexamine our place in the international order." The Donald Trump White House is clearly aware of China's newly stoked ambitions. National security adviser John Bolton devoted much of a Dec. 13 speechat the Heritage Foundation to accusing China of using "bribes, opaque agreements and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing's wishes and demands." He singled out China's "One Belt, One Road" economic initiative as being a tool to advance "Chinese global dominance." But the White House response to China's diplomatic and economic campaign contains two glaring failures. It does not recognize or seek to correct its own role in creating the conditions that cause allies to doubt U.S. resolve and support. And it has missed the expansion of Chinese strategic aims into undermining American leadership in the transatlantic and global institutions that have helped preserve global stability since World War II. White House staffers are either asleep at the switch or, more likely, deliberately looking away from the impulsive, vindictive and frequently childish behavior of a president who treats his partners as cheats, liars or fools. Trump makes no secret of his intentions. With startling and ill-advised candor, he has told at least one leader of a NATO ally that his campaign to break China's unfair trade practices is a prelude to an effort he will then lead to "destroy" European Union practices that have created trade imbalances with the United States. The comment was taken by this leader as the nail in the coffin of transatlantic cooperation during the Trump presidency and perhaps beyond, according to an aide who recounted the conversation on condition of anonymity. Awareness of the frazzled state of American leadership abroad pervaded the remarks made by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe to members of the Security Council who visited Beijing on Nov. 26. The meeting was intended to focus on China's role in international peacekeeping missions. But participants portray Wei as laying heavy emphasis on the need for new leadership at the United Nations and in international affairs, and on China's ability and willingness to take on a greater role in both if other states cooperated with Beijing. "He put flesh on the bones of One Belt, One Road as a strategic concept," said one diplomat present at the meeting. "He made clear other nations would have to make choices in the kind of alliances they join or stay in." Two weeks later, Bolton sharply denounced the Chinese One Belt program of loans and investments that is intended to develop trade routes leading to and from China. The Chinese use their economic leverage to take over African ports and national industries, and in Djibouti to establish a military base that interferes with a nearby U.S. base, he complained. But Bolton's speech was also heavy with Trump-like complaints that past U.S. aid to Africa had been wasted and suggestions that future aid would be conditioned on political loyalty from recipients. Bolton did avoid outhouse analogies in talking about African countries. Meanwhile, China is rapidly becoming a strategic competitor in Europe, where Chinese investments and loans target infrastructure and new technology assets. China invested nine times more in Europe than it did in the United States in the first six months of 2018, according to the international law firm Baker McKenzie. China has also gained financial control of the main port facilities of Athens, the Greek capital, and has injected itself into the European Union's political debates through the strong links it has developed with needy Eastern European and Balkan countries. Chinese purchases have focused on European companies working on artificial intelligence, software and data, robotics and other new technologies. Germany has become sufficiently concerned to begin restricting investment from Beijing on strategic grounds. Once upon a pre-Trump time, this would have been a problem ripe for transatlantic cooperation. But Trump's refusal to let reason instead of impulse direct his actions pushes away allies and the possibility of united action. - - - Hoagland is a Washington Post contributing editor. Dr. Price Joins Women's Health in Murray By WestKyStar & Murray-Calloway Co. Hospital Staff Price comes to MCCH after working at Primary Care Medical Center since 2007. Dr. Price completed his undergraduate degree at Murray State University in Biology and Chemistry. He earned his M.D. from the University of Louisville College of Medicine in 2003 and continued with his residency in obstetrics and gynecology also at U of L. We are so proud to welcome Dr. Matt Price to Womens Health of Murray. He had offers to take his talent to many other places so retaining his services to take care of the women of our community was our priority. I see great things in the future of Womens Health of Murray, said Jerry Penner, CEO of MCCH. Dr. Price is married to Monica and they have three children, Kamden, 20, Kaitlyn, 16, and Korbin, 8. His wife Monica is the principal at East Elementary school. In his spare time he enjoys attending Murray State games and his childrens activities. Located in the Medical Arts Building in Suite 203 East, Womens Health of Murray offers routine and high risk pregnancy care, laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgical procedures, bladder control solutions, family planning, and annual exams for healthy living. For more information on Womens Health of Murray or to schedule an appointment, call 270.762.1562 or visit our website at www.MurrayHospital.org. MURRAY - Womens Health of Murray at Murray-Calloway County Hospital (MCCH) is proud to welcome Matthew Price, MD, as the newest OB/GYN joining Dr. Dawn N. Deeter, Anita Ross, CNM, MSN, and Nurse Practitioners Sherry Freeman and Lauren Easterwood. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) The National Police Commission (Napolcom) temporarily stripped Daraga Mayor Carlwyn Baldo off his powers over local police on Monday over the killing of a lawmaker. In a statement, Interior and Local Government Department spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said Baldo, tagged as the mastermind in the assassination of AKO BICOL party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe, violated three of the four grounds for the withdrawal of the Napolcom deputation of local chief executives. These are abuse of authority, providing material support to criminal elements and engaging in acts inimical to national security or which negate the effectiveness of the peace and order campaign. The Philippine National Police (PNP) previously requested that Baldo's authority over local police be removed after suspects in the killing of Batocabe and his police security detail tagged him as the brains behind the crime. The PNP has also revoked Baldo's gun permits. The mayor has surrendered two of his three firearms. PNP chief Dir. Gen. Oscar Albayalde said they have matched the 11 shells and five slugs found at the crime scene with the registered .40 caliber firearm of confessed gunman Henry Yuson using ballistic records. "Magandang development ito, sabi ko nga. Even without real firearms, with shells na nag-positive na nag-match doon sa record ni Yuson dito, then even without the presence of the firearm, malakas ang yung ebidensya natin dito," Albayalde said. [Translation: This is a goo development, as I've said. Even without real firearms, with these shells which positively matched with Yuson's records here, then even without the presence of the firearm, the evidence here is strong.] Yuson reportedly used his licensed .40 caliber gun instead of a .45 firearm as the latter jammed when he tried to fire it. He supposedly threw the .40 caliber gun into a river after the fatal shooting of Batocabe and his security detail. Police are still looking into other shells and bullets which came from a .45 caliber gun which were also found in the crime scene. PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director CSupt. Amador Corpus also said based on witness Emmanuel Jaduvar, Baldo planned to have his predecessor Gerry Jaucian killed for ?350,000. Jaucian died from an illness in May 2018 before Baldo could carry out his supposed plot, Corpus said. Batocabe, a three-term lawmaker, was set to challenge Baldo in the May elections. The mayor, along with Yuson and five other suspects, are facing murder and multiple frustrated murder charges. Meanwhile, Baldo's political party, LAKAS-CMD, withdrew its certificate of nomination and acceptance for the mayor's bid. CNN Philippines Correspondents Makoi Popioco and Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report. A Google report, The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior showed that 90 percent of consumers surveyed reported using more than one device -- whether that meant a smartphone, PC, tablet or TV -- to accomplish a single objective online. Related: What You Need To Know About Omni-Channel Marketing The obvious conclusion from that finding is that brands hoping to increase conversions should create seamlessly integrated marketing campaigns and sales funnels across multiple platforms and devices. This tactic is called omni-channel marketing -- and it's something many entrepreneurs are already using. You should be, too. What is omnichannel marketing and what is it used for? Omni-channel marketing -- alternately called omnichannel sales -- empowers customers to interact with brands online on any platform or device flawlessly. It's commonly used for ecommerce. In this context, when retail brands create an omnichannel strategy, customers might begin shopping on their mobile device, add a product to their cart while on their tablet and complete the checkout process on their desktop without suffering any interruptions in the shopping experience. Omni-channel marketing is effective and allows brands to target more valuable customers. After all, consumers use more than four devices each day, according to Forrester data. However, dont confuse omni-channel marketing with multi-channel marketing! Multi-channel marketing is just simply the use of -- you guessed it! -- many marketing platforms to promote a business. However, they do not create the seamless experience that omni-channel does. Creating a successful omni-channel marketing strategy can be complicated. However, here are a few simple steps that can help you create more effective campaigns. 1. Conduct consumer research. Before you start crafting an omni-channel sales funnel, first understand who your target audience members are and which platforms they are active on. It might be tempting to optimize your communication and sales for every channel imaginable, but the reality is that your demographic will not be active users on all of those mediums. Therefore, you'll waste time, energy and money to create an omni-channel functionality for a platform your customers dont care about because there'll be no return on investment. Look instead at your website analytics and determine which platforms and platforms provide high traffic, time on site, conversions or other metrics youre hoping to improve. That will help you determine which channels you should invest in. Related: Here is Why Retailers are Embracing Omnichannel Marketing in a Big Way 2. Determine your ecommerce touchpoints. A key element of successful omni-channel experiences is that it infuses the desired action into unexpected platforms. Brands should be constantly encouraging conversions -- whatever those may be -- throughout the responsive website and on unique channels. Once you determine who your audience members are and learn which platforms they prefer, you can create touchpoints on each one. These can include desktop stores, shoppable email marketing campaigns, strategic retargeting, mobile apps and more. 3. Bridge the gaps between channels. The most important aspect of omni-channel marketing is that the experience should be seamless, both online and offline. Ensure that your marketing or development team creates a transition among the channels. For example, businesses can tie their Facebook presence into their website through Facebook ecommerce integrations that allow brands to shop on the platform. From there, users will be able to make a purchase on the website but choose to pick up their purchase in store, which creates a seamless transition from online shopping to brick-and-mortar storefront. These little moments of evolution solidify a strong user experience and build a successful omnichannel strategy. Incorporate top tools to implement omni-channel marketing into your business. Agency directory site DesignRush recommends investing in resources such as communication-platform as a service (CPaaS) and third-party social media integrations to build a trustworthy omni-channel experience that consumers will likely use. CPaaS platforms are cloud-based providers of voice, video and messaging communication. They are typically incorporated directly into websites and mobile apps. An example of CPaaS in action would be a text message reminder of a fitness class you booked on a mobile app. Meanwhile, social media ecommerce companies such as Curalate and RewardStyle (owner of the wildly popular LikeToKnowIt) allow brands to integrate ecommerce into Instagram, a decidedly non-ecommerce-friendly platform. For example, although Instagram Stories allows certain accounts to link outside of the platform with a swipe up call to action, not every profile has that opportunity. Instead, many are left with one option: a single #LinkInBio. Curalate creates a dynamic page with links that direct to blogs, product pages and more. These allow businesses to promote more than one item. Curalate also enables brands to link to specific products within an actual Instagram post and directs them to the right product page with ease. Another tool that creates great omnichannel customer experiences is a high-tech email marketing provider such as SailThru. These aggregate user behaviors and IP addresses, and serve consumers completely customized campaigns based on their website interactions. By opening lines of communication and empowering consumers to complete purchases on untapped platforms, brands can create robust omni-channel marketing experiences. Whats better? Omni-channel marketing can bring a year-over-year revenue increase of 9.5 percent, according to Marsys. In addition, poor or nonexistent omnichannel experiences can result in a 10 percent decrease in revenue, according to Vend 3 brands with strong omnichannel marketing strategies Ticketmaster: Ticketmaster maintains a comprehensive omnichannel experience across all of its platforms. For example, when users purchase a ticket to a show, it is immediately deposited into their account. Users are also prompted to download the mobile app, which enable them to use their ticket directly from the app at the venue. J.Crew: J.Crew created a particularly useful omnichannel shopping experience on its Instagram feed. The brand uses Curalate to link its Instagram images to products for sale on itswebsite to increase online sales. J.Crew also repurposes its colorful marketing images on its Instagram feed, creating a consistent brand identity. Plus, it can quickly funnel users to the website to make a purchase directly from those photos. Walt Disney World: Disney has one of the most robust omnichannel experiences around. Users can create an account in My Disney Experience. This portal creates a bridge between every digital and real-life experience that visitors could have at the Disney Parks. Users can search for restaurants, plan their itineraries, build out a list of friends and family, store and share photos, shop for merchandise and more. My Disney Experience is available on desktop, mobile device and mobile app. Related: How Brands Can Create an Effective Omni Channel Marketing Strategy Conclusion In a Zendesk study 87 percent of consumers surveyed said they wanted brands to have more consistent experiences across all platforms. This demonstrates that customers desire omnichannel experiences and will reward those businesses that provide them. So, become one of those businessses. By investing in omni-channel marketing tactics, youll position your brand as a customer-centric business that values user experience. This will help you capture more consumers, boost your conversions and ultimately increase revenue. Related: Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Elevated by early success, Rexhep Rexhepi remains a watchmaker with an uncommon humility and common sense, no doubt partly a result of his unusual background. Because of war he had to flee his native Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim Albanian territory once part of Serbia, for Switzerland, setting him on the path to becoming an independent watchmaker. Despite only turning 32 this year, Rexhep (pronounced reg-ep) has a surprisingly well-developed eye for fine finishing, evidenced by the exemplary Chronometre Contemporain. And therein lies the irony: a wristwatch made in accordance with the most eminent of Swiss watchmaking traditions is the work of a Kosovar refugee. But Rexhep is also an entrepreneur who founded Akrivia, an independent watch brand named after a principle of the Eastern Orthodox Church that dictates strict obeyance of canonical law. Located in Genevas Old Town, Akrivia employs four watchmakers, including Rexheps younger brother, Xhevdet. But in contrast to many of his peers, Rexhep owns the entirety of the company. While Rexhep is modest, keen and warm, he also understands the importance of control. Rexheps study of watchmaking goes beyond the technical know-how needed to make a watch. He has an earnest interest in the business of independent watchmaking, including the failures of various brands over the years. His stint at once high flying complications specialist BNB Concept instilled a particular economic discipline that will no doubt serve him well. I visited Rexhep in Geneva on several occasions last year, and in the process came to understand how different he is from many of his peers. On his recent visit to Singapore in December, I had a lengthy chat with him to put everything into words. Here it is. (The interview has been edited for clarity and length.) Can you tell me more about your childhood? I know your background is very different from the typical Swiss watchmaker. I was born in Kosovo in 1987. Both my parents were from Kosovo, but my mother left when I was three and my father worked in Switzerland since 1976, so I lived with my grandmother. We lived with my uncle, aunt and cousin. Were a big family 18 people. I lived in Kosovo until I was 12, then I moved to Switzerland in 1998 during the Kosovo War. That was very difficult for me; I left my grandmother, my friends. I left Kosovo with my father but frankly I didnt really know my father and it was really hard to adapt for a 12-year-old. The first year was really, really complicated. Ill tell you a funny story from those days. Back then in Kosovo, bags with multiple pockets were all the rage the more pockets, the better. So when my dad brought me to buy a bag after I came to Switzerland, I chose a bag with many different pockets. [laughs] But when I went to school, everyone was carrying an Eastpak. I had to wait one year before asking my father for another bag. And then at 14 you started at Patek Philippe? I signed the contract at 14, started my apprenticeship at 15 [and stayed for five years]. I learnt a lot, specially finishing the right way. After Patek Philippe I went to work for BNB Concept. That was three years, and then I worked for F.P. Journe. When I arrived at BNB Concept, I started working on the tourbillon. It was interesting because we made good things and some bad things. I learn a lot because we created a lot of different complications for different brands; I was next to an engineer whom I learnt [about movement construction and design]. What do you think was the most important thing you learned at F.P. Journe? I have a lot of respect for Francois-Paul Journe and what he does. I learnt about organisation of production. As a watchmaker there you make a watch from A to Z; you are responsible for your watch from start to finish. And when you deliver the watch to a client, and the client has problems with it, you are the one responsible for fixing it. When the watch comes back, Francois-Paul will ask what happened, and I had to answer to him. Why did you start Akrivia? I would always joke with my friends in school that I one day I would become an independent watchmaker. I made some watches when I was 15, 16 years old for some pocket money. When I got my first salary from Patek Philippe a small salary I took 200 francs. But my father said its the last time I could touch my money [since I had to save]. So I would buy an ETA movement, do some decoration, case it and then sell it. It was interesting because I started to understand how to make some watches but I realised it was not the right way. I was just waiting for the right moment. After BNB Concept, I started thinking about it seriously. At F.P. Journe, I really liked what he does, and he once asked me why didnt I make my own watch. In 2012, it was the right moment. How did you manage to start without investors? Its quite rare for an independent watchmaker to manage that. I had savings from before. Being independent in your work also means you dont need other people. I want to make watches in the way I want and this is why I dont want to take investors money. Do you think that its an advantage for you that your background is different from many other watchmakers? Yes, I had to push a little more and improve. When I started my own company, I tried to give everything I had to show to the people that I am able to do this. If you want something, you have to work for it. In Kosovo, if you want a toy, your father or uncle cant give you money for it, because you have to be careful that you are not different from your cousin, brother or neighbour. Even though my dad worked in Switzerland but he didnt want to give me extra. So if you wanted a toy, you had to find a solution. How did you design the original Akrivia case? I really want to make something totally different that had the movement on the top. I really like neo-classic style, something a little 1970s. The movement is really traditional but the case is different. But after that I realised that people just like classic design. [laughs] How did you design the Chronometre Conteporain? At the end of 2015, I started realising that some people dont like the original Akrivia case. We had discussions with different clients. I also spoke to Michael [Tay of retailer The Hour Glass] and he really gave me the courage to believe in a new design. So I could put my name on the dial and make the design more classic. But still I tried to establish a unique identity with the asymmetric bezel, an Art Deco dial, and extra-large seconds like on observatory chronometer pocket watches. Will the designs of the different Akrivia collections ever cross? For example, will you put a hammered dial in a Chronometre Contemporain and an enamel dial on an AK? Maybe we can use enamel on an AK but we try to have different features for each line. The response to the Chronometre Contemporain has been very good. Was that a surprise? Yes, it was really a surprise. At the same time, Im more comfortable with this watch than the others. Because when I was 25, I was trying to understand the market. At BNB Concept, I saw a lot of different brands making all sorts of watches, so I thought I needed to make something different, and maybe the style was not really me. So, in a way this watch is the work of a more mature watchmaker? Totally. Initially with Akrivia, everyone asked why I didnt use my name for the brand. In Kosovo, everyone with a shop uses their own name but for me it was a little too much. In about 2014, there was a client who said to me, If I buy a watch from you, I buy it because it represents something. If I want a brand, I go to Patek Philippe and Rolex. So now I try to forget the label brand in our communication. Even though your name is on the dial of the watch, you still have a company. You have employees. What is your plan? Do you want to be like F.P. Journe and make 900 watches a year? Never. Its really difficult to do today what Journe did because the market has changed and you have a lot more competition. Its also not my dream. I just want to make watches. I started this because I really wanted to make my own watch. If people like Akrivia today because of its philosophy, we will lose that if we started to produce more. And I want to be close to my watchmakers; were a small family. Your watchmakers are all quite young. The average age is 32. Why dont you hire older watchmakers? Maybe in the future. I realised one thing its more difficult to try to change the mindset of an older guy, he just doesnt want to do what I want. So the oldest watchmaker is 38. You also said before you want to have a bigger workshop. What is it that you want to produce? Movement components, dial? You cant make everything yourself straightaway because it takes a lot of work and knowledge. Its also hard for a small company like us because some suppliers dont have respect for a small company. Its a step-by-step process, but the goal is to be independent eventually. Maybe in one year or so, we will have a CNC machine to produce parts. Maybe we can make the components of the case and dial also. You said before even when your company grows and you make more watches, youd want to cap the number of watches you produce. Can you explain how many of the Chronometre Contemporain you want to make? For the first series we will make 25 in rose gold and 25 in platinum. We try to produce between 15 and 20 watches per year. The most important is to maintain the quality and to keep the philosophy of one watchmaker making one watch. And total number of Chronometre Contemporain movements is 200? Yes, 200 maximum. When will the first Chronometre Contemporains be delivered? Early next year. We have some watches now that are being tested at Besancon. Which has been more popular? Platinum has sold out. [Editors note: Rose gold has also sold out since the interview was done.] Which one would you wear? Steel. [smiles] West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor endorsed Rep. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford, in the special election for state Senate on Monday an effort to nudge Democrats to close ranks behind Slap for a nomination under the control of the local party organization. Slap was the first declared candidate for the Democratic nomination to succeed Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, who is resigning to accept a post in the administration of Gov.-elect Ned Lamont. Cantors deputy mayor, Beth Kerrigan, also is running, We-Ha.com reported Saturday. An endorsement from the de facto leader of the West Hartford Democrats carries extra weight in a special election, where the nomination is solely under the control of the same 67 delegates at the previous nominating convention that endorsed Bye. Their decision cannot be challenged in a primary. West Hartford is apportioned 45 of the 67 delegates to the Democratic convention in the 5th Senate District. The other delegates are divided as follows: 13 from Farmington, six from Burlington and three from Bloomfield. Only a western slice of Bloomfield lies in the district. Slap is a former television newsman and chief of staff for the Senate Democratic caucus. He won an open seat in the 19th House District in 2016 and was re-elected without opposition in 2018. Derek is a champion for West Hartford, and I have seen firsthand how hard he has worked to protect West Hartfords education funding, Cantor wrote in a statement. He is a coalition builder and a leader who has fought every day for progressive values such as pay equity, workers rights, accountability for the MDC, job creation and a stronger Connecticut economy that works for everyone. I enthusiastically endorse Derek Slap for state Senate. Im grateful for her support, Slap said. Shari has seen firsthand how hard Ive worked over the past two years to protect the town of West Hartford. Slap said he and Cantor communicated frequently on many issues during his first term in the House, especially during state budget negotiations that produced a bipartisan plan to bolster local education aid. Shes been a fabulous partner and it means a lot to have her support. Slap is one of three Democrats eyeing the seat Bye intends to vacate after four terms. Bye, an educator who has specialized in early childhood education, has agreed to be Lamonts commissioner overseeing the state Office of Early Childhood. Janee Woods Weber, also of West Hartford, an attorney and director of organizational culture for the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Foundation, has said she is considering a campaign for Byes seat. A fourth West Hartford Democrat, state Rep.-elect Jillian Gilchrest of the 18th House District, also considered a run, but announced late last week she had decided against it. Slaps candidacy raised concerns among some last week about the need for diversity in the Senate and whether replacing Bye with a 45-year-old white male was the right choice. Bye, who is gay, also is one of 11 women elected to the 36-member chamber in November a new record for gender diversity in the chamber. Cantor said she appreciates those concerns and values diversity. We need to work on having diverse voices at every level of government, she said. But the West Hartford area lost decades of experience at the Capitol since last summer, Cantor said, referring both to Byes departure and to veteran Rep. Andrew Fleischmanns loss to Gilchrest in the 18th House District primary in August. We need someone who is ready to step in from Day One, who knows how the Senate works, who knows the people and who knows how to get things done, Cantor said. We always have to choose the most qualified candidate if there is a significant difference in qualifications, and in this case, there is. Cantor added that she and other Democratic town committee leaders in the 5th Senate District are working to attract more diversity to local boards and commissions and we have more work to do. Unfortunately the bench is not as diverse as we need it to be. No dates for the special election or nominating conventions in the 5th District can be set until Bye resigns, a vacancy is declared, and Lamont schedules an election. There will be two special elections to fill vacancies caused by lawmakers joining the Lamont administration, which begins at noon on Wednesday. The other is Rep. Chris Soto, D-New London. Slap declined to say whether he has locked up the 34 delegates necessary to win the nomination. Im feeling very positive, he said. Were building a very strong and diverse coalition. The mayor and her support is a very big part of that. Slap aded that he expects additional endorsements this week and is open to discussing legislative priorities with anyone interested. Im reaching out to everybody, he said. Were friends. We all have the same values. Slap last week ended a four-year stint as a vice president of marketing and communications for the University of Connecticut Foundation. In addition to representing the 19th House District, he also lectures on political science and the media at Yale. There are about 500 Dunkin Donuts stores in Connecticut basically about three each for the 169 towns in the state. Some towns may be without even one. Cities seem to have one of every corner, the better to serve the chocolate-glazed-and-vanilla-bean Coolata-loving public. Dunkin Donuts knows human behaviors, said Tracy Rittenhouse, an associate professor of natural resources and the environment at the University of Connecticut. Rittenhouse was speaking to a packed house at the annual Haskins Lecture, presented by the Aspetuck Land Trust at the Unitarian Church in Westport earlier this month. She was talking about black bears, not crullers and coffee. But her research shows this: inadvertently, weve set up feeding stations, like Dunkin Donut shops, for bears in our spaciously-zoned, well-wooded towns. Instead of Munchkins, theyre chowing down on bird seed and garbage. But the state black bears are doing a Goldilocks routine. Too crowded, and theyll stay away they generally avoid people. But too empty and theyll look for more promising digs. Whats just right is the exurbs posh suburban towns that have lots of open space between houses. The homes give them access to extra food. The woods give them places to den in winter, nuts to eat in fall, and open space to beat a quick retreat when humans approach. And they have no predators in the state. Their numbers are increasing mightily. We might have 700 bears in the state, but I think thats a conservative number, said Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist with state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. It could be high as 1,000. And when people see them, they call their first selectman. Oh yes, said New Fairfield First Selectman Pat Del Monoco. Its pretty frequent. Its been pretty constant from the spring until the last couple of weeks. Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read said his town, bordered on the south by both Lake Lillinonah and the Shepaug River, may be a sort of bear trap. They travel south, he said, until they hit water. Then, they decide to stay. Weve got bears with tags, bears with babies, Read said. Weve got all types. Theyre becoming a nuisance. The DEEPs Hawley said there were about 30 bear break-ins at houses this year mostly in bear-heavy Farmington River Valley towns. His guess, is that only a few bears were responsible for all these kitchen cupboard raids. One time we had 15 break-ins in the town of Norfolk, Hawley said. Only one or two bears were doing it. But the fear is that because black bears live close to people, and have voracious appetites, theyll find human food stored inside houses too tempting to resist. I think were going to see it more and more, Hawley said. Although black bears are native to Connecticut, deforestation in the 19th century and unrestricted hunting made them disappear for a century. But once the state grew back to mature, nut-producing forests, black bears had a place to live. Slowly, an existing bear population in Massachusetts began moving back into Connecticut in the 1980s. Rittenhouse and grad student Michael Evans spent four years, from 2010 to 2014, studying the states black bear population. They placed food baits inside barbed wire enclosures, then did a DNA analysis of the hair snagged on the wire. She expected to find that, as in other states, black bears would prefer to live in the least-populated towns in the study areas. Instead she found that, in Connecticut, bears can tolerate people and choose to live in some proximity to them. This the first study that provided solid evidence of that, she said. I was shocked. Rittenhouse is now working with the DEEP to study bobcat behavior. Preliminary evidence shows that they are choosing to co-exist with humans as well. There are also coyotes, which after arriving here from the West in the 1950s are now an established part of the states ecosystems. They handle being near people with aplomb. And, of course, there are white-tailed deer pacing through the suburban shrubbery. Rittenhouse said she considers herself lucky to be a wildlife biologist in a small, un-wild place and study the interplay of people and animals. If big things like black bears are doing well, small things most bats, many birds and salamanders are in trouble. We have 3.5 million people living on 5,500 square miles of land, she said. Its a wonderful place to work. WASHINGTON As it was the last time the federal government closed, protection for young immigrants known as Dreamers has been raised as a possible bargaining chip in a deal to end the partial shutdown. But the limited fix being proposed for some of the nations undocumented immigrants is a nonstarter with many advocates including some Dreamers and a broader agreement to overhaul the nations immigration laws has eluded Congress for years. Conservative Republicans have maintained their objections to all but but the most punitive of immigration bills. About a year ago, Democrats insisted legislation that would codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program into law be included in a deal to fund the government and prevent a shutdown the result then, as now, of Congress failure to pass all appropriations bills. Senate Democrats blinked, however, and accepted an agreement that did not have any permanent protection for the young immigrants. This time, it appears President Donald Trump is dangling the possibility of trading DACA protections for money to build a wall along the U.S. Mexico border in a deal that would end the partial government shutdown now entering its third week. After shutdown talks with congressional leaders on Friday, Trump responded yeah to a reporters question about whether a DACA fix was discussed. House Democratic leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, meanwhile, answered no to the same question. Camila Bortoletto, 30, who, with her twin sister Carolina, founded CT Students for a Dream, said she would not support trading protections for young immigrants for a border wall. We would not want to trade our lives for the lives of other immigrants, Bortoletto said. Its not a real payoff. About 800,000 young immigrants nearly 8,000 of them in Connecticut have been protected from deportation and awarded work permits by the DACA program initiated by former President Barack Obama in 2012. These young immigrants were called Dreamers after the DREAM Act, a bill that would give them permanent legal status but that has failed be passed by Congress, year after year. These are people who have passed background checks for years, they are working and grew up in the United States, said Douglas Penn, an immigration lawyer in Stamford, referring to the Dreamers. They are a functioning part of society. Obamas actions allowed young people most of whom were brought to the United States as infants and children by their undocumented parents who entered the United States before 2007 to apply for protection from deportation, renewable upon good behavior every two years. But Trump rescinded the program in September of 2017, saying Obama had no authority to establish it. Federal courts have enjoined, or halted, the governments termination of DACA and required U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to continue to renew DACA applications. While the court decisions have stopped the deportation of Dreamers, thousands of young immigrants have lived in legal limbo for more than a year. Camila Bortoletto is one of them. She renewed her status recently, but her work permit and authorization to stay in the United States will expire at the end of 2020. She and her sister Carolina were brought by their parents to Connecticut from Brazil when they were 9 years old. While Obamas move to protect young immigrants helped the twin sisters, Bortoletto said the DACA program is becoming obsolete now because most undocumented youths no longer qualify since they would have had to enter the United States before 2007. Because of that, Bortolletto said a comprehensive immigration bill that would allow a path to residency, and even citizenship, for many more young undocumented immigrants and their parents is needed. Her sister, Carolina, however, is not optimistic. I have no expectations of the new Congress, she said. A scary amount of power Last year, the president said he would sign a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill that protected Dreamers. But Trump balked at supporting proposed bipartisan legislation that did not include a crackdown on other undocumented immigrants and also limit legal immigration. Trump believes the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the DACA program is unconstitutional. Last week, the president said he would have a scary amount of power if the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. If the Supreme Court rules that President Obama was wrong, which they should because by the way, if he was right, then Ive been given tremendous power, Trump told reporters at the White House last week. Can you imagine me having that power? Wouldnt that be scary? BRIDGEPORT A fall campaign to curb bullying seemed to work so well the city school district is launching a similar effort to improve student attendance. January a month admittedly prone to nasty weather, illnesses and even extended holiday breaks has been dubbed Attendance Awareness Month in public schools across the Park City. There will be posters, assemblies to recognize perfect attendance and morning announcement tips to help try put a dent in a chronic absenteeism rate that district-wide hovers around 19.5 percent. On Jan. 31, the entire district will be encouraged to wear red in a show of solidarity for showing up. One day during Bullying Month, students all came to school dressed in orange. All families want what is best for their children but they dont always realize how absences can add up to academic problems, said Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson. She said January is the campaign kick off but she hopes the emphasis on attendance will last much longer. As of Jan. 4 in Bridgeport, some 3,789 out of 19,439 students district-wide from kindergarten through 12th-grade were considered chronically absent. A student is considered chronically absent when he or she misses school at least 10 percent of the time for any reason. Statewide, about 10.7 percent of students missed that much school in 2017-18. Chronic absenteeism matters, officials say, because the first step to doing well in school is being there. Students who are chronically absent are more likely to drop out and get into trouble. Some schools do better than others. At Multicultural and Park City both intra-district magnet schools fewer than 5 percent of the student body is out more than 10 percent of the time. Conversely, the biggest culprits are at the high school level. At Bassick, 48.92 percent of students were chronically absent for the first half of the school year and at Harding High, 42.56 percent. Michael Testani, the district administrator who is spearheading Attendance Awareness Month, said the effort will include making sure parents and guardians know how important it is for their children to attend school everyday. This includes half days and days before and after vacations and extended weekends, Testani said. Absences in the district are higher on the first two days of school, the day before Thanksgiving and the first week back to school after Christmas break. Chronic absenteeism in Bridgeport Public Schools As of Jan. 4, 2018, schools with the highest and lowest percentage of chronically absent students, meaning they are out 10 percent or more of the time: Lowest Multicultural Magnet 4.09% Park City Magnet 4.69% High Horizons 5.87% Discovery Magnet 8.04% Classical Studies 8.59% Highest Bassick High School 48.92% Harding High School 42.56% Bridgeport Learning Center @ Sheridan 39.24% Dunbar School 30.77% Wilbur Cross School 27.7% Note: Stats do not include pre-kindergarten students. Source: Bridgeport Public Schools. See More Collapse This is problematic when you add these days on to the other days that children miss, Testani said. For more than a year, a group of middle and high school students in the district have complained to the school board about difficult walks to school. Most high school students, if they dont walk or get a ride to school, take public transportation to school rather than a school bus. The district is in its second year of working with Attendance Works, a national organization that helps school districts tackle the problem, providing online tool kits, research data and tips. Johnson said the district is working on the school climate and disengagement piece but said there remain other factors that keep some students from school. Any absence counts toward the chronic absenteeism tally, including health, lack of transportation, student disengagement from school and safety/school climate. By removing barriers to attendance, districts, Testani said he is hoping attendance rates will improve. Truancy is a different category, applying to students whose absences are not excused. While the district shines a light on attendance, Johnson said efforts to curb bullying remain in the forefront. So far this school year, the district has logged 213 allegations of bullying and 27 confirmed cases. In all of 2017-18, the district investigated just 71 cases of bullying and verified 19. Of 37 schools, 14 did not report any instances of bullying according to the data collected, officials said. This years bullying complaint increase is seen as more honest reporting. The low tally last year was roundly criticized by both school board and city council members as wildly inaccurate. Johnson said an effort was made to make sure students, teachers and administrators all recognize what bullying is and how to address it. Some schools are still working on bullying projects. An anti-bullying wall hanging made by students at Curiale School now is on display in Johnsons outer office. lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck The partial federal government shutdown is now in its third week, and threatens to become the longest ever in United States history. Its having a tangible effect in Connecticut in a variety of ways, some of them unexpected. Here are 7 ways the federal shutdown may very soon or is already affecting Connecticut. 1. Courts could stop prosecuting The federal public defenders office has 23 employees in Connecticut, all of whom will work without pay or refuse to work at all on Friday, should the shutdown not be resolved, the Hartford Courant reported. But with no money flowing from Justice Department, Connecticuts federal courts could stop prosecuting civil cases altogether and, should the shutdown continue for months or even years, as President Donald Trump suggested it might, criminal cases would halt as well. The agencies whose workers are not currently being paid include the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection, Coast Guard and Secret Service. 2. Tax refunds in question All Internal Revenue Service operations have stopped, according to an internal memo posted on the IRS website. An IRS-wide furlough began on December 22, 2018, for everyone except already-identified excepted employees. That would mean any scheduled refunds will not be issued, though your taxes will still be due on tax day. However, on Monday, a Trump administration official taxpayers who are owed money will be paid on time. Russell Vought, acting director of the White House budget office, said customary rules will be changed to make the payments possible. 3. Passports may not get issued or renewed The Social Security Administration will be sending out social security checks this year, but with most agency functions shuttered for the duration of the shutdown, that means no new or replacement Social Security cards. That affects the State Department, too, meaning new and renewed passports may be in jeopardy. Consular operations, including visa and passport services, domestically and abroad will remain open as long as there are sufficient fees to support operations, the U.S. State Department said in statement to Hearst. If a domestic passport agency is located in a U.S. government building affected by a lapse in appropriations, the facility may become unsupported and therefore unavailable to the public. 4. Many national parks are closed There are five national parks in Connecticut, some of which will remain open but have limited services for the duration. An alert on the National Parks website reads, Some national parks may remain accessible to visitors; however, access may change without notice. Some parks are closed completely. Some visitor services may be available when provided by concessioners or other entities. 5. Air traffic control is affected Air traffic controllers at Bradley International Airport are working without pay, and face losing their jobs completely if they choose to stay home, the Courant reported. There are about 15,000 air traffic controllers in the United States some in Connecticut who are marked essential. That means theyre working, but not getting paid. 6. Airports are less secure Unpaid TSA workers across the country are calling in sick, many calling it a blue flu, according to NBC. As of Friday, 150 TSA workers at Kennedy International Airport called out sick, The New York Times reported. 7. You cant buy a home The problem isnt the loan itself FHA loans, or any made through the VA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are moving forward. The problem is the IRS cant verify your income or provide key tax return documentation, according to the Connecticut Mirror. In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, wont write the flood insurance policies needed to buy a home along the shoreline. After gaining unauthorized access to Australias Early Warning Network (EWN), a hacker sent the following alert: EWN has been hacked. Your personal data stored with us is not safe. We are trying to fix the security issues. It also contained an email address to contact EWN support and a link to unsubscribe. That emergency message went out to tens of thousands of people via text message, email, and landline. EWN later admitted that its staff was able to quickly identify the attack and shut off our systems limiting the amount of messages sent out. Unfortunately, a small proportion of our database received this alert. The hacker reportedly used illicitly gained credentials to login and post the nuisance spam-notifications. Law enforcement is investigating. Meanwhile, EWN will still be used to provide alerts for severe weather and natural hazard events. Other cybersecurity news: NSA to release free reverse-engineering tool at RSA The NSA intends to release a free reverse-engineering tool at the RSA conference; the tool is called GHIDRA. It was previously in the limelight thanks to WikiLeaks publishing the CIA Vault 7 documents. Comments on Reddit compared GHIDRA with the expensive reverse-engineering tool IDA. Skype app can bypass Android lock screen The lock screen on your Android phone can reportedly be bypassed thanks to a bug in Skype for Android. Researcher Florian Kunushevci, who discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Microsoft, told The Register that by answering a Skype call on a locked Android, photos and contacts can be viewed, messages can be sent, and a browser window can be launched. You can see the authentication bypass in the demo below: Stormy weather for the Weather Channel app, which is being sued for secretly mining users data The Weather Channel app is being sued (pdf) by the city of Los Angeles for covertly mining the private data of users and selling the information to third parties, including advertisers. The app is reportedly the most popular weather app, having been the most-downloaded weather app from 2014 to 2017. Marriott revises scope of data breach The massive Marriott data breach may be a bit less massive than originally thought. According to Marriotts revised numbers, 383 million guest were impacted, as opposed to the originally reported 500 million. Additionally, 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers were stolen, as well as 20.3 million encrypted passport numbers. The dismal security of 28 popular home routers Its doubtful you felt good about the security of your home router, but if you did then you can kiss that goodbye after reading Cyber Independent Testing Labs report (pdf) on the dismal security of 28 popular home routers. Cyber-ITL analyzed the router firmware for the 10 home routers recommended by Consumer Reports, as well as best routers of 2018 recommended by CNET, PCMag, and Trust Compass. OWASPs top 10 IoT vulnerabilities of 2018 Speaking of the poor security of internet-connected devices, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) pointed out the 2018 top 10 IoT vulnerabilities list. Weak, guessable, or hardcoded passwords Insecure network services Insecure ecosystem interfaces Lack of secure update mechanism Use of insecure or outdated components Insufficient privacy protection Insecure data transfer and storage Lack of device management Insecure default settings Last of physical hardening Keep that in mind as a new slew of internet-connected products are announced at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Brace yourself for IoT madness, such as a $7,000 smart connected toilet Its time for CES 2019, so let the utterly ridiculous products begin. Kohler, for example, announced its $7,000 smart toilet, or $9,000 for a black version, which is dubbed the Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet. It offers exceptional water efficiency, personalized cleansing and dryer functions, a heated seat, and high-quality built-in speakers. The lighting features on Kohlers flagship intelligent toilet have been upgraded from static colors to dynamic and interactive multi-colored ambient and surround lighting. Paired with the new speakers in the Numi toilet, these lighting and audio enhancements create a fully-immersive experience for homeowners. Amazon Alexa built into the product provides simple voice control of Numis features and access to tens of thousands of skills, as well as a seamless integration of voice control into the bathroom. Star Clippers announced new destinations for their fleet of tall ships in the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia with departures beginning in April 2020, all of which are available for booking now. In the Mediterranean, new port calls for the 227-passenger Royal Clipper include Stintino in Sardinia, Propriano in Corsica, and Vis, Korcula and Zadar in Croatia. In Southeast Asia, Star Clippers has created several brand new itineraries that will include a visit to Cambodia for the first time, and will vary port of calls on the Thai, Malay and Indonesian archipelagos. The Star Clipper will begin calling on Cambodia during a newly launched 11-night round trip itinerary out of Ko Samui, Thailand. Cambodian ports of call include the island of Koh Rong and Sihanoukville. An optional overnight excursion will be available for passengers wishing to visit the temple complex of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Many other new port calls in Southeast Asia will have the ship dropping anchor in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The Royal Clipper will again be sailing in the Western Mediterranean during summer 2020, with itineraries departing from Venice, Rome (Civitavecchia) and Cannes, calling on many new ports. Due to our ships relatively shallow drafts, we are able to drop anchor in ports and harbors inaccessible to large cruise ships, enabling us to continually vary our itineraries, said Mikeal Krafft, Star Clippers Owner and President. Summer 2020 looks to be another exciting sailing season for us, were already taking bookings and the new destinations are likely to sell out first. The brands newest vessel, Flying Clipper, will debut in 2019, the company said. The Executive Director of the Tourism Company of Puerto Rico, Carla Campos, was on hand to welcome the inaugural call of the Viking Sun to San Juan as the ship called in the port as part of its 127-day world cruise. "We are working energetically in conjunction with our partners in the cruise industry in order to continue attracting new ships and increase maritime access in all ports," said Campos. "Thanks to the interagency efforts put in place by the administration of Governor Ricardo Rossello, this important segment of our tourism industry continues to grow and contribute to the economic development in Puerto Rico." This trip includes visits to ports in Granada, French Guiana, as well as to several cities in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. From there the ship moves to French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Canary Islands and other ports in Spain, Morocco before ending in the UK. "We started the year with another first time call," said Anthony Maceira Zayas, executive director of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. "It is the first of several maiden calls in 2019. This demonstrates once again the confidence of the cruise lines in arriving at our ports, which key to continue growing in this market." As part of the first call, Campos and other local officials boarded the ship to officially mark the occasion and mark traditional exchange of plaques commemorating the first call. One ACGC elementary teacher position was cut to reduce deficit spending in the districts budget. In front from left, Bob Opthof, president of the Cumberland Plateau Chapter 1015 Vietnam Veterans of America; Keith Seitzer, treasurer; Ralph Reagan, director of Bread of Life Rescue Mission; George Essenburg of Chapter 1015; and back row, Jim Ernst, vice president of Chapter 1015 and Connie Reagan of Bread of Life Rescue Mission. Chapter 1015 Vietnam Veterans of America presented Bread of Life Rescue Mission with a $2,815 donation for the homeless veterans house on Fourth St. James "PA" Smith, 85, was born on Oct. 4, 1935, to Otis T. and Dora Mae Tudor Smith in Fentress County, and passed away on June 12, 2021. He was a farmer by trade and loved spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchild. He was a m To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Please click here to learn how. CORNWALL and SD&G, Ontario Environment Canada has issued a Special Weather Statement for Cornwall and the United Counties of SD&G. Snow associated with an approaching low pressure system is expected to move into Eastern Ontario this evening and persist into Tuesday morning. Some areas may see snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm, the Statement reads. Snow may be accompanied by ice pellets this evening and overnight before changing to scattered showers Tuesday morning. There is also a risk of freezing rain during the changeover. Snow is expected to begin at around 7 p.m. Monday night according to The Weather Network, before turning into a mix of snow and rain at around 7 a.m. Tuesday morning. Temperatures throughout the day on Monday will feel between -21 and -15 with the windshill factor before rising above zero on Tuesday to around plus four. We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. Lord Flight is Chairman of Flight & Partners Recovery Fund, and is a former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Political Parties should be, and usually are, known for what they believe in; voters can, therefore, reasonably expect governments to focus on their Partys territories of conviction and objectives. For the Conservative Party, these territories have comprised of supporting the national interest; creating a meritocracy and equality of opportunity; sustaining a homeowning democracy; backing free markets and lower taxation, and supporting businesses and especially small business. I add to this a less obvious objective, but crucial to achieving the other objectives: achieving good value from the taxes raised. I suspect the Partys reputation for the above objectives is holding up better than the media would expect; but there is clearly work to be done in housing to unblock supply, allowing markets to then achieve prices which are affordable to buyers. A Conservative Government has also allowed increases in taxation currently representing 34.6 per cent of GDP compared with 30 per cent in the 1990s, when we are supposed to be the Party of lower taxation. Between 2000 and 2004, I was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I was then asked to organise a major review of how taxes were spent and the extent to which citizens were getting poor or good value for their taxes. I was able to organise some 50 senior professionals to undertake analysis of public expenditure in each of the ministerial departments and in local government. We ended up with a total figure for potential tax saving through measures to improve taxpayer value of around 80 billion per annum. Over the last nine years, the Government has done a reasonably good job in constraining public spending in some areas and particularly in local government; but in the other non-constrained areas, of which the NHS is the giant, spending has again escalated. What is needed is professional, third party review and analysis of expenditure, department by department, cutting out duplication and waste. One of the worst cases of waste which could have been avoided was the 18 billion write off for the failed NHS Systems Programme, which failed for the simple reason of not building up needs and programmes from existing grass root activities, but rather trying unsuccessfully to impose a programme from above. Inevitably, some of the value-achieving decisions have to be political: what is the Government doing which would be better if it werent done? A significant amount of the increase in public spending of recent years has also resulted from government getting involved in areas that arguably it never should. It is also unfortunate that the positive achievements of taxpayer value over the last decade have been tarred with the mistaken concept of painful austerity. We should be talking more about taxpayer value, and explain that it is in the interest of citizens both to get good value for the taxes they have to pay, and potentially lower taxes as the result of better spending efficiencies. Bernard Jenkin is Chair of PACAC (Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee) and Member of Parliament for Harwich and North Essex. He writes in a personal capacity. Many seem to assume that a vote in the Commons could stop or delay the UK leaving the EU on WTO terms without a Withdrawal Agreement, or else force a second referendum but they never explain how this might happen. Downing Street, in its desperate effort to scare Conservative MPs into supporting its discredited and discreditable EU Withdrawal Agreement, continues to suggest that, somehow, the Speaker can contrive some mere Commons procedure which would allow the Commons to delay or to stop Brexit. This contention would laughable, were the issue in dispute not so serious. As we approach the so-called meaningful vote, the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has today issued a report, Status of Resolutions of the House of Commons. This follows our December report, which looked at the status and effect of confidence motions. Todays report does not address the Brexit question directly, but some of our evidence and findings can leave no doubt about the limitations on the ability of the Commons to divert the UK from the course to leave the EU on March 29th. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 sets the time and date when the UK leaves the EU, and this reflects EU law as defined by Article 50. The Withdrawal Act also repeals the 1972 Act which gives legislative effect to our EU membership. It also provides for continuity in UK law by incorporating all EU law as UK statute law from the day we leave. Unless the law is changed before March 29th, the UK will leave the EU on that date. The evidence to our committee was stark. The Clerk of the Commons is Parliaments highest constitutional authority. His status is on a par with the Cabinet Secretary. He said in his evidence to us that a mere resolution cannot change the law. The only way we can change the law is by law. He explained that Parliament does not have the power to bind the Executive by mere resolution nor can it instruct Ministers. The Speaker has confirmed this doctrine. On 18 October 2017, he told the House that, while a resolution is an expression of the view of the nations elected representatives in the House of Commons, that it cannot direct Ministers and that it is for Ministers in the Government to decide how to respond to the clearly expressed view of the House. PACACs report is clear that a government should respect Commons resolutions and that they should be treated seriously, even if the government in question cannot implement their terms as expressed, or chooses to disagree. But, generally, such resolutions have no binding or legal effect. This is not to dismiss the sovereignty of Parliament, or suggest other than that the relationship between Parliament and Government lies at the heart of our democracy, and is the basis of public trust in our democratic institutions. However, our system is one of parliamentary government, not government by Parliament. PACACs report reflects this. How a government responds to a Commons resolution is a matter of politics, not law. This is all clearly relevant to what may or may not happen next in terms of Brexit. Parliament is of course the sovereign law-making authority in our constitution. If Parliament lays down the law, it can do anything, including stopping our exit from the EU (assuming that the EU would cooperate, which it probably would), but this would require Parliament to enact fresh legislation. In our system, government proposes and Parliament disposes. Yes, the government could simply give in to pressure, in this instance, and present such fresh legislation (for example, a new Bill to revoke Article 50). But the Prime Minister has always been adamant about the UK leaving the EU as stipulated on March 29th, so there is nothing that even a majority of MPs can do to change that short of ejecting the incumbent government and replacing it with a new one. Some Conservative rebels are now planning with opposition MPs to sabotage other pieces of government legislation, but this would not alter the law which sets the Brexit date. A tiny number of ex-Remain Conservative MPs have threatened to resign the whip, but none have (yet) said they would bring down the Government. Nor should they. We were all elected as Conservatives to deliver the referendum result. We (nearly all) voted for the 2018 Withdrawal Act, including the date. Parliament has spoken. It had the opportunity to stop Brexit, but it passed the Withdrawal Act which sets the March 29th date. The Act makes provision for the House to express opinions in the so-called meaningful vote, but there is no provision for the Commons to prevent Brexit with or without Withdrawal Agreement. The Conservative Remain rebels never even dared press such an idea. May again made the point clear on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, You can have two alternatives. You can have no deal, or you can have a deal. She will not offer any third option. The Act delivers the simple answer to the question put to the people on the referendum ballot paper. Parliament has legislated. Democracy has been served. For some MPs now to complain they did not intend to vote for what the Act says is rather lame. They may have held a different hope or expectation, but the Government gave no grounds for that. Parliament has approved the law. There is no democratic case for changing it. Below is the list of 22 Conservative MPs who have signed the letter organised by Caroline Spelman and Jack Dromey opposing No Deal. Of course, if they are opposed to a No Deal exit, and the Prime Ministers proposed deal does not pass the Commons, then presumably they must have a third outcome in mind. Are they in agreement on what that is? If so, presumably they will be announcing it soon. Ive also enclosed the full text of the letter at the foot of this post. Conservative signatories: Heidi Allen Nick Boles Jonathan Djanogly Sir Roger Gale Mark Garnier Robert Goodwill Richard Graham Dominic Grieve Sir Oliver Heald Gillian Keegan Jeremy Lefroy Sir Oliver Letwin Paul Masterton Nicky Morgan Bob Neill Mark Pawsey Antoinette Sandbach Sir Nicholas Soames Anna Soubry Dame Caroline Spelman Ed Vaizey Sarah Wollaston Full text of the letter to Theresa May: We the undersigned Members of Parliament, business leaders and representatives are writing to you about the threat that leaving the European Union without a deal poses to the manufacturing industry. Many of us represent constituencies with a significant manufacturing presence. Manufacturing plants employ thousands of our constituents and their jobs will be put at immediate risk if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union with no deal. We are acutely aware that 29th March is fast approaching. The renaissance of manufacturing and its supply chains in this country, bolstered by demand for exports, has markedly improved the lives of our constituents. The principal market for these exports has been the European Union. The revival of the manufacturing industry has created innumerable jobs, not only via direct employment but also in the supply chain and ancillary services. A whole generation of young people have had the opportunity to access world-class training and gone onto highly skilled and well-paid employment in manufacturing with iconic, global and market-leading companies. As a result, the aspirations of a generation have been raised. Leaving the EU without a deal would cause unnecessary economic damage. Trading on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms would instantly make our manufacturers less competitive and make it very difficult for the industry to justify producing goods in the UK for export. Leaving without a deal would make continued investment in UK manufacturing a real challenge for global firms, when they have plants in other European locations. Without continued investment and confidence in the UK manufacturing sector, thousands of jobs across the country will be put at immediate risk. As a cross-party group of MPs, business leaders and representatives, we are united in our determination that the UK must not crash out of the EU without a deal. We urge the Government to agree a mechanism that would ensure a No Deal Brexit could not take place and are confident this is a path that Parliament would support. Yours ever, MPs return to parliament to debate Mays deal ahead of next weeks vote. May to decide whether they will have to work weekends and forgo February break Meanwhile, shes accused of wasting time The Sun What next? Guardian Here are some dates Daily Express Theresa May will decide on Monday whether to cancel MPs February break and make them work at weekends as time runs out to pass Brexit legislation before Britain leaves the EU. The Prime Minister will summon the Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and the Chief Whip Julian Smith to an emergency meeting to carve out the necessary parliamentary time in the three months left before the March exit date. Aides have already warned Mrs May she is likely to end up with bad legislation because she has delayed the meaningful vote on the deal for so long that there is little time left to scrutinise new arrangements, whether she ends up with a deal or no deal. Mrs May resisted pressure from Labour to shorten MPs Christmas holiday, but Whitehall sources said she is now giving serious consideration to making MPs sit through a 10-day break scheduled to run from February 15 to 25 inclusive. Daily Telegraph Comment: Mays deal is still dreadful Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph No, its great for science Chris Skidmore, The Times We still need a second referendum Caroline Lucas in interview, Guardian She says we will be holding the vote but refuses to say whether itll be postponed again Theresa May says the UK will be in uncharted territory if her deal fails to go through Parliament, as she insists the Brexit vote will go ahead this month. The Prime Minister refused to rule out bringing her deal back to Parliament if it is voted down. She said she is still working on seeking assurances from European leaders as well as ways the government can involve Parliament in a greater way. Speaking on the BBCs Andrew Marr show, Mrs May insisted we will be holding the vote but four times declined to say whether it might be postponed again. Ive been talking to European leaders. We have got some changes, some assurances from the December European Council. I have been talking to EU leaders over the last few days. Daily Telegraph Or whether there could be multiple votes FT She will reveal private demands shes asked from Brussels, including 2021 deadline The Times And offer hat-trick of pledges The Sun Shes pleading for help from Europe Guardian But claims to have got some changes from Europe, while seeking some more, and from NI and Parliament, too Daily Telegraph She says a second referendum would disrespect the vote of the people but doesnt rule one out The Times >Yesterday: >Today: Chloe Westley in comment: As a migrant to Britain, I say: whats wrong with patriotism, borders and control? Rudd and other ministers confront May, as Smith says vote could be lost by 200 Meanwhile, Cooper and Morgan lead united attempt to block no deal with finance bill amendment Cabinet ministers told Theresa May on Thursday night that she must come up with an 11th hour plan to get her Brexit deal through the Commons as the Chief Whip admitted she will lose Tuesdays vote. The Prime Minister was confronted in Downing Street by Amber Rudd and other senior ministers who demanded to know what she intends to do to salvage the vote, and her Brexit deal with it. During a crisis meeting in Downing Street called by Mrs May they offered her four options including a postponement of the vote but came away exasperated when she refused to commit to any of them. At one point a frustrated Ms Rudd asked her: What do you want to do, Prime Minister? only to receive a non-committal reply. Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, conceded for the first time that the Government is heading for defeat, and the ministers warned Mrs May that a defeat by 200 votes was not impossible. Mrs May is understood to have agreed with them that such a catastrophic defeat had to be avoided at all costs. Daily Telegraph A cross-party effort to prevent a no-deal Brexit began in earnest last night as senior Labour and Tory MPs launched an attempt to deny the Treasury powers to change taxes after a chaotic departure from the EU. MPs including Yvette Cooper and Nicky Morgan tabled an amendment to the finance bill that would allow ministers to implement tax changes after Brexit only if parliament has backed a deal, endorsed a no-deal departure or during an extension to Article 50. The MPs say that the move is intended to remove the threat of a no-deal Brexit by making clear no government could function effectively in such a scenario. The Times Theyre accused of sabotage Daily Express Over 200 MPs expected to tell May they wont accept no deal Daily Mail Comment: Wait. Heres the big benefit of no deal Matt Ridley, The Times and Halfon sets out Common Market 2.0 plan building on Boles Norway Plus MPs should back my plan Robert Halfon, Daily Telegraph A former Conservative minister has launched a new Norway-style plan for Brexit saying freedom of movement can be controlled even if the UK retains access to the Single Market. It is the most detailed Norway-style proposal backed by MPs to date, and builds on the Norway Plus model set out by Nick Boles last year. Called Common Market 2.0, the arrangement would see the UK follow Single Market rules, including allowing continued freedom of movement, while making greater use of existing mechanisms to limit migration. It would end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and take the UK out of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. The plan, co-authored by Robert Halfon, the Tory former education minister, and prominent Labour MP Lucy Powell, has been supported by Oliver Letwin, Mr Boles, Nicky Morgan and Stephen Kinnock. Daily Telegraph Meanwhile, Labour on Brexit Gardiner speaks of putting partys deal to public as Thornberry criticises supporters of another vote The Times Khan calls for end to Brexit if May loses vote Daily Express Comment: Corbyns position isnt all bad Charles Moore Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: >Today: Murad Gassanly in Comment: Why I left the Labour Party NHS 1) Stevens sets out ten-year plan to aim to provide Mays promised world-class care in face of funding fears More than 80,000 lives a year will be saved by an NHS budget boost, the chief of the health service is to promise today, despite warnings that it is already 1 billion short for the coming year. All children with cancer will have their genetic code sequenced to guide treatment under the new ten-year plan for the future of the NHS. It is one of a series of commitments on cancer, heart disease, mental health and GPs contained in the proposals drawn up by Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England. Theresa May said that the extra 20 billion the NHS will get by 2023 would allow for world-class care. She refused, however, to guarantee that the funding would mean waiting-time targets would be met. The Times Details of the plan Daily Mail It includes biggest ever investment in mental health FT 700m will be saved on office waste The Sun But staffing crisis will get in way Guardian Meanwhile, Hancock argues against nanny state The Sun >Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Hancock on the NHS Money alone is not enough. NHS 2) Hancock: this long-term plan will prevent rather than cure Waste must be cut Philip Hammond, Daily Mail The mental health focus is great Daily Express editorial May claims Universal Credit will be fully rolled out by 2023 as was originally intended, despite Rudd putting on the brakes The NHS is rightly one of this countrys proudest achievements. Over a million people rely on its services every day. Yet the numbers are rising and our ageing population presents a challenge. Were rising to that challenge with 20.5 billion and a plan to get the most from it. Todays NHS Long-Term Plan is focused on the idea that prevention is better than cure. It is a comprehensive set of proposals to ensure the NHS does not just meet this challenge but secures the NHS for future generations. The plan is the product of thousands of conversations with clinicians, patients and the public right across the country to focus on the priorities that matter to us all. The Times The full rollout of Universal Credit will be completed by the 2023 deadline, Theresa May has insisted, despite Amber Rudd putting the brakes on the current timetable following a series of controversies. The Work and Pensions Secretary has decided to postpone a parliamentary vote that would have given her permission to transfer all 3 million people still using the old benefits system onto UC. Mrs May was asked on Sunday whether Ms Rudds decision to pause the rollout would mean a delay to the full implementation of the Tories flagship welfare policy. She told the BBCs Andrew Marr: Throughout the introduction of Universal Credit weve been clear that we would roll it out as a sort of process, learn as we were going along. Weve done that, weve made changes to Universal Credit as weve been going on. Well be saying more about the future in the coming weeks. But it will be fully rolled out by 2023 as was originally intended. Daily Telegraph Rudd to stop extension of UC by canceling upcoming vote and aiming to carry out test on 10,000 claimants instead Amber Rudd is to shelve the extension of universal credit to all benefit claimants because she is convinced it would be a disaster. The work and pensions secretary is to cancel an imminent Commons vote on allowing all existing claimants of relevant benefits to be moved to the all-in-one payment and will instead seek approval to move just 10,000 claimants on to universal credit to test it further. Committees in both houses of parliament had raised concerns about the plan to move about three million claimants on to the combined payment and the government might have lost the Commons vote on the managed migration programme. The Times >Today: ToryDiary: Universal Credit. Noble aim, thorny problems and Rudds decision. If the scheme is to work properly, it must be paid for. Greening, Willetts, and Jo Johnson warn against potential tuition fees cut Senior Tories are warning Theresa May not to cut university tuition fees because the poorest students would be the worst hit. A review by Philip Augar, commissioned by the prime minister, is due to report imminently. The Times revealed in November that its panel could recommend cutting the maximum annual fees from 9,250 to 6,500. Three senior Conservatives, all former ministers within the Department for Education, have criticised the proposals, saying that it would benefit the wealthy and put some universities out of business. Justine Greening, the former education secretary, and Jo Johnson and Lord Willetts, both former university ministers, all warned against a headline cut, which would help richer students who were more likely to repay in full. The Times Onward proposes new rules to prevent students studying subjects that arent economically worthwhile Daily Telegraph >Today: Will Tanner and Guy Miscampbell in Comment: A graduate tax cut would put money back in the pockets of young people More Conservatives Truss to focus on green projects in white elephant justification project The Times including investment bank FT Webb speaks of pension rights Daily Telegraph Patten comes out for second referendum Guardian Bailey accused of misogyny Guardian News in Brief Iran may not receive Russias Sukhoi SuperJet 100 airliners to boost its ageing air fleet due to US trade restrictions. The jets reportedly have more U.S.-made parts than are allowed for export without Washingtons approval. However, it appears that due to the lack of license issued by OFAC (the US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control), the arrival of the planes is out of the question for now, Maqsoud Asadi Samani, who serves as the secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines, told Iranian Labor New Agency (ILNA). He was reportedly speaking about the purchase of 20 planes for Iran Air Tours, a subsidiary of national flag carrier IranAir, as well as a leasing deal drafted by another Iranian airline, according to the agency. The official did not mention Aseman Airlines, which ordered another 20 jets from Russia. Earlier, Russia and Iran sealed a deal for the delivery of 40 new twin-engine regional passenger aircraft of the latest version, Sukhoi Superjet 100R, for two Iranian airlines. The deal is believed to be worth $2 billion and an even more ambitious agreement for 100 planes was being considered. The problem is that more than 10% of the aircrafts components are U.S.-produced, which means that approval from Washington is required, ILNA reported. When contacted by Sputnik, Sukhoi said that it was too early to have regrets about Iran not getting the jets. We have not received an answer either a positive or a negative one from the US regarding the approval for the deal, the companys press-service said. O-Level result to be declared in Singapore on January 14 The results of the 2018 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-Level) examination will be released on January 14, 2019, said Singapores Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release today. School candidates may obtain their results from their respective schools from 2 pm on that day. Private candidates will be notified of their individual results by post. The result slips will be mailed to the address provided by the candidates during the registration period. Private candidates who are eligible for SingPass can also use their SingPass account to obtain their results online via the internet Examination Results Release System (iERRS) on the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board website from 2 pm on January 14. School candidates can obtain their O-Level results from their respective schools on January 14. Photo courtesy: Ministry of Education Students who wish to apply for admission to Junior Colleges (JCs), Millennia Institute, polytechnics, and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) may do so via the Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) using their GCE O-Level examination results. MOE release said that JAE registration will open from 3 pm on January 14 to 4 pm on on January 18. Eligible applicants who sat for the 2018 GCE O-Level examination will receive Form A on the day of the release of the examination results. MOE has recommended that applicants are strongly encouraged to use the course application worksheet (provided in Form A or the JAE information booklet) before submitting their online application via the JAE Internet System (JAE-IS). The posting results of the JAE application will be released on January 31 through the following modes: JAE-IS, which is accessible through the JAE website; SMS to the Singapore mobile number provided by the applicant during registration. Applicants posted to Junior Colleges and Millennia Institute are to report to their posted institutions on February 1 on the enrolment details. Applicants posted to polytechnics and ITE will receive a letter from their respective institutions on the enrolment details. AAA alumni in special position to contribute to Singapore society: Minister Iswaran The sincere and committed alumni of Indias Annamalai University took an oath to serve the community of the country they have thrived in Singapore. On Sunday, January 6, members of the Annamalai University Alumni Association (AAA) pledged 1,000 hours of voluntary community service with the Peoples Association Integration Council at an oath-taking ceremony. Held in conjunction with the AAA 20th anniversary celebrations, the event saw the esteemed presence of the Guest of Honour, Minister for Communications and Information Mr S. Iswaran. Members of the Annamalai University Alumni Association (AAA) pledged 1,000 hours of voluntary community service with the Peoples Association Integration Council (represented by the councils Chairman Mr Goh Peng Hong, BBM) at an event held in conjunction with AAA's 20th anniversary celebrations at the Singapore Khalsa Association. Photo: Connected to India Speaking to Connected to India at the sidelines of oath-taking ceremony, AAA Vice President Rajesh Sundararaman said, We have been giving back to the society for a long time. Since this is a special year, we have introduced greater structure and committed 1000 hours towards the community effort. Minister S. Iswaran mixed humour with some great advice while answering questions from the 300-strong audience at the Singapore Khalsa Association. While it is commendable that the association has pledged 1,000 hours of community service, you dont have to stop at 1,000 hours, he said, to laughter from the crowd. It is a good starting point, and I believe we can do more than that because when it comes to helping the community, its not about the hours or what you receive in return. In fact, the starting point shouldnt be that you expect something in return. The minister also noted that over the years, AAA has distinguished itself through the work done by its members, not just within the association, but also in their respective fields of career. He added, AAA is in a very special place, moving forward, to make an impact on a few areas. Minister for Communications and Information Mr S. Iswaran was the Guest of Honour at the oath-taking ceremony. Photo: Connected to India For one, the Indian community in Singapore. Indians in Singapore form a small community, but we are a community that has distinguished itself according to our achievements. And we must continue to build on the foundations that have been set down by our forefathers. Minister Iswaran explained that the work that has been done by the alumni members with Indian organisations such as SINDA and Hindu Endowments Board are immensely important. It is not just important because you are contributing to the religion or to the language, but also you are building a bridge between new citizens, permanent residents, as well as Singaporeans who have been here for several generations to promote a deeper understanding between these communities. He also highlighted the associations capabilities in contributing to the larger Singapore society, beyond the Indian community. What you have undertaken today with the grassroots, PA, is significant. All of us belong to our respective communities, but lets not forget that we are at the same time members of a larger Singapore society. Anamalai University Alumni Association Vice President Rajesh Sundararaman said that as this year is the 20th anniversary of the association, they have decided to introduce greater structure in the way the members contribute back to the society. Photo: Connected to India Lastly, the minister also pointed out that Annamalai University has been well regarded for its engineering talents. In fact, many of you are involved in technological areas in Singapore, and in this digital age, I think it is important that you contribute towards a greater depth in the capabilities that we have in Singapore. Not just through your companies or the work that you do, but also by helping younger Singaporeans pick up these skills that they need for their future. Annamalai University is a highly acclaimed Indian university based in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. Since its establishment on January 1, 1929, the university has produced top talents who went on to excel in various fields across the globe. More than 750 alumni members of Annamalai University now call Singapore their home and have been actively contributing to the community through AAA, since its launch in 1998. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Your contribution will help the Collegian provide award winning journalism to the Penn State community and beyond. Donate to the Collegian by clicking the button below. The 2019 Golden Globes verged on four hours, but it offered a night filled with awards, historical firsts, jokes and, of course, Twitter reactions. Andy Samburg and Sandra Oh hosted the awards show, and they undoubtedly nailed their bit. The ceremony began with comments regarding some of the biggest films of the year including A Star is Born, which was nominated for five awards, and Black Panther, which was nominated for three awards. On the television side of the industry, The Kominsky Method won best television series music or comedy, and in terms of animation, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won best animated feature film over Incredibles 2 a movie every teenager has been waiting for the past 14 years. The Americans won best drama television series, and viewers took to Twitter after the award presentation with some politically charged humor. Congrats to The Americans, a TV program about a Russian family that secretly infiltrates & undermines America. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/cGgbTm9PD9 Diane N. Sevenay (@Diane_7A) January 7, 2019 After Ben Whishaw and Patricia Arquette won best supporting actor and actress in a limited series, Oh and Samburg had a family of doctors give out flu shots to actors and actresses in the audience. Apparently celebrities aren't immune to flu season either. As a new addition, Steve Carrell handed out the first ever Carol Burnett award to Burnett herself, and she gave a very heartwarming speech talking about her many opportunities throughout her lifetime as a comedian, including having her own show. I can look back and say once more I am glad, we had this time together, Burnett said. In terms of music, best original song was awarded to "Shallow," which was featured in A Star is Born. Lady Gaga, the star of the movie, was among those who accepted the award. It's not often a host actually wins one of the awards, but that wasn't the case this year. Oh won her own award for best performance in a drama television series, marking the first time in 38 years an Asian woman won a Golden Globe for lead actress. Oh also made history as the first ever Asian host of the Globes. In a spoof of the engagement that occurred during a 2018 Emmys acceptance speech, Maya Rudolph proposed to Amy Poehler to steal the audiences attention away from presenting the next award. And the audience did, in fact, love it. Some even demanded they host next years Golden Globes. Best supporting actor in a motion picture went to Mahershala Ali for his role as Dr. Don Shirley in Green Book. This movie, which is based on a true story, was named best musical or comedy motion picture. Best supporting actress for in a television series went to Patricia Clarkson in Sharp Objects. During her acceptance speech she made sure to thank her producer for a lot, but one thing she thanked him for stands out in the era of Time's Up. #GoldenGlobes "You demanded everything of me except sex, which is exactly how it should be in this industry." actually, Amy's a snewman. (@spooloflies) January 7, 2019 Also making a strong statement regarding gender equality in her acceptance speech was Regina King, who won best supporting actress in a motion picture for If Beale Street Could Talk. Regina King challenges herself and those alike to produce content that is 50 percent women. Preach. pic.twitter.com/PzjXA103WD Access (@accessonline) January 7, 2019 Best actor in a musical or drama motion picture went to Batman aka Christian Bale for his role of Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice. Bale's acceptance speech definitely stood out, as it's not often audiences hear Satan thanked for providing inspiration. And the "Best Non-Sentimental Speech of the Night" goes to....Christian Bale! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/poOeTjjhUe James White (@G4TOR24) January 7, 2019 Best foreign language motion picture went to Roma, Mexico which was accepted by director, Alfonso Cuaron who also walked away with the title of best director for a motion picture. Best actress in a drama motion picture went to Glenn Close for her role as Joan Castleman in The Wife. Close gave an emotional speech about women living up to their potential. She spoke on behalf of her mom, who told Close she hadnt felt like she accomplished anything. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for came around, and best drama motion picture went to Bohemian Rhapsody. Some Twitter users were not surprised; however, others thought A Star is Born or Black Panther shouldve received the love. This is it! The moment you've been waiting for! The winner for Best Picture, Drama is...#BohemianRhapsody!!!#GoldenGlobes ( us rn) pic.twitter.com/K3DdY5mcfV Noovie (@WhatsNoovie) January 7, 2019 Yall A Star Is Born did not get the love tonight! Disappointing... #GoldenGlobes Whitt Laxson (@witfromwhitt) January 7, 2019 Rami Malek deserved that award. Bohemian Rhapsody did not. #goldenglobes Kate (@goonerkate) January 7, 2019 But overall, 2018 was a great year for motion pictures, and ultimately all forms of art represented at the Golden Globes deserve recognition. Slack API Challenge Terms & Conditions These rules (and the CodeProject Terms of Use and the CodeProject Contributors Agreement) govern the Slack API Challenge (the "Contest") and set out the terms and conditions between CodeProject and its affiliates ("CodeProject" or "us/we") and each participant ("participant", "or "you"). A submission to this Contest constitutes your acceptance of these Official Contest Rules (the "Rules"). 1. How to Enter: CodeProject is offering the Contest and will award Prizes (as defined below) based on the results of judging all valid entries against the criteria established in these Rules. The Contest begins on 7 January 2019 at 12AM and ends on 7 March 2019 at 11:59:59 PM US Eastern Standard Time (Contest Period). 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It will be the first among Saudi carriers to recruit women in senior positions. The airlines said in a statement that the first flight with a Saudi female flight attendant would be during this month, after finishing a comprehensive practical program. Flynas said that the program of male and female flight attendants has attracted about 300 Saudis during the past two years, stressing the observance of working hours and the allocation of uniforms for Saudi female hosts in line with the customs and traditions of the Kingdom. The first group graduating from the Saudi flight program is a continuation of programs to localize aviation and empower women, Saudi Gazette cited the company as saying. We are the first Saudi national carrier to hire Saudi women in the Air Hospitality Program and the Future Flyers Program, Flynas said. The airline requires a minimum of a secondary school certificate in the requirements for a host qualification. The height and weight should match the international aviation standards, proficiency in English and the applicant must be a Saudi national. It's not unusual for airport security agents tasked with screening passengers to call-out sick in noticeable numbers after the holidays. But with a partial government shutdown entering its third week and threatening to deny the nation's 51,000 Transportation Security Administration employees involved in the screening process a paycheck come Friday the idea that more and more agents might be no-shows at checkpoints could have a cascading effect throughout airports and lead to longer lines. Such an outbreak has been dubbed a "blue flu" in reference to the blue shirts that TSA agents wear. "If you don't have a check to pay your bills, what are you going to do?" said Rudy Garcia, president of the American Federation of Government Employees 1040 local, the union for Dallas TSA employees. "You will look for something outside of what you're doing now." On Friday, about 5.5 percent of the TSA workforce called out at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, compared with 3.5 percent on a normal day, tweeted agency spokesman Michael Bilello. And at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, a TSA employee union official told CNN last week that up to 170 of its workers have called out. Bilello denied in a statement Sunday that there was any significant uptick in call-outs and that they are "a normal occurrence this time of the year." Long lines on a weekend after the holiday season are also common, TSA officials said. But agents, many of whom make about $30,000 a year, say they don't want to feel like their livelihoods are in limbo as the Trump administration and Washington lawmakers fail to end a federal shutdown that is affecting everything from food stamps to immigration courts. Both sides have been at an impasse over the White House's demands for funding a wall at the U.S.'s southern border. "We are a paycheck to paycheck family," said Brian Turner, a Philadelphia TSA officer for six years, adding that "we have a mortgage payment. We have credit card payments. We have car payments. Utilities. And we also have childcare. So with half of our income gone, it is very concerning." Other airport workers, such as air traffic controllers, are also set to work without pay as the shutdown drags on and their next paycheck is due Jan. 15. The Federal Aviation Administration said there have been no widespread reports of controllers calling in sick. Still, without the promise of a next paycheck, workers such as Turner will be left to decide whether to take matters into their own hands and look elsewhere for employment. "I have to keep food in the kitchen," Turner added. "And I will have to make that call at some point." Uber is using CES to promote its vision for a future of on-demand air travel. The ride-hailing company said in May that it plans to roll out air vehicles, which will look like a cross between a helicopter and a giant drone, by 2023. On Monday, in Las Vegas, one of Uber's partners in its so-called Uber Elevate initiative said it's unveiling designs for a full vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi vehicle. Uber announced its support for the system, designed by Textron's Bell division, and called it a "major step" in its push to creating "an on-demand Uber Air network." The vehicle, known as Bell Nexus, uses hybrid-electric propulsion to power efficient air travel. Bell makes both commercial and military aircraft, according to Textron's website. Uber plans to launch its Uber Air service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Los Angeles, starting in four years. The company has said it will also open an international market that has yet to be announced. The company is giving a glimpse into the future as it readies a likely initial public offering for 2019, alongside rival ride-hailing company Lyft. Both companies filed confidential paperwork with the SEC in the same week in December. Uber has reportedly been valued at as much as $120 billion for its IPO, while banks pitching Lyft have valued that company at about $18 billion to $30 billion, according to Bloomberg. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Watch: Uber Air unveils design details for flying vehicles President Donald Trump said Monday that he will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday to discuss the standoff over his proposed border wall that has shut down large chunks of the federal government. The major broadcast networks have agreed to carry the address. Democrats, in turn, have requested equal time to respond to Trump's speech. Trump is expected to describe a crisis at America's southern border, although he and his administration have been accused of using false statistics and dubious claims in their push for a wall. While Democrats have agreed to spend federal funds on border security measures, they have steadfastly refused to agree to any spending for a wall. The White House also announced Monday that Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border later this week. President Donald Trump (C) inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images Trump will make the visit Thursday to "meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis" at the southern border, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a tweet. Sanders tweet Shortly after Sanders' tweet, Trump announced via Twitter that "I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern." NBC News reported that Trump will deliver his speech from the Oval Office, marking his first-ever evening address from that room. The announcements on Monday came days after Trump himself confirmed reports that he has considered using his emergency powers as a tool to fund the border wall. The president does have the ability to declare a national emergency, though the specific powers at his disposal once he does are unclear, legal scholars told NBC News. In an off-camera briefing with reporters Monday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters that Trump has yet to decide whether he will declare a national emergency over the border wall. The White House counsel's office is looking at the legality of such a measure, Pence added. Pence claimed that talks between administration officials and Democrats over the weekend provided "evidence of productive discussion" between the two deeply entrenched sides. Pence reportedly also said that Democratic staff asserted during talks over the weekend that there will be no negotiations until the government is re-opened. A Democratic aide familiar with the meetings told CNBC that the administration "doubled down on their partisan proposal that led to the trump shutdown in the first place" in the meetings, holding firm to a $5.7 billion wall funding demand "that everyone knows can't pass either chamber of congress." As investors hunt for value in the new year, one top technician says there's something in the charts suggesting "Dow dog" Verizon is the best play for a catch-up. The classic "Dogs of the Dow" theory involves investing in high-yielding Dow stocks, which typically means investing in some of the biggest laggards of the past year as a value play heading into a new year. But Verizon bucked that trend, remaining one of the highest-yielding Dow stocks while shares of the telecom giant outperformed, up 8 percent over the past year and one of the only "Dogs of the Dow" stocks to end in the green. According to Carter Worth, head of technical analysis at Cornerstone Macro, Verizon could be setting up for even more gains this year. Worth's charting reveals that while the classic "Dogs of the Dow" stocks have had record outperformance compared to the broader index until late, the DOD ETF, which tracks the highest-yielding Dow stocks, broke its nine-year win streak in 2018. "The key of course is that as the markets sold off, which is what you would expect, a very defensive asset like this was doing well," Worth said Friday on CNBC's "Options Action." Shares of Verizon have pulled back nearly 8 percent from their 52-week intraday high of $61.58 in November. However Worth believes the stock's rebound off its 150-day moving average "has all the look of a bearish-to-bullish reversal." "What appeals to me is this check back to trend and the bounce," he said. "The premise is the same you want to play for a catch-up." Worth's charting also suggests that while the stock has given back most of its gains after breaking out from a bullish wedge formation, it's also managed to establish support around the $53 level. "What's critical here is if you do break out to a 52-week high and then you were to fall back to the level from which you broke out you often get that pivot and then go again," he said. Shares of Verizon are up more than 1 percent so far in January and have risen nearly 23 percent from the 52-week closing low of $46.09. "You have potential that the market has prospectively more absolute downside risk and/or relative with Verizon trying to narrow the gap," Worth said. "I think it's a great place to be on the long side. Shares of Verizon were higher Monday afternoon at around $56.80. Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the ground breaking for the automaker's new factory in Shanghai. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong celebrated on Monday the ground breaking of the electric automaker's first non-U.S. factory. "China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said, according to a company statement coinciding with the ceremony for the Shanghai factory. In Twitter posts before the event, Musk said that the factory will produce "affordable versions" of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for the Greater China region, and that the plan is to "finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year." According to the company, the so-called Gigafactory in Shanghai "will allow Tesla to localize production of Model 3 and future models sold in China, with plans to eventually produce approximately 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week in the initial phase and to ramp up to 500,000 vehicles per year when fully operational (subject to local factors including regulatory approval and supply chain constraints)." CBS News President David Rhodes is stepping down and Susan Zirinsky, a senior executive producer, will take over the president's role from March, the company said on Sunday. Rhodes will remain in the media firm through March 1, after which he will assume the role of a senior adviser to its parent company CBS Corp CEO Joe Ianniello, and to the News Division, Rhodes wrote in the memo. "The new year is a time for renewal, for new goals. The world we cover is changing, how we cover it is changing - and it's the right time for me to make a change too," Rhodes said in an internal memo seen by Reuters. A veteran journalist, Zirinsky began her career in the Washington bureau two weeks after the Watergate break-in and produced a wide variety of award-winning documentaries and programs over the next four decades. The exit of Rhodes, who spent eight years with CBS, comes after some senior departures at the company in the recent past. In September last year, CEO Leslie Moonves resigned amid a wave of allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Last month, the company denied Moonves of a $120 million severance package following a board review of the findings of an investigation into Moonves' behavior and the CBS culture conducted by two law firms hired by CBS. CBS suspended Charlie Rose, co-anchor of its morning show and "60 Minutes" in November 2017 after several women accused him of harassment and misconduct and fired him last September. Jeff Fager, "60 Minutes" executive producer, was also fired in September after threatening a CBS News reporter investigating allegations of harassment of colleagues. Moonves has denied any wrongdoing and has described his sexual encounters as consensual. The departure of the CBS News president was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. WASHINGTON Markets are racked by turmoil, and there are signs the booming U.S. economy could slow down later this year. Yet the Supreme Court is reckoning with the lingering fallout from the financial crisis that rocked the global economy a decade ago. The top court on Monday attempted to resolve a legal question that could have broad ramifications on hundreds of thousands of Americans who are foreclosed on without a judicial process each year. A key issue in the matter is who or what can be considered a "debt collector." The justices were divided, but not into clear ideological zones. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Republican-appointed conservatives who are typically business friendly, were among the most skeptical questioners of the respondent in the case, a law firm working on behalf of Wells Fargo. To be sure, there are ideological divides at issue. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who announced a formal step toward a bid for the presidency last month, took a public stance on behalf of the petitioner in the case. Warren, alongside potential 2020 contender Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; and a slate of other liberal lawmakers, filed a brief outlining what they believed was Congress's intent in drafting the law at issue. On the other side was the Trump administration, which dispatched the solicitor general, as well as powerful business interests including the Chamber of Commerce and associations representing bankers. The case centers on Dennis Obduskey, a Colorado man who defaulted on his $329,940 home loan in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis. The question in the case is whether Obduskey is entitled to legal protections for debtors provided by Congress in 1977, or whether the foreclosure is exempt because it is Obduskey's home, and not money, that is at stake. Obduskey obtained his home loan from a company called the Magnus Financial Corporation in 2007. Like many other Americans, he defaulted on the loan in 2009. The bank then attempted to foreclose on Obduskey for six years, to no avail. Finally, in 2015, Wells Fargo retained a law firm McCarthy & Holthus to handle the foreclosure proceedings. But, as of the latest briefs in the case, Obduskey's home has yet to be sold. The question of whether a law firm seeking to foreclose on a property is a debt collector is one that could affect millions of Americans. In 2016, about 200,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in states that permit lenders to foreclose on a property without going to court. Business groups have argued that these so-called non-judicial foreclosures are more efficient and fair to borrowers. Progressives say borrowers are entitled to more protections. Obduskey's attorney, Daniel Geyser, argued that McCarthy & Holthus is a debt collector and therefore required to comply with certain procedural protections contained in the 1977 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. That law was passed to prevent debt collectors from engaging in abusive or predatory practices. But Kannok Shanmugam, the attorney for the respondent in the case, argued that the FDCPA does not apply because, he said, the firm is not a debt collector. Shanmugam argued that Congress has long made a distinction between those collecting debts and those who seek to enforce security interests, or collect property that is owed without demanding payment. The court is expected to issue a ruling by late June. Activist investor Starboard Value has acquired a stake in discount store operator Dollar Tree and is asking the company to sell its Family Dollar business, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Starboard, which has taken a 1.7 percent stake worth about $370 million in the retailer, is seeking majority control of the board and is also pushing for Dollar Tree to tweak its pricing model, the paper reported, citing sources. The hedge fund nominated seven directors to Dollar Tree's 12-member board, ahead of the nomination deadline last week, WSJ said. Dollar Tree has been struggling to turn around its Family Dollar business since its acquisition in 2015. Starboard and Dollar Tree did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment outside regular business hours. From Elon Musk to Rob Gronkowski to Mark Wahlberg, many business moguls, athletes and celebrities start off their days with a regular morning routine that sets them up for success. Businessman and star of ABC's "Shark Tank" Daymond John is no different. But of all things you can do in the morning, there is one habit that John finds particularly useful he refrains from checking his email right after he wakes up. "When you wake up in the morning and look at emails, you're going to be consumed by everyone else's emails of people asking you what they need to be done," John tells CNBC Make It. "You don't get an email in the morning that says, 'All those problems I had last week, I solved them, and the check is on the way to you for a million dollars.'" John takes it a step further, and along with refraining from email, also avoids looking at social media like Instagram too. "I don't look at Instagram because everyone there is skinnier and sexier and richer than me," John says. "So if I wake up in the morning, looking at everyone's problems from an email, and then also thinking about how everyone is living a great life, then I walk out of the room depressed." John, who spoke with CNBC Make It while promoting his partnership with Mattel on Silicon Valley Startups an improv card game that has "entrepreneurs" pitching funny start-up ideas they drew from the deck to "investors" may be onto something. Studies have shown that cutting down on screen time has a number of health benefits (limiting kids' screen time, for example, has been linked to improved brain function). And social media usage is not great for personal well-being: For example, a study published in November found a causal link between time spent on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram and increased depression and loneliness. So instead of starting his day on the wrong foot, John uses his precious moments in the A.M. as a way to focus on himself and what he needs to do to reach his own goals. "What I do is I start to set up in the morning all the times I want to spend with my family, with myself, focus on my goals," John says. "And when I walk into the world, I'm concentrating on what I want to accomplish." His approach is clearly working: John started clothing company FUBU in 1992 with just $40 and grew it into a $6 billion fashion brand, he has penned a number of best-selling books and has skyrocketed to entrepreneurial fame thanks to his decade-long tenure on "Shark Tank." Don't miss: Richard Branson reveals the daily workout that sets him up for success Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook! Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is about to go to the Mideast, told CNBC Monday that the planned U.S. withdrawal of troops from Syria does not change the mission of destroying the Islamic State terror group and stopping Iran from influencing the region through its state-sponsored terrorism operations. Pompeo told CNBC's Wilfred Frost on "Squawk on the Street" that the Syria drawdown is a "change of tactics" but not the U.S. commitment "to the defeat of the caliphate or of ISIS globally." The caliphate refers to the idea of an Islamic state governed by Islamic law. Pompeo also said, "There's no change in our counter-Iran strategy." President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through Washington and around the globe last month when he announced on Twitter that he would be withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria. "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," he wrote. Since then, after criticism from fellow Republicans, the administration has added caveats to the withdrawal, effectively softening Trump's original declaration. TRUMP TWEET 1 On Monday, the president tweeted that U.S. forces "will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" TRUMP TWEET 2 Pompeo, asked whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be trusted not to turn on the American-backed Kurds in Syria, told CNBC Monday: "Erdogan made a commitment to President Trump ... that the Turks would continue to the counter ISIS campaign after our departure, and that the Turks would ensure that the folks that we'd fought with that assisted us in the counter ISIS campaign would be protected." White House national security advisor John Bolton is there in the region to sure up those promises, said Pompeo, a Republican congressman from Kansas before Trump appointed him as director of Central Intelligence and then secretary of State. "Commitments are important and then making sure we follow through on those commitments matters an awful lot. That's true for lots of parties, including our NATO allies Turkey." On Sunday, Bolton said the planned U.S. withdrawal of 2,000 troops from Syria will be contingent upon cementing an agreement with Turkey that protects Kurdish fighters in the region who have been pivotal to battling ISIS. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem during a visit to Israel and Turkey intended in part to reassure allies amid criticism over the White House's Syria decision Bolton fielded numerous questions about Washington's support for its Kurdish partners, and U.S. plans to reduce its footprint in the strife-torn country. He described the stipulation as Trump's official position. In CNBC's wide-ranging interview, Pompeo also talked about the U.S.-China trade war, America's relationship with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, and concerns about a hard Brexit. Patrol ship Pytlivy of Russia's Black Sea Fleet is monitoring actions of USS Fort McHenry that entered the Black Sea on January 6, Russia's Defence Ministry said. "Patrol ship Pytlivy of Russias Black Sea Fleet is performing a complex of activities to control the actions of amphibious transport dock (LSD) USS Fort McHenry", the ministry said in a statement. The statement noted that the ship had been in the Black Sea since 9:00 p.m. Moscow time (18:00 GMT), January 6. "As of 9:30 a.m. (6:30 GMT), the ship entered the Romanian port of Constanta," Sputnik cited the ministry as saying. Commander of the US 6th Fleet Vice Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti said that the vessel's transit to the Black Sea shows collective commitment to the Black Sea security. In December, US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said that Washington should consider the possibility of increasing its presence in the Black Sea. California Governor Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom looks on during his inauguration Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ripped the Trump administration and its policies during his inaugural address Monday while also taking a swipe at President Donald Trump himself, without mentioning him. "Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith, and firm will can still come together to achieve big things," Newsom said. "We will offer an alternative to the corruption and the incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled and always on the side of the people." He also spoke about the state standing up against Washington's policies on everything from the environment, immigration and LGBT rights to women's reproductive access. Newsom and Trump have traded barbs in the past and just last week the California politician blasted the president's threat to close the southern border as "irresponsible, irrational and absurd." Newsom, 51, is the Golden State's 40th governor and succeeds Jerry Brown, a Democrat who served four terms as governor and also sparred with the Trump on a wide range of issues, including climate change and immigration. Early in his remarks, Newsom thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., but then added that "there is an administration in Washington that is clearly hostile to California values and California's interests." Prior to becoming governor, Newsom was the state's lieutenant governor and before that mayor of San Francisco. Newsom made his mark early on as mayor, ordering the city-county clerk in February 2004 to issue same-sex marriage licenses. "So 15 years ago, when I was a new mayor and I heard politicians in Washington sneering at 'California values' and attacking our LGBTQ community, I remembered what my father taught me: That 'it's never the wrong time to do the right thing.' And that's what we did." Newsom continued: "Just like 15 years ago, now is a time for courage. We will stand up for what's right, and we will defend our people. My pledge to every Californian is this: no matter what comes at us, I will have your back." The new governor called the nation's most populous state "a giant engine of commerce the most creative and entrepreneurial in the world." He also sought to contrast the blue state's values with division elsewhere in the country. "At a time when so much of America is divided, we are united," Newsom said. "Our people are big-hearted [and] fair-minded, and those qualities are more vital now than ever." Newsom won the election in November with a margin of victory of more than 20 percentage points against Republican John Cox, a businessman Trump had endorsed. "I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me," Newsom said. The Democrat spoke about the federal government taking children away from their parents at the border as well as kids "left hungry while politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built." Newsom also recalled a recent visit to San Diego where he met with volunteers providing help "to desperate migrants who others treat like criminals." At the same time, Newsom pledged to do more to help children in his own administration. "We will support parents so that they can give their kids the love and care they need...especially in those critical early years of life," he said. Newsom also took a shot at drug companies for "sky-high prices" as well as "a gun lobby that's willing to sacrifice the lives of our children to line their pockets." He also criticized polluters and payday lenders for what he said was preying on "our most vulnerable" and vowed "we have the power to stand up to them and we will." California enjoys "a booming economy" but Newsom said it still faces "serious challenges some that have been deferred for too long." He cited "a gulf between the rich and everyone else" plus a homeless crisis and "an achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids." According to Newsom, "These aren't merely policy problems. They are moral imperatives." There was a brief moment on levity during the speech when Newsom's 2-year-old son, Dutch, went on stage with a pacifier in his mouth during his father's speech. Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have four young kids. Newsom campaigned for governor with ambitious plans for everything from single-payer health care and affordable housing to childhood poverty and universal preschool. The promises raised cost concerns from some taxpayer groups even before Newsom took the reins Monday. "In our home, every person should have access to quality, affordable health care," Newsom said. "Far-away judges and politicians may turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed health care for all Californians." After taking office Monday, Newsom signed a "first-in-the-nation order to create the largest single purchaser for prescription drugs," according to a press release issued by his office. He also proposed for his first budget to move the state "closer to health care for all," including providing coverage to young undocumented immigrants through Medi-Cal. Newsom also pledged Monday to launch "a Marshall Plan for affordable housing" as well as to elevate "the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a statewide mission." California has about 12 percent of the U.S. population but approximately one-quarter of the nation's homeless population. Meantime, Brown spent the last few years in the governorship pushing fiscal restraint and the need for state lawmakers and the next governor to sock away more money for the next economic downturn. Newsom enters office as governor with California the fifth-largest economy in the world having about $14 billion in the state's rainy day fund, and several billions in surplus. "We will prepare for uncertain times ahead," Newsom said. "We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, paying down debt and meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history." Yet Newsom quickly added: "But I want to be clear. We will be bold. We will work like hell to get there." Newsom also repeated the "courage" theme of his gubernatorial campaign. "I know courage is a word that means different things to different people. But for me, courage means doing what is right even when it's hard. That will be the foundational mission of our administration." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, on October 16, 2018. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said oil prices did not and will not influence the Trump administration's response to the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Pompeo's remarks, made in an interview with CNBC's Wilfred Frost, come three months after Saudi agents killed the Washington Post columnist in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. In November, President Donald Trump declared the United States stands with Saudi Arabia, even though the CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a role in the slaying. At the time, Trump linked his stance to Saudi Arabia's help taming oil prices, as well as its role countering Iran in the Middle East and its pledge to buy more American-made weapons. "Saudi Arabia, if we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof. I've kept them down. They've helped me keep them down," Trump told reporters after issuing a statement spelling out his support for the Saudi government. One day later, Trump thanked Saudi Arabia for taking steps to lower oil prices and implored the kingdom to push them even lower. @realDonaldTrump: Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower! Asked whether low oil prices influenced the administration's response, and whether Trump might take a tougher stance if the Saudis let oil prices rise, Pompeo said, "They're disconnected." "We've taken a very clear message to the world with respect to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi," Pompeo told CNBC. "This was a heinous act. It's unacceptable. It's inconsistent with the way nations ought to behave around the world." Concerned about rising gasoline costs, Trump called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to pump more oil throughout 2018. Between June and November, Saudi Arabia sharply hiked oil production, helping to knock the cost of crude from a four-year high. In October, oil prices plunged, with U.S. crude falling from nearly $77 to about $54 a barrel when Trump issued the statement. Two weeks after Trump issued the statement, the Saudis reached a deal to launch price-boosting production cuts with fellow OPEC members and allied oil producers, including Russia. The administration's response to Khashoggi's killing has drawn fire from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Last month, the Senate voted to halt U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen. Senators also voted unanimously to hold Crown Prince Mohammed responsible for Khashoggi's death. Pompeo on Monday defended the administration's stance, referring to its move to sanction 17 people linked to Khashoggi's death. "We've told the Saudis that we've held Saudi citizens accountable for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. We will continue to do so as new facts arise," Pompeo said. "At the same time, we're going to continue to do the things that protect the American people, and that includes a deep and lasting relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella smiles during the question and answer portion of the Microsoft Annual Shareholders Meeting in Bellevue, Wash., on Nov. 28, 2018. Microsoft and Kroger are taking on Amazon's cashierless stores with their own futuristic grocery store pilot. The move deepens the partnership between the two companies, which is partly a response to Amazon's move into grocery stories with its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods. As Amazon's retail business pushes into more industries, Amazon Web Services is starting to experience a backlash. Kroger is joining the likes of Wal-Mart and Target in finding other vendors to handle their massive workloads for their digital and e-commerce offerings. The two outfitted Kroger locations, in Monroe, Ohio and Redmond, Wash., will feature digital shelving displays with real-time price updates and product information, as well as digital advertisements personalized to each shopper. Video analytics systems will alert store associates to low inventories. Location-specific data will be stored and processed on Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure. Microsoft and Kroger will jointly market the technology to other retailers, the companies said. "Our partnership brings together Kroger's world-class expertise in the grocery industry with the power of Azure and Azure AI," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. "Together, we will redefine the shopping experience for millions of customers at both Kroger and other retailers around the world, setting a new standard for innovation in the industry." The pilot is reminiscent of Amazon's new age Amazon Go pilot, which detects the items a shopper has picked up and scans them automatically as the shopper leaves, eliminating the need for traditional cashiers. Amazon is reportedly planning a broad expansion of Go, including in Whole Foods stores, putting pressure on traditional grocers to offer similarly innovative shopping experiences. WATCH: Amazon's cashier-free store opens to the public After announcing two major deals in December, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley is optimistic about her efforts to transform Britain's largest drugmaker. "I think we have tremendous opportunities to improve both operating performance and to get radical about reshaping our portfolio," Walmsley told CNBC's Jim Cramer on "Squawk Alley" on Monday. Walmsley took the helm of GSK in April 2017. Since then, she has been pushing the pharma giant into the spotlight after it spent years hiding in the background. In December alone, the company announced the $5.1 billion acquisition of cancer drug specialist Tesaro and a joint venture with Pfizer that involves splitting up GSK's two major businesses. The joint venture, which will focus on consumer health care, will make it the No. 1 or No. 2 player in 10 of the world's 15 biggest markets, Walmsley said. The extra cash flow will benefit GSK's other business, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, she said. "We need to place some smart bets, take some risks, and I think when we do that we'll be bringing sustainable shareholder growth and more benefits for more patients around the world," she said. Investors seem to be buying into Walmsley's strategy. Shares of the British company, which has a market value of $96.6 billion, finished 2018 up 7 percent. Senator Elizabeth Warren greets the overflow crowd outside an "organizing event," after forming an exploratory committee for the 2020 presidential race, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, January 4, 2019. Brian Snyder | Reuters Sen. Elizabeth Warren's nascent presidential campaign has so far drawn attention to the DNA test she took in hopes of proving her Native American bloodline, President Donald Trump's Twitter attacks against her, and whether or not she is "likable." Her potential impact on the policy issues that will shape the 2020 race has received far less attention. As Warren stumped across Iowa last weekend, reporters asked her whether she'd take money from billionaires, how she planned to talk about her gender and whether her campaign was similar to Hillary Clinton's. But not about U.S. plans in Syria, immigration or the volatile stock market. Still, while the Massachusetts Democrat has yet to release a formal platform, certain key issues are coming into focus as she steps further into the national spotlight. On at least two of them, Warren is already running the table against other potential Democratic 2020 candidates. The first is corruption and the lack of transparency in government, and more specifically within the Trump administration. The second is changing the laws that govern U.S. businesses to make them more favorable to employees and consumers. Both are subjects that Warren is uniquely positioned to tackle, given her experience as a Harvard law professor. And either of them could alter the tenor of the next presidential election, regardless of whether Warren wins the nomination or not. Corruption Two years into Trump's first term, the promise he made at nearly every campaign rally to "drain the swamp" in Washington and restore accountability has quietly disappeared from the president's speeches. At the same time, more than a dozen of Trump's Cabinet appointees and top aides have left their jobs under a cloud of investigations and scandals not to mention scores of others in Trump's wider orbit who have been indicted in connection with the special counsel's Russia probe. Among Democrats expected to run for president in 2020, Warren is uniquely deft at explaining the Trump administration's conflicts of interest and ethics problems in a way that's clear and easy for voters to understand. Trump is "someone whose Cabinet appointees don't know about whatever the subject area they're supposed to be in charge of;" Warren said on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" last week. She went on to decry "Cabinet officials who get caught for trading in stocks in the areas that they are supposed to oversee," and "Cabinet officials who don't even pay their taxes." During a speech in August, Warren described one such official, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, as a "cartoon version of a Wall Street fat cat, awash in financial conflicts, intertwined with Russian financial interests, suspected of swindling millions from his business partners and using his official position to pump up his fortune through shady stock trading." Ross has denied what he calls "unfounded allegations" against him. Warren has also backed up her words with action. This fall, she introduced sweeping new ethics legislation, no doubt with an eye toward her 2020 campaign platform. The Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act would place a lifetime lobbying ban on former presidents and vice presidents, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and federal judges. It would also require presidential candidates to release at least eight years of tax returns Trump has refused to release any of his tax returns. Another Trump-centric measure would require presidents and vice presidents to place some assets, including their real estate holdings, into blind trusts they have no control over them. Trump has refused to divest his interest in his family real estate business, and instead left his sons to run it while he is president. To be sure, hammering Trump over his ethical issues is unlikely to hurt his poll numbers among his loyal base. But for independent and swing voters, including those who may have voted for Trump in 2016, the near constant scandals that have marked his first term in office have left people disillusioned. In December, Quinnipiac's large monthly tracking poll found that only about a third of voters still believe Trump is honest, while more than 60 percent said he does not share their values. Few Democrats are better equipped than Warren is to turn this blur of scandals and cynicism to their advantage. Reining in corporate power When Warren arrived on the national scene, America was still in the throes of the 2008 financial crisis and eager for someone who could punish the banks, insurance giants and Wall Street firms that had made billions of dollars on risky loans, then demanded taxpayer-funded bailouts when those loans went bust. Warren fit the bill, and the instrumental role she played in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau helped make her into a sort of anti-Wall Street folk hero. Ten years later, however, the economy has recovered, and the days of occupying Wall Street seem long gone. In this new political environment, Warren now seeks to occupy an economic middle ground, albeit one that's left of center, by emphasizing that it's the rules of the capitalist game that need to be changed, not the whole game (a la Bernie Sanders). "I am a capitalist," Warren told CNBC's John Harwood during an interview last summer. "I believe in markets. What I don't believe in is theft, what I don't believe in is cheating. That's where the difference is. I love what markets can do, I love what functioning economies can do. They are what make us rich, they are what create opportunity. But only fair markets, markets with rules. Markets without rules is about the rich take it all, it's about the powerful get all of it. And that's what's gone wrong in America." Warren's argument that markets are good, but that markets need rules, also plays to her experience --- after all, she helped to craft many of the post-2008 era's banking and financial regulations. A decade later, a new set of alleged corporate abuses tops the headlines, including Facebook's myriad data breaches, Wells Fargo's fake account scandal, and the stain of social media companies' complicity in 2016's Russian election meddling. As the leading consumer advocate in the Senate and Wells Fargo's toughest critic, Warren is well positioned here to take on potential Democratic rivals like Sanders and Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey. Warren is also a powerful voice for the rights of workers, another issue that's been amplified in recent years by wage stagnation, campaigns like the push for paid parental leave, and a renewed focus on work-life balance. This fall, Warren introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, which would require, among other provisions, that employees be given seats on the board of directors at some of the nation's biggest companies. And while each of Warren's Democratic rivals has a unique set of policy issues, none of them is as well versed in how the economy impacts individual consumers and employees as she is. And none of them has so far laid out policy plans that are as well tailored to Trump's political weak spots as Warren has. Foreign policy Despite Warren's strength and depth of experience on the two key issues above, at least one policy area could spell trouble for her candidacy: foreign policy. As a candidate, Trump promised to end America's participation in big multinational trade deals and expensive foreign wars. But Trump's defiant isolationism seems to have backfired: The percentage of Americans who believe the United States has a special responsibility to be a world leader is 11 points higher than it was in 2010. In practice, Trump's approach to foreign policy has often been defined by his rash decision-making, his transactional values system and his casual willingness to rip up longstanding alliances. Warren, like most Democrats, has been quick to criticize Trump's methods. But she shares his skepticism of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supports the return of U.S. troops from both theaters. In November, Warren wrote a major essay in Foreign Affairs magazine, where she described the Middle East as a "tangled mess," and concluded that "neither military nor civilian policymakers seem capable of defining success, but surely this is not it." Warren did not, however, offer her own vision of what success in the region would look like. And absent this vision, Warren, like Trump, seemed to favor withdrawal without an emphasis on longer-term strategic objectives. Warren also shares Trump's belief that globalization, and especially the last few decades of U.S. trade policy, have failed the American middle class. But she breaks with Trump over who globalization's real winners are: For Warren, it's massive corporations and a tiny global elite. Trump, however, claims the real beneficiaries are America's adversaries (and occasionally its allies). Warren's foreign policy vision "reads like Trumpism with a human face," Daniel Drezner, a Tufts University political science professor, wrote in a review of Warren's Foreign Affairs essay. He also noted that her "simplistic take on globalization contrasts sharply with [Warren's] more sophisticated take on markets." Of course, it is impossible to predict how future events will affect what voters consider to be important issues when they go to the polls in two years. A major international incident could elevate foreign policy overnight, while a scathing report from special counsel Robert Mueller about Trump's business ties and Russian election interference could make corruption the defining issue of the next election. The good news for Warren is that by launching her campaign earlier than her rivals, she has time and space to refine and amplify her policy platforms. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) answers questions from reporters in Sioux City, Iowa, January 5, 2019 Brian Snyder | Reuters Today Orthodox Christians are celebrating Christmas, one of the biggest and most ancient Christian holidays. The main solemn service was held in the Christ the Savior Cathedral by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia on the night from the 6th of January to the 7th. Christmas is a good reason for giving love, care and attention to surrounding people, Patriarch Kirill said in his televised address. "There must be someone beside you who needs your support. Christmas is a great opportunity to show one's best human qualities and bestow joy and love on people. Even small deeds can make this world kinder and brighter. Anyone can do it, as God is with us," he said. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church reiterated that society was always built on the principles of division and called for the fight against these sinful aspects. "Human society was always built on the principles of division: the lucky and the unlucky, the happy and the unhappy, the smart and the narrow-minded, the rich and the poor. This list can be long. We, Christians, understand that the imperfection of the world is the consequence of the sin, so it is necessary to fight against not just the external reason for this illness, but with its internal aspects all the more," patriarch Kirill said. He highlighted that to Jesus Christ each person is equally valuable, irrespective of his income and social position. "By his birth Christ shows that material conditions are not important to God. He descends to birth in a stable, lying beside animals. He equally accepts simple gifts from poor shepherds and royal gifts from wise men from the east," the patriarch said. "Let Christmas inspire you to kind deeds, and let the born Saviors blessing and help be with you in your life. May God keep you safe," the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia added. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended an overnight Orthodox Christmas service at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. The service was held by the Cathedrals dean, Nikolai Bryndin. The service was also attended by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Alexander Gutsan and acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov. Putin presented the Transfiguration Cathedral with the icon of Christ Pantocrator as a Christmas gift. Te Russian leader alsocongratulated Orthodox Christians and all Russian citizens celebrating Christmas, the Kremlin press service reported. "I cordially congratulate you on Christmas. This wonderful holiday gives people joy and hope, unites them around spiritual, moral values, traditions of charity. Folk and family customs passed from generation to generation are connected to it. Sincere faith in good changes and fulfillment of the most cherished desires," the Presidents telegram reads. The President noted that "the Russian Orthodox Church, other Christian denominations play a large, positive role in the life of our country, take care of social harmony, strengthen the institution of the family, educate the youth." They "do a lot to solve pressing social problems, harmonize interethnic and interreligious dialogue." Such fruitful and highly needed work deserves deep gratitude and respect, the President stated. Putin wished Orthodox Christians, all citizens of Russia, celebrating Christmas, health, success and prosperity. January 7 is also Christmas day for Orthodox Christians in Serbia, Jerusalem, Georgia, and the monastic community of Mount Athos in Greece, one of Orthodox Christianity's holiest sites. January 7 is a national holiday in Russia along with Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia. The holiday was banned in Russia after the revolution of 1917. Christmas became an official holiday in 1991: on December 27, 1990, in response to an appeal by Patriarch Alexy II, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR declared Christmas a holiday. The resolution came into effect on January 14, 1991. Transportation giant Alstom and Eversholt Rail have revealed designs for a new hydrogen train that could be used on U.K. railways by the year 2022. In an announcement Monday, Alstom said that the train, named "Breeze," would stem from the conversion of existing Class 321 trains, which have been in use for decades. An "initial, comprehensive engineering study" has been completed, with the concept design for the train also finished, it said. Alstom added that the two companies were working with industry stakeholders to help develop business cases and "evaluate detailed introduction plans for fleets of these innovative trains and the associated fuelling infrastructure." Alstom said that the train would emit only water with "no harmful emissions at all." The impact of zero emission hydrogen trains in the U.K. where there are currently none in use could be significant. In 2017-18, passenger services were responsible for the emission of 2,765 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in Great Britain, according to the Office of Rail and Road. This represents a drop of 6.6 percent compared to 2016-17. In a statement, Alstom U.K. and Ireland's Managing Director, Nick Crossfield, said that hydrogen trains offered "an ideal solution for routes which are unlikely to benefit from electrification, and our innovative engineering solution means they can now fit within the U.K. loading gauge and can quickly be ready to roll on Britain's railways." In September 2018, Alstom announced that the "world's first hydrogen fuel cell train," the Coradia iLint, had entered into passenger service in Germany. While the newly designed Breeze train will use the same fuel cell technology as the Coradia iLint, the architecture of the trains will differ. This is down to a number of reasons, not least the fact that the Coradia iLint was designed by Alstom from scratch, while the Breeze will be the result of the older Class 321 trains being converted and re-purposed for use on U.K. tracks. Andrew Jones, the U.K. government's rail minister, welcomed Monday's news. "Hydrogen train technology is an exciting innovation which has the potential to transform our railway, making journeys cleaner and greener by cutting CO2 emissions even further," he said. "We are working with industry to establish how hydrogen trains can play an important part in the future, delivering better services on rural and inter-urban routes." Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Monday that U.S. tariffs are hurting China's economy and Beijing's ability to create jobs to stave off domestic disorder. The economic slowdown in China is a "big problem in their context of having a very big need to create millions of millions of jobs to hold down social unrest coming out of the little villages," Ross said on "Squawk Box." He argued that Chinese workers going to cities for jobs are finding none and returning home. "That creates a real social problem," he said. "That's a very disgruntled group of people." The Trump administration hopes that such a dynamic gives the U.S. leverage in trade talks that entered a new phase Monday in Beijing. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish is leading a U.S. working team for two days of discussions. Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry said Monday both sides are expressing a will to work together in order to implement the consensus of their respective presidents. Ross said the talks are at an "appropriate level." The U.S. delegation is large due to the number of issues that need to be addressed, including eventual enforcement and compliance, said Ross, who before joining the White House made a fortune in the investment world, running W.L. Ross & Co., and buying stakes in distressed assets. On Sunday, President Donald Trump sounded optimistic about trade talks, in part because he believes China is motivated by its slowing economy to make a deal. "I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy's not doing well," Trump told reporters at the White House, according to Reuters. "I think that gives them a great incentive to negotiate." In early December, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a tariff cease-fire, giving both sides until March to reach agreement on trade issues, including what the U.S. calls forced technology transfers. Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies escalated last year. The U.S. announced tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while Beijing countered with its own. China faces a "binary decision," according to Ross, on whether to face tariffs or cut a deal. The U.S. sells much less to China than China does to the U.S., he pointed out. Beijing is finding out how much it depends on the United States, he added in the "Squawk Box" interview. The Commerce secretary also said companies are moving manufacturing out of China. It's not all coming to the U.S., he said, acknowledging some of it is moving to other Asian countries. Ross also said he didn't think Apple's earnings guidance downgrade announced last week had anything to do with the talks. "Think about it, there have been no tariffs put on Apple products. So that's not it," he said. Last week, Apple lowered its fiscal first-quarter guidance, blaming a variety of factors, including a weakening economy in China and lower-than-expected iPhone revenue. Shares of Apple sank nearly 10 percent on Thursday before recovering nearly half of those losses on Friday. Trump's threatened tariffs on all Chinese imports to the U.S. if there's no trade deal would hit Apple since many of its components are assembled there. CNBC's Evelyn Cheng and Everett Rosenfeld as well as Reuters contributed to this report. Employees working on a production line of clothes for export at a factory in Xiayi county, in Shangqiu in China's central Henan province. China has made several moves to stimulate its slowing economy, but those measures are not yet enough to help the Asian economic giant weather risks that it's facing, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "I do think China's economy warrants a little more aggressive easing than the government's come through so far," Hannah Anderson, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Monday. Her comments came after the central bank in the world's second-largest economy the People's Bank of China announced Friday it will cut the amount of reserves that banks are required to hold by 1 percentage point this month. That's the first such move in 2019 and the fifth in a year by the PBOC. Earlier in December, the PBOC introduced a new tool the targeted medium-term lending facility to encourage commercial banks to give out more loans to smaller firms. The government has also said it would step up other policy support, such as infrastructure spending and tax cuts. Those announcements came as more signs pointed to slowing growth momentum in China. The country also faces mounting pressure from additional American tariffs as trade tensions with the U.S. continued to linger. British fashion label Burberry has launched a campaign celebrating Lunar New Year, but some people aren't so sure about it. The campaign is the brand's first for the February 5 festival in celebration of "family traditions and togetherness during the festive period," according to an online release on Burberry's website. But the advertising images, in the style of a family portrait, have been criticized as being "creepy," by people on social media. "These people look like actors of horror movies. Sorry, no luck," one user wrote on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, according to fashion website Jing Daily. Burberry's New Year campaign stars Chinese actresses Zhao Wei and Zhou Dongyu, showing them with models of different ages, against a grey backdrop. None of the characters is smiling. "Inspired by classic portraiture, the campaign is reimagined in an informal urban environment, juxtaposing the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary," the company's online release stated. TWEET Another suggested that the pictures were reminiscent of China's economy, posting "Unhappy family, unhappy Burberry. No one is looking normal." Indeed, the automotive and property markets are suffering in the country, and Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook last week blamed weak revenue guidance on slow growth in China. Burberry is in the middle of a repositioning as a "higher" luxury label, meaning it can charge more for its clothes and accessories, a move initiated by Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti after he took on the role in 2017. It is also aiming for 100 million ($127.6 million) in savings between 2016 and 2019, which it says it is on track to achieve. The company has 200 stores and concessions in the Asia-Pacific region and its revenue was up 5 percent in the area, over its 2018 financial year, according to a December online statement. This compares to a 1 percent decline in the Americas and a 1 percent gain in EMEA and India. This isn't the first time a Western luxury brand has caused controversy in China. In November, Dolce & Gabbana canceled a fashion show in Shanghai after a video series called "Eating With Chopsticks" was called racist by some internet users. A Burberry spokesperson referred CNBC to a press release about the Chinese New Year campaign but did not comment further. There will an economic recession in the United States if President Donald Trump does not end the ongoing trade impasse with China, a strategist told CNBC on Monday. Chinese and U.S. officials have gathered in Beijing this week to discuss solutions that will prevent further U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Both countries have been at odds regarding their trade policies for most of last year, with President Trump repeatedly announcing new tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliating at the same scale. In early December, the U.S. and China agreed to a temporary 90-day ceasefire to allow their negotiating teams to come up with an agreement on trade practices. They have given themselves until March to do so. However, in case they fail to reach a deal, a strategist believes it would spark a recession. "If there is a recession and a crash, it is Trump's decision, because he has made a crucial mistake here of closing the government at the same time he hasn't resolved China," Michael Harris, founder of Cribstone Strategic Macro, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." DEWITT [mdash] Jean Gravert, 95, formerly of Delmar, Iowa, passed away peacefully in her daughter's home in Iowa City. Per her wishes, there will be no visitation. A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday, July 25, 2021, from 1:00 until 4:00 p.m. at Grossman Hall in Delmar. Arrangements are At least 75 people were injured in a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Gilangharb city in Iran's Kermanshah province on January 6, head of Iran Emergency Organization Pir Hossein Kolivand said. Most of the injured people were hurt while escaping to the outdoors in panic, a medical official said. Assessment teams of Iran's Red Crescent Society have been dispatched to the site of earthquake, governor of Gilangharb Kourosh Mahmoudian said. "Some residential buildings and cattle farms were damaged and rockfall blocked the roads in the area," Tasnim cited Mahmoudian as saying. The quake also affected the quality of drinking water in Gilangharb, he said, assuring that the local people will be provided sufficient high-quality drinking water. The elementary schools and high schools will be closed in Gilangharb city on Monday, ISNA reported. According to Iran's Seismological Center, the epicenter of earthquake was monitored at 34.16 degrees north latitude and 45.66 degrees east longitude with a depth of 10 km. At least 15 aftershocks, ranging from 3.0 to 4.8 magnitude, have shaken the region so far. The earthquake was also felt in neighboring Lorestan province as well as in Iraq. Gyms and wellness centers have been ramping back up for months. As of June 2, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine dropped all COVID-19 protocols, excluding nursing homes and assisted living communities. That has opened the door for gyms to fully reopen while implementing their own protocols. Russian and Azerbaijani MPs are planning to organize a parliamentary conference in the Russian State Duma in the near future, a diplomatic source in Baku said. It is also expected that a document on cooperation, on the creation of a high-level inter-parliamentary commission, will be signed at the event, RIA Novosti cited the source as saying. The source added that the event is expected to discuss the development of bilateral inter-parliamentary cooperation and the prospects for the activities of the inter-parliamentary commission. In June, chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to create a relevant commission during an official visit to Baku. In September, a delegation of the Russian State Duma led by Vice-Speaker Sergei Neverov made a visit to Azerbaijan. In October, in the framework of the third meeting of the Speakers of the Eurasia countries' parliaments in Antalya Volodin met with Speaker of the Milli Majlis Oktay Asadov. The sides agreed that the intensity of meetings between the presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev should serve as an example for the parliaments of both countries. Volodin then reported that the work on the formation of the inter-parliamentary commission is at the final stage. In 2019, Chanukah will begin the evening of Dec. 22 and end the evening of Dec. 30, which means that it will overlap with Christmas. This is a blessing in that much of the nation will be engaged in some form of joyous, simultaneous celebration. A rare thing these days. But it is also a curse because Chanukah is now on the radar of the Hallmark Channel. The Hallmark Channel, a cable television network that launched in 2001, aired its first original Christmas-themed made-for-TV movie the following year. This past year, it packed its Countdown to Christmas movie lineup which started on Oct. 20 with 37 newly minted, one-and-done Yuletide tales with titles the likes of Homegrown Christmas, Tingle Around the Clock and Mingle All the Way. And now menorahs will be added to the mistletoe with two Chanukah-themed stories slotted for winter. Its not the first time a Jewish character has been featured in a Hallmark holiday movie, though there are those who wished it was the last. In 2012s Hitched for the Holidays, an Italian-Catholic man played by Joey Lawrence from TVs Blossom and a Jewish woman played by Emily Hampshire from TVs Boy Meets Girl, who is not Jewish, pretend to be a couple to placate their families, including her meddling mother played by Marilu Henner from TVs Taxi, who is also not a Jew. In true Hallmark fashion, the two fall in love for real by the time the closing credits roll. These low-budget made-for-TV movies are loved by many because they are shamelessly romantic, extraordinarily wholesome and pleasantly predictable. They are ignored by many for the exact same reasons. In order to get a sense of what a Hallmark Chanukah would look like, so that we can plan our viewing or avoidance accordingly, I asked my cousin a veteran writer of Hallmark and Lifetime programming to help build a Chanukah-themed story out of the essential ingredients that drive every formulaic Hallmark Christmas movie. Hallmark holiday shows always seem to feature forgotten 90s TV actresses and once-hunky, now-obscure TV actors as the romantically involved couple. Thoughts on casting this Chanukah version? Id go with a known made-for-TV movie commodity as the female lead, so that there is clear lineage between the Countdown to Christmas franchise and this new Careening Toward Chanukah installment. Lacey Chabert (Party of Five) is a favorite, having been in over a dozen Hallmark Channel films. Danica McKellar (Wonder Years) and Candace Cameron Bure (Full House) also have name recognition and could work. None are actually Jewish, which is apparently not a prerequisite at Hallmark, but Id throw an Israeli actor into the mix just to cover our backs. A heartthrob like Aki Avni would attract Hallmarks target demographic of women aged 25 to 54, only we need someone younger, less talented and more affordable since we are probably working with a budget of under $3 million. Lets go with Danica McKellar, for no other reason than she was a teenage TV crush of mine, and an Israeli to be named later. Most Hallmark holiday movies tell the tale of a seemingly mismatched couple brought together by forces beyond their control. What about Danica and our Aki wannabe? Since English is a second language for our Israeli, lets make it a distant second and use the language barrier as a vehicle for light comedy, some dramatic miscommunication, and something to be overcome so there is a final moment of true and heartfelt understanding and emotional connection. A Chanukah miracle! What brings them together? Whats their story? What if our Ari-lite and Danica met in Israel years ago, while she was doing Birth Right? They fell in love, she left, he has never forgotten her, and he has come to live in America to rekindle her affection. Sort of an Aliyah in reverse. Or, he is the brother of her dead husband dead spouses are popular on the Hallmark Channel and feels obligated to help her raise her children. Hallmark movies tend to have plenty of children on screen. Lets give her three. Or, he is a widowed foreign diplomat with his children in tow during a mission in the U.S. Their plane is forced to land due to a snow storm. Local authorities ask Danica, the only Jew in this small town, to house them until the weather clears. Choose one. Either way, hes in town for eight days and eight nights and they fall in love. A Chanukah miracle! Lets go with the latter. What town? Hallmark gravitates toward fictional locations with homey, holiday-inspired names like Garland, Hollyvale and Homestead. For our story, Id go with Gelt, New Hampshire or Little Dreidel, South Dakota. Sufganiyot, New Jersey is a bit of a stretch but certainly worth considering if Dunkin or Krispy Kreme is a corporate sponsor. How Jewish should we make this story? Hallmark Countdown to Christmas movies tend not to be too religious, preferring something spiritual or supernatural to make things right for a happy ending rather than anything particularly Godly. Intervention by elves was used in Northpole and its sequel, angels helped out in A Heavenly Christmas, and a storefront Santa worked his way into A Wish for Christmas. Perhaps a magical Mensch on a Bench makes a cameo appearance in our Chanukah story. A heavily bearded homeless man the locals call The Rabbi, who spouts seemingly non-sequitur wisdom while talking to himself, is another way to go. Lets talk about production values. Or the lack thereof. These made-for-TV movies are typically made within a three-week window, so production values are limited though sufficiently attractive to maintain the Hallmark brand and holiday spirit. What would the promotional blurb on the Hallmark Channel website say about our made-for-TV movie? As families in the small town of Maccabi, Maine prepare for Christmas, a snow storm forces a small private plane to make an emergency landing. Its passengers a widowed Israeli attache and his three young children are stranded on this first night of Chanukah until the weather clears. Local authorities call on Sara, the young woman who operates the one kosher bakery in town, to house them. Pastry and compassion overcome the language barrier between them and soon Saras house feels like a home. Elijah and Saras romance is foretold by the ramblings of an old homeless man who weaves his way through neighborhood trash cans, this storys narrative and our hearts. Starring Lior Ashkenazi, Danica McKellar and Ed Asner. And what would be our movies title? Home for the Challahdays. Bob Abelman covers professional theater and cultural arts for the Cleveland Jewish News. Follow Bob at Facebook.com/BobAbelman3 or visit cjn.org/Abelman. 2018 Ohio AP Media Editors best columnist. COLUMBUS, OhioPropelled by the support of minority House Democrats, Republican Larry Householder has once again been elected speaker of the Ohio House. Householder, a Perry County Republican, was elected on the first ballot with 52 votes, ousting incumbent Republican Speaker Ryan Smith, who received 45 votes. Although House Republicans voted 34-26 in favor of Smith, Householder won 26 of 38 Democratic votes. To win that Democratic support, Householder promised Democrats a number of changes, including naming Democratic co-chairs of the House committee on K-12 education, as well as subcommittees on criminal justice and energy generation. Speaking to the House after the vote, Householder also called for changing House rules so that amendments in committees should never be tabled. House Democrats have been angered in recent years that all their amendments have been shot down by majority Republicans. I like to take a bipartisan approach, Householder said during remarks following the vote. Householder also called for the House to hire a professional human resources manager and for televising House committee hearings. Some labor unions, including the powerful Ohio AFL-CIO, also lobbied House Democrats to back Householder, who has vowed to not support anti-union measures that have repeatedly popped up in the Republican-dominated legislature. Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga told cleveland.com in an interview that he was pleased with Householders election. Burga said Householder has long shown that he opposes key issues to his union, including so-called right to work legislation to prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment and anti-collective bargaining bills such as Senate Bill 5, which was repealed by voters in 2011 amid a firestorm of criticism. State Rep. Kristin Boggs, a Columbus Democrat, said after the vote that she believes the House will be more bipartisan now under Speaker Householder, noting that she and other Democrats have spoken with him often in the weeks leading up to the vote. I feel comfortable calling on him and holding his feet to the fire about some conversations that we had," Boggs said. And I believe, even as of today, I have a stronger line of communication to him than I had with previous members of the leadership team. Householder previously served as House speaker from 2001 until 2004. While he was speaker, Householder and some of his aides were investigated by the FBI on allegations of kickbacks and other ethical issues, but the investigation closed in 2006 without any charges being filed. Speaking with reporters, Householder said he was a different person than when he last served as speaker. Eighteen years changes a lot of people, he said. "I think Im a lot more patient than I was before. I mean, before I was the father of 5 sons. This time, Im a granddad. And I think Ive learned a lot of patience and Ive become hopefully wiser. Mondays vote was the culmination of a year-long, multi-million-dollar battle between Smith and Householder for control of the speakers gavel this year. Smith was elected speaker last year following the unexpected resignation of Cliff Rosenberger amid an FBI investigation into his spending and travel. The two sides each recruited their own candidates to run in GOP primaries; Householders candidates won most primaries, but many of them in turn lost to Democrats last November. Smith and his supporters have accused Householder and his allies of bullying and threats to prevent Smiths election last year -- a charge Householders team denies. On the eve of the vote, a Republican legislative aide accused some legislators and aides who support Householder (though not Householder himself) of racist and sexist comments. On Monday, Householder acknowledged that his caucus is fractured as a result of the speakers race. He said he plans to sit down and talk to people about their differences and similarities, which he described as basic relationship-building skills. Relationships have to be based on trust and through truth, he said. And Ive always done a good job building relationships, so I think were going to be okay. Householder said he plans to take his time before selecting committee chairs, since his priority is to build unity. Weve got a lot of work to do to get this House in order, he said. Thats the first priority. Cleveland.com reporter Laura Hancock contributed to this story. Rotunda Rumblings Voting Day: After a contentious, year-long, multi-million-dollar fight, the battle over who will become Ohio House speaker for the next two years will culminate in a Monday afternoon showdown on the House floor. The question is whether current speaker Ryan Smith or former Speaker Larry Householder (both Republicans) can get the 50-vote majority needed for election. Getting to 50: Householder appears to be four votes shy of a majority, after a Democratic caucus straw poll on Friday showed he has 20 Democratic votes, reports cleveland.coms Jeremy Pelzer. The question now is whether Householder can pry the remaining four votes from the 10 undecided or absent Democrats and/or the 34 Republicans who backed Smith during a caucus vote late last month. The price of Dem support: According to the Columbus Dispatchs Jim Siegel, Democrats say they have discussed issues with Householder that they hope would bring a more bipartisan nature to the House, such as a bipartisan human-resources office, some committee chairmanships, more input in bills that go to the floor, racial sensitivity training for members, and changes to some rules that are used, at times, to further diminish minority influence. Sources told cleveland.com that Householder has specifically agreed to name Democratic and Republican co-chairs for some House subcommittees that deal with energy generation, education funding, and criminal justice reform, among other things. Householder has also reportedly agreed to narrow Republicans majority on all standing committees to a roughly 60-40 ratio. How the vote will go: The speakers vote is set to take place shortly after the House reconvenes at 2 p.m. Kirk Schuring, last sessions House speaker pro tempore (and a Smith supporter), will preside over the voting, even though he will no longer be a House member. If neither Smith nor Householder get a 50-vote majority after 10 rounds of voting, on the 11th ballot the 50-vote threshold is abandoned and whoever gets the most votes will be elected speaker. Second look: On Monday, cleveland.com begins a three-day series looking at Gov. John Kasichs final term in office. The first story, by Andrew Tobias, examines how Kasichs agenda and his standing among fellow Republicans have changed as he has pursued his presidential ambitions. Youll be able to catch up with the whole series here. New laws: Kasich signed seven bills into law Friday, including measures to: Pharma seeks DeWine gag order: Several large drug companies named in lawsuits over the nations opioid epidemic asked a federal judge in Cleveland to sanction Ohio Attorney General and Governor-elect Mike DeWine and two other lawyers for statements they made about the cases on a recent episode of CBS 60 Minutes, writes cleveland.coms Eric Heisig. The motion filed Friday said statements made by DeWine and attorneys Michael Moore and Burton LeBlanc were part of a campaign by lawyers representing state and local governments to taint potential jury pools through misleading, inflammatory, and improper public statements. Detente Dan? DeWines decision to hire well-liked lobbyist Dan McCarthy as his administrations legislative liaison shows he wants a better relationship with state lawmakers than Kasich has, according to Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Smith called McCarthy, a registered Democrat, "an excellent hire and predicted relations with the governors office will get better. Rematch in CD-6? Democrat Shawna Roberts, who was soundly defeated by Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson last November, tweeted Friday that she intends to run again in 2020. I will be filing officially soon, wrote Roberts, a homemaker from Belmont. Child support: Ohio Public Radios Andy Chow has some more details about the incoming DeWine administrations plans to improve early childhood education in Ohio a major campaign theme for the governor-elect. The five areas the administration plans to focus on are newborn home visits, early childhood education, mental-health professionals in schools, foster care, and drug-abuse prevention education. Exit interview: Outgoing State Rep. Wes Retherford tells the Journal-News Michael Pitman that he has a few regrets about his time in the legislature, including waiting months to speak about his OVI arrest in 2017 and not pushing harder to get state Rep. Jim Butler elected speaker. The Hamilton Republican also says he hasnt ruled out running for elected office in the future. Follow Me Looking for new and interesting people to follow on Twitter regarding Ohio politics? In this new weekly segment, well offer our recommendations for accounts you may not already be following - political operatives, activists, analysts, and emerging players. Send your suggestions of Twitter accounts we should spotlight in the future to Jeremy Pelzer via Twitter or email at jpelzer@cleveland.com. Ryan Brune -- @BruneElections If you like political maps - especially ones focusing on Ohio - look no further than Ryan Brune, an economics and math major at Ohio State University. Though hes personally a Democrat, Brunes passion is nonpartisan political cartography. Some of his recent maps include 2018 congressional races by municipality and how U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown fared last November compared to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray. On The Move Brittany Warner, DeWines campaign communications director and a former spokeswoman for the Ohio Republican Party, has accepted a lobbying job in Columbus with The CJR Group, a firm based in Ohio and Washington, D.C. The CJR Group has also hired Cierra Lynch, who most recently worked as a regional field director for the Ohio Republican Party. LEAD Ohio, a progressive leadership training group, has a new executive director: Denny Wojtanowski, a former state representative who served as political director of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Browns re-election campaign last year. Wojtanowski (pronounced what-now-ski) succeeds Misha Barnes. Westerville Chief of Police Joseph Morbitzer has been selected by Attorney General-elect Dave Yost to be the next superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Morbitzer has resigned from the Westerville Police Department, effective Jan. 25. Birthdays Ex-Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus Straight From The Source OK people, start procreating. Soon. - Jim Siegel of the Columbus Dispatch, tweeting about an analysis by cleveland.coms Rich Exner showing that if Ohios population growth continues to be sluggish, the state will likely lose one of its 16 congressional seats after the 2020 census. Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free. HAINES CITY, Florida A man is in custody for the shooting and killing his former girlfriend and wounding another woman, telling police that he did it to get rid of the devil, according to reports. Lisa Bunce, 56, a former resident of Lake Wales, Fla., who has been living in Toledo for about a year after ending her relationship with the suspect, died of a gunshot wound to the head, ABC Action News reports. Her friend, Sandra Andrews, 66, was shot in the face but is expected to survive. Bunces body was found in a closet in a bedroom of Andrews' home, Fox 13 reports. Andrews was found in a screened-in porch and reportedly identified the suspect. Polk County Sheriffs Department deputies arrested David Murdock, 60, at the scene, where he was found sitting outside Andrews' residence. A handgun was recovered in the driveway, according to WTOL Channel 11. He reportedly called 911 and confessed to the shooting. Murdock is jailed on charges of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, armed burglary with assault/battery and shooting into a building. Murdock told us he had to get rid of the Devil' as an excuse for his actions, Sheriff Grady Judd tells ABC Action News. Lots of people blame the Devil for their misdeeds, but it takes a person to pull a trigger. We are going to hold Murdock accountable for murdering his ex-girlfriend and trying to kill another woman. Bunce was supposed to return to Ohio on Tuesday, reports say. If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section. COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio A police officer remains hospitalized in very critical condition after he was struck by a pickup truck while responding to a crash on Friday night. Dale Woods, 46, is a 15-year veteran of the Colerain Township Police Department, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. According to WLWT Channel 5, Woods was at the scene of a vehicle crashing into a pole late Friday night. He was standing outside his cruiser when he was struck by a pickup truck. The driver of the truck remained on the scene and was taken into custody. Reports say police have released few details about the investigation. Dale is a good man hes been a good friend to me for 32 years and hes the guy you want out there on the street taking care of business," Colerain Township Police Chief Mark Denney tells Local 12. "To see him in this condition really brings out the dangers we face everyday home. Colerain Township is located just north of Cincinnati. If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section. BEREA - Air Force Capt. Jason Cole, who is serving with the New York Air National Guard, received the Col. William H. Beyer Commendation for Outstanding Military Service from Berea City Council. Cole is stationed in Rome, N.Y., as the senior director at the 224th Air Defense Squadron, Eastern Air Defense Sector of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The unit supports the Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment and the U.S. Northern Command's homeland defense missions. Cole told Council he was "humbled and honored" by the award. "It really means a lot that you would do this for military members," he said. Cole is a 1996 graduate of Berea High School. He enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2004. He was the top graduate of the Aerospace Control and Warning Systems Apprentice School at Keesler AFB, Miss. After graduating from Columbia College in 2009, Cole was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air National Guard and was a distinguished graduate of the Academy of Military Sciences at Maxwell AFB, Ala. He completed Air Battle Management training in 2011, also as a distinguished graduate. He was promoted to captain in 2014. His awards include the Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award and Air Force Organizational Excellence Award. He was named First Air Force Airman of the Year and New York Air National Guardsman of the Year in 2005. He also received the Yukla 27 Award, which is presented to the student who exemplifies the Air Force's core values of integrity, service and excellence. Berea Service Director Paul Anzalone, who graduated from Berea High in 2000, said he remembers Cole from school. "I'm not surprised he's being honored," Anzalone said. "He was always very humble but very outgoing to anyone who needed help." Cole and his wife, Heather, have three children. His father, Gary Cole, is a 1969 graduate of Berea High. Jason Cole is the great-great-nephew of 2nd Lt. Albert E. Baesel of Berea, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his courage and sacrifice in World War I in France. The Beyer Award is given by City Council twice a year at meetings close to Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The presentation to Cole was delayed because of his military duties. The award is named for the late Bill Beyer, a Marine Corps colonel and past commander of the 3rd Bn, 25th Marines Reserve Detachment based in Brook Park. Beyer was a 1951 graduate of Berea High. He passed away in 2014. HUDSON, Ohio - Scalerator NEO, an educational program for entrepreneurs and leaders who want to expand their businesses, is accepting applications for its 2019 program. Companies based in Northeast Ohio with annual sales of $5 million to $15 million are encouraged to apply for the free, six-month program, which combines classroom and peer-to-peer learning opportunities that aim to drive growth. Classes are held at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea. Scalerator NEO's 2018 class featured 12 businesses with a mix of manufacturing, construction, logistics, distribution and service providers. Participating companies all experienced growth since beginning the program. Participating companies were: ALICE Training Institute OmegaOne Clearsulting Excelsior Marking Lakes Heating & Air Conditioning Logan Clutch Corporation MakerGear Marine Services International QualTech Technologies Regency Construction Services Surface Materials The Sheet Metal Products Chris Mahovlic, president and owner of Sheet Metal Products, credits the program for the growth of his company -- 12 new employees and $1.2 million in new revenue -- to the program. Scalerator NEO is supported by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation and the Fasenmyer Fund. Edge, a nonprofit organization, serves as the program administrator. The deadline to apply is March 1. Up to 20 companies will be selected for the 2019 program, which begins in April. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. LoJack Signal on Reported Stolen Car Reveals Organized Insurance Fraud Ring Detectives from the California Department of Insurance, arrested four people early this morning for allegedly ripping off four auto insurers for more than $34,000 by filing fraudulent insurance claims. One additional suspect was taken into custody Thursday, November 15, 2018. All suspects were booked into the Sacramento County Jail. Investigated by the Urban Auto Fraud Task Force, which is supervised and led by the California Department of Insurance Enforcement Branch and includes the California Highway Patrol and Sacramento County District Attorneys Office, which will prosecute the suspects, the case involves suspects attempting to collect from their auto insurer by falsely claiming their vehicles were stolen when in fact were found in the possession of an accomplice who owned an auto body repair shop. Our multi-agency task force has proven very effective in investigating and prosecuting organized insurance crime rings, said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. These crimes hurt every consumer, because in the end we all pay for these crimes through higher insurance premiums. The seventh suspect and ring leader, Hector Whitley, owned the body shop, located in Sacramento County and was arrested in 2016 after Rancho Cordova Police and the Sacramento County Sheriff traced a stolen vehicles LoJack signal to his body shop where they found several suspicious vehicles partially dismantled and stripped. The California Highway Patrols auto theft investigation team was called in to serve a search warrant and discovered additional vehicles reported stolen, weapons and illegal drugs in the shop. Dylan Allen Dudley, owner of the original vehicle reported stolen admitted to investigators he filed a false police report in an attempt to get his insurance company to pay the claim for his vehicle. Texas Woman Sentenced for Workers Comp Fraud A Travis County district court sentenced Carolina Villanueva of New Braunfels, Texas, on fraud-related workers compensation charges, according to Texas Mutual Insurance Company. Villanueva reported a job-related injury while working as a home health aide for Hill Country Community MHMR Center in Kerrville, Texas, and claimed she was unable to work because of her injury. Texas Mutual began paying income benefits to her, but then discovered Villanueva was working as a community service aide for another company. Investigators call this type of scam double-dipping because the claimant collects benefits for being too injured to work when he or she is, in fact, gainfully employed. The Texas Department of Insurances Division of Workers Compensation prosecutor in Travis County presented the case for indictment. The court sentenced Villanueva to a Class A misdemeanor with two years deferred adjudication and 160 community service hours. She will pay $7,025 in restitution to Texas Mutual. N.Y. Surgeon Charged With Bilking Medical Insurer State officials say a former surgeon who lost his license to practice in New York and the medical supply company he founded have been accused in a multi-million-dollar insurance fraud scheme. Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott says Friday that the charges against 62-year-old Steven St. Lucia of Union Foot Solutions include grand larceny and healthcare fraud. Scott says St. Lucia forged prescriptions and falsified insurance claims for orthotics and compression stockings provided to state employees. Officials say a state workers health insurance plan was bilked out of more than $1 million. State health officials revoked St. Lucias medical license in 2000 after deeming him a danger to the community and morally bankrupt. Authorities said he had inappropriate sexual relations with three of his patients. A message left with his lawyer wasnt returned. The Associated Press reported this story. Seven Suspects Arrested for Insurance Fraud in Louisiana for Staged Crash Troopers assigned to the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations New Orleans Field Office Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft Unit arrested the last suspect in an insurance fraud scheme this week. A total of seven suspects have been arrested after staging a motor vehicle crash and making false insurance claims for injuries and property loss. The investigation began in August 2018, when detectives received information from the Louisiana Department of Insurance in reference to possible fraudulent insurance claims from a motor vehicle crash that occurred on October 14, 2016 at the intersection of Law Street and Forstall Street in Orleans Parish. Through investigation, detectives determined that a rented 2016 GMC Sierra truck and a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu were used in the staged crash. Following the crash, the seven suspects filed a crash report with the New Orleans Police Department and made insurance claims with the intentions of receiving a monetary settlement. A confession was obtained and arrest warrants were issued. The suspects were arrested for two counts of Automotive Insurance Fraud, Criminal Damage to Property with the Intention to Defraud, Injuring Public Records and Filing False Public Records. The following persons were arrested and booked into the Orleans Justice Center: 1. Davis Lee White (age 31) of Chalmette, LA 2. Stephanie Dubea White (age 50) of Chalmette, LA 3. Rachel Lynn White (age 29) of Chalmette, LA 4. Craig Michael Spadoni Sr. (age 47) of Meraux, LA 5. Marvin Dale Walker (age 27) of Violet, LA 6. Dorothyjane Rose Hohensee (age 25) of New Orleans, LA 7. Lydia Dorothy Hohensee (age 42) of Meraux, LA The Louisiana State Police Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft Unit is responsible for investigating referrals of suspected fraudulent insurance acts and for the investigation of individuals and illicit organizations involved in the theft of motor vehicles. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. As the partial shutdown of the federal government enters its 17th day, the end does not appear to be in sight. Over the weekend, negotiations between the White House and Congress failed to make progress, with President Trumps insistence on $5.7 billion in border funding still the principal sticking point (unsurprisingly, the administrations offer to build a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall has not washed with newly empowered House Democrats, who have blasted the whole enterprise as immoral). Shutdowns are always tricky stories for journalists, with complex technical negotiations often hiding behind political grandstanding. This shutdownnow the third-longest in US historyis even trickier, with lies, misleading statistics, and the volatile nature of Trumps decision-making all thrown into the mix. Away from shifting developments on the Hill, the worsening, real-world consequences of the shutdown have provided some solid ground for the press. Since the end of the holiday season, in particular, reporting has crystallized around the furloughed government employees struggling without pay, and the essential personnel who are having to work for free (CNN reported on Friday that hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers called out sick last week, causing staffing problems at major airports). While national parks have remained open, most operations are suspended, a clear safety risk. And if the shutdown extends beyond the end of the month, 38 million Americans would see their food stamps restricted, and more than $140 billion in tax refunds would be at risk, according to The Washington Post. ICYMI: How Der Spiegel was deceived by a fabulist The politics of the situation, however, remain unusually fraught for news organizations, which have had to contend with a fresh barrage of misinformation emanating from the White House. While theres nothing new in Trump and his surrogates lying to journalists, the problem has arguably intensified of late: Axioss Mike Allen argues that Trump has committed fake news recidivism since announcing John Kellys ouster as chief of staff last month. The shutdown, as CNNs Brian Stelter notes, has become a fight over facts, with the administration using a toxic cocktail of flaming immigration rhetoric and junk statistics to create a sense of national-security crisis to justify its planned border wall. News outlets have called out the web of lies behind that picture. Differentiating himself, once again, from his boosterish network colleagues, Fox Newss Chris Wallace won plaudits yesterday for challenging Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, on her claim that thousands of terrorists are flooding into the US from Mexico. I studied up on this, Wallace told Sanders on air. Do you know where those 4,000 people come, where theyre captured? Airports. Reporters pointed out that most undocumented immigrants in the US in recent years passed into that status by overstaying visas, not by crossing the Mexican border. As the shutdown continues, its vital that the press continues to bust Trumps immigration fictions in a clear, consistent, and prominent way. While the stakes are always high with Trumps lies, he raised them yesterday when he told reporters he might declare a national emergency to fund the wall. The consequences could be disastrous: in a piece for the latest issue of The Atlantic, Elizabeth Goitein, an expert on civil liberties and national security, writes that a state of emergency could give Trump sweeping legal powers across a range of policy areas. After Trump spoke yesterday, Goiteins piece did the rounds among reporters on Twitter, and the mediasphere started seriously interrogating the hypotheticals. ABCs George Stephanopoulos interviewed Rep. Adam Smith, the new Democratic chair of the House Armed Services Committee, who confirmed Trumps emergency powers, but warned they would likely face an immediate court challenge. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Speculation about Trumps presidential prerogative and what he might do with it has added yet another layer of complexity to the shutdown story. As it progresses, journalists must continue to separate possibility from certainty and facts from lies, then weave it all together into a comprehensible picture. Many reporters have done that well so farin particular by asking the president and his spokespeople whether the wall is really worth all the pain for out-of-pocket federal workers. But the shutdown beat may only just be getting started. Below, more on the shutdown: Rhetoric to reality: For The New York Times, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Peter Baker track how Trumps wall went from easy campaign talking point to complicated policy conundrum. As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, they write, a way to make sure their candidatewho hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builderwould remember to talk about getting tough on immigration. For The New York Times, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Peter Baker track how Trumps wall went from easy campaign talking point to complicated policy conundrum. As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, they write, a way to make sure their candidatewho hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builderwould remember to talk about getting tough on immigration. The real immigration crisis: The New Yorkers Jonathan Blitzer trains his attention on the administrative problems at the border. There is an immigration crisis at the borderits just not the one the President keeps talking about. In the last half decade, while immigration at the US border has dropped significantly compared with earlier years, the profile of migrants has changed in ways that the US immigration system has never been designed to address, Blitzer says. The more the shutdown fight centers on the wall, the further away lawmakers get from the real policy problem. The New Yorkers Jonathan Blitzer trains his attention on the administrative problems at the border. There is an immigration crisis at the borderits just not the one the President keeps talking about. In the last half decade, while immigration at the US border has dropped significantly compared with earlier years, the profile of migrants has changed in ways that the US immigration system has never been designed to address, Blitzer says. The more the shutdown fight centers on the wall, the further away lawmakers get from the real policy problem. Going live? Late last week, CNNs Oliver Darcy returned to the question of whether cable news networks should broadcast Trumps remarks live. While his pronouncements are newsworthy, doing so, Darcy notes, gives the president a platform to reach millions of people at once and dominate the conversationand Trump often uses the opportunity to deceive viewers by peddling misinformation and falsehoods. Other notable stories: ICYMI: Warrens bid for president, and how the media can do better ahead of 2020 Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop. Every year, we present the Words of the Year list, which is really a compilation of others Words of the Year. And every year, we remark on how short-lived/odd/contrived these lists can be. Lets give this years a fair chance. As always, the lists reflect whats happening in the world. Merriam-Websters WOTY is justice. As M-Ws editor-at-large, Peter Sokolowski, explained, the word of the year is determined in part by metricshigh volume of traffic and a spike in lookups from the previous yearwhich in turn often relate to news. With justice, Sokolowski told The Washington Post, Rather than being driven by a single event, interest in this word correlates to many events in the news, including stories touching on racial justice, social justice, criminal justice, obstruction of justice, countless stories involving the Justice Department, and the specific use of justice as a synonym and title for a judge (and member of the Supreme Court). RELATED: AP announces new policy over the term collision Among M-Ws other top WsOTY (thats the plural, weve decided), lookups for lodestar and nationalism also spiked as a result of news reports (the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times and President Trumps labeling himself as a nationalist, respectively). Popular culture fueled lookups of feckless (Samantha Bees use of it coupled with a slur against Ivanka Trump), laurel (as in Laurel or Yanny?), pansexual (Janelle Monaes labeling of herself), and pissant (used by a radio station to describe Tom Bradys daughter). Not surprisingly, many of those were among Dictionary.coms top lookups for the year as well. But Dictionary.com chose misinformation as its WOTY, noting that its not the same as disinformation. People who spread misinformation often believe the information they are sharing, the blog post says. In contrast, disinformation is crafted and disseminated with the intent to mislead others. Thats a fine hair to split, especially if someone shares disinformation believing it to be true, thus diluting it to misinformation. Sign up for CJR 's daily email The most thoughtful WOTY often comes from the American Dialect Society, whose members, many of them linguists or other language experts, vote in several categories. For 2018, the society voted tender-age shelter as its top pick. Also rendered as tender-age facility or tender-age camp, the term emerged in June 2018 when it was reported that infants and young children were being held in special detention centers after being separated from their families who crossed over the southern border, some illegally, the society said in its news release. The chairman of the societys New Words Committee, the linguist Ben Zimmer, said, The use of highly euphemistic language to paper over the human effects of family separation was an indication of how words in 2018 could be weaponized for political necessity. The runner-up for the ADS WOTY was yeet, an indication of surprise of excitement. Dont be surprised if youve never heard either term: Yeet appears primarily in social media (only 25 hits in Nexis for the past year unrelated to WsOTY), while tender-age shelter appears mostly with so-called, indicating its relative unfamiliar (and euphemistic) nature. The Oxford Dictionaries word, toxic, topped lookups on that site, both in the literal sense of deadly, but also in the metaphorical sense of harmful. Our corpus data shows that, after chemical, masculinity is the most-used word in conjunction with toxic this year, the blog post said, tying that popularity to the #MeToo movement and watershed political events like the Brett Kavanaugh Senate judiciary committee hearing. Oxford skews British, and its runners-up included Big Dick Energy (BDE), defined as An attitude of understated and casual confidence; incel, short for involuntary celibate, used as a self-descriptor by members of an online subculture who deem themselves chronically unable to attract romantic or sexual partners; and cakeism, which Oxford says is mostly British and related to Brexit, meaning to retain all the perks of EU membership with none of the drawbacks of leaving. May those stay on that side of the Atlantic. Speaking of the British, Lynne Murphy, a British linguist who looks at how British and American English intersect or diverge, named mainstream media, or MSM, as the 2018 US-to-UK Word of the Year. The 2018 word that made the trip in the other direction, she says, is whilst, though she acknowledged, In the US, it seems to mostly have a life in print. (Our research finds that whilst is not common in the MSM: The newspaper to use it in the most in the past year was The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La., according to Nexis, with eight citations, many seemingly from British sources.) English is not the only language that gets to pick WsOTY. Katherine Connor Martin, head of US dictionaries for the Oxford University Press, tweeted a list of WsOTY in other languages. Among them: bienveillance (benevolence, kindness) in France; moordstrookje in Belgian Dutch, literally murder strip, referring to a narrow bike path that is too close to the road, so many cyclists are killed on it; sororitat (solidarity among women) in Catalan; Heisszeit (Warm Age) in German; kulnun (burnout) in Icelandic; and wazawai (disaster) as the top character in Japanese. Then there is the bizarro WsOTY, words that Lake Superior State University says should be banished for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Among those were collusion; ghosting; litigate; optics; POTUS/FLOTUS/SCOTUS; thought leader; and, um, yeet, which LSSU defined as to vigorously throw or toss, not exactly the ADS definition. In the end, as the lexicographer Kory Stamper wrote in The Boston Globe, despite all the debating and deciding, WsOTY are fleeting and sometimes specious: Ignore the reality that, by mid-January, all this crunching and consideration will be forgotten by everyone except the handful of people who are involved in the Word of the Year announcements. RELATED: The incorrect way to use the word author Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl. Over 16 billion drams, or more than $33.5 million, were returned to Armenia's state budget last year, the countrys National Security Service said. "16 billion 198 million drams has been returned," Sputnik Armenia cited the statement as saying. At the last press conference, the head of the National Security Service Arthur Vanetsyan said that as of December 15, 13 billion drams ($27 million) had already returned to the state treasury. Transactions for another 216 billion drams are being tested for legality. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) Around half a million devotees flocked to Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo, Manila on Monday for the blessing of the replicas of the Black Nazarene. The Manila Police District said an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 faithful joined the event, which is considered to be a prelude to the "Traslacion" on Wednesday. READ: Over 5 million devotees expected to join Traslacion 2019 Devotees celebrated during the procession, many of whom were aboard vehicles carrying the replicas, while cheering and shouting "Viva Nazareno." Some, meanwhile, were on foot either carrying their own small replica or helping pull the image hearse forward. The southbound lane of Quezon Boulevard and westbound lane of Espana Boulevard were closed for the event beginning 11 a.m. Unlike in previous years, this year's blessing did not include the image from the Quiapo Church. The church's rector, Monsignor Hernando Coronel, said they decided to let their replica stay in the church compound to have more time for Traslacion preparations. Previous processions with the Quiapo Church replica lasted for around nine hours. "Talaga ito eh para mapaghandaan natin, mas maayos natin. Kasi noong mga nakaraang taon hindi naman ganito. Para yung ating a-nuwebe mas solemne, mas sagrado," Coronel said. [Translation: This is for a better preparation which is different from those in previous years, so that the Traslacion will be more solemn and sacred.] "Itong malawakang mga gawain ay syempre maglalagay tayo ng konting sistema at kaayusan pero ang maganda dito yung kanilang debosyon," he added. [Translation: We will surely impose a system, but what's good is their devotion.] CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. Companies of all shapes and sizes are chasing the holy grail of data-driven transformation, driven by the need to unlock insights to fuel new revenue opportunities, drive efficiencies, and deliver innovative products and services. In a survey of 2,300 global business and IT leaders by MIT Technology Review Insights, in association with Pure Storage, 87% of respondents said data is key to new business growth and for delivering better results for customers and clients. Eighty-six percent of those surveyed viewed data as the foundation for making important business decisions. Yet simply collecting and managing data doesnt guarantee results. Companies are facing a variety of challenges transforming data into meaningful business value. Sometimes the hardest part is figuring out exactly where to start. Companies need to determine what is worth the initial time and cost investment for immediate ROI and is that even a realistic expectation in their industry? says Dominic Halpin (@domhalps ), founder of TechNative. Data Management 101 From there, its all about understanding the companys data landscape, including whats available and how to effectively map it to core objectives. The biggest challenge is knowing where strategic data resides, understanding the data definitions, and developing reusable analytics that answer a variety of business questions, notes Isaac Sacolick (@nyike), president of StarCIO, author of Driving Digital, and contributing editor at CIO and InfoWorld. All three challenges are amplified by the growing volume, velocity, and variety of data as well as the need to implement data governance. Organizations should start by asking the right questions and figuring out what data is necessary to help develop those insights. At one end of the process, you ask questions of the dataat the other end, you want results that lead to actionable insights, says David Geer (@geercom), cybersecurity journalist. Getting that process right has everything to do with your success. If you ask the wrong question, you risk a downturn by focusing on something that isnt necessarily relevant, explains Jason Wankovsky (linkedin.com/jwankovsky), CTO and VP of consulting services at Mindsight. Framing the data with context is another important part of the mix. Unfortunately, most databases don't include that context, says Kevin L. Jackson (@Kevin_Jackson), founder of GovCloud Network. That makes reconstituting that context and pairing it with current and past data repositories the #1 challenge for today's decision makers, he says. One of most important aspects of any kind of data initiative is data quality and data governance. Lack of consistent strategies, having multiple copies of similar data, issues with aging and duplication, and a lack of integration between complementary data types make it difficult to take advantage of advanced analytics, notes Larry Larmeu (@LarryLarmeu), cloud technology leader at Accenture. How do you bring it all together in a meaningful and workable way ensuring that your data is in one place and of a useful quality, says Tim Richardson (@OCSL_UK), Enterprise Architect for OCSL, part of the CANCOM family. The adage of garbage in--garbage out definitely applies here. Timing is also critical. If insights arent delivered to the right people at the right time, they lose impact. If insights arent quickly directed to the appropriate stakeholders, they might be ignored or become too obsolete to be utilized, says Phil Siarri (@philsiarri), founder of Nuadox. The same can be said about building a culture around data. The insight tools tend to be home grown and operate in siloes--even an out of the box solution would be an improvement, says Hugo Harris (@Hugo_Harris), co-founder of Kraytix. As such, they need data specialists to draw the insights, and even then, they are not actionable. Welcome AI and Machine Learning Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, both important to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack insights, are being baked into new analytics tools and data management platforms. However, machine learning and AI are new competencies for most IT organizations, which are sorely lacking data science domain expertise, let alone a flush bench of skilled talent. Here's the thing: Data is not intelligence--the people doing smart things, finding valid models to identify signals, and then putting in context that transforms context to insights remains the challenge, says Wayne Anderson (@DigitalSecArch), Enterprise Security Architect at McAfee. That talent can be hard to find given the limited universe of skilled experts and the fact that there is booming demand for their services. Both businesses and public sector agencies acknowledge the unprecedented shortage of data scientists, says Will Kelly (@willkelly), technical writer and content development manager. While I expect to see more strategic and technology-savvy enterprises establish in-house training for business users to use low code/no code tools to draw valuable insights from data, many organizations arent to that point yet. Algorithms, the mathematical models behind calculating and automated reasoning, can also present problems when it comes to accuracy. For a given application, the first attempt at drawing insights can produce an algorithm that has 60% accuracy, which is considered poor, explains Brent Kirkpatrick (@BrentKirkpatri3), founder of Intrepid Net Computing. It can take years of tailoring the algorithms to produce 90% accuracy. Data Security Looms Large Given that data- and analytics-driven insights are a modern-day organizations crown jewels, it goes without saying that security is a top priority. The principles around Zero Trust, which assumes all network identity, access points, and traffic can be potentially compromised so they must be regularly verified, should also be applied to data at rest, contends Valentin Bercovici (@valb00), founder and CEO of PencilDATA. With the epidemic of malware and data breaches, the integrity of my data is now under reasonable doubt, he says. My #1 challenge drawing valuable business insights from data is therefore determining the veracity of my data. Its no longer enough to have a Security Information and Even Management (SIEM) system or layer in commercial threat data, deploy a deception system, or prioritize assets--theres simply no one-size-fits-all security solution. This is still more art than science, says Kayne McGladrey (@kaynemcgladrey), a director of security and information technology. An effective solution needs to incorporate elements of all of those products or solutions to create meaningful and actionable intelligence. While organizations are making great strides addressing these and other challenges, the quest for data-driven insights and analytics-led business transformation is still looking like a long and winding road. For more information on Pure Storage, visit www.purestorage.com. Armenia's armed forces opened sniper fire at an excavator at a border point near Kamarli village of Azerbaijans Gazakh region today at 15:35 (GMT+4), the Azerbaijani State Border Service reported. The excavator was operated by a civilian, some 450 meters from the state border. The bullets hit the excavator, the civilian was not injured. The Armenian armed forces continue to violate the ceasefire regime in the areas of border points on the line of contact with Azerbaijan in Gazakh and Agstafa regions. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will make a nationally televised address and go to the southern border in Texas this week to highlight a "national security and humanitarian crisis" amid a partial government shutdown sparked by a budget battle over a border wall. The White House did not immediately disclose what part of the border Trump intends to visit, but several congressional aides said Monday that he plans to travel to McAllen. A VIP advisory has been issued by the FAA for the airport in McAllen on Thursday, the same day the president is expected to be traveling. McAllen, a city of 142,000 in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, is the site of several pending border security projects. In the past, Trump has made stops along the Mexican border near Laredo as well as in San Diego, where he inspected prototypes for a wall design. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced the president's Thursday trip on Twitter, saying Trump will "meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis." Sanders' announcement was followed by a Trump tweet saying he plans to make a televised address on Tuesday night to rally support for his $5 billion wall funding request to Congress. With Thursday's trip to Texas now part of the White House push, some analysts saw no imminent resolution of the shutdown until then. Texas U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents McAllen, said Monday that despite Trump's warnings of a border crisis, the city has experienced some of the lowest crime rates in 30 years. "If the president does visit McAllen, Texas, he should feel free to walk around and support our local businesses after all it is safer to walk around McAllen than it is D.C.," he said. Gonzalez argued that while more is needed to secure our nation's borders, the solution lies in updated technology, more border patrol agents and customs officers at the ports of entry. "I would remind the president that there are 7,500 open positions with Customs and Border Patrol that have not been filled, and that this should be their top priority," Gonzalez said. "It would be my hope that the president would come to this realization and put his calls for a physical barrier to rest." Trump was last in Texas in October for a campaign rally in Houston, where he denounced a caravan of Central American immigrants then marching toward Tijuana and told supporters that wall construction was already underway. Trump also claimed on Christmas Eve to have signed a contract for 115 miles of border wall in Texas and vowed to visit the border this month "for the start of construction." White House and Homeland Security officials have yet to detail the contract, reveal its cost, or identify what parts of the Texas border with Mexico it would cover. Related: White House struggles to explain Trump's Texas border wall boast. But several pending wall projects could serve as a backdrop for Trump's visit to the Rio Grande Valley, which the Customs and Border Patrol has identified as an area of high illegal cross border activity. Existing border contracts announced by CBP in November would cover a total of 18 miles in Texas 14 miles of levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley and four of new steel bollard wall to replace existing fencing in El Paso. The contracts in the Rio Grande Valley, worth $312 million, include eight miles of new levee wall construction in five segments south of Alamo, Donna, Weslaco, Progresso and Mercedes. Another six miles lies within the McAllen Station area. Both projects were slated to begin in February. An administration official told the Chronicle last week that the government had "obligated" additional money from the 2017 and 2018 budgets to cover 115 miles of wall. However Congress barred the White House from using that money for the sort of barriers depicted in the prototypes Trump inspected last year. Trump is seeking more than $5 billion in 2019 to construct what he is calling a "steel" barrier on the border. On Sunday, he doubled down on his threat to declare a national emergency to get his way. He also has threatened to shut down the southern border. Immigrant rights advocates and some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, have said it would be illegally for Trump to build a wall with military funds. So far, Democratic congressional leaders have refused Trump's funding demand, arguing that a barrier of the size and scope Trump has described would be a wasteful way to secure the border. They have offered $1.3 billion for broader security measures. Trump campaigned on his plan to build a border wall from the Gulf to the Pacific - one that Mexico would pay for. But he has since turned to Congress for the money. His administration also has given shifting accounts in recent weeks of what would constitute a wall. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he is pushing for a barrier of steel slats rather than a concrete wall, saying it would be "less obtrusive and stronger." In a letter to congressional leaders, acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Russell Vought requested $5.7 billion for 234 miles of "new physical barrier" made of steel. The letter also sought $800 million to "address urgent humanitarian needs" as part of the influx of unaccompanied migrant children and families at the border. The new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives voted last week to reopen the government with $1.3 billion for border security but no additional wall money. Instead they have offered to end the shutdown without conditions and negotiate border security and immigration separately. Only one Texas Republican, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of San Antonio, voted with the Democrats. After a weekend of negotiations, there was no break through by Monday, the 17th day of a partial government shutdown that has idled some 800,000 federal workers, some of whom will start missing paychecks this week. Even as the standoff continues, the administration said Monday that the IRS will still be able to pay tax refunds in the coming weeks, and some staff might be called back to work to clean national parks where bathrooms have been neglected and refuse has piled up. House Democrats also sent a letter to the head of the Transportation Security Administration on Monday to raise concerns about the impact on TSA workers, who are required to work without pay during the shutdown. Texas has nearly 200,000 federal workers, including postal workers, according to Governing Magazine data. Only workers in about a half dozen agencies are furloughed. But many, including TSA and border patrol agents, remain on the job without pay until the shutdown ends. Meanwhile, the blame game continued Monday, with no resolution in sight. Democrats have accused Trump of playing to his conservative base in the impasse, while Republicans say that Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are beholden to their party's liberal activists. Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a top ranking Senate Republican, said in a Fox News interview Monday that Democratic leaders want to embarrass the president politically. "They want to deny him what he's asking for and they want the political benefit among their base for having done so," he said. Cornyn added that if the idea of a wall might sound "off-putting" to some Texans, the need for some kind of "physical barriers" is not. He called on Trump to offer a comprehensive package of barriers, technology and personnel enhancements in his address on border security. Cornyn also called the shutdown a "contrived, phony crisis" that could be resolved with good-faith negotiations. "Nobody's going to get 100 percent of what they want," he said. The Jazmine Barnes case has taken some unexpected turns over the last 36 hours. After a week filled with speculation and outrage about a killer whom eyewitnesses described as a bearded white man in a pickup, police over the weekend identified two black male suspects who contradict that narrative. Eric Black Jr. is facing a capital murder charge, while a second suspect, partially identified in court as Larry Woodruffe, has been apprehended on a separate drug charge, records show. For those who have been lost in the twists and turns of the case, here's some answers to a few lingering questions. What was the basic timeline of events ? On Dec. 30, Jazmine Barnes, 7, was riding in a car with her mother and three sisters outside a Wallisville Road Walmart when a a gunman pulled up next to them and opened fire. Barnes was fatally shot in the head, while the mother and six-year-old were wounded. The following Monday, Dec. 31, police released a description of the possible suspect and the vehicle involved. At first, police believed a bearded white man driving a red pickup was responsible. That Tuesday, on New Year's Day, activist and writer Shaun King joined civil rights attorney Lee Merritt to offer a $35,000 reward for finding the killer. As King raised the reward throughout the week to $100,000, high-profile celebrities joined them to ask for the public's help searching for the killer. LATEST: Grieving father reacts to arrests in Jazmine Barnes slaying By Wednesday, activists started to sound off on the possible nature of the shooting, claiming it was racially motivated. On Thursday, police released a sketch of the supposed white shooter. That same day, King received a tip that two black men, identified as Larry Woodruffe and Eric Black Jr., were involved in the shooting and relayed the information to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. At first, King said he and Gonzalez couldn't make sense of the tip. Then, on Saturday, police pulled over Black and ultimately confirmed he was the driver in the shooting, police said. He has been charged with capital murder. Court records show the possible second suspect, Larry Woodruffe, was arrested Sunday on a drug possession charge. He has not been charged in her death. Who are the key people involved ? Barnes' mother, LaPorsha Washington, spoke to reporters from the hospital last week after sustaining a gunshot wound in the shooting. She begged for the shooter to turn himself in and provided a chilling account of the incident. Eric Black Jr. and Larry Woodruffe are both suspected in the child's death, though only Black has been charged. Police pulled over Black on Saturday for not using a turn signal, and he later confessed to the crime, police said. Woodruffe had not been charged in the child's death as of Monday afternoon. Houston civil rights attorney Lee Merritt is currently representing the family in the case. When news of Barnes' death broke, he joined activist and writer Shaun King in offering a $35,000 reward to find the killer. King, who boasts more than 1 million Twitter followers, helped boost national attention for the case on social media throughout the week. He offered a $100,000 reward to find the shooter. He also facilitated the tip that led police to suspects Eric Black Jr. and Larry Woodruffe, who had not been charged in the child's death as of Monday morning. RELATED: Why the sketch of Jazmine Barnes' alleged killer didn't match the suspects in her death Sheriff Ed Gonzalez spoke to the public throughout the week as investigators searched for the suspect. He welcomed the support from King and other celebrities in drawing attention to the tragedy. What is the status of the second suspect ? The suspect who has not been charged in Barnes' death, Larry Woodruffe, is currently in jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond on a separate possession of controlled substance charge, court records show. His next hearing for that case has been scheduled for Wednesday. It's unclear when he may face any charges related to the shooting. Gonzalez said on Sunday that "our work is not finished." Why didn't the sketch match the suspect arrested ? Activist Shaun King recently explained the discrepancy between the initial sketch of the suspect and the men suspected in her death. In a lengthy post on Instagram, he said four witnesses saw a white man drive away from the scene in a red pickup. It turns out, that man was likely just another witness, he said. What are the child's parents saying ? In the heat of the manhunt for the shooter, the child's mother, LaPorsha Washington, addressed the suspect from her hospital bed. She asked for him to "do the right thing." "I know you're hurting just as much as we're hurting," she said last Thursday. After police identified both suspects and charged one over the weekend, the child's father, Christopher Cevilla, fought back tears. "Now my baby has gotten justice," Cevilla said outside the Harris County Jail on Sunday. "Now we can properly put her to rest without having to put her to rest and we're still on a manhunt looking for a suspect." Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message The Texas Legislature faces several big issues when it begins on Tuesday, including school finance and property taxes, according to the Austin American Statesman. At noon, 150 members of the Texas House and 31 members of the Texas Senate will be sworn into office. During the 140-day legislative session, which ends May 27, 2019, the two groups will consider in excess of 6,000 bills. Of that pool, we've pulled out some of the most notable. Read on, and click through the photos above, to see the 17 biggest issues in the 86th Texas Legislative Session. And for more analysis from our political reporter on the upcoming Texas lege, visit our premium website, HoustonChronicle.com. School Finance After years of lawsuits, plus a 2016 ruling finding the state's public school finance system barely constitutional, the Texas Commission on Public School Finance reviewed the way public schools are funded and suggested several changes, says the Statesman. The list includes giving districts with incentives chances to improve student outcomes, increasing pay for effective teachers, and providing property tax relief. Of the latter, a property tax revenue cap of 2.5 percent per year for school districts has been presented by Governor Greg Abbott's office. This plan would not only require the state to increase education funding, but also eliminate recapture payments, which dictate that property-wealthy districts pay the state to help support property-poor districts. The result? By 2023, the state would spend $3.8 billion more than it does now simply to maintain funding levels, says the Statesman. To increase the state's share of education funding, conservative lawmakers propose using increases in general revenue, plus oil and gas production taxes, that otherwise would go into the rainy day fun. Public education advocates fear property tax relief will come at the expense of injecting new money into Texas classrooms. RELATED: Five things to watch in the Texas Legislature in 2019 Property Taxes While comments about reining in property taxes are prevalent at the GOP-controlled Capitol, per the Statesman, local government and school district officials say doing so cuts thousands of expenditures, from repairing potholes to buying chalk. Over the last 10 years, the state's share of school funding has decreased from 48.5 percent to 38 percent, according to the Legislative Budget Board. With the cuts, districts have increasingly turned to local property tax revenue. To ease their annual tax bill pain, some property owners are looking to lawmakers to help. In 2018, Governor Greg Abbott proposed limiting annual growth to 2.5 percent, while increasing state funding for schools. He has yet to offer suggestions on how to pay for the plan, however, saying he'll leave the details to lawmakers, the Statesman says. During this session, the legislature will need to agree upon a figure to cap property taxes and whether to offer more state tax revenue for schools. Harvey Funding Paying for hurricane-related relief for Harvey, which displaced 32,000 people in Texas in August 2017, appears to be a priority for fiscally hawkish lawmakers. State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, has told constituents that entering the legislative session her "top three priorities are Harvey, Harvey and Harvey," says the Statesman. But how much the Legislature spends and where that money comes from will have a ripple effect on the rest of the budget. At a minimum, the state is likely to spend around $860 million to cover increased aid from the Texas Education Agency and a host of other state agencies, according to the latest available figures from the Legislative Budget Board. But that number could be as much as $1.36 billion more, which is how much the state education agency has reportedly estimated the school districts lost in property tax revenue, says the Statesman. The money could come through general tax revenue or from the rainy day fund, now estimated at $12.5 billion, which has been used only once for a natural disaster: A 2013 spending bill included $185 million to cover wildfire recovery costs. Marijuana Although cannabis activists view full marijuana legalization as likely too big of a bridge to cross next year for the Legislature, they're still eyeing 2019 as a breakthrough year to at least ease some of the state's prohibitions. Senator Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, has filed legislation that would make medical cannabis available to more people at greater potency levels. Other cannabis-related bills include efforts to decriminalize small amounts of pot possession and enable Texas farmers to grow and market hemp, marijuana's non-psychoactive cousin, to the extent allowed by federal law. To see more issues in the 2019 Texas Legislature this, head to the photo gallery above. Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter specializing in social media, the famous, and food. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | Marcy.deLuna@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message 3 1 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Houston police have released surveillance images of a gunman wanted in the fatal shooting of a salon manager on Sunday. The suspect allegedly shot and robbed the manager at 12:15 a.m. as he collected money for a small after-hours concert at the salon, at 17557 Imperial Valley Drive. A man who crashed into a home in southwest Houston early Monday had been shot, police said. The man wrecked into the building around 1 a.m. on South Post Oak and Tiger Lilly Way, said Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department. After learning to tie knots and administer first aid, delivering lunches to low-income preschool children and building trails and dams in Houstons parks, a dozen young men in khaki shirts and sashes crowded with merit badges trooped onto the stage Saturday morning at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. They were being promoted to the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest honor in the Boy Scouts of America. The 12 were one of the largest groups of African-Americans to achieve the honor at the same time in Houstons history, according to their troop, number 242. As Boy Scout participation across the nation has steadily declined the number of Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts fell 8 percent between 2012 and 2017 the historically African-American troop has been flourishing in Third Ward. Parents drive their children from across town to participate in the program, said Jeffery Misher, a cubmaster who became a Troop 242 Eagle Scout in 1978. The troop counts the children of former Congressman Mickey Leland, former City Council member Anthony Hall and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee among its alumni. And 54 years after it started, the troop founded by a pastor who had been rejected from a white Boy Scout troop as a child is still promoting nearly as many Eagle Scouts as it did in the 70s, when the nationwide popularity of the program hit its peak. The reason for troops continued success? It truly is a family, said Tanyel Bennett, mother of freshly minted Eagle Scout Shane Bennett. Misher also compared the troop to family. Families, if theyre working properly, are strong, he said. At a park in southwest Houston on Sunday afternoon, Shane Bennett, Dameion Crook and Eric Sims, each wearing his newly awarded Eagle Scout pin, were still basking in the glow of their success. They said they had formed bonds within the scouting community. It made me think about coming back to support people when Im older, Sims said of those relationships. I grew close to other scouts, Crook said. I wanted to do more and see the troop grow. Scouting also led them to undertake initiatives in the wider community. The path they walked Sunday along the Willow Waterhole, lined with signs identifying the types of nearby trees, had been laid through the efforts of nine Eagle Scouts and a Gold Award winner, the Girl Scout equivalent. Bennett, one of the scouts who had led the trail project, said working on the path had taught him how to delegate as he coordinated a team of volunteers in putting down gravel and installing signposts. Crook and Sims learned about dealing with bureaucratic paperwork as they secured permissions to beautify their high school, Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy, by installing an outdoor seating area with chairs, stools and bird feeders. And the troop also provided a forum for frank discussions on subjects such as racism and police brutality. Our scoutmaster told us how the world works, Crook said. You need to try harder than other people. By making the rank of Eagle Scout something only 4 percent of Boy Scouts achieve they have already been recognized for their outstanding character. People look at you differently when you say youre an Eagle Scout, Bennett said. They know you have high expectations for yourself. rebecca.schuetz@chron.com twitter.com/raschuetz The man accused of driving a car in the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes last week appeared in court Monday where a judge ordered he be held without bail. State District Judge Nikita Harmon arraigned Eric Black Jr., is a 20-year-old man who was arrested Saturday after a traffic stop while driving a different car. In response to the parliamentary request of the Alternative for Germany party, the German government raised some issues concerning the Armenian mafia's activities in the country. The document notes that Armenian organized criminal groups are considered by the German state in the broader context of the Russian-Eurasian organized crime. Whereby, Armenian organized criminal groups rank fourth in the number of criminal cases initiated in 2017 in the fight against "Russian-Eurasian" organized crime. Only those with citizenship of Russia, Germany and Lithuania were ahead of Armenians. The German government responded that the activity of the Armenian organized criminal groups is especially widespread in the east and north of the country. In addition, the German government is aware of individual cases of cooperation between Armenian criminal groups and the Italian mafia. German media has been writing about the Armenian mafia's rampage in Germany for years. The exchange of fire between two Armenian groups in the German city of Erfurt in 2014 raised widespread concern in the public. After that, German law enforcement officers paid close attention to immigrants from Armenia and established a special investigative group FATIL to investigate activities of Armenian criminals in the country. Last year, a closed report of the Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office was made available to a combined team of Der Spiegel and MDR reporters. In particular, it stated that "the Armenian mafia exists and represents a threat to the rule of law." It also reported on the alleged ties of the Armenian Ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatyan with Armenian criminal structures. Moreover, it became known to journalists that German security services refused to cooperate with the embassy and Smbatyan personally in investigating the Armenian mafia's actions - since German intelligence has reason to suspect that the ambassador is a thief-in-law himself, who involved in money laundering and smuggling. New details about Ashot Smbatyans links should have been disclosed in the MDR report in the autumn 2018, but the ambassador obtained a primary prohibition on the dissemination of information, which "discredits his reputation. This decision is intended to limit the possible image losses of the plaintiff until the court understands the details of the case. Representatives of the German public television, in turn, have already said that they are ready for a full-fledged trial and will seek to lift the ban in court. New Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman on Tuesday will propose to Commissioners Court a non-precinct based countywide polling system, where voters can cast ballots at the locations most convenient to them. Life gets in the way; youve got to pick up the kids, or go to another job, Trautman said at her office Monday. But if people actually had a choice of when and where to vote, I think you would see a big difference in turnout. Fifty-two Texas counties, including neighboring Fort Bend and Brazoria, have used voting centers. In last Novembers mid-term election, Harris County residents could vote at any of 46 county locations during the two-week early voting period. They had to cast ballots at their assigned precincts on Election Day, when the county operates more than 700 polling sites. It is unclear how many voting centers would be needed, which could vary depending on what is on the ballot and projected turnout. Trautman said she would begin by using the countys 46 early voting locations as Election Day voting centers, in addition to its precinct polling sites. Her office, she said, would use the resulting turnout data to make future decisions about the number of centers needed. During her campaign, Trautman pitched voting centers as a way to increase turnout by 2 to 5 percent. She said voters are more likely to participate when they can cast ballots on Election Day near their work or school, which may be outside their precincts. Former county clerk Stan Stanart, whom Trautman defeated last November, was open to moving to countywide polling places. He said in October that the option is available only because the county moved to electronic poll books on his watch. Without the modified iPads, which can communicate with each other so voters cannot cast ballots at multiple locations, each polling place would need a paper record of the countys 2.3 million voters. Trautman declined to set a deadline to complete the switch to voting centers, so as not to rush the process. She said she plans to start with lower-turnout elections, such as May school board balloting or Novembers Houston city races, and evaluate the results. She said to debut the program during a presidential election, when more than 1 million voters regularly turn out, would be irresponsible. The new clerk said she has studied Travis Countys voting centers model, which debuted in 2011, and hired away Michael Winn, that countys elections director. Winn said voters needed several cycles to get used to the new system, which he said eventually boosted turnout 10 to 12 percent. Voters really enjoyed the fact that during lunchtime or after work, in that crunch time before polls close vote centers make it so they can go without worry to a place within their proximity, Winn said. Through studying turnout patterns and consulting with neighborhood leaders, Winn said Travis County was able to close about 20 percent of its traditional polling places without hampering turnout. Trautman said she is open to consolidating Harris County polling sites, but only after consulting with communities. She acknowledged the role polling places play in the civic fabric of neighborhoods especially where residents once had been denied suffrage and said she would leave open sites that hold such significance. The Harris County Democratic Party endorsed the proposal, and a spokeswoman said County Judge Lina Hidalgo supports the idea. A spokesman for the county Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment. More than a dozen community members have signed up to speak about the issue at Commissioners Court on Tuesday. Among them is AJ Durrani of the Empowering Communities Initiative, which represents nine local Asian-American groups. He urged the clerks office to ensure there are enough voting centers in minority communities. A miscommunication between a Korean-American group and poll workers during early voting this past November in Spring Branch led to scores of voters being denied translation services. There are churches all over the place for voting on election day, why not some of the ethnic community centers? Durrani said. Another resident who signed up to speak encouraged the county to recruit mosques as polling sites. Kyle Longhofer, a former Democratic Party official and election judge in Fort Bend County, said the switch to voting centers there in 2016 cut down on the number of provisional ballots cast by voters who arrived at the wrong polling places. Provisional ballots are segregated from regular votes, and often are challenged and thrown out. You hate to see people waste their vote, Longhofer said. Harris and other Texas counties in 2020 also must grapple with the consequences of the Legislatures decision to eliminate straight-ticket voting, which increases the time needed to cast a ballot. Even though 76 percent of Harris County voters cast straight-ticket ballots in November, long lines dismayed voters during early voting and on Election Day. Trautman said she expects the early voting centers to alleviate that problem. If a location is crowded, she reasoned, election workers can direct voters to a nearby polling place with a shorter wait. The voting centers are Trautmans first major proposal as county clerk since taking office Jan. 1. Rearranged furniture and half-hung portrait frames show her staff still has much moving in to do at its Caroline Street office, but Trautman said she was eager deliver on campaign pledges. She also plans eventually to replace the countys aging voting machines. Zach Despart covers Harris County for the Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at zach.despart@chron.com . 3 1 of 3 Arch-Con Construction Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Sprouts Farmers Market will open a new store in Sugar Land on Wednesday, Jan. 16, to help meet the growing local demand for fresh, natural and organic foods at great prices. As part of the grand opening, Sprouts will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Sugar Land location at 13550 University Blvd. before doors open at 7 a.m. The public is invited to join the festivities and shop among thousands of healthy items offered throughout the 30,000-square-foot store. Dec. 29 At 11:15 a.m., police officers were dispatched to the 4000 block of Tennyson, in reference to a disorderly conduct. Officers were dispatched to the 3700 block of Wroxton in reference to a verbal disturbance. Upon further investigation, a subject was voluntarily transported to Ben Taub NeuroPsychiatric Center for further evaluation. An Officer was dispatched to the 2800 block of West Holcombe in reference to an identity theft report. Dec. 30 An Officer was dispatched to the Houston Police Department Jail, to take custody of a subject with West University Place Police Department warrants. The subject was taken into custody and transported to the West University Place Police Department jail without incident. Dec. 31 An officer took a report of fraud in the 3800 block of University Boulevard. An unknown person fraudulently used a gift card without the owners effective consent. An officer was dispatched to the 3900 block of Oberlin in regard to a minor accident. A report for failure to stop and give information/ accident report was generated. At 8:14 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the Houston Police Department SE Jail to pick up a prisoner with warrants with the West University Place Police Department. The prisoner was transported to the West University Place Police Department Jail for booking without incident. Jan. 1 At 3:57 a.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6400 block of Weslayan at a high rate of speed. A traffic stop was conducted in the 6700 block of Weslayan and after further investigation, the driver (Christopher Hernandez) 08/02/97 was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated with open container and the passenger was found to be in possession of marijuana and elected to enroll in the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program (MMDP) and was arrested for Public Intoxication (PI). At 3:09 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in reference to a theft case Jan. 3 An Officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby, to speak with a complainant in regards to identity theft. Officers were dispatched to a burglary of a habitation that already occurred, in the 6300 block of Rutgers. A report was generated. An officer was dispatched to Harris County Jail facility to pick up a subject who had warrants out of the City of West University Place Police Department. Upon arrival the officer took care and custody of the subject who was transported to the West University Place Police Department Jail without incident. Jan. 4 Officers were dispatched to the 6400 block South Wakeforest to do a check by with the West University Place Paramedics on a sick call. Upon arrival it was discovered that the resident required medical attention and that the resident was unable to open the door. Forced entry was made through the back door to be able to provide the resident medical attention. Dec. 24 At 1 p.m., Officer Carson was dispatched to the Bellaire Fire Department lobby (5101 Jessamine) to meet with a victim who had his phone stolen while at a house party in the 4600 block of Oleander. Dec. 25 At 9:01 a.m., Officer Carson was dispatched to 5400 Patrick Hendry in regards to the victims observing a male subject masturbating in his vehicle. Male subject left location as the victims called the Bellaire Police Department. The suspect was later identified and charges were filed. At 11:28 p.m., Officer Barrientos responded to a burglary of a motor vehicle at 5100 Terminal St. Ofc. Barrientos met with the reportee who advised he observed the south gate of the business was broken. Ofc. Barrientos discovered a company truck was taken, multiple vehicles were broken into and the gate was destroyed during this incident. Dec. 27 At 10:50 a.m., Officer D. Rocha observed a white colored 2008 Dodge Ram truck vehicle traveling westbound in the 5200 block of Bellaire Boulevard with a flat tire. The driver was found to be driving a motor vehicle while his Texas drivers license currently suspended. Driver was subsequently arrested and charged with driving while license suspended / enhanced with no valid insurance. Ofc M. Rodriguez assisted at the scene. At 3:27 a.m., Sgt. D. Hollie observed the suspects vehicle drive through a red turn left light at 5400 Bellaire Blvd. Sgt. Hollie initiated a traffic stop. The driver showed several signs of intoxication and was subsequently arrested for Driving While Intoxicated. The suspect also was found to have a previous conviction for DWI in 02/26/13 from Harris County, South Houston. Dec. 28 At 3:03 a.m., Officer Bellard was on patrol in the area of 6800 IH 610 West Service Road when he observed a silver Chevy fail to signal a lane change and fail to signal a turn. Officer Bellard initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and after further investigation the driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated. One of the passengers was also arrested for possession of a controlled substance. At 2:54 p.m., Officer M. Santillanes was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department lobby for an identity theft call in the 5100 block of Patrick Henry. Officer Santillanes met with the victim who stated on or about October 28, 2018, the victim received an alert regarding fraudulent activity on her credit report. Officer Santillanes completed an identity theft report. At 6:53 p.m., Officer Younger was waved down by the reportee in front of the Bellaire Police Department and advised of an accident in the 6400 block of IH 610 South West. She stated that she was the victim and the at-fault vehicle fled the scene of the accident. At 8:32 p.m., Officer Schwausch was dispatched to the 6700 block of IH 610 West Service Road in reference to a vehicle seen running a red light. Officer Schwausch found the vehicle stopped in a moving lane of traffic on the service road. Further investigation found the driver to be driving while intoxicated. The suspect was charged with driving while intoxicated and placed into custody without incident. Officers Ortega, Bellard, and Corporal OSullivan assisted with this investigation. Dec. 30 At 3:56 a.m., Officer Younger located a suspicious vehicle on the top floor of a parking garage at 4700 Elm St. Upon making contact with the occupants of the vehicle, it was observed they were smoking marijuana. A probable cause search was performed on the vehicle and drugs and alcohol were located inside the vehicle. The driver was placed into custody for drug offenses and the passenger was released with no charges. Officer Norman assisted with this investigation. At 1:49 p.m., Officer Trujillo was dispatched to the 4600 block of Beech Street in reference to a theft. Upon the Officers arrival he spoke to the complainant who stated their housekeeper of three years stole checks from their checkbook and cashed a couple of them. At 5:03 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to the 5900 block of the IH 610 WLS in reference to a major accident. During the investigation, the at-fault driver was found to be in possession of a controlled substance. The driver was transported to Ben Taub Hospital and a to-be warrant will be filed. Unicorns will come to life in the form of sweet treats thanks to a new magical eatery opening its doors in Montrose this February. Unicorn-Magical Dessert Bar is expected to open off Westheimer Road in Montrose by late February or early March, owner Ufman Babar told the Chronicle. Babar opened his first Unicorn-focused eatery in Dallas Dec. 21 and said the reception there has been overwhelming. "When we opened in Dallas we were not sure how it would perform, [but] it just went crazy," Babar said. "People drove in from Houston, Austin and San Antonio, people even flew in from Mexico...there was a four hour wait at the grand opening." Aside from anticipating long lines, Houstonians can expect to find a unicorn wonderland adorned with "pink everything, butterflies, flowers and clouds," on a first visit to the dessert bar. Unicorn-decorated cakes, cake pops, macaroons, ice cream, pink hot chocolate and even a chocolate fountain are all on the menu for the Houston location. "We are the only Unicorn dessert bar in the U.S.," Babar said. "People sell unicorn cakes, but nobody has a Unicorn Dessert Bar." SWEET SPOTS: Best places in Houston to get baked goods One of the most popular items at the Dallas location are the unicorn milkshakes. The vanilla milkshakes are topped with a piece of six-layer rainbow cake, adorned with a waffle cone that serves as the unicorn horn. Babar said another popular item that sells out at the Dallas location is the lemonades, which are served in luminescent glasses and topped with cotton candy. "We had so many of these [the lemonades] and we sold out in a few hours," Babar said of the Dallas location's grand opening. "Shakes and lemonades are the most popular. The bottles [on the lemonades] have lights on them that flicker, it's just beautiful." Babar said considering Houston's love for food and unique concepts, he knew his second location had to be in the Bayou City. "We chose Houston because we wanted to have a bigger location [and] because Houston has a bigger foodie scene than Dallas," Babar said. The Houston location will offer catering services through pick up only. Babar said he has been asked several times about renting the dessert bar out for parties but said that idea is still a work in progress. For now, he said he is focused on keeping customers happy, full and not standing in line. WHO MADE THE LIST? A list of the nation's best mail-order pies includes a Houston favorite "We were getting sold out every day and had to close the doors [of the Dallas location] one day," Babar said. "We learned a lot from this launch so we are trying to get better for the Houston location." The grand opening will last three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Anyone who dresses up as a unicorn will receive 20 percent off their order, Babar said. Once Unicorn-Magical Dessert Bar officially opens its doors, Babar said Houstonians can get themselves a sweet treat from noon to midnight on the weekdays and from noon to 3 a.m. on the weekends. "Expect a long line I would say," Babar said. "[and] come and enjoy." FOR HOUSTON FOODIES: Find our food critic's list of TOP 100 Houston restaurants and more of Houston's dining scene at HoustonChronicle.com. Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message A federal judge ruled Jan. 4 Carnival Cruise Line is not responsible for the death of a 33-year-old mother from Arlington when she fell overboard during a cruise from Galveston to Mexico in 2016, according to media reports. Mother of four Samantha Broberg was seen on video falling overboard from the Carnival Liberty May 13. After Broberg was reported missing from the ship, the FBI launched an investigation into her death. Krispy Kreme has opened a new location at 8460 FM 1960, Humble in time for the new year. The North Carolina-based company is known for its wide selection of donuts glazed, powdered and seasonal and drinks both hot and cold. A drive-thru lane is also available. This brings the total of Krispy Kreme spots in Houston to seven. The chain was founded in 1937 and on Sept. 26 made its debut in Dublin, Ireland. McAlister's Deli, one of the original tenants at Avenida Houston's restaurant promenade has closed. The restaurant, which specialized in made-to-order sandwiches and salads, closed Monday, according to Houston First, the corporation that manages the George R. Brown Convention Center, home to Avenida's collection of restaurants that include Grotto Downtown, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, Kulture and The Rustic. This is the second of the original Avenida restaurants to shutter after Bud's Pitmaster BBQ ceased operations in October. Houston First will announce a new restaurant going into the Bud's space next week, said Holly Clapham, chief marketing officer for Houston First. The ambitious Avenida Houston, taking in the breadth of Discovery Green and flanked by the Hilton Americas and Marriott Marquis hotels, debuted just before Super Bowl LI in February 2017, was populated by local, familiar restaurants that offered a variety of dining experiences. That two restaurants have closed as Avenida nears its second anniversary should not be considered a failure for Houston First, Clapham said. "Instead of considering it a setback, I feel like we're now entering the next phase of maturity," she said, adding that restaurant business has become more competitive in downtown and in the neighboring EaDo neighborhood. "There ae such unique concepts downtown and in EaDo. There's a lot of competition for quality. When people make their decision about where to spend their money, there's a competitive ring around the convention center. For retailers, it has to be the best to compete with their neighbors. It's challenging." Clapham points to The Rustic, a Dallas-based live music dining experience as an example of a unique restaurant concept doing great business at Avenida. She added that the McAlister's space also will be filled but could not say whether it would be with another restaurant. According to its website, McAlister's Deli operate more than 400 restaurants in 28 states. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. From school buses to construction to patriotic, there was a Christmas tree of virtually every kind to delight viewers who visited the Dayton Community Center during the holidays. Whimsical decorations transported children, both young and old, across the portals of time to the North Pole and sparked holiday cheer. Each year, businesses, organizations and individuals are encouraged to put up a tree in the grand foyer of the Dayton Community Center. The awards were given out at the awards luncheon by Liberty County Bikes For Christmas who thanked sponsors and their many supporters for their help in serving needy children. Winning the Most Extravagant and Peoples Choice Awards was First Liberty National Bank. Crayton Constructions ladder-style Christmas Tree won the Most Unique Christmas Tree, beating out Tammy Alexanders relaxing palm tree entry (with the whistling noise!). Dayton ISD Transportation won the Best Theme with a tree called Bus Stop that was loaded with stop signs green for go and red for stop ornaments and bus-themed ribbon. The tree was also topped with a yellow school bus. This year we found 50 families that needed our help the most, said Cassie Milam. We thoughtfully selected gifts for each child in the family, based on their interests, as if they were our own child or grandchild. Some families were small, some had six and seven children, she said. The charity gave out over 1,000 toys, gifts and bikes, a winter coat for each child and each family received everything needed to prepare a delicious traditional Christmas meal. Without any fundraising events this year, Liberty County Bikes For Christmas was able to raise just over $28,000. We are so grateful for each and every donation we received, from $10 to our largest donation. We would like to give special thanks and recognition for their financial contribution, as well as the community partners that were vital to the event's success, Milam said. Heres a list of the sponsors for December 2018: Diamond Sponsor: ($5,000 +) PLC Construction, Inc., Eddie and Charlotte Presnull Platinum Sponsors: ($1,000 +) Huntsman Liberty Walmart Walmart Foundation Charles Jennette Milam Tire and Auto Liberty County EMS TGCI, Houston Anthony and Stephanie Milam Community Partners: Warden Stacey LeBlanc and staff of TDCJ L.V. Hightower Unit City of Dayton - Dayton Community Center Liberty Walmart Liberty Brookshire Brothers MCJROTC Bronco Battalion Casa Don Boni and Mikes BBQ Santa - Brad Harrington Partners in Blue at the event: Liberty Co. Sheriff Dept, Sheriff Bobby Rader Liberty FD and 321 FD Liberty PD and Dayton PD Liberty Co. Pct 4 Constables dtaylor@hcnonline.com The Gulf Coast has become home of one the largest producers of a common plastic: Shell fired up its fourth alpha olefins unit at its chemical plant in Geismar, La., the company said Monday. The multibillion-dollar expansion adds 425,000 metric tons per a year in capacity to the chemical manufacturing site, bringing its total alpha olefin production up at Geismar to more than 1.3 million metric tons per a year. That makes it the largest alpha olefins producing site in the world, the company said. Alpha olefins are key ingredients in consumer goods such as laundry detergents, motor oils and hand soaps. The project represents a major expansion of Shell's petrochemical business in the region and will support the Deer Park facility in the greater Houston area. The new unit is part of Shell's push to integrate the downstream side of its business. The company said the Geismar site is supported with advantaged ethylene feedstock from Shell's nearby Norco, La., and Deer Park manufacturing sites, enabling the site to respond to market conditions. EARLIER: Shell reaches milestone on plastics plant in Northeast, potentially a Gulf competitor Ethylene is used as a feedstock for alpha olefins. Shell previously had been selling much of the U.S. ethylene it produced., but the addition of the alpha olefins unit means the company can benefit from more integrated downstream operations, noted Steve Zinger, vice president of chemicals at the analyst research firm Wood Mackenzie. "In Shell's case, they are a bit long on ethylene so this is one way they could consume some of that ethylene and convert it to a usable prothduct that could be sold into the polyethylene business and/or exported into world markets where demand growth still growing," Zinger said. The Geismar alpha olefins unit started up in December, but the Houston-based U.S. operations of Shell announced the startup Monday. "Our team delivered this world-class expansion project safely, on time and within budget," Graham van't Hoff, executive vice president for Shell's global chemicals business, said in a statement. "This is a key growth project for Shell's global chemicals business. Geismar will continue to play a leading role in providing the materials for products that an increasing number of people need and enjoy," he added. The Geismar chemical site near the Mississippi River is used in the production of stronger and lighter polyethylene plastic for packaging and bottles, as well as engine and industrial oils and drilling fluids, according to the company. Shell announced its final investment decision in the project in November 2015 and construction kicked off in 2016. The project included re-purposing an idled tank farm, significantly expanding rail in the plant and a new water cooling tower. The project took 3,570 metric tons of steel, 18,290 meters of concrete and 85 linear kilometers of pipe to build, according to a Shell announcement. Shell's chemical business is already considering another expansion project for the Geismar plant, according media reports. Shell is reportedly in the early evaluation stage of a $1.2 billion expansion of a project that would add a "world scale" mono-ethylene glycol unit to the Geismar site, The Advocate reported. Zinger also pointed out that the alpha olefins in Louisiana could also feed into the new plastic chemicals complex Shell is building in Pennsylvania. Alpha olefins are often funneled into producing polyethylene products. The company is building an ethane cracker in Pennsylvania, which processes the natural gas liquid ethane into ethylene, which will be the feedstock for on-site production of polyethylene, the world's most common plastic. The projects are part of dozens petrochemical projects that have come online in recent years thanks to the shale boom providing cheap supplies of natural gas, which is a feedstock for chemicals used in a variety of plastics and consumer goods. Since 2010, the American Chemistry Council estimates there has been about $202 billion worth of capital investments announced in the U.S. petrochemical industry, with about $170 billion of those popping up along the Gulf Coast. Wood Mackenzie estimates that U.S. production of ethylene and polyethylene will double between 2015 to 2025, Zinger said. Memorial Hermann Health System has partnered with a new generic drug company formed to combat "artificially high" pharmaceutical prices and ease chronic drug shortages, the drug company announced Monday. Utah-based Civica Rx launched its generic drug initiative a year ago with strong Houston roots. The idea behind the venture is to allow hospital systems to "create their own priorities" in needed medications. Such generic versions of the medications remain difficult to obtain because of price or availability or both, Heather Wall, chief commercial officer for Civica Rx, said in an interview on Monday. "We're tackling the drugs that we've seen significant price increases over the past few years," she said. Price hikes, often dramatic, can come from a lack of competition, especially among drugs that have fallen out of mass production. But Wall said that just because a drug is elusive does not mean it is not needed. Typically there are about 200 drugs on shortage lists any given year. When there is not enough of a certain drug in the supply chain, it can drive up the price to "artificially high" levels, which in turn forces providers and, ultimately, patients to pay more, Wall said. RELATED: Texans missing or delaying needed treatment because health costs too high Memorial Hermann is one of 12 health systems across the country to enter partnerships with Civica Rx. The Houston-based system will be considered a founding member of what is predicted to be a growing network of hospitals nationwide, Wall said. There are 750 U.S. hospitals now participating, the company said. "Creating a consistent and stable supply of generic drugs not only ensures that we can continue delivering on our promise to always provide safe, high-quality care tailored to our patients' needs, but it also allows us to tackle the dramatic increases in U.S. health care costs that affect everyone. Our industry is consistently experiencing pharmaceutical shortages for commonly used drugs. These shortages result in health care organizations having to pay inflated pricing to secure appropriate supplies to adequately care for patients pricing that ultimately gets passed along to the consumer," Chuck Stokes, CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System, said Monday in a statement. Civica Rx will make generic versions of targeted drugs directly or subcontract the process, the company said. Currently it is scheduled to make 14 hospital-administered drugs by midyear, Wall said. The names of those drugs were not disclosed. RELATED: Drugmakers may have to post prices in TV ads The company was formed last January under the guidance of seven major hospital systems and three philanthropies to establish a framework and business model. Among the philanthropies are the Houston-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which gave $1 million in seed money as well as access to $9 million more in loans, Wall said. "The early success of Civica Rx gives you a sense of how much frustration there was within hospital systems in regards to accessing a steady and affordable supply of generic medications," said Dr. Mark Miller, vice president of health care for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, in an email sent Monday. He called the burgeoning venture a "step in the right direction." Also part of the original governing body are HCA Healthcare, which operates 15 hospitals in the Houston area, and Catholic Health Initiatives, which includes the St. Luke's health network in the region. Memorial Hermann will now join them. RELATED: Is bigger better? Memorial Hermann and Baylor Scott & White merger raises questions In October, Memorial Hermann unveiled plans to merge with the Baylor Scott & White health network to form the largest nonprofit health care system in Texas and one of the largest in the nation. Wall said Monday it was not clear if the Baylor Scott & White system would also join with Civica Rx. The collaboration between hospital and drug maker is part of a larger trend of unusual health care couplings to create access outside the usual boundaries. Take for instance, the plan announced last year that three business giants, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, would form an independent health care company for their U.S. employees. More recently, the CVS drugstore chain received approval to buy Aetna, the nation's third-largest health insurance company, in a $69 billion deal that many say could transform the way millions of people get basic medical care. Sienna Plantation landed the top spot among Texas communities by new home sales in 2018 and is among 11 Houston area communities to make a national top-seller list. The Missouri City community ranked No. 14 on the list as sales shot up 42 percent to 530 homes in 2018, real estate information firm RCLCO said in a report. "Sienna Plantation has homes for all stages of life in nearly all price points," general manager Alvin San Miguel said in an announcement. The Johnson Development community's seven on-site schools, robust commercial district, amenities and a lifestyle program that hosts more than 75 events a year drew buyers, San Miguel said. RELATED: Houston real estate history 101 Most of the communities also appeared on a similar ranking by housing information firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Bridgeland, in Cypress, and Cross Creek Ranch, in Fulshear, both posted double-digit gains with 482 and 455 sales respectively in 2018. That was enough to put them in the top 25. New to the RCLO list were Harmony in the Spring area with 425 sales, Balmoral in the northeast Houston region with 334 sales, and Lago Mar in Texas City with 321 sales. Riverstone, a longtime leader in new home sales nationally, fell by 15 percent to 370 sales as the Sugar Land community nears completion. Riverstone, which had been the top-ranked community in Houston since 2014, moved to No. 34 from No. 26 in 2017 and No. 4 in 2014, according to RCLCO. RELATED: New-home market softens as mortgage rates rise The Villages in Florida held the top position with 2,134 home sales in 2018. Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Fla., ranked No. 2 ahead of Irvine Ranch in the Los Angeles area, Summerlin in Las Vegas, and West Villages, also in Sarasota. Six Dallas-area communities made the list, with Westridge in McKinney selling the most with 497 sales. The only other Texas community on the list is Sunfield in Buda, near Austin, which ranked No. 47 with 316 sales. See the photos above for details on the number of home sales in 2018 and 2017 for the top-sellers. Harris Constable Precinct 1 Alan Rosens office reported that during a five-day period from the end of 2018 to Jan. 1, 2019, a multi-agency DWI blitz resulted in 60 arrests. Rosen hosted the multi-agency No Refusal DWI Initiative during the New Years weekend. The initiative began on Friday, Dec. 28, 2018. According a news release, during the no-refusal weekend, law enforcement officers from various jurisdictions secured search warrants for blood samples on all persons arrested for DWI, who refused to voluntarily provide a breath and/or blood sample. The federal tax overhaul of 2017 aimed to create jobs and spur economic activity in low-income neighborhoods by allowing states to designate areas in need of revitalization as Opportunity Zones where investment would be rewarded by federal tax breaks. But in Texas, the Abbott administration has named some of the most economically robust and rapidly appreciating areas in the state as Opportunity Zones, including bustling downtown sections in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. That means millions of dollars in taxpayer money may end up in thriving business districts to which plenty of money is already flowing, while bypassing poor communities that desperately need it. The Abbott administrations list of Opportunity Zones, for example, overlooked the poorest section of Greenspoint in Northwest Houston, where one in two people live in poverty and the median household income, $23,000 a year, is less than half the city $49,000. But Downtown Houston, where the median household income is $99,000, is poised to benefit from the tax breaks, even though cranes already dot the skyline, Fortune 500 companies such as United Airlines, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have major offices there and affluent professionals are buying into high-end condominium towers. This area probably doesnt need any help, said Brett Theodos, who researches economic and social policy at the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank. Were probably subsidizing investment that would have happened anyway. Opportunity for Amazon Opportunity Zones were included in sweeping tax changes that Congress approved just over a year ago. The incentives allow investors and companies to defer and substantially lower capital gains taxes when they sell stocks, businesses, real estate or other assets by reinvesting those profits in Opportunity Zones. For example, a corporation that divested a business and earned $100 million on the sale would normally pay 21 percent, or $21 million, on the gain. By reinvesting that money in an Opportunity Zone and holding that investment for seven years, the company would cut the tax by 15 percent, to $18 million. In addition, the company would not have to pay tax on the appreciation of the investment after holding it for 10 years. So, if it eventually earned $200 million on the holdings in the Opportunity Zone, it would still pay just $18 million instead of $42 million and save $24 million. On HoustonChronicle.com: Oil companies to reap windfall in tax cuts Congress Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in 2018 that the incentives would cost taxpayers as much as $1.9 billion. But the ultimate cost could be much higher since the program doesnt limit the amount of investment qualifying for the tax breaks, and some of nations biggest corporations are positioned to take advantage of the incentives. Amazon.com, for example, plans to locate its New York headquarters in a Queens neighborhood designated as an Opportunity Zone. The law gives governors the power to designate Opportunity Zones in areas where at least 20 percent of residents live in poverty or the median income is 80 percent of that of the city or state, based on the 2015 Census estimates. Each state can select up to a quarter of the eligible areas for the program a designation that remains in effect through 2029. In Texas, Abbott designated 628 Opportunity Zones, 23 percent of the eligible areas. Many of the zones are centered around existing investment hubs, such as the Medical Center in Houston, the convention center in Dallas and the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Neither the governors office nor the state Economic Development Department responded requests for comment. Bigger need In Harris County, the state designated 105 zones. Theodos analyzed every Census tract in the country and his data shows that areas that are gentrifying rapidly as measured by increases in income, housing costs and populations of white and college-educated people represented a disproportionate number of the Opportunity Zones in Harris County. In fact, Downtown and Midtown have gentrified so rapidly that had the government used 2017 Census estimates instead of 2015, the areas would not have qualified for the program. In that two-year span, for example, Midtowns poverty rate fell by more than half to 18 percent from 38 percent and the median household income climbed 13 percent to $91,000. High-end apartment complexes have sprung up throughout the neighborhood, and more are on their way, including The Midtown, which will be the areas first high-rise. Over the same two years, the poverty rate in west Greenspoint rose 8 percentage points to 49 percent, and the median household income declined $1,000. Damon McCullum, who recently opened a U-Haul franchise in a shuttered Kroger besides a closed Lubys in the neighborhood, wrinkled his brow when he heard that Midtown would benefit from the federal tax breaks, while west Greenspoint would not. Having that extra incentive for businesses to come to the area would definitely have an impact because that would bring more jobs, more opportunities and more education, he said. Making people self-sufficient makes the biggest impact in a community starting with this one here. On HoustonChronicle.com: How will tax overhaul affect Houston economy? McCullum, 41, lives in Katy, but decided to invest in the neighborhood after joining the Green House International Church, a congregation known for its community outreach, about two years ago. His U-Haul employs five workers, and he plans to start a second business, a reupholstery shop employing between 14 and 20 veterans. I saw a bigger need here versus Katy, he said. College try A recent analysis by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, concluded that Opportunity Zones were set up in a way that allowed states to choose areas that did not necessarily need the help. The research found, for example, that dozens of selected neighborhoods werent poor, but rather had large populations of college or graduate students, which inflated poverty rates. One neighborhood adjacent to Texas A&M had an annual median income, $16,000 an astonishingly low figure until you consider that 99.9 percent of the people living there are enrolled in university. That neighborhood was selected as an Opportunity Zone. It seems obvious, wrote the studys authors, Hilary Gelfond and Adam Looney, but if one is trying to help people in distressed areas, one needs to target places that are truly distressed. Meanwhile, as vacant properties in Greenspoint remain on the market, investor interest in Downtown Houston has increased exponentially, according to the commercial real estate brokerage Berkadia. Ryan Epstein, senior managing director of the companys Houston office, said land for sale near Downtown that was languishing on the market began receiving a flood of offers after the areas became Opportunity Zones. He added that prices in those areas have risen, but said it was too early to give estimates since many of the land deals have not closed. In Houston, downtown is already a vibrant area that people want to invest in, he said. So this additional incentive is icing on the cake. rebecca.schuetz@chron.com twitter.com/raschuetz Why the First Commandment is crucial for religious liberty Sometimes the mask slips and the church's tormentors reveal their true agenda. This has happened in China, where officials reportedly erased the First Commandment from a church's wall. To remind readers: that's the one that says, 'You shall have no other gods before me.' Let's be clear what that action means. It says categorically that the state is supreme, and not God. It goes along with China's moves against churches and against Muslims, and its policy of 'sinicising' religion. Those officials see very clearly that if believers are allowed to proclaim the lordship of Christ, their ultimate loyalty cannot be to the state. What we are seeing in the 21st century is what God's people have seen for millennia. The Chinese state is Nebuchadnezzar, demanding that Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego worship only him. It's Darius, demanding the same of Daniel. It's Antiochus Epiphanes, sacrificing a pig in the Temple at Jerusalem. It's Caesar any one of a number of Caesars requiring Christians to choose between sacrificing to him and martyrdom. And if anyone baulks at the comparison on the grounds that China is a modern country and a valuable Western trading partner, think of the million Muslim Uighurs detained in 're-education centres' and what that means for democracy. However: the call for religious liberty is not just special pleading for religious people as a special interest group. Religious liberty including the freedom not to believe is foundational for all liberties. It is the ultimate assertion that the state does not control conscience, and that no political system can claim our absolute allegiance. That applies to Western democracies as well as Eastern totalitarianisms: flags and faiths do not belong together. In his prophetic book Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell imagines a future in which the state is in complete control. In a searing line, he says: 'History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.' And in a chilling image, Winston Smith's torturer O'Brien tells him: 'If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face for ever.' The knowledge of what happens when the state usurps the authority of God himself is buried deep in the DNA of believers. We've seen the results too often in the 20th century. It's what drives us to resist when we think the state is encroaching on our religious rights. Sometimes we're right to do so; often we're over-sensitive, choosing the wrong hill to die on and looking small, narrow-minded and stupid as a result. But the instinct is sound: we'll happily render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but we must be allowed to render to God what belongs to God. If we can't always tell the difference very easily, that's because in the liberal West we are largely accommodated. But believers in China are coming face to face with a stark choice. The state is drawing a line and asking them to decide which side they're on. God's people have been there before, and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. But there can be no compromise: there are 10 commandments, not nine, and the first is the foundation of all the rest. Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods Pope says boats carrying 49 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean should be allowed to dock The Pope made a 'heartfelt appeal' to European leaders on Sunday to end their stand-off over two rescue boats carrying 49 migrants in the Mediterranean. In his address to a crowded St Peter's Square for Epiphany, the Pope said the migrants needed a 'safe port where they could disembark'. 'I am making a heartfelt appeal to European leaders to demonstrate concrete solidarity for these people,' Pope Francis said. The humanitarian ship Sea-Watch 3, operated by a German charity, picked up 32 migrants off Libya on 22 December while a second ship, Sea-Eye, run by a separate German charity, took on board 17 people on 29 December. Until now, no European country has given the vessels permission for the rescue boats to unload the migrants, who include some children and teenagers. Italy and Malta are both refusing to allow the ships to dock, with the latter only allowing the ships to take on supplies in its waters but not to enter its ports. Sea-Watch has previously blasted 'five countries of the so-called Christian West' - Spain, Germany, Italy, Malta and the Netherlands for failing to help find a port of safety over Christmas and leave rescued migrants in 'yet another political limbo'. Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini was defiant on Sunday, tweeting before the Pope's appeal: 'Do whatever you want but Italian ports are and will remain closed to those who do not respect the law.' Italy has said that after years of taking in migrants, it is Malta's turn, but Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that opening the country's ports to the two vessels would set a 'precedent'. 'This is an issue that might set a precedent and we should be vigilant about it,' he said as he brushed off 'Christmas saint' critics who have taken swipes at the country while their own ports remain closed to the migrants. In chilling move, Chinese official erases First Commandment Chinese authorities have ordered a church to remove the First Commandment from a display on the grounds that it contradicts the policy of China's President Xi Jinping. According to Bitter Winter, which reports on religious freedom in China, about 30 officials in Henan Province's Luoning country conducted an inspection at the church and wiped off the commandment from a display on the wall. The commandment says: 'You shall have no other gods before me'. The church belongs to the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement. However, when its pastor protested he was told, 'Xi Jinping opposes this statement. Who dares not to cooperate? If anyone doesn't agree, they are fighting against the country.' The official said: 'This is a national policy. You should have a clear understanding of the situation. Don't go against the government.' The move reflects China's policy of 'sinicisation', which has seen religion coming under increased pressure to be subservient to the state in its teachings and practices. Christians have been harassed and arrested and churches have been closed. The Vatican has struck a controversial deal with the Chinese government allowing it a say in the choice of bishops, though the final choice on their appointment will be made in Rome; the agreement's defenders say it will help protect believers. Muslims have also suffered under the regime's determination to increase state control over religion. Around 1 million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in 're-education camps' in an attempt to stamp out their unique culture. And according to the regime-friendly Global Times, China instigated a new plan on Saturday with representatives from China's eight Islamic associations where participants agreed to 'guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to sinicize the religion'. Hinting at an expansion of the programme to other religions, the article says: 'Governing religion is a common challenge faced by all modern countries. The main purpose of China's five-year plan to sinicize Islam is to seek governance that tallies with Chinese practice, and it is not only limited to Islam.' See Comment. How Israel's Christians are fighting moves to take their land away Christians in Jerusalem are warning of another attempt by Israeli parliamentarians to take land they own. Just days before Christmas, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin stepped in to prevent an attempt by one of the coalition partners in the Netanyahu government to allow the state to 'confiscate' or nationalise church-owned lands. This was the fifth occasion on which factions within the governing coalition sought to impose legislation which would allow expropriation of Church lands. Previous attempts to impose the so-called 'Tenants' Rights Bill' received worldwide condemnation and even led to the temporary closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City the historic site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. In an annual Christmas meeting with Church leaders, President Rivlin insisted: 'The State of Israel has no intention of harming the property rights of the Churches or their ability to realise their assets to support their activities.' However, there is still concern that upcoming elections in Israel could force concessions to more hardline elements which could mean yet another appearance of the legislation, which has led to local Christians describing it as a 'zombie bill'. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, the most senior Orthodox Christian leader in the region, has been highly critical of attempts to confiscate land from his and other churches. Theophilos III said: 'While thankful for this reprieve, we are deeply concerned that attempts to bring this legislation forward will continue. We shall therefore remain actively attentive to this matter, and convinced that this Bill has no place in the corpus of legislation of the State of Israel.' The legislation has been repeatedly criticised around the world with politicians in London and Washington expressing unease. When the Patriarch visited the UK last year, Prime Minister Theresa May was asked about the wider prospects for Christians in the Holy Land. She told the House of Commons: 'We certainly encourage the Israeli government to do all they can to uphold the values of equality for all enshrined in their laws... I will continue to work with governments, with the international community and with the United Nations to support the rights of minorities, including Christians.' President Rivlin, whose constitutional role is mainly ceremonial, welcomed Christian leaders to an annual Christmas celebration yesterday and reflected on his intervention which ensured the latest version of the bill did not get any further. He told the assembled clergy at his official residence: 'You like me believe that living together in this city is the most moral thing to do. Unfortunately, not everyone shares this understanding. Like you, I see the role of the State of Israel as guardians of this city. As guardians, our sovereignty over Jerusalem will never compromise the freedom of worship and religion of all peoples of faith in Jerusalem and in all of Israel.' Speaking at the same reception, an annual event, the Patriarch said: 'We reiterate our readiness for dialogue to find lasting solutions that benefit our whole society. Yet at the same time we stand united in our position both to defend our legitimate and sacred rights, as well as to continue that constructive engagement with governmental authorities that has been formed and shaped over the many years.' The Archbishop of Canterbury is among church leaders from around the world who have expressed concern about the recurrence of proposed bills which would threaten church property in the Holy Land. In an interview with ITV Justin Welby called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue to uphold religious freedom and the rule of law: 'The proposed law would have a very serious effect on the Christian churches in Jerusalem, the very place we are looking to at this time of year,' he said. 'I admire Prime Minister Netanyahu reflecting Israel's reputation for freedom of religion and belief and the rule of law. I hope he will continue to do so.' Cardinal's trial puts French Church in glare of Catholic abuse scandal The Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon goes on trial on Monday charged with failing to act on historical allegations of sexual abuse of boy scouts by a priest in his diocese. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is the highest-profile cleric to be caught up in the paedophile scandal inside the Catholic Church in France, and will stand trial alongside five others from his diocese. While most of the recent focus in the Church's global abuse crisis has been on Australia and Chile, Barbarin's trial puts the spotlight on Europe's senior clergy again, just as Pope Francis prepares to host a meeting of senior bishops from around the world in Rome next month to discuss the protection of minors. Barbarin is accused of failing to report allegations of sexual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s by Father Bernard Preynat a priest who has admitted sexual abuse, according to his lawyer, and is due to go on trial later this year. The charges carry a potential three-year prison sentence and fines of up to about $50,000. Barbarin told the newspaper Le Monde in August 2017 that he had never concealed allegations against Preynat, but acknowledged shortcomings in his handling of them. 'I myself realise that my response at the time was inadequate,' he said. Barbarin's lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani, said he expected Barbarin to be acquitted. 'He's accused of covering up for Preynat, whereas in fact it was Barbarin who triggered this whole process,' Luciani said. 'You don't repair one injustice with another.' 'Knocked on doors' Barbarin told Le Monde in 2017 that he had previously opened an investigation of Preynat under church or canon law because a judicial investigation was moving so slowly. Barbarin, who moved to the Lyon diocese in 2002, has said he became aware of Preynat's activities in 2007. He eventually removed the priest from his post in 2015. Barbarin told Le Monde that he had suspended two other priests and called in the judiciary 'when I learned of allegations of recent abuses, in 2006 and 2014'. But faced with allegations of abuses said to have taken place 15 or 20 years earlier, he said he 'knocked on doors' for advice, but received no satisfactory answer. Lyon prosecutors had previously investigated Barbarin but dropped the probe in the summer of 2016 without a detailed explanation. However, an association of alleged victims called Parole Liberee ('Freed Word') used a provision of French law to compel the cardinal to stand trial. Pope Francis has come under fire over the Church's handling of the spreading sexual abuse crisis. In September, researchers said they had found indications of sexual abuse in Germany by 1,670 Catholic clerics over the course of seven decades. On Friday, the Vatican said an Argentine bishop working in a top Vatican financial department was under preliminary investigation for sexual abuse. Pope Francis himself met Barbarin in early 2016, and later told the Catholic newspaper La Croix that it would make no sense for the cardinal to resign before any eventual trial. 'According to the information at my disposal, Cardinal Barbarin took the appropriate measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary,' Francis was quoted as saying. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment There are a growing number of people who transitioned from one gender to the other, only to regret it, and then try to reverse the process. Why arent we hearing their stories? Heres a fun fact: the word taboo came to the English language from natives on what is now the nation of Tonga. Believe it or not, when British explorer James Cook first visited the remote island, he noticed that certain things, in particular certain foods, were strictly off-limits. When he asked why, they replied these things were taboo, which meant consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed. Now in English parlance today, we tend to use the word taboo as a figure of speech or hyperbole. We dont think of whatever is being referred to as literally being consecrated, inviolable, uncleaned or cursed. Or do we? A recent article in Canadas National Post identified something it called the new taboo. Its off-limits to even talk about the increasing number of people who, having undergone gender-reassignment surgery, now not only regret their decision, they want to reverse the procedure. Five years ago, Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic, described in the article as the world-leading genital reconstructive surgeon, met a patient who had undergone the male-to-female surgery at another clinic but now wanted it reversed. It turned out to be only the first of many stories Djordjevic would hear about crippling levels of depression following their transition, and, in some cases, even contemplated suicide. He told the National Post It can be a real disaster to hear these stories. Why then are these disaster stories so rarely heard? Because they are taboo. The very same article told readers about allegations that Bath Spa University in England turned down an application for research on gender reassignment reversal because the project was deemed potentially politically incorrect. Or perhaps a more accurate word would be the one chosen by the National Post: taboo. Recently on BreakPoint, I told you about a stunning piece in the New York Times written by a man planning to have gender-reassignment surgery. In it, he not only admitted the surgery would not make him happier, he admitted that the very prospect of the surgery made him more depressed and suicidal. The author deserves our pity, but the decision to run the article without even questioning what on earth is going on, is the very definition of something being taboo. Questioning the sacredness and inviolability of the desire to transition invites the digital equivalent of the wrath of the gods that ancient Polynesian feared for violating taboos. Thats hyperbole, you say. Is it? Because there are many more examples. Like the July/August issue of the left-of-center publication, the Atlantic Monthly. It contained an article that merely counseled caution in treating young children who claim to be transgender. It didnt matter that the author, Jesse Singal, was on solid scientific ground to urge caution. It didnt matter that a 2013 study found two-thirds of pubescent children who experience gender dysphoria no longer have those feelings five years later. Singal and the Atlantic violated the taboo, and they were digitally stoned for it. In fact, this cultural taboo is so strong, it can cost parents custody of their children. Recently, a Christian family in Ohio lost custody of their 17-year-old son because he wanted to begin hormone therapy. A family court awarded custody to the childs grandparents, because they were more amenable to his desires. Instead of asking the more obvious questionCant we just wait a year and not do anything drastic until hes 18 and doesnt need parental permission?the judge removed a minor from his home. This is taboo in action. All who interfere with ones desires to transition these days are simply considered cursed. Meanwhile, victims stories go unheard. Resources The new taboo: More people regret sex change and want to detransition, surgeon says, Joe Shute | National Post | October 22, 2018 This Is What I Want: The New York Times Reveals Serious Problems with Transgender Ideology, John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | December 5, 2018 Originally posted at Breakpoint. We truly serve a God of second chances: Tenn. governor grants clemency to Cyntoia Brown Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has officially granted clemency to Cyntoia Brown, an alleged sex trafficking victim serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was a teenager. In an announcement made on Monday, Gov. Haslam commuted Browns sentence, releasing her to parole supervision on Aug. 7. This decision comes after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case, said Haslam in a statement. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Transformation should be accompanied by hope. In 2006, Brown was sentenced to life for the 2004 killing of 43-year-old Johnny Allen. She said she shot him after she thought he was reaching for a gun while in bed together. She was a minor when the incident took place, reportedly a victim of child sex trafficking at the time. She was tried as an adult. Brown released a statement in response to the Monday announcement, thanking Haslam for the clemency and thanking people for their support, prayers and encouragement. We truly serve a God of second chances and new beginnings. The Lord has held my hand this whole time and I would have never made it without Him, stated Brown, as reported by wkrn.com. Let today be a testament to His saving grace ... With God's help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, was among the many who celebrated the news, calling it an important development. I am grateful for the wisdom and compassion of our friend @BillHaslam, tweeted Moore on Monday afternoon. Parole conditions will include that Brown will be subject to a release plan given approval by the state Department of Correction and that she not violate any federal or state laws. The parole supervision is scheduled to end on August 7, 2029. Brown is also expected to complete re-entry programming before her release from custody later this year. Vineyard Columbus megachurch pastor Rich Nathan announces successors, married co-pastors Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Pastor Rich Nathan of Vineyard Columbus has announced that in two years time he will hand over the leadership of the church and move on to a new position. Nathan, who leads one of Ohios largest megachurches with an average weekly attendance of close to 8,000 people, explained on his website that he wants to make sure people don't mistake the announcement for any suggestion that he is retiring from ministry. I'm not retiring! Let me say this in a different way: Im not going anywhere and Im not retiring! he wrote. The plan is that in January 2021, when I turn 65 I will hand the leadership of Vineyard Columbus over to my successors. But the plan is to have me continue to preach on a preaching team until Im 70. Im still fabulously energized by preaching and seeing people come to Christ and then be transformed by His love. That never gets old! he added. Vineyard, which uses its record label Vineyard Music to release worship albums for its 2,400 affiliated churches worldwide, announced on its Columbus chapter website that Eric and Julia Pickerill, co-associate pastors to Nathan, will take over as co-senior pastors in January 2021. The married couple explained that in 2015 they returned from a missionary trip in Amsterdam, and they were trying to figure out where ministry would lead them next, when Eric Pickerill says that God spoke to him and told him that Vineyard Columbus is in their future. I saw a picture of one church in ten diverse congregations around the city that were living out the kingdom in different ways. My heart caught fire and I thought, This is just like God, allowing us to go to the place where we wanted to be so he could show us the place he wants us to be,' he explained. Julia Pickerill added: "Around the same time that the Lord spoke to Eric, God gave me a very clear and intersecting word that he was constraining me to love and serve Vineyard Columbus. In that moment I can recall where I was sitting when I heard God speak our familys entire expectation of our future changed! And it didnt just shift logistically something shifted in our souls. The peace and clarity wed been looking for in our transition finally fell on us. We experienced much external confirmation of our internal leading as well. " The couple said that they are deeply committed to championing the diversity of the church. Its all too easy for diversity to be a value instead of a virtue. A value is something we believe and are motivated by, but a virtue is something we practice. Our congregation, campuses, volunteers, leaders and staff, have much more practicing ahead of us, Julia Pickerill said. We must continue building cross-cultural bridges in our community, being intentional about the ways we worship and communicate, and being diligent in platforming and releasing a diverse cohort of people at all levels in our community. Nathan pointed out that Vineyard Columbus Church Council and Pastoral Advisory Team unanimously agreed with the Selection Committees recommendation to select Eric and Julia Pickerill for the position. "Our process was not merely a human weighing of the pros and cons of various candidates. Over the course of our history, Vineyard Columbus has sought to live out the truth that Jesus is the head of the church! He gets to call the shots, not us! He initiates and we follow," the senior pastor wrote. He concluded by declaring that he believes Vineyard Columbus' best days are ahead. "I eagerly await the surprising gifts that the Lord has in store for us and for our city as we enter this new chapter in our story," he wrote. Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) The party-list group of slain Rep. Rodel Batocabe is eyeing his son, lawyer Justin Batocabe, to serve the remainder of his term in the House of Representatives. Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Monday, AKO BICOL party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin said that with their fourth nominee leaving for another political group and their fifth nominee busy with his law practice, Justin might be selected to serve his father's unexpired term. "We're still considering, considering that we have to comply with provision of the party-list law," Garbin said. Section 8 of Republic Act 7941, or the Party-List System Act, bars the changing of party-list nominees or the alteration of their order of nomination unless the nominee dies or withdraws his nomination in writing or becomes incapacitated. In these cases, the party-list could name a substitute nominee who would be placed last in the list of five. The younger Batocabe has been serving as family spokesperson in media briefings and is the second nominee of AKO BICOL party-list for the midterm election. In a media briefing days after the killing of his father, Justin said his family would still be fielding a replacement for the lawmaker, who was on his third and last term and eyed the mayoralty of Daraga, Albay. Garbin said the Batocabe family is considering to field the late lawmaker's wife, Gertrudes, or brother to run in his place for the elections in May. Batocabe was set to challenge Daraga mayoralty candidate Carlwyn Baldo and Vice Mayor Victor Perete before he and his police escort were fatally shot during a gift-giving activity on Dec. 22, 2018. LAKAS-CMD, the party which was backing Baldo, cancelled his certificate of nomination and acceptance. 'Weak alibi' Six key suspects in police custody have all pointed to Baldo as the mastermind of the Batocabe slay, Garbin said. READ: Confessed gunman surrenders, tags Daraga Mayor Baldo in Batocabe slay Baldo has insisted on his innocence as police have revoked his gun permits and are looking to remove his powers over local police. Speaking to the media on the same day the Philippine National Police tagged him as the mastermind of the Batocabe killing, Baldo said he is an "easy target," being the late lawmaker's political rival, and warned that as he is blamed for the crime, the true brains are on the loose. "Those alibis, it is the weakest defense," Garbin said. "These six witnesses, the gunman have a positive identification and positively identified him as the mastermind. So between positive testimonies and alibi, alibi is the weakest." Garbin said he was present while confessed gunman Henry Yuson executed his extrajudicial confession. He added that the testimonies of the six suspects all line up and "cannot be made up." The lawmaker said any doubts about the credibility of the six suspects would be cleared up by additional witnesses who were present at the gift giving activity. However, Garbin said Baldo remains innocent until proven guilty, adding that the town mayor would have his day in court. A warrant of arrest has not yet been issued against Baldo, who, along with his security aide Danilo Muella, alleged backup gunman Rolando Arimado, alleged getaway motorcycle driver Jerwin Babor, Christopher Naval, Emmanuel Rosello and Yuson, are facing murder and six counts of multiple frustrated murder raps. All six were reportedly part of the mayor's monthly payroll, receiving P7,000 each. Naval, one of the suspects, earlier said they were supposed to get P5 million from Baldo for the assassination of Batocabe. "Nagtataka rin nga ako kung bakit ganun na lang ka-bold, ganun na lang kagarapal, kung totoo man 'yung sinasabi ng kanyang security aide," Garbin said, referring to Emmanuel Judavar, a witness who says he was one of the conspirators in the assassination of Batocabe before backing out. [Translation: I am puzzled why it's so bold, so shameless, if what his security aide is saying is true.] The Commission on Elections is considering to place the town of Daraga under its control, where the poll body would take immediate and direct supervision and control over all national and local officials in the municipality, including exercising control and supervision over all law enforcement agencies. Kay Warren 'weeping' at 'horrible suffering' as adoptive parents forced to relinquish custody Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Saddleback Church co-founder Kay Warren is weeping over a story of Illinois foster parents being forced to give back their child in order to get him mental health help. Weeping. Horrible suffering for some of our nations most vulnerable children, Warren wrote on Twitter last week. Untenable choices for loving, committed parents. Which lawmakers will right this wrong? she asked. The story, published in NPR last week, concerns Illinois parents Toni and Jim Hoy, who adopted their son, Daniel, through the foster care system when he was a toddler. Daniel, who is now 24, needed severe mental health treatment in 2007, however, forcing the Hoys to give up parental custody to the state, as they could not pay the $100,000 a year treatment required. Jim Hoy explained that even though the family had private insurance, and Daniel had Medicaid coverage, neither wanted to pay for the treatments. The couple had no choice but to send their child back into the foster care system, where the child welfare agency would be obligated to pay for the services. "To this day, its the most gut-wrenching thing I've ever had to do in my life," the father said, recalling having to take 12-year-old Daniel to the hospital and declare that they were legally abandoning him. "I was crying terribly. But it was the only way we figured we could keep the family safe," he said. NPR noted that two-thirds of states do not keep records of how many families are forced into giving up custody for children to get mental health services. A Government Accountability Office study found that in 2001, over 12,000 families in 19 states had to take that option, however. Other Christian child adoption advocates, such as Kelly Rosati of KMRConsulting, also slammed the health care situation in America that is leading to such stories. No family should ever have to make this choice to get their child the help he needs. No child should ever be traumatized like this, Rosati wrote on Twitter. This public policy reality is beyond wicked and should be changed, now, she added. Warren has been outspoken with her husband, Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, about the struggles parents face raising children with mental illness. The couple, who in 2013 suffered tragedy with the suicide of their 27-year-old son, Matthew, talked about the importance of "situational leadership" when it comes to parenting in October. "Certain people, you draw the best out of them one way, and certain others you draw the best out of them in another way, and every one of your children of course are totally different," Rick Warren said. Kay Warren added that living with a sibling with a mental illness can be difficult for children, and so being ready to apologize is important. "If we can show grace to each other and we can be willing to be humble and ask for forgiveness, that goes a long way keeping hurt from moving into resentment," she said. Rick Warren added that parents also need outlets for their emotions, in the form of days off and vacations, in order to look after themselves. House Democrats change rule banning religious headwear to welcome first two female Muslim members Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by a Democratic majority, has voted to end a 181-year-old rule banning religious headwear. The House voted 234-197 on Thursday, The Hill reported, which comes in the wake of the election of its first two female Muslim members. The newly revised rule still bans headwear of the nonreligious kind, and reads: During the session of the House, a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner may not wear nonreligious headdress or a hat or remain by the Clerks desk during the call of the roll or the counting of ballots. Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, proposed the rule change in November. Omar became the first member of Congress to wear a religious headscarf on the floor last week, according to TIME. Omar celebrated the rule change on Twitter by declaring that Congress is now "more inclusive for all." "I thank my colleagues for welcoming me, and I look forward to the day we lift the Muslim ban separating families all over the U.S. from their loved ones," she added, referencing President Donald Trump's immigration policies. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, was, meanwhile, sworn into Congress on a family-owned Quran. "My swearing in on the Quran is about me showing that the American people are made up of diverse backgrounds and we all have love of justice and freedom," Tlaib said last week. "It's important to me because a lot of Americans have this kind of feeling that Islam is somehow foreign to American history," she added. "Muslims were there at the beginning ... Some of our founding fathers knew more about Islam than some members of Congress now." The Pew Research Center released a report on the religious composition of the 116th U.S. Congress last week, noting that the total share of Christians has been slightly dropping. Christians still make up 88 percent of the total number of Congressional members, though that is a three percentage point drop from the 115th Congress. Baptists were found to be the largest Protestant denomination, making up 13.5 percent of all members. Roman Catholics retained close to a third (30.5 percent) of the total share, at 163 Congress members. All but two of 252 Republican members said that they identify as Christians, a stark difference from the Democrats, among which 61 out of 282 said that they are not Christians. Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona remained the only Congress member to say she is religiously unaffiliated, and 18 all Democrats refused to reveal their religious affiliation. Egypt: Policeman killed trying to defuse bomb near church; Trump hails Sisi for cathedral response Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Egyptian Coptic Christian community is celebrating Christmas on Monday amid safety concerns, two days after a policeman died defusing a bomb outside a church. BBC News reported that the policeman, Mustafa Abid, a specialist in mine clearance, was killed, while two others were injured by a bomb found on a roof by a church in Nasr City outside Cairo. While no group claimed immediate responsibility, Coptic Christians, who make up only 10 percent of the population, have been increasingly targeted by Islamic extremists, some linked to the Islamic State terror group. Over 100 people have been killed in church bombings and other attacks by radicals since 2016. On Sunday, the Coptic Christmas Eve, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the countrys biggest cathedral, the Nativity of Christ, in Egypt's new administrative capital. Sisi observed a moment of silence for Abid, AFP reported, and declared that Egyptians are united against terror. "We are one and we will continue to be one," Sisi said, noting that the nearby Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque carried the same message. "This moment is very important in our history." Egypt's top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb added that "if Islamic law requires Muslims to protect mosques, it equally requires Muslims to protect churches. Several Islamic authorities in the country, including Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, denounced the latest church bombing attempt, calling it a "terrorist operation." Al-Azhar, Egypts highest institution of Sunni Islam, said in a statement: The targeting of worship places and killing of innocents is a flagrant criminal act that violates teachings of all religions." U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile hailed Sisi for the cathedral inauguration, writing on Twitter that he is "excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East." "Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future," Trump said. Still, Copts have argued that the Egyptian government has failed to protect its citizens, noting the increased attacks in the past several years. Late in December, Coptic communities in Australia scheduled protests against what they say is ongoing persecution believers are facing in Egypt. The Australian Coptic Movement Association said that one troubling narrative has been Egyptian officials forcing Christian families to accept reconciliation instead of justice over the violence against them. Egyptian authorities, particularly in Southern Egypt, continued to conduct customary reconciliation sessions between Muslims and Christians. In ALL cases, we have the Muslim majority attacking the local Christian minority and the local authorities and Muslim and Christian religious leaders at times have abused these sessions to compel victims to abandon their claims to any legal remedy, the association said at the time. Dismayingly, in some cases, Christian families have been forced to leave their villages and sell their property," it added. David Platt contrasts horrors of Hell with beauty of Heaven to highlight 'urgency' of mission work Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In a powerful message at the Cross19 Conference, author and pastor David Platt contrasted the sobering realities of Hell with the beauty of Heaven to highlight the urgency and gravity of the mission that God has given to His people. In a message titled Revelation: The Urgency of Eternity, Platt, pastor at McLean Bible Church in Virginia and founder and president of Radical, referenced Revelation 14:19 to argue that the unreached those who dont trust in Jesus Christ will receive the "winepress of Gods wrath. But they cant trust in Jesus if they never hear about Jesus, he said. How can they believe if they dont hear? They need to hear. Platt revealed that recently he was in Nepal, where he witnessed hundreds of bodies put on a funeral pyre and set ablaze just 24 hours after they died. Ashes going down in this river, believing its helpful in the process of reincarnation," he said. "Im smelling these burning bodies and realizing Im looking at a physical picture of a spiritual reality. Most, if not all of these people, never had a chance to hear about how they can go to Heaven. What will it take [for the] concept of unreached people to be totally intolerable to us? he implored, adding that there's an "urgency that comes with a view of eternity. So many Christians have a paltry view of Heaven, Platt said, adding: If were honest, many of us have a pretty boring view of what its going to be like. We stand around with each other and sing songs and stare at the light for a few quadrillion years. But according to Scripture, Heaven is far more than just choir practice, the pastor contended. This is a place were going to where its the fulfillment of all our desires in the presence of God; a new earth, a complete earth, not a place where we have nothing to do but float on clouds, but a new earth where we have everything to do, a God to worship, a kingdom to rule, a universe to explore, a family to enjoy," he said. According to the dimensions outlined in Revelation, Heaven will be shaped like a cube, Platt said, just like most holy place in both the Tabernacle and the Temple. Heaven is ... one giant massive holy of holies, he explained. The point of Heaven is, were going to be ushered into the presence of God unhindered. When we think of Heaven, we often think of a place where we get "all the stuff we've ever wanted," Platt said, but Heaven is "so much better than that." "When you think about Heaven, do not think about a place with all the amenities this world has to offer; think about a place where the amenities this world has to offer do not compare with the fact that we are dwelling with God," he said. "We dont come to God to get stuff, we come to God to get God," he continued. "The culmination of our salvation is God; He will be with us, we will be with Him. There will be no more sin, no more sorrow. God personally wiping every tear from our eyes ... No more hunger and starvation and trafficking and AIDs." Revelation says that Jesus will throw open the door to Heaven to His people completely undoing the curse of God and then "usher us into the presence of God." "Those are the five most beautiful words in Scripture," Platt said: 'They will see His face.' Jesus will open our eyes to the face of God. He will shine His light on us, He will share His reign with us ... we will reign with Jesus, He will share His reign with us ... Jesus will come back for us. Emphasizing that the "end of Revelation is the beginning of a story where every chapter will be better than the one before, Platt exhorted listeners to pursue Jesus as the all-consuming passion of your life. I am not, and I dont believe the Bible is, exhorting you to pursue missions as the all-consuming passion of your life, he clarified. The most important question I can ask you today is not if youre going to be a 'sender or a goer.' A far more fundamental question is, Does your heart beat for Jesus? 'Do you love Jesus, do you want Jesus?' A heart for missions and for the nations "springs from a heart for Jesus, Platt said: Dont manufacture a heart for missions and miss a heart for Jesus," he warned. If I had just told stories of adventure and sacrifice, then you might be tempted to care more about adventure than Jesus," he said. "In a weird way, you, I even, might be tempted to care more about the idea of sacrifice than the One who sacrificed for you. "Spend your life for the fame of His name, where He is not yet known," the pastor concluded. The end of all history is the exaltation of Jesus name in all the nations. How is your life going to spent toward that end? What is He leading you to do? The CROSS movement aims to mobilize young people between 18 and 25 to help evangelize the world. The 2019 conference was held in Louisville, Kentucky from January 2-January 5. Court allows Christian baker Jack Phillips to sue Colorado for anti-religious hostility Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips can continue his lawsuit against the state, accusing them of anti-religious bias against him for refusing to make cakes that support transgender identity and gay marriage, a federal court has ruled. Judge Wiley Y. Daniel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued an order last Friday allowing Phillips lawsuit against Colorado and its Civil Rights Commission to continue. In his order, Judge Daniel did grant the Civil Rights Division Director Aubrey Elenis motion to dismiss Phillips claims against them for compensatory, punitive and nominal damages, and the motion to dismiss Phillips claims for prospective relief against Governor John Hickenlooper. However, Daniel denied the motion to dismiss the other aspects of Phillips litigation, among them being his claim of having the standing to sue the defendants and Attorney General Cynthia Coffmans motion to dismiss the claims against her. Phillips is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm that has successfully argued litigation on behalf of Phillips at the U.S. Supreme Court. ADF Senior Counsel Jim Campbell, who argued the lawsuit in front of the district court last month, said in a statement released on Monday that Colorado is acting in bad faith and with bias toward Jack. The same agency that the Supreme Court rebuked as hostile to Jack Phillips has remained committed to treating him unequally and forcing him to express messages that violate his religious beliefs, stated Campbell. We look forward to moving forward with this lawsuit to ensure that Jack isnt forced to create custom cakes that express messages in conflict with his faith. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission that the state of Colorado showed an anti-religious bias when it punished baker Jack Phillips for refusing to make a same-sex wedding cake. "When the Colorado Civil Rights Commission considered this case, it did not do so with the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires," read the majority opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. "Given all these considerations, it is proper to hold that whatever the outcome of some future controversy involving facts similar to these, the commission's actions here violated the Free Exercise Clause; and its order must be set aside." Soon after the decision, however, Phillips again found himself in legal trouble as the state Civil Rights Commission then argued that Phillips discriminated against Denver attorney Autumn Scardina, who wanted the baker to make a cake celebrating the lawyers gender transition. Oral arguments were held last month, with Daniel quoted as explaining at the time that Im inclined to deny the motion to dismiss. China forces church to take down first commandment given to Moses Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Chinese communist authorities forced a church in Chinas Henan Province to take down the first of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, as it was deemed offensive. Bitter Winter Magazine, which reports on religious freedom violations in China, said that the incident occurred in November, when 30 officials conducted an inspection of a government-approved Three-Self church in Henans Luoning county. Inside the church, they saw the Ten Commandments displayed on the wall, and declared that the first commandment must be removed and proceeded to wipe it off. The Ten Commandments, given by God to the Jewish people through Moses, became the bedrock of morality in the Abrahamic faiths, including Christianity. The first commandment, recorded in the book of Exodus, quotes God's words directly: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. The leaders of the church, which wasnt named, reportedly strongly opposed the action of the government officials. This isnt appropriate. Theyre falsifying the words of God! Its resisting the Lord! one believer said. One of the officials explained, however, that Chinese President Xi Jinping opposes the statement, referring to the first commandment. Who dares not to cooperate? If anyone doesnt agree, they are fighting against the country, the official warned. This is a national policy. You should have a clear understanding of the situation. Dont go against the government. The church was forced to take down the Ten Commandments sign that day. Numerous stories of Communist officials shutting down churches, arresting congregations, and even trying to rewrite the Bible emerged throughout 2018, following the implementation of revised religious regulation rules in February. Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, said at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing in September that part of the initiative to "Sincize" Christianity, or make it more compatible with the state ideology, include retranslating the Old Testament. The Chinese government also plans to provide new commentary for the New Testament, using Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings to champion socialist ideals. "There are outlines that the new Bible should not look westernized and [should look] Chinese and reflect Chinese ethics of Confucianism and socialism," Fu told The Christian Post at the time. "The Old Testament will be messed up. The New Testament will have new commentaries to interpret it." Persecution watchdog groups, such as Open Doors USA, have condemned the proposed plans. "The Church in China needs to move out of the passive zone and be actively integrating their faith into every part of their walk in China, including standing up if the Chinese government decides it wants to edit the Bible," Open Doors CEO David Curry said in October. "I think we have to call it out. I think it's an issue of prayer and letting people know in the global community, that we're aware," he added. "Whenever Christians are persecuted, we need to stand up and let our voice be heard." At Cross19 Conference JD Greear tells young Christians small dreams, visions dont honor Jesus Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In a rousing presentation at the Cross19 Conference in Kentucky on Friday, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear told young Christians gathered for the event that the Holy Spirit has already equipped them with the power to be witnesses to the world and urged them to dream big because small dreams and visions dont honor Jesus. We do not honor Jesus through small dreams or small visions. I dont mean that you need to anticipate being great in yourself, but you need to become a part of a story that has a grand vision and you need to ask Jesus who is proving His willingness to do it, Greear, who also leads Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, said at the youth event. When Jesus is standing here in Luke 24, before these disciples and He says, Look at what I just did for the salvation of the nations.' Are you really gonna honor me by small ambitions and small dreams? You need to dream about the nations worshiping. Your dreams need to be in proportion to the value of my sacrifice. Jesus did not die so you could have a comfortable career and a mediocre life, Greear said. He died so that you could bring the nations to worship. He didnt die so that we could huddle together in churches and bemoan the dying state of our culture. He died so that the Gospel could be proclaimed to all peoples in all nations, and Hes given His promises and the guarantee of His Spirit to ensure that could happen. Does what youre planning with your life align with the promises in His Word? he asked. The CROSS movement aims to mobilize young people between 18 and 25 to help evangelize the world. The 2019 conference, which started in Louisville on Wednesday, will come to a close on Saturday. Leaning on Scripture, personal anecdotes and quotes from other Christian thinkers, Greear told the group that if they were still thinking about what Gods will for their life is, on a basic level, they should already know they are called to be witnesses of Gods power. You say, 'Whats this got to do with me? I dont feel called.' Ive been waiting for it with this conference, this kinda tingly moment when everything seems to go blurry and all of a sudden I hear the voice of God in my heart say, Thou art the one, and I stand up ... That doesnt happen, he said. A witness and a professional preacher are not the same thing. You are my witnesses. Every believer is a witness. We have to get over this idea that calling is this mystical experience that a sacred few people in the Christian life ever go through. I always tell students at my church that many of them have what I call the Cheerios method of discerning the will of God. You stare at your Cheerios and you wait on your Cheerios to spell out something meaningful. ... I stared at my Cheerios for years and all they ever spelled out was oooooo, he quipped as the audience erupted in laughter. He said in the most basic sense you dont need a special call to leverage your life for the Great Commission. The call to leverage your life for the Great Commission was included in the call to follow Jesus When you accepted the call to follow Jesus, you de facto accepted the call to missions. The question is no longer if you are called. The question now is only where and how you are called. Gods will, he said, is not lost. Greear added: 2 Peter 3: 9, the Lord is not willing that any should perish but Hes willing that all should come to repentance. Were not talking about finding Gods will, we dont need a still small voice when youve got a plainly written verse. He said that at his church he tells students to do whatever they are good at to the glory of God as well as somewhere strategic for the mission of God. He also reminded the group that when they think about working for Christ, it's the power of the Holy Spirit which will allow them to do Gods will. And as they go about being witnesses for Christ, Greear encouraged the audience to not to be limited by what God did in the past. I almost think that God might say to us, Would you shut up about the Reformation. Would you shut up about the student volunteer movement. ... Would you shut up about the early Church. Yeah, I moved back then and those are great things for you to review but Im not a God of the past, Im a God of today and Im a God of the future. My name is not I Was, it is I AM. And there are still 6,400 unreached people groups which means that the greatest movements of God are in front of us, not behind us.' They have to be because this Gospel is going to be preached in all these nations, he said. Written or edited by Jeff Christopherson ( Christopherson3 ), Missio Mondays is a weekly examination of key missiological issues affecting church planting and evangelism within North America. Read more from this column. Image: Wikimedia/CC/Tony Webster It would seem that the new superpower among evangelical leaders in our era is a generous spirit of gracious humility. It is increasingly rare to see a leader who walks with the steady confidence of spiritual conviction while tempered by a reflective intelligence that recognizes the limits of human perspective. The new breed of religious leader that competes for centerstage often demonstrates that he or she (most often he) is theologically-omniscient, ecclesiologically-certain, missiologically-indifferent, and angry. This pseudo-spiritual swagger issuing from the most novice of pietistic leaders seems to require nothing but an ability to regurgitate, discharge and detonate a pre-packaged theological blitzkrieg at anyone who doesnt conform to the opinions of his pre-approved author list (and no, we are not speaking of Scripture). Poor JD Greear. He crossed the line. Although once himself considered approved, now finds himself on the wrong side of the law and the jacked-up posse smell blood. The crimes? From a quick reading online there appears to be two. First, his outward success seems to have eclipse his rivals, which apparently inevitably calls his gospel faithfulness into question. Second, he, as accountable under-shepherd to his church leadership and his heavenly King, canceled public worship for a Sunday. In apparent ignorance of the sanctioned ecclesiological injunction of not less than 52 worship experiences annually, his caricatured mugshot is now prominently posted among those whose differing opinions had previously ran afoul of the law. He will certainly remember next year of his third accountabilityto pacify the online theology police. He should have known better. It is increasingly rare to see a leader who walks with the steady confidence of spiritual conviction while tempered by a reflective intelligence that recognizes the limits of human perspective. This articles intent is not to prove or disprove the ecclesiological underpinnings of this made for social media controversy that is a fools errand in search of a squandered sacrifice. Rather, it is to question how it is that we, as imperfect and temporal leaders in Jesus mission, find more energy and conviction in the public dishonor of one another than we do in engaging the mission itself. How have we yet again debased ourselves to such a degree that we more closely resemble Jesus earthly adversaries than we do his emissaries? As a fast-declining percentage of the population within North America, why do we find that contriving further divisions within the mission force to be more ecclesiastically motivating than linking gospel arms for the sake of the mission field? Surely it is not a compassion for the objects of our Kings sacrificial mission that compels us to such self-serving darkness. We should know better. Why do we go to extremes? So, is a wider inclusion the answer? Yesteryears ecumenical movement went almost nowhere because unity wasnt based upon a passion for gospel mission, but rather on a desire for ecclesiastical camaraderie. There was never a clear theological baseline from which mission could naturally emerge, so, circles of spiritual leaders convened around their lowest common denominators and planned saccharine events which demonstrated a mission-less and emasculated unity. Its blind aspiration for unity negated any potential gospel punch. But where are we today? On the complete opposite end of the gospel fellowship spectrum, we now seem to require theological uniformity in order to trust the missionary intentions of fellow kingdom laborers. There is one perspective on all theological matters, and any deviation from the code only proves the spiritual inferiority of a prospective gospel partner. The newly named heretics become open game for the barbs and arrows flung gleefully from a castle of a higher orthodoxy. We should be better. Yanny, Laurel, and the Cloudy Glass Last year, the opinions of the online world were divided by a manipulated sound file which some ears heard as yanny and others heard as laurel in almost equal numbers. As this went viral, the yanny tribe seemed flabbergasted at how the laurel tribe could have misinterpreted such an obvious sound. In equal incredulity, the laurel tribe watched in disbelief at the error of their yanny friends. Both sides certain. Both sides frustrated. Both sides with incomplete perspective. If perspective is important, perhaps its poignant as we begin this new year to revisit the Apostle Pauls magnus opus on love (1 Cor. 13). As he worked his way through a three-dimensional portrait of what love looks like, he ended with the autobiographical statement admitting that everything he knew was partial and incomplete. We now seem to require theological uniformity in order to trust the missionary intentions of fellow kingdom laborers. The Apostle Paul, who had witnessed the resurrected Jesus, who had spiritual revelations which were too high to describe, who through great suffering brought the gospel to new lands in an incredible missionary expansion of the church this giant of a missionary leader was generous and humble enough to admit his perspective derived from a lifetime walking with Jesus in his mission, was incomplete but one day would be complete. Should JD Greear be concerned about the public critique of incensed voices, who themselves, in comparison, have produced and given away very little spiritual fruit? Not as long as he recognizes that his accountability is to a King, his Word, and a spiritual leadership given to him. In this accountability, as they pursue the mission of Christ, we can expect to continue to see hundreds of disciple-makers raised and released for the expansion of the Kingdom as Christs church is multiplied across the nations. Perhaps this kind of leadership is worthy of emulationeven if they only have 51 weekly worship experiences. Jeff Christopherson is an author and Chief Missiologist of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). He also serves as Co-Executive Director of the Send Institute, a partnership of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and the North American Mission Board. Egypt Opens Largest Church for Coptic Christians in the Middle East Share Tweet Christians in Egypt celebrated Christmas with the dedication of the largest church for Coptic Christians in the Middle East. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas Jan. 7, and Christians marked the day with the Nativity of the Christ Cathedral. The building is a gift to the Church from President el-Sisi, who approved the cathedral in 2017, saying the church should be a message of peace and love to the world. He also attended the Christmas celebration and dedication. "We are one and we will continue to be one," he said at the dedication. "This moment is very important in our history." Church leaders are also calling the church a historic event. "I think what we have seen here is historic, said Joel Rosenberg. I really think it's a game changer that a Sunni Arab Muslim President of the world's largest Arab country has built a church, the largest in the Middle East and given it as a gift to the Christians of Egypt. We've never seen anything like it in history. And I think President Sisi is sending a message not just to his own people but to all Muslims that Muslims and Christians can live together in coexistence. That's an extraordinary development. President Donald Trump also voiced his support on Twitter this week, saying Excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East. President El-Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future! Excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East. President El-Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2019 Photo courtesy: Martin Widenka/Unsplash Christian Family, Church Devastated by Killing of Church Elder in Nigeria Share Tweet DOGO AWO, January 7, 2019 (Morning Star News) Ladi Yakubu does not know how her family will eat after Muslim Fulani herdsmen destroyed crops on their farm in Kaduna state, Nigeria on Nov. 26 and shot and killed her husband. My husband is no more alive, and so the burden to feed our children is on me, she said. How do I feed them without having a job? And I cannot go to the farm because of the murderous activities of these herdsmen. The 49-year-old Yakubu, a member of the Dogo Awo village congregation of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in north-central Nigeria, said she knew the gunmen were Fulani herdsmen because they have lived near the village for several years. Herdsmen also destroyed crops on their farm in late 2016 and late 2017, she said. Her husband, ECWA elder Yakubu Musa, was 50. Her 20-year-old son, Believe Yakubu, received a bullet wound in his leg in the attack. Her other children are ages 15, 18, 23, 26 and 28, but without access to their farm outside the village, the adult children have little income-earning power. The attack was different from night-time raids that have terrorized Christians in north-central and other states in Nigeria. Church members were helping the family to harvest rice the morning of Nov. 26, she said, when they stopped for lunch at about noon. As we were eating, a Fulani man came over to where we were sitting under a tree, Yakubu told Morning Star News. We offered him food, but he declined to eat with us. When my husband asked the Fulani man whether he needed help in anyway, the man said he was only out to find areas he could take his cattle to for grazing. The herdman left, but soon they heard gunshots near the farm, she said. The frightened church members returned to the village, while Yakubu, her husband and their son and nephew stayed to gather the harvest into one place and try to move tools and equipment, she said. While we were doing this, the Fulani man returned with one other Fulani, Yakubu said. Both of them were armed with guns. They shot at us, killing my husband and shooting my son on the leg, while me and my husbands nephew narrowly escaped being shot. My husband was shot twice in the stomach. The armed herdsmen left the area, she said, but the next morning they returned and destroyed crops, water-pumping machines for irrigation, herbicide sprayers and even the food warmers the family had taken to the farm, she said. My husbands corpse was recovered by our church members, and he was buried here in our house, she said, pointing to the grave. That is the grave you see by the door to this room where we are seated. Police Inaction Emboldens Herdsmen After a Nov. 25, 2016 raid, when Fulani herdsmen destroyed rice, beans, pepper and other crops, her husband reported the attack to police and the leader of the local Fulani community, but they took no action, Yakubu said. No action was taken against them, but then my husband, who loves peace, said we should forgive the Fulani herdsmen and continue to work on the farm and trust God for provisions, she said. The police inaction emboldened Fulani herdsmen to return again during the harvest season of 2017 and destroy crops, she said. Again her husband reported the attack to police and the local Fulani leader, with no result. We were all devastated by the actions of these herdsmen as we were never compensated even once for the destruction on our farms, Yakubu said. Yet they still returned to kill my husband on the same farm they had destroyed our crops. Every morning during family devotionals, she said, her husband would instruct them never to repay evil with evil. Leave judgment of every evil act against you to God, he would always tell us, she said, sobbing. And in obedience to his instructions, we have forgiven those who murdered my husband. We will never avenge his death, as God says, Vengeance is mine. The Fulani herdsmen killed Yakubu Musa though he had never done anything to them, she said. All our crops have been destroyed, and it is not even safe for us to venture out there to even glean on these farms, she said. And because of this, I find it difficult to provide food to our six children. On Wednesday (Jan. 2), the herdsmen attacked other Christians who went to their fields near Dogo Awo, she said. Dogo Awo village is located south of the town of Jagindi Tasha, Jamaa Local Government Area. My only appeal is that those who have the heart to want to help us with prayers and want to help us with something to feed on should please kindly do so, she said. Church Affected A graduate of the College of Education, Gidan Waya, in Kaduna state, with a Nigerian Certificate of Education, Yakubu had taught at a public primary school before she and other Christian teachers were laid off in what has been seen as systematic discrimination by a state government controlled by a Muslim governor. The Rev. Ali Ndaks, pastor of the ECWA Church in Dogo Awo village, said the killing of his church elder has devastated the congregation. Before this incident, our church, even though a small congregation, had 50 members, Pastor Ndaks said. But with the incessant attacks on our community, we now have only seven members left. Almost all Christians in this village have fled out of fear of the attacks by the herdsmen. The pastor said that herdsmen had also destroyed his farm, as well as those of other villagers. Musa also served as church secretary, financial secretary, and service leader, Pastor Ndaks said. He was a man of peace, always ensuring that issues in the church were resolved amicably, he added. Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigerias population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent. Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission. Photo courtesy: Pixabay By Daisy K, TwoCircles.net Nearly three years after the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, the HCU administration led by Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile continues with their mistreatment of Dalit Bahujan students on campus. On January 4, when students in HCU (Hyderabad Central University) got together for Velivada day, an event to commemorate the raising of Velivada, the administration removed the banners and posters of Dalit Bahujan leaders and dismantled the entire protest setup. The commemoration was part of a series of events leading to the Rohith Shahadath Din which is on January 17. After the Velivada program, towards midnight the portraits of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Gurram Jashua, Maa Ramabai Ambedkar, Periyar EV Ramasamy, Komaram Bheem, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Manyavar Kanshiram were taken away by the HCU administration. Not only this, four students have been served notices stating that appropriate actions will be taken. The students have stated that the notice which has not been accepted by the students have a series of false information regarding Dalit students. Support TwoCircles Iniyavan B, Organising Secretary, ASA, HCU speaking about the incident said, Apparao is been investigated under the atrocity case, and Velivada being one of the evidence, we feel that they have actually tried to erase evidence. Velivada was raised by scholars Rohith Vemula, Dontha Prashanth, Vijay Pedapudi, Seshu Chemudugunta and Velpula Sunkanna on January 4, 2016, in protest of HCU administration as they boycotted the scholars from entering the hostels. Speaking about the incident, Former Student Union President of HCU Sreerag Poickadan said they had a small gathering on January 4 to commemorate the raising of Velivada. The next morning we noticed that the banners and posters had been removed by the administrationthose photos have vanished and we cant find them anywhere. This incident has taken place just days before Rohith Shahadath Din is to take place. ASA (Ambedkarite Students Association) released a statement saying that Velivada also stands as testimony to the atrocities committed against by Apparao and BJP against them. Rohith Vemula spent his last days in this very same Velivada. Velivada means Dalit ghetto. Such ghettos usually exit at the margins of every village, but constructing a Velivada at the centre of this Brahmanic space must have sent shivers through the bones of this Brahmanical VC Appa Rao. We pledge that ASA will not stand idle at this atrocity. We demand that Velivada is returned to where it was. We will not rest until Velivada is raised. The students plan to conduct a protest rally today to condemn the administrations move, under the banner for Justice for Rohith Vemula. The HCU administration under the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao acting as an agent for the BJP-RSS combined in a series of decisions challenging the activities of the Ambedkarite students in HCU, leading to the expelling of five Dalit research scholars from the hostel in the campus in November 2016. It was the constant pressure put by then Union Ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani along with the casteist stand of the HCU administration that prompted this extreme move. The scholars then moved to the North Shopping Complex of the HCU campus and stayed out in an open protest. This site became the protest site against the BJP government and the administration and came to be called Velivada-referring to the part of the village outskirts was Dalits had been forced to live within traditional caste society. Constant pressure from the administration and government led to the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, one of the five expelled scholars on January 16, 2016. Since then, the Velivada has been a site of protest and resistance for the students of HCU. Velivada demolished by BJP henchman Podile Appa Rao. Geplaatst door ASA HCU op Zaterdag 5 januari 2019 Transgender taboos: Don't question ... or else Christian Post Contributor | 07 January, 2019 by John Stonestreet And Roberto Rivera There are a growing number of people who transitioned from one gender to the other, only to regret it, and then try to reverse the process. Why aren't we hearing their stories? Here's a fun fact: the word "taboo" came to the English language from natives on what is now the nation of Tonga. Believe it or not, when British explorer James Cook first visited the remote island, he noticed that certain things, in particular certain foods, were strictly off-limits. When he asked why, they replied these things were "taboo," which meant "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed." Now in English parlance today, we tend to use the word "taboo" as a figure of speech or hyperbole. We don't think of whatever is being referred to as literally being "consecrated," "inviolable," "uncleaned" or "cursed." Or do we? A recent article in Canada's National Post identified something it called the "new taboo." It's off-limits to even talk about the increasing number of people who, having undergone gender-reassignment surgery, now not only regret their decision, they want to reverse the procedure. Five years ago, Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic, described in the article as "the world-leading genital reconstructive surgeon," met a patient who had undergone the male-to-female surgery at another clinic but now wanted it reversed. It turned out to be only the first of many stories Djordjevic would hear "about crippling levels of depression following their transition, and, in some cases, even contemplated suicide." He told the National Post "It can be a real disaster to hear these stories." Why then are these disaster stories so rarely heard? Because they are taboo. The very same article told readers about allegations that Bath Spa University in England turned down "an application for research on gender reassignment reversal" because the project was deemed 'potentially politically incorrect.'" Or perhaps a more accurate word would be the one chosen by the National Post: "taboo." Read more from "Transgender taboos: Don't question ... or else" on The Christian Post. NYC's 3rd gender X birth certificate makes male and female obsolete, says Christian philosopher Christian Post Reporter | 07 January, 2019 by Brandon Showalter New York City residents can now legally change their birth certificates to indicate that they identify as transgender or nonbinary. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio signed the measure into law last year, which adds an X designation to birth certificates, along with M for male and F for female. "To all trans and nonbinary New Yorkers: We see you, hear you and respect you," the mayor's office said Dec. 29 on Twitter. "Starting in 2019, all New Yorkers will be able to change their gender on their birth certificate to M, F or X without a doctor's note." The move has been praised by LGBT activists. "It felt really monumental to me," said Ethan Rice, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, who co-chaired the advisory board that helped create the law, adding that he was grateful "the government is recognizing that transgender people, as citizens, are the ones who know what their identity is and are able to tell the government that really, rather than the other way around." Others say the move exemplifies how society is abandoning physical reality in service to an incoherent ideology and moving toward the erasure of the human body in the law. Daniel Moody, a Christian philosopher and the author of The Flesh Made Word, explained in a Friday interview with The Christian Post that it's worth reminding ourselves that the purpose of a birth certificate is to capture truth in language, thereby connecting persons to laws not only for the sake of the individual but for society as a whole. "And in order for the birth certificate to perform its function, the recording of a person's sex is both necessary and sufficient," he said. "X does not denote sex 'unknown.' Indeed, it is far more accurate to say it signifies 'I do not wish anybody to know my sex.' The new possibility has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with a destructive anti-body ideology. Anybody can self-identify their way out of the categories of male and female." Read more about gender X birth certificates on The Christian Post. New Hampshire city allows atheist flag to fly over Ten Commandments monument 07 January, 2019 by Samuel Smith/CP , | The city of Somersworth, New Hampshire, will again allow a national atheist group's flag to fly above a Ten Commandments monuments displayed in the city's downtown area. On Wednesday, Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard and resident Richard Gagnon raised up a "Freedom From Religion" flag. The flag has a blue backdrop with a large letter "A" in the middle to honor nonbelief. The flag is erected in the town's "Citizens Place" traffic island. According to the Wisconsin-based atheist legal group Freedom From Religion Foundation, which donated the flag, the red "A" was adopted by evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist author Richard Dawkins as a symbol of atheism and agnosticism. The flag will fly above the Ten Commandments monument at "Citizens Place" until Jan. 11. Gagnon told the Fosters Daily Democrat that the flag represents more than just atheism or agnosticism but truly represents religious "doubt in general." "It shows the city's diversity," Gagnon said. "In their commitment to diversity, the city said diversity includes everybody, including nonbelievers." The flag was first flown above the monument last year after a compromise allowed the city to restore the Ten Commandments monument. The monument was vandalized and toppled in August 2016 and a debate was sparked as to whether the town should restore it. Citizens Place was created after the city council voted to restore the monument and add flagpoles. "Richard's an atheist, he doesn't believe in God, and I do so what?" Hilliard told Fosters.com. "If you remove the flag, who's going to know who's an atheist and who isn't? We're both human beings, and we're here to build a community we can all be proud of." The Ten Commandments monument was a gift to the city from the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1958. At least year's raising on Jan. 2, 2018, Hilliard declared that the first raising of the atheist flag reinforced the late Rev. Martin Luther King's "dream." "Somersworth will once again prove to New Hampshire and the nation that we stand by our Hilltopper values of honoring each other," Hilliard said at the time. "Let us in this month continue to reflect on King's words, and his dream of understanding and equality for all." The flagpoles have also been used to hang other flags. For instance, a New England Patriots flag was flown at "Citizens Place" after the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2017. A 2015 Gallup poll found that New Hampshire was the least religious state in the nation with just about 20 percent of the state saying they were very religious. In 2018, New Hampshire ranked behind Vermont and Maine as the least religious states in the country, with about 23 percent respondents from New Hampshire saying they are very religious. "It is important that the views of nonreligious citizens be represented," FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said in a statement. "As long as city officials are unconstitutionally stubborn about using public property to promote religion, we insist on having our say too." FFRF advocates for a strict separation of church and state and regularly pressures local governments to end what it perceives to be illegal entanglements with religion. Last month, the group pressured a Missouri town to remove a large blue-lit cross from its Christmas light display. FFRF has also played a role in bringing agnostic displays to other communities around the country. In Washington state, the group again erected its nontheistic Winter Solstice sign at the state's capital in Olympia in late December. The sign asserts that there are no gods, devils or angels. Read more about the Freedom From Religion Foundation on The Christian Post. Kay Warren 'weeping' at 'horrible suffering' as adoptive parents forced to relinquish custody Christian Post Contributor | 07 January, 2019 by Stoyan Zaimov Saddleback Church co-founder Kay Warren is weeping over a story of Illinois foster parents being forced to give back their child in order to get him mental health help. "Weeping. Horrible suffering for some of our nation's most vulnerable children," Warren wrote on Twitter last week. "Untenable choices for loving, committed parents. Which lawmakers will right this wrong?" she asked. The story, published in NPR last week, concerns Illinois parents Toni and Jim Hoy, who adopted their son, Daniel, through the foster care system when he was a toddler. Daniel, who is now 24, needed severe mental health treatment in 2007, however, forcing the Hoys to give up parental custody to the state, as they could not pay the $100,000 a year treatment required. Jim Hoy explained that even though the family had private insurance, and Daniel had Medicaid coverage, neither wanted to pay for the treatments. The couple had no choice but to send their child back into the foster care system, where the child welfare agency would be obligated to pay for the services. "To this day, its the most gut-wrenching thing I've ever had to do in my life," the father said, recalling having to take 12-year-old Daniel to the hospital and declare that they were legally abandoning him. "I was crying terribly. But it was the only way we figured we could keep the family safe," he said. NPR noted that two-thirds of states do not keep records of how many families are forced into giving up custody for children to get mental health services. A Government Accountability Office study found that in 2001, over 12,000 families in 19 states had to take that option, however. Read more from "Kay Warren 'weeping' at 'horrible suffering' as adoptive parents forced to relinquish custody" on The Christian Post. Christian persecution expected to increase in 2019; believers facing 'modern-day jihad' Christian Post Contributor | 07 January, 2019 by Stoyan Zaimov The persecution of Christians around the world is expected to increase in 2019, with a watchdog group sharing particular concern for believers in Nigeria, China, and India. Release International, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, said in a press release that 215 million believers face violence and discrimination for their faith. "In Nigeria, Fulani militants look set to continue devastating attacks against Christians in the north and central Nigeria. In the first six months of 2018 alone, they killed up to 6,000 and drove 50,000 from their homes," the group said of the situation in the African country. A Release partner, who wasn't named, said that there is a "deliberate plan to destroy and take over the predominantly Christian communities in the region." The source added that Christians are facing a "strategic modern-day jihad." In June, the Christian Association of Nigeria and church denominational heads in Plateau State said that what is happening Nigeria is "pure genocide and must be stopped immediately." Watchdogs, such as the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, separately warned that the Fulani attacks on Christians should not be confused for decades-long clashes between cattle herders and farmers. Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman of Intersociety, told The Christian Postin August that believers have seen their churches burned down, and have been driven out en masse. "How many Muslim farmers are being killed by Fulani herdsmen? How many Muslim homes have been destroyed or burned? The answer is in the negative. It has nothing to do with herdsmen-farmer clashes. It is false," Umeagbalasi told CP at the time. The Communist government of China was also mentioned among the highest causes for concern, with new rules on regulating religion cracking down on churches, pastors and congregations throughout the country. Continue reading about Christian persecution on The Christian Post. If you think that Queen Elizabeth II has lived a completely charmed life, youd only be half right. In fact, the longest-reigning monarch in Britain has faced more challenges and survived more ordeals than anyone would ever believe. Queen Elizabeths complicated beginnings Born to royal parents on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was destined for greatness. She did not, however, stand a serious chance of becoming queen. Her grandpa George was King, and her father, the Duke of York, was second in line for the throne. Only when her Uncle Edward abdicated his royal position in favor of an American divorcee named Wallis Warfield Simpson did the then 10-year-old princess assume her position as presumptive heir to the throne. A world at war As a child, Lilibet, as she was then called, endured the horror of World War II up close and personal. The young princess was barely 13 when England joined the war effort. Despite pressure from the public to send Lilibet and her sister Margaret to Canada, they were housed instead at Buckingham Palace which took a direct bomb hit while the princesses were inside, according to the Daily Telegraph. In 1940, the princesses were moved into Windsor Castle where air raid sirens often rousted them from bed. The royal parents reasoned that providing their young daughters as an example of bravery would calm the country in a time of terror and upheaval. Margaret and Elizabeth spent many hours huddled in bomb shelters as hell rained down all around them. At the tender age of 14, Elizabeth delivered a speech that was heard by radio listeners as far away as North America. Despite her own fears, the young princess evinced courage and patriotism with nary a waver to her voice. Responsibility no teen should bear In 1942, the king appointed his eldest daughter an honorary colonel in a Royal Army regiment called the 500 Grenadier Guards. Two years later, Elizabeth was granted the power to act on her fathers behalf any time he was away from the throne. As the war drew to a close, Elizabeth, who was not yet 18 years old, decided she wanted to do more than talk on the radio. So, the princess donned a mechanics uniform and learned to drive an ambulance, explained Biographics magazine. The end of World War II did not spell the end of austerity in Great Britain. Elizabeth saved her ration coupons and used them to purchase fabric for her wedding dress. Which brings us to another uncomfortable chapter in the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Her impoverished prince Lilibet set her sights on handsome Prince Philip of Greece when she was a child. Because they are cousins, the pair often encountered one another at family functions such as weddings and the occasional coronation. Due to a five-year age difference, Philip didnt pay a lot of attention to the young princess until she was 17. When he did begin to court the girl who would be queen, he was not exactly embraced by the public. Word around London was that despite his regal title, Prince Philip had scarcely a penny to his name. His family had been exiled from Greece before he was a year old, and his mother was eventually committed to a sanitarium. Philips German heritage was not exactly appreciated in the wake of the war, either, and many members of the royal family considered him an interloper, says Vanity Fair. Nonetheless, Elizabeth got what she wanted when she and Philip were married at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. It wasnt all smooth sailing As her fathers health slowly declined, Princess Elizabeth stood in for him at numerous state functions. A short time after Christmas in 1951, she and Philip embarked on an official tour of Australia and New Zealand. On the way, they stopped over in Kenya where Elizabeth was given the sad news that her father had died. On June 2, 1953, she became the sixth female in history to ascend to the British throne. An early test of the new Queens mettle happened when her sister, Princess Margaret, was discovered in flagrante delicto with a member of her late fathers royal staff, and it fell to the monarch to deny consent for the two to marry. As her reign continued into the 1950s, the Queen was routinely disparaged for being out of touch. Her failure to wrest control of the Suez Canal back from the Egyptians was criticized as was her appointment of Harold MacMillan as prime minister. In her defense, the Queen had little constitutional control over either situation, explains the Daily Telegraph. Much travel, few thanks In 1977, Her Majesty and entourage traveled more than 56,000 miles to visit various countries in the Commonwealth in commemoration of her Silver Jubilee. During an era of economic struggle, many considered the Queens travel expenses to be extravagant. Annus Horribilis 1992 was a difficult year for the royal family, and few felt the burden more than Elizabeth. Although her relationship with Philip was steadfast, she watched helplessly as each of her three children faced heartbreak. Her eldest son, Prince Charles, separated from Lady Diana after 14 years of marriage. Her second son, Prince Andrew, also called it quits with his wife, Sarah Fergie Ferguson in 1992. The Queens only daughter, Princess Anne, finalized her divorce from Captain Mark Phillips that same year. On November 24, 1992, the Queen delivered a speech at Guildhall to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne. 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so. Grace under fire On the whole, Queen Elizabeths life has been one of value, honor, and service. That the long-reigning monarch has been beset with trouble only goes to show how very human she is. When asked about the sort of pets owned by Queen Elizabeth II, most people immediately mention dogs. Low-slung, good-natured Welsh Corgis have been a famous part of the royal family for generations, after all. What you might not know is that the Queen has owned and currently owns a lot of other animals, too. First, a few words about the royal corgis The first corgis, Dookie & Jane, joined the royal family in 1933 when the Duke of York, later King George VI, acquired two for his daughters Princess Elizabeth & Princess Margaret. The Princesses are pictured here with Dookie in 1941. #NationalPetDay pic.twitter.com/4Q8lCs6n4Y RoyalCollectionTrust (@RCT) April 11, 2018 The young princess known to friends and family as Lilibet first fell in love with the corgi breed at the home of a childhood playmate. Her father, who was then the Duke of York, presented the princess and her sister Margaret with a corgi of their own when Elizabeth was around six years old. Thats how a pup dubbed Dookie became the first of dozens of dogs Elizabeth has owned over the years. In addition to Pembroke Welsh corgis, the Queen enjoys dorgis, which are a crossbreed of corgis and dachshunds. Royal pets and the end of a canine era Britains royal family has been sharing castle space with dogs for centuries. Queens, kings, and royal progeny proudly posed for portraits with greyhounds, pugs, and other canine companions as long ago as the 17th century. In 2015, The Telegraph revealed that Queen Elizabeth II is done with dog breeding. Citing a reluctance to trip over the short-legged creatures and injure them or herself, the queen also explained that she did not want any of her beloved pooches to outlive her. Will Her Majesty lead a pet-free life when her last pet pooch passes away? Not at all. Queen Elizabeth II certainly has great affection for her corgis, but she also enjoys the company of animals besides dogs. Royal menagerie During a lifetime in the public eye, Elizabeth has been presented with some rather unusual animals. In 1957, the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society gave her a cow named Beauchamp Oxford Lady. The lucky bovine joined the royal dairy herd at Windsor where it provided milk and cheese for the growing royal family. In the 1960s, the Queen received a veritable menagerie of wild animals, including a pair of pygmy hippopotamus from the president of Liberia. Other animals given to Her Majesty include a sloth, a crocodile, an elephant, and at least two kangaroos. Each found proper homes at the Queens behest, reports the UK Daily Express. Equine royalty Queen Elizabeths love for horses dates back at least as long as her affection for corgis. She started riding a Shetland pony named Peggy when she was six years old and has enjoyed horseback riding ever since. Over the years, the Queens owned numerous thoroughbred racehorses, many of which were driven to victory by a jockey wearing Her Majestys official purple and scarlet racing silks. But wait, theres more In addition to horses and dogs, Queen Elizabeth II owns virtually every swan in or on UK waters. Unlike the monarchs other pets, ownership of the elegant birds is her birthright. As far back as the 12th century, the reigning monarch was decreed ownership of every swan in England. In 15th century, a portion of the swans on the Thames River were allotted to local winemakers and fabric dyers, explains Readers Digest. The dolphins and fish belong to Her Majesty, too As the swan statute was being slightly revised in the 14th century, another law was established that gave ownership of every whale and fish within three miles of the realm to the reigning monarch. The statue has never been rewritten or repealed. These days, the old law remains in place to protect endangered animals. Nonetheless, if you catch a fish or bag a swan anywhere near a UK coastline, there is a chance it will be legally retrieved and handed over to the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The biggest star on last nights Golden Globe Awards red carpet was not a Hollywood celebrity. The star was none other than Fiji Water girl, Kelleth Cuthbert. Not only was Cuthbert handing out bottles of water to parched celebrities, but she also owned every single one of those cameras as she photobombed several celebrity photo-ops. Cuthbert became an overnight sensation Who says all heroes wear capes? Wearing a sleeveless indigo-colored gown and holding a tray with bottled waters, the Fiji Water girl was the true hero at last nights 2019 Golden Globe Awards. The model shared her red carpet look on Instagram with the caption, Not the worst way to spend a Sunday#goldenglobesfijigirl #fijiwatergirl. This model knows that she is the one and only Fiji Water Girl! Fiji Water Girlwho goes by the name Kelleth Cuthbertstole the show on the Golden Globe Awards red carpet. She was seen posing behind some of Hollywoods biggest celebrities such as Dakota Fanning, Cody Fern, Camilla Belle, Alyssa Milano, Jim Carrey, and many more. The great thing about the entire night, all of the celebrities Cuthbert photobombed didnt even know someone was posing behind them. Making direct eye-contact over the shoulders of movie stars galore, Cuthbert made sure she was seen clearly throughout the night! Cuthbert went viral just in a few short hours after many fans commended her for her bravery and praised her for iconic photobombing moments. Not many people would have the guts to photobomb a celebritys photo-opespecially while on the red carpet! Dont know bout yall but 2019 just begun and we have the PHOTOBOMBER OF THE YEAR. Fiji water girl is a fckng mood pic.twitter.com/gkP3SGYvYT Jolyooos Caesar (@calinginjulius) January 7, 2019 The fiji water girl is serving LOOKS. Opportunity seeking at its finest. Get it queen! pic.twitter.com/LfgiKvG3bQ Alex Grigorian (@alexgrigorian_) January 7, 2019 The internet has dubbed Fiji Water girl the biggest meme of 2019. Fans have been photoshopping the model into different movie scenes showcasing her iconic camera ready look on the red carpet. That Fiji water girl is really out here stealing scenes #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/1BH9Br3iOB imamess (@SGFGrowyso) January 7, 2019 The models social media following grew substantially overnight and she now 93,000 followers. Thats a big jump from having 53,000 just two days prior. This was an epic pr move Fiji Water has been the official water brand for the Golden Globe Awards for the past 4 years. In an effort to showcase the water bottles a lot more on the red carpet, Fiji partnered with Matrix Model Staffing to have the brand be photographed at the event. The idea seemed to work because fans have been loving the attention Fiji Water girl has been receiving. It is safe to say Cuthbert will possibly be invited back to hand out Fiji Water at the next Golden Globe Awards, of course, if shes not an international model by then. Kelleth Cuthbert is an up-and-coming model Based in Los Angeles, Cuthbert has been featured in a few magazine shoots as well as clothing brand campaigns. Of course, when the model hit the Golden Globes red carpet, she already knew which of her angels were best to showcase in photos! Since her red carpet stunt, the model has been getting noticed by agencies and is expected to go pretty far in her career. Not many people can overshadow some of Hollywoods biggest celebrities, but this girl did! Even though Kelleth Cuthbert didnt take home a Golden Globe, she certainly was a red carpet showstopper! If youre tuning in to the Golden Globe Awards tonight, you might notice an unfamiliar face on stage. The person assisting in the distribution of the coveted trophies to lucky winners will be none other than Idris Elbas daughter Isan Elba. The 16-year-old Atlanta resident was chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to serve as 2019s Golden Globe Ambassador. Heres what we know about Isan and what role shell be playing in this years ceremony. What does the Golden Globe Ambassador do? Up until 2017, the Golden Globe Ambassador was known as Miss or Mr. Golden Globe. Though the title was recently changed to be more gender-neutral, the role remains the same. In addition to helping out during the ceremony by handing out trophies and escorting winners off stage, the ambassador promotes both their own and the HFPAs philanthropic activities. Since 1971, the Golden Globe Ambassador has been the son or daughter of a celebrity. Landing the gig can be a stepping-stone to a bigger career. Tippi Hedrens daughter Melanie Griffith was Miss Golden Globe in 1975 and later went on to win an award herself. Freddie Prinze Jr. was the rare Mr. Golden Globe in 1996, shortly before he shot to fame with a role in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Rumer Willis, Dakota Johnson, and Greer Grammer have all held the role as well. Why did Isan Elba get the job? Elba clearly meets one of the major requirements of being the Golden Globe Ambassador: being the child of a famous parent. Her dad, Idris Elba was not only Peoples Sexiest Man Alive for 2018 but also a Golden Globe winner for his role on the BBCs Luther in 2012. The Golden Globe Ambassador must also have a commitment to philanthropy. Elba says shell use her platform to shine a light on mental health issues in the African-American community. Mental health, specifically among African Americans and my peers in particular, is something I really want to be more vocal about, she told Variety. Theres this perceived stigma and Ive seen friends struggle. We need to empower young people to not be afraid to ask for help. She didnt even know she was being considered Parents submit their childs name to be considered for the Golden Globe Ambassador position, and apparently, Elba didnt even know that her parents had thrown hers into the ring. When her father texted her to let her know the big news, she didnt believe him at first. I literally, I was like, Are you sure? Because, you know, he deals with, you know, cool stuff all the time so I was like, Are you sending this to the right person? she told People. And I showed my mom, I was like, Mom, dad just told me Im the Golden Globe Ambassador, and she was like, Yeah, you are! Once she realized she really would be on stage at this years ceremony, she said she was flipping out. Elba isnt exactly a red carpet novice, though. She attended her first movie premiere with her dad when she was five years old. This time around, hell be her plus-one at the big event. She just has one request of her father, she told Glamour: Dont say any dad jokes, and dont get all mushy gushy everywhere. Emirates has announced a number of appointments to its commercial operations team across the Middle East, GCC and Africa, further demonstrating the airlines commitment to strengthening its long-term commercial strategy and offer across these regions. All of the appointments bring Emirati talent into key leadership positions, either being promoted from within the organisation or through portfolio rotations, underpinning the airlines commitment to career development and progression of its UAE nationals. All of the new appointments are effective January 6. Thierry Antinori, Emirates executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said: As we continue to develop our operations in the Middle East, GCC and Africa, the unique backgrounds, experience and skills of each newly appointed member of our commercial team will further strengthen our commercial and business operations and drive our strategic initiatives in a new year of growth. Their experience will also be instrumental as we focus on executing many of our commercial initiatives to pursue revenue opportunities, improve margin performance, as well as capture new consumer segments. Mohammad Lootah will be taking on the role of manager - Jordan. Lootah joined Emirates in 2016 and has held commercial support management roles in Riyadh and Kuwait. Tariq Al Mutawa has been appointed as manager - Kuwait. Al Mutawa has been with Emirates for eight years, holding roles in India, Bahrain and Qatar. Hamad Al Ali has been appointed to lead Emirates commercial activities as manager - Bahrain. Al Ali joined Emirates in 2013 as a commercial support manager and was posted in South Africa and Ethiopia. After that, he was assigned as manager - Zambia where he executed and delivered the airlines commercial activities in that market. Omar Al Bushlaibi will become manager - Oman. Al Bushlaibi joined Emirates in 2014 as part of the UAE National Commercial Management Programme, training in the UAE Sales Department, Istanbul, as well as Mumbai before holding the role of commercial support manager in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Nasser Bahlooq will be manager - Zimbabwe. Bahlooq joined the UAE National Commercial Management Programme in 2015 and was selected to manage the airlines commercial activities in Yinchuan, China and most recently Yangon, Myanmar where he supported the route launch activities of the linked route to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Khalfan Al Salami will hold the role of manager - Sudan. Al Salami joined Emirates in 2015 as part of the UAE National Commercial Management Programme, taking on further training and development in Emirates station in Madrid and most recently held the role of commercial support manager - Kuwait. Marwan Al Marri will become manager - Riyadh. Al Marri previously held the commercial support manager position in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Fahad Bastaki will take on the role of manager - Dammam. Bastaki began his career with Emirates in 2015 and has also held commercial support positions in South Africa and most recently Zimbabwe. Saeed Khalifa Bin Sulaiman will take on the role of senior manager, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Sulaiman previously held the role of regional manager East (Riyadh and Dammam) in Saudi Arabia. Omar Al Banna will become manager - Sharjah and Northern Emirates. Al Banna started his career with Emirates in 2006 and has previously held the roles of managing commercial activities in Ethiopia, Tunisia, Jordan as well as Corporate Sales in the UAE. Most recently, he managed the airlines commercial operations in Kuwait and Iraq. - TradeArabia News Service The new year has arrived, and so has peak flu season. While flu or influenza is most serious for older Americans and people with certain chronic conditions, influenza can affect people of all ages and lead to hospitalizations, significant health complications and even death.As many as 35 million flu cases are expected this year, starting in October and continuing into May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The peak months are December through February.Most people have likely had the flu at some point with symptoms such as a constant cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headaches and fatigue yet many myths and misperceptions remain.Here are five myths and facts that can help you and your loved ones reduce the risk of catching the flu.Myth: Flu shots dont really work.Fact: The flu vaccine reduces the risk of contracting and spreading the disease by up to 60 percent, according to the CDC. The vaccines effectiveness depends on multiple factors including the amount of time between vaccination and exposure to the disease, your age and health status yet studies show that the flu vaccination benefits public health, especially when the vaccine is well matched to that years circulating viruses.Myth: I got vaccinated last year, so I should be good for this year, too.Fact: The flu virus changes each year, so flu vaccines change to keep pace. Plus, the bodys immune response to a flu vaccine declines over time, which means a yearly vaccination is the best option.Myth: I exercise and eat healthy, so I dont need to get vaccinated.Fact: It is true being healthy may help you recover from illness more quickly, but it wont prevent you from getting or spreading the flu virus. Even healthy people can be infected and spread the flu virus without showing symptoms.Myth: The flu vaccine is only necessary for the old and very young.Fact: The CDC recommends flu shots for everyone six months and older. Getting vaccinated later in the flu season through January or even after can still be beneficial. It is important to start early in the season for children, as two doses of the vaccine may be necessary, with the shots given at least four weeks apart.Myth: Getting the flu is not that serious.Fact: The CDC reports that more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications each year, while 36,000 die from it. Reducing the risk of flu is especially important for people who have certain medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes or chronic lung disease; and for pregnant women, young children and people 65 and older. Even for people without those complications, flu symptoms can disrupt work, school or social life for several weeks or more.Now is the time to get a flu vaccine, which is considered preventive and in most cases is covered through employer-sponsored, individual and Medicare and Medicaid health plans. Vaccines are available through primary care physicians and convenience care clinics. Visit the CDC website at cdc.gov/flu to search for a nearby care provider based on your zip code. The City of Chattanoogas annual city-wide MLK Day of Service, an event where Chattanoogans will come together to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will be held on Monday, Jan. 21. This event, known as A Day On, Not a Day Off, will kickoff at University of Tennessee at Chattanoogas Maclellan Gym at 8 a.m., where volunteers and project coordinators will meet for breakfast and a pep rally. Community members are encouraged to sign up to volunteer, submit a project or donate supplies. This year's theme centers on Dr. Kings quote, If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.Our MLK Day of Service is always one my favorite days in the city, said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. I love seeing Chattanoogans work together to serve our community.The MLK Day of Service event is hosted by the City of Chattanoogas Office of Multicultural Affairs, with partners and sponsors including SunTrust Bank, Tennessee American Water, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, AARP, Scenic Cities Beautiful, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Unum.Projects range from African-American cemetery cleanups, fair housing education and surveys, church and community cleanups, smoke alarm installation and more.Those interested in volunteering, submitting a project or donating supplies must submit a form to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Applications are due by Monday, Jan. 14. For more information and to access applications visit connect.chattanooga.gov/mlkdos/ Additionally, the Unity Group of Chattanooga released a schedule of events to celebrate the life of Dr. King, beginning Saturday, Jan. 12 and concluding Monday, Jan. 21. Information on these events can be found here Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam on Monday granted executive clemency to Cyntoia Denise Brown by commuting her sentence of life imprisonment. She will be released to parole supervision on Aug. 7, 2019, after serving 15 years in prison. This decision comes after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case, Governor Haslam said. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Transformation should be accompanied by hope. So, I am commuting Ms. Browns sentence, subject to certain conditions. Ms. Browns parole conditions will require that she not violate any state or federal laws, and she will be subject to a release plan approved by the Tennessee Department of Correction and special supervision conditions, including employment, education, counseling, and community engagement requirements. Parole supervision will continue until Aug. 7, 2029, at which point Ms. Browns sentence will expire. She will complete re-entry programming prior to her release from custody in August in order to facilitate a successful transition to the community. In 2006, Ms. Brown was convicted by a Davidson County jury of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery for the 2004 murder of 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent Johnny Allen, which occurred when then-16-year-old Brown was picked up by Allen and taken to his home. She received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of 51 years in prison, which means she would not have been eligible for parole consideration until 2055, at the earliest, without the governors action. While in prison, Ms. Brown has earned her GED and completed an associate degree in 2015 through the Lipscomb LIFE program with a 4.0 GPA. It is anticipated that she will complete a bachelors degree in 2019. Numerous Department of Correction employees and volunteers attest to her extraordinary personal transformation while incarcerated, which will allow her to be a positive influence on the community upon release. Earlier this year, the Tennessee Board of Parole issued a positive recommendation to the governor in favor of granting Ms. Brown a commutation. While we have spent a considerable amount of time studying and implementing sentencing and criminal justice reform in our state, there is more work to be done, Governor Haslam said. I am hopeful serious consideration of additional reforms will continue, especially with respect to the sentencing of juveniles. Executive clemency is an act of mercy or leniency by the governor after a criminal conviction. Governor Haslam has previously granted five commutations, 15 pardons, and one exoneration. Governor Haslam continues to review and consider additional clemency requests. Eric Atkins of the Chattanooga Unity Group said, "The Unity Group joins other civil rights groups, social justice organizations and those advocates that were dedicated to finding a fair and just remedy in this very unfortunate incident, and thankfully a tragedy didn't become a lifelong travesty. "We trust that after the mitigating factors and extenuating circumstances of this case were weighed, Governor Haslam and those who reviewed this case felt compelled to issue Clemency for Ms.Brown and we applaud him for it. Groups like the Highlander Center and Ash-lee Henderson, ACLU and dozens of other civic groups and dedicated citizen advocates worked tirelessly for many years on this case and their advocating speaks to the power of change when the voices of the masses cry out as one. "This case is indicative of the work left undone, due process under the law, recognizing the mental illness issues many of us combat on a daily basis, and permanently eradicating the menace that is slavery in the form of trafficking from the face of the Earth once and for all through prescribing to basic and fundamental human rights." Ms. Brown issued this statement: Governor Bill Haslam by executive order has renamed Rocky Fork State Park in Unicoi County as Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park, honoring Tennessees senior senator for his record of service and commitment to preservation. Senator Alexander has spent a lifetime serving Tennesseans and promoting Tennessee to the world, Governor Haslam said. He loves the state from Memphis to Mountain City. His roots are in East Tennessee, and it is fitting that this special place in this special state bears his name. Tennessees state parks are indebted to him and his service both as governor and as senator, and visitors to this state park will be reminded of his work every time they visit. Senator Alexander was influential in securing federal funding for the land as a United States senator. Rocky Fork is a 10,000-acre tract of mountainous land with elevations as high as 4,800 feet. Beginning in 2006, Alexander helped secure more than $30 million to purchase the tract and add it to the Cherokee National Forest so it would be permanently available for public use. In 2012, Haslam announced that more than 2,000 acres of the Rocky Fork tract would become Tennessees 55th state park. Alexander attended that announcement and the grand opening of the state park in September 2015. I am grateful for this unexpected and thoughtful gesture by Governor Haslam, Senator Alexander said. Rocky Fork is a treasure in one of the most beautiful sections of our country. It is Upper East Tennessees Gateway to the Appalachian Trail. Because of its natural beauty and high elevations, it should soon be one of our states most popular parks. Living in the foothills of the Smokies, I have seen how a popular park can provide outdoor experiences for Tennesseans and also attract tourism, jobs and tax dollars to adjacent counties. Environmental leaders also expressed appreciation for Senator Alexanders efforts and supported the renaming of the park. Senator Alexander has been an indispensable champion in the multi-year endeavor to conserve this treasured mountain land, and his support for the Land and Water Conservation Fund in Tennessee was essential to the creation of this state park, said Pat Noonan, chairman emeritus of The Conservation Fund, the organization that helped the state acquire the land. The naming of the park in his honor is a wonderful legacy for the senator and a gesture of gratitude for all of his tireless work over the years with the partners, and federal, state and local entities to ensure that Rocky Fork and many other outdoor havens across Tennessee are protected for generations to come." "Senator Alexander has been tireless in championing for the preservation of Rocky Fork, recognizing its scenic and pristine beauty and the importance of the watershed, said Morgan Sommerville, southern regional director for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The senators efforts enabled a wonderful improvement in the route of the Appalachian Trail, from a muddy road to a winding path through lush Tennessee hardwoods, adding to the senators legacy. Senator Alexander has been noted for many preservation efforts. He was listed in 2016 as one of the 100 most influential people in the history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by the Great Smoky Mountains Association. He sponsored the Tennessee Wilderness Act, which became law last year, and designated 20,000 acres in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee as wilderness. In 2017, Alexander received the Bruce F. Vento Public Service Award from the National Park Trust in recognition of his extraordinary efforts to support national parks and public lands. Senator Alexander, a native of Maryville, has held his seat in the U.S. Senate since 2003. He served as governor of Tennessee from 1979-1987, served as president of the University of Tennessee from 1988-1991 and was U.S. Secretary of Education from 1991-1993. Here is the order: AN ORDER RENAMING THE ROCKY FORK STATE PARK AS THE LAMAR ALEXANDER ROCKY FORK STATE PARK WHEREAS, Rocky Fork State Park is comprised of over 2,000 wilderness acres in the Appalachian Mountains in Unicoi County and was designated as a state park in 2012; and WHEREAS, Rocky Fork State Park is one of Tennessee's newest state parks and features primitive land, pristine mountain streams, spectacular overlooks, miles of trails, and diverse plant and animal habitats; and WHEREAS, several state and federal agencies and conservation groups led the effort to protect the Rocky Fork property for public use, resulting in the state purchasing the tract for this purpose; and WHEREAS, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is engaging stakeholders on long-term planning for sustainable recreation and infrastructure for Rocky Fork State Park; and WHEREAS, Rocky Fork State Park can be a catalyst for outdoor recreation and tourism in the region; and WHEREAS, Lamar Alexander was raised in Maryville, Tennessee in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and has served as Governor of Tennessee, President of the University of Tennessee, and United States Secretary of Education and currently serves as United States Senator; and WHEREAS, Lamar Alexander is a tireless advocate for the outdoors and has been a leader in protecting our state's and country's natural resources; and WHEREAS, during his tenure as governor, Lamar Alexander was recognized as the Tennessee Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year in 1984 and the National Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year in I 985; and WHEREAS, Lamar Alexander served as chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Commission on Americans Outdoors in 1986; and WHEREAS, while serving as United States Senator, Lamar Alexander has supported investment in national parks and measures to protect our environment for future generations; and WHEREAS, Lamar Alexander has been recognized by numerous conservation organizations for his appreciation of, and extraordinary efforts to protect, public lands and national parks; and WHEREAS, Lamar Alexander was a driving force behind the creation of Rocky Fork State Park and has led recent efforts to enhance the Cherokee National Forest, which neighbors Rocky Fork State Park; and WHEREAS, permanently renaming the Rocky Fork State Park to honor Lamar Alexander is appropriate and fitting for a public servant and statesman who cares deeply about Tennessee and the outdoors. NOW THEREFORE, I, Bill Haslam, Governor of the State of Tennessee, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Tennessee Constitution and applicable law, do hereby direct and order that the Rocky Fork State Park shall be known from this day forward as the Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park, and all signage and other materials shall reflect this change. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have subscribed my signature and caused the Great Seal of the State of Tennessee to be affixed this 7th day of January, 2019. First Tennessee Bank, a member of the First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) family of companies, announced that Lebron Womack has been named senior commercial relationship manager of the banks commercial group in the Chattanooga market. Mr. Womack will be responsible for the acquisition, retention, and expansion of First Tennessee Banks commercial business clients. He will build client relationships and oversee portfolio growth. In addition, he will ensure continuity of high quality service, product delivery, and responsiveness to client needs. For years, Lebron has worked as a successful senior business banking relationship manager for the bank, earning multiple Diamond Circle Awards, said Chattanooga market president, Jay Dale. Attracting and retaining the best talent is key to our success and reliability. Lebron exemplifies the standard of service and expertise we strive to provide to all of our clients. With a career in the banking industry spanning over two decades, Mr. Womack joined First Tennessee Bank in 2012, most recently serving as a senior business banking relationship manager. I am honored to have the opportunity to expand our relationships in a market I know so well. Mr. Womack said. At First Tennessee Bank, we believe in the power of relationships and the growth they bring. Mr. Womack received his bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He recently served as the board president for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga and enjoys volunteering his time with several nonprofit organizations. He and his wife Kimberly make their home in Ooltewah, with their three daughters Grace, Catherine, and Claire. Today has always been one of my favorite days. Ill admit I have other special days, for reasons known to no one but myself, but this is the day we get back to normal. Other than awaiting tonights Alabama-Clemson game, today is the day we start out fresh, finally throwing some real lift into 2019 and Im already excited about satisfying my own personal curiosity about the best solution to the sewer tragedy in Ooltewah. I dont know when Ive been as bothered over an issue. While I do not have a dog in the hunt, I am openly mystified how two different sides, while quite decided, each contain some of the finest people in our community. I find I have dear friends in both camps and many who I dont know (yet) I certainly admire by reputation. How in the world this problem has been allowed to fester we have more decent and good people on different sides since the Civil War! Dont worry, as I try to separate the outlandish accusations, the misinformation accelerated by he said-she said, and the ridiculous diatribe of inviting anyone who disagrees with you to come to the dock for drinks, I can promise there are some good solutions in the works. Further, I can absolutely assure everyone involved what everybody wants is the same thing, and thats the right thing. As I waited on the sleep fairy just this past Saturday night, I was nestled among my pillows and covers when I recalled one of my favorite stories of all-time. In the mid-1990s one of my favorite people was involved in a top-secret mission of sneaking a stooped woman from Albania into the United States, to Philadelphia to be more precise. I can guarantee you no one in Philly could give the slightest care that Agnes Bojaxhiu was coming to visit. But let anyone get the first glimpse of Mother Teresa and it was easy to predict soon the whole city would stop. There was an ultra-exclusive reception planned, very secret with no publicity whatsoever, where she would take tens of millions back to the famed Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, and then a clandestine meeting with the President, the General Secretary of the UN, and less than 10 other world leaders to discuss private matters. This is a great story and my deepest regret is no earthly being can match my pal Compolo making it come alive. Now 83 and more beloved than ever, Tony told this story over 25 years ago at a swanky lunch table in New York one day as we had lunch with a couple of other giants. (No, I am not a giant maybe Ill explain my presence in my memoirs someday but it is of little matter.) I have printed the story several times and, rather than rewrite it, allow me to reprint the incident as it was first written: * * * WHEN MOTHER TERESA STOPPED BY TOWN HALL So the Holy Mother, who was well into her 80s when she slipped into Philadelphia, arrived on a charter jet on the extreme down low and, as the unmarked white van, curiously accompanied fore and aft by nearly a dozen swarthy cops on motorcycles, eased through one suburb towards downtown Philly, the inconspicuous yet very curious motorcade just happened to pass group of protesters were seen hurling shouts and vulgar insults outside of a building. What are those men? she asked Campolo, one of the most noted Christian and renowned teachers in the world. Tony, suddenly uncomfortable, told her they were protesting a large half-way house being allowed in the township. A what? she asked. After he further explained a half-way house is where people who have fallen prey to crime, mental disorders and drug abuse are eased back into society. Mother Teresa smiled at such goodness until Tony, shaking his head, added the Inquirer and other newspapers were predicted it would be unanimously turned away. To which Mother Teresa instantly countered, Lets stop and go there! Campolo tried to tell her not to stop, that they had a tight time table, but any words would be useless. Already she leaned forward to instruct the driver to turn back. Get this: former UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar once declared of her, She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world. Who did Campolo dare think he was, he would later admit with a chuckle, to stop Mother Teresa from doing anything? So the van stopped at the curb and a police dept. captain, riding on the front seat with the driver, opened the rear door so that Campolo could get out, then assist the shriveled nun with her exit. She never needed an introduction anywhere, in her plain white habit, more of a nursing uniform with its French-blue trim, more famous and recognizable than Santas red suit. As she was helped down the step, the protesters were instantly frozen and became mute, standing in near reverence, and, with the cop on one side and Tony the other, into the building they went. There was lively banter in the Commission chamber as the three stepped through in the door. At the very sight of the Holy Mother, there was instantly a complete and stunning silence as the Mother Teresa approached the seemingly paralyzed group. My name is Teresa of Calcutta. By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, a Catholic nun. As my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. She paused to smile at each of the totally shocked commissioners, purposefully one by one, on the dais. She then kneeled and prayed in English In the name of Jesus, please do not abandon His children . In the name of Jesus, please do not abandon His children. One commissioner, his faced locked on the Holy Mother, quietly but quickly changed his vote. In very short order, all of the others did the same. Mother Teresa stood, gave a short blessing and then, in a gesture to last a lifetime for every soul in that room, silently made the sign of the cross before the assembled. Tony said his whole body was shaking and that he whispered in awe, Oh, baby! I just witnessed an actual miracle. The veteran police captain, hardened by the dregs of society his entire life, had tears on his cheeks, and the Holy Mother was already walking to the door. Campolo, who has told the tale many times, uses it to separate the difference between power and authority. The commissioners had the power, you see, but Mother Teresa, by virtue of living her entire life serving the poorest of the poor in the wretched Calcutta slums, had such authority that it trumps power every time. That is how churches should be. Christians too. At the time of her death, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity order had nearly 4,000 nuns and ran roughly 600 orphanages, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and clinics in over 200 of the worlds countries. She had witnessed so much misfortune, squalor and pain that sometimes even she questioned the presence of the God she so fiercely and unfailingly followed. Yet her faith never waived. * * * So there I lie in bed, this actually around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, and I wondered what if we could have taken Sister Teresa to that meeting between the WWTA and its opponents at Central High School? What if we could take the stooped nun to the EPA hearing later this month? We cannot. Mother Teresa died in September of 1997 as an 87-year-old nun soon to be canonized as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church. None of us can no longer take this saint anywhere we go. But any of us can act like her. * * * HOW TO ACT LIKE AJEZE GONXHE BOJAXHI (WHO WE REMEMBER AS MOTHER TERESA) People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." * * * Did you catch that last line It was never between you and them anyway royexum@aol.com There will be 1.3 billion 5G connections by 2025, but this will be dependent on operators gaining access to sufficient spectrum, said the GSMA, a trade body for mobile network operators worldwide, in a new report. The successful rollout of ultra-fast 5G services relies on timely access to the right amount and type of spectrum in the next year, added the report titled GSMA Public Policy Position on 5G Spectrum. As the race to launch 5G services intensifies, the GSMA highlights the need for governments, regulators and the mobile industry to work together to deliver widespread coverage, and the full potential of 5G for everyone. According to the report, governments around the world have started to auction spectrum for 5G networks, but variations in how much spectrum has been assigned, the onerous conditions imposed and the cost of access to that spectrum means the speed, reach and quality of 5G services could vary dramatically between countries. Early adopter countries will be the first to realise the significant benefits of 5G from fibre-like mobile broadband speeds and smarter cities to autonomous cars and digitised factories and stand to reap important socio-economic benefits including GDP growth. Operators urgently need more spectrum to deliver the endless array of services that 5G will enable - our 5G future depends heavily on the decisions governments are making in the next year as we head into WRC-19, said Brett Tarnutzer, head of Spectrum, GSMA. Without strong government support to allocate sufficient spectrum to next generation mobile services, it will be impossible to achieve the global scale that will make 5G affordable and accessible for everyone. There is a real opportunity for innovation from 5G, but this hinges on governments focusing on making enough spectrum available, not maximising auction revenues for short term gains. The GSMA outlines several key considerations for governments and regulators, including: 1. 5G needs wider frequency bands to support higher speeds and larger amounts of traffic. Regulators that make available 80-100 MHz of spectrum per operator in prime 5G mid-bands (e.g. 3.5 GHz) and around 1 GHz per operator in vital millimetre wave bands (i.e. above 24 GHz), will best support the very fastest 5G services. 2. 5G needs spectrum within three key frequency ranges to deliver widespread coverage and support all use cases: Sub-1GHz spectrum to extend high-speed 5G mobile broadband coverage across urban, suburban and rural areas and to help support Internet of Things (IoT) services Spectrum from 1-6 GHz to offer a good mix of coverage and capacity for 5G services Spectrum above 6 GHz for 5G services such as ultra-high-speed mobile broadband 3. It is essential that governments support the 26 GHz, 40 GHz (37-43.5 GHz) and 66-71 GHz bands for mobile at WRC-19. A sufficient amount of harmonised 5G spectrum in these bands is critical to enabling the fastest 5G speeds, low-cost devices and international roaming and to minimising cross-border interference. 4. Governments and regulators should avoid inflating 5G spectrum prices (e.g. setting high auction reserve prices) as they risk limiting network investment and driving up the cost of services. 5. Regulators should avoid setting aside spectrum for verticals in key mobile spectrum bands; sharing approaches, such as leasing, are better options where vertical industries require access to spectrum. Governments and regulators have a major role to play in ensuring that consumers get the best outcome from 5G, added Tarnutzer. Once spectrum is allocated to mobile at WRC, licensing that spectrum at a national level, as history has shown, can take up to 10 years. Therefore, it is essential that governments take the right action now. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences. TradeArabia News Service The upcoming Middle East Electricity (MEE) in Dubai, UAE will host a two-day feature titled Revolutionizing Power Generation Conference on transformative technology and practices which are evolving the power sector. A key feature of MEE 2019 running on March 6 and 7 at Dubai World Trade Centre, the conference is the highlight of the shows expansive knowledge programme, which features 94 hours of free CDP-accredited conferences and seminars including case-study-led sessions. Speakers from 10 nations are lined up for the conference, which puts operations and maintenance of large-scale utilities, as well as independent power producers, into sharp focus. Some of the biggest names and emerging players in the business will address the challenges, pinpoint growth opportunities and identify technologies and tactics needed to survive in a rapidly changing industry. With various experts preparing to drill down into how the industry can improve profitability through advanced technology migration and new methodology implementation, one speaker has already sounded an optimistic note of a cautious generator upturn for the region. Romain Mocaer, director of the French forecaster PowerGen Statistics, said the unique Middle Eastern generator sector - which represents 10 per cent of the global market - has huge growth opportunity and expects an uptick in the short term. Mocaer pointed that the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as growth drivers with expansion filtering through oil & gas, construction and infrastructure projects. The generator market has recovered in Europe and North America, but there has been a slowdown in some emerging markets, including the Middle East, which has significantly decreased in the last few years. However, the diesel generator market can look forward to a cautious recovery in 2019, as the modest rise of oil prices and the positive construction market outlook should drive growth in the generator market, especially in Saudi Arabia. The region will also host many major global events, such as Expo 2020 Dubai, in coming years to further drive growth, said Mocaer. Issues to be explored at the conference include: digital retrofits; refining power plant performance with air-cooled condensers and cloud-based analytics; reliability-centered maintenance, and investments that can alter the levelised cost of electricity for power generation. Experts are aligned on one aim - to explore how the industry can improve profitability through advanced technology migration and new methodology implementation. Conference speaker Mahmoud Zeineddine, co-founder & manager of the Organisation for Safety & Sustainability (OSAS), said technology will not only impact bottom-line, but will improve regional safety records as smart-sensor mobile tracking becomes the norm. Throughout the session, we will be discussing measures to be taken to prevent human losses and injuries in workplaces. The key trend we are witnessing in the sector is the use of social interactions - mobile applications - to monitor and audit the safety work in the industrial zones, said Zeineddine. The conference will also feature case studies from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Ghana, as well as the unveiling of new research on preventative maintenance for international combustion engines using AI and big data. We are aiming for the conference to really shine the light on breakthroughs which will change not only the burgeoning generator market, but the face of the industry. All of the sessions in the power generation content stream are free-to-attend and CPD accredited, said Claudia Konieczna, exhibition director Informa Industrial Group. The conference is being held against a backdrop of a bullish forecast by the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (APICORP). The multilateral development bank has predicted the Mena regions power capacity will expand by an average of 6.4 per cent per year by 2022, corresponding to additional capacity of 117 gigawatts and requiring $152 billion of investment in generation capacity. Power generation is one of five dedicated sectors within the wide Middle East Electricity show profile. The remaining sectors are: transmission and distribution; lighting; solar; and energy storage and management. TradeArabia News Service New 3Mta line planned for BUA's Kalambaina Cement 07 January 2019 Nigerias BUA Group has signed another contract with CBMI for the construction of a new 3Mta line at Kalambaina Cement in Sokoto State. The announcement comes soon after a merger between Kalambaina Cement and the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) was given approval last month. Furthermore, the project arrives on the back of the completion of BUAs 3Mta Obu Cement Line 2 around 90 days ago and the commissioning of its 1.5Mta first line at Kalambaina Cement just seven months ago. According to a statement made by Abdul Samad Rabiu, CEO of BUA Group and chairman of CCNN, the new plans are part of BUA Cements strategic mid-term expansion programme. Mr Rabiu also noted that the Nigerian market was still underserved and the importance of meeting the demand required by the projected growth in infrastructure projects. "We are very confident that Sinoma CBMI possesses the necessary technical expertise given their track records in deploying cement plants across the world," he said. Published under Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has announced the 'Fifty-Year Charter' which promises to improve all aspects of life in Dubai in 2019, a media report said. "This is a charter that represents our pledge and promise towards enhancing the life of people in Dubai in 2019. A new charter shall be launched on Jan 4 every year," Sheikh Mohammed was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Wam. The pledge comes a day after Sheikh Mohammed shared his eight defining principles of governance for Dubai. Below is the full text of the charter: "The Fifty-Year Charter In the Name of Allah, and praise be to Him! From Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to the people of Dubai and its residents is a document that represents our pledge and promise, on behalf of myself and the ruling family of Dubai, of what we will undertake to improve the quality of life, develop the community of Dubai, and ensure the future of generations to come. It is an annual document that I have named 'The Fifty-Year Charter' to mark my 50th anniversary of assuming my first official post in serving my country, and in the hope of another 50 years during which we will maintain a city governed by law and bound by the spirit of compassion, love harmony and tolerance. A prosperous city where future generations achieve their dreams and aspirations. On January 4, 2019, I declare my commitment, as well as the commitment of the ruling family of Dubai, and the commitment of our government and all our teams to the vision presented in this document. We have divided this document into nine articles in order to facilitate its implementation, follow-up, and accountability. This document does not replace the government's strategies, but it is a document that includes some aspects of our vision for the future city of Dubai and the life we wish to maintain for everyone living in this community. We will release The Fifty-Year Charter on January 4 each year to announce exceptional projects in Dubai. Our guidance to everyone is to act in accordance with this charter, and in accordance with the Eight Principles of Dubai document, which we have launched, to ensure continued prosperity. The following are the nine articles, which I will personally observe, and will be overseen by the H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council. Article 1: Dubai Silk Road Dubai is destined to be a crossroad between East and West, and between North and South. We have the largest international airport in the world. It connects us with more than 200 cities. Over the next 10 years, more than one billion passengers will pass through our airports. Worldwide, we operate around 80 ports that are connected to hundreds of cities. Our next goal is to build our own Silk Road in cooperation with our friendly neighbours who share our vision. Our region has historically been a region of civilisation and trade, and this role must be restored. We will seek to build international cooperation to support these aspirations. Article 2: A Geo-Economic Map for Dubai In the coming phase, we will work to develop a geo-economic map for the city of Dubai and set up specialised, integrated economic zones in the whole city. Each geo-economic sector in the city will have its own council, which manages and markets it. Each geographical sector will have its own economic and investment goals. We will monitor the achievement of these goals with transparency. A Governor will be appointed for each economic zone to oversee the achievement of its goals, as well as its progress and success. Article 3: First Virtual Commercial City Dubai will lead the establishment of the rst virtual commercial city in the region that grants commercial licenses without having to reside in Dubai. E city will allow investors to open bank accounts and grant e-residencies according to best international laws and regulations. We aim to have 100,000 companies in the virtual city. Article 4: A Central Education File for Every Citizen We aim to develop a centralised education database for every citizen to document all the academic degrees obtained, classes and training taken, and conferences attended. This will help us design customised educational plans for our citizens that suit their personal skills. We aim to build an educational and learning system that explores and develops people's skills. Our goal for our citizens is to have life-long learning so they can continue to improve their skills and capacities to adapt to the rapid global changes in the world. Article 5: A Doctor to Every Citizen We aim to provide citizens with medical consultations 247/ through hundreds of thousands of doctors, specialists and medical consultants across the globe. This will be facilitated by smart government application. Our goal is to transform the medical system to bring doctors closer to individuals, enhance awareness, and utilize top medical minds globally to serve the health of our citizens. Article 6: Free Economic and Creative Zones in Universities Dubai's foundation is rooted in trade. We will announce our public and private universities as free zones that allow students to carry out business and creative activities, make these activities part of the education and graduation system, and shape integrated economic and creative zones around the universities. These zones will support students with education, research and funding during the launch of their projects. We want our universities to not only graduate students but also create companies and employers. Article 7: Self-sufficiency in Dubai Homes We will develop an integrated program to build a comprehensive system that allows at least a tenth of our citizens' homes to be self-sufficient in terms of water, food and energy. The achievement of this goal will help change lifestyles and contribute to the preservation of our environment. We aim to create a new economic sector that supports energy, water and food self-sufficiency in the houses of Dubai, for at least a month, to be increased later. Article 8: Cooperative Companies in Various Sectors This is a long-term programme that aims to provide new sources of income to our citizens, improve the quality of some services through privatization, and establishes cooperative companies owned by citizens in a number of vital sectors. Article 9: Annual Growth in Philanthropy Our daily businesses and projects should not let us forget about giving to those who need help. We pledge to increase philanthropic initiatives every year and grow them by at least an equal percentage of our annual economic growth. Charity is indeed a major factor in the happiness of societies and the continuity of progress and prosperity. These are some highlights of our future vision reflected in a number of practical programs that can be implemented and measured. A new Charter shall be launched in January 4, every year to sustain the welfare and happiness of our society. TradeArabia News Service Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, or activate your access, to continue reading. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House after meeting with lawmakers about border security, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington. Two children reported missing in late December found in New York, mother still missing Preparations for the 16th edition of the Saudi Plastics and Petrochemicals Exhibition are underway. Organised by Riyadh Exhibitions Company, the event will see local, regional, and international industry leaders convene to discuss the latest technologies, services, and innovations in the plastics and petrochemicals sectors that are considered major economic contributors in Saudi Arabia. Taking place from January 27-30 at the Jeddah Center Forums and Events, the event is backed by leading companies who will highlight the role of the two industries in the governments ongoing economic diversification efforts. The exhibition will focus on sustainability and protection of the natural resources for the sake of the future generation. Regional and international experts, decision-makers and pioneers will take a closer look at investment opportunities in Saudi Arabias petrochemical sector, one of the countrys main economic pillars. The kingdom has the largest share of the petrochemical industry in the Arab Gulf region, accounting for about 67 per cent of the total Gulf production. Mohammad Al Al-Sheikh, head of marketing, Riyadh Exhibition Company, said: Both the government and the private sectors have expressed their support for the Saudi Plastics and Petrochemicals 2019 which is recognised as a strategic forum for the pioneers of the regional and global plastics and petrochemical industries - amid increasing focus on the two sectors contributions to the non-oil economy in line with the National Transformation Program 2020 and Saudi Vision 2030. He added: The exhibitions list of high-level official sponsors reflects its significance in the Saudi Governments efforts to attract investments and grow its petrochemical exports, which account for more than a third of the local industrial exports. The event will also help enhance the global competitiveness of the domestic plastics market to improve the kingdoms positioning as the world's eighth largest producer of plastics. We look forward to facilitating new strategic partnerships between regional and international leaders. The event coincides with the 16th International Trade Exhibition for Printing and Packaging Technologies Saudi Print and Pack to help drive the steady growth of the already flourishing plastics, petrochemicals, printing, and packaging industries in the kingdom. Saudi Plastics and Petrochemicals Exhibition is expected to attract significant attention following the success of the 2018 edition of the event, which saw the participation of more than 520 exhibitors from 25 countries and host 10 international pavilions, attracting over 16,000 visitors. - TradeArabia News Service All five members of a Michigan family killed after a suspected drunk driver goes the wrong way on an interstate. (WKYT, WXYZ via CNN) Photo: Facebook Luca Tacchetto and Edith Blais Radio-Canada reports that the federal government is not ruling out the possibility that a Quebec woman and her Italian friend may have been abducted in west Africa. Sherbrooke native Edith Blais and her Italian friend Luca Tacchetto were travelling in Burkina Faso when all communication with their families "abruptly stopped" on Dec. 15, according to Blais' sister. Melanie Bergeron Blais says the pair were last seen in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, in the country's southwest, and had planned to drive to the capital of Ouagadougou before crossing into neighbouring Togo. Global Affairs Canada says consular officials are reaching out to local authorities in Burkina Faso, but it won't publish any information that could jeopardize ongoing efforts or endanger citizens' safety. A report published by the CBC's French-language service on Sunday says the department has not received confirmation of an abduction, but it no longer excludes that as a possibility. Meantime, Blais' family has started a Facebook page related to the disappearance, and they say they are grateful for the help they've received so far. Photo: Contributed Huawei Technologies Ltd. showed off a new processor chip for data centres and cloud computing Monday, expanding into new and growing markets despite Western warnings the company might be a security risk. Huawei and other Chinese technology companies that rely on Western technology are stepping up efforts to develop their own. The company based in southern China's Shenzhen has pushed ahead with commercial initiatives despite the Dec. 1 arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, in Canada on U.S. charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran. Huawei said the Kunpeng 920 chip is designed for servers that handle a flood of data from smartphones, video and other network services a fast growing sector with the development of artificial intelligence and the "internet of things." The company said it is part of a planned product lineup to support "intelligent computing." Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, is China's first global tech competitor and a national champion at the head of an industry the ruling Communist Party is eager to promote. The company says it is employee-owned and rejects accusations by Washington and some other governments that it is controlled by the ruling party and might facilitate spying. Chinese and U.S. envoys met Monday for talks over a tariff war triggered by American complaints about Beijing's technology policies. The Trump administration, Europe and other trading partners complain initiatives such as "Made in China 2025," which calls for state-led creation of Chinese global champions in robotics and other fields, violates Beijing's market-opening obligations. American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership. The company says its 2018 global sales are forecast to top $100 billion despite curbs imposed on use of its technology by the United States, Australia, Japan and some other governments. Huawei, headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, has steadily expanded into new industry segments. Its smartphone brand, launched in 2010, passed Apple to become the global No. 2 seller behind Samsung in the third quarter of 2017, according to IDC. The company has developed the Kirin line of chips for its phones and Ascend chips for artificial intelligence. The Kunpeng 920 chip is based on the ARM system used increasingly in smartphones and distributed computing. It competes in some settings with the x86 standard used by traditional industry leaders Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org ATLANTA Forty years after U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended three decades of estrangement between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China, The Carter Center will convene a three-day symposium on Sino-American relations. The symposium, which takes place Jan. 17-19, will include talks and panel discussions featuring several dozen leading scholars, think-tank experts, and veterans of statecraft. Much of the event, including keynote remarks on the morning of Jan. 18 by President Carter and Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai, will be open to the press. The symposium comes at a critical time for U.S.-China relations, which in recent months have been marked by increasing tension and an acrimonious trade war. As President Carter himself recently noted, the benefits that both our countries have reaped from four decades of increasing cooperation are now in jeopardy because of a deterioration of trust and respect in both capitals, said Carter Center CEO Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters. Ensuring that the United States and China can continue to navigate toward collaboration on bilateral and global issues is one of the vital challenges of our time. Background: On Dec. 15, 1978, Carter and Deng announced that they would normalize diplomatic ties between the two nations on Jan. 1, 1979, laying the foundation for the rapid growth of bilateral relations. Today, the American and Chinese economies are the worlds two largest, and Sino-American economic, political, and military relations weigh heavily on the global future. President Carters breakthrough with China stands as one of the major foreign-policy accomplishments of his presidency. Schedule Do you have an athlete in mind that contributes to the team or sport, holds sportsmanship and team spirit, has epic playmaker moments and/or in general makes the the sports fun? If yes, please make your nominations for our edition of Athlete Spotlight. CLICK TO NOMINATE The Pearl Initiative, a business-led non-profit organisation promoting corporate transparency and accountability in the Gulf Region, held its first meeting following the appointment of its new Board of Governors earlier in August. Offering synergetic capabilities and expertise across multiple regional industries, the new board will support the Pearl Initiative in maximising its impact on the regional economy by ensuring the sound execution of its organisational strategy and annual agenda. Composed of 16 members with representation from across the Gulf Region, the Pearl Initiatives Board of Governors includes Mathad Al Ajmi, general manager and chief counsel, SABIC; Patrick Chalhoub, co-CEO, Chalhoub Group; Jamal Fakhro, managing partner, KPMG; Bashar Obeid, CEO, Aramex; Ayman Tamer, chairman and managing partner, Tamer Group; Hamid Jafar, chairman, Crescent Group; Badr Jafar, CEO, Crescent Enterprises; Hani Ashkar, Middle East senior partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Samer Khoury, president, Consolidated Construction Company. The regional diversity of the board reflects the recognition that business accountability is, and should remain, a multi-sectoral and multi-national enterprise for sustainable economic growth in the Gulf Region. As part of its own commitment to advancing corporate accountability and transparency, the Pearl Initiative holds quarterly board meetings to approve the organisations strategy and business plan, annual budget and annual programme plan. As part of the 2019 programme plans, the Board approved the scale-up of ongoing programmes, including the Anti-Corruption Best Practice programme, Diversity in Business Leadership, Corporate Governance in MSMEs, Corporate Governance in the Tech Industry, and the Governance in the Philanthropic and Non-Profit ecosystem programme. The re-launch of the Corporate Governance in Family Firms programme was also decided, with a particular focus on succession planning and the role of next generation members in a family business context. The Pearl Initiatives future plans are geared towards realising a broad spectrum of positive developments in corporate governance practices as it looks to build on its current programmes and inspire change, further increasing its impact. The next meeting of the Pearl Initiative Board will be held on March 14 in Bahrain. TradeArabia News Service Lujiazui CBD, where Pufa Tower is located, is Shanghais most coveted office location for financial and professional services companies. With an unabating demand for office space and limited new supply, Lujiazui CBD commands the highest office rents in the city. In view of a sharp decline in Pudongs office supply from 2019, office rents in Lujiazui CBD are expected to continue trending upwards over the next few years. Mr Lucas Loh, President (China & Investment Management), CapitaLand Group, said: We are pleased to enter Shanghais core Lujiazui CBD soon after securing our third Raffles City development in the city. Shanghai is the top investment destination in China, with strong end-user demand for commercial properties. The acquisition of Pufa Tower, an operational asset, will immediately contribute to the Groups recurring income. It will also strategically diversify CapitaLands commercial portfolio into a key CBD to capture new growth, while entrenching the Groups leadership as the foreign developer with the largest portfolio under management in Shanghai. Mr Loh added: Continual high demand for quality commercial properties in Chinas top tier cities, coupled with low supply, have made the renewal of ageing commercial assets a compelling investment strategy in these markets. Pufa Tower is a prime asset to be seeded into the commercial value-add fund we are raising. We see significant potential in enhancing its asset value by upgrading specifications, tenant mix and improving operational efficiencies. By tapping on third party equity, we are driving capital efficiency to provide CapitaLand with the financial impetus to further accelerate our growth. Mr Puah Tze Shyang, Chief Investment Officer, CapitaLand China, said: Pufa Tower has not had a major renovation since its completion in 2002. While the building is properly maintained, the interior finishes offer room for improvement. After acquisition, we will focus on extracting greater value from the property through a comprehensive asset enhancement initiative. Leveraging CapitaLands asset enhancement capabilities and track record, we are confident of rejuvenating Pufa Tower in ways that will increase and maximise the efficiency of this well-located property. remaining of Thank you for reading! This is your last free article before you will be asked to subscribe. Already have a paid subscription? Sign in news, latest-news A mother has been left in debilitating pain months after the birth of her child after staff shortages at Canberra Hospital led to her induction being delayed. The claims were made in a submission to a committee inquiry into maternity services in the ACT, which is due to have public hearings this year. Submissions to the inquiry - which has heard from patients, staff and peak bodies - are open to the public until January 31. The inquiry was launched after midwives and staff at Canberra Hospital penned an anonymous letter to the government saying patients' lives were being put at risk due to understaffing and poor management. One submission from a Canberra couple said the mother still experienced regular and debilitating pain eight months after giving birth and had significant follow-up treatment. The couple believes the complications could have been avoided had they received proper and timely care. The submission said at 36 weeks it was discovered the baby was on the small side and its amniotic fluid was low. Multiple clinicians - including those at Canberra Hospital - recommended an induction at 38 weeks. However, the induction was pushed back a number of weeks, being told they no longer needed to induce. She was eventually admitted to be induced at 41 weeks and two days. "We were emotionally exhausted before the main event had even started," the submission read. But she spent another two nights in hospital before the induction would even happen. "It was bizarre and frustrating to us that there were more than a dozen empty beds, but apparently no staff available to deliver our baby," the couple said. They said they were later told by an obstetrician the reason for the weeks' delay was the hospital didn't have the staff or beds to safely induce. The baby was eventually born after being induced, requiring forceps and an episiotomy. "After speaking with multiple specialists, we are firmly of the belief most of this pain and trauma could have been avoided, had [the mother] given birth at 38 weeks, as recommended initially by [redacted]," the submission said. "Moreso, we believe, indeed we were told outright, the delay was not best practice medical care and was in fact caused by understaffing at The Canberra Hospital." Another mother, Nicole, said she was kept from seeing her new born babies who were on a different ward as the hospital did not have the staff to take her up to see them. She said she was made to feel like a nuisance for losing blood after the birth and getting it on the bed sheets and toilet seat. "We aren't John James hospital, we don't have the staff, sheets or time to clean up after you," she recalled the nurse saying. "I didn't sleep at all that night as I was scared it would happen again," the mother said in the submission. A staff member, who was not identified, said there were constant understaffing issues and pressure on midwives to take double or extra shifts. The staff member said there was also a culture of bullying by senior staff. Another mother, who was eligible for the Canberra Midwifery Program, praised her experience and the facilities. The program provides midwife-centred care for low risk pregnancies and women planning on having a natural birth. "I felt so well tended to, not to mention safe in her care. Despite how busy her job clearly was I never felt rushed," the mother said of her experience. Submissions for the inquiry close on January 31 and should be forwarded to LACommitteeHACS@parliament.act.gov.au comment, editorial With the Federal election less than five months away Australia is already seeing signs of the extremism such events can unearth. Saturday's disgraceful exhibition at St. Kilda beach is just one sign of what may be to come as the poll date draws near. While the turnout, of less than 100 neo-Nazis and alt-right supporters, was tiny in a city of more than three million, the media exposure was enormous. This is why there is a danger some parliamentarians and their strategists may mistakenly conclude these career rabble rousers and discontents are representative of a much larger force. There is also the risk some of the Australians already disenchanted with traditional politics and politicians may be tempted to cast protest votes for groups whose motivations and policies they would find abhorrent if only they took the time to look. While, on the one hand, it is easy to dismiss these fringe groups as irrelevant malcontents with a defensible place in the democratic process, there is real danger in giving them any form of support. We have, as Australians were recently surprised to discover, a complex and whimsical electoral system under which it is possible to get elected to the Senate with just 19 primary votes. It is no coincidence Fraser Anning, the accidental Senator from Queensland who accomplished that feat, was on the ground in St Kilda blowing his own trumpet in what even he admits is likely to be a vain attempt to hang on to his seat on the weekend. While Anning, who has fallen out with both Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter in what promises to be a very short political career, was the only sitting parliamentarian foolhardy enough to turn up, one or two others would have been watching with interest. Anning's willingness to stick his neck out should have come as no surprise. Given he expects the taxpayers to pick up the cost of his trip he literally had nothing to lose. The weekend's events were timely given former Liberal prime minister, John Howard's remarks at the recent release of the 1996-1997 Cabinet documents. While not regretting his courageous action in implementing gun law reform in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Howard acknowledged it had helped the rise of One Nation. "I think it did contribute to the One Nation insurgency," he said. "The flannel shirts who felt their guns had been taken away unfairly rallied to ... Hanson". Even sensible and well thought out legislation that has overwhelming community support can radicalise those on the more extreme fringes of the political spectrum. Appeasement is never the answer. Australian politics has always been about the middle, about tolerance, the fair go, and egalitarianism. The mainstream parties, while fighting for their own political prospects, also have a responsibility to be on guard against even accidental support for groups and individuals with odious platforms widely regarded as objectionable by the vast majority of fair-minded voters. History teaches us there are always risks these views can be given disproportionate representation in the battle to pass sensible reforms or shore up numbers. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/70beb09b-24dc-4ac4-92c4-c35a082992e1/r0_46_900_554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg The Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has announced an automatic settlement facility for traders eligible for 50 per cent reduction on commercial fines. The announcement is in line with the declaration of 2019 as the Year of Tolerance by President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, reported state news agency Wam. The 50 per cent reduction is applicable only on fines issued for the first violation in a calendar year. As per the new facility, as soon as a commercial violation is entered in the system the trader receives a text message with an automatic reduction of 50 per cent in the fine. Previously, the customer had to request a settlement upon which the system verified the traders eligibility for any reduction in fines. Mohammed Ali Rashid Lootah, CEO of CCCP, said: "The Department of Economic Development is proud to launch initiatives based on the vision and directives of our leadership, especially when 2019 begins as the Year of Tolerance. We want to provide best quality services to as many businesses as possible in Dubai. The automatic fine settlement facility will contribute to enhancing happiness in Dubai and the emirates position across global competitiveness indicators." Lootah added that DED received more than 4,650 fines settlement requests in 2017 and 2018 under the previous system itself. "The net value of fines settled under the 50 per cent reduction in 2017-2018 was Dh23.4 million ($6.4 million). We believe that the new automated system will be smoother and more flexible as it will automatically adjust the fines and benefit more business owners." CCCP seeks to launch services and initiatives that enhance the business environment in line with the aspirations of the UAE to build a tolerant and open society, promote cultural dialogue, and elevate Dubai into a global capital financial capital as well as a destination for sustainable business growth as targeted in the strategic plan of the government on Dubai. news, latest-news When Australians, in their endearingly muddleheaded and inarticulate way, complain that there is something artificial about their nations capital, one of the things they mean (without being able to put a muddleheaded finger on it) is that Canberra has no ruins. Canberras unhappy ruinlessness (giving the city a weirdly embalmed appearance and feel, as if like Lenins displayed corpse, it is magically out of reach of times changes and ravages) has been an occasional theme of this columnist. I turn to it again now that one of Canberras best hopes of a fine, prominent, character-bringing ruin is being menaced by the dark forces of urban immaculateness. Anzac Park East Building - Green light for demolition, a chilling Canberra Times heading sighed on Christmas Eve. Plans to transform Anzac Park East into a housing and commercial complex are one step closer to coming into effect, The Canberra Times reported. The National Capital Authority on Friday approved Amalgamated Property Group's application to bulldoze the derelict office building, at the north-eastern corner of Parkes Way and Anzac Parade. O ye (the NCA and the ACT government) of so little poetic sensitivity, foresight and imagination! O ye, The Canberra Times, with your insensitive use of the word derelict as a pejorative when in truth the Anzac Park East building, beginning to achieve sublime dereliction, begins to acquire some of the melancholy grandeur that the great painter John Constable, a ruins connoisseur, said all truly great ruins radiate as they strut their crumbling stuff. Constable would, too, have shared my ambitions for the ABC flats on Civics edge. They began, in the months between their battling, tattooed tenants removals and the massive buildings shameful and misguided demolition, to show promise of a melancholy grandeur. Have the potentates of the NCA and of the ACT government, so very widely travelled (at public expense) not noticed and felt, in their bones, that some of the great character of the great cities they visit is conferred by that citys ruins? Lest you think a fondness for, a sense of or deep need for ruins just an eccentricity of this columnist, I leap to correct you. Whole, fine books have been written about it. The classic is Rose Macaulays Pleasure of Ruins and her book is a history of the phenomenon of the ruin lust (the Germans invented the word ruinenlust to capture the famous sentiment) that has sometimes gripped European art and literature. One of those gripped, Macaulay points out, was Shakespeare himself who inhabited (in his imagination and in his settings for his plays) what she calls a ruined and ruinous world" of blasted heaths and crumbling castles. Famous arts institutions continue to stage exhibitions of the art based on the ruined and ruinous. Tate Britains 2014 Ruin Lust was a blockbuster and galleries everywhere cannot get enough of photographs of post-industrial Detroit. There are websites galore catering for those who find (in W.S. Gilberts words) a fascination frantic in a ruin thats romantic and there is an online world of ruin porn that isnt a bit pornographic in the usual sense but that indulges those of us sensitive enough to find a ripper poetic melancholy in quality decay. There is even ruin tourism and while I would never consciously join a ruin tour I do face the fact that some of my fondness for Scotland and for Scandinavia has to do with them being especially ruin-rich. One of the two most memorable buildings I saw in Scotland last year (the other was Scotlands super new parliament house in Edinburgh) was the spectacularly decomposing 13th century cathedral at Elgin. What is the titillating porn quality in a sensitive persons appreciation of ruins? Henry James confessed that his own love of ruin tourism had a note of perversity about it. Perhaps it gives a masturbatory buzz to those of us who get a kick out of melancholy. I find that in 1762 a Lord Kames enthused about ruins for the way they show the triumph of time over strength, a melancholy but not unpleasant thought. The Enlightenment giant Diderot (1713-1784) wrote, The ideas ruins evoke in me are grand. [Ruins say that] everything comes to nothing, everything perishes, everything passes, only the world remains, only time endures. He also wrote (it has nothing to do with todays column but so succinctly describes my own beliefs that I cant resist using it) that Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. This weeks column has become a bit too high falutin now (all this Shakespeare and Diderot) when all I am trying to argue is that when Canberra doesnt allow itself some romantic ruins, it is faking that it has no past. It is pretending that, urbanly embalmed just because it is a federal capital showpiece and must look spiffy, it is aloof from the ways in which time turns all of our infrastructure and our dreams to rubble. Australians will never love their federal capital city until it, Canberra, puts away the embalming fluid and allows some picturesque decay. Let us make a belated start with the Anzac Park East building, already (now that it is a place of bats, ghosts, spiders and melancholy) 100 times more charismatic than it was when it was only the squeaky-immaculate workplace of public servants. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/0539a1e4-8cde-442b-b97b-2bdc00c8c8c3/r0_101_2000_1231_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg Become A Subscriber A subscription opens up access to all our online content, including: our interactive E-Edition, a full archive of modern stories, exclusive and expanded online offerings, photo galleries from Caledonian-Record journalists, video reports from our media partners, extensive international, national and regional reporting by the Associated Press, and a wide variety of feature content. 1. Musk Breaks Ground on Tesla China Plant After four years of planning, Tesla Inc. is finally breaking ground for its $5 billion factory in the worlds biggest auto market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be in Shanghai to lay the foundation Monday for what would be the electric-vehicle makers first car-manufacturing facility outside the U.S. The China plant is the result of years of negotiations with Beijing, and a personal triumph for Musk who faced a disastrous 2018. Tesla and Musk are facing a car market that probably shrank last year for the first time since the 1990s as uncertainties surrounding the trade war between the worlds two biggest economies, signs of weakening domestic demand in China and a stock slump take a toll on consumers. Tesla also faces competition from startups modeled after Musks company. (Bloomberg) 2. Chinas Top Electric-Car Maker Plans $4.5 Billion Listing Chinas biggest electric-car maker BAIC Group will gain a stock market listing in an asset swap valuing the state-backed manufacturer at 28.8 billion yuan ($4.5 billion), according to a Shanghai stock exchange filing Monday. A BAIC affiliate is purchasing BJEV, which will become the first state-owned manufacturer of new-energy vehicles to list on a mainland stock exchange, competing for attention from investors with BYD Co. Ltd., a Warren Buffett-backed carmaker that trades both on the mainland and Hong Kong. Disclosing a valuation publicly for the first time, BJEV is among companies raising funds and expanding to get a head start as Chinas government encourages more clean-energy vehicles to hit the roads. (Bloomberg) 3. Chinese Biotech Firm Aims to Beat Foreign Rivals on Price With New Cancer Drug Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. aims to sell its recently approved cancer drug for far less than its overseas competitors. The company is in talks with local authorities to make its PD-1 inhibitor eligible for reimbursement by government insurance plans, as a low price would require local governments to pay part of the cost. The medicine is used to treat certain types of melanoma. According to figures from the Global Cancer Observatory, about 3,800 people in China died of melanoma in 2018, and 7,400 new cases were diagnosed. Junshi Biosciences raised about $394 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering in December. The money-losing biotech startup reported in its prospectus that it earned most of its revenue from providing consulting services, rather than drug sales. (Caixin) 4. China Nuclear Power Trial With Bill Gates-Linked Company Will Not Proceed A nuclear energy development program involving the American company TerraPower LLC and Chinas state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) will not proceed with plans to jointly build a demonstration traveling wave reactor in China, a TerraPower representative said Friday. TerraPower was founded in 2008 and has been developing the traveling wave reactor technology for a decade. Bill Gates was a co-founder. TerraPower signed an agreement with CNNC in 2017 for a joint venture to test the technology in a northern Chinese city. The suspension is seen as the latest casualty of the Trump administrations hostility toward Beijing over technology and trade. The company has not been able to test the technology in the U.S. because of regulatory restrictions, Gates said last week. (Caixin) 5. Huawei Unveils New Processor Chip for Servers Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has unveiled a new processor chip for servers as the Chinese telecommunications-gear giant pushes ahead with expansion despite growing scrutiny abroad. The Kunpeng 920, built with the cutting-edge 7-nanometer production process and semiconductor architecture from ARM Holdings, will compete with the dominant x86 server architecture used by U.S. giants Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Huawei said in a statement Monday. Huawei is showing no signs of tempering its ambitions even after a number of setbacks on the international stage. The company shipped 918,000 server units in 2018, a 25% increase from the year earlier. (Bloomberg) 6. IDC Releases 10 Predictions on Chinas Smartphone Market for 2019 Half of all Chinese smartphones will have artificial intelligence functionality by 2020, according to a list of predictions released by International Data Corp. (IDC) late last week. IDC also predicts 15% of all smartphones on the Chinese market will be equipped with hardware as well as augmented-reality applications that support 3D modeling by the end of 2019. (Caixin) Compiled by Isabelle Li Vodafone Ireland has today launched Smart Business regional workshops, in conjunction with the Small Firms Association (SFA), to help Irish businesses grow, scale and succeed in a changing business environment. The workshops aim to enable business leaders to have a conversation with HR, business growth experts and peers to help them stay competitive, increase revenue and attract and retain top talent through the adoption of smart working. The Smart Business series will take place in co-working spaces in the SIRO-powered hub, The Mill, Drogheda, The Hatch Lab, Gorey, Portershed, Galway, The Republic of Work, Cork and BOI Workbench, Limerick between January and April 2019 and coincides with the recent launch of Vodafones industry report The Future of Business: A Conversation with SMEs. Vodafone Ireland and Abodoo will host conversations with attendees on the benefits of smart working for businesses and how it can be introduced across various sectors. The SFA will introduce their new engage and grow framework to help companies increase profits and retain top talent. There will also be experts on hand to discuss the HR and technology requirements for making businesses smarter and help transform traditional workplaces into more digital ones. Commenting on the initiative, Sven Spollen-Behrens of the Small Firms Association said, "Our regional workshops with Vodafone and Abodoo will help small businesses to future proof their business in a rapidly changing environment. Our recent survey finds that 70% of our members recognise that Smart Working will benefit their business, it improves productivity and enhances employee engagement." Head of Small Business at Vodafone Ireland, Treasa Doran added, "We believe that smart or flexible working is the next frontier for SMEs. By adapting to new ways of working and using the technology available to them to create more efficient operating models, SMEs can attract and retain top talent, reduce costs and increase productivity. It also has the added benefit of supporting the local economy and decreasing carbon emissions through a reduction in long commuting times for employees." Source: www.businessworld.ie Six months after the Ministry of Civil Aviation tom-tommed the success of the second round of bidding under the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme early last year, one of the bidders found itself grounded. Gurgugram-based Zoom Air, which had reportedly bid for the Northeast routes, had to suspend operations in July 2018. In fact, at least seven other regional airlines, including Air Odisha, Air Costa, Supreme Airlines and Air Carnival, have also ceased operations in the past two years, Mint reported. Financial and operational challenges, high costs, scarcity of airport slots, maintenance issues and promoters' inability to raise capital are among the reasons cited for the closures. Furthermore, citing data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the daily added that Air Deccan has not flown since last October, less than a year after its relaunch under the scheme in December 2017. Although the DGCA has renewed Zoom Air's flying permit in December after holding it back over safety concerns, there is no clarity on when the carrier will take to the skies again. The buzz last month was that it was close to finalising talks for a capital infusion to the tune of Rs 100 crore and would resume operations by mid-January. Meanwhile, Coimbatore-based Air Carnival has been sent to liquidation. Also Read: Domestic airliners added over 100 planes in 2018 While there's no denying that the ambitious Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) has brought many new routes and unserved airports on the aviation map, the scheme's trajectory has certainly been bumpy in the past year underscoring the plight of small Indian carriers. "The RCS scheme isn't viable by itself (especially for regional airlines) unless you change the high cost structure that's associated with airlines business, and improve infrastructure," aviation consultant Mark Martin, chief executive officer of Martin Consulting LLC, told the daily. "Major Indian airports like Delhi and Mumbai don't have any more slots that can connect them to more underserved and unserved airports, further impacting the scheme." In its bid to make flying more affordable for masses and boost regional connectivity, the Modi government had announced the UDAN scheme in October 2016 with airfares capped at Rs 2,500 for a one-hour journey through subsidised ticket rates. In the subsequent developments, five airlines were mandated to fly on 128 regional routes in the first phase of the bidding in March 2017, and 15 airlines on 325 regional routes - including those having chopper operations - in the second phase launched in January. However, many of the approved airports and routes are yet to be operational. Only half the 71 RCS airports covered under the scheme have actually been connected so far, according to data from the Airports Authority of India (AAI). To be clear, AAI does not handle all the airports under the UDAN scheme - some are operated by the armed forces or even public sector enterprises like Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). "A huge scheme like the RCS is bound to face several challenges," a senior official at AAI told the daily, adding that most RCS airports are expected to be linked by the end of March 2019. According to the official, while the central government is doing its bit by ensuring that smaller operators get timely disbursement of funds under viability gap funding - a mechanism to encourage them to bid for unprofitable routes - "steps from the state governments, like reducing taxes on fuel, will further push some airlines to start their services in some of the under-connected routes". The controversy over VGF actually saw scheduled airlines operating from major airports moving court in 2017 against the levy of Rs 8,500 per flight for raising money for the mechanism. Post the protest, the initial levy was cut to Rs 5,000 in September 2017. While this development mollified larger airlines such as SpiceJet, Alliance Air (Air India subsidiary), Jet Airways and IndiGo - all of which operate a large number of flights under the scheme - it translated to thinner collections to subsidize the weaker regional players. Moreover, given that the congested major airports find it a challenge to accommodate regional airlines - most fly turboprop aircraft that take longer to land and take off, hence landing slots are harder to come by - UDAN's success is dependent on the established bigger players. This point was underscored in CAPA India's report titled Indian Aviation Outlook for FY2019. "With commitments by IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Alliance, RCS is finally gaining traction," the report read. For instance, SpiceJet, which recently added the Kolkata-Lilabari-Kolkata route, operates 25 flights under UDAN. According to the daily, the report had also made it clear that the chances of failure of regional airlines operating older aircraft, dispersed across multiple stations without rigorous demand assessment and in the absence of a maintenance ecosystem, is significant. "There is little or no business case for small, independent operators without scale," said the report said, adding, "RCS needs to be restructured to make it viable." (Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal) Also Read: SpiceJet plane suffers mid-air engine problem; makes emergency landing in Varanasi Also Read: RCom says committed to settle dues, but oppose Ericsson's media trial and sensationalism India's first greenfield industrial city at Dholera in Gujarat is ready to take off, with basic infrastructural facilities for its first phase of development are set to be completed by this September, according to officials. Dholera, which is a project conceived under the then Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being developed from the scratch as a smart city, where the government will build a robust infrastructure for industrial development in this saline region near the Gulf of Khambhat. Also Read: Domestic airliners added over 100 planes in 2018 "Basic infrastructure for the Dholera Special Investment Region, initiation area of 22.5 km will be ready by September 2019," CEO of Dholera Special Investment Region Development Authority (DSIRDA) Jai Prakash Shivhare told reporters Sunday. "Many countries, especially China, are developing new cities. India has developed many greenfield cities," he said, adding that Dholera is the first greenfield industrial city that is being developed in the country. "Dholera is now ready to take off," he said. The Centre has provided a grant of Rs 3000 crore for the development of smart infrastructure at this new industrial city, out of which the DSIRDA has awarded contract works worth Rs 2800 crore for developing infrastructure before the arrival of the industry at the site. The city will get stormwater drains, wastewater discharge, underground ducts, electricity and water supply, wide roads and good connectivity. Dholera will be connected to Ahmedabad by the expressway and a Metro line which will reduce the travel time, he said, adding that the Centre has already issued tenders for the expressway between Ahmedabad and the proposed industrial city, located around 100 km from Ahmedabad. An international airport will also come up in the vicinity of Dholera city, the CEO said. When asked about the response of industries, Shivhare said authorities are holding discussions with various industrial houses for setting up plants in Dholera. He said some announcement can be expected during the Vibrant Gujarat 2019 summit beginning January 18. "This is largely a saline land, and converting it into an industrial city is the best way for development and ensuring jobs for the people of the region," he said. We are planning to have an egalitarian city here, he said. "The city will have 11 per cent of open green area which will be the largest in the country, 10 per cent of the area earmarked for residential purposes will be reserved for housing for the economically weaker sections (EWS). The tap water will be drinkable," Shivhare said. DSIRDA officials said they will start developing other phases in Dholera with a total area of 400 sq km, once the first phase one is completed. "Dholera taluka in Ahmedabad district is very saline area due to its proximity to the sea. Farmers get very low yield for their crops," officials added. Also Read: RCom says committed to settle dues, but oppose Ericsson's media trial and sensationalism Also Read: SpiceJet plane suffers mid-air engine problem; makes emergency landing in Varanasi Centre's greed, more than dues from defence forces, could be the real reason behind the sorry state of financials of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the public sector firm which is at the centre of the war of words between Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman and Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Cash rich PSU HAL has been forced to borrow funds to pay salaries to its employees for the first time in history. While the government-owned HAL may be inhibited and too coy to disclose this, a closer look at the PSUs financials reveal that its immediate troubles may not necessarily be the Rs 15,700 crore of dues from the defence forces. Instead, Centre may have sucked HAL dry over the past 4 years. "Our cash in hand is in the negative, we've had to borrow close to Rs 1,000 crore as an overdraft (OD). By March 31 we'll have minus of Rs 6,000 crore, which becomes unsustainable. We can borrow for day-to-day work but not for project purchases," HAL CMD R Madhavan has said. Madhavan also said the defence forces owe HAL Rs 15,700 crore in unpaid dues for equipment and services rendered. However, closer examination of HAL's account tells a completely different story. In 2017-18, HAL paid Rs 1,295 crore as dividend to the Centre-that's nearly double of the Rs 577 crore payout in 2014-15. While dividend payout has nearly doubled in the past 4 years, HAL's revenue, in comparison, has grown barely 18 per cent from Rs 15,730 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 18,519 crore in 2017-18. This wasn't the only hit it took on its balance sheet. During 2017-18, HAL also bought back 7.5 per cent of its equity from the government costing another Rs 1,128 crore in outflows to the Centre. "Company has bought back 2,71,12,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each from the President of India representing 7.5% of the Share Capital on 19th December, 2017," HAL said in its filings. These two massive payouts worth Rs 2,423 crore may have completely drained an already cash deficient HAL, forcing it to borrow to pay salaries. These left it with negative cash flows of Rs 2,682.85 crore at the end of the fiscal. HAL spent an average of Rs 358.33 crore every month in 2017-18 and another Rs 1,000 crore on procurement. HAL had 29,035 employees as on March 31, 2018. (With inputs from Mudit Kapoor) Banking services may get affected for the next two days as 10 major banking and trade unions have announced nation-wide strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday against the "anti-policies" of the government. This will be the third consecutive strike by the central trade unions in a month. They are protesting over several issues, including the merger of state-owned Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda. The strike call could also affect ATM services across the country. However, private banks will remain functional. Bank of Baroda, in its BSE filing, said All India Bank Employees Association (AlBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have served a notice of strike to the Indian Banks' Association, informing their decision to go on a nationwide strike on January 8 and 9. The bank said that in the event of the strike call, the functioning of the bank's branches/offices in some of the zones may be affected. IDBI Bank, in its filing to the stock exchange, said the bank has received nationwide strike notices from the India Bank Employees Association and the Bank Employees Federation of India in support of their various demands. "All AIBEA members, in which the workmen union of our bank is affiliated, has given a call for Strike on Tuesday, and Wednesday," confirmed Karur Vysya Bank. The bank said that "if the strike call materialises, the normal working may get affected at the bank". Other state-owned banks including Indian Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, and Allahabad Bank have also informed the stock exchange about the proposed strike. "The bank is taking all the necessary steps in terms of the existing guidelines for smooth functioning of bank's branches on the day of strike, in the event the strike materialises," an Allahabad Bank notification said. Also read: Cabinet approves merger of Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda Major unions that will participate in the strike include the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) and the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA). Other unions who could extend their support include the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), the National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) and the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW). All these trade unions operate under the United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella organisation of nine unions that claims membership of 10 lakh officers and staffers. Before this, the bank unions had held a strike on December 21 and December 26. Also, farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left Peasant Wings will join the two-day nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 called by 10 central trade unions, including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA. They are protesting against the alleged repressive policies for workers adopted by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Also read: Bharat Bandh for next 2 days: Farmers join 10 trade unions to protest against Modi govt policies Meanwhile, the Centre through a notification has advised these government employees not to "resort to or in any way abet any form of strike in connection with any matter pertaining to his service or service of any other government employee". Any violation of government rules may attract disciplinary action against the employee concerned, the notification says. Earlier this week, the Cabinet had approved the merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had last week said in the Lok Sabha that there would be no loss of jobs due to the merger of public sector banks. Edited by Manoj Sharma Also read: If Modi govt asks banks to provide crop loans, how will it find money for cash transfers, asks P Chidambaram Bandhan Bank Board approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Sinha as part-time Chairman with immediate effect. He will be serving as the part-time Chairman for three years pursuant to approval of RBI. Anup Kumar Sinha and Santanu Mukherjee were both appointed as Additional Directors (Independent) of Bandhan Bank as well. A PhD in Economics from University of Southern California, LA, Sinha is currently the Director of Heritage Business School. Sinha has also taught at Presidency College and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C). He served as Professor of Economics at IIM-C for 25 years. Sinha has also served on the Board of NABARD and is currently the IRDAI representative on the Life Insurance Council of India. He also served three terms on the Board of Governors at IIMC and also as the Dean during 2003-06. Additionally, Sinha has held visiting appointments at Calcutta University, Indian Statistical Institute, University of Southern California, Washington University at St. Louis, Curtin University at Perth and Kyoto University. Not only a scholar, Sinha is also a much-loved teacher. He received the Best Faculty Award from the IIM-C Alumni Association in 2003 and 2004. He also won the Most Popular Teacher Award from the outgoing MBA students of IIMe in 2012, 2014 and 2015. He has been actively engaged in training and consulting for a number of organizations in the public and private sector, as well as for international agencies in the fields of economics. He has also authored publications on various topics including economics, rural economy, management and more. Santanu Mukherjee is a B.Sc Honors from Presidency College under Kolkata University and CAIIB from the Indian Institute of Bankers. Mukherjee is the former Managing Director of State Bank of Hyderabad and has around four decades of experience in the field of banking, finance, risk management in various capacities. (Edited by Anwesha Madhukalya) Podcast: Railway stations to start security checks like airports Loading the player... India can save Rs 77,000 cr annually with Aadhaar, run 3 schemes like Ayushman Bharat with it: Arun Jaitley Terming Aadhaar as a "game changer", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday said savings made through its implementation can fund three public welfare schemes of the magnitude of Ayushman Bharat, the ambitious healthcare programme. He also attributed the successful implementation of Aadhaar to the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi RCom says committed to settle dues, but opposes Ericsson's media trial and sensationalism Debt-laden Reliance Communications accused Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson, which is an operational unsecured creditor of the company, of attempting media trial and sensationalising the issue of dues recovery, saying it might put the interest of even secured lenders at risk. The Anil Ambani-led telecom firm, however, said it remains committed to clear dues of Ericsson from spectrum realisation. Domestic airliners added over 100 planes in 2018 Domestic carriers inducted, for the first time, over 100 planes in 2018 with budget carrier IndiGo accounting for nearly half of them. The nine major Indian carriers together took deliveries of over 120 planes comprising both twin and single-aisle as well as regional jets in the just-concluded year as against 88 planes inducted in 2017. If Modi govt asks banks to provide crop loans, how will it find money for cash transfers, asks P Chidambaram Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said contrary to Prime Minister's claims on demonetisation, surgical strike, and GST during his recent interview, he failed to admit his government's "mistakes" and didn't talk about pressing issues like jobs and farm distress. The Senior Congress leader said the PM failed to talk on several issues like mounting unemployment, farm suicides, women security, MSMEs closures, etc 'India's first greenfield industrial city in Gujarat ready to take off' India's first greenfield industrial city at Dholera in Gujarat is ready to take off, with basic infrastructural facilities for its first phase of development set to be completed by this September. Dholera, which is a project conceived under the then Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being developed from scratch as a smart city. Indian pilots flying high: 57 caught drunk before takeoff at 'this' airport in four years In the past four years, 171 pilots were caught drunk before taking off from airports in India and abroad. The alarming number of "high flying" pilots was revealed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under the Civil Aviation Ministry in response to an RTI query filed by India Today. 57 pilots were held at Delhi airport and 43 at Mumbai airport. Your WhatsApp, Facebook data isn't safe! Malicious apps that steal data found on Play Store A malware capable of stealing sensitive information including WhatsApp data, has been marked for attention on Google Play Store. Malware (a portmanteau for malicious software) is a software that is deliberately designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. Experts have detected as many as six apps that allowed the infected program to enter the Play Store. Arrive 20 minutes before your train leaves: Railway stations to start security checks like airports Taking a leaf out of airports' books, Indian Railways is planning to seal stations for security checks. Train passengers would have to arrive 15-20 minutes before the scheduled departure time to complete these security checks before boarding their trains. This security plan has already been put into action on a pilot basis at Allahabad railway station Unhappy with tax collections, CBDT directs income tax officials to intensify efforts With growth in direct tax collections sluggish, the CBDT has directed income tax department officials to "maximise" their efforts and conduct targeted surveys and file court cases against those who wilfully evade taxes. CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra has shot off a letter to all Principal Chief Commissioners of I-T Department, asking them to pull up their socks as only three months are left for the current financial year to close on March 31. The Reliance Industries stock rose in trade today after the conglomerate said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cleared the proposed amalgamation of Reliance Holding USA Inc with Reliance Energy Generation and Distribution Limited (REGDL). Both firms are subsidiaries of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). The stock rose up to 1.71% to 1117.95 in trade today compared to the previous close of 1099.05 on the BSE. Also read: Why brokerages are bullish on the Titan Company stock The large cap stock has been gaining for the last two days and risen 1.79% during the period. The stock has gained 20.40% during the last one year and is down 1% since January 1. The RBI has approved the cross country amalgamation under the Foreign Exchange Management (Cross Border Merger) Regulations 2018. The RIL board will consider the said proposal for amalgamation at a meeting. 25 of 35 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or 'outperform', five "hold", one "underperform" and four "sell", according to analysts' recommendations tracked by Reuters. The stock is trading below its 50-day and 200-day moving average of 1121.88 and 1136.92, respectively. On Friday, the RIL stock rose 0.67%, or 7.30 points , to Rs 1,099.50 apiece on the BSE. Reliance Industries Limited is engaged in refining, including manufacturing of refined petroleum products, and petrochemicals, including manufacturing of basic chemicals, fertilizers and nitrogen compounds, plastic and synthetic rubber in primary forms. The company's segments include refining, petrochemicals, oil and gas, organized retail and others. Meanwhile, the Sensex and Nifty were trading higher in afternoon trade. While the Sensex rose 270 points higher at 35,965, the Nifty gained 77 points to 10,804. With the RBI asking Rana Kapoor, the incumbent Yes Bank managing director and CEO, to step down by January 31, the country's fourth largest private lender has reportedly zeroed in on an in-house veteran and an outsider to take over the position. Two people in the know told The Economic Times that Senior Group President of Financial Markets at YES Bank Rajat Monga and Rajesh Sud, former MD and CEO of Max Life Insurance, are in the race to fill Rana's shoes. The bank's stock rose up to 2.51% in early trade today ahead of a board meeting on January 9 to finalise the name of its CEO and MD candidate. The chosen name will subsequently be sent to the banking regulator for approval. Sud, the founding member of Max Life Insurance, had spent 18 years building the company and on completion of his second five-year term as executive vice chairman and managing director, he stepped down last September. He had previously headed the asset finance business at ANZ Grindlays Bank and was a part of the transition team at the Bank of America that managed the successful sale of its consumer banking business to ABN Amro Bank and served as the head of consumer banking. Also Read: YES Bank stock closes lower, makes smart recovery from intra-day low According to the daily, Monga, the other contender for the top job, has been with the bank since its inception in 2004. He serves as senior group president of financial markets at Yes Bank and has also been its CFO. In September, shortly after the RBI curtailed the three-year term that the Yes Bank board had sought for Kapoor, the board had also decided to elevate Monga and Pralay Mondal, who headed the focus area of retail, from senior group presidents to executive directors in order to ensure a long-term succession plan. At the same time, the board had also established a search and selection committee comprising three members from the existing nomination and remuneration committee along with two external experts to identify Kapoor's successor within stipulated timelines. Meanwhile, the bank's two estranged promoters Kapoor and his sister-in-law Madhu Kapur are reportedly talking to settle the selection of the new CEO and chairman. In December, in a regulatory filing, Yes Bank had declared that "The Nomination and Remuneration Committee (N&RC) and Board of Directors have finalised the recommendation for "Non-Executive Part-Time Chairman position and shall be promptly seeking requisite approvals from the Reserve Bank of India". The bank also informed the exchanges that the name of the candidate would be formally announced post the requisite approval from the RBI. Brahm Dutt, a former IAS officer who has been on the board of Yes Bank since 2013, is said to be the front runner for the post of non-executive chairman of the bank, the daily reported. If Sud ends up getting selected, he will be the third life insurance CEO to be picked as the head of a private sector bank this year. In September, Axis Bank appointed HDFC Life's Amitabh Chaudhry as the bank's new CEO and MD, taking over from Shikha Sharma,and the following month Sandeep Bakhshi took over as MD and CEO of ICICI Bank from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. With PTI inputs Edited by Sushmita Agarwal Read More: Yes Bank recommends Brahm Dutt for post of Chairman: Sources Yes Bank board assures to appoint Rana Kapoor's successor within RBI deadline In a surprise announcement, the Union Cabinet on Monday declared 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker upper castes. The timing of the announcement before the 2019 General Elections could play a big role in favour of the Narendra Modi government. Experts say the NDA government has played its biggest electoral card since its formation in 2014. Upper class castes have also hailed the decision, which was a long-pending demand. The government will move a constitutional amendment bill tomorrow to push for 10% extra reservation for economically deprived sections among general categories. The BJP's parent organisation the RSS has always maintained that reservation should be along economic lines and not only along caste lines. "Reservations are meant to correct historical injustice to Dalits. For poverty alleviation, one may run various schemes but reservations are meant for justice. Constitution doesn't permit reservations on economic grounds," says Asaduddin Owaisi. Senior Congress leader Abishek Manu Sanghvi calls the 10 per cent reservation announcement a "poll gimmick". #Forwardreservation a gimmick 2fool ppl-c last tweet. #Balaji 50% maxima continues 2b law. #TN exception an aberration-challenge pending in sc. #modi never did 4five years+hs no majority 4ctal am. Only misleading nation. AP &Raj exceeding 50% 4jats &Muslims also struck down. - Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 7, 2019 Amend the law before the Lok Sabha polls, we will support it, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Harish Rawat,Congress on 10% reservation approved by Cabinet for economically weaker upper castes: 'Bohot der kar di meherbaan aate aate', that also when elections are around the corner. No matter what they do, what 'jumlas' they give, nothing is going to save this Govt pic.twitter.com/PXBwWvNKTY - ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 (Its too late now)says Congress leader Harish Rawat. The proposal to give 10 per cent reservation to the economically weaker upper castes is nothing more than a jumla. The proposal to give 10% reservation to economically weaker upper castes is nothing more than a jumla. It is bristling with legal complications and there is no time for getting it passed thru both Houses of Parliament. Govt stands completely exposed. - Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) January 7, 2019 "It was this government only that denied reservation for various different castes citing more than 50 per cent reservation can't be given. How will they do it? It is their new 'jumla' after 'Rs 15 lakh', and promises of jobs to crores of people," says Hardik Patel. "Is it like all the previous 'jumlas'? There are just two days left for the Winter Session of Parliament to over and now they are coming with a bill it is possible that this is just another lollipop from this government. They just want to attract upper caste votes and people who had diverted towards the Congress in the recent elections. I can say that it is just a jumla before the Lok Sabha elections," Patidar leader Hardik Patel. Sonal Mansingh, BJP MP, said: "This is a commendable move, which will benefit the people with poor economic background." "I am saying it with deep sorrow. If you see the article 15 and 16, it talks about the reservation for SC, ST, socially and back ward classes. If you want to bring such a law, you have to talk in Parliament. It's just rhetoric. Your (the government's priority is just to make news..." Manoj Jha, RJD leader, said. Those who will be excluded are: More than 5 acre land Residential plot more thanb1000 sq feet Plot more than 100 sq yard in notified municipality Plot more than 200 yards in non notified areas So who is eligible for this 10 per cent quota for the economically upper class section people? Those who will not be eligible for the reservation should not have land beyond 5 acres in their name; should not own plot 1,000 square yard; should not own 200 yards in non-notified areas; and should not have annual income of over Rs 8 lakh. Reservation approved in govt jobs and education. #UPDATE 10 percent reservation approved by Union Cabinet for economically weaker upper caste sections. Reservation approved in Govt jobs and education https://t.co/fu82M2xfoc - ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 Union minister and BJP ally Ramdas Athawale said, "The government has taken a very good decision, which would help large section of society, who are economically backward among different upper caste." "This is a joke with people. They know there can't be more than 50 per cent reservation, so they we want to bring it so that they can say look we want to bring the bill but the court is not allowing us. This is only to start the blame game. The question is either we should have criteria on the basis of caste or it should be on the economic bases," Rajya Sabha member KTS Tulsi told the news channel. Amiben Yagnik, Congress Leader, told India Today TV: "The announcement is coming just before the Lok Sabha Elections, so we will have to look into how this has been done. This government is not serious about the people's issue. If it was the case, this government would have done something on the Women Reservation Bill." MP Sawant of Shiv Sena told India Today TV: "Bala Saheb used to any don't give reservation on the basis of caste but on the basis on economic conditions. But it remains to be seen how they will implement it?" 10 per cent reservation approved by Union Cabinet for upper castes. Sources: 10 percent reservation approved by Union Cabinet for upper castes. More details awaited pic.twitter.com/t0mlI73ymf - ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 Govt to amend the Article 15 and 16 of the Constitution to provide reservation for the upper castes. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 6) The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) slammed the police for allegedly profiling their members, saying it was a "grossly illegal and unconstitutional attack" on their right to free expression and self-organization. In a statement released Sunday, ACT said the Philippine National Police (PNP) are "making the rounds in schools and offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) to press education officials for an inventory of all ACT members under their jurisdiction." ACT said police either presented or asked school officials to refer to PNP memoranda, so they would give the names of all ACT members in their respective schools. The police, it added, were "citing previous memoranda from PNP Intelligence Departments and the upcoming elections as bases for the order." ACT, however, did not identify which specific memoranda were cited by the police. "The operations appear to be of a nationwide scale and points to the top PNP leadership as the foremost source of the order as we received similar reports from our members in Manila, Malabon, Las Pinas, Zambales, Bulacan, Rizal, Mindoro, Sorsogon, Agusan Del Sur, among others," ACT said. The group added it is a legitimate organization and the PNP's actions were a violation not only of its members' rights to free expression and privacy, but also of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. "The PNP has no business meddling in the affairs of teachers' organizations. Its duty is to serve and protect the people, not to harass and intimidate activists. Their dastardly act of profiling ACT members is maliciously casting unnecessary doubt on the legitimacy of ACT as an organization. Moreover, this is also a violation of the right to privacy of every ACT member," the group said. ACT is calling on concerned citizens to speak up against "the PNP's "Gestapo-like tactics in repressing progressive sectoral organizations." The PNP has not issued a response to the statement of ACT, however PNP Spokesperson Bong Durana told CNN Philippines he "would check if there was such memo." ACT initially called for a press conference on Monday, January 7, to discuss the issue but called it off after members of the PNP allegedly gave conflicting information on the veracity of the order profiling ACT members. The group instead would be holding a protest in front of Camp Crame Monday to confront PNP officials about the matter. Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also lambasted the alleged move of the PNP and called for a clarification on the issue. In a statement, CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said profiling ACT's members is "alarming as it violates rights to privacy and association." "Should there be clear grounds against ACT and its members, then the police should be transparent in applying the law and equally ensure that due process is observed. Clandestine operations may lead to a number of abuses as it is easier to deny accountability for any action," she said. "It is important for our police force to stay true to their role as law enforcers. After all, it is their sworn duty to serve and protect the rights of every Filipino," she added. Central trade unions have called a nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 to protest against the policies for workers adopted by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left Peasant Wings will also join the two-day strike. "AIKS and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will observe 'gramin hartal', rail roko and road roko on January 8 and 9, the day trade unions are observing nationwide general strike. This move is against the Modi government's failure to address rural distress issues, to save rural farmers' lands from the corporate. The farmers will extend all support to the ensuing general strike," said Hannan Mollah, General Secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha. Ten trade unions who have jointly called for the nationwide general strike are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA. The trade unions have support of almost all major independent federations of central employees, state employees and the employees of banks, insurance, telecom, and other service sectors representing the workers and employees of all the industries and services including transport services, both in organised and unorganised sectors. In Bengaluru, four unions including Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will extend their support to the protests. Autorickshaw and cab drivers are also likely to join the protests, crippling the city's public transport network. Banking services may be hit as well as schools and colleges may remain shut, as mentioned in multiple reports. The Bengaluru metro will function, so as all the emergency services. Atul Kumar Anjaan, member of the CPI's peasant wing said that the action committee of farmers decided that farmers will join the workers, employees and common people protesting against the Modi government policies. "The farmers will join road jam, demonstration, protest meetings throughout the country to make the nationwide strike a success and register their disenchantment with PM Narendra Modi and his policies," he added. Anjaan added that the Modi government has failed to fulfil its promises in the period of four and half years. General Secretary of CITU, Tapan Sen, said that public sector employees, unorganized sector workers, port and dock workers, bank and insurance employees are going to participate in the January 8 and 9 nationwide protests against growing economic crisis, price hike and acute unemployment. The CITU denounced the government's move to amend the Trade Union Act 1926 to bring about "so-called transparency" and avoiding "duplicity" as mentioned in the press briefing. Sen alleged that the proposed Trade Union (Amendment) Bill 2018 as cleared by the Cabinet is designed to "impose slavery on the working people". "It is not merely labour reform, it is an all-out degeneration in the life of productive people in the whole economy," he said. "It is just not distress and destitution, there is an altogether a repressive atmosphere creating in the total uncertainty in the world of works," Sen further alleged. "In Rafale deal, there was no transfer of technology. State owned HAL was kept away from the entire deal. This government will do similar practice when it will sign another two mega defence deals for F-16 fighter aircraft with Lockheed Martin Corporation of US and purchase of Naval frigates from Russia," said Sen. "Our movement is getting stronger every year. This is the 18th nationwide general strike against the government's anti-worker policies. The main aim of our 12-point charter of demands is to revive the country's economy, save the rights of working class," he further added. (Edited by Anwesha Madhukalya; with PTI inputs) Also read: If Modi govt asks banks to provide crop loans, how will it find money for cash transfers, asks P Chidambaram By Jonathan LandayWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Monday launched a drive to push U.S. firms to better protect their trade secrets from foreign hackers, following a slew of cases accusing individuals and companies of economic espionage for China.U.S. companies hit by recent attacks included Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and International Business Machines Corp The National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center, which coordinates counter-intelligence efforts within the U.S. government, launched the outreach campaign to address persistent concerns that many companies are ... SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings is in talks to sell a small portion of its 24.9 percent stake in beauty and health retailer A.S. Watson, part of conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, a source said.Temasek invested about $5.7 billion in the company in 2014, in a move that boosted its exposure to Asia's fast consumer business.The Singapore investor is looking to sell a minority stake in the retailer as part of its regular shuffling of its portfolio and is working with an adviser, said one person with knowledge of the process.He said Temasek viewed its stake in ... NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will not like the banking system to be in a situation of "loose money", Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday after a meeting with representatives of small- and medium-sized businesses.The RBI is also looking at new governance reforms for state-owned banks but will not "throttle" their functioning, Das told reporters. (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Krishna N. Das)(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Jan WolfeWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a defeat to Merck & Co by refusing to hear its appeal of a ruling that it had dishonestly obtained patent rights and could not collect a $200 million verdict against rival drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in a dispute involving blockbuster hepatitis C drugs.A jury awarded Merck $200 million in 2016 after finding Gilead's Hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni infringed two of its patents, but a judge later ruled the patents unenforceable because of a pattern of misconduct by Merck including lying under oath by one of its ... NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will auction 23 blocks in a third round of offerings under the open acreage licensing programme for oil and gas exploration concessions, the country's oil secretary, M.M. Kutty, said on Monday. Five of the 23 blocks to be auctioned will be for coal bed methane resources, he said. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Tom Hogue)(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is closely monitoring impact of cheap steel imports from China on domestic industry, the government said in a statement. India issues quality control order for 53 products to prevent sub-standard steel imports from China and other nations, the statement quoted the junior trade minister as saying in parliament.India has imposed anti-dumping duty on straight length bars, rods of alloy steel imported from China, the statement said. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Mark Potter)(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a ... By Tim HepherPARIS (Reuters) - Asian-controlled leasing companies splashed out on passenger jets worth $25 billion at list prices to pick out bargains as planemakers Airbus and Boeing raced to end a relatively quiet year with fresh orders.The deals for over 200 jets are expected to show up in end-year tallies from U.S. group Boeing and European rival Airbus this week, providing clues on how far trade tensions and economic uncertainty are dampening an already slowing aircraft market.China's ICBC Financial Leasing has firmed up an order for 80 Airbus A320-family jets worth $8.8 billion at ... By Jan Wolfe(Reuters) - InterDigital Inc on Monday said Huawei Technologies Co Ltd filed a lawsuit against it in China, alleging the U.S. technology firm had not licensed its intellectual property on fair terms.The lawsuit, filed on Jan 2. in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, alleged InterDigital violated an obligation to license patents that are essential to 3G, 4G and 5G wireless telecommunication standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, InterDigital said in a regulatory filing.Huawei asked the court to determine a royalty rate that would apply to its wireless ... By Aftab Ahmed and Manoj KumarNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), having changed leadership last month following a clash with the government, is likely to transfer an interim dividend of 300-400 billion rupees ($4.32 billion-$5.8 billion) to the government by March, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.The amount would be three or four times the amount paid last year and would help the government meet its fiscal deficit target, despite a shortfall in revenue collections, most notably from a goods and services tax introduced in 2017, and from ... By Costas PitasLONDON (Reuters) - British carmaker Aston Martin has triggered contingency plans to cope with a potentially disorderly Brexit, including hiring a new supply chain chief and preparing to fly in components as well as use ports other than Dover. Britain, the world's fifth largest economy, is due to leave the European Union in just over 80 days but a negotiated withdrawal agreement looks set to be voted down by UK lawmakers next week, making a "no deal" exit - and disruption to trade - more likely.Britain's car industry, which employs over 850,000 people and is one of the ... (Reuters) - CBS News President David Rhodes is stepping down and Susan Zirinsky, a senior executive producer, will take over the president's role from March, the company said on Sunday.Rhodes will remain in the media firm through March 1, after which he will assume the role of a senior adviser to its parent company CBS Corp CEO Joe Ianniello, and to the News Division, Rhodes wrote in the memo."The new year is a time for renewal, for new goals. The world we cover is changing, how we cover it is changing - and it's the right time for me to make a change too," Rhodes said in an internal memo ... By Nidhi VermaNEW DELHI (Reuters) - State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp will import 1 million barrels of Iranian oil in February after a gap of three months, with the nation's overall purchases from Tehran remaining at 9 million barrels, three industry sources said.The United States in early November granted India a six-month waiver from sanctions on Iran's oil exports.Under the agreement, New Delhi must restrict its Iranian oil purchases to 1.25 million tonnes, or 9 million barrels.BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corp will lift 1 million barrels each of Iranian crude oil in February, the sources ... (Reuters) - AstraZeneca said on Monday it had hired Jose Baselga to head research and development in oncology, an area where the British drugs firm is seeking to grow its business.Baselga resigned as the chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in September 2018 after the New York Times and Pro Publica revealed that he had not disclosed millions of dollars in payments from healthcare firms.A spokesman for AstraZeneca said that the validity of Baselga's research was not under question.Baselga, 59, who acknowledged a failure to disclose his links to companies in his ... (Reuters) - Activist investor Starboard Value LP on Monday called on Dollar Tree Inc to explore a sale of its underperforming Family Dollar business and nominated directors to replace a majority of its board after revealing a stake in the company.Starboard said its stake in the discount store operator was 1.7 percent or worth about $370 million, making it one of the largest shareholders in the company. "We believe Dollar Tree should explore all strategic alternatives for Family Dollar, including a sale of the business," Starboard Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Smith said in a letter ... / -- Xoxoday, a SaaS commerce platform, acquired FamousEnuf, a tech-powered activation engine, for an undisclosed amount. Xoxoday is a SaaS commerce platform that enables teams to nurture engagement and team happiness. Xoxoday for Teams helps mangers build happy teams and Xoxoday for Channel partners helps channel managers create an engaged distributor and retail partner network. Xoxoday also offers Storefront, an API driven digital rewards platform to simplify rewards, incentives and gifting with a global catalog of 5000+ experiences, 1000+ gift cards and 10,000+ perks. FamousEnuf was founded in 2016 by Aditya Shah and Rachita Pandya, which is a Facebook FbStart funded startup. It is a tech-powered activation engine that enables enterprises to activate its micro-influencers to generate highly engaging organic content at scale. Micro-influencers for enterprises could be their customers, employees, channel partners or affiliates. On FamousEnuf, employers can manage and run customer or employee engagement campaigns, rewards and recognition events as well as affiliate programs. It also provides an option to share content on social media platforms like Facebook. "As a leading employee engagement SaaS platform for enterprises, we at Xoxoday saw great value in FamousEnuf's proprietary technology for deep data insights via first-party data and robust loyalty and retention campaign management platform," said Sumit Khandelwal, Co-founder, Xoxoday. "Talent managers who are on a look out for innovative ways to keep their employees engaged will definitely find Xoxoday - FamousEnuf combo a must-have. FamousEnuf has also developed a unique popularity score and fame score which will break new grounds in talent assessment and team management," said Aditya Shah, Founder, FamousEnuf. "FamousEnuf's campaign management module, reporting dashboard and popularity score merges very well with Xoxoday platform and will redefine employees and channel partners experience with their employers," he added. Xoxoday has over 500 clients spread across APAC, U.S. and Australia. The company has been awarded as the Best Tech-HR platform by People Matters. They are ranked one amongst the top 50 fastest growing tech-companies by Deloitte and have also won the India SME 100 Award, 2017. Xoxoday currently has over 150 employees and is backed by Mahindra Holidays and Kshatriya Ventures. About Xoxoday: Xoxoday Enterprise is a technology platform helping organizations to manage rewards, incentives and loyalty programs. Xoxoday develops scalable, secure, distributed and seamless solutions that help employees, consumers, and channel partners engage with brand through our unparalleled catalogue of curated experiences. To learn more, visit http://www.xoxoday.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a surprise move, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1. Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now. The president of the World Bank has always been an American citizen nominated by the United States, which is the largest shareholder of this multilateral financial institution. "It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," said Kim. Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim President effective February 1. "The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity, he said. "Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege," Kim said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The TKM College of Engineering hosted a two-day international workshop here, in partnership with the Leeds University, UK, on rebuilding a resilient Kerala after the floods. The workshop, which was co-hosted by the Kerala government, focused on bringing academia, industry and government agencies together with the common interest to rebuild Kerala for a resilient future. "Our High Commissioner Dominic Asquith and I met the chief minister of Kerala recently to express our concern for the loss of life and property during the floods and we are glad that UK-Kerala academic and research practitioners are coming together for this timely knowledge-sharing event," said UK's Deputy High Commissioner to India, Jeremy Pilmore Bedford. Through the workshop, key stakeholders from both the countries jointly identified short-term, medium-term and long-term goals to deal with the challenges in rebuilding the flood affected state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Women comprise 13 per cent of the Indian Air Force's workforce, the highest among the three armed services, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. In a written response to a question in the Upper House, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said women constitute 3.80 per cent of the Army's workforce, while they are six per cent of the Navy's personnel. Women comprise 13 per cent of the Air Force's workforce, he said, adding they make up 21.63 per cent and 20.75 per cent of the staff in medical and dental services respectively of the armed forces. All nursing officers in the armed forces are women. The induction of women into the Army is based on the organisational requirement, fighting efficiency, combat effectiveness and functionality of the force, the minister said. Presently, women along with men candidates are recruited in the Army as officers through Short Service Commission (SSC) on all-India merit basis, he said. Women Officers are inducted into the Service Corps, Ordnance Corps, Education Corps, Judge Advocate General Branch, Corps of Engineers, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, Corps of Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, Aviation Corps and Corps of Army Air Defence. Women are also included in the Army in Military Nursing Service and medical officers cadre, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 30-year-old woman died and her husband was injured after falling off the Barapula Flyover when their bike was hit by a car, police said Monday. Nisha and her husband Sunny (30), residents of Dwarka Sector-7, were returning from a marriage function in Trilokpuri when the accident took place, they said. The car which hit the couple was allegedly being driven by a 68-year-old retired Air Force officer, Madhu Sudan Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said, adding that he was arrested and released on bail. Police found the woman lying in a drain under the Barapula Flyover, he said. She was immediately rushed to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead by doctors. Her husband Sunny sustained injuries to his head and leg and was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Center, the officer said. According to police, Choudhary was returning home from his hospital in West Vinod Nagar. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 2000. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. China Monday said it would welcome the UN officials to visit its volatile Muslim-majority Xinjiang province provided they remain "fair and objective", days after the official media reported that Beijing passed a five-year plan to "sinicise Islam" to make it compatible with its version of socialism. UN's Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said last year that it was alarmed by "numerous reports of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities" being detained in camps Xinjiang region and called for their immediate release. China defended the camps, saying they were for re-education and aimed at de-radicalising some sections of the Uygur Muslim population. The US and several other countries have also expressed concern over the camps. UN human rights official Michelle Bachelet said in December that her office had sought access from China to visit Xinjiang to verify the re-education camps for Muslim minorities. "Xinjiang is an open region. We welcome UN and other parties to visit Xinjiang while abiding by relevant rules, regulations and necessary procedures," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing here. "We also believe that they should avoid interfering in internal affairs and harming our sovereignty. They should stay objective and fair. We are willing to maintain contact with UN to meet each other half way," he said. China has about 20 million Muslims who are mostly Uyghurs, an ethnic group of Turkic origin and Hui Muslims who are of Chinese ethnic origin. Both Uyghurs and Hui Muslims are about 10 million each, according to an official paper. While Uyghurs lived in Xinjiang bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Hui Muslims resided in Ningxia province. China is currently carrying out a massive crackdown against the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in the volatile Xinjiang province where Uyghurs who form a majority there express concern over the increasing settlements of the Han community. Meanwhile, official media reported that China passed a five-year plan to 'sinicise Islam' in a bid to make it compatible with its version of socialism. "China passed a five-year plan to sinicise Islam at a meeting on Saturday with representatives from China's eight Islamic associations," an article in the state-run Global Times said on Sunday. "During the meeting, the participants agreed to guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to sinicise the religion. This is China's important act to explore ways of governing religion in modern countries," it said. Asked about his reaction, Lu said "I have not heard about what you said". "China is a country of various ethnic groups. We respect the religious activities. But I believe that the religious activities should be carried out within the framework of the law in a country. There is no exception even in other countries like the UK and so on," he said. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has been following much highlighted "Socialism with Chinese characteristics", an ideological enunciated by former leader Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao Zedong after his death in 1976. Under this line, China followed reforming and opening policies, liberalising the economy to allow private sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana BJP MLA elect T Raja Singh, who has declined to be sworn-in by Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of AIMIM -- nominated as the pro-tem Speaker, on Monday said he would take oath after the regular Speaker takes over proceedings of the new Assembly. Singh had said he would not take oath in the presence of Khan because he "speaks against Hindus". The first session of the newly elected assembly will be held from January 17 to 20. On January 16, Khan would take oath as pro-tem speaker at the Raj Bhavan. "After the regular speaker is appointed, I will go to his chamber and take oath. But not during those days (when Ahmed Khan acts as pro-tem speaker)," Raja Singh told PTI. In a video message, Singh, legislator from Goshamahal, had demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao review the decision on appointment of Khan, a senior All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader, as pro-tem speaker. "The Telangana chief minister, who is a follower of Nizam (the erstwhile ruler of Hyderabad state) and MIM took a decision at night to make an AIMIM MLA pro-tem speaker...I will not go to the assembly and take the oath in his presence. Other party leaders may go, but I will not," Singh had said. The BJP MLA, known for controversial statements, said he did not want to take the oath in Khan's presence, as AIMIM "speaks against Hindus and its leaders do not sing Vande Mataram' or say Bharat Mata Ki Jai". He had said he would consult legal experts on rules regarding oath-taking. An AIMIM spokesperson had said that the party did not want to react to Singh's statement. Flaying Singh's remarks, the Congress Monday demanded that he be expelled from the Assembly. "Raja Singh's statement shows the level of hatred that he holds against the Muslim community. He does not deserve to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly, which is a symbol of democracy and secularism. "He must be expelled from the House with immediate effect," All India Congress Committee spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said in a statement. Sravan alleged that Singh is facing 43 criminal cases, most of them pertaining to hate speeches. He alleged that 24 cases were registered against Raja Singh since 2014 under the TRS regime. However, the BJP member was never arrested or tried in any of these cases, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Announcing the decision to extend the retirement age of college-university professors from 62 to 65 years, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Monday the move was aimed to utilise their services for a longer period. Addressing the Convocation of Calcutta University at state-run Nazrul Manch here, Banerjee said, "If someone's life doesn't end at 60-62 what will he/she do for another 25 years?" Banerjee said her government has taken the decision to raise the retirement age of professors from 62 to 65 years and Vice-Chancellors from 65 to 70 years. Banerjee said that as part of the move to empower girls, the government would lay the foundation of 'Kanyashree University' on January 10 in Nadia district. She said 'Kanyashree', the cash-transfer programme to curb child marriage and help girl students stay in school, has now been extended to all girls in the state. Banerjee said that while her government has set up 23 new universities in the past seven years, another 11 will come up soon. The CM also said that the government has spent Rs 28,000 crore to create infrastructure facilities in the state, including a medical hub and a lot more employment opportunities were being created. On Calcutta University, she recalled that Rs 100 crore had been granted by the state government in the past for achieving excellence in innovative research. Banerjee recalled her conferment of (Hony) D Litt at last year's Convocation at CU. "I get invites from various places - from Oxford, Cambridge and many other universities in the world but I can't go always. CU seems to be my own home always as you never divide people along class lines. You are not an elitist institution," she said. She said there will be chairs after Iswarchandra Vidyasagar and Mahatma Gandhi in the university soon. Apart from former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who received Honorary D Litt, paediatrician Dilip Mahalanabis, who pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy, and eminent physician Sukumar Mukherjee were awarded honorary DSc (Honoris Causa) at the Convocation. An estimated 498 researchers were awarded PhD certificates, 236 M Phil and 113 LLM (Masters of Legislative Law) certificates during the convocation, Vice Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal Congress unit Monday kicked off its month-long protest programme against TMC government over issues like worsening law and order situation, farmers distress and unemployment in the state. Led by Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra Monday, the party organissed protest at Barasat area of North 24 Parganas district. Carrying placards against the Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the state government protesters shouted slogans against the TMC government. "We will continue our fight against the worsening law and order situation in the state. The number of unemployed youths have increased by leaps and bounds in the state under the TMC regime. The farmers are facing a tough situation in getting prices for their produce," Mitra said. Around thousand Congress activists were detained by the police when they tried to break the police barricade. They were later on released. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The village defence committees (VDCs) members in Doda-Kishtwar belt, who have been defending mountainous and remote hamlets in the region, are up in arms against the government over "failure" to pay them their wages for the past two years now. They have threatened "mass suicide" if their pending monthly honorarium is not released at the earliest. Around 50 armed VDC members from different areas gathered at Manthla village in Bhadarwah and unanimously decided that they will commit "mass suicide" along with their family members, if their issues regarding their monthly honorarium is not settled and treating their job at par with Special Police Officers (SPOs) is not considered at the earliest. As per available data, 27,924 people have been working in VDCs to fight militancy for the past two decades. Further, it was stated that 4,248 VDCs were functioning in 10 districts of Jammu division and Leh district of Ladakh. The highest number of 6,521 VDC members is working in 660 VDCs of Doda district, followed by 5,818 in Rajouri district, Reasi with 5,730 volunteers and Kishtwar with 3,287 VDC volunteers. With an aim to contain the activities of militants in rural areas and to ensure security and safety of the identified villages, the Union government in 1995 led to the setting up of VDCs when militancy was peaking up and authorities were unable to provide security in far-off villages. "To ensure safety of my family and villagers, I was compelled to leave my studies at the age of 15 and join VDC in 1996," said Kuldeep Kumar, a VDC member of Chekka, Bhadarwah. "Now, after putting in 22 years of my youth for the service of my nation and participating in several encounters along with security forces with militants, I have been left penniless as we are not getting our monthly honorarium because SPOs from our VDC refuse to share the wages with us," he lamented. Kumar said that in the given circumstances, he is left with the only option to end his life and family members with the service weapon. There are normally eight villagers in a VDC and to provide them some financial assistance, authorities appointed three of each VDCs as SPOs with an internal arrangement that the honorarium will be equally distributed among all members of the committee, VDC members said. The distribution of money was being carried out smoothly until 2016 but as the honorarium was enhanced to Rs 12,000 and instead of cash, the amount started being transferred to the accounts of SPOs directly, they (SPOs) reportedly refused to share the money claiming that the remuneration is meant for them only. "Everything was going on smoothly and we use to get our honorarium in cash without any hassle, but the government decision to transfer the money to the bank account of SPOs played the spoil sport, as these SPOs have now refused to share the money," said Rajinder Kumar (55), a VDC member of Kakool, Bhadarwah. "We are performing similar duties as our SPOs but I am unable to understand why the honorarium is being transferred to their account only. Keeping in view of sacrifices during last 22 years, we appeal to the Governor to settle our issue once and for all, otherwise we have decided to commit mass suicide," Kumar added. When contacted, Bhadarwah ASP Rajinder Singh said, "VDC SPOs are bound to share the honorarium among other members of the committee and they in no way can deny this as they have been appointed SPOs with the consent of other committee members." "We have also received some complaints regarding the issue, as the problem started only after the enhancement of remuneration and bank payment. I will take up the matter with higher authorities so that a permanent arrangement regarding distribution of honorarium be made at the earliest," the ASP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) U S National Security Adviser John Bolton has arrived in Turkey for negotiations on the fate of American-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria. Bolton will seek assurances from the NATO ally that it won't attack the Kurds when the US withdraws troops from northeastern Syria. Monday's visit comes a day after Bolton said such guarantees were a "condition" of the pullout President Donald Trump ordered last month. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its borders, and has threatened to mount an assault on the groups that have fought alongside U.S. troops against the Islamic State in Syria. Bolton, who is expected to meet Tuesday with Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (REH'-jehp TY'-ihp UR'-doh-wahn), says that's unacceptable. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US Navy guided-missile destroyer on Monday sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea where Beijing has built military installations, as trade talks between the two countries kicked off. The US and its allies periodically send planes and warships through the area, which is claimed by China, to signal to Beijing their right under international law to pass through the waters. The USS McCampbell sailed within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) of the Paracel Islands "to challenge excessive maritime claims," US Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr told AFP. She added that so-called "freedom of navigation" operations are "not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements." The sail-by came as Chinese and US officials kicked off talks in Beijing to find a solution to a bitter trade war that last year saw the two sides impose tariffs on more than USD 300 billion in total two-way trade. "All operations... demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe," McMarr said. The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Beijing asserts nearly all of the South China Sea as its territory, while Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttar Pradesh adminstration has ordered the closure of 48 industrial units in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts during Kumbh Mela to keep the Ganga clean, officials said Monday. The decision was taken to ensure that untreated effluence and waste is not released into the Ganga river, spokesperson of the state's pollution control board, D C Pandey said. The units situated in the 10 districts of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Noida, Greater Noida, Saharanpur and Bijnor will remain shut from January 6 to 8, Pandey said. They will again be asked to shut down on January 15 during the great bath at Allahabad, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma Monday welcomed the Union Cabinet's approval for 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward section in the general category and said the slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' is truly reflected in the decision. "For the first any government has risen above caste and religion and has taken a decision for the poor. This is a major step taken by the NDA government, and we welcome it," he told PTI. "The slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' is truly reflected in this, and all the parties must welcome it, as there is no religion to poor and poverty," he said. A constitutional amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, the last day of the Winter Session. The government has also sought extension of the Rajya Sabha proceedings for a day to enable the passage of the bill. Meanwhile, reacting to joint statements by senior SP leader Ramgopal Yadav and BSP leader Satish Mishra over alleged misuse of the CBI by the BJP, Sharma said, "A CBI probe has been ordered by the court and an action is being taken on the basis of the directive of the court. The BJP never misuses nor uses any legal institution. Levelling allegations on the BJP is incorrect and baseless." The BSP, the Congress and the AAP on Monday came out in support of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav amid reports the CBI may quiz him in an illegal mining case and accused the BJP-led NDA government of resorting to "vendetta politics". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director of Habitat for Humanity position Lamar Countys Habitat For Humanity is seeking a new volunteer leader for its A Brush with Kindness painting program. Duties include: Lifting paints and ladders and equipment; Inventory each application to make sure it is a home that can be painted and will work with the programs carpenter to determine repairs needed. Will work with co-chair Donna Burnett on everything; Keep the trailer stocked and ready for each job (which is a Friday and Saturday morning project each time); Deliver the trailer to the job site and at the end of the project take the trailer back to the warehouse; Take paint needed to Sherwin Williams to be tinted. Will also be in charge of keeping the inventory of paint stocked; Supervise volunteers on the job each workday, along with giving instructions, cleaning and restocking equipment and trailer; May serve on the Board of Directors if desired, but is not a requirement; A background check will be done at Habitats expense. May also be working with the Home Stay committee of the Homelessness Coalition. To volunteer, call 903-783-0599. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat Monday hailed as "historic" the Union Cabinet's "approval" of 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker sections in the general category. "Reservations on economic basis was being demanded by the economically weaker sections in the general category across the country for a long time.This step of the central government will benefit them," Rawat said. Describing the decision as "historic", the chief minister said it was a step taken in the direction of realizing the concept of "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas". It will also benefit the economically backward upper caste people of Uttarakhand and the state's youth, he said. Sources said Monday that the Union Cabinet has approved 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward section in the general category. The government is likely to bring a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament on Tuesday and the quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation, they said. The reservation benefit is likely to be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs 8 lakh and have up to five acres of land. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump said he looks forward to speaking to the world in his annual State of the Union address later this month. Newly-sworn-in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week invited President Trump to deliver the customary State of the Union (SOTU) address before a joint session of Congress on January 29. Trump told reporters at the White House: "I will be making the State of the Union on January 29th. I look forward to it. I look forward to speaking, really, before the world. We have a lot of great things to say". This would be Trump's first SOTU address wherein the Democrats would be in majority in the House of Representatives. "Our country is doing better than any country in the world, right now. Our military is almost completely rebuilt. When I took it over, it was a mess. It was depleted. Our trade deals are going great. "We have a deal with Mexico, Canada, South Korea. We're negotiating with Europe, the European Union. We're negotiating with China, which is, by far, the biggest of them all. We're doing very, very well," the president said in response to a question. According to the US Constitution, the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump acknowledged Sunday that weekend shutdown talks led by his vice president would not break an impasse, as newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government. Heading to Camp David for staff meetings, Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for $5.6 billion for a wall along the US-Mexico border. Undercutting the staff-level talks, Trump declared that only he could make a deal with Democratic leaders "in 20 minutes, if they want to." Said Trump: "If they don't want to, it's going to go on for a long time." With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. The seemingly intractable budget showdown marks the first clash for Trump and Democrats, who now control the House. It pits Trump's unpredictable negotiating stylings against a largely united Democratic front, as many Republicans watch nervously from the sidelines and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay. After another round of talks led by Vice President Mike Pence with senior congressional aides, Trump tweeted that the session had been "productive." But two Democrats familiar with the meeting gave a different take, saying the White House had not provided the budget details they had requested and again declined to re-open government. One of the officials neither was authorized to speak publicly said no additional meetings were scheduled. Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for "some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." While insisting he wanted to make a deal, he also declared he would not give an inch in his fight for funding for a border barrier, saying: "There's not going to be any bend right here." Speaking to reporters later in the day, Trump said he had told aides to say that they wanted a steel barrier, rather than the concrete wall he promised during the campaign. Trump said Democrats "don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel." The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. "Let's get those reopened while the negotiations continue," Collins said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Democrats criticized McConnell for waiting on Trump's support, but Collins said she was sympathetic to McConnell's opposition to moving legislation without agreement from the president. Several Republicans pushed the Interior Department to find money to restaff national parks amid growing concerns over upkeep and public safety. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested Sunday that pressure would only mount amid the shutdown, which he said is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations, home loans and farmers in his state. "Democrats and now a growing number of Republicans are coming together and saying let's open up the government and debate border security separately," Schumer told reporters in New York. Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABC's "This Week" that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be "wide open" to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a "nonstarter." "Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border," said Schiff, D-Calif. Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who aren't getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to "make adjustments" to deal with the shutdown shortfall. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump on Monday launched a fresh attack on media, saying it consists of many "crazed lunatics" and "is truly the enemy of the people". Alleging that The New York Times has published an "inaccurate story" on withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Trump said the mainstream media is not giving adequate coverage to the achievements of his administration. "The Fake Media in our Country is the real Opposition Party. It is truly the Enemy of the People! We must bring honesty back to journalism and reporting!" he tweeted. Trump often describes major American outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN as part of the fake news media. "The Fake News will knowingly lie and demean in order make the tremendous success of the Trump Administration, and me, look as bad as possible. They use non-existent sources & write stories that are total fiction. Our Country is doing so well, yet this is a sad day in America!" he said. "With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse. Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!" the president tweeted. Slamming The New York Times for its alleged inaccurate story on Syria, Trump said "the failing" news outlet has intentionally published an inaccurate story on his intentions on Syria. "We will be leaving (Syria) at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" he tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dozens of trucks took part in a government exercise Monday for coping with possible Channel gridlock caused by a no-deal Brexit, assembling on an abandoned airport runway that could be turned into a giant lorry park. But haulage groups labelled the exercise "too little too late", while a local MP said it was "too complex" and would create "enormous confusion" for lorry drivers. Nearly 100 lorries descended on Manston airfield in southeast England, which has been identified as a possible holding facility under contingency plans for leaving the European Union without a divorce agreement on March 29. As part of the test, the vehicles then made two trips in convoy to and from the port of Dover -- a 20-mile (32-kilometre) journey -- along a route far less used by trucks than the main highway from London. "Today's trial cannot possibly duplicate the reality of 4,000 trucks being held at Manston airport in the event of a no-deal Brexit," said Richard Burnett, head of the Road Haulage Association (RHA). "It's too little too late -- this process should have started nine months ago. At this late stage it looks like window dressing," he added. The RHA are among the industry bodies advising the transport ministry and local officials ahead of Brexit, and helped attract truckers to the one-day trial. A ministry spokeswoman said 89 trucks participated at a cost of 550 pounds (USD 700/610 euros) per driver, or 48,950 pounds for the whole fleet. "We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU. "However, it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no deal," she said. Toby Howe, senior highway manager at Kent County Council, told AFP the government was considering holding up to 6,000 lorries at Manston, "if necessary". He said the former airfield is "ready" but Monday's tests would show "if any changes need to be made" along the route to Dover. In invitation letters to hauliers, the ministry said the trial was aimed at ensuring "there is an effective plan in place should there be any disruption once the UK has left the EU". The use of the airfield as a holding facility "is one of the traffic management measures" in draft plans to "alleviate congestion" in the event of any border disruption, according to the letters. They also stated that officials would be using the exercise to "establish the safest optimum release rate of HGVs (Heavy Goods Vehicles) from the airfield to Dover". Rowe said the feedback so far "has been good". But Charlie Elphicke, the local MP for Dover, criticised the plan as "too complex" and likely to cause "enormous confusion" for lorry drivers. Dover handles some 10,000 heavy goods vehicles every day and there are concerns that increased checks on the border will create congestion on roads in the county of Kent. It currently takes only two minutes for a truck to complete the formalities. A mere two-minute addition would cause traffic jams of more than 17 miles (27 kilometres) in Dover and similar chaos in Calais and Dunkirk, the Port of Dover warned on its website. The Freight Transport Association, which also liaised with hauliers for the trial, said avoiding a no-deal Brexit was of "vital importance". "Using Manston can never be a 'good' arrangement, just a part of the least worst option in the event of the ongoing disruption at Dover that no deal...would cause," it added in a statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tripura unit of the BJP said Monday it would oppose the nationwide strike called by central trade unions and called upon people to boycott their protest. A two-day-long nationwide strike has been called by ten major trade unions, including the CITU and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), to protest against the alleged anti-worker policies and unilateral labour reforms of the Narendra Modi-led Union government. Pratima Bhowmik, the general secretary of Tripura BJP, said the strike, beginning Tuesday, would inconvenience common people. She also requested the state government to alert the police and the administration and ensure that the supporters of the strike do not harm people or damage vehicles and destroy properties of government or private firms. "Our party opposes the strike, because it would cause inconvenience to people, paralyse normal functioning and spoil the work culture in the state. "We also appeal to people to oppose the strike and maintain a peaceful and normal life," Bhowmik told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three Spanish mountaineers died with their Peruvian guide while climbing a snow-capped peak in the Andes, Peruvian authorities reported Monday. The five-member party was attempting to scale the 5,150 meter (16,892-foot) Nevado Mateo mountain in the Andean Cordillera Blanca range when they were swept away on Sunday, authorities in the Ancash region said. The alarm was raised by another Spanish climber, the only member of the party to survive. "Apparently it was due to weather effects, probably an ice-fall," Marcos Espinal, a prosecutor in the local town of Carhauz, told RPP radio. A mountain rescue team had been dispatched to recover the bodies of the four climbers, Espinal said. The lower reaches of the mountain give way to a glacier on the climb, which usually takes around five hours. "It is a rugged area, and risky because of the weather conditions," like fog and rain, he said. A German climber died on the mountain in 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing serious concern over detection of a large number of fake anganwadi beneficiaries, Union minister Maneka Gandhi Monday said those responsible for such irregularities are traitors and pilferage of food meant for children has caused a massive loss to the government. The women and child development (WCD) minister made the remarks at an event where awards were conferred on 97 anganwadi workers from across the country for their exemplary work. However, the comments did not go down well with some of those awarded, with anaganwadi workers saying it had hurt their sentiments. Indulging in theft and pilferage of food meant for children... the anganwadis that do such things... it's 'desh droh'. You have not just put one child to disadvantage, you have caused a huge loss to the entire country, Gandhi said. The anganwadis are a type of rural child care centre in India and helps combat malnutrition and under nutrition among children below six years. The minister said another issue that caused her immense pain is that the anganwadis wasted a huge amount of public money over the years. Since we started linking Aadhaar cards of beneficiaries, we have come across a large number of children who are there on the on the anganwadi list but don't really exist.The anganwadis claimed funds for children who were never there, she said. The ministry found three lakh fake beneficiaries in Assam, one lakh in Jharkhand and 14 lakh in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi said. If we spend Rs 10 per child per day, that means theft of Rs 30 lakh per day in Assam and Rs 1.4 crore in UP. We could have done a lot with this money. It could have been spent on a number of different schemes... on food for many needy children," the minister said. She asked the anganwadi workers honoured at the event to inform officials if they come across any such irregularities in anganwadi centers in their areas. "I want one thing from you people... the best aganwadis workers in the country... Keep an eye on what others are doing. Inform us if you come across any irregularity such as theft and pilferage of food in anganwadis near you. Be the ears and eyes of the government," Gandhi said. However, some of the awardees expressed their disappointment over the minister's remarks. An anganwadi worker, who was at the event, said, "The minister should not have said all that. We have given our entire lives to anganwadi. I am hurt by the minister's remarks. There are no such cases in Chhattisgarh, but still... The minister should have spoken more about our efforts and work." "The ministry counts the number of beneficiaries on the basis of Aadhaar cards. There a lot of other children who do not have Aadhaar cards. But, we are supposed to include them in the programme. We cannot leave them out just because they don't have it," another anganwadi worker awarded for her exemplary work said. "I come from Uttar Pradesh, and I felt bad when the minister said we are stealing food," she said. An anganwadi official from Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow said on condition of anonymity that "there is a large time gap in the surveys conducted at the state and local level." "Children who are on the list a year ago are not there now. Hence, the discrepancies. Also, a large number of children do not have Aadhaar cards or have applied for it, but haven't received yet," the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration Monday said the idea of opening a satellite campus of the varsity is "still there", a week after the HRD ministry informed Parliament that there is no such plan. In response to a question, Union Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh had on December 31 told the Lok Sabha, "There is no plan for opening of a satellite campus or branches by JNU, IITs or IIMs." "As a policy, the government does not encourage establishment of satellite campuses of such educational institutions," he had said. However, Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector-I, JNU, said they have not written to the HRD Ministry about it. "We have not written to the HRD Ministry about the satellite campus. If the varsity somehow thinks about the possibility or the need for a satellite campus, we do not need money from the government if we can do on our own by raising funds in different ways. "The reason why the ministry says like this is we have not applied for funds. What he meant was that it has not come for us. This was an idea and the idea is still there and we need to see what steps can be taken," he said. JNU Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar had in last October announced that the university was planning to set up a satellite campus outside the national capital region (NCR) with an aim to make the university accessible to more students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Telangana Cabinet Monday decided to nominate Elvis Stephenson as the nominated member of the Assembly. A proposal to this effect has been forwarded to Governor E S L Narasimhan and a Gazette notification would be issued upon his consent, a release from the Chief Minister's office said. The cabinet has taken the decision in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution to provide representation to the Anglo-Indian community in the Assembly. Stephenson was the nominated member in the previous House as well. The Cabinet, comprising Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Home Minister Mohd Mehmood Ali, held its first meeting on Monday after its formation on December 13. The Telangana government is taking decisions as per the "Ganga-Jamuna Tehzeeb" (composite culture) with reference to matters concerning the Legislative Assembly, it said. "Mumtaz Ahmed Khan (MLA of AIMIM) of Muslim community is nominated as Pro-tem speaker," it said. During the previous stint, Stephenson was in the in connection with the so-called cash-for-vote scam in which the then TDP MLA (now a Congress leader) A Revanth Reddy was caught by Anti-Corruption Bureau while allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson for supporting the TDP nominee in Legislative Council elections. The release said the Cabinet has placed on record its deep appreciation to the Election Commission in general and state Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar for successful and peaceful conduct of the assembly elections. The state government has decided to provide copies of the Constitution, assembly procedures, and other information connected to the legislative procedures in Telugu, English and Urdu languages to all the MLAs, the release added. The newly-elected Telangana Legislative Assembly would meet on January 17 for four days for the members to take oath and to elect the Speaker and also take up the Governor's address to the joint session of the legislature. Senior AIMIM MLA from Charminar Assembly constituency Mumtaz Ahmed Khan would act as the pro tem Speaker, a release from the Chief Minister's office had said on Saturday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will not render people jobless in the future, but rather create more opportunities for humans, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said here. The renowned IT Industrialist noted that technology provides an opportunity for people to move from drudgery to tasks that require more human touch. "AI definitely is a very important topical area of computer sciences. AI, machine learning, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), these are all areas which are likely to make the lives of human beings even more comfortable," Murthy told PTI. Giving the example of the US, the UK, and Japan, which embraced technology early on, he noted that these countries have been able to reduce unemployment rates to single digits. According to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report, the rapid evolution of machines and algorithms in the workplace could create 133 million new roles in place of 75 million that will be displaced by 2022. "If you observe the economic history of this world in the last 50 years when computers started playing a bigger role, you can realise that those countries that absorb technology more enthusiastically, have reduced their unemployment much more than those which did not embrace technology, Murthy said. Dismissing the argument that technology renders people unemployed he said that "it is not really true." "What technology does is it provides an opportunity for human beings to move from drudgery tasks to tasks that require more and more human touch," he added. Murthy noted the automated teller machines (ATMs) are a classic example of technology making human lives easier as they have removed "this whole drudgery of tellers" and brought the convenience of withdrawing money from a nearby machine whenever you want, and at any time. "I am not a believer that technology will render societies into a state of higher and higher unemployment," he said on the sidelines of the Infosys Prize ceremony here on Saturday. The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists by the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to recognise research. Six eminent professors were awarded the Infosys Prize 2018 across different categories of science and research. The annual award includes a pure gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse worth USD 100,000 (or its equivalent in Indian rupees). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taliban fighters attacked two checkpoints in western Afghanistan, killing at least 10 members of the security forces and pro-government militia, officials said Monday, in a bloody 24 hours in the war-torn country. At least 15 militants were killed in the fighting in Qadis and Ab Kamari districts of Badghis province that began late Sunday, provincial governor spokesman Jamshid Shahabi told AFP. Provincial council chief Abdul Aziz Bek gave a higher death toll of 21 - 14 police and seven militia members - but that figure could not be immediately confirmed by AFP. "The Taliban captured both checkpoints and took all the military equipment and ammunition with them," Bek said. The Taliban, who have been slaughtering Afghan security forces in record numbers, claimed responsibility for both attacks. On the other side of the country in the southeastern province of Paktika, eight civilians were killed and 12 wounded on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near a market in Janikhail district. Among the dead were two brothers aged 10 and 12, provincial police spokesman Shah Mohammad Aryan told AFP. A group of children had been trying to remove the explosive device from the ground when it exploded, Aryan said. It was not clear if the bomb had been deliberately planted or was left over from decades of conflict. Civilians have long borne the brunt of the war, with 8,050 people killed or wounded in the first nine months of 2018, according to the latest UN figures. The bloodshed comes amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table and ending the 17-year war. Taliban representatives recently met with Iran, as Tehran makes a more concerted and open push for peace ahead of a possible US drawdown. Other countries, including the United States, Turkey and Russia, are also involved in the drive to bring about peace in Afghanistan. US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has met with the group several times in recent months, but the leaking of President Donald Trump's plan to slash troop numbers in Afghanistan has threatened to derail those efforts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six former and current engineers for German chemicals giant have been arrested in on suspicion of leaking valuable technology to a competitor in China, authorities said Monday. Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) released a statement saying the suspects were involved in a plot "to leak crucial technology and manufacturing processes... to make illegal profits". An official with knowledge of the investigation said the group allegedly sold the trade secrets to Jiangyin Jianghua Microelectronics Materials, a tech company based in China's eastern Jiangsu province, pocketing $1.3 million. "The technology involved in the case has an estimated market value of 100 million euros ($114 million) although the suspects were caught before they could sell the most confidential information," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. The CIB did not provide a breakdown of how many suspects were working for at the time of the arrests but they said they included "high ranking" officials including at least one at factory director level. In a statement on its local website, said one current local employee was under investigation. "We have taken immediate steps to support the investigation led by local law enforcement officials and protect the relevant information," the company said. The arrests come as US spars with over its alleged theft of US technological know-how, one of a litany of grievances in his trade war with the Asian power. In March, Trump imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from for punishment over alleged IP theft, which the US says costs its as much as $600 billion a year. has denied the allegations and has taken steps to improve IP protections in recent years, including establishing specialised courts to handle matters including patent disputes, copyright and trademark infringement. But a recent report by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer's office accused China of continuing a campaign of state-backed cyber-attacks on American Employees at Taiwanese have previously faced allegations of trade theft benefiting China. In October 2018, the US restricted sales of crucial technology to China's state-owned chipmaker Fujian Jinhua, accusing it of stealing trade secrets from US-based giant Micron with the help of officials from Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). A year earlier, five former employees of Taiwan's local Micron subsidiary were charged with passing trade secrets to China. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday held strategic dialogue with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during which they reviewed the progress in ties and exchanged views on regional and global issues. At the start of the 10th India-Japan Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue, both sides agreed that the visit of Foreign Minister Kono at the beginning of the New Year has provided an important opportunity for them to identify the agenda of bilateral relations in 2019. The visit also marks an important beginning for a series of high-level bilateral exchanges this year to take the bilateral relationship to newer heights, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said. During the talks, the two foreign ministers discussed follow up actions on the decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in October last year, which had opened new vistas of bilateral cooperation in areas such as regional connectivity, economic partnership, new and digital technologies, health care, renewable energy, defence cooperation, maritime security etc. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and global issues of common interest, the MEA said. They reaffirmed that based on shared values and interests, the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership has acquired a broader significance in the current global context and has become a factor of prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The last round of the dialogue was held in Tokyo in March 2018. Swaraj also congratulated Kono for Japan's hosting of the G-20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019, and promised India's full support for Japan's G-20 Presidency. Following the strategic dialogue, Foreign Minister Kono also called on Prime Minister Modi. Kono briefed the prime minister about the follow-up action taken in recent months after the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Japan. Prime Minister warmly recalled his successful visit to Japan and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan. Prime Minister Modi said India looks forward to the next round of annual summit with Japan, later this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A section of students of University of Hyderabad Monday staged protests against the removal of a temporary structure erected to commemorate the death anniversary of Rohit Vemula, a research scholar who committed suicide on January 17, 2016 on the HCU campus. "The students under the united banner of Justice for Rohith staged a protest at the administration building today demanding an explanation and reinstation of the portraits of the great leaders that were removed by the (Vice Chancellor) Appa Rao led administration," a release issued by 'Justice for Rohit', a conglomeration of various student bodies, said. The students held a march from the temporary structure, 'Velivada' to the administration building demanding restoration of the portraits. Defending their move to remove the temporary structure, varsity authorities said ithad fallen apart under weather conditions over the last three years and a section of the students attempted to resurrect it with fresh flexi material Saturday. "It is that new material, along with other banners hung at different locations by other sections of the University community, that were removed by the University Security. It is unfair to link this measure to any policies of the University towards SC/ST students," the UoH said in a statement. The University completely rejects allusions to or accusations of any systematic, institutional discrimination against our SC/ST students," it added. The JFR members said protests will continue in various forms until the temporary structure was restored and Rao is arrested and removed from the Vice Chancellor post. The suicide of Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University sparked nationwide protest and opposition parties had blamed groups affiliated to the BJP and RSS for his suicide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several students' bodies of the north-eastern region have decided to observe a "bandh" on Tuesday in support of the call given by an influential students' union to protest the proposed Citizens Amendment Bill, 2016. The Mizo Zirlai Pawal (MZP), the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), the Naga Students' Federation (NSF) and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) have extended their support to the 11-hour "bandh" called by the North East Students' Organisation (NESO). The "bandh" has also been called to condemn Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent statement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would be passed in Parliament soon, a NESO leader said. "Despite staging various dharnas even in New Delhi by students' bodies from the north-east, the Centre is hell bent to pass the controversial bill, undermining the sentiments of the indigenous people of the region," NESO coordinator Pritambai Sonam told reporters at Itanagar on Sunday. Modi had said at a rally near Silchar in Assam's Barak Valley on Friday that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would soon be passed in Parliament as a "penance against the injustice and many wrongs done in the past". MZP general secretary Lalnunmawia Pautu said the 11-hour bandh would begin from 5 am in Aizawl on Tuesday. He added that the people of the north-east were against the proposed amendment as it would grant citizenship to people on religious grounds. In Mizoram, it would mean legalising thousands of Buddhist Chakmas who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh, Pautu said. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. Demanding immediate scrapping of the bill, AAPSU president Hawa Bagang said, "If the bill is passed, we will be left with no option but to take up arms to protect our indigenous population." The NSF, in a press release, said as a constituent of the NESO, it had apprised the Centre of the detrimental effects of the bill, if it was passed in Parliament. Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya, the chief advisor of the NESO and AASU, had told a press conference in Guwahati on Saturday that the "bandh" was called by the two organisations, along with 30 allied ethnic organisations in Assam, to oppose the bill and condemn the prime minister's statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Normal life is likely to be affected in the city and several parts of Karnataka on Tuesday following the two-day nation-wide general strike called by central trade unions against the alleged 'repressive' policiesfor workers by the Narendra Modi government. With state transport buses likely to stay off theroads, commuters, office goers who use the service mayface the brunt. However, the metro service in Bengaluru, as also auto and taxi service, are likely to function as usual. Hotels, malls and film theaters are also likely to function as usual, with their unions extending "moral" support to the strike. Bank services are likely to be disrupted. District administrations have been given the authority to declare a holiday for schools and colleges depending on thesituation there, officials said. Some universities have defered the examinations. In the wake of the strike tomorrow and the day after, representatives of trade unions met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and briefed him about the reasons for the strike. "The strike will be successful in the state...buses won'tbe there as they will observe strike, we have given notice. Banks will also not be there. Almost all activities will not be there," AITUC leader Anantha Subbarao told reporters aftermeeting the Chief Minister. Stating that it will be a "total strike", he said it is being observed nationally against the policies of the Modi government. The trade unions have decided to hold a protest march from the Town Hall in the city to Freedom Park on Tuesday, and onWednesday from the Town Hall to Raj Bhavan. Meanwhile, describing the two-day Bharat Bandh as "illogical, irrational and politically-motivated" move called by frustrated elements, the Karnataka BJP has called on the people to reject the bandh call and carry on with their normaldaily activities. In a statement here, BJP general secretary N Ravi Kumar said not one issue - on the basis of which theanti-BJP parties have given call for bandh - is convincing and logical. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special North Korean train entered China late Monday, Yonhap agency reported, raising speculation that leader Kim Jong Un could be on his way to Beijing. The train crossed the border around 10:15 pm local time (1315 GMT) and was expected in the Chinese capital Tuesday morning, the Southern agency reported, citing an informed source. China is the isolated, nuclear-armed North's key diplomatic ally and main source of trade and aid, and Kim visited three times last year to pay his respects to leader Xi Jinping. Until his first trip in March, Kim had not meet Xi for more than six years after inheriting power from his father, as relations between the neighbours once described as close as "lips and teeth" deteriorated. But a whirlwind of diplomacy enveloped the Korean peninsula last year, with Kim also meeting the South's President Moon Jae-in three times, and culminating in his high-profile Singapore summit with US counterpart Donald Trump in June. None of Kim's 2018 trips to China were announced in advance, and the earliest indications of the first one -- before Kim met either Moon or Trump -- came when his train was spotted in Beijing. In the Chinese border city of Dandong, dozens of security vehicles and officials blocked the roads around the train station on Monday before the train passed through, Yonhap reported, before reopening them afterwards. It had not been confirmed whether a senior North Korean official was on board, it quoted its source as saying. But Japan's Kyodo agency said hotel guests in Dandong had not been allowed to enter rooms facing the river that forms the border on Monday afternoon, in what it cited sources describing as "an apparent move to prevent the train from being seen". Kim's birthday is reportedly on Tuesday, although that has never been confirmed by Pyongyang, and a visit by him to China would be likely to heighten speculation about a second Kim-Trump summit. In Singapore the two men signed a vaguely-worded pledge about the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled amid disagreements over what that means, with meetings and visits cancelled at short notice. Negotiations were underway on the location of their next meeting, Trump said Sunday, while remaining evasive on its timing. The US president said last week he had received a "great letter" from the North Korean leader but declined to reveal its contents. "We are negotiating a location," he told reporters. "They do want to meet and we want to meet and we'll see what happens." Washington is demanding Pyongyang gives up its nuclear arsenal before any relief from economic sanctions is granted, while the North is insisting on immediate concessions from the US. Culminating in late 2017, Pyongyang carried out six atomic blasts and launched rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland, but has now carried out no such tests for more than a year. Officials from the Blue House in Seoul could not immediately be reached for comment by AFP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Speakers from over 92 countries, including the likes of Iranaian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, will participate in the fourth edition of the Raisina Dialogue beginning on Tuesday. The discussions at the dialogue, which has the theme of 'A World Reorder: New Geometries; Fluid Partnerships; Uncertain Outcomes', will seek to address issues arising from ongoing global transitions and changes to the world order, triggered by unique leaders, innovative partnerships and new technologies. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in partnership with the Observer Research Foundation is organising the dialogue considered India's flagship annual geopolitical and geo-strategic conference. The dialogue, which has grown steadily in scope and scale since the first edition in 2015, will bring together influential political leaders, strategic thinkers, policy practitioners, technology innovators, business representatives and academics on a common platform where they will offer their vision and propose solutions, the MEA said. The inaugural address at the dialogue will be delivered by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. More than 2,000 participants, including 600 delegates and speakers from over 92 countries, are taking part at this year's conference. Several Foreign Ministers, including those of Spain, Iran, Australia, Mongolia and Nepal, are attending the three-day conference. Other global leaders taking part in the conference include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is tipped to succeed incumbent Mahathir Bin Mohamad, will deliver the valedictory address. Ministers and leaders from Africa, West Asia, the US, Europe and Russia are among the speakers at the dialogue. "The three days of insightful discussions at the Dialogue can break new ground in contributing to an inclusive world at peace itself," ORF Chairman Sunjoy Joshi said. He said the dialogue provides "the opportunity to reorder old arrangements and rewrite the rules to shape human endeavour for this century". Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba will also speak at the conference. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal Monday urged the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) to play an active role in the high level committee set up to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. The AASU, a signatory of the Accord in 1985, has declined to be a part of the nine-member Committee set up to implement Clause-6 of the Assam Accord, demanding that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill be scrapped first. The clause 6 of the Accord seeks to provide constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. The high level committee constituted by the central government is a golden opportunity for the state and the AASU must play an active role in the committee, Sonowal, a former AASU president, said. "I am a son of the soil and I will not allow the Assamese people to get marginalised in their own place. Let us all join hands to find an acceptable, rational and practical solution to this important issue," Sonowal said while laying the foundation stone of the Tinsukia Medical College. The Centre on Saturday set up the high-level Committee to assess the quantum of seats to be reserved in the Assam assembly and local bodies for the Assamese people, besides providing other safeguards, as per the Clause-6 of the Accord. A six-year agitation by the AASU demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord by the Rajiv Gandhi government and the AASU on August 15, 1985. "Assamese race is strong and its existence cannot be threatened by foreigners. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working sincerely and dedicatedly for the development of the state and region," he added. AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi Sunday said the organisation will not be a part of the Committee as the BJP-led government has formed it just three months ahead of Lok Sabha polls to seek votes in Assam. "By bringing in the Citizenship Bill, the BJP government wants to violate the Clause 5 of the Accord. The Clause 5 says about detection, deletion and deportation of illegal migrants into Assam. Without enforcing this, how can we talk about Clause 6?" Gogoi said. The AASU and other socio-political organisations of the northeast have vehemently opposed the Citizenship Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, for granting Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leaders from various non-BJP parties Monday extended support to the demand of small ice cream manufacturers that they be included in composition scheme under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. Leaders including P C Chacko from the Congress, Sanjay Singh (AAP), Manoj Jha (Rashtriya Janata Dal) attended a meeting of the All India Small Scale Ice Cream Manufactures Association, and extended support to their demand. The central government has kept the ice cream businesses as small cottage industry in the larger slab of GST (18 per cent) which is "wrong", said Punit Manchanda, chief patron of the Association. He said the ice cream business should be brought back in GST composition scheme. The composition scheme is meant for taxpayers whose turnover is less than Rs 1 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals living in Sweden went on trial in Stockholm on Monday accused of financing terrorism, three of them also charged with planning a terror attack. "If the terrorist crime had been carried out, it could have seriously hurt Sweden," the prosecution said in its charge sheet. The first day of the trial focused on the prosecution's claim that the six men sent funds to Islamic State (IS) to finance its terrorism operations. The prosecution argued that one of the men, 34-year-old Akromion Ergashev of Uzbekistan, sent almost 18,000 kronor (USD 2,000) to a middleman in Turkey, who in turn sent it to two IS supporters in Syria. The prosecution presented chats on encrypted mobile phone apps and account statements as evidence. The other five suspects were identified in court documents as Uzbek nationals Bakhtior Umarov, 30, Gulom Tadjiyev, 39, Shoahmad Mahmudov, 24, and David Idrisson, 46, and 39-year-old Kyrgyz national Atabek Abdullayev. Abdullayev, Idrisson and Umarov are also accused of planning a terror attack in Sweden. The prosecution believes they acquired large amounts of chemicals to make explosives, as well as gas masks, walkie-talkies and other military materials as part of their plot. Photographs of crowded locations in Stockholm were found in some of the suspects' phones, suggesting they may have been possible targets, according to the prosecution. During a police raid in Stromsund, 600 kilometres (375 miles) north of Stockholm, in late April, neighbours told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper they saw police removing about 15 large plastic chemical containers from a shed on an empty property. One of the suspects is also believed to have been in contact with Rakhmat Akilov, a radicalised Uzbek asylum seeker who mowed down pedestrians in Stockholm with a stolen truck in April 2017, killing five people. Akilov was sentenced to life in prison in June 2018. All six reject all of the charges against them. The trial is taking place at a special high-security Stockholm courtroom, with the defendants sitting behind a bulletproof glass wall. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's advocate daughter-in-law may have to face the charge of alleged "professional misconduct" for preparing his last will after the state prosecutors referred the case to a body that oversees the work of lawyers. The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has referred the case of drafting of Lee's last will by his daughter-in-law Lee Suet Fern to the Law Society after she failed explain her position and role, if any, in preparing his last testament. The state prosecutor's office has also requested the Society that the matter be referred to a disciplinary tribunal, it said in a statement on Monday. Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore's first Prime Minister who ruled the city-state for three decade, between 1965 and 1990. He died in 2015 at the age of 91. Lee Suet Fern is the wife of former prime minister's second son Lee Hsien Yang, who along with his sister, Lee Wei Ling are in dispute over the 120-year-old family house on prime land with their elder brother and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The two siblings want their family house demolished as willed by the former prime minister, according to media reports. Last year, in April, a Ministerial Committee laid out the options for the house in a report that said a future government should decide the fate of the family home of Singapore's founding prime minister. "In this case, AGC became aware of a possible case of professional misconduct by Lee Suet Fern. She appears to have prepared the last will of Lee Kuan Yew and arranged for its execution, despite the fact that her husband, Lee Hsien Yang, is one of the beneficiaries under the last will," the AGC said in the statement. "Lee Hsien Yang's share increased under the last will. AGC also noted that Lee Hsien Yang had said publicly that the last will was drafted by Kwa Kim Lee of Lee & Lee. However, Kwa Kim Lee has denied that she drafted it," local media reported quoting the statement as saying. Kwa Kim Li, Prime Minister Lee's cousin, had prepared the six previous versions of Lee Kuan Yew's will, the report said. The statement said that the case "does not relate to the validity of the last will of Lee Kuan Yew." Lee Suet Fern, formerly a managing partner of law firm Morgan Lewis Stamford, has been at the centre of a dispute between the late Lee's children her husband, Lee Wei Ling and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong over the preparation of their father's final will, according to a report by the Channel Asia. Under the legal profession's rules of conduct, lawyers are not allowed to place themselves in a position of conflict, the AGC said. "Where a person intends to make a significant gift by will to any member of the lawyer's family, the lawyer must not act for the person and must advise him to obtain independent advice in respect of the gift. This rule applies even if the lawyer is related to the person making the gift," it said. "However, despite asking for extensions of time to respond, Lee Suet Fern did not answer the questions that AGC had asked," it said, adding that the matter was then referred to the Law Society. "The Deputy Attorney-General has also further requested that the matter be referred to a Disciplinary Tribunal," the statement added. The AGC said it has a "statutory duty to deal with misconduct by lawyers" and that when it becomes aware of the possibility of misconduct, it is required to consider if the matter should be referred to the Law Society. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiv Sena Monday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that he should take responsibility for job losses in the country if he sought credit for its creation. In an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra, cited a Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report which claimed 1.09 crore jobs were lost in the country in the past one year. "If Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks credit for creating 70 lakh jobs, then he should take the responsibility for the loss of 1.09 crore jobs in one year," the Sena editorial stated. The BJP's bickering ally went on to caution the Centre that the youth who had voted it to power could also dethrone it. "The BJP government should not play with the emotions of unemployed youth in search of jobs," the Sena warned. "First you make huge promises, then claim their completion. But in the last four years, none of it has materialised. The bubble of job creation has finally burst with the CMIE report," Sena said. The party also cited earlier statements of Union minister Nitin Gadkari and BJP president Amit Shah about their (government's) inability to give jobs to everyone. "If you cannot give jobs to each and every one, then why did you make 'jumlas' (poll rhetoric) about creating two crore jobs every year. This is the failure of the Union government and it cannot hide it for a long time," the party said. Jobs have been lost not only in urban areas but also in the rural parts of the country, the party's editorial said. Almost 65 lakh women have lost jobs but PM Modi keeps chanting 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and woman empowerment, the party said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Monday sought to know the whereabouts of a US-based NRI woman and her minor son who were stated to be living in Georgia in the USA. The apex court took note of the apprehension of the woman's 80-year-old father Rajkamal Pyarelal Kanodia that his daughter and the grandson might have been killed in the USA allegedly at the behest of her husband and in-laws. "A copy of the petition be served on K Radhakrishnan, a senior counsel, who has been requested to obtain instructions from the concerned authorities as to the whereabouts of Mamta Kumari Kanodia and her minor son, who are stated to be residing in Georgia, USA," said a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. The top court has now posted the matter for hearing after two weeks. Advocate Sanjay Dubey, appearing for Rajkamal, said that Mamta's husband and in-laws had not disclosed about his previous marriage. Rajkamal, a Thane resident, has not seen his daughter since April 16, 2016, when she left for US, the plea said. The couple got married on January 24, 2015 at an Arya Samaj temple in Mumbai. The petitioner has sought the court's intervention to bring his daughter back. He has claimed that she is being threatened by her husband and in-laws against taking any legal action. According to the father, Mamta had called him last year in July asking for help but her call got disconnected. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response on a plea alleging prosecutions even after the apex court scrapped Section 66 A of the IT Act under which a person could be arrested for posting offensive content on websites. A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman said concerned officials will be arrested and sent to jail if the apex court order of March 24, 2015 scrapping the provision of the IT Act is violated. Appearing for the NGO PUCL, advocate Sanjay Parikh said more than 22 people have been arrested under the provision of the IT Act scrapped by the top court in 2015. Terming liberty of thought and expression cardinal, a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and R.F, Nariman said in 2015, The public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. The first PIL on the issue was filed in 2012 by law student Shreya Singhal who sought an amendment in Section 66A of the Act after two girls Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan were arrested in Palghar in Maharashtra's Thane district. While one posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death, the other liked' it. In the wake of numerous complaints of harassment and arrests, the apex court on May 16, 2013 came out with an advisory that a person, accused of posting objectionable comments on social networking sites, cannot be arrested without police getting permission from senior officers like an IG or DCP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to Reliance Communication Ltd (RCom) Chairman Anil Dhirubhai Ambani and others on a plea filed by Ericsson India Pvt Ltd for allegedly not clearing its dues of Rs 550 crore after selling its assets to Reliance Jio. A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Sharan sought a response from Ambani and others in four weeks. Appearing for RCom, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi urged the bench to accept Rs 118 crore towards the dues to establish its bonafide. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson, said they would not accept Rs 118 crore being given by RCOM and want their entire Rs 550 crore with interest. Dave said it is a case of gross contempt and even after RCom received Rs 3,000 crore after selling its assets it has not complied with apex court's order to pay the outstanding amount to Ericsson. Sibal said RCom is giving two demand drafts of Rs 118 crore just to establish its bonafide and would pay the remaining outstanding amount in due course. "This would not lead you (RCom) anywhere. You have to deposit the entire amount. However, you can deposit the two demand drafts amounting to Rs 118 crore in the apex court registry," the bench said while posting the matter for further hearing after five weeks. Besides seeking contempt proceedings against RCom chairman and two others, Ericsson had also sought that they be "detained in civil prison" unless they purge themselves by making the payment. It had also sought directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs to prevent Ambani, Reliance Telecom Ltd Chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel Ltd Chairperson Chhaya Virani from leaving the country. The apex court had on October 23 last year asked RCom to clear the dues by December 15, 2018 saying delayed payment would attract an interest of 12 per cent per annum. The plea had sought that the court direct Ambani and the lenders forum to hand over the Rs 550 crore with interest from sale proceeds as per the October 23, last year order. The apex court had on October 23, 2018 had given one last opportunity to RCom for clearing the settlement amount. It had said Ericsson can revive its contempt plea against Reliance if the amount is not paid by December 15, 2018. In its first contempt plea, Ericsson had sought action against Ambani and others for failing to pay Rs 550 crore towards settlement to the company by September-end last year. The company had alleged that RCom has "wilfully and consciously" defied the order dated August 3, 2018 of the top court and the undertaking given before it to pay up by September-end last year. Ericsson India, which had signed a seven-year deal in 2014 to operate and manage RCom's nationwide telecom network, had alleged that it had not been paid the dues of over 1,500 crore and challenged the debt-ridden firm before National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The top court had perused the May 30 last year interim order of the NCLAT and noted that Ericsson India was willing to settle its debt of over Rs 1,500 crore for a sum of Rs 550 crore which was to be paid by RCom within 120 days. It had on August 3 last year allowed RCom to sell assets covering spectrum, fibre, telecom towers and certain real estate assets for an aggregate value of approximately Rs 25,000 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The banking sector may only see a partial shutdown on the two-day general strike called by central trade unions on January 8 and 9, a banking union official said Monday. The State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank with 85,000 branches, is likely to remain operational on the two days, along with a few other nationalised banks, the official said. "All the SBI branches will remain operational. Out of nine union constituents, only two have called the strike and rest are not supporting it this time," United Forum of Bank Unions West Bengal Convener Siddhartha Khan told PTI. All India Bank Employees Association and Bank Employees Federation of India have called the strike among the banking unions. Khan, who is also an office bearer of the National Confederation of Bank Employees said that apart from SBI, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India would stay fully functional and some other banks may face partial disruption. SBI CGM Bengal circle, R K Mishra said, banks always try to remain functional during any strike calls and for Tuesday and Wednesday also the bank expects to keep its operations normal. The Reserve Bank of India employees, however, have supported the strike only on January 8. "Two major RBI employees union have jointly decided to observe the strike in solidarity on January 8. On January 9 there will be a joint lunch-time gate demonstration in all offices against central governments anti-people, anti-worker, anti-national, pro-corporate policies," All India Reserve Bank Employees Association general secretary Samir Ghosh said. Ten central trade unions including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA, have also called a nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9, against the "anti-people" policies of the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Saudi woman who made a desperate plea for asylum after landing at Bangkok airport has been placed "under the care" of the United Nations refugee agency, a Thai official said late Monday. Rahaf Mohammed Motlaq al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. The 18-year-old said she had planned to seek asylum in Australia and feared she would be killed if repatriated by Thai immigration officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday. The incident comes as Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny over the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record. Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn had said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry because of her lack of documents. But he made an abrupt about-face the next day, following a global media frenzy as the young woman pleaded on Twitter for different countries to help her. After announcing that Thailand "will not force her" to leave, Surachate told reporters late Monday that Qunun would be "allowed to stay" after a meeting with officials from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. "She is under the care of the UNHCR now but we also sent Thai security to help take care (of her)," Surachate told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport. He said Qunun had told UNHCR officials she "wants to stay in Thailand for a while while seeking asylum to a third country". The agency "will take five days to consider her status" and another five days to arrange for travel, Surachate said, adding that he would meet with Saudi diplomats on Tuesday to explain Thailand's decision. Following the announcement, a relieved Qunun tweeted that she felt safe "under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities", adding that her passport had been returned to her after being taken away on Sunday. Surachate had told reporters earlier Monday Qunun was stopped by immigration because Saudi officials had contacted them to say she had fled her family. "Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send anyone to die," he said. "We will take care of her as best as we can." The UNHCR said it had been granted access to Qunun at the airport "to assess her need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation". Qunun had posted a video on Twitter of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. She said Saudi and Kuwaiti officials had taken her passport from her when she landed - a claim backed by Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, told Saudi-owned TV channel Khalijia that the woman's father - a senior regional government official - had contacted the diplomatic mission for "help" bringing her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. A Twitter statement from the Saudi embassy in Bangkok said Qunun was stopped by Thai authorities for "violating the law". The ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women. That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. In addition to facing punishment for "moral" crimes, women can also become the target of "honour killings" at the hands of their families, activists say. If sent back, Qunun told AFP she would likely be imprisoned and was "sure 100 percent" her family would kill her. "My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair," she said. HRW's Robertson said Qunun "faces grave harm if she is forced back to Saudi Arabia". "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored," he said. "She has clearly stated that she has renounced Islam which also puts her at serious risk of prosecution by the Saudi Arabian government." An Australian government spokesman said the claims made by Qunun "that she may be harmed if returned to Saudi Arabia are deeply concerning" and they are monitoring the case "closely". Australian embassy representatives in Bangkok have reached out to Thai authorities and the UNHCR to "seek assurances" that she will be able to access the "refugee status determination process". The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under threat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Saudi woman used social media to draw attention to her plight trying to flee her family, claiming that authorities in Thailand confiscated her passport and were holding her Sunday at an airport hotel room in Bangkok. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, began posting on Twitter late Saturday after Thai authorities stopped her in transit from Kuwait. She claims to have a visa for Australia, where she appears to have been planning to seek asylum. On Twitter, she wrote of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family under pressure from Saudi authorities. She also posted a copy of her passport to provide evidence of her identity. For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death, and they are almost always doing so to escape male relatives. Alqunun told Human Rights Watch she was fleeing abuse from her family, including beatings and death threats from her male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. "I am giving my family 48 hours (to) either stop or I will publish everything that will incriminate them," she wrote on Twitter. The Associated Press reached Alqunun by telephone in her hotel room where she spoke briefly, saying that someone took her passport after telling her she could get a visa for Thailand. She said an hour later, several people came and told her they knew she had run away, that her family wants her and she should return to Saudi Arabia. She did not elaborate. Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok Saturday evening from Kuwait, but that a diplomat from the Saudi Embassy in Bangkok seized her passport to prevent her traveling to Australia. Saudi and Thai officials then told her she would be returned to Kuwait on Monday, where her father and brother are awaiting her. Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Bangkok Abdullah al-Shuaibi denied Saudi authorities were involved in any way. He was quoted in Saudi press saying that Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. He said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that this decision rests with Thai officials. "She was stopped by airport authorities because she violated Thai laws," he was quoted as saying in Sabq, a state-aligned Saudi website. "The embassy is only monitoring the situation," al-Shuaibi said. Alqunun's plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who have tried to flee abusive or restrictive family conditions. A Saudi activist familiar with other cases of females who've runaway said often the women are young, inexperienced and unprepared for the obstacles and risks involved in seeking asylum when they attempt to flee. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussion, the activist said there have been instances where Saudi women runaways were stopped by authorities in Hong Kong or the Philippines en route to Australia or New Zealand. In some cases, Saudi authorities have been involved in forcing women to return to their families and in other cases local authorities suspect the women of seeking asylum and deport them. Alqunun appears to have attempted to flee while on a family visit to Kuwait. Saudi Arabia requires that a woman have the consent of a male relative usually a father or husband to obtain a passport, travel abroad or marry. Saudi women runaways, however, have increasingly turned to social media to amplify their calls for help. In 2017, Dina Lasloom triggered a firestorm online when she was stopped en-route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Texas Legislature wrapped up this years lawmaking session on Sunday. Although members of the House and Senate touted wins for both Republicans and Democrats, tensions are rising between the legislative bodies amid criticism from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. What would you grade this years legislative session? You voted: An 18-year-old Saudi woman seeking asylum has left Bangkok airport "under the care" of the UN refugee agency, a Thai official said Monday, following her desperate plea against deportation. "She is allowed to stay... she is under the care of the UNHCR now," said immigration chief Surachate Hakparn. "She left the airport with the UNHCR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi Monday called on Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and sought her support to the demand for a legally-binding international convention against online sexual abuse, pornography and trafficking of children. Solberg is on a three-day visit to India during which she will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of issues with an aim to expand the multi-faceted bilateral partnership and also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Prime Minister Solberg, in a one-on-one meeting with Satyarthi at the Norwegian Embassy here, expressed her support to his demand, according to a statement from the Nobel Peace Laureate's office. Satyarthi has been meeting global leaders to seek their support for the new convention. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela, among others, have extended their support to the cause, it said. "Satyarthi and Solberg discussed the very important role of the youth in achieving the children related sustainable development goals that he got incorporated into the international policy agenda back in 2015," according to the statement. "Both the leaders also discussed about promoting quality, inclusive and equitable education for all children," it added. The child rights activist has proposed that the legislation should be backed by a new Global Task Force against online child pornography, child sexual abuse and child trafficking to provide victims with holistic support. He has already written to all Heads of States with his appeal for a new convention. This request has also been submitted to the UN Secretary General and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Monday said the move to cancel the Marathi Literary Meet inaugural invite to noted litterateur Nayantara Sahgal has exposed the "intolerant" face of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government. A day after local organisers of the event, scheduled to be held in Yavatmal in east Maharashtra, announced their decision to withdraw the invitation, state Congress president Ashok Chavan said it was done at the behest of the chief minister and to ensure his "political security". The Chief Minister's Office (CMO) Monday clarified that the decision on whom to invite for the meet is taken by the organisers and the state government has no role in it. Chavan said the chief minister has issued a clarification, but has "not condemned" the withdrawal of the invite by organisers in Yavatmal. He asked Fadnavis to invite Sahgal again "if the meet organisers had not cancelled the invitation under his pressure". "This episode has exposed the intolerant face of the Fadnavis government...The chief minister conveniently distanced himself by issuing a clarification, but he did not condemn the organisers," a statement quoted Chavan as saying. "Are these not the double standards? This shows what the organisers did (cancelling the invite) was at the behest of the chief minister," he said. Chavan alleged Fadnavis would have found it difficult "to digest" thoughts of Sahgal, a Sahitya Akademi awardee who was at the forefront of the "awardwapsi" (return of awards) campaign in 2015. "The organisers cancelled the invitation extended to Sahgal citing security issues. But the real reason is the political security of the chief minister," Chavan added. The noted English-language author was supposed to inaugurate the 92nd Marathi Literary Meet on January 11 in the presence of Fadnavis. In a press release issued Sunday, the working president of the literary meet's reception committee, Ramakant Kolte, said the organisers had decided to revoke Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet". The move to rescind the invitation was criticised squarely by opposition leaders and authors. Soon after the CMO clarification, Sahgal said she won't attend the meet now even if a fresh invite were to be sent to her. Reacting to the row, Marathi author and feminist activist Dr Vidya Bal Monday appealed to authors to stay away from the literary meet. "I have decided not to go to the conference and what I feel is that all the literary figures should boycott the meet so that the entire conference will crumble," she said in Pune. Bal added that this is the way the organisers will get a "tight slap" in their face. Condemning the development, another writer Vittal Wagh also called for a boycott. "Rescinding Sahgal's invitation is not only her insult but it is insult of the entire literary tribe," he said. Author Ashutosh Javdekar said the organisers should apologise and Sahgal be invited with full respect. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) S&P Global Ratings Monday affirmed its ratings on IDBI Bank, saying it expects the lender to meet the regulatory capital requirement and fast track bad loan write-offs following the fund infusion by LIC. The rating agency has removed IDBI Bank's ratings from 'CreditWatch', where they were placed with negative implications on August 17, 2018. "We affirmed the ratings because we expect IDBI Bank to meet the regulatory capital requirement following a capital infusion by Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC)," S&P said in a statement. IDBI Bank has announced that it received fresh capital amounting to Rs 14,500 crore from LIC on December 28, 2018. This is part payment for LIC's proposed acquisition of a 51 per cent controlling stake in IDBI Bank. The total infusion from the transaction is likely to be Rs 17,000-20,230 crore, greater than the bank's total capital of Rs 13,860 crore as of September 30, 2018. "Such a large capital infusion supports our view of a very high likelihood of support for the bank from the government (and government-owned entities such as LIC). The infusion could enable IDBI Bank to accelerate write-offs and make sufficient provisions against stressed assets. However, we believe de-risking of the balance sheet and a substantial cleanup of the bank's large stressed assets may take at least a couple of years," S&P said. S&P said, IDBI Bank has been by far the weakest bank in our pool of rated Indian banks, with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) a close second. "IDBI Bank and IOB are the only two banks in our pool that have a very weak risk position, largely due to their substantial stressed assets and extremely high credit costs resulting in losses over the past few years," it said. S&P said IDBI Bank's asset quality remains weak and reported gross non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of 31.8 per cent as of September 30, 2018. "We expect a gradual improvement in asset quality for the banking industry in India. The RBI has significantly tightened bad loan recognition norms over the past three years," S&P said. It said the stable outlook on IDBI Bank reflects S&P's expectation that the capital infusion from LIC will help the bank meet its regulatory capital requirement on a sustained basis. "At the same time, we expect the likelihood of support to the bank from the government of India to remain very high," S&P said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thousands of white-robed devotees of the Shembe Church in South Africa greeted the New Year last week by climbing the mountain of Nhlangakazi, sacred to them for more than a century. Every New Year, people mostly from Inanda township, near the coastal city of Durban, trek barefoot about 80 kilometres (50 miles) and set up camp at the foot of the peak. They believe that on its heights, itinerant preacher Isaiah Shembe received divine instructions to found the church. Created in 1913 and also known as the Nazareth Baptist Church, the institution is one of the largest African traditionalist churches, combining Christianity with the Zulu culture. Followers revere Shembe, who died in 1935, as their prophet. After arriving at the base of the mountain, worshippers clamber up and down twice a day, led by women followed by men carrying sticks and then children. They also tend wayside graves, laying flowers. It takes about an hour to reach the top, where they listen to sermons dedicated to peace and unity. Yet while the church has many millions of followers, it is plagued by divisions and court disputes over leadership and access to the mountain. A larger faction today climbs a different mountain. Due to the tensions, police have been on duty at Nhlangakazi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vivek Oberoi is set to portray Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an upcoming biopic and the actor, a self-confessed fan of the leader, calls it a role of a lifetime. The biopic will be directed by Omung Kumar, who has films such as "Mary Kom" and "Sarbjit" to his credit. At the poster launch of the film, Vivek said he hopes to becomes a better person by the end of the shoot. "I am extremely fortunate. Today, I am feeling like I felt 16 years ago, during 'Company' days. I am feeling the same kind of excitement and hunger because this is a role of a lifetime for any actor. I truly believe at the end of the journey, I pray I become better actor and a better human being," the actor told reporters. "Narendra Bhai is one of the tallest leaders in the world and to bring his personal qualities on screen is an incredible challenge and I want all your blessings that we can complete this incredible journey," he added. The film's poster was launched in the presence of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis in 27 languages. It features Vivek, dressed in a yellow kurta with tricolour in the backdrop. The tagline reads, "Deshbhakti ki meri shakti hai." Fadnavis said it is great that a film on this scale is being made on Modi "under whose leadership India is not only touching new heights but the hopes and expectations of every citizen of India are being fulfilled." "I believe the film will be inspirational. We always say Modi's life has been inspirational. He is like a raj-yogi and this film will get that in front of the audience. Vivek, we are very excited. We wish the film releases tomorrow but we know it is going to be a very difficult process and you will have to take it seriously. I have faith and predict that people will be inspired by this film," the CM said. Actor Suresh Oberoi, Vivek's father, is co-producing the film along with Sandeep Ssingh. The film is yet to go on floors. Vivek was one of the guests from Bollywood who attended PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony in May 2014. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A report by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan was tabled in on Monday. The bill is expected to be discussed in the lower house on Tuesday. The report was prepared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee by a majority vote as opposition members in the panel had objected to the provisions saying Indian citizenship cannot be granted on the basis of religion and it is against the Constitution. Some of the opposition members have also given dissent notes over this. BJP allies, the Shiv Sena and the JD(U), have already said that they will also oppose the bill. The bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI-M and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion. Various members from opposition parties have been asserting that citizenship is a constitutional provision and it cannot be based on religion, as India is a secular nation. Rather than resolving the situation in Assam, this bill is making the situation more volatile in the already tense state, an opposition member in the panel had alleged. Echoing similar sentiments, a Congress member had said if all the proposed amendments come into force, then the Centre has to nullify the Assam Accord under which anyone, irrespective of religion, entering the state illegally after March 1971, should be declared foreigner and deported. A large section of people and organisations in the Northeast have also opposed the bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Even the governments of Meghalaya and Mizoram have strongly opposed the bill and adopted resolutions against it. During the course of its examination and study visits, the committee met a cross-section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Reliance Communications Monday said it has deposited Rs 131 crore with the Supreme Court registry as part payment of the total dues of Rs 550 crore that the company owes to Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson. The development comes after the apex court's direction asking RCom to make part payment in response to contempt of court petition filed by Ericsson against Anil Ambani and two others. "RCom has deposited a partial payment of Rs 131 crore to Ericsson with the Supreme Court registry, from the operational funds available with the company," RCom spokesperson said in a statement. The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to RCom Chairman Anil Ambani and others on a contempt petition filed by Ericsson India Pvt Ltd over non-payment of its dues of Rs 550 crore. A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman sought a response from Ambani and others in four weeks. Besides seeking contempt proceedings against RCom chairman and two others, Ericsson also sought that they be "detained in civil prison" unless they make the payment. Ericsson also sought directions from the Ministry of Home Affairs to prevent Ambani, Reliance Telecom Chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel Chairperson Chhaya Virani from leaving the country. The apex court on October 23 gave one last opportunity to RCom for clearing the settlement amount. The court also said Ericsson could revive its contempt plea against Reliance if the amount is not paid by December 15, 2018. In its first contempt plea, Ericsson had sought action against Ambani and others for failing to pay Rs 550 crore towards settlement to the company by the end of September 2018 The company had alleged that RCom has "wilfully and consciously" defied the order dated August 3 of the top court and the undertaking given before it to pay up by September-end. Ericsson India, which signed a seven-year deal in 2014 to operate and manage RCom's nationwide telecom network, had alleged that it had not been paid the dues of over Rs 1,500 crore and challenged the debt-ridden firm before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The top court had perused the May 30 last year interim order of the NCLAT and noted that Ericsson India was willing to settle its debt of over Rs 1,500 crore for a sum of Rs 550 crore which was to be paid by RCom within 120 days. It on August 3 last year allowed RCom to sell assets covering spectrum, fibre, telecom towers and certain real estate assets for an aggregate value of about Rs 25,000 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to quash an FIR registered by a minor victim of rape, noting that since stringent provisions of the POCSO Act had been invoked in the case, the prosecution proceedings could not be quashed despite the girl's consent. A bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere was hearing a petition filed by the victim following an alleged incident of rape in June last year. The victim, a Mumbai resident, became pregnant after the incident and delivered a male child last month. While she relinquished her rights towards her son and gave the boy to an orphanage, she approached the high court saying the police had said that chances of the accused getting caught were grim, so the FIR in the case must be quashed. She told the bench that she was in the first year of her graduation degree course and had no means to support herself or her child. She wished to end all proceedings in the case and thus, the FIR must be quashed. The victim also argued through her lawyer that quashing the FIR would also be in the interest of the new-born child, who could then be given up for adoption. The state's counsel, Aruna Pai, told the bench that while the victim's statement before the police and magistrate had been recorded, she had refused to give any information that could help establish the identity of the accused. Therefore, it was very difficult to identify and arrest the accused person, Pai told the court. The bench, however, dismissed Pai's statement and said it was "highly unsatisfied" with the probe conducted in the case by the suburban Govandi Police Station. "We cannot accept the police's statement that it does not have enough material to identify the accused. The victim's statement made before the police shows she has made some relevant disclosures," the bench said. It noted that provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have also been invoked in the case. "Therefore, the arguments that there are grim chances of the accused being identified and arrested, and that the victim does not want to carry on with the case cannot be accepted," the bench said while dismissing the petition. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP Monday accused Rahul Gandhi of lying on the Rafale issue, claiming that the Congress chief's campaign on the fighter jet deal was based on "pure commercial interest" and influenced by middlemen. The Congress has unleashed an "entire campaign of canard" over the Rafale deal, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Citing a report, he said, "A media house has come up with documents which reveal that the same middlemen who were pushing for the case for AgustaWestland, one of them being under arrest, were also pushing the case for Eurofighter, which was in competition with Rafale." Several companies including those from the US, Russia and Sweden, were also in contention before the deal for fighter jets to be procured the Indian Air Force went in favour of French aircraft major Dassault, which makes the Rafale plane. The papers seized from Italian middleman Guido Haschke during a raid reveal that he and Christian Michel worked on a plan to place Rafale's prime competitor in the "win zone", the Union law minister claimed. Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case who was extradited from Dubai recently, was on Saturday sent to judicial custody by a court here. He was arrested by the ED on December 22 in a money-laundering charges in a scam. Michel was earlier lodged in the Tihar Jail here in a related CBI case. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the ED and the CBI. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. Referring to the documents cited in the report, Prasad asked why the name of a leading family, namely the Gandhis, appeared in documents related to AgustaWestland or the air force's fighter planes. "The available documents in the public domain raise serious suspicion of intention of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. It is too well known that the Congress is never happy unless there is a deal in a defence deal," he said. The minister alleged that it is evident that there was a close proximity of a middleman who was pushing the case for Eurofighter against Rafale. "In this light, the entire bogie of falsehood, entire campaign of canard unleashed by Rahul Gandhi is completely false and based upon pure commercial interest," he said. Prasad asked the Congress chief to explain what proximity he and his family had with Michel and how a middleman was sure that with his influence the deal will be tilted in the favour of Eurofighter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephonic conversation Monday during which they focused on key bilateral and international issues and resolved to step up cooperation in dealing with terrorism. During their conversation, Putin also wished Modi success in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Russian diplomatic sources said. The two leaders hailed the major milestones achieved in the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries in the past year, while also recalling the successful wide-ranging discussions in Sochi in May and during Putin's visit to New Delhi in October, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The leaders agreed to maintain the momentum in bilateral relations, it said. Bilateral cooperation in key areas such as defence and counter-terrorism was also discussed, the MEA said. "Both countries, therefore, will continue their close consultations in the United Nations, the BRICS, the SCO and other multilateral organizations," it added. The conversation focused mainly on bilateral cooperation and current international issues. During the conversation, the Russian president invited Modi to take part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2019 as the main guest. The leaders also wished each other on the New Year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Protests erupted across Assam on Monday, with some agitators stripping in public, over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and tabling of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on it in Parliament. The influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU) launched a statewide protest against the bill by observing 'Black Day', with the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and 30 ethnic organisations joining the agitation. Leaders of the Congress, the CPI and the pro-talk ULFA faction, besides journalists, teachers and civil society groups also hit the streets with black flags and placards, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and burning their effigies. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. The JPC report on the bill was submitted in Parliament on Monday after all amendments moved by the opposition in the panel were defeated on December 31 last year. The demonstrators burnt copies of the bill, asserting it threatened the existence of the Assamese and other ethnic people of the state, their language, culture and heritage by granting citizenship to Bangladeshis. They also blocked rail lines at Amguri in Sibsagar district by squatting on the tracks. The KMSS and several other allied indigenous organisations demonstrated in front of Parliament Complex, stripping naked and covering themselves with banners against the Centre's move to table the Bill. Members of The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), a constituent of the KMSS, staged a nude protest in Tinsukia town. The agitation was also triggered by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment on Sunday that if the Citizenship Bill is not passed, "we will be surrendering to Jinnah's policy". The AASU and KMSS leadership termed Sarma's comments as an attempt to "polarise" the Assamese society ahead of the Lok Sabha elections for "vote bank politics". "Without that bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah. If those people are not there, the Sarbhog seat will go to Jinnah. Do we want that? This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy," Sarma had told reporters while addressing a press conference on Sunday. Condemning the remarks, AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said despite being a public representative, the minister does not know how to speak to people. "These are baseless and communal statements. He is showing fear of Muslims to get Hindu votes, but people are not fools," he told PTI. KMSS Adviser Akhil Gogoi said: "The makers of India and the common people did not take side of Jinnah, but supported a secular country. Talking about Jinnah at this time is deliberately done to polarise the society before the polls. By doing so, he is trying to spread the communal agenda of the RSS." Protests were also staged by civil society group Forum Against Citizenship Act Amendment Bill, comprising former Director General of Police Hare Krishna Deka, former chief ministers Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Tarun Gogoi, and litterateur and eminent academician Hiren Gohain, among others. Meanwhile, the AASU and the North East Students Organisation (NESO) have separately called an 11-hour Assam Bandh and North East bandh, respectively, on Tuesday to protest against the bill. The KMSS, along with other allied groups have announced an economic blockade from Wednesday. Addressing an election rally at Silchar on January 4, Prime Minister Modi had announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will be passed as soon as possible in Parliament as a penance for past injustices. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A collision between a Tunisian boat and a Cypriot container ship that sent hundreds of tonnes of fuel spilling into the Mediterranean in October was due to an extraordinary series of human errors, investigators said Monday. The watch officer on board the Tunisian vessel Ulysse was chatting on his phone, while his counterpart on the Cypriot container ship Virginia did not attend to radar alarms, Tunisian, French and Cypriot investigators said in a report presented in Tunis. The Tunisian vessel rammed into the Cyprus-based boat -- anchored some 30 kilometres (18 miles) off Corsica -- at full speed on the morning of October 7. The Virginia had thrown anchor in the middle of a sea lane, the report said. It took several days of maritime manoeuvres to disentangle the boats and pump some 520 cubic metres of propulsion fuel, which had escaped tanks. "This accident is due to human error shared between the Tunisian boat's team and that of the Cypriot boat," said Youssef Ben Romdhane, director general of sea transport in Tunisia's commerce ministry. "The captain of the Tunisian boat was busy... making private telephone calls. He was far from the radar screen that warns of danger. He was alone", he told AFP. The Cypriot boat was anchored in an "inadequate" area, he added. "According to testimony... this is the first time a ship had dropped anchor in this location... (on) a sea lane used by merchant ships," he said. The Virginia had thrown anchor there under pressure from the ship owner, Ben Romdhane said, citing the investigation's report. The two ships had the same insurer, which estimated damage to the two ships to be at least 13.5 million euros (15.5 million dollars), while cleaning coastal waters was provisionally estimated at 10 million euros, Ben Romdhane said. More than 12 ships, including the French and Italian navy, were mobilised to tackle the fuel spill caused by the collision. The mayor of French coastal town Ramatuelle lodged a complaint over pollution of Pampelonne beach, a renowned retreat in the Gulf of Saint Tropez. A separate investigation is being carried out by France's judiciary, which is still evaluating responsibility for the accident and pollution. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PTC India Financial Services (PFS) Monday said it has received a sanction for credit facilities of Rs 1,400 crore from State Bank of India (SBI). This arrangement also includes a partial credit enhancement (PCE) facility of Rs 400 crore, which will support Rs 2,000 crore bond issuance. In November 2018, the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to provide PCE limits to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) in view of cash crunch faced by such entities. The PCE mechanism will enhance the rating of the bond issue and allow NBFCs to raise funds at lower cost. This would also bring additional comfort among investor community including pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Patricia Clarkson, who won her first Golden Globe Award at the 2019 ceremony for her performance in "Sharp Objects", praised the show's director Jean-Marc Vallee for "demanding" everything from her but sex, in apparent reference to the various #MeToo cases in Hollywood. Clarkson took home the statue for the Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie made for Television. In a beautifully rendered performance, Clarkson plays the seemingly perfect mother, wife and high-society woman, whose charming exterior hides a sinister secret. Clarkson beat out fellow nominees Alex Borstein of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", Penelope Cruz of "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story", Thandie Newton of "Westworld" and Yvonne Strahovski of "The Handmaid's Tale". "Hot damn. It's a privilege to be here tonight," she said. She also expressed her gratitude for her co-star Amy Adams, who earned a nomination for her leading role on the HBO show as well, along with director Vallee. "You demanded everything of me except sex, which is exactly how it should be in our interest," Clarkson said of Vallee while accepting the award. The actor was presented the award by William H Macy and Felicity Huffman. Clarkson's prior Golden Globes nomination came in 2003 in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work in the film "Pieces of April". She lost to Rene Zellweger for Cold Mountain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cartoonists, religious leaders and top French officials are paying respects to 17 people killed by Islamic extremists targeting satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The attacks that started exactly four years ago Monday were the first of several to hit France, which remains on high alert for terrorist violence. In solemn silence, mourners lay flowers at the entrance to Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, where 12 people were killed by two French brothers linked to al-Qaida. Commemorations are continuing at the Hyper Cacher market, where a radical Frenchman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group held hostages and killed four people. He also killed a policewoman. Government ministers and the mayor of Paris presided over Monday's events. The attackers were killed in shootouts with police. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Major (retd.) Geoffrey Douglas Langlands, a former British officer and one of the country's most famous educators whose students include Prime Minister Imran Khan, was laid to rest here on Monday. He died on January 2 at the age of 101. Langlands, who arrived in Pakistan during the World War II and stayed in the country after the end of the colonial rule, has been honoured with Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Order of St. Michael and St. George, and Order of British Empire by the Queen of England for his contribution to humanity and Among his students were Prime Minister Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. A large number of people from different walks of life attended his cremation at the Aitchison College where he served most of his life. He was laid to rest at a cemetery in Gulberg, as per his will. Major (retd) Langlands was buried in Lahore according to his will, Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told reporters after his funeral. "Pakistan is my house and students are my family. I want to be buried in Lahore," Elahi quoted from Langlands' will. Langlands devoted his life in service to the people and especially his adopted country Pakistan, where he taught english and mathematics for more than six decade. In 1954, he began teaching at Aitchison College, one of the most reputed colleges in the country. In the late 1970s, he took up the job of the principal of the Razmak Cadet College in Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border. After that he took over as principal of the Sayurj Public School in the city of Chitral in northwestern Pakistan.He raised funds to buy land for the school and expand it. The institution was renamed after him as the Langlands School and College, where he served until the age of 95. On his death Prime Minister Khan had said: "Saddened to learn of the passing of my teacher. Apart from being our teacher, he instilled the love for trekking and our northern areas in me - before the KKH (Karakoram Highway) was built." Born in 1917 in Yorkshire, England, with a twin brother, Langlands lost his father to flu pandemic of the following year. His mother succumbed to cancer when he was 10 and he and his brother and younger sister were left in the care of grandparents. Langlands was working in a private school in Croydon when war broke out in September 1939. He joined the British Army. Following his commission, he was sent to India. After partition, he was transferred to the Pakistan Army, which he willingly accepted. He was holding the rank of a major when he retired. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been criticised by the Chief Minister of Sindh province for travelling around the world to "beg" for financial support for the cash-strapped country which is currently battling serious economic crisis. Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg (for financial aid)," Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said at a rally in Matli, Badin on Sunday. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader also claimed that those without any experience in were given a seat in the government, Samaa TV reported. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) finalised a USD 6.2 billion support package to help Pakistan address its balance of payments challenge. The package involved USD 3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, besides a USD 3 billion cash deposit, Dawn newspaper reported. The daily had cited a government official as saying that the package was similar to that given by Saudi Arabia. With this, Pakistan would get a total saving of about USD 7.9 billion on oil and gas imports from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about USD 12-13 billion, the report said. The government had also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that was at an early stage, the report said. Khan had also visited China in November to seek economic assistance and Beijing is reported to have approved USD 2 billion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A top court in Pakistan on Monday indefinitely postponed hearing of a petition filed by jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif seeking suspension of his sentence in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case. On December 24, 2018, Accountability Court II Judge Arshad Malik sentenced 69-year-old Sharif to seven years in prison along with a fine of Rs 1.5 billion and USD 25 million in the Al-Azizia corruption case, concluding a series of three court cases against the Sharif family in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal. The three-time former premier is serving his term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail. Sharif filed an appeal against his conviction in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and a petition to suspend sentence until adjudication on appeal. A two-member IHC bench led by Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition and postponed it with the observation that it can only be heard after hearing of the appeal started. The court has so far not set any date for hearing of Sharif's appeal. In the appeal filed through his lawyer in the Islamabad High Court, Sharif argued that he was convicted on the basis of presumptions and his sentence should be set aside. He said the trial court verdict was based on misunderstandings as it failed to properly evaluate the objections by the defence. Three cases - Avenfield properties case, Flagship investment case and Al-Azizia steel mills case - were launched against the Sharif family by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on September 8, 2017 following a judgment by the Supreme Court that disqualified Sharif in the Panama Papers case in July last year. In July, 2018 Sharif, his daughter Maryam and his son-in-law Captain (retd) M Safdar were sentenced to 10 years, seven years and one year respectively in prison in the Avenfield properties case related to their purchase of four luxury flats in London through corrupt practices. However, the three were bailed out by the Islamabad High Court in September. Sharif was acquitted in the Flagship case due to insufficient evidence. His two sons - Hasan and Hussain - were accused in all the three graft cases. Sharif has maintained that the cases against him were initiated on the basis of allegations levelled by his political rivals and the report of a joint investigation team in the Panama Papers case was biased. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday ordered the government to remove the names of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Shah from the exit control list and the report of the joint investigation team probing the fake bank accounts case. Hearing the case, over the delay into the 2015 probe, the apex court ordered that the case be forwarded to the anti-corruption watchdog - National Accountability Bureau (NAB), according to a media report. It also directed the NAB to wrap up its probe within two months. A person cannot fly abroad if his name is placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). The JIT last month submitted its report to the top court in which it named both Bilawal and Shah, apart from former president Asif Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, former president of Summit Bank Hussain Lawai and Omni Group's Anwar Majeed for laundering around Rs 22000 crore through fictitious bank accounts. Hundreds of 'benami' accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to the probe. The amount is alleged to be black money amassed from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Monday questioned the state prosecutor why the government decided to place Bilawal on the no-fly list after the JIT recommended the placement of 172 people named in its report on the exit control list (ECL), the Dawn reported. "The JIT will have to clarify one thing: Why did it involve Bilawal in this matter?" Justice Nisar said, adding "What did Bilawal do?" The chief justice wondered if the PPP chairman's name had been included upon "someone's directives" to "defame someone". He also expressed displeasure over putting the Sindh chief minister's name on the ECL. Justice Nisar then ordered that the names of Bilawal and Shah be removed from the ECL and the JIT report, and the case be sent to the NAB, which has to conclude its probe in two months. He said that if necessary, the NAB may summon Bilawal and Shah during its investigation for questioning. Meanwhile, a banking court in Karachi also extended the interim bail of PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur until January 23 in the fake accounts case. Zardari and Talpur allegedly channelled funds through fake accounts in connivance with the chief executive officers of major banks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Of the 188 contracts signed in the last three years, 121 have been signed with Indian vendors including defence public sector undertakings and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Currently, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has orders to manufacture Sukhoi aircraft, light combat aircraft, Dornier aircraft, advance light helicopter, Chetak and Cheetal helicopter, which are likely to be executed in the next 3-4 years, Minister of State Subhash Bhamre said in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. "During the last three years and current year (up to October, 2018), out of total 188 contracts, 121 contracts have been signed with Indian vendors including DPSUs / PSUs /OFB and private vendors for capital procurement of defence equipment for armed forces such as helicopters, naval vessels, radars, ballistic helmets, artillery guns, simulators, missiles, bullet proof jackets, electronic fuzes and ammunition," Bhamre said. He said that capital procurement of defence equipment is carried out as per the extant defence procurement procedure (DPP). The DPP-2016, he noted, focuses on institutionalising, streamlining and simplifying defence procurement procedure to give boost to 'Make in India' initiative of the Government of India by promoting indigenous design, development and manufacturing of defence equipment, platforms, systems and sub-systems. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Fifteenth Finance Commission Monday said Odisha has a huge scope to become a driver of India's economic progress. "Odisha has a huge scope in terms of becoming a driver and among front leaders of India's economic development process," 15th Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh told reporters here. Singh said: "It (Odisha) has lagged behind, no doubt. We will try to see how this can best be addressed, and the role of finance commission which can play in this regard." Singh was here Monday for starting the commission's three-day consultation programme during which Odisha government will submit its memorandum for 2020-2025. Singh said the FC will have wide ranging consultation with the state government, political parties and other stakeholders like the chambers of commerce. "Of course, we have an important role as far as three- tire bodies are concerned. We will talk to urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions. So, it is fairly full wide ranging consultation with multiple stakeholders," Singh said. He said that the commission, during its three-day interaction, would like to understand the opportunities and challenges of the economic development of Odisha. This apart, the Commission will undertake field visits to take stock of the state government's poverty eradication programme Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) - an autonomous society under the aegis of the Odisha government. The commission members will also visit Self Help Groups (SHGs), drinking water projects, cyclone shelters, and other development projects. "The finance commission chairman has arrived today and its members will come here tomorrow. We will like to project the state's requirements for the next five years from 2020." Finance Minister S B Behera said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several organisations from Assam Monday staged protests, with some of the demonstrators stripping naked, outside Parliament against the central government's move to amend the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Carrying placards and raising slogans, about 10 protesters belonging to the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti from Assam stripped themselves naked to protest the controversial bill. Within no time, police swung into action and removed the protesters from the highly secured Vijay Chowk. Another group of people protested outside the Assam Bhavan in Chanakyapuri, showing black flag and raising slogans. Four Rajya Sabha members of the Congress, led by APCC president Ripun Borah, also staged protest outside the main gate of Parliament against the bill. Carrying banners and raising slogans, the Congress MPs demanded that the bill should not be brought in Parliament. The Union Cabinet Monday cleared the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bill is expected to be tabled in the Lok Sabha Tuesday. The move came within hours of the presentation in the Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. Large sections of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. The fresh bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. Eight influential students' bodies of the Northeast, besides more than 40 socio-cultural organisations of Assam, have called an 11-hour 'bandh' Tuesday in protest against the central government's move to amend the Citizenship Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid flak by opposition leaders and authors over rescinding the invitation to author Nayantara Sahgal to inaugurate the 92nd all-India All Marathi literary meet, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) Monday distanced itself from the controversy. In a statement, the CMO said the decision on who to invite for the meet is taken by the organisers and the state government has no role in it. The CMO statement came after the organisers invited Sahgal, 91, to attend the meet, scheduled this week at Yavatmal, and later cancelled it, citing law and order issues. Opposition leaders like Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam alleged the invitation was cancelled at the behest of the ruling BJP. The CMO statement said a section of media is dragging the state government's name in the controversy. The Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Mahamandal (which organises the meet), is an autonomous body and neither the CM nor the state government interfere in its functioning, it said. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP was not impressed by the government's statement and said the invitation was cancelled "out of fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi" would not like if Sahgal, niece of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, attended the literary meet. The NCP said Modi always speaks against Nehru and asked Fadnavis to re-invite Sahgal for the meeting. The noted English-language author who was at the forefront of the 'award-wapsi' (returning of awards) campaign, was to inaugurate the meet on January 11 in the presence of Fadnavis. In 2015, several writers returned their awards to protest against what they described as "rising intolerance and growing assault on free speech" under the Narendra Modi government. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "The way Sahagal's invitation was cancelled by the organisers of the meet, the government's hand is there somewhere (in this)." "Modi always speaks against Nehru. Sahgal belongs to Nehru's family. There is a fear in the mind of the Maharashtra BJP and the chief minister of Maharashtra that if Nayantara Sahgal attends the meeting, Modi won't be happy," Malik said. The invitation was cancelled after a member of the MNS threatened to disrupt the meeting opposing Sahgal's presence, the NCP leader said. "If the invitation was cancelled in the name of law and order, it is the responsibility of the Chief Minister, who is also home minister of the state, to convince Sahgal to attend the function," Malik said. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray issued a statement Monday, admitting that one of his local party workers had opposed Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. "As the party chief, I am not against inviting her," Thackeray said. "If Sahgal's presence at the All India Literary Meet is transcending into a cultural exchange, I or my party will not oppose it," Thackeray said, adding that he "deeply regretted' the inconvenience caused to supporters of such literary events by the action of a few of his men. Nirupam said the decision of the organisers to rescind the invite to Sahgal was taken at BJP's behest. The MNS is just a front, he added. "Literature should not surrender before If a government is scared of writers, it means that its days are over," he said. Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, however, said the state welcomed everyone. "If someone had opposed Sahgal after her speech at the meet, then it could have been understood. It is not fair to oppose her completely. Maharashtra is a state that welcomes everyone to present their work," he said. Noted Marathi author Aruna Dhere, who will preside over the event, also criticised the organisers for cancelling Sahgal's invitation. "It is shocking that you respectfully invite someone and later back out. Sahgal should be invited (again) with respect," she said. Laxmikant Deshmukh, the outgoing chairman of the literary meet, said the organisers should have thought before inviting Sahgal, as her line of thinking was well-known. The literary meet's reception committee said the organisers had decided to revoke Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet". Meanwhile, several Marathi authors and journalists Monday announced they would be boycotting the meet to mark their protests over the Sahgal's 'insult' by the meet's organisers. Historian Ramachandra Guha tweeted, "The Maharashtra that fears the words of a ninety one year old woman writer is the Maharashtra of Godse and his mentors, not the Maharashtra of Ambedkar, Phule, Gokhale or Tilak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court Monday extended the NIA custody of five of the 10 people arrested on suspicion of being members of an ISIS-inspired group who were allegedly planning suicide attacks and serial blasts, targeting politicians as also government installations, in and other parts of north The court remanded the other five accused in judicial custody after the agency said they were not required for custodial interrogation. The court extended the NIA custody of Mufti Mohammed Suhail alias Hazrath (29) and Saqib Iftekar (26) till January 12. Zubair Malik (20), Rashid Zafar Raq alias Zafar (23) and Anas Yunus (24) were sent to further custodial interrogation till January 10. The others -- Zubair's brother Zaid (22), Saeed alias Sayeed (28), his brother Raees Ahmad, Mohammed Irshad (in late 20s) and Mohammed Azam (35) -- were sent to judicial custody till February till February after the NIA did not seek their further remand. Advocate Prashant Prakash, appearing for the accused, opposed the NIA plea for further custodial interrogation, saying there was no fresh ground. The 10 accused were produced by NIA before Special Judge Rakesh Syal, who ordered in-camera proceedings. They were earlier produced before the court on December 27 after which they were sent to 10-day NIA custody which will expire tomorrow. They were arrested on December 26 after NIA carried out searches, in coordination with special cell of Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad of Police, at six places in Jafrabad, Seelampur in Delhi, and 11 places in - six in Amroha, two in Lucknow, two in Hapur and two in According to NIA, a locally-made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests, 12 pistols, several rounds of live ammunition and 112 alarm clocks to be used as timers were recovered from the searches. The agency had also said it recovered 25 kg of explosive material -- Potassium Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrate and Sulphur. The group allegedly had also purchased remote control cars and wireless doorbells to use their circuits in assembling remote controlled improvised Besides, the NIA also recovered steel containers, electric wires, 91 mobile phones, 134 SIM cards, 3 laptops, knife, sword, Islamic State in and (ISIS)-related literature and Rs 7.5 lakh cash during the searches. The probe agency had initially rounded up 16 persons of the group 'Harkat ul Harb e Islam', which loosely translates into war for the cause of Islam. Of the 16 detained, 10 were later arrested - five from Amroha, in UP and five from Seelampur and Jafrabad localities in north-east Delhi, the agency had said. The National Green Tribunal has directed the city traffic police to evolve a mechanism to refer to Google maps for taking prompt remedial and preventive steps at places witnessing traffic jams. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the roads should be made free of congestion to decrease air pollution in the national capital. "We are of the view that since traffic jams can be observed from the Google maps, the traffic police must evolve a mechanism to view the Google maps so as to take prompt remedial and preventive steps at places where traffic jams are taking place," the bench said. The tribunal directed that a copy of this order along with complaint be sent to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, by email for taking appropriate steps in accordance with law. It also reiterated that every order of the NGT was binding as a decree of court and non-compliance was actionable by way of punitive action in terms of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. The direction came while taking note of a letter by city resident Abhi Kapoor who alleged that heavy traffic jams are taking place due to hawkers at Shahdara which is also resulting in air pollution. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing serious concerns over the non-passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, a women's organisation organized district-level demonstrations in 24 states on Monday. National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) members also protested outside Parliament and were later detained by police, the organisation said in a statement. Most of the political parties have expressed their willingness to support and vote for the passage of the Bill when it is brought before the Lok Sabha, but the BJP-led NDA government has not shown any interest or taken any initiative to pass the Bill, the NFIW alleged in the statement. "While receiving a memorandum demanding the passage of the Bill from NFIW delegation, the prime minister said that consensus is needed for this. During the last four and a half years time, Parliament passed or amended many legislations without any consensus. It is nothing but the double standard and it shows lack of political will and social commitment on the part of the NDA government," Annie Raja, General Secretary of the NFIW alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nepal's Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Monday said the country's foreign policy is "independent and balanced" focusing on national prosperity with no external interference. Reviewing his 10-month tenure at the Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu, Gyawali underlined the need for initiating national dialogues to build the country's foreign policy on the basis of mass consensus. The minister said Nepal is moving ahead adopting healthy and balanced foreign policies. "Development of foreign relations as per the interests of the nation is taking place," Gyawali claimed. During a discussion programme with senior journalists, the foreign minister made it clear that Nepal is not entertaining external interference in domestic affairs and is developing international relations focusing on national prosperity. "The interest of the nation is the major basis of Nepal's foreign policy," he pointed out. He said that diplomatic code of conduct will be revised in the context of newly-adopted federal system. "The government is exercising to garner support from the world community towards the efforts for national prosperity and economic development by further consolidating the ties with neighbours with the branding of political achievements the country has made so far." We have been able to assure our neighbours that our foreign policy is independent and balanced, in which they have trust, the foreign minister said. Reiterating that Nepal has cordial relations with China, the foreign minister said the process to open nine transit points with China has reached the implementation phase. Referring to his recent official visit to Japan, he said Nepal has entered a process to explore Japan as a new labour destination. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nepal's anti-graft body on Monday filed a case, what it said to be one of the biggest corruption case, against the former Managing Director of the country's oil distribution company for allegedly possessing property worth Rs 18.66 crore beyond the known sources of income, according to media reports. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case at the special court against former Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Managing Director Gopal Khadka on charge of amassing illegal property, the Kathmandu Post reported. It is one of the largest corruption case ever filed by the anti-graft body related to possessing property, worth Rs 18.66 crore, beyond the know sources of income in the country, CIAA spokesperson Rameshwor Dangal was quoted as saying in the Post. The CIAA has also been conducting a separate probe into Khadka's involvement in alleged corruption in purchase of land by the NOC, he said. Earlier, probes by previous parliamentary committees had found irregularity of about Rs 126 crore in the land purchased by the state-owned oil company. According to the CIAA, Khadka not only amassed illegal properties but was also found to have bought property worth Rs 7 crore in the name of other people. The CIAA, in its charge sheets, demanded the court to seize the assets which he had transferred in the name of his relatives and near ones, the Republica reported. The anti-graft body had also confiscated a cheque of Rs 89.8 lakh which was paid as advance for purchase of the land by Khadka in Budhanilkantha in Kathmandu, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A number of students' organisation and political parties have called an 11-hour northeast 'bandh' on Tuesday to protest the Citizenship Amendment Bill which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several students' bodies of the region have decided to observe the 5 am to 4 pm 'bandh' in support of the call given by the North East Students' Organisation (NESO), an umbrella organisation of students' unions, of which the AASU is a constituent. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has called for a state-wide bandh after a gap of 10 years and it is supported by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which withdrew support to the BJP-led government in Assam during the day, the opposition Congress, the AIUDF, and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS). The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The AGP and other groups in Assam have said that the provisions of the bill will nullify the 1985 Assam Accord, which provides for deportation of all illegal migrants, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after March, 1971. "This is a crisis for the Assamese society, and all indigenous communities of the region in general. We will not allow the government to pass the Bill at any cost," AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told PTI in Guwahati. The movement needs to be taken to all interior places across Assam and the northeast so that the BJP does not pass the Bill, he said. Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said, "District SPs have been instructed to ensure public peace. Appropriate forces have been deployed across the state to prevent any untoward incidents. Patrolling has also been intensified at all places." From other parts of the region, the Mizo Zirlai Pawal (MZP), the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), the Naga Students' Federation (NSF) and other bodies have extended their support to the 11-hour bandh called by the NESO. The "bandh" has also been called to condemn Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent statement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would be passed in Parliament soon, a NESO leader said. "Despite staging various dharnas even in New Delhi by students' bodies from the northeast, the Centre is hell bent on passing the controversial bill, undermining the sentiments of the indigenous people of the region," NESO coordinator Pritambai Sonam told reporters at Itanagar. According to a report from, the Capital of Mizoram, MZP general secretary Lalnunmawia Pautu said the people of the region were against the proposed amendment as it would grant citizenship to people on religious grounds. In Mizoram, it would mean legalising thousands of Buddhist Chakmas who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh, Pautu said. "If the bill is passed, we will be left with no option but to take up arms to protect our indigenous population," AAPSU president Hawa Bagang said in Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar. The Twipra Student's Federation, the student wing of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of ruling BJP in the state, said in Agartala that it is supporting the bandh. In Shillong, a conglomeration of 14 pressure groups and social organisations of Meghalaya extended its support to the "bandh" called by the NESO. The Confederation of Hynniewtrep Social Organisation (CoHSO) also demanded that Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma snap ties with the BJP protest against the Centre's move to pass the bill. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special SIT court Monday allowed former Gujarat minister Mayaben Kodnani, an accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case, to go out of Gujarat for six months. Seeking deletion of a bail condition in the case that barred her from going out of Gujarat, Kodnani's lawyer Amit Patel had argued before the court that if the condition is not deleted, she should at least be allowed relief for a year or six months. The court of special judge M K Dave partially allowed the bail modification application and permitted Kodnani to go outside Gujarat for six months. Kodnani was granted bail in the case by a sessions court in May 2009, a few weeks after her arrest in the case. Among the conditions imposed by the court at the time was that she could not go out of Gujarat. The Naroda Gam riot case is one of the nine major 2002 communal riot cases which were investigated by the SIT. Eleven Muslims were killed in the Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad in 2002 during the violence, which erupted after the Godhra train burning incident. A total of 82 people are facing trial in the case, including Kodnani, once a minister in the government led by the then chief minister Narendra Modi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearsightedness has now reached epidemic proportions here with the National Eye Institute putting the number of American suffering from myopia at about 42 percent, up from 25 percent in 1971. According to World Health Organization, the condition of those who can't see objects at a distance, is increasing at an alarming rate. Myopia typically appears among school-going children and can be associated with long-term eye health problems such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. No conclusive studies link the rise of myopia in children to their increased use of technology, but enough research and anecdotal evidence exists to support these theories. The National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health states that about 42 percent of Americans are myopic, up from 25 percent in 1971. Responding to the rising number of children with blurry vision caused by myopia, the University of Houston (UH) Eye Institute is offering a Myopia Management Service to correct and manage nearsightedness in children. It is the first of its kind in Texas. Children are doing a lot more near work' even before kindergarten, especially on digital devices, and not getting outside as much, said Kathryn Richdale, UH associate professor and optometrist. At the same time, we're seeing this staggering increase in myopia. Treatments offered by the Myopia Management Service will have the maximum impact during childhood, a time of rapid myopic progression. We can't stop or reverse myopia, but we can slow down the progression, said Richdale. We use certain eye drops or specialty multifocal or orthokeratology lenses. The orthokeratology lenses are worn while users are sleeping and temporarily re-shape the eyes so users don't need glasses during the day. If patients continue wearing the lenses, they slow down the progression of myopia, Richdale said. As lots of schoolwork is done on digital textbooks, kids are more on the computer at school as well as at home, the myopia rates may have climbed dramatically in the last few decades. Outdoor time appears to be very good in cutting the risk for nearsightedness, said Richdale. We do not fully understand why, but it may be related to the idea that when people are outside, there is generally brighter light and eyes are focusing on objects farther away. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday laid the foundation of a USD seven billion plant in Shanghai, becoming the first company to benefit from a new Chinese policy of allowing foreign vehicle manufacturers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in the Asian nation. Till now, foreign automakers in China were required to forge joint ventures with domestic firms for establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners. The plant, which is Tesla's first outside the US, is located at Lingang, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbour of Shanghai. It has an annual production capacity of 500,000 electric cars. Tesla signed an agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October, the company got the approval to use an 864,885 sq mt tract of land in Lingang for its Shanghai plant. Musk and Shanghai government officials attended the ground-breaking ceremony. "This will be the most advanced Tesla gigafactory...With resources here, we are able to build this factory in record time, and we are hoping to have initial production of Tesla Model 3 toward the end of the year and volume production next year," 47-year-old Musk said. The Tesla factory, which will be built with an investment of over 50 billion yuan (USD seven billion), is the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai's history, state-run Xinhua agency reported. Aiming at reinforcing its presence in the world's largest market for electric cars, Tesla brought its Model S, Model X and Model 3 to the China International Import Expo held in November 2018 at Shanghai. Tesla delivered 245,240 cars, including 145,846 Model 3 -- the company's first mid-price, mass-market vehicle, in 2018 worldwide. China set a milestone record of selling one million new energy vehicles (NEVs) in 2018. The country aims at doubling the sales to two million in 2020. The production at the Shanghai plant will help Tesla significantly lower its cost and prices, giving it more edge in the market competition. Model 3, for example, which starts at a price of USD 35,000 in the US market, is sold between 500,000 yuan and 560,000 yuan (around USD 72,980 and USD 81,738) in China. After the Shanghai plant starts production of the model, the price of the car is expected to start at 400,000 yuan. Tesla has tapped into China's growing mainstream electric car market and established its charging network covering most cities in the country's developed regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta in east China and the Pearl River Delta in the south. "China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said in a statement released by the manufacturer. The California-based company in October 2018 set up its first overseas R&D innovation centre in Beijing, with focus on areas such as software and hardware development, localisation, China and Asia-Pacific data analysis, intelligent connected vehicles and charging technology. "In the past five years, Tesla has witnessed Chinese car consumers' growing awareness for environmental protection," Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress MLA and prominent OBC leader of Gujarat Alpesh Thakor Monday claimed his community and supporters were feeling "cheated" and "ignored", in remarks seen as a criticism of the state leadership of the opposition party preparing for the Lok Sabha polls. Without taking any names, he said some "weak leaders" were at the helm of party affairs in Gujarat, an apparent reference to state party president Amit Chavda. The BJP quickly latched on Thakor's critical comments and said Congress MLAs not happy in the party were welcome to join the ruling outfit. In an open threat to the state party leadership, Thakor said he will now play like a "shrewed person" as he claimed some party leaders in Gujarat were trying to "suppress" him and his Thakor community. While senior Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki tried to play down Thakor's remarks, Gujarat BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the main opposition party will be divided into several groups in the "near future". Asked if he would join the ruling BJP, Thakor replied in the negative, saying he is confident Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take necessary action after listening to his grievances. "I feel my community is being ignored. My community is not being given proper representation in the party. We are being blamed for anything bad that happens in the state. "I will not sit quiet or continue as an MLA if my people gets nothing," Thakor told media persons here. The popular OBC leader from the Thakor community was inducted into the Congress ahead of the December 2017 assembly polls in Gandhi's presence. Thakor, who heads community outfit 'Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena', was subsequently given a Congress ticket and he won from the Radhanpur assembly seat in Patan district. "This is not about joining BJP. My fight is against the system (in the party). "What you (Congress leaders) want to prove by ignoring and suppressing a mass leader like me? The Congress can win 9 to 10 Lok Sabha seats (out of 26 in Gujarat) only if strong leaders are given important responsibilities," said Thakor. The young OBC leader then headed to Delhi to make a representation to Gandhi. "My community and supporters are feeling cheated. We have not received anything for joining Congress. Our respect is not maintained in the party. "We are sidelined. I am going to Delhi today to make Rahuljee aware about what is going on here," said Thakor to reporters before leaving for the national capital. Thakor said the Congress will not fare well in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls under the current state leadership. "Some weak persons are leading the party in Gujarat. They can never win seats in the Lok Sabha polls. You will need a strong leader. "Lakhs of youths are with me. But, they are being ignored by some party leaders. I think the time has come I have to do like a shrewd person," he said. Commenting on Thakor's barbs, Solanki, a former Gujarat Congress chief and a relative of Chavda, claimed the media is making "speculation" about the first-time MLA. "Alpesh is a seasoned leader and we all will work together to make the party victorious in the Lok Sabha polls. He is also trying to strengthen the party. "The Congress is a huge party and its natural that some small things happen. The media is blowing it out of proportion," Solanki claimed. Nitin Patel said Congress MLAs like Thakor wanting to defect are "welcome in the BJP". "Some Congress leaders are trying to dominate others. One group is trying to dominate other. The opposition party is divided in many groups. The party will see a huge division in the near future," Patel told media persons. "Some Congress MLAs are getting attracted towards BJP, as the MLAs feel it will help the people of their constituencies in getting the work done. "Congress MLAs who want to serve their people in a better way are always welcome in the BJP," Patel added. Earlier last month, Thakor along with some other disgruntled party leaders and legislators had met at the residence of senior leader Arjun Modhwadia and expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the GPCC leadership. The meeting was held following the heavy Congress defeat in assembly by-election in Jasdan, a seat in Rajkot district held by the main opposition party for decades. At that time too, Thakor, referring to Chavda, had said "some lacuna" existed in the leadership which needs to be corrected before the Lok Sabha polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of people dependent on the mining industry in Goa on Monday marched to Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar's residence near here over their demand for resumption of iron ore extraction activity in the state. The mining dependents, under the banner of Goa Mining People's Front (GMPF), walked to the private residence of Dhavalikar at Bandora village in North Goa district, about 40 km from here, and put forth their grievances. GMPF president Puti Gaonkar later said that Dhavalikar, the senior-most minister in Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's Cabinet, assured them that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi before January 16. "We have given him the deadline till that time. If he fails to keep his promise, we will march again to his residence on January 17," Gaonkar said. Dhavalikar had earlier also assured to take up their woes with Modi, he said, adding that the march to his private residence on Monday was to follow up the issue. Dhavalikar is the leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which is an ally of the ruling BJP in Goa. The mining operations, a key source of revenue to the government, came to a standstill in March last year following a Supreme Court order which quashed 88 mining leases. The BJP-led state government has requested the Centre to amend the existing mining laws during the ongoing session of Parliament so that leases get extended. The GMPF, an umbrella group of mining dependents - whose livelihood has been affected - had recently staged three-day protests in New Delhi demanding resumption of mining activities in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Meghalaya Chief Secretary Y Tsering on Monday issued an order warning government officials of strict actions against unauthorised absence on Tuesday as North East students bodies declared bandh in all NE states against Citizenship Amendment Bill, officials said. The NE bandh was called by North East Students' Organisation (NESO, an umbrella organisation of students bodies in the region including Meghalaya in which the Khasi Students Union and the Garo Students Union are part of, in protest against the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha. All measures required to ensure normalcy in the state should be taken. Strict action will be taken against all unauthorised absence, Tsering said in an order issued here on Monday. Government offices shall function normally and government employees shall attend office as they would carry on with their duties and function, the order said. The Chief Secretary has also sought a report of the attendance from heads of departments and district chiefs. The bandh is enforced by the KSU in the Khasi Jaintia Hills region and by the GSU in the Garo Hills region. Last night, unidentified assailants lobbed a molotov cocktail at the office of the BJP partially damaging it. Security have been tightened in all identified vulnerable areas in the state capital and district SPs have been asked to keep government installations on tight vigil in the next 24 hours, a senior home official told PTI. The Meghalaya High Court has banned publication of bandhs calls by the media and has also ordered that those who called for bandh should be held responsible for any damage caused to public and private properties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 25-year-old man was arrested from Rajasthan for allegedly kidnapping a minor and forcefully marrying her, police said Monday. The accused was identified as Manjeet Singh, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, they said, adding that he was carrying a reward of Rd 50,000. In February 2018, the girl, a student of class XI, was allegedly kidnapped by Singh and a case under the POCSO Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Juvenile Justice Act was registered at Ranhola police station, said Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Rajiv Ranjan. During investigation, it was revealed that the accused was being helped by his family members, including his brother-in-law Naresh, the officer said. Despite raids conducted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttrakhand, the girl and Singh could not be found. On Saturday, police received information that Singh was present in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the accused was apprehended from Jhunjhunu on Sunday at around 3 pm, while the girl was recovered from Najafgarh on Monday morning, Ranjan added. During interrogation, Singh disclosed that he worked as a driver in Rohini area. He used to visit the girl's neighbourhood occasionally to meet his relatives, he said. On February 14, 2018, he kidnapped her and later, he forcefully married her at Arya Samaj Mandir in Chandigarh, the officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a daring daylight highway heist, a 10-member gang drove away a car with nearly Rs one crore worth ornaments of a Kerala-based jewellery after waylaying the vehicle near here, police said. The gold and silver jewels, valued at Rs 98.05 lakh and belonging to Kalyan Jewellers, were being transported from Thrissur in Kerala to the city by two employees of the firm when the robbery occurred at around 11.30 am. When the vehicle with jewels reached a petrol pump at Chavadi on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, the gang, which was tailing it in two other vehicles, intercepted it and dragged out the two drivers by force. The gang members then drove away the car with jewels, leaving their vehicles behind, police said. The valuables were being transported with all required documents and were valued at Rs 98.05 lakh, they said. The jewellery firm in a statement issued in Kochi said the incident occurred just after the vehicle crossed into Tamil Nadu. It said steps have been taken to seek claim with the insurance company and complaints have been lodged with the Kerala (Palakkad) and Tamil Nadu (Chavadi) police. All information had been provided to the authorities to enable swift action and recovery of the jewels, chairman and managing director of the firm Kalyanaraan said in the statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Latvia's president on Monday named US-born EU parliament member Krisjanis Karins as his candidate for prime minister, in a third attempt to solve the country's political deadlock after two previous nominees failed to form a government. The NATO and EU member state has been gripped by political turmoil since October, when a general election saw seven political parties enter the 100-seat parliament but produced no clear winner. "I met with several parties in parliament that stated their intention to support Mr Karins as the next prime minister," President Raimonds Vejonis told reporters. Lawyers Janis Bordans and Aldis Gobzems -- of the New Conservatives and populist KPV LV party respectively -- were the president's first two nominees for premier. After they each failed to muster a majority in the fractured parliament, Vejonis chose a different approach. Instead of nominating a new candidate before Christmas, he left party leaders to meet among themselves and find a mutually acceptable candidate. A former economy minister and MEP since 2009, the 54-year-old Karins was born in the United States and holds dual citizenship. He represents the New Unity centre-right party, which is the smallest of all the parliamentary groups. It only has eight seats. But Karins has the backing of several parties in addition to his own: the New Conservatives, the centre-right National Alliance and the liberal Development/FOR! He is also supported by some, but not all, of the lawmakers from the anti-establishment populist party KPV LV. Karins will now hold talks among the parties to choose his cabinet candidates. The confirmation vote in parliament is expected later this month. The Harmony party topped the October vote with 24 seats, but its pro-Russian stance put off potential coalition partners. Harmony was followed by the KPV LV and the New Conservatives, which both scored 16 seats. Centre-right coalitions formed by various parties have governed Latvia since it broke free from the Soviet Union in 1991. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Burrison Gallery at the University Club at Penn supports the vision of Maurice Burrison by providing an intimate space for artists from the University community and West Philadelphia to showcase their work. Exhibits are scheduled approximately seven times throughout the year. The Gallery, located in the University Club at Penn on the 2nd floor of The Inn at Penn, 3611 Walnut Street, is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you are an artist and are interested in displaying your work please contact Jerry Porter, Chair of the Burrison Gallery. All questions and requests can be directed to burrisongallery@gmail.com The gallery is funded solely by commissions on sales and donations from individuals. If you have a love for the arts, and would like to support the initiatives of the Burrison Gallery, we encourage you to make a donation. We appreciate your contribution and hope to foster more relationships with individuals who, like us, have an appreciation for the arts and culture. If you are interested in participating in the 2019 Homecoming Show please fill out the application below. Burrison Gallery Homecoming 2019 Application If you are interested in having an exhibit at the Burrison Gallery please fill out the application below. Burrison Gallery Application A top Sri Lankan court Monday dismissed a petition seeking mental health assessment of President Maithripala Sirisena for his sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, a controversial decision which plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis. On October 26, President Sirisena, 67, sacked Wickeremesinghe as Prime Minister and replaced him with ex-strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, triggering the never-seen-before political and constitutional impasse which lasted for over two months. The Court of Appeal dismissed with costs the petition filed by a woman named Thakshila Lakmali Jayawardena, saying it had no authority to hear the case. Jayawardena sought an order directing the police chief to go into Sirisena's state of mind. The petition called for a medical report on the President's mental status. The court ordered Jayawardena to pay Rs 100,000 as legal costs. Jayawardena's Attorney said after filing the case that President's unusual action warranted a medical check up on his mental status. The petition was filed before the Supreme Court order on December 13 which ruled that Sirisena's action to dissolve parliament to call fresh parliamentary election was unconstitutional and illegal. Sirisena move to sack Wickremesinghe was described as a "constitutional coup" by the prime minister's supporters, arguing that the president had no power to sack a sitting Prime Minister as per the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Sirisena's appointment of Rajapaksa was also questioned in the court as the Wickremesinghe camp questioned as to how Rajapaksa functioned in the prime minister's job when he had failed to prove his parliamentary majority. Rajapaksa sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called snap elections on January 5. However, the Supreme Court overturned his decision and halted the preparations for snap poll. Sirisena and Rajapaksa suffered reversal setbacks, forcing the president to reinstate Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who resigned from the primary membership of the AAP, said Monday that his new outfit will fill the political space "lost" by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab. He also said that he would announce the name of his new political outfit on Tuesday. Khaira, who has not resigned as MLA, dared the AAP leadership to get him disqualified under the anti-defection law. Khaira, legislator from Bholath constituency, had quit the AAP on Sunday, six months after he was ousted from the post of Leader of Opposition of the Punjab Assembly. "Both the SAD and the AAP have lost political space in Punjab. The AAP lost space because of wrong policies while the Akali Dal over sacrilege issues. To fill this vacuum and for the cause of Punjab, we are going to announce a new political party tomorrow," Khaira told reporters here. "I have resigned from the primary membership of the party. They want me to leave the seat and again contest the election to test popularity. They are full of hatred and targeting me," he said. Khaira said the Punjab Democratic Alliance which was formed last month would meet later this week to a take a call on whether to contest the Lok Sabha polls or not. The alliance which was launched last month in Patiala comprised the Lok Insaaf Party, BSP and suspended AAP MP Dharmavira Gandhi. Asked how many MLAs were supporting him, Khaira said seven legislators had supported him in the interest of Punjab. "But we do not want unnecessary bypolls in Punjab as the state is already under heavy debt of Rs 2.50 lakh crore. Crores of rupees are spent on elections that is why we are avoiding it," he said. Meanwhile, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the party was not formed to satisfy the greed of a few leaders who crave for post and power. "The AAP was formed to get the country rid of corruption. Today, the performance of the AAP was gaining popularity worldwide and its performance was also being appreciated. The AAP is not meant for satisfy the greed of a few leaders who are after post and power," Kejriwal told reporters here. "I always say who crave for any post or position, they should leave the AAP. The party and its ideology will get strengthened with such persons quitting," he said. Lashing out at Kejriwal, Khaira accused him of not relinquishing the post of president of the AAP. Khaira also sought an amendment in the anti-defection law, claiming it was "anti-democratic" and that only two-thirds members of a party could defect and not individuals. He said the amendments in the Constitution regarding anti-defection was brought about by the Congress and the BJP, and the AAP was following it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty Monday to indecently assaulting a teenager who alleged that the Oscar-winning US actor groped him in a bar in Massachusetts in 2016. The "House of Cards" star, who faces five years in prison if convicted, is accused of repeatedly reaching down into the pants of a man identified as William Little, who was 18 at the time of the alleged attack at a Nantucket restaurant. Spacey, dressed in a gray coat over a dark blazer and tie, was not asked for his plea during the brief arraignment in a crowded Nantucket courtroom, but his lawyer entered the denial on Spacey's behalf. A follow-on hearing was scheduled for March 4, but Spacey is not required to attend. The 59-year-old actor stood quietly with his hands clasped as the clerk read out the charge "that in the town of Nantucket on July 18, 2016 (the defendant) did commit indecent assault and battery on someone 14 and over." The case marks the first time Spacey has faced sexual misconduct charges, although there are dozens of claims against him. They come more than 13 months after the complaint was filed, the latest chapter in Hollywood's reckoning over sexual assault and harassment that has already seen television icon Bill Cosby jailed and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein indicted. Spacey's alleged victim was working as a bus boy for the summer in Nantucket and had remained in the bar after his shift finished to see his hero. After meeting the actor and telling him he was 23 years old -- the legal drinking age is 21 in Massachusetts -- he said he started drinking first beer and then whiskey at Spacey's urging. The actor then allegedly invited him back to his place, along with some other friends. The young man declined, suspecting the actor was trying to seduce him. But he stayed at the bar in the hopes of getting a picture with Spacey. It was then that the actor began sexually molesting the young man, according to court filings. The two-time Oscar winner -- recognized for his supporting role in "Usual Suspects" in 1996 and his lead role in "American Beauty" in 2000 -- was considered one of the finest actors of his generation. His career nosedived following allegations of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen men in the United States and Britain. Forced out of public life, Spacey posted a video online in December in which he discussed allegations of sexual abuse in character as Frank Underwood, the scheming politician he played in "House of Cards" before the show dropped him. "You wouldn't believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn't rush to judgments without facts, would you? Did you? No, not you. You're smarter than that," Spacey said in the video. "Of course, some believed everything and have been just waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They're just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. "Only you and I both know it's never that simple, not in politics and not in life." In addition to the Nantucket case, two other investigations are underway in Los Angeles and London, where Spacey served as artistic director of the prestigious Old Vic theater from 2004 to 2015. Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who performed in several Old Vic productions, said it seemed that "it only took a male under 30 to make Mr Spacey feel free to touch us." The first public allegation of abuse came from actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed that Spacey sexually assaulted him when Rapp was 14, in 1986. Spacey has not appeared on the screen or on stage since Rapp came forward. Director Ridley Scott even removed Spacey from his film "All the Money in the World" (2017) by shooting all scenes in which the actor appeared again with another star, Christopher Plummer. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : In a scathing attack on BJP-RSS over the recent violence on the Sabarimala issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday said the Left government would not be cowed down by threats and intimidation and that the saffron party had "no strength for it now." Addressing a press conference here, he also said that the CPI(M)-led LDF government would take stringent action against BJP-RSS activists who had unleashed violence in the name of the January 3 hartal and the violence that followed. The hartal was called in protest against the entry of two women of menstruating age into the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Vijayan said a cabinet meeting Monday decided to bring in an ordinance, the 'Kerala Prevention of Damage to Private Property Act,' to prevent destruction of private property during hartals. The Sangh forces, led by the BJP, had tried to destroy the law and order situation in Kerala and the perpetrators would not get any protection in the state as they received in the north, he said. "The violence in Kerala was a pre-planned agenda of the Sangh forces led by the party which rules the country. They (BJP-RSS) wanted to implement several other plans under the guise of the violence. They are now coming up with the charge that law and order in Kerala has collapsed because their plans did not work out and Kerala continues to be the same even after the violence," he said. The Chief Minister was replying to a question on BJP M P Nishikant Dubey's demand in the Lok Sabha, seeking dismissal of the Kerala government over the Sabarimala violence,alleging that the ruling CPI(M) was practising " of murder" and many BJP workers were its victim. "Are you saying that action should not be taken against those who unleashed violence? You can tell the same to other states...do not try to intimidate us.The time for intimidation is over and BJP has no strength for it right now," he said. "In other states, when you (sangh parivar) unleash violence, no action is taken and even those who commit daylight murders are also not brought to book", he said,adding that such people would not get protection in Kerala. Quoting figures, he said Sangh activists were behind 92 per cent of violent incidents witnessed by the state in the recent days. The Sangh Parivar had triggered all violence, especially at Thalassery in Kannur, where the house of CPI(M) MLA A N Shamseer was attacked, he said. The attackers had not even spared even an MLA, media personnel and party offices during the violence as part of the the Sabarimala hartal, he said. Slamming the BJP-RSS for calling a hartal over the Sabarimala women's entry issue, Vijayan said a hartal is the last word of democratic protest, but calling for it every week amounted to ridiculing it. However, the Chief Minister said his government had no plans to bring in any legislation to regulate hartals now. To a question on the total number of women who had offered worship at the Sabarimala temple so far, he said he did not have the exact figures. Kerala had witnessed large-scale violence since January 2 when two women in the menstruating age offered worship at the Sabarimala temple. Vijayan said devotees have started coming for darshan at the Sabarimala temple, which showed there were no law and order issues. Echoing similar views, CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the BJP-led-NDA government at the Centre did not have the strength to dismiss the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The centre should first dismiss the Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Aditiyanath as communal clashes were increasing day by day there, he told reporters later, adding that in 2017, that state had witnessed 195 communal clashes. According to police, 2182 cases have been registered in connection with the violence unleashed in Kerala and 6711 people have been arrested till noon Monday. Of the arrested, while 5817 have been granted bail, 894 persons have been remanded, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Monday said that exports of jute diversified products have risen 24 per cent since 2014. Speaking at a textile outreach programme here, Irani said "jute is the currency of the day" and that it had contributed to the flourish of West Bengal for years. Textiles Secretary Raghavendra Singh said the ministry is trying to connect the weavers with big companies for realising higher margins. The government is looking at ways and means to raise the income of the weavers and generate employment, he said. Insurance and marketing assistance to weavers are also being in 40 districts of India, the minister said. Singh added that pre and post registration of GI tags of 163 handicraft and handloom products is required. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration Monday said they might mull the possibility of having student representatives in the academic council since the elected students' union has not been notified yet. Professor Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector-I of the varsity, said the student's union could not be notified as election campaigning bills were not duly signed and were not submitted within the deadline recommended by the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines. "We are waiting and requesting them repeatedly. The administration cannot take action. The ball is in their court. We are accountable to the CAG and internal audit for every penny spent. Till now, there is no students' body at the varsity," he added. Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) members are special invitees to the Academic Council and since they have not been notified, they have not been able to attend the Academic Council meeting. They are not part of the decision making, Mahapatra pointed out, adding that students keep on writing to them on their demands and their concerns and they take note of those. He said there is a statute in the JNU Act which says that student representatives should be elected to the Academic Council, which was never adhered to since the JNUSU elected representatives were invited. "The statute was never adhered to and for decades, JNUSU was the special invitee to the Academic Council. We can probably explore the possibility of having student representatives (other than JNUSU). That is something the Academic Council can decide," he added. Meanwhile, some university officials claimed that the campaigning bills did not have the GST component, which is why the union has not been notified yet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), a BJP ally, Monday welcomed the government's decision to give 10 per cent quota to the poor in the general category and said the move will bring economically backward sections of upper castes in the mainstream of development. In a statement, JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said all political parties should support the constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament to help the socially and economically deprived sections of upper castes. He said the V P Singh-led government in 1990 had proposed 10 per cent quota for them, but it could not be implemented and added that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar had set up an 'upper castes commission' in 2011 to evaluate their social and economic conditions. "All political parties should support this move of the central government," Tyagi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. Kono briefed the prime minister on follow-up action taken in the recent months after Modi's visit to the country in October 2018, a statement from the prime minister's office said. The prime minister recalled his "successful" visit to Japan, and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan. Modi said India looks forward to the next round of the Annual Summit with Japan later this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jammu and Kashmir recorded 2,936 instances of ceasefire violations by Pakistan in 2018 -- the highest in the past 15 years with an average of eight cases daily -- in which 61 people were killed and over 250 injured, officials said Monday. Shelling and firing by Pakistani troops was "very heavy" in 2018, virtually making the 2003 India-Pakistan border truce "redundant", they said. "Pakistani troops repeatedly targeted forwards posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to create a fear psychosis among the people," a senior police officer said. "Pakistani forces have violated the ceasefire 2,936 times in 2018, in which 61 people were killed and 250 injured," a senior Army official told PTI. The violations continued despite Pakistani troops vowing to maintain peace on the border during more than 20 brigade commander-level and flag meetings with the Indian forces. "Pakistan vows to maintain peace and strengthen border relations, but they do not keep their promises," the Army official said. The number of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in 2018 were over three times that of 2017, when 971 cases were reported. In 2017, 31 people -- 12 civilians and 19 security forces personnel -- were killed and 151 suffered injures. People living near the border in Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts were severely hit by firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Fear gripped the border populace due to frequent shelling, which prompted thousands of people to migrate to safer places. The officials said that due to shelling and firing incidents, people had to migrate to safer places three times last year, which affected education and farm activities. To protect border residents in view of increasing ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the central government sanctioned Rs 415 crore for the construction of over 14,400 underground bunkers along the LoC and the IB and made efforts to speed up the work last year. Over 300 bunkers have been constructed under the programme in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and tenders have been floated for more such bunkers, the officials said, adding that over 4,000 bunkers would be constructed this year. Giving details of cases of ceasefire violations in the past decade, the officials said that in 2015, 405 cases of ceasefire violations were reported and 583 such instances were recorded in 2014. There had been a gradual increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan between 2009 and 2013. The corresponding figures for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 were 347, 114, 62, 44, and 28. In the previous three years, the numbers of such violations were77 in 2008, 21 in 2007 and three in 2006, according to official data. For three years - 2004, 2005 and 2006 - there was not a single such violation on the border. The Indian government led by the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee entered into a border ceasefire agreement with Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 26, 2003. India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan, of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Governor's administration in Jammu and Kashmir constituted a technical committee Monday to inspect the Jammu ropeway project, aimed at boosting tourism here, an official said. The order issued by the general administration department said the committee shall comprise chief engineer from the mechanical engineering department, Jammu, chief engineer, Jammu, superintending engineer (Civil) Jammu and Showkat Ahmad Bhat, deputy engineer (Mechanical), J&K State Cable Car Corporation, Gulmarg. The technical committee shall have the mandate to act as per the provisions prescribed under Section 10 & 11 of the J&K Aerial Ropeways Act, 2002, it said. The much-awaited Jammu ropeway project, aimed at boosting tourism in the state's winter capital, underwent trial runs in December last year, the officials said. The 1.66-km-long cable car project has two phases, first from Bahu Fort to Mahamaya Park and second from Mahamaya to Peer Kho over the Tawi river, with a total length of 1,118 metre. The trial run of the first phase was successfully conducted by the Cable Car Corporation in April last year. Planned in 1995, the project was to be operated from Bahu Fort to Mubarak Mandi Complex initially but, was modified and relocated later, when the two were declared as protected monuments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Monday said it is shocking that people are still being prosecuted under Section 66 A of the even after it has been scrapped by the apex court in 2015. Seeking response from the Centre, it said if that is the case then the officials concerned will be sent to jail for violating its orders. "Its shocking that people are still being prosecuted for a provision which was scrapped by this court in 2015. If that is the case then we will send all those concerned officials to jail," said a bench of Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Sharan. The top court issued notice to the Centre and sought its response within four weeks. At the outset, advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for NGO PUCL, said prosecutions are taking place even after the provision has been struck down three years ago. As per the data available, he said, more than 22 prosecutions have taken place till now after the provisions was struck down. Terming liberty of thought and expression "cardinal", the top court had on March 24, 2015, scrapped the provision saying that "the public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the The first PIL on the issue was filed in 2012 by a law student Shreya Singhal who sought an amendment in Section 66A of the Act after two girls Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan were arrested in Palghar in Maharashtra's Thane district. While one had posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death, the other had 'liked' it. PUCL was also one of the petitioners in the case and has challenged the constitutional validity of section 66A of IT Act. "...despite the clear and unequivocal holding of this Court in Shreya Singhal case, Section 66A of the IT Act continues to be applied in the legal system. A recent working paper by the Internet Freedom Foundation demonstrates that pending prosecutions under Section 66A of the IT Act have not been terminated, and further that it continues to be invoked by police across India in FIR registered after the verdict," the PUCL plea said. It said that research paper has considered several media reports as also the NCRB data but that is not an exhaustive list of the cases. It added however that the data sufficiently establishes that Section 66A of the IT Act continues to live on in the legal system despite the judgment in Shreya Singhal case. "That from the existence of several quashing petitions filed before High Courts, it is apparent that trial courts and prosecutors are not actively implementing the decision of this Court, and the burden of terminating illegal prosecutions based on Section 66A of the IT Act is unfairly falling upon accused persons," the plea said. It added that the harm emanating from this state of affairs is enormous as besides indicating disregard for the Constitution and this Court, the continued use of Section 66A of the IT Act is a direct violation of the fundamental rights under Articles 19(1)(a) and 21 of the persons against whom the provision is invoked. The NGO sought full compliance of the verdict of March 24, 2015, immediately through issuance of appropriate circulars/ advisories addressed to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories, and the Director Generals of Police of all States and Union Territories. It also sought direction of the court to the apex court registry to send a copy of judgement to all the high courts to pass appropriate orders in pending cases concerning Section 66A of the IT Act as well as appropriate circulars to bring the Shreya Singhal judgement to the notice of all district courts within their jurisdiction to prevent failures of justice. The Income Tax Employees' Federation of Ghaziabad region will join the nationwide two-days general strike on January 8 and 9. The nationwide strike has been called to press for several demands including implementation of the old pension system instead of the new one. The strike has been called because the government has been ignoring the 12-point charter of our demands, general secretary of the Federation's Ghaziabad region, KC Shukla, said. In the demand charter, ten central trade unions have emphasised to revise the minimum pay and fitment formula, to fill the vacant posts and to stop privatisation, contracts and outsourcing in the government establishments, he said. In the strike, 175 employees from Ghaziabad region and 1,800 from Agra, Dehradun, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh and Meerut will participate, he said. He added, around 125 employees from Ghaziabad will assemble at the C.G.O complex, in front of the gate of Chief Commissioner Income Tax's office and stage protest. While, other employees will sit on protest at their respective district headquarters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The NCP Monday wondered if the Union cabinet's move to approve 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections in the general category was the "beginning" to cancel the reservation for SCs and STs "as per the RSS' stand". The NCP also said the move will mainly benefit the middle class and not the poor. Clarifying that the party is not against the latest quota, senior party leader Nawab Malik said the poor would not get the reservation benefits in education and government jobs until the Rs 8 lakh annual eligibility ceiling is reduced. The NCP national spokesperson also said that second RSS Sarsanghchalak MS Golwalkar had in his 1966 book 'Bunch of Thoughts' talked about giving reservation on the basis of the economic criteria. He said the Sangh had also allegedly talked about cancelling the quota given to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. "The government should explain if that (process) has begun through this decision...will it cancel reservations being given to SCs, STs and others?" he asked. Observing that the quota decision is taken with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Malik said the government will have to bring in a Constitutional amendment. According to sources, the Union Cabinet has approved 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward section in the general category. The reservation benefit is likely to be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs 8 lakh and have up to five acres of land. The government is likely to bring a Constitutional amendment bill in Parliament on Tuesday as the new quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation. "We are not opposing any decision that has been taken for the upper caste poor based on the economic criteria, but setting the income limit below Rs 8 lakh will not benefit the poor, but the middle class will get more benefits out of it," Malik said. As they are taking a decision to give 10 per cent reservation to upper class, a constitutional amendment is required, he said, adding that such amendments should be there along with state-wise reservations (like those given to Marathas in Maharashtra and Patels in Gujarat). He said the NCP would launch a statewide 'Parivartan Yatra' on January 9 from Mahad in Raigad district, to highlight "failures" of the BJP-led Central and state governments. In the first phase of the mass outreach campaign till January 14, the NCP aims to cover parts of Raigad, Thane and Palghar districts, apart from Navi Mumbai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An injunction has been filed at Bangkok's Criminal Court to prevent a Saudi woman held in Thailand's airport from being deported, a lawyer said Monday. Eighteen-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun said she was fleeing her "abusive" family while travelling in Kuwait, and had flown to Thailand in the hopes of reaching Australia to seek asylum. But she was stopped on Sunday when she deplaned in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport by Kuwaiti and Saudi embassy officials, she said, and has since been held in an airport hotel awaiting deportation. Qunun told AFP she feared that she would be killed if she is repatriated to Saudi Arabia. Human rights lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman told AFP she filed an injunction at 1:00 pm (1400 GMT) to Bangkok's criminal court to prevent Qunun's deportation. "In the event when we suspect that someone might be illegally detained, we request for the court to call the relevant authorities (in) for questioning," said Bergman. "For now, I just called for the immigration and Rahaf herself, and the staff at the hotel" to be questioned, she added. Bergman said she was awaiting the court's decision, and that Thai authorities had no grounds to hold Qunun if she had a passport and a visa for travel to Australia. Thai immigration chief said Qunun was stopped for a lack of documents, and she had "bought the ticket" to return to Saudi Arabia herself. The Saudi embassy in Bangkok has issued a statement denying its role in holding her, and said Thai authorities stopped her for "violating the law". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has taken over operations of the strategic in the Sistan-Balochistan province of energy-rich Iran's southern coast, the government said Monday. This is the first time India will be operating a port outside its territory. "The Government of India took over the operations of a part of Shahid Beheshti Port, Chabahar, in Iran during the Chabahar Trilateral Agreement meeting held there on December 24, 2018," the Shipping Ministry said in a statement here. The heads of Indian, Iranian and Afghanistan delegation jointly inaugurated the office of the Indian SPV - India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ) at Chabahar. "The physical take-over of the terminal area, cargo handling equipment and Office building was completed by December 29, 2018," the statement said. Commercial operations began at IPGCFZ with the arrival of a vessel, it said adding, a Cyprus registered bulk carrier had arrived at Chabahar with 72,458 MT of corn cargo. The vessel MV Macheras berthed at the terminal at 0130 hrs on December 30, 2018, and IPGCFZ carried out its first cargo operation by discharging the imported cargo(ex Brazil) using pneumatic un-loaders, it added. "This step marks the beginning of a long journey. India has written a history with its engagement in Chabahar and is now leading the regional cooperation and joint efforts to support land locked Afghanistan. This is the first time India will be operating a port outside its territories," the statement said. India started interacting with Iran on around 2003 but a major push was received in the second half of 2014, resulting in the signing of an MoU between the two countries for the development of in May 2015. This MoU translated into a formal 10-year contract for Equipping and Operating the Chabahar Port, which was executed on May 23, 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tehran. "Since there were challenges in activation of the said contract, the foundation of an interim period contract was laid during the visit of Hassan Rouhani, President of Islamic Republic of Iran to New Delhi in February 2018. Resultantly, a formal short term Contract between the two sides was signed on May 6, 2018," the statement said. The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 km from Chabahar. The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. Amnesty India Monday said that the Indian government's expulsion of Rohingya asylum-seekers to Myanmar shows a disdain for international laws. On January 4, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said a family of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Rakhine state, registered with the UNHCR in India, was sent back to Myanmar after being detained in Assam, where they had been serving a prison term since 2013 for illegal entry into India. Amnesty India issued a statement saying it regretted India's decision to repatriate the asylum-seekers to Myanmar, where conditions are not conducive for their return. "The fact that the government ignored the UNHCR's requests for access to the family, who were registered as asylum-seekers, is deeply concerning. The government's actions indicate a blatant disregard for the international refugee protection mechanism and the mandate of the UN Refugee Agency," Abhirr V P, senior campaigner, Amnesty India, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Pakistan are big enough countries to ensure that they can decrease bilateral tensions without help from outside, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Monday. Solberg made the remarks during a media interaction after the inauguration of a new green compound at the Royal Norwegian Embassy here. Asked if Norway could play the role of a mediator having a reputation of resolving conflicts, she said Norway had done a lot of work on mediation for peaceful settlement of disputes, but her government's policy was clear --to help someone when asked for it. "Nobody from the outside can create peace or make changes. It has to come from inside," she said. So if there is a movement in India and Pakistan for greater talks together, other countries may help, but the process has to be "partner driven", Solberg said. "It has to be those who are part of the conflict. I think both Pakistan and India are big enough countries to make sure that they can decrease tension between them without help from outside," the Norwegian prime minister said. Later, Norwegian ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvg, in a tweet, clarified that Solberg had not offered to mediate between India and Pakistan. Norway has neither been asked nor offered to mediate, he said. Solberg, while replying to a question on whether a military solution was possible in the Kashmir Valley, said, "I personally don't believe that military solutions can solve problems, I believe in peaceful solutions. I believe in the participation of women and youth in peace negotiations." She said military solutions are not always long lasting. Solberg said that good relations with neighbours can also provide an opportunity for using less money on military and allocating more funds on health and education sectors. The Norwegian prime minister, who arrived here this morning for a three-day visit, will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday on a host of issues with an aim to expand the multi-faceted bilateral partnership. To another question, Solberg said there is a long tradition of cooperation with India and she was looking forward to further collaboration in Tuesday's meetings with the Indian leadership. "Most of the political meetings will be tomorrow. This day we are starting with our business meeting and a record number of Norwegean businesses have come here to find Indian partners to increase cooperation with India," Solberg said. Asked how Norway can help India in clean energy sector, she said that some of the technologies that her country has are applicable in India. She said there were lot of opportunities for bilateral cooperation in the maritime, science and green energy sectors. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Norway will sign an agreement Tuesday to facilitate dialogue to boost bilateral trade, which currently stands at USD 1.2 billion. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is currently on a 3-day visit here. Addressing the India-Norway business summit, Solberg said Norway sees great scope for partnerships with India in business, trade, and investments and the country's new strategy for engagement with India reflects its significance. "The aim of the new strategy is to strengthen Norway's bilateral relations and economic ties with India. Private sector engagement, research and technical cooperation are key components of the strategy," she said. Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said while addressing summit said, "we should try to think about how can we increase it (bilateral trade) substantially in the next few years time and therefore, tomorrow we will be signing (an agreement to facilitate) a dialogue between India and Norway, between my ministry and my counterpart ministry to actually take it to a new level". "I am sure the dialogue will ensure that we look at all possible solutions to take it (trade) forward and make it better," he added. "We also look forward to signing an FTA, there are several rounds (of negotiations) which have taken place, you are a part of the grouping (EFTA) and we really look forward to that concluding soon which will provide a framework for bilateral trade to grow," Prabhu said. India and the EFTA countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) are working on the nuts and bolts of the pact, officially dubbed as the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA). Observing that Norway and India are both ocean states and closer cooperation in this field will benefit both countries, Solberg said the Ocean Dialogue between Norway and India will be an important tool to bring this cooperation forward. Business entities from the two nations signed 15 MoUs across various sectors including finance, ICT, health-care, energy and aquaculture, among others, in the presence of the prime minister. She observed that "big possibilities" exist for Norwegian companies in India, especially in the energy sector. Stressing that open and free trade are crucial for economic growth, Solberg said, predictable and stable framework conditions are vital for attracting foreign investment to any market. The Norwegian prime minister, further said efforts are on to ensure that the trade and economic partnership agreement between EFTA (European Free Trade Association) and India is finalised soon as it will contribute to increased trade and better environment for businesses from the two nations. "We also support a rule-based multilateral trading system, open markets and lower trade barriers. A stable global framework for trade and investment is vital for both our countries, especially in times like today where we are seeing increased protectionism in certain markets," she said. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the summit, the Norwegian prime minister said she is pleased to meet her Indian counterpart during the visit. "I think he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has done a tremendous job on a lot of social issues in India and he keeps a high knowledge of sustainability in the international political discussions. I hope that we also would have platform for political cooperation in the years to come," Solberg said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A student of the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati was on Monday evening found hanging in his hostel room in the campus premises, police said. The parents of Pannem Pavan Siddardha, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, called up his friends at IIT-G around 5 pm asking them to connect him to them as Pannem was not picking up his phone, sources said. On entering his room, the friends found Pannem hanging from the ceiling fan. They immediately rushed him to the campus hospital where he was declared brought dead, the sources said. Pannem was a final year student of Electronics and Communications B.Tech programme and a boarder of Umium hostel in a single seater room. His body has been kept in the morgue of a nearby hospital and autopsy will be conducted Tuesday after his parents arrive from Andhra Pradesh, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UP Minister Siddharth Nath Singh Monday sought to know why opposition leaders are "panicking" over a CBI probe into the mining scam if they have not done anything wrong. Taking exception to statements of BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leaders over reports that the CBI might quiz SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav in connection with the scam, Singh said, "It looks like 'chor ki daadi mein tinka' (guilty conscience pricks the mind)." "Why are they afraid. The CBI has not yet taken the name of Akhilesh Yadav. If there was no illegal mining during the SP government, there is no need for them to be afraid of the CBI probe," he added. Referring to Mayawati's phone call to Yadav after reports emerged that he might be quizzed by the CBI in connection with the mining scam, he said, "It seems their alliance principle is -- you save me and I will save you." "Promises were made during the rule of SP government of probe into the works carried out during the BSP regime and vice versa, but nothing was done and now both the parties are in alliance," the minister said. Earlier in the day, a release was issued by the BSP in which Mayawati extended her full support to Yadav and asked him not to get shaken while asserting that people will give a befitting reply to the BJP. "Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav, while terming the reports as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the ruling BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases. Yadav may face a CBI probe in a case of illegal mining, according to the agency FIR made public Saturday, the day Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-led BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had taken up the case on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Facing criticism for her visit to homes of militants, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Monday said she had not gone on her own but was invited by people in distress and that her doors are open for all Kashmiris who are in trouble. "I did not go on my own, I went because I was called by these people. If anyone has problem with my such visits, I will not go but doors of Mehbooba Mufti are open for all Kashmiris who are in trouble or facing any problems," Mehbooba said addressing party workers on the third death anniversary of her father and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at his graveyard in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district. Referring to the criticism she faced for visiting the families of militants, the PDP president said two former chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference (NC) -- live on the same road where she lives and yet the people in distress choose to meet her. "A few days ago, some people from a family came to me. Where I live (in Srinagar), two other former chief ministers also live -- Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. They did not go to them but to me. What can I do? They told me that one of their wards is a militant but security forces have arrested his sister, brother-in-law and another brother. I assured them that I will speak to the DGP about it. "But I also thought what will happen to other people (suffering the same fate). They said you should visit our home and it will send a message to entire Kashmir. Otherwise, which former chief minister will go from village to village," she said. "I do not want anyone to outrage the modesty of my sisters and daughters. I went there and two people were released. The Governor ordered an inquiry into the matter to ascertain whether any excesses had been committed. Then Safanagari people heard about it and they called me. They told me that their militant son has been killed but the security forces have arrested his brother now," she said. The PDP president claimed that in her 26 months as chief minister, she was allowed to work for only two months. "Out of two years and two months (as chief minister), I was allowed to work for only two months. You know the situation in 2014 and the devastation unleashed by floods. Today, you are able to travel between Islamabad (Anantnag) and Srinagar within minutes. Today there is a medical college in Islamabad and another one in Baramulla. Today there is a passport office in Islamabad (Anantnag)," she said. Mehbooba said her government restored the infrastructure damaged in the floods and also decided to regularise the services of 60,000 daily wagers. "What can I do if the orders to this effect (regularisation) are not being issued now (by the Governor's administration). 10,000 youths were recruited in police. I did whatever I could but one thing I must tell you that I did not compromise," she said. The PDP president said besides withdrawing FIRs against 12,000 youths in stone-pelting cases, she convinced the Centre to announce a one-month ceasefire in the state. "I made the BJP government (at the Centre) to announce ceasefire for one month. Everyone was home comfortably. There was no shots fired from this side (security forces) but firing came from the other side (militants). If I had another opportunity, I would have got the ceasefire for six months," she said. On the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Mehbooba said she did not compromise and did not hand the case over to the CBI. "I did not compromise on Kathua case. I got two (BJP) ministers dropped and did not hand the case over to CBI as I had apprehensions that it (Kathua case) will meet the same fate as the Shopian case (alleged rape and murder of two women in 2009)," she said. Mehbooba said she had FIRs registered against the Army and security forces wherever they erred and that the "BJP could not bear it". "Had I compromised on these issues, this government would have lasted full six years," she said. Mehbooba said she would have relinquished power long ago but wanted to fulfil the promises made to the people and her party workers. "When I have workers like you, I do not need anything. I would have kicked the chair long ago but I remained patient for you. I wanted a proper livelihood for you. It should not be like you will sweep the hospitals and there is no salary to be paid. I wanted it such that whether I remain in office or not, you should get salaries," she added. The PDP president said she repeatedly told the Prime Minister that the situation in Kashmir will not improve unless the Centre holds dialogue with Pakistan and separatists. "I convinced the Union Home Minister on this and he stated this in Parliament a few days ago. The Home Minister said he was ready for unconditional talks with Hurriyat Conference. What else could I have done? We can only take a horse to the water but we cannot force it to drink," she said. On several leaders deserting her party, she said that "the party is not weakened as they (other parties) are collecting trash" from PDP. Mainstream politicians cutting across party lines paid tribute to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who died in 2016. Among those who paid tributes to the PDP founder were National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah and Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi Monday said abundant Central funds for various development schemes in the union territory would be available if the civic polls were held at the earliest. Addressing reporters at the Raj Nivas, she said the Supreme Court had given a directive six months back to the territorial government to hold the polls soon. She said she had reminded Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on the civic elections, lest the Union territory run the risk of facing contempt of court by delaying the polls. The polls have not been held for the last seven years after the term of office of the earlier panchayat institutions ended in 2011. Bedi said the budget of the union territory for fiscal 2018-19 was more than Rs 7,500 crore and the Central government had provided had provided round 50 per cent of the total budgetary allocation by way of grant. Sticking to her stand that the Pongal gift hampers would be available only for families coming under the Below Poverty Line, she said the scheme was a budgeted scheme and specific rules were framed last year to implement it. Funds were also adequately earmarked to ensure that the benefits of the scheme reach only the BPL families, she said. "This arrangement has been accepted and approved by all," she said. The Lieutenant Governor maintained that any scheme was bound by specific rules and according to the allocation of funds in the budget and none was above rule of law. To a query on statehood, Bedi, who has been at loggerheads with the chief minister on various issues, said the statehood status is the will of the people and the decision of Parliament. "I do not want to make any comment on it," she said. Earlier, she made a power-point presentation,highlighting the implementation of various schemes, including desilting of rural irrigation channels and urban drainage channels, in association with various industries and institutions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten MPs, seven of them belonging to BJP ally Shiv Sena, have written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda to take "appropriate action" against global healthcare major Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and "ensure justice for all sufferers" of faulty ASR hip implants. Lok Sabha MP from Pratapgarh (UP) Kunwar Haribansh Singh, belonging to BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), is among the 10 MPs to have written to Nadda. "Most recently, the company (J&J) seems to be going against the government's directions and denying its liability in compensating patients," Chandrakant Khaire, Shiv Sena MP from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, wrote in a letter dated January 7. "I call upon you 'sir' (Nadda) to independently identify all patients who have received the faulty ASR implants in India; and take appropriate action/s against the company to ensure that justice is met to all the sufferers of these faulty ASR (hip) implants (sic)," Khaire added. In December last year, J&J had approached the Delhi High Court, requesting an urgent hearing claiming that the government's directive asking the company to pay compensation to the victims of faulty hip implants had no basis in the law, and it must be stayed consequently. On December 12, 2018, the high court refused to hear the company's plea, stating that it was "neither important nor urgent". It deferred the matter to February 26 for next hearing. Kunwar Haribansh Singh had written to Nadda in December that the ministry should "take all necessary actions to penalise the company for its criminal wrongdoing and violation of the laws". Singh had added that Union Health Ministry should ensure that justice is "met to all the sufferers of ASR hip implants (sic)". The Health Ministry's expert panel, which submitted a report on February 19 last year, had recommended that J&J be made liable to pay at least Rs 20 lakh to each affected patient. The panel had added that the reimbursement programme for revision surgeries should continue until August 2025. In November last year, the central government accepted the recommendations of expert panel in parts and stated that patients -- suffering due to J&J's faulty hip implants -- would be eligible for compensation in the range from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore. Dharam Vira Gandhi, Lok Sabha MP from Patiala and suspended member of the Aam Aadmi Party, wrote to Nadda on December 28, 2018, urging him "to penalise the company for its wrongdoing and violation of laws". B N Chandrappa, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Chitradurga, as well as H K Patil, Congress MLA from Gadag, have also written to the Union health minister on similar lines. Chitradurga and Gadag are in Karnataka. Apart from Khaire, other Shiv Sena MPs who requested Nadda to take action against J&J are Hemant Tukaram Godse, Rahul Shewale, Arvind Sawant, Prataprao Jadhav, Vinayak Raut and Shrikant Eknath Shinde. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten MPs, seven of them belonging to BJP ally Shiv Sena, have written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda to take "appropriate action" against global major and (J&J) and "ensure justice for all sufferers" of faulty ASR hip implants. Lok Sabha MP from Pratapgarh (UP) Kunwar Haribansh Singh, belonging to BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), is among the 10 MPs to have written to Nadda. "Most recently, the company (J&J) seems to be going against the government's directions and denying its liability in compensating patients," Chandrakant Khaire, MP from in Maharashtra, wrote in a letter dated January 7. "I call upon you 'sir' (Nadda) to independently identify all patients who have received the faulty ASR implants in India; and take appropriate action/s against the company to ensure that justice is met to all the sufferers of these faulty ASR (hip) implants (sic)," Khaire added. In December last year, had approached the Delhi High Court, requesting an urgent hearing claiming that the government's directive asking the company to pay compensation to the victims of faulty hip implants had no basis in the law, and it must be stayed consequently. On December 12, 2018, the high court refused to hear the company's plea, stating that it was "neither important nor urgent". It deferred the matter to February 26 for next hearing. Kunwar Haribansh Singh had written to Nadda in December that the ministry should "take all necessary actions to penalise the company for its criminal wrongdoing and violation of the laws". Singh had added that Union should ensure that justice is "met to all the sufferers of ASR hip implants (sic)". The Health Ministry's expert panel, which submitted a report on February 19 last year, had recommended that be made liable to pay at least Rs 20 lakh to each affected patient. The panel had added that the reimbursement programme for revision surgeries should continue until August 2025. In November last year, the central government accepted the recommendations of expert panel in parts and stated that patients -- suffering due to J&J's faulty hip implants -- would be eligible for compensation in the range from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore. Dharam Vira Gandhi, Lok Sabha MP from Patiala and suspended member of the Aam Aadmi Party, wrote to Nadda on December 28, 2018, urging him "to penalise the company for its wrongdoing and violation of laws". B N Chandrappa, Lok Sabha MP from Chitradurga, as well as H K Patil, MLA from Gadag, have also written to the Union health minister on similar lines. Chitradurga and Gadag are in Apart from Khaire, other MPs who requested Nadda to take action against are Hemant Tukaram Godse, Rahul Shewale, Arvind Sawant, Prataprao Jadhav, Vinayak Raut and Shrikant Eknath Shinde. Senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Monday said Hindus in the state will become minority in the next five years if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not passed. Speaking to PTI, Sarma said it would be advantageous for those who want Assam to be another Kashmir. "I strongly believe that if this Bill is not passed, Assamese Hindus will become minority in just next five years. That will be advantageous for those elements who want Assam to be another Kashmir," the finance minister said. Sarma's remarks come in the wake of protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. It seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they do not possess any proper document. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Monday set aside the Centre's ban on Indian pharma major Wockhardt's anti-inflammatory medicine 'Ace Proxyvon', used in painful rheumatic conditions. Justice Vibhu Bakhru passed the order on the firm's plea challenging the Centre's September 7, 2018 notification banning the manufacture, sale and distribution of 328 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs. This is the first petition, filed against the Health Ministry's notification, to be decided by the court. A batch of pleas on the same issue are pending before it. Other pharma majors including Glenmark, Alkem Laboratories, Obsurge Biotech, Coral Laboratories, Lupin, Mankind Pharma, Koye Pharmaceuticals, Macleods and Laborate have also moved the high court against the ban on their FDCs ranging from anti-inflammatory and pain killers to antibiotics and drugs for treating bacterial infections. FDCs are two or more drugs combined in a fixed ratio into a single dosage form. Ace Proxyvon, sold by Wockhardt in a tablet form, is a mixture of three salts -- aceclofenac, paracetamol and rabeprazol -- a combination which was banned. The court had reserved its order on November 15 last year on Wockhardt's petition filed in September. In an interim order, the court had earlier said that no coercive steps be taken against Wockhardt for sale of stocks of its banned anti-inflammatory medicine which was already in the market, subject to the firm stopping production of the drug. It had said the medicine has been in the market for past 11 years and its stocks would already be in the distribution network. The pharma company had contended that it has not been provided with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) report, based on which the ministry's decision was taken. It had claimed the only reason given in the September 7, 2018 notification was that the combination had no therapeutic value. The medicine is reportedly prescribed for people with painful rheumatic conditions, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. The Health Ministry had, through a notification of March 10, 2016, prohibited 349 FDCs for manufacture, sale and distribution under Section 26 A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The notification was then contested by the pharma companies in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. The high court in December 2016 had quashed the ban on the FDCs, which was challenged by the Centre in the apex court. The top court had in December, 2017 set aside the high court order and referred the banned FDCs to DTAB for re-examination. Complying with the apex court direction, an expert panel set up by DTAB, in its report to the Centre, had stated there was no therapeutic justification for the ingredients contained in 328 of the 349 FDCs, which may also involve risk to humans. The board had recommended that it was necessary to prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of these FDCs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 in larger public interest. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking to suspend the trailer of the upcoming movie "The Accidental Prime Minister" and asked the petitioner to file it as a public interest litigation. Justice Vibhu Bakhru disposed of the plea which was filed by the petitioner in her personal capacity. The judge made it clear that she has not examined the controversy raised in the plea. The plea alleged that provisions of the Cinematograph Act are being misused and the film producer has released the trailer affecting, harming the image of the office of the prime minister and giving a bad name at the national and international level. The film, which stars Anupam Kher as Manmohan Singh, is based on a book of the same name by the former prime minister's media advisor Sanjaya Baru. The court noted the submission of the counsel for the Centre and the Censor Board that petitioner Pooja Mahajan stated in the first paragraph of her petition that she has no personal interest in the issue. "The counsel for respondents state that the petition is in the nature of public interest and it be filed as a PIL," the court said. It said it would be open for the petitioner to file a PIL. The court also said a PIL is heard by a division bench and not by a single judge. The plea, filed through advocate A Maitri, alleges that the released trailer of the film, which is scheduled for release on January 11, defames the Constitutional post of the prime minister. It has arrayed the Centre, through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Google (India) and YouTube as parties. According to the petition, due to the release of the trailer, the "post of prime minister is getting defamed on day to day basis in public domain before the public at large". It added that the disclaimer in the movie's trailer says it is based on a book written by Sanjaya Baru but the "real facts are totally different. In fact, the disclaimer given in the trailer is untrue, false and fake". "By performing the character of Manmohan Singh, (ex-PM), Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, the performing actors/ artists have committed offences punishable under sections 416 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC and therefore, the CBFC could not have given the certificate for screening/ exhibition of the film," it claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court Monday ordered the arrest of Tamil Nadu higher education secretary Mangat Ram Sharma, taking a serious view of his failure to appear in the court in a contempt case despite advance notice. "Contempt proceedings are serious proceedings and they cannot be taken lightly, especially, by a higher official like the higher education secretary," Justice N Kriubakaran said in his order. Directing the court registry to issue a bailable warrant against the IAS official, the judge ordered the Chennai Police Commissioner to arrest and produce him before the court by January 9. He was passing further interim orders on a contempt petition filed by the Association of Self Financing Arts and Science and Management Colleges in Tamil Nadu against the Coimbatore-based Bharathiyar University over setting up of distance education study centres through franchises institutes in areas outside its jurisdiction. The judge had on December 4, 2018 ordered Sharma, Bharathiyar University Registrar (in-charge) B Vanitha and eight other syndicate members to appear in the court Monday. When the case came up for hearing, all the officials barring Sharma were present. The Additional Advocate General said Sharma was away in Vellore for a Syndicate meeting of the Thiruvalluvar University based there. Refusing to accept the explanation, the judge said: "It is not as if he was asked to appear before this court at short notice." "On December 5 itself, he was served notice... he should have made arrangements to see to it that he appears before this court," the judge said. Noting that contempt proceedings were serious in nature, the judge further said, "The court has got every reason to believe that he had deliberately avoided appearance." Dispensing with further personal appearance of the officials who were present in the court, the judge posted the matter for January 9. The petitioner sought contempt action, contending that contrary to an undertaking given before the court on December 8, 2017, the Bharathiyar University syndicate had passed a resolution to admit students from outside under the distance education programme for 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court Monday gave a clean chit to a senior journalist two months after it deprecated a magistrate for allowing him to make submissions when the editor of a Tamil magazine was produced for remand. Tasking the magistrate to file a report on why and under what provisions of law he allowed former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, N Ram to make submissions in the case, Justice Anand Venkatesh had observed in November that court proceedings should revolve around law and facts of the case. The matter pertains to the arrest of Tamil magazine Nakkeeran's editor, R R Gopal, in October and his release by XIII Metropolitan Magistrate S Gopinathan. "This Court does not find anything wrong with the procedure adopted by the magistrate and the submissions made by Ram in this case, had not in any way affected the decision taken by him (magistrate) since he (Ram) had not made any submissions on the merits of the case," the judge said Monday when the case came up. The magistrate had, in fact, perfectly applied his mind and given scope for the police to collect further materials, and for that purpose, had got an undertaking from the petitioner to appear for interrogation as and when required. The magistrate had not closed his mind and the openness in his approach is very clear from the fact that he had given liberty to the investigating officer to again approach the court after collecting sufficient materials. He also ensured that Gopal appeared for interrogation before the police and also before the court at the time of hearing. Hence, "this court does not find any uncertainty in the procedure adopted by the magistrate and he has, in fact, adopted the correct procedure," the judge said. Justice Anand Venkatesh found no ground to interfere with the lower court order rejecting Gopal's remand and dismissed the criminal original petition from the police department seeking quashing of the rejection order. The magistrate had rejected a police plea for remand, holding that there were no materials to do so. Gopal was arrested in connection with the publication of alleged derogatory contents against Governor Banwarilal Purohit in Nakkeeran. In his report on November 26, the magistrate said he only asked Ram as to whether there were any previous instances where IPC Section 124 had been invoked against a media house for publishing an article. Only after this query, Ram had given his opinion about it and he had also stated that such registration of an FIR will directly affect and interfere with the freedom of the press. The magistrate was under the bonafide impression that he is entitled to call for such opinion in view of the provisions available under the Advocates Act and Criminal Rules of Practice. "It is clear from the judgment of the Supreme Court that with the prior permission of the court, the magistrate can permit any person to speak in the court. In this case, the court was dealing with a very peculiar case where a publication had been made a subject matter of an offence under Section 124 of the IPC, which is unprecedented and which came up for the first time before the court," the judge said. "Therefore, the magistrate wanted to get the views of a reputed and senior journalist as to whether there are any such instances in the past. "This query was answered by Ram by touching upon the freedom of the press," the judge said, adding that the court did not find anything wrong with the procedure adopted by the magistrate and the submissions made by Ram. Section 124 relates to assaulting President, governor, etc., with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social activist Anna Hazare Monday said he would stage protest beginning January 30 against state governments allegedly not bringing in Lokayukta Act after the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act was enacted over five years ago. In a statement, Hazare criticised the Centre for not appointing Lokpal to combat corruption. The anti-corruption crusader said he would launch the protest in his village Ralegansiddhi in Ahmednagar district, around 240km from here, and asked his followers to do so in their respective states. He said both the Houses of Parliament had passed the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill in December 2013 and it was enacted on January 1, 2014. "But the Centre is not implementing the Lokpal Act. As per the Act, the states were to bring Lokayukta Act within a year. But the states have not yet brought the Lokayukta Act. "Hence, I will stage protest in Ralegansiddhi seeking the law in Maharashtra," a statement quoted Hazare as saying. The veteran social activist had earlier announced he would launch a hunger strike on October 2, 2018 at his village over non-appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states. He, however, had withdrawn the proposed protest after the Maharashtra government assured to look into his demands. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A number of anganwadi workers who were honoured by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi here on Monday for their exemplary work, said they were happy for being awarded, but just recognition was not enough and demanded a permanent job and at least Rs 18,000 honorarium. They said though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in September last year announced a Rs 1,500 hike in their honorarium, they are yet to get the increased emoluments. Meena Verma, a 52-year-old mother of two from Chhattisgarh's Durg, said she started as an anganwadi worker in 1997, but still doesn't have a "permanent job". "We provide basic healthcare for the mother and child. We ensure antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant women. We administer vaccines to children, conduct surveys and are also deployed on election duty. We have given our entire lives to anganwadi. Still, we get paid a paltry sum," she said. Verma, whose husband is a daily wager, says her family falls under the below poverty line category and it is difficult to survive on an honorarium of Rs 5,000 let alone educate her two children. "Our demand is 'kaam ke hissab se daam' (remuneration in accordance to work done)... at least Rs 18,000 honorarium and regularisation of service. I am happy for the award but survival comes first," she said. Jabeen Akhtar (29), an anganwadi worker from Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district who was felicitated at the event, said, "We toil at the ground level and ensure that the government's programmes become successful. Yet we are paid a meagre amount." Akhtar, who came to the national capital leaving her year-old child with the father, said she gets Rs 3,600 per month and that the increase in wages announced by the prime minister was "unsatisfactory". Premlata Chakresh, who hails from Chhattisgarh's Jashpur and was rewarded for her exceptional work under the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme, said she was happy that her efforts were recognized, but she would be "happier if the government increased honorarium to Rs 18,000". Manju (46) from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur said she has been working as a basic health worker for 18 years and it is disappointing that she still doesn't have a permanent job. "People say we are nation builders, but we don't get paid according to our work. I get Rs 4,000. It should be raised to Rs 15,000 at least," she said. Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi conferred awards on 97 anganwadi workers from across the country for their exemplary work in the field. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the Centre finalising bids for the Guwahati-Dhaka and Guwahati-Bangkok routes, Assam's capital is likely to be the first city to be connected internationally under the UDAN scheme, a senior official said Monday. "We got the bids for two airports: Bangkok and Dhaka. For the remaining four, we got invalid bids. There was competition for these two cities. There were more than one bid. We have finalised the bid for Bangkok as well as Dhaka. The file is already with the (aviation) minister, the day minister signs it, we will announce it," said the official of the ministry of civil aviation. Under the UDAN scheme for affordable international connectivity, Assam government is likely to provide a subsidy of Rs 2,370 and Rs 4,400 for a certain number of seats on the flights operating on the Guwahati-Dhaka and Guwahati-Bangkok routes, respectively. "For the last one year they (Assam) have been pursuing the ministry and they have committed the funds. They are keen that whatever money is there should be used to bid for six destinations. We got the bids for two airports: Bangkok and Dhaka. For the remaining four, we got invalid bids," said the official. Assam had proposed subsidised international connectivity under UDAN scheme from Guwahati to six destinations -- Singapore, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Yangon in Myanmar, Kathmandu in Nepal, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand. Under international version of the UDAN scheme, the subsidy will come from the states and not the central government. Moreover, in contrast to the domestic UDAN scheme, no airline company will be given any exclusivity over any route under international UDAN scheme. On October 14 last year, the central government invited proposals from interested air operators for the international version of its 'UDAN' (Ude Desk Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme as it seeks to enhance air connectivity from India to select overseas destinations. The government, in an effort to make flying affordable for masses, had in October 2016 announced the domestic UDAN scheme with airfares capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour journey through subsidised ticket rates and to provide air connectivity to smaller towns. Five airlines were mandated to fly on 128 regional routes in the first phase of the bidding in March 2017, and 15 airlines on 325 regional routes, including those having chopper operations, in the second phase in January last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat BJP Monday welcomed the Centre's decision to give 10 per cent reservation to "economically weaker" sections from the general category even as an ordinance on the same issue brought by the state government in 2016 during the Patel quota stir was quashed by the high court. The state's BJP government had issued an ordinance for 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections among upper castes in May 2016, but the Gujarat High Court had quashed it in just three months, calling it "unconstitutional". The ruling party Monday termed the Narendra Modi government's decision to provide quota in jobs and education to the poor in the general category as historic. "This is a historic decision by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre," state BJP vice-president I K Jadeja told reporters. "This will address aspirations of weaker sections among the upper class," he said. The former Gujarat minister rejected the Congress's criticism over the issue. "The Congress is feeling pain due to this decision. It is in power in various states. Has it implemented such a decision in any of the state where it is in power? The answer is no. "They do not have right to criticise it," Jadeja said when asked that the Congress and Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel have termed the Centre's move as a "lollipop". The May 2016 was brought when Anandiben Patel was Chief Minister of Gujarat. The move was initiated by the BJP government after much deliberations and at a time when the Patel quota agitation was at its peak, but it failed to pass judicial scrutiny. The Gujarat government had argued before the HC that it is not giving new reservation, but only classifying upper caste poor into a different category among the open category. The HC, had, however quashed the ordinance, saying it is not a classification, as claimed by government, but it is indeed reservation. The court had termed the move as "inappropriate" and "unconstitutional". The state government later went in appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC verdict. Hardik Patel sought to how the Modi government will implement the quota for the poor among upper castes. "The Constitution provides for reservations on the basis of social backwardness only. Also, there is a cap of 50 per cent on reservations. "In such a scenario, how will the government give reservations on economic basis?" Patel asked. However, Jadeja said the Constitution will be amended to pave the way for granting quota to "economically weaker" sections from the general category. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stepping up his attack on the Modi government over the Rafale deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused it of weakening state-run aerospace major HAL and destroying India's strategic capability to benefit businessman Anil Ambani. He also alleged that while the government gave Rs 20,000 crore to Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale jets, even though it has not supplied a single aircraft. "But, why HAL's dues of Rs 15,700 crore have not been cleared," Rahul asked. He was speaking to reporters outside Parliament. "The strategy of the government is -- weaken HAL, do not give it money, destroy India's strategic capability and give 'gift' to Anil Ambani," Gandhi alleged. The government as well as Ambani have rejected all such allegations. Asserting that the Congress will protect the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), he alleged, "we are not going to allow Rs 30,000 crores of people's money to be taken by Anil Ambani because he is Narendra Modi's friend." Gandhi further said, "Give me 15 minutes with PM Modi for a debate on Rafale, the country will know the truth." The Congress President also slammed Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for "lying in Parliament" and evading his questions on Rafale in her reply to the debate on the issue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill has appreciated the government's decision to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, claiming such people were being subjected to "unfair treatment" in those countries. In its 440-page report, the panel headed by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal said, "Display of such supportive and humanitarian approach on the part of the government towards the minorities who fled the three countries, including Bangladesh, due to religious persecution is quite appreciable." The JPC report was submitted to the Lok Sabha on Monday and adopted through a majority vote, amidst dissent notes by opposition members. The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. A large number of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. The Asom Gana Parishad, an ally in the BJP-led Assam government Monday announced that it would snap ties with the saffron party over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The JPC report said, "The new cut of date implies that no more migrants would be legally allowed India after December 31, 2014 and it should motivate every stakeholder including the central government and the state governments to work in unison to ensure putting in place foolproof measures to prevent illegal migrants from entering the country, especially Assam, which has borne the maximum impact of influx from Bangladesh." The committee observed that several Assamese organisations have protested against the proposed amendments on the ground that the burden of the illegal migrants would be passed on to the state besides conferring political and economic rights upon such migrants to the detriment of indigenous communities. "In view of such protests, the committee is not convinced with the Ministry of Home Affairs' statement that there is no specific report on the unexpected demographic changes of certain North Eastern states, particularly Assam, due to the influx of migrants from Bangladesh," it said. The JPC said demographic changes have been indicated in successive census but the illegal migrants claim that they are original residents and citizens of India as they have been able to obtain documents, including ration card, driving licence, passport etc. "Therefore, in the committee's opinion, the cut off date of December 31, 2014 assumes greater significance as it has been intended to determine eligibility and prevent further influx into India, negating thereby the possible malafide design of the vested interests in the neighbouring countries," it observed. In their dissent note, Congress Rajya Sabha members Bhubaneswar Kalita and Pradip Bhattacharya said on certain grounds, the bill may create ethnic divisions in Assam and the Northeast. BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab said in his dissent note that the bill contravenes the provisions of the principal Act and goes against the spirit of the Assam Accord. In his dissent note, CPI-M member Mohammad Salim said the Indian citizenship flows from the Constitution that grants it as a fundamental right and the right cannot be religion specific or country of origin specific. TMC members Saugata Roy and Derek O'Brien, in their dissent note, said the bill brings out the ethnic division in Assam and it should not be passed by sheer majority since this is a political effort not necessitated political realities in Assam and West Bengal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a major move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet Monday cleared a 10 per cent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch BJP support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. A top government functionary said a constitutional amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament Tuesday, the last day of the Winter Session. The proposed reservation will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation enjoyed by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 per cent. The constitutional amendment bill would be required as the constitution does not provide for reservation on the ground of economic conditions. It envisages amendment to the Articles 5 and 6. A Union minister said the bill once passed will amend the Constitution accordingly to give reservation to the poor among the general castes and classes. "The bill will provide a shelter for upper castes under the rubric of fundamental rights. The court's rule of the maximum 50 per cent quota cannot fetter Parliament's right to amend the Constitution," he said. In its famous Indra Sawhney judgement, the Supreme Court had set a cap of 50 per cent cap on quotas. Government sources said the proposed constitutional amendment will pave the way for the additional quota. "The reservation will be given to those economically weaker people who presently do not avail any benefits of reservation," a source said. Among the major castes to benefit from the proposed law are Brahmins, Rajputs (Thakurs), Jats, Marathas, Bhumihars, several trading castes, Kapus and Kammas among other Upper Castes. The poor among the other religions will also benefit from it, sources added. The Congress described the government's decision as an "election gimmick" to fool the people and a proof of BJP's "fear" of losing Lok Sabha polls. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the government of "posturing" and misleading the country as it did not have the requisite majority to get a Constitutional amendment passed in Parliament. The BJP hailed the move with several leaders describing it as historic and exercise in sync with government's motto of "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas" (with all, development for all). BJP ally and Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan also termed the decision by the government as "historic". The constitutional amendment bill seeks to insert a clause in Sections 15 and 16 of the Constitution, introducing reservation for economically weaker sections in educational institutions and government jobs. So far, the Constitution envisages quota for socially and educationally backward classes besides Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and has no mention of economically weaker people. At least two-thirds of the members in both the Houses need to support the bill for its passage. The BJP believes that if opposition parties, whose support is a must for its passage in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks numbers, vote against it, then they will risk losing support of an influential section of society. Influential castes like Marathas, Kapus and Jats have hit the streets in the last few years, seeking reservation benefits. Their protests at times have turned violent. Though governments in states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have made laws, they are often struck down by the court on the ground of a Supreme Court judgement in the Indra Sawhney case had fixed a ceiling of 50 per cent on reservation. The apex court has also asserted that the Constitution makes no case for quota on economic ground and only talks of educational and social backwardness besides those for the SCs and STs. He added that the demand for providing quota to the poor from the general castes was made in the constituent assembly too. "For the first time, we (govt) are now going to give constitutional recognition to the poor from the upper castes," he said. The bill is likely to introduces criteria like an annual income below Rs 8 lakh and not owning more than five acres of agricultural land for those seeking quota benefits. They should also not own a flat of 1000 sq ft or more, land of 100 yards in notified municipality area and 200 yards in non-notified area, sources said. The ruling BJP hopes that the bill will help consolidate the general castes in its support as it begins campaign for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in April-May. Political watchers believe that sections of upper castes had drifted from the party of late following its aggressive push to win over backward classes and Dalits. The Modi government's decision to bring a law to nullify a Supreme Court order, which critics said had diluted provisions in a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribes, was also used by some upper castes groups to campaign against the BJP in recent state polls. The BJP had lost to the Congress in three states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where it was in power. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan Monday said the government will allow state-owned ONGC and Oil India to induct private and foreign partners in oilfields to raise output and also give special incentive to make their discoveries in difficult areas viable. Speaking at the launch of second bid round for 14 exploration blocks under open acreage licensing policy, Pradhan said Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and OIL will have the freedom to decide which of their currently producing fields they want to retain and in the ones where they would like to induct a partner. This is a climb down from the 2017 position where the oil ministry's upstream technical advisory body Directorate General of Hydrocarbons identified 15 fields -- 11 of ONGC and four of OIL -- for giving out 60 per cent stake to foreign and private companies. The move couldn't go through because of tough resistance from the state-owned firms. Then again in October last year, the ministry wanted ONGC to concentrate on large fields as they contribute to 95 per cent of its production and leave out the rest for private firms. "They can decide on the fields they want to retain and the stake they want to give (to foreign and private firms)," he said. Pradhan said "special incentive besides the incentive already provided" will be given to difficult fields of ONGC. "Previously, the government objective was revenue maximisation but now enhancing production is the only motive," he said. He, however, did not elaborate on the special incentive. Natural gas discoveries in difficult areas like deepsea currently command a higher price but this is applicable only for future finds and not currently discoveries of ONGC. ONGC and OIL haven't been able to develop some of their discoveries or bring them to production as the current gas price of USD 3.36 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) is way lower than the cost of production. ONGC has about 35 billion cubic metres of recoverable reserves in discoveries in the shallow sea off Andhra Pradesh on the east and off Gujarat and Mumbai on the west coast blocks. The three blocks in Krishna Godavari basin, Gulf of Kutch and Mumbai offshore can produce about 10 mmscmd of gas and an equivalent amount can be produced from its onshore discoveries in blocks like Bantumili, Mandapeta and Bhuvanagiri. About 5 mmscmd of production can be added by making some investment in existing fields like Mumbai High South, Neelam and B-127 Cluster in the Arabian Sea. Oil India has an onland discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh with over 3 billion cubic metres of recoverable reserves but needs a higher price to bring it to production. Pradhan said ONGC and OIL will soon come out with production enhancement contracts (PECs) wherein foreign or private companies will be allowed to take a stake in identified currently producing fields in return for raising output beyond an agreed level. The state-owned firms, he said, would device the contracts and implement them. "They will be given autonomy and freedom but will have greater accountability," he said. In October 2017, the DGH had identified 15 producing fields with a combined reserve of 791.2 million tonne crude oil and 333.46 billion cubic metres of gas of national oil companies for handing over to private firms in the hope they would improve upon the baseline estimate and their extraction. The plan, however, could not go through as ONGC strongly countered the DGH proposal with its own proposal that it be allowed to outsource operations on the same terms as the government plan, which involved pricing and marketing freedom. The fields identified in 2017 Kalol, Ankleshwar, Gandhar and Santhal -- the big four oil fields of ONGC in Gujarat. The DGH also had identified 44 other fields of ONGC and OIL which could take on partners for production enhancement work where bidders would get the 'tariff' that they bid as a return for increasing the output 'over the baseline production' for an initial period of 10 years. The oil ministry has been unhappy with the near stagnant oil and gas production and believes giving out the discovered fields to private firms would help raise output as they can bring in technology and capital. It has been tasked by the prime minister to cut dependence on oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022 from the over 77 per cent dependence in 2014-15. But the dependence has only increased and is now over 83 per cent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A French jihadist appeared in court on Monday as a jury was chosen for his trial for shooting dead four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014. Mehdi Nemmouche, the first jihadist to return from Syria's battlefields to allegedly launch an attack on European soil, faces a life sentence if convicted of the killings in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014. Both Nemmouche, 33, and Nacer Bendrer, a fellow Frenchman aged 30 who allegedly supplied the weapons, deny charges of "terrorist murder". Nemmouche, wearing a blue sweater, spoke only to confirm his identity as the hearing began at 10:30 am (0930 GMT). "Nemmouche, Mehdi, 33 years old, unemployed," he told the criminal court in Brussels before it selected a jury of eight men and four women for the trial, which opens on Thursday. More than 100 witnesses are due to testify at the trial, which will be attended by the victims' families and Jewish community leaders, who have denounced the anti-Semitic nature of the attack. And more than 300 Belgian and foreign journalists have registered to cover the proceedings which could last until the end of February. The deadly attack, which lasted only 82 seconds, shocked Belgium and the world. Firing a pistol and then an assault rifle, the gunman killed two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian receptionist at the Jewish Museum. Nemmouche -- born to a family of Algerian origin in the northern French town of Roubaix -- was arrested six days after the attack. He was caught in the southern French port city of Marseille after arriving on a bus from Brussels, carrying a handgun and an assault rifle. Before the attack, Nemmouche is said to have fought in Syria as part of a jihadist faction and is also accused of acting as a jailer of kidnapped French journalists. Investigators say he was in Syria from 2013 to 2014, where he met Najim Laachraoui, a member of the gang which went on to carry out suicide bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people in March 2016. That same Brussels cell is also alleged to have coordinated and sent jihadists to carry out the Paris massacre of November 13, 2015, in which 130 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, whose activities in Syria and Iraq lured thousands of jihadists from Europe. Nemmouche and Bendrer, investigators say, met nearly a decade ago while in prison in southern France, where they were both described as "radicalised" inmates who tried to win others over. Bendrer was arrested in Marseille seven months after the Jewish Museum attack and charged as Nemmouche's accomplice. Although he was jailed for five years in September by a French court for attempted extortion, he was transferred to Belgium for the trial. Nemmouche is expected to face a separate trial in France for holding French journalists hostage in Syria. The former hostages are expected to testify about Nemmouche's character during the Brussels trial, despite the defence arguing that theirs is a separate case. Belgian Jewish leader Yohan Benizri told AFP he feared Nemmouche's lawyers Sebastien Courtoy and Henri Laquay will try to "play down" the anti-Semitic nature of the museum attack. The defence team, Benizri added, may even try to "twist" the facts by repeating "totally far-fetched" claims that Israel's intelligence service Mossad staged the attack. "We don't want Mehdi Nemmouche to become a star. He is a terrorist," said Benizri, who heads the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organizations. Courtoy himself suggested Israeli agents could be behind the attack when he spoke at a pre-trial hearing on December 20. While Jewish groups say the evidence against Nemmouche is "overwhelming," Courtoy argued "a trap" was sprung on his client. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is on a three-day visit to India, during which he will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on a host of issues such as oil imports from Tehran. Zarif will hold talks with Swaraj on Wednesday and also address the Raisina Dialogue. On Tuesday, he will meet Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, attend a business forum and interact with scholars. His meeting with Gadkari assumes significance in the wake of a collaboration between the two countries along with Afghanistan on the operationalisation of the strategically-located Chabahar port. According to the MEA, apart from Zarif, Foreign Ministers of Japan and Australia -- Taro Kono and Marise Payne -- are also visiting India. Swaraj held talks with Kono Monday evening, while her meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Payne will take place on Tuesday. Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar will also be visiting India and will be meeting Swaraj Tuesday. All the visiting dignitaries are scheduled to attend the Raisina Dialogue, India's annual flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics. Payne will also meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader and former Defence Minister A K Antony Monday accused the NDA government of compromising on national security and said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman "lied" and "misled" Parliament about the process adopted for the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. Antony asked why the government was running away from a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe, saying it will determine who is corrupt and who is lying. "The NDA government has seriously compromised national security by reducing the number of aircraft to be procured from 126 to 36. Why is Modi government refusing to form a JPC? Because they have something to hide. We demand JPC. Let the country know who is corrupt, who is lying. Let the country know the truth," he told reporters. Antony asked why the Modi government is hiding the actual price of the aircraft in the new deal. "Is it correct of Prime Minister Modi to violate Defence Procurement Procedure and bypass Defence Acquisition Council," he asked. "NDA Government led by Narendra Modi has seriously compromised national security by unilaterally reducing number of MMRCA from 126 to 36, that too when the UPA Government's negotiation for purchasing 126 aircraft was almost 90% over and in the final stage. They have further compromised national security by weakening and also tarnishing the image of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - India's only aircraft manufacturing company," he said. "The Finance Minister said in the Lok Sabha that he asked for re-examination after approval in the contract. Is it approval? I allowed them to continue the contract negotiation, I wrote in the file. After the contract negotiation was over, before coming the file for CFA approval...You must examine all these things. After re-examination by Air Force, even Finance and Defence Ministry, only I approved it," he claimed. "Such a responsible senior Minister, Finance Minister, he lied in the Lok Sabha, I am very sorry for him. They can show the file noting on 27.6.2012 and that file is with them. Defence Minister also repeated the same. So, Finance Minister and Defence Minister misled the Parliament, misled the Lok Sabha about that process," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To ensure faster roll-out of electronic toll collection across the country, FASTags would soon be available at petrol pumps and later, these might be used as cards for buying petrol and paying parking fees, said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Monday. FASTag, which is affixed on the windscreen of a vehicle, is a device that employs radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it, enabling the commuter to drive through toll plazas without stopping for cash transactions. "Now, FASTags will be available at petrol outlets and we plan to make it available throughout the country soon. Plans are also afoot that these could also be utilised by consumers for buying petrol and for parking facilities," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said. The minister was speaking at an event here after a pact between Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL) and leading oil companies BPCL, HPCL and IOCL for sale of FASTags through petrol pumps to expand its distribution network which is currently active at selected bank branches. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman Sanjeev Ranjan said the authority is working on various plans to make FASTags as a base for transactions to buy petrol and pay parking fees and "should work as Aadhaar for vehicles". Launching bank-neutral FASTags issued by IHMCL, Gadkari said these will be available at 50 select petrol pumps initially and the number would be increased to 100 by the next financial year. He said the petrol outlets will get Rs 100 for sale of every FASTag and electronic tolling system was the only way to ease traffic congestion at toll plazas. He said there are 450 toll plazas under NHAI while 500 were with the states, and the Centre is also eyeing to implement electronic tolling system across state toll plazas. The minister said under the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme, it is proposed to include all state/city toll plazas under one umbrella. NETC envisages bringing more than 500 state and municipal toll plazas within the ambit of the FASTag programme. For this, IHMCL is offering 50 per cent of capex cost for ETC infrastructure, and waiver on management fees. Under the IHMCL FASTags, consumers would be able to link their FASTags with any of their bank accounts or payment apps, a feature which was not available earlier. In the earlier FASTags, consumers had to link their FASTags to the banks from which they purchase the tags. The ministry is eyeing to increase electronic toll transactions from the current about 30 per cent on national highways to about 50 per cent by March 2019, which would be translated to an estimated revenue of about Rs 12,000 crore. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also present on the occasion, urged Gadkari to push the automobile industry for manufacturing CNG vehicles, to which Gadkari said government's thrust was on clean fuel and it was already on its agenda. Pradhan urged road and petroleum sectors to join hands for a synergised future of alternative fuels. He said both can gain business on new stretches of national highways in view of a large volume of vehicles adding up every year in the country. Pradhan said his ministry is working hard to bring 400 districts of the country in the city gas network within the next two years. The FASTag, unveiled Monday, is bank-neutral which can be linked to customers' choice of bank accounts, as by linking to bank account, there will not be any requirement of fulfilling KYC obligations. Two FASTag mobile apps were also launched on Monday. The My FASTag Customer App has the distinction of real-time recharge of any FASTag through UPI, it links IHMCL FASTag with customer's bank account and there is no need to install multiple banks applications. Wallet services are also proposed in the near future, NHAI officials said. In the FASTag Point of Sales App, it is possible to create and manage distribution partners, as also to allow sales via petrol pumps. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The EU's top trade negotiator Cecilia Malmstrom was headed to Washington on Monday to meet United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in an effort to breathe life into an attempt to strike a trade deal. Lighthizer is also Trump's point man for just-launched trade talks with China, and the meeting with Malmstrom will include discussions on how the European Union and the US as well as Japan can better cooperate to face Beijing. The mooted trade deal with the EU came after US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed in July to hold off on any new tariffs while negotiations are under way. Officials in Brussels hope the talks will cajole Trump away from slapping 25 percent tariffs on European auto imports, that would mostly affect Germany and possibly spark a trade war. A component of the truce between the EU and US was to boost European imports of soya from the US, a sensitive sector that has been decimated by Trump's trade war with China. The European Commission announced on Monday that imports of US soya beans by the EU increased by 112 per cent over the current market year (July-December 2018), compared to the same period in the previous year. The EU however insists that the boost is due only to market forces, and did not independently plan for the increase to satisfy Trump. The Commission added that US soya bean imports were likely to rise further after the EU facilitated the use of US soya beans for biofuels in Europe. The deal in July came after the US slapped tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU and other partners, that are still in effect. The commission last week made definitive certain provisional "safeguard" measures put in place to protect Europe's steel industry from the knock-on effects of those tariffs. Since Washington introduced its protectionist duties on metals at the beginning of June, steel production that no longer finds outlets in the United States has been flooding other markets, particularly Europe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- - Launches Banyan 2.0 which uses Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Models to recommend credit decisions The estimated number of MSMEs in India is a staggering 44.50 million. One of the major driving factors of India's GDP growth is the MSME industry, which employs 40% of India's Workforce, contributing 45% of the output and 40% of the exports. Hence, the financial needs of this industry is growing as well. MSMEs are also one of the most crucial customer base for NBFCs and other financial institutions, as they don't change their financial institutions often and are a very loyal set of customers, which is why it is very important for financial institutions to deliver world-class customer service. With increasing credit requirement of the MSMEs, financial institutions should leverage technology to originate high loan volumes at faster speed, ensuring better transparency and enhancing customer service along-with decreasing the cost of the loans. FOS platform of eSthenos Technologies enables Financial Institutions to on-board MSME Borrowers under 30 minutes with its real-time, cloud based data collection and risk assessment module. The highly sophisticated and modern design architecture enhances the security and the quality of the data collected. Availability of data in cloud and multiple internal and external API integrations results in improved reaction time for users. Faster and accurate data collection with minimal paperwork and real-time credit worthiness check reduces the turnaround time of the disbursal. Based on algorithmic credit assessment models, the platform gives a wider and precise view of the borrower's credit worthiness. Real-time monitoring of the performance of each application based on hierarchy helps the management to make better and faster decisions and reduces monitoring cost by a substantial margin. eSthenos launches its improved version of its platform Banyan. Lending institutions have a mine of data, which if put to correct use can create constructive results. This data can be used to create better credit models based on the customer's history. Banyan can analyse the data of Financial Institutions to recommend product pipelines for cross-sale, understand and benchmark competitors data, internal fraud detection and generate sales pipeline who can be approached in the future. About eSthenos eSthenos is an award winning technology platform trusted by leaders in the financial services industry. We offer 'designed by users' CRM, Loan Origination System, Lead Management System, Underwriting Platform, Business Intelligence & Analytics Platform. With more than 5,000 users across 1000+ locations, eSthenos helps their clients to process 6,00,000+ loan applications every month with more than 80,000 EMI collections every working day. eSthenos offers highly flexible and user-friendly products for complete banking needs. Dedicated banking platform helps clients to process applications for Housing, LAP, vehicle, personal and SME/MSME loans with greater control and bring smile to faces of rural and semi urban clients. eSthenos also offers a range of products for group loans, individual loans, collections, lead management and analytics. For more information, visit http://www.esthenos.com. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said educational institutes should be "free from political interferences" and students should learn to be respectful to their fellow mates and faculty members, no matter what the differences. The CM said she was shocked to learn that Presidency University had to change venue for its annual convocation as the students had locked the gates of the main campus. "I abhor the kind of politics which does not give respect to a fellow human being, the politics which does not believe in the minimum courtesy. I was so shocked to learn about Presidency, could never imagine such a thing would happen," she said here at the convocation ceremony of University of Calcutta (CU). Referring to a 2014 incident in Jadavpur University, where the students refused to receive certificate from the governor, the CM said such actions were "not acceptable". "The universities are earning a bad repute because of a handful of students," she maintained. Banerjee also said that should enlighten minds , not give rise to bigoted views. Addressing the students of CU, the CM said, "You are different from them. You are not an elitist institution you belong to common people." Banerjee also warned against any effort to change or distort the history of our nation. "We can have debates and differences over history and science but such debates should not fuel intolerance. If you have differences with me, state that in proper way, with civility. "This is the Bengal of Vivekananda, Khudiram Bose, Nazrul Islam and Asutosh Mukherjee. It cannot be a breeding ground for divisive politics," she added. West Bengal Governor and CU Chancellor K N Tripathi, who was present at the programme, also urged the students to concentrate on career-building. "Universities are not playground for politics. Your primary objective is to concentrate on learning. Everything else comes secondary," Tripathi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Manoj Arora alleged in Delhi Court Monday that ED was forcing him to "falsely implicate" his employer Robert Vadra in a money laundering case connected to overseas purchase of property. Arora, who is working for Skylight Hospitality LLP owned by Vadra, said he and his wife were threatened by the probe agency that they would be taken to task. The allegations were made by him in his anticipatory bail application before special judge Sunil Rana who will hear the case Tuesday. Vadra is the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Arora's anticipatory bail plea came two days after the ED moved the court seeking issuance of open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him saying it was required for getting a Red Corner Notice issued against him through Interpol since there were apprehensions that he might have fled from the country. The Enforcement Directorate's plea is also listed for hearing Tuesday before Special Judge Arvind Kumar. The ED has alleged that a case under the PMLA was lodged against Arora as during an income tax probe -- under the newly enacted Black Money Act and tax law -- revealed that a property has been purchased in London by absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who was "not the actual owner of the property but it was beneficially owned by Vadra". The probe has alleged that London property at 12, Bryanston Square, worth 1.9 million pound is owned by Vadra. ED's Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana claimed that Arora was a key person in the case and he was aware of overseas undeclared assets of Vadra and was instrumental in arranging funds. In his application, Arora claimed that his wife had appeared before the agency for interrogation in the case and through her, ED officials threatened him to implicate Vadra. "It is stated that some officials of ED visited the wife of petitioner and threatened her that unless her husband, i.e. the petitioner, deposes to the desires of the ED officials specially to the extent of falsely implicating Robert Vadra, the petitioner would be taken to task and would be treated with their degree methods and the officials would ensure that his future and his family's future is doomed in perpetuity," the accused alleged in the application. He further alleged that his wife was told by the ED officials that if the accused agrees to agency's demands, "then they would also ensure tender of pardon to the petitioner, otherwise the case of the petitioner is already been botched up to an extent that he will never come out of custody". The ED officials had also sought "confessional statement against his employers, including Vadra, to the suitability of the investigation", he alleged. He claimed that he has already joined investigation with the respondents conducting the probe into the affairs of Skylight Hospitality LLP as its authorised representative in Rajasthan with their offices at Jaipur on many occasions and has supplied all the relevant documents to the ED. "Yet the petitioner is being virtually hounded and harassed" by the agency. ED, in its application filed through advocate A R Aditya, had on January 5 urged the court to issue open-ended NBW against Arora, saying he failed to appear for questioning despite repeated summonses in the case. An "open-ended NBW" does not carry a time limit for execution unlike other non-bailable warrants. In its application, the agency had said, "Vadra was beneficially controlling the property at 12, Bryanston Square, London, UK, which was valued at 1.9 million pound, and not only executing renovation work of this property but also arranging funds for the same." It said that the property was bought by Bhandari for GBP 1.9 million and sold in 2010 for the same amount despite incurring additional expenses of approximately GBP 65,900 on its renovation. "This gives credence to the fact that Bhandari was not the actual owner of the property but it was beneficially owned by Vadra who was incurring expenditure on the renovation of this property," it alleged. The ED submission that Arora has been absconding since the search of his premises by the agency. "It is apprehended that the accused might have crossed the boundaries of the country. Hence, Red Notice through Interpol is required to be issued for which open-ended NBW is necessary," the agency argued. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In fresh trouble for Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, the has filed a money laundering case against a firm allegedly linked to him and a few others in connection with suspected financial and other irregularities in land deals in Haryana's in 2008, officials said Monday. They said the central probe agency has filed a criminal FIR, known as enforcement case information report in official parlance, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The fresh case follows searches conducted by the ED in December last year on three people linked to Vadra. The searches were conducted in connection with its probe into alleged "commissions received by some suspects in defence deals" and illegal assets stashed abroad. The new charges were based on an FIR filed by Haryana Police in September last year, they said. According to the Haryana Police FIR, Skylight Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., a firm allegedly linked to Vadra, purchased 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon's Sector 83 from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.50 crore in 2008 when Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress was the chief minister and also held the portfolio of the Town and County Planning Department. Later, Skylight Hospitality sold this land to realty major DLF at a price of Rs 58 crore, after procuring a commercial licence for the development of the colony with the influence of Hooda, the police had alleged. The company thus made a profit of about Rs 50 crore, an allegation rejected by Vadra in the past. In return, the state government allotted 350 acres of land to DLF at Wazirabad in in violation of rules, the police had claimed. In the alleged quid pro quo, the realty major made Rs 5,000 crore, it had said. The ED will probe if such a financial irregularity led to laundering of funds and creation of illegal assets by the accused, they said. Vadra is already being probed by the ED in connection with two PMLA cases -- one related to land deals in Bikaner in Rajasthan and another linked to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and illegal acquisition of overseas assets. It is also probing the role of Hooda in connection with a similar land deal case in Gurgaon's Manesar area. Members of the India ODI squad, including M S Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, on Monday left for Australia for the three match series beginning on Saturday. The players took the flight in the afternoon, a BCCI official confirmed. All-rounder Kedar Jadhav, who is part of the ODI squad, posted pictures with Dhoni and Rohit on social media before departure. "Off to Australia with @msdhoni @ImRo45," tweeted Jadhav. Rohit, who was also in the Test squad, had flown back to Mumbai for the birth of his child. India on Monday created history by becoming the first Asian team to win a Test series in Australia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Denmark plans to build nine artificial islands in southern Copenhagen in a bid to attract businesses, the government announced on Monday, amid a housing and office space shortage. "We're targetting high-tech companies but there's always a need for the production of products we use in our daily lives too," Industry and Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov told Danish agency Ritzau. Construction on the nine islands is scheduled to begin in 2022, covering an area of three million square metres (32.3 million square feet). The first plots of land will be sold in 2028 and the project, the financial details of which have not been disclosed, should be completed by 2040. The aim is to attract some 380 companies to the area, located near Copenhagen airport. "I think this could become a sort of European Silicon Valley," the head of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Brian Mikkelsen, told TV2 television. The mammoth project follows another major infrastructure initiative announced last autumn, whereby 20,000 new homes will be built on a polder -- low-lying land reclaimed from the sea -- north of the capital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government has signed an agreement with the Washington University to conduct a joint study on air quality evaluation in the national capital. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aims at the joint study to be undertaken by the Washington University and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for the real-time source apportionment with special reference to PM2.5, and analysis of elemental, organic carbon and 72 inorganic elements. PM2.5 level is a measure of fine particulate matter in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. "The project duration will be 18 months. The work will be undertaken by the personnel of the Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory (AAQRL) which has expertise in identifying air quality problems and suggesting the solutions to curtail the emission for reducing the air pollutant release," an official statement said. "Two speciation monitors will be used in the project for obtaining composition of PM2.5. Identification of the sources of the respective particulate matter based on a real-time algorithm that will be developed. Data analyses and algorithm development for identifying major source categories and approaches to minimize and improve the air quality," it added. The data achieved will help understand the source profile need to be regulated for the effective improvement of air quality in the city. "Wireless sensors will be deployed together with developed algorithm, help monitoring real-time air quality and the source at selected locations in the city. The real time data will help policy development to regulate and improve the air quality, whereas the state of art instrument demonstration will lead a path of capacity building development," the statement said. "While the study will involve testing and identifying the source of the air pollution and chemical composition of various PMs. It will also help identify the factor affecting the quantities of emissions of various pollutants from different sources and also derive conclusions and policy recommendations for air pollution control," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : A delegation from Penang Convention and Exhibition Bureau, comprising industrialists, would visit various cities in India this month as part of boosting ties between the two countries, a top official said here Monday. During their brief visit to India, the delegation would visit Ahmedabad (January 9), Mumbai (January 11) and New Delhi (January 14) and engage in business-to-business meetings, the PCEB Chief Executive Officer Ashwin Gunasekaran said. He sadi the number of Indian travellers visiting Penang grew by 10.37 per cent to 7,250 between January and November 2018 as against 6,569 during the same period in 2017. "This mission is joined by some of Penang's offerings in the hospitality, travel and events sectors and will showcase the best of what Penang can offer", he said. India is one of the top five markets for business events in Penang and over the past year, the country has received encouraging interest from event planners, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CPI(M) councillor Bilkis Begum Monday filed an appeal against a single-bench order of the Calcutta High Court that dismissed her petition challenging the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018. The amendment, which was passed by the West Bengal Assembly, paved the way for state minister Firhad Hakim to be elected as the mayor of Kolkata without being a councillor. The amended Act enables a person, who is not an elected councillor, to be made a mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). The person would have to get elected as a corporator within six months to continue in the post. Bypoll in ward number 82 of the KMC was held on Sunday, where Hakim is a candidate. Counting of votes will be held on Wednesday. The councillor prayed for the nullification of the amendment, claiming that it is unconstitutional. Justice Debangshu Basak had on January 4 dismissed the CPI(M) councillor's petition observing that the impugned amendment is within the competence of the legislature. Challenging the single-bench order, an appeal was filed and is likely to be taken up next week by a division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder, the councillor's lawyer Shamim Ahmed said. Hakim, the state's Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister, was elected as the mayor of the KMC on December 3. The Trinamool Congress, which has a huge majority in the KMC with 122 seats out of a total 144, earlier elected Hakim as its leader in the civic body. The Left Front has 14, BJP five and the Congress two seats in the civic body, while one seat remains vacant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unhappy over Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy holding up a few appointments to boards and corporations, the leadership of the Congress, a partner in the ruling coalition, has decided to take up the issue with him. According to party sources, several Congress leaders and legislators are miffed with the chief minister over his decision to put on hold some appointments and have expressed their anger to the state leadership. "I will speak to Kumaraswamy; I don't know why he has put it on hold," Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah told reporters. Out of Congress' recommendation to 19 boards and corporations, the chief minister, after much delay, issued orders on Sunday for appointment of 14, and eight legislators as parliamentary secretaries against the party's list of nine. Kumaraswamy has also not made any appointments to the posts of deputy chairman of the planning commission, special representative in Delhi and political secretary to the chief minister, to which the Congress had suggested names of its legislators. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said the chief minister has not rejected any names recommended by the Congress, and he will speak to him on the issue. "He (the chief minister) has not rejected (the names recommended). I have come to know that for various reasons such as verification, to discuss with department ministers concerned before taking decision (he has put on hold). I haven't spoken to him yet. I will speak to him and request him to issue orders based on Congress' recommendation," he told reporters. Stating that there was no confusion, Parameshwara said that while making political appointments, usually some verification is done by the Chief Ministers' Office. "He (the chief minister) has not questioned or rejected the list we have recommended... he has never said that," the deputy chief minister said. According to the coalition arrangement, both parties had decided to fill up posts of chairpersons to 30 boards and corporations, of which 20 will be for the Congress and 10 for the ruling JD(S). The JD(S) is yet to appoint its legislators as heads to boards and corporations and remaining post of parliamentary secretaries. Chairpersons for a few boards and corporations have not been filled as recommended by the Congress, including Dr K Sudhakar for the State Pollution Control Board Venkataramanaiah for the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) and S T Somashekar for the Bangalore Development Authority. Expressing his displeasure, Sudhakar said it is for the party high command to look into the issue, as the recommendations were finalised at the level of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "It is not a question of personal loss or gain to Sudhakar or Somashekar or Venkataramanaiah. It is the question of Congress' pride. Despite getting 80 seats (in assembly) today for what good reason have we ceded power to them JD(S), the party has to look into and decide," he said. "We cannot kneel down helpless," Sudhakar said, adding the Congress high command will take an appropriate decision. JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy had earlier clarified that Sudhakar's appointment was opposed as the Supreme Court guidelines had specified a certain qualification for the post. Congress MLA Venkataramanaiah's appointment to the KRDCL is said to have been opposed by Gowda's son and PWD Minister Revanna, saying it came under his department. The Congress had forwarded its list of 19 legislators for posts of chairpersons of boards and corporations to the chief minister soon after the cabinet rejig on December 22, but according to sources, the move had irked the JD(S) leadership as they were reportedly not consulted. The Congress recommending some of its legislators as heads to boards and corporations that come under departments controlled by JD(S) ministers, had angered the regional party, leading to Chief Minister Kumaraswamy delaying the appointments. JD(S) leaders and Kumaraswamy were also irked by the grand old party's move to appoint its MLA V Muniyappa as political secretary to the chief minister. The appointment order was issued on Sunday, amid reports that Congress MLAs had set a deadline of Monday evening, miffed over the delay in appointments to boards and corporations, failing which they had planned to meet on Tuesday to decide on the future course of action. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The district administration has ordered closure of all schools here till January 9 in view of the cold wave, authorities said Monday. Agra District Magistrate N G Ravi Kumar instructed the managements to keep schools closed till Wednesday. Icy cold winds continued to force people indoors in the district. The night temperature here was 9.9 degrees celsius Saturday and the day temperature hovered around 20 degrees celsius. Markets remained largely deserted in the evenings. The closure of schools is likely to help prevent traffic jams in the city on Wednesday when Prime minister Narendra Modi will be addressing an election rally at the Kothi Meena Bazar ground here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday welcomed the Union cabinet decision on 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for economically backward sections in the general category. Talking to reporters here, he said that the decision was welcome, but taken as the Lok Sabha polls were due soon. "The central government has taken the decision keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections", he said. "The CPI(M) has earlier itself wanted reservation for the economically weaker people among higher castes. It has been done in the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages various shrines, including the Sabarimala temple," he said. However, the Centre should not bring in changes in the present reservation policy, he added. The Union Cabinet Monday approved 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward sections in the general category. A top government functionary at Delhi said a constitutional amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the last day of the winter session. The proposed reservation would be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation enjoyed by Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 per cent. The section doesn't get reservation as of now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CITU has slammed Lt Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal for invoking ESMA and preventing electricity employees and engineers in NCT Delhi from joining the nationwide workers general strike on January 8 and 9. Baijal issued the notification using Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1974. ESMA was established to ensure the delivery of certain services, which if obstructed would affect the normal life of the people. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) in a statement alleged that the ESMA notice was issued selectively against joining the strike call of the organisation even though it was the joint call of 10 central trade unions and most of the independent national federations of workers and employees. CITU condemned intimidation by some state governments, including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, threatening termination of service, service break, eight-day wage cuts, etc., "attacking the constitutional, statutory and democratic rights of the workers and employees." The trade union body called upon all sections of workers and employees, irrespective of affiliations, to join the nation-wide workers general strike. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Christian Bale won his first Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe award for his performance as Dick Cheney in "Vice" and thanked "Satan" for inspiring him to play the role of the former US vice president. Known for transforming himself physically to get under the skin of his characters, the actor gained over 40 pounds and bleached his eyebrows for Adam McKay's political satire. Bale, 44, thanked McKay for casting him to play someone who was "absolutely charisma-free and reviled by everybody". He joked that from here on out, he will be "cornering the market" on playing "charisma-free a**holes," adding, "What do you think, Mitch McConnell (politician) next?" "Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role," he added. It was Bale's fourth Globe nomination. He has previously won Best Supporting Actor in 2011 for "The Fighter". The actor beat out Lin-Manuel Miranda for "Mary Poppins Returns", Viggo Mortensen for "Green Book", Robert Redford for "The Old Man and the Gun", and John C Reilly for "Stan & Ollie". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China lodged a "stern" diplomatic protest with the US on Monday after its guided-missile destroyer sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea, asserting that America should stop such "provocative" action and create an enabling environment for successful negotiations on the ongoing trade dispute. The US guided-missile destroyer McCampbell sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea as officials of both the countries kicked off their first face-to-face talks here to resolve the trade dispute during which the world's top two economies have imposed import duties on more than USD 300 billion of each other's goods. US Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Rachel McMarr said US vessel carried out a freedom of navigation operation, sailing within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Island chain, "to challenge excessive maritime claims". China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has constructed military installations in artificial islands built by it. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the South China Sea. The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The US has been conducting naval and air patrols periodically through the area to assert freedom of navigation inviting strong criticism from China. Asked for his reaction on the American ship sailing through the Paracel islands which China claims Xisha islands, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing has lodged strong protest to the US on this. He said the US ship sailed through the area without the permission from the Chinese side. China had sent its naval vessel to verify and warn it, he said. We also launched stern representation (diplomatic protest) to the US side on this. The US action violated the international law and destroyed the peace, safety and order in the relevant waters. We firmly oppose that. We urge the US side to stop such provocative action. China will continue to take necessary actions to safeguard its national security and sovereignty," he said. "On whether this operation will affect the ongoing trade talks between the two sides, I believe proper resolution of trade disputes is conducive to the world. It is imperative for the two sides to create enabling environment for the talks at this time," he said. The timing of Monday's foray by the US naval ship coincided with the commencement of trade talks between the two countries. The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on each other's goods. Last year, US President Donald Trump imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on USD 250 billion of Chinese goods. The move prompted China to increase tariffs on USD 110 billion of US goods. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to halt any further tariff increases for 90 days beginning January 1. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A tribal child in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam district reportedly consumed insecticide out of hunger, prompting the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to set up an inquiry into the matter. An NCPCR official said a team was deputed to look into the incident. The age of the child has not been revealed. The incident allegedly took place on December 31 when even after repeated requests, the child was not given wheat by the local ration shop, sources said, reacting to local media reports. Unable to cope with hunger, the child consumed insecticide and is said to be in a critical condition. The NCPCR team would soon submit its report, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NDA constituent Apna Dal (Sonelal) Monday warned its ally BJP of going to "any extent" if it does not change its attitude to smaller parties in the ruling coalition. Apna Dal (S) president Ashish Patel told party members in Lucknow that the party can take "any decision" but declined to elaborate. "Our party (Apna Dal-S) has been in alliance with the BJP since 2014 and is discharging the alliance dharma with full honesty. But in Uttar Pradesh it is not at all getting the respect, which it deserves," he said addressing a meeting. Patel said, "You (BJP) should change your behaviour, otherwise our leader (Union minister Anupriya Patel) can take any decision or go to any extent. Whatever decision our leader takes, the entire party will support it." He also said that he is not giving threats, but making requests. "Our demand is that the BJP government in the state should end the sadness prevailing among the Dalits and backwards caste people. How this will be done? You know it," Patel said. He said though Anupriya Patel is the Union minister of state for health and family welfare, she does not get invites to the programmes pertaining to schemes of her ministry. "Apart from this, the BJP government in the state has grossly ignored Apna Dal (S) in appointing chairpersons and other officials of corporations. There is a section of people in the BJP, which does not want that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is re-elected in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and it is this section of the BJP, which is torturing us," he said. The Apna Dal (Sonelal) is a breakaway of the Apna Dal, which was founded in 1995 by Sone Lal Patel. The Apna Dal (Sonelal) was founded by Jawahar Lal Patel, who was also a founding member of the Apna Dal. In October 2014, fissures within the Apna Dal became public for the first time, as the party's then national general secretary Anupriya Patel was removed from her post. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Power utility CESC Ltd's distribution franchisee business, excluding Kolkata licensee area, is set to touch revenues of Rs 1,600-1,700 crore after it bagged the Malegaon distribution circle of Maharashtra, a top official of the company said Monday. CESC has power distribution franchisee business in Kota, Bharatpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan besides being the license holder of Greater Noida and Kolkata circle. "It (revenues) will be around Rs 1,600-1,700 crore including new Malegaon circle," CESC Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said when asked about the combined revenue of distribution business except Kolkata circle of CESC. CESC Kolkata Circle involves Kolkata and part of Howrah district which has a revenue of Rs 7,000 crore. For the power utility, Malegaon is the fifth power distribution franchisee after Greater Noida, Kota, Bharatapur, Bikaner and Kolkata. CESC company officials said Bharatapur has turned profitable. Speaking about Malegoan Distribution franchisee Circle, Goenka said that in the previous fiscal, the revenue was Rs 322 crore with total 1 lakh consumers. Presently, 83 per cent of the consumers are industrial and 13 per cent domestic. The transmission and distribution (T&D) loss currently stands at 44.76 per cent. "We will buy power at Rs 3.26 per unit from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited. The final tariff is yet to be approved," Goenka said. CESC has 600 MW independent power plant in Chandrapur in Maharashtra which has 270MW long-term power purchase agreement and short-term agreement for another 170MW with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a major move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet Monday cleared a 10 per cent quota in government jobs and education for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch BJP support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. The BJP termed the Narendra Modi government's move as "historic" while the Opposition questioned its timing with the Congress dubbing it a "election gimmick". However, opposition parties extended its support, reflecting the bill's political significance. A top government functionary said Social Justice Minister Thavarchand Gehlot is likely to table in Parliament on Tuesday the bill, which for the first time provides for non-caste, non-religion based reservation. The proposed reservation will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation enjoyed by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, and will take the total reservation to 60 per cent. The Constitution, which has no mention of "economically weaker" people, will require an amendment to provide quota for them and at least two-thirds of the members in both the Houses will need to support the bill for it become a law. While the ruling NDA has required numbers in Lok Sabha, it will need support from the opposition benches in Rajya Sabha. Asked whether the Congress will support the bill in Parliament, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "The son or daughter of a person who is economically poor should get their share in education and employment. We will support all steps for this." Extending his party's support, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal asked the government to extend Parliament session and bring the Constitutional amendment to make it a law immediately, asserting else it is "merely an election stunt". According to official sources, Rajya Sabha's winter session has been extended by a day till Wednesday. A jubilant BJP and its allies hailed the move as "historic" and a "masterstroke", saying it is in sync with the Modi government's motto of 'sabka saath sabka vikas' (With all, development for all). The bill seeks to amend Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, introducing a clause for reservation for economically weaker sections in educational institutions and government jobs. "The bill will provide a shelter for upper castes under the rubric of fundamental rights. The court's rule of the maximum 50 per cent quota cannot fetter Parliament's right to amend the Constitution," a Union minister said. In its famous Indra Sawhney judgement, the Supreme Court had set a cap of 50 per cent cap on quotas. Government sources said the proposed constitutional amendment will pave the way for the additional quota. Among the major castes to benefit from the proposed law are Brahmins, Rajputs (Thakurs), Jats, Marathas, Bhumihars, several trading castes, Kapus and Kammas among other Upper Castes. The poor among the other religions will also benefit from it, sources added. The BJP believes that if opposition parties, whose support is a must for its passage in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks numbers, vote against it, then they will risk losing support of an influential section of society. Influential castes such as Marathas, Kapus, Jats and Patidars have hit the streets in the past few years, seeking reservation benefits. Their protests at times have turned violent. Government sources said the demand for providing quota to the poor from the general castes was made in the constituent assembly too. The bill is likely to introduce criteria like an annual income below Rs 8 lakh and not owning more than five acres of agricultural land for those seeking quota benefits. They should also not own a flat of 1000 sq ft or more, land of 100 yards in notified municipality area and 200 yards in non-notified area, sources said. The ruling BJP hopes that the bill will help consolidate the general castes in its support as it begins campaign for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in April-May. BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe described the reservation as a step to widen the social justice net. "Congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the historic decision of extending job quotas for economically weaker sections. A commendable step widening the social justice net and underscoring the inclusive approach of the government," he said. Hailing the decision, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and BJP's ally RPI (Athawale) leader Ramdas Athawale described the decision as a "masterstroke" and said it could end the difference between the upper and lower caste. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) also backed the measure, so did LJP's Ram Vilas Paswan, who called it historic. Political watchers believe that sections of upper castes had drifted from the party of late following its aggressive push to win over backward classes and Dalits, and the bill will help the party to win them over. The government's decision to bring a law to nullify a Supreme Court order, which critics said had diluted provisions in a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribes, was also used by some upper castes groups to campaign against the BJP in recent state polls. The BJP had lost to the Congress in three states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where it was in power. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Denied renomination as an MLC by his party Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Public Health Minister Dr Deepak Sawant resigned Monday. Sawant's term as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) had ended in July last year, but he continued as minister hoping that he would be renominated by the party. However, Sena leadership denied Sawant another term, after several workers of the party accused him of inefficiency, sources said. Sawant resigned on the last day of his tenure as a minister. The charge of Health ministry has been handed over to senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde. As per rules, one can continue as a minister without being a member of either house of the state legislature only for a period of six month. Before completion of six months, one has to become a member of either the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, or has to resign. "There were several internal meetings in the last four years when Shiv Sena party workers from across the state expressed their disappointment with Sawant not being receptive to their demands. The disappointment was growing and finally the party decided to nominate someone else who could be more useful for the party," said a close aide of party chief Uddhav Thackeray. When asked about prospects of the Sena assigning a full-fledged responsibility of the Health portfolio to any of its leaders, he said, "We do not have enough time for appointing someone as a Public Health Minister. There is less scope of taking policy decisions, as the code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls and later the state assembly elections will kick in". Sawant told a regional channel that he was not "unhappy", but is looking forward for a new responsibility from the party leadership. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma's plea against the Centre's decision to divest him of powers and sending him on leave. The Centre had taken a decision against Verma and CBI's Special Director Rakesh Asthana after their feud become public as they made allegations of corruption against each other. Verma has sought quashing of three orders of October 23, 2018 -- one by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and two by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), as being without jurisdiction and in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. CBI's Joint Director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, was given the charge of interim chief of the probe agency. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on December 6 reserved the judgement after hearing arguments on behalf of Verma, the Centre, the CVC and others. The court had also heard the plea moved by NGO Common Cause which had sought a court-monitored SIT probe into the allegations of corruption against various CBI officials, including Asthana. Verma's two-year tenure as CBI director ends on January 31. He has moved the top court challenging the Centre's decision. The Centre had justified its decision to divest Verma of his duties and sending him on leave before the apex court saying he and Asthana were fighting like "Kilkenny cats", exposing the country's premier investigating agency to "public ridicule". Attorney General K K Venugopal had told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, that the Centre was well "within its right to intervene" and send both officers on leave by divesting them of their powers. Venugopal had told the court that "only the God knows where and how this fight between the two top officers would have ended" if the government would not have taken the action which was aimed at restoring the public faith in the CBI. Challenging the government's decision, Verma's counsel and senior advocate Fali S Nariman had argued that the CBI Director was appointed on February 1, 2017 and "the position of law is that there will be a fixed tenure of two years and this gentleman cannot be even transferred". Nariman had said there was no basis for the CVC to pass an order recommending that Verma be sent on leave. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Monday raised questions on the social justice committee constituted by the UP government and demanded that a caste-based census be conducted in the state. The Other Backward Classes Social Justice Committee recently suggested sub-categorisation in the 27 per cent reservation given to the community. Speaking to workers of Apna Dal (Sonelal) at a meeting here, Patel said, "There has been recommendation for categorising the reservation to the OBCs as backward classes, extremely backward classes and most backward classes. The party is not against categorisation, but this cannot be done without studying the castes and their population." "If the government has conducted any study, then it should put it in public domain. If not, then the recommendations of the social justice committee do not have any basis," she said. The minister said reservation should be given in proportion to the population. "For categorisation of reservation, caste-based census has to be done. If needed, then the 27 per cent reservation given to backward castes should be enhanced. If the government is not doing this, then questions will be raised on its intention. We believe that the BJP is trying to divide the backward class people in the name of reservation." She said the UP government should make provisions to give quota in contractual jobs and outsourced jobs. "If could do this, then why not UP?" Patel said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Political leaders and authors on Monday condemned the decision of the organisers of the All India Marathi Literary Meet to withdraw the invitation extended to noted author Nayantara Sahgal. The decision to withdraw the invitation to Sahgal (91), who was earlier at the forefront of the "award wapsi" campaign, was taken after a political outfit threatened to disrupt the function, the organisers said on Sunday. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray issued a statement on Monday, admitting that one of his local party workers had opposed Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. However, he added that "as the party chief, I am not against inviting her". "If Sahgal's presence at the All India Literary Meet is transcending into a cultural exchange, I or my party will not oppose it," Thackeray said, adding that he regretted the annoyance caused to the supporters of such literary events. Sahgal, a noted English-language author, was to inaugurate the 92nd literary meet on January 11 in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Yavatmal district. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam criticised the decision to cancel Sahgal's invitation, alleging that it was done at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The decision of the organisers was taken at the behest of the BJP, the MNS is just a front. Literature should not surrender before If a government is scared of writers, it means that its days are over," he said. Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, however, said the state welcomed everyone. "If someone had opposed Sahgal after her speech at the meet, then it could have been understood. It is not fair to oppose her completely. Maharashtra is a state that welcomes everyone to present their work," he said. Noted Marathi author Aruna Dhere, who will preside over the event, also criticised the organisers for cancelling Sahgal's invitation. "It is shocking that you respectfully invite someone and later back out. She should be invited with utmost respect," she said. Laxmikant Deshmukh, the outgoing chairman of the literary meet, said the organisers should have thought before inviting Sahgal, as her line of thinking was well-known. "Inviting her at the first place and then backing out is a cover-up," he said, without elaborating further. Marathi author Sanjay Awate said he would boycott the literary meet as a mark of protest. In a press release issued on Sunday, the working president of the literary meet's reception committee, Ramakant Kolte, said the organisers had decided to revoke Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg Monday lauded her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi's "everyday, normal life politics" that dealt with direct problems of the people as she cited the example of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. She said the campaign might seem "not-so-visionary, not up in the skies" but it is needed to solve the sustainable development challenges because sanitation is an extremely important issue. Solberg also said India and Norway can collaborate on innovation in the field of by utilising technology, especially in rural areas. The prime minister Monday visited a government primary and middle school in Nithora village of Ghaziabad's Loni area where she met with children, teachers and locals to interact on issues such as sanitation and female literacy. The Scandinavian leader, who is on a three-day visit to India, stressed that girls' is the most important development rule not just for girls' rights but for any country's development. "No country can only use half of its potential, half of its talent," she said, noting that it was "unfair" that girls have so far been "deprived" of same opportunities as boys due to various factors, including sanitation. "The fact that girls have toilets and sanitary facilities makes it much easier when you are on period, which is one of the biggest obstacles for girls to continue education. We know from different countries of the world that girls often leave school at the age of 10, 11 or 12 because their parents withhold them for domestic duties and also because they feel unclean, and there is no sanitary system that could make it possible," she told reporters. Asked for her views on PM Modi-initiated Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, she said, "I think that's a man doing everyday, normal life politics. That is great, because as we see here, sanitation is getting girls to go to school. So I think it's great and addressing the direct problems." "It might seem not-so-visionary, not up in the skies but it's everyday politics and we need that to solve this sustainable development challenges because sanitation is an extremely important part," she added. The two-time Norwegian prime minister said she was also touched when she heard one of the parents say that they were happy with two girls and did not feel the need for a boy as she referred to the "traditional" Indian desire for male child. "When the view is changing like that it means the value of women and girls is increasing in India and also in local communities. That is great," Solberg said. She said violence against women is a global problem. "It is a universal challenge we all have to continue to work on and it is also very important that we have a police and criminal court system that also looks at domestic violence, rape and other issues like that. But I think education is the key to that, and I'm impressed by the children here who really are part of transforming (the situation)," she said. To a question on reservation as a means to promote gender equality in institutions, she said, "I think representation is important and not to just pass laws." She added that with an increase in women's participation in her country's politics, the politicians became more concerned and connected to everyday life. Asked about areas where India and Norway can collaborate, she said innovation in the field of education like utilising information and communications technology (ICT) could be one. "I think we can work on innovation, on new ways of doing things on educational innovation. With so many people living in India, we can use ICT more in education systems in rural areas. Norway is a very scarcely populated country where people live far from each other. So we also had to develop that but we are much fewer than India," she said. Solberg, who arrive in Delhi on Monday, will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of issues with an aim to expand the multi-faceted bilateral partnership. She will deliver the inaugural address at the Raisina Dialogue and address India-Norway Business Summit during her visit. She will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : The Karnataka-Goa income taxdirector-general B R Balakrishnan Monday said the role played by the I-T department in the run-up to the Karnataka assembly elections was significant. Not only was there the cash seizure of Rs 36.95 crore, but the bulk of the cash seized was actual political cash linked to elections and meant to influence the electoral outcome, Balakrishnan told reporters here. As many as 80 searches were conducted by the department, out of which 60 cases were detected by in-house intelligence, he said. The searches on various government contractors unravelled the entire modus operandi of generation of unaccounted cash bythem for illegal funding of elections, he said. In Mysuru, one such search led to cash seizure of over Rs six crore from benami lockers of contractors, Balakrishnan said. The success of the investigation directorate in acting as a credible deterrence against tax evasion is evident from thesubstantial jump in the direct tax collections as well, he said. Last year, the region had crossed the psychological barrier of tax collection of Rs 1 lakh crore and it now ranks third in all-India collection only after Mumbai and Delhi, Balakrishnansaid. Till end of November 2018, the Karnataka-Goa income taxdirector general said his office had admitted and detected anundisclosed income of Rs 4,038 crore and Rs 6,134 crore, respectively. In 2017-18 financial year, the office had uncovered a concealment of Rs 12,268 crore of which Rs 5,339 crore was admitted by taxpayers, he said. The newly set up benami prohibition units in Bengaluru and Panaji have made 84 provisional attachments, attaching properties worth Rs 563 crore, he said. Till date, 91 benamidars and 19 beneficial owners have been identified, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One more accused in last month's Bulandshahr mob violence, in which a police inspector and a civilian were killed, was arrested Monday, police said. With this, the total number of arrests in the case has reached 35, they said. "Pawan Kumar, who was named in the FIR but was absconding, has been arrested," Additional Superintendent of Police (city) Atul Kumar Srivastava said. Kumar, aged around 32 years and a farmer by profession, was held Monday afternoon near the Bugarsi Road in Siyana tehsil, police said. "We are interrogating Kumar and gathering more information, evidences to proceed further in the case," Srivastava said. Last week, a key accused in the mob violence in Bulandshahr was arrested. Yogesh Raj, the local convenor of Bajrang Dal, was on the run ever since the violence broke out in Siyana tehsil of the district on December 3, 2018, police said. Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and civilian Sumit Kumar of Chingrawathi village were killed in the mob violence that broke out after cattle carcasses were found strewn outside a village. Twenty-seven people were named in the FIR, while 50 to 60 unidentified people were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc), 307 (attempt to murder), 302 (murder), 124A (sedition), 147, 148, 149 (related to rioting), 332, 33, 353 (related to voluntary assault on public servant to obstruct them from performing their duty), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others). They were also booked for destroying public property, among others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BSP, the Congress and the AAP on Monday came out in support of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav amid reports the CBI may quiz him in an illegal mining case and accused the BJP-led NDA government of resorting to "vendetta politics". The possiblity of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) questioning their party supremo also irked the Samajwadi Party(SP) MPs in the Lok Sabha where they kicked up a ruckus and tore and flung papers at the Speaker's desk. Facing flak, the CBI came out with details about the mining case in Uttar Pradesh with its officials claiming that the office of Yadav when he was the chief minister had cleared 13 projects in one single day. The CBI claimed that Yadav, who also held the mining portfolio for some time, cleared 14 leases out of which 13 were approved on February 17, 2013 in violation of e-tendering process. The CBI highlighted the role of Yadav after he accused the BJP government at the Centre of misusing the central probe agency for its political gains. Ahead of a formal announcement of a pre-poll alliance with the SP, BSP chief Mayawati telephoned Yadav and extended her full support to him, telling him not to be shaken by any "gimmicks". "Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav while dubbing any move by the CBI to quiz him as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases. "The CBI raids and later the threat of quizzing by the CBI in a mining scam is nothing but political animosity of the BJP. Such petty and political conspiracy are not new for the BJP. The people of the country have understood it and they will teach the BJP a lesson in the Lok Sabha polls," she said in a press release. The release said that Mayawati called up Yadav on Sunday and talked to him over the issue. "The day of the SP-BSP top leadership meeting came out, the BJP government used the CBI and raids were conducted in an old mining scam and the of quizzing Akhilesh Yadav was deliberately spread. Is it not an action to defame the SP-BSP alliance?" Mayawati said. Yadav may face a CBI probe in a case of illegal mining, according to the agency FIR made public Saturday, the day the SP and the BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had also carried out searches at 14 locations. "If this CBI action is not a political conspiracy, then why did BJP leaders issue statements and why did a BJP leader and minister acted as CBI spokesperson?," Mayawati asked. Claiming that she was "framed" in the Taj corridor case in 2003 when she did not agree to an alliance for the 2004 general elections, Mayawati said, "But later people took revenge and the BSP got absolute majority in the 2007 Assembly polls." According to the release, the BSP chief reminded Yadav of these past incidents and asked him not to get shaken while asserting that people will give a befitting reply to the BJP. The BSP supremo also alleged that the BJP after coming to power in 2014 had been misusing government machinery for political gains and threatening rivals and giving relief "to BJP leaders in criminal cases". In the Lok Sabha, the ruckus created by the SP members led to adjournment of the House ahead of the scheduled time. The SP members were protesting since the House reconvened after the weekend recess. Congress members too were in the Well of the House holding placards demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee(JPC) probe on the Rafale jet deal. The protests by SP, Congress, AIADMK and TDP led to three adjournments of Lok Sabha, before it was adjourned for the day by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan when SP members tore papers and flung them at her desk. SP members stormed the Well of the House and tried to snatch the papers of Lok Sabha officials who were sitting at the desk of the Secretary General. Thet alleged a nexus between the Centre and the CBI in the sand mining case. Dharmendra Yadav of the SP shouted slogans, alleging the CBI has become a "parrot of the BJP" and is "in alliance" with the ruling party. The ruckus by SP members in the House gained in intensity after the passage of 'The Personal Laws Amendment Bill, 2018'. When the House started discussion on the next agenda item relating to natural calamities in various parts of the country, SP members started tearing papers, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was present in the House when his party members created a pandemonium. The Congress accused the government of misusing probe agencies to target opposition leaders in an effort to stall an alliance ahead of the 2019 polls. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad termed the CBI's move against Yadav as "vendetta politics" of the BJP. He also accused the BJP government of "misusing" probe agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax to target opposition leaders. "We strongly condemn it (CBI's action against Yadav). Such and dictatorship cannot be allowed in India," Azad said. He alleged that the BJP government did not initiate any action for over four-and-a- half years and suddenly acted against Yadav when it is about to end its tenure. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed the Modi government for "shamelessly unleashing" the CBI on Akhilesh Yadav and said it is time to throw out the NDA government, calling it a "dictatorial and undemocratic regime". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May Monday said she is working on getting further assurances from the European Union so she can win the Commons vote on her controversial Brexit deal. May, who has survived attempts by some of her Conservative Party members to topple her, said that after delaying the vote last month, there was "some further movement from the EU" at December's European Council. The 62-year-old leader said further measures would be set out ahead of the vote, now set for January 15, the BBC reported. However, the EU Commission has said there will be no renegotiation. A spokesman said "everything on the table has been approved and... the priority now is to await events" in the UK, the report said. Meanwhile, more than 200 MPs have signed a letter to May, urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit - which is one where the UK leaves the EU but without any agreed arrangements covering things like how trade or travel will work in the future. It comes as a major exercise involving more than 100 lorries is being carried out in Kent to test out how to manage traffic queues near the Channel ports in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Prime Minister May's deal - which covers the terms of the UK's divorce and the framework of future relations with the EU - has already been agreed with EU leaders. But it needs to pass a vote by MPs before it is accepted. The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29 this year whether the deal is passed by MPs or not. May, who was at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool to launch a 10-year plan for the NHS, said that after delaying the vote on her Brexit deal last month, she attended the European Council, where there was "some further movement from the EU". She said she had been speaking to European leaders in the intervening period. "In the coming days what we'll set out is not just about the EU but also about what we can do domestically, so we will be setting out measures which will be specific to Northern Ireland; we will be setting out proposals for a greater role for Parliament as we move into the next stage of negotiations," she said. "And we're continuing to work on further assurances, on further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that's been expressed by Parliamentarians." The prime minister's deal is facing opposition from many of her own MPs, as well as Labour and other opposition parties including the Remain-supporting Liberal Democrats. The Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland - which May's Conservative Party relies on for a majority in Parliament - has said it will not back the deal. Ireland, which will still be a valued member of the EU after Brexit day of March 29, would be hit by the economic turbulence of no-deal Britain -- and this is something the 28- member bloc wants to avoid. Prime Minister May knows this, too. Since she won her confidence vote last month, her MPs cannot mount another attempt to topple her for another year. She has already said she will stand down before the next general election, slated for 2022. In this sense, May is in a stronger position than she was a month ago. Meanwhile, Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed suggestions that the government had accepted it would lose next week's vote and was planning on returning to Brussels. "The plan is to win the vote," Kwarteng said, adding that a week was "a very long time in politics" and he was "very hopeful" the deal would be voted through. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In stray incidents of violence, a country bomb was hurled at the house of a BJP worker at Koyilandy in Kozhikode while 18 crude bombs were seized from Kannur Monday. Police said the number of people arrested in connection with the recent violenct incidents has touched 6,914. The bomb was hurled at the BJP worker's house Monday morning and window panes were shattered, but none was injured. At Panur in Thalassery in Kannur district, 18 powerful country-made bombs were seized by police. The bombs were made recently, they said. Police said at Manjeri in Malappuram district, an incident of stone throwing was reported. According to police, 2,187 cases have been registered and 6,914 arrested in the violence witnessed in the state in the past few days. While 5,960 have been released on bail, 954 persons have been remanded to judicial custody. The state had witnessed unpredented violence after two women in their forties-- Bindu and Kanakadurga, offered prayers at the Ayyappa shrine in Sabarimala on January 2 and during the hartal called by various Hindu outfits to protest the women's entry the next day. Slamming the BJP-RSS over the recent violence on the women entry issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the CPI(M)-led LDF government would take stringent action against those indulging in violence and would not be cowed down by threats and intimidation. Addressing a press conference at Thiruvanathapuram, he also said the government would take stringent actions against the sangh parivar activists who had unleashed violence in the name of January 3 hartal and the following violence. BJP President P S Sreedharan Pillai, who visited the homes of party workers which had come under attack, demanded a judicial probe in the manner in which the two women were taken inside the hill temple on January 2. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unidentified persons lobbed a molotov cocktail at a BJP office here partially damaging it, a police officer said Monday. No casualty was reported in the explosion. The office was attacked before Tuesday's proposed North East bandh called by the North East Students Organisation, an umbrella organisation of students' bodies of the region, in protest against the prime minister's announcement to pass the Citizenship Bill. An investigation has been initiated into the bomb attack on the BJP office, said Davis N R Marak, superintendent of police of East Khasi Hills district in which Shillong falls. "Unidentified men attacked the front portion of the office partially damaging it. The incident was reported around midnight last night," BJP state president Shibun Lyngdoh said. The office does not have CCTVs installed and hence it is up to the police to identity the assailants, he said. Protests were on in various places of the region over the Citizenship (amendment) Bill. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. It seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they do not possess any proper document. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. Meanwhile, the Meghalaya unit of the BJP has condemned the attack on its office and requested the police to tighten security in all its offices across the state. "The state unit of the BJP has strongly condemned the act of arson in its state headquarters at Bivar Road," BJP Minister A L Hek said in a statement. An FIR was lodged and copies of it were also sent to the Chief Minister and Home Minister requesting stern action against those involved in the crime, he said. Hek, who is also the BJP legislature party leader, said the party has also requested the police to deploy security personnel in all its offices across the state to prevent such incident to take place. The BJP, having two MLAs, is part of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government headed by Conrad K Sangma of the National People's Party as the Chief Minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The body of a 38-year-old Afghan national was found with multiple stab injuries at his rented flat in Bhogal area of southeast Delhi's Hazarat Nizamuddin, police said Monday. The body was found on January 5, police said, adding that the deceased was identified as Mohammed Ishaq. Investigations revealed that Ishaq had come to Delhi on December 28 for his father's treatment. His father is undergoing treatment for cancer in the city, a senior police officer said. On Saturday, Ishaq's father had gone to his doctor along with a translator. When he returned home in the evening, the main door of his flat was found opened. When he entered the house, he found his son lying on the floor, the police officer said. Ishaq's father immediately informed police following which they rushed to the spot, he added. Upon reaching the spot, the officials rushed the victim to AIIMS where doctors declared him dead on arrival, the officer said. The victim suffered multiple stab injuries on his back and neck, the officer added. The body was shifted to the mortuary for post-mortem, police said, adding that the Afghan Embassy has also been informed. A case has been registered and the matter is being probed, he said. Prima facie it appears that the accused was known to the victim as the entry into the flat was friendly, the official said, adding no valuables were found to be missing from the house. Police are questioning the victim's acquaintances and friends here in connection with the incident. However, the motive behind the killing will be clear only after the accused is nabbed, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress leader and former union minister Tariq Anwar Monday said that BJP will never build Ram Temple at Ayodhya as it is its "poll stunt" on the basis of which it garners votes. "BJP will never construct Ram Temple at Ayodhya as it is its poll stunt. BJP tries to garner votes in the name of Hindutva in every election," Anwar told reporters here. BJP has completely failed to fulfill the promises it made to the people during last election and hence it was trying to allure people in the name of Ram Temple. Anwar had resigned from the membership of both Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and Lok Sabha in September last year and returned to Congress after a gap of 19 years. He had quit the Congress along with Sharad Pawar and the late P A Sangma over the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi. Stating that there is full unity in Grand Alliance, Anwar said that the seat-sharing among Grand Alliance is not at all an issue as their agenda is clear to stop BJP from coming back to power at the centre. "Any concrete decision on seat-sharing will be taken after Makar Sankranti ," he said. Asked whether he would contest Lok Sabha election from Katihar, he said that he would abide by party's decision in this regard. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The NCP on Monday mocked the latest duel between the BJP and the Shiv Sena over forging alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as a "Laurel and Hardy" drama--a popular comedy duo act of the early American cinema known for its slapstick comedy. The ridicule came a day after BJP president Amit Shah said that if an alliance happened, the party will ensure victory for its allies, but if it did not, the party will thrash its former allies in the coming Lok Sabha polls. "The way Shiv Sena is giving a statement, that it is not bothered about the alliance and the way Amit Shah said yesterday that it will rout Sena, I think Laurel and Hardy drama is on in Maharashtra," NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik told reporters here. Laurel and Hardy was a comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema and became known through 1920s to 1940s. Speaking before Shah in Latur city Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had set the BJP workers a target to win 40 of total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Reacting to the statements, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party had said it was ready to take on opposition. Meanwhile, Malik dismissed reports that the NCP was mulling over to give a ticket to renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam to contest the Lok Sabha polls. "The party has not given any such proposal to allot him (Nikam) a ticket. There is no decision made internally to give him candidature. The party won't give candidature (to Nikam)," he said. Malik further said NCP and Congress are currently holding discussions with like-minded parties to share seats, and the contours of the alliance would be finalised by January 15. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel had last week said his party and Congress have reached a consensus on 40 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014 polls, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 42 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, with BJP winning 23 seats and Sena 18. The Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha, which was an NDA ally, had won a seat. Shetti left the NDA in 2017 citing dissatisfaction with the Modi government over handling of agrarian issues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP and its allies on Monday hailed the government's decision to give 10 per cent quota to "economically weaker" sections from the general category as a "historic" step and a "masterstroke", while the Congress termed it as a poll gimmick to fool people but said it will support the bill. The Congress said that "without jobs", creation of reservation in employment may just prove to be "one more jumla" and that the decision was a proof of the BJP's "fear" of losing Lok Sabha polls. In a major move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet Monday cleared a 10 per cent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch BJP support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. A constitutional amendment bill is likely to be tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday, the last day of the Winter Session. The government has also sought extension of the Rajya Sabha proceedings for a day to enable the passage of the bill. BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe described the reservation for upper castes as a step to widen the social justice net. "Congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the historic decision of extending job quotas for economically weaker sections. A commendable step widening the social justice net and underscoring the inclusive approach of the government," he said. Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the party has always backed every step for reservation and extended support to the economically poor sections of society irrespective of caste, community or creed. "Without interfering with the constitutional mandate of reservation given to Dalits, adivasis and backward classes in any manner, we have always supported that those who are genuinely poor and who are not covered under these sections may also be given benefit of opportunities and reservation, both in education and employment," Surjewala said. Asked whether the Congress will support a bill for the quota in Parliament, Surjewala said: "The son or daughter of a person who is economically poor should get their share in education and employment. We will support all steps for this." He said the Congress will continue to support every step that provides opportunities as well as employment to the economically poor sections of society. "The truth, however, is that after four years and eight months, the Modi government has suddenly woken up to the woes of economically poor facing imminent defeat in the 2019 elections and with 100 days to go for polls," Surjewala said. "That itself raises certain questions on the intent, the bonafide and the honesty of the Modi government altogether," he said. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya said the decision has opened a new chapter in the history of social change. Applauding Modi for the decision, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and BJP's ally RPI(Athawale) leader Ramdas Athawale described the decision as a masterstroke which could end the difference between the upper and lower caste. "The issue of reservation caused a lot of conflict between Dalits and Savarnas. My demand has always been for 25 per cent reservation for the upper caste poor, 10 per cent is a good initiative. It is a masterstroke and Modi is a strong batsman," Athawale, who is a Dalit leader from Maharashtra, said. BJP leader and Minister of State for Social Justice Vijay Sampla said the proposed law will help economically weaker upper caste sections whose annual earning is lower than Rs 8 lakhs and who possess less than 5 acres of land. It will not affect reservation of other categories, he added. BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party Monday hailed as "historic" the government's decision, saying the poor from all castes and religions deserves support. However, opposition parties in Bihar dismissed it as an electoral stunt. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would be happy if people from weaker sections get job but questioned the NDA dispensation on constitutionally and legality of the quota. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said his party will support the NDA government on the constitutional amendment bill for giving 10 per cent quota to "economically weaker" sections but termed the move as merely an "election stunt". Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also welcomed the move. "The decision is nothing but an election jumla. We doubt the government's seriousness in the entire move," said Sudhakar Reddy, CPI general secretary. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the government of "posturing" and misleading the country as it did not have the requisite majority to get a constitutional amendment passed in Parliament. "The forward reservation is a gimmick to fool people. They are only misleading the nation," he said. "Modi and the BJP clearly think that Indian public eats grass. Crass politicisation. Proof positive of fear and certainty losing 2019," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Monday raised the issue of violence in Kerala, alleging that the ruling CPI(M) was practising "politics of murder" and many BJP workers were its victim. Speaking during the Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, Dubey referred to the incident of a crude bomb thrown at the residence of BJP Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan and sought dismissal of the state government. He also demanded a probe by a judicial commission. The Left fears that the BJP would replace it to form government in the state like it did in Tripura, he said. He alleged that the CPI(M) in Kerala was practising "politics of murder and goondaism" in the state. Jithendra Reddy of the TRS batted for giving maximum autonomy to states, saying that Union laws presently have an overriding power over state laws on issues in concurrent list of the Constitution. The present rules go against "cooperative federalism", an issue Prime Minister Narendra Modi often speaks about, he said. BJP's Chintamani Malviya said a Commission to look after the interests of poor people belonging to general castes should be set up. It is necessary that these weaker sections get reservation, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP Monday expressed sadness over its ally AGP deciding to break the partnership over the Citizenship Bill, saying the regional party had "fallen into the Congress trap". While opposition Congress welcomed the AGP's decision, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) proposed to form a united platform taking along the regional party to fight the "communal and divisive" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) invited the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to join the ongoing agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Congress and the AIUDF also lashed out at senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for claiming that the state will "go Jinnah's way if the Citizenship Bill is not passed". The proposed Citizenship Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. BJP Spokesperson Rupam Goswami said, "We have not got any information officially. The alliance with the AGP was made by our national president (Amit Shah), so I think only he will be informed." "We are definitely hurt seeing it on TV because we did not want them to leave the alliance. We got a hint that they have fallen into the Congress trap," Goswami told PTI. Another alliance partner, the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF), did not come out with any official reaction, but its MLA and Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma termed the AGP's decision as "correct", adding that it was her personal view. "The party (AGP) was born for the cause of the indigenous people and cannot go against them. Responding to peoples' call, it has withdrawn the support," she said. Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi of the Congress said the AGP should join hands with other parties to protest against the bill. "We should forget all our differences and aim towards fighting against the bill," he said Though the Congress leader ruled out any "political equation" with the help of the AGP. On Sarma's Jinnah comment, Gogoi said it reflected the communal of the minister. However, state Congress president Ripun Bora accused the AGP of carrying on with the alliance for the "sake of power" and noted that the damage to the state had already been done. "The AGP left the alliance when no alternative was left. They stayed for so long only for the sake of power. The decision is too late as the damage has already been done," Bora said. Had the AGP not partnered with the BJP, the saffron party would have not bagged so much seats in the assembly election and formed a government in the state, he added. AIUDF spokesperson Aminul Islam said, "We now hope that we can form a united opposition front, including the Congress, the AGP, the BPF and the Left to fight the communal and divisive of the BJP." The AIUDF legislator also criticised Sarma asserting that Muslims who supported Jinnah went to Pakistan during the partition and those who stayed back in India were opposed to his politics. Meanwhile, All Assam Students Union (AASU) General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said, "The AGP became power hungry. It is unfortunate that they realised it so late. Along with AGP, now we appeal all political parties to come out and join the protest (against the Citizenship Bill)." The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) too said that it was time for all parties against the bill to unite and find an alternative to communal politics. "Talking about Jinnah at this time is deliberately done to polarise the society before the polls. By doing so, he (Sarma) is trying to spread the communal agenda of the RSS," KMSS adviser Akhil Gogoi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bihar government Monday reached out to electronics and telecom companies and industry bodies for skilling of youths of the state and providing them employment opportunities. "We have been running 'recruit, train and deploy' programme for the last two years. Now we want electronics and telecom companies to be part of it. Under which, the Bihar government will meet the training and recruitment related costs for youth to make them employable in companies," Dipak Kumar Singh, principal secretary, Labour Resources and CEO, Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM), said after a meeting with industry players here. Singh said the state government has no shortage of funds for skilling youths in the state. "Our Chief Minister (Nitish Kumar) wants youths to get jobs. There will be no cap on the number of youth that can be trained for employment in electronics and mobile phone companies," the official said at the Mobile Manufacturers Conclave organised by the BSDM. He said that due to exorbitant land cost in Bihar, the state government has been unable to attract industries or companies that require large chunk of land but is ready to invest even if recruitment of youths takes place outside the state. The meeting organised by the BSDM in the national capital saw participation from companies like Samsung, Lava, Karbonn Mobile, Xiaomi, Dixon Technologies, Lenovo, Jio Mobile, and industry bodies like India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), CMAI Association of India, Telecom Sector Skill Council, Electronics Sector Skill Council, etc, as per details shared by the state government officials. Singh said the BSDM is open to industry deciding on a course curriculum to suit their needs for the recruit-train-deploy programme. "Bihar government and BSDM are very earnestly trying to structure and leverage the tremendous demographic dividend which the state enjoys in partnership with us. We are in the process of a feasibility study for building a formal structure of training and deployment," Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman, ICEA, said. He said that an entire ecosystem of candidates, training partners, trainers, assessing bodies, etc, has to be established. "We are happy to see the conviction and passion with which BSDM is working and sincerely hope that a great partnership between our industry and Bihar is going to be created for the benefit of our industry, Bihar and the nation," Mohindroo said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 29,000 employees of the civic run transport service are going on an indefinite strike beginning Monday midnight for various demands despite an industrial court restraining them from taking the step. Due to the strike, around 25 lakh passengers who travel by 3000 buses that ply on streets of Mumbai city and the metropolitan region every day will be inconvenienced, a union official said late night. Various unions of workers are demanding renewal of their salary agreements that got expired in 2016, rise in gratuity and bonus amounts, he said. They are also seeking immediate resolution of housing issues and merger of various undertakings of BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport)--the civic transport and electricity provider public body based in Mumbai. The unions also demanded that BEST and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) budgets be merged. The official said the employees decided to go on strike, as the BEST administration failed to come up with any concrete solution to resolve their long-pending demands. Meanwhile, sources said the Maharashtra government might slap Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on the striking employees. The Act gives police the right to arrest, without a warrant, anybody violating the provisions. The BEST management had declared the strike illegal and issued internal circulars warning staffers of strict action if they proceeded with it. When all talks between the parties failed, the BEST management approached the Industrial Court seeking relief against the strike. Earlier in the day, Industrial Court Member S V Suryawanshi, after hearing brief arguments, restrained union workers from going on strike till it hears the complaint filed by BEST management. The state human rights commission has asked the Kerala government to compensate the family of a 23-day-old baby boy for medical negligence after his private parts were severely injured during circumcision. In a statement, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) said that seventy five per cent of the private organ of the child was lost when he was circumcised at a hospital in northern Malappuram district. The doctor, who had carried out the circumcision, had only three years of surgical experience, it said, adding that the doctor's lack of experience resulted in the grievous injury to the baby. The commission also noted that the facilities at the private hospital, where the surgery was carried out, were very poor. KSHRC member P Mohandas directed the state Chief Secretary to pay an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the family of the child and also sought a report from the state health department. It also directed that more awareness should be created among parents and doctors on surgeries performed on newborns. In its report, the health department had said that the parents of the child had to spend over Rs 1.5 lakh for his treatment. Circumcision of male children, known as 'sunnat' in local parlance, is prevalent among the Muslim community in various parts of the world, including in the southern state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing the government of misusing probe agencies to target opposition leaders in an effort to stall an alliance ahead of the 2019 polls, the on Monday backed chief after it emerged the may quiz him in an case. Senior termed the CBI's action against Yadav vendetta of the According to reports, the is likely to question the former chief minister in an case. He also accused the government of "misusing" probe agencies like the CBI, and Income Tax to target opposition leaders. "We strongly condemn it (CBI's action against Yadav). Such and dictatorship cannot be allowed in India," Azad said. He alleged that the government did not initiate any action for over four-and-a- half years and suddenly acted against Yadav when it is about to end its tenure. "Where was this government in the last over four-and-a-half years? This (CBI) action comes at a time when elections are approaching. They (BJP government) are trying to prevent an alliance so it may not cause BJP's defeat in the polls. He (Yadav) is being intimidated so he does not forge an alliance," he said. In a democracy, forging an alliance depends on the desire of political parties in the polls, Azad said. "The government did not work on women's security, farmers and other issues in four-and-a-half years, but it misused the Enforcement Directorate, CBI, NIA to intimidate opposition parties leaders, be it Congress, NCP, TMPs, DMK, Andhra Pradesh's leaders, Kashmir's political organisations...," Azad said. Azad, who is also of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said he is apprehensive that the BJP government will target more opposition leaders by initiating action through probe agencies as the general elections approach. The also demanded a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on CBI's action against Yadav as well as on the fighter jet deal, which he alleged was the "world's biggest scam". Azad said opposition leaders had in the past united against former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but they did not "misuse" the government agencies like the present government is doing against opposition leaders. "Whoever will forge alliance (in elections), cases will be registered against them. They (opposition leaders) will be intimidated through CBI, Income Tax," he alleged. On Sunday, Yadav said he is ready to face the probe agency, but people are also ready to answer the BJP. The carried out searches at 14 locations Saturday in connection with its FIR against 11 persons, including IAS officer B Chandrakala, MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit (who unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket) to probe alleged illegal of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16. Yadav, who was the chief minister of the state between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13, apparently bringing his role under scanner, according to the FIR. The Monday cleared the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill and it is expected to be tabled in Tuesday, an official privy to the development said. The move came within hours of the presentation in of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. Large sections of people in Assam and other northeastern states have been protesting against the bill, saying it would nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported. The fresh bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. This was an election promise of the BJP in 2014. Eight influential students' bodies of the Northeast, besides more than 40 socio-cultural organisations of Assam, have called an 11-hour 'bandh' Tuesday in protest against the central government's move to amend the Citizenship Act. The JPC report was prepared with a majority vote as opposition members have opposed the move to grant citizenship on the basis of religion saying it is against the Constitution. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI-M and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion as India is a secular nation. ALSO READ: Protests rock Assam day after PM says govt working on Citizenship Bill Some opposition members have even given dissent notes in the report. Interestingly, BJP's ally Shiv Sena and JD-U have announced that they would oppose the bill in Parliament. Speaking in Silchar in Assam on Friday, the prime minister reiterated the Centre's commitment to pass the "The is an atonement of the wrong that was done during India's Partition. I hope this bill is passed soon in Parliament. India will safeguard all who had been victims of the Partition," he said. Protests broke out in several places in Assam, with agitators stripping themselves in public in Tinsukia, over Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment that if the Citizenship Bill is not passed "we will be surrendering to Jinnah's policy". The minister on Sunday had also said people are commenting on the bill in a "reactionary way" and intellectuals are trying to build a "wrong narrative", but clarified that he was not pointing to any community. "I am meaning (Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah) Jinnah, I am not meaning any community," Sarma had said. However, protesting organisations such as the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) alleged that Sarma through his comments was trying to polarise the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. "Without that bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah. If those people are not there, the Sarbhog seat will go to Jinnah. Do we want that? This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy, Sarma had told reporters while addressing a press conference on Sunday. BJP state president Ranjit Dass represents the Sarbhog assembly seat. "So, let the bill be passed and we will see if there is a provision of welcoming Bangladeshis in it. And, I am sure that is not there," he said. The minister said if we delete six lakh people from the voters list, the demography will change and "you will not retain Assam." "Today, if we do not have Citizenship Bill, 17 seats that elect Assamese people will go the Jinaah way...I am meaning Jinnah, I am not meaning any community," Sarma had said. The AASU and KMSS leadership have termed Sarma's comments as an attempt to polarise the Assamese society ahead of the elections. Protesters, led by organisations, observed 'Black Day' and carried black flags and burnt replicas of the bill across the state. In New Delhi a group staged a nude protest in front of Parliament Complex. Another group staged a nude protest in Assam's Tinsukia town as well against the minister's remarks. They also burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The Left Democratic Mancha, a common platform of Left and democratic parties, organised a protest meeting. They took out a procession to Kamrup Metropolitan Deputy Commissioner's office here. Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the bill as they believe it would harm their cultural identity. On Sunday, Sarma had also said detection and deportation will be carried out, but "not at the cost of Jinnah" as the state cannot have a detection and deportation policy to have "Badruddin Ajmal (AUDF chief) as the chief minister". "So, if something led us to make Ajmal as chief minister, then we have to change that policy, he had said. "That is why all this exercise is going on. So, in my view, Citizenship Bill and Clause-6 (of Assam Accord) are complementary. The bill itself will strengthen us. If the bill is not there, we will lose Sarbhog and many other seats." Meanwhile, the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the bill, was submitted in Parliament Monday after all amendments moved by the opposition in the panel were defeated on December 31 last year. Asked if implementing the Bill will not contradict the Accord, Sarma said, "Let the Accord be violated, but let us not go to Jinnah. You have to determine between a word of Assam Accord and Jinnah. Which way will you go? We are not apologetic. We trying to do something for the people of Assam and save the state from Jinnah." He also said the ongoing update exercise of the National Register of Citizens will detect "lot of Jinnahs". Reacting sharply to this, AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told PTI, "These are baseless and communal statement. He is showing fear of Muslims to get Hindu votes, but people are not fools." Despite being a public representative, the minister does not know how to speak to the people, the AASU leader alleged. KMSS adviser Akhil Gogoi said, "The makers of India and common people did not take side of Jinnah, but supported a secular country. Talking about Jinnah at this time is deliberately done to polarise the society before the polls. By doing so, he is trying to spread the communal agenda of RSS." A total of 70 groups led by KMSS will protest in front of different offices of Oil India Limited and ONGC, Gogoi said. In addition they would also stop oil, petroleum products, coal, forest products and limestone from being transported outside the state, he said. "We all know that Himanta Biswa Sarma is a politician who changes party at the time of his crisis," he added. He is in BJP now and playing to the tune of RSS to save himself from Louis Berger and Sarada chit fund scams. Addressing an election rally at Silchar on January 4, Prime Minister Modi announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will be passed as soon as possible in Parliament as a penance for past injustices. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre informed the Supreme Court Monday that all appropriate steps were being taken to rescue 15 miners trapped since December 13 in an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya and Indian Navy has deployed remotely operated underwater vehicle in the operation there. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that 71 members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 20 from State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), 16 Navy personnel and others, including those from Odisha fire service and Coal India Ltd were working in the rescue operation. The Meghalaya government meanwhile filed a status report on the rescue operation and said there were problems like difficult terrain and lack of proper infrastructure at the site which were creating hurdles. The apex court is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Aditya N Prasad who has sought urgent steps to rescue 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district. Senior lawyer Anand Grover, representing the petitioner, told the bench that he would make a note based on the status report filed in the court and give suggestions which could be considered. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on January 11. During the brief hearing, Mehta told the bench that the Navy was using a remotely operated underwater vehicle in the rescue operation and soon three more such vehicles would be send there. The state government, in its status report, said there was no blue print of the illegal coal mine as it was being run "clandestinely" and rescue operation was extremely challenging as the site was in a difficult terrain where public services, infrastructure and material required were not easily available. It said the site is located at Ksan near river Letein and is more than 30 km away from the headquarters and from the road, it was about 3.7 kilometre into the jungle and can be accessed after crossing three streams. The state said water was rushing into the mine from the nearby river and it was interlinked with at least 20 other mines there. It said the site can be accessed only by 4X4 vehicles and there was complete lack of availability of electricity in the nearby areas. It informed the court that fuel required to run generator sets, pumps and vehicles there have to be brought from a distance of one hour and high powered generator sets have to be brought in there for the rescue operation. "All efforts to rescue the trapped miners are being made with all earnestness and with the hope that the miners are surviving and shall be released from the ordeal," it said. On the issue of funds, the state said, "Advance fund for meeting any emergency arising from natural calamities is placed with the Deputy Commissioner (DC). At the start of the rescue operation, DC had more than Rs 30 lakh at his disposal. On January 3, government took a decision to place additional Rs 20 lakh with the DC to meet the requirements." It said the state was getting requisite support from the Centre, the Indian Navy, Odisha Fire Department and other concerned agencies to expedite the rescue operation. "The NDRF team also used the SONAR system for detection of the trapped victims but were not successful," it said. SONAR system uses sound propagation to navigate or detect objects on or under the surface of water. Meghalaya government said that on December 13 last year, the district administration had received information at around 2 PM that some miners are trapped and the NDRF, SDRF and civil defence services were immediately requisitioned for resuce operation. It said that on December 28-29, Indian Navy divers reached at the spot and high powered water pumps were also being used there to flush out the water from the mine. On January 4, the Centre had told the apex court that they were facing difficulties in rescuing the 15 miners as there was no blueprint of the 355-feet well which has "maze of rat holes" and seepage of water from the river was hindering the operation. The rat-hole mine, atop a hillock fully covered with trees in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, was flooded when water from the nearby Letein river gushed into it, trapping 15 miners. Rat-hole mining involves digging of narrow tunnels, usually three-four feet high, for workers to enter and extract coal. The horizontal tunnels are often termed "rat holes" as each just about fits one person. The apex court had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the Meghalaya government to rescue 15 miners trapped in the illegal coal mine and had said "prompt, immediate and effective" operation was needed to rescue them as it was a matter of life and death. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After meeting Rahul Gandhi Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ruled out the need for any alliance with the "non-existent" Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but said the decision on tie-up would be taken by the high-command. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Singh said the AAP is non-existent in Punjab and "there is absolutely no need for the Congress in the state to go for an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal's party". He said the Congress' state unit has already conveyed this view to the high-command, however, the matter was not discussed at today's meeting with Gandhi. Singh is learnt to have discussed a host of issues relating the state government and the party in view of the upcoming national elections. He also congratulated Gandhi on the Congress' victory in three states. "AAP has become defunct, with no identity now in Punjab, as against the situation prevailing in the last Lok Sabha elections. However, any decision on a coalition with AAP or any other party would be taken by the Congress high-command, keeping in mind the national perspective and electoral compulsions and would be followed by PPCC (Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee)," Singh said. Exuding confidence that the Congress will win all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, he said the best and the winnable candidates will be chosen by the party. However, there has been no discussion yet on selection of the candidates, he said. Replying to a question on a possible reshuffle in his cabinet, the chief minister said the issue of any change in portfolios was not discussed during the meeting with Gandhi. On the issue of the Kartarpur corridor, Singh said while Pakistan has already started work on construction of the road on their side, development work is yet to start in the Indian side as the state government has not received any funds from the Centre for acquiring land for building infrastructure. Responding to another question, the chief minister clarified that he gave permission to his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu to visit Pakistan for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor. "No minister can leave without the chief minister's approval," said Singh, adding that Sidhu wanted to go there in his personal capacity. However, he reiterated that he had advised him not to go as he himself had turned down the invite in view of the unprovoked killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan in Kashmir and ISI's persistent attempts to create troubles in Punjab. The chief minister trashed the allegations levelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on farm loan waiver in Punjab and said his government has already waived off loans worth Rs 3,417 crores of 4,14,275 farmers in just one year. He said his government is committed to covering all the 10.25 lakh small and marginal farmers targeted in the scheme. Singh said the prime minister believe in misleading and deceiving people with his trumped up allegations and fabrications, but the voters of the country will not be taken in by his "jumlebaazi" again. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma Monday asked rival political parties to cooperate with probe agencies in the illegal sand mining case. "It was after the orders of the high court that the probe began. The Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are a cocktail of corruption. They should co-operate with the agencies in the probe, and should not politicise corruption," Sharma told PTI here. On the Union cabinet approving 10 per cent reservation for economically backward upper castes, Sharma said, "This is a bold step, and we welcome it." "This will benefit the people from the economically backward upper castes. The government is committed to help every person who is economically weak," he added. He further said, "This is an example of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas. And, it shows that only a party with strong political will power can take such a decision." The move will go a long way in removing social disparity, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Marching contingents of all Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) but the CRPF have been kept out of the forthcoming Republic Day parade in the national capital on January 26, officials said on Monday. The most glaring omission is the squad of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. The about 1.70-lakh personnel strong force, designated as the lead airports and vital installations guarding security unity, was kept out of the iconic parade on national capital's Rajpath last year too. "None of the paramilitary forces, except the CRPF, have been inducted into the Republic Day marching contingents this time. Therefore, the marching teams of CISF, BSF, ITBP and SSB have not been asked to join the ongoing practice drills on Rajpath," a top security official privy to the development said. A government order accessed by PTI said only five contingents of forces under the Union Home Ministry have been included for the Republic Day-2019 that includes marching and band contingents of the Assam Rifles, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Reserve Police Force, Delhi Police, and the famed camel contingent and band team of the Border Security Force. A senior CISF official said a tableaux of the force, depicting its work profile in various theatres such as airports and Metro security, has however been given an in-principle approval to be included into the parade to mark 50 years of its raising this year. However, the CISF marching contingent has not been allowed on the Rajpath for the second year in a row as there is a rotation policy for participating squads for the past few years, the first official said. When the history of the golden jubilee year of the force will be written, absence of the marching contingent from the most iconic military event of the country, will be a sore point, a senior CISF Commanding Officer (CO), who requested anonymity, said. "Such a move has been very disheartening for the CAPFs. A number of times in the past these forces have moved their parent ministry and the Defence Ministry seeking a recourse, but to no avail," the official said. Last year, both CISF and CRPF were kept out of the event while the contingents of ITBP, SSB and BSF participated in the parade that showcases the defence and security prowess of the country. The squads, dressed in their best official and ceremonial regalia, march down the citadel of power at Raisina Hills in central Delhi to the 17th century-built monument Red Fort as per tradition. The government, in April, 2017, had told Parliament that this random exclusion of the CAPF contingents was being done due to "time constraints" during the annual parade. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had told Rajya Sabha in a written reply that "the MoD (ministry of defence) had also conveyed that any request for increase in the number of marching contingents (of CAPFs) would not be agreed because of time constraint." While the paramilitary forces have been protesting and raising this issue against this move since the last few years, the associations of their veterans have petitioned the government saying such a step was "discriminatory" and "hits the moral" of the troops who are deployed on a round-the-clock basis to not only ensure internal security in the country but also guard the Indian borders and undertake anti-Naxal operations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alfonso Cuaron's critically-loved "Roma" took home two trophies -- Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director -- at the Golden Globe Awards. The Academy award-winning director, who is widely expected to win major nominations at the Oscars again with the semi-autobiographical black-and-white drama, said "cinema at its best tears down walls and builds bridges to other cultures." Inspired by his childhood memories of growing up in the Mexico City in the first two years of the 1970s, "Roma" follows a domestic worker employed by a middle-class family. The title refers to a neighbourhood in Mexico City, Colonia Rom. Cuaron said "as we cross these bridges" and experience new shapes and faces, "we begin to realise that while they may be strange, they are not unfamiliar. We begin to understand exactly how much we have in common." "Roma" made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival where it took home the Golden Lion, the festival's top honor. The film received a limited theatrical run before its release on Netflix. The other nominees in the category included "Capernaum" (Lebanon), "Girl " (Belgium), "Never Look Away" (Germany) and "Shoplifters" (Japan). Cuaron thanked his leading ladies -- Yaltiza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira -- for "all of what they did in this film" as well as Ted Sarandos and "all the Netflix team that really made an amazing effort to bring this film all around the world." In the Best Director- Motion Picture category the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker was nominated alongside Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara( "The Favourite"), Barry Jenkins ("If Beale Street Could Talk"), Adam McKay ("Vice) and Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie ("Green Book"). The film was also nominated in the Best Screenplay-Motion Picture category, but "Green Book" took home the prize. "Roma" was ineligible for a best picture nod because the category is reserved "exclusively for English-language motion pictures". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid a furore, the ruling AIADMK Monday accepted a challenge thrown by arch rival DMK in the Tamil Nadu Assembly over criticism of the Central government. When the Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin, referring to a host of issues that have a link with the Centre like devolution of funds to the State from the Union government, said there were no references critical and condemnatory of the Centre in that regard in the Governor's address. Speaking on the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address, Stalin said if "flute was played" when "war drums should be beaten," with regard to the Central government it would be construed that the situation was not properly understood (by the State government). The DMK leader, faulting the government for failure on all the fronts, said the federal structure of governance in India placed both the Central and State governments on the same footing and no room should be given for one to assume a big brother role. When Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, intervening said the "story and dialogue," of Stalin on Centre-State relations were good, DMK members vociferously objected to it with Chief Minister K Palaniswami pitching in saying his colleague was only trying to answer. Jayakumar asked if during the DMK's rule between 1996 and 2001 and from 2006 to 2011, the Governor's address had references condemning the Centre, saying it was not so. Stalin asked the Minister to prove his claim or withdraw it, saying they would prove their stand apparently indicating that the Governor's address during DMK regime had critical references to the Centre. When the DMK leader said "this is Assembly and not like giving interviews to the media," Jayakumar stuck to his line and reiterated that the Centre was not condemned in the customary address of the Governor during the DMK rule. On the Sterlite issue, when Stalin reiterated his party's demand that a policy decision be taken to ensure the permanent closure of the copper plant at Tuticorin, the Chief Minister replied that the government was committed to the all-time closure, saying steps were being taken for that. Though the State Pollution Control Board is itself empowered to close the unit, he himself signed a file on the closure of Sterlie, Palaniswami said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday withdrew its support to ruling BJP in Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, AGP president and minister Atul Bora said. The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The decision followed an AGP delegation's meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, who asserted that the government will ensure its passage in Lok Sabha Tuesday, Bora said. "We made a last ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance," Bora said in New Delhi after meeting the home minister. The announcement followed AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's statement here that the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in passed by Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In more ally trouble for the BJP, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) Monday announced it has pulled out of the BJP-led ruling coalition in Assam over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which the regional party is opposing tooth and nail. The decision to snap ties with the BJP over the bill that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will, however, not affect the stability of the Sarbananda Sonowal-headed government. The bill is likely to come up in the Lok Sabha tomorrow which is the scheduled last day of the winter session of Parliament. The announcement was made by AGP president and minister Atul Bora after he said its "last-ditch attempt to convince" the Centre to withdraw the proposed legislation failed. The AGP has 14 MLAs in the 126-member assembly while the BJP has the support of 74 MLAs. The BJP has 61 members while 12 MLAs of the Bodoland People's Front and a sole Independent member are backing the party. The opposition Congress and the All Indian United Democratic Frontg (AIUDF) have 25 and 13 members respectively. AGP has three ministers in the state but they have not resigned yet. The AGP has no MP in the Lok Sabha or in the Rajya Sabha. The decision to snap the ties followed an AGP delegation's meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi during which he asserted that the government will ensure the passage of the Citizenship Bill in the Lok Sabha Tuesday. "We made a last ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. We tried to convince the Centre that the bill was against the Assam Accord and will nullify the ongoing updating of the National Register of Citizens(NRC). "But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance," Bora told reporters after the meeting. The BJP had promised to ensure the passage of the bill in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The TDP and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party quit the BJP-led NDA in the last one year during which the saffron party also parted ways with the PDP-headed coalition in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP's ties with Shiv Sena also remain strained while the leader of another NDA constituent Apna Dal (Sonelal) Monday warned its ally BJP it will go to "any extent" if the senior partner does not change its attitude to smaller parties in the ruling coalition. Apna Dal (S) president Ashish Patel said the party can take "any decision" but declined to elaborate. The Union Cabinet earlier in the day cleared the redrafted Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, officials said. A meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill and it is expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday, an official privy to the development said. Asked if the ministers have tendered their resignations, Bora said, "We will do that after reaching Guwahati." Later, Bora told reporters, "We felt betrayed at the BJP's attitude towards the bill as when we entered into the alliance, we were convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants...We never dreamt that the BJP could do this to the people of Assam. We now regret entering into an alliance with the BJP." He also rued that Chief Minister Sonowal refused to meet them when they had sought an appointment to discuss the issue with him as "probably he could not face us". Bora also said that Singh was requested not to ignore public sentiments only for votes but it is unfortunate that they did not listen. The move by the AGP came within hours of the presentation in Lok Sabha of a report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill that was first introduced in Parliament in 2016. The announcement followed AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's statement in Guwahati that the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The Bill has been opposed by a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. There was widespread protests in the state against the Bill. A meeting of the AGP was held in Guwahati on Friday on the issue and it was decided that if the Bill is passed in Lok Sabha, "we will withdraw support to the government in the state," Mahanta said earlier in the day. The three AGP ministers and a senior party MLA had gone to New Delhi to meet the prime minister who is yet to give them an appointment. The leaders, however, met Rajnath Singh. The AGP had entered into an alliance with the BJP before the 2014 polls and was opposed to the Bill since the beginning. The AGP had placed its reservations on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee when the panel had visited the state and also tried to mobilise opinion against the Bill among NDA constituents such as the JD(U) and Shiv Sena, and opposition parties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) pulled out of the BJP-led coalition government in Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Bill after its "last-ditch attempt to convince" the Centre to withdrew the proposed legislation failed on Monday. Announcing the decision after a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, AGP president Atul Bora said, "We tried to convince the Centre that the bill was against the Assam Accord and will nullify the ongoing updating of the National Register of Citizens...But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance." The proposed legislation seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Withdrawal of the AGP, which has 14 MLAs in the 126-member assembly, will not have any immediate effect on the future of the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government that still has the backing of 74 MLAs. The BJP has 61 members and the party has support from 12 MLAs of the Bodoland People's Front and the sole Independent member. The opposition Congress and the All Indian United Democratic Front (AIUDF) have 25 and 13 members respectively. The AGP had three ministers, including Bora, in the state. Later, Bora told a television channel, "We felt betrayed at the BJP's attitude towards the bill as when we entered into the alliance, we were convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants...We never dreamt that the BJP could do this to the people of Assam. We now regret entering into an alliance with the BJP." He also rued that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal refused to meet them when they had sought an appointment to discuss the issue with him as "probably he could not face us". "We made a last-ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the bill. But Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow," Bora said, adding Singh was requested not to ignore the public sentiment only for votes but it is unfortunate that they did not listen. In a statement here earlier in the day, AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said the party would withdraw support to the government in the state if the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 is passed by Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to amend Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The bill has been opposed by large sections of people and organisations in the Northeast. The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) and a few other parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion and that it is unconstitutional. There was widespread protests in the state against the bill and, for the first time, the media was also out on the street to register their protest against it, the Assam agriculture minister claimed. A party meeting was held here on Friday on the issue and it was decided that if the bill is passed in Lok Sabha, "we will withdraw support to the government in the state," Mahanta said earlier in the day. The three AGP ministers and a senior party MLA had gone to New Delhi to meet the prime minister who is yet to give them an appointment. The leaders, however, met Rajnath Singh. The AGP with 14 seats in the assembly had entered into an alliance with the BJP before the 2014 polls and was opposed to the Citizenship Amendment Bill since the beginning. The AGP has no MP in Lok Sabha or in Rajya Sabha. The AGP had placed its reservations on the bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee when the panel had visited the state and also tried to mobilise opinion against the bill among NDA constituents such as the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena, and opposition parties. Bora said the AGP is thankful to the parties who supported it and opposed the bill. "We had met the prime minister, the home minister and the JPC chairman and requested all to withdraw the bill. We thought that being in the government, we can convince the central leadership not to pass it," he said. "We had categorically said that we will not allow the bill to be passed at any cost and tried till the last moment," he added. Urging the people of Assam to join in the fight for existence, Bora said the party will announce their next course of action after reaching Assam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after stoking controversy with his "Jinnah's legacy" comment, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Monday said Hindus in the state will become minority within five years if the Citizenship Bill is not passed. The senior BJP leader stood by his "Jinnah's legacy" remark and said those who are protesting against him do not know the history of Assam and its formation during the partition of India. "I strongly believe that if this Bill is not passed, then Hindus in Assam will become minority in just next five years. That will be advantageous to those elements who want Assam to be another Kashmir and a part of the uncertain phase there," Sarma told PTI. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India. Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the Bill as they believe it would harm their cultural identity. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Saturday asked the people to keep calm as the state government would never do anything to harm their interests. The finance minister said those aware of the history of Assam know that the Muslim League had wanted it to be a part of Pakistan but first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi and the then Congress leaders had foiled that attempt. "It was not only the Muslim League that wanted to have Assam in that plan, but the same demand was also raised from inside the state at that point of time. Those elements are still there. "When I say it, I say it from historical perspective and what is happening in Assam. So, it has nothing to do with politics," Sarma said. On Sunday night, the senior Assam Minister commented that the state will go "Jinnah's way" if the Citizenship Bill is not passed and people are opposing it in a reactionary way with the intellectuals trying to build a wrong narrative. "Without that Bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah. If those people are not there, the Sarbhog seat will go to Jinnah. Do we want that? This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy," Sarma had said. Sarbhog is an assembly seat in Barpeta district. BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass is the MLA of Sarbhog. "So, let the Bill be passed and we will see if there is a provision of welcoming Bangladeshis in it. And I am sure, that is not there," he had said at a press conference. The powerful All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) have described Sarma's comments as an attempt to polarise the Assamese society ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said his party will support the NDA government on the constitutional amendment bill for giving 10 per cent quota to "economically weaker" sections and demanded that the ongoing Parliament session be extended for the purpose. The Delhi chief minister also said that if the Centre drags its feet over the issue, then the constitutional amendment bill will be "merely an election stunt". In a major move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet Monday cleared a 10 per cent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch BJP support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. A top government functionary said a constitutional amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament Tuesday, the last day of the Winter Session. "The govt shud extend Parl session and bring constitutional amendment immediately. Else it is merely an election stunt (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted. The proposed reservation will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation enjoyed by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 per cent. The constitutional amendment bill would be required as the constitution does not provide for reservation on the ground of economic conditions. It envisages amendment to Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that the announcement by government is a "welcome gimmick" before the elections. "The Modi government has come out with a welcome gimmick for reservation to economically weaker upper castes before the polls. Such decisions made from time to time by state governments were struck down by the courts for crossing the 50 percent reservation limit. Is this decision some drama so that it gets rejected by the court?" Singh tweeted. He demanded the government to call a special session of Parliament to pass the the constitutional amendment bill, and said the AAP would support it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP's Delhi unit Monday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of spreading rumours against it ahead of Lok Sabha polls by distributing pamphlets to mobilise voters on the basis of religion. Senior AAP leader Atishi dismissed the charge, saying it was a general pamphlet that was being distributed to warn voters against a "conspiracy" by the BJP-RSS to wean away voters from the AAP and shift votes to the Congress. BJP's Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said pamphlets were distributed outside mosques on Friday last charging the BJP and RSS with conspiring to shift votes to the Congress from the AAP. "Activity of this nature establishes the nervousness of AAP. In place of going to public with its works in Delhi during four years in government, it is asking for votes in the name of religion," he charged. Atishi, who is the AAP in-charge of East Delhi parliamentary constituency, said the pamphlets were distributed everywhere to expose how RSS and BJP workers were informally encouraging people to vote for the Congress, instead of the AAP. The pamphlets in Hindi and Urdu warned voters to be wary of the RSS-BJP "ploy" through which they wanted to shift votes from the AAP to the Congress so that BJP candidates win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first session of the newly elected Madhya Pradesh Assembly commenced here Monday with the administration of oath to the MLAs. The opposition BJP accused the Congress of going against the traditions of the House in appointing the pro tem Speaker. Congress MLA Deepak Saxena was appointed pro tem Speaker to administer oath to the MLAs. "In 2003, when the BJP had formed the government, the senior most MLA, Jamuna Devi (of Congress), was appointed pro tem Speaker. I don't have objection on any name but there are several senior members like Gopal ji (BJP MLA Gopal Bhargav), KP Singh ji (Congress MLA) and Bisahulal Singh ji (Congress MLA)," former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. "Appointment of a four-time MLA as pro tem Speaker (Congress MLA Deepak Saxena) is an aberration from the tradition (that senior most MLA should be appointed pro tem Speaker). I object to the violation of this tradition," Chouhan added. Reacting to Chouhan's objection, minister Dr Govind Singh said that there was no need to follow tradition every time. "Appointment of pro tem speaker (Saxena) is in accordance with the Constitution. The Governor appointed him as per Constitutional provisions," he said. Following this, the pro tem Speaker administered the oath to MLAs, with former CM Chouhan being the first to take oath. Ministers in the Kamal Nath government were next, with Nath himself not taking oath as he is not a member of the House. The MP CM is a Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara. Oath administration to MLAs will go on till January 8, on which day the Speaker would be elected and the Governor would address the House, an Assembly Secretariat official informed. The five-day session would continue till January 11. In the 230-member house, Congress with 114 MLAs, two short of majority, formed the government with the support of four Independent, one SP and two BSP MLAs. The BJP has 109 MLAs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 41st edition of the Dakar Rally, the world's most gruelling off road race, was flagged off amid much fanfare at the capital city of Peru here Monday. This edition of Dakar Rally marks the third year of participation for India's Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motor sport division of the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer. The three riders of Hero MotoSports Team Rally -- Oriol Mena of Spain, Portugese Joaquim Rodrigues and India's C S Santosh -- rolled off the ceremonial podium, in front of thousands of cheering fans assembled at the beautiful seaside district of Magdalena Del Mar. The Hero team, which finished inside top 10 last year, is confident of its prospects at the Dakar 2019, riding on the back of some strong performances, intense training sessions and a much-improved Hero 450 RR bike that has been introduced since the last edition. Another big positive for the team is the comeback of Rodrigues, who has undergone intensive rehabilitation after his injury at the Dakar last year. Having completed all the administrative and technical checks successfully, the team is raring to kick start its campaign with the first stage on Tuesday, which will take the rally from Lima to Pisco for a short warm up special of 84kms. This year The Dakar is being held in just Peru and will culminate on January 17. "Going into this Dakar in Peru - just one country, this means that we have to be able to manage 10 days of racing in the dunes. I think it's going to be a very difficult and hard race. Physically for the riders it's going to take a lot of energy to be able to put 300 odd kilometres in the dunes," Indian rider Santosh told PTI. "I think that is a big challenge. Secondly, most of it is going to be off track racing and since we are going to race only in Peru, we are going to cross a lot of tracks from the previous days. "So, navigation is going to be really important as we are not going to point A to point B or are doing loops. Therefore, I think we need to pay attention to the road book." Senior pro Rodrigues too was of the opinion that it would be a difficult race. "Bike has definitely improved a lot, unfortunately, I wasn't able to ride it for few months because I was recovering from an injury, but I followed every step with the team and tried to helped everything I could with my experience for CS or Oriol or bike," he said. "This year's Dakar is going to be more challenging mentally, physically and mechanically. With a lot of sand and dunes, it is going to be really hot and hard. "I think this is a race where we have to take care of the bike so that bike can also take care of us. It is going to be tough to manage all that but I think we are in a good position," Rodrigues added. Wolfgang Fischer, Team Manager, Hero MotoSports Team Rally said: "We are quite excited to be here at the Dakar 2019 for our third year now. We have had good preparations this year with some solid performances in the races and experience under our belt." For Spaniard Mena, it will be his second time here after emerging as the 'Best Rookie of the Dakar' last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thirty-one hillocks have disappeared from Rajasthan's Alwar district as a result of levelling of ground due to illegal excavation of minerals, Parliament was informed on Monday. As per information provided by Rajasthan's Department of Mines and Geology, excavation of minerals from hillocks results in levelling of ground and the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has observed that 31 hillocks have disappeared in Alwar district, Minister of State for Mahesh Sharma told the Rajya Sabha. No hillocks from the Aravalli Range have disappeared due to mining operation undertaken illegally, he said. The minister said this information was shared by the Haryana government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A decorated officer of the Indian Army, who had repulsed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, faced hooliganism on the streets of Mumbai when he was allegedly assaulted by three young men riding a motorcycle on a footpath in suburban Malad last week, police said Monday. The trio were arrested later. Sadly, no member of public intervened when Anup Joseph Manjali (36), a Kirti Chakra awardee Lieutenant Colonel, was beaten up by the trio following an argument. The incident occurred on the night of January 5 in Malad (west) when Lt Colonel Manjali, who was in civil dress, was waiting for his mother on a footpath, a police official said. He said a man drove his motorcycle on the footpath and asked Lt Colonel Manjali to move out of way, following which an argument broke out between them. Soon one of the two men riding pillion pushed Lt Colonel Manjali while another started hitting the officer on his head and face with a helmet, the official said, adding that the motorcycle rider also joined them in the attack. The official said the Lt. Colonel didn't fight back. "The trio left Manjali following intervention by his mother," he said. The injured Army officer was taken to hospital where doctors found that one of his shoulders got dislocated, he said. After a case was registered on January 6 under various sections of the IPC and Motor Vehicle Act, police traced the three men and arrested them. The Army officer had gunned down three terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012 when he was posted with the Rashtriya Rifles, the official said. The Lt Colonel is currently attached with the 12 Bihar regiment, he said, adding that he is recuperating. Kirti Chakra is the second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards given for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the field of battle. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 595 people, including Pakistani security officials, have been killed and 1,030 others injured in 262 terror attacks in the country during 2018, according to a report. Most of the attacks were targeted at security and law enforcement agencies. Among these attacks, the most menacing were carried out on political leaders and workers. The deadliest attacks took place in the run-up to the July 25 general elections, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies' (PIPS), an Islamabad-based think tank, said in its annual Pakistan Security Report 2018. In July, a suicide bomber killed 128 people at an election rally in southwestern Pakistan in the second election-related attack. The bombing was the most deadly attack in Pakistan in over three years. It stated that there was a "29 per cent decline in terrorist attacks and 27 per cent in consequent fatalities in 2018, compared to previous year". The PIPS said that about 38 per cent of the total 595 people killed in acts of terrorism in Pakistan in 2018 were the result of five lethal attacks claimed by ISIS in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. "Balochistan was the only region where terrorism-related killings surged, by over 23 per cent, when compared to 2017; most of these fatalities resulted from attacks by religiously-inspired militant groups," according to the report. Around 171 attacks in entire Pakistan were perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its splinter groups Jamaatul Ahrar, Hizbul Ahrar and others, which killed 449 people. Nationalist insurgent groups, mostly in Balochistan and a few in Sindh, carried out 80 attacks, martyring 96 people. "As many as 11 terrorist attacks were sectarian-related, killing 50 people and injuring 45 others," it said. More than half of these attacks, around 136, hit security and law enforcement agencies. The security forces killed a total of 120 militants in 2018 as compared to 524 in 2017. It noted that 24 attacks were against political leaders and workers, in which 218 people were killed martyred and 394 injured. A total of 131 cross-border attacks from Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan, India and Iran, claiming 111 lives and injuring 290 others. Balochistan remained the centre of attention with 354 people martyred in attacks while 59 per cent of the total toll in Pakistan took place in the province. The PIPS report called for comprehensive policy and action to completely end violence from the country. It said that questions were raised on the status of those banned individuals who signed Paigham-e-Pakistan - a violence-opposing decree but continued to held protests and even paralysing cities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 178 criminals, including 51 who had warrants pending against them for a long time, have been arrested in Odisha's Koraput district in a two-month-long special drive, a senior police officer said. Those arrested are facing charges of dacoity, attempt- to-murder, theft and robbery among other crimes, Koraput Superintendent of Police Kanwar Vishal Singh said. "Around 125 of the 178 nabbed criminals are involved in dacoity-related cases. Most of the arrests have been made under the jurisdiction of Jeypore town and Jeypore Sadar police stations," he said. As part of the preparation for the special crackdown, a number of squads were formed and the tentative locations of the criminals mapped, the SP said. "A database of 90 criminals who have been absconding for years was prepared recently. Of them, 50 have been arrested in our special drive. We are hopeful of arresting the rest in the next few weeks," he stated. With resentment brewing among the locals over alleged deterioration of law and order situation in and around Jeypore, the arrests of wanted criminals have brought relief to the police. "We had clear orders to go ahead with our special campaign. In the past few weeks, we had four separate exchanges of fire while trying to nab the criminals. In two cases, however, the criminals managed to flee by firing at police," said Baleswar Gidhi, Inspector In-charge of Jeypore town police station. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre Monday informed the Supreme Court that 17 mentally ill people, who were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Uttar Pradesh, have been released from the 'dargah'. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer was told by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta that the authorities have taken cognisance of the matter and a team was constituted which went to the asylum in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh. "It is not a mental asylum. It appears to be a 'dargah'. There seems to be a belief that persons who are possessed can be cured by keeping them there. Persons are chained there so that they do not run away. There were 17 chained persons and they all have been released and are now with their families," he told the bench. The top court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who has said that persons with mental illness were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Budaun in violation of the provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017. During the hearing, Mehta said authorities have asked a woman, who claims that she could cure such patients, not to do such activities and a hoarding has also been put there that no such type of curing takes place. He said family members of such patients had themselves brought them to that place. "It is not the people taken there, but the people who take them there are mentally ill," the bench observed and asked, "Is such practice prevalent across the country?. To this, Mehta responded, "Yes, all over the country and across religion." The bench said even if a person was suffering from mental illness, there was a process to cure them. "All of us are temporary abled. No body knows what will happen tomorrow," Justice Sikri observed. In a lighter vein, the SG said in America, it is believed that every fourth person is under some psychiatric help. Bansal told the apex court that issue regarding non-implementation of provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017 by states and Union Territories (UTs) should be dealt with by the bench. The court issued notices to all the states and UTs seeking their replies on the plea which has said that chaining a person suffering from mental illness was a blatant violation of a provision of the 2017 Act, which says that every such person will not only have a right to live with dignity but he or she will be protected from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The court has posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks. The top court had last week said chaining of mentally ill people cannot be allowed and had termed as "atrocious" and "inhuman" such conduct in a faith-based mental asylum in Uttar Pradesh. The court had said that chaining people with mental illness was violative of their rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which deals with life and personal liberty, and their dignity cannot be compromised. In his PIL, the petitioner has referred to the National Mental Health Survey 2016 and claimed that around 14 per cent of India's population requires active mental health interventions and around two per cent Indians were suffering from severe mental disorders. He has also sought a direction to all the states and UTs to start a programme to provide mental health care and treatment to persons with mental illness placed near or inside faith-based mental asylums. Besides these, the PIL has sought direction to states and UTs to establish state mental health authority as also a fund as per the provisions of the Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court here Monday sentenced 16 people, including a Christian priest, to various periods of imprisonment, including four life terms, for forcing two minor girls into prostitution. Mahila court sessions judge Lingeswaran sentenced the priest, Aruldoss, to 30 years in jail. A fine of Rs 5 lakh was also slapped on him. Two accused, Ananda Raj and Balasubramanian, were sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment. Three women, Kala, Dhanalaksmi, Fathima, were sentenced to two terms of life in jail. Another accused, Sridhar, was also sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. The court imposed various amounts of fine on them. The judge said the life terms will run concurrently. According to the prosecution, Dhanalakshmi, who ran an eatery, forced a 13-year-old government school girl into prostitution. Using her, she also lured another 14-year-old girl into flesh trade. The prosecution said they were handed over to the priest who raped the girls several times before selling them to a gang, who engaged them in flesh trade. A case was registered against 16 people, including seven women, who played roles in forcing the girls into prostitution. The case, which was registered in 2014, was transferred to the Crime Branch-CID on a Madras High Court order in 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) RJD leader received a setback on Monday, when the Patna High Court dismissed his petition challenging the government's order asking him to vacate the bungalow allotted to him while he was the deputy chief minister. A division bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Anjana Mishra rejected the (RJD) leader's appeal challenging a single-judge order dated October 6, 2018, which had turned down his petition against the state government's direction. The single-judge order had said "the petitioner has been allotted a bungalow, matching his status as a minister in the government, at 1, Polo Road, Patna. He cannot raise a complaint about the decision so taken, simply because the present bungalow is more suited to him". Yadav, who is now the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, occupies the 5, Desh Ratna Marg bungalow, which is at a stone's throw from the Raj Bhavan and the chief Ministers official residence. The Nitish Kumar government has asked Yadav to swap residences with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who lives in 1, Polo Road, situated about a kilometre away. BJP MPs staged a protest in the complex on Monday against incidents of violence targeting their leaders in Kerala, including a crude bomb thrown at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan which they blamed on the state's CPI-M led government. BJP MPs, including Bhupender Yadav and Shobha Karandjale, were seen holding placards near the Gandhi statue in to condemn the alleged violence against their leaders in the state. The BJP has launched an extensive campaign to highlight the alleged targeting of its workers in the southern state after it joined the Sabarimala protest. Drawing flak from opposition parties, the CBI laid out details about the illegal mining case in on Monday and claimed that then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's office had cleared 13 projects on a single day, officials said. The agency said Yadav, who also held the mining portfolio for sometime, had cleared 14 leases, of which 13 were cleared on February 17, 2013, in violation of e-tendering process. The (CBI) claimed that on February 17 the leases were granted by the district magistrate of Hamirpur, B Chandrakala, after getting approval from the chief minister's office in violation of its 2012 e-tender policy, which was ratified by the Allahabad High Court on January 29, 2013. The CBI gave details about the role of chief Yadav after he and other opposition party leaders accused the government at the Centre of misusing the probe agency for its political gains. Yadav had held a press conference in Lucknow on Sunday alleging that the was using the CBI as a tool for arm-twisting the opposition party leaders, some of whom are trying to forge an alliance against the ruling party. "Now we have to tell the CBI as to how many seats we have distributed in the gathbandhan (alliance). I am happy that at least the has shown its colours. Earlier, the gave us the chance to meet the CBI, and this time it is the BJP, which has given us this opportunity," Yadav had said. "The is making efforts to win maximum number of LokSabha seats. Those who want to stop us, have the CBI with them. Once the did CBI probe, and I was questioned. If the BJP is doing all this, the CBI will question me, I will answer (them). But, the people are ready to give an answer to the BJP," he had said. ALSO READ: Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav under CBI lens in illegal sand mining case The CBI had carried out searches at 14 locations on Saturday in connection with its FIR against 11 people, including IAS officer B Chandrakala, MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Dixit (who unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket), to probe alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16. Yadav, who was the chief minister of the state between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13 apparently bringing his role under scanner, according to the FIR. He was succeeded by Gayatri Prajapati, who took charge as mining minister in 2013 and was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot. This is the third FIR pertaining to illegal mining cases which were registered by the agency on January 2, 2019, nearly two-and-a-half years after it was directed by the Allahabad High Court to probe the matter. The West Bengal government is denying permission to the Bharatiya Janata Partys proposed rath yatra in all the 42 parliamentary constituencies as it may lead to law and order problems. The Calcutta High Court has gauged the agenda of the organisers of the yatra and has rightly refused permission for the same. One only hopes that the Supreme Court will also appreciate the concerns of the state government and deny permission for the rath yatra. The government has failed to deliver on its promises to the masses and this is a last-ditch effort by the RSS-BJP combine to woo people by ... Richwood, TX (77531) Today Intervals of clouds and sunshine. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 94F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low near 75F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Facing widespread ridicule after two of its invitees made unscientific claims during their lectures, the Indian Science Congress (ISC) has decided to go for a policy change, which will include stipulating a process of selection of speakers and vetting the content of their speech. The ISC General Secretary Premendu P. Mathur said the congress dissociates itself from the controversial statements and in future it will ensure that only right kind of people are invited. In a lecture given on Friday during the 106th Indian Science Congress held in Jalandhar, G. Nageswara Rao, Andhra University Vice Chancellor, had made the unsubstantiated claims that "Kauravas" were born out of stem cell and that Lord Vishnu had possessed heat missile technology. "We condemn and dissociate ourselves from whatever comments he has made. We have now made it a policy. First the speakers will have to submit an abstract and second an undertaking that they will not deviate from the subject," Mathur told IANS. "However senior a person is, he will have to give an abstract and their lecture will be subject to certain kind of moderation. From next year, the policy is going to change," he added. Speaking to reporters earlier, ISC President for this year Manoj Chakrabartisaid that he was "shocked" that "such a person" can say this. "How did he (Rao) come to know all this? Is there an evidence? The scientific community is shocked," Chakrabarti said. Mathur said that the ISC will issue a formal statement denunciating the claims made in the lecture by Rao once the top officials of the Congress are back in Kolkata, where the body is headquartered. --IANS vn/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Narendra Modi-led NDA government is making a "constitutional amendment" to implement the Cabinet's decision of giving 10 per cent reservation to economically-backward people from general category in government jobs and educational institutions, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Monday. Prasad, responding to former Union Minister and Congress leader Manish Tewari at the launch of former MP Baijayant Panda's book, "Lutyens' Maverick - Ground Realities, Hard Choices and Tomorrow's India", clarified: "The Supreme Court has said that in the current constitutional architecture, no reservation can be given to non-educational and socially backward class, even if they are poor. "We are coming up with constitutional amendment as a separate constitutional platform for economically weaker section of the community. Therefore it is a constitutional amendment and not a legal amendment." Tewari had said that a similar attempt was made by P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1991, but the Supreme Court struck it down on constitutional grounds. Prasad said that the judiciary has never questioned the "power of Parliament" to come up with "reservation for a special objective upon proper reasonable ground". Nationalist Congress Party MP Praful Patel expressed suspicion over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s hurry in approving the quota proposal in the last three months of its term. "We are discussing something important without applying our minds to it," Patel said. He added that parliamentarians will have very less time to read it and debate in the House. "Would we be able to discuss it objectively, constructively?" Panda said he has been a great believer in Indian democratic system. "It's a self-corrective system," he said, while also calling for judicial reforms, improvement in police system and electoral reforms. --IANS ss/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the first ever roundtable conference on various public funds to be utilised for investment purposes during the Vibrant Gujarat summit 2019, an official has said. Modi will be addressing the conference on utilisation of various public funds like the sovereignty wealth funds, pension funds and other such various funds institutions for investment purposes, the official said on Monday. "For the first time, we will be holding a roundtable conference for discussions on utilisation of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and such other similar public funds which can be utilised for investment purposes for infrastructure sector. We have invited around 27 such prominent institutions for the event," Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Arvind Agarwal told the media. The Union Finance Ministry, Gujarat government and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) would be organising this conference jointly. There would be discussions on the subject by eminent financial experts from all these institutes. "The participants will be appraised about various economical reforms initiated by the Central government in the past five years. These financial institutions have funds in trillions of dollars, which can be utilised to set up infrastructures for airports, shipping ports, rail, roads and other urban infrastructure, industrial infrastructure in various projects in the country," Agarwal said. During the conference, there would be a display of prospective Mega projects in Gujarat through an exhibition in the summit, he added. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and Finance Ministry Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg would also be present. Major financial institutions like Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCIMC), the Ontario Municipal Employment Retirement System, PSP Investments and CPPIB, International Finance Corporation IFC, Asian infrastructure investment bank (AIIB), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Pacific Investment Management Company, Vanguard, IFU, Allianze will also be sending their representatives and officials to the conference. --IANS amc-desai/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Thai authorities to stop the deportation of an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family and has been held at the Bangkok airport since the weekend. Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun has refused to board Kuwait Airlines Flight KU412, set to depart from Bangkok to Kuwait at 11.15 a.m., on Monday claiming her family has threatened to kill her after she ran away from them, reports Efe news. The young woman was on her way to Australia when she was intercepted during a stopover at the Thai airport by personnel from the Saudi embassy, who confiscated her passport and plane ticket. "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will," HRW Middle East Director Michael Page said in a statement. "Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee," he added.. Al-Qunun said her family subjected her to various abuses, including beatings and threats, and that she fled from them when visiting Kuwait, which does not require females to get the authorisation of a male relative to leave the country. Al-Qunun said in a Twitter account opened on Saturday that she is locked in a hotel room at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where staff from the Saudi embassy are preventing her from leaving, "I'm the girl who run away from Kuwait to Thailand. I'm in real danger because the Saudi embassy trying to forcing me to go back to Saudi Arabia, while I'm at the airport waiting for my second flight," the woman said when she created the account. Al-Qunun told HRW that Thai authorities told her on Sunday that she would not be allowed to enter Thailand since her visa had been rejected and that she would be deported to Kuwait on Monday. HRW demanded that the Thai authorities allow the young woman to contact UNHCR and abide by the decision taken by the UN refugee agency. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thailand's immigration police chief on Monday said that a 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family at the weekend will be given temporary entry to the country. Thai immigration officials earlier tried to return Rahaf Mohammed Mutlaq Al-Qunun to Kuwait, where her family was located. But the teenager refused to board a flight to the Middle East on Monday, claiming her abusive family threatened to kill her after she ran away from them. She barricaded herself in her hotel room at Bangkok's main airport. Al-Qunun posted photographs of herself as well as her passport on Twitter and said she was seeking refugee status from "any country that would protect me from getting harmed or killed due to leaving my religion and torture from my family", CNN reported. The teenager said she believed her family subjected her to several abuses, including beatings and threats, and would kill her if she went back because she had renounced Islam. The Thai authorities said her status would be assessed by the UN refugee agency. Rights groups including Human Rights Watch expressed grave concerns for Al-Qunun and urged Thai authorities to "immediately halt the planned deportation" and "allow her unrestricted access to make a refugee claim with the Bangkok office of the UN refugee agency". Thailand's chief of immigration police Surachate Hakparn said that the country would "protect her as best we can". "She is now under the sovereignty of Thailand, no one and no embassy can force her to go anywhere," he said. "We will talk to her and do whatever she requests. "Since she escaped trouble to seek our help... we will not send anyone to their death." Al-Qunun said she had originally intended to fly on to Australia but decided to try and enter Thailand instead. But after landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand, she had her passport confiscated and had been "held" by Saudi embassy officials. She said that when she approached a visa on arrival counter at the airport -- Saudi citizens can apply for a temporary visa provided they have a "confirmed return ticket within 15 days" -- she saw a group of Saudi diplomats waiting for her. Al-Qunun said the Saudis tried to make her sign a piece of paper and when she refused and appealed to Thai immigration officials, she was escorted to a transit hotel. However, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Thailand denied it had seized the teenager's passport. In a statement released on Twitter, it said Al-Qunun did not have a return ticket or a tourist programme, which led the Thai authorities to decide on sending her back to Kuwait. "The embassy does not have the authority to stop her at the airport or anywhere else. She was stopped by the airport authorities for violating the law," the statement said. "Her passport was not impounded by the Saudi embassy," it added. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income-Tax (I-T) Department would soon issue orders for attaching the property of Karnataka's Congress Minister D.K. Shivakumar, a top official said on Monday. "The case (investigation) on Shivakumar is in progress. We will soon be issuing orders to attach his property," Karnataka Director-General of Income-Tax (Investigation) B.R. Balakrishhnan told reporters here. The official, however, declined to give details about the case and the value of the Minister's property to be attached, location and its nature. The imminent orders stem from the interrogation the I-T sleuths did with the 56-year-old state Water Resources Minister on January 3 in connection with the alleged tax evasion, money laundering and seizure of cash worth crores from his premises in Bengaluru, Kanakapura and New Delhi during the investigations since August 2017. Teams of I-T sleuths searched Shivakumar's residence in early August 2017 when he was looking after then Congress legislators from Gujarat at a resort near Bengaluru. The three-day searches were conducted under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as an evidence gathering exercise in compliance with the statutory requirements. Shivkumar was then Energy Minister in the previous Congress government. He is a lawmaker from Kanakapura Assembly segment in Ramaganaram district. One of the richest politicians in the country, Shivakumar declared assets valued at Rs 840 crore in his nomination papers on April 19 for the May 2018 Assembly elections in the southern state. On September 15, 2018, the Special Court for Economic Offences granted bail to Shivakumar and three others in a criminate case the I-T Department had filed for alleged evasion of tax and filing of false tax returns. --IANS bha-fb/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Admitting that the staff strength in the public-sector HAL in Bengaluru is at its lowest in 15 years, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Monday that the firm was "continuously working towards right sizing the organization." In a written reply, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Subhash Bhamre said there was no plan to downsize the staff strength at the HAL. He also hinted at greater outsourcing by the firm in the future. "Even though the manpower decrease is occasioned due to superannuations, resignations, etc., the requisite inductions have been done by HAL as per their organizational requirements and projects at hand," the Minister said in the reply. "The manpower requirement is based on the present and future work load. Accordingly, HAL has been continuously working towards right sizing the organization, which would inter-alia include measures such as increased outsourcing, enhanced efficiency of its resources and inductions only in such areas which are required in critical and on long term basis," he said. This comes close on the heels of a media report last week that for the first time in three decades HAL had to borrow around Rs 1,000 crore to pay salaries to its staff. "Our cash in hand is in the negative, we have had to borrow close to Rs 1,000 crore as an overdraft (OD). By March 31 we will have minus of Rs 6,000 crore, which becomes unsustainable. We can borrow for day-to-day work but not for project purchases," HAL CMD R. Madhavan was quoted as saying by a national daily. --IANS vsc/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Lok Sabha was on Monday adjourned for the day after witnessing three brief pre-lunch and one post-lunch session adjournments due to protests by the Samajwadi Party and Congress members over a CBI probe against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on alleged illegal mining, and the Rafale fighter jets issue. Amid the furore, two bills -- "Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018" and "The personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018" -- were passed and Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended four members of the AIADMK and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for disrupting House proceedings. Three AIADMK MPs P. Venugopal, K.N. Ramchandran, K. Gopal and TDP MP N. Shivaprasad were suspended for two days under Rule 374A. Soon after the House reassembled at 2 p.m after lunch following three earlier adjournments, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav, along with other party members, came near Speaker's podium raising slogans against the Centre as "alliance with CBI needs to be broken, CBI is the parrot of BJP; this government is against farmers and students; the government is full of corruption". The Congress members also joined the protest and came near Speaker's podium demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the procurement of 36 ready-to-fly Rafale fighter jets from France. Amid the ruckus, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar introduced "Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018" which was passed by Mahajan. As the din continued, she adjourned the House for half-an-hour. After the House reassembled, Union Minister P.P. Choudhary introduced "The personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018" to amend the Divorce Act, 1869; Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939; Special Marriage Act, 1954; the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 amid the ruckus by the opposition. The Bill was opposed by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, while Biju Janata Dal (BJD)'s Bhartruhari Mahtab, Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s Kalyan Banerjee and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)'s Vinod Kumar supported it with some suggestions like rehabilitation of victims facing leprosy problem which lead to divorce. As the pandemonium continued and the Samajwadi Party MPs started tearing news papers and throwing it in the air near the the Speaker's chair, it forced Mahajan to adjourned the House for the day. Earlier, the House saw three pre-lunch adjournments during which Mahajan suspended four TDP and AIADMK members for two consecutive sittings for causing "grave disorder" in the House. When the House reassembled at noon after its first adjournment, the agitating members again trooped near the Speaker's podium raising slogans in support of their demands like special status for Andhra Pradesh and against the proposed dam on the Cauvery river in Karnataka. They have been protesting on these issues ever since the session started. Mahajan issued a warning and suspended the four members of the two parties. Last week, the Speaker had suspended 45 Lok Sabha members belonging to AIADMK and the TDP. She asked the suspended members to withdraw themselves from the House but they declined to. Later, she adjourned the House till 12.30 p.m. When the House again reassembled, the Congress members started protesting demanding a JPC probe into the Rafale deal. Amid the din, some of the members raised their issues in the Zero Hour. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue related to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's remarks on giving Rs 1-lakh crore government contracts to PSU HAL while Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav attacked the government over a CBI probe against its chief. As noisy scenes continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till 2 p.m. The Lok Sabha was earlier adjourned till noon after witnessing unrelenting protests by the Congress, TDP and the AIADMK. Soon after the House assembled for the day, the Congress members trooped near the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering demanding the JPC probe The Speaker tried to conduct the Question Hour but the protests continued, forcing her to adjourn the House till noon. --IANS rak-bns/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after the All Assam Students Union (AASU) declined to be a part of a committee set up by the Central government to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday appealed the powerful student body to play an active role in the panel. "The high-level committee constituted by the Central Government for safeguarding the cultural and linguistic identity of indigenous people of Assam through Clause 6 of Assam Accord is a golden opportunity for the state and AASU must play an active role in the committee," Sonowal told a gathering in Tinsukia. "I am a son of the soil and I will not allow the Assamese people to get marginalized in their own place. Let us all join hands to find an acceptable, rational and practical solution to this important issue," Sonowal said. The Central government on Saturday set up the committee, to be headed by former Union Tourism Secretary M.P. Bezbaruah, to ensure implementation of Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord, which seeks to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. The Central government had nominated a member of AASU in the committee. The AASU declined to be part of the committee until the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is scrapped. --IANS ah/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Gemma Handy WASHINGTON Misick chooses his words carefully, each one delivered at a steady, considered pace. So the candour that accompanies them is unexpected. It emerges when he talks about the challenges currently facing the TCI. Again when hes quizzed about who he thinks is best placed to lead the Progressive National Party (PNP) after his own imminent departure. And once again when asked to compare his leadership style to that of his youngest sibling who was at the nations helm during some of the biggest scandals it has ever seen. Such guilelessness, along with an unassuming nature and propensity for putting caution before charisma, have made him perhaps an unlikely politician. In an era where autocrats rise to power on little more than charm, rhetoric and a sharp suit and conflate strength with unbridled exercise of power humility and authenticity are hardly buzz words. Yet its precisely these qualities he insists are paramount but absent among most contemporary officeholders. Finding a replacement to head the PNP after his term ends is an undertaking which has, by his own admission, consumed him for much of 2018. Throughout the turbulence of recent times, Misick has been a judicious presence, working quietly to get the TCI back on its feet after a decade of controversial British intervention in its affairs, alarming rates of violent crime, rampant illegal immigration and tribulations wreaked by hurricane Irma. Now, as he prepares to exit politics for good in 2020 the same year he turns 70 hes devoting his attentions to helping safeguard the future of the Islands to which he has dedicated five decades of public service. It is that long commitment to his country, along with his efforts and accomplishments as Opposition Leader, which have seen him named Weekly News Person of the Year 2018, an accolade he was "taken aback by. He describes the last 12 months as "very active as he has striven to reorganise the PNP and guide it onto a "stronger footing, endeavours hindered by postponements to the partys national congress and thus the election of a new chief and executives. One of the problems with local politics, he continues in that measured tone, is a tendency for a cult following to arise. "People have a convoluted concept of what a political leader should be like; his job, his function. Its important to break away from that strongman view, he explains. "In third world politics, leaders have tended to be charismatic and, while that has worked in liberation movements, they have often turned out to do more harm than good in the long-term. Its the same thing thats happened in the TCI. "A good 21st century leader is someone with self-knowledge, who is authentic and true to himself, able to orchestrate his following based on shared values, core beliefs and a democratic process, and whose focus is on his team rather than himself as a saviour. "Leadership is about teaching people, helping them face challenges, embrace opportunities and coalesce around ideas that are of benefit to all. It was never Misicks intention to be anything more than an interim Opposition Leader when he took on the role after the PNP lost the 2016 election prompting erstwhile Premier Rufus Ewing to quit. "I see my position as providing experience and advising the next generation, rather than being out front leading the party, he says. "Its a challenge to find the right person, not because there arent capable people but because a lot of very capable people are busy making a living and dont want to put their families through the rigours and negativity that sometimes surround a political career. Stringent British oversight and constitutional reform have inarguably changed the TCI political scene. "Its no longer a winner-takes-all system and to me thats a good thing. But, in some cases, its wound too tight and one could become frustrated in terms of their ability to achieve a legitimate agenda, Misick continues. Would he describe himself as a reluctant leader? He laughs, hesitates. "Yes, I would say so. Ideally, this position should be held by someone interested in continuing in politics, which I am not. So, who would have his vote? "At the risk of being partial which I am I would like to see Rufus Ewing return. Hes sharp with sound values, he has the experience and understands the challenges, plus he was head of the administration that successfully stabilised the economy and returned growth. The value of a solid fiscal understanding is not something Misick overestimates. His illustrious commercial career includes several banking and big league accountancy roles, plus many years in real estate. But its public service thats in his blood and a journey he embarked on from a young age. While other teens were lapping up the nascent freedoms of the swinging 60s, the Bottle Creek-born eldest son of 12 siblings was joining the police force as a fresh-faced 16-year-old. Those three years as a PC stationed in South Caicos and Grand Turk opened Misicks eyes to the "realities of life and would have a marked effect on his future path. These days, he looks back on his "rustic North Caicos childhood with fondness and nostalgia. "I grew up in a family that was service-oriented; my dad was involved in local government. My parents were literate but not educated; they went to a one-room grade school and worked as subsistence farmers. We were poor but very, very close. They were strong disciplinarians and as a kid I worked hard in the field, he recalls. Today he wishes his own seven children, all privately and university-educated, had experienced more of that "character-forming way of life. Misicks first foray into politics was as campaign manager for the PNP in the 1980 and 1984 elections; the party was triumphant on both occasions. In 1988, he was appointed to the Legislative Council by then Governor Michael Bradley. Two years later he made a successful bid for leadership, taking the PNP to victory and becoming Chief Minister. That four-year reign was followed by an eight-year stint as Opposition Leader after two successive election defeats. Then, in 2003, a new face appeared on the scene one who would change the course of the Islands history forever. Misick was ousted from the PNP top spot by his brother, Michael, an affable, effervescent character whose brash style was a far cry from Washingtons own pragmatic, circumspect approach. Party members voted in favour of the new injection of energy and Washington found himself not only ejected as party leader but from Government too after failing to win a seat in elections of the same year. It would be almost a decade before he would return to politics. Asked for his views on those heady, halcyon days of the noughties with Michael governing the Islands, hes diplomatic but frank. "I would have preferred it if he didnt win the party leadership but it was civil, he remembers. "In mature democracies, if a leader loses an election he resigns; I continued because no one else came forward, so to bring in a new leader in 2003 was the correct thinking. He continues: "Mike and I have different approaches. Hes a fantastic marketing machine, hes charismatic, gregarious and a great people person, whereas I am more subdued. "Those years were a time of unprecedented economic growth. Thats not intended to take anything away from him but I believe there was a certain amount of organic growth that would have taken place anyway. "I am a bit more cautious in the way I approach things and of course wisdom and maturity have something to do with it; I am not quite as impacted by the headlights of stardom, so we would not have ended up having the same scandals. "But Mike has a tremendous ability to engage people. In 2003, he had a narrow win but in 2007 he had a landslide. He was liked; people were endeared to him. Six years have passed since the TCI returned to self-governance albeit with strict conditions after three humiliating years back under direct British rule due to "endemic corruption. Still, Misick is not an advocate for full independence. "Its really just a label. I dont think small islands like ours could survive with political independence. What I would really like to see is a stable economy and a return to some of the provisions of the 2006 constitution. For now, there are different concerns keeping this grandfather of seven, also a Seventh Day Adventist and Justice of the Peace, awake at night. Disregard for the environment and the "breakdown of discipline in communities are the biggest challenges for the nation, he thinks. "I am afraid for the TCI, he says simply. "People are becoming so influenced by American culture that its damaging the family structure and leading to an increase in deviant behaviour and crime. "When I grew up it was the villages responsibility to raise a child. Somehow we need to get back those traditional values these Islands have been known for. One of the reasons hes keen to leave politics is so he can focus more on "unifying the TCIs "fractured society. "As more people have come to live among us, theres a huge amount of misunderstanding between the various groups. I want to help build community solidarity. Our existence depends on finding ways to coexist. Misick continues: "I am really worried about our environment. We are not careful with what we import, how we dispose of it, or with what and where we build. "The dump is smouldering, our cancer rates are increasing and we dont know why, but I believe it has to do with the food we eat and what we are bringing into the country. And while he might be preparing to bid farewell to the political stage, his devotion to serving his country remains steadfast. "I certainly wont be retiring, he reveals. "I plan to get back into real estate development, go back to North Caicos and hopefully be successful enough to pay it forward to the community that was so instrumental in my boyhood. Its high time, he says, that the advantages of the TCIs economic boon are spread beyond Providenciales to the sister islands in the shape of better clinics and schools. "I believe these Islands have a tremendous future if we can do these things right. One of the great beauties of age, he imparts, is reaching the point where one can focus on his legacies. Given his time over, he wouldnt change much, save for garnering more life experience to better equip himself for the obstacles that accompany life in the public eye. Asked about his proudest moments, being awarded an OBE in 2000 for services to government, something which "came as a complete shock, is the pinnacle. Ultimately, hed like to be remembered for his work helping found some of the TCIs most critical institutions, such as the TCI Community College. "I believe, if you did a poll on the streets, you would find most Islanders would classify me as one of the most unpolitical politicians, he adds with a smile, "as someone who built institutions, and cared deeply about the people. Sheikh Hasina was on Monday sworn in as Bangladesh's Prime Minister for a record fourth term following her party's victory in the December 30 election fraught with violent incidents and allegations of fraud by the opposition. Hasina, 71, was sworn in along with her new 47-member Cabinet before President Abdul Hamid at his official residence in Dhaka. Her ruling Awami League party and its allies won the polls by a landslide, securing 288 seats in the 300-seat Parliament. The largest opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, imprisoned after being sentenced to 17 years for corruption, had won only seven seats. Hasina dropped 36 members from the previous Cabinet and also didn't pick members of allied parties in her new Cabinet, bdnews24.com reported. She reserved the portfolios of Public Administration, Defence, Energy and Mineral Resources along with Women and Children Affairs. Leaders from Khaleda Zia's opposition alliance -- Jatiya Oikya Front -- were absent from the swearing-in ceremony. They refused to take oath in Parliament last week, calling the elections a "farce" and demanded a repeat poll. Their demand was, however, rejected by the Election Commission. At least 17 people were killed in widespread violence on the day of the election across the country. Two more died in clashes between supporters of different parties later. The EU has called for an investigation into allegations of irregularities, saying "significant obstacles to a level playing field... tainted the electoral campaign and the vote". The UN said last week that there were indications that "reprisals" targeted the opposition since the election, including physical attacks, arbitrary arrests, harassment, disappearances and filing of criminal cases. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Global cues such as an ease in US-China trade tension and dovish US Fed remarks, along with improving liquidity condition and a strong rupee, led the Indian equity markets to close Monday's trade on a positive note. Besides, expectations of higher domestic economic growth rate and positive quarterly results buoyed investors' sentiments. Consequently, the two key indices -- Sensex and Nifty50 -- advanced over 0.40 per cent as positive sentiments continued from Friday following reports of US-China trade talks, which was supported by strong US jobs data and a dovish tone by the US Federal Reserve. "Asia and Europe advanced as a relatively dovish turn by the Federal Reserve, strong US jobs data and optimism over US-China trade talks," Abhijeet Dey of BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said. The US-China trade talks scheduled from Monday assumes special significance. Madhavi Arora of Edelweiss Securities, said: "The stakes are high as both sides face a resumption of tariffs in March if they don't strike a deal." The two economic giants have agreed on a 90-day trade truce in early December. Index-wise, the BSE Sensex settled 155.06 points or 0.43 per cent higher at 35,850.16 points after touching an intra-day high of 36,076.95 and a low of 35,809.23. The NSE Nifty50 closed at 49.25 points or 0.46 per cent up at 10,776.60 points. "Oil prices gained some strength on the back of supply cut by OPEC, which came into effect from January 1, and on hopes of an agreement between US-China on trade talks this week," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. "On domestic front, easing liquidity situation, appreciation in INR and selective buying in FMCG, IT and private banks on expectation of strong earnings lifted sentiments." In addition, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said the apex bank is constantly monitoring the liquidity situation of Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC), whose representatives he would meet on Tuesday. Sector-wise, realty stocks gained on expectation that the GST Council meeting scheduled for January 10 will end with a cut in the GST rates for the under-construction houses from 18 to 12 per cent. In contrast, auto and healthcare sectors ended lower. The rupee grew stronger by 4 paise to Rs 69.68 per dollar from its previous close of 69.72. "Technically, with the Nifty moving up further, traders will need to watch if the recent gains can sustain in the near term. Further upsides are likely once the immediate resistances of 10,836 are taken out," said Deepak Jasani, Head - HDFC Securities Retail Research. "Crucial supports to watch for resumption of weakness is at 10,741." The chart toppers were Axis Bank, Tata Motors and Tata Motors(DVR), which gained over 2 per cent. Other top gainers were NTPC and Infosys, which inched up in the range of 1 to 2 per cent. In contrast, Bajaj Auto lost the most, 2.82 per cent, followed by Yes Bank declining 1.35 per cent, while Hero MotoCorp lost 1.11 per cent. Bajaj Finance and Sun Pharma shed 1.03 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively. --IANS ravi-rv/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on a plea by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma and NGO Common Cause challenging the government's decision to divest him of his charge to act as head of the investigating agency in the intervening night of October 23-24. While reserving the order on Verma's plea on December 6, the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph had questioned if government action was "proportionate" to the allegation against him. The judgment will be pronounced by Chief Justice Gogoi. "You acted against Alok Verma on the basis of the complaint by (Special Director) Rakesh Asthana. There was nothing against him. We are asking if the action was proportionate," Justice Joseph had asked. Verma had contended that divesting him of his powers to act as CBI Director and entrusting it to Joint Director M. Nageswara Rao was tantamount to his transfer and same could not have been done without going back to the selection committee, as mandated under the law. The selection committee comprises the Prime Minister, Leader of opposition and the Chief Justice of India. Verma had referred to Section 4B(2) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, which says: "The Director shall not be transferred except with the previous consent of the Committee referred to in sub-section (1) of section 4A." The court had also said that it would have been "better to consult the Selection Committee than not consulting it" as the "the essence of every government action is what is best in the interest of administration". The court had said this as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta while defending the action against Verma had tried to impress upon the court that the exercise of power of superintendence over CBI by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) also covered the investigating agency's director. "CVC could not have been the mute spectator to all that was going on. Two top CBI officers instead of doing their work were investigating each other. CVC is answerable to the President, Parliament and the judiciary as well if it has not acted," Mehta had told the court defending CVC's intervention. Defending the decision to divest Anil Verma of his charge as CBI Director, the Centre had told the top court that it had to intervene to curb the wrangling in the investigating agency, as it top officers -- CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana -- were fighting like "Kilkenny cats" and were denting the credibility and integrity of the premier investigating agency. "The government of India was watching with amazement the way these two top officers were fighting like Kilkenny cats and looked at the situation in totality (before intervening)," the Centre had told the top court. --IANS pk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response from Reliance Communications (RCOM) Chairman Anil Ambani on a contempt plea by telecom company Ericsson for its failure to pay outstanding dues of about Rs 550 crore. The top court bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Vineet Saran sought response from Ambani on the contempt plea by Vishal Garg -- the authorised representative of Ericsson India -- who has contended that RCOM was in breach of top court's August 3, 2018 and October 23, 2018 orders directing it to pay Ericsson Rs 550 crore. Besides Ambani, the other two respondents in the contempt plea are Satish Seth -- Chairman, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Chhaya Virani -- Chairman, Reliance Infratel Ltd. The court gave five weeks' time to respond to the notice. Reacting to Monday's order, a Reliance Communications spokesperson said: "The Hon'ble Supreme Court has given four weeks' time to file its response to the contempt petition filed by Ericsson. Thereafter, Ericsson has been given one week's time to file its rejoinder. The matter will be taken up for hearing thereafter." "RCOM has deposited a partial payment of Rs 131 crore to Ericsson from the operational funds available with the company. RCOM has taken all required steps towards enabling the settlement and remains fully committed to make the payment to Ericsson from the proceeds of the spectrum sale." The court was told that the moment the deal with Reliance Jio on the sale of spectrum was through, the dues would be cleared. The court was informed that the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) was not issuing no-objection certificate for the sale of spectrum by the Reliance Communications to Reliance Jio Infocomm as there were dues that Reliance Communication had to pay it. The court on Monday asked both the Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications to sort out the issue of RCOM's dues to the government by January 11. The apex court asked both to sort out the issue as Reliance Jio Infocomm said it would not shoulder the other liabilities of RCOM towards DoT. On its part, senior counsel, Kapil Sibal appearing for RCOM, told the court that that company would bear its past liabilities and would not turn to Jio Infocomm with any future demand. The court also asked the Jio Infocomm if it can undertake to abide by the spectrum trading rules. --IANS pk-rv-rrb/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assuring adequate liquidity measures whenever the need arises RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday noted that liquidity should not become "loose money" and the apex bank would excercise the measures with caution. The Reserve Bank of India has "a sense" of the current liquidity situaiton and after his appointment as its Governor has announced additional infusion of liquidity via open market operations (OMOs) of Rs 60,000 crore, Das said here on Monday after meeting the representatives of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). "While dealing with the issue of liquidity, I would also like to say that it is something which the RBI is constantlyy monitoring and will take steps whenever there is a need to deal with the liquidity deficit, if it is noticed. "... At the same time I must also add the RBI would not like a situation where liquidity becomes a kind of a loose money. Any infusion of liqidity will have to be very carefully considered and has to be need-based. So, the caution and care has to be excercised by the RBI, that excess liquidity which sometimes has adverse consequences that is not created," he added. Das further said that he will meet the representatives of Non-banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) on Tuesday in Mumbai. --IANS rrb-rv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned on Monday for the day amid ruckus by opposition members, soon after it met in the post-lunch sitting. The Upper House earlier saw repeated adjournments as opposition MPs came near the Chair's podium raising slogans against the government for alleged misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). As the House was reconvened at 2 p.m. after an earlier adjournment, the opposition MPs cutting across party lines were on their feet, shouting slogans against the government. Within five minutes, Deputy Chairman Harivansh adjourned the House for 15 minutes. As the House met again at 2.20 p.m., the scene was no different. The Chair then adjourned the House for the day. Earlier, the House saw disruption as soon as it met for the day. Minutes later, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had to adjourn the House till 2 p.m. amid noisy protests by opposition members. The Trinamool Congress had given notice under Rule 267 (suspension of business) to discuss "Parliament being bypassed and legislative scrutiny being ignored". The Chair rejected the notice. The Congress MPs have been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal. The Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members protested against the alleged misuse of central agencies by the government amid reports that the CBI might question former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in a mining scam. --IANS mak/mr (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The sniping over Rafale deal showed no signs of ending with the Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday challenging Prime Minister Narnendra Modi for a debate on the Rafale deal and accusing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" over the contracts given to public sector undertaking HAL even as she accused him of raising "incorrect and misleading" doubts regarding her statement in Parliament. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also slammed Gandhi describing his allegations on the deal to purchase fighter jets from France as "completely false" and said these were based on complete "commercial interests" and to "promote a competitor." Making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said she had received confirmation from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) that during 2014 to 2018, contracts amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore had been signed with the public sector company and orders worth approximately Rs 73,000 crore were in the pipeline. "Doubts are being raised on my statement made on the floor of the house on January 4 regarding procurement orders in the pipeline for HAL... I would like to set all doubts to rest by adding that I have received confirmation from HAL that during 2014-2018, contracts amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore have already been signed with HAL and orders approximately of Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline," she said without naming Gandhi. "I had specifically mentioned that there are 83 LCA Tejas fighters ordered worth Rs 50,000 crore, 15 combat helicopters worth Rs 3,000 crore, 200 more helicopters worth Rs 20,000 crore, 19 Dornier transport aircraft worth Rs 3,400 crore, helicopters worth Rs 15,000 crore, and aero-engines worth Rs 8,400 crore. All of them put together amount to Rs 1 lakh crore," she added. Placing documents related to those orders on the floor, Sitharaman said they "clearly confirm the correctness of my statement made on the floor of this house and (prove that) the doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading". Gandhi had alleged on Sunday that Sitharaman had "lied" to Parliament asked her to produce documents that the government had given contracts of Rs one lakh crore to HAL. Gandhi kept up his attack on Monday following her statement in the Lok Sabha and described her as a "spokesperson of Narendra Modi". He said only contracts worth Rs 26,570 crore have been given to HAL not Rs 1 lakh crore "as stated" by the Minister while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha last week. "She spoke a clear lie in Parliament. Contracts of Rs 26,570 crore have been given to HAL. Remarks that more contracts of Rs 73,000 crore have been given is a total sham," Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House complex. He said the Modi government had given Dassault Aviation Rs 20,000 crore though they had not delivered a single Rafale aircraft but HAL, which had delivered on its orders including helicopters, was awaiting payment of Rs 15,700 crore. He accused the government of trying to wreck HAL. Gandhi also accused Modi of doing a "bypass surgery" on the Rafale deal and said Sitharaman should give a "yes" or "no" answer to his question. "I am asking Prime Minister and Defence Minister: Did officials of Air Force, Defence Ministry say that Narendra Modi had interfered in the deal," he said. The Congress chief said when he raised the question in Parliament, Sitharaman started talking about her middle class background which was "also not true". He accused Modi of being scared of facing Parliament. "The chowkidar of the country is scared to face Parliament. He cannot stand in a Rafale debate. Give me 15 minutes with Narendra Modi, the whole country will know (the truth)," he said. Gandhi also tweeted and said it is surprising that HAL doesn't have enough cash to pay salaries. Party leader Kapil Sibal also attacked the Modi government. "Modiji's Make in India. IAF pays foreign vendors on schedule, holds back payments to HAL. HAL employees entered New Year without payment of December salaries. HAL takes Rs 781 crore bank loan for running costs. End of this financial year IAF will owe HAL Rs 20,000 crore. Wah Modiji!," Sibal said. Prasad told the media that available documents in the public domain raised serious suspicious circumstances of the intention of Rahul Gandhi and Congress. "It is too well known that the Congress party is never happy unless there is deal in the defence deal. Why is it that the leading family namely the Gandhi family appear in documents after documents, be it the AgustaWestland, be it the Air Force fighter planes for Rafale and their competitor Eurofighter?" he asked. "Today a media house has come out with a document which says a strategy paper seized during the raids at Italian middleman Guido Haschke's residence and offices has revealed that Christian Michel and Haschke worked on a plan to place Rafale's prime competitor in the win zone." He said that one of of the middlemen Michel, a British national who is under detention, and others were also pushing the case for Eurofighter, which was in competition with Rafale. He claimed that the documents which have been shown were "explosive" in nature. Firing salvos at the Congress chief, Prasad said: "Please explain what proximity you and your family have with Michel and Hasche?" He said that despite Dassault emerging as the lowest bidder, the Congress government wanted a review of the decision-making process. "How long will you keep on playing with national security?" he asked. --IANS ps-nks/vsc/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" about the contracts given to HAL and challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a debate on the Rafale deal. Describing Sitharaman as a "spokesperson of Narendra Modi", he said only contracts worth Rs 26,570 crore have been given to the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and not Rs 1 lakh crore "as stated" by the Minister while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha last week on the deal to purchase fighter jets from France. "She spoke a clear lie in Parliament. Contracts of Rs 26,570 crore have been given to HAL. Remarks that more contracts of Rs 73,000 crore have been given is a total sham," Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House complex. He said the Modi government had given Dassault Aviation Rs 20,000 crore though they had not delivered a single Rafale aircraft but HAL, which had delivered on its orders including helicopters, was awaiting payment of Rs 15,700 crore. He accused the government of trying to wreck HAL. Gandhi also accused Modi of doing "bypass surgery" on the Rafale deal and said Sitharaman should give a "yes" or "no" answer to his question. "I am asking Prime Minister and Defence Minister: Did officials of Air Force, Defence Ministry say that Narendra Modi had interfered in the deal," he said. The Congress chief said when he raised the question in Parliament, Sitharaman started talking about her middle class background which was "also not true". He accused Modi of being scared of facing Parliament. "The chowkidar of the country is scared to face Parliament. He cannot stand in a Rafale debate. Give me 15 minutes with Narendra Modi, the whole country will know (the truth)," he said. --IANS ps/vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Monday disposed off a plea seeking a ban on the trailer of the movie "The Accidental Prime Minister". Justice Vibhu Bakhru observed that the petitioner, Pooja Mahajan, a Delhi-based fashion designer, has no personal interest in the matter. The plea, filed by Mahajan through her counsel Arun Maitri, said the trailer violated Section 416 of the Indian Penal Code as impersonation of a living character or living persons is not permissible in law. The film is based on a similarly titled the book by Sanjaya Baru, the former media advisor of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Actors Anupam Kher and Akshay Khanna play Manmohan Singh and Baru in the film, slated to release on Friday. Advocate Maitri said the film's producers have not taken any consent from Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi to perform their characters or perform their political life or to dress up in the same way as they had been doing in their normal life or copy their voice in any manner. As per Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) guidelines on films based on real-life characters, a 'no objection certificate (NOC)' is required, but for the trailer, no such NOC was obtained, the petitioner said. In the plea, Mahajan has requested the court to issue direction to the Centre, Google, YouTube and CBFC to take steps to stop the exhibition and display of the trailer. --IANS akk/ksk/vm (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani law that gave secret military courts powers to try civilians for terrorism charges expired on Monday while awaiting an extension from the Parliament. "The Army courts have ended after the expiry of a two-year extension approved in 2017," an official from the Justice Ministry, requesting anonymity, told Efe news. However, another source from the public prosecutor's office, who also asked not to be named, told the agency that chances are that the government may get the Parliament nod to resume these special courts. "They will probably be extended because there are pending cases," said the source. The government has been studying a proposal to extend the authority of these courts but is yet to take any final decision. Military courts were set up by the country's Parliament on January 6, 2015 after an attack by Pakistani Taliban militants on a military-run school in Peshawar that killed 125 students in December 2014. The Parliament passed amendments to the Constitution and to the Pakistan Army Act, allowing for the creation of these courts for two years. The ghastly attack on the school in the northwestern part of the country also led to then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to lift a moratorium on death penalty for terrorism related cases, which was extended to other crimes in March that year. The two-year term expired on January 7, 2017, and the Parliament approved a two-year extension on March 28 that year. The courts have delivered 546 verdicts, including 310 death sentences and carried out 56 executions. Some 234 convicts have received between five years and life term. The trials in these courts are held secretly and have been criticized by the international community and human rights organizations. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) EFFORTS are being made to ensure the standards and procedures of the maritime sector in Turks and Caicos Islands are on par with the rest of the world. Maritime consultant and specialist Brent Williamson visited the TCI recently to help with the development of a five-year maritime strategy. Minister of Tourism and Environment with responsibility for the maritime sector Hon. Ralph Higgs and Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson met with Williamson in December to discuss a number of issues facing the sector. In a statement issued on December 24, Higgs said major work being undertaken in the Maritime Department will allow the territory to reach two critical goals. "These are two key documents that are necessary to determine the future direction and strength of the maritime sector here in TCI, he said. "As stated by the IMO, it is necessary for flag states to evaluate its performance with respect to the implementation of administrative processes, procedures and resources necessary to meet its obligations as required by international instruments to which it is a party. Williamson began his on-island stakeholders consultation on December 12 by reviewing a number of documents including agreements and international obligations the TCI is signatory to. "As minister I am quite excited at the proposed outcome of this consultancy and the impact it is planned to have on our maritime sector, Higgs said. In 2020 the International Maritime Organisation will review the performance of the TCI against the Triple I (III) code that was implemented in 2013 and that sets critical standards to be adopted by member states. The audit will assist the TCI and port authorities to prepare for a wide range of potential threats and security situations. (By Olivia Rose) Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates' Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have agreed to work jointly for peace and stability in Afghanistan. The two leaders on Sunday held talks here on bilateral matters and strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and expressed their resolve to work closely to root out the scourge, said a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the visit of Sheikh Mohammed, Xinhua reported. "The Crown Prince recognized the efforts and unparalleled sacrifices made by Pakistan to eliminate terrorism and extremism," the statement said. The two leaders agreed to work closely for the lasting peace and stability of Afghanistan. The UAE hosted Pakistan-facilitated talks between the Taliban and US officials in Abu Dhabi weeks ago. Khan briefed the UAE leader about the efforts Pakistan has made to support and facilitate the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process. He also appreciated the role the UAE has been playing in the reconciliation talks, the statement said. The two sides also agreed to explore further collaboration in areas of training, joint exercises and defence production. Sheikh Mohammed visited Pakistan following the UAE's announcement of $3-billion support to Pakistan. In return, Pakistan welcomed the UAE's investment in its oil and gas, logistics, ports and construction sectors. According to the statement, Pakistan and the UAE are expected to hold a joint ministerial commission to be co-chaired by respective foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi next month on bilateral cooperation. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct Air India (AI) authorities to begin flight operations between the state's Jharsuguda city and Delhi. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Patnaik requested for having Veer Surendra Sai Airport at Jharsuguda as a stopover for one of the national carrier's flights from Bhubaneswar to Delhi. "Jharsuguda is located strategically in the industrial and mining belt of Odisha, and is a critical point of connectivity to western Odisha. During the inauguration of Jharsuguda Airport on September 22, I had offered full support of state government for running of commercial flights and had requested for commencing Air India flight operations from Jharsuguda to Delhi," he said in the letter. Air Odisha had started flying operations under RCS-UDAN. Unfortunately, it suspended its operations on November 6, 2018, without any valid reason, said the Chief Minister. --IANS cd/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Monday that the central government had not sanctioned any funds for the construction work to start on the Indian side of the Kartarpur corridor. "While Pakistan has already started work on the construction of the road on their side, development work had yet to start in the Indian Punjab as the state government had not got any funds from the Centre for acquiring land for building the infrastructure," he told the media. The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is located around 4 km from Dera Baba Nanak town in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. Most of the work of the project has to be carried out inside Pakistan. Referring to the controversy surrounding the visit of Punjab cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to Pakistan in November, Amarinder Singh said he (Amarinder) had given the permission to SidhuAto visit Pakistan for their ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor. "No Minister can leave without the Chief Minister's approval. Sidhu wanted to go there in his personal capacity and hence I had given permission to the Minister. However, I had advised him not to go, as I myself had turned down the invite in view of the unprovoked killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan in Kashmir and ISI's persistent attempts to create trouble in Punjab," he pointed out. Regarding the loan waiver scheme for farmers in Punjab, the Chief Minister said the government had already waived off crop loans worth Rs 3,417 crores of 414,275 farmers in just one year. "My government is committed to covering all the 10.25 lakh small and marginal farmers targeted in the farm loan waiver scheme announced by it, with others also to be covered in subsequent phases, as the fiscal situation of the state improves further," he added. He said loans of the remaining about three lakh out of the 10.25 lakh farmers would be waived off shortly. --IANS js/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There are more than 90,000 schools with only single teacher teaching in them at the primary and secondary level combined, as per the data available with the government, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Satya Pal Singh said in Parliament on Monday. "As per Unified District Information System of (UDISE), 2016-17 (Provisional), there are 92,275 single-teacher Government schools at both elementary level and secondary level," the Minister said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. The Minister said that the recruitment, service conditions and redeployment of teachers are primarily in the domain of respective state governments and union territories. "The government, through the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha, provides assistance to state governments/UTs for additional teachers to maintain appropriate Pupil Teacher Ratio as per the requirements of the states/UTs." "The Central government has been consistently pursuing the matter of expeditious recruitment and redeployment of teachers with the states and UTs at various fora. Advisories on this issue have also been issued to states and UTs from time to time," he added. --IANS vn/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An invitation to noted litterateur Nayantara Sahgal to inaugurate a three-day literary event in Maharashtra this week has been withdrawn to "avoid any untoward incident", the organisers said, kicking up a huge row. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government should not be linked to "such unnecessary issues". On her part, Sahagal, 91, and a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, thought the organisers "may have given in to political pressure". "No reason was mentioned in the email sent to me by the organisers. They only regretted that the invitation had to be cancelled. The organisers may have given in to political pressure. I don't know, I have no idea why they withdrew my invitation as the organisers were very keen on my attending the event. Maharashtra is a BJP state. Maybe, the BJP unit in Maharashtra did not want me to be there," Sahgal told a TV news channel. The controversy erupted after the Akhil Bharatiya Maratahi Sahitya Sammelan (ABMSS) suddenly rescinded its decision to invite Sahgal to inaugurate its 92nd literary convention in Yavatmal on Friday. Fadnavis was to have shared stage space with the author at the event. ABMSS Executive President Ramakant Kolte said in a statement on Sunday that the invite to Sahgal was withdrawn "to avoid any untoward incident and loss during the three-day meet and in view of the controversy against her name". On its part, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the ABMSS was an autonomous body and it was the organisers' call whom to invite or not and the state government had no role to play in this. "On the issue of inviting and then cancelling the invitation to any personality, attempts are being made to drag in the government. But neither Fadnavis nor the government are involved in this in any manner. The media should not link the government in such unnecessary issues," the CMO said in a statement. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray made it clear that neither he nor his party objected to Sahgal's presence at the literary meet. This was after a MNS leader, Raju Umbarkar, protested against the invitation. "The sentiments behind the resistance by my colleague were stemming from the fact that the very essence of Marathi language needs to be safeguarded. Though his sentiments are correct, one has to take into account the very fact that a very senior and noted writer like Nayantara Sahgal is going to be present at the literary meet. When in her presence, our profound culture and traditions stand unveiled, it can become a medium to exhibit our culture to the rest of the world. Keeping this in mind, my party and I have no objection to it," Thackeray said, tendering a "sincerely apology" to the ABMSS over the controversy. Besides, a farmers' leader, Devanand Pawar, initially objected to inviting an English language writer to inaugurate a Marathi literary event. He later claimed he had no intention to defame Sahgal and demanded the ABMSS tender her an apology for the ruckus caused. Several political leaders targeted the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue. Compounding matters, several literary figures, speakers, journalists and others have now demanded that the ABMSS should cancel their invites and some have even threatened to boycott the event. On Monday, 42 prominent personalities from films, arts, literature, media, social work, poets and civil society, under the banner of 'Friends of Democracy', flayed the move to cancel Sahgal's invite. They asked that the meet be boycotted. --IANS qn/vm/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nagaland Cabinet on Monday decided to ban illegal coal mining in the state and also impose a provisional mining ban on all firms/companies which have been issued with mining licenses. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio which deliberated on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in view of the coal mining accidents in Meghalaya. The Cabinet set up a Committee to examine the issue of coal mining and the resultant damages caused to the environment. Nagaland is estimated to have a prognostic reserves of about 316.41 million tones of coal. --IANS rrk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the US-China trade talks began, electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday laid the foundation of a Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai -- the first-ever outside the US -- that is expected to produce 500,000 electric vehicles per year and double the production capacity of Tesla. Musk attended the ground-breaking ceremony of Tesla Gigafactory with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong. "Aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year," Musk tweeted earlier in the day, adding that "Shanghai Giga production of Model 3/Y will serve greater China region". "Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China. All Model S/X & higher cost versions of Model 3/Y will still be built in US for WW market, incl China," he further tweeted. According to reports, the Tesla Gigafactory is the biggest foreign investment in Shanghai. Tesla's first Gigafactory in Nevada produces Model 3's drive units and battery packs. The Shanghai Gigafactory is set to be equipped with production lines for both batteries and electric cars. According to a report in teslarati.com, by producing its lower-end Model 3 and Model Y in Shanghai, Tesla would be able to price the vehicles very competitively in the country -- regardless of the presence of a trade war between the US and China. Bullish on his Chinese dream, Musk last July said he aims to invest long-term in the country and signed a preliminary agreement with the Shanghai government to build a Tesla Gigafactory. Musk had earlier said that China's progress in advanced infrastructure is "more than 100 times faster than the US". According to a CNN report on Monday, Tesla is forging ahead in China "at a tricky time for both the company and the country". "China's slowing economy and its trade war with the United States have hit the auto industry hard, with companies including General Motors (GM), Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen all reporting a slide in sales recently". "Tesla's own prices in China have fluctuated wildly, with the company slashing prices several times last year even after China increased tariffs on imported US vehicles," the report added. Tesla has also cut its US prices by $2,000 as the federal tax credit granted to its buyers gradually gets reduced and phased out. --IANS na/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Monday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's love and concern for farmers as a sham and alleged that the agriculture sector was in crisis even as the union government was dishing out false claims. Spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) Priyanka Gupta said that a recent incident where a potato farmer in Agra got Rs 490 against a sale of 19,000 kg of his produce exposed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments. "Farmers are neck-deep in debts but both the state and union governments were looking the other way," she said. The Congress leader also highlighted the "unprecedented plight" of the sugarcane growers in western Uttar Pradesh, saying that the arrears were not being paid. "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that all arrears would be cleared by November 30, 2018, but this has not happened and farmers as a result are not being able to pay power bills and the power department is cutting their connections, sending them recovery notices," Gupta said. She also cited the growing incidences of suicides by farmers and said that be it farmers of tomato, potato or any other crop they are suffering huge losses due to the "faulty policies and indifference of the governments". --IANS md/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the general elections barely months away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national President Amit Shah and AICC President Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to visit Odisha this month, said sources in the two BJP parties on Monday. Modi will visit western Odisha town Bolangir where he will address "Swabhiman Samavesh" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on January 15. He will also attend some official programmes on the day, said BJP Legislature Party leader K.V. Singhdeo. This will be third visit of the Prime Minister in three weeks. He visited the state on December 24 and January 5. All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi will visit the state on January 25 to address a rally and hold a meeting of party workers to prepare the strategy for the elections. Odisha will face general and Assembly polls simultaneously later this year. --IANS cd/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Monday claimed that a large number Congress MLAs and leaders might defect to the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Speaking to reporters, Nitin Patel said: "Many Gujarat Congress leaders and MLAs are frustrated by the infighting in the party and are attracted by the BJP's welfare schemes." He said that recently a secret meeting of disgruntled Congress leaders took place at the residence of a senior Congress leader where they expressed their displeasure against the President of the State unit. "I believe that before the 2019 general election, the Congress in Gujarat will be divided into two," Patel said. Asked to spell out names of those likely to join the BJP, including rumours of OBC legislator Alpesh Thakor being unhappy, the Deputy Chief Minister said his party was ready to welcome anyone who believed in BJP's welfare works. "The BJP is like the holy Ganga where after having a bath in it one gets cleansed," he said. --IANS desai/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) THE DUTCH government has added the Turks and Caicos Islands and 15 other countries to a tax haven blacklist. The jurisdictions listed have no corporation tax or a corporation tax rate of less than nine percent, a press release from the Government of the Netherlands stated. The 16 countries added to the list are in addition to five countries already blacklisted by the European Union - American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago. UK Caribbean overseas territories Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands were among those added. Others include the Bahamas, Bermuda, Bahrain, Belize, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Vanuatu and the United Arab Emirates. The list was published on December 28 in the Netherlands Government Gazette. "By drawing up its own stringent blacklist, the Netherlands is once again showing that it is serious in its fight against tax avoidance, said State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel. "And thats just one of the steps were taking. The list will be used in relation to three measures to combat tax avoidance. The first is the additional measure on controlled foreign companies announced on the Dutch budget day, which came into effect on January 1. With this measure the government aims to prevent companies avoiding tax by moving mobile assets to low-tax jurisdictions. The list will also be used to implement a conditional withholding tax on interest and royalties from January 1, 2021. This means that companies registered in the jurisdictions on the Dutch list will pay 20.5 percent tax from 2021 on interest and royalties received from the Netherlands. This will prevent funds being channelled to tax havens through the Netherlands. Thirdly, the Tax and Customs Administration will no longer issue rulings on transactions with companies headquartered in jurisdictions on the list. The Dutch list will be updated each year, while the EU list will be updated in the first quarter of 2019. The Dutch list was subject to a consultation from September 25 to October 22. The consultation resulted in 16 responses, none of which led to the list being amended. Just last summer, the TCI Government was celebrating when it was not placed on the European Unions tax haven black list, despite being on the anti-corruption watchdogs grey list in 2017. Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson in a statement on June 7, credited the territorys tax transparency, fair taxation and anti-base erosion, and profit shifting measures for preventing the black listing. The EU process to set up a tax haven black list was triggered by publication of the Panama Papers - documents that showed how wealthy individuals and multinational corporations use offshore schemes to reduce their tax bills. The TCI was one of eight jurisdictions placed on a grey list, partly as a result of the 2017 storms. Caribbean islands hit by hurricanes last year were given more time to comply with EU tax transparency standards when the black list was established in December 2017. The premier along with several senior government officials with private sector partnership engaged the EU Code of Conduct Group in February 2018 in Brussels to start the dialogue and conversation of matters of mutual interest. The premier said the TCI Government was able to demonstrate to the group significant legal and operational reforms implemented in the area of tax transparency and reporting. The Chair of the Code of Conduct Group communicated with the premier by email on June 7 that the TCI would not be included in the 2018 List of Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions. The Madras High Court on Monday ordered the arrest of Tamil Nadu's Higher Secretary Mangatram Sharma in a contempt of court case. As Sharma failed to appear, the court ordered the police to arrest Sharma and produce him before it on January 9. The case relates to opening of distance centres outside the state by Bharathiyar University. The court had earlier ordered against opening of such centres outside Tamil Nadu. However, Sharma had allowed opening of such centres. Reacting to the development, DMK President M.K. Stalin demanded immediate removal of Sharma from his post. He also sought departmental action against the official. --IANS vj/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Left affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) will begin its two-day nationwide general strike on Tuesday to protest against "anti-labour, anti-people and anti-national policies" of the Modi government. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, Bhumi Adhikar Andolan and several government unions have extended support to the strike that will see demonstrations, rasta roko and rail roko, especially in the rural parts of the country. In a press release, the CITU said the BJP government had made "desperate attempts" to make "gross pro-employer changes in labour laws" ignoring the viewpoints of trade unions. "Unilaterally and through arbitrary notification on fixed term employment through executive order on the one hand and through gradual replacement of workers by apprentices in various establishments on the other, the very concept of regular employment and job security is being sought to be wiped out from the workplaces," it said. "Now the Cabinet has come out with amendments in the Trade Union Act, 1926, which are irrational, highly discretionary and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions. It is designed with the dubious intention to cripple unions, to promote pocket unions or tout unions." The CITU also took a dig at the FDI policy, saying it was aimed at "looting the national assets and resources on the one hand and destruction of country's economic base on the other". Anurag Saxena, general secretary of Delhi unit of the CITU, said labourers, workers, government and bank employees would participate in the protest march. "Industries, factories across Delhi will remain shut tomorrow. Employees of many banks, government departments will also participate in the protest," Saxena told IANS. AIKS said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had betrayed all promises he had made to farmers made before the 2014 elections. AIKS President Ashok Dhawale said the BJP rule of past four-and-half-year had witnessed "aggressive pursuit" of neo-liberal economic policies, which mounted burden on the farmers and labour force. "The peasantry is being dispossessed and forced to sell its labour in the unorganised sector under precarious conditions. This situation calls for greater coordinated actions between the working class and the peasantry," the release quoted Dhawale as saying. The CITU had taken active part in the Kisan Mukti March that was held in November last year in the national capital over the demands of better crop remuneration and farm loan waiver. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has also planned one-day 'dharna' in Delhi on Tuesday, which will be attended by its leader and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to demand higher MSP for paddy. --IANS spk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kumbh Mela is set to begin in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) from January 15, officials said here on Monday. It hosted over 12 crore holy men, ascetics and pilgrims in 2013 in the same place. The Mela, inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017, is the biggest "peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth", as per UNESCO. Celebrated for mythological reasons, the grand event is held in Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, apart from Prayagraj. For the 2019 edition, the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has earmarked an amount of Rs 2,800 crore, State Minister for Sugarcane Development, Sugar Mills and Industrial Development Suresh Rana told reporters here. The Mela will be organised in an area of 3,200 hectares, double the area of the last Kumbh, said Awanish Kumar Awasthi, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Tourism and Religious Affairs, Uttar Pradesh government. He added that the Hindu holy city, located at the Triveni Sangam (merging of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers), was undergoing an extensive makeover to welcome crores of pilgrims from across the world. Works of stable development or permanent infrastructural works "are being carried out at Kumbh Mela and Prayagraj with a total amount of Rs 4,300 crore", he added. This is much more than the Rs 1,214 crore spent on the 2013 Kumbh. The project undertaken focussed on works of infrastructural facilities like roads, bridges, drinking water schemes, electricity and tourism related. Over 1.22 lakh toilets have been constructed for this year's Kumbh, 20 thousand dustbins set up, and 42 drains emptying into the Ganga have been taped, officials said. The city spaces has also been painted with colourful art works. The grand festival with a history dating back to at least 1,500 years will begin on January 15 with the first holy bath, followed by several others till March 4. It will host over 5,000 camps from multiple akhadas and ashrams. Representatives from 192 countries will visit the festival in February, officials said, adding that ambassadors of 71 countries had already witnessed the preparations for the event. The officials also said that actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was born in Allahabad, has been roped in for four films, which are expected to be screened in the festival. Rana added that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister was personally extending invitations to Governors, Chief Ministers, dignitaries and functionaries besides spiritual leaders of other Indian states. Visitors to the Kumbh Mela can find stay and travel related information online on www.kumbh.gov.in, and can stay in tents mounted for the festival, which can be booked online. --IANS sj/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who resigned from the party on Sunday, said on Monday that he would announce a new political party on Tuesday. Khaira, who was suspended from the AAP in November last year for anti-party activities, said the new party would work out an alliance with other like-minded parties. Ruling out his resignation from the Punjab Assembly even after quitting from the AAP, Khaira said the Assembly Speaker will decide on his status. Khaira, who claims support of 5-6 AAP legislators, told the media here on Monday that he and others will not resign from their Assembly seats as they do not want to burden the exchequer with fresh elections on these seats. The AAP's Punjab unit leadership had on Sunday demanded Khaira's resignation from the Assembly after he quit the party. Reacting to Khaira's resignation, senior leaders of the AAP Punjab unit described Khaira as an "opportunist" and said that his exit "would would only strengthen the organisation". AAP Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann had said: "Khaira was sacked (as Leader of Opposition) due to indiscipline. He continued to make statements against party (AAP) leadership. He has always done centred around himself which is not acceptable to the party." Describing Khaira's resignation as a "mere drama", Mann challenged Khaira to resign as legislator and seek re-election from his Assembly constituency. About AAP legislators who are still in the Khaira camp, Mann said the party's doors are always open for them. The AAP got 20 seats in the 117-member assembly in the February 2017 assembly elections. H.S. Phoolka recently submitted his resignation as a legislator to the Assembly Speaker. Phoolka also quit the primary membership of the AAP last week. Citing "dictatorial attitude" of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Khaira on Sunday resigned from the party's primary membership. "I am constrained to forward my resignation from the primary membership of AAP, as the party has totally deviated from the ideology and principles on which it was formed post Anna Hazare movement," Khaira wrote in his letter to Kejriwal. "I am saddened to state that your dictatorial attitude has shattered the dreams of Indians and the Punjabis for a clean alternative to the decayed and rotten system. As a result, almost all prominent leaders of the party, beginning from Prashant Bhushan to H.S. Phoolka, have either quit the party or you have thrown them out," he said. --IANS js/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People in the perennially strike-hit Kerala can now breathe easy. The Kerala High Court passed an interim order on Monday that henceforth if any group wished to call for a shutdown, it should give seven days notice and those who wish to challenge it can approach the court. The ruling followed a petition filed by the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry pointing out that in 2018 there were 97 shutdowns which caused massive losses to its members. A division bench of Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar then intervened seeking a seven-day notice for any future shutdown or strike call. The immediate provocation of the order was the widespread violence that erupted across Kerala during a shutdown called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi (SKS) last week to protest against the entry of two women in the hitherto banned age group at the Sabarimala temple. Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra said on Sunday that close to 40,000 people have been booked for creating violence in the state in the past three days and 1,869 cases have been filed. Till Sunday, 5,769 people had been arrested, of which 789 had been remanded while 4,980 hot been released on bail. On its part, the Kerala government on Monday gave its nod for a new ordinance titled 'Kerala Prevention of Damage to Private Property and Payment of Compensation Ordinance 2019'. "Through this ordinance, any destruction of private property at the time of a shutdown or due to other unrest, adequate compensation would be collected from those who did it," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. "Through this law, the same rules that are there for destruction of public property will be applicable to those who engage in destruction of private property," he said. Vijayan added that the Sangh Parivar forces were trying their best to see that they indulge in violence to send out a message that the law and order situation in Kerala was under siege. "But they are mistaken. While they get away after indulging in violence where they are in office, they will not be allowed to get away (in Kerala). Ninety-five per cent of the violence that took place in the state in the last week was created by these Sangh Parivar forces. "Strong action will be taken against such people," Vijayan told the media after a cabinet meeting. Vijayan breathed fire against the demand made by a BJP leader in Delhi that the Centre should dismiss the Kerala government following what was described as a breakdown of law and order. "Gone are the olden days. Today, threats won't work any more. And you (BJP) do not have the strength to execute it too," he said. --IANS sg/mr/soni (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the lone BJP MLA in Telangana Assembly triggering a row by refusing to take oath under AIMIM member Mumtaz Ahmed Khan as Pro-tem Speaker, the TRS government on Monday defended Khan saying his appointment is in tune with the state's 'Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb'. T. Raja Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced that he will not take oath as a member of Assembly with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Khan as the Pro-tem Speaker. Raja Singh, who represents Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, said he would not step into Assembly or take oath before the MLA of a party which speaks of eliminating Hindus and does not say 'Vande Mataram' or 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government on Saturday named five-time MLA Mumtaz Ahmed Khan as the Pro-Tem Speaker. Khan, who was elected from Charminar constituency in last month's elections, will preside over the first day of the newly-elected Assembly on January 17. The same day members will take oath. "The Telangana government with reference to the matters concerned the Legislative Assembly is taking decisions continuing the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb," said a statement released from the Chief Minister's Office on Monday after the first cabinet meeting. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of Muslim community is nominated as Pro-tem speaker, it said. The AIMIM, which has seven members in the 119-member Assembly, is a friendly party of TRS, which retained power with a landslide victory. Exactly a month after TRS' win, the cabinet had its first meeting, presided over by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and attended by Home Minister Mohammad Mehmood Ali and top officials. KCR, as TRS chief is popularly known, is likely to expand his cabinet later this month. The cabinet has placed on record its deep appreciation to the Election Commission in general and Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar for the successful and peaceful conduct of Assembly elections. The government decided to provide copies of the Constitution of India, Assembly procedures, booklets and other information connected to the Legislature procedure in Telugu, English and Urdu languages to all the MLAs. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill has endorsed the move to legalize minority immigrants who entered Assam till December 31, 2014 but asked the government to tread with caution in view of the matter being sub judice and take all legal steps, lest it causes embarrassment at a later stage. However, eight MPs in the 30-member Committee, headed by Rajendra Agaerwal of the BJP, have appended their notes of dissent to the report of the JPC that was tabled in Parliament on Monday saying the provisions of the Bill went against the spirit of the Assam Accord and will accentuate divisions and discontent among the people of the state. The dissenting MPs are Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Saugata Roy and Derek O'Brien (TMC), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), and Bhubaneswar Kalita, Pradip Bhattacharya, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Sushmita Dev (Congress). The Bill, which aims to give citizenship to six religious minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, has stoked a political controversy, with BJP's partner in the Assam government, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), registering its strong opposition to the provisions. Referring to the concerns in many quarters over the amendment to Section 6A in the proposed Bill to give citizenship to minority groups from neighbouring countries, the 440-page report said the Department of Legal Affairs has opined that the proposal to legalise the minority migrants who entered Assam till December, 2014 without valid travel documents appears to be contrary to the Assam Accord. However, the legislative department clarified that Section 6A of the original Citizenship Act only deals with foreigners who entered India from Bangladesh into Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 24, 1971. It does not provide for any form of detection, deletion or expulsion of foreigners beyond that date. The report noted that the proposed proviso to exempt persons belonging to certain minority communities coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan has general application beyond the Assam Accord and is intended to apply to the whole of India. The Legislative Department has emphasised that there appears to be no conflict in the application of the proposed proviso regarding exemption of minority communities coming from Bangladesh to Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 24, 1971 as per the Assam Accord, it said. Referring to a petition pending in the Supreme Court, the Committee found that Section 6A of the original Act is valid until the larger bench of the Supreme Court delivers its final verdict on the matter. "While endorsing the move of the government, the Committee was, however, of the view that since the matter was still sub judice, the government had to tread with caution and take recourse to all legal precautions lest it causes embarrassment at a later date. "The Committee are also of the firm opinion that the primary objective of the Assam Accord viz to protect the cultural, social and linguistic identity of the Assamese people has to be fulfilled and the onus lies with the government to ensure that the proposed legislation does not impede the process of implementation of the Assam Accord," it said. The report said the Committee felt that, in view of the anxieties and concerns expressed by the civil society groups in Assam and other northeastern states, the state and central governments should formulate rules and regulations under Clause 6 A to ensure that the identities of indigenous peoples are not threatened in any way by "unintended consequences" of the Citizenship Bill. As regards the cut-off date at December 31, 2014, the Committee said: "Display of such supportive and humanitarian approach on the part of the government towards the minorities who fled the three countries, including Bangladesh, due to religious persecution is quite appreciable." In his dissent report, Mahtab said, during the visit of the Committee to Assam, a large number of delegates apprised the Committee of the serious discontent among the people against the Bill. In an already densely populated state, this will open floodgates, thereby accentuating the discontent among the people of Assam. The TMC members said they have opposed to the Bill as it brings out the ethnic divisions in Assam and noted that the AGP had threatened to pull out of the Assam government. "The Bill was seen as one of the reasons for the perceived resurgence extremist groups such as the ULFA-Independent. Security forces blamed the outfit for killing Hindu Bengalis seen as beneficiaries of the Bill in Assam's Tinsukia district." The Congress members noted that the amendments create ethnic divisions in Assam and the Northeast and there were reasons to be perceived that there will be resurgence of extremist groups in Assam and the Northeast. "Therefore, we feel that the cut-off year should be finalised and be a part of the final report to clarify the citizenship once and for all. The provision of application for citizenship can be submitted at the lower level government officials." --IANS ab/vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Monday announced that India has taken over the operations of a part of the in It is first time it will be operating a port outside its territories. The takeover of operations was done during the Chabahar Trilateral Agreement meeting between Indian, Iranian and Afghanistan's officials held on December 24, the said in a statement. "This step marks the beginning of a long journey. India has written history with its engagement in Chabahar and is now leading the regional cooperation and joint efforts to support land-locked Afghanistan," it said. While India started interacting with on around 2003, an MoU was signed between the two countries for the development of in May 2015 which was later translated into a formal 10-year contract for equipping and operating the port. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Japan on Monday reiterated that they would continue to work for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono here. Stating that the two leaders exchanged views on regional and global issues of common interest, the External Affairs Ministry said: "They reaffirmed that based on shared values and interests, the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership has acquired a broader significance in the current global context and has become a factor of prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region." India, along with Japan, the US and Australia, in 2017 revived a quad that seeks to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, a region that stretches from the east coast of Japan to the east coast of Africa. It was a strategically important move given China's growing footprint in the region and Beijing's aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea. During Monday's talks, Sushma Swaraj and Kono held discussions on follow-up actions taken on decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan for the 13th India-Japan Annual Summit in October last year "which opened new vistas of bilateral cooperation in areas such as regional connectivity, economic partnership, new and digital technologies, healthcare, renewable energy, defence cooperation, maritime security etc.," the Ministry statement said. Following the meeting, Foreign Minister Kono paid a courtesy call on Modi where he briefed the Prime Minister about the follow-up action taken in recent months after the latter's visit to Japan last year. "The Prime Minister warmly recalled his successful visit to Japan in October 2018, and reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. --IANS ab/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of travelling around the world to "beg" for financial support for his cash-strapped country. "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg (for financial aid)," Shah, a leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said in a speech at a rally in Matli, Badin on Sunday. He also claimed that those without any experience in were given a seat in the government, Samaa TV reported. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had finalised a $6.2 billion support package to help Pakistan address its balance of payments challenge. According to a report in Dawn newspaper, the package involved $3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, besides a $3 billion cash deposit. It was expected to be announced by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his two-day visit to the country starting Sunday. The daily had cited a government official as saying that the package was similar to that given by Saudi Arabia. With this, Pakistan would get a total saving of about $7.9 billion on oil and gas imports from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about $12-13 billion, the official said. The government had also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that was at an early stage, the daily said. Khan had also visited China in November to seek economic assistance. That time, state-run news channel PTV ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of his speech and became a target of trolling by netizens. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ALL private schools and educational institutions have been asked to reregister with the Government to ensure quality education is being issued across the territory. The Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture and Library Services will be accepting registration forms until March 31 and following up with school inspections. A Government press release on January 2 explained that the aim of the exercise is to improve the administrative support, programming, quality assurance and standards provided to private schools. This will ensure that "optimal educational outcomes are achieved for students in the Turks and Caicos Islands, it read. All private pre-primary, primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions currently operating in the TCI should reregister with the Ministry of Education and have their documents submitted to the Department of Education before March 31. The registration form will be available on the ministrys website, emailed to existing schools and a limited number of hard copies will be available at the Department of Education offices in Grand Turk and Providenciales. Once the completed registration form along with supporting documents are received, an inspection team comprised of officers from the Department of Education, the Department of Environmental Health, the Planning Department and the Fire Department will conduct site inspections. The outcome of the inspections and review of registration forms will be communicated to proprietors and principals. Schools that are in full compliance will be issued with a certificate by the Ministry of Education which will be used to enable them to proceed with renewal of business licences for the 2019-2020 academic year. Schools not satisfying the inspection criteria will be given a deadline by which full compliance must be achieved. All schools and educational institutions operating in the Turks and Caicos Islands are required by law to seek approval to operate from, and register with the Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture and Library Services. Pre-primary, primary and secondary schools are regulated by the Department of Education and all post-secondary and higher education institutions and programmes are regulated by the Higher Education Advisory Board. The authorized agency for installing High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) on vehicles has been charging extra money from motor owners against the government fee and action has been recommended against it, a RTI activist said on Monday. A group of Right to Information (RTI) activists including Balbir Singh and Ramesh Kumar complained against Link Utsav Registration Plates Pvt Ltd (LURPPL) for charging extra money to instal HSRP on vehicles. The complaint was made in the Sub Division Magistrate (North) office. Activist Kumar told IANS that the activists on Monday protested at the SDM office against the inaction against the company, after which the orders were issued. SDM Singhla on Monday wrote to Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh regarding the irregularities. An internal enquiry set up by the SDM office found the firm guilty. The activists also made a police complaint against the agency. --IANS pradeep/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Monday said that there was a "great scope" to develop bilateral partnerships with India in areas such as business, trade and investments. "As India continues to be the fastest growing economy in the G20, we see a great scope for the Norwegian-Indian partnerships in business, trade and investments," Solberg said at the Indian-Norwegian Solutions for Sustainable Growth-seminar here. "It is against this backdrop that Norway has just launched a new strategy for our engagement with India. This reflects the importance we place on our bilateral relations." According to Solberg, the aim of the new strategy is to strengthen Norway's bilateral relations and economic ties with India. She further said that open and free trade were crucial for economic growth. "A stable global framework for trade and investment is vital for both our countries, especially in times like today when we are seeing increased protectionism in certain markets," Solberg said. "We are doing what we can to ensure that the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement between EFTA and India will be finalised soon. This agreement will contribute to increased trade and a better environment for our businesses." The Norwegian Prime Minister is on a three-day state visit to India that began on Monday during the course of which she will deliver the inaugural address at the annual Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference on international issues. She further said: "Norway and India are both ocean states, and closer cooperation in this field will benefit both countries. The 'Ocean Dialogue' between Norway and India will be an important tool to bring this cooperation forward." At the same event, India's Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu said: "We aim to make India a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next 7-8 years, making a way for Norwegian companies to play a key role by investing in India." "It's a great time to bring in sustainable growth in a manner that is economical. The three pillars for collaborative growth are trade, investment and technology. With these 3 pillars, we will not just walk the path but run the path to sustainability." Around 100 Norwegian companies are present in the Indian market like Yara in fertilisers, Statkraft in hydro power, Aker Solutions, a provider of products, systems and services to the oil and gas industry, Jotun in paint, Evry in technology, DNV GL in risk management services and Orkla in food. --IANS rv/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa Police in association with a Bengaluru-based start-up has come up with a technology which can detect unauthorized drones, which are a public safety hazard, a statement issued by Goa Police on Monday said. The Drone Detection System technology, which was developed by the state police in association with IIO Technologies, helps track down unauthorised drones within a range of five km and was tested during the festive week of December 25-January 1, at the Baga beach, which is normally packed with tourists during the period. "Due to increase in use of unauthorized drone or unmanned aerial vehicles in Goa during heavily crowded events and beach activities which can be a major potential risk to public safety and privacy, Goa Police has successfully tested a new solution which can live track current location of flying unauthorized drones. The data can also be stored for later investigation," the statement said. The system, which is being operated by the anti-terror squad of the Goa Police, can also be used to monitor crowd movements and suspicious movements within crowd. Also, vehicular traffic movements can be monitored and necessary instructions can be passed to the ground staff. "This system is mobile and works for a radius of 5 Km range. It has the facility of PA system to announce and alert the public. It can also can be used to provide added safety to VVIP movements and other big events in Goa such as Carnival when a large number of people congregate," the statement said. --IANS maya/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gabon has arrested the military officers who seized the national radio station as part of an apparent coup attempt on Monday, a government spokesperson said. A group of five soldiers announced early Monday morning that they had taken control of the radio station and seized power from the country's long-ruling President Ali Bongo to "restore democracy", the BBC reported. Announcing the establishment of a "National Restoration Council", the soldiers said they were disappointed by Bongo's message on December 31 from Morocco where he was recovering from a stroke. He has been battling ill health since October. They said the message showed the ailing President's strong attempt to remain in power. A New Year's address by Bongo "reinforced doubts about the President's ability to continue to carry out the responsibilities of his office", said Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon. "It is time to take our destiny into our hands. The long-awaited day has come, the day when the Army decided to take the people's side to save Gabon from chaos," Obiang said in a video that was circulating on social media. According to local media outlets, gunshots were heard in the Gabonese capital as Obiang was reading the statement. He later managed to flee but four other soldiers were arrested following an intervention. "The situation is under control. The gendarmes who are often stationed there have taken control of the entire area around the radio and TV headquarters, so everything is back to normal", said government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou. "All five of the rebels who tried to take charge were arrested by the authorities," he said, adding that the Army generals, civil society and opposition leaders mentioned in the rebels' statement as potential supporters would be investigated. Bongo was sworn in as President for his second seven-year term in 2016 in an election marred by violence and accusations of fraud. After a court validated the election results, Bongo's challenger at the time called the decision "biased" for "pointedly ignoring the urgent calls for transparency launched by the national and international community". --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stressing the importance of freedom of thought and expression, former West Bengal Governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi on Monday said fear and democracy, inhibition and republicanism do not go together. Describing "fear" as a "great evil", Gandhi said it is completely inconsistent with "democracy and republicanism". "Those who have a capacity to think must be allowed to think with responsibility and in complete freedom. They must write freely without being bullied by anybody. Fear and democracy, inhibition and republicanism don't go together," Gandhi said in his acceptance speech after being conferred honorary D.Litt by the Calcutta University at its convocation here. Stating that he was both honoured and humbled by the degree, Gandhi said he was taking the opportunity as a responsibility. "I wish to refer to the responsibility to say that freedom of thought and expression is of vital importance. Freedom of speech and writing should be exercised fearlessly in our country," he said. Gandhi, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer, expressed his firm belief that Bengal, "the land of literature", will lead India out of any darkness, fear or any inhibition that may come its way. Turning to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee -- who was seated on the dais -- Gandhi said she "has a great responsibility of keeping the torch of liberty, democracy and republicanism alive". --IANS bnd/ssp/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Eurasian region will be the focus of this year's Raisina Dialogue, a three-day annual multilateral conference starting on Tuesday that would addresses the major issues facing the global community. "Over the three days, we have curated over 85 sets of interactions, discussions, key notes and conversations with a community of global leaders and experts in an attempt to paint a picture of a new world order that is rapidly emerging," said Samir Saran, President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the think tank that organises the conference in collaboration with the External Affairs Ministry. "A prominent feature of this year's conversation at Raisina is Europe or more broadly, Eurasia," Saran said. "This super-continent is without doubt the most dynamic and unpredictable region in the world, one that continues to surprise itself and others around it." Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg will deliver the inaugural address of the Dialogue on Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat and Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Sunil Lanba will also speak at the conference. The theme of this year's Dialogue is "A World Reorder: New Geometries; Fluid Partnerships; Uncertain Outcomes". "The discussions will seek to address issues arising from ongoing global transitions and changes to the world order, triggered by unique leaders, innovative partnerships and new technologies," a statement from the External Affairs Ministry said. "The Dialogue, which has grown steadily in scope and scale since the first edition in 2015, will bring together over 600 delegates from 93 countries, including influential political leaders, strategic thinkers, policy practitioners, technology innovators, business representatives and academics on a common platform where they will offer their vision and propose solutions that will serve us all in the decades ahead," it added. --IANS ab/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three men who claimed they had committed a murder kidnapped an engineers in his car and freed him after driving about 50 km in Meerut after making him fill up the petrol tank. The incident occurred on Sunday night in Vasundhara locality of Ghaziabad but came to light on Monday evening. The police said engineer Jay Kumar, working with a private company, was returning home at about 8 p.m. on Sunday when he stepped out to urinate on the side of a road. When he returned to his car, he was overpowered by the three and dumped on the rear seat. After driving for about 20 km, near Modi Nagar, the criminals filled up petrol and asked the man to pay, which he did. They then proceeded towards Meerut and left him at Partapur area on the Meerut bypass and drove away with his car. He went to the Partapur police station but they refused to register his case and asked to report the matter to the police in Indirapuram where he was kidnapped. "We have registered a case," said Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar. The engineer told the police that the criminals claimed they had committed a murder and so needed a car to escape. "But they were polite," the victim added. --IANS sps/mr/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The TRS Government in Telangana on Monday re-nominated Elvis Stephenson as a member of the State Assembly. At the first meeting of the new cabinet, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao decided to re-nominate Stephenson, a member of Anglo-Indian community. This will enable him to take oath along with the newly-elected MLAs on January 17. According a statement from the Chief Minister's office, for the first time the Anglo-Indian community representative had been nominated even before the elected MLAs could took oath as members. Stephenson, 61, was nominated to the Assembly in 2014 after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) formed first government in the newly created state. The TRS, which retained power in last month's elections, appears to have rewarded Stephenson for getting a key leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) arrested for offering him a bribe to make him vote for the TDP candidate in Legislative Council elections in 2015. Revanth Reddy, then leader of TDP, was caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) when he was offering Rs 50 lakh as bribe to Stephenson, who had lodged a complaint with the anti-graft agency. The nominated MLA was promised Rs 5 crore to cast his vote. Later, an audio tape of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's alleged telephonic conversation with Stephenson also surfaced. The TRS had alleged that Naidu was the brain behind 'cash-for-vote' scam. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a case of money laundering against a firm allegedly linked to Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra and others for irregularities in a land deal in Haryana's Gurugram in 2008, officials said on Monday. A senior ED official told IANS that the agency has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Directorate action comes a month after it conducted searches at the residence of three people linked to Vadra in Delhi and Noida on December 7. The ED had carried out searches in connection with alleged commissions received by some people in certain cases relating to ownership of undisclosed assets abroad. According to the Haryana Police, the case was registered on the complaint of Surender Sharma, a resident of Tauru, alleging that a company belonging to Vadra's Skylight Hospitality cheated him and some others. The Haryana Police has also filed a case against former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others in connection with an alleged land scam in Gurugram. --IANS aks/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission (EC) has rescinded its January 3 notification announcing the by-election in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvarur Assembly constituency. In a communication to the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, the EC on Sunday said the notification calling upon Thiruvarur to elect a member of the legislative assembly shall stand rescinded forthwith. The EC had earlier announced that the by-election would be held on January 28. The seat fell vacant following the death of DMK President M.Karunanidhi last August. According to the poll body, all actions taken by the Returning Officer and others of Thiruvarur Assembly constituency has been declared as null and void. All the major political parties in the state had demanded postponement of the by-election as it would impact the Gaja cyclone relief work in the constituency. Welcoming the EC's action, BJP's Tamil Nadu President Tamilisai Soundararajan in a statement said the need of the hour in Thiruvarur is relief and not election. Taking a dig at the DMK, AMMK and others who had announced their candidates for the by-election, Soundararajan said the parties that did not show alacrity in carrying out the relief work showed alacrity in announcing their candidates. Soundararajan criticised the CPI for filing a petition with the EC against holding of the by-election in the Supreme Court while extending its support to the DMK candidate at the local level. --IANS vj/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) THE LAST recorded Haitian illegal sloop for 2018 was intercepted by the Royal TCI Police Forces Marine Branch on Sunday, December 23. On board the 40 foot blue wooden power boat were 132 illegal migrants - 102 men and 30 women. The vessel was detected by the Coastal Radar System at 12.22am in the area of the Bluff, immediately following which Marine Branch M/V Sea Guardian and Sea Pursuit successfully intercepted it. The detainees were transported to the South Dock Port in Providenciales and handed over to Task Force members who escorted them to the Detention Centre for processing and repatriation. In October, Director of Immigration Derek Been told the Weekly News that between January 1 and August 31, the number of illegal migrants that the Government had already sent back home had already surpassed 2017s overall total. As at August 31, 2018, the TCI Government had sent home 1,476 people, with Haiti receiving the majority. In 2017, that figure was 1,335. The Election Commission (EC) has cancelled the Thiruvarur Assembly by-election in Tamil Nadu, citing the ongoing relief work after the Gaja cyclone that devastated major parts of Thiruvarur district, giving a huge relief to major political parties who were seen as reluctant to contest the election ahead of general elections. The Commission said it has rescinded the January 3 notification for the bye-election scheduled on January 28 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of former chief minister M. Karunanidhi in August. All the major political parties have welcomed the EC decision and are heaving a sigh of relief. They had demanded postponement of the by-election as it would impact the Gaja cyclone relief work in the constituency. Meanwhile, political analysts said the Gaja cyclone that left a trail of destruction in several districts had now turned into a 'gentle breeze' for the by-election wary AIADMK and DMK. In a communication to the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, the EC on Sunday said the notification calling upon Thiruvarur to elect a member of the Assembly shall stand rescinded forthwith. Welcoming the EC's action, DMK President M.K. Stalin said the poll body should have been announced by-elections for all the 20 Assembly constituencies that are vacant instead of just Thiruvarur. There might have been a hidden agenda for the announcement of the by-election for Thiruvarur alone, he said. Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said the AIADMK party was ready to face the by-elections for all the 20 constituencies and not just in Thiruvarur. On her part, BJP's Tamil Nadu President Tamilisai Soundararajan said the need of the hour in Thiruvarur was relief and not election. Taking a dig at the DMK, AMMK and others who had announced their candidates for the by-election, Soundararajan said the parties that did not show alacrity in carrying out the relief work showed alacrity in announcing their candidates. She criticised the CPI for filing a petition with the EC against holding the by-election while extending its support to the DMK. But AMMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran termed the EC action a mockery of democratic process. Terming the EC decision a big relief for the AIADMK and DMK, political analyst Raveendhran Dhuraiswamy said that after losing the R.K. Nagar by-election, Stalin cannot afford another defeat and that too in the seat held by Karunanidhi. For Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, a win in Thiruvarur will not make any major difference in terms of numbers as the government is well in the saddle, he added. The AIADMK too cannot afford a repeat of R.K. Nagar by-election result at Thiruvarur -- that is losing to Dhinakaran a seat held by their leader J. Jayalalithaa. "The Thiruvarur by-election is a major perception battle for both the AIADMK and DMK ahead of Lok Sabha polls," political analyst Jhon Arokiasamy said. "Victory or defeat will affect the confidence of current and potential alliances for both the Dravidian parties," he said. --IANS vj/vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Describing the charge of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his party over the Rafale deal as "completely false", Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that it was based on complete "commercial interests" and to "promote" the competitor. Addressing the media in Parliament complex, he said: "Today a media house has come out with a document which says a strategy paper seized during the raids at Italian middleman Guido Haschke's residence and offices has revealed that Christian Michel and Haschke worked on a plan to place Rafale's prime competitor in the win zone." He said that one of of the middlemen Michel, a British national who is under detention, and others were also pushing the case for Eurofighter, which was in competition with Rafale. He claimed that the documents which have been shown were "explosive" in nature. "How to change the deal for the Eurofighter," Prasad said, adding, "I will like to read four lines. "This man should have worked in the MOD (Ministry of Defence) and know well on first name basis and not just the MOD, key bureaucrats and the minister but also the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the leading Family," he said quoting the news report. Slamming the Gandhi family, the Law Minister said: "Why is it that the leading family namely the Gandhi family appear in documents after documents, be it the AgustaWestland, be it the Air Force fighter planes for Rafale and their competitor Eurofighter?" He said available documents in the public domain raised serious suspicious circumstances of the intention of Rahul Gandhi and Congress. The Minister alleged that "it is too well known that the Congress party is never happy unless there is deal in the defence deal". "Be it Bofors, be it submarine or be it AgustaWestland and now in case of Rafale also this is evident that there was a close proximity of the middlemen who were pushing the case of Eurofighter in contrast to Rafale. "In this light the entire bogie of falsehood, entire campaign of canard unleashed by Rahul Gandhi in particular and the Congress is completely false and based upon completely commercial interests," he said. Firing salvos at the Congress chief, Prasad said: "Please explain what proximity you and your family have with Michel and Hasche? How there for sure that through your influence they can tilt the deal in favour of Eurofighter? "Why is it despite of seven-eight year of filtration, tender process and test when Rafale was found to be the lowest tender the Dassault company, suddenly your previous government stopped the reconsideration? "And how long will you keep on playing with national security?" he questioned. He accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress of compromising national security and in many ways compromising the morale of the forces. "I would like a proper answer of all this. The entire bogie of falsehood campaign against Rafale is now clear it is actuated by extraneous interest to promote the competitor," he added. --IANS aks/vsc/ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Monday moved a privilege motion against Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly "misleading" the Lok Sabha during the debate on Rafale fighter jets deal. Congress' K.C. Venugopal submitted a breach of privilege notice against Sitharaman which the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said is "under my consideration". Venugopal accused Sitharaman of misleading the House on two counts: "She told the House that Rs 1 lakh crore worth orders were given to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) which is false." "During her reply on Rafale deal on Friday, she also misled the House by claiming that the Supreme Court has approved the government's stand on pricing of jets and purposefully avoided to inform the House that the court in fact has said that it will not go into pricing details of the jets," said Venugopal. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has accused Sitharaman of lying about the orders to the HAL and demanded her to prove her claims in the Parliament or resign. During the day, Sitharaman, however, attacked Gandhi for raising "incorrect and misleading" doubts regarding her statement in Parliament and clarified that she has received confirmation from HAL that during 2014 to 2018, contracts amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore had been signed with the public sector company and orders worth approximately Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline. --IANS bns/and/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Monday said UN officials were welcome to visit its restive region of Xinjiang if they followed all the Chinese rules and procedures. Beijing is facing international opprobrium for alleged violation of human rights in western Xinjiang province, home to Muslim Uighurs. "The UN officials should avoid interfering in the domestic affairs of China. They are welcome to visit Xinjiang so long they follow travel rules and procedures," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing here. He was responding to a question if China had invited UN officials to inspect Xinjiang where over 1 million Uighurs are being kept in mass internment camps. Beijing has cracked down on Turkic speaking Uighur Muslims whom it suspects of having secessionist and extremist tendencies. In the past, Beijing has adopted heavy handed measures with the authorities confiscating copies of the Quran, issuing diktats to Muslims not to grow beards and not to choose names for their wards which sound "too Islamic". Last week, the Chinese state media reported that the country had passed a law to "Sinicize" Islam within five years. The officials were quoted as saying that Islam needs to be brought in line with Chinese socialism. Defending the "Sinicization" of Islam move, the Global Times in an opinionated report, said: "Generally speaking, modern countries are secular and diverse in a globalized world. But the revival and spread of religion have somewhat impacted secular society. "Fundamentalism has caused more religious violence and religious nationalism is threatening countries' legitimate governments and leading to social instability," it said. "Governing religion is a common challenge faced by all modern countries. The main purpose of China's five-year plan to sinicize Islam is to seek governance that tallies with Chinese practice and it is not only limited to Islam," the report added. --IANS gsh/soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Monday said it was optimistic about the latest round of trade negotiations with the US that started here as both sides showed willingness to end their disputes. A US delegation led by Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital to start the two-day vice-ministerial level talks over a trade dispute since the beginning of 2018. "Talks are underway. The two sides have expressed their willingness to hold constructive talks and to work together to resolve the disputes following the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a press briefing. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump had agreed on a 90-day truce to hold negotiations when they met in Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on December 1 on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Lu also referred to Trump's latest statement on Sunday, in which he said China's weak economic situation would give Beijing an "incentive" to negotiate. "From the beginning, we have believed that China-US trade friction is not a positive situation for either country or the world economy. China has the good faith, on the basis of mutual respect and equality, to resolve the bilateral trade frictions," the spokesperson was cited as saying by Efe news. The official Chinese media highlighted that the negotiations came at a time when the two countries toned down mutual criticism, offering hope of a possible agreement. "With both countries facing an economic slowdown and market instability, there is greater willingness from both sides to reach an agreement," Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Commerce's International Market Research Institute, told official daily Global Times on Sunday. According to the daily, the two sides would first seek to reach a deal about the "basics", which could later lead to a final agreement on agriculture, energy and other sectors. Since the December 1 truce, China adopted several goodwill measures including cutting tariffs on vehicles imported from the US, resuming the purchase of soy bean from the country and submitting a draft law to prohibit forced technology transfers. Trump temporarily suspended the planned increase in tariffs from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on Chinese goods worth $200 billion, although warning that he would go ahead with the plan if a trade agreement was not sealed before the 90-day deadline. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese court has sentenced a human rights defender to two years in prison on charges of inciting subversion of state power, non-profit Amnesty International said on Monday. The rights group in a statement said the Intermediate People's Court of Zhuhai City in southern China announced the verdict against Zhen Jianghua, the Executive Director of online platform Human Rights Campaign in China, on December 28. The non-profit said the trial of the activist, who has worked with marginalized communities in China for decades, was carried out behind closed doors, "raising serious concerns about denial of his rights to a fair trial", Efe news reported. "Zhen has been persecuted solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and association," it said. The activist was also involved in a campaign against Internet censorship in China, and education and awareness work about HIV/AIDS prevention. He was detained by the police on September 1, 2017, and later kept under house arrest at an undisclosed location. Zhen was formally arrested on March 29, 2018 and charged with inciting subversion two days later. The charge of inciting subversion is often used by the Chinese authorities against dissidents, activists and human rights advocates. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With an eye on the upper caste vote in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Union Cabinet on Monday approved 10 per cent reservation for economically backward people in the general category in jobs and educational institutions, a decision that came under attack from the Opposition which described it as an election gimmick aimed at misleading the voters. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took the decision to provide for 10 per cent quota for people belonging to "unreserved categories", including Christians and Muslims, in jobs and education with an annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh and a land holding ceiling of about five acres, highly placed sources said. A Constitution amendment bill for the purpose is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The sources said the proposed move will not disturb the existing 50 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. "The quota will include sections not falling under any provision of reservation such as Brahmins, Banias, Thakurs, Jats, Gujjars, Muslims and Christians," a source privy to the decision told IANS. He said that rules will be framed in due course to implement the Cabinet decision. The decision comes four months before the Lok Sabha polls and after the reverses suffered by the BJP in the Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The BJP was said to have faced the wrath of the upper castes, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, over the amendment brought by the Central government to nullify the Supreme Court judgement in the SC-ST Act last year. The idea has also been favoured by the RSS, which has been demanding a quota on these lines. The move, a step to consolidate upper caste votes, was dubbed as "election gimmick" by the Opposition parties which questioned its legality vis-a-vis the Supreme Court putting a cap of 50 per cent on reservations. "Did you (government) not think of this for 4 years and 8 months? So, obviously thought of as an election gimmick 3 months before the model code. You know you cannot exceed 50 per cent cap, so it is done only to posture that you tried an unconstitutional thing," Congress Spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. "Forward reservation is a gimmick to fool people, the 50 per cent cap continues to be law," he said citing the M R Balaji case in which the Supreme Court put a 50 per cent cap on reservations. "Government only misleading nation. Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan tried exceeding 50 per cent quota but was struck down by court. Modi, BJP clearly think Indian public eats grass," said Singhvi adding that the move was a sign of Modi's "fear and certainty of losing 2019 elections". Communist Party of India's (CPI) D.Raja said the move indicated the ruling BJP's desperation. "What exactly they (government) have decided we don't know. How they have defined 'backwardness' we don't know. Already the Supreme Court has put a cap on reservation at 50 per cent. That has not been challenged by the Central government, which means the cap remains. "So in this case, what Supreme Court is going to do we don't know. There are many questions which need to be answered. They have to come before Parliament. The BJP is desperate, it is panicking and rattled. It wants to do certain things for fear of losing vote base," said Raja. Supreme Court advocate and nominated Rajya Sabha member K.T.S. Tulsi said: "This looks like an attempt in the direction of abolishing the entire reservation system." Speaking in a similar vein, former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha dubbed the move as a "jumla" (fake promise). Sinha questioned the government's intent citing legal complexities and paucity of time as the current session of Parliament is scheduled to end on Tuesday. However, the government defended the decision saying this was not aimed at placating the upper castes but was in keeping with the principle of "sabka saath, sabka vikas" (development for all). Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said, "This is not an attempt to placate the upper castes. We are trying to give them their right. We are not doing a favour to them. It is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's motto of 'sabka sath, sabka vikas'. "Those who do not want to get this bill passed in Parliament may go ahead. We will try to get this bill passed," he said. Udit Raj, a Dalit MP belonging to the BJP, said it was a "bold" decision. --IANS bns/vsc/bg (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Miscreants hurled petrol bombs at the state headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here in Meghalaya late on Sunday night, a police official said on Monday. No one was injured in the attack but the windows of the office chamber of state BJP President Shibun Lyngdoh were damaged. The petrol bomb attack comes amid the protests against the Modi government's bid to get the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in Parliament. The Bill aims to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for citizenship of India. "We were informed that the incident occurred at around 11.20 p.m. and a fire engine doused the flames," Superintendent of Police (Shillong City) Stephan Rynjah told IANS. A team of forensic experts on Monday visited the BJP headquarters to collect samples and took possession of the CCTV footage capturing the incident. BJP legislator and Health and Family Welfare Minister Alexander Laloo Hek, who visited the party office, demanded the immediate arrest of the perpetrators. "We don't know the reason behind this cowardly attack which is totally unacceptable," Hek told IANS. On the other hand, a group of activists under the banner of Confederation of HynAiewtrep Social Organisation staged a protest in front of the BJP's office demanding that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill not be passed. The activists shouted slogans like "Modi government down down" and asked Bangladeshis to go back to their country. CoHSO Chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin said the Citizenship Amendment Bill was a threat not only to the indigenous tribals in the NorthEast but a national security threat as well. "If Bangladeshis are more important than the NE people in the eyes of the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he should become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh," Kharjahrin said. --IANS rrk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP-backed Conrad Sangma government in Meghalaya on Monday said that it will stick to its stand to oppose the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that aims to give citizenship to illegal migrants of six religious minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Senior BJP legislator and Health and Family Welfare Minister, Alexander Hek said that he also stands by the cabinet decision of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government which had unanimously adopted to oppose the Bill. "There is no confusion about our stand and we were the first state government and state cabinet to come out with an official resolution within the cabinet that we are against the bill," Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma told journalists. The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government is led by the National People's Party and supported by United Democratic Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Hill State People's Democratic Party, People's Democratic Front and Nationalist Congress Party. Asked if the NPP will put out of the BJP-led NDA government, Sangma said: "We have been very clear to the NDA that this is something we will not support. We will see when the time comes, but as of now, we have made our stand clear that we are not supporting the amendment bill." "We (government) have opposed the controversial bill through a cabinet decision, the most aggressive stand that any government has taken," the Chief Minister said. AOn the demand of a civil society group to severe ties with the BJP in the state, he said, "the same minister (Hek from the BJP) is in the cabinet and supported the resolution of the cabinet not to accept but reject the amendment bill." "He (Hek) may be part of the BJP, but he has said it clearly during the Cabinet meeting that for me, protection of my people and my state is priority. I think one should be happy that a person from a particular party, puts the citizens and the people first," Sangma said. On the shutdown called by North East Student's Organisation, Sangma said: "The organization is going ahead with their action a. Our stand is very clear, and therefore there should not be any ambiguity or confusion among the people or among the NESO members about the stand of the Meghalaya government." Assembly Speaker and United Democratic Party president, Donkupar Roy said that the party strongly opposes Citizenship (Amendment) Bill saying that Bill will not protect and safeguard the ethnic communities in the region. --IANS rrk/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Most northeastern parties including the allies of BJP, opposition Congress and Left parties have strongly opposed the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, saying "the Bill is against the fundamental aspect of the Indian constitution". Besides Congress, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left parties, Bharatiya Janata Party's partners Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and National People's Party (NPP) in Meghalaya and most other regional parties are strongly opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, and demanded its withdrawal. IPFT Assistant General Secretary Mangal Debbarma told IANS that National Federation for New States (NFNS), a conglomerate of many small parties in the northeastern region and other states, has also been opposing the Bill. "We have raised the issue in the last meeting of NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance) in Guwahati recently. Many of the constituents of the NEDA including Mizoram's ruling party Mizo National Front (MNF) are also opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill," Debbarma said. Assam's powerful minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is the convener of the BJP-led anti-Congress alliance -- NEDA. All Mizoram NGOs, including the influential Young Mizo Association, and political parties like People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) have been strongly opposing the Bill, claiming it would change the demography of several northeastern states. Mizo Student Federation President L. Ramdinliana Renthlei told the media in Aizawl that they would not allow the government to implement the new citizenship law in Mizoram. Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) are also opposing the Bill. Tripura's oldest tribal based party INPT (Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura) blocked the national highway and the lone railway line in the state last month, demanding withdrawal of the Bill. INPT General Secretary Jagadish Debbarma said that they would intensify their agitations in Tripura as well as Delhi to press for the withdrawal of the Bill. The powerful North East Students Organisation (NESO), an umbrella body of eight students and youth organisations of the seven northeastern states, has called an 11-hour shutdown in the entire northeast on Tuesday to protest against the BJP-led NDA government's move to pass the controversial Bill. BJP's veteran tribal leader Rampada Jamatia, supporting the bill, told IANS: "While considering the Citizenship Bill, the logic and sentiment of the parties of the northeastern region should be looked into." A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Rajendra Agrawal is set to submit its report on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. With the Winter Session of the Lok Sabha set to end on Tuesday, it is uncertain whether the bill would be taken up for consideration in the lower house in this session. This winter session would be the last full-fledged Parliament session before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "The Left Parties, the Congress and many other parties would strongly oppose the bill. There is no scope in the constitution to provide citizenship on the basis of religion. The cut off date to determine the foreigners had already decided on the basis of the 1971 Indira-Mujib pact," CPI-M Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha Jitendra Chowdhury told IANS over phone from Delhi. He said the BJP is in a hurry to pass the Bill in the Parliament to gain political mileage ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2016, the Bill seeks to enable Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh without valid travel documents or those whose valid documents expired in recent years to acquire Indian citizenship through the process of naturalisation. The 30-member joint parliamentary panel led by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal during the course of its study visits, met a cross section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard the views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The Citizenship Act of 1955 provides for various ways in which Indian citizenship may be acquired -- by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and by incorporation of territory into India. CPI-M's Tripura state Secretary Gautam Das, Congress Vice-President Tapas Dey and many other leaders of different political parties apprehend that if the NDA government passes the bill forcefully in the Parliament, a serious resentment would crop up in the northeast. According to these leaders, the Bill is against the fundamental aspect of the Indian constitution. NESO Secretary General Sinam Prakash Singh, and Chairman Samuel Jyrwa in a joint statement said: "This move by the Central government is an imposition on the sentiments of the indigenous people of the northeastern region, and this design by the Centre is very dangerous as it would reduce the genuine indigenous people of the seven states to minority." "NESO warned the Union government not to play with the future of the indigenous people of the northeastern region for vote bank politics," the statement added. --IANS sc/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Olivia Rose FORMER Director of the TCIs Integrity Commission, Eugene Otuonye, has been appointed as the new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). According to a statement from the Governors Office issued on Thursday (January 3), the well-known and respected Queens Counsel was selected for the position following an open recruitment process. Governor John Freeman appointed Otuonye QC as the new Director of Public Prosecutions, based on recommendations from an interview panel led by the Chair of the Judicial Service Commission, Sir Michael Barnett. The search for a new DPP began in November 2018 when the former DPP Jillian Williams discharged the duties of her position due to serious health concerns. Under section 91 of the 2011 Constitution, the DPP is appointed by the governor in consultation with the premier, the leader of the Opposition, and the Judicial Service Commission. Otuonye QC attained his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1983, and his Certification in Legal Education in 1984 in Nigeria and again in 1998 in Jamaica. He commenced employment in law as a legal aid counsel in Nigeria in 1984 and from 1985 until 1996 he worked as a private sector attorney in Nigeria. From 1996 until 1999, he served as the clerk of courts and prosecutor with the Department of National Security and Justice in Jamaica. In 1999 he joined the TCIs Attorney Generals Chambers where he rose through the ranks from Crown counsel, criminal to be the TCIs second deputy attorney general conducting both criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. In 2006 he was appointed Queens Counsel in the TCI and from January 2006 until March 2008 served as the attorney general of the sister British overseas territory of Montserrat. Otuonye was also granted Turks and Caicos Islands status. In 2008 he returned to the TCI to serve as chairman of the Public Service Commission from 2008 to 2010, and from 2009 until 2011 was also a member of the Turks and Caicos Islands Advisory Council. Otuonye held the position of the first director of the Turks and Caicos Islands Integrity Commission, representing the TCI as the elected chairperson of the Commonwealth Caribbean Association of Integrity Commission and Anti-Corruption Bodies 2017 to 2018. He is a member of the Bar Associations of Nigeria, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands and the International Bar Association. He is married with three sons. The role of DPP was created by the 2011 Constitution which confers upon the governor the power to appoint or remove a DPP only with the prior approval of the Secretary of State. As the Union Cabinet on Monday approved 10 per cent reservation for economically backward upper castes in jobs and educational institutions, Bihar's two Dalits leaders welcomed it, while two OBCs leaders questioned the proposal. The Central government is likely to introduce a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament on Tuesday to push for 10 per cent extra reservation for economically-deprived sections among general categories. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, and Hindustani Awam Morcha president and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi welcomed the 10 per cent reservation for poor upper caste members. Both Paswan and Manjhi said that they had also pushed for reservation to the upper caste poor. Going a step further, Manjhi said they should be given 15 per cent reservation instead of just 10 per cent. Paswan's LJP is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), while Manjhi's HAM is an ally of the RJD-Congress Grand Alliance in the state. On the other hand, Bihar Opposition leader Tehashwi Yadav, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has opposed the reservation for poor upper caste members, saying this is constitutional. "There is no provision for such a reservation in the Constitution," he said. RJD's new ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha also termed the latest decision as another "jumla" and demanded to make public caste census. --IANS ik/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal government has raised the retirement age for college and university teachers to 65 years and that of the vice chancellors to 70 years, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday. "I don't believe that after reaching 60 years, one cannot work. So the retirement age for professors which was 62 will now be 65 and for vice chancellors, it will be 70 years from 65," Banerjee said while addressing the Calcutta University convocation at Nazrul Manch here. There will be a special chair in the name of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Mahatma Gandhi in Calcutta University, she said. "We have kept Rs 200 crore for higher of general cast as scholarship. This year we have given Rs 28,000 crore to develop infrastructural facilities in Bengal," she said. Last year she had given Calcutta University Rs 100 crore grant to promote research work. "Next, we will think about the university's Science and social science. If you need any land in future, we will assist." Banerjee declared she would inaugurate the Kanyashree University on January 10 in Nadia district, and said she wanted it to be legally linked to Calcutta University. --IANS bnd/ssp/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sevilla and Atletico Madrid played a 1-1 draw in a La Liga contest at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium in this Spanish city. French striker Wissam Ben Yedder opened the scoring for Sevilla seven minutes after the half-hour mark while his countryman, Antoine Griezmann, netted Atletico's equalizer just before the first half's final whistle, reports Efe news. With the draw, Atletico stayed in second place in the standings, with 35 points, two points behind leader Barcelona, which takes on Getafe later in the day. Sevilla, for its part, stayed in third place in the standings, with 33 points. --IANS kk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several groups opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 on Monday observed a 'Black day' in protest against the move of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 to table its report to the Lok Sabha. While the All Assam Students Union (Aasu) and 30 other outfits burnt copies of the Bill in towns and villages of Assam to register their protest, over 70 other organisations under the leadership of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) hoisted black flags in different parts of the state. The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), another leading student body, also staged protests across the state. One AJYCP member stood nude protest in Tinsukia town shouting slogans against the Bill and the JPC's move to table the report. "We have observed the day as 'Black day'. The Citizenship Bill has not only threatened the existence of indigenous communities of Assam but also make the indigenous people a minority in their own land. The BJP has failed to understand the sentiments of the people of the state. We are going to fight till the Bill is scrapped," said AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya. While AASU and other groups staged protests on Monday, the North East Students Organization (NESO) -- an umbrella organisations of students bodies of all the northeastern states -- has called for a total shutdown on Tuesday. "This Bill is against the indigenous people of Assam and we are going to oppose it tooth and nail. NESO has also called for a mass demonstration in Guwahati on January 23 to register its protest against the Bill," he added. "Through the Bill, the BJP wants to win the Lok Sabha polls. We have already started a movement against this and will continue until the Bill is withdrawn," said KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi. There have been protests in Assam over the Citizenship Bill since last year when the members of the JPC visited Assam to seek public opinion over the Bill. The movement has been intensified from January 4 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a public rally in Silchar said that the Citizenship Bill would be passed by Parliament soon. --IANS ah/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will meet the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs in the national capital on Tuesday. A senior TDP leader said on Monday that Naidu will arrive here on Tuesday noon. Naidu, who is playing an important role in bringing the Opposition party leaders altogether ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, will not, however, meet the leaders of other parties. The TDP leader also said after meeting his party MPs, Naidu will leave for Andhra Pradesh by a special aircraft in the night. --IANS aks/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alfonso Cuaron's black-and-white Mexico-set period drama "Roma" not just made it as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, but also won the Best Director - Motion Picture honour at the 76th Golden Globe Awards here. At the ceremony here on Sunday, Cuaron received a rousing applause for the honours, and he thanked his film's producers as well as Netflix for "bringing this very unlikely film into the mainstream awareness". "I feel a little bit like cheating accepting this award because most of what I was doing was just to witness and enjoy these actors who just exist on the screen," he said, lauding his two leads Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira. The film is a personal story and takes a leaf out of Cuaron's own youth in 1970s' Mexico, where he grew up among strong women -- not just his mother, but also a nanny named Libo. "Another part of me is telling me that in reality, this film was directed by Libo, by my mother and my family, and maybe even more importantly, by this place, this very complex land, that shaped and created me," said Cuaron, saluting his home country of Mexico. He said the nation introduced him to "the amazing colours that made me who I am." Earlier, while receiving the Best Foreign Language Film honour, for which he beat Lebanon's "Capernaum", Belgium's "Girl", Germany's "Never Look Away" and Japan's "Shoplifters", Cuaron spoke of how cinema is crossing over. "As we cross these bridges, these new experiences, new shapes and faces, we begin to realise that while they may be strange, they are not unfamiliar. We begin to understand exactly how much we have in common," Cuaron added. For the Best Director honour, Cuaron pipped nominees Bradley Cooper for "A Star Is Born", Peter Farrelly for "Green Book", Spike Lee for "BlacKkKlansman" and Adam McKay for "Vice". "Roma" was ineligible for a Best Picture nod because the category is reserved "exclusively for English-language motion pictures", according to The Hollywood Reporter. --IANS rb/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) District authorities have ordered the closure of all schools on Monday in view of the intense cold wave sweeping Agra region. District Magistrate N.G. Ravi Kumar said a decision whether to extend the closure would be taken on Monday evening. Official sources indicated that in view of the January 9 visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the administration could consider extending the school closure for another two days, to prevent traffic jams in the city. The sky continues to remain cloudy but there has been no rain so far. The cold wind has forced people indoors. "Tourists at the Taj Mahal were seen shivering though most were wrapped in woollens. Early morning visibility was very low due to fog and misty conditions," said tourist guide Ved Gautam. The minimum temperature on Saturday night was 9.9 degrees Celsius while the maximum hovered around 22. "But it was the icy cold wind that made life hell," said shopkeeper Bankey Lal of Johri Bazar. --IANS bk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The AGP on Monday quit the alliance with the BJP over the Modi government's decision to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which seeks to give citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Asom Gana Parishad President Atul Bora said this here on Monday after an AGP delegation led by him met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "We have made our best efforts to convince the BJP leadership about the negative impact of the Bill and the stand of the people of Assam, But the BJP has decided to go ahead with the Bill leaving us with no option but to quit the alliance," he told the media. The Union Cabinet earlier cleared the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 after a Joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its recommendations to the Lok Sabha. The Bill is likely to be debated in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The snapping of the ties by the AGP, however, does not threaten the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance government in Assam. The BJP has 61 members and the support of an Independent member in the house of 126 while its ally BPF has 13 members. While the AGP has 14 members, the Congress and AIUDF have 24 and 13 members respectively. Bora said: "We fought a long battle over the Citizenship Bill. We protested on the streets and we met different political parties and members of the JPC over the Bill. We tried our best to stop the Bill being a part of the government. However, now that the BJP has decided to go ahead with it, we have no other option but to walk out of the alliance," said Bora. He said the alliance with the BJP before the 2016 Assembly polls was a demand of the time. "The Congress was in power from 2001 to 2016 and we decided to oust the Congress from power by forging an alliance with the BJP. The people did not only vote for the BJP but voted for AGP and BJP combine. However, the BJP failed to keep the promises of the alliance partner. Being a regional party, we have to respect the wishes and sentiments of the people of Assam," Bora added. --IANS ah/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Calling the upper caste quota an election stunt by the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday demanded a special session of the Parliament to bring constitutional amendment for the implementation of the decision. "For the economically backward upper castes, the Narendra Modi government has given a welcoming 'jumla'. Such similar decisions have been passed from time to time by several states, but the courts have banned more than 50 per cent reservation. Is this also a drama?" AAP MP Sanjay Singh said. The Union Cabinet on Monday approved 10 per cent quota for people belonging to "unreserved categories", including Christians and Muslims, in jobs and education with an annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh. Singh said to get 10 per cent reservation passed, "it is important to amend the constitution". The AAP MP said the Central government "should call for a special session of the parliament, or we will consider it another jumla", adding that "if only the cabinet passes this decision, the Supreme Court will ban this". Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: "The Central government should extend Parliament session and bring constitutional amendment immediately." He said the Centre should amend the law before the Lok Sabha elections and promise support for it. Else, he said, it will be clear that "it is merely an election stunt". --IANS nks/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 75 people have been injured in a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Gilangharb city in Iran's Kermanshah province, Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran Emergency Organisation, said. According to Iran's Seismological Centre, the epicentre of the earthquake that hit the country's western part on Sunday, was monitored at 34.16 degrees north latitude and 45.66 degrees east longitude with a depth of 10 km, Xinhua reported. At least 15 aftershocks, ranging from 3 to 4.8 magnitude, have shaken the region so far, according to the centre. Most of the injured people were hurt while escaping to the outdoors in panic, a medical official told Tasnim news agency. Assessment teams of Iran's Red Crescent Society have been dispatched to the site of earthquake, Kourosh Mahmoudian, the Governor of Gilangharb, told Tasnim. Some residential buildings and cattle farms were damaged and rock fall blocked the roads in the area, Mahmoudian said. The quake also affected the quality of drinking water in Gilangharb, he said, assuring that the local people will be provided sufficient high-quality drinking water. The elementary schools and high schools will be closed in Gilangharb city on Monday, a media outlet reported. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Delana Isles THE RECENT appointment of former TCI Integrity Commission boss as the territorys new Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has angered one Opposition member. On Thursday (January 3) George Lightbourne, PNP elected member for Grand Turk North, launched a scathing attack on the appointment of the Nigerian lawyer, calling on local employees attached to the Office of the DPP not to work along with the new non-local appointee. Queens Counsel Eugene Otuonyes appointment as the new DPP was announced via press statement from the Governors Office on Thursday morning. The release stated that Otuonye was selected for the position following an open recruitment process and following recommendations made by an interview panel led by the Chair of the Judicial Service Commission, Sir Michael Barnett. In his statements to the press, the PNP member called the appointment "another slap in the face to indigenous Turks and Caicos Islanders and a clear indication that the powers that be are paying scant regard to the wishes, qualification, advancement and feelings of our people. Lightbourne contended that there are many Islanders who are qualified, able and willing to take on the many employment opportunities that the territory offers, including that of director of public prosecutions. "But we are disregarded in favour of foreign nationals who are only here to reap the benefits that our beloved Turks and Caicos Islands has to offer them and at the same time they look down on us with inferiority. Otuonye is also a Turks and Caicos Islander by way of bestowment, but according to Lightbourne, he is a paper Belonger - a group of people the member feels are given unfair advantage over indigenous Belongers. "It is obvious to me that indigenous Turks Islanders are morally and despicably discriminated against every time an employment opportunity arises. The elected member then issued this call: "I am calling on all the local employees working in the Office of Public Prosecutions to protest and resist this attack on us by refusing to work with the new director. I am sick and tired of watching our people being taken advantage of. Although he claims not to have anything against the native Nigerian, Lighbourne pointed this out: "He is a man who I believe is unable to find work in his native land and certainly will not be given a job as director of public prosecutions in Nigeria (the most corrupt country in Africa) and he is only here because of the opportunity this country offers to people like him. He added that, in his estimation, it would appear that the people of the territory have been beaten into submission by a belief that they are not entitled to anything and that foreign is better. "My call to you is wake to hell up and demand what is rightfully yours and stop settling for second and third best in your own country. "People can only do to you what you allow them to do. This behaviour seems to be a pattern and it will continue until we take a stand against it, the Opposition member said. Otuonye takes up his new post on January 14, replacing former DPP and Trinidadian native, Jillian Williams who left the post late last year due to serious health concerns. At least 21 Afghan soldiers, police personnel and 15 Taliban militants have been killed in clashes in Badghis province as fighting rages in the country, officials said on Monday. In one incident, three Army soldiers, 11 Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel and 15 militants were killed after the security forces fought back scores of armed militants who stormed security checkpoints in Qadis district on Sunday night, Abdul Aziz Baig, an official of Provincial Council, told Xinhua news agency. The government established the ALP or community police in 2010 to protect villages and districts around the country where the Army and police have limited presence. In similar clashes in Gandab, an area in Ab Kamari district, seven ALP policemen were killed and nine others wounded while casualties were also reflected on the side of militants, the official said. The province, 555 km northwest of Kabul, has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces and militants for long. The violence has been on the rise as Afghan security forces struggle against a surge in attacks by anti-government fighters since the drawdown of foreign forces four years ago. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured two American citizens, suspected of being foreign recruits in the Islamic State, hiding out in the stronghold of the terror group. In a statement on Sunday, the militia fighting the militants identified the detainees as Warren Christopher Clark, 34, and Zaid Abed al-Hamid, 35. It said the pair had been captured alongside three others suspected of being foreign recruits in the extremist group, the Washington Post reported. Citizens of Ireland and Pakistan were among those detained, the SDF said. Clark had previously sought work with the Islamic State and sent a resume and cover letter for an English-teaching job at the University of Mosul in Iraq. "I have a long background in teaching a variety of different subjects... this has given me leadership skills and I have learned to adapt to new situations and environments with ease," Clark wrote in the cover letter, using his nom de guerre, Abu Muhammad al-Ameriki. "Teaching has given me the opportunity to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and learning capabilities," he wrote. The US-led coalition did not respond to a request for comment about the pair's detention and the SDF spokesman also provided no further details of their incarceration, the report said. According to the Post, the fate of these men could be complicated by the uncertainty surrounding Trump's announcement of US troop withdrawal from Syria in the near future. Washington has shown little desire to extradite captives accused of being part of the Islamic State. Clark was a Texas resident and worked as a substitute teacher in the Houston area before travelling to Saudi Arabia and Turkey to teach English, according to a February report by NBC News. It was unclear, however, when he crossed into Syria. He reportedly converted to Islam in 2004 and later became radicalized online, according to the Deputy Director of the George Washington programme, who spoke to NBC about Clark. No details were available about Al-Hamid, who was said to be captured alongside Clark. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 10 civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded after a bomb ripped through a district bazaar in Afghanistan's Paktika province on Monday, officials said. "Ten martyred and 13 wounded civilians were admitted to a main hospital in the provincial capital Sharana city following a bomb attack in Jani Khil district," Mohammad Raffah, a provincial health official, told Xinhua news agency. Two children were among those killed. The blast occurred after an improvised explosive device was detonated at a bazaar in the district in the morning, a police official said. In a separate development, five police personnel and three Taliban militants were killed after militants stormed a security checkpoint along a main roadway in Faizabad district of Jawzjan province on Sunday night. The militants overran the checkpoint and took several rounds of guns and ammunition after the clash. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Congress on Monday suspended former union minister Sarvey Sathyanarayana from the party after he levied serious allegations on the party and its state president. During a press briefing, Sathyanarayana had accused Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy for delaying the allocation of tickets while alleging him of conniving with the TRS. "Uttam delayed the allocation of tickets to the party leaders as he had aligned with the TRS. He sold Kollapur, Kodad, Paler, Huzurabad tickets," he said According to sources, "Sathyanarayana has blamed Uttam and RC Khuntia for Congress party's defeat in the elections. Furthermore, he has also demanded from the high command that Uttam be removed from his post." The sources also claim that during a review meeting which was recently held at the party office in Hyderabad, many party leaders expressed there unhappiness with the Telangana Congress In-charge and TPCC president. It is during this meeting Sarvey Sathyanarayana made serious allegations on the Congress party leaders in Telangana. When the party Chief secretary Bollu Kishan raised an objection Sathyanarayana argued with Kishan and tossed a water bottle at him, claimed sources. The Congress party has been conducting review meetings in all constituencies after losing the assembly polls. Key leaders and party general secretaries of the district take part in it and express their views on the defeat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 25 people were arrested by the police on Sunday for allegedly socially boycotting 80 people of Scheduled Caste Mala community. The action was taken by the police after a 30-year-old man named Rajeshwar lodged a complaint in this regard on January 2. Sharing details of the incident, Armoor Division's Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Ande Ramulu told ANI, "We received a complaint from Rajeshwar of Marampalli village on January 2 who said that 80 scheduled caste people of Mala community have dug and laid pillars in the open land situated adjacent to village tank to construct Ambedkar Sangam (Society) building." Furthermore, Ramulu informed, "The Village Development Committee (VDC) which is a non-government body and doesn't have any power, had threatened people of this community to not construct the society in that particular piece of land. The committee consists of villagers from all castes. They had said that if the people of the Mala community constructed the building at that place, they will be socially boycotted." On December 24 the village development committee members allegedly imposed a social boycott and asked the Mala community members to deposit Rs. 50,000. The police have registered the case and have recorded the statements of the victims in this regard. Further investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has lied in the Parliament claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has given Rs 1 lakh crore to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). This comes after Sitharaman in the Parliament said that the doubts raised about her recent statement were "incorrect" and "misleading", and produced documents to show that contracts worth Rs. 26,570 crore have been signed with the HAL and more orders worth Rs. 73,000 crore were in the pipeline. While addressing media at the Parliament, Rahul stated: "We've challenged that Modi government has given Rs 1 lakh crore to HAL and today the Defence Minister said that Rs. 26,570 crore have been given to HAL, which clearly shows that she has lied in the Parliament." Reading Nirmala's statement given in the Parliament earlier on Monday, Rahul said: "It's written here that a request for proposals and cases that technical evaluation committee..., this doesn't mean you're giving money. The actual money given under the deals was Rs. 26,570 crore, which is a complete lie." "I have raised a simple question- when the Prime Minister conducted a bypass surgery on Rafale and decided to buy only 36 jets against 126, did the Defence Ministry and Indian Air Force (IAF) officials raise objections against his interference in the deal, yes or no?" he said. Criticising the Defence Minister, the Gandhi scion asserted: "Nirmala ji, who is the spokesperson of Modi ji, gave excuses in the Parliament to save herself from a question regarding the IAF officials' objection on the Prime Minister's interfere in the deal." "The Defence Minister claimed that the government is helping HAL, Dassault has received Rs. 20,000 crore without even delivering a single aircraft, whereas the payment of Rs. 15,700 crore of government-owned HAL on completed projects is still pending," he further said. "It was necessary to destroy HAL because with strong HAL you cannot give any contract to the foreign company. Weakening HAL, not giving them their pending dues reflect that the government is destroying India's strategic capability," Rahul added. Rahul further attacked Anil Ambani stating that "on what basis did Anil Ambani receive the Rs. 30,000 crore worth project? I still haven't received an answer to this". Challenging the Prime Minister to debate with him for 15 minutes over Rafale jet deal, Rahul stated, "The Prime Minister, who claimed to be the 'Chowkidar' (watchman) of the nation, cannot come to the Lok Sabha as he fears to enter the House. He won't come because 'chowkidar' has led the whole Rafale burglary." "The Congress is just protecting HAL and telling the youngsters of this country that we won't allow Rs. 30,000 crore of your money to be taken by Anil Ambani because he is a dear friend of Modi ji," he added. The Supreme Court on December 14 last year had dismissed all petitions seeking court-monitored probe into the Rafale deal with France, saying that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the deal. The apex court had said it was not its job to go into the issue of pricing. The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, said that there was no need to conduct an investigation into the details of Rafale pricing. The Rafale jet deal controversy has been on the boil over the last few months. The Congress and other opposition parties have been alleging irregularities in the high-profile deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It's confirmed! After being a part of 'ABCD 2', Shraddha Kapoor has come onboard to star alongside Varun Dhawan in the third part of the dance film franchise. The news comes after Katrina Kaif, who was the original choice for the makers, opted out of the Remo D'Souza-directorial due to prior commitments with Salman Khan's period drama 'Bharat'. Film critic Taran Adarsh took to social media to make the announcement. He tweeted, "IT'S OFFICIAL... Director Remo D'Souza, Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor reunite [after #ABCD2] for a new dance-based film... Filming begins 22 Jan 2019 in Punjab... Major chunk will be shot in UK... Produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Lizelle D'Souza." The 'Sui Dhaaga' actor also extended his warm welcome to Shraddha. Along with a picture with his co-star, Varun wrote, "welcome home chirkut @ShraddhaKapoor" According to Adarsh's tweet, the film goes on floors later this month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists have raised an issue of lack of diversity in genomic research. A growing number of genomic studies have generated important discoveries regarding human health and behaviour, but new research from the University of Oxford suggests that scientific advancement is limited by a lack of diversity. The study shows that the people studied in genetic discovery research continue to be overwhelmingly of European descent. It also pointed out that these subjects are concentrated in a handful of countries - the UK, US and Iceland, and have specific demographic characteristics. The study published in Communications Biology contributes to a richer understanding of a multitude of facets which shape genomic bias over time. The study reviewed nearly 4,000 scientific studies between 2005 and 2018. The study examined the explosion in the number of people studied, the number and strength of genetic association discoveries, and growth and variation in the number of outcomes. It also looked at who was being studied in terms of ancestral background, geographical location and demographics and who was conducting the research, including the networks and characteristics of the researchers themselves. Despite a staggering growth in sample sizes, the number of traits and diseases studied and genetic discoveries, findings from the study reveal that ancestral diversity has stalled and that non-white groups are still massively under-represented. Data was subject not only to geographical concentration but also featured a higher than the anticipated proportion of older people, women and in some of the most prominently used data, also subjects with higher socioeconomic status and better health. Melinda Mills, lead author of the study said, "The lack of ancestral diversity in genomic research has been an on-going concern, but little attention has been placed on the geographical and demographic characteristics of the people who are studied, who studies them, and exactly what they study." "Genetic discoveries offer exciting medical possibilities, but without increasing the diversity of people studied and the environments they live in, the usage and returns of this research are limited. There is increasing recognition that our health outcomes are a complex interplay between genes and the environment - or in other words, nature and nurture - yet most discoveries have been taken from populations that are very similar, with limited environmental variation," Mills concluded. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saveetha Dental College, Chennai has secured the 7th position in the world for the highest number of publications in a dental institute in the Scopus International database. With a total of 2257 publications, this is the first time an Indian institution has cracked the top 10 list. This is indeed a proud moment for dental education in India, because our country is generally not well known as a hub for research and publications. Among the top ten institutions, the biggest contributor of research in dentistry is Harvard with 7000 publications. It is noteworthy to observe that Harvard has created that many publications over a period of 150 years since its commencement, whereas our Indian counterpart (Saveetha Dental College) has secured 2000+ publications in a brief span of 30 years. Dr. N.M.Veeraiyan, Chancellor, SIMATS said that this shows that India has great potential to develop as a mainstream research hub in the future. This achievement was only possible because of the constant push, perseverance and consistent hard work of the students and their supervising faculty. Every undergraduate and postgraduate in this institution actively participate in conducting numerous well organised and high quality studies. Each project designed by the student is met by a scientific review board and proper quality control measures have been put in place to make sure the data is of optimal quality so that we are able to shine on an international platform. Furthermore, our institution is the only one in India to have 91 randomised controlled trials registered in the Clinical Trial Registry of India which is a globally recognised authoritative body for clinical trials. Another noteworthy feat is the publication of 118 patents in 2018. This shows that our research is focussed not simply on testing but on invention and discovery of new products, formulations and protocols followed by analysing and implementation of our project applications into the real world. Translation of research is one of the major hallmarks of measuring the success of research. Here too, Saveetha's students shine in patenting, creating products and generating revenue out of their numerous inventions. An erudite combination of a constant push towards research, a staunch academic environment and the cream of students attending this facility has created a fantastic academic platform to enable the brightest minds in the dental field to produce the best outcome which would make the nation proud for years to come. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) INTERNATIONAL flight operator American Airlines officially launched its new Chicago to Providenciales route on Saturday, December 22. Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson, Minister of Education Hon. Karen Malcom and other tourism officials welcomed the first of the non-stop flights. The Boeing 737-800 arrived at 3.07pm at Providenciales International Airport (PLS) from Chicago OHare Airport (ORD) and was welcomed with a customary water canon salute from the local fire service. The new direct flight from ORD will not only be a winter addition to the Turks and Caicos Islands. It has also been decided that the route will be coming back in the summer with three weekly flights in operation. The summer route will take place from June 6 until September 3 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and is available for sale online. American Airlines is gearing up to add even more US to Caribbean flights this winter season. They include new flights to Aruba (AUA) from ORD and DFW, and to Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, (GCM) and Nassau, the Bahamas (NAS) from ORD. Customers will also gain new access to Eleuthera (ELH) and Marsh Harbour (MHH) in the Bahamas from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). American Airlines is one of the first US carriers to serve the Turks and Caicos Islands and has operated in the Islands for over 25 years. (By Olivia Rose) India's leading online retail store marketplace for buying and selling electronics and all major categories like mobile phones, cameras and appliances etc., 'Rocking Deals' is now all set to expand through retail stores across the nation. The company which presently deals within 18 categories of products including mobile phones and accessories now plans to open over 500 retail stores in the next five years in a phased manner. The strategy is in line with Brick & Mortar model where it will follow setting up retail stores along with its online marketplace in order to expand its reach every nook and corner of the country. "We have chalked out all round growth plan be it online or offline. With our new retail stores, the company plans to weed out inefficiencies, lack of certified products in the market, and under or overvaluation of pre-owned products. We would like to tap all major markets of smaller towns and cities through our offline market strategy," said Yuvraj Aman Singh, Founder & CEO of Rocking Deals. "We have received an encouraging response from across the country and already signed with 27 retail franchise from various states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab among others. Our first ever offline store already started in Agra (Uttar Pradesh) last month and there will be followed by another 4-5 such store and 20 such stores in the state of Uttar Pradesh soon," added Singh. As per recent industry data after the USA and China, India has become the fastest growing market in the refurbished segment. In India overall, used goods market to reach close to 9 billion by 2021 from existing 4 billion, among them only used smartphones market to reach a size of 6 billion in next three years from 2.5 billion currently. "The refurbished market to rise by a compounded 27% over 2019-20 as large players are joining through their existing online marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart which posted surging growth in annual sales and we too wanted to significantly capture the market through our organized channel," said Singh, adding that by entering into the offline market, we are eliminating the multiple layers and involvement of third parties by directly connecting to our customers." As of today, the company has successfully sold close to 4 million units in 18 types of categories of refurbished and pre-owned products a day to end customers. Founded in 2012, Rocking Deals has a Good network of more than 250 brands on the Rocking Deals website. Leading brands like Bose, JBL, Samsung, Xioami, Waterman, 3M, APPLE among others are also featured on the company's website (www.rockingdeals.in). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taking on Congress President Rahul Gandhi's challenge, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the doubts raised about her Parliament statement were "incorrect" and "misleading" and produced documents to show that contracts worth Rs. 26,570 crore have been signed with the HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) and more orders worth Rs. 73,000 crore were in the pipeline for it. "Doubts are being raised about my statement in Parliament regarding procurement orders for HAL .... I want to inform that the doubts are incorrect and misleading," the Defence Minister said in the Lok Sabha. On Sunday, the Congress President had alleged that the Defence Minister has "lied" in Parliament that government orders worth Rs one lakh crore were provided to HAL, while demanding that she should either place the documents in support of her statement in the House or resign. "When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM (Raksha Mantri) lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL," Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Sunday. The Congress President's attack was based on a media report claiming "not a single rupee of the said Rs 1 lakh crore has come to HAL." In Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said that she had "confirmation" from the HAL that between 2014 and 2018, the company had signed contracts worth Rs. 26,570 crore and contracts worth Rs. 73,000 crore were in the pipeline which come together around Rs one lakh crore. She mentioned that that contracts in the pipeline included 83 LCA Mark1A for Rs. 50,000 crore, 15 Light Combat Helicopters for Rs. 3,000 crore and another helicopter contract for 200 light helicopters were in line. She also mentioned that contracts worth Rs. 3,400 crore for 19 Dornier planes, helicopters for Rs. 15,000 crore and Aero engines 8,000 crore have been signed. She also laid down the details of the contracts with HAL as part of her statement in the Lok Sabha. After Gandhi's tweets, Nirmala Sitharaman had countered it in tweets saying "It's a shame that the president of @INCIndia is misleading the nation. HAL has signed contracts worth Rs. 26,570. 8 Cr (Between 2014 and 2018) and contracts worth Rs 73000 Cr are in the pipeline. Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the house?" the defence minister tweeted. Earlier on Monday, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge moved a notice under rule 193 in the Lok Sabha, demanding a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale jet deal with France. The party has been protesting in both Houses of the Parliament on the matter. Congress MP KC Venugopal also gave a notice to move a privilege motion against the Defence Minister for allegedly misleading the House on the matter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump said a "productive meeting" was held between Vice President Mike Pence and congressional staff, during which a number of issues related to border security, as the government remains shut for the 16th day in a row. "V.P. Mike Pence and group had a productive meeting with the Schumer/Pelosi representatives today. Many details of Border Security were discussed. We are now planning a Steel Barrier rather than concrete. It is both stronger & less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the U.S.A," Trump tweeted. Earlier, the US President had said he might impose a national emergency in the country if talks between him and his Senate officials remain stalled over the border wall funding issue in the House. CNN quoted a White House official as saying that the imposition of national emergency can "provide a way out" to resume talks between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and the House Democrats following the riff over the construction of a wall on the US' border with Mexico despite a partial government shutdown over funding for the proposal. The stalemate between the White House and lawmakers was triggered over Trump's demand for billions of dollars to fund his proposed US-Mexico border wall. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Patna High Court on Monday rejected Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav's petition challenging the Bihar government's order to vacate his bungalow. The bungalow was allocated to Tejashwi in 2015 upon his appointment as deputy chief minister in the Nitish Kumar-led government in the state. However, he continues to occupy the bungalow even after RJD broke the alliance with Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United). In October, the Patna High Court rejected Tejashwi's appeal against the Bihar government's plea to evict him from his official residence at 5, Deshratna Marg. Thereafter in November, Tejashwi had filed a fresh appeal challenging the high court's judgement. The bungalow has been reassigned to present Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi in 2017 after RJD formed the coalition with BJP. In a similar case in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court in October last year granted four months time to the state government to evacuate the government bungalow occupied by the former ministers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has accused Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan of begging for financial support from multiple countries across the globe. Shah, while addressing a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally in Matli on Sunday, had said: "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg [for financial aid]" Samaa TV reported. Continuing his tirade against Khan, Shah opined that those without any experience in were given a seat in the government. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had finalised a bail-out package worth around USD 6.2 billion to assist Pakistan in tackling its balance-of-payments crisis. Dawn reported that the bail-out package will be announced by the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of UAE during his two-day visit to Pakistan starting January 6. The package involves USD 3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, in addition to a cash deposit worth USD three billion. Quoting a source, Dawn stated that the bailout package, finalised on January 3, was almost of the same size as that granted by Saudi Arabia in October last year. The source said that the bail-out package would further help Pakistan to save around USD 7.9 billion on oil and gas imports, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about USD 12 to 13 billion, from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan is also negotiating with the Government of Qatar in order to seek a reduction in the prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Soon after the Centre approved 10 percent quota for economically weaker upper castes in government jobs and education, several political leaders called the decision a politically-motivated move ahead of 2019 general elections. Taking to Twitter, Conference leader Omar Abdullah said, "Reservation for economically backward upper castes. The bugle announcing the elections has well & truly sounded." Former cabinet minister Yashwant Singh also hit out at the Centre while calling the decision a "jumla" (hollow promise). "The proposal to give 10% reservation to economically weaker upper castes is nothing more than a jumla. It is bristling with legal complications and there is no time for getting it passed thru both Houses of Parliament. Govt stands completely exposed," Singh, a former BJP leader said. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is misleading the unemployed youth only for elections. "My question is, in the name of elections can a government cheat people or ditch unemployed youth? They've to clarify whether it will be implemented or not and if it is constitutionally and legally valid or not," she questioned. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also trained guns at the Centre calling the move a "mere political stunt". Congress leader and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said that the Centre took the decision when election is around the corner. "They took the decision very late that also when elections are around the corner. No matter what they do, what 'jumlas' they give, nothing is going to save this government," he added. Meanwhile, MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla hailed the decision saying, "It's a historic step by Modi government. It's meant for economically weaker upper caste sections whose annual earning is lower than Rs. 8 lakhs and who possess less than five acres of land. It will not affect other reservation categories. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Register of Citizens (NRC) will weed out a number of illegal migrants from Assam, said Himanta Biswa Sarma, state's Finance Minister, on Monday. Terming illegal migrants as 'Jinnahs,' Sarma said a high-level committee has been set up by the Union Cabinet to implement the Clause VI of the 1985 Assam Accord. "NRC will weed out a lot of 'Jinnahs' living in the state," Sarma said here while talking to media persons. The Clause 6 of the Assam Accord states that "Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people." Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for their spontaneous efforts in addressing the problem of illegal migrants, Sarma said: "The history of the country has never seen the formation of a committee which provides a constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of Assam." Sarma accused the Congress of derailing the Central government's efforts to save Assam from the philosophy of Jinnah. "The Central government has given the liberty to the people of Assam to define their own destiny. Therefore, the Centre has put Assamese people on the committee," he said. Members of the high level committee set up for the implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord include retired IAS officer Subhash Das, former president of Assam Sahitya Sabha Dr Nagen Saikia, former Editor Dhiren Bezbaruah, Assam Attorney General Ramesh Borpatragohain, educationalist Dr Mukuna Rajbangshi, former president of Assam Sahitya Sabha Rongbong Terang, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs, and a representative of All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The committee is headed by retired IAS officer MP Bezbarauah. Sarma, who is considered as the BJP's main strategist for Northeast states, also urged the AASU, which has been demanding to detect and deport illegal Hindu Bangladeshis from Assam for long, to come forward and speak for the interest of the greater Assamese community. Assam's Finance Minister Sarma also spoke about Prime Minister Modi's promise of granting scheduled tribe status to six communities of Assam. "The Centre is studying the situation and will soon come out with a positive decision within 7 to 10 days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At the order of the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government on Monday removed the names of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah from the Exit Control List (ECL), thus enabling them to fly abroad. Announcing this, Information Minister Fawad Choudhry said at a press conference: "We respect the apex court's order and has taken action accordingly." The Supreme Court while hearing the fake accounts case on Monday ordered that the names of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Shah be removed from both the ECL and the Joint Investigation Team's (JIT) report on a probe into the case. The court also ordered that the case be forwarded to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and directed the anti-corruption watchdog to wrap up its investigation within two months. The top court was hearing a suo motu case regarding a delay into a 2015 Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe into money laundering of billions of rupees via fake bank accounts. Bilawal and Shah were named in the report submitted to the top court last month by the JIT, which was tasked to probe the case. Several bigwigs including former President Asif Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, former President of Summit Bank Hussain Lawai and Omni Group's Anwar Majeed, were all named in the case. Property tycoon Malik Riaz and his son-in-law Zain have also been included in the probe. Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar grilled the state prosecutor over why the government had decided to place Bilawal on the no-fly list after the JIT recommended the placement of 172 people named in its report on the ECL. "The JIT will have to clarify one thing: Why did it involve Bilawal in this matter? What did Bilawal do," Justice Nisar asked. The Chief Justice wondered if the PPP chairman's name had been included at "someone's directives." He asked the state prosecutor Faisal Siddiqui if the reason behind Bilawal's inclusion in the investigation was to "defame someone." He also expressed annoyance at the placement of the Sindh Chief Minister's name on the ECL. Subsequently, the court ordered the removal of Bilawal and Shah's names from the ECL and JIT report, and sent the case to NAB, directing it to conclude its investigation within two months. The JIT report had earlier said that a close nexus had been found between a troika of Zardari Group, Omni Group and Bahria Town. Meanwhile, a banking court in Karachi extended the interim bail of PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur until January 23 in the fake accounts case. The siblings face allegedly illegally channelled funds through the said accounts in connivance with the chief executive officers of major banks. Both PPP leaders appeared in court for the hearing of the case on Monday amid tight security. The hearing was adjourned until January 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A banking court here on Monday extended the interim bail previously granted to former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, till January 23, in connection to a money laundering and fake bank accounts case. Geo News reported that on December 21, the banking court had extended the pre-arrest bail of the former President till January 7, after Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed that a joint investigation team (JIT), formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for probing the case, had submitted its report, while a decision was yet to be undertaken. Meanwhile, counsel for the former President Farooq H Naek informed that no progress can be made into the case until a final challan is submitted to the FIA. In January last year, an inquiry by the FIA began when the State Bank of Pakistan's financial monitoring unit issued a "suspicious transaction report" on 10 bank accounts. Transactions worth billions were made over the years when over 20 'benami' accounts were opened at a private bank. At least 32 people were under legal scanner by the FIA for laundering money from fictitious accounts. Zardari, however, had denied such allegations. In July, the FIA also arrested Stock Exchange of Pakistan chairman Hussain Lawai, who is considered to be Zardari's close aide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The family members of martyred policeman Muhammad Yaqoob have expressed their disappointment over former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's visit to kin of a terrorist. Yaqoob's brother said that if she could visit the family of militants, then why not them. He further stated that Mufti is doing all this for votes. Speaking to ANI, Yaqoob's brother said, "If she can visit militants' families, why not us? She should see our living condition. This is only for votes." Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday visited Rubina, sister of a terrorist, who was allegedly thrashed by policemen in Jammu. Mufti had said that this incident of thrashing was an unfortunate incident and should not occur again. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Updated 1/7 at 12 pm, with districts response Los Angeles teachers are planning to go on strike on Jan. 10 but the school district this week asked a federal judge to prevent special education teachers from leaving the classroom. However, on Friday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew denied the Los Angeles Unified school districts attempt. To use an analogy from the ongoing partial government shutdown, the district had wanted special education teachers and other employees who provide services to students with special needs to be considered essential personnel , and blocked from going on strike. Teachers are planning to strike over a contract dispute; theyve asked for pay raises, class-size reductions, fewer required tests, and more school nurses, counselors, social workers, and librarians. The district has offered a smaller pay bump and class-size reductions in some schools. A strike would be detrimental to students with disabilities and their families, depriving the students of the special-education support and services they rely on each day, said David Holmquist, the general counsel for the Los Angeles Unified school district, in a statement upon filing the request. The districts statement added: In the event of a strike, these students health and safety would be in jeopardy. They could get hurt, hurt themselves, or hurt others. Los Angeles Unified was asking the court to enforce a 1996 decree that ordered Los Angeles Unified to provide appropriate special education services to students with disabilities. The district had settled with parents and students who said that students with special needs were being deprived of an education. But Lew wrote that the district is attempting, prematurely, to bring an unrelated party into a long-settled dispute without any explanation as to how [the teachers union] would be legally liable, according to the Los Angeles Times . Lew said the district could potentially file a claim against the union later, but it would have to be after the start of the strike. In a statement, the district said it will take all steps necessary to protect the health, safety, and educational rights of students with disabilities, as well as of all students, including the filing of legal actions. In filing the initial request, the district was making an unusual legal argument, and theres not a lot of precedent when it comes to special education teachers and strikes, said Jon Shelton, an associate professor of democracy and justice studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, who has written a book about the history of teacher strikes . Still, the 1996 decree was a unique tool for Los Angeles Unified: Its not something that most school districts have to use as leverage, Shelton said. Protecting Students or Hail Mary Pass? There are more than 60,000 students with disabilities in the Los Angeles school system. About half of this population is in need of critical support to maintain their health and safety, according to the district. While schools will remain open during the strike and instruction will be provided by substitutes and administrators, the district has said that school sites might merge or relocatewhich could have a negative impact on, among others, visually and hearing-impaired students. Also, there are about 11,500 students with autism in the district, and those students typically do not handle changes in their schedule well, the district said in the court documents . The district will most likely not be able to obtain enough substitutes to cover for these students, according to court documents. A strike would severely hamper the districts ability to meet its special education obligations, LAUSDs attorneys wrote. While Lew, the federal judge, acknowledged that a strike could burden efforts to provide services to students with disabilities, he said the districts request is a new and independent claim that would inject facts and legal issues that have nothing to do with claims that were settled ... over 15 years ago. The Los Angeles teachers union, which had dismissed the districts legal request as a Hail Mary pass, cheered the judges decision. If [Superintendent Austin] Beutner really cared about special education students, he would have responded to our proposals on special education class-size caps, which would relieve the burden of our overcrowded classrooms and overwhelming caseloads, said United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl, in a statement after the initial court filing. It is disingenuous to recognize the value of our teachers only in the role they play during a strike while working to undermine them as they seek better working conditions for themselves and learning conditions for their students through the bargaining process. Still, Shelton, the Wisconsin professor, said the districts request could weaken public support for striking teachers. If nothing else, it changes the conversation, or at least gives ammunition to the conversation that teachers are harming the most vulnerable students, he said. In a statement after the judges ruling, Caputo-Pearl said the request was intended to spread fear and confusion among the public, our members, special education students, and families. The scare tactics must end now, he added. After district officials called for UTLA leaders to return to the bargaining table , the union agreed to resume contract negotiations on Monday if the district has a legitimate and clear offer for us to consider. The union had called the districts last offer insulting, this would be a last-ditch attempt to come to a resolution before a strike. Still, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he thinks the strike is all but inevitable. There hasnt been a teachers strike in Los Angelesthe nations second-largest districtsince 1989. Image: UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, left, joins teachers at a rally in downtown Los Angeles. Damian Dovarganes/AP txking/iStock(ELY, Nev.) -- A Nevada death-row inmate who fought to speed up his own execution died of an apparent suicide over the weekend, authorities said. Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found dead in his cell at Ely State Prison in White Pine County, Nevada, on Saturday after he apparently hung himself, according to the state's department of corrections. Dozier, who was sentenced to death for first-degree murder in 2007, gained national notoriety earlier this year when he gave up on his appeal and sought to expedite his execution. His execution was rescheduled twice, and eventually canceled, amid court debates over the state's use of certain capital punishment drugs. Dozier had said repeatedly that he wanted to die rather than live the rest of his life in prison. Nevada's Department of Corrections website listed Dozier as deceased, but it did not list details about his death. In an interview last August, a month after a judge stopped his execution near the final hour, Dozier said: "Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is due to appear in a court on Monday to answer accusations that he groped a young man in a bar in 2016. Former "House of Cards" star has asserted that he will plead not guilty to the charge of felony, indecent assault and battery, reports CNN. This comes almost a year after former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh accused Spacey of sexually assaulting her son, who was at that time 18-year-old, in a bar where he worked as a busboy. In an attempt to prove the claims as false, Spacey's lawyer has questioned the credibility of the accusations pointing out that the teenager didn't immediately report the allegations. This is not the only such allegation Spacey has faced by far. Many other assertions have been made against him since 2017. Following a controversy over these allegations, Spacey had completely disappeared from the public eye. The actor was recently spotted in public for the first time after a gap of over year. The 'Horrible Bosses' actor was snapped walking to a car during the morning hours. In an unsuccessful attempt to disguise himself, Spacey wore a hat and scarf apparently to cover his face, People reported. On December 25, the actor released a bizarre video on his Instagram account, breaking his silence about the news. In the three-minute-long clip, titled 'Let Me Be Frank', the actor acknowledged the charges which were made against him and suggested he will overcome them and revive his career. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Norway on Monday said that India and Pakistan could resolve the issue of Kashmir between themselves, and "without help from outside." "Both India and Pakistan are big enough countries...They can decrease tension between them without help from outside," Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg remarked while referring to Kashmir at the India-Norway Business Summit held here on Monday. She said that the controversial visit of former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik to Kashmir was in his "private" capacity. "When it comes to his visit, he went as a private citizen. He has an institute for peace and security. It is a private institute in Norway. He was invited. Our government's policy is clear-if we are going to help someone, they have to ask for it," she said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had denied Indian government's role in organising the visit and meetings of Bondevik to Jammu and Kashmir in November last year. Bondevik had paid a 'surprise' visit to the state and met top separatist leaders including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. The Norwegian Prime Minister is currently on a three-day visit to India from January 7 to 9. She is slated to deliver the inaugural address at the Raisina Dialogue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 10th India-Japan Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue was held between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono here on Monday. Following this, the Japanese Foreign Minister called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him about the follow-up actions taken after the 13th India-Japan Annual Summit held in Japan in October 2018. Prime Minister Modi reiterated his strong commitment to further deepen the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan and put forth that India looks forward to the next Annual Summit with Japan which is scheduled to be held later this year. During the Strategic Dialogue, India and Japan agreed that Kono's visit to India provides an opportunity for the nations to identify agendas in bilateral relations in 2019. "It marked an important beginning for a series of high-level bilateral exchanges this year to take our relationship to newer heights," an official release outlined. Discussions were also held on the actions taken on the outcomes of the 13th India-Japan Annual Summit held in Japan in October 2018 and was attended by Prime Minister Modi. "They reaffirmed that based on shared values and interests, the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership has acquired a broader significance in the current global context and has become a factor of prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region," the release outlined while highlighting that talks were also held on regional and global issues of common interest. India further promised its full support for Japan's Presidency in G-20 this year. The Japanese Foreign Minister is currently on an official three-day visit to India from January 7 to January 9, and is scheduled to take part in the India Japan Friendship Forum on January 8. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Harish Dwivedi, Member of the Parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh, on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hike salaries of the parliamentarians, asserting that this move will bring down the corruption in the country. Speaking at an event in the Basti district, Dwivedi stated, "It is difficult for me and my co-workers to run our respective constituencies with such low incomes. An MP needs at least 12 employees to carry out the work. Our salaries are even less than a primary school teacher. This forces us to extort money from other places." He also urged the Prime Minister to hold a discussion on the issue with the other senior leaders of the country. This comes after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the last Union Budget said that there will be an automatic revision of emoluments of the MPs every five years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TV legend Carol Burnett accepted the first-ever Golden Globe television special achievement award - named after her - at the 2019 Golden Globes. The comedy icon, whose television career spans seven decades, took the stage to a resounding standing ovation after actor Steve Carell paid a heartfelt tribute to the 85-year-old. She dedicated the honour "to all those who made my dreams come true, and to all those out there who share the love I have for television and yearn to be part of this unique medium that has been so good to me." In her acceptance speech, she reflected on her acclaimed career, and how TV has changed and developed over the years. Burnett also said the beloved series, 'The Carol Burnett Show', "couldn't be done today." "Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about being young again and doing it all over, then I bring myself up short" by realising that "what we did then couldn't be done today," she said, according to Deadline. "Networks just wouldn't spend the money. Sad to say today's audiences might never know what they're missing, so here's to reruns and YouTube." According to a statement from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Carol Burnett Award will be awarded annually to someone who "has made outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gabon Army on Monday took over the national radio station of the country and announced that they had launched a coup, an illegal seizure of a state by the military, against the government of President Ali Bongo. Al Jazeera cited a statement read out by the military officers on Monday condemning President Bongo, who addressed the nation for the first time on the New Year from Morocco since he suffered a stroke in October, last year. Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang of the Gabon Army said that the New Year's address by the ailing President "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office". On Monday, gunshots were heard around state television offices in the Gabonese capital at 6:30 am (local time), apart from the Gabonese Army which stopped the traffic movement surrounding the site. The 59-year old President had suffered a heart attack last year during his visit to Saudi Arabia and since then has been under treatment in Morocco. He recorded a video for his countrymen in the Moroccan capital last week saying, "I am preparing to meet you again soon." Bongo was re-elected in 2016 as the President of Gabon with narrow margins of votes in a poll marred by violent protests and fraud. The Bongo family has reportedly held back the power in the Central African country for 42 years. The United States has also deployed its troops in Gabon amid escalating tension over violence and protests as the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) of Congo is scheduled to announce the results of the Presidential elections anytime this week. In a letter to the Congress, Trump said that around 80 troops were posted in Gabon to protect US citizens and diplomatic facilities in case violence broke out in Congo following the announcement of poll results. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The technology-focused stock brokerage firm, FYERS launches Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on its trading platform. FYERS is the only stock-broking firm in India to provide MCX trading on the world-renowned Trading View charts. Clients can trade commodity derivatives on all their platforms. The MCX trading provides traders with the most suitable leverage and reducing risks associated with the price volatility in the commodity markets. It is in sync with the same pricing model for MCX futures & options as compared to other segments like the equity & currency segments without making any changes. Launching this initiative for traders, Tejas Khoday, Co-founder & CEO, FYERS said, "We launched MCX in late September 2018 to provide access to all financial asset classes on a single platform. Our clients can now trade in indices, stocks, ETFs, equity derivatives, currency derivatives, and commodities. We give Indian traders access to all kinds of available derivatives across different exchanges. Trading in commodities is very different from trading equities. For instance, stocks are very news sensitive and have many variables which are responsible for the stock price such as news, valuation, corporate governance, corporate actions, underlying businesses, etc. Hence, technical analysis cannot be fully utilized while trading stocks. Also, stock markets are highly correlated and macro can easily affect stocks from different sectors alike." Khoday further added, "However, commodity markets are mostly driven by demand/supply dynamics and they are not uniformly correlated to other commodities, unlike equities. Hence, the scope of trading using technical analysis is much higher. Also, the variables involved in commodity trading are far lesser than equities. It is easier to follow as the underlying fundamentals don't change too much. People must be aware that commodities are priced in US Dollars but on MCX are quoted in Indian Rupees. This effectively means that the Indian futures prices are a derivative of the underlying commodity and also the USDINR price which can fluctuate quite a lot. Hence, traders can hedge their positions by using USDINR contracts on our platform too. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) French Navy Chief Vice Admiral Christophe Prazuck, who began a three-day visit to India from January 06 to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Admiral Sunil Lanba, received the Guard of Honour here on Monday. The French navy chief is in India to consolidate bilateral naval relations between the two countries, Indian Navy spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said ahead of the visit. On Sunday, the French Navy Chief held bilateral discussions with Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and other senior officials of the Indian Navy, focusing on a range of issues of mutual interest to both navies, encompassing maritime operations, training, logistics and maintenance. The Indian Navy, in return also promised cooperation with the French Navy on many fronts, including Bilateral Naval Exercise 'Varuna', Interaction on Aircraft Carrier Operations and in generating Maritime Domain Awareness through the medium of Security Dialogue and Staff Talks. In addition, ships from both navies make regular port calls at each others' ports. The French Navy Chief's visit is taking place when the Indian Navy is looking forward to buying 57 multirole fighter planes for operations from the aircraft carrier. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An 18-year-old woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, who fled from Kuwait to seek asylum elsewhere, has appealed to the government of Thailand to stall her deportation to Kuwait. The teenager accused her family of being abusive, and therefore, hoped to seek asylum in Australia. "I ask the government of Thailand according to the non-refoulement principle to stop my deportation to Kuwait. I ask the police in Thailand to start my asylum process according to the non-refoulement principle," she tweeted. As per a New York Times article, Alqunun boarded a plane to Thailand while her family was on a holiday in Kuwait. Upon arriving in Thailand, she claimed that her passport was taken away by a man at the airport on the pretext of getting her a Thai visa. However, the man did not show up, she said. Furthermore, the 18-year-old alleged that the man who took away her passport came with other men who she believes were Thai security officers and a representative of Kuwait Airlines. The men reportedly told Alqunun that her family had filed a missing person report about her and informed her that she had to return to Kuwait on a flight late Monday morning. Rahaf also clarified that she did not run away from home in order to escape her marriage. "It is not true that I escaped because of forced marriage, this never happened. I think my family has no good lies. I explained my reasons and my story to foreign newspapers," read another tweet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The by-election to Thiruvarur Assembly constituency which was slated for January 28 has been cancelled by the Election Commission at the request of the Tamil Nadu government and the district administration (Thiruvarur) who are pre-occupied with the relief and rehabilitation after cyclone 'Gaja' The Commission's communication in this regard was sent to Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahu on Sunday night. As a consequence of the cancellation of the notification, actions and steps taken by the Returning Officer for 168-Thiruvarur Assembly constituency were "declared null and void." Following the announcement of the notification on December 31 for the by-election, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) had announced their candidates while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was scheduled to announce its candidate on Monday. Political parties had asked the Commission not to conduct the by-polls now since the restoration and rehabilitation works are going on Thiruvarur, which was one of the districts worst affected by cyclone 'Gaja'. A total of 12 districts in the state were affected by the cyclone. Communist Party of India's (CPI) secretary D Raja gave a petition to the Commission to defer the by-election since relief works are underway in Thiruvarur. Two petitions were also filed regarding the before the Supreme Court. Following which the Election Commission sought a report from the Tamil Nadu CEO on the 'situation' prevailing in Thiruvarur constituency. In turn, the CEO had sought a report from the Thiruvarur District Collector and District Election Officer convened an all party meeting on Saturday. In the meeting, the representatives of AIADMK, DMK, Congress and CPM have urged the Election Commission to defer the by-election. Based on this, the Tamil Nadu CEO has sent a report to the Election Commission of India on Saturday evening. A vacancy arose in the State Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu from 168-Thiruvarur Assembly Constituency with effect from August 7, 2018, after the demise of M Karunanidhi. As per section 151A of the Representation of People Act 1951, the by-election to fill the vacancy is required to be held within a period of six months, i.e. by February 6, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Light downpour that hit some areas of the capital and its adjoining regions failed to improve the overall air quality index on Monday. Delhi breathed uneasily as the Air Quality Index (AQI) at Mathura Road was docking at 340 in the morning with Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5. At Dhirpur, the AQI was 372 while in Pitampura area it dipped to 'very poor' category at 385. The AQI between the range of 51 to 100 is considered as satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, 201-300 falls under the category of poor. 300-400 is considered as 'very poor' and range between 401-500 falls under the category as 'hazardous'. Furthermore, AQI near Pusa Road, Airport Terminal 3 and Chadni Chowk stood at 304, 319 and 307 respectively. The haze and fog will continue to persist during the early mornings and late evenings for the next couple of days. Due to the foggy weather, at least 13 trains were rescheduled after getting delayed by at least 2 hours. The trains -- Kaifiyat Express, Poorva Express, Magadh Express, and Rewa-Anand Vihar Superfast Express were delayed by 2 hours each. Owing to low visibility, the railways delayed Gaya Anand Vihar Garib Rath Express, Brahmaputtra Mail Express, Swatantra Senani Superfast Express and Purushottam Express by 3 hours, 5 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours and 4.30 hours respectively. Today, the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded in Delhi was 8 degree Celsius and 19 degree Celsius. The humidity in the region throughout the day will oscillate between 95 per cent to 97 per cent, said India Meteorological Department. As per the Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency, from today onwards dense to very dense fog is expected to make an appearance over Northern Plains. Intensity of fog during that time will be much more and visibility may drop down to zero. The reason for foggy mornings will be attributed to the scattered rainfall in the region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court on Monday directed former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh, to appear before it on January 29 in the disproportionate assets case. The Patiala House Court, in December, had ordered framing of charges against the former chief minister for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 10 crores in CBI case. Singh's counsel on Monday moved an application in the court, stating that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has not handed them all the documents of the charges in the money laundering case. However, special public prosecutors N K Matta and Nitesh Rana, appearing for the ED, told the judges that most of the dossiers, including copies of the charge sheet, have already been handed over to the counsel of the accused. The court has now posted the matter for January 29 for ED and CBI cases against them. The ED has alleged that the former Himachal Pradesh chief minister has used "bogus entries" for transfer of the illegal money. The ED filed a case based on the CBI's first information report, which accused Singh and his kin of allegedly accumulating assets, while he was serving as the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under the UPA government in 2011. As per the ED, the assets were purchased in the name of Singh's close family members and were found to be disproportionate to his known sources of income. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiv Sena on Sunday asserted that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah's statement on pre-poll alliances has confirmed that the party does not want to side with people who believe in Hindutva, adding that the BJP is going to ally with electronic voting machines (EVMs). "Amit Shah's provocative statement has exposed him and his party. Shiv Sena chief had expressed the sentiments of the people of this country by saying 'Pehle mandir fir sarkar' but that statement had taken the ground away from the BJP and now their tongue is slipping. It seems that BJP does not want people who believe in Hindutva. After the result of five states, BJP's downfall has started and people of India have started showing them their place. By claiming victory for at least 40 seats, BJP has made it clear that they are going to do an alliance with the EVM," read a statement from the Shiv Sena spokesperson. Shiv Sena has been uncertain about their alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra. Earlier today, Shah addressed a meeting of booth level party workers in Marathwada in a bid to steer campaigning efforts ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. According to the attendees of the meeting, Shah made it clear that if parties side with the BJP, it will ensure their victory. However, Shah told party workers that failing to do so, they should be prepared to defeat everyone, including the Shiv Sena. In another major development, BJP's central unit announced names for its manifesto committee, which includes the name of ex-Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane. Rane has always been targetted by the Shiv Sena after leaving the party. A few months back, when Rane resigned from the Congress, there were talks about him joining the BJP and becoming a minister in the state, but Shiv Sena opposed this and threatened to quit the government. BJP dropped the plan of inducting Rane in the Maharashtra cabinet but gave him a Rajya Sabha seat from BJP's quota. Shiv Sena, however, was disappointed after the Rajya Sabha seat was given to Rane. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Monday. This is the fourth time that Hasina has become the prime minister of the South Asian country. It is also her third consecutive term in the office. President Mohammed Abdul Hamid administered the oath of office to Hasina and her cabinet, which will take charge after the current government's term ends on January 28. For the first time in 22 years, the Cabinet is made up of ministers from one party. The team, with mostly new faces, includes 24 ministers, 19 ministers of state and three state ministers. In a departure from previous practice, the names of the cabinet members were made public a day before the swearing-in. The oath-taking ceremony started with the recitation of the Holy Quran, according to The Daily Star. Hasina's party and allies secured 288 seats out of 299 parliamentary seats in the December 30 elections. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led alliance rejected the poll results called for fresh elections. Hasina's key ally, the Jatiya Party on Friday decided to occupy the opposition benches in Parliament after the main opposition BNP rejected the results. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi (India), Jan 7 (ANI): In the backdrop of reports regarding the recurring glitches in the engines of Airbus 320 (NEO) aircraft, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday has called the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines makers for review. Sources in the Aviation Ministry said the meeting was called for a review on a continuous report of engine error in Airbus 320 (Neo) P&W fitted engines. Recently ANI reported that an IndiGo flight 6E 923 (Neo) operating on Chennai-Kolkata route on January 3 had to return to Chennai shortly after the takeoff due to some technical snag noted by the crew. The crew followed the normal operating procedures and asked for a priority landing. Go Air and Indigo airlines are currently using Airbus 320 (Neo) P&W fitted engines and it learnt that (Neo) P&W engines are repeatedly developing snags. Ministry sources said, "(Neo) Pratt and Whitney engines are reporting a lot of defects and it would be best that the airlines defer the deliveries of these aircraft. These possible situations and possible solutions will be discussed in the meeting on Tuesday. Any final decision will only be taken post the deliberations and in consultation with stakeholders." Last year on December 10, an IndiGo flight made an emergency landing in Kolkata after smoke was detected in its cabin. On December 23 last year, IndiGo A320neo flight from Port Blair to Kolkata reportedly suffered mid-air engine snag. Last year, 11 Airbus 320 (Neo) PW fitted planes were grounded by IndiGo and GoAir. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, will visit India on January 8 and 9. Harinder Sidhu, Australia's High Commissioner to India, said that the visit is an opportunity to reinforce Australia's commitment to strengthening India-Australia partnership. "Minister Payne is visiting at a time when our relationship has grown to become a significant partnership. Our shared interests range widely across political, security, cultural and economic fields," Sidhu said. "This is the strongest the Australia-India relationship has been, and the Minister's visit presents an important opportunity to deepen our ties," the High Commissioner outlined. Payne will address the Raisina Dialogue on how Australia and India can work together and with regional partners to deliver a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. General Angus Campbell, Chief of the Australian Defence Force, will also participate in the event. The Minister will also meet with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss deepening regional engagement and the practical steps Australia is taking in response to the India Economic Strategy. This will be Payne's first visit to India as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and follows the successful visit of President Ram Nath Kovind to Australia in November 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid an ongoing row between the BJP and the Congress over Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the aerospace PSU will be holding a meeting of its board on Tuesday in which it is likely to discuss its financial position. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been attacking Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for "lying" in Parliament about placing orders of Rs. 1 lakh crore to the PSU, however, the latter has refuted the allegations. "The initial board meeting was held today with senior management including the Chairman and a Joint Secretary from the department of defence production of Defence Ministry also in attendance," Defence Ministry officials informed ANI here. While today's meeting had presentations on the various projects from the departments concerned, detailed discussions will be held in the main meeting tomorrow, the officials said. After the war of words between Gandhi and Sitharaman, the HAL had clarified that it had taken an overdraft of Rs. 962 crore but with orders for 83 light combat aircraft, 15 light combat helicopters and other products, its finances are expected to improve. HAL issued the clarification after media reports quoting its chairman suggested that the firm was forced to borrow money to pay salaries to its employees. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) We can't seem to find the page you are looking for. You may have typed the address incorrectly or you may have used an outdated link. Before it became the chief sticking point in a government shutdown drama that threatens to consume his presidency at a critical moment, President Trumps promise to build a wall on the southwestern border was a memory trick for an undisciplined candidate. As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder would remember to talk about ... The presidential oath of office contains 35 words and one core promise: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Since virtually the moment Donald J. Trump took that oath two years ago, he has been violating it. He has repeatedly put his own interests above those of the country. He has used the presidency to promote his businesses. He has accepted financial gifts from foreign countries. He has lied to the American people about his relationship with a hostile foreign government. He has tolerated cabinet officials who use their position to ... Carlos Ghosn will get a chance Tuesday to make his case to a Tokyo court that he should be released on bail from his 50-day detention. But 6,000 miles away in Paris, his future as head of Renault SA is increasingly in doubt. The French state, the carmakers biggest shareholder, is calling into question if Ghosn can remain at the helm of one of the countrys most important manufacturers, according to a senior government official. Ghosn would spend most of his time defending himself against accusations of financial improprieties rather than running a company, and his ... President Donald on Monday said he will "address the nation" on Tuesday night on his demand for a wall along the Mexico border to prevent illegal immigration, the differences over which has resulted in a partial government shutdown for over a fortnight. Multiple television media outlets reported that they have received a request from the to disrupt their prime-time coverage Tuesday night for an Oval Office address to the nation by Trump, who is at loggerheads with the Democrates over funding of the wall project, tweeted, "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern." He is also scheduled to visit the Southern border on Thursday, the Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. Nissan's alliance with France's Renault is not in danger "at all", the Japanese automaker's CEO said Monday, despite tensions exposed by the arrest of the partnership's chief Carlos Ghosn. In an interview, Hiroto Saikawa brushed aside suggestions that the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors, had been damaged by the aftermath of Ghosn's arrest for alleged financial misconduct. "I don't think it's in danger at all," he told AFP. He declined to comment directly on the case against Ghosn, who will appear in court Tuesday to hear an explanation of his ongoing detention. "This is a process of the Japanese system, so I have nothing to say," Saikawa said. "I just want to focus on stabilising the company." Ghosn's arrest rocked the auto industry and exposed rifts in the three-firm alliance that he forged, particularly between Nissan and Renault. Nissan and swiftly removed Ghosn from his leadership positions after his arrest, with Saikawa even referring to the "dark side" of his former mentor's tenure. But Renault has kept Ghosn on as CEO, and the French firm has repeatedly urged Nissan to call a shareholder meeting, reportedly seeking to bolster its representation on the company's board. Officials at both have also complained about a breakdown in communication in the wake of the arrest. India's central bank is open to infusing "need-based" liquidity into the financial system, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday ahead of a meeting with the shadow banking sector, which has been hit hard by a funding crunch. Government officials have pressed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the past few months to ease lending and capital rules for banks and provide more liquidity to shadow banks. They have also urged the RBI to step up lending support for small businesses and allow the government to use more of the central bank's surplus reserves to boost ... There are more than 3,900 confirmed planets beyond our solar system. Most of them have been detected because of their "transits" -- instances when a planet crosses its star, momentarily blocking its light. These dips in starlight can tell astronomers a bit about a planet's size and its distance from its star. But knowing more about the planet, including whether it harbors oxygen, water, and other signs of life, requires far more powerful tools. Ideally, these would be much bigger telescopes in space, with light-gathering mirrors as wide as those of the largest ground observatories. NASA engineers are now developing designs for such next-generation space telescopes, including "segmented" telescopes with multiple small mirrors that could be assembled or unfurled to form one very large telescope once launched into space. NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope is an example of a segmented primary mirror, with a diameter of 6.5 meters and 18 hexagonal segments. Next-generation space telescopes are expected to be as large as 15 meters, with over 100 mirror segments. One challenge for segmented space telescopes is how to keep the mirror segments stable and pointing collectively toward an exoplanetary system. Such telescopes would be equipped with coronagraphs -- instruments that are sensitive enough to discern between the light given off by a star and the considerably weaker light emitted by an orbiting planet. But the slightest shift in any of the telescope's parts could throw off a coronagraph's measurements and disrupt measurements of oxygen, water, or other planetary features. Now MIT engineers propose that a second, shoebox-sized spacecraft equipped with a simple laser could fly at a distance from the large space telescope and act as a "guide star," providing a steady, bright light near the target system that the telescope could use as a reference point in space to keep itself stable. In a paper published today in the Astronomical Journal, the researchers show that the design of such a laser guide star would be feasible with today's existing technology. The researchers say that using the laser light from the second spacecraft to stabilize the system relaxes the demand for precision in a large segmented telescope, saving time and money, and allowing for more flexible telescope designs. "This paper suggests that in the future, we might be able to build a telescope that's a little floppier, a little less intrinsically stable, but could use a bright source as a reference to maintain its stability," says Ewan Douglas, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and lead author on the paper. The paper also includes Kerri Cahoy, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, along with graduate students James Clark and Weston Marlow at MIT, and Jared Males, Olivier Guyon, and Jennifer Lumbres from the University of Arizona. In the Crosshairs For over a century, astronomers have been using actual stars as "guides" to stabilize ground-based telescopes. "If imperfections in the telescope motor or gears were causing your telescope to track slightly faster or slower, you could watch your guide star on a crosshairs by eye, and slowly keep it centered while you took a long exposure," Douglas says. In the 1990s, scientists started using lasers on the ground as artificial guide stars by exciting sodium in the upper atmosphere, pointing the lasers into the sky to create a point of light some 40 miles from the ground. Astronomers could then stabilize a telescope using this light source, which could be generated anywhere the astronomer wanted to point the telescope. "Now we're extending that idea, but rather than pointing a laser from the ground into space, we're shining it from space, onto a telescope in space," Douglas says. Ground telescopes need guide stars to counter atmospheric effects, but space telescopes for exoplanet imaging have to counter minute changes in the system temperature and any disturbances due to motion. The space-based laser guide star idea arose out of a project that was funded by NASA. The agency has been considering designs for large, segmented telescopes in space and tasked the researchers with finding ways of bringing down the cost of the massive observatories. "The reason this is pertinent now is that NASA has to decide in the next couple years whether these large space telescopes will be our priority in the next few decades," Douglas says. "That decision-making is happening now, just like the decision-making for the Hubble Space Telescope happened in the 1960s, but it didn't launch until the 1990s.'" Star Fleet Cahoy's lab has been developing laser communications for use in CubeSats, which are shoebox-sized satellites that can be built and launched into space at a fraction of the cost of conventional spacecraft. For this new study, the researchers looked at whether a laser, integrated into a CubeSat or slightly larger SmallSat, could be used to maintain the stability of a large, segmented space telescope modeled after NASA's LUVOIR (for Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor), a conceptual design that includes multiple mirrors that would be assembled in space. Researchers have estimated that such a telescope would have to remain perfectly still, within 10 picometers -- about a quarter the diameter of a hydrogen atom -- in order for an onboard coronagraph to take accurate measurements of a planet's light, apart from its star. "Any disturbance on the spacecraft, like a slight change in the angle of the Sun, or a piece of electronics turning on and off and changing the amount of heat dissipated across the spacecraft, will cause slight expansion or contraction of the structure," Douglas says. "If you get disturbances bigger than around 10 picometers, you start seeing a change in the pattern of starlight inside the telescope, and the changes mean that you can't perfectly subtract the starlight to see the planet's reflected light." The team came up with a general design for a laser guide star that would be far enough away from a telescope to be seen as a fixed star -- about tens of thousands of miles away -- and that would point back and send its light toward the telescope's mirrors, each of which would reflect the laser light toward an onboard camera. That camera would measure the phase of this reflected light over time. Any change of 10 picometers or more would signal a compromise to the telescope's stability that, onboard actuators could then quickly correct. To see if such a laser guide star design would be feasible with today's laser technology, Douglas and Cahoy worked with colleagues at the University of Arizona to come up with different brightness sources, to figure out, for instance, how bright a laser would have to be to provide a certain amount of information about a telescope's position, or to provide stability using models of segment stability from large space telescopes. They then drew up a set of existing laser transmitters and calculated how stable, strong, and far away each laser would have to be from the telescope to act as a reliable guide star. In general, they found laser guide star designs are feasible with existing technologies, and that the system could fit entirely within a SmallSat about the size of a cubic foot. Douglas says that a single guide star could conceivably follow a telescope's "gaze," traveling from one star to the next as the telescope switches its observation targets. However, this would require the smaller spacecraft to journey hundreds of thousands of miles paired with the telescope at a distance, as the telescope repositions itself to look at different stars. Instead, Douglas says a small fleet of guide stars could be deployed, affordably, and spaced across the sky, to help stabilize a telescope as it surveys multiple exoplanetary systems. Cahoy points out that the recent success of NASA's MarCO CubeSats, which supported the Mars Insight lander as a communications relay, demonstrates that CubeSats with propulsion systems can work in interplanetary space, for longer durations and at large distances. "Now we're analyzing existing propulsion systems and figuring out the optimal way to do this, and how many spacecraft we'd want leapfrogging each other in space," Douglas says. "Ultimately, we think this is a way to bring down the cost of these large, segmented space telescopes." Reference: "Laser Guide Star for Large Segmented-Aperture Space Telescopes. I. Implications for Terrestrial Exoplanet Detection and Observatory Stability," E. S. Douglas et al., 2019 Jan. 4, Astronomical Journal [http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aaf385, preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.05309]. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. While the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday expressed dismay over the violation of its March 2015 order on the scrapping of Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, Shreya Singhal, whose public interest litigation (PIL) was the trigger for the apex courts historic judgment on this issue back then, is also planning to file a contempt petition. It is absolutely shocking that Section 66A of the IT Act is still being used and people are still being arrested. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Chief Minister is scheduled to join the BJD's day-long demonstration demanding a hike in MSP of paddy, at Talkatora Stadium in New on Tuesday. "Our party and chief minister will join us at the demonstration," BJD MP Prasanna Acharya said over phone from New He said Patnaik will also lead a party delegation and meet in the evening. The party will submit a memorandum to the President, Acharya, who is also of the president of Biju Krushak Janata Dal, said. The BJD has been demanding a hike in paddy MSP to Rs 2,930 per quintal and a resolution in this regard was passed in the assembly, supported by both the and the BJP. However, the Centre did not accept the state's demand and even Prime Minister refused to meet the delegation of in this regard, Acharya said. Apart from the chief minister, ministers, BJD MPs, MLAs, leaders, farmers and youth wings of the party will join the protest in New The Opposition BJP, on the other hand, has said it would gherao the state secretariat and 'Naveen Niwas', on the farmers' issue. "The BJD has failed to provide basic amenities like irrigation, power supply, storage facilities to the farmers in the state. The BJD leaders are holding a picnic at Delhi," said BJP spokesman Golak Mohapatra. Describing the BJD's planned demonstration at Delhi as a farce, Odisha Pradesh Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik in a statement said: "This is another gimmick of the BJD before the 2019 general election to woo farmers." The OPCC chief added that prior to the 2014 elections, the BJD had taken its party members to Delhi by a special train to demand special-category status for Odisha, but the result was "a big zero". From the time I can remember my grandmother, only one image of her comes to my mind of a widow with a tonsured head, wrapped on top by a dull brown cotton saree worn in traditional style, a blank forehead without the usual red vermilion or kumkum, bare neck, empty ears and hands unadorned and shorn off all jewellery. Her ankles and feet were bare too without the traditional anklets or silver rings worn on the toes of both feet the symbol of married women. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor (BJP) MLA Goolihatti Shekar of Hosadurga constituency on Sunday attempted to kill himself as a mark of protest against the alleged harassment of his supporters by the police. Shekhar tried to set himself ablaze in front of Hosadurga Police Station, following which he was shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment. He is currently said to be out of danger. The lawmaker alleged that the police was booking his followers in illegal sand business cases despite them being innocent. More details of the incident are awaited. CESC Ltd is likely to see an increase of over 25 per cent in its franchisee distribution revenue this year, after the company won a 20-year contract in Malegaon, Maharashtra, for a project that is expected to break even within two years. As of March 31, 2018, its franchisee distribution revenue, which consists of the right to supply power and raise bills thereof to consumers in Kota, Bikaner and Bharatpur in Rajasthan, stood at Rs 1,300 crore. This accounts for about 13 per cent of the companys annual turnover of Rs 10,275 crore last fiscal year. The rest of the revenue ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor GATHER Where: Opened in July 2018, GATHER is nestled in the heart of Robertson Quay, where it is surrounded by great cafes such as Common Man Coffee Roasters. Vibe: Designed by Takenouchi Webb (the masterminds behind Tippling Club), GATHER radiates an inviting warmth with its soft earthy palette, high ceilings, and full-length windows. Who: GATHER is ideal for creatives who are looking for a stylish yet visually uncluttered workspace. Temasek Shophouse Where: Located opposite Dhoby Ghaut MRT, Temasek Shophouse sits within a conservation building along a row of rustic buildings beside MacDonald House that have been recently refurbished by the philanthropic arm of Temasek Holdings. Vibe: Temasek Shophouse aims to be a beacon of social responsibility. The first level contains a multi-purpose events space, which featured the edgy [Not-So] Convenience Store that aimed to educate the public on sustainability as well as a social enterprise cafe that offers employment opportunities to the differently-bodied. The co-working space occupies the second level. Who: Progressive professionals who identify with the establishment's strong belief in social responsibility, or just about anyone who's looking for a co-working space with good coffee. The Working Capitol Where: Situated in the vibrant Keong Saik and near to the Duxton, Working Capitol has made its home in a group of shophouses which are tastefully coated in a sheen of white and grey. Vibe: An unapologetically chic multi-functional venue that also features an event space, pantry, magazine library, shower (yes, you read that right) and F&B options like their in-house cafe and rooftop bar. Coincidentally also designed by Takenouchi Webb, these spacious shophouses are constantly filled with natural light, making you feel right at home whilst you bask in its rustic charm. Who: The hustlers that want their own private space - which they don't have to abandon for trivial life functions like eating - whilst they obsess with their work, owing to all the amenities available. The Great Room Where: There are three locations conveniently dotted around the city area: Centennial Tower, One George Street and Ngee Ann City. Vibe: A sophisticated aesthetic meets high-end hospitality in this world-renowned space. Think polished marbles, shiny metallic surfaces and rich timbres contrasted against a highly graphic checkerboard stone pattern on the floor. Who: For those who love the idea of mingling while working, but aren't willing to sacrifice their high standards of plush comfort and luxury. Straits Clan Where: Located a stone's throw away from Outram Park MRT station as well as the hip-and-happening Keong Saik and Duxton neighbourhoods, members' club Straits Clan sits at 31 Bukit Pasoh Road. Vibe: With four floors spanning 22,000 sq ft the site of the former New Majestic Hotel has been repurposed into an exclusive members' club for the creative community. You might not get a whole lot done while you're at Straits Clan considering its boutique gym, splashy parties and a see-and-be-seen cafe but it would certainly be the most entertaining option on this list. Who: Social cool cats, talk-of-the-town celebrities and anyone with an ounce of influence in this tiny country The Hive Lavender Where: Opened in early 2018, The Hive Lavender is a 5-minute stroll from Bendemeer MRT on the top floor of the brand new Vanguard Campus Building. Vibe: The Hive Lavender prides itself on being a "maker-space", where co-working offices sit alongside photography studios and design workshops. Who: Rub shoulders with mid-career creatives from a range of fields including architects, photographers, writers and sculptors. 21 Moonstone Where: The most out-of-the-way on this list, this creative space sits on the ninth floor of an old industrial building alongside the Kallang River near Macpherson. Vibe: Co-founded by The Sam Willows' Narelle Keng, 21 Moonstone is a bare-essentials space for emerging artists to do some heavy-duty conceptualisation during the day and then transforms into a gritty dive bar on selected evenings. Expect the unusual and unconventional. Who: Bright young things with futures in art, music and design Mox Where: Positioned within the thriving food meccas of Joo Chiat and Katong areas, Mox is perfect for East-dwellers who are looking for a place to work hard and eat well. Vibe: Started by the minds behind Art Box, Mox comes with plenty of resources and amenities besides Wi-fi and furniture: a fully-equipped photography studio, 3D printers, sewing machines and a wood-working workshop. Who: Artisans, designers and craftsmen who are fascinated with the tactile nature of materiality including wood, concrete and textile. Jerusalem: In what was billed as a "dramatic announcement," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a prime-time address on Monday to again dismiss a series of corruption allegations against him. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit:AP Netanyahu said that it would be "unjust" for him to be indicted ahead of early elections called for April 9 without a chance to respond to the claims against him. He said authorities had denied his requests to confront state witnesses in person, and he offered to do so on live television. "What are they afraid of? What do they have to hide?" he said. Police have recommended indicting Netanyahu on an array of charges stemming from three corruption investigations, but it falls to Netanyahu's hand-picked attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to decide whether to bring charges. Washington: President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, has rolled back Trump's decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave US forces there for months or even years. Bolton, making a visit to Israel, said on Sunday that US forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of the Islamic State group were defeated and Turkey provided guarantees that it would not strike Kurdish forces allied with the United States. He and other top White House advisers have led a behind-the-scenes effort to slow Trump's order and reassure allies, including Israel. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they don't endanger our troops," Bolton said in Jerusalem, where he was travelling before a visit to Turkey on Tuesday. Bolton's comments inserted into Trump's strategy something the president had omitted when he announced December 19 that the United States would depart within 30 days: any conditions that must be met before the pullout. British leaders have warned of shortages of food and medicines, and they have asked importers to build stockpiles. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has put 3500 troops on standby to deal with potential disruptions. In all, cabinet ministers have approved $3.2 billion of contingency spending. The countries that will remain in the EU also are amping up their no-deal preparations. Irish MPs may have to set aside all other business this month to pass 45 pieces of emergency legislation aimed at mitigating the impact of Brexit. France is building roads, warehouses and checkpoints near its ports in preparation for new customs controls. Orders from British merchants for produce such as Dutch tulips can be placed in the morning and delivered that afternoon, for now. Credit:Alamy The EU's headquarters in Brussels unveiled a list of proposals to protect EU citizens from the worst consequences of a no-deal Brexit, but that would offer little relief to the British side. British airlines, for example, would be able to carry passengers to EU airports only from Britain. Here in the Netherlands, exports to Britain could fall by 17 per cent if Brexit happens without a deal, according to a study from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Dutch government is scrambling to limit the damage, hiring nearly 1000 more customs agents for the inspections that would become necessary. The agency, whose officials inspect meat, dairy and animals, is scouring Eastern Europe for veterinarians and giving them crash courses in Dutch because they cannot find enough qualified people at home. And a legion of Dutch farmers and flower growers who take orders from British customers are worried that their supply lines could get tangled in bureaucratic knots. "It's all fresh, so you need to be able to deliver on very short notice," said Pim Leenheer, who works in sales at a Dutch company, DailyFresh Logistics, that organises food and flower shipments to Britain. Trucks can arrive as little as 15 minutes before ships are scheduled to leave. Credit:Alamy On a gusty afternoon last month, tractor-trailers were arriving as little as 15 minutes before the vast Stena Hollandica ferry - which can hold 4 kilometres of trucks - pulled away. At the other end of the journey, in the British port of Harwich, the ferry can unload in 30 to 45 minutes, said Annika Hult, who directs North Sea shipping for the Stena Line. The process goes quickly in part because no customs agents are involved. In 1993, countries that belonged to what was then called the European Economic Community pulled down their customs posts and stopped checks between countries. Little would change if British MPs approve the withdrawal deal negotiated by the EU and Prime Minister Theresa May. Britain would remain inside the EU customs union at least until new trade agreements are devised. But Britain's leaving with no deal in place would set trade back decades. "All of a sudden, you're going to have certain checks," Hult said. Businesses would need to file paperwork with EU and British customs agencies when they want to send shipments between countries. Food and animals would need inspections on both sides. Truck drivers already pass through passport checks, since Britain is not a member of Europe's passport-free travel area, but the post-Brexit checks would be far stricter. Dutch lawmakers are digging into their archives to figure out which old treaties with Britain might still be in force. Some date to the 1940s and 1950, when Europe was rebuilding after World War II. British Prime Minister Theresa May is greeted by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte upon her arrival in The Hague, Netherlands, on December 11. Credit:AP Some shipping and logistics companies expect that what currently takes a day to get to Britain could take a day-and-a-half - a dramatic increase for a system whose margins of error are measured in minutes. They also fear the roads leading to the ports will turn into parking lots. At present, there is no overflow space for trucks that cannot be driven straight onto ships. There has been no need. "It's like a queue in the supermarket. If the queue gets just a little bit larger than the capacity of the cashiers, the queue expands exponentially," said Pieter Omtzigt, a Dutch MP who is responsible for his country's Brexit preparations. Hult said ferry operators such as hers were ready to find ways to speed any customs checks - if only they knew what to expect. "The challenge here is the lack of clarity," she said. "If there's certainty about what the framework is going to look like, and if the systems are there, we can act quite fast." The agencies that will have to do the inspections are bracing for complications. "The feeling is that we are doing what we can to be prepared as possible, but I won't say that there won't be any incidents in the first weeks," said Jan Meijer, director of inspection at the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. Loading Dutch authorities estimate that 35,000 small and medium-size Dutch businesses do business with Britain but have no experience with customs, since they keep their commerce inside the E.U. They would either have to navigate the complicated new terrain or cut off ties to Britain. The government is trying to get them ready. It is as if Illinois businesses suddenly need to contend with an international frontier to trade with Indiana - and have less than three months to figure out how to do so. "If we are preparing and companies are not preparing, then everything breaks down," said Nanette van Schelven, the director general of the Dutch customs authority. The agency has been running disaster drills to prepare for chaos. "That's basically the motto of this government: Hope for the best and prepare for the worst," she said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blasted Fraser Anning as a "repeat offender" on racism, backing calls for the senator to consider his parliamentary future before the next election. As the scandal surrounding Senator Anning's attendance at a far-right rally escalated on Monday, Mr Morrison released a supplementary statement condemning the senator for associating with "extreme and offensive racist views". Prime Minister Scott Morrison has attacked Fraser Anning as a "serial offender" on racism. Credit:AAP Some protesters at Saturday's demonstration in St Kilda, Melbourne, performed Nazi salutes at the event organised by far-right nationalists Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson, who have both been previously convicted of inciting serious contempt for Muslims. Senator Anning, who represents the state of Queensland, has been condemned by both sides of politics for attending the rally - which he travelled to at taxpayers' expense in excess of $3000, including business class flights. Fraser Anning has given Donald Trump a run for his money when it comes to demonstrably false or dubious claims. Heres what happened in St Kilda on Saturday: a bunch of career, far-right agitators took the issue of African migrant crime and exploited the hell out of it by pretending to be regular blokes standing up for the vulnerable, when in fact theyre trying to further their extreme agenda. Annings presence as a member of Federal Parliament, and the way he spoke about it, represented an effort to normalise these guys by denying the incredibly, bleedingly obvious. He was the conduit between a 100-strong rabble and responsible, organised politics. Thats the reason we need to make a big deal about it and why it was vital for our political leaders to speak out clearly, even if it did mean these morons got the 15 minutes of fame they wanted. On a rainy, windswept Saturday afternoon some of the worst Australia has to offer descended on St Kilda beach in Melbourne for a gathering of far-right extremists, many of whom proudly displayed symbols of Nazism and performed "Heil Hitler" salutes. Loading Despite the claims of the rallys organisers, only a few hundred people showed up, illustrating how easily the appeal of their cause was dented by a little bit of bad weather. Counter-protesters, however, were there in force, proudly proclaiming that right-wing extremism and neo-Nazism has no place in modern Australia. It may sound counter-intuitive, but Saturdays events made me proud of my fellow Australians. When extremists and neo-Nazi wannabes took to the streets, the people of Melbourne reacted not with violence and confrontation, but with a firm resolve that we would defend the values of inclusivity and equality that define the Australian experience. Police are investigating after a motorcyclist and his pillion rider were seriously injured in a crash near the Perth CBD last Wednesday evening. About 9.25pm, the 22-year-old man was riding a red Yamaha 125cc motorcycle north with a 17-year-old pillion passenger over the Narrows Bridge along the Mitchell Freeway. The motorcycle involved in the crash. Credit:WA Police As the motorcycle passed the Mill Point Road exit, it was hit by a silver 2005 model Honda Accord. The rider and passenger were thrown from the motorcycle and received serious injuries. A man has been charged over assaulting two women at a private event in Boddington late last year. Police allege the man was at a function on Withnell Lane, a remote section of countryside located about 15km south west of Boddington at 6.30pm on Saturday October 27. Withnell Lane. Credit:Google Maps Police believe at some point in the evening he assaulted the two women, aged in their 50s and 20s. It's understood the man was not known to either woman. The organisers of the far-right rally in St Kilda will not be asked to pay for the large police operation that was needed to keep the peace. Police have charged more people, including a 16-year-old boy who allegedly assaulted an emergency worker, following the "Reclaim St Kilda" event where close to 100 far-right activists clashed with 200 anti-racism protesters throughout the afternoon on Saturday. United Patriots Front leaders and convicted criminals Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson organised the protests against the perceived problem of African "gangs" in the area and across Melbourne. Hundred of police stood between the two groups and patrolled the St Kilda foreshore in a bid to keep trouble to a minimum, but Victoria Police said it would not pursue costs because the event was not "commercial in nature". The victim is punched before falling to the ground. Credit:Victoria Police A man charged with hitting a stranger with a coward punch at Richmond train station has a psychiatric illness, a court has heard. Trent Desmond Ross, 38, made a short appearance in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday after he allegedly punched a man who was talking on his mobile phone on December 1, without any warning, and ran down some stairs. Mr Ross, who appeared in the dock in a black T-shirt and blue shorts, has previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, his lawyer told the court. He is charged with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault, and was remanded in custody to return in February. A drunk man with a craving for Chinese takeaway has been nabbed by police as he drove five times over the legal blood-alcohol limit. A senior constable from the Fawkner Highway Patrol was leaving a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne's north with his evening meal on Saturday night when he was told by staff of an earlier customer who had picked up his order and appeared to be heavily intoxicated. The quick-thinking police officer then got into his car to pursue the alleged drunk driver. He intercepted a vehicle on Sydney Road, Fawkner just after 8.30pm. PENINSULA SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL Mornington Peninsula, until January 13 Australia's city-dwellers may assume they have the monopoly on top-shelf art, and perhaps nowhere more so than in Melbourne, one of the most arts-rich destinations in the southern hemisphere. With our metropolises so well stocked, venturing out of town for a culture fix seems redundant. But for those prepared to make the journey, there are rich rewards to be found at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival. Now in its 12th year, it has established a colourful pedigree presenting a diverse spectrum of musical genres in unexpected locales the length and breadth of the shire. On paper, there's perhaps not much on offer that isn't readily available in the Big Smoke. But it's this festival's resourcefulness, creating pop-up concert platforms in surprising spaces, that truly quantifies its worth. There are of course innate limitations to make-shift venues, and purists may sneer at the dead acoustic of a tent or less-than-Steinway quality pianos. But this would be missing the point. New contexts lend fresh perspectives on music, and with the dusty pomp and ceremony of traditional concert halls removed, a remarkable alchemy occurs. The Australian Haydn Ensemble. One such transformation was evident at the first Saturday evening performance of 2019's season, as the Australian Haydn Ensemble, joined by sublime soprano Sara Macliver, offered a historically informed performance of early classical repertoire, closing with a rousing quartet of popular operatic arias by Mozart. Presented in the informal setting of a marquee by St John's Church in Flinders, there was a moment that seemed to perfectly capture the festival's ethos. As the ensemble rocketed through Vivaldi's irascible In Furore Iustissimae Irae, a young girl in the front row, clearly moved by Macliver's vocal pyrotechnics, spontaneously leapt into a quasi-pirouette. That a similar scene could ever unfold under the austere dos-and-don'ts of a concert hall seems doubtful. Things grow even worse with her marriage to Henry Darnley (Jack Lowden). Not only is he the son of the Earl of Lennox (Downton Abbey's Brendan Coyle), the most irritable of all the lords, he fancies himself as king, rather than consort. And he's homosexual, which means that she has to force him into bed with her if she's to produce the child she desperately wants and needs. The script's use of dramatic licence really comes into its own during the sex scenes although I doubt that the actual details were ever recorded in the archives, so in this case, Willimon and British director Josie Rourke can be excused for letting their extremely fertile imaginations run free. The prevailing mood is gloomy. Holyrood Castle outdoes Elsinore in its potential for springing nasty surprises on those who dare to negotiate its corridors. The only oasis is Mary's apartment, where she hunkers down with her ladies-in-waiting and her Italian secretary, David Rizzio (Ismael Cruz Cordova), who is gay in every sense of the word. But even here, she isn't safe. Teams of bullying courtiers keep marching in without knocking to command this and demand that. Ronan has no difficulty in conveying Mary's charm, although she's no extrovert. It's more a matter of sly looks and soft smiles. But she has great trouble in putting over the screenplay's central premise that Mary was a clever politician with an instinct for finding a pragmatic course through the chaos. Instead, she has no tact and a compulsion to overplay her hand at precisely the wrong moment. To be fair, however, this is the fault of the script, which is turgid and disjointed with a couple of yawning gaps. The stakes in the two days of face-to-face trade negotiations in Beijing between the US and China that start on Monday are substantial, and not just for the US and China. If the trade spat continues, it will not only be China and the US that will feel the effects. Credit:AP While a failure to agree when US deputy trade representative Jeff Gerrish meets his Chinese counterparts probably wouldnt result in a mutually assured destruction outcome for the worlds two largest economies it would inevitably produce mutually assured damage with, because they are the worlds two largest and most important economies, significant spill-over effects for the rest of the world. Donald Trump has correctly identified the fact that China is vulnerable in these negotiations, with its economy weakening. Only last Friday, the Peoples Bank of China cut the reserve requirements for Chinas commercial banks, in effect injecting $US117 billion ($164 billion) of liquidity into the banking system while urging them to lend more to small and medium-sized business. China also appears to have begun approving a new round of infrastructure investment, including massive new spending on rail projects. 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. Advertising spend at Australia's media companies slumped in November, with newspapers and magazines performing the worst in the latest SMI data measuring agency bookings. Compared to November 2017, when there was an additional spend from the government associated with the same-sex marriage vote and the Queensland election, the ad market was down 4.4 per cent in 2018, even with an election in Victoria. Newspapers and magazines had a weak month for agency ad spend in November. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Even without the government spend from the comparison, the overall media market weakened 1.6 per cent over the period, with newspapers and magazines down 19.3 per cent and 17.6 per cent, respectively. The top performing categories were cinema, up more than 23 per cent, and outdoor and radio, which both improved in advertising spend over the year by about 7.5 per cent. Television and digital in its second monthly decline - fell about 3 per cent. (WB) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), returning to her position Thursday as presiding officer of the U.S. House with a new Democratic majority, identified the Equality Act as bipartisan legislation she will seek to pass in the upcoming Congress. Pelosi referenced the Equality Act, comprehensive legislation that would ban anti-LGBT discrimination under federal law, when identifying other measures with bipartisan support shed seek to pass, including gun background check legislation and the DREAM Act. We will make America fairer by passing the Equality Act to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community, Pelosi said. Although the Equality Act had a modicum of bipartisan support in the previous Congress, the two Republicans in the House who co-sponsored the bill former Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Scott Tayler of Virginia are no longer serving in the chamber. Asked by the Blade what Pelosi meant by bipartisan support for the Equality Act in the current 116th Congress, Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, said, The bill has and will continue to have bipartisan support. Although the Equality Act now has a good chance of passing the House with Democrats in control of the chamber, the legislation faces significant roadblocks with an expanded Republican majority in the Senate and President Trump in the White House. But as evidence that divided government can accomplish big legislative achievements, Pelosi invoked the memory of the late former President George H.W. Bush, who signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act after it was approved by a Democratic Congress. I close by remembering a cherished former member of this body, who rose to become a beloved President of the United States, and who, last month, returned to the Capitol once more to lie in state, Pelosi said. That week, we honored President George Herbert Walker Bush with eulogies, tributes and tears. Today, I single out one of his great achievements: working with both Democrats and Republicans to write the Americans With Disabilities Act into the laws of our land. Chad Griffin, president of Human Rights Campaign, praised Pelosi in a statement for vowing the pass the Equality Act in the upcoming Congress. Now is the time to move equality forward by advancing the Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans are able to go to work, raise their families, and live their lives free from discrimination, Griffin said. Far too many LGBTQ people face unfair and unjust discrimination each and every day with only a patchwork of protections across the country. We are thankful for Speaker Pelosi reaffirming her commitment to advance this critically important legislation and seize this historic moment to make full federal LGBTQ equality a reality. Pelosi made the remarks after formally winning on the House floor the vote to become speaker in the 116th Congress. The San Francisco Democrat won 220 votes, easily beating out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). However, 15 Democrats declined to vote for Pelosi on the House floor. Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of the LGBT media watchdog group GLAAD, also hailed the incoming Democratic majority. It is a welcome relief that fair-minded, pro-equality lawmakers have returned to the majority in the U.S. House, and now its time for them to roll up their sleeves and get to work for all marginalized communities, including LGBTQ Americans, Ellis said. As the Trump administration continues to rollback equality in an effort to erase LGBTQ Americans from the nation, we need allies like Speaker Pelosi fighting for us in Congress. Theresa May will try to address concerns about the Irish backstop as British MPs return to Westminster today. The UK Prime Minister has confirmed the vote on her deal will definitely go ahead next week. The Taoiseach says MPs who do not back the withdrawal agreement could threaten efforts to avoid a hard border. Speaking from his visit to Mali in West Africa, Leo Varadkar says he has almost given up speculating on what will happen next on the UK side. "Brexit all started because of internal issues in British politics and now it seems that internal problems in British politics is preventing us, at the moment at least, from ratifying the withdraw agreement - an agreement which has the support of 28 governments including UK's own government. "We're just going to monitor the situation very closely. We'll be in touch with Prime Minster May next week. "Obviously I've in touch with [Germany's] Chancellor Merkel only the other day and with the EU institutions." Earlier, the British Prime Minister acknowledged she was still working on Read More: - Digital Desk & Press Association A Cork motorist was jailed for five months and banned from driving for 10 years after she was caught driving without insurance for the 11th time. Laura ODonoghue, aged 34, of 132 Comeragh Park, The Glen, pleaded guilty to a total of five counts of driving without insurance at Cork District Court. Ms ODonoghue also admitted multiple counts of having no driving licence and a number of counts of having no car tax and other driving-related charges. Sgt Annmarie Twomey said the accused had six previous convictions for driving without insurance before today. Judge Olann Kelleher said that, with the accused now facing her 11th conviction for driving without insurance, he had to impose a jail term. She now has 11 no insurance convictions, said Judge Kelleher. I gave her suspended sentences in the past and I have to say I was wrong to do so. She did not learn from it. I have no choice now but to impose a custodial sentence. The only thing left is a custodial sentence. The judge imposed a number of concurrent five-month jail terms for the offences of driving without insurance and one for carrying a child without a seatbelt. Shane Collins-Daly, defence solicitor, produced a letter from the defendants doctor stating that she had experienced anxiety. Mr Collins-Daly told the court that Ms ODonoghue had gone through a very tough time losing a number of friends and family members in tragic circumstances. The solicitor said his client had also suffered a severe injury as a result of an assault. Mr Collins-Daly did accept that none of this could excuse her driving offences. However, he said Ms ODonoghues life had been particularly difficult. The judge set bail in the event of an appeal at 500 cash and an independent surety of 500. Millions of euro in payments by drugs companies to doctors are taking place in secret because medics will not give consent for disclosure of the transactions. While almost 3.9m in payments to named doctors was disclosed last year, the recipients of a further 2.7m could not be divulged. Some 2,837 individual payments made during the year were disclosed with the recipients named, but at least 1,819 were not. The payments make up part of the 29.4m that pharmaceutical firms gave to the health sector last year through donations and grants to hospitals, colleges, and patient groups; sponsorship of events, contributions to individual medics to cover the cost of attending seminars; and other fees to individuals for service and consultancy. In total, 44 companies made 29.4m transfers of value in 2017, a similar figure to the 30.1m made in 2016 and the 27.2m in 2015 Legislation to make disclosure mandatory and establish a publicly searchable register of payments was proposed by Fianna Fail TD Billy Kelleher almost two years ago and is backed in principle by Health Minister Simon Harris. However, its progress has stalled. Fianna Fail TD Billy Kelleher Industry body, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA), began a voluntary disclosure scheme in 2015 in response to growing concerns about possible conflicts of interest and the influence drugs firms might have on the prescribing decisions of doctors. The IPHA had already banned its members from giving gifts to doctors the previous year and says it now only permits payments directly related to their work and research. It collects and publishes details of payments or transfers of value annually from 44 companies with Irish operations and says they fully support the move towards transparency. It says it also encourages all medics to give their consent for inclusion but it can not oblige them to co-operate and can not disclose without consent because of data protection laws. Hospitals, colleges, and patient groups do not have to give consent but individuals are asked to tick a box agreeing to disclosure when they accept a transfer of value. IPHA spokesman Philip Hannon said the disclosure rate was 58.3% last year, up from 50% in 2016. IPHA would like to see a 100% disclosure rate and has encouraged healthcare practitioners to do so, he said. Cancer specialist and former senator John Crown said it is the norm in Europe for drugs companies to cover registration fees and travel and accommodation costs for attendees at medical seminars as hospitals generally do not reimburse staff. Prof Crown said he had no issue placing such payments on public record. I personally disclose and I would be supportive of legislation to make disclosure universal, he said. Mr Kellehers bill, the Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill, was considered by the select health committee, which submitted a report to the Dail last year suggesting it did not go far enough and might need to be extended to nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals. It also raised practical issues such as which body would administer a register and if a complaints mechanism might have to be established. Overall the committee was supportive, however, and said the move could result in doctors prescribing fewer expensive branded drugs where cheaper generic alternatives were available. It is envisaged that the bill would lead to reduced public expenditure on pharmaceuticals, it said. The Department of Health said: The minister agrees with the general objectives of the bill, but the current draft will require significant amendments to optimise its effectiveness. For full transparency, the legislation should apply to all in receipt of such gifts or funding. Work on amending this bill has not yet commenced. The number of lung cancer cases among women is on the rise and could substantially outnumber men in the coming years. That is according to the Irish Cancer Society, which says smoking is the main factor in the increase. Junior Finance Minister Patrick O'Donovan has said he wants to see city and county councils spending looked at by the Public Accounts Committee. While there is a local government audit service, councils are exempt from any scrutiny by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Update 11am: The Taoiseach has said that a man captured in Syria by militants fighting Isis is entitled to consular assistance from the state. Speaking from Mali on Monday, where he is visiting Irish Defence Forces, Leo Varadkar, said: Ive only heard about that in the last short while. The information we have is that an Irish citizen has been taken into custody in Syria. We dont know the details of that so I cant comment on it in any detail but what I can say is that any Irish citizen around the world is entitled to consular assistance and will get that. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said it was looking into the matter but had not received any requests for consular assistance. It is understood the man is 45-year-old Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev and had lived in Dublin but left the country in 2013. He is believed to be among five jihadists captured in Syria for fighting for Islamic State. The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces claimed they arrested the militants in the east of the country. A spokesman for the group said they included two US citizens and two Pakistanis. The operation Jazeera Storm, carried out with the aim of liberating the last regions under the occupation of Isis, continues steadily towards clearing the last bastions of the group, a statement said. Recently, in order to prevent the advance of our forces, terrorists have attempted to carry out attacks several times. In this context, a group of terrorists who had been preparing to attack the civilians who were trying to get out of the war zone in masses was detected. A spokeswoman for the Gardai said the force was aware of the report. The individual may be identical to a naturalised Irish citizen who, it is understood, departed Ireland in 2013. An Garda Siochana is monitoring the reported development. - Press Association Update 8.19am: 'Matter for concern' that man captured in Syria obtained Irish citizenship By Vivienne Clarke Security and anti-terrorism expert Declan Power says it is a matter of concern that a man with Irish citizenship captured in Syria had obtained citizenship despite coming to the attention of the Garda Siochana's crime and security branches apparently based on reports from external partner agencies. We can't be complacent about the reach of extremism into this State from other locations. It's a wake-up call for us not to be complacent. The man, who is 45 years of age and originally from Belarus, is the holder of an Irish passport having lived and worked in this country for a number of years. In 2013, he left with his family to go to the Middle East. File image It was reported yesterday that the Irish citizen Read More: He was one of five men detained, when patrols targeted a terror cell at Deir ez-Zor, on December 30. Gardai said the man was known to them in the context of the monitoring of individuals sympathetic to radical causes. Mr Power, a defence analyst and former member of the Irish army, told RTEs Morning Ireland that it's not surprising that foreign fighters are being "shook out of the sack" in the mop-up operations taking place in Syria. It behoves us to look a bit more closely at how somebody was able to obtain citizenship if they were under suspicion of activities that would be damaging to this State and our partner States. We shouldn't be entirely surprised that an Irish citizen has been found. It's not that long ago since the death of Terence Kelly who was born and raised in Ireland who had gone off to throw in his lot with Islamic State. What should be a matter for concern is that this individual is alleged to have come to Ireland from another State, settled here with his family and worked and obtained Irish citizenship. Somewhere along the line he came to the attention of the Garda Siochana's crime and security branch apparently based on reports from external partner agencies. Maybe what we need to look at more closely is the level of scrutiny we can apply to somebody when they come to the State. "If this individual managed to obtain citizenship and yet seemed to have been engaged in activities outside of the State before he came here, it raises questions that are worth asking because this kind of thing is not going to die off just because Islamic State, one iteration of extremism, is dying out, but extremism isn't dead and gone with the death of Islamic State. I have no doubt that the authorities here work very hard and know what is happening in our back yard, they also work very closely with agencies abroad. "But with regards to checking individuals who haven't come to anyone's attention initially or coming from nation states that have broken down, there's no opposite number that somebody in an Garda Siochana can liaise with regard to that - we should take that into consideration. "Most people have spent a few years living and contributing to the State before they gain citizenship. Mr Power said he was curious about background of this citizen, people like this usually fit a pattern, I doubt he was radicalised in Ireland, if that's the case, how did he actually end up here? I'm sure he was living a blameless life in Ireland, but that's not the point, the point is the activities he was engaged in and the organisations he was attached to, which led to him fighting in Syria. Earlier: Irish citizen, 45, arrested by Syrian Democratic Forces fighting ISIS A 45-year-old Dublin man has been arrested by Syrian Democratic Forces fighting ISIS in Syria. He was one of five men detained, when patrols targeted a terror cell at Deir ez-Zor, on December 30. The Kurdish backed Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF say it made the arrests after breaking up a terror ring that was preparing to attack civilians fleeing the war zone in masses. The US supported militia says it detained five men, including one from Ireland, two from America and two from Pakistan. The Irish passport holder is a 45-year-old man, who previously lived and worked as a security guard in Dublin. The raid was carried out at Deir ez-Zor - the largest city in eastern Syria and the seventh largest in the country. The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the arrests and the identity of the passport holder. Gardai say the identity may be that of a naturalised Irish citizen who departed Ireland in 2013 and they are continuing to monitor developments. The Taoiseach says he is aware of the reports and speaking during his visit to Mali in West Africa, Leo Varadkar said he is being kept informed of the situation. "I've only heard about that in the last short while. The only information we have is that is that an Irish passport holder, an Irish citizen, has been taken into custody - is being held in Syria," said Mr Varadkar. "We don't know the details of that so I can't comment on it in any detail. "But what I will say is any Irish citizen around the world is entitled to consular assistance and we will get that." In its statement, the SDF said: "The operation Jazeera Storm, carried out with the aim of liberating the last regions under the occupation of ISIS, continues steadily towards clearing the last bastions of the group. "ISIS, which is now cornered in a small area after being cleared from large swathes of territory it once held, is suffering heavy losses due to operations of our forces. "Recently, in order to prevent the advance of our forces, terrorists have attempted to carry out attacks several times. "In this context, a group of terrorists who had been preparing to attack the civilians who were trying to get out of the war zone in masses was detected. "Following long-term technical and physical follow-up, an operation against the cell was carried out by our forces. "As a result of the operation, five terrorists originally from the United States, Ireland and Pakistan were captured." The Government is being criticised for praising Irish Defence Forces abroad but failing them at home. The Taoiseach and Minister for Defence are visiting Irish Peace Keeping missions in Mali in West Africa this week. But PDForra has been describing how soldiers and their families are struggling to make ends meet back at home. Fianna Fail's defence spokesperson Jack Chambers says it is a two-faced approach. "The Taoiseach is abroad and it's important he acknowledges the work of the Defence Forces that are there," said Mr Chambers. "But at home we've got a massive recruitment and retention crisis that is being outlined by PDForra. Defence Forces are barely able to make ends meet and put food on the table on a weekly basis. "So it's very much a two-faced approach from this government, where on the one hand they're lauding the Defence Forces. "But to give meaningful impact to people who work in the Defence Forces you need to restore their pay." 47 Irish citizens were deported from the United States last year, according to official figures. The data, released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency today, shows that this was an almost 40% increase on 2017 when 34 Irish people were deported. (WB) Sean Saifa Wall spent more than two decades in the wrong body until he decided to live the life he had always wanted to: that of a man. Wall, a nationally recognized black, intersex activist, was assigned female at birth because of his abnormally small phallus but had undescended testis. He was one of eight in his family born with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS): an intersex variation where an individual is born with XY chromosomes but is resistant to male hormones (androgens). Thus, these individuals have the genetic makeup of a male but some or all of the physical traits of a female. The term intersex more broadly identifies any individual who is born with any of several variations in sex characteristics (including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones or genitals) that do not fit medically rigid definitions of male or female. Intersex variations are not uncommon and occur in about 1.7 percent of the population approximately the same percentage as those born with red hair. Around one in 1,500-2,000 children have visible differences at birth, putting them at risk for early cosmetic surgical intervention. Intersex children like Wall, who are born with genitalia that a doctor considers outside of typical male/female appearance, frequently receive medically unnecessary surgeries to normalize their genitals, such as surgeries that reduce an abnormally sized clitoris. Thus, the intersex community continues to oppose these surgeries, arguing they violate a childs basic and inherent right to bodily autonomy; activists advocate instead for the deferral of any such surgeries until a child can make a consenting decision on their own. Although Wall did not receive surgery as an infant, he did receive an operation in his adolescence without his or his mothers informed consent. When he was in college, he got hold of his medical records and finally learned the truth about his past and identity. When Wall was 13, doctors removed his healthy undescended testis at New York Presbyterian Hospital. For Wall, the consequences were devastating, both physically and mentally. My healthy testis were removed at age 13 without my thorough informed consent, Wall says. I really struggled at that point, (thinking) Im a freak. What the hell do I do with my body? Although Walls mother consented to the operation, she did so on the premise of false information, a common thread seen across many stories from parents of intersex children. In Walls case, doctors lied and told his mother that his testis were cancerous in the hopes of encouraging her to consent to surgery. It worked. My mom heard cancer, and she was like, No way Jose. My child is not going to die of cancer, Wall says. Beyond the removal of Walls testis, doctors also wanted to perform genital surgery to create a vagina, but his mother said no. This was not the first time she had advocated on behalf of her sons bodily autonomy. Wall says his mother received countless phone calls from doctors after bringing him home from the hospital when he was born, encouraging her to consent to genital reconstructive surgeries to normalize his body. Wall remains deeply thankful for his mothers advocacy and is very glad no such cosmetic surgeries occurred, but many other intersex children are unable to escape early genital reconstruction. Jonathan Leggette, an intersex activist based in Washington state, is one such individual. In a testimony to support a California resolution aimed at celebrating intersex folks, Leggette writes: At 6, doctors operated on me without explaining anything to me, just leaving me to wake up, bandages around my genital areas and a pain I will never forget. I had never had the chance to be told the truth, to be given the chance to decide for myself how my body feels to me. My body was owned by the surgeons before I had a chance to lay claim to it. Leggette emphasizes the importance of doctors having honest and transparent conversations with parents, especially given the continued presence of systemic coercion and misinformation in these exchanges. He argues that doctors need to change the language they currently rely on when talking to parents about their childs intersex variation. Dr. Ellen Feder, professor of philosophy and religion at American University in Washington and author of the book Making Sense of Intersex, echoes the importance of these conversations and further explains the challenging position doctors continue to put parents in. The way that parents are presented the options are, Heres whats going on with your kid, heres what we know about the condition, heres all the things we can do, heres the support we can offer you, or we can do nothing, Feder says. Thats not a choice for most parents. Most parents would see doing nothing as copping out or not helping their kid. In this way, doing nothing is not presented as a true alternative to surgery, but rather a negligent and irresponsible choice. However, such operations often have lifelong physical and mental unforeseen consequences. A 2016 study conducted in Australia found that 83 percent of intersex individuals surveyed reported at least one negative consequence (physical or mental) from a corrective surgery, and 63 percent reported only negative consequences. The study also found that intersex individuals were disproportionately impacted by mental illness, with 18 percent of respondents reporting a suicide attempt in their lifetime. Regarding physical complications, corrective operations can cause infertility, loss of sexual sensation and painful scarring. Still other intersex individuals like Wall are forced to take artificial hormonal replacement for the rest of their lives because their naturally occurring hormones were disrupted. These surgeries also serve as an indication to intersex folks that their bodies in their natural form are somehow wrong that, in Walls words, there is something that needs correcting. This harmful sentiment is frequently internalized by intersex folks, who in turn learn to dislike and be ashamed of their bodies. Many respected organizations such as the United Nations, World Health Organization and Amnesty International have come out against these corrective surgeries, encouraging the deferral of any such operations till the individual is of consenting age. So, why then do these surgeries continue, despite public denunciation? Through both his activism alongside other intersex folks and personal experience meeting the doctor who operated on him when he was barely a teenager, Wall has some ideas. In 2015, Wall confronted the doctor who removed his testis over two decades prior, Dr. Terry Hensle, as part of an ABC News Nightline special. Dr. Hensle told Saifa he had no regrets about the operations he had previously performed because he did the best (he) could do based on what (he) knew. Wall says, I knew he wasnt going to give me what I was looking for going into the interview, but he wanted the chance to share his personal experience and opinion nonetheless. I told him, Can you imagine what you said to a 13-year-old girl that you would create a cavity inside of her, shave down her clitoris can you imagine how barbaric that sounded? Wall says. And he had no response. He was too proud to admit that (my surgery) was fucked up. He was so narcissistic it was really powerful that the video captured (him) live in all his asshole-ness. A 2017 Human Rights Watch Report on the intersex community found that most of the bias that exists toward intersex children lies with the surgeons and medical providers rather than parents, although not the entire medical establishment is to blame. Rather, according to Hans Lindahl, an intersex activist based in California, only a small subset of urologists and medical groups continue to promote such operations because they benefit both monetarily and from being the authority and maintaining the status quo. Lindahl works to dispel the misconception that the intersex community and the medical community are inherently at odds with one another. Were not anti-medicine, were pro-consent, Lindahl says, reiterating her support for all medically necessary interventions such as urethra constructions and interventions when the child is of consenting age. Echoing Lindahls point, Wall frames these surgeries as entirely cosmetic rather than medical. Why do these intersex kids need porn star genitals? Why does a little girl need to have a developed pussy? Wall says. Activists argue intersex folks need to be the subjects rather than the objects of conversations moving forward; they need to be recognized as individuals worth celebrating, listening to and learning from. Intersex folks really teach us how complex and how beautiful our bodies are and how nature is so amazing, Wall says. Moving forward, when an intersex infant is born, in the words of Feder, We need to do the brave thing and do nothing. The 116th U.S. Congress is more diverse than ever before, with a historic wave of women of color taking office . While much of the national spotlight has been on the youngest woman to serve in Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, there is also a former history teacher who has made history with her election : Rep. Jahana Hayes. Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, taught high school for over a decade. A Democrat, she is the first black woman from Connecticut to serve in Congress. Hayes was sworn into the U.S. House last week. Before then, she spoke to Education Week about her priorities in Congressshe hopes to be on the House education committeeas well as her thoughts on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, her experiences on the campaign trail, and what her election means for her students. Her responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. On Her Decision to Run for Office The defining moment for me was when I had a group of my students in California for a Habitat for Humanity trip because what I did was serviceI had a club called the HOPE club, which stood for Helping Out People Everywhere. I really wanted to instill in these young people that you have a responsibility to be of service to others; to help in your community in any way that you can. And I had these kids in California this year, over spring break, and literally just looked at them and had a moment where I thought, Im teaching them about this world that waits for them and their responsibility to be contributors. And I see this being chipped away at. You know, Who will speak for them? is a line that Ive said often, but thats really where it came from. I asked myself that question, Who will speak for them? and decided I was going to run for Congress to speak for all of those people who do not have a voice in the conversation. On Her Priorities in Congress Hayes wants to prioritize universal pre-K, career readiness, civics education, and mentoring new teachers. On School Safety and Arming Teachers I worked in a school with 1,300 young people. I would never want the responsibility of securing a firearm in a school with 1,300 teenagers or having to have a conversation that began, I thought I locked my desk, or I dont know how they got the gun away from me. My husband is a police officer. We have firearms in our house. If theres an active shooter in a school and police are deployed, its a high-tense, high-pressure situation. To have almost no training and be expected to use a firearm in a high-pressure situation, I dont think I would want that responsibility. And then I think about, you know, my husband as a police officer or a first responder having to figure out if the person holding the gun is the shooter [or] is an educator. I just dont think that thats the direction that we need to move in. We need to have more background checks to make it more difficult for people to obtain firearms illegally. We have a lot of conversation about getting them off the streets. How about, lets stop them from getting on the streets. I think we really need to look at mental health and the crisis that we have surrounding mental health. Many of these people are not criminals until they are criminals, so a lot of this is dealing with their mental health challenges before they get to the point where they feel the need to walk into a public space and use a firearm. I think Connecticut has done a tremendous job just moving toward safer gun laws, and I think we need to try to duplicate what weve done in Connecticut around the country and really work toward keeping all of our communities safe. [Editors note: Hayes represents the district that encompasses Newtown, where the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place.] On U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Hayes shares her concerns with DeVos policies in this video: On Teacher Strikes and Walkouts This is a profession and it needs to be treated as such. We cant be expected to produce the outcomes that people want without the resources, without looking at education as an investmentand not just a monetary investment. Its not just dumping money into education, but providing mentoring and support for new teachers. ... You have people who have multiple degrees who have gone to college and really prepared and trained to enter teaching as a profession and cant even afford to take care of their families. And I think thats unreasonable, and it feels like whenever we elevate our voices as teachers in defense of this profession, its seen as an argument against students or drawing money from other areas. And it really should not be that way. We should be working in collaboration with our communities, with local partners, with government agencies, and not having to beg for the supports that we need to best serve our children. On Inspiring Young People to Get Civically Engaged Hayes historic campaign motivated her students and other young people to get involved in politics, she said. On Her Experience as 2016 National Teacher of the Year I saw education through so many different lenses. I had been a classroom teacher in the state of Connecticut in the same community where I was born and raised for my entire career. But what I saw [during my travels across the country] was that different communities were suffering with the same challenges, and different communities have tried different approaches. What I saw was that we want the same thingsyou know, I was in almost half the country. Different states, different demographics, and people were having the same conversations. And I realized that this is a national conversation. Its not just about what affects kids at Kennedy High School in Waterbury, but its everywhere. In Wisconsin, New Mexicoeverywhere around the countrypeople are faced with the same challenges, and we just want the best outcomes for our children and to elevate the profession. HALIFAX - Crews working to extinguish a fire that's been burning for four days aboard a large container ship off Canada's east coast are facing some big challenges, an expert in offshore safety says. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. HALIFAX - Crews working to extinguish a fire that's been burning for four days aboard a large container ship off Canada's east coast are facing some big challenges, an expert in offshore safety says. Faisal Khan, an engineering professor at Memorial University, made the observation Monday after a second offshore support vessel arrived to help fight a cargo fire aboard the 320-metre Yantian Express, which first reported the blaze on Thursday. Several containers on the Halifax-bound ship were still burning by Monday afternoon. While the ship's crew may have been trained to deal with fires in the engine room and living quarters, burning cargo is another matter, said Khan, the Canada Research Chair in Offshore Safety and Risk Engineering at the St. John's, N.L., university. Fires fuelled by the polymers in plastic goods, for example, can produce toxic fumes that could prove deadly. "If it's carrying plastic toys, that could pose a significant risk in terms of the byproducts caused by the fire," he said in an interview. Tim Seifert, a spokesman for the international shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, said Monday "the focus is on containing the fire." Seifert confirmed in an email that the 95-metre support ship Maersk Mobiliser, based in Newfoundland, had reached the container ship about 1,500 kilometres east of Halifax. He said the Maersk Mobiliser had joined the 71-metre Smit Nicobar, an offshore support ship from Belgium that arrived on Friday night. The Smit Nicobar is equipped with fixed fire monitors a type of water cannon that can pump large volumes of water to extinguish fires. All 23 crew members from the Yantian Express have been moved onto the Smit Nicobar. There were no reports of injuries, and the extent of damage to the larger vessel remains unclear. A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said the plan is to have the Maersk Mobiliser tow the container ship to Halifax, though it was unclear when that would happen. Khan said towing a burning vessel would present further risks. "Towing cargo that is on fire would be too much of a risk to take for both the cargo vessel and the towing vessel," he said, adding that towing a burning ship into port would be even riskier. "Unless I'm 100 per cent sure of what my cargo contains and what the impact would be of the fire, I would be extremely cautious about bringing it onshore," he said. Seifert said it was unclear when the container ship would reach Halifax, and he declined to say what the Yantian Express is carrying or what may have caused the fire. The container ship was travelling from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Halifax on Thursday when a fire started inside a container on the ship's forward deck, then spread to other containers prompting a call for help to the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston. When the wind picked up to more than 20 kilometres per hour on Friday, the crew stopped fighting the fire and retreated to safety inside the ship's superstructure. There were eight officers and 15 seafarers aboard the German-flagged ship, which was built in 2002 and is capable of carrying 7,510 standard 20-foot containers. Last March, a fire aboard a Maersk Line container ship in the Arabian Sea claimed the lives of five crew members. The 353-metre Maersk Honam, described as an ultra-large container ship, caught fire on March 6 en route from Singapore to the Suez Canal. It had 27 crew members aboard. The vessel, built in 2017, has a capacity for 15,262 twenty-foot equivalent containers. In September, the company confirmed the fire had started in a cargo hold in front of the crew's quarters. Inside the hold were several containers with dangerous goods. There was no evidence to suggest that dangerous goods caused the fire. And even though all cargo aboard the ship met the requirements of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, the company decided changes were needed. It implemented new guidelines for the stowage of dangerous cargo aboard its 750 vessels. The guidelines, known as Risk Based Dangerous Goods Stowage Principles, were later presented to the International Maritime Organization. Under the changes, cargo covered under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code is no longer stowed next to the crew's quarters. As well, risk tolerances have been altered for different cargo locations. "Container ship fires are a problem for our entire industry and we intend to share and discuss our learnings from this thorough review within relevant industry forums," the company said at the time. "We very much believe that discussions, views and insights among container carriers can further improve fire safety in our industry." REGINA - Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe apologized to survivors of the '60s Scoop Monday for failing them and leaving them "caught between two worlds." Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe attends a media event in Saskatoon on October 4, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards REGINA - Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe apologized to survivors of the '60s Scoop Monday for failing them and leaving them "caught between two worlds." "On behalf of the government of Saskatchewan and on behalf of the people of Saskatchewan, I stand before you today to apologize. I stand before you to say sorry," Moe said before around 200 people at the legislature. "We are sorry for the pain and the sadness that you have experienced. We are sorry for your loss of culture and language. And to all of those who lost contact with their family, we're so sorry." About 20,000 Indigenous children were seized from their birth families and relocated to non-Indigenous homes starting in the 1950s until the late 1980s. The practice stripped children of their language, culture and family ties. Moe said the consequences are being felt to this day and he thanked the survivors, now adults, who told their stories at six sharing circles the government set up so that the province could better understand what happened. Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan board members Robert Doucette, left, and Melissa Parkyn, front left and centre, Saskatchewan Party MLAs Paul Merriman and Warren Kaeding, rear left and right, and Premier Scott Moe enter the rotunda during the grand entry of the Apology to Sixties Scoop Survivors at the Legislative Building in Regina on Monday, January 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell "We are grateful for your candour and we are grateful for your courage," he said. Survivor Kerry Opoonechaw-Bellegarde, 43, said she felt lonely going into the legislature because she wanted her parents to be there. Both of her parents were residential school survivors. She had hoped Moe would mention the parents of those seized in his apology. She met with Moe afterwards but left disappointed. "I showed him the picture of my parents and I said, 'You forgot to directly apologize to our parents,'" Opoonechaw-Bellegarde said. Robert Doucette, a survivor and co-chair of Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan, said he cried during the ceremony as he thought about lost members of his family that he'll never see. The apology was a highlight of his life and a step in the right direction, he said. "I waited 56 years for this apology," Doucette said. "I heard the premier say he was sorry, and there was acknowledgment of the harms that they perpetrated on First Nations and Metis children and I appreciate that." Survivor Terri Parsons said the apology was very moving and needed to be said. Alberta and Manitoba have already apologized for their role in the '60s Scoop. "It's a step in the right direction for the future, even for my daughter and the future generations," she said. Moe acknowledged that there "is nothing that we can offer that will fully restore what you have lost. "But what we can offer is the solemn assurance that government policies have changed and they continue to change." Some survivors said before the apology that they hoped it would come with action to reduce the number of children in care. The number of children in out-of-home care in Saskatchewan was over 5,200 at the end of September. Chief Bobby Cameron from the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in the province, did not attend the ceremony. He said the apology is empty if it's not accompanied by action and called for child welfare reform. "Our First Nations children are still being ripped away from their families, communities and culture," Cameron said in a statement. "This needs to stop immediately." Follow @RyanBMcKenna on Twitter SAINT JOHN, N.B. - A retired Saint John police officer could not hold back tears Monday as he recalled the pain of being asked to lie on the stand at the Dennis Oland murder trial. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Dennis Oland attends a news briefing by his legal team in Saint John, N.B., on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. The trial of Oland for the second-degree murder of his father resumes today in a New Brunswick courtroom.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan SAINT JOHN, N.B. - A retired Saint John police officer could not hold back tears Monday as he recalled the pain of being asked to lie on the stand at the Dennis Oland murder trial. Retired Staff-Sgt. Mike King repeated his allegation that ignited controversy during the first Oland trial that his boss in the Saint John police force suggested he alter his testimony. Once again, as Oland's second trial is under way in a Saint John courtroom, King said that Inspector Glen McCloskey told him he didn't have to say in court that McCloskey had visited the crime scene. King, testifying for the prosecution at Oland's retrial for the second-degree murder of his father, Richard, told the court he was offended by McCloskey's request, which he said was made during a private conversation in 2014, before the preliminary inquiry in the case. "But you were there," King said he told McCloskey. "Well you don't have to tell them that," King said McCloskey told him. "I haven't lied on the stand in 32 years, whether it was a murder or a traffic ticket," King said, recalling his answer to McCloskey. "I'm not about to start now." King told several other officers and close relatives about McCloskey's request. However, during the first trial, McCloskey denied asking King to alter his testimony. He admitted to visiting the bloody crime scene twice, including once out of curiosity. King broke down on the stand Monday as defence lawyer Alan Gold asked about McCloskey's suggestion that King lied because he had an axe to grind with him and the force. Gold asked King if it was "easy" for him to say what he said about McCloskey. "No," he sobbed. "Did you enjoy it?" Gold asked. "No," King said. McCloskey has yet to testify at the second trial, but may be on the stand later this week. The large number of police officers who went to the crime scene, often without protective gear, is an issue for the defence at the Oland murder trial. Defence lawyers are accusing Saint John police of failing to secure the crime scene to prevent contamination. Gold has said so many officers visited the scene to view the body of the slain multi-millionaire, it was like a "sightseeing tour." Also on Monday, Saint John Const. Tony Gilbert recounted some of the confusion that surrounded the initial discovery of Oland's body on the morning of July 7, 2011. Gilbert said he and another investigator sent to Oland's uptown Saint John office that morning assumed it was a routine death scene, possibly a heart attack victim. However, once Gilbert saw the battered body of Oland lying in a pool of blood on the floor of his office, he knew the death was not routine and he and the other officer carefully retraced their steps out of the crime scene. "I said something like, 'This isn't what we thought,'" Gilbert told the Oland trial. He said he would not have entered the crime scene if he had known it was a suspicious death. Even a quick glimpse of Richard Oland's body spoke volumes about the manner of death. He had been struck over 40 times, mostly on the head, with both a sharp-edged, axe-like weapon and a blunt, round hammer. During his testimony, King said he could "see holes" in Oland's battered head. The weapon, or weapons, was never found. There have been questions at trial about the weapon possibly being a dry-wall hammer, which has both sharp and blunt sides. The prosecution contends the businessman and father of three was killed "in a rage." Prosecutors have argued that Dennis, Richard Oland's only son, went to see his father on the evening of July 6, 2011, to ask for financial assistance. Richard Oland was worth an estimated $37 million, while Dennis was deeply in debt. The defence is arguing that Saint John police botched the investigation. The retrial resumed Monday following a three-week break for the holidays. Oland, 50, a former investment adviser, was charged in 2013 with the murder of his father and has steadfastly maintained his innocence. His conviction in the first trial was thrown out on appeal. Meanwhile, fallout from the McCloskey issue continues to be felt in the province. The head of the New Brunswick Police Commission recently lost his job after the provincial police association accused the commission of a "flawed and unprincipled" investigation of issues surrounding the Oland investigation. OTTAWA - Crammed into a cell with 13 other sleep-deprived inmates, strong-armed into singing the Chinese national anthem and forced by shouting guards to watch state television a Canadian man detained in China last fall is offering a glimpse of what he says life was like for him on the inside. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA - Crammed into a cell with 13 other sleep-deprived inmates, strong-armed into singing the Chinese national anthem and forced by shouting guards to watch state television a Canadian man detained in China last fall is offering a glimpse of what he says life was like for him on the inside. Jason Cigana, a 39-year-old originally from the Montreal area, had been living and working in China's southern city of Shenzhen for six years when he was arrested by Chinese police in October. He was locked up for three weeks and eventually deported. Cigana wanted to share his experience with the Chinese legal system after two Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested there in December. The Chinese government has said both Kovrig and Spavor were arrested on national-security grounds. Their detentions appear to be in retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States. Although his case is different from Kovrig's and Spavor's, Cigana's experience offers a rare look at how China handles people, including foreigners, while they are in custody. "It's something pretty rough, to be honest and I was small potatoes compared to these guys," Cigana said in an interview, referring to Kovrig and Spavor. "These guys are going to have it a lot, lot worse." A Canadian government source, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, confirmed Cigana was detained in China last fall. Cigana said his arrest came a few days after he made what he describes as "racially charged" comments on an online chat group made up of mostly expatriates. He admits he also made a "very insensitive" remark about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed many thousands of Chinese people. He says he regrets both and he never thought his comments would reach an audience outside the 88-member group on the WeChat platform. He said screen shots of the conversation were shared widely on social media in China and reached tens of millions of people. The remarks were translated from English to Chinese, but he says his words were twisted to sound a "hell of a lot worse." As his comments spread, they stirred up a lot of public outrage, to the point his conversation made national news in China. Cigana, who's married to a Chinese national with whom he has a four-year-old son, learned making such statements also violated local laws. Fearing a backlash, he holed up at home for days. Then, Chinese police came knocking at his door. He was detained, interrogated for several hours and released, several times over four days. Police eventually locked him up for three consecutive weeks. Cigana described the conditions he faced inside the detention centre as "terrible." Fourteen people packed into one cell and a shower that consisted of a cup and a bucket, he said. He recalled the lights being left on for 24 hours a day, and cranked up at night. Barking dogs, slamming doors and shouts from guards made it almost impossible for detainees to ever get any shuteye, he said. "The rooms are monitored, so let's say if you're sleeping and you cover your eyes they'll start screaming through the intercom to not cover your eyes," Cigana said. The guards also forced him to sing the anthem, vow loyalty to China and absorb propaganda on state TV, he said. "If you turn away from the television during this time you are yelled at and berated," he said. "It's something straight out of Nineteen Eighty-Four." Months after his detention and deportation, Cigana's case continues to haunt him. A website in his name has appeared online and he said it's designed to ruin his reputation. Purportedly created by his family to seek forgiveness on his behalf, it's a mix of English and Chinese and talks about what a mess his life has become since "saying horrible disrespectful and insentience (sic) comments about China," taking "photos of perverted nature" and "saying many pro-Hitler and anti African American culture." Cigana said his reputation has been further damaged by other postings on online chat rooms made in his name. Some of the postings are sex-related requests that he had nothing to do with. "None of it is true," Cigana said. When police took him in for questioning, Cigana said his name had yet to appear in any Chinese news stories. But shortly after he left the police station the first day, he said, a photo of him taken during his interrogation as well as his passport information were already circulating on social media. Cigana has consulted lawyers in an effort to get the website and the postings removed from the internet but he's been told the process will be difficult and expensive. As he hunts for work that will help him sponsor his family's immigration to Canada, Cigana fears he will have difficulty finding any if potential employers Google his name. He's considered changing it. He says he "messed up." "Not that there's an excuse my wife is Chinese, my son is Chinese," Cigana said. "I don't hate Chinese people. I guess it was just a case of sometimes we go a little bit hard on the internet without realizing it's not a game. You can be punished for it. It's something that essentially ruined my life." Last week, a federal government official speaking on background said 200 Canadians are detained in China for a variety of alleged infractions. Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada's ambassador to China between 2012 and 2016, said in an interview that crowded cells with poor sanitary conditions and 24-hour lights have been reported in other cases, including by Canadians Julia and Kevin Garratt. The two were Christian aid workers who ran a coffee shop in northeastern China, near the North Korean border. China arrested the Garratts in 2014 and accused them of spying and stealing military secrets. It took two years before both were freed. Saint-Jacques said Canadians facing more minor charges in China, such as visa issues, don't usually face tough conditions like those described by Cigana. "It sounds familiar, although maybe a bit harsher," said Saint-Jacques, comparing Cigana's recollection to other cases he was aware of. He added he didn't recall cases where there were attempts to attack a detainee's reputation online. But he said the Nanjing Massacre, in particular, is a very sensitive topic for Chinese people. "I would like to have more details (about Cigana's case), but obviously this gentleman touched a raw nerve with his comments and they wanted to make an example," Saint-Jacques said. "You have to assume ownership of what you say all the time." Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe attends a media event in Saskatoon on October 4, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards Three stories in the news for Monday, Jan. 7 ANTI-PIPELINE DEMONSTRATORS AWAIT RCMP ACTION Indigenous demonstrators blocking access to a planned pipeline in northern B.C. say they are anticipating RCMP action over an injunction filed against them. TransCanada says it has signed agreements with all First Nations along its Coastal GasLink pipeline route to LNG Canada's $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat. But the protesters say the company lacks the authority to build through Wet'suwet'en territory because the house chiefs, who are hereditary chiefs rather than elected band council leaders, have not given consent. SASKATCHEWAN TO APOLOGIZE TO'60S SCOOP SURVIVORS Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is set apologize to survivors of the '60s Scoop at the legislature this morning. About 20,000 Indigenous children were seized from their birth families and relocated to non-Indigenous homes starting in the 1950s until the late 1980s. The practice stripped children of their language, culture and family ties. Survivors are hoping the apology comes with action to reduce the number of children in care. Alberta and Manitoba have already apologized for their role in the apprehensions. HEART ATTACK, STROKE CAN HARM EARNINGS: STUDY A new study says middle-aged Canadians who've had a heart attack, stroke or cardiac arrest are less likely to be working three years later and those who can keep working often experience a significant drop in income. Looking at data from 2005-to-2013 the researchers found the financial fallout from suffering a stroke was the most significant, with a 31 per cent drop in earning power, compared to 23 per cent for cardiac arrest and eight per cent for heart attack. The study is published in today's Canadian Medical Association Journal. ALSO IN THE NEWS: Re-trial in Saint John of Dennis Oland on charge of second-degree murder in the death of his father Richard continues. A re-trial in Halifax is scheduled for former taxi driver Bassam Al-Rawi, accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger. Garry Handlen stands trial in Vancouver for murder of 12-year-old Monica Jack in 1978. B.C. Civil Liberties Association holds Vancouver news conference after the release of the B.C. Court of Appeal's decision on the government's appeal of a lower court ruling over solitary confinement. Radio-Canada reports that the federal government is not ruling out the possibility that a Quebec woman and her Italian friend may have been abducted in west Africa. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Luca Tacchetto and Edith Blais are seen in this undated handout photo from the Facebook page "Edith Blais et Luca Tacchetto : disparition au Burkina Faso." A Quebec woman who was travelling in Burkina Faso with a friend hasn't been heard from in three weeks and is feared missing, her family said Saturday. Sherbrooke native Edith Blais and her Italian friend Luca Tacchetto were travelling in the West African nation when all communication with their families "abruptly stopped" on Dec. 15, her sister Melanie Bergeron Blais said. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Facebook Radio-Canada reports that the federal government is not ruling out the possibility that a Quebec woman and her Italian friend may have been abducted in west Africa. Sherbrooke native Edith Blais and her Italian friend Luca Tacchetto were travelling in Burkina Faso when all communication with their families "abruptly stopped" on Dec. 15, according to Blais' sister. Melanie Bergeron Blais says the pair were last seen in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, in the country's southwest, and had planned to drive to the capital of Ouagadougou before crossing into neighbouring Togo. Global Affairs Canada says consular officials are reaching out to local authorities in Burkina Faso, but it won't publish any information that could jeopardize ongoing efforts or endanger citizens' safety. A report published by the CBC's French-language service on Sunday says the department has not received confirmation of an abduction, but it no longer excludes that as a possibility. Meantime, Blais' family has started a Facebook page related to the disappearance, and they say they are grateful for the help they've received so far. OTTAWA - Donald Trump has affirmed his respect for judicial independence, the Prime Minister's Office says, less than a month after the U.S. president baldly said he would intervene in Meng Wanzhou's pending extradition from Canada if it would help forge a trade deal with China. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/1/2019 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this image made from video taken on March 2, 2017, Michael Spavor, director of Paektu Cultural Exchange, talks during a Skype interview in Yangi, China. A friend of Michael Spavor says he is worried about the detained Canadian's well-being and financial future now that an online fund-raising effort in his name has been derailed. Andray Abrahamian was among the organizers of a GoFundMe campaign for Spavor, a Canadian arrested last month in China for allegedly endangering Chinese national security. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo OTTAWA - Donald Trump has affirmed his respect for judicial independence, the Prime Minister's Office says, less than a month after the U.S. president baldly said he would intervene in Meng Wanzhou's pending extradition from Canada if it would help forge a trade deal with China. In a summary of a phone call Monday between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the PMO indicated the leaders discussed the high-profile U.S. extradition request though Meng was not named and agreed on the importance of respecting the independence of judges and the rule of law. China has pressed Canada to get Meng freed from the extradition process, which Canadian politicians have replied they simply aren't allowed to do. Trudeau also thanked Trump for the "strong statements of support" by the U.S. in response to the "arbitrary detention" of two Canadians in China, the summary says. "The two leaders agreed to continue to seek their release." Entrepreneur Michael Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig, a diplomat on leave from Global Affairs Canada, were taken into Chinese custody on security grounds in December. Beijing's actions came just days after Canadian authorities in Vancouver arrested Meng, a senior executive with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies, who is wanted by the U.S. on fraud charges. Meng's arrest infuriated Beijing, and many western analysts see China's detention of Spavor and Kovrig as retaliation. Trudeau said at the time that Canada, which has an extradition treaty with the U.S., was merely following standard legal protocol. Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told reporters it was "absolutely false" to assume a political motive behind Meng's arrest. However, Trump muddied the waters the same day by telling Reuters in an interview that he would "certainly intervene" in Meng's case "if I thought it was necessary" to help ensure a trade deal with China. Canada has called for the immediate release of Kovrig and Spavor. Each man has had a single consular visit from John McCallum, Ottawa's ambassador to China. A Canadian parliamentary delegation, long scheduled to visit China, is doing what it can this week to help secure the pair's freedom. A Monday opinion piece in the China Daily newspaper, published by the country's Communist Party, accused Canada of acting "as a loyal adherent of the U.S. in the Meng detention drama." "By continuing to follow the U.S., either passively or actively, Canada will eventually harm its national interests," said the article by Li Qingsi, a professor of international studies at Renmin University in China. "If Canada insists on following the old track, it may not benefit much from a big trading partner like China." Meanwhile, a friend of Spavor says he is concerned about the detained Canadian's well-being and financial future now that an online fundraising effort in his name has been derailed. Andray Abrahamian, a lecturer at Stanford University in California, was among the organizers of a GoFundMe campaign for Spavor. "I worry about many things, starting with his health and emotional well-being," Abrahamian said Monday. GoFundMe said the campaign in Spavor's name was shut down because its third-party payment processor, which made the decision, was unable to handle the donations. GoFundMe spokeswoman Rachel Hollis would not elaborate on the reason, but said the fundraising portal relies on such processors to make sure money transfers made online "are securely processed and verified, helping us to keep GoFundMe the safest place to donate online." The backers were told "it was for a 'terms and conditions' violation, but nothing more specific than that," Abrahamian said. "Basically, nearly everybody's money was refunded Friday without notice, then the next day the page was shut down." Spavor is director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organization that facilitates sporting, cultural, tourism and business exchanges with North Korea a largely isolated country subject to a number of international sanctions over its nuclear-weapons program. Abrahamian said the fundraising effort was intended to create "a little pot of money" to help with Spavor's legal fees or other costs and, when the stressful experience is over, to aid his recovery and readjustment. "Once the issue with China is resolved, he probably won't be able to transit through that country, meaning he won't be able to continue his work promoting exchanges," Abrahamian said. "So we wanted to help buy him some time while he figures out what's next. We also were hoping his family could use the money to have his possessions collected and shipped back to Canada. "We're trying to figure out how to best solicit donations again, but are afraid we won't be as successful as this past attempt. It was Christmastime, after all." Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter SUNDRE, Alta. - A former Alberta MP known for his cowboy hat and controversial positions on a number of issues has died. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/1/2019 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Conservative MP Myron Thompson arrives for the party's first caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 7, 2006. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson SUNDRE, Alta. - A former Alberta MP known for his cowboy hat and controversial positions on a number of issues has died. Myron Thompson who supported the American-led war in Iraq, opposed gun laws and same-sex marriage, and argued for stronger animal protection and child pornography legislation was 82. Thompson served as an MP for the Wild Rose riding from 1993, first for the Reform Party and later for the Conservatives, until he stepped down in 2008. Jason Nixon, a United Conservative provincial politician who knew Thompson, says the former MP's family pastor informed him Sunday of the death on behalf of Thompson's wife, Dot. "I don't think anybody, no matter what side of the political argument that you may have been on with Myron,... would ever doubt that he loved the people that he represented," Nixon said in a phone interview, noting that Thompson had been fighting cancer. "He got up each day and fought for them the best way that he knew how." Thompson's positions and controversial comments frequently garnered national attention. When the Reform Party passed a policy at its national convention in 1994 to deny family benefits to same-sex couples, Thompson said, "I do not hate homosexuals I hate homosexuality." In 2001, he told question period that he felt too many RCMP officers were patrolling national parks searching for poachers instead of hunting in cities for terrorists. At the start of the U.S. war in Iraq, Thompson, whose son Dennis was a U.S. combat soldier in Iraq, told a pro-American demonstration in Calgary that Canada should be supporting the war. And when controversy erupted in 2006 over a decision to bar media from the base where the bodies of Canadian soldiers were arriving from Afghanistan, Thompson declared he would shoot any media if they tried to come on site to cover a dead son of his. ''I do speak my mind and that's never changed,'' Thompson said in a 2006 interview for a story about whether Conservative MPs felt muzzled by their party. He was born in Colorado and said he'd once tried out for the New York Yankees. He moved to Canada in 1968 and served as mayor of Sundre, Alta., before moving on to the federal scene, later returning to municipal politics in the town after his time as an MP. In 2004, when U.S. president George W. Bush visited Ottawa, Thompson met with him to tell him there were Canadians who supported the war in Iraq. According to Thompson, the president thanked him and also wanted to know if Thompson was from Bush's home state. ''Bush said, 'I really like you. You are a straight-shooter. Are you sure you're not from Texas?'" Thompson recalled after the meeting. In 2007, Thompson presented a petition to Parliament with 110,000 signatures calling for tougher laws against animal cruelty. The names had been collected by Tamara Chaney of Didsbury, Alta., who was outraged after a horrific case of animal abuse involving a family dog. "He was passionate about animals. He was one of the most gentle people that I've ever seen when you watched him interact with animals ... so that's something he fought for," Nixon said. Numerous former colleagues issued statements of condolence on Sunday. "Myron Thompson was a colourful and straightforward Westerner who well served the West, his constituents, and the country as a member of parliament," former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning said in an emailed statement. "Sincere condolences to Dot and the rest of his family, with deepest thanks for sharing Myron with us." Jason Kenney, a former Conservative cabinet minister who now leads Alberta's United Conservative Party, said there's a long list of people who loved Thompson. "It was a privilege to serve with Myron in Parliament. A true character, Myron will be deeply missed," Kenney said on Twitter. By Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton (AP) A federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration Friday in a case about the Pentagon's effort to restrict military service by transgender people, but the ruling won't change who can serve or enlist at this point. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that a lower court judge was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing plans to restrict the service of transgender individuals. The unsigned ruling will not allow the Pentagon to implement its policy, however, because other judges have entered orders blocking the administration in similar cases. The administration has already asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. The high court could announce as early as this month if it will do so. The appeals court ruling said the military's plan appears to rely on the "considered professional judgment" of "appropriate military officials." It noted that the plan "appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military." Military policy until a few years ago had barred service by transgender individuals. That changed under President Barack Obama's administration. The military announced in 2016 that transgender individuals already serving in the military would be allowed to serve openly. And the military set July 1, 2017, as the date when transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist. But President Donald Trump's administration delayed the enlistment date, saying the issue needed further study. While that study was ongoing, the president tweeted in late July 2017 that the government would not allow "Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." He later directed the military to return to its policy before the Obama administration changes. Groups representing transgender individuals responded by suing the administration in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Washington state and California. The Trump administration lost early rounds in those cases, with courts issuing nationwide injunctions barring the administration from altering course. As a result, transgender individuals continue to serve openly and transgender individuals have been allowed to enlist in the military since Jan. 1, 2018. In March 2018, the Trump administration announced that after studying the issue it was revising its policy. The new policy generally bars transgender individuals from serving or enlisting unless they serve "in their biological sex" and "do not seek to undergo gender transition." An exception allows the service of transgender service members who previously relied on the Obama-era rule. Groups representing transgender individuals have responded by arguing that the policy is essentially a ban on the service by transgender individuals. The lawsuit in the District of Columbia was filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter called Friday's decision "a devastating slap in the face to transgender service members." Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration was "pleased with the decision." Two of the three judges who ruled in the case were nominated by Republican presidents. Judge Thomas Griffith was nominated by George W. Bush and Judge Stephen Williams was nominated by Ronald Reagan. The third judge, Robert Wilkins, was nominated by President Barack Obama. (CNN) Four years ago, when Sara Cunningham came home from a pride festival in Oklahoma City, she was covered head to toe in glitter. She had spent the day offering free mom hugs or high-fives ("Not everybody's a hugger," she says) to passersby, and the love and joy she felt was palpable. Unfortunately, so was something else. "That day, I went home with real horror stories," she says. "I was broken from hearing from the community -- kids who had been living out of their cars, kids who had been kicked out of their churches or homes for just for identifying as LGBT." Cunningham's son is gay, and her experience at that festival led her and other ally mothers to form what is now "Free Mom Hugs," a nonprofit organization that offers mother-like support to LGBT youth. In July 2018, that spark of support and celebration became a flame. Cunningham, frustrated with continued stories of parents rejecting their gay children, sometimes during the most important times in their lives, wrote a simple Facebook post. "PSA. If you need a mom to attend your same sex wedding because your biological mom won't."Call me. I'm there. I'll be your biggest fan. I'll even bring the bubbles." In a matter of days, the post went wildly viral. Cunningham knows exactly why. "When people ask us about Free Mom Hugs, they usually say, 'How can I join,' 'What can I do," Cunningham says. "That's what made the post go viral. It was people all over the world saying, I want to do that, I can do that, I've been doing that," Since the post, Cunningham has been asked to attend several weddings, and the post sparked something of a movement -- one that ties back to the most important goal of Cunningham's work: Acceptance. "Everyone needs acceptance," she says. "And when we fall in love, it's a profound, sacred special time of our lives. To not have the validation for recognition from your parents, from people who are so important to you, You may think you can handle it." "But when it comes to the final blow," she continues, "To them saying, 'I'm not coming to your wedding, it's just devastating. And I can't imagine hearing those words out of a mother's mouth." Before, a difficult journey Cunningham knows what kind of pain can come from not being accepted by your own family, because initially, she and her family struggled to come to terms with her own son's sexuality. It's a pain Cunningham is trying to relieve from other children, and their parents. "We must learn to celebrate our LGBTQ children, or we will suffer with them," she says. "My biggest regret is not celebrating him and what was important to him, earlier -- even during his high school years, and not being able to look past my own fears and my own ignorance to see him." She says the key for parents who are struggling is education -- and an open heart. "There is so much information out there, so many ways to get educated, so many ways to learn [about LGBTQ issues]. To be honest, the only other choice is to remain in fear and ignorance. And I use those words respectfully, because I was there once." And now, a new one of love Honestly, Cunningham wishes Free Mom Hugs didn't exist. She wishes her presence at weddings, either as a stand-in mom or an officiant (she got ordained in 2016 to officiate the same-sex wedding of two friends), wasn't necessary. "I hope some day that our organization won't be in existence anymore, that we can help change the social norm," she says. And to all of those people who commented or shared her viral post, she has two words of advice: Show up. "That's the key," she says. "Just show up. And when I say showing up, I mean we as parents, as friends or allies. I'm not the first mom to offer free mom hugs or attend weddings as a stand-in. But when we show up for any group that's marginalized, that's how we can make sure they really know they are loved and celebrated." Tropical Cyclone Mona in Fiji, severe flooding in the Solomon Islands, flash floods in Papua New Guinea, unseasonal storms in Kiribati and Marshall Islands, and heavy rains and strong wind in Samoa we have entered 2019 with uncertainty and a cause for concern at the impact of these extreme weather on the lives of the people. These are times when State agencies, which are charged with the responsibility to respond in times of emergency, are expected to be on standby and ready to respond at short notice to calls for assistance. Ask an emergency doctor or physician and he or she will tell you that a faster response can equate to better patient outcomes, dig further and you will find out that a response time of 8 minutes or less is critical for what they term advanced life support (ALS) units to respond to life-threatening events facing a person and to save his or her life! But in Samoa, just like in other parts of the Pacific, authorities are often plagued by capacity issues (such as the absence of skilled medical personnel) and the lack of resources to effectively respond in times of emergency. Often, it can be impossible for the Samoa Fire and Emergency Services (FESA), to evacuate a person in a life-threatening situation to the hospital in 8 minutes or less. So with all that is happening in Samoa in recent days, staff at State-funded entities such as FESA need our support and understanding. Public information from the Ministry of Police or the Samoa Meteorological Service that is disseminated through the media on radio, television and social media should be taken seriously and passed on to our families, friends and other members of the public. Public recreational areas on Upolu and Savaii where the risk of injury could be high should be avoided at all cost. Businesses in the tourism sector, including hotels and guest houses, have a duty of care to their guests and patrons and should warn them to take precaution by staying indoors if required. The Samoa Meteorological Service advised at 6.00pm last night that its severe weather caution is still current for the country, due to Tropical Cyclone Mona in the northern part of Fiji Islands. Tropical Cyclone Mona Category 1 was located at 14.5S, 178.9E or 1,000 km West of Apia at 2:00pm today. The system is maintaining its southeast movement at 10 knots (20 kph) remains over the Northern parts of the Fiji Islands. TC Mona is expected to make landfall over Vanualevu tonight as per consensus track forecast and will not have a direct impact to Samoa, stated the Samoa Meteorological Service. And for Samoa, the Service said: Expect heavy rain, strong and gusty northerly wind flow from tonight into tomorrow. High developing Northerly swells is expected to affect coastal waters for today and tomorrow. Local flash-floods and landslides will be likely for vulnerable areas. On that note that we see the barrage of criticism that the national carrier Samoa Airways has come under in the last 24 hours, over the cancellation of its Sydney-Samoa flight last Saturday. And acknowledge the discomfort that some passengers had to experience at the Kingsford-Smith International Airport in Sydney last Saturday, after the aircraft was diverted by Australian aviation authorities to Canberra after Sydney was hit by extreme weather. Unfortunately, it was totally out of the hands of the aircraft crew and the airline and the criticism from some of the passengers was unwarranted knowing that passenger safety remains paramount for both local and international airlines. And with the country currently experiencing extreme weather, thanks to Tropical Cyclone Mona, we somewhat ironically note the announcement by controversial helicopter company Samoa Helicopters Limited of their return to Samoa after a two-year absence. Hello Samoa, and a very happy safe and prosperous 2019 to you all. There are some exciting new developments, and thank you for all your kind messages of encouragement. I look forward to being back in Samoa to assist getting the popular service up and flying again. I also have never spoken about why the service had to stop, and why I had to leave Samoa, perhaps Ill tell all when Im back. However, the most important focus should be to get the life saving, and scenic flight operation back working for the people of Samoa, the company stated in its Facebook post last Friday. Well, we can only hope for the best for Samoa, as the resumption of a medical evacuation and emergency service in the country will go a long way in saving lives as we intermitted earlier. So if it is to really happen, then do it properly this time and with the participation of all the relevant stakeholders. The job of saving lives should be taken seriously. What do you think Samoa? Write and let us know. Have a wonderful Monday and God bless. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Valneva Reports Positive Phase 1 Interim Results for Its Chikungunya Vaccine Candidate Phase 1 interim results showed an excellent immunogenicity profile after a single-shot vaccination and an acceptable safety profile, supporting further development Saint Herblain (France), January 7, 2019 - Valneva SE ("Valneva" or "the Company"), a biotech company developing and commercializing vaccines for infectious diseases with major unmet medical needs, today announced positive Phase 1 interim results for its Chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553. The primary objective of VLA1553-101 Phase 1 study was to assess the overall safety and immunogenicity profile 28 days after a single vaccination across three dose levels. The interim results showed an excellent immunogenicity profile after a single vaccination with a 100% seroconversion rate[2] achieved at Day 28 in a pooled analysis[3] of all vaccinated groups. Results also showed 96.5% of subjects achieved at least a 16-fold increase in antibody titres and a high geometric mean titre, fully supporting VLA1553's differentiated target product profile. The pooled safety profile of all groups was considered acceptable and supports further development. No serious adverse events nor adverse events of special interest were reported up to Day 28 and the local tolerability was considered excellent. Systemic adverse events included short-term fever, headache and fatigue. As with other live-attenuated vaccines, transient cases of reduced levels of neutrophils, lymphocytes or leucocytes without clinical symptoms were observed in the pooled analysis. Wolfgang Bender, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Valneva commented, "These results mark an important milestone towards our goal of developing a single-shot vaccine against Chikungunya. We are making every commitment to advance our vaccine quickly so that we can address this serious threat to public health. Phase 1 revaccination data post month six is expected by mid-year and will be key to define development acceleration options. The recent award of FDA Fast Track designation will allow us to work closely with the FDA on this development strategy." Valneva is committed to advance its Chikungunya vaccine candidate as quickly as possible into pivotal trials, after dialogue and alignment with the authorities. The Company expects unblinded safety and immunogenicity data at dose group level by mid-2019 including additional information on whether subjects are protected from Chikungunya viremia. This may allow Valneva to determine the final dose for development. About The Phase 1 Clinical Study VLA1553-101This study is a randomized, observer-blinded, multicenter, dose-escalation Phase 1 clinical study investigating three dose levels of VLA1553 after a single immunization.The study enrolled 120 healthy volunteers, 18 to 45 years of age, in the United States. Subjects were randomized in three different study groups to receive one of three dose levels (30 subjects in the low and medium and 60 subjects in the high dose group). The protocol includes a re-vaccination at Month 6 or Month 12 to confirm that a single vaccination will be sufficient to induce high titer neutralizing antibodies and protect subjects from Chikungunya viremia (intrinsic viral challenge).Study participants will be followed up until 13 months after initial vaccination.The interim results included blinded, pooled safety and immunogenicity data up to Day 28. It did not provide group specific information or formal primary endpoint read-out.An independent Drug Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) continuously oversees the study and reviews data.Additional information, including a detailed description of the study design, eligibility criteria and investigator sites, is available at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03382964). About Chikungunya Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a Togaviridae virus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea and rash, potentially developing into long-term, serious health impairments. Chikungunya virus causes clinical illness in 72-92% of infected humans around 4 to 7 days after an infected mosquito bite. Complications resulting from the disease include visual, neurological, heart and gastrointestinal manifestations; fatalities have been reported (case fatality rates of 0.1% to 4.9% from epidemics)[4] in elderly patients at higher risk. Chikungunya outbreaks have been reported in Asia, Africa, the Americas and recently (2017) in Europe. As of 2017, there have been more than one million reported cases in the Americas[5] and the economic impact is considered to be significant (e.g. Colombia outbreak 2014: $73.6m[6]). The medical and economic burden is expected to grow as the CHIKV primary mosquito vectors continue to further spread geographically. There are no preventive vaccines or effective treatments available and, as such, Chikungunya is considered to be a major public health threat. About VLA1553VLA1553 is a monovalent, single dose, live-attenuated vaccine candidate for protection against Chikungunya and was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) in December 2018[7]. The vaccine candidate is designed for prophylactic, active, single-dose immunization against Chikungunya in humans over one year old. The vaccine aims for long-lasting protection and an anticipated safety profile similar to licensed vaccines for active immunization in adults and children. The target population segments are travelers, military personnel and individuals at risk living in endemic regions. The global market for vaccines against Chikungunya is estimated at up to 500 million annually[8].VLA1553 is based on an infectious clone (CHIKV LR2006-OPY1) attenuated by deleting a major part of the gene encoding the non-structural replicase complex protein nsP3, aiming for protection against various Chikungunya virus outbreak phylogroups and strains[9]. In pre-clinical development, a single-vaccine shot was shown to be highly immunogenic in vaccinated Non-Human Primates (NHP) (cynomolgus macaques) and showed no signs of viremia after challenge[10]. In NHPs, VLA1553 induced a strong, long lasting (more than 300 days) neutralizing antibody response comparable to wild-type CHIKV infections combined with a good safety profile. About Valneva SEValneva is a biotech company developing and commercializing vaccines for infectious diseases with major unmet needs. Valneva's portfolio includes two commercial vaccines for travelers: IXIARO/JESPECT indicated for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis and DUKORAL indicated for the prevention of cholera and, in some countries, prevention of diarrhea caused by ETEC. The Company has various vaccines in development including a unique vaccine against Lyme disease. Valneva has operations in Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the US with over 450 employees. More information is available at www.valneva.com. Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of Valneva, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical trials for product candidates, the ability to manufacture, market, commercialize and achieve market acceptance for product candidates, the ability to protect intellectual property and operate the business without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, estimates for future performance and estimates regarding anticipated operating losses, future revenues, capital requirements and needs for additional financing. In addition, even if the actual results or development of Valneva are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results or developments of Valneva may not be indicative of their in the future. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "could," "should," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "aims," "targets," or similar words. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the current expectations of Valneva as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, the expectations of Valneva could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties involved in the development and manufacture of vaccines, unexpected clinical trial results, unexpected regulatory actions or delays, competition in general, currency fluctuations, the impact of the global and European credit crisis, and the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made during this presentation will in fact be realized. Valneva is providing the information in these materials as of this press release, and disclaim any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. [1]The Phase 1 study continues blinded with re-vaccinations to potentially obtain a first indication of efficacy, the interim results were therefore not analyzed by dose group but through a pooled analysis of all dose groups. [2] SCR was defined as the proportion of subjects achieving a CHIKV specific neutralizing antibody titre of NT50 greater than or equal to 20. [4] WHO, PAHO [5] PAHO/WHO data: Number of reported cases of Chikungunya Fever in the Americas - EW 51 (December 22, 2017) [6] Cardona-Ospina et al., Trans R Soc Trip Med Hyg 2015 [7] Valneva PR: Valneva Awarded FDA Fast Track Designation for Chikungunya vaccine candidate [8] Company estimate support by an independent market study [9] Hallengard et al. 2013 J. Virology 88: 2858-2866 [10] Roques et al. 2017JCI Insight 2 (6): e83527 PR Newswire DUBLIN, Jan. 7, 2019 DUBLIN, Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Capital Raising Catalyst" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Join us for our intensive, fast-paced investor relations and Capital Raising Catalyst Workshop. For anyone looking to raise capital from family offices and institutional investors, this is a must-attend workshop that will equip attendees with dozens of practical strategies for attracting more investors. Participate in small-group exercises, follow along with your guided workbook, and hear case studies that show how your peers are implementing these strategies. You will leave this boot camp with a worksheet completed and knowledge on how to execute our 5 Step System to Raising Capital from Private Investors. If you are raising capital you will get more value per hour spent at this workshop than any other training you have completed. 7 Reasons to attend the Capital Raising Catalyst Workshop 1. Develop a System to Attract Investors Like Clockwork: Let your competitors cold call 60 prospects a day while you set up systems to consistently attract targeted and pre-qualified investors to you every month. During this workshop, we will show you how to accomplish this at zero cost.2. Avoid The 7 Most Common $100,000 Mistakes: Almost everyone who starts out raising capital for a fund or private company makes the same mistakes. What you should do is not always obvious, and worse than that, it is often counter-intuitive. At this workshop, we will show you why you should reach out to fewer investors and figure out who those investors are. Typically, only one type of investor fits your sandbox, USP, investor funnel, and is making up your investor avatar. This investor avatar concept alone will save you from hours of fruitless activity, ensuring results through the best possible use of your most valuable resource, time.3. Master Best Practices & Emulate Proven Strategies: Throughout the day you will be completing a Capital Raising Catalyst workbook and by the end of the day you will have an actionable plan that integrates best practices and proven capital raising models for your organization.4. Gain a Capital Raising Edge: When raising capital, second place in a competition can mean no capital allocated, and a consistent third or 10th place can mean you are out of business and have to close shop. Getting your emails responded to, phone calls are taken, and meetings booked with potential investors is critical, every 1% improvement in doing so can mean more capital raised.5. Identify the Fundamental Marketing Materials and Strategic IP Assets you need to create, distribute, and leverage to be taken seriously. If you don't have your basic marketing materials and tools in place to communicate with investors you will stand out as someone who doesn't know what they are doing to investors.6. Leave with Your Developed Capital Raising Plan: Regardless of whether you are a independent sponsor, private equity fund, deal broker, real estate professional or investment banker you need to stand out from the competition in a meaningful way. This one-day workshop will teach you exactly how to do it. You will leave with a plan in hand to execute.7. No Risk: We guarantee that you will love the capital raising workshop and get a ton of value out of your experience. If for any reason you do not, we will refund your admission price. There is no doubt in our minds that you will love this event.The Family Office Club remains the only provider of practical real-world capital raising, investment marketing, and investor lead generation training in the industry. Successful capital raisers are always in demand and can make or break a firm, even more than the ability to invest well. Yet despite the critical importance of this skill set, there is a major gap in education on capital raising. The Family Office Club has been closing this gap in the industry for nearly a decade with live training workshops on capital raising, investor relations, and marketing strategy. Who Should Attend: Past attendees of our events and workshops have included investment funds, real estate and private equity independent sponsors, private bankers and wealth managers, capital raising consultants and third-party marketers, investment industry service providers who want to position themselves and their firms, and investment bankers and M&A brokers looking to get more deals done every year. Wealthy families with multiple operating entities looking for a marketing and investor relations edge. For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8wz4fm/one_day_capital?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/one-day-capital-raising-catalyst-bootcamp-how-to-execute-a-5-step-system-to-raising-capital-from-private-investors---toronto-canada---april-17th-2019-300773822.html SOURCE Research and Markets PR Newswire MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CUJO AI, an award-winning nextgen artificial intelligence-powered software platform to enable in-home network security for network operators, has been chosen by Charter Communications to enhance security, privacy, and improve the in-home connected experience for more than 24M Spectrum Internet subscribers. Spectrum will begin deploying CUJO AI in 2019. CUJO AI privately and securely analyzes network and device activity in order to detect abnormal threat behaviors as they emerge. Network operators that deploy CUJO AI solutions on their infrastructure provide a personalized customer experience, offer advanced protection and ensure seamless device management on home, mobile and public networks. The CUJO AI platform helps various ISP departments reduce costs, save time and deliver additional value to their customers. Recently the company has announced that it covers the connected experiences for 240M devices and 16M homes worldwide. "CUJO AI's leading edge technology will help Charter enhance its superior connected home experience, providing Spectrum Internet customers advanced security, privacy and additional control over their in-home networks," said Andrew Ip, SVP of Emerging Technology and Innovation for Charter Communications. "The connectivity and compute capabilities or our fiber-based network allows us to efficiently and seamlessly bring the benefits of this technology to our customers." This year, CUJO AI has been named as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum. In May, research company Gartner has listed CUJO AI as "Vendor to watch" and "Cool Vendor in IoT security." The company has won the 2018 Global Telecoms Award in a "Security Solution of the Year" category. "The hard work that we've put into developing our AI-powered technology has translated to meaningful results. Working with the top internet service provider in the US is a rewarding experience for our team. We are privileged to work with Charter Communications and help to enhance the connected experience across the US," said Einaras von Gravrock, CEO of CUJO AI. According to a survey of 2600 CUJO AI firewall users, the consumer expectations for their connected homes have evolved rapidly. Home users seek to know more about their devices, networks, and related risks. Connected homeowners want to know their device usage statistics (61.1%), and would like to receive recommendations related to security (72.1%). Users also prefer to get personalized recommendations (64.5%) that help to maintain and improve their smart homes. With CUJO AI Network operators can enrich connected experience for their users, reduce costs, and decrease customer churn. About CUJO AI: CUJO AI is the leading artificial intelligence company providing network operators AI-driven solutions, including AI security, advanced device identification, advanced parental controls, and more. CUJO AI Platform creates an intuitive end-user facing application for LAN and wireless (mobile and public WiFi), powered by machine learning and real-time data. Each solution can be implemented as a white-label offering. CUJO AI was recently listed as a "Vendor to Watch" and a "Cool Vendor in IoT security" by research company Gartner. CUJO AI employs a staff of 150 professionals. More information about CUJO AI can be found at cujo.com CUJO AI Media Relations: Eve Masiulyte Email: [email protected] Tel.: +1 323-284-7216 S: www.cujo.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/charter-communications-chooses-cujo-ai-to-enhance-the-spectrum-internet-connected-experience-300774191.html SOURCE CUJO AI Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado Email no valido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION PR Newswire NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2019 NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Sunday, Jan. 6, human rights activists and religious leaders joined together in Midtown Manhattan to take a stand against coercive conversion. According to Cheonji News, supporters of religious freedom from secular and religious sectors commemorated the life of the late Ji-In Gu, a young South Korean woman who fell victim to violent practices associated with coercive conversion. Ji-In Gu was abducted on two separate occasions and forced to participate in a conversion program. After escaping her first kidnapping, she worked to raise awareness of the severity of coercive conversion by drafting a petition and submitting it to the South Korean government. In December 2017, she was captured again and eventually died of cardiac arrest when she was forced to attend a conversion program in the province of South Jeolla-Do. After her death, supporters avidly collected signatures for her petition, which demanded that the government establish a legal framework that criminalizes religion-based violence. More than 100,000 signatures have been collected and uploaded online. Over a year has passed and so far, no official statement regarding the petition has been released. According to the Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion (HAC), more than 150 cases of coercive conversion have been reported since the death of Ji-In Gu. The HAC has reached out to advocacy groups worldwide to raise awareness of the violation of human rights taking place in South Korea. In late November, a full-page New York Times advertisement titled "Ban Coercive Conversion" was published to support the cause. The ad featured a close-up of a greedy religious leader depicted as a wolf and a young girl being burned at a stake in the distance. HAC representative Sang Ik Park explains, "Ministers do not hesitate to arrange coercive conversion programs due to the lucrative nature and lack of legal repercussions." Human rights advocates hope international media attention will act as a catalyst for change. Major media networks covered the event and human rights activists expect that the South Korean government will soon no longer be able to turn a blind eye to the senseless violence occurring in its communities. Over 20 countries worldwide hosted rallies on Jan. 6 to raise awareness of the unjust practice of coercive conversion and gain the support needed to finally put it to an end. Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/activists-mobilize-in-midtown-manhattan-to-ban-coercive-conversion-300773539.html SOURCE Cheonji News Speaker Kotek vows to act following report detailing poor response to sexual abuse, but says report was rushed SIGN UP TO GET BLACKLISTED NEWS DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Enter your email address: Our African consulting landscape consists of both global and local consultants who position themselves as subject matter experts, innovative thinkers, corporate entrepreneurs and so much more. If they're that good the next question I ask myself is if they're that prolific at setting up and running businesses, why aren't they running their own?... In all our years of watching and researching consumer trends, this is the first time that the evidence we are gathering as BMi Research points to an overwhelming digital influence - where the majority of factors shaping South African consumer behaviour is rooted in current and emerging technology. Gareth Pearson, BMi Research. 1. Decreased data costs equals increased e-commerce 2. Artificial intelligence is here #GoogleRetail: Learn from the past then act swiftly to win at retail As South African consumers place an increasing premium on the goods they buy, it's more important than ever that retailers give them the best possible customer experience... 3. Omnichannel in overdrive 4. The clever, conscious consumer 5. Adopting Singles Day and other global retail days Big, bigger, biggest: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles Day Cyber Monday is online retailers' response to the bricks-and-mortar marketing push of Black Friday. Online shopping is only set to increase, as smartphones and apps continue to capture more of the market... With government pressurising cellular networks to decrease data costs, data usage is set to spiral. The moment this happens, we will see a significant increase in mobile e-commerce in South Africa.We have noted a steady increase in recent years in pre-shopping research, with shoppers using price comparison websites to shop around before deciding on which bricks and mortar store to visit to make their purchase.This practice is becoming even more important against a backdrop of stagnant income and rising living costs.With cheaper data, we expect online price comparison to hit an all-time high, coupled with an increase in mobile e-commerce, as more millennials and members of Generation Z become economically active and use their phones for online shopping. This will be a natural evolution for this influential market, where mobile device usage is an intrinsic part of daily life.Although many dont realise it yet, South African consumers are already becoming accustomed to artificial intelligence.Apple iPhone users utilise AI every time they engage Siri, as do online shoppers when asking live online consultants questions about stock items and get an immediate answer. These are actually chatbots; they function like human consultants, but are completely robotic. Thats AI in action.The strength of AI within the retail environment is the unparalleled access it provides retailers to consumers, and the opportunity to efficiently engage existing and potential customers.Previously, online consumers would have to wait for a human to answer their query via email. Now that communication is instant, while the consumer is on the webpage. That is powerful brand engagement, and paves the way for that Holy Grail of consumerism true mass personalisation shopping.In that context, AI would enable a retailer to tell regular shoppers what to buy and when, based on algorithms measuring their previous purchases; where to buy it from (i.e. which store currently has stock); and which items that customer regularly purchases are currently on promotion.The growth in customer interaction on various digital platforms, and the rise of AI in taking this to the next level, is beginning to drive true omnichannel engagement.Were not just talking traditional digital channels like web portals, sms or Facebook; new frontiers are being conquered in facilitating this multipronged retailer-customer engagement, such as WhatsApp, WeChat and even Snap Chat.This brings with it enormous benefits, such as real-time 24/7 communication; true on-the-go mobile interaction; eliminating the need for access to PCs, as only mobile devices and connectivity are needed; and the fact that this type of engagement is perfectly aligned with the expectations of the emerging millennial and Generation Z consumer.As digital natives, this generation wants to truly experience brands and the value they offer through new technologies. The omnichannel aspect allows retailers to do just that.The new consumer is clever: they use, consume and share data to make informed decisions about the brands they will, or wont, support. And they are conscious because they only support those brands they deem ethical.This is a major trend and should not be underestimated. The rising consumer voice is getting stronger, and unethical brands will be subject to trial-by-consumer via social media channels which, once it gains traction and goes viral, can be devastating for a brand. Retailers and brand owners should be aware that social media is the weapon of choice for millennials and Generation Z.Consumers of all ages, are demanding transparency, they want brands they can trust, and want to see ethical behaviour, from corporate leadership level right down to retail operations, as evidenced in marketing communications and pricing.Unethical behavioural situations and scandals will taint brands for much longer than previously, as millennials and Generation Z are harder on brands and expect them to behave the way they do as ethical consumers.Black Friday has firmly entrenched itself in the SA retail environment. Last year Nielsen revealed local Black Friday turnover was R1.3 billion, more lucrative than Christmas trading for some retailers. But just as local consumers have been quick to embrace this American tradition, so we could well see consumers looking to other global retail days for inspiration.Take Singles Day, for example. This Chinese innovation was introduced by Alibaba one of the worlds biggest commercial online traders as an anti-Valentines Day for singles in the 1990s. It is held annually on 11/11 and has become the biggest on and offline shopping day on the planet, doing nearly four times as much business as Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.It is growing at 39% per year, and last year turned over 25.3 billion dollars (around R359 billion), completing 812 million orders, and 1.5 billion financial transactions, in 24 hours. At its peak, Singles Day 2017 recorded 256 000 transactions per second!This is a clear case of East leads West, where eastern retail trends are beginning to infiltrate the western market, and hints at the future of global consumerism, facilitated by the advancing of digital technologies. Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) which is a panel under the Union Health Ministry has decided to set up a sub-committee to assess the issues related to proposal for amendment of MDR 2017 Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), which represents research-based medical technology companies having a large footprint in manufacturing and training in India believes that the formulation of DTAB sub-committee to examine proposal for inclusion of compensation in the policy framework on medical devices is a step in the right direction. Pavan Choudary, Chairman and Director General, MTaI said, The inclusion of Medical Device industry in the subcommittee is a positive step towards having a well-rounded decision on the proposal for inclusion of compensation in the Medical Device Rules. We will work with the expert panel to form a suitable framework on compensation, keeping in mind the interest of the stakeholders. Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) which is a panel under the Union Health Ministry has decided to set up a sub-committee to assess the issues related to proposal for amendment of MDR 2017 to include provisions for compensation in case of injury or death due to malfunctioning of medical devices or if the devices are found unsafe or non-compliant with the conditions of licence. The committee is headed by Dr. B.D. Athani, Principal Consultant in Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and has representatives of the government, AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospitals, Medical devices industry, and consumers. Collaboration provides industry leaders the opportunity to accelerate biomedical innovation The MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering (LFE) and Informa Pharma Intelligence announced Project ALPHA (Analytics for Life-sciences Professionals and Healthcare Advocates), an initiative to provide timely and more accurate estimates of the risks and rewards of clinical trials to the entire biopharma ecosystem. The goal of Project ALPHA is to accelerate biomedical innovation by helping investors, regulators, payers, and biopharmaceutical companies better assess the opportunities of biomedical R&D, allowing all stakeholders to manage their investments more efficiently. "More accurate risk metrics will eventually lead to fewer big failures, faster approval times, cost savings to the entire healthcare system and more investment capital for developing breakthrough therapies," says Andrew W. Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and director of the LFE, "all of which means more, and better, therapies to patients sooner." The first set of analytics to be included as part of Project ALPHA are clinical success rate metrics, based on algorithms developed by MIT researchers. Jointly developed by the LFE and Informa, these metrics will be made freely available. The article, "Estimation of Clinical Trial Success Rates and Related Parameters," leverages Informa's Citeline drug and clinical trials data sets, and assesses clinical success from pre-clinical to launch, across nine therapeutic groups, providing the most comprehensive view on clinical success rates ever published. Project ALPHA will distribute risk analytics via an LFE-hosted website, http://projectalpha.mit.edu, which will provide regularly updated aggregate clinical success rates and durations, as well as disaggregated estimates across trial features such as disease type, clinical phase, time, and lead indication status. "We're excited to be collaborating with Andrew Loand the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering to leverage our data and biopharma expertise with their research capabilities in risk management and financial analytics," said Mark Gordon, president of product & innovation in Informa's business intelligence division. To encourage additional analyses using the metrics and the data behind them, Informa will make its commercial data sets available to academic researchers through an academic licensing program and a research proposal review process. The acceptance of clinical results at an eminent peer-reviewed forum like SABCS is a strong validation of Niramais trial results. Artificial intelligence-based Indian health-tech company Niramai received international acclaim at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). It was the only Indian company to present at one of the largest breast cancer conferences in the world, well-attended by oncologists and cancer researchers. The acceptance of clinical results at an eminent peer-reviewed forum like SABCS is a strong validation of Niramais trial results. An opportunity to present the work to the international experts and receiving their positive feedback puts Niramais indigenous technology on the map together with leading innovations across the globe. Dr Geetha Manjunath, CEO & CTO, Niramai, spoke about how their innovative solution uses artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting early stage breast cancer with results comparable to standard modalities. Niramais solution is called Thermalytix, an automated diagnostic tool, which combines thermal imaging with artificial intelligence. The solution is radiation-free, accurate, automated and works on all women irrespective of their breast density. We were privileged to get an opportunity to present at SABCS 2018, a prestigious forum for interaction and learning for a broad spectrum of medical practitioners, researchers and health professionals with a special interest in breast cancer, said Dr Geetha Manjunath. In the conference, Niramai presented results of a retrospective multisite comparative study of 247 patients across 3 reputed cancer hospitals in India. The results demonstrated higher sensitivity and comparable specificity of the solution to Mammography. The highlight was the good accuracy of the Niramai results among women with dense breasts where Mammography was not effective. The high sensitivity and high Negative Predictive Value of Niramai demonstrated its potential to be the first screening test for detection of breast cancer for women across all age groups. The radiation-free nature of Niramai test will be an added advantage for early screening as it can be used for regular preventive screening without any side effects. US-based radiologists were very receptive towards Niramai innovative solution and the clinical results presented at SABCS. Dr. Sheldon Feldman, a New York based expert in Breast Surgery & Surgical Oncology, mentioned, I am very intrigued by this promising technology. It looks like a major advance in technology. I hope to collaborate and be helpful to further validate its efficacy. Dr. Ralph Wolfstein, radiation oncologist based out of Los Angeles, expressed his belief in the benefits of the solution as well. I think my patients would certainly appreciate this diagnostic test more than they would mammogram as it is non-contact. This year, SABCS attracted more than 7,000 participants from more than 80 countries, including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, researchers, and other healthcare professionals. Taiwan is exploiting its strengths in IT to be a major global player in healthcare by amalgamating the both. Taiwan is known as the heart of the worlds tech supply chain, offering high-quality products in electronics. Now it is also the key driver of healthcare innovations and training with its leading IT companies accelerating AI, IoT and robotic applications for healthcare and biomedeical sectors. It is exploiting its strengths in IT to be a major global player in healthcare by amalgamating the both. As a result it is a very common sight in Taiwan health sector of robots & machines, 3D image solutions, virtual reality and minimal invasive surgery methods are being used largely in diagnosis, surgeries, procedures and treatments. The technological developments in the healthcare and the other factors like high quality medical services along with competitive pricing making the health services comparatively affordable and national health insurance scheme has put Taiwanese healthcare system in the forefront. Just recently it moved up from the 12th position to the ninth one in Bloombergs annual global healthcare efficiency list. All these feature of the Taiwanese healthcare system are attracting patients not only from Taiwan, but also from other countries, particularly from South East Asia. More than 305,000 foreign patients came to Taiwan to receive medical services, with one third of those from SEA countries, informed Walter Yeh, President & CEO, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), to a visiting Media Medical Delegation for Taiwan Healthcare 2018. TAITRA will continue to promote the highest quality of Taiwanese medical services and technology to see Taiwan as the top choice for international medical service providers in Asia, Yeh told the delegation which is sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan (MOHW) and organized by TAITRA. Taiwans techno-healthcare amalgamation resulting in cutting edge innovations, leading medical global technology, speciality training facilities, availability of array of healthcare services, the latest medtech equipment was all on display at the Taiwan Healthcare+ Expo which was centred around MedicineXTechnology as the key driver. This was the second expo which saw 30% rise in the participation of organisations, from over 1000 to 1358, said Jin Pyng Wang, Chairperson, Taiwan Healthcare Expo Commmittee and Chairman, Research Centre for Biotechnology & Medicine Policy, in his welcome address at the inaugural ceremony of the Expo. In her inaugural address, President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-Wen hoped, The expo will generate opportunities to tap into international cooperation networks, and create endless possibilities for Taiwan's next-generation healthcare technology industries. She pointed out that Taiwan's Medical Device Industry is a leader in Asia. Taiwan is the number one exporter of electric wheel chairs in the world, and the second largest exporter of artificial joints in Asia. Jia-chyuan Su, President, Legislative yuan, said Taiwan, a mecca of R&D, is capable of designing new solutions to meet the unsatisfied demands. It has already done good progress in high end medical products and will continue to divert its technology towards healthcare development. For the first time, government medical industry, commercial industry and private enterprises have come together on a common platform at the expo. The government will continue to support the med tech industry, he promised. The expo had a special pavilion for the starts-ups to showcase their innovations. It exhibited among others the snapshot hyperspectral image inspection technology and portable, noninvasive blood flwo meter developed by National Chung Shan Institute of Science & Technology; Industrial Technology Research Institutes (ITRI) portable molecular Diagnostics System; Prolieve as safe and effective treatment option for symptomatic BPH patients; IVD test kit for endometrial cancer. Yeh informed, TAITRA has a start up division to promote start ups and innovations. We provide a framework and arrange one to one meetings for start ups, he said. Along with innovations, conducting trainings for doctors from abroad is a key factor of Taiwan healthcare system. The new types of surgeries caused by the technical innovations are attracting surgeons to Taiwan for the trainings in such surgeries. IRCAD Taiwan in the Chang Bin Show Chwan hospital conducts training for doctors from all over the world at its state of the art training facility. In a decade it has trained over 7,000 surgeons in various surgical fields. It has also created an environment for incubation of new medical and surgical technology. It is not only a training centre but also a place for scientific research. Functional direction of IRCAD is two folds. We wish to continue to working closely with Asian surgical societies and experts to continue providing surgical training. Secondly we hope to continue in the area of surgical innovation and research with an aim to provide the best tools for surgeons to use as we believe in Chinese saying sharp tool make good work, said Dr Wayne Huang, Director, IRCAD Taiwan. Its incubation centre has developed the worlds first and only endoscope visualization system, MonoStereo 3D, with easy-set, easy-alter adjustable 3D effects which overcomes the limitations of conventional 3D systems, providing a new perspective on surgical imaging. It is the first 3D image system which provides depth perception and spatial view of anatomy, however the 2D function like zooming and rotating are reserved at the same time. Said Dr. Kai-Che Liu, Director, IRCAD Taiwans R&D and Incubation and CEO, MeidcalTek. It is both Mono and Stereo. You may keep 2D, see 3D. Dr. Liu explained further. Brain Navi biotech co. which is known for its autopilot for neurosurgery recently released its first medical device NaoTrac, a surgical navigation robot that provides precise GPS like imagery. It uses camera-based computer vision algorithms to estimate 3D geometry and motion during surgeries. With this system surgeons can develop surgery plan with the help of pre-operative imagery and MRI scans of internal body structures. It makes surgery safer, faster and more accurate. Thanks to this first in human robotic surgery Brain Navi reached a significan milestone, said Dr Chen, CEO, Brain Navi Biotech, when a patient underwent brain surgery with assistance from robot NaoTrac at Tzu Chi hospital in November. A deep brain procedure that takes eight hours would require only eight minutes with new technology, said Dr Chen. Besides innovation and developing health and medical technologies, Taiwans healthcare system also gives stress on advanced medical training. Train the trainers, the slogan of Ministry of Health and Welfares booth at the healthcare expo, underlines the importance it attaches to training the doctors in the Taiwan healthcare system. Taiwan International Healthcare Training Center (TIHTC) is a platform that shares Taiwans medical advancements to the world and nurtures international healthcare professionals. This can be seen from the fact that there had been nearly 2800 international trainees in Taiwanese hospitals from 2014 to 2018 (till October). About 200 of them were from India. TIHTC not only provides professional training programme but also helps foreign medical professionals to find the most suitable training programme under the TIHTC partner hospitals network, which has 30 partner hospitals. Showcasing the highlights of the Taiwan healthcare system various doctors from different hospitals presented the specialities of their hospitals. 500 cases of heart transplant, highest in Asia, since 1988 and 450 valve replacement implants, largest in South east Asia, have been done in Taiwan, said Dr Jeng Wai, Director, heart centre, Cheng Hsin hospital. Dr Chee-Chein Yong, Kahosiung Chang Gung Hospital, presented a case of liver transplant and claimed that Gung hospital was the best liver transplant hospital in the world. Lee womens hospital has gone into the Guinness record book in 2011 for the largest test tube baby gathering as it gathered at one place 1232 test tube babies born in the hospital. One third of IVF babies in Taiwan were made by Lee hospital, claimed Dr Lee Chun-I, CEO. Video Consultation, trauma centres, DaVinci robotic surgery, hybrid operation rooms are the specialities of the Taiwan hospitals, said Dr Yen-Chuan, vice superintendent, Tungs Taichung Metro Harbor hospital. Dr Ming-Chi Yung, Deputy Director of International Healthcare Centre, Taipei Medical University Hospital, said Taiwan healthcare works on r Ps, (Priority, Painless, Paperless and payless. Payless is possible due to Taiwans effective healthcare insurance system. The health insurance Taiwan provides is comprehensive. Both inpatient and outpatient care are covered, as well as dental care, over-the-counter drugs and traditional Chinese medicine. However, the experts feel Taiwan has an aging population and a low birthrate that will push upward the total cost of care. Taiwan has got a number of hospitals. It has 600 private hospitals, about 85% of the total, and they provide 70% of healthcare services, said Dr Yi-Hong Chu, President, Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinical Association. Taiwan faces problem of growing shortage of doctors and other medical staff. In one hospital the entire section could not be started due shortage of nursing staff. Despite such issues and problems, Taiwan healthcare has many achievements. Its leadership in reconstructive microsurgery and cultivating renowned reconstructive surgeons globally is an asset. This consolidates Taiwans leadership in medical sciences, concludes Prof Fu-Chan Wei, Researcher, National research centre. (Milind Kokje was in Taiwan on invitation from Taiwan External Trade Development Council TAITRA- as a part of Medical Media Delegation for Taiwan healthcare 2018) For Immediate Release, January 7, 2019 Contacts: Amaroq Weiss, Center for Biological Diversity, (707) 779-9653, aweiss@biologicaldiversity.org Sean Stevens, Oregon Wild, (503) 283-6343, ext. 211, ss@oregonwild.org Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, Nick@cascwild.org Quinn Read, Defenders of Wildlife, (503) 697-3222, Qread@defenders.org Conservation Groups Exit Oregon Wolf Meetings Citing Potential Increased Killings, Flawed Process Oregon Officials Unwilling to Follow Science on Wolf Management PORTLAND, Ore. Four conservation groups have notified Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the state wildlife commission that they are withdrawing from stakeholder meetings about the management of the states wolf population. The groups cited a number of concerns, including a flawed process for updating the states wolf plan and lobbying by wildlife managers wanting to make it easier for the state to kill wolves, which is often done at the behest of livestock operators. The meetings were convened at the governors urging after the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife repeatedly proposed revisions to the state wolf plan that lacked support from the environmental and scientific communities, as well as ranchers and hunters. The conservation groups letter to the governor and commission cites unwillingness by the state fish and wildlife department to address the groups concerns through meaningful negotiations. Instead, the department appears to be moving forward with a proposal that is worse than when negotiations began, allowing the killing of wolves more quickly than before in response to livestock predations. The proposal runs counter to a growing body of science showing that killing wolves is less effective than nonlethal measures and, in some cases, can even increase livestock losses. It also runs counter to the wishes of the vast majority of Oregon citizens who dont want to see the agency killing endangered wolves. Stakeholder Quotes Gov. Browns well-intentioned stakeholder process has failed miserably because her wildlife managers wouldnt listen to the most recent science or Oregon residents who say we need to stop killing wolves, said Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. Weve tried for years to come to an agreement, but the state wont fix its broken, outdated approach to wolf management. From the beginning, we advocated for a real stakeholder process with neutral oversight and guidance to encourage meaningful discussion and collaborative brainstorming, said Quinn Read, Northwest director for Defenders of Wildlife. Unfortunately, ODFW drove the process toward a seemingly predetermined outcome to allow more wolves to be killed in deference to livestock. As there are less than 150 wolves remaining statewide, these terms are unacceptable. We need to raise the bar on prevention of conflicts between wolves and livestock instead of folding to constant demands to kill more wolves. Poll after poll has shown that Oregonians support wolf recovery and believe that conflicts with livestock should be avoided through nonlethal approaches, and yet ODFW continues to insist on a plan that makes it ever-easier to kill wolves without any enforceable standards, said Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild. The return of wolves to the Pacific Northwest is an incredible wildlife success story that all Oregonians should be celebrating. Instead of assisting this recovery, our state government is fixated upon killing the species at the behest of the commercial livestock industry. There are between 100 and 200 wolves in the state total; this is absurd, said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. Background After being extirpated in the mid-20th century, wolves have begun to make a comeback in Oregon but remain largely absent from nearly 90 percent of the states potential habitat. A few wolves have been present west of the Cascades since 2011. There are currently only two known wolf packs in the western half of the state. Most of Oregons wolves which number 124 according to the report issued by the department in April of 2018 occupy territory in the eastern half of the state. The Fish and Wildlife Commission prematurely removed wolves from the list of state endangered species in 2015, and a lawsuit filed by several of the same conservation groups challenging that action is still pending. By Bob Cunningham '18 Dr. James Ciesla is the new dean of the College of Health and Human Services. This past fall semester was his first at Bowling Green State University. Ciesla comes to BGSU from Northern Illinois University, where he was associate dean for research and resources in the College of Health and Human Sciences. He also was interim chair of the School of Health Studies, an administrative unit he helped establish. He joined the NIU faculty in 1994, holding positions of increasing responsibility. He was awarded the title of Distinguished Professional Engagement Professor in 2012 in recognition of the numerous, externally funded interdisciplinary partnerships he has cultivated. Ciesla has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, and has received significant grant funding for his research from such entities as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services. He holds a Ph.D. in health economics from the University of South Carolina, along with two masters degrees, one in health systems management from Tulane University and another in humanities from the University of Chicago. He has a bachelors degree in biology from Wofford College. Q. Looking at your background, it looks like you have a very accomplished career thus far. What attributes do you think you bring to the role of dean of Bowling Green State Universitys College of Health and Human Services, and what about BGSU interested you in the position? A. I spent a large part of my professional career at a university, and in a college, that is very similar to BGSUs College of Health and Human Services. I bring familiarity and an enthusiasm for this university and college BGSU is a place that really makes a difference in the lives of its students. Many students are the first in their family to attend college, so it is gratifying to me to work at a public university that is accessible to a broad group of people. BGSU students are serious and committed to bettering themselves, and students in this college are highly committed to careers in health and human service disciplines. My interest in BGSU stemmed from the fact that this university, and this college, are well poised to serve this kind of student. Q. Its no secret that health and well-being are very important in todays society. How can HHS, and its faculty and staff, make sure BGSUs students are prepared to make an impact in the many fields that the college offers? A. In a word, by engagement. We can be sure our students are prepared to make an impact in their chosen field through our engagement activities. HHS faculty and staff are highly engaged in the service delivery and professional practice communities in their disciplines. Not only do these engaged, bidirectional relationships help cultivate goodwill toward the college, but they also make opportunities for us to keep abreast of the needs of the people our students will serve and of best practices in meeting those needs. Q. Can you talk about some of the important research our faculty is conducting and how significant the effects are on our region and beyond? A. This college has a faculty of serious scholars committed to high impact research. I couldnt possibly do justice to the breadth of our research portfolio, but our researchers do work that addresses important health and social issues that include Parkinsons disease, aphasia, substance abuse, crime prevention, juvenile justice, health care data analytics just to name a few. Not only do our faculty make positive contributions to the academic literature in their fields, but they take the time and effort to communicate their research findings to the public by sitting for interviews often on national media outlets and by publishing in the popular press. HHS research is truly a reflection of BGSUs commitment to the public good. Q. What areas of growth do you see in HHS? A. As we all know, the demographics of the country and this region will continue to create career opportunities for students with academic preparation in the disciplines represented in this college. Growth potential for our programs abounds. The emerging strategic alliance with Mercy College will create many opportunities for BGSU students interested in health care and human services disciplines. is an exciting time to be at BGSU. Q. Now that youve been here for a semester, what is your impression of BGSU? A. I am delighted to be here at BGSU. I have been impressed by the depth and breadth of the goodwill people have for BGSU and for this college. I encounter friends, supporters, alumni, parents of our students, current students, prospective students and many others including regular folks I bump into off campus who have genuine affection for BGSU. It is quite remarkable. As the Butler family of Bellefontaine enters the Christmas season this year, they will have many gifts to celebrate, but undoubtedly the greatest is the gift of life. Daughter Madison this fall donated a kidney to her mother, Stephanie, who was in seriously failing health. Now Madison is back at Bowling Green State University getting ready to graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in communication sciences and disorders and her mother is enjoying newfound energy and vitality. Madison feels special gratitude to her faculty members, especially audiology instructor Dr. Kimberly Traver, a lecturer in communication disorders, and anatomy and physiology instructor Amy Wagner, a lecturer in biological sciences. Theyre a huge part of why Im still on track to graduate, she said. For Madison, there was never a question but that she would give her mother a kidney if she could, she said. When she turned out to be a perfect match, she never looked back. Maddi had no hesitation at all, Stephanie said. People tell me what a selfless thing I did, but for me it was not selfless, but selfish, Madison said. I wasnt ready to lose my mom, and this was something I could do. Her mother had passed away during the time she was sick last year and I saw how hard that was for her. My mom is an amazing, amazing woman. I love her so much and I was not willing to give her up. Stephanie was indeed sick. After a long siege of kidney failure caused by a reaction to the medications for her double lung transplant nine years ago, she was on dialysis and her health was declining rapidly as she awaited a transplant. In fact, Madison said, although she had originally planned to make the donation over winter break, every time I went home I could see her deteriorating. Her eyes and her skin were yellow and sunken and she had less and less energy. I knew we couldnt wait. Although it took a bit of convincing for her mother to accept a kidney from her child She said, Im supposed to be taking care of you when my brother and I got tested to see if we were a match the family prevailed upon her and she finally assented. So on Sept. 26, the pair underwent surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. I didnt worry about myself, Stephanie said. I just wanted it to be good for her. Its much harder for the donor than for the recipient. She went from having two amazing kidneys down to one, and I went from almost none to having one amazing kidney. Madison said it was obvious immediately that the transplant had been a success. I got to see her two hours afterward and her color was already amazing. Now she looks totally different her eyes are so bright and her skin is plump. While her mother was up and walking almost immediately, for Madison the recovery was much more difficult. It turned out she has an extra vein on her kidney that made it necessary for her surgeons to remove a bit of her lower, false rib to get access, which has added considerably to the pain and the length of the healing process. After the surgery, we were on opposite sides of the floor at the Cleveland Clinic and I was glad because I didnt want my mom to see how much pain I was in, she said. But I made this choice and I knew what I getting myself into. I would do it again any day! I had never broken a bone or even had my wisdom teeth removed, and it was new to me to not feel well. But my brother, Blake, came in and said my mom was already up and sitting in a chair, so I should get myself out of bed. That is an indicator of the extreme closeness of the Butler family. Blake was crushed that he was not a perfect match for his mother, but, in the end, it was for the best, Madison said. He physically picked her up and moved her, for example, which she could not have done for him. Everyone had their role, she said. We all worked as a team. Because of their mothers many years of illness after getting the lung disease LAM, she and Blake and their father, John, were used to dealing with illness. My brother and I knew how to push a wheelchair and clear oxygen lines from the time we were in fourth or fifth grade. After this, I have even more empathy for what people with illnesses are going through. Following the surgery, she and her mother moved to the nonprofit Transplant House, near the clinic, for their first period of recovery, then Madison moved back home for a couple of weeks before returning to her apartment in Bowling Green, where she rested for another week. Getting her energy and focus back is a slow process, she said, but she is making good progress. During the whole time of the surgery and her recuperation, Madison said, her faculty were emailing her regularly to check on her and send words of encouragement. This helped allay her considerable anxiety about jumping back into her schoolwork. They really took time to get to know me and were really present in my recovery, she said. I cant say enough good things about Kim Traver. She emailed me immediately the night after surgery. When I got back she called parking services and arranged for a special parking tag for me. She told me to just take a breath and had me sit in on classes at first. She didnt allow me to take the first or second exam right away but gave me time to catch up. The same was true of Wagner, whom Madison admitted to having felt a bit intimidated by at the start of the semester. She is so smart and such a powerful woman, she said. I was the most worried about making up this class. But she met with me several times outside of class and gave me time to make up what I had missed, and she worked with my lab instructor to accommodate me. She also had me wait to take my exams. She has been a great mentor to me. Dr. Robyn Miller, a lecturer in the College of Education and Human Development with whom Madison has taken class every year, and Joanne Sommers, in Human Development and Family Studies, were very supportive and took a personal interest in her well-being, she said. Even Rebecca Sidders, whose American Sign Language course was the one class Madison had to drop, emailed to stay in touch. My faculty have been amazing, Madison said. I give them all the credit for me being here and able to graduate. They make you feel like a person and not just a number. I love BG I dont want to leave! Madison plans to take a year off after graduating to work and consider her options. Her very hands-on classes with Traver have generated a strong interest in audiology, and she might pursue that path. She is also interested in working as a child-life specialist, helping children through difficult times such as she went through during her mothers lung disease experience. She will give talks for Life Line of Ohio, educating people about organ donation. Her mother is endlessly grateful to the family who donated their daughters lungs to her and keeps her donors memory alive every day, Madison said. Im very passionate about it, Madison said. Ive been on both ends seeing someone you love needing a transplant and knowing a family has lost someone. And now being a donor. I would do it again in an instant for anyone in my family. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun (black T-shirt) and Thai Immigration Chief Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn (second from right) speak with UNHCR representatives outside an airport hotel, Jan. 7, 2019. A Saudi teenager who says she is fleeing an abusive family was allowed to enter Thailand Monday to file paperwork with the United Nations refugee agency, after barricading herself in an airport hotel room overnight to prevent forced repatriation and pleading for help on social media. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, and UNHCR representatives showed up at a press conference at Suvarnabhumi Airport late Monday as Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, chief of Thailands immigration bureau, announced that she had been admitted to Thailand. She wants to stay in Thailand for a while, seeking UNHCR refugee status before going to a third country, said Surachate. She will get the status in five days time, according to UNHCR colleagues. Surachate, who had earlier called the matter a family issue, told reporters Monday evening that Thailand was prepared to assist her after learning that her life was in peril. But when we learned that she may face death going back home, Thailand embraced her, working with the foreign ministry and the U.N. Today, I allowed her to enter Thailand and am ready to hand her over to UNHCR for refugee status processing, he said. We dont detain her now and have transferred her to the UNHCR ... she is protected under Thai law. No one can hurt her or can force her to do things against her will, Surachate said, Al-Qunun was taken to a hotel near the UNHCR office in Bangkok after the press conference, local media reported. Different accounts On Sunday, the immigration chief and the young Saudi woman gave different accounts of what happened after she landed in Thailand. Al-Qunun told BenarNews she arrived at the airport for transit to Australia, where she wants to seek asylum, and she had both a ticket and visa to continue the journey. She said she was pulled aside by Saudi embassy officials who confiscated her passport and confined her to a hotel room. Surachate said she tried to enter Thailand but was barred from doing so because she lacked proper documents and travel arrangements, so authorities planned to deport her to Kuwait, where her family is reportedly based, on a flight departing at 11:15 a.m. Monday. Al-Qunun barricaded the door of a room at Miracle Transit Hotel to avoid being sent back, pictures released to the media show. Late Monday, Surachate said the young womans father was arriving in Thailand and would ask if she wanted to see him. My father just arrived, as I heard, which worried and scared me a lot. And I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in, al-Qunun tweeted after the conference ended. But at least I feel safe now under UNHCR protection with the agreement with Thailands authorities. And I finally got my passport. On Sunday al-Qunun said she was in fear if returned to her family. My family will kill me, the 18-year-old told BenarNews during a brief interview by telephone and WhatsApp messages. My father is very angry because I ran away from them. I ran away because they treated me badly. International human rights organizations spoke out on her behalf during the airport standoff, saying she could face violence in the conservative kingdom where womens dress and movements are strictly regulated. Were concerned that because she has asserted her independence, because she has done this escape, because she has unmasked herself, shes taken off her hijab, shes also said that she wants to renounce Islam, that she could face very, very serious consequences if shes returned to Saudi Arabia, said Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. If she is sent back to Saudi Arabia, to her family, they will have essential impunity to abuse her, to inflict honor-related violence against her, and Saudi Arabia has a very poor track record in investigating and prosecuting these kind of cases, Robertson told Agence France-Presse. A mayor in the southern Philippines who President Rodrigo Duterte named on his list of public officials allegedly tied to drug traffickers survived an assassination attempt on Monday the second such attack in three days, police said. Christopher Cuan, mayor of Libungan town in North Cotabato province, was inside town hall around 1:45 p.m. when an unidentified gunman opened fire but missed, police said. He was unhurt, provincial police commander Senior Superintendent Maximo Layugan said referring to Cuan, whose security escorts were able to return fire although the shooter was able to escape using a getaway vehicle parked outside the town hall. Panicked city hall employees dove for cover, but a utility worker was hit and wounded, Layugan told reporters. The employee was struck in his left knee. We are investigating the motive behind the attack, Layugan said. Previously, Duterte had listed Cuan as a narcopolitician. The president, who has waved his list during public speeches, has not divulged how he determined whose name should be on it, but several mayors have been killed. Shortly after Duterte won election in 2016, authorities raided Cuans properties but failed to recover illegal drugs. While the mayor has denied his involvement, the state in 2017 stripped him and other officials of power to oversee police because of alleged drug issues. Previous killings On Friday, Talib Abo Sr., ex-mayor of Parang town in Maguindanao province, and his brother were killed in what anti-drugs police claimed were shootouts. The deaths came as Duterte, who is facing two complaints for murder and crime against humanity before the Hague-based International Criminal Court, warned traffickers he would slit their throats in front of human rights advocates. Abo is the 19th local government official to be killed since Duterte took office in June 2016. The presidents supporters have said rival politicians could be behind some of the attacks ahead of the midterm election in May. Two mayors were assassinated a day apart in July. Antonio Halili, of Tanuan city south of Manila, who was killed by a sniper during a flag-raising ceremony at a city hall, allegedly was named on Dutertes drug list as well. In September and October, gunmen killed a mayor in the north and one in the central city of Cebu. To date, more than 5,000 suspected drug addicts and dealers have been killed by police in alleged shootouts during Dutertes tenure, but rights groups have said that the figure could be as high as 20,000. Filipino students join a protest in northern Baguio city to denounce the alleged suppression of press freedom, Feb. 23, 2018. Filipino journalists on Monday protested recent efforts by the Philippine National Police to link them with communist insurgents in the country, saying the efforts sought to intimidate one of the regions beacons of free speech. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the countrys largest media group, said since December police have been trying to associate its members with the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). In particular, shortly after Christmas police accused the NUJP of being one of the legal fronts of the CPP, which has been waging one of the longest insurgencies against the government. It is hilarious that they keep repeating these charges since the NUJPs membership represents a broad spectrum of creeds and political beliefs bound by a common dedication to defending and expanding the bounds of freedom of the press and of expression, the NUJP said in a statement. It branded police efforts to smear the NUJP as an idiotic attempt, adding the efforts exposed its members to potential danger from those who might readily believe this canard. President Rodrigo Duterte has had a rocky relationship with the media since taking office three years ago. He has not shied from publicly warning media outfits critical of his deadly drug war that he would move to shut them down. Last year, Maria Ressa, leader of the online news site Rappler, was charged with five counts of tax fraud. The penalties could include a fine along with up to 10 years in prison. Ressa denied the charges and has vowed to fight the case in court. Duterte also threatened to block the license renewal of local television ABS-CBN, the largest broadcast network in the country. The NUJP said Duterte was responsible for inciting violence against journalists, recalling that the president once said: Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if youre a son of a bitch. Last month, unidentified gunmen killed Gabriel Alburo, 50, a radio announcer in the central Philippines. Alburos death brings to 13 the number of journalists killed since Duterte assumed office in 2016, and the 186th since democracy was restored in 1986 after a civilian-backed military revolt led to the downfall of authoritarian ruler Ferdinand Marcos. Richel V. Umel in Iligan City, Philippines, contributed to this report. Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla watches a video that appears to show two Canadians who were abducted by Abu Sayyaf militants from a resort and later beheaded by the militant group, Oct. 14, 2015. An Abu Sayyaf leader who allegedly beheaded two Canadians in the southern Philippines in 2016 is back on the list of wanted criminals in Malaysia one year after authorities dropped his name over reports he had been killed. In its list released over the weekend, the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) names Abu Sayyaf member Ben Tatoh Quirino along with 17 other Filipinos linked to alleged trans-border crimes such as maritime kidnapping and piracy. Esscom included Tatoh on its 2017 list. Ben Tatoh and a few others in our 2019 list used to be in our earlier list, but in 2018, we took their names off our record because we believed then they had been killed, ESSCOM commander Hazani Ghazali told BenarNews. Most recently we received confirmation from our Philippine counterparts that they were still alive, so we re-added their names to the latest list. In December, Canadian research group iBRABO stated Tatoh was alive after images appeared on social media. It said the fugitive had been laying low for more than two years after allegedly beheading Canadian tourists John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. iBRABO senior analyst Jeff Weyers said his groups investigation revealed Tatoh was still on the loose and posing selfies on Facebook, including one that showed him wearing the Philippine National Police (PNP)s counter insurgency units uniform. To see that he and virtually all of his Abu Sayyaf cell members were on Facebook was infuriating. But we also realized it was an immense opportunity to gather as much open source intelligence as we could, Weyers said in the report on iBRABOs website. PNP officials said the photo was not authentic. No, he was never a PNP member. We dont have that name in our personnel database former, active or AWOL, PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Benigno Durana Jr. told BenarNews. Durana did not respond when asked if the militant could have been listed in the database under a different name. ASG are continuously being hunted by the government authorities, Durana said, using an acronym for the Abu Sayyaf Group when asked if authorities were hunting for Ben Tatoh. Weyers told BenarNews that Ben Tatohs images appeared on Facebook in October 2018 and updates were being posted as recently as November before the profile was taken down because he apparently had posed with the flag of the Islamic State (IS) terror group. Since then, another Facebook profile going by his other alias, Bhen Tatuh, has emerged, Weyers said. The Eastern Sabah Security Command posted photos of the 18 men on the 2019 list of most wanted criminals, Jan.7, 2019. (Courtesy of Esscomm) 2019 list ESSCOM added six new names to its list of wanted criminals. They are Salip Mura Kayawan, Sibih Pisih, Titing Alihasan (also known as Iyot Panday), Roger Saji, Long Sahirin and Jul Aksan Abdurajan (also known as Halimaw). After our latest investigation and confirmation from the Philippine security forces, the new individuals are listed because they are suspected to have planned several trans-border crimes and are active and on the loose, Hazani said in a statement. The other 11 names had made previous lists. Two names from the 2018 list, Malaysian militants Mahmud Ahmad and Amin Baco, were removed after officials determined they were killed in the 2017 five-month battle in the Philippine city of Marawi. We know there were reports that both had been killed but we still havent received official confirmation of their deaths through DNA testing, Hazani told BenarNews. We put them both on our 2018 wanted list because of this lack of confirmation, but for this latest list, we have removed their names. Filming on the new Game of Thrones spin-off will begin in Northern Ireland in the autumn after location shoots in the Canary Islands. The Long Night prequel is set 1,000 years before the original worldwide smash TV series and will star Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts, of King Kong fame, in the lead role. Staff at the Paint Hall studios in Belfast - the main set location for Game of Thrones - have been told to prepare to fly out to Spain to work on the new spin-off. An industry source told Sunday Life: "We will be shooting on location in Tenerife and Las Palmas throughout the spring. After that, we will be coming back to Belfast for production work in the Paint Hall. "It's great news for everyone involved in the film industry in Northern Ireland - if the Long Night is even half as successful as Game of Thrones, it will pump millions of pounds into the local economy." Games of Thrones, which first started filming in Northern Ireland in 2010, has been our biggest tourist attraction since the Titanic. The Paint Hall in Belfast was its main studio, with other filming locations including the famous Dark Hedges near Ballycastle, Ballintoy Harbour on the north Antrim coast and Shillanavogy Valley, near Slemish in Co Antrim. Due to the success of the show, these spots have become international tourist destinations, with fans flocking to see them in record numbers. The final series of Game of Thrones is due to air later this year, with each of its six feature-length episodes shot in Northern Ireland costing a staggering $15million. Staff at the Paint Hall studios have been informed that after filming on prequel The Long Night ends, they will be working on a Star Wars spin-off. Its creator, George Lucas, visited Belfast 14 months ago to check out locations. The movie mogul was pictured eating out in swanky local restaurant Noble during his short visit, which also took in a guided tour of the Paint Hall. I am going back to India this week for the first time in 40 years. I already know that things will be different there. Many of the people I knew then were older than me and will be dead now. The population has doubled. I used to take evening walks along the River Yamuna on the edge of Delhi and look out across flat farmland to the horizon. Now I can see on Google maps that the other side of the river is built up. Yamuna Bazaar, where I spent most of my time, is now like a little enclave cut off by a huge highway. I am not even sure that my old home is still there. It was an ashram. There was a cottage in one corner for the boss, the guru Swami Paramananda Saraswati. There were four or five rooms shaped like blocks with flat roofs. There was a well and a lot of trees. I can see from Google Earth that the trees are still there but not what they shelter, for they have grown so big that they cover everything. I was a disciple of Swamiji. I was devoted to him, indeed besotted by him, and thought that I was being transformed under his tutelage. I could see as well that he was a manipulative fanatic, and in time I extracted myself with some difficulty from his influence. But I am the person that I am in part because of the years I spent there. Swamiji died a couple of years after I came back to Ireland. I am not going to India this week to resolve any unfinished business, for I have moved a long way from the life that I lived there. That was a celibate, abstemious and religious life. But I have been given a 'major individual artist award' by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to research a project that first intrigued me when I was there. I was not the first person from Ulster to fall under the spell of a powerful swami. One other is actually famous there. She is revered as a saint. Schools and hospitals are named after her. She was Margaret Noble. She was born in Dungannon in 1867, grew up in England and, while working as a teacher in London, met Swami Vivekananda. She had been part of a community of people who explored religious ideas, strongly influenced by Christian Science and intrigued by the East. This group had invited Vivekananda to address them and in time she came to love him as a father figure. She went to India with him. He initiated her as a Hindu nun with the name Sister Nivedita, initially as part of an order called the Ramakrishna Mission, which she left after he died. She retained her conviction that Vivekananda had been a manifestation of the divine. And she became politically active. Having first believed that the British Empire was good for India, she reversed her thinking and became an activist for independence on a revolutionary committee in Kolkata (then Calcutta). The Ramakrishna Mission has collated her letters and we now have a magnificent resource for exploring her thinking. Nivedita was an amazing woman. She interacted with the greatest intellectuals of her time, though she had left school at 16 to be a school teacher. She has left behind a huge body of work, including a biography of Vivekananda. On top of that she edited all of Vivekananda's writings and those of the biologist Jagdish Chandra Bose. She even assisted in the translation from French of the writings of Joan of Arc for a biographer. That she is hardly known here is remarkable. I contend that she is not well known in India either, for she has been too lightly adopted as a saintly figure, without nuance. So the book I am funded to write will try to put flesh and blood on her. First I will go to Delhi to find the ashram and see what is there. Then I will travel to Garhmukteshwar on the Ganges. Swamiji was building an ashram there when I left. I used to have to go to the sub-divisional magistrate to apply for permission to buy cement. He would sign a little docket, I would take it to the cement stores in another town, and literally hitchhike back to the building site with, usually, 25 sacks. Truck drivers were always happy to pick me up, so long as I paid them. We were building our ashram in a little pilgrim town called Brij Ghat, meaning the 'ghat by the bridge'. A ghat is a part of a river's edge reserved for bathing. From Google Maps I can see that Brij Ghat is now also about double the size it was then. It has ATMs and public toilets. But I have taken a room in a hotel in Garhmukteshwar for a little more comfort than I would have settled for back then, when I slept in a sleeping bag on a bare wooden bed, washed at the pump and used the ditch on the other side of the road as my toilet, sometimes not getting myself back out again before the wild pigs had dashed in for a feed. I will stay there to watch Poornima, the ritual bathing in the Ganges under the full Moon. I think this time I will not join in. Then I will go to Kolkata to visit sites associated with Vivekananda and Nivedita. I will stay at a culture centre run by the Ramakrishna Mission and visit Nivedita's home, which is now a museum dedicated to her. I will go to the temple at Daksineshwar, where Vivekananda first fell under the spell of his own guru, Ramakrishna, and I will go to the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math. I would like to go to the Himalayas to follow the journeys that Nivedita made, but the weather isn't right for that yet, so I will go later in the year. When I was there 40 years ago I did not make a single phone call home, because there was no reliable service available to me. This time I will be Skyping every day and posting pictures on social media. The whole world has changed since then and perhaps even the option of cutting yourself off as I did then doesn't exist. I doubt I would be tempted anyway. But if you don't hear from me, you may assume that I have fallen under the spell again and am to be found somewhere near the Ganges, perhaps doing a headstand. I AM grateful to Kim Sengupta for his article (Saturday Review, December 29). Like Kim, I was privileged to meet Baset Al-Megrahi in Tripoli just before his death in 2012, by which time we had become good friends. Years before, I had met him while he was in prison at Greenock in Scotland for a crime I knew he had not committed. Kim's article mentions many who were sufficiently involved to become convinced, like myself and Fr Keegans, that this man had been wrongly convicted. For those of us relatives who know this to be the case, it adds sorely to the burden of bereavement to know that those with the authority, power and knowledge to overturn this verdict, simply will not thus far act. We, the direct relatives, surely have the right to know the truth as to all that our governments know about the real perpetrators and why the atrocity at Lockerbie was not prevented. I promised Megrahi's family I would do all I could to free them from the burden of the epithet of "the Lockerbie bomber's family". I also met Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill just before Megrahi's release, when I was able to beg him to let a man I knew to be innocent be free to go home to die among his family. He has since admitted he is not happy with aspects of the evidence used against Baset. Unfortunately, the Scottish High Court has ruled that we relatives of some of the victims have no locus to request further review of the evidence through a fresh appeal. It is to be fervently hoped that 2019 will see Megrahi's family granted a further full appeal. It is not that there is nicely balanced evidence for and against the verdict: there is now an overwhelming preponderance of material which confirms that Megrahi was not involved, but that failures in the way warnings were handled by the Thatcher government of the day - and at Heathrow, in particular - allowed the bomb to be ingested there. Like Baset, Air Malta and Frankfurt airport need to be excluded from blame. Let's admit we got it disastrously wrong and plan for a safer future. DR JIM SWIRE (daughter Flora murdered at Lockerbie) Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire Donald Trump is planning a live address to the nation and a visit to the Mexico border to highlight his demands for a border wall as pressure grows over a partial government shutdown. With no breakthrough in sight to end the shutdown, newly empowered House Democrats and at least a few Republican senators are stepping up pressure on the president and Republican legislators to reopen the government. Mr Trump said he would discuss the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border on Tuesday evening. He maintains that more than 5 billion dollars (4 billion) for a wall is necessary to secure the border. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted on Monday that he will use the visit on Thursday to meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. As the shutdown lurched into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. Mr Trump has offered to build the barrier with steel rather than concrete, billing that as a concession to Democrats objections to a solid wall. They dont like concrete, so well give them steel, he said. But the Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed levels. White House officials affirmed Mr Trumps funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting with senior congressional aides led by vice president Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget acting director Russell Vought sought funding for a steel barrier on the Southwest border. The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats questions about the funding request. Democrats said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Mr Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused. Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure Americans receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. A Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family will not be sent anywhere against her wishes, the head of Thailands immigration police said. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand under the protection of the UN refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and claims for asylum status. Thai immigration police released photos of Ms Alqunun after she left the room at a Bangkok airport hotel where she had been holed up. Ms Alqunun had stayed in the room while sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. She began posting on Twitter late on Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. Now and immediately Rahaf needs protection in particular from the following country European countries/Canada/United States/ Australia /United kingdom, please contact us! Rahaf Mohammed UU U U (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 The agreement allowing her to leave the airport came after officials from the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, met Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn, and then with Ms Alqunun. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with Ms Alqunun, but its representative in Thailand Giuseppe De Vincentiis noted a good spirit of collaboration so far with Thai officials. According to Maj Gen Surachate, Ms Alqununs father was due to arrive in Bangkok on Monday night, and officials would then see if she was willing to depart with him. As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She wont be sent anywhere tonight, Maj Gen Surachate said at one of several news conferences at the airport. She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles, he said. We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law. On Twitter, Ms Alqunun had written of being in real danger if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her fathers retaliation. Ms Alqununs planned forced departure on Monday morning was averted as she stayed in her hotel room, with furniture piled up against the door, photos she posted online showed. Expand Close Rahaf Mohammed Alqunan wants asylum in Australia (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rahaf Mohammed Alqunan wants asylum in Australia (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) Her plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee allegedly abusive families. Ms Alqununs Twitter account attracted more than 50,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments as well as the UN refugee agency. Her pleas for asylum have also brought international attention to the obstacles women face in Saudi Arabia under male guardianship laws, which require that women, regardless of their age, have the consent of a male relative usually a father or husband to travel, obtain a passport or marry. They also show the limits of reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. Ms Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she was fleeing beatings and death threats from her male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Thailand should give Ms Alqunun back her passport and let her continue her journey to Australia. She has a valid Australian visa, he said. The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harms way. Maj Gen Surachate challenged parts of Ms Alqununs story, including her claim that she had an Australian visa. However, he did not show her passport. The fact is she didnt have any money, he said. She intended to come here and didnt have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless. Ms Alqunun had been travelling with her family in Kuwait, from where she may have chosen to flee because it has fewer restrictions than her homeland on womens travel. A black man was arrested and charged with murder in the killing of a seven-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting that authorities said appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, not a racially motivated attack, as her family feared. Jazmine Barnes family had described the gunman in the December 30 death as a white man driving a red pickup, and believed race played a role in the shooting. But acting on a tip received by a civil rights activist, the sheriffs department zeroed in instead on Eric Black Jr, a 20-year-old black man who admitted he was driving a dark-coloured SUV from which a passenger opened fire, authorities said. Expand Close Eric Black Jr (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Eric Black Jr (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez cautioned that authorities were still investigating, but said: At this point, it does not appear it was related to race. Mr Gonzalez said authorities have identified the second suspect, who is also black, but would not say whether the person was in custody. Chris Sevilla, Jazmines father, said in a brief telephone interview that he was feeling a bit of relief right now after the arrest. Expand Close Christopher Cevilla, father of seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes (Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christopher Cevilla, father of seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes (Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle/AP) At a court hearing early on Sunday, prosecutors said a confidential source had contacted the sheriff by email and told him the killers had shot the car by mistake, thinking the vehicle Jazmine was in was someone elses that they had seen earlier in the night. Prosecutors did not say why the killers opened fire. The sheriff said there was a red vehicle nearby at the time of the shooting, but the driver did not appear to have been involved, and Jazmines family apparently mistook the driver for the gunman. Black, who was arrested on Saturday night during a traffic stop, was charged with capital murder and jailed without bail. Expand Close A sketch provided by the Harris County Sheriffs Office in Houston, Texas, shows an artists rendition of the suspect (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A sketch provided by the Harris County Sheriffs Office in Houston, Texas, shows an artists rendition of the suspect (Harris County Sheriffs Office/AP) Court records did not list a lawyer for him. Prosecutors said the 9mm handgun believed used in the shooting had been recovered from Blacks home. During Sundays hearing, prosecutors said Jazmines mother, LaPorsha Washington, had tried to drive to a hospital after the shooting, but one of her front tyres had been shot out. After the shooting, a composite sketch of a white man in a dark hood was widely circulated. #HCSO homicide investigators have filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr. for the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes a full release: https://t.co/upLn3yRRgn #HouNews #JusticeForJazmine pic.twitter.com/shYLmXmobT HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) January 6, 2019 Jazmines family and activists had said the shooting was similar to an unsolved incident in the area in 2017 in which a gunman described as white shot into a vehicle carrying at least two black people. The girls killing prompted an outpouring of support for her family from celebrities and ordinary people across the country. On Saturday, hundreds gathered at a rally near where the shooting happened, holding balloons, stuffed animals and signs that read, Justice For Jazmine. A 100,000 US dollar reward was offered for information leading to an arrest. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said the support Jazmines family received provided law enforcement with a sense of urgency and made Jazmines loved ones know they werent alone in their time of grief. We share their deep sense of loss and anger, Mr Turner said. A ship tows The Ocean Cleanups first buoyant rubbish-collecting device toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean (Lorin Eleni Gill/AP) A rubbish collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii has broken apart and will be hauled back to dry land for repairs. Boyan Slat, who launched the Pacific Ocean clean-up project, told NBC News last week that the 2,000-foot long floating boom will be towed 800 miles to Hawaii. If it cannot be repaired there, it will be loaded on a barge and returned to its home port of Alameda, California. The boom broke apart under constant wind and waves in the Pacific. Following a recent turn of events, we have decided to return System 001 to shore for repair and upgrades. Read more here: https://t.co/LhYST7yH96 The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) December 31, 2018 Mr Slat said he was disappointed, but not discouraged and pledged that operations would resume as soon as possible. This is an entirely new category of machine that is out there in extremely challenging conditions, the 24-year-old Dutch inventor said. We always took into account that we might have to take it back and forth a few times. So its really not a significant departure from the original plan. Previously Mr Slat said the boom was moving slower than the plastic, allowing the rubbish to float away. A ship towed the U-shaped barrier in September from San Francisco to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of rubbish twice the size of Texas. It had been in place since the end of October. The plastic barrier with a tapered 10-foot-deep (three-metre-deep) screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are swirling in the patch while allowing marine life to safely swim beneath it. Mr Slat has said he hopes one day to deploy 60 of the devices to skim plastic debris off the surface of the ocean. Lawyers for Kevin Spacey have entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a Massachusetts court on charges he groped an 18-year-old in 2016. The actor faced a charge of indecent assault and battery during a hearing at Nantucket District Court and the judge set another hearing for March 4. Spacey does not have to appear, the judge ruled, but he needs to be available by phone. He must stay away from his accuser and his accusers family, the judge also ordered. Spaceys lawyer Alan Jackson said there is data that is likely exculpatory for Spacey. The actor and his lawyers declined to comment as they left the courthouse amid a crush of reporters. Expand Close Kevin Spacey with his lawyer Alan Jackson in district court in Nantucket, Massachusetts (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror via AP, Pool) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kevin Spacey with his lawyer Alan Jackson in district court in Nantucket, Massachusetts (Nicole Harnishfeger/The Inquirer and Mirror via AP, Pool) The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the former House Of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teenager worked. Mr Jackson has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager did not immediately report the allegations. If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison. Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quietens down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold. When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear. Expand Close Members of the media outside the Nantucket Town and County Building, awaiting arrival of actor Kevin Spacey (Steven Senne/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the media outside the Nantucket Town and County Building, awaiting arrival of actor Kevin Spacey (Steven Senne/AP) It is the first criminal case brought against Spacey since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017. A judge denied Spaceys bid to avoid appearing in person on Monday. Spacey had argued his presence would amplify the negative publicity already generated by the case. Television anchor Heather Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the alleged incident. She claimed her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the toilet. After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflixs House Of Cards, in which he said: Im certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didnt do. It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. Spacey has also faced other allegations. His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Mr Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologised if the allegations were true. Lee Pomeroy, who was stabbed to death (British Transport Police) A man accused of killing a father who was stabbed nine times in front of his teenage son said he was innocent until proven guilty as he appeared in court. Darren Shane Pencille, 35, is charged with the murder of Lee Pomeroy, 51, and possessing an offensive weapon. His partner, mother-of-one Chelsea Mitchell, 27, is charged with assisting an offender over allegedly helping Pencille to leave the scene and to change his appearance. Staines Magistrates Court heard Mr Pomeroy, who lived in Guildford and owned an IT firm, suffered nine stab wounds when he was knifed to death in front of his 14-year-old son. A manhunt led detectives to a flat in Farnham on Saturday morning and they made two arrests. Pencille appeared in the dock on Monday wearing glasses and a prison-issue grey tracksuit. He confirmed his name, date of birth and that he was British, telling magistrates he had no address during a hearing lasting just over two minutes. Pencille then addressed magistrates from his seat, telling them: Innocent until proven guilty. He said: Im paranoid. Im hearing voices. Pencille did not enter pleas and chairman of the bench Helen Mattey remanded him in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court on Monday afternoon. His partner, Mitchell, appeared in court separately, also dressed in a grey tracksuit, charged with assisting an offender. The charge states she helped the alleged killer leave the scene and to change his appearance on January 4. Mitchell spoke only to confirm her name, date of birth, that she lives in Willbury Road, in Farnham, and that she is British. She indicated a not guilty plea and was remanded in custody to appear alongside Pencille at Guildford Crown Court on Monday afternoon. Mr Pomeroy, who would have celebrated his 52nd birthday on Saturday, was described by his family as an honourable man and would always help somebody who was in trouble. In a statement, the family said he was a cultured man, who loved his 50-year-old wife Svetlana Pomeroy. He was a devoted family man and did everything for his family, they said. Mr Pomeroy and his son boarded the 12.58pm train service between Guildford and London Waterloo at London Road station on Friday afternoon. Police believe a brief row broke out leading to Mr Pomeroys death. Anna Soubry was called a Nazi by a mob while being interviewed outside Parliament (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) Tory MP Anna Soubry has hit out at Brexit protesters after being called a Nazi by a mob outside Parliament. The pro-EU MP for Broxtowe was interrupted while doing live interviews on Monday on College Green, across the road from the Palace of Westminster in the heart of London. With the home of British politics clear in the background, she was forced to stop talking during a BBC discussion while people off-camera could be heard shouting Soubry is a Nazi. Is this what its come to ...? @Anna_Soubry faces "nazi" taunts..... pic.twitter.com/NHNMULtbEK norman smith (@Thehackandhound) January 7, 2019 She told interviewer Simon McCoy: I do object to being called a Nazi, actually. I just think this is astonishing, this is what has happened to our country. But lets try and move on and be positive about things. Protestors also chanted slogans including Liar, liar throughout a live interview by Ms Soubry on Sky News. Speaking up to be heard over the chants, Ms Soubry told interviewer Kay Burley: I dont have a problem with people demonstrating and making their views heard. I have a real problem with people who call me a traitor or Soubry, you Nazi. That is a criminal offence and Im a criminal barrister. Im also a lass from Worksop, so I dont get scared by these people or intimidated. I was a reporter during the miners strike, so I dont feel physically intimidated. My difficulty is I want to respond and you mustnt, so Im really behaving myself. Ms Soubry said the incident was seriously worrying, adding: Im afraid the truth is that Brexit has unleashed these people. This is Britain now. This is not the country I know and love and these people do not represent our country and they need sorting out. She added: Im told that we should get used to it, but we shouldnt have to. Apparently its democracy in action and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) believe that no offences are being committed. The protesters were criticised by high-profile Brexit supporters including presenter Piers Morgan and Douglas Carswell, the former Conservative and Ukip MP. Writing on Twitter, Mr Carswell said: Small crowd shouting oafish chants at TV crew outside Parliament. Im not a great fan of the mainstream broadcasters, but such boorishness is out of line. Do they realise how much damage they do? Broadcasters carrying out live interviews outside Parliament have found themselves having to deal with noisy attempts at interruption from protesters from across the Brexit divide in the run-up to Marchs planned withdrawal. They include pro and anti-Brexit supporters who have shouted and waved flags during broadcasts. Just met some lovely Tommy Robinson fans and Iad love for you to get to know them too pic.twitter.com/iRom8GavNy Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) January 7, 2019 Earlier on Monday, the political commentator Owen Jones shared video on Twitter showing him being accosted by a group outside Parliament, including men wearing Union Jacks. They could be heard calling him a traitor and a horrible little man and accusing him of writing fake news. Theresa Mays official spokesman said he had not discussed the incident involving Ms Soubry with the PM, but added: The Prime Minister has been very clear that nobody involved in the political process should be subjected to abuse or harassment. They should be free to do their job without any form of intimidation and it is clearly unacceptable when that isnt the case. Asked whether MPs should be offered greater protection while the meaningful vote on Brexit is debated over the next few days, the PMs spokesman said: There are existing laws in relation to public order, harassment and making threats. Where laws are already in place, its important that they are respected. Labour MP Stephen Doughty raised the issue in the Commons during a Brexit question session and called on Speaker John Bercow to intervene. The Cardiff South and Penarth MP said: Can I urge you to use your offices with the Metropolitan Police at the highest levels to ensure that proper action is taken on this? Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay responded: Obviously I wont have seen the incidents outside but anyone who stands at this despatch box is always mindful of the plaque of Jo Cox, which I know is so dear to many, particularly on the benches opposite, but across the House. I think all of us would unite on that wherever people are on the Brexit debate all of us in this House should be able to air their views with respect. The Speaker said he was aware of incidents involving aggressive and threatening behaviour towards members and others by assorted protesters who have donned the yellow vests used in France. He said that it was a matter for the Metropolitan Police rather than Parliamentary authorities as it happened in the street, but added: Female members, and in a number of cases Im advised, female journalists have been subjected to aggressive protest and what many would regard as harassment. I can assure the House that I am keeping a close eye on events and I will speak to those who advise me about these matters. Police outside the address in Farnham (Lizzie Roberts/PA) A man accused of murdering a father who was on a train with his teenage son has appeared in court. Darren Shane Pencille, 35, allegedly stabbed 51-year-old Lee Pomeroy to death on Friday, a day before his birthday. Pencille, who is charged with murder and possessing an offensive weapon, appeared in the dock at Staines Magistrates Court wearing glasses and a grey prison-issue tracksuit. He spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, that his nationality is British, and said he had no address at a hearing lasting just over two minutes. Chair of the bench Helen Mattey remanded him in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court on Monday afternoon. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit the Wirral on January 14 (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to carry out their first official engagement of the year by visiting Birkenhead in Merseyside. Harry and Meghan will travel to the Wirral on Monday January 14 to see a number of organisations which support and empower groups within the local community. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit Birkenhead on Monday 14th January. Their Royal Highnesses will visit a number of local organisations that support and empower groups within the local community, including @TomorrowsWomen and @TheHiveYZ. pic.twitter.com/hC3Q5uK25n The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 7, 2019 The duke and duchess, who are expecting their first child in the spring, will visit Tomorrows Women Wirral, an organisation that supports women in vulnerable circumstances. It was set up in 2011 to support women on their release from prison, and now offers a range of training courses and workshops for more than 6,000 local women, including support groups around mental health issues, domestic abuse and addiction. Harry and Meghan will hear from some of the women about their experiences. The couple will also visit the Hive, Wirral Youth Zone, created by the charity OnSide Youth Zones, which is developing 21st century youth facilities across the UK. The Hive aims to provide a safe environment for young people to help them build key skills and raise their aspirations and confidence. The duke and duchess will also meet members of the public in Hamilton Square when they view a new sculpture marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Birkenhead war poet Wilfred Owen. The Scottish Government is consulting on new charity legislation (Anthony Devlin/PA) Charities could be struck off if they repeatedly fail to publish annual accounts of their spending and activities, under new proposals from the Scottish Government. Ministers are consulting on bringing in new legislation covering charities in Scotland, stressing the need to improve public trust and confidence in the sector. The proposed new charity law could require all organisations on the Scottish Charity Register to publish annual reports and accounts. If charities persistently fail to do so they could be removed from the register, and may no longer exist, under one of the options out to consultation. It comes after the Oxfam sex scandal in 2018 dented public confidence in the sector. Do you have a view about how charities should be regulated in Scotland? Today marks the opening of a new consultation on charity law. Communities Secretary @ClydesdAileen @scotgov are looking for your views. Get involved here ai https://t.co/HeFLrjTHjS Scot Gov Fairer (@ScotGovFairer) January 7, 2019 A survey by the Scottish Charity Regulator OSCR last year showed almost nine out of 10 people (88%) would trust charities more if they could see evidence of their achievements and how much cash from donations went to good causes. Scottish ministers are seeking to increase the transparency and accountability of charities. Other options put forward in the consultation include establishing an external register of charity trustees, and a requirement for all organisations on the Scottish Charity Register to have and retain a connection in Scotland. Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: Charities play a vital role in our society, from supporting individuals and communities, to informing policy at a national level, they are key to us achieving our ambition of creating a fairer and more prosperous country. It is therefore important that we do all we can to maintain and increase public trust and confidence in the charity sector and making sure legislation supports that. I would encourage anyone with an interest in the charity sector to share their views by responding to this consultation. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of a Missouri school district over its at-large school board elections, which a federal appeals court struck down last year as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The case involves the Ferguson-Florissant district, which serves all or part of 11 municipalities in suburban St. Louis, including Ferguson, Mo., where the police shooting of an African-American man sparked weeks of racial unrest in 2014. The seven-member Ferguson-Florissant school board was all white until 2014, the same year that Michael Brown was shot and killed in an altercation with a white police officer in Ferguson, sparking widespread street protests that focused on police and city policies. One African-American joined the board in 2014 before the state chapter of the NAACP, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the district alleging that the votes of black citizens were being diluted by the at-large voting system in violation of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. (There are now three African-American members on the board.) A federal district court ruled in 2016 that the plaintiffs had proved the preconditions for a Section 2 vote-dilution claim and that the totality of the circumstances indicated that the districts black voters had less opportunity to elect their preferred candidates than other members of the electorate. Last July, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, in St. Louis, unanimously affirmed the district courts ruling. The court rejected the school districts argument that a racial minority group cannot win a Section 2 claim there because African-Americans make up a majority of the voting-age population in the school district, about 50.3 percent based on the Census Bureaus 2011-13 American Community Survey. Minority voters do not lose VRA protection simply because they represent a bare numerical majority within the district, the appeals court said. The appeals court also said that the election of an African-American to the board in 2015, after the Michael Brown incident, could be construed as a special circumstance under the U.S. Supreme Courts tests for applying the VRA. That meant the victory by the black candidate that year did not detract from the district courts conclusion that there was white bloc voting that enabled the bloc to usually defeat the preferred candidate of minority voters. In its appeal to the Supreme Court in Ferguson-Florissant School District v. Missouri State Conference of the NAACP (Case No. 18-592), the district pointed out that its at-large election system was required by state law. It said that the 8th Circuit courts decision to permit a Section 2 case to go forward even when a minority group forms a numerical majority of voting-age population of the district conflicted with another circuit as well as Supreme Court precedent. Furthermore, this case raises issues of substantial importance as the district court has ordered a remedial plan (cumulative voting) that will only serve to harm the African-American community and undermine the very goals of the VRA, the district said in its appeal. The districts brief noted that the federal district court found that in Ferguson-Florissant school elections whites have tended to vote more along racial lines than African Americans have. If this is true the increased cohesiveness of the white vote will allow them to better exploit the cumulative voting system, the brief said. The NAACP plaintiffs did not file a response to the appeal, and the Supreme Court did not request one. The justices on Jan. 7 declined without comment to hear the school districts appeal. A Sinn Fein councillor in Limerick has objected to council plans for a 'One Giant Leap' theme for this year's St Patrick's Day festival. The Limerick Leader has reported that Councillor Seighin OCeallaigh said he was opposing the theme, and described the moon landing as "much-disputed" and "fake news". The Sinn Fein councillor said that the moon landing had nothing to do with Limerick and suggested that the funding should be spent on events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Limerick Soviet. Arts and Culture Officer with Limerick City and County Council Shelia Deegan explained that the event would not be a "commemoration of the moon landing," but rather marking the progress made in across the area. The theme is just an idea about recognising the growth in Limerick over the past number of years, she said. An estimated 70,000 people are expected to attend events during the St Patrick's Day festival. It is set to cost the council around 285,000 to run. Minister for Health Simon Harris has condemned those sharing information about Irelands first abortion procedure under the countrys new law on social media. Over the weekend, a post on social media alleged that the termination would take place in a specific Irish hospital on Monday. The Minister said he would not decide what is fact based on social media, and we should not try to know other peoples medical history. This week saw introduction of new abortion services in Ireland. Whilst it takes time for services to embed, we now have:https://t.co/b4N4aniPNn -providing info on all options a 24/7 helpline -1800828010 a More GPs signing up to provide the service -200 now a . 1/2 Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) January 5, 2019 I find it extraordinarily unedifying, I find it pretty darn despicable actually that somebody would take to social media, that anybody would take to social media and endeavour to create a public conversation about an individual patients care, he said. Any service that is provided legally in our country deserves to be treated with absolute respect and confidentiality of the patient must be to the fore. Ive spoke to the Director General about this this morning and the HSE shares this view, we will defend and protect any citizen accessing any health service, and the idea that people would effectively try and incite harassment of women and health care staff through online discourse is despicable and offensive and I dont think its any way reflective of how the large majority of the people in the country feel. Its an attempt to drag us back to pre-Repeal place and thats one place were not being dragged back to. If the information has been leaked from our health service, thats very very serious and I have no doubt the HSE will act accordingly. Expand Close Yes campaigners celebrate as the results are announced in the referendum (Niall Carson/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Yes campaigners celebrate as the results are announced in the referendum (Niall Carson/PA) Anti-choice protesters have been protesting outside doctors offices and hospitals in some areas across the country in the last week, and the Minister said he is fully committed to legislating for safe-access zones outside health care facilities. In many ways I find it quite sad that we have to, he said. That people would endeavour to intimidate people, be it doctors, nurses or midwives or people using the services is indeed upsetting. Im looking at pictures today of people standing outside hospitals and there are many people going in and out of that hospital today in many different circumstances and they should be able to freely access that hospital without any added burden of such a protest that could cause upset. I am committed to introducing safe access zones, this will take legislation, and on the basis of legal advice I made a conscious decision to decouple it from the substantive bill because I didnt want to delay the introduction of abortion services, I made a clear commitment to the women of this country and I didnt want to delay that. I will in the coming week or so endeavour to meet with with the opposition spokespeople in health to discuss how best we can work together to make safe access zones a reality. Around 1.42 million Irish people backed the repeal of the Eighth Amendment after a historic referendum in May, while 723, 632 voted in favour of its retention. Leo Varadkar said any Irish citizen was entitled to consular assistance (Tom Honan/PA) The Irish premier has said that a man captured in Syria by militants fighting Isis is entitled to consular assistance from the state. Speaking from Mali on Monday, where he is visiting Irish Defence Forces, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said: Ive only heard about that in the last short while. The information we have is that an Irish citizen has been taken into custody in Syria. We dont know the details of that so I cant comment on it in any detail but what I can say is that any Irish citizen around the world is entitled to consular assistance and will get that. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said it was looking into the matter but had not received any requests for consular assistance. It is understood the man is 45 and had lived in Dublin but left the country in 2013. He is believed to be among five suspected jihadists captured in Syria for allegedly fighting for Islamic State. The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces claimed they arrested the militants in the east of the country. Isis, which is now cornered in a small area after being cleared from large swathes of territory it once held, is suffering heavy losses due to operations of our forcesSpokesman, Syrian Democratic Forces A spokesman for the group said they included two US citizens and two Pakistanis. The operation Jazeera Storm, carried out with the aim of liberating the last regions under the occupation of Isis, continues steadily towards clearing the last bastions of the group, a statement said. Recently, in order to prevent the advance of our forces, terrorists have attempted to carry out attacks several times. In this context, a group of terrorists who had been preparing to attack the civilians who were trying to get out of the war zone in masses was detected. A spokeswoman for the Irish police service said the force was aware of the report. The individual may be identical to a naturalised Irish citizen who, it is understood, departed Ireland in 2013. An Garda Siochana is monitoring the reported development. An Irish citizen captured by Kurdish-led forces in Syria was seen as a "serious player" by gardai investigating the activities of suspected jihadis when he lived in Ireland. The 45-year-old held an Irish passport and lived in south Dublin for a couple of years. He was monitored by police until he and his family left the Republic in 2013 and travelled to Syria. He was named last night as Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, thought to be originally from Belarus. He worked in the fast food business in Dublin, but was suspected by anti-terrorist Garda units as a key player in providing logistical support to activists linked to Islamic State. Bekmirzaev was one of half a dozen people who left the Republic to fight for Islamic State and are believed to be still alive and operating in Syria. Bekmirzaev was suspected of producing false or forged documentation, including identity papers, and fundraising for those involved with IS in Syria and Iraq. He was arrested by the Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces as he and four others, two US citizens and two Pakistanis, fled towards a region controlled by Kurds and US forces to avoid capture by Syrian government forces. The captures on December 30 only became known in the Republic yesterday. The Northern Irish family of a teenager murdered in London have refused to watch an ITV drama about the police investigation into the fatal attack. Marsha McDonnell, whose father is from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, was among the victims of Levi Bellfield - one of England's most notorious serial killers. Marsha - a gap year student described as "beautiful and bubbly" - was brutally murdered in 2003 when she was aged 19, a short distance from her home in Hampton, south-west London. The drama Manhunt, which aired last night, focused on the investigation led by Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton - played by Martin Clunes - which brought about the capture of Bellfield in November 2004. Bellfield's other victims were Amelie Delagrange (22) killed in August 2004; Milly Dowler (13) whose body was found in September 2002; and Kate Sheedy (18) who survived his attempt to murder her in May 2004 . Bellfield is currently serving two whole life sentences, which means he will never be released from prison. But Marsha McDonnell's brother Jack said even thinking about his sister's killer evokes painful emotions. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Mc McDonnell, who was just five when his sister was slain, said: "I don't understand why this programme needed to be made. "People might be curious about the story, but I don't think it needs to be re-told. "It was a very difficult period for all involved and we don't like dwelling on it. "We want to move past it, so we are consciously ignoring the show." Mr McDonnell's music industry father Phil is a former tour manager for Fleetwood Mac, Clannad and Van Morrison. Jack's family, which includes his mother Ute and sisters Maya and Natalie, said the thought of what happened to his sister continues to provoke painful memories. He added: "Hearing his name (Bellfield) sets me off. "I bought a jacket once branded Bellfield, and even that was difficult. "One of my friends also has a boyfriend named Levi and it's always strange to hear that as well. "But as a family we don't think about him. We only think about Marsha positively, and not what happened towards the end of her life. "I remember she bought me the Spider-Man movie on DVD when it came out in 2002. Her giving me that movie shaped a large part of my childhood, because I'm really into Spider-Man now. "We always talk about her. I still find out things about my sister that I never really knew. I'm a self-confessed geek - I like comics and superheroes - and growing up I never felt my family got that. "But then I learnt later on that Marsha was also into that kind of stuff. Like we both watched The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "It was very weird, like a missing piece. She was artistic, and everyone remembers her as a lovely person. "A lot of people tell me I look like her, which is weird to hear. Everyone says I do the same faces as she did. "It's strange to think how differently I'd have turned out if she was still around. And it's sad because I've grown up never knowing what it was like to have another sister. "I walk past the cemetery where she's been laid to rest almost every day and say: 'Hi Marsha'. She's very much present in our lives." Leaders of the three main teaching unions in Northern Ireland will this week call for the Government to intervene to prevent an "unprecedented funding crisis" within the education system here. Geri Cameron, president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NI), said schools have faced a 10% budget cut over the past five years, yet the classroom population is at its highest for 20 years. She said this had put an increasing financial burden on parents. Ms Cameron, who is principal of Loughshore Educational Centre, will be among those giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Ms Cameron said: "Our schools are facing an unprecedented funding crisis. Without a functioning local Assembly, Westminster must intervene to stop any further damage to our education system. If this is not addressed immediately the detriment will be felt for generations to come. "We will be using this opportunity to give evidence to the committee to push for greater transparency in how funds designated for education reach children. We will be pushing for radical reform of the education system to ensure that sufficient funding is received and that those funds are used effectively. "Schools are having to ask parents to cover the cost of the most basic essentials, school buildings are crumbling, children with special educational needs are routinely being denied their right to a basic education due to resourcing constraints. Teachers and principals are doing their best with increasingly limited resources but this cannot continue, we are at breaking point." The delegation will insist there is a need for radical reform of the education system here and called for greater transparency in how the funding is distributed. Ms Cameron added: "Whilst public expenditure on education as a whole is similar to that received by England and Wales, by the time that money is sifted through central bureaucracy in Northern Ireland, the amount allocated per child at the school level is much less than neighbouring jurisdictions. "This is not right; our children are not worth less. "NAHT is aware that there are eight layers of bureaucracy between a child with special educational needs and the chief executive of the Education Authority. "It is vital that this inquiry sheds light on how education is funded and why so much is absorbed by central bureaucratic processes when the international trend is for more money to go the front line. "Northern Ireland schools are subjected to rigorous accounting and inspection processes, yet the centralised agencies who hold the purse-strings are not. "We do not currently have an Assembly to scrutinise and hold to account how education is funded." Ms Cameron said that without a Stormont education committee, Education Minister or a Public Accounts Committee, MPs must undertake this function. "The NI Affairs Committee inquiry must lead a programme of radical reform that will ensure we have a properly funded education system," she added. Customers are being duped into handing over their personal and financial details via fake TV Licensing emails. TV Licensing has issued a scam warning to Northern Ireland residents after receiving around 2,500 reports of fraudulent emails. The suspect emails claim recipients are owed a refund or state their billing information is out of date in order to dupe unsuspecting customers. Customers are then linked through to 'copycat' TV Licensing websites which ask them to input their personal and financial details. TV Licensing said they have recently seen a rise in calls about this scam and cyber crime watchdog Action Fraud has received around 2,500 reports of the suspect emails. "In common with other large organisations like HMRC, TV Licensing suffers from fraudsters sending scam emails to the public posing as genuine TV Licensing communications," said Alana Taylor, spokeswoman for the organisation. "TV Licensing will never email customers, unprompted, to ask for bank details, personal information or tell you that you may be entitled to a refund. "Anyone who has provided their details as a result of a fraudulent email should report it via ActionFraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040. If they have provided bank details, they should call their bank urgently." A TV licence costs 150.50 and is required to watch live TV or to watch or download shows on the BBC iPlayer. TV Licensing said there are a number of tips to follow to help identify scam emails, including looking out for those which don't include your name or those addressed directly to your email address. Phrases such as "Action Required" or "security alert" in the email subject line should also be treated as suspect. Poor grammar and spelling are also a red flag. It was reported this month that TV Licence scammers in London were caught out after spelling the word "licence" incorrectly in a fake email. It is thought that 10 deaths in Belfast since December could be drug-related. A Sinn Fein MLA has said it is "shocking and concerning" that there have been 10 suspected drugs-related deaths in the Belfast area since December. PSNI Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton told the BBC that while the cause of death in each case is not yet definitively know, the use of illegal or prescription drugs may have been a factor. Read More Sinn Fein MLA Orlaithi Flynn, who represents west Belfast, said: "News that ten people have died as a result of drug abuse in the greater Belfast area over the Christmas period is shocking and very concerning. "My thoughts are with all of those touched by these deaths and their families. "It is a stark reminder of the dangers of the abuse of drugs in our society. "I would appeal to anyone who is concerned about their own drug use or that of others and those worried they may have come into contact with any harmful substances to seek medical advice immediately and contact the many groups who are doing valued work combating the scourge of drug abuse." UUP MLA Rosemary Barton has accused Sinn Fein of the "glorification of terrorism" over comments made by a TD at the graveside of IRA man Sean South. Sinn Fein, however, said it would not "take lectures" from the UUP, which "operated a one party, apartheid state for over 50 years". Mrs Barton was speaking after Sinn Fein TD for Sligo-Leitrim, Martin Kenny, claimed that the failed terrorist attack on Brookeborough RUC station in 1957 in which two IRA men were killed, advanced the cause of Irish Unity. Read More Mr Kenny made the comments at a commemoration event on Sunday. IRA men South and Fergal O'Hanlon were killed during the attack at Brookeborough RUC station on New Year's Day. A Catholic RUC officer was also killed. What happened in Brookeborough in 1957 was not a brave stand," Mrs Barton said, "It was a failed terrorist attack in which a 14 strong heavily-armed IRA gang failed to take command of an isolated and poorly defended RUC station with only five officers inside. After the attack, in their rush to flee across the border again, the IRA abandoned the bodies of the dead Sean South and the dying Fergal OHanlon in a cow shed. A surgeon said at the subsequent inquest that if OHanlon had instead received medical attention in reasonable time his life could have been saved. "Yet you wont hear that in republican ballads or twisted Sinn Fein graveside orations." She continued: "Sean South was a terrorist, a well-known fascist and an anti-Semite, and yet Sinn Fein politicians continue to fall over themselves to deliver the annual oration at his graveside. Expand Close Rosemary Barton Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rosemary Barton "Its no different to IRA Leader Sean Russell who died onboard a Nazi U boat in 1940 as he was being returned to Ireland, was buried at sea with full Nazi military honours complete with coffin wrapped in swastika flag, and who has a statue in his memory in a Dublin park at which Sinn Fein representatives have regularly eulogised him from." Mrs Barton said that Sinn Fein continued to glorify the actions of the IRA. Unfortunately Martin Kenny TD is now just the latest to get involved in this twisted display of veneration. During his comments on Sunday Mr Kenny called Sean South a legendary figure," she said. "He claimed that South died because he recognised that partition had been a catastrophe and most hypocritically of all he then urged Republicans to act positively and to have an inclusive dialog, all the time standing by the grave of a bigoted IRA terrorist. This is just the latest example of Sinn Fein failing to understand for as long as they continue to glorify fanatics such as Sean South they will never be able to genuinely talk about their so-called Ireland of equals. In response to Mrs Barton's comments a Sinn Fein spokesperson said the Good Friday Agreement gives everyone the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect. Sinn Fein will take no lectures from a party which operated a one party, apartheid state for over 50 years and which used Special Powers to murder, detain and torture citizens, censored and banned political opposition and attacked peaceful protestors," the spokesperson said. From left: Rev Alan Smylie, Billy Smyth, chairman of the Seymour Hill community association, DUP councillor Jonathan Craig and DUP MLA Edwin Poots at the scene of a graffiti attack in Dunmurry Police are investigating after vandals daubed sinister graffiti on a church for the second time in a week. Local community leaders are baffled as to why Dunmurry Free Presbyterian Church, in the Seymour Hill housing estate, has been targeted in the attacks. Slogans were painted on the church wall accusing a local man of being a drug dealer, as well as a symbol representing a gunsight. The first attack happened on Tuesday night, and was discovered on Wednesday morning. The second - which saw the front wall of the church daubed with graffiti where worshippers would have to pass it to go inside - was discovered yesterday. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Minister Rev Alan Smylie said people were concerned that the church was being "used as a blackboard" for matters that were nothing do with it. "I have no idea who would have done this. No idea at all," he said. "I would ask them to desist, and to respect the church as a place of worship. Leave us alone and let us get on with our work in the local community. "It's unnerving for the congregation. This is a community church. I can't see why these people have decided to use it as a blackboard." Local councillor Jonathan Craig and former Stormont Minister Edwin Poots MLA condemned the attacks. "Anger is mounting in the Seymour Hill area that a place of worship has been desecrated by graffiti about drug users. "This has now happened twice within the last week and is completely unacceptable in this community. "Dunmurry Free Presbyterian Church has been a integral part of the Seymour Hill community for almost 40 years and is held in high regard by the entire community, which has left a sense of complete disbelief at what has happened here. "Both myself and my MLA colleague Edwin Poots have been to visit the church and show our support to the congregation," Mr Craig said. "We were pleased to see the support given by the local community group who are appalled about what has happened here, and we and are appealing to anyone in the community who may have information about who or why this is happening to give that information to the PSNI in order that they can apprehend whoever is doing this." A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that enquiries into the incident are under way. DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has insisted his party still wants to find a Brexit solution, but warned that a no-deal scenario was likely if the European Union did not change its position. Mr Dodds was speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday. Read More The DUP remain opposed to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal due to concerns surrounding the Irish border backstop, aimed at preventing a hard border in Ireland. A vote on Mrs May's deal is set to take place in Parliament on January 15. A previous vote in December was postponed to allow the Prime Minister to secure changes to the deal. However, Mr Dodds said concerns surrounding the deal had not been addressed, and that it would fail in Parliament in its current form, "The current deal is the worst of all worlds, because it doesn't satisfy remainers and it certainly doesn't satisfy Brexiteers," the North Belfast MP said. He said that under the current agreement laws for Northern Ireland would not be set in Westminster or Belfast, but in Brussels. "We want a good deal, that used to be Theresa May's view. She's the woman who insisted 'a bad deal is worse than no-deal'," Mr Dodds said. "The fact is we want a deal, but this is not the deal that is going to pass in the House of Commons. She knows that." The DUP deputy leader said that a recent statement from the Irish government confirming that they would not put up any border infrastructure in the event of a no-deal Brexit was "significant". "It proves the point we've been making that you don't need this backstop to ensure that there is no hard border infrastructure," Mr Dodds said. Asked if he agreed with former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's statement that "no deal is the closest thing to what people voted for in the referendum," Mr Dodds replied that his party still believed a Brexit deal is possible. "We need to ensure that what was promised during the referendum is actually delivered," he said. "I believe that we can get a deal with the EU that meets that criteria, but if we can't, if the EU obdurately insists on the withdrawal agreement in all its current form then we will be headed to a situation that nobody wants. "If we can't we have to face the reality that it won't be the UK, it won't be the British Government that got us into the situation, it will be those who insist on a protocol that nobody likes, nobody wants and yet they insisted on it." Four people, including two police officers, were injured as a stolen milk truck collided with six vehicles in west Belfast, a court has heard. One woman was knocked unconscious when the lorry struck her car while being driven the wrong way up a one-way street, it was claimed. Details emerged as a 23-year-old man appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court on 40 charges related to the weekend theft. Darren McGrath, of no fixed abode, is accused of 38 motoring offences, including aggravated vehicle taking causing injury, aggravated vehicle taking causing damage to a number of vehicles and driving while unfit through drink or drugs at Cavendish Street. He faces further counts of resisting police and possessing Class C drugs. McGrath denies being behind the wheel of the milk truck which was stolen in the Castle Street area on Saturday morning. But opposing bail, a PSNI officer claimed he was seen driving the lorry "dangerously and recklessly" across residential parts of the city. The court heard pedestrians and other road users were put at risk before it finally came to a halt. "It damaged six vehicles, causing injury to four people," she said. "One female was knocked unconscious from the direct impact on the driver's side of her vehicle when the milk van was driven the wrong way up a one-way street." District Judge Fiona Bagnall was told another of the injured, a male civilian, had to be taken to hospital with muscle spasms. Two PSNI officers were also said to be hurt when the lorry collided with their car, shunting it forward. "Police were not in pursuit, but they were following and trying to get the vehicle to stop," the officer added. She claimed McGrath appeared under the influence when he was arrested, with a quantity of drugs found on him. A defence solicitor stressed two people had been in the truck. He argued that police could not say if McGrath was the driver, adding that his client's shoe was found in the passenger side of the cab. According to the PSNI officer, however, a number of officers identified the defendant as the alleged driver. She added that the passenger had jumped out of the lorry before most of the collisions occurred. Refusing bail due to the risk of potential re-offending, Judge Bagnall said: "I'm concerned about the risk to the public." She remanded McGrath in custody to appear again by video-link in four weeks time. The Government's planning for Brexit has been branded "half-baked" after it emerged that the head of the Civil Service here warned the Northern Ireland Office before Christmas that officials were in the dark about what would happen on the border after March 29. In a letter David Sterling said: "We still await UK Government planning assumptions on specific impacts at the Northern Ireland border." Read More He also expressed concern about a possible increase in smuggling in the post-Brexit environment, as businesses might not comply with new legal obligations, "leading to the likelihood of a step change in the scale and significance of smuggling and organised crime". Mr Sterling added that "in practice we will probably see both of these behaviours arising". Reacting to Mr Sterling's concerns, Ulster Unionist Brexit spokesman Steve Aiken MLA said: "This is indicative of the entire approach that this Government has taken to all the issues around Brexit. Read More "This lack of any formal planning, this lack of any form of detail is indicative of a completely half-baked solution. "There seems to have been no forward planning, no detail about the real implications of how it will potentially affect businesses. "If the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service says he's not aware of what's needed and what's required, it's indicative of the whole approach by the UK Government and what it's trying to do." Read More The UUP has called on the Government to request an extension to Article 50 to allow time for detailed planning for Brexit. The Civil Service confirmed last night that the letter had been sent to the NIO and other Whitehall departments before Christmas. It's understood that because of the Christmas holidays, no response has yet been received to Mr Sterling's letter. Muckamore Abbey Hospital is recruiting 15 new members of staff after relatives of patients were told of "critical" staffing issues. The BBC has reported that a new service manager and day care manager are due to start at the hospital later this month. Read More Community groups are also set to get involved in working with patients. In December staff shortages forced the hospital to temporarily close their psychiatric intensive care unit. The unit is yet to reopen. Speaking at the time a Trust spokesman said the closure was due to safety concerns. "Our priority is to provide a safe service; to do this we have moved affected patients into other wards. "Doing this will ensure our staff are supported to provide a safe and person-centred environment for our patients with increased staffing ratio on these wards. "The families of those patients impacted have been informed," he said. More than 20 staff have been suspended due to concerns surrounding safeguarding procedures at the hospital. A report commissioned by the Belfast Trust to examine safeguarding procedures over the five years up to 2017 discovered a "culture of tolerating harm" at Muckamore. Police have said a nine-year-old boy who had gone missing has been found "safe and well" following an appeal. Jayden Law had gone missing in the Ballygawley area but has now been found, according to police. A Dublin man accused of money laundering offences is set to go to the UK's highest court in a bid to secure release from custody. John Gilligan was arrested at a Belfast airport last summer with a suitcase containing nearly 23,000 euros. The 66-year-old has been on remand in prison since then, with repeated bail applications denied. His lawyers told a High Court judge he has suffered discrimination compared to those being held while awaiting trial in other parts of the UK. They contended that unlike a 70-day maximum period operating in England and Wales, Gilligan has now been detained twice as long. Refusing leave to take an appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr Justice McAlinden ruled on Monday there was no point of law of general public importance. "The court is satisfied that there is no discrimination in this particular case," he said. But following the verdict Gillian's solicitor confirmed he will now petition directly for a hearing in London. Niall O'Murchu said: "We will be taking Mr Gilligan's case to the Supreme Court and asking it to rule on the issue of detention time limits for the north of Ireland." The accused, with an address at Greenforth Crescent, Dublin, was detained at Belfast International Airport on August 23 as he was about to board a flight to Alicante. At the time The National Crime Agency (NCA) said officers recovered around 23,000 euros from his luggage. He faces a charge of attempting to remove criminal property. At previous hearings the prosecution alleged he had "sold up" and was leaving Ireland behind for a new life in Spain. The money in his suitcase was said to have come from donations and the sale of belongings. One man had allegedly purchased a watch from him for 5,000 euros, the court was told. Gilligan's legal team insisted he only intended to rent a property in Spain for a limited period of time. Fresh attempts to secure his release in bail centred on claims of delay in the case. When that was turned down last month, defence lawyers launched the application for leave to go to the Supreme Court. They cited the maximum periods in England and Wales, and also Scotland, for an accused to be held in custody between a first court appearance and committal proceedings. Gilligan, it was contended, is now approaching 140 days detention. Counsel argued: "The applicant has been treated different in Northern Ireland than he would have been in Scotland or in England. "That is a difference in treatment on the basis of his status as a prisoner on remand in Northern Ireland." A homeless 'rough sleeper' in Belfast was rushed to hospital suffering from burns to his feet and legs after the tent he was sleeping in went on fire late on Saturday night. The man, who is in his 20s, was in his tent at Middlepath Street, close to the east bank of the Lagan, when the blaze started. The incident was spotted by a female volunteer for Reaching Out Homeless Support, who quickly fetched help, and got the injured man to hospital for emergency treatment. It's not yet known whether the fire was started deliberately, or was the result of an accident. A police investigation into the incident has been launched. Investigating officer Detective Sergeant Dane said: "It is believed that the fire may have started sometime before 9.45pm. "We are working to establish the cause of the fire and I am appealing for anyone who has any information that can assist with the investigation to contact detectives in Musgrave on 101." Belfast SDLP councillor Paul McCusker paid tribute to the swift actions of homelessness outreach volunteers who work to keep rough sleepers safe. "Without these selfless people out on our streets every night, things would be much worse for homeless people in the city," Mr McCusker said. The police have appealed for information after the Cloughey burglary. Pic Google Maps Police said "high value" items were taken in a burglary of a Co Down hardware store. Detectives said two men broke into Francis Watson hardware store in Cloughey in the early hours of Sunday morning. It's thought the thieves made off in a car. Constable Johnston said: The burglary at commercial premises in The Square area was reported to us at 1.50am. It was reported that a Jefferson Olympus 3.8kva petrol generator and a Honda high spec petrol generator were stolen. Its believed entry to the premises was gained around 1.05am yesterday. I want to appeal to anyone who was in the area and saw any suspicious activity, or any suspicious vehicles, or who is offered tools for sale similar to those reported stolen to get in touch. Anyone who can help us with our investigation is asked to call police in Newtownards on the non emergency number 101, quoting reference 120 of 06/01/19. "Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime." 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 Rape and child sex abuse cases in Northern Ireland face a "colossal delay" in reaching court - twice as long as in other parts of the UK - a retired senior judge has warned. Sir John Gillen said complainants in child sex abuse cases face a wait of 980 days between coming forward to police and the investigation proceeding to trial. Rape victims face a wait of 943 days. In both instances, this is double that of equivalent cases heard in England and Wales, Sir John said. In a interview with the Irish Times, the retired judge identified the lengthy delays, along with under-reporting of crimes and complainants withdrawing from cases, as major difficulties facing the judicial system here. Last year Sir John conducted an independent review into the law surrounding sexual offences, resulting in 221 recommendations for changes to the justice system. He said speaking to women - and some men - of their experiences of serious sexual assaults was the most "harrowing" part of his work for the report, which is due to be submitted to the Department of Justice next month. He said many of those he spoke to bought into rape myths and blamed themselves - a situation which he said must be robustly challenged. Sir John added that the two-and-a-half-years wait until the accused are tried is "getting worse each year" and was one of the reasons why so many complainants drop out of the system - around 40%. Only an estimated 18% of rapes against women are reported to police - a figure branded "chilling" and "astonishing" by Sir John. For men, just 4% rapes are reported. In 2017-18 just over 1,000 alleged rapes were reported to the PSNI - but around 5,000 went unreported. And in the remaining reported cases, there is a conviction rate of less than 6%. Addressing the case which saw former Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding cleared of rape, Sir John said changes in law are needed to ensure social media platforms are legally liable for what appears online. "There is a real danger that social media pollutes the stream of justice," he added. Social media companies should be deemed publishers in line with traditional media, he suggested. Referring to the naming of the female complainant in that case on social media - for which a man was later fined 300 in court - the senior judge said those who carry out offences like this should face heavier sentences, including the risk of prison. More effective case management between the Public Prosecution Service and the PSNI could reduce case delays, he suggested, and if juries were shown videos dispelling rape myths at the start of trials, complainants would have more confidence in the process. He also reiterated his support for naming the accused after they are charged, but did acknowledge it was extremely difficult for those acquitted of the offence. "Some have had to leave Northern Ireland, some spoke of being vilified on the street. I met one person who contemplated suicide," he revealed. He explained the naming of the accused may encourage other alleged victims to seek justice. "When you have people involved in really heinous offences - such as murder, manslaughter... why should they be named and people in rape cases not be? There has got to be an equality of the law in all this." Stressing the current judicial systems in the UK and Republic are the "envy" of other countries, he warned that significant funding and resources will be required to implement his recommendations. This, however, is something he said Northern Ireland cannot afford to ignore. Sir John cited a study estimating that the cost to society here of serious sexual crimes where the attacker and victim were not in a relationship was 257m in 2011-12. "In the area of serious sexual offences there is urgent and detailed repair required. We repeat what we do not repair," he said. A security alert is under way in County Fermanagh after what is believed to be a World War One shell was discovered. Picture: Ronan McGrade/Pacemaker Press A security alert is under way in County Fermanagh after what is believed to be a World War One shell was discovered. Picture: Ronan McGrade/Pacemaker Press A security alert is under way in County Fermanagh after what is believed to be a World War One shell was discovered. Picture: Ronan McGrade/Pacemaker Press A security alert is under way in County Fermanagh after what is believed to be a World War One shell was discovered. Picture: Ronan McGrade/Pacemaker Press A security alert is under way in County Fermanagh after what is believed to be a World War One shell was discovered. Picture: Ronan McGrade/Pacemaker Press A security alert near a PSNI station in Enniskillen has ended, police have confirmed. Homes were evacuated earlier on Monday after a suspected First World War shell was discovered during building work. Chief Inspector Graham Dodds said: During building work in the vicinity of the station earlier today what was believed to be a historic piece of munition, possibly from WWI or WWII, was discovered. A security operation was put in place, with nearby flats and a local park evacuated, and ATO were tasked. Expand Close The old munition found during building work. Credit: PSNI / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The old munition found during building work. Credit: PSNI We can confirm what had been unearthed was part of old munition, that posed no danger to the public. The scene has now been cleared and local residents who were evacuated have been allowed home. A number of premises which also had to close, have re-opened. The cordon on Lough Erne has also been lifted. We want to thank everyone who was affected by the operation for their patience as we worked to make the scene safe. The DUP has stepped up its opposition to the "toxic" Brexit deal, with deputy leader Nigel Dodds branding the backstop the "poison" affecting any vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons. He was speaking after the Prime Minister warned that the UK will be in "uncharted territory" if MPs do not back her Brexit plan. Mr Dodds said: "Theresa May still insists that what she has negotiated is a good deal. Read More "She should remember that it would already have been consigned to the bin but for her pulling the vote in December." He made the comments after Mrs May confirmed yesterday that the vote in Parliament would go ahead around January 15, despite speculation it could be delayed for a second time. Read More Mr Dodds blamed the EU and the Irish Government for rejecting efforts to rewrite the deal or find a compromise. "The responsibility for this lies primarily with the EU," he said. "EU spokespersons have gone out of their way to reiterate that there will be no renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement. "True to form the Dublin Government has quickly shut down any possibility of a breakthrough by its now familiar tactic of a fast and flat rejection of any form of compromise." Read More He added: "This is a time for the United Kingdom to make clear what it wants and needs for a withdrawal agreement to pass Parliament so that the EU is in no doubt as to what's required for a deal. "The backstop remains the poison which makes any vote for the withdrawal agreement so toxic. "The EU has shown in the past that it will move but only if faced with a resolute red line on the part of the UK Government. "The coming days will show if this Government is made of the right stuff." Since Mrs May pulled the vote Mr Dodds said the DUP had engaged with the UK Government in an attempt to move forward towards a deal that could command support in the House of Commons. But he said: "So far, the fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed." The Prime Minister, who is still seeking further guarantees from Brussels in an effort to win over critics ahead of the Commons vote, warned Brexiteers they risked derailing the UK's departure from the European Union if they did not back her deal. And she again rejected calls for a second referendum, saying it would be disrespectful to people who voted for Brexit in 2016. As MPs prepare to return to Westminster after the Christmas break, Mrs May said no alternative plan could respect the 2016 referendum result, protect jobs and provide certainty to citizens and businesses. And she promised further measures specific to Northern Ireland and a greater role for Parliament, and said "we are still working on" getting extra assurances from Brussels. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, she repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether she would keep putting the deal back to MPs if it gets rejected, instead saying: "If the deal is not voted on, this vote that is coming up, then actually we are going to be in uncharted territory. I don't think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we will see in Parliament." She said Labour was "playing politics" and opposing any deal to create "the greatest chaos" possible. "We have got people who are promoting a second referendum in order to stop Brexit, and we have got people who want to see their perfect Brexit. "I would say don't let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good because the danger there is that we end up with no Brexit at all," she added. The Commons vote on the withdrawal agreement, officially slated for the week of January 14, is expected to be held on Tuesday, January 15. Mrs May said it would be "that sort of time". Earlier, speaking in Los Angeles, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: "Parliament needs to understand that if we're not able to come to Parliament and get a deal, then we may end up leaving the EU with no deal." "Most people seem to say that's not what they want to see - well they better make up their minds before we get to a week on Tuesday because that's going to be a very key decision-making point." Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner suggested Labour could offer a referendum on a renegotiated Brexit deal. He said Labour's plan remained to push for a general election if Mrs May's deal was rejected, and then seek to negotiate a new deal with Europe. "The reason Theresa May has had such a botched set of negotiations is because of her red lines," he told Sky News. "If we as a new, incoming Labour government were to go to Europe without those red lines we know that we could get a different, better deal and that's what we want to try and achieve. "At that stage it makes sense to go to the country and to say 'here we are, this is what we have managed to negotiate, this is the deal that we have managed to conclude because we don't have the same red lines as Theresa May, we think it's a better way forward'." Kate Walmsley has won her case for state benefits (Michael McHugh/PA) A survivor of clerical child sex abuse in Northern Ireland, who said she felt interrogated by the benefits system, has been awarded state payments. Kate Walmsley has been left with a series of health complaints and lingering trauma. She met senior officials from the Social Security Agency in Belfast last autumn and has expressed concern over her treatment by staff during the transition to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit. I would love to work, but I could not copeKate Walmsley She said: I would love to work, but I could not cope. I am someone who would be very dedicated to whatever company I did work for, but I just felt overwhelmed by too many people. The West Belfast woman suffered abuse at the hands of a priest at a Sisters of Nazareth-run home in Londonderry. It has left her with a legacy of ill health, and she said she felt ashamed going for a benefits interview. She added: I was nearly hysterical, I was just in a bad way. Separately and unrelated to Ms Walmsleys case, the Department for Communities which oversees delivery of benefits in Northern Ireland has started a review of existing PIP claims awarded the highest level of support. It was seeking to identify those individuals who should have their award changed to an ongoing award, with a light touch review in 10 years. The administrative review exercise to look at all current PIP claims to check if customers are eligible for more support under PIP as a result of two upper tribunal judgments in Britain which changed the way PIP is assessed started on June 28 last year. At the end of November, about 10,900 cases had been cleared. A priest assaulted Ms Walmsley while she was a child. By the time she was 12, he was having sex with her, she told a public inquiry. She has waived her right to anonymity and is part of the Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse lobby group. Ms Walmsley said she had post-traumatic stress disorder, bulimia and a series of other health problems. The inquiry led by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart recommended a care package be established for survivors. Action on his recommendations was delayed by the collapse of powersharing. Meanwhile, the Government has confirmed that the full roll-out of Universal Credit, which covers housing and child tax benefits, is to be delayed. Sinn Fein Assembly member Alex Maskey said: They need to start listening and stop ignoring the evidence on the ground that Universal Credit has been a disaster. Stalling it wont fix it. Delaying it wont bring people out of poverty. It needs to be scrapped altogether. Tanaiste Simon Coveney has become embroiled in a bizarre war of words with former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over whose idea it was to build a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Speaking ahead of a major business and leadership summit in Dublin this week, Mr Johnson told the Sunday Independent the Tanaiste came to him with the idea of building a 35km-long bridge across the Irish Sea. The Conservative Party member said Mr Coveney's proposal for a bridge was "brave and right" and should be "seriously examined". Mr Johnson said: "When I was foreign secretary, my Irish counterpart Simon Coveney came into my office and said 'let's build a bridge' - and he wasn't being metaphorical. He was entirely serious." Yesterday, Mr Coveney dismissed the claim and insisted he was focused on Brexit negotiations. "There are 82 days to go to Brexit and we would not allow ourselves to get distracted by a bridge," he told the Sunday Independent. "In all my interactions with Boris I have made clear that protecting peace in Ireland and preventing a hard Border is my priority," he added. The Tanaiste said a "physical bridge is an engineering challenge for the future" and insisted he was focused on protecting the Good Friday Agreement. A source close to the Tanaiste said Mr Johnson's version of events was "complete nonsense". The source said the only time a bridge was discussed in negotiations with Mr Johnson was when the then Foreign Secretary mentioned it in passing prior to a meeting with Mr Coveney in Dublin. Mr Johnson has spoken several times in favour of building a bridge from Portpatrick in Scotland, to either Larne or Bangor. In comments which were made ahead of his highly anticipated appearance at the Pendulum Summit in Dublin's Convention Centre, Mr Johnson said: "The friendship and partnership between the UK and Ireland is so huge - and growing - that the day is surely coming when we should build a fixed link of some kind." He said that the UK buys "prodigious quantities of Irish drink" and eats "vast quantities of Irish cheddar cheese" while also depending on "Irish talent in every walk of British life". He added: "If we get Brexit right then I have no doubt that we can not only protect that trade but watch it grow at pace." Boris Johnson will be interviewed by the RTE broadcaster Bryan Dobson at the Pendulum Summit on Thursday. Brexiteers have favoured using technology in lieu of physical checks on goods on the frontier, which would require customs officers and could potentially require a police presence (Deborah McAleese/PA). Central to the Brexit negotiations was the need to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. In November EU leaders approved a withdrawal deal with the UK that includes an agreement on the Irish border, involving the controversial "backstop". Brexiteers argue that the arrangement, if ever triggered, would lock the UK into a permanent customs union with the EU, thus preventing Britain from striking lucrative new trade deals or fulfilling the promises of the 2016 referendum. The DUP, which gives Theresa May crucial Commons support, fears the backstop would see new regulatory checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Just what is the backstop? The backstop is effectively an insurance arrangement required by the EU and would see the UK enter into a temporary customs union with the EU if a future trade deal was not agreed during the transition period. It would ensure there is no need for customs checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Northern Ireland would also abide by EU single market rules on goods. Why is it controversial? According to its critics, there are two main problems with the backstop. The first, as revealed in legal advice provided by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to the Cabinet, is that the UK would not be able to unilaterally exit the mechanism without the EU's approval. The second is that the wording of the backstop means technically it could be indefinite. The Withdrawal Agreement says only that the provisions apply "unless and until they are superseded by a subsequent agreement". What does the Government say? Mrs May has consistently said that the backstop, if it comes in at all, would only be temporary and has insisted the UK and EU will reach an agreement over future trade in the transition period. She has been seeking "further clarifications" in a bid to allay fears. What does the EU say? Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insists there can be no changes to the backstop. He said he spoke to German chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday and they agreed to "stand by" the Brexit deal. The European Commission weighed in behind Mr Varadkar and confirmed "no further meetings are foreseen" with the UK on updating Mrs May's Brexit deal as negotiations have concluded. With the festive season over, it's time for many young people to focus their minds on more serious pursuits, like studying and exams. By the time students are old enough to take national exams, they tend to study using ingrained habits, believing they know what works for them. But just because how you study has worked (at least to some extent) in the past, doesn't mean it'll necessarily work again, warn education experts and authors Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin. Both have been sixth-form teachers and have learned that past success doesn't correlate with future success, and achievement isn't just about superior ability but about sticking to habits, routines and strategies that deliver results. So after speaking to thousands of students about how they study and what they do every day or week that makes a difference, Oakes and Griffin have written The Student Mindset (Crown House Publishing, 9.99) to identify the key traits and behaviours all students need to achieve their goals. "We work the way we work because that's how we've always done it," says Oakes. "Even when results at a new level of study suggest our approaches are no longer effective, we persist, doing more of the same, pedalling harder and hoping. "In many cases, students eventually give up, concluding they're not intellectually capable of study at a more challenging level. But they're often wrong. It's the non-cognitive elements of study that defeat them - the new habits, routines and approaches they'll need. New levels of study demand new tactics and strategies." And Griffin points out that while there's been plenty of debate around how much academic performance is predicted by inherited intelligence, it's actually the non-cognitive element of study - habits, systems and behaviours - that students can change as they grow. "Rather than debating precisely what proportion of our success is due to genetic predisposition, we should instead be supporting students in changing the ways they work as the programme of study demands change. This way, we prepare them more effectively for an uncertain future," he explains. Griffin and Oakes say the five key traits needed for academic success at any level are: Vision; Effort; Systems; Practice and Attitude (VESPA). 1. Vision The authors say determined and successful students know why they're going through the struggle of demanding study, and have strengthened their ability to defer gratification because they have a goal in mind which pulls them forward. "We've seen the impact a magnetic goal can have on learners," says Griffin. "But goal setting needs to adjust as students grow. It isn't just a case of plucking potential grades from the air and hoping for the best - high-vision students are increasingly aware of who they are and what they stand for, and this growing self-awareness allows them to create a compelling vision of what success looks like, and what the future holds for them." So, for example, they don't just focus on wanting to be a doctor, they know why, such as believing equal access to healthcare is crucial. "This way, they can persist for longer and stay positive during difficult times," explains Griffin. 2. Effort The authors stress successful students equate their academic success with hard work. "Putting effort into study isn't a symptom of weakness for these people. They've surrounded themselves with peers who feel the same and are exacting in their standards and expectations of themselves," stresses Oakes. As students begin working at a higher level, the successful ones incorporate - subconsciously in some cases - ideas about everyday signals (or leading indicators) telling them how much effort they're putting in. Plus, they "snack on learning rather than binge", so they might read a chapter of a textbook per week, summarise their notes in four half-hour sittings, write an essay in stages, or review their understanding by testing themselves on a topic. "In short, they actively set themselves work," says Oakes. "This switch from the passive completion of directed tasks, to the active sequencing of independent study sessions that work as leading indicators - a crucial part of unlocking higher levels of effort." 3. Systems Successful students have developed systems that allow them to organise time and resources, say Griffin and Oakes, so they have neat files and folders, complete with handouts methodically arranged, so they can make connections between useful materials and therefore learn faster. They prioritise according to need and impact, and meet deadlines. 4. Practice Successful students work on their weaknesses, spending uncomfortable study time operating at the edge of their ability, isolating the things they can't do and fixing them. They complete extra work for handing in, done under timed conditions, and then pay close attention to feedback. Oakes says many students hit crisis point when revision strategies used successfully in the past suddenly seem useless, as once information is fully absorbed, it then has to be used to analyse unfamiliar data, solve a problem or construct an essay argument. "For students loyal to memorising information, this can be a shock," says Oakes. "High practice students learn to adjust the way they revise, mastering the content as the course goes on so the bulk of their preparation involves high stakes exam-style problem solving. They are calmer and better prepared as a result." 5. Attitude Successful students know two things that unsuccessful ones don't: Failure is an important part of success, and learning is composed of a series of sharp inclines, plateaus and setbacks. Mastery happens slowly through deliberate effort and application. Griffin explains: "All students face 'the dip' - when progress halts and backslides. It might have happened before, but what works at one level - reconnecting with our successes, reminding ourselves of our positive qualities, comfort eating and watching a bit of TV - might need adjustment as challenges arise more frequently." High attitude students have a broader and more robust range of tactics when times are tough, such as a strong support network they regularly rely on, because they don't equate asking for help with intellectual inferiority. "And they have techniques for handling stress," says Griffin. "They know exams are not a test of their self-worth." A Co Armagh food firm that supplies some of the UK's biggest supermarkets expanded its workforce by 10% last year A Co Armagh food firm that supplies some of the UK's biggest supermarkets expanded its workforce by 10% last year. New accounts for Avondale Foods revealed that despite pre-tax profits dipping 42% to 2.6m for the year to March 31, 2018, turnover rose 1.5% to 51.5m. The Lurgan company specialises in wet salads, such as coleslaw and potato. It also makes side salads, salad meals, vegetable accompaniments, porridges, soups, and dressings. Customers include Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. The accounts outline a period of sustained growth for the firm. It significantly increased its workforce to 443 over the 2017/18 financial year, recruiting 41 new production staff. The report said that 2017/18 had been a year of major investment. "This financial year has seen the continuation of a significant investment regime in the company, increasing capacity and making ready for new product opportunities in line with the company's strategic goals," it states. The directors said they expect further growth this year through a combination of product development, product efficiency and building key customer relationships. Last July Avondale announced a deal with Asda to produce 20 lines of the supermarket's 'own brand' salads. At the time it said the move would create up to 60 jobs. The new staff for the year to March 31, 2018 resulted in workforce-related costs rising from 9.5m to 10.6m, with the new production workers pushing the firm's wage bill up by 1m. It also revealed how 433,255 was paid out in remuneration to the company's directors. But the report does not detail any dividend paid out for 2018, unlike 2017, when a 2.9m sum was recommended. Avondale benefited from 1.2m in government grants during 2017/18. Founded by brothers Harry and Derek Geddis in 1965, Avondale Foods has become one of our biggest agri-food success stories. In the past five decades the business has gone from selling vegetables grown on the family farm to local markets and shops, to stocking UK supermarket giants. The products made in Lurgan bear the Country Kitchen label, as well as 'own-brand' labels for the likes of Asda and Tesco. More than a third of payments owed to small firms based in Northern Ireland by larger business customers are settled after 30 days, new research shows. According to the study by Lloyds Bank and the UK's small business commissioner, 34% of invoices issued by small businesses here take longer than 30-day payment terms, which is above the national average of 32%. Invoices are taking, on average, 41 days to be paid to small local firms - four days longer than the national average of 37 days and well above the small business commissioner's recommended exemplar of 30 days. It places us alongside the East Midlands as the joint second worst part of the UK for small firms to be paid by large customers, only behind Yorkshire and The Humber. As a result of the research, Paul Uppal, the UK's small business commissioner, is to recommend a traffic light warning system to give small firms a signal about which large businesses pay their bills late. The study, based on data from 7,010 companies, found that 65% of large firms in the UK have an average bill payment time of more than 30 days, while one in five (21%) reports an average bill payment time of 50 days or more. Mr Uppal suggested that larger companies are in effect using their supply chain to finance their businesses. "The effect of late payment on small firms in Northern Ireland can be devastating," he said. "It impedes business growth, but also has an impact on the lives and mental health of those running small firms." A retail warehouse in Belfast's Sandy Row neighbourhood is to make way for a 4m apartment complex. (stock photo) A retail warehouse in Belfast's Sandy Row neighbourhood is to make way for a 4m apartment complex. Benamara Properties' planning application for 42 apartments, which was approved by Belfast City Council last month, will be the latest modern high-rise development along the Shaftesbury Square end of the Donegall Road. The island-type site, between Gaffikin Street and Donegall Road, contains the warehouse and a series of small local retailers. The location has been identified for residential development since 2007, when a similar flats complex was approved. But the latest incarnation of the project from the Ballyclare developer still faced some local opposition from the Sandy Row Community Forum. The objection was to "over-development" in the area, with the forum arguing that the 42 apartments would not benefit the local community. While planning officials accepted the project lies adjacent to a high density of apartments already, it said the principle of developing the site had been accepted in older approved applications. Accordingly, permission was granted. Meanwhile, the English firm behind the recently completed 18m Portland complex on the Ormeau Road containing 88 apartments has downsized its proposal for an adjacent seven-storey project. Barnett Developments had originally proposed 49 flats for the vacant site at the junction of Donegall Pass and Ormeau Road in 2017. Last month it submitted a revised version of the scheme to Belfast City Council's planning department, reducing it to 38 units. Founded by Nick Barnett in Bristol, the company, which specialises in city centre apartment projects, said last year it was looking to acquire a third site in Belfast city centre. Mercy Hospital Fort Smith (Ark.) hired two 24-hour neurosurgeons to build out its new neurosciences center, according to the Southwest Times Record. Here are five notes: 1. The hospital began a $10 million healthcare initiative to raise money for the neurosciences center. The 16,000-square-foot space will allow Mercy Fort Smith to perform various surgeries it otherwise had to transfer. 2. Between 1962 and 2016, Mercy Fort Smith offered 24-hour neurological care. However, now only two neurosurgeons, who are late in their careers, provide care to community members. 3. With the lack of neurological expertise, Mercy Fort Smith had to transfer nearly 2,200 neurological cases annually, including more than 700 neuro-trauma patients and 1,500 spine patients. 4. Husband and wife Ken Foxx, MD, and Kate Foxx, MD, will join the hospital in August. While Mercy Fort Smith is building the neurosciences center, the two will perform spine and back procedures at Mercy Orthopedic Hospital in Fort Smith. 5. Dr. Ken Foxx earned his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine in New York City and completed his residency at the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. Dr. Kate Foxx earned her medical degree from Jagiellonian Universitys Collegium Medicum in Krakow, Poland and completed her residency at Strong Memorial Hospital. Melbourne, Fla.-based First Choice Medical Group welcomed orthopedic surgeon Allison Wade, MD, according to Space Coast Daily. Here are three details: 1. Dr. Wade specializes in ankle and foot injuries and disorders. 2. She is a member of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society. 3. After earning her medical degree from Memphis-based University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Dr. Wade completed her residency at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. She then underwent foot and ankle fellowship training at Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Bone and Joint Institute. A patient at a Franklin, Wis., hospital died of heart disease hours after being sent home to wait for a bed to be freed up for him, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The patient, 46-year-old Spendi Rusitovski, visited the Ascension Southeast Wisconsin hospital Dec. 17 with chest pains. The hospital ordered a sonogram test for him that uncovered "an issue," and his primary physician wanted to admit him "due to the serious nature of the sonogram results," according to police and medical examiner reports. But the hospital did not have available beds early that afternoon, so Mr. Rusitovski and his wife were instructed to return to their home and wait for a call when a bed became available, his wife said. The reports did not say what time they left the hospital. About 9 p.m., Mr. Rusitovski was driving when his SUV crossed the center line and went into oncoming traffic. He crashed into a telephone pole and landed in a ditch. Mr. Rusitovski told the first police officers on the scene he felt chest pains and needed to get to an emergency room, and by the time he was moved to a gurney, he was unconscious. Life support was unsuccessful, and he was declared dead in the ambulance. As part of its investigation into Mr. Rusitovski's death, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office got records from the hospital and found that he had been turned away earlier. The report did not offer more detail about his visit or the results of his sonogram test. Mr. Rusitovski's cause of death was "coronary artery disease," the medical examiner ruled. Ms. Rusitovski has retained an attorney to investigate her husband's death. An Ascension spokesperson declined the Journal Sentinel's request for comment, citing privacy laws. Editor's note: Becker's Hospital Review reached out to Ascension for comment and will update the report as more information becomes available. A former Cleveland Clinic physician who was fired from the institution for posting anti-Semitic comments on social media released a formal apology in a letter through her lawyer, Time reports. Lara Kollab, MD, worked as a supervised resident at the Cleveland Clinic from July through September 2018, but is no longer employed by the system, according to a Dec. 31 statement from the institution. Dr. Kollab faced criticism last week after a string of tweets made between 2011 and 2013 were made public. The comments included derogatory references to Jewish people, among other statements. In one tweet, she claimed she would purposely give Jewish patients the wrong medications. Cleveland Clinic said in an updated Jan. 2 statement that when it learned of Dr. Kollab's social media posts, it "took immediate action, conducted an internal review and placed her on administrative leave. Her departure was related to those posts and she has not worked at Cleveland Clinic since September." In her apology letter obtained by Time, Dr. Kollab said she became "incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation" after traveling to Palestine and Israel every summer as a teenager. "As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land. Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause," she said in her apology. "I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance and humanity. I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or culture," she continued. To access the full report, click here. Stephen Klasko, MD, president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health both in Philadelphia told CNBC medical schools' recruiting process relies on antiquated measures to recruit future physicians and routinely "suck the creativity out of physicians." Rather than evaluating potential candidates on their critical thinking, entrepreneurship and empathy skills, medical schools continue to screen students who can memorize large swaths of information and compete with each other. "We need to make medical students more human. The way things are today is that you can be the most antisocial person in the room, but if we train you to pass a multiple choice test you can go and treat sick patients," he told CNBC. Thomas Jefferson is joining the ranks of other top-rated medical schools like New York City-based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and turning to unconventional methods used by tech companies to recruit more creative, empathetic students to potential careers in medicine. He said Jefferson taps students from humanities majors and design and drama schools to convince them to study medicine. The institution also has a partnership with Princeton (N.J.) University to allow roughly a dozen students to take the minimum number of required science courses and study whichever subjects they want before enrolling in medical school. "At some point, the real bar should be whether or not [physicians] can actually listen to patients and talk to them," Dr. Klasko added. To access the full report, click here. Two surgeons filed a lawsuit Jan. 4 against Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., claiming they were wrongly suspended after reporting concerns about the competency of a colleague, WOWT News, an NBC affiliate, first reported. The lawsuit was filed by Mark Puccioni, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon, and Jason Miller, MD, a plastic surgeon, who both had practicing privileges at Children's Hospital & Medical Center. According to the lawsuit, Dr. Puccioni was encouraged by the hospital CEO to hire pediatric neurosurgeon Adam Conley, MD. After hiring Dr. Conley in 2017, Dr. Puccioni reported concerns about Dr. Conley's ability as a surgeon. The lawsuit alleges Dr. Conley subsequently spread rumors that Dr. Puccioni was abusing drugs. Dr. Puccioni had to undergo drug testing and a psychological evaluation. After one of Dr. Conley's patients died during surgery last fall, Drs. Puccioni and Miller again reported their concerns to hospital administration. The lawsuit alleges Drs. Puccioni and Miller were suspended days after reporting their concerns. It also alleges hospital President and CEO Richard Azizkhan, MD, and Dr. Conley intentionally tried to destroy their reputations and practices. The hospital stood by its CEO and Dr. Conley. In a statement to WOWT, it said: "Children's Hospital & Medical Center does not comment on pending litigation other than to say we strongly disagree with these allegations. We stand behind our executive leadership, medical team and our processes, and are confident that these claims against our hospital, Dr. Azizkhan and Dr. Conley will be proven to be without merit." Shortly before filing the lawsuit, 10 surgeons resigned from Children's, including Dr. Miller, according to WOWT. More articles on leadership and management: Corner Office: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia CEO Madeline Bell on how to cultivate culture Alabama health system will give employees, dependents health career scholarships Palmetto Health cuts 140 jobs Zuckerberg San Francisco General's decision to remain out of network with all private health plans can cost policyholders tens of thousands of dollars through balance billing, according to a Vox investigation. Here are five things to know: 1. Zuckerberg San Francisco General, which underwent a name change after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, MD, donated $75 million to the hospital, is the city's largest public hospital and houses San Francisco's only top-tier trauma center. 2. However, privately insured patients brought to the hospital's emergency room, either by ambulance or another form of transportation, often pay significantly more for the services they receive at Zuckerberg than they would if they went to another hospital, according to Vox. 3. That's because while most large hospital ERs negotiate prices for services with private health plans, Zuckerberg isn't in network with any private health plans subjecting many patients to balance billing practices. 4. A Zuckerberg hospital spokesperson confirmed with Vox it doesn't network with any private health insurer, and said the practice is normal. "It's a pretty common thing," spokesperson Brent Andrew told Vox. "We're the trauma center for the whole city. Our mission is to serve people who are underserved because of their financial needs. We have to be attuned to that population." 5. But most billing experts told the publication it's rare for a major hospital like Zuckerberg to be out of network with all private health plans. Nearby trauma centers in Davis, Calif., and Portland, Ore., and most other public trauma centers advertise the private plans they network with on their websites. "According to what I've seen, that's unusual," Christopher Garmon, PhD, an economist at the University of Missouri Kansas City, told Vox. "I've heard anecdotes of some hospitals trying a strategy like this, but my impression is that it doesn't last very long." To access the full report, click here. More articles on healthcare finance: Pennsylvania hospital closure will result in 505 layoffs 3 hospitals close in Kansas, Tennessee Average hospital expenses per inpatient day across 50 states South Pasadena, Calif.-based Golden Shore Medical Group, which includes 16 clinics, plans to shut down Jan. 31. Mario Molina, MD, acquired the clinics from Molina Healthcare after he was unexpectedly fired in 2017. Dr. Molina and the company are still at odds, and Molina has decided to let its contract with Golden Shore Medical Group lapse as of Feb. 1. "It appears to be not so much a business decision, but a spiteful, personal decision. They're effectively trying to drive us out of business," Dr. Molina told the Los Angeles Times in December regarding the impasse in contract negotiations with Molina. In a letter accompanying the WARN notice, Dr. Molina cited the loss of the Molina contract as the reason Golden Shore Medical Group is shutting down. "Our story began nearly 38 years ago with one clinic and the pursuit to be an exemplary organization, " Dr. Molina wrote. "But as you are aware, our aspirations have been cut short due to the loss of the Molina Healthcare contract. Although we had hoped to weather the storm, the business decline as a result of the loss of the agreement makes it very difficult to justify keeping Golden Shore Medical Group open beyond Jan. 31, 2019." Golden Shore Medical Group's leadership team is exploring options to transfer ownership of the clinics. The group has signed letters of intent to sell its 12 clinics in Southern California to AltaMed and to sell its three clinics in the northern part of the state to WellSpace. "While there are no guarantees on this front, we will keep you abreast of any developments," the letter accompanying the WARN notice states. Golden Shore's employees will be released from their duties Feb. 15. The 270 employees affected by the shutdown will receive a severance package of two weeks of standard pay and healthcare coverage benefits through March 31. More articles on healthcare finance: Average hospital expenses per inpatient day across 50 states Pennsylvania hospital closure will result in 505 layoffs Physicians at 3 Pennsylvania hospitals mull legal action after working weeks without pay Here are 46 expert revenue cycle management tips, published by Becker's Hospital Review in 2018. 1. Tom Romeo, general manager of healthcare IT and Quanum Solutions at Quest Diagnostics, recommended hiring the right staff and utilizing their strengths appropriately. 2. Erica Franko, senior vice president and managing director of advisory and implementation services at RCM company nThrive, recommended that hospitals address patient liability by focusing on the patient experience and staff. 3. Rebecca Farrington, chief revenue officer at Healthcare Administrative Partners, recommended properly educating patients about separate billing at the time of service. 4. Peter Angerhofer, principal at Colburn Hill Group, recommended using advanced technology to target smaller subsets of claims. 5. Deborah VanCleave, vice president of revenue cycle at St. Joseph, Mo.-based Mosaic Life Care, recommended hospitals focus on the patient's perspective. 6. Ms. VanCleavealso recommended that hospitals view the revenue cycle as a brand ambassador. 7. Dan Berger, national director of healthcare at AxiaMed, a healthcare financial technology company, advised hospitals to take steps to ensure compliance with HIPAA and payment card industry requirements with regard to patient payment collections. 8. Gerilynn Sevenikar, vice president of revenue cycle at San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare, said hospitals need to make sure they give their patients personal, customized service. 9. Parag Shah, president of practice solutions at Integra Connect, a provider of technologies and services for value-based specialty care, advised specialty medical practices to focus on performance optimization and risk management to ensure their revenue cycles meet new value-based care requirements. 10. Elaine Dunn, vice president of system integration for Craneware, a value cycle company, said it is critical that hospitals and health systems examine how the organization's clinical systems integrate with the chargemaster. 11. Jenna Tropea, online marketing strategist at ImagineSoftware, a provider of billing automation software and revenue management applications, recommended hospitals track claim denial resolve rate to improve revenue cycle performance. 12. Rebecca Marsh, vice president of advisory services at nThrive, a revenue cycle management company, advised hospitals to conduct a comprehensive review of their chargemaster to prepare for the CMS price transparency rule taking effect Jan. 1. 13. Mark Mele, vice president of sales at Casetabs, a cloud-based surgery coordination technology provider, said hospitals should remember the importance of reducing operating room delays and last-minute cancellations as they seek to improve financially. 14. Kevin Smith, vice president of product management at nThrive, recommended hospitals use online estimator tools to help patients understand their potential out-of-pocket costs. 15. Gary Long, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of R1 RCM, a provider of technology-enabled healthcare revenue cycle management services, advisedhospitals to include both clinical interactions and nonclinical interactions when considering net promoter scores. 16. Allen Latham, vice president of revenue cycle management at TriZetto Provider Solutions, a Cognizant Company, said hospitals should focus their revenue cycles on healthcare consumers as well as healthcare "prosumers," who gather their own health data via a wearable or sensor. 17. Dr. Dar Griffeth, senior vice president of revenue cycle management services at Pulse Systems, said lowering the number of days a bill is in accounts receivable is one way to reduce the cost to collect on the bill. 18. Bo Shi, assistant professor of finance at Morehead (Ky.) State University, said data analytics using technology to examine and make conclusions from data sets can help hospitals and health systems improve revenue cycle performance. 19. Scott Friesen, CEO of Newport Credentialing Solutions, an outsourced provider for privileging and credentialing solutions, said credentialing software which helps manage the process of establishing a provider's qualifications, board certifications, work history and references should be integrated with provider-payer contract data. 20. Lyman Sornberger, president and CEO of consulting firm Lyman Health Care Solutions, said that hospitals should "capture insurance coverage at the benefit level" and "invest in pre-service validation with the patient and insurance for high-end service." 21. Jay Garmon, product manager of patient responsibility at Waystar, said hospitals should establish programs to help patients pay their medical expenses. He gave the example of consistently offering cost estimates to patients before procedures, so they can financially plan for their out-of-pocket costs and seek financial assistance if needed. 22. Jonathan Wiik, author of Healthcare Revolution: The Patient is the New Payerand principal for healthcare strategy at TransUnion Healthcare, said hospitals should use technology to evaluate propensity to pay. 23. Paul Shorrosh, founder and CEO of AccuReg Software, said standardizing and automating front-end processes, such as registration, helps eliminate revenue cycle errors. 24. Paul Brient, CEO of PatientKeeper, said it's important that healthcare executives cultivate an atmosphere that fosters collaboration with physicians toward hospital goals. 25. David Shelton, CEO of PatientMatters, said hospitals should consider a patient's traits when establishing a payment plan. Establishing payment plans that include current credit information, payment history for financial obligations, residual income and other unique patient statistics should all be considered in the billing process, he said. 26. Erica Franko, senior vice president and managing director of advisory and implementation services at nThrive, recommended hospitals address patient liability by focusing on the patient experience and staff. "Many patients remember the days of the co-pay and are now confronted with more complex forms of liabilities. Ensuring that your staff is prepared to explain these liabilities is paramount to patient and staff satisfaction," Ms. Franko told Becker's. "Be sure to also prioritize point-of-service collections. Patients are more likely to pay upfront, especially if they understand how much and why they owe, and they are provided support options, if needed." 27. Jim Dougherty, CEO of Madaket Health, recommended cutting out manual, error-prone processes in payer-provider transactions. He said healthcare organizations should automate enrollments necessary for payments. 28. Lyman Sornberger, vice president of client development at Charles J. Hilton and Associates law firm, provided three operational processes in revenue cycle management to respond to insurance claim denials. These processes include informal and formal appeals. He said providers also may bring in a third-party healthcare attorney to respond to denials. 29. Kevin Smith, vice president of product management at nThrive, said hospitals should use technology to examine changes before bills are sent to patients and identify areas of potential charge discrepancies. 30. Heather Bassett, MD, CMO of Xsolis, recommended using objective analytics to work with payers during case management. 31. Tyler Kurasek, a principal at Colburn Hill Group, an end-to-end revenue cycle solutions firm, recommended looking to analytics when using robotic process automation to improve RCM. "Using analytics to find patterns of claims that may not have the same characteristics, but require the same next step, is one way to build a volume of tasks that justifies using a robot," he said. "Once the patterns are identified, and the robot is built, managers need to monitor its use and activity to ensure not only that all claims which qualify are being processed, but also that any new populations which should qualify are included." 32. Tom Romeo, general manager of healthcare IT and Quanum Solutions at Quest Diagnostics, said hospitals and health systems must identify the cause of insurance claim denials to ensure proper and timely payment. 33. Tara Dwyer, vice president of audit operations at Xsolis, recommendedhospitals prioritize claim denial appeals based on the clinical merit of individual cases. 34. Monte Sandler, executive vice president of revenue cycle management at DocuTAP, recommended healthcare providers follow appropriate billing guidelines for each contract with third-party payers. 35. Rebecca Haymaker, director of Epic services at Parallon Technology Solutions, recommendedhospitals educate patients and staff to achieve a successful point-of-service collections program. 36. Jason Considine, senior vice president of patient access, collections and engagement for Experian Health, recommended hospitals closely examine online reviews from patients to gain insights to improve customer satisfaction and boost payments. 37. Amber Luliano, product manager of denial management at Waystar, recommended that hospitals invest in an effective denials program to prevent denials and ensure they recoup maximum revenue for services. 38. Eric Nilsson, chief technology officer of the SSI Group, a revenue cycle solutions company, recommended that hospitals improve cybersecurity by implementing an established security framework that meets organizational needs without being overbearing. 39. Deepti Sharma, director of product management at HSBlox, said blockchain and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms provide the answer for healthcare organizations seeking to reduce claims denials and ensure maximum provider reimbursement. 40. Rebecca Farrington, chief revenue officer at Healthcare Administrative Partners, recommended that hospitals gain insight by collaborating with hospital-based physicians. 41. Andrew Trechsel, senior associate at executive search firm Witt/Kieffer's healthcare practice, said career stability and ambition should be a key focus for revenue cycle consultants. 42. Ryan O'Hara, chief revenue officer of Flagstaff-based Northern Arizona Healthcare, recommended focusing more on yield with respect to clinical documentation integrity. 43. Kenneth Miller, senior revenue cycle management specialist at Cantata Health, recommended using a hospital's RCM team to gain various insights that can result in improved performance. 44. Eric Ritchie, COO of Grantsville, W.Va.-based Minnie Hamilton Health System, recommended using one platform to keep track of revenue cycle management processes. 45. Kevin Lathrop, president of TriZetto Provider Solutions, a Cognizant company, said hospitals and health systems should focus on price transparency as they pursue the retail-like financial experience patients seek in today's healthcare environment. 46. Leonard Wenyon, vice president of revenue cycle management solutions at IKS Health, said focusing on insurance verification can help providers improve patient payments. More articles on healthcare finance: Hospitals' outpatient revenue inching closer to inpatient revenue 340B hospitals saw greater per-patient drug spend than counterparts, study finds Moody's affirms 'A1' rating for Lexington County Health Services District On April 18, 1775, the shot heard round the world allegedly began the American Revolution; 87,986 days later, Miami-based Gastro Health partnered with Audax Private Equity, marking the first major PE-investment in the GI space. From 'bad idea' to the next big thing Miami-based Gastro Health was one of the first gastroenterology practices to explore and the first to partner with a PE company, selecting Audax Capital in 2016 after a two-year search process. The hunt for a PE partnership started in 2014, when few practices saw the benefits of taking on an investor, Gastro Health President James Leavitt, MD said. "I spoke to groups several times before we did our deal to see if they wanted to join," Dr. Leavitt said. "A lot of people thought it was a bad idea." For Gastro Health and Dr. Leavitt, taking on a PE-partner was less about doing a deal and more about implementing a strategy and a vision. Gastro Health was already a prolific consolidation force, acquiring several practices from 2006 to 2014, and growing from 27 physicians to 47 physicians, but Dr. Leavitt said he had a vision for more. "Since [we closed the deal], we went from 47 physicians in June 2016 to more than 120 today," Dr. Leavitt said. "And we aren't just a group of gastroenterologists. We're a platform company to deliver gastrointestinal care. We have everything you need to deliver gastrointestinal care outside of a hospital." Audax was one of the reasons Gastro Health was able to do this, Dr. Leavitt said. Where some PE firms look to "paint up the house and then sell it," Dr. Leavitt said Gastro Health chose Audax to help build a great company. "[Audax] is known to build great companies," he said. "We feel they bought into our vision, understand our vision and helped us execute our vision. They help, not by telling us what to do, but by providing us resources or introducing us to resources." "We've made great progress, not only increasing in size, but increasing in our ability to act as a robust platform to help physicians consolidate," Dr. Leavitt said. "...We're the best advocates for patients. [Audax] allows us to bring our platform to other places in Florida and soon several other states outside Florida." Where we're going Now, two years since the Gastro Health and Audax deal, the PE money is beginning to flow into GI again. Southlake-based Texas Digestive Disease Consultants closed a deal with Waud Capital Partners Nov. 2, 2018, and Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates partnered with Frazier Healthcare Partners Dec. 17, 2018. Both deals created GI-practice management companies, and both companies teased a coming acquisition spree. The GI practice landgrab is open for business, and the opening shots have just been fired. Several analysts, including Edgemont Capital Partners' Luke J. Mitchell, believe "six to eight large" deals will close in the first half of 2019, with the potential for more to follow. Mr. Mitchell attributed the lag between the different PE-deals to practices conducting due diligence and changing valuations following the Audax deal. Austin (Texas) Gastroenterology and American College of Gastroenterology Practice Management Committee member Harish K. Gagneja, MD, echoed the sentiment. "I believe we will see many deals in 2019. PE groups want to deploy the money sitting on the sidelines, and medical practice buyouts are a great diversification for PE. GI is a very attractive target due to its ancillary income, and if any ancillaries are lacking, it can be developed after the deal with the infusion of resources from the PE deal," he said. Digestive Health Associates of Texas member and ACG Practice Management Committee member Jay N. Yepuri, MD, said the first deals that closed were made up of practices that were large and consolidated and that we're just now beginning to see the results of the second wave, driven partially by investor pressure. "PE firms are under increasing pressure to deploy money that their clients have invested with them," Dr. Yepuri said. "With deadlines for deployment approaching and traditional targets such as energy, oil and gas being stagnant, the medical group practice space has become an attractive alternative." Threats to independence? Although PE-investment brings about scalability and an influx of resources, how the investment will impact independent practices is still unknown. Wichita Falls (Texas) Gastroenterology Associates Managing Partner and ACG Practice Management Committee Chair Louis J. Wilson, MD, sees many similarities in the PE boom to the investor-backed physician practice management companies of the 1990s, adding that independent practices seek investment in a somewhat cyclical nature. Dr. Wilson, an independent physician, has reservations on PE investments. "[PPMS] turned into a big disaster for both physicians and investors," he said. "More importantly, I think the fallout from the failure of those arrangements resulted in the first big exodus from independent physicians to employment. I'm afraid the PE deals will have a similar fallout." He added independent physician groups have a variety of ways available to them to raise money, and he believes PE-backed groups face a higher level of risk than independent groups. Dr. Wilson said independent groups are looking to align, but want to do so in a way that retains their independence. While bringing on a PE-investor is one way, so is forming a clinically-integrated network. To Dr. Wilson, these networks present opportunities for independent practices to focus on quality and cost-containment. These networks can also negotiate with payers for better rates without having to sell a portion of a practice. "I believe the success of independent practice depends on creating a culture of quality, meeting the needs of the markets, finding alignment across groups and providing the mentorship and professional development to new and future generations of [physicians]. PE cash will not do those things. Unless leaders in our profession step up to those challenges, the future of independent practice is uncertain," Dr. WIlson said. Drs. Yepuri and Gagneja as well as Mr. Mitchell said the impact of PE investments will largely be market-driven. "If a practice is in an area where they are competitively sound, [PE investments] will have no effect or a very little effect," Dr. Gagneja said. "In big metroplexes, where the deals have consummated or will happen in the near future, it will be very difficult to survive for small, independent practices." If a practice is well-situated and made investments in quality reporting systems, valued-based care, and has planned for future growth, "they probably do not have anything to worry about," Mr. Mitchell said. However, Mr. Mitchell added if payer networks continue to narrow, PE investments could present a compelling case to smaller practices. "PE-backed groups are going to be able to make a very compelling case for themselves given the data they will have about clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction and access. Larger groups are able to make significant investments to drive quality and sophistication of care, which could be a huge competitive advantage in the future." An unknown ending The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War, with Britain ceding much of its territory in the Americas to the U.S. The exact details on how PE investments will ultimately impact the GI field remains unanswered, but investments are fueling consolidation due to practices wanting security and relevance through scalability. A lack of comparable data on PE deals, even from investment in other healthcare specialties, raises flags on how practices will benefit, yet the attractiveness of added resources with little to no impact on the clinical side is a hard proposition for independent practices to turn down. The fight to stay independent is underway, and as it advances, the world will be watching. More articles on gastroenterology: CPI Medical Fund purchased medical office building with outpatient clinic 3 insights 3 essential payer contract wording considerations ASCs should know The Urology Group sells headquarters, surgery center property for $16.6M Cleanup of the San Jacinto Waste Pits east of Houston should not be impacted by the federal government shutdown, experts say. "We are still in [the] early design phase of the project," said Rock Owens, Harris County's environmental attorney. "There should be monitoring by the [Environmental Protection Agency's] contractor ... with EPA oversight so the contractor should be monitoring the site." The EPA and the two companies responsible for the clean-up -- International Paper Co. and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corp -- reached an agreement in April on how to remove about 212,000 cubic yards of material containing cancer-causing dioxin, a tiny fraction of which is believed to have spilled out along the San Jacinto River during Hurricane Harvey. The removal is estimated to cost $115 million. Design for the clean-up is expected to take about 29 months, with the clean-up to follow. The federal government shutdown has stretched in day 17, sidelining workers across federal agencies including the EPA. President Donald Trump's desire to fund a wall between the border of the U.S. and Mexico started the shut down back in December, and he has held firm on this wish since. The shutdown impacts 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers nationwide. The San Jacinto Waste pits were used into the 1960s to store waste that was taken by barge from a nearby paper mill. The site was originally on the riverbank in eastern Harris County, but over time, subsidence, dredging and construction of the Interstate 10 bridge near Channelview altered the path of the river and the site became partially submerged. The pits became a federal Superfund site in 2008 and were capped in 2011 partly in response to prior reports of leaks and fears of damage from hurricanes. The EPA announced in October 2017 plans for removal of tons of toxins from the waste pits, a move that came just two weeks after officials confirmed that a concrete cap used to cover the waste pits since 2011 had sprung a leak during Harvey's flooding. After Harvey, agency officials found dioxin in sediment near the pits at a level more than 2,000 times the EPA standard for cleanup. Subsequent testing, done after the cap was repaired, showed far lower levels of dioxin in that area. Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. The federal government shutdown -- now in day 17 -- can't stop Houston visitors from enjoying what space city has to offer. Space Center Houston, the museum side of NASA's Johnson Space Center, isn't closing. "All Space Center Houston programming continues as well as public tours of Johnson Space Center," said Meridyth Moore, spokeswoman for the museum. "The shutdown does not prevent our center and our employees from providing guided tours of the facility." The museum is a nonprofit owned and operated by a separate organization so its employees are unaffected by the shutdown. People who actually work on site at Johnson and are federal employees weren't as lucky: only about 200 of the 3,055 federal employees still are working. The federal government shutdown has stretched in day 17, sidelining workers across federal agencies including the EPA. President Donald Trump's desire to fund a wall between the border of the U.S. and Mexico started the shut down back in December, and he has held firm on this wish since. The shutdown impacts 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers nationwide. The museum offers tours of various parts of the Johnson campus, including the historic mission control room and an actual Saturn V rocket. They were able to keep offering these tours because Johnson's shutdown plan included keeping the facilities open. "All gates, buildings and logistic services will be operating on their normal schedule," a Dec. 21 email sent to Johnson employees stated. That includes Building 9, the astronaut training facility where mock-ups of space vehicles such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle are housed. The museum even has a talk scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 24 -- the 35th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan speech directing NASA to build the International Space Station. Two space station program managers will discuss the beginnings of the orbiting laboratory and future plans for it. To reserve tickets to free events, visit their website here. Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. The body of a young boy was found in a Texas City retention pond as authorities combed the area for an autistic child who went missing from his nearby apartment Sunday. The boy, 7-year-old Xavion Young, was last seen around noon at the Costa Mariposa Apartments in the 7000 block of Medical Center Drive, according to a news release from the Texas City Police Department. He has a non-verbal form of autism, which limits communication. A child was pulled from the pond that Xavion liked to visit around 5:45 p.m., according to another news release. At the time of Xavion's disappearance, he was wearing gray and white plaid shorts and black and blue Velcro shoes. Texas City police Chief Joe Stanton told KPRC2 that investigators don't suspect that Young was abducted, but believe Young walked out of the house. There were no reports of suspicious activity prior to him leaving the home, he said. "He has never run off before in life. He's not the type to run off," Young's mother, JaRisa Young, told KPRC2. Late Monday, Stanton's department discontinued the missing person's alert for Xavion. RELATED: Houston-area families of missing persons mourn unexplained loss Multiple authorities in the area, including the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, the Baytown Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, were involved in the search. Texas EquuSearch was also lending help to law enforcement. Young's aunt, JaRita Oliver, told KPRC2 the boy responds to "Xai" but does not go near strangers. Anyone with information about the boy's location should call the Texas City Police Department at 409-948-2525 or Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500. Massarah Mikati and Nicole Hensley contributed to this report Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message Social media lit up with outrage and heartbreak after authorities announced a surprising arrest in the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes. The young girl was shot to death Dec. 30 just outside Houston, a brutal killing that sparked immediate outrage in southeast Texas and around the country. Most of that outrage centered around an initial suspect description touted by Harris County Sheriff's Office detectives, who described the suspect as a white male in a red truck. QUESTION ANSWERED: Why the sketch of Jazmine's alleged killer didn't match up Several activists got involved with bringing awareness to Jazmine's death as well as help with detectives' investigation, including social activist Shaun King. Local activist Deric Muhammed, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Houston) and others claimed the shooting might have been racially motivated. But it was a tip that King delivered to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez that ultimately led to Eric Black Jr., 20, being charged with capital murder in Jazmine's death. Black, who is black, reportedly told police that he and a second black male suspect, identified in court as Larry Woodruffe, mistook Barnes' vehicle for another. Woodruffe has not been formally charged in the child's death, but court records indicate he was arrested on a drug possession charge Sunday. Some critical of law enforcement's initial suspect description include former sheriff and far-right activist, David Clarke, Jr. "(Law enforcement) blamed this on a white guy? Seriously?" Clark tweeted. "I could have told you it wasn't a white guy who did this. Now that it's BLACK ON BLACK crime let's see if community outrage will maintain its intensity now that their (sic) is no racial component. Cultural dysfunction." Left-leaning activist and Bishop Talbert Swan also chimed in. "A lot of sick bastards out here are doing victory dances because #JazmineBarnes' killer was not white," Swan tweeted. "Don't worry, as sick as your white supremacist sons, fathers, spouses and brothers are, just wait a day or so before one strikes again with another hate crime or mass shooting." Swipe through the gallery to see online reactions from activists and others. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message Less than a week after being sworn into office, Harris County's new misdemeanor judges on Monday withdrew their appeal in the landmark lawsuit over local bail practices that a federal judge said unfairly targeted poor people accused of crimes. The historic litigation began in 2016, when attorneys and civil rights groups sued the county on behalf of defendants jailed for days because they couldn't afford bond on low-level offenses. Though Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal said the practice was unconstitutional and amounted to wealth-based detention, so far the county has spent more than $9 million in legal fees to fight the case, according to Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis. But many saw the Democratic wave in November's elections as a sign of change ahead and Monday's court filings look to be one of the first indicators of that shift. "It's going to be a new day," Neal Manne, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in November just after the ballot-box sweep. And now, according to County Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan the one misdemeanor judge who did not lose his post in the last election the parties have already begun hashing out a settlement they hope to have in place in the next few weeks. "Our goal is have this accomplished by February 1," Jordan told the Houston Chronicle.. READ MORE: Harris County judges seek to stop federal order in historic bail lawsuit One of a series of documents filed in recent days, the two-page motion simply lists the names of the new judges who automatically replaced their predecessors as defendants in the suit and asks that the case be dismissed. The court granted the motion and dismissed the appeal by midday. The jurists also notified the court that they were replacing the costly D.C. law firm handling the case with a pro bono attorney, Houston-based G. Allan Van Fleet. "We are delighted the appeal is dismissed," Van Fleet said. "The new judges are already working with the sheriff's office, the DA's office and the plaintiffs' lawyers to formulate misdemeanor bond policies and procedures that are safe, efficient, equa, and just for all of Harris County." Mike Fields, the one outgoing judge who supported the lawsuit, lauded the move as a "great first step" toward reform. "Quite frankly, it's overdue," he said. "I remain convinced that fighting against bail reform was a mistake and, I believe, part and parcel of why the citizens of Harris County voted for such a sweeping change in our political landscape. Hopefully, this issue will, finally, be put to bed and taxpayer money better spent going forward." Known for keeping an eye to criminal justice reform, Ellis offered a similar take. "Not only does the existing bail system clearly violate the Constitution and our fundamental principles of liberty and equal treatment," he said, "it does nothing to protect communities or reduce crime." The lawsuit was initially filed on behalf of Maranda ODonnell, a young mother who spent two days in jail on a charge of driving without a valid license because she couldn't come up with $2,500 bail. The case brought by Civil Rights Corps and the Texas Fair Defense Project along with a team providing its services free of charge from the Houston firm Susman Godfrey expanded to include all defendants in similar circumstances. READ MORE: Judge withdraws from costly legal representation in $3.5 million bail lawsuit In 2017, Rosenthal issued a preliminary injunction upending the county's bail system, which relied on a set schedule that dictated bond amounts based on the crime and not on an individualized consideration of a defendant's ability to pay. Finding that practice unconstitutional, the judge ordered the county to start releasing low-level defendants on no-cash bonds within 24 hours of their arrest. Afterward, the county appealed the ruling and the U.S. 5th Circuit asked Rosenthal to retool the order. In a revised version designed to be less burdensome to the county, Rosenthal gave officials 48 hours to release inmates instead of just 24. But still, the erstwhile misdemeanor judges continued fighting the case, again appealing to the 5th Circuit. According to their lawyer, they objected to the blanket release of certain indigent defendants who have not been seen by a judge within 48 hours of arrest and the release of people who failed to appear in court after previous arrests. "Since the Magna Carta money bail has been seen as sufficient surety and wealth is an inevitable factor...when that surety is money bail," Charles Cooper, a Washington D.C. attorney then representing the county, told the court over the summer. LISTEN: The first night in prison is not how you imagine Two other judges Republican Fields and Democrat Jordan as well as the sheriff and the county itself, did not oppose Rosenthal's revised temporary injunction. Now, with the injunction appeal off the table, the county and plaintiffs will still need to come to an agreement to settle the lawsuit itself and Manne voiced optimism about the odds of that with more reform-minded officials in office. "I'm very hopeful that with the change in the misdemeanor judges and the change in leadership at the county," said Manne, "the plaintiffs' lawyers will be able to sit down with the lawyers for the county and for the new judges and work out a resolution of this case." Ellis offered similar hopes, heralding the possibility of a "greater transformation of Harris County's criminal justice system" into one that ensures "equal justice, fair treatment and safe communities for all people regardless of who they are or how much money they have." Meanwhile, the Harris County Attorney's Office issued a statement expressing confidence in the possibility of a settlement. "The County Attorney's Office supports the newly-elected judges in their effort to resolve this case on terms they find acceptable," County Attorney Vince Ryan said in a statement. "This is a case about judicial discretion." The next hearing, in Rosenthal's court, is slated for Feb. 1. Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com and follow her on Twitter. Colombia Hoy Para nunca olvidar Paginas vistas en total 'Parasite' painted on a statue of Queen, Elizabeth in Kent, England Sin palabras La UE le apunta a la paz Cada vez mas solo Follow by Email Precio del Brent To get the BRENT oil price, please enable Javascript. Dolar USA Vs Euro LULA y su Pueblo Bye Bye Homenaje al genial Quino Fueron ellos Una imagen que resume Tan bajo ha caido que se deja tocar el trasero? Porky y el Nene (archiconocido narcotraficante) Ladrones al poder Asi mira el perrito a su amo Crazy Clamor popular La nueva inquisicion Bolivia Chile Hoy Eso es todo amigos! Pinerachet No More Trump Adios Macri, hasta nunca La Marioneta se desinfla Asi o mas cinico Almugre Mexico en 1794 Mas arrastrado imposible La pura verdad Solidaridad con Palestina Serie Capitalismo Espejismos de la clase trabajadora Comerciantes o delincuentes Asi es la vida USA HOY La avaricia no tiene limites Chile Hoy Asi son las cosas Mapa Electoral de Venezuela Patagonia argentina? Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad Retrato del franquismo en Espana El Chulo de Madrid Cuando la policia se roba la democracia Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras La purita verdad Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia Mi pobre clase media Como Chavez nadie Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear Programa de la MUD Asi o mas clarito Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte? Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio? Una verguenza nacional La luz que nos guia La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz? Feudalismo ayer y hoy Obama, el mentiroso Curiosa coincidencia Un mundo de cerdos No es extrano? La Marioneta Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran MARICORI Y OBAMA Cuantas muertes este ano? 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Por culpa de Chavez Cerveza Polar Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar Translate LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares? Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano... Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos: Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias. Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera. No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje. En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio. Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida. Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella. Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal. Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista. Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen. Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che? Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio. Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora. Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo. Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo. Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania. No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar. Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga. Alguna duda? Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia. OZ1 OZ2 OZ3 OZ4 Homenaje a Jason Galarraga La Victoria de Samotracia Odalisca Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008 La Sierra Nevada de Merida Nuestro precioso Churum Meru Homenaje a Picasso Autoretrato Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola? La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar. Mi profesion? Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos. Sal en la Coca Cola? A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar. De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla: Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido) azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa) Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas Mucha Cafeina Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja. Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos. Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja. En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero). Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma. La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate. Bebidas Light? Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal. Publicado por loretahur En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina: 1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias. 2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina. 3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard. 4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos. 5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla. 6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos. Ahora... sobre la margarina: 1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) . 2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias. 3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno). 4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer. 5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna. 6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo. 7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina. Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas: * No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo). * No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!! No a la guerra, Si a la Paz Misterios de la ciencia... Los costos de la guerra medicos y capitalismo... medicos (2) Quien educa a nuestros hijos? Los Medios... Sin Palabras... Chistes feministas - Cual es el problema, Eva? - Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas. - Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas... - Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti. - Que es un hombre? - Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente. - Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente. - Cual es el truco?. - Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion. - Cual? - Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer. Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Ellas (2)... Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1 Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije: -Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro. Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria. Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre? -Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa! VENGANZA NUMERO 2 Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris. A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita: - Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!! Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta. La mujer paso quince dias en Francia. El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla. Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es: - Y amor me trajiste mi francesita?? - Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina. VENGANZA NUMERO 3 El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion. - No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo. - Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz. Te quiero confesar algo. - Esta bien, esta bien. Habla! - He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga. - Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!! machismo y cibernetica Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston. -Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide. -Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!. .Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos. Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco. Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas Gol !!!! Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso! Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy! UPDATE: Deweyville schools will reopen Tuesday after closing Monday for flooding. The district says it needs to "open the doors for the (ones) who need us when at all possible." Superintendent Keith Jones in an email urged people in the district not to drive through dangerous floodwater, saying the district would "cover" for them and campus administrators would do what they can to help. New reports show Deweyville likely won't flood this week as bad as some residents feared. Predictions for the Sabine River's crest are now lower than even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted last week. The Sabine River at Deweyville is expected to crest at 27 feet late Monday. NOAA on Thursday was projecting the river would crest at nearly 28 feet Tuesday. Some city residents were concerned the Sabine River Authority would open gates at the Toledo Bend Reservoir more than NOAA was factoring in to the agency's prediction. But the reservoir's gates have now closed a foot from where they were late last week. In anticipation of what could have been a larger flooding event, Deweyville Independent School District cancelled classes for today. According to NOAA, when the river levels get to about 26.8 feet, schools may close because of flooding to bus routes. The district said last week it would reevaluate the threat Monday afternoon. The Sabine River isn't forecast to be back down to 26.8 feet until late Thursday evening. It's unclear when it will fall below flood stage, or 24 feet. But flooding isn't unusual in Deweyville. The town's section of the river has reached flood stage eight times since 2015. That includes an historic 2016 flood that saw the river rise to 33 feet, after being forecast to only reach 28 feet. A jury awarded a former Jefferson County employee $400,000 on Friday after deciding her Constitutional rights were violated and she was denied adequate due process of law during her employment with two justice of the peace courts. Ha Penny Nguyen sued the county on the grounds that she was retaliated against by Justice of the Peace Tom Gillam and his staff, who she claimed harassed her because she had testified against former Justice of the Peace Thurman Bartie, a political ally of Gillam's. Jack R. King, the former state district judge whose tenure included a civil case of heated labor violence and a politically charged scandal involving a state senator, died Friday. He was 95. King, a Port Arthur native, also took part in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, and suffered severe wounds a month later in fighting that took him out of World War II, earning him a Purple Heart decoration. King also found himself in a a re-election run in 1988 that was, at the time, considered to be one of the most expensive in Texas history and acrimonious against an incumbent judge. Judge King was the real deal, said David Bernsen, a Beaumont lawyer in private practice and a former elected and appointed state official who ran Kings 1988 re-election campaign. He had never had an opponent, Bernsen said. Who runs (against) a judge? At the start it was just me and him, lookin at each other. The Democratic primary challenge in March 1988 arose from a civil case in Kings 136th District Court in which a plaintiff had sued a labor union for causing him to suffer serious wounding in an unsolved attack against him in October 1982, stemming from his crossing a picket line at an area refinery the union had struck earlier that year. The victim said the gunshot attack against him was retaliation because he returned to work. In 1986, a jury in Kings court ruled for the union and denied the plaintiffs claim of conspiracy against him. A member of the law firm that represented the union filed to run against King, winning endorsement from then still-powerful labor unions and lawyers who represented them. Both sides spent about $480,000 in that election, a dizzying amount for the time that featured TV ads using a granny to describe King, then 64 years old. In announcing his candidacy for re-elevction, King said, This court belongs to the people of the state of Texas. Courts must remain free of outside control so every litigant will be assured he will receive a fair and impartial trial. If justice does not prevail for everyone, it does not prevail for anyone. Bernsen said King showed there was fight in him for re-election I respected and admired what his generation stood for, Bernsen said. He was a true warrior in every way. On June 6, 1944, King, a soldier in the U.S. Armys 29th Infantry Division, clambered out of a landing craft onto Omaha Beach, the most deadly of all the invasion beaches that day. It was all such a mess, King said in a June 6, 1946, interview with The Enterprise along with two friends from Port Arthur who also took part. The three were then students at then-Lamar College. All I thought about was getting in and then I was worried about getting out again, King said two years after the invasion. On July 15, 1944, a German motor exploded near King during the Battle of St. Lo, causing him a grievous head wound and shrapnel hits along is left side. He spent the next year in hospitals to recover. King earned his law degree from Baylor University in 1950, worked in private practice and spent four years as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and in 1977 was appointed to the 136th Court bench by Gov. Dolph Briscoe. King won election in 1982 and three years later found himself in the midst of a wide-ranging case of suspected political corruption that had at its target then-state Sen. Carl A. Parker. The district attorney at the time, James McGrath, and his chief investigator, Calise Blanchard, encouraged grand jurors to indict Parker on two occasions for the probe into drug trafficking and promotion of pornography because a man at the center of the operation used a house owned by Parker. A state prison inmate provided McGrath and Blanchard with lurid details in a letter. The inmate was brought to Jefferson County unbeknonst to Parkers and others defense attorneys. When word got out the inmate was in Jefferson County, a defense attorney called King to alert him that the district attorney was trying to pressure the inmate to sign a 17-page document, but the inmate had refused. King convened a hearing early in the morning of the Fourth of July in 1985 and heard from the inmate, who did not sign the statement and was returned to state prison near Houston. McGrath tried to pursue a rarely used legal tactic called a court of inquiry to force secret testimony into the open. The gambit failed. The case fell apart and the two-year legal and political maelstrom ended. King also strongly advocated what he considered was good in Jefferson County and chided news media for not telling that story. He served as director of Boys Haven, the organization that provided a good home for lost boys. In an interview with The Enterprise in July 1986, King said of the kids who might have come from broken homes that our kids are not bad kids. They are not problem kids, but kids with problems. We let them know that someone loves them and we give them the essentials of life. Kings funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 3430 Harrison Ave. with internment at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Groves. 3 1 of 3 Pinehurst Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Pinehurst Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 An Orange County man could be facing charges after reportedly turning himself in for a weekend hit-and-run that sent a 40-year-old man to a Houston hospital, authorities say. Pinehurst Police say they found 40-year-old Jonathan Sibley Saturday on the side of the road in the 3100 block of West Park in Pinehurst. He was "bleeding profusely and had apparent head injuries," according to a Pinehurst Police news release. A Beaumont man was shot Sunday evening while trying to buy a vehicle from an online seller, authorities said. The man told police he went to the Pine Club Apartments, 5015 Pine Street, just before 10 p.m. to purchase the vehicle, according to a news release from the Beaumont Police Department. He was approached by the armed suspect who "began to demand money," the release said. The suspect shot the buyer in the arm, then ran away, according to the release. > > RELATED: Local PDs providing safe spots for sellers, custody exchange The buyer was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release. The suspect has not yet been identified, but department spokesperson Haley Morrow said the buyer is cooperating with the investigation. It's unclear what sort of online system the buyer was using or why the suspect hasn't been identified. Beaumont Police are asking people with information about the crime to call them at 409-832-1234 or Southeast Texas Crime Stoppers at 409-833-8477. Morrow said robberies that result when people meet up to carry out an online transaction are uncommon, but not unheard of. "It definitely happens more than we want to," she said. "Sometimes they have different methods, using the Let Go app, but committing the same type of crime, whether the item doesn't exist or the deal is too good to be true." The last reported such robbery happened in late November when two Mid-County teens were robbed at gunpoint in Beaumont near the fairgrounds while trying to sell an Xbox gaming system. The thief also stole their Jeep, though it was recovered after a chase and crash." Beaumont police are urging residents to follow these safety tips when purchasing items from online sellers: From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... Upcoming Measure J Projects While work has begun on several projects relating to Measure J, there are many still to come. Heres a look at some of the upcoming projects. Memorial Stadium: Bakersfield College is making $12.5 million worth of major upgrades to its football stadium in two phases, with the first set to start up in March and set to be completed in August. This phase will consist of artificial turf and track replacement. The second phase will begin in January 2020 and is expected to be completed in August 2020. This phase will include restroom, concession stand and press box renovations, among other improvements. Science and engineering building: This $65 million building, the most expensive project to be paid for through Measure J, will span 68,000 square feet, incorporating modular labs that can be adapted to new science fields as they emerge. It is expected break ground in December 2019 and be completed in August 2021. Combined gym and field house: The colleges existing gym will be demolished, making room for a new one, estimated to cost $63 million. It will include office space, classrooms, weight, locker and training rooms as well as a fitness center. The building is set to break ground in May 2020. Welcome center: This center will greet visitors and students as they enter the campus and will act as a one-stop shop for students wanting to sign up for classes, pay their fees and get counseling. It will span 13,000 square feet and cost $8 million. Construction is expected to break ground in 2021 and be completed by winter of 2022. Agricultural building: A new $20 million ag building will offer a 45-acre farm and include greenhouses, computer labs, offices and classrooms. The groundbreaking is set for winter 2021 with completion estimated for fall 2023. By Abdul Kerimkhanov Azerbaijan with its rich history and fascinating nature attracts more and more tourists each year. The country's national parks often become travel destinations for them. As many as 79,997 people visited the national parks of Azerbaijan in 2018. Of this amount, 7,478 were foreign guests of the country, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources reported on January 4. Those who wish to visit the national parks can purchase tickets on the website of the Ministry of Environment in the "Services" section or at the entrance to the parks. Azerbaijan is famous for its national parks, where you can go hiking if you prefer active holidays or have a simple pleasant picnic if you are there just to relax. Azerbaijan's national parks offer you to get exciting impressions, take care of your health, or just relax your body and soul. Let's take a closer look at some of the national parks of the country. Goygol The park of 12,755 hectares is a fascinating mountain landscape, dense forests and a crystal clear lake. Goygol park is located four hours from Baku. Visitors can also go to the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus, the height of which is 1,000-3,060 meters above sea level. In Goygol Park there are about 80 different types of trees, including the Caucasian hornbeam, oriental oak and beech, ash and birch; more than 50 species of birds, as well as the Caucasian deer, roe deer, brown bear, goat, badger, forest cat, sable, lynx, hare and Caucasian mole. The park was founded in 1925 and was named the Goygol State Reserve. Shahdag Stretching over 322,492 acres, the Shahdag National Park is considered the largest national park in the Caucasus. Located near the border with Russia, the park covers six regions of Azerbaijan, as well as the territory of the Ismayilli and Pirguli nature reserves. The Shahdag park celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2018. It was created with the aim of preserving rare species of trees, animals and birds, restoring the local ecosystem, protecting natural complexes and developing ecotourism. The park is located on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range at an altitude of 1,300-1,600 meters. There you can find such types of trees as Caucasian oak, chestnut-leaved oak, senna, European wild pear, as well as other rare plants. The park is one of the five most popular tourist destinations in the winter among the CIS countries. Kyzylagadzh The name of the reserve means "pink trees", in honor of the pink flamingos living there. Opened in 1929 on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, the Kyzylagadzh reserve became the first state reserve in Azerbaijan. Its area is 218,441 acres. About 248 species of birds live here, including the gray goose and the white-fronted goose, the turoch, the donut, the common spoonbill and many other rare birds. The waters of the reserve are inhabited by 54 species of fish, including pike perch, kutum, carp, mullet and salmon, and the forests - wild boar, reed cat, badger, wolf, otter, jackal and fox. Zangezur The Zangezur National Park extends to 105,753 acres in the Ordubad district of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. It was created with the aim of preserving and restoring populations of rare animals - the Transcaucasian mouflon, leopard, bezoar goat, Caucasian black grouse, brown bear and striped hyena. The park inhabits more than 58 rare species of animals. Hirkan The Hirkan National Park was established in 2004 on the territory of two regions of Azerbaijan: Lankaran and Astara. The area of this national park is 42,797 hectares, and all of them are occupied with picturesque bright greens of numerous plants. Of the plants spread on the territory of Azerbaijan, 1,900 species grow in the Hyrkan forests, including 162 endemic, 95 rare, 38 endangered species. Among them Hirkan boxwood, ironwood, chestnut-leaf oak, fig, pearl Hirkan, Lenkoran albition, Caucasian persimmon and alder are listed in the Red Book. Ag Gol Ag Gol National Park is located on the territory of Agjabadi and Beylagan regions of Azerbaijan. This park was created in 2003, and its area is 17,924 hectares. The main feature of the park is that about 99 percent of the territory consists of water area and only 1 percent of islands and coastlines. This national park was opened in order to protect and preserve the natural complexes of reed-marshy thickets and the water area of Ag Gol Lake. This, by the way, is the habitat and nesting of many waterfowl and near-water birds. The ornithological fauna of the Ag Gol National Park is extremely diverse. Here you can find more than 140 species of birds, of which 89 species nest in the park. Also, in the parks fauna, there are such mammals as wild boar, nutria, reed cat, wolf, jackal, fox, hare and others, and, of course, there are 8 species of amphibians and reptiles, including Syrian garlic, Caspian tortoise and water. Shirvan Established in 2003, the Shirvan National Park is one of the largest in the country, its territory is 55 hectares. Here is the warmest winter in Azerbaijan. Reed cats, badgers and turtles co-exist here, as well as wolves, foxes and wild boars. However, its main inhabitants were still gazelles, for which the semi-desert landscape of the park is a natural habitat. In the 20th century, environmentalists of Azerbaijan began to sound the alarm due to the decrease in their numbers, and therefore it was decided to create a Shirvan National Park for the protection and reproduction of gazelles. After many years, the task was completed, gazelles increased their population and now the Shirvan Park is the only natural habitat of gazelles in Europe. Altyagadzh The park was created on August 31, 2004, by a decree of President Ilham Aliyev in the Khizi and Siyazan regions on the basis of the Altyagadzh State Nature Reserve and the lands of the State Forest Fund adjacent to it. About 90 percent of the park, dominated by trees such as oak, beech and hornbeam, occupy mountain forests with rich flora and fauna. The name of the park comes from the word "agadzh" - a measure of distance, was approximately 7 kilometers, and "alty" in the local dialect means six. It occupies an impressive area of 11,035 hectares. This national park was created to develop ecotourism, protect natural complexes, preserve and restore the flora and fauna of the area and preserve the natural landscape of the southeastern ridge of the Greater Caucasus. Absheron The Absheron National Park was created in 2005. The purpose of its creation was the preservation of gazelles inhabiting this territory, Caspian seals and waterfowl. It is located in Azerbaijan, on the territory of the Azizbek district of Baku. The park area is 783 hectares. The land area is inhabited by gazelles, jackals, foxes, badgers, hares, and the waters of the Caspian Sea - seals and fish. Of the birds, there are a silver gull, puffing swan, coot, gray red-headed and black ducks, sandy sandpiper, marsh harrier, and other migratory birds. Samur-Yalama The Samur-Yalama National Park was established in an area of 11,772 hectares on the territory of Khachmaz region in accordance with the decree of the President on November 5, 2012. The aim of establishment of the Samur-Yalama National Park is to ensure the conservation of natural complexes, the genetic fund, biodiversity, rare and unique natural areas, the historical and cultural objects, to create conditions for tourism and recreation. Ecotourism in the territory has great potential. The basis of the following species of fauna and flora of the National Park is chestnut oak, ironwood, Eldar pine, Kura salmon, sturgeon, eel, stellate sturgeon, pikeperch, bream, roach, chub, roe, hawk, eagle, falcon, mute swan, river otter, dwarf mice, reed cat, lynx, Caucasian deer, chamois, wild boar. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A provision on national sea carriers is being prepared in Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary state news agency. This issue was discussed at a meeting of the countrys government. In particular, the Turkmen State Service of Maritime and River Transportation is preparing a document, according to which the "Marine Merchant Fleet" closed joint-stock company will be indicated as the national sea carrier. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the strategic importance of the Turkmenbashi international port for all Central Asian and Caspian countries. The opening ceremony of the port was held in May 2018. The project has been designed in accordance with the GreenPort international standard. The annual throughput capacity of the port will be 17-18 million tons. Together with the existing port, this figure will be 25-26 million tons. After the new port is commissioned, great opportunities have appeared for transporting cargo supplying to Turkmenbashi along the Silk Road route from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and then to the European countries via the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Turkmenistan on March 31 will hold election of MPs to the vacant parliament seats, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen government Jan. 7. The document was signed in accordance with Articles 4 and 85 of the Electoral Code of Turkmenistan. In line with the Constitution, the parliament adopts laws, makes changes and additions to the basic law, approves the state budget; resolves issues of holding national referendums; appoints elections of the president, members of the Parliament, members of representative bodies; considers issues of appointment and dismissal of the Chairman of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Justice based on the proposal of the head of state; ratifies and denounces international treaties; and solves the issues of changing the state border and administrative-territorial division of the country. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli will hold joint rallies on the eve of the municipal elections in Turkey, Trend reports with reference to the Turkish media. Joint rallies of the opposition and the ruling parties will be held in Istanbul. The exact date of the joint rallies hasnt been defined. The municipal elections in Turkey will be held on March 31, 2019. The municipal elections in Turkey are held every five years. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iranian official with the Aviation Companies Association has spoken regarding the Islamic Republic purchasing planes from Japan. Previous rumors said Iran was in talks with Japan to trade its oil for Japanese aircraft. In particular, Mitsubishi Aircraft the aviation arm of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - began market surveys in Iran in September 2015, four months before sanctions were lifted on the Islamic Republic, according to Japans Nikkei newspaper. Mitsubishi had negotiated a potential sale for up to 105 of its MRJ regional jets. "This news has no reliable source, it seems this is baseless, since neither Mitsubishi has progressed in plane production phase nor have Iranian companies entered into this field yet, Maghsoud Asadi Samani told Trend. Meanwhile, Samani said Iran has ready to negotiate with any company regarding the purchase of planes. "But Mitsubishi is still on the production stage. If Japan is ready to distribute its aircraft, Iran is ready talk it over," he said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iran's Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province Automotive Sheet Making Company (CBASCO) has exported galvanized sheets to Europe, Naim Imami, chairman of the Industry, Mine and Trade Organization of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province, said. The company exported 9,135 tons of galvanized sheets to Spain. The revenues worth 5.72 million euros were obtained, Imami added, Trend reports referring to SHATA. Since the beginning of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018) up till now 171,150 tons of galvanized sheets have been produced, he said. Some 58,000 tons account for galvanized sheets for cars, while 113,000 tons - industrial galvanized sheets, Imami added. This Iranian year the production of galvanized sheets increased by 9 percent compared to the same period of last Iranian year, he said. Some 15,000 tons of sheets were produced compared to the same period of last Iranian year, Imami added. The production of the companys plant has increased from 300,000 to 400,000 tons a year and 300 employees work there. The plant was built in 2010 in Sefiddasht city of Borujen County. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend International gold mining company Nordgold plans to produce more than 900,000 ounces of gold by the end of this year, the company told Trend. "The forecast for production in 2018 is 900,000-950,000 ounces," said the message. It is worth noting that last year, the company, which operates mines in Russia, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso and Guinea, produced 968,000 ounces of gold. In September 2018, Nordgold launched the Gross deposit in Yakutia (Russia), which will produce 200,000 ounces of gold per year. This will allow the company for the first time in its history to produce more than one million ounces per year. For the first three quarters of this year, the production amounted to 675,900 ounces compared to 716,800 ounces for the same period last year (down by 6 percent). In particular, the Suzdal mine in Kazakhstan produced 64,200 ounces of gold against 67,600 ounces in January-September last year. Nordgold also noted two key development projects: Uryakh in Russia and Montagne d'Or in French Guiana. The estimated and identified resources of the Uryakh deposit are 1.4 million ounces with a gold content of 3.8 grams per ton. Montagne d'Or resources are 3.85 million ounces with a gold content of 1.41 grams per ton. Presently Nordgold operates four mines in Russia, one in Kazakhstan, two in Burkina Faso and one in Guinea. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Kazakhstan is beginning preliminary negotiations with Uzbekneftegaz on gasoline supplies from Kazakh oil refineries to Uzbekistan, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said. Commenting on the export potential of Kazakh gasoline, the minister noted that Kazakhstan is interested in the markets of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. To prevent overstocking of the market after the modernization of three refineries in the republic, last year Kazakhstan announced its intention to launch gasoline export. Kazakhstan and Russia signed a protocol on amendments to the agreement on interaction in the fuel and energy complex on October 2018. The amendments concerned the lifting of the embargo on the supply of Kazakh gasoline to the CIS countries. In December, Bozumbayev also spoke about the possible export of Kazakh gasoline to Kyrgyzstan from February 2019. As previously foreseen by Daniyar Tiyesov, deputy chairman for oil transportation, refining and marketing of the national company KazMunayGas, Kazakhstan will be able to export 1.2 million tons in 2019. Kazakhstan has three major oil refineries - Atyrau, Shymkent and Pavlodar. All three already wrapped up their modernization programs last year. The refining capacity of the three plants was said to increase from 13.8 to 16.5 million tons after the modernization. Production of all types of light oil products, gasoline, diesel fuel and aviation kerosene will increase. All plants will produce gasoline for 2.3 million tons more. The production of diesel fuel will increase for 917,000 tons and aviation kerosene for 539,000 tons. The Kazakh producers already provide more than 88 percent of the demand for gasoline, while 99.9 percent is sold on the domestic market. Kazakhstan produced 3.3 million tons of gasoline (including aviation) in January-November 2018, which is 27.3 percent more than in the same period of 2017. Due to the growth of production and import substitution policy in the sector, gasoline imports decreased by almost 52 percent over the year, to 374,500 tons. Exports increased by 34.2 percent for the year, but its volumes are expected to be insignificant - only 2,900 tons. The highest volumes of output fell on the Pavlodar region: 36.4 percent of gasoline production (1.2 million tons) and 39 percent of diesel fuel production (1.5 million tons). As many as 32.2 percent of gasoline production and 26.3 percent of diesel fuel production was provided by Shymkent. Atyrau region provided 29.3 percent of gasoline production and 31 percent of diesel. Earlier it became known that a new oil refinery plant will be built in Kazakhstan. A land area of 100 hectares in Zhanaarkinsky district of the Karaganda region has already been allocated for the construction. The Singapore firm invested funds to build the refinery. A contract with investors from Singapore for the total amount of 300 billion tenge was signed in Karaganda in the spring of this year. According to preliminary calculations, the plant will process up to 1 million tons of oil per year. According to the forecasts of the Energy Ministry, there will be a need to increase imports of petroleum products by 2022. By this time, the fourth plant should already be built. In 2019, it is planned to attract investors and begin construction. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Presently, there are no Azerbaijani citizens among the rescued crew members of the ship that sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey's Samsun province, a representative of the Samsun branch of the Turkish Coast Guard told Trend. "The search operation is underway," the Coast Guard representative said. Two crew members of the ship are Azerbaijani citizens, the Turkish media reported earlier. One of them is the captain of the ship. There were also nine Ukrainian and two Russian citizens on board. So far, six of the crew members have been rescued and the body of another crew member was found, according to the Turkish media. Identities of the rescued crew members and the deceased have not been revealed yet. The cargo ship, sailing under the Panama flag, sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey's Samsun province on Jan. 7. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve continues to expand international relations. Last year, the Administration of Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve successfully cooperated with world organizations. Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve is also an active participant in UNESCO World Heritage Committee sessions. It closely monitors the monuments' safeguarding and informs other countries about its work. As a result, the next session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Baku in 2019 , Azertag reported. The Reserve also participates in other international platforms, promoting the Icherisheher. It cooperates with several international organizations specializing in cities. One of these organizations is the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC). 2018 has been a remarkable year for the development of relations with OWHC. In May 2018, the Reserve management was invited to the 12th OWHC Regional Conference. The main topic of discussion was the challenges facing the World Heritage Cities, trends of cultural tourism, the protection of historical heritage and strategies to increase tourist interest in historical areas. Also, participants were informed about the work carried out in the preservation of historical heritage in Icherisheher and its future goals. Last October, Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve hosted a meeting of OWHC Board of Directors. The meeting was organized within the international scientific conference "Journey from modern Azerbaijan to the Historical State of the Shirvanshahs". The meeting of the Board of Directors provided member cities with an opportunity to promote their cultural and historical heritage. Besides, the Reserve management cooperates with the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO). Last November, Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve took part in the 26th annual conference of the organization and held bilateral meetings, shared their views on the protection of cultural heritage at workshops and discussions. In general, the management actively participates in NEMO's modern museum strategies, and symposiums provide information to the representatives of different countries about the heritage and tourism opportunities of Icherisheher. As a result, the organization has agreed to hold an annual conference in Baku in 2021. At the same time, the Reserve management joined the City Merit Agreement in 2011, and in August 2017 joined the Meridian Secretariat for Economic Development and participated in various initiatives. Moreover, the staff of Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve took part in a conference on "Role of Municipalities in Sustainable Development" in Kiev on November 22-23, 2010. The Reserve management has also participated in several international tourism exhibitions in recent years. Certain works have been done to introduce Icherisheher as an attractive tourist destination. In the first half of last year, employees of the organization participating in exhibitions held in Berlin, Moscow, Beijing and Dubai, along with the tourist potential of Icherisheher, provided information to the representatives of foreign countries about the material and spiritual values of Azerbaijan and initiated contacts with new tourist companies. In addition, Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve Office represented Azerbaijan at "Science, technology and innovation technologies in the age of happiness and omnipotence" conference held in Ashgabat by the Turkmen Academy of Sciences in June 2018. In July, the representatives of Reserve visited the Kaluga region of Russia to cooperate in the field of culture within Ethno World project of the international fund "Dialogue of Cultures - United World". Application of "Ethno world" concept to Gala State Historical Ethnographic Reserve was discussed at the meeting. In 2018, Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve signed an agreement with the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture. Within the framework of the three-year collaboration, it is planned to hold a series of international events such as festivals and congresses, trainings and workshops on Islamic artifacts. In general, the Reserve management constantly focuses on further expansion of cooperation with international organizations. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Azerbaijan has increased import of Georgian wine, having acquired 197,724 bottles of wine last year, the Georgian National Wine Agency reported. In annual comparison, wine import from a neighboring country grew by 40 percent. In 2018, Georgia exported 86.2 million bottles of wine to 53 countries, that is 13 percent more than in 2017 and a record figure for the last 30 years. Last year, Georgias revenues from wine export amounted to $ 203 million, showing an increase of 20 percent year-on-year. The top five countries importing Georgian wine are headed by Russia. Last year, this country imported 53,682,627 bottles of wine from Georgia. Then comes Ukraine (10,687,835 bottles), China (6,951,019 bottles), Kazakhstan (3,599,143 bottles) and Poland (3,508,122 bottles). Azerbaijan ranks fourth among Georgia's biggest trade partners, after Turkey, Russia and China. Georgian exports to Azerbaijan include cement, locomotives and other railway vehicles, mineral and chemical fertilizers, mineral waters, strong drinks, glass and glass wares, and pharmaceuticals, among other things. Azerbaijani mainly exports to Georgia oil and petroleum products, natural gas, plastic wares, furniture and building constructions. Azerbaijan is on the first place in terms of the volume of investments in Georgia, which indicates a high level of interstate relations between the two countries. According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia , the trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan made up $835,782,800 in January-October 2018. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 28 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Jan. 7, Trend reports. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Armenias foreign minister, national police chief and human rights ombudsman spoke with their Kazakh counterparts by phone on Monday following anti-Armenian protests sparked by the murder of a young man in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh man was stabbed to death in a clash between two groups of youths, one of which consisted of ethnic Armenians, during celebrations of New Year on January 1. Three other men were hospitalized with stab wounds. The brawl broke out in a restaurant in the central Kazakh city of Qaraghandy in the early hours of 2019. Local police said they arrested two ethnic Armenian men and are hunting for another in connection with the violence. On Sunday, some 200 protesters gathered in front of Qaraghandys regional police department and demanded thorough investigations into the killing. Some of them demanded that Armenians be deported from the country. The Qaraghandy regional governor, Erlan Qoshanov, met with the protesters and said that "all those responsible for the death will be prosecuted." I promise you that the main suspect, who remains at large, will be detained in two-three days," Qoshanov said. A statement posted on the governors website stressed that the brawl was not ethnically motivated. It warned that people trying to incite ethnic hatred might face criminal prosecution as well. The Armenian Embassy in Kazakhstan issued a statement on January 3 offering condolences to the family of the murdered man and urging media not to spread unverified information about the deadly fight. In Armenia, meanwhile, the angry protests fanned by some social media users raised fears of anti-Armenian violence in Qaraghandy and other parts of Kazakhstan. Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and his Kazakh counterpart Beybut Atamkulov discussed the fallout from the incident in a phone call on Monday. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, they both denounced attempts to give ethnic overtones to the tragedy. Kazakhstans Interior Minister Kalmukhanbet Kassymov briefed the chief of the Armenian police, Valeri Osipian, on murder and hooliganism investigations launched by Kazakh law-enforcement agencies. A police statement said Kassymov downplayed the angry protests in Qaraghandy and assured Osipian that Kazakhstans Interior Ministry controls the situation. The Armenian human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, claimed to have received similar assurances from his Kazakh opposite number, Askar Shakirov. In a Facebook post, Tatoyan said Shakirov ruled out any ethnically motivated discrimination against ethnic Armenians following the Qaraghandy violence. Kazakhstan is a diverse country that houses dozens of ethnic groups. Official propaganda frequently praises long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev for preserving ethnic concord in the Central Asian state of 18 million. The supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II, urged Armenians to stick to their traditional family values in the face of pseudo-liberalism as he celebrated a Christmas mass on Sunday. In the miracle-laden scene of the Holy Nativity, dearly beloved, we see that the path of salvation began with the family. It is from the family that the illumined road was borne out of, he said in a homily read out at Saint Gregory the Illuminators Cathedral in Yerevan. During the liturgy attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other senior state officials, Garegin also prayed for our faithful brothers and sisters of the great world family who mark this sacred day in affliction and suffering. He referred to victims of armed conflicts, human rights abuses and unquenchable desire for unmitigated power around the world. Ungodly paths of pseudo-liberalism -- which divert people from the life which the Lord commanded us to live, from spiritual life -- likewise lead to dead ends, undermining the foundations of a healthy society and strong family, Garegin went on. The very first platform for bringing up worthy sons and daughters for the homeland and for educating a citizen for the country is the family, he said. It is in the family that the future of a nation is shaped, that the foundations of a powerful country are laid. It is under the familys nurturing roofs that the sown seeds of Gods word bear fruit in children's souls, that the spiritual-moral values, the fearless spirit of choosing the good, are being nurtured. It is by the examples shown in the family that mutual love, trust and care are instilled. Let us remain dedicated to the sanctity and the strengthening of the family. Let us preserve unblemished the idea of the God-ordained family, its sanctity, the national traditions, he added. Accordingly, Garegin declared 2019 a year of the family, saying that Armenian church bodies and clergymen should launch family-centered assistance projects and events. He also encouraged them to organize more pilgrimages to Armenian holy sites in order to warmly kindle the flame of love toward the homeland. Garegin expressed concern at the crisis of the family in many Christian nations in a joint declaration with Pope Francis issued during the latters June 2016 visit to Armenia. The two religious leaders also reaffirmed their opposition to same-sex marriage. Francis repeatedly paid tribute to Armenias Christian heritage during the landmark trip. For Armenia, faith in Christ has not been like a garment to be donned or doffed as circumstances or convenience dictate, but an essential part of its identity, the pontiff declared at the Armenian Apostolic Churchs main cathedral in Echmiadzin. Pashinian likewise praised the ancient church and acknowledged its special significance for many Armenians when he met with Garegin in November. It was apparently their first one-on-one meeting since Pashinian swept to power in May on a wave of mass protests organized by him. The 43-year-old prime minister had been very critical of the Catholicos in the past. Shortly after the success of the velvet revolution Garegin came under strong pressure from an obscure group accusing him of corruption and close ties with the countrys former government and demanding his resignation. Dozens of its members partly occupied his Echmiadzin headquarters in July. Police waited for several days before forcing them out of the premises. The slow police reaction prompted strong criticism from representatives of the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) and other conservative critics of Pashinians government. They portrayed it as further proof of what they see as the governments contempt for traditional Armenian values. In his Christmas message, Garegin made no explicit mention of the Pashinian-led revolution. He only cited the new changes of our life that have increased hope and optimism for new achievements, success, and victories. The Apostolic Church, to which the vast majority of Armenians nominally belong, has traditionally marked Christmas on January 6. Celebrations of the holiday start late on January 5 with Christmas Eve candlelight services held in churches in and outside Armenia. Christmas became a public holiday in the South Caucasus country after the break-up of the Soviet Union. President Trump tweeted Monday that the U.S. is set to withdraw its military forces from Syria "at a proper pace," while criticizing what he branded as a "knowingly ... very inaccurate" New York Times story about the timeline for a withdrawal. "The Failing New York Times has knowingly written a very inaccurate story on my intentions on Syria. No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!" Reality check: The Times story is based on public comments that Trump's national security adviser John Bolton made during a weekend visit to Israel. Bolton stated that the U.S. could not withdraw from Syria without assurances from Turkey that it would not attack America's Kurdish allies there, suggesting a full withdrawal could ultimately take months or years. Trump originally said last month that all U.S. forces would leave Syria within 30 days prompting worries from international partners and political allies before agreeing to a slower timetable. Tesla broke ground on a new factory in Shanghai on Monday, its first outside the U.S., and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company will begin production there for its mass-market Models 3 and Y for the Chinese market by the end of the year. Why it matters: Musk's move to build directly in China followed after Beijing announced it would end restrictions on foreign ownership of electric vehicle producers, the AP reports. By building a factory in China itself, Tesla will be able to tap into the world's biggest electric vehicle market without any worries about the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Go deeper: Tesla's emerging China production plan plan Avi Gabay, the leader of the Israeli Labor Party, went on a secret visit to Abu Dhabi in early December and met with senior UAE officials, Israeli officials tell me. Why it matters: This is a rare visit by a senior Israeli politician to the UAE, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Gabbay, who is struggling in the polls ahead of April's elections, has been criticized for his lack of experience in foreign policy. A visit to the UAE an influential Gulf state is a way to boost his foreign policy credentials. Details: Gabbay arrived in Abu Dhabi on December 2nd on a commercial flight from Amman. His visit was organized by a Moroccan national who has close ties to officials in the UAE and managed to get Gabbay an official invitation. He met in Abu Dhabi with three senior officials. Israeli officials tell me they the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran's activities in the region and the domestic political situation in Israel. When Gabbay came back to Israel on December 4th, he briefed the director of the Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen, about his meetings in the UAE. Gabbay refused to comment on his meetings but told me he will soon present a diplomatic initiative for launching talks with the Palestinians and the Arab world. For the first time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected declining coal demand from 2021 to 2022 as well as overall flat consumption through 2023. The IEA also found that, despite recent small increases in both 2017 and 2018, world consumption still likely peaked in 2014. The big picture: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes latest report, OECD countries must eliminate coal by 2030 in order to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Now that global coal consumption may have peaked, the question is how fast OECD countries will move from this plateau to absolute declines. While the IEA is the worlds leading energy forecaster, it also has continually overestimated coal consumption and simultaneously underestimated clean energy growth. The fact that the IEA no longer sees growth for the coal industry will therefore send a powerful signal to the market. Whats next: Coal plant retirements in the OECD may gather speed given the rapid fall in clean energy prices, which are now lower than coal everywhere in the world except Japan. More importantly, 96% of existing coal plants will be more expensive to run than to replace with clean energy by 2030. This could be a point of no return, after which retirements will accelerate faster than historical averages as utilities realize economic gains from clean energy. Yes, but: The IEA found pockets of coal-consumption growth in the developed world, particularly South Korea. More significantly, the IEA still forecasts long-term growth in South and Southeast Asia, especially in India, which led the world in increasing consumption by 40 million tons in 2018. The bottom line: Staving off the worst impacts of climate change will require curbing the growth of the coal industry in the developing world and phasing it out entirely in OECD countries. Peak consumption is significant on its own, but the time it takes to go from that peak to shuttering the last coal plant will prove the most important variable. Justin Guay directs global climate strategy at the Sunrise Project and advises the ClimateWorks Foundation. After taking a backseat on Washingtons priority list for most of the past decade, climate and energy policy are set to be in the limelight with the start of the new Congress. Between the lines: It's probable that energy and climate issues will further divide the parties, at least for now. If so, that would be driven in part by Trumps refusal to acknowledge climate change as a problem and also by Democrats moving further to the left. Driving the news: Democrats have created a special committee to focus on climate change, which could likely include consideration of a progressive Green New Deal policy championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. a special committee to focus on climate change, which could likely include consideration of a progressive Green New Deal policy championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A bipartisan carbon tax bill from late last year is likely to be re-introduced. from late last year is likely to be re-introduced. President Trump has cited infrastructure as potential common ground, prompting Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer to call for climate to be included. has cited infrastructure as potential common ground, prompting Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer to call for climate to be included. Watch for business lobby groups, chiefly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to ramp up pressure to raise the gasoline tax as a way to pay for infrastructure improvements. Go deeper: Democrats' left turn on climate change Herbert D. Herb Kelleher, the maverick and much beloved co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Southwest Airlines, passed away on Thursday, Jan. 3. He was 87. Herb was a young lawyer recently relocated from the East Coast to Texas when a client, Rollin King, approached him about helping him start a low-fare intra-Texas airline. The eventual airline, born after the conquest of a flurry of lawsuits attempting to stop them in their tracks, first flew June 18, 1971. Today, Southwest Airlines flies more than 4000 flights a day to 99 destinations in 11 countries with much more growth on the horizon. It is the largest U.S. domestic carrier in terms of daily passenger enplanements. In an industry famous for creating small fortunes from large ones, Southwest Airlines is arguably the most successful airline enterprise in global industry history. Equally as successful as the airline has been the long-term performance of its stock, LUV, one of the bluest of the blue chips. The airline industry is famous for some of the larger than life personalities that it often attracts in its leadership ranks. In that small cadre of colorful Conquistadores del cielo (how airline titans refer to themselves during periodic fraternal gatherings), Herb had no equal. Call it charisma, chutzpah or balls, Herb could simply get away with antics and behavior that most stuffed suits would never even contemplate, and about which some surely rolled their eyes. He could be the court jester or the biggest kid in the room. He could also be your worst nightmare if you were trying to impede his airline. He loved to laugh and get others laughing with him. Behind the disarming clown face facade, however, was a brilliant business mind, a savant-like memory for names and details, and a steely eyed and fierce negotiator. For a picture commemorating the signing of a hard-fought labor contract, Herb and the union negotiators all dressed up and posed as Mafioso, complete with machine guns. Get Herb started on airline business, taxation, regulation and so on and get ready to take notes because graduate school was about to start. He could be profoundly serious at one moment and prancing around in a silly hat the next. Herb deeply understood business because he deeply understood people customers and employees alike. Out of the veritable encyclopedia of Herb storiesmost of which are likely trueone of my personal favorites was when Herb accidentally left a cigarette lighter etched with the logo of Airbus Industries on the conference table at Boeing headquarters as a new aircraft purchase deal was being negotiated. Classic Herb. The entire amazing package that was this man served to endear Herb to his employees and associates with near maniacal devotion and commitment. Herbs business plan was as elegant as it was simple, and it was sermonized continuously to all employees. Low costs equal low fares that equal steady profits. Steady profits fuel low debt, system growth and job security. Good times were not for feasting nor for the gouging of our customers, but were for preparing for the lean times that were always just around the corner. (The latter concept was not always warmly received by labor negotiators.) During the heyday growth period of the 1980s and 1990s, Herb, armed with his industry-leading low costs per seat mile, could enter any market of his choosing and set the market price of airfares at a level that would assure profits for him and losses for his competitors. This gave birth to the term Southwest Effect that industry watchers and analysts started using as competitors painfully tried to match Herbs fares. Herb led his faithful employees like a general in battle, referring to employees as warriors and competitors as the enemy. There was always a battlefront somewhere. Several attempts to clone or copy Southwests winning formula came in with a bang and usually went out with a whimper. Without a doubt, billions of dollars have been saved by the traveling public on airfares as a result of the Southwest Effect. At no time was the brilliance of Herbs mantra more plainly proven in the field than during the horrific aftermath of 9/11 and its devastating impact on the airline industry. Southwest Airlines, by virtue of its low costs and low debt, was the only airline of its peer group to escape that dark period without furloughing employees or filing for bankruptcy to shed debt and pension obligations. Sometimes job security is never fully appreciated by employees until it is lost. No discussion on the business life of Herb Kelleher would be complete without mention of his right-hand person, Colleen Barrett. Their professional relationship started when she was the young lawyers legal secretary and culminated with Colleen retiring as the president of Southwest Airlines. Together they were a one-two punch of mutual magnification. A duo far greater than just a sum of the parts. As long as Southwest Airlines exists, each of their respective DNA will be woven into its fabric. At Southwest Airlines, the scheduling of operations is done in Central Time. However, it is never internally referred to as Central Time; it is simply referred throughout the company as Herb time. I first met Herb in 1991 as a new-hire pilot. Our class of 20, as were most when Herbs schedule allowed, was privileged to be able to have a luncheon with Herb and Colleen. Our particular luncheon was unique in that one of the major news networks would be filming our meeting as part of a news special they were putting together on Herb. As the new employees, we werent quite sure what to expect, but even amidst the lights and cameras, Herb was simply Herb, even if the network editors would have some bleeping and editing to do afterwards. He regaled us with stories and nuggets of wisdom until our bellies ached from laughter. After just a simple introduction in that new hire meet and greet, I had a purely happenstance encounter with Herb almost four years later in an elevator at the company headquarters. Not only did he remember my name, but he quoted verbatim a comment that I had made during the luncheon. Many years later I got a personal note from him complimenting me on an article I had published. This from a guy who had to have met over 50,000 employees over his career. He had a magical way of making everyone in his presence feel special. Hundreds of thousands of employees and their family members have their livelihoods, fortunes and retirements built upon the creation of this incredible man. That was Herb. There will never be an equal. Myron Nelson is a Southwest Airlines Captain. Palmdale, CA (93550) Today Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. Very hot. High 107F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds late. Low around 70F. SW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Starting with the rear bumper and exhaust system, the facelift also features LED taillights of a slimmer design, more pronounced aerodynamic diffuser, louvered glass cover for the engine, and a curious-looking spoiler that incorporates the third brake light. The air intakes on the rear quarter panels are also different, featuring a honeycomb mesh.LP610-4 will no longer be used for the Huracan Evo, which is expected to get 10 more ponies for the 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10. Models with rear-wheel drive are expected to get 590 PS (582 horsepower) while the all-wheel-drive configuration could harness 620 PS (612 horsepower).The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission will carry over, and a separate radiator controls the temperature of the engine oil. Speaking of which, care to guess where the V10 is manufactured? That would be the Audi Hungaria Motor Kft. plant in Gyor, Hungary, not SantAgata Bolognese in Italy.Following no fewer than three photographs of the Huracan Evo, the House of the Raging Bull is set to take the veil off the mid-cycle refresh in the coming days. The world premiere could be set for the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, which runs from March 7th to March 17th.It will be interesting to see what Lamborghini has in the pipeline for the Performante, the range-topping model in the Huracan lineup. A suite of improvements seems likely, but on the other hand, a successor of sorts shouldnt be ruled out either.An older report on the Huracan Evo suggests that Lamborghini could add a handful of new variants to the roster, including the Speedster, Barchetta, Targa, Superveloce, Superleggera, GT3 Stradale, and Safari . As much as wed love to see them come to fruition, dont forget that the Volkswagen Group is keeping SantAgata Bolognese on a tight leash. Photo by Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com Photo by Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com The Northern Territory has had it special visa arrangement to attract skilled workers from abroad for jobs where there are shortages extended and the number of occupations increased.The Australian Government has announced a second Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) which aims to increase the number of appropriate skilled workers to be allocated visas to work in the region over the next five years.The DAMA also offers pathways to permanent residency for DAMA visa holders as part of a national policy to support the skills needs of regional Australia where Australian workers are not available to fill jobs.'The Northern Territory has seen first-hand the benefits of using a Designated Area Migration Agreement to respond to their unique workforce shortages,' said Immigration Minister David Coleman.Senator for the Northern Territory, Nigel Scullion, said that it desperately needs more workers across a range of occupations and the DAMA will assist businesses who are struggling to find appropriately skilled workers domestically.Meanwhile, Northern Territory Minister for Workforce Training, Selena Uibo, explained that the first DAMA had helped a number of businesses fill positions they were unable to fill with local workers, in areas such as childcare, tourism and hospitality.'Access to, and retention of, a suitably skilled workforce is a key issue for many employers and our Government recognises the need to support labour force recruitment for local businesses,' she pointed out.'Employers struggling to fill any of the 117 skilled and semi-skilled occupations identified as being in shortage will need to demonstrate they are unable to employ a suitably skilled and experienced Australian to fill a position, before applying to sponsor an overseas worker,' she added.She also explained that the new agreement would complement the Territory Government's recently released population strategy, a comprehensive plan to boost the Territory's population.'Everyone benefits when we attract more people to the Territory. More people means more jobs, a stronger economy and more GST revenue, which means better schools, better hospitals, and more police,' said Uibo.The landmark first DAMA between the Federal and Northern Territory Governments was the first of its kind to offer a broader range of occupations to employers than is available through standard skilled migration programs, within the designated geographical area.Historically, migration of overseas nationals to the Northern Territory has been a key contributor to economic growth, population growth and social diversity. Lawyers at Clyde & Co will be given tools to help them raise their profiles over the next year following the launch of a new initiative. It will include training in social media, on camera interview technique, presentation skills, writing for offline and online audiences, creating a personal brand, and effective networking. The global law firm is offering the programme to men and women but it will be particularly promoted to female lawyers, who despite making up 46% of the lawyer population and 25% of partners at Clyde, only account for 20% of external spokespeople quoted in the media. The U.S. Department of Education isnt directly affected by the government shutdownits among the agencies that had their funding approved last fall, before the crisis hitbut could the key to ending the Beltway stalemate lie in some previous education policy wheeling and dealing? Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., says yes. The chairman of the Senate education committee, who is retiring at the end of his term in 2020, is making the case that the negotiations behind the Every Student Succeeds Act more than three years ago provide a blueprint for helping the Trump administration and Congress reopen the government. In a Thursday floor speech in the Senate, Alexander chastised both members of Congress and President Donald Trump for failing to reach a deal, and said they should both take lessons from 2015, when Alexander, lawmakers from both parties, and President Barack Obama worked to reauthorize the main federal education law. He said Democrats should recognize that Trump has a legitimate objective with respect to increasing border security. And as for the Trump, Alexander says, He should be as specific and reliable as President Obama was in 2015 when he told me he needed three things in order to sign a bill. And when Congress passed a bill with those three things in it, even though it included some things the president didnt like, he signed the law. I spoke on the Senate floor and offered three specific solutions for reopening the federal government. Resolving the partial shutdown by going Real Big on immigration could be Trumps Nixon-to-China moment in history. pic.twitter.com/6FPkOCcrEi Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 4, 2019 (Alexander also elaborated on these themes in a press release and in a Washington Post op-ed .) Alexander didnt specify what those three things were that Obama considered prerequisites (although based on our reporting, two of those items were the requirement to identify and intervene in schools in the bottom 5 percent for academic performance, and a new early-childhood program, both of which made it into the law). But he does say that lawmakers and Trump should consider broadening the discussion by trying to resolve questions around things like Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, orif they really want to go really big"revamping the entire legal immigration system in a way that satisfies a number of objectives, in addition to resolving the shutdown. Education and Immigration Lets unpack Alexanders argument. From a policy perspective, Alexanders suggestions are strong, and in a different world would be viable, said Vic Klatt, who served in the U.S. Department of Education under President George H.W. Bush, and is now a principal at Penn Hill Group, a Washington lobbying group. But Klatt said that only counts for so much when both sides could pay a huge political price for striking any grand bargain. This is about the president and no one else, Klatt said. So I think any senator from any party, for that matter, would have an almost impossible task trying to bring about compromise here, given where the president is and given where the new Congress is in the House. Klatt added that when it comes to Alexander, Hes as good as anybody at bringing about compromise, and has reached significant deals on several issues aside from education. But if Alexander were the top senator for immigration issues, Klatt said, even he would find this a tough row to hoe. On Capitol Hill, education policy doesnt generate the news coverage and controversy of immigration, so negotiating deals can take place while the attention of cable TV news cameras and social media is often elsewhere. We recently wrote that the 115th Congress didnt accomplish much on education, but lawmakers did reach a bipartisan deal to reauthorize the federal law dealing with career and technical education, after years of proposals, staff work, and votes helped generate momentum. There was very little outcry about the final CTE bill, which Alexander helped push through, and there was a lot of satisfaction with the final deal, including from Trump. By contrast, deals about any slice of immigration policy in recent years have tended to cause a huge uproar, and the bricks and mortar making up those deals have tumbled to the ground before completion. (See this item we wrote in February 2018 about the failure of Senate DACA proposals as an example.) Policy affecting schools involves state and local actors who can pressure federal lawmakers and officials based on their interests and experiences. By contrast, the legal immigration system, DACA, and building a border wall are ultimately federal issues, even though states can adopt policies affecting bits and pieces of the puzzle. At some point, presumably, some combination of pressure and compromise will help end the shutdown. But Alexander himself has said that education is a national but not necessarily a federal issue ; its probably not as easy to make that same argument about immigration. By the time ESSA passed, everybody thought we needed to do something about No Child Left Behind, Klatt said. He added that in contrast to the celebration around NCLBs passage early in the George W. Bush administration, there was more relief than anything else when lawmakers agreed to ESSA. No one was going to pay a big political price on either side for getting this done, Klatt said, referring to ESSA. All the stars finally aligned. Thats not the case here. Photo: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, speaks with reporters last year at the Capitol in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . Sydney Airport has signed an eight-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with CWP Renewables and Origin Energy in a deal advised by Allens. Under the deal, the Sapphire Wind Farm and Crudine Ridge Wind Farm will supply Sydney Airport with renewable energy at a fixed price. The Sapphire Wind Farm is a 273 megawatt wind farm located near Glenn Innes in regional NSW, while the Crudine Ridge Wind Farm is a 134 megawatt wind farm located near Mudgee in regional NSW. The PPA is part of Sydney Airport's commitment to lower its car bon footprint, and is one of a number of steps towards its targeted 50 per cent reduction in carbon intensity by 2025. The number of overdose deaths involving methamphetamines and amphetamines in the state of Ohio increased more than 5,000 percent over the cour Much debate has transpired over how to handle the arduous task of creating zoning regulations in The Plains. At an Athens County Regional Plan Apple Taunts Google, Amazon With Privacy Ad Ahead of CES 2019 Trending News: Apple Trolls Google, Amazon, and Facebook With Privacy Ad Apple just won the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and its not even participating in the annual tech event. A huge billboard on the side of a Marriott hotel in Las Vegas takes a jab at Apples rivals Google, Amazon, and Facebook, who all have faced scandals in the last year regarding privacy. The ad, which is on the side of the hotel facing the Las Vegas Convention Center, where CES is held, reads: What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone, and includes the URL to Apples privacy policy. The words are a clever play on words of the famous saying, What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But the cleverness doesnt end there. The billboard appears to taunt Google, which is currently running a Hey Google ad on the Las Vegas monorail that runs right beside Apples poster. Related: Amazon, Apple or Google? The Smart Speaker Battle Is Officially On A Year of Privacy Breaches Google privacy fell under the microscope in October when news broke that a bug leaked the private data of more than 52 million Google+ users, and then refused to disclose the issue when the company discovered the problem. As a result, Google decided to speed up the closure of its failed social network. Apples ad could also be seen as an attack against Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, who fielded questions from senators over the Cambridge Analytica scandal in April. That issue involved a political firm gaining access to the private information of up to 87 million Facebook users. A month before Zuckerberg went to Washington, D.C., for the congressional hearing, Apple CEO Tim Cook publically touted Apples privacy policy. "We're not going to traffic in your personal life," Cook said in an interview with MSNBC. "Privacy to us is a human right. It's a civil liberty." Amazon could be another target of Apples CES ad, since the online retailer faced a scandal in May after an Alexa smart speaker recorded a private conversation from one user and sent it to another. Even the ads direct location, the Marriott, is an interesting choice, considering the hotels privacy woes after the chain allegedly lost more than 5 million passport numbers to hackers in a data breach announced in November. Those in Glass Houses While Apple appears to be familiar with the classic Las Vegas saying, it might want to get familiar with the phrase, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at other people's glass houses." In early 2018, Apple dealt with its own privacy concerns in China when it agreed to let Chinese authorities store user data. In 2017, the tech giant faced another issue when an iOS app called AccuWeather allegedly sold user data to advertisers. And Apple faced one of its biggest fiascos ever with 2014s The Fappening, which involved hackers stealing iCloud passwords from several celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton and then leaking their nude photos. You Might Also Dig Golden Globes 2019 Men's Red Carpet Style: Shawl of Fame 13 Shawl Collar Suits to Steal From the Golden Globes Red Carpet Ah yes, its the Golden Globes once again. The Globes kick off awards season to honor actors and actresses across film and television. It is also the first opportunity to see A-listers show us what the red-carpet trends may be as we go through the rest of awards season. Once the standard for men at these glitzy ceremonies, basic black peak lapel tuxedos can still be seen in Hollywood and elsewhere, but for those who are looking to take a more daring route, tuxedos are becoming more adventurous. This year at the 2019 Golden Globes, velvet and jackets, tonal shirt, tie, and jacket combos, and patterns were plentiful, but the trend that beat out all others was the shawl collar tuxedo. In almost every shade, style, and size, the shawl collar tuxedo proved that it can look great on just about any guy. If you have the muscular build of say, Terry Crews, a shawl collar can fit and flatter without over exaggerating broad shoulders like a peak lapel can. If your frame is smaller, like that of Johnny Galecki, a sparkling shawl collar can draw some solid attention to the chest. Here are some of the stars who shined in shawl collars at the Golden Globes: Chadwick Boseman GettyImages If the Oscars are all about the gold statue, does the Black Panther star showing up in this solid silver shawl collar Versace tuxedo mean that the Golden Globes are actually all about silver? Either way, he brought it and he did not disappoint. Sacha Baron Cohen GettyImages By combining two trends of the evening, velvet and shawl collar, Cohen in a Brioni suit may have pissed a lot of folks off with his series Who Is America?, he and his wife Isla Fisher made us pretty happy for the evening. Tyler Perry GettyImages The film maker may be retiring Madea, but he showed up for the red carpet nailing another trend of the evening. Wearing black on black on black was something we saw quite a lot of, and Perry added a bit of flare with his textured velvet jacket to keep it interesting. John Krasinski GettyImages Hes come a long way from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and become quite the Hollywood leading man. Thats probably why he wore one of the more classic interpretations of the shawl collar tuxedo, revived when James Bond killed in it in Skyfall designed by Brunello Cucinelli. Sam Rockwell GettyImages Who says brown is too casual for a black-tie event? Rockwell didnt think so when he wore the brown shawl collar tux and sandy-hued shirt to the Globes. Ryan Coogler GettyImages This is how you nail the monochromatic black style while keeping it classic and understated. The Black Panther director showed up looking like a winner, for sure. Topher Grace GettyImages The shawl collar doesnt have to be on its own either. Easily pair it with a waistcoat and leave it open like Grace did in his Valentino, and look like old Hollywood royalty. Edgar Ramirez GettyImages Sometimes less is more. When in doubt, you cannot go wrong with the classic shawl collar penguin suit like Ramirez did. After he portrayed Gianni Versace, one of fashions true visionaries, in American Crime Story, you wouldnt expect the actor to show up looking bad, would you? Idris Elba GettyImages If you are looking to make a bold statement, what better way to do it than an open shirt with a three-piece shawl collar tuxedo in a saturated jewel-tone jade by Oszwald Botang? Really, Elba can show up in just about anything and look pretty damn cool. Lucas Hedges GettyImages Young Hollywood may have to work a little harder to make an impression on the older A-listers. The Boy Erased star showed us how it was done. By showing up in a classic black-and-white tuxedo combination, he said, Im supposed to be here. By making that tuxedo jacket velvet, he said, I plan on coming back. Johnny Galecki GettyImages Maybe he was inspired by The Big Bang Theory because we were seeing stars with the sparkle shawl collar the actor was wearing. Normally, we wouldnt think this would work so well, but when paired with his black shirt and bow tie, we honestly didnt mind it. Terry Crews GettyImages The man can basically do no wrong, and he proved it when he brought his white jacket and shawl lapel collar to the red carpet. It must have some good stretch in it too. Stephan James GettyImages You dont tend to see a lot of double-breasted tuxedos on the red carpet, but when you do, its usually worn by a man who isnt afraid to take a risk. Homecoming actor James didnt just don a double-breasted jacket, he did it in velvet from head to toe. Xiaomi is planning to launch its first smartphone under the Redmi sub-brand on January 10 in China. It is a move very similar to Huawei which sells its budget smartphones under the brand name Honor. The smartphone under the Redmi sub-brand have been spotted on the Chinese certification website TENAA. As per the details on TENNA, the three models listed were M1901F7C, M1901F7T, and M1901F7E. The variants could come with different storage capacities. Most reports mention that this smartphone could be a part of Redmi 7 series phones. The TENNA listing also reveals that the phone comes with a display size of 6.3 inches with a dew-drop shaped notch. The listing also reveals that the handset will have the dimension of 59.21x75.21x8.1mm and will be powered by a 4000 mAh battery. The image on the website also showcases the device sporting a gradient back with pink and purple combination. Also Read: iPhone 11 images leaked! Sleek, shiny design, triple camera; here's what you need to know As far as the optics is concerned, the images posted on TENNA show vertically placed rear cameras on top left corner. Exact specifications of the camera are not mentioned but it could be the 48 megapixel camera which was announced by the Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun shared a poster on Weibo. Jun had also said that the Redmi smartphones may start sporting Type-C ports. He had asked the fans whether they would like to see Type-C port on Redmi phones. Earlier, Xiaomi had publicly announced its plans of launching Redmi as a separate sub-brand. "We believe, with Redmi becoming an independent brand, and Redmi and Xiaomi developing in different directions, both brands will benefit. Redmi will focus on extremely cost-efficiency and the e-commerce market while Xiaomi will focus on the mid- to high-end market and new retail," he said. Xiaomi already has Poco as a sub-brand which offers flagship specifications at an affordable price tag. Edited By: Udit Verma Of custody and crypto The normally staid world of custody banking is now having to embrace the wild child of global assets: cryptocurrency. And this is happening just as bitcoin, the poster child of cryptocurrency, seesawed from US$30,000 one week to $40,000 the next, shedding then recovering 30% of its value. Some bitcoin bulls are talking of $100,000 by year-end Support local journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. The ASEAN regions warm climate and fertile soil is suitable for tea cultivation. The consumer market is also regarded stable which makes the regions domestic tea sector equally important. Investments in ASEANs tea industry remain positive. In this article, we look at the prospects for the tea industry in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Singapore Tea is increasingly becoming popular in Singapore. Tea is considered as a healthier option to coffee in Singapore. Singapores consumer market is driven by Millennials which has a growing interest in speciality teas, regardless of the health benefits of drinking it. Singapore has also adopted a global industry trend that incorporates or blends tea into other aspects of daily lifestyle such as cocktails, or even cuisine. Some eateries in the country are already cooking with tea and cafes or restaurants have modified their menus to cater to tea lovers. Singapores combined exports of coffee, tea, mate and spices in 2017 was valued at US$224.06 million. On the other hand, imports of these commodities amounted to US$322.07 million. As Singapore does not possess a vast agricultural area, its produce is significantly lower. Singapores total tea import from China was the highest compared to other neighboring countries, accounting for 36% or US$5.9 million in 2017. Imports from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam were also comparatively high at US$4.54 million, US$793,000 and US$438,000, respectively. Vietnam Black tea consumption in Vietnam is expected to grow by 2 percent, according to the world report on the tea outlook for 2027. On the other hand, production of green tea is also projected to substantially increase with an annual average growth of 6.8 percent despite the ongoing challenges on quality, affecting the price and export earnings of the country. Asias export of black tea shows a negative growth in recent years except for Vietnam. At the same time, Vietnams export volume of green tea is projected to grow by 9 percent, more than double the expected growth rate of China which currently dominates the tea market. However, there has been a decline of 11 percent in volume or 61,530 tons in Vietnams overall exports of tea in mid-July of 2018 due to poor quality and intense competition brought about by international integration. According to the Vietnam Tea Association, the country can solve this problem by processing higher quality of teas that will lead to higher sales prices and earnings for tea farmers. Pakistan remains the largest tea consumption market forVietnam. In 2017, its import of tea accounted for US$12.88 million or 28 percent of its total coffee, tea or spice imports. Vietnams export to Pakistan in 2016 reached 57 percent or US$78.6 million worth of its total coffee, tea or spice exports. Indonesia Currently the 8th largest tea producer in the world, Indonesia exports about 65 percent of its produce. However, tea production has decreased over the past decade and total exports have been under pressure. The decline is attributed to a decrease in size of tea plantation from 153,675 hectares (ha) in 2000 down to 113,808 ha in 2018. Indonesias export share of the tea market constitutes only 3 percent. Generally, the rising prices and cost of production has led tea farmers to switch to higher-yielding crops such as palm oil, rubber and vegetables. Over the years, tea production in Indonesia has fallen from 146,682 metric tons in 2014 to 139,362 metric tons in 2018. According to the governments tea outlook report tea production is expected to reach 141,625 metric tons by 2021. However, exports are projected to decrease by 1,256 metric tons in 2021. Malaysia is the top export destination for Indonesian tea, followed by Pakistan, Germany, United States and Poland. A 20 percent import duty is imposed on tea from non-ASEAN countries and most imports come from Argentina, Kenya, India, Iran and Vietnam. Malaysia Between 2007 and2016, Malaysias tea consumption and share of the global market achieved a 4.9 percent growth. 60.12 percent of Malaysians consume tea regularly as shown by a recent survey. Tea production in Malaysia reached 11,300 metric tons as of 2016, a notable increase from 9,760 metric tons in 2015. Although tea is not among Malaysias top export products, it is exported to China and India which are the largest tea exporters in the world. According to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade, China imported a total of US$53.5 million worth of tea from Malaysia in 2017 while Indias import of tea was valued at US$12.4 million. Tea is also exported to neighboring countries such as Vietnam (32%), Indonesia (12%) and Myanmar (41%). Lusks passing is not just the death of a great animator, but the closing of an era in American animation history. He was the last living Disney animator who had made significant contributions to the original animated features produced by Walt Disney, starting with the companys very first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. CartoonBrew On many days lately, the last places Ive wanted to be are 2020 and 2021. And living outside of the present is clearly optional. Encouraged by pandemic restrictions, I retreated to my... Read more Yes, it's the only way to get anything done Yes, the filibuster is outdated No, Senate tradition should not be thrown out No, we need bipartisanship I don't know Vote View Results Qatar Airways Cargo has commenced freighter services to Guadalajara, Mexico, expanding its network in the Americas region. The new destination is being served by the airlines Boeing 777 freighter. Guadalajara has been added as a new destination on the cargo carriers high demand transpacific freighter route, commencing 6 January 2019. The twice-weekly freighter departs directly from Macau to Los Angeles in North America and connects onward to Mexico City arriving in Guadalajara, before departing for Doha via Liege. Guadalajara is the capital and largest city of the Mexican State of Jalisco. It has the third-largest economy and industrial infrastructure in Mexico. Major exports on the flights consist of perishables and general cargo, while general cargo will form the majority of imports. Qatar Airways chief officer cargo, Guillaume Halleux, said: We have had a very successful 2018. Our customers have welcomed the transpacific route, which is a faster solution over the Pacific for Asian exports destined for the Americas, and we are delighted to add Guadalajara as another stop on this route. The twice-weekly freighter offers significant capacity into and out of this destination and is an important addition to our expanding network of more than 60 freighter destinations. The launch of this freighter service to Guadalajara not only provides a consistent and reliable service, but also contributes to economic and trade growth in Mexico. Emirates has announced a number of appointments to its commercial operations team across the Middle East, GCC and Africa Highlighting the importance of the new appointments to support Emirates efforts to strengthen its business in the Middle East and Africa, Thierry Antinori, Emirates Executive vice president and chief commercial officer said: As we continue to develop our operations in the Middle East, GCC and Africa, the unique backgrounds, experience and skills of each newly appointed member of our commercial team will further strengthen our commercial and business operations and drive our strategic initiatives in a new year of growth. Their experience will also be instrumental as we focus on executing many of our commercial initiatives to pursue revenue opportunities, improve margin performance, as well as capture new consumer segments. Mohammad Lootah will be taking on the role of manager Jordan. Mohammad joined Emirates in 2016 and has held commercial support management roles Riyadh and Kuwait. Tariq Al Mutawa has been appointed as manager Kuwait. Tariq has been with Emirates for eight years, holding roles in India, Bahrain and Qatar. Hamad Al Ali, has been appointed to lead Emirates commercial activities as manager Bahrain. Hamad joined Emirates in 2013 as a Commercial Support Manager and was posted in South Africa and Ethiopia. After that, he was assigned as manager Zambia where he executed and delivered the airlines commercial activities in that market. Omar Al Bushlaibi, will become manager Oman. Omar joined Emirates in 2014 as part of the UAE National Commercial Management Programme, training in the UAE sales department, Istanbul, as well as Mumbai before holding the role of commercial support manager in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Omar Al Bushlaibi Nasser Bahlooq will be Manager Zimbabwe. Nasser joined the UAE National Commercial Management Programme in 2015, and was selected to manage the airlines commercial activities in Yinchuan, China and most recently Yangon, Myanmar where he supported the route launch activities of the linked route to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Khalfan Al Salami, will hold the role of manager Sudan. Khalfan joined Emirates in 2015 as part of the UAE national commercial management programme, taking on further training and development in Emirates station in Madrid and most recently held the role of commercial support manager Kuwait. Marwan Al Marri will become manager Riyadh. Marwan previously held the commercial support manager position in Madina. Fahad Bastaki, will take on the role of manager Dammam. Fahad began his career with Emirates in 2015, and has also held commercial support positions in South Africa and most recently Zimbabwe. Saeed Khalifa Bin Sulaiman will take on the role of senior manager, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Saeed previously held the role of regional manager East (Riyadh and Dammam) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Omar Al Banna, will become manager Sharjah and Northern Emirates. Omar started his career with Emirates in 2006, and has previously held the roles of managing commercial activities in Ethiopia, Tunisia, Jordan, Corporate Sales in the UAE and most recently managing the airlines commercial operations in in Kuwait and Iraq. The Sensex and Nifty closed higher in trade today powered by gains in consumer durables and information technology stocks. While the Sensex closed 155 points higher at 35,850, Nifty ended 49 points in the green at 10,776 level. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 21 ended in the green. Axis Bank (2.84%), Tata Motors (2.64%) and Infosys (1.57%) were the top Sensex gainers. Top Sensex losers were Bajaj Auto (2.82%), YES Bank (1.35%) and Hero MotoCorp (1.11%). Top sectoral gainers were consumer durables stocks with the BSE index rising 218 points to 20,787 level. Top sectoral losers were the healthcare stocks after the BSE healthcare index lost 53 points to 13,769 level. On Friday, the Sensex and Nifty closed higher powered by gains in banking and metal stocks. While the Sensex closed 181 points higher at 35,695, Nifty ended 55 points in the green at 10,727 level. "We have positive outcome from the US and China, our market is showing relatively better signs of stability due to this," said Deven Choksey, founder, KR Choksey Investment Managers. "Markets are not expecting too much from the earnings season, we remain relatively more cautious on that front at this point of time." Meanwhile, the BSE mid cap and small cap indices closed 4 points and 8.5 points higher in trade today. Market breadth was positive with 1314 stocks closing higher compared with 1287 ending lower on the BSE. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained $1.17 to $58.23 per barrel. It rose 2 percent to $57.06 per barrel in London. On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 157.72 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 240.6 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed. The YES Bank stock rose in early trade today ahead of a board meeting on January 9 to finalise the name of its CEO and MD candidate to replace Rana Kapoor whose term ends January 31. Subsequently, the name will be sent to the Reserve Bank of India for approval. The stock rose up to 2.51% to 194.25 level today compared to the previous close of 189.50 on the BSE. However, the stock closed 1.35% lower at 186.95 level on the BSE after investors booked profit. The Titan Company rose in trade today after the Tata Group firm said it expects the full-year growth in jewellery business to be around 22 percent. The large cap stock rose intra day 3.82% to 964 level on the BSE compared to its previous close of 928.55. The stock which opened with a gain of 2.31% at 950 hit an intra day low of 946.80. It closed 1.61% higher at 943.50 on the BSE. The stock was among the top Nifty gainers today, rising 2.11% to 948 level. Global markets European markets turned lower after a marginally higher open on Monday following an upbeat Asian session. All eyes were on talks in Beijing, where American and Chinese officials are haggling over a trade dispute that threatens to worsen an economic slowdown and put a drag on the global economy. In Europe, Germany's DAX lost 0.1 percent to 10,755.23 while France's CAC 40 dropped 0.2 percent to 4,728.35. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.2 percent to 6,825.18. Wall Street was set to build on gains from Friday. Japan's benchmark, bouncing back from steep losses last week, started the day trading over 3 percent higher. The Nikkei 225 index gained 2.4 percent to 20,038.97, while South Korea's Kospi gained 1.3 percent to 2,037.10. Australia's S&P-ASX 200 added 1.1 percent to 5,683.20. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.8 percent to 25,835.70 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.7 percent to 2,533.09. Shares rallied in Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. US indexes soared Friday after the Labor Department announced that employers added a better-than-expected 312,000 jobs in December. Edited by Aseem Thapliyal Posted on: June 4, 2015 11:17 AM By Ilona Sabera for ACNS Saint Marks Anglican primary school in Kawo Kaduna, Nigeria, is the only church school in the diocese where prayers and Christian religious subjects are not compulsory for Muslims. Instead of closing the only church and the attached school when Christians fled the region, the diocesan bishop, newly appointed Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Most Revd Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has insisted on a more welcoming approach towards Muslim students. Kaduna city is strictly divided between practitioners of two main religions. The southern part is mainly inhabited by Christians, while northern Kaduna is mainly Muslim. The business centre is a place where both groups meet and work side by side, every day returning home to their respective parts of the city. Saint Marks Anglican primary school is the only church school left in Kawo North Kaduna. It is located close to a military barrack and a church that has been burned down in violent clashes and rebuilt three times. Several episodes of sectarian violence with victims from both religious groups forced Christians to flee Muslim-dominated North Kaduna. Many parents withdrew their children from Saint Marks primary school and the number of pupils dropped from 240 to 50 between 2011 and 2013. When Christians left, the classrooms became empty, few tuition fees were paid and it was difficult to provide teacher salaries, says Martin Odidi, education secretary for the Diocese of Kaduna, The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), currently in UK participating in a seven week Commonwealth Professional Fellowship scheme, hosted by the Anglican Alliance. After a suicide bomb attack in the Christian populated South, the headmistress of Saint Marks resigned and as a rare exception after a long debate a young Muslim teacher was appointed acting headmaster for a year. Despite several suggestions from some clergy members, Bishop Idowu-Fearon made the decision not to close the Kawo church and school. Currently there are 69 pupils, 80 per cent of whom are Muslims. There are few Muslims in other Kaduna city church schools and their parents are made to sign an agreement or informed that their children are obliged to follow Christian prayer and Christian religious subjects. They are not allowed to perform Islamic worship nor wear any religious clothing on the school premises. In the central part of Kaduna city all of our church schools have experienced a drastic drop in numbers of children because of insecurity. I suggested the schools to allow Muslim students to wear the hijab [veil not covering the face] and say their prayers, if they wish. In this way the number of children would increase, says Odidi. Muslim parents are sending their children to the Anglican school, favouring its standard of education and study curriculum rather than the state schools. Saint Marks school is the only one ready to compromise. Administration in other Anglican schools is convinced if you allow Muslims to pray, they will ask for Islamic subjects to be taught at school, if we allow that, they will ask for a place to worship, then build a Mosque and then they will try to convert Christians..., continues the education secretary. Still, this is not what happened at Saint Marks. There is an almost equal number of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. The northern part of the country is mostly Muslim, while in the centre there is a mixed presence of both and the southern parts are mostly Christian. The relationships between the two main religious groups are historically intertwined and members of the same family could still belong to different religious groups. My grandfather was animist and had two wives. For this reason he could not join the mission church. He accepted Islam because it allows four wives. My father became a Christian when he went to a Catholic mission school. You got a lot of benefits if you were Christian during the period of British missionaries. My brother is Muslim today and is married to a Muslim woman, explains Odidi. While children at Saint Marks Anglican primary school play together without any difficulties, relationships among adults are more complicated, recounts the Anglican education secretary: People meet each other, talk, go to the market... We separate, when we go home to our communities. When the crisis comes, we lose trust and start fighting each other as if we were strangers. In the current situation where extremist groups in northern Nigeria produce distrust and fear, Odidi would like church schools to promote peaceful coexistence and allow Muslims to practice Islam if they wish so and learn Islamic religious studies. The North is facing reduction of Christian population; we are surrounded by Muslim community. It will encourage more Muslims to come to our church schools and we will have the fees to develop the schools and pay salaries, he concludes. Ilona Sabera is Communications and Research Officer at the Anglican Communion Office. The House of Marley has just announced a bunch of new products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, all of which are coming later this year. The company has announced seven new products, including the star of the show, the Get Together Mini smart speaker which comes with Google Assistant integration. As per usual, The House of Marleys products use eco-conscious and recyclable materials, and the company did not exactly share a ton of info on its new products, but enough to maybe get some of you interested, read on. New Audio Systems The first product the company talked about is the aforementioned Get Together Mini speaker which comes with the Google Assistant. This is basically an addition to the companys existing Get Together family of speakers, and the company says that it used the highest percentage of sustainable materials of any Google Assistant speaker in order to make this product. The company utilized natural bamboo, recyclable aluminum, and REWIND fabric composed of organic cotton, organic hemp, and recycled plastic rPET. On top of Google Assistant, youre also getting the Google Cast integration here. The Get Together Mini speaker comes with both Bluetooth and WiFi, while it can also charge up your smartphone, as it also acts as a USB power bank. The company said that the speaker will become available in August this year, and that it will cost $199.99. Advertisement The Stir It Up Wireless is a turntable, basically an upgraded version of the original, as it comes with Bluetooth, which is something that the original does not have. This turntable has been crafted using bamboo, REWIND fabric, and recyclable aluminum. Speaking of Bluetooth, were looking at Bluetooth 5.0 here, and the device comes with built-in pre-amp, and belt drive with auto start / stop for power conservation. This turntable will go on sale in September this year, and will cost $249.99. The No Bounds XL is a portable Bluetooth speaker that was announced in October 2018, but the company has just announced a new variant of it, the latest navy colorway. The House of Marley used sustainable cork in order to make it as lightweight as possible, but not sacrificing on durability. This speaker can even float thanks to this materials, while we do not know when will it become available, but we do know that it will cost $149.99. New Wireless Earbuds & Headphones The Liberate Air are the companys new true wireless and eco-conscious Bluetooth earbuds, The House of Marleys first earbuds of that sort. Here, the company used bamboo, natural wood fiber composite, and REWIND fabric. The company claims that youll be able to get up to 7 hours of playtime with these earbuds, and they are also IPX4-rated for rain and sweat resistance. Bluetooth 5.0 is built-in here, and there are also some controls offered on these earbuds. The July 2019 is listed as the release date for the Liberate Air, and these earbuds will cost $149.99. The Exodus earphones are The House of Marleys new over-ear wireless headphones which offer a 30-hour battery life, and 50mm hi-def drivers. These are basically the companys new flagship headphones, and are made from sustainable FSC-certified wood, stainless steel, recyclable aluminum, and natural leather. These headphones come with Memory Foam ear cushions, and provide premium comfort and a foldable hinge design. The microphone is built-in here, and the headphones will become available in March for $199.99. Advertisement The Exodus ANC headphones are yet another flagship-grade headphones from the company. These wireless headphones offer active noise cancellation, acoustic performance, and premium comfort. Theyre made out of similar materials as the Exodus headphones, and offer a 24-hour battery life with ANC on, 40-hour battery life with ANC off. These headphones also offer foldable design, and will be on sale in September for $249.99. The Redemption headphones present the very last product that The House of Marley announced at CES 2019. These wireless headphones offer premium comfort, says the company, and they come with 50mm hi-def drivers. These headphones are crafted using FSC-certified wood, stainless steel, REWIND fabric, and recyclable aluminum. If youre interested in the Redemption headphones, you should know that they will go on sale in July and cost $99.99. Samsung recently attempted to explain why One UI is so different from its previous implementations of Googles Android operating system. The company aimed to include clear visuals and a spacious and orderly design that maximize the readability of the interface of its take on Android 9 Pie. An example provided by the firm is the revamped notification shade, with the quick settings panel now extending closer to the bottom of the display. The larger space occupied by the quick settings panel allows for bigger buttons for individual settings, larger text, and wider spaces between available options. Another user interface change Samsung introduced with One UI comes in the form of viewing and interaction areas. The user interacts with the device by relying on elements found in the lower half of the display, while the upper half of the screen shows the content of the applications. There were also changes made to the way the device displays app content and interactive elements. Samsung says its handsets now show app content in focus blocks, which actually reveal less information on the screen compared to its earlier user interface designs. However, by reducing the amount of content presented at any given time, users may focus their attention on the task at hand more easily. In addition, these focus blocks, along with app icons, feature rounded corners, which result in a more consistent aesthetic throughout One UI. Furthermore, Samsung also reduces the number of interactive elements accessible to the user at any given time, although the software overlay only removes the elements considered not relevant to the action performed by the person. For example, when a user enters a mobile number in the phone app, only the options for creating a new contact or initiating a call will appear. The placement of the interactive elements at the lower half of the display should also make it easier for people to use their smartphones with one hand. One UI also introduces a system-wide dark mode to Samsung devices. However, in implementing the feature, the tech giant did not simply change colors shown on the screen. The company also changed the tone, brightness, and contrast of the display to ensure visual comfort of the people viewing their devices. Aside from the changes in the user interface, Samsung also hinted at other modifications it made to its software overlay, which includes more user-centric smartphone management. Advertisement Background: The tech giant introduced One UI during the Samsung Developer Conference 2018 in early November, having opted to deploy it as quickly as possible. In fact, some units of the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy Note 9 already received the software upgrade to the latest version of Googles operating system. Several entry-level and mid-range devices will also receive the software upgrade, although Samsung will deploy it to these smartphones and tablets later in the year. Furthermore, handsets from the tech firm that will launch this year will ship with One UI pre-installed. Impact: With the extensive modifications Samsung made to the user interface, One UI should offer a simple, visually comfortable, and streamlined experience to consumers. Nonetheless, Samsung will likely continue refining its Android implementation based on the feedback it receives from its customers and research it conducts with partners. These additional refinements may result in the development of more useful features that add value to its devices by making them more capable or just easier to use. A Samsung patent application published by the World Intellectual Property Organization last week reveals an unusual method which could be used by the Korean company to create dual-screen mobile devices. Unlike most other patents published in the past, this particular device envisioned by Samsung doesnt rely on foldable display technology; instead, the design is based on two separate panels which can be used independently or snapped together via magnets to create different form factors for various uses. The two modules appear to be identical, with each half featuring a display, loudspeaker, and a rear camera. The internal magnets seem to have been designed to offer the functionality of an external physical hinge, as well as a slide-out mechanism, and the two modules would take advantage of proprietary software that would maximize the potential uses of the varying form factors enabled by the concept. Background: For the past several years, Samsung has entertained the idea of changing the definition of the smartphone by creating a mobile gadget which can act both as a handset and a large-screen device similar to tablets. The official description provided by the OEM in the latest patent application strengthens this idea even further. It claims that advancements in communication and electronics led to the evolution of displays in various forms and sizes for different purposes, and in summary, the OEM aims to address some of the disadvantages created by these trends by combining different form factors into a single device. Weve seen Samsungs efforts leading to the creation of a foldable smartphone/tablet prototype a couple of months ago during SDC 2018, and countless rumors indicate that the Korean OEM should be ready to commercialize its first foldable smartphone by the end of 2019. Nevertheless, it appears that Samsung might want to tackle these challenges with or without foldable display technology, as the device described in the latest patent application seems to be based solely on conventional non-flexible displays. It describes two identical smartphone-like modules equipped with flat touchscreens, which can snap together to form a dual-screen device covering a wide variety of form factors including a tablet-like device or a mobile phone with dual-screens positioned back-to-back. Additionally, one of the sketches provided by Samsung suggests that the magnets hidden inside the two modules could allow for a slider form factor similar to a Blackberry smartphone, without the need of a physical sliding mechanism. Likewise, since both modules lack a physical keyboard, the QWERTY layout would be represented virtually on the secondary modules display. Impact: The application was filed in mid-2018 but published much more recently on the 3rd of January 2019. As usual, theres no guarantee that the unit described in the application will enter mass production, or whether this type of device will precede the flexible form factor. Either way, the manufacturing of a dual-screen device could virtually double the production costs especially in this particular case where each module is powered by its own internal components and can operate independently as a conventional smartphone. Having said that, Samsung could theoretically sell these modules separately or bundled together as a single product. LG Electronics opted to kickstart its CES 2019 keynote by drawing attention to a technology thats already poised to mark 2019 the fifth generation of mobile networks. Before delving into the new smart home portfolio, the companys officials reiterated its commitment to 5G, confirming that its partnership with Qualcomm is still ongoing and will lead to 5G-ready Android smartphones in the near future. LG remains adamant to be among the first original equipment manufacturers to release 5G handsets this year and is describing its project as nothing short of another revolution in the mobile industry. The South Korean firm described Qualcomm as a key partner on its wireless project, essentially confirming its first Android smartphone capable of communicating with 5G networks will utilize the Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip. A lot of no-context promises Much like the rest of the industry, LG is painting 5G as a technology that will allow consumers to benefit from significantly faster download and upload speeds, better video streaming quality, and higher-performing mobile apps though its not attaching any specific timeframe to those promises. While initial 5G services are already live in a handful of cities throughout the United States and more will follow suit in the coming months, the technology still has a long way to go until its widespread and developed enough to actually serve as a superior alternative to 4G, i.e. LTE. The main obstacle standing in the way of the next wireless revolution is the fact that the 3GPPs 5G New Radio specification basically the real 5G is largely reliant on millimeter-wave spectrum which by itself isnt particularly great at carrying signals over long distances and is prone to being absorbed by everything from foliage to rain. Despite its shortcomings, the high-frequency nature of this spectrum pool promises massive bandwidth improvements compared to existing wireless solutions and its essentially out there for the taking seeing how no other technology is presently utilizing it on a significant scale. Advertisement Per aspera ad astra All things considered, 5G deployment is poised to be the most challenging mobile network update in the history of the industry but the wireless sector remains adamant the rollout difficulties will be worth it. Once fully launched, 5G services should enable unprecedented bandwidths and latencies, ultimately benefitting a broad range of technologies and enabling entirely new solutions which will in turn create new jobs and consequently prompt a global economic boom. LG is unsurprisingly eager to put itself at the forefront of that revolution in terms of the end-user part of the equation seeing how smartphones will be among the first consumer-grade devices to be able to communicate with 5G NR networks. On the other hand, the first wave of 5G-ready handsets will likely exhibit many issues pertaining to their build quality and battery life, not unlike what happened in 2011 when LTE devices were just entering the mainstream. That state of affairs is expected to prompt many consumers to circumvent the 5G-enabled smartphones that will be hitting the market throughout this year, meaning such gadgets will primarily be used as marketing tools, whereas their commercial potential should be somewhat limited. Several months back, LG confirmed a wireless partnership with Sprint that will see the Overland Park, Kansas-based carrier launch one of its 5G devices at some point this year. However, that collaboration is still surrounded by many uncertainties, primarily those associated with Sprints ongoing efforts to merge with T-Mobile by mid-2019 which might ultimately change the combined companys 5G plans. At the same time, Sprint isnt placing all of its eggs in one basket, having just announced its also collaborating with Samsung on another 5G device most likely the Galaxy Note 10 planned to be released this summer. In the meantime, LG will be focusing on the rest of the consumer electronics segment and look to innovate beyond the mobile market where it found recent success over the last several years. Earlier today, the company announced a consumer-grade rollable OLED TV, promising to have the curious invention in stores in a matter of months. As for the wireless space, whether 5G helps LG revive its struggling Android handset division remains to be seen but even if it does, its unlikely to prompt such success before 2020 at the earliest. Jabra has updated its Move line of headphones to provide buyers with a stylish option for 2019. The all-new Jabra Move Style Edition are set to become available later this month through select retailers and will arrive priced at $99 in the US, 99 in Europe, and 79 in the UK. Jabra first unveiled its Move line of headphones back in 2014 with the headphones designed to be an affordable but reliable set of Bluetooth headphones. The Style version is expected to continue that trend as in spite of the design upgrades, these headphones are priced at exactly the same price as the previous on-ear wireless headphones launched for in 2014. As part of the upgrading, the new version is becoming available in a variety of new color options that the company refers to as modern colors, including Titanium Black, Gold Beige and Navy. Advertisement The Move Style Edition are wireless headphones and as a result they do primarily rely on a battery inside to provide on-the-go power, and this is one of the areas in particular where an upgrade can be seen. For example, while the original model provided up to eight hours of music playback, the new version has seen that limit extended to fourteen hours. At almost double the battery level, for the same price, the new Jarba Move headphones now offer far greater value than ever before. Consistent with the previous model, the new version also provides the option for users to fall back on a wired mode when the battery runs low thanks to the inclusion of a 3.5mm port and an included cable. Advertisement Jabra explained users can otherwise expect a very similar product to the original model including the same emphasis on sound quality, comfort and a lightweight design. Since the release of the original model, the Jabra Move Wireless has gone on to become a popular option for consumers in the US and the company explained it expects the new version to become equally as popular going forward, and an even better buy thanks to the longer-lasting battery and new color options. The companys SVP of Marketing, Calum MacDougall said we expect the Move Style Edition to become a must-have Bluetooth headphone. Advertisement Jabra announced the new Move Style Edition ahead of the start of CES 2019 in Las Vegas. The announcement was specifically designed to coincide with the event and was not the only headphone-related announcement to come from the company as Jabra also announced the new Elite 85h headphones. According to Jabra, the Elite 85h headphones are not just smart headphones, but the smartest ANC headphones on the market. The new Move Style Edition and the Elite 85h headphones do represent different lines and aimed at different buyers and price points, although the company is now looking to harmonize the brand across tiered options even more. This can be seen in the color options as both versions are arriving with the exact same colors to choose from. Advertisement Jabra is starting 2019 by making it clear that regardless of whether a consumer opts to buy an affordable set of headphones or the companys best-in-class solution, they can expect a similar Jabra experience overall with an emphasis on sound quality, design, and performance. Jabra announced a new pair of headphones, the Elite 85h ahead of the start of CES 2019. These represent the latest addition to the companys Elite product line and are designed to provide a best-in-class experience powered by a number of advanced headphone technologies, including Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), as well as some of the companys in-house solutions, such as Jabra SmartSound and Jabra HearThrough. A combination which Jabra argues, results in the smartest ANC headphones on the market. Jabra states the Elite 85h will arrive to market in April. The headphones will be priced at $299 in the US and will be available in four different color options, consisting of Black, Gold Beige, Navy and Titanium Black. Generally speaking, the headphones are expected to be sold through a wide number of retailers, although the standard black version will only be available to buy in the US through Best Buy. Advertisement Jabra is marketing various selling points with these headphones although it would seem their smarts is the main one. These headphones do come equipped with ANC and so users can expect the basic option to filter in and out environmental sound at will. However, in addition to the standard implementation of ANC, these headphones also feature the companys SmartSound solution. This is an AI-driven feature thats designed to automatically understand the surroundings of the listener and adjust the sound accordingly to provide the best listening experience possible. SmartSound is said to be able to understand 6,000 unique sound characteristics and use this information to level out the sound, and irrespective of how noisy the surroundings are. All of this happens in real-time with the company explaining the end result is a consistent listening experience as a user moves from one environment to the next. Basically, as the intensity of the outside noise changes, SmartSound will adapt in a way that will makes it seem as though the outside noise hasnt changed at all. The Elite 85h headphones are able to utilize SmartSound due to the inclusion of two microphones that specifically listen out for these sounds. In fact, theres eight microphones included with the Elite 85h with the other six made up of two powering the ANC and the remaining four used for calls. These microphones are not just for listening to the outside world either, or for when others are listening to the user during calls, but also for the headphones to listen to the user as Jabra states these are 100-percent hands-free headphones. Advertisement The headphones are always-listening and able to respond to wake phrases for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apples Siri. This is different to other voice assistant-compatible headphones in the sense that the user no longer has to press or hold a button to activate the listening feature. Instead, the user can entirely rely on voice commands, and at all times. Those looking for even greater control of the sound will be able to utilize the companys HearThrough solution which essentially allows the listener to dictate how much outside noise is permitted to account for those times when the user would prefer some outside noise to penetrate the listening experience. HearThrough, along with many of the other smart features touted here, are able to be further adjusted by the user through the corresponding Android app, the Jabra Sound app available to download from the Google Play Store. Advertisement Smart features aside, the Elite 85h also make a play for those looking for longer-lasting usage in wireless mode. As these headphones are said to come with a battery that is able to keep the headphones powered for as long as thirty-two hours before needing to be recharged. This is relevant to when ANC is activated as disabling the noise cancellation will see the battery life extend up to 35 hours. Jabra does not specifically comment too much on the actual sound quality in the announcement, but instead focuses more on the sound clarity. Due to the ability to mitigate against environmental noise through the use of the microphones, ANC and SmartSound, Jabra is pushing that the actual sound is far clearer than what would otherwise be on offer. A clearer sound which is presumably meant to translate to a better sound overall. The only specs provided at the moment include an IP52 resistance rating for protection against dust and light water encounters, as well as the inclusion of 40mm drivers. The latter of which is also designed to further push the clarity narrative as Jabra states these are distortion-reducing drivers. Advertisement The main takeaways from the Elite 85h is that they last a long time, offer a clear sound, and are apparently the smartest ANC headphones on the market. BOE Technology Group, a Chinese giant that has a large part of the worldwide LCD market and has also been manufacturing OLED displays on a large scale for years now, has jumped on the foldable OLED bandwagon. As seen in the recently emerged video below, the display in question can be folded and unfolded to make a phone or a tablet, with no visible border between the two non-hinged segments of screen. The prototype device, shown running Android, has some seriously thick bezels, but BOE isnt planning on making its own devices; it wants to try to sell these panels to Apple. BOE is hoping to court Cupertino and put pressure on Samsung, the American companys current largest display supplier. Background: BOE is a state-owned company with the backing of Beijing city officials, and it has one of the largest OLED factories out there. BOE has never made a big deal of publicity, so many readers may not have heard of the company before this reveal. It bought up Hynix-owned Hydis Technologies OLED operations in 2001 and has been quietly working on its OLED product lineup since then. Todays grand reveal is a bit of a twist for the company, which has never made a habit of trying to disrupt spaces and dethrone large outfits in the past. Background: The panel being shown off by BOE is nothing to sneeze at. It can cover up to 118 percent of the NTSC color gamut, making it one of the more versatile displays out there of any sort. Paired with a good backlight and barring any possible quality control issues, an OLED panel like this wouldnt be entirely out of place in any flagship device. A demo unit shown off by BOE had a 1440p resolution, common on high-end smartphones and tablets. As for its flexibility, it was tested to be able to bend all the way to a 1-degree angle, making it agile enough to wrap around almost any hinge setup. Finally, testing showed it being able to bend all the way and then go back to straight up to 100,000 times without any ill effects. Given that the average person reportedly checks their phone about 80 times per day, this means that if they unfold the device every single time they pull it out, it would take some 34 years of daily use for the screen to show any noticeable signs of degradation. Advertisement Impact: Essentially, with the announcement of this panel, BOE has thrown down the gauntlet. Its joining an increasingly crowded arena by announcing a foldable OLED display, but the companys Apple ambitions are taking aim directly at Samsung. The Korean monolith is almost surely not going to take this sitting down, so industry watchers are in for an interesting battle in the nascent folding OLED space. While Samsung has an insane amount of money and resources at its disposal, BOE is well-positioned to take this fight in stride, with a massive factory in the heart of Beijing, and the backing of the city and the Chinese government to expand its operations and keep pace with competitors. A modern illustration of the Temple of Peace with Forma Urbis, the giant map of Rome, on the wall. At the Roman Forum in the center of Rome there once stood a grand monument called the Temple of Peace, built by Emperor Vespasian to project his might and fortify his strong public image. The Temple was razed to the ground when Rome was sacked by the Goths in the early 5th century. Only a fire-ravaged interior wall survives. This wall later became the exterior of the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Back then, an enormous map of Ancient Rome carved in marble and measuring 60 feet by 43 feet adorned this wall. The holes in the wall reveal where the individual marble slabs were attached with metal clamps. Known as the Forma Urbis Romae, or Severan Marble Plan of Rome, the map depicted Romes urban landmarks across five square miles in incredible detail, showing ground plans of every architectural feature in the ancient city, from large public monuments to small shops, rooms, and even columns and staircases. Each structure was meticulously labeled. It was one of the most extraordinary maps ever produced in ancient times. Although the Temple was built by Emperor Vespasian, the map wasnt produced until some 150 years later, by Emperor Septimius Severus sometime between 203 and 211. Rendered at a scale of approximately 1 to 240, the Severan Marble Plan was engraved on 150 marble slabs and was oddly oriented with South at the top. After Rome fell and the Temple of Peace was destroyed, the map was broken up into thousands of pieces and scattered throughout the city. Wall of the Temple of Peace where the Forma Urbis was mounted. For centuries scholars have been trying to piece together the lost map like a giant jigsaw puzzle, but only about 10 to 15 percent of the map survives, in almost twelve hundred fragments that range in size from a few inches to several feet. Even though the Marble Plan is only partially reconstructed, it provides scholars with new and unique information concerning the layout and organization of ancient Rome. The Plan itself is vitally important because it is our only source for the urban fabric of Rome, says Stanford University professor Jennifer Trimble. Standing ruins of major monuments and keyhole excavations throughout the city have given us individual details, but the modern city overlies the ancient remains and makes it impossible to see how different kinds of spaces and buildings worked together, or what particular streets and neighborhoods were like. Images and 3D models of all the 1,186 surviving fragments of the map are now viewable online, along with descriptions of each piece. Map of ancient Rome and Forma Urbis, circa 1835-1839. A fragment of the Severan marble plan showing the Porticus of Octavia. Photo credit: Sailko/Wikimedia Photo credit: Socks Studio About 8 kilometers east from the city of Terni, in the Umbria region of Italy, is a beautiful three-tiered waterfalls called Cascata delle Marmore or the Marmore Falls. The falls were once part of the Grand Tour which wealthy young Englishmen of the 17th and 18th century took through France and Italy seeking out places art, culture and the roots of Western civilization. Marmore Falls curiosity lies not solely in its grandeur but also in the fact that it was a product of human intervention with nature. Marmore Falls. Photo credit: MilaCroft/Shutterstock.com Twenty-two hundred years ago, there was no waterfalls here. The River Velino, where the falls are located, took a completely different path ending in a swamp within the plains of Reiti. The stagnant waters of the swamp was deemed unhealthy and was blamed for various illness that affected the population, and so the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus ordered the construction of a canal, known as Curiano Trench, in 271 BC, to drain the swamps and direct the excess waters into the natural cliff at Marmore creating the falls. From there, the water fell into the Nera river below. However, the solution didnt work out as expected. The Reiti valley continued to flood, and when water was high in the Velino River, it now flooded the Terni valley too where the water was diverted. The man-made canal and the resulting flood became a long source of dispute between the inhabitants of Terni and Reiti valley. The former wanted the canal closed, while the latter wanted the flow of the falls increased to accommodate the excess water. The issue between the two cities was so contentious that the Roman Senate was forced to address it in 54 BC, but a consensus couldnt be arrived and matter remain unresolved for centuries. Related: Asias Largest Man-Made Waterfall Opens in China After the fall of the Roman Empire, the barbaric invasion and the development of the feudal system caused the planed territories and the countryside to be gradually abandoned. The lack of maintenance of the Curiano channel caused the base of the channel to accumulate silt and the Reiti valley once again began to flood. It was not until the 15th century that Pope Gregory XII ordered the construction of a new canal to restore the original flow. Further improvement were made by Pope Paul III in the mid-16th century and a regulating valve was installed to control the flow. The final adjustments, which gave the falls the present appearance, was made by architect Andrea Vici on the instruction of Pope Pius V1 in the late 18th century. Marmore Falls. Photo credit: Lucky Team Studio/Shutterstock.com Andrea Vici was able to resolve most of the flooding problems which have left the falls untouched for the last two hundred years. However, there is a hydroelectric plant in River Velino now which causes the falls flow to diminish or increase depending on when the plant releases their excess water. Water is released twice everyday, an hour each timebetween 12:00 and 13:00 and again between 16:00 and 17:00. During holidays additional waters are released for the tourists to enjoy. The Marmore Falls have a total height of 165 meters making it the tallest man-made waterfall in the world. Of its three sections, the top one is the tallest, at 83 meters. Marmore Falls. Photo credit: mass911/Shutterstock.com Marmore Falls. Photo credit: ValerioMei / Shutterstock.com Marmore Falls. Photo credit: Shchipkova Elena/Shutterstock.com Sponsored by Organic Wine Insider, the new industry newsletter on the $1.4 billion organic side of the U.S. wine industry. Learn more at www.organicwineinsider.com. Is the Vatican under Pope Francis now so enamored of socialism that it's tweeting celebratory praise for the Castroites and the hellhole they made of Cuba? The Vatican News website recently paid tribute to Cuba on the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution in a post that was quickly deleted, according to reports. The Communist island nation marked the occasion with celebrations on News [sic] Year's Day, while several leftist Latin American leaders tweeted their best wishes. Here is the supposedly deleted tweet: La pagina DEL VATICANO publico un homenaje a los 60 anos de la monarquia cubana. Lo borraron a las pocas horas pero nosotros somos mas rapidos. Juan Pablo II se retuerce en su tumba. pic.twitter.com/nvS2smzilm Trava y liberula (@anarcomenemismo) January 2, 2019 Now, assuming that this isn't some Russian disinformation propaganda operation to sow dissent, this is approximately equivalent to a meal turkey getting out there and celebrating Thanksgiving. Castro runs an atheist regime. It's not just atheist in foundation; it requires atheism for membership (and the nomenklatura perks) of its ruling Cuban Communist Party. Castro shut down churches. He expropriated all church property. He shut down Catholic schools. He expelled priests and, as Pajamas Media's Debra Heine notes, even a bishop. Castro killed priests, and his regime banished Christmas. The Castroites haven't let up much, sending in goons to lately reopened churches to beat the Ladies in White. No sanctuary respected in that hellhole. The Cuban revolution, so vaunted by the left, left Cuba's people morally and spiritually wasted, with all the social ills that come of being deprived of any contact with religion. The religion there is the state. And now the Vatican is jumping up to celebrate that catastrophe? Not only is Cuba the hellhole that was impoverished by this so-called revolution, going from the most prosperous state in Latin America to its most impoverished, but its revolution came to and looted Venezuela, left it a nightmare husk, and created a refugee wave the likes of which this hemisphere has never seen, and it still rules the place. Cuba is the country that turned Chile into a socialist hellhole in the 1970s and left it on the brink of civil war. It turned all of South America into a battlefield around the same time, and it sold itself to the highest bidder in geopolitical power games to keep itself afloat. Its vile propaganda amounts to the Black Legend of modern times. The Vatican wants to pay tribute to this? What kind of people are running that place? This is what has become of the chair of St. Peter? What do they believe in? What are their standards? Obviously, they have none. We Catholic faithful await the return of some standards and understanding, because right now, the evidence shows there is none. This dispatch from Lin Taylor and Haba Kanso of News.com.au shows how combining seventh-century concepts of morality to twenty-first-century technology is at best a mixed blessing. The idea that democracy and liberty can be exported to the Muslim Middle East was naive when applied to Iraq, a far more modern society than Saudi Arabia, albeit a totalitarian dictatorship under Saddam Hussein. Bringing Saudi society into anything resembling compatibility with the modernity practiced in all of the advanced countries of the world the express goal of Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a task seems Sisyphean. Women in Saudi Arabia will be notified by text message if they are divorced under a new law designed to protect them from having their marriage ended without their knowledge, the country's government says. The new law, which came into effect on Sunday, is seen as a way to end secret divorces and ensure women are fully aware of their marital status so they can protect their rights. Image credit: PXhere. My dating life ended long before text messaging became a fact of life for lovebirds (like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page), but I had the impression that breaking up by text message was considered the coldest way to part from a lover. Escalating the breakup to actual divorce by text message is even colder. For Saudi women, this is considered progress. "Saudi courts have started to send such (divorce) notifications ... a step aimed at protecting the rights of female clients," the Saudi Ministry of Justice said in a statement on their website. It said women could check their marital status on the ministry's website or visit the relevant court to get a copy of divorce papers. Global rights group Equality Now's Suad Abu-Dayyeh said the new law was a positive step. "At least women will know whether they are divorced or not. It is a tiny step, but it is a step in the right direction," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. How many tiny steps does it take to drag a seventh-century society into the twenty-first? Hat tip: John McMahon The Democrats go blue on blue "You arrogant a--, you've killed us." The moral of the film The Hunt For Red October is that good can triumph over evil. It doesn't always, as we all know. The bad guys, the Russians, seek to stop the good guy, also a Russian, from defecting to the U.S. with a state-of-the-art nuclear submarine. The line above is spoken by a member of the crew to the captain who miscalculates the genius of Captain Ramius (Sean Connery), and a torpedo vaporizes his own submarine and all aboard. It is a terrific film that depicts the constant tension and danger that our troops who are dispersed throughout the world face on a daily basis. Who is good? Who is a terrorist? How and at what point do we decide who is a threat? Today it is the American left that, if not the gravest menace, certainly seeks to put the homeland in peril. Leftists are doing everything in their power to assure that we are vulnerable to the migrant throngs who want to enter the country over the southern border. They want a border permeable to the drug cartels, gang members, and terrorists from all over the world who make their way there in order to enter the U.S. The left is positively giddy at taking back the House majority. Nancy Pelosi could not stop giggling like a schoolgirl while speaking to Congress on Wednesday. She thinks she is the cat's meow, equal in power and significance to the president. (She is not.) She does not yet realize that she is a national joke, a symbol of the gerontocracy that has for so long ruled the Democratic Party. As Rashida Tlaib profanely promises to impeach President Trump, Pelosi politely declines to criticize her language. She is thrilled to be head of her party once again but afraid to rein in the new, young, socialist Democratic members of the House for fear of offending them, no matter how inappropriate they are. She is like the parent of a rebellious teenager who is fearful of making her child angry! Watching this unfold, this first week of the new Congress, would be hilarious if it were not so distressing. So many of these new members not only are thoroughly unfamiliar with the Constitution, but do not bother to know it because they believe it to be just an outdated piece of paper written by old white men. They have no sense of the fact that the Constitution is the reason this nation has prevailed so long as the greatest country in the world. Voters of too many districts have elected too many ignorant ideologues who lack any significant knowledge of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compares herself to Lincoln and FDR, and yet she is shockingly ignorant of the basics of American history with which most fourth-graders are familiar, or used to be. But now she is a media sensation, a pretty girl, and her gaffes are endlessly amusing. She is equally ignorant of basic economics but somehow has a degree in that discipline. Boston U should be ashamed. She is the Kardashian of politics, embraced by a portion of the populace that, like the Kardashians, knows nothing of value or importance beyond meaningless details of pop culture. Conservatives should embrace the media's affection for this young woman; she, like Rashida Tlaib, is the arrogant a-- who will expose the Democrats for what they are: empty of ideas any newer than those of Saul Alinsky and Cloward and Piven. Ocasio-Cortez is an avowed socialist-communist. She seems unaware of the fact that these ideologies killed a hundred million people over the span of the twentieth century and have destroyed Venezuela in the twenty-first. Like Bernie Sanders and the rest of the hard left, Ocasio-Cortez means to destroy America as founded. The newly elected socialists in Congress see the tragedy that is Venezuela as a success the extermination of the middle class, a starving poor, and an oligarchy that lives like Nancy Pelosi does here in San Francisco while her own city disintegrates due to the policies she has long embraced. Pelosi never, ever stands on principle, only for power. Nor does Schumer, like Harry Reid before him. These are despicable people. They lie, cheat, and seek to destroy anyone who gets in their way. They do not care about the security of the country only about their own job security, their own hold on power. The essence of the Democratic Party today is hatred: hatred of the president, hatred for the millions of people who voted for him, hatred of anyone who challenges their dogma, and hatred of the Constitution because it lays out what they cannot do. If America is to prevail, the Democrats as currently composed must be destroyed. With arrogant people like Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Ilhan Omar (another anti-Semite), it looks as though they may do just that all by themselves. They're heading straight into that torpedo. The new year has made that hope harder to cling to, as signs of violence are now breaking out into the open and can no longer be swept under the rug. For months now, I have been writing and speaking about the looming prospects for a Civil War 2.0 breaking out in the United States. The analysis probably seemed to many to be speculative and premature, pointing to something that might someday come to pass, while in the meantime, there was still hope that such a time would never actually arrive. Another indication that the war has already started took place in the early morning hours of December 26, when officer Ronil Singh of the small town of Newman, California's police department allegedly was shot dead by criminal illegal alien Gustavo Perez Arriaga. While on routine patrol, Singh had pulled over Arriaga's vehicle because it had no rear license plate, at which point Singh was executed, leaving a wife and five-month-old son. Alleged cop-killer Gustavo Arriaga and the late police officer Ron Singh. Sources: Stanislaus County, Calif. Sheriff's Department and Newman, Calif. Police Department. This is not the first time that a criminal illegal alien has murdered an innocent victim. (All illegal aliens are de facto criminals because they broke laws by entering the country, but in this case, the alleged perpetrator was also a gang member and had two DUIs on his rap sheet.) In fact, such killings, in addition to assaults, rapes, robberies, home invasions, and other violent crimes, are committed by illegal aliens multiple times on a daily basis all over the country. Another outrageous high-profile case that comes to mind is the July 1, 2015 fatal shooting of Kathryn (Kate) Steinle in San Francisco by illegal alien Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who admitted to shooting Steinle. On November 30, 2017, after five days of deliberations, the jury in Zarate's criminal trial acquitted him of all murder and manslaughter charges. Three and a half years after the Steinle murder, the assassination of Office Singh, himself a (legal) immigrant from Fiji and a respected California cop for over seven years, stands out as a new and stark low point that illustrates one of the endemic problems in this country: the invasion of the United States by millions of un-educated, low-I.Q. migrants from violent third-world countries, which has been ongoing for decades (to the extent that it is not even known how many of them are here). The invasion has now reached critical mass, threatening the lives and safety of Americans everywhere around the country. Meanwhile, the Democrats are downplaying the importance of the killing of officer Singh and insisting that it has no bearing on their ongoing opposition to Republican efforts to strengthen border security. If the nation had a chance of coming together politically to secure the border, enforce existing laws, and deport the tens of millions of illegal aliens who are already here, that would be one thing, and a new "civil war" might not be inevitable. But that day and those possibilities are long gone. What remains and what has become the new normal is the violence (and the downplaying of it by Democrats and about half of the population), that is now targeting native-born Americans like Steinle or immigrants and American citizens sworn to protect and serve like Singh. As Deroy Murdock wrote about the Singh murder in an article titled "A Tale of Two Immigrants" in National Review on January 5: Arriaga, 33 [the alleged killer of Officer Singh], is not a model immigrant. He came to America from Mexico illegally, crossing the border via Arizona. Yet the notion that the United States suffers a border-security crisis seems lost on Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. They reportedly refused even to listen to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen's classified border-security briefing in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday. Instead, they repeatedly interrupted Nielsen as she tried to detail national-security threats on the southern front. The Democrats, who support the concept of sanctuary cities and now sanctuary states, and who embrace policies that coddle, protect, and support illegals while they hamstring law enforcement and cripple border security, are clearly complicit in the mayhem being caused by the "migrants." Meanwhile, there are other indications that Civil War 2.0 is going hot. Calls from Democrats and the left encouraging violence and lawlessness have been increasing, especially since the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president in November 2016. One of the more prominent examples among many was a rabble-rousing speech to a mob of her supporters by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) last June in Los Angeles. On that occasion, Waters implored her audience to be on the lookout for prominent officials in the Trump administration so that: If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere. Waters's incendiary and provocative rant that appeared to border on inciting violence was followed on numerous occasions by Democrats and other hardcore leftists "pushing back" on Trump administration officials, getting in their faces and implicitly threatening them when they were out in public, eating dinner or relaxing. The growing far-left base of the Democratic Party, which helped to fuel the Democrats' takeover of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, bodes ill for putting the genies of violence and toxic political division back in the bottle. After she was sworn in as a first-term member of the new Congress on January 3, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first Palestinian-American congresswoman, referring to President Trump, told a crowd of cheering supporters that "we're going to go in there and we're going to impeach the m-----------." Two days later, on January 5, 2019, another up and coming new star of the 116th Congress, freshman rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), an avowed socialist, entered into a Twitter war of words with Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was almost killed in an assassination attempt by a hardcore leftist in June 2017. Their debate concerned Ocasio-Cortez's proposal to double the tax rate on the so-called 1% to 70%. According to Fox News: U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., abruptly halted a Twitter debate with newcomer Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York early Sunday morning [January 6] after at least three commenters made references to the June 2017 shooting in which Scalise and three other people were shot by a left-wing activist. "snipe his a--," one Twitter user wrote, in support of Ocasio-Cortez[.] ... "she's got better aim than James Hodgkinson, that's for sure," another wrote, comparing Ocasio-Cortez's Twitter responses to the marksmanship of the suspect in the Virginia shooting, a Bernie Sanders supporter who later died in a shootout with police. As over 20,000 comments in response to the Fox News article piled up, one respondent on Sunday evening January 6 wrote: "When is the left going to address the hate in the Democrat party?" Not anytime soon, apparently, as the article noted that Ocasio-Cortez had not commented on Twitter about, or cautioned her supporters against making, any further references to, or threats of, violence aimed at Scalise. Later Sunday evening, in her headline appearance on the top-rated news program in the country, CBS News's 60 Minutes, Ocasio-Cortez continued to fan the flames of hatred and division when she told Anderson Cooper that "there's 'no question' that President Trump is racist." Peter Barry Chowka writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @pchowka. The sister was even more helpful, giving authorities enough information to develop a sketch of the "killer" who, the mother says, "intentionally" targeted her daughter. The shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes in Houston set off a media frenzy when the mother and sister of the victim described the shooter as a white male, "with blue eyes, a thin build and no beard. They say he 'looked sick' with sunken cheekbones and a pale face with a 'five o'clock shadow.' He was wearing a black hoodie." Authorities arrested Robert Cantrell, whose red pickup truck was identified by the mother as the vehicle the shooter fired from. Justice done? Not exactly. A few hours after Cantrell was picked up, authorities arrested two black men for the crime. ABC13: An investigation tip led authorities to 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. who has been charged with capital murder in the deadly shooting and a second suspect has been taken into custody. An investigation revealed evidence that corroborated the tip, authorities say, and Black was taken into custody in east Harris County without incident. He later reportedly admitted to taking part in the shooting. Black appeared in court just before 5 a.m. Sunday. During court, it was revealed the suspects learned they had fired into the wrong vehicle after watching the news. The mother never really said the crime was racially motivated. That angle of the story was left to race-hustlers Shaun King of Black Lives Matter and S. Lee Merritt, Esq. They ginned up outrage over the killing with the usual incendiary rhetoric. Stopped by the barbershop to get a cut. The topic of #JazmineBarnes came up a little girl in Houston killed in a drive-by. That is not what happened! A white terrorist ambushed a family, riddling their car with bullets and killing a 7 y/o girl w/o any provocation. S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) January 4, 2019 URGENT. ALL HANDS ON DECK. A 40 y/o white man w/ a beard in a red pickup truck pulled up on 7 y/o Jazmine Barnes and her family near a Houston @Walmart and shot and killed her and injured others. I am joining the search for her killer and have a $25,000 reward. Need him NOW. pic.twitter.com/ugfA2nJ1k8 Shaun King (@shaunking) January 1, 2019 What more can you tell me about Robert Cantrell? He was arrested in Houston hours after Jazmine was murdered on another violent crime spree. Weve had 20 people call or email us and say he is a racist, violent asshole and always has been. Just tell me everything you know. pic.twitter.com/7p1XAku1cd Shaun King (@shaunking) January 4, 2019 Patrick Poole writing at PJ Media explains: If this sounds familiar to readers, it's because King and his pal Lee Meritt have played this game before. Last May, Meritt publicly claimed that one of his clients, Sherita Dixon-Cole, had been kidnapped and raped by a Texas State Trooper, and then began an active campaign to target the trooper[.] ... King was doing media hits pushing the story hyping the racial angle to the claims. But shortly thereafter, the Texas Department of Public Safety released the trooper's entire body camera footage of the encounter, which clearly showed that the trooper had acted professionally and that there had been no kidnapping or rape. Both King and Meritt then claimed that *they* were the real victims of the case[.] The media have gone silent about the mistaken identity angle of the story despite the coverage they gave the killing of Jazmine Barnes and the detailed description the mother gave authorities of the killer. In fact, there has been no mention of the mother's original description of the killer at all. Cantrell's pickup was near the scene, so it's excusable that the mother and sister believed he may have been the killer. But there's no excuse for the media bias in this case that turned a local tragedy into a national race drama. All too easily, the media fall for these stories, especially when the "right" people push the racial angle to them. This week, a group of Latin American countries are calling on Maduro to step aside, as we see in this report from The New York Times : Last May, they had an election in Venezuela, and lots of people in and out of the country did not buy the results. Thirteen nations announced on Friday that they would not recognize the legitimacy of the new presidential term of Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, who is set to be inaugurated next week for a second time. Diplomats from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and St. Lucia issued a joint statement after meeting in the Peruvian capital, denouncing last year's election as flawed and urging Mr. Maduro to hand power to the opposition-controlled National Assembly until another election could be held. "The electoral process carried out in Venezuela on May 20, 2018, lacks legitimacy due to the lack of participation of all Venezuelan political actors, without the presence of independent international observers, or the guarantees and standards necessary for a free, fair and transparent process," the statement read. The signatories, part of the so-called Lima Group a multilateral working group of Latin American countries plus Canada that organized to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Venezuela urged Mr. Maduro not to assume the office, saying that the only way to restore democracy was for him to step aside. So what will Maduro do? It depends whom you ask. You get answers both ways. My favorite answer came from a Venezuelan friend in Dallas. He is here and trying to get his wife out of the country. Back home, he was a journalist and ran into trouble with the regime over news reporting. His position is that Maduro is waiting for a deal, or some kind of guarantee that he won't be jailed and protection for his team. Who would be in a position to give him a sanctuary? Cuba is out because the regime is calling on citizens to tighten their belts again. Mexico is out because it doesn't like to get involved. Brazil is out because new President Jair Bolsonaro would probably throw Maduro in jail with Lula. Colombia is not going to do it. Forget Argentina. It leaves two options: Canada and Spain. My guess is that Spain would be a better fit because of the natural historical relationship between the two countries. No matter where he goes, my sense is that Maduro would like an option to get out. The alternative is to stay as president and that's not going to work. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. The family of Gustavo Perez Arriaga, a 32-year-old illegal alien, helped him evade police and attempted to help smuggle him across the United States-Mexico border after he allegedly murdered 33-year-old Newman, California, police officer Ronil Singh, federal documents allege. The day after Christmas, Singh pulled Arriaga over on suspicion of drunk driving. That's when police say the illegal alien shot Singh. Over his police radio, Singh called out "shots fired," and as police arrived at the scene of the traffic stop, they found the officer with a gunshot wound. Singh was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, leaving behind his wife Anamika and their newborn five-month-old son. The Breitbart report, citing police sources, shows that seven family members of this alleged shooter were right there at the ready to help him evade any responsibility for his actions, and there was a human-smuggler there to help, too. It seemed to happen like clockwork. One might have helped him steal the gun from Washington State and apparently lied to the cops about it; another allegedly covered up a bullet hole in Arriaga's pickup that was left there after the murder; one packed three changes of clothing for the alleged cop-killer so as to escape in comfort; one drove him to a relative's house in Stockton so as to wait the matter out (apparently, they were thrown out by some relatives who wanted no truck with the law, though I don't see any evidence they called the cops); one disposed of the murder weapon; one transported the alleged cop-killer elsewhere; one tricked a relative into a loan for the getaway, via the human-smuggler who got the whole group into the U.S. in the first place; one bought him a new cell phone; one brought a new change of clothes; and someone wired five hundred bucks for the escape. All this in the course of Arriaga's two days on the run. Supposedly, he's a gang member, but the evidence here suggests that his gang is his family. And surprise, surprise: This group that acted with such military precision is all here illegally. These are the people the media idolizes with sob stories in their bid to ensure open borders. These are the people House speaker Nancy Pelosi waxes poetic about regarding their "souls." These are the people leftist judges refuse to sentence on account of the potential for their being deported afterward, creating one set of laws for Americans and another for foreigners. These are the people Democrats would like to have citizenship with voting rights, as well as hand out free health care to in California itself. Next time you hear about "comprehensive immigration reform," you've got to remember that an amnesty for illegal foreign lawbreakers would include people with the morals of these, always helpful with family matters. Up until now, the entire group had been model illegals and would have had the benefit of U.S. largess and bennies. Now they've been exposed for the unvetted and unethical people they are, creating a law until themselves. What they show is that illegal immigration is rarely a one-off crime. Far more likely, it's a series of crimes, and that could leave people such as these so morally corrupted that they could jump right in and help out their accused cop-killer relative as their first matter of course. That's their values. They have no loyalty to American values. Their only values are to themselves. Why they weren't thrown out long ago is precisely why this crime is so repulsive. It's past time to make Democrats answer for it as they seek to legalize people such as these. Cream puff journalism at its finest. Heck, it was a campaign ad. Or call it a belated campaign contribution, because it was anything but hard-hitting. In an example of journalism used to conceal, rather than expose, truth, CBS's 60 Minutes can stand up and take a bow for its mother of all puff pieces on New York's newly elected socialist congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here is the CBS transcript, along with the full televised report, and here are some CBS-released trailers: How was this report biased? Well, start with the camera lighting and coloration, which we learned all about back when 60 Minutes manipulated it to make President Trump's former adviser, Steve Bannon, look like a bleary-eyed drunk. Ocasio-Cortez's lighting, seen in the whites of her eyes and her teeth, comes off as blindingly white. Yes, she's young, and yes, she has access to WhiteStrips for that movie-star smile. But not all of the frames show that blinding whiteness and utter smoothness of skin, which apparently has been applied to some extent to interviewer Anderson Cooper, too. This clip shows Ocasio-Cortez with more natural coloring and facial lines. This one shows what looks like an apparent re-touch to cartoon-like coloring and line-free skin. What a nice favor they did for her. It gets worse. CBS distorts a couple of well known facts to Ocasio-Cortez's advantage, portraying her wealthy upbringing and her architect dad as lower-middle-class Bronx scrappers. Her architect dad with his own architectural firm became a man who ran "a small architectural business." Kind of like a bodega-owner, right, Anderson? They showed footage of her house, which was plain enough, but didn't mention the price tag on that plain house out there in the highly desirable Manhattan suburbs, which Ocasio-Cortez says was moved to because of the good schools. One wonders why she got into only a middling one such as Boston University with those high hopes. There's no mention of Ocasio-Cortez's apparently bitter experience going bankrupt in a small hipster tech business and winding up a bartender shortly after college. Some valuable insights could have been made about why she turned to coercive, expropriatory socialism as her life's philosophy after that, but Cooper smothered that with a pillow. There also was the truncation of the Trump administration's strongest defense against Ocasio-Cortez's widely flung charges of Trump being a racist (a single element from the entire report that CBS released for sharing from its original report for wide distribution) that Trump won a greater share of the black and Latino vote than other Republicans, and those voters may have been his margin of victory in 2016, and that black and Latino unemployment has reached its lowest levels ever recorded. Household income in those groups is up sharply, as is Trump's approval rating. And rap superstar Kanye West came out just a few days ago to reiterate his liking for President Trump. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders's retort to Ocasio-Cortez, based on Ocasio-Cortez's claims to Trump supposedly being a racist, was by contrast narrow and absent of the far stronger stuff that has been put out there and that Ocasio-Cortez should have been forced to address. Then there were the softball questions and the failures to follow up with any probing. Ocasio-Cortez fumbled around about her repeated inability to get her facts straight with this blather exchange: Anderson Cooper: One of the criticisms of you is that that your math is fuzzy. The Washington Post recently awarded you four Pinocchios Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Oh my goodness Anderson Cooper: for misstating some statistics about Pentagon spending? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: If people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue that they're missing the forest for the trees. I think that there's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right. Anderson Cooper: But being factually correct is important Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: It's absolutely important. And whenever I make a mistake. I say, "Okay, this was clumsy." and then I restate what my point was. But it's it's not the same thing as as the president lying about immigrants. It's not the same thing, at all. Might there be some connection between fuzzy math from this person who wants to take away 70% of the earnings of "the rich," and her failure to understand the issues or the implications of her ideas? Cooper wasn't about to ask. Cooper also superficially brought up Venezuela and Cuba as examples of the failed socialism Ocasio-Cortez proposes as a self-described "radical," allowing her to evade that issue with aplomb. Anderson Cooper: When people hear the word socialism, they think Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela. Is that what you have in mind? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Of course (LAUGH) not. What we have in mind and what of my and my policies most closely re resemble what we see in the U.K., in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden. Memo to morons: Neither Sweden, nor Britain, nor Norway has a socialist command economy. Some are led by right-wingers. All of them pay for state projects such as health care through high taxes. Shouldn't Cooper have brought up that the Other People's Money has run out on Britain's socialist health system, and there's been a problem with ambulances dumping patients at the hospital doors, in addition to long waiting lines, and horrors such as the killing of baby Charlie Gard? All of that, courtesy of government control of health care. Most Americans hear about this stuff and conclude that More Government is not the answer to their health care issues. Ocasio-Cortez is also allowed to get away with laughing off how she'd pay for some of her grandiose take-over-the-economy ideas. No wonder Cooper decided not to bring up her supposed economics degree from Boston University, given that he wanted to make her look good. Look at how she skirts the question: Anderson Cooper: How are you going to pay for all of this? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: No one asks how we're gonna pay for this Space Force. No one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, healthcare and education. How do we pay for it? With the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases for this Space Force. For all of these ambitious policies. Memo to the pair: Yes, they do. Ocasio-Cortez brings up the old canards about U.S. military spending being high and how cutting it (which would mean Europe would have to end its fat welfare programs and pay for its own defense) would free up social welfare money, but she has no idea about how expropriatory taxation, which she proposes, shrinks the economy and drives entrepreneurs and wealth-creators, not to mention savers, to Go Galt and simply not participate. We saw a lot of that with the Obama economy, which, naturally, Cooper fails to bring up. There's also this: Anderson Cooper: How to pay for it. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We pay more per capita in health care and education for lower outcomes than many other nations. And so for me, what's unrealistic is is what we're living in right now. So Ocasio-Cortez wants us to pay even more on top of that? What a plan. No follow-up from Cooper. What we see here is an amazing effort to build up Ocasio-Cortez, what with the photo-retouching, the omissions, the distorted story, and the softball questions. Sam Goldwyn, call your office. The rest of us can dismiss this two-part show as just plain rubbish. Image credit: 60 Minutes screen grab. At the midpoint of Donald Trump's presidency, those in his party who seemingly should be supporting him are as critical as ever. Now it's the issue of his character. Evidence of this poor character is "[t]he president's style, specifically his insults and Twitter addiction." Goldberg goes farther, saying, "They are the product of astonishing levels of narcissism, insecurity, and intellectual incuriosity." He cites examples of how Trump fires Cabinet members or other officials, not face to face to face, but through surrogates, and his "[p]raise for dictators and insults for allies, his need to create new controversies to eclipse old ones, and his inexhaustible capacity to lie and fabricate history." Let's start unpacking this. Tweets? It's Trump's way of bypassing a hostile media establishment. Looking at Twitter at the time of this writing, the Trump hostility is obvious. I see one tweet from CNN: "Former President Barack Obama lists his favorite books, songs and movies of 2018." And another tweet from CNN: "Trump's lies sometimes seem strategic. But polls show that most Americans see right through it & realize he's untrustworthy." Could the contrasting messages be more different? Is it a Twitter addiction or the only way he can get his message out, running the gauntlet of constant adversarial and negative media coverage? CEOs delegate authority and responsibility. It's not at all unusual for the CEO not to personally deliver the pink slip, and typically, by the time it happens, it's no surprise to the person being let go. Big deal. Praise for dictators? I'm reminded of the old saying that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. These foreign leaders, whether Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung-un, have huge egos. What good does insulting them on the world stage do to further negotiations? A better strategy is to be nice to them publicly to let them save face at home while getting tough behind closed doors. Common sense. Look at the results rather than the appearance. Insults for allies? Like NATO allies needing to be shamed into paying their fair share, a term the left loves, for NATO, honoring their agreements? Past presidents have raised the issue and let it go. Trump is calling them on it. Or challenging Angela Merkel on her side deal for natural gas with Russia, in violation of NATO. It's called accountability. Trump's history of womanizing as a character flaw? Sure, but that blanket covers many past presidents. At least for Trump, it was decades ago, not while he was president, something that cannot be said for many Oval Office occupants. Let's look at an organization famous for building character, at least until the social justice termites chewed it up: the Boy Scouts. Their mission is simple: "The BSA's goal is to train youth in responsible citizenship, character development, and self-reliance." How would President Trump's character measure up as a Boy Scout based on the Scout Law? Here are a few examples. Trustworthy. Trump is following through on his campaign promises: constitutionalist judges, tax cuts, better trade deals, getting our military out of foreign entanglements, trying (in the face of Congressional opposition) to secure the border. Loyal. Trump is loyal to his supporters and those loyal to him. He gave General Mattis, fired previously by Obama, a second chance and stuck with him for two years despite significant differences of opinion. Helpful. Trump regularly visits disaster areas, whether a shooting, a wildfire, or a hurricane. Some might call it a photo op, but he is there to assure local officials of federal support and assistance. Friendly. The media complain about accessibility. But has a president ever been more willing to stop on his way to Marine One to chat with the press? Sometimes he will spend 20-30 minutes, answering whatever questions they have. Courteous. Trump respects the White House and the office of the presidency. He is rarely seen in public out of his suit and tie unlike a predecessor who frequented the Oval Office in sweaty running gear. Cheerful. Despite overwhelming opposition from all quarters, even from many within his own party, Trump remains upbeat and optimistic. He maintains a cheerfulness that few mortals could achieve under the weight of constant criticism and hostility. Just look at any of his campaign rallies for his cheer and optimism. Thrifty. Trump, unlike the rest of Washington, D.C., realizes that our national debt is equal to America's yearly economic output and is growing year by year. He has forgone his own presidential salary and is trimming the fat within the executive branch as much as possible and urging Congress, albeit unsuccessfully, to do the same. Brave. Trump is no coward. He is currently playing chicken with Pelosi and Schumer in the government shutdown, as well as with a host of foreign leaders, both friend and foe, getting the best for America. Clean. The current White House is free of rapper thugs, randy interns, race-hustlers, and other riffraff who frequented previous administrations on a regular basis. Reverent. It is impossible to know a man's heart, but Trump appears to have grown into his faith over the past several years, quietly and without virtue-signaling unlike some of his predecessors, who used bibles and church attendance as props or photo opportunities. By Boy Scout criteria, President Trump is certainly of good character. Is he flawed, as we all are in our own ways? Of course, but such is human nature. Regardless, Trump was elected by the people, character and all. He set out a clear agenda for America, attempting to reverse decades of mismanagement, foreign and domestic, pulling the country back from the brink of "radical transformation" into something most Americans don't want. It's a testament to his strength of character that he is able to persevere, advancing his agenda, despite opposition from so many quarters. Lesser men would fold to the establishment, seeking compromise with the uni-party and accolades from the media for doing so. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." In Trump's case, the tree is what he is doing and accomplishing. The shadow is everything else the tweets and "character" that the NeverTrumps are in a lather over. As the sun goes down, so do the shadows. But the tree remains. Critics such as Mitt Romney would be far wiser focusing on the tree rather than the shadows. Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr. Transgender Theory Enables Child Abuse Pope Francis said that teaching children about being transgender is a moral problem which he calls ideological colonisation. He said explaining gender theory to youngsters is wrong because it can change their mentality. The pontiff shared, A father asked his ten-year-old-son: 'What do you want to do when you grow older?' The child replied: 'A girl'. The father realized that in the school books the gender theory was taught. This is against the natural things. Pope Francis declared transgender theory is part of a global war against the family. Unexpected voices like renowned feminist professor Camille Paglia are saying that well-meaning adults transgendering minors is child abuse. Professor Paglia actually called it evil to help troubled kids make permanent decisions for which there is no turning back. As commonsense normal thinking adults, our response to Prof. Paglia's comment is, Well dah. Public radio show host Jesse Thorn identified his two-year-old son as a girl; dressing his son as a girl and calling him a girl name. Ponder that folks -- a two-year-old. We all know this is insane child abuse. When comedian Owen Benjamin compassionately said Thorn was abusing his child, LGBTQ enforcers crushed Benjamin's career. His tours were canceled, and he was blacklisted in Hollywood. Benjamin has a comedy special. Here is the headline of a hit-piece written to end Benjamin's career. Why is Amazon promoting this anti-trans alt right troll's comedy special? Do you see how this works? Benjamin courageously exposed the abuse of a child and he is branded an extreme-right nutcase hater. LGBTQ enforcers seek to shame and destroy anyone who dares to state the obvious truth that gender theory is child abuse hiding in plain sight. American College of Pediatricians president Dr. Michelle Cretella, wrote, Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse. Dr. Cretella said transgender ideology is not rooted in reality. She said sex is hardwired before birth and it cannot change. Cretella continued, By feeding children and families these lies, children are having their normal psychological development interrupted. They're being put on puberty blockers which essentially castrates them chemically -- followed by surgical mutilation later on. This is child abuse. It's not health care. Dr. Cretella said we need to nurture children through natural puberty. Our job as parents and physicians is to help children embrace their healthy bodies. And when this is done, once they get past puberty to late adolescence, as many as 95% will come to embrace their bodies -- and identify with their biological sex. See, according to most mainstream medical organizations, if you want to cut off a healthy arm or a healthy leg, you're mentally ill. But if you want to cut off healthy breasts or a penis, you're transgender. Dr. Cretella enraged LGBTQ enforcers by saying, No one is born transgender. Dr. Cretella is under severe attack. Folks, can you believe we live in such a crazy evil time in which stating scientific facts and publicly expressing a desire to protect children could cost you your livelihood and even your life (death threats)? Every time I write about LGBTQ enforcers bullying the masses into submission, my frustrated wife Mary says, Let people know they are only 3 percent of the population. So this is where we are, folks. We instinctively know LGBTQ indoctrination is child abuse. And yet, far too many are afraid to say it out loud. LGBTQ enforcers are using government, corporations, the medical profession, social media, and mainstream media to bully the mainstream into allowing the abuse of children. How did such a tiny segment of our population (3%) obtain such dictatorial power? God will severely judge those who lead new believers and children astray. but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6) God instructs parents to loving protect and raise their children. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) God does not want government usurping parental authority over America's children. It takes courage to stand in a culture which humiliates and high-tech executes all who refuse to kneel in worship to their god of debauchery. Shouldn't abusing children be our red line in the sand? Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Help Lloyd spread the Truth http://LloydMarcus.com Photo: Kristen Luce/New York magazine The Border Patrol thinks that if most liberal Americans saw what it saw, theyd change their minds about the border. Following an invitation from two members of the Border Patrol union, writer Mattathias Schwartz went to the border for New York Magazines January 720, 2019, issue to see whether it in fact would. When I started working on this story, one thing I assumed is that the atmosphere in South Texas around immigration would be just as embittered and polarized as the rest of the country, says Schwartz on the experience of reporting this story. The way Border Patrol agents, as well as their family and neighbors, navigate the politics of immigration is far more nuanced. It gets even more complicated when theyre being used eagerly used, in most cases by the president in order to advance the border wall and the rest of his immigration agenda. Until the U.S. reckons with the instability it has caused in many places from which immigrants are coming, the debate over how to deal with whats happening on our own border will be persistent and painful theme in domestic US politics, Schwartz adds. The cover image, shot by Kirsten Luce, stood out to New York Magazines photography editors because of the way it portrays the reality of the situation at the border. Democrats know that the wall is what will finally break them, and no amount of Democrat and Democrat Media Industrial Complex (DMIC) agitprop will ever tear down the wall. It will be the chasm between the old guard and the burgeoning of Leninism within the party. Democrats know that the wall is imminent. Is the pending dread more psychologically damaging than the erection of the wall? The wall is deserving of proper name capitalization. The Democrats know that The Wall will achieve its intent of deterring and preventing mass illegal immigration, which has resulted in an illegal alien population that the federal government has no true, accurate count of. The Wall will be the physical affirmation of our historic, theory of black swan, glass-ceiling shattering 2016 win over Empress Clinton. Tax reform and withdrawals from bogus deals with Iran and climate change globalist welfare treaties aren't palpable; I can't take a selfie in front of the 2018 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. United States Supreme Court justices are a bit more tangible, but the court isn't omnipresent 24/7. The Wall, though? That proposed happy marriage of steel, spikes, and concrete? Oh, it will be glorious. I know that President Trump has described The Wall as "beautiful," but we don't care if it's the ugly Christmas sweater of American architecture. The Wall Will Save Lives and Money Want to know how padded rubber room-inducing The Wall is for Democrats? Trump has convinced fiscal conservatives to spend money, and Democrats have talked about saving money, as evidenced here and here. The Wall is Mount Rushmore and AR-15s and Confederate statues and the Electoral College and the Gadsden flag all in one. It is a watchtower, a monument to sovereignty, an homage to citizens, law enforcement officers, all Americans who have to worry about not only American criminals murdering them, but those here illegally as well. Ignore the Democrats and Ben Sasses of America, who prattle on about "xenophobia"; fear and greed are the bases for every decision made by the Homo sapiens species. Am I afraid of crimes being committed against me and my family from those who shouldn't be here? Damn right, I am, and if most of the spineless politicians in Washington acted a bit more fearful, Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbetts, and Ronil Singh would likely be alive. Singh, a California police officer killed by an illegal alien in the line of duty last week, emigrated from Fiji, a country I bet is safer than the Golden State. I wouldn't care if "only" one person died annually from illegal immigration, and I would care not if "only" one illegal border crossing occurred annually; the cult of the Democrats' gun confiscation sales pitch has always been "if it saves one life." If they believe that, vote to fund The Wall and end the government shutdown. If The Wall saves one life (it'll save many more), and saves even the smallest percentage of the annual $116-billion illegal alien financial burden, then break ground today. Just keep reiterating this to all your Democrat friends and relatives: "but if it saves one life," "but if it saves one life," " but if it..." And GOP, you listening? Especially you zealously open-borders Tessio Republicans, who have continued to betray your voters the way Sal Tessio betrayed the Corleone family in The Godfather? The Democrats know that The Wall will work spectacularly well. The Beto knows it. Fugaziahontas, Elizabeth Warren, knows it. Kuckoo Kamala Harris knows it; so does Gay Sex Goon Cory Booker (I gave him this moniker after he interrogated Mike Pompeo about gay sex during his secretary of state confirmation hearings earlier this year). Joey B to the I to the D-E-N? Affirmative. The Wall will accelerate the cannibalization within the Democratic Party, between establishment Dems, who are mostly covert Leninists, and the new-school Dems, who are unabashedly open about their collectivist fetish. The Wall is the Bolsheviks overthrowing Tsar Nicholas II, and it will usher in the Democrats' version of the Russian Revolution. It will be a sight to behold. Recommended viewing beverage is a Build That Wall cocktail. Yes, such a drink exists. The entrenched Washingtonian Democratic and Republican parties can't stand the fact that a reality television star president will do more to curb illegal immigration and the ills it has begotten than all their combined lousy efforts. How much will The Wall cost? A lot of moola; $25 billion, maybe more. Is it worth it? Sure is. Am I concerned that Mexico won't pay for it? Nope. Admittedly, I'm not thrilled about all aspects of The Wall, such as the expected eminent domain, which could displace hundreds of landowners. Since these property-owners will be an integral part of history, let's compensate them with triple their market value. The Wall Makes or Breaks 2020 The Wall is a black and white policy issue for Trump. He knows he can't cave to the Democrats. If he acquiesces, read my lips: Clinton will be the 2020 Democrat nominee, and she will win. But worry not. The Wall is Fort Sumter; there's no going back from it now. The Wall isn't anti-immigrant; in fact, it might be the most pro-immigrant expenditure in American history a ubiquitous reminder that America is the most generous nation in the history of the world which admits two legal immigrants every minute of every day and will welcome with open arms those who adhere to our rule of law. Nationalism is the glue that holds this whole American experiment together. Some presidents wants freeways, hospitals, and airports named after them. Not our president. The Donald J. Trump Great Wall of America is what he wants, and it's what the majority of people in the majority of states want. Time to get this "elections have consequences" party started. Build that wall along all 2,000 miles on the southern border, Mr. President. Build it high, build it wide, build it tall, as tall as the sky. Our only regret about The Wall will be that it's not visible from outer space. Rich Logis is host of The Rich Logis Show, at TheRichLogisShow.com, and author of the upcoming book 10 Warning Signs Your Child Is Becoming a Democrat. He can be found on Twitter at @RichLogis. Anti-Semitism, BDS, and the ACLU Before there was a modern state of Israel, there were organized campaigns to boycott, marginalize, and intimidate Jews. These campaigns trace back to the time of the Jewish exile from their historic homeland of Israel. After the Romans cast the Jewish nation out of its homeland, it imposed oppressive laws to limit Jewish cultural and economic life. Economic and cultural marginalization of Jews continued with the spread of Islamic rule, where Jews were treated as second-class citizens and subject to taxes for their faith, into 15th century Spain and Cologne, to the 17th century, when non-Jewish residents of areas in the Russian Empire demonized the local Jewish populations. Thousands of Jews were killed in pogroms and a large number were forced, at the risk of death, to flee to other countries. While Jews in the Russian Empire were being attacked, a similar campaign by Arabs began in modern Israel in the 1920s. By the end of the 1920s, the Arab boycott of Jewish businesses in Israel had begun, accompanied by organized massacres of Jews. While the Arab attacks were in full swing, the rise of the Nazi Party led to the continued persecution of Jews, including boycotts of Jewish businesses, and, ultimately, the Holocaust and the extermination of millions of Jews. On the eve of Germanys defeat, a pan-Arab organization known as the League of Arab States implemented its own campaign to boycott Jewish businesses and prevent the modern state of Israel from being formed. The Arab League focused its attacks on Zionists and stipulated that its campaign was intended to make the boycott of Zionist goods a creed of the Arab nations. It was no mistake that the Arab League used the term Zionist to refer to all Jewish presence in what was then called Palestine and is now the state of Israel. Just like those behind the pogroms and the Holocaust, the Arab League focused on the claim that Zionists were malign foreign invaders that had to be marginalized to prevent them from reclaiming their homeland. When the modern state of Israel became a reality in 1948, the Arab League broadened its boycott to ban all commercial and financial interactions with Israel and a formal boycott apparatus was implemented that still exists today. This boycott was a means to wage economic warfare against Israel. While the Arab League boycott reached its zenith in the 1970s, when Arab states crippled the U.S. economy for supporting is, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement involved groups designated as terror organizations (Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad), as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization. Initially, the BDS movement did not have a significant presence in the U.S. But starting in approximately 2014, when the social justice movement became a major influence, proponents of BDS have mainstreamed the movement to the point that many university campuses and several new members of Congress openly support BDS. Like the Arab League, BDS claims that it is not discriminatory because it opposes Zionism rather than Jews. While BDS has risen in the United States, so has anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic incidents have spiked from a low point of 751 incidents in 2013 to nearly 2,000 in 2017. It is no coincidence that the spread of a movement that demonizes Jews has had the same effect in the U.S. that similar campaigns had in the last 2,000 years. A number of American states enacted laws with modest goals to confront the discrimination. Some prohibited the state from investing in companies that boycott Israel, while others prohibited the state from entering into contracts with those who boycotted Israel. Far from silencing those who oppose Israels policies, these laws simply keep the states hands clean. Compared to many other state anti-discrimination laws that regulate broad categories of speech and conduct seen as being discriminatory against age, gender, sexual orientation, or race, the BDS laws are narrowly drawn and have minimal impact on speech or conduct. Indeed, as anti-discrimination laws go, the BDS laws are likely the least impactful on speech, yet they advance the critically important state goal of preventing discrimination. Among the states that have enacted these anti-discrimination laws are Arizona and Texas. The anti-discrimination laws of both states are currently being challenged in court and the Arizona laws fate is being determined by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose decision will likely play a large part in the Texas litigation and the future of anti-discrimination laws nationwide. The ACLU has taken the lead in challenging state BDS laws, using the spurious argument that BDS is somehow a civil rights movement. The ACLU further argues that the states interest in distancing itself from discrimination is outweighed by a persons First Amendment right to discriminate. Curiously, this is not what the ACLU had to say about another anti-discrimination law that was the focus of a Supreme Court case last year. In that case, involving a baker whose religious beliefs prevented him from creating a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding, the ACLU supported a state law that went far further than imposing an incidental burden on a party who claimed to be acting out of conscience. The law in last years ACLU case actually compelled a person to engage in a form of speech that the person believed violated his religious beliefs. The ACLU claimed that state anti-discrimination laws were of such importance that they had to be upheld, even if they caused a person to act in a way that conflicted with his or her deeply held beliefs. The Supreme Court agreed with the ACLUs general proposition on anti-discrimination laws, stating that such laws are well within the States usual power to enact when a legislature has reason to believe that a given group is a target of discrimination The Court went on to explain that discrimination leads to the targeted group being treated as outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth. Indeed, this is the objective of BDS promoters -- they seek to marginalize anyone who supports Jewish self-determination. The legislatures that have adopted BDS laws deliberated on the issue of the discriminatory nature of BDS and concluded that BDS activity was targeted discrimination. As a matter of history, the states had every reason to see BDS as just the most recent mutation of millennial-old discriminatory anti-Semitic boycotts. One has to wonder why the ACLU supports anti-discrimination laws unless the laws address anti-Semitism. Taken to its logical end, ACLU success will necessarily lead to the elimination of all anti-discrimination laws, not just those that address the vicious spread of anti-Semitism. While the inaugural address was being delivered ... devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. The smirk by Chuck Schumer spoke volumes, and the full-blown identity politicians showing their true colors remind one of Abraham Lincoln's potent lines when on March 4, 1865 he penned the following: We are not in a hot civil war at this time, but, as Charles R. Kelser has written, "cold civil war is better than a hot civil war, but it is not a good situation for a country to be in. Underlying our cold civil war is the fact that America is torn increasingly between two rival constitutions, two cultures, two ways of life." Consider Nikki Randhawa, a Sikh who represented the very best of America when she was the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Most of us know her as Nikki Haley. Her marriage to Michael Haley was a "measure of respect for their individual backgrounds the colorful Sikh ritual was followed by the Methodist ceremony." Her husband is an officer in the South Carolina National Guard. She was a governor of South Carolina clearly two proud Americans who serve their country with distinction. Reflect now on the newly elected Democratic Muslim women who embody the creeping sharia that is enveloping the world. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) used American immigration law to her advantage by marrying her brother in 2009. The "motivation for the marriage points to possible immigration fraud and student loan fraud. What's more she swore to apparent falsehoods in court." Tashida Tlaib (Michigan) has vociferously called for the impeachment of Donald Trump. According to Tlaib "President Donald Trump is a direct and serious threat to our country." She asserts that "[o]n an almost daily basis, he attacks our Constitution, our democracy, the rule of law and the people who are in this country. His conduct has created a constitutional crisis that we must confront now." The Democrats can always be counted on to project what they are actually engaging in. It is they who are creating the constitutional crisis, not the other way around. In addition, both these women show their absolute animus for Israel. Omar has "long been a harsh critic of Israel. On November 16, 2012 just a few days after Gaza-based Hamas terrorists had launched more than 150 deadly rockets into the Jewish state, prompting an Israeli military response she tweeted that 'the apartheid Israeli regime' had 'hypnotized the world' in order to conceal its own 'evil doings.'" Tlaib was the Arab-American coordinator for Obama's 2008 campaign in Michigan. In addition, she has ties to the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Then, "[i]n 2013-14, she received numerous financial donations from individuals affiliated with CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Students Association (MSA), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)." Moreover, "[i]n an October 2015 tweet, Tlaib linked to an article in The Nation lauding Black Lives Matter activists in Chicago for supporting 'a Palestinian woman threatened with deportation.' The woman in question was Rasmea Odeh, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist who had played a central role in a deadly 1969 terrorist bombing in Jerusalem, and had committed felonious immigration fraud in the U.S. years later." Tlaib and Omar have insinuated themselves into American politics. They personify the anti-freedom, Jew-hatred, sharia intolerance that is integral to the tenets of the Quran, the very book that Tlaib rested her hand on when she was sworn in! Tlaib and Omar are symptomatic of the leftist-Islamic (Red-Green) anti-American connection that keeps gaining traction in the country. The left (Progressives) believe in the notion of a "living Constitution" and work to create "administrative agencies" that circumvent the limitations that the original Constitution set in place. Likewise, Muslims wish to substitute sharia law for the Constitution, making the absurd claim that they are similar. If so, why change the law in the first place? Then there is the "prevailing liberal doctrine of rights [which] traces individual rights to membership in various groups racial, ethnic, gender, class-based ... which are undergoing a continual process of consciousness-raising and empowerment." Consequently, Omar, with the help of the "useful idiot" Nancy Pelosi, wore a hijab despite a 181-year congressional headwear ban. Hats have "been banned from the House chamber of the Capitol [but] ... under a new proposal from Democrats, the rule would be relaxed to allow religious headwear, like a hijab[.] The change was proposed jointly by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, , Incoming Rules Chairman Jim McGovern and member-elect Ilhan Omar as part of a larger overhaul package." Leftists now known as the Democratic Party count on people's ignorance of what these two women actually believe and want to enact. It is how Americans will be duped. The Muslim Brotherhood has made the Islamic cause abundantly clear. Consequently, America is in the throes of "an even more toxic danger than jihad warfare a stealthy and pre-violent form of warfare aimed at destroying our constitutional form of democratic government and free society. The Muslim Brotherhood is the prime-mover behind this seditious campaign, which it calls 'civilization jihad.'" No matter how many news outlets turn this into a fashion moment, no matter how many babies they hold while in the chambers of Congress, these two women are the tip of the iceberg of this seditious campaign. This is not diversity; it is transformation leading to the slow destruction of these United States just as leftist, Muslim-loving Barack Hussein Obama asserted not too long ago. Like their leftist counterparts, Muslims in the Islamic world are "interested in transforming free speech into what they call equal speech." Thus, they favor the "narrowing of the First Amendment for the sake of redistribution of speech rights from the rich to the poor." The Muslim world has already shown that any criticism about Islam is tantamount to a crime, and punishment will ensue. Why would things be different in America as Islam gains ascendancy? Josef Zboril writes, "The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) made up of 57 mostly Muslim-majority states (56 plus "Palestine") wants to ... "[h]old the media accountable for perpetuating hate speech and extremism." The OIC's Media Strategy in Countering Islamophobia and its Implementation Mechanisms describes one part of its strategy as a "call [to] media professionals to develop, articulate and implement voluntary codes of conduct to counter Islamophobia." But "[u]nfortunately, many in the Western media have been acceding to such demands, either because they agree that being critical of radical Muslims constitutes 'Islamophobia,' or out of fear of being accused of it. The social media giant, Facebook, for example, often uses a selective definition of 'hate speech' to justify censoring certain pages and posts." Once again, the left partners with the Islamic world to effectively criminalize the most cherished of American freedoms: the freedom of speech and press. Connecting the dots, remember that Tlaib has cultivated noteworthy ties to a number of Islamist organizations such as the Hamas-linked Council on American Islamic Relations, praising its "invaluable and vital advocacy." Who would be so naive as to think she does not advocate the silencing of critics? In Gaza (emphasis mine), "the freedom of expression is unacceptable ... as Hamas intimidates and imprisons writers." Now recall that "in 2015, Tlaib noted approvingly that the head of Islamic Relief USA a branch of Islamic Relief Worldwide, ... designated as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates had come to Detroit to discuss 'water relief from Gaza to Detroit.'" Brigitte Gabriel, speaking of Muslim Saba Ahmed, who ran for Congress in 2012, stated, "We must recognize figures like Ahmed for what they are: Islamists who spout patriotic platitudes, but who justify acts of Islamic terrorism, and whose intent is nothing less than a worldwide caliphate that would undo America from within, with Sharia formally established as the standard for Muslims." If we are to preserve the Union, it is incumbent upon us to boldly expose these new representatives and their ilk. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com. Government orders military to launch operations against Buddhist rebels after deadly attack last week. Myanmar has called on its military to launch operations against ethnic Rakhine rebels behind a deadly attack on four police stations last week as a surge of violence forced thousands more from their homes. The countrys troubled western Rakhine state has seen a series of clashes in recent weeks between security forces and the Arakan Army (AA), a Buddhist armed group fighting for more autonomy. The area is one of the poorest in Myanmar and is scarred by deep ethnic and religious hatred. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been driven out of Rakhine state in a brutal military campaign that began in August 2017. The military has justified the operation, which forced the mostly Muslim minority to seek refuge in Bangladesh, as a way to stamp out Rohingya fighters. The latest violence by ethnic Rakhine rebels culminated on Friday Myanmars Independence Day in brazen pre-dawn raids on four police posts in Buthidaung township near the Bangladesh border. Authorities said the attack by hundreds of fighters left 13 police officers dead and nine wounded before the army, known locally as the Tatmadaw, was able to provide back-up. The AA said that three of its fighters had been killed, accusing the military of using the police stations as a base from which to fire heavy artillery. The presidents office has already instructed the Tatmadaw to launch operations to crack down on the insurgents, government spokesman Zaw Htay told reporters in the capital Naypyidaw. Civilians flee Some 4,500 people have been displaced by the recent weeks of violence, the UNs humanitarian agency said on Monday. Over the weekend, people streamed to nearby monasteries and other makeshift camps to escape the crossfire, carrying infants and bags of belongings. The increase in fighting comes just two weeks after the military declared a four-month ceasefire with a number of armed groups in Kachin and Shan states on the other side of the country. But Rakhine was a notable exception, and army operations against the AA have continued. Myanmars civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi stated that the peace process would be her top priority after her party swept to power in landmark 2015 elections. There are some two dozen conflicts festering around the countrys restive borderlands, some of which date back 70 years to when the nation declared independence from colonial power Britain. Independent analyst David Mathieson told AFP news agency the reasons behind the recent uptick in violence were still largely opaque. But he said the fighting could mean that greater numbers of AA fighters have infiltrated the borderlands and are extending their reach in what he described as classic guerrilla strategy. The AA has expanded its ranks since its formation in 2009 and is now believed to have several thousand recruits. Zaw Htay, the government spokesman, called on ethnic Rakhine people not to back the rebels. Consider Rakhines future deeply. Think carefully about the future you want to see before giving them your support, he said. China protests over US navy vessel sailing near disputed Paracel Islands as US officials join trade talks in Beijing. China has lodged stern representations with the United States over a US navy vessel sailing through the disputed South China Sea, as US officials joined trade talks in Beijing to seek a de-escalation in the Sino-US trade war. Lu Kang, spokesman for Chinas foreign ministry, said on Monday that Chinese military aircraft and naval vessels were dispatched to identify the US vessel and warn it to leave the area near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, claimed by China. We urge the United States to immediately cease this kind of provocation, he said, adding that China has lodged stern complaints with the US over the move. The warship, he said, had violated Chinese and international law, infringed on Chinese sovereignty, and undermined peace and stability. Rachel McMarr, spokeswoman for the US Pacific Fleet, said the USS McCampbell carried out a freedom of navigation operation, sailing within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Island chain, to challenge excessive maritime claims. The operation was not about any one country or to make a political statement, McMarr said in a statement to the Reuters news agency. Asked about the timing of the operation during trade talks, Lu said resolving issues would benefit the two countries and the world. The working-level talks held at the Chinese Commerce Ministry were the first round of face-to-face discussions since both sides agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled international markets. Both sides have the responsibility to create the necessary positive atmosphere for this, he said. Trade war US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in December agreed to pause a spiralling trade dispute of tit-for-tat import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. Trump has imposed tariffs to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from corporate espionage to market access and industrial subsidies. China has retaliated with tariffs of its own. Pauline Loong, head of the Hong Kong-based think-tank, Asia Analytica, told Al Jazeera that China wants an agreement to end the trade dispute as soon as possible. For the Trump administration, the question is what will happen to its voter base if the trade war drags on for too long. But for China, its very serious, she said. This trade fight couldnt have come at a worse time for China. Its economy is in trouble, not just cyclically, but structurally. Its got a debt mountain that is three times that of GDP, non-performing loans are up, and all the banks are in serious trouble worrying about what is going to happen next. However, Loong said she did not expect an agreement until the end of the truce in March. Both sides are going to want to squeeze everything they can during this time to get the best out of the time that is remaining. So I do not expect anything dramatic to be announced before March, she said. There are growing concerns that the trade war could escalate into a broader conflict between the US and China, as top Trump administration officials have attacked China on issues ranging from alleged human rights abuses to influence operations in the US. The two countries are also at odds over regional security, including Washingtons overtures to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own. China and the US have in the past traded barbs over what Washington says is Beijings militarisation of the South China Sea, by building military installations on artificial islands and reefs. China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently attacks the US and its allies for carrying out freedom of navigation naval operations near the Chinese-occupied islands. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan have competing claims in the region. China defends its construction as necessary for self-defence and says Washington is responsible for ratcheting up tensions in the region by sending warships and military planes close to islands Beijing claims. Detentions a result of probes into pay phone communications between alleged members of the network, state media says. Turkish prosecutors have ordered the detention of about 100 soldiers over suspected links to the network of a United States-based Muslim religious leader and businessman, Fethullah Gulen, who has been accused of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, state-owned Anadolu Agency said. The detentions are the result of investigations into pay phone communications between alleged members of Gulens network, Anadolu said, adding that they were in the process of being carried out. Police have conducted a steady stream of raids against Gulens alleged supporters since the July 2016 coup attempt, in which hundreds of people were killed. Gulen denies involvement in the attempt. More than 77,000 people have been jailed, pending trial, while 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs as part of the post-coup purges. Widespread operations are still routine. Human rights groups and Turkeys Western allies have voiced concerns over the scale of the crackdown, saying the Turkish government used the failed coup as a pretext to suppress dissent. The government, however, defended its measures, calling them necessary for Turkeys security. Diplomatic traffic 181219014706284 Turkey has sought Gulens arrest since 2014, but efforts to have him returned from the US, where he lives in a sprawling compound in Pennsylvania, have floundered. US says Turkey has not provided sufficient proof against Gulen, who lives in a self-imposed exile in the US since 1999. A team of US officials visited Ankara last week reportedly to discuss the Gulen issue. US National Security Adviser John Bolton is also due to visit Ankara later on Monday. Prior to the failed putsch, Gulens movement allegedly placed supporters within the Turkish state apparatus, particularly the judiciary and police, to attack its opponents. Green Valley, Arizona Shura Wallin shuffles through a stack of drawings given to her by migrant children. She finds the one she is looking for and lifts it up. It depicts a Border Patrol vehicle chasing three stick figures, their arms raised as they flee. Each week, Wallin and other humanitarian volunteers set out for some of the most dangerous corridors in the southern Arizona desert, leave out water jugs for migrants and refugees and search for the remains of those who died along the way. Wallin, a 77-year-old retiree, co-founded The Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans along with Pastor Randy Mayer in 2005 in response to the dire humanitarian conditions migrants and refugees face crossing the United States-Mexico border. Today, the group has around 350 volunteers. And for the last 15 years, the volunteers have provided medical aid, humanitarian supplies and medicines for desperate people fleeing violence and economic catastrophe. Since she started working on the border in 2000, Wallin has found severely dehydrated people, others with thrashed feet having worn through their shoes during the journey and recently deceased bodies. Throughout her nearly two decades on the border, undocumented migrants and others crossing the border have been pushed into desperate situations. When we first got started, we found an awful lot of people out in the desert, Wallin tells Al Jazeera. The routes have changed dramatically; the routes are more dangerous now. Its much, much more dangerous than it was in the past. 181210211443443 But now, as US President Donald Trump escalates his crackdown on asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, she says that humanitarian workers and volunteers are struggling to work in an increasingly hostile political climate. There are more challenges for not only people who those of us who are trying to save the lives of people, but definitely [there are increased] challenges for people who are trying to come across, she says. When I listen to the rhetoric that spews forth from so many people, I think they dont have a clue of why people are having to flee. The number of people who died on both sides of the US-Mexico border increased from 398 in 2016 to 412 in 2017, according to UN data [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera] Last month, key parts of the US government shut down after Trump refused to back down over his demand for more than $5bn in funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border. Three weeks later, Trump stands firm on his demand, threatening to declare a national emergency to get the wall built. In mid-October, as a US-bound caravan of mostly Central Americans made its way towards the southern border, Trump falsely claimed that the US was facing an impending invasion. That same month, he deployed thousands of US troops to border areas. 190104033513508 Facing a swell of criticism, the Trump administration has lashed out at Democrats and pro-migrant groups. Our system has been pushed to a breaking point by those who seek open borders, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said last month. Smugglers, traffickers and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north. Obama did the same evil things. Trump relishes it. Joel Smith, the operations manager at the Tucson-based Humane Borders nonprofit, started working on the border in 2009. In the last decade, he has witnessed migration routes change drastically. 190102082249473 As Border Patrol set up shop in safer corridors along the frontier, migrants and refugees were pushed into more challenging pathways into the US, he tells Al Jazeera. Obama did the same evil things, but Trump just relishes in it. According to the United Nations migration agency, the number of people who died on both sides of the US-Mexico border increased from 398 in 2016 to 412 in 2017, even as border crossings decreased. The risk now is more than ever, Smith says. But as Trump turns the border into a keystone of his administrations agenda and risks for border-crossers soar, Smith has observed a larger number of people reaching out to help in humanitarian operations. Humanitarians say migration routes have changed significantly over the last decade [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera] About 95km south of Tuscon, in Arivaca, Arizona, Dan Kelly stands on his back porch. He can see the mountains straddling the US-Mexico border only 19km away. By car, he can reach the frontier in half an hour. But for migrants and refugees passing through that corridor, the risks are plenty: inhospitable terrain, Border Patrol agents on the lookout, and surveillance drones watching from above. You cant live here and not see human suffering, Kelly, 73, tells Al Jazeera, estimating that nearly every week residents stumble upon travel-worn people who have crossed into the US. Inspired by the work of humanitarian groups and activists across the region, Kelly plans to assemble a group of military veterans and cowboys to carry out water drops and other migrant relief efforts in the desert. The 19km-stretch from the border to Arivaca is studded with cacti, wild animals, cavernous valleys and a wall of mountains. We know that it is physically impossible, say, to cross that 12 miles [19km] while carrying enough water to survive, Justine, an activist with No More Deaths, tells Al Jazeera, explaining that water drops could amount to the difference between life and death in the desert. Citing privacy, Justine declined to provide a surname. Established as a coalition of faith and community groups in 2004, No More Deaths seeks to alleviate the suffering endured by people crossing the border and the desert. Like other humanitarian groups, its volunteers leave out water jugs in many of the least hospitable corridors of Southern Arizonas desert, search for those who go missing along the way, and document human rights violations by Border Patrol and other authorities. Suffering, death and disappearance In January 2018, No More Deaths released a video of Border Patrol agents dumping out water jugs left behind by humanitarian groups. In a report that accompanied the clip, which included footage from as early as 2011, the group accused authorities condemn[ing] border crossers to suffering, death and disappearance. In a statement at the time, Border Patrol said it was aware of the video and that its agents have been instructed not to remove or destroy water stations, food or other resources left along trails in the desert. Immigration authorities have charged several activists for their work on the border [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera] In December 2017 and January 2018, authorities dealt criminal charges to nine activists in relation to their humanitarian work in the borderlands. Among those charged was Scott Warren, a 36-year-old No More Deaths volunteer, who is accused of harbouring undocumented immigrants last January as part of a human smuggling operation. Authorities have also charged Warren with misdemeanours over his leaving behind water, food crates and humanitarian supplies on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in June 2017. Eight other No More Deaths activists were charged with entering a wildlife refuge without a permit after they carried out humanitarian operations on the territory in July and August of 2017. Earlier in the year, US Fish and Wildlife Service introduced new regulations on permits that bar individuals or groups from leaving out food, water, blankets and medical supplies. The barrier is seen in Sasabe, Arizona [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera] Back in her home, Shura Wallin lifts a photo showing a migrants battered and bloody feet. While walking through the desert, he had worn through the soles of his shoes. What percentage of people do you know who want to leave their families and their countries? I dont know anybody, she says. When Wallin hears the rhetoric coming from the White House and opponents of immigration, she poses a question. Why dont you come and look into the faces of the people we are demonising and then tell me were doing the right thing? she asks. Because [as a country] we are not acting in a humanitarian way at all, other than the groups trying desperately to save the lives of people. Trump says hell visit US-Mexico border this week as shutdown, centred on his border wall funds demand, continues. US President Donald Trump announced on Monday he would make a prime-time address and visit the US-Mexico border this week as the partial federal government shutdown entered its 17th day after a funding impasse over his demand for money to build a border wall. The moves indicate the Republican president has no intention of backing off his pledge to build a wall that he believes will stem irregular immigration and drug trafficking. Democrats in Congress say a wall would be expensive, inefficient and immoral. However, pressure to reach a deal is likely to grow as the effects of the shutdown are felt, including possible cuts in food stamp programmes and delayed tax refunds. Vice President Mike Pence said White House lawyers were evaluating the possibility that Trump could declare a national emergency in order to secure alternate funding for the wall but that Trump had not made a decision on using that tactic. It was unclear what basis Trump could use to declare a national emergency, and legal experts expected challenges if Trump were to move forward with the declaration. Trump planned to visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday, White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced on Twitter without providing details. The visit likely will highlight security concerns pushed by the administration as justification for the wall. A short while after Sanderss tweet, Trump tweeted that he will address the nation on Tuesday at 9pm Eastern time (02:00 GMT on Wednesday) to discuss what he called a humanitarian and national security crisis on the southern US border. 190107150120233 Large chunks of the federal government shut down on December 22 over Trumps demand that a bill to keep the federal government operational include more than $5bn to pay for a wall along the border with Mexico. About 800,000 government workers have been either furloughed or working without pay since the shutdown began. Trump directed the White House budget office to take steps to mitigate the effects of the shutdown, including ensuring tax refunds are delivered, Pence told reporters. Pence said Trump also invited Democrats back to the White House to respond to its latest proposal to resolve the standoff over legislation to fund the government. Pence, who participated in weekend discussions on the shutdown, said Democratic staff said there would be no negotiations until the government is reopened. Trump said in December he would be proud to shut the government down over the wall and last week told politicians it could last months. Democrats returned to Washington, DC in the new year, taking control of the US House of Representatives, and passed legislation to reopen all closed government agencies but did not include wall funding. This week, they will pass a series of bills to reopen federal agencies after weekend talks between the Trump administration and Democratic negotiators failed to end a stalemate. 190104163142319 On Sunday, Trump pledged not to bend in his demand for money for the wall but said the barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete as a potential compromise with Democrats who refuse to fund it. Democrats say Trump has no grounds to declare a national emergency over the issue. They also say other border security measures are more efficient and cost-effective than a wall, which they say is contrary to American values. Trump visited the southern border last March. Trump has previously given three prime-time televised addresses and two during the day, according to data compiled by CBS News. Ali Shamkhani says he was approached twice by US officials last month but rejected the requests to hold talks. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis top security adviser said on Monday that American officials had approached him during a visit to Afghanistan to request talks with Tehran, according to Iranian news reports. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Irans National Security Council, told a gathering of international defence and security officials in Tehran that US officials approached him twice in Kabul last month. Shamkhani said he rejected the offer, saying the United States has violated a number of international agreements, so there is no point in negotiating with them. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have increased since last May, when US President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers, and then reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic that had been lifted under the accord. US officials were not immediately available to comment on the reports. Trump recently said that he would love to negotiate with Tehran, but added that Iranian leaders are not ready yet, I dont think. But they will be. In 2001, Iran worked with the US to help set up a new Afghan government to replace the Taliban, which had been toppled by a US-led military campaign following al-Qaedas September 11 attacks on US cities. Shamkhani was in Kabul last month for talks with the Taliban to help curb the security problems in Afghanistan. He said the Kabul government had known of the talks. Cruel US pressure Iran has long-standing, close ties with Shia communities in neighbouring Afghanistan, whose militias have fought against the Taliban armed group. Washington accuses Iran of trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan by providing military training, financing and weapons to the Taliban, a charge Tehran denies. 181110115350461 Shamkhanis comments came days after reports of talks between US and Taliban officials over proposals for a ceasefire in Afghanistan and a future withdrawal of foreign troops ahead of possible peace talks. Irans Supreme Leader slapped down an offer of direct talks made by Trump last year and Iranian officials have said Washingtons crippling sanctions would fail to wreck the economy. In July, Iranian authorities said Tehran had rejected eight US requests for a meeting between Trump and President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Americas fantasy and hostile measures have led nowhere, in spite of all their vengeful efforts towards the Iranian people, and will certainly not in the future, Iranian state TV quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying on Monday. Our nation will never yield to the cruel pressures of the United States. We will never bend to those who talk the language of sanctions and build walls instead of bridges. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that there will be no talks with the US as long as the sanctions are in place. New code of conduct also says factories should not employ staff under the age of 16 and limit working day to nine hours. Clothing factories in southern India will have to stop putting teenage girls on night shifts under a new code of conduct that was created after complaints of abuse of the largely female workforce. Female workers aged 16 to 19 will also be allowed to take time off during their periods and no one will be made to work more than nine hours under the new guidelines from the Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) which came into effect this month. The idea is to help manufacturers understand how an employee should be treated, right from recruitment to retirement, said Selvaraju Kandaswamy, secretary-general of the association, which has more than 700 members. We also want to create confidence in the mind of the global buyer that workers needs are being taken into account and we have zero tolerance to any form of abuse. An estimated 45 million workers, mostly women, are employed in Indias thriving garment industry, with major hubs in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. They have limited or no legal protection and few formal grievance mechanisms. Numerous studies have shown that low pay, intimidation, sexual harassment and other abusive working conditions are common, with the standard working week often exceeding 60 hours. A safer workplace A report last year by Better Buying, a US-based group that rates the purchasing practices of brands and retailers, said pressure on suppliers to deliver more quickly and cheaply had contributed to labour abuses. The new code of conduct, which is voluntary, says factories should not employ anyone under 16 and limits the workday. Employers must also allow workers freedom of association and create effective grievance mechanisms. 181209052459657 It also addresses the issues of sexual harassment, maternity benefits, migrant workers and minimum wage, and stipulates that women cannot be fired when they are pregnant. Much of this is already required under Indian law. The code is intended to help factories meet international labour standards as well as complying with legal requirements. This code is very important because it updates employers about the latest laws and will create a safer workplace for the thousands of women employed in the industry, said Kannagi Packianathan, chairwoman of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women. We are also working in tandem to create clear ground rules where women employees are concerned and are insisting on the prevention of sexual harassment laws being implemented. President Trump declaring in December he would not blame Democrats for his shutdown. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images The Trump administrations shutdown of the federal government over the last two weeks is a synecdoche for the way it has run the federal government over the last two years. They blundered into it almost by accident, without any understanding of what they are doing nor any plan for success. Just as Trump did not expect to win the election and neglected to plan for his transition, he shut down the government on a whim, after right-wing media complained about his plan to approve a government funding bill. Nobody in the administration had a clear understanding of just what a shutdown would entail. Two devastating reports in the Washington Post over the weekend detail the horrifying scope of their ignorance. The administration did not realize that 38 million Americans lose their food stamps under a shutdown, nor did it know that thousands of tenants would face eviction without assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Administration officials recognized only this week the breadth of the potential impact, reports the Post, and was focused now on understanding the scope of the consequences and determining whether there is anything they can do to intervene. First Trump shut down the government, and then the Trump administration started looking into what effect this would have. Its likely the administration was lulled into complacency by a previous, abbreviated shutdown that took place in early 2018. This interruption in funding lasted only a few days and had barely any effect. Perhaps the administration assumed a longer shutdown would work the same way, but, you know, more of it. The reality is that the effects of a shutdown compound over time. Government agencies can creatively stretch their budgets to mask gaps in funding, but at some point, their capacity to maintain services snaps. The relationship between the length of a shutdown and its impact is not linear. A 30-day shutdown is not ten times as damaging as a three-day shutdown. It is probably 100 times as damaging. The impending reality of millions of Americans going hungry and homeless is just one aspect of the horrors that await us. At some point, the shutdown will impinge upon Trumps C-suite constituency. Employees of the Transportation Security Administration have had to work without pay, but that cannot continue indefinitely. Already, employees at some airports have begun staging sick-outs. At some point, air travel will grind to a halt, and with it large segments of the economy. By next month, tax refunds will be in jeopardy. Facing an economic cataclysm, Trump appears to have no endgame in mind. He told Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer he would look foolish if he agreed to reopen the government without extracting concessions. But Democrats have no incentive to give him any. Voters in general tend to blame the president for problems. This holds true even when Congress is responsible for the problems, but it especially holds true when the president personally engineers the calamity and announces beforehand on camera that he wont blame the other side for it. One path for the administration to escape the vise it has created for itself is to negotiate an immigration deal. Jared Kushner is reportedly trying to craft a bargain that would swap protection for Dreamers in return for border-security funding. In theory, members of both parties support a deal like this. But this kind of enforcement-plus-amnesty trade formed the basis of immigration reform deals that failed under both George W. Bush and Barack Obamas presidencies. Immigration reform is really hard to do. The notion that broadening the negotiations to include a divisive social policy that had repeatedly defied compromise would make it easier to reopen the government seems fanciful. As difficult as immigration reform always is, Trumps fixation with the wall compounds the difficulty. The wall is not a product of conservative immigration policy, its a messaging device devised by Trumps campaign to get him to discuss immigration and to help him stand out from other anti-immigration conservatives. Immigration restrictionists like Mark Krikorian and Heather MacDonald frankly tell the New York Times they dont care about the wall. Krikorian frets about the danger that [Trump] would trade almost anything in order to get the wall. MacDonald laments that the wall has sucked political capital from the pursuit of other, and arguably better, means to deter illegal immigrants, as MacDonald wrote. The anti-immigration right does not oppose the wall, they simply dont consider it especially useful as a tool to reduce illegal immigration. (Because it is not.) Therefore, from the restrictionist standpoint, any deal that trades something liberals want for the wall is a net negative. Just how long will it take for Trump to figure out that he is probably not the president who is going to break Americas long-standing immigration policy deadlock? Probably longer than he can bear the political pain that his shutdown is bringing upon himself and his party. Democrats might be tempted to hand Trump a token ransom to end the very real pain of the shutdown. But to do so would invite further hostage-taking. All they can do in the meantime is continue to send Trump bills to reopen the government immediately, and wait for the president to realize the political blood on the floor is his own. Southeast Asian countries are cautious about Chinas rise and its flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to a new policy survey. The survey, which was released on Monday by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, polled 1,008 respondents from all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including people in government, academic and business communities, civil society and the media. China was seen by 73 percent of the respondents as having the greatest economic influence in the region and was also believed to have more clout politically and strategically than the United States. But the people surveyed by the think-tank also expressed concern about Beijings geostrategic ambitions. Fewer than one in 10 saw China as a benign and benevolent power, with nearly half saying Beijing possessed an intent to turn Southeast Asia into its sphere of influence. This result is a wake-up call for China to burnish its negative image across Southeast Asia despite Beijings repeated assurance of its benign and peaceful rise, the reports authors wrote, according to Reuters news agency. Some 70 percent said their governments should be cautious in negotiating BRI projects to avoid getting into unsustainable financial debts with China, a view strongest held in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Nearly half said Chinese President Xi Jinpings hallmark policy would bring ASEAN closer into Chinas orbit, while a third said the project lacked transparency and 16 percent predicted it would fail. Amid Chinas growing reach, Southeast Asia is increasingly sceptical of the USs commitment to the region as a strategic partner and source of security. Six out of 10 respondents said US influence globally had deteriorated from a year ago and two-thirds believed the countrys engagement with Southeast Asia had declined. About a third said they had little or no confidence in Washington as a strategic partner and provider of regional security. The conventional wisdom that China holds sway in the economic realm while the United States wields its influence in the political-strategic domain will need to be revisited in light of the survey results, the institute concluded. Some Western governments have accused China of pulling countries into a debt trap with the Belt and Roads massive infrastructure projects, an accusation China has denied. There was a call for ASEAN to play a more active role in Myanmars Rohingya crisis, although a majority of the respondents sought mediation rather than diplomatic pressure. In 2017, some 730,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape a violent crackdown by Myanmars security forces crackdown in the wake of attacks on military posts by members of the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army. United Nations investigators have accused Myanmars military of carrying out killings, gang rape and arson with genocidal intent, an allegation the military has denied. Rahaf al-Qunun, 18, has appealed for asylum saying she was abused by her family and fears death if repatriated. A Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport who says she is fleeing domestic abuse barricaded herself in a hotel room on Monday to prevent her deportation by Thai authorities. An immigration official later said she would not be forced to leave the Southeast Asian nation because of concerns for her well-being. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, said she fled Kuwait while her family was visiting the Gulf country and had planned to travel on from Thailand to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was detained after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait. Al-Qunun shared photos of herself on Twitter in the room where she has been held since her arrival the previous day, as officials and police gathered outside the door to take her to a plane to return her to Kuwait. A Thai court rejected an attempt to block her deportation, but hours later the countrys immigration chief reversed plans to expel al-Qunun citing concerns for her safety. The flight this morning was via Kuwait Airlines to send her back to Saudi Arabia. If she does not want to leave, we will not force her, chief of immigration police Surachate Hakparn told reporters. Surachate also said he would meet officials from the UNs refugee agency later in the day to discuss her asylum plans. Passport seized Al-Qunun appealed for the UNHCR to help her. Im not leaving my room until I see UNHCR, she said in a video posted on Twitter. I want asylum. Rights group Amnesty International released a statement on Monday saying the arbitrary confiscation of a passport violates the right to freedom of movement. The group also said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has requested access to Rahaf, which the Thai authorities have yet to provide. The Thai authorities are bound by the general prohibition not to transfer persons to any place where they would face a real risk of serious human rights abuses. Rahaf is entitled to fair and effective safeguards against any deportation and to international protection, Samah Hadid, Amnestys Middle East director of campaigns, said in the statement. Al-Qunun was detained after she got off her flight in Bangkok. She said she had originally planned to spend a few days in Thailand, a popular destination for medical treatment, so her actions would not create suspicion when she left Kuwait. When I landed at the airport, someone came and said he would process the [Thai] visa but he took my passport. He came back with what seemed to be airport security and said that my parents objected and said I must return to Saudi Arabia via Kuwait Airways, she told the Reuters news agency. Her claim her passport had been seized was backed by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Al-Qunun told the AFP news agency on Sunday that her male guardian had reported her for travelling without his permission. Losing hope She said she was trying to flee her family, whom she accused of subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse. Al-Qunun said she was certain she would be jailed if she were sent back. My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair, she said. Im sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail, she said, adding she was scared and losing hope. The UNHCR said according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if they fear their life is under threat. Georg Schmidt, the German ambassador to Thailand, wrote on Twitter he had great concern for al-Qunun and was in touch with the Thai authorities and the embassies of other countries about her situation. Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty and other serious harm if returned against their will, Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW, also said in a statement. Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. An airline security official told activists that Lasloom was heard screaming and begging for help as men carried her with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands at the airport. There was no immediate comment by the Saudi embassy in Thailand and officials in Riyadh. Video footage shows men handcuffed, lined up for deportation to Bangladesh, where they will become refugees. Dozens of Rohingya are being deported from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh, despite being from neighbouring Myanmar. In video footage sent to the Middle East Eye website on Sunday, men are seen lined up for deportation at the Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah. Some Rohingya were also put in handcuffs after they attempted to resist their deportation to Bangladesh, according to voice notes sent to MEE. The Rohingya man who filmed the footage said that the men who have been locked up in a Saudi detention centre for up to six years were being deported. 181225232952228 Ive been here for the last five to six years, now they are sending me to Bangladesh. Please pray for me, the man in the video said. Another recording sent to MEE recounted the events that led up to Sundays forcible removal. They came to our cells in the middle of the night at 12pm [midnight] (9:00pm GMT), telling us to pack our bags and get ready for Bangladesh, a Rohingya detainee, who wished to remain anonymous, told MEE. Now I am in handcuffs and being taken to a country Im not from I am Rohingya, not Bangladeshi. #BREAKING The Saudi government is deporting hundreds of #Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. Here's a video sent to me by an inmate in Shumaisi showing Rohingya being lined up, handcuffed, and prepared for deportation. pic.twitter.com/6gGWTVey5d Areeb Ullah #WearAMask (@are_eb) January 6, 2019 Many of them reportedly entered Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage visas but overstayed to work. Some detainees locked up in Shumaisi told MEE they had lived in Saudi Arabia their whole life and had been sent to the detention centre after Saudi police found them with no papers. No one is ready to help Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist told to Al Jazeera from Frankfurt, Germany, that most of the Rohingya entered Saudi Arabia in 2012 following violence breaking out in Rakhine state, searching for a better life. Since then they have been supporting their families held in refugee camps in Bangladesh. When they land in Dhaka, they will become refugees and transported to refugee camps in Coxs Bazaar. Nay San explained that upon entering Saudi Arabia, their fingerprints had been registered as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepalese as the Rohingya identity isnt accepted. According to Saudi law, since they are registered as a different nationality, we cant do anything in terms of legal help, Nay San said. Saudi brought four embassy officials to the detention centre. Three embassies refused [to accept them]; Bangladesh was the only one to accept them. Muslim-majority Rohingya from Myanmar are described as the most persecuted minority in the world. Nearly ome million Rohingya were forced to take shelter in Bangladesh after Myanmars army, responding to attacks by an armed group, launched a brutal campaign against the minority in the countrys western Rakhine state in 2017. The Rohingya have faced persecution in Myanmar for decades. The military government, which took power following a coup in 1962, stripped the Rohingya of citizenship in 1982. Since 2012, following deadly riots between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya, tens of thousands of people from the minority have been forced to live in squalid internment camps. They have been in an open-air prison for decades, Nay San said. The genocide is ongoing there. No one can have a Myanmar passport to travel outside of Myanmar. They are not even allowed to travel from one town to another in Rakhine state. These people who are now being deported managed to get in with different passports through smugglers. Nay San said that human rights activists have been appealing to Saudi authorities for the past two years and that he has approached Saudi officials, diplomats, but no one is ready to help. Activists are approaching the European government to appeal to the Saudi authorities, he said. Six civilians killed in bomb blast in Paktika province, while at least 21 security personnel die in two Taliban attacks. At least 27 people, including civilians and security forces, have been killed in separate incidents in two provinces of Afghanistan, officials said on Monday. Six civilians were killed and as many others injured after a bomb they were carrying went off in southeastern Paktika province, said the head of the provincial council, Bakhtiar Gul Hemat. 190106094205312 The individuals had found the roadside bomb in Jani Khel district and were transporting it inside a car when the device exploded, Hemat said. Elsewhere, Taliban attacks in western Badghis province late on Sunday killed at least 21 security personnel. At least 14 personnel, including two policemen and 12 soldiers, were killed when a military base was hit in Qadis district, head of the provincial council, Abdul Aziz Baig, told reporters. In another attack in Ab Kamari district, at least seven policemen were killed and nine others wounded, Baig said. Jamshid Shahabi, a spokesman for the Badghis provincial governor, said more than 15 Taliban fighters were also killed while 10 were wounded in the clashes. Taliban leaders and US officials are scheduled to meet this month to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire. Officials from the warring sides have met at least thrice in recent months to reach an agreement on ending the 17-year war. In the meantime, the two sides continue to ramp up attacks. The Taliban have escalated their attacks on security forces and government facilities in recent months, while Afghan and US troops have intensified their operations against the groups field commanders. Teenager seeking passage to asylum in Australia claims she was abused by her family and fears death if repatriated. Thailands immigration police chief has announced that the young Saudi woman seeking passage to asylum in Australia will be temporarily admitted to the country for evaluation by the UN refugee agency. Surachate Hakparn told reporters on Monday that 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun would be granted entry under the protection of the office of the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR). He said the UN agency would take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case. "I want asylum." 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun barricades herself in Thai hotel to stop deportation to Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/xYzwB3FWk0 Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 7, 2019 Surachates announcement came after Thai authorities allowed a UN team to meet al-Qunun. Photos published by the Associated Press news agency showed al-Qunun and several Thai officials leaving the Bangkok hotel on Monday evening, but her exact destination was not made public. Al-Qunun later posted on social media saying that her father had arrived in Bangkok, and that she is worried and scared. She also posted a photo of her passport, which was reportedly confiscated by Thai authorities earlier. Al-Qunun had barricaded herself at the hotel earlier to prevent authorities from deporting her. An immigration official later said she would not be forced to leave Thailand because of concerns for her well-being. UNHCR also said on Monday that it was assessing al-Qununs need for international refugee protection. It said that for reasons of confidentiality and protection it would not release details of their meeting. Al-Qunun said she fled Kuwait while her family was visiting the Gulf country and had planned to travel on from Thailand to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was detained after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait. Al-Qunun shared photos of herself on Twitter in the room where she had been held since her arrival the previous day, as officials and police gathered outside the door to take her to a plane to return her to Kuwait. A Thai court rejected an attempt to block her deportation, but hours later the countrys immigration chief reversed plans to expel al-Qunun citing concerns for her safety. Hey I'm Rahaf. My father just arrived as I heard witch worried and scared me a lot and I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in But at least I feel save now under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities. And I finally got my passport back pic.twitter.com/pQER7HDVi7 Rahaf Mohammed (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019 The flight this morning was via Kuwait Airlines to send her back to Saudi Arabia. If she does not want to leave, we will not force her, chief of immigration police Surachate Hakparn told reporters. Surachate also said he would meet officials from the UNs refugee agency later in the day to discuss her asylum plans. Passport seized Rights group Amnesty International released a statement on Monday saying the arbitrary confiscation of a passport violates the right to freedom of movement. Al-Qunun was detained after she got off her flight in Bangkok. She said she had originally planned to spend a few days in Thailand, a popular destination for medical treatment, so her actions would not create suspicion when she left Kuwait. This screen grab from a video released to AFPTV via the Twitter account of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun on January 7, 2019 shows a still of Qunun speaking in Bangkok on January 7. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun held at Bangkok airport said she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials, who confirmed the 18-year-old was denied entry to the country on January 6. Qunun told AFP she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok and her travel document was forcibly taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch. Handout / Courtesy of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun / AFP When I landed at the airport, someone came and said he would process the [Thai] visa but he took my passport. He came back with what seemed to be airport security and said that my parents objected and said I must return to Saudi Arabia via Kuwait Airways, she told the Reuters news agency. Her claim her passport had been seized was backed by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Al-Qunun told the AFP news agency on Sunday that her male guardian had reported her for travelling without his permission. Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge daffaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok, told Saudi-owned TV channel Khalijia that the womans father, a senior regional government official, had contacted the diplomatic mission for help bringing her back. But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials were present inside the airport. A Twitter statement from the Saudi embassy in Bangkok said al-Qunun was stopped by Thai authorities for violating the law. Losing hope Al-Qunun said she was trying to flee her family, whom she accused of subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse, and that she was certain she would be jailed if she were sent back. My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair, she said. Im sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail, she said, adding she was scared and losing hope. The UNHCR said according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if they fear their life is under threat. Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family. An airline security official told activists that Lasloom was heard screaming and begging for help as men carried her with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands at the airport. Detainees say Israeli proposals, including water rations and limits on family visits, are a declaration of war. Hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, detention facilities, and interrogation centres are preparing to launch a mass hunger strike once Israel implements new measures that will worsen conditions for prisoners. In a joint statement, prisoners, including administrative detainees who are held without charge, said their decision was in response to a new level of oppression. These measures are a declaration of war that marks a new phase of our struggle, the statement read. They also called on Palestinian factions and activists to stand in solidarity with them and demanded nationwide rallies. Israel holds 5,500 Palestinian prisoners, including nearly 500 administrative detainees, according to the Jerusalem-based Palestinian prisoners rights group, Addameer. The call to action is in response to Israels plans to worsen what are already poor conditions for Palestinians held in its jails. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan announced the measures last week and the Israeli government is expected to enforce the measures in the coming weeks. One of the more serious changes pending approval by the Israeli cabinet, is ending the policy of separating Hamas prisoners from those affiliated with rival Palestinian faction Fatah, according to Amjad al-Najjar, spokesperson for Hebron-based Palestinian Prisoners Club. This has worried prisoners the most, al-Najjar told Al Jazeera from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. This may cause fights to break out which could even lead to killings inside the prisons especially in light of the current political climate, he said. Other measures include rationing water supplies, blocking funds to the Palestinian Authority, reducing the number of family visits, and preventing access to jail canteens. For the past 12 years, detainees have mostly lived off food they pay for from the prison canteen. There, they would buy things like chicken, meat, and canned goods as an alternative to prison meals that are not enough to sustain detainees throughout the day, al-Najjar explained. If they (Israeli Prison Service) take that away, the alternative is simply not an option, he added. Diseases among prisoners During the first Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, al-Najjar was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but spent six years in detention before being released as part of a prisoner swap deal in 1995. At the time, prison canteens did not exist, and prisoners had to rely on meals distributed by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). Najjar said portions were small, and often infested with bugs. It would cause cases of food poisoning and all sorts of chronic diseases among prisoners, he recalled. For lunch, each serving wouldnt be enough for a child, let alone a grown man, he said. Israel has for years held Palestinians in overcrowded prisons with poor hygiene standards which each prisoner confined to a 2.9sq-metre cell, according to Addameer. Some of the most severe policies Palestinians are subject to include the use of isolation for punishment and medical negligence. Every year, dozens of Palestinian prisoners are held in isolation under the pretext of security, Lana Ramadan, Addameers international advocacy officer, told Al Jazeera. The length of time in isolation that prison officials can order extends from 12 hours to longer periods of six months to one year, Ramadan said. Another major issue is medical negligence, where doctors employed by the IPS have minimal medical qualifications and are not under the authority of the Israeli Ministry of Health. Ramadan noted that medical issues among Palestinian prisoners are widespread and range in severity from chest infections and diarrhoea to heart problems and kidney failure. Although all prisons include a medical clinic, physicians are on duty irregularly and specialised medical healthcare is generally unavailable, she said, adding that most prisoners are usually prescribed painkillers instead of being given treatment for their condition. In the past, such conditions have forced prisoners to start open-ended hunger strikes in order to secure basic rights. At times, prison authorities would resort to force-feeding, a practice that sometimes led to the death of Palestinians. The most recent hunger strike, called for by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, lasted 40 days in 2017. It called for the installation of public telephones, resuming bi-monthly family visits, and ending the policy of solitary confinement, among other demands. The strikes succeeded in forcing some changes, such as the installation of pay phones. Not the first time This is not the first time Israel has tried to limit the rights of detained Palestinians, most of whom are held in jails inside Israel, in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires that an occupying power hold prisoners from an occupied land within that area. Palestinian leaders condemn existing conditions and say the new measures are another escalation of human rights violations. Rights groups say a lot of the proposed measures are de facto in place already. In June, Gilad Erdan announced the formation of a special committee with members drawn from the Israeli government. According to Ramadan, the committee was meant to to determine ways in which conditions can be reduced to a bare minimum, and then publish recommendations within 90 days of its formation. Ramadan said the committee began enforcing some of the recommendations before gaining the Israeli governments approval, including restrictions on access to food, education, and installing security cameras that infringe on privacy. By October 2018, a ministerial committee also passed a bill completely denying Hamas prisoners family visitation rights. Measures as a political tool According to Nadia Hijab, director of the Palestinian policy network, Al Shabaka, the measures are a political tool for Israeli politicians who are looking to garner support in the run-up to elections. As [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahus Likud party heads into the election, they are no doubt seeking to show they are even tougher on Palestinians, Hijab told Al Jazeera. Netanyahus government announced elections for April 9, after the ruling coalition came up short of the votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. He is also facing mounting pressure over a series of corruption investigations into his affairs. Hijab believes that the governments aim is to drive prisoners into another hunger strike in an attempt to detract attention from Netanyahus problems. That is a view shared by al-Najjar. They worsen conditions in order to win over the Israeli right with the hopes of securing votes, he said. They want to win elections off of the suffering of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian Authority cites arrest and abuse of its members as reasons to withdraw staff a move slammed by Hamas. Gaza Strip The Palestinian Authority (PA) has said it will withdraw its staff from the Rafah crossing between Gaza Strip and Egypt, effectively shutting down the main exit point for the majority of its 2 million population. The PAs decision, effective Monday, came in protest against what it said was a crackdown on its members in the besieged enclave. The PA accused Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, of arresting and abusing its employees and obstructing the work of our crew. In a statement carried out by the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, the Fatah movement, which dominates the PA, said hundreds of its members were arrested by Hamas in the run-up to the 54th anniversary of Fatahs founding. The PA took over the Rafah crossing in November 2017 as part of a reconciliation deal brokered by Egypt. A blow to reconciliation efforts But Hamas said the decision was part of the PA policy to tighten the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. This move aimed at separating Gaza completely from the [occupied] West Bank and the rest of our Palestinian territories and contributes to complicate the already complicated Palestinian scene, Hazem Qasem, the spokesperson of Hamas movement, told Al Jazeera. Its a blow to the Egyptian efforts to achieve the reconciliation, said Qasem, adding that the irresponsible decision only serve our enemies. Gaza has been under a land, sea and air blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 when Hamas took over power in the coastal enclave after the Palestinian faction won the parliamentary election. Palestinian factions reacted with outrage to the PAs decision, which raised tension in the enclave at a possible closing of the key crossing. Role of Egypt On Monday, Hamas said they will run the crossing, but its unclear if Egypt will allow the Gaza rulers to operate the crossing. Qasem said that they will try to ensure the continued opening of the crossing. We appreciate the Egyptian efforts. From evening hours, there are contacts between the Palestinian factions and the Egyptian authorities aimed at reaching a mechanism to continue the work of the Rafah crossing, he said. But the news has already caused tension and concern among Gazans, who depend on the crossing to go out of the enclave. Yasmina Mohammed is worried that the PA decision might affect her travel to the United Arab Emirates for her wedding, as her fiancee could not get a visa to visit Gaza. I got engaged a year and [a] half ago. My fiancee and his family tried three times, two via Rafah crossing and the last time via Erez [Israeli controlled crossing] to come to Gaza for the wedding, but they did not get a visa, the 22-year-old said. Her father made frantic calls to his acquaintances to inquire about the crossing, as Yasmina is scheduled to travel on Sunday. We received a number of reassurances that things would go well and that I and my family would be able to travel through the crossing, Yasmina said. A policy to separate the Gaza Strip Political analyst Mohsen Abu Ramadan said the decision stems of President Mahmud Abbass plan to limit the relations with Hamas. Measures such dissolution of Palestinian Legislative Council, stopping funding of some activities and sectors in Gaza, cutting salaries of civil servants, etc were taken to force Hamas to let PA rule the Strip, Abu Ramadan said. This is a policy to separate the Gaza Strip, isolate it and weaken its political resources, he said. Now it is up to the Egyptian leadership to decide to continue opening the crossing with Hamass administration. Another Gaza resident, Hala Shehada, who returned from Qatar a week ago, is concerned that her mother who travelled last week to Bosnia may be stuck if the crossing closes. Last night, we spoke to mum who was very disappointed and confused after she learned the news that she may [be] stuck out, the 25-year-old said. Her joy of meeting up with my brother and his family after 10 years has faded away. Nigerias security forces have raided the offices of the countrys Daily Trust newspaper and arrested two of its journalists over the papers coverage of the armed group, Boko Haram. A team of secret police, soldiers and civil defence paramilitary stormed the newspapers office in the northern city of Maiduguri, detaining its northeast regional editor Uthman Abubakar and reporter Ibrahim Sawab, the newspaper said on Sunday. The raid was in response to our cover story today on the military preparation to retake the town of Baga which was captured by Boko Haram last week, one source at the paper told the AFP news agency. They came looking for our reporter Hamza Idris, who anchored the story, but arrested the two reporters when they didnt find him, another source said. Armed police sealed the office after the team of security forces seized the journalists laptops and mobile phones. More than two dozen armed soldiers also raided the Daily Trust head office in Abuja on Sunday evening, sources at the newspaper told AFP. It is a continuation of the crackdown that started in our Maiduguri office earlier today. They stormed into the newsroom on the third floor and seized computers and laptops before ordering everyone to vacate the building, a source at the paper said. They have sealed the building. This means we will not be on the newsstands tomorrow for the first time in 20 years. According to the same sources, similar operations took place at the Lagos Daily Trust office at the same time. Classified information The Daily Trust reported on December 31 that Boko Haram members captured six localities in northern Borno state including Baga, disputing military claims that the group was not in control of any territory in the region. This followed a series of Boko Haram raids on military bases in the area. Following the report, the military issued a statement threatening to take action against unscrupulous elements and inaccurate news reports by some sections of the media. In the emailed statement, the military said that the paper had divulged classified military information, thus undermining national security. It said the journalists were arrested in order for them to realise the importance of national security and that the military did not intend to silence the press. The statement was issued hours after the presidency commented on the raids. The Federal Government has directed the military to vacate the premises of @daily_trust and the order has been complied with, the presidents spokesman, Garba Shehu, said on Twitter. Issues between the military and the newspaper as they affect the coverage of the war in the Northeast will be resolved through dialogue, he added. Ongoing raids Soldiers carried out a similar raid on the same office in 2013 in a failed attempt to arrest Idris over another report the military deemed critical. In November, the Nigerian military threatened legal action for fake news after media reports stated much higher military casualties than the official toll from a Boko Haram raid on a military base in Metele village. 181218111841052 In June 2014, soldiers seized newspapers and delivery vans of the Daily Trust and three other newspapers over reports that portrayed the Nigerian military in a bad light, accusing the vans of ferrying illegal arms. Boko Haram has killed about 30,000 people since 2009 in a series of attacks aimed at creating an independent enclave in northeast Nigeria. It was pushed out of the swath of territory it controlled in early 2015. But a faction that broke away in 2016 Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) has claimed responsibility in the past few months for a series of attacks on military bases and strategically located towns. The group attacked Baga a town that borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon in December, forcing hundreds to seek safety in Maiduguri, 200km to the south. Large celebrations set to take place in Cambodian capital to mark 40th anniversary of Victory Over Genocide Day. Phnom Penh, Cambodia Forty years ago on Monday, Vietnamese tanks rolled through Phnom Penh, a city that had been a near ghost town during the Cambodia genocide, to signal the overthrow of the regime of Pol Pot, the ultra-communists leader who managed to escape in a jeep at the last minute. It was the end of three years, eight months and 20 days of terror that had resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians. Large celebrations will take place at the Cambodian capitals Olympic Stadium on Monday to mark Victory Over Genocide Day. Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who defected and helped overthrow them, is expected to deliver a speech lauding January 7 as the moment the country was saved from Pol Pots murderous clutches. But while on the surface the overthrow of one of the 20th centurys most brutal regimes should be a reason to celebrate, Cambodian politics are not as straightforward. 181227050822495 The invasion had been in response to ruthless cross-border killings by the Khmer Rouge in Vietnam. Vietnamese forces, who were assisted by a far smaller group of former Khmer Rouge defectors, overthrew the Pol Pot regime with relative ease, although the civil war trudged on for another two decades. But rather than see the day as a liberation, the ruling partys detractors, including Sam Rainsy, the exiled acting leader of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), have branded January 7 as the start of an occupation by an historic enemy. Vietnamese forces did not leave Cambodian soil until 1989 and during that period installed Hun Sen as prime minister, a position he has retained since 1985. Whatever they might say in private, the country has virtually no political figure who acts and speaks independently of these two views, reads the 2017 paper Moving Beyond The January 7 Narratives by the Future Forum think-tank. Even today, Cambodian politicians, from Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy on down, spend much of their energy fighting an old civil war which has little relevance to the problems facing most of Cambodias 15 million people. Vietnamese soldiers near the Cambodia-Vietnam border [Photo by Jean-Claude LABBE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images] Government spokesperson Phay Siphan credits January 7 with saving his life. Without Vietnam, I was about to get killed right away because I was in jail already. At that time I told them I was a student, they put almost everybody in jail, Siphan said. Siphan said Sam Rainsy, who has long taunted Hun Sen with accusations of being a Vietnamese puppet, had no understanding of the importance of January 7 due to not living under the Pol Pot regime. 150417014942265 Sam Rainsy was living abroad; they never came across the suffering from the killings of the Khmer Rouge. They dont care, he said, pointing out that prominent opposition figures allied themselves with the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s. Meas Nee, a prominent Cambodian political analyst, also has little doubt of his fate had the Vietnamese not invaded. My familys name was already on the blacklist to be killed, Nee said. The reason for Nee and his family being targeted was simple. They were deemed new people and had been placed in a re-education village near the Vietnamese border due to being educated a serious red flag in the eyes of the Khmer Rouge. Nee and his family followed the Vietnamese for around 15km as forces poured across the border, sending the Khmer Rouge scarpering west. It was dark and later the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge passed during the night while we were in the bush. We were sitting, seeing hundreds of Vietnamese army trucks pass by, he said. After a couple of nights hiding in the forest, Nee and his family returned to their village and started the task of rebuilding their lives. Like many Cambodians, Nee believes the truth of January 7 can be found somewhere between the liberation and occupation narratives. While appreciating the role some in Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party played in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, many in the country do not look back on the ensuing occupation with fond memories, he pointed out. More people decided to escape to the refugee camps in Thailand because they were scared that another communist state would be installed in Cambodia, Nee said. The Vietnamese would have occupied the country for longer than 10 years had it not been down to international pressure, he said. A notable critic of the Vietnamese occupation was Pen Sovann, who was installed as prime minister of Cambodia by the Vietnamese in 1981 before being removed and jailed for 10 years. He later joined the CNRP in 2012 before passing away four years later. January 7 was a victory day but also a sad day [because] Vietnam violated Cambodian autonomy, Sovann told The Phnom Penh Post in 2001. After January 7, from year to year Vietnamese have put pressure on all kinds of freedom of expression in Cambodia and the fate of Cambodia was decided by Vietnamese. Hun Sen has been Cambodias prime minister since 1985 [File: Heng Sinith/The Associated Press] Cambodia, including Phnom Penh, has changed beyond recognition from the devastation left in the wake of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Terms such as stability and peace have long been buzzwords for Hun Sen, who has presented himself as the national saviour and the only true representative of the Cambodian people. 201417123859633169 But while there has been considerable economic growth on Hun Sens watch, many young people have become tired of a lack of opportunities, widespread corruption and continued authoritarianism at the hands of a prime minister who has been accused of overseeing widespread human rights abuses. The CNRP tapped into this discontent and came within seven seats of a shock victory in the 2013 general election, before making hefty gains in local elections four years later. Then, in what many saw as a cynical move to assure victory in the 2018 general election, the CNRP was outlawed and its president, Kem Sokha, thrown in jail on widely discredited claims he was attempting to wage a revolution. Sam Rainsy, who has vowed to return to Cambodia despite facing jail on convictions widely thought to be politically charged, said that January 7 was becoming more and more controversial in the eyes of the population. It is not like under the communist regime during the Cold War when the only possible reasoning had to be in line with the official propaganda, he said. Sam Rainsy did, however, argue that January 7 rhetoric was losing its appeal with the younger generation. Sophal Ear, a Cambodian-US professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College who escaped the Khmer Rouge as a child, agreed with Sam Rainsy, but pointed out that the acting opposition leader had also refused to drop the issue. I dont think hes ready to stop exploiting 7 January either as [a] trigger for Vietnam and the Vietnamese, Ear said. But Hun Sens efforts to paint himself as a national saviour did not make sense for young people who had never known war, genocide or the origins of the ruling party, he added. However, I think its woven into the identity of the party, he said. Changing the narrative is, I guess, not an option. After seven weeks of investigation, the former top aide to Saudi Crown Prince is still missing, Washington Post reports. Saudi authorities are refusing to confirm the whereabouts of Saud al-Qahtani, the former top aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to the Washington Post. Qahtani was fired in October, just days after the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi came to light. In November, the Kingdom confirmed that he was under investigation and banned from leaving the country. Since then there has been no official statement in the case, the Washington Post reported. Saudi prosecutors allege that Qahtani played a major role in Khashoggis killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 last year. He was among 17 Saudis sanctioned by the US government over the murder. Saudi officials say Prince Mohammed was not aware of the plot to kill Khashoggi, the Washington Post reported. The US and western countries are watching the Saudi governments treatment of Qahtani as a measure of its seriousness in bringing to justice Khashoggis killers, the paper reported. A number of questions remain to be answered about Qahtanis involvement, including his role in planning the killing or whether he was framed. Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Centre of Washington, told Al Jazeera that Qahtanis disappearance is a natural progression of [Saudi Arabias] investigation and is likely used as a strategy to keep MBS protected from accusations regarding Khashoggis murder. They have sheltered some of the key players accused of being involved [in the murder] whether by Turkey or by the international community, Jahshan said. The intention of the Saudi campaign right now is to keep the crown prince clear of any accusations with regards to the murder of Khashoggi. They are above the law Abdulaziz Almoayyad, Saudi human rights activist told Al Jazeera from Ireland that his disappearance is simply what is expected from Saudi ideology. Almoayyad said that non-violent Saudi dissidents who are asking for some reforms from the government are punished with capital punishment. They dont even need to be a reformer. This is the way the government deals with different opinions, to deal with people who ask for peoples representation, Almoayyad said, adding that the perpetrators of the murder wont be brought to justice. [MBS] isnt willing to punish [the murderers]; he isnt willing to punish his own and that will lead him to lose his power. In Saudi Arabia, this is a small minority that controls the people Saudi people are fighting for their rights and they are imprisoned for it. But this small circle [of MBS] cannot be harmed. They are super rich, super powerful and they really think they are above the law of Saudi Arabia, or international. Last November, the CIA concluded that MBS ordered the assassination of Khashoggi in Istanbul, a finding that contradicts Saudi government assertions that Prince Mohammed was not involved. US officials expressed high confidence in the CIA assessment, according to the Washington Post. The 45th president wants nothing but adulation at his renomination in Charlotte. Photo-Illustration: Konstantin Sergeyev/Intelligencer; Photos: Mandel Ngan/AFP (Trump); Lebrecht/Getty Images One of the handy things about being president of the United States is that if you decide to run for a second term, you pretty much control your partys machinery, particularly if (as is emphatically the case with Donald Trump) you still have a good grip on both elected officials and rank-and-file. That makes the quadrennial informercial of the national party convention a particularly rich opportunity for orchestrated sycophancy. Given the 45th presidents background in showbiz, and his resplendently high opinion of his place in history, its not surprising that even at this very early date his people are planning a coronation like no other at the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Theres another factor as well: a desire in Trumpland to obliterate memories of the discordant 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in which the identity of the nominee was not in doubt but the dynamics of the event highlighted by a defiantly noncompliant speech from primary runner-up Ted Cruz often veered far off message. As Politico explains, nothing like that will be allowed in Charlotte: President Donald Trump is tightening his iron grip on the Republican Party, launching an elaborate effort to stamp out any vestiges of GOP opposition that might embarrass him at the 2020 Republican convention Shortly before the holidays, Trump political aides Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, the organizers of the project, held a national conference call with Republican state party chairs, who traditionally play an outsize role in picking delegates. Last week, the two advisers began having one-on-one calls with the state chairs to describe the campaigns mission and discuss various circumstances in each state. The goal is to have the convention be an advertisement of who we are as a party, as a unified party, to 300-plus million Americans, not an internal battle of the 15,000 people in the arena, Stepien said. This early outreach and planning initiative is apparently an alternative to the more radical idea broached by some zealous MAGA fans of canceling primaries and declaring Trump the nominee by party-wide assent. But in either event, its clear the presidents supporters want to stamp out any vestige of #NeverTrump influence or indeed, the notion that there is a Republican Party separate from him that will endure when he has passed from the scene. So you can expect Charlotte to be a marvel of tightly controlled precision, or to put it another way, everything the Trump presidency itself has emphatically failed to achieve in the way of organized purposefulness. The enterprise is part of a broader takeover of the party machinery heading into 2020. Among the Trump teams other steps is incorporating the reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee into a single, streamlined entity an unprecedented arrangement. So no one will be allowed within miles of the podium in Charlotte who is not willing to sign hymns of praise to The Boss. That also presumably means the sort of uniform convention-message template that might as well be tattooed on every speaker, officiant, delegate, and Fox News representative. Any spontaneity will be reserved for Trump himself, and possibly his convention-week Twitter account. With this sort of lead time, the convention planners will also have abundant opportunities to paint the false picture of a party that is as diverse as the country it seeks to rule a major organizing principle in past Republican conventions, where black and brown and female speakers followed each other to the podium to regale an overwhelmingly white male audience with their 100 percent scripted thoughts. It will be interesting to see if Trumps wire-pullers bother to do that, or will instead glory in the monochromatic nature of a party where the people who made America great still walk tall. One other advantage for the presidents party is that by tradition it can choose the date of its convention first. And as is generally the case, it chose to go later than the opposition. Democrats will hold their convention on July 1316 (the site has yet to be determined, though finalists are Houston, Miami, and Milwaukee). The Republican Convention will be held on August 2427, after the distraction of the Olympic Games but before Labor Day. Even as Republicans plan a convention where not a sparrow will fall to the ground unless its in the script, Democrats could have a very disorganized affair. Indeed, given the immense Democratic presidential field that seems to be forming, and Democrats insistence on strictly proportional delegate awards in primaries and caucuses, alongside a reduced role for the unelected superdelegates who might otherwise seal the deal, its possible the Donkey Party could finally produce the contested convention pundits fantasize about every four years. Even if someone has all but nailed down the nomination by Memorial Day, Democrats wont be inclined to (even if they can) stamp out free speech entirely at their convention. So its likely that Team Trump will work overtime to draw contrasts between their smooth unity again, so out of character with the atmosphere in the White House and the sloppiness of the opposition. Given the presidents persistent unpopularity, they will need all the angles they can find. Israel fires missiles at what it said were Hamas positions in southern and northern areas of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military carried out air raids on the Gaza Strip overnight on Monday, causing damage to property, Palestinian media reported. According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a site in Beit Lahiya in the northern strip. No casualties were reported. In a statement, the Israeli army said it had carried out air strikes against Hamas positions in response to a rocket being fired into Ashkelon in southern Israel. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships then raided terrorist targets at Hamas military camps on the Gaza Strip, the statement said. Earlier today, an explosive device attached to multiple balloons was launched on a model plane from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, the statement said. A Hamas security source said one attack occurred east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and hit an observation point for Hamass armed wing, while the second was east of Gaza City. The security source said no injuries had been reported. The Gaza frontier has been relatively calm in recent weeks after a deal in which Israel allowed Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid for fuel and salaries in the blockaded enclave. Since March 2018, Palestinian protesters have been demonstrating every Friday east of the strip near the Israeli border fence, calling for their right to return to their former homes now inside Israel. At least 240 Palestinians have been killed since the demonstrations began, most by Israeli fire during border clashes but also by air and tank attacks. The partial govt shutdown centres on Trumps request for over $5bn in border wall funding, a demand Democrats oppose. Key parts of the US government shut down on December 22 after President Donald Trump and Democratic politicians hit an impasse over the presidents request for $5bn in funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, a demand Democrats oppose. On January 25 35 days into the shutdown Trump announced he had reached a tenative deal with congressional leaders to reopen the government for three weeks while talks on the border wall continued. The deal, once signed, would end the longest government shutdown in US history. Heres a lookback at how the US got here and who was affected by the shutdown: What departments are affected? What does the shutdown mean for federal workers? The shutdown affects more than 800,000 federal workers in nine different departments, as well as several federal agencies. This includes the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, State, Transportation and Treasury. Federal workers deemed essential are required to work without pay. Others are furloughed, or placed on temporary leave. Federal employees have sued the US government over the requirement that some workers must work without pay. After past government shutdowns, Congress has approved back pay for federal workers, but the American Federation of Government Employees, which launched the recent lawsuit, called the requirement to work without pay inhumane. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has stopped many of its services, but officials said the agency would continue issuing tax refunds. Immigration courts have also been affected, worsening an already existing backlog, which includes more than 800,000 cases. A sign at the entrance to the Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook, warns visitors of limited services, such as closed restrooms, during the partial government shutdown [Julio Cortez/AP Photo] According to Democratic Representative Sharice Davids, who was recently sworn in, the shutdown has had a direct effect on Native Americans lives. I spoke with one tribal leader who said that they actually lost a tribal member because they were unable to plough the roads so that an emergency service vehicle could get to him in time, Davids recently told National Public Radio (NPR). Davids explained that federal funds that go to tribal communities for services such as ploughing roads and healthcare have stopped due to the shutdown. On January 2, the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo in Washington, DC, closed due to the shutdown. Some national parks have also closed or have limited services. Many of the thousands of federal workers affected by the shutdown have expressed anxiety over not receiving their paycheques. In Detroit, federal worker Gregory Simpkins told the Associated Press, Next week, its going to be a panic mode. How are we going to pay rent? How are we going to pay out bills? How in the hell are we going to eat? Unions representing workers have led protests throughout the country, demanding an end to the shutdown. While the effect of the shutdown is not felt by most Americans, millions could be hit if it does not end by February. Citizens and resident of the US who are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may have their assistance disrupted in March. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials have said SNAP beneficiaries will continue to receive assistance through February, but they could not make any guarantees if the shutdown continued into the following month. On December 28, the USDA noted that other programmes may continue to operate on money that is currently available but will receive no new federal funding during the shutdown. Most other domestic nutrition assistance programmes, such as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, WIC, and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, can continue to operate at the State and local level with any funding and commodity resources that remain available. Additional Federal funds will not be provided during the period of the lapse, however, deliveries of already-purchased commodities will continue, USDA said. Why did the shutdown begin? The shutdown began after Trump and Democrats failed to come to an agreement on whether to allocate funds to a wall on the US southern border. The president requested $5.7bn be added to new federal spending legislation that needed to be passed before the previous spending expired on December 21. The Democrats vehemently opposed the demand but after Trump refused to give it up, the shutdown went into effect the following day. What does Trump say? What do other Republicans say? Trump maintains that the wall is needed to secure the US southern border with Mexico and stem irregular immigration. Trump often evokes rhetoric aimed at sowing fear over thousands of Central Americans who, at the end of last year, fled their home countries in hopes of applying for asylum in the US. Many of those who have left have told Al Jazeera they are fleeing violence, political persecution and extreme poverty. Trumps demand for a border wall funding comes in addition to several other measures aimed at restricting asylum seekers and immigration under the administrations zero tolerance policy. During the shutdown, Trump repeatedly blamed the Democrats and has threatened to declare a national emergency to get the wall built, a move that would likely bring about legal challenges. In a televised address on January 8, Trump did not mention a national emergency, but branded the situation on the border a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. He has since said he could still declare an emergency, but he wasnt going to so fast. During a meeting with top Democrats before the shutdown began, Trump said he would be proud to shut the government for border security. He has since warned that he is prepared for the shutdown to last years, and he told top Democrats he would look foolish if he backed down from his demand. On January 9, Trump walked out a meeting with Democrats after they said they still would not give him money for a border wall if he ended the shutdown. I asked what is going to happy in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works! Trump wrote on Twitter. Nancy Pelosi speaks with Vice President Mike Pence and Trump as they meet her and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters] Although he has stood firm on his demand for the $5.7bn in wall funding, on January 6, Trump said he will accept a metal concrete structure instead of a concrete wall. The president is also contemplating whether to declare a national emergency in order to circumvent Congress and obtain the needed funds from elsewhere. The move, which Trump has said hes not ready to do so fast would likely be challenged in the courts. Trump met congressional Republicans on January 9 to shore up support for border security. He told reporters that the party is totally unified, despite signs from within the Republican caucus that some worry about the effect of shutdown is having on Americans. On January 14, Trump rejected a proposal by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who encouraged Trump to reopen the government for three weeks to allow for talks to continue on the border wall. If talks failed after those three weeks, Graham said, Trump could go ahead and declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and get money for the wall. Less than a week later, Trump proposed exchanging temporary protections for young undocumented immigrats brought to the US as children and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders for his border wall funding. Democrats rejected the proposal, calling it inadequate. Trump has also postponed his annual State of the Union address after the Democrats withdrew the Houses invitation to speak in the chamber due to the shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has so far this year refused to bring legislation that Trump wont sign to the floor for a vote, is facing increased pressure from within his party, especially from vulnerable Republicans up for re-election in 2020, to find a solution. We should pass a continuing resolution to get the government back open. The Senate has done it last Congress, we should do it again today, US Senator Cory Gardner told The Hill during the second week of the shutdown, referring to legislation to open the government while talks continue. His colleague, Susan Collins, also called for the Senate to pass the funding bills, while several other Republicans urged an end to the shutdown, the Hill and New York Times reported. What do Democrats say? What is their plan? Democrats view a border wall as expensive and ineffective. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called the wall immoral. Instead, they said they are willing to fund security measures that do not include the wall. Hours after Democrats took control of the House on January 3, they passed a two-bill spending package aimed at immediately re-opening the government. This includes $1.3bn for border fencing and $300m for other border security items such as technology and cameras. They have since passed a number of individual spending bills aimed at opening specific federal departments. Those bills have not been brought to a vote in the Senate. Democrats blame Trump for the impasse, often referring to it as Trump Shutdown. Pelosi speaks to reporters after meeting with Trump about border security in the Situation Room of the White House [Evan Vucci/AP Photo] In an MSNBC interview shortly after taking control of the House of Representatives, Pelosi sought to separate the issue of the wall and government funding. The wall and the government shutdown really have nothing to do with each other, the top Democrat said, adding that it was totally irresponsible to think otherwise. There is no reason to have workers pay a price with their paycheque, she said during the networks town hall broadcast. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he pressed the president on why he wouldnt end the shutdown. I said, Mr President, give me one good reason why you should continue your shutdown, Schumer told reporters in early January. He could not give an answer. In a rebuttal to Trumps January 8 address, Pelosi and Schumer accused Trump of dealing in fear, not facts. Pelosi said Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis and must reopen the government. Have there been other shutdowns? There have been 21 federal government shutdowns since the modern budgeting process began. The reasons have varied from disagreements over abortion to Obamacare, among others. A list of the shutdowns*: Under President Trump (Republican): December 2018 January 2019: Ongoing February 2018: One day January 2018: Three days Under President Barack Obama (Democrat): October 2013: 16 days Under President Bill Clinton (Democrat): December 1995 January 1996: 21 days November 1995: Five days Under President George HW Bush (Republican): October 1990: Three days Under President Ronald Reagan (Republican): December 1987: One day October 1986: One day October 1984: One day September October 1984: Two days November 1983: Three days December 1982: Three days September October 1982: One day November 1981: Two days Under President Jimmy Carter (Democrat): September October 1979: 11 days September October 1978: 18 days November December 1977: Eight days October November 1977: Eight days September October 1977: 12 days Under President Gerald Ford (Republican): September October 1976: 10 days *Includes full and partial days Gabons government retains control after security forces kill two suspected plotters and arrest seven others. Gabon has foiled an attempted military coup, killing two suspected plotters and capturing seven others just hours after they took over state radio in a bid to end 50 years of rule by President Ali Bongos family. Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, spokesman for the government, announced the deaths and arrests on Monday after soldiers briefly seized the radio station in the capital, Libreville, and broadcast a message saying Bongo was no longer fit for office. The 59-year-old president, who suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia in October, has been in Morocco for medical treatment since November. On December 31, in one of his first television appearances since the stroke, Bongo, slurred his speech and he appeared unable to move his right arm. It is unclear if he is able to walk. In a radio message at 4:30am (3:30 GMT), Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, who described himself as an officer in the Republican Guard, said Bongos New Years Eve address reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office. A video posted on social media shows Ondo wearing military fatigues and a green beret as he reads the statement. Two other soldiers with rifles stand behind him. Ondo said the coup attempt was by a group called the Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon, who wanted to restore democracy in the oil-rich West African nation. Outside the radio station, about 300 people gathered in support of the coup attempt, but were quickly dispersed by loyalist soldiers. Later, security forces stormed RTG state broadcasting headquarters, capturing the rebel chief, killing two of his team and freeing journalists and technicians who had been held hostage and forced to help the mutineers make their broadcast, the presidency said in a statement. The situation is under control, the statement said. Security forces dispersed the 300 people who gathered to support the coup attempt [Steve Jordan/ AFP] The government is in place. The institutions are in place, Mapangou told France 24. Curfew A curfew has been imposed over the beachside capital and the internet has been cut, according to residents. Military tanks and soldiers were patrolling the streets, said Antoine Lawson, a Gabonese journalist. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Libreville, Lawson said the coup attempt had caused widespread panic. The people are afraid. When the young soldiers asked everyone to come to the streets in support of the coup, nobody did, because they were in panic, he said. Mehari Taddele Maru, a Kenya-based security consultant, told Al Jazeera the coup attempt showed growing frustration with the Bongo family, which has ruled the oil-producing country since 1967. Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009. As long as Gabon remains under dynastic rule, there will be more crises, said Mehari. Critics have accused the Bongo family of profiting from the countrys natural resources while not investing enough in basic services for the population of more than two million. About one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Bongo was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. After he fell ill, the Constitutional Court modified the constitution and transferred part of the powers of the president to the prime minister and the vice president, a move the rebels attacked as illegitimate and illegal. Everything is in crisis Marie-Roger Biloa, editor of Africa International, said the courts move was seen as a ploy by the Bongo clan to retain power over the country. The main reason for [the attempted coup] goes back to 2016, when there was a rigged election, and nothing happened and Ali Bongo got away with it, she told Al Jazeera from Paris. Hes been a catastrophic leader, enjoying travelling all over the world, while letting the country go down the drain, everything is in crisis education, healthcare and the young people want to do something about it. The African Union and France strongly condemned the attempted coup and warned against any unconstitutional change of power in Gabon. 190107071230267 The African Union strongly condemns the coup attempt this morning in Gabon, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said on Twitter. I reaffirm the AUs rejection of all anti-constitutional change. Agnes von der mull, a spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry, condemned any extra-constitutional attempt at regime change. France, which ruled Gabon from 1885 until independence in 1960, has a permanent force of 300 soldiers in Gabon. The United States also sent about 80 soldiers to Gabon last week in response to possible violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a presidential election there. Minister says government in control and plotters detained by elite force after takeover attempt by Patriotic Movement. Soldiers in Gabon have attempted a coup, announcing the establishment of a restoration council after taking over the national radio station. But the communications minister later on Monday announced most of the renegade military officers had been arrested and the situation was under control. There were still reports of shots being fired in the capital, Libreville. Reading out a statement, the officers condemned President Ali Bongo who addressed his compatriots last week from Morocco for the first time since reportedly suffering a stroke in October. A New Years address by Bongo reinforced doubts about the presidents ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office, said Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon. Once again, one time too many, the wielders of power deceptively continue to instrumentalise the person of Ali Bongo Ondimba, a patient devoid of many of his physical and mental faculties, said Ondo Obiang. Gunfire in the capital Gunfire was heard around state television offices in the centre of the capital at about 6:30am (05:30 GMT), and military vehicles blocked access to the site. Most of Libreville remained calm later in the day but there was a strong police and military presence on the streets and helicopters circled overhead. A crowd of about 300 people had gathered at the radio station in support of the attempted coup, but soldiers fired tear gas to disperse them. Bongo, 59, is said to have suffered a stroke on October 24 while visiting Saudi Arabia and has since been treated in Morocco. His family has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for nearly half a century. The president posted a video message recorded in Rabat and distributed via social and traditional media last Monday in which he admitted he had been through a difficult period. But he added: Today, as you can see, I am preparing to meet you again soon. Presidential spokesperson Ike Ngouoni later told AFP: This speech is proof that President Ali Bongo is fully recovered. His health problems are now behind him. In a video circulating on social media, Ondo Obiang is seen in a radio studio wearing military fatigues and a green beret as he reads the statement. Two other soldiers with assault rifles stand behind him. Ondo Obiang said the coup was being carried out against those who, in a cowardly way, assassinated our young compatriots on the night of August 31, 2016 a reference to deadly violence that erupted after Bongo was declared the winner of a disputed election. A source close to the government told the Reuters news agency the plotters appeared to be a small group of soldiers. The situation remained unclear Monday afternoon. Government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou said four of the five officers who attempted a coup had been arrested. Calm has returned, the situation is under control, he said. 190107071230267 Decapitation strike Gabon, a small country with a population of about two million people, is estimated to be the fourth-richest nation in Africa. Aly-Khan Satchu, an economist and Africa analyst, said Gabon is an extremely unequal society and it was likely the population and other military factions would support the move, noting the government hasnt taken care of its citizens. The captain has been out of the country for a few months, this is a decapitation strike which I think will be difficult for the family to repel, Satchu told Al Jazeera. It will be very difficult for the president to regain control while hes sitting in Morocco. He said it remains to be seen what happens next, but noted about 900 French troops are in the country, a legacy of the colonial period. Will the French salvage the regime? I suspect not, he said, adding, I dont think these guys are working on their own. Its not visible yet. Satchu said the coup attempt reflects a broader trend of discontent in Africa over long-serving leaders who have failed to heed the needs of their people. What were watching across this continent whether its Gabon, Sudan, or DR Congo is a kind of tipping point moment, he said. American presence France on Monday condemned an attempted coup in its former colony Gabon and called on its citizens in the capital Libreville to avoid moving around the city. We condemn any attempt to change government outside constitutional rules, French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement. Gabons stability can only be ensured in strict compliance with the provisions of its constitution. The US military has deployed soldiers and equipment to Gabon amid fears of violent protests in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo after its contested presidential election. President Donald Trump told US Congress on Friday the first of about 80 troops arrived in Gabon last Wednesday to protect American citizens and diplomatic facilities if violence breaks out in the DRC capital, Kinshasa. Bongo won re-election in 2016 by fewer than 6,000 votes, sparking deadly clashes between protesters and police during which the parliament was torched. The European Union said it found anomalies during the election in Bongos stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent on a 99.9 percent turnout. His father, Omar Bongo, ruled Gabon for 42 years before his death in 2009 when Ali Bongo first took power. Brown, whose case drew national US attention, said she was a victim of child trafficking when she killed a man in 2004. Cyntoia Brown, who said she was a victim of child sex trafficking, was convicted of murder more than a decade ago and sentenced to life in prison. On Monday, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted the now 30-year-old clemency. Haslam, whose term ends in two weeks, said he would show mercy to Brown, whose case has attracted national attention, by releasing her on August 7. She will remain on parole for 10 years. Brown said in a statement that she will do everything to justify Haslams faith in her and thanked her family for their support. I love you all and will be forever grateful, she said. With Gods help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been. https://twitter.com/iamstevenhale/status/1082327423486779393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Brown was convicted in 2006 of murdering 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent Johnny Allen two years earlier. Police said she shot Allen in the back of the head at close range with a loaded gun she brought to rob him after he picked her up at a drive-in in Nashville. However, according to her lawyers, Brown was a victim of sex trafficking who not only feared for her life but also lacked the mental state to be culpable in the slaying because she was impaired by her mothers alcohol use while she was in the womb. The US Supreme Court has ruled against life-without-parole sentences for juveniles. However, the state of Tennessee argued successfully in lower courts that it was not in violation of federal law because Brown did have a possibility for parole. She was sentenced to serve at least 51 years of her life sentence. During her time in prison, Brown completed her GED and took college classes. She is currently one course away from finishing a Bachelors degree at Lipscomb University. Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16. Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms Brown has taken to rebuild her life, Haslam said in his statement. Justice is finally served Nashville Mayor David Briley praised Haslams decision, calling it a great day for social justice and our city. Others, including several celebrities who lobbied on Browns behalf, tweeted their appreciation to Haslam. Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ran a close governor campaign in neighbouring Georgia, tweeted, Justice has finally been served This victory belongs to Cyntoia Brown & to the Tennessee human trafficking activists, especially Black women, who refused to concede to injustice & instead organized to create change. Justice has finally been served: #CyntoiaBrown has been granted clemency. This victory belongs to Cyntoia Brown & to the Tennessee human trafficking activists, especially Black women, who refused to concede injustice & instead organized to create change. https://t.co/ANC0aOXj5N Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) January 7, 2019 The ACLU said on Twitter that it is thrilled that Brown is finally receiving justice, but Cyntoia never should have been sentenced so harshly to begin with, and we cant lose sight of the fact that she is still receiving an excessive 10 years probation. The rights group added, The fight against harsh sentencing lawsgoes on. We're thrilled that Cyntoia Brown is finally seeing justice. Cyntoia never should have been sentenced so harshly to begin with, and we can't lose sight of the fact that she is still receiving an excessive 10 years probation. The fight against harsh sentencing laws goes on. https://t.co/yMUA5mVUiD ACLU (@ACLU) January 7, 2019 Kim Kardashian West tweeted, Thank you Governor Haslam. Activist Angela Davis says the reason behind BCRIs decision was down to her long-term support for Palestine. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in the US state of Alabama has revoked its award honouring global human rights activist Angela Davis. Davis, a former member of the Communist Party USA, brief associate of the Black Panther Party, and a renowned author and academic was selected last September to receive the Fred Shuttlesworth Award, named after the Baptist minister (1922-2011) who was one of the top leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States. Davis also voiced her support for several movements that call for social and political justice such as Black Lives Matter and the Palestinian-led BDS. She also campaigned for the release of Palestinian Rasmea Odeh, who was imprisoned, tried and eventually deported from the US. The award is given in recognition of individuals who have dedicated their services to civil and human rights causes around the world. Davis was due to receive the accolade in February at a gala event. However, a statement by BCRI explained why it rescinded the award, saying in December, supporters and other concerned individuals and organisations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision. Upon closer examination of Ms Davis statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based, the institute said. The statement went on to say while the board recognises Davis stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil rights history, their decision was consistent with the ideals of the awards namesake, Revered Shuttlesworth. Attack against spirit of justice In response, Birminghams Mayor Randall Woodfin released a statement where he said his overriding feeling is one of dismay and adding the concerned individuals mentioned by BCRI were from the local Jewish community and its allies. I am dismayed because, as has been the case throughout Birminghams history, people of good will behaved reflexively, rather than engaging in meaningful discourse over their differences and seeking common ground, Woodfin said. In a statement on Monday, Davis said she was stunned by BCRIs decision and called it an attack against the spirit of the indivisibility of justice. Despite the BCRIs regrettable decision, she said, I look forward to being in Birmingham in February for an alternative event organized by those who believe that the movement for civil rights in this moment must include a robust discussion of all of the injustices that surround us. Davis said the BCRI board refused my requests to reveal the substantive reasons for this action, but later learned that my long-term support of justice for Palestine was at issue. This seemed particularly unfortunate, she said, given that my own freedom was secured and indeed my life was saved by a vast international movement. The cancellation comes a month after Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for speaking up about Palestine at the UN. The mayor called the BCRIs decision decisive as it did not create an opportunity for necessary consensus dialogue. It is my hope that such dialogue can take place, and we, together, choose to take advantage of the opportunity to come together to build a better understanding of ourselves and of each other, Woodfin said. Established 26 years ago, BCRI is a cultural and educational research centre that promotes a comprehensive understanding of the significance of civil rights developments in Birmingham. The BCRI Board has apologised to their supporters, community and Davis. It also cancelled the gala event and said ticket purchasers will receive a full refund. Last years recipients included the actor, musician and human rights activist Harry Belafonte, Birminghams first African American Mayor Richard Arrington, and civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, who was honoured posthumously after being the only white woman to die in the struggle for black rights after she was murdered by the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan group in 1965. Organisers distance themselves from speakers who claimed Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were wrong. The organisers of a major Indian science conference have distanced themselves from speakers who made some unusual claims during the five-day event held in the northern city of Jalandhar. The speakers, one of whom was the vice chancellor of a South Indian university, claimed Hindus invented stem cell research thousands of years ago and said Einsteins general theory of relativity was wrong. We had 100 Kauravas from one mother because of stem cell and test tube technology, Andhra University Vice Chancellor G Nageshwar Rao said, referring to a story from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Rao also told the group of schoolchildren and scientists he was addressing that a demon king from another centuries-old Hindu epic had two dozen aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern-day Sri Lanka. Hindu Lord Vishnu used guided missiles known as Vishnu Chakra and chased moving targets, Rao, a professor of inorganic chemistry, told the crowd. 170809161647639 Rao was not the only scientist who made outlandish remarks. A scientist from a university in southern Tamil Nadu state questioned both the general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein and the theory of gravity by Isaac Newton. Following the comments, the organisers of the event, the Indian Scientific Congress Association, expressed serious concern and distanced themselves from the speakers. We dont subscribe to their views and distance ourselves from their comments. This is unfortunate, General Secretary of the Indian Scientific Congress Association Premendu P Mathur, told AFP news agency. There is a serious concern about such kind of utterances by responsible people. 20141147028501733 Hindus capable of genetic engineering It is not the first time controversial remarks have been made during the annual congress. In 2015, a paper was presented which said Hindus discovered the Pythagorean theorem but that Greek scientist Pythagoras had taken the credit for it. A speaker at that years event also said aircraft were invented by Hindus in ancient times and that they had discovered the technology behind interplanetary travel. A year earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Hindus in ancient times already possessed the capabilities of genetic engineering and cosmetic surgery. We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata, Modi said. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mothers womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time, he had said. That is why Karna could be born outside his mothers womb. Modi also said cosmetic surgery must have been possible, as shown by the Hindu deity Ganesha. We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephants head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery. In 2016, former chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand and member of parliament Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank called astrology the biggest science and that it should be promoted. 190103182924047 Nishank also said Hindus in ancient times had knowledge of nuclear science. We speak about nuclear science today. But Sage Kanad conducted nuclear test one lakh (100,000) years ago, Nishank said during an interview with local media. Those comments were all heavily criticised by scientists. In 2017, thousands of scientists and their supporters marched across India to promote their work and demand that the government invest more in the field. Not only did those marching call for more funding, but they also called for the end to propagation of unscientific, obscurantist ideas and religious intolerance, as well as better adherence to Article 51A of the Constitution, which states that it is the duty of every citizen to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. Mohamed Jubair Monir accused of murder and rape while family claims he was just 13 during the 1971 war of independence. A United States citizen of Bangladeshi descent has been arrested in Bangladesh for allegedly committing war crimes, including murder and rape, during the countrys 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Mohamed Jubair Monir, 62, was arrested despite official documents purportedly showing he was only 13 when Bangladesh was liberated. His family also claims he did not live in the country for most of the duration of the nine-month war. Monir was picked up by the police on December 19 from his house in a village in Sunamganj district in north Bangladesh and is being held in Keraniganj jail on the outskirts of capital Dhaka. Monirs (on the right) family shared this picture, claiming it was taken in 1973 [David Bergman/Al Jazeera] His family said he was arrested on political grounds after meeting a leader from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who contested the national elections held last month. Monir has been swept up in the hysteria of the recent Bangladeshi election, which has been widely condemned for their irregularities and human rights violations, said Jason Emert, the familys lawyer. [He] is innocent of the crimes and must be released immediately. His politically motivated arrest is an affront to the already tarnished democratic process in Bangladesh. War crimes tribunal Monir will be tried by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), a national court established by Bangladesh in 2010 to prosecute those accused of war crimes in 1971. Bangladesh was formed in 1971 following a war with Pakistan since the then East Pakistan, initially called East Bengal, believed power was concentrated in the West. An estimated 300,000 to three million people were killed and some 200,000 women raped during the war, cases related to which are now being heard by the ICT. But the tribunal has been widely criticised by rights groups for lack of due process and bias, with one calling for the trials to be suspended because of well-founded fears about fundamental unfairness in the pre-trial and trial stages. The tribunal has convicted 75 men, sentencing 53 of them to death. Six of those death sentences have so far been carried out. Prosecutor Zead-ul-Malum told Al Jazeera that Monir was accused of killings, confinement, rape, arson, and looting in the areas of Shala and Derai in Sunamganj during the 1971 war. He was a member of the Razakar Bahini, he said, referring to the force established by the Pakistani military to fight those who supported the creation of an independent Bangladesh. Malum denied the prosecutors were targeting people linked to the opposition political parties. When we prosecute, we are guided by law and due process, he stated. I will not prosecute anyone because of their politics. But those who committed crimes during 1971 will be prosecuted, whatever their political beliefs. Malum said the investigation was almost over. We are verifying some of the materials we have collected. Monirs daughter Srabon Monir told Al Jazeera her father was a small businessman who had been living in the US since 1982 and became a US citizen in 1991. 190103113836858 He rents two stores in Brooklyn in New York, where he lives and owns two farms, but he also has some business interests in Bangladesh, including an office block, a rice mill and a fishery, she said. She said her father left New York on November 18, 2018 to travel to Bangladesh and was due to return on January 7. I received a call on December 18 from my uncle to say he had been arrested. I was shocked, she said. Official documents shared by Monirs family show he was 13 in 1971 [David Bergman/Al Jazeera] He was 13 years old in 1971 Srabon shared with Al Jazeera copies of her fathers birth certificate, his US naturalisation certificate and passport to show he was born on January 3, 1958 and had just turned 13 when the war started. Monir has been a US citizen since 1991 [David Bergman/Al Jazeera] How could he have committed war crimes when he was 13 years of age? she asked. Srabon also said for most of the nine-month war, her father was not living in East Pakistan [later Bangladesh], where the conflict took place. Since 1969, when he was 11, he had been living with his uncle in Lahore in [then West] Pakistan, going to school there, and did not return to Bangladesh until October 1971, two months before the war ended, she said, though she did not have any evidence to back her claim. On Monirs age and location during the 1971 war, ICT prosecutor Malum said, He may claim this. If they have any facts, his lawyer can come forward to the tribunal. Srabon acknowledged her grandfather, Abdul Khalique Monir, a well-known local politician in 1971, collaborated with the Pakistani military during the war and this could explain why the tribunal investigators arrested her father. I have been brought up with this story, that is also well-known in the area, that after the Pakistan military surrendered on December 16, 1971, pro-independence forces killed my grandfather along with 96 other men, all of whom had given themselves up, she told Al Jazeera. Malum said allegations of this kind should be given to the tribunal. Meanwhile, the US consular authorities have not been allowed to meet Monir, who is expected to be brought before the ICT for the first time on January 20. 190101225409342 Embassy officials should meet Monir as soon as possible and not allow the tribunal to hold him as a hostage, his US lawyer Jason Emert said. They should demand the unconditional release of Monir, an American citizen, and see to it that he is able to return home to his family in the United States at once, he added. Monir was arrested 11 days before the Bangladesh national elections widely considered to have been rigged when opposition activists were routinely harassed by the police with many people arbitrarily arrested. UN human rights chief is seeking access to Xinjiang to verify reports of mass internment of Muslim minorities. China has said it would welcome UN officials to its far western region of Xinjiang if they follow the proper procedures, amid global concern over allegations of gross human rights violations against Muslim minorities there. Xinjiang is an open region, we welcome all parties, including UN officials, to visit, if they abide by Chinas laws and regulations, and go through the proper travel procedures, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday. But he warned that UN officials should also avoid interfering in domestic matters and adopt an objective and neutral attitude. The top UN human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, in December, said her office was seeking access to Xinjiang to verify worrying reports of re-education camps holding Muslim minorities, including the Turkic speaking Uighurs. 181130052259651 In August, a UN human rights panel said it had received credible reports that a million or more Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang were being held in what resembled a massive internment camp. Activists say ethnic minorities can be detained for transgressions as minor as wearing long beards or face veils. Global Times, a Chinese state-aligned English-language newspaper, reported on Saturday that the country has passed a new law to Sinicize Islam and make it compatible with socialism. In a rare move, a group of 15 Western ambassadors in Beijing, spearheaded by Canada, have sought a meeting with the top official in the region, Communist Party boss Chen Quanguo, for an explanation of alleged rights abuses against Uighurs. Beijing has launched an increasingly active publicity campaign to defend its actions in Xinjiang in the face of an outcry from activists, scholars, foreign governments and UN rights experts. In the past two weeks, the Chinese government has arranged for diplomats from 12 non-Western countries to visit the region, as well as organising a trip for a small group of reporters to three facilities, which it called vocational education training centres. In the centres, Uighur students learned in Mandarin about the dangers of extremist thought and sang and danced for reporters, including a rendition in English of If Youre Happy and You Know it, Clap Your Hands. Xinjiang officials told Reuters news agency on the trip that the de-radicalisation programme had been highly successful but that fewer people would be sent through the system in future. Officials from worlds top two economies meet in Chinese capital amid hopes negotiations will help resolve tariff spat. Delegates from China and the United States are set to hold face-to-face negotiations in Beijing aimed at easing a bitter trade war between the worlds two largest economies. The two-day talks, due to start on Monday, come after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in December agreed to a truce in their escalating spat which has seen the two sides raise import tariffs on each others goods. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Trump said that trade talks with China were going very well and that Xi is very much involved in the talks. I really believe they want to make a deal. The tariffs have absolutely hurt China very badly. Meanwhile, Lu Kang, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, sounded a positive note leading up to the talks, saying the envoys will have positive and constructive discussions during the meetings in the Chinese capital. Financial markets were being lifted early on Monday on expectations that the direct negotiations would lead to an easing in tensions between the two sides. Lengthy wrangling ahead The US side is led by a deputy US trade representative, Jeffrey D Gerrish. Neither side gave details of their agenda but Gerrishs delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials. The Chinese government gave no details of who would represent Beijing. /news/2018/12/meng-wanzhou-arrest-means-china-conflict-181208010817198.html The talks are going ahead despite tensions over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese technology giant Huawei, in Canada on US charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions against Iran. Last year, Washington imposed tariff increases of up to 25 percent on $250bn of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110bn of US goods, slowing customs clearance for US companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses. The dispute weighed on economic growth and sparked volatility on global markets amid mounting uncertainty. As part of the 90-day ceasefire, Washington postponed a planned increase of tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent currently to 25 percent. Beijing has compromised by suspending additional tariffs on US cars and by buying US soybeans. But analysts say the 90-day postponement of additional tariff increases is too little time to settle all the disputes that bedevil the two sides relations, arguing that they face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. China would like to see some sort of deal be had, even if its a temporary one that takes people through a few years, Einar Tangen, a political analyst specialising on China and an adviser to the Chinese government on economic and development issues, told Al Jazeera from Beijing. During that 90-day period, agreements may not be reached until the last day, according to Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for World Trade Organization Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. This weeks talks will focus on technical details before higher-level leaders make hard political decisions, Tu told The Associated Press news agency. In the longer term, the final tariffs might remain for several years, Tu said. I dont think it will proceed that fast. It must take time. Cooling economic growth The US, Europe and other trading partners complain Chinas tactics violate its market-opening obligations. The clash reflects US anxiety about Chinas rise as a potential competitor in telecommunications and other technology. Trump wants Beijing to roll back initiatives like Made in China 2025, which calls for the state-led creation of global competitors in such fields as robotics and artificial intelligence. American officials worry those might erode US industrial leadership. 180201121746516 The ruling Communist Party is reluctant to give up initiatives it sees as a path to prosperity and global influence. Chinas leaders have tried to defuse complaints by emphasising the countrys potential as an export market. They have announced a series of regulatory changes over the past year to increase foreign access to their car, finance and other industries. Some Chinese officials suggest the technology initiatives might be opened to foreign companies. But they have given no details, leaving it unclear whether that will satisfy Washington. Cooling economic growth in both countries is turning up the pressure to reach a settlement. Chinese growth fell to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent in the quarter ending in September. Car sales tumbled 16 percent in November over a year earlier. Weak real estate sales are forcing developers to cut prices. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, and unemployment is at a five-decade low. But surveys show consumer confidence is weakening because of concern that growth will slow this year. Right now, it appears that China is [suffering the most] but if you start looking at whats happening in the US, the volatility on the market, the long-term effects of this I think youll find that both are suffering, Tangen said. The idea that somehow the US came out on top because of the last jobs report is not really an indicator of whats going to be happening about 12 months down the road when a lot of the uncertainty comes to bear because people are not investing as much as they were and they are not [placing new] orders because they dont know whats going to happen and thats going to have an effect, he added. Beijing has tried in vain to recruit France, Germany, South Korea and other governments as allies against Trump. They criticise his tactics but echo US complaints about Chinese industrial policy and market barriers. The European Union filed its own challenge in the World Trade Organization in June against Chinese rules that the 28-nation trade bloc said hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their own technology. For their part, Chinese officials are unhappy with US curbs on exports of dual use technology with possible military applications. They complain Chinas companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged. Some manufacturers that serve the US have shifted production to other countries to avoid Trumps tariffs. UBS said on Friday that 37 percent of 200 manufacturers surveyed by the bank have shifted out of China over the past 12 months. The threat of US tariff hikes was the dominating factor for nearly half, while others moved because of higher costs or tighter environmental regulation. Most firms expect the trade war to escalate, the bank said. A customer at a marijuana dispensary is shown inventory. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. A few days ago, a New York Times op-ed by Alex Berenson, the author of the forthcoming book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, made a startling claim about marijuana legalization, a policy that, as he notes, seems to be on an unstoppable march [] in the United States in light of both national polling on the issue and the many recent, liberalizing changes to state pot laws: [B]ecause marijuana can cause paranoia and psychosis, and those conditions are closely linked to violence[,] it appears to lead to an increase in violent crime. Before recreational legalization began in 2014, advocates promised that it would reduce violent crime. But the first four states to legalize Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have seen sharp increases in murders and aggravated assaults since 2014, according to reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police reports and news articles show a clear link to cannabis in many cases. Lets set aside the idea that legalizing marijuana will reduce violent crime: violent crime is unpredictable and this is probably too optimistic a claim to pin to any one change in the law not geared directly at crime reduction (though its not crazy to imagine that obviating black markets might reduce crime in certain instances). Berenson isnt just expressing skepticism of that claim hes arguing, in strong language, that legalization has done the opposite. And if, in fact, there were a tight, clearly illustrated link between cannabis legalization and increases in violent crime, that would certainly be an important bit of evidence to consider as legalization continues. But Berenson doesnt come close to showing this. Rather, this paragraph is a case study in how to misleadingly use statistics to make oversimplified arguments about human behavior and public policy. At root, Berensons fishiest move is his choice of 2014 as a baseline year. Nothing interesting happened with regard to pot in 2014, said Mark Kleiman, a drug expert and public-policy professor at NYU who has himself urged caution over marijuana-legalization Pollyannaish-ness, in an email, but there was a national uptick in homicide in 20152016. Kleimans right on both fronts. First, heres a graph of the FBIs nationwide violent-crime stats from recent years, which show an uptick in violent crime after a long general period of general decline: Illustration: FBI (I couldnt find a good graph with the per-100,000-residents numbers rather than the raw ones, but those stats follow the same up, up, down-a-bit pattern from 2014 to 2017.) Plenty of states, carried along by the nationwide trend, saw increases in violent crime, whatever their pot laws. And as Kleiman noted, theres no reason to pick 2014 as a year for examining the four states in question. While Alaska and Oregon did officially legalize marijuana then, Colorado and Washington did so in 2012. And state pot-law histories tend to be more complicated than the dates of full legalization, anyway in Alaska and Oregon (see the previous links), its been decades since having small to moderate amounts of marijuana for personal use could lead to anything worse than a small fine. The idea that a state flipping over from a very liberal pot policy to a very liberal pot policy would lead to an immediate uptick in violent crime demands evidence thats absent from Berensons column. Plus, zooming in on some of these crime stats tells a more complicated story, anyway. Despite Berensons claim of sharp increases in murders and aggravated assaults since 2014 in Oregon, for example, the FBI reported that the murder rate there went up a grand total of 1.0 percent from 2015 to 2016, as compared to a nationwide uptick of 7.9 percent, and then dropped by 11.6 percent between 2016 and 2017, a significantly steeper drop than in the rest of the country. If one insists on positing a tight causal relationship between pot laws and murder rates, one could just as easily argue that Oregons homicide trajectory has been softened by pot legalization in these years, at least relative to national trends, saving a number of Oregonians lives. And of course, such a focus on state laws and crime rates ignores the larger picture: Cannabis consumption, and especially heavy cannabis consumption, has been on the rise since 1992, said Kleiman in his email. Over that period, national homicide rates have fallen more than 50%. Whats frustrating about this pointlessly misleading scaremongering is that, underneath it, Berenson has a fair point, expressed elsewhere in his column: The U.S. is, in fact, in the midst of a rather radical change to its marijuana laws. In many ways, this is an important step toward justice: The war on pot has been an unmitigated catastrophe by many metrics, and it has done disproportionate damage to communities vulnerable to overpolicing. But that doesnt mean marijuana is totally harmless, or that there arent important public-health questions that remain to be answered about the effects of legalization. In fact, theres a huge amount of uncertainty on this front. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in The New Yorker, examining a mammoth National Academy of Medicine study released in 2017: Does the use of cannabis increase the likelihood of fatal car accidents? Yes. By how much? Unclear. Does it affect motivation and cognition? Hard to say, but probably. Does it affect employment prospects? Probably. Will it impair academic achievement? Limited evidence. This goes on for pages. These are important questions. But the way to get people to take them seriously is, well, to take them seriously not to revert to the over-the-top claims of the past. Berenson laments the fact that anyone who points out that marijuana legalization could have certain net-negative effects may be mocked as a modern-day believer in Reefer Madness, the notorious 1936 movie that portrays young people descending into insanity and violence after smoking marijuana. But if you dont want to be lumped in with Reefer Madness, dont make unjustified claims about reefer! US network CBS has broadcast an interview with Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi despite a request by the Egyptian government not to air the programme. During the stations 60 Minutes investigative news show, el-Sisi told host Scott Pelly that his country was engaged in military cooperation with Israel in Sinai and denied the detention of political prisoners in Egypt. Before the airing of the interview on Sunday, CBS had said the information given by el-Sisi was not the kind of news his government wanted broadcast. The 60 Minutes team was contacted by the Egyptian ambassador shortly after and told the interview could not be aired, the network said, without specifying which part of the presidents comments Cairo objected to. 190105112005391 Under Sisi, Egypt has quietly cooperated with Israel on security in Egypts Sinai, a desert peninsula demilitarised as part of a US-sponsored 1979 peace treaty between the two countries but where Cairos forces now operate freely. Acknowledging such cooperation with Israel can be a sensitive and potentially damaging topic in Egypt. Asked whether the cooperation was the closest and deepest that he has had with Israel, Sisi responded: That is correct. The Air Force sometimes needs to cross to the Israeli side. And thats why we have a wide range of coordination with the Israelis. Egypts military last year denied media reports that it was cooperating with Israel against fighters in northern Sinai, now led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. Asked why he had not managed to wipe the estimated 1,000 terrorists out after receiving $1bn in annual US military aid, el-Sisi responded by pointing to the challenges that Washington has faced in Afghanistan against the Taliban. Why hasnt the US eliminated the terrorists in Afghanistan after 17 years and spending a trillion dollars? he asked. Rabaa killings El-Sisi was also asked about the massacre of more than 800 Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in 2013 when he was defence minister, and whether he gave that order? Allow me to ask you a question, el-Sisi told Pelly who had asked him whether he had given the order. Are you closely following the situation in Egypt? From where do you get your information? There were thousands of armed people in the sit-in for more than 40 days. We tried every peaceful means to disperse them, el-Sisi said. Pelly then asked whether the response by security forces was necessary to the peace and stability of Egypt, citing a Human Rights Watch report on Rabaa which said that using armored personnel carriers, bulldozers, ground forces and snipers, police and army personnel attacked the protest encampment with hundreds killed by bullets to their heads, necks and chests. In response, el-Sisi denied that the HRW was a sound statement. There were police personnel and they were trying to open peaceful corridors for the people to go safely to their homes. El-Sisi also dismissed reports from international rights organisations estimating that Egypt has imprisoned as many as 60,000 political activists I dont know where they got that figure. I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt, el-Sisi said, his face shiny with sweat. Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology we have to intervene regardless of their numbers. Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein was arrested in December 2016 as he returned home to visit his family. Hussein has been held in an Egyptian prison without charge for 745 days. The detentions are part of a large crackdown on dissent that includes tight control of the media, placing draconian restrictions on rights groups and reversing most of the freedoms gained by a 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Uncomfortable, sweating Khaled Elgindy, non-resident fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that the optics were not good for el-Sisi during his 60 Minutes interview. He came across as uncomfortable, sweating and also, of course, his responses just completely denying everything that has been documented by so many human rights groups both in Egypt and outside Egypt, Elgindy told Al Jazeera. There was no nuance at all to his responses, they were simply very absolute and sweeping, there are absolutely no political prisoners, which is simply not believable. Elgindy said it was striking that el-Sisi who is not known for giving many TV interviews had agreed to speak to 60 Minutes and surprising how Egyptian officials went and asked CBS not to air the programme. Commenting on the Egyptian presidents decision to appear in the show, Elgindy said that el-Sisi to a certain extent feels a little bit more emboldened with Donald Trump at the White House. He probably felt that having a friendly administration in power in Washington was a good opportunity to try and reach out to at least President Trumps base that may be part of his thinking that he can win over some segment of the American public that would support him and his narrative as well as that of President Trump, but I dont think it will go over well with the American public at large, Elgindy said. El-Sisi won a second, four-year term in office last year after running virtually unopposed. Head of agency in charge of protecting the Amazon rainforest quits after Brazilian president questions spending. The head of Brazils environmental protection agency has resigned following criticism from the countrys newly inaugurated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. A spokesperson for the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) confirmed on Monday that Suely de Araujo stepped down after Bolsonaro suggested there were irregularities in Ibamas budget, Reuters news agency reported. Araujo had led the agency since 2016. The Environment Ministry, which oversees Ibama, told Reuters in an emailed statement that it had been planning to replace Araujo and that a new head of the agency would be named within days. Bolsonaro, a former army captain who swept to power in a tumultuous October election, has routinely attacked Ibama, which is tasked with policing the Amazon rainforest to stop deforestation and illegal mining. On Sunday, the 63-year-old retweeted a Tweet published by Brazils environment minister, Ricardo Salles, highlighting an alleged 28.7 million reais ($7.73m) budget allocation by the agency for rental vehicles. Weve had a system created mainly to financially violate Brazilians without the slightest care, Bolsonaro, who has toyed with yanking Brazil out of the Paris climate accord, said. Araujo released a written statement on Sunday saying Bolsonaro and Salles, who has previously called climate change a secondary issue and alleged many environmental fines are ideological, had made baseless accusations. She said the cost was for the rental of 393 four-wheel drive trucks used by Ibamas armed agents across Brazil, and that the contracts amount also included all fuel costs and maintenance. An absurd factoid A high-ranking Ibama official told Reuters on Monday that the pressure from Bolsonaro and Salles was simply an attempt to get rid of our ability to halt policing for those committing environmental crimes. 181029150221391 Its an absurd factoid created to weaken Ibama, the person said on condition of anonymity. This contract was approved by government regulators, and it is 10 percent less than the previous contract and for more vehicles. The official added that the contract remained valid, but that the agency is concerned there will be attempts to cancel it, possibly leading to a crippling of its ability to patrol the Amazon and other regions. Analysts, meanwhile, said Bolsonaros actions demonstrated his presidency could pose a genuine threat to the Amazon. The protection of the Amazon always relies on strong laws and rules, Thiago de Aragao, a director at the Brasilia-based political consultancy Arko Advice, told Al Jazeera. So definitely he [Bolsonaro] could be a threat in the sense that he could create a trend that the mindset of protecting the Amazon might not be the number one priority among certain individuals within the government, de Aragao added. Fears for the Amazon The rhetoric of Bolsonaros administration has left many environmentalists deeply concerned for the preservation of the Amazon under his government. Within 24 hours of taking office on January 1, the Brazilian leader signed an executive order making Brazils Ministry of Agriculture responsible for the regulation and creation of new indigenous reserves, in a move widely seen as a boost for the countrys powerful agribusiness lobby. 190103145910023 About 13 percent of Brazils national territory is demarcated as indigenous land defined as an area inhabited and exclusively possessed by indigenous people. Approximately 98 percent of such areas are located in the Amazon, an ecosystem considered by environmental scientists as a crucial buffer against the impacts of climate change. The temporary decree, which will expire unless it is ratified within 120 days by Congress, also moved the Brazilian Forestry Service, which promotes the sustainable use of forests and is currently linked to the Ministry of the Environment, under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture, according to Reuters. Additionally, the order stated that the Ministry of Agriculture will be in charge of the management of public forests. A close ally of the agribusiness lobby, Bolsonaro pledged during his election campaign to end all activism in Brazil. On Monday, he announced that funding of all nongovernmental organisations working in the country will be rigidly controlled, reflecting increased oversight by his new administration over such groups. Additional reporting by David Child: @DavidChild90 US national security adviser to seek assurances for Kurdish forces in Syria as part of US troop withdrawal plan. Ankara, Turkey US National Security Adviser John Bolton has arrived in Turkey to try to hammer out a deal for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as the United States prepares a military withdrawal from the country. Bolton touched down in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday, and will be joined by US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, having stated the US pullout is conditional on defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, as well as Turkish assurances on the security of the USs Kurdish militia allies. President Donald Trumps December 19 announcement of the withdrawal of 2,000 troops from Syria has heightened expectations that Turkey could launch a military operation targeting the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which has spearheaded the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against ISIL. We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday. He added Turkey must meet the presidents requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered. The US alliance with the YPG, which it has helped arm and train, has been one of the main stumbling blocks in relations with Ankara because of the YPGs ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Since 1984 the PKK has waged a war against Turkey that has led to more than 40,000 deaths. Ankara regards both the Kurdish groups as terrorist organisations. Turkey-YPG tensions Responding to Boltons remarks, Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin maintained Turkeys opposition to the YPG, which he described as oppressing Syrian Kurds. That a terror organisation cannot be allied with the US is self-evident, he said in a statement carried by Turkeys Anadolu news agency. Ziya Meral, director of the London and Beirut-based Centre on Religion and Global Affairs, said it would be naive for the US to expect Turkey not to interfere in Syria while the YPG remained in control across the border. At best, the Trump administration can achieve an orderly pullout process and prevent a short-term military intervention against YPG, Meral said. Turkey would not want to be a single actor advancing deep into Syrian territory to defeat Islamic State, but would want US and coalition support. Turkey has launched two military operations in northern Syria since 2015 that have targeted the YPG. Even before the US withdrawal announcement, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to attack YPG-controlled territory east of the Euphrates River. 190106060645545 Last month the US set up observation posts along the Turkish border after Turkey shelled YPG positions. Washington claimed the deployment was to safeguard Turkeys security while Erdogan said it was to protect the YPG. Over the course of the war, the group has gained control of the northeastern quarter of Syria that borders Turkey and Iraq. In recent weeks, Turkish troops and tanks have been deployed to the border and have reinforced Turkey-backed militias around Manbij, a town to the west of the Euphrates that the YPG captured from ISIL in 2016. The YPG has turned to the Syrian regime as a counter to the threat from Turkey in the event of a US retreat. The YPG withdrew from Manbij last Wednesday as part of a deal with President Bashar al-Assads government, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. American assurances Bolton said Jim Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria and the anti-ISIL coalition, will travel to Syria this week to reassure Kurdish fighters of continued US support. He called on the YPG to refrain from seeking Russian or Syrian government protection. I think they know who their friends are, Bolton said, referring to the Kurds. The US visit comes amid anger in Turkey over comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which he said the US wanted to prevent Turkey slaughtering Kurds in Syria. 190105094328241 His remarks to online outlet Newsmax led to a sharp rebuke from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement on Friday accusing Pompeo of showing a worrying lack of information in equating the YPG to all Syrian Kurds. Bolton said his meetings with Turkish officials, including Erdogan, would seek to clarify uncertainty around Turkeys objectives and capabilities in Syria. Turkey has pledged to continue the fight against ISIL in Syria after the US withdraws, although Ankara has reportedly requested significant US military support to carry out the mission. The US finds itself in an unsustainable position, which was set to happen the moment it chose to arm the PKKs Syria offshoot, said Meral. For Ankara, talks with Russia, thus indirectly with the Assad regime, are as important as talks with the US. Ultimately Ankara too needs an exit strategy as it wants Syria to remain intact. Several former senior executives standing trial over alleged misconduct concerning 2008 cash injections. The first jury trial of a former CEO of a major British bank for actions taken during the 2008 financial crisis began in London on Monday. Former Barclays CEO John Varley and three other former executives face criminal charges in connection with a 2008 rescue package that allowed the bank to avoid a state bailout. Barclays secured roughly 12 billion pounds ($15.4bn) in emergency funding primarily from Gulf investors during the global financial crisis of 2008. The cash injections included 6.1 billion pounds ($7.8bn) from Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of Qatars sovereign wealth fund, and Challenger, an investment vehicle of former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani. The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which prosecutes white collar crimes, alleges that the bankers used side deals to induce the Qataris to invest in Barclays. In 2008, Barclays UK rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds were forced to go cap in hand to the British government to stay afloat. Varley, along with former senior Barclays executives Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. Varley and Jenkins also face a separate charge of unlawful financial assistance. All four have pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for Boath and Kalaris declined to comment on the case, Reuters news agency reported on Monday, while legal representatives for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment. Qatar, a major investor in Britain, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The trial is expected to last for up to four months and begin with lengthy legal procedural arguments before prosecutors open their case. Last year, a UK court dismissed a separate case brought by the SFO against Barclays bank in connection with the Qatari fundraising rounds. The SFO later lost an appeal to reinstate the charges. Anger over Greeces crowdfunding plea to buy new warships Some say the plan for the new navy fleet would be a waste of money for Greece, suffering from economic problems. Netflixs decision to comply with the request from Saudi Arabia to block the second episode of the original series Patriot Act, a news commentary show by comic Hasan Minhaj, is concerning both because of the precedent it sets and the signal it sends to autocrats around the world. By enabling censorship in Saudi Arabia just months after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the company is restricting an important avenue of information on an issue of great importance in one of the most censored countries in the world. It is also signalling to other repressive states that it will comply with censorship requests and vague cybercrime laws that do not comply with international norms. As the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), where I work, has documented, cybercrime laws are used to stifle independent and critical reporting and commentary throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. In a boilerplate statement, Netflix told me, We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request and to comply with local law. 190103052750782 The second episode of Patriot Act, which featured a searing 27-minute commentary eviscerating the Saudi political establishment over the Khashoggi murder, aired on October 28, but it was not until two months later that Netflix acquiesced to an official Saudi request and removed it. In its request to the company, the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission had cited Article 6 of its cybercrime law, according to reports. The article stipulates that anyone found guilty of using computer networks to aid human trafficking, pornography and gambling, or drugs and impinging on public order or morals faces jail terms of up to five years and fines of up to three million riyals ($800,000). Cybercrime legislation is often justified as a means of preventing terrorism and protecting children, but it is also used to restrict legitimate news and expression, especially when it is critical or embarrassing to those in power. According to CPJs 2018 annual census of journalists jailed for their work, at least 130 of the 251 journalists imprisoned globally worked online. Nearly all of them were imprisoned on anti-state charges, such as violations of vague cybercrime or anti-terrorism provisions. In Nigeria, the cybercrime law has been used to harass and charge journalists who criticise the political and economic elite. In Jordan, Finance Minister Omar Malhas filed a criminal complaint under the cybercrime law against journalists who reported on allegations of tax evasion. And in Vietnam, the cybersecurity legislation that went into effect on January 1 will severely restrict online expression and allow the government to compel tech companies operating there to reveal their users personal information and censor online information on demand. Apart from cybercrime laws, traditional journalism in the Gulf is highly restricted in a variety of other ways, according to CPJ research. Thus, citizens there rely on alternative platforms for their news. I myself experienced the severity of censorship in the region when I lost my job at the Saudi satellite channel Al Arabiya after reporting on safety problems at the Emirates national airline. I was forced to take it off the website, but I posted the story on my blog after I had left the country. CPJ research has found that platforms like YouTube and Facebook are important outlets for addressing controversial issues and documenting events not covered by the Saudi media. The consulting firm McKinsey found in a report, obtained by The New York Times, that Twitter coverage of a set of economic reform measures announced by the crown prince outpaced coverage by the traditional news media or blogs two-to-one and that the sentiment expressed on social media was largely negative. There is little journalistic independence for the media in Saudi Arabia, and those who attempt to report on issues like human rights or corruption are jailed, reportedly even tortured. Less than a year ago, columnist Saleh al-Shehi was sentenced to five years in prison for columns and TV appearances suggesting that the royal court was the source of corruption. Saudi bloggers Eman al-Nafjan and Nouf Abdulaziz, who wrote about ending the ban on women driving and expanding womens rights, were arrested just a month before King Salman lifted the ban. Despite the appalling levels of repression and censorship in Saudi Arabia, Netflix has sought to dodge the broader implications of its decision. Using the term artistic freedom in its statement seemed like an attempt to distance itself from its problematic compliance with laws that restrict news and commentary. But the company cannot claim that its service does not host journalistic content because the fact is that it carries numerous documentaries and it has become a news platform by deciding to fund and host shows, like Patriot Act, which are journalistic in nature. Its decision to block the second episode of Patriot Act means it is complicit in censorship of journalism and commentary on issues of public importance in a country where the levels of repression were recently made so brutally clear with Khashoggis murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Netflix does not appear to track government takedown requests, at least not publicly, so it is unclear how common such censorship requests are. Despite being one of the worlds most popular streaming platforms, the company does not release a transparency report. Its spokesperson did not respond to a CPJ question on whether the company has or conducts any kind of human rights assessment. Since 2010, more than 70 other tech platforms have published transparency reports, and it is clearly time for Netflix to do so as well. Netflix must come to terms with the fact that it is both a platform for and producer of journalistic content and adopt safeguards to protect public interest content from being censored in repressive countries. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Sea Watch 3, three nautical miles south of Malta The waves finally calmed down, giving those suffering seasickness some relief and time to walk out of the small overcrowded shelter, where 32 migrants or refugees are spending their days onboard the Sea Watch 3, the Dutch-flagged rescue ship that saved them from international waters near the Libyan Sea on December 22, 2018. The five-by-six metre shelter on board the ship has only six bunk beds. The floor is covered with blankets so the migrants dont sleep on the cold metal floor. Food is mostly rice and beans. Some movies are shown on a small television screen installed in the makeshift shelter, the only distraction for these people sailing the Mediterranean Sea still without a destination. Europe is just three nautical miles away. Coming from the DRC, Mali, Egypt, Libya and other African nations, the rescued passengers all hope for a safer life in Europe after spending at least six months in Libya being forced to work for their freedom, often being conned by fake smugglers or militiamen. Its getting more and more unstable every day, the level of stress is increasing, said Frank Doener, the rescue vessels doctor, who is concerned about the physical and psychological condition of the guests. He urges the European Union to stop this situation as soon as possible. Kim Heaton-Heather, head of mission for Sea Watch on board the Sea Watch 3, said that many European countries have not offered a solution to the humanitarian situation inside the boat. The guests are still on board now because Malta has refused to allow us to come to port, and to be used as a port of safety. We have requested that twice, as we have been at a stand off the coast of Malta for a number of days. Also, Holland has not given us a port of safety and they are saying it is not really their responsibility. Italy also said its not their responsibility either because they were not the coordinating body of the rescue. As the migrants on board wait for an answer, the vessel continues to sail near the Maltese coast to shelter from bad weather. All the passengers can do is wait. The 59-year-old son of former President Omar Bongo has made few public appearances since suffering a stroke in October. President Ali Bongo has been an ever present figure in Gabonese lives since he took power in 2009 following the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled the oil-rich nation for 42 years. But since October, Bongo has been away from the capital, Libreville, after suffering a stroke while attending a summit in Saudi Arabia. Born in the Congolese city of Brazzaville in 1959 to a mother aged 15 at the time, the small but stocky Bongo spent his early years fighting speculation that he was not Gabonese. He was born before his parents were officially married. After a short stint serenading audiences, Bongo who was known by his initials ABO, Ali B or less flatteringly, Monsieur Fils (Mr Son) gave up a career in music to emerge a new man, changing his name from Alain to Ali, after converting to Islam like his father. Massive oil wealth Omar Bongo, the father who ruled for more than four decades virtually unobstructed, amassed a huge fortune, derived largely from Gabons sizeable oil wealth. A central pillar in Centrafrique, a controversial strategy through which former colonial power France bound itself to its former dominions through cronyism, Bongo senior liked to claim that Ali and his elder sister Pascaline worked for him on the basis of their talent, and not nepotism. As a young man, Bongo worked as his fathers faithful lieutenant, travelling the world and building up extensive contacts in the United States and the Arab world at the time of the second oil boom. In 1989, he was appointed foreign minister at just 30, but had to step down two years later when a new constitution stipulated that cabinet members had to be at least 35. He was back in government by 1999 as the head of the defence ministry. There, he remained until shortly before the start of the election campaign caused by the death of his father in 2009. His lavish spending, especially on luxury cars, also raised eyebrows in a country where oil wealth contrasts with widespread poverty. Natural successor The handover to Bongo junior was not a surprise, given the years of grooming and his own ambitions, despite some opposition in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), and the shadow of corruption left by his father. In 2016, he was narrowly re-elected for a second term by a few thousand votes, beating out opposition challenger Jean Ping after a campaign marred by bloody clashes and allegations of voter fraud. Pitching to a country that had been run for decades by his family, Bongo tried the difficult task of posing as an agent of change packing each speech with words such as renewal and innovation. He unveiled a string of projects, including diversifying the economy, opening up markets to Asian investors, trimming the state sector, building a giant marina in the heart of Libreville. 190107071230267 Bongo turfed out a string of long-standing officials and replaced them with a younger generation he wanted to chase away his fathers ghost and exercise control, a diplomatic observer said. But to his detractors, Bongo was stiff and lacked the charm and communication skills of his father. He attended some of Brazzavilles top schools and went on to study law in France, the former colonial power, but did not learn any of Gabons local languages a major disadvantage. In 1978, Bongo married Sylvia, a Franco-Gabonese with whom he has four children. Egypt is pushing Tunisia to invite embattled President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit to take place in the North African country in March though Tunis denied last month that it extended an invitation to the Syrian leader, The New Arab reports. The London-based medias Arabic edition Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui met with Egyptian President AbdelFattah al-Sisi on Saturday concluding a series of meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss Assad participation. The Tunisian ministers visit to Cairo comes at the request of the Egyptian side to settle the issue of the Assad regimes participation in the 33rd Arab summit and discuss ways to implement this after the approval of other Arab states, the Arabic edition quoted some sources as saying. This would come after Syria makes certain pledges, the sources added. The Syrian regime could be asked to contain Iran whose presence in Syria is seen as threat for several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia alongside its allies among whom the UAE and Bahrain, and accept the deployment of pan-Arab forces to replace US forces in some parts of Syria, according to the sources. Syria was expelled out of the Arab League in 2011 in the wake of the beginning of the civil war over Bashars crackdown on demonstrators seeking to topple the Baath regime, in power since 1963. The Egypts demand comes as several Arab countries have resumed their diplomatic ties with Damascus. The UAE and Bahrain last month announce normalization of ties Syria. Egypt has reportedly secretly intervened the reopening on the Emirati embassy in the Syrian capital. Also Sudans leader, Omar al-Bashir visited Damascus. He might reportedly be followed suit by Iraq and Mauritanias leaders. Tunis last month denied reports that it would hold talks on inviting Bash al-Assad to March Arab League gathering. Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers. The state sampled 16 Alabama deer for chronic wasting disease this past weekend at Hackleburg Hardware in northwest Alabama. The results are expected in the next four weeks. Hunters voluntarily brought their just-harvested deer to the remote sampling station to be checked by biologists from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resourcess Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. In recent weeks the disease was found in deer from Tennessee and Mississippi around 40 miles from the Alabama state line. That prompted the first-ever remote sampling station to be set up in Alabama. Amy Silvano, assistant chief of wildlife for WFF, biologist Jeremy Ferguson and technical biologist Matt Brock removed retropharyngeal lymph nodes from the head of the deer. The entire procedure takes about 15 minutes, and the sample is cataloged and sent off to a lab for testing. Sixteen hunters brought their deer in for testing, and many more stopped by to ask questions and get better educated on CWD. The Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries has been conducting active disease surveillance for CWD since 2002, following the confirmation of CWD in Wisconsin," said Chuck Sykes, wildlife biologist and Director of the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries division. More than 8,000 deer have been tested with no deer testing positive for CWD in Alabama yet. This is just another way to get more data and sample more deer. We will evaluate the success of the sampling stations and further expand their use as necessary. CWD is a contagious and deadly neurological disorder that affects members of the deer family. As CWD impacts the brain of the animal, its typical awareness of its surroundings is affected, explaining the higher predominance of CWD in road-killed animals, Sykes said. The testing of road-kills and those from our hunter harvested deer can greatly increase our ability to test a more thorough sample of the deer population in that area. CWD symptoms may take 18-24 months to express themselves, so a deer may have this disease but yet appear and act as a normal deer. There is no way to tell a deer has CWD other than through testing, illustrating the importance of these surveillance efforts. Hunters will have another chance to get their harvested deer checked this weekend in Lauderdale County. The sampling station will be set up in the parking lot of Waterloo Fire Station No. 1, 6390 County Road 14, Waterloo, AL 35677. Deer may be brought to Waterloo for sampling during the following dates and times: Saturday, Jan. 12 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Deer harvested in Franklin, Marion, Lamar, Lauderdale and Colbert counties are being targeted, but biologists will sample deer from surrounding counties as well. Hunters may bring in a whole deer, field-dressed deer, or just the head from the harvested animal. Collecting a sample from a harvested deer takes only a few minutes. CWD is in a family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) that affects several species including humans, cows, sheep and deer. According to Sykes, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the closest human disease to CWD in deer. It is very rare. In cows, its called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease. In sheep its called Scrapie. Shipt is expanding its presence on the Birmingham skyline after the Magic City-based grocery delivery company announced Monday that it plans to become the anchor tenant of the citys tallest building. The Wells Fargo Tower will be known as the Shipt Tower after renovations to the building are completed. Shipt will continue to house its headquarters at the John Hand Building, where the company announced in July that it would remain in Birmingham while adding 881 jobs. Its unclear when the Wells Fargo Tower renovations will be completed or how much the upgrades are expected to cost. The work will include updates to the buildings lobby and common areas, which Shipt said are necessary to transform the building into a modern work space for Birminghams rising tech ecosystem. "The city of Birmingham has been a crucial part of Shipts success. We are thrilled to expand our team and reside in two beautiful, iconic buildings in downtown Birmingham, Jeffrey Smith, senior vice president of Shipt, said in a statement. Shipt has a very bright future and the Shipt Tower will be a great second home for our rapidly growing team. Its unclear how much Shipt paid for the new office space. It is exciting to see Shipt take advantage of one of the many opportunities in our downtown office market and to see a high-rise building reimagined to embrace a growing technology companys requirements, said Philip Currie, president of JH Berry Commercial Real Estate. This transaction sets a precedent for other companies to recognize that Birminghams downtown office market can accommodate the evolving requirements of Birminghams up and coming companies. The company launched in 2014 by Birmingham native Bill Smith. Shipt is now in 250 markets across the county. Angela Davis' story began in Birmingham, and its latest chapter is just as controversial as previous episodes, played out around the world over the last 50 years. On Saturday, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced its decision to rescind giving its highest award to Davis after requests to reconsider. It was a far cry from the announcement last year to give the honor, which then called Davis one who gives voice to those who are powerless to speak. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin today said this controversy might have been avoided entirely, had it been handled differently. Outcast Voters League President Frank Matthews announced his group will hold a 10:45 a.m. press conference Monday at Kelly Ingram Park to call on the institutes board to release the minutes of meetings about the issue and report who voted for and against cancelling the award and the event. He said he wants to know who objected to the award, and who lodged the complaints. If the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute does not honor our request, we are willing to protest, Matthews said, stating that the League is already coordinating with other groups to launch protests. Author, academic and activist, Davis belonged to both the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party USA. Her face, with a 60s era Afro and sunglasses, adorns murals and posters, and she is one of the few people who can say she inspired songs by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and the Rolling Stones. She has also been blasted in recent years for referring to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and comparing Israels treatment of Palestinians to police shootings of African-Americans. The institute announced that the decision came after supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision, the institutes board said in a statement posted to its website. Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based, the statement said. The board said it recognizes Daviss stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil rights history but believes its decision is consistent with the details of the awards namesake, Rev. Shuttlesworth. According to the institute, recipients of the award must embody the principles that guided the American Civil Rights Movement and have characterized the life of Fred L. Shuttlesworth. Those include a philosophy of non-violence and reconciliation; courage both moral and physical, in the face of great odds; humility, leadership by example, and an established commitment to human-rights activities. Past recipients include actor Danny Glover, historian John Hope Franklin, Congressman John Lewis, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, journalist and author Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Attorney Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Back in October, BCRI President and CEO Andrea Taylor said the Institute was thrilled to bestow this honor. Arguably, shes one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak, Taylor said. We believe the late Reverend Shuttlesworth would also have been proud to see this award in his name bestowed upon her." Saturdays decision generated some indignant responses on social media: The fact that someone thinks that Angela Davis doesnt embody the understanding of civil and human rights is appalling! Ken Gretsky (@KSopendoors) January 6, 2019 If the Civil Rights institute won't honor Angela Davis they ought to just close the place down and start all over again. Richard Hourula (@RichardHourula) January 6, 2019 BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTION IS WHITE OWNED. The face my be black but the money is white.WE LOVE YOU ANGELA DAVIS & WE HONOR YOU!!! Asar 9-A (@TheSwoleNegus7) January 6, 2019 In a 1998 interview with The Birmingham News, Davis praised the Civil Rights Institute. Since the establishment of the Institute, Ive felt more connected to Birmingham, she said at the time. Everywhere I go, I tell people they need to come here and visit. Born in Birmingham in 1944 to a family of school teachers, Davis experienced racial prejudice growing up on Dynamite Hill, known for its racial violence. She said once one of her earlier memories was the sound of bombs. She was studying in France in 1963 when the Sixteenth St. Baptist Church was bombed. Davis joined many groups, including the Black Panther Party, while she was a graduate student at the University of California in San Diego during the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, she was placed on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted List related to a kidnapping case for which she was accused of buying firearms. Davis spent 18 months in jail, and on trial, before her acquittal in 1972. Afterwards, she spent time in the Soviet Union, East Germany and Cuba, and was later twice a vice presidential candidate on the Communist Party USA ticket, before publicly leaving the party in 1991. She has taught at San Francisco State University, Mills College, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Vassar, Syracuse and Stanford. She has authored 10 books and lectured throughout the world. In recent years, during her academic career, Davis has drawn criticism for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She has also been criticized for calling America a prison nation, referring to the prison industrial complex, and saying prisons should be abolished. Former Gov. Robert Bentley once refused to sign an Alabama Legislature resolution honoring Davis, citing her past as a Communist. Speaking in Birmingham in 2013, Davis said, our collective relationship with history in this country is seriously flawed. Vermont really, really wants you. The northeastern state is now accepting applications for a unique grant that offers up to $10,000 to remote workers who are willing to relocate to the state. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. To be eligible, a person must be a full-time employee of a company thats located outside Vermont and then move to the state while performing a majority of their employment duties remotely. Theres a two-step application process the first includes proof of residency, relocation expenses and eligibility from the applicant; the second requires a form from the employer. You can see the applications here. Current residents arent eligible. Approved applicants will receive $5,000 but must apply again for the next year, for a maximum amount of $10,000 per household. 2019 is the first year for the program, after Gov. Phil Scott signed the New Remote Worker Grant Program bill over the summer. The program is designed to shore up the states small and aging working population. The state has set aside $125,000 to fund grants this year, increasing to $250,000 next year. After 2021, the amount will decrease to $125,000 and then to no more than $100,000 per year. One north Alabama man is dead and another is held in the Franklin County jail on a murder charge following a money dispute and shooting, authorities said. The Franklin County sheriffs office was called to 194 Block Church Road in the Blue Springs community of Phil Campbell around 10:30 Sunday morning. Jason Floyd Baker, 39, had been fatally shot, said Sheriff Shannon Oliver. Bakers roommate Jerry Ronald Mills is charged with murder, jail records show. Mills, 63, was being held without bail set. Oliver said the roommates got into some type of argument over money before the shooting. The investigation is ongoing. Further details werent immediately available. Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin says hes dismayed at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institutes decision to rescind its decision to honor Birmingham native and human rights activist Angela Davis next month with its Rev. Fred R. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. Why am I dismayed? the mayor said in a statement Sunday, I am dismayed because this controversy might have been avoided entirely, had it been handled differently. I am dismayed because, as has been the case throughout Birminghams history, people of good will behaved reflexively, rather than engaging in meaningful discourse over their differences and seeking common ground. I am dismayed because this controversy is playing out in a way that harks backward, rather than forward that portrays us as the same Birmingham we always have been, rather than the one we want to be. I am dismayed because I believe that we should be able to expect better, from ourselves and from one another. On Saturday, the BCRI revealed that its board voted on January 4 to rescind its invitation to Davis, professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because she does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based, it said in a statement. The board also voted to cancel the event, scheduled for February 16, at which she was to be honored. The board said it began to re-think the award last month when supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision. Mayor Woodfin added: Throughout my life, I have been a person who tries to see and understand all reasonable points of view on any given issue. As mayor, I believe that quality is an essential part of my job, a means of encouraging interchange and forging the consensus necessary to arrive at fair and workable solutions to any issue or opportunity that confronts us as a city. The reactive decision of the BCRI did not create an opportunity for necessary consensus dialogue. It is my hope that such dialogue can take place, and we, together, choose to take advantage of the opportunity to come together to build a better understanding of ourselves and of each other." The City of Birmingham contributes contributes $1 million to BCRIs annual operating budget. Yet, Woodfin said, It is our practice not to involve city government in the programmatic decisions of organizations that receive city funding. The BCRI has a right and responsibility to pursue its mission as its executive leadership and board see fit. Our job, as a city government, is to measure the value of BCRI and every organization that receives funding from the City to the community based upon its legal and ethical pursuit of that mission. Beyond that, I believe it is incumbent, on both the BCRI and those opposed to its decision, to honor Dr. Davis by engaging each other constructively, rather than retreating to their respective corners and continuing to behave in a reactive manner. Instead, we are at a point at which members of our community are divided. Birmingham, we have overcome tremendous challenges over the years and, despite our imperfections, we have served as a beacon for civil and human rights for the entire world. I call on all who care about Birmingham to reject division, hold fast to our bold legacy and face this controversy. This is as an opportunity to engage in conversation about how we work together to resolve our differences constructively and continue to move our community forward. I would be pleased to facilitate and participate in any such conversation, now and in the future. The Alabama Department of Corrections will have more time to meet a court order to expand mental health staff in prisons if a federal judge approves an agreement between lawyers representing the state and lawyers representing inmates. The two sides reached an agreement Friday on how to calculate and report staffing levels and resolve disputes. They appeared in court today. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson had scheduled todays hearing for the ADOC to show why it should not be held in contempt of court for failure to meet benchmarks for mental health staffing set in a court order in February 2018. That order required all the mental health positions in the ADOCs contract with its mental health provider to be filled by July 2018. The ADOC has acknowledged its mental health provider, Wexford Health Sources Inc., has not been able to fill all the positions. But the ADOC says it and Wexford have made all reasonable efforts to do so. The ADOC had asked Thompson to modify his order. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had asked Thompson to order the ADOC to show why it should not be held in contempt. After Fridays agreement, Thompson went ahead with todays hearing to ask the lawyers questions about their agreement and other issues in the lawsuit over mental health care in Alabama prisons. The judge said he would need more time to study the agreement. Maria Morris, an attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center who represents the inmates, said the agreement means plaintiffs wont seek a contempt finding against the ADOC based solely on the staffing levels until at least the end of June. After that, staffing below 85 percent of the requirements would trigger a warning and mediation process that could lead to another motion for contempt. Morris said the most recent quarterly report shows 201 positions are filled out of 263. Bill Lunsford, a lawyer for the ADOC, said the agreement clarifies the reporting process and facilitates communication with the two sides in disputes over mental health staffing. Lunsford said the realities of employing psychiatrists and other upper level mental health professionals in prisons has to be considered. He said the field has a high turnover. The ADOC has said hours worked by mental health providers is a better way to measure the staffing level than positions filled. Lunsford said the new agreement gravitates more toward reporting the staffing level by the hours worked method. Morris said the agreement is a hybrid of the two approaches. Todays hearing was the latest development in a case that started in 2014, when lawyers from the SPLC and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program sued the ADOC over health care, mental health care and accommodations for inmates with disabilities. In June 2017, Thompson ruled that mental health care in Alabama prisons fell short of standards required by the U.S. Constitution and called that care horrendously inadequate. Thompson said a shortage of mental health staff and correctional officers was an overarching cause of the poor care. This afternoon, the ADOC said in a statement that if the judge had proceeded with the contempt hearing today that it was prepared to show evidence of significant success in increasing mental health staff. Even with recent success, the department understands that recruiting and retaining qualified mental health professionals to provide important services to our inmate population will be an ongoing effort, the ADOC said in the statement from spokesman Bob Horton. We are very optimistic that the department has reached an agreement with plaintiffs as to the proper method to appropriately and fairly measure mental health staffing levels within our prison system into the future. The ADOC will continue to monitor and oversee our mental health vendor to ensure compliance with our existing agreement for the provision of mental health services. Updated at 4:56 p.m. to add statement from the ADOC. This is an opinion column. WWFD? What would Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth do? Certainly not this. I didnt have the great fortune of ever meeting the fiery Birmingham preacher who was one of the most seminal figures in our citys history, but I simply cannot imagine he would have done this. Or condoned it. I cant fathom the man who challenged African Americans to register and vote, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Martin Luther King to organize and lead the critical Childrens Crusade, who stared down Bull Connor to end legal segregation in Birmingham, would have capitulated. He would not have bowed to anyone trying to dissuade him from honoring someone who fought the same fight even if they fought with a different fervor, even if they were decidedly more revolutionary. As long as they fought. And yet one of our most venerable cultural institutions, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, did just thatit crumbled, embarrassingly so, to outside pressures and rescinded its invitation to honor a widely esteemed daughter of Birmingham, activist Angela Davis, with the BCRIs Fred R. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual fund-raising gala next month. (The board, which announced its decision in the depths of darkness on Saturday evening, also said it canceled the event entirely.) It caved to voices clearly uncomfortable with aspects of Davis widely known revolutionary past, which includes membership in the Black Panther and Communist parties and, most recently, support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) against Israel. (In Chicago in 2017, Davis, who regularly speaks at events nationwide, said she was in solidarity with the indigenous people of this region, referring to Palestinians.) The loudest voices primarilythough not exclusivelycame from the citys Jewish leadership, and the decision transpired suddenly, and stunningly, in a span of just a few days. Davis, who grew up in a home on Dynamite Hill, was indeed announced as the 2019 award recipient last October; it prompted nary a peep. Months later, though, on December 23rd, Larry Brooks, editor of Southern Jewish Life, based in Birmingham, published an essay titled: Prominent BDS activist Davis to Receive Civil Rights Institutes Shuttlesworth Award. In part, it read: Something not included in the Institute's publicity for the event is that Davis has also been an outspoken voice in the boycott-Israel movement, and advocates extensively on college campuses for the isolation of the Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing and is connected to police violence against African-Americans in the United States. When I wrote it, Brooks told AL.com on Sunday, it was more to inform the community that there is a bit more to Angela Davis. I figured there might be some who would not want to attend [the gala] because of certain aspects of her activism. That essay may have been the spark that grew into a raging flame. I figure there were some people who reached out to the Institute to see how it all when down, Brooks said. The [Birmingham] Jewish Federation was among those. Richard Friedman, the BJFs executive director who, according to sources, participated in the effort to dissuade the BCRI from honoring Davis, did not return a telephone call or text message seeking comment. Theirs, though, was not the only dissenting voice in the cacophony that quickly swayed the BCRI board. BCRI board vice chair Walter Body said it received questions from the African-American community, the Jewish community, and the white community. It was not one just community. (Body would also not reveal specific names.) Among the voices was General Charles Krulak the retired Marine Commander and former president of Birmingham-Southern College. In an email sent to BCRI board members in January 1, and obtained by Al.com, he expressed sadness at Davis selection. His feelings, thoughwhich are somewhat diffused by his charge for members to simply look at her Wikipedia pagewere largely supported by her Communist party membership (she was twice a candidate for Vice President of the United States on the CPUSA ticket, he wrote), her being placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigations 10 most wanted fugitive list (remember, this was J. Edgar Hoovers FBI) and a reference to a 1972 case in which Davis was found not guilty of aggravating kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley, he wrote. He added: the fact that the guns she owned and were used in the crime was judged insufficient to establish her role in the crime. The 16-member board voted late last Friday afternoon during an emergency telephone meeting in which it, according to sources, went into executive sessionmeaning only voting members participated. That excluded two ex-officio board members: respected Birmingham icon Odessa Woolfolk and mayor Randall Woodfin. AL.com submitted an open-records request for the minutes of that meeting to determine the vote tally and how board members voted. As of this posting, we have not received those minutes. Board chair Mike Oatridge has not returned an email requesting comment on the decision. To many, across generations, Davis is a icon whose distinctive Afro and recognizable face still adorn t-shirts and posters recounting the era of black empowerment and self-worth that still inspiresand, yes, scares some. Not surprisingly, the decision prompted a quick and vitriolic backlash, particularly on social media. The Outcast Voters League, led by President Frank Matthews, will hold a 10:45 a.m. press conference Monday at Kelly Ingram Park to also call for release the minutes of the meeting. He says the group is willing to protest the Institute. BCRI CEO Andrea Taylor did not respond to requests for comment. Mayor Woodfin expressed dismay at the decision in a lengthy statement released on Sunday, saying it harks backward, rather than forward that portrays us as the same Birmingham we always have been, rather than the one we want to be. In truth, he is livid about the process. Indeed, this decision merited better than being hastily made and supported with details of why Davis was deemed suddenly to not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based. It merited an intentional, in-depth dialogue among all factions, all perspectivesone that just might have resulted in a compromise, perhaps a gala preceded by a smart, public and enlightened discussion about all aspects of Davis eclectic journey. A discussion worthy of the Birmingham we should be. Worthy of BRCIs legacy as the globally renowned steward of our citys deep, rich and vital history. Worthy of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. In its statement, the BCRI board said: we believe this decision is consistent with the ideals of the awards namesake, Rev. Shuttlesworth. It isnt. Not at all. Dont just believe me. Heres someone who knew Rev. Shuttlesworth, knew him well: Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth would be embarrassed and bewildered by such an action, Dr. Horace Huntley, a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and noted keeper of the citys past, told AL.com. In fact, it is no secret of how much Rev. Shuttlesworth abhorred the dictatorial nature of the entrenched and out of touch status quo. He exuded courage and was an antidote to cowardliness. Such an action is less indicative of what the Board knows about Angela Davis and more instructive of what the Board fails to understand about Rev. Shuttlesworth. exuded courageand antidote to cowardliness. Thats the Rev. Shuttlesworth those who knew him describe. Not a perfect man, but one who spoke his truth to the powers that conspired against him and the people he loved. Just as Daviscertainly not a perfect womanhas long spoken her truth to powers on these shores and beyond for almost all of her near 75 years. Roy S. Johnsons column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Hit me up at rjohnson@al.com. Follow me at twitter.com/roysj or on Instagram at instagram.com/roysj/ Moroccan security services have announced this weekend the seizure of over 13.7 tons of cannabis at the Tangier-Med port. The drugs were concealed in a semi-trailer truck registered in Morocco. An investigation was opened by the police for the arrest and trial of all those involved in this major drug trafficking operation. Last December, Moroccan authorities seized more than one ton of cocaine and captured seven involved people linked to an international criminal network specialized in trafficking cocaine between Latin America, Morocco, and Europe. Moroccos proximity to Europe has attracted several international drug trafficking networks, including those from South America. In 2017, Morocco seized record 2.84 tons of cocaine. This major drug-busting operation shows that international smugglers are trying to use the strategic position of the North African Kingdom as a transit point to European market. Over the past decade, the flow of cocaine from South America to West Africa, and subsequently through North Africa to Europe and the Middle East, has expanded rapidly. Morocco works closely with the United States and European partners to combat drug trafficking. The international community recognizes the countrys efforts and support its policies to fight cannabis cultivation and trafficking. Spain, Portugal and France have all decided to coordinate actions with the Moroccan government to tighten the borders and monitor closely all the wild spots used by drug lords to grow their cannabis before shipment overseas. Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers. The government shutdown that started Saturday, Dec. 22 has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers on the job without a check while others wait to see how the impasse will be resolved and if they will be paid. Thousands of Alabama workers have also been left waiting and wondering. The departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, State, Interior, Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice, as well as several independent agencies, have sharply curtailed operations during the shutdown. The closures mean more than 340,000 government employees are currently on furlough without a guarantee of back pay; an additional 500,000 are working but wont be paid until the shutdown ends. Those numbers are expected to grow as the impasse of funding for a wall at the U.S./Mexico border continues. In Alabama, there are 5,494 employees at agencies without funding and subject to the shutdown, according to data from Governing. About half of these work at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, with some 95 percent of NASA employees furloughed. Critical mission work continues at Marshall, according to the agency. Alabama has more than 50,000 federal workers including post office employees. The largest government employers are the Army (17,500) and Department of Veterans Affairs (6,300), both of which are covered by earlier funding agreements and not subject to the shutdown. According to Governing, the hardest-hit agencies are NASA (95 percent of employees furloughed); Housing and Urban Development (95 percent); Environmental Protection Agency (94 percent) Department of Interior (87 percent); and Department of the Treasury (83 percent). An inmate has been recaptured after escaping the North Alabama work release center in Decatur, state prison officials said. John Lee Matchum was taken into custody in Decatur before 9 a.m. today, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. The 41-year-old had been missing since escaping the facility on Friday around 9:30 p.m., authorities said. Matchum was serving a three-year sentence for a first-degree escape conviction in Calhoun County. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September 2017, court records show. Details have begun to emerge on the incentives that will be offered to Airbus as it builds a new jet assembly line in Mobile, including $4 million in cash from the city and an equal amount from Mobile County. That $8 million, plus an unknown value in tax abatements and fee waivers, is spelled out in a project agreement on Tuesday's Mobile City Council agenda. While the council will have the option of immediate action, normal procedure will be for it to lay the measure over for a week's consideration before voting. Meanwhile, a county spokesperson confirmed that the Mobile County Commission will consider its approval of the measure at its discussion meeting this Thursday for a presumed vote at its regular meeting on Jan. 14. Airbus already has an assembly line for its A320 family jets at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley. It produces four of the jets per month and has delivered more than 100 of them since going into operation. The company plans to break ground in the near future for an assembly line building the smaller, newer A220 family of passenger jets. Company officials have said they intend to begin delivering the new jets from Mobile in 2020. The Project Agreement pegs the "total capital investment" of building the new assembly line at $210 million, and sets a target of 432 employees. City commitments spelled out in the agreement include $4 million in reimbursement "for capital expenses incurred in developing, constructing, and equipping the A220 Project." That money is allocated in installments of $400,000 per year over 10 years. The agreement calls for the city to support an abatement of noneducational construction related sales and use taxes until the entire A220 Project has been placed in service, and the noneducational portion of all ad valorem taxes for a period of ten (10) years. The estimated value of that abatement is not spelled out in the agreement. County commitments in the agreement include a similar provision for $4 million in reimbursement over 10 years. The agreement also indicates that the Mobile County revenue commissioner has provided a letter certifying that A220 Project improvements owned by MAA [Mobile Airport Authority] will not be subject to ad valorem taxes. The city and the county also agree to help with speedy processing of permit applications and, to whatever extent possible, to waive "all of its respective administrative, licensing and permitting fees or charges otherwise payable by the Company, MAA, or any contractor retained by MAA or the Company" for the project. The incentives are "based, in part, on the estimated economic impact that will be realized from the Company's capital investment, additional payroll and jobs created by the A220 Project." It goes on to spell out that the incentives are contingent on Airbus meeting its commitments, including a requirement to show proof that it is meeting its employment target of 432 jobs by June 30, 2021. (The fine print actually requires the company to demonstrate that it met 90 percent of the requirement in one year to receive the full $400,000 in the next. If the company shows that it has met somewhere between 50 percent and 90 percent of the target, the reimbursements will be prorated accordingly.) David Rodgers, vice president for economic development for the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, said the potential value of the local tax abatements hasnt yet been calculated because officials are waiting on Airbus to give them a breakdown of its expected investment. When that comes in, he said, our office will provide a recommendation to the Industrial Development Board (IDB) on potential abatements for the company based on a cost benefit analysis. A list of other Airbus commitments includes one that the company will "use its good faith best efforts to develop one or more apprenticeship and training programs to introduce current and newly-graduated students and/or adults with little or no formal skills or training to the manufacturing experience." The Project Agreement does not address incentives being offered by the state. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Angela Till said Monday that the state is working on its own economic development package, but that she could not reveal its terms because "the project agreement has not been finalized." Finalization is expected in the next week, she said. Kristi Tucker, director of communications for Airbus Americas, deferred comment on the total value of the incentives to the various entities providing them. That incentives would be offered was a given, even though Airbus announced the project without first negotiating them. Opposition seems unlikely, given that the agenda item is sponsored "by Mayor Stimpson and the City Council." Airbus announced out of the blue in October 2017 that a new partnership with Bombardier likely would lead to a new assembly line in Mobile. By July 2018, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said that even though Airbus had committed unilaterally, the city and other governmental entities expected to help with construction incentives, infrastructure development and workforce development. "They would love to have the support of the city, the county and the state, and there will be something that we do have to do to facilitate that," Stimpson said then. "And that all will be forthcoming once Airbus is finally finished working out the details with the state." In September 2018 Jeff Knittel, the chairman and CEO of Airbus Americas, confirmed that incentive discussions were under way. "We are working with local and state governments, who have been terrific partners, and we would expect that there will be some incentives as we go forward," Knittel said. The development of Airbus' existing production facility in Mobile was facilitated by state and local incentives with a total estimated value of more than $158 million. The incentive agreement is not the only Airbus-related item on Tuesday's Mobile City Council agenda. A separate item calls for the city to commit $150,000 per year to Flight Works Alabama, a nonprofit educational institution that is a joint venture between Airbus and the state. To open later this year, it will function as an aerospace learning center, worker training center and even a tourist attraction. That agreement specifies that the citys contribution, if approved, will fund field trips and educational programs for city students. Note: this story was updated at 2 p.m. with comment from David Rodgers of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. It took less than a minute for masked men armed with a gun and hammer to steal more than $135,000 worth of jewelry from a Huntsville store, authorities said. And just hours later, all four suspects were in custody in Georgia, police said. The heist began around 4:30 p.m. Saturday just 30 minutes before closing time at Loring & Co. jewelry store on Airport Road. In less than 60 seconds, multiple Rolex watches were out the door with the suspects, said Sgt. Jack Pugh, of the Huntsville major crimes unit. By 10 p.m., the following suspects were in custody in Sandy Springs, a suburb less than 20 miles north of Atlanta, police said: Tre Michael Smith, 25 Tyrus Rashad Ray, 22 Alexander Langford, 25 Nakeel Darrell Davis, 33 Each man is being charged with first-degree robbery, a Class A felony thats punishable by up to life in prison. Pugh said the men also could face federal charges. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in north Alabama didnt immediately return a call for comment. Pugh said police believe they have found the majority of the stolen jewelry. A woman who answered the phone at Loring & Co. said the store owner doesnt yet want to comment about the robbery. When the four suspects wearing masks and gloves went into the jewelry store, one had a gun and another had a hammer, said Lt. Michael Johnson, a Huntsville police spokesman. The suspects also took a gun from a security guard who was working at the store, police said. One suspect was injured by glass as he used the hammer to break the jewelry cases. Police said he left behind blood, which was collected by crime scene investigators. Police said they used surveillance videos as part of a totality of evidence to seek robbery warrants for each of the suspects. Several area businesses provided video footage, which helped police track the suspects in a 2014 Dodge van they drove to Georgia. Pugh said the suspects are known to be from the Huntsville area. He said it wasnt immediately clear why the men fled more than 175 miles to Sandy Springs. For now, the suspects are held in the Fulton County jail in Georgia. They are expected to be transferred to Alabama within two weeks. A superhero was in Alabama last week to show appreciation for his heroes law enforcement officers. Eleven-year-old Tyler Carach of Florida, who is known as the Donut Boy and wears a cape decorated with donuts, brought coffee and donuts to two Alabama offices: Hollywood Police and Jefferson County Sheriffs Office in Birmingham. Tyler, whose family lives in Century, Fla., at the Alabama state line, has a mission to give donuts to every officer in America. According to his Facebook page, I Donut Need a Reason to Thank a Cop, Tyler has already given 70,000 donuts to officers in 40 states. On Jan. 3, 2019, he went to Hollywood, a tiny town in Jackson County, where first responders were invited from across the region to come celebrate Tylers visit. Officers from Rainsville, Section, Powell, Sylvania, Skyline, Scottsboro and Stevenson attended the event, where treats donated by Dunkin Donuts were served. Photos from the event were posted to the Hollywood Police Department Facebook page, along with the message: Thank you, Tyler Carach, aka The Donut Boy, for coming to Hollywood PD to visit with us and bringing us donuts! You are an amazing young man and we appreciate you more than you will ever know. Tyler Carach, aka the Donut Boy, meets a K-9 officer while visiting Hollywood Police Department Jan. 3, 2019. Tyler, wearing his cape made from fabric covered in donuts, is shown with Hollywood Chief Jason Hepler. (Source: Hollywood Police Department) Tyler then took donuts to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office. Tyler posted on his Facebook page that he was able to meet dozens of officers, including the four-legged ones from the K9 units. Tyler, whose mother was a police officer and who wants to follow in her footsteps, explains his mission on his Facebook About section: My name is Tyler and I LOVE the Police! I am 11 years old and cops are my best friends. They keep me safe! Cops favorite drink is coffee and their favorite food is donuts. After meeting 4 cops at a local store and buying them donuts in August 2016, I decided that I wanted to give donuts to all the cops in America. After a week of experiencing La Dolce Vita - the sweet life - on a trip to Italy, a group from Jacksonville State University came back to Alabama a little closer. Thats after three marriage proposals. The Marching Southerners, taking a traveling party of 400 people, performed in the annual World Peace Day Parade New Years Day and marched through the streets of Rome playing Ode to Joy for 100,000 spectators. After Pope Francis concluded his remarks, the band played songs, including the JSU Fight Song, and sang its customary rendition of Ill Fly Away. However, several members of the party took advantage of the scenery of Italy and decided to pop the question, in various famous locations. According to the school: Chase Sparks, a trombone player in the band from Alabaster, proposed to girlfriend Brittany Cangialosi, of Jacksonville, at the Arch of Constantine near the Colosseum in Rome. The two have been dating for two years. Connor Teems, a trumpet player, waited for the right moment in front of St. Marks Basilica in Venice to propose to his high school sweetheart, Morgan Bozydaj. The two, who both graduated from Rockmart High School in Rockmart, Ga., have been dating for six years. Florence got the better of Steve McHugh, who proposed to Amy Conner, the mother of color guard member Jaci Connor. The proposal happened at a Florence restaurant. The three are from Temple, Ga. The band left Italy Jan. 3 and have returned in time for the schools Spring semester, which begins Tuesday. ALEA is asking for the publics help in finding two missing children. The Colbert County Sheriffs Office is trying to locate Ashland Preston, 10, and her older sister Lila Suit, 14. Preston is described as a white female with brown eyes and blonde hair. She was wearing blue grey leggings with a grey/white fleece with snowflakes top. Suit is described as a white female with brown eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black 1/4 zip fleece top. The two were last seen at 1155 6th St. in Muscle Shoals at 5 p.m. Saturday. Authorities say Suit has an altered mental status and has been communicating with a male from Florida. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Colbert County Sheriffs Office at (256) 386-8550 or call 911. The last few days have revealed, if there was ever any doubt, that the United States cannot rely solely on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in managing the withdrawal of 2,000 US military forces from Syria. The Turkish government considers Syrian Kurdish allies of the United States as terrorists on a par with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS). US President Donald Trump therefore will need an assist in Syria from a perhaps unlikely trio: Russian President Vladimir Putin, which may be difficult given the current US political climate; Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who may see a turnaround on Syria as part of his US and international rehabilitation program; and, heres the kicker, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, whose government will in the end, one way or another, settle or scuttle a deal between Turkey and the Kurds. Last week James Jeffrey, the US special envoy for Syria and the counter-IS campaign, advised Syrian Kurdish leaders to hold off dealing with the Syrian government as the United States scrambles to manage the withdrawal of its 2,000 troops and prevent a confrontation between Turkey and US-allied Kurdish groups. There may be good tactical reasons for the United States to buy time. But the trends are crystal clear, and the Kurds wont, and cant, keep such a promise for long. The US military is leaving, Turkey is threatening, Assad is staying, Arab countries are reconsidering their approach to the Syrian government and Putin holds many, if not most, of the diplomatic cards. The bottom line, as we have reported here time and again, is that the bumpy and treacherous road to alleviating Turkish concerns over the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) ultimately goes through Damascus via Moscow. Moscow may propose to the YPG some kind of arrangement for an engagement with Damascus that would both save Kurdish forces from facing off against the Turkish military and be relatively suitable for Ankara. In the absence of a better alternative, the Kurds may embrace this as an opportunity to have a strong voice in post-conflict Syria. Otherwise the bitter lesson of the Afrin campaign earlier this year might repeat itself, Maxim Suchkov writes. There are also developments that could force Turkey to consider establishing some degree of a dialogue with the Assad regime, an idea that remains loathsome to Erdogan, adds Semih Idiz. The decision by the UAE and Bahrain to reopen their embassies in Damascus with other Arab states expected to follow could force Turkeys hand if it wants to avoid an Arab backlash over its plans for Syria. Trump is already working his Arab strategy for Syria. He reminded his followers via a tweet Dec. 24 that Saudi Arabia has agreed to help fund Syrias reconstruction. Syria will be on the agenda when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Saudi Arabia, as well as the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain this month. As the Gulf states reconsider their relations with Damascus and Syrias return to the Arab League, and as the United States looks to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf to finance Syrian reconstruction, a question will emerge regarding US and multilateral sanctions. Next week the US Senate will consider bipartisan sanctions legislation on Syria. More sanctions, however, could constrain regional and international efforts to support a Syrian transition and the countrys reconstruction, including initiatives of the United Nations and the World Bank. As it is with Iran, the United States could find itself boxed in, seeking exceptions to its own sanctions policies to allow allies to fund reconstruction. The pitfalls of an Erdogan-first strategy in Syria are already showing. US national security adviser John Bolton said in Jerusalem on Jan. 6 that the withdrawal of US troops in Syria will not just be conditioned on defeat of IS and the safety of US forces as they pull out, but also on Turkeys assurances that it will not attack Syrian Kurdish fighters who have been partners in the campaign to defeat IS. Boltons remarks followed a blistering Turkish reaction to Pompeo's comment Jan. 3 about the importance of ensuring that the Turks dont slaughter the Kurds. Turkey is determined to continue its fight against PKK/PYD/YPG and DAESH terrorist organizations which pose existential threat to its national security and target the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria, the statement read; the PKK is the Kurdistan Workers Party outlawed by Turkey, while DAESH is the Arabic acronym for IS. Misrepresenting Turkeys fight against a terrorist organization as an attempt to target a particular group in Syria is totally unacceptable, given that Turkey embraces the entire Syrian people, including Kurds. We strongly condemn treating a terrorist organization as a partner in fighting DAESH. Idiz writes, The concern on the Turkish side is that what Ankara considers to be a legitimate fight against terrorism will be transformed in Western minds into another case of Turkey attacking long-suffering Kurds. Turkey considers the YPG, which is the armed wing of the PYD and which makes up the bulk of the US aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as directly linked to the PKK, which both Ankara and Washington consider a terrorist organization. For Russia, the entire approach to the dealings with Erdogan was not so much about driving wedges between Turkey and the United States as about offering sets of incentives powerful enough to make Ankara want to cling to Moscow rather than Washington, adds Suchkov. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally has been meticulously working on this policy for a long while. On the other hand, Turkey has been skillful enough to play both Russia and the United States to extract the best possible deals for Ankara's own interests, Suchkov continues. The stress test of the downed Russian jet in late 2015, however, made Erdogan more cautious not to overplay his cards with Putin. Moscow and Ankara have since been more prudent when walking on each others terrain. The current state of affairs in Syria makes this experience particularly helpful. Russia shows empathy for Turkeys fundamental security concern about the YPG and other Kurdish forces. Turkey, in turn, has to side with the Russian agenda on preserving Syrian territorial integrity and on Assad as being ruler of the country at least for now. Just as is the case in US-Turkish relations, however, a problem is that Ankara and Moscow do not agree on who counts as a terrorist in Syria, adds Idiz. Fehim Tastekin, explaining the differences among Turkish civilian and military leaders about a military operation in eastern Syria, adds, Russia is trying to persuade Ankara to give up its operational plans and promises a different type of buffer: Deploying the Syrian army to Manbij and east of the Euphrates. According to the Russian thinking, when the Syrian army comes, the YPGs control will end. The Syrian regime also says it will dispatch troops to the region only when the YPG withdraws." Turkey, Tastekin continues, suspects the Kurds will devise a formula to remain in the area or under the protection of the Syrian army. While Turkey is struggling between the US and Russian plans, another element makes the issue even more complex: Washington wants to deploy Saudi, UAE and Egyptian troops in the region, hardly friendly forces to Turkey. The plan has already made Turkish officials nervous. Adding to Ankaras complications, reports Idiz, the situation in Idlib is showing signs of getting out of hand. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in Sochi in September to secure a cease-fire in Idlib and establish buffer zones in the province between regime forces and Turkish-supported FSA elements. Under the accord, Turkey is also responsible for disarming groups such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and expelling its fighters from the province. Moscow has said on more than one recent occasion that these objectives have not been met yet, Idiz continues. It has, nevertheless, been careful to compliment Ankaras efforts in this regard so not to sully the positive atmosphere between the two countries. There are also reports that the Syrian army has resumed shelling specific targets in Idlib, raising the specter again of an operation by Russian and regime forces on the province that would undermine Ankaras plans. Many in Ankara suggest that the Trump decision further reinforces Russias role as a dealmaker in Syria and that all roads involving the situation in Idlib and the east of the Euphrates now lead to the Kremlin, writes Suchkov. With Turkish forces poised for a new operation in Syria, some last-minute moves within Turkey's upper military ranks have people puzzled. Two generals were abruptly removed from their posts Dec. 31 and assigned to desk jobs. Gen. Metin Temel, commander of the Second Army, and Brig.-Gen. Mustafa Barut, commander of the Fourth Commando Brigade, were both reassigned by presidential decree to the Evaluation and Inspection Division of the Turkish General Staff. The high-profile and popular Temel, known for his fierce anti-US and nationalist stances, was responsible for counterterror operations in Turkey and ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria. The Turkish public was shocked by the demotions, as Ankara is planning an operation in Kurdish-controlled areas east of the Euphrates River. Temel, with his firm stand against the 2016 coup attempt and his successful command during Turkey's operation in Afrin, Syria, was a rising star adored by the public. He also was known to be very close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. When Turkeys opposition criticized Temel for applauding Erdogan in uniform during the campaign before the June elections, Erdogan responded by expressing full confidence in Temel and stating how close they were. In August, Temel was promoted to four-star general by the Supreme Military Council. Many in Turkey believed Temel was destined to become chief of staff and then defense minister. But those expectations collapsed overnight when Temel was removed from his post. There are several possibilities behind his demotion circulating in Ankara. One theory notes there was already tension between Temel and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and other top generals because of Temels excessive independence. His direct contact with the presidency, bypassing the command chain, caused some antagonism that peaked when Temel was absent from a medal ceremony in mid-December. He reportedly refused to attend the ceremony because the personnel he had nominated were not receiving medals. He was said to be particularly peeved about Barut being omitted. There are rumors in Ankara's military circles that Chief of Staff Yasar Guler had issued an ultimatum to Barut to choose between Temel or him, and Barut chose to stand with Temel. Guler wants to keep Turkey's options open with the Americans, while Temel is adamantly opposed to trusting the United States in Syria. At the same time, Temel interpreted US President Donald Trumps abrupt decision to withdraw US troops from Syria as a trick that would leave Turkey responsible for keeping the Islamic State contained. Temel had drawn attention to the risk of clashing with IS deep inside Syria, far from Turkeys border. He said Turkey shouldn't be pressured to undertake such a risky operation. Another popular idea is that mistakes were made during the Afrin operation and that the operation was terminated early. Akar and Guler also have deep differences with Temel over the expected Syria operation against Kurdish organizations that Turkey considers terrorist groups. Temel wants Ankara to have no part in cooperating with the United States in northeast Syria. He thinks that because Kurdish forces there get substantial US support and are well equipped and trained, it would be risky to launch a mid-winter operation there while relying on confusing and undependable messages from the United States. In short, Temel was reported to oppose at all costs a northeast Syria operation with US cooperation that he believed can only be a trick. In reaction to Temels views, Akar and Guler nixed the idea of Temel leading that operation. The joint special task force set up for a northeast Syria operation had been under the command of Maj. Gen. Hakan Atinc, who was known to be close to Temel. It now has been placed under the command of Brig. Gen. Erdal Sener, who is said to be close to Akar. It's obvious that Akar and Guler dont want Temel and his team among Turkey's top brass. But how did they get Erdogan to approve Temel's removal? The answer lies in Erdogan's pragmatic attitude as he's busy preparing for the March 31 local elections. How will Temel react? According to Turkish military traditions, a general's reassignment to such a post is a clear message to resign. But to do so would be against his character. I have known Temel since he was a colonel. I strongly believe he won't resign before the Supreme Military Council meets in August, when it could decide to send him into retirement. Some sources in Ankara who spoke on condition of anonymity voiced similar views: Temel still has a strong standing with Erdogan and even if he retires from military service, he may be given important political or administrative duties. Akar and Guler might have won the first round, but Temel, with his strategic moves and close ties to Erdogan, could still assume a critical post in the security bureaucracy. The Donald Trump administration has approved nearly $200 million in upgrades to Saudi Arabias missile defenses, Al-Monitor has learned, despite continued congressional uproar over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Under the commercial deal approved by the State Department in December, Saudi Arabia will receive $195 million in upgrades to improve its Patriot PAC-3 defenses, including a guidance system that increases its ability to intercept ballistic missiles able to evade US-made radars. Though the State Department notified Congress of the sale in December, it did not make the exact dollar value of the transaction public. The figures were provided to Al-Monitor by the Security Assistance Monitor. A State Department spokesperson told Al-Monitor on background that Trump had indicated the United States would remain a steadfast partner for Saudi Arabia, despite tensions over the war in Yemen and Khashoggis death. For four decades and across seven US presidential administrations, Saudi Arabia has been an important partner for the United States in curbing the malign behavior of Iran, who is the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism, and the source of the growing ballistic missile threat to our regional partners, the spokesperson said. Frank Rose, a former assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance told Al-Monitor that the missile defense upgrade would improve algorithms within the systems radar to target ballistic missiles such as those in Irans inventory. While Riyadh has invested in Patriot batteries since the 1991 Gulf War, major Saudi cities have faced a barrage of scud missiles as Yemen has fallen deeper into conflict. Since the start of the 2015 war, there have been 133 reports of missiles intercepted from Yemen, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. Its not theoretical anymore for the Saudis, said Rose, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. This situation has caused them to rethink many of their assumptions around missile defense. The Patriots, Rose said, can help protect smaller installations such as airfields, but dont provide enough coverage to defend a large city such as Riyadh, which has faced a series of near-misses from Houthi missiles. The deal to bolster Saudi Arabias missile defenses comes as leading senators sought to block other types of US weapons sales to the kingdom after Khashoggis death. In the wake of the killing, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, aimed to suspend certain US arms sales to Riyadh, including ammunition, missiles and bombs, aircraft and ground vehicles. In November, Saudi Arabia signed a letter of offer to obtain 44 Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense launchers, known as THAAD. The state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin-made missile defense is theoretically capable of intercepting any projectile fired from inside the Middle East. The Patriot deal, which went through the State Departments direct commercial sales program that links up American weapons manufacturers with foreign customers, could provide another pipeline for the Trump administration to provide lethal assistance to Riyadh. The ballistic missile upgrades were among the last of $4.4 billion in US foreign military and direct commercial sales that the United States cleared for Saudi Arabia in 2018. The sale of improved Patriot capabilities will also enable Saudi Arabia to deal with a potential missile threat from Iran, as Tehrans elite Revolutionary Guard Corps has touted new projectiles with extended ranges that could target US vessels and reach beyond the Middle East. Even before exiting the nuclear deal with Iran in May, the Trump administration began to raise concerns about the regimes extended missile capabilities and commitment to denuclearization in the long run. Irans development of increasingly long-range ballistic missile capabilities, and its aggressive strategy and activities to destabilize neighboring governments, raises questions about its long-term commitment to foregoing nuclear weapons capability, said the Pentagons Nuclear Posture Review, which was released in March. An accompanying US Missile Defense Review, which could lay out the Trump teams road map for defending the Gulf from missile threats, had been expected in early 2018. It has yet to be released. Archer Macy, a retired US Navy rear admiral who worked on air defense for years, told Al-Monitor that the Patriot sale would give Saudi Arabia more tools in its toolbox to defend against Houthi missiles, but wouldnt be a magic bullet for air defense against the Iran-backed group. You have to decide what youre going to engage and what youre not, said Macy, now a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. If somethings headed toward some chunk of the desert, you let it run. Correction: Jan. 15, 2019. This article has been updated to reflect that Sen. Menendezs bill targets only four categories of arms. The usual pace of the fight for influence in eastern Syria was altered when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the stakes and US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw US troops from the country shortly thereafter. Now, all interested sides have to demonstrate their ambitions once again and attempt to gain control over areas they seek to influence in a brand-new configuration. It is not clear how well Russia, Iran and Turkey were prepared for the announced withdrawal of US forces. Due to the possibility of a vacuum appearing, the Astana format guarantors of the resolution in Syria may face additional challenges and burdens in the geopolitical and economic realms. The void temporarily left in the trans-Euphrates region could potentially be settled by the active involvement of the Arab states that are interested in restraining Iranian and Turkish ambitions. Certain Russian experts cautiously point out that Russia may make a deal on this with the Gulf nations. This argument suggests that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi influenced the opposition in Syria's southwestern de-escalation zone in exchange for the restoration of diplomatic contacts with Damascus and Moscows permission to expand their presence in eastern Syria. Previously, Emirati and Saudi delegations repeatedly visited the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). As reported first by the Israeli website DEBKAfile and, later on, the Turkish daily Yeni Safak, representatives of security services from Egypt and UAE visited Manbij, a city claimed both by pro-regime and pro-Turkish forces. Both Egypt and the UAE believe that Ankaras ambitions in the region should be restrained. Earlier, Cairo had refused to deploy its troops to Syria, preferring to provide a venue for the negotiations between the Syrian opposition and Russia within the Astana process. However, after Trump announced the withdrawal of American forces from Syria, Egyptians reportedly became mediators between Damascus and the Kurds. Obviously, the contacts between security services and the limited forces from Arab countries deployed in Syria are unlikely to deter a potential Turkish assault. At most, these factors can guarantee that the SDFs political project will survive and that its Arab component will be further consolidated after the government forces take over the area. Sources in the opposition claim that Russia has already suggested it will deploy military police on the east bank of Euphrates to block the advance of pro-Turkish troops farther into Syria. Considering the obvious politicking with the Kurds and obscure prospects of stabilization in the region, keeping the border between Syria and Iraq secure becomes a priority. To accomplish this, military and counterintelligence methods alone will not suffice. It is also necessary to rebuild infrastructure in the areas where numerous Arab tribes, both large and small, live. Their own views have transformed substantially during the years under Islamic State (IS) control. Moreover, permanent poverty, destruction, involvement of pro-Iranian militants and the opening of cultural centers compel the communities to support radical structures. Baghdad disproved the rumors about the US request to enter Syria and create a buffer zone, yet it didnt rule out that IS' presence in eastern Syria may make Iraqi forces operate outside Iraqs borders. For his part, Bashar al-Assad allowed Iraq to assault IS inside Syria without any prior approval by Damascus. This measure, along with the reports of the Iraqi president planning to visit Damascus, was used in Russian media to prove that the partnership between the two nations was strengthening. At the same time, Iraqi air forces and artillery previously attacked the terrorists inside Syria, coordinating their actions both with SDF and the four-sided counterrorism center, as explained below, in Baghdad. Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria cooperate within the so-called smaller counterterrorism coalition, which was technically created a year before its official launch in 2015, with its coordination center located in Baghdad. During the latest meeting in mid-December, intelligence officers of the member states discussed the situation in eastern Syria and in the area along the border with Iraq. The information about the productivity of the coordination centers work is quite scarce. We established the exchange of information on the militants from Russia and ex-USSR countries fighting in Syria and Iraq," Maj. Gen. Alexander Smolovoy, the head of the Russian side of the counterterrorism center in Baghdad, disclosed a while ago. "We detected the routes they had taken to arrive to the combat zone, the training camps and their funding sources." However, Russia had supposedly failed to develop fully functioning counterterrorism structures in Iraq. As a result, Moscow focused on the ad hoc approach, solving issues such as the identification of Russian nationals fighting in Iraq and the deployment of special forces in the town of Abu Kamal near the border. Thus, even if this type of cooperation is suitable for the local counterterrorism effort, it is hardly efficient to eliminate developed Islamist networks. But these measures allow for diversification of logistic routes inside the so-called Shiite corridor between Iran and Lebanon. In a parallel development, Ahmad al-Jarba, the leader of Syria's Tomorrow Movement, a political organization, and head of its militant wing, the Syrian Elite Forces (SEF), visited Turkey for negotiations and met Iraqi Kurdish security chief, Masrour Barzani. Jarba originates from the Shammar tribe, a clan closely connected to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He also has friendly relations with the Barzani family and is consistent in his contacts with Russia. The SEF, which has repeatedly clashed with the SDF, opened its offices to recruit new members and published requirements for the servicemen. According to media reports, the SEF, supported by regional actors, is able to control the border together with Rojava peshmerga, which has contacts with the Democratic Union Party and Syrias Kurdish National Council. Some reports claim that SEF troops may also be deployed along the Syrian-Turkish border to prevent or minimize the consequences of Ankaras new operation. However, no matter the outcome of these talks, Jarbas political authority grows. He is supported across the region, although it has been repeatedly mentioned that military officials of Assads regime are highly skeptical of the SEF leader. Eastern Syria, therefore, is currently an equation with numerous variables, where every actor aims to avoid getting stuck in the conflict but seeks to promote its own scenario, regardless of its tactical obligations to its allies. In this regard, the US departure from Syria is likely to become a fruitful measure by, first, allowing Washington to avoid the need to protect the SDF alliance that is crumbling due to the Kurdish-Arab controversy. Second, in this turn of events, the United States will retain its referee status if it continues to supervise the processes around Syria, fight IS and restrain Iranian influence, using facilities in Jordan and Iraq constructed specifically for these purposes. Russia, in turn, will also seek to establish itself as a mediator despite its clear bias and inability bordering on unwillingness to restrain Iranian influence. ISTANBUL The chime of church bells mixed with the Islamic call to prayer as the spiritual leader of the worlds Orthodox Christians granted the Ukrainian Church independence from Moscow, marking the biggest rupture in Christianity in centuries and risking the ire of both the Russian Church and government. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew gave the tomos of autocephaly, or decree of independence, to Metropolitan Epifaniy, the newly elected 39-year-old bishop of Ukraine. The move formally ends Moscows jurisdiction over the Ukrainian Church after more than 330 years and returns it to the fold of Constantinople, the former name for Istanbul, today a city of some 15 million Muslims. The winter is past for schisms and divisions. The rain is over and gone for ecclesiastical isolation. The flower of unity appears on the earth, and the time has come for the glorious Holy Metropolis of Kiev to acquire its ecclesiastical independence, Bartholomew, 78, told Epifaniy in an elaborate ceremony attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his predecessor Viktor Yushchenko. Their presence at St. Georges Cathedral on the banks of Istanbuls Golden Horn underscores how intermeshed the religious rift is with a broader geopolitical dispute following Russias annexation of Ukraines Crimea peninsula in 2014. Russia also backs separatist militants in eastern Ukraine. The Moscow patriarchate has already retaliated by severing communion with the Istanbul see, accusing it of creating a schism and describing breakaway Ukrainians as heretics. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has adopted church ideology in domestic and foreign policy, has threatened to intervene, raising the spectre of violence as Ukrainian churches switch sides and take valuable property with them. One of Ukraines three Orthodox branches remains loyal to Moscow. The church in Kiev first sought independence from Moscow a century ago, but intensified those efforts after the fall of the Soviet Union. Poroshenko, who is running for re-election in March, has made the cause part of his campaign. For his part, Bartholomew had attempted to reconcile Moscow and Kiev over the years, but the Russians walked away, said John Chryssavgis, a theological adviser to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Now, a primary consideration in agreeing to Kievs appeal was providing a spiritual home for the 20 million or so Ukrainians dispossessed by Moscow, he said in an interview. The patriarchs motives are purely church, purely ecclesiastical. They do have political consequences, and he is very well aware of it. Its almost as if it doesnt matter what the political consequences are if they are right, he said. Moscow does threaten, it keeps saying, Blood will be on your hands. That is a fear that many people have. With an estimated 150 million adherents, half of the worlds Orthodox population, the Russian Church has long begrudged the ecumenical patriarch his authority. Tradition ranks him first among equals of the heads of the now 15 autocephalous churches. The seat of world orthodoxy is situated in a rundown neighborhood in Istanbul, a vestige of the Byzantine Empire after its fall to Ottoman Muslims in 1453. Bartholomews own flock has dwindled to less than 3,000 ethnic Greeks after years of economic pressure and official discrimination forced tens of thousands to emigrate since the 1960s. Turkey has restricted the communitys ability to educate its clergy by keeping its seminary shut for nearly a half-century and does not recognize Bartholomews historical title as the ecumenical leader of his religion. The absence of criticism by the Turkish authorities of this decision, which reaches far beyond the Orthodox community of Turkey, suggests Ankara is happy for the patriarchate to take this broader role, said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not commented publicly on the affair, but he hosted Poroshenko at a historic Ottoman residence before mass at the patriarchate on Saturday in what may have been his tacit consent even as the Turkish leader navigates his own thorny relationship with Moscow. Despite supporting opposite sides in the Syrian war, Erdogan and Putin have negotiated a handful of cease-fires in the conflict. The two countries are also key trading partners and Turkey is in the process of buying a Russian-made missile-defense system despite vehement objections from NATO. But Erdogan has refused to recognize Russias occupation of Crimea, declaring his support for Ukraines territorial integrity. In November, he offered to mediate when Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and detained 24 sailors. Porosenko expressed gratitude to Erdogan for not intervening in the recognition of his new national church. Turkey almost never openly pushes buck against Russia. While Erdogan has made an effort to not leave any fingerprints giving Ukraine a national church could not have happened without Erdogans blessing, Cagaptay told Al-Monitor. The patriarch is independent and though there has sometimes been a contentious relationship between Ankara and the patriarchate the welcome Poroshenko formally received as Erdogans guest suggests there was coordination behind closed doors, he said. Brandon Gallaher, an Orthodox theologian at the University of Exeter, agreed that Bartholomew likely had Turkish support in his decision but that he still took a significant calculated risk. At the heart of the clash between the patriarchates in Moscow and Istanbul are opposing views of modernity, he said in an interview. One of many clashes that the Moscow patriarchate is having with the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the clash of visions on how to approach the modern West, he said. Moscow sees its values as superior to the West, which it views as corrupt," while Constantinople "has been pushing for an engagement of Orthodoxy with the modern world that is without rancor. Chryssavgis said Ukraines turn to the West was a factor in recognizing the churchs independence. Every other ethnic church has their own independence, so why not Ukraine [with] its own traditions, culture, civilization, music and liturgy? It has many connections to Russia, but in the case of Ukraine today, it also has many connections with the West, he said. The patriarch has restored communion to millions of Ukrainians, an entire generation. Some of them were present in Istanbul, and a handful carried the national flag during two days of emotional services that culminated on the day that Ukrainian and Russian faithful alike observe as Christmas Eve. Svetlana and her husband Jaroslaw, who was dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, traveled from the city of Chernivtsi to witness the historic moment. We have waited a long time for independence, almost 400 years. Today I feel joy, she said. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is leveling criticism at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allowing Qatari funds to enter the Gaza Strip funds he says Hamas is using to execute military operations against Israeli targets in the West Bank. Netanyahu personally takes money and gives it to Hamas [via Qatari funds to Gaza], which in turn is turning the money here [in the West Bank] into weapons, equipment and funds," Abbas said during a Dec. 22 meeting of the PLO Executive Committee in Ramallah. On Oct. 10, Qatar announced a $150 million aid package for the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, after receiving Israeli approval. Out of the $150 million, some $15 million is to be allocated each month for six months to pay the salaries of Gazas government employees. On Nov. 9, the first payout for government employees was made. The Qatari ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Mohammed al-Emadi, carries the money personally to Gaza every month, using the Israel-Gaza border crossing at Erez. With the remaining $60 million of the aid package, Qatar is buying fuel to run Gaza's only power plant for six months. Hamas is also giving some of the money to 50,000 families. Netanyahu described at a Nov. 11 press conference his agreement to allow Qatari funds to be transferred to Gaza as the proper step. The measure aims to help bring calm to Israeli towns adjacent to the Gaza Strip and to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza itself, he added, according to the Times of Israel. According to Abbas, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security institutions have managed to confiscate 90% of the funds Hamas recently transferred from Gaza to the West Bank to fund its armed attacks against Israel. The other 10%, he alleges, is being used to attack Israeli soldiers. There have been several attacks against Israeli targets recently. On Dec. 9, a drive-by shooting near the settlement of Ofra in the northern West Bank seriously injured six Israeli settlers, with the assailants fleeing the scene. On Dec. 12, the Israeli army killed Saleh Barghouthi near the town of Sarda in northern Ramallah, alleging he was one of the perpetrators of the Ofra attack. Hamas' armed wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that claim Dec. 14, saying Barghouthi was among its operatives who had carried out the assault. On Dec. 13, two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others seriously wounded by unidentified assailants in another drive-by attack near the settlement of Beit El, north of Ramallah. Israeli investigations allege the operation was carried out by Saleh Barghouthi's brother, Assem Barghouthi, who is still being sought by the Israeli army. A senior West Bank security official who preferred not to be named told Al-Monitor, Since the announcement of the Qatari payout to Hamas in Gaza, the security services have observed unusual activity by elements of the [Hamas] movement in the West Bank, including money transfers and preparations to carry out operations. The source revealed that during December, security authorities intercepted "eight operations against Israeli targets in the West Bank, confiscating more than 250,000 shekels [about $65,000] used to finance these operations. However, the PA did not inform the media of these efforts. The source further explained, The PA has in recent months intensified its efforts to combat the transfer of [suspicious] funds from Gaza to the West Bank. In discussions with Al-Monitor, Hamas leader Yahya Moussa attacked Abbas over the issue of Qatars grant to Gaza, accusing him of unprecedented national degradation. The accusation of channeling Qatari money into Hamas operations in the West Bank is an outright lie, Moussa said. These funds did not reach the hands of Hamas in any form. Israel is monitoring the course of every dollar of this grant, whose primary purpose is to pay civil servants who Abbas refuses to accept as part of the PAs salary obligations according to understandings in the reconciliation accord of 2017. He added that Israelis view Abbas as a "king," because "he is more concerned about the security of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank than Netanyahu himself. Moussa further stated, These armed operations are part of the stance adopted by Hamas in resisting the occupation since its establishment in 1987. This resistance will continue under any circumstances until the end of the occupation. Talal Awakal, a political analyst for al-Ayyam newspaper in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that Abbas comments were an expression of his refusal to permit Qatari funds into Gaza, far from the reach of the PA. Indeed, in an Oct. 16 statement, the Palestinian government had expressed its unwillingness to allow any aid into Gaza without PA coordination. Awakal added that the PA considers itself the sole legitimate institution representing the Palestinians and that any funds entering Gaza without its consent are intended to consolidate Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. Abbas has said that, by allowing the Qatari funds into Gaza, Netanyahu is violating the nature of relations between the PA and Israel, which are governed by the Oslo Accords and require Israel to coordinate with the PA on any Palestinian issue, Awakal said. Abbas positioned Hamas alongside Israel, casting them as seeming allies to destabilize security in the West Bank and undermine the sovereignty of the PA there, Awakal said. According to Ahmed Rafiq, a political science professor at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, the West Bank, Abbas sees the military operations carried out there by Hamas as aimed chiefly at a general weakening and destabilization of security in the West Bank. Rafiq told Al-Monitor, These statements reveal the size of the gap between Hamas, which on one hand adheres to the path of armed resistance, and the PA, which on the other adopts the position of ending the armed resistance. This shows that Palestinians are still very far from achieving reconciliation. He pointed out that in criticizing Netanyahus actions, Abbas also wanted to send a message to Israeli society that those actions have disrupted Israeli security. Accordingly, this could be seen as an effort to affect Netanyahu's popularity among Israelis as their parliamentary elections approach in April. The extremely detailed investigation by David Halbfinger in The New York Times on the killing of Rouzan al-Najjar on June 1, 2018, at the Gaza border, requires Israel to reconsider our conduct toward the Palestinian protesters on the other side of the fence. This is the most important newspaper in the world, a reporter sent to Israel who could not be characterized as hostile to us, and an investigation that is dispassionate and careful in its conclusions. Some 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers; these included 60 to 70 who were not the targets of fire as of August, a senior official of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the newspaper. Officials must not allow this system to continue with the Friday routine, where, even on days of relative calm, at least one or two youths are killed by our forces fire. The case involves a 20-year-old woman wearing a white paramedic's lab coat whose death by IDF fire was found to have come from a distance where it was clear that she was a paramedic; this is not the typical story of a Hamas activist. She was the daughter of a family of Palestinian refugees from Kefar Salamah near Jaffa in the center of Israel. Aside from a visit to Egypt when she was 3, she never left the Gaza Strip and grew up in that big prison. At 15 she experienced a trauma. For some reason, her beloved aunt was ostracized by her family. One day, at the kitchen from which they exiled her, a terrible fight broke out between her pregnant aunt and her grandmother; the grandmother pushed her daughter, and she fell down the stairs, until she reached the bottom dead. The fetus died as well. Only Najjar was a witness to this terrible incident and she decided to testify. She said to her family that in her eyes justice is more important than family ties. Her testimony caused her grandmother to stand trial and serve a year in jail. Najjar became a symbol of bravery, and became known far and wide. The Israeli-Egyptian siege of Gaza caused her to express her opinions on social media on how the collective punishment of residents of the crowded Gaza Strip is wrong. When the protests began at the fence, she found herself standing alongside the protesters, among the medical staff, although she was not a certified nurse. Her dream was to go to nursing school. She knew that joining the protesters carries significant risk, but she didnt hesitate. She gave many interviews to the international press. I am an army to myself, and a sword to my army, she said to one of the newspapers, and became one of the unofficial spokeswomen of the fence protesters. Less than a month before she was killed she wrote on Facebook, When my life ends, make me into a sweet memory; two weeks before she died, she wrote her friend an apology in case she died, and asked for a beautiful prayer in her memory. On the last Friday of her life, at 6:31 p.m., according to the investigation, the bullet that killed her was fired. The IDFs claim was that the intention was not to shoot her but another man in a yellow shirt who approached the fence at the time. However, an analysis of photographs from the scene identifies such a man, wearing such a shirt, but that he was a far distance from the fence as well as from Najjar. One of the possibilities is that the bullet was indeed fired toward the man in yellow, and that a ricochet that skipped off the hard ground hit the young woman, who was behind him. It is not known which soldier fired the bullet that hit the paramedic. The chief military prosecutor examined the incident and decided to transfer the investigation to the investigative military police. This was the second incident that was referred to such an investigation since the beginning of the demonstrations in March 2018. The matter is still under investigation. The New York Times claims that the open-fire policies (which are not publicly revealed) allow shooting live fire at the Gaza Strip only in two instances: direct danger to IDF soldiers and an attempt to breach the fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel. Theres no doubt that in Najjars case this didnt happen. The newspaper claims that the bullet that killed Najjar was fired from the rifle of an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included medical staff that was easily identifiable. The reconstruction of the event by means of video footage and photographs shows that there was no danger posed to soldiers from the medical staff. Even if there was no intent to kill any member of the medical staff, the Israeli fire according to the newspaper was careless in the best scenario and a war crime in the worst scenario. The military says it did not keep photographs of the incident and therefore cannot verify the photographs obtained by the newspaper. Lt. Jonathan Conricus of the office of the IDF spokesperson cited in the investigation told his interviewer that defense of the border is a complicated business and that unfortunately accidents happen and unintended results occur. Najjar, according to the author of the investigation, became a symbol of the struggle of the Palestinians in Gaza against Israel. Shes also a symbol, in their eyes, for the unending conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and for the many lives that ended for naught, and too soon. One does not have to agree with every word in the investigation of the most cautious newspaper in the world in order to read it, and its highly recommended that the top officers of the IDF bother to examine the article. Its also recommended not to go down the path taken following the death of the child Muhammad al-Durrah at the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000; he was killed by a bullet while he was in his fathers arms. If someone tries to prove the full innocence of IDF soldiers by citing the analysis of some kind of angle, this wont prevent this young woman from becoming the symbol of the Gaza protests and wont convince the world that the IDF, in this instance, was forced to defend itself. The many dozens of Palestinians that the IDF admits it did not intend to kill during the past nine months at the Gaza border demand that the open-fire policy be re-examined. The military police investigators of this specific case will certainly read the New York Times investigation, and must attend to it in their attempt to reach the truth. But the real answer wont be reached by providing evidence regarding the killing of Najjar, but rather by drawing conclusions at the macro level following the many months that have passed since the beginning of the protests, in a creative effort not to continue in the routine of killing, and not to give the enemy "martyrs," who immediately become models for emulation. Recent major developments in Israeli politics are leading Palestinians to wonder what's next for them. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted Dec. 26 to hold early elections April 9, nearly eight months ahead of schedule amid internal disputes and crises. Palestinians know they will play a central role in the Israeli election campaign, with candidates proposing how to deal with them. Right-wing forces led by the Likud and HaBayit HaYehudi refuse to engage the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the establishment of a Palestinian state. Both Israeli parties support the ongoing siege of Gaza and sporadic military operations against Hamas. Meanwhile, the Zionist Camp and Meretz, from the Israeli center and left, call for negotiations with the Palestinians while ensuring Israeli security interests. They would like to see Hamas sidelined in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority (PA) regain control over the territory. Some Palestinian factions are claiming to have had a hand in the call for elections. According to the Donia al-Watan website, Ziad al-Nakhala, secretary-general of Islamic Jihad, said that the decision to hold early elections stems from what he called Israels defeat in the Nov. 12-13 clashes in Gaza. By this he was alluding to the spurt of violence having led to a cease-fire that resulted in the resignation of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in protest and his party's exit from the Netanyahu government, preludes to the government's collapse. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor, The Israeli government has been shaken due to the Great Return March protests supported by Palestinian military action. Regardless of how the Israelis arrived at the decision on early elections, Sufian Abu Zaida, a member of Fatahs Revolutionary Council, related to Maan News what appears to be on the minds of most Palestinians concern that Israeli politicians will make escalatory moves against Gaza to secure votes, especially those of right-wing Israelis. The newspaper Al-Quds speculated on Dec. 28, that Israel might mobilize troops as if preparing for war with Gaza to secure votes on the right. Hamas meanwhile is preparing for such an event to be more than political theater. Qassem told Al-Monitor, Hamas will not allow the Israeli electoral candidates to increase their chances at the expense of our people. We will be ready to respond to any Israeli attack. Emad Abu Awad, a researcher at the Vision Center for Political Development in Istanbul, told Al-Monitor, According to some Palestinian analyses, Israel might launch a war on Gaza before heading to the polls. But, realistically, this option isn't [feasible]. A war on Gaza might last for a long time, and if Israel fails to settle it and is dealt heavy blows from the resistance, such war might backfire on the Israeli right wing. Some Palestinians are counseling self-restraint in the lead up to the vote, to avoid providing the Israeli right a pretext to wage war against them, which initially could increase its electoral chances. The writer Fayez Abu Shamala wrote in a Dec. 29 piece in Gaza's Felesteen newspaper that Israel might continue trying to appease Gazans with measures to alleviate their suffering such as increasing the power supply, expanding the fishing zone off Gaza and so on in return for steering clear of military escalation, thus ensuring calm while at the same time trying to satisfy right-wing voters by agreeing to establish more settlements in the West Bank. On the Amad news website, Hassan Asfour, former PA minister of civil society organizations, wrote that the Palestinian leadership might shake up the Israeli elections by withdrawing the PLO's recognition of Israel, announcing the establishment of a Palestinian state and halting security coordination with Israel. The idea for doing so would be to possibly improve the electoral odds of those from the Israeli center and left who support negotiations with the Palestinians. Palestinians have not always had good experiences ahead of Israeli elections. In the run-up to the May 1996 elections, Prime Minister Shimon Peres ordered the assassination Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas military leader and bomb maker. Before elections in early 2009, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in December 2008 launched Operation Cast Lead, a 23-day war against Gaza that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians. Saleh al-Naami, a journalist and expert on the Israeli military, told Al-Monitor, Gaza is not among the places Netanyahu wants to [use to] make gains before the elections. He will, however, increase settlements in the West Bank because the PA [doesn't challenge Israel.] Israel on Dec. 26 approved the building of 2,200 new settlement units, while it continues seeking normalization with Arab states. The London-based New Arab newspaper claimed on Dec. 27 that Netanyahu had asked Egypt to transmit messages to Hamas not to escalate the situation before the elections. If there is an escalation, however, Netanyahu said he would not hesitate to respond militarily. Amir Bohbot, an expert on Israeli military affairs at Walla website, wrote Dec. 28 that Israeli elections might indeed entail an escalation against Hamas in Gaza. At the same time, Hamas is aware that the elections put Gaza in a precarious situation and any actions by it that add fuel to the fire might not be in the movement's best interest. Wajih Abu Zarife, a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian Peoples Party, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian cause is the most important issue for Israeli election propaganda. Israel will focus on confronting Palestinians at the military and security levels in Gaza and at the political and diplomatic levels in the West Bank. But I don't think Netanyahu will venture into a military battle with Gaza, because that would affect Israels domestic front and could have a negative impact on the elections. We are worried that the current Israeli government will give rise to a worse government, one that is even more rightist, as Israelis keep moving toward the far right. Indeed, amid the discussion about the lead-up to the elections, Abu Zarife was not alone in his concerns about the election results. Citing Israel's ongoing settlement, raids in West Bank cities and seizure of PA funds, Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Al-Monitor, Any Israeli government other than Netanyahus would be better for Palestinians. Labor chair Avi Gabbay unexpectantly announced his political divorce from his Zionist Camp partner, Hatnua head Tzipi Livni, on Jan. 1. The announcement, which broke the Zionist Camp into its original components, was followed by a rapid deterioration in the partys standing in the polls to single-digit numbers, accompanied by mounting voices calling for Gabbay to be fired. The move testifies to Gabbays failure to improve the image of the party that ruled all of Israel from the establishment of the state until 1977. Beyond the political reasons behind the decision, Gabbays description of his childhood years points to another, no less significant factor: discrimination against a Mizrahi who grew up in a slum, in favor of the comparatively well-off and arrogant Ashkenazis represented by Livni. In a hostile speech in which he explained his decision to break with Livni and her party, Gabbay spoke about growing up in a Jerusalem slum in the 1950s, in a family that came from Morocco. This slum and others served originally as transit camps for new immigrants and became poor neighborhoods over the years. Gabbay said, We grew up in asbestos shacks surrounded by new buildings that were populated by more educated families on a higher economic level. Some of the children from those buildings were our good friends. Others looked down their noses at us, the kids from the slums. From a young age, I chose not to give power to the conceited ones. Not to give power to anyone who tells me that I dont have a chance. As is well known, Gabbay came a long way from the slums to a successful career at the height of which he served as CEO of Bezeq, Israels largest telecommunication company. Gabbay retired from Bezeq with a fortune of around 50 million shekels ($13.5 million). He then segued from the business sector to politics, first in Moshe Kahlons Kulanu and then serving as environmental protection minister until he resigned in 2016. Gabbay, who grew up in a Likud-oriented home, only joined Labor about two years ago. Almost immediately he won the internal elections for chairman after he bragged that he would harvest 30 Knesset mandates for the party and bring Likud voters to Labor. But the opposite happened. Though Gabbay tried to appeal to Likud supporters, he didnt understand that Labor and Likud voters do not speak the same language. Gabbays attempt to return the traditional-religious crowd to Labor was a total failure. In a lecture to college students in the Israeli southern city of Beersheba in November 2017, Gabbay talked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus well-known statement to Rabbi Kadouri in 1997: The left has forgotten what it means to be Jewish. Gabbays answer to a student who raised the issue was, It's not true. We are Jews and we need to talk about our Jewish values." He added, Were Jews, we live in a Jewish state. I think one of the problems of the Labor Party is that it has distanced itself from this. Like Netanyahus original statement to the rabbi, Gabbays statement touched a very sensitive spot and aroused sharp criticism from the left. Even when Gabbay tried to wink at the right from the leftist platform that Labor has adopted in recent years, he was fiercely criticized. As a result, he was forced to retract his October 2017 statement that in the event of a peace arrangement, the settlements may not need to be evacuated. Criticism of Gabbay has risen in recent months and as election day nears. One of Labors Knesset members told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, We chose someone we thought could bring us back to being an alternative. We gambled on Gabbay and lost everything. Its not that he is changing the partys DNA, he is dismantling it. Last week, on the background of the Gabbay crisis and the miserable polls, several Zionist Camp members reportedly made preparations to quit the faction. Ironically, it was Livni who averted the move before she knew that Gabbay intended to dismantle the partnership. On Jan. 3, the revolt became public when Labor Knesset member Eitan Cabel demanded Gabbays dismissal, saying in an interview with Army Radio that if politics were the business world, Gabbay would have long since returned his keys. Polls published a day earlier showed a Labor under Gabbay without Livni would win only seven or eight mandates, down from 24 Zionist Camp seats in the outgoing Knesset. The party began to reach out to its members to sign a petition to hold a dismissal convention, though it is not clear whether such a thing is feasible. But Gabbay isnt giving in. In a Jan. 3 interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Gabbay said that he has no intention of allowing another candidate to lead Labor or the faction in the upcoming elections. He is certain that he will succeed in convincing the public that he is the most appropriate and worthy candidate to lead a process of change. In the interview, Gabbay denied that his firing of Livni during a live broadcast was an act of chauvinism. When asked why he didnt tell Livni about his intentions beforehand and privately, he said, I grew up in the hood. In the hood, I learned that if someone hits you, you hit back rather than rush to make peace. His answer confirms that he did take offense and wanted to get back at the one who offended him. There are some who view his words as another wink toward the right, if they are interpreted in the diplomatic sphere as concerning the Palestinians. Even if Gabbay survives the attempts to topple him, Labor's expected failure at the voting booths will lead to the recognition that Gabbay has not succeeded in transforming the party, which for a generation of immigrants to Israel from Arab states continues to represent discrimination against the Mizrahi Jews. Iranian political prisoner and human rights activists Farhad Meysami has written an open letter from inside Irans Evin prison, criticizing his treatment at the hands of Iranian courts and rejecting stated US concerns for the human rights situation in Iran and for his own case in particular. Meysami was arrested in July over protests related to the compulsory hijab. Authorities confiscated from his home pins that read I am against compulsory hijab. He began a hunger strike in August in protest against his conditions and lack of access to proper legal representation. His case has been referenced by a number of international organizations, including Amnesty International, which condemned Iranian authorities for pressuring him to end his hunger strike, and United Nations human rights experts, who have called for his release. A press release from the US State Department has also directly cited Meysamis case. We are deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating health of Dr. Farhad Meysami, the December 7 statement read. The United States condemns the arbitrary detention of Dr. Meysami. This is a brazen violation of human rights. The United States calls on the Iranian regime to immediately release Dr. Meysami and all political prisoners who are unjustly imprisoned. The Iranian people deserve a government that respects their rights and legitimate demands, not one that subjects them to slow deaths in degrading cells for peacefully demanding what is rightfully theirs universal human rights. Meysamis letter was divided into two sections. In the first section, he recounts his challenges dealing with the Iranian court system, such as not having access to his lawyer, being forced to choose a lawyer among a list of court-approved lawyers and not being given time to prepare for his court dates. He cites Abolqasem Salavati by name numerous times, a notorious judge who is head of the 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran and known for handing down heavy sentences to activists. In the second section of his letter, Meysami called out the United States for asking for his freedom. He wrote that at first he was surprised to see his name even mentioned by the department run by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has previously wanted to bomb Iran. Meysami wrote, I prefer to spend my entire life in prison than for one second be included among [those who bear] the shame of supporting deal breakers who turned their backs on moral and legal principles and left the wise and peace-seeking JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] accord and once again imposed inhumane sanctions, which have dragged millions of my compatriots below the poverty line. On May 8, 2018, the United States unilaterally exited the JCPOA an eight-party deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany in which the Islamic Republic reduced its nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief. Indirectly referencing the case of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Meysami added that he is certain that if the United States and Iran were allies, You would not only close your eyes to my imprisonment but also to the sawing to pieces of dozens of people like me. The letter received a lot of traction on social media. Iranian activist Zia Nabavi, who served nine years in prison for his political activities, tweeted that Meysamis letter has two separate concerns: 1. The injustice of the government and judiciary, which violates the rights of citizens. 2. The bullying [by] Pompeo and his partners, who have targeted the [Iranian] people with the weapon of sanctions. Ignoring either of these parts is to dismember his political understanding. Prominent Reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh, who also spent time in jail after the disputed 2009 presidential elections, tweeted, Farhad Meysamis important letter must be understood as a continuation of Iranian political tradition from the [1905-11 Iranian] constitutional revolution to the present in that he emphasized the significance of freedom and independence while rejecting domestic tyranny and foreign intervention. Tajzadeh said the judiciary should immediately release him. The Palestinian government withdrew its civil servants manning the border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday, only to see them quickly replaced by staff loyal to the Islamist Hamas movement. The moves come as Palestinian infighting intensives in Gaza, with Hamas and Fatah escalating their war of words while arresting and otherwise impeding each others activists. Why it matters: The return of the civil servants was supposed to be the first step in the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. It was to be followed by the return of European police who fled when Hamas militants took over the streets of Gaza in 2006. The decision by the Ramallah-based leadership follows a week of high tensions prompted by the Hamas governments refusal to allow Fatah activists to hold a rally today celebrating the 54th anniversary of the political groups founding. The rally was eventually canceled after Hamas brought its armed security into the streets. Hamas has been angry ever since the Fatah-dominated Constitutional Court dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council in December and called for parliamentary elections within six months. Hamas, which won the last council elections, called the decision undemocratic and a blow to national unity. The Gaza offices of pro-Fatah Palestine TV were ransacked Jan. 4, prompting accusations that Hamas instigated the attack or at least failed to condemn it. Hamas replies that the destruction of the studio was carried out by disgruntled employees who are upset at the Ramallah-based leadership for not paying their salaries. Whats next: The pressure is on Hamas to surrender both administrative and security powers. While the group appears ready to turn over administrative powers, it totally refuses to give up its control over security issues. Meanwhile, Israel, which had earlier agreed to allow Qatar to pay public employees in Gaza, now says it will no longer pass the money to Hamas, thus adding to the troubles faced by the Islamist movement. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his part hopes that Hamas difficulties will force a capitulation. Know more: Rasha Abou Jalal has the lowdown on why Fatah accuses Hamas of manipulating border crossings to the besieged Gaza enclave. - Daoud Kuttab Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. After nearly 3 years at Omnicom Media Group, Sudhir Nair has decided to move back to 21N78E Creative Labs, the agency that he started in 2015 after a 15 year stint with Grey Group. Sudhir joined Omnicom Media Group in April 2016 as the Managing Director, Digital. Simultaneously 21N78E Creative Labs got into an understanding with Omnicom Media Group to partner as a creative agency wherever synergies permitted. As part of the agreement OMG also extended media support to 21N78E clients. In early 2018, Sudhir was given additional media agnostic responsibilities as the Managing Director of Omnicom Media Group. During his stint at Omnicom Media Group, Sudhir augmented its digital media capabilities and focused his energies on new business while supporting the specialists units within OMG to become a force to reckon with. Speaking on the development Sudhir Nair said I had a great run with OMG. Last year we had some of the most prestigious media mandate wins and the specialist capabilities that exist within the system, like Programmatic and Performance, which is arguably one of the best in the country. The partnership with 21N78E also continues to work seamlessly across common clients. However, with 21N78E also moving well along its growth trajectory, it was important for me to take this call and focus my energies full-time on 21N78E. I have been in transition phase since June 2018. Commenting on this move Harish Shriyan, CEO, Omnicom Media Group said Sudhir bought a strategic maturity to the way we built our new media capabilities and beyond. It was good to have him as part of my team. 21N78E is his dream and so I understand his reasons to make this move. I wish him all the very best. 21N78E has seen some significant wins and senior appointments last year. It started with Nikhil Shahane joining as the COO in early 2017. Navin Kansal, coming on board as the Chief Creative Officer in March 2018 and Don Bosco joining the core team as the Chief Strategy Officer in May 2018. Sudhir added I am delighted to have them as part of the core team. We have created magic in our past stint and am itching to get started once again. Last two years has been a defining period for 21N78E. We have made some significant investments, we havent gone belly-up and the hard work has started paying off. We test piloted our first product meant for farmers. Another product of ours is in the beta stage. We are also building some AI and data driven products that will give us a strategic and creative edge. 21N78E opened its offices in Gurugram and Bengaluru last year on the back of 12 wins and some significant business consolidation, including Motorola, Welspun Spaces, SHARP amongst others. According to Sudhir Bulk of the hard work is done. Now its time to gun for exponential growth and momentum. We have an eclectic & driven bunch of people at the agency. A start-up culture is infectious and crazy. It allows you to be nimble and aggressive at the same time. Fun times ahead hopefully. Authored by Rashi Mittal Nair, CEO & Co-founder, WOOP. A woman has all the potential to empower another woman. This belief has more relevance than ever in todays scenario, where we all live a physical and a virtual life. Mothers today are seeking advice from other mothers on social media forums on topics such as child nutrition and breastfeeding. A girl who finally finds the perfect solution to her acne problem doesnt refrain from recommending it to others on her social media handle. According to a report published by The Quint, a higher percentage of women use social media for marketing and informative content as compared to their male counterparts. This is a huge opportunity of brands, as women look for online communities to engage in conversations that improve lives. Keeping this as our brand ethos, WOOP successfully created a value exchange platform that allows brands to build their own army of brand advocates; while empowering women to help other women, and contribute to a cause they care about, i.e., educating the girl child. We give these women an opportunity to share their opinions, meaningful reviews, their recommendations, and brand referrals; by simply logging on to our platform through their mobile phones. With over 95% of women on WOOP signing in from their mobile phones, brands have a bigger opportunity to reach these everyday influencers without worrying about catching them at a specific place or a particular time. The easy to use gamification platform enables these women to spend their time productively, on the go and help the cause of girl child education along the way. Every campaign that we develop on WOOP starts with a basic thought i.e. How will it help another woman and then moves to the next level of making it fun, engaging and shareworthy. Over 50 million women in India spend more than an hour every day on social media channels and love to share their views with friends and peers. This opens a world full of opportunities for brands to connect and engage them to have meaningful conversations that are share worthy. In a years time, WOOP is a community of over 2 lac women, over 21 brands on board, creating 50,000 authentic conversations, over 10 lac actions and most importantly over 1.7 lac school days created. These numbers are enough to give you an idea of how digital technology can amplify a simple idea of helping someone like you to trigger meaningful conversations and advocacy for brands. Rashi Mittal Nair is a word-of-mouth marketing addict that has spent the last 15 years obsessing over what really gets people talking and how brands can best leverage those insights. WOOP has seen significant growth in just a few months. It has got partnerships in place that help brands get access to over 8 million women in India. WOOP is continuously working towards improving the user experience for the women on the platform. The WOOP product will also see a significant upgrade in the coming years, which should make it even more easy and fun for women to engage with brands on WOOP. That means more women, more brands, more actions and more school days! By 2020 WOOP hopes to generate 1 billion engagement points, which will create 2 million school days and educate over 10,000 young girls. Business Television India (BTVI), Indias Premier English Business News Channel will be available to audiences for free under a revised Tariff order from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAIs). According to the new tariff order, every broadcaster has to offer its channels either for free or at some price. Customers will receive 100 free to air channels for Rs. 130 and can subscribe to select pay channels at an additional cost. Megha Tata, COO, BTVI said, It is a very interesting time in the history of broadcasting where the consumers get a choice to select and pay only for what they want to watch. The new tariff order will bring in place a clear demarcation whether content is king or distribution. It will further put pressure on content creators in improving the quality of programming. We at BTVI have decided to offer our priceless insights and opinions free to air. This is our endeavour to prioritise our viewers and ensure we help them to Save. Invest. Prosper sans any additional costs. Adding to the same Anuj Katiyar, Head Marketing, Research and Branded Content adds BTVI always had a large audience base who were loyal and now we are putting our viewers before anything else and providing them our channel at no extra cost to them. BTVI is the only business news channel that is FTA. This will not only help us reach out to our loyal viewers without any hinderance but also new viewers who are looking at receiving business news, without putting any burden on their pockets. In lieu with TRAIs recent rule consumers can opt for channels they are keen to watch by 31st January19 This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. Airbus Group India Pvt. Ltd. has appointed Edelman India to manage strategic communications and media relations for its businesses in India. Edelman India will develop a strategy-and implementation-roadmap to drive high-level media and stakeholder outreach for Airbus activities across its commercial aircraft, helicopters and defence and space businesses. Edelman India will focus on reaffirming Airbus position as a leading contributor of the aerospace sector in the country, through multi-layered storytelling and comprehensive stakeholder outreach. Airbus has been present in India for more than three decades. The companys technology and expertise have catalysed the growth of the regional civil aviation sector and supported the modernisation of military forces, in the country. HAMILTON CITY, Calif. - Rail service is returning to Hamilton City. The California Northern Railroad will begin operating the line this week for the first time in 12 years. The rail service will deliver products to Nutrien Ag Solutions and at the Old Holly Sugar Facility in Hamilton City. The company upgraded nine miles of railroad track that runs parallel to I-5. Officials say they chose Hamilton City as a place they could easily serve multiple counties. Additionally, they say the company will create 15-20 new jobs over the next five years. MARYSVILLE, Calif. - Marysville police are investigating an officer-involved shooting which sent one man to the hospital. Police say it happened around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Officers received calls of a man with a gun on 10th Street in Marysville. When officers arrived on the scene, they say the man opened fire while coming toward police. An officer returned fire, hitting the man. The suspect is now in the hospital but police say he is in stable condition. Marysville police say an investigation is still ongoing. WENN Celebrity Other stars who steal attention with their eye-catching outfits include Janelle Monae, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway and Emma Stone. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Big names in film and television industry turned heads at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards which was held on Sunday, January 6 at The Beverly Hills in California. Among those who attracted attention with their fashion at the Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg-hosted event were Lady GaGa, Constance Wu, Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain. No stranger to showing up with eye-catching dresses, GaGa paid homage to Judy Garland when she arrived at the venue in a dress which was a reminiscent of Judy's iconic ensemble. The "A Star Is Born" actress wore a larger-than-life lavender gown with extreme puff sleeves and long train by Valentino. Finishing off the epic style, she sported blue hair that she placed into a high bun and kept her makeup relatively simple. Many actresses showed up in ballgown at the event, and Constance was one of them. Going for a fairy tale-inspired dress, the "Crazy Rich Asians" star wore a nude princess dress with an orange ribbon dress, completing her style with a glittering diamond necklace. Also sporting a nude-colored gown, Emma stepped out in a pale pink Louis Vuitton Atelier gown filled with silver beads that were draped in a way that resembled fish scales. New mom Jessica looked breathtakingly glowing when she arrived in a black corseted dress that had a sheer jeweled cape. The bottom of her dress, which was designed by Burberry, was covered in the same black jewels as he cape. Others stars whose outfits stole attention at this year's event included Anne Hathaway, Regina King and Charlize Theron. See below for some of the best dresses at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. 2019 Golden Globes: Full Movie Winners | Full TV Winners | Photo Gallery - Press Room 1. A Fashion Star Is Born WENN Teaming Lady GaGa's jaw-dropping outfit that night were several Tiffany & Co. diamonds that added glamor to her overall look. 2. Asian Princess WENN Constance Wu's stunning dress featured a corset-styled top and low, flowing tulle skirt that skimmed the red carpet floor. The actress styled her hair into a stylish messy braid. 3. Rare Red Carpet Appearance WENN Turning the event into their date night, Bradley Cooper sported an all-white tuxedo with a black bow-tie, while girlfriend Irina Shayk stunned in a low-cute, high-slit embroidered gold gown. 4. Sweetest Couple at Golden Globes WENN While John Krasinski opted for a classic navy blue tux, his wife Emily Blunt wore a decorative sleeveless silver dress by Alexander McQueen. 6. Long in the Making WENN Emma Stone's dress reportedly was covered in 63,000 twisted glass tubes and used over 49 feet of pink mousseline fabric. All in all, it took over 800 hours to make. 7. Shining Bright Claire Foy hit the red carpet in a yellow dress with gorgeous sequin detailing, teaming it with a Time's Up ribbon on her wrist to show support for the movement. 8. Stuns in Black WENN Jessica Chastain sported a black corseted dress that had a sheer jeweled cape. 9. New Kind of Leopard Print WENN Putting a rather sexy spin on animalistic couture, Anne Hathaway donned in a sequin metallic corseted animal print gown which featured a voluminous skirt with a sexy slit. 10. Effortlessly Chic WENN Rachel Weisz turned heads in an off-the-shoulder white ruffled dress with a figure-hugging floor-length black skirt. 11. Ray of Sunshine WENN Rachel Brosnahan looked bright when she arrived in a sleeveless yellow gown, keeping her makeup and accessories simple. 12. Age Is Just a Number WENN Patricia Clarkson went couture for the night, wearing an orange gown with flowing chiffon which she teamed with a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti heels. 13. Wows in White WENN Golden Globes host Sandra Oh wowed everyone in a white gown by Atelier Versace. She styled her hair in a voluminous, wavy bob for an old Hollywood vibe. 14. Going All Out WENN Regina King appeared in a stunning custom Alberta Ferretti dress which featured pink sequins with detailing along the sides. The dress helped her showed off her stunning figure. 15. Another Fashion Statement Look No stranger to showing up in major statement outfits, Janelle Monae stepped out in a black-and-gold fantasy tweed Chanel dress with a bedazzled collar over a white floor-length, knit dress. 16. Toned Abs in Display WENN Rosamund Pike showed off her toned abs in a plunging, figure-hugging dress with cuts-outs on the waist, a choker and a sheer flared hem. 17. Black and White WENN Charlize Teron looked stunning in a black-and-white Dior halter gown which featured a sleeveless black top that tied and had a keyhole opening, and a long white fitted bottom. Instagram Celebrity The 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star has been granted a second restraining order against Marty Caffrey after he allegedly caused emotional abuse. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - After filing restraining order back in August, Danielle Staub issues another temporary restraining order against her ex-husband, Marty Caffrey. A representative for "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star said that she decided to file another restraining order because she feared for her and her children's safety. The rep confirmed on Thursday, January 3, that Staub accused Caffrey of emotional abuse in the restraining order. "She couldn't take it anymore," a source told Us Weekly. "She went to the police department last night to file it. It will be good for ten days." Staub and Caffrey got married in May 2018, however, they split just after four months of marriage. A source said that the one who has been trying to end the marriage is Staub. "Danielle has been trying to end the marriage," the source claimed. "[Caffrey]'s been telling people that Danielle wants to work on their marriage, but it isn't true. He won't let her go." The source also mentioned that Caffrey has been given four settlement offers by Staub's legal team, but he denied them all. "He's refused all of them, refused mediation," the source revealed. "He's intentionally dragging this out. He has a second home nearby but refuses to leave the house that Danielle is living in." In December 2018, Staub opened up to Us Weekly about her husband's maliciousness. She said that she wanted him to cite "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split so they both can leave the marriage with "dignity." However, he refused her suggestion and filed a divorce complaint of maliciousness instead. "He turned it on me. He needs to lash out. He's not a well man," she said. "He's really not a well man and I did everything that he wanted me to do to try to end this peacefully," she told the magazine. "I wanted him to take what little dignity he had left before I had to tell the truth and that was all I really wanted to do, was just to get him to file 'irreconcilable differences.' If you don't want this attention, which I did not, I didn't need for everyone to know how he was." In the same month, Staub also claimed that Caffrey has been physically and verbally abusing her and her daughters. Caffrey allegedly "referred to [her] relationship with her daughters as a 'lesbian affair,' purposefully trying to hurt [her] by referencing incest and embarrass her about her childhood abuse." In addition, he "repeatedly referred to [her] daughters as a 'c**t' and 'entitled b***h' solely for the purpose of harming and harrassing [her]." WENN Celebrity Assuring fans that he is not losing his battle against Parkinson's disease, the 'White Oleander' actor posts a video in which he expresses his regret for depressing his fans. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Billy Connolly has posted a video reassuring fans he is not close to death. The Scottish comedy legend, 76, who is battling Parkinson's disease, worried fans earlier this week, end January 06, by saying his life was "slipping away" in a BBC documentary. On Saturday, Billy's wife Pamela Stephenson posted a video to Twitter showing her spouse playing the banjo and singing about how he is not at death's door. "Not dying, not dead, not slipping away," he muses along to the music. "Sorry if I depressed you. Maybe I should have phrased it better." In his comments made during the BBC show "Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland", the funnyman said: "My life is slipping away and I can feel it and I should. I'm 75 and I'm a damn sight nearer the end than I am the beginning. But it doesn't frighten me - it's an adventure and it's quite interesting to see myself slipping away, as bits slip off and leave me, talents leave and attributes leave." Billy's words in the documentary, which was filmed in November, appeared to contradict his thoughts in a piece he wrote for U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail the previous month. In the article, written in response to claims made by his longtime friend Michael Parkinson that his "wonderful brain" had been "dulled" by the disease, he explained that he has "learned to live" with his condition and that his doctor expects he will live until he is 90. WENN/Dutch Press Photo Celebrity It has been reported that the leading man of 'The Revenant' made an appearance before a Grand Jury in Washington D.C. to provide insights about the Malaysian financier's activities. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Leonardo DiCaprio has reportedly testified against a former benefactor caught up in a multi-billion-dollar fraud investigation. Sources familiar with the case told The Washington Post that "The Revenant" star made a secret appearance before a Washington D.C. Grand Jury in recent months to testify as part of the U.S. Justice Department's probe into embezzlement from a Malaysian government investment fund. One of those accused is fugitive financier Jho Low, who lavished gifts on the actor, including an Oscar statuette that once belonged to Marlon Brando and artwork by Picasso, and also helped fund his movie "The Wolf of Wall Street". The 44-year-old is not a target of the probe and is in the process of forfeiting the items he received from Jho. According to the Post, prosecutors believe the actor can provide useful insights about the celebrity-loving Malaysian financier's activities. The alleged fraudster, who is believed to be on the run in China, is accused of stealing and laundering billions of dollars from the government fund and then financing a lobbying campaign to halt the investigations into him. Any evidence the actor and environmentalist has given to the Grand Jury remains secret under U.S. law. Leonardo's representatives have not commented on whether he has given evidence, but previously said he was cooperating with investigators and is, "entirely supportive of all efforts to assure that justice is done in this matter." The rogue businessman's love of fame has led to other celebrities being involved in the case; model Miranda Kerr had to forfeit $8.1 million (6.4 million) worth of diamonds she was gifted by him, and former The Fugees rapper Pras has been forced to deny involvement in helping Jho move money to fund lobbying efforts. WENN/Dave Bedrosian Celebrity Guests invited to the intimate event held in West Hollywood are told to sign a code of conduct and give their consent to the placing of blackout stickers on their phones. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Angelina Jolie hosted a rare private celebration for Alfonso Cuaron. The "Maleficent" star honored the "Roma" director on Saturday, January 5, following the screening of his movie at an exclusive new West Hollywood members club, California. The party was extremely strict with "no photos" and "no social media" policy. The guests were made to sign a code of conduct and consent to put a blackout sticker on the camera lens of their phones. Even Angelina herself signed the conduct. A guest source said to Page Six, "Even Angelina had to sign and put up a sticker on her phone. She seemed quite amused as it was done." Bringing more prestige to the elite gathering, Angelina allegedly brought Hollywood's most famous maitre d', Dimitri Dimitrov from the Tower Bar as the master of ceremony. Attending the party were the likes of Meryl Streep, Lady GaGa, Johnny Depp, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Bruckheimer, Urs Fischer and CAA bigwigs Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane. Earlier in the day, the "Salt" star was seen attending the screening for the Netflix film at San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood. She was seen posing with the movie's stars, Yalitza Aparicio and Marina De Tavira. The "Mr. & Mrs.Smith" actress was dressed in a sleek black outfit as she appeared alongside, Alfonso, who was fresh off his victory at the 2019 Golden Globes after taking home the award for Best Director - Motion Picture for his movie "Roma". Her attendance at the screening marked her first public appearance since November, when she attended PSVI Film Festival - Fighting Stigma through Film reception at the British Film Institute. At that time, the 43-year-old star mingled with Sophie, the Countess of Wessex and British politician Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The Lara Croft depicter was there as UNHCR Special Envoy where she would help raise awareness of sexual violence and fight stigma through the films and the film-makers who came from the conflict-affected countries. Instagram Celebrity Sharing the heartbreaking news on her social media account, the twin sister of Tia Mowry praises Grandma Clo for being the strongest person she knew. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Not long after the sudden passing of her teenage niece, Tamera Mowry suffered yet another lost in her family. Over the first weekend of January 2019, the co-host of "The Real" made use of her social media to pay tribute to her beloved grandmother who passed away after a fierce battle with cancer. The 40-year-old actress shared the sad news for the first time on Saturday, January 5. Posting a photo of her hand holding her grandmother's, she wrote in the caption, "Grandma Clo ... You are the strongest person I know. You are the matriarch of our family. Every good thing trickles down from you. You amaze me every day with your strength and unconditional love. Your obedience and love towards our Heavenly Father is admirable. Love you so so so much. #cancersucks." The following day, the former "Sister, Sister" star uploaded another photo of herself with her smiling grandmother. "You are with the Lord now. You fought a long long fight," she penned alongside the wedding photo. "Your wish was to be around your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Ariah, Aden, Adam and I miss you so much. I love you love you. Till we meet again." Tamera wasn't the only one mourning the death of her grandmother. Her twin sister, Tia Mowry, scrawled how thankful she was for being able to see Grandma Clo one last time before her passing. "You went on to see the Lord this morning and Im so happy I got to see you," she noted on her own tribute post. "I thank God. I love you grandma, I love you. My heart is broken." Tamera's husband, Adam Housley, also expressed his grief through an Instagram post. "I will always remember and cherish this day. Granny is now with Alaina and all those we cherish and miss so much," he scribbled. "My grandmas are now all together and I know they are telling stories and watching over us. From day 1 you accepted me, loved me, supported me, pinched my arm and even had a beer with me. You loved my wife, your family and all of your grandkids with unconditional love. Thank you. Love you. Rest." Grandma Clo's passing came just months after Tamera's niece, Alaina Housley, was killed in mass shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California. In mid-December 2018, the actress remembered Alaina in a heartbreaking tribute that partially read, "I know I have a guardian angel with me now. But selfishly I want you here with me. Until we meet and sing again." Instagram Celebrity Meanwhile, Nicki and ex Meek Mill continues to fire shot at each other after the former tells the crowd at Australia's FOMO festival that Meek is still lurking on her DM. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Nicki Minaj is not shy to share details about her and beau Kenneth Petty's wild sex life. The "Barbie Dreams" raptress appears to be generous of them as she revealed the details in a series of racy tweets on Saturday, January 5. The "Chun-Li" rapper responded to a fan tweet in which s/he thought that the Trinidadian beauty was "probably getting d**k 6x a night and giggles when yall keep saying 3." Nicki, though, set the record straight in her tweet. "3-4 on average," the Young Money femcee clarified. She went on saying that having sex 6 times a night "is a bit much sis." 3-4 on average. 6 is a bit much sis https://t.co/HQ465hafG6 QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) January 5, 2019 In addition to that, the "Queen" rapper teased that she and her new boyfriend have got baby names covered when a fan offered "a couple of suggestions. "We already chose them babe. Lol but thx," she said. Is she hinting that she wants to have a baby with Kenneth? We already chose them babe. Lol but thx. https://t.co/T8hzrwdWz9 QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) January 6, 2019 That seeemingly concerned one of her fans, who thought that Nicki getting pregnant would distract her U.S. tour schedule. "Baby names? That's cute and all but just know, if ya eggs get cracked before we get our US tour I'm using my Queen Pass and Queen Pin to gain entry to the Baby Shower. The choice is yours," the fan tweeted. Nicki was quick to assure her fans that the tour would go as planned. Nothing is getting in the way of the US TOUR boo boo, she said. Nothing is getting in the way of the US TOUR boo boo https://t.co/VJF9FhwlVa QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) January 6, 2019 Previous report suggested that Nicki and Kenneth had already discussed having children. Nicki has always wanted to become a mother, and thats something she and Kenny have discussed, an insider told Us Weekly. Additionaly, the insider claimed that the Anaconda rapper is absolutely head over heels in love. While Nicki and Kenneths relationship continues to heat up, its not the case between her and ex Meek Mill. During her performance at Australia's FOMO festival, Nicki threw shades to the rapper, from whome she split more than a year ago. The self-proclaimed black Barbie performed Barbie Dreams at the event and she stopped midway the song to tell the crowd, Meek still be in m DMs, I be having to duck him. I mean . . . I could tell you secrets but I won't. Cause being a bitter b*tch is what I don't. Meek wasnt going to let Nicki shade him as he fired back on Twitter, saying, Why you be sooo mad at me and not the people that came right at ya neck! Im cool Im doing good lol something is wrong here. Why you be sooo mad at me and not the people that came right at ya neck! Im cool Im doing good lol something is wrong here Meek Mill (@MeekMill) January 5, 2019 Leave me alone you know I get a lil too out of control with the truth! Meek Mill (@MeekMill) January 5, 2019 He added, Leave me alone you know I get a lil too out of control with the truth! A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson says both Japan and South Korea feel the need for talks over last month's radar incident. Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo made the remarks at a regular news conference on Monday. Choi expressed her country's view that the issue should be solved by talks between defense officials of the two nations. She said the ministry is working with Japan to set up working-level talks, but had no details yet. Japanese authorities say a South Korean destroyer directed its fire-control radar at a Maritime Self-Defense Force airplane in the Sea of Japan on December 20th. South Korea denies it and has released a video clip to counter Japan's claims. Annapurna Pictures Movie It's the second Golden Globe Award for the 'Vice' star and his first in Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy category. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Christian Bale has just added another Golden Globe trophy to his shelf. The Wales-born actor has joined the list of winners at the 76th annual award show after winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for portraying former vice president Dick Cheney in "Vice (2018)". Thanking director and scribe Adam McKay for hiring him, the 44-year-old actor shared how the filmmaker pitched the role to him. "He said, 'I've got to find someone who be absolutely charisma-free and rivaled by everybody' ... thank you for all the competition I will be cornering the market on charisma-free (sic)," he jokingly said onstage. Bale then suggested that Republican politician Mitch McConnell would be the perfect role for him next. "What do you think, Mitch McConnell next? That could be good couldn't it?" he asked the audience. Taking a subtle shade at Cheney, he additionally thanked "satan" "for giving me inspiration on how to play this role." It's the second Golden Globe Award for Bale who has won one for his role in "The Fighter". He bagged the accolade in 2011 in Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture category. He had also been nominated twice before in Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy category for his roles in "American Hustle" and "The Big Short", but didn't win at the time. Following Bale's win at the Sunday, January 6 ceremony, Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" was announced as the winner of Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language. Meanwhile, Darren Criss nabbed Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for his portrayal of Versace's killer Andrew Cunanan on "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story". More winners in movie and TV categories will be announced at the show, which is hosted by Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh. 2019 Golden Globes: Red Carpet Arrivals | Full Movie Winners | Full TV Winners | Photo Gallery - Press Room WENN/Dutch Press Photo Celebrity Addressing the 'Good Morning Britain' host's accusation of the band using sex to sell records, Jade Thirlwall finds it amazing that Ariana and other women have rallied behind them. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Little Mix have thanked women like Ariana Grande for defending them against Piers Morgan's accusations of using sex to sell records. The loudmouthed British broadcaster reacted angrily to the band promoting their single "Strip" by getting naked for a photoshoot to emphasise the track's focus on body positivity. For the shoot the girls had many of the insults they had been subjected to in the past written on their skin. Piers mocked the band on his breakfast show "Good Morning Britain", saying, "They're stripping off to sell albums, that's what it's about. The rest of it is baloney." Several top female stars, including Ariana and Lauren Jauregui, jumped to the band's defence, interventions Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall is grateful for. "What was amazing, actually, is that we haven't had to say much (to Piers), as women have rallied together and defended us," she told The Guardian newspaper. Explaining that they did not want to get involved in a major spat with the TV newsman, Jade added, "I mean, he's, you know, ugh... I don't want to dwell too much on it, and he doesn't deserve a line on it because he's obviously loving it." Defending the song's message, she explained, "It's not about sexualising yourself; it's about having a voice and speaking out and being brave enough to stand up to people." Her bandmate Jesy Nelson revealed that they co-wrote the track in response to media stories commenting on Jade and Perrie Edwards' looks. "We wanted to channel our anger into a positive song saying, 'Oh f**k off, this is me, and I'm going to love every single part of me and if you don't like it s*d off,' " she stated. In The Guardian interview, the group, also made up of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, revealed that they had intended the song to be the lead single off their new album, "LM5", but label executives had advised them to put their duet with Nicki Minaj, "Woman Like Me", out first. WENN/FayesVision Movie Other winners at the 8th annual AACTA International Awards include Alfonso Cuaron's 'Roma', 'Bohemian Rhapsody' star Rami Malek and 'Green Book' actor Mahershala Ali. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Nicole Kidman and Olivia Colman were among the winners at the eighth annual AACTA International Awards on Friday, January 04. The Aussie actress took home the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts' (AACTA) Supporting Actress prize for her portrayal of a religious mother in Joel Edgerton's gay conversion drama "Boy Erased". According to the Australian Associated Press, Nicole explained how Joel had offered her the role out of the blue when accepting the award at the ceremony at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. "He called me up and said, 'Nicole, I know we've never worked together before but I have something for you," she said. Olivia continued her run of early awards season successes by winning the Best Actress trophy for her portrayal of Britain's last Stuart monarch Queen Anne in "The Favourite". The male acting awards went to two stars playing musicians; Rami Malek won Best Actor for his starring role as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody", and Best Supporting Actor was given to Mahershala Ali for playing jazz pianist Don Shirley in "Green Book". The top filmmaking prizes both went to Alfonso Cuaron, as his semi-autobiographical drama "Roma" won Best Film, and he was also named Best Director. Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, who penned the script for "The Favourite", which follows the battle between two cousins for Queen Anne's romantic affections, won the Best Screenplay award. Here is the full list of winners is as follows: Marvel Studios Movie Aside from talking about her method to keep key plot points secret, the 'Captain Marvel' star also opens up about joining the star-studded ensemble of the blockbuster franchise. Jan 7, 2019 AceShowbiz - Actress Brie Larson has mentally "deleted" key plot points from the "Avengers: Infinity War" sequel to avoid accidentally leaking spoilers about the highly-anticipated Marvel blockbuster. The "Room" star joins the cast as Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and actually shot her scenes for "Avengers: Endgame" before filming her own standalone superhero outing. The gig marked her first project with officials at Disney/Marvel Studios, who are known for closely guarding all storyline details to avoid spoilers, so Brie learned to "erase" her memory as she headed home from the Atlanta, Georgia set each day. "I just never wanted to feel like I was going to slip up or that I was going to say the wrong thing," she told USA Today. "I was like, 'I can't live with myself being the one that spoils something.' So I really just deleted it. I tried my best to journal it if I want to recall it and go, 'Oh yeah, that was a crazy time.' And I'm excited when the movie comes out to finally be able to talk about it and go, 'Yes, this was crazy'." "But my family doesn't know," she added. "I haven't talked to anybody about anything because I'm just a very diligent secret-keeper." At the time of the "Endgame" production, Brie was gearing up to star in her own "Captain Marvel" movie and she admits stepping onto the all-star set, which included franchise veterans Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, was a surreal experience. "I just got to be like, (a) junior superhero and ask them questions like, 'Hi, I'm the new kid! So what kind of protein bars do you eat and when do you train? Is your costume comfortable?'," Brie shared. "I was just able to learn so much, and everybody was really kind and helpful. So I got to learn the ropes a little bit before I was thrown into this thing where I'd be by myself." "Captain Marvel", which is set in the 1990s, hits theatres in March, weeks before "Avengers: Endgame" premieres in late April (2019). Netflix/Universal Pictures/Alfonso Cuaron Movie Landing for four nods each, the Alfonso Cuaron's drama and the Viggo Mortensen's dramedy are up against each other for the Best Picture and Best Director prizes. Jan 4, 2019 AceShowbiz - "Roma" and "Green Book" will be the films to beat at the 2019 Movies for Grownups Awards after scoring four nominations each. The two dramas are nominated for Best Picture, facing off with "A Star Is Born", "BlackKklansman", and "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", while "Roma"'s Alfonso Cuaron and "Green Book"'s Peter Farrelly will compete for Best Director, against Spike Lee ("BlackKklansman"), Mimi Leder ("On the Basis of Sex"), and Kenneth Branagh ("All Is True"). Viggo Mortensen ("Green Book") will fight for Best Actor alongside Willem Dafoe ("At Eternity's Gate"), Hugh Jackman ("The Front Runner"), Robert Redford ("The Old Man & the Gun"), and John C. Reilly ("Stan & Ollie"), while the Best Actress prize will be decided between Sandra Bullock ("Bird Box), Nicole Kidman ("Destroyer"), Julia Roberts ("Ben Is Back"), Glenn Close ("The Wife"), and Viola Davis ("Widows"). "Green Book" also picks up a nod in the Best Screenwriter category, while "Roma"'s remaining nominations are for Best Time Capsule, celebrating stories which capture a real-life moment in history, and Best Foreign Film. "Widows", "Black Panther", and "Crazy Rich Asians" are among the other multiple nominees for the AARP's 18th annual Movies for Grownups Awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on 4 February. Shirley MacLaine will be honoured with the event's annual Movies For Grownups Career Achievement Award. The full list of nominations is: Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups: Best Actress: Best Actor: Best Supporting Actress: Best Supporting Actor: Best Director: Best Screenwriter: Best Ensemble: Best Grownup Love Story: Best Intergenerational Film: Best Time Capsule: Best Documentary: Best Foreign Film: .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Former State Auditor Wayne Johnson is being considered for the position of Torrance County manager, Johnson confirmed Monday. His name appeared on the Torrance County Commission notice of regular meeting for Wednesday, under a public hearing item listed as Contract for Wayne Johnson, related to County Manager. I dont know how it will go, so well have to wait and see, he told the Journal. I think the position fits well with my background, and my work with Bernalillo County and with my job as state auditor. Johnson previously served as the Republican District 5 representative on the Bernalillo County Commission from 2010 to 2017. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Former Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Johnson to serve as state auditor in December 2017, succeeding fTim Keller, who was elected mayor of Albuquerque. Johnson was a candidate in the mayoral race. Johnson was born in Albuquerque and attended Sandia High School. He received a bachelors degree in university studies from the University of New Mexico. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham chose a lawyer from the San Francisco Bay Area who has a background in working with homeless young people to run New Mexicos child-welfare agency, one of six top appointees announced Monday. Brian Blalock, who has degrees from Harvard, Stanford and Columbia universities, is leaving his job with the nonprofit, anti-poverty group Tipping Point Community to head the Children, Youth and Families Department in New Mexico. One of his immediate priorities will be to boost staffing in CYFD, the state agency that investigates child abuse and oversees a variety of programs for children. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Lujan Grisham estimated that parts of the department have vacancy rates as high as 25 percent. Its overall vacancy rate is 18 percent, according to the state Sunshine Portal. We need more social workers in CYFD, Lujan Grisham told a news conference Monday in Albuquerque. We have atrocious, atrocious vacancy rates. Overhauling the state foster care system and better identifying unsafe situations for foster children are also priorities, Lujan Grisham said. Blalocks appointment comes after a series of shocking child-abuse cases including allegations last year that a 7-year-old girl was forced into prostitution. Before there was an arrest in the case, CYFD had received 25 calls alleging abuse and neglect of the girl and her two older brothers, according to documents filed by state prosecutors. Blalocks background includes co-founding a $100 million initiative to target chronic youth homelessness in the Bay Area, founding and directing the Youth Justice Project at Bay Area Legal Aid, and working on foster-care legislation. In any department that works with at-risk kids, Blalock said Monday, the very first priority should be to make sure that youth and children are safe. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who took office last week, said she is hoping to fill the rest of her Cabinet spots by the start of the legislative session next Tuesday. A secretary to head the state Public Education Department is among the vacancies that havent been filled yet, although the governor has assigned Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, a former special education teacher with a doctorate in education, to temporarily take on the duties of the departments Cabinet secretary. The other appointments announced Monday are: Pam Coleman to head the State Personnel Office. Coleman previously worked in the White House under then-President Barack Obama, including a stint as director of the outreach and recruitment team in the presidential personnel office. James Kenney as secretary of the Environment Department. Kenney is leaving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he worked in Albuquerque as senior policy adviser for oil and gas. Kathy Kunkel as secretary of the Department of Health. She is a lawyer who previously served as general counsel of the department and as an assistant attorney general. Kunkel worked with Lujan Grisham, for example, when Lujan Grisham served as health secretary under then-Gov. Bill Richardson. Mark Shea as secretary of the Department of Public Safety. He worked for nearly 30 years in the police department for Albuquerque Public Schools, including 15 years as deputy chief. More recently, he worked as undersheriff in Valencia County, and he spent nine years in the DPS training and recruiting division. Nicole Comeaux as director of the Medical Assistance Division in the Human Services Department. She worked previously as a senior adviser at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C. The Cabinet secretaries announced Monday are subject to confirmation by the state Senate, though they can begin work right away. They will make $128,000 a year. Lujan Grisham said she made it clear to her appointments that they will carry a heavy workload and should be ready to cooperate with other agencies and Cabinet secretaries. All of these jobs are tough, she said. I want folks who come to us in the interview process knowing that and being clear its a team effort. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal Jessica Kelley will not be going to trial in the brutal slaying of Victoria Martens. In a nearly empty courtroom Monday watched only by the media, a couple of investigators and Victorias crying grandparents 34-year-old Kelley pleaded no contest to child abuse recklessly caused resulting in death, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The plea was accepted by Judge Charles Brown. She faces a total of 50 years in prison. Since she has two prior felony convictions, she will be sentenced as a habitual offender, which adds 20 years in prison to the sentence. But Kelley has the possibility of cutting her time in prison down to 20 years total with good behavior. The plea agreement is similar to one Brown rejected last September. Although the District Attorneys Office and Kelleys defense attorneys had agreed to that deal at the time, Judge Brown said they had not presented enough evidence that Kelley was guilty of child abuse. At a news conference after the plea hearing, District Attorney Raul Torrez said the primary difference this time is that Kelley is pleading no contest or saying while she is not admitting guilt, she is not contesting the states narrative. We were able to fashion an agreement that substantially exposes Ms. Kelley to the same amount of time in the Department of Corrections and satisfies the concerns of the court, Torrez said. It also brings some finality at least to the second of the three suspects that are charged with the death of Victoria Martens. Kelley is the second suspect to take a plea deal in the case. Victorias mother, Michelle Martens, pleaded guilty to child abuse recklessly caused resulting in death over the summer, and she faces between 12 and 15 years in prison. Martens boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, is charged with child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence. His trial has been delayed pending a ruling by the New Mexico Court of Appeals. His attorney, Steve Aarons, said his client is innocent and will not take a plea deal. We are disappointed that the prosecution settled for a child abuse conviction against Jessica Kelley for her brutal murder and dismemberment of Victoria Martens, Aarons wrote in an email. On the other hand, by pleading and agreeing to testify as the prosecutions star witness, Kelley will be subject to cross examination at our trial. Although police initially said Gonzales and Kelley stabbed and strangled Victoria while Martens watched, prosecutors now say an unidentified man was retaliating against Gonzales when he went to Martens apartment and killed her daughter. They say that mans partial DNA sample was left on the little girls body and he has been indicted as a John Doe. Torrez said he hopes the plea deal his office struck with Kelley will strengthen the case against Gonzales and will help identify and prosecute John Doe. No sexual assault Less than 24 hours after the August 2016 morning when 10-year-old Victorias body was found mutilated and on fire in the bathtub of her mothers Northwest Albuquerque apartment, detectives arrested Martens, Gonzales and Gonzales cousin, Kelley. They were all charged with murder, child abuse and other charges, and Gonzales and Kelley were charged with raping the little girl. On Monday, Mark Earnest, Kelleys defense attorney, announced that over the past two months experts have determined that contrary to the findings in the initial autopsy report, there was not any evidence that Victoria was raped the night she was killed. In totality these three experts that Im talking about have over 100 years (of experience) he said. They determined that no sexual assault took place. Despite that, early on, the autopsy report in this case indicated that there was sexual assault. Last Friday, the DAs Office filed charges dismissing rape charges against Kelley, saying there was not sufficient evidence to connect Jessica Kelley to the charge of criminal sexual penetration. Earnest said he wishes those charges had been dismissed earlier in order to correct the publics misconceptions about the case. Part of the pretrial publicity in this case, adding to the horrific nature (and it was a horrific crime), was this added element that Victoria had been raped and sexually assaulted, and she wasnt, Earnest said. That the state did not concede until a few days before the trial in this case. In a statement, Alex Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, strongly refuted that the Office of the Medical Investigator had mishandled the case. She said the supervising pathologist on the case was certified in anatomical and clinical pathology and was fully trained in forensic pathology and qualified to perform autopsies, even though he had not yet taken the forensic pathology board exam. This case was reviewed by seven additional experts, including forensic pathologists, a child sexual abuse expert, and an expert in the changes in genital tissues from sexually transmitted viruses before the autopsy report was finalized, Sanchez wrote in the statement. We strongly refute any claims he was unqualified to handle this case. She said officials will be reviewing the independent findings along with OMIs autopsy report. Torrez said this case has illustrated that all the major players in the criminal justice system can do a much better job. We do our very best to be professionals, he said. To examine the evidence, to look at every angle of the case, to work with law enforcement partners, our partners at the Office of the Medical Investigator and to examine specific cases, but also to learn important lessons for the future. Not a perfect outcome Kelley was tweaking and experiencing paranoid delusions from methamphetamine the afternoon she agreed to baby sit Victoria while Martens and Gonzales went out, according to the factual basis included with the plea agreement. She should have realized she was too intoxicated and impaired to care for a child. When an unknown man arrived at the apartment, asked for Gonzales and went to Victorias room, she should have tried to stop him. The man strangled Victoria to the point of death or to the point of causing great bodily harm, the statement reads. Evidence would support a reasonable inference that Kelley knew or should have known that the man posed a substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious harm to Victoria. After the man left, Kelley carried Victorias body down the stairs, but was interrupted by Martens and Gonzales return. Kelley told Gonzales that Victoria had been killed and the two cousins agreed to conceal the crime and dispose of Victorias body and to hide the murder from Martens by keeping her way from Victorias room. After cleaning up the room, Kelley grabbed a clothes iron and struck Martens on the face with it. This is the basis for the aggravated assault charge. There was a struggle between all three suspects and a short time later, Martens and Gonzales left apartment 808. Kelley then set Victorias body on fire and took down two smoke detectors in the apartment. Torrez, flanked by his two lead prosecutors and Art Gonzales, the deputy chief of investigations at Albuquerque Police Department, said the two detectives who had been assisting with the investigation will continue to do so. Art Gonzales did not comment at the news conference, and in response to request for an interview, an APD spokesman merely said, Todays plea agreement is a step toward accountability for this heinous crime. Torrez said he did not make the decision to enter a plea deal lightly and he recognizes its not the perfect outcome. It is not something that is ideal in terms of what we all would like to see happen in these cases, he said. However we are confronted as prosecutors with our ability to present cases based on the facts and the evidence that we have. We, as you know, identified some issues with the initial investigation which altered the course of our prosecution and had to inform our decision to enter into this plea agreement. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal Its been two years and almost five months since one of the most high-profile and shocking crimes in Albuquerques recent history and the first trial is scheduled to begin this week. On Aug. 24, 2016, officers called to a Northwest Albuquerque apartment walked into a horrific and chaotic scene 10-year-old Victoria Martens dead, wrapped in a blanket, on fire, dismembered, in the bathtub of her mothers home. They quickly arrested the girls mother, Michelle Martens, Martens boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, and his cousin Jessica Kelley, charging them with a litany of crimes. All three were indicted for murder, child abuse, aggravated criminal sexual penetration and several counts of tampering with evidence. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Only Kelley still faces the most serious charges. The rape charges against her were dismissed late Friday afternoon due to a lack of forensic evidence, but she still faces charges of murder and child abuse resulting in death. Kelleys trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday with the prosecution and the defense beginning voir dire, or the process of choosing 12 jurors and two alternates. Out of a pool of 529 potential jurors, only 32 had no pre-existing knowledge of the case. This worries Kelleys defense attorneys, who say that if a potential juror is aware of some elements of the case, they should not serve on the jury. Ms. Kelley should not have the burden placed on her of overcoming the bias that comes with the juror possessing that information that never would have been released in the courtroom or the trial, said Nicholas Hart, one of Kelleys defense attorneys during a hearing last week. The information thats in the public is not the typical type of pretrial publicity. Jury selection is expected to take several days. Judge Charles Brown has allocated five weeks for the trial. He also said at a hearing last week that he has not ruled out the possibility of the state and the defense reaching a plea deal and avoiding a trial all together. Horrific details The states theory of the case has changed dramatically since the crime was first reported. Less than 24 hours after Victorias body was found, Albuquerque police announced they were charging her mother and the two other suspects with child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and tampering with evidence, among other crimes. Gonzales and Kelley were also charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor. The sensational and gruesome details from Martenss interview with detectives that the suspects had given Victoria methamphetamine to calm her down, that Martens had watched her daughters rape for her own sexual gratification, that Martens had been finding other men to rape her daughter quickly inflamed the public. Lawmakers, and then-Gov. Susana Martinez, referenced the case when calling for the state to bring back the death penalty for certain crimes. The day after news of the crime broke, hundreds of friends, neighbors, children and other mourners flooded the parking lot outside of the Martenss Northwest Albuquerque apartment for a candlelight vigil. They piled balloons, stuffed animals and cards around a tree and sang Amazing Grace in her honor. Days later, community members held a heavenly birthday party for the girl, who was killed the day she turned 10. Thousands gathered at Mariposa Basin Park, including Victorias grandparents and the then mayor and police chief. Months later, in late October, a memorial service was held for the little girl. Then-police chief Gorden Eden, then-Gov. Martinez and Attorney General Hector Balderas spoke at the two-hour event attended by hundreds. The casket was strictly ceremonial since Victorias body had not been released by the Office of the Medical Investigator. Shocking twist As defense attorneys began preparing for the three trials, the case largely faded from the public spotlight. Then, last June, District Attorney Raul Torrez announced a shocker much of what the public thought they knew about the case was simply not true. He said a team in his office made up of highly regarded prosecutors and APD detectives had been conducting an additional investigation and they had discovered that Martens and Gonzales were not at home when Victoria was killed. And they announced an unidentified fourth suspect likely was there. A forensic psychiatrist was prepared to testify that Martens statements to detectives in which she implicated herself and her boyfriend had been full of false admissions and had been contaminated by APD detectives and therefore could not be relied upon. In late June, Martens, now 37, pleaded guilty to child abuse recklessly caused resulting in death. She has not yet been sentenced but faces between 12 and 15 years in prison with the possibility of that being cut in half due to good behavior. It is possible she could be called to testify at Kelleys trial. The most serious charges against Gonzales, now 34, were dismissed, but he still faces several counts of tampering with evidence as well as child abuse resulting in death. His trial was scheduled to begin in October, but was put on hold while the New Mexico Court of Appeals decides whether certain evidence should be permitted or suppressed. Prosecutors have filed an indictment charging John Doe with murder, rape, child abuse and several other charges. Late last month, the DAs office said the APD officers assisting the prosecutors had returned to other cases, since the investigation into that suspect had stalled. A new theory In early September, prosecutors offered up a surprising new theory. They had crafted a deal with Kelley and her attorney Mark Earnest in which she would receive 49 1/2 years in prison when she pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death. Prosecutor Greer Rose announced that Kelley had told them she was high on methamphetamine and babysitting Victoria when an unknown man came to the apartment and asked for Gonzales. The stranger then went into the 10-year-olds room and killed the little girl, she said. Kelley said the stranger, whom she described as a well-dressed man, was retaliating against Gonzales for threats he had made against rival gang members. Gonzales had been punched in the eye during a fight at Kelleys prison homecoming barbecue a couple of days earlier, and prosecutors found numerous text messages on his phone alluding to a drive-by shooting and threatening the woman who had punched him, her children and her boyfriend. Kelley said the man threatened her and her family if she and Gonzales didnt clean up the mess, so the cousins hatched a plan to dispose of Victorias body after Martens went to bed. Kelley was prepared to plead guilty to child abuse resulting in death for not stopping the man and for not protecting the girl she was taking care of. But, in another surprising turn, Judge Charles Brown rejected the plea deal, saying there was not enough evidence that she was guilty of the crime she was admitting to. In a hearing last week, he stated that it was not too late for prosecutors and the defense to craft another deal. But, as of now, the case will proceed to trial. Key players in the Victoria Martens murder case Defendant Jessica Kelley Judge Charles Brown District Attorney Raul Torrez Prosecutors Greer Rose and James Grayson Lead defense attorney Mark Earnest .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal In New Mexico, employees with medical cannabis cards have been fired because they tested positive for marijuana at work. Federal and state judges in three cases have ruled in favor of the employers, basically finding that the workers are not protected under federal or state law for using marijuana in violation of company policies. There are no protections right now in New Mexico for workers who use medical marijuana legally, Albuquerque attorney Jason Bowles said. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ And certainly not for recreational pot. Bowles, who has lectured on the topic, said other states have put in place minimal protections for employees. That could happen here under proposed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use that would include some protections for workers who use marijuana medical or recreational outside the workplace. Those provisions are sure to concern businesses, law enforcement officials and others. The legislation would make it unlawful for a business to take adverse action against an employee for off-premises conduct that is lawful or for a positive drug test for cannabis unless the employer could show by a preponderance of evidence that an employees lawful use of cannabis has impaired the ability to perform the employees job. The proposals contained in the working draft of the bill to legalize marijuana have some limits. They dont, for example, protect someone from possessing or using intoxicating substances such as marijuana or alcohol during working hours. And there would be protection for businesses from committing any act in violation of federal law or that would result in the loss of a federal contract. It would also provide some protections on school grounds. The bill says that no school may penalize a person solely for conduct allowed by the law legalizing recreational marijuana use or the medical marijuana statute unless failing to do so would cause the school to lose money or other benefits under federal law or regulation. School officials have been in a quandary about what to do about children taking medical marijuana products for medical problems such as epilepsy, one of the approved medical conditions under the states medical marijuana program. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved one drug containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, for certain types of epilepsy but expects a limited number of patients to receive the drug. Medical pot When the New Mexico Legislature passed the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Care Act establishing a regulated medical marijuana system in 2007, it didnt address the hot-button workplace legal issue. That statute legalized the use of marijuana to treat serious health conditions. Although some states have included in their medical marijuana statutes a mandate that employers accommodate holders of medical marijuana cards, New Mexicos medical marijuana law did not. Arizona and other states required reasonable accommodations by employers to accommodate medical marijuana use after making a holistic determination of the nature of the job and possible accommodations that could help the employee successfully manage those duties. These provisions provide an exception if it would compromise the safety of the worker or another person. This exception for safety-sensitive employment positions is invoked when the job involves driving, operating heavy machinery or other high-risk activities. The Arizona law says an employee cant be fired for using medical marijuana use outside the workplace, absent a showing of high-risk job duties, on-the-job intoxication or marijuana use on the job site. Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New York and Rhode Island have statutes that explicitly prohibit employment discrimination against medical marijuana users, similar to the one in Arizona. Lawsuits in NM Three workplace lawsuits have been filed in New Mexico on behalf of employees who were fired because they used medical marijuana. In all three cases, the employees lost. Donna Smith, a physician assistant, sued Presbyterian Healthcare Services after she was fired shortly after she was hired at an urgent care clinic because she tested positive for marijuana during a routine company drug test. Smith claimed Presbyterian violated her rights under the state law by wrongfully firing her due to her medical condition PTSD. The state court ruled that Presbyterian could fire Smith because she did not inform Presbyterian of her disability or request an accommodation. Because she hadnt asked, the court didnt have to decide whether her employer had to make an accommodation. Rojerio Garcia told his new employer Tractor Supply Co. that he was using medical marijuana for a serious medical problem, but he was fired after testing positive. His lawsuit for wrongful termination under the federal disabilities law and state human rights law was transferred to federal court. U.S. District Judge William Chip Johnson found that requiring employers to accommodate medical marijuana use under state law would conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act. The case was dismissed. Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center Lt. Augustine Stanley was fired when he tested positive for marijuana during a random drug test of jail officials. He filed a civil lawsuit in federal court. Stanley claimed that he used medical marijuana only after work for PTSD, and that his supervisors never noticed any negative effects in his performance. He alleges the county violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the state human rights law by refusing to accommodate his condition. U.S. District Judge James Browning dismissed Stanleys federal claims and sent the rest of the case back to state court, where state District Judge Carl Butkus dismissed the remaining counts. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SECOND IN A FIVE-PART SERIES Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal If New Mexico lawmakers go down the road to legalized recreational marijuana, they will need to create a bureaucracy to regulate and tax the new industry. Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, one of the main sponsors of legislation that will be introduced in the coming session, doesnt even try to downplay the complexity of dealing with a wide range of issues, including who can sell it, where it can be consumed and whether the current definition of drug-free workplace will be significantly changed. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ It is very complicated and technical, he said. After all, supporters predict that legalization of marijuana would create up to 11,000 jobs and generate more than $100 million in tax revenue claims that opponents say are inflated and dont take into account the social costs that could come with pot dispensaries on every corner. Martinez and Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino offered marijuana legalization legislation last year but withdrew it because it was not on the call for the 30-day session in Santa Fe. That little-publicized bill forms the basis of a measure they will introduce this year, with some revisions based on research done over the past year. Well be introducing a slightly different version, Martinez said, adding that he and other supporters spent the past year meeting with people across the state to hear their concerns and consider ways to address them. Ortiz y Pino said important details may be missing because state agencies under the administration of outgoing Republican Gov. Susana Martinez were not cooperative. We have to get information from state agencies to find out how they will be impacted and what they need, Ortiz y Pino said. We werent getting that. Gov. Martinezs office said Ortiz y Pino never contacted her office about the issue. One thing is for sure: There will be plenty of questions. Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said that representing a large agricultural district brings to mind a series of questions. How do you license growers? How many plants? Is it by the individual plant or the acre? Those are just some of the questions that come to my mind, Ingle said. The bill that was introduced would allow growers to operate in any part of the state and would charge an excise tax per plant. The bill would keep medical marijuana patient registration with the state Department of Health, but all licensing would be moved to the Department of Regulation and Licensing the agency that oversees liquor licenses. Other state agencies would have some responsibility for drafting regulations on marijuana growers and manufacturers who make marijuana oil and edible marijuana products. Jeremy Vaughan, president of the New Mexico State Police Association, said the organization made up of current and retired officers doesnt have a formal position on whether marijuana should be legalized but it does have concerns about who will police the industry. We also have concerns about where the licensing is placed, Vaughan said. Right now, it will be put in the Regulation and Licensing Department. We believe it should be in the Department of Public Safety, like it is in Colorado. Social justice Many of the provisions deal with legal issues, ranging from local option elections to allow marijuana dispensaries to how taxes would be paid and shared between the state and local governments. Some of the issues are basic to the industry testing and packaging the marijuana and wouldnt garner much interest from the public. But others are sure to spark some controversy. Among them: Erasing and destroying arrest and conviction records for marijuana-related criminal cases in state courts. Allowing people on parole or probation to use marijuana. Dismissing convictions of people currently serving prison, jail or other sentences for marijuana crimes. We are confronting generations of injustice in the enforcement of marijuana laws, Javier Martinez said. I expect a lot of debate. Supporters of the legalization effort say the New Mexico bill will put forth some unique efforts to help communities most affected by drug addiction and try to help people who have criminal records because of marijuana arrests or convictions. Emily Kaltenbach, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said, There is an element of social justice for communities hit hardest by enforcement of marijuana prohibition. Under the legislation, the state would set aside 2 percent of the net taxes on legal marijuana to create a fund that would give grants to organizations working on drug education programs and workforce training and placement in those communities. Javier Martinez said legalization should also allow as many people as possible to participate in the new marketplace. Under last years bill, people with marijuana-related criminal arrests and convictions would not be prohibited from working in the new industry and would be allowed to apply for licenses. Low-income applicants would get priority in the licensing process. The legislation would allow for creation of cannabis microbusinesses that operate in less than 10,000 square feet. These businesses could be licensed to grow, package, sell or transport marijuana or marijuana products to other licensed businesses. All of this is especially important to communities that have been impacted by drug addiction and the war on drugs, Martinez said. The promotion of small, locally owned businesses also recognizes the reality that larger corporations are moving into the marijuana industry in larger markets. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she wants a transition period for New Mexico businesses to grow into the new market. Under the bill, applicants for industry licenses would have to show two years of continuous residency in New Mexico, and licensing fees would be based on the size of the business, similar to fees for craft beer brewers. Opting in or out Kaltenbach said there are some basic areas of agreement in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Among them: Local communities can decide to opt out of allowing licensed marijuana dispensaries to sell in their towns or cities, but cultivation of marijuana is allowed statewide. Local communities are not allowed to prohibit possession or consumption of marijuana. A municipality within a county that has voted to prohibit marijuana sales could vote to allow their sale. Only those ages 21 and over can purchase marijuana. Marijuana has to be tested at state-approved laboratories for potency and chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. Money from marijuana taxes are set aside to evaluate the impact on the state. Were trying to allow New Mexico to create its own model in creating this industry, Kaltenbach said. It is complex. Not everyone is buying the arguments in favor of legalization. Kyle Williamson, special agent in charge of the El Paso office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said, It is beyond my comprehension why a state like New Mexico with its historical problems with drug abuse would even consider legalizing marijuana. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... FARMINGTON Research conducted by a New Mexico Highlands University professor has shown that aggressive outreach efforts by Farmington Police Departments Victim Advocate Program can increase conviction rates of violent offenders. It was Farmington police Chief Steve Hebbe who approached Sarah Tracy, a visiting professor in the psychology department of the schools Farmington branch, to assess how the program is functioning. Tracy responded positively when Hebbe reached out to her for help in collecting the data, running the statistics and determining how effective the program is. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The program has two advocates who support victims of violent crimes, focusing on sexual assault and domestic violence, according to Hebbe. The basic thing they are supposed to do is work with the victims to allow them to track the cases that go through the courts, so they know what is going on, Hebbe said. They wind up doing so much more. In addition to helping victims track their case through court, the advocates end up tackling social work by helping victims connect with agencies designed to help them with issues including finances, housing or child custody. Tracy was able to access the Farmington Police Departments Law Enforcement Records Management System and search the database for domestic violence cases. She was searching for how much contact advocates had with victims and studying the nature of that contact. Tracy started by examining if an advocate sent a letter to a victim, then determining if the advocate had phone contact or face-to-face contact with a victim. Her informal results show that the conviction rate in cases when only a letter was sent was 26 percent. The rate when phone contact was made went up to 46 percent, and it increased to 50 percent when face-to-face contact was made, according to Tracy. I think its important to note that the difference in conviction rates between just a letter versus face-to-face contact was statistically significant, Tracy said. Hebbe said he was very pleased with the results. It wasnt totally unexpected for me, but I was pleased with what we saw,' Hebbe said. Most law enforcement agencies do not have victim advocates on staff, as those agencies tend to focus on the suspect and prosecuting the criminal case, according to Hebbe. The Farmington Police Department has had a victim advocate on staff for nearly 15 years, a job that started as a grant-funded position. In the overall picture, this is one of the most important things we do for victims in crimes, Hebbe said. Much more so than making an arrest at night and processing the paperwork in court. The information Tracy gathered for her report will help department officials determine if they should hire a third court advocate or if the department already has enough advocates. Hebbe said the program also empowers violence victims to keep control of their lives by helping them seek counseling if they wish with the perpetrator so they can live a better life together or break free and help seek a different life without the perpetrator, Hebbe said. Study shows victim advocate program helps conviction rate .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. The Albuquerque-based Native American Community Academy Inspired Schools Network was recently named a winner in the My Brothers Keeper Community Challenge Competition. The My Brothers Keeper is an initiative of the Obama Foundation that seeks to adopt innovative approaches, strengthen support and build ladders of opportunity for boys and young men of color, according to a news release. Our youth leaders continue to inspire us all and make positive changes every day in their schools and communities we are glad to have the support of the Obama Foundation, Kara Bobroff, founding member of NACA and Executive Director of NACA Inspired Schools Network, said. It has been wonderful to work with our key community partners on the Obama Challenge, she said. Together we will continue to celebrate and advocate for Boys and Young Men of Color. The NACA Inspired Schools Network supports institutions providing rigorous academics designed for college preparation and those that promote Indigenous culture, according to its website. My Brothers Keeper picked 19 organizations or groups across 10 states and Puerto Rico expected to expand evidence-based initiatives to reduce youth violence, increase effective mentorship programs and improve the lives of boys and young men of color, organizers said in a news release. The winning organizations will share more than $5 million in grants, direct technical assistance and evaluation support. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ This is a well-deserved recognition for NACA Inspired Schools Network their efforts make Albuquerque stronger and highlight what makes our city special, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement. As a My Brothers Keeper partner, we look forward to continuing to work with this group to break down barriers and expand opportunities for young people in our Indigenous communities, he said. For more information and a list of New Mexico schools in the Native American Community Academy Inspired Schools Network, visit nacainspiredschoolsnetwork.org. Kara Bobroff, founding member of NACA and Executive Director of NACA Inspired Schools Network .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Netflixs decision to censor an episode of comedian Hasan Minhajs series, blocking access to it within Saudi Arabia, has implications that ripple far beyond the borders of the Saudi dictatorship. Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj is a comedy series produced by Netflix, featuring the young, Muslim-American comedians commentary on news and current affairs. Among the topics covered in the shows first season this past fall were affirmative action, the corporate giant Amazon, oil, immigration enforcement and, in the episode released Oct. 28, Saudi Arabia. The timing of the segment placed it squarely in the midst of the developing scandal around the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Days before the segment came out, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaking at an investment conference in Riyadh that was widely boycotted because of his perceived connection to the brutal murder, said it was a heinous crime that cannot be justified. The next day, Saudi Arabias public prosecutor admitted the killing was premeditated. This only intensified international pressure on Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman, with bipartisan calls in the U.S. Congress to halt arms sales to the kingdom. The CIA reportedly confirmed that Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the killing. The U.S. State Department, in its 2017 annual report on human-rights practices in Saudi Arabia, specifically noted that Khashoggi went into self-exile from his home country because in 2016 authorities purportedly banned him from writing, appearing on television, and attending conferences as the result of remarks he made that were interpreted as criticizing the president of the United States, referring to President Donald Trump. Throughout the censored episode, Minhaj implicated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, often referred to as MBS, and noted the close relationship MBS has with the Trump family, especially with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Minhaj said: MBS was shocked by all of the anger over the killing of one journalist. According to The Wall Street Journal, on a phone call with Jared Kushner, MBS asked, Why the outrage? And frankly, MBSs confusion is completely understandable. He has been getting away with autocratic (bleep) like this for years with almost no blowback from the international community. The Financial Times revealed Netflixs censorship on New Years Day, reporting that Netflix responded to a Saudi government request because the content allegedly violated the kingdoms anti-cyber crime law. The paper cited the law in question, which bans material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals and privacy through the information network or computers, with punishments of up to five years in prison and an $800,000 fine. Minhajs 25-minute, tightly scripted comedic monologue covered a wide range of criticisms of Saudi Arabia, including Khashoggis murder, but also the widespread crackdown on internal dissent in Saudi Arabia, restrictions on the rights of women and, with detail rarely heard in the U.S. mainstream media, the U.S.-supported Saudi Arabian bombing of Yemen and the resultant humanitarian crisis there. According to recent United Nations figures, almost 16 million people in Yemen suffer from hunger, and that number could soon rise to 20 million out of a total population of 22 million. Save the Children estimated last year that 85,000 children had died of starvation or malnutrition-related illnesses, but that number is now dated, as reports continue to emerge daily from Yemen of children starving to death. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Netflix is a powerhouse in the global media, with over 130 million paying subscribers in more than 190 countries. What it chooses to produce and release, and what it chooses to censor, can have an enormous impact. In a statement, Netflix said, We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and removed this episode only in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal demand from the government and to comply with local law. Valid? The episode, while unavailable on Netflix in Saudi Arabia, is still accessible on YouTube. Hasan Minhaj wryly tweeted: Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube. His tweet continued, Lets not forget that the worlds largest humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen right now, with a link to donate to the International Rescue Committee. Netflix should be ashamed and reverse its decision. Censoring commentary on war crimes and mass starvation, at the request of a dictator, is no joke. (c) 2019 Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... WASHINGTON In his second year in office, President Trump did many positive things and (last week) I offered my list of the 10 best things Trump did in 2018. But he also did a lot of bad things that ranged from cringeworthy to catastrophic. Here are the 10 worst: 10. His comment about shhole countries blew up negotiations for a deal that would have given Trump his border wall. Nearly a year ago, the president made a bold offer to Democrats putting not just legal status, but also a path to citizenship, for nearly 1.8 million young illegal immigrants on the table. Then his abhorrent comment undermined Democrats who were serious about cutting a deal and gave those who were not a pretext to walk away. 9. His offensive tweets continued to undermine his presidency. Calling former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a dog and Stormy Daniels Horseface among countless offensive tweets is not just unpresidential, it drives away potential supporters who like his policies, but then are reminded how much they dont like Trump. 8. His misuse of power turned critics into martyrs. Revoking former CIA director John Brennans security clearance and CNN White House correspondent Jim Acostas White House press pass turned partisan critics who were embarrassing themselves into victims and gave them an even greater platform from which to attack him. 7. He drove away suburban voters and caused the GOP to lose control of the House. Thats because the president has sought to energize his base in ways that drive those voters away. If he wants to win re-election, Trump needs to bring suburban Republican voters back into the GOP fold. 6. His graceless handling of Sen. John McCains funeral was a new low. Trump didnt like McCain, but when youre the president, sometimes you must honor people you didnt like. McCain was an American hero. Trumps inability to muster a kind or generous word reflected poorly on the president. 5. His handling of Jamal Khashoggis murder harmed Americas moral standing. Trump is right that a permanent breach with Saudi Arabia is not acceptable, because there is no other country in the Middle East that can serve as a counterweight to Iran. But it was unseemly to declare that Its all about America First and Were not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars in orders. 4. His news conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was an embarrassment. His meeting with the Russian president came on the heels of Russias attempted assassination of a dissident on British soil using banned chemical weapons and the indictment of 12 Russians for 2016 election meddling. Instead of condemning these actions, Trump publicly sided with Putin over his own intelligence community. 3. His policy to separate migrant children from their families at the southern border was an avoidable tragedy. There is nothing wrong with a zero-tolerance policy for illegal crossings. But his administrations failure to anticipate and prepare for how to deal with migrant families was gross negligence a symptom of the chaos that is undermining his presidency. 2. His planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan is a gift to the Taliban and al-Qaida. In 2017, my Top 10 Best list praised Trump for reversing President Barack Obamas disastrous withdrawal, which he said would create a vacuum for terrorists. But in December, Trump ordered the military to start planning the withdrawal of roughly 7,000 troops about half the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The news came just as U.S. officials were holding talks with the Taliban, whose No. 1 demand is the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Hardly the art of the deal. 1. His pullout of all U.S. troops in Syria will take Americas boot off the terrorists necks. Trumps claim that we have defeated ISIS in Syria is as bad as Obamas dismissing them as the J.V. squad. The Islamic State still has up to 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, and about $400 million in their coffers. The Islamic State is not defeated and not one member of Trumps national security team agrees with his decision to withdraw. If he lets the Islamic State off the mat like Obama did in Iraq in 2011, our nation will pay a terrible price. It is notable that, with the exception of troop withdrawals and family separations, most of the items on this list were transgressions of style rather than substance. With the mute button on, the Trump presidency is pretty good from a conservative policy perspective. And yet Trumps approval rating at years end is just 39 percent because most Americans dont follow politics with the sound off. Twitter, @marcthiessen. (c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. While most Albuquerque Public Schools students will be headed back to class on Monday after winter break, A. Montoya Elementary School and Roosevelt Middle School will not. APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta told the Journal those schools will be closed Monday due to a water utility issue in the Village of Tijeras, where the schools are located. Diane Klaus, deputy clerk at the Village of Tijeras, confirmed there is a water-related issue in the area, adding one of the villages water tanks is low. But little else is known at this time. Klaus said the cause of the low water tank has not been identified, yet, and did not know if a leak was to blame. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Weve been trying to find out what the problem is for the last couple of days, Klaus said. The village learned of the issue after residents called in about low water pressure. As of Sunday night, Klaus said there hasnt been reports of any damage at A. Montoya Elementary School and Roosevelt Middle School. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... WASHINGTON President Donald Trump stood by his demands for funding for a border wall Sunday as another round of shutdown talks failed to break an impasse, while newly empowered House Democrats planned to step up the pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers by passing legislation this week to reopen parts of the government. Trump, who spent part of the day at Camp David for staff meetings, showed no signs of budging on his demand of more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. White House officials affirmed that request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought also formalized Trumps declaration that the wall would be built from steel, rather than concrete, asking for funding for a steel barrier on the Southwest border. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration failed in both the meeting and the letter to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested on the wall, money the president wants from Congress. The letter includes a request for $800 million for urgent humanitarian needs, a reflection of the growing anxiety over migrants traveling to the border which the White House said Democrats raised in the meetings. And it repeats some existing funding requests for detention beds and security officers, which have already been panned by Congress and would likely find resistance among House Democrats. Still, the request makes clear a wall is a top priority. Vought writes that a physical barrier wall creates an enduring capability that helps field personnel stop, slow down and/or contain illegal entries. Trump sought to frame a steel barrier as progress as he returned from the presidential retreat in Maryland, saying Democrats dont like concrete, so well give them steel. The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, but Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels. With the partial shutdown in its third week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to begin passing individual bills to reopen agencies in the coming days, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure people receive their tax refunds. That effort is designed to squeeze Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing increasingly anxious about the extended shutdown. The seemingly intractable budget showdown marks the first clash for Trump and Democrats, who now control the House. It pits Trumps unpredictable negotiating stylings against a largely united Democratic front, as many Republicans watch nervously from the sidelines and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay. Although Trump tweeted that the Sunday session had been productive, two Democrats familiar with the meeting gave a different take, saying the White House had not provided the budget details they had requested and again declined to re-open government. One of the officials neither was authorized to speak publicly said no additional meetings were scheduled. Trump said earlier in the day that he was hoping for some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. While insisting he wanted to make a deal, he also declared he would not give an inch in his fight for funding for a border barrier, saying: Theres not going to be any bend right here. Among the Republicans expressing concerns was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up bills from the Democratic-led House. Lets get those reopened while the negotiations continue, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. Democrats criticized McConnell for waiting on Trumps support, but Collins said she was sympathetic to McConnells opposition to moving legislation without agreement from the president. Several Republicans pushed the Interior Department to find money to restaff national parks amid growing concerns over upkeep and public safety. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested Sunday that pressure would only mount amid the shutdown, which he said is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations, home loans and farmers in his state. Democrats and now a growing number of Republicans are coming together and saying lets open up the government and debate border security separately, Schumer told reporters in New York. Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this weeks paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBCs Meet the Press that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night. Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on ABCs This Week that the executive power has been used to build military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan but would likely be wide open to a court challenge for a border wall. Speaking on CNNs State of the Union, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called the idea a nonstarter. Look, if Harry Truman couldnt nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesnt have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border, said Schiff, D-Calif. Trump also asserted that he could relate to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who arent getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to make adjustments to deal with the shutdown shortfall. A day earlier, the president had tweeted that he didnt care that most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats. Mulvaney, sought to frame Trumps support for a steel barrier as progress in the negotiations, saying on NBC that if he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, See? Hes not building a wall anymore, that should help us move in the right direction. Trump said he planned to call the heads of American steel companies in hopes of coming up with a new design for the barrier he contends must be built along the southern border. His administration has already spent millions constructing wall prototypes near the border in San Diego. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York, Jill Colvin in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller says the citys latest publicly issued progress report is full of outdated information and that he plans to work with City Council and the citizen group that creates it to develop a more useful, modern format for the future. The 2018 Albuquerque Progress Report, released Sunday, charts the citys headway reaching eight broad goals. It uses 59 indicators, comparing Albuquerques numbers to comparable cities and national averages when possible. The scorecard rated Albuquerques status on 27 of the 59 indicators as undesirable, including most of those in the public safety and economy categories. But much of the data comes from 2016 or 2017. The score did not reflect recent job announcements Keller said the Downtown area will see about 2,000 jobs come on-line this year or the citys latest crime statistics. Those numbers, released in late December, show all crime except gun violence falling from 2017 to 2018, with drops in robbery, auto theft and auto burglary measuring at least 29 percent each. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ While Keller said crime is still way too high, he said hes optimistic about the recent progress. But the new progress report is telling us a lot of what essentially I knew even coming into the job (in December 2017) and why I ran for the job in the first place, Keller said Sunday. Were really excited about next years edition, because thats hopefully going to reflect our administrations approach. A 1997 ordinance created the Albuquerque Indicators Progress Commission, an appointed citizen group, and charges it with the biannual report. The mayor said it was cutting edge at the time but is now a decade behind in its sophistication and questions its current value given the amount of trailing data incorporated. He said the internet should make it easier to include more citizen feedback and gather data to produce more frequent versions. He suggested that a quarterly report would be more helpful as would a review of the peer cities used for comparison. Currently, the peer group includes Colorado Springs, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Tucson and Salt Lake City. City Councilor Ken Sanchez said Sunday that the commissions work has always impressed him but that he would support an effort to modernize the report, perhaps making it more regular or changing the format. Its 20 years old, and any time we can make improvements, I think its beneficial to the city, and also for the (commission) members, he said. I think theyve got to be somewhat frustrated also because of things being so old. The commission did not respond to a Journal inquiry sent Sunday afternoon to its email address. While the 2018 scorecard rated Albuquerque poorly in many public safety and economic metrics, it showed that Albuquerque compared positively to peer cities on indicators like citizens proximity to parks, air quality and water usage. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. A local doughnut business will literally be on the move in a unique way by midsummer, according to its owners. Bristol Doughnut Co. owners Coy and Sara Trammel said their vision is getting ever closer to reality. Already established at the Spur Line Supply Co. shop in the Sawmill District near Old Town, the business has a ready clientele of doughnut lovers. Their story, and companys name, began two years ago when they happened upon a British double-decker bus for sale in Montana. The Trammels immediately fell in love with the bus, which was unlike anything they had ever seen. We bought the 1960 Bristol Bus when we lived in Montana, because we thought it would be a good way to do something as a family; plus, we loved doughnuts, and no one in Montana was doing that at the time, Sara said. We took the plunge and bought the double-decker bus before we ever tried our hand at making the doughnuts. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ But after they bought the bus, Sara said, winter hit in Montana and she and her husband knew they wouldnt be able to fix it there. We already had family in Albuquerque, so we decided to relocate and start our business here, she said. Flash forward two years, and the idea of the bus has now become a reality. With a fresh paint job and some custom amenities, the bus is taking shape and parked in front of the new Little Bear Coffee, 3123 Central NE. The first floor houses the kitchen and business counter where customers will be able to buy doughnuts and coffee, which is supplied by Little Bear Coffee. The second floor has benches and tables where customers will be able to sit and enjoy the view. The bus still needs some minor work and a brake job before the business is mobile, Sara said, but it should be open to customers in the Little Bear parking lot starting Tuesday. We are not really mobile yet but eventually would like to travel around the city and park at different locations, she said. Sara said Bristol will continue selling at Spur Line, as well. Bath, body luxury Sharon Gateley and her son, Jordan, had a dream to one day own and operate their own luxury bath and body products store. That dream is now a reality called LaVon Blu in the Nob Hill Business Center at Central and Carlisle. This business really started five years ago when Jordan started creating his own recipe for soap, Sharon said. Our first few attempts were a learning experience, but after a while Jordan got the hang of it. Sharon said she would spend too much each month at boutiques on beauty creams and bath fizzes and other products. It got to the point where we questioned if we could make these things at home, she said. So I started formulating my own bath fizzes and formulating a lotion recipe. Soon, Sharon, a full-time nurse-practitioner, was selling the products to some of her patients. I wasnt having any problems selling our products out of the practice until I moved to another practice that would not allow me to sell to patients, she said. Sharon and her son thought about operating the business out of their home but concluded that opening a brick-and-mortar location was a better idea. They started mass producing their products last February, so by the time Sharon and Jordan found what would be their dream spot in Nob Hill, they had a good stockpile of product to offer customers. The preservatives we use to make our products are the most natural preservatives on the market, she said. Both Sharon and Jordan make all of their products in a lab area in the back of the store, which means all the products in the store are freshly made. A whole new restaurant Piatanzi sous-chef Mike Goroste verified last week that the companys Juan Tabo location will be changing its name and menu. Goroste said the restaurant will be called Pentola and offer French, Moroccan, Greek and Spanish cuisine. Were still going to have some Italian food, like pizzas, but we are switching up a lot of stuff, Goroste said. Piatanzi has two locations: 1403 Girard NE and 3305 Juan Tabo NE. Goroste said the change is happening only at the Juan Tabo store. The Juan Tabo location is getting a reboot as a new operation altogether, he said. Pentola will also offer a private dining area for groups of up to 40. The new restaurant is scheduled to open in early February. Stephen Montoya is the Journals retail reporter. He can be contacted at smontoya@abqjournal.com or by calling 505-823-3911. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... NEW YORK Small-business issues often win bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, but given the divisions in the incoming 116th Congress, advocates for companies have low expectations. Even after lawmakers deal with the partial government shutdown, a Democratic House, a Republican Senate and ongoing investigations of the Trump White House and campaign are expected to be obstacles to much small-business-related work getting done. I think 2019 is going to be a quiet year with maybe small reforms on tax things, maybe some trade legislation getting through, said Karen Kerrigan, president of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Company owners may see more movement in their states, said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, who called governors more aggressive than anyone on helping small business. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ A look at issues that small-business advocates expect to be on government agendas in 2019: Health care: Lawmakers were expected to introduce health care bills even before the federal court ruling last month that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Since that ruling, which is expected to be appealed and could reach the Supreme Court, House Democrats have said they plan to intervene in defense of the law. Democrats expect to introduce bills to limit the use of low-cost short-term health plans that have limited coverage, and bolster the ACAs coverage of people with pre-existing conditions. Republican opposition to Democratic efforts is likely, although many GOP lawmakers voiced support for pre-existing condition coverage during their election campaigns. Small-business groups want Congress to pass legislation limiting increases in health care costs but theyre not optimistic. To do that would be controversial, said Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association. Legislation expanding the availability of association health plans, or AHPs, stalled in the 115th Congress and could be reintroduced. These plans allow individuals such as sole proprietors to band together and buy insurance. Theyre illegal under the ACA, but the Trump administration last year issued rules making it possible for some owners to join AHPs. However, some states have laws making it difficult or impossible for their residents to join the plans, and more states might enact their own legislation. Changes in health care law are most likely to come from the states, Arensmeyer said. Taxes: Legislation to simplify tax code provisions that affect small businesses languished in the last Congress and is expected to be reintroduced. Among other things, the Small Business Owners Tax Simplification Act would make due dates for estimated tax payments the last date of calendar year quarters. It would also make it easier for owners to deduct their own health care premiums. Theyre common sense reforms that are supported by both sides of the aisle, Kerrigan says. Some business groups will seek further tax code simplification because of the administrative burden taxes place on owners. But hopes arent high. Trade: Congress is expected to consider the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement early in 2019. The trade deal, intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, is opposed by Democrats who want stronger protections for U.S. workers from low-wage Mexican competition. Many U.S. small manufacturers export to Mexico and Canada and want the deal ratified. Its bad for business, particularly for small businesses, if the agreement just went away, McCracken said. Employment issues: The Labor Department is expected to issue its new regulations on overtime which employees must be given overtime, and which are exempt. The Trump administration is rewriting rules written under the Obama administration and then blocked by a federal judge; those rules would have doubled the pay threshold at which workers would be exempt from overtime, to $47,476 from $23,660. An estimated 4.2 million people would have been able to begin earning OT under the rules. Kerrigan expects the rules to be issued early in the year and predicted the threshold would be a compromise between the Obama administration version and no increase. Infrastructure: Legislation to repair the nations roadways and bridges is expected in the new Congress although the Trump administration $1.5 billion proposal announced last February foundered. McCracken says the parties remain too far apart for a bill to pass unless the economy provides some motivation for a compromise. Infrastructure is one of those things that can generate a lot of activity and bolster the economy, he says. Many companies that do the actual repairing of roads and bridges are small businesses, such as general contractors. Internet privacy: Laws aimed at protecting consumers privacy and personal information are expected to be pursued in state legislatures, and possibly in Congress, after Californias passage last year of its Consumer Privacy Protection Act. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2020, requires businesses to disclose how they use personal information and gives consumers more control over how that information is used. The prospect of businesses having to comply with 50 different laws has some members of Congress in favor of creating a national standard. Paid leave: Legislation is expected in more states providing for paid sick leave and family leave for employees. Twelve states and 20 cities and counties have sick leave laws, which allow employees to accrue paid time off for their illnesses or a family members. Paid family leave, including time off to care for ill relatives, is the law only in California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island; those states have employee and/or employer-funded insurance pools to partially replace workers wages. Democrats in the House may also introduce family leave legislation, but it likely wouldnt survive the Senate, McCracken said. Cal Thomas Tribune Content Agency LONDON To Brexit, or not to Brexit, that is the question (apologies to Shakespeare). The answer to whether the UK will pull out of the European Union as a majority of voters favored in a 2016 referendum will be decided this month. Maybe. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that debate on the deal would resume on today. She has scheduled a vote for the following week. The vote had originally been set for Dec. 11, but May pulled it, fearing the measure would be soundly defeated. She has been engaged since then in intense lobbying with parliamentarians who favor staying within the European Union. She has offered special posts to those who end their opposition. This tactic appears to have worked with several members of parliament who have flipped from no to yes, prompting strong criticism from anti-Brexit members. There is no guarantee May has the votes to proceed and some are speculating she may again call for a delay, further demonstrating a leadership weakness that was revealed last month when she barely survived a no-confidence vote. London Times columnist Matthew Parris is a leading anti-Brexit voice. In a Dec. 29 column, Parris claims voters were misled in the run-up to the 2016 vote. He favors another vote, believing the outcome would be different. Liam Fox, the international trade secretary and a leading Brexit supporter, told the Sunday Times the chances of Britain leaving the EU are 50-50, if MPs reject the deal. The issue is complicated because it involves money, power and the future of Northern Ireland. No one wants to see the restoration of a border between the North and the Republic of Ireland, which almost certainly would lead to the violence that mostly ended following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, negotiated with the help of the Clinton administration. There is a backstop strategy in case next weeks vote goes against May. It would effectively keep the entire UK in the EU customs union for a limited period until another vote could be taken, which, the government hopes after perhaps more horse trading, would produce a positive outcome. As with the U.S. government shutdown, passions are strong on both sides when it comes to Brexit. One side fears Britain will effectively be shut out of Europe should the break occur, while the other is fed-up with Brussels dictating policies that contribute to what they see as diminished British sovereignty. May was saddled with an issue about which she was not fully, or even mainly, onboard. She has bravely (some critics say foolishly) pressed ahead anyway, saying that she is simply carrying out the wishes of a majority of voters. History can be amusing. This is not the first referendum on Britains relationship with Europe. That occurred in 1975 when the Conservative Party now favoring withdrawal enthusiastically supported Britains continued membership in what was then called the European Economic Community. The partys new leader, Margaret Thatcher, called for a massive Yes to remain in the EEC and led a nationwide campaign in its favor. On the withdrawal side was the liberal Labour Party, which now wishes to remain. Several leading newspapers that now favor a divorce from Europe, then campaigned to keep Britain aligned with Europe. Scheduled implementation of Brexit is set for March 29, but that presumes a yes vote in Parliament, assuming there are not more delays. The prime ministers call for a snap election last year caused a loss in her partys overall majority, necessitating negotiations with Parliaments various factions to produce a deal that can pass. Bookies are not a reliable guide. In 2016, they claimed a 60 percent chance voters would reject Brexit. They lost. Today, as Liam Fox says, the odds are just 50-50. Place your bets and take your chances seems to be the attitude. Chuck Clement Madison Daily Leader An Aberdeen native pleaded guilty Monday to a Lake County manslaughter charge. In June, Joseph M. Schmitz, 48, will be sentenced to 15 years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement. In exchange for the guilty plea to manslaughter, a murder charge was dismissed. Jury selection in Schmitzs trial was to begin Monday in Madison. The charge alleges that on April 27, 2016, Schmitz had a confrontation with the victim, Corina Booth. During the confrontation Schmitz discharged a pistol, causing the death of Ms. Booth, according to a news release from the South Dakota Attorney Generals Office. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person without malice or intent. Its punishable by as much as life in prison and a $50,000 fine. Schmitz was charged in the death of Booth, his fiance, who was shot three times at a home on Lake Madison. He remained at the lake house where he and Booth lived until law enforcement officers arrived. He was arrested at the scene. Court documents show Schmitz called 911 to report that he had shot Booth after she attempted to stab him. An open pocket knife was found next to Booth, who was lying on a mattress, but the knife appeared unused, according to court records. After spending time in Lake Countys jail for months after his arrest, Schmitz was released on bond with restrictions. He has lived in the Aberdeen area awaiting trial. He currently remains out of jail on bond. Monday morning, Judge Patrick Pardy outlined the details of the plea agreement. He clarified that Schmitz does not need to notify authorities for in-state travel, but he does need to contact law enforcement officials if he wants to travel outside of South Dakota. Court officials had assembled a panel of juror candidates, a group of 20 people divided about equally between men and women. Schmitz will be required to pay court costs, transcript costs, court- appointed attorney fees, expert fees, private investigator fees, testing fees and any other costs of prosecution deemed deemed necessary by the judge at his sentencing, according to the release. This case was investigated by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lake County Sheriffs Office, the Madison Police Department and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. It was prosecuted by the attorney generals office. GARDINER - The impacts of the partial government shutdown continue throughout the country, and with national parks still open to the public, that means trash piling up and roads not being groomed. As news continues to grow of parks throughout the country closing due to overflowing trashcans, human waste on the side of the road, and worse, Montanans are joining forces to keep the nation's oldest park from a similar fate. "I was sitting in my buddy's bar," says Chuck Tanner, owner of K-Bar in Gardiner, "and we keep hearing everybody complaining about 'trash here,' and 'trash there,' and it piling up in the national parks. I kind of called a couple of my friends out on it and said 'Well, let's do something about it.'" In a matter of days, Tanner organized two cleanups of Yellowstone National Park over the weekend, drawing in more than 50 people from beyond the big sky to help the cause. "You know, put up or shut up," he says, smiling. People drove from as far as Billings and Idaho Falls to assist in the cleanup and join the small community Tanner formed through the work. "This is like a late Christmas present," Tanner says. He's gotten phone calls and emails from people offering to buy a pizza or a round of drinks for the group, or send toilet paper or trash bags. And it's not just residents. Private businesses are stepping up to keep tourists coming as they pay park employees out-of-pocket to keep roads groomed for snowmobiling. According to Back Country Adventures, a snowmobile rental service in West Yellowstone, concessionaires and businesses associated with the park came up with a contingency plan during last January's government shutdown to ensure that business could continue no matter what happened in D.C. The representative from Back Country Adventures says every company with business in the park - throughout Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana - is involved, including Xanterra, the park and resort management company that runs the hotels and shops inside Yellowstone. "We have a lot of pride in this area," explains Tanner, a Southern California native who has made the Paradise Valley his home over the last decade and a half. "It's the last great place in North America as far as I'm concerned, so we're trying to keep it that way. Everybody wants to be here. But we are here, so we just take care of it." And if the shutdown continues for another few weeks, both residents and businesses will need to keep showing up. President Donald Trump remarked on the shutdown entering its third week on Sunday, telling the press: "We'll see how long this shutdown goes. The shutdown could end tomorrow and it could also go on for a long time. It depends. It's really dependent on the Democrats." The shutdown began December 21 as a result of stalled negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over funding for the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Among the notable health care innnovations, Rohrbaugh noted, are digital therapeutics, devices that help health care workers monitor patients remotely, sleep technology and gadgets such as smart pens that can monitor insulin levels. Manufacturers will also be promoting advances in pain management, cardiac monitoring, telehealth and other topics. For example, WHILL is unveiling its Autonomous Drive System, a wheelchair that comes to you at the touch of a button no walking required and drives itself, relying on front and back cameras. The company is hoping to sell the wheelchairs to malls, theme parks and major airports like New York's LaGuardia and London's Heathrow. On Thursday, AARP will hold its first pitch competition, to highlight new technologies that can reduce social isolation by helping older adults build personal connections. CEO Jo Ann Jenkins will be joined by FUBU founder and entrepreneur Daymond John, a judge on ABCs Shark Tank, at the presentation. Helping to drive the development of innovative new products and services that focus on the interests and needs of people age 50-plus is an important element of AARPs mission, said Jenkins. The CTA Foundation Pitch Competition will help deliver new solutions to a large and, so far, underserved market and spotlight a key opportunity that other businesses are missing out on. Begun in New York in 1967, CES at first featured about 250 exhibits and drew 17,500 attendees, but the show has grown exponentially as technology inexorably seeps into everyday life. Through the years some innovations had flashy debuts but flopped just as some products on display this week likely will. Still, some splashy newcomers at CES became consumer must-haves, from the videocassette recorder (1970) to high-definition television (1998) to tablets, netbooks and android devices (2010). This week, at least, expect the axiom about Vegas What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas to be turned on its head, if inventors, innovators and investors have their way. Theyre gambling on introducing the next big thing in tech and are planning to tell the world all about it. It's a big week for foodies and culture vultures. Check out new spots including the SoMa address of Pizzeria Delfina and Proper Hotel's posh new cafe, plus see Come From Away onstage at SHN, celebrate Bowie's bday, and dance to all your old favorite 80s hits. Have a great week! Monday, January 7th Inside the new Pizzeria Delfina in SoMa. (Elena Graham) A Proper Cafe When: 6:30am to 2:30pm, Monday through Friday Where: La Bande, 1100 Market St. (Civic Center), properhotel.com In search of breakfast on your way to work? A luxurious midday lunch? Just a solid cup o' joe to go? La Bande, the newest cafe on our radar, is an Instagram-worthy shop with richly tiled walls and floors, modern black-and-white accents, and elegant brass metal fixtures inside the Proper Hotelwhich you'll already know for its other stylish dining and imbibing destinations ,Charmaine's and Villon. Add La Bande to your morning rotation. SoMa gets real pizza. When: Open daily Where: Pizzeria Delfina, 688 Mission St. (SoMa), pizzeriadelfina.com/downtown Our beloved Pizzeria Delfina has just opened a central SF location to assuage our weekly pie fix. Dig into bowls of their crispy Brussels sprouts, a couple hearty pastas, new entrees, and of course the Neapolitan-inspired white and red pies like the classic Margherita. Keep an eye out for Scribe Winery's Delfina-exclusive chardonnay. We know where we're having our next lunch meeting. Wednesday, January 9th Grammy-winning trumpet plater Chris Botti plays a week's worth of shows in Hayes Valley. (Courtesy of SFJazz) ArtSpan Artist Reception When: 6pm to 8pm Where: Mission Bowling Club, 3176 17th St (Mission) Local art, free bowling, and free snacks? Get rolling with ArtSpan tonight in celebration of the org's Art in Neighborhoods program. // For more info and register, go to eventbrite.com. Love Songs in Spanish When: 5:30pm to 6:45pm, Wednesdays through Feb. 13 Where: Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St. (Berkeley), thefreight.org Six weeks of musical Spanish lessons kick off tonight as Bay Area folk musician and Spanish teacher Chris Reid leads a course in classic American love songs. You'll learn pronunciation and the meaning of the lyrics of eight to 10 songs ranging from polka to bolero. // Tickets ($126-$140) are available at ticketfly.com. Chris Botti Live When: 7:30pm Where: SFJazz Miner Auditorium, 201 Franklin St. (Hayes Valley) Extraordinary trumpeter Chris Botti kicks off eight shows over six consecutive nights tonight at SFJazz. // Schedule and tickets ($55-$125) are available online. Thursday, January 10th Catch Margaret Cho in conversations with legendary SF journalist Ben Fong-Torres tonight at SF Sketchfest. SF Sketchfest When: Various times through January 27th Where: Multiple venues in SF, sfsketchfest.com The 18th Annual Sketchfest kicks off today with Margaret Cho in conversation with Ben Fong-Torres (7:30pm at Marines Memorial Theater). The week continues with more laughs, panel talks, workshops, and celeb appearances (sorry, Tilda Swinton answering Craigslist ads is already sold out). // For the full schedule and tickets, go to sfsketchfest.com. Take 3D Flight When: Open daily Where: The Flyer, Pier 39 (Embarcadero), theflyer-sanfrancisco.com There's a new gut-swirling ride taking over Pier 39. The Flyer, a 3D theater, let's you experience the feeling of soaring over San Francisco. Hold onto your stomach as you fly past such iconic landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and Chinatown on a 50-foot screen. // Shows are 20 minutes; and tickets ($25 adults, $16 kids) can be purchased online. Friday, January 11th Daughter Thai Kitchen on Instagram: Did you know @visitoakland Restaurant Week starts tomorrow?! Now you can try our Ko Youk Kurobuta slow cooked pork belly in southern Thai Oakland Restaurant Week When: Through Jan. 21 Where: Restaurants throughout Oakland If you've already moved to The Town, then you're well positioned to eat your way through it. If you're still hanging onto rent control in SF, now's a great time to check out your future home town as restaurants throughout Oakland are serving up specially priced menus and events. And they're tasty too. // For the full schedule and tickets, go to visitoakland.com. Good Food Awards When: 6pm to 10pm Where: Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave (Civic Center) Celebrate local culinary artisans who are committed to creating responsible food at this special awards event. Following the ceremony, head to the after-party at AirBnb HQ for a buffet feast and plenty of cocktails, all crafted by the winners. // Tickets ($235) can be purchased on eventbrite.com. That Big 80s Party When: 9pm to 2am Where: The Public Works SF, 161 Erie St. (Mission) "Cabbage Patch Kids, Rubik's Cube, Live Aid, Flashdance, Purple Rain, Beat Street, Yo MTV Raps, spandex, leggings & shoulder pads!" What else is there? // Tickets ($10-$15) are available at eventbrite.com. Saturday, January 12th Redfield Cider celebrates its grand opening in Rockridge today. (Andria Lo) The Great Mac 'n' Cheese Melt-off When: 11am to 4pm, Saturday and Sunday Where: SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11th St. (SoMa), somastreatfoodpark.com If mac 'n' cheese is your thing, head to SoMa StrEat Food today where 15 trucks will be slangin' gooey concoctions in a competition to be crowned the SF Mac 'n' Cheese Monarch. There's also an all-you-can-drink beer option if you really want to send it. // Tickets ($5/entry; $36/entry with all-you-can-drink beer) are available at eventbrite.com. Drink Cider When: Noon to midnight Where: Redfield Cider Bar & Bottle Shop, 5815 College Ave. (Oakland), redfieldcider.com Cider bars are one of life's little pleasures. Now, Redfield Cider Bar & Bottle Shop has arrived in Rockridge with more than 150 ciders sourced from Europe, the West Coast, and New England. Stop by today for their grand opening party complete with beverages, bites, and spirited good times. // Free to attend, RSVP via Facebook. Silent Disco Saturday Night When: 10:00pm to 1:30am Where: Pier 23 Cafe, Pier 23, The Embarcadero (North Beach), pier23cafe.com Tonight three DJs will battle it out for control of your silent disco headphonesexpect a mix of EDM, '80s and '90s throwbacks, and hip hop hitsas you dance your ass off on the patio overlooking the water. // Tickets ($15; $20 at the door) can be purchased on eventbrite.com. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] by Robert Fay On the morning of August 20, 1968, the Czech playwright Vaclav Havel had a serious hangover. He was at his country home in Liberec after a night of boozing it up with his actor friend Jan Triska, who would emigrate to the U.S. in 1977 and eventually appear in The Karate Kid III (Im not making this up), while Havel went on in 1989 to became president of a free Czechoslovakia (equally astonishing). But on that summer morning, these two men were still just creatures of the Prague theatre world. They caroused at night with their artist and intellectual companions, slept-in late and then worked diligently on their respective crafts in the afternoons, much as their colleagues in London or Paris did. But these familiar routines came to a halt promptly on August 20 when the Warsaw Pact nations, led by the Soviet Union, invaded Czechoslovakia, ending eight months of political reform and expanded social and civic freedoms that has become known as The Prague Spring. In the popular western imagination, the Prague Spring has been both sacralized and completely mischaracterized. Its been crudely lumped in with the 1960s political unrest in the West, something like: The Summer of LoveSlavic Style. But the anti-establishment, countercultural youth rebellions (sexual freedom, drug use, feminism, gay rights, etc.) that were visible in cities like Paris, London and San Francisco had little in common with the Prague Spring. In the U.S., the protests centered on critiques of American military involvement in Vietnam and on social injustices committed against African Americans, while in France, the social unrest was an explicit attack on capitalism by students, workers and members of the French communist and socialist parties, who were united against President Charles de Gaulle, and the conservative forces he represented. Reform Movement, Not Revolution In contrast, the Prague Spring was primarily a reform movement within the KSR (The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). It was an attempt by KSR members to change the partya little. Maybe experiment with new ways of managing the economy, as well as loosening censorship laws. The Prague Spring was not (primarily) idealistic 20-year-olds in the streets, but old men, communist old men in power, who were looking to reform one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, not overturn it. Now there is no doubt the changes and the appointment of reform-minded Alexander Dubcek in January 1968 as First Secretary of the KSR, inspired artists and intellectuals (and the population at large) to start dreaming, talking, criticizing and imagining a country free of foreign intervention and the rule of one party. But the Czechs werent trying to imitate George Washington or Che Guevara. This was an attempt at achieving socialism with a human face. Russian Historian Vladislav Zubok in The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (2010) writes of how Soviet dissidents viewed the external political events of 1968: The Prague Spring was closer to the hearts and minds of the Moscow-based intellectuals and artists than the Western New Left radicalism that erupted at the same time. The anti-Vietnam protests among radical youth in the West did not find the slightest response in the quarters of the dissident movement. Moscow intellectuals also refused to share the Western radical infatuation with Maoist Cultural revolution in China. In the opinion of one Moscow witness of the May events in Paris, French neo-Marxist intellectuals and students were possessed by Satanic powers. They worshiped revolutionary violence, while Soviet liberals and reform Communists abhorred it. Havel also disapproved, in his own way, of the neo-Marxist crowd in the West. In the spring of 1968 he traveled to New York City to see a production of one of his plays and also made time to visit England. During the trip, he saw firsthand the youth protests. Havels biographer Michael Zantovksy writes in Havel: A Life (2014) that Havel was sympathetic to the release of youthful energy in 1968, but he was not supportive of attaining freedom through violence, hallucinatory visions or free sex, and was certainly astonished that people could dream of introducing voluntarily the same kind of doctrinaire, tyrannical system he and his countrymen were busy trying to dismantle at that very moment. Calling All Writers When Havel learned the news that the Soviets had invaded, his first instinct wasnt to grab a rifle or to draft an essay, but to volunteer for resistance service with Czechoslovakia Radio. And so, in the first few hours of the day, as Soviet tanks and airborne divisions swarmed over the country, Havel prudently decided to use the airwaves to call for help. But instead of requesting NATO infantry divisions, he called upon more subtle forces of opposition, his writer colleagues abroad, men like Gunter Grass, Kingsley Amis, Max Frisch, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller and Samuel Beckett, to name a few. And though these writers did not fire a single rifle round at Soviet troops, they began to write and speak about the invasion, drawing the Wests attention to the Soviets violation of Czechoslovakia. A few days later, the Communist Party in North Bohemia published a manual in Liberec titled To All Citizens. It was a how-to-manual for dealing with the invading soldiers. Havel was most certainly one of its principal authors. Approach the presence of foreign troops as you would approach, for example, a natural disaster, Havel wrote. Do not negotiate with themjust as you would not negotiate with torrential rainbut deal with them and escape them just as you would escape rain: use your wits, intelligence and your fantasy. The image of a rainstorm with its inherent irrationality is the perfect metaphor to guide people through an irrational nightmare: suddenly, with no warning, a Russian solider with an AK-47 has appeared in your backyard. He doesnt speak Czech. He has tremendous power over you and your family and he likely has no understanding of why he has been ordered to tromp around Bohemia. The Good Soldier Svejk The pamphlet continuesin a truly Havalian touchto evoke two Czech models of behavior for interacting with these dangerous foreigners. The models are drawn from both literature and history: If at certain moments you decide that it is more appropriate to behave like (Jan) Hus, behave like Hus. If you, on the other hand, you decide it is more effective to behave like Svejk, behave like Svejk. In our current world, its an imaginable bit of political prose. You have the future president of Czechoslovakia, and at the time, the de-facto spokesman for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, advising citizens to navigate a dangerous and complex situation by acting like a medieval clergyman or a character from a Czech novel. Jan Hus was a Czech Catholic priest and reformer in the late 14th and early 15th century who attacked Church corruption. He was accused of being a heretic, excommunicated and burned at the stake after refusing to recant. Svejk is the protagonist from the novel The Good Soldier Svejk (1921-23) by Jaroslav Hasek. The book is a Czech classic, beloved and revered in the way The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in the U.S. Svejk is a Czech simpleton who serves in the Austrio-Hungarian empire during the First World War, and his behavior is so simple and pure that people cannot decided if he is undermining the army or is just an imbecile. The American equivalent (though not an exact one) would be the bumbling Marine Gomer Pyle in the popular 1960s television show Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. It is unimaginable that an American leader would advise Americans to deal with invading Chinese troops, for example, by acting like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz or the character Bartleby from Herman Melvilles short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. But the Czechs, being a small nation crammed into central Europe, have had to digest far different lessons than the peoples of larger countries. It was understandable that Havel evoked Svejk because the Czechs have learned to admire characteristics contrary to those associated with patrician, martial leaders such as Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt. Not being able to resort to brute force, the Czechs have learned to appreciate the more subtle man, the reflective man, even the weak man. Czech novelist Pavel Kohout was active during the Prague Spring and wrote in his memoir From the Diary of a Counter Revolutionary (1969) of how this Czech affinity flowered during the brief leadership of Dubcek in 1968: (Dubceks) real magic, with which he enchanted old ladies in retirement as much as university professors, lay in his weakness. After the divine leaders of the Stalin era, who had insisted that the photographers retouch every pimple and radio technicians remove all sibilants from their broadcasts, it was pure joy to watch a man who seemed to be dying of stage fright. Havel for Todays World The vulnerable, authentic leader with stage fright is nowhere to be seen today. In fact, the current list of political leaders with nationalist, strong-man tendencies, who toy with authoritarian impulses, continues to grow by the day. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has recently joined a list that includes Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Italys Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. There is a lot of consternation in the West about this turn to the right. There are fears that the age of liberal democracies is in eclipse. In the U.S., opposition to Donald Trumps nationalist regime takes the form of a partisan fight, with predictable legislative gridlock and a conviction among citizens that all politicians, left and right, are motivated by self-interest alone. Havel remained deeply skeptical about the value of political parties. He was never a member of the KSR and during the bad years of the 1970s when he was hounded, harassed and spied on by the StB, the secret police, he didnt like to think of himself as a political activist or dissident, preferring the term public intellectual instead. Havel believed that what existed in Czechoslovakia in the 1970she described it a post-totalitarian societywasnt the manifestation of a political line followed by a political governmentbut simply a fundamental assault on humanity and truth itself, and humans stand against it alone, abandoned and isolated. In his famed 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless, he notes how dissident political groups and parties in Poland and Czechoslovakia had become naturally defensive in their outlook. But Havel believed this was a fundamental flaw, because politics should be about proposing positive solutions. Politics always assumes a positive program and can scarcely limit itself to defending someone from something, he wrote. There is an important lesson here. Citizens and political leaders opposed to Donald Trump, for example, cant win by articulating the most artful and sweeping condemnation of Trumpism. He is not an ideology or a political platform, but the expression of a system that seeks to degrade human beings, first by desecrating the truth, and then by degrading life itself. The opponents of Trump must live within the truth, and offer citizens a positive program that affirms the aims of life, which are hope, love, family, adventure, art, work, religion and everything else that is inexplicable and wondrous in the human experience. The American people, for one, need the following advice on how to deal with the life-denying nationalists and racists in their country: If at certain moments you decide that it is more appropriate to behave like Abe Lincoln, behave like Abe Lincoln. If you, on the other hand, decide it is more effective to behave like Robin Williams, behave like Robin Williams. Robert Fays essays, reviews and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The Millions, The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Chicago Quarterly Review, among others. He is co-creator of the Feeling Bookish Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @RobertFay1. by Andrea Scrima Alyssa DeLuccias Letting You in on a Secret is an eloquent artistic inquiry into present-day politics, the media, and contemporary lifeone that takes the form of a visual essay operating within the disturbance pattern of a subtle but crucial shift in medium that multiplies and compounds the power of the work and its message. DeLuccia uses contemporary print media as raw material, fracturing the images and rearranging visual themes to create collages, which she then photographs. And for several important reasons, its the photograph and not the installed collage that is the final work of art. The media-reflective dimension of Letting You in on a Secretthe fact that it is based on print media, but locates its final manifestation in the realm of the photographic image intended not for mass-media reproduction, but for the reflective, contemplative context of the exhibition spacespeaks to the dire state of imagery and language in the current media landscape and the need to find new methods to assess, decipher, and analyze conflicting and competing information. The new mistrust in the reliability and trustworthiness not only of the means of distribution through news channels, editorial boards, and social media, but in the veracity of the words and images themselves has, on a very basic level, changed the way in which we perceive and engage with the information raining down upon us. While Orwell foresaw the rewriting of the historical past and the falsification of existing documents, including newspaper archives, books, films, photographs, etc., to bring them into line with party doctrine and prove its infallibility; while he predicted the reduction of language as a powerful tool to curtail the radius of human thought for political ends, and postulated a semantic system in which words are used to denote their opposite and are thus rendered meaningless, even the broadest political, historical, and psychological analysis of how propaganda has been used throughout the ages to whip up popular support and manipulate the mass mind pales when applied to the phenomenon of fake news. Words have morphed to the point where they no longer signify anything, but rather act as invisible triggers, actively shut thought down and preclude the possibility of communication. Compounding this is the Pandoras Box the current administration has thrown open with its unprecedented vulgarity of lies, aggression, racism, sexism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and sheer stupidity. As the German paper Die Zeit wrote, This ostentatious vulgarity, however, () shouldnt distract us from the fact that () something is happening that goes beyond mere audacity, that cannot really be described, even with the word propaganda, a term that today has become inflated and imprecise. () Its more about doing away with the principle of truth altogether, the categorical differentiation between true and false. As the author of the article mentions, the philosopher Hannah Arendt analyzed precisely this in an interview with Roger Errera in 1974: If people are constantly lied to, the result isnt that they believe the lies, but rather that no one believes anything at all anymore. () And a people that can no longer believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please. Letting You in on a Secret is a work that reflects on this very depletion of language and mass imagery, a work that proposes and articulates new and surprising ways to recalibrate our perception, to shake ourselves and our stunned senses awake. DeLuccias formal reference to Dada provides us with an important clue to the works subtly subversive nature: in citing a movement that would presage and then endure the advent of fascism, mass extermination, and world war, she is pointing to the necessity of encoding explosive cultural commentary in humor and visually appealing imagery, of going underground with it, as it wereboth to protect ones powers of perception and to counter the effects of the spellbinding that numbs us to the dangers facing us. by Anitra Pavlico For millennia, humans have had a tradition of introspection and meditation. The Buddhist Dhammapada says that when a monk goes into an empty place and calms his mind, he experiences a delight that transcends that of men. The ancient Greeks exhorted one to know thyself. Montaigne wrote that the solitude that I love and advocate is chiefly a matter of drawing my feelings and thoughts back into myself. This was not so easy even in quieter times, but in the wired era, it has become almost impossible. When Bertrand Russell wrote his essay In Praise of Idleness in 1932, the threat to downtime and self-fulfillment was work: I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work. This is still valid, as we work more than ever despite skyrocketing productivity thanks to technological advances. The trouble today, however, is that even our supposed leisure hours are spent on the grid, essentially ensuring that we never get a moments rest. Over the past few years, numerous books and articles have sounded the alarm on how our online habits are affecting our mental health. Even individuals in the tech industryincluding Tim Cook, the Apple CEO who prefers that his nephew not use social media, and Tristan Harris, former Google employee and founder of Time Well Spent, a group advocating for more sensible use of online toolsare joining the chorus. Against this backdrop, physicist, novelist, and essayist Alan Lightman has added his own manifesto, In Praise of Wasting Time. Of course, the title is ironic, because Lightman argues that by putting down our devices and spending time on quiet reflection, we regain some of our lost humanity, peace of mind, and capacity for creativitynot a waste of time, after all, despite the prevailing mentality that we should spend every moment actually doing something. The problem is not only our devices, the internet, and social media. Lightman argues that the world has become much more noisy, fast-paced, and distracting. Partly, he writes, this is because the advances that have enabled the much greater transfer of data, and therefore productivity, have created an environment in which seemingly inexorable market forces push for more time working and less leisure time. Lightman starts his book with an anecdote from his recent time in a rural village in Cambodia. When he asked a villager how long it took her to bike daily to the market ten miles away to barter for food and goods, she replied that she had never thought about it. Lightman is startled at this, and jealous. He points out that we in the developed world (his scare quotes) have carved up our days into minuscule portions, not a single one to be wasted. He admits that from the instant I open my eyes in the morning until I turn out the lights at night, I am at work on some project. First thing in the morning, I check my email. For any unexpected opening of time that appears during the day, I rush to patch it, as if a tear in my trousers. As I suspected from reading his accomplishments on the book jacket: This man does not waste much time. At the time of writing the book, however, he had only owned a smartphone for four months, so was able to speak to the effects of the device on his life with a sense of novelty. Lightman likens the pervasive feeling that we must stay connected at all times to the invisible authority in Kafkas The Trial, but without the explicit authority, only a ubiquitous mentality. He argues that we need to develop a new habit of mind to allow us to disconnect, and to learn again how to contemplate and reflect. Scientific developments support his argument that quiet time is essential. The most interesting parts of In Praise of Wasting Time discuss the role of undisturbed, unstructured time in creative breakthroughs. Lightman cites notorious time-waster Albert Einstein, who believed that it is unquestionable that our thinking goes on . . . to a considerable degree unconsciously. Lightman notes that German psychiatrist and physicist Hans Berger, the inventor of the electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures electrical activity of the brain, found that the brain is always active, whether engaged or at rest. In fact, it only uses about five percent less energy when resting compared to when it is actively working. This may be a comfort to those of us who have a hard time sitting still and doing nothing. Lightman points to several productive, creative individuals who routinely had unstructured time in their days. A fellow physicist at MIT, Paul Schechter, used to sit for hours daydreaming on park benches, which he credited with helping come up with important ideas, including a formula for the number of galaxies with different luminosities. Gertrude Stein used to drive around in the country every day and find a place to sit and write; much of that time was not spent writing, but gazing at cows. Mathematician Henri Poincare, after a few weeks of fruitless work on functions, drank coffee one evening and in his sleeplessness found that [i]deas rose in crowds; I felt them collide under pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination. By the next morning I had established the existence of a class of Fuchsian functions . . . Lightman writes that while different theories of creativity exist, most researchers agree that it entails divergent thinking, which consists of the ability to explore different solutions to a problem in a random, spontaneous way. According to Lightman, who has written five novels, several books on scienceincluding one on great scientific discoveries of the twentieth centuryand several essay collections, among other works, Divergent thinking does not cooperate on demand. It is not easily summoned. It does not follow the clock. It cannot be rushed. It withers and fades under external schedules and noise and assignments. It is one thing for adults to experience negative effects from unbroken connection to the grid. The more distressing phenomenon is its effects on children. Lightman looks at the increase in mental health issues for young people and draws a connection to the virtual reality that the digital world creates, which many children and adolescents have grown up thinking is normal. He quotes Janis Whitlock, director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery, who says that young people are in a cauldron of stimulus they cant get away from, or dont want to get away from, or dont know how to get away from. According to one study, feelings of loneliness in middle- and high-schoolers have dramatically increased starting in 2007, around the time the iPhone was introduced. The harmless-sounding FOMO acronym for the fear of missing out that plagues young people makes light of an ominous reality. Lightman feels we are in a dire situation: Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves. We are losing our ability to know who we are and what is important to us. We are creating a global machine in which each of us is a mindless and reflexive cog, relentless driven by the speed, noise, and artificial urgency of the wired world. He suggests that we need to develop new mental habits that allow us to reintroduce stillness, solitude, slowness, and personal reflection into our lives. Inspired by biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilsons proposal that half of our planet should be designated as conservation land, Lightman suggests that half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection. He has a few proposals, including a ten-minute period of silence for K-12 students during the school day; introspective intensive college courses featuring lighter reading loads and increased emphasis on creative essays or other introspective assignments; a quiet room in the workplace; and an unplugged hour during family dinnertime. Skeptics may say Lightman is overreacting. The benefits of technology are well documented. People truly do seem to love being on their phones. Social media allows us to stay in touch with family and friends far away, and so on. But that doesnt mean we need to be cyborgs, virtually welded to the grid. If you have ever lamented that you cant seem to find a moment to clear your mind, that you cant sleep, your kids cant sleep, and that you keep reaching for your phone, I recommend the compelling, beautifully-written In Praise of Wasting Time. by Sarah Firisen Im bored!. How often I would whine that as a kid. How often my kids would whine that to me. Go out and play my mother would reply. I probably said some version of the same thing to my kids. And I usually would go out and play. Id go to the park and wander in the wooded area making up stories and collecting flowers that Id later dry between the pages of books. Or Id go and knock on a neighbors door to see if a friend could come out and play. Then wed ride our bikes, or practice doing handstands against someones house. Sometimes we had water fights or snowball fights in winter. I suspect that kids today spend less time rectifying boredom in these kinds of ways, as indeed do most adults. After all, between streaming media and mobile devices, who really needs to be bored anymore. A game of Words with Friends or Candy Crush, or a new show on Netflix is never more than a tap away. And now, with automation in the workplace easier and more affordable than ever, the prospect of work without boredom is increasingly before us. We all have those tasks that we hate, normally the boring repetitive ones that just have to get done. Its the rare job that doesnt have some degree of mundane administrative activities attached to it. But thanks to AI and particularly Robotic Process Automation (RPA), companies, and increasingly individual employees, are able to automate many of these tasks. Anything that is a rules based activity that can be done at a keyboard is a likely candidate for RPA bots. These bots can be run server-side for enterprise-wide processes or from your computer, mimicking whatever security access your company account has to systems on your computer and throughout the network, including accessing web pages and scraping information. Many hours can be taken out of a workers days, with tasks performed more quickly and more accurately by these bots, and with the added advantage of being able to run anytime of the day and night 24/7. Leaving many white collar workers with the not so distant prospect of never having to do those kinds of tasks again. And while it is very possible, and even likely, that many if not most companies see at least some of return on investment from this technology as a reduction in their workforce, at least the stated goal of many companies is to free their workers up to perform higher value work. In his book Drive, Daniel Pink argues that, once youve passed the threshold of being paid an adequate amount for everyday living, motivation at works becomes far more about autonomy, mastery, and purpose than about money. And when we reflect on the parts of our jobs, of our lives, that are rewarding, that makes sense. No one has ever said that the best part of their day is filling in timesheets, or creating invoices, or any of those repetitive, mundane tasks that most jobs have as some component. So what would a work day look like that was only filled with the activities that play to our strengths and our passions? Were on the cusp of a work revolution where most if not all of those boring, repetitive, but necessary jobs can be automated. Were on the cusp of a future without boredom where workers days can be freed up to to focus on more interesting and creative work? The kind of work that motivates people and can be a differentiator in their careers. On the face of it, this sounds wonderful. Most of us spend most of our waking hours at our jobs. If more of that time were interesting, creative, meaningful work, how could that be anything other than a plus? Well there are a few obvious points to raise: there are many people who are employed precisely to do these boring, repetitive tasks. If those tasks are automated, it doesnt necessarily follow that all these people can now be relocated more interesting and creative work. And of course, while many people would love to be more creatively and intellectually challenged, not everyone wants to be or feels up for such tasks. What is boring to me me, isnt necessarily boring to someone else, but it may still be a task ripe for automation. Computer programs were originally written for the most part by computer science-trained experts, writing in machine code that had to be constructed to do everything including hardware memory management. These languages have given way to higher-level languages that are easier to write in while being far more powerful. The automation (so to speak) of the more basic and often boring aspects of computer programming has certainly not shrunk the demand for software developers, far from it. And you can go through innovation after innovation and say the same thing; the creation of the modern spreadsheet application and its replacement of many of the tasks involved in doing such work manually on a piece of paper can only be seen as a good thing. There arent less financial analysts or accountants, theyre just able to focus on more value-added activities rather than double and triple checking their math as they try to add rows and columns. Of course, there are people who will say that software developers today, mostly dont have the same understanding of how to control computer memory management as their predecessors and have lost a valuable skill. Again, hasnt this always been the way? You can look at the entire spectrum of human activity and see that with innovation and technological progress there has always been the loss of more mundane skills. For the most part, we shrug our shoulders and move on. Humans are very adaptable, if we ever had to use those skills again, couldnt we just learn them? Theres no doubt that my children are not as good at spelling as I had to be in school, they type everything these days and use spell check. Is this really so terrible? They can focus on what theyre trying to write rather than worrying about the technical details. They can focus on being more creative, more insightful, more interesting. One aspect of the automation revolution that worries me, and that Ive written about before, is that I think that, because the rate of automation is exponentially so much faster than in the past, we do run the risk that the apprenticeship model, that is common in most industries to one degree or another, will be severely disrupted; its by doing the lower level, more mundane work that a young accountant learns the business. Its hard to imagine a world where a 22-year old walks out of college and is immediately ready for the C-Suite. But if all the lower-level work is automated, how are they to learn and work their way up? Again, you could look at the software development model and say, how is it different? But I think that this is a different paradigm and there will need to be a real shift in how companies think about training younger staff to be able to tackle the more strategic, creative work. So a future without boredom may really be before many of us, at least those of us in white collar professions. But doesnt boredom have some benefits? Is it the case that doing nothing, or at the very least, doing something boring, repetitive, mundane might actually have some cognitive benefits? If nothing else, as this Psychology Today article points out boredom can also be your way of telling yourself that youre not spending your time as well as you could, that you should rather be doing something else, something more enjoyable or more useful, or more important and fulfilling. And so boredom can be a stimulus for change, leading you to better ideas, higher ambitions, and greater opportunities. Most of our achievements, of mans achievements, are born out of the dread of boredom. Isnt the idea that we can spend all of our waking time being on, being creative and strategic actually a fundamental misunderstanding of the way that human creativity actually works?, boredom isnt all bad. By encouraging contemplation and daydreaming, it can spur creativity. A fascinating New Yorker article a decade ago talked about the eureka experience; suddenly having an insight, an answer to a problem, that is both an instantaneous illumination and is accompanied by a certainty of its accuracy. I wont try to replicate the explanation of the science involved (the article is worth reading), except to quote this At first, the brain lavishes the scarce resource of attention on a single problem. But, once the brain is sufficiently focussed, the cortex needs to relax in order to seek out the more remote association in the right hemisphere, which will provide the insight. The relaxation phase is crucial,. The thinking is that this is why we often have our aha moments when were in the shower, or when we first wake up in the morning. In my days as a software developer, I would often have the experience where I would spend a whole day worrying away at a particular coding puzzle only to solve it in the 5 minute walk from the office to my car. This is one of the reasons that companies like Google are smart to have foosball tables and the like in their offices, people need down time in order to being creative and solve problems. This isnt to say that without more mundane tasks in their daily work people cant be creative problem solvers. But it is to say that, if nothing else,we need to make sure that as we take boredom out of life and the workplace, we dont replace it with an expectations of constant creative uptime. As tempting as it may be for companies to try to swap out 8 hours a day of mundane, repetitive tasks for 8 hours of constant creativity, theyre going to have to think more creatively themselves about what really are the most productive ways for their employees to to manage a future without boredom. About this blog In the interests of doing something different to every other wine blogger, this blog delves into the world of wine data, instead of wine itself. The intention is to ferret out some of the interesting stuff, and to bring it out into the light, for everyone to see. In particular, I draw pictures of the data as William Playfair said (in 1805): "whatever can be expressed in numbers may be represented by lines". So, I'd rather show you a graph than a paragraph. Hopefully, this will be both interesting and informative. Reprinted from the Quad-City Times Dec. 31. This year is sure to be a challenging one in the political arena. With split control of Congress and the beginning of the campaign to see who will run against President Trump in 2020, there will, no doubt, be heightened political tension. As if it could get much worse. The political polarization were experiencing today has been a subject of study for years. Where it started who started it is even a point of divide. Some trace it to the election of Barack Obama as president; others to the Reagan era. Were not here to solve that argument. But we would like to issue a challenge to our readers for this year, one we intend to take on ourselves. Were sure this is not a novel idea, nor one that hasnt been tried before. But here in the Midwest, where we pride ourselves on our reasonableness, our friendliness and in Iowa our privileged place on the political calendar, we think its worth stepping into the shoes, or at least the head space, of people on the other side of the political fence. And there perhaps is no better way to do that than by consuming political news differently. One cannot escape the evidence that gated communities are proliferating in areas where the fear of crime and of outsiders is prominent. In such communities, residents erect walls to regain control of their neighborhood so changing conditions do not overwhelm them. The lesson we can learn from the walled and gated communities, like those where Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein live, is that walls work. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, puts it this way: Ive spoken with the boots on the ground. The evidence is clear: Walls work. Physical barriers delay or stop illegal border crossings, allowing border agents greater response time. So for the U.S. today, a wall supplemented by technology and manpower is necessary to control our southern border. It is required to vet those desiring to enter our country legally. Furthermore, one hopes by controlling immigration and stopping the invasion by illegals, our government will be able to provide a safe and secure environment within which Americans can grow together as a people. Also, so churches and charitable organizations will be able to promote a culture of trust and respect for all citizens, to the end that walled/gated communities will no longer be necessary. Third in line to the presidency of the United States, as of Thursday, is the senior senator from Iowa. Chuck Grassley, the Republican who has represented Iowa in the U.S. Senate since 1981, on Thursday was sworn in as Senate president pro tempore for the 116th Congress. Perhaps the constitutional gigs top perk: Grassley becomes third in the line of presidential succession, after the vice president and speaker of the House. Grassley earned the honor by becoming the senior-most member of the majority party in the Senate. It is extremely unlikely Grassleys spot in the presidential pecking order will ever matter. The presidency has never gone beyond the vice president, unless you count Kiefer Sutherlands character in Designated Survivor. Grassley was nonetheless appreciative of the honor, tweeting he never thought he would become a constitutional officer. WAVERLY Dan Britt and Jean Harrington-Britts first trip to Guatemala was to meet their two sons. But the couple, who owns Northern Iowa Therapy in Waverly, knew even then that it wouldnt be their last. When we were in Guatemala, we saw a need down there, Britt said. That was always in the back of our mind to help. The two were correct in their assessment of Guatemala: The country, like its Central American neighbors El Salvador and Honduras, has far too few physicians in the country, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And only around 54 percent of Guatemalas rural population receive basic health services. So, on the companys 25th anniversary this year, the pair searched for a way they could offer their occupational, physical and speech therapy services in Guatemala safely and effectively. Our mission is to have a positive impact, Harrington-Britt, an occupational therapist, said. What can we do to mark this anniversary and also have a global impact? They ended up finding the Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, Minn., which has had a mission at San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, since 1962, according to the Dioceses website. CEDAR RAPIDS California billionaire Tom Steyer is targeting Iowas new congresswomen in television ads calling on them to join his effort to impeach President Donald Trump. Stayers Need to Impeach campaign has purchased more than $435,000 in television time for ads in markets across Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Dubuque, the Quad Cities, Sioux City and Des Moines. Its part of a $2.5 million national ad buy targeting Iowa and the three other leadoff states in the 2020 presidential nominating process New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The ad targets newly elected members of Congress, including 1st District Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer and 3rd District Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne. Steyer calls on them and other Democrats to hold the president accountable by using their power to impeach him by a simple majority vote. In the 30-second spot scheduled to run Saturday through Jan. 11, Steyer says the 2018 election results show Americans rose up this November and rejected Donald Trump. As a result, Trump, more unhinged by that than ever, has declared war on the rule of law. However, voters gave Democrats the power to hold Trump in check, Steyer says. DES MOINES Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney on Monday named several key staff members to run his Iowa campaign ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucuses in 2020. The hires give Delaney 24 campaign workers in Iowa. He plans to open campaign offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Sioux City and Waterloo. Delaney, whose tenure as a U.S. House representative for Maryland recently ended after he decided not to seek re-election in pursuit of the presidency, has already visited the states 99 counties. Monica Biddix was named Delaneys state campaign director. Biddix previously worked as Delaneys communications director. Other senior staff announced Monday included Mark Galinsky, deputy director, and Michelle Bruggenthies, a former staffer with Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, Iowa caucus director. The announcement of Delaneys new staff comes as other Democratic candidates join the fray in what could be a crowded contest. She has been an excellent leader, well recognized in the state and nationally, Nardini added, noting leadership has helped in the midst of pressures from declining credit enrollment to keep the college on solid financial ground. He also called her very instrumental to the passage of a $25 million bond issue referendum in February 2015 and the expansion of our college facilities. Allen identified voters overwhelming passage of the bond referendum as one of the events over the past few years that have really set in motion a number of things for the college, as well as the community we serve. She added, Were deeply appreciative of the support of our community. The bond issue helped fund the $12.96 million three-story, 45,000-square-foot downtown center. In addition, bond funds will be used for a planned health sciences center on the main campus. Money is also set aside for high school career programs. Still, personal reasons are probably the key factors in the decision at this time for leaving the college, noted Allen. Her husband, Michael, retired in May from Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids. WATERLOO A woman has been returned to Iowa to face charges in a 2018 slaying of her cousin in Waterloo. Danaesha Lynne Martin, 22, was detained in Norfolk, Va., in November on a first-degree murder warrant from Waterloo. She remained in Virginia until Monday morning when she arrived at the Black Hawk County Jail. Her bond is set at $100,000. Danaesha Martin is charged in the death of 22-year-old Shavondes Shavez Martin. Neighbors found his body in a pool of blood in the alley between South and Washington streets at 5:30 a.m. May 31. The slaying came months after he was acquitted of charges in connection with a 2016 homicide on Logan Avenue. Investigators believe Shavondes Martin was shot with two different guns about two hours before his body was discovered. Court records allege Danaesha Martin, whose last known address was on South Street, drove her cousin to the fatal ambush. She initially told police she was forced at gunpoint to call Shavondes Martin, pick him up and drive him to where he was shot. Police said in court records that she admitted to knowing what was going to happen to him. WATERLOO Police arrested a Waterloo man on drug and weapons charges after he allegedly advertised marijuana on social media and pointed a gun at a surveillance camera. Officers with the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested Malik Cortez Snow, 18, at 3316 Kennedy Lane, Lot 241, on Saturday for conspiracy to deliver marijuana, carrying weapons and interference. His bond was set at $12,325. According to court records, Snow and another person had been advertising that they were selling marijuana and marijuana wax on the internet. They also obtained a surveillance video from Friday night showing Snow walking in the street, pulling a .380-caliber Taurus pistol from his pocket and pointing it at a security camera. WATERLOO A Waterloo teen was detained on weapons charges following a Saturday night shooting on Logan Avenue. Neighbors and patrol officers heard gunfire around 7:20 p.m. Saturday, and police found broken glass in the roadway in the 1100 block of Logan and discovered an unattended car on the side of the road with a broken window and a bullet hole in the door. While investigating, authorities found a 17-year-old girl behind a nearby tree. A handgun was on the ground near the tree. The girl said she had been driving the car when someone shot at her, according to police. She was detained on a charge of carrying weapons. No injuries were reported in the shooting. Love 0 Funny 4 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 1 President Uhuru Kenyatta has sent a message of condolence and encouragement to the family, relatives and friends of Professor Abel Gitau Mugenda who died on Saturday after a short illness. The late Professor Abel Mugenda is husband to Professor Olive Mwihaki Mugenda, former Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor and a member of the Judicial Service Commission. In his message, President Kenyatta described the late Professor Abel Mugenda as a distinguished scholar and researcher whose work has had great bearing on education and training in the country. The President said, the late Prof. Mugenda has authored and published several books and research works which will continue to help in the growth of the countrys education sector for many years to come. The late Professor Mugenda was one of Kenyas academic and research giants who will be remembered for many years to come for his outstanding work, said the President. The President cited one of Professor Mugendas books titled Social Science Research: Theory and Principles which is a valuable guide to research in Africa and the developing world. The President described the late Professor Abel as a true patriot who despite his great achievements and exposure to other opportunities outside Kenya, committed himself to serving the country through his skills, knowledge and talent. Prof Mugenda has indeed imparted our young people with great knowledge on research methods not only through teaching but also through his published works. We will forever be indebted to this great scholar, said the President. The late Professor Abel Gitau Mugenda has worked with the United Nations and several International NGOs as a researcher, and a monitoring and evaluation specialist. Prof. Mugenda has also lectured in the areas of research methods, monitoring and evaluation and statistics at the University of Nairobi, Iowa State University, Kenya Methodist University and United States International University, Kenya. He has authored several books in research methods including Qualitative Research Methods and Social Science Research: Theory and Principles. The flag at the Charlotte station also flew at half staff, and a memorial to Hosette was on display outside the fire department, which also serves as city hall for the town of about 400. In the driveway of the small station, Hosette's fellow firefighters set up a memorial, displaying his turnout gear in front of a fire truck, which was draped in black. A firefighter in Clinton for 12 years, Hosette leaves behind his wife, Kelly, and young daughter, Addy. Inside, the scene was similar to that in Clinton. Crockpots and pizza boxes filled the small kitchen, and his fire department family gathered in a meeting room. One volunteer firefighter, who said he has been with the Charlotte department for 40 years, spoke through tears of Hosette, but he asked that he not be identified by name. "Only two names should be mentioned right now, and mine's not one of them," he said. The veteran volunteer said Hosette followed his maternal grandfather into the local fire service. He said Hosette grew up in nearby Camanche, and his grandfather, Richard "Dick" Grimm, served as chief in Charlotte for 35 years. DUBUQUE (AP) Iowa-made craft beers are continuing to surge in popularity even as general beer sales decline, according to a new report from state alcohol regulators. The amount of such beer sold in Iowa increased 11 percent from fiscal year 2017 to 2018, to nearly 685,000 gallons. The new numbers were released last week by the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division. The market has seen strong growth for the second consecutive year. Iowa breweries enjoyed a 9.7 percent increase from fiscal year 2016 to 2017. It doesnt surprise me at all that local craft is doing well, said Jacob Simmons, a co-founder of Backpocket Brewing in Coralville. The report notes the craft beer growth happened despite a 2 percent decrease in overall beer sold in the state from fiscal year 2017 to 2018. About 71 million gallons were sold in Iowa in the past fiscal year, which ended June 30. Miller said customers still show a lot of enthusiasm for local craft beers. Every year, I think its going to peak, and every year, it seems to keep on going, he said. In her memoir Becoming Michelle Obama writes, Ive never been a fan of politics, and my experience over the last ten years has done little to change that. However, in view of her huge popularity and sky-high approval ratings, senior Democrats might talk her into reconsidering the decision. Her memoir is a huge success and it has topped the bestseller list since it was published in November. Moreover, polls continue to rate her as being more popular than Donald Trump and her party might convince her to take the plunge to become the first woman POTUS. Daily Mail UK reports Michelle Obama is averse to becoming the President and has expressed her unwillingness. However, a section of Democrats feel she could be convinced to change her decision. Her ratings are at a peak and she could fit the bill of their candidate in the 2020 US presidential race. Michelles reach increased due to her memoir Books appear to be the deciding factor because Barack Obama's popularity soared with the publication of his book The Audacity Of Hope in 2006. That led to his bid for the White House as Americas first black President and he held that honor for two terms. Right now, Michelles book Becoming is on a roll with its bestseller status ever since it hit the stalls in November. In the opinion of experts, she as Americas first female President could prove a tough contest for the present incumbent Donald Trump. Michelle Obama tipped for 2020 White House win with sky high approval ratings https://t.co/roy7KMblDN pic.twitter.com/24UsKlZEGc The Sun (@TheSun) January 6, 2019 Mike Huckabee also feels her party could nominate Michelle Obama. Mike belongs to the other camp. He was unsuccessful in getting the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and has now predicted that Michelle Obama could be a candidate for 2020. She has already bagged the title of Most Admired Woman for 2018. That, coupled with her book Becoming has prepared the base to propel her to the chair. Former First Lady is reluctant According to The Sun UK, former First Lady Michelle Obama appears to be a hot favorite to be in the 2020 Presidential race, thanks to the growing popularity of her memoirs. The book Becoming has boosted her approval ratings and there is a strong feeling in certain quarters that exploiting the advantage will pay dividends. However, she is in a denial mode even though some polls rate her above Donald Trump. Her husband became the first black president and Michelle (54) could follow his example. It is too early to make any prediction but she has a way with people and can make others feel at ease, which is an important quality of a leader. There could be others in the 2020 Presidential race, but Michelle will probably have the edge. "Dragon Ball Super" is one of the most famous anime series in the world. The Tournament of Power of the series ended on March 25. Since then, fans have been waiting for the makers to announce the next part of the TOP or a brand new anime series of "Dragon Ball Super." Unfortunately, no announcement has been made about the imaginary continuation of the anime series, but a message from Akira Toriyama leaves hope for the future. At the end of the Jump Festa panel, a message was released that the creator of Dragon Ball which brought hope for fans all over the world. According to the first translations, the sensei has promised a new project coming up, but it is still not clear if it will be a new anime series or the next film. Here is his message "To all adult men with the heart of a boy, but also to all the possible girls who share the same spirit, please go to the cinema and get excited with the new movie. Personally, for me working on Dragon Ball is a bit like finding myself in a battle, and if I have to be totally frank, it's something I do not like very much! But you must know that, for some reason, there is this new project that makes me really excited when it comes to writing a story. In short, by now I will also be an old geezer, but know that I'm working on a new project. In short, you resent my next job!" - Akira Toriyama Unfortunately, neither the sensei, Toei Animation, nor Shueisha provided further details on the nature of this project. One thing is certain, "Dragon Ball Super" will continue. We await clarification from Toriyama, at this point, on the future of the franchise. Meanwhile, "Super Dragon Ball Heroes" is still running at the moment. 'DBS' Broly "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" has been in Japanese cinemas for almost three weeks, and continues to break records of public and revenue, as evidenced by the goal of two billion yen passed by a few days, reports ComicBook a week ago. The new earning figures of the movie are yet to come. Obviously, this is only the beginning, with the film ready to cross the borders of Japan and land on the other continents. The promotional machine is therefore far from stuck, and still has many aces to play. The USA release of "Dragon Ball Super: Broly," is ready to canonize characters like Gogeta and the Broly. Programmed by Anime Factory and Koch Media for January 16, 2019, fans can still expect contributions like artworks, which can entertain us during the wait. Stay tuned for more news and update on anime. Born Rodgers Ray Ondieki and hailing from Kisii Town, DJ Roudge is the next big thing in the turntabling scene. Last month, DJ Roudge was crowned the winner of the Smirnoff deejaying competition, Battle of The Beats. The competition drew a total of 19 contestants from across the country. Following his big win, DJ Roudge talked to Pulse recently and revealed more details about his journey. Who is DJ Roudge? I am just a simple guy from Kisii town who found my passion in being a DJ even though I started turning tables professionally four years back. Where did you learn how to turn tables? I first started with playing on Virtual DJ when I was in second year of campus. Then after I was done with school, my good friend, DJ Jeff, started teaching me how to turn tables because he had a full DJ kit. He taught me everything that I know today. You hold a degree in banking and finance and a masters in procurement, why did you settle on being a DJ? I started working at a very young age. Before joining campus I was a supermarket attendant in Embakasi. After graduating from campus, I was a bank teller with a leading bank after staying at home for a couple of months, but I was not making enough money to sustain myself. Then I got a job with the county government as an accountant but still was not making enough to pay my bills so I settled on being a full-time DJ and I have no regrets. How did you join the Smirnoff battle of beats competition? I first heard about the competition from one of the mentors DJ Slim from Kisumu who advised me to join the competition. I was in Nairobi at the moment since I was working here during the weekdays and traveling back to Kisii over the weekends. I then left for Kisumu where I went for the auditions. Did you think you would pass the auditions? No I didnt. I didnt think I would make it. I went before the judges with all the equipment I had. I went with the full DJ kit and I was ready to turn tables. I was to go in fourth and while I was standing in line I heard the judges telling the guy who was on stage at the moment that they wanted an entertainer and not someone who was just coming to turn tables and that is how I got a tip-off. If I had not heard that I would have been disqualified during the auditions. What was the most difficult part of the competition for you? The elimination days. Every Monday one person was eliminated from the competition and generally Mondays were difficult days for all of us. For me the hardest day was the day I was put up for nomination. It was last week to the finals and I was up against a guy who was not only a DJ but also a producer so he had an upper hand. I thought I would be eliminated but I made it. Who was your biggest support system during the competition? My family and friends. They kept praying for me and encouraging me. What was your reaction when you won the competition? At that time, I couldnt believe it. It had not sank in completely and I was still in shock. Everything became a reality to me when I was the DJ for the Smirnoff New Year party on New Years Eve in Mombasa where I was slotted in between Ali Kiba and Sauti Sol. This was huge for me because it was my first official performance and I did this in front of 8,000 people, sharing a stage with amazing artistes. What was you reward from Smirnoff. I got a one-year contract with EABL and Capital FM. I also got a full DJ kit, a MacBook Pro, a contract with Mr P and Bread House also promised something. I have my party at the end of the month and many clubs have reached out to have me turn tables for them, I was just at 1824 recently. What challenges have you faced as a young upcoming DJ? There are a lot of challenges in the industry especially when one is not yet established. There is a big gap between the established DJs and the upcoming ones where the established ones do not associate with the latter. The other challenge is many event organisers do not look at the skills one has but rather at the number of social media followers one has. What is your plan for the New Year? My plan is to establish myself and build my brand like DJ Joe Mfalme, DJ Stylez and DJ Jeff who I all admire and look up to. This year, I am coming for the top spot in the industry. A Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family will not be sent anywhere against her wishes, the head of Thailands immigration police said. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand under the protection of the UN refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and claims for asylum status. Thai immigration police released photos of Ms Alqunun after she left the room at a Bangkok airport hotel where she had been holed up. Ms Alqunun had stayed in the room while sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. She began posting on Twitter late on Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. The agreement allowing her to leave the airport came after officials from the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, met Thai immigration police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn, and then with Ms Alqunun. UNHCR declined to release any details of its meeting with Ms Alqunun, but its representative in Thailand Giuseppe De Vincentiis noted a good spirit of collaboration so far with Thai officials. According to Maj Gen Surachate, Ms Alqununs father was due to arrive in Bangkok on Monday night, and officials would then see if she was willing to depart with him. As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She wont be sent anywhere tonight, Maj Gen Surachate said at one of several news conferences at the airport. She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles, he said. We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law. On Twitter, Ms Alqunun had written of being in real danger if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. Story continues She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her fathers retaliation. Ms Alqununs planned forced departure on Monday morning was averted as she stayed in her hotel room, with furniture piled up against the door, photos she posted online showed. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunan wants asylum in Australia (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) Her plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee allegedly abusive families. Ms Alqununs Twitter account attracted more than 50,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments as well as the UN refugee agency. Her pleas for asylum have also brought international attention to the obstacles women face in Saudi Arabia under male guardianship laws, which require that women, regardless of their age, have the consent of a male relative usually a father or husband to travel, obtain a passport or marry. They also show the limits of reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. Ms Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she was fleeing beatings and death threats from her male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Thailand should give Ms Alqunun back her passport and let her continue her journey to Australia. She has a valid Australian visa, he said. The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harms way. Maj Gen Surachate challenged parts of Ms Alqununs story, including her claim that she had an Australian visa. However, he did not show her passport. The fact is she didnt have any money, he said. She intended to come here and didnt have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless. Ms Alqunun had been travelling with her family in Kuwait, from where she may have chosen to flee because it has fewer restrictions than her homeland on womens travel. UN refugee agency workers in Bangkok have met with the Saudi teenager resisting attempts to be sent back home to her "abusive" family. The representatives told Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun that she will remain in their custody and is now safe, as her father heads to Thailand to see if she is willing to return to the Arab kingdom with him. Mohammed Alqunun from Ha'il province is a senior Saudi Arabian government official. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "This is the person that Rahaf fears most. "She is 18-years-old, and has a right to decide whether to meet him or not." Thailand's immigration police chief has said Ms Alqunun will be granted entry to the country for evaluation by the UN refugee agency. Major General Surachate Hakparn said the agency would take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case. Ms Alqunun barricaded herself in a hotel room at a Bangkok airport as she tried to flee her family on a trip to Kuwait. Her passport has been seized by Thai authorities, and the 18-year-old says she fears her family will kill her if she is sent back to Saudi Arabia. The teenager tweeted a video which shows her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress. Ms Alqunun is seeking asylum in Australia and has been pleading for help on social media. She told Human Rights Watch that she is fleeing abuse from her family, and alleges she had suffered beatings and death threats from male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months after she cut her hair. Ms Alqunun has accumulated tens of thousands of followers on Twitter in about a day-and-a-half as she has posted updates from her Bangkok hotel room. For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death. Ms Alqunun's ordeal began on Saturday night after officials in Thailand stopped her in transit from Kuwait. She was denied entry into the country by Thai immigration officials, who deny accusations that she was detained at the behest of the Saudi government. Story continues Although Ms Alqunun was due to leave Bangkok and be returned to her family on a Kuwait Airways flight, Human Rights Watch has said that the plane has now departed without her on board. The head of Thailand's immigration police said Ms Alqunun will not be sent anywhere against her wishes. Major General Surachate Hakparn also said he would meet UN refugee officials to discuss allowing them to see her. He added that if Thai authorities decide not to send her back to Saudi Arabia, they would have to provide their reasons to Saudi authorities in order not to affect the countries' relations. Late on Sunday, Ms Alqunun had warned: "My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait. "They will kill me. My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things." Ms Alqunun has also claimed that her family has prevented her from continuing her education - and said she feels "oppressed" because she has not been allowed to drive or travel. "I love life and work and I am very ambitious but my family is preventing me from living," she added. Lawyers in Thailand filed an injunction to prevent the teenager's deportation but it was rejected. The NPS law firm said on Facebook that a Bangkok court turned the request down because there was not enough evidence and it was not clear who the teenager is. Abdullah al Shuaibi, Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Bangkok, has denied the Gulf kingdom is involved in Ms Alqunun being held at the airport. He was quoted in Saudi press saying that Ms Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. Mr al Shuaibi said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that this decision rests with Thai officials. A UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman said: "UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers - having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection - cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. "This principle is recognised as customary international law, and is also enshrined in Thailand's other treaty obligations." Sarah Hanson-Young, a South Australian senator, said: "I've put in a number of calls into the government today, both department of foreign affairs and border protection, urging them to act very quickly to help bring a young Saudi woman who is currently detained in Bangkok airport to Australia. "She's fleeing from a pretty abusive situation back home, a forced marriage, and she's denounced Islam which is a crime back home in Saudi Arabia. "She has a visa, a current visa for visiting her in Australia but she doesn't have travel documents." Saudi women have increasingly turned to social media to amplify their calls for help after running away from their families. Dina Lasloom triggered a storm online in 2017 when she was stopped en route to Australia where she planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts. FILE PHOTO: Visitors watch from a bus as Siberian tigers try to catch a chicken at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin FILE PHOTO: Visitors watch from a bus as Siberian tigers try to catch a chicken at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China December 27, 2011. REUTERS/Sheng Li/File Photo By Farah Master and Joyce Zhou HONG KONG/HARBIN, China (Reuters) - At the Siberia Tiger Park in the frigid Chinese city of Harbin, visitors can learn about the facility's successful breeding programme and buy chicken carcasses to toss to around 20 tigers pacing the snow flecked ground of their enclosure. At the park gates, a shop sells liquor soaked with tiger bones for up to $1,000 a bottle. China has made significant strides in wildlife protection in recent years, including a total ban on ivory and plans to open one of the worlds largest reserves for wild tigers in northeast China in 2020. But it also has formidable, profit-driven wildlife business interests that risk undermining progress on protecting the endangered big cats, conservationists say. The industry occupies a strategic position which concentrates in the countrys less developed regions where poverty reduction remains a top priority of the local authorities," said Houston-based Peter Li, a China Policy Specialist at Humane Society International. Operators of tiger breeding farms have told state media that without the ability to sell bones, skins and meat they are not be able to cover the high costs of running their parks and carry out key conservation plans endorsed by the national government. After pressure from some breeders, China's State Council said in October it would replace a 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn, opening up exceptions under "special circumstances", including medical research. But in November, Beijing postponed the move following widespread protests from conservation groups who worry any resumption in the legal trade of tiger parts will be a death knell for the species by enabling the laundering of wild animal parts into farmed supplies. Conservationists also argue that no captive Chinese bred tigers have been released into the wild and there is no scientific or medical need to use rhino horn and tiger bone in traditional Chinese medicine. Story continues Still, lifting the ban is backed by China's powerful State Forestry and Grassland Administration. If rhino horns and tiger bones can be used for medicinal purposes, and their use causes zero harm to the two endangered species in the wild, why should we oppose it? Tang Xiaoping, an executive at the administration was quoted in the state-run China Daily newspaper. The Forestry and Grasslands administration did not respond to multiple requests for comment. PROFIT-DRIVEN BUSINESS At the Siberia Tiger Park, tiger bone wine is sold openly and is recognised by the Forestry Bureau and Commerce Ministry, according to a sales representative in the store. However, the park is not allowed to publicly promote it due to the sensitivity of the situation, the sales rep said. Officials at the park declined to comment on the record. The wine, which ranges in price from 280 yuan-6,888 yuan, is displayed in large glass cabinets and also sold on China's Twitter-like WeChat. Park executives, officials and conservation experts say tiger parks have been accumulating stocks of animal skin and bone in freezers, with the aim of selling it for medicinal use in thefuture. Conservation groups estimate there are now over 6,500 farmed tigers at some 200 facilities in China and around 40 farmed rhinos. Chinese media say tiger bone can fetch 5,000-9,000 yuan per kg - tens of thousands of dollars per animal. The World Wildlife Fund believes there are only around 40-50 wild tigers left in China out of around 3,900 globally. Debate over lifting the ban on tiger trade comes as China seeks to develop its traditional medicine industry, worth some $50 billion annually, and position it as a key pillar of its One Belt One Road strategy. The World Health Organisation is set to recognize traditional Chinese medicine for the first time next year in its global medical compendium according to Nature International Journal of Science, citing the governing body. CASH STRAPPED The Siberian Tiger Park has more than 1,300 tigers spread across three locations. Selling tiger bone wine is a way to subsidise the daily expenses of the park, said one of the parks tour guides. Currently, visitor fees are the parks' main source of income, along with government subsidies. Ticket prices are 100 yuan and visitors can pay extra to feed the tigers. A menu of meat displays prices for a live chicken at 120 yuan while a raw cutlet is 10 yuan. In a CCTV documentary shown in November, Liu Dan, the chief engineer of the Northeast Tiger Forest park, near Chinas border with Russia, says his 1,000-plus tigers each eat around 3,000 yuan (342.55 pounds) worth of chicken per month. Liu, who has raised tigers for over 30 years and has repeatedly called for the ban on trading tiger parts to be lifted, told state media that government tax breaks are not enough for the park to be financially viable. Currently, parks make most of their money from visitors. Liu and the park declined to comment for this article. Chinese medicine experts say there is no need to use tiger bone and rhino horn in treatments as substitutes are readily available. Tiger bone, for example, is often used to treat arthritis and joint pain, but there are dozens of other herbs with similar properties, said Eric Karchmer, chief medicine officer at Dao Labs. Lixin Huang, the president of the American College of Traditional medicine, said a reversal of the ban would create a huge challenge for the Chinese medicine community. We stopped using it 25 years ago. We dont understand. I dont think the Chinese medicine community and medical professionals would understand. (Reporting by Farah Master and Joyce Zhou; Additional reporting by the Beijing newsroom and Trista Shi; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) 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If you continue browsing by accessing another area of the site or selecting, for example, an image or a link, you express your consent to the use of cookies and other profiling technologies used by the site. Legendary television host Jimmy Hannan, best known for a string of game shows & variety across the 60s & 70s, has died aged 84. He passed away peacefully after a short battle with cancer, daughter Emily Gillman told Nine. He was 84 so he had a fantastic life. The TV icon died surrounded by family, and was not in pain, Mrs Gillman said. Hannan had a mile-wide smile and exuberant personality that mad him ideal for game shows, mostly on Channel Nine. Arent I lucky? Theyre good TV teeth, a little bit buck, which make them extra good. Theyve really got to be for TV, he once told the Womens Weekly. He appeared on TV in its very first year, 1956, as an 18 year old on Name That Tune, using the 500 prize to go to Canada to further his career. After landing a compere role on the musical variety show Saturday Date in 1963, where Olivia Newton-John and Billy Thorpe got their start. He even recorded Beach Ball -with backing vocals from the very-young Bee Gees- reaching #2 on the charts. In 1965 he won the Gold Logie for the show. Key shows he hosted were his own variety shows Jimmy, Jimmy Hannan Tonight, The Jimmy Hannan Show, Celebrity Squares, Spending Spree and Lets Make a Deal as well as regular appearances on In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Mike Walsh Show and The Ernie Sigley Show. At the height of his career in the mid-1970s, Hannan was recording 13 television appearances a week, plus radio in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Other credits include Say When, Take a Letter, The Go! Show, The Weekend Starts Here, Split Second, Micro Macro, Have a Go, Ted Hamiltons Musical World, Bandstand, Personality Squares, Search for a Star, $100,000 Money Makers, Value Shopping, The Late Show and This Is Your Life. In 2010 he attended GTV9s farewell party at Bendigo Street Richmond. He once said, Whenever Ive compered a show, Ive always stuck to the philosophy that it [the show] comes first. I try to play it low-key so people watch the programme instead of me. So many performers grab the spotlight and dont let go. Hannan will be farewelled in a private ceremony on Friday. Additional source: NFSA, IMDb Related A crash between a car and a taxi and three motorcycles in Hanoi killed two people and seriously injured five others on Sunday, the latest in a series of road accidents in Vietnam that had collectively claimed at least 13 lives since the middle of last week. The four-seater automobile first slammed into the taxi before ploughing into the motorbikes, all running in the same direction, at around 1:30 pm on Mau Luong Street in the capitals Ha Dong District, a local police officer said. A husband and his wife on a motorcycle were both killed in the crash, whereas five others were severely injured. The cabs rear half and the motorbikes were damaged after the collision. The car driver immediately fled the scene and only turned himself in to police four hours after the accident. Deadly road accidents were recorded every day from Wednesday to Sunday last week, taking the lives of at least 13 people. The most fatal crash involved a trailer truck that killed four people after hitting 21 motorcycles waiting at a red light in Long An Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, on Wednesday. The truck driver, who was arrested on Thursday, later tested positive for heroin. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa have arrested a 19-year-old suspect for allegedly murdering his own mother and six-year-old brother. Senior Lieutenant Colonel Phan Van Cuong, chief of staff of the provincial police department, confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday they had apprehended Nguyen Vo Ngoc Bao for murder and robbery. Bao is the prime suspect in the death of his mother, V.T.K.H., 47, and younger brother, N.V.C.T., Sen. Lt. Col. Cuong stated. According to preliminary information, Baos father discovered the bodies of his wife and youngest son as he returned home after work on Saturday evening. The victims suffered multiple slash wounds to their heads and necks. The family live in a house in Tan Thanh Village, Cam Thanh Bac Commune, Cam Lam District. Upon examining the scene and collecting statements, police identified Bao, who was nowhere to be seen when the bodies were discovered, as the main suspect. Officers also believed he had committed the crime when he was high on drugs. According to online newspaper VnExpress, Bao admitted to police officers he had consumed a large amount of synthetic cannabinoids on Saturday morning. The young man became hallucinated and slashed his younger brother to death with a machete. He went on to kill his mother after she had just returned home from the market. Bao took some jewelry, a cellphone, some cash, and a motorbike before running away, a police officer told Tuoi Tre. He was nabbed in Ninh Thuan Province, about 80 kilometers away from his home in Khanh Hoa, at first light on Sunday, the officer added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The 41st session of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee convened in Hanoi on Sunday, focusing on development orientations for bilateral relationship in 2019. The gathering was chaired by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith, who was on a January 5-6 visit to Vietnam. During the session, PM Phuc expressed his delight at the positive development of traditional friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries over the past year, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Both sides were satisfied with the ties between the two governments in 2018, especially in politics, external affairs, national defense and security, and social safety and order. Over 400 projects worth about US$4.1 billion by Vietnamese firms contributed to Laos socio-economic development, while two-way trade exceeded the $1 billion benchmark in 2018, up 14 percent year-on-year. The number of Vietnamese scholarships for Lao students keeps increasing, helping to raise the total number of the Lao students in Vietnam to more than 14,200 so far. The two premiers reached consensus on cooperation orientations for 2019, which emphasize collaboration across politics, foreign affairs, defense, and security. Delegates of the meeting witness the signing of cooperation agreements. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Regarding economic ties, Vietnam and Laos will exchange experience in building policies to stabilize the macro-economy and promote sustainable development, while creating business conditions for companies in each nation to reach ten-percent growth in two-way trade this year. Both sides will prioritize improving their education-training cooperation, and boost ties in such fields as culture, science, society, communications, sports, healthcare, and legislation, among others. The leaders agreed to continue tightening coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums. The two countries will stand by each other to deepen the cooperative progress of the ASEAN Community, and enhance the ASEANs role in strategic issues of the region, including the situation in the East Vietnam Sea. Following the session, the Vietnamese government will direct relevant ministries, sectors, localities, enterprises and units to closely collaborate with their Lao counterparts to immediately and effectively implement the decisions made during the meeting. Both prime ministers also witnessed the signing and exchange of six documents, including an agreement on cooperation between the two governments in 2019. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! What just happened? Last Friday President Trump said he was considering using his national emergency powers to secure funding for the construction of a border wall between U.S.-Mexico border. We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly, said the president. What are national emergency powers? The President of the United States has certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war, or near-war situations). Some of these powers are either implied or explicitly stated by the U.S. Constitution. Others are delegations of authority through legislation, such as the National Emergencies Act. How does a U.S. President declare a national emergency? The president can declare a national emergency through an executive order. Per the National Emergencies Act, the president must specifically declare a national emergency and act in accordance with the rest of the Act. What is the National Emergencies Act? The National Emergencies Act (NEA) is a law passed by Congress in 1976 that authorizes the president to declare a national emergency. A declaration under NEA triggers emergency authorities contained in other federal statutes. The NEA does not provide any specific emergency authority on its own, but relies on emergency authorities provided in other statutes. A national emergency declaration allows for the activation of these other statutory authorities, though they must be specifically identified in the presidents declaration before taking effect. How are national emergencies ended? After a president declares a national emergency, it can be terminated only by a proclamation of the president or by a concurrent resolution of Congress. What are the accountability requirements during a national emergency? There are three main requirement outlined in the National Emergencies Act: The President must maintain a file and index of all significant orders, rules, and regulations, issued during such emergency pursuant to such declarations. All such significant orders of the president must be promptly transmitted to Congress. The president shall transmit to Congress, within ninety days after the end of each six-month period after such declaration, a report on the total expenditures incurred by the U.S. Government during such six-month period which are directly attributable to the exercise of powers and authorities conferred by such declaration. Not later than ninety days after the termination of each such emergency or war, the President shall transmit a final report on all such expenditures. How many national emergency declarations have been issued? Since the NEA took effect in 1976 there have been over fifty declarations of national emergency by U.S. presidents. Currently, 28 are still in effect (the date is the year the emergency was declared): 1979 Blocking Iranian Government Property 1994 Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction 1995 Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process 1995 Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum 1995 Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers 1997 Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan 1998 Blocking Property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro, and Prohibiting New Investment in the Republic of Serbia in Response to the Situation in Kosovo 2001 Continuation of Export Control Regulations 2001 Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks 2001 Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism 2003 Blocking Property of Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Zimbabwe 2003 Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq has an Interest 2004 Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria 2004 Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Importation of Certain Goods from Liberia 2006 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Cote dIvoire 2006 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus 2006 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2007 Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions 2008 Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals 2010 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Somalia 2011 Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya 2011 Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations 2012 Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen 2014 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine 2014 Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to South Sudan 2014 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Central African Republic 2015 Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela 2015 Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities 2015 Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Burundi Can President Trump declare a national emergency on border security? Under the NEA, President Trump has broad latitude to issue an emergency proclamation. However, if he issues such an executive order he will almost assuredly by immediately sued by members of Congress. Even before the passage of the NEA the Courts put limits on the presidents ability to use the emergency powers to enact policy. For example, during the Korean War President Truman issued an executive order directing Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to seize and operate most of the nations steel mills. This was done in order to avert the expected effects of a strike by the United Steelworkers of America. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court held that the President did not have the authority to issue such an order, and said that the Presidents power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker. Based on the presidents previous comments and actions, the Supreme Court would likely rule such action as an unconstitutional attempt to get around Congresss refusal to fund the border wall. A photography contest on social inequality in Vietnam gave its top prizes on Saturday to pictures that best capture the stark sobering realities on the issue. Over 300 pictures from 89 photographers from across the country were sent to the two-month competition jointly held by poverty-fighting Oxfam in Vietnam, Vietnam Street Photography and a firm called ECUE. The works highlight inequality caused by gender, access to healthcare, age, and disabilities. Local photographer Maika Elan, one of the judges, said the winning photos set people thinking about social inequalities. One of them shows a couple walking with their children past a homeless child sitting on a sidewalk in the tourist city of Da Lat in Vietnams Central Highlands, while another depicts a man and a baby looking at a new building from a spot of rubble with a puddle in northern Vietnam. Relatives of patients sleep along a corridor at a hospital in Da Nang City, central Vietnam. Photo: Pham Vo Hoang Giang Two worlds in a city: a man and child are seen amid rubble in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam. Photo: Nguyen Quoc Huy Hai The issue of insufficient space for patients at hospitals nationwide was brought into focus by a photo of patients relatives sleeping along an infirmary's corridor in the central metropolis of Da Nang. In another picture, a years-old slum in Ho Chi Minh Citys Binh Thanh District stands in sharp contrast with the metropolis tallest landmark and high-rise apartment buildings that dominate the cityscape. A slum is pictured against the backdrop of high-rises in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Nguyen Van Hop Judges also decided to honor a photo depicting a girl crying apparently for help while she is being carried by men in a cultural practice in northern Vietnams mountainous province of Lao Cai. In the custom, known by the ethnic locals as wife-pulling, a young man or teenager with others' assistance brings a woman or girl with whom he has a romantic relationship to his home, where she lives for several days before deciding whether to marry him. A girl shouts in a wife-pulling practice in Lao Cai Province, northern Vietnam. Photo: Nguyen Tien Thanh The woman or girl may feign surprise and shout for help although she may already know the mans plan beforehand and anticipate his action. The couple does this mostly because their families disapprove of their marriage, the man is poor or the woman is uncertain about the wedlock or wants greater respect from the mans family. The man is expected to make no physical injuries to her but some men have taken advantage of the tradition to forcibly take home the girls they like, thus frightening them. Such morphed versions recently came into public view and received criticisms from many people. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! SEOUL -- U.S. State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday. U.S. officials discussed the schedule for the second Trump-Kim summit while in contact with North Korean officials in the Vietnamese capital city, fuelling speculation that Vietnam could host the event, the Munhwa Ilbo reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington. Vietnam has diplomatic relations with both the United States and North Korea, with North Korea maintaining a diplomatic office in Vietnam, and has the symbolic significance of a country that has reformed its economy, the newspaper reported. A spokesperson for the U.S Embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Sunday, Trump told reporters in Washington that the United States and North Korea are negotiating a location for a second summit. It will be announced probably in the not too distant future, Trump said. They do want to meet and we want to meet and well see what happens. While the two sides had a very good dialogue and the American president had indirectly communicated with Kim, Trump said sanctions would be enforced until more progress is made. In a nationally televised New Year address, Kim said he is willing to meet Trump again anytime to achieve their common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but warned he may have to take an alternative path if U.S. sanctions and pressure against the country continued. I am always ready to sit together with the U.S. president anytime in the future, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail, Kim said. As the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday is only a month away, people in Ho Chi Minh City are dashing to buy ornamental plants, both natural and artificial, to decorate their houses for the national festival, with fabric flowers selling like hot cakes even at a hefty price tag of VND15 million (US$645) apiece. On December 31, decoration shops along 3/2 Street in District 10 began to showcase their latest products, especially artificial plants, for Tet, which is due next month. Fabric flowers of various types are available at different prices, with a number of imported products to meet customers need. The products fetch from a few hundred dong to as much as VND25 million ($1,075), depending on type and size. Particularly, a small pot of fabric flowers costs VND500,000-700,000 ($21.5-$30), whereas bigger products fetch between VND1.5 million ($64.5) and VND8 million ($344). At a shop named Khanh Linh, a three-meter-tall apricot blossom, the iconic flower of Tet in southern Vietnam, made from fabric is available at VND15 million. We only make this special product upon request, a shop attendant said. Despite the high prices, fake plants and flowers meant for Tet decoration still sell well as the holiday draws near. People choose artificial plants at a store in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre Besides apricot blossoms and peach flowers, the favorite Tet flowers for people in the north, local customers also seek to decorate their houses and offices with other artificial plants including mangos, kumquats and soursops, which are put in ceramic pots and cost some VND2 million ($86) apiece. Besides ornamental plants, plastic-made fruits are in demand as well. Traditionally, every Vietnamese family has a five-type fruit tray offered to their ancestors on the first day of the new lunar year to wish for luck, fortune and prosperity. Plastic-made products are winning over consumers as they can remain usable for the next several years, according to buyers. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! We hope you have enjoyed your complimentary access for the month. To continue viewing content on tucson.com, please sign in with your existing account or subscribe. Adding to concerns, federal workers might miss this week's paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, "then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night." Over the weekend, the federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work. But Trump and the Department of Homeland Security pushed back on any suggestion that the call-outs represented a "sickout" that was having a significant effect on U.S. air travel. At the White House, on Monday, spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp complained that Democratic leaders have yet to define what they mean when they say they are for enhancing border security. "Democrats want to secure the border? Great. Come to the table," she said. "We are willing to come to a deal to reopen the government." Trump reaffirmed that he would consider declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and spend money as he saw fit. Such a move would seem certain to draw legal challenges. WASHINGTON Former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl has returned to the lobbying firm that employed him before he was tapped to fill the seat that had been held by the late John McCain. In a statement released Monday, Covington & Burling said Kyl has rejoined its public policy practice, where he'll focus "on matters of policy and strategy for the firm's clients." Kyl, however, is subject to a two-year cooling off period during which he cannot lobby Congress. Nonetheless, Timothy Hester, chair of the firm's management committee, said he expects that Kyl "can make important contributions in a range of matters, particularly for clients in the technology, life sciences, and defense sectors who may face numerous policy challenges in Congress and the executive branch." Kyl, a Republican, first joined Covington & Burling in 2013 after 18 years in the Senate and before that eight years in the House. When McCain died of brain cancer in August, Kyl was appointed to his seat, but said he would only commit to serving until the end of 2018 and he resigned effective Dec. 31. Up to 2,000 dockless electric scooters could show up on Tucson streets as early as this spring, but it wont come cheap for the companies looking to set up shop. The Tucson City Council will consider an elaborate proposal from city staff to allow scooters from companies like Bird and Lime to operate if they agree to a set of conditions and pay the city up to $428,000 annually. Conditions include not leaving the controversial devices too close to street corners, in public parks or blocking sidewalks, offering helmets periodically and upon request as well as carrying insurance for each e-scooter operating in the city limits. With a discussion set for Tuesday afternoon, at least one councilman doesnt think the proposal is worth the risk. My biggest concern isnt the money, Councilman Steve Kozachik said last week. There is no safe place to ride these things. With his ward covering Fourth Avenue, downtown Tucson and the University of Arizona campus, Kozachik argues that narrow streets and sidewalks in those areas are unsuitable for e-scooters. Shot in the Dark Cafe, downtowns quirky 24/7 co-op diner next door to the months-old AC Hotel by Marriott, will close on Jan. 25 after more than 14 years in business. Pam Lopez, one of the restaurants 10 employee owners, said they were notified on Jan. 1 that they have until the end of the month to leave the downtown space at 121 E. Broadway, despite renewing their lease in September. The letter from Pam Kaiser, who represents the California trust that owns the building, said that the lease was canceled. Kaiser did not return a phone call Monday seeking comment. Lopez, who has been part of the employee co-op that owns the restaurant for a year, said the group renewed the lease last September, agreeing to rent hikes that took their rate from $1,100 a month to $4,400 effective next month; the increases kicked in in January, she said. In a Facebook posting Sunday night, the restaurants owners said they were being squeezed out as part of the gentrification of downtown that has forced several neighboring businesses to close. We kind of got pushed out, Lopez said, echoing the Facebook post. Shot in the Dark Cafe had long been the bastion of strong coffee and deep loyalties, serving up their popular oversized burritos and overly generous portion of home fries with an equally oversized serving of humanity. Lopez said the cafe, which never closed except for a few hours a year for annual cleaning and repairs, was a safe haven for Tucsons disenfranchised communities including the young, low-income people and those identifying as LGBT. Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com or 573-4642. On Twitter @Starburch The business news you need With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. zimbabThe government of Zimbabwe has laid off over 3000 workers, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa tries to make good on its promise to cut the bloated civil service. The move comes a month after the southern African nations Minister of Finance announced an intention to cut the salaries of cabinet ministers and senior civil servants by 5%. The budget-beating antics will also affect heads of government-owned companies, he said. Public sector salaries account for more than 90 percent of Zimbabwes $4 billion national budgeta situation seen as unsustainable by foreign lenders. Mnangagwa, who has announced austerity measures to reduce the deficit next year, is trying to convince investors and ordinary Zimbabweans that he will revive a once-promising economy after decades of missteps under his predecessor Robert Mugabe. Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised Zimbabwe to cut its civil service. Doing so would give government leverage to improve social services such as health and education, infrastructure development and power-generation projects. In a statement, the Public Service Commission said it would cut 3,365 youth officers from the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation. By doing so, this years budget deficit is projected to reach 11.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product, compared with a previous forecast of 3.5 percent, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said Previous civil service audits undertaken by Government in 2011 and 2015 pointed to a possible existence of ghost workers in the service. A new hospital is being developed on the citys southeast side. Northwest Healthcare is building a 70-bed hospital with related medical services on 18.5 acres on the southwest corner of Old Spanish Trail and Houghton Road. The 183,000-square-foot facility is expected to add 595 healthcare jobs with an economic impact of $567 million over the next five years, officials say. Last year, Northwest announced plans to build an 18-bed neighborhood hospital in Sahuarita. We stepped outside of our northwest footprint more than eight years ago when we opened an urgent care in Green Valley, said Kevin Stockton, regional president and market CEO of Northwest Healthcare. We have long wanted to provide acute care services for residents on the east side of Tucson. With the success of our freestanding emergency room and physician clinic in Vail, this new hospital is a logical and very exciting next step. The new hospital is expected to open by 2021. The business news you need With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LARAMIE The 27-year-old who set fire to the Albany County Republican Party headquarters in September agreed to a plea agreement that will put him in prison for at least 44 months. In Judge Scott Skavdahls Casper court, Kellen Sorber pleaded guilty Wednesday. He will be sentenced March 15. Sorber was identified as the main suspect for the Sept. 6 fire at Laramies 214 Ivinson Ave. building after ATF agents identified his DNA at the scene. The ATF investigated the case and began questioning him at the place he worked the Speedgoat Cafe. Sorber was calm about the ATF investigation until agents arrived Oct. 16 with a warrant for a DNA swab. He skipped his shift that night and disappeared from town. The ATF later put out a $5,000 reward for the man and he turned himself in. After the GOP headquarters was set ablaze, Laramie Police Department detective Joel Senior discovered a cinderblock that had been apparently thrown through the window. A partially burnt cigarette was also discovered and was analyzed for DNA evidence. LARAMIE (WNE) A 28-year-old Laramie man has been charged with domestic battery for the third time in the last two weeks. All three charges will be felonies since Thomas Massey has three previous convictions of domestic battery in the previous 10 years. On Dec. 20, officers from the Laramie Police Department responded to an apartment on North Third Street for a report of domestic violence. The officers were told by Masseys girlfriend he injured her hand days prior. On the day police arrived, Massey bit the injured hand during an argument and squeezed her injured hand hard enough that it made her cry due to the pain. Massey was released the same day on a signature bond. On Christmas Eve, he violated several conditions of his release, including drug use and having contact with the victim. Massey overdosed on heroin Dec. 24 at a house on Mitchell Street. When police responded, his girlfriend reported Massey also kicked her in the head and back. Within days, the woman who posted his bond requested District Court Judge Tori Kricken to rescind that release. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The tone for his 1987 gubernatorial address was setting a new course in an economic downturn imagine that and a lot of talking about what hes done and what hes going to do, said Picard. If my calculations are correct, (Gordon) has 48 hours between these two speeches. Same audiences, but different in respect to what the purpose of the event is. One day is about celebration, two days later, its about getting down to business. Gordon, who is writing his own speeches for both events, declined to go too deeply into the specifics of what he planned to touch on Monday. Thematically, he told the Star-Tribune that his first speech will encompass the broad themes about where Wyoming is going and what he wants to set up to help move the state forward, leaving the specifics to the State of the State. Most of all, he said he wants to capture a sense of optimism about the future, harkening back to the frontier origins of Wyoming in setting a new course forward. The bill makes note of this and would require that, should the schools create separate fee schedules, that those guidelines maintain a 20 percent difference between whats assessed to residents and nonresidents. The bills fiscal note, a memo from legislative staff that projects any financial impact from proposed legislation, notes that the bill would have little monetary impact. Nonresident tuition rates for the seven community colleges are already at least 50 percent more than resident tuition rates. None of the seven community colleges currently have nonresident fee schedules, the fiscal note states. ...Current and anticipated tuition rates at the University of Wyoming consistently involve nonresident tuition rates which are more than 20% greater than resident tuition. Henderson acknowledged these facts and said the bill was intended to ensure Wyoming residents always had the highest potential at the states higher education institutions. Lets just go back to being from Wyoming should always count, he said. Right now, the cost of power is distributed across the states that PacifiCorp serves, according to the amount of power customers in those states are burning through. If other states want out of coal, but those coal units like the ones in Glenrock and Kemmerer are still burning, states like Wyoming and Utah may have to cover the continued cost of operation. The multi-state group that PacifiCorp has convened to find a solution to this problem is still working through it, said Freeman, whos been involved in those discussions. While everyone has ideas for how to move forward, nothing has been agreed on. So far, nothing has been sticking, he said. Theres a long ways to go in that. *** Coal plants in Wyoming often employee a number of residents in small towns like Glenrock and Kemmerer, increasing the consequences of the coal value debate for locals. Kemmerer faces the added uncertainty of the Westmoreland bankruptcy. The coal company busted under the pressures on coal production today due to reduced demand from the power sector. It has plans to sell its assets and the future of the mine is unclear. That mine provides coal to a nearby power plant: Rocky Mountain Powers Naughton plant. Tens of thousands of Cambodians packed a stadium in Phnom Penh Monday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime -- a day strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's "second birthday". The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, installed a reign of terror in 1975 that left two million Cambodians dead from starvation, hard labour, torture and mass executions. It ended on January 7, 1979, when Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre, led Vietnamese forces into the capital to expel the murderous regime. The 66-year-old premier hailed the day as Cambodia's "second birthday" at an elaborate ceremony in Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium, where he was joined by traditional Khmer apsara dancers and marching bands. "Today we celebrate this ceremony in order to recall unforgotten memories of the most heinous crimes of Pol Pot's group," Hun Sen told the crowd, and thanked Vietnam for saving the country. A UN-backed tribunal found two top Khmer Rouge leaders guilty of genocide in a landmark ruling in November. Traditional Khmer apsara dancers and marching bands joined the celebrations to mark what Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's 'second birthday' / AFP The feisty prime minister -- who has ruled the country for 33 years -- also took the opportunity to revisit history, hitting back at countries which continued supporting the Khmer Rouge after its ouster. "These countries ... boasted about humanitarian and human rights and democracy (but) unjustly blocked" when the people needed assistance from the international community, he said, without naming any specific nation. After the regime was toppled in 1979, Hun Sen found his Vietnam-backed government caught between geopolitical forces as the US sought to keep the ousted Khmer Rouge at the table in the United Nations. The Southeast Asian country in recent years has tilted towards China thanks to loans for infrastructure and few complaints on human rights issues. Last July, his party won a much-criticised election handily, after his government dissolved the country's main opposition group and jailed its leader -- effectively turning Cambodia into a one-party state. Hun Sen on Monday vowed to "deny the actions of extremist opposition politicians and the foreign circle behind them", claiming that they were trying to push Cambodia from a democratic path. Critics say Hun Sen's 33-year reign, as one of the longest serving premiers in the world, has created a more repressive Cambodia, where journalists, rights defenders and opposition politicians are routinely jailed for dissent. Luxembourg's MPs were presented with the work programme of the EU commission for the year 2019. It is EU-Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker's last priorities programme before passing the mantle on to his successor. 50% of the EU commission initiatives that have been put on the table over the course of the last 5 years have been voted on. 25% are in the final stages, only needing the EU parliament's and the EU council's approval. The ten priorities that were presented by the commission at the beginning of the legislative period have been given the green light, the president of the foreign affairs committee Marc Angel announced. For 2019, there are no new legislative proposals, but there are 15 other proposals revolving around the future of Europe. According to Marc Angel, the multiannual financial framework, which presents the budget for 7 years, is clearly the most crucial bit. However, he also states that there are constantly new challenges for Europe. European heads of government keep emphasizing that Europe needs to do more, but are rarely actually willing to contribute more financially, he continues. Our government, Angel states, has said that we have to contribute more money, otherwise it cannot take on new responsibilities. The committee for foreign affairs will also closely follow Brexit, its consequences on the common market, and of course how decisions are made in Europe. In that respect, president Juncker has proposed a qualified majority voting system, which should also apply to certain aspects of welfare and tax policies, says Angel. In Luxembourg's case tax policy might be a more complicated issue he adds, but it is definitely something that must be discussed. The president of the committee says that Luxembourg especially needs to think about the issues that have so far been classified as sensible and Luxembourgish MPs need to consult with Brussels in order to optimise the working relationship. After ending its official diplomatic relations with Taiwans government last year, Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has pledged to further the development of ties with China. President Kabore made the remarks while meeting with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the capital, Ouagadougou. According to Kabore, Burkina Faso is ready to enhance communications with China to safeguard the interests of African countries and developing countries. China is Africas largest trade partner, with massive investments in mining, construction and banking, though it has been less active to date in Burkina. China refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes Taiwan, a self-governed and democratic island off Chinas southeastern coast that Beijing considers an integral part of its territory. The Chinese state councilor said that Kabores major decision of resuming diplomatic relations with China last years won unanimous support from the people of Burkina Faso. In his words, the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries has laid a political foundation for bilateral cooperation, and China is willing to work with Burkina Faso to deepen peace and security cooperation. Wang said that peace serves as the prerequisite and guarantee for the development of the African continent, adding that China has long been mediating in hot-spot issues in Africa and encouraging Africans to solve their problems in their own way. Burkina Faso is the second stop of Wangs five-day traditional New Year trip to Africa. The trip includes visits to Ethiopia, Gambia, and Senegal. Almost four years ago, the public petition system was created in order to get citizens more involved in the political process. Luxembourg's online petition system has been a great success: More than 750 viable petitions have been submitted since its creation, hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected and in 26 cases, the petitions exceeded the threshold of 4,500 signatures. This means that these petitions were automatically referred to parliament for further discussion. In some cases, the new petition system brought about actual political change. In the first six months of 2018, one petition was submitted for each workday on average. The topics that seem to have garnered the most support concerned language and childcare amongst others. The president of the petition commission and CSV MP Marco Schank looks back on a successful few years with the new system. Before online petitions were introduced, only about 330 petitions were submitted over a period of 70 years, which averages out to about five per year. Schank stated that these numbers have gone through the roof since the introduction of the online petition system: "No one would have guessed that the new petition system would strike such a cord with citizens. The first six months of 2018 on average saw about one petition submitted per workday." The Christian Social People's Party politician recently passed the presidency on to his colleague and fellow CSV politician Nancy Kemp-Arendt. Some petitions didn't go through As long as petitioners respect certain basic conditions, anyone can hand in their petition idea. Check-list in hand, the petition commission then makes sure that the format is right, for example when it comes to languages. As a basic rule, the commission leaves the content of the petition unchanged, but there are limits to the rule: "We obviously have to make sure that the petitions are not discriminatory, that is an important point. They should not be offensive or even insulting." Petition submissions that promote racist or sexist ideas do not make the cut and won't be admitted. To make sure that every petition gets the same exposure, they are open for a fixed period of 42 days. In order for a petition to go through to parliament, it needs a minimum of 4,500 signatures. So far, 26 petitions have reached the 4,500 signature mark and were put up for a public debate in Luxembourg's parliament. Petition 698 is currently the front-runner in terms of signatures. 14,500 people signed the petition that demanded that Luxembourgish become an official language in Luxembourg. Schank recalled the petition and the interest it garnered: "I believe that was only time that the parliamentary server broke down because so many people wanted to sign the petition." A petition demanding more support for handicapped children, especially in private schools, was signed about 13,000 times. Another petition supporting the upkeep of churches was signed about 12,000 times. Political change through petitions Some petitions actually brought about political change when it comes to languages, animal welfare, and health. One prominent petition asked for the introduction of a "tiers payant" system, which would mean that patients don't have to pay doctors the full amount of their treatment before getting it reimbursed by the national health service. Instead, patients only need to cover the remaining costs. The petition and subsequent parliamentary debate brought in a lot of criticism from Luxembourg's doctors' association, but the issue found its way into many election programmes and eventually even into the coalition agreement. Marco Schank also remarked that the media plays a role in how many signatures some petitions get. The more an issue is covered, the more people take the time to sign it. Some minor changes to the system were introduced over the past couple of years. Apart from online signatures, parliament also accepts petitions on paper. Public debates have been opened up and the petitioners are asked whether they were satisfied with the proceedings. The threshold of 4,500 signatures seemed very high when the system was first introduced, but now that parliament also allows signatures on paper, the threshold is less unattainable. "We discussed the matter two to three times, but we decided on keeping the threshold at 4,500 signatures for now", Schank stated. This doesn't mean that the threshold could not be changed at some point in the future. This subscription will allow existing subscribers of The World to access all of our online content, including the E-Editions area. NOTE: To claim your access to the site, you will need to enter the Last Name and First Name that is tied to your subscription in this format: SMITH, JOHN If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please email us at admin@countrymedia.net or call us at 1-541 266 6047. But the assassination commando that, according to substantial reports, killed and dismembered the Washington Posts contributor (not exactly a Jeffersonian democrat: he had been close to part of the Saudi regime and then sympathized with the Muslim Brotherhood) reverses the hierarchy between the western powers and their indelicate vassals. The message from Riyadh is that it has the United States and Europe at its mercy and that these will not dare take punitive measures. It is one thing for a dictatorship to keep up appearances so as not to raise the cost that liberal democracies pay for tolerating or supporting them, and quite another for it to act brazenly as if the values of civilization that those liberal democracies represent have become completely irrelevant to the world order. Claflin University is January's School of the Month," a title given to universities by the Tom Joyner Foundation that will result in monetary aid to students. The foundation recognizes and partners with colleges and universities in fundraising efforts. This is not the first time Claflin has partnered with the foundation, and Rev. Whittaker V. Middleton, vice president of Institutional Advancement, has an idea why. We were selected because of our participation. This is the third time we have participated. We have a long-standing relationship with the Tom Joyner Foundation. So, that is one of the reasons we were selected, Middleton said. The second reason, and probably the most important, is we were selected because we have a track record of raising a lot of monies from alumni, he said. Middleton noted that according to U.S. News & World Report, Claflin ranks first in alumni giving among all Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Theyre coming in and saying, 'Claflin, we want to partner with you and hopefully as we go out and approach your alumni, your faculty, your staff, your students, and also the community at-large, we believe the people will respond,' he said. It reminds me of the welfare reform and all of the conversations around the year is about welfare abuse: 'If we just crack down on fraud and abuse, then we will have enough resources to go around.' I see similarities in the conversation today about higher ed, Cobb-Hunter said. In my opinion, the General Assembly has failed to acknowledge its role in underfunding higher ed, she said. Cobb-Hunter said there is a positive trend related to spending, but within the upward trend is a disparity. Over the last few years we have seen progress in higher ed, and there have been decisions about how to spend the money, she said. What I find so frustrating is that the focus is usually on Clemson, Carolina and MUSC, and all of the other four-year institutions get short shrift on both conversation and looking at their needs, she said. I believe that conversation about higher ed spending has to occur with all of the stakeholders at the table talking about what our respective roles have been, and what effect and what the impact of that has been, Cobb-Hunter said. Hutto addressed the need for students to pursue careers in fields that have a shortage of workers. BLACKVILLE South Carolina cotton farmers may one day know exactly how much nitrogen their crops need to produce higher yields with greater quality. Armed with this knowledge, farmers can reduce costs and help protect the environment. Bhupinder Farmaha, a soil fertility specialist at Clemsons Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, has received funding from Koch Agronomic Services and the South Carolina Cotton Board to evaluate nitrogen management strategies to optimize cotton yields on non-irrigated fields across different soil types and cropping systems in the state. This study came about after cotton farmers raised concerns about using nitrogen enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) management tools used to prevent nitrogen loss and increase nitrogen use efficiency. Nitrogen is one of the most important, yet most difficult to manage fertilizers used on cotton, Farmaha said. Farmers had several questions about using nitrogen enhanced efficiency fertilizers. They are interested to know if these fertilizers will work in their fields. There just wasnt any data to determine what nitrogen enhanced efficiency fertilizers work best in South Carolina so we are doing this study to find out. CHICAGO Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has ordered an outside audit of a $100 million-per-year workers' compensation fund that was controlled by a longtime City County member accused of trying to shake down the owners of a major chain of fast-food franchises. The move marked the latest fallout from the case against Alderman Ed Burke, who was charged last week with attempted extortion. Burke has served on the City Council for 50 years, including more than three decades as chairman of the powerful finance committee a post he resigned from on Friday. He says he's done nothing wrong and that he looks forward to his day in court. Burke controlled the workers' compensation fund as finance committee chairman. He kept information about it largely secret, and blocked previous efforts by the city's inspector general to audit the program. Emanuel also removed the program from the committee's control after the charges against Burke were announced, handing it instead to the city's finance department. "We have a unique opportunity to hit the reset button on workers' compensation," he said in a statement Sunday about the audit. A group of soldiers have seized state radio in apparent coup attempt in Gabon in the early hours of Monday, local media reported. The military officers who announced the seizure of power through national media, identified themselves as Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defense and Security Forces (MPJFDS). The leader of the coup, Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang is the deputy commander of the Republican Guard. According to his statement read live on television, the group had to take control because Gabons President Ali Bongo was physically and mentally incapable of ruling the country due to his health. Describing the attempt as Operation Dignity, Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang criticizedthe high military hierarchy for failing to defend the best interest of the nation by tolerating the presidentlies about his health, referring to a New Years speech made in Morocco in which he claimed he was well. The government of Gabon later Monday declared it was in control after it said four of the five plotters had been arrested. Government soldiers swarmed the streets of the capital, Libreville, guarding the national radio and TV stations, but Internet connection has been shut down across the Central African nation. Gabons President Ali Bongo on Monday addressed his compatriots for the first time since suffering a stroke on October 24, in a New Years message recorded in Morocco. The 59-year-old leader has not been home to Gabon since he fell ill in Saudi Arabia more than two months ago. A lack of official news sparked fevered speculation that he was incapacitated or even dead. China Telecom Corporation Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireline and mobile telecommunications services primarily in the People's Republic of China. It offers wireline voice services, including local wireline telephone services and long distance wireline services; CDMA mobile voice services, such as local calls, domestic and international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, and inter-provincial roaming and international roaming; wireline Internet access services comprising dial-up and broadband services; wireless Internet access services; and wireline, Internet, and mobile value-added services. The company also provides Best Tone information services; and information technology-based integrated solutions, such as system integration and consulting, outsourcing, special advisory, information application, knowledge, and software development services. In addition, it offers managed data services that include digital data network, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode services for government agencies, large corporations, and institutions; and leased line services, as well as sells, repairs, and maintains customer-end equipment. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, including network, Internet access and transit, Internet data center, and mobile virtual network services in various countries, including the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America; and music production and related information, instant messenger, finance leasing, capital and financial management, and e-commerce services, as well as sells telecommunications terminals. As of December 31, 2019, it had approximately 336 million mobile subscribers; 153 million wireline broadband subscribers; and 111 million access lines in service. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Wanchai, Hong Kong. China Telecom Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of China Telecommunications Corporation. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. As a bonus to opt-ing into our email newsletters, you will also get a free subscription to the Liberty Through Wealth e-newsletter. You can opt out at any time. Ad Resource Stock Digest Heres the Safest Way to Get Insanely Rich in the 2021 Gold Bull Market Gold is screaming higher and smart investors are already cashing in on the #1 Gold Pick of 2021. Yet, you havent missed the boat. See how this newly-listed US$5 gold stock offers investors historic gains without mining a single ounce of the metal. Multimedia Reporter Staff writer Harry Funk, a professional journalist for three-plus decades, has been on the staff of The Almanac since 2015. He has a bachelors degree in journalism and master of business administration, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Winter souls among the world's computer users have regrets, with I-give-up resignation over the lack of ownership of one's personal data. Now news of a Microsoft project is raising interest and doing the rounds of tech-watching sites for its attempt to address the situation, well, in its own manner. There are few details about the project, but the very idea of addressing data collection sparks talk and even hope. Microsoft Research is testing Project Bali, which seeks to hand a kind of control of online data over to (gasp) users. Their idea looks at providing the user with a personal data bank. What does "bank?" mean in this context? It means data collected about you. Martin Brinkmann, founder of Ghacks, said, "All data that belongs to a user should belong to that user according to the Project Bali description." Well, Michael Kan in PCMag had this to say: "Not everyone may like the idea of Microsoft or another third party mining your personal information. But living in ignorance about your digital footprint isn't a great solution either." Trying to make sense of this project, you might have the idea that it is to make your access to a vast amount of data far easier, under the project codename of Bali. Kan offered some history behind the project, footprints Microsoft left some year back where its scientists discussed digital privacy. Kan said, "Often times, people have no idea what data websites and businesses have on them, nor do they have a convenient way to find out, the authors wrote at the time." Any concept touching upon user power to control personal data has resonance in the aftermath of past headlines regarding user data. One can express satisfaction that Microsoft scientists are spending time on this, but toasting Microsoft may be premature. BetaNews described a privacy focused tool as "a new control panel which could enable users to manage the data the company collects about them." Mark Wycislik-Wilson said "It promises to not only give users the option of managing and controlling the data collected about them, but alsointriguinglythe ability to monetize it." Mary Jo Foley in ZDNet described the project as a "Microsoft Research incubation effort" and said it seemed to be in private beta testing at this point. Kan in PCMag similarly reported that the website for Project Bali stated the effort was an "incubation project" from Microsoft Research. Dipping into the project's About section, Martin Brinkmann, founder of Ghacks, approached the topic with information he could thus far gather about this project. "According to the description there, it is based on a privacy concept called Inverse Privacy...Inverse Privacy refers to personal information that is private to an individual but out of control of that individual." Anthony Spadafora, TechRadar, similarly explained inverse privacy. He said that some examples of organizations that create inversely private data include healthcare providers, the police and employers. Kelly Sheridan in Dark Reading offered a summary of what little is known about Project Bali. She clarified what it tries to do differently. Those you may interact with such as employers, township, or doctor, have "legitimate reasons for collecting inversely private information (receipts, prescriptions, etc.). Over time, technology has allowed them to record and store that information better than you would. As a result, more of your data has become inversely private, yet difficult to access." Sheridan further wrote that "inversely private information," may allow the institutions to serve you better, but access to that information, especially if presented in a convenient form, "would do you much good." So, the project appeared to be talking about an approach where the data is not locked away. Dark Reading said that "The idea behind Project Bali is to decrease the amount of inversely private data and give users more control over information." Luke Jones in WinBuzzer also provided a clear take on what the project appears set to achieve: "The solution would allow individual users to aggregate their personal data across websites and services into a single location. Microsoft does not detail which websites are supported currently. However, the goal is clearly to allow Project Bali to act as a single area for data from multiple services." Kan noted the paper on which Bali was based, in which the authors proposed creating an ecosystem "that would allow consumers to see the data a given company had on them. Businesses actually have a good reason to do this, the authors wrote. Customers prefer dealing with companies that handle their personal data with transparency, rather than those that keep it confidential and shrouded in secrecy." "Ideally," said Kan, "the same access will also let you correct, rescind, or delete your personal information from a business or website. But time will tell if Project Bali can actually act as an antidote to today's privacy woes." Reactions in the comments section of BetaNews appeared to be from many world-weary computer users who sought to comment on information-hungry business models. Said one comment: "one of the best jokes is that you'll have to create a Microsoft accountconfirming more details about yourselfin order to go in and delete all the stuff they had no honest reason to collect in the first place." Another comment: "What I'm still not seeing, however, is the thing people want most: the ability to turn off the data mining at the OS and application level entirely. Until we get that there is still no real privacy." Brinkmann offered his take about Project Bali: "Whether Microsoft's Project Bali will become more than a research project remains to be seen. There is certainly demand from users when it comes to control over user data. A centralized option to view, manage, and delete all data that companies have on users would certainly be appreciated by many." It is still uncertain if the project will become part of the technology giant's ecosystem. While projects may or may not see their way into real product developments, on the other hand, Kan also reminded readers that Microsoft Research "has historically come up with technological innovations that were later offered as actual Microsoft products." Wait and see. 2019 Science X Network When the last Ice Age ended, about 10,000 years ago, pockets of migratory ocean threespine sticklebacks colonized newly formed lakes and streams in coastal regions, and then evolved independently in response to their new local environments. As a result, many of these populations show significant differences in body structure. Marine sticklebacks, for example, have a hind fin with a large spine projecting down from their pelvic structure. In contrast, dozens of freshwater populations have lost that hind fin; its absence likely reduces their need for calcium and chances of being nabbed and eaten by hungry insects. Previous studies in the Kingsley laboratory have identified the loss of a specific DNA regulatory region, called the Pel enhancer, as the repeated cause of the missing hind fins in many populations of the freshwater fish. The Pel enhancer drives the expression of a protein necessary to trigger hind fin development. In this study, Xie used marine stickleback DNA to investigate the Pel region that is missing in its freshwater brethren to learn why that region was particularly susceptible to loss. Xie found that the DNA sequence of the Pel region is unusual in several ways. Unlike surrounding regions, which exhibit the normal, more-stable helical twist associated with most DNA, the Pel enhancer region that was lost formed an alternate DNA structure predicted to be highly flexible and likely to be unstable during DNA replication. The sequence also contains long strings of repeated pairs of nucleotides, like a kind of genetic stutter. Previous studies in bacteria, mice and humans have indicated that these repeats are often associated with deletions of stretches of DNA. More frequent chromosome breaking When Xie tested the stability of the missing Pel region by inserting it into artificial yeast chromosomes, she found that the chromosome broke about 25 to 50 times more frequently than typical DNA sequences. When Xie and her collaborators then tested similar DNA sequences in mammalian cells, they observed that the key dinucleotide repeat sequence often led to the deletion of sections of DNA more than 100 nucleotides long. The increase in the rate of chromosome breakage observed by Xie, coupled with the likelihood that this damage causes deletions of entire sections of DNA, may have been a key factor in allowing the prominent hind fin skeletal trait to emerge over and over again in many different young stickleback populations. Elevated mutation rates may play a similar role when advantageous traits arise in other organisms, the scientists believe. Many vertebrates, including early humans, are dealing with a small population size and relatively long generation times, said Kingsley, who is the Rudy J. and Daphne Donohue Munzer Professor in the School of Medicine. There arent that many generations available in which to evolve new, potentially advantageous traits. Under these conditions, it may be particularly important for mutations to occur at elevated rates, and to have sweeping effects. When the researchers investigated known instances of adaptive changes in humans, they found that about half were due to mutations that also arise at elevated rates compared with more typical DNA letter changes. What were learning is that arrival of the fittest, or the relative speed with which a potentially favorable mutation arises, can sometimes be as important as survival of the fittest, Kingsley said. The mutation process itself has an important effect on the outcome, and the arrival of the mutation interacts with its effect on the fitness of the organism to bring about major changes in vertebrate evolution. Kingsley is a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. Other Stanford authors are former graduate student Abbey Thompson, PhD, and graduate student Julia Wucherpfennig. Researchers from the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Victoria, the University of Nottingham, the University of British Columbia and the University of California-Berkeley also contributed to the study. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants 5P50HG2568, CA093729 and 2T32GM007790), the National Science Foundation, a Stanford CEHG Graduate Fellowship and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Stanfords Department of Developmental Biology also supported the work. Robots are being used in a range of industries including manufacturing but rarely work collaboratively with humans. New research from the University of Sussex, Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University could change all that and open new fields of application for robots working in contact with humans. Credit: University of Sussex. Researchers at the University of Sussex, Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have for the first time used game theory to enable robots to assist humans in a safe and versatile manner. The research team used adaptive control and Nash equilibrium game theory to programme a robot that can understand its human user's behaviour in order to better anticipate their movements and respond to them. The researchers believe the breakthrough could help robots complementing humans for sport training, physical rehabilitation or shared driving. Lead author Dr. Yanan Li, Lecturer in Control Engineering at the University of Sussex, said: "It is still very early days in the development of robots and at present, those that are used in a working capacity are not intuitive enough to work closely and safely with human users. By enabling the robot to identify human users' behaviour and exploiting game theory to let the robot optimally react to them, we have developed a system where robots can work along humans as humans do." In a paper published today in Nature Machine Intelligence, the researchers outline how they adapted game theory for the physical interaction of a robot with a human, and how this can be used to help an impaired stroke survivor retrain their motor control. Game theory is commonly used to understand how economic agents decide and interact with each other in order to maximise their own gain. To successfully apply game theory to the interaction of a robot and its human user, the researchers had to overcome the issue that the robot cannot know the human's intentions. The researchers thus had to develop a method enabling the robot to identify the human partner while safely and efficiently interacting with their motion. The reactive robotic programming system enables a robot to continuously learn the human user's control and adapt its own control correspondingly. The robot is able to understand the human user's action and then respond to and assist them to perform tasks successfully and with minimal effort. Professor Etienne Burdet, Chair in Human Robotics in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London and senior author of the paper, added: "Game theory has had important impacts in economics during the last century and lead to several Nobel prizes such as Nash's one. To apply it for human-robot interaction, it was necessary to understand how the robot can identify the human user's control goals simultaneously to smoothly interacting with them." Explore further Continuous adaptation makes for more natural interactions between robots and humans in shared tasks More information: Y. Li et al, Differential game theory for versatile physical humanrobot interaction, Nature Machine Intelligence (2019). Y. Li et al, Differential game theory for versatile physical humanrobot interaction,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-018-0010-3 Following a meeting in Moscow, Kurdish officials have presented Russian and Syrian officials with a roadmap for cooperation reports Al-Hal. A prominent Kurdish official has said that the Self-Administration will work towards a deal with the Bashar al-Assad regime, regardless of the American withdrawal, which was announced by President Donald Trump last month. The Self-Administration adviser, Badran Jia Kurd, told Reuters that the Self-Administration had presented a road map for a deal with Assad in meetings recently held in Russia and was awaiting Moscows response. Kurd added, The issue of our dialogue is not at all related to the American decision to withdraw. This dialogue will continue and we will exert all our efforts in this direction The final decision is [to reach an] agreement with Damascus, we will work in this direction regardless of the cost, even if the Americans object. The official said that, The ball is in the court of Russia and Damascus, adding that the Self-Administration had offered the regime and Russia a roadmap including protecting the border with Turkey and finding a way to integrate the ruling entities in northern Syria in the constitution, and guaranteeing a fair distribution of resources in the countrys north and east, according to the agency. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Iran has used missiles and rockets to hit ISIS fighters east of the Euphrates in response to an attack on a military parade in Ahvaz writes Day Press. The seismic Iranian response, which the Revolutionary Guard had promised to the groups that attacked a military parade in Ahvaz came in an unexpected placeafter Tehran accused Ahvazi opposition groups supported by America and Gulf countries, it then said the operation had been carried out according to the statement by the Islamic State (ISIS). The Revolutionary Guard said in a statement, Terrorist and takfiri groups from ISIS, supported by America and the regions kingdoms, were struck east of the Euphrates, in response to the Ahvaz attack. Notably, Iran wrote on the missiles which appeared in the Fars news agency, Death to al-Saud. The Revolutionary Guard added, The operation killed and wounded a large number of fighters and commanders of this terrorist group, in addition to destroying its infrastructure and storehouses for weapons and equipment. The statement said, Our iron fist is ready to strike a decisive and overwhelming blow to any evil or deceitful enemy. The Guard said that its forces had struck these terrorist groups with six ballistic missiles (Zolfaghar and Qiam type) adding that the rockets had covered a distance of 570 km and had hit their targets precisely. The Revolutionary Guard said that seven drones had struck the groups positions in eastern Syria after the missile strike. The statement added, Those responsible for the Ahvaz attack were active east of the Euphrates with American support and direction to carry out Israeli politics and those of the reactionary states in the region. It added that, Iran will respond with a fist of iron in an overwhelming fashion to any satanic aggressor movements against it. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The announced business center will bridge the economic gap between Tehran and Damascus reports Alsouria Net. Tehran has announced its intention to build a business center for Iranians in the Free Zone in the capital Damascus, to complete its aim of creating economic influence for itself in Syria. The Iranian ISNA agency quoted the head of the Joint Syrian-Iranian Economic Council, Kiwan Kashfi as saying that it would set up the business center. Kashfi pointed to the recent visit carried out by the Iranian economic delegation, during which it met with officials from the Assad regime. He said that, During this visit, preparations were completed to set up a business center for Iranians in Damascus, and the preparations were met with success. During this visit he said that there was follow-up on other political issues, including the establishment of a joint transport company between Iran, Iraq and Syria to transport Iranian goods through Iraq to Syria. At the end of December, the Assad regime signed with its Iranian counterpart a long-term strategic economic cooperation agreement, as the regime government stressed that Iranian companies would receive priority in the reconstruction of Syria in the future. In Syria, Iran wants to imitate its dominance of the economic sectors in neighboring Iraq, as Tehran considers itself to be responsible for sparing Assad from disaster. Tehran has enjoyed preferential treatment in the Syrian economy as it attempts to regain the six billion dollars it estimates it has spent each year in supporting the regime. Not surprisingly, the regime has repeatedly issued, since 2014, exclusive tenders for Iranian companies at a rate of one every three months. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Chemical weapon warnings, mounting US-coalition casualties, Kurdish-regime deals and gains by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend. 1. US National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned the Syrian regime it should not see the impending US military withdrawal from the country as an invitation to use chemical weapons. The United States has no timeline to withdraw troops from Syria but does not plan to stay indefinitely, a senior State Department official said on Friday, a strong signal that forces could stay until the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists ends. Asharq al-Awsat quoted an official who asked not to be identified as saying, We have no timeline for our military forces to withdraw from Syria. It will be done in such a way that we and our allies and partners maintain pressure on ISIS throughout and we do not open up any vacuums for terrorists. 2. Egyptian authorities have deported a Syrian national for reasons related to public interest, according to the official MENA news agency on Saturday. MENA, however, did not give any further details about the reason of the deportation. Local media identified the deportee as Ahmed. F. T, born in 1974. 3. The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the continuous massacres of Syrian civilians and destruction of their houses and livelihoods by the illegitimate US-led International Coalition confirms the necessity to address the disregard showed by countries of this Coalition with regardS to the UN Charter and the provisions of international law. SANA quoted a letter sent by the Ministry on Saturday to both UN Secretary-General and the UN Security Council on the crimes committed by warplanes of the illegitimate US-led coalition in Syria, the last of which were in al-Kishkiah and al-Shafa villages in Deir ez-Zors southeastern countryside. The Ministry said that since its establishment, the International Coalitions practices only served to create the appropriate conditions to enable the Islamic State Daesh to survive and expand again. 4. The top commander of the YPG, Sipan Hemo, secretly visited Damascus and Moscow where he offered a secret deal that would include handing over border points to the Syrian government in return for accepting a Kurdish local administration with Russia as a guarantor. According to Asharq al-Awsat, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the YPG forms the backbone, controls areas along the border with Turkey in the north and Iraq in the northeast. The offer aims to reach understandings to fill the gap following the American withdrawal and to cut the road for a Turkish intervention. In the northern province of Aleppo, al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, captured more than a dozen villages from Turkish-backed opposition fighters. 5. Early Sunday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra) forces stormed the city of Atareb in the western part of Aleppo, after the shelling of the city with heavy artillery and was complete, al-Hal has reported. The agreement, which was signed between al-Nusra and representatives of the people of the city, stipulates for the resolve of all the factions of the Free Army in the city, namely Jabhat Thuwar al-Sham other groups of the Free Army. The agreement also stipulated that the city of al-Atareb should be fully affiliated with al-Nusra and The Salvation government, including the service, military and judiciary. 6. Ten civilians, among them children, were killed after the US-led coalition shelled al-Kishkiah town in Deir ez-Zor, less than 24 hours after its massacre against civilians in al-Shaafa village. Pro-government newspaper Tishreen, reported that a house in al-Kishkiah was razed when warplanes of the US-led Coalition launched an aggression on the town located on the left bank of the Euphrates River in the southeastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor under the pretext of combating Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq, killing ten civilians, including four children. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Saudi and Emirati forces have reportedly arrived in the area around Manbij, although they have not yet been deployed writes Hurriya Press. It seems that the Syrian issue in generaland the areas of Manbij and the east of the Euphrates in particularwill enter into a new phase of complications, as possibilities increase of an Egyptian-Emirati military intervention in Manbij, and of French intervention east of the Euphrates, with the aim of creating new balance, and not taking into account the interests of any Syrian party. On Monday, the Israeli Debka website revealed in a report, a visit by Egyptian and Emirati officers to the city of Manbij east of Aleppo, which is under the control of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This aimed to prepare for a deployment of Egyptian-Emirati forces, to take the place of the American forces who intend to withdraw from Syria. The website said that discussions had occurred between US President Donald Trump; the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed; and the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to send Egyptian military forces sponsored by the Emirates to Manbij. The website said that the United States would provide air cover and protection to the Egyptian-Emirati forces in the event that they entered Manbij, adding that the American discussions with Egypt and the Emirates had included deploying forces in other parts of Syria, including the Iraqi-Syrian border. At the end of November, Kurdish media sources reported that a military delegation of Saudis and Emiratis had met with commanders of the SDF east of the Euphrates to discuss offering them logistical aid. A few days before that, the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper had revealed that both Saudi and the Emirates were sending military forces toward the SDF-controlled areas east of the Euphrates. On Nov. 27, 2018, Hurriya Press exclusively quoted sources inside Manbij, under the control of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), in a precedent which was the first of its kind, with an Arab state intervening directly in Syria, that a Saudi military delegation had arrived in Manbij and had met the military council of the Kurdish forces controlling the city. A source also told Hurriya Press at the time that Saudi and Emirati forces had reached Syrian territory, while noting that they had not deployed yet (at that time), and that they were still stationed at the Rumailan base north of Hassakeh. The plan for Emirati-Saudi-Egyptian intervention east of the Euphrates does not appear to have been developed recently, as the Saudi state Minister for Gulf affairs, Thamer al-Sabhan, visited the areas east of the Euphrates, and Raqqa specifically, in October 2017, preparing for a Gulf-Egyptian presence in the area, through reconstruction efforts. What is new is the attempt by the Saudi-Emirati-Egyptian axis to intervene in Manbij, which is considered a red line for the Turks, and an issue not open to bargaining, which threatens to create new regional and international differences in Syria. France bolsters its presence east of the Euphrates After objecting to Trumps decision to pull his countrys forces from east of the Euphrates, France bolstered its military presence and activities there. The French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly said on Tuesday that her country had sent Rafale warplanes to Syria as part of its participation in the International Coalitions campaign to strike positions of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the eastern area. On Monday, the French minister visited the French base in Jordan from which the Rafale planes launch to strike ISIS positions in Syria. She told soldiers participating in the French Operation Chammal that they would continue their mission to the end, making note of the attacks carried out by ISIS in France. Parly criticized the American decision to withdraw as surprising and unilateral. France has maintained its military bases in the Syrian desert near the town of Albu Kamal, while the arrival of a military force comprised of nine military vehicles was recorded as arriving in Manbij directly after the American decision to withdraw. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Italy is serving as a safe haven for Syrian war criminals, in total disregard of European Union sanctions writes Pro-justice. Since 2011, the Syrian regime had committed horrible crimes against its population, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among them, a systematic campaign of extermination, as defined by Amnesty International, through torture and enforced disappearance had been waged against Syrian people who dared to protest and mobilize against Assad regimes brutal rule and repression. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, more than 81000 are still disappeared in detention cells of the Assad regime, while more than 13000 people had died under torture. Given the political climate surrounding the Syrian conflict, no international tribunal had been created to hold accountable Syrian war criminals and, for the same reason, the ICC had still not been granted jurisdiction over the crimes committed in Syria. For this reason, since 2012, Syrian activists and human rights groups had decided to rely on the principle of universal jurisdiction to achieve justice in third-countries domestic courts, such as in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Spain and Austria. The universal jurisdiction principle allows third States to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused regardless of his nationality or place where the crime had been committed, based on the principle that serious crimes under international law cannot go unpunished. Recently, the use of this principle resulted in the first international arrest warrant in Germany against Jamil Hassan for its involvement and responsibility in torture crimes. Lately, also French judges had issued an international arrest warrant against Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan and Abdel Salam Mahmoud. But while Germany and France intend to help Syrians in the long path towards accountability, Italy seems to go on another, shameful, direction. At the beginning of 2018, several news agencies and activists reported that Ali Mamlouk had visited Italy under official invitation to meet with former Interior Minister Marco Minniti and Head of Intelligence Alberto Manenti in total disregard of European Union sanctions against Ali Mamlouk. Under those provisions, Italy was obliged to take all the necessary measures to prevent entry into, or transit through, their territories of the persons responsible for the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria. For this reason, the European Parliament in March 2018 declared Mamluks visit to Italy to a be flagrant violation of its obligation to detain and arrest suspects of atrocity crimes presents on its territory. Most importantly, this invitation of Ali Mamlouk has shown the total disdain of Italy towards Syrian victims and their struggle for justice. Indeed, it undermines the efforts taken in Germany, Austria and France in investigating and prosecuting crimes committed in Syria. Moreover, Mamlouks visit is causing more and more anger and disappointment in Syrian victims and survivors and in Italians whose loved ones had been tortured and/or killed in Syrian regimes detention centers. Ali Mamlouks visit is known to be part of a series of cooperation efforts between Italy and the Syrian regime over matters of security. An Italian-Syrian man, whose cousin has been tortured to death in Assad prisons, states that it is quite worrying to think that Syrian regimes main perpetrators of the brutal repression and systematic torture may teach something to Italy on this matter, most of all in relation to the number of young Italian men who had died under Italian police custody in the past years. Considering security in the same way the Assad regime has done in Syria through repression, rape, torture, siege and targeting of civilians puts at risk every Italian citizen. Additionally, the fact that Ali Mamlouk has been invited to Italy deeply offends the memory and suffering of thousands of families of the victims and survivors of Assad prisons. This gets more personal for Italian citizens whose loved ones have been tortured and/or killed in Syrian regimes torture centers. I am an Italian citizen, married to a Syrian man who had been tortured for several months in 215 branch in Damascus in 2012. With the privilege (and luck) of having born in a democratic and civil country, I have always trusted and valued my country as protector of my rights and of the people I love. Such faith had been deeply shaken by this visit, where the main responsible for my husbands torture have been invited with all the honors to Italy. Since our marriage I have tried different pathways to justice for my husband in Italy, from universal jurisdiction to holding accountable Italian companies which have sold spy-tech surveillance and weapons to the Syrian regime. The lack of any chance to hold accountable the people responsible for, or that contributed to, the torture of my husband had left me hopeless and useless. The visit of Ali Mamlouk has added to this feeling the insult of seeing my husbands suffering (and my own) completely ignored, and the thousands of Syrian victims dignity denied. Unfortunately, this feeling of being ignored by Italy has been reinforced with the latest elections which have been won by the Northern League and the Five Stars Movement, two parties which had several times expressed their support towards Russia and Assad regimes fight against terrorism. Indeed, recently some members of Five Star Movement party had also filed a petition asking for the re-opening of diplomatic and economic ties with the Syrian regime. Given the strong relationships with Russia, it is possible that Italy will act as driver of the normalization of the Assad regime (and of its crimes) in Europe. Despite taking this political side, thanks to the recent international arrest warrant issued against Ali Mamlouk in France, Italy would not be longer able to have those security meetings with Syrian war criminals such as Mamlouk. In theory, Italy will now be obliged to arrest and extradite Mamlouk to France if he returns. But many Italians have some doubts about it. Despite the several reports about the visit and the official statements by victims groups and the European Parliament, Italy has still not confirmed that this visit actually took place and it has continued to build its relations with the Assad regime in secret. Given the circumstances and the fact that, since then, Mamlouk has visited other countries, it is not sure that this event will not take place again. Syrian human rights groups, victims groups and activists need to maintain high their attention on Syrian war criminals trips around the world to obtain the same result Spain and Chilean victims achieved with the arrest of Pinochet in UK in 1998. The alternative is an Omar Bashir 2.0, with Syrian war criminals being allowed to travel the world in impunity. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. After many years of conflict, Assad has come out on top and foreign countries are reestablishing ties writes Al-Araby al-Jadeed. As long as Assad remains in power, true justice cannot be delivered to Syrians, writes Mansour Omari. Tags: Assad, rehabilitate, legitimate, Syria, civil war, UAE, regime, Sudan You know what? Its yours, Im leaving [Syria], Trump said on a phone call to Erdogan, according to The Washington Post. In the days prior to, and since the US presidents announcement a fortnight ago that the US would withdraw from Syria, a flurry of Arab leaders have moved to restore their relations with the Assad regime. A week of PR moves saw the Sudanese president visit Damascus on 16 December, and Syrias senior security adviser, Ali Mamlouk a man who is wanted by French prosecutors for collusion in war crimes visit Egypt on 22 December. In addition, the King of Jordan stated on 23 December that our relations with Syria will return to what they were before. The UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus on 27 December, and Tunisia resumed direct flights with Syria after seven years. Finally, Bahrain stated last Friday that work continues at its Syrian embassy. These announcements may have been the work of previous under-the-table agreements, but they all issued almost identical pretext: Supporting Arab unity and confronting regional interference in Syria. Indeed, several factors likely also contributed to these developments, including pressure from the Russians and the rocky relations between Gulf states. But Trumps surprise US withdrawal announcement perceived by many as the decisive sign of an Assad victory was perhaps the encouragement Arab leaders needed to get behind the Assad regime diplomatically, and publicly state their support. No Justice Without Accountability Many Syrians, including victims of Assad and human rights defenders, have voiced their concerns about these developments According to Mohammad al-Abdallah, CEO of the Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center. For him, re-legitimising the Assad regime sends a clear message that he can do whatever he wants to Syrians. Abdallah adds that at the very least, there should be a set of conditions before such normalisation, like the release of detainees, the disclosure of the fate of missing persons, and the abolition of Law 10, which allows authorities to seize property without due process or adequate compensation. For Abdallah, Trumps decision has opened the doors wide to the concept that Assad has won, and there is no use of perceiving him as an enemy. Joan Farso, a Syrian Kurdish humanitarian worker in Syria, says that the UAE and Bahrains recent decision will not help restore stability, adding that the main issues that should be addressed are reconstruction, releasing detainees, the fate of the missing persons, and forming a transitional government; one that guarantees the rights of all Syrians. Restoring normal relations with Assad, without holding him accountable for the mass atrocities in Syria, or conditioning restored relations on addressing crimes and human rights violations, sends a crystal clear message to other Arab leaders that you can massacre your own people and remain a member of the international community. Will other Arab countries also restore their relations with Assad? Can they be relied on to address the injustices the Syrian people have suffered, and continue to suffer? Will they respect international treaties when Assads arrest warrant is issued? In reality, as long as Assad is power, transitional justice in Syria will remain a myth. While the perpetrator continues to control the legal and executive systems in Syria, cries for justice will only grow louder. Many say the war is over, but that does not mean the suffering and crimes have stopped. Instead, the Assad regime has gained ground, and tightened its grip over a population it can oppress, silence, detain and kill using torture. Justice cannot be buried under the ruins of the victims own homes, and with the bodies of their loved ones. Today Syria has millions of victims, with the most documented mass atrocities in history. The matter is not that a person was robbed, or attacked by someones dog. This is a nation that was massacred, displaced, destroyed from the outside, and from within. Ignoring justice destroys the values the Syrian society should be built on, if it is to one day be a healthy, stable society. In addition, justice is important not just for Syrians, but for the whole world. EU countries must use their values and judicial systems to hold the criminals accountable, making sure they will not turn into a safe haven for perpetrators of war crimes, and crimes against humanity. They must send a message that the international community will not be complicit and remain silent in the face of such brutality. This, importantly, also strips the extremists of their favourite recruiting tool: injustice. Perhaps the rehabilitation of the greatest criminal of our times will go on, unencumbered. Rights organisations and Assads victims may not be able to stop this, but at the very least, they should be supported in their efforts towards justice, and blocking regime attempts to falsify history which add salt to the wound by turning the perpetrator into a national hero. And those who so freely normalise the Assad regime should keep in their hearts and minds a tiny space to consider his victims and survivors, who will live out their lives in the shadow of his regimes atrocities. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Ageif Brown props his feet on an OFO bike. Each day, he uses this bike to get to and from his job at Collin Creek Mall. Each year in December the members of the Visual Art League of Lewisville vote for the Asel Artist of the Year. The 2017 winner was Kathy Maybury. Emaar Hospitality Group will replace in due course the Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera restaurant with a new concept, Dubai-based Arabian Business reports. We can confirm that the brand Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera will be replaced in due course, a spokesperson for the group told the media. The venue will operate an exciting new dining concept that promises an experience elevating the iconic location. Stay tuned as the new owner and operator announces more details of their plans, the spokesperson added. The move is confirmed by Sean Connolly himself to Esquire Middle East noting that both parties are partying from Jan.15. Its with great sadness that I leave my baby behind, but I do intend to keep coming back to Dubai, he was quoted as saying the magazine. Dubai Opera restaurant was opened in July 2017 and comprises a main restaurant, private dining room, chefs table, bar and outdoor rooftop terrace that overlooks views of the BurjKhalifa. The restaurant is the first hospitality venue run in the Middle East by Connolly. Connolly also operates restaurants in Australia and New Zealand. Written by: KanelkaTagba on January 7, 2019. Last revised by: Last revised by: Jaber Ali , our reviewer, on February 13, 2019. Standardbred horseman Roger Ramage passed away suddenly at home with his loving wife by his side on Sunday, January 6 at the age of 66 after a long and brave battle with cancer. Roger loved and was greatly loved by his children Saagen (Morgan), Kerry (Roger) and Karen (Simon). Roger adored his five grandchildren Siobhan (Tyler), Owen, Lauren, Hannah and Isla and his beloved best friend, Bear. Dear brother to Austin (Audrey) and Betty and brother-in-law of Annalee, Mervyn and Ralph. Predeceased by his brother Russell and sisters Laura and Edythe. Cherished uncle of many nieces and nephews. Roger was involved in the racing community for over 50 years, which was his passion and love. Friends and family will be received at the Jack & Thompson Funeral Home, Shelburne on Wednesday, January 9 from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Funeral service will take place in the funeral home chapel on Thursday, January 10 at 11:00 a.m. The funeral home is located at 318 Main Street, East, Shelburne, ON L9V 2Y9 (phone: 519-925-2830; fax: 519-925-1105; email: [email protected]). To honour Rogers love for animals, a donation to any animal charity of your choice would be appreciated. Also, flowers can be sent to the family of Roger Ramage by clicking here. For additional information, click here. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Roger Ramage. Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America and the (multi)cultural centre of Canada. The city has become an incredibly diverse melting pot for food and drink culture driven by individuals inspired to share their traditions and ideas. But in a city that prides itself on its eclectic offerings, there is one industry that has been a bit late to the party: coffee. In a province that is dominated by large coffee chains, enforcing notions of convenience over quality, it has been difficult to convert this coffee-drinking populace into specialty coffee consumers. The average customer has no problem spending a premium on a higher quality meal or a higher quality beer but has hesitated to try out the shop around the corner serving single-origin espressos and handmade pour-overs. Thankfully, things are starting to change. The shops listed here have been on the forefront of educating their city about specialty coffee for years and are providing flavors and experiences that live up to Torontos lofty reputation. It has been a long road to success and popularity, but the hard work is finally paying off, as these cafes are just a few examples of the ever-growing number of shops around Toronto serving up some fantastic coffee. Pilot Coffee Roasters Pilot opened in 2009 and was originally named Te Aro Coffee Roasters, after owner Andy Wilkins upbringing in the neighborhood by the same name in his native Wellington, New Zealand. After visiting shops around New Zealand and the US, the ownership group was inspired by businesses roasting and serving coffee with complete transparency throughout the process. Once opened in Toronto, they quickly became an industry leader in the city and have since scaled up their business to be a major player in the Canadian market. After eight years in their former location called Crafted, the cafe and team have moved a block south on Ossington Ave into their brand new digs. The space feels very open with natural light flooding in the large front windows. The most striking design feature are the geometric ceiling accents that resemble the brand's logo of a paper airplane. A shiny Modbar array stretches the length of the shop and includes bar seating to encourage interaction with customers during the pour-over process. The roaster plans to release a single-origin coffee processed three different ways near the end of this year as well as coffee bags for steeping. And with the goal to announce more retail locations in 2019, Pilot is continuing its status as a heavy hitter in Toronto. Pilot Coffee Roasters has multiple locations in Toronto. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook Twitter , and Instagram Sam James Coffee Bar For both industry professionals and casual coffee drinkers, Sam James Coffee Bar is a name that quickly comes to mind when talking about Toronto coffee. Its not just because they serve great coffee, but also because of a style and culture that fits Toronto as a city. Owner Sam James comes from a background in the skateboard industry and brought much of that inspiration and culture into his business. What has worked so successfully in Toronto is the marriage of coffee and street culture. As an example, James partnered with clothing company Stussy to open a collaborative retail location in Chinatown in 2017. A similar vibe can be felt at each of the cafe's locations, with subtle, minimalist design. Although functioning through a different brand, Sam James also roasts under the name Cut Coffee. The idea was to develop a brand alongside Sam James Coffee Bar, but keep the same energy within the overall business. Having recently celebrated their nine-year anniversary, the original Harbord St location still remains the heart of their business and the best representation of what the company stands fora modest space entrenched in its community and serving up delicious brews. As James said, it's just a super-simple coffee shop. Espresso machine, grinders, the works. Everything you need, nothing you don't. Sam James Coffee Bar has multiple locations in Toronto. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram Neo Coffee Bar Neo was first featured on Sprudge back in 2016 and two years later, they havent missed a step. Still considered by many to be a contender for best shop in the city, their quality remains consistently high and their space is always buzzing. Although technically a multi-roaster, they have partnered with Torontos De Mello Palheta Coffee Roasters to make them available as a permanent offering. The partnership has been so successful that De Mello even roasts an exclusive Neo Espresso Blend. Alongside the rotating selection of De Mello, Neo will also feature other local and international roasters. Currently Tokyos Onibus Coffee is available both for retail sales and on bar. Aside from their coffee, Neo offers a tantalizing display of handmade cakes, pastries, and sandwiches. All are prepared from scratch in-house with locally sourced ingredients and similar to the coffee program, are Japanese-inspired, like the Neo Heavenly Banana, a sponge crepe with white chocolate cream steeped with heavenly cream tea from Sloane Fine Tea Merchants. Neo's message from day one has always been about fostering a sense of community and creating a space for social interaction. For this reason, you'll find Neo laptop- and tablet-free on weekends and statutory holidays between 12:00pm and 4:00pm. Boxcar Social For Torontos home brewers and for anyone who loves to try new coffees, there may be no better place than Boxcar Social. Now with four locations around the city, this multi-roaster is serving up the likes of Phil and Sebastian, Luna, The Barn, Monogram, Sey, and Transcend, to name a few. The idea for Boxcar came from a gap in the city for a place that could provide great coffee and great wine. We wanted to contribute something different to the Toronto coffee scene, said Alex Castellani, one of four owners of Boxcar. We care a lot about food in Toronto, but we need to care more about coffee. Each of the owners brought their own fields of expertise into the company and this targeted approach has led to a well thought out and beautifully executed business. The only other thing that can match their coffee, wine, beer, and whiskey offerings are the spaces themselves, as the owners have expanded to strategic locations around the city. Starting in their Summerhill location, and furthered by newer cafes like in Riverside, they focus on finding spaces and neighborhoods with character and want to exist in the history of an urban space, said Castellani. No matter your drink of choice, Boxcar Social will be serving it at its highest potential in a stunning location. Boxcar Social has multiple locations in Toronto. Visit their official website and follow them Facebook Twitter , and Instagram The Library Specialty Coffee This is a place to learn about coffee, about beans, about roasting. A resource for those who want to learn more. Thats why I called it The Library, says owner Jeffrey Ji. Ji first came across specialty coffee while studying in Melbourne over a decade ago. After working with and learning from roaster St. Ali and Matt Perger for six years, Ji returned to his native Shanghai and opened one of the city's first specialty coffee shops with the city's first La Marzocco Linea PB. His coffee travels have delivered him to Toronto, where Ji wanted to bring his Australian and Japanese influences, along with his experiences in Shanghai, to the Canadian market. Upon arriving in Canada he noticed locals were drinking a lot of coffee but werent as concerned with, or aware of, the quality. Enter The Library Specialty Coffee. With education and quality being the top priority, Ji designed the shop to have the espresso bar near the front for quicker drinks and a slow bar in the back for those looking for a more in-depth experience. Ji even roasts in the very back on a Diedrich IR-2.5. After only eight months in business, The Library has already established itself as serving up some of the best coffee in Toronto. Peter de Vooght is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more Peter de Vooght on Sprudge. Several other politically active figures also want to run for seats in the Constitutional Court. Former PM Robert Fico (Smer) is to run for a seat as judge in the Constitutional Court. The information was confirmed by Smer MP Martin Glvac, who also personally handed in Ficos nomination. I think that he is the most qualified candidate based on his previous work, Glvac said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. Read also: Parliament: election of Constitutional Court judges will not change Read more Slovakia awaits a huge exchange of constitutional court judges since nine of the total number of 13 justices will soon be replaced, including the courts chairperson. Glvac said that Fico could be a good chairman of the Constitutional Court in the future. Veronika Remisova from OLaNO criticised the nomination. The Constitutional Court is one of the most important institutions in the country and it will be unlucky for Slovakia if it becomes the extended hand of political parties, she said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Who else will run? Among the candidates confirmed so far are Supreme Court President Daniela Svecova, Jan Sikuta and Supreme Court Judge and MP Peter Kresak. Both state secretaries of the Justice Ministry, Monika Jankovska (Smer) and Edita Pfundtner (Most-Hid) will also run. Another candidate is former chair of the Siet party, Radoslav Prochazka. The nominations are expected to be delivered to parliament by January 7. The nominees will be subsequently interviewed by the parliamentary constitutional committee on January 23, and MPs are expected to vote on the final 18 candidates at a session starting on January 29, the Sme daily reported. The president will then select the final nine nominees who will be appointed as new Constitutional Court judges, as the Constitution stipulates. Kiska will send his representative to hearing Commenting on the final list of candidates, President Andrej Kiska said that there are enough candidates from whom the parliament can select future Constitutional Court judges. There is no real obstacle that would prevent the parliament from choosing, out of the 40 candidates, those who meet the moral and professional criteria, Kiska told the press on January 8. He did not comment on Ficos candidacy. In his opinion, there are several candidates he would like to appoint, as well as those that seem to be problematic. There are two main criteria for the future Constitutional Court judges: be professional and moral. The president also confirmed that he would use the right to send his representative to attend the hearing of candidates by the parliamentary constitutional committee. It will happen for the very first time, the Dennik N daily reported. Candidates for Constitutional Court judges Ladislav Dudits Michal Duris Jan Drgonec Anton Dulak Libor Dula Ivan Fiacan Robert Fico Dagmar Fillova Eva Fulcova Boris Gerbery Radovan Hradek Martin Javorcek Monika Jankovska Martina Janosikova Kajetan Kicura Eva Kovacechova Stefan Ksenak Lucia Kurilovska Karol Kovacs Peter Kresak Milos Madar Pavol Malich Michal Matulnik Peter Melicher Sona Mesiarkinova Peter Molnar Edita Pfundtner Zuzana Pitonakova Radoslav Prochazka Marian Sluk Juraj Sopoliga Peter Straka Lubos Szigeti Jan Sikuta Robert Sorl Jan Stiavnicky Daniela Svecova Marek Tomasovic Michal Truban Martin Vernarsky 7. Jan 2019 at 21:04 | Compiled by Spectator staff New support for e-cars to reduce pollution Action plan will support buyers and infrastructure and allow the use of special registration plates, lanes, zones and parking lots. After industrial production, transportation is the second largest polluter in Slovakia today. Thankfully, e-mobility can lead to its reduction. Reducing transport emissions is an important part in the overall emissions reduction, said Jan Pribula, secretary general of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP). However, excessive pressure on e-mobility will have a major impact on the automotive industry, especially on suppliers. Since Slovakia is part of this global industry, we can also expect the effects of this development in our country, Pribula told The Slovak Spectator. Legislative pressure forces producers to use technical solutions to reduce emissions in places that use transportation. European cities need solutions, said Pribula. Well, plenty of controversies about carbon footprints and meaningfulness are starting to emerge in several circles, Pribula said. Interest grows only slightly Residents, companies and the public sector in Slovakia are familiar with alternative fuel vehicles that include battery electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. Unfortunately, the number of people who buy these vehicles remain low. Currently, there are about 1,600 BEV and PHEV in the country, according to Peter Sevce, director of the Slovak Electric Vehicle Association (SEVA). The statistics of the European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO) show that authorities registered around 200 BEV and PHEV in 2015, 394 in 2017 and even 469 in the first three quarters of 2018. Despite the increase, the share of e-vehicles in the newly-sold vehicles market is only 0.6 percent, Sona Veverickova, project manager at the Research Institute of Transport (VUD), told The Slovak Spectator. Companies are the largest buyers of such vehicles. The most e-cars are now owned by the Slovenske Elektrarne electricity producer, said Veverickova. (Source: EAFO) Level with EU average The latest surveys point to a high purchasing potential in Slovakia, but the supply does not correspond with the demand, said Sevce. When the carmakers arrive with more models in larger quantity, this discrepancy will fade, Sevce told The Slovak Spectator. The evidence points to future models with better price tags. Though the delivery of vehicles lasts five to six months in Europe, Slovakia is at the average number of new registrations. 7. Jan 2019 at 13:25 | Peter Adamovsky How to get rid of your Christmas tree in Bratislava Collection and removal will last until end of March. The removal of Christmas trees in the Slovak capital started on Monday, January 7, informed the municipal company Odvod a Likvidacia Odpadu (OLO), which collects and disposes of waste. It will last until the end of March. In total, three teams consisting of one driver and two assistant drivers are taking care of leftover Christmas trees. The collection and liquidation of the trees started in the Bratislava's Old Town borough and it will gradually move to other city districts. In the case of family houses, undecorated Christmas trees should be taken to the closest collection hubs, while in the case of flats they should be placed near the waste containers, OLO specified on its website as quoted by the TASR newswire. The Christmas trees will then be taken to Bratislavas waste incinerator. By burning them with other communal waste, heat and electricity are produced and further distributed to 22,000 households, OLO specified. The number of Christmas trees collected increases every year. In 2014, 84 tonnes of Christmas trees were disposed of. In 2016 it was nearly 99 tonnes, in 2017 more than 112 tonnes and last year more than 128 tonnes. Alternately, people can personally bring their Christmas trees and dispose of them at OLOs collection yard on Stara Ivanska Cesta, which is open from 8:00 to 18:00 every day, except Sundays and holidays. 7. Jan 2019 at 14:19 | Compiled by Spectator staff SNS orders new, allegedly unnecessary, howitzers The Defence Ministry intends to pay 172 million for 25 new howitzers. Observers question the plan. Slovakias army will receive 25 brand new howitzers, even though the ones currently in use are no older than 20 years. The purchase was approved by nominees of the Slovak National Party (SNS) at the Defence Ministry. The contract for 25 Zuzana 2 howitzers, worth more than 172 million, was published on December 21, the Dennik N daily reported. The artillery pieces will be manufactured by the state-run Konstrukta Defence company from Dubnica nad Vahom (Trencin Region), which is controlled by SNS nominees. Apart from the howitzers, the contract includes a training simulator, spare parts and ammunition. It is the second biggest military trade completed by the SNS, after the purchase of F-16 fighter planes worth about 2 billion, signed in mid-December 2017, Dennik N wrote. Purchase is questioned According to the daily, the purchase of the howitzers can be described as Made by the SNS since it was made and pushed through by SNS nominees at the Defence Ministry, including head of the service office Jan Holko and Defence Minister Peter Gajdos. The army allegedly does not need the new howitzers. They received 16, first generation, modern Zuzana howitzers less than 20 years ago and they are still functional. The purchase of howitzers is one of the quickest ways to spend the Defence Ministrys money, said shadow defence minister Jaroslav Nad of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) when explaining the purchase. Read also: State will invest in new howitzers Read more The price of 172 million doesnt scream as loudly as, for example, the 400 million paid for eight-wheel transporters, which is why it hasnt become a topic for discussion, Nad said, as quoted by Dennik N. Since the ministry will purchase the howitzers from a state-run company, it did not have to launch an ordinary public proceeding and could complete the purchase very quickly, the analyst continued. However, many private companies will participate in producing the howitzers, and thus receive the state money, he pointed out. Observers also pointed to several other concerns pertaining to the purchase, including the number of new howitzers, which increased from eight to 25, and also the price since the original Zuzana howitzers cost only about 1.1 million per piece, and the current price of the Zuzana 2 is 5 million excluding VAT. Ex-defence minister and MP Lubomir Galko (Freedom and Solidarity) wants to ask Gajdos about the purchase at the next session of the parliamentary defence and security committee. The ministry has responded that the minister is ready to defend the plans, the TASR newswire reported. 7. Jan 2019 at 13:11 | Compiled by Spectator staff Former ex-minister faces charges for commissioning murder Pavol Rusko is said to have engaged ex-mafia boss Mikulas Cernak to commit the murder back in 1997. The Bratislava regional prosecutors office has brought charges against former economy minister and former CEO of the private TV channel Markiza, Pavol Rusko, claiming that he allegedly commissioned the murder of his then-business partner Sylvia Volzova back in 1997. The district court received the charges on January 2, Pavol Adamciak, spokesperson for the Bratislava II District Court, confirmed to the Dennik N daily. Read also: Kocner taken into custody, Rusko released Read more The charges followed the testimony of former mafia boss Mikulas Cernak, who was reportedly a person whom Rusko approached with the order back in 1997. Rusko and Volzova, with whom he co-owned the Markiza Slovakia company which had a licence to run a TV broadcast, were having serious disputes. Cernak, who has promised to give information concerning all the murders he had involvement with, said that he was to have managed Volzovas abduction during which she allegedly would be forced to transfer her share to Rusko and then later eliminated. The abduction did not actually happen since Cernak was detained in December 1997, Dennik N wrote. Read also: Ex-minister and TV owner Rusko released from custody Read more Rusko was detained at a shopping centre in October 2017. The police and the prosecutors office requested that he be held in custody but the court decided to put him under house arrest with his whereabouts monitored via an electronic bracelet, Dennik N reported. He tried to overturn the charges when he summoned a press conference on December 17, also attended by his lawyer Marek Para. He said he was innocent and had no reason to kill Volzova, the daily wrote. 7. Jan 2019 at 13:01 | Compiled by Spectator staff Museum with worthy artworks moved out of Slovakia in silence The Milan Dobes Museum, exhibiting kinetic art, disappeared and its works relocated to the Czech Republic in 2017. In the world of fine art, it is not that important where you exhibit, but with whom you exhibit. The works of Milan Dobes, the founder of kinetic art in Slovakia, hung in art galleries around the world alongside the world's most prominent artists of constructivism. "He was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, but he would hardly have achieved it without talent and hard work," said Peter Sokol, art collector and Dobes' personal friend, who founded the Milan Dobes Museum in Bratislava in 2001. However, you won't find the museum nor Dobes' works in Bratislava today. They got quietly moved to the Czech Republic, avoiding media coverage. In addition, Milan Dobes, who turns 90 this summer, is planning to dedicate his archive and heritage to the Museum of Art in Olomouc, the Czech Republic. Slovakia will thus lose a valuable cultural heritage. Eindhoven changed his life A native of Prerov, not far from Olomouc, Dobes studied at the Academy of Fine Art and Design (VSVU) in Bratislava during the 1950s. He organised his first solo exhibition at Bratislava's Youth Art Gallery (Galeria mladych) in 1958. "He himself says it was a coincidence that he went out to the world in the 1960s," Sokol said about Dobes' international beginnings. "The Union of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship had an exhibition hall at Wenceslas Square, where they were organising an exhibition, and invited Dobes to exhibit." At first, Dobes thought they were teasing him as he was not creating much at that time, Sokol added. "It was in Wenceslas Square during the tourist season where critics Frank Popper and Udo Kultermann discovered him," Sokol said. "In the 1960s, they were coming to Prague more often than to Bratislava." Popper picked Dobes to attend the first post-war exhibition of world constructivism, Licht kunst Lich, in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. From that moment on, Dobes' career rose quickly. Today, art historians consider him the world's pioneer in lumino-kinetic objects. Museum is gone 7. Jan 2019 at 17:10 | Jana Alexova The importance of finding the best in others How we think of each other is the greatest difference between Slovakia and Canada. This is not to say that Robert Kalinak is an underappreciated philanthrope. (Source: SITA) On a rainy January 2, I went with my wife to Victoria, BC, to visit the grave of her father, who died on that day four years ago. We took with us two cans of beer and a bottle of whisky, some of which we poured on his headstone before settling on a bench nearby to toast his memory. He had been an Irishman (hence the Guinness and Jameson) and a metallurgist, fond of a drink and a conversation. He died after a long illness, and with a few regrets that were not related to his Parkinsons. Do your best to think good of others, he told his daughter. Compared to his more conventional advice (dont smoke; take care of your mother), it was a piece of hard candy. What is the point, after all, of thinking good of unrepentantly evil men? Doesnt it just leave us more vulnerable to being deceived? And why should we think good of the world, given that the world doesnt often give us the same benefit of the doubt? And yet, days later, that advice is still on my mind. Could the answer be simply that looking for the best in others makes us happier ourselves? 7. Jan 2019 at 7:32 | Tom Nicholson Slovak designer scores international success with flour packaging The global Red Dot Award is regarded as an Oscar for design. The packaging,created by Slovak designer Andrea Andreutti Pokorna, won the Red Dot Award in December 2018. (Source: Red Dot Design Award) Semolina, spelt fried dough, wheatgerm and flour used to prepare bread, pizza or strudel are common products we shop for in stores. But have you ever wondered who designs their packaging? Andrea Andreutti Pokorna undertook the task of designing a concept for flour packaging seriously and created pieces that won a Red Dot Award for communication design, one of the most prestigious design awards, in December 2018. She now joins a group of Slovak designers who have won the award in previous years. Flour as a work of art 7. Jan 2019 at 11:03 | Jana Alexova An Egyptian police officer died Saturday in an explosion as a police defense tried to dismantle outside a Coptic Church on the outskirt of capital Cairo, report say. The blast took place in Nasr City on the edge of Cairo and wounded two additional officer, a security source said. The botched bomb attack took place two before January 07 which marks the beginning of the year for Coptic Christians have become in recent years soft targets for Islamists who accuse the minority group of supporting autocratic ruler AbdelFattah al-Sisi who removed in 2013 the Islamist elected President Mohamed Morsi. In May 2017, 28 Coptic pilgrims were mowed down in an Islamic State group (ISI)-claimed attack as they were traveling to Saint Samuel monastery. Over 40 Christians were killed in a twin bomb attack in April the same year. ISIS also in December last year launched an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb, killing nine people. Written by: KanelkaTagba on January 7, 2019. Last revised by: Last revised by: Jaber Ali , our reviewer, on February 13, 2019. In June 2017, the police came to Alans house around 6 a.m. with a warrant. Alan, a 51-year-old father and IT professional in New Jersey, had never been arrested before. So he was baffled when the police told him he had failed to appear in court earlier that spring. He was fingerprinted and photographed and spent five days waiting to see a judge, only to have the pending charges dismissed. It turned out that a summons to appear in municipal court earlier that month had been mailed to an old address, and Alan never received it. But the judge offered a quick remedy: expunging the arrest record. Knowing this helped Alan recover and move on from the incident. Four months later, he received his automatic expungement order in the mail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Criminal-record expungement and sealing laws are an increasingly popular and seemingly simple reform. The logic is sound: For the criminal justice system to work effectively, the system must also let people move on from their past and have equal access to employment and housing, unburdened by the stigma of a criminal record years later. But two months after his expungement went through, Alan was dismayed when he Googled himself and found his booking photo posted to dozens of online mug-shot galleries. That might be expected, but he also found himself on government websites: The local police department posts a PDF file of weekly arrests, which was indexed by Google, and it shows up for search results of Alans name. Further, the local county jail roster allows users to search for previously jailed inmates who had since been released. Advertisement It was very embarrassing, said Alan, because this is a case that should not have gotten to that point. He immediately began contacting website administrators. I emailed the state police. I emailed the website administrator for the police. I looked up the site in the Whois database and emailed that contact. But no response. He tried the same tactics with mug-shot websites and local news blotters that post booking photos, and hes had some limited luck in getting responses and having his record removed. However, hes also noticed that he is now inundated with emails from purported reputation management websites that offer mug-shot removal services for fees. Whats the point in promising people the benefits of sealing their criminal records if anyone can still find them online? Today, hes terrified of his internet search results. He says hes ceased professional networking and dating as a result. Hes up for a big promotion at work, and hes incredibly anxious his employer will find the mug shots online. Further, hes worried about the harm this will bring to his kids, especially his 16-year-old daughter. That makes it really hard. People will look you up once they know your name, he said. Its not justice. Advertisement The problem for Alan and millions of other arrestees is that on a practical level, expungement isnt really expungement anymore. Even if a record is officially wiped clean, its legal for criminal justice agencies and other websites to keep criminal records online. Arrest records, mug shots, and court records are classified as in the public record in most states. Theres no constitutional problem in republishing public information, as long as the government makes it public first. Further, forcing a website to take down public records would violate the First Amendment. But for people like Alan, this means that even robust record sealing and expungement laws do little to put information thats already out there back in the proverbial bottle. Theres also a huge market for criminal justice information in the personal data market. Salacious mug shots drive site traffic and advertising revenue to websites. Mug-shot sites sometimes charge exorbitant takedown fees, only to repost the photo on another website. Companies that offer tantalizing background-checking services rely on a steady stream of cheap, public records. And these websites dont get a lot of pushback. People are often afraid to address their online records and inadvertently make the problem worse. Advertisement Advertisement In November, a new reform campaign announced a push to leverage technology for expungement. Supported by the Center for American Progress, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Koch foundation groups, the Clean Slate campaign argues that automated, data-driven processes are the key to effective record sealing. The campaign is pushing states to adopt policies that automatically clear certain types of arrests and convictions after a set amount of time, based on progressive record-clearing legislation in Pennsylvania. Offering policy guides for states and talking points for advocates, the campaign promises to close the second chance gap by proactively sealing records instead of requiring a person to file a petition. That means, says the campaigns promotional video, your record isnt available to your future landlord or potential boss. Advertisement The Clean Slate campaign advocates are correct that record sealing, as it stands now, is incredibly bureaucratic. Criminal-record systems are a byzantine administrative web, with police, jails, courts, and prisons all maintaining separate databases of peoples records. Even record-sealing processes that promise to automatically seal records are largely managed by very manual processes, prone to clerical mistakes. The process needs an overhaul that interfaces directly with the data specialists employed by criminal justice systems and the software vendors hired by states to manage records. Advertisement But focusing narrowly on sealing records that have already been released to the public ignores the reality of living with a criminal record in the digital age. Even with an expungement, its very likely that a future landlord or potential boss has uncovered your arrest online. Clean-slate policies rest on the idea that there only exists one single criminal record, when in reality, dozens of pieces of digital information relay an arrest or conviction across public and private sources. An automated record-sealing process only impacts a database maintained by the state and cant change the internet. This puts a person like Alan in a tricky positionshould he really tell a potential employer he doesnt have a record? Thats technically correct. But he faces the potential possibility that he will suddenly appear to be both a liar and a person with a criminal past. Advertisement This gets to a bigger question about how to manage the decision to release criminal-record information in the first place, which is most often in the hands of local police departments and courts. Public access to government records is essential to democracy. But unfettered disclosure of arrest records and booking photos in the digital age raises serious due process concerns, undermining the presumption of innocence and the entire premise of a clean slate promised by expungement. From a practical standpoint, whats the point in promising people the benefits of sealing their criminal records if anyone can still find them online? Advertisement Advertisement For expungement to work, reforms have to target the dissemination of records in the first place. There are several possible avenues. States could direct criminal justice agencies to reclassify some pre-conviction records (such as bulk arrest logs or mug shots) as private, similar to the privacy protections afforded to grand-jury targets and juveniles. Federal law enforcement already withholds booking photos from public access, a policy upheld by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016. Some law enforcement agencies and courts have made it more difficult for data brokers to scrape their websites for personal data. Policies that regulate access to criminal-record data from its point of origin, routine in many European countries, would reduce the need for down-the-road remedies. For clean-slate policies to work, states must regain control over their data. Regulating records would also allow people to regain some control over their own digital criminal histories. This would let someone like Alan actually leverage his automatic expungement with some confidence, rather than spending months attempting to contact mug-shot website operators and local police administrators. While we may tout the benefits of automatic expungement, these policies have little power until they address the practices of automatic disclosure. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Get More Whats Next Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to Whats Next Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page. I was barely 23 years old when I moved to New York for my first job at a daily news broadcast, ABCs World News Tonight. It was 2000. Peter Jennings was still in the anchor chair. Google was not yet a verb. Video tape was still being cut on giant consoles that looked like they belonged on the Starship Enterprise. Looking back, it isnt just the computer consoles that seem retro. The idea of organizing the world into neat little packages at 6:30 p.m. each evening seems like an anachronism. But that doesnt mean theres nothing valuable about it. Advertisement For the past three months, Ive been developing a daily news podcast for Slate called What Next. (We tried out the shows concept and format in a four-week public pilot last year.) And Ive been looking back on all the years I spent in broadcast newstwo decades, if you include the time in public radiowondering: What is it about a daily news show thats worth keeping? Whats worth throwing away? Advertisement Advertisement We want not only to help you feel mastery of the facts, but to really help you understand the forces behind the news, from a human point of view. Its not that I long for the old days. If the cacophony of the internet has done one self-evidently good thing, its to reveal that the power of old media was rooted in the certainty that just one lens (i.e., white, male, and privileged) was sufficient to give audiences a complete view of the world. Good riddance to that. Advertisement But the feeling you could get from those daily shows: Thats something I actually do miss. That satisfying click of understanding, the relief of knowing you were up to speed. There was something about those neat little packages, the way the daily news Marie Kondod information and filtered it through one eager and interested brain. Thats what we want to do with What Next. Were not going to give you all the news; that would be a false promise, and you have plenty of push notifications stacked up and podcasts queued on your phone already. Instead, were going to winnow the glut of information down to one story we think you need to know, each weekday. There are other podcasts that do a great job of distilling and unpacking the news of the day. But with What Next, we want not only to help you feel mastery of the facts but to really help you understand the forces behind the news, from a human point of viewand to present all of this in an accessible, conversational way. Advertisement Advertisement At a moment where technology has amplified all voices, well elevate the ones we think you should be hearing more from. Like the professor whos committed to holding the Catholic Church accountable and can explain, from her perspective, why thats been so hard to do. Or the homeland security guru who warned about the rise of white supremacy long before the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting or rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. Sometimes well answer a question you might have after catching the headlines (like, how big of a deal is it that Attorney General Jeff Sessions got fired?). On other days, well surface a story we think you should be paying more attention to (like, why it matters that the IRS is getting defunded, or how a single memo could derail police reform). Advertisement As a TV journalist, I felt like the internet was breaking the news. Slate was one place that helped me see things a bit differently. When the drumbeat of information starts to seem relentless, Slate takes pleasure in the act of conversation. Slates articles and podcasts dont just give you the who, what, where, when, and why of a story; they provide the context and help you see a path forward. Thats baked into the DNA of What Next, tooits where the name comes from. Seeing whats next sometimes means looking at a story from a different angle. So, with the spotlight on Washington, Monday mornings episode starts out 1,000 miles due west of the capitol. Well introduce you to a legislator in Kansas City, Kansas, whose experience with party bosses who act more like mob bosses reveals a lot about the future of the Republican Party. Check it out here, and be sure to subscribe in your podcast player. Tomorrow, well be back with more. Listen to What Next via Apple Podcasts. Halfway into Donald Trumps term as president, it is less clear than ever who speaks for American foreign policy or, on even the most basic level, what that policy is. The latest mishmash over Syria is but the most colorful case in point. Over the weekend, National Security Adviser John Bolton assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. troops will remain in Syria until ISIS is vanquished, Turkey guarantees it wont attack the Syrian Kurds, and Iran removes its own military forces from the country. In other words, according to Bolton, were going to stay in Syria for quite a while. Advertisement This, of course, completely contradicted Trumps tweet from just over two weeks ago, boasting, We have defeated ISIS in Syria and pegging that mission as my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency. The implication, which he soon made explicit, was that he would be bringing home the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria as soon as possiblea declaration that triggered resignations in protest by Secretary of Defense James Mattis and anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk. Trump also said, just last week, that the Iranians in Syria can frankly do whatever they want there. Advertisement Advertisement If you were the Turks, the Kurds, the Syrians, the Iranians, ISIS, or anyone else in the world, friend or foe, whose words would you take seriouslythe presidents or his national security advisers? Would you believe anything that either of them ever said again, about anything? Advertisement Trump has since backpedaled a bit on his declaration of victory over ISIS, tweeting Monday morning that we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary! (Italics added.) But he also claimed that these remarks are no different from my original statements and that a New York Times story stating otherwise is very inaccurate. Policymakers here and abroad, looking for reassurances or simply clarity, no doubt came away from this tweet more confused than before. First, a proper pace and continuing to fight ISIS indicate an approach very different from Trumps original statements. Second, it is not at all clear what Trump means by all else that is prudent and necessary. (Is he endorsing Boltons conditions for withdrawing?) Finally, his reference to the New York Times suggests that he may not have known about Boltons statement until he read about it in the morning paper. (Trump posted the tweet at 9:55 a.m., still an hour before he generally heads downstairs from his executive time in the residence, watching Fox News and tapping his iPhone.) Advertisement Whose words would you take seriouslythe presidents or his national security advisers? Would you believe anything that either of them ever said again, about anything? So are we leaving Syria or are we staying? Is our sole interest there the defeat of ISIS (and what does defeat mean, in this context?), or do we also have a stake in the protection of the Kurds and the containment of Iran? These are the sorts of questions that presidents work out with Cabinet secretaries and expert advisers in National Security Council meetings. Trump appears to have no such meetings and listens to no such advisers. His initial tweet, in December, came as the result of a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wondered why U.S. troops were still in Syria, given that ISIS was defeatedto which Trump reportedly replied, You know what? Its yours. Im leaving. Advertisement Many, including Mattis, read that exchange as Trump greenlighting a massacre of the Syrian Kurdish fighters that Turkey considers a terrorist group. Sen. Lindsey Graham soon after said hed advised Trump over lunch to go slow on withdrawing. Murmurs soon spread from the Pentagon and the State Department that the pullout could take months and would be linked to conditions on the ground. But Trump himself has issued no outright reversal andwho knowsmay take back even his partial concessions after his next chat with Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, Rand Paul, or Ann Coulter. Advertisement Internal disputes over foreign policy have racked nearly every presidency, to one degree or another. There have also been times when a president steps so far outside the consensus that almost all of his aides push back against him. This is what happened when President Jimmy Carter announced the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from South Koreaonly to reverse himself after fierce resistance within his administration and among liberal Democrats in Congress. Advertisement But that is not whats happening here. These are not policy debates. These are the random eruptions of Trumps id and instinct, shaped by some confidants comment during moments of mounting frustration, or blithe self-confidence, when he is ripe for influence. The Syria tweet is far from the only time when Trump has left his advisers slack-jawed. There was the time he demanded North Koreas prompt denuclearization, then succumbed to Kim Jong-uns sweet nothings. There was the time when (for reasons that Robert Mueller may uncover) he brushed aside his intelligence agencies unanimous verdict on Russian hacking, to accept Putins strong denials. He has run lukewarm to cool on his allegiance to Article 5 of the NATO treaty or to any accord that commits the United States to defend an ally under attack. Back in March, after firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with Mike Pompeo, Trump said, Were getting very close to having the Cabinetand other thingsI want. In the months since, with his dismissal of H.R. McMaster (replaced by Bolton) and the departure of Mattis (whom hed derided as sort of a Democrat), Trump has put together what he would probably describe as the Cabinet of his dreams. Yet the discord, disunity, and discomfort continuemainly because Trump doesnt know enough to know just what he wants. An unabashedly populist president, a steady drip of corruption scandals, deep-rooted political dysfunction, and no clear path to stability. It may sound like Donald Trumps Washington, but it could just as easily describe Brasilia, Brazil; Caracas, Venezuela; or Buenos Aires, Argentina, in recent years. If populism and corruption have a rhythm, Latin America has it down better than anyone. After a wave of left-wing populist presidents were elected in the 1990s and 2000s, Latin America saw a decade of prosperity fueled by high commodity prices and generous social programsbut in recent years, the regions economies have collapsed, trapping politics in cycles of cynicism and dysfunction. Advertisement Throughout the region, these crises also uncovered massive networks of graft, abuse, and corruption at all levels. In response, bold and ambitious anti-corruption campaigners have fought to clean up politics in several countries, with only mixed success. As the newly minted Democratic House majority prepares to use its oversight power to take on Trump-era rot and mismanagement in the United States, it should study these examples carefully. Advertisement Advertisement To be sure, the challenges in the United States are different. Legal and political institutions north of the Rio Grande are far stronger than those in Latin America. More importantly, corruption in the United Statesat least until recentlyhas been subtler. Less than outright bribery or personal enrichment, U.S. institutions are mainly undermined by legalized threats: out-of-control campaign finance, lobbying by special interests, and revolving doors between government and industry. Advertisement The best way to break the cycle and avoid Brazils fate is to counter cynicism with an ambitious positive agenda. At the same time, there are clear parallels. Not only were most Latin American presidential and congressional systems largely modeled on the U.S. Constitution, countries across the Americas also tend to face similar political challenges, including inequality, polarization, concentrated executive power, and complicated dynamics of race and class. Moreover, political, legal, and regulatory institutions in the United States are clearly decaying, entrenched in complex networks of interest-group captureeven to the point of resembling Latin Americas historically cabal-driven politics. The result is similar levels of voter discontent. Faith in Congress has not topped 15 percent since 2009. Public trust in the U.S. federal government has been below 25 percent since the George W. Bush era. A similar poll found approximately the same percentage of Latin Americans to be satisfied with their democracies. Advertisement Advertisement In fact, in 2018 a plurality of U.S. voters described corruption as their top concern, above health care and the economy, and polling shows they overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates. Accordingly, House Democrats of all stripesfrom Nancy Pelosi and John Sarbanes to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezpromise to make fighting corruption a centerpiece of their strategy for the next two (or six) years of the Trump administration. In doing so, Democrats should study how Latin Americas historic anti-impunity movement has fought to thwart graft, abuse of power, and populism. Theyll find three lessons to follow. First, focus on reforms, not just investigations. Populism everywhere is driven by a perception that voters voices are not being heard. That feeling of unfairness can only be soothed with changes in how government works, not just punishing bad actors. In Latin America, prosecutions without reforms have had a perverse effect on political stability. Each new scandal represents progress in the fight against impunity but also magnifies public discontent. Advertisement Take Brazil, the epicenter of Latin American corruption. The countrys Lava Jato (Car Wash) judicial probe is arguably the most successful anti-corruption mechanism in world history. Since 2014, prosecutors have exposed billions of dollars in graft and jailed dozens of high-profile figures, including former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom Barack Obama once called the most popular politician on earth. At the same time, the past four years have rendered Brazils economy and political system a smoking ruin. So Brazilian voters turned in rage and desperation to Jair Bolsonaro, an outwardly authoritarian, far-right populist, who took office on New Years Day. There are, and should be, doubts about the future of Brazils democracy. Advertisement Advertisement The best way to break the cycle and avoid Brazils fate is to counter cynicism with an ambitious positive agenda to reform campaign finance and conflicts of interest. Hearings, subpoenas, investigations, prosecutions, and even impeachment are not enough to restore voters trust in the system. Second, improve politics from the inside and show how anti-corruption does not need to be anti-establishment. When government is seen as rotten, the temptation is to burn everything down or look for untainted outside candidates. But the dangers of that are obvious. In 1998, Venezuelan votersenraged by an elitist, two-party system seen as out of touchelected a charismatic army officer considered to be honest and genuine. True, Hugo Chavez thoroughly destroyed the old order, but the dystopian dictatorship he installed is unquestionably far worse. Advertisement And an outsider need not be Trump or Bolsonaro or Chavez to do more damage than good. See Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, a soft-spoken former comedian and political neophyte elected in 2015 with the slogan not corrupt, not a thief. In August, he sparked a constitutional crisis by attempting to shutter the much-praised U.N. anti-impunity commission whose muckraking helped get him elected. Advertisement Establishment politicians should learn from the mistakes of their Latin American counterparts, who despite public pressure have mostly failed to take corruption seriously. This applies not just to Democrats but also the growing number of Republicanslike Nebraska Sen. Ben Sassewho see the writing on the wall. Third, be patient and keep an eye on the economy. Advertisement Historically, populism, corruption, and partisanship ebb and flow in a cycle tied to expectations and economic outcomes. In Argentina, the left-wing populist husband-wife duo Nestor and Cristina Kirchner dominated politics from 200315. Their Trump-like scandals and abuses of power went mostly ignored until, eventually, mismanagement tanked the economy. Today, Argentina is led by Mauricio Macri, a fairly mainstream and technocratic center-right leader, and Cristina Kirchner is on trial for corruption. The best strategy for Democrats is patience and sustained effort; nothing will be fixed overnight. They should promote an alternative vision for effective, fair, and representative government as the failures of Trumpism become increasingly self-evident. If Latin America is any guide, the fight against corruption will take years and the gains will be tenuous. Even though the United States has far more institutional strength and resiliency than most Latin American governments, fixing the cracks in the political systemthose that preceded Trump as well as those he has brazenly pried openis a long, uphill battle. Democrats, and the country, cannot afford to wait. Of the many reasons to mourn the Village Voices abrupt shuttering in 2018, its annual film poll, which the paper had conducted since 1999, isnt the most urgent. (The papers local reporting on New York City had more impact, and its Pazz & Jop pollwhich a skeleton crew of staffers is continuing this yearwas a longer-running cultural survey.) However, the film poll was a fun and useful snapshot of the year in cinema from a healthy roster of film critics, and its one feature that a grieving fan desperately trying to duck family members over the holidays could theoretically replicate. Using the roster of critics from last years poll, and the Voices stated tabulation rules, I created an approximation of what the 2018 results might have looked like for Best Film. Its almost certainly not accuratefor one thing, I heard from or found published Top 10 lists for only 85 of the 112 folks who participated last timebut it should at least be in the ballpark. If it isnt, theres no one left to complain! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Given Romas dominance of awards seasonit won Best Picture from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, both of which contribute a lot of voters hereI had little doubt that it would prove victorious. Instead, First Reformed, Paul Schraders Academy-ratio drama about a deeply troubled Protestant minister squeaked out an upset, besting Roma by 3 votes and a mere 7 points. The top five is rounded out by movies set in 18th-century colonial South America (Zama), contemporary South Korea (Burning), and a Hooters-style family restaurant called Double Whammies (Support the Girls). Every one is a must-see. The Top 15 (total points/total votes): 1. First Reformed (258/37) 2. Roma (251/34) 3. Burning (200/34) 4. Support the Girls (143/25) 5. Zama (130/23) 6. If Beale Street Could Talk (122/21) 7. Leave No Trace (119/26) 8. Cold War (112/19) 9. The Favourite (109/19) 10. Paddington 2 (109/15) 11. The Rider (108/20) 12. Shoplifters (105/20) 13. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (101/21) 14. You Were Never Really Here (98/16) 15. The Other Side of the Wind (90/13) Advertisement Advertisement For me, though, the real fun in an exercise like this lies not in briefly perusing the winners (which tend to be the same films getting plenty of attention elsewhere) but in voraciously browsing through the outliers. Heres the complete list of every film that received a voteall 169 of em. (Or, as Lincoln would have phrased it, five score and nice.) Click the title of one that you loved and see who agreed with you, then click that critics name to see what else they championed. Heading down that rabbit hole can lead to fascinating discoveries, movies youd never even heard of before. And individual lists can make statements that wind up getting lost in tabulation. One critic chose 10 films directed (or co-directed, in one case) by women, which might reflect an honest opinion of last years best work or might be a pointed retort to an industry that remains male-dominated. Or it could be both! Either way, the truly interesting aspects of a poll lie in the details. Happy spelunking. An example of Shrader's commitment was the time several years ago when he had a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder and his doctor recommended surgery. Shrader asked if hed still be able to run. His doctor said, I wont tell you you cant run, but you wont want to run. Your arm will be strapped to your side for 10 days to two weeks and the pain of it will keep you from running. Shrader decided to test this by strapping his arm to his side to see how it would go. After a couple of days, he gave up. Running that way was too cumbersome, and he never had the surgery. At the start of what has become his streak, he ran eight miles a day. In time he dropped to seven, then six. The last two years, its been five miles a day. With all that running and pounding, at 64 now, Ive slowed down considerably, he said, his silver hair curling at his collar. His normal daily routine is to get up at 3:30 a.m. and be out the door by 3:45. He always runs outside and always alone, mixing up his route among neighborhood streets, the Duck Creek recreational trail and the paths in cemeteries. And he doesnt listen to music. Even more than the physical benefit of running to stay in shape, the ultimate benefit has been more mental, he said. Finish this article for as low as $1 when you purchase a day pass. Just click the sign up button to purchase. If you are already a subscriber, just click log in to continue reading. After passing the largest income tax cut in state history last year, Iowa Republicans are looking for even more opportunities to lessen the tax burden on businesses and individuals. Although its a target-rich environment for Republicans, who control the governors office and both chambers of the Iowa Legislature, its not clear which taxes they will vote to cut or by how much in the legislative sessions that starts Jan. 14. While they arent sharing details of the plans, legislative leaders say they heard a lot of concern about property taxes when they were on the campaign trail last summer and fall. Heres what we hear at the door: How is it that I read in the newspaper that my tax rate is going down yet I open my bill and it has gone up? House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said. She sees a need for more truth-in-taxation, some transparency in the process so homeowners know how their property taxes are being used. If local government has a need to raise taxes they should make clear to Iowans why and what for, Upmeyer said. GOP leaders seem less likely to look again at state income taxes after enacting a cut of $2.86 billion when phased in over six years. These mixed messages should be curtailed if Trump want to send a message of cohesion. While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Middle East this week, coordination could be key. If Trump and Pompeo read from the same sheet of music, Trump could start to signal that he and his team take the time to coordinate on policy. This could help offset the idea that Trump's team doesn't speak for him. Putin's pawn: Paul Whelan, a discharged US Marines reservist who served two tours in Iraq, remains in Russian detention. Despite Russian claims that he was conducting espionage, Whelan's brother says he was there for a wedding. And the Whelan family continues to maintain his innocence. Regardless, we should expect Russian operatives to continue spreading misinformation about who he is and what he did. Because the Kremlin controls so much of Russian media, we should question the local reporting on Whelan. Russian authorities may be angling for a "swap" -- an exchange of Whelan for Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to act as an agent for the Kremlin without registering in the United States. This is not a narrative we should support. Butina is a self-proclaimed foreign agent who has been afforded a lawyer, due process and security while in detention. We have no indication that Whelan will get any of the same, as Russia has a horrific record on prisoner abuse. While Whelan may be Russia's newest pawn, we should not allow Putin and his minions to draw false equivalencies between him and Butina. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council will be asked Monday to approve a first amendment to a track and land use agreement with a company that uses track in the city-owned Southbridge Rail Yard to transload animal fats from area meat processing facilities for use in the production of biodiesel. If the amendment to the agreement is approved, the project will generate $42,680 in annual revenue for the city. Chris Myres, an economic development specialist for the city, said the city entered into the agreement with Agri-Trading Corporation last April. Agri-Trading has asked for an extension of that agreement to allow the company to meet increasing customer demand in the biodiesel industry. Animal fat is transported via truck to the rail yard, where it's loaded into tanker cars and shipped to biodiesel plants mostly in Louisiana. "They've been using one of our tracks down there since then; and they wanted to use a second track and they also wanted to add another year to the lease," Myres said. "It's not just good for the city with the revenue that's down there, it's also good for the companies that are in the area here that are selling them their byproducts." CHEROKEE, Iowa -- A Cherokee man died Saturday morning after a collision on Highway 977 east of Cherokee. According to a news release from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, at around 9:10 a.m. Saturday, authorities responded to a one-vehicle accident on Highway 977. The driver, 68-year-old Larry Weede of Cherokee, lost control of his vehicle due to slick road conditions, struck a guardrail and drove into the south ditch, where the vehicle overturned. Weede died of his injuries at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center. Diana Weede, a passenger, suffered serious incapacitating injuries; Brennan Weede and two minor passengers suffered possible injuries. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department was assisted by the Cherokee Police Department and the Iowa State Patrol. Copyright 2018 The Sioux City Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. STORM LAKE, Iowa -- A Cherokee, Iowa, man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly sexually abusing and threatening to kill a 12-year-old girl in a Storm Lake residence throughout 2018. On Dec. 24, the Storm Lake Police Department took a report in reference to the sexual assault of a minor. Following an investigation, Ernesto Antonio Guerra Pascual, 29, was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of lascivious acts (class C felony); one count of sexual abuse in the second degree (class B felony); one count of sexual abuse in the third degree (class C felony); two counts of indecent contact with a minor (aggravated misdemeanor); and one count of harassment in the first degree (aggravated misdemeanor). Guerra Pascual was booked into the Buena Vista County Jail on a $61,000 bond. The Storm Lake Police Department was assisted by the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), Sioux City's Mercy Child Advocacy Center, the Buena Vista County Attorney's Office and the Iowa Department of Human Services in the investigation of this case. Copyright 2018 The Sioux City Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 125 Years Ago Reporter robbed: After a reporter was held up downtown, a porter at one of the hotels was heard to remark that when highwaymen get to holding up newspaper reporters, it was time for porters to be careful. The hotel porters, he said, will hereafter ride between the hotels and railroad depots instead of walking. Pugilist bout: Billy ODonnell said articles of agreement for a fight between himself and Mr. Stout on Jan. 11 were signed and $50 forfeit money placed in the hands of Tommy Kennedy in the Toy annex. The fight is to the finish at catch weight, both to use hand and wrist bandages at their discretion. The purse will be $250, with the winner to take the gate receipts. Divorce scandal: The case of the Honorable Edward H. Gillette, ex-congressman from this district and a prominent Populist leader, is attracting attention. He and his wife, Sophia, separated by mutual consent and a division of a large amount or property was made. Mrs. Gillette resides in the east, while he has remained here. Gillette has filed a suit for absolute divorce and seeking alimony of $1,000. It seems there has been a disagreement regarding the division of property and this sum is supposed to represent the difference of opinion. 100 Years ago UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned an attempted coup in Gabon, his spokesman said, recalling that the UN chief opposes unconstitutional changes of power by force. Gabon's presidency said in a statement that soldiers burst into a state radio station at dawn on Monday and called for an uprising against President Ali Bongo, who was recovering in Morocco from a stroke. Security forces stormed the building, arrested the coup leader and killed two of his soldiers, according to the presidency. "The secretary-General has always stood against unconstitutional changes of power, especially by force, and in that light, he condemns the attempted coup that took place this morning in Gabon," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Guterres added that calm appears to have returned in Libreville and calls "on all actors to follow constitutional means", added Dujarric. The UN envoy for Central Africa, Francois Lounceny Fall, who is based in Libreville was closely monitoring the situation and is ready to offer assistance if needed, said the spokesman. Vice President Leni Robredo (second from right) attended the turnover of five School-in-a-Bag units to Sitio Lipata on Lahuy Island, a small town in Camarines Sur, where students walk up to six hours to go to school. The educational kits were donated by Smart and the Yellow Boat Foundation of Hope. There is a saying that goes: Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. This is true for over a million Filipino students who have no access to digital content that can help bridge the divide between those in urban and rural communities. Smart Communications addressed this gap throughout 2018 with different initiatives under #LearnSmart, the wireless services providers education program which encourages the use of technology to enhance learning.Smarts flagship project is School-in-a-Bag, a digital learning package that comes bundled with a teacher laptop and student tablets preloaded with educational mobile applications. Carried in a weather-proof backpack, other contents include a Smart pocket WiFi unit, a projector or LED TV, DVD player, solar panel and charging station. Beneficiaries also received teacher training on the Dynamic Learning Programan innovative teaching methodology developed by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees Dr. Christopher Bernido and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido and program evaluation from Smart. Donations were made possible through partnerships with generous individuals and organizations.The year 2018 was a milestone year for School-in-a-Bag as Smart delivered its 100th unit right before Christmas. The latest beneficiaries were students from Sitio Lipata in Lahuy Island, a small town with no electricity that is accessible via a 1.5-hour boat ride from mainland Caramoan, Camarines Sur. It is home to youth who have to walk up to six hours a day to attend the nearest school. Five School-in-a-Bag packages were jointly donated by Smart and the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation. The kits will serve as educational materials for Yellow Boats Bangkarunungan Program for the Alternative Learning System (ALS). Each of the five (5) boats will transport both the mobile teachers and the bag to the coastal communities so that both youth and adult learners can have access to education. Maraming mga bata dito ang hindi na nakapagtatapos ng pag-aaral kasi napaka-inaccessible (a lot of children here do not get to finish their studies due to inaccessibility), explained Vice President Leni Robredo, who was present during the turnover ceremonies in Lahuy Island. Emphasizing on the many partnerships of Yellow Boat, such as the one with Smart, the Camarines Sur native admitted that a lot has to be done in Sitio Lipata and other far-flung areas nationwide. However, Robredo is optimistic that, basta pinagtutulungan, walang imposible (as long as we help each other, nothing is impossible).More than merely donating gadgets, Smart developed several interactive tools to support learning strategies, as well as help preserve and promote local culture and heritage. In 2018, the team partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) and academic institutions nationwide to develop mother-tongue based mobile applications. Among those who benefited from these apps was Analou Torifel, an elementary school teacher from the small island of Lipayran, southwest of Bantayan Island in Northern Cebu. After receiving their School-in-a-Bag kit from Smart and the Rotary Club of Cebu last September, the Grade 3 instructor emphasized that the curriculum-based learning applications that are pre-loaded in the students tablets will make them more excited to learn something new and educational every day.Sure gyud ko maam kay ang bata need baya sila og maka catch sa ilang attention nga dugay nila makalimtan (I am very sure that these apps will help, because the kids need something to catch their attention and help them retain the lessons), Torifel said. She specified that she will augment her daily lessons with the help of Kaalam (Cebuano term for knowledge), Learn Smarts Cebuano app that features folklore stories all retold by residents of Argao town in Cebu province. Other mother-tongue based apps that were launched by Smart in 2018 were the Bahay Kubo Filipino app, Taallam and Tahderiyyah Arabic apps, and Matisalug app for the Matisalug Tribe of Davao and Bukidnon.Smart and its partners recognized that communities in far-flung islands and mountains are not the only ones who are unable to access the latest instructional methods and teaching activities. For the children of Marawi, living in a conflict-stricken place prevented them from returning to school. This is why Smart partnered with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), Project Handclasp Foundation (PHF), and the US-Philippines Society (UPS) in the donation of School-in-a-Bag kits as educational support for those affected by the siege. Getting children back into school - especially in this innovative way - will change the trajectory of their lives and help make lasting peace, said PDRF president Rene Meily. Out-of-school youth under the Alternative Learning System of Valenzuela, Metro Manila also received a School-in-a-Bag package to help them complete their education. The donation was part of the technology package that was awarded to recipients of Synergeia Foundations Seal of Good Education Governance, which the highly urbanized city won for the 2nd year in a row. Modern learning tools and extensive multimedia content can help our students keep up with the rest of the world and become more useful members of the society, said Valenzuela City ALS Instructional Manager Marie Reachelle Navarro. Smart also supported the improvement of education in the country by implementing relevant teaching methodologies for schools, such as the CVIF-Dynamic Learning Program (CVIF-DLP). First implemented in the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) in Jagna, Bohol, the disaster-resilient form of education has reportedly improved the academic performance of students in more than 100 public and private schools nationwide. We hope that by getting more schools to adopt DLP, we can enhance the Filipino youths performance, especially in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines, said Smart Community Partnerships Head Darwin F. Flores.Smart emphasized how strong partnerships with community stakeholders are essential in developing Learn Smart programs. From partnerships with government and non-government offices, local government units, companies, academe, advocacy groups, and media, we all need to work together to help build a nation where no learner is left behind, said Smart Public Affairs Head Ramon R. Isberto. For more information on the different Learn Smart initiatives, visit the Smart Communities Facebook page at www.facebook.com/smartcommunities or email [email protected] Three skiers and two snowshoe hikers have died as heavy snow and avalanches hit Austria, isolating several areas of the mountainous country, authorities said Monday. Two German skiers lost their lives in avalanches in the western region of Vorarlberg on Sunday, and a Slovenian died in the region of Salzburg, rescue services said. The bodies of two missing snowshoe hikers were discovered Monday as snow caused chaos in parts of the country, blocking roads and shuttering schools. Two other hikers are still missing in the country's northeast. Up to 1.5 metres (five feet) of snow has fallen in central and north Austria since the middle of last week, with up to three metres accumulating in the mountains around Salzburg, Austria's meteorological service said. Some 2,000 people, including tourists, were left stranded in villages in the Soelktal valley in the southeast. Army helicopters used in avalanche control were grounded due to the bad weather. In the Hochkar mountain range in Lower Austria, ski resorts were closed until further notice, with inhabitants and tourists requested to vacate the area. More snow is expected this week, with up to 80 centimetres forecast from Tuesday. A group of soldiers took control of Gabons national radio station in Libreville on January 7 and announced a coup against the government. The announcement, delivered by Lieut Ondo Obiang Kelly, identified the group leading the coup as the Patriotic Movement of the Youth of Gabons Defense Forces (MPJFDS) and accused conservatives of using President Ali Bongo to hold onto power despite his being devoid of many of his physical and mental faculties. Kelly said that senior army leaders have failed in their mission to defend the greater interest of the nation, forcing the MPJFDS to take responsibility. He called on the security forces and the youth of Gabon to join them in what he called Operation Dignity. It is time to take our destiny in our hands, he said. The long-awaited day has come when the army has decided to stand with its people to save Gabon from chaos. Several hours after the statement was broadcast, Gabons communications minister, Guy-Betrand Mapangou, told RFIs Africa service that the situation was under control, and that order would be completely reestablished within hours. Mapangou called the coup leaders jokers and said four of them had been arrested. Kelly had fled, Mapangou said. Credit: MPJFDS via Storyful Pope Francis on Sunday urged EU leaders to show "concrete solidarity" with 49 migrants stranded on NGO ships off the coast of Malta who have been refused permission to land. But both Italy and Malta, who have refused port access to the rescue vessels, on Sunday reiterated their positions. "Forty-nine migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by two NGO ships have been on board for several days now, waiting to be able to disembark," Francis told thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square in Rome. "I address a pressing appeal to European leaders that they show some concrete solidarity with respect to these people." The European Commission also urged EU member states to admit them earlier this week as concern grows over their plight, with some of the migrants stranded at sea for more than two weeks. This is not the first time the Argentinian pope, himself descended from Italian immigrants, has appealed to European leaders to open their borders. But there was no sign of Italy changing its policy. "In Italy, no more people are arriving," far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told the Sunday paper Il Messaggero. "That's the line and it will not change." And he rammed the message home on Twitter, saying "Italy's ports are and will stay closed". While not quite as categorical, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Sunday he feared setting a "precedent". - 'Vomiting on each other' - There are 17 people on board the German NGO vessel Sea-Eye, with another 32 on the Sea-Watch. Among them are a one-year-old baby and two children aged six and seven. Some on board Sea Watch are being treated for dehydration caused by seasickness. They are "all crammed into a small room and literally vomit on each other", said Sea Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi, who fears some of the passengers will self-harm. "The situation is becoming more unstable every day, the level of stress is rising," added Franck Doerner, a doctor on board, via a video message. If the small Mediterranean island state of Malta, which has a population of 450,000, allowed in migrants from the two rescue ships, "the bullies would have won," said the Maltese leader. "This is an issue that might set a precedent and we should be vigilant about it," Muscat told Malta's Radio One station. "It is easy to play the Christmas Saint with everyone, but then come January, February and the summer period we would be told to do the same." Relations between Italy and Malta have been strained since Salvini's decision to close Italian ports to the migrants, accusing the rights groups who rescue them of running a migrant "taxi service". Salvini has called on Malta to assume its responsibilities and take in the rescue boats, arguing they are the closest. Muscat said that Malta's own naval vessels had in recent days rescued 250 migrants, with the government saying some of them were pulled to safety closer to Italian waters. The Netherlands and Germany have already offered to take some of the migrants if their EU partners do the same. But the bloc's long-running deadlock over sharing responsibility for migrants has yet to be resolved. More than 800 protesters have been arrested in anti-government demonstrations held across Sudan since last month, a minister said Monday, as hundreds gathered at a rally backing President Omar al-Bashir. Deadly protests have rocked Sudan since December 19, when unrest first broke out over a government decision to raise the price of bread. Authorities say at least 19 people including two security personnel have been killed in clashes during the demonstrations, but rights group Amnesty International has put the death toll at 37. Interior Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman on Monday gave details to parliament of arrests made during the protests and violence that marked several rallies. "The total number of protesters arrested until now is 816," Osman said. The figure was the first given by officials for those detained since the rallies erupted initially in towns and villages and later spread to the capital Khartoum. Osman told lawmakers there had been a total of 381 protests reported since December 19. He said that 118 buildings were destroyed in the protests, including 18 that belonged to police, while 194 vehicles were set on fire including 15 that belonged to international organisations. "The demonstrations began peacefully, but some thugs with a hidden agenda used them to indulge in looting and stealing," the minister said, adding that the situation across Sudan was now "calm and stable". Protests broke out when the government raised the price of a small loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from two to six US cents). Several buildings and offices of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) were torched in the initial violence. - Rally backing Bashir - Sudanese authorities have launched a crackdown on opposition leaders, activists and journalists to prevent the spread of protests. Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year led by an acute shortage of foreign currency. The cost of food items and medicines has more than doubled and inflation has hit 70 percent. Food and fuel shortages have been regularly reported across several cities, including Khartoum. Most anti-government rallies have been spearheaded by professionals like doctors, teachers and engineers, but they have been swiftly broken up by riot police firing tear gas at protesters. On Monday, crowds of protesters gathered in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan but they were quickly dispersed by riot police, witnesses said. As the anti-government unrest rumbled on, the first rally backing Bashir was held in the eastern city of Kassala. Hundreds of people from Kassala and neighbouring towns and villages gathered in front of the local governorate to express their support for Bashir. Several supporters were carrying banners that read "Bashir, we want you to stay", witnesses said. "We want Bashir as president in order to maintain security in the country," Mohameddin Issa, a resident of Kassala participating in the rally told AFP by telephone. "Security is the top priority, after that comes food...but I also believe that the problem of food will be solved soon." Bashir's supporters also took to social networks Twitter and Facebook to back the rally in Kassala. "The rally in Kassala shows how popular the government is and how safe the country is," Ibrahim al-Siddiq, spokesman of NCP wrote in a post online. Authorities are holding a similar pro-regime rally in Khartoum on Wednesday. Bashir has dominated Sudan for three decades since coming to power in a coup backed by Islamists in 1989. Some of the 49 migrants stranded off the coast of Malta are refusing food, one of the groups running the boats that rescued them reported Monday. "On board of #SeaWatch we are reporting episodes of people refusing food," Sea-Watch International tweeted Monday. "We fear that their psychological and health status may deteriorate significantly," it added. The migrants, rescued while attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing from north Africa to Europe, have been stranded on the Sea-Watch and another boat since December 22 since no country has allowed it to dock. But the diplomatic deadlock among EU member states has still not been resolved, despite Pope Francis's appeal on Sunday for EU leaders to show solidarity towards the migrants. The Sea-Watch and the Sea-Eye, who between them have 49 migrants on board, including a baby and a number of children, remain off the coast of Malta. On Sunday, Sea Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi described how the migrants, crammed into a small room, were vomiting on each other in the stormy seas. One European diplomatic source said France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal had declared themselves ready to take in some of the migrants. So too has Romania, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, agreeing to take in five migrants. But both Italy and Malta have repeatedly refused port access to the rescue vessels and they stuck to that position Sunday despite the pope's intervention. Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini maintained his position on Monday. "I don't understand why ... if there are 49 people in Maltese waters on German and Dutch boats, it's still the problem of the Italians," he told journalists. Relations between Italy and Malta have been strained since Salvini's decision to close Italian ports to the migrants, accusing the groups who rescue them of running a migrant "taxi service". Frank Doerner, a doctor on board the Sea Watch, said on Sunday: "The situation here on board is getting more and more unstable." And because they were unable to land the migrants they had rescued, that prevented them from going back out to sea to rescue others risking the crossing. Billionaire Japanese tycoon and future space tourist Yusaku Maezawa said Monday his tweet promising a cash giveaway of nearly $10,000 was the most retweeted ever. The 43-year-old Maezawa posted a tweet on Saturday promising one million yen ($9,250) in cash each to 100 randomly selected followers who had retweeted it by Monday. The tweet -- now retweeted more than 4.3 million times -- is the most shared in history, according to the entrepreneur. "Hit the new world record. Surpassed Twitter's world record number of retweets (it was 3.55 million RTs before) and more people are still retweeting," wrote the high-profile Maezawa. The previous record-holder was an American teenager in 2017 trying to win a year's supply of chicken nuggets from fast food chain Wendy's, according to media. In October, Maezawa said he paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket around the moon as early as 2023. Maezawa will hitch a ride aboard Musk's Big Falcon Rocket, which SpaceX has acknowledged may not be ready for human flight for at least five years. Known as a passionate art collector, he also plans to take around half a dozen artists with him on the trip. Maezawa is chief executive of Japan's largest online fashion store and is the 18th richest person in Japan, with an estimated fortune of $2 billion, according to business magazine Forbes. Quona Capital is the international venture capital firm that focuses on fintech with a financial-inclusivity mission Indonesian Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, KoinWorks, just announced its latest Series A funding raised from the international fintech-focussed venture capital firm Quona Capital. KoinWorks made for Quona Capitals first fintech investment in Indonesia, inking the deal just after the startup reached a total of 100,000 investors. We are thrilled to collaborate with Quona as its mission is to back fintechs that truly works to make differences in society and to achieve inclusivity in finance, said Benedicto Haryono, CEO dan Co-Founder KoinWorks. Also Read: Southeast Asia-based VC ATM Capital makes first close of new US$200M fund Quona Capital and KoinWorks are forming a joint collaboration, sharing the same mission of championing technology as a means to improve the quality, access, and reach of financial services for those overlooked by traditional banks. So far, Quona Capital has backed financial inclusivity focussed startups in Latin America, Africa, the UK, and Asia. According to the 2017 Global Findex database, Indonesia accounts for 33 per cent of the underserved population in terms of financial services. As shared in the Wave 3 Report FII Tracker Survey conducted by InterMedia and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation only 26 per cent of Indonesians meet the global financial services standard. KoinWorks recent innovation includes a RoboLending feature that allows investors to fund companies without having to shadow and to choose which business they want to support. RoboLending does the work of deciding based on portfolio and investment returns. Also Read: Singapore IoT startup Overdrive raises US$2.9M Series A from Tin Men Capital Before this fresh funding, KoinWorks has been backed by Mandiri Capital Indonesia, Gunung Sewu, and Convergence Capital, all in 2018. Image Credit: KoinWorks The post Indonesias P2P lending platform KoinWorks secures Series A funding from Quona Capital appeared first on e27. Gabon foiled an attempted coup on Monday, capturing the rebel chief and killing two of his men after a group of soldiers stormed a radio station to call for an uprising while the country's ailing president was abroad. Renegade soldiers burst into RTG state radio broadcasting offices in the capital Libreville at dawn and urged the public to "rise up", in an appeal made as President Ali Bongo was in Morocco recovering from a stroke last year. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the elite Republican Guard, two of them carrying assault rifles, were visible on a video of the speech released on social media. But security forces stormed the building soon afterwards, capturing the commander, killing two of his men and freeing radio technicians who were held hostage and forced to help the mutineers make their broadcast, the presidency said. "The situation is under control," it said in a statement. Shots were heard earlier around the state broadcasting headquarters in the centre of capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT). Security forces were deployed across the city and will remain there over the coming days, a government spokesman said. The Republican Guard was stationed around the radio building, armoured vehicles blocked access to the area and a helicopter circled overhead, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people had earlier torched a car and set fire to tyres before security forces dispersed them with tear gas. But much of the city was deserted, with businesses closed and local and foreign companies telling their workers to stay home. The dramatic developments came as Bongo was staying at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the country since October. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attempted putsch and called on all political actors to follow the constitution. "The secretary general has always stood against unconstitutional changes of power, especially by force, and in that light, he condemns the attempted coup that took place this morning in Gabon," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The UN envoy for Central Africa, Francois Lounceny Fall, who is based in Libreville, was closely monitoring the situation and is ready to offer assistance if needed, the spokesman said. The African Union and former colonial power France also strongly condemned the attempted coup and warned against any "unconstitutional" change of power. - 'Democratic transition' - The rebel message was read on state radio by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, describing himself as deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces. He said a "national restoration council" would be formed "to guarantee a democratic transition". The movement "calls on all young people from forces for the defence and security and Gabonese young people to join us," the officer said. "The eagerly awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos. "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up... Rise up as one and take control of the street," he said, urging people to seize public buildings and airports. - 'A difficult period' - The 59-year-old Bongo has not been back to Gabon since he suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia on October 24. In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of his powers to the prime minister and the vice president. On December 31, Bongo addressed the country for the first time since falling ill, saying in a recorded speech from Morocco that he had "been through a difficult period." His critics seized on signs of apparent ill-health, noting that the address was unusually short, his speech was slurred and his right hand seemed stiff and immobile. The speech was "shameful," the officer said in Monday's address, describing Gabon as "country (which) has lost its dignity." The Bongo family has governed the equatorial African nation for five decades. Bongo took over from his father Omar, who took office in 1967 and gained the reputation of a kleptocrat -- one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune derived from Gabon's oil wealth. He was also a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a now much-contested strategy by which France bound itself to its former African colonies through cronyism, often tainted with corruption and rights abuses. Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009. He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. China says UN officials can visit Xinjiang as long as they avoid interfering in domestic matters UN officials are welcome to visit Xinjiang as long as they obey Chinese law and follow the procedures, China said on Monday as it seeks to counter a global outcry over its mass internment programme in the far western region. The comment from Chinas foreign ministry came after the government arranged tours for foreign journalists and non-Western diplomats to visit the internment camps over the past weeks the first since its mass detention of Muslim minorities drew criticism from United Nations human rights experts, foreign governments, activists and scholars. At a regular briefing, ministry spokesman Lu Kang said all parties, including UN officials, were welcome in Xinjiang provided they abide by Chinese law and comply with relevant procedures, according to a transcript on the ministry website. UN officials should also avoid interfering in domestic matters or undermining [Chinas] sovereignty and adopt an objective and neutral attitude, Lu said. Lus remarks followed a similar invitation by Shohrat Zakir, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, on Sunday. He said China welcomed UN experts to Xinjiang so they would know the real situation ... and their comments will be based on facts and ground realities, according to Pakistani newspaper The News International, which was part of last weeks foreign media tour. Last month, Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, said her office was seeking access to Xinjiang to verify worrying reports of the re-education camps. But China turned down a similar request by Germany in December, according to German Human Rights Commissioner Barbel Kofler. A UN rights panel in August said it had received credible reports that at least a million Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in the region were being held in such facilities. Story continues Detainees who have been released have told international media they were forced to denounce their faith and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party when they were in the camps. Some have also described being subjected to harsh treatment and even torture. China initially denied the existence of the camps, but later shifted to an aggressive propaganda drive to justify the facilities as vocational training centres that help to save people from religious extremism by teaching them Mandarin, legal codes and skills to find a job. Last week, a small group of foreign reporters were taken to visit three of the facilities in Xinjiang. A similar visit was also arranged for diplomats from 12 non-Western countries including Russia, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Kazakhstan. During the media trip, reporters were closely escorted at all times, and interviews with residents were all done under the watchful eye of government officials, according to Reuters, which joined the tour. In one class briefly visited by journalists there was even a performance in English of the song If youre happy and you know it, clap your hands, Reuters reported. Residents interviewed spoke of their mistakes of being infected with extremist thought all in similar language to that used by the trainees featured in a report on state broadcaster CCTV about the camps in October. Rights advocates said the staged visits would do little to convince Beijings critics. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said: Id describe Lu Kangs idea as a UN visit with Chinese party-state characteristics and therefore one that would be devoid of credibility. This article China says UN officials can visit Xinjiang as long as they avoid interfering in domestic matters first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Its that time of the year again: Catholics will flood the streets of Manila during the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene on Jan. 9. The religious celebration comes alongside several concerns: elections, the environment, security. For instance, the Commission on Elections appealed to candidates to spare devotees from their political messages. It is a testament to their lack of scruples that these politicians even need to be reminded not to turn a religious celebration into a campaigning event. And then we have fresh memories of the horrible garbage left by those who chose to celebrate Christmas and New Year at Luneta Park. After the revelry, several truckloads of trash were gathered, showing Filipinos penchant for merrymaking and spending quality time with family and friends, but also a bad habit of expecting other people to clean up after them. Terrorism is always a concern, especially since at least three countries recently issued travel warnings against the Philippines. Martial law in Mindanao has been extended precisely because of the continued threat of terrorismand we can easily imagine how such danger can easily cross over from any part of the archipelago to the capital.This year there is an added factor to considerthe Presidents unrelenting attacks on the Catholic Church and its leaders. On many occasions over the past two and a half years, President Rodrigo Duterte has not only criticized but slammed the Church for its excesses and inadequacies, and ridiculed some of its most cherished beliefs. These shocking pronouncements notwithstanding, Mr. Duterte remains popular among his predominantly Catholic constituency. This presents a conundrum: If Filipino Catholics were, indeed, fervently religious, why isnt there any outrage at all when their political leader insults their faith? Conversely, if the President were indeed popular, shouldnt his views on the Catholic faith disturb many and dampen their religious zeal? Then again, perhaps that is the essence of faith: Embracing a belief even when things go beyond logic and reason. As Black Nazarene devotees go out and wear their devotion on their maroon sleeves tomorrow, may there be respect for religion, for safety, for sensibilityand most of all for the freedom to choose where to cast our faith. An Australian senator faced criticism from across the political spectrum and possible censure Monday, after it emerged that he used taxpayer cash to fly business class to a far-right rally. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and opposition leader Bill Shorten both condemned Senator Fraser Anning's participation in the rally in the southern city of Melbourne on Saturday, a rare show of political unity. Morrison accused the independent politician -- who often votes with the prime minister's Liberal coalition government -- of "associating himself with extreme and offensive racist views." "He is a repeat offender on these issues," Morrison said. Anning once called for a "final solution" to Australian immigration. An anti-immigration rally at St Kilda Beach in Melbourne drew hundreds of demonstrators -- some of whom made Nazi salutes -- and counter-demonstrators. Anning initially defended the rally as the "start of something bigger," but was forced to later defend his attendance. Claiming he was 100 metres (yards) away from the neo-Nazi elements, Anning said he attended the rally -- on the other side of Australia -- in the interests of his constituents. He denied the rally was racist, telling the Nine Network that: "There were decent Australian people who demonstrated their dislike for what the Australian government has done which has allowed these people to come into this country." Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek called on Anning to pay back the cash. "I think the vast majority of Australians would be disgusted to think their taxes are paying for an Australian senator to attend an event which seeks to divide, not unite our country." Immigration is a hot button issue in Australia. Nearly half of the country's 25-million population was either born overseas or has at least one parent born abroad. Morrison's government has taken a hard line on immigration policy, defending the use of controversial offshore detention centres. He has come under pressure for not immediately denouncing Anning's attendance at the rally. "Genuine concerns held by fair minded Australians about immigration levels, border protection or law and order should not be used as a cover or be hijacked to push hateful and ugly racist agendas," Morrison said. "I'll always be prepared to call out extremism in all its forms." The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) of the Port of Cebu has recommended the issuance of Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) against a shipment containing four undeclared luxury vehicles. In an statement issued Saturday, January 5, the Port said the vehiclesa Range Rover Evoque, a Porsche 911, a Mercedes-Benz, and an Alfa Romeowere discovered on Friday after the container underwent 100-percent physical examination. The examination was based on the alert order issued by District Collector lawyer Elvira Cruz for possible misdeclaration. The shipment imported by Kylemelan General Merchandise with office address at Malabon City arrived at the Port of Cebu last 19 December 2018 under Bill of Lading No. 181206750071 declaring the same to contain only one piece car body for decoration, it said. Before undergoing physical examination, the shipment from Japan underwent x-ray inspection on Thursday, January 3. The scanning image of the shipment, however, exhibited that the same actually contained four completely-built up motor vehicles, the BOC Port of Cebu added. It noted that the discrepancy prompted the CIIS to request for the issuance of an alert order against the shipment for suspected act of misdeclaration under Section 1400 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA). The recommendation to issue a WSD against the whole shipment was for violation of Section 1400, in relation to Sections 1113 par. (f), (i) 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the CMTA. The post 4 Luxury Cars from Japan Smuggled into Cebu appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. Imported meat QUEZON CITY, Philippines Agricultural group, Samahang Industriya Ng Agrikultura (Sinag) revealed on Monday the entry of over 1 million kilos of Belgian pork into the country from October to November 2018. Sinag president Rosendo So said, their report is based on the documents they obtained from the Bureau of Customs. On September 17, 2018, the Department of Agriculture released a memorandum order prohibiting the importation of pork from Belgium due to the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the said country. Sinag expressed concern over the possible impact of the imported meat on the local swine industry in case the ASF virus reaches country. The Department of Agriculture on the other hand assured that there is nothing to worry about because importers of the frozen meat have followed the guidelines. Even though the imported pork meats arrived after the release of the import ban, their slaughter/process date was before August 25, 2018. In total, over 1.4 million kilos of Belgian pork meat have entered the country from October to November. Other than Belgium, it is also prohibited to import pork from China, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, South Africa, Czeck Republic, Moldovia, Zambia and Bulgaria. The Department of Agriculture has also ordered the placement of foot baths at international ports to disinfect passengers. UNTV News & Rescue The post 1M kilos Belgian pork entered PH despite import ban says agri group appeared first on UNTV News. petrol price comparison singapore All numbers are obtained from the respective fuel companys websites, through speaking with representatives or via social media posts. Getting a car in Singapore is a really complicated thing because of the hundred and one things to consider (mostly costs) that help you decide if you really need and can afford this car. If youre a driver (or planning to be one), you are going to want to read these: Whats next? We bring to you a full breakdown of fuel prices in Singapore, which are known to be notoriously higher than in most other countries. Source: Sinopec | Facebook Earlier in January 2019, SINOPEC entered the fuel sector here in Singapore and came with raging low prices. Today, it has (still just) two outlets islandwide in Yishun and Bukit Timah, with several comments on their social media asking for them to open more outlets other parts of Singapore. How do their fares compare against the rest? Latest Petrol Price Comparison in Singapore: Shell vs Esso vs Caltex vs SPC vs Sinopec SHELL ESSO CALTEX SPC SINOPEC 92-Octane N/A N/A S$2.21 S$2.21 N/A 95-Octane S$2.25 S$2.25 S$2.25 S$2.25 S$2.28 98-Octane S$2.65 S$2.62 S$2.66 S$2.59 S$2.65 Top Grade V-Power: S$2.75 N/A N/A N/A SINO Power: S$2.78 Diesel S$1.86 S$1.86 S$1.86 S$1.83 S$1.89 Credit Card Promotions HSBC, Citibank, UOB DBS, OCBC, Citibank OCBC, Standard Chartered, HSBC, AA POSB, DBS, UOB, AMEX OCBC Last Updated 5/8/19 1/9/19 2/8/19 7/6/19 19/2/19 How Are Petrol Prices Determined In Singapore? 1. Petrol Tax By The Government In Singapore, there is a fuel excise tax for motor petrol (92 and 95 Octane) and for premium motor petrol (98 Octane). But diesel vehicles arent spared either because LTA levies a special tax on such vehicles. In addition, the 7% GST also applies to all fuels. 2. Handling Costs Storage Transportation Marketing Operations Retailer profit margin The cost of the fuel itself is but one of many components of petrol, which is why we dont necessarily see a significant drop in petrol prices even when crude oil prices decrease. Story continues For your convenience, these are the best credit cards to use in Singapore when it comes to petrol perks and discounts! P.S. Youre welcome! Best Shell Petrol Credit Card Promotions Shell Logo Citibank Shell Credit Card Promo Up to 20.88% savings with Citibank Cash Back Credit Card Up to 14% savings with other Citibank Credit Cards HSBC Shell Credit Card Promo Up to 18.3% savings with HSBC Premier MasterCard Credit Card Up to 18.3% savings with HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card Up to 14% savings with other HSBC Credit Cards UOB Shell Credit Card Promo Up to 20.8% savings with UOB One Credit Card Up to 13.6% savings with other UOB Credit Cards Best Caltex Petrol Credit Card Promotions Caltex Logo OCBC Caltex Credit Card Promo 16% fuel discount on Platinum 98 14% fuel discount on other grades of petrol and diesel 18% fuel discount with NTUC/OCBC Plus! 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Which Credit Card Is The Best For Petrol? The post Ultimate Comparison Of Petrol Prices And Credit Card Promotions appeared first on Seedly - Get Rich Or Die Tryin' Supreme Court order list full of (state-friendly) criminal justice per curiams and notable cert denial with statements | Main | Calling her life sentence "too harsh," Tennessee Gov grants commutation to Cyntoia Brown to be paroled after serving 15 years for juve killing January 7, 2019 Purported SCOTUS originalists and liberals, showing yet again that they are faint-hearted, refuse to consider extending jury trial rights to restitution punishments I noted in this post the array of per curiam rulings and statements that the Supreme Court released today to get 2019 off to an interesting criminal justice start. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that one particular decision, namely the decision to deny certiorari in Hester v. US, has me revved up. Hester involves a claim that the Sixth Amendment jury trial right recognized in Apprendi, Blakely, Booker and Southern Union is applicable to cases in which findings are essential for the imposition of criminal restitution. Dissenting from the denial of cert in a this lovely little opinion, Justice Gorsuch explains why this is only logical and is consistent with an originalist approach to the Constitution: [T]he government argues that the Sixth Amendment doesnt apply to restitution orders because the amount of restitution is dictated only by the extent of the victims loss and thus has no statutory maximum. But the governments argument misunderstands the teaching of our cases. Weve used the term statutory maximum to refer to the harshest sentence the law allows a court to impose based on facts a jury has found or the defendant has admitted. Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 303 (2004). In that sense, the statutory maximum for restitution is usually zero, because a court cant award any restitution without finding additional facts about the victims loss. And just as a jury must find any facts necessary to authorize a steeper prison sentence or fine, it would seem to follow that a jury must find any facts necessary to support a (nonzero) restitution order. The government is not without a backup argument, but it appears to bear problems of its own. The government suggests that the Sixth Amendment doesnt apply to restitution orders because restitution isnt a criminal penalty, only a civil remedy that compensates victims for [their] economic losses. Brief in Opposition 8 (internal quotation marks omitted). But the Sixth Amendments jury trial right expressly applies [i]n all criminal prosecutions, and the government concedes that restitution is imposed as part of a defendants criminal conviction. Ibid. Federal statutes, too, describe restitution as a penalty imposed on the defendant as part of his criminal sentence, as do our cases. 18 U.S.C. 3663(a)(1)(A), 3663A(a)(1), 3572(d)(1); see Paroline v. United States, 572 U.S. 434, 456 (2014); Pasquantino v. United States, 544 U.S. 349, 365 (2005). Besides, if restitution really fell beyond the reach of the Sixth Amendments protections in criminal prosecutions, we would then have to consider the Seventh Amendment and its independent protection of the right to a jury trial in civil cases. If the governments arguments appear less than convincing, maybe its because theyre difficult to reconcile with the Constitutions original meaning. The Sixth Amendment was understood as preserving the historical role of the jury at common law. Southern Union, 567 U. S., at 353. And as long ago as the time of Henry VIII, an English statute entitling victims to the restitution of stolen goods allowed courts to order the return only of those goods mentioned in the indictment and found stolen by a jury. 1 J. Chitty, Criminal Law 817820 (2d ed. 1816); 1 M. Hale, Pleas of the Crown 545 (1736). In America, too, courts held that in prosecutions for larceny, the jury usually had to find the value of the stolen property before restitution to the victim could be ordered. See, e.g., Schoonover v. State, 17 Ohio St. 294 (1867); Jones v. State, 13 Ala. 153 (1848); State v. Somerville, 21 Me. 20 (1842); Commonwealth v. Smith, 1 Mass. 245 (1804). See also Barta, Guarding the Rights of the Accused and Accuser: The Jurys Role in Awarding Criminal Restitution Under the Sixth Amendment, 51 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 463, 472476 (2014). And its hard to see why the right to a jury trial should mean less to the people today than it did to those at the time of the Sixth and Seventh Amendments adoption. Students of the Apprendi-Blakely line of cases have long known that there were not very good arguments to preclude the application of jury trial rights to criminal restitution awards, and those arguments got even weaker when the Supreme Court ruled in Southern Union that the jury trial right also applied to findings needed to impose criminal fines. And notably, Southern Union was a 6-3 ruling with only the traditional Apprendi haters, Justices Alito, Breyer and Kennedy, in dissent. So why does the jury trial still mean less to the people today facing restitution punishments than it did to those at the time of the Sixth and Seventh Amendments adoption? The only answer I can provide is hinted in the title of post. Supposed SCOTUS originalists like Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh apparently do not want to here follow originalist principles to what would appear to be their logical conclusion. Supposed SCOTUS liberals like Justices Ginsburg and Kagan do not want to here protect a certain type of right of a certain type of criminal defendant. (Justice Sotomayor, who never shrinks from following constitutional rights wherever she thinks they must extend, joined Justice Gorsuch's dissent here). When push comes to shove or rather, when criminal defendants make a serious claim that a serious constitutional right should be given serious meaning still too many justices seem to become faint-hearted in the application of their purported principles and commitments. Drat. January 7, 2019 at 11:12 AM | Permalink Comments Do you think it is faint-heartedness or a sense that the Court has limited political capital and a lack of interest in spending it here? I suspect that the need or perceived need to protect the Court's reputation as an institution will keep it from getting involved in large questions of nearly any kind, including this one. Posted by: John | Jan 8, 2019 7:26:06 PM Really, John? This issue hardly seems "large," nor one likely to involve any real "political capital"? I agree there is a lack of interest, but I see that as evidence of disinterest in taking originalist or liberal principles to their logical ends. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 8, 2019 10:16:46 PM Restitution and fine are part of every state sentencing scheme I'm aware of. Likewise, I'm unaware of any that provide jury findings. So, yes, seems large. Posted by: John | Jan 9, 2019 10:08:02 AM Fair point, John, but many fines are "fixed" parts of sentence that goes automatically with the conviction. At issue is when an extra monetary sanction requires an extra finding to be imposed, and your comments provide an excellent reminder that we do not have a great accounting of just how often this is at issue and how often it is disputed so that a jury requirement could really make a big difference. But point taken and appreciated. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 9, 2019 10:38:48 AM I think restitution has been evolving from a probation condition to an independent judgment that is enforceable after the incarceration part of the sentence ends. When it was simply a probation condition in the discretion of the trial court, that seemed like more of a judicial function. The more that it becomes a right vested in the victim that the trial court must order, the more it seems like something that should be found by a jury (more properly under Seventh Amendment than Sixth Amendment). I fear that recognizing a right to a jury on this issue would add another significant layer of process on criminal case that will gum up the works for both victims and defendants to the benefit of only a tiny portion of individuals. Posted by: tmm | Jan 9, 2019 3:17:08 PM Restitution hearings in California are a joke: Contrast the due process afforded a defendant in civil litigation over a contract claim with a defendant in a restitution hearing associated with a criminal case: courts have held that a restitution hearing does not require the formalities of a trial. (People v. Hartley (1984) 163 Cal.App.3d 126, 130.) You still wear a suit, tie and penny loafers if you are a lawyer, and address the bench officer with your Your Honor, but the other formalities, like due process and stuff, are, shall we say, on the skinny side. Little Dewey, third cousin of due process, shuffles into restitution hearings sporting jeans and flipflops. From a distance there is a resemblance, but Like Snoopys brother from Needles, Dewey is a lot thinner. There is no right to a jury trial. (People v. Rivera (1989) 212 Cal.App.3d 1153, 1161.) Hearsay is admissible. (Pen. Code, 1203.1d(d).) The amount of loss may be established by a probation report. (People v. Cain (2000) 82 Cal.App.4th 81, 8788.) Cross examination of the author of a probation report is not required. (People v. Cain, supra, 82 Cal.App.4th at p. 8688.) The court can base a restitution award on the hearsay report, so long as the restitution order is ultimately the courts decision. (Ibid.; People v. Hartley, supra, 163 Cal.App.3d at p. 130; Pen. Code. 1203.1k.) And the defendant has the burden of proving the amount of restitution requested is excessive. (People v. Hartley, supra, 163 Cal.App.3d at p. 130.) Due process much? Posted by: Ken Hamilton | Aug 2, 2019 3:19:40 PM Post a comment "The Catholic faithful need some guidance." Have you ever experienced a sense of helplessness in your life when you realize you can no longer do what you normally do? I sent my driver to National Bookstore last week to buy typewriter ribbons. Yes I am a dinosaurI still use a manual typewriter. He came back and told me the ribbons were out of stock. They may no longer sell it because nobody is buying it. I panicked at the thought that I might have to write my column in longhand. I instructed my driver to go to every National Bookstore there was. I never learned to use a computer despite receiving a laptop some years back. I even hired some people to teach me, but they gave up because I could not seem to learn. I tried my best but it took me hours to finish my column. Its a mindset, I guess. But did you know that I was perhaps the happiest opinion writer during the Dark Ages of the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos? Recall that Metro Manila then had power outages that lasted between 10 and 12 hours. Brownouts notwithstanding, my column was always on time! My driver came back with half a dozen ribbons. I was relieved. But I cannot forget the feeling of helplessness when I was briefly confronted with the possibility of no longer using my manual typewriter. * * * With President Duterte continually ranting against the Catholic Church, its bishops and priestshe demonizes the practices of the Church and says he wants Church officials killedI keep wondering why the bishops choose to remain silent. They may consider it useless to debate with him so they just choose to pray for him. Still, there are members of the faithful who need the Churchs clarification on the Presidents statements against the doctrines and practices of the Church. For example, Mr. Duterte remarked that he could not understand the Trinity. But even the Church cannot understand itthats why it is called a mystery! Its all a matter of faith. Either you believe it or you dont. Thus, the Church should tell President Duterte that many things in the world cannot be understood by our finite intellectand yet we believe. The doubting Thomas told Christ that he would not believe he had risen unless he showed him his wound. Christ said: Blessed are they who have not seen, but believe. To me, thats faith.This is why the Church should clarify certain practices and doctrines of the Church. I am truly surprised. The President went to Ateneo de Davao and even finished law at San Beda College. Why was he not indoctrinated by these institutions? Why is he now ranting against the Church? * * * I was once asked why I thought the President continued to have very good acceptance and trust ratings. This, despite his rants against the Catholic Church. I could not give an answer. I do not know what questions were asked in the survey, and I am not familiar with the methodology of the Social Weather Stations. I know that the results of a survey can depend on these things. It is so difficult to know what the Filipino is thinking. We are so polite; we say Ok oreven when we feel otherwise. I also think that poll surveys that say how local and national candidates are faring before the elections should be outlawed. They just create a bandwagon mentality. * * * There are some national projects that we have have all been waiting for. They are critical to our development. One of them is the P750-billion aerotropolis to be built by San Miguel Corporations Ramon Ang. The project already got the nod of the National Economic and Development Authority. The state-of-the-art airport will be built on a 2,500-hectare flatland. It will have four runways, and a possible two more. Some 1 million jobs will be created. Ang was able to get its approval even without a government guarantee. This is something to watch out for. There is no doubt about its viability. Another project we can look forward to is the extension of San Miguels TPLex all the way to La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and possibly to Baguio. As an Ilocano myself, I am excited about this. * * * I am not surprised at all by the murder of a lawmaker who was running for mayor and the tagging of the supposed mastermind, the incumbent mayor. I covered the police beat in my early days as a journalist. I know for a fact that there are so many assets of policemen who know the crime underworld. Any policeman who has served long enough will always know the methods of committing a crime. Global markets plummeted this week on China slowdown worries, dragging industrial metals prices along and increasing future demand concerns, which has prompted analysts to question whether Beijing is doing enough to address the country's economic contraction. BMO analyst Colin Hamilton said in a note to investors Friday there were many questions in the metals market raised by the trend in China of positive fiscal spending statements, but weak consumer-led data points. One of the main questions, he wrote, is whether the Chinese government is doing whats needed to stop the downward trend. This really is the big question for the current year, and the jury is still out, Hamilton said. We anticipate the measures taken will start to yield results towards the end of the first quarter. One of the main questions is whether the Chinese government is doing enough to address the country's economic contraction. Beijing has adopted a series of fiscal and monetary stimulus measures since the summer, but a factory survey this week showed Chinas manufacturing sector contracting the latest in a string of data indicating that growth continues to slow down. The countrys central bank has announced it would inject $117 billion into the banking system by cutting the share of deposits that commercial banks must hold in reserve, in an effort to boost lending. Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, cautioned Thursday that more U.S. companies can be expected to lower earnings forecasts as the softer Chinese economy cuts into their sales. Related: Is Disney Becoming Inaccessible For Everyone But The Rich? Despite the gloom and doom, BMO Metals believes its highly unlikely for 2019 to become the year Chinas debt crisis comes home to roost and growth slumps. Risks are rising; however, we think the country still has enough wiggle room to avoid systemic risk, Hamilton noted. Battery Metals Some of the end-use areas in which the analyst expects better demand growth over 2019 are, in fact, those exposed to Chinese infrastructure. These include high-speed rails, UHV lines, electric vehicles charging stations, and, especially, packaging and machinery. In terms of the so-called battery metals, BMO warns that Chinas decision to lower many of its EVs subsidies for 2019 by about 30% compared to last year, is nothing but bad news for nickel, though it expects the impact on penetration rate forecasts to be limited. The BMO analyst concludes its report by noting that metals producers may surprise this year, as cash-rich miners have the potential to show better productivity at existing assets and lower like-for-like costs. By Mining.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com " " Espresso is undoubtedly Italian and is the base of many other coffee drinks that boast Italian names. skaman306/Getty Images If you can't start your morning without a cup of joe, you're not alone. American's consumption of coffee is up it's the highest it's been since 2012 and global exports are too. According to the International Coffee Organization, world coffee exports increased by 17 percent from October 2017 to October 2018, and overall global shipments were 4.2 percent higher year over year. Clearly coffee has become an important daily ritual for many Americans, which begs the question: Why are so many coffee lovers ordering those drinks in Italian? From lattes to macchiatos, Americans are rolling Italian words off their tongues. How did this happen? After all, coffee doesn't have roots in Italy. Legend has it that the great bean originated in the Ethiopian plateau and was discovered by Kaldi the goat herder. It spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent areas before Europeans encountered coffee in the 17th century. The Dutch are to thank for much of its global spread. Nevertheless, many of the coffee drinks we know today and popularized by Starbucks (more on that later) do originate in Italy, and it has everything to do with the invention of the espresso machine. Advertisement Espresso Base If you think espresso refers to a type of coffee bean, think again. It's actually a coffee preparation method, and it was first developed in Italy in the 19th century. Because brewed coffee could take up to five minutes to make, coffee lovers sought a way to shorten the time between ordering and drinking. The first espresso machines were bulky and difficult, but by the early 20th century, Milanese manufacturer Luigi Bezzera had developed a single-shot espresso that produced one cup of coffee in seconds. It took a while for the machines to improve in ease of use and flavor of the coffee produced. "The espresso machine kind of revolutionized coffee to some extent," says Paul Bassett, former World Barista Champion. With the espresso machine, coffee could be made on the spur of the moment and was intended to be drunk immediately after being served, typically standing at a bar. "Everything was centered around the way espresso was made, the way it was consumed as well." Italian coffee culture grew, and espresso as we know it today became popular in Italy and France in the 1930s, according to Mark Pendergrast, author of "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World." He writes that the 1950s beatnik movement and its coffeehouse culture launched an "espresso craze" in the U.S. "Early in the specialty coffee movement, authenticity meant Italian," explains Mike Ferguson with Olam Specialty Coffee. The trend continued. "In the 1980s, many if not most coffeehouses had Italian names and adopted as much Italian as possible into their cafe and menu." The coffee drinks they served also retained their Italian nomenclature because they were specifically made with espresso. The names refer to what is added to the espresso. For example, put the word "macchiato" into Google Translate, and you'll get "stained" or "spotted," so the drink name refers to the spot of milk that stains the espresso. "I think fundamentally, espresso is directly linked to Italy as a beverage and the way it's part of their culture," Bassett says. "It's been transported all around the world and reinterpreted." Advertisement It's All in a Name Despite reinterpretation, the drinks with Italian names have an espresso base and typically some type of milk added. For example, a caffe latte usually just a latte in the United States consists of espresso, milk and foam. Although caffe latte literally translates to "milk coffee," it is not brewed coffee with milk, and ordering an espresso with milk and milk foam doesn't sound as catchy. The distinction between espresso and brewed coffee is important. Consider the Americano, which was named for Americans in Italy who sought a drink similar to the brewed or filtered coffee they drank at home. Because it emerged in Italy and is made by adding water to espresso, it retains its Italian title. This answers the question about coffee drink names, but what about Starbucks' use of sizes like grande and venti, which are also Italian words? "Short, Tall and Grande sizes were introduced when Il Giornale opened its doors in 1986, followed by Venti hot cup size in the early 1990s," a Starbucks representative said via email. Il Giornale was the name of the coffeehouses launched by Starbucks Chairman Emeritus Howard Schultz during his mid-80s hiatus from the company. The company's website states that Schultz had been "captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience," a tradition he wanted to bring to the United States. He returned to Starbucks and purchased the company in 1987. The Italophilia continued when the company named its blended beverage Frappuccino, which is a trademarked name and not actually an Italian word. If you feel you simply must avoid a coffee with an Italian name, tomorrow morning try ordering a flat white. It's an Australian espresso drink with milk, minus the foam. But in general, if you don't like using Italian terms, you might also consider calling your spaghetti "noodles." Now That's Interesting Caffeine (an ingredient in coffee) is considered the most commonly used drug in the world. Low to moderate doses is generally safe, though some clinical studies show that some caffeine users become dependent on it. Its a new year, but Im focused on the same principles and priorities that have always guided me during my service to the people of South Dakota: working hard, fighting for what matters, listening to my top advisers you, the people of South Dakota and never, ever forgetting where I come from. Because if theres one thing Im committed to doing, its giving the issues that matter to our state and its people the national attention they deserve. With the new year comes a new Congress one that looks a little different than its predecessor. Democrats now control the majority in the House of Representatives, and while partisan differences are often laid bare throughout the 24-hour news cycle, a divided Congress doesnt have to mean gridlock. Just the opposite, actually. There are plenty of areas where we can find common ground and do the work the American people expect from their elected leaders. If you look back at other periods of divided government over the last 20 or 30 years, Republicans and Democrats have been able to achieve big things together. For example, the 1986 Reagan tax reform, 1996 welfare reform, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, 2012 legislation to help working families by making the Bush tax cuts permanent, and a major reform of the VA in 2014 all occurred during divided governments. These are consequential issues that required compromise and hard work. Sen. Richard Marcellais, a Democrat from Belcourt and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, has four times unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to display the flags at the Capitol. Marcellais said he was surprised and grateful for Burgum's action, but he also will probably introduce legislation this session so the flags are permanently displayed. North Dakota's American Indian tribes are the Standing Rock Sioux, Spirit Lake Sioux, Three Affiliated Tribes, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. BILLS, BILLS, BILLS Legislative Council Director John Bjornson says his staff has drafted about 850 bills for lawmakers, many of which are expected to be filed in the coming days. That's down about 200 from the same time two years ago. Every bill that's introduced gets a hearing. Lawmakers passed just more than 400 bills last session. SESSION CALENDAR A Rapid City middle school was briefly evacuated Monday afternoon after a microwave malfunctioned and set off a fire alarm. Rapid City Fire Department Lt. Jim Bussell said the fire department received a call at 12:08 p.m. about a fire alarm going off at South Middle School; soon after, fire officials on scene reported a "light haze" inside the building. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Once on scene, firefighters determined a malfunctioning microwave was the cause of the smoke. Students were evacuated and outside for about 20 minutes, according to Bussell. Rapid City Area Schools Community Relations Manager Katy Urban said at 12:48 p.m. that students were back in class. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Having a dozen meals provided during Christmas break benefits kids minds as well as their bodies. Covel said his sister, an elementary-school teacher in Sturgis, observed in her class that when children who arent eating well return from Christmas break, they struggle to learn. They require two or three weeks of consistent meals to help them get back in the habit of learning, he said. Its been such a blessing for our families, particularly our single moms who are already struggling and need to be able to take advantage of every possible resource to keep their heads above water, said Ginger Johnson, social worker for the Meade School District. She helps select families who receive meal coupons. Often the families who get them have faced issues such as job loss, serious illness or other upheaval. Families say, This was just like an extra blessing to our family this year. I really try hard to make sure coupons are going to families in need of them, and they really do appreciate that other people are going out of their way to give them a little boost, Johnson said. By comparison, a search for the phrase knee replacement in the new price-list spreadsheet published by Regional Health returns no results. A search for only the word knee returns several confusing results, including a procedure listed as HC APPL MLTLAYR COMPRES LEG BELOW KNEE W/ANKLE FOOT. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Gil Johnson, vice president for business development at the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations in Sioux Falls, explained a key difference between the newly published spreadsheets and the PricePoint website. He said the spreadsheets are exhaustive lists of line-item charges such as blood draws, X-rays and room rates (one hospital's spreadsheet even lists nail-trimming), all of which might be included in the billing for an inpatient procedure such as a knee replacement. To calculate the total charge for a knee replacement using the new spreadsheets, a consumer might have to find and add up all of the applicable line-item charges. The PricePoint website makes it easier by reporting one overall charge. The plot thickens. Islamic State movement-inspired terrorists prey on soft targets like the bombing of a shopping mall in the advent of the New Year in Cotabato City. On the other hand, the communist New Peoples Army is set to intensify its attacks against the Armed Forces of the Philippines with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the government. Ousting President Duterte is the overarching priority of the communists this year, based on the assertions of self-exiled Jose Ma. Sison. So, while the ISIS followers, particularly the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Maute Group, target defenseless innocent civilians, the CPP-NPA have a bigger ambitionto eliminate the President. The Sison-inspired plot against Manong Digong is based on the premise that the President, who continues to be as popular as ever and serves as the nations unifying force, needs to be exterminated if the moribund communist movement hopes to survive at all. The communist umbrella organization, National Democratic Front, is tasked to oust President Duterte this year, Sison announced Thursday.Isnt it terrifying just imagining whom Sison wants to replace Manong Digong with? Whichever way the terrorists desperately wish to achieve their goal of wresting power from the government, the people stand to suffer in the process. There is not a tinge of difference between the rabid ISIS fanatics and Sisons communist followers. Their tactics may vary a little bit but both have little respect for the innocent human life and Filipinos aspirations for better life. Im not going to lose any sleep over any plot to exterminate the President, though. Its simply unfathomable. Such thought is a product of hallucination. The people are certainly not going to allow that to happen! When my oldest son was seven and in second grade, we were living in Kansas. Some time after the school year started, he began licking his hands. He soon was doing so all day, every day. His teacher wanted it to stop. So did his dad, my husband. I was a young homemaker, financially dependent on my husband, and I was feeling enormously pressured by both of these people. I also felt they both had real careers and didn't genuinely respect me. They both felt it was my job and mine alone to somehow make my son stop licking his hands entirely. I caved to the pressure. I tried telling my child to stop. I tried spanking him. I tried putting unpleasant spices on his hands to deter him. I tried grilling him about why he was doing this so I could find some solution. He couldn't explain it and the terror in his eyes was disturbing. None of it made any difference whatsoever. He continued to lick his hands all day, every day. He just tried to hide it a little better. Meanwhile, our relationship grew more acrimonious. He clearly no longer trusted me and this was beginning to poison all our interactions. Finally, I had this moment where I felt that my efforts to ramp up the pressure to force him to stop had crossed some line. I felt I was turning into an abusive parent. At that moment, I decided this had to stop. I didn't care if he licked his hands the rest of his life. It couldn't be worse than this. So I dropped the matter. I did so completely and totally. I said not one word thereafter. I didn't so much as sigh or roll my eyes. My moratorium on the topic was very thorough. It included all possible forms of communication. It was his body. He could lick his hands if he wanted to. This was in line with longstanding policy on my part. Coincidentally, the next few months were extremely busy. We were moving to another state and my sister had a new baby. My husband was career military and he had orders for a new duty station. I talked to the school and asked what day was the earliest day we could pull our son out of school and have it count as him graduating from second grade so I wouldn't have to put him in a new school in another state the last few weeks of the school year. My husband arranged to take some leave so we could make that work. My son got an extra long summer out of it by about a month. My sister's newborn baby had arrived a few weeks early. I had offered to take care of the baby for a month so her preemie didn't have to go to daycare with strangers while she finished out her work obligation after her maternity leave ran out. So we moved from Kansas to Washington state around the beginning of May and then in July I flew to Georgia with my two sons to take care of my infant niece for a month. Then we flew back to Washington in time for both boys to start school. My youngest was starting kindergarten that year. With so much happening in such a short period of time, I forgot all about the hand licking. Besides, it seemed to have largely stopped on its own. About a year after I decided to shut up completely and totally about the hand licking, my oldest began licking his hands in front of me one cold, blustery day as we walked to school. Out of curiosity, I quietly asked him "Why do you do that?" The same child who could not give me a useful answer when I was grilling him to try to figure out how to make him stop answered very simply with "My hands get dry." That answer was given to me because he trusted me again. He knew I didn't have an agenda. I wasn't collecting intel on him in order to screw with his life and force him to be what adults wanted him to be. It was just a conversation with his mom who loved him and would never intentionally do anything to harm him in any way. With hearing those words from him, a great many things fell into place in my mind. Winter in Kansas and winter in Washington are both cases of cold, harsh weather that's hard on the skin, doubly so if you are a small child with health issues, as he was. The saliva was digesting the oils on his skin and leaving his hands wet in windy weather, which was just making his problem worse. The moisture in his hands was being insidiously wicked away. The more he licked his hands, the more he needed to lick his hands. It was the worst possible solution, one that made his problem worse while seeming to make it better. This was the crux of the issue. He felt we were interfering with his solution to his problem, not helping him. He was too young to understand the cause and effect relationship, and the way the adults around him had handled it just ensured that he would never come to us to ask for help with his real problem. So I explained to him that licking his hands was just making it worse and then I listed out some easy solutions that would actually help. I told him he could stuff his hands into his pockets, he could wear mittens and/or he could use lotion. After that, if I saw him lick his hands, I was helpful. Unlike when I had been scolding him, he was happy to get this new feedback and completely cooperative. If we were at home, I offered to get him his mittens or some lotion. If we were out walking, I reminded him that he could put his mittens on or stuff his hands in his pockets. After just two weeks, with no drama and no acrimony, he had established new and more effective habits that actually resolved his problem with his hands getting dry in the harsh winter weather. The hand licking never returned. The hand licking incident strongly reinforced my commitment to just stop and not do things that I knew didn't work. It made me more committed to not "put out the fire with gasoline," even in the face of social pressure to the contrary. Imagine you see some small fire in your house. Say, a match was dropped on the carpet or a small candle was knocked over. You just happen to be carrying something flammable, like an alcoholic beverage. You are surrounded by panicked people screaming at you to douse it with your drink before the house burns down. It's small and manageable and could still be safely put out. Unless you cave to social pressure and dump your beverage on it, thereby adding fuel to the fire. Afterwards, you vow to yourself: Never again! The hand licking incident brought it home to me in a big way that, yea, verily, it's better to stand there dumbly and just watch it burn while trying to think of something better to do, even though that is extraordinarily stressful and can feel like the worst possible solution. When there is a crisis, it often feels like you should do Something! Anything! Maybe. But sometimes you should do Anything -- except that. Anything but that. So it reinforced my resolve to stand my ground when adults around me were haranguing me to do things I knew would not work and would, in fact, be counterproductive. Once I returned to that place where my child fundamentally trusted me because I had no agenda to control him or his behavior, the problem was very easily solved. It had only been a big problem to begin with because other adults decided arbitrarily that hand licking was Bad Behavior and that this Bad Behavior Absolutely Must Stop At Any Cost. A few years later, I told this story to my sister. She noted that her daughter, the infant niece I had taken care of the year this all happened, had recently started licking her hands. She was glad to know what the answer had been for us. I never heard her mention her daughter licking her hands again. Presumably, it never became a big deal because her mother had good information to work with. Thorny problems are only intractable as long as you don't know the solution. Investing energy into fighting with someone because no one knows the solution is just an exercise in undermining trust. It only makes it harder to solve. Trust is earned. You don't get it by standing on authority. You absolutely don't get it by bullying a child. In fact, that very much undermines it. I had caved to pressure because I felt threatened. I felt like if I didn't comply, then outside forces might interfere with my parental rights. It might result in worse things happening to my relationship to my child than him being mad at me about this one thing. So I tried to comply with this expectation that my child needed to stop and I needed to be the one to make that happen. And it was the wrong thing to do. It just turned some small thing into a really big issue that could have gone even worse places had I not decided to reverse gears and reinstate my previous policies. When the chips are down, that's when you most need your child's trust. Undermining their trust only comes back to bite you. It just turns minor problems into major ones and major ones into ruinous disasters. The hand licking incident is the only exception I can recall to my policy to parent in a manner that earned the trust of my children. Fortunately, I was able to undo the damage and win my son's trust back by returning to the set of deeply respectful principles that had long driven my parenting choices. HN Discussion The Turks have been trying to sell the notion that they can combat the Islamic State for more than two years. U.S. military commanders who investigated Ankara's proposals starting in 2016 began describing the force that would supposedly clear Raqqa and other jihadist strongholds as a "ghost brigade." The posturing continues: Last week Turkish-backed Syrians moved heavy weapons across the border toward Manbij, to signal their readiness. But Turkish military resources are so threadbare that they've asked the U.S. to provide overhead surveillance, logistical support and air cover for any operation to finish off the Islamic State in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, officials say. The U.S. has so far refused such requests. The most dangerous consequence of Trump's Turkish solution is that it could re-ignite the Islamic State. The problem starts with about 780 foreign fighters who are now being held by the SDF in a half-dozen prisons in northeast Syria. The SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, told me bluntly in an interview 10 days ago that he wouldn't be able to hold the prisoners if Turkish forces invaded the areas he controls. The good news is our economy is growing. I still hear optimism from business and industry as I travel the state. Theyre projecting growth. They just need workforce. We know that, said Reynolds, who in November was elected to her first, full, four-year term. Reynolds hopes to deliver more funding for the Future Ready Iowa program and its stated goal of ensuring 70 percent of Iowas workforce by 2025 has post-high school education or job training. That figure is currently about 58 percent, state officials say. Previous Gov. Terry Branstad established the program, Reynolds has continued to support it and it has strong bipartisan support in the legislature. A bill that established apprenticeship, mentor and intern programs unanimously passed both chambers in 2018. The next step, Reynolds and legislators say, is more funding so it can reach more people. We have the foundation of what we need to do. Now we need to put the funding in it to start to implement it, Reynolds said. Its going to continue to help us grow our economy at the capacity that I believe that we can. This is a wonderful opportunity for Iowans to help them get the skills and then to match them up with the jobs. BThe weekend of Aug. 4, 2018, brought a stunning surge in gun violence to Chicago that would have been a year-defining tragedy for most cities: 75 people shot, 13 of them fatally. Bullets flew from Friday night to Monday morning in different neighborhoods: a drive-by in West Humboldt Park; a shooting at a Lawndale block party; shots fired at people who had attended a funeral repast in Gresham. A tally of 75 people hit by gunfire in 2 days isnt a crime statistic, its a catastrophe. Yet for Chicago, bloody mayhem is also predictable to the point of numbing. Hot-weather weekends on the West and South sides are known danger zones, but gunfire is a year-round source of fear and anguish. Wounded and killed, wounded and killed. The shooting never stops for long in Chicago. The dawn of each year brings a semblance of statistical order to the chaos. For the year 2018, the Chicago Police Department reports there were 561 homicides and 2,948 people shot. Both results constitute a welcome improvement from the previous year a decline of about 15 percent in killings and shootings from 2017. The year 2016 had been still more violent, the worst in two decades. A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal contrasted the double-digit population growth in Florida and Texas over the past decade with the bottom-of-the-rung decline of almost 1 percent in Illinois. Can Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker reverse the population outflow and relative economic decline of our state, and how? First, some context. The Illinois economy has been declining relative to the nation since shortly after World War II, and the net out-migration of our population, especially of whites, has been going on almost as long. In 1950, the Illinois per capita income stood at 130 percent of the national average (100 percent). Since then, our state has seen a slow but steady decline, to about 104 percent. We are still above average, but just a bit. Years ago, I reviewed our states demographic mix and found that from 1970 to 2000, our state saw a net out-migration (more people leaving than coming in, net) of two million whites, many to the sunny climes, job opportunities and low taxes of the South and Southwest. This net outflow has continued, Im confident. Until recently, the outflow of our residents has been masked by a natural increase of births over deaths and a net inflow of African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans. Today is Monday, Jan. 7, the 7th day of 2019. There are 358 days left in the year. 1919 100 years ago: East Moline will fight for abolition of the state utilities law and commission to the bitter end, and no effort will be spared to thwart the proposed plan of the Tri-City Railway company to increase the fare to seven cents, so the city council decreed at its regular meeting last evening. The council unanimously voted to unite the city of East Moline with hundreds of other municipalities in the state in the coming contest for home rule of utilities. Decisive action was taken when the council without a dissenting voice voted to join the Home Rule municipal league. 1944 75 years ago: It was plenty rugged, was the way Nick Angelos, private first class of the Marine Corps, described the Tarawa battle. He is visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Angelos, 1518 11th avenue, East Moline, for the first time since his enlistment in the marine corps in January, 1942. Private Angelos was in the first assault wave on Tarawa. The island was well fortified because the Japs knew we were coming, he said. The Royal Imperial marines, the best they had, took part in that fight and those Japs were all big guys, many of them six feet tall. Griffins been in the police business 14 years; its a job he pursued after being inspired by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He is tremendous in his role as detective, but also shines brightly in trying to keep the public and the media informed about Moline Police Department happenings and investigations. For years, Griffin has wondered and worried what it would be like to be eating a doughnut while leaving a shop in Moline, in a marked Moline Police squad, and having someone take a photo of him. First of all, I like doughnuts, he said, sitting inside Molines Donut Delite. But my luck, that picture would blow up. A marked squad leaving Donut Delite (on Avenue of the Cities) or Donuts and More (on 16th Street) with me taking a big bite of a doughnut. Everyone would have a blast with it, and thats OK. Griffin said hes also OK with citizens giving him a hard time or having fun with the cops-love-doughnuts routine. Its interaction with the people we serve, and I love that, he said. Thing is, its one of the few lighthearted moments you have with people. When someone calls the police or is in need of our help, its usually not the best situation. We see people at the worst times, and and we see things many times that are tough to see. CAMBRIDGE The Illinois Attorney Generals office has ruled Cambridge village officials violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in May by failing to retain a copy of a recording. On May 29, 2018, Kevin Clark submitted a FOIA request seeking a copy of surveillance camera video and private audio from a 90-minute period in Cambridge. Clark was told he had to pay $5 for a flash drive to enable the village to provide the requested information. When Clark reviewed the flash drive, he learned it did not include the audio recording from the surveillance system. While there is no action that the village can take to remedy its failure to preserve the recording, this office urges the village to ensure that all records responsive to future FOIA requests, including recordings from its surveillance system, are properly preserved, the attorney generals ruling states. According to the attorney generals office, Virginia Reed the Cambridge village administrative assistant and FOIA officer said an outside contractor told the village information on the surveillance system likely was overwritten by a subsequent recording. She also told the attorney generals office Cambridge did not have a copy of the recording. The flag at the Charlotte station also flew at half staff, and a memorial to Hosette was on display outside the fire department, which also serves as city hall for the town of about 400. In the driveway of the small station, Hosettes fellow firefighters set up a memorial, displaying his turnout gear in front of a fire truck, which was draped in black. A firefighter in Clinton for 12 years, Hosette leaves behind his wife, Kelly, and young daughter, Addy. Inside, the scene was similar to that in Clinton. Crockpots and pizza boxes filled the small kitchen, and his fire department family gathered in a meeting room. One volunteer firefighter, who said he has been with the Charlotte department for 40 years, spoke through tears of Hosette, but he asked that he not be identified by name. Only two names should be mentioned right now, and mines not one of them, he said. The veteran volunteer said Hosette followed his maternal grandfather into the local fire service. He said Hosette grew up in nearby Camanche, and his grandfather, Richard Dick Grimm, served as chief in Charlotte for 35 years. "Legal eagles strongly suspect something is amiss." What do we have here? Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission Commissioner Greco Belgica must be trying to send a strong message to the Office of the Ombudsmanthe governments anti-graft bodythat he can use his clout even without the latters imprimatur. His latest move was an entrapment operation against two ranking Bureau of Internal Revenue officials based in Manila whom he accused of extortion/direct bribery. Belgica claims that a taxpayer who refused to be identified told him that the BIR officials were asking for a P2-million bribe for settlement of the taxpayers tax liabilities. Malacanang Executive Order No. 43 which established PACC in 2017 defined the agencys jurisdiction and exercise of its powers upon complaint or motu proprio, and concurrently with the Office of the Ombudsman. The Belgica-initiated operation left out the participation of the governments anti-graft court. Operatives from the Camp Crame-based Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were tapped to carry out the entrapment, after which the two suspects were booked and hauled for inquest at the City Prosecutors Office of Manila. Legal eagles are likely to suspect something much amiss here since Belgica failed to follow PACC-prescribed rules. Among these is that respondents to a verified complaint should be provided formal summons, a copy of the complaint and attached supporting documents, and that a legitimate complainant must be identified rather than hidden under the cloak of anonymity. Belgica claims the complainant refused to be identified. The PACCs formal summons also asks the respondent to answer the complaint within seven days and file six hard copies of the answer plus additional copies to the complainant/s and co-respondents. Such rule of procedure would disallow a complainant to remain incognito. But Belgica went full steam ahead, thus the Manila City Prosecutors Office during inquest of the suspects virtually castigated the PACC commissioner for his lapses in legally prescribed procedure, citing that: a) Belgica failed to swear and subscribe before an authorized administering officer his complaint which is part of the record; b) Witnesses also failed to execute sworn statements that they indeed participated in the entrapment operation; andc) The arresting officers.. themselves did not actually see how the direct bribery was consummated. The City Prosecutors Office also noted that there is no sufficient evidence to substantiate that an agreement between the taxpayer and the two suspects had to perform an act in connection with the performance of their official duties in consideration of a gift of money.Senator Cynthia Villar has chided Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol for claiming that the National Food Authority will not be able to sell cheap rice to the public under the Rice Tariffication Bill, which has been passed by both chambers of Congress. Senate Bill No. 1998 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996 and replace the quantitative restriction on rice imports. The bill is among the measures pushed by the economic managers of the Duterte administration to address high rice prices. Villar, the principal author of the Senate bill, told Pinol that the NFA is not allowed anymore to import rice under the new law but only to buy from local farmers. She pointed out that the lifting of the QR would also remove all unnecessary intervention of the government in the rice market. Villar, chair of the committee on food and agriculture, also informed Pinol that the NFA would not be abolished with the implementation of the law. She said that only the regulatory and importation functions of the NFA will be removed, with the agency focusing on buffer-stocking with its inventory acquired from domestic farmers. According to the senator, the budget for the NFA should be pegged at around P7 billion, strictly for the maintenance of a buffer stock to stabilize the rice supply and allow it to sell subsidized rice to the poor and to release emergency supplies during periods of calamity. Contrary to misconceptions, she said, the bill includes a package of support programs that will help farmers adjust to competition under a tariffied regime. The proceeds from the tariff will be given to the farmers in the amount of P10 billion a year for the next six years to make them competitive through mechanization, better seed production, cheaper credit from state-run banks, and various extension services, including teaching them skills on modern rice farming techniques. For his part, Senator Joel Villanueva, a co-author of the bill, said it could curb rice smuggling, a long-standing problem in this country. Under the act, Filipino farmers will have a fighting chance against farmers from neighboring ASEAN countries as cheaper rice will start flooding the market. Earlier, President Duterte said that even with rice tariffication and liberalization of the rice industry, the NFA shall continue to provide the public, particularly the less fortunate, with rice that is affordable and safe. WEST DES MOINES Hy-Vee, Inc., is voluntarily recalling 32 brands of cheesecakes made with Diamond Crystal Brands cheesecake mix due to the potential that they may be contaminated with salmonella. The voluntary recall includes 8- and 32-ounce packages with best if used by dates of Dec. 6, 2018, through Jan. 11, 2019. No illnesses have been reported to date. The mixture was distributed to 117 of Hy-Vees 249 grocery stores across its eight-state region of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The product comes in a plastic container with a plastic lid. Consumers may contact Hy-Vee Customer Care representatives at 1-800-772-4098. I Hate My Furnace contest ends Feb. 1 DAVENPORT Northwest Plumbing, Heating & AC is hosting its annual I Hate My Furnace Contest through Feb. 1. The contest provides homeowners of Scott and Rock Island counties the opportunity to win a new, highefficiency furnace and installation valued at $3,600. Contest entrants must submit a short story of why they hate their furnace. 20 hours ago | June 14th | 2021 7:00 AM Why Your Retirement Calculator Might Not Tell the Whole Story I got to thinking about the retirement calculators that automatically pop up when I check my retirement account balances. In my case, I always get a message that says, "You are XX% on track toward your retirement goals." When you check out an online calculator, you can use them, but remember that a retirement calculator could miss the boat ARLINGTON, Vt. An Arlington man was shot and wounded by police early Monday after he fired multiple times at state troopers, Vermont State Police said. Matt Novick was undergoing treatment at an Albany, New York, hospital for multiple gunshot wounds, police said. His condition was unknown. State police received a 911 call at 3:50 a.m. from a relative of Novick who lives near him, saying Novick was having a mental health crisis. When two troopers arrived, they said Novick was in the doorway carrying what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle. Troopers parked in the road and other police were called in to help. A preliminary investigation shows Novick walked down the driveway and fired in their direction, state police said. Troopers fired back and Novick was hit multiple times, police said. He was taken by ambulance to the Southwestern Medical Center in Bennington and then flown by helicopter to Albany Medical Center, where he underwent surgery, police said. Bullet holes were found in the state police cruiser, police said. No other injuries were reported. HAMPTON A Vermont man was charged with four felonies Saturday night after he was pulled over on Route 22A and found to have two loaded handguns and an illegal knife while driving drunk, according to State Police. Steven R. Sady, 32, of Poultney, was arrested after he was stopped for speeding around 8:20 p.m., officials said. Troopers determined he was intoxicated and that he had a prior DWI conviction that elevated the driving while intoxicated charges to felonies, State Police records show. When police searched Sady and the vehicle, they located two loaded handguns, for which he did not have New York state permits, and an illegal switchblade knife, police said. He was charged with two felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon as well as felony DWI. He was arraigned and released on his own recognizance Sunday. Trooper Shane Larkin made the arrest. Love 4 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 3 Lakes to Locks Passage will be giving the Champlain Canal some artistic exposure with the help of a $49,500 grant from the states Regional Economic Development Council. The canal runs 64 miles between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, and the grant awarded by the state Council on the Arts will feature its unique culture and heritage, especially in Washington and Saratoga counties. Lakes to Locks Passage will feature those things through a multimedia project tied to the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal system, according to a news release. The project has three components, including creation of a downloadable audio tour of the Champlain Canal region, an exhibit at the Champlain Canal Visitor Center in Schuylerville and an online art gallery featuring historical and contemporary depictions of the canal. The exhibit will provide an immersive experience on the canals heritage, while also encouraging visitors to check out the canal by boat, bike or by foot. The three ideas sprang from a series of meetings in the spring of 2018 with Lakes to Locks Passage and Champlain Canal community members, according to a news release. Through these sessions we discovered compelling stories and heritage, as well as unique museum and art collections that illustrate how the Champlain Canal allowed people to travel great distances, spread ideas, and spur the growth of our communities, Lakes to Locks passage wrote. This is all largely unknown to the general public. Today, many boaters consider the Champlain Canal the most scenic and interesting landscape of the entire NYS (New York State) Canal system, but it lacks brand distinctiveness from the Erie Canal. It is now time to change that by telling the story of the canal that connects the Hudson River at Waterford to the southern end of Lake Champlain at Whitehall. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 At least three police intelligence officers were sacked for allegedly leaking the results of their discreet profiling on members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said Monday. Albayalde declined to identify the three spy cops but said they were from Manilas Station 3, Quezon Citys Station 6 and a station in Zambales, with ranks of senior inspector to chief inspector. Albayalde also ordered an investigation on the leak of confidential information. The PNP chief said he signed no order to investigate ACT, but said if such an order were issued, the intelligence officers should have done their job more discreetly. ACT, in a statement, said police officers have been approaching officials of local schools and asking for a list of ACT members in their schools. The Commission on Human Rights, for its part, expressed concern over the profiling, saying it violated ACT members rights to privacy and to free association. In a statement, Albayalde said there was no crackdown on ACT members in any school. What the PNP is undertaking is simply intelligence or information gathering, which is one of its major functions, he said. It is the responsibility of the PNP to monitor any and all groups and organizations critical of the government, especially those linked to militant organizations whose objective is to overthrow the duly-elected government. He said Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison himself had identified organizations with links to the rebels. This did not come from us or even from the militarythis was the pronouncement of Joma Sison. an. He identified these organizations, not us, he added. The Palace said Monday members of ACT should have nothing to fear if they are not doing anything illegal.Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo maintained that the PNP has already dismissed the claims that the agency has called for an inventory of all public and private school teachers who are affiliated with the ACT. First, the PNP has already denied that. Maybe the teachers being profiled or monitored are teachers who the PNP have suspected of doing something illegal, said Panelo in a Palace press briefing. If youre not doing anything, why should you be afraid? Whats the problem? If youre not doing anything, nothing will happen, he added. Panelo, however, said ACT has long been identified with the communists. If you remember, ACT is a legal organization identified with the left. And the PNP and the President have also mentioned that they have legal fronts, he said. He said the government has no policy of keeping teachers under surveillance. Definitely the policy is not to surveil teachers. The President loves them. He even promised to double their salaries. If Im not mistaken, Secretary [Benjamin] Diokno said the salary hike may be released from two or three months from now, Panelo said. But if teachers do something illegal, then it is natural for the police to monitor what they are doing, he said. For example, if somebody reported a teacher seen coordinating with identified New Peoples Army or suspected NPA, if you were a policeman, wouldnt you monitor what theyre doing? he said. Also on Monday, Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao on Monday denounced police attempts to access information pertaining to ACT members. Educators whether members of ACT or not should express condemnation on the attempt of the police to have access to information of teachers union membership. Theres no justification on the part of the police to do such profiling, our educators are not criminals, Casilao said. The Washington County District Attorneys Office, though, has asked McKeighan to not allow the defense, arguing that the notice required to pursue it was not filed within the time frame dictated by state law. Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan said the law requires the notice of such a defense to be filed within 30 days of arraignment, to allow time for both the defense and prosecution to have mental health examinations done. Trial in the case has been set for Feb. 20, with Sawyer being held in Washington County Jail, pending further court action. They filed the notice and we have opposed it, Jordan said. There are some logistical issues if they are going to try to use that defense at this point. Zuckerman said the formal notice was delayed as the family got funding to pay for a psychological exam, and the expert who was retained was then out of the country for a month, so the exam could not take place until last week. He said the defense had publicly voiced its intent to pursue the EED defense from the day Sawyer was arraigned, and the defense can be pursued at any point in a case when evidence arises. Ronita Lamb and her niece, Sharna Brown, said Ard was like family to them. Recently, Lamb had been helping him get his documents in order an ID, a Social Security card so he could get housing. He was on a waiting list at one place, she said. During his trial in August 2014, he spoke about how he and his wife, Maureen, were living apart. He was staying with his pastor in the church rectory and she was living in their Henrico County home. He also testified about how years earlier, he had thought that "maybe this was the end of our marriage." "With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse," Trump said in the first of the tweets. "Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!" Do you remember the moment you decided to start your own business? What was that like? The moment I realized that I needed to do this was the day I saw a patient who could afford great hearing aids cry after hearing her daughters voice clearly for the first time in more than 30 years. The next patient cried because he was finance declined and could not otherwise afford hearing aids. The most heartbreaking stories are the children whose insurance does not cover hearing aids or doesn't pay enough to make them affordable to the parents. These unfortunate children are usually taught sign language instead of learning to hear and speak. Three in 1,000 children face this reality. Because of this we have also started a nonprofit foundation to give the gift of hearing to those who cannot otherwise afford it, both children and adults. What motivates you: I am motivated by helping people and by my four amazing kids: Lily, Sarah, Autumn and Miles. "The time was right. We had gotten the business to a point where it made sense for Copico," Schultz said, noting services will be expanded for customers. "Hackworth offers a lot more services than we do, yet similar, so they're a good fit." Dollar Tree didn't address Starboard's suggestions directly but said in a statement that it would, "welcome constructive input from shareholders about ways to further create value for all Dollar Tree shareholders. While we appreciate Starboard's investment and will evaluate any suggestions they may have as we would with any investor, we note that Starboard's nominations for a majority of the board were made without seeking any engagement or making any communication to the Company." BVGA advisory director Andy Geissbuehler also recommends regional collaboration to develop a supply and service network, and the report suggests working with partners in the mid- and south-Atlantic in order to keep costs down and leverage the best of what each state has to offer. MESSAGE, NO TRASH. Vendors prepare their miniature replicas of the Black Nazarene like shirts and handkerchiefs with the image of the miraculous icon outside the church. Ey Acasio MESSAGE, NO TRASH. Environmental advocates gather outside the Catholic Church in Quiapo on Monday to ask millions of devotees not to throw away their trash during the scheduled Traslacion on Wednesday. Norman Cruz Close behind was the camera at Virginia Beach and Independence boulevards with $90,770, and the one at General Booth Boulevard and Dam Neck Road with $83,800. The way it works is the cameras "capture events," said Virginia Beach FOIA technician Heather Tuttle. Not all are violations though, like when people stop to look before turning and cross a threshold, said Sgt. Rick Wallace with the Virginia Beach Police Department. The events go through a filtering process. The police department has set guidelines with American Traffic Solutions, who provides the cameras. These guidelines identify which events are considered violations, Wallace said. The company sends the police department events that fall within these rules, and the police review them. If a violation has occurred, a ticket is issued. As of Dec. 11, red light cameras in Virginia Beach captured 73,018 events on camera, according to records from the police department. Virginia Beach police reviewed 47,538 and issued 31,569 tickets. By Dec. 4, payments for these tickets totaled over $1 million. Nielsen, who wrote in, was curious about whether these red light fines are a "real money maker" for the city. "Its not meant to be," Wallace said. The money, Wallace said, goes to a revenue account in the Police Department's general fund. The general fund is used to pay a monthly fee to American Traffic Solutions. The fund also covers salaries for three part-time officers. The retired police officers are sworn in so they can issue summonses and go to court, he said. The city's police chief, Wallace said, doesn't look at the program as a revenue-generating program. He said he sees it as a safety program. "If all of the money that came in went to pay the officers' salaries to do this, and went to pay the vendor, and nothing went to the city, he's happy," he said. Each survey respondent was asked to choose between a pair of hypothetical candidates in an upcoming election. Each candidate was described using eight characteristics: name, party preference, positions on policies toward taxation and racial discrimination, and four positions on democratic values and norms. All characteristics were randomly generated, and at times at direct odds with what most voters would expect from a mainstream Democratic or Republican candidate. Some of the fictive candidates' views and positions were undemocratic. Credit: Bright Line Watch and Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester Imagine you are a fairly mainstream Republican voter and are considering Republican candidate Luis Vasquez. He says he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and believes government should do more to prevent discrimination against racial minorities. Would you still vote for him? What if you are a lifelong Democrat? Would you vote for Democratic candidate Hannah Phillips, who wants to lower taxes on everyone, including the wealthy? What if Phillips also espouses views that run counter to established democratic norms and rules, declaring, for instance, that "elected officials should not be bound by court decisions they regard as politicized." Hannah Phillips and Luis Vasquez are fictive candidates in an experiment conducted by Bright Line Watch, a group of political scientists, among them Gretchen Helmke, professor of political science at the University of Rochester, who monitor US democratic practices and potential threats. Bright Line Watch based its selection of policy questions for the experiment on a recent paper by Vanderbilt University's Larry Bartels, who studies American voters and public opinion, and who found that questions about taxation policy and racial discrimination generate the biggest partisan divides among the US electorate. The Bright Line Watch team sampled nearly 1,000 online participants, weighted to approximate a representative sample of the US population: 35 percent of respondents identified as Republicans or Republican-leaning, 43 percent as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, and 17 percent as independents who did not lean toward either party. Each respondent was asked to choose between a pair of hypothetical candidates in an upcoming election. Each candidate was described using eight characteristics: name, party preference, positions on policies toward taxation and racial discrimination, and four positions on democratic values and norms. All characteristics were randomly generated, and at times at direct odds with what most voters would expect from a mainstream Democratic or Republican candidate. Some of the fictive candidates' views and positions were undemocratic. Why? Building on the pioneering work done by Yale political scientists Matthew Graham and Milan Svolik, the Bright Line Watch team wanted to test how committed the American public really is to its democracy. Are there universal democratic principles that, if violated by politicians, would generate resistance from the public, and would citizens of all political stripes be equally willing to punish candidates for such violations? The team's finding is striking: partisanship outweighs all other factors for both Republicans and Democrats. In other words, a die-hard Democrat is still more likely to vote for the fictive Democratic candidate although she espouses policies and views that are either typically Republican (lowering taxes) or outright undemocratic (elected officials should supervise law enforcement investigations of politicians and their associates). The same holds true for Republican-leaning voters. Bright Line Watch also found that all participants value democratic norms related to judicial independence, neutral investigations, and political compromise, but Democrats and Republicans strongly disagree when it comes to questions of voting rights and equal access. The Bright Line teamthe political scientists John Carey and Katherine Clayton at Dartmouth College, Brendan Nyhan at the University of Michigan, and Susan Stokes at the University of Chicago, together with Rochester's Helmke and Meliora Research's Sandersfocused their survey "Party, Policy, Democracy and Candidate Choice in U.S. Elections" on the attitudes of ordinary US voters. Bernard Avishai, a visiting professor of government at Dartmouth (and an adjunct professor of business at Hebrew University in Israel), is a colleague of Carey and Clayton's. He wrote about the Bright Line Watch study in depth in a recent piece for The New Yorker. As Avishai put it succinctly: "The good news for the Republic is that voters of all party affiliations care about judicial independence. The bad news is that Democrats and Republicans diverge dramatically on the question of access to the polls." "Our results on voter ID laws particularly underscore the partisan divide among voters," confirms Rochester's Helmke. "The polarized response to these policies illustrates how partisans can become deeply split over which democratic priorities are worth protecting," writes the team. Here are Bright Line Watch's key findings: Partisanship outweighs all else for both Democrats and Republicans. Both groups are approximately 19 percentage points more likely to select a candidate from their own party than one from the other partyan effect that exceeds those observed for candidate policy positions and support or opposition to democratic principles. Democrats, Republicans, and independents all punish candidates who violate democratic principles related to political control over investigations, judicial independence, and cross-party compromise. These effects are consistently negative across all partisan groups and range from 4 to 13 percentage points. Americans diverge most dramatically along party lines on the democratic principle of equal voting rights and access. Democrats are less likely to back candidates who endorse legislation requiring voters to show ID at the polls, whereas support for these candidates increases by 8 percentage points among independents, and 17 percentage points among Republicans. According to Bright Line Watch, the findings indicate a broad consensus in support of several key democratic principles. However, the political scientists warn that the high levels of partisanship "create a context in which such principles can be called into question and politicized." As cities from New York to L.A. pursue major tree planting initiatives, a new study explains why thousands of eligible residents in Detroit, Mich., rejected a city tree-planting initiative. Credit: Christine Carmichael/UVMGund Trees are a hallmark of vibrant neighborhoods. So why did nearly one-quarter of eligible residents in Detroit, Michigan, turn down free street trees? That's the mystery University of Vermont researcher Christine Carmichael solves in one of the first studies to explore opposition to city tree planting programs. As cities from New York to L.A. embark on major tree planting initiatives, the research helps to explain why more than 1,800 of 7,425 eligible Detroit residentsroughly 25% - submitted "no-tree requests" between 2011 and 2014 alone. The study was published January 7 by Society and Natural Resources journal. "This research shows how local government actions can cause residents to reject environmental effortsin this case, street treesthat would otherwise be in people's interests," says Carmichael, a postdoctoral researcher at UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Carmichael found that the opposition in Detroit resulted primarily from negative past experiences with street trees, particularly in low-income neighborhoods grappling with blight from vacant properties. In 2014 alone, the city had an estimated 20,000 dead or hazardous trees, following the contraction of Detroit's once-massive tree maintenance program from budget cuts and population decline. For many long-term residents, wariness of the new trees was driven by past experiences of caring for vacant properties in their neighborhood. They believed responsibility for maintaining the trees would eventually fall to them. "Even though it's city property, we're gonna end up having to care for it and raking leaves and God knows whatever else we might have to do," said one woman interviewed for the study. Carmichael also found that skepticism of the program was tied to wider distrust of the city government and outside groups in parts of Detroit. As a result, residents wanted greater decision-making power in selecting which trees to plant in particular locations, adds Carmichael who completed the three-year study for her Ph.D. with co-author Maureen McDonough of Michigan State University. Greening Detroit Urban greening projects offer health benefits to residents, from improved air quality to decreased crime, and seek to boost the typically lower amount of tree cover in low-income neighborhoods, Carmichael says. For these reasons, many cities have launched major tree planting initiatives in recent years, including MillionTreesNYC, Grow Boston Greener, The Chicago Tree Initiative, and The Greening of Detroit. To avoid past mistakes in the city's tree planting and maintenance approach, staff at The Greening of Detroit, a non-profit contracted by the city to plant trees, selected tree species that could survive in urban environments and guaranteed maintenance of trees for three years after planting. However, the group relied primarily on educating residents about the benefits of trees and their program, which failed to address people's concerns. "By not giving residents a say in the tree planting program, they were re-creating the same conflicts that had been happening in the city for a long time," says Carmichael. Carmichael says simple steps, such as allowing residents a choice over which kind of tree will be planted in front of their home, can reduce tensions. Investing more effort in follow-up communication with residents who receive trees would also help to ensure that trees are cared for, and residents do not feel overburdened with tree maintenance. One man interviewed for the study said, "I've left several messages. My tree was planted last August. My wife loved it. I was told that they would come back out and either water it or fertilize it. Haven't seen anyone. So, I've been doing the best that I can. Where do I go from here?" Lessons for non-profits Monica Tabares of The Greening of Detroit says that increased spending by the City of Detroit's forestry department, as well as a change in the organization's leadership, has led the group to focus more on community engagement. Since Carmichael presented her findings to The Greening of Detroit, the organization has instituted community engagement training for the youth they hire to water street trees and interact with residents. "As a result of our refined focus, [our program] has brought thousands of residents together to not only plant trees, but gain a greater understanding of the benefits of trees in their communities," says Tabares. Carmichael's study is gaining attention from city planners across North America hoping to learn Detroit's lessons. Local governments and non-profits in Austin, Denver, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Toronto and Vermont have reached out for help implementing her research. The study also offers lessons for how non-profits and donors measure successful outcomes, Carmichael says. With limited resources and watchful donors, some non-profits often focus on narrow outcomessuch as the number of trees planted per yearwithout also prioritizing deeper community engagement, which might slow the immediate work of planting trees, but create more a sustainable outcome. "We need to broaden the measurable outcomes that we can gauge success by," says Carmichael. "Healthy urban forests cannot be measured just by the number of trees planted. We also have to capture who is involved, and how that involvement affects the well-being of people and trees in the long-term." Explore further 20 percent more trees in megacities would mean cleaner air and water, lower carbon and energy use The new plant near Shanghai will be Tesla's first outside the United States Tesla boss Elon Musk presided Monday over the ground-breaking for a Shanghai factory that will allow the electric-car manufacturer to dodge the China-US tariff crossfire and sell directly to the world's biggest market for "green" vehicles. The plant in a Shanghai suburb is Musk's biggest overseas move yet and will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla says, dramatically increasing the California-based company's output. "China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said, according to a statement released by the manufacturer. Musk had hinted recently at an upcoming Shanghai trip to break ground for the plant but Monday's event was not publicly announced until the Tesla CEO broke the news in a series of tweets earlier in the day. In typically iconoclastic style, the 47-year-old Musk changed his Twitter profile picture around the time of the ceremony to one showing his face with an exaggerated handlebar moustache drawn on it. The Shanghai government later posted photos on social media showing Musk and officials from Tesla and the city on a large stage at a launch ceremony at the site, located on Shanghai's distant outskirts. No investment figures were given but the cost of the project has been estimated by analysts at up to $5 billion. The Shanghai venture comes as US companies face pressure from President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs at home, and as Beijing and Washington wage a trade spat that has seen both sides levy tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products. Slowing down Analysts say production in China would allow Tesla to side-step such measures, which have already caused a spike in the price of the cars the company now imports to the Chinese market. But construction of the plantthe subject of stop-start negotiations between Tesla and Shanghai for well over a yeargets under way just as the outlook for China's consumer market has turned worrisome. Apple sparked global alarm over the prospects for the world's second-largest economy last week when it cut its revenue forecast, citing slowing demand in China and the trade war. Domestic and foreign automakers have been racing to grab shares of China's electric-vehicle sectoralready the world's biggest and expected to continue to grow as the Chinese government pushes clean technologies. But the pace of growth is expected to slow along with China's economy. The Shanghai factory will be Tesla's first production line outside the United States. Musk tweeted earlier Monday that Tesla was "aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high-volume production next year". The Shanghai plant would supply the "Greater China region" with "affordable versions" of the Tesla Model 3the carmaker's first mid-price, mass-market vehicleand its planned Model Y, Musk tweeted. The Model S, Model X and "higher cost versions" of the 3 and Y would continue to be made in the United States for the global market, including China, he added. Despite its relative affordability compared to other Tesla models, the price of a US-made Model 3 now starts at about $50,000, but Musk has said he aims to get that down to $35,000. He provided no price figures for China-made cars. China typically requires foreign automakers to forge joint ventures with domestic firms when establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners. But Tesla has said its Shanghai plant will be "wholly-owned" by the company. Explore further Tesla meets Model 3 target, bemoans China tariffs 2019 AFP University of Wyoming researchers (from left) Mario Bretfeld, Yanyan Cheng and Fred Ogden perform a rainfall simulator experiment Dec. 1, 2016, to measure the effect of silvopastoral (wood pasture) land management in the Panama Canal Watershed on infiltration of rainfall. Credit: Emily Purvis A recently completed research project led by University of Wyoming researchers allowed novel socio-economic analysis aimed at finding out if ecological infrastructure investments are feasible in various scenarios to improve reliability of the Panama Canal. Fred Ogden, a professor in UW's Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, was the principal investigator on the research. He is currently a visiting senior scientist and academic-in-residence at the Office of Water Prediction at the U.S. National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala. "Our study created a large team that included hydrologists, botanists, forest ecologists, soil scientists, geochemists, geophysicists, civil engineers, social scientists and economistsall with the objective of improving our understanding of how people make land management decisions affecting tropical watersheds," Ogden says. "In particular, we focused on desirable outcomes of increased stream flow during extended dry periods and reduced erosion. This paper represents a summary of the results of our comprehensive study to inform and improve land management decisions providing hydrologic benefits in the tropics." Ogden contributed to the paper, titled "Assessing Ecological Infrastructure Investments," that was published Jan. 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The journal is one of the world's most prestigious multidisciplinary scientific serials, with coverage spanning the biological, physical and social sciences. The project leveraged existing research infrastructure provided by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Agua Salud Project, which provided an experimental setting for testing hypotheses related to the effects of land cover and land use on hydrological response in the watershed that provides all of the river flow that powers the Panama Canal. Seaborne commerce between the United States and other countries represents the dominant use of the Panama Canal. "Tropical watersheds around the globe are under stress because small watersheds normally provide large amounts of water for large populations and are at risk to drought or other climate stresses," Ogden says. "The Panama Canal Watershed is very important for U.S. commerce and is one of the few places in the tropics that has both a long-term hydrologic record, and an active system of land management-driven decision making that involves landowners and parties interested in maximizing hydrological benefits." This new paper synthesizes the results of a large multiyear, multi-institution, multidisciplinary project. The level of synthesis achieved to make conclusions would have been impossible without the significant contributions from each person involved with the study, Ogden says. Other contributors to the paper were from the University of Alberta, Yale University, University of Saskatchewan, the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Mission Area in Boulder, Colo.; and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Jason Regina, a UW Ph.D. student from Kansas City, Mo., helped collect and analyze hydrological data. Crunching the Numbers The research project met its goals to advance hydrological understanding in the steep humid tropics; understand factors affecting landowner decisions relative to paid land management plans; and combine these findings into an integrated assessment of the potential of long-term payments for hydrological ecosystem services in the Panama Canal Watershed. The economic analysis, based on years of intensive hydrological and behavior study, was headed by researchers from Yale, the University of Alberta, Canada, and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. "I think our results support the location the Panama Canal Authority has been working, so it gives some solid hydrological-economic analyses to that decision," says Eli Fenichel, associate professor of bioeconomics and ecosystem management at Yale, and the paper's corresponding author. "It also provides a sense of how far the Panama Canal Authority can go with ecological infrastructure. We provide a few different options that depend on exactly what their goals are and probably some noneconomic challenges they may face. We do show that the Panama Canal Authority faces real challenges to get more water into the canal in the dry season." According to the paper, the Panama Canal Authority could offer contracts to private farmers to change land use to increase dry-season water flow and reduce sedimentation. Physical and social constraints limit market supply and scalability. Service delays, from the time payments must be made to landowners to the time services are realized, occur because of lags in ecological change that hinder program feasibility. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute interns Laura Lyon (left) and Catalina Guerra measure leaf level photosynthesis to better understand how tropical trees use soil moisture at the Agua Salud project site in the Panama Canal Watershed. Credit: Mario Bretfeld Feasible ecological investment depends on the value and demand for the services the ecological infrastructure provides; the ability to change an ecosystem to produce a greater level of service; and the ability, right and willingness for an entity to make changes to an ecosystem. In many instances, the beneficiaries of ecosystem services lack the ability to implement changes to supply, necessitating a voluntary contracting system that enables payments from water user to water supplier. These systems are called "payments for ecosystem services" or PES. This is a system of agreed-to monetary or in-kind payments made to land holders, who agree to manage their land in an agreed-upon way, such that the land provides benefits to the person making the payment for some kind of service provided by the landscape. This service could include reduced nutrient, sediment or contaminant runoff; more river flow during droughts or nonrainy periods; and habitat for wildlife. Vic Adamowicz, one of the paper's co-authors and a professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta, says his role was to help design and implement the survey of landowners in the Panama Canal Watershed. The study collected a variety of information on landowners, including demographics, land area and farming systems. However, he adds the most important element was the determination of landowners' willingness to accept payments in exchange for changing their land use and providing hydrological benefits. This identified the cost for these people to provide hydrological services. The survey design provided cost information for different land-use changes for land that is currently pasture, but could be changed into a silvopastoral (wood pasture) regime or used to grow coffee or timber. The survey also included a number of ways to ensure the responses were valid and realistic. "We feel this helps the Panama Canal Authority in assessing the costs of payments for ecosystem services programs and the benefits, in terms of transit revenue, of PES programs," Adamowicz says. "This is a challenging natural and social science issue that requires understanding of the natural and social systems, and how they interact. We also have described the importance of targeting spatially and landowner preferences for technical assistance and insurance." Fenichel says that the team figured out what a centimeter of water in Gatun Lake was worth to the Panama Canal Authority. Gatun Lake is a large artificial lake located to the south of Colon, Panama. It forms a major part of the Panama Canal, carrying ships for 33 kilometers of their trip across the Isthmus of Panama. In a market where supply equals demandknown as a market clearing equilibriuma quantity-price pair is experienced. Fenichel used the analogy of a bakery making cookies at a certain price to explain this concept. For example, if a bakery charges $5 per cookie, it might sell 10. However, if the bakery charges $4 per cookie, it might sell a dozen. Putting these price-quantity pairs together creates the demand curve. On the other hand, it might cost the bakery $3 to make the 10th cookie, but $4 to make the 12th cookie. This is the supply curve. The bakery would certainly choose to make the 10th cookie because it would net $2 on that cookie, Fenichel says. The bakery likely would continue making up to the 12th cookie because it breaks even on that cookie and makes money on every cookie made before that. "In our analysis, we find a constant amount that the Panama Canal Authority would be willing to pay for a centimeter of water in Gutan Lake but that every centimeter costs more in contracted land-use change," Fenichel explains. "We order the hectares that could be contracted to make a supply curve. The market clearing equilibrium is the quantity of land that the Panama Canal Authority would contract with at the price that is exactly equal to the willingness to pay for the additional water that adding a hectare provides." "As a synthesis paper, it builds on our hydrology research results and uses them to place values on different land management decisions," Ogden says. Explore further Tropical forests mitigate extreme weather events The Asian Longhorned tick transmits the virus that causes severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus, or SFTS. The syndrome has a fatality rate of up to 30 percent among hospitalized patients. Credit: USC Two groundbreaking discoveries by USC researchers could lead to medications and a vaccine to treat or prevent a hemorrhagic fever transmitted by a new tick species before it spreads across the United States. In the Jan. 7 Nature Microbiology, researchers describe the molecular mechanisms used by the virus to infect and sicken humans, a puzzle that has stumped scientists since the disease emerged in rural China in 2009. In a related discovery published in Nature Microbiology last month, researchers at USC and in Korea found that aged ferrets with the virus exhibit symptoms similar to those seen in older humans, while young ferrets show no clinical symptoms. An animal model in which to study the virus, a crucial tool in vaccine or drug discovery, has been elusive, until now. "The ticks are already in the United States. If they start spreading the virus, it will be a major problem," said Jae Jung, the study's senior author and chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "I started studying this virus five years ago because once it appeared in China, I knew it would eventually appear in the United States." The findings come at a time when health officials are increasingly concerned about the growing danger of tick-borne illnesses. In the United States, Lyme disease accounts for most cases, but other illnesses are on the rise. The total number of reported cases has more than doubled in the past 13 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new threat comes in the form of a bug new to North Americathe Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis. It's a tiny, parasitic arachnid that's a major livestock pest in East and Central Asia, where it thrives under temperate conditions. After a blood meal, females drop off their host to produce 2,000 eggs at a time, with or without the help of a male. USC researcher Younho Choi, holds up a sample of the virus transmitted by the Asian longhorned tick. Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Credit: USC/Gus Ruelas It can transmit severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an illness that causes nausea, diarrhea and muscle pain. The illness is often lethal, killing up to 30 percent of hospitalized patients. The virus depletes blood platelets as it replicates, which prevents clotting and leads to hemorrhage similar to Ebola virus infection. The disease has spread to Japan and Korea since it appeared in China. The SFTS virus has not been detected in the United States yet, but the Asian longhorned tick was found in nine states during the past two years, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The CDC considers the presence of the Asian longhorned tick in the United States an "emerging disease threat" and is recommending ongoing surveillance efforts and testing for pathogens. A virus genetically similar to SFTS virus, Heartland virus, and causing similar human illness was also recently discovered in the United States. Globally, the SFTS disease has caused infection of thousands of people a year in China. USC Researcher fellow Su-Jiu Park, Korean collaborator professor Young-Ki Choi, USC professor and chair Jae Jung and researcher, Youn ho Choi, made discoveries that could lead to a vaccine preventing a newly discovered virus that causes hemorrhagic fever transmitted by the Asian Longhorned tick, an invasive species new to the United States, before the illness starts spreads. Photographed in their USC lab, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Credit: Gus Ruelas Jung and his colleagues found that the virus targets a gene called TPL2, which is involved in the body's inflammatory response. In a healthy person, the body's natural inflammatory response helps fight off an infection. With SFTS infection, the virus directs the TPL2 gene to switch off that protective inflammatory response at the site of the tick bitecreating a protected spot in which the virus can amass copies of itself and spread throughout the body. In animals, the researchers disabled TPL2 with an inhibitor; as a result, the body's healthy immune function kept viral replication in check, resulting in a milder infectionand suggesting that the TPL2 gene's signaling pathway presents a potential target for a therapy. "We're very optimistic that these findings will help us get a vaccine up and running within several years," said Younho Choi, a post-doctoral researcher in the Jung lab and the study's first author. "We're already developing various vaccine candidates in mouse and ferret animal models. The idea behind the vaccine is to outsmart the virus by putting a roadblock, allowing the body's immune system to keep doing its job." Explore further New tick species spreading in the US More information: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome phlebovirus non-structural protein activates TPL2 signalling pathway for viral immunopathogenesis, Nature Microbiology (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41564-018-0329-x Journal information: Nature Microbiology Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome phlebovirus non-structural protein activates TPL2 signalling pathway for viral immunopathogenesis,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-018-0329-x Left top and bottom, normal cotton exhibits gossypol-containing glands (dark-colored dots) in the seed and leaf. Right top and bottom, seed and leaf show the effect of laboratory-created disruption of Cotton Gland Formation gene 3, CGF3, confirming its role in gland development. Credit: Dr. Devendra Pandeya Development of a cotton plant with stronger natural defenses due to a greater gland density and thus more gossypol in the leaves could soon be a reality, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant biotechnologist in College Station. Seeds and other parts of cotton possess dark glands containing toxic terpenoids such as gossypol that defend the plant against pests and pathogens, said Dr. Keerti Rathore, AgriLife Research plant biotechnologist in the Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology at Texas A&M University. Rathore and his team compared RNA production in the embryos from a glanded cotton and a mutant glandless plant. These analyses resulted in the identification of three genes that play a critical role in gland formation, he said. The study, "Genes regulating gland development in the cotton plant," has been published online in the Plant Biotechnology Journal. The team used virus-induced gene silencing and CRISPR-mediated gene knockout to reduce/eliminate the glands in the plant, thus validating the function of the genes. Rathore's lab recently announced development and deregulation of a gossypol-free cottonseed ultra-low gossypol cottonseed or ULGCS that could be a new source of protein for the more efficient aquaculture species and poultry or even as human food. However, equally important in the world of scientific discoveries, he said, is the intriguing possibility of enhancing the expression of these genes to increase the number of glands in the leaves and floral tissues. This would allow for boosting gossypol production in those locations and strengthening the plant's natural defenses. "There is an increasing need for such a natural defense mechanism against pests because more and more insect species are developing resistance to various forms of Bt-cotton," Rathore said. He said the results of this continued study "is a very important scientific discovery, and it also has some historical significance." Rathore explained that in the 1950s, a cotton breeder discovered a mutant cotton plant that was free of glands being grown by the native Americans of the Hopi tribe in Arizona. These cotton plants were the original source of glandless and, therefore, gossypol-free cottonseeds. "A lot of human nutrition and animal feeding trials were conducted using these, including some at Texas A&M," he said. "However, these plants did not fare very well in the field because they lacked the protection provided by gossypol." He explained this is when his ultra-low gossypol cottonseed work proved helpful. "We had selectively eliminated gossypol from the seed only," Rathore said. "Now, in this recent paper, we show exactly the genes that are defective and the nature of the mutations in this Hopi cotton for the first time. Even though breeders have known about the Hopi cotton for the past 64 years, no one knew the exact nature of mutations that made the plant free of glands." The sequence of the genes now provides Rathore and other researchers with tools that can be used to selectively eliminate gossypol from the seed as well as increase the number of glands, and therefore gossypol levels, in the leaves and floral parts to help the cotton plant better defend itself against pests. "To provide an analogy, our ULGCS trait is akin to iPhone 4, whereas this discovery represents technology that can be used to create iPhone 10," he said. Explore further Protein derived from cottonseed for human nutrition one step closer to reality More information: Madhusudhana R. Janga et al. Genes regulating gland development in the cotton plant, Plant Biotechnology Journal (2018). Journal information: Plant Biotechnology Journal Madhusudhana R. Janga et al. Genes regulating gland development in the cotton plant,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/pbi.13044 Close-up of the surface of one of the neutrino detector's assemblies, where thousands of wires spaced 3 millimeters apart detect the signals created by neutrinos passing through the detector. Credit: Reidar Hahn Neutrinos, ghostly fundamental particles that are famously difficult to study, could provide scientists with clues about the evolution of the universe. They are so difficult to catch, in fact, that it's possible there's a fourth type that's been hiding right under our noses for decades. Scientists at the UChicago-affiliated Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, site of the most extensive neutrino research in the world, are leading an international collaboration to explore the possibility of a completely new particle. Although three types of neutrino are known, scientists are searching for a possible fourththe sterile neutrino, whose existence has been teased but never clearly confirmed. Major components for the new neutrino experiment are arriving from around the world to be integrated into the upcoming Short-Baseline Near Detector, or SBND, at Fermilab. "The short-baseline program aims to address interesting results from previous experiments that could be hinting at a new class of neutrinos, which would open up a completely new, unexpected area in neutrino physics," said David Schmitz, SBND co-spokesperson and assistant professor of physics at the University of Chicago. "But no matter what we find, the results should give us clarity on this long-standing puzzle." At Fermilab, located about 45 miles west of Chicago, three detectors perch along a beam of neutrinos generated by Fermilab's particle accelerators. Of the three, the new detector will sit closest to the beam source, just 360 feet away. (The other two, MicroBooNE and ICARUS, are 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet from the source, respectively.) "The reason you have three detectors is that you want to sample the neutrino beam along the beamline at different distances," said Fermilab neutrino scientist Ornella Palamara, the other spokesperson for the project. As neutrinos pass through one detector after the other, some of them leave behind traces in the detectors. Scientists will analyze this information to search for firm evidence of the hypothesized but never seen member of the neutrino family. Making a (dis)appearance Neutrinos come in one of three "flavors": electron, muon and tau. They change from one flavor into another as they travel through space, which is called oscillation. Neutrinos are known to oscillate in and out of the three flavors, but only further evidence will help scientists determine whether they also oscillate into a fourth typea sterile neutrino. If these sterile neutrinos exist, they don't interact with matter at all. (The neutrinos we're familiar with do interact, but only rarely.) Results from other experiments have hinted at the possibility of the sterile neutrino's existence, but so far, no one has confirmed it. Three detectors perch along a beam of neutrinos generated by Fermilabs particle accelerators, each checking the stream for evidence of a possible fourth type of neutrino. Credit: Fermilab SBND, as the first detector in the beam, will record the number of electron and muon neutrinos that pass through it before oscillation can occur. The vast majority of themabout 99.5 percentwill be muon neutrinos. By the time of their arrival at the far detectors, MicroBooNE and ICARUS, a few out of every thousand muon neutrinos may have converted into electron neutrinos. Two possible outcomes could indicate the existence of the new particle. One is that the far detectors see more electron neutrinos than expected. This could be evidence that sterile neutrinos are also present: The neutrinos could be converting into and out of sterile neutrino states in a way that produces an excess of electron neutrinos. The other is that the far detectors see fewer muon neutrinos than expectedthe muon neutrinos spotted in SBND "disappear"because they converted into sterile neutrinos. "Having a single experiment where we can see electron neutrino appearance and muon neutrino disappearance simultaneously and make sure their magnitudes are compatible with one another is enormously powerful for trying to discover sterile neutrino oscillations," said Schmitz. "The near detector substantially improves our ability to do so." Components from three continents The first of four anode plane assemblies, highly sensitive electronic components, came to Fermilab in October. More are on their way. The anode plane assemblies, four in all, are part of a 4-by-4-by-5-meter detector that will be suspended inside a cryogenic tank filled with liquid argon at -300 degrees Fahrenheit. Each assembly is a huge frame covered with thousands of delicate sense wires, designed to track particles that come off neutrinos colliding with argon atoms in the tank. SBND will also be a testing ground for some of the technologies, including the anode plane assemblies, that will be used in the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, known as DUNE, a megascience experiment hosted by Fermilab that is currently under construction in South Dakota. Institutions in Europe, South America and the United States are helping build SBND's various components. In all, more than 20 institutions on three continents are involved in the effort. Another dozen are collaborating on software tools to analyze data once the detector is operational, Schmitz said. "Being part of an international collaboration is great," Palamara said. "Of course, there are challenges, but it's fantastic to see people coming from all around the world to work on the program. Having pieces of the detector built in different places and then seeing everything come together is exciting." Assembly of SBND is expected to finish in fall 2019, after which the detector will be installed in its building along the accelerator-generated neutrino beam. SBND is scheduled to begin receiving neutrinos by the end of 2020. Explore further New results confirm standard neutrino theory In many non-monogamous species, females provide all or most of the offspring care. In monogamous species, parental care is often shared. In these frogs, parental care includes transporting tadpoles one by one after hatching to small pools of water. In the non-monogamous strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio, left) moms perform this task; however, in the monogamous mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator, right) this is dad's job. Credit: Yusan Yan and James Tumulty Why are some animals committed to their mates and others are not? According to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin that looked at 10 species of vertebrates, evolution used a kind of universal formula for turning non-monogamous species into monogamous speciesturning up the activity of some genes and turning down others in the brain. "Our study spans 450 million years of evolution, which is how long ago all these species shared a common ancestor," said Rebecca Young, research associate in UT Austin's Department of Integrative Biology and first author of the study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors define monogamy in animals as forming a pair bond with one mate for at least one mating season, sharing at least some of the work of raising offspring and defending young together from predators and other hazards. Researchers still consider animals monogamous if they occasionally mate with another. The researchers studied five pairs of closely related speciesfour mammals, two birds, two frogs and two fisheach with one monogamous and one non-monogamous member. These five pairs represent five times in the evolution of vertebrates that monogamy independently arose, such as when the non-monogamous meadow voles and their close relatives the monogamous prairie voles diverged into two separate species. At least five times during the past 450 million years, evolution used a kind of universal formula for turning animals monogamous -- turning up the activity of some genes (red) and turning down others (blue) in the brain. Researchers studied five pairs of closely related species - four mammals, two birds, two frogs and two fish -- each with one monogamous and one non-monogamous member. They found 24 genes with similar expression patterns in monogamous males. Credit: University of Texas at Austin The researchers compared gene expression in male brains of all 10 species to determine what changes occurred in each of the evolutionary transitions linked to the closely related animals. Despite the complexity of monogamy as a behavior, they found that the same changes in gene expression occurred each time. The finding suggests a level of order in how complex social behaviors come about through the way that genes are expressed in the brain. This study covers a broader span of evolutionary time than had been explored previously. Other studies have looked at genetic differences related to evolutionary transitions to new traits, but they typically focus on animals separated by, at most, tens of millions of years of evolution, as opposed to the hundreds of millions of years examined with this study. "Most people wouldn't expect that across 450 million years, transitions to such complex behaviors would happen the same way every time," Young said. The paper's other UT Austin authors are senior author professor Hans Hofmann and professor Steven Phelps. Researchers examined gene activity across the genomes of the 10 species, using RNA-sequencing technology and tissue samples from three individuals of each species. The scientists detected gene-activity patterns across species using bioinformatics software and the Texas Advanced Computing Center's Wrangler data-intensive supercomputer. Arranging genes from distantly related speciessuch as a fish and a mammalinto groups based on sequence similarities, the team was able to identify the common evolutionary formula that led to pair bonds and co-parenting in the five species that behave monogamously. Explore further Vertebrates share ancient neural circuitry for complex social behaviors: study More information: Conserved transcriptomic profiles underpin monogamy across vertebrates, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1813775116 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Conserved transcriptomic profiles underpin monogamy across vertebrates,(2019). Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers at the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service suggest in a new study that environmental greenness may not be associated with higher test scores in schoolchildren after all. In a study that involved more than 400 public schools in Chicago, the Illinois-led team found that there was "no convincing evidence for a positive relationship between greenness and academic performance." The study was published recently in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. U. of I. recreation, sport and tourism professor Matthew Browning and natural resources and environmental sciences professor Ming Kuo replicated the methodology used in a leading study on the topic, published in 2014. According to the researchers who conducted that study, third-grade students at 905 Massachusetts public schools performed significantly better on English and math tests if their schools were surrounded by greater amounts of green foliage in the spring. Similar to the Massachusetts study, the Illinois researchers examined the density of healthy foliage in the neighborhoods surrounding Chicago elementary schools and whether greenery was associated with higher math and reading scores over a six-year period. Browning and Kuo's team obtained math and reading scores for third-grade classes at the Chicago Public Schools and downloaded greenness data for those schools' neighborhoods from a NASA website. Based upon the NASA data, they calculated the normalized difference vegetation index the amount of visible and near-infrared light reflected by foliage within 250, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 meters of each school. Regions with greater amounts of vigorously growing trees and plants have higher NDVI values because healthy vegetation absorbs most of the visible light that strikes it and reflects most of the near-infrared light, Browning said. Using the same variables and equations as the Massachusetts study, the Illinois researchers tried to predict the Chicago schools' math and reading scores based upon their neighborhoods' NDVI values for the months of March, July and October from 2006-12. However, Browning and Kuo's team found that the methodology used in the Massachusetts study was not statistically sound, producing high intercorrelations among the predictor variables, which invalidated the findings. After tweaking the equation to address this problem, "no matter how many ways we sliced and diced it, we were finding negative relationships between green space and academic achievement in all 24 of our models," Browning said. The Illinois team hypothesized that its inability to replicate the original study's findings may have had to do with the differing levels and types of vegetation found in the Chicago and Massachusetts neighborhoods. Because the Chicago neighborhoods had relatively low levels of tree cover, their NDVI values were about half of those of the Massachusetts study and primarily represented grass, which could have a different effect on academic outcomes than trees, Browning and his co-authors wrote. Or, the relationship between greenery and academic performance might have been moderated by differences in the study populations' socioeconomic statuses and race, they wrote. The proportion of low-income students in the Chicago study was 83 percent twice that of the Massachusetts study while the proportions of African-American and Hispanic students were three times higher in Chicago, at 45 percent and 48 percent, respectively. The Illinois study is novel in that replication studies are seldom conducted in disciplines such as geography and environmental psychology, the two fields that the current study falls into, Browning said. "About 10 years ago, there was a wave of replication studies in psychology and a number of important studies were debunked because they didn't hold up in different populations," Browning said. In recent years, research on green space and academic outcomes has "become something of a cottage industry," said Browning, who currently is conducting a systematic review of about a dozen studies on the topic. Alessandro Rigolon, a professor in the same department, is co-writing that paper. Browning said they are finding similar methodological problems among those studies too, "and that the researchers' conclusions that green cover improves student test scores are not well-grounded on the actual findings. The evidence for this beneficial relationship between green space and academic performance is not that strong." Explore further Schoolyard tree cover predicts math performance in high-poverty urban schools Senator Antonio Trillanes IV Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will face trial for rebellion for his participation in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege after a Makati court junked his petition to overturn its decision to revive the criminal case against him.In an order dated Dec. 18, 2018, but released only Monday, Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 150 dismissed Trillanes motion and reaffirmed his order for the senators arrest and the issuance of a hold-departure order against him. The rebellion casewhich had been dismissed because of an amnesty granted to Trillaneswas revived after President Rodrigo Duterte issued a proclamation voiding that amnesty. The court sustained its finding that Trillanes failed to prove that he has complied with the minimum requirements when he applied for amnesty under the previous administration. READ: DOJ warns Trillanes supporters of contempt Unfortunately, Senator Trillanes failed to prove that the original of the alleged application form exists. Senator Trillanes even failed to explain his failure to locate or find the copy thereof, said the order, a copy of which received by the Department of Justice on Monday. The court also cited the senators failure to prove the contents of his application. Since the existence of the fact of his admission of guilty of the crime he committed, the substitutionary evidence presented by Senator Trillanes is considered hearsay evidence and cannot be admitted as evidence to prove compliance with the minimum requirement set forth in Proclamation No. 75 (Amnesty Grant), the RTC said. The court held that the contentions of Trillanes in his appeal were already addressed by the court in its earlier ruling. READ: Trillanes arrested, posts bail Senator Trillanes was not able to prove through testimonial and documentary evidence that he filed his application for amnesty nor expressly admitted his guilty in the application form for the crime he committed during the Manila Peninsula incident which are the minimum requirement set forth under Proclamation No. 75, the court said. Trillanes had earlier posted bail amounting to P200,000 before the RTC Branch 150 and was granted temporary liberty. The same court also allowed him to travel abroad when it granted last November his motion seeking to temporarily lift the HDO to attend various engagements from Dec. 11, 2018 to Jan. 12, 2019, and from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10, 2019. The RTC revived the rebellion case against Trillanes upon a motion by the DOJ. The DOJ filed a similar motion before Makati RTC Branch 148 to also revive the coup detat case against him in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, but Judge Andres Soriano rejected the plea and ruled that the case was already dismissed and closed. However, in the same ruling in October 2018, Soriano upheld the constitutionality of Proclamation No. 572, which voided the amnesty granted by the Aquino administration to Trillanes on both coup detat and rebellion cases. Trillanes has questioned the proclamation before the Supreme Court, but his plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order was denied. Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant, was among those who led the mutiny in Oakwood Premiere Hotel in Makati City on July 27, 2003 and the Manila Peninsula siege on Nov. 29, 2007. Both actions were aimed at unseating then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. READ: Trillanes vows to go to jail if Duterte has proof vs parents ESAs Hera mission concept, currently under study, would be humanitys first mission to a binary asteroid: the 800 m-diameter Didymos is accompanied by a 170 m-diameter secondary body. Hera will study the aftermath of the impact caused by the NASA spacecraft DART on the smaller body. Credit: ESAScienceOffice.org When ESA's planned Hera mission journeys to its target binary asteroid system, it will not be alone. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around and eventual landing on the Didymos asteroids. Each companion spacecraft will be small enough to fit inside a briefcase, as compared to the desk-sized Hera. CubeSats are nanosatellites based on standardised 10 cm-sized units. Hera has room to deliver two 'six-unit' CubeSat missions to the Didymos asteroid system a 780 m-diameter mountain-sized main body is orbited by a 160 m moon, informally called 'Didymoon', about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Hera mission received proposals for CubeSats from across Europe, and an evaluation board has now made the final selection. "We're very happy to have these high-quality CubeSat missions join us to perform additional bonus science alongside their Hera mothership," explains Hera manager Ian Carnelli. "Carrying added instruments and venturing much closer to our target bodies, they will give different perspectives and complementary investigations on this exotic binary asteroid. They will also give us valuable experience of close proximity operations relayed by the Hera mothercraft in extreme low-gravity conditions. This will be very valuable to many future missions." Paolo Martino, Hera spacecraft lead engineer adds: "The idea of building CubeSats for deep space is relatively new, but was recently validated by NASA's InSight landing on Mars last November, when a pair of accompanying CubeSats succeeded in relaying the lander's radio signals back to Earth as well as returning imagery of the Red Planet." APEX CubeSat. Credit: Swedish Institute of Space Physics The first CubeSat companion is called the Asteroid Prospection Explorer (or 'APEX'), and was developed by a Swedish/Finnish/Czech/German consortium. It will perform detailed spectral measurements of both asteroids' surfaces measuring the sunlight reflected by Didymos and breaking down its various colours to discover how these asteroids have interacted with the space environment, pinpointing any differences in composition between the two. In addition, APEX will make magnetic readings that will give insight into their interior structure of these bodies. Guided by a navigation camera and a 'laser radar' (lidar) instrument, APEX will also make a landing on one of the asteroids, gathering valuable data in the process using inertial sensors, and going on to perform close-up observations of the asteroid's surface material. The other CubeSat is called Juventas, developed by Danish company GomSpace and GMV in Romania, and will measure the gravity field as well as the internal structure of the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids. MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 7,600 km away during its flyby of the Red Planet on 26 November 2018. MarCO-B was flying by Mars with its twin, MarCO-A, to attempt to serve as communications relays for NASA's InSight spacecraft as it landed on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In close orbit around Didymoon, Juventas will line up with Hera to perform satellite-to-satellite radio-science experiments and carry out a low-frequency radar survey of the asteroid interior, similar to performing a detailed 'X-ray scan' of Didymoon to unveil its interior. The adventure will end with a landing, using the dynamics of any likely bouncing to capture details of the asteroid's surface material followed by several days of surface operations. Hera is set to be humankind's first mission to a binary asteroid system. As well as testing technologies in deep space and gathering crucial science data, Hera is designed to be Europe's contribution to an international planetary defence effort: it would survey the crater and measure orbital deviation of Didymoon caused by the earlier collision of a NASA probe, called DART. This unique experiment will validate the asteroid deflection technique referred to as kinetic impactor, enabling humankind to protect our planet from asteroid impacts. Next, the two CubeSats will have their designs refined and interfaces with their mothership finalised, in line with continuing design work on the Hera mission itself, which will be presented to ESA's Space19+ meeting towards the end of this year, where Europe's space ministers will take a final decision on flying the mission. DART mission profile. Credit: NASA Hera mission. Credit: European Space Agency 2.5 2.5 square degrees DSS2 image (Galactic coordinates) of the sky region containing the discovered clusters and NGC 5999 together with their proper motions in 0.5 Myr (lines). The circles represent the limiting radius of the clusters. The cataloged clusters Majaess 166 and Teutsch 81 are also shown. Credit: Ferreira et al., 2018. Using data from ESA's Gaia satellite, Brazilian astronomers have detected three new open clusters in the Milky Way. The clusters, designated UFMG 1, UFMG 2 and UFMG 3, were found in the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. The discovery is reported in a paper published December 27 on the arXiv.org pre-print server. Open clusters, formed from the same giant molecular cloud, are groups of stars loosely gravitationally bound to each other. So far, more than 1,000 of them have been discovered in the Milky Way, and scientists are still looking for more, hoping to find a variety of these stellar groupings. Expanding the list of known galactic open clusters could be crucial for improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy. Now, a group of astronomers led by Filipe A. Ferreira of Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, reports the identification of a trio of new open clusters in the Sagittarius arm, in the field of the intermediate-age cluster NGC 5999. By analyzing the data from the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) regarding the region adjacent to NGC 5999, they noticed the existence of other clusters not yet reported by previous studies. "We report the serendipitous discovery of three new open clusters, named UFMG 1, UFMG 2 and UFMG 3 in the field of the intermediate-age cluster NGC 5999, by using Gaia DR2 data," the paper reads. The newly identified clusters are located some 4,900 light years away from the Earth and contain at least a few hundred stars of nearly solar metallicity. The researchers estimate that the clusters have ages between 0.1 and 1.4 billion years. According to the paper, UFMG 1, UFMG 2 and UFMG 3 have limiting radii (the radius where the stellar density reaches the sky level) of 20.5, 15.6 and 19.5 light years respectively. For comparison, NGC 5999 has a limiting radius of about 15 light years. UFMG 1 and UFMG 2 have a more dense core when compared to UFMG 3, which exhibits a sparser central structure. Furthermore, the astronomers noted that UFMG 3 is located in the sky near two other known clusters: Majaess 166 and Teutsch 81. They added that the two objects are probably distant clusters projected in the direction of UFMG 3. Gerais' team also note that all the newly identified open clusters have well-defined main sequences and contain at least two giants, facilitating the isochrone fitting procedure. However, UFMG 2 has a developed red giant clump and presents a broader main sequence. This, according to the researchers, possibly indicates differential reddening and/or stellar populations with slow rotators (bluer stars) and fast rotators (redder stars), as is in the case of the open cluster known as "Wild Duck Cluster" (other designation Messier 11, or M 11 for short). Explore further Globular clusters could offer clues on formation and evolution of inner Milky Way More information: Filipe A. Ferreira. Three new Galactic star clusters discovered in the field of the open cluster NGC 5999 with Gaia DR2. arXiv:1812.10795 [astro-ph.GA]. Filipe A. Ferreira. Three new Galactic star clusters discovered in the field of the open cluster NGC 5999 with Gaia DR2. arXiv:1812.10795 [astro-ph.GA]. arxiv.org/abs/1812.10795 2019 Science X Network The mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier protein in the mitochondrial inner membrane, which carries out the vital task of transporting ADP into mitochondria and ATP out. Credit: MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit Scientists at the MRC-MBU in Cambridge, U.K., have discovered how a key transport protein, called the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier, transports adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the chemical fuel of the cell. This process is vital to keep us alive, every second of our lives, for all of our lives. This work will help us understand how mutations can affect the function of these proteins, resulting in a range of neuromuscular, metabolic and developmental diseases. Cellular structures, called mitochondria, are the powerhouses of our cells. Every day, we humans need our own body weight in ATP to fuel all of the cellular activities. Nerve impulses, muscle contraction, DNA replication and protein synthesis are just some examples of essential processes that depend upon a supply of ATP. Since we only have a small amount of ATP in our body, we need to remake it from the spent product ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and phosphate using an enzyme complex, called ATP synthase, which is located in mitochondria. In this way, every molecule of ATP is recycled roughly 1300 times a day. For ADP to reach the enzyme, and for the product ATP to refuel the cell, each molecule has to cross an impermeable lipid membrane that surrounds the mitochondria. The mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier is involved in the transport of ADP in and ATP out of mitochondria. The carrier cycles between two states; in one state, the central binding site is accessible for binding of ADP, called the cytoplasmic-open state, and in another, the binding site is accessible for binding newly synthesized ATP, called the matrix-open state. A key question has been how the protein is able to convert between these two states, changing its shape to transport ADP and ATP specifically, without letting other small molecules or ions leak across the membrane. The paper, "The molecular mechanism of transport by the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier," published in Cell, describes how scientists have solved the structure of the carrier trapped in the matrix-open state. The carrier was trapped in this state by using a compound called bongkrekic acid, a lethal toxin that binds to the protein and stops it from working. The researchers could also rely on Nanobody technology. Nanobodies are fragments of llama antibodies, which bind specifically to the matrix-open state, and the structure of carrier-nanobody complex with bound bongkrekic acid was determined by X-ray crystallography. Together with earlier structures of the cytoplasmic-open state, this discovery reveals how the carrier works at the atomic scale. The carrier is incredibly dynamic, using six moving elements to transport ADP or ATP across the membrane in a unique and carefully orchestrated way. The ADP/ATP carrier is just one member of a large family of related transport proteins that bring different compounds in and out of mitochondria, and based on this discovery, the scientists believe that this mechanism is likely to work in a similar way for the whole family. There are many diseases associated with dysfunction of these carriers and for the first time we understand how mutations affect their molecular function. Explore further Helping to transport proteins inside the cell More information: Jonathan J. Ruprecht et al. The Molecular Mechanism of Transport by the Mitochondrial ADP/ATP Carrier, Cell (2019). Journal information: Cell Jonathan J. Ruprecht et al. The Molecular Mechanism of Transport by the Mitochondrial ADP/ATP Carrier,(2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.11.025 Provided by MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit Researchers show that up to 15 million hectares of forest risk losing protection owing to a new clause in the law under which state governments can let private landowners protect only 50% of their property, down from 80% previously, if over 65% of the state is protected by conservation units or indigenous reservations . Credit: Bing Maps Up to 15 million hectares of tropical rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon could lose protection and be clear-cut because of an article in the country's new Forest Code. The warning comes from Brazilian researchers at the University of Sao Paulo's Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) and Swedish researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. They recently published a paper on the subject in Nature Sustainability. "The 15 million hectares that could become deprotected as a result of this rule in the new Forest Code are roughly equivalent to the entire legal reserve deficit that needs to be offset or restored in Brazil, and they consist mainly of tropical rainforest," said Gerd Sparovek , a professor at ESALQ-USP and a coauthor of the paper. "Loss of these areas to agriculture could nullify the effort to regularize legal reserves in Brazil and result in huge losses of biodiversity, impair ecosystem services of great value to society, such as water supply, and increase greenhouse gas emissions." Sparovek explained that until 2012, the Forest Code required private landowners in the Amazon region to set aside 80 percent of their property with intact native vegetation in what the law terms a "legal reserve." Now, however, under Article 12 (5), added at Amapa State's request when the Forest Code was amended and updated in 2012, any state in the Amazon region is allowed to reduce the legal reserve requirement from 80 percent to 50 percent if conservation units and indigenous reservations account for more than 65 percent of its territory. If the article is implemented, between 7 million and 15 million hectares of forest will be deprotected and could be legally cut down, according to the researchers. This computation accounts for the fact that states such as Amazonas, Roraima, Acre, and Amapa consist mostly of primary forest and have some 80 million hectares of undesignated public land. If conservation units and indigenous reservations are created on this public land, the law will allow private landowners in these states to reduce their legal reserves, opening up large areas for legal logging and agricultural expansion. "The removal of legal protection doesn't automatically mean these forest areas will be clear-cut, but it's important to pay attention to this in the current political context, which suggests a weakening of deforestation prevention mechanisms," said Flavio Luiz Mazzaro de Freitas, a Ph.D. researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and first author of the paper. Scenario modeling To assess the possible impact of a reduction in the legal reserve requirement to protect forest areas equivalent to 50 percent instead of 80 percent of public and private lands in the Amazon, the researchers used a georeferenced database for the entire country with land tenure datasets including official statistics for national and state conservation units, indigenous reservations and military land, as well as rural property and settlement databases maintained by the National Land Reform Institute (INCRA) and the Rural Environmental Register (CAR). Using this georeferenced database, the researchers modeled the implementation of Article 12 (5) of the new Forest Code under two different scenarios for the use of undesignated land in the Amazon. They termed the first land use scenario conservative in the sense that it assumed a high priority for nature conservation. The second scenario assumed full implementation of the new legal provision and was termed a worst-case scenario from the standpoint of protecting nature. The researchers quantified the potential reduction in forest protection under these two scenarios. They also assessed the risk of legal conversion of deprotected forest areas into agricultural land using measures of land suitability and market access, as well as the potential impact of such land conversion on carbon emissions and biodiversity. The results of their analysis suggest that Amapa, Roraima and Amazonas States would qualify for a reduction in private property legal reserves as per Article 12 (5) under both scenarios. Under the conservative scenario, conservation units or indigenous reservations would be created on 97 percent of the undesignated land in Amazonas and Amapa. Under this scenario, the new article of the Forest Code would remove protection from 6.5 million hectares (ha) of preserved forest4.6 million ha in Amazonas, 1.4 million ha in Roraima and 0.5 million ha in Amapa. The authors note that the more land is allocated to conservation units and indigenous reservations, the greater the aggregate protected area, but when the 65 percent threshold is reached and article 12 (5) is triggered, the aggregate deprotected area more than doubles. The researchers also estimated that under the conservative scenario, approximately half the area deprived of forest protection, or 3.14 million ha, would be in registered private properties, while approximately 1.9 million ha would be in land reform settlements and 0.6 million ha in untitled properties that would probably qualify for the ongoing land regularization program. Under the worst-case scenario, most of the reduction would take place in currently undesignated areas, where newly titled properties would be allowed to reduce legal reserves by more than 8 million ha. "The creation of conservation units and/or indigenous reservations in these states may have the side effect of increasing the likelihood of more deforestation," Sparovek said. The researchers suggested that legal measures taken by state governments in the context of the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) could mitigate the risk of extensive deforestation. Economic incentives may also help, given the strong global tendency to urge consumers not to buy products that originate in deforestation zones. Brazil's agricultural exports could be severely affected if deforestation increases in the Amazon region, they stressed. "By drawing attention to the possibility of an increase in legal deforestation in the Amazon, we hope our research findings will contribute to the development of public and private actions and strategies designed to mitigate potential environmental and social damage from this process," Freitas said. Explore further Large areas of the Brazilian rainforest at risk of losing protection More information: Flavio L. M. Freitas et al, Potential increase of legal deforestation in Brazilian Amazon after Forest Act revision, Nature Sustainability (2018). Journal information: Nature Sustainability Flavio L. M. Freitas et al, Potential increase of legal deforestation in Brazilian Amazon after Forest Act revision,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0171-4 Atlantic bluefin tuna. Credit: Public Domain Bluefin tuna are back in the sea around the U.K. after decades of absence and a new study says that warming seas can explain why. Bluefin tuna are one of the biggest, most valuable and most endangered fish in the oceans. Sportfishermen excited at the prospect of catching a fish that can grow to over 900 kg have already launched a U.K. campaign to allow recreational fishing for one of game fishing's top targets. But should we catch and exploit this endangered species or should we make U.K. waters a safe space for this species? Why has this endangered fish suddenly returned to the U.K. after an absence of nearly 40 years? And are bluefin tuna now more abundant, or have they just changed in their distribution? New research by Dr. Robin Faillettaz from the University of Lille (France), his French co-workers Drs Gregory Beaugrand and Eric Goberville, and Dr. Richard Kirby from the U.K. report that warmer seas can explain the reappearance of tuna around the U.K. Their research shows that the disappearance and reappearance of bluefin tuna in European waters can be explained by hydroclimatic variability due to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), a northern hemisphere climatic oscillation that increases the sea temperature in its positive phase, as it is now. To reach their conclusion, the scientists examined the changing abundance and distribution of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean over the last 200 years. They combined two modeling approaches, focusing on the intensity of the catches over time and on the distribution of the fish's occurrence, i.e., when it was observed or caught. Their results are unequivocal: The AMO is the major driver influencing both the abundance and the distribution of the bluefin tuna. Dr. Faillettaz says, "The ecological effects of the AMO have long been overlooked, and our results represent a breakthrough in understanding the history of bluefin tuna in the North Atlantic." The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation affects complex atmospheric and oceanographic processes in the northern hemisphere, including the strength and direction of ocean currents, drought on land, and even the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Approximately every 60 to 120 years the AMO switches between positive and negative phases to create a basin-scale shift in the distribution of Atlantic bluefin tuna. During a warm AMO phase, such as since the mid-1990s, bluefin tuna forage as far north as Greenland, Iceland and Norway, and almost disappear from the central and south Atlantic. During its previous warm phase, at the middle of the 20th century, the North Sea had a bluefin tuna fishery in Scarborough that rivaled the Mediterranean and the Bluefin Tunny sportfishing club. However, during a cold AMO phase, such as that between 1963-1995, bluefin tuna move south, and are more frequently found in the western, central, and even southern Atlantic, with few fish caught above 45N. In fact, the most striking example of the effect of the AMO on bluefin tuna is the sudden collapse of the large Nordic bluefin tuna fishery in 1963. The collapse coincides perfectly with the most rapid known switch in the AMO, which ranged from its highest to its lowest recorded value in only two years. After that, switch tuna also vacated the North Sea and the conditions remained unfavourable for bluefin tuna in the northern Atlantic until the late 1990s, when it started to reappear around the U.K. The scientists expect that bluefin tuna will continue to migrate to the U.K. and North Sea waters every year until the AMO reverses to a cold phase. However, they also highlight that the additional effect of global warming on sea temperatures will make the future response of bluefin tuna to changes in the AMO uncertain. Further to the effect of the AMO on where and when bluefin tuna occur in the Atlantic, the study also found that this climatic oscillation influences their recruitment, i.e., how many juvenile bluefin tuna grow to become adults. Dr. Faillettaz says, "When water temperature increases during a positive AMO, bluefin tuna move further north. However, the most positive phases of the AMO also have a detrimental effect upon recruitment in the Mediterranean Sea, which is currently the most important spawning ground, and that will affect adult abundance a few years later. If the AMO stays in a highly positive phase for several years, we may encounter more bluefin tuna in our waters but the overall population could actually be decreasing." Consequently, Dr. Beaugrand warns that "Global warming superimposed upon the AMO is likely to alter the now familiar patterns we have seen in bluefin tuna over the last four centuries. Increasing global temperatures may cause Atlantic bluefin tuna to persist in the Nordic region and shrink the species distribution in the Atlantic Ocean, and it may even cause the fish to disappear from the Mediterranean Sea, which is currently, the most important fishery." Dr. Goberville also raises another important observation, saying, "Because bluefin tuna are so noticeable, they are also an indicator of current temperature-driven changes in our seas that are occurring throughout the marine food chain from the plankton to fish and seabirds." The Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery encompasses most of the problems seen in fisheries around the world, including fleet overcapacity and political mismanagement; the species' distribution crosses exclusive economic zones and spans international, open-access waters (i.e., the entire North Atlantic, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico). Added to that, the long-term fluctuation in Atlantic bluefin tuna abundance was hitherto understood poorly, which represents a fundamental gap in this fish's sustainable management. Dr. Kirby says, "We have shown why bluefin tuna occur when and where in the North Atlantic, and what may influence their recruitment and abundance, and this is fundamental to understanding the management of a fish that is endangered due to overfishing. Bluefin tuna have been extensively overfished during the 20th century, and the stock was close to its lowest in 1990, a fact that further indicates the recent changes in distribution are most likely environmentally driven rather than due to fisheries management and stock recovery. Before further exploiting bluefin tuna either commercially or recreationally for sportfishing, we should consider whether it would be better to protect them by making the UK's seas a safe space for one of the ocean's most endangered top fish." The lead author, Dr. Faillettaz, says, "Our results demonstrate that local changes in Atlantic bluefin tuna abundance can reflect large-scale shifts in a species' distribution that are unrelated to improvements or worsening of a stock's abundance. In this context we hope that our study will highlight the need to consider the environment when planning the sustainable management of all migratory fish species." Explore further Eighty tons of illegal bluefin tuna pose a threat to sustainable fisheries and human health More information: Robin Faillettaz et al. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations drive the basin-scale distribution of Atlantic bluefin tuna, Science Advances (2019). Journal information: Science Advances Robin Faillettaz et al. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations drive the basin-scale distribution of Atlantic bluefin tuna,(2019). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar6993 Provided by Secchi Disk Foundation View (from the east) of the main columned hall of the early 18th Dynasty urban villa discovered at Tell Edfu. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 Excavation work led by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute team has unearthed a large urban villa dating back to the early New Kingdom, about 1500-1450 B.C.E. The findings at the site of Tell Edfu in southern Egypt include a large hall containing a rare and well-preserved example of a domestic shrine dedicated to family ancestors. "It has been more than 80 years since such a shrine for the ancestors was discovered in Egypt, and the ones we did have were rarely within an undisturbed context," said Nadine Moeller, associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at UChicago, who leads the Tell Edfu Project excavation with Oriental Institute research associate Gregory Marouard. Located about 400 miles south of Cairo in the Nile Valley, the ancient city of Tell Edfu was a provincial capital occupied for nearly 3,000 years. The archaeological fieldwork has excavated settlement remains and monuments from Egypt's Old Kingdom (ca. 2400 B.C.E.) all the way to the Ptolemaic period (332-30 B.C.E). The project is currently part of the work of the Oriental Institute, a leading center for the study of ancient Near Eastern civilizations founded in 1919. The latest discovery at the site of Tell Edfu is one of the earliest examples of an ancestral shrine from the New Kingdom, and the first archaeological example discovered in many decades, Moeller and Marouard said. A view of the column area under excavation (left) and the sandstone column inscribed with the name of the high priest of the temple of Horus, Amenmose (right). Credit: GM and HMD - Tell Edfu Project 2018 The last excavation, completed in December 2018, has focused on a large urban villa of about 440 square yards, which dates from the beginning of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. The building has several rooms with columns, the largest, a six-columned hall measuring about 33 feet by 26 feet, contains a well-preserved domestic sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the family ancestors of the inhabitants. The shrine was located in a corner of the main room, and traces indicate it was surrounded by a wooden structure. It includes a small fireplace and offering table, two small pedestals in mudbrick, several complete or fragmented stelae (upright inscribed slabs of stone or wood), a rare example of a bust of a female ancestor, and a statuette of a seated scribe. The limestone bust shows a woman wearing a long tripartite wig and a broad necklace called a wesekh collar. Traces of paint indicate that this small 8-inch bust once had been painted. Bust of a female ancestor found on the floor of the domestic sanctuary. She wears a long tripartite wig and a broad necklace called a wesekh collar. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 The statuette of the scribe, carved out of hard black diorite, shows a man seated on a chair, wearing a shoulder-length wig and a long tight-fitting kilt clutching a papyrus roll in front of his chest with his left hand. Inscriptions indicate he was a high-level administrator at Edfu named Juf. Nearby was also what Moeller described as a "small but significant" limestone stela, which shows a man and women standing next to each other in raised relief in the center. Though the hieroglyphic text surrounding the couple mentions the common offering formula and includes the names and titles of the two figures, their faces and names show signs of deliberate damage inflicted in ancient times, making it difficult to read their names. "Currently our best knowledge about such cultic installations within a domestic house comes from the famous workmen village of Deir el-Medineh, near Luxor, dating to the much later Ramesside period. So far, our example from Tell Edfu is one of the oldest known for the New Kingdom period," Moeller said. "We are thrilled to find such a complete set of artifacts within their original archaeological context. This should help us answer a lot of questions about the various cultic activities that were carried out at this shrine, in addition to reconstructing the identities of the former owners who lived in this villa." Female ancestor bust of limestone. She wears a long tripartite wig and a broad necklace called a wesekh collar. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 While excavating the later occupation levels above this villa, researchers also found a large sandstone column mentioning a high priest of the temple of Horus in Edfu called Amenmose, which dates to this time period but was reused in a house many centuries later. The new findings reinforce the presence of an important high-ranking elite in this specific part of the ancient city of Edfu during the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, a period of political consolidation in Upper Egypt by the Theban kings Ahmose, Amenhotep I and Thutmose I, Moeller said. The Tell Edfu excavation, which began in 2001, has served as training for University of Chicago students for many years, Moeller said. This particular excavation included fieldwork by graduate students Emilie Sarrazin, Raghda el-Bahaedi, Sasha Rohret, Rebecca Wang and Maja Sunleaf. Statuette of a scribe, made of black diorite, found on the floor of the domestic sanctuary. Inscriptions indicate he was a high-level administrator at Edfu named Juf. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 Statuette of the seated scribe of the province of Edfu. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 Limestone stela showing a man and woman standing next to each other. Their faces and names show signs of deliberate damage inflicted in ancient times, making it difficult to read their names. Credit: GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018 Explore further Newly discovered buildings reveal clues to ancient Egyptian dynasties Baylor University political scientist Patrick Flavin, Ph.D. Credit: Baylor University Americans are happier in states where governments spend more on public goods, among them libraries, parks, highways, natural resources and police protection, a Baylor University study has found."Public goods are things you can't exclude people from usingand one person using them doesn't stop another from doing so," said researcher Patrick Flavin, Ph.D., associate professor of political science in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences. "They're typically not profitable to produce in the private market, so if the government doesn't provide them, they will either be under-provided or not at all." Public goods spending makes communities "more livable, with more amenities," Flavin said. "If roads are completed and kept up, so that people aren't stuck in traffic, they have more time to do things they enjoy doing. Large parks are social spacesand one clear finding of happiness studies is that people who are more socially connected tend to be happier." Another benefit of spending money on public goods is that such amenities generally boost home valuesand "while higher property taxes generally accompany higher home values, it seems that the good outweighs the unfortunate part about having to pay higher taxes," Flavin said. In his study, published in the journal Social Science Research, Flavin analyzed data on respondents' self-reported levels of happiness for 1976-2006 from the General Social Survey, a representative sample of Americans that monitors social characteristics and attitudes of Americans and is a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Flavin also analyzed detailed government spending data for states from the U.S. Census Bureau for 1976-2006. Revenues to fund state public goods are raised from a combination of state taxes and transfers from the federal government to states, averaging 22.5 percent of total state revenues for that 30-year period. "We can look at the city where people live, their neighborhoods, and see how public goods spending predicts happiness after taking other important factors, such as marital status, health, education and income, into account," Flavin said. He also found that public goods spending has broad benefits across income, education, gender and race/ethnicity lines. "Compared to a lot of the other government spending, public goods tend to be less controversial between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, compared to poverty assistance or unemployment benefits, where there is definite disagreement between political parties," Flavin said. "I think there is less political conflict over public goods spending simply because if they government doesn't provide them, they won't be provided at all." Flavin cautioned that there is not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between public goods and happiness. "It could be that happier citizens self-select by moving to states that spend comparatively more on public goods," he said. "It also is possible that happier citizens support higher spending on public goods and elect state officials to deliver on that policy." Because some spending for public goods comes from local government, Flavin hopes to do a study linking citizens to their local city instead of only to the state. And because living a happy and satisfying life is a nearly universal human goal, he predicts that better understanding of how policies concretely impact quality of life will receive increasing attention from researchers in the years to come. Explore further Social class determines whether buying experiences or things brings greater happiness More information: Patrick Flavin, State government public goods spending and citizens' quality of life, Social Science Research (2018). Journal information: Social Science Research Patrick Flavin, State government public goods spending and citizens' quality of life,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.11.004 A poll of more than 1,000 Southeast Asian experts, analysts and business leaders has laid bare the concerns of a region trying to find its way amid the rise of China and the decline of the United States influence. The State of Southeast Asia: 2019 Report portrays an array of thought leaders who are losing faith in Washington, but still harbour deep concerns about Beijing. More than 68 per cent of those surveyed doubted the reliability of the US as a strategic partner and provider of regional security. At the same time, the report authored by the Asean Studies Centre at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute said only 8.9 per cent viewed China as a benign and benevolent power. Of those surveyed, almost 45 per cent said they anticipated an uncertain or turbulent year ahead. Nearly 70 per cent of respondents said the US and China are on a collision course in Southeast Asia, with that opinion most pronounced in Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia. Only 22.5 per cent expected the two superpowers to resolve their differences and agree to a working relationship. The State of Southeast Asia: 2019 was an online survey that canvassed the views of regional experts across professional backgrounds. The report, according to its authors, aimed to present the prevailing attitudes among those in position to inform or influence policy on regional political, economic and social issues and concerns. Almost 60 per cent of those polled said that US power and influence on the global stage has either deteriorated (45.6 per cent) or deteriorated substantially (13.5 per cent), with the highest degree of concern over the US decline in the Philippines and Singapore. For Beijings ambitions, more than 45 per cent of respondents said China will become a revisionist power with an intent to turn Southeast Asia into its sphere of influence. This was the top response in six Asean states, led by the Philippines and Vietnam. Story continues Tang Siew Mun, the head of the Asean Studies Centre and an author of the study, said the degree of scepticism about Chinas intentions was unexpected. Concerns about Chinas growing assertiveness have been simmering in the past decade, and are now coming to a boil. The survey reflects that heightened sense of wariness, Tang told the Post. However, we should be careful not to interpret these findings as anti-China, but as a wake-up call that Chinas strong-arm tactics and attempts to mould the region in its image will face considerable pushback. Wang Yong, director of the Centre for International Political Economy at Peking University, describes this process as a transition of power in the region. As such, he advises caution. China is a rising power, and as the neighbouring region, Asean has started to feel its influence, Wang told the Post. Different from the US, Japan and the European Union, China is geographically close to Southeast Asia, so it is a natural thing that the region doesnt put confidence on China. This fits the old saying: Make friends with distant countries and attack the nearest ones. China must face up to this geopolitical reality. Wang continued: It usually takes a long time to build confidence on each other in the course of regional power transition. Given this factor, China and Asean countries should work together to build regional security and dispute settlement mechanisms based on the concepts of shared security, equality and justice. The two sides should move forward toward regional security architecture. The report was clear that Chinas economic influence reigns supreme in the region, a view expressed by more than 73 per cent of those who answered, with those who thought the US was on top in this regard came in at less than 8 per cent. Even so, regional views on Chinas signature Belt and Road Initiative were mixed. Nearly 50 per cent said the project would bring Asean member states into Chinas orbit, led by respondents in Singapore and Vietnam. The other half said Chinas loans associated with the belt and road plan provided much-needed infrastructure funding for countries in the region. Moe Thuzar, lead researcher at the Asean Studies Centre, said this division was a display of pragmatism in how Southeast Asians factor geopolitics and economics into their individual domestic, and collective, regional, positions. Attitudes towards our big neighbour to the north reflect this the most, I believe, especially in the recognition that Chinas economic footprint in the region is large, but also in the caution towards embracing [belt and road plan] overtures, and the concern over the collision course, said Thuzar from Singapore. I dont think Southeast Asians or Asean want to choose sides, but are aware that the interests of the US and China are in this region are know more colliding than competing. The surveys segment on trust was another blow to China and the US. More than 50 per cent of respondents had little (35.5 per cent) or no confidence (16 per cent) that either superpower would do the right thing in contributing to global peace, security, prosperity and governance. The big winner in trust was Japan, which was viewed most positively by Southeast Asians at more than 65 per cent approval. Western soft power is still dominant in the region, the survey found. More than 80 per cent favoured American, European or Australian universities, and English was overwhelmingly considered the most useful and beneficial foreign language in the region. Wang, of Peking University, said China and Southeast Asia should promote education and culture exchanges to reduce misperceptions, misunderstanding, and to develop closer people-to-people relations. His assessment of the current situation was blunt: Such exchanges are so far not nearly enough, and badly needed. Not everyone was surprised by Chinas poor showing in the survey. Sophal Ear, associate professor of world affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles, the re-emergence of China is simply awaking old sentiments. Twenty years ago or even 10 years ago, the negative sentiments towards China would have been more muted. The US would be far more influential, he said. What youre seeing now is the recognition of China as the unstoppable force that it has become, but also a worry that Southeast Asia is increasingly realising that resistance is futile. And that, obviously, is not what most of the population of Southeast Asia wants. They want their national distinctiveness to remain and under the US, that seemed more possible. Maybe theres wistfulness for the past and fear of a Chinese future. This article Southeast Asia has major doubts about US reliability in the region, but still wary of China: survey first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Japan on Monday started levying a 1,000 yen ($9.22) departure tax on each person leaving the country, a measure aimed at raising funds to further boost tourism. The International Tourist Tax will cover everyone regardless of nationality -- from business people to holidaymakers older than two years of age -- and will be tacked on to the price of a airline ticket. The government wants to use an estimated 50 billion yen ($460 million) it will generate in additional tax revenue to improve tourism infrastructure, such as making airport immigration processes faster and encouraging visitors to explore areas beyond traditionally popular destinations such as Tokyo and Kyoto. Japan has been aggressively courting international tourists as a new pillar of economic growth. More than 30 million foreigners are estimated to have visited Japan in 2018, a new record, thanks to a steady flow of tourists from Asia -- particularly China, South Korea and Taiwan. The nation aims to boost visitor figures to 40 million by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games. A fragile truce in Singapore's founding family was shattered Monday after state prosecutors alleged the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's estranged brother may be guilty of professional misconduct. The allegations mark the latest flare-up in a bitter quarrel between Premier Lee, and his younger brother and sister following the death in 2015 of their father, Singapore's revered founding leader Lee Kuan Yew. At the centre of the dispute is a century-old family bungalow, which the late Lee wanted demolished after his death to avoid the creation of a personality cult. The prime minister's siblings -- Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling -- accuse their brother of blocking the house's demolition to capitalise on their father's legacy for his own political agenda. The scandal erupted into public consciousness in 2017 and for months gripped a city-state not used to open criticism of its leaders, but had largely died down since the siblings vowed to stop their attacks on social media. But tensions rose again in a separate case Monday when prosecutors announced the wife of Premier Lee's brother, a top corporate lawyer, had been referred to a body that oversees the work of lawyers due to possible professional misconduct. The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC), the government's prosecuting arm, said Lee Suet Fern's involvement in the preparation of the elder Lee's last will involved a conflict of interest as her husband was one of the beneficiaries. "Mr Lee Hsien Yang's share increased under the last will," the AGC said in a statement. It said it had asked Lee Suet Fern multiple times to explain her position since October last year but did not receive a reply, prompting it to refer the matter to the professional lawyers' body for disciplinary action. Lee Wei Ling said in a Facebook post also shared by Lee Hsien Yang that the AGC's 500-page complaint was a repetition of allegations made by Premier Lee. She called the prosecutors' actions an "unprecedented use of such legal process involving a private will" and "wholly without merit". Premier Lee has denied the allegations of blocking the bungalow's demolition. Mayorof Daraga, Albay also planned to kill his predecessor, the late mayor Gerry Jaucian, beforeof Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe in December. This was according to Emmanuel Jaduvar, the PNPs main witness to the slaying of Batocabe, investigators said Monday. READ: PNP tags mayor in Batocabe slay This developed as the authorities tried to figure out who would receive the P50-million reward for the capture of the gunmen that killed the lawmaker and his bodyguard before New Years Day. Also, the results of the PNP Crime Laboratorys ballistics exam showed that the bullet slugs and shells found at the crime scene matched the Norinco caliber .40 pistol registered under one of the suspects, Henry Yuson, police Director General Oscar Albayalde said in a press conference. Chief Supt. Amado Corpuz of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said police were leaning on Jaduvars statement that Baldo had offered P350,000 sometime in 2018 to have Jaucian assassinated. The same people who gunned down Batocabe were involved, Corpuz said, but the plot against Jaucian fizzled out because the mayor died of illness sometime in 2018. Jaucian passed away on May 4, 2018 after a battle with lung cancer. He was 70, and his death allowed Baldo, Daragas vice mayor at the time, to assume the mayoralty. READ: Batocabe slay: 2 more suspects surrender Police have filed double murder and six counts of frustrated murder charges against Baldo and his supposed accomplices. The mayor has denied the allegations he wanted Batocabe, a looming rival for mayor in this years May elections, snuffed out, saying he was being made a convenient scapegoat. Meanwhile, Albayalde said 11 caliber .50 shells and five slugs matched Yusons licensed firearms, which he said was used at the Batocabe crime scene, according to the crime lab findings.That will now boost our case, the PNP chief said. In his affidavit, Yuson admitted to using his own licensed gun when the caliber .45 pistol his group bought for the killing jammed. PNP records showed, the registration of Yusons Norinco caliber .40 has been expired since 2015, UNTV News reported. READ: Gunman owns up to Batocabe slay , he shot at the lawmakers police escort, Senior Police Officer 1 Orlando Diaz. He also sustained gunshot wounds to his arm and his side, as somebody from the lawmakers group exchanged fire with them, but Yuson couldnt verify who. Authorities previously said a former security aide of Baldo participated in planning the killing, but backed out and later gave vital information to investigators. PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. said investigators will look into who should get the reward money at the right time and in coordination with the lawmakers and local officials who raised the bounty. Police are currently focused on gathering physical evidence to bolster the gunmens claim against Baldo, Durana told radio DZMM. Only one of the six gunmen has yet to sign his extrajudicial confession as of early Monday, he said. It could go either way: China and the United States ready for trade war talks in Beijing China and the United States will face a daunting task to end their trade war when officials from both sides meet in Beijing on Monday for their first face-to-face talks since the start of a 90-day tariff ceasefire last month. Sources said the working-level discussions would nonetheless be substantial, as both sides were expected to take stock of offers and demands, as well as assess how initial promises had been carried through. Deputy US trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the US delegation, who will meet their vice-ministerial counterparts in the Chinese capital for two days of talks. A Chinese government adviser on trade policy said in condition of anonymity that a major deal could only be reached by more senior officials such as Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, top negotiators for both countries. The vice-ministerial talks wont solve all the problems but both sides are expected to take the chance to check their respective demands and offers and to check any chance to reach a trade deal, the adviser said. Both sides are close to finding a solution to address the trade imbalance, and China is open to moving on some of its structural problems in the economy. It will also take steps towards market-oriented competition, but the US should realise that it takes time ... otherwise it leaves no room for negotiation. US-based Politico reported that US officials were expected to look closely at whether China had carried through on earlier promises. In late 2018, Chinese officials gave the United States proposals to address its government subsidies, market access barriers and intellectual property theft. Those documents, and a more recent US response, are expected to be the focus of this weeks talks. If Gerrish hears that the Chinese are really serious about doing some hard things, putting meat on the bones of vague commitments and willing to work with the US on verification and enforcement mechanisms, then I think youll see negotiations move forward at an accelerated clip, a US industry official told Politico. Story continues If not, its going to be more difficult, the official said. Observers said both sides needed to tackle the problems because the tariffs had taken a bite out of the economy, sending US stocks tumbling and adding to downward risks in China. But the Lunar New Year holiday in February and annual legislature meetings in March mean there is limited time to address the disputes. Renmin University international relations professor Wang Yiwei said that in the talks China was expected to deliver specific commitments to expand market access, improve protection of intellectual property rights and reduce the trade surplus with the US, but it would take time to reform state-owned firms another major source of friction. China has been preparing for a change in policy tack since leading officials met in Beijing last month for the annual agenda-setting central economic working conference. Wang said that this time the US appeared less chaotic, with the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) leading the negotiations. It is time for both countries to work out a clear road map on what can be done, he said. Wang said most of Chinas potential commitments dovetailed with planned reforms but Washington should realise that changes to SOEs could only be gradual. The US should also refrain from pressing China for more compromises, otherwise it will never end. In addition, without a deal over trade between the two countries, it would be very hard to push forward reform of the World Trade Organisation this year, he said. For its part, China has resumed purchases of US soybeans, suspended punitive tariffs on imports of US cars and toned down its Made in China 2025 hi-tech policy. It has also proposed clear bans on forced technology transfer in new draft foreign investment legislation. Another Chinese government adviser said China was trying to defuse tensions and create conditions for a bigger truce in the first half of this year, but the US is unlikely to stop containment on Chinas technology upgrade plans. Peking University international relations professor Zha Daojiong said the talks could go either way. One prospect is that this round of talks prepares the way for commitments to be firmed up later at a higher level. The other prospect is that neither side ... expects much to come from such meetings, Zha said. Quite possibly, it is going to be the latter case. Still, former US government officials have told the South China Morning Post that the US delegation is a serious group of negotiators. Spencer Toubia, a former US Department of Commerce analyst in the Trump administration and now an international trade lawyer at law firm Crowell & Moring, said Gerrish was a strong and tough negotiator in which Ambassador Lighthizer has great confidence. Gerrish will be supported by, among others, Gregg Doud, the USTRs chief agricultural negotiator, who comes from a family of soybean farmers; undersecretary of commerce for international trade Gilbert Kaplan; and Treasury Department undersecretary for international affairs David Malpass. Frank Lavin, who held the same position as Kaplan in the George W Bush administration, described them as a serious group of trade professionals, they are not polemicists. They are going to Beijing for serious talks. He said the vice-ministerial level meeting indicated that there was already an offer on the table from China, or at least the bones of a deal. These vice-ministers arent showing up to say: what ideas do you have? Theyre showing up to evaluate on the ideas and see whether the US can push for more ... In my view, cabinet-level people show up for the last mile of negotiations. It is not realistic to expect them engaged at this point, Lavin said. Furthermore, speculation that the ongoing US shutdown would affect negotiations has been shot down. Toubia said the USTR was operating at full force, while the negotiators positions would have been cemented and established long before Washington closed for business before Christmas. But Zha of Peking University said he doubted there would be an extension of the March 1 ceasefire deadline if an agreement could not be reached by then. The US side might not have much more ammunition than raising tariffs on the trade front. But then, again, the trade talks are only partially about trade. So, stay tuned, he said. This article It could go either way: China and the United States ready for trade war talks in Beijing first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. More from South China Morning Post: A man found with more than 80 wild toads in eastern China could face a prison term of up to three years if convicted of illegal hunting. The man, identified only by his surname Zhang, was detained after police found the live toads in a plastic bucket he was carrying in Pizhou, Jiangsu province, on Christmas Day, according to the official microblog of the citys police department. I didnt know that catching toads is illegal, Zhang was quoted as saying. While toads are not classified as rare or endangered animals in China, they are listed as three-value species of commercial, research and environmental value to the country. Hunting more than 20 of any of these animals constitutes a crime, while anybody found with more than 50 of them risks a prison sentence, according to the criminal law. More than 1,700 species have been added to the category since the State Forestry and Grassland Administration started listing them in 2000, and the tally includes sparrows, frogs, wall lizards, hares, pheasants and snakes. Anybody wanting to hunt the listed animals must have a licence and abide by quotas. In 2017, a farmer in Zhejiang province was reported to police for capturing 114 toads. The farmer had killed all but five of them and planned to cook them for dinner. Many internet commenters were surprised that hunting toads was illegal. In 2013, a man was detained for six months and later given a one-year suspended sentence for illegally hunting 300 sparrows. This article Chinese police pounce on hunter over illegal toad haul first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Mexican drivers in several states are struggling to fill their tanks as the new government fights massive fuel theft by seeking to move more gasoline by tanker trucks instead of pipelines, Reuters reports, citing a local source who said a number of fuel stations in Guadalajara remained closed yesterday for lack of fuel and those that were open had long lines of drivers waiting for a fill-up. Mexicos military took control over 58 key fuel installations in the country in late December, including refineries, upon orders by new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to fight corruption and fuel theft within and outside state-run energy company Pemex. Lopez Obrador unveiled a plan on December 27 to increase the presence of military and the use of the army in fighting rampant fuel theft that has been costing Mexicos state firm Pemex billions of dollars annually. According to Pemexs own estimates, the losses from fuel theft over the past three years have reached US$7.5 billion (147 billion Mexican pesos). A lot of the theft is conducted by gangs who are quick to resort to violence as they fight among themselves for greater access to state fuels and also engage in extortion of oil workers, Reuters notes. According to Lopez Obrador, authorities are also involved in widespread fuel theft. The fuel shortage could indeed create a problem for the Mexican economy, but judging from the new administrations actions, the strategy seems to be a quick and final crackdown on the practice despite the discomfort it would create. I ask citizens for understanding and support, because we need to solve this problem together. We are trying to get it resolved soon, Obrador said recently in a television address. This would involve costlier tanker truck transport and delays in supplies as one pipeline remains closed. Reuters recalls a survey from 2017 that revealed fuel thieves had tapped into pipelines every 1.4 km on average. Pemexs pipeline network totals 14,000 km. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The EastMed gas pipeline between Cyprus, Greece and Israel will revolutionise the economies and geo-politics of the region. The project comes from an emerging alliance between the three countries who must move forward cautiously in the face of neighbouring States opposition. Eastern Mediterranean: the Bigger Picture On December 20th, the Prime Ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Israel converged on the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. All three parties publicly committed to signing a high-level agreement in the near future. Such an agreement would solidify one of the longest and deepest underwater gas pipeline in the world. It is expected to deliver approximately 10 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas to the European Union (EU) through Greece and Italy. The EU is keen to support the project and diversify its natural gas imports away from the heavily sanctioned Russian Federation and declining North Sea gas production. The EastMed project would fulfil roughly 10-15% the EUs projected natural gas needs. The United States is also supporting the project as it sees the growing trilateral alliance as a bulwark of democracy and stability in a largely authoritarian and war-torn region. A New Regional Alliance This development is also the culmination of an alliance that has been years in the making. The last decade has seen growing cooperation between Cyprus, Greece and Israel as all three countries have been supporting one another in various strategic areas. This includes deepening military ties in the face of an increasingly unstable and conflict prone Eastern Mediterranean. These developments are specifically aimed at Turkey, a neighboring state that has become increasingly aggressive and authoritarian. Turkey is threatening to derail the project within the context of ongoing Cypriot Conflict. Related: Canadas Natural Gas Crisis Is Being Ignored The project will be the culmination of a strategic alliance between three smaller countries who are faced with increasingly more aggressive competitors and crisiss in the region. Turkey, Russia and Iran are all increasingly active in the region looking to forward their own interests. As the United States continues to play less of a role on the ground Cyprus, Greece and Israel will be able to create positive reinforcement through bilateral relations or the newly created secretariat economically, politically and militarily. Who Stands to Benefit? The domestic economies of the individual states within the trilateral alliance stand to benefit immensely from the project. Cyprus is estimated to have roughly 4.5 BCM of natural gas in the Aphrodite Field which is currently being developed within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a huge sum. Israel is estimated to have significantly larger amounts within its EEZ in the form of the Leviathan and Tamar fields. Both of these small countries will benefit immensely from being able to export to the massive EU market through Greece. The latters own economy will likely see a boost from the investment needed to support the infrastructure of the pipeline. There is also the possibility of linking the pipeline to the operational Egyptian Zohr Field. The EU will benefit from being able to diversify its energy sources. It would allow the EU to guarantee some energy security to its Member States as North Sea production falls. An over reliance on Russian natural gas also places the EU in a difficult position, because it continues sanctioning Russia over its activities in Ukraine and the meddling in the democratic processes of EU Member States. The EU will likely try to lower market prices on natural gas which have been steadily rising the last few years. In the long run, the EastMed Pipeline may provide nearly double the expected output of 10 BCM for export if ongoing offshore exploration provides positive outcomes. Who is Missing Out? Turkey and Russia are both set to lose out given current developments. Greece and Turkey have a historically difficult relationship which has recently flared up within the context of the 2016 Coup and Refugee Crisis. Cyprus and Turkey continue to butt headsover the northern half of the island following the 1974 War. Israel and Turkey were once close allies. The rise of Erdogan and the AK Party over a decade ago made Turkey a major patron of Hamas. The Mavi Marmara Incident has contributed to the deterioration in ties between the two sides. Turkey would have been the natural route for the Pipeline, but the ongoing disputes show why this will never happen. Related: Has U.S. Fracking Activity Peaked Already? Russia is the main supplier of natural gas to the EU and a historical ally of Greece. If the EU is able to continue to diversify its energy needs away from the Russian gas giants of which the EastMed is a small but important first step Russia will lose leverage over the EU within the context of both gas prices and geopolitical issues between the two sides. The historically close relationship between Russia and Greece is also in jeopardy. The pipeline project is heavily supported by the United States; when we couple this with Russia and Turkeys warming ties, Russia appears to be losing a historically important relationship in an increasingly strategic region. Possible Obstacles Two major obstacles to the project are present in the form of the Lebanese based Hezbollah and Turkey. Hezbollah is Israels arch-foe, the two sides fought an all-out war in 2006, a conflict neither side wishes to repeat. This is something Hezbollah is attempting to use for its own advantage threatening to strike at Israels sea-based gas fields. Israel is preparing for this outcome, but Hezbollahs missile arsenal is vast and powerful; any escalation in conflict, especially given the ongoing Operation Northern Shield may lead to disruptions in the project. President Erdogan has made it very clear that he is vehemently against any development of the Cypriot gas fields within the EEZ without some form of resolution to the conflict. This has materialized with Turkish naval action in the past and with the beginning of own explorations in the EEZ. Turkey has used military force in the past and ongoing developments in the region -specifically the US withdrawal from Syria following a phone call with Erdogan has emboldened Turkey. Aggressive action by Turkey to safeguard its own interests cannot be discounted. By Global Risk Insights More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Libya plans to pump 2.1 million bpd of crude oil by 2021 if the security situation improves, the chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, said as quoted by Reuters this weekend. The ambitious plan would represent a doubling of the current rate of production in the North African country: according to Sanalla, Libyas output currently stands at 953,000 bpd. Thats less than what the country produced earlier this year, prior to the latest blockade of the largest field, Sharara, which removed more than 300,000 bpd from the total daily average. However, its more than what Libya pumped in the summer when violent clashes at its oil terminals crushed oil production by almost half from the 1 million bpd earlier in the year. Sharara, on which NOC declared force majeure in mid-December, has yet to resume production when the security conditions for workers improve, Sanalla said, adding that incidents such as the blockade by tribesmen and members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard demanding payments to lift the blockade, are discouraging foreign companies from returning to Libya and helping it to expand its oil production. However, Sanalla said, BP will be returning to the country and so will Russian companies, which he declined to name. Last October, BPs chief executive Bob Dudley told Reuters that BP and Eni will begin exploratory drilling in Libya in the first quarter of next year. BP has 85 percent in an offshore oil and gas block in the North African country, and earlier this year the Italian major struck a deal with BP to buy half of it. Im not sure about this year since it takes time to set up offshore rigs but Q1 for sure, Dudley said at the time. Chinese companies might also join BP and the Russians in Libya, according to Sanalla. He announced at a news conference that he would visit China by the end of March this year to discuss investment opportunities. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Historically the Mediterranean hasnt been the focus of oil and gas producing companies. With the exception of Algeria and Libya which owe their energy industry to the Sahara region. Recent discoveries, however, have put the Eastern Mediterranean in the spotlight. In the case of Cyprus, the unresolved division of the island and overlapping claims with Turkey have created an extra layer of complexity when it comes to attracting international energy companies. Despite close political relations between Qatar and Turkey, Qatar Petroleum has joined ExxonMobil in a joint venture concerning gas exploration in the EEZ of Cyprus. Ankara, however, has remained strikingly silent on Dohas participation. The potential of the Eastern Mediterranean Over the years major natural gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean have turned the fortunes of the littoral states. Especially Israel stands to benefit as almost all of its energy needs are met by foreign producers such as Russia and Azerbaijan. The recently discovered gas fields in its EEZ are sufficient to meet the countrys needs while at the same time surplus gas is exported. Egypt, on the other hand, became a net importer of LNG in 2014 due to rising consumption and a slump in domestic production. The discovery of the massive Zohr gas field has significantly changed Cairos energy outlook. Egypt is slated to become a regional gas hub. On February 8, 2018, Eni announced the discovery of the Calypso gas field in Cyprus EEZ which confirms the extension of the Zohr like play. This find was especially significant for Nicosia as it makes it more likely that Cypriot gas can be developed on its own. Previous discoveries such as Aphrodite are regarded too small which needed to be aggregated with non-Cypriot gas in order to become profitable. Cyprus difficult relations with Turkey and the northern Turkish inhabitants of the island are a serious impediment for the quick development of the gas fields. Turkey playing hardball While most of the littoral states have announced multiple discoveries, Turkey is missing out. Ankara has put pressure on gas exploration in Cypriot waters due to two reasons: first, it maintains that also the Turkish inhabitants of the island should benefit from gas production. Second, the Turks claim certain parts of Cyprus EEZ due to the apparent extension of the continental shelf. For this reason, Turkish naval vessels blocked an exploration ship leased by Eni in February 2018 in block 3. Related: 2019 Could Make Or Break OPEC (Click to enlarge) Exxon and Qatar Petroleum have joined forces in exploratory work in block 10. In a statement, the Turkish government has said: "ExxonMobils gas exploration in the so-called block 10 licensed by South Cyprus does not contribute to the stability of the country or the region and may change specific and delicate balances in relation to resolving the Cyprus issue. Washington, however, has warned Turkey on several occasions not to obstruct Nicosia in its legitimate actions. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell said: "Turkey's view on the gas exploration and drilling efforts of Cyprus is a minority one, and the United States would not take a friendly view in any harassment in Cypriot waters, especially those involving U.S. vessels". Related: Why Goldman Just Drastically Slashed Its Oil Price Prediction Despite Turkeys fierce rhetoric aimed at international energy companies, Qatar Petroleum has escaped Ankaras ire due to three reasons: first, ExxonMobil is the lead operator while Qatar Petroleum is a junior partner. Second, the exploratory ships are Exxon's which Doha doesn't have much say over. Lastly and most importantly, drilling is taking place in one of the few areas which aren't claimed by Ankara. However, Turkey's opposition to Qatar's participation is expressed behind closed doors. As long as Doha doesnt extend its cooperation in areas which are more difficult to ignore by Ankara, the Turks will be able to overlook Qatar Petroleum's cooperation with Exxon. Furthermore, Turkey is also aware that it shouldn't erode Doha's sovereignty. The close cooperation between the countries is caused by the Saudi led bloc's blockade of Qatar and its attacks on the tiny country's sovereignty. Therefore, for now, Ankara will remain opposed to gas production in Cypriot waters while avoiding confrontation with Qatar over its economic interests. By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Thank you for Reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content. Supreme Court Associate Justice Noel Tijam, who reached his mandatory retirement age of 70 on Saturday, Jan. 5, has expressed confidence that the 15-member bench is in capable hands. Tijam, who was President Rodrigo Dutertes second appointee to the SC, attended the flag ceremony on Monday to give his `valedictory message to his colleagues at the high court. Tijam, who penned the decision ousting then-Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, admitted that his stint as SC magistrate has been a thrilling and enriching experience and that is why it almost feels like leaving home. To everyone here in the Court, I leave here knowing that the Court is in capable hands, Tijam told SC colleagues and personnel present during the flag raising ceremony. People always say that the judiciary is passive, but if there is anything that my two-year stint here in the Supreme Court has shown me, it is that all of . . . are watchful and vigilant in protecting all the ideals that this institution stands for. Last Friday, the SC held a retirement ceremony where Tijam was given the Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Award and several tokens representing the judiciary. In a speech during the ceremony, Tijam recognized public criticism of court actions, but he lamented that oftentimes, these opinions are given evidently without those persons having actually read the Courts decisions. According to him, the SC is not one to engage in public debate, but its decisions is its rebuttal to unfair criticism. In this day and age when everyone seems to have an opinion and when great institutions are so recklessly maligned and ridiculed, I am confident that the Supreme Court will remain strong because the best antidote to falsehood and fallacy are truth and reason which the Court has never denied the public, he stressed.Because of this, Tijam called on the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the official organization of all Philippine lawyers, to refrain from publicly criticizing court decisions and from signing and publishing manifestos. It can be recalled that the IBP criticized the quo warranto decision action removed Sereno as top magistrate. They are not advocates of propagandists of causes, but keepers of the public faith in the courts capacity to render just decisions, Tijam stressed. Apart from intellect, the retired justice said a good judge should have sound judicial temperament and be an effective leader. We certainly do not want a spectacle of a judge going ballistic over a decision of this Court, or behaving like a petulant child when she does not get a desired courtroom. He also cautioned against arrogance and self-importance among judges, and urged the Judicial and Bar Council to ensure that candidates for judicial posts undergo a comprehensive and reliable psychological examination. Tijam also appealed to the public to continue to have faith in the Supreme Court, claiming that it has set processes and programs ensuring transparency, accountability, and the speedy resolution of cases. Dear Newsie Readers, Newsie has now permanently ceased it's services as of Friday 20th December 2019. Newsie has been an owner-funded operation since day one. Coming up to three years old, while we still firmly believe Newsie has a place in the New Zealand media landscape, the cost in both time and money has become too burdensome for the owners to continue alongside other ventures. With the current government looking to restructure public broadcasting, and seemingly supporting NZME buying a ring-fenced Stuff, the time seems right to call it a day. Should it happen, the combination of NZME and Stuff will ensure New Zealands national media will die a death by a thousand opinion-based articles. Newsie has always tried to stick to balanced news, to inform readers of the facts of a situation, amid being largely ignored by government. Hopefully, one day someone else will take up the challenge to fight the good fight. The good news, however, is that there were no job losses as a result of Newsie closing. Thanks to careful structuring, everyone involved in Newsie will retain their current positions. We hope you all have a happy Christmas and new year. Stay safe, and stay out of the news. The team at Newsie For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 7, 2019 Stocks in this weeks article include: Crocs, Inc. CROX, Novanta Inc. NOVT, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF and Bruker Corp. BRKR. Kevin Matras screens for companies showing their 'first' profit and explains why they are ones to watch. Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research: Tap 4 Best-Performing Liquid Bets to Boost Portfolio Returns Investing in liquid companies is considered profitable as liquidity measures a companys financial health. It measures a corporate entitys ability to meet short-term debt obligations by converting assets into liquid cash and equivalents. Companies with favorable liquidity levels are not only reckoned to be financially strong but are also believed to generate healthy returns. However, one should exercise caution before investing in such stocks. While a high liquidity level may imply that the company is meeting its obligations at a faster rate than its peers, it may also indicate that the company is failing to use its assets efficiently. Hence, one may consider the efficiency level of a company in addition to its liquidity to identify potential winners. Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks Current Ratio: It measures current assets relative to current liabilities. This ratio is used for measuring a companys potential to meet both short- and long-term debt obligations. Thus, a current ratio also known as working capital ratio below 1 indicates that the company has more liabilities than assets. However, a high current ratio does not always indicate that the company is in good financial shape. It may also mean that the company has failed to utilize its assets significantly. Hence, a range of 1 to 3 is considered ideal. Quick Ratio: Unlike current ratio, quick ratio also called acid-test ratio" or "quick assets ratio" indicates a companys ability to pay short-term obligations. It considers inventory excluding current assets relative to current liabilities. Like the current ratio, a quick ratio of greater than 1 is desirable. Story continues Cash Ratio: This is the most conservative ratio among the three, as it takes into account only cash and cash equivalents, and invested funds relative to current liabilities. It measures a companys ability to meet its current debt obligations using the most liquid of assets. Though a cash ratio of more than 1 may point to sound financials, a higher number may indicate inefficiency in cash utilization. So, a ratio greater than 1 is desirable at all times but may not always appropriately represent a companys financial condition. For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at:https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/345674/tap-4-bestperforming-liquid-bets-to-boost-portfolio-returns Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. About Screen of the Week Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubled the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Zacks.com Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@zacks.com Visit: www.Zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Bruker Corporation (BRKR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Abercrombie & Fitch Company (ANF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Crocs, Inc. (CROX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novanta Inc. (NOVT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 7, 2019 Stocks in this weeks article include: The Hershey Company HSY, T-Mobile US, Inc. TMUS, SunTrust Banks, Inc. STI, Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. HRC and VMware, Inc. VMW. Kevin Matras screens for companies showing their 'first' profit and explains why they are ones to watch. Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research: 5 Stocks with Solid Sales Growth to Buy Amid High Volatility There is an age-old Wall Street saying uncertainty is the enemy of investors. Therefore, selecting stocks based on key fundamentals is always prudent. Conventional strategies are not only safe, but are also worthwhile in the present volatile and uncertain market conditions. One such strategy is to focus on sales growth. A healthy business with stable sales growth is vital for survival in todays fast changing and highly competitive operating environment. Hence, superior revenues are required to drive growth, and most companies look for a strong relationship between sales growth levels and the value of an enterprise. Revenues are income generated by a company through business activities. Though a company might not be profitable over a particular time period, it usually generates revenues. So, in cases when companies tend to incur a loss temporarily, they are valued on the basis of revenues. This is because sales growth (or decline) is usually an early indicator of the companys future earnings performance. While sales growth is an important metric for any corporate for the purpose of growth projections and strategic decision-making, this in isolation doesnt indicate too much about a companys future financial performance. Though it provides investors an insight into product demand and pricing power, a huge sales number does not necessarily convert into profits. Hence, a consideration of a companys cash position along with its sales number can be a more dependable strategy. Substantial cash in hand and a steady cash flow give a company more flexibility with respect to business decisions and further potential investments. Also, an adequate cash position suggests that revenues are being channelized in the right direction. Story continues For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/345651/5-stocks-with-solid-sales-growth-to-buy-amid-high-volatility Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. About Screen of the Week Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubled the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Zacks.com Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@zacks.com Visit: www.Zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SunTrust Banks, Inc. (STI) : Free Stock Analysis Report VMware, Inc. (VMW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hershey Company (The) (HSY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (HRC) : Free Stock Analysis Report T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 7, 2019 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Bristol-Myers BMY, Celgene Corporation CELG, Merck MRK, Pfizer PFE and AbbVie ABBV. Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog: Pharma Stock Roundup: BMY/CELG Deal & More The pharma sector was relatively lying low this week with some news grabbing attention only towards the end. Top stories this week were Bristol-Myers offer to buy cancer giant Celgene Corporation in a cash and stock deal worth $74 billion and Mercks decision to exercise the option to in-license a NASH candidate from partner NGM Biopharmaceuticals. Recap of the Weeks Most Important Headlines Bristol-Myers to Acquire Celgene for $74B: Bristol-Myers began the year announcing one of the largest merger deals in the biotech/pharma sector. The company is acquiring cancer drug specialist Celgene in a cash-stock deal valued at $74 billion. Per the transaction, each Celgene shareholder will receive a consideration of $102.43, comprising one share of Bristol-Myers (valued at $52.43 on Jan 2, 2019) and $50 per share in cash. The deal makes strategic sense as the combination will create a premier innovative biopharma giant with leading franchises in oncology, immunology and inflammation and cardiovascular disease. The combined entity with have nine products generating more than $1 billion in sales and is expected to launch six products in the near term. Moreover, the consolidated company will have a deep and diverse early and late-stage pipeline. Following the transaction, Bristol-Myers is expected to realize cost synergies of approximately $2.5 billion by 2022. The company also separately issued adjusted earnings guidance for 2019 in the range of $4.10-$4.20. While shares of Bristol-Myers decline, that of Celgene were up on announcement of the news. Story continues Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Sprycel, gained an FDA nod for its use in pediatric patients in combination with chemotherapy for newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Sprycel is also approved for Ph+ chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase in pediatric patients. Merck In-Licenses NASH Candidate, Keytruda Gets 5 Approvals in Japan: Merck exercised its option to in-license a NASH and type II diabetes candidate, NGM313, now renamed as MK-3655 from NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. for $20 million. With this deal, Merck gets exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize NGM313, a once-monthly insulin sensitizer. Mercks one-time option was triggered as NGM completed a phase Ib proof-of-concept study on the candidate. Data from the study presented last November showed that a single dose of the medicine led to a statistically significant reduction in liver fat content (LFC) and improvements in multiple metabolic parameters after five weeks of treatment. Merck plans to initiate a phase IIb study on the candidate while NGM Biopharmaceuticals retains the option to take a 50% cost and profit-sharing partnership for NGM313 once the candidate enters late-stage development. Meanwhile, the companys PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda clinched five new label expansion approvals in Japan. These included three approvals as a first-line treatment option for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the other two as an adjuvant therapy for melanoma and in advanced microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors. Pfizer Starts Pivotal Study on Alopecia Areata Candidate: Pfizer initiated a global pivotal phase IIb/III study on its oral JAK3 inhibitor candidate, PF-06651600, for the treatment of moderate to severe alopecia areata. Alopecia areata is a chronic autoimmune skin disease causing hair loss often patchy on the scalp, face or body. Top-line data from a phase IIa study on PF-06651600 was presented in September 2018. The study met the primary endpoint of improving hair re-growth on the scalp as compared to baseline over 24 weeks regimen. AbbVie Inks New Immunotherapy Deal: AbbVie signed a strategic collaboration with private cancer biotech, Tizona Therapeutics, to develop and commercialize immunotherapies targeting the CD39-enzyme including pre-clinical candidate TTX-030. AbbVie plans to begin clinical studies on TTX-030 in the first quarter of 2019. The company made an upfront payment of $105 million to Tizona for the license to its CD39 program while also buying an equity stake in the company. The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index declined 1.4% in the last four trading sessions. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) : Free Stock Analysis Report AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Celgene Corporation (CELG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Washington (AFP) - World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced Monday he would step down next month, more than three years before his current term was due to expire. The decision is likely to give US President Donald Trump decisive influence over the next leadership of the institution although Washington's control over the 189-member global development lender has faced mounting criticism. "It has been a great honor to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," Kim, 59, said in a statement. Kim, who became the bank's president in 2012, is set to join an as-yet unnamed firm focusing on investments in developing countries, the bank said in a statement, and will return to the board of Partners In Health, a non-profit group he co-founded. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will serve as interim president upon Kim's February 1 departure, the bank said in a statement. Under Kim, the bank set the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and ramped up financing to developing countries. Last year, it also won Trump administration support approval for a steep $13 billion capital increase after acceding to Washington's requests to curb loans to higher-income countries like China. In a note to staff, Kim said he had long felt the private sector was best suited to meeting the developing world's financing needs. "I have therefore decided that it's time for me to take on new challenges and fully focus my efforts on leveraging private finance for the benefit of people around the world," he wrote. - The unwritten rule - During Kim's tenure, the bank also emphasized its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, which critics said increasingly channeled funds to projects that otherwise would not have met World Bank environmental and social guidelines. The bank's board thanked Kim for his leadership and said in a statement it would "immediately" begin the process of looking for the next president. Story continues On Twitter, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde expressed "deep appreciation" for Kim's work. Naming Kim's replacement could mark a sharp break with the past as the Trump administration has repeatedly broken with multilateral institutions and conventions of which the president has been highly critical. Kim however championed a $1 billion fund for women's entrepreneurship in an effort driven by Trump's daughter Ivanka, a senior White House adviser. Under an unwritten rule, the bank's presidency has always been anointed by its largest shareholder, the United States, an arrangement that also allowed European powers to name the head of the International Monetary Fund. Nevertheless, when he was nominated for a first term in 2012, Kim was the first US nominee to face a challenger when Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala entered the contest. Perhaps warding off challengers and avoiding a repeat of 2012, the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2016 swiftly endorsed Kim for a second five-year term, which began in 2017. However, the bank's staff association in 2016 delivered a stinging broadside, citing high levels of disaffection among its 15,000 employees, asserting that it faced a "crisis of leadership" and calling for an end to "back-room deals" over control of the institution. World Bank staff also chafed at a widespread internal restructuring that Kim began, as well as spending and staff cuts. Internal staff surveys showed the rank and file frequently did not trust senior management and said they did not understand the direction in which the institution was headed. A Treasury spokesperson on Monday praised CEO Georgieva's "capable leadership" and said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin "looks forward to working with his fellow governors in selecting a leader." But Paul Cadario, a former World Bank senior manager now at the University of Toronto's Munk School, noted that the Trump administration had not named a representative to the bank's board of directors -- meaning the question was likely not high on the administration's radar. Yet other World Bank shareholders, such as the United Kingdom, major European economies or China, are likely too preoccupied with political and economic crises of their own to step into any vacuum left by Washington, he told AFP. "The American executive director has always been a leader of the board," Cadario told AFP. Washington (AFP) - World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced Monday he would step down next month, more than three years before his current term was due to expire. The decision ends Kim's six-year tenure and may give US President Donald Trump decisive influence over the future leadership of the global development lender. "It has been a great honor to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," Kim said in a statement. Kim, who became president in 2012, is to join an as-yet unnamed firm focusing on investments in developing countries, the bank said in a statement, and will return to the board of Partners-in-Health, which he co-founded. Under Kim's leadership, the bank set the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and ramped up financing. Last year, it also won approval for a sharp $13 billion capital increase after acceding to requests from the Trump administration to curb loans to high-income countries like China. Kim's tenure was also marked by high levels of disaffection among World Bank staff, who chafed at a widespread internal restructuring that Kim began. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will serve as interim president upon Kim's February 1 departure, the bank said in a statement. inquiry on shabu smuggling President Rodrigo Duterte will act on the issue himself if the authorities find enough evidence, Malacanang said Monday following the investigation of themembers who are said to be involved in corrupt activities. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said there were no sacred cows in the Duterte administration, but they would have to wait for the results of the PACCs probe on the three officials. With regard to that, we will await findings, their recommendation, if there is enough evidence. Then the President will act on it, Panelo told reporters. You violate the law, you are accountable. Panelo made his statement after PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna said they were investigating Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, former Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena, and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Chairman Leonor Oralde-Quintayo for corruption. Luna said Lapena was beingthat allegedly slipped past Customs through magnetic lifters, but he kept mum on the two other officials. Panelo said the three officials would definitely remain in their posts while the investigation was ongoing, but added the President would not allow a whiff of corruption.When he said a whiff of corruption, theres already substantial grounds, Panelo said. The President orders an investigation right away. It doesnt mean that they will be promptly sacked just because someone accused them. The President is not like that. He is a lawyer, remember. The PACC said the results and recommendations following the confidential investigation would be submitted to the President immediately. To look into the allegations of excessive lifestyles, graft and corruption activities of his Cabinet members, Duterte created the PACC in 2017 through Executive Order 43. The PACC is tasked to investigate graft and corruption of all Duterte appointees and to recommend punishment ranging from suspension to removal from office. READ: PACC to hold Whoopi Goldberg weighed in on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper on Mondays episode of The View. In the interview, which aired on Sunday night, Ocasio-Cortez addressed accusations about using what some see as politically dangerous tactics to encourage primary challenges to some Democrats who have accepted corporate payments or who may oppose progressive policies. Its absolutely risky! It requires risk to try something new, Ocasio-Cortez told Cooper. But also, we know so much of what weve tried in the past hasnt worked, either. While Goldberg lauded the lawmaker, she also had a message for her: Dont forget who came before you. She cited Rep. John Lewis of Georgia and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California as examples of Democrats who helped pave the way for Ocasio-Cortez. There are a whole bunch of people in the Democratic Party who have been busting their a**es to make sure that women get what they need, people get what they need, children get what they need, Goldberg said. You just got in there, and I know youve got lots of good ideas, but I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job. Goldberg said she likes the fact that Ocasio-Cortez is a very opinionated woman but doesnt like her accusations that the Democratic Party has done nothing. You dont have to be born into it. You dont have to know it when you step out, but before you start pping on people and what theyve done, youve got to do something too, Goldberg said. There is absolutely room for new energy, but you cant pp on what was when youre coming in on the shoulders of quite a few giants. Watch Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez give her thoughts on President Trump during the 60 Minutes interview: Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or leave your comments below. Mid Cap Growth fund seekers should consider taking a look at Westcore Small Cap Growth II Retail (WTSLX). WTSLX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective WTSLX is part of the Mid Cap Growth section, a segment that boasts a wide array of possible selections. While Mid Cap Growth mutual funds choose companies with a stock market valuation between $2 billion and $10 billion, stocks in these funds are also expected to show broad considerable growth opportunities for investors compared to their peers. To be considered a growth stock, companies must consistently report impressive sales and/or earnings growth. History of Fund/Manager Segal Bryant is based in Chicago, IL, and is the manager of WTSLX. Since Westcore Small Cap Growth II Retail made its debut in October of 1999, WTSLX has garnered more than $69.33 million in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager. Performance Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 5.59%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 10.48%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. WTSLX's standard deviation over the past three years is 15.04% compared to the category average of 14.86%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 14.95% compared to the category average of 14.71%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. WTSLX lost 50.24% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 2.79%. This could mean that the fund is a better choice than comparable funds during a bear market. Story continues Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.13, so it is likely going to be more volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. WTSLX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -5.69, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Holdings Examining the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. This fund is currently holding about 94.86% stock in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $4.05 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Technology Other Health Services Industrial Cyclical Non-Durable Turnover is about 58%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than the average comparable fund. Expenses As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, WTSLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.97% compared to the category average of 1.29%. WTSLX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost. This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $250,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment. Bottom Line Overall, Westcore Small Cap Growth II Retail ( WTSLX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now. This could just be the start of your research on WTSLXin the Mid Cap Growth category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (WTSLX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. On Jan 7, we issued an updated research report on Verizon Communications Inc. VZ. By the end of 2018, this largest U.S. wireless carrier (by subscribers) has introduced the worlds first commercial 5G service Verizon 5G Home in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento to give customers the first taste of commercial 5G network. It has achieved a feat of 5G firsts in collaboration with its technology partners like Nokia Corporation NOK, QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM and Ericsson ERIC, and now aims to expand broadband Internet and launch 5G mobility service across the country. Verizon is also seeking first mover advantage in the 5G race as it plans to launch commercial 5G smartphones in the market in the first half of 2019 in collaboration with Samsung. The telco behemoth continues deploying the latest 4G LTE Advanced technologies to offer faster peak data speeds and capacity for consumers, led by customer-focused planning, disciplined engineering and strategic investments. It has spurred technological innovation and economic development while making the ecosystem more pervasive with 4G LTE. The company firmly believes that 5G has immense possibilities in store. Management remains bullish on the industry's ability to grow revenues through greater penetration of smartphones and cloud computing as it believes that 2019 will bring more innovations and opportunities for its customers. Further, Verizon has been looking to slash costs as it ramps up investment in its next-generation 5G network, which is expected to better position itself for future growth. The company announced that it would write off a majority of its media business Oath which includes Yahoo and AOL, due to lower-than-expected performance. Starting Jan 8, 2019, Verizon Media will replace the Oath brand. It also announced that approximately 10,400 employees are going to separate from the company by the end of June 2019 as part of voluntary program. Verizon expects solid traction in its wireless business to optimize growth opportunities in the 5G era while downplaying competitive pressure. Owing to operational efficiency, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has returned 7.5% against a decline of 5.2% for the industry in the past year. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Story continues Risks Verizon continues to face intense competition in the U.S. wireless market from rivals like AT&T and T-Mobile. In a bid to expand its customer base, the company is spending heavily on promotion and lucrative discounts, which is weighing on margins. Adoption of several unlimited data plans has also resulted in a reduction of service revenues and lower average revenue per user. Verizons wireline business is struggling with persistent losses in access lines owing to competitive pressure from voice-over-Internet protocol service providers and aggressive triple-play (voice, data, video) offerings by cable companies. Nevertheless, we remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this stock as the company aims to gain from technologies like artificial intelligence, machine-learning, mobile-edge computing and 5G. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ericsson (ERIC) : Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nokia Corporation (NOK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research JERUSALEM, Jan 6 (Reuters) - White House national security adviser John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States' Kurdish allies. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pullout from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be attacked by their long-time enemy, Turkey. Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be protected. Ahead of talks with Israeli officials, he told reporters the pullout would be done in a way that guaranteed the Islamic State jihadist group "is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. And it would be carried out in such a way as to "make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." Asked whether a U.S. withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said: "Basically, that's right." The Syrian YPG militia has been highly effective in the war against Islamic State, a part of the wider Syrian conflict pitting a range of insurgent groups against President Bashar al-Assad's forces and sometimes against each other. But Turkey has long castigated Washington for its military relationship with the YPG. Ankara regards the YPG an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish armed group that has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey for over three decades. "PRESIDENT'S REQUIREMENT" "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum," Bolton said, "so they don't endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president's requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered." Story continues The YPG has indicated that it might seek a deal with Damascus after the U.S. forces have gone. Bolton, who will travel to Turkey on Monday, said the United States would talk to Ankara to find out what its objectives and capabilities were. Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey's targets were the YPG, the PKK and Islamic State. "One aim of Turkey's fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group," state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Kalin as saying, in comments that emerged after Bolton made his remarks. "Turkey will continue decisively its efforts to end the war, provide security, and implement the process of political transition without discriminating between our Syrian brothers on the basis of religion, ethnicity or sect," Kalin said. In Washington on Sunday, Trump reiterated that the United States would be pulling its troops out of Syria but suggested the move might not happen soon. "I never said we are doing it that quickly. But we are decimating ISIS," Trump told reporters. Later on Sunday Bolton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reassured Israel and other allies of the United States' commitment to their security. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kevin Liffey) Chicago (AFP) - A US trafficking victim serving a life sentence for killing a man who bought her for sex when she was a teenager was granted clemency Monday following a celebrity-backed viral campaign for her freedom. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said Cyntoia Brown, now 30, had been given "too harsh" a sentence for the 2004 murder of a real estate agent in the city of Nashville. Johnny Allen had picked up Brown, who was 16 at the time and a runaway under the influence of a dangerous pimp, and taken her to his home for sex. The ex-Army sharpshooter allegedly showed off his firearms and "grabbed" Brown forcefully between her legs. She said she shot him in fear for her life. A jury convicted Brown of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery, and she was given life with the possibility of parole after serving at least 51 years in prison. Calling the case "tragic and complex," Haslam granted clemency under the condition of a 10-year parole. Brown will be released on August 7 after undergoing training on returning to society. "Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16," Haslam said in a statement. "Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life." Without the governor's intervention, Brown would have remained in prison at least until 2055. In a statement released by her attorneys, Brown thanked her supporters and the governor and promised to "do everything I can to justify your faith in me." "My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been," she added. - Prison transformation - Brown earned a high school degree while incarcerated and was on track to complete her college education this year. The governor's office said numerous prison employees and volunteers attested to her personal growth. Story continues "Her transformation, when given the opportunity, is nothing short of miraculous," her attorneys Charles Bone and J Houston Gordon said in a joint statement. "She is truly a remarkable young woman with so much to offer this world and will now have that chance." Brown's case was featured in a 2011 documentary, and was the subject of a social media campaign involving multiple celebrities who advocated for clemency, saying she should have been treated as a traumatized child victim of sex trafficking. "Cyntoia never should have been sentenced so harshly to begin with, and we can't lose sight of the fact that she is still receiving an excessive 10 years' probation," the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted in response to the clemency news. "The fight against harsh sentencing laws goes on." Last month, actress Ashley Judd implored her home state's governor to grant clemency by saying Brown "deserves our empathy and your mercy." In response to the governor's action, reality star Kim Kardashian, who has previously described Brown as a victim with "the courage to fight back," tweeted simply: "Thank you Governor Haslam." This undated photo shows Jamal al-Badawi attending his trial in Yemeni court. WASHINGTON The U.S. military confirmed that an al-Qaida operative suspected in the 2000 suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole was killed in Yemen in a New Year's Day airstrike. "U.S. CENTCOM has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike," U.S. Central Command said in a tweet Sunday. "Jamal al-Badawi was an al Qaeda operative involved in the USS Cole bombing. U.S. forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process." On Friday, Navy Capt. Bill Urban, the U.S. Central Command spokesman, had said U.S. forces were aware of the reports of al-Badawi's death and were trying to confirm the death. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Al-Badawi was indicted in 2003 on 50 terrorism-related counts, including the murder of U.S. citizens and military personnel, Urban said. The alleged terrorist escaped from Yemeni custody twice, once in 2004 and again in 2007, and the FBI had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Trump tweeted his enthusiasm at the news on Sunday, writing, "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. On Oct. 12, 2000, two suicide bombers drove a small boat loaded with explosives into the hull of the USS Cole while the destroyer refueled in Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed in the attack. A small boat guards the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen on This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US military confirms airstrike killed USS Cole bombing suspect Jamal al-Badawi in Yemen SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday. U.S. officials discussed the schedule for the second Trump-Kim summit while in contact with North Korean officials in the Vietnamese capital city, fuelling speculation that Vietnam could host the event, the Munhwa Ilbo reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington. Vietnam has diplomatic relations with both the United States and North Korea, with North Korea maintaining a diplomatic office in Vietnam, and has the symbolic significance of a communist country that has reformed its economy, the newspaper reported. A spokesperson for the U.S Embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Sunday, Trump told reporters in Washington that the United States and North Korea are negotiating a location for a second summit. "It will be announced probably in the not too distant future, Trump said. They do want to meet and we want to meet and we'll see what happens." While the two sides had a very good dialogue and the American president had indirectly communicated with Kim, Trump said sanctions would be enforced until more progress is made. In a nationally televised New Year address, Kim said he is willing to meet Trump again anytime to achieve their common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but warned he may have to take an alternative path if U.S. sanctions and pressure against the country continued. "I am always ready to sit together with the U.S. president anytime in the future, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail," Kim said. (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Michael Perry) By Giulia Paravicini KINSHASA (Reuters) - Preliminary results from Democratic Republic of Congo's tumultuous presidential election will be delayed past Sunday's deadline, the head of the election commission told Reuters. The commission, known as CENI, had received only 47 percent of vote tally sheets as of Saturday, said its president, Corneille Nangaa, and it was not yet clear when the results would be ready. The delay is the latest setback in a disorganized poll to pick a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country of 80 million people since his father was assassinated in 2001. The Dec. 30 vote could mark Congo's first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. But tensions rose after observers reported a litany of irregularities that the opposition says are part of the ruling party's effort to steal the election. The opposition, represented by its two main candidates Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and the ruling coalition all say their candidates have won. "It will not be possible to announce the results tomorrow," Nangaa said. A CENI spokesman later said that the commission was holding a meeting on Sunday to decide when they will be announced. Worried that disputes and delays could spark the kind of violence seen after the 2006 and 2011 elections, the United Nations Security Council met on Friday to discuss how to react, but was unable to reach an agreement, according to an internal report seen by Reuters. The United States condemned a lack of transparency in the contest, while China, a major investor, lauded the process. "Tensions were mounting while the CENI tabulated the results, notably in light of posturing by parties and candidates," Leila Zerrougui, head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, told the meeting, according to the internal report. But the 15 council members "differed in their appreciation of the problems that beset the process and were divided over the question of whether the Council should issue a press statement", the report went on to say. A negative international reaction could be problematic for Kabila, whose government has defended the election's organization, and could weaken the legitimacy of Kabila's hand-picked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, should he be declared winner. INFLAME THE SITUATION In the meeting, France pushed for the publication of a statement that recognized that Congo's election had allowed people to exercise their democratic right and called for calm, but criticized the government's decision to cut access to the Internet and some media outlets. The United States, which has threatened to impose sanctions against those who undermine the election process and has deployed troops to Gabon in case its citizens need rescuing from any violence, backed the statement, alongside Britain, Ivory Coast, Belgium and others. South Africa, long a Kabila ally, said the statement could "inflame" the situation if issued before the results, the report said. Russia said it could be seen as an attempt to skew public opinion. China "lauded the manner in which elections were conducted", the report said, and said a statement should not be published before the results. Congo's Catholic church body, CENCO, said this week that it had identified the victor based on its own tallies collected by 40,000 observers, though it did not name the winner. The declaration was widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote. (Additional reporting By Aaron Ross; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Calabarzon regional police director Chief Supt. Edward Ted Carranza on Monday invited the families of Richard Santillan, the slain aide of former Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong, and Gessamyn Casing to participate in the investigation being conducted by their Regional Internal Affairs Service 4A unit. This was after Jeanette Santillan, widow of Chongs aide Richard Santillan, formally asked the Department of Justice last week to direct the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a parallel investigation on the circumstances surrounding the killing of her husband. Santillan was killed along with Casing in an alleged shootout with police officers in Cainta, Rizal on Dec. 10, but his vehicle was riddled with 30 bullet holes. President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered a probe on the killing of Santillan and Casing and denounced the brutal and brazen incident, according to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. In the wake of the incident, Carranza sacked Senior Supt. Lou Evangelista as provincial director of Rizal and Supt. Pablito Naganag as chief of police of Cainta. Also dismissed were 10 members of the Calabarzon RIAS group and four Cainta policemen. Carranza said the Police Regional Office 4-As IAS is an independent investigating body which has the motu proprio power to determine if there were violations committed during the incident by our operatives. The regional internal affairs police, he said, is currently in the process of summary dismissal proceedings, identifying liabilities and determining the pieces of evidence that will warrant the filing of criminal or administrative charges, if proven that there was indeed negligence on the part of our policemen. In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, I encourage their families to join us, Carranza added. Jeanette Santillan said she wanted to file charges against the policemen under Carranza after submitting her letter to the DOJ. The widow said she does not believe in the findings of the Philippine National Police that her husband was killed after figuring in an encounter with policemen who were looking for a carnapped vehicle.The police conducted the autopsy without our consent and knowledge. We learned about it only after 16 hours, she said. In her request, the widow specifically asked the NBI to take custody of the evidence from the PNP, including Chongs vehicle which was equipped with a dashboard camera and Santillans belongings. She sought forensic examinations of the evidence as well as full reconstruction of the incidents leading to the killing. Mrs. Santillan made the request after a reautopsy by the Public Attorneys Office showed that her husband was tortured before being killed. The widow was accompanied by Chong and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission commissioner Greco Belgica. Chong said he could be the real target of the attack and believed that Smartmatic could be behind it. Chong is an election reform advocate who testified in a congressional investigations on the alleged poll fraud during the 2016 elections and tagged Smartmatic in the cheating. He even submitted to the President Electoral Tribunal earlier several evidence of fraud in support of the protest of former senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo. There was really no shootout. Smartmatic or politicians who cheated in the elections could be behind this, Chong alleged. A look at the shareholders of Discovery Africa Limited (ASX:DAF) can tell us which group is most powerful. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome. With a market capitalization of AU$2.4m, Discovery Africa is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Taking a look at the our data on the ownership groups (below), its seems that institutional investors have not yet purchased much of the company. Lets delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about DAF. View our latest analysis for Discovery Africa ASX:DAF Ownership Summary January 6th 19 What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Discovery Africa? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once its included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. Since institutions own under 5% of Discovery Africa, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But its clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind its the future that counts most. ASX:DAF Income Statement Export January 6th 19 Discovery Africa is not owned by hedge funds. Were not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held. Insider Ownership Of Discovery Africa The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves. Story continues Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Discovery Africa Limited. Insiders own AU$933k worth of shares in the AU$2.4m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently. General Public Ownership The general public mostly retail investors own 52% of Discovery Africa . This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio. Private Company Ownership Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 7.0%, of the companys shares. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While its hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research. Next Steps: Its always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Discovery Africa better, we need to consider many other factors. I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free . If you would prefer check out another company one with potentially superior financials then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. US and UK special forces are deployed countering Isil militants in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria - AFP Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by Isil fighters in Syria. The two soldiers were injured in a missile attack by ISIS fighters near Deir Ezzor, in the east of the country, British special forces have been operating in the area alongside US special forces to combat the militant group. The Telegraph understands the incident occurred on Friday morning, and that the soldiers were airlifted from the scene by US forces for medical treatment. Rudaw news, a Kurdish outlet, reported that the soldiers were at a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in the area when the attack took place. It was also reported that an SDF fighter was killed in the missile attack. An SDF official, said: "Due to a smart missile attack by ISIS, a fighter of the YPG was killed and another wounded, in addition to two British soldiers." A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "We do not comment on special forces operations". The attack comes a year after the death of an SAS solider in Syria. Sergeant Matt Tonroe was killed while embedded with US forces in Syria when they were caught by an explosion in March 2018. US president Donald Trump said in December that he was withdrawing US troops from Syria, where he claimed Isis had been defeated. Mr Trump said: "We have defeated Isis in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency." The move shocked US allies and American defence officials alike, with US defence secretary Jim Mattis and a top US official in the fight against IS, Brett McGurk, resigning soon after. Analysts and military experts, who disagree with Mr Trump, have said the threat posed by Isis still remains. Starting Monday, January 7, visitors to Japan will have to pay a 1,000 yen (about $9) levy when leaving. The departure tax dubbed a sayonara tax applies to both international and Japanese travelers who travel via plane or ship, excluding children under 2 years old and those in Japan for fewer than 24 hours. View of famous Torii (gate) of Itsukushima Shrine which stands offshore at Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. (Photo: Getty) The Japan tourist tax is being implemented in anticipation of the surge in visitors expected in 2020 for the Tokyo Olympics. Japan wanted money to pay for technology terminals to process visitors quicker and to add improved international language signage throughout the country, World Travel & Tourism Council Research Director Rochelle Turner told Yahoo Finance. The money is also expected to go towards installing cashless payment terminals for public transportation. The Japanese parliament passed the legislation last April and is expecting an increase of 6 billion Yen (about $55.4 million) in revenue in fiscal 2018 through March 2019, and 50 billion ($461.6 billion) Yen in fiscal 2019. A woman takes a pictures of a mannequin wearing a rabbit mask in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, which is popular among tourists, in Japan, March 30, 2016. The Japan tourist tax will add an extra element to each trip. (Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter) Japan tourist tax comes amid surge in tourism While travel and tourism contribute to less than 7% of Japans GDP, the Tokyo government considers tourism a driver of economic growth given the recent surge in arrivals. Japan saw a boost in tourism between 2014 and 2015 as seen in the graph below, and arrivals topped 30 million for the first time in 2018. Tourism arrivals in Japan. The government has also made strides in opening up the country with facilitated visa policies, Turner noted. The efforts have paid off, she added, because international visitors do provide considerable export earnings for the country, bringing in U.S. $35.3 billion in 2017, and that number is growing at a rate of over 4% per year. Chinese tourists account for the largest number of foreign tourists to Japan, followed by South Korea and Taiwan. Although American visitors only comprised 4.8% in 2017, the number has been steadily increasing. Between January to November last year alone, almost 1.4 million Americans visited the country. Story continues American tourist arrivals in Japan. Departure tax in other countries Japan isnt the first country to impose a departure tax levy. Countries including Australia, Cambodia, and the Philippines also charge departure fees that either include the tax as part of the airfare or require passengers to pay in cash at the port of departure. The tax is common around the world, said Turner, and since its incorporated into a travel ticket, many visitors may be unaware of them. And as tourism and travel expands and becomes a bigger part of a countrys economy, naturally it should contribute to its fair share of taxation and support public sector spending on services and the infrastructure that enables the sector to thrive, said Turner. Ultimately, the Japan tourist tax isnt likely to seriously impact travel plans, according to Turner. For most U.S. visitors, Japan is a long-haul destination and is already known for not being a cheap place to visit. Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami. Read more: Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and reddit. The bright orange Kenneth Cole suitcase circled the baggage claim carousel at Dallas Love Field with what looked like an antenna. A piece of wire was all that remained of the retractable handle on the hardside bag. I pushed it into the Southwest Airlines baggage claim office to file a claim, short on time and unsure of what came next. It was the first time an airline damaged my bag. Delayed bags, I knew the drill. Lost bags, too, as an airline permanently lost a bag of mine several years ago. Here's what I learned: Travelers have options when it comes to damaged bags, and knowing your rights will put you in a better position to resolve the claim. If you have a claim, that is. An airline's definition of damage, backed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, may differ significantly from a passenger's definition. Normal wear and tear, including scratches, scuff marks, stains, dents and dirt, are not covered. Every airline damaged bag policy has a disclaimer about normal wear and tear. And it applies even if you bought the suitcase the night before your flight or are checking a designer bag. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. "If you have a Louis Vuitton (bag) and it goes through the (conveyor) belt system, it is not white glove service,'' said Lisa Ouimette, an analyst in American Airlines' central baggage services office. "These are belt loaders. If you have a brand new bag, expect it to have normal wear and tear.'' Airlines also reserve the right to deny claims to passengers with damage caused by overstuffed bags, such as broken zippers, as well as poor quality bags and bags that were damaged when checked in. So what is covered? Damage to luggage components including wheels, handles, straps and other glaring problems, such as holes or a cracked hardside bag, are covered. The latter is a big problem in cold weather, Ouimette said. (So are removable straps, which regularly get stuck in the bag loading systems, so take them off, she said.) Story continues "We anticipate damage and when it does happen, we have a plan in place to take care of our customers,'' she said. The handle on USA TODAY travel reporter Dawn Gilbertson's suitcase was destroyed on a flight from Phoenix to Dallas. Passenger rights if an airline damages your bag More than 87 percent of U.S. travelers don't file claims against airlines following an issue with lost, damaged or delayed luggage, according to a survey earlier this year by AirHelp, a service that helps passengers get compensation for claims against airlines. The three main reasons: They didn't think they would be entitled to compensation, they were not aware of their rights and they did not know how to file a claim. Airlines are responsible for repairing or reimbursing a passenger for damaged baggage and/or its contents when the damage occurs while the bag is under the airlines control, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection division. The cheapest option for airlines is a bag repair. Many use Dallas-based Rynn's Luggage, which bills itself as the largest airline luggage repair and replacement service in the country. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. If a bag cannot be repaired, it will be replaced with a like bag or passengers will be reimbursed. The reimbursement is based on the value of the bag and its depreciation, the DOT says, subject to liability limits. For flights within the United States, the maximum liability for a lost, delayed or damaged bag is $3,500. The limit on international flights, per the Montreal Convention, is about $1,600, the agency says. Airlines are free to pay more but there is no requirement to do so, according to the DOT. That doesn't mean you're going to get $3,500 or anything close to it if a wheel fell off your bag or your handle was destroyed. (The higher limits generally apply to a lost suitcase full of pricey personal belongings.) My suitcase wasn't new and had plenty of scuffs, but the broken retractable handle was clearly a big problem. I worried that Delta Air Lines, which I was flying the next day out of Dallas, wouldn't accept it, or would have me sign a waiver absolving them of any liability should it get further damaged. Southwest baggage representatives in Dallas were friendly and apologetic and didn't doubt I needed a new bag. But they were clearly trying to limit their liability. (I never identify myself as a travel reporter for fear of getting special treatment, a violation of our ethics policy.) They asked how old my bag was, where I purchased it and how much I paid for it. They took photos and went to a back room computer to search for a similar bag online. They couldn't find one, or only found heavily discounted bags. I didn't recall how much my bag was or where I purchased it but estimated it at between $150 and $200. A repair never came up. Then, in a move that surprised me, they wheeled out a couple new bags about the same size as my bag. One was a hardside bag, the other a traditional suitcase, and both had spinner wheels and a retractable handle, like mine. The hardside bag wouldn't fit all of my stuff and both bags looked relatively cheap, so I initially passed. American's Ouimette said airlines keep so-called stock bags on hand for cases where passengers immediately need a new bag. She ordered a bunch for American for the busy holiday season. Many passengers love them because their damaged bag is older and they are thrilled to get a new one. I was pickier and wanted something decent for the hassle. Southwest said they would reimburse me if I bought a new bag and brought a receipt for a similar bag on my way out of Dallas the next morning. I didn't have time to shop during my 24-hour visit and needed a suitcase, so eventually decided to take them up on the stock bag. In the middle of the baggage claim office, I unpacked my broken bag and transferred everything to the new softside bag. I wheeled it out of the office and into the corridor heading to the airport's Uber pick-up area. I didn't make it. The wheels kept circling, sending me a couple steps back for every step forward. I fumbled my way back to the baggage claim office and told them the bag didn't work. They were apologetic, again. I repacked everything into the broken bag and pushed it through the corridor and headed out. Southwest said they would reimburse me for whatever bag I bought, never setting a price limit. I didn't buy one in Dallas; a generous friend I was staying with gave me a big suitcase they were no longer using. Just before Christmas, enticed by the offer of free expedited shipping, I bought a bag I'd had my eye on, a $245 Away carry-on bag . It was nowhere near as big as the Kenneth Cole one Southwest broke, but my friend's bag took care of my big-bag needs and I was in desperate need of a sturdy new carry-on bag. My claim was finally resolved the day after Christmas in Phoenix. I landed at Sky Harbor International Airport after midnight and headed to the baggage claim office while waiting for bags to arrive after my flight from Providence. I submitted my receipt for $260, which included taxes. It took the agents time to find my claim because I didn't have my "damage incident report'' and they were having computer issues. A supervisor offered $200, a figure noted in my report by the Dallas agents. I told her they said to buy any bag and bring the receipt, no money figure mentioned, due to my hassles with the stock bag. "We'll split the difference, how's that?'' she asked. At 1 a.m., I walked out of the office with a check for $225. 5 things to do if an airline damages your bag 1. Head to the baggage claim office immediately if possible. You have up to 24 hours to report a claim for domestic flights and seven days for international flights on most carriers, though policies vary by airline. Southwest and JetBlue require claims within four hours; Frontier, 12 hours. It's easiest to do in person, having everything documented on-site instead of spending time on the phone and uploading claim documents online. Plus, you might be offered a replacement bag on the spot if you're not picky about a new bag. 2. Don't rip off your baggage tags. The airline will need them. 3. Be calm and courteous. A banged-up bag is a bad way to begin or end a trip, but blasting the baggage claim representative for a missing wheel or hole in your bag isn't going to help your claim or get it resolved more quickly. 4. Know the approximate value of your bag and where you purchased it to give you some negotiating leverage in case of reimbursement. 5. Jot down names of airline representatives and details discussed and stay on top of the claims process if it's not resolved immediately. Airlines issue a claim number and updates can be found online. Not getting the answers you want? Ask to talk to someone in the airport office where you submitted the claim or a representative in the airline's central baggage services office. Major airline policies on damaged bags: Alaska Airlines Allegiant Air American Airlines Delta Air Lines Frontier Airlines JetBlue Airways Southwest Airlines Spirit Airlines United Airlines More: Travel nightmares: What to do if you miss your flight This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Travel nightmares: What to do if an airline damages your checked luggage Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court upheld California's foie gras ban on Monday, ending a long legal battle between animal rights activists and defenders of the delicacy. The highest US court rejected an appeal filed by foie gras producers against a law prohibiting the sale of products obtained from force-feeding geese or duck to enlarge their liver. The law, passed in 2004 by California in the name of animal rights, carries a fine of $1,000. It took effect in 2012, was suspended by the courts in 2015 -- but then upheld on appeal in 2017. Producers of foie gras from Canada and New York, along with a California restaurateur, then appealed to the Supreme Court in defense of this delicacy they called "perhaps the most maligned (and misunderstood) food in the world." They argued that a state could not ban a federally authorized product. They had support from France, which called California's law "an assault on French (gastronomic and cultural) tradition." The high court threw out the appeal with no explanation. As such, California's law remains in effect. "This victory for animals follows tireless efforts from animal rights activists to oppose the archaic foie gras industry," the animal rights group PETA said. "Now that California can enforce this ban, PETA urges diners to blow the whistle on any restaurant that's caught serving this illegal and hideously produced substance," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. Warren Christopher Clark, 34, and Zaid Abed al-Hamid, 35, were among five men recently captured fighting for ISIS in Syria, according to the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. (Photo: Syrian Democratic Forces) Two Americans were reportedly captured fighting for the self-described Islamic State in Syria last week, the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday. One of the Americans was identified as 34-year-old Warren Christopher Clark, aka Abu Mohammad al-Ameriki, who formerly taught in Texas. The other was 35-year-old Zaid Abed al-Hamid, aka Abu Zaid al-Ameriki, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces. They were reportedly captured with three other men, who were identified as Pakistani and Irish. The U.S. government has not yet confirmed the report. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. A Pentagon spokesman told CNN the report is under investigation. We are aware of open source reports of reportedly American citizens currently in custody who were believed to be fighting for ISIS, Commander Sean Robertson said, adding the Pentagon is not yet able to confirm the information. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for additional comment. Clark is a graduate at the University Houston who sent his teaching resume to ISIS after becoming radicalized sometime around 2004, NBC News reported last year. A copy of his resume and cover letter seeking a job as an English teacher were found in an Iraq neighborhood that had been taken over by ISIS fighters. Im looking to get a position teaching English to students in the Islamic State. I was born and raised in the United States and have always loved teaching, the cover letter read. I have a long background in teaching a variety of different subjects and have instructed students of all ages at several schools. Prior to allegedly joining ISIS overseas, he was a substitute teacher from August of 2008 to November of 2010 in Fort Bend, Texas, a spokeswoman for the school district confirmed to HuffPost. Details about al-Hamid are less clear. The New York Times suggested that al-Hamid may be Trinidadian or have dual U.S. citizenship. He was in a past ISIS video discussing life in Trinidad and was detained in 2011 for allegedly plotting to kill Trinidads prime minister, the Times reported. Story continues Simon Cottee, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Kent who tracks ISIS, told the Times that Hamid joined the terrorist group in 2014 with his wife and three children. If Clark and al-Hamid are returned to the U.S. to face charges they would be only the 15th and 16th Americans to do so after joining ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Seamus Hughes, a counterterrorism expert at George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism, told the Times. To put it in context, the Brits are talking about hundreds of returnees, Hughes said. Related Coverage Lindsey Graham Suggests Donald Trump 'Re-evaluating' Syria Withdrawal Plan Elizabeth Warren Backs Withdrawal Of U.S. Troops From Syria And Afghanistan John Bolton Says Certain Conditions Must Be Met Before U.S. Withdraws From Syria Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Per Reuters, electric vehicle (EV) pioneer Tesla, Inc. TSLA is finally breaking ground for its Shanghai Gigafactory following a lot of planning. This is likely to strengthen its presence in the worlds biggest auto market wherein it encounters growing competition from several domestic rivals and also suffers soft sales due to elevated tariffs on U.S. imports. Last year, the auto giant inked a deal with the Shanghai government for building the 500,000-unit factory. In order to grab more than 200 acres of land for the planned Gigafactory 3, Tesla shelled out $140 million. This will be the auto makers first vehicles manufacturing facility outside the United States. The company, which intends to begin production in 2019, is likely to churn out around 250,000 vehicles annually in the initial stage including the Model 3 and Model Y. China Lure A production base in China is critical for Tesla, which is fighting the odds of possible waning demand in the United States, particularly after the reductions of tax credits for the EVs. The company has decided to lower the price of all its models by $2,000 to partially compensate the loss of subsidy. A wholly owned manufacturing facility in China would mean that the auto giant Tesla wont have to share its profits and technology with Chinese partners. Domestic production will protect Tesla against high import duties resulting from the China-U.S. trade spat. Shares of Tesla have outperformed the industry it belongs to in the past six months. The stock has slipped 0.2% compared with the 12.6% decrease of its industry. Tesla currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A few better-ranked stocks in the auto space are Advance Auto Parts, Inc. AAP, Fox Factory Holding Corp. FOXF and CarGurus, Inc. CARG, each currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Advance Auto Parts has an expected long-term growth rate of 12.1%. Over the past year, shares of the company have surged 42.6%. Fox Factory has an expected long-term growth rate of 17.9%. In a years time, the stock has soared 54.6%. CarGurus has an expected long-term growth rate of 5%. In a year, shares of the company have rallied 9.4%. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fox Factory Holding Corp. (FOXF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (AAP) : Free Stock Analysis Report CarGurus, Inc. (CARG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research SHANGHAI/BEIJING Tesla broke ground Monday on its Shanghai Gigafactory, where it plans to begin making its Model 3 electric vehicles by year-end, a first step in localizing production in the world's largest auto market. At a ceremony at the site of the plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, Chief Executive Elon Musk joined the city's mayor and other local government officials to formally begin construction of a factory that Tesla has said will cost around $2 billion. "We think with the resources here we can build the Shanghai Gigafactory in record time, and we're looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year," Musk said at the event. The so-called Gigafactory will be the first wholly-foreign-owned car plant in China, a reflection of China's broader shift to open up its car market, even amid a trade war with the United States, which has seen a rise in tariffs on cars imported from the U.S. Producing cars locally is likely to help Tesla minimize the impact of the trade war, which has forced the EV maker to adjust prices of its U.S.-made cars in China. Keeping prices in check will also help Tesla fend off competition from a swarm of domestic EV startups such as Nio, Byton (whose own factory is set for completion in May) and XPeng Motors. "Affordable cars must be made on same continent as customers," Musk wrote on Twitter ahead of the event. China raised the import tariff on U.S. cars to 40 percent in July, but returned it to 15 percent from the start of this year as part of a trade war cease-fire. The lower rate will last until the end of March pending trade talks. Trade war aside, the carmaker is building the plant in an auto market that likely contracted last year for the first time in decades. However, sales of so-called new-energy vehicles (NEVs) a category which includes Tesla's battery-powered cars continue to be strong in a country where the government aims to shift away entirely from combustion engine vehicles. Story continues "Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China. All Model S/X & higher cost versions of Model 3/Y will still be built in US for WW market, incl China," Musk said in another tweet, referring to the worldwide market. Tesla has been pushing forward its plans for the plant, which will have the capacity for 500,000 vehicles per year, after it secured a site in October, hiring staff, starting procurement for building materials and setting up a local financial leasing company. "Aiming to finish initial construction this summer," Musk tweeted. Shares in Chinese suppliers to Tesla, including Tianjin Motor Dies Co and VT Industrial Technology Co, rallied on Monday after Musk's tweets. "Tesla's sales (in China) have dropped over the past few months because of high price caused by the tariffs. And the competition is getting more and more fierce," said Alan Kang, Shanghai-based analyst for consultancy LMC Automotive. "With the construction of the Shanghai factory, the faster the better (for Tesla)." Related Video: Beirut (AFP) - An Islamic State group suicide bomber attacked a centre for Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian city of Raqa on Monday, killing four civilians and an anti-jihadist fighter, a monitor said. The attacker blew himself up after entering the centre run by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "A suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt blew himself up inside a YPG centre after opening fire on a security checkpoint at its entrance," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. At least four civilians and a YPG fighter were killed in the attack, he added. The YPG forms the backbone an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling to expel IS from its last redoubt in eastern Syria. IS claimed responsibility for the attack they said targeted a "recruitment centre" for Kurdish forces. "The attacker aimed at them with a machine gun then blew up his explosives vest in the middle of them," it said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF has in recent weeks advanced against IS fighters in their last holdout in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border. The jihadists are clinging on to a handful of villages in the Euphrates River Valley, including Sousa and Baghouz. They also retain a presence in the country's vast Badia desert. IS swept across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" across areas under its control. But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives. The SDF ousted IS fighters from Raqa in 2017, more than three years after the jihadists overran the city and made it their de-facto Syrian capital. Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests. Kris Osborn Security, Introdicing the Lynx: an effort to combine German combat-vehicle engineering and expertise with Raytheons weaponry, sensor and computing technology. Study This Picture: This Could Be the Army's New Future Infantry Fighting The Army is vigorously pursuing a new combat vehicle able to launch attack drones, carry longer-range TOW missiles, fire a 50mm cannon and operate optionally-manned technology, according to initial requirements outlined by service weapons developers. The Optionally Manned Vehicle, an infantry fighting vehicle, is intended as a high-tech, more mobile and more lethal Bradley. The Army is already working closely with industry on accelerated plans to plans to engineer a mobile infantry carrier able to deploy quickly, traverse rough terrain, keep pace with maneuvering infantry and yet also operate with sufficient protection necessary to thwart the most advanced enemy attacks. The effort is currently on the fast track; many industry teams are already offering vehicles, and the timeline has been accelerated by nearly a decade. The Army plans to have a combat-ready operational vehicle by 2026. Our original vision was 2035. We now have a challenging test schedule, so we cant afford a clean sheet design. We may need a power train and suspension that are already in use somewhere. We need to bring together mature components, with less risk to the schedule, Next Generation Combat Vehicle, Optionally-Manned Vehicle Program Manager Col. Jim Schirmer, said in October at the Association of the United States Army Annual Symposium. The expedited timeframe means that combat vehicle developers will look at both the state of the art current technology as well as promising future systems, Maj. Gen. Cummings, Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems, told Warrior Maven in a recent interview. The Army is trying to do things faster, and that means looking at things out there now in the commercial market. We will continue to upgrade our current platforms with anything we may go to war with today. At the same time, make the proper investment in future technologies and future systems so we will have that capability for the war we have to fight after next, Cumming said in the interview. Story continues Three of the major teams competing to build the vehicle include General Dynamics Land Systems, BAE Systems-- and a US-German team of Raytheon and Rheinmetall Defence NGCV- called the Lynx. (Of course is important to point out that the Army, naturally, does not endorse any particular platform or industry offering - as the service is currently evaluating a number of options. The Army speaks about requirements and its vision for the vehicle, not about specific vendor offerings) Raytheon-Rheinmetall Lynx The Lynx represents an effort to combine German combat-vehicle engineering and expertise with Raytheons weaponry, sensor and computing technology. Rheinmetall is known for engineering a range of combat vehicles, to include the much-discussed Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank and Puma Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The Leopard is currently in use by more than 15 countries, to include Canada, Austria, The Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Denmark, Norway and others. Several reports state that Canada used about 20 German-made Leopard 2A6Ms in Afghanistan. Weve been working for three years to analyze future customer requirements. The Lynx has a a payload of upt 18K kilos. Threats change on the battlefield and technologies change as well, Ben Hudson, Vice President of Combat Vehicle Development, Rheinmetall, told Warrior Maven in an interview. Upon initial examination, the Lynx appears to incorporate some advanced characteristics of the widely known Rheinmetall-built Puma Infantry Fighting Vehicle - specifically with respect to anti-tank weaponry, 360-degree sensors and targeting technology. Naturally, Raytheon and Rheinmetall developers emphasize that the Lynx incorporates many technologies far more advanced than those used in the Puma - even if some of the operational concepts and technological aims appear similar. The Puma is equipped with heavy and light guns, grenade launchers, a 30mm cannon and provisions for anti-tank missiles, according to information from Defencylopedia. The Puma has a crew of three and an ability to carry 6 soldiers in the rear, a configuration which matches the Army vision for its Optionally Manned Vehicle. The Puma can fire accurately and effectively up to a distance of 3000 m and 400 rounds are carried on board. The secondary gun is the 5.56 mm x MG4 machine gun.The entire vehicle is coated with a special IR-suppressing paint which reduces its thermal signature and makes it difficult for hostile missiles to target it, Defencylopedia writes. Hudson explained that Lynx development has been underway for several years, making it what he called a workable foundation from which to architect a new NGCV-Optionally-Manned Vehicle. The idea is to build a vehicle able to both anticipate and accommodate Army requirements on the much-accelerated time frame. Strategically speaking, this means industry is challenged to combined off-the-shelf or ready combat systems with emerging or new systems as well. The idea is to both produce something near term, yet also build something which substantially brings armored vehicle combat technology to a new level. The Raytheon-Rheinmetall Lynx emerges from the recently unveiled Lynx FF41 Next-Generation Combat Vehicle; the platform can be traced to its predecessor which arrived in 2016, the Lynx KF31. The Lynx FF41 vehicle can be built in a number of variants, to include Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Command and Control, Armored Reconnaissance, Repair and Recovery and Ambulance models, Rheinmetall information says. The broad Army vision, already well underway through Army-industry weapons developers, may hinge upon the developmental pace of emerging new active protection systems, advanced targeting sensors, longer-range weapons and artificial intelligence. Given current state of the art technology, engineering a vehicle that is both sufficiently survivable and mobile seems, in some respects, to be a contradiction in terms. Armor, most of which is heavy, is needed for protection, and lower-weight is needed for speed, maneuverability and deployability. Therefore, prospects for achieving the apparent paradox could include lighter weight armor composites, unmanned vehicles and long-range, high-fidelity, AI-enabled sensors able to ID threats before they are able to attack. While these requirements are still being refined as the Army works with industry, Army developers have indicated some specifics regarding the services approach to the new platform. For instance, Schirmer told Warrior that the new vehicle will operate with a three-man crew, carry six-soldiers in back and ultimately fire a 50mm cannon. Under armor volume is important for the size and weight of the vehicle. We will ultimately go to a 50mm canon, but it may begin as a 35mm, Schirmer said. New longer-range "TOW missile-compatible" weapons will arm the new platform, Schirmer said, as a way to destroy enemy armored vehicles at a safer stand-off range. Also, these new missiles are very likely to be configured with newer, more varied explosives able to destroy enemy tanks, armored vehicles and infantry formations to a much greater extent than existing weapons can. Raytheon developers say the Lynx is armed with an improved TOW missile, developed with a new propulsion system for an advanced, long-range weapon to track and destroy enemy armored vehicles from farther distances. The most recent TOW missiles, according to descriptions from the Federation of American Scientists, include hardened guidance links with a thermal beacon which improves operations in dust, smoke and other obscurants. The weapon is capable of penetrating more than 30-inches of armor and has a range of more than 3,000-meters. Its mission, according to FAS, is to attack and destroy tanks and other key targets such as non-armored vehicles, crew-served weapons and missile launchers. It uses aerodynamic contours to speed travel time to targets. It can launch 3 missiles in 90-seconds and fire from a tripod, vehicle or helicopter, FAS writes. In almost all situations, the fight ended after firing the TOW. It can bring in either close air support or artillery before the enemy even realized he was being seen. Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, former 101st Airborne Division Commander, said several years ago when a Maj. Gen. - according to Army information on the TOW missile. The requirements for the vehicle are grounded in the use of unmanned technology, such as an ability to launch attack drones, control nearby unmanned vehicles and integrate advanced video surveillance. As part of this, the vehicle will leverage advanced networking, to include new software and sensors to engineer secure communications links to pass high-speed video back to the operator, Schirmer explained. The ability to control a small drone will give us eyes down range, Schirmer explained. AI-enabled sensors and targeting technology will also be a pivotal technology when it comes to engineering a vehicle that is both highly-mobile and survivable. When it comes to new sensor technology, there are several pertinent areas of technical exploration. Improved 3rd-Gen Forward Looking Infrared sensors will bring higher-resolution targeting, longer-range technology and massively improved computer technology. Computer-enabled autonomy will help operators organize incoming sensor data from otherwise disparate nodes. The vehicle in and of itself from a systems capability uses a 3rd Gen FLIR. We are currently developing that in support of the Army. We want to achieve overmatch capability from a sighting capability, Kim Ernzen, Vice President of Land Warfare Systems, Raytheon, told Warrior Maven in an interview. Much like the Puma requirements call for a 360-degree array of cameras around the vehicle, as a way to alert crews of approaching threats from all directions. If no one has their screen turned to that view, threat-related information is not of use to the crew, Schirmer said. This kind of camera-sensor synergy, Schirmer explained, can be heavily fortified by AI which can quickly and simultaneously perform a wide range of functions - to reduce what developers call the cognitive burden upon the operators. AI reduces the amount of work to be done remotely and brings the crews attention to threats they might not otherwise see, he added. AI draws upon algorithms to function autonomously to test enemy defenses, travel at high speeds, perform advanced ISR functions and even fire weapons. In this kind of scenario, humans would of course operate in a role of command and control, allowing self-driving machines to confront the highest risks. The Lynx offers a manned-unmanned teaming opportunity. The vehicle has a digital backbone and fly-by-wire technology to move to optionally manned, Hudson said. Turret-launched attack drones are identified as a key component of emerging Army requirements for the NGCV for counter air, ISR and land-attack missions. Raytheon-Rheinmetall is offering a drone system called Coyote; small swarms of tube-launched Coyote drones fired from the Lynx turret are intended for ISR, electronic warfare and direct attack missions. Groups of small drones can blanket an area with surveillance, sending back combat-essential detail such as enemy force movements on the other side of a hill. Coyotes can also be used as expendable explosives or guided attack drones designed to hit non-line-of-sight targets. Ernzen said Raytheon has been working with the Army on Coyote as a way to, among other things, introduce a counter drone weapon. Finally, very little of this overall attack and survivability plan would fully come to fruition without advanced Active Protection Systems. These technologies, many of which are already operational, use computer-enabled fire-control, advanced radar and interceptor weapons to identify, track and destroy approaching enemy fire in a matter of seconds, or even milliseconds. Along these lines, Schirmer has explained that advanced APS able to knock out kinetic-energy penetrator rods will need to emerge so that defenses are not only able to intercept RPGs and Anti-Tank Guided Missiles. Threat levels are part of the reason many of the industry offerings are building adjustable vehicles. This includes building interchangeable turrets, configured with different weapons depending upon the mission, and adding sensors or attack drones as necessary. Air Defense is also a vital element of this, Schirmer said. Should the Army be operating in areas where there are enemy helicopters, overhead artillery, drones or aircraft threats, the vehicles will be equipped with interceptor attack drones or air-defense missiles such as Stingers or Hellfire missiles. Interestingly, some of these areas of innovation may not be rest, ricted to just the NGCV, according Maj. Gen. Brian Cummings, Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems. Right now we are trying to get the replacement for the Bradley to be the first optionally manned fighting vehicle. As we get that capability we may look at technology that we are getting in the future and insert them into current platforms, Cummings told Warrior in an interview at AUSA in October. Cummings also said Army developers are working on both near-term and longer term plans; he said it was entirely possible that a future tank or tank-like combat vehicle could emerge out of the NGCV program. Russian Threat While there are of course many reasons for the massive acceleration of the Armys new infantry carrier, service developers are not hesitant to cite a Russian threat in Eastern Europe as part of the equation. According to the National Defense Strategy, we need to make sure we can provide a deterrent force to Eastern Europe. We have challenges in Eastern Europe, Schirmer said. Russias order of battle has incredible density of artillery pieces. At the same time, however, Schirmer did not indicate that the much-discussed new Russian tank, the technological advanced T-14, was a specific concern. All these new things are necessary without the T-14 on the battlefield, he said. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army - Acquisition, Logistics& Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist for National TV networks. He has a Masters degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. This first appeared in Warrior Maven here. Read full article Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport apprehended a fake Filipino who turned out be an overstaying Korean national who tried to leave the country by using a Philippine passport. The Korean was identified as Kwak Dong Hee who was stopped at the departure area of the NAIA 3 terminal as he was about to board a Cebu Pacific flight to Saigon, Vietnam. Kwak spent New Year behind bars at the BI Detention Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig where he remains detained pending his deportation. BI Port Operations Division chief Grifton Medina said Kwak assumed the name of one Erik Nacis, purportedly born to a Korean man and a Filipina in Meycauayan, Bulacan in 1992. However, the immigration officer who processed him became suspicious after noticing he could not speak Filipino and had trouble communicating in any local dialect. It was during questioning that he admitted his true identity as a Korean citizen and that the Philippine passport he presented is fraudulently-acquired, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said. According to supervisor Carlo Gomez of the BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit, Kwak confessed that both his parents are Koreans and that he illegally obtained his Philippine passport by paying more than P120,000 to a compatriot in the Philippines. Gomez said it was also the Korean, whose name Kwak refused to divulge, who processed and acquired the birth certificate found in his possession. Our records check showed that Kwak last arrived in the Philippines on Aug. 27, 2015, hence he has already been overstaying for more than three years, Gomez added. These schemes will not pass. Our officers have a trained eye in detecting fraud. These aliens should not even consider attempting such schemes, lest they want to end up detained and deported, Morente warned. Meanwhile, MIAA general manager Eddie Monreal on Monday commended personnel of the Manila International Airport Authority intelligence and security units for their accomplishments last year.The first group of awardees composed of Intelligence and Investigation Division is led by Roderick Mejia and his team namely Diomedes C. Roca III, Ismael Bilal Rivera, John Bernard Mendeja, Mark Leonard Arcilla, and Dyron Candido. The group apprehended a driver of a white taxi last Nov. 17, 2018 after receiving a robbery complaint from a passenger. Also awarded were the team of Geoffrey John Camarauan and Saeed Qassim Abdul Karim Lopez from Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 Police Division. The two were cited for arresting a Salisi Gang member identified as Roger Gagarin also in November. The officers recovered a clutch bag containing cash amounting to P250,000 and five passports and plane tickets. Also recognized was the effort of the Police Intelligence and Investigation Division composed of Jerico Kim Patriarca, Joey Barlaan, Edzel Biag, Jerrold Demegillo, Ada Marie Campos, Elino R. Potracion and Gerber Argales. The team arrested Juvy Macalalad, a notorious swindler operating at NAIA Terminal 3 who had victimized three overseas Filipino workers within the year of 2018. Monreal expressed elation over the continuing commitment of the MIAA intelligence and police units to get rid of unscrupulous elements at the countrys airports. This just shows MIAAs resolve to eradicate all forms of activities intended to victimize passengers and other airport users, said Monreal. I congratulate all of you for doing your jobs exceedingly well. This is not only fulfilling your oath of office but a big service to our country as well. For the rest of our security people, I truly appreciate every single effort that you do every day because these efforts redound to achieving our organizational objectives. I pray that you will remain committed in the middle of the challenges that you face on the job. Rest assured that you will always have my support, he added. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC Group announced a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 7.34% with a total of 2,147,892 vehicles sold in 2018 and most subsidiaries achieved positive growth from the previous year. With regard to the performance in December, the automaker still attained a YoY increase of 4.73%. Last year, three Sino-Japanese joint ventures all showed rising momentum. GAC Honda gained a YoY growth of 5.16% thanks to the fresh power coming from the tenth-generation Accord and the all-new Crider that were newly launched in 2018. The tenth-generation Accord had its cumulative sales reach around 120,000 units after it hit the market in last April, which also made the sales of the Accord total nearly 180,000 units throughout 2018 with an evident YoY increase of 18.1%. GAC Toyota saw its sales leap 31.11% in 2018 largely driven by the hotter-selling Highlander and the eighth-generation Camry. The GAC Mitsubishi, featuring relatively weaker presence than GAC Honda and GAC Toyota, also gained a YoY jump of 22.69%, which is quite a miracle because the joint venture has no sedan models and its major products like the Mitsubishi ASX, the Outlander, and the Pajero Sport have been at the end of product lifecycle or have very few market shares. However, GAC FCA, which faces the similar trouble to GAC Mitsubishi, witnessed its sales slump 38.99% with only 125,181 units delivered last year. GAC Trumpchi, the group's self-owned car brand, had its 2018 sales grow 5.23% to 535,168 units, the second consecutively year with full-year sales exceeding 500,000 units after 2017. As to the sales performance of commercial vehicles (CV), GAC Hino and GAC BYD saw their annual sales splendidly soar 65.44% and 222.02% from the year-ago period. The year 2019 begins with some cosmic theater, with a super blood moon eclipse set to take center stage for large parts of the world January 20-21. Stargazers in North and South America and large swaths of Western Europe and Africa will want to save the date, as the celestial event will bring the sun, earth and moon into perfect alignment for a total lunar eclipse. This year, the full moon will also be at its closest point to the earth in its orbit, making the moon appear bigger and brighter from earth -- a phenomenon known as the supermoon -- and casting a reddish-orange hue on the orb for parts of the planet. NASA predicts that totality will occur at 9:12 pm PST January 20 (12:12 am+1 EST) and last about one hour. The full experience, from the start of the eclipse to the end, will last three hours and 17 minutes. Space.com has a helpful primer on when the eclipse will reach totality across different viewing regions. For example, stargazers in LA will want to pull out their telescopes and turn skyward around 8:40 pm PST, while totality will strike Reykjavik, Iceland around 4:41 am. The next total lunar eclipse is set to occur May, 26, 2021 and will be visible for parts of North and South America and East Asia. By Harry Brumpton and Svea Herbst-Bayliss (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP on Monday called on Dollar Tree Inc to sell its underperforming Family Dollar business and proposed replacing a majority of the board after revealing a stake in the U.S. discount retailer. Starboard is seeking to capitalize on criticism from some investors and analysts that Dollar Tree should consider raising prices for some products to more than $1, especially in light of the United States' trade row with China that threatens to erode its profitability. Starboard said on Monday it had built a 1.7 percent stake in Dollar Tree, making it the ninth biggest shareholder. It said that Family Dollar was now worth far less than the $8.5 billion the discount store operator paid for it in 2015. "We believe Dollar Tree should explore all strategic alternatives for Family Dollar, including a sale of the business," Starboard Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Smith said in a letter to the company. "The market is likely only ascribing approximately $1 billion - $3 billion of value to Family Dollar based on the current stock price," Smith said. In a statement, Dollar Tree said its board had "the right balance" and did not comment on the fund's call for a change in pricing strategy or a sale of Family Dollar, which accounts for more than half of the retailer's 14,000 U.S. stores. Starboard did not engage with Dollar Tree's management before nominating board directors and issuing its statement, according to two sources close to the company. Dollar Tree sees little benefit in selling Family Dollar because of antitrust restrictions on possible buyers and the poor state of financing for retail deals, the sources said. It also has no plans to adopt a multi-price strategy, even if this has worked for other retailers, according to the sources. Starboard did not respond to requests for comment. "We are in agreement with Starboard that the customers' value proposition has eroded, and that a broad market test of a multi-price approach be trialled to evaluate potential sales and margin benefits," Jefferies analysts wrote in a note. Story continues Dollar Tree's acquisition of Family Dollar's roughly 8,000 stores four years ago was aimed at fending off growing competition from Walmart Inc and rival discounter Dollar General Corp . Despite remodeling and sprucing up some stores and expanding its product range, same-store sales growth at Family Dollar has been flat on average for the past two years. That has contributed to a 15 percent fall in Dollar Tree's shares over the past year - while rival Dollar General's stock has risen 14 percent. "I personally think they should consider selling Family Dollar," said Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh. Dollar Tree-branded stores drive the vast majority of profitability and the business would be worth a higher multiple alone, Parikh said. Starboard is one of the industry's most closely watched activist investors and industry data show that the fund tends to be more successful than others in winning board seats. Its intervention is Dollar Tree's second tryst with shareholder activism, after billionaire investor Carl Icahn engineered the sale of Family Dollar to it in 2015. At the time, Icahn was the largest shareholder in Family Dollar, exiting his stake just after the deal was formally signed. Starboard proposed replacing seven of the retailer's 12-member board and urged the company to move away from its strict $1 ceiling for Dollar Tree-branded stores. "The value that Dollar Tree has offered its customers has deteriorated because of the need to fit everything into a $1 price point. Products today are smaller or of lower quality than they were five, ten, and certainly thirty years ago," Smith said. Starboard said that if the company accepts its demands, Dollar Tree could be valued at $150 per share. Dollar Tree shares were up 5 percent at $98.01 in morning trade, giving the company a market capitalization of $23 billion. (GRAPHIC: Dollar Tree stock performance - https://tmsnrt.rs/2AyVbGZ) (Reporting by Harry Brumpton in New York and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal and Uday Sampath Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Rosalba O'Brien) (Reuters) - U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp said on Monday it plans to release 5G smartphones with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the United States during the summer. Last month, rival Verizon Communications Inc disclosed similar plans for the first half of 2019. 5G can offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks. As part of the rollout, Sprint plans to include nine U.S. cities- Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C. Meanwhile, tech giant Apple Inc is planning to wait until at least 2020 to release its 5G iPhones, Bloomberg reported last month, citing sources. Apple's delay makes it easier for Samsung and Verizon to win customers who are eager to connect to 5G networks. Shares of the company were up 1 percent at $6.28 in morning trading. (Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur) Sungku Jang Security, Eurasia The costs involve more than money. Should South Korea Participate in China's Belt and Road? Last year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in declared that the Republic of Korea wanted to participate in the Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative in Chongqing. And this year, Liaoning province decided to join Chinas OBOR link to the Korean Peninsula. Although South Korea is an important U.S. ally, why would it want to participate in the Chinese OBOR? There are four reasons. First, connecting South Korea to the rest of Eurasia by the OBOR has symbolic meaning for South Koreans. Since the outbreak of the Korean War nearly seventy years ago, South Korea has been disconnected from the continent, effectively becoming an island since it could no longer access North Korean territory. Many South Koreans have sought to reconnect with the rest of Asia to escape from their isolation, where the country felt more similar to Japan and the United Kingdom than a country with a one-thousand-year-old culture and a shared history with their northern neighbors. South Korean constitutional law even includes North Korean territory under South Koreas domain (Article 3). Thus, the present division between the two Koreas brings many contradictions to the forefront of South Korean society. If South Korea can connect with North Korea through Chinas OBOR, then Seoul can overcome these contradictions and fulfill the Korean peoples long-held wish. Second, President Moon expects that participation in the initiative will mitigate tensions between South Korea and North Korea by creating joint economic opportunities. If South Korea connects with China through North Korea, South Korea can use multimodal transportation (the ability to transport cargo by land, air and sea). This will increase the efficiency of South Korean trade and its partners will become more varied than before. But South Korea would need to rebuild North Koreas train infrastructure because it is too decrepit to use. After rebuilding the train system, South Korea can resume business with North Korea at the Kaesong industrial complex and Kumgang mountain. These investments and a new, broader economic relationship could help mitigate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Story continues Third, South Korea seeks to pioneer a new emerging market and expand its economic area. Last year, President Moon declared that the OBOR initiative and Moons new policies toward Southeast Asia and North Asia have a close relationship. "I am confident a link between the Belt and Road Initiative and New North, New South policies will lead to peace and joint prosperity in the region, he said. If South Korean trains connect with Chinas railway system, South Korea can export its commodities to Central and Southeast Asia more easily. This is especially true since President Moon is expanding South Koreas economic ties with ASEAN as much as the other countries who surround the Korean Peninsula like Japan, China and Russia. In the past decade, ASEAN became the second largest market to South Korea after China. Given that 24.8 percent of South Koreas exports go to China, Seoul needs to expand into other markets to reduce its economic dependence, and therefore its political vulnerability, vis-a-vis Beijing. Indeed, South Korea had been confronted with Chinese political and economic pressure when Seoul decided to deploy the United States THADD system in response to North Korean missile threats. After political pressure from China, South Korea wants to focus on developing new markets, so participation in the OBOR is attractive to Seoul. Fourth, South Korea can get energy resources more easily, variously and cheaply than before. South Korea is the third largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Japan and China. And South Korea will soon buy even more natural gas than before because President Moon is planning to replace South Korean nuclear and coal power plants with natural gas and renewable energy. But LNG is more expensive than pipeline natural gas (PNG)South Korea currently has to buy natural gas in its liquefied state because it cant access the pipelines across North Korean territory. If South Korea can import PNG from Central Asia via China or from Russia, it can remarkably reduce the cost to import natural gas. (80 percent of South Korean gas imports currently come from five countries, with a high dependence on the Middle East and Australia.) South Korea needs alternatives for energy imports so they cannot be blocked or hindered by another countrys resource nationalism, a financial crisis or security reason. Through the One Belt One Road initiative, South Korea can raise the funds to build the pipeline and connect with Central Asia and other countries too. The above four reasons are why South Korea wants to participate in Chinas OBOR initiative, but it should not do so lightly. There are three consequences that Seoul must consider before it participates in the OBOR. First, the financial cost of participation is very high because the South Korean and North Korean train systems are so different. North Koreas double-track ratio is just four percent, meaning the majority of North Koreas rail system can only handle a single train moving in one direction at a time. Then there is the problem of energy. South Koreas trains operate at 25,000 volts, but North Koreas run at 3,000. To use North Koreas train system, South Korea has to rebuild the Norths current rail infrastructure, which uses more electricity than North Korea generates. Another problem is that North Koreas current electricity production is just 4 percent of South Koreas. So Seoul would need to invest in both North Koreas rail system and electricity generation. According to a report by the South Korea Financial Services Commission, the cost of developing North Koreas train lines and resolving its power shortages is $87.7 billion dollars. Given the estimated cost of rebuilding North Korean infrastructure, South Korea must consider how it will pay the tremendous bill. Second is a security risk that is related to trust and leverage. If South Korea participates in Chinas OBOR, Seoul may be confronted with a troubling security situation. It is true that South Korea can curtail the cost of energy imports by using Russian or Central Asian pipeline infrastructure, but should South Korea put its trust and energy security in the hands of North Korea? As has happened before, North Korea can change its relationship with Seoul based on how it perceives its national interest. This creates a possibility that Pyongyang can put a lot of pressure on Seoul by stopping energy supplies to the South. Seoul also cant guarantee financial business stability for South Korean companies working with the North. Upon a change in South Koreas government, North Korea can forfeit South Korean facilities or end its business with South Korean companies. For example, during the last South Korea administration, a business owner who participated in the Kaesong industrial complex didnt get enough recompense from the government. With such a track record, how could South Korean companies have faith in Seouls encouragement to develop economic ties with North Korea? Regarding China, the situation is similar. South Koreas intention to participate in the OBOR initiative is to reduce its dependence on China as a destination for its exports, but if South Korea participates in the OBOR initiative, the dependency ratio is likely to increase further because Chinas reason for including South Korea in this initiative is to develop its Northeast provinces. China will use South Korea to develop the region as a hub of Northeast area. It means that South Korea is giving China a powerful card that could threaten Seoul in the future. Third, Moons foreign policy could fail when South Korea participates in the OBOR initiative. What President Moon expects from the initiative is for OBOR to be the connection between his New Southern and New Northern policies, thus expanding South Koreas economic and diplomatic influence. But the top nine ASEAN countries with the highest trade volume with South Korea are not participating in the One Belt One Road project, or have suspended or canceled their projects. In truth, most ASEAN countries have a skeptical view of this initiative. In August, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad canceled the Chinese-funded $20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and pipeline project. Singapore has been wary about Chinese projects like potentially building a canal or railway to bridge the Kra Isthmus and does not have any OBOR-related projects on its territory. Pakistan and Thailand also reconsider OBOR initiative and canceled it. Vietnam says it supports the initiative but it doesnt participate in the initiative substantively. The most relevant countries with South Korea in ASEAN are hesitant to participate in the initiative. It is a similar situation with Moons New Northern policy. Moons New Northern policy is to cooperate with Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia to focus on the various fields such as energy, railway transit and the Arctic route. To attain this goal, South Korea wants to connect its New Northern policy with OBOR by connecting the Trans Korea Railway (TKR) and Trans-China Railway (TCR) to access Central Asia and Europe. But it is not a good idea for South Korea because Russias Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) is a better choice than TCR to approach this region. TCR is expensive, complicated, and less efficient than TSR since the basic fare for TCR is 30 percent higher and Beijing gives preferential treatment to Chinese companies over foreign ones. Further, crossing each Central Asia border requires strict and time-consuming custom clearance and inspections. Yet the biggest problem is that TCR has a different gauge system which is not compatible with Russia and Central Asia. It means that it is necessary to switch trains at least once when the train approaches the border. It is a slow process, especially since the train stations on the border dont have enough freight containers, especially in Central Asia. These are the reasons why South Koreas New Southern and New Northern policies and the OBOR initiative are not compatible with each other. In conclusion, the reward of the participation is very uncertain and the opportunity cost is very high. South Korea doesnt need to participate in this initiative. South Korea needs to look over its potential participation in the initiative with clear eyes so it can accurately estimate what the opportunity cost is for the South Korean people. Sungku Jang is a former Asan Fellow at the Center for the National Interest. Image: Reuters. Read full article In 2013 Jean-Luc Biamonti was appointed CEO of Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco (EPA:BAIN). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO. See our latest analysis for Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco How Does Jean-Luc Biamontis Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? According to our data, Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco has a market capitalization of 1.1b, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth 565k. (This is based on the year to 2018). Notably, the salary of 550k is the vast majority of the CEO compensation. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from 877m to 2.8b, we found the median CEO compensation was 1.1m. A first glance this seems like a real positive for shareholders, since Jean-Luc Biamonti is paid less than the average compensation paid by similar sized companies. While this is a good thing, youll need to understand the business better before you can form an opinion. The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco has changed from year to year. ENXTPA:BAIN CEO Compensation January 7th 19 Is Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco Growing? Over the last three years Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 57% per year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is up 11%. This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. This sort of respectable year-on-year revenue growth is often seen at a healthy, growing business. Story continues We dont have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow. Has Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco Been A Good Investment? Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco for providing a total return of 34% over three years. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size. In Summary It appears that Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco remunerates its CEO below most similar sized companies. Since the business is growing, many would argue this suggests the pay is modest. And given most shareholders are probably very happy with recent returns, you might even think that Jean-Luc Biamonti deserves a raise! Its not often we see shareholders do so well, and yet the CEO is paid modestly. It would be even more positive if company insiders are buying shares. Whatever your view on compensation, you might want to check if insiders are buying or selling Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco shares (free trial). Or you could feast your eyes on this interactive graph depicting past earnings, cash flow and revenue. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. As an investor, I look for investments which does not compromise one fundamental factor for another. By this I mean, I look at stocks holistically, from their financial health to their future outlook. In the case of Shenzhen International Holdings Limited (HKG:152), it is a highly-regarded dividend payer with a a strong history of delivering benchmark-beating performance. In the following section, I expand a bit more on these key aspects. If youre interested in understanding beyond my broad commentary, read the full report on Shenzhen International Holdings here. Proven track record average dividend payer In the previous year, 152 has ramped up its bottom line by 42%, with its latest earnings level surpassing its average level over the last five years. Not only did 152 outperformed its past performance, its growth also exceeded the Infrastructure industry expansion, which generated a 5.5% earnings growth. This is an notable feat for the company. SEHK:152 Income Statement Export January 7th 19 For those seeking income streams from their portfolio, 152 is a robust dividend payer as well. Over the past decade, the company has consistently increased its dividend payout, reaching a yield of 3.0%. SEHK:152 Historical Dividend Yield January 7th 19 Next Steps: For Shenzhen International Holdings, Ive compiled three fundamental factors you should further research: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 152s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 152s outlook. Financial Health: Are 152s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other Attractive Alternatives : Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of 152? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the attorney general of Massachusetts to obtain records from Exxon Mobil Corp(XOM.N) to probe whether the oil company for decades concealed its knowledge of the role fossil fuels play in climate change. The justices declined to hear Exxons appeal of a ruling by the top court in Massachusetts holding that state Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, had jurisdiction to seek records to probe whether the company misled consumers and investors. The high courts action marked the latest setback for Exxon in its efforts to halt the Massachusetts investigation and a similar one by New Yorks attorney general, who in October filed a lawsuit against the company. New Yorks lawsuit accused Exxon of engaging in a systematic scheme to deceive investors about the impact that future climate change regulations could have on its business. Exxon has called the claims meritless. The Massachusetts and New York investigations were launched following 2015 news reports that Exxons own scientists had determined that fossil fuel combustion must be reduced to mitigate the impact of climate change. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Those news reports, by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, were based on documents from the 1970s and 1980s. Exxon said the documents were not inconsistent with its public positions. Healey in 2016 issued a civil investigative demand to Exxon seeking documents to investigate whether it had violated the states consumer-protection law through its marketing and sale of fossil fuel products. Exxon said that because it is incorporated in Texas and New Jersey, Healey had no basis to seek documents to conduct a Massachusetts-based investigation. Dr. Albert Einstein, left, Princeton University professor, clad in a blue jersey, bids goodbye to his guest, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of India, at the conclusion of Nehrus visit in Princeton, New Jersey on Nov. 5, 1949. Now, scientists in India are dismissing Einsteins theories. (AP Photo) Speakers at a major conference in India have been slammed for making irrational claims including that ancient Hindus invented stem cell research. The BBC reports the some academics at the annual Indian Science Congress dismissed the findings of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Hindu mythology and religion-based theories have increasingly become part of the Indian Science Congress agenda. But experts said remarks at this years summit were ludicrous. Among the claims to emerge from the 106th Indian Science Congress is that ancient Hindus invented stem cell research. Stock image. (PA) The 106th Indian Science Congress, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, runs until January 7. The head of a southern Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands of years ago. G Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University, also said a demon king from the Hindu religious epic, Ramayana, had 24 types of aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern day Sri Lanka. Another scientist from a university in the southern state of Tamil Nadu told conference attendees that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were both wrong and that gravitational waves should be renamed Narendra Modi Waves. Dr KJ Krishnan reportedly said Newton failed to understand gravitational repulsive forces and Einsteins theories were misleading. Critics said that while ancient texts should be read and enjoyed it was nonsense to suggest they represented science. The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed serious concern at the remarks. We dont subscribe to their views and distance ourselves from their comments. This is unfortunate, Premendu P Mathur, general secretary of Indian Scientific Congress Association, told the AFP news agency. There is a serious concern about such kind of utterances by responsible people. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK A Saudi teenager who says she is fleeing abuse by her family and wants asylum in Australia has barricaded herself in a Thailand hotel as she sent out pleas for help over social media. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun began posting on Twitter on Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. The 18-year-old has been appealing for aid from the United Nations refugee agency and anyone else who can help. On Monday, Thai authorities vowed not to deport the teenager and said she will be given temporary entry to the country. Her status will be assessed by the UN refugee agency. Thailands chief of immigration police Surachate Hakparn said the country would protect her as best we can. He added: She is now under the sovereignty of Thailand, no one and no embassy can force her to go anywhere. We will talk to her and do whatever she requests. Since she escaped trouble to seek our help we will not send anyone to their death. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a statement saying it was following the case and trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet the woman to assess her need for international protection. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunan sits barricaded in a hotel room in Bangkok, claiming she is fleeing abuse from her family in Saudi Arabia (Picture: AP) On Twitter, where Ms Alqunun has accumulated tens of thousands of followers in about a day-and-a-half, she wrote of being in real danger if forced to return to her family under pressure from Saudi authorities. She has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. MORE: Brother of former US marine held in Russia urges UK government to keep an eye on him MORE: Starving seal pup found in back garden in village FOUR MILES from the sea She told Human Rights Watch she was fleeing abuse from her family, including beatings and death threats from her male relatives who she claimed had forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair. For runaway Saudi women to whom Saudi law grants male relatives legal guardianship even if they are adults fleeing can be a matter of life and death. Story continues Immigration chief Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn addresses media at Suvarnabhumi Airport where the 18-year-old Saudi woman has barricaded herself inside a hotel room (Picture: Reuters) Thailand should allow UNHCR to have access to her. They should allow UNHCR to make a determination whether she is a refugee or not and abide by that, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. Alternatively, Thailand could let her continue to Australia, give her back her passport and make sure she is able to go. She has a valid Australian visa. The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harms way Ms Alqunun appeared to have scored a small victory on Monday when the flight on which she said she would be sent to Kuwait departed without her. Later, Germanys ambassador to Thailand, Georg Schmidt, posted a message of concern on his verified Twitter account about her case, which he said he was conveying to Thai authorities. The Associated Press reached Ms Alqunun by telephone on Sunday night in her hotel room and she claimed she was tricked into giving up her passport on her arrival in Bangkok. Someone told me he would help me get a visa for Thailand, so I can go inside, she said. After that he took my passport. After one hour he came with five or four persons and told me my family wants me. And they knew I had run away and should go back to Saudi Arabia. The teenager made an appeal on social media for help (Picture: @rahaf84427714/Reuters) She identified the man who took her passport variously as a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi embassy official. She said Saudi and Thai officials then told her she would be returned to Kuwait on Monday, where her father and brother are awaiting her. Saudi Arabias charge daffaires in Bangkok Abdullah al-Shuaibi denied Saudi authorities were involved in any way. He was quoted in Saudi press saying that Ms Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist. He said the Saudi embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that this decision rests with Thai officials. Damage to agriculture and infrastructure caused by Tropical Depression Usman reached P4.2 billion, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Monday. Damage to infrastructure was worth P3.3 billion, while destroyed agricultural produce climbed up to P984.7 million. The assessment report included Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon); Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan (Mimaropa); Bicol, and Eastern Visayas. At least 126 people were killed, 30 of them from Bicol, particularly in Sagnay, Camarines Sur, where landslides occurred. While 26 persons remained missing, 75 persons were injured, officials said. Usman directly affected 150,877 families or 675,777 individuals in more than 900 barangays. According to the NDRRMC, over 13,000 families or 58,000 individuals were still in various evacuation centers. Some P55.2-million assistance was extended to Mimaropa, Bicol and Eastern Visayas. In a related development: Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said geohazard maps were readily available for authorities to be able to identify areas vulnerable to floods and landslides. He said under Republic Act No. 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, governors and mayors had been tasked to chair local disaster risk reduction and management councils at the provincial, city and municipal levels.On the other hand, the councilors were responsible for disaster management and risk reduction plans to minimize, if not totally prevent, casualties during calamities. The DENR for its part contributes to disaster risk reduction efforts through the geohazard maps which the Mines and Geosciences Bureau distributes to all LGUs so they can identify landslide and flood-prone areas, Cimatu said. Meanwhile, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino urged the government to quickly address the latest increase in prices of goods due to Usman. He also called on the government to deal with the projected rise in cost of petroleum products from the expected increase in fuel prices in the world market along with the additional excise tax on fuel under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law. The government should immediately act to ease the burden of our countrymen with the new increase in prices of commodities and petroleum products, said Aquino, one of four senators who voted against the ratification of the TRAIN Law. Our poor countrymen are in pitiful condition due to double whammy with typhoon Usman and additional taxes on petroleum products, said Aquino. He demanded a halt on the implementation of an excise tax on petroleum products. The senator said the government should be sensitive to the plight of consumers and poor Filipinos, expected to carry the additional burden of high prices of goods due to the latest levy on oil products under the TRAIN Law. While the prices of basic commodities are to go down, he said there was an immediate increase on petroleum products. Tokyo (AFP) - Nissan's alliance with France's Renault is not in danger "at all", the Japanese automaker's CEO told AFP on Monday, despite tensions exposed by the arrest of the partnership's chief Carlos Ghosn. In an interview, Hiroto Saikawa brushed aside suggestions that the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors, had been damaged by the aftermath of Ghosn's arrest for alleged financial misconduct. "I don't think it's in danger at all," he said. He declined to comment directly on the case against Ghosn, who will appear in court Tuesday to hear an explanation of his ongoing detention. "This is a process of the Japanese system, so I have nothing to say," Saikawa said. "I just want to focus on stabilising the company." Ghosn's arrest rocked the auto industry and exposed rifts in the three-firm alliance that he forged, particularly between Nissan and Renault. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors swiftly removed Ghosn from his leadership positions after his arrest, with Saikawa even referring to the "dark side" of his former mentor's tenure. But Renault has kept Ghosn on as CEO, and the French firm has repeatedly urged Nissan to call a shareholder meeting, reportedly seeking to bolster its representation on the company's board. Officials at both companies have also complained about a breakdown in communication in the wake of the arrest. But despite the apparent tensions, Saikawa said he was communicating with Renault on a "day-to-day" basis and "alliance work is going well". "The core, the value, of the alliance itself is coming from the day-to-day work," he added. "This work, this energy, this direction of activities are not at all affected." - 'Ready to accept fundamental change' - But in an indication of one of the issues underlying the tensions, Saikawa suggested that the current distribution of shares in the partnership could be up for renegotiation. Story continues Renault is currently the dominant partner in the alliance, holding 43 percent of Nissan's shares, while the Japanese firm holds only a 15 percent stake in Renault and has no voting rights. While the alliance as a whole is the world's top-selling car company, Nissan outsells its French counterpart. There have been rumours that before his arrest, Ghosn was moving towards consolidating the alliance, despite growing resentment in Nissan about the partnership's existing framework. "Currently, we don't have to change anything, but maybe in the future," he said. "Can we say this current credo is stable or sustainable? We may have to review it. This is the kind of homework for (the) current generation's leaders, before handing over to next generations. We need to work on it." Ghosn faces allegations including under-reporting his compensation, attempting to shift investment losses onto Nissan's books, and using company funds to repay a friend who put up collateral for him. He denies the allegations, and is expected to make his first public statement since his arrest when he appears in a Tokyo court on Tuesday. Nissan says the alleged financial misconduct came to light through a company whistleblower, which then prompted a full-blown investigation. In the wake of the case, and Ghosn's removal as chairman, Nissan has launched a wide-ranging review of its governance. The firm itself faces charges for submitting falsified documents in one of the cases involving the alleged under-reporting of Ghosn's salary. Saikawa said he expected the review to produce "deep and wide recommendations". "I am ready to accept fundamental change," he added, speaking on the sidelines of the New Year's gathering organised by Japan's Keidanren business lobby. He said the review could result in an enhanced role for independent directors, and possibly a change in the make-up of Nissan's board. It appears that there is no respite for QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM from legal battles related to its businesses. After a prolonged courtroom saga with Apple Inc. AAPL for patent infringement issues, Qualcomm is now bracing itself for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case for monopolistic trade practices. The California courtroom trial is likely to have a cascading effect on the smartphone industry across the globe and has attracted massive interest from all stakeholders, including Apple. In its appeal before the U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, the government pleaded that Qualcomm used anti-competitive policies to drive sales of its smartphone chips. It alleged that Qualcomm followed no license, no chips trade policy, under which chips were only sold to those manufacturers that agreed to inflated patent licensing terms. The government agency further accused Qualcomm of using unfair trade practices and allegedly offering financial rebates to the iPhone maker for buying chips only from it, undermining competitive offers from rival Intel Corporation INTC. Refuting all the charges, Qualcomm pointed out that its licensing business was started decades ago before it began selling chips. The company stressed that it assumed technology leadership through continued R&D efforts and hard bargaining with smartphone manufacturers throughout the world. Moreover, the licensing rates were mostly kept unchanged once it started selling chips and had been market driven, contrary to the allegations. Despite the claims and counter claims, the unwanted scrutiny by the antitrust regulators of the licensing business, from which it garners a huge profit, is likely to affect its credentials. The outcome of the trial will have a ripple effect on any settlement discussions between Qualcomm and Apple. Furthermore, Qualcomms business practices are also being investigated by regulators in several other countries like South Korea, China, Taiwan and Europe, allegedly instigated by Apple. Qualcomm has been entangled in a bitter legal battle with Apple for quite some time now, related to alleged patent infringements. In this context, it is worth noting that Qualcomm recently posted the required security bonds in the District Court of Munich to enforce ban on some iPhone models of Apple in Germany. This was preceded by some favorable verdicts from across the globe. In early December, the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court in China held Apple guilty of twin patent infringement and ordered an immediate ban on sales of older iPhone models, from the 6S through the X in the country (read more: Qualcomm Wins Twin Patent Battle in China Against Apple). A few days later, the District Court of Munich held Apple guilty of patent infringement and ordered a permanent injunction to the sale of some iPhone models in Germany. The infringed models were found to violate Qualcomm's intellectual property rights for power savings in smartphones. The bone of contention was a third-party violation of Qualcomm's patents around envelope tracking a feature that helps phones preserve battery while sending and receiving wireless transmissions. Apple has allegedly used products from Qorvo, Inc. QRVO to bypass the patent in some of its iPhone models. It remains to be seen how the verdict in the California trial pans out for Qualcomm now, as it could redefine the sector dynamics and affect its business model. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock has outperformed the industry in the past six months with an average decline of 2.5% compared with a fall of 6.1% for the latter. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Story continues 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) : Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Connected beauty products are fast becoming the wellness industry's hottest new trend, and lifestyle giant Procter & Gamble is doubling down on the concept. The personal care company is introducing multiple new connected devices from several of its brands at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, it has announced. The move is part of the company's strategy to leverage innovative technologies across its health and beauty portfolio. First up is skincare brand Olay's new Skin Advisor' platform, which uses artificial intelligence to offer users personal skincare consultations and advice. Prestige skincare brand SK-II also has a new concept up its sleeve, in the form of the Future X Smart Store' concept, which will offer "phygital" experiences for in-store shoppers, via techniques such as facial recognition and digital diagnostics. One of P&G's major launches is the Opte Precision Skincare System' -- a single device featuring camera optics, proprietary algorithms and printing technology to scan the complexion and detect hyperpigmentation. It can even be used to apply exact quantities of corrective serum to the face. In the health and home sectors, the company is set to unveil an Oral-B Genius X' artificial intelligence toothbrush that offers personalized feedback on brushing techniques, and a GilletteLabs Heated Razor' that warms up in under a second for a more comfortable shaving experience. "We're innovating faster than ever, combining more than 180 years of capability with the entrepreneurial spirit of a lean startup," said P&G Chief Research, Development and Innovation Officer, Kathy Fish, in a statement. "As consumers are changing, so are we. What remains the same is our focus on deeply understanding how consumers live, work and play so we know precisely what they want." The wellness conglomerate is not the only corporation focusing on connected beauty for CES 2019 -- earlier this week, skincare brand Neutrogena unveiled a personalized face mask app that will make its debut at the show, while L'Oreal is also planning to introduce its previously-announced La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV' wearable skin protection device. P&G will be exhibiting at CES from January 8 through 11. Kinshasa (AFP) - Public and diplomatic pressure mounted Monday on the Democratic Republic of Congo to announce the outcome of December 30 elections to replace long-term leader Joseph Kabila. More than a week after the crucial poll, the volatile central African country's electoral commission has not set a date for the results announcement, already postponed once. The count is taking place in a climate of deep suspicion in a country that has never had a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. On Sunday, election commission head Corneille Nangaa said just over half of ballots had been counted. He appealed to the public "to remain patient for the time it will take to consolidate all our data." But on Monday, the foreign minister of Belgium -- a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council -- urged haste. "The important thing today is to publish the results of the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo even if they do not please the powers that be," Didier Reynders told Belgium's RTBF broadcaster. "We hope for an announcement in the coming days." For its part, the CLC collective of Congolese Catholic laypeople which coordinated anti-Kabila protests in 2017 and 2018, bemoaned what it described as "collusion" between the country's ruling FCC coalition and the CENI election commission. It accused the FCC (Common Front for Congo) and CENI of levelling "aggressive and unjustified" criticism against the country's powerful Catholic Church, and said this "confirms, in everyone's eyes, their collusion" and revealed "a hidden agenda." The Church had deployed some 40,000 election observers, who fanned out across the vast country. Its episcopal commission CENCO last week declared that it knew who had won and urged the authorities to publish the results "in keeping with truth and justice". "The CLC reiterates its call to the Congolese people to remain more than ever vigilant, to remain united and to be wary of arsonists posing as firefighters," the organisation said in a statement. Story continues The UN Security Council postponed a key meeting on the DR Congo elections at South Africa's request, diplomats said Monday. The council was due to hold a public meeting Tuesday which is now expected to take place on Friday, according to council diplomats. South Africa, along with Russia and China, had argued strongly in favour of holding off on any action until the results are announced, they added. - 'Safeguard peace' - There were protestations from the FCC side as well. "Ambassadors are saying that (opposition candidate Martin) Fayulu has won," complained a confidant of Kabila, citing permanent UNSC members France, the United States, and Britain. Twenty-one candidates ran in the election to succeed Kabila, who has ruled the vast conflict-ridden country for almost 18 years. Among the frontrunners were Fayulu, another opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi, and Kabila's preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. Kabila was due to step down two years ago, but clung on to power, sparking widespread protests which were brutally repressed. Last month's election, preceded by repeated delays, was relatively peaceful. But tensions have built over the lengthy counting process even as the government cut internet access and blocked broadcasts by Radio France Internationale. On Saturday, just hours before Sunday's scheduled announcement of the provisional outcome, electoral officials announced an indefinite delay. Nangaa has said the tallying is made difficult by massive logistical problems in a resource-poor country the size of western Europe. The United States and European Union have urged Kinshasa to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, while the African Union, which sent election monitors, said it was "crucial" to respect voters' wishes. Denis Sassou Nguesso, president of the Republic of Congo to the west, urged restraint in uncertain times to "safeguard peace and stability in this brother country". The last two presidential elections in 2006 and 2011, both won by Kabila, were marred by bloodshed. Between 1996 and 2003, the DR Congo suffered two wars that claimed millions of lives through fighting, starvation, and disease. Kinshasa (AFP) - Public and diplomatic pressure mounted Monday on the Democratic Republic of Congo to announce the outcome of December 30 elections to replace long-term leader Joseph Kabila. More than a week after the crucial poll, the volatile central African country's electoral commission has not set a date for the results announcement, already postponed once. The count is taking place in a climate of deep suspicion in a country that has never had a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. On Sunday, election commission head Corneille Nangaa said just over half of ballots had been counted. He appealed to the public "to remain patient for the time it will take to consolidate all our data." But on Monday, the foreign minister of former colonial power Belgium -- a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council due to discuss the situation in DR Congo this week -- urged haste. "The important thing today is to publish the results of the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo even if they do not please the powers that be," Didier Reynders told Belgium's RTBF broadcaster. "We hope for an announcement in the coming days." For its part, the CLC collective of Congolese Catholic laypeople which coordinated anti-Kabila protests in 2017 and 2018, bemoaned what it described as "collusion" between the country's ruling FCC coalition and the CENI election commission. It accused the FCC (Common Front for Congo) and CENI of levelling "aggressive and unjustified" criticism against the country's powerful Catholic Church, and said this "confirms, in everyone's eyes, their collusion" and revealed "a hidden agenda." The Church had deployed some 40,000 election observers, who fanned out across the vast country. Its episcopal commission CENCO last week declared that it knew who had won, thanks to its monitoring. It urged the authorities to publish the results "in keeping with truth and justice". Story continues "The CLC reiterates its call to the Congolese people to remain more than ever vigilant, to remain united and to be wary of arsonists posing as firefighters," said a CLC statement. - 'Safeguard peace' - There were protestations from the FCC side as well. "Ambassadors are saying that (opposition candidate Martin) Fayulu has won," complained a confidant of Kabila, citing permanent UNSC members France, the United States, and Britain. Twenty-one candidates ran in the election to succeed Kabila, who has ruled the vast conflict-ridden country for almost 18 years. Among the frontrunners were Fayulu, another opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi, and Kabila's preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. Kabila was due to step down two years ago, but clung on to power, sparking widespread protests which were brutally repressed. Last month's election, preceded by repeated delays, was relatively peaceful. But tensions have built over the lengthy counting process even as the government cut internet access and blocked broadcasts by Radio France Internationale. On Saturday, just hours before Sunday's scheduled announcement of the provisional outcome, electoral officials announced an indefinite delay. Nangaa has said the tallying is made difficult by massive logistical problems in a resource-poor country the size of western Europe. The United States and European Union have urged Kinshasa to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, while the African Union, which sent election monitors, said it was "crucial" to respect voters' wishes. Denis Sassou Nguesso, president of the Republic of Congo to the west, urged restraint in uncertain times to "safeguard peace and stability in this brother country". The last two presidential elections in 2006 and 2011, both won by Kabila, were marred by bloodshed. Between 1996 and 2003, the DR Congo suffered two wars that claimed millions of lives through fighting, starvation, and disease. NASA's New Horizon's space probe made history on New Year's Day as it flew past a small, snowman-shaped object 4 billion miles away from Earth known as Ultima Thule. At 12:33 a.m. EST on Jan. 1, New Horizons made its closest approach to Ultima Thule at a distance of around 2,200 miles. This is comparable to the distance from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States. Shortly after buzzing by Ultima Thule, the space probe sent back its first images of the small world. New Horizons sends back first images of Ultima Thule AP Photo/Garret Fischer First, at vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui voluptatum. 1/12 (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) One of the first images of Ultima Thule taken by New Horizons. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Ultima Thule compared to the size of Pluto. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) "The first exploration of a small Kuiper Belt object and the most distant exploration of any world in history is now history, but almost all of the data analysis lies in the future," said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. This is the second time that New Horizons explored a distant world. In 2015, it captivated millions after sending back the first-ever close-up images of Pluto. Story continues More images will be sent back to Earth in the coming months with high-resolution images not expected to be received until February. However, it will take much longer for New Horizons to send back all of the photos and data that it recorded. "While the flyby was quick, it'll take ~20 months to downlink the full data set from the spacecraft, which is more than ~4 billion miles from the sun," NASA said. Even though New Horizons has only sent back a fraction of the data that it collected, scientists already have clues on how the oddly shaped object may have formed billions of years ago. "The new images revealed Ultima Thule as a 'contact binary,' consisting of two connected spheres," NASA said. formation.jpeg Sending a spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system was no easy feat for NASA's Jet Proportion Laboratory. New Horizons launched from Earth on Jan. 19, 2006, to begin its long trek to Pluto. However, Ultima Thule was not discovered until June 26, 2014, by the Hubble Space Telescope. After the spacecraft explored Pluto in July 2015, scientists at NASA adjusted its course that set up its close encounter with Ultima Thule on New Year's Day. This required extreme precision, in part due to its small size in comparison to Pluto. "Never before has any spacecraft team tracked down such a small body at such high speed so far away in the abyss of space," Stern said. The successful flyby will provide a plethora of data that will help scientists understand how our solar system formed over 4 billion years ago. "The New Horizons mission is helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt - a relic of solar system formation," NASA said "Sending a spacecraft on this long journey is helping us to answer basic questions about the surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres on these bodies," NASA said. ultima thule infographic Now that New Horizons has passed Ultima Thule, scientists will begin to look for another object in the Kuiper Belt for the space probe to explore. This could be challenging, especially since objects in this part of the solar system are very small and difficult to see, even with telescopes such as the Hubble. One option to help find new objects would to be to use the camera on New Horizons, known as the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), to try to find nearby objects in the Kuiper Belt. "LORRI could take hundreds or even thousands of photographs of the stars around the spacecraft. Rather than send those images back to Earth, it might be possible to program the computer to search for the best targets and only send home those images," SPACE.com said. Eventually, New Horizons will finish its journey through the Kuiper Belt and travel toward interstellar space, and eventually leave our solar system. A woman has been fined for having a dog lead that was too long (File picture: PA) A pet owner was left in tears after being fined 50 because her dog lead was too long. Grandmother-of-four Maureen Sanders, 80, from Bootle, Merseyside, was fined while walking her dog around a cemetery on Friday morning, the Liverpool Echo reported. She was walking her rescue dog Soren around Bootle Cemetery when two female officers from enforcement firm NSL approached her, told her the lead was too long and issued her a 50 fine. They told her the dog lead needed to be less than 2m long. The dog owner says she is refusing to pay the fine (Picture: PA) Mrs Sanders was shocked to be issued with the fine without a warning or an explanation of the rules. Signs outside the cemetery state that dogs should be kept on a short lead but no maximum length is specified. Although her daughters have offered to give her the 50 so it doesnt come out of her pension, Mrs Sanders is refusing to pay the fine as a matter of principle. MORE: Brother of former US marine held in Russia urges UK government to keep an eye on him MORE: Starving seal pup found in back garden in village FOUR MILES from the sea She told the Liverpool Echo: I had no idea it was a rule. What upset me was if you dont have it paid up in a fortnight they said you would be fined 2,500 and I would have a criminal record. I cried all night because I was so, so upset. Her dog was rescued three years ago from Romania, where he was being used for dog fights. Mrs Sanders said he is friendly but can get frightened of other dogs, so she keeps him on a lead at all times. I dont have a computer or anything I wouldnt know the by-laws or anything, she said. Ive always been very respectful in the cemetery. I always have the dog on a lead and a lot of people dont do that. Her daughter, Maggie Eaton, said her mother was unable to read the signs outside the cemetery because of her poor eyesight, and that she uses a longer lead because she has difficulty walking and is waiting for a hip replacement. She said she found her mother in floods of tears after she was issued the fine. Story continues Mum does not have that sort of money to pay for walking her dog under control on a lead as she has done every day for years, she said. My sister and I offered to pay but mum is adamant that as she was not doing anything wrong by walking her dog on a lead in the rear part of the cemetery away from the graves, early in the morning in the only green space close to her flat. She is not going to pay. It is understood that NSL is responsible for issuing fixed penalty notices for by-laws on behalf of Sefton Council. Stephen Hicks pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault and indecency with a child on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court. (SWNS) A paedophile who sexually abused a young girl in the late 70s after being given access to her by the victims own FATHER has finally been jailed 39 years later. Stephen Hicks, 57, subjected the youngster to a string of sickening sex attacks even after being convicted of indecently assaulting her in 1979. Despite being ordered by a court to stay away from the girl he continued to abuse her while on probation after being allowed into her home by her twisted dad. The victim finally managed to pluck up the courage to go to police in 2016 and revealed what had happened to her as a 10-year-old child. Hicks appeared at Warwickshire Crown Court in Leamington Spa. (PA) She said Hicks had indecently assaulted her on a number of occasions at her home, on the top deck of a bus and at a multi-storey car park. And on two occasions, once on the bus and once at the car park, Hicks, who was in his late teens or 20 at the time, had made her perform a sex act on him. Hicks denied the offences and it was only on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court that he admitted charges of indecent assault and indecency with a child. Jailing Hicks for three years, Judge Anthony Potter said although the maximum sentence for such offences now would be 14 years, at the time was it just five years. Hicks was jailed for three years for historic sex offences at Warwick Crown Court. (PA) He added: I am quite satisfied you assaulted her secure in the knowledge that her father was allowing you access to his daughter, and that he would not interfere with what you wanted to do. That meant that this child of 10 was in an environment where there was no level of protection. She felt it was pointless saying anything about what you were doing, because she was just being ignored, but the memory of what you did to her has remained with her. Following these offences, you transferred your attentions to another child who was also under the age of 14. Hicks, of Harborne, Birmingham, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life. Prosecutor David Jackson said that in 1979 Hicks had appeared before magistrates and pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the girl, while she was aged eight or nine and was given a three-year probation order. Story continues The victim said her father, who was also accused of abusing her but faced no action, was aware of what was going on but did nothing to stop it. Mr Jackson added Hicks had been jailed in 1985 for 15 months for indecently assaulting another girl. Rupert Jones, defending, said: He did not receive any work to address his sex offending at the time of the probation order in 1979. His last conviction for any offence is now over 28 years ago. Since then, hes lived a law-abiding life. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK The Philippines will only act if the overseas Filipino workers were affected by the conflict between Taiwan and China, Malacanang said Monday as it distanced itself from the political rift between the two nations. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the dispute should be left between the two countries even after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called for international support to defend Taipeis democracy amid renewed threats from China. Its between the two countries. Our concern is our OFWs there. When theres already a problem arising out of that conflict, then we need to act for the safety of our OFWs, Panelo told a Palace press briefing. Right now, we dont know the situation yet, so we will let them be for now, he added. Asked if the Philippines would support Taiwan amid the countrys enduring friendship with China, Panelo said: It depends. I think I would leave the response to the proper authoritythe Secretary of Foreign of Affairs. That is his turf, said Panelo, deferring the matter of international issues to Foreign Affairs chief Teodoro Locsin.There was no immediate reaction from the Department of Foreign Affairs. On Saturday, Tsai asked the international community to voice support and help Taiwan after Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing would use force to unite Taiwan with the Asian giant if necessary. According to Tsai, if the international community did not support a democratic country that was under threat, Taiwan might have to ask: Which country might be next? Taiwan and China relations have bogged down since Tsai came to power in 2016, refusing to acknowledge that the self-ruled island was part of one China. As a response, Beijing unilaterally cut off its communication with Tsais administration, ordering its forces to step up military drills around the island as Xi believed the unification of the two countries was inevitable. OUTFRONT Media Inc.s OUT state-of-the-art digital transformations efforts in its portfolio attract brands encouraging those to launch highly-engaging campaigns at distinct locations. However, these digital deployments involve significant costs and will likely affect the companys bottom-line performance. OUTFRONT Media continues to pioneer the OOH space with innovative technologies and large-scale installation of new digital liveboard displays across its transit system. Through these efforts, the company boasts an impressive footprint across 140 markets in the United States and Canada, providing unrivalled communication between brands and audiences. This large scale also enables its clients to reach a national audience, as well as provides the flexibility to tailor campaigns in specific regions or markets. Specifically, in early 2018, this real estate investment trust (REIT) started the deployment of more than 50,000 liveboards across the subway and commuter rail stations in New York, and aims to fortify its digital presence in the BART system of San Francisco in 2019. Further, OOH advertising is growing at a rapid pace and becoming the crucial component of a campaigns marketing mix, owing to its affordability and mass reach. Moreover, fragmentation across other advertising media and technological advancements in the OOH segment are facilitating the shift to outdoor advertising. Amid this favorable environment, the company continues to be on the lookout for strategic acquisitions to expand its portfolio. Furthermore, recent partnerships with The Points Guy for a New York campaign and another with Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism highlight the companys ability to ride on the tide. Nevertheless, it faces stiff competition from other outdoor advertisers for customers, display locations and structures. This is anticipated to affect the companys pricing power in the market. In addition, with less likeliness of any recovery in the lackluster national advertising market, revenues from national advertising segment might remain suppressed in the upcoming quarters. Story continues Additionally, a highly leveraged balance sheet amid rising rate environment remains a critical concern for OUTFRONT Media. Amid rising rates, not only the financing costs flare up, but the common-stock buyers also demand a higher dividend yield, which may negatively impact the market price of the common stock. Lastly, the OOH advertising industry has to comply with frequently changing regulations at the international, federal, state and local levels. This could have a deeper impact on the outdoor advertising industry and OUTFRONT Medias business. In the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has declined 3.5% compared to the 4.6% loss incurred by its industry. Key Picks Some better-ranked stocks from the REIT space are Lamar Advertising Company LAMR, PS Business Parks, Inc. PSB and Terreno Realty Corporation TRNO, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Lamars funds from operations (FFO) per share estimates for 2019 have been marginally revised upward to $5.89 in the past 30 days. PS Business Parks Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 FFO per share remained unchanged at $6.58 over the past month. Terreno Realtys FFO per share estimates for 2019 remained unrevised at $1.39 in 30 days time. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Lamar Advertising Company (LAMR) : Free Stock Analysis Report PS Business Parks, Inc. (PSB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Terreno Realty Corporation (TRNO) : Free Stock Analysis Report OUTFRONT Media Inc. (OUT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Investors in Nordic American Tankers Limited NAT need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the Jan 18, 2019 $2.00 Put had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today. What is Implied Volatility? Implied volatility shows how much movement the market is expecting in the future. Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other. It could also mean there is an event coming up soon that may cause a big rally or a huge sell-off. However, implied volatility is only one piece of the puzzle when putting together an options trading strategy. What do the Analysts Think? Clearly, options traders are pricing in a big move for Nordic American Tankers shares, but what is the fundamental picture for the company? Currently, Nordic American Tankers is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) in the Transportation - Shipping industry that ranks in the Top 42% of our Zacks Industry Rank. Over the last 30 days, two analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the current quarter, while none have revised their estimates downward. The net effect has taken our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter from a loss of 2 cents per share to breakeven level in that period. Given the way analysts feel about Nordic American Tankers right now, this huge implied volatility could mean theres a trade developing. Oftentimes, options traders look for options with high levels of implied volatility to sell premium. This is a strategy many seasoned traders use because it captures decay. At expiration, the hope for these traders is that the underlying stock does not move as much as originally expected. Looking to Trade Options? Each week, our very own Dave Bartosiak gives his top options trades. Check out his recent live analysis and options trade for the NFLX earnings report completely free. See it here: Bartosiak: Trading Netflix's (NFLX) Earnings with Options or check out the embedded video below for more details: Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Nordic American Tankers Limited (NAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is on his way to China for his fourth summit with China's Xi Jinping, South Korean media said on Monday. South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper, citing an unidentified source with close knowledge of North Korea-China affairs, reported that Kim was traveling to Beijing late on Monday to meet with Xi. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unspecified source familiar with North Korea issues, said a North Korean train possibly carrying a "high-level" official had crossed the border into China. The source told Yonhap it had not been confirmed whether a senior official was on board, but that dozens of security vehicles and officials had blocked the roads around a station in the Chinese border city of Dandong as the train passed. Last year Kim traveled to China three times to meet with Xi, before and after Kim held other summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim is expected to meet again with both the U.S. and South Korean presidents in the near future, and another visit to China has been seen as a possible move before those summits. Earlier on Monday the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported that U.S. State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between Trump and Kim, fuelling speculation that Vietnam could host the event. The U.S. State Department and White House declined to comment on the Munhwa Ilbo report and the State Department referred queries about Kim's reported China visit to the Chinese government. In an interview with CNBC, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised China's support for resolving the North Korean crisis and said he did not think the U.S. trade dispute with Beijing would affect this. "The Chinese have been very clear to us that these are separate issues," Pompeo said. "Their behavior has demonstrated that as well and we appreciate that. China has actually been a good partner in our efforts to reduce the risk to the world from North Koreas nuclear capability; I expect they will continue to do so." At a landmark June summit in Singapore, Kim and Trump pledged to work toward denuclearization, but the pact was light on details and talks since have made little headway. China is North Koreas most important economic and diplomatic backer, despite anger over its neighbor's nuclear and missile programs. Ties have warmed in the last year as Pyongyangs relations with both Seoul and Washington have also improved. China also played a role in Trump's meeting with Kim, lending the North Korean leader an airliner for his trip to Singapore. Diplomatic sources say Xi will probably go to North Korea at some point soon, which would make him the first Chinese leader to do so since 2005. In early December, Xi told North Korea's foreign minister during a visit in Beijing that he "hoped North Korea and the United States meet each other halfway and address each others reasonable concerns, allowing positive progress on the peninsulas nuclear talks." (Additional reporting by Josh Smith in Seoul and David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Catherine Evans and James Dalgleish) SAN FRANCISCO Gavin Newsom was sworn in Monday as California's 40th governor, a powerful part of the recent Democratic wave that vows to oppose many White House positions in the latter half of the Trump presidency. "I want to be clear, we will be bold, we will aim high and work like hell to get there, and we will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence of the White House," said Newsom, 51, backed by a huge state seal and accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Seibold Newsom, and their four children. "Our government will be principled and always on the side of the people," Newsom said. "We'll have the courage to do things right even when they are hard. We will be a California for all." California Governor Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom and children look on during his inauguration Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. In his speech, Newsom made clear he plans to use his state a cultural melting pot with the world's fifth largest economy as a bulwark against Trump policies that candidate Newsom decried as misguided and racist. Trump, in turn, has called Newsom a "clown" who wants "open borders." Newsom's swearing-in ceremony was not met with universal cheer. According to reports from KGO-TV, some protesters yelled "I object" during the ceremony, before being drowned out by supporters shouting "Gavin, Gavin!" The protesters were later removed. While Newsom now will have to work with the White House when it comes to requesting federal relief after wildfires and other disasters, there is no indication a man whose closest confidants suggest he has aspirations for national office plans to play nice. "California is our home, and in our home every child should be loved, fed and safe," Newsom said, almost upstaged by his 2-year-old son, Dutch, who paraded around the stage during his father's speech. "We have four children, and nothing is more important than giving them a good, happy life," he said, smiling. "But that shouldn't be just for the children of a governor and a filmmaker, and children shouldn't be ripped away from their parents at the border, or left hungry when politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built." Story continues The line was met with raucous cheers by those piled into a tent erected to guard against hard rains that have fallen across northern California in recent days. But Newsom does step into the statehouse with the wind at his back. This is the first Democrat-to-Democrat governorship handover in the state since the late 1800s, with Newsom taking the reins after eight years of Jerry Brown's fiscally conservative stewardship. Newsom also has a natural political ally in newly re-minted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow San Franciscan. Pelosi was at the inauguration, and her appearance was met by a mix of applause and boos. Impressive Democratic wins across the state last November, especially in traditionally conservative strongholds south of Los Angeles, have also given Democrats a supermajority in both houses of California's Legislature. Among the challenges facing Newsom as he takes office are a variety of pre-existing problems that he has vowed to tackle without providing many specifics. President Donald Trump greets California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom as he arrives on Air Force One at Beale Air Force Base for a visit to areas impacted by the wildfires, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., as Gov. Jerry Brown, stands at center. These include a roiling homelessness issue, with California accounting for 25 percent of Americans who live on the streets; a growing income inequality gap that finds even those working in the booming tech industry struggling to make ends meet; and inefficient early childhood education programs, which Newsom plans to address with up to $2 billion in spending. Newsom, whose career as a businessman and politician has made him close with many of the state's more powerful figures, told USA TODAY during his campaign last fall that he plans to ask some tech billionaires to pitch in, particularly on housing issues, including Apple CEO Tim Cook. Im going to say, Tim, lets get together this week, Newsom said at the time. Congratulations, all these (corporate) tax cuts and repatriated (overseas) earnings present an extraordinary opportunity to make investments in your backyard, ones that address your fiduciary responsibilities to your shareholders but also recognize the broader, negative social issues that have been the unintended byproduct of your success. During his inauguration speech, Newsom addressed a variety of issues facing the state but did not reveal how he planned to tackle them, whether it be the state's growing and deadly wildfires, or its pro-immigration policies. Instead, the telegenic politician who has made clear his admiration for slain U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy won points with the partisan crowd with lines touting "a Marshall Plan for affordable housing" and promising that all state citizens would have access "to quality and affordable health care." In one passage, Newsom hit on a host of promises: "We will use our market and moral power to demand fair prices for prescription drugs. Well stop stigmatizing mental health and start supporting it. And well always protect a womens right to choose." In closing, Newsom invoked familiar and powerful imagery of the California dream, which he implied should be available not just for the lucky few. "From Sutters Mill (where gold was discovered) to Steve Job's (Apple) garage, this has been a place where anythings possible," Newsom said. "But you shouldnt have to find gold or create a billion-dollar startup to live the California dream, its for everyone." Follow USA TODAY national writer Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Newsom sworn in as California governor, decries Trump 'corruption and incompetence' Daenerys, Sansa and Jon Snow (Credit: HBO) HBO has released a teaser trailer for its 2019 shows, which, of course, is being scoured for clues by Game of Thrones fans ahead of the shows final series. With no air date confirmed, this latest look at Westeros is all were getting for the moment, and it aired last night during the Golden Globes. While shows like Veep, Big Little Lies, True Detective and the new adaptation of Watchmen precede it, the soundtrack drops out for one particular moment. It finds Emilia Clarkes Daenerys Targaryen meeting Sophie Turners Sansa Stark for the first time, with her half brother Jon Snow (KIt Harington). (Credit: HBO) Winterfell is yours, you grace, she says, which suggests that she is willing to bend the knee to the Mother of Dragons. Speaking of which, the clip also features some flying reptile action too, with one of Danys winged children on the charge with a phalanx of Dothraki warriors. But all seems pretty calm here, meaning that news of the Night Kings new dragon Viserion breaching The Wall hasnt yet reached Winterfell, which could put this scene among some of the first in season eight. Game of Thrones is set to return in April (no fixed date as yet, but its sure to be forthcoming), and will be made up of six extended episodes. Clarke recently spoke of the incoming drama that is set to consume the newly consummated couple, who are a bit more related than either of them yet realise. Daenerys lifelong dream has been to avenge her family and claim her rightful seat on the Iron Throne. She truly loves Jon, she told TVInsider. Were she to find out about his title, it would cut deep. As we discovered at the end of season seven, Jon Snow is in fact the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, after his real parentage was revealed. As for Sansa, her status has changed somewhat too. She told Digital Spy: Shes a real, true leader of Winterfell now. And thats where we first see her as a very protective, empowered lady in charge. Its the first time you ever see her like that, and its so amazing to see her like that kind of owning her destiny. Read more Richard Madden scoops Golden Globe for Bodyguard Church of Satan hails Bales Globes win The most exciting films of 2019 Washington (AFP) - National parks that are unstaffed, long lines at airports with workers calling in sick, and assistance to the nation's poorest threatened: the partial shutdown of the US government is hitting everyday Americans and no solution is in sight. - National parks, museums and zoos - Garbage is piling up around trash cans in national parks that lack federal employees who have been deemed non-essential and are not being paid. In some cases, they have been replaced by volunteers. Unlike during previous shutdowns, some national parks have remained open even without park rangers to ensure safety. To pay employees at the most visited locations, the National Park Services has decided to dip into the budget from entrance fees, usually reserved for financing infrastructure. The famed Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington closed to the public on January 2 due to a lack of funding, though some zoo employees are still feeding the animals. - Bottlenecks at airports - The shutdown is affecting security operations at airports, where Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees have been deemed essential, but a growing number are calling in sick since they are not currently receiving salaries. "Call-outs began over the holiday period and have increased but are causing minimal impact ... Wait times may be affected depending on the number of call-outs," a TSA spokesperson said in a statement, adding that wait times are nonetheless "well within TSA standards." - Poorest are collateral victims - The poorest Americans are collateral victims of the shutdown. Food stamps issued by the Department of Agriculture to feed 38 million people could be limited starting in February, with emergency financing covering less than two-thirds of that month, according to media reports. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the agency responsible for public housing, has asked 1,500 landlords to use their reserve accounts and not evict tenants unable to pay their rent. Story continues Native American communities are also affected by the lack of funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides basic services to nearly two million people, according to The New York Times. Sharice Davids, a Native American member of Congress representing a district in Kansas, told National Public Radio that a Native American recently died because emergency services had been unable to intervene in time as a road was impassable due to a lack of maintenance. - Tax refunds to continue - Also on Monday the White House said that, even with nearly 90 percent of Internal Revenue Service staff on furlough, the Treasury will continue to release refunds for overpaid taxes, often a crucial factor in business and personal finance. A delay in the more than $100 billion in refunds paid out each February could slow economic growth. - Courts impacted - Federal courts have funded ongoing operations from accumulated court fees, which the Justice Department said Monday could run out by January 18. Some courts have stopped hearing civil cases in which the government is a party, while criminal cases continue uninterrupted. After January 18, though, only critical court activities will continue. Immigration courts -- already buried under more than a million pending cases -- have also continued work for migrants in detention. But all other hearings are suspended and court clerks are not working. Polyana Viana weighs 115 pounds. Shes also a UFC fighter with a 10-2 MMA record, with many of her wins coming via painful submissions. A would-be mugger in Rio de Janeiro clearly wasnt aware of the latter when he thought a woman of Vianas stature made a proper target for robbery. Robbers cardboard gun doesnt help his cause Viana told MMA Junkie that a man with a cardboard cutout shaped like a gun attempted to steal her phone on a Rio street Saturday night. According to Viana, the mans decision resulted in a police escort to the emergency room. She told MMA Junkie that he initially asked for the time before declaring that he had a gun and demanding her cell phone. He was really close to me, Viana said. So I thought, If its a gun, he wont have time to draw it. So I stood up. I threw two punches and a kick. He fell, then I caught him in a rear-naked choke. Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, Now well wait for the police.' According to Sherdog, the rear-naked choke is a popular finishing move for Viana, resulting in a pair of her professional submission victories. Polyana Viana used a favorite finishing move of hers on an attacker in the Rio streets Saturday. (Getty) Viana: Attacker asked her to call police Viana shared images of her bloodied and battered would-be assailant and his fake gun with MMA Junkie. She said by the time she was done with him, he was asking for the police. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. I was fine because he didnt even react after, Viana said. Since he took the punches very quickly, I think he was scared. So he didnt react anymore. He told me to let him go, like I just asked for the time. I said, Asked for the time my ass, because he saw I was very angry. I said I wouldnt let go and that I was going to call the police. He said, Call the police, then because he was scared I was going to beat him up more. An attacker thought Polyana Viana made a good target for robbery. He was wrong. (Getty) More from Yahoo Sports: Robinson: Keeping Jason Garrett paid off for Jerry Jones Warriors-Kings combine to set history for most 3-pointers in NBA game 19-year-old Cal DB dies after collapsing during workout Deshaun Watsons streak ends in loss to Colts We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Marshalls plc (LON:MSLH), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling. What Is Insider Selling? It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. We dont think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard University study found that insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year. View our latest analysis for Marshalls The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Marshalls CEO & Executive Director Martyn Coffey made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK344k worth of shares at a price of UK4.62 each. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (UK4.77). While sellers have a variety of reasons for selling, this isnt particularly great to see. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling on market, especially if they did so below the current price. It is worth noting that this sale was only 19.4% of Martyn Coffeys holding. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Martyn Coffey. In the last twelve months insiders purchased 2.53k shares for UK10k. On the other hand they divested 75.00k shares, for UK344k. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! Story continues LSE:MSLH Insider Trading January 7th 19 For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Insider Ownership Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data suggests Marshalls insiders own 0.3% of the company, worth about UK2.5m. We prefer to see high levels of insider ownership. So What Do The Marshalls Insider Transactions Indicate? There havent been any insider transactions in the last three months that doesnt mean much. Our analysis of Marshalls insider transactions leaves us unenthusiastic. And were not picking up on high enough insider ownership to give us any comfort. Of course, the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Marshalls, you should check out this free report on analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer to check out another company one with potentially superior financials then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. Chances of reviving the stalled peace talks with communist rebels remain slim as the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army continue to commit atrocities and threaten to oust President Rodrigo Duterte, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has said. With his [CPP founder Jose Maria Joma Sisons] threat to oust PRRD and the continuing attacks, extortions and burning of construction equipment I personally dont see any chance of resumption of talks in the near future. I have consistently said that Sison and his people should also show some sincerity, he said in a message to reporters Sunday. Lorenzana described Sisons call to oust Duterte hollow and said the CPP-NPA was losing to the governments anti-insurgency campaign. His previous call of prioritizing the ouster of PRRD is a hollow one knowing fully how popular the President remains. But he has to make it ostensibly to rally his fighters, Lorenzana said. PNA The DND chief said now that Duterte had hinted that peace talks were still possible, Sison was grasping at thin straws to keep his dream alive.But he can dream on. The President has consistently said that he would reopen the talks if he believes there is a compelling reason to do so. The President likewise set some conditions for talks such as: no attacks on government forces and civilians, no extortion, no destruction of properties and talks should be held here in the Philippines, among others, Lorenzana said. Citing continued attacks by the NPA, Duterte scrapped the negotiations in 2017. The NPA, the CPPs armed wing, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. BEIRUT (AP) The Latest on the war in Syria (all times local): 6:35 p.m. The main U.S.-backed group in Syria says it has handed over IS fighters and civilians from Kazakhstan to their country. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement Monday that those handed over to authorities in their country are five fighters, 11 women and 30 children. The SDF said they were repatriated on Saturday adding that it came after discussions with security authorities in Kazakhstan. The SDF, that is a main force fighting extremists in Syria, has apprehended more than 700 non-Syrian IS fighters in addition to their families over the past years. The group is now trying to remove extremists from the last area the control in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq. ___ 5:30 p.m. The main U.S.-backed Syrian faction fighting the Islamic State group says members of the extremist group have attacked one of its positions, killing a civilian and wounding several other fighters in the northern city of Raqqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement that during Monday's attack, an IS fighter blew himself up near an SDF checkpoint. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the suicide attacker first opened fire at an SDF force outside a local department before going inside and blowing himself up killing five, including four civilians, and wounding eight. SDF fighters captured Raqqa, once the de facto capital of the extremists, in October 2017. Since then IS sleeper cells have carried out attacks in the city. ___ 11:15 a.m. A Kurdish news agency and a Syrian war monitoring group say a missile attack by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has killed at least one Kurdish fighter and wounded two British soldiers embedded with them. The Rudaw news agency says the two British soldiers are in a stable condition. British special forces are known to be on the ground in northern Syria although the British government does not provide details about their presence. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a report Sunday that the IS attack occurred the previous day in the village of Shaafa in eastern Deir el-Zour province amid fierce clashes between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, and IS militants. The Kraft Heinz Company KHC announced that it has completed the deal to acquire Primal Nutrition, LLC, a well-known company engaged in the manufacturing of Primal Kitchen branded products. Kraft Heinz had entered into a definitive agreement to buy Primal Nutrition on Nov 29, 2018, for $200 million. Lets take a closer look at how this inclusion will benefit the company. Focus on Augmenting Healthy Food Offerings Per terms of the deal, Primal Nutrition will continue to operate as an independent entity. While Primal Nutrition is expected to gain from Kraft Heinzs solid infrastructure and assets, the buyout will enable Kraft Heinz to bolster portfolio strength and expand revenue generation capabilities. Incidentally, Primal Kitchens addition will complement Kraft Heinzs key categories, including condiments and sauces. Primal Kitchen is essentially a health-focused brand that develops products such as sauces, condiments and a variety of dressings like mayonnaise, avocado oil and salad dressings. The brand also flaunts a line-up of healthy snacks. Primal Kitchen will be a part of Kraft Heinzs Springboard platform which is aimed at developing, scaling as well as accelerating growth of nascent and disruptive brands in the U.S. food and beverage arena. Well, this is not the first time that the company has undertaken initiatives to expand healthy food offerings. Prior to this, it acquired Ethical Bean Coffee in September 2018. Such moves reflect Kraft Heinzs focus on keeping up with consumers rising preference for better-for-you food options. Moreover, we note that the company is focusing on increasing the nutritional value of products through sustainable sourcing of raw materials. Kraft Heinz is also emphasizing on the importance of using pure ingredients and minimal processing in packaged food products. Progressing along such lines, Kraft Heinz plans to switch to 100% cage-free eggs for North American operations by 2025. Apart from acquisitions, Kraft Heinz also focuses on innovation to strengthen portfolio. Further, the company is engaged in effective marketing, boosting e-commerce channel, modernization and capability building within the manufacturing footprint as well as building a performance-driven culture in the company. Story continues Will Efforts Revive the Stock? We note that Kraft Heinz is grappling with escalated overhead and input costs. In fact, such high costs more than offset growth in organic sales while also impacting overall profits in the third quarter of 2018. Other food companies like Campbell Soup CPB, General Mills GIS and Conagra Brands CAG are also struggling with cost-related hurdles. Coming back to Kraft Heinz, weaknesses in the companys Canadian unit is also a concern. Sales in this region have declined year over year for three straight quarters. Such headwinds have lowered investors optimism in the stock, evident from its 21.1% decline in the past three months compared with the industrys fall of 12.2%. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore Kraft Heinzs efforts to enhance performance. We expect the companys solid portfolio as well as well-chalked marketing and growth endeavors to improve performance in Canada. The latest inclusion of Primal Kitchen brand is also expected to boost the companys performance in the forthcoming periods. Further, the companys robust savings initiatives are expected to provide cushion to rising costs. All said, lets wait and see if such efforts can help revive this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Conagra Brands Inc. (CAG) : Free Stock Analysis Report General Mills, Inc. (GIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Campbell Soup Company (CPB) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. A large part of investment returns can be generated by dividend-paying stock given their role in compounding returns over time. Spheria Emerging Companies Limited (ASX:SEC) has begun paying dividends recently. It now yields 2.3%. Does Spheria Emerging Companies tick all the boxes of a great dividend stock? Below, Ill take you through my analysis. See our latest analysis for Spheria Emerging Companies 5 checks you should do on a dividend stock When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria: Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers? Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout? Has dividend per share amount increased over the past? Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments? Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future? ASX:SEC Historical Dividend Yield January 6th 19 How well does Spheria Emerging Companies fit our criteria? Spheria Emerging Companies has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 25%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward. When considering the sustainability of dividends, it is also worth checking the cash flow of a company. A business with strong cash flow can sustain a higher divided payout ratio than a company with weak cash flow. If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock youre eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view Spheria Emerging Companies as a dividend investment. Last year was the companys first dividend payment, so it is certainly early days. The standard practice for reliable payers is to look for 10 or so years of track record. Compared to its peers, Spheria Emerging Companies has a yield of 2.3%, which is on the low-side for Capital Markets stocks. Story continues Next Steps: After digging a little deeper into Spheria Emerging Companiess yield, its easy to see why you should be cautious investing in the company just for the dividend. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. Below, Ive compiled three relevant factors you should look at: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SECs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SECs outlook. Valuation: What is SEC worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, its not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether SEC is currently mispriced by the market. Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. Prime minister Theresa May face-to-face with EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker (Getty) Theresa May is set to speak with EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker for the second time in a week but has been warned that she will not be able to renegotiate any part of the Brexit deal. The British prime minister will speak to Juncker by phone later this week following a friendly call on Friday afternoon. The pairs relationship appears to have been mended since May gave Juncker a public dressing down at Decembers EU leaders summit for referring to her Brexit strategy as nebulous. What friendly means in terms of the Juncker scale of friendliness? I would say friendly is on the upper side because there are other ways to describe such calls, a commission spokesperson said on Monday. So, stay with friendly, I think it matters. But the spokesperson stressed that Juncker will not enter into any discussion about changing parts of the withdrawal agreement, which they insisted is the best and only deal possible. President Junker had a friendly phone call with prime minister May on Friday. The two agreed to talk again this week, the spokesperson told journalists in Brussels. Theres no negotiation because everything on the table has been established as approved. So, the priority now is to wait for events, to monitor what is happening the ratification procedure on the UK side. READ MORE: May calls Juncker for help amid struggle to pass Brexit deal The spokesperson also confirmed there will be no further meetings between the UKs negotiators and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier or his deputy Sabine Weyand. It is quite normal there wont be any meetings because negotiations have finished, the spokesperson said. Rather than trying to change the deal, May is now asking the EU to convince her MPs that it will not trap the UK in the customs union through the Irish border backstop. We are continuing to work on further assurances, further undertakings from the European Union in relation to the concern that has been expressed by parliamentarians, the prime minister said on Monday. Story continues As well as Juncker, May has recently spoken twice to German chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel subsequently spoke to Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar, who said the pair had conducted a kind of brainstorm about ways to held May get the deal through the Commons. German foreign minister Heiko Maas will further those efforts on Tuesday when he travels to Dublin to meet Irish diplomats. Diplomats from all EU27 countries met to discuss the Brexit crisis in Brussels on Monday. The EU is expected to deliver May a written assurance over the backstop before the Commons vote on the deal set for January 15. However, it appears unlikely that will be enough to sway the vote in the governments favour. READ MORE: Germanys foreign minister heads to Dublin to talk Brexit MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian scientists have protested about claims made at a local science conference that rubbish the work of some of the world's greatest physicists and suggest modern breakthroughs such as in-vitro fertilization were in fact invented in ancient India. In a lecture at the Indian Science Congress and posted on YouTube, one speaker, Kannan Jegathala Krishnan said Isaac Newton was wrong about gravity, Albert Einstein made a "big blunder" and questioned Stephen Hawking's achievements. Another speaker, G. Nageswara Rao, a vice-chancellor at Andhra University in southern India, used stories from Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as proof the people of ancient India had aircraft, test-tube babies and that stem-cell research "was done in this country thousands of years ago". While organizers of the congress have promised to make changes for next year's event following the criticism, Soumitro Banerjee, a physics professor and general secretary of non-profit Breakthrough Science Society, told Reuters the comments lent respectability to absurd theories. Scientists in Kolkata and five other cities carried placards and held silent demonstrations on Monday against the comments, he said. "This is very harmful for the growth of scientific temper because these ideas are being propagated through the Science Congress which gives it a respectability," said Dhruba Mukhopadhyay, a retired professor and the president of the BSS, said. The conference's organizer, the Indian Science Congress Association, will soon issue a statement condemning this episode, said Premendu P. Mathur, a general secretary at the body and a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "From next year we have decided that all the people, even top scientists, who want to interact with anybody at the Science Congress, would be asked to submit their abstracts, not to deviate from their abstracts and we will place one of our members there as a moderator." The annual Indian Science Congress, which this year ran over five days at a university in northern Punjab state, ended on Monday. (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Alison Williams) Prime Minister Modi suggested that the Hindu god Ganesh showed ancient Indians were capable of plastic surgery - AP Top scientists in India on Monday condemned irrational claims made at the 106th annual meeting of the prestigious Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA). The Breakthrough Science Society (BSS), an NGO that campaigns for scientific literacy, held protest meetings across the country against presentations suggesting that ancient Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata contain detailed knowledge of stem cell research, test tube babies, aircraft and guided missiles. "People must ask the organisers how they allow this," said Rajani KS of BSS. Professor Nageswara Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University, told the ISCA's special Childrens Science Congress that according to the Mahabharata, a single mother gave birth to 100 sons via test tube technology. The Mahabharata says 100 eggs were fertilised and put into 100 earthen pots Prof Rao said. He put it to an audience of teenagers that these were early test tube babies, claiming this proved stem cell research was prevalent in India thousands of years ago. Prof Rao also claimed that the Hindu god Ram used guided missiles that would chase targets, strike them and then return. The demon god Ravana, the professor further stated, operated 24 different types of aircraft from several airports in his kingdom. Another participant, scientist Kannan Krishnan from Tamil Nadu in southern India, challenged Einsteins theory of relativity and Isaac Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation on the grounds that neither of the two scientists understood physics. Mr Krishnan declared that the Theory of Gravitational Waves would soon be re-named Modi Waves, after the Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi. ISCA organisers later distanced themselves from these two speakers and resolved to exercise more caution in inviting participants next year. We are shocked at the comments made by the two speakers, ISCA general secretary P P Mathur said. This is not the first time absurd claims have been made at ISCA meets, with critics alleging the Modi government has debased the organisation. Story continues In 2015 a paper on Indian aviation technology claimed that the ancient native sage Bhardwaja had detailed blueprints for varied types of aircraft. The year before prime minister Modi buttressed similar logic when he told an audience of doctors and scientists in Mumbai that plastic surgery and genetic science had flourished in ancient India. He said that was how the revered Hindu god Ganeshas elephant head was attached to a human body, and how the warrior god Karna was born outside his mothers womb. In a similar vein other members of Modis Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in a bid to laud Indias achievements, have claimed that motorcars, space vehicles even the internet existed in ancient times. Investors in Philip Morris International Inc. PM need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the Jan 18, 2019 $100.00 Put had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today. What is Implied Volatility? Implied volatility shows how much movement the market is expecting in the future. Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other. It could also mean there is an event coming up soon that may cause a big rally or a huge sell off. However, implied volatility is only one piece of the puzzle when putting together an options trading strategy. What do the Analysts Think? Clearly, options traders are pricing in a big move for Philip Morris shares, but what is the fundamental picture for the company? Currently, Philip Morris is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) in the Tobacco industry that ranks in the Bottom 10% of our Zacks Industry Rank. Over the last 60 days, no analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the current quarter, while two have revised their estimates downward. The net effect has taken our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter from $1.19 per share to $1.17 in that period. Given the way analysts feel about Philip Morris right now, this huge implied volatility could mean theres a trade developing. Often times, options traders look for options with high levels of implied volatility to sell premium. This is a strategy many seasoned traders use because it captures decay. At expiration, the hope for these traders is that the underlying stock does not move as much as originally expected. Looking to Trade Options? Each week, our very own Dave Bartosiak gives his top options trades. Check out his recent live analysis and options trade for the NFLX earnings report completely free. See it here: Bartosiak: Trading Netflix's (NFLX) Earnings with Options or check out the embedded video below for more details: Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Idris Elba and Daniel Craig have awkward Golden Globes encounter The Golden Globes brings the worlds biggest stars together but for one pair it was rather awkward. Idris Elba has long been tipped to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond and the two actors just so happened to be sat together at the ceremony. Elba posted a selfie with Craig to highlight how awks the situation might have been given that he is meant to be gunning for the 007 role. The Yardie director has been having to shut down rumours for years about him potentially becoming the next Bond and hes often made a joke out of it. Elba posted the candid to Instagram He previously trolled fans by tweeting My names Elba, Idris Elba, which sent social media into a tizzy thinking he had confirmed he would be the next 007. Im not meant to be teasing, he told Sky News. But youve got to laugh its such an incredible rumour that has gotten out of hand and hey, why not? This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Craig, who was at the Golden Globes to support his wife Rachel Weisz, who had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her role in The Favourite, is in the midst of making Bond 25. The actor has played the British spy four times previously but for this film he also takes on the role of producer. Danny Boyle was originally meant to direct the film but he dropped out late last year due to creative differences, and was replaced by Cary Fukunaga. Bond 25 is expected in cinemas on 14 February, 2020. Check out the FULL Golden Globes winners list here READ MORE Lady Gaga fans unhappy with Best Actress snub Emma Stone apologises for white-washed role Brits win big at the Golden Globes 2019 PH-Europe free trade agreement hits snag posted January 07, 2019 at 08:00 pm by Othel V. Campos January 07, 2019 at 08:00 pm The Philippines may have a hard time negotiating for a free trade agreement with the European Union, an official of the Department of Trade and Industry said Monday. The EU Parliament, according to the official, was having doubts on forging a trade agreement with the Philippines because of several problematic areas and socio-civic issues. The EU Commission cannot schedule the third of negotiation lest they be questioned by the parliament, the official said.The Philippines, however, is confident that Manila and the European Union will hurdle the difficulties and sign and a long-term and mutually-beneficial trade agreement. In a recent trade mission to the EU, the Philippines conveyed to the European Parliaments Delegation that the Philippine economy was now on a high growth trajectory and offered positive prospects for EU investors. COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. Hyatt Hotels Corporation H relies on differentiated brand portfolio, strong expansion plans and acquisition strategies to drive growth. The company announced the inauguration of Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall in Kuwait, re-introducing the Hyatt Regency Brand in the country. The hotel is first of the two properties under Tamdeen Group. The move not only underscores Hyatts relentless focus on expansion but is also the hoteliers way of countering growing competition from the likes of Marriott MAR Hilton HLT and smaller hotel chains like Choice Hotels CHH. Shares of Hyatt have lost 10.4% over the past year, compared with the industrys collective decline of 27.7%. Expansion A Key Catalyst Hyatt aims to differentiate its brands from one another by providing distinct travel experiences. The company is also consistently trying to broaden presence worldwide and has expansion plans in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Hyatts new signings across its brands have consistently outpaced its openings and this trend is expected to continue in 2019. In second-quarter 2018, Hyatt registered net room growth of 7.6% on a year-over-year basis, which marked the 14th successive quarter of recording growth above 6%. The companys development pipeline grew roughly 6% in the third quarter compared with the prior-year quarter. In 2018, it is anticipated to have witnessed unit growth of 6.5-7%, reflecting 60 hotel openings. Bottomline We expect the addition of Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall to strengthen the brands position in Middle East. Further, the move can be read as Hyatts efforts to accelerate revenues in the Owned and Leased Hotels segment. As it is, the segments revenues totaled $443 million in the third quarter of 2018, down 13.3% year over year. Hyatt currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Story continues 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marriott International (MAR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Choice Hotels International, Inc. (CHH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Brasilia (AFP) - The chief of Brazil's environmental protection agency resigned on Monday after the new government led by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro -- a critic of its treatment of mining and farm interests -- raised questions over its spending. Suelly Araujo said in a letter to Environment Minister Ricardo Salles that she would step down on Tuesday as head of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Resources, IBAMA. She had led the agency since June 2016. Salles last week tweeted an excerpt from an Ibama contract signed in July 2018 for the rental of vehicles at a cost of 28.7 million reais ($7.8 million at current exchange rates). "Nearly 30 million reais in car rentals for Ibama alone," Salles said in his post. That was retweeted -- then deleted -- by Bolsonaro, who added that his government was uncovering "mountains of irregularities." Araujo said in her Instagram feed that she considered the comment to be "an unfounded accusation, which shows a total misunderstanding of the size of Ibama and its functions." She said the contract covered the lease of 393 SUVs modified for patrolling forests, fighting fires, technical examinations across Brazil's 27 states, and included fuel, maintenance and insurance, with a vehicle turnover every two years. Araujo noted that media reports had already "amply" spoken of a successor who she said was named by Bolsonaro's team even before he took office on New Year's Day. Ibama's press service told AFP that Araujo had not officially received any notification that she was to be replaced. Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticized Ibama for what he sees as overly slow action on environmental permits to timber, farming and mining companies, and a perceived zeal in handing out fines. He has made it clear that he intends to put business interests above environmental ones to boost exploitation of Brazilian commodities and resources as part of a plan to boost the economy. Halle Berry, 52 The 52-year-old Oscar winner wowed the crowd in a burgundy dress by Zuhair Murad. Image via Getty Images. Words: Elizabeth Di Filippo As the stars walked the red carpet at the 76th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, it was Hollywoods veterans who stole the spotlight. Halle Berry sent Twitter into a frenzy as she arrived on the red carpet in a plunging V-neck gown by Zuhair Murad. The 52-year-old actress was on hand as a presenter, but according to her fans, she was the real winner of the night. Im trying to think of a more stunning woman than @halleberry I simply cannot. The end. pic.twitter.com/zDLi9ykg4P Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) January 7, 2019 Forget about the fact that it is #goldenglobe and think about the fact that she is 52 years old but some of you are 25 and will be looking 80. Dont you just like her? This dress was Premiered by a lady in a twenties and Halle Berry is rocking it with her 52 body pic.twitter.com/Mlfh3OwJEy bamidele Ilerioluwa (@Prommy15) January 7, 2019 Halle Berry doesnt ageHOW #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/e1f74cV3pT Nicole Perez (@nicole_perez1) January 7, 2019 Halle Berry has a portrait in a closet somewhere that is basically a pile of dust. #GoldenGlobes Daniel Summers (@WFKARS) January 7, 2019 From Julia Roberts to Julianne Moore, women over the age of 50 proved that beauty is ageless with their cutting edge looks and high fashion glamour. Check out our gallery for more of our Hollywood faves who proved you can slay the red carpet at any age. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK. Read more from Yahoo Style UK: Golden Globes 2019: All the celebrity red carpet fashion Best dressed Brits at the Golden Globe Awards Jameela Jamil apologises to fans for airbrushed photographs The Green New Deal is suddenly on everyones lips. Freshman superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is championing it. The GOPs anti-tax jihadi Grover Norquist is trashing it. But what is it? And where did it come from? And why were its backers protesting Nancy Pelosi? Rolling Stone spoke to Varshini Prakash, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, the grassroots outfit that is partnering with a new generation of Democratic leaders to push the ambitious agenda to the fore. The Green New Deal has three pillars, according to Sunrise: 100 percent clean energy by 2030; investment in communities on the frontlines of poverty & pollution; and the guarantee of a quality job for anyone ready to make this happen. The push for this climate-focused revival of the economic mobilization that rescued America from the Great Depression in the 1930s has surprising momentum. After the midterms, Sunrise organized sit-in protests at Pelosis office, including one joined by Ocasio-Cortez, prompting the incoming Speaker to launch a new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The platform is a hit among progressive voters, and support for the Green New Deal is emerging as a litmus test on the 2020 campaign trail. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the first declared Democratic candidates, has embraced the idea of a Green New Deal in her presidential platform. Beto ORourke calls himself supportive of the concept. Prakash, who hails from Boston, recognizes that the Trump presidency creates an insurmountable obstacle for the next two years. But Sunrise believes the moment is now to lay the moral, policy and political foundation for a socio-economic transformation to begin after 2020. Where did the Sunrise Movement start? Were a youth movement thats been in existence for about a year-and-a-half now. All of the founders were under 26 years old. We were young people from across the youth-climate sphere, people who were leading delegations of young people to the U.N. climate talks, people who had started some of the fossil-fuel divestment campaigns on college campuses in the country actually inspired by the 2012 Rolling Stone article Global Warmings Terrifying New Math. That was actually a huge moment for a lot of us including myself. Story continues All of us were feeling excited about our work and the victories we had, and at the same time feeling terrifying unease that the hurricanes were getting bigger, the fires were getting more powerful, but that our movement wasnt growing alongside that. So we launched Sunrise as an organization to move thousands of young people to participate in the political process and to push for the real solutions, at scale, that we need. We launched Sunrise in June 2017 and since then have grown from six young people to thousands of young people and hundreds of local chapters, especially after the past couple of months. The Green New Deal is not very specific yet. How do you imagine it? The Green New Deal is an umbrella term for a set of policies and programs that will rapidly decarbonize our economy, get all of us off of fossil fuels, and work to stop the climate crisis in the next 10 to 12 years. But we see it as a socio-economic project, big enough to rival some of the biggest, greatest socio-economic projects weve seen before. This is a project that helps us get to 100 percent renewable energy, fast. A project to create tens of millions of jobs for working people. And were going to fight for these jobs to be good-paying jobs, with the right to collectively bargain and include family-sustaining wages and benefits. Were pushing for the Green New Deal to massively invest in communities that have been on the front lines of poverty for decades and communities that historically have been left out of the political process communities of color and low-income communities. At its core, its a program designed to stop the climate crisis and fight poverty at the same time. How did you go from an upstart group to suddenly putting the Green New Deal on everyones lips? At Sunrise, our tagline is: building an army of young people to stop the climate crisis and create millions of new jobs for our generation. And we largely do this by exposing the urgency of the crisis, and relentlessly demanding the solutions we actually need to solve the crisis. We sit at the nexus of protest organizing and electoral politics. An example of protest organizing would be the action that we did at Nancy Pelosis office. And an example of the electoral organizing: This past summer we ran a massive youth program, 75 people full-time, from June through November, to get climate champions elected to office and to create a pro-climate-action majority in Congress and in statehouses across the country. We contacted a quarter of a million voters. And we got 19 out of our 30 endorsed candidates elected. Weve been working to kick fossil-fuel funded politicians out of office, and working really hard to elect climate champions into the halls of power like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Tell me about your partnership with the new generation of leaders like Ocasio-Cortez. It seems like theres a true synergy there. She is a young person. I dont think its any surprise that the person who is calling for the most ambitious climate action is a 29-year-old woman of color. There is a whole new face of Democratic Party leadership that is unabashedly and unapologetically calling for the solutions that we need to the most pressing issues of our time. Yes, climate. But also on a whole host of issues like health care, guaranteeing basic dignity to people across America, guaranteeing livable wages and supporting people to collectively unionize and have workers rights. And weve seen the new generation of party leadership confronting questions about who is the Democratic Party? What does it stand for? And who should it serve? Theyre the vanguard of leadership on the left. Weve felt a lot of synergy with these young women people like Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They were all people that we endorsed at Sunrise, and several of them we did electoral work for. Why were you protesting Nancy Pelosi? She passed a cap-and-trade climate bill through the House in 2009 to her political detriment. Her record on this stuff is as good as anyone in Washington. Thats a good question. Following the [midterm] election, we realized that all of that wasnt going to matter if we didnt push this new Congress to put climate on its agenda and make sure the climate remained on the map for the duration of the entire Congress. We actually believe that Democrats care about tackling climate change and they want to do something about it. We just know that they need to be urged to take action at the scale and scope of the crisis. When we look at what the recent science tells us, the IPCC report that came out a couple months ago, this landmark report said that we need an unprecedented, war-time-esque mobilization of our society and our economy over the next decade to stop the climate crisis and protect the lives of millions of people. So we are talking about ambition and urgency. The only mobilizations that are in any way remotely analogous are the economic mobilizations around World War II and the New Deal-era policies that existed under FDR. That is why were pushing Democrats. We see that theres a real pathway here. But we were also seeing a lot of articles that said Dems Tamp Down Hopes on Climate. And we saw Nancy Pelosi reviving a decade-old committee [the lackluster Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming]. And we were like, this is not enough. We need to make sure that the real solutions to the crisis are foregrounded in the Democratic Partys agenda. Youve generated a lot of hope and momentum. Theres also a big obstacle in the Trump administration. You can say that again. Do you see any possibility of action over the next two years? A lot of people ask us, How are you going to get a massive program like this passed in the next two years? Thats impossible! Yes, we agree. Thats completely impossible. Were not trying to push any type of legislation through in this Congress. But we need to start laying the groundwork. We need to start building the governing coalition that will actually come together and agree on the types of policies for what an actual plan around the Green New Deal could look like. Simultaneously, we need to think about how were going to put people into political office who will champion such a thing, and take out the people who will be major obstructionists to it. We cannot afford to do only one of those things. This plan cannot work if we dont both build the governing power and also develop the plan far in advance. Both of those things need to be done simultaneously. What do you make of the yellow vest protests in France, with people taking to the streets to protest higher gas prices designed to meet that countrys climate goals? We need policies and programs that dont put the burden of fighting the climate crisis on the middle and lower-income classes, who have experienced failing or stagnating wages for decades. There are 100 companies that are responsible for over 70 percent of the climate warming emissions. Those are the companies that should actually be paying for the crisis. The people who are silencing science and stymieing any ability to take action on the crisis are the ones who should be paying for the damages that have been done. So were seeing revolt on that front [in France] because theyre actually passing on the cost and the burden of climate action to people who should never have to pay for that. We should actually be talking about the opportunities the economic opportunities, the social opportunities that exist in tackling the climate crisis. What brought you to the climate fight, and when did you first become an activist? Ive been organizing on climate for five or six years now, starting out when I was about 19 years old. I joined the fossil-fuel divestment movement and launched a campaign on my college campus with others to push the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to divest its endowment from holdings in oil and gas and coal. I helped organize that for two or three years, and then went on to coach young people across the country on strategy for their own campus divestment campaigns. I come to the fight because climate change affects my family and the places that I deeply love. A lot of my family is from Southern India, which has seen the ravages of climate change already. In December 2016 a flood absolutely wiped out Chennai, India, and other parts of the southern portion of India where my grandparents and lots of my family members live. Thousands of people displaced, hundreds of people killed. This crisis is really hitting home, affecting the people that I love in the most direct way. I need do something about it. Because my country [the U.S.] is largely responsible for the inaction, both domestically and internationally. KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) Gary Woodland wasn't making any putts until he chipped in for birdie, and then he couldn't miss. Woodland broke away from a five-way tie for the lead Friday by running off five straight birdies, and then finishing with one more for another 6-under 67 that gave him a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. None of his birdie putts were longer than 10 feet, which helped. But this was more a measure of his confidence, which dates to his work with putting guru Phil Kenyon during the British Open last summer at Carnoustie. "The big deal was just staying patient on the greens," Woodland said. "It's very tough putting with the crosswinds and I didn't see anything go in early, but nice to see the chip go in on 11 and kind of got me going, propelled me for the rest of the round." Woodland was at 12-under 134. Rory McIlroy had another good finish with three birdies over his last five holes for a 68, leaving him three shots behind along with Bryson DeChambeau (68) and Kevin Tway, who didn't make his first bogey at Kapalua until the 17th hole of the second round. He shot a 71. Defending champion Dustin Johnson had a 74, the first time in 33 rounds at Kapalua that he was over par. He could think of one shot he'd like to have back, out of the hazard left of the fourth fairway. The shot was fine. The trouble was it wasn't his ball, and Johnson was assessed a two-shot penalty. It was a bit of a fluke, as most things are with Johnson. A volunteer marshal marked where his ball had gone into the hazard, and Johnson could see it was his brand. Only when he walked about 20 yards toward the green did he see another ball, and the light came on. It didn't involve the new rules, although they might have played a role. If the ball moves while trying to identify it, there is no penalty. "It was way up in there (in the hazard), so I didn't want to move anything," Johnson said. "But I guess now understanding the new rule, if it moves it's not a penalty. So that won't ever happen again, I can promise you that. It's just bad luck." Story continues Johnson, the defending champion and a two-time winner at Kapalua, was seven shots behind. His wasn't the only blunder of the day. Justin Thomas was tied for the lead playing a short stretch of birdie holes when he took double bogey on the 14th hole and had to settle for a 72. Marc Leishman took a triple bogey on No. 6 one day after a double bogey and responded with six birdies over his last 12 holes to salvage a 70. He was four shots behind. DeChambeau's only mistake was not having an umbrella. Rain can show up unannounced on the west end of Maui, and there was a brief shower. He also was fooled at times by the wind, especially on the green. DeChambeau has a long checklist in his equation before shots, and the wind made that tough. "Guess you could say there was insufficient data," said the four-time winner and physics major. Woodland just waited his time. The putter has been frustrating over the years. He is starting to turn that into a strength, and said late last year that he found even when he wasn't making putts, he was about to. That was the case Friday. "We have done a lot of mechanical stuff, but the confidence is what really propelled me to have a good round today," he said. "Because in the past it would have been frustrating, just all day I would have been complaining about it." It also helps that he hasn't had much time off. This can be one of the easiest PGA Tour events to win all year because of the small field (34 players), many of whom have gone more than a month without competition. Woodland played in the Bahamas and the old Shark Shootout, and he kept practicing through the holidays. He did take his wife on a six-day vacation to the Dominican Republic. Did he take his clubs? He smiled. "I did, and I played the last two days down there," he said. "But I had a couple days off." Now he needs a couple of more good rounds to make sure he gets to come back to Kapalua. DIVOTS: Woodland has not had a full equipment endorsement deal for the last three years. That changed when he signed with Wilson to start the year. ... Twenty-three players at Kapalua are in the field for the Sony Open next week on Oahu. Also playing next week is Jordan Spieth, who has not played the Sony Open the only other time he was not eligible for Kapalua. ... Woodland brought his entire family over to Kapalua, just like last time, only the entourage is a little bigger. "Everybody keeps having kids," he said. On Mondays Fox & Friends, the hosts reacted to actor Christian Bales Golden Globes acceptance speech, in which he thanked Satan for giving him inspiration on how to play his role in Vice. Bale, who won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney, referred to Cheney and Sen. Mitch McConnell as being charisma-free and a**holes in his speech Sunday night. The hosts called out Bale as the only person who really got political during the show, and co-host Brian Kilmeade said it was a stupid speech. Its just a real insult to a guy who spent his whole life in public service, from secretary of defense to chief of staff, to vice president of the United States, Kilmeade said. Bales win for Best Actor was the sole Golden Globes win out of six nominations for Vice, which included a nod for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. And Bales speech isnt the only thing Kilmeade took issue with. He also commented on the performances in the movie, despite all three hosts admitting they havent seen it. He did make him seem like Satan, by reports, Kilmeade said. Also made [Donald] Rumsfeld seem extremely evil President [George W.] Bush look like a doofus. Condoleezza Rice totally was ignored, as was Karl Rove, they didnt say a word, evidently, in the entire movie. And Colin Powell was duped. So nothing accurate about this movie. But it was good enough for Christian Bale to play it, and get an award for it. I dont really know anyone who saw it. Fox & Friends airs daily at 6 a.m. on Fox News. Watch Golden Globe nominees react to their films being on Barack Obamas Best of 2018 list: Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or leave your comments below. By Brian Ellsworth CARACAS (Reuters) - Former Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice Christian Zerpa has fled to the United States to protest President Nicolas Maduro's second term that will begin with his inauguration this week, the onetime Maduro backer told a Miami broadcaster on Sunday. The latest defection from the crisis-stricken OPEC nation's government comes amid growing international pressure on Maduro over his new term, which resulted from a broadly boycotted 2018 vote dismissed by countries around the world as a sham. "I've decided to leave Venezuela to disavow the government of Nicolas Maduro," Zerpa said in an interview with EVTV, which is broadcast over cable and the internet. "I believe (Maduro) does not deserve a second chance because the election he supposedly won was not free and competitive." The Supreme Court confirmed in a statement that he had fled, referring to him as a former magistrate and adding it opened an investigation of him in November over accusations of sexual harassment by women in his office. The court's leadership recommended that he be dismissed over the allegations, it said, without providing details. Zerpa was for years a crucial ally of Maduro on the Supreme Court, which has backed the ruling Socialist Party in every major legal dispute since Maduro's 2013 election. He wrote a 2016 ruling that provided the legal justification for Maduro's government to strip congress of most of its powers after the Socialist Party lost control of the body to the opposition in a landslide election. Zerpa in the interview described the Supreme Court as "an appendage of the executive branch," and said that justices were at times summoned to the presidential palace to receive instructions on how to rule on certain sensitive cases. The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zerpa said he did not criticize Maduro's May 2018 election to make sure he could pave the way for a safe exit from the country in the company of his family. Opposition leaders have urged foreign governments not to recognize Maduro after his inauguration on Thursday, and a group of Latin American nations on Friday called on Maduro not to take office. But diplomats consulted by Reuters said few countries were likely to shutter embassies or sever ties with Venezuela. Zerpa's words echoed those of former Justice Eladio Aponte, who fled to the United States in 2012 and said the government of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez - Maduro's predecessor - systematically manipulated court affairs. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-judge-usa/ex-supreme-court-justice-says-venezuela-manipulates-courts-idUSBRE83I1GS20120419 ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network Inc. on Monday both claimed higher nationwide television ratings throughout 2018. The multimedia company owned by the Lopez Group said it topped all TV networks in urban and rural areas nationwide in 2018, gaining an average audience share of 45 percent for the whole year (excluding Holy Week) against GMAs 32 percent, based on data from Kantar Media. Multinational audience measurement provider Kantar Media uses a nationwide panel size of 2,610 urban and rural homes that represent 100 percent of the total Philippine TV viewing population. In 2018, ABS-CBN was the network of choice by Filipinos in Metro Manila, where it scored an average audience share of 42 percent against GMAs 26 percent. ABS-CBN also started gaining ground last year in Mega Manila and capped off the year by registering an average audience share of 36 percent versus GMAs 34 percent. GMA Network, meanwhile, continued to lead in nationwide ratings throughout 2018 based on full-year data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.From January to December, GMA tallied a 40.8-percent total day people audience share, which bested ABS-CBNs 37.5 percent, in the National Urban Television Audience Measurement. The network was also the most watched station in both Urban Luzon and Mega Manilawinning across all day parts including the hotly contested primetime block. Urban Luzon and Mega Manila respectively account for 76 percent and 59 percent of all urban viewers in the country. Full year 2018 data showed GMA still kept a double-digit advantage in Urban Luzon with a 45.9-percent total day people audience share while its rival only managed to get 31.5 percent. With official data from January up to December 22, the network posted an even bigger margin in its bailiwick Mega Manila with 47.7 percent, which was way ahead of ABS-CBNs 28.7 percent. GMA registered a 38-percent total day people audience share in NUTAM for the month of December against ABS-CBNs 34.8 percent. From left Ali, Issam, Rima, Isabella Abbas, and Giselle Abbas (pictured front).The Abbas family were killed after being involved in a head on collision with the white Chevy pickup of Joey Lee Bailey on the I-75 highway in Kentucky, on Sunday. (Instagram/City of Dearborn, Michigan) A suspected drunk driver killed himself and a family of five returning from their Christmas holiday after ploughing into their car while he was travelling in the wrong direction on a Kentucky highway. Dr Rima Abbas, 38, along with her husband Issam Abbas, 42, and children Ali, 14, Isabella, 13, and seven-year-old Giselle, died when Joey Lee Baileys picked truck hit them on the I-75 highway in Kentucky at around 2.30am on Sunday. The family, from Northville, Michigan, were heading home from their Christmas holiday according to reports in the Detroit Free Press. Bailey, of Georgetown, Kentucky, is suspected of driving under the influence though the results of toxicology tests have yet to be released. The Abbas family were killed after being involved in a head on collision with the white Chevy pickup of Joey Lee Bailey on the I-75 highway in Kentucky, on Sunday. (AP) Police received a number of calls about a pickup truck travelling south on the northbound carriageway of the I-75 but by the time officers arrived they discovered the wreck of the Abbas family car and Baileys white Chevy truck. The northbound lanes were closed for hours as an accident reconstruction team investigated the crash. They have since reopened, according to Lex 18. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Raul Jimenez celebrates after scoring the opening goal for Wolves Wolves have made Liverpool pay for naming a weakened side in their FA Cup third round clash at Molineux. Nuno Espiritio Santo was rewarded for naming a strong side as Wolves ran out 2-1 winners to hand the Reds their second defeat in as many games. The warning signs were there for Liverpool even before kick off, having not made it past the fourth round in each of the previous two seasons, which included a defeat to tonights opponents at Anfield two years ago. AS IT HAPPENED: Wolves 2 Liverpool 1 READ MORE: FA Cup draw: Arsenal v Man United, Spurs v Palace READ MORE: Hoever becomes Liverpools youngest ever FA Cup player However, Jurgen Klopp opted to keep his powder dry, making nine changes and handing debuts to Rafa Camacho and Curtis Jones. Dejan Lovren and James Milner were the only survivors from Liverpools loss to Manchester City on Thursday. Lovren then dealt Klopp a huge blow, only lasting five minutes before being forced off with an apparent hamstring injury as 16-year-old Ki-Jana Hoever replaced the Croatian and became Liverpools youngest ever FA Cup player. Ki-Jana Hoever became Liverpools youngest ever FA Cup player when he played 85 minutes against WolvesLiverpool were desperately poor in the first half, having almost two-thirds possession but playing with no drive, no pace, and no intensity. Their only chance in a drab 45 minutes was Xherdan Sahqiris scuffed effort which flew well wide. It was Wolves who opened the scoring with the only shot on target of the first half. Diogo Jota pounced on James Milners mistake on the halfway line and his pass to Raul Jimenez took out last man Fabinho. The Wolves striker ran half the length of the pitch unchallenged and Jimenez coolly slotted past Simon Mignolet to score with the only shot on target in the first half. Liverpool improved marginally in the second half and equalised through the hitherto anonymous Divock Origi when a loose ball fell to him on the edge of the area. The winger was given time to move the ball to his left foot and fire a powerful shot beyond John Ruddy in goal. Story continues John Ruddy brilliantly denied Xherdan Shaqiri from the Liverpool midfielders free kick However, Wolves would not be denied and they were back in front less than five minutes later. Ruben Neves is renowned for his long-range goals and as he received the ball 30 yards out and the crowd urging him to shoot, he obliged, and sent a low, fizzing effort just inside Simon Mignolets right-hand post. Klopp had finally seen enough and sent out the big guns, as Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino played out the final half hour. Shaqiri was then millimetres away from sending the match to a replay when Ruddy somehow got his fingertips to the midfielders wicked freekick and touched the ball onto the inside of the post. But if Klopp was hoping his changes would lead to a Liverpool response he would have been disappointed. The Reds certainly improved with Salah and Firminos impact, however it was too little and too late as Wolves saw out the match with relative comfort and booked a spot in the fourth round. An obsessed ex who drilled a hole in his former partners ceiling so he could spy on her from the loft has been spared jail. Besotted Mark Thomas, 45, was found by police hiding in the attic above the womans bedroom. The spurned engineer was discovered when the victim found a pile of dust on her bedroom floor with a small spy hole in the ceiling above. As Thomas was arrested he pleaded with the victim: Dont let them do this or I will go to jail. Preston Crown Court, where Thomas, of Blackpool, avoided jail after he drilled a hole in the bedroom ceiling of his ex to spy on her. (PA) Preston Crown Court heard Thomas had been dumped in September last year for cheating but refused to accept their seven-and-a-half year relationship was over. On a previous occasion, his ex had woken to find him sitting on her bed looking through texts on her phone. Judge, Recorder Neville Biddle, told Thomas he had acted in a bizarre way. Thomas, of Blackpool, Lancs., admitted stalking her between October 1 and 28 last year. The spyhole drilled in the ceiling of Thomas ex-partner. (SWNS) He was given a six month jail term, suspended for two years, and also made subject to a five-year restraining order. Thomas made a gesture towards the tormented victim as he was led from the court on Friday. The peephole incident came following a stalking campaign which saw Thomas twice go into the victims Fleetwood home without her knowledge to make his way into the loft to drill the hole. Prosecuting, Paul Cummings said: She told him to leave the family home when she discovered he had been involved in a relationship with another woman, unknown to her. Thomas was discovered by police lying in the attack after his ex partner noticed a pile of dust and a hole in her ceiling. (SWNS) On October 1, the mum had put her children in bed and gone to sleep but woke half an hour later to find Thomas sitting at the end of her bed. Mr Cummings added: He was looking at her mobile phone and asking questions about who she had been texting. She got up and took the phone off him and told him to go. At that point he left the bedroom and she fell asleep again. Some time later she woke and found he was back in the bedroom he was crying and he asked if he would be allowed to stay. She agreed and he remained in the house overnight. Story continues At 6am she was asking him to leave and he asked if he could stop and see the children. She agreed and he helped the children get ready for school. He later sent a text message apologising for his earlier behaviour. Later the same day, the victim returned home from work to find a pile of dust on the floor in her bedroom. Mr Cummings added: She then noticed a small hole in the ceiling. She came out to see if anyone was in the loft but noticed the loft hatch was closed and appeared to be locked. She was still unhappy with the situation and called a friend, who told her to call the police. The police went into the loft and then, of course, found the defendant hidden in the loft. He was arrested and as he was being taken away he said: Dont let them do this or I will go to jail. Thomas was released on bail but within weeks had breached a condition not to contact his victim and was remanded into custody. Sentencing him, Recorder Neville Biddle said: Your relationship broke down, but you found it difficult to accept, and in fact, you acted in what I can only describe as a bizarre way. Most bizarrely you found your way into the attic secretly so you could spy on her and keep watch. He agreed to suspend his six-month jail term for two years and imposed a 40-day rehabilitation activity. Two charges relating to intimidating the woman will lie on the file. Lancashire Police DC Ben Heap said: The victim has shown a tremendous amount of courage in supporting the police throughout this investigation. We hope that todays sentence will demonstrate our commitment as a force to pursue domestic abuse offenders relentlessly. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is considering ways to help Prime Minister Theresa May convince the British parliament to back the Brexit treaty she agreed with EU leaders last month but ruled out on Monday any change to the deal. EU sources told Reuters that senior officials in Brussels are discussing whether and how to issue "reassurances" that might help May overcome resistance to the deal before lawmakers vote in London next week. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNBC he hoped the EU and United Kingdom could find a way to avoid "negative ramifications from a hard Brexit related not only to commerce and trade, but importantly to the national security issues that we have with the British as well as the European Union." Among the reassurances EU officials were considering was a request they said May put to fellow EU leaders at a summit before the Christmas break, on Dec. 14, to commit to having a new UK-EU free trade treaty in place by the end of 2021. However, the European Union shows no sign of going beyond an existing aspiration to do that, not a hard promise. The date is important as it could allow May to assure her own party and others that the unpopular "Irish backstop" in the treaty would not be triggered after a status-quo transition period ends some time by 2022. The backstop would bind Britain to follow EU rules to avoid a "hard" customs border across the island of Ireland unless a better way is agreed to do that by means of a new trade pact. Critics of May's deal to smooth Britain's passage out of the EU on March 29 say the backstop could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely, long after it gives up any say over them. EU officials familiar with the discussions said they saw little sign of any shift in the position of EU leaders last month, when they said the agreement could not be renegotiated and they would make no binding commitments that could be construed as altering it. "We can provide reassurances," one official said. "But whatever it might be will just reiterate the (summit) conclusions from last month." Among ways in which the EU could offer more detail and clarity on its agreed position, officials said, would be an exchange of legal letters with the British government setting out expectations of when a trade deal could be completed. However, EU leaders are wary of introducing legal ambiguity if the language of any statement differs from the original text. The EU executive repeated on Monday that leaders would not renegotiate the treaty and said it was pressing on with planning for Britain to crash out of the Union without a deal. "The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible," the European Commission's chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters when asked about a phone conversation on Friday between May and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. "This deal will not be renegotiated." He also repeated that there were no talks planned between negotiators from the two sides as "negotiations are complete". Schinas said that Juncker's conversation with May on Friday was "friendly" and that the two would speak again this week. May also spoke last week to EU summit chair Donald Tusk. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Eli Lilly is buying Loxo Oncology for some $8 billion in cash. The purchase gives Lilly access to Loxo's pipeline of targeted medicines aimed at fighting cancer. Loxo already sells one medication in partnership with rival Bayer. Could GE be looking to get rid of another division? Bloomberg says Apollo Global Management is lining up funding to buy GE's jet leasing business. It could be worth upwards of $40 billion. However, any deal is just in the early stages and Bloomberg cautions GE could go with another buyer or decide to keep that division in-house. It's getting a little easier to watch iTunes on your Samsung TV. Samsung says it will add an app to its smart TVs in the coming months to let you access the iTunes service. It could be a sign Apple is starting to let others help distribute its content without using Apple devices. Tesla is breaking ground in China. The automaker kicked off construction on that $2 billion factory in Shanghai. The company is planning to make some Model 3 electric vehicles there by the end of the year. Producing cars locally could to help Tesla fend off any consequences of the trade war with China. It looks like Sears may have found a liquidator to shut down its stores. Reuters says the department store chain has lined up Abacus Advisory Group of New Jersey to help sell its vast inventory of tools and appliances. All this comes amid reports this weekend that Chairman Eddie's Lampert's $4.4 billion bid to keep sears afloat fell short. Donald Trump will visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday as the White House attempts to focus attention on the so-called immigration crisis. (Photo by Chris Kleponis /Sipa USA) Donald Trump will visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday as the White House continues to attempt to focus attention to on a crisis at the border. The announcement comes as the US government shut down enters its third week with Trump and congressional Democrats at an impasse over Trumps demand for nearly $6 billion in federal funding to build a wall on the southern border. CNN reports White House officials said Trump also asked aides over the weekend about delivering a prime time address on Tuesday. The public address is reportedly in planning stages now but Trump wants to make his case about the government shutdown and wall funding in advance of Thursdays border trip. An aerial photo showing houses and yards built up to the border fence in the Nido de las Aguilas section of Tijuana. (John Gibbins/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS/Sipa USA) Bill Shine, the deputy chief of staff for communications, was set to meet with aides on Monday afternoon to discuss a potential address to the nation. The New York Times first reported Trumps desire to address the nation. Its unclear whether the networks will take it or have yet been formally asked. Trump will meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Monday morning on Twitter. According to reports the president She said: President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon. As the shut down continues hundreds of thousands of federal staff are working without pay. Transport officials at major airports across the country are not attending work and a key housing programme being carried our by the Department of Housing and Urban Development is running out of money. Trump administration officials have pointed to a surge in migrant families crossing the border to make their case that the situation at the southern border is reaching critical proportions but they have also pointed to misleading statistics to suggest terrorists are attempting to enter the United States through the southern border. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents and other federal employees continue to work without paychecks during the current government shutdown, and some appear to be fed up. On Friday, CNN reported that many TSA officers have called out of work this week in at least four major airports. Though Department of Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton called the story fake news, the TSA has admitted that sick calls have increased. Security effectiveness will not be compromised and performance standards will not change, the TSA said on Twitter Friday. TSA is grateful to the agents who show up to work, remain focused on the mission and respectful to the traveling public as they continue the important work necessary to secure the nations transportation systems. However, some travelers are still worried. With the government shutdown dragging into its third week and no end in sight, many are anticipating travel delays at possibly understaffed TSA security checkpoints. Heres some tips to deal with serious security delays at airports that may arise due to the government shutdown. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Plan Ahead Thinking ahead before you leave for the airport can be the difference between making your flight and missing it. That means leaving plenty of time to get to the airport, check in, make it through security and get to your gate. The TSA recommends travelers arrive two hours before a domestic flight and three hours prior to an international trip, though it may make sense to leave more time than that if you are anticipating major delays. Some airports leave passengers in the dark about what kind of security lines to expect, but others take a more informative approach. At New Yorks LaGuardia and JFK airports, travelers can check the security wait times at their gates before they leave for the airport. Those times are estimates, and theyre subject to change, but they can give travelers a good idea of what to expect. Know the Guidelines Story continues The TSA says that unprepared passengers can have a significant impact on wait times at security checkpoints. Even if youre waiting in a long line, it still pays to be ready when its your turn to go through security screening, both in order to get to your gate faster and to speed things along for your fellow travelers. That means knowing the security guidelines before you leave for the airport in order to decrease your chances of getting stopped at a TSA checkpoint. Passengers should make sure to check that their liquids, aerosols and gels are packed in compliance with the 3-1-1 liquids rule, meaning theyre packed in travel-size containers of 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters each. Each passenger is limited to a one-quart bag of liquids, gels and aerosols total for carry-on bags. Passengers can also avoid getting stopped with a prohibited item by making sure to check the Can I Bring My? feature on tsa.gov to determine if they can bring an item in a carry-on, a checked bag or if they should leave it at home. It can also help to be ready when you get to the front of the security line. For instance, the TSA recommends travelers take items out of their pockets and put them in a carry-on bag before they go through security in order to speed things along and make sure nothing gets left behind. Remember the TSA Employees In the midst of the stress of traveling, it can be easy to forget the reason why there may be delays in the first place. During the government shutdown TSA employees, as well as hundreds of thousands of other federal employees, are not being paid, though TSA agents are still required to show up to work. According to the CNN report, that situation might be whats causing the increase in TSA agents calling in sick in recent days. TSA employees at airport checkpoints are the ones who work despite not knowing when their next paycheck will come. A smile or a kind word could go a long way for those government employees still doing their best to serve the country. President Trump said Friday that the shutdown might drag on for months or even years, so kindness might be the most that many of us can do. The Securities and Exchange Commission warned against investing their hard-earned money in Angel Investor Group Inc., a company not authorized to solicit investments from the public. The SEC said in an advisory while Angel Investor was registered in 2000, it did not have a secondary license that could enable it offer, solicit or sell investments or securities to the public. An initial investigation gathered by the SEC showed that individuals or a group of persons representing Angel Investor were enticing the public to invest their capital in the company through the internet. Angel Investors is reportedly promising investors 100-percent profit after one month plus 1,500 bonus share. Such activity requires secondary license from the commission and the securities of investment product should be registered with the SEC before they can be offered or sold to the public under Section 8 and 12 of the Securities Regulation Code, the SEC said. In view thereof, the public is hereby advised to exercise caution before investing in these kinds of activities and to make the necessary precaution in dealing with Angel Investor Group Inc. or its presentative, it said.The SEC said those who act as agents involved in Angel Investor in convincing people to invest in the investment scheme might be held criminally liable and could face a penalty of P5 million or 21 years of imprisonment or both. The SEC also warned those who invite or recruit people to join or invest in the venture or offer contracts to the public, saying they might also be held liable and sanctioned or penalized. The warning is the first advisory issued by the SEC this year against a company engaged in illegal activity. The SEC in 2018 issued advisories against some 43 companies allegedly involved in the sale of securities or investment contracts through online without prior registration with the corporate regulator. Some of the companies are also engaged in selling virtual currency through initial coin offerings, which is not yet allowed by the SEC. Every investor in Stealth Global Holdings Limited (ASX:SGI) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome. With a market capitalization of AU$15m, Stealth Global Holdings is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Lets take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about SGI. See our latest analysis for Stealth Global Holdings ASX:SGI Ownership Summary January 6th 19 What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Stealth Global Holdings? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once its included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. We can see that Stealth Global Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold 24% of the stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we cant rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, theres always a risk that they are in a crowded trade. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Stealth Global Holdingss historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind theres always more to the story. ASX:SGI Income Statement Export January 6th 19 Stealth Global Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. As far I can tell there isnt analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar. Story continues Insider Ownership Of Stealth Global Holdings The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Stealth Global Holdings Limited. It has a market capitalization of just AU$15m, and insiders have AU$3.4m worth of shares in their own names. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently. General Public Ownership The general public, with a 25% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. Private Company Ownership We can see that Private Companies own 15%, of the shares on issue. Its hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company. Public Company Ownership Public companies currently own 12% of SGI stock. Its hard to say for sure, but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so its worth watching this space for changes in ownership. Next Steps: While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free . Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. By Kate Kelland LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A leading geneticist who ran the conference where a Chinese scientist said he had made the world's first "gene-edited" babies condemned him on Monday for potentially jeopardizing lives and having no biology training. Robin Lovell-Badge, organizer of the November 2018 event where China's He Jiankui made his controversial presentation, described him as a rich man with a "huge ego" who "wanted to do something he thinks will change the world". He Jiankui, associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, sparked an international scientific and ethical row when he said he had used a technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born in November. He could not be immediately reached to respond to Lovell-Badge's comments. Chinese authorities are investigating him and have meanwhile halted this kind of research. In videos posted online and at the conference, He said he believed his gene editing would help protect the girls from infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Lovell-Badge, a professor and gene expert at Britain's Francis Crick Institute who led the organizing committee for the November Human Genome Editing Summit at Hong Kong University, said it was impossible to know what He had actually done. "If it's true (that he edited the genomes in the way he says) then it is certainly possible that he has put the children's lives at risk," he told journalists in London. "No-one knows what these mutations will do." Lovell-Badge said he originally invited He to the conference after hearing in scientific circles that he was "up to something". Lovell-Badge hoped that asking He to interact with specialists would encourage him to "control his urges". "Pretty much everyone he talked to had said to him: 'Don't do it'," he said. "But clearly it was all too late." Lovell-Badge said he learned of He's claims on the eve of the conference, and had an emergency meeting with him. "He thought that he was doing good, and that what he was doing was the next big thing," Lovell-Badge said. But he had "no basic training in biology" and the experiments he said he had carried out "ignored all the norms of how you conduct any clinical trial or clinical experiment." "He should certainly be stopped from doing anything like this again," he said. Lovell-Badge said he had not heard from He since early December, but understood he was in Shenzhen in a guarded apartment during the probe. Chinese authorities and institutions, as well as hundreds of international scientists, have condemned He and said any application of gene editing on human embryos for reproductive purposes was against the law and medical ethics of China. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) BEIJING (AP) Huawei Technologies Ltd. showed off a new processor chip for data centers and cloud computing Monday, expanding into new and growing markets despite Western warnings the company might be a security risk. Huawei and other Chinese technology companies that rely on Western technology are stepping up efforts to develop their own. The company based in southern China's Shenzhen has pushed ahead with commercial initiatives despite the Dec. 1 arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, in Canada on U.S. charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran. Huawei said the Kunpeng 920 chip is designed for servers that handle a flood of data from smartphones, video and other network services a fast growing sector with the development of artificial intelligence and the "internet of things." The company said it is part of a planned product lineup to support "intelligent computing." Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, is China's first global tech competitor and a national champion at the head of an industry the ruling Communist Party is eager to promote. The company says it is employee-owned and rejects accusations by Washington and some other governments that it is controlled by the ruling party and might facilitate spying. Chinese and U.S. envoys met Monday for talks over a tariff war triggered by American complaints about Beijing's technology policies. The Trump administration, Europe and other trading partners complain initiatives such as "Made in China 2025," which calls for state-led creation of Chinese global champions in robotics and other fields, violates Beijing's market-opening obligations. American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership. The company says its 2018 global sales are forecast to top $100 billion despite curbs imposed on use of its technology by the United States, Australia, Japan and some other governments. Story continues Huawei, headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, has steadily expanded into new industry segments. Its smartphone brand, launched in 2010, passed Apple to become the global No. 2 seller behind Samsung in the third quarter of 2017, according to IDC. The company has developed the Kirin line of chips for its phones and Ascend chips for artificial intelligence. The Kunpeng 920 chip is based on the ARM system used increasingly in smartphones and distributed computing. It competes in some settings with the x86 standard used by traditional industry leaders Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Also Monday, Huawei unveiled three servers based on the new chip that are intended for global sale. "Where we see the biggest value for the Kunpeng 920 is in data centers, servers and big data," William Xu, Huawei's chief strategy marketing officer and a member of the company board, said at a news conference in Shenzhen. Huawei has China's biggest corporate research and development budget at $13 billion in 2017. Those investments have helped to reduce Huawei's reliance on Western technology but its servers, smartphones and other products still use billions of dollars' worth of U.S., European, Japanese and other chipsets and other technology. Executives at Monday's event avoided replying directly when asked whether American security warnings might hurt sales or about concerns U.S.-Chinese rivalry in technology might split the world into separate spheres with their own incompatible standards. Xu responded to a question about possible industry fragmentation by saying the outlook for the server market is "very bright." The general manager of Huawei's server business, Redfox Qiu, added later, "in any country or region that we operate, we run our business in strict compliance with local laws and regulations." Global shipments of Huawei servers grew to 980,000 last year, a twelve-fold increase over 2012, according to Qiu. Xu tried to play down suggestions the Kunpeng 920 might compete directly with Intel, a major supplier to Huawei. "Intel will remain our most important strategic partner," said Xu. The Kunpeng 920 is "definitely not a replacement for Intel processors." ___ Huawei Technologies Ltd.: www.huawei.com By Yilei Sun and Adam Jourdan BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most globally high-profile and successful carmaker, Geely, is forecasting flat sales this year, a sharp slowdown from 2018 as the country's giant auto market struggles with slowing economic growth and more cautious consumers. Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd <0175.HK>, the main listed unit of the Geely empire which owns Volvo Cars and Proton, posted sales growth of 20 percent in 2018. That was despite a slide in sales at a host of other carmakers and forecasts that last year was the first in decades to see a fall in sales in Chinas overall car market. The gloomy forecast for 2019 highlights how the year is likely to be tough for all carmakers, including General Motors and Great Wall Motor <601633.SS>. Geely said in a filing that despite its growth last year, it had missed a sales target of 1.58 million cars by around 5 percent. Its sales started to slow in the last quarter of 2018, with a 44 percent drop in December alone, according to monthly sales data filings. Some other domestic and international firms have flagged a sharp drop in demand in China at the end of last year, including Apple Inc , which cut its global sales forecast due to Chinese weakness. Geelys chairman Li Shufu said in a new years address that the year ahead was pivotal. We must lay the foundation for our survival, otherwise we may soon face a period of demise," he said in the address posted on Geely's social media last year. China's auto market likely contracted last year for the first time since at least 1990, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said last month, citing economic shifts, weakness in smaller cities and international reasons - which could refer to the Sino-U.S trade war. The industry body expects around 28 million vehicle sales in 2019, roughly level with 2018. (Reporting by Yilei Sun in Beijing and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Mark Potter) Amid the ongoing negotiations between the United States and China to reach a long-term solution to the trade dispute, the latter has been stepping up efforts to develop chips and other telecom components to end the dependency on imports from Western countries. Huawei Technologies Ltd., the leading smartphone manufacturer of China, is the latest to join this bandwagon as it launched a new processor chip for data centers and cloud computing. Dubbed Kunpeng 920, the new chip is specially designed for servers that handle huge data from smartphones, video and other network services. The initiative is an integral part of the "Made in China 2025" project that aims to indigenously built products in telecom, robotics and other fields. Based on the ARM system typically used in smartphones and distributed computing, the chip reportedly competes with traditional industry leaders like Intel Corporation INTC, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA. However, management refuted claims that the new product is in direct competition with Intel, which had been a strategic supplier for Huawei for years. Meanwhile, Huawei is likely to record annual sales of more than $100 billion across the globe despite widespread sanctions and trade restrictions in various countries. Time and again, the U.S. administration has asked federal agencies to abstain from using China's ZTE and Huawei products over perceived risk of espionage. The Pentagon has also banned the sale of smartphones from these manufacturers from all military establishments. The U.S. officials had even reached out to allied countries to persuade them to refrain from using Huawei telecom equipment, accusing it of sophisticated and intensified cyberattacks to siphon off data for possible collection and analysis. Although the underlying issue is cited to be related to national security concerns, the bone of contention perhaps stems from an innate desire between the two warring nations to claim dominance in cutting-edge technologies and the next generation of wireless services. Relations between the United States and China were further strained when Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested in Canada over potential violations of sanctions on Iran. Serving as the deputy chairwoman of the management board, Meng is the daughter of the founder of Huawei. Consequently, the detention and eventual arrest of such a high-profile business tycoon rattled the markets and put the political environment on high alert. Although Meng has been granted bail, the matter remained a potboiler as she faced probable extradition to the United States. The Sino-American tensions elicited strong protests from China against the perceived undemocratic act and threatened to derail the 90-day truce offer to initiate negotiations related to the tariff war. However, officials from both countries have reportedly initiated trade talks to ease the tariff restrictions imposed on each other. Meanwhile, after a series of accusations of being a security threat, Huawei has hit back at its detractors asking them to prove the allegations. The leading Chinese telecom manufacturer has faced roadblocks across several countries, denting the companys global ambitions. It seems that Huawei will now aim to counter these charges as the 5G race heats up. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Telegraph SNP ministers have been warned not to waste any more time when lives are on the line after new analysis revealed that almost 1,000 fewer Scots have started breast cancer treatment in the last year. The findings from Cancer Research UK, which used NHS Scotland statistics, also show that an estimated 3,900 fewer people had started treatment for all types of cancer since the pandemic struck. Breast cancer represents almost a quarter of these missing cases - over 70 per cent more than what would b Late last year, long-awaited airline start-up California Pacific Airlines finally got off the ground after nearly a decade of planning. The airline's founders planned to carve out a niche in the San Diego region by operating flights at McClellan-Palomar Airport in the northern suburbs. By contrast, local market leader Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) -- and every other major airline -- serves the city through San Diego International Airport. However, California Pacific got off to an extremely rough start, with widespread flight delays and cancellations. Now it has suspended all service at its Carlsbad, California, base until at least February. That doesn't bode well for the carrier's short- or long-term survival. A series of unfortunate events California Pacific Airlines began flying from McClellan-Palomar Airport in early November. Its operations were extremely unreliable from day one. Indeed, a maintenance problem delayed its first departure by nearly half a day. That was just the beginning of the new airline's struggles. In addition to its West Coast service, California Pacific Airlines also operates federally subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) flights from two cities in South Dakota to Denver. (This is a legacy of California Pacific's founders' having purchased an existing airline to avoid the lengthy process for receiving a new FAA certification.) One of the company's four jets was damaged at the airport in Pierre, South Dakota, in late October. It took more than a month to repair it. While that jet was out of service, California Pacific experienced maintenance problems with some of its other aircraft. At one point in early December, only one of its four aircraft was operational. A California Pacific Airlines jet parked on the tarmac California Pacific has suffered from poor reliability since starting service. Image source: California Pacific Airlines. Not surprisingly, the situation wreaked havoc on its schedule. Between the middle of November and late December, the airline canceled more than 25% of its EAS flights in South Dakota, jeopardizing its lucrative EAS contract. Delays and cancellations were also widespread on routes from California Pacific's Carlsbad hub. Story continues Meanwhile, management has had its eye on an even bigger problem: a growing shortage of pilots that is affecting small regional airlines across the country. California Pacific tries to regroup The pilot shortage caused California Pacific's latest setback. In late December, it canceled all flights from its Carlsbad hub until further notice and began issuing refunds to customers who had already booked tickets. The airline says it's working to train more pilots and hopes to resume service in California in February. It has even ordered three additional airplanes so that it can add more routes from its Carlsbad hub in the future. But for the time being, the carrier is focusing its resources on operating its EAS flights between Denver and South Dakota reliably. A bad start could doom California Pacific Airlines The bad news is that California Pacific's bumpy start could doom it. The carrier's business plan is based on appealing to business travelers and leisure travelers from northern San Diego County by offering greater convenience than rivals such as Southwest Airlines that operate at San Diego International Airport. However, the inconvenience of spending an hour in the car on the way to the airport is far more manageable than the inconvenience of being stranded because your flight is canceled. That's an ordeal that lots of California Pacific Airlines customers experienced in November and December. Southwest Airlines offers affordable, reliable, frequent, and relatively comfortable service for San Diego-based air travelers. California Pacific's only real competitive advantage relative to Southwest is the convenience factor. For most people, that's not a big enough advantage to justify the risk of booking with an airline that has a terrible track record for reliability. Many struggling airline start-ups suspend flights with plans to resume service at some later date. Far fewer manage to get back off the ground. With 20/20 hindsight, California Pacific Airlines clearly should have waited until it had enough spare airplanes and plenty of pilots before starting service in Southern California. Now it may take a miracle for the carrier to survive. More From The Motley Fool Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Southwest Airlines. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Southwest Airlines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May came under pressure Monday to explain what further assurances she can secure from the EU before MPs vote on her unpopular Brexit deal next week, after the bloc repeated it would not renegotiate the text. With Brexit looming on March 29, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused May of "running down the clock in an attempt to blackmail" parliament into supporting her withdrawal deal. The House of Commons returned from its Christmas break ready to resume debating the withdrawal deal struck with the EU in November, before voting on it next week, possibly on January 15. May postponed the vote last month because of intense opposition from MPs, promising further clarifications from Brussels. But after an EU summit in December, and talks with the Dutch, French, German, Spanish and EU leaders in recent days, she admitted these are still proving elusive. "We are continuing to work on further assurances, on further undertakings from the European Union," she told reporters. A government source conceded these may not be secured before MPs resume debating the Brexit deal on Wednesday. In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas repeated that the Brexit deal would not be reopened. "There are no negotiations, because all we have on the table is what we consider given, acquired and approved," he said. There are concerns in Westminster that without any breakthrough in Brussels, May could delay the vote again, bringing Britain closer to leaving the EU with no agreement in place. - No deal planning - The Brexit deal took nearly two years to negotiate and only covers separation issues, leaving open the future relationship -- but it has provoked anger on all sides in London. May survived a confidence vote in her own Conservative party over the agreement in December, but her Brexit-backing MPs are still in open revolt. Labour says it would renegotiate the deal, and is angling for new elections. Story continues The prime minister warned on Sunday that rejecting her deal would put Britain "in uncharted territory". Her spokesman denied Monday that the government could delay Brexit, after junior minister Margot James said that this might be necessary to avoid Britain leaving without no deal. Some Brexit supporters say there is nothing to be feared from this. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said a 'no deal' scenario was actually "closest to what people voted for" in the 2016 referendum to leave the bloc. But many disagree, and more than 200 MPs from all parties have written to May urging her "to agree a mechanism that would ensure a 'no-deal' Brexit could not take place". May was due to meet Conservative MPs over private drinks this week to try to sway waverers, and one minister insisted the vote next week could still be won. "A week is a very long time in politics," junior Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng told BBC radio. The government will on Tuesday launch a new radio and social media advertising campaign designed to prepare Britons for the full impact of no deal. On Monday, the authorities staged an exercise for easing congestion in Channel crossings in case of new trade barriers with the EU, using an airfield to hold lorries near Dover. But it drew criticism for only involving 89 trucks and haulage companies dismissed it as "too little too late". Currently around 10,000 heavy goods vehicles arrive every day at the port. - Toxic backstop - To allay concerns over her deal, May has promised to seek "political and legal reassurances" from the EU over the use of a temporary arrangement designed to keep open the border with Ireland after Brexit. Many Conservatives, and Northern Ireland's tiny Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that props up May's government, fear the so-called backstop will keep Britain indefinitely tied to the EU's single market rules. DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said Sunday: "The backstop remains the poison which makes any vote for the withdrawal agreement so toxic." May is making a new effort to persuade EU leaders to accept a time limit on the backstop, which would come into effect after the post-Brexit transition period and last until a new trade deal is agreed. Her proposal would see both sides adopt a December 2021 target for agreeing the new trade arrangements. However, this was rejected by EU leaders at a December summit. The government is also looking at giving parliament a bigger say in a new round of trade talks with Brussels. burs-ar/jwp/jj Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 5 Vote(s) - 3.4 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 Secret Underground Bases in Africa PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 01-08-2019 12:29 AM Posts: 22,221 Post: #16 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Advertisement MARYLAND 53. Camp David--just north of the camp is an underground facility important to the intelligence agencies. 54. below Ft. Meade, of the National Security Agency, 10 acres of the most sophisticated supercomputers that can be built, very large complex, massive surveillance of all the world's communications, including all transmissions in the U.S. & world of telephones, telegraph, telex, fax, radio, TV and microwave transmissions. 55. Olney, actually the facility is between Olney and Laytonsville, on Riggs Rd. off of Rt. 108. Another underground facility may also exist in the area, FEMA & possibly NSA, the facility may be 10 levels deep, purpose unknown. 56. Suitland, MD- Classified archives of U.S. Govt. stored here in underground levels. Vaults have extensive amounts of documents which are not indexed. Restricted access with a coded security card. High level intelligence groups operate in the area also. MASSACHUSETTS 57. Maynard, 42 26.0' N 71 27.0' W FEMA, regional center, Wackenhut is here too. MICHIGAN 58. Battle Creek, 42 19.3' N 85 10.9' W FEMA, regional center, activity secret (not validated) 59. Gwinn, Ml, 46 16.8'N 87 26.5' W, near Gwinn is a large underground base which is a key base for sending signals. An AFB is also nearby. Under Lake Superior is an alien base with roads 5,000' deep. MISSOURI 60. 12 miles south of Lebanon, 36 02.8' N 115 24.3' W, near the newly created town of Twin Bridges-reported saucer base 61. In the Bat/Dry/Dead Man/ Howell cluster of caves- reported saucer base 62. St. Francis Mountains, MO (between St. Louis & New Madrid) NEBRASKA 63. North-central Nebraska 64. Red Willow Co. near McCook, NE NEVADA 65. Blue Diamond, 36 02.8'N 11524.3 W -reported saucer base 66-68. Groom Lake, also known as Dreamland, Area 51, The Area, the Spot, Red Square, Sally Corridor, Watertown Strip. 1150 50'N 3720W. Run by the NWO along with demonic beings, the CIA is there and Wackenhut Security. Two large underground facilities close to but separate from Groom Lake but controlled by the demonic beings are Papoose Range and Cockeyed Ridge (S-4) underground bases. Purpose is the testing of various UFOs and other secret aircraft like the Aurora and Stealth. Also biological work is done, including the biological raising of small greys. Many levels have been built t these three complexes, and a 7 mile long run way (which is actually 39 miles) Page 305 ... has been built over Groom Lake, a dry lake. There is an S-2, an S-4, an S-6, and an S-66 underground installations. S-66 is the most secret and it has 29 levels and is 11, 300' deep. 69. Quartzite Mountain SE of Tonopah, 37 31 'N 116 20' W- reported saucer base 70. Tonopah, Airforce, CIA? & ??, deals with secret aircraft NEW HAMPSHIRE 71-73. There may be as many as three underground installations in New Hampshire's hills (according to reports). NEW JERSEY 74. Picatinny Arsenal, 4o 38'N 74 32' W- saucer base, 1/4 cubic mile large & very deep underground. NEW MEXICO The state of New Mexico and Colorado have been used for the construction of a series of underground bases. (All the rest of the states have too.) The Primary Underground facilities in New Mexico consist of: 3 enormous underground bases in The Dulce, NM area (an area I spent several days investigating in 1993). The White Sands--Alamogordo Area which has 3 underground bases. Datil and Pie Town which have two more underground bases. (Carlsbad Cavern which had underground activity, which is reported discontinued, and another base to east of Carlsbad.). The Los Alamos area underground facility . the Taos area underground facility The New Mexico area has basically four underground system out. One goes to the Four Corners area and then to Groom Lake (Area 51). One goes north toward Delta, CO and Colorado Springs. The Taos facilities goes north approximately along Interstate 25 and eventually ties in NORAD. The southern bases connect to Texas and Mexico. The Los Alamos facility dates at least back to 1940. One can only imagine what has been built with 1/2 century of labor on this underground system. Visitors to the deeper levels report humans kept in glass cylinders, plus many other strange things. I have had the opportunity to debrief some people who have been in the lower reaches of some of these facilities. There are special badges, special uniforms, tube elevators etc. which for lack of time I will not describe. . 75. Angel Peak- reported saucer base . Carlsbad Cavern area (now destroyed), 32 25.0'N 1040 14.0W -old relics of saucer base left . 76-78. Dulce, N.M., 36 56.0'N 10659.8'W,--South of Dulce, in the area of the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, another facility is east of the Dulce facility a number of miles. This is run directly by Illuminati w/ Army and Airforce help, CIA also conduct experiments at the center; the size of the installation is hugh requiring small shuttle trains and has seven levels according to witnesses. Serves as a UFO base, biological experiments, production center for small-grey drones. Wackenhut provides some of the security on the ground. 79. Kirtland AFB, NM, Sandia National Lab 80. Manzano Mtn, near Albuquerque, known as the Kirtland Munitions Storage Complex, Airforce, 3,000-acre base within the Kirtland AFB/Sandia National Labs complex, guarded by 4 lethal rings of fences, use unknown, suspected UFO base. A new 285,000-sq. ft. bunker is being built near Manzano Base. 81. Pie Town, 34 17.9'N 1 10808.7'W, in area near Pie Town, UFO Base. 82. Sandia Mountains NE of Albuquerque -reported saucer base 83. to the north of Taos Pueblo 84. White Sands, 3222.8'N 10628.8'W, major hub for research, tied in with Dulce & NORAD, HO for NASA /military shuttle flights, radiation research ctr. and mind control. NEW YORK 85. Adirondack Mountains (near Elizabethtown) 86. New York Metro area 87. Plattsburgh (near Canada and St. Albans) AFB, 4940'N 7333 W- two saucer bases in this area. OKLAHOMA 88. Ada, 3446.4' N 9640.7W W, underground saucer base, this base does uman cloning, and it is FEMA's most sensitive base. 89. Ashland Naval Ammunition Depot, 3445.9'N 96 04.3'W,- reported saucer base OREGON 90. Bull Run, north side of Bull Run Reservoir area near Mt. Hood, and very close to Larch Mtn. and south of Benson St. Park of the Columbia Gorge. 91. Coos Bay area has had three separate but coordinating underground facilities built for UFOs. The facility farthest east, about 20 miles inland in the wilderness near Hwy 42, has been shut down. It is now an old abandoned facility well camouflaged. The coast facility is probably still operational. 92. Klamath Falls, OR--since Sept. '95 this has been a base for a number of NWO groups including the Air National Guard, FEMA, CIA, FBI, Spetznaz, and Page 306 ... MOSAP training base. An underground concentration camp exists here. PENNSYLVANIA 93. Blue Ridge Summit, near Ft. Ritchie, known as 'Raven Rock" or "Site R", Army, major electronic nerve center, 650 ft. below surface with about 350 staff and over a 716 acre area. possibly connected via tunnel to Camp David. The NOD installation is involved with psychic (demonic) and satellite control over slaves. This underground complex is to allow the government of the United States to escape a nuclear attack. The enormous complex radiates under Wash. D.C. and connects with many other sites. The tunnel system is used to move some of the mind-control sex slaves. The walls and ceilings of the tunnels are ceramic tile with fluorescent lighting recessed into the ceilings. TEXAS 94. Ft. Hood, TX, 31 15'N 97 48' W, home of some Delta Mind-Controlled soldiers and a reported saucer base. 95. Denton, TX, 33 13.2'N 97 08.2'W - FEMA, regional center, activity secret 96. Red River Arsenal, TX- reported saucer base VIRGINIA 97. Bluemont, Mount Weather base, Federal Preparedness Agency & FEMA, small-city underground, top-secret, staff of several hundred, does secret work for FEMA and contains a complete secret government with the various agencies and cabinet-level ranking administrators that keep their positions for several administrations and help run the United States. 98. Culpepper, 380 28.5 N 7759.8'W, about 2 miles east of Culpepper off of Rt. 3, called Mount Pony, Illuminati--Fed. reserve, 140,000 sq. ft., includes a facility for the storage for corpses, monitors all major financial transactions in the U.S. by means of the "Fed Wire", a modern electronic system. 99. Pentagon, Arlington, VA- 100. Warrington Training Ctr. --two sites: one on Rt. 802 and the other on Bear Wallow Road, on Viewtree Mountain. One is Station A the other Station B. Army & ??, purpose unknown Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duF1OQho1gc 53. Camp David--just north of the camp is an underground facility important to the intelligence agencies.54. below Ft. Meade, of the National Security Agency, 10 acres of the most sophisticated supercomputers that can be built, very large complex, massive surveillance of all the world's communications, including all transmissions in the U.S. & world of telephones, telegraph, telex, fax, radio, TV and microwave transmissions.55. Olney, actually the facility is between Olney and Laytonsville, on Riggs Rd. off of Rt. 108. Another underground facility may also exist in the area, FEMA & possibly NSA, the facility may be 10 levels deep, purpose unknown.56. Suitland, MD- Classified archives of U.S. Govt. stored here in underground levels. Vaults have extensive amounts of documents which are not indexed. Restricted access with a coded security card. High level intelligence groups operate in the area also.57. Maynard, 42 26.0' N 71 27.0' W FEMA, regional center, Wackenhut is here too.58. Battle Creek, 42 19.3' N 85 10.9' W FEMA, regional center, activity secret (not validated)59. Gwinn, Ml, 46 16.8'N 87 26.5' W, near Gwinn is a large underground base which is a key base for sending signals. An AFB is also nearby. Under Lake Superior is an alien base with roads 5,000' deep.60. 12 miles south of Lebanon, 36 02.8' N 115 24.3' W, near the newly created town of Twin Bridges-reported saucer base61. In the Bat/Dry/Dead Man/ Howell cluster of caves- reported saucer base62. St. Francis Mountains, MO (between St. Louis & New Madrid)63. North-central Nebraska64. Red Willow Co. near McCook, NE65. Blue Diamond, 36 02.8'N 11524.3 W -reported saucer base66-68. Groom Lake, also known as Dreamland, Area 51, The Area, the Spot, Red Square, Sally Corridor, Watertown Strip. 1150 50'N 3720W. Run by the NWO along with demonic beings, the CIA is there and Wackenhut Security. Two large underground facilities close to but separate from Groom Lake but controlled by the demonic beings are Papoose Range and Cockeyed Ridge (S-4) underground bases. Purpose is the testing of various UFOs and other secret aircraft like the Aurora and Stealth. Also biological work is done, including the biological raising of small greys. Many levels have been built t these three complexes, and a 7 mile long run way (which is actually 39 miles) Page 305 ... has been built over Groom Lake, a dry lake. There is an S-2, an S-4, an S-6, and an S-66 underground installations. S-66 is the most secret and it has 29 levels and is 11, 300' deep.69. Quartzite Mountain SE of Tonopah, 37 31 'N 116 20' W- reported saucer base70. Tonopah, Airforce, CIA? & ??, deals with secret aircraft71-73. There may be as many as three underground installations in New Hampshire's hills (according to reports).74. Picatinny Arsenal, 4o 38'N 74 32' W- saucer base, 1/4 cubic mile large & very deep underground.The state of New Mexico and Colorado have been used for the construction of a series of underground bases. (All the rest of the states have too.) The Primary Underground facilities in New Mexico consist of: 3 enormous underground bases inThe Dulce, NM area (an area I spent several days investigating in 1993).The White Sands--Alamogordo Area which has 3 underground bases. Datil and Pie Town which have two more underground bases. (Carlsbad Cavern which had underground activity, which is reported discontinued, and another base to east of Carlsbad.).The Los Alamos area underground facility . the Taos area underground facilityThe New Mexico area has basically four underground system out.One goes to the Four Corners area and then to Groom Lake (Area 51).One goes north toward Delta, CO and Colorado Springs.The Taos facilities goes north approximately along Interstate 25 and eventually ties in NORAD.The southern bases connect to Texas and Mexico.The Los Alamos facility dates at least back to 1940. One can only imagine what has been built with 1/2 century of labor on this underground system. Visitors to the deeper levels report humans kept in glass cylinders, plus many other strange things. I have had the opportunity to debrief some people who have been in the lower reaches of some of these facilities. There are special badges, special uniforms, tube elevators etc. which for lack of time I will not describe. .75. Angel Peak- reported saucer base . Carlsbad Cavern area (now destroyed), 32 25.0'N 1040 14.0W -old relics of saucer base left .76-78. Dulce, N.M., 36 56.0'N 10659.8'W,--South of Dulce, in the area of the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, another facility is east of the Dulce facility a number of miles. This is run directly by Illuminati w/ Army and Airforce help, CIA also conduct experiments at the center; the size of the installation is hugh requiring small shuttle trains and has seven levels according to witnesses. Serves as a UFO base, biological experiments, production center for small-grey drones. Wackenhut provides some of the security on the ground.79. Kirtland AFB, NM, Sandia National Lab80. Manzano Mtn, near Albuquerque, known as the Kirtland Munitions Storage Complex, Airforce, 3,000-acre base within the Kirtland AFB/Sandia National Labs complex, guarded by 4 lethal rings of fences, use unknown, suspected UFO base. A new 285,000-sq. ft. bunker is being built near Manzano Base.81. Pie Town, 34 17.9'N 1 10808.7'W, in area near Pie Town, UFO Base.82. Sandia Mountains NE of Albuquerque -reported saucer base83. to the north of Taos Pueblo84. White Sands, 3222.8'N 10628.8'W, major hub for research, tied in with Dulce & NORAD, HO for NASA /military shuttle flights, radiation research ctr. and mind control.85. Adirondack Mountains (near Elizabethtown)86. New York Metro area87. Plattsburgh (near Canada and St. Albans) AFB, 4940'N 7333 W- two saucer bases in this area.88. Ada, 3446.4' N 9640.7W W, underground saucer base, this base does uman cloning, and it is FEMA's most sensitive base.89. Ashland Naval Ammunition Depot, 3445.9'N 96 04.3'W,- reported saucer base90. Bull Run, north side of Bull Run Reservoir area near Mt. Hood, and very close to Larch Mtn. and south of Benson St. Park of the Columbia Gorge.91. Coos Bay area has had three separate but coordinating underground facilities built for UFOs. The facility farthest east, about 20 miles inland in the wilderness near Hwy 42, has been shut down. It is now an old abandoned facility well camouflaged. The coast facility is probably still operational.92. Klamath Falls, OR--since Sept. '95 this has been a base for a number of NWO groups including the Air National Guard, FEMA, CIA, FBI, Spetznaz, and Page 306 ...MOSAP training base. An underground concentration camp exists here.93. Blue Ridge Summit, near Ft. Ritchie, known as 'Raven Rock" or "Site R", Army, major electronic nerve center, 650 ft. below surface with about 350 staff and over a 716 acre area. possibly connected via tunnel to Camp David. The NOD installation is involved with psychic (demonic) and satellite control over slaves. This underground complex is to allow the government of the United States to escape a nuclear attack. The enormous complex radiates under Wash. D.C. and connects with many other sites. The tunnel system is used to move some of the mind-control sex slaves. The walls and ceilings of the tunnels are ceramic tile with fluorescent lighting recessed into the ceilings.94. Ft. Hood, TX, 31 15'N 97 48' W, home of some Delta Mind-Controlled soldiers and a reported saucer base.95. Denton, TX, 33 13.2'N 97 08.2'W - FEMA, regional center, activity secret96. Red River Arsenal, TX- reported saucer base97. Bluemont, Mount Weather base, Federal Preparedness Agency & FEMA, small-city underground, top-secret, staff of several hundred, does secret work for FEMA and contains a complete secret government with the various agencies and cabinet-level ranking administrators that keep their positions for several administrations and help run the United States.98. Culpepper, 380 28.5 N 7759.8'W, about 2 miles east of Culpepper off of Rt. 3, called Mount Pony, Illuminati--Fed. reserve, 140,000 sq. ft.,includes a facility for the storage for corpses, monitors all major financial transactions in the U.S. by means of the "Fed Wire", a modern electronic system.99. Pentagon, Arlington, VA-100. Warrington Training Ctr. --two sites: one on Rt. 802 and the other on Bear Wallow Road, on Viewtree Mountain. One is Station A the other Station B. Army & ??, purpose unknown Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-08-2019 12:29 AM Posts: 40,398 Post: #17 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa https://nypost.com/2019/01/05/trump-secr...ion-gabon/ President Trump has quietly sent 80 military personnel to the West African nation of Gabon...... You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 01-08-2019 12:29 AM Posts: 22,221 Post: #18 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa WASHINGTON 101. Bothell, 4745.7'N 12212.2w W, FEMA, regional center, activity unknown WASHINGTON, D.C. 102. WHITE HOUSE, 3853.5'N 7702.0'W--The secret NOD underground installation which is connected to the intelligence groups like NSA and the CIA as well as many other nefarious groups lays under the White House with tunnels connecting this NOD installation with the House of the Temple. The Supreme council of the 33 of the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple has a 14' x 25' room in it with 13 chairs where the Illuminati's Grand Druid Council meet. The NOD Deep Underground Installation has numerous levels to it. One eye- witness, went to level 17 (via an elevator) and stated that he believes that deeper levels exist. WEST VIRGINIA 103. Sugar Grove, the Navy's Strategic Intelligence Services microwave communications. There base here. 104. White Sulphur Springs, under the Greenbriar Hotel, a mini-city large enough for 800 people equipped with its own crematorium, if there are any other purposes otherthan listening to U.S. microwave communication it is unknown by this author. UTAH. In Utah, the Kennecott Copper Company has been connected to the Illuminati and the KKK. These connections have been exposed in other writings by this author. Kennecott's mine (reported to be owned by the World Bank) in the Salt Lake City area is serviced by Union Pacific, which is reported connected to the Mormon Church. The mine is receiving a heavy volume of big trucks after 11 p.m., for instance, in a normal night over 6 dozen large trucks with 2 trailors each rolling into the mine. In other words, it appears that the heavy train & tractor trailor activity indicates something besides mining. http://educate-yourself.org/dc/undergrou...eb04.shtml ooops, sorry way too long 101. Bothell, 4745.7'N 12212.2w W, FEMA, regional center, activity unknown102. WHITE HOUSE, 3853.5'N 7702.0'W--The secret NOD underground installation which is connected to the intelligence groups like NSA and the CIA as well as many other nefarious groups lays under the White House with tunnels connecting this NOD installation with the House of the Temple. The Supreme council of the 33 of the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple has a 14' x 25' room in it with 13 chairs where the Illuminati's Grand Druid Council meet. The NOD Deep Underground Installation has numerous levels to it. One eye- witness, went to level 17 (via an elevator) and stated that he believes that deeper levels exist.103. Sugar Grove, the Navy's Strategic Intelligence Services microwave communications. There base here.104. White Sulphur Springs, under the Greenbriar Hotel, a mini-city large enough for 800 people equipped with its own crematorium, if there are any other purposes otherthan listening to U.S. microwave communication it is unknown by this author.In Utah, the Kennecott Copper Company has been connected to the Illuminati and the KKK. These connections have been exposed in other writings by this author. Kennecott's mine (reported to be owned by the World Bank) in the Salt Lake City area is serviced by Union Pacific, which is reported connected to the Mormon Church. The mine is receiving a heavy volume of big trucks after 11 p.m., for instance, in a normal night over 6 dozen large trucks with 2 trailors each rolling into the mine. In other words, it appears that the heavy train & tractor trailor activity indicates something besides mining.ooops, sorry way too long Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duF1OQho1gc Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-08-2019 12:31 AM Posts: 40,398 Post: #19 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa [email protected] Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:29 AM) MARYLAND 53. Camp David--just north of the camp is an underground facility important to the intelligence agencies. 54. below Ft. Meade, of the National Security Agency, 10 acres of the most sophisticated supercomputers that can be built, very large complex, massive surveillance of all the world's communications, including all transmissions in the U.S. & world of telephones, telegraph, telex, fax, radio, TV and microwave transmissions. 55. Olney, actually the facility is between Olney and Laytonsville, on Riggs Rd. off of Rt. 108. Another underground facility may also exist in the area, FEMA & possibly NSA, the facility may be 10 levels deep, purpose unknown. 56. Suitland, MD- Classified archives of U.S. Govt. stored here in underground levels. Vaults have extensive amounts of documents which are not indexed. Restricted access with a coded security card. High level intelligence groups operate in the area also. MASSACHUSETTS 57. Maynard, 42 26.0' N 71 27.0' W FEMA, regional center, Wackenhut is here too. MICHIGAN 58. Battle Creek, 42 19.3' N 85 10.9' W FEMA, regional center, activity secret (not validated) 59. Gwinn, Ml, 46 16.8'N 87 26.5' W, near Gwinn is a large underground base which is a key base for sending signals. An AFB is also nearby. Under Lake Superior is an alien base with roads 5,000' deep. MISSOURI 60. 12 miles south of Lebanon, 36 02.8' N 115 24.3' W, near the newly created town of Twin Bridges-reported saucer base 61. In the Bat/Dry/Dead Man/ Howell cluster of caves- reported saucer base 62. St. Francis Mountains, MO (between St. Louis & New Madrid) NEBRASKA 63. North-central Nebraska 64. Red Willow Co. near McCook, NE NEVADA 65. Blue Diamond, 36 02.8'N 11524.3 W -reported saucer base 66-68. Groom Lake, also known as Dreamland, Area 51, The Area, the Spot, Red Square, Sally Corridor, Watertown Strip. 1150 50'N 3720W. Run by the NWO along with demonic beings, the CIA is there and Wackenhut Security. Two large underground facilities close to but separate from Groom Lake but controlled by the demonic beings are Papoose Range and Cockeyed Ridge (S-4) underground bases. Purpose is the testing of various UFOs and other secret aircraft like the Aurora and Stealth. Also biological work is done, including the biological raising of small greys. Many levels have been built t these three complexes, and a 7 mile long run way (which is actually 39 miles) Page 305 ... has been built over Groom Lake, a dry lake. There is an S-2, an S-4, an S-6, and an S-66 underground installations. S-66 is the most secret and it has 29 levels and is 11, 300' deep. 69. Quartzite Mountain SE of Tonopah, 37 31 'N 116 20' W- reported saucer base 70. Tonopah, Airforce, CIA? & ??, deals with secret aircraft NEW HAMPSHIRE 71-73. There may be as many as three underground installations in New Hampshire's hills (according to reports). NEW JERSEY 74. Picatinny Arsenal, 4o 38'N 74 32' W- saucer base, 1/4 cubic mile large & very deep underground. NEW MEXICO The state of New Mexico and Colorado have been used for the construction of a series of underground bases. (All the rest of the states have too.) The Primary Underground facilities in New Mexico consist of: 3 enormous underground bases in The Dulce, NM area (an area I spent several days investigating in 1993). The White Sands--Alamogordo Area which has 3 underground bases. Datil and Pie Town which have two more underground bases. (Carlsbad Cavern which had underground activity, which is reported discontinued, and another base to east of Carlsbad.). The Los Alamos area underground facility . the Taos area underground facility The New Mexico area has basically four underground system out. One goes to the Four Corners area and then to Groom Lake (Area 51). One goes north toward Delta, CO and Colorado Springs. The Taos facilities goes north approximately along Interstate 25 and eventually ties in NORAD. The southern bases connect to Texas and Mexico. The Los Alamos facility dates at least back to 1940. One can only imagine what has been built with 1/2 century of labor on this underground system. Visitors to the deeper levels report humans kept in glass cylinders, plus many other strange things. I have had the opportunity to debrief some people who have been in the lower reaches of some of these facilities. There are special badges, special uniforms, tube elevators etc. which for lack of time I will not describe. . 75. Angel Peak- reported saucer base . Carlsbad Cavern area (now destroyed), 32 25.0'N 1040 14.0W -old relics of saucer base left . 76-78. Dulce, N.M., 36 56.0'N 10659.8'W,--South of Dulce, in the area of the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, another facility is east of the Dulce facility a number of miles. This is run directly by Illuminati w/ Army and Airforce help, CIA also conduct experiments at the center; the size of the installation is hugh requiring small shuttle trains and has seven levels according to witnesses. Serves as a UFO base, biological experiments, production center for small-grey drones. Wackenhut provides some of the security on the ground. 79. Kirtland AFB, NM, Sandia National Lab 80. Manzano Mtn, near Albuquerque, known as the Kirtland Munitions Storage Complex, Airforce, 3,000-acre base within the Kirtland AFB/Sandia National Labs complex, guarded by 4 lethal rings of fences, use unknown, suspected UFO base. A new 285,000-sq. ft. bunker is being built near Manzano Base. 81. Pie Town, 34 17.9'N 1 10808.7'W, in area near Pie Town, UFO Base. 82. Sandia Mountains NE of Albuquerque -reported saucer base 83. to the north of Taos Pueblo 84. White Sands, 3222.8'N 10628.8'W, major hub for research, tied in with Dulce & NORAD, HO for NASA /military shuttle flights, radiation research ctr. and mind control. NEW YORK 85. Adirondack Mountains (near Elizabethtown) 86. New York Metro area 87. Plattsburgh (near Canada and St. Albans) AFB, 4940'N 7333 W- two saucer bases in this area. OKLAHOMA 88. Ada, 3446.4' N 9640.7W W, underground saucer base, this base does uman cloning, and it is FEMA's most sensitive base. 89. Ashland Naval Ammunition Depot, 3445.9'N 96 04.3'W,- reported saucer base OREGON 90. Bull Run, north side of Bull Run Reservoir area near Mt. Hood, and very close to Larch Mtn. and south of Benson St. Park of the Columbia Gorge. 91. Coos Bay area has had three separate but coordinating underground facilities built for UFOs. The facility farthest east, about 20 miles inland in the wilderness near Hwy 42, has been shut down. It is now an old abandoned facility well camouflaged. The coast facility is probably still operational. 92. Klamath Falls, OR--since Sept. '95 this has been a base for a number of NWO groups including the Air National Guard, FEMA, CIA, FBI, Spetznaz, and Page 306 ... MOSAP training base. An underground concentration camp exists here. PENNSYLVANIA 93. Blue Ridge Summit, near Ft. Ritchie, known as 'Raven Rock" or "Site R", Army, major electronic nerve center, 650 ft. below surface with about 350 staff and over a 716 acre area. possibly connected via tunnel to Camp David. The NOD installation is involved with psychic (demonic) and satellite control over slaves. This underground complex is to allow the government of the United States to escape a nuclear attack. The enormous complex radiates under Wash. D.C. and connects with many other sites. The tunnel system is used to move some of the mind-control sex slaves. The walls and ceilings of the tunnels are ceramic tile with fluorescent lighting recessed into the ceilings. TEXAS 94. Ft. Hood, TX, 31 15'N 97 48' W, home of some Delta Mind-Controlled soldiers and a reported saucer base. 95. Denton, TX, 33 13.2'N 97 08.2'W - FEMA, regional center, activity secret 96. Red River Arsenal, TX- reported saucer base VIRGINIA 97. Bluemont, Mount Weather base, Federal Preparedness Agency & FEMA, small-city underground, top-secret, staff of several hundred, does secret work for FEMA and contains a complete secret government with the various agencies and cabinet-level ranking administrators that keep their positions for several administrations and help run the United States. 98. Culpepper, 380 28.5 N 7759.8'W, about 2 miles east of Culpepper off of Rt. 3, called Mount Pony, Illuminati--Fed. reserve, 140,000 sq. ft., includes a facility for the storage for corpses, monitors all major financial transactions in the U.S. by means of the "Fed Wire", a modern electronic system. 99. Pentagon, Arlington, VA- 100. Warrington Training Ctr. --two sites: one on Rt. 802 and the other on Bear Wallow Road, on Viewtree Mountain. One is Station A the other Station B. Army & ??, purpose unknown Thank you for adding this info. Indianapolis has an underground tunnel system that is now closed off to the public. I used it for several years when I worked downtown. Thank you for adding this info. Indianapolis has an underground tunnel system that is now closed off to the public. I used it for several years when I worked downtown. You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 01-08-2019 12:36 AM Posts: 22,221 Post: #20 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Fork Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:31 AM) [email protected] Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:29 AM) Thank you for adding this info. Indianapolis has an underground tunnel system that is now closed off to the public. I used it for several years when I worked downtown. Ah no problem, I thought I copied and pasted way to much. There are other sources depicting a world map of suspected bases scattered all over the planet. That missing 21 trillion I bet went towards construction for many of these. Ah no problem, I thought I copied and pasted way to much. There are other sources depicting a world map of suspected bases scattered all over the planet. That missing 21 trillion I bet went towards construction for many of these. Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duF1OQho1gc Archangel Michael User ID: 441975 01-08-2019 12:37 AM Posts: 14,103 Post: #21 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Fork Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:20 AM) He Man Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:18 AM) Well we know it is not Wakanda. That would be extraordinary if it were something like this. I do think the secrets that are hidden could be shared with the world so we can all prosper. You're welcome for the link, Fork. It is like 'Wakanda' though symbolic. A Beast is over looking all Cities. Ready to pounce upon the unsuspecting and unaware. You're welcome for the link, Fork.It is like 'Wakanda' though symbolic. A Beast is over looking all Cities. Ready to pounce upon the unsuspecting and unaware. Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-08-2019 01:09 AM Posts: 40,398 Post: #22 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa South African newspaper reports revealed that concealed bunkers, secret passages and a hidden lift were all connected to the offices which were used by apartheid era prime ministers. https://allafrica.com/stories/199908030156.html http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/800...-in-africa A large network of underground tunnels and escape routes under Cape Town's Parliament have been uncovered by workers from the Department of Public Works.South African newspaper reports revealed that concealed bunkers, secret passages and a hidden lift were all connected to the offices which were used by apartheid era prime ministers. You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 318243 01-08-2019 01:26 AM Post: #23 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:09 AM) Fork Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:07 AM) AFRICOMs sprawling network of bases is crucial to its continent-wide strategy of training the militaries of African proxies and allies and conducting a multi-front campaign aimed at combating a disparate and spreading collection of terror groups. https://www.thenation.com/article/secret...ss-africa/ Yah anyone who resists taking of their land or livelihoods is labelled terrorist. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 318243 01-08-2019 01:29 AM Post: #24 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Archangel Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:16 AM) Ordinary Blacks in Africa are screwed, just as we all are by this stuff. Africa, sooner or later, will realize the White man is a blessing, once the Communists are done turning them against the Whites. Quite a bit of information about Underground bases in Africa. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=underground+mi...fab&ia=web . How do you pursuade yourself of this bullshit? Eurpeans has been no less than a cancer on Africa. Africans understandably called them "smiling devils". How do you pursuade yourself of this bullshit? Eurpeans has been no less than a cancer on Africa. Africans understandably called them "smiling devils". LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 318243 01-08-2019 01:38 AM Post: #25 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Uppity Me Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:27 AM) American soldiers there right now with their lives on the line and trying to keep Janjaweed, ISIS, Taliban, Boko Haram, pirates and war lords at bay. I would like to see Africans arm themselves to the teeth, every child over 12 given a rifle and taught how to use it to keep their towns safe. No, they're setting up bases in order to recolonise Africa and have a new round of stealing resources. No, they're setting up bases in order to recolonise Africa and have a new round of stealing resources. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 482241 01-08-2019 01:41 AM Post: #26 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-08-2019 01:38 AM) Uppity Me Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:27 AM) American soldiers there right now with their lives on the line and trying to keep Janjaweed, ISIS, Taliban, Boko Haram, pirates and war lords at bay. I would like to see Africans arm themselves to the teeth, every child over 12 given a rifle and taught how to use it to keep their towns safe. No, they're setting up bases in order to recolonise Africa and have a new round of stealing resources. Hell buy stocks in it! Hell buy stocks in it! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 482164 01-08-2019 01:43 AM Post: #27 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:03 AM) I wonder if they named some of those tunnels for Hillary...lol Beyonce Beyonce Archangel Michael User ID: 441975 01-08-2019 02:17 AM Posts: 14,103 Post: #28 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-08-2019 01:29 AM) Archangel Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:16 AM) Ordinary Blacks in Africa are screwed, just as we all are by this stuff. Africa, sooner or later, will realize the White man is a blessing, once the Communists are done turning them against the Whites. Quite a bit of information about Underground bases in Africa. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=underground+mi...fab&ia=web . How do you pursuade yourself of this bullshit? Eurpeans has been no less than a cancer on Africa. Africans understandably called them "smiling devils". Are you totally blind, or only partially blind? We would have to go back over history, which we can do, and see what errors were made in the past. As with the American Indians, I believe there were many and for nefarious reasons of theft and outright murder. As it is now however. African blacks are unable to even feed themselves without White help, or other help, which Africa will find the Chinese very adapt and far less relatively merciful than the Whites have been in Africa. Where Whites are driven out, or killed out, such as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, famine engulfs the land, and well organized, well equipped farms are sold off for scrap metal. Watch it happen in S. Africa as well, should the Communist Blacks now running it kill out and dispossess the White farmers of their land, farms and lives. Robert Mugabee, rhymes with Maccabee, said he was going to kill off six million Black Africans. With the help of Mossad and the CIA, he was close to that number, the last I heard. Are you totally blind, or only partially blind?We would have to go back over history, which we can do, and see what errors were made in the past. As with the American Indians, I believe there were many and for nefarious reasons of theft and outright murder.As it is now however. African blacks are unable to even feed themselves without White help, or other help, which Africa will find the Chinese very adapt and far less relatively merciful than the Whites have been in Africa.Where Whites are driven out, or killed out, such as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, famine engulfs the land, and well organized, well equipped farms are sold off for scrap metal.Watch it happen in S. Africa as well, should the Communist Blacks now running it kill out and dispossess the White farmers of their land, farms and lives.Robert Mugabee, rhymes with Maccabee, said he was going to kill off six million Black Africans. With the help of Mossad and the CIA, he was close to that number, the last I heard. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 318243 01-08-2019 03:03 AM Post: #29 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Archangel Wrote: (01-08-2019 02:17 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-08-2019 01:29 AM) How do you pursuade yourself of this bullshit? Eurpeans has been no less than a cancer on Africa. Africans understandably called them "smiling devils". Are you totally blind, or only partially blind? We would have to go back over history, which we can do, and see what errors were made in the past. As with the American Indians, I believe there were many and for nefarious reasons of theft and outright murder. As it is now however. African blacks are unable to even feed themselves without White help, or other help, which Africa will find the Chinese very adapt and far less relatively merciful than the Whites have been in Africa. Where Whites are driven out, or killed out, such as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, famine engulfs the land, and well organized, well equipped farms are sold off for scrap metal. Watch it happen in S. Africa as well, should the Communist Blacks now running it kill out and dispossess the White farmers of their land, farms and lives. Robert Mugabee, rhymes with Maccabee, said he was going to kill off six million Black Africans. With the help of Mossad and the CIA, he was close to that number, the last I heard. Are you on drugs? Your brain must have more holes than a Ditch cheese. How dim do you have to be to miss the obvious? The fact the were black people for europeans to find is pretty f*cking solid evidence that they managed to feed themselves. I swear the you must have inherited the psychopath genes from both parents, pity they were brother and sister. Are you on drugs? Your brain must have more holes than a Ditch cheese. How dim do you have to be to miss the obvious? The fact the were black people for europeans to find is pretty f*cking solid evidence that they managed to feed themselves. I swear the you must have inherited the psychopath genes from both parents, pity they were brother and sister. Mr ifnoc nli lop guest User ID: 482220 01-08-2019 03:08 AM Post: #30 RE: Secret Underground Bases in Africa Fork Wrote: (01-08-2019 12:02 AM) link to image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...nd.svg.png AFRICOM defines its responsibilities as military-to-military partnerships to improve the capacity and operability of African armed forces, assisting other US agencies in fulfilling their tasks in Africa and, where necessary, undertaking military activities in Africa to protect Americas national interests. Unlike other US military commands, AFRICOM has a small developmental component, with over thirty officials from other US agencies including the US Department of State (DOS) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of its structure. Further, one of its deputy commanders will always be a senior state department official. The official reason for this is to synchronise AFRICOMs activities with US development activities. https://www.africom.mil/ This is an underground mining shaft that houses black market dealings near an AFRICOM outpost. link to image: http://www.2oceansvibe.com/wp-content/up...wnww23.jpg https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safri...SKCN18D1ZH http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/...77724.html US staging areas, cooperative security locations, forward operating locations (FOLs), and other outpostsmany of them involved in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities and Special Operations missionshave been built (or built up) in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Senegal, the Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda. Designed to accommodate about 200 personnel, with runways suitable for C-130 transport aircraft, the sites are primed for conversion from temporary, bare-bones facilities into something more enduring. At least three of them in Senegal, Ghana, and Gabon are apparently designed to facilitate faster deployment for a rapid reaction unit with a mouthful of a moniker: Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa (SPMAGTF-CR-AF). Its forces are based in Moron, Spain, and Sigonella, Italy, but are focused on Africa. They rely heavily on MV-22 Ospreys, tilt-rotor aircraft that can take-off, land, and hover like helicopters, but fly with the speed and fuel efficiency of a turboprop plane. This is a map of all the bases in Africa, not all of them are underground.... but you can see there is a large area and I hope to discuss the vast network of secrets the USA is hiding in Africa. link to image: http://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uplo..._large.jpg https://www.thenation.com/article/the-us...pt-secret/ What if I told you 90+ % of these, might have already been there, and have been for a very long time? :) What if I told you 90+ % of these, might have already been there, and have been for a very long time?:) Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Most UK manufactures will begin stockpiling components and raw materials in the hope of lessening the direct impact of Brexit. Source: Cliff Hide/Lnp/REX/Shutterstock Brexit is looming large as a source of business risk for UK manufacturers, with exchange rate volatility, custom checks, and relocation of major customers away from the UK considered the biggest worries, according to the EEF. The manufacturers association, in partnership with global insurer American International Group (AIG), surveyed 242 UK companies between 1 November and 21 November 2018. The results showed the extent of worries about Britains impending exit from the EU, within the sector. It found almost three quarters (72%) of companies consider Brexit to be their biggest source of uncertainty for the year ahead, with half seeing more potential risks to business than opportunities in upcoming months. READ MORE: These companies could collapse in a no-deal Brexit Exchange rate fluctuation was found to be the biggest concern, with 81% identifying significant currency movement as a risk to their business plan. In particular, three quarters said further weakening of the pound would put incredible pressure on their input costs, despite common claims that a weaker sterling is universally beneficial to manufacturers. Many said that delays at customers would be detrimental to business, with one in three companies believing this would pose the most significant risk of all. In response to this concern, over 60% of companies said they are looking to stockpile inventory both inside and outside the UK, with half already doing so and the other half planning to in 2019. READ MORE: Manufacturing industry posts biggest annual job gain in 20 years Stephen Phipson, chief executive of EEF said: While companies are naturally optimistic by their very natures, the spectre of Brexit is now very front of mind for manufacturers. This is bringing with it a whole host of risks from increased exchange rate volatility to rising input costs, which right now are vert difficult to plan for. However, Brexit isnt the only risk to company business plans, the survey found. Cyber security was the biggest non-Brexit related concern, with 63% of companies seeing disruption from cyber attacks as a risk double the number from last year. Story continues Additionally, while almost half of companies saw the relocation of a major customer away from the UK as a potential risk factor, only one third of these concerns was directly related to Brexit. Brasilia (AFP) - The Brazilian government is not poised to interrupt plans for a tie-up between national planemaker Embraer and US giant Boeing, a senior official said Monday, days after President Jair Bolsonaro expressed wariness over the venture. The government "is not thinking of interrupting this negotiation," Augusto Heleno, secretary for institutional security, said after accompanying Bolsonaro to an event in Brasilia appointing the new heads of public banks, the O Globo news website reported. Bolsonaro last week sent shares in Embraer diving after saying that, while he approved of the $5.2-billion tie-up, he wanted reassurance that Boeing would not simply gobble up the Brazilian company. Under the planned joint venture, Boeing is to take 80 percent of Embraer's commercial plane manufacturing business, giving it capacity to produce aircraft of up to 150 seats -- a market in which it currently does not compete. Embraer's military division is excluded from the deal, which was announced mid-2018 and is meant to be finalized by the end of this year. Embraer is the third-largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. It was privatized in 1994, but the Brazilian government retains a "golden share" with veto power over strategic decisions. Heleno, a retired military officer, said "there is a concern" over Embraer's technological assets "that we don't intend to lose." But he said that "can be perfectly set out" in the negotiations. Embraer shares were trading slightly lower, down 0.5 percent, in Sao Paulo midway through Monday. BorgWarner Inc. BWA announced that it will sell off thermostat business to Arlington Industries Group Ltd. for approximately 24 million. The deal includes two production hubs situated at Piracicaba, Brazil and Oberboihingen, Germany. Subject to customary closing conditions, the deal is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2019. BorgWarner added exhaust gas recirculation valve, and thermostat business to its portfolio, through the acquisition of Gustav Wahler GmbH & Co. KG in 2014. Changing market demand over the years has led to various product developments in the thermostat unit. However, the units offerings make it a non-core business for BorgWarner that focuses on propulsion systems for vehicles. Reportedly, the variance in product offerings has impelled BorgWarner to sell off the business. Last year, the business was anticipated to generate roughly 110 million in net sales. Further, the unit sales in the first quarter will incur a loss of approximately $20-30 million for BorgWarner. Divesting the thermostat business will help BorgWarner to part ways with a non-core business and focus on the developing technically-enhanced propulsion systems, in view of changing demand of the market. BorgWarner Inc. Price and Consensus BorgWarner Inc. Price and Consensus | BorgWarner Inc. Quote The company has strong cash flow owing to new business wins across the world. Apart from generating positive cash flow, it also considers business wins as a key prospect for long-term growth. Further, the company has set a target of $1 billion in free cash flow by 2023 on the back of new business wins, alongside launching new products. For 2018, it anticipates free cash flow within $550-$575 million, despite high working capital pressures and tax payments. In third-quarter 2018, the companys revenues rose 2.6% to $2.5 billion, driven by remarkable growth in North America and single-digit growth in China. Moreover, its commercial vehicle and off-road products witnessed a positive revenue trend in Europe, offset by light vehicle sales. BorgWarner delivered earnings of $1 per share in third-quarter 2018, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 99 cents. Nevertheless, market volatility and uncertain industry volumes are concerns for the company in fourth-quarter 2018. In fact, this has compelled BorgWarner to reiterate its 2018 guidance for organic growth. For 2018, it projects net sales of $10.49-$10.58 billion, which implies organic growth of 4.5-5.5%, and earnings per share within $4.35-$4.40. Price Performance Over the past three months, shares of BorgWarner have lost 16.3% compared with the industrys decline of 21.2%. Story continues Zacks Rank & Key Picks BorgWarner currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader auto sector are Bridgestone Corporation BRDCY, CarGurus, Inc. CARG and Daimler AG DDAIF, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Bridgestone has an expected long-term growth rate of 4.7%. Share price of the company has increased 3.8% in the past three months. CarGurus has an expected long-term growth rate of 5%. Shares of the company have gained 9.4% in the past year. Daimler has an expected long-term growth rate of 2.7%. Over the past month, shares of the company have gained 3.1%. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Daimler AG (DDAIF) : Free Stock Analysis Report BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bridgestone Corp. (BRDCY) : Free Stock Analysis Report CarGurus, Inc. (CARG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Steve Holland TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned the Syrian government it should not see the impending U.S. military withdrawal from the country as an invitation to use chemical weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump said in December that U.S. troops had succeeded in their mission to defeat Islamic State militants and were no longer needed in the country. The announcement, which took officials in Washington and allies abroad by surprise, contributed to Jim Mattis' decision to resign as U.S. defense secretary and prompted concern that Islamic State could stage a comeback. "There is absolutely no change in the U.S. position against the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and absolutely no change in our position that any use of chemical weapons would be met by a very strong response, as we've done twice before," Bolton told reporters on his plane shortly before landing in Tel Aviv, Israel. "So the regime, the Assad regime, should be under no illusions on that question," said Bolton, who is on a four-day trip to Israel and Turkey. Trump has twice bombed Syria over the government's alleged use of chemical weapons, in April 2017 and April 2018. In September a senior U.S. official said there was evidence showing chemical weapons were being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. More than half a million people have died during the Syrian war and 11 million have been forced to flee their homes. During his trip Bolton is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. He said he was not suggesting Syria appeared ready to use chemical weapons. "As we elaborate how the (U.S. troop) withdrawal is going to occur and the circumstances, we don't want the Assad regime to see what we do as representing any diminution in our opposition to the use of weapons of mass destruction," he said. If chemical weapons were to be used, "a lot of options would be on the table ... if they don't heed the lessons of those two strikes the next one will be more telling," Bolton said. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Alison Williams and David Holmes) Biogen Inc. BIIB announced two strategic collaborations to develop potential therapies for Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease and other devastating neurological diseases. The first collaboration was with private biotech C4 Therapeutics (C4T), per which the latters novel protein degradation platform would be leveraged to discover and develop potential novel targets for treating neurological conditions, such as Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease. Under this deal, while Biogen and C4T have agreed to discover the potential targets together, Biogen will be responsible for advancing the candidates for future development and potential commercialization. For the deal, Biogen will be entitled to pay C4T up to a total of $415 million in upfront and potential future milestone payments plus potential future royalties. The second deal is with Waltham-based Skyhawk Therapeutics, under which Biogen will use Skyhawks SkySTAR technology platform to develop potential targets using selective RNA-modulating small molecules that can treat multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy and other neurological diseases. For its research services and the exclusive license to the SkySTARs platform, Biogen made an upfront payment of $74 million to Skyhawk while the latter will also be entitled to potential future milestones and royalties. Biogen has also reserved the option to license any therapies resulting from this collaboration and will take care of its future development and commercialization. The collaborations are in line with Biogens strategic priority to build potential therapies for neurological conditions. In 2017, Biogen added seven new clinical stage programs to its neuroscience pipeline through advancing internal pipeline candidates and external deals. In 2018, Biogen signed five business development pacts with several having transformative potential. Shares of Biogen were up almost 4% on Friday after it announced the two deals. The stock has dipped 3.5% in the past year compared with the industrys decline of 18.9%. Story continues Several companies have lately invested in collaborations with smaller biotechs to discover potential treatments for AD and other neurological diseases. Last month, Lilly LLY signed a collaboration agreement with Swiss biotech AC Immune SA ACIU to jointly develop tau aggregation inhibitors, which have potential to treat AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. In October, Pfizer PFE announced the creation of a new biotech called Cerevel Therapeutics in partnership with private equity firm Bain Capital, LP, which will focus on developing drugs to treat central nervous system (CNS) disorders including Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease. Alzheimers, a fatal illness that causes progressive decline in memory, has always been a highly challenging area with not much progress being made in spite of significant investments (both funds and resources) to that end. Several companies have failed to develop safe and effective treatment options for this deadly brain disease. Despite several setbacks, the companies continue to invest heavily in developing Alzheimers disease treatments, given the high commercial potential in this market. Success in this area means huge returns. This is because more than five million Americans are living with Alzheimers disease with the numbers expected to triple by 2050 (Data: Alzheimer's Association). The market has immense commercial potential and companies coming out with new treatments could rake in billions of dollars in sales. Biogen currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Biogen Inc. (BIIB) : Free Stock Analysis Report AC Immune SA (ACIU) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Noor Zainab Hussain and Arathy S Nair (Reuters) - AstraZeneca said on Monday it had hired Jose Baselga to head research and development in oncology, an area where the British pharmaceuticals firm is seeking to grow its business. The 59-year-old Spaniard resigned as chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in September after the New York Times and Pro Publica revealed that he had not disclosed millions of dollars in payments from healthcare firms. Baselga told Reuters he accepted he had "failed to make the appropriate disclosures" in a number of articles and had corrected them, while a spokesman said the validity of his research was not under question and AstraZeneca viewed the episode as over. Baselga, who last year acknowledged a failure to disclose his links to companies in his medical journal articles and at professional meetings, also resigned from the board of Bristol-Myers Squibb at the time. "The American Association of Cancer Research subsequently concluded my failure to disclose was inadvertent," Baselga, who has developed cancer therapies for more than 30 years, said. "I had never hidden my reportable income for pharma since it is all available on the CMS/Open Payment web page, just like any other physician," he told Reuters in an email. MORE AGILE Baselga, who also worked as chief of hematology/oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and has been a professor at Harvard Medical School, said his position at AstraZeneca was newly created and brought discovery through to late-stage development chain into one unit. "It will make the process more agile and accelerate our work to bring transformative medicines to patients," he said. AstraZeneca also said it would create therapy area-focused research and development units, responsible for discovery through to late-stage development, for biopharmaceuticals and oncology and create commercial units for the two areas. "We are entering what we expect will be a period of sustained growth for years to come, which is why we have decided to more closely align our R&D and commercial operations," AstraZeneca's Chief Executive Pascal Soriot, said. Demand for AstraZeneca's new drugs -- especially those for cancer -- drove a return to sales growth in the third quarter and the drugmaker said in November it expects years of sustained improvement and rising profit margins. AstraZeneca shares were down 1.3 percent at 6,008 pence at 1458 GMT. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Arathy S Nair; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith) For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 7, 2019 Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This weeks list includes Apple AAPL, JPMorgan JPM and Wells Fargo WFC. The Markets Earnings Uncertainty Apple became the latest company to guide lower citing slowing economic growth. China figured prominently in the iPhone makers woes, a key market that has been in the spotlight lately for economic reasons, a big part of which is a result of its trade spat with the U.S. But China isnt the only major market suffering economic weakness, the outlook for Europe and a number of other regions isnt that favorable either. The markets collective economic view has been that while growth in these international markets was slowing, the U.S. economy was expected to sustain its momentum even though growth was expected to moderate a bit. Thursdays factory sector ISM survey reminded market participants that the U.S. economy wasnt totally immune from these global cross-currents, though Fridays blockbuster labor market reading has eased some of those worries. This uncertain global economic backdrop has raised legitimate concerns about consensus earnings estimates. This earnings uncertainty compounds the markets pre-existing worries about Fed policy and global trade. Earnings estimates for 2018 Q4 and full-year 2019 have been coming down lately, but they likely have even more room to go down given the headwinds. Q4 estimates have come down for 15 of the 16 Zacks sectors, with the Transportation sector as the only one that has experienced positive estimate revisions, a reflection of the pullback in fuel expenses. Estimates have come down the most for the Conglomerates, Construction, Consumer Discretionary, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors. This type of negative revisions is not unusual in historical terms, though they do represent greater estimate cuts than was the trend in the last few quarters. Please note that the negative revisions trend isnt restricted to Q4 estimates, as expectations for full-year 2019 have started coming down in a meaningful way lately as well. Story continues This chart is tracking consensus earnings growth expectations for the S&P 500 index since the second half of the year got underway. As you can see, estimates were effectively unchanged during the September quarter, but they have been on a steady downtrend since early October. It is probably not a coincidence that the pronounced downtrend in the market in early October coincides with the downtrend in earnings estimates. It is hard to envision stocks stabilizing if the markets collective earnings outlook for 2019 continues to deteriorate. And to get stability in earnings outlook, we need clarity and visibility on the interconnected economic growth and tariff fronts. In other words, there is likely further downside to consensus expectations for full-year 2019. Q4 Earnings Season Gets Underway The Q4 earnings season will unofficially get going with the January 15th earnings reports from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, but officially the reporting cycle has gotten underway already, with results from 18 S&P 500 companies already out. All of these 18 companies reported results for their fiscal November-quarter results, which we count as part of the December-quarter tally. We have another two index members on deck to report results this week. Total Q4 earnings for these 18 index members that have reported results already are up +14.9% from the same period last year on +9% higher revenues, with 77.8% beating EPS estimates and 66.7% beating revenue estimates. The earnings growth pace and the proportion of positive EPS surprises for these 18 S&P 500 members is tracking below what we had seen from the same group of companies in the preceding earnings season, as the comparison charts below show. For Q4 as a whole, total earnings for the S&P 500 index are expected to be up +11.7% from the same period last year on +5.3% higher revenues, which would follow the +25.6% earnings growth on +8.4% higher revenues in 2018 Q3. Earnings growth is expected to be in double digits for 8 of the 16 Zacks sectors, with Energy (+65.5% growth), Finance (+21.1%), Construction (+26.2%) and Transportation (+22.8%) has the strongest growth. Tech sector earnings are expected to decelerate meaningfully in Q4, up +6.2%, after back-to-back quarters of very strong growth. The Tech sectors growth pace will likely come down some more in the coming days as analysts adjusts their estimates lower following the aforementioned Apple pre-announcement. Three sectors are expected to have lower earnings in Q4 relative to the year-earlier period, namely Conglomerates (-13.1% decline), Autos (-13.8%), and Utilities (-6.8%). Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Michigan businessman Paul Whelan waits for mercy in a Moscow prison, trapped in a web of espionage. For six days after his Dec. 28th arrest, he was held alone in a cell in Moscow's Lefortovo detention facility without access to toilet paper or soap. Though he speaks a bit of Russian, he couldn't string together enough Russian words to ask the prison guards for his glasses, his twin brother, David Whelan, told the Free Press. It wasn't until Jan. 2, when he was granted a visit from U.S. State Department employees, that Paul Whelan could ask for those basic necessities and also for intervention from the U.S. government to negotiate his release. Whelan, 48, was arrested at Moscow's swanky Metropol hotel after allegedly receiving a USB drive loaded with the names of employees of a Russian agency, according to Russia's Rosbalt news service. The news service is run by the wife of a former KGB officer who has ties to Russian President Vladmir Putin, according to openDemocracy, a British-based nonprofit media organization. Whelan was indicted on a charge of espionage. His court-appointed attorney, Vladimir Zherebenkov, told Interfax that bail was requested, but Whelan is to remain in custody until at least Feb. 28. If he's convicted, he could be imprisoned in Russia for up to 20 years. His family remains insistent that Whelan is not a spy. Rather, they say, he was a world traveler who'd made visits to Russia before and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had gone to Moscow Dec. 22, they say, to help a friend who was getting married. His plan was to help the wedding party get around the city through Jan. 1, and then go on to St. Petersburg. He was supposed to return to the United States Jan. 6. Whelan is the director of global security for the Auburn Hills-based auto parts supplier BorgWarner. Prior to that, he worked in global security for Troy-based Kelly Services and also served in the Marine Corps, doing two tours of duty in Iraq. Story continues It was during his final tour in Iraq that Whelan was charged with larceny after trying to steal $10,000 and bouncing about $6,000 in checks, according to the Washington Post. He also used another person's Social Security number in trying to advance his own rank and pay. He was court martialed and discharged for bad conduct in 2008. His tarnished service record and criminal history, some experts in espionage say, would have made it unlikely that he was an American spy. As the world watches the often strained relations between the United States and Russia, David Whelan gave a wide-ranging interview about his brother, and explained what the family is doing to try to bring Paul Whelan home. (The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.) QUESTION: U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. was able to visit Paul Whelan in Lefortovo prison on Jan. 2. What did Huntsman tell you about your brother's well-being and his state of mind? ANSWER: He told us that Paul seemed to be in good health and good spirits, given that he was being detained by the Russians. That was great to hear. There were some surprises, I guess. We didnt realize that he was going to have to buy his own toilet paper, and that if he didnt speak Russian, the staff at the prison wouldnt answer him in English. The embassy was able to find out what he needed in the case of his eye glasses. They helped us set up a transfer fund here. Were making progress that way. Thats been really good. Paul Whelan, 48, of Novi has been charged with espionage in Russia. His family insists he's innocent. Whelan, who works in global security for auto-supply company BorgWarner, holds citizenship in four countries -- the United States, Ireland, England and Canada. Q: Other than toilet paper, what else will Paul Whelan have to buy at Lefortovo? A: Pretty much anything other than food. But even with food, we were told that we might want to give him extra money. He'll need to buy things like razors, toilet paper, soap, things that would be on-hand anywhere else. Q: Can you explain the reasons why your brother would have citizenship in four countries Ireland, England, Canada and the United States? It had to be a good deal of work to secure all those passports, and it probably was costly, too. Why was it worth it to him to go through all that trouble? A: I dont think its that expensive. I seem to recall getting a passport recently when I was renewing my Canadian citizenship that it was only $150 or $200. So from a cost perspective, doing that every 10 years or so isnt that onerous. My grandfather came from Ireland to England and my father came from England to Canada, and thats where we were born. So we were eligible for British and Canadian citizenship because we were born in Canada to British parents. Paul Whelan, 48, of Novi was arrested in Russia Dec. 28 and charged with espionage. His family insists he is not a spy. He held passports in four countries -- the United States, Canada, England and Ireland -- and loved to travel the world, his twin brother, David Whelan, said. And then, the Irish changed the law in the early part of the century to allow grandchildren of Irish citizens to get Irish citizenship. So he just thought its an opportunity to have that, so why not? It was as much probably a genealogical interest as much as anything. Its one of those things where its like, well, you start with two, so getting two additional ones doesnt actually seem that peculiar. MORE: Paul Whelan: The mysterious story of man arrested in Russia MORE: Ex-CIA operative Plame: 'It's not inconceivable' Paul Whelan is a spy Q: Did it help him at all to have those passports and multiple citizenships in traveling the world? A: Im not sure. ... I can travel on a British and Canadian passport. If youre traveling into the EU (European Union), its faster than if you can go through with any EU passport than it is with a North American passport. But I dont know he necessarily took advantage of those benefits. Q: How are you managing the stress of dealing with the media, working with the embassies of four countries to ensure Pauls needs are met and also lobbying Congress and politicians? A: Pauls got three siblings. His other brother is handling contacts with the embassy, and his sister is handling the focus on the Congress. The embassy has mostly been working with my brother, Andrew Whelan, in North Carolina. Elizabeth is in Massachusetts. Q: Have you all met in one place since Paul's arrest? A: So weve been using online collaborative tools, sharing documents and content that way. We email constantly, make conference calls, and then each of us is also doing our part of the work. Its an awful lot of collaboration. Paul Whelan, 48, of Novi was charged with espionage in Russia. His family says he is not a spy and was in the country to help a friend who was getting married. He traveled the world for business and for pleasure, said his twin brother, David Whelan. We all have day jobs. My sister has the most flexibility. She is a portrait artist. She is going to try to go down and have a space in Washington, borrow a room from someone we know and talk to Congress and Senators and speak to them about Paul. It takes time. Weve focused on governments where Whelans are Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina. Weve had Sen. (Marco) Rubios staff reach out, and Haley Stevens, the incoming congresswoman in Pauls district. Sen. Debbie Stabenow has been responsive and helpful in understanding what we need to do now as for the next steps. There are a number of different ways of getting Paul out of jail and bringing him home. Most of that will be us lobbying Congress, speaking to members of the House (of Representatives) and senators. Having a resolution passed by the houses, and hoping for behind-the-doors negotiations between President (Donald) Trump and the president of Russia. What we are going to focus on is maintaining awareness of Pauls situation, stay in contact with the embassy and remain aware of his needs and any potential violation of his rights and maintain public awareness. Q: Have the consulates in Canada, England or Ireland met with Paul or had any success in getting movement in his case? A: Other countries have not been able to have access to him, ... but its a huge positive that there are now four governments that are keeping an eye on Paul. The family has spoken to representatives of the UK, Irish, and Canadian governments since Friday. The U.S. Embassy has indicated it will continue to lead on consular efforts, since Paul entered Russia on a U.S. passport. We're hoping this week to see Paul receive another consular visit. Q: The Russian news service Rosbalt has reported that Paul was caught with a USB drive containing classified information. What do you know about the details of Russia's espionage case against him? A: I have seen that it has been reported by sources, but so far the Russians havent given any details about the allegations of espionage. Were waiting for when that comes because there have been so many rumors. Paul N. Whelan, 48, of Novi was arrested Dec. 28, 2018, by the Russian government and accused of espionage. His family insists he's innocent, saying he is a world traveler and was detained by mistake. In this undated photograph, Paul Whelan is seen at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Im not sure that there are any additional requirements for them to do anything at this point. We knew that when he was detained, there was a 72-hour window for anybody detained by a foreign government. First, the detainees home country is notified, and then the 72-hour window kicks in. And thats why it was almost six days from when Paul was detained by the police on the 28th to when he was actually visited by State Department employees on Wednesday the second. So, that was a time period. Ive heard various other dates as far as how long hell be held or when the evidence may be accumulated for his trial, but as far as I know, there are no more so-called required dates for the Russian government to provide any information. Q: Have you been in touch with President Trump or with the Trump administration, and are you surprised there has yet to be any sort of formal or public statement from the president? A: No, the family hasnt had any formal or, as far as I know, any contact with the Trump administration. But I think that our perspective is that we arent professional politicians or involved in this sort of diplomatic activity. So were going to focus on what we can do and I have faith that the American government will be concerned enough about Americans being arbitrarily detained in foreign countries that they will be taking the proper steps whether we see them or not that they think are appropriate at the time. We hope that eventually if we can get people to speak to their senators and their congressional representatives to let them know that theyre concerned about Paul and about all Americans rights to travel, let Ambassador Hunstman in Moscow know that there is that concern and have that slowly work up to (U.S. Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo. Paul N. Whelan, 48, of Novi was arrested Dec. 28, 2018, by the Russian government and accused of espionage. His family insists he's innocent, saying he was detained by mistake. In this undated photograph, he is seen holding a family dog. I think that were doing our part to ensure that there is that awareness, there is that concern being raised, and then well leave the executive branch and the legislative branch to make the best choices they can about how best to bring him home. I think were all working towards the same goal. Q: What are the consulates from the other countries where your brother is a citizen telling you? Are they willing to help? Are they willing to meet with him at the Lefortovo prison? A: Paul requested consular access, and so each of those are working with Paul. I believe that there is an issue as there was with the United States. There is a privacy act that limits the ability of the government to share information about the detainee, even with their family. And so until there is a waiver of that right by Paul for each of these different countries, they cant share information that they know about his detention. When the U.S. Embassy staff presented that waiver form, its just a form that says I waive my rights under the privacy act so the government can share my information, the Russian officials blocked Pauls ability to sign it. Apparently, they just didnt allow the embassy staff to give him the paper. Q: Interfax is reporting that the Canadian embassy staff will be able to see him. Have you been able to confirm that? A: I dont know. I think that there was some communication between my brother and someone at the Canadian consulate, just sort of at a high level. We knew that somebody is involved, but we dont have any more detail than that. But thats our assumption is that this week, once the holiday in Russia is over its the orthodox Christmas that the other countries will be able to gain access to him, and then we may be able to learn more from them at that time. Q: How are your parents coping? A: I think theyre coping as well as youd expect. My mum is in her late 70s and my dad is in his 80s and were doing our best to try to shield them from media attention. Just the additional stress that it must be to have your son in the hold of the Russian government without knowing whats going on, and then at the same time seeing his entire personal life and decisions and choices he had made that you werent aware of on display for the entire world are probably quite challenging. So we do our best to keep them informed about what were doing so everybody realizes that no matter what happens, were all still working towards the same goal of getting him back to his family. Q: Were there things that have surprised you that have come out in the press about Paul Whelan? What are the things the family did not know? Were any of you aware, for instance, of his bad-conduct discharge from the Marines? A: I dont know about my siblings, but I dont believe any of us did. I certainly did not know. I was very surprised. Q: Paul said in a 2013 deposition that he had a bachelors degree and a masters degree. Do you know what colleges he attended and what degrees were obtained and what specifically he studied in college? A: I think thats accurate. Its not the sort of thing you check with people, but I believe he got his bachelors at Northern Michigan and I believe his MBA was at Phoneix, an online program. Q: Do you mean the University of Phoenix? A: Yes. Q: What did he study? A: I dont know. Q: You've said your brother was a world traveler and has been to Russia multiple times. How often did Paul Whelan visit Russia? A: To my knowledge, he's been there three times, and many more times to the UK, and two or three times to other European countries. Q: When did your parents leave England and move to Canada? And why did they move? A: I believe it was just job opportunities to get to Canada, and it was the same reason they emigrated from Canada to America. Gosh, for sure it was in the early '60s. Whether it was '63 or '64, Im not clear for when they arrived in Canada. I was born in Ottawa in 1970. My parents left England to come to Canada, and for the same reason they emigrated from Canada to America. Q: What did your parents do for a living? A: Dad was a metallurgist, a physicist who works with metals. He worked for a mining company called Amax. They used to be, well, theyre not based in Ann Arbor, but they had a research facility in Ann Arbor, and thats where he worked. And mum worked with libraries. She was at Ann Arbor Public Library for a little bit, and ... she also worked for the University of Michigan Law Library. Q: Can you speak specifically about the wedding that Paul Whelan was attending in Russia? Who was his friend, and who was he marrying? A: No. I only know a couple of the names and were concerned about their privacy and their safety, so were not sharing any additional information. We havent had any contact except for the very first contact, which I guess would have been around Dec. 31, when we knew he had gone missing. His friend contacted us and let us know he had followed a missing persons report with the American Embassy Q: Is he being held in solitary confinement? A: No. My understanding is that he is in a single-person cell. I dont know that its actually solitary confinement. I think its just the normal induction of new prisoners is that they are in a cell by themselves for a period of days. Q: Have you spoken yet with the lawyer who has been assigned to represent Paul Whelan in Russia? A: A family member has ... spoken with an English-speaking staff person in Mr. Zherebenkov's office. We received the contact information from U.S. Embassy staff. We have not exchanged anything other than our own contact information but we now have a conduit so that if Mr. Zherebenkov, who doesn't appear to speak English, and the family want to communicate, we can do so. Q: Are you trying to get him other legal representation? A: Not at this time, no, were not trying to get him other legal representation for a number of reasons. The client has to select the lawyer. And so while his family can try to select a lawyer for him, he doesnt have to accept that lawyer. And so, normally what happens is that when somebody has been detained, the embassy makes a list of local lawyers who speak English, and then the detainee will look at that list and either take one of those recommendations or perhaps they know or will contact their family and ask for additional information. But whats happened is that he has a lawyer and we were not a part of his lawyer selection and the lawyer does not speak English. I think at this point, we are leaving the selection of legal representation as it is. We were told that its going to be extremely expensive for Paul to be defended in the Russian legal system. Weve been told he may have to pay up to a million dollars in legal fees. Q: How fluent is Paul Whelan in Russian? A: I would not call him fluent in Russian. I think he knows enough words to get around the country, but he didnt even know enough to be able to ask for his eye glasses. So whatever level that is, I think its a very rudimentary level of understanding. Q: Can you please tell me about the business he runs out of his home, Kingsmead Arsenal? A: I cant, other than its my understanding that he got a gun dealer's license, as you can in the states, in order to purchase weapons and sell weapons, firearms that he has in his own collection. I dont know how big a collection he has, but he has a few in his possession. Kingsmead is the name that my parents gave to their farmhouse in Manchester, Michigan. And I think he probably thought it was a funny thing to call it Kingsmead Arsenal. I dont know that it was ever incorporated as such. I mean, perhaps it was, but I dont think there is an actual entity that is operating under the name of Kingsmead Aresenal. Q: There is actually. It licensed in 2012, and business filings show that he made nearly $250K last year and noted that Kingsmead had five employees. Is that accurate? A: Wow. Thats totally news to me. Q: Is there any chance that his gun business with Kingsmead Arsenal could be tied somehow to his arrest in Russia? A: No. I think he would have been extremely wary of doing any sort of weapons dealing in a foreign country. But then again, I didnt know that he apparently has a company that sells $250,000 in weapons. Q: Most experts we've spoken with say that Paul Whelan's bad-conduct discharge from the Marines makes it unlikely that hes a spy, but lots of people have asked how he managed to get hired in 2001 by Kelly Services given his criminal background. Do you know how he landed at Kelly Services? A: No. I dont know. Q: Was he close with others from the Marines? One of Paul Whelan's co-workers at Kelly Services told the Free Press a friend from the Marines got him a job there in 2001. A: That could be right. I have a feeling that there were some other either marines or people with past military who were working at Kelly at the same time Paul Whelan, 48, of Novi has been charged with espionage in Russia. His family says he is not a spy. Q: Did he talk at all about his work at Kelly Services? He was there a long time, from 2001 to 2016. Did he discuss what he did, what he liked and didnt like about his work there or why he left? A: Its been so long, Im not sure I remember. Its been a couple of years. I think he enjoyed the travel. He just enjoyed the challenge of doing the corporate security work he did, which was going in and looking at the physical buildings and looking for ways to improve the security and doing investigations, that sort of thing. Q: How close were the two of you? Youre twin brothers, but that doesnt necessarily mean you were close. A: I know some families see each other all the time and they all live in nearby locations. Paul and I would email and call probably a few times a year, and email probably more often. Im not a fan of telephones, no matter what. We would interact occasionally, and then we would often see him when we were down in Michigan. I would go down with the grandchildren and my wife and visit my parents, and Paul was at the house. So we would see him a couple of times a year. Q: In these uncertain times between the U.S. and Russia, do the strained relations amplify your concerns at all for Paul, his safety and the likelihood of his release? A: It does because I think where ... there was an arbitrary detention, as there has been, we would have expected the wheels of the geopolitical system to move in a certain way. They dont seem to be moving as they have in the past, and that does create a good deal of uncertainty for us. Q: Russias Foreign Ministry reported Saturday that a Russian citizen Dmitri Makarenko was arrested by U.S. officials in Saipan on Dec. 29. He was then taken to Florida, where he was indicted on charges of exporting defense items without a license, attempting to export such items and money laundering. What are your thoughts on this news? A: I had read that report as well. And I think thats one of the things that can become a distraction. Were really focused on getting him out, and its hard to know whether any of these dots are connected to his situation or whether they are just separate activities that all seem to be happening at the same time. Ill give you another example, Pauls old website, paulnwhelan.com. That domain name was purchased about 60 days ago. I think to myself, why would somebody buy that domain name in mid-November? You end up with all those events happening. And its really hard to know whether these events are related or not or even if theyre connected to one another. Q: Is there any indication of who purchased that domain name? A: There are a bunch of pieces of information, but I think that its probably set up in a way thats going to be very hard to find out who the owner is. It was created on Nov. 11, 2018. Usually, the date its created on is when it was first purchased unless it had been transferred from someone. It just seems like a very odd thing to have happened. Q: The website paulnwhelan.com is where Paul had posted pictures and made references to visiting Russia, honing his language skills and befriending Russians, including a soldier. The archive of the site dates back to 2008. It doesnt make a lot of sense, does it? A: It doesnt make a lot of sense. I think that the challenge for us is to maintain focus on the Paul we know, and our only goal, which is to get him home. I think you guys are doing a great job digging into the information thats there. From our perspective, its hard because were finding out a lot of things about him that maybe we didnt know or maybe we didnt realize had occurred in the way they did, and are not presented. Thats difficult. But I think your interview has been very thorough. Q: In discovering all these things about your brother that you didnt know, has that changed your point of view at all, your perspective that hes innocent and was not a spy? A: No. I absolutely dont think he is a spy. Q: All right, but do you think he could have been up to something he shouldnt have been doing over there? A: Im not sure. Thats a lot harder to say. And if someone were to sift through my past, maybe they would find things that dont look so great in hindsight. I just think he is the sort of person based on his experience as a traveler, and based on his professional experience that he would have known that Russia in particular, and a number of other countries not just Russia might be more risky to do something thats on the edge of lawbreaking because you dont necessarily know if you can rely on the rule of law as you would if youre in America. And so I just dont think he would have taken risks like that. Q: And yet he had a Russian social media account, essentially the equivalent to their Facebook. A: I think that is one of the interesting things is that Facebook is really the social media platform for most of the western nations. I think youll find people in France and England and all over using it. And so although its the American social media platform, its also the social media platform for many other countries. The thing thats different is that VKontakte is very much a Russian and Cyrillic-based tool, and so it has a much narrower draw. So, on the one hand yes, its strange that he had an account. On the other, if he was trying to interact with his Russian friends, its probably more likely they were going to be on there rather than they would have been on Facebook. I dont know that I find it that strange. In the same way that people choose to be on or not to be on LinkedIn to share business information. Sometimes you choose to join a network because the people youre trying to interact with are there. Q: Did he have a lot of friends in Russia? A: I dont have any idea of the number, but its my understanding that he had friends that were Russian. One of them flew to Toronto for training at some point. He was in IT, I think, and called me up and just dropped off a present of Matryoshka dolls or something. So he was connected with these people. Q: What is the Twitter handle @FreePaulWhelan? A: I made that page. It is where I'm going to post statements from the family. I'm not sure how much use it will get, but was an early hope to focus on Paul but many people have just followed my personal account. I will RT any FreePaulWhelan tweets from my own account as well, in light of that. I made it because it was still unclear how best to get the story out about Paul's arrest. Q: What else do you want people to know? A: Its important for us to have Pauls story told, unfortunately warts and all, but the more we get that out of the way, I think, the more we can focus on getting him out and getting him home. Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus. Staff writer Phoebe Wall Howard and USA Today's Deidre Shesgreen contributed. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'I absolutely dont think he is a spy': Paul Whelan's twin talk about Russia allegations VIENNA (Reuters) - Sensor specialist AMS is teaming up with Chinese software maker Face++ to produce new 3D facial recognition features for smartphones, as the Austrian firm aims to reduce its dependency on Apple and boost its battered shares. AMS provides Apple with optical sensors for 3D facial recognition features on its newest iPhones and generates around 45 percent of sales from it, according to analysts. Lower than expected demand for these phones, especially in China, has put pressure on AMS recently. The deal with Face++ will potentially help AMS get its 3D optical sensors integrated into more Android devices - competitors to Apple products. Technological challenges have made that difficult for AMS so far. The deal follows a similar cooperation with U.S. firm Qualcomm, on whose technology many Windows phones are based. At 1110 GMT, AMS's Swiss-listed shares were up 10 percent at 20.68 Swiss francs after trading as high as 21.06 francs. The stock fell nearly 75 percent last year. So far, China's Xiaomi is the only maker of Android-based smartphones that AMS has disclosed as a customer. Analysts think Huawei's [HWT.UL] Mate20 Pro phones also use AMS's sensors. Under the new tie-up, Face++ will provide software to process the optical data collected by AMS's sensors. "By linking our 3D sensing systems with Face++ technology, we are enabling manufacturers to add these popular features to their products quickly and smoothly," AMS's Executive Vice-President & General Manager for Optical Sensor Solutions, Ulrich Huewels, said. AMS and the Chinese artificial intelligence software specialist said their corporation would enable manufacturers to offer functions such as facial payments and augmented reality more quickly. "Together, AMS and Face++ are showing that 3D sensing solutions are ready for the mainstream now in every market sector, from consumer to automotive, medical and industrial electronics," Huewels said. "Manufacturers will benefit hugely from avoiding the development risk and time associated with 3D sensing software and hardware integration," said Wu Wenhao, Senior Vice President of Face++. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter) This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Permanente If youve ever had the flu, you know how terrible it can make you feel. The stuffy nose, sore throat, cough, headache, body aches, and fever can knock you out of commission for days, a week, even two weeks. In severe cases, influenza can even kill you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 9.2 million and 35.6 million Americans get sick from the flu every year, 140,000 to 710,000 land in the hospital, and 12,000 to 56,000 die from influenza and related complications. Fortunately, there is a proven-effective protection against this highly contagious, potentially very serious virus: an annual flu vaccine. Each year, this shot contains deactivated particles from the four strains of influenza most likely to be prevalent that coming flu season. Once those are injected into the body, the immune system generates antibodies that fend off the flu should you be exposed to it. While no vaccine will protect you 100 percent, the flu shot significantly lowers your odds of being sickened by the virus. Trouble is, only about half of the nation gets immunized each year. Experts believe that a handful of mistruths and conceptions about the flu shot is partly to blame for too-low vaccination rates. Here, we dismantle these myths, one by one. Myth #1: The body can defend itself against influenza One of the most common myths I hear is that weve all been exposed to the virus so the body can create a natural immune response to defend itself, says Eduardo Lopez, M.D., head of the nephrology department at Kaiser Permanentes Panorama City Medical Center in California. Yes, our bodies have a natural immune response, but its not necessarily enough to protect you from serious illness. With the vaccine, however, the body produces additional antibodies, giving you a much better shot at avoiding illness. Myth #2: The flu shot doesnt work Plenty of research shows that the vaccine, while not perfect, does indeed work. According to the CDC, when the vaccine is well-matched against the viruses circulating that year, it slashes the risk of flu illness between 40 percent and 60 percent. Story continues Typically, when people claim the flu shot isnt effective, its because they or someone they know got the flu anyway. The CDC offers up a few explanations for this. For one, they may have been sickened by a different virus, such as rhinovirus, which can cause flu-like symptoms. Or, if they really did get the flu, its likely because they were exposed to the virus shortly before being vaccinated or during the two weeks post-vaccination that are required for the body to build up immunity. Another possibility is they contracted an influenza strain other than those included in the vaccine. There is also a small chance of getting the flu even when the vaccine is a close match. I wish we could create a vaccine to eradicate this virus forever, but the problem is were dealing with a very sophisticated organism that is constantly mutating, Lopez says. We try to prepare a cocktail of different antigens every year based on data, and even though it may not be a perfect match, youre better off getting vaccinated. Myth #3: You dont need a flu shot every single year Sometimes patients get the flu shot in February then come into my office in September and say they dont need another vaccine because they got it in February, Lopez says. I tell them this is a different flu season so they need it again. In these cases, people are assuming that their body will still have enough immune protection to carry them through another flu season unscathed. However, even when the influenza strains targeted by a new vaccine are the same as those included in the previous seasons shot, the immune protection declines over time. Therefore, whatever defense you have left over from last flu season may not be enough to stop you from getting sick this go-around. When we look at individuals who get the flu shot every year versus those who skip years, there is proof that it is beneficial to get vaccinated every single year, Lopez says. Myth #4: The flu shot can give you the flu While some people claim to have gotten the flu because of the flu shot, Lopez says this is impossible. The flu shot cannot give you the flu because it is made out of killed vaccine particles that cannot cause disease, he says. The flu shot can produce some mild side effects, which some people quickly and wrongly assume is the flu. It is possible to feel run down, Lopez says. There can be localized pain at the injection site, body aches, congestion, or even a low-grade fever. This is because the body is mounting an immune response to stimulate what was just inoculated, but it is not the actual flu. Nor is it nearly as miserable. Lopez says a dose of Tylenol or ibuprofen should help ease these symptoms in short order. Also, many people wait until flu season is raging, in December or January, to get vaccinated, and they may have already been exposed to the virus, Lopez says. If theyd gotten the vaccine in August when it first becomes available, theres a very good chance they would not have gotten sick. Myth #5: Healthy people dont die from the flu Although it is true that people with underlying health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer have a greater risk of flu-related complications and death, plenty of otherwise healthy adults and children wind up in the hospital from influenza. Some even die from the disease. But lets just assume for a second that you have only mild symptoms or youre among the 20 percent to 30 percent of flu carriers who have no symptoms at all. Even so, you can still spread influenza to others who may not be so lucky they could become extremely ill or even die. The best way to protect yourself and those around you is clear: get an annual flu shot. Myth #6: The flu vaccine contains harmful chemicals For many years now, a small segment of vaccine detractors known as anti-vaxxers have been trumpeting the myth that certain ingredients in the flu shot are toxic and may cause health complications. They usually blame formaldehyde, used to deactivate the virus in the vaccine, and thimerosal, an ethylmercury-based preservative. These ingredients have been deemed safe by the FDA, and, according to a large body of evidence, none are linked to any disorder. Myth #7: Pregnant women shouldnt get vaccinated Although some people think the flu shot is connected to miscarriage, this is false. In fact, the influenza virus not its vaccine is whats linked to miscarriage and other potential problems for mother and unborn child. According to the CDC, millions of pregnant women have received the vaccine safely, and a large body of evidence supports its safety. For this reason, except in rare cases when the mother has a severe, life-threatening allergy to a component of the vaccine, all pregnant women are strongly encouraged to get a flu shot. Besides protecting the mother and her developing fetus from the virus, the immune defenses from vaccination will continue safeguarding the baby once they are born. This coverage will last until the child is six months old and can receive their own flu vaccine. Related Articles: The post 7 Common Myths About the Flu Shot appeared first on Fatherly. Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 1 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 482011 01-07-2019 03:59 PM Post: #1 anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist Advertisement When Anderson Cooper asked Ocasio-Cortez why she doesnt speak about Trump very often, she called him a symptom of a problem, adding that the president certainly didnt invent racism, but hes certainly given a voice to it, and expanded it and created a platform for those things. When asked flatly if she believes Trump is racist, Ocasio-Cortez said, Yeah, yeah. No question. She noted the language he uses when speaking about race for example, when he stated that there were fine people on both sides after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and his rhetoric on immigration. When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy, when you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, its night and day, she said. In a statement to 60 Minutes, the White Houserefuted Ocasio-Cortezs claim that Trump is racist, stating that her sheer ignorance on the matter cant cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/alex...15434.html Ever since her surprising victory in a New York City congressional primary last June, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not been shy about expressing ideas some see as radical, from the Green New Dealto proposing a 70 percent marginal tax rate for the wealthy. On 60 Minutes on Sunday night, she made another bold statement about President Trumpbeing a racist.When Anderson Cooper asked Ocasio-Cortez why she doesnt speak about Trump very often, she called him a symptom of a problem, adding that the president certainly didnt invent racism, but hes certainly given a voice to it, and expanded it and created a platform for those things.When asked flatly if she believes Trump is racist, Ocasio-Cortez said, Yeah, yeah. No question. She noted the language he uses when speaking about race for example, when he stated that there were fine people on both sides after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and his rhetoric on immigration. When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy, when you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, its night and day, she said.In a statement to 60 Minutes, the White Houserefuted Ocasio-Cortezs claim that Trump is racist, stating that her sheer ignorance on the matter cant cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481973 01-07-2019 04:02 PM Post: #2 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist And ? I'm a 55yr old WHITE Southern Male and I think trump is a racist . LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481255 01-07-2019 04:04 PM Post: #3 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:02 PM) And ? I'm a 55yr old WHITE Southern Male and I think trump is a racist . If you have to use the "I'm white too" card, before attacking a White person, your probably: A) Outright non White pretending to be White B) a Jew C) a Mulatto with 1% black in you. If you have to use the "I'm white too" card, before attacking a White person, your probably:A) Outright non White pretending to be WhiteB) a JewC) a Mulatto with 1% black in you. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481973 01-07-2019 04:07 PM Post: #4 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:04 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:02 PM) And ? I'm a 55yr old WHITE Southern Male and I think trump is a racist . If you have to use the "I'm white too" card, before attacking a White person, your probably: A) Outright non White pretending to be White B) a Jew C) a Mulatto with 1% black in you. Who did I attack ? And it "you're" not "your" Who did I attack ?And it "you're" not "your" LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 473865 01-07-2019 04:18 PM Post: #5 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist Liberals use the guise of "niceness" when they spout their divisive language. She should have said she didn't know. But because she is controlled opposition she has no choice but to take a chance. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 441673 01-07-2019 04:19 PM Post: #6 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist How dare that young woman have the audacity to state her opinion of a man so far above her station. Her inexperience is displayed in her opinion of taxes with no comprehension of real-world effects. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481973 01-07-2019 04:21 PM Post: #7 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:19 PM) How dare that young woman have the audacity to state her opinion of a man so far above her station. Her inexperience is displayed in her opinion of taxes with no comprehension of real-world effects. /\ Old white man scared of a little brown girl...I thought you white "males" have bigger balls than that !!! /\ Old white man scared of a little brown girl...I thought you white "males" have bigger balls than that !!! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464145 01-07-2019 04:24 PM Post: #8 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist She's too dumb to realize that LEGAL immigrants don't have a problem? >>> he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, its night and day, she said.<< LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 472399 01-07-2019 04:29 PM Post: #9 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist f*#k apartheid Israel. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 441673 01-07-2019 04:31 PM Post: #10 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:21 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:19 PM) How dare that young woman have the audacity to state her opinion of a man so far above her station. Her inexperience is displayed in her opinion of taxes with no comprehension of real-world effects. /\ Old white man scared of a little brown girl...I thought you white "males" have bigger balls than that !!! I thought I spread the sarcasm on thick enough to be instantly recognized. Forgive me my failure, random young person. I tried.. . I thought I spread the sarcasm on thick enough to be instantly recognized.Forgive me my failure, random young person. I tried.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 473865 01-07-2019 04:32 PM Post: #11 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist It saddens me somewhat to see so many offering themselves up for the meat grinder that is more of the same kind of politics. We have outgrown our current system and it desperately needs to be redesigned. It somewhat saddens me that the NWO considers this and the common man/woman often does not consider his/her role and his/her creative potential in that system which he/she is so entrenched in. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 473865 01-07-2019 04:45 PM Post: #12 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:19 PM) How dare that young woman have the audacity to state her opinion of a man so far above her station. Her inexperience is displayed in her opinion of taxes with no comprehension of real-world effects. It is a bit of a reckless move. The thing about starting off strong is that it will either make or break her politically. She's already drawing lines in the sand. She's making divisive statements of her own, and I'm sure the fanatical left will rally around her and these statements, meanwhile most people look upon this battle between the left and the right as something that exists outside of themselves. Most people don't want to get involved in it because they realize there isn't much to gain there at this point in terms of these two giant, corporately owned entities. It is a bit of a reckless move. The thing about starting off strong is that it will either make or break her politically. She's already drawing lines in the sand. She's making divisive statements of her own, and I'm sure the fanatical left will rally around her and these statements, meanwhile most people look upon this battle between the left and the right as something that exists outside of themselves. Most people don't want to get involved in it because they realize there isn't much to gain there at this point in terms of these two giant, corporately owned entities. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 441673 01-07-2019 05:11 PM Post: #13 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:45 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:19 PM) How dare that young woman have the audacity to state her opinion of a man so far above her station. Her inexperience is displayed in her opinion of taxes with no comprehension of real-world effects. It is a bit of a reckless move. The thing about starting off strong is that it will either make or break her politically. She's already drawing lines in the sand. She's making divisive statements of her own, and I'm sure the fanatical left will rally around her and these statements, meanwhile most people look upon this battle between the left and the right as something that exists outside of themselves. Most people don't want to get involved in it because they realize there isn't much to gain there at this point in terms of these two giant, corporately owned entities. It is refreshing to see a politician have the character to be honest about her opinion, despite the possible negative consequences. Removing money from politics isn't impossible, but requires the people who benefit from it to act for the good of the country and to their personal detriment. Term limits would be a start to breaking this selfish cycle of maintaining the status quo. It is refreshing to see a politician have the character to be honest about her opinion, despite the possible negative consequences. Removing money from politics isn't impossible, but requires the people who benefit from it to act for the good of the country and to their personal detriment. Term limits would be a start to breaking this selfish cycle of maintaining the status quo. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 282480 01-07-2019 05:15 PM Post: #14 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:02 PM) And ? I'm a 55yr old WHITE Southern Male and I think trump is a racist . Then your a moron who believes his television. Trump Hired many many minorities in his business. Trump was a regular on Oprah and Oprah wrote she considered him a friend in her book. Trump sighned an 80 billion dollar bill to provide for inner city schools in his first month. Trump regularly hung our with Jackson and Sharpton since the eighties. A simple google search would help you not sound like an idiot. Then your a moron who believes his television. Trump Hired many many minorities in his business. Trump was a regular on Oprah and Oprah wrote she considered him a friend in her book. Trump sighned an 80 billion dollar bill to provide for inner city schools in his first month. Trump regularly hung our with Jackson and Sharpton since the eighties. A simple google search would help you not sound like an idiot. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 282480 01-07-2019 05:16 PM Post: #15 RE: anti israel latina Ashkenazi Ocasio Cortez : no doubt Trump is a racist LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 05:11 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 04:45 PM) It is a bit of a reckless move. The thing about starting off strong is that it will either make or break her politically. She's already drawing lines in the sand. She's making divisive statements of her own, and I'm sure the fanatical left will rally around her and these statements, meanwhile most people look upon this battle between the left and the right as something that exists outside of themselves. Most people don't want to get involved in it because they realize there isn't much to gain there at this point in terms of these two giant, corporately owned entities. It is refreshing to see a politician have the character to be honest about her opinion, despite the possible negative consequences. Removing money from politics isn't impossible, but requires the people who benefit from it to act for the good of the country and to their personal detriment. Term limits would be a start to breaking this selfish cycle of maintaining the status quo. It would be more impressive if she were right. Opinions are nice and all but reality is what needs dealt with. It would be more impressive if she were right. Opinions are nice and all but reality is what needs dealt with. Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Earnings estimates for CONSOL Coal Resources LP CCR have been revised upward over the past 30 days, reflecting analysts optimism on the stock. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings has moved 1.4% north to $2.13 during the period. CONSOL Coal Resources is a growth-oriented master limited partnership. It produces and sells high-Btu thermal coal in the Northern Appalachian Basin and the Eastern United States. Lets focus on the factors that make CONSOL Coal Resources a profitable pick at the moment. Price Movement In the past 12 months, CONSOL Coal Resources units have gained 5.5% versus the industrys decline of 21.8%. VGM Score The stock has an impressive VGM Score of A. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors. Back-tested results show that stocks with a favorable VGM Score of A or B coupled with a solid Zacks Rank offer the best investment options. Earnings Surprise Trend CONSOL Coal Resources delivered a positive surprise in three of the last four reported quarters, the average beat being 23.56%. Coal Production CONSOL Coal Resources production was 5,188 tons at the end of the first nine months of 2018, up from 4,966 tons in the year-ago period. The firms coal production increased 222 tons to meet excess demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report forecasts 2018 coal exports from the United States to touch 112.7 million short tons (MMst), up 16.2% from the 2017-level. The Trump administration forecasts a 4.5-5.8% increase in coal production for generating electricity by 2025 under its Clean Power Plan proposal. Also, the partnership stands to benefit from recent improvements in the metallurgical coal markets. Increase in metallurgical coal prices will favorably impact the firms coal royalty revenues. Strong Asset Base The firms assets include 25% undivided ownership interest along with management and control rights in CONSOL Energy's Pennsylvania mining complex. The complex has three underground mines, namely Bailey, Enlow Fork and Harvey alongside a related infrastructure. With five longwall mining systems and 17 continuous mining sections, the Pennsylvania mining complex boasts an annual production capacity of 28.5 million tons. Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks CONSOL Coal Resources currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Other top-ranked stocks in the same sector include SunCoke Energy, Inc. SXC, Warrior Met Coal Inc. HCC and Canadian Solar Inc. CSIQ, each with a Zacks Rank of 1. SunCoke Energy pulled off an earnings surprise of 302.65% in the last four reported quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has been revised 48.3% upward to 43 cents over the past 90 days. Warrior Met Coal delivered a positive surprise of 0.62% in the trailing four reported quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings moved 6.1% north to $8.23 over the past 90 days. Canadian Solar came up with a beat of 49.66% in the previous four reported quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has been raised 53.2% to $2.65 over the past 90 days. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SunCoke Energy, Inc. (SXC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Warrior Met Coal Inc. (HCC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report CONSOL Coal Resources LP (CCR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Wells Fargo, the owner of Wells Fargo Advantage Funds brand, is one of the four largest banks in the United States and has a legacy spanning 150 years in the financial services sector. With over $382 billion (excluding money market assets) of assets as of Mar 31, 2018, Wells Fargo Advantage Funds diversifies its assets across a wide range of mutual fund categories. These include both domestic and foreign funds, asset allocation funds and fixed-income funds. In 2010, the boards of trustees of Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and Evergreen Funds had approved the merger of the fund families to create a new fund lineup, under the brand name Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. The Wells Fargo fund family claims that each fund is guided by a premier investment team chosen for its focused attention to a particular investment style. There's a fund to meet the investment goals and risk tolerance of almost any investment portfolio. Below we share with you three top-ranked Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. Wells Fargo Advantage Pennsylvania Tax-Free A EKVAX seeks to provide tax-exempted income. EKVAX invests a large chunk of its assets in municipal securities that are expected to provide interest income free from Pennsylvania individual income tax and federal income tax, which also include federal alternative minimum tax. However, EKVAX may invest a maximum of 20% of its assets in municipal securities that pay interests, which are not exempted from federal income tax. The Wells Fargo Advantage PA Tax-Free A fund has three-year annualized returns of 1.9%. EKVAXhas an expense ratio of 0.74% compared with the category average of 0.99%. Wells Fargo Premier Large Company Growth R6 EKJFX invests a huge chunk of its assets in equity securities of large-cap companies and around one-fifth of its assets in equity securities of foreign companies. The fund invests mainly in those large-cap companies that are included on the Russell 1000 index. Wells Fargo Premier Large Company Growth R6 has three-year annualized returns of 9.7%. Story continues As of November 2018, EKJFX held 88 issues with 6.94% of its assets invested in Amazon.com Inc. Wells Fargo CoreBuilder Shares Series M WFCMX seeks maximization of returns through growth of income and capital. WFCMX invests more than 60% of its assets in municipal securities, which offer federal income tax exempted interest. Wells Fargo CoreBuilder Shares Series M has three-year annualized returns of 2.9%. Robert J. Miller is one of the fund managers of WFCMX since 2008. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds. Want key mutual fund info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (EKVAX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (WFCMX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (EKJFX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Winter is upon us, as is the opportunity to snag some good travel deals. Winter tends to be shoulder season for a lot of placesthats when a destination isnt at its most popular, says Lila Battis from Travel and Leisure. You can get a much better deal especially after the holidays than youd be able to get in the summer. Additionally, the off-season means cheaper deals on flights and more hotel availability. Hotels are a little more willing to budge on price and offer you a deal you might not be able to get otherwise, she says. The trick to planning a winter trip on a budget is to watch for flight deals by using apps like Hopper or Skyscanner. If youre looking to take a budget trip usually your biggest expenditure is going to be a flight so if you can save there youre going to save everywhere As soon as your chosen destination is at a really affordable rate, youll be notified and can book right away, Battis says. Battis shares three affordable destinations to put on your travel wish list this winter. The Bahamas Battis says winter is low season for the Bahamas, which makes it a perfect time to go and get some sun. You wont have to pay as much as you would during peak season, so if youre looking for a deal, its still warm, the ocean is perfectly turquoise and you can enjoy the white sand beaches, Battis says. From the east coast, flights start at $250 round-trip, and hotels and all-inclusive resorts could be as little as $100-$200 per night. All-inclusive resorts also offer food, drinks and activities, making it a perfect option for budget-savvy travelers, Battis says. Taos, New Mexico For skiers and winter enthusiasts, Battis recommends Taos, New Mexico. Taos is a little bit under the radar and its not quite as popular as Aspen or Vail, she says. Its a lot more affordable if youre looking for a ski vacation and there are also day spas and art museums and all kinds of cultural activities. From the east or west coasts, flights are around $225 round-trip, and while hotels and condos are a little pricier at the ski resorts, Battis says there are plenty of options to find a rate that will fit in your budget. Story continues Quebec City For travelers looking for a city escape without the price-tag of a European vacation, Battis recommends going to Quebec City. The city is 400 years old and the Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are historic sites in the area, beautiful architecture, great restaurants and theaters, Battis says. Its an easy trip from the east coast, and round-trip flights average $200. Because its a city, hotels can be pricey, but Battis says you can still get a great deal and have a luxury experience for around $100 a night. If you want to save more this year, join the Yahoo Finance January No-Spend Challenge and enter to win up to $500! WATCH MORE 6 ways to save hundreds on your honeymoon 6 essential gifts for travel lovers under $30 How 2 young travel hackers booked 40 flights for free Theresa May has invited MPs to Downing Street to discuss their concerns (Picture: PA) More than 200 MPs have signed a letter to Theresa May urging her to rule out a no-deal Brexit. A total of 209 MPs across the political parties, including both Leave and Remain supporters, signed the letter and all have been invited to meet prime minister at Downing Street on Tuesday. The letter was organised by former Tory Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labour MP Jack Dromey. Dame Caroline told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour: Crashing out of the EU without a deal will cause job losses and bring to an end the renaissance of manufacturing that weve seen in regions like mine in the West Midlands, and both Jack Dromey and I know the human interest and impact of this. The meeting with the signatories is one of a series being organised by Mrs May, who is also hosting drinks receptions for Tory MPs on Monday and Wednesday as part of an charm offensive to win support for the Brexit deal. Tory MP Dame Caroline Spelman organised the MPs letter to Theresa May (Picture: PA) Labour MP Jack Dromey was one of the organisers of the letter from MPs (Picture: Getty) Mrs May has warned the UK will be in uncharted territory if the deal is rejected in the vote, expected on January 15. She told BBCs Andrew Marr Show: What well be setting out over the next few days is a sort of assurances, is measures in three areas. The first is measures that will be specific for Northern Ireland. The second is a greater role for parliament as we take these negotiations into the next stage for our future relationship. MORE: Brother of former US marine held in Russia urges UK government to keep an eye on him MORE: Starving seal pup found in back garden in village FOUR MILES from the sea And the third, and were still working on this, is further assurances from the European Union to address the issues that have been raised. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Mrs May held talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday and the pair are expected to keep in touch this week as the clock ticks down to the Commons showdown. The DUPs deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the Withdrawal Agreement remained toxic as a result of the Irish backstop measure. Story continues The fundamental problems which make this a bad deal appear not to have changed, he said. A Commons vote on the prime ministers withdrawal agreement is expected this month (Picture: PA) Following the publication of the cross-party letter by MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit, eurosceptic Conservative backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Leaving the EU is set in the law. Many of the people who have signed the letter this morning saying they dont want a no-deal Brexit have actually voted through the legislation that means we leave on March 29 with or without a formal Article 50 withdrawal agreement. Given that parliament voted overwhelmingly, in the end, to have the referendum, parliament voted overwhelmingly, in the end, to accept the result of the referendum, and parliament has now legislated to implement the referendum, I find it rather lame that people are now saying Oh, we didnt mean that. They have set in legislation what is going to happen and basically democracy has been served on all sides, both by the referendum and by parliament. Warfare History Network Security, During the American Civil War, there were nearly 900 officers in non-militia service who were appointed to become generals. Here, William Welsh shares his list of the worst Civil War generals and commanders. The 10 Worst U.S. Civil War Generals and Commanders Worst Confederate Generals Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. After gaining ground trying to cut an escape path for the Confederates during the February 1862 siege of Fort Donelson by Union forces led Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. As a result, he relinquished ground paid for with his soldiers blood. Fearful of capture, he turned over command to Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner and fled the fort on the night of February 16 in a boat that carried him across the Cumberland River to safety. For his cowardly performance, Pillow was severely reprimanded. Nevertheless, he commanded a brigade in Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridges Division at Stones River, where once again he demonstrated his incompetence and cowardice. Confederate Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes. Confederate General Robert E. Lee transferred several generals, one of whom was Holmes, out of the Army of Northern Virginia following the Seven Days Battles. Holmes had a talent for sitting on the sidelines and finding excuses not to attack, as he did at Malvern Hill. In his next post in the Trans-Mississippi Department, he failed to protect the Mississippi River outposts and refused to reinforce Vicksburg. Confederate Maj. Gen. George Pickett. As the war wound down, so did Picketts performance. At Five Forks he was at a shad bake with cavalry officers two miles from his post when the Federals attacked. By the time he returned, it was too late to reverse the Federal gains. Lee publicly scolded him for his negligent performance. Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. In mid-July 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced Army of Tennessee commander Joseph Johnston with John Bell Hood. Hood was an aggressive general who liked to attack no matter what the odds. He proceeded over the next several months to wreck the Army of Tennessee at Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. Story continues Worst Union Generals Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. As military governor of New Orleans in 1862, Butler engaged in corrupt and unethical practices. Beast Butler, as the Southerners called him, was an inept military commander as shown by his poor generalship at Big Bethel in 1861 and later as commander of the Army of the James in 1863-1864. At Bermuda Hundred, Butler proved himself totally incapable of brushing aside a thin screen of Confederates under General P.G.T. Beauregard that kept his two corps contained. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant could not wait to remove him from command. Union Maj. Gen. John Pope. Pope was the subject of derision by his enemies and also many of his own men. Lincoln transferred Pope from the West to the East in summer 1862 to command the newly created Army of Virginia, which was tasked with covering northern Virginia while Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan campaigned on the Virginia Peninsula. Pope issued a pompous introductory address to his troops on July 14, 1862, which was full of self-praise but lacking little appreciation for his opponents military skills. The Kentuckian led his army straight into a trap at Second Manassas and was crushed by General Robert E. Lees powerful army. Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnsides failures are some of the most infamous of the conflict. He seemed to have no tactical gifts whatsoever. At the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, he dithered all day on the Union left flank failing to brush aside Toombs Brigade with his IX Corps. His failure is memorialized by the bridge on the battlefield that bears his name to this day. As commander of the Army of the Potomac at Fredricksburg in December 1862, his frontal assault on the impregnable Confederate position resulted in the senseless death of thousands of Yankees. Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan. Although a great logistician and strategist, he lost his nerve when victory was near in the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns. In the final battles of the Peninsula Campaign, he opted to sit out the battle on a Union gunboat in the James River, leaving battlefield command to subordinates who had more guts than he did. Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks. One of President Abraham Lincolns political generals who was elevated above experienced West Point graduates, Banks performed poorly in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862, and afterwards with the Army of the Gulf where he failed utterly in the Red River Campaign in 1864. One damn blunder from beginning to end, said Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman of the Red River Campaign. Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel. The German-born general put in poor performances in summer 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley where he was first defeated by Maj. Gen. John Breckenridge at the Battle of New Market. Later that summer at Harpers Ferry he failed to attempt to delay Earlys army as it marched on Washington. Originally Published January 2, 2019 This article by William Welsh originally appeared on the Warfare History Network. Image: Wikipedia. Read full article Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa boots on the ground lop guest User ID: 482011 01-07-2019 02:22 PM Post: #1 Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Advertisement Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) United States Armed Forces personnel have deployed to Libreville, Gabon, to be in position to support the security of United States citizens, personnel, and diplomatic facilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This deployment of approximately 80 personnel is in response to the possibility that violent demonstrations may occur in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in reaction to the December 30, 2018, elections there. The first of these personnel arrived in Gabon on January 2, 2019, with appropriate combat equipment and supported by military aircraft. Additional forces may deploy to Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the Republic of the Congo, if necessary for these purposes. These deployed personnel will remain in the region until the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes such that their presence is no longer needed. This action was taken consistent with my responsibility to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148). I appreciate the support of the Congress in these actions. Sincerely, DONALD J. TRUMP https://www.rt.com/news/448109-us-soldie...yed-gabon/ Issued on: January 4, 2019Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)United States Armed Forces personnel have deployed to Libreville, Gabon, to be in position to support the security of United States citizens, personnel, and diplomatic facilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.This deployment of approximately 80 personnel is in response to the possibility that violent demonstrations may occur in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in reaction to the December 30, 2018, elections there.The first of these personnel arrived in Gabon on January 2, 2019, with appropriate combat equipment and supported by military aircraft.Additional forces may deploy to Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the Republic of the Congo, if necessary for these purposes.These deployed personnel will remain in the region until the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes such that their presence is no longer needed.This action was taken consistent with my responsibility to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive.I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148).I appreciate the support of the Congress in these actions.Sincerely,DONALD J. TRUMP LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 482128 01-07-2019 05:16 PM Post: #2 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa nothing surprises me anymore as the northern hemisphere starts to cool and food production declines us is collapsing trump really doesn't care all eyes to africa as the next breadbasket of the world LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 200120 01-07-2019 06:39 PM Post: #3 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 05:16 PM) nothing surprises me anymore as the northern hemisphere starts to cool and food production declines us is collapsing trump really doesn't care all eyes to africa as the next breadbasket of the world Yep. In Orwells 1984, Africa is described as "disputed territories" America/Europe, China and Russia are now vying to recolonise it. Yep. In Orwells 1984, Africa is described as "disputed territories" America/Europe, China and Russia are now vying to recolonise it. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 200120 01-07-2019 06:45 PM Post: #4 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Incidently, for those who think there's more than one party, in any sense that matters, America invaded around 37 countries in Africa in 2013. This isn't just down to Trump, he's following the same orders as every other [pretend] leader of any other country has for decades, perhaps centuries. The reason "leaders" are voted in on promises they never keep, is they only get the real information of what being a "leader" means AFTER they're signed in. Every "Leader" I see before being sworn in, has the 100 mile stare shortly after being sworn in and suddenly their policies mirror the last set of policies. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481155 01-07-2019 06:48 PM Post: #5 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 06:39 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 05:16 PM) nothing surprises me anymore as the northern hemisphere starts to cool and food production declines us is collapsing trump really doesn't care all eyes to africa as the next breadbasket of the world Yep. In Orwells 1984, Africa is described as "disputed territories" America/Europe, China and Russia are now vying to recolonise it. except for fun here, China is working with the UK ;) the so called ABC Group... DFID-ESRC have long been working together to ensure the China does not make the same mistakes Britain did in Sub-Saharan Africa and to make the most of the opportunities in Africa. except for fun here, China is working with the UK ;) the so called ABC Group... DFID-ESRC have long been working together to ensure the China does not make the same mistakes Britain did in Sub-Saharan Africa and to make the most of the opportunities in Africa. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 200120 01-07-2019 06:58 PM Post: #6 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 06:48 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 06:39 PM) Yep. In Orwells 1984, Africa is described as "disputed territories" America/Europe, China and Russia are now vying to recolonise it. except for fun here, China is working with the UK ;) the so called ABC Group... DFID-ESRC have long been working together to ensure the China does not make the same mistakes Britain did in Sub-Saharan Africa and to make the most of the opportunities in Africa. You mean like the missionaries that went first to "save souls" before enslaving them? The UK is "working with" China, the same way it previously "worked with", the Native Americans and the African Chiefs. There's a reason Europeans were known as the smiling devils. There is no honour amoung thieves, only a watchful eye on opportunies to plunder from anyone foolish enough to believe themselves to be partners. You mean like the missionaries that went first to "save souls" before enslaving them?The UK is "working with" China, the same way it previously "worked with", the Native Americans and the African Chiefs. There's a reason Europeans were known as the smiling devils.There is no honour amoung thieves, only a watchful eye on opportunies to plunder from anyone foolish enough to believe themselves to be partners. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 200120 01-07-2019 06:58 PM Post: #7 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 06:48 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 06:39 PM) Yep. In Orwells 1984, Africa is described as "disputed territories" America/Europe, China and Russia are now vying to recolonise it. except for fun here, China is working with the UK ;) the so called ABC Group... DFID-ESRC have long been working together to ensure the China does not make the same mistakes Britain did in Sub-Saharan Africa and to make the most of the opportunities in Africa. How many shills are on this f*cking board? How many shills are on this f*cking board? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 479303 01-07-2019 07:37 PM Post: #8 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa The U.S. corportation has had troops in Africa for years now, probably decades. Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-07-2019 07:42 PM Posts: 40,398 Post: #9 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Why are we there? You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis singing spider squonking terrarist from krautistan User ID: 482135 01-07-2019 07:45 PM Posts: 19,935 Post: #10 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Fork Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:42 PM) Why are we there? that's easy: http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-96237.html that's easy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY nobody starts at point zero Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-07-2019 07:47 PM Posts: 40,398 Post: #11 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa singing wilbury spider Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:45 PM) Fork Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:42 PM) Why are we there? that's easy: http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-96237.html The zombie Trump supporters think it's okay.... right? Ick, zombies are gross. The zombie Trump supporters think it's okay.... right?Ick, zombies are gross. You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 406365 01-07-2019 09:03 PM Post: #12 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Fork Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:42 PM) Why are we there? The usual, to steal the wealth. There's oil along the west coast of Africa, all along the area where the Ebola outbreak happened. Coincidence? The usual, to steal the wealth. There's oil along the west coast of Africa, all along the area where the Ebola outbreak happened. Coincidence? Laserz let there be light User ID: 361628 01-07-2019 09:04 PM Posts: 40,398 Post: #13 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (01-07-2019 09:03 PM) Fork Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:42 PM) Why are we there? The usual, to steal the wealth. There's oil along the west coast of Africa, all along the area where the Ebola outbreak happened. Coincidence? You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 406365 01-07-2019 09:12 PM Post: #14 RE: Trump says the War Powers Resolution gives him the right to send troops to Africa Fork Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:47 PM) singing wilbury spider Wrote: (01-07-2019 07:45 PM) that's easy: http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-96237.html The zombie Trump supporters think it's okay.... right? Ick, zombies are gross. This isn't Trump's baby, he's just the person ordered to continue the invasion. Quote: 31 January 2013 A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Reported by Associated Press on Christmas Day, this was missing from most Anglo-American media. The invasion has almost nothing to do with "Islamism", and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine. As in the cold war, a division of labour requires that western journalism and popular culture provide the cover of a holy war against a "menacing arc" of Islamic extremism, no different from the bogus "red menace" of a worldwide communist conspiracy. http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-real-...woods-gift Quote: Full-scale invasion as the United States deploys troops in 35 African countries By John Pilger, TRANSCEND* - A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Reported by Associated Press on Christmas Day, this was missing from most Anglo-American media. The invasion has almost nothing to do with Islamism, and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine. https://www.goldismoney2.com/threads/ful...ies.43467/ This isn't Trump's baby, he's just the person ordered to continue the invasion. Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread YEREVAN. Any attempt to give an inter-ethnic coloring to the incident in Karaganda should be excluded, acting Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan said in a statement. The comment from the Armenian Foreign Ministry came after hundreds of Kazakhs took part in a protest in Karaganda, after the murder of a 23-year-old Kazakh in this city. Three local Armenians are suspects in the murder. Everyone who had a chance to follow the situation, knows that on January 3, the Armenian Embassy in Kazakhstan made a corresponding statement. We realize that, in all likelihood, not everyone noticed this during the festive days. Naturally, the statement expresses the public side of the work we have done, Kocharyan said. In a statement, the embassy expressed hope that official sources will be taken as a basis, and t unverified information will not be dismantled via the social network. Nevertheless, in Armenia there are certain statements that are made without taking into account both the official position of our country, which, in particular, is expressed in the statement of the embassy, and the hyper-sensitive nature of the issue for our compatriots living in Karaganda, Kocharyan added. The Armenian Foreign Ministry is urging experts and specialists to show even greater responsibility in their statements and not to succumb to the temptation of populism and provocations. This is a super-sensitive issue, and all attempts to give it an international tint are condemned and unacceptable, Kocharian noted. Armenia parliament session not convened Newspaper: Armenia acting official, Etchmiadzin mayors controversial phone talk "dissemination" is deliberately made Large number of Armenia Police forces heading to Syunik Province Turkeys Erdogan arrives in Azerbaijan Biden delegation reporters slam White House for organizing meeting with Erdogan Newspaper: It will be heated at Armenias Syunik today "Armenia" bloc on 1,400 policemen-accompanied motorcade: Classic example of administrative resource abuse Armenia ombudsman: Swearing has become vicious phenomenon in this election campaign Biden calls Putin "worthy adversary" Biden: I'm confident we'll make real progress with Turkey and the United States Erdogan says he didn't discuss Biden's recognition of Armenian genocide during their meeting Macron on talks with Erdogan First Biden-Erdogan meeting lasts 45 minutes France welcomes release of 15 Armenian POWs "I Have the Honor" bloc ends campaign meetings in Armenia's Lori Province with meeting in Spitak (PHOTOS) Anonymous group approaching citizens and asking about their votes on behalf of Armenia Ombudsman Armenia acting PM's son campaigns in Yerevan Israel FM intends to repair ties with US Democratic Party Democratic Party of Armenia candidate for PM Tigran Arzakantsyan to continue election campaign "Armenia" bloc: Acting PM instructed to launch criminal prosecution against Avshar village head after campaign meeting Past.am: Why are administrative resources of Armenia Police being misused in such a way? Policemen dressed in civilian clothes brought to march held by Armenia acting PM Nikol Pashinyan's supporters and representatives of Prosperous Armenia Party headquarters get into brawl Armenia acting PM: First case of detention for electoral fraud attempt recorded in Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia district Artsakh 2nd President: Armenian side dodged negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh, but didn't explain why Karabakh ex-President: Baku and Ankara aren't hiding the fact that they plan to continue their land-grabbing policy Robert Kocharyan: "Armenia" bloc needs to free the country of apartheids "Armenia" bloc representative: Pashinyan's supporters don't want to share his responsibility and fate Iran FM describes end of rule of Netanyahu as the fall of an oppressor Putin on his successor Robert Kocharyan: We're coming to shape the future "Armenia" bloc representative: If we win the elections, 5 reservoirs will be built in Armavir Province Armenia 2nd President: You shouldn't expect victory when a deserter becomes Commander-in-Chief "Armenia" bloc holding campaign meeting in Yerevan Azerbaijan MOD releases list of 2,904 soldiers killed during aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Biden says Queen Elizabeth II reminded him of his mother Azerbaijan swaps 15 Armenian POWs for maps, another captive gets 20-year in prison, Jun 14 digest Armenia acting PM: Preliminary investigation into case of events of October 27, 1999 has been reopened Azeri MPs to get tested for COVID-19 ahead of Erdogan's visit to Milli Majlis "I Have the Honor" bloc's campaign meeting in Armenia's Vanadzor ends with march Karabakh State Minister receives International Committee of the Red Cross delegation Robert Kocharyan: Armenia has capacities to export electricity Armenia MP: Nikol Pashinyan is lying, he has already handed over main map of mine fields to Azerbaijan Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: I have sufficient grounds to believe that there is chance to re-establish Artsakh Armenia acting PM: I will personally lay down on asphalt those in Avshar village who try to oppress people's will Ex-President Kocharyan: Armenia nuclear plants life should be extended Armenia 2nd President promises to disclose data on number of servicemen who fell in the war Armenia local self-government bodies' representatives visit combat positions along with army colonel One dollar falls below AMD 517 in Armenia Armen Ashotyan: Centrist Democrat International expresses its support to Republican Party of Armenia Armenia former President Kocharyan: At all meetings we are told "Defend the country!" Armenia Parliament Speaker: National Security Service asked for my support, and I expressed my willingness CoE report: 1% of Turkey's population is in prisons Stoltenberg says Georgia will become NATO member, but no specific date has been set EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to reengage in substantiate negotiations under auspices of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs His Holiness Karekin II, Italy Ambassador discuss Azerbaijani army's encroachments on Armenia's borders Bright Armenia Party leader: All phenomena then criticized by current authorities have had even greater setbacks New York Times: As Biden meeting nears, Erdogan softens his stance Armenia 2nd President gives interview to Russia Today, Sputnik Armenia and RIA Novosti Armenia ombudsman: There are armed Azerbaijan soldiers on Syunik Province roads PACE Rapporteur welcomes release of 15 Armenian POWs Journalist asks Armenia acting PM if members of his team also think he has a mental health problem Russian-Armenian entrepreneur Sergey Hambardzumyan says he supports Armenia 2nd President Armenia official's spokesperson has no comment on controversial phone talk Armenia acting premier on snap parliamentary election day: June 20 is the day for God to speak Armenia acting PM tells children at campaign meeting to chant along with the crowd Stoltenberg says NATO does not intend to start a cold war against China "I have the honor" bloc representative considers coalition with "Armenia" bloc real Tesla to resume selling cars for bitcoins when the cryptocurrency goes green Biden's visit and NATO summit will cause inconveniences to residents of Brussels 8 people hospitalized in Texas after car hitting race spectators Armenia acting PM continues making unjust accusations against Armenian Church, says Holy Etchmiadzin Interior minister: We thank Russia for mediation efforts to stabilize situation in Artsakh (PHOTOS) Etchmiadzin residents greet Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan with chants, doves being released into sky Armenia acting PM: Times of "velvet" are coming to an end Another captive Armenian gets 20-year prison sentence in Azerbaijan Ombudsman: Armenia government should urgently apply to ECHR with interstate complaint Armenia Ararat Province governor mobilizes everyone to attend acting PM's campaign meeting Red Cross chief responds to Armenia Presidents letter Armenia ex-PM supports 2nd President Robert Kocharyan in snap parliamentary election Electoral Rights Watch: Armenia ruling party engages kids in its election campaign (PHOTOS) 41 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia SIPRI reports growth in global nuclear arsenals Bitcoin goes up 10% Biden has been preparing for meeting with Putin for 50 years, Psaki says Coronavirus general symptoms change over time Experts calculate wealth of Queen Elizabeth II Armenia ombudsman: Necessary to stop myopic development of agenda of mutual insult, swearing in public sphere US teen kills 4-year-old child Armenia acting official, city mayors controversial phone talk going viral on Internet Turkey announces, on eve of Biden-Erdogan meeting, possibility of "resolving" S-400 issue Armenia Central Electoral Commission makes decisions on registration of acting PM and ruling party Armenia acting PM holds march in Yerevan district, warns those involved in electoral fraud about consequences "I Have the Honor" bloc leader on Armenia acting PM posting photo of returned POWs Biden says US-Russia relations at low point but were not looking for conflict Armenia 2nd President: I'm certain about opportunities for retrieval of Karabakh's Hadrut Serzh Sargsyan: It's impossible to live normally and be protected in this region without a combat-ready army OSCE/ODIHR presents report on pre-election period in Armenia Armenia ruling Civil Contract Party being campaigned on official page of Vedi Medical Center Armenia 2nd President: We need to punish the authorities, but not with a hammer Armenia parliament session not convened Newspaper: Armenia acting official, Etchmiadzin mayors controversial phone talk "dissemination" is deliberately made Turkeys Erdogan arrives in Azerbaijan Biden delegation reporters slam White House for organizing meeting with Erdogan Newspaper: It will be heated at Armenias Syunik today "Armenia" bloc on 1,400 policemen-accompanied motorcade: Classic example of administrative resource abuse Armenia ombudsman: Swearing has become vicious phenomenon in this election campaign Biden calls Putin "worthy adversary" Biden: I'm confident we'll make real progress with Turkey and the United States Erdogan says he didn't discuss Biden's recognition of Armenian genocide during their meeting Macron on talks with Erdogan First Biden-Erdogan meeting lasts 45 minutes France welcomes release of 15 Armenian POWs "I Have the Honor" bloc ends campaign meetings in Armenia's Lori Province with meeting in Spitak (PHOTOS) Anonymous group approaching citizens and asking about their votes on behalf of Armenia Ombudsman Armenia acting PM's son campaigns in Yerevan Israel FM intends to repair ties with US Democratic Party Democratic Party of Armenia candidate for PM Tigran Arzakantsyan to continue election campaign "Armenia" bloc: Acting PM instructed to launch criminal prosecution against Avshar village head after campaign meeting Past.am: Why are administrative resources of Armenia Police being misused in such a way? Policemen dressed in civilian clothes brought to march held by Armenia acting PM Nikol Pashinyan's supporters and representatives of Prosperous Armenia Party headquarters get into brawl Armenia acting PM: First case of detention for electoral fraud attempt recorded in Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia district Artsakh 2nd President: Armenian side dodged negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh, but didn't explain why Karabakh ex-President: Baku and Ankara aren't hiding the fact that they plan to continue their land-grabbing policy Robert Kocharyan: "Armenia" bloc needs to free the country of apartheids "Armenia" bloc representative: Pashinyan's supporters don't want to share his responsibility and fate Iran FM describes end of rule of Netanyahu as the fall of an oppressor Putin on his successor Robert Kocharyan: We're coming to shape the future "Armenia" bloc representative: If we win the elections, 5 reservoirs will be built in Armavir Province Armenia 2nd President: You shouldn't expect victory when a deserter becomes Commander-in-Chief "Armenia" bloc holding campaign meeting in Yerevan Azerbaijan MOD releases list of 2,904 soldiers killed during aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Biden says Queen Elizabeth II reminded him of his mother Azerbaijan swaps 15 Armenian POWs for maps, another captive gets 20-year in prison, Jun 14 digest Armenia acting PM: Preliminary investigation into case of events of October 27, 1999 has been reopened Azeri MPs to get tested for COVID-19 ahead of Erdogan's visit to Milli Majlis "I Have the Honor" bloc's campaign meeting in Armenia's Vanadzor ends with march Karabakh State Minister receives International Committee of the Red Cross delegation Robert Kocharyan: Armenia has capacities to export electricity Armenia MP: Nikol Pashinyan is lying, he has already handed over main map of mine fields to Azerbaijan Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: I have sufficient grounds to believe that there is chance to re-establish Artsakh Armenia acting PM: I will personally lay down on asphalt those in Avshar village who try to oppress people's will Ex-President Kocharyan: Armenia nuclear plants life should be extended Armenia 2nd President promises to disclose data on number of servicemen who fell in the war Armenia local self-government bodies' representatives visit combat positions along with army colonel One dollar falls below AMD 517 in Armenia Armen Ashotyan: Centrist Democrat International expresses its support to Republican Party of Armenia Armenia former President Kocharyan: At all meetings we are told "Defend the country!" Armenia Parliament Speaker: National Security Service asked for my support, and I expressed my willingness CoE report: 1% of Turkey's population is in prisons Stoltenberg says Georgia will become NATO member, but no specific date has been set EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to reengage in substantiate negotiations under auspices of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs His Holiness Karekin II, Italy Ambassador discuss Azerbaijani army's encroachments on Armenia's borders Bright Armenia Party leader: All phenomena then criticized by current authorities have had even greater setbacks New York Times: As Biden meeting nears, Erdogan softens his stance Armenia 2nd President gives interview to Russia Today, Sputnik Armenia and RIA Novosti Armenia ombudsman: There are armed Azerbaijan soldiers on Syunik Province roads PACE Rapporteur welcomes release of 15 Armenian POWs Journalist asks Armenia acting PM if members of his team also think he has a mental health problem Russian-Armenian entrepreneur Sergey Hambardzumyan says he supports Armenia 2nd President Armenia official's spokesperson has no comment on controversial phone talk Armenia acting premier on snap parliamentary election day: June 20 is the day for God to speak Armenia acting PM tells children at campaign meeting to chant along with the crowd Stoltenberg says NATO does not intend to start a cold war against China "I have the honor" bloc representative considers coalition with "Armenia" bloc real Tesla to resume selling cars for bitcoins when the cryptocurrency goes green Biden's visit and NATO summit will cause inconveniences to residents of Brussels 8 people hospitalized in Texas after car hitting race spectators Armenia acting PM continues making unjust accusations against Armenian Church, says Holy Etchmiadzin Interior minister: We thank Russia for mediation efforts to stabilize situation in Artsakh (PHOTOS) Etchmiadzin residents greet Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan with chants, doves being released into sky Armenia acting PM: Times of "velvet" are coming to an end Another captive Armenian gets 20-year prison sentence in Azerbaijan Ombudsman: Armenia government should urgently apply to ECHR with interstate complaint Armenia Ararat Province governor mobilizes everyone to attend acting PM's campaign meeting Red Cross chief responds to Armenia Presidents letter Armenia ex-PM supports 2nd President Robert Kocharyan in snap parliamentary election Electoral Rights Watch: Armenia ruling party engages kids in its election campaign (PHOTOS) 41 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia SIPRI reports growth in global nuclear arsenals Bitcoin goes up 10% Biden has been preparing for meeting with Putin for 50 years, Psaki says Coronavirus general symptoms change over time Experts calculate wealth of Queen Elizabeth II Armenia ombudsman: Necessary to stop myopic development of agenda of mutual insult, swearing in public sphere US teen kills 4-year-old child Armenia acting official, city mayors controversial phone talk going viral on Internet Turkey announces, on eve of Biden-Erdogan meeting, possibility of "resolving" S-400 issue Armenia Central Electoral Commission makes decisions on registration of acting PM and ruling party Armenia acting PM holds march in Yerevan district, warns those involved in electoral fraud about consequences "I Have the Honor" bloc leader on Armenia acting PM posting photo of returned POWs Biden says US-Russia relations at low point but were not looking for conflict Armenia 2nd President: I'm certain about opportunities for retrieval of Karabakh's Hadrut Serzh Sargsyan: It's impossible to live normally and be protected in this region without a combat-ready army OSCE/ODIHR presents report on pre-election period in Armenia Armenia ruling Civil Contract Party being campaigned on official page of Vedi Medical Center Armenia 2nd President: We need to punish the authorities, but not with a hammer Who is ripping posters of "Armenia" bloc? Many people's New Year's resolutions go something like this: I resolve to visit ... fill-in-the-blank. I could spend hours daydreaming about how to fill that blank, but instead I'd like to share some of what I learned in the past year, and what mini-resolutions I've set as a result. - Be open to change. Two nights before I headed to Greensboro, Ala., my Airbnb hostess told me that the house I'd rented was unavailable. Pipes had burst during a cold snap. Then she noted that as the director of an economic development organization, she has the keys to an old schoolhouse that could lodge a crowd. My friends and I accepted, but we arrived with trepidation. Turns out, the schoolhouse was perfect, with sleeping nooks so everyone had their own space even as we felt communal. The CPUCs ignorance of this reality shows why we need elected and appointed officials with a better understanding of technology. Had they recognized the already available alternatives, the proposal never would have been made. Instead, we have public policy makers who have no idea what the ultimate ramifications are of their technology-ignorant decisions. In addition, the proposal, as made, would be a regressive tax as less financially fortunate people pay a higher proportion of their income for the tax. And, because numerous phone services already tax texting as part of a bundled service package, many cellphone customers would not even be subject to the new tax - thus defeating its purpose and potential to generate significant new revenue. On average, Americans each send and receive a combination of over 100 texts every day. This means we send more than 1 trillion messages per month or 12 trillion messages a year. At the same time, the number of actual voice calls made or received (excluding robocalls, marketing calls, and similar voice spam), is now less than four per day per person. So, were texting like crazy and barely speaking with each other. Californias tribal leaders represent other recognized governmentsour own separate and sovereign governments that protect our people, our history, and our ability to achieve economic self-sufficiency. We encourage our new governor and legislators to better understand us, and we look forward to helping them prioritize policies that can protect and enhance our lives. With those goals in mind, I offer some history of the Tribe I have the honor of leading, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake in Lake County. Our ancestors have lived and governed themselves in the area called California since 6,000 B.C. Early contact with the Russians and Spanish was brutal. The great influx of people created by the American annexation of California and the gold rush brought conflict and disease, which in one generation destroyed 95 percent of our population. Flawed federal policies, some of which lasted until the 1970s, subjected our people to enslavement, abuse, slaughter followed by boarding schools and cultural destruction. Our tribes most grim memory is an aggressive 1850 military operation known as the Bloody Island Massacre in which the U.S. Cavalry nearly slaughtered our entire population. Elders, women and children were murdered. A lot of Republicans still believe in the power of competition. A poll in November indicated that 40 percent of them, and 72 percent of all Americans, would like to see President Donald Trump face a primary challenge. But Republican politicians, even those who have strong objections to Trump, have been inhibited by the conventional wisdom that running against Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries would be a suicide mission. Trump is in a very strong position for renomination, as I have written before. An anti-Trump conservative named Andy Smarick has recently argued, however, that the risks of challenging Trump are greatly overestimated. He contends that an ambitious Republican could do himself a world of good by running against President Trump for the nomination in 2020. That candidate, Smarick allows, would probably lose. But he would establish himself (or, in the less likely case, she would establish herself) as a top contender for the leadership of a post-Trump party, either in 2020 if Trump lost the general election or 2024 if he won. The challenger would also give a boost to the influence of his ideas within the party. By sharply criticizing the president in an op-ed article published last week, Mitt Romney has reopened the question of whether Trump will have a rival for the nomination. So it's worth considering Smarick's case. A two-car collision Saturday night at a Calistoga intersection sent one driver to a hospital, according to police. At 6:30 p.m., a Chevrolet Cobalt was heading east on Foothill Boulevard (Highway 128) when its driver went through a stop sign at Petrified Forest Road and collided with a Honda Civic turning left, according to Sgt. Matt Freese. The woman driving the Honda, 18-year-old Dallas Kelly of Santa Rosa, was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with what Freese described as non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the Chevrolet suffered minor injuries when his airbag deployed in the crash, Freese said. No charges or citations had been filed as of Sunday night. The wreck remains under investigation. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ST. HELENA -- A local juvenile was arrested Monday in connection with an armed robbery at St. Helenas Azteca Market on Dec. 23. The arrest occurred shortly after St. Helena police, acting on a tip, conducted a consent search at the suspects house and found numerous articles of evidence, the city announced in a press release. The tip came from an anonymous caller who contacted the police department Sunday stating that he knew who the suspect was. The caller provided pertinent information along with the name of the local juvenile, the press release stated. The suspect, whose name is being withheld, was booked at the Napa County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of armed robbery and brandishing a replica firearm. Police previously said the suspect demanded an unspecified amount of money or items and left with a plastic bag containing money in a change box. The suspect fled north on foot, and police asked residents in the area to shelter in place as they searched homes along Grayson Avenue, aided by a California Highway Patrol plane and police dogs from the St. Helena Police Department and the Napa County Sheriffs Office. The suspect wasnt found at the time, and surveillance footage released to the public showed only a figure dressed in black. Police described the suspect as thin, between 5 feet 5 and 8 inches tall, wearing a black mask, black gloves, and an all-black outfit. "We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, pay down debt, and meet our future obligations," he plans to say Monday. "We will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history." Newsom, a Democrat, was elected by a wide margin but will still have to govern a vast state with large conservative areas. "I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me," he plans to say. "I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesn't care about them -- doesn't even really see them. Well, I see you." Newsom has sharply criticized Trump for the past two years. In March, Newsom released a campaign ad that called Trump's plan for a border wall a "monument to idiocy" and referred to Trump as a "small, scared bully." Some of Newsom's early appointees for key government positions also have taken stands resisting Trump's priorities. Julie Su, whom Newsom named labor secretary late last week, in 2017 directed her employees at the Department of Industrial Relations to keep immigration agents out of state offices unless they had warrants. Su sought to assure low-wage workers that they could report labor law violations without risk of deportation. The St. Helena Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold its next meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, at Vintage Hall. The board will review labor negotiation proposals between the school district and the St. Helena Teachers Association, conduct the annual district of choice lottery, and approve the cost savings certification for the early retirement incentive program. The personnel register lists six teachers who will be retiring in June: Ana Canales at St. Helena Primary School, Lenore Davis and Linda Maloney at St. Helena Elementary School, Terry Messmer at RLS Middle School, and Theresa Ely and Debra Hacker at St. Helena High School. The early retirement incentives will save the district money in the long run because longer-tenured, higher-paid teachers will be replaced with new teachers lower on the pay scale. Trustees are also scheduled to discuss a student residency audit, the district Intervention Plan, English language learners, and the summer aquatics program. City Councilmember Paul Dohrings re-election campaign spent its remaining funds on $4,000 in charitable donations, according to campaign finance documents filed Friday at City Hall. Dohring ran unopposed in the November election, but his campaign raised $7,648 and spent $3,648 on campaign-related expenses. The campaign was closed out with four $1,000 donations to the St. Helena Historical Society, the St. Helena Public Schools Foundation, Nimbus Arts and the Napa-based Teens Connect. Former Mayor Alan Galbraith closed his re-election campaign account in similar fashion, donating $7,648 to St. Helena Preschool For All. The other two candidates in the City Council election, Mayor Geoff Ellsworth and Councilmember Anna Chouteau, havent filed their final reports. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The E.U.'s 25 percent tariffs have crimped the sales growth of a variety of U.S. exporters, including apparel companies, boat builders and peanut butter-makers. Lee Zalben, founder of Peanut Butter & Co., a 15-person firm in Manhattan, said European buyers are canceling or trimming orders, or asking for discounts. Exports to the European Union make up less than 2 percent of the firm's revenue, but the company had been targeting Europe for sales growth, "so we're having to find that growth in other areas," Zalben said. Catoctin Creek had been aiming to boost European exports from about 10 percent of its sales in early 2018 to as much as 25 percent to take advantage of the hip profile American whiskey has developed overseas. Instead, exports have fallen to close to zero. "It's essentially decimated our European business, and it's put our expansion on hold," said Scott Harris, who has instituted a hiring freeze and put off buying new stills and fermentation tanks at the 20-person distillery on Purcellville's Main Street. European officials are due to visit Washington next week to continue talks aimed at resolving the trade dispute. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn't respond to a request for comment. Oaklands Highland Hospital lists its price for a single chest X-ray at $131, while over the Bay at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, they say itll set you back $2,618. An aspirin tablet? Highland wants $7 for that, but its $1.02 at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and just 30 cents at Walnut Creeks John Muir Medical Center. If that seems like a bargain, consider that Rite Aid sells a bottle with 100 of those same pills for $5.49, less than 5 and a half cents each. UCSF suggests they dont charge for an aspirin pill at all. Hoping to empower consumers who are shouldering more and more of their health care costs each year, the federal government this year is requiring hospitals across the country to post their standard price lists on their websites. Consumer advocates and industry experts applaud the move as a step toward price transparency in the Byzantine world of medical billing that can help keep a lid on costs by pressuring hospitals to be more competitive in their prices. But they also note that the price lists are misleading. Few people actually pay the posted prices, as insurers negotiate lower rates for their plans. And its hard to tell from the a la carte price list how treatments might be combined for the final bill. Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga recently announced that the matric pass rate for the class of 2018 is 78.2%. This pass rate is a significant improvement over the 2017 pass rate of 75.1%, and the highest since the class of 2013s 78.3%. This raises the question as to what makes 2013 and 2018 so special, and the answer is simple these results preceded general elections in South Africa. A similar big increase in the matric results happened in 2003, too, which was before the 2004 generation elections. Education is always a hot topic on the campaign trail, and a high matric pass rate makes it easier for the ruling ANC to claim they are doing a great job. The Department of Basic Educations officials may argue that the higher pass rates before election years are purely coincidental. However, it justifies scrutiny. Matric marks adjusted upwards in 2018 The matric pass rate is a figure which can easily be manipulated through easier exams or mark adjustments. This year, for example, 17 out of the 67 subjects that formed part of the Department of Basic Educations matric exams had their marks adjusted upwards. It is not surprising that the DAs Shadow Minister of Basic Education, Nomsa Marchesi, raised serious questions about the management of the National Senior Certificate exams. Marchesi highlighted that the size of the mark adjustments are kept secret, with Umalusi refusing to let MPs attend the standardisation meeting. It is easy to understand why the DA needs to attack the ever-growing matric pass when the party argues the ANC government is failing the countrys youth through poor education. Matric made easier Mark adjustments are only one of the tools used by the ANC government to increase the matric pass rate, though. The most effective way to increase the pass rate is to make it easier to pass, and here the government has been particularly industrious since 1994. The government lowered the pass mark in some subjects to 30% and made exams easier by removing higher grade subjects. In its latest intervention, the government made it easier to get a National Senior Certificate Bachelors pass by removing the designated subject list. Previously pupils had to obtain an NSC with a minimum of a 50% in four designated subjects for admission to degree studies. However, on 2 March, the designated subject list was revoked by the department of higher education. This means that the minimum admission requirements for degree study changed to an achievement of 50% or more in any four subjects. A matric pass became so easy that education expert Professor Jonathan Jansen said that passing Grade 12 in South Africa is actually quite easy, and it means very little. It is not as if the few who passed and even those who graduated with a so-called Bachelors pass have a solid academic education to see them through tertiary studies, he said. In fact, we know most of these students will drop out of university and few would attain the degree within the minimum time. Preventing learners from failing Another highly effective tool to increase the matric pass rate is to ensure learners who may not pass the exams do not write them. Marchesi said figures analysed by the DA show a massive dropout of students from Grade 10 to matric. Looking at the number of students who started Grade 10 in 2016 who would become the matric class of 2018 under 40% of these learners passed matric exams. Matric results from 2000 to 2018 The graph below shows the matric pass rate from 2000 to 2018, and the close link between higher pass rates and general elections. Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe has warned that while power stations are at comfortable levels now this is likely to change once big businesses and factories begin operations. Speaking to IOL, Phasiwe said that electricity systems will be under pressure from the middle of January 2019 when the festive holiday period comes to an end. We have done a lot of maintenance during the festive period and some of the units are back on the system and will help stabilise the power grid, said Phasiwe. Many of our generating units are over 35 years old, so clearly we are running an old system that needs a lot of maintenance and generally its unreliable, he added. Phasiwe said that this, combined with a need to catch up on maintenance, means that load-shedding is likely to resume in the coming weeks. Preparing for 2019 Phasiwe said that Eskom has also stockpiled 28 days worth of coal supplies, ensuring shortages are not a contributing factor to load-shedding, but energy expert Ted Blom has questioned the quality of Eskoms coal. Eskom has recovered some coal, but what they have done because the mining sector has been closed for the last three weeks is they have bought coal that is laying on dumps, said Blom in the report. Blom added that a lot of this coal is of poor quality. Eskoms woes The warning from Eskom follows Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan stating that the Eskom power grid would be more stable when businesses returned to operations after the holiday season in 2019. There has been no load-shedding from 15 December thanks to power demand decreasing as businesses and industries closed for Christmas. This is in stark contrast to what took place at the end of 2018, with daily load-shedding hitting South Africans. Gordhan said there were several reasons for load-shedding, including a lack of skills at Eskom, coal supply issues, and problems with their generators. Additionally, Gordhan blamed the Gupta family for some of Eskoms failings. Today we feel the effect of state capture, and the reality that we have very old power stations that we are operating, said Gordhan in December. According to Gordhan, Eskom has 47,000MW of installed capacity, but in reality, can only supply 26,000MW. South Africas power demand in summer is 29,000MW, meaning that Eskom was unable to cater to South Africas power needs. Between 9,000MW and 11,000MW of the missing capacity was due to technical breakdowns, which Gordhan blamed on insufficient investment into maintenance and repair since 2010. Huge danger for South Africa Besides the irritation of not having electricity at home, load-shedding presents big risks to South Africa and its economy. Business analyst Martin Kingston has labeled Eskom and its poor performance the biggest threat to the wellbeing of the South African economy. This is due to businesses having to pay more for generators and fuel to keep running, and companies not willing to invest in South Africa until electricity supply is constant and guaranteed. Eskom also currently finds itself in R419 billion debt, which is likely to be paid out of South Africas tax coffers. Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. 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He recognizes the need for some changes and feels his rapport with the commissioners is good after meeting with them several times, but grapples with the reality of financial restrictions. Mental health issues are one of the biggest challenges facing law enforcement, he said. Id like to see more services for inmates in the jail to help them get out of the downward spiral and be able to cope with their issues. It would reduce liability as well. He would like more staff at the sheriffs office and will work with the county commissioners and available funding. Five officers handling everything at the office and in the county is challenging, he said. The Sheriff is responsible for execution of civil processing and at this time the dispatcher is completing the paperwork for civil cases, an overwhelming task which is a full part-time job, he said. Id like to see someone hired as an administrative assistant. His most memorable, and most recent case, was the Giannonatti murders in October 2015. "It was a big case, but I got a confession and the perpetrator took me to the bodies," Howard said. Ive been given a gift from God; I dont know where else it came from, he said. Ive been able to sit down with fully Mirandized people who have done terrible things to others; and after a while they would confess and tell me why and how they did it. It wasnt from training, it was just there. But Ive added to it by taking advanced training in investigation and cold-case investigation. Jerry Fiske was Sheriff from 1990-1994. Howard became Sheriff on Jan. 1, 1995 after being Undersheriff for Collins and Fiske. I was blessed to work with Jerry, Howard said. His experience as a military policeman brought more modernization to local law enforcement. Once again I took his good ideas, and discarded the things that didnt work for me. The contract will also change the employees bonuses and pay scale, causing a wage freeze and reducing incentive pay. The pay scale numbers proposed create a financial injury to the employees, Davis said. They are never going to agree with something that will set them backward. When Davis shared the final labor contract draft with Dave Gates employees, he said it was shot down in flames. He informed Northwestern Energy of the stations decision not to ratify, bringing the two parties back to the negotiation stage. Since the federal mediator was involved in the last two-day, in-person negotiation period, she will be involved moving forward, Davis said. He hopes to meet at the table again sometime in Jan. and to come away with an agreement. Northwestern Energy is hopeful, too. The company released a statement on Thursday that said it looks forward to resolution through the federal mediator. It also noted that the parties have made significant progress, reaching tentative agreement on many items. The shutdown has furloughed about 13,000 federal workers in Montana, including Interior staff at Yellowstone and Glacier national parks as well as Forest Service and other Department of Agriculture agencies. The federal government is the second-largest employer in the state. Since the shutdown, visitors have been able to enter Yellowstone and Glacier, but depend on private businesses and residents for local services. In his letter, Daines noted that while the Antideficiency Act prohibited continued government operations during a shutdown, an exemption existed for emergencies to protect life and property. He suggested that volunteers in Gardiner and Cooke City picking up trash and maintaining bathrooms posed a significant risk to property and public health. I urge you to reconsider a lapse in these services and any other eligible under this exemption of the Act and provide additional support to our gateway communities and national parks, Daines wrote. Daines said in a statement Sunday afternoon that he was pleased with Interior's decision. "Our communities should not be in danger as a result of political games going on in Washington, D.C.,'' he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 But while roughly 1,600 Montanans are eligible for a treatment court each year, current capacity in the 28 non-tribal courts is limited to 564 participants, according to the report. Participation numbers for the eight tribal courts were not provided. The report, written by Oregon-based NPC Research, stressed the need for additional state funding. "There are demonstrated resource needs and people who could be served," the report reads. "If the state wants to benefit fully from the potential treatment courts could offer, it needs to provide additional funding to expand existing programs and support additional ones." The state provides $1.3 million a year to fund treatment courts, but that could change. Rep. Zach Brown, D-Bozeman, plans to carry a bill sponsored by Attorney General Tim Fox in the Montana Legislature to enact a wholesale tax on opioids. While the proceeds would fund treatment courts in the state, initial revenue projections were not immediately available. Brown did say the bill would contain a provision prohibiting drug manufacturers from passing along any costs of complying with the bill to consumers in the form of a price increase. Obviously Im sure the drug companies will come in with guns blazing, but thats to be excepted, he said. And my sense is theres not a lot of sympathy for opioid manufacturers in Montana at the moment. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Jan. 1 was the 25th anniversary of when President Bill Clinton's biggest mistake, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), went into effect, Jan. 1, 1994. Journalist I.F. Stone wrote that all government tell lies, and Slick Willy told us that NAFTA would bring jobs to Americans. What a dissembler! NAFTA really eliminated lots of good-paying American union jobs to give $3-an-hour jobs to Mexico. Liberal pundit Chris Hedges calls Clinton the "poster child" for the foe liberal class. Clinton did us great damage under the rubric of democratic liberalism, such as boosting the U.S. prison population to 2 million inmates with the Omnibus Crime Bill, incarcerating many people who shouldn't have been. He gutted our welfare system, and caused many people to go hungry, with the Welfare Reform Act. He caused huge national financial problems by abolishing the 1932-1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which provided a buffer between investment banks and securities firms. Democratic freedoms that common people have gained came from slugging it out in tough, heartbreaking activism. If we lose our vigilance and will to fight, the power elites will fight dirty and take it all back. As the old saw goes, "Freedom doesn't come for free." Lee Onishuk, Missoula You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Changing this House rule would result in a flood of bills voted on by the entire House of Representatives who have not heard the committee discussion which caused the proposed law to be tabled. This change would create chaos since there are more than 3,000 proposed laws currently being drafted for the 2019 Legislature to consider. The proposed change being pushed by the Rep. Jones coalition would eliminate the value of legislative committees responsible for carefully evaluating proposed laws. This would weaken the voters ability to address legislation during the committee process. In addition, the leaders of this fringe Republican group are angry that the majority of the Republican Caucus did not elect them to House leadership. Consequently, they are discussing joining forces with the minority Democrat legislators to overthrow the newly nominated House of Representative leadership. I and the 26 former Montana legislators listed below urge voters to contact the newly elected Republican legislators to encourage them to support the Republican majority who were elected to the Montana House of Representatives and not support the Rep. Llew Jones faction promoting division within the Republican caucus to support the Democrats agenda. Republican Ed Butcher, of Winifrid, is a former Montana legislator. This opinion was co-signed by 26 other former GOP legislators, including: Ken Miller, George Everett, Betty Lou Kasten, Verdell Jackson, Dave Kasten, Scott Boggio, Ed Hilbert, Bill Nooney, Bob Wagner, Wendy Warburton, Joan Blyton, Bill Harris, Jack Wells, Krayton Kerns, Jim Whitaker, Mike Miller, Jack Ross, Kenneth Peterson, Dan Skattum, Wayne Stahl, Janna Taylor, Art Wittich, Joel Bonick, John Witt, Dave Lewis and Matthew Monforton. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Its good way to get people talking to each other, said Barbara Bessette, a Democrat from Great Falls serving her first term in the House. Its a good way to have different interactions with people you might not (otherwise). You realize we all just want to do the best we can for the people of Montana. Its good to see its not always about party politics. Youve got to work together to get stuff done. Fellow incoming House freshman Joel Krautter, a Republican from Sidney, said he liked the team-building aspect of the event. Its a good way for us to get started, Krautter said. We can have different ideas but still come together with a good product. There was something about lawmakers gathered in a home, in their stocking feet and hands deep in ground meat, feeding each other sausage off little toothpicks, that helped break down dividing lines, at least for a few hours before the start of the session. Rep. Frank Garner, a Republican from Kalispell, said he liked the idea behind the gathering. You have people from different parties, all across the state, working together. Its a pretty cool idea. Everybody checked their ego at the door. You forget for a few minutes that we dont always agree, Garner said. A woman in her late 50s has her extended family staying with her out of necessity. She is struggling with everyone living in such close proximity, and is need of a twin bed and box spring for the children. She is also in need of a washer and dryer to be able to keep up with the laundry in the household. The small space available would require the washer and dryer to be stackable. If anyone in the Missoula area is looking to donate these items, it would have a major impact on her day-to-day life. Please call Joe, case manager with 3 Rivers Mental Health Center, at 406-830-6096. New business Missoula Works launched a new micro-enterprise, Mamas Promise, a jewelry line created by homeless mothers. Missoula Works worked with the Family Promise Program, an emergency shelter program for families experiencing homelessness, operated by Missoula Interfaith Collaborative, to identify income-generating opportunities for homeless mothers. Missoula Works is a supportive staffing agency which finds employment for individuals experiencing barriers such as homelessness, recovery from addiction, or previous incarceration. Missoula Works also operates a general labor service called the Get It Done Crew. The Get It Done Crew provides temporary employment, training and skill development to prepare individuals for the staffing agency and, ultimately, permanent employment. Each item is custom cut and handcrafted by one of the mothers. The earrings and jewelry are currently sold at the Missoula Works office, 202 Brooks St. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Three teams working independently have uploaded papers to the bioRxiv preprint server outlining their research involving attempting to use neural network-based AI systems to translate brainwaves into decipherable speech. The first, by a team with members from Columbia University and Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, focused on recordings made using brain electrode implants with epilepsy patients. The second team, with members from the University of Bremen, Maastricht University, Northwestern University and Virginia Commonwealth University, used data from brain probes implanted during brain tumor surgery. The third team involved a pair of researchers from the University of California and also relied on data from electrodes implanted into the brains of epilepsy patients. Currently, there is no known way to "listen" to human thought and convert it to decipherable speech. But scientists are getting closer, as demonstrated by the work in these three new efforts. The work involved collecting data from electrodes implanted into the brains of patients who were there for reasons other than speech researchepilepsy patients, for example, have such probes placed on their brains prior to undergoing surgery. And brain tumor patients have them placed in their brains during surgery to help surgeons figure out where and where not to cut. This means that researchers attempting to use such data for other purposes have a small datasetthe probes are only in the brains for a very short period of time. But the different ways they are used offer researchers some advantages. The second team, for example, was also able to gather voice data from the patients undergoing surgery as they responded to requests from the surgeons. That allowed the researchers to compare brain wave activity with the actual words spoken. An AI system was able to translate similar data into actual words at about 40 percent accuracy. The first team focused on numbers and found that their AI system was approximately 75 percent accurate in extracting numbers from similar data and then reciting them. And the third team used similar data with an AI system to build entire sentences based on data matches with epilepsy patients reading aloud while having their brains probed. Notably, all three studies involved working with people who were able to speakthe goal is to translate brain waves of patients who are not able to speak into speech. Currently, such patients use eye-controlled cursor boards or other such devices, which do not offer inflection, tone or other speech-related cues. Explore further Brain implant tested in human patients found to improve memory recall More information: Hassan Akbari et al. Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex, bioRxiv (2018). Hassan Akbari et al. Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex,(2018). DOI: 10.1101/350124 Miguel Angrick et al. Speech Synthesis from ECoG using Densely Connected 3D Convolutional Neural Networks:, bioRxiv (2018). DOI: 10.1101/478644 Yulia Oganian et al. A speech envelope landmark for syllable encoding in human superior temporal gyrus, bioRxiv (2018). DOI: 10.1101/388280 2019 Science X Network (HealthDay)If you suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a flu shot can be a lifesaver. But many of the millions with the lung condition don't get it, researchers report. COPD causes inflammation in the lungs and it can flare up when triggered by the flu, making the infection worse, explained lead researcher Dr. Sunita Mulpuru. She is an associate scientist at Ottawa Hospital in Canada. Not only is the flu bad, but other complications, such as pneumonia, can be even worse, she added. "Approximately one in 10 pass away, and one in five develop critical illness requiring admission to the intensive care unit [in a hospital]," Mulpuru said. But getting a flu shot lowers the odds of being hospitalized for flu-related illness by 38 percent, her team discovered. "Despite that finding, only 66 percent of the patients in this study were vaccinated," Mulpuru noted. In addition, the antiviral medications Tamiflu and Relenza, which can make flu less severe, were only used 69 percent of the time, the findings showed. Moreover, the drugs weren't given early in the hospital, when they can be most effective, she said. These drugs were most often given when patients were headed to the intensive care unit, "which is too late," Mulpuru said. Dr. MeiLan Han, a spokeswoman for the American Lung Association and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said more COPD patients need to get vaccinated. "There are a lot of misconceptions out there," Han said. "I hear things like 'I've never had the flu, so I don't think I'll ever get it,' which is a bit of a falsehood." Many people don't understand the flu is much worse than a bad cold and can be life-threatening, she noted. "In the best case, you feel deathly miserable for a week or two," Han said. Some patients fear that they can get the flu from the vaccine. But that simply isn't so, she added. Although it's too early to tell how bad this year's flu season will be, the last season sent nearly one million Americans to the hospital and killed 80,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the study, Mulpuru and colleagues collected data on nearly 4,200 COPD patients hospitalized for acute respiratory illness. After checking their flu vaccination status, the investigators found that COPD patients who had a flu shot were 38 percent less likely to be hospitalized for flu-related illness. Moreover, COPD patients with the flu were more likely to die than those without the disease (10 percent versus 8 percent). These patients were also more likely to be critically ill (17 percent versus 12 percent), the findings showed. Patients most at risk were those over age 75, those with heart disease and those who needed to use oxygen at home, the researchers reported. The report was published in the January issue of the journal Chest. Dr. Len Horovitz is a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He said, "This study documents what doctors always tell patients in trying to 'sell' the flu shot." Vaccination does reduce hospitalization in patients with COPD who contract influenza, Horovitz said. "It follows that a milder attack of flu will not generate as many complications necessitating hospitalization," he added. "That's a great benefit of vaccination, even when the flu breaks through the vaccination barrier." Explore further Tool identifies which patients with COPD are at risk of death, serious complications More information: For more on COPD, visit the Journal information: Chest For more on COPD, visit the American Lung Association Copyright 2019 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Medicaid reimbursement to health care facilities on ST-elevation myocardial managementor STEMI, a serious form of a heart attackis often lower when compared with the reimbursement rate of private insurance, according to a study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. The findings were made by a team of cardiovascular researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Utilizing the largest in-patient databasethe National Inpatient Sampleinvestigators from UAB summarized the impact of the reimbursement gap between Medicaid and private insurance on management and in-hospital outcomes among patients admitted for STEMI. "We conducted a retrospective study to examine the differences in management and outcomes between Medicaid beneficiaries versus privately insured STEMI hospitalizations as a proxy for understanding the impact of reimbursement gap across the two insurance groups,"said first author Nirav Patel, M.D. Patel designed and conducted the analyses for the study. "As expansion of Medicaid has significantly improved health care access but often lowered payments to hospitals and providers," Patel said, "we wanted to explore the possible unintended consequences of the differences in reimbursement rates on emergent medical conditions such as STEMI in Medicaid beneficiaries as compared with privately insured individuals." Medicaid is the largest federally funded health insurance program in the United States, covering nearly 73 million people. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medicaid has allowed more than 15 million previously uninsured individuals to gain health care coverage. However, Medicaid reimbursement to the health care facilities is often lower as compared with private insurance. Researchers say that, in principle, the reimbursement rates should have no effect on health care outcomes, especially to those requiring immediate assistance such as with a heart attack, where there is abrupt blockage of a heart artery with changes on the electrocardiogram. In this nationwide retrospective study from January 2012 through September 2015, researchers found that Medicaid beneficiaries with STEMI had significantly lower rates of coronary revascularization and higher rates of in-hospital mortality compared with the privately insured. Medicaid beneficiaries with STEMI were more likely to receive bare metal stents, while those with private insurance were more likely to receive drug eluting stents for coronary revascularization. Additionally, the rates of coronary angiography and utilization of thrombolysis were also significantly lower in Medicaid beneficiaries compared with privately insured with STEMI. The rates of invasive hemodynamic support and median length of stay were similar between Medicaid beneficiaries and privately insured with STEMI. However, the cost of STEMI hospitalization was higher among Medicaid beneficiaries compared with privately insured. "The finding of disparities in management and in-hospital outcomes by insurance status can be explained by Medicaid's complex payment systembase plus supplemental payments and reimbursement rates," said senior author Pankaj Arora M.D., an assistant professor in UAB's Division of Cardiovascular Disease. "Historically, Medicaid pays roughly 90 percent of the cost incurred to the hospitals, whereas private insurances typically remunerate roughly 144 percent of the cost of the service provided by the hospital. After the execution of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are getting a higher number of Medicaid beneficiaries, which has distorted the hospital payer mixpooled Medicaid and private insurance payment basket." Additionally, Arora said mandated federal spending cuts through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 may further exacerbate the disparities in quality of health care for Medicaid beneficiaries. He cautioned that there can be bias, or residual confounding, in an observational study, but he said that their findings of disparities by insurance status in treatment of heart attack are intriguing and underscore the importance of additional research to identify and understand the reasons behind these disparities. Authors emphasized the need to dedicate efforts to customize health care reforms by increasing transparency on policymaking decisions and the overall process, restructuring reimbursement policies for life-threating conditions and lifesaving procedures independently, increasing the supplemental payments to solidify Medicaid reimbursement, and timeliness of supplemental payments to hospitals and health care providers to avoid distorting the payer mix as possible solutions to improve the disparities. Explore further Affordable Care Act expands health coverage to more patients, although differences remain Bionic reconstruction: after amputation of a hand, muscles can be repurposed using nerve transfers. Credit: Medical University of Vienna Modern prostheses offer hand amputation patients much greater capability in everyday life than was possible with previous prosthetic reconstructive techniques. Redundant nerves from the amputated extremity can be surgically transferred to provide a much better connection between the patient's body and the prosthesis. This technique has proven to be successful, although the specific reasons were not fully understood. A team of researchers led by Konstantin Bergmeister and Oskar Aszmann from the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Recovery of Limb Function at MedUni Vienna, demonstrated in an animal model that the key to success lies in the muscle undergoing a change of identity triggered by the donor nerve. Bionic prostheses are mentally controlled, registering the activation of residual muscles in the limb stump. Theoretically, it should be possible for the latest generation prostheses to execute the same number of movements as a healthy human hand. However, the link between man and prosthesis is not yet capable of controlling all mechanically possible functions, because the interface is limited in terms of signal transmission. "If we could solve this problem, the latest prostheses could actually become an intuitively operated replacement that functions just like a human hand," the researchers write. To enable the prosthesis to move at all, nerves have to be surgically transferred during the amputation procedure to increase the total number of muscle control signals. This involves connecting amputated peripheral nerves to residual muscles in the amputation stump. This method is successful because these muscles regenerate after a few months to provide better control of the prosthesis. However, until now, it was not clear what specific changes this nerve transfer technique produces in muscles and nerves. As part of an experimental study conducted over several years, a research team led by Konstantin Bergmeister and Oskar Aszmann from MedUni Vienna's Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Recovery of Limb Function have now shown that this nerve transfer technique has previously unidentified neurophysiological effects. These result in more accurate muscle contractility and much more finely controlled muscle signals than previously thought. The researchers also found that muscles take on the identity of the donor nerves, that is to say, the function of the muscle from which the nerve was originally harvested. This means that muscles can be modified very specifically to achieve the desired control of the lost extremity. This information will now be used in follow-up studies to refine the surgical technique of nerve transfer and adapt it more accurately to fine control systems. The vision of an intuitively controlled prosthesis that can perform all the natural manual functions could become a reality within the next few years. Explore further A prosthetic arm that decodes phantom limb movements More information: Konstantin D. Bergmeister et al. Peripheral nerve transfers change target muscle structure and function, Science Advances (2019). Journal information: Science Advances Konstantin D. Bergmeister et al. Peripheral nerve transfers change target muscle structure and function,(2019). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2956 These things are true for most of the western states. Consider where the recent Interior secretaries have come from: Ryan Zinke from Montana, Sally Jewell from Washington, Ken Salazar from Colorado, Kempthorne from Idaho, and before him Gale Norton of Colorado, Bruce Babbitt of Arizona and Manuel Lujan of New Mexico. The principle applies the same for both parties. The last non-westerner in the position was Don Hodel, in the Reagan Administration. Of the 26 secretaries in the last century, all but six have been westerners. No wonder that as Zinke heads for the door, the list of possibilities to replace him is strongly western. Names mentioned on the long list include just-departed Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter and Rep. Raul Labrador, both loosely plausible from a resume standpoint. Otter, 76 years old and just wrapping 12 years as governor, spent six years in Washington as a member of Congress and seldom missed an opportunity to say how much he wanted to leave. Labrador is a better fit in some ways but Interior-related subjects do not seem to have been a high priority for him. He has never been an executive (many cabinet members are former governors). Besides that, he lost the Republican primary for governor last year, a primary many had expected him to win, which would not be the best positioning for building political capital in the Trump administration. The cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of action, Dutton said. The biggest challenge we face is that global warming is seen as a partisan issue when really its not. It will affect all of us. This is about self-preservation, about how humans will continue to survive and adapt in a rapidly changing climate. Now, a new bipartisan proposal has been released in Congress, with three Democrats and three Republicans sponsoring the bill. The proposal is a tax on carbon that will be returned entirely to consumers. That will encourage the economy to use less carbon while not penalizing citizens at the same time. This should create millions of new jobs, promote energy innovation, improve public health and lower health care costs, all while driving down carbon emissions. The bill is ambitious because it has to be, but its also realistic, said Rep. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat who is among the bills co-sponsors. When you can bring together Democrats and Republicans around an urgent issue like climate change we can actually move to address it, Deutch said. This appeared in the Detroit News. As of the opening of the new year, the United States is no longer a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The Trump administration set the deadline for the withdrawal more than a year ago, ending a long and turbulent relationship between the U.S. and UNESCO, an organization charged with preserving world heritage sites and customs and the free flow of information, of ideas. Critics see the break as yet another example of President Donald Trumps isolationist view of Americas place in the world. But breaking with UNESCO was the right thing to do; it has long been a corrupt and mismanaged organization and, in recent years, has become an anti-Semitic one. In leaving, Trump cited UNESCOs hostility toward Israel and the organizations warm embrace of the tormentors of the Jewish state. He is not the first president to turn his back on the organization. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan withdrew from UNESCO, citing corruption, mismanagement and a pro-Soviet bias. President George H.W. Bush directed the U.S. to rejoin in 1992, hoping it would foster better international cooperation. Topics: wellness during pregnancy; labor process with relaxation and breathing techniques; videos of deliveries and labor positions; and care of the postpartum mother and newborn. Bring a labor support person if possible. Cost is $25 and pre-registration is required, 208-814-0425. Fitness College of Southern Idahos Over 60 and Getting Fit program will start the week of Jan. 14 at 10 southern Idaho locations. Participants may register in advance or at the first class. The program is free for ages 60 and older. Classes will be held at 9 a.m., beginning Jan. 14, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the CSI gym in Twin Falls, the Jerome Recreation Center, CSI Blaine County Center in Hailey, Civic Center in Rupert and at the Shoshone High School. Also beginning Jan. 14, classes will be held at 8:45 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Filer Elementary School; 9:30 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Gooding Recreation Center; and 9 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Hagerman High School. Classes will start Jan. 15 in Buhl and Burley: 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Seventh Street Gym in Buhl and 11 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the CSI Mini-Cassia Center in Burley. We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jpownall@lufkindailynews.com , or submit a news tip online by visiting lufkindailynews.com/tips. BURLEY Mini-Cassia Vietnam War veterans are still working to raise funds to repair and remount a Huey helicopter that toppled off its pedestal in a fierce windstorm in September. The helicopter was part of the areas only Vietnam War memorial. That memorial means a lot to us guys, Vietnam War veteran Larry Cottom said. We want people to remember that we were there in that war. Cottom, treasurer for Veterans of the Vietnam War Inc., said the helicopter is one of the most recognizable symbols of the war. The surplus UH-1 Huey helicopter was given to Burley in 2001 to be displayed for historical purposes and to serve as part of the memorial to honor the people in the area who served in the Vietnam conflict. The helicopter sits near the entrance to the municipal airport at Freedom Park on U.S. 30 between a Korean trainer jet and a World War II Sherman tank. The helicopter was donated by the Army National Guard from Fort Rucker in Alabama. When the helicopter fell, the tail section broke and a replacement part will come from Alabama, Cottom said. The helicopter needs to be remounted in a sturdier fashion and painted. Money was tight, however. Farid recalls that the family was unable to afford mangoes at the grocery store -- something he was used to having after dinner as a child in Pakistan. "When we came here, about a year in or six months in, my mother saw mangoes at the grocery store and she told my father that there were mangoes. I think they were a dollar each.... my father says, 'No, put them back. They're too expensive'... I realized at that point that things have changed," he reflects. But Farid's family was resourceful and entrepreneurial. When Farid was 17, his father saw a flower shop for sale in the local newspaper. With a $6,000 loan from his father's boss, Farid bought the shop in his hometown of East Haven, Connecticut. Within a couple of years, Farid had dropped out of college and was operating four shops. On the side, Farid started creating and selling bouquets of fruit. Customers loved them. And by 1999, Farid launched Edible Arrangements. A couple of years later, the company adopted a franchise model and stores started opening up across the United States. Edible 2.0 Critical to his success, Farid says, was his first job at a McDonald's when he was 16. As the federal government shutdown drags on, its become painfully apparent that the public can no longer run amok virtually unsupervised in the national parks. Whats the evidence of that? The litter, vandalism and trampled ground. The human feces overflowing the public toilets and the urine along the roads. Unlike the last lengthy shutdown in 2013, the Trump administration this time has opted to keep the national parks open but largely unstaffed. Private concession operators and nonprofit foundations have helped with maintenance where they can. Some states, including Arizona and New York, have dipped into their own coffers to keep parks staffed and operating at least for a while. Many other states, including California, have not. With tens of thousands of park employees furloughed, that means many parks have no workers collecting entry fees at the gates, patrolling the campgrounds or emptying the garbage cans and portable toilets. But the visitors keep coming. The lack of maintenance and oversight is taking a toll. There are reports of illegal camping and off-road driving in sensitive habitat areas. Unsupervised tourists were harassing elephant seals at the Point Reyes National Seashore, prompting officials to close off part of the beach. Q: How many Wis. governors served nonconsecutive terms? A: Only one governor of the state of Wisconsin served nonconsecutive terms in the office, although one governor of the territory of Wisconsin also served nonconsecutive terms. Philip La Follette was elected as both the 27th and 29th governor of Wisconsin and served three terms total. La Follette, the son of former Gov. Robert M. La Follette, defeated incumbent Walter Kohler in the 1930 primary and went on to win that years general election. La Follette was defeated in the primary two years later Wisconsin governors served two-year terms until a state constitutional amendment upped that to four-year terms beginning in 1970. La Follette then came back to win two more terms in 1934 and 1936. Before Wisconsin joined the union as a state, Henry Dodge was appointed the first governor of the territory in 1836 and served through 1841, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. EDGERTON Although its heyday was more than a century ago, the sleigh remains a marvel: With its elegant curves, handcrafted details and a delicate sense of balance engineered to skim over snow, the sleigh was as much about form as about function. Or so says Dan Bussey, who has collected warehouses of the horse-drawn beauties. They were all about style at that time, he said as he recently showed off some of the sleighs he has stored in an Edgerton building and plans to restore. For owners who made sure their sleighs had a certain look or adornment, he said, It was all about being seen. The 150 sleighs in Busseys collection (he has also amassed a range of horse-drawn vehicles such as carriages, surreys, commercial wagons and even elaborate hearses) represent a range of countries and levels of wealth. Some are simple, others flush with velvet upholstery, hand-painted ornamentation and lavish ironwork. A few have very specific functions, such as a German sled used in World War I to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield, or a boxy sleigh with a roof and small wood stove that was used to deliver mail. Another would be used by a farmer to deliver his goods to town. Busseys most precious finds, however, are those linked to local history, he said. It seemed fitting that during the last week of ex-Gov. Scott Walkers war on our environment, we should learn that an alarmingly high percentage of private wells tested in southwest Wisconsin are contaminated with bacteria and chemicals. Its also more proof that Wisconsin needs new funding and new rules to address water quality problems that have oozed across the state. The time is ripe to make this the era of clean water for all. In fact, its overdue, based on the latest news. As reported last week by Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal, the first systematic study of well water in southwest Wisconsin found bacterial and chemical contamination at rates as bad as and possibly worse than areas in northeastern Wisconsin targeted by new state water protection rules. About 42 percent of 301 randomly selected wells tested in Iowa, Grant and Lafayette counties exceed federal health standards for bacteria that can come from animal or human waste or for nitrate and other toxic fertilizer residues. It's time for a clean sweep at the Capitol, writes the Center for Media and Democracy's Mary Bottari in a column for Isthmus. She presents a checklist of the changes that need to be made to make Wisconsin government transparent and free from outside influences. Political Environment blogger James Rowen outlines what he sees as Scott Walker's gift to new Gov. Tony Evers and rural Wisconsin. Walker's policies have put a major problem of declining family farms and polluted water wells on the governor's plate for him to contend with as he begins his term, Rowen points out. Blogger Chris Liebenthal says many people aren't buying Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' excuse for stripping power from the incoming governor and transferring it to himself during the window between the election and Tony Evers' inauguration. A new version of an old model is gaining popularity and scoring high marks with parents of todays Jewish public school children. Hila Strul watched in awe as her seven-year-old son, Yahav, came home one Friday from his Southern Florida public school, asked for a Book of Psalms, and proceeded to read an entire chapter of the ancient biblical text in the original Hebrew. It brought tears to my eyes, recalls the Israeli expat. She was moved to discover that her American-born son could not only read in her native tongue, but seemed to appreciate that the text represented something significant to the Jewish people. Yahav has developed a love for Judaic learning and a strong sense of his Jewish identity despite being immersed in a completely secular academic environment at school. These are the ideal outcomes that traditional synagogue-based Hebrew Schools have sought for decades. But results like Yahavs are few and far between in the world of contemporary Jewish supplemental education. Which is particularly problematic given that 75 percent of North American Jewish children receive their Judaic instruction from these sorts of programs. Hebrew Schools across denominations are reporting declining enrollments; the traditional Hebrew School model, now perceived by families as no more than a pathway to a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony, does not serve their needs. For generations of American Jews, Hebrew School has meant long, boring Sunday afternoons of tedious classroom lectures and Hebrew instruction. The term Hebrew School itself conjures up negative associations among many of todays parents who do not want to subject their children to the same dull experience that they recall. The sense of obligation or Jewish guilt that once prompted parents to enroll their children in Hebrew School is no longer a motivating factor. Fruma Resnick, a Chabad emissary to Tri-Valley, California, where she is director of the community Hebrew School, says that, Many parents today are more removed and have less of a passion for Judaism. Their top priority, she observed, is seeing their children happy and having a good time. If the children dont want to go, they wont force them. Fun at a Hebrew School afterschool program Parents also want their Sundays back. With two working parents in more than 80 percent of families, and children whose days are packed with sports, music lessons, swimming, and other extracurriculars, Sunday is family time. And among families for whom Jewish education is not a priority, Hebrew School is often the first item cut from the calendar. What they do want is more and better after-school care. According to a study in 2014 by the after-school Alliance, after-school participation is up to fifteen million students, an astonishing 60 percent increase in the last decade alone. They further report that not only has attendance grown, but the programs themselves have grown in their offerings, and in their quality. After-school programs have become more than a means for keeping kids off the streets. Theyve become centers for academic enrichment and hands-on learning with caring and supportive mentors. If you are a working parent, you have to enroll your child in an after-school program, says Rabbi Moishe Kievman, of Highland Lakes, Florida. As parents are already searching for premium after-school care for their children, they are only too happy to have it include a substantive Jewish education. Ten years ago, the rabbi and his wife, Layah, noticed a need for a local Jewish aftercare program and founded a first-of-its-kind daily Chabad after-school in their community. We saw that parents were unwilling to take their children out of a standard aftercare program just to have to drive them to another program that they then had to pay for. The Kievmans solved the problem: they became the after-school program. Yahav Strul is one of five hundred Jewish public-school students from kindergarten through eighth grade who attend CHAP (Community Hebrew After-School Program). The program, offered Monday through Friday at two separate public-school locations, has gained recognition as Dade Countys number one after-school program. Students can be tired after a full day of classroom learning, so the program integrates Judaic learning into supervised play, hands-on activities, music, homework help, snack, clubs, enrichment, and sports, making the post-school experience engaging and fun. Kievman has professionals teach art, Zumba, yoga, karate, sports, and chess. Interactive and educational: students are taught about giving charity We try to do everything in a fun manner, so its a lot more exciting than regular school, Layah explains. Most of these kids come five days a week and are used to this schedule so it doesnt feel burdensome. With no homework, tests, or report cards, kids feel great about learning about Judaism. Rachel Pupkin says the fun atmosphere has helped her son, Eli, absorb a significant amount of Judaic knowledge. She and her husband, Alfredo, both attended Jewish schools in their youth and felt that it was important that their children receive some form of formal Jewish education. CHAPs after-school model was the perfect fit for their family. Eli loves it, she says. He wouldnt mind missing a day at school but he would not miss Hebrew School! CHAP has a waiting list at both of the hosting public schools, with one kindergarten class maxing out at twenty-four children. If the public school would provide us with more space, we could have over forty children enrolled in that class, Layah says. Perel Gross, a local mental health counselor who has interned at the program, noticed that the children dont want to leave at the end of the day. It is a Hebrew School, but there is so much more that is worked on, he says. Everyone in the school is focused on helping the children academically, socially, and emotionally, and the children learn so much more than just Hebrew studies. With their proven success, Jewish after-school programs are now popping up throughout the Chabad network. In Carroll County, Maryland, Chabad director Feige Cohen says that their newly developed after-school program is serving as an entry point for young families. Our community has many nontraditional families who are not Jewishly engaged in any way, he says. These families are not ready to commit to an intensive Hebrew School, so a shorter after-school option is a lot more attractive. Cohen created a series of six-week after-school sessions, which she branded The Jewish Discovery Program. And she found that parents were open to sending their children: This structure has been very well received, and we have seen how the positive Jewish experience has actually drawn the parents in as well and encouraged them to be involved in the community. Gitty Goldstein of Chabad of Cupertino, California, took the flexibility of after-school learning one step further. Her Torah After-School program is geared towards Jewish children who attend public school because they have special educational needs. Parents are looking for solutions that cater to their childrens unique needs, she says. When it comes to special learning needs, parents dont necessarily want their children to learn to read Hebrew, but rather to have a general Jewish identity. As an after-school, we are not a cookie-cutter Hebrew School; we cater the program to the children so they can grow at their level and enjoy it. Chabad Hebrew Schools use creative methods to teach mitzvot In Solon, Ohio, Chabads traditional Sunday Hebrew School is bucking trends with the growing enrollment of more than one hundred and thirty students this year. The vast majority of American Jewish families want their children to have a bar or bat mitzvah, and Hebrew School is still the best route to that end, says Hebrew School director Miriam Greenberg. She decided to open a separate Jewish after-school at the Solon Chabad center three years ago, in order to reach the families in her community who were not necessarily interested in a Hebrew School education. The after-school offers a Jewish Culture Club with stories and activities about Jewish holidays and the weekly Torah portion. Our goal at Chabad is to bring Judaism to as many Jews as possible, wherever they are, says Greenberg. By adding the aftercare to our roster of services, we are now engaging with children who would have had no other Jewish connection. And the efficacy of that connection is not to be underestimated. One girl who attended the Solon Chabad after-school joined the Greenbergs family Passover Seder. Says Greenberg: My husband was asking questions about the Passover story, expecting the Hebrew School student to answer, but this girl, who never took any formal classes, was happily answering every single question, just based on the weekly stories she heard at the program. Layah Kievman estimates that children learn about three times more content in the after-school model of Jewish education than the traditional once-a-week model. But she measures her ultimate success in the families that are inspired to make a commitment to full-time Jewish education. Over the years, at least forty children have transferred from our after-school program to Jewish day schools. This year we saw our greatest success yet, as twelve children switched from the public school system to the Jewish day school system. Article from the latest issue of Lubavitch International. Venezuelas opposition-controlled congress opened its first session of the year Saturday, installing a fresh-faced leader who struck a defiant tone and vowed to take up the battle against socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Juan Guaido, 35, assumes the presidency of a National Assembly stripped of power by Maduro, whose government is blamed for leading the once-wealthy oil nation into a historic political and humanitarian crisis. Speaking to legislators, Guaido named off several opposition politicians and opponents of Maduros government who have been jailed, driven into exile or killed. He said desperation has forced masses of citizens to flee abroad looking for work. We are under an oppressive system, he said. Its not just that it is miserable. Tall and youthful, Guaido represents the next generation of Venezuelan political opposition, taking up the assemblys leadership following 74-year-old Omar Barboza. Guaido is an industrial engineer and former student leader from the same political party as Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuelas most popular opposition leader under house arrest. Government opponents consider him a political prisoner. Guaido called Maduro a dictator whose legitimacy has run out. Venezuela is living a dark but transitional moment of its history, he said, adding that among its first acts congress will create a transitional body to restore constitutional order, but he offered no details. He addressed a hall filled only with opposition lawmakers as the government loyalists have long boycotted any sessions, saying the National Assembly has itself overstepped its authority. However, roughly 20 foreign diplomats from the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany attended the assemblys inaugural session in a show of solidarity. The National Assembly should inspire hope in the Venezuelan people for a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic future, even as the corrupt and authoritarian Maduro regime and its allies seek to deny Venezuelans that right, the State Department said in a statement. It added: Every nation must take strong action to help the Venezuelan people reclaim their democracy. The assembly opened days before Maduros inauguration to a second, six-year term widely condemned as illegitimate after he declared victory in the May 20 election that many foreign powers considered a sham. Venezuelas socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello said Saturday that Maduro will be sworn in on Jan. 10 before the Supreme Court, which is stacked with government loyalists. This defies the constitution that requires a president take the oath before the National Assembly. AP New York City experienced another record-setting crime reduction in 2018, continuing a more-than two decade decline that has cut the number of homicides to a fraction of the 2,000 that were seen in 1990, Police Commissioner James ONeill said. The city recorded its second consecutive year of less than 300 homicides, with 289 last year, down from 292 in 2017. There were fewer than 800 shootings for the second consecutive year, and robberies and burglaries fell to a record low, according to police department statistics. Rapes increased 22 percent, the only crime to see a significant rise. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that was likely because more women felt empowered to report sexual assaults to the police. ONeill and de Blasio attributed the continuing success to the departments emphasis on better relations with minority communities and organized neighborhood-based anti-violence efforts. Its unbelievable to think how far weve come, de Blasio said. Were in the new normal now and we intend to go farther. The steady drop in crime coincided with record reductions in the city jail population and a rollback in the so-called stop-and-frisk practices of New York police officers, a tactic sharply reduced after civil rights advocates cited data showing it was disproportionately used in minority neighborhoods. There were 94 percent fewer stop-and-frisk street encounters between police and city residents since the practice peaked before de Blasio took office in 2014. Bloomberg Ferry services and airports reopened in southern Thailand on Saturday as a storm moved west into the Andaman Sea after causing disruption and leaving at least one person dead. Tropical Storm Pabuk barreled across the Gulf of Thailand on Friday but spared world famous beach resorts major damage. The storm damaged houses, knocked down power lines and triggered flash floods in several east coast provinces. On the island of Koh Samui, where the suspension of air and ferry services had trapped many visitors, lines were long Saturday for rides back to the mainland. The areas large fishing industry had to stand down, with ships ordered to stay in ports and small boats hauled ashore to keep them from being swept away. One fisherman died when his boat, caught at sea, capsized Friday. Another member of its six-man crew was missing. The authorities prepared for the storm by evacuating almost 29,000 people in provinces most at risk, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. In the hardest-hit province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, about 800 kilometers south of Bangkok, 32 electric poles were felled, transformers exploded and communications lines were down in some districts, according to the department. Stormy weather continued Saturday, but its effects on the Andaman coast and the tourist hub of Phuket appeared marginal. The storm lost strength as it crossed land, with the Thai Meteorological Department saying it packed maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour as it moved west-northwest at a speed of 10 kph. With rain continuing in some areas, the department kept its warnings of possible forest runoffs and flash floods. It also said strong winds were still forecast with waves up to 3-5 meters high in both the Gulf and the Andaman Sea, raising the possibility of inland storm surges. AP Nissan Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz, who oversaw the Japanese automakers global strategies, is taking a leave of absence to work on special tasks arising from recent events, the company said Saturday, referring to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. Nissan Motor Co. spokesman Nicholas Maxfield did not offer any other details. Munoz is among several executives media have speculated could be a possible successor to Ghosn. Ghosn, a revered figure in the global auto industry, led Nissan for two decades after being sent in by Renault in 1999 when Nissan was near bankruptcy. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan. Ghosn was arrested Nov. 19 and has been charged with falsifying financial reports in underreporting his income. He has said repeatedly he is innocent, including on the latest allegation that he had Nissan temporarily shoulder investment losses. The income was never decided on, and Nissan did not suffer the losses, according to sources close to Ghosn and his family. Ghosn is scheduled to face a Tokyo courtroom tomorrow, his first public appearance since his arrest, as his lawyers demand to know why his detention is continuing. His detention has been repeatedly extended and now goes through Jan. 11. In Japan, suspects are often held for months before trial. Prosecutors consider Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, a flight risk. Greg Kelly, another Nissan executive charged with collaborating on Ghosns underreported income, was freed on bail last month. Kelly, an American, is also asserting his innocence. He has said through his lawyers he will get hospital treatment for a neck ailment. No trial dates have been set for Ghosn or Kelly. AP Myanmar is planning to implement digital marketing to develop the countrys hotels and tourism sector, so as to increase promotional work to attract visitors from Macau and Hong Kong, Myanmar News Agency reported Sunday. The move was discussed by Myanmar Minister of Hotels and Tourism, U Ohn Maung, and Chairman of the Hong Kong Macau Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lin Khin Wan, in Nay Pyi Taw on Saturday. Their discussions covered matters such as arranging training courses, increasing information and communication technology experts in the ministry, providing required suggestions and technical assistance on the establishment of tourism web portals and arranging study tours by Hong Kong travel agencies to Myanmar. Myanmar will use appropriate digital technology to reduce manual systems while carrying out the ministrys office work, which will reduce the use of paper. Myanmar has granted visa-on- arrival to travelers from China including those from Hong Kong and Macau SARs starting from Oct. 1 last year along with visa exemptions for Japanese and South Korean visitors. Myanmar attracted over 2.84 million tourists as of October last year, according to the Hotel and Tourism Ministry. MDT/Xinhua This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept The leaders of the populist parties that formed Italys government sparred Saturday over more migrants stranded on private rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, exposing cracks in their coalitions position on immigration. German humanitarian groups Sea-Watch and Sea Eye are seeking a port where two ships can disembark passengers who were picked up from unseaworthy smugglers boats, 32 of them on Dec. 22 and 17 more in recent days. Malta allowed the aid boats to shelter from bad weather near its coast and to take on fresh crew, food and water. But the tiny island nation has refused to let any of those migrants step onto Maltese land, saying the rescues took place outside the countrys search-and-rescue area. Italian Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, who heads the 5-Star Movement, insisted Saturday that Malta had to allow the 49 people off the ships. De Maio said Italy was willing to take the 10 mothers on the aid vessels and their children. Since the coalition government came to power in mid-2018, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the right- wing, anti-migrant League party, has made it strict policy that no private aid group receive authorization to transfer rescued migrants to land in Italian ports. Both he and Di Maio have likened private aid vessels to taxi services for Libya-based human traffickers. Amid criticism of the Italian governments new hard-line stand, they also have reminded other European Union nations that Italy has taken in hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants as asylum-seekers in recent years. Di Maio stressed Saturday that Italy was offering to accept the limited number of women and children from the rescue ships to keep families together. Such as gesture, he said, would also give a good moral slap to EU nations that have ignored Italys insistence that the burden of caring for rescued asylum-seekers be shared. Were not going backward on migration policy, which has allowed us to reduce disembarking considerably, Di Maio said. But Salvini contradicted his governing partner, telling journalists Italy intended to stick with its private rescue vessel ban and wouldnt be taking the 10 mothers and their children. We opened our hearts and our wallets. Now, its someone elses turn, Salvini said. As for any possible softening of Italys immigration policy, Salvini also tweeted Im not changing my mind. Both politicians slammed Malta for refusing to let the 49 disembark, but the EU nation retorted that it had rescued and permitted onto on its shores some 250 migrants between Christmas and New Years. The recent rescues are putting a strain on our services, Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said, adding that Italian authorities had not articulated a clear position about the migrants on the aid boats due to the contradictory statements by Italys leaders. Farrugia has said the EUs executive branch, the European Commission, was working on an ad hoc plan to find countries where the 250 migrants in Malta and the 49 on the aid boats could have asylum applications processed. AP Macau students are overwhelmingly in favor of democratic reform in the special administrative region and are sympathetic toward Hong Kongs 2014 Umbrella Movement, a new study has concluded, challenging the prevailing view of widespread political apathy in the MSAR. The study, conducted by academic Ieong Meng U of the University of Macau, sampled 825 young people in the city and found that the majority supported the idea of universal suffrage and had a preference for a minimal definition of democracy. It also showed that most believed it was important to live in a democratic system and that they agreed with the view that student leaders in the neighboring territorys Umbrella Movement were fighting for democracy. Moreover, the study concluded that the stronger a students support for universal suffrage the more they were likely to engage in unconventional political participation as well as distrust both the Macau government and the central government in Beijing. Building on his previous work exploring authoritarianism and the Chinese political landscape, Ieongs latest study challenges the traditional view that Macau residents especially the youth are more concerned with economic and quality of life issues than political ones. That view might have originated in two surveys on political attitudes conducted in the 1990s, which determined that Macau people did not think they were able to influence public policies and were unlikely to take action to oppose government wrongdoing. Ieong now suggests that these conclusions are outdated. The 2014 Anti-Retirement Package Bill Protest, by far the largest demonstration seen in the city since the 1999 handover, is evidence of the changing tide in public opinion, writes the academic. However, even as youth in Macau experience a political awakening in the fashion of their Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China counterparts, demands for reform have grown not necessarily from the pursuit of democracy as an ideal, but by socio-economic grievances that continue to go unaddressed or unresolved by local authorities. Ieong thus attributes this political awakening to a lack of government responsiveness and accountability. In Macau, social grievances in recent years over pro-establishment camps and the Macau government are increasing due to their disregard of social demands for public housing, anti-corruption and government responsiveness and accountability, he notes in the study. Nevertheless, bottom-up political-oriented social movements such as the one for Hong Kong [] was unrealistic given the weak civil society and comparatively strong social control in Macau and the fact that such protests tend to be issue-oriented rather than political-oriented. Using the Umbrella Movement as a point of reference, Ieong asked his survey respondents to rate how strongly they felt about the pursuit of universal suffrage using a 10-point scale that ranged from total disagreement (1) to total agreement (10). The respondents were then asked about how much they trusted the local government and the Chinese central government using a 4-point scale ranging from none at all (1) to a great deal of trust (4). A final questions was posed regarding the respondents frequency of participation in demonstrations and public consultations, again measured on a 4-point scale ranging from never (1) to very often (4). The study showed that over 90 percent of the respondents ranked the pursuit of universal suffrage as 5 or above on the 10-point scale with a mean score of 6.67. When only students with permanent resident status were considered, the point scale was skewed higher with a mean score of 6.84. According to Ieong, this suggests that Macau students overwhelmingly approve of the demand for universal suffrage, and that the longer they spent in the MSAR, the more strongly they felt this way. Aggregate responses for the two other questions showed considerable distrust of government authorities and low rates of political participation from the public. A correlation was determined whereby those that were more in favor of universal suffrage were also more distrustful of local and central government authorities. To reach his conclusions, Ieong specifies that his study has purposefully avoided the asking of abstract questions related to whether people sought democracy. Instead it measured preferences related to democracy by examining the thoughts of Macau people to a specific political incident the Umbrella Movement. In late 2014, tens of thousands of protesters brought Hong Kongs central districts to a standstill for nearly 80 days. Adopting the symbol of the umbrella, the protests developed into a movement of the same name with the objective of pressuring the Hong Kong government into abandoning a candidate pre-screening process for the then-upcoming 2017 Hong Kong chief executive election. The movement was ultimately unsuccessful and several of its leaders were arrested and thrown into prison. The response of the authorities prompted an outcry from the pan-democrat camp, which accused the government of turning the courts into a political tool. However, the demonstrations in Hong Kong failed to inspire a copycat movement in Macau. Although apparently politically more stable compared with Hong Kong, Macaus government suffered the same defects in the lack of legitimacy and increasing disconnection between the ruling parties and society, remarks Ieong in the study. The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong provided a vivid example for Macau of what could occur if the demands of political participation overwhelmed the capacity that the existing political system could offer. MGM Resorts International announced a new cost-cutting drive thats intended to boost profit by USD300 million annually, most of it over the next two years. Half the improvement will come from labor savings, with the rest through improved sourcing of supplies and higher revenue, the Las Vegas-based casino operator said. The company employed 51,000 people full time in the U.S. at the end of 2017 and had previously introduced a plan that generated $500 million in profit improvement that year. In an interview, Chief Executive Officer James Murren said the previous cost-cutting program had allowed the company to centralize operations that had been handled by individual resorts, such as hotel and restaurant management, and marketing. Were going to build on that organizational change, he said. MGM, the largest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip, has seen investors known for their activism grab up shares in the company over the past year. They include Canyon Capital Advisors LLC, HG Vora Capital Management LLC and Highfields Capital Management LP, according to Bloomberg data. The company has completed a growth spurt that included new resorts in Macau, Maryland and Massachusetts. Murren has said the next few years should see an increase in free cash flow, as spending slows and those properties ramp up. MGM shares fell 27 percent last year, in part due to a slowdown in its home town of Las Vegas. In the interview, Murren said the new cost-cutting drive wasnt being driven by pressure from shareholders, although he meets with large investors frequently. We are in the last stages of an economic expansion, he said. Its our job as managers to recognize that were deep in this economic cycle and we need to prepare for a slowdown, trade wars, volatility. Bloomberg The suspect who attacked a policeman at the entrance of Galaxy Hotel after being told that smoking was not allowed in the premises, remains in custody. Late last week, a police officer was assaulted on duty after firing a warning shot into the air to warn the alleged attackers. In a viral video shared on social media, three men were behaving aggressively when approached by a police officer, who informed them that smoking was illegal on the site under the new smoking ban, which was implemented on January 1. However, one of them attacked the police officer who sustained minor injuries. The video showed that the officer used a baton to intimidate the men to retreat before firing a shot in the air. One suspect, surnamed Lui, currently remains in custody, while the other two suspects, Li and Ye, were released on a MOP50,000 bail. The Public Prosecutions Office said that Lius detention is intended to prevent him from escaping and continuing to disrupt social order. The Health Services issued a statement yesterday reaffirming that the incident which made a policeman fire a shot into the air would not be tolerated. The Health Services repudiate all acts of violence and reaffirm that this type of behavior would not be tolerated, the bureau said in a statement. Health Services reminded smokers not to smoke in forbidden places and cooperate with authorities on smoking control. The SAR implemented a smoking ban in integrated resorts from January 1, and smokers found smoking in casinos outside of designated areas may be fined up to MOP200,000. With regard to the infractions of the Tobacco Law detected in the casinos between 4 p.m. on January 3 and 4 p.m. on January 4, the Health Service inspectors, together with the Personnel of the Inspection and Coordination Department of Games, carried out 16 inspections of casinos. In this context, four offenses committed by individuals smoking in casinos, all of whom were tourists, were detected, during which all the enforcement agents cooperated during all enforcementprocedures. China must usher in major democratic reforms if it hopes to overcome decades of mutual animosity with Taiwan, President Tsai Ing- wen said in Taipei Saturday. Tsai called on Beijing to become more democratic and renounce the use of military force if it wants to have any chance of winning over the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese public. The insufficiency of Chinas democratic system, its poor record on human rights, and the fact they have never renounced use of military force against Taiwan have caused a high degree of concern among the Taiwanese people, Tsai said at a briefing. Chinese President Xi Jinping offered last week to begin discussions on unification with any parties or individuals that accept Taiwan is part of one China. Both Tsai and the China-friendly opposition Kuomintang rejected Xis proposal, saying his one country, two systems framework lacks support in Taiwan. In a survey by the Cross- Strait Policy Association, more than 80 percent of people in Taiwan dont accept Beijings definition of the 1992 consensus, according to a report in the Taipei-based Central News Agency on Thursday. The consensus is a tacit agreement between Beijing and the opposition KMT that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, with both sides free to interpret that in their own way. At a time when we are exhausting efforts to avoid provocation and miscommunication, Chinas actions are unhelpful and contrary to democratic practices, Tsai said Saturday. Taipei is willing to enter discussions with the government in Beijing as long as China sets no preconditions, Tsai said. Samson Ellis, Adela Lin, Bloomberg Chief Executive (CE) Chui Sai On called on government officials to adhere to aspirations set out in key speeches made by President Xi Jinping. Speaking at the Macau East Asian Games Dome on Friday, Chui recalled that 2018 had marked the 40th anniversary of the countrys reformation and opening-up policies. According to Chui, President Xis speeches not only affirmed Macaus role and contributions during the reform and opening-up process over the past 40 years, but also expressed the countrys expectation and confidence regarding the SARs future development. Further, the CE pledged that the government would develop its youth policies regarding education, employment and self-improvement. Printmaking Triennial showcases 175 works The 3rd Macau Printmaking Triennial is featuring a total of 175 print works from local and foreign artists at the Macau Contemporary Art Centre Navy Yard No. 1. According to a statement issued by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the triennial attracted over 1,000 entries from 39 countries and regions, including Asia, Europe, the United States and Oceania. The gold prize was awarded to the work Habitable structure by Polish artist Lukasz Koniuszy, while the silver and bronze prizes were awarded to the works The remains of the painful thing 6 and The way of harvester No. 2 by Thai artists Warranutchai Kajaree and Rattana Sudjarit, respectively. Sou proposes debate on affordable houses fire dampers Lawmaker Sulu Sou proposed a debate at the Legislative Assembly to discuss the prospect of changing fire dampers in the affordable houses of Ilha Verde Community Building. Sou noted that Ilha Verdes affordable house project has not yet issued an occupation permit, and that the government had proposed reinstalling 269 fire dampers at the building, costing a total of MOP40 million. Sou also wants the government to reveal the progress of the amendment over the fire safety regulation, which has been implemented in Macau for 24 years. More than 20 evacuated in Areia Preta fire Over 20 people were forced to leave the U Va building in Areia Preta after a fire broke out yesterday afternoon. TDM reported that firefighters arriving at the scene saw thick smoke coming out from a window. A flat was engulfed in flames but nobody was injured. People in the neighborhood claim that a resident in the building was seen burning offering paper at home before going out, which may have triggered the blaze. Nearly 6pct growth in crossings recorded in 2018 The Public Security Police Force (PSP) reported that a total of 179 million crossings were recorded in 2018, representing an increase of 5.9 percent year-on-year. This marks the sixth consecutive year of border crossing growth. Seventy-five percent of the total crossings were recorded across the Border Gate, representing an annual increase of 5.1 percent. According to the PSP, in December, 1.19 million crossings were recorded at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridges Macau port, representing 7 percent of the total number of crossings in 2018. China on Friday rebutted a U.S. travel advisory that urges American nationals to exercise increased caution when travelling in the Communist Party-ruled country. The advisory, which warns of the potential for arbitrary detentions, cannot stand up to scrutiny, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, who noted that 2.3 million Americans visited China between January and November 2018. I think this figure speaks volumes for the security condition in China, Lu said, adding that it far outnumbers the number of Chinese people visiting the U.S. The U.S., however, has recently used various excuses to conduct gratuitous inspections and create obstacles for Chinese citizens entering the U.S. The spokesman did not mention specific instances in which Chinese citizens encountered difficulty entering the U.S. An American official told the AP last May that Chinese graduate students studying in fields like robotics and aviation in the U.S. would be limited to one-year visas, while Chinese citizens seeking visas to work for companies on a U.S. Commerce Department list would need special clearance. An updated U.S. State Department notice warns that China sometimes arbitrarily detains U.S. citizens or prevents them from leaving the country. The notice says the exit bans are imposed to compel Americans to facilitate government investigations or resolve business disputes. U.S. citizens of Chinese heritage may be subject to additional scrutiny, it adds. U.S. citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention for reasons related to state security, the advisory says. Security personnel may detain and/or deport U.S. citizens for sending private electronic messages critical of the Chinese government. The notice is largely the same as one released a year ago, with the addition of a paragraph noting security checks and increased police presence in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions. AP After Apple Inc.s shock profit warning, investors were quick to make the connection: if Chinese consumers are cutting back on iPhones, Louis Vuitton handbags could be next. Apples sales revision cascaded through global markets, hitting suppliers and rivals, but also a raft of luxury-goods companies that rely on the same clientele that likes to splurge on Apples latest products. Hong Kong-listed Prada SpA, Gucci-parent Kering SA, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Burberry Group Plc and Richemont, the parent of jeweler Cartier, all declined in the wake of Apples shortfall. Its going to become significantly more challenging to do well in China because the market is tightening up, said David Roth, chief executive of WPP Plcs The Store global retail practice. This is a challenging signal that people need to button down and understand China better and prepare. Apple cut its quarterly revenue outlook to USD84 billion from as much as $93 billion, blaming it in part on a pullback in demand within China. That set off warning bells throughout the luxury industry, as Chinese consumers account for about 30 percent of the $1 trillion in luxury-goods spending worldwide, according to Euromonitor International. Prada dropped as much as 3.6 percent in Hong Kong on Friday. In Europe on Thursday, Kering SA fell 5.5 percent, while LVMH dropped 3.8 percent and Burberry tumbled 5.9 percent. For years, companies from LVMH to Tiffany & Co. have targeted Chinas wealthy tourists, who sought out pricey handbags, jewelry and other luxury items while on vacation in Paris to Dubai. Investors are worried that sliding yuan, Chinas trade war-hit economy and a government crackdown on overseas purchases could dent demand. Richemont, which lost 2.8 percent, has already been feeling the heat. The Swiss watch and jewelry-goods maker signaled in November that Chinese sales growth has slowed. Read more: Apple Joins FedEx, Starbucks as Casualty of the China Slowdown Others have maintained a more bullish tone, with both LVMH and Kering citing robust China sales in October and saying they welcome as shift to domestic sales. A key test for retailers will come with Chinas celebration of the Year of the Pig, which begins on Feb. 5. The week-long Chinese New Year holiday is traditionally a major occasion for shoppers from China to splurge. About two-thirds of those sales take place outside the country as tourists open their wallets while traveling abroad, taking advantage of better selection and cheaper prices than available at home. But with the U.S. trade war weighing on Chinas stocks and currency, and President Xi Jinpings government trying to bolster a faltering economy, more mainlanders are choosing to do their shopping inside China rather than on overseas trips. Theres clearly a shift that has started to happen in the consumption pattern: Chinese people are buying more in China, said Pascal Martin, a partner in Hong Kong with OC&C Strategy Consultants. Taxes on imported clothing, which had been as high as 25 percent, are now just 7.1 percent. A recent crackdown by Chinese officials on travelers returning home with undeclared goods is also encouraging local consumption. The gap between Chinese overseas and domestic spending on luxury is shrinking and a 50/50 balance is in sight, according to an HSBC report last month. Companies are scrambling to adjust, opening more stores in China or partnering with local online outlets such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.s Tmall. Ermenegildo Zegna, which has stores in 35 Chinese cities, in December opened a flagship store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion, following a similar move by Italian fashion house Valentino in November. Its much healthier to have Chinese consumers consuming your product in their own country, in terms of repeat business and loyalty, said Thibaud Andre, research director at Daxue Consulting. The change in consumption patterns is creating headaches for retailers like Tiffany, which has long counted on Chinese shoppers going to Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. In November, Tiffany reported weaker-than- expected sales and highlighted a clear pattern of Chinese shoppers cutting back on spending when theyre overseas. Sales in China itself, however, remained strong. The shift to more domestic purchases will also create more intense rivalry this year as more foreign players vie for consumers money in China, according the Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Catherine Lim. She added that the growth prospects on the mainland still remain attractive relative to other countries. One of the key strategies the companies have is to focus on tech-savvy millennials and the younger Generation Z. The sub-group of shoppers is expected to make up 55 percent of total global personal luxury goods purchases by 2025, a Bain & Co. report said in November. Retailers and investors are watching to see whether that spending holds up. Luxury brands still benefit from a formidable capacity to recruit new consumers in China, HSBC analysts led by Erwan Rambourg said in the December note, but while managers are preparing for a moderation of growth, most investors we met with in Hong Kong have more dire predictions. Bruce Einhorn, Daniela Wei and Robert Williams, Bloomberg Scientist He Jiankui attends the International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China on Nov. 28, 2018. (Reuters) Chinese Scientist Criticized for Risking Gene-Edited Babies Lives LONDONA leading geneticist who ran the conference where a Chinese scientist said he had made the worlds first gene-edited babies condemned him on Jan. 7 for potentially jeopardizing lives and having no biology training. Robin Lovell-Badge, organizer of the November 2018 event where Chinas He Jiankui made his controversial presentation, described him as a rich man with a huge ego who wanted to do something he thinks will change the world. He Jiankui, associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Shenzhen, China, sparked an international scientific and ethical row when he said he had used a technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born in November. He could not be immediately reached to respond to Lovell-Badges comments. Chinese authorities are investigating him and have meanwhile halted this kind of research. In videos posted online and at the conference, He said he believed his gene editing would help protect the girls from infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Lovell-Badge, a professor and gene expert at Britains Francis Crick Institute who led the organizing committee for the November Human Genome Editing Summit at Hong Kong University, said it was impossible to know what He had actually done. If its true (that he edited the genomes in the way he says) then it is certainly possible that he has put the childrens lives at risk, he told journalists in London. No-one knows what these mutations will do. Lovell-Badge said he originally invited He to the conference after hearing in scientific circles that he was up to something. Lovell-Badge hoped that asking He to interact with specialists would encourage him to control his urges. Pretty much everyone he talked to had said to him: Dont do it, he said. But clearly it was all too late. Lovell-Badge said he learned of Hes claims on the eve of the conference, and had an emergency meeting with him. He thought that he was doing good, and that what he was doing was the next big thing, Lovell-Badge said. But he had no basic training in biology and the experiments he said he had carried out ignored all the norms of how you conduct any clinical trial or clinical experiment. He should certainly be stopped from doing anything like this again, he said. Lovell-Badge said he had not heard from He since early December, but understood he was in Shenzhen in a guarded apartment during the probe. Chinese authorities and institutions, as well as hundreds of international scientists, have condemned He and said any application of gene editing on human embryos for reproductive purposes was against the law and medical ethics of China. Backed by the Chinese Regime Hes achievement was initially reported positively by the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) state-run newspaper Peoples Daily on Nov. 27. However, following international condemnation, the Partys attitude quickly turned around. On Nov. 29, the CCP ordered a temporary halt to gene editing research. He Jiankui was brought back to the university and is under house arrest on campus by the universitys president, Chen Shiyi, on Nov. 28, reported Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. This gene editing technology was invented in the United States and is relatively uncomplicated to replicate. However, the international scientific community has strict protocols against its use on human subjects. Observers believe that this experiment could only happen under the environment of atheism and moral lawlessness created by the CCP. Caoji, the online alias of a netizen who introduced himself as a former science professor at a university in Shanghai, wrote on Twitter on Nov. 30 that Hes Gene-Editing Baby experiment was promoted by high-ranking CCP officials. Hes university, SUST, was responsible for the project, and He carried it out in secret. With hundreds of millions of yuan in funding at SUST, and given that He is a researcher associated with the CCPs Thousand Talents Plan, Caoji believes that the experiment could not have occurred without state backing. The Thousand Talents Plan, an ambitious initiative to attract foreign experts to China, is of particular concern for U.S. officials. Established by the Chinese communist regime in December 2008 to bring academics and researchers to China, the program has been described by the U.S. National Intelligence Council as a means of enabling technology transfer to China from the United States. Caoji believes that Hes real mistake, in the eyes of the Party, is not that he violated research ethics, but that he inadvertently leaked a state secret. By Kate Kelland. Epoch Times writer Sunny Chao contributed to this report. Lewiston, ID (83501) Today Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. High near 70F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low near 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. After working at Delco Electronics for nearly three decades, one Kokomo man died after exposure to harmful chemicals. Now, his daughter wants to ensure her fathers memory lives on by sharing information with other autoworkers who also may have been exposed. Sherry Roes father, Glenn Dukes, worked at Delco Electronics for 28 years. In 2009 doctors diagnosed him with a rare form of cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The cancer took his life within two months, and a legal battle ensued between Dukes estate and multiple companies that supplied materials to Delco Electronics. It was alleged Dukes incurred the cancer due to exposure to benzene during manufacturing processes at work. That suit was settled, and Roe now hopes to help others with information she garnered for her fathers suit. After Dukes death, Roe worked tirelessly to find out more about what could have contributed to his cancer diagnosis. While she isnt privy to the exact details surrounding the closure of her fathers wrongful death suit, she said she was there to help lay the groundwork for the suits eventual settlement. The suit focused on multiple companies that supplied products to Delco Electronics, but Delco itself was never sued due to limitations in Indiana law. Red Spot Paint and Varnish Co., Dupont, BASF Corporation, The DOW Chemical Co., Dow Corning Corporation, Exxon, and Mays Chemical Co. all were sued. Each, except for Dupont and The Dow Chemical Co., settled in January 2017 after the case wound through the courts since 2010. The focus of the suit was Dukes history of benzene exposure, a chemical utilized within the industrial setting. Roe said her father used it daily in his job at Delco. For instance, while working in paint booths he was exposed to fumes containing the chemical. Benzene exposure is amongst the causes of AML. Even on Dukes death certificate, alongside cancer as a cause of death, is history of benzene exposure. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute Roes role in the entire suit was helping with discovery. She was tasked with finding out what companies had supplied materials to Delco Electronics and could be sued by her fathers estate. But, even after her role ended she continued her work, finding more and more people who she said incurred illnesses similar to her fathers. I did all of the discovery here locally, so I know who these companies are. And thats what I want to do to honor my dad, is to help others with that information because, quite frankly, they didnt want me to sign a non-disclosure, said Roe. They were trying to keep me out of it after I did all that work. Since I didnt sign a nondisclosure I can expose these companies. Since her fathers death, Roe guessed she has found about 20 former local factory workers or the families of those individuals who fell ill due to exposure to chemicals in manufacturing processes at Delco. In particular, shes focused on AML, its precursor myelodysplastic syndrome, and multiple myeloma, which all are linked to benzene exposure. Roe said shes seen workers exposed to trichloroethylene incur health issues as well. Now, partnering with an attorney from Texas, Roe is convening a town hall on Jan. 24 at Richards Restaurant. She said her goal is to make contact with factory workers who may have become ill due to either benzene or trichloroethylene. She said she wants to share the information she gathered during her fathers suit to help anyone considering legal action of their own. Its always been my goal to help the retirees, the workers that are there, said Roe. That is who I want to reach out to, is anyone. And really it could be any factory worker that has been exposed to benzene or trichloroethylene, and it directly related to AML. Benzene is directly tied to AML Its also the cause of several other blood cancers, leukemias. Its linked to bladder cancer in men, breast cancer in women. Those are the people that I want to reach. The factory workers who are retired, who are sick, who are still working who are sick. The town hall will convene at 5:30 p.m. at the restaurant. Those who are interested also can email Roe at safeenvironmentsafecommunities@gmail.com. Roe also intends to publish a book on her investigations titled Profits Over People. It is set to be released in late March on Amazon. From 25 years ago, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 1994 School gun policy proposed The Lebanon elementary and high school boards talked about taking a tough approach against students who bring guns to school last week. I think we need to get the message out to the kids and the community that if you brnig a gun to school, you will go up for an expulsion hearing, board member Kathy Dornhecker said. Members of both the UH1 (High School) and 16-C (Elementary) School Boards were present at the joint meeting January 3 to discuss a new policy on weapons in the schools. Several board members indicated they want to see a strict policy in order to protect the safety of students. At the end, the board decided to wait to finalize the new policy until the districts lawyers had finished researching applicable laws. From 10 years ago, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009 Justice center, library on track for July opening Under the watchful eyes of the three amigos, Lebanons new library and justice center are on schedule to open this July. The questions in the title of this post are prompted by this new lengthy Rolling Stone piece fully headlined "Why 2019 Will Be the Year of Weed: From more states legalizing to a boom of new kinds of products, heres what to expect from the cannabis industry this year." Here are excerpts from an article that merits a full read: In 2018, pot reached a tipping point. A clear majority of Americans now wants to see the drug made fully legal. California and Canada began selling marijuana to anyone over 21. Corporate behemoths like Altria (parent company of Marlboro cigarettes) and Constellation Brands (parent of Corona beer and Svedka vodka) made multi-billion dollar weed investments. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) managed to include hemp legalization in the 2018 Farm Bill de facto legalizing every part of the cannabis plant except THC. But at the same time, pot prohibition is not over. Well over half a million folks are still arrested for possession every year. Smoking weed or working for a pot company can still threaten your housing, employment, immigration status, finances and freedom. Cannabis business models, regulatory environments and market valuations shift on a daily basis.... As for the 2018 Farm Bill, its not yet clear what the regulatory landscape will look like for CBD in 2019. [Some expect] researchers will soon be able to access CBD without jumping through the hoops necessary to acquire a Schedule I drug license from the DEA, which could finally allow scientists to provide more evidence of the compounds uses and dosage. Still, many people in the cannabis industry are concerned about what the exact guidelines will look like on the commercial production side, and how the rollout will go. For business owners who have been involved in the weed game for a while, another aspect of the 2018 Farm Bill has proven a troubling sign of the times: anyone with a drug felony conviction in the past 10 years will not be allowed to participate in the legal hemp and CBD market. What the fuck is that? asks longtime cannabis cultivator Bill Levers, who runs an influential Instagram account through his California-based company, Beard Bros Pharms. No one got rich on hemp. There were no hemp cartels. So why would there be a restriction? The drug-felony provision in the Farm Bill cuts to the heart of one of the biggest unresolved problems facing the marijuana movement in 2019: the persistence of the illicit market, and the struggle to accommodate folks who have been illegally selling or growing marijuana for years. It is now widely acknowledged that barring people with drug felony convictions from the cannabis industry is racist, as white people with experience on the illicit marijuana market are far less likely to be arrested or convicted. But even without a criminal record, making the transition from outlaw to mogul has proven incredibly difficult, and many of the people who have tried have already given up.... Taxes, in particular, are a thorny issue. Local and state governments generally consider pot taxes to be a primary incentive for legalization, but if tax rates are too high, fewer growers and dispensaries will try to go legal. Already, lax oversight and an oversupply of legal cannabis in states like Oregon and Washington have led to diversion rates of at least 30 percent meaning at a minimum about a third of legal pot is being sold on the illicit market. Meanwhile, in places like California, Canada and Michigan, hundreds of illegal storefront marijuana dispensaries compete with legal vendors, consistently undercutting them on price. Illicit operators tell me again and again that they cannot afford to survive in the highly taxed and regulated legal market, so they intend to continue breaking the law sometimes while simultaneously operating a legal business. Because wealthy (and typically white) applicants have an easier time covering high taxes and licensing fees, some states and municipalities have created so-called equity programs to ensure a more diverse industry. In 2017 and 2018, places like Oakland and Sacramento garnered fawning headlines for setting the lofty goal of legislating solutions to the catastrophic and racially disproportionate impact of the War on Drugs. But moving into 2019, California cannabis operators of all colors and political stripes now often describe equity a well-intentioned idea that is failing in practice. The words tokenism and paternalistic come up a lot. Equity is a marketing tool. All of the licenses are going to be given to the people with the most money, predicts Ophelia Chong, the founder of StockPot Images and executive creative director of Aura Ventures. Social equity will work for a few, but even then it will be 2 percent [from disadvantaged backgrounds], and those 2 percent will have to really climb a mountain to do it, with no help. Outside of California, however, including equity and restorative justice in cannabis legalization remains an alluring prospect. What I like about California is they give a chance for minorities to get in. They doing the opposite in Michigan, says Jason, whose cannabis social club, the OMS Dab House, has been a crucial gathering place for Detroits marijuana movement for the past decade. Michigan legalized adult-use cannabis in 2018, but as in California, quasi-legal medical dispensaries began proliferating years ago, serving stoners and sick people alike. (The ongoing legal confusion around sales and social spaces is why Jason preferred to not give his last name). Though the city of Detroit is more than 80-percent black, black activists there have previously asserted that only three to five percent of local marijuana dispensaries were owned by black people. Jason predicts that, as Michigans legal cannabis industry becomes increasingly corporate and consolidated, those numbers will only go down. As reported in this AP article, "More than six years after the state legalized the adult use of marijuana, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday he plans to pardon thousands of people convicted of small-time possession charges the latest in a series of moves by states and cities to ease the burdens people face from having minor criminal records for using pot." Here is more about this encouraging news: The Democrat, who is mulling a 2020 presidential run, made the announcement at a cannabis industry summit in SeaTac, south of Seattle. Inslee said he was creating an expedited process that would allow about 3,500 people to apply for and receive a pardon without having to hire a lawyer or go to court. "We have people who have this burden on their shoulders from a simple, one-time marijuana possession from maybe 20 years ago, and that's impeding the ability of people to live their lives," Inslee said in an interview. "It can damage their ability to get financing for a home; it can damage their ability to get financing for colleges, even simple things like going on a field trip with your kids. "We should not be punishing people for something that is no longer illegal," he said. Several states allow for expunging or sealing marijuana convictions, but obtaining such relief has typically been onerous, requiring a lawyer or court appearances. As more states have eased marijuana laws or followed the lead of Washington and Colorado in legalizing recreational pot use since 2012, some cities, counties and states have simplified the process of clearing convictions. Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and some local prosecutors in New York City, where marijuana remains illegal, are clearing old marijuana convictions en masse, and a new law in California requires prosecutors to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 pot convictions. Inslee's plan appears to be the first that creates a streamlined process for pardoning misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions statewide, though Michigan's governor-elect, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, has suggested she will consider doing so. In Washington, people will be able to use a simple form on the governor's website to ask for a pardon of a single conviction dating as far back as 1998. To be eligible, people must have been convicted as an adult, and the conviction must be the only one on their record.... Automatically clearing past convictions or making it easy for people to request pardons is a racial justice issue, considering that blacks and other minorities have historically been arrested for marijuana at disproportionate rates, said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The governor is sending a strong message here about the ameliorative steps that must be taken to address those injustices," Clarke said. "I hope there are other states that will follow the governor's lead here." Inslee cited racial justice as one of his motivations in launching the program, which he called the Marijuana Justice Initiative. He said his office did not have data on how many of the 3,500 people eligible for pardons are minorities, and he said he considered it a good first step to start with clearing a single conviction. "Maybe there will be another step later on," he said. Tuesday, January 1, 2019 NBC News has two new lengthy articles exploring the state of marijuana research and debate over social justice in this era of marijuana reform. Both pieces are worthwhile reads, and here are links to the pieces with extended headlines and a brief excerpt: "The year in pot: States embrace legalization, but questions persist; Marijuana, the most widely used illegal drug in the U.S., is winning approval state by state and impressing investors. But researchers still caution against its use." The wave of legalization is taking place as the latest polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans endorse it, double the rate in 2000. Investors are noticing too, pouring an estimated $10 billion into the industry in North America this year. Still, medical researchers continue to caution against its use because little is known about its effects on health. Here is a review of what weve learned about marijuana and marijuana-based products in 2018. "Legal marijuana made big promises on racial equity and fell short; 'Time is really up on selling your business dream as a social justice movement,' said the president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association." While marijuana arrests have declined and tax revenue has begun to flow in most states that have legalized pot, the gains have accrued most heavily to white residents, even though black Americans paid the drug wars biggest costs, according to a statistical analysis conducted by the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group that advocates drug policy reform. The results in Colorado, the District of Columbia and the nine other states where recreational marijuana became legal from 2012 to 2018 have left some lawmakers and even marijuana legalization advocates skeptical of broad social-justice claims. For that reason, lawmakers in New Jersey and New York two of the three states expected to legalize marijuana in 2019 are now pushing for detailed criminal justice and business equity measures as part of any legalization package.... The efforts in New Jersey and New York come as the inequities in other states have grown clearer. In Colorado, the Drug Policy Alliance found, the number of black juveniles arrested on marijuana charges grew after legalization. In 2016, a Colorado Department of Public Safety analysis found that black people living in that state remained three times more likely than white people to be arrested for selling or possessing marijuana. In Washington state, an ACLU analysis found that in 2014, the first year in which marijuana became available in legal retail stores, a black adult remained three times more likely to face low-level marijuana charges than a white adult. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/2019/01/two-deep-dives-into-health-research-and-social-justice-in-modern-age-of-marijuana-reform.html Stateline has this new piece, headlined "Cannabis Equity Runs Into Roadblocks," which highlights that good implementation, and not just good intentions, must be part of modern marijuana social equity programs. Here are excerpts: Now, as more states legalize recreational marijuana and the federal government moves away from incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders, several cities in California are trying to atone for decades of drug enforcement that fell disproportionately upon minorities. Theyve created what are known as cannabis equity programs, meant to welcome more minority and low-income entrepreneurs into the now-legal industry. The programs provide business development, loan assistance and mentorships to eligible owners. Hundreds have applied in the past year. But pot equity has struggled with growing waitlists, and some participants allege that the programs arent fair to the people theyre meant to be helping.... The goal of cannabis equity is to lower the barriers to entry into the legal cannabis industry for people who were disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of marijuana. The programs base eligibility on a variety of factors, including marijuana convictions, residency in a heavily policed district and income. Today, several city partnership programs require that established, non-equity businesses provide an equity business with space for several years rent-free. In exchange, the non-equity company receives faster processing for city approvals. Cities such as Sacramento plan to waive up to tens of thousands of dollars in application and permit fees for eligible cannabis businesses. But pot equity has struggled to get going. Understaffing in San Franciscos cannabis office has left a growing waitlist of applicants, and the city doesnt expect to begin approving businesses until sometime in 2019, said Nicole Elliott, director of San Franciscos Office of Cannabis. She could not be more specific on timing. Some applicants argue that the waiting period has allowed other businesses to get an unfair head start. In Oakland, some pot equity businesses claim their incubator partners never followed through on the requirement to provide them with business development assistance or a space to operate.... Creating a program to atone for decades of unjust policing on top of building the framework for a newly legal cannabis industry is no easy task. Oakland is setting up a $3 million fund to provide additional capital assistance to pot equity businesses, Brooks said, but it remains unclear when the fund will become available. San Francisco applicants have raised the same issue, said Elliott, the director of San Franciscos Office of Cannabis. The office set up an investment fund to provide financial assistance to cannabis businesses, such as low-interest loans. But the city has yet to allocate money to the fund, Elliott said. She said San Francisco will likely receive part of the $10 million that the state set aside for local cannabis equity programs in September, which could go toward the citys cannabis investment fund. There are equity applicants that need money now, Elliott said. We will advocate aggressively for that state funding. As of mid-December, San Francisco had 227 applicants that qualify for the equity program. Of those, about 110 want to join the citys incubator partnership program and receive waived permit fees. Elliott said the city will begin approving applicants next year, but she could not say when. Applicants have criticized the lengthy timeline. San Franciscos Office of Cannabis, which just added two new staff members to bring the total to five, is tasked with reviewing permit applications and facilitating the equity program. Elliott said adding even more staff would speed things up. In the meantime, the city has established a partnership with the Bar Association of San Francisco to provide pro bono legal assistance to equity program participants. Malcolm Mirage, an equity applicant in San Francisco, said the long wait has caused him to burn through capital at an alarming rate. He partnered with MedMen, a household name in the cannabis industry that is publicly traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange. MedMen agreed to provide business development aid and an incubation space for one of Mirages businesses. The company also helped him negotiate leases on two other spaces, and he struck a deal that gave him six months of free rent to obtain his permits and become operational. Mirage figured that was plenty of time. But those six months came and went, and hes now paying expensive leases on spaces that sit empty. I got out of jail for selling weed and now Im trying to do this legally, Mirage told Stateline. But Im drowning right now. My businesses are going to be in a tremendous amount of debt if the city cant get these licenses out in the next six months. Tuesday, January 1, 2019 The Denver Post has a notable new series of article looking at tax revenues from its marijuana industry. Here are links to the pieces, with an interesting passage from each within: Part 1: "Pot money helps schools, but not as much as you might think." There has been some real impact since recreational marijuana showed up: Dozens of new roofs for crumbling schools across the state. Sprinklers in buildings built decades before they existed. Security systems in an age of concern for student safety. Additional classrooms to alleviate relentless overcrowding. New gyms to replace dilapidated ones. New schools because older ones are unsafe to enter. But there have also been dozens of other similar projects statewide that have gone unfunded because not enough dollars are allocated to handle them all. Part 2: "Legalization raised a slew of money for main streets and other local public projects." While the publics attention has focused on the roughly quarter-billion dollars a year in marijuana-related revenue that flows into state coffers, the burgeoning marijuana business also has brought a bonanza in tax revenue for dozens of municipal and county governments. Nobody comprehensively tracks the local figures, but as Colorado marks the five-year anniversary of legalization a Denver Post analysis fleshed out a large part of the picture based on available data: In 2017, at least $71 million was collected from recreational marijuana via local taxes and the share-backs provided by the state, which now returns a tenth of the total raised by its own 15 percent special marijuana sales tax. Part 3: "Almost half of Colorados marijuana money can go wherever lawmakers wish." Marijuana Tax Cash Fund ... is the largest pool of marijuana tax revenue in the state. Colorado collected $251 million during fiscal year 2017-2018, and 49 percent of that went into the Marijuana Cash Tax Fund. Three funds that support K-12 education received a collective $98 million, $16.7 million went to local governments and $12.4 million went into the general fund. State law technically allows the General Assembly to appropriate its tax fund money for any purpose, but state legislators created a set of allowable purposes such as mental health treatment, marijuana research and law enforcement training and to provide services to school-age children. Each year, lawmakers tinker with the cash fund by running bills to create new grants and by adjusting how much marijuana money, if any, goes into programs they created in previous years. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/2019/01/notable-review-of-where-colorado-marijuana-tax-revenues-are-going.html Monday, December 24, 2018 German Lopez has this effective Vox piece serving as a kind of marijuana reform year in review under the headlined "5 moments that show 2018 was marijuana legalizations biggest year yet: From Canada to Michigan to California, marijuana legalization had a very big year." Here are excerpts from the start of the piece with his top 5 listing as it appears therein: When we look back, 2018 may be the year in which marijuana legalization really won. Canada legalized marijuana, defying international treaties (which the US is also a part of) that prohibit fully legalizing cannabis. After legalizing marijuana in 2016, California opened the worlds biggest fully legal pot market in early 2018. Michigan became the first state to legalize pot in the Midwest. State legislatures, particularly New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, began taking legalization more seriously. And while Congress didnt legalize pot at the federal level, it did legalize industrial hemp. Together, these developments represented a tidal wave for legalization a massive shift thats making legal pot look more and more inevitable across the country. Here are the five major stories of marijuana legalization this year, and why they matter. 1) Canada legalized marijuana... 2) California opened the worlds biggest legal marijuana market... 3) Michigan became the first state in the Midwest to legalize pot... 4) State legislatures began taking legalization seriously... 5) The federal government legalized hemp... This top five list strikes me as sound, though I think the federal legalization of hemp should find a place higher on the list and I have a few additions that I think could reasonably compete for a top five spot. First, I think it very significant that serious medical marijuana reforms were enacted by ballot initiative with strong majorities in 2018 in the very red states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah. Senators in very red states will be able to stop or limit or shape any future federal marijuana reforms, so having red states come into the reform fold is so very important for the fate and future of federal reform efforts. Second, and perhaps worth of a coming future post, arguably the biggest story of 2018 was a non-story, namely the decision in January of (now former) Attorney General Sessions to repeal the Cole memo shaping federal marijuana enforcement and then the failure of the new Sessions memo amounting to much of anything. I was not too worried that all that much would come from repeal of the Cole memo, but that so little resulted still strikes me as another telling sign of the state of marijuana reform as we close out 2018. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/2018/12/effective-accounting-of-top-5-marijuana-reform-developments-in-2018-with-a-couple-extra-added-for-em.html Parolee Charged With Murdering Camper in Malibu State Park, Trying to Kill Others A man was charged today with killing a camper and trying to kill 10 others in connection with a series of shootings over the past two years, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced. Anthony Rauda (dob 7/30/76) was charged in case LA089735 with one count of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of second-degree burglary. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Department 100 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Van Nuys Branch. Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes of the Major Crimes Division is prosecuting the case. ADVERTISEMENT Rauda is accused of opening fire on unsuspecting campers or motorists dating back to November 2016 when he allegedly wounded a man who was sleeping in a hammock in the Malibu State Park area. Less than a week later, he allegedly fired into the sleeping area of a vehicle. Rauda also is accused of shooting into vehicles on three different occasions in 2017. No one was injured. The defendant allegedly shot at a Tesla on Las Virgenes Road on June 18, 2018. Four days later, he is accused of killing Tristan Beaudette, 35, who was shot and killed while in a tent with his two daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. His children were not injured. Rauda also has been charged with several burglaries that occurred last year in the Calabasas area. He was arrested in October. If convicted as charged, Rauda faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison. The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. BREAKING NEWS: Governor Grants Cyntoia Brown Clemency Cyntoia Brown NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has granted clemency to a woman serving a life sentence for murder who says she was a victim of sex trafficking. ADVERTISEMENT Haslam said Monday that he would show mercy to the now 30-year-old Cyntoia Brown by releasing her Aug. 7. She will remain on parole for 10 years. Brown said in a statement that she will do everything to justify Haslams faith in her and thanked her family for their support. Rihanna, and other celebrities rallied for Brown as she fought her life sentence for the 2004 murder of a man who had picked her up for sex. She was 16 years old at the time. Her lawyers say she was a sex-trafficking victim and feared for her life. When Brandi Christiansen was getting her hair done recently, she realized hairdressers know more about their customers than most people might. She also realized they might not know how to address or assist those who may be struggling with mental health disorders. It wasnt long after that realization when she heard about a coffee shop in Chicago, Sip of Hope, that offers to help customers with mental illness and donates all proceeds to suicide prevention. As the director of Mental Health America of Howard County, Christiansen decided people in those professions the ones who have captive audiences and know their customers well need to have some type of training in dealing with customers who are showing signs of mental illness. Now, Christiansen is putting a call out to community hairdressers, baristas, and bartenders to attend mental health first aid training. Its really about awareness and just having that action plan so when it does happen youre not scrambling. Youre ready to go. Youve been trained. You practiced because a lot of mental health first aid is about practicing those conversations, said Christiansen. After getting trained as a mental health first aid instructor in August 2017, the MHA director has been training first responders in Howard County and surrounding counties on how to recognize signs of mental health disorders and how to respond in those situations. While she said thats necessary, first responders typically are dealing with people who already are in crises. By training people such as baristas, bartenders, and hairdressers, her hope is those professionals will be able to help their customers before theyre in crisis mode. Its a practical way to stop the community from waiting until stage four to begin treatment. Its the only illness that we wait until stage four to begin treating, she said. During the eight-hour training sessions, attendees learn common signs and symptoms of mental illness and substance use, how to interact with a person in crisis, how to ask questions and which questions to ask, and how to connect the person with help. The course also teaches attendees to apply the ALGEE action plan, which stands for assessing for risk of suicide or harm, listening nonjudgmentally, giving reassurance and information, encouraging appropriate professional help, and encouraging self-help and other support strategies. After the training sessions, Christiansen said no one will be able to diagnose mental health disorders, but they will be able to better recognize and assist a person struggling with such an issue. And, importantly, theyre also taught how to be a friend. You're taught how "Youre taught how to be an effective friend because a person is not necessarily going to go out and get help just because you had that conversation, but you never know when that moment of clarity or when that day is." Youre taught how you can be an effective friend because a person is not necessarily going to go out and get help just because you had the conversation, but you never know when that moment of clarity or when that day is. And if you create a relationship and support, it builds that trust so that when they are ready for help you can be an ally for that, she said. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute Melissa Buffington Gallagher, Christiansens hairdresser who works out of Strands Salon, said shes looking forward to participating in the training. While shes not a psychologist or therapist and doesnt intend to be, she said clients often see hairdressers as that, in a sense, and having skills to better address tough situations would be beneficial. In some instances, Buffington Gallagher said she second guesses if she could have said or done more for a client who was struggling. People tend to sit in our chair, and they feel safe They just start to talk, and you start to learn things about them. You become aware of some situations with them that you dont know what to say. You dont know how to respond. And then I always go home later, and I take those conversations and replay them. I think, Oh my gosh, should I have said something more positive, more hopeful? Did I come across as caring or trying to get through the appointment and get them out the door? I want to take what I hear and what I do and be a positive response, and I want to do it in the right way, she said. In addition, hairdressers form long-term relationships with their clients, and Buffington Gallagher said she can tell when their mental or emotional state changes. Since shes going to do her job regardless, she said she might as well have the extra layer to it with mental health training to put her in a position to better address tough situations. In working to create the program, Christiansen also reached out to Brian Kmiecik, the general manager of Sip of Hope, to inquire about the most effective ways to equip people with mental health first aid skills and to gain a better understanding of how his coffee shop works. Kmiecik said it was fantastic that Christiansen is taking steps to bring this to the Howard County community. Its important to meet people where they are and not where we expect them to be, said Kmiecik. We encounter people in those professions almost daily, so to be able to recognize or appropriately react to someone in a mental health crisis is so important. Sip of Hope is a collaboration between a nonprofit called Hope for the Day and Dark Matters Coffee. The nonprofit was founded by a man named Jon Boucher who lost several family members, coworkers, and friends to suicide, according to Kmiecik. He was tired of not hearing people talk about why, he said. After partnering with Dark Matters Coffee and doing outreach programs, the next step for Boucher was to open a coffee shop. Now, Kmiecik said theyre in an even better position to help those who are struggling. It has allowed us to more actively engage with the community and provided a safe space for someone who may be in a rough spot and looking for someone to talk to without fear of judgment, he said. Christiansen hopes to create some of those safe spaces now in Howard County. She hopes to create stickers that businesses can put in their windows to indicate that at least one of their employees have been trained in mental health first aid and to let people know its a judgment-free zone. Were hoping to create an entire community where people will know, This is a safe place where I can go, and someone has been trained in mental health first aid. So instead of waiting until we meet people in a crisis, were offering an opportunity for them to say, Hey, maybe Ill just go in there and see what this about, she said. A planning committee currently is working to schedule the training. Those who are interested in attending are encouraged to call MHA at 765-459-0309. Record rainfall in states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay delivered a "massive assault" of pollution into the bay in 2018 mostly from Pennsylvania, according to an environmental group's every-other-year report card of the bay cleanup. "Extraordinary weather flushed enormous amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and debris off our lands and into the bay," said William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in the group's State of the Bay report. Overall, the bay cleanup got a D-plus grade for 2018. That's down from a C-minus in the last report two years ago. However, the report noted that there was good news in that bay grasses remain intact and recent studies show the amount of "dead zones" from nutrient pollution are decreasing. "The blueprint is working, but the system remains dangerously out of balance," Baker said. "And new challenges like climate change and a federal administration attempting to roll back fundamental environmental protections are threatening success." Officials from the group, which has an office in Harrisburg, gave both praise and ominous warnings about Pennsylvania's contribution to the bay pollution and state efforts to diminish it. "Pennsylvania continues to be far short of its goals, mostly as a result of falling behind in addressing pollution from agriculture," the report said. "Pennsylvania's farmers are facing tough economic times and can't implement the necessary practices on their own. The Commonwealth must join Maryland and Virginia to fund proven clean water initiatives to help farmers," Baker added. "If the state legislature does not fund efforts to reduce pollution in its next session, EPA must hold Pennsylvania accountable." However, Harry Campbell, executive director of the foundation's Pennsylvania office, praised recent agriculture-based cleanup efforts by Pennsylvania and a growing momentum. "There's a lot of work left to be done in Pennsylvania. And the unprecedented rains of last year, which threaten to become the new normal, left farmers and families without their crops, their homes, or in some cases, even their lives," Campbell said. "But there is a growing energy and enthusiasm that the Commonwealth can meet the challenge. More farm conservation practices have been found than were known, communities are banding together to address stormwater issues, and long-term river studies are showing improving trends. "Poised to capitalize on this momentum, the Commonwealth has led a collaborative, stakeholder-based effort to create the third iteration of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. "Now is the time for Pennsylvania's elected leaders to accelerate this momentum by investing in the priority practices, places, and partnerships that will bring the plan into reality. "Investing in nature-based efforts, like strategically placed trees alongside streams and streets, rotational grazing, and farm field cover crops will result in more productive farms, vibrant communities, healthy streams, and a saved Bay." The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued this statement in response to the bay report: "Under Governor Wolfs Administration an unprecedented degree of collaboration by state government agencies, local communities, the agricultural industry, businesses, and environmental organizations has been achieved on the challenge of improving local water quality in the watershed. "This partnership is generating new approaches that are innovative and ground-truthed as part of the Phase 3 Watershed Implementation Plan development. For example, county-level stakeholders are piloting a new data-driven Community Clean Water Toolbox planning tool to target their pollutant reduction efforts for greatest local value along with stream health. Agriculture, stormwater, and forestry work groups are combining local knowledge and professional expertise to identify best practices to attain nutrient and sediment pollutant reductions. "Were bringing the same innovative, collaborative thinking to funding. For example, the Agricultural Plan Reimbursement Program, now in its second year, is providing more than $2 million in state support to help farmers create manure, nutrient and erosion/sediment management plans, and the state Growing Greener Grant Program has funded over 100 water quality projects in the watershed. "Pennsylvania has been working diligently to be a good partner on bay cleanup efforts and is working collaboratively with farmers and other stakeholders to implement best practices for sediment control in the watershed area. These efforts are bearing fruit, and while many challenges remain, the Wolf administration is committed to cleaning up the Susquehanna and Potomac watersheds." The reality is that Pennsylvania experienced record storms and extreme flooding this past year and storms like these are the new normal just one of the local impacts of global climate change. It will take more than just state-by-state efforts to adapt and prepare for more frequent and intense storms like those last week. Leadership and investment from the highest levels of the federal government is needed to help states protect residents from climate impacts, which are now too severe and too frequent to ignore." In response to extreme flooding damage caused by last summers historic rainfall amounts, Governor Wolf announced combined federal and state funding totaling $6.25 million for streambank restoration and recovery efforts by local communities. Sourcing new funding for projects remains a top priority, as Pennsylvania works to sustain a new momentum to improve water quality and stormwater management while at the same addressing more frequent extreme weather challenges." In the bay report, Foundation officials also backed the state of Maryland's efforts to try to force Exelon, owner of the Conowingo Dam, just south of the Pennsylvania line, to take steps to stop pollution from flowing through the dam, which has caused sediment to back up behind the dam. In reply, Exelon spokeswoman Deena O'Brien said that the company "shares the state and region's commitment to restoring and sustaining the health of the Chesapeake Bay. We are committed to doing out part to support the bay, along with community and government partners. To that end, we've removed 4,000-plus tons of debris voluntarily in 2018." From prized pigs to angel food cakes, Adamstown to Manheim, there was no shortage of Lancaster County businesses or competitors at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Sunday. Residents from all parts of the county were in attendance to show their wares, parade their nearly 300-pound pigs, and compete for best cake at the nations largest indoor agricultural exposition. For some, it was their first year in attendance. Others had been coming for nearly a decade. Swine competition Conestogas own Jenna Smith, 12, won her weight-class competition with her 267-pound pig, Nora. That earned Smith and Nora a spot in the competition for division leaders, where she placed second. Its very nerve-racking, and I didnt think I was going to get it, but I did and I was happy, Smith said. At the state level its very competitive. Smith was competing for her second year in the swine competition, but has previously shown lambs. She said she got into the hobby when her mother got a job breeding lambs, which gave Smith the opportunity to get into showing the animals. Its not actually winning, Smith said when asked what her favorite part of the show was. Its getting to know new people and making memories. The pig show was a popular event for siblings. Brothers Tyler and Eric Zimmerman, 15 and 13, of Manheim Township, were there to show off their hogs Oreo and Autumn, respectively. And joining his older brothers for his first year was Drew, 9, with his pig Warhead, which he named for the distinctive black hair covering the pigs head. I like seeing how the project finishes out and seeing all your hard work paying off, Eric said of his favorite part of showing pigs at the Farm Show. And the food. Emma and Natalie Musser, 17 and 14, of Elizabethtown, were there to show their chocolate-brown Duroc pigs. Its just fun to see everyone from all over Pennsylvania, Emma said. Its cool to see the people from Lancaster compete and watch them succeed. Their goal was to qualify to sell their pigs at auction, which they did. Emma said the money they receive, which can be $500, typically goes toward college savings or supporting friends who do mission work overseas. Local vendors In the Main Hall of the Farm Show Complex, several Lancaster County vendors sold their goods and took advantage of the networking opportunities. Sara and Doug Taylor, of Lancaster city, scooped edible cookie dough into pint-sized packages to promote their new cookie dough company. The Perfect Dough was officially incorporated just a few months ago, but started in 2016 and grew out of the couples mutual love of baking and what Sara said was Dougs goal to perfect the chocolate chip cookie. They were initially hesitant to come to the Farm Show, but were given the chance and thought it would be a good opportunity. Its awesome because you meet so many people, and also you can get a lot of wholesale accounts, Sara said. Doug added that it was stressful but definitely worth it. Gretchen Maser, owner of Christina Maser Co. in Lancaster city, selling her soaps, candles and jams. The first year, we didnt know what to expect, Maser, who is in her tenth year, said. But for us its exposure to farm stands, small businesses throughout the state and Virginia, (New) Jersey, Delaware. They all come to this show. Cake wars Bakers from around the state convened in the Main Hall on Sunday for the angel food cake contest. Several local fair winners from Lancaster County competed for the blue ribbon. Jayne and Robert Wenger, of Adamstown, both baked a cake for the show. Jayne baked a cake inspired by the one at the royal wedding earlier this year, and Robert baked a lemon honey cake. Its always fun to come up, (but) you dont always win, Robert said. Diane Shirk, of Ephrata, baked an orange creamsicle-themed cake that won at the Ephrata fair, earning her a spot in the state competition. I just like the thrill of the competition, and to see what everybody else does, too, she said. Baking makes people happy. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a man wanted in an October shooting in Lancaster. Jovar Juwan Jackson, 24, faces charges along with two other men regarding the Oct. 16 shooting at East King and South Lime streets that left a man injured, according to Lancaster city police. He was seen in Lancaster as recently as Sunday, police said in a news release Monday. His last known address is in the 400 block of Hillside Avenue, Lancaster, police said. Jackson was charged Oct. 20 with aggravated assault, robbery and conspiracy to attempted homicide, aggravated assault and robbery, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, police said. Two other men were arrested within 10 days after the shooting. Clifton Kelvin Hunter, 24, of the 500 block of East Fulton Street, Lancaster, was taken into custody Oct. 26 by the US Marshal's Fugitive Task Force in Pawtuck, Rhode Island. Hunter was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, two counts of robbery, two firearms-related charges and conspiracy to homicide and aggravated assault. Hunter was extradited to Lancaster County Prison where he has been held without bail due to the homicide charge, according to court records. Jamel James Nesmith, 23, of the 1600 block of Esbenshade Road, Manheim Township, faces the same charges as Jackson. He was arrested Oct. 19 in the 2000 block of Fruitville Pike and sent to Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail. Police said multiple calls were made to 911 when the shooting happened including reports that men were seen running from the area. The man was shot in the abdomen, according to police. Police ask anyone with information about Jackson to call Det. Tom Ginder 717-735-3345 or send an email to gindert@lancasterpolice.com. Calls can be made to Lancaster CrimeStoppers at 800-322-1913. Text tips anonymously by sending "LANCS" plus a message to 847411. Culture eats strategy for breakfast is a famous quote attributed to management guru and author Peter Drucker. He is not saying that strategy is unimportant but rather emphasizing that a service-oriented, empowering culture is more predictive of an organizations success. Chris Horst, co-author of Mission Drift, provides a great example of culture trumping strategy. Horst was flying on United Airlines from Denver to the Dominican Republic with a stopover in Philadelphia. When he reached Philadelphia, he realized that he had forgotten his passport. His first move was to contact United and ask if his wife could bring the passport to the Denver airport and then have a flight attendant bring it to Philadelphia on the next flight. Not possible, they shared. Against policy. With nowhere else to turn, he reached out to the one company that he thought might take the risk: Southwest Airlines. They had no incentive to help Chris since he was not flying on their airline and was not even a member of their frequent flyer program. To his surprise, when his wife showed up at the Southwest ticket counter, they didnt hesitate to give her a special pass to go directly to the gate. They alerted their flight attendants and cheered his wife on as she bolted to the gate. The flight attendant assured her that the passport would be delivered with care. Chris arrived at Southwest baggage claim the next morning and retrieved the passport from an envelope labeled Horst Passport. This happened after the flight attendant on the Denver to Philly flight delivered it to the nighttime desk worker who then alerted the morning crew. It took a team to make this transfer happen. United and Southwest both have successful strategies for competing in the airline industry and they are of almost identical size and scope. However, Southwests friendly, fun and empowering culture eats Uniteds for breakfast. In a recent survey, United was voted the meanest airline while Southwest consistently ranks at the top for customer service. I think I know which airline Chris will be choosing next time. Mission Drift offers the following suggestions for building the type of culture that Peter Drucker promotes. Small things matter: Southwest and Chick-Fil-A have built cultures of hospitality based on a servant leadership focus. They have empowered their team members to make the decisions necessary to satisfy their customers. Consistency counts: Glossy brochures and slogans on the wall dont make a culture. Its the commitment to positive, repeatable practices such as Chick-Fil-As now famous response to customers, My pleasure. Conversely, when leadership does not address negative routine behaviors, such as bullying, sexism, etc., toxic cultures will result. Exemplars should be celebrated: The surest way to build strong cultures is through positive reinforcement of targeted behavior. Be sure to recognize and tell the stories of those team members that are living the culture. Embed spiritual disciplines: Great organizations often build prayer, Scripture, and devotions into their normal work rhythms. Despite the many examples of cultures powerful impact on a company, a recent study found that only 20 percent of directors and board members reported spending time required to manage and improve it. If you are one of the 80 percent not managing it, please make it your New Years resolution for 2019. Challenge your team to first describe the culture and then discover ways to improve and foster it. Remember, it eats strategy for breakfast! Mike Mitchell is executive director of The High Center at Elizabethtown College. Peter Greer, co-author of Mission Drift, will be speaking at the High Center for Family Business at Elizabethtown College on Thursday, Jan. 31. For more information, visit thehighcenter.com. LAist only exists with reader support. If you're in a position to give, your donation powers our reporters and keeps us independent. Our reporting is free for everyone, but its not free to make. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The Los Angeles District Attorney's office filed murder charges Monday against a man accused of killing a father as he slept in a tent with his two daughters in Malibu Creek State Park last June. Anthony Rauda, 42, is also accused of trying to kill ten other people in a series of shootings that date back to 2016, as well as several burglaries throughout the Calabasas area. Rauda has been charged with one count of murder, ten counts of attempted murder and five counts of second-degree burglary. His shooting spree allegedly began in November 2016, when he fired on a man sleeping in a hammock in the Malibu State Park area, injuring him. Rauda then reportedly shot into at least five vehicles over the course of the next year and a half, although no one was harmed in those incidents. In June 2018, Rauda allegedly shot and killed Tristan Beaudette, 35, a research scientist who was camping with his children, his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law's kids. He'd taken the trip in order to give his wife some quiet time alone to study for an exam, according to the Los Angeles Times, which also noted that the bullet that struck him was fired before dawn. The L.A. Times later reported that Beaudette was struck at least once in the torso, and his body was discovered by family members. His daughters, ages 2 and 4 at the time, were unharmed. Beaudette's murder set off a massive manhunt in Malibu involving helicopters and bloodhounds last October, when it appeared as though a burglary suspect may have been connected to his death. That suspect turned out to be Rauda, who allegedly had been trying to steal food from a vending machine at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. When L.A. County Sheriff's deputies approached, Rauda was dressed in black and carrying a rifle, officials said. He ultimately turned himself in. Rauda faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison if he's convicted. Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. LAist only exists with reader support. If you're in a position to give, your donation powers our reporters and keeps us independent. Our reporting is free for everyone, but its not free to make. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District may not be able to begin their strike, as planned, on Jan. 10 -- the date they had picked to begin their work stoppage if they hadn't yet reached a contract deal with district management. Instead, the strike may be delayed until Jan. 14. That's because of a disagreement about when and whether United Teachers Los Angeles officials filed the right paperwork giving formal notice of its intent to strike, according to a statement from the union sent Sunday. In the statement, UTLA leaders said they plan to "proactively" go to court in the coming week to ensure its members -- more than 30,000 LAUSD teachers, counselors, nurses and social workers -- can strike on January 10 as planned. Union officials believe their original strike date should still stand. If the strike date is delayed, that could mean not only more time for negotiators to hammer out a last-minute deal -- which has eluded both sides for almost two years -- and more time for the parents of 480,000 LAUSD students to make contingency plans. READ MORE: A comprehensive guide to the UTLA-LAUSD dispute, including a breakdown of the issues at stake. LAST-MINUTE TALKS APPARENTLY STILL ON UTLA and LAUSD leaders are still set to meet Monday for their first face-to-face negotiation session since at least early December. Both UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl and LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner -- who, for the most part, have left their bargaining delegations to conduct in-person talks -- are set to personally join the discussion. Some uncertainty still loomed over the location of the Monday meeting. At the end of last week, LAUSD officials told union negotiators that Mayor Eric Garcetti had offered L.A. City Hall as a meeting place. As of late Sunday, there was still confusion about whether the two sides would meet at LAUSD's headquarters building, known as Beaudry, or take the mayor up on his offer. Nevertheless, the Monday meeting appears to be on -- despite legal and public-relations vollies the two sides have continued to trade in recent days. "We are going into bargaining with an open mind," read Sunday's UTLA statement, "but the onus is on Beutner to give us something different instead of more of the same unacceptable proposals." "People are counting on us to solve this," Beutner said in an interview Sunday with KPCC/LAist. "Those same students and families that are going to be impacted by the strike are counting on us to put past frustrations aside." SPECIAL ED TEACHERS -- FOR NOW -- CAN STILL STRIKE The leaders' comments come two days after a federal judge rejected, at least for now, the district's attempt to block UTLA members who serve students with disabilities from striking. District lawyers had filed the request Thursday, arguing a strike might throw the district out of compliance with a 1996 legal settlement that requires LAUSD to provide better services to students with disabilities. But on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew turned the district down on technical grounds, saying district officials were "attempting, prematurely, to bring an unrelated party into a long-settled dispute without any explanation as to how UTLA would be legally liable." The judge, however, did leave open the door for the district to file a new lawsuit that might block special education teachers from striking. Senior Editor Paul Glickman contributed to this story. Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. SPARTA A 9-year-old boy died after falling through the ice Sunday at Perch Lake in Sparta. Authorities received reports that two people fell through the ice about 3 p.m. Officers arrived within minutes and found one child safe on shore, a 12-year-old in the water clinging to ice and a third child submerged in water, according to the Sparta Police Department. The 12-year-old was rescued from the water with ropes and was taken to Mayo Clinic Health System in Sparta and treated for hypothermia. Authorities located the third child, transported him to Mayo Clinic Health System in Sparta, and later to a hospital in Rochester, Minn., where he died. No further information about the victim was available. Two officers were treated for hypothermia and released, according to authorities. Authorities caution people to steer clear of ice because its thickness is unknown. The Sparta Police Department was assisted at the scene by Wisconsin State Patrol, Monroe County Sheriffs Department, Sparta Fire Department, Sparta Ambulance and Fort McCoy Fire Department. The incident remains under investigation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 22 Angry 4 By Ruth Anderah. Former police boss Gen. Kale Kayihura has this morning reported before the Army court as fulfillment of his bail condition on charges of Failure to protect war materials. Gen. Kayihura was ordered by the courts chairman Lt. Gen Andrew Gutti to report every first Monday of the month for purposes of extending the bail he was granted in August last year. However his case has not yet been cause listed for trial as investigations still on-going. The General faces charges of failure to protect war materials in which its alleged that he allowed the issuing of guns to civilians including AbdallahKitata and aiding the kidnap and several repatriation of several refugees to Rwanda. Its alleged that between 2010 and 2018 While in performance of his duties, Kayihura allowed the issuance of arms and ammunition to unauthorized persons like members of BodaBoda 2010 headed by one Abdullah Kitata. Gen. Kayihura is also accused of failing to supervise and ensure accountability for arms and ammunition issued to units under the office of the IGP. Prosecution further alleges that between 2012 and 2016 the former IGP aided the actions of surbodinate police officers without hindrance to kidnap, and illegally repatriated 3 Rwandan exiles, refugees and Ugandan Citizens to Rwanda. New La Crosse County Sheriff Jeff Wolf says hell build on his predecessors achievements while looking for ways to improve county law enforcement operations. Judge Ramona Gonzalez swore Wolf in Monday morning in La Crosse County Circuit Court in front of about 80 people, including family, friends, co-workers, deputies and La Crosse Police Chief Ron Tischer. Wolf, then chief deputy, was elected Nov. 6. He was unopposed after announcing his candidacy in February. During a phone interview, Wolf emphasized the importance of dealing with methamphetamine, heroin and prescription medication abuse, saying theyre ravaging the community. Were making some initiative to make our communities safer from the drug issues that we have pending, said Wolf, who is a member of Alliance to Heal, a group combating opioid addiction. The sheriff also oversees the county jail, and Wolf spoke rehabilitation of inmates before their release. He said the cost of treatment, including medication, administering treatment, and evaluating inmate needs are all issues that need to be examined. He also talked about providing more law enforcement coverage to rural areas and improving mental health care services for people who have committed crimes to prevent them from returning to jail. It needs and is open to a new common ground where people of all backgrounds can come together, Zaretsky said. Zaretsky stressed that theres no guarantee but said with careful planning the public market would be tremendously successful. It will provide hundreds of new jobs, scores of new entrepreneurial opportunities and millions of dollars in new tax revenues for the community, Zaretsky said. Public markets provide opportunities for new businesses to get started without a lot of upfront investment, making them perfect for low-income entrepreneurs. Council member David Marshall, who is a member of the Redevelopment Authority, was very excited by Zaretskys report. I am overjoyed with the results. Im happy with the findings that the La Crosse is overripe with possibilities for a public market, Marshall said. Marshall was particularly interested in ways to give La Crosses minority population, such as Hmong and Hispanic people, the chance to bring their food and culture to the market. A new conservation agreement with Mississippi Valley Conservancy will protect an additional 48 acres of private land in Crawford Countys Haney Township. The landowner, an avid deer hunter, added the conservation agreement to acreage connected with his previously conserved land and adjacent state-owned land to create what is now a contiguous protected habitat corridor of nearly four-and-one-half square miles. The new conservation agreement between Bob and Lori Wallock and the Conservancy adds the land to property the Wallock family protected with the same kind of voluntary agreement in 2009. When totaled with additional adjacent conservation easement-protected lands and the DNR Bell Center Unit of 1,550 acres, accumulates a grand total of 2,804 contiguous acres of prime protected land. It such a wonderful thing to do for wildlife, said Bob Wallock of the new agreement. Were not getting any more of this kind of land. Located near Gays Mills, the newly protected land includes undeveloped wooded bluffs and ridge-top agricultural fields. It is home to oak woodland, dry prairie, pollinating insects, and myriad wildlife. Red-headed woodpeckers also make their homes in the area. They are a state-listed species of special concern. They were married July 3, 1940, in Iron County, Wis. To this union, four children were born. Shirley was a true homemaker. She enjoyed cooking, baking, sewing and keeping an immaculate, clean home. After their marriage they resided and farmed in the Hurley area. Shirley was a very hard worker, helping her husband in the woods peeling pulp and collecting pine boughs to supply the area greenhouses. After the death of her husband she sold the farm so she could move to Kennewick, Wash. to be near her children. While in Kennewick she worked at the Kennewick Senor Center. She was given a Presidential award for working there for over 10 years. The Tomah City Council will discuss making changes to the builders agreement between the city of Tomah and 3rd Gen LLC during its the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday, Jan. 7 at 6:30 p.m. The committee meets in the council chambers at city hall, and the council holds its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 6:15 p.m. A builders agreement was struck between the city and 3rd Gen LLC in March to provide $1.25 million for building assistance via Tax Incremental Finance District 8 to be paid to 3rd Gen upon the city receiving a certificate of occupancy. The proposed change to the agreement is to increase the amount from $1.25 million to $1.5 million, using the $250,000 grant awarded to the city by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for community development. The resolution said the change is needed because 3rd Gen was under the belief that the total assistance was $1.5 million rather than $1.25 million, and it based the construction costs and loan information on that amount. In other business the council will discuss three applications and resolutions for the State Trust Fund Loans for development incentive agreements. The agreements are part of TID 8 and include the 3rd Gen project, Veterans Assistance Foundation apartment renovations and roof repair and financing small business loans. Meghan Flynn can be reached at meghan.flynn@lee.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sparta-area residents are invited to attend a free community screening of the Sparta episode of the public television show Around the Corner With John McGivern. The event begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 23 and takes place at the Sparta Meadowview School Cafetorium, 1225 N. Water St., Sparta. Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP by calling the Sparta Area Chamber of Commerce office at 608-269-4123. The statewide broadcast premiere of the episode is 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24 on Wisconsin Public Television and Milwaukee PBS. This episode is the fourth episode of Around the Corner With John McGiverns eighth season, which follows the Emmy-winning host as he sets out to explore the ways Wisconsinites live, work and play in the communities around the state. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. - According to a report, Kris Aquino suffered a severe allergy attack - It was also reported that she is going to Singapore to undergo medical tests - The actress posted a video of her and her son Bimby walking in the airport, presumably before heading to Singapore PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kris Aquinos health continues to be a concern in the midst of her legal battle with her former business manager, Nicko Falcis. According to News5 Features, Kris suffered a severe allergy attack as red spots on her face appeared. RadyoMan Metro Manila also reported that she is going to Singapore with her son Bimby Aquino Yap in order to undergo medical tests to check her health condition. The actress-host posted a video of her and Bimby walking in the airport. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! As reported earlier by KAMI, Kris has already denied the accusations made against her by Nicko Falcis. Kris is known as the Queen of All Media due to her success as a movie star, TV actress, talk show host, brand endorser, and social media celebrity. Her son Bimby is her child with ex-husband James Yap. Her older son, Josh, is Kris child with former partner Philip Salvador. POPULAR: Read more news about Kris Aquino Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Guess what, it's our special edition of the tricky questions challenge, in which you will find lots of Christmas songs and joyous laughter! Merry Christmas everyone from the whole HumanMeter team on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph - Kris Aquino finally explained why she failed to sponsor a block screening of Fantastica - She said her son asked for Vice Gandas permission a day after the MMFF started - Vice immediately responded to Kris words and targeted the netizens PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapamilya comedian Vice Ganda took to social media his side regarding the words of Kris Aquino explaining the truth about her alleged issue with the actor and his movie, Fantastica. KAMI learned that the rift rumors started when netizens noticed that the actress sponsored block screenings of movies in MMFF which are competitors of Vices film. However, Kris explained that her son Bimby already texted his tito Vice asking for his permission if they could sponsor a block screening of Fantastica even before they scheduled such for other entries. She even showed to public the text conversation of Bimby and the actor which proved that they made the offer on December 26, a day after the MMFF kicked off. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! In the comment section of Kris post, Vice bravely commented and targeted those who continuously create issue between him and his former bestfriend. He expressed that people must already stop throwing negative words to others because the new year has just started and he does not want bad vibes welcoming the 2019. Moreover, the comedian cleared that he is in good terms with Bimby and the netizens should not waste time stressing themselves about the alleged issue. Naku anu na namang issue itooooo!!! Utang na loob kakasimula lang ng taon itigil nyo ang pag iisip ng masama sa kapwa, Vice wrote. Maayos ang relasyon namin at ng mga bata! (wow parang mag asawa talaga ang datingan lol!) Kaya please wag nyo ng istressin ang mga sarili nyo tungkol samin. Love Love Love na lang! he added. In a previous article by , the explanation of Kris about her rumored rift with Vice and Fantastica was reported. Vice Ganda is one of the successful celebrities in the Philippines. Aside from having numerous projects and endorsements, he owns a cosmetics business named Vice Costmetics. POPULAR: Read more news about Vice Ganda! Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! A random man (played by our actor Roi) is asking people to help him with transportation money and seems like no one believes him or cares about his trouble. But then we met Tatay Kariton who counts every peso and he did a really touching thing on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph The Morning Show KENOSHA WGTD (91.1 FM) is owned and operated as a public service of Gateway Technical College and is an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio. For an updated schedule, visit its website at www.wgtd.org. The Morning Show airs every weekday morning between 8:10 and 9 a.m. Following is a schedule of show topics for the coming week: Monday Madeleine May Kunin, former governor of Vermont- author of "Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties." Unlike her previous books, which were about public policy, this latest book is a very personal memoir about what it has been like for Gov. Kunin to reach old age. Tuesday Elizabeth Emens, author of "Life Admin: How I learned to do less, do better, and live more." Wednesday Mick Burke, business reporter for the Racine Journal Times, with a FoxConn update. Thursday Nan Calvert's monthly environmental program with Vicki Elkin (Fund for Lake Michigan.) This office must start upholding the law to ensure checks and balances for our states financial well-being. One of the most important and far-reaching roles of this office is signing the states checkbook. The state treasurers signature is on millions of checks every year that are disbursed by the State of Wisconsin. Medicaid payments, state employee paychecks, tax refund checks and more, all bear the endorsement of the treasurer. Recently, this office hasnt taken any role in monitoring the use of that signature and has instead trusted other agencies to distribute and use this signature without oversight by the treasurer. Like any Wisconsinite, I would never sign a blank check from my personal checkbook, and I will not do that with the peoples checkbook either. Thats why we already met with the incoming Department of Administration secretary, and I look forward to tackling these issues together. Weve seen multiple incidents of financial mismanagement recently. Here are two from last year alone: $600,000 was overpaid in Medicaid and more than $400,000 was double paid to a contractor working with the Department of Transportation. Urban Development Ministry preparing design for landfill site The Ministry of Urban Development is preparing a design for the construction of a landfill site in Bancharedanda, Nuwakot, to ensure a permanent solution to the Valleys waste management. Snyder drafted floor and exterior plans for a prototype home that would have a kitchen, a bathroom and a living/sleeping space. Snyder said he is in the process of launching a fundraising campaign on social media called Friends Helping Friends: A Tiny Home Project. I think we could start another community group like we did with the Oak Hill chapel that was such a great success, Snyder said. The community of Janesville came together to first help us save it and then restore it, and then a lot of the local contractors came forward, and suppliers. I think we could do the same thing with the problem in Janesville with the homeless. Snyder said some from the Oak Hill Cemeterys chapels friends group have indicated they would pitch in on a tiny homes project. Other plans floated Snyder said he pitched the tiny homes idea to city officials in August, but the city didnt give him much of a reaction. Janesville Housing Services Director Kelly Bedessem said she is familiar with Snyders idea, but she said he isnt the only one she has talked with about the idea of tiny homes for homeless people. She said one area not-for-profit service provider has pitched a similar idea, though she declined to name the group. RACINE When Robert J. Goebel Sr. visited the German fighter plane on display at Sixth Street and Lake Avenue, there were hardly any other people around. Maybe it was because the Journal Times had only written a short article, about 2 inches long, on June 1, 1942, saying that the warplane was stopping in Racine for three days on its nationwide tour to raise funds for Bundles for America, an organization that provided needed to supplies to soldiers. Goebel wrote in his 1991 book Mustang Ace: Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot about his up-close encounter with the Messerschmitt (incorrectly spelled Messerschmidt in the Journal Times report) BF-109 single-engine warplane that had been taken down by the British Royal Air Force in 1940. Goebel was 19 and had just enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He wrote that the RAF sergeant guarding the plane had been distracted talking with a young woman and no one else was around so he climbed into the cockpit. RACINE COUNTY A Kenosha woman was arrested Sunday after she was reportedly caught driving drunk with a child in her vehicle. Samanda E. Day, 31, of Kenosha, was arrested by the Wisconsin State Patrol and is facing her second OWI charge, with a penalty enhancement for having a passenger under the age of 16 in the vehicle, according to a Wisconsin Department of Transportation news release. At 7:36 p.m. Sunday, a trooper with the State Patrol Waukesha Post stopped a southbound 2017 Chevrolet passenger van on Interstate 94 south of Highway 20 for a driving infraction. Day was given field sobriety testing, which State Patrol officials indicated that Day was allegedly operating under the influence. A 12-year-old child was also found in the vehicles passenger seat. The release did not indicate the relationship between Day and the child. Day was taken to a local hospital for a legal blood draw and released to a responsible party. The child was released to the custody of family members. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 3 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 'Clearly we support it' Angelina Cruz, president of REU, said adding voucher costs to all tax bills across the state would increase transparency in how public money is spent. Its an important step in the right direction, she said. Clearly we support it. Cruz believes that if people understood the impact of voucher funding and that its paying for two separate school systems, they might not be so keen to support it. Jim Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, said that when it comes to including voucher information on tax bills, context is important. Its clear to him that those pushing for voucher funding information on tax bills are opposed to the school choice program. Theyre not for transparency, Bender said. Theyre out to use the property tax bills as a political tool. +3 State report cards: Voucher school results RACINE COUNTY While public-school teachers, parents and administrators are combing through Bender and his organization are far from anti-transparency, he said, but he thinks the public needs more than one line of type to understand the impact of publicly funded vouchers. BARABOO In a Broadway production headed to Baraboo, a young whooping crane gets an education during her first solo migration. Heather Henson hopes spectators learn some things, too. The daughter of famed puppeteer Jim Henson is scheduled to bring Ajijaak on Turtle Island to the Al. Ringling Theatre this month. Developed by Henson and college classmate Ty Defoe, a Wisconsin native, the spectacle of dances, puppets and kites demonstrates the interconnected nature of all living things. Its the lesson shes learning from these characters along the flyway, Henson said. Two performances will benefit the Ringling Theatre and the International Crane Foundation. Henson sits on ICFs board of directors, and previously brought her production Panther & Crane there. Theyve done such amazing work, she said. The Baraboo performances are the only ones to be held in Wisconsin, and Baraboo is one of only four cities that will host Ajijaak. In the production, the crane travels alone and learns the importance of survival and perseverance. The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is offering a new lecture series that includes an opportunity to view the interiors of historic aircraft. The Aircraft Adventure series is focused on the museums collection, highlighting historic events from World War II through the Cold War. The curator-led speaker series will include the opportunity to view artifacts that are not on display and learn about historic events from a subject matter expert. Each event begins at 10 a.m. with a presentation near each featured aircraft. Aircraft tours will end at 2 p.m. The series begins Feb. 9 with a presentation on the C-54 Skymasters role in World War II and later the Berlin Airlift with an opportunity to get inside the aircraft. The presentation focuses on Capt. Norm Stevens and his experiences with the C-54 Skymaster. Stevens was a Nebraska resident with a 10-year United States Air Force career. He flew the C-54 military transport around the world. He evacuated prisoner of war nurses from the Philippines in the latter days of World War II, hauled food and fuel into besieged Berlin during the airlift of 1948-49 and ferried wounded troops from Korea to Japan during the Korean War. Genoways spent a year watching Hammond and his family at work. And he hoped the book helps readers see how closely farmers are tied to the wider world, the author said Monday. We tend to think of farmers as distant from the modern world and the cares of politics, but a farmer in the combine in Hamilton or York county is more at the nexus of international policies set by the U.S. government than anybody. The book makes that point in its clear-eyed telling of not only one familys life, but in the history of the land and the business of making a living from it from calibrating the exact dryness of a soybean field for optimum yield to brief histories of hybrid corn and shelter belts. Fascinating and thought-provoking stuff. I hope that people will read the book and see for themselves that its not what the governor is portraying it as, Genoways said. Monday morning, Ricketts said he wasnt in the business of recommending alternative books to the Center. And one thing more. No, the governor said. He had not read Ted Genoways book. Reach the writer at 402-473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com. On Twitter @TheRealCLK. Love 13 Funny 9 Wow 4 Sad 8 Angry 99 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Deb Minardi has been appointed as Nebraskas new state probation administrator, according to a news release from the Nebraska Supreme Court. Minardi has worked in probation for 39 years, most recently serving as deputy administrator under Ellen Brokofsky, who retired at the end of last year. Minardi will direct the statewide delivery of all juvenile and adult probation services in the state. As deputy administrator, she was responsible for statewide evidence-based programs and services, including alternatives to incarceration/adult intensive supervision probation, problem-solving courts, reporting centers, sex offender and domestic-violence management, behavioral health and nonclinical services. She has been heavily involved in juvenile and adult justice reform and the expansion of problem-solving courts in Nebraska. Minardi, who serves as vice president of the American Probation and Parole Association, also was integral in developing the nationally recognized, award-winning Specialized Substance Abuse Supervision program that serves as one of Nebraska probations flagship prison-alternative programs, according to the Supreme Court news release. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. An Indianapolis man has been arrested in a quadruple homicide that followed an alleged argument over a stimulus check, according to a probable cause affidavit. A second person has entered a plea in connection to the 2017 beating death of Phillip Madlock over a drug debt. Dominic Aguirre, who had been set to go to trial in February, showed up at a docket call Friday and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and attempted kidnapping. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors amended the charge from second-degree murder, which could have gotten him a life sentence, and dropped a separate drug delivery case. Now, the 37-year-old Lincoln man will face up to 50 years on each of the counts at his sentencing next month. Lancaster County District Judge Kevin McManaman earlier sentenced Aguirre's co-defendant, Paul Clark, to 60 to 80 years in prison on charges of first-degree assault and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Clark, 36, had pleaded no contest but put the blame on Aguirre at his sentencing hearing in October. Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Jan Lipovsky said then if it was not for Clarks business, we would not be here. Trade deficit widening due to luxury goods imports: Ministry Imports of luxury goods are up sharply, pointing to a massive boom in consumption and burgeoning middle class, which is bad for the economy as the trade deficit has widened due to such spending, the government said Sunday. Two Lincoln businessmen are among five people being inducted into the 2019 Nebraska Business Hall of Fame. Barry Kennedy, who is a former president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Philip Mullin, former CEO of Garner Industries, will be inducted at the Chamber's annual meeting in Lincoln on Feb. 7 at The Cornhusker Marriott. Kennedy joined the state Chamber in 1987 and became president in 2000, a role he held until his retirement in June. During his tenure, the chamber grew in membership and influence, and its advocacy helped lead to an improved overall business climate and modernized business incentives. Mullin has been at Garner Industries since 1968 and served as the CEO for decades before transitioning out of the role in 2014. He remains majority owner of the company that makes the BinMaster suite of monitoring and inventory-management products for bins, tanks and silos and also does custom manufacturing of injection-molded plastics. Under Mullin's leadership, Garner grew from a small tool and die maker to a leading manufacturer. The company built a new 75,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 98th Street and Cornhusker Highway in 2001, which it recently expanded. The other people who will be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame are: OAKLAND -- Two men were arrested for reportedly attacking another man at a residence near Oakland Sunday night. James C. Arnold, 39, of Liberty Township, Ohio, and Eric N. Marcrum, 30, of Hume have been charged with aggravated battery in connection with the incident, according to Coles County court records. A woman was arrested for lying to investigating police officers and another was arrested on a failure to appear warrant in a traffic case, according to information from the Coles County Sheriff's Office. Lt. Tyler Heleine of the sheriff's office said what led to the altercation that injured Cameron L. Sowell, 28, of Charleston, hasn't been determined. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The incident was reported about 10:40 p.m. Sunday at a residence on Illinois Route 133 about two miles east of Oakland, according to the sheriff's office. Indications are that Sowell was cut in the hand by a knife and hit in the head by a baton or similar object, Heleine said. He was hospitalized after the incident but has since been released, according to Heleine. Edgar County authorities notified the sheriff's office of the incident after Sowell was taken to a hospital in Paris, Heleine said. Sowell was later transferred to Regional Hospital in Terre Haute before being released, he said. Arnold had left the residence by the time deputies arrived but was located and arrested later by Oakland police, who also found methamphetamine in his vehicle, Heleine said. The other suspects were located at the residence, he said. Tiffany M. Toothman, 34, at whose residence the incident occurred, is accused of lying about the location of Marcrum while he was hiding there, Heleine said. A news release from the sheriff's office about the incident identified the woman arrested in the traffic case as Tanya N. Petry, 32, of Middletown, Ohio. Love 1 Funny 5 Wow 3 Sad 2 Angry 2 CHARLESTON -- A man drank a half-pint of vodka less than two hours before causing an accident that killed a rural Mattoon woman last month. That was among the information a judge heard Monday in denying a request to reduce the bond for James W. Miller, who's accused of causing the accident that killed April L. Fisher, who was 38, on Dec. 11. Evidence presented to Coles County Circuit Judge James Glenn also indicated that Miller's pickup truck was traveling about 90 mph and he made no attempt to slow at the intersection of Illinois Route 316 and Loxa Road, where the accident took place. Miller, 56, of Terre Haute, Ind., is jailed facing a charge of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol in connection with the accident. He's accused of running the stop sign on Loxa Road and colliding with the driver's side of Fisher's vehicle, killing her at the scene. With Glenn's ruling Monday, Miller's bond remains at a level requiring $25,000 to be posted for release from jail. His attorney also entered a not guilty plea to the charge on his behalf during Monday's court appearance. In opposing the bond reduction motion, Assistant State's Attorney Rob Scales had Deputy Cody Lee of the Coles County Sheriff's Office testify about the investigation. Lee said he interviewed Miller at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, where he was taken after the accident. He said a test at the hospital showed a blood alcohol content for Miller of 0.147 percent, nearly twice the legal limit. Miller said he drank the vodka before leaving Terre Haute that morning and added that he hadn't eaten, Lee said. Miller also said he was lost and using his cellphone's map application at the time of accident, which he didn't recall taking place, the deputy said. Also, Lee related, Miller said he traveled to Charleston for an appointment to have his truck serviced at the Pilson automotive dealership. Police confirmed that Miller did have an appointment at the dealership but it was actually on Dec. 12, the day after the accident. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} In support of the motion, defense attorney Robert Morris had Miller testify about his current employment being limited to a one-person mowing service. He said if he's released from jail he'd try to expand the business so he'd have more income. Also, Ronald Mullen, Miller's brother-in-law and a former administrator for the Indiana prison system, testified about Miller's character and said he'd benefit from treatment and other opportunities if released. Morris asked that Miller's bond be reduced to a $1,500 level, arguing that the higher bond was excessive and "a punishment of its own." Miller is willing to enter substance abuse treatment if released from jail and would follow current alcohol monitoring requirements of his bond, Morris said. Scales objected to any bond reduction, saying the evidence indicated that Miller has a drinking problem. His living in another state with no ties to the local community also makes him a flight risk, Scales also said. Glenn agreed and said the current bond amount was needed to "ensure the safety of the community." The judge and attorneys agreed to delay scheduling a trial pending a hearing to review the status of the case, which Glenn scheduled for Jan. 31. The aggravated DUI charge against Miller is a felony offense that can result in a prison sentence of three to 14 years when there's a conviction. For a DUI charge when a fatality takes place, state law calls for a "presumption" of prison time over probation with a conviction. Citations he was also issued included improper use of an electronic communications device. He was also cited for disobeying a stop sign and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Contact Dave Fopay at (217) 238-6858. Follow him on Twitter: @FopayDave Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 9 Angry 6 Iran has an unusually high rate of traffic accidents, with roughly 17,000 casualties each year, with people aged 15-30 being the main victims. Iran has the 2nd highest car accident rate in the Middle East and the 8th highest in the world, behind countries like Libya, Thailand, Malawi, and Congo. This is mostly blamed on poor safety laws, damaged roads, the use of older, non-standard vehicles, and severe failures in the emergency services. Road Problems The roads in Iran are very poorly maintained, particularly in mountainous regions, and the roads that are over 80 years old fail to meet the volume and technology demands of todays traffic. Both the police and officials involved in the regimes Road and Construction Ministry admit that these conditions contribute largely to the problem. Worse still, the budget for the Road and Construction Ministry is constantly being cut to increase the budget for the Regimes repressive forces. Their budget for 2018 was 25% less than the previous year, which was already less than 1% of the Regimes total budget. Vehicle Concerns and Safety Laws With lax safety laws and car manufacturers out to make the most profit possible, many vehicles in Iran are of poor quality and fail to meet international standards. For instance, the Pride, Irans most popular and affordable car, often comes without airbags or anti-locking-brake systems. Former Iranian Health Minister Seyed Hassan Hashemi blamed the car industry for these problems, according to the state-run ISNA news agency on August 18. Hashemi said: The car industry is imposing cruelty on the people. However, considering the fact that peoples lives matter less, there is probably no ear in this industry, nor in the parliament there has been much talk in the government in this regard, yet there is no necessary power to prevent the manufacturing of certain vehicles. He failed to note, however, the extreme corruption amongst the Iranian Regime officials who are profiting off low quality, unsafe goods, like cars, that risk the lives of the Iranian people. The Regime certainly has the power to prevent dangerous goods from making their way to the Iranian people theyre just choosing not to. We know that it is specifically the Iranian made cars to blame because road traffic police chief Mohammad Hossein Hamidi explained in March that imported vehicles, even those that are second-hand and over ten years old, have caused no injuries or deaths for the passengers even in major accidents. He said: Making the vehicles safe will reduce Irans road accident casualties by at least 40 to 45 per cent. In the past few years, the high number of road accidents and the deaths and injuries caused by this has sparked debate in the Regimes state-run media and discussion among senior officials, but this has failed to resolve the problem. According to the state-run ISNA news agency, MP Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi said: Although our influence in the region is important, but one point should not be forgotten, and that is, sometimes it is possible that unneeded costs can cripple us on Tehran streets. In these comments, made before the start of parliaments official agenda, Rahimi Jahanabadi, who is leader of the Sunni parliamentarians, said that unneeded costs, which are not a priority should be removed, citing the example of the former Soviet Union, which eventually fell apart despite its nuclear arsenal and global influence. He said: When the Soviet Union collapsed, it had 13,000 nuclear warheads and had influence in more than twenty countries and a space station, but it was torn apart on Moscow streets, losing its security and territorial integrity. While it is interesting that these comments were made in the Iranian Regimes parliament, it is hard to assess how Rahimi Jahanabadi, a so-called reformist, could contradict the countrys foreign policy set by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After all, Khamenei sets the agenda and the rest of the Regime are expected to fall into line. Rahimi Jahanabadi, who came to the parliament from an academic background and was in charge of presidential documents more than ten years ago, also brought up the economic hardships that are faced by everyday Iranians in his speech. He said: Today, people have difficulty to make a living and feed their children. If we fail to resolve the problem of unnecessary domestic and foreign expenditures, we will bear heavy costs. What we need at home we should take care of itWe need to find friends, reduce tensions and increase cooperation in the region and focus on the economy as our top priority The economy has only gotten worse over the past year, with more than 80% of Iranians living below the poverty line, yet the Regime has failed to do anything about it. These problems are largely due to the increased international isolation of Iran, due to Khameneis anti-Western and rhetoric and his interventionist policies across the Middle East, which have prolonged the war in Syria and exacerbated the Yemeni crisis. Many critics of the Supreme Leader have pointed this out in recent years, but open criticism of the Supreme Leaders foreign policy in parliament is unprecedented, even if Khameneis name was not mentioned During his lifetime, Bloomington-born composer Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) was known to have written several hundred songs. Though many such as "Stardust," "Skylark," and "Georgia On My Mind" became famous, others have languished in obscurity. Carmichael was a prolific writer, and he continued to pen new tunes even after the peak of his popularity in the mid-20th century. Allison McClanahan and Shawn Goodman (Photo: David Brent Johnson, WFIU) A jazz scholar and a librarian think they may have come across an addition to the Carmichael canon. Clarinetist Shawn Goodman, a PhD candidate and associate instructor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, and Allison McClanahan at IU's Archives of Traditional Music have been examining a manuscript found among the ATM's Hoagy Carmichael holdings, which were donated by the Carmichael family after the songwriter's death. They spoke with WFIU's David Brent Johnson about what they've uncovered so far, as well as some of the other items in the Archives of Traditional Music's Carmichael collection. Provincial Assembly snubs Manange The Provincial Assembly of Gandaki Province has refused to allow Rajeev Gurung, better known as Deepak Manange, to take oath of office and secrecy as the representative of Manang (B). US troops will not leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected, a top White House aide said on Sunday, 6 January, signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. While US national security adviser John Bolton said there is now no timetable, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to withdrawing US troops, though he said "we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone." Trump had said in his 19 December 2018 withdrawal announcement that US forces "have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," and added in a video posted to Twitter, "Now it's time for our troops to come back home." Bolton said in Israel that the US would pull out only after its troops had rooted out what's left of IS in Syria and after the administration had reached an agreement with Turkey to protect Kurdish militias who have fought alongside Americans against the extremists. In Washington, Trump told reporters at the White House that "we are pulling back in Syria. We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly." But in that 19 December video last year, the president had said of the roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria: "They're all coming back, and they're coming back now." And officials said at the time that while many details were yet to be finalised, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. "I think this is the reality setting in that you got to plan this out," said US Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "the bottom line here is we want to make sure we get this right, that ISIS doesn't come back. And I applaud the president for re-evaluating what he's doing. He has a goal in mind of reducing our presence. I share that goal. Let's just do it smartly." Story continues Also Read: Need to Deal With Democratic Leaders to End Shutdown, Says Trump Want Kurdish Allies in Syria Protected Trump's decision last month drew widespread criticism from allies, led to the resignation of US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and raised fears over clearing the way for a Turkish assault on the Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal," Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem. "The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement." He was to be in Turkey on Monday, accompanied by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, for talks with government officials. Bolton said the US wants its Kurdish allies in Syria protected from any planned Turkish offensive a warning to be delivered to Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We don't think the Turks ought to undertake military action that's not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States," Bolton said. He said that in upcoming meetings with Turkish officials, he will seek "to find out what their objectives and capabilities are and that remains uncertain." Also Read: Kurds Withdraw as Iraqi Forces Push into Disputed Kirkuk Bolton said Trump has made clear he would not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds. "That's what the president said, the ones that fought with us," Bolton said. Bolton said the US has asked the Kurds to "stand fast now" and refrain from seeking protection from Russia or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. "I think they know who their friends are," he added, speaking of the Kurds. Jim Jeffrey, the special representative for Syrian engagement and the newly named American special envoy for the anti-Islamic State coalition, is to travel to Syria this coming week in an effort to reassure the Kurdish fighters that they are not being abandoned, Bolton said. Irrational Claims: Turkey on Plan to Attack Kurds Turkey's presidential spokesman called allegations that his country planned to attack the US-allied Kurds in Syria "irrational" and said Turkey was fighting terrorism for national security. In comments carried by the official Anadolu news agency, Ibrahim Kalin said the Kurdish fighters oppressed Syrian Kurds and pursued a separatist agenda under the guise of fighting IS. "That a terror organisation cannot be allied with the US is self-evident," he said. US Rep. Adam Smith, the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the conditions raised by Bolton were "obvious," and Smith criticised the conflicting messages from the Trump administration. "We don't want ISIS to rise again and be a transnational terrorist threat and we don't want our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered by Erdogan in Turkey," said Smith, D-Wash. Bolton said US troops would remain at the critical area of al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region. He defended the legal basis for the deployment, saying it's justified by the president's constitutional authority. The US is also seeking a "satisfactory disposition" for roughly 800 IS prisoners held by the US-backed Syrian opposition, Bolton said, adding talks were ongoing with European and regional partners about the issue. Bolton was to have dinner with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday to discuss the pace of the US drawdown, American troop levels in the region, and the US commitment to push back on Iranian regional expansionism. Bolton was expected to explain that some US troops based in Syria to fight IS will shift to Iraq with the same mission and that the al-Tanf base would remain. Bolton also was to convey the message that the United States is "very supportive" of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, according to a senior administration official, who was not authorised to publicly discuss Bolton's plans before the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity. (Published in an arrangement with AP) . Read more on World by The Quint.RSS & BJPs Nehru-Netaji Cosplay: Irony Dies a Thousand DeathsKumbh Mela 2019: UPs Prayagraj Gears Up For Celebrations . Read more on World by The Quint. Swarajya Franciscan Clarist Congregation Superior General in Ernakulam has ordered Sister Lucy Kalapura, the nun from the Syro Malabar Church who spearheaded the protests against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, to vacate the convent within one week, reports ANI. The order came just a day after the Apostolica Signatura - the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church rejected her appeal against her congregation's decision to strip her of sisterhood after her protest against rape-accused ex-Bishop Franco Mulakkal. With the move, Sister Lucy was dismissed from the Church with finality. A Panjab University geologist has claimed that Lord Brahma discovered dinosaurs before anyone else, and documented them in the Vedas as well, reported The Indian Express. Ashu Khosla, an associate professor in the Geology department of the university, told The Indian Express that there is nothing that Lord Brahma did not know. He said Brahma was completely aware of the existence of dinosaurs and has even mentioned them in the Vedas. "Before anyone else in the world, it was Lord Brahma who discovered dinosaurs existence on earth. India was a hotspot for dinosaur evolution and breeding before extinction. A dinosaur named Rajasaurus had originated in India." - Ashu Khosla, Geologist, to The Indian Express Khosla has presented his research paper on Biotic assemblages from the Deccan trap-associated sedimentary sequences of penninsular India at the Indian Science Congress going on at Lovely Professional University. He added that the word Dinosaur has its origin in Sanskrit, with dino meaning terrible, it also translates to daayan and saur, which means lizard, related to asur (rakshas). He also claimed that everything that exists on Earth is well-mentioned in the Vedas. The Indian Express report also states that Khosla, along with his team, had discovered the remains of an Indian Dinosaur in Gujarats Kheda district and officially named it Rajasaurus Narmada ensis. The Vedas were written about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, while dinosaurs went extinct about 6.5 crores years back. When the geologist was questioned on this regard, he said there is no scientific basis since the Vedas were not written on paper. " People will even dismiss the existence of Lord Brahma and the Vedas since there is no scientific proof. But the Vedas are the biggest proof in itself. Even Wright Brothers took the idea of aeroplane from Pushpak Vimaan that was used by Ravana in Ramayana." - Ashu Khosla, Geologist . Read more on India by The Quint.RSS & BJPs Nehru-Netaji Cosplay: Irony Dies a Thousand DeathsReport Card: How Team India Players Fared in Series Win Over Aus . Read more on India by The Quint. In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, image made from video released by Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun views her mobile phone as she sits barricaded in a hotel room at an international airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Alqunun says she is fleeing abuse by her family and wants asylum in Australia. (Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun/Human Rights Watch via AP) BANGKOK (AP) The Latest on a Saudi woman who says she is fleeing abuse by her family (all times local): 9:20 p.m. An 18-year-old Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family has left her airport hotel room for temporary admission into Thailand. The head of Thailand's immigration police said Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand on Monday under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and claims for asylum status. Immigration police released photos of Alqunun after she left the hotel room where she had been holed up. Where she would stay in the Thai capital was not announced. Alqunun had stayed in the room while sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. She began posting on Twitter late Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. ___ 8:10 p.m. Thailand's immigration police chief says the young Saudi woman seeking passage to asylum in Australia will be temporarily admitted to Thailand for evaluation by the U.N. refugee agency. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn told reporters Monday that 18-year-old Ramaf Mohammed Alqunun would be granted entry under the protection of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees. He said the U.N. agency would take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case. Surachate's announcement came after Thai authorities allowed a U.N. team to meet with Alqunun. Police officials and staff at the Bangkok airport hotel where the woman was staying said she had already left her room there, though her exact destination was not made public. ___ 7 p.m. The United Nations' refugee agency says it has been in contact with the young Saudi woman who is trapped in Bangkok en route to seeking asylum in Australia after claiming to have fled her family fearing for her life. Story continues A statement issued Monday by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for refugees said it sought to assess 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun's "need for international refugee protection and find an immediate solution for her situation." It said that "for reasons of confidentiality and protection" it would not release details of their meeting. Alqunun is barricaded in an airport hotel room in the Thai capital and had been pleading to talk to U.N. officials. ___ 6:30 p.m. Thailand's immigration police chief says the father of the young Saudi woman who is trapped in Bangkok after being stopped en route to seeking asylum in Australia is supposed to arrive in Thailand on Monday night. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn says that after the father of Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun arrives, officials will see what happens and whether or not she will want to go back with him. Abuse by her family was one of the reasons Alqunun cited for fleeing. Under Saudi law, a male relative is supposed to serve as a woman's guardian for many everyday social activities. Alqunun is barricaded in a Bangkok airport hotel room and has been pleading to talk to U.N. officials. ___ 4:35 p.m. Thailand's Immigration Police chief says the young Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family will not be sent anywhere against her wishes. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn said at a news conference at Bangkok's main international airport on Monday that Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun will be allowed to meet U.N. refugee officials. He said he will discuss allowing them to see her later Monday. Alqunun is barricaded in an airport hotel room and has been pleading to talk to the U.N. officials. Surachate also said if Thai authorities decide not to send her back to Saudi Arabia then they would need to explain why to Saudi authorities in order not to affect the countries' relations. ___ 3:55 p.m. A law firm trying to prevent the deportation from Thailand of a Saudi woman seeking to go to Australia to get asylum to escape from an allegedly abusive family says a Thai court has turned down its request for an injunction. The NPS law firm said on Facebook on Monday that the Bangkok Criminal Court turned down its request in the case of 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun because there was not enough evidence and it was not clear who she is. Alqunun arrived in Bangkok on Saturday night intending to transit to Australia. She says her passport was seized and she was put in an airport hotel room and told she would have to fly Monday morning to Kuwait, from where she flew. But she remained barricaded in her room. ___ 1:05 p.m. A Saudi woman who says she is fleeing abuse by her family and wants asylum in Australia has barricaded herself in an airport hotel room at an international airport in the Thai capital and is sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun began posting on Twitter late Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived on a flight from Kuwait. The 18-year-old has been appealing for aid from the United Nations refugee agency and anyone else who can help. On Twitter, she wrote of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family under pressure from Saudi authorities. She tweeted Monday that a friend would carry on posting to her account if she was taken away or denied access to it. A protest against BJP over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, in Guwahati Sunday. (Source: PTI) Senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday that if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which is opposed in the state by large sections, is not passed, Assam will go to the "Jinnahs". "People are concerned that we are trying to bring somebody (outsiders), which is false. Without that Bill, we are surrendering ourselves to the philosophy of Jinnah This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy," Sarma, the BJP's Northeast face, said at a press conference here. The Bill essentially proposes to make minority (or non-Muslim) immigrants from three neighbouring countries, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, eligible for Indian citizenship. The Centre is set to bring the Bill before Parliament, and speaking in Silchar on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it "atonement" of the mistakes of Partition. The Bill is seen to be violating the 1985 Assam Accord that, simply put, says that any immigrant who came into the state after the midnight of March 24, 1971, would be identified as a foreigner. Asked about this on Sunday, Sarma said, "Let the Assam Accord be violated, but let us not go to Jinnah. You have to determine between the Assam Accord and Jinnah. Which way will you go?" When a reporter asked if he meant Muslims by "Jinnah", he replied that he had said "Jinnah" and not named any community. Sarma added, "The Bill itself will strengthen us, but rumours are being spread about it. If the here, we people will lose Sarbhog seat (an Assembly seat in Lower Assam where Bengali Hindus play a determining factor and that elected BJP state president Ranjit Dass). We will lose many seats Detection and deportation (of illegal migrants) will be done, but not at the cost of Jinnah. We cannot have detection and deportation to make Badruddin Ajmal (an MP from the AIUDF, which enjoys a large support among Bengal-origin Muslims in the state) the chief minister of Assam. If something leads us to make Ajmal the chief minister, then we will have to check that policy If the Bill is not passed, 17 Assamese seats, which elect Assamese people, will go the Jinnah way We are trying to save Assam from Jinnah. We are not apologetic I am against Jinnah." Story continues Sarma also added that the purpose of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was to "detect Jinnahs". Sarma's comment came on the day the Union Home Ministry notified a nine-member committee to work for the implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. Clause 6 reads: "Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people." Regarding the definition of "Assamese people", Sarma said the state government is willing to accept any cut-off which is 1951 or prior to that. The 1951 NRC as the basis for defining "Assamese people" was also recommended in a report prepared by former Assembly speaker Pranab Gogoi. Sarma referred to it as providing the foundation for future work for defining "Assamese people". Among those who have warned the BJP against the Citizenship Amendment Bill is its ally AGP. On January 8, the powerful All Assam Students' Union and 30 other organisations have called for a state-wide bandh against the legislation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File/ Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey) Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Narendra Modi government Monday decided to amend the Constitution to provide for 10 per cent reservation for economically backward upper castes in direct recruitment in government services and admission to higher educational institutions, highly placed sources confirmed. In fact, the government is aiming to introduce the legislation Tuesday on the last day of the current leg of the winter session of Parliament. Though similar suggestions have been made by political leaders like Mayawati and Ramdas Athavale in the past, this is the first substantial move to take legislative route to provide for this change. An attempt to provide for 10 per cent reservation to poor or economically backward among other sections during the Narasimha Rao governments tenure to offset political backlash against the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations was nullified by the Supreme Court in the early 90s. Read in Tamil, Malayalam "Narasimha Rao governments attempt was thrown out as it violated the basic structure of 50 per cent ceiling," confided a highly placed source revealing that "this time this basic structure is changed to provide for reservation up to 60 per cent". Follow: Upper castes quota LIVE UPDATES "Additionally, a new criterion of economically weaker section as eligible for reservation will be provided for through the Constitution Amendment," confided the source to stress how the Government move is conscious of keeping its legislative move immune from legal challenges. The move will require amending Article 16 of the Constitution to provide for reservation for economically weaker sections. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Unlike the reservation for SC/ST/OBCs, caste is not going to be a criterion for eligibility to the reservation under this new provision. In fact, sources revealed that the governments move plan to delineate the economically weaker section (EWS) for avoiding confusion. Story continues Sources, in this backdrop, revealed that the EWS category will be defined as families with income (includes agricultural income as well as from profession) below Rs 8 lakh per annum, possessing agricultural land below five acre and residential house below 1,000 square feet. As for urban areas, those with residential plot below 100 yards in notified municipality or residential plot below 200 yards in the non-notified municipal area. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The move comes in the backdrop of upper caste backlash against Modi governments move against the Supreme Courts attempt at ring-fencing apprehensions of misuse of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The Supreme Court move had sparked nation-wide protests from Dalit groups across the country after which Modi government brought legislation and nullified the SC measure through Parliament in the last monsoon session. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The upper caste communities, in turn, voiced their protest over Governments alacrity in addressing the concerns of Dalit communities of the issue. Senior BJP leaders, in this context, expressed that the BJP faced hostile Upper Castes in the recently concluded assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The move by the centre appears as an attempt by the BJP-led government to address grievances among the upper castes ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. IceViking strongly condemns physical attacks and harassment directed towards them. They are also often victims of the Islamic idea. This is true when it comes to the cruel and tragic treatment of Muslim women and children when it is in accord with the Koran, the example of Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia, which may be applied regardless of where a Muslim male may find himself in the world, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country. However, in no way, shape or form should one judge all Muslim men because of what is in Islamic scripture and what constitutes the Islamic law, Sharia. "Race", ethnicity or basically anything that you are "merely" born with should never be a basis for bigotry and discrimination. Apostates from Islam have been executed for 1400 years in accord with the Koran and the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia. They should be lovingly helped. Furthermore, approximately as many as 11,000,000 Muslims may have been killed by other Muslims since 1948. To quote the website The Religion of Peace (TROP), edited by Glen Roberts: While it may be safe to say that a true Muslim would not intentionally kill another true Muslim ( 4:92-93 ), the Quran places no such value on the life of a Muslim who is not true. Consider verse 9:73 : Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell. The Arabic for strive hard uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this sura is holy war (see v. 86 and 91). Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with harshness: disbelievers and hypocrites. A disbeliever obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort. In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should. In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught. The same sura says that a hypocrite can be recognized not just by lack of piety (reluctance to follow Sharia), but by fear of death ( 9:56 ), reluctance to fight ( 9:44-45 ) and even friendliness toward non-believers ( 9:67 ). A true Muslim would thus be a pious person who relishes martyrdom, is eager to fight, and shuns non-believers. Even the Quranic passage that warns against killing "believers" ( 4:88-94 ) is more complicated than it first appears. It never says that a true Muslim is incapable of killing another Muslim, just that it should not be done. In fact, it makes exceptions for the unintentional killing of "believers" in war and mandates the killing of "hypocrites." Verse 17:33 says, "Do not kill anyone which Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause" . The greatest cause of all is that Islam be superior ( 9:33 ), which is exactly what Islamic terrorists say is their goal. Thus believing Muslims are allowed to be collateral damage in the war on unbelievers. There is sadly a phenomena that I`ve noticed in Sweden and elsewhere of people using true facts about Islamic doctrine and history as a cover for all sorts of irrational targeting of Muslims, ranging from xenophobia and racism to verbal abuse and physical attacks. This is strongly condemned by this website and does not in any way serve serious criticism of orthodox Islam and other important work. It`s also important that one tries to express oneself in a civilized way. Words matter. In this bloggers humble opinion the root cause of the problem is the ancient doctrine of orthodox Islam. In simple terms a non-Muslim is a Kafir. " The Koran defines the kafir and kafir is not a neutral word. A kafir is not merely someone who does not agree with Islam, but a kafir is evil, disgusting, the lowest form of life." An exact quote, as stated in the writings of Dr. Bill Warner in the article "Kafir" at http://www.politicalislam.com/kafir . In the perfect Koran (Allah`s direct and literal word as revealed to Mohammed through the angel Jibril), Muslims are told 89 times to emulate Mohammed in all ways (see Koran 33:21 for instance). Mohammed`s example, the Sunna, is found in the Hadith (stories of what Mohammed said and did) and the Sira (biographies of Mohammed). Islamic law, Sharia , is directly derived from these unchanging scriptures. It is based on the Koran`s numerous commands to obey Allah and obey the Messenger, that is Mohammed (see Koran 4:59 for instance). Islam is Sharia. Sharia is Islam. It is a capital crime for Muslims to deny Sharia in any way. A Muslim is someone who submits to Islam and submitting to Islam means obeying the Sharia of Allah. Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs). Islam is a "complete way of life", a "complete code of life", a "complete system of life". Islam is not just a religion but also a comprehensive ideology. Islam is a supremacist ideology. Islam is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology akin to Communism and Nazism. Islam is a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, is a manual for a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, governs every aspect of life. It has a say about every conceivable human act . Non-Muslims are morally and legally inferior in Islam. Women are morally and legally inferior in Islam. The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language and a great book on the topic. Allah guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Koran 9:111). A hadith depicts a Muslim asking Muhammad: "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." Muhammad replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Bukhari 4.52.44) Muhammad himself said: I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Sahih Muslim 30) Freedom of speech, human rights, democracy, science and human lives are all at stake in the fight against the Islamic Jihad. State Rep. Lou Lang, a longtime Skokie Democrat and former top deputy to House Speaker Michael Madigan, announced his resignation from the Illinois House on Monday, two days before he was scheduled to be sworn in for another term. Lang will join a lobbying firm headed by the late Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka's former chief of staff Nancy Kimme. He started his tenure in Springfield in 1987 and became known for his advocacy for expanded gambling and for ushering in Illinois' medical marijuana law. Last year, Lang left his leadership post after a former medical marijuana advocate accused him of retaliation, verbal abuse and "inappropriate behavior." Months later, the legislative inspector general wrote that "evidence does not support" the complaints, after the woman who made the accusations didn't participate in the resulting investigation. Lang won re-election in November. Asked on Monday if last year's experience led to his resignation, he said: "Not at all." Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. He put the state's medical marijuana law and a proposal to deal with the opioid crisis among his top accomplishments. "Medical marijuana is right at the top of the list," he said. "We have close to 50,000 patients now who are having a much better quality of life with this product." Kimme's lobbying success in Springfield came in part from her Republican connections after Gov. Bruce Rauner's election. Now, Lang adds depth to the firm with the new Democratic domination in Springfield. A new class of lawmakers to be sworn in Wednesday will give Democrats big majorities in the House and Senate. And Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker takes office Jan. 14. After the accusation and his resignation from House Democratic leadership, Lang's chances to replace Madigan as House speaker someday effectively ended. He did not say who he prefers as his replacement, but his position as Niles Township Democratic committeeman means he'll have a big say. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Pass on props, please Using school children to fill chairs is completely wrong Here's what you need to know about the first FDA-approved drug for Alzheimers disease in nearly 20 years. What will it cost? What will insura WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants said Sunday that he time isnt right for the new Democratic-led House to pursue impeachment of President Donald Trump, despite a push in their partys ranks for such action. But they didnt rule it out, either. If and when the time comes for impeachment, it will have to be something that has such a crescendo in a bipartisan way, Pelosi, D-Calif., said CBS "Sunday Morning. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of California suggested that Senate Republicans would have to be on board to make an impeachment to be anything more than symbolic. He said theres no point in pursuing impeachment before special counsel Robert Mueller presents the findings of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whats the point if you dont know the full case and cant make the case to the Senate? Schiff said on CNNs State of the Union. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on NBCs Meet the Press that an impeachment process isnt inevitable and that talk about it now is a distraction. He said Democrats will pursue priorities that include ethical reforms and protecting voting rights. Well have to see what the Mueller report says, Hoyer said. What we want to do is concentrate on our substantive agenda. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. The comments came as party fissures over impeachment became more public last week. Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., drew attention with her expletive-filled call to impeach Trump, and two House Democrats, Brad Sherman of California and Al Green of Texas, reintroduced articles of impeachment in the new Congress. Schiff downplayed criticism, including from Trump, of Tlaibs coarse language. Schiff said Trump is not in the position to talk about the use of profanity. Schiff said he understood the desire of those in his party who want to act against Trump now, and he insisted that his committee will not just wait for Mueller. One of its first acts under Democratic control will be to release dozens of transcripts of witness testimony during the committees Russia investigation last session, when the panel was led by Republicans, Schiff said. He said some testimony could potentially open up cases of perjury or lying to Congress, but didnt provide specifics. Some of these people thought they had some sort of immunity with the GOP majority at the time, Schiff said. Schiff also said his committee will be reaching out to private institutions to get records, and he has previously indicated that those could include banking records. The Intelligence Committees first public hearing, not yet scheduled, will touch on the rise of authoritarianism around the world, Schiff said. We dont have a president who is willing to stand up to these autocrats, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 DECATUR An explosion at an Archer Daniels Midland Co. corn plant in Decatur left no injuries Friday night, according to a spokeswoman for the company. "We are currently investigating the cause and assessing the damage," said Jackie Anderson, a spokeswoman for ADM. The explosion occurred around 8 p.m. in the conveyor belt system at the Decatur corn plant, Anderson said. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. ADM, which moved its global headquarters from Decatur to Chicago in 2014, has approximately 31,000 global employees in more than 170 countries. It is by far the largest employer in Decatur, according to the city of Decatur's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, which noted 4,159 jobs at the end of 2017. The company, one of the largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers in the world, reported in November net earnings of $536 million in its third quarter. PHOTOS: ADM through the years Contact Tom Lisi at (217) 421-6949. Follow him on Twitter: @tommylisi Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 5 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Donnette Beckett "Together Decatur" Columnist and Food/Drink Reporter Together Decatur columnist and food and drink reporter for Lee Enterprises Central Illinois. Follow Donnette Beckett Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today DECATUR Vietnam veteran Danny Dean adopted his dog, a rat terrier mix named Buddy, from the Macon County Animal Control and Care Center more than a year ago. Inviting the new addition to his family was difficult for Dean. He had lost Brady, a rat terrier chihuahua mix, from diabetes complications shortly before he met Buddy. The veteran was in no hurry to adopt another dog. They just break your heart, Dean said. The process of adopting another dog was made a little easier by Pets for Patriots, a national organization available through Macon County Animal Control and Care Center. Pets for Patriots provides assistance for veterans, helping them to adopt a pet in need of a loving home. They receive discounted animal care from a local veterinarian, a gift card from a pet store and waived adoption fees from the participating shelter. Not every pet is eligible for Pets for Patriots. To be part of the program, the animal must be special, such as 2 years old or older, 40 pounds or heavier (regardless of age), have special care needs or being homeless for six months or more. We try to pair them with some who have been here awhile or have an issue, said Amanda Fisher, shelter manager with Macon County Animal Control. The benefits only apply to these adoptions. Dean met Buddy at the Macon County center after coaxing from his wife. The 4-year-old dog was injured, homeless and malnourished. He had a bad leg and just looked bad, Dean said. I thought it would take a lot of wear and tear to get him back into shape. Dean discussed Buddys adoption with his wife, who knew the dog would eventually find his forever home at their Bement residence. Dean completed the Pets for Patriots application shortly after the he met Buddy. A veteran must be approved before he or she can adopt the pet. The process can take a few days. The veterans have few requirements to adopt an animal. The application asks for basic proof of military service and their experience with animals. Fisher recommends the veteran fills out the forms before visiting the shelter. Then start looking for your adoptive pet, she said. People come in, and they fall in love with a pet. There is a gamble on whether that dog will still be here when they get approved and come back. Pets for Patriots has requirements for shelters partnering with the program as well. First, a veterinarian must agree to offer care discounts. In partnering with the program, Fisher found Northgate Pet Clinic to offer a 25 percent discount on services and Fairview Hospital for Animals to give a 10 percent discount. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Pets for Patriots also requires the shelter to provide a gift to the veterans. Most choose to waive or offer discount adoption fees. Fisher said the Decatur-Macon County Animal Shelter Foundation has sponsored veteran adoption fees for years, through which veterans can adopt a pet for free. According to Beth Zimmerman, Pets for Patriots executive director, 39 pets have been adopted from the Macon County shelter since it partnered with the organization in 2013. Everyone from World War II veterans to those currently serving can apply. Then we direct them with other programs in their area, Zimmerman said. The organization encourages adoptions for pets that are often overlooked. Animals with chronic medical problems and larger dogs seem to linger in shelters longer, Zimmerman said. Since the nearly 10 years since Pets for Patriots was founded, Zimmerman has witnessed positive results from the adoptions made around the country. The pet needs healing, too, she said. Both the person and pet come with a past. Together, they find a way to overcome their problems. Zimmerman sees a reflection of the vets in their pets. She said the animals are social bridge with others by providing a topic for conversation, such as a simple, What a cute dog. The physical benefits of caring for a pet have also been positive for the veterans. They have challenges getting back to civilian life, Zimmerman said. The animal has to be attended to. Veterans are suited for this lifestyle. Dean served four years in the Navy as a cook, with two tours in Vietnam. I saw our aircraft come back with holes in them, he said. You can see all the bombs going off. Its like fireworks. Buddy has been a comfort to Dean, not only through companionship after the loss of Brady, but also because of his own health problems. The two sleep together in a recliner due to Deans chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Buddy is now a cherished member of the family and often gets a hamburger as a special treat. At 6 years old, he is healthy and active, except for an occasional limp on rainy days. Every once in a while he favors it, Dean said. But once he gets going, he likes to chase squirrels and rabbits. Information in the original article has been corrected or clarified. Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 7, 1999, for the second time in history, an impeached American president went on trial before the Senate. President Bill Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted. On Jan 7: In 1789, America held its first presidential election as voters chose electors who, a month later, selected George Washington to be the nation's first chief executive. In 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Company of London announced that the telegraphed letters "CQD" would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced with "SOS"). In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London. In 1942, Japanese forces began besieging American and Filipino troops in Bataan during World War II. (The fall of Bataan three months later was followed by the notorious Death March.) In 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. In 1959, the United States recognized the new government of Cuba, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. In 1963, the U.S. Post Office raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 4 to 5 cents. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. In 1972, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government. In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died in Tokyo at age 87; he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito. In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for millions of immigrants improperly working in the U.S. In 2009, President-elect Barack Obama met at the White House with America's four living presidents: George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Russia shut off all its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine in a price and payment dispute; the cutoff lasted nearly two weeks. In 2014, Brutal polar air that made the Midwest shiver over the past few days spread to the East and the Deep South, shattering records that in some cases had stood for more than a century. A U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk helicopter crashed in a coastal area of eastern England during a training mission, killing all four crew members aboard. In 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people before escaping. (Two suspects were killed two days later.) Actor Rod Taylor 82, died in Los Angeles. In 2018, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" was the top film at the Golden Globe Awards, winning as best drama and taking home awards for stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell and for writer-director Martin McDonagh. The Golden Globes ceremony became an expression of female empowerment in the post-Harvey Weinstein era, capped by a speech in which Cecil B. DeMille Award winner Oprah Winfrey said of men who use their power to abuse women, "Their time is up!" The arctic air that engulfed parts of the East Coast broke cold temperature records from Maine to West Virginia. Thought for Today: "Nothing in science has any value to society if it is not communicated, and scientists are beginning to learn their social obligations." Anne Roe Simpson, American psychologist (1904-1991) Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 FORSYTH The OCharleys restaurant in Forsyth will be closing its doors on Jan. 13, the company confirmed Monday. In the statement, the Nashville-based restaurant chain said it was helping its employees move to other stores or new jobs. It did not say how many employees were affected or give a reason for the closure. The Herald & Review has asked for that information. We are also grateful to our team members who so capably served our guests and have assisted them in transitioning to other area stores or new employment, said Jeff Hingher, senior director of marketing for OCharleys. A manager declined to comment when a Herald & Review reporter visited the restaurant Sunday. OCharleys opened the 6,900-square-foot Forsyth location, with seating for 255 people, at 927 S. U.S. 51 in 2001. It is the latest in a series of closures for the company, which has more than 200 locations in 17 states. Locations in Brentwood and Spring Hill, Tennessee, closed in the last two months of 2018. Earlier in the year, the company shut down its restaurant in Macon, Georgia, affecting about 50 employees. The announcement comes a little over a year after the restaurant was shut down by the Macon County Health Department following a health inspection. It received a score of 56 out of 100, with notable violations including shelves that needed cleaning, dishware that was not properly protected, a box of fish in a cooler dripping onto another container of meat and ham in a cooler that was past the use-by date. Scores of 60 or below resulted in automatic closure under the rules the health department used at the time. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The restaurant was closed on Dec. 18, 2017. It had reopened by noon the following day after correcting the problems, but news of the inspection report prompted a number of negative comments on social media. Hingher suggested customers visit nearby restaurants in Champaign, Springfield or other locations to redeem coupons and gift certificates. His full statement is below: Our Forsyth location is closing on Jan. 13. As a longtime part of this community, we appreciate our guests and the many friends we made over the years. We are also grateful to our team members who so capably served our guests and have assisted them in transitioning to other area stores or new employment. Going forward, we extend a warm welcome for our guests to join us at our OCharley's restaurants in Springfield and Champaign. A full list of locations is available at www.ocharleys.com. Gift cards may be redeemed at any O'Charley's location. Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The business news you need With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHICAGO -- Archer Daniels Midland Co. has announced that Together We Grow a consortium ADM began in 2016 to focus on educating, recruiting and retaining a more diverse workforce in the agriculture sector has been recognized with Profiles in Diversity Journals 2018 Innovations in Diversity Award. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Profiles in Diversity Journal is a quarterly publication dedicated to promoting and advancing diversity and inclusion in the corporate, government, nonprofit, STEM and higher education sectors. The award honored 27 corporations, organizations and institutions that have developed innovative solutions in the area of workforce diversity, inclusion and human equity. Together We Grow was one of ten initiatives recognized with a finalist award this year. The world population is expected to grow by 35 percent by 2050, and we will need to double our food supply in that same time frame. The only way to address this monumental challenge is through an industry-wide coalition of people and organizations dedicated to the cause, and thats what led to the conception of Together We Grow in 2016, said Mike DAmbrose, ADM senior vice president and chief human resources officer. We are proud to work together with such an impressive group of companies, academic institutions and influential industry groups to help build and sustain a more diverse workforce in the ag industry that better reflect the communities where we live and work. The Together We Grow consortium is currently made up of more than 50 industry groups employing nearly 850,000 people who share a commitment to building a modern workforce in the agriculture sector. To learn more, visit https://www.togetherwegrowag.org/. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Please log in to keep reading. Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Tamie had the profound ability to tackle any issue in all aspects of her life, including her cancer. She was a sounding board and pillar of wisdom for everyone who knew her. She always spoke the voice of reason, presenting solutions based in fairness and integrity which benefited all. Love poured out of her heart and soul, residing at the core of her being. Tamie shared in many adventures with friends and family throughout the years and all over the world. In India she was kissed by elephants, in Turkey she was graced by a dancer, in Alaska she slept under the stars while working on fishing boats. The art in Italy deeply moved her. Yet even still, people were always her greatest joy. Her smile and laugh were quick to heal and her love for life and family strong. Knowing Tamie was a great honor. Sharing her love and joy for this life will never be forgotten by those who were closest to her. She was a walking ray of sunshine and lives on in those she touched. Parliament should not withdraw acts, laws: Bijukchhe Chairman of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Narayan Man Bijukchhe has said Parliament should not withdraw the acts and laws enacted by the previous parliament. In 1894, Helena found itself in the middle of a war over the location of the state capital, and the battles were fought in the newspapers. The names Marcus Daly and William Clark are well known in Montana history. As they rose to prominence in their rivalry for dominance in the copper industry, they took control of many of the newspapers in Montana as each competed for economic supremacy. In addition, their political aspirations, or those of the people they supported, dominated print as journalists who wrote for them advanced competing sides of the story. (The history of the copper wars is sordid and fascinating and can be researched in its own right.) Helena had been Montanas territorial capital since 1875, but statehood in 1889 initiated a battle for the location of a new state capital. A runoff election between Helena and Anaconda took place to determine the winner. Marcus Daly believed that the capital should be located in Anaconda, the home of his Anaconda Copper Mining Co. William Clark favored Helena, and they each poured their millions into buying up newspapers (and editors) across the state to advance their desires. Clarks paper in Helena, The Helena Independent, wrote that Anaconda, as a small industrial town, lacked the sophistication and prospects for future growth necessary to be the capital. Dalys writers portrayed Helena as Montanas swinish and elitist Hogolopolis, the domain of banks and politicians who profited unfairly from workers sweat. Clarks Helena Weekly Herald called Daly Montanas Would Be King, and his paper a copperhead snotrag. Dalys paper mocked Helena for its pretentiousness and distaste for Montanas working class. There were certainly reasonable issues to discuss on the merits of each location, but what had become the newspaper wars degenerated into contest of personalities, distorted history, social and ethnic stereotypes and accusations of corruption. As the 66th session of the Montana Legislature convened at noon Monday, Republicans in the House appeared to have headed off a looming fight within their caucus at least for now. A rift among the GOP, along with an expected hard-fought debate over whether and how to continue Medicaid expansion in the state, as well as deciding if and when to take on critical infrastructure projects and where to find the money to pay for it all are themes that will dominate the session and took center stage on the opening day. Republicans again hold a majority in the House, 58-42, and the Senate, 30-20. It will be the last session for Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, who is termed out from running again in 2020. In the weeks leading up to the session, a more moderate wing of Republicans who called themselves the Solutions Caucus wanted to lower the number of votes it takes to revive a dead bill to 51. Under previous rules, it took 60 votes to pull a bill out of a so-called "kill committees," where the House Speaker can send legislation he or she wants to see die off through lack of action. Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton did not receive a pay raise when he took on the additional role of county coroner effective Jan. 1, quelling concerns that the change could cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars. "There will be no additional compensation for the sheriff and the addition of coroner's duties," commissioner Susan Good-Geise said. "Everyone was well aware of that fact." In December 2017, the Lewis and Clark County Commission voted 2-1 to consolidate the two elected positions into one. Geise and commissioner Andy Hunthausen voted in favor of the consolidation, and commissioner Jim McCormick was firmly against it. Since all sheriff's office employees are paid a percentage of the sheriff's salary, McCormick argued that raising the sheriff's pay to take on the coroner's duties could be damaging to the county's finances. At the time, the county's Finance Director Nancy Everson estimated that increasing the sheriff's salary could end up costing the county an additional $265,000 per year. The county's former coroner, Bryan Backeberg, took a pay cut when he and his employees were absorbed by the sheriff's office. Backeberg now works as a deputy coroner under Dutton, but will not be on-call as often as he was before. Re: The Dear One Baby Carrier is the safest and most comfortable baby carr [ #permalink 4 Kudos 4 Bookmarks Akela wrote: Economist: If the belief were to become widespread that losing ones job is not a sign of personal shortcomings but instead an effect of impersonal social forces (which is surely correct), there would be growth in the societal demand for more government control of the economy to protect individuals from these forces, just as the government now protects them from military invasion. Such extensive government control of the economy would lead to an economic disaster, however. The economists statements, if true, most strongly support which one of the following? (A) Increased knowledge of the causes of job loss could lead to economic disaster. (B) An individuals belief in his or her own abilities is the only reliable protection against impersonal social forces. (C) Governments should never interfere with economic forces. (D) Societal demand for government control of the economy is growing. (E) In general, people should feel no more responsible for economic disasters than for military invasions. LSAT This seems ok, because the cause of job loss is "impersonal social forces", which more government control will fight. Hence rephrasing the answer choice, it becomes "more government control could lead to economic disaster". This is exactly what the stimulus says. This is incorrect, as it simply tries to weaken the premise that more government control is protection against impersonal social forces This is a very extreme statement. The use of "never" is very strong & generalized. The argument is very specific about a particular case of cause & effect relation. Hence it is incorrect. Ok this was close. I crossed this one off, because the stimulus says "more government control" & the answer choice says simply "government control". There is big difference between the two, the answer choice implies "there is no government control right now & the demand for it is growing", whereas the stimulus doesn't mention anything like that. Also the stimulus is hypothetical & the answer choice is factual. This one is irrelevant. The argument boiled down to specifics states thatImpersonal Social forces are the cause for Job loss. This belief will lead to growth in societal demand for more government control of the economy. Finally, more government control will lead to economic disaster.Hence if there is more government control that will fight Impersonal social forces to protect job loss, then it will lead to economic disaster.So it is a chain of cause & effect relations.Since it is an Inference question, a correct answer will likely be a rephrasing of one of the premises or a combination of the premises.Using POE on the answer choices,(A) Increased knowledge of the causes of job loss could lead to economic disaster. -(B) An individuals belief in his or her own abilities is the only reliable protection against impersonal social forces. -(C) Governments should never interfere with economic forces. -(D) Societal demand for government control of the economy is growing. -(E) In general, people should feel no more responsible for economic disasters than for military invasions -Answer A.Thanks,GyM_________________ TORONTO, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Changfeng Energy Inc., (TSXV: CFY) (Changfeng or the Company), an energy provider in the Peoples Republic of China (the PRC), is pleased to announce that, further to the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Changfeng and Guangdong Natural Gas Grid Co., Ltd. (Guangdong Grid) in April 2018 to jointly pursue natural gas pipeline projects in the Guangdong Province, the PRC, Guangdong Grid, Guangdong Datang International Zhaoqing Heat & Power Co., Ltd. (Guangdong Datang), a subsidiary of China Datang Corporation Limited and Zhaoqing Gaoyao Hengtai Natural Gas Co., Ltd. (Hengtai Gas), a controlled subsidiary of Changfeng have entered into an agreement (the Agreement) for the pipeline transportation of natural gas to the Gaoyao Combined Heat, Power and Cold Natural Gas Power Plant (the Guangdong Datang Gaoyao Plant) of Guangdong Datang via the pipelines of Guangdong Grid and Hengtai Gas. The Agreement is effective until December 31, 2020, and provides that three months before the expiry date, the parties to the Agreement will negotiate terms for the renewal of the Agreement. The pipeline transportation fee for the natural gas transported by Hengtai Gas to the Guangdong Datang Gaoyao Plant will be based on step-ladder scale in accordance with the amount of natural gas transported. The Datang Guangdong Gaoyao Plant has an installed power generation capacity of 357.9 million kWh and the agreement outlines [584.6] million cubic meters of natural gas to be transported in 2019-2020. On November 14, 2018, Guangdong Datang began a trial operation to transport natural gas through the Changfeng pipeline to the Datang Gaoyao Plant. It has been many years since we first disclosed Changfengs project in Guangdong and it is my pleasure to be able to share with everyone this great news. Datang will be the first of our many customers in Guangdong. Gaoyao, Zhaoqing is within one of the four cities (Zhaoqing, Zhongshan, Foshan and Zhuhai) in which Changfeng has exclusive government approval to build natural gas pipelines for industrial end users. Moving forward, we expect more success in the Guangdong province. Huajun Lin, CEO and Chairman of Changfeng states. Guangdong Datang International Zhaoqing Heat & Power Co., Ltd. () Guangdong Datang is a subsidiary of Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. (Datang International). Together with its subsidiaries, Datang International engages in power generation and power plant development in the PRC. Datang International generates electricity through various sources, such as coal, thermal, hydro, wind, nuclear, solar, and natural gas. As of December 31, 2017, Datang International managed an installed capacity of approximately 48,031.175 MW. Datang International also engages in heat supply; the import of power related fuel; coal mining and trading; silicon and aluminium smelting; the production and sale of alumina; cargo shipping; the sale of coal ash and integrated application of solid wastes; the repair and testing of power equipment; and the provision of power related technical services. Datang International was formerly known as Beijing Datang Power Generation Co., Ltd., which was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Beijing, the PRC. Datang Website: www.dtpower.com Guangdong Natural Gas Grid Co., Ltd. () Guangdong Grid was established in March 21, 2008, in the Guangdong, the PRC. Guangdong Grid is a joint venture of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the Sinopec Group, PetroChina Company Limited and the Guangdong Yudean Group Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of RMB3.98 billion. Guangdong Grid was formed with the purpose of establishing a province-wide network of natural gas trunk pipelines by 2020. The Guangdong pipeline network is more than 3,200 km in length, with a total planned investment of approximately RMB470 billion. The Guangdong pipeline network is expected to cover the Pearl River Delta, eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, and the four regional Western Guangdong pipe networks to cover 21 cities in Guangdong over the city-level natural gas distribution network, reaching annual gas transmission capacity of approximately 60 billion cubic meters. Since it commenced operations in 2008, Guangdong Grid has completed over seven hundred (700) km of pipeline construction. The pipeline has been extended to Zhaoqing, Zhongshan, Foshan and Zhuhai, which are the cities where Changfeng has exclusive government approval to build natural gas pipelines for industrial end users. Guangdong Grid is the exclusive vehicle to move the gas inside Guangdong and delivered up to approximately 19.65 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2017. The gas is from Petro Chinas Second West to East Pipeline and CNOOCs 3-1 gas well in Laiwan Bay, Guangzhou, as well as the re-gasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from CNOOCs receiving terminal in Zhuhai. Husky Energy holds 49% of the equity of the Laiwan Bay gas well, while the remaining 51% is held by CNOOC. Guangdong Grid Website: http://www.gdngg.com.cn About Changfeng Energy Inc. Changfeng Energy Inc. is a Canadian public company currently traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the stock symbol CFY. It is an integrated energy provider and natural gas distribution company (or natural gas utility) in the PRC. Changfeng strives to combine leading clean energy technology with natural gas usage to provide sustainable energy to its customer base in the PRC. In 2009, Changfeng was recognized as being one of Chinas the Top Ten Most Influential Brands in the Natural Gas Industry. Changfeng Energy Website: http://www.changfengenergy.com CONTACT INFORMATION Corporate Investment Relations Investor.relations@changfengenergy.cn Ann Siyin Lin VP, Corporate Development ann.lin@changfengenergy.cn Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, Forward-Looking Statements). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included or incorporated by reference in this document are Forward-Looking Statements, including statements regarding activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. These Forward-Looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as will, expect, intend, plan, estimate, anticipate, believe or continue or similar words or the negative thereof. No assurance can be given that the plans, intentions or expectations or assumptions upon which these Forward-Looking Statements are based will prove to be correct and such Forward-Looking Statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such Forward-Looking Statements are not a guarantee of performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Statements. These factors include, without limitation, no significant and continuing adverse changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets. Readers are cautioned that all Forward-Looking Statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those risks and uncertainties detailed in the Corporations filings with applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities, copies of which are available at www.sedar.com. The Company urges readers to carefully consider those factors. The Forward-Looking Statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this document and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any Forward-Looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. OTTAWA, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Janet Longmore, Founder and CEO of Ottawa-headquartered international youth organization Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), has been selected to attend the 2019 World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland. Longmore will contribute expertise on empowering youth and young women as responsible leaders of change and ambassadors of digital literacy, as well as her extensive experience engaging corporations to collaboratively impact communities. I am looking forward to attending WEF at Davos to promote the meaningful engagement of youth in our future economy, Longmore shares. I am a passionate believer in the power and potential of young people as catalysts for positive global change; it is critical to engage young people in shaping and leading inclusive growth and development. Longmore will be participating at the invitation of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which provides a platform for social entrepreneurs to influence global dialogue and create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. The annual WEF meeting in Davos is attended by the worlds business and political leaders and contributes to the shaping of global, regional, and industry agendas. It will be held from January 22-25, 2019. Digital Opportunity Trust ( http://dotrust.org ), works with youth, the private sector, governments, and community-based organizations in 25 countries towards a collaborative vision of communities around the world shaped by daring social innovators. Under Longmore's leadership, DOT has developed a global network of thousands of young leaders who are creating opportunities and transforming their own communities. Longmore has been decorated with a Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada in recognition of her strong example of social innovation and leadership that brings considerable honour to Canada. This will be Longmores third time attending the WEF Davos meetings. She sits on the steering committee for the WEF Internet for All initiative, through which she shares insights on how youth can drive social and economic change in emerging economies. Janet Longmore is available to media for comment and analysis from Davos. For further information and interviews: Anne Patterson, apatterson@dotrust.org, +1-613-867-1466 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a8c3aaca-5f35-410b-86a9-05ce6c13b734. TORONTO, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediPharm Labs Corp. (TSXV:LABS) (OTCQB:MLCPF) (the Company or MediPharm Labs), a specialized, research-driven cannabis extraction business, fully licensed under the Cannabis Act (Canada) focused on downstream secondary extraction methodology, distillation, and cannabinoid isolation and purification, is pleased to announce its common shares will commence trading today on the OTCQB Market (the "OTCQB"), a trading platform in the United States that is operated by the OTC Markets Group in New York. The Company will trade on the OTCQB under symbol "MLCPF"; the Company's common shares will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LABS". Listing on the OTCQB is an important milestone for MediPharm as we build on our vision to be the global leader in purified cannabis concentrates, the fastest growing segment in the Cannabis Industry, said Mr. Pat McCutcheon, President and CEO, MediPharm Labs. We are excited to have our shares commence trading on the OTCQB which will improve liquidity and expand MediPharms presence and exposure in the U.S. as we introduce the Company to a broader audience of U.S. institutional and retail equity investors. U.S. investors will now be able to share in our continued expansion and exciting plans for growth internationally. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com. About OTC Markets Group Inc. OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors. To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com . About MediPharm Labs Corp. Founded in 2015, MediPharm Labs is a pioneer in the cannabis industry and has the distinction of being the first company in Canada to become a licensed producer for cannabis oil production under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) without first receiving a cannabis cultivation licence. This expert focus on cannabis concentrates from its cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and ISO standard-built clean rooms and critical environments laboratory, allows MediPharm Labs to work with its established, Health Canada-approved cultivation partners to produce pharmaceutical-grade cannabis oil with a competitive advantage. MediPharm Labs is research-driven and focused on downstream secondary extraction methodology, distillation, and cannabinoid isolation and purification. MediPharm Labs provides B2B contract processing of cannabis to Canadian authorized licensed producers and appropriate international growers, supplying integrity-assured cannabis oil to qualified companies for sale under their own brand. In addition, MediPharm Labs will supply raw materials, formulations, processing and packaging for the creation of ready-to-sell advanced derivative products. MediPharm Labs was awarded Start-Up Of The Year at the recent Canadian Cannabis Awards hosted by Lift & Co. Through its subsidiary, MediPharm Labs Australia Pty. Ltd., MediPharm Labs has also completed its application process with the federal Office of Drug Control to extract and import medical cannabis products in Australia. For further information, please contact: Laura Lepore, Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications Telephone: 705-719-7425 ext 216 Email: investors@medipharmlabs.com Website: www.medipharmlabs.com NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSXV) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, improved liquidity, expansion of presence and exposure in the United States, expected GMP certification and the establishment of operations in Australia. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the inability of MediPharm to obtain adequate financing; and the delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, MediPharm assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change. Panel formed to control GBV A 35-member Gender-based Violence Control Network has been formed under Senior Superintendent of Police at the Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, Basanta Kumar Lama. Parents in the Mason City Community School District with children who will be 4 years old on or before Sept. 15 are invited to attend an informational registration meeting in the computer lab of the administration building, 1515 S. Pennsylvania Ave. The BLM has broad authority to inspect drill sites, but the agency has no right to put its own locks on gates or force landowners to turn over their keys, the Denver-based U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling says. Colorado Springs represents what the rest of Colorado can and should become a place of good jobs, charity and growing wages that benefit all Colorado Springs, CO (80903) Today Sunshine and some clouds. Hot. High 93F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Low 64F. S winds shifting to NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Oli avoids major issues in House Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis much-awaited speech in Parliament on issues of public importance turned out to be a progress report defending his governments activities as he failed to clarify on Sunday the major controversies his government has got into recently. Francine Madden, shown at the National Zoo in October, is a wildlife mediator based in Washington, D.C. Honestly, Im surprised when someone doesnt have an opinion on wolves, Madden says. When I see a wolf, my mental image of them is an animal thats wearing this social, cultural and historical baggage, like a baggage cart at the airport weve loaded up. As the United States considers the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan as part of efforts to end the longest war in its history, Iran has stepped up a diplomatic campaign to brandish its deep connections with the Taliban. In a remarkable turnaround from two decades ago, when Irans Shiite clerical regime mobilized for war against Afghanistans hard-line Islamist Sunni Taliban regime, the two sides are now engaging in public diplomatic efforts. Tehran has even approached Kabul to facilitate peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But Tehrans diplomatic offensive has perhaps inadvertently showcased its strong ties with the Taliban. In recent years, Western and Afghan officials have accused the two of a covert alliance wherein Tehran extended military support to the Taliban in return for cooperation against the ultra-radical Islamic State (IS) militants, who consider Iran their top enemy. Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai says it is significant that it was senior Taliban leaders who visited Tehran and not members of the movements diplomatic office in Qatar. He says recent Taliban visitors to Tehran included figures such as former Taliban regime minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Qari Yahya, a senior figure in the Haqqani network -- the Talibans toughest military wing considered close to Pakistan. This means the relationship between the two is nurtured at the top leadership level, he told RFE/RLs Gandhara website. In the past, Irans relations were focused more on anti-Taliban factions, which resulted in a huge debacle for Tehran when the Taliban swept to power in the 1990s. Yousafzai says Tehrans relations with the insurgents have evolved remarkably since the demise of the Taliban regime in 2001. He says the 2016 U.S. killing of former Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansur after a trip to Iran surprised many over the relations between the two. RFE/RL Gandhara first reported on Mansurs ties to Iran a day after his killing on May 21, 2016. The only public contact between the two sides before Mansurs killing was a 2015 Tehran visit by Syed Tayyab Agha, the Talibans political representative in Qatar. Yousafzai says the relationship was cemented by the Talibans role in preventing IS from establishing a foothold in Afghanistan, particularly its southern and western provinces bordering Iran. Instead of the Afghan government, Tehran credits Taliban for keeping IS away from its borders, he noted. The two sides are now keen on explaining the logic behind their once-covert relationship. "We should discuss the future of our country with Tehran in order to take positive steps toward strengthening friendship and peace on both sides," purported Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told Irans state-run Iran Labor News Agency on January 5. Mujahid said the Taliban want to nurture relations with Afghanistans neighbors and other countries. Maintaining contact with Iran is very important to us, he said. Following talks with a Taliban delegation last week, Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi briefed Afghan officials on January 5. Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis office said Araqchi assured Kabul that Tehran recognizes the Afghan government's sovereignty in the peace process. In a related development, the Taliban canceled planned peace talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia this month and have instead asked to move the venue to Qatar, according to Reuters. Riyadh is Tehrans main regional rival. A rupture between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has pushed the latter closer to Tehran. A pending decision on the future of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistans adds to such regional complexities. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that President Donald Trump is deliberating a possible withdrawal. "Well, the president is in the process of evaluating that, as we speak," Pence told Fox News in an interview broadcast on January 3. Yousafzai says that a key role for Iran in the early stages of Afghan peace negotiations can potentially prove problematic. I am sure Saudi Arabia and the U.S. do not like an Iranian role in Afghan peace process, he said. Maybe Iran can be invited to join the process after some progress is made. He says Tehrans larger objective seems to be preventing a repeat of the 1990s and to preserve its influence and interests in Afghanistan. This is why they have cultivated a relationship with the Taliban, so that their options are not limited if the Taliban return to power, he said. Taliban militants have stormed security posts in western Afghanistan, killing 21 police officers and pro-government militia members, officials said on January 7. The attacks occurred late on January 6 at checkpoints in two different parts of Badghis Province, which borders the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, provincial officials said. Abdul Aziz Bek, head of the Badghis provincial council, said 14 police officers and seven members of pro-government militias were killed, while nine were wounded. Jamshid Shahabi, a spokesman for the Badghis provincial governor, said at least 15 Taliban militants were killed and 10 wounded in the fighting. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in a statement that militants killed 34 members of the security forces and pro-government militias and seized many weapons and ammunition. Meanwhile, a roadside bombing has killed five civilians and wounded seven in the country's eastern Paktika Province, an Afghan official said on January 7. Nawroz Ishaq, the provincial governor's spokesman, said the attack occurred in the Jani Khail district. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but provincial official Mohammad Rasoul Adel blamed the Taliban, saying the group had left the bomb in a village square. Taliban representatives and U.S. officials are scheduled to meet this month to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible cease-fire. Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times in recent months to try to agree on a way to end the 17-year war. The Taliban says it is fighting to oust the Western-backed government and restore strict Islamic law. The United States and its allies say they want to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a haven for international Islamist militants plotting attacks in the West. With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, and TOLO News Trump is asking for a recession if 'he doesn't resolve China,' strategist says In early December, the U.S. and China agreed to a temporary 90-day ceasefire to allow their negotiating teams to come up with an agreement on trade practices. They have given themselves until March to do so. However, in case they fail to reach a deal, a strategist believes it would spark a recession. There will an economic recession in the United States if President Donald Trump does not end the ongoing trade impasse with China, a strategist told CNBC on Monday. Chinese and U.S. officials have gathered in Beijing this week to discuss solutions that will prevent further U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Both countries have been at odds regarding their trade policies for most of last year, with President Trump repeatedly announcing new tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliating at the same scale. In early December, the U.S. and China agreed to a temporary 90-day ceasefire to allow their negotiating teams to come up with an agreement on trade practices. They have given themselves until March to do so. However, in case they fail to reach a deal, a strategist believes it would spark a recession. "If there is a recession and a crash, it is Trump's decision, because he has made a crucial mistake here of closing the government at the same time he hasn't resolved China," Michael Harris, founder of Cribstone Strategic Macro, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." "If (Trump) doesn't resolve China, he is asking for a recession, I think that's a given because you can't have two major uncertainties at the same time," Harris added. The U.S. government has been partially shutdown for 16 days, given that the Democrats and Republicans cannot reach an agreement over the funding for Trump's wall on the border with Mexico. With key national authorities closed, certain services cannot be provided including delay in processing tax refunds and loan approvals for small businesses by the SBA (Small Business Administration). This increases pressure on the country's economy. Story continues Christian Keller, Head of Economics Research, Barclays told CNBC's "Street Signs" that Beijing and Washington are likely to deliver some positive news to the market over the coming days. "The longer-term issues regarding technology, all the issues about national security and G5 issues, I think that will take longer and that might not be resolved at all, because we strategically think that this is a clash of giants... But for the short term for the market on specific trade issues I think we will get something over the next coming days," he said. "(Trump) has reduced his negotiating power with China. If we see a resolution on China, which would be pretty crazy for Trump not to pursue that, because if there is a recession in History it will be called the Tump recession because this is not a required recession," Harris told CNBC. The U.S. economy grew at an annual pace of 3.4 percent in the third quarter of 2018. The latest jobs report also showed an increase of 312 000 new jobs in December, much higher than expectations. More From CNBC Minister Adhikari refutes his involvement in aircraft purchase irregularities Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari has refuted allegations of his involvement in irregularities during the procurement of two wide-body aircraft. Tesla boss Elon Musk presided Monday over the ground-breaking for a Shanghai factory that will allow the electric-car manufacturer to dodge the China-US tariff crossfire and sell directly to the world's biggest market for "green" vehicles. The plant in a Shanghai suburb is Musk's biggest overseas move yet and will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla says, dramatically increasing the California-based company's output. "China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said, according to a statement released by the manufacturer. Musk had hinted recently at an upcoming Shanghai trip to break ground for the plant but Monday's event was not publicly announced until the Tesla CEO broke the news in a series of tweets earlier in the day. In typically iconoclastic style, the 47-year-old Musk changed his Twitter profile picture around the time of the ceremony to one showing his face with an exaggerated handlebar moustache drawn on it. The Shanghai government later posted photos on social media showing Musk and officials from Tesla and the city on a large stage at a launch ceremony at the site, located on Shanghai's distant outskirts. No investment figures were given but the cost of the project has been estimated by analysts at up to $5 billion. The Shanghai venture comes as US companies face pressure from President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs at home, and as Beijing and Washington wage a trade spat that has seen both sides levy tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products. - Slowing down - Analysts say production in China would allow Tesla to side-step such measures, which have already caused a spike in the price of the cars the company now imports to the Chinese market. But construction of the plant -- the subject of stop-start negotiations between Tesla and Shanghai for well over a year -- gets under way just as the outlook for China's consumer market has turned worrisome. Story continues Apple sparked global alarm over the prospects for the world's second-largest economy last week when it cut its revenue forecast, citing slowing demand in China and the trade war. Domestic and foreign automakers have been racing to grab shares of China's electric-vehicle sector -- already the world's biggest and expected to continue to grow as the Chinese government pushes clean technologies. But the pace of growth is expected to slow along with China's economy. The Shanghai factory will be Tesla's first production line outside the United States. Musk tweeted earlier Monday that Tesla was "aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high-volume production next year". The Shanghai plant would supply the "Greater China region" with "affordable versions" of the Tesla Model 3 -- the carmaker's first mid-price, mass-market vehicle -- and its planned Model Y, Musk tweeted. The Model S, Model X and "higher cost versions" of the 3 and Y would continue to be made in the United States for the global market, including China, he added. Despite its relative affordability compared to other Tesla models, the price of a US-made Model 3 now starts at about $50,000, but Musk has said he aims to get that down to $35,000. He provided no price figures for China-made cars. China typically requires foreign automakers to forge joint ventures with domestic firms when establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners. But Tesla has said its Shanghai plant will be "wholly-owned" by the company. (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan arrested six current and former BASF SE engineers accused of accepting bribes and sharing the German companys technology with Jiangyin Jianghua Microelectronics Materials Co., in one of the more elaborate cases involving alleged Chinese intellectual property theft. Jianghua offered them 40 million yuan ($5.8 million) in return for help building a new factory in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, Criminal Investigation Bureau official Lu Sung-hao told reporters at a briefing Monday. The mainland company had already wired NT$40 million ($1.3 million) to two accounts in Samoa controlled by the group, he added. American and Taiwanese officials have long accused Chinese companies of purloining intellectual property in a quest to climb the technology ladder, something Beijings consistently denied. Such leaks, which American officials say include the forced transfer of technology, are a key complaint of Washingtons as the worlds two largest economies open talks to avert a damaging trade war. The amount involved in the case is unusually large. Taiwanese officials have in the past accused mainland corporations of appropriating trade secrets by poaching talent, but Lu said Jianghua offered direct payment in return for proprietary technology. Calls to Jianghuas main line and an email to a corporate address went unanswered. BASF Chief Executive Officer Martin Brudermueller, who took the helm in May, has made expansion in China a central pillar of his strategy. Two months into his tenure, he announced BASF plans to build a second chemical complex in the country, at a cost of up to $10 billion. BASFs losses from the alleged theft could top out at 100 million euros ($114 million) per year, Lu said. A representative of BASF said the company doesnt provide an estimate on losses and the amount cant be confirmed by the company. According to police, only one of the six accused was a current employee, though the others formerly worked for BASF. The German chemicals maker said it suspended the employee and has taken steps to support the investigation and protect its intellectual property. Story continues To this end we have established systems and policies which minimize risks, BASF said in a statement. In light of this situation, we will further reinforce these information protection systems. Jianghua, which went public only in 2017, says it develops and sells materials for products from solar panels to electronics displays. The company, which has a market value of about $348 million, is estimated to have grown revenue more than 10 percent to about 400 million yuan in 2018. Taiwan police ran down an anonymous tip and discovered a senior ex-BASF engineer was getting about 90,000 yuan a month from the mainland company to recruit employees, Lu said. U.S. companies and officials have long argued that China uses a range of tactics to acquire industrial designs and patents, and that Chinese entities engage in widespread theft of U.S. trade secrets. A report released in November by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizers office accused Beijing of waging a state-backed campaign of intellectual property theft, reiterating alarm about the countrys Made in China 2025 ambition to dominate key future technologies. One of the more recent allegations that came to light involved Huawei Technologies Co., which has repeatedly denied it steals technology. American carrier T-Mobile filed a lawsuit in 2014 describing an incident in which a Huawei engineer allegedly stole a robots fingertip. (Updates with details of the case from the fifth paragraph.) --With assistance from Gao Yuan and Andrew Noel. To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- A cooling technology cycle will hurt economic growth in Asia through weaker exports and capital investment, with South Korea taking the biggest hit, economists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note. Chip exports from the region were up 16.6 percent year on year in 2018 to the end of November, accounting for just over a third of headline export growth. While Goldmans analysts expect the technology downturn to be benign, with modest price declines, they also see a risk that it could be worse than expected because of consumers delaying purchases once prices start to fall. The most vulnerable would be South Korea, where chip exports accounted for 92 percent of headline export growth. Malaysia and Taiwan would be next hardest hit. Goldman expects Koreas semiconductor exports to weaken to falls of 7 percent year-on-year in the second half of 2019, the weakest since the global financial crisis. Together with other global headwinds that would lower the countrys current account surplus by $10 billion to about $60 billion, or 3.7 percent of GDP, its lowest in 7 years, it added. Recent weak export data for South Korea suggests the slowdown could be more rapid than expected, Goldman said. To contact the reporter on this story: Enda Curran in Hong Kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Henry Hoenig, Paul Jackson For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- Two politicians from Amazon.com Inc.s hometown traveled across the country to New York to deliver a cautionary message about the companys expansion in the city. Members of the Seattle City Council, Lisa Herbold and Teresa Mosqueda, are urging elected officials in New York to pass legislation now that will address potential housing and transportation issues that will inevitably follow in the wake of Amazons decision to build a major new campus in Queens. Both are speaking Monday at an event hosted by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which has been backing efforts to organize workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island. "I hope they can learn from Seattles experiences and create a set of new expectations for corporate responsibility that can benefit the working poor who work for Amazon and other people priced out of housing in high cost cities everywhere," Herbold said in an emailed statement ahead of the event. Amazon announced in November a major expansion in Long Island City, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia. In New York, Amazon would spend about $2.5 billion to create an 8.5 million square foot campus on the East River waterfront facing Manhattan from Long Island City. In return, the internet giant is set to receive almost $3 billion worth of state and city incentives. While Amazon could generate more than $27.5 billion in additional tax revenue for the city over 25 years, local politicians and community activists have already come out against the deal. Opponents fear the high salaries promised by Amazon and influx of as many as 40,000 employees eventually will push out residents in one of the citys fastest growing neighborhoods, and lead to even more congestion in the already overburdened subway system. Amazon is involved in a long-term listening and engagement process to better understand the communitys needs, a company spokeswoman said in a statement. Were committed to being a great neighbor -- and ensuring our new headquarters is a win for all New Yorkers. Story continues Amazons pitch to cities highlighted the companys economic contribution to its hometown of Seattle. However, there is a growing backlash against Amazon in Seattle, where its turbocharged growth has exacerbated traffic, led to skyrocketing housing prices, and helped push homelessness to crisis levels. To be sure, the visitors from Seattle represent a city of 725,000, a fraction of New Yorks 8.6 million residents, with a much less diverse population and economy than New York, a city with the resources to deliver a budget of about $90 billion a year, dwarfing Seattles $6 billion. Last year, the Seattle City Council was forced to reverse a tax on workers after a public rebuke from the e-commerce giant. The council had initially approved the tax of $275 per employee unanimously in an effort to combat rising homeless. Mosqueda was one of two council members who later opposed the repeal. "This isnt about being anti-growth or anti-corporation. Its about corporate accountability and shared responsibility," Mosqueda said in an interview with Bloomberg ahead of the event. "These companies do well because of our workforce and infrastructure, and theyll continue to do well if they invest in that infrastructure." Mosqueda said New York must act now with new taxes to generate revenue that will be needed for affordable housing. She also cautioned against letting philanthropic gestures pass as being adequate to address complex and costly problems of housing and transportation. Politicians in New York, including City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, have already expressed outrage over the secret negotiations that led to Amazons arrival. Still, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said New Yorks incentive offer was lower than many cities and states, including neighboring Newark, and that the city and state would be getting a 9-to-1 return on investment. New Yorks City Council has few, if any, tools to block Amazons deal in Long Island City, although its lawyers may file a lawsuit challenging the deal, which could slow the projects progress. A $505 million state grant thats part of the Amazon subsidy package may require unanimous approval of the states five-member Public Authorities Control Board, which oversees capital spending. Its possible that Democrats who control the state legislature could block that payment. Cuomo has challenged the assertion that the payment requires board approval, and the issue may wind up in court. (Updates with comments from Amazon in the sixth paragraph.) --With assistance from Henry Goldman. To contact the reporters on this story: Krista Gmelich in New York at kgmelich1@bloomberg.net;Spencer Soper in Seattle at ssoper@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- Palantir Technologies Inc. has always been a different sort of company. It didnt hire salespeople; it seemed largely unconcerned with pedestrian headaches like turning a profit; and it was co-founded and backed by Peter Thiel, techs reigning contrarian. But as the data-mining company preps for its long-awaited initial public offering -- which is expected as early as this year -- the 15-year-old startup has taken a cue from other, more traditional tech companies. It has trimmed runaway expenses, revamped its product aimed at large companies and has even begun building a sales team, a function it has long disdained. Now, according to public filings in Europe reviewed by Bloomberg, there are some signs that -- in that region at least -- the strategy has started to pay off. Revenue in Europe was up 57 percent in 2017, the filings show. In recent months, Palo Alto, California-based Palantir has brought on dozens of sales staff to pitch its new product, slowly changing its mix of employees, said many current and former Palantir employees and investors. Bloomberg spoke to nearly a dozen people, all of whom asked not to be identified because the details of the companys plans are private. Palantir declined to comment for this story. The sales push is a marked departure from Chief Executive Officer Alex Karps long-held philosophy. For Karp, it was a point of pride that the tech was good enough to sell itself. Karp once said publicly the only way hed hire a sales team was if investors forced him to, or if he was "hit by a bus." As recently as 2017 he told CNBC, Almost everyone here is an engineer. Im a PhD in philosophy," and "We have no salespeople. Some of the new hires have been top salespeople at major American companies like Oracle Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. And additional hiring is underway: more than five dozen global positions with business development or leverage in their titles are now listed on the companys website. Those positions, said several people, often perform functions that are typically handled by sales teams, despite the absence of "sales" in their titles and job descriptions. Story continues The product that most of the new employees are selling is called Foundry, data analytics software aimed at large corporate clients. Current Foundry customers include Morgan Stanley, which uses it to deter insider trading; Merck KGaA, which uses it to speed drug discovery; and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which uses it to identify faults in its cars before they cause problems. Foundry, and its predecessor Metropolis, performs the same type of big data analysis Palantirs Gotham does for government groups -- helping users sift through troves of data to mine for patterns and specific information. Compared to Metropolis, though, Foundry requires less customization and far fewer engineers, resulting in a potentially lower cost to customers and fatter margins for Palantir. Foundry took years to develop and is now one of just two products Palantir offers. The other is Gotham, used by federal, state and local agencies and nonprofits around the world. But by pouring resources into Foundry, the company has signaled a change of priorities, moving beyond a focus on government work, toward more seriously pursuing the larger and potentially more lucrative corporate market. The stakes are high for the new product. Everything rests on Foundry and the ability to sell it, said one Palantir investor who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Its what makes Palantir a software company instead of a consultancy. Worldwide, the company is still unprofitable, according to several people familiar with its financials. But the strategy appears to be gaining traction in Europe. According to public filings in the U.K., the company is hitting notable financial milestones in the region. The company made money in Europe in 2017 as revenue soared to 129.7 million pounds ($175 million) from 82.6 million pounds the year before. Thats thanks to Foundry and large deals with the likes of German health care giant Merck and airplane manufacturer Airbus SE, among others. Now, the companys sales method in Europe is being duplicated worldwide, several people said. This involves dispatching a three-person team -- including one engineer and two other people in jobs that would typically be considered sales employees -- to pitch clients on the software. Its still far from a traditional sales meeting, though. Even with the increasing pressure to turn a profit, Palantirs pitch to clients remains fiercely technical. One recent hire tasked with wooing new customers said that after the first two months on the job, all training has been on the Foundry software itself, with no sales instruction. Palantirs historic reticence toward salesmanship, and its CEOs very public disparagement of the profession, could make building a global sales force difficult. Without cultural buy-in, especially from the CEO at the top, it can implode, said Matt McGraw, founder of San Francisco-based sales recruiting agency TheLions. If you have a CEO who is nauseous dealing with someone whos slicker than they are, then that can be a problem. But Palantirs is not an uncommon evolution: Other engineering-first companies including Slack Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corp.s GitHub and Dropbox Inc. all went through similar phases of this anti-sales culture, said Mark Cranney, a former operating partner for venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Despite being much older than its peers, Palantir could pull off the same transformation, he said. With maturity, they will bring in the right people. --With assistance from Giles Turner. To contact the reporter on this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMey For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Reuters) - Ophir Energy Plc said it expects to report a non-cash write down of $300 million in its full-year results after being denied the extension of a block licence which houses a liquid natural gas project in Equatorial Guinea. The company, which is in talks to be acquired by Medco Energi Internasional Tbk PT, holds an 80 percent interest in the block which contains the Fortuna gas discovery. Ophir said that Medco knew it was possible that it would not get the licence extension for the block and that deal talks with the Indonesian company were continuing. Equatorial Guinea's Energy Minister Gabriel Obiang Lima had told Reuters in May last year that Ophir would be forced out of the project unless loan deals were presented to the government by December, adding that the country had already lined up a potential replacement. Block R, which contains the Fortuna gas project, is located in offshore Equatorial Guinea. Five out of six discoveries in the block were made by Ophir, the company said. Ophir, which has plans to shift its headquarters from London to Asia, has been trying to secure $1.2 billion in bank loans to fund the Fortuna LNG project. Analysts expect that the Medco deal to buy Ophir, if completed, would boost the Indonesia-based company's valuations and help it gain access to international assets. Ophir's shares were up marginally in early trading on the London Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) Man held for allegedly raping his 12-year-old daughter in Syangja A man has been arrested for allegedly raping his 12-year-old daughter in Syangja district. He has been accused of repeatedly raping his daughter for two years by threatening her. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Former Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of many former members of Congress now moving into the private sector, has joined Texas-founded Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Akin Gump has also hired former Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, the firm said Monday. As a firm that operates at the intersection of business, law and policy, we recognize the valuable skills, knowledge and perspectives that Reps. Ros-Lehtinen and Smith bring to our clients, said Akin Gump chairperson Kim Koopersmith in a statement. They will be great additions to our top-tier policy practice, and I am very proud to welcome two individuals with such long and distinguished careers on Capitol Hill to the firm. Ros-Lehtinen, who doesn't hold a law degree, will work as a senior adviser in the firm's public law and policy practice based in Washington, D.C. As home to the largest public policy practice in Washington, Akin Gump has always been a successful advocate on behalf of its clients, both domestic and foreign, on trade matters and other critical issues, said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. My move here builds so well on the work I have accomplished during my time in Congress, and I am excited to begin this next chapter in my career. After 36 years in public office nearly 30 of those years in the U.S. Congress representing South Florida, Ros-Lehtinen announced her retirement last year in an op-ed in the Miami Herald. "This is a personal decision based on personal considerations," wrote Ros-Lehtinen. Democrat Donna Shalala eventually defeated her Republican opponent Maria Elvira Salazar last November to replace Ros-Lehtinen. Ros-Lehtinen was the first Cuban-American elected to Congress when she won her first congressional election in 1989, and the first Hispanic woman to serve in the Florida House, Florida Senate and U.S. Congress. Among her biggest policy achievements was her role in passing Florida's prepaid college-tuition program. Akin Gump isnt the only big law firm picking up attorneys with government experience. Holland & Knight recently announced it hired former Republican Virginia Congressman Tom Davis as partner in its public policy practice group based in D.C. and Tysons, Virginia. Davis served in Congress for 14 years before retiring in 2008. He was previously with Deloitte, where he was director of federal government affairs. Lawyers have long bounced between the public and private sector, a process often referred to as "the revolving door." Notable recent examples include former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates' move to King & Spalding and, in the other direction, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr's journey from Kirkland & Ellis back to the Justice Department pending his nomination to U.S. Attorney General. Story continues Related Stories: Another Year, Another Spin Through the Legal Industry Revolving Door (Bloomberg) -- Sign up for China Rising, a new weekly dispatch on where China stands now and where it's going next. Huawei Technologies Co. unveiled a new processor chip for servers as the Chinese telecommunications gear giant pushes ahead with expansion despite closer scrutiny from abroad. The Kunpeng 920 is built using the cutting edge 7-nanometer process and uses the semiconductor architecture of ARM Holdings, Shenzhen-based Huawei said in a statement on Monday. The new chips would compete with the dominant x86 server architecture used by U.S. giants Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Huawei is showing no signs of tempering its ambitions even after a number of setbacks on the international stage. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested last year on allegations of violating sanctions on Iran, the U.S. and its allies are questioning its security and some wireless customers have resisted using its technology. The company has long rejected suggestions its gear poses a risk. The Kunpeng 920 performs 25 percent higher than the industry benchmark, operates at a better power efficiency than its peers and will boost the development of big data, the company said. The company also unveiled a new server based on the processors. Huawei has invested patiently and intensively in computing innovation to continuously make breakthroughs, Chief Strategy Marketing Officer William Xu said in the statement. Huawei and Intel will continue our long-term strategic partnerships and continue to innovate together. While best known for its networking gear and smartphones, Huawei also sells components and services for internet-connected devices. Its Enterprise Business Group generated more than $10 billion in revenue in 2018, about a 10th of the companys total. The company shipped 918,000 server units in 2018, a 25 percent increase from the year earlier, according to presentation materials from Huawei. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.net Story continues To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM recently announced that the company has commenced drilling the Haimara-1 exploration well, located 31 kilometres east of the companys Pluma-1 discovery in the southeast Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana. It is one of the two wells to be drilled this month, as planned by the company. At the site, the company is using a harsh environment DP Class 3 drillship, namely Stena Carron, which can drill up to a water depth of 10,000 feet. ExxonMobil has plans to use Noble Corporation plcs NE Noble Tom Madden drillship for the Tilapia-1 well, which is the second one slated to be drilled this month. The well is located in the Turbot region. The commencement of the drilling of Haimara-1 well on schedule is a sign of ExxonMobils confidence in the region, which recently witnessed an unfavorable event pertaining to the Venezuelan navy. The company reported that its activities offshore Guyana were not affected by the event. Notably, the Stabroek Block is expected to accommodate at least five floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, with oil production capacity of more than 750,000 barrels per day, by 2025. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, is the operator in the Stabroek Block with 45% stake. The respective subsidiaries of Hess Corporation HES and CNOOC Limited CEO have 30% and 25% interest in the block. Liza Update The worlds biggest publicly-traded energy company also stated that its Liza Phase 1 development has reached its peak execution phase, well ahead of its schedule in early 2020. The company is using Noble Bob Douglas drillship in the field. It intends to start pipe-laying activities in the field in spring. The Liza Destiny FPSO vessel to be used in the field currently in Singapore will set off for Guyana in third-quarter 2019. First oil is expected from the Liza Phase 1 development in early-2020. Moreover, the company expects the Liza Phase 2 to commence production within mid-2022. Story continues Similar to ExxonMobils 4-D campaign in the Liza field in 2017, the company intends to deploy a seismic vessel in the Turbot region offshore Guyana for acquiring 4-D seismic data. Price Performance & Zacks Rank ExxonMobil has lost 18.3% in the past year compared with 9.8% collective decline of the industry it belongs to. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 3 Medical Stocks to Buy Now The greatest discovery in this century of biology is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating revenue, and cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in the pipeline. So are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks has released an updated Special Report that explains this breakthrough and names the best 3 stocks to ride it. See them today for free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CNOOC Limited (CEO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Noble Corporation (NE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hess Corporation (HES) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is not trying to keep Britain in and wants to start discussing future ties the moment the UK parliament approves Brexit, partly to focus on its own unity ahead of May elections, the head of the bloc's executive said. "It is being insinuated that our aim is to keep the United Kingdom in the EU by all possible means. That is not our intention. All we want is clarity about our future relations. And we respect the result of the referendum." Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in an interview. Juncker said the EU was ready to start negotiating a new deal with Britain right after the British parliament approves the divorce deal. A vote is now due in the week starting Jan. 14. He also said Britain should get its act together. "And then tell us what it is you want," he said. "I am working on the assumption that it will leave, because that is what the people of the United Kingdom have decided," he added, refusing to be drawn into whether Britain would hold a second Brexit vote. "That is for the British to decide." On other challenges facing Europe, Juncker said he was watching closely U.S. President Donald Trump on trade. "I trust him for as long as he keeps his word. And if he no longer keeps it, then I will no longer feel bound by my word either," Juncker said of tensions between the EU and Washington around car tariffs. He said he felt EU citizens were increasingly growing apart, another problem to tackle ahead of Europe-wide parliamentary elections in May. "We have to ensure that these rifts do not become too deep," Juncker said. "We must not imply that the populists are right ... they are just loud and do not have any specific proposals to offer on solving the challenges of our time." He said Europe had to stand united "in combating the trolls and hacker groups from China or Russia" that could seek to sway the European vote. Story continues He expressed doubt about EU state Romania, which takes over the bloc's rotating presidency from Jan. 1, but struggles with corruption and bitter divisions. "The government in Bucharest has not yet fully understood what it means to take chair over the EU Member States ... Romania's internal situation is such that the country cannot act as a compact unit in Europe," Juncker said. (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by David Evans) Before the Electric Car Takes Over, Someone Needs to Reinvent the Battery (Bloomberg) -- To deliver an electric vehicle thats cheaper, safer and capable of traveling 500 miles on a single charge, the auto industry needs a breakthrough in battery technology. Easier said than done. Scientists in Japan, China and the U.S. are among those struggling to crack the code of how to significantly boost the amount of energy a battery cell can store and bring an EV's driving range into line with a full tank of gas. That quest has zeroed in on solid-state technology, an overhaul of a battery's internal architecture to use solid materials instead of flammable liquids to enable charging and discharging. The technology promises major improvements on existing lithium-ion packs, which automakers say are hitting the limits of their storage capabilities and may never hold enough power for long-distance models. If it can be mastered, solid-state technology could help speed the demise of the combustion-engine car and potentially slash EV charging times to about 10 minutes from as much as several hours. The supercharger network built by Tesla Inc., now offering some of the fastest charge times, needs approximately 30 minutes to bring a depleted car to 80 percent. We dont see another way to get there without solid-state technology, said Ted Miller, Detroit-based senior manager of energy storage strategy and research at Ford Motor Co., which has studied various technologies aimed at delivering a more powerful EV battery. What I can't predict right now is who is going to commercialize it. Currently, the best prototype with solid-state batteries is only powerful enough to propel a one-person vehicle across a Toyota Motor Corp. parking lot near Japans Mount Fuji. Car companies such as Daimler AG and Fisker Inc. are working on the task, as are a Chinese lithium giant, the French oil company Total SA, and spinoffs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Fisker may conduct vehicle tests as early as this year, while Toyota and Daimler timelines extend into the 2020s. Story continues The stakes are enormous. Adoption of electric vehicles is already expected to fuel an exponential increase in lithium-ion batteries, the reigning replacement for the internal combustion engine. The latest report from BloombergNEF found that electric busses and passenger cars accounted for 44 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion battery demand in 2017and by 2030 that demand is forecast to surge to over 1,500 gigawatt hours per year. Anyone with a viable solid-state battery that can outperform lithium-ion technology could gain the upper hand in a market for all EV batteries that will be worth about $84 billion by 2025, compared with about $23 billion now, according to UBS Group AG. What Solid-State Success Takes Lithium-ion technology, the standard for decades in mobile phones and personal electronics before moving into EVs and utility-scale energy storage, uses a liquid electrolyte to shuttle ions between the anode and cathode to charge or discharge a battery. A solid-state battery, as the name suggests, replaces this liquid with a solid material such as ceramic, glass or a polymer. That should reduce the risks of batteries bursting into flames and allow for thinner cells and smaller packs that fit under a car seat. Researchers also want to pair the solid electrolyte with a lithium metal anode to improve energy density and enable EVs to travel longer distances without stopping. That could help stoke sales by erasing consumer worries about running out of juice midtrip. Read More: The QuickTake Guide to Better Batteries To achieve all that, there's a list of puzzles to solve. Prototypes currently have battery life that's too short for a vehicle and suffer from poor conductivity, uncompetitive costs and a sometimes violent swelling and shrinking of materials when charged or discharged. When scientists solve one problem, that typically exacerbates another, said Yasuo Ishiguro, managing director of Japans Consortium for Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center, or LIBTEC. The group of more than 25 companiesincluding Toyota, Panasonic Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.is backed by about $90 million in government funding to speed up progress. Among all the players out there, it seems like everyone has solved one or two or three of five of the most important things, but nobody has really solved everything, said Henrik Fisker, chairman and chief executive officer of his namesake Los Angeles-based EV maker. China's Qingtao New Energy Research Institute will experiment with cars within two years and considers a commercial product possible by 2025. Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., China's biggest cell-producer, includes solid-state in its advanced-battery research. South Koreas Samsung SDI Co., SK Innovation Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. said they're also studying the technology, as is Dyson Ltd., the U.K.-based home-appliance maker now targeting EVs. For passenger cars, we should see prototypes in the early 2020s, said Andreas Hintennach, head of battery research at Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler. The automaker behind brands including Mercedes-Benz agreed last month on orders for $23 billion of current generation lithium-ion battery cells through 2030. Volkswagen AG plans to begin trial production with partner QuantumScape Corp. as soon as 2022. Those timelines may prove optimistic. Its a brutal battlefield actually making these batteries work, and nobody is anywhere close, said Sam Jaffe, managing director at Boulder, Colorado-based Cairn Energy Research Advisors, an industry consultant. It will be the end of the 2020s before solid-state batteries with all the promised advantages are available, and even then, they still could be priced at a premium, said James Frith, a London-based analyst with BNEF. Tesla, which says it talks frequently to developers and reviews battery prototypes, doesn't yet see a technology that's better than its existing lithium-ion packs. Its Model S can travel as far as 335 miles (539 kilometers) on a single charge. Weve looked as hard as we possibly can, Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel told an annual meeting in June. We are all ears, wed love to find it, but we havent found it yet. Tesla supplier Panasonic said it continues researching solid-state technology, though there are many hurdles left before commercialization is possible. Toyotas Potential for a Breakthrough The biggest hope for a breakthrough rests on Toyota, according to rivals, academics and patent data. Asias largest automaker has at least 233 patents or applications concerning the technologyalmost triple the number of its closest competitor, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Laws Tommy Shen. The company is investing 1.5 trillion yen ($13.9 billion) in its battery business and plans to commercialize solid-state technology by the early 2020s, according to its annual report released in October. During the past decade, Toyota has deployed as many as 200 employees at a time to pursue the technology, primarily at its Higashi-Fuji research center close to Mount Fuji. The company has progressed in using solid-state batteries to power a digital clock, a two-wheel scooter and a conveyor belt before testing the technology in an adapted version of the COMS, its single-seat, low-speed car. The vehicle serves more as an inspiration to researchers than a mode of transportation, said LIBTEC's Ishiguro, a former Toyota manager. With many existing EV battery makers focused on lifting volumes and lowering costs, Toyota's key challengers could be a cluster of U.S. startups, Ford's Miller said. In a reflection of this possibility, VW last year paid $100 million to increase its stake in QuantumScape, founded by former Stanford researchers and based in San Jose, California. Ionic Materials Inc., based in Woburn, Massachusetts, counts Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy and a venture-capital fund comprising automakers Renault SA, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. as backers. SolidEnergy Systems, an MIT spinoff also based in Woburn, expects to begin trials with EVs after 2021, CEO Qichao Hu said at an October forum in Osaka, Japan. Solid Power, a Louisville, Colorado-based battery company, has had a development partnership with BMW AG since December 2017. CEO Doug Campbell said hes confident solid-state technology will be commercially viable in cars. Just not for another five to 10 years. Im not going to say that there arent challenges in front of us, Campbell said. But I am confident that I dont see challenges where it says: Insert Miracle Here. --With assistance from Brian Eckhouse, Oliver Sachgau, Susan Decker, Sohee Kim, Samuel Dodge, Martin Ritchie, Mengchen Lu and Yuki Furukawa. To contact the authors of this story: David Stringer in Melbourne at dstringer3@bloomberg.netKevin Buckland in Tokyo at kbuckland1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net, Aaron Rutkoff For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - New Trump administration policies aimed at curbing China's access to American innovation have all but halted Chinese investment in U.S. technology startups, as both investors and startup founders abandon deals amid scrutiny from Washington. Chinese venture funding in U.S. startups crested to a record $3 billion last year, according to New York economic research firm Rhodium Group, spurred by a rush of investors and tech companies scrambling to complete deals before a new regulatory regime was approved in August. Since then, Chinese venture funding in U.S. startups has slowed to a trickle, Reuters interviews with more than 35 industry players show. U.S. President Donald Trump signed new legislation expanding the government's ability to block foreign investment in U.S. companies, regardless of the investor's country of origin. But Trump has been particularly vocal about stopping China from getting its hands on strategic U.S. technologies. The new rules are still being finalized, but tech industry veterans said the fallout has been swift. "Deals involving Chinese companies and Chinese buyers and Chinese investors have virtually stopped," said attorney Nell O'Donnell, who has represented U.S. tech companies in transactions with foreign buyers. Lawyers who spoke to Reuters say they are feverishly rewriting deal terms to help ensure investments get the stamp of approval from Washington. Chinese investors, including big family offices, have walked away from transactions and stopped taking meetings with U.S. startups. Some entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are eschewing Chinese money, fearful of lengthy government reviews that could sap their resources and momentum in an arena where speed to market is critical. Volley Labs, Inc, a San Francisco-based company that uses artificial intelligence to build corporate training materials, is playing it safe. It declined offers from Chinese investors last year after accepting cash from Beijing-based TAL Education Group as part of a financing round in 2017. "We decided for optical reasons it just wouldn't make sense to expose ourselves further to investors coming from a country where there is now so much by way of trade tensions and IP tensions," said Carson Kahn, Volley's CEO. A Silicon Valley venture capitalist told Reuters he is aware of at least ten deals, some involving companies in his own portfolio, that fell apart because they would need approval from the interagency group known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He declined to be named for fear of bringing negative attention to his portfolio companies. CFIUS is the government group tasked with reviewing foreign investment for potential national security and competitive risks. The new legislation expands its powers. Among them: the ability to probe transactions previously excluded from its purview, including attempts by foreigners to purchase minority stakes in U.S. startups. China is in the crosshairs. The Asian giant has been an aggressive investor in technology deemed critical to its global competitiveness and military prowess. Chinese investors have bought stakes in ride-hailing firms Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Lyft, as well as companies with more sensitive technologies including data center networking firm Barefoot Networks, autonomous driving startup Zoox and speech recognition startup AISense. (For a graphic of Chinese venture investment in U.S. tech, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2SBHUVh) A dearth of Chinese money is unlikely to spell doomsday for Silicon Valley. Investors worldwide poured more than $84 billion into U.S. startups for the first three quarters of last year, exceeding any prior full-year funding, according to data provider PitchBook Inc. Still, Chinese funders are critical to helping U.S. companies gain access to the world's second-largest economy. Volley's Kahn acknowledged that rejecting Chinese investment may make his startup's overseas expansion more difficult. "Those of us who are operators and entrepreneurs feel the brunt of these tensions," Kahn said. It is a radical shift for Silicon Valley. Money has historically flowed in from every corner of the globe, including from geopolitical rivals such as China and Russia, largely uninhibited by U.S. government scrutiny or regulation. Reid Whitten, an attorney with Sheppard Mullin, said that of the six companies he recently advised to get CFIUS approval for their investment offers, only two have opted to file the paperwork. The others abandoned their deals or are still considering whether to proceed. "It is a generational change in the way we look at foreign investment in the United States," Whitten said. CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES The decline in Chinese investment comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington. Trump has blasted China for its enormous trade surplus and for what he claims are its underhanded strategies to obtain leading-edge American technology. The nations have already levied billions in tariffs on each other's goods. And Trump is considering an executive order to bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China's Huawei and ZTE, which the U.S. government has accused of spying. CFIUS is emerging as another powerful cudgel. Led by the U.S. Treasury, it includes members from eight other government entities, including the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security. The secretive committee does not disclose much about the deals it reviews. But its most recent annual report said Chinese investors made 74 CFIUS filings from 2013 to 2015, the most of any nation. The president has the authority to make the final decision, but a thumbs-down from CFIUS is usually enough to doom a deal. Washington demonstrated its tougher stance even before the new law was passed, when Trump in March blocked a $117 billion hostile bid by Singapore-based Broadcom Ltd to acquire Qualcomm Inc of San Diego. CFIUS said the takeover would weaken the United States in the race to develop next-generation wireless technology. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. In November, CFIUS rolled out a pilot program mandating that foreign investors notify the committee of any size investment in certain "critical technologies." The scope of that term is still being defined, but a working list includes artificial intelligence, logistics technology, robotics and data analytics the bread and butter of Silicon Valley. Research firm Rhodium predicted that up to three-quarters of Chinese venture investments would be subject to CFIUS review under the new rules. Just the threat of that scrutiny has caused some Chinese investors to reconsider. Peter Kuo, whose firm, Silicon Valley Global, connects Chinese investors with U.S. startups, said his business has slumped dramatically. In 2018, he said not a single Chinese investor took a stake in the companies he shopped to them. "CFIUS didn't kill our organization, but it hampered a lot of startups, and most of them are American startups," Kuo said. SAFE SIDE OF THE FENCE Some security experts applaud what they call long-overdue protections for U.S. startups. "What we are concerned about is a limited number of bad actors who are phenomenally clever about how they can access our intellectual property," said Bob Ackerman, founder of AllegisCyber, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco and Maryland that backs cyber security startups. Rhodium calculates that, on average, 21 percent of Chinese venture investment in the United States from 2000 through 2017 came from state-owned funds, which are controlled at least in part by the Chinese government. In 2018, that figure surged to 41 percent. But some tech industry players say Washington is casting too wide a net in its zeal to check Beijing. "A lot of innocent business people are getting" caught up in the administration's spat with China, said Wei Guo, the China-born founding partner of Silicon Valley firm UpHonest Capital, whose funding comes mostly from foreign investors with ties to China. Adding to Silicon Valley's anxiety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken a more active role in policing Chinese investment. Two industry veterans, a startup adviser and a venture capitalist who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters they were recently cautioned by the FBI not to pursue deals with Chinese investors. The two people did not name the Chinese entities of interest to the FBI, but said the deals concerned U.S. companies building artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies. Whether any of this deters China from reaching its goal of dominating advanced technologies remains to be seen. China can still invest in U.S. technology through layers of funds that obscure the money source. And Chinese investors are redirecting funds to promising companies in Southeast Asia and Latin America. U.S. startups, meanwhile, are rewriting deal terms to avoid a CFIUS review. Strategies include adding provisions to prevent foreign investors from obtaining proprietary technical information, and denying them board rights, veto rights or additional equity in future rounds, attorneys told Reuters. "People are rightfully concerned about making sure they are on the safe side of the fence," said Jeff Farrah, general counsel of the National Venture Capital Association. (Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Greg Mitchell and Marla Dickerson) OTTAWA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A group of legislators from Canada on a visit to China pressed authorities on Monday to release two men who were detained last month but had little success, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported. Ottawa is demanding that China immediately free Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were picked up after Canadian authorities arrested a senior Chinese executive on a U.S. arrest warrant in early December. Senator Joseph Day, one of the Canadian legislators, said the group had reiterated the government's concerns in what he called a very frank meeting with Chinese officials in Shanghai. "The gist of the message is that the executive branch of Canada has asked for their immediate release," Day told the CBC after the encounter. "They haven't been informed of what charges there might be against them, they haven't had open access to their lawyers. We told them (the Chinese side) that by any international standard that is not fair," he added. Day said Chinese officials had demanded to know why Canadian police had arrested Huawei Technologies Co Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in early December. Canada said it was acting on a U.S. request. Asked whether the talks had improved the prospects of the two detained Canadians, Day relied: "I think the fact we had an open and frank discussion ... creates opportunities." The Canadian visit was arranged before Meng's detention. The office of Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by David Ljunggren Editing by Susan Thomas) Global trends in 2019 The Foreign Ministry wrapped up an eventful diplomatic year with a cherry on the cake Washington visit in December 2018. The issues discussed principally opened the doors for the Himalayan nation to envision its place in a new year of world politics. Smith Family(ELIZABETHTOWN, N.C.) -- Inmates rushed to aid the North Carolina officer overseeing them pick up trash when he collapsed on a road. Despite their efforts to call 911 and look after him, officer James Smith died at the hospital. Chief Deputy Larry Guyton of the Bladen County Sheriffs Office said "it means a lot to law enforcement" that the inmates stayed at Smith's side and rushed to get him help. Smith, a roadside supervisor with the Bladen County Sheriff's Office, suffered a stroke while working with three inmates along a road in Elizabethtown on Wednesday, the sheriff's office said. The inmates "noticed that he started weaving and stumbling" and helped him to the ground, Guyton told ABC News on Monday. The inmates used Smith's phone to dial 911 and flagged down a driver and asked him to call for help, too, Guyton said. The three inmates "stood by and stayed with him until EMS and law enforcement arrived," Guyton said. Smith, 62, died in the hospital Sunday morning, he said. Smith worked with the Bladen County Sheriffs Office in 2002 and 2003 before heading to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office where he spent 15 years, Guyton said. Smith returned to the Bladen County Sheriffs Office in 2018 to work part-time, he said. Smith was not only "well thought of by everyone here," but also "liked by the inmates," Guyton said. "They respected him, he treated them well. And it was obvious that their respect for him and concern for him was one of the main reasons they stayed and watched over him until help could arrive," Guyton said, praising Smith and the inmates. "In this day and time, we're not the most popular people in the world," Guyton said of law enforcement, "and it's nice to know that there are people that still care. It doesn't matter that they were inmates or not, they were men and human beings, and they reached out to help someone in need." The inmates are part of the sheriff's office's roadside trash pickup program through North Carolina's misdemeanor confinement program, Guyton said. "The state contracts with local jails to house misdemeanor inmates, and we pull from them, give them an opportunity to work outside the facility. The trade-off is for every 30 days they work, they get four days off their sentence," he explained. "Just because they end up in jail for a crime, it doesn't mean they're bad people," he added. "We all make mistakes and these men are readily paying for their mistakes, and they're trying to improve themselves." Smith will be laid to rest on Friday, said Guyton. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Bank of New York Mellon (BK), which belongs to the Zacks Banks - Major Regional industry. This trust bank has seen a nice streak of beating earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The average surprise for the last two quarters was 0.96%. For the last reported quarter, Bank of New York Mellon came out with earnings of $1.06 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.04 per share, representing a surprise of 1.92%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $1.03 per share and it actually produced earnings of $1.03 per share, delivering a surprise of 0%. Price and EPS Surprise Thanks in part to this history, there has been a favorable change in earnings estimates for Bank of New York Mellon lately. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the stock is positive, which is a great indicator of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Bank of New York Mellon has an Earnings ESP of +0.80% at the moment, suggesting that analysts have grown bullish on its near-term earnings potential. When you combine this positive Earnings ESP with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), it shows that another beat is possibly around the corner. The company's next earnings report is expected to be released on January 16, 2019. Story continues When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, though this is not the only reason why their shares gain. Additionally, some stocks may remain stable even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Investing.com - Asian markets rose in morning trade on Monday, with Japans Nikkei 225 jumping 3%, as an easing of monetary policy in China triggered a renewed appetite for risk assets. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 1% last Friday as Beijing hoped to stimulate lending after weaker-than-expected PMI data released last week suggested a slowing economy. The cut will release a net 800 billion yuan ($117 billion) of liquidity, the central bank said in a separate statement, adding that the cut is still a "targeted" easing rather than wide-ranging stimulus. "The PBOC is reacting to the recent deterioration of the economic environment," said Stefan Grosse, an economist at Nord LB in Hanover, Germany. "The weak PMI in China as well as the ISM PMI manufacturing in the U.S. point to a slowdown of the global economy. Expect more governmental stimulus to come." The Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.4% and 1.1% by 9:05 PM ET (02:05 GMT) on Monday following the news. Meanwhile, citing a person familiar with the matter, the South China Morning Post reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to hold talks with Wang Qishan, Chinas vice president, at the World Economic Forum later this month in Davos. The meeting would follow another round of trade talks scheduled to start in Beijing on Monday between U.S. and Chinese officials. Citing two person familiar with the preparations, Bloomberg said the talks would focus on issues including intellectual property, agriculture and industrial purchases. Preliminary discussions have been a little more optimistic than usual, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Bloomberg on Friday. While not a directional driver, data on Monday showed the Markit/Nikkei Japan Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) stood at 51.0 on a seasonally adjusted basis in December, down from 52.3 in November. Story continues Elsewhere, South Koreas KOSPI rose 1.2%. Down under, Australias ASX 200 advanced 1.4% as shares of major miners traded up; Rio Tinto Ltd (AX:RIO) was up 2.5%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) gained 2.4% and BHP Billiton Ltd (AX:BHP) jumped 3.1%. Related Articles Sen. Sanders, Rep. Cummings to introduce bill to lower U.S. drug prices Target's holiday season comparable sales up 5.7 percent At China port, tariff drop a salve for hard-hit traders of American cars Description Join us at the library with Judge Joseph F. Bianco, a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of New York. He will discuss the selection process for federal judges, cases and issues litigated in the federal court of Long Island, and the challenges facing our criminal justice system. For additional information, please call the library or visit our website. Five start-ups secure investment funding Five start-ups in the tourism industryTaste Routes, Nepal Heritage Walk, Lhayul Laphing, Pixel Lab and Sajilo Tripmanaged to secure investment commitments during the demo day of the Udhyami Seed Camp held in Kathmandu, on Sunday. Draft bill moots creating two aviation authorities Nepals national aviation authority has been proposed to be divided into the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and the Air Service Authority of Nepal in the draft Integrated Civil Aviation Bill, allowing the joint secretaries of the Civil Aviation Ministry to take charge of two vital positions. Doctors threaten to go on a strike Government doctors have warned of shutting down all medical services, except for emergency, if their demands for amendment to the Civil Servants Adjustment Ordinance and removal of Health Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari are not addressed urgently. Even 12 years after she survived an acid attack by a jilted lover during a train journey to Delhi from her hometown Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in April 2006, Pragya Singh remains a beacon of hope for scores of such burn victims. The 35-year-old gritty Pragya has helped about 200 women victims of acid attacks undergo 300 surgeries for free and gave them not just legal and financial aid but also a job to rebuild their lives. "The horrific incident happened 12 days after my marriage when I was 23. A vindictive ex-lover threw acid on my face and body while I was asleep in the train. I was in intensive care for several weeks and had 15 surgeries over two years to open my nasal cavity and mouth which got burnt," recalled Pragya to IANS. Living in Bengaluru since 2007 with her husband and later giving birth to two young daughters, Pragya set up Atijeevan Foundation in 2013 to make lives of other burn victims better and happier. Though the traumatic incident made Pragya hope for cosmetic surgeries to erase the burns and make her face look as it was before the gruesome attack, she learned to accept her appearance to march ahead in life. "I realised soon that there was no end to surgeries, which can only change face slightly and improve appearance. I reconciled to the inevitable, as regaining the original face was wishful thinking," she said. Determined to get back on her feet, Pragya put an end to the reconstruction surgeries once her vital organs became functional. "Instead of being a victim, I decided to be the change for other women who are hapless victims of such a heinous crime. I have been fortunate to have a supportive family financially and emotionally during the treatment and recovery phase," noted Pragya. Acid attacks on women in their 20s are mostly by men whose romantic advances were rejected, or spurred by family feuds, including dowry harassment and land disputes. "Women account for about 80 per cent of acid attacks, while the remaining 20 per cent are on men and children," said Pragya. The caustic attacks with sulphuric or nitric acid, on sale at chemical stores, melt skin tissues to expose bones and cause damage to eyes, leading to partial vision or blindness. "Each surgery for restoration of functioning of nose, mouth and eyelids cost a whopping Rs 60,000-1 lakh, depending on the intensity of the acid burn," revealed Pragya. "Some of the victims undergo 35-40 surgeries after a severe burn, which are expensive and cause distress for years to them and their families," she said. Her foundation provides acid burn survivors a holistic support system and has tied up with over 15 private hospitals across the country to provide quality medical care to acid burn patients. The NGO, which functions on private donations, also bears the surgery cost for women victims who cannot afford it. One such survivor, Deepmala Tiwari, 28, a resident of Balrampur, about 170km northeast of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, was attacked with acid by her husband in 2014. Acid attack survivor Pragya Singh (second from back-left), the founder of Bengaluru-based Atijeevan Foundation, during a camp for burn patients. "My husband turned insecure after he learnt that as a teacher at a state-run school in Balrampur I made more money than him and threw acid on me," she recollected. Unable to afford the treatment, she reached out to the foundation after learning about it through a friend. "Pragya has been in touch with me ever since, and the foundation took care of all the costs for me to receive over 10 surgeries and filled confidence in me and my family to continue leading our lives," she recounted. She also received a course in computer science before returning to her teaching job in Balrampur. Deepmala now supports other acid attack victims as a coordinator for the foundation. "The foundation and Pragya have been by my side through all the medical procedures and legal battle, after which my husband was imprisoned for 14 years," she added. Deepmala in turn referred the foundation to 23-year-old Reshma Khatun, who suffered an acid burn at the age of 19 after she rejected a man's proposal for marriage. "With the foundation's support, I could complete a vocational course in computers and find a job," Noida-based Reshma told IANS. Reshma, who works as a housekeeping staff at a star hotel in Noida, said an acid attack makes earning a living difficult, with employers reluctant to hire the survivors. "It is inspiring to see women like Pragya showing the way for other women and men that life does not have to stop with an acid burn," Reshma told IANS. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, there were 200 cases of acid attacks on women in 2016 alone, although NGOs estimate the number of such attacks to be about 500-1,000 across the country. "Seven of our field workers are acid burn survivors. When they visit homes of fellow victims, the understanding among them and their families is better as life need not stop because of the attack," said Pragya. With the help of volunteers, the foundation also hosts camps and workshops for the burn survivors across cities and towns in the country, offering free legal assistance, medical treatment and counselling. "We empower burn patients with skills and vocational training for enhancing their livelihood. We help them in learning computer skills, handicraft making or pursuing higher education. Enabling surgeries are not enough as they need a purpose to get back to normal life," said the burn-survivor-turned-activist. Following the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling directing states to consider acid attack victims as disabled for jobs, India Inc, which was hesitant to hire burn patients, have been open to include them in their workforce, as part of their quota to include the disabled in their companies. "There are challenges in placing burn survivors in the industry as lot of corporates are reluctant to hire them. The few companies coming forward to hire them are paying low wages considering them as incapable of doing their job," Pragya noted. Even as she admits that ban on sale of acid in the market was not feasible, as it is used for industrial products and sanitation, she wants states to regulate its supply in a diluted form across the country. London: Teenage girls who spend more time on social media have a higher risk of depression than boys, a study has found. Researchers led by Yvonne Kelly from the University College London (UCL) found that almost 40 per cent of girls who spend more than five hours a day on social media show symptoms of depression, Xinhua news agency reported. However, the rate is much lower for boys, which is less than 15 per cent. According to Simon Wessely, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the underlying processes of this phenomenon are not well understood. The researchers "still cannot definitely say that social media usage causes poor mental health, although the evidence is starting to point in that direction", The Guardian quoted Wessely as saying. For the study, published in the journal EClinicalMedicine, the team included interviews with almost 11,000 14-year-olds. They found that two-fifths of girls have suffered online harassments or online bullying compared to one-quarter of boys. Compared to 28 per cent of boys, 40 per cent of girls have suffered sleep loss because of online habits. Girls were found more likely to have low self-esteem and body weight dissatisfaction, and be unhappy with their appearance, than boys. Shillong: Two coal miners were killed after another illegal coal mine collapsed in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills even as the fate of 15 miners, trapped inside a flooded coal pit for 25 days, remained uncertain, an official said on Sunday. The fresh accident at Mooknor, Jalyiah village, about 5 km from the district headquarters in East Jaintia Hills, came to the fore after one Philip Bareh filed a report that his nephew Elad Bareh (26) had been missing from his home since Friday. "A search was conducted and his body was found in front of a 'rat-hole' coal mine. When we further checked inside the narrow mine, another body was found. The second man was identified as Monoj Basumatry," Sylvester Nongtnger, district police chief, told IANS. "It is suspected that boulders hit them when they tried to extract coal," Nongtnger said, adding that efforts are on to find out the owner of the illegal mine. An inquest was conducted and the dead bodies were forwarded for autopsy. Meanwhile, rescue operations to evacuate the 15 trapped coal miners at Ksan village were partially affected after the high-capacity specialized dewatering pumps of Kirloskar Brothers Limited and Coal India Limited encountered technical snags on Sunday, an official said. "Pumping machines of Kirloskar and CIL have been stopped for the time being because of some technical problem. The pumps will be restored soon," said rescue operations spokesperson, Reginald Susngi. However, he said Odisha firefighters continued to drain out water from the two abandoned coal mines. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered an interim ban on "rat-hole" coal mining in the state in April, 2014. On Friday, the Green Court imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore on the Meghalaya government for its failure to curb illegal mining in the state. The Supreme Court also expressed dissatisfaction over the outcome of the rescue operations at Ksan coal mine. The accident has evoked sharp reactions. Former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has said illegal mining activities in Jaintia Hills were carried out due to the greed of the people in power. "This is the outcome of the extreme greed of the people in power. The image of the state built over te years has suffered badly," Sangma told journalists. On penalty imposed by the NGT, the leader of Opposition said, "The people of the state cannot pay for the greed of some power-hungry people. I am afraid the state is going to pay a heavy price because of the greed of these people." He also lashed out at Chief Secretary Y Tsering and other senior government officers for being "silent spectators" to illegal mining. "They are succumbing to their political bosses, though it is their job to protect the interest of the people and the state," Sangma said. Corruption watchdog seeks e-bus procurement details The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has written to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to inquire about the procurement of electric buses, which are being sent back to the supplier for a number of faults. New Delhi: The Asom Gana Parishad on Monday quit the alliance with the BJP over the Modi government's decision to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which seeks to give citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Asom Gana Parishad President Atul Bora said this here on Monday after an AGP delegation led by him met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "We have made our best efforts to convince the BJP leadership about the negative impact of the Bill and the stand of the people of Assam, but the BJP has decided to go ahead with the Bill leaving us with no option but to quit the alliance," he told the media. The Union Cabinet earlier cleared the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 after a Joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its recommendations to the Lok Sabha. The Bill is likely to be debated in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The snapping of the ties by the AGP, however, does not threaten the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance government in Assam. The BJP has 61 members and the support of an Independent member in the house of 126 while its ally BPF has 13 members. While the AGP has 14 members, the Congress and AIUDF have 24 and 13 members respectively. Bora said: "We fought a long battle over the Citizenship Bill. We protested on the streets and we met different political parties and members of the JPC over the Bill. We tried our best to stop the Bill being a part of the government. However, now that the BJP has decided to go ahead with it, we have no other option but to walk out of the alliance," said Bora. He said the alliance with the BJP before the 2016 Assembly polls was a demand of the time. "The Congress was in power from 2001 to 2016 and we decided to oust the Congress from power by forging an alliance with the BJP. The people did not only vote for the BJP but voted for AGP and BJP combine. However, the BJP failed to keep the promises of the alliance partner. Being a regional party, we have to respect the wishes and sentiments of the people of Assam," Bora added. New Delhi: The Congress on Monday alleged that the Modi government was trying to foil an alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh by using the CBI against former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in the alleged illegal mining case. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati accused the BJP of trying to intimidate and arm-twist its political rivals through government agencies "They did not spare any of the opposition parties be it Congress, NCP, RJD, TMC, DMK, TDP and others in the last four-and-a-half years. Now they have started doing the same with Samajwadi Party. They are trying to stall the alliance between the SP and the BSP," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters outside Parliament. He said the CBI action, ahead of the coming Lok Sabha polls, was an attempt by the BJP to threaten the opposition parties. "Today democracy is in danger. We condemn the CBI action against (Samajwadi Party leader) Akhilesh Yadav. The country is not going to tolerate this kind of dictatorship," he said. Azad said opposition parties had joined hands in the past against Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi but they never treated opposition the way the the current ruling dispensation was treating those opposed to it. The CBI on Saturday searched 14 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including the residence of a woman IAS officer, a SP leader and a BSP leader, in connection with its investigation into a case of illegal sand mining, with sources saying the role of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who held the portfolio of mining, will also be probed. Mayawati talks to Akhilesh Mayawati telephoned Akhilesh Yadav, with whose party the BSP is negotiating an alliance, and told him that such tactics were nothing new as the BJP always indulged in such "dirty politics and electoral conspiracies". She added that she and the BSP had suffered in the past in similar fashion when the previous BJP government unleashed the CBI on her. She told the 45-year-old Samajwadi Party leader not to be deterred by such conspiracies and instead face them with his head held high. The Dalit leader told foe-turned-friend Akhilesh Yadav that by now even ordinary people were aware of the "dirty tricks" of the BJP and were readying to give the ruling party a befitting response in the Lok Sabha elections. In a statement, she said the BJP was jittery as the BSP and SP were discussing an alliance and the CBI raids last week at different places and the media reports of the probable questioning of Akhilesh Yadav, who served as the Mining Minister in 2012-13, was politically motivated. "If this was a serious and unbiased action, why did the CBI not do it earlier and why has the action triggered a spate of unnecessary reactions from BJP leaders?" she asked. She alleged that BJP leaders had suddenly becomes spokespersons of the CBI. Mayawati pointed out that long back when the BSP refused to give 60 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh to the BJP, they tried to frame her in the Taj Corridor case. "But I never buckled to pressure and ultimately I romped home with a majority in the 2007 elections to the Assembly," the four-time Chief Minister said. She also accused the Congress in the same breath of being "expert in fixing political opponents". New Delhi: BJP parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey demanded President's rule in Kerala on Monday over the recent violence in the state over the Sabarimala issue. Speaking in the Lower House of the Parliament, the MP from Jharkhand demanded the imposition of Central rule and also sought for a judicial probe into the political violence. BJP has been riled by the several attacks targeting its leaders in Kerala. A crude bomb was thrown at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan in Kannur on Friday. Several other incidents of violence were reported from the northern district, which turned into a strife zone over the entry of women of child-bearing age into Sabarimala temple. BJP blames the state's CPI(M)-led government for such violence. On Monday, BJP MPs, including Bhupender Yadav and Shobha Karandjale, were seen holding placards near the Gandhi statue in the Parliament to condemn the alleged violence against its leaders in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Sunday that BJP workers in Kerala are being targetted every day. Citing the attack on Muraleedharan's home, the PM said that a conspiracy was hatched to kill him. "Nowadays in the country, those who are unable to get into the people's hearts, and whom the people are not ready to accept, are adopting a violent path. Yesterday, a bomb was found outside the home of our Kerala MP V Muraleedharan. A conspiracy was hatched to kill him. Every day our workers are being targeted in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. But still, our workers are not deterred," Modi said. The party has launched an extensive campaign to highlight the alleged targeting of its workers in the southern state after it joined the Sabarimala protest. Both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned till noon following protests ranging from Rafale, suspension of business rule and law and order situation in Kerala. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that BJP workers in Kerala are being targetted every day. Citing the incident of a bomb being thrown at BJP MP V Muraleedharan's home last week, the PM said that a conspiracy was hatched to kill him. Modi made the remarks during a video-conference with workers of Bharatiya Janata Party from five Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh. "Nowadays in the country, those who are unable to get into the people's hearts, and whom the people are not ready to accept, are adopting a violent path. Yesterday, a bomb was found outside the home of our Kerala MP V Muraleedharan. A conspiracy was hatched to kill him. Every day our workers are being targeted in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. But still, our workers are not deterred," Modi said. Modi also launched a scathing attack against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, alleging Naidu backstabbed NTR for a second time by joining hands with the Congress. He said Naidu was daydreaming of becoming PM though he had failed as the chief minister. PM interacted with BJP workers and volunteers from Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Narasaraopet and Tirupati constituencies in Rayalaseema region through Narendra Modi App. Bombs were hurled at the ancestral house of BJP Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan at Vadiyil Peedika in Kannur on Friday. Several incidents of violence were reported from the northern district, which turned into a strife zone over the entry of women of child-bearing age into Sabarimala temple. Thiruvananthapuram: Hitting out at the BJP-RSS for the alleged violence unleashed in the state over the Sabarimala issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday said his government would not be cowed down by "threats and intimidation". Pinarayi's response came after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey said in the Lok Sabha that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government should be dismissed and President's rule imposed in Kerala. Dubey had, while raising the issue of violence in Kerala, alleged that the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) was practising the "politics of murder" and many BJP workers were its victims. Talking to reporters here, Pinarayi said, "Violence is violence and the government will take strong measures to curb it". "In other states, when you (RSS) unleash violence, no action is taken and even those who commit daylight murders are also not brought to book," he said, adding that "such people will not get protection in Kerala". The Sangh Parivar workers were trying to destroy the law and order situation in the state, Pinarayi said. He further alleged that during the last few days, workers of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had unleashed violence damaging the media and political parties offices as well as public property. Kerala had witnessed large-scale violence since January 2 when two women in the menstruating age group entered the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. The chief minister also said the cabinet had decided to bring in an ordinance against destruction of private property during hartals. "In Sabarimala, devotees have started coming for darshan, which shows there are no law and order issues," Pinarayi said. So far, 2,182 cases have been registered in connection with the violence unleashed in Kerala and 6,711 people have been arrested till this afternoon, police said in a release. Of those arrested, 5,817 have been granted bail and 894 persons have been remanded. Kozhikode: The violence and blame game by various political parties are not subsiding in rural Kozhikode ever since the entry of two women below 50 years to Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala on January 2. The Minister for Industries E P Jayarajan on Monday said that the police made a mistake by arresting a local CPM leader Athul Das for the attack against a mosque in Perambra. The minister also alleged some 'RSS hand' behind the 'false charges' against Das, who is a CPM branch secretary. However, the police did not react to his comments. It was on Thursday during the hartal called by Ayyappa Karma Samiti, supported by BJP and other Hindutva outfits, that political activists from rival outfits clashed in Perambra town, near the Juma Masjid. The CPM and DYFI took out a rally and while they were returning, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Congress were taking out their protest march and the men belonging to the rival political fronts clashed. The bombs found by police officers in a raid held in Cherikkal, Poyiloor, in Kannur. Photo: Manorama Earlier, a BJP rally here was called off as the police were aware that it could turn violent, as the area is a stronghold of the CPM. According to police, the partymen in the two processions attacked each other and some from the CPM-DYFI procession pelted stones at the IUML office, which was situated near the mosque. Police said that Athul Das was arrested on the basis of the CCTV footage and case was registered against seven others. However, the minister said that the stones were pelted by RSS men and the government would take it seriously. In the wee hours of Monday, steel bomb was hurled at the house of a BJP worker at Viyyoor near Koyilandy. This is also suspected to be a continuation of the violence witnessed in the area for the past few days. On January 3, one CPM worker and one BJP worker were injured in clashes in Koyilandy town. To review the issue, municipality chairman K Sathyan of the CPM had reached the area and his two-wheeler was also attacked. It is said Das's house in Perambra was attacked in retaliation for the attack against Sathyan in Koyilandy, about 40 km away. Thiruvananthapuram: What prompted the government to pave way for the entry of women below the age of 50 to Sabarimala was the BJPs plan to celebrate its 'victory day'. It has emerged that the government issued directives to take the women to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple when it got wind of the Sangh Parivar plan to celebrate January 20 as victory day across Kerala. Since the beginning of the mandalam season, Sangh Parivar workers were ready to stop the women. When the Manithi team arrived, even police had to backtrack in face of the protests staged by them. The government also got an intelligence report that the Sangh Parivar was planning to declare that it was they who ensured that women were not allowed entry to the temple, thereby protecting the age-old traditions of Sabarimala. The report also said that the Sangh Parivar plan also included calling off the protest being held in front of the Secretariat on the 'victory day'. The government, which was elated at the success of the 'Women's Wall', then decided to scuttle their plans. Kanakadurga and Bindu, who had already made a failed attempt, was under police protection, waiting for a second chance to climb the hill. With only top police officers and the chief minister's office kept in the loop, the 'operation' was successfully carried out on December 2. Though the chief minister later said that the women were only given support by the police, it was clear it was a political decision and without instructions from the top the police won't attempt such an operation. With this, the earlier stand of only providing security to women underwent a sea change. According to CPI(M) sources, it is unlikely that the government will take any more women to the temple. But the government hopes that since two women have already had their darshan, the protest will weaken. Since the BJP also moved their protest to the Secretariat, they too have signalled that they won't be active in staging protests at the sannidhanam. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday welcomed the Union cabinet decision on 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for economically backward sections in the general category. Talking to reporters here, he said that the decision was welcome, but taken as the Lok Sabha polls were due soon. "The central government has taken the decision keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections", he said. "The CPI(M) has earlier itself wanted reservation for the economically weaker people among higher castes. It has been done in the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages various shrines, including the Sabarimala temple," he said. However, the Centre should not bring in changes in the present reservation policy, he added. The Union Cabinet on Monday approved 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward sections in the general category. A top government functionary at Delhi said a constitutional amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the last day of the winter session. The proposed reservation would be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation enjoyed by Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, taking the total reservation to 60 per cent. The section doesn't get reservation as of now. London: The Greenland ice sheet emits tons of methane according to a new study, showing that sub-glacial biological activity impacts the atmosphere far more than previously thought, say researchers. The study, led by a team from the University of Bristol in the UK, reported that ice sheet beds, which hold large reserves of carbon, liquid water, microorganisms and very little oxygen - the ideal conditions for creating methane gas - are also atmospheric methane sources. Using novel sensors to measure methane in meltwater runoff in real time, they observed that methane was continuously exported from beneath the ice. They calculated that at least six tons of methane was transported to their measuring site from this portion of the Ice Sheet alone, roughly the equivalent of the methane released by up to 100 cows. While some methane had been detected previously in Greenland ice cores and in an Antarctic Subglacial Lake, this is the first time that meltwaters produced in spring and summer in large ice sheet catchments have been reported to continuously flush out methane from the ice sheet bed to the atmosphere, the researchers said. "What is also striking is the fact that we've found unequivocal evidence of a widespread subglacial microbial system. Whilst we knew that methane-producing microbes likely were important in subglacial environments, how important and widespread they truly were was debatable," explained lead researcher Guillaume Lamarche-Gagnon, from the varsity. "Now we clearly see that active micro-organisms, living under kilometres of ice, are not only surviving, but likely impacting other parts of the Earth system. This subglacial methane is essentially a biomarker for life in these isolated habitats," Lamarche-Gagnon added, in the paper reported in the journal Nature. Methane gas (CH4) is the third most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after water vapour and carbon dioxide (CO2). Although, present in lower concentrations than CO2, methane is approximately 20-28 times more potent. Lamarche-Gagnon said: "Several orders of magnitude more methane has been hypothesized to be capped beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet than beneath Arctic ice-masses. Like we did in Greenland, it's time to put more robust numbers on the theory." Congress to protest if PM does not answer The opposition Nepali Congress has said it wont allow the House to function properly until Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli answers the questions of lawmakers over his statement to Parliament. Los Angeles: The Golden Globes for movies and television, chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were handed out at a gala dinner in Beverly Hills on Sunday, hosted by actors Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg. Following is a list of winners in key categories: FILM BEST DRAMA - Bohemian Rhapsody BEST COMEDY OR MUSICAL - Green Book BEST ACTOR, DRAMA Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA Glenn Close (The Wife) Glenn Close, winner of Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama. Photo: Reuters BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL Christian Bale (Vice) BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL Olivia Colman (The Favourite) Christian Bale, Best Actor - Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, "Vice". REUTERS BEST DIRECTOR Olivia Colman, won Best Actress - Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. Photo: REUTERS Alfonso Cuaron (Roma) BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Mahershala Ali (Green Book) BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Mahershala Ali won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for "Green Book." Photo: Reuters Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) BEST ANIMATED FILM - "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" BEST FOREIGN FILM "Roma" - Mexico BEST ORIGINAL SONG Shallow - "A Star is Born" TELEVISION 76th Golden Globe Awards - Photo Room - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 6, 2019 - (From L) Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson won Best Original Song Motion Picture award for "Shallow" from "A Star is Born." REUTERS BEST TV DRAMA SERIES "The Americans" - FX BEST TV COMEDY/MUSICAL SERIES "The Kominsky Method" - Netflix BEST ACTOR, TV DRAMA Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director - Motion Picture and Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language for "Roma". Photo: REUTERS Richard Madden (Bodyguard) BEST ACTRESS, TV DRAMA Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) BEST ACTOR, TV COMEDY/MUSICAL Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) BEST ACTRESS, TV COMEDY/MUSICAL Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) BEST TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES Rachel Brosnahan poses backstage with her award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy for 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'. Photo: Reuters "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" - FX The words that mega star Mammootty spoke to writer-actor Balachandran Chullikad, about the current situations of Keralas society, is what set the social media buzzing. A conversation that the duo shared at one of the sets of their movie, truly reflects todays social reality. Earlier when I came to your house, it was just friendship. However, if I pay you a visit at the house now, it would be termed religious harmony, Mammootty had apparently said to Balachandran Chullikad. The latter said that he felt the need to let the people know about Mammoottys words, as the social observation made by someone as influential as the mega star can create a perceptible impact. Mammootty had said this while we were on a break at a location. He is really upset about what is happening in society today. In fact, all of us are heartbroken. I send his words as a WhattsApp message to my friends and it became viral. When I wrote, what Mammookka spoke to me, as a note, it was to him that I sent it first. He asked me, in a skeptical tone, whether I had to write it. I told him yes, as his anxiety represents an entire generation, said Chullikad. The writer admitted that he was greatly touched by Mammoottys words and felt the urge to write a note on it, as the actors words have the power to create major influence. Mammootty was my senior at college. We met each other when he was studying at the Law College, where he was also the arts club secretary. He has been a supporter of the leftist ideals since those days. Even his native place has an inclination towards the left ideology. From the childhood itself we have been supporters of the left and there is absolutely no change in that even today, noted Chullikad. Chullikad recalled that ones religion or caste was never an issue at the Maharajas College, in the past. He added that the students considered political parties as their religion. He observed that religions and religious organizations were acting like political king makers who are indirectly trying to influence the government. The aim of religious organizations is to grab political power through hook or crook. For that, they would exploit the religious sentiments of the people and create discriminations based on religion and caste. The politics gets religious implications when the latter, as a collective, try to create ruptures in the society, the writer opened up. People are anxious and worried about the current situations. No matter what their religious beliefs or political inclinations are, a huge majority of people wish for peace. It is only a minority which tries to use religion for political advantage. They are the ones who are out on the streets. However, those who crave for peace sit at home, not wishing to be a part of violence. They will react through votes during the election, said Balachandran Chullikad. Thenjipalam: In an instance of communal harmony, the Panambra Juma Masjid here became a halting place (edathavalam) for 23 Ayyappa devotees from Karnataka. The mosque threw open its washrooms for the devotees to freshen up, and later the Sabarimala pilgrims had breakfast on the mosque premises. The mosque administrators also made arrangements to provide drinking water for the devotees onward journey to the hill-top shrine. The group of pilgrims from Bellary approached the masjid management through contractor K Mohammed Babu who was overseeing the renovation work of the mosque. Many other mosques in Malappuram district had been edathavalams for the ayyappa pilgrims in the past, and this experience had prompted the guruswamy (leader) of the group to contact the masjid administration for help. K Sainudeen Haji, T Salif, P A Mohammed Iqbal, Mudariz Shafeeq Faizi and Mohammed Faizi arranged the facilities for the pilgrims. The devotees distributed sweets to masjid administrators and madrassa students before leaving for Sabarimala. New Delhi: Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das Monday said the central bank will take steps if there is a liquidity shortage in the economy, though currently liquidity needs are largely met. Das, who met associations of small and medium enterprises in the national capital, will meet non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) on Tuesday to get a perspective on liquidity needs, he told reporters here. Banks, he said, have been asked to look at the viability of individual proposals for loan restructuring of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). "We are constantly monitoring it," he said on the liquidity issue. "We believe liquidity needs are largely met." RBI, he said, will take steps if there is a liquidity shortage. Infusion of liquidity in the market will be need-based, he said adding RBI will maintain adequate liquidity. On the meeting with MSMEs, he said banks have been asked to look at the viability of MSMEs before loan restructuring. New Delhi: A ministerial panel that initially declined to concede Kerala's demand for a cess collection on top of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to boost flood relief finally gave in as Finance Minister Thomas Isaac conveyed that the state has no other option to fund rehabilitation work. The panel gave nod to levy 1 per cent calamity cess by Kerala for two years to secure funds for rehabilitation work. The panel had initially taken the stand that it was not practical to enforce a cess at the national level when calamities happen. They raised the argument that it will set a bad precedent. However, as Isaac pushed the Kerala demand, panel chairman Sushil Kumar Modi and Union Minister of State for Finance Pratap Shukla supported it. That was crucial for Kerala in clinching the deal. The panel, which also allowed acquiring a loan from abroad, wasn't willing to recommend to the council a specific amount to be sanctioned. Isaac, meanwhile, insisted that the state's lottery segment will not be opened up to private operators. The back room move is to unify the tax at 28 per cent, raising it from 12, and bring traders in lottery tickets from other states to Kerala, he said. We can't allow it. We have written to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about it. Return to be limited The ministerial panel also approved a proposal to implement anticipatory tax on those whose turnover is up to Rs 1.5 crore. The advantage is that traders need to file income tax returns only once in an year. A composite tax will be brought in the service sector. It is hoped that taxes up to 18 per cent will then decline to 5 to 8 per cent. KYODO NEWS - Jan 7, 2019 - 12:12 | All, Japan The first nursing care workers from Myanmar to participate in Japan's foreign trainee program arrived at a Hokkaido airport on Monday amid expectations that the Southeast Asian country will provide much-needed workers. The training program for foreigners started in 1993 with the aim of transferring various skills to developing countries. But it has also helped supply workers to Japan as the country struggles with labor shortages amid an aging population and falling birthrate. Japan opened up its nursing care sector to foreign trainees in November 2017. The three workers from Myanmar, all women in their 20s, will spend three years gaining experience at Sapporo-based Sakura Community Service Co., according to an official at the firm's affiliate in Yangon. They flew from Yangon and after a layover in Thailand arrived at New Chitose Airport, where heavy snow over the weekend had left roughly 2,000 people stranded. "I chose Japan because I like Japanese culture. But I'm worried about the cold weather," Wut Yee Phyo told reporters on Sunday before boarding a plane in Yangon. The 23-year-old, making her first trip abroad, also said she will try "not to make mistakes resulting from cultural differences between Myanmar and Japan." Zin Zin Moe, 28, said she has no worries as she was trained thoroughly. "I wanted to be a caregiver and help the elderly because I didn't get the chance to look after my father (who died)," she said. Hopes are growing that more foreign trainees may come to work in Japan's nursing care business from Myanmar, which is majority Buddhist, as some people there view the profession as a way of accruing good karma. Meanwhile, skeptics say workers coming to Japan from Myanmar may have a difficult time adjusting given that the country has a life expectancy of 67 years compared to Japan's 84 years, and many have never cared for a person who cannot use the toilet by themselves, for example. The first foreign trainees in the nursing care field were two Chinese women, who arrived in Japan in July last year. The two, both with caregiving experience in Dalian, were accepted at welfare facilities in Miyazaki prefecture, southwestern Japan. As Japan continues to grapple with a severe labor shortage, the government has decided to introduce a new visa system from April that would broaden the entry of foreign workers, including blue-collar workers. Japan has so far basically granted working visas only to people with professional knowledge and high skills such as doctors, lawyers and teachers. But many foreigners work under the technical intern status, and foreign students are also allowed to work part-time. KYODO NEWS - Jan 8, 2019 - 18:32 | World, All North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made his fourth visit to China on Tuesday, believed to be his 36th birthday, at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, as the stalemate in Pyongyang's denuclearization negotiations with the United States continues. During his stay, Kim is likely to meet with Xi and attempt to obtain backing from China -- North Korea's main economic and political supporter -- in envisioned fresh talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, expected to take place early this year. [KNS/Kyodo] The state-run Korean Central News Agency said that Kim left Pyongyang on a special train on Monday afternoon and is scheduled to visit China through Thursday. Kim is being accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju. Kim Yong Chol, who has led negotiations with the United States, and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho are also visiting China with the nation's leader, KCNA reported. Kim Jong Un's visit coincides with two-day trade talks in Beijing between U.S. and Chinese officials that began Monday. Some analysts say China, which has been strongly urged by Trump to curb its huge trade surplus with the United States and rectify its alleged unfair business practices, may be trying to use North Korea as a bargaining chip by demonstrating its close ties with Kim. Tight security at the Chinese city of Dandong on the North Korean border on Monday had prompted speculation that an important dignitary would visit China by train. Hotels around the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge linking Dandong with the North Korean town of Sinuiju did not allow guests to enter rooms facing the river Monday afternoon, in an apparent move to prevent trains from being seen, local sources said. After a North Korean train reached Beijing station on Tuesday morning, Kyodo News confirmed a motorcade arrived at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries usually stay on their trips to China's capital. "Maintaining ties between leaders is an important factor for a traditionally friendly relationship between the two countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters. In his New Year's address on Jan. 1, Kim pledged to halt production of nuclear weapons while voicing readiness to meet with Trump again at any time. At their historic meeting in Singapore on June 12, 2018, Kim and Trump agreed that the United States would provide security guarantees to North Korea in exchange for its "complete denuclearization." But since then, negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been deadlocked, against a backdrop of the Trump administration's skepticism about Kim's intent to give up nuclear weapons. China hopes the United States and North Korea will keep communication over the nuclear issue, Lu said. North Korea has called on the United States to ease economic sanctions aimed at countering Pyongyang's ballistic missile and nuclear threats, arguing that it has already started to take concrete measures toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. China has expressed support for North Korea's position, as Kim has recently promised to put more emphasis on rebuilding his nation's economy, which is said to be stagnant due largely to the sanctions, than on bolstering its nuclear capacities. In March last year, Kim traveled to Beijing in his first foreign trip since becoming North Korea's supreme leader following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011. During 2018, he visited China a total of three times to hold talks with Xi. China and North Korea fought together in the 1950-1953 Korean War against U.S.-led United Nations forces. The two countries have been described as "blood brothers." Trump said last month that he expects to have a second summit with the North Korean leader in January or February, with three locations under consideration. U.S. media has cited Asian nations such as Vietnam, Mongolia and Indonesia as potential sites for the meeting. The U.S. president also noted Sunday that Washington is discussing where to hold talks with Kim, whom Trump said he has spoken to "indirectly." Washington and Pyongyang do not maintain diplomatic relations and remain technically at war after the Korean War ended in a cease-fire. In the war, U.S.-led multinational forces fought alongside South Korea against the North, which was backed by China and the Soviet Union. Hostilities ceased with an armistice agreement signed in July 1953 by the U.N. Command, North Korea's military and Chinese armed forces. China has sought to play a pivotal role in any discussions on replacing the Korean War armistice with a peace treaty, foreign affairs experts say. Until late 2017, China-North Korea ties had been strained over Beijing's enforcement of economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for North Korea's continued development, in defiance of international warnings, of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang, however, have improved markedly since Kim's first trip to China last year. US President Donald Trumps national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday reiterated US commitment to Israeli self-defense, during his meeting with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem, Sputnik reports. "For the US, a sovereign nations ability to defend itself is the ultimate mark of sovereignty. President Trump has said repeatedly that he backs Israels right to self-defense," Bolton told reporters. He said the United States would make sure that the Daesh terror group is "defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again" before pulling troops from Syria. In a show of support for Syrian Kurdish militia in the countrys northeast, who were taken aback by Trumps surprise decision to withdraw all 2,000 personnel, Bolton said they would be taken care of. He promised that Washington would "make sure that defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS[Daesh]." In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for reimposing sanctions on Iran and moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said he planned to take Bolton on Monday to the Golan Heights a strip of Syrian land occupied by Israel to show why it meant a lot for Israeli security. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday pledged not to bend in his demand for a wall along the southern border with Mexico but said the barrier could be made of steel instead of concrete as a potential compromise with Democrats who refuse to fund the project, Reuters reports. Trumps comments came at the start of the third week of a partial government shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers idled or without paychecks. Trump, a former New York businessman, said he could relate to the workers who would have trouble paying bills because of the shutdown and threatened, again, to declare a national emergency as an alternative way to build the wall, depending on the outcome of talks in the coming days. Democrats, led by new Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, consider the wall to be immoral and have declined to approve the $5.6 billion Trump wants to make good on the signature promise of his 2016 presidential campaign. Democrats, who took control of the House last week, passed a bill to reopen the government without wall funding. The debate was a very important battle to win from the standpoint of safety, number one, (and) defining our country and who we are, Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for a short trip to the Camp David presidential retreat. The barrier, or the wall, can be of steel instead of concrete, if that helps people. It may be better, he said. Vice President Mike Pence is leading a second round of talks with congressional aides on Sunday about the issue, but Trump said he did not expect those talks to produce results. The White House warned again that the shutdown could last for some time while suggesting that the offer of a steel barrier was an olive branch to Democrats. Mick Mulvaney, Trumps acting chief of staff, told NBCs Meet the Press program that agreeing to a steel separation would allow Democrats to stick to their refusal to fund a wall. That should help us move in the right direction, said Mulvaney, who is also the head of the Office of Management and Budget. Democrats would likely demand other concessions, like protections for immigrants brought to the United States as children, otherwise known as Dreamers, or changes to other spending provisions. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did not show his hand when asked whether the White House offer to take a concrete wall off the table was evidence of compromise. Itll be discussed, he said on NBC. Mulvaney, who took part in talks with Pence and congressional aides on Saturday, said technical requests bogged them down. I think this is going to drag on a lot longer. I think thats by intention, he said. Large chunks of the federal government were shut down on Dec. 22 after lawmakers and the president hit an impasse over Trumps demands to build a wall. About 800,000 government workers are either furloughed or working without pay. Trump is demanding that any funding to keep the federal government operational also include money to help build a $23 billion wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump said on Sunday that he should not have to lower his demand for $5.6 billion, though he said he understood the impact the impasse was having on affected federal workers struggling to pay their bills. I can relate, Trump said. Im sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. Not all Republicans agree with Trumps insistence on keeping many government agencies shuttered until the border debate is resolved. It is not a sign of weakness to try to figure out a middle ground, and I think that both sides need to indicate a willingness to listen and to compromise, said U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine on NBC. She called the debate over using steel versus concrete bizarre. House Democrats plan to pass a series of bills this week to reopen government, breaking up the legislation they have already approved in a bid to get Republicans to agree to reopen certain agencies, Hoyer said on Meet the Press. We need to open up government and then negotiate. Not the other way around, he said. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday that the U.S. withdrawal from Syria must be planned carefully, and with the right partners, saying Turkey was the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task, Trend reported citing Reuters. In an op-ed article for the New York Times, a day before he was due to meet U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, Erdogan said Turkey was committed to defeating Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria. 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. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Presently, there are no Azerbaijani citizens among the rescued crew members of the ship that sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey's Samsun province, a representative of the Samsun branch of the Turkish Coast Guard told Trend. "The search operation is underway," the Coast Guard representative said. Two crew members of the ship are Azerbaijani citizens, the Turkish media reported earlier. One of them is the captain of the ship. There were also nine Ukrainian and two Russian citizens on board. So far, six of the crew members have been rescued and the body of another crew member was found, according to the Turkish media. Identities of the rescued crew members and the deceased have not been revealed yet. The cargo ship, sailing under the Panama flag, sank in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey's Samsun province on Jan. 7. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Some 100 servicemen have been detained in Ankara as part of the fight against the FETO terrorist movement, Trend reports via Turkish media. There were one colonel, nine captains and 90 lieutenants among the detainees, the reports said. The reports also noted that all the detainees had close ties with the FETO terrorist organization and transmitted information about military units to other members of the organization. Earlier, 103 military men were detained in Istanbul and 188 in Ankara, all of whom were accused of contacts with the Gulen movement. Earlier, the Minister of National Defense of Turkey Hulusi Akar said 15,153 people were dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces as part of the fight against the FETO terrorist movement. He said the purge in the ranks of the Turkish Armed Forces will continue. Fethullah Gulen and his supporters are accused of the July 16, 2016 military coup attempt in Turkey. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be on his way to Beijing for a summit, since a special train for North Korean high-ranking officials, including Kim, has crossed the border between North Korea and China, Trend reported citing Sputnik. "It is unknown whether the North Korean train is moving to Beijing, but [Seoul] follows its movement, as there is a possibility that [North Korean] chairman Kim [Jong-un] is carrying out his fourth visit to China," the source told the Hankyoreh newspaper. According to North Korean and Chinese media reports, the train, presumably carrying Kim, crossed into the Chinese border city of Dandong at around 10:15 p.m. local time (13:15 GMT). Shortly before its arrival, Chinese security officers have shut off entry points to the station. After the train moved further, having crossed the border, the cordon was lifted. The train is expected to arrive in Beijing by early morning Tuesday, media reports suggest. Neither Chinese nor South or North Korean authorities have provided any comment so far. The authorities of North Korea demand that South Korea and the United States refuse holding joint military drills on the Korean Peninsula, according to a commentary published on Monday by North Korean daily Rodong Sinmun, Trend reports referring to TASS. "As it was clearly promised during the negotiations between the North and South, there must be no joint military exercises involving foreign forces for the sake of the further development of peace and prosperity," the daily reported. "The eradication of the nuclear threat on the Korean Peninsula and provision for the atmosphere of peace are the obligatory conditions for the development of inter-Korean relations." According to the newspaper, South Korea must also refuse further supplies of weapons from abroad. "The import of military-oriented products, which include strategic weapons, must be completely stopped." Joint maneuvers of the South Korean and American military forces, according to the newspaper, are viewed by North Korea as military provocations and are frustrating efforts regarding the development of a productive dialogue between the North and South Korea. "There can be no sincere talks, moreover, the improvement of inter-Korean relations, while the sound of rifles and cannons is still loud and the threat of war remains," according to the newspapers experts. A summit of the leaders of South and North Korea took place in South Korea on April 27, which political scientists described as a precursor to a meeting of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and DPRK leader Kim Jong-un signed the Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula. During the talks, the sides agreed to seek the Korean Peninsulas full denuclearization and formally put an end to the Korean war of 1950-1953 that ended with the signing of a truce treaty. The militaries of both countries have agreed to maintain constant contacts, including at the level of the defense ministers. A historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12 yielded a joint document where North Korea undertook a commitment to work towards denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees from the United States. Moshe Arens, an English-speaking US-educated aeronautical engineer who rose to become Israels three-time defense minister and mentored a young Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of his career, died on Monday at age 93, Trend reports referring to The Times of Israel. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1925, Arens moved with his family to Riga, Latvia in 1927, then to the US just before World War II in 1939. He attended high school in the US, served in the US Army Corps of Engineers in WWII, then immigrated to Israel and joined the right-wing Irgun paramilitary group, which immediately sent him to North Africa to help organize Jewish communities seeking to immigrate to Israel. He returned to Israel in 1949 and soon became a key member of the nascent Herut party, the progenitor of todays Likud. Between 1951 and 1957, he studied aeronautical engineering at MIT and Caltech in the US, then returned to Israel to teach in the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israels most prestigious technical college. He earned a tenured professorship there by 1961, at just 36 years old. In 1962, he was appointed deputy head of Israel Aircraft Industries, a position he held until 1971 and in which he helped direct Israels major indigenous fighter-jet project, the Kfir, as well as Israels first indigenous cargo plane, the Arava, which took its first flight in 1969. Developed from the Israeli Nesher fighter jet, itself an adapted version of the French Mirage, the Kfir marked a major, if temporary, shift for Israel following the French arms embargo of 1967 toward a home-grown air superiority capability. It entered service in 1975, but never served a significant combat role, as the Israel Air Force began its shift toward US-made fighters the following year, with the receipt of the countrys first F-15s from the US. By the Lebanon War in 1982, US-made F-15s and F-16s, adapted to Israeli needs, had already become the Jewish states primary air superiority platform. Arenss contributions as an engineer and manager in Israels defense industries, and particularly his role with the Kfir, earned him the 1971 Israel Defense Prize, which is given each year by the countrys president. He first entered the Knesset on the slate of Herut, Likuds progenitor, in 1973, serving for the next 19 years until his first retirement from politics in 1992. He returned to the Knesset between 1999 and 2003. Arens declined to serve as defense minister when offered the position in 1980 over his criticism of the peace treaty with Egypt he voted against the treaty in the Knesset and was appointed instead Israels ambassador to the US in 1982. In 1983, he returned to Israel to finally take up the defense post after Ariel Sharon was removed from the position as part of the fallout from the Lebanon war. As defense minister, he oversaw a reorganization of the armys ground forces into the Ground Forces Command and the establishment of the Homefront Command. He became a minister without portfolio in the national unity government formed the following year, 1984, with the Labor party. In 1988, he was appointed foreign minister, but returned to the Defense Ministry in 1990 for two years. He was appointed defense minister again by Netanyahu for a brief stint in 1999. Arens had been a key mentor for an ambitious young Benjamin Netanyahu, taking him to the Washington embassy in 1982, then backing him for UN ambassador in 1984 and deputy minister in the Foreign Ministry in 1988 Netanyahus first significant public service positions. A consistent right-wing voice credited with shepherding dramatic advances in Israels aeronautics industry and military capabilities, Arens had a reputation as a man of principle. He has opposed Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza, suggesting instead that Palestinians could receive Israeli citizenship as part of a binational state. He also opposed the nation-state law and advocated for full equality and better integration for Israels minorities. He served as a member of the board of Ariel University Center of Samaria, in the northern West Bank city of Ariel. After leaving politics, Arens researched and published a book on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto. His death was lamented on Monday by Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum. Rwanda Air, Rwandas national carrier, is scheduled to operate its first ever direct flights between Rwanda and Israel on Monday, Trend reports referring to The Jerusalem Post. This development follows an aviation agreement signed on Monday between Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz and Rwandan Ambassador Joseph Rutabana. "The open sky agreement has led to a significant increase in flights to and from Israel," Katz said, according to a religious news source Srugim. "The agreement opens Israel to hundreds of airports around the world," and at the cheapest prices, Katz added. The agreement outlined that each country can operate up to seven scheduled flights between Ben Gurion Airport and the capital of Rwanda, Kigali. Rwanda and Israel established diplomatic relations soon after the former Belgian colony gained independence in July 1962, but those ties were severed later in 1973 after the Yom Kippur War when most African states under Arab pressure broke relations with Israel. With the reestablishment of ties in October 1994, Rwanda sent an ambassador to Israel, but had to close the embassy because of budgetary constraints some six years later. The embassy was reopened with Rutabanas appointment as ambassador in the summer of 2015. Israel is represented in Rwanda by a nonresident ambassador operating out of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completed his full embrace of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, saying the new president is very impressive and different from his public image, Trend reports referring to The Jerusalem Post. Netanyahu steered clear, as he did throughout his five-day visit to Brazil last week, of any reservations regarding the presidents controversial positions opponents accuse him of an authoritarian streak or disparaging comments Bolsonaro has made in the past about gays, women and minorities. We have a new ally and President Bolsonaro, who is now leading a huge country, intends to make it an even stronger power by economic and other reforms, Netanyahu said. Netanyahu quoted Bolsonaro as saying since he was inaugurated on Thursday, the decision to move Brazils capitalto Jerusalem has already been made, and that the sole question now was one of timing. It is the government and people of Israel who will decide what is the capital of Israel, period, Netanyahu quoted Bolsonaro as saying. He noted that Bolsonaro also said, I want to be more than a friend of Prime Minister Netanyahu, I want to be his brother. I believe that other countries will respect Brazil more when it recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Brazilians, and not just the president, now loveand admire Israel, Netanyahu maintained. One needs to understand that the Brazilian people, the masses in Brazil, admire Israel and want to be close to us. Over much of the last two decades, Brazil was unstintingly pro-Palestinian and often among the most critical of Israel in international forums a pattern set to change dramatically under Bolsonaro. Netanyahu highlighted the importance of opening the huge Brazilian market to Israeli companies and products, something he said will increase our national revenues. Beyond Brazil, Israeli exports are expected to surpass $110 billion when the final numbers from 2018 are counted, he said, a record year for Israeli exports. This is a figure that was reached despite well-publicized efforts to divest from, as well as boycott and sanction Israel. The 2018 export figures, Netanyahu said are 8% higher than the 2017 numbers and reflect the opening of new markets. He said exports to China rose by 56%, and to India and Latin America by 27%. Israels Ambassador to Brazil Yossi Shelley said in an interview over the weekend with Empresa Brasil de Comunicacao, the Brazilian public broadcasting corporation, that Netanyahu and Bolsonaro talked about public security, desalinization of sea water, satellites, and the surveillance of Brazils national borders, which stretch over 17,000 kilometers (10,560 miles). Shelley said Israel anticipated that Bolsonaro will bring a large business delegation with him when he comes to visit in March, adding, He will be given the honors of king I can promise that. Belgian Foreign and Defense Minister Didier Reynders may run for the position of secretary general of the Council of Europe, Trend reported citing Sputnik. Reynders has nominated his candidacy and if elected, he will assume office on October 1, meaning that he has to leave the Belgian national politics, VRT broadcaster reported. January 10 is a deadline for applications for the job, while the election is set for June, according to the media outlet. Thorbjorn Jagland, the former prime minister of Norway, has been serving as the Council of Europes chief since October 2009. Council of Europe was founded in 1949 in order to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the region. At the moment, it has 47 member states with over 800 mln people. Assets worth nearly 800 billion pounds are being moved from Britain to new financial hubs in the European Union ahead of Brexit, consultancy EY said on Monday, Trend reports referring to Reuters. Britain, which is due to leave the bloc in March, has yet to approve a deal to avoid an abrupt severing of ties with the EU. Although the British parliament is due to vote on a proposed settlement next week, it is unclear if it will be approved. The closer we get to 29 March without a deal, the more assets will be transferred and headcount hired locally or relocated, Omar Ali, UK financial services leader at EY, said. EY has been tracking the Brexit plans of 222 financial firms since Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU. In its latest update to the end of November 2018, it said that 80 firms are considering or have confirmed relocating assets and staff. The latest estimate from EY says that 800 billion pounds in assets would move, a fraction of Britains 8 trillion pound banking sector. Frankfurt Main Finance, which promotes the German financial centre, has said it expects 750 to 800 billion euros of assets to transfer there alone, largely during this quarter. Around 2,000 new European roles have been created by financial services companies in response to Brexit, with Dublin, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Paris the most popular locations, EY said. Forecasts of hundreds of thousands of UK financial jobs moving to the EU have not materialised, and the Bank of England expects about 4,000 jobs to have moved by March 29. Whilst roles will no doubt move from the UK, many firms are only moving those employees deemed essential and are hiring locally given the expense of relocation, Ali said. Moves so far would be only the tip of the iceberg if there is a no-deal Brexit, EY said. A northwestern region in China has banned the release of exotic fish into the waters of a national park because of threats to the areas aquatic environment, Trend reports referring to South China Morning Post. The Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province imposed the permanent ban over the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve at the start of the year, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. The reserve is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers, and the ban applies to the waterways and their tributaries, as well as lakes and reservoirs. The authorities issued the order after residents and tourists released non-native fish such as carp into the waters as part of a Buddhist rite. Many of the fish died and rotted, creating pollution, while others invaded the habitat of the native species. The ban will be enforced jointly by fishing and aquatic affairs, environment and market supervision officers. Serious offenders could face jail time, the report said. The authorities will also try to stop fish being brought into the area, prevent the loss of habitat for native species, and mount public awareness campaigns about the need for the ban. Airbus A330 purchase scandal: Public Accounts Committee endorses sub-panel report after amendments Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament on Sunday endorsed the report of sub-committee on the procurement of two wide-body jets for Nepal Airlines Corporation after making some amendments to it. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has arrived in Islamabad for a two-day official visit, media reported on Sunday. The crown prince has already held a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The sides discussed political and economic relations between Abu Dhabi and Islamabad, according to the Emirates News Agency. During the visit, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to sign a multi-billion dollar support package for Pakistan. In late December, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development said that the UAE planned to deposit some $3 billion in Pakistan's Central Bank to help Islamabad cope with its balance of payments crisis. Pakistan is currently facing a balance of payments crisis after the exchange rate of its national currency against the US dollar fell 5 percent in November. The decision was announced several days after Pakistan took part in the US-Taliban talks that were held in the United Arab Emirates. At least 75 people were injured in a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Gilangharb city in Kermanshah province in the west of Iran on Sunday, Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran Emergency Organization, was quoted as saying by Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), Xinhua reports. Most of the injured people were hurt while escaping to the outdoors in panic, a medical official told Tasnim news agency. Assessment teams of Iran's Red Crescent Society have been dispatched to the site of earthquake, Kourosh Mahmoudian, the governor of Gilangharb, told Tasnim. Some residential buildings and cattle farms were damaged and rockfall blocked the roads in the area, Mahmoudian said. The quake also affected the quality of drinking water in Gilangharb, he said, assuring that the local people will be provided sufficient high-quality drinking water. The elementary schools and high schools will be closed in Gilangharb city on Monday, ISNA reported. According to Iran's Seismological Center, the epicenter of earthquake was monitored at 34.16 degrees north latitude and 45.66 degrees east longitude with a depth of 10 km. At least 15 aftershocks, ranging from 3.0 to 4.8 magnitude, have shaken the region so far, according to the center. The earthquake was also felt in neighboring Lorestan province as well as in Iraq. In November 2017, 211 Iranians died in a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that hit the Iranian-Iraqi border in Sar pol Zahab area. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said late on Monday that Iran has been and will be a reliable source of oil supply to India, Trend reported citing IRNA. Upon arrival in New Delhi Airport, he said that he is on a three-day visit to the country to take part in a research forum wherein he will deliver a lecture late on Wednesday. We decided to use the opportunity to the accompaniment of a big economic delegation which comprises representatives from the private sector and state political and economic officials who will hold talks with the different Indian counterparts, he said. Noting that Iran has good relations with India even after the sanctions, he added, We have a good banking agreement with India which was signed following the sanctions, through which imports and exports as well as other financial needs will be handled. Active presence of the private sector in this trip indicates its interest in seizing the opportunity for promoting ties under oppressive sanctions, Zarif said. There are numerous areas of cooperation for boosting Iran-India ties, one of which is Chabahar. Indians are keen on presence in Chabahar and Irans transit infrastructures, he said. Zarif arrived in New Delhi late on Monday at the head of a high-ranking delegation. He is scheduled to participate at the Raisina Dialogue, taking place in New Delhi. The Dialogue is Indias flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics and annually attracts high-level participants from all over the world. The theme for the 2019 edition will be: A World Reorder: New Geometries, Fluid Partnerships, Uncertain Outcomes. A number of top managers from Iran's public and private sectors also accompany the Iranian foreign minister. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Iran's Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province Automotive Sheet Making Company (CBASCO) has exported galvanized sheets to Europe, Naim Imami, chairman of the Industry, Mine and Trade Organization of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province, said. The company exported 9,135 tons of galvanized sheets to Spain. The revenues worth 5.72 million euros were obtained, Imami added, Trend reports referring to SHATA. Since the beginning of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018) up till now 171,150 tons of galvanized sheets have been produced, he said. Some 58,000 tons account for galvanized sheets for cars, while 113,000 tons - industrial galvanized sheets, Imami added. This Iranian year the production of galvanized sheets increased by 9 percent compared to the same period of last Iranian year, he said. Some 15,000 tons of sheets were produced compared to the same period of last Iranian year, Imami added. The production of the companys plant has increased from 300,000 to 400,000 tons a year and 300 employees work there. The plant was built in 2010 in Sefiddasht city of Borujen County. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit India Jan. 7, accompanied by a large delegation of businessmen, including Chairman of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholamhossein Shafi, Trend reports via IRIB. As part of the 4-day visit, discussions will be held with private sector businessmen, a memorandum of cooperation will be signed with the Confederation of the Indian Industry and the discussions will be held on the establishment of a joint Iranian-Indian Chamber. Discussions will be held on the identification and elimination of obstacles in trade, especially in banking, transportation and customs spheres, on signing preferential trade agreement between Iran and India, and on joint investments in the Chabahar Port. More than 30 manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medicines, medical equipment, herbal medicines, car spare parts, electronic equipment, petrochemicals and chemical substances, as well as those engaged in textile and related industries, health tourism accompany Gholamhossein Shafi. Tehran, Iran, Jan.7 Trend: Iranian official with the Aviation Companies Association has spoken regarding the Islamic Republic purchasing planes from Japan. Previous rumors said Iran was in talks with Japan to trade its oil for Japanese aircraft. In particular, Mitsubishi Aircraft the aviation arm of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - began market surveys in Iran in September 2015, four months before sanctions were lifted on the Islamic Republic, according to Japans Nikkei newspaper. Mitsubishi had negotiated a potential sale for up to 105 of its MRJ regional jets. "This news has no reliable source, it seems this is baseless, since neither Mitsubishi has progressed in plane production phase nor have Iranian companies entered into this field yet, Maghsoud Asadi Samani told Trend. Meanwhile, Samani said Iran has ready to negotiate with any company regarding the purchase of planes. "But Mitsubishi is still on the production stage. If Japan is ready to distribute its aircraft, Iran is ready talk it over," he said. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 7 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A provision on national sea carriers is being prepared in Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary state news agency. This issue was discussed at a meeting of the countrys government. In particular, the Turkmen State Service of Maritime and River Transportation is preparing a document, according to which the "Marine Merchant Fleet" closed joint-stock company will be indicated as the national sea carrier. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the strategic importance of the Turkmenbashi international port for all Central Asian and Caspian countries. The opening ceremony of the port was held in May 2018. The project has been designed in accordance with the GreenPort international standard. The annual throughput capacity of the port will be 17-18 million tons. Together with the existing port, this figure will be 25-26 million tons. After the new port is commissioned, great opportunities have appeared for transporting cargo supplying to Turkmenbashi along the Silk Road route from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and then to the European countries via the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Canadas Zenith Energy company will soon award contracts for well deepening at Azerbaijans Jafarli oil field. The company confirms that a total of 12 companies have participated in the tender by submitting commercial and technical bids for well C-37 deepening operations. Zenith is currently evaluating the aforementioned bids in consultation with its partner, SOCAR, and expects to award contracts, in accordance with its tender procedure and with the approval of its partner, during the next 14 business days, said Zenith Energy that operates Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardab block. Zenith said it can confirm that its A-80 workover rig is currently performing a full cleanout of the well C-26 wellbore to the depth of 3,920 meters (production casing shoe) in order to confirm the integrity of the production casing and thereby determine whether the well might be suitable for well deepening activities. In the event of a successful result being achieved in well C-37 deepening operations, Zenith said it will mobilize a drilling rig to a second well location in the Jafarli field to perform well deepening operations. Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and Zenith Aran Oil Company signed a Rehabilitation, Exploration, Development and Production Sharing Agreement (REDPSA) in March 2016 for a block that includes the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab oil fields. Zenith Energy Ltd established its subsidiary company Zenith Aran Oil Company Ltd for production operations in these three fields. Production under the agreement began in August 2016. Zenith holds an 80-percent participating interest in the three fields within the contract area, while SOCAR retains the remaining 20 percent. The agreement is for 25 years, with a potential extension by five additional years. The total area of the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab fields is 642.2 square kilometers, and according to the contract, it is divided into rehabilitation and exploration territories. The Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardab block is located in the Yevlakh-Agjabadi oil and gas region of Imishli district of Azerbaijan. The Muradkhanli field was discovered in 1971, Jafarli - in 1984, and Zardab - in 1981. --- Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is considering various forms of participation in Albanias gasification, head of SOCAR Balkan Murad Heydarov told Trend. "Albanian government has approved the results of the feasibility study of the master plan for this countrys gasification. The process of contractor selection will begin soon. SOCAR Balkan is considering different forms of participation in this process," he said. Heydarov added that at the same time, the company plans to carry out a detailed engineering design of the pipeline between the cities of Fier (Trans Adriatic Pipeline compressor Station (TAP) in Albania) and Vlora. Further, speaking about the work under the letter of intent signed with the Albanian company Albgaz on providing engineering design services, he noted that the timing of this work was changed at the request of Albgaz due to the need to first select a contractor for the construction of this pipeline. SOCAR Balkans and Albanias Albgaz company signed a letter of intent in February 2018 on providing engineering design services in Albania. A gas pipeline will be built between the Albanian cities of Fier and Vlora in order to ensure gas supply to Albania as part of the Southern Gas Corridor project. The Pre-FEED (preliminary front end engineering design) of this pipeline will be carried out by SOCAR Balkans. A memorandum of understanding on cooperation in developing a master plan for Albanias gasification was signed between Baku and Tirana in December 2014. Albania is one of the European countries that will receive Azerbaijani gas via the Southern Gas Corridor. Southern Gas Corridor envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. On May 29 2018, Baku hosted the launch ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project. The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The Southern Gas Corridor project aims to increase and diversify European energy supply by bringing gas resources from the Caspian Sea to markets in Europe. The Southern Gas Corridor comprises the following four projects: (i) operation of Shah Deniz natural gas-condensate field ("SD1" project) and its full-field development ("SD2'" project), (ii) the operation of the South Caucasus Pipeline ("SCP" project) and its expansion ("SCPX" project), (iii) the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline ("TANAP" project) and (iv) the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline ("TAP" project) (SD2, SCPX, TANAP and TAP collectively, the "Projects"). The Projects have an estimated investment cost of approximately $40 billion. Upon completion, the SD2 project will add a further 16 bcm of natural gas per annum to 10.9 bcma (maximum production capacity) already produced under SD1 project. Total length of the newly constructed SCPX, TANAP and TAP pipelines will be around 3,206 kilometers. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: Increasing trade turnover is one of the priorities of the Azerbaijan-Ukraine relations, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev said in an interview with Ukraine's Channel 5, Trend reports Jan. 7. The ambassador noted that since 2012, the trade turnover between the two countries has declined significantly, although until 2012 it was approximately $1.5 billion. "From 2016 to 2017, we increased turnover 2.5 times," he said, adding that to date the bilateral trade has exceeded $800 million, though it was $300 million until 2016. "Azerbaijan and Ukraine are strategic partners. This strategic partnership relies on a high level political dialogue between the heads of our countries, as well as on a big economic potential and a very high level of humanitarian and cultural ties traditionally existing between our countries," Khudiyev said. The State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan reported that in 2017, Azerbaijan's trade turnover with Ukraine amounted to $810.28 million. In January-November 2018, the turnover amounted to $725.8 million, of which about $414.5 million accounted for Azerbaijan's imports of Ukrainian products. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn The Competition Law Association will be holding an evening meeting on Tuesday 15 January 2019 at Bristows LLP, 100 Victoria, Embankment, London. Registration for the event will start at 6pm followed by the talk and discussion at 6:15pm. David Rosenberg and Darren Smyth will speak on Lyrica in the Supreme Court: broader lessons for pharmaceuticals. There is no additional charge for , for , the charge will be 50 (35 for full time academic/public sector employees and 10 for students, trainees and pupil barristers). Online registration will close on Monday 14 January. See Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: The Trade House of Azerbaijan in Dubai is planned to open on Jan. 10, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy on Jan. 7. The ministry noted that the Azerbaijani delegation will attend the opening of the Trade House. The Trade Representative of Azerbaijan in Dubai Elnur Aliyev had earlier told Trend that a special information office will operate in the Trade House of Azerbaijan, where anyone can get detailed and interesting information on Azerbaijan, in particular on tourism. The opening of the Trade House will contribute to increasing exports of non-oil products to the UAE, promoting Azerbaijani goods and expanding bilateral trade between the two countries, Aliyev said. The State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan reported that in January-November 2018, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE amounted to $48.84 million, which is 50.8 percent more compared to the previous year. Azerbaijan's exports to the UAE amounted to $19.16 million (an increase of 31 percent), while imports reached $29.68 million (an increase of 67.1 percent). --- Follow the author on Twitter: @TalehMursagulov Tehran, Iran, Jan.7 Trend: A regulation draft to establish an international exchange market in Iran has been sent to government's economic commission for finalization. "The regulation for international exchange has been drafted by coordination of the Securities and Exchange Organization and after reforms and being approved by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), has been sent to the government," said the Secretary of the Supreme Council of Iran's Free Trade, Industrial, and Special Economic Zones Morteza Bank, Trend reports citing IRNA. "It is expected to be approved by the government's economic commission soon, and then will be sent to the government's cabinet for the final decision," Bank said. He indicated that the new capacities of the international exchange in Iran would attract foreign currency and foreign investments. "The international exchange would supply resources for many projects and economic activities via stock offering," he said. "Investments in this exchange would be domestic and international, the banking transactions would be operated by an international bank and observed by an international organization, all this has been noted in the regulation draft, he added. The international exchange would become the fifth exchange in Iran alongside Tehran Stock Exchange, Iran Energy Exchange, Iran Mercantile Exchange and Iran Fara Bourse (OTC). Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: Some 88 unfinished projects with 1.7 trillion rials (roughly $40.4 million) of investments are being handed over to the private sector in Iran's Bushehr province, Chairman of the Bushehr Management and Planning Organization Reza Avazpour said, Trend reports via IRNA. He noted that the 88 projects were chosen from an initial list of 105 unfinished projects and the chosen ones mainly cover such areas as water purification, healthcare and sports infrastructure. Avazpour added that some 20 projects have been implemented with help of charity funds. Some 2.8 trillion rials (about $66.6 million) have been allocated to production and employment programs in the province. Tehran, Iran, Jan. 7 Trend: Heavy taxes, lack of exports consistency and small holdings are the major obstacles for Iran's agricultural exports to Russia. Since Iran is not a member of the Eurasian Economic Council (EEC), the country's export to Russia is not compatible with exports from the EEC member countries," said Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the Iran Chamber of Commerce Gholamali Fareghi, Trend reports citing IRNA. Another problem that impacts Iran's agriculture exports to Russia is that due to various regulation changes, Iranian exporters cannot stay committed to exports consistency and have steady exports to Russia, the official noted. Small holdings is another challenge for agricultural exports to Russia. "There are no major land owners or producers or holdings that can meet the market needs in every situation. Big holdings and land owners will face losses in crisis situations." He indicated that the value of Iran's agricultural exports to Russia is annually $150-$200 million. "Russia has a suitable market for Iranian goods and Iran can export between $10 to 20 billion goods to Russia if the trade problems are solved. The Iran-Russia trade value in the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2017) was $950 million; Iran's share of exports to Russia was $310 million, while $640 million belonged to Russia's exports to Iran," he said. "Iran has exported $174 million goods to Russia, while the exports from Russia to Iran were worth $852 million during the past eight months of this Iranian year," he said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Huseyn Valiyev Trend: Lebanon has been included in the list of importers of Azerbaijani hazelnuts, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Hazelnuts Producers Association Ismayil Orujov told Trend Jan. 7. He said that hazelnuts are exported to more than 20 countries. The main export volume of hazelnuts in 2018 accounted for Russia, he noted. Europe is also a significant consumer of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. As we expected, there was an increase in the production of hazelnuts in 2018, but the weakening of the Turkish lira exchange rate against the US dollar led to decrease in exports of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. Lower prices proposed by Turkish exporters for European buyers significantly reduced competitiveness of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. If 14,500 tons of products were exported in the last quarter of 2017 (mainly in September-December), exports decreased by more than 40 percent in the same period of 2018, he said. A greater decline in exports isnt expected, because more than 50 percent of the products werent exported, said Orujov. As for the production volume for the current year, it will be possible to predict it after April. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: International gold mining company Nordgold plans to produce more than 900,000 ounces of gold by the end of this year, the company told Trend. "The forecast for production in 2018 is 900,000-950,000 ounces," said the message. It is worth noting that last year, the company, which operates mines in Russia, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso and Guinea, produced 968,000 ounces of gold. In September 2018, Nordgold launched the Gross deposit in Yakutia (Russia), which will produce 200,000 ounces of gold per year. This will allow the company for the first time in its history to produce more than one million ounces per year. For the first three quarters of this year, the production amounted to 675,900 ounces compared to 716,800 ounces for the same period last year (down by 6 percent). In particular, the Suzdal mine in Kazakhstan produced 64,200 ounces of gold against 67,600 ounces in January-September last year. Nordgold also noted two key development projects: Uryakh in Russia and Montagne d'Or in French Guiana. The estimated and identified resources of the Uryakh deposit are 1.4 million ounces with a gold content of 3.8 grams per ton. Montagne d'Or resources are 3.85 million ounces with a gold content of 1.41 grams per ton. Presently Nordgold operates four mines in Russia, one in Kazakhstan, two in Burkina Faso and one in Guinea. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Exports of Turkish defense industry goods grew 24.9 percent in December last year compared to the same month of 2017 and amounted to $253.5 million, Trend reports with reference to the Turkish Exporters Assembly. The exports of defense products amounted to $2.35 billion in 2018, according to the report. Most defense products were exported to the US, Germany, Oman and Qatar, the report said. The exports of defense products to the US increased by 5 percent compared with the results of 2017 and amounted to $726.6 million, the report noted. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said that Turkey will strengthen the defense industry and will become a world leader in the manufacture of defense products. Erdogan noted that no obstacles can stop the development of Turkey's defense industry. I personally instruct all law enforcement bodies not to import defense products, Erdogan said. Turkey is capable of providing itself with relevant products. Erdogan noted that mass production of Turkish "ALTAY" tanks will soon begin. "Turkey is forced to strengthen its defense industry," he added. In the recent years, Turkey has invested about $35 billion in the defense industry. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: Members of the National Preventive Group of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan visited the Baku Detention Facility of the Penitentiary Service of Azerbaijans Ministry of Justice, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ombudsmans Office Jan. 7. During the visit, organized based on the Constitutional Act on the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) and the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the inmates of the detention facility were individually received and the situation with ensuring their rights was studied, their appeals were heard. As part of the visit, in the presence of the head of the National Preventive Group and a doctor, Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov, held in the facility, was also received in private. His appeal was heard, his health and situation with food intake were checked in the presence of the doctor. It was established that Mehman Huseynov eats, receives parcels, he is under the daily supervision of a doctor and feels well. During the visit, a written appeal from Mehman Huseynov was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office for consideration. By a decision of the Surakhani District Court, blogger Mehman Huseynov was sentenced to two years in prison. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: The project UNEC to the World is continuing. This time the interviewer of the project is Masma Abbasova, the student of the International Economics School (ISE) of the UNEC. M.Abbasova is continuing her education in France within the framework of dual degree diploma program of UNEC with Montpellier university. UNEC NEWS is presenting the interview with Masma Abbasova: -Masma, what was the nexcessity to join the dual diploma program and what adavantages will it give you? - The main reason for joining the dual degree diploma program is the chance to get the bachelors degree, when I graduate, from not only the UNEC but also the University of Montpellier. Within 4 years, I will gain the diploma from the prestigious university both Azerbaijan and Europe, this is a great advantage for me. I am sure that, in the future I will be able to create the successful career with the knowledge and diplomas gained from both universities. -What procedures have you gone through to join the dual degree diploma program, have you had any problem? - No, there was not any problem. The dual degree diploma program of UNEC with the Montpellier university has been continuing for 3 years, even there were the first graduates. Thats why everyone was well-informed. For joining the program I submitted my CV and academic transcript, and then I was invited to the interview stage. After receiving the information that I had successfully interviewed, the meeting was held at the university with the participation of the organizers of the program, parents, as well as, with the students who hasd participated inthe program last year. During the meeting, we had the opportunity to clarify the issues that worried us. Later, I applied for a long-term student visa to the French Embassy, and as in the embasy they had already known the UNEC and us, there was just left behind to gather the required documents. -What similarities and differences are existing between UNEC and Montpellier University? - First of all, I would like to say that, the education system in Europe and Azerbaijan is quite different. This difference is felt not only in higher education but also at the secondary school level. The ability to conduct the research, and work with the group are instilled in the students from their school years, but we are transferring to this system newly. Also, the less number of lesson hours, providing more compact lessons, the less number of exams, developing more the research capabilities of students, non-existence of the absences rate system are among the different aspects. Nevertheless, I would not say that the level of education at the UNEC is far behind. I cannot say it for other faculties, but most of the teachers of the International School of Economics where I have been studied, had received their education abroad and teach the classes at a high level. This is one of the factors that directly affects the growth of ISE students as highly competent and experienced professionals. -What do you like more at Montpellier university? -I like the fact that the lectooms are more modern, the teachers are more experienced in technology, and conducting classes in the shortened form. There are many subjects we have trained during the semester at the UNEC, we have 2 colloquiums, session exams, individual works, we have prepared for seminars, which, in my opinion, will not play the important role in our future career, and as for me it is loss of time. -What challenges did you face during your first visit to Montpellier university? How did the environment, the language difference, and the different cultures affect you? - There was not any difficulty almost from the university and the lesson point of view. As I was taught in English language at the UNEC, the subjects at Montpellier University came to me convenient in language point of view, I did not have any difficulty. Since foreign students are of different ages and nations, it was difficult to communicate with them at first, but while participating in group work, this difficulty gradually disappeared. There are almost the students from every country and every student demonstrates their culture. It is easy to communicate with some, but with some unfortunately not easy. The students communicate with each other more in group work and those who are the same or close to the culture spend their time together after the lesson, as well. As the mjority of the French did not prefer speaking in English, in the early days I had some difficulties,as I did not know the city well and exactly and there were some issues regarding the documents that I had to solve. But soon, I have been accustomed to the new environment. - Are there any privileges for foreign and local students at Montpellier? -There are not too much privileges for the students here, but there is a special organization, when applying to this organization the fee paid for dormitory is discounted and the part of the amount is paid to the hostel by that organization. -How much is a students monthly living expenses in France? -I think, this question varies depending on how the student allocates the budget and for what he spends. The monthly expenses begin to decline over the time. Totally, 30-35 Euros per month from the budget is paid for the shopping to the market, 10-15 Euros for transportation, 162 Euros for the dormitory rent. -How do you spend your leisure time? -Taking advantage of this opportunity, I try to walk in Montpellier and visit other cities of Europe and I find the features of every city that amaze me. -How do you represent our country abroad as the Azerbaijani student? -Since there is a student from every country in the group, teachers frequently ask questions about the culture and lifestyle of that country. I try to answer the questions in the fullest possible way and represent my country in a better way. - 10 UNEC students currently are studying at the Montpellier University. How is your relationship, do you supprt each other at the lessons? -We - 5 girls are staying in the same hostel. From the first day we come here, we help each other both at the lessons and out of the classes. We are together with other students at the lessons, as well, and we try to support each other as much as we can, especially during the exams. We also get the information from the Azerbaijani students who came here last year, they share their experience with us, as well. - How do you take your exams, is not it difficult? - The Examination System at the Montpellier University is completely different. Our exams have started in October-November months. Unlike the UNEC, there are fewer lessons and fewer topics. 15 hours are taken to study each lesson and it finishes in short period of time .The examinations are provided in the written form and the questions are not given to students in advance. The maximum score is 20 points for each subject. Some teachers give grades based on the group work and exams, and some give grades only for the written test. We took our last examination in the second half of December. We are now starting to set up holiday plans. I am very glad that the exams are over, but I'm disappointed that my time to be held here is running out. For me, Montpellier has become a great experience. I met new friends here, I lived a true student life. I have had the opportunity to take lessons from teachers from different nationalities and to get education in the same group with the students from different nationalities, as well. I am very grateful to my parents and UNEC for creating this condition! Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: A project entitled What is Artificial Intellect? is implemented at Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) with financial support from the Youth Foundation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It aims at raising young peoples interest in science and promoting a dialog between students and young scientists. Out of more than 150 applicants, 100 students were selected as the project participants after online registration. Within the project, three training courses were conducted under the following topics: What is Artificial Intellect?, Scientific Approaches to Artificial Intellect in the World and Smart Materials. The courses were attended by the students from both national and foreign universities including, among others, the Baku Higher Oil School, Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Azerbaijan State University of Economics, Baku Engineering University and Azerbaijan Medical University. As the project leader, Head of BHOS Student Affairs department Habiba Hajiyeva told, the participants studied basic concepts of the general theory of artificial intelligence and hold discussions on the issues covered by the workshop. Then the students were divided into groups and assigned to work on the tasks given by the young scientists conducting the training. At the end, the task solutions and work results were submitted by the team leaders in poster and slide presentations. All those students who successfully completed the project were presented participation certificates, and ten best participants were awarded certificates with distinction and memorable gifts. In the words of Habiba Hajiyeva, the project also helped the students to gain practical skills in leadership, management, teamwork, and information exchange. Including a copyright work into ones own advertising campaign? It might not be always be a great idea, especially if the use is unauthorized. Sunday afternoon, sofa time, watching the match. Somebody shouts: Shall we grab a beer?" That may be a very typical scenario. Yet, if on that sofa you are being offered a Birra Napoli branded beer, than that same scenario might raise some issues. Indeed, the recent campaign launched by Peroni beer company (recently acquired by the Japanese Asahi Breweries group) and aimed at promoting the city of Naples and its enchanted spots has already been subject to a number of criticisms. Interestingly, the main one comes from street artist Jorit Agoch , who is well-known on a national and international scale thanks to his artistic production, including inter alia his San Gennaro located in the borough of Forcella. More precisely, as the artist claims, the beer company would have infringed his copyright in the artwork by including San Gennaro in its latest advertising campaign. As a result, the half-Italian artist has requested the company to pay EUR 50,000 as a compensation for the damages suffered. The amount, as the artist stated, shall be used to fund the realisation of a new artwork in the Naples area. This is just the last case in a string of claims relating to street art. Indeed, just last month, another well-known artist, Anish Kapoor , settled the lawsuit he had started against the National Rifle Association in the US, having the latter agreed to erase an image of his Chicago-based sculpture known as The Bean that it had included in one of its videos. Somewhat similarly, also Peroni, with the aim of avoiding further legal complications, ordered its graphics to take down Jorit artwork from its advertising campaign. However, this case is currently far from being settled, and the artist seems determined to go ahead with his claim. Therefore, it gives to us the opportunity to discuss some interesting legal issues concerning copyright law under Italian law. Street art: protectability under Italian law Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov has never been involved in journalism, Deputy Executive Secretary of the New Azerbaijan Party, MP Siyavush Novruzov told Trend on Jan. 7. Such people intend to create a negative impression of Azerbaijan, he said. Novruzov stressed that Mehman Huseynovs brother Emin Huseynov was at the Swiss embassy in Baku for some time and then left for Switzerland. That is, the goal of such people is to spread negative information about our country and people, rather than to serve the country and people, he added. The offender must be punished for the committed crime. Mehman Huseynov also committed a crime, Novruzov said. At the same time, he used force against an officer who was on duty. Those who commit the crimes must be punished. Everyone is equal before the law and everyone must be punished for the committed crime. He also said the anti-national groups and their foreign patrons use this case as an opportunity to launch another anti-Azerbaijan campaign. "We know who is behind this campaign, he said. The goal of the campaign is to exert pressure on Azerbaijan. Even if the anti-national network and its patrons abroad have forgotten, it has repeatedly been proven that it is impossible to force Azerbaijan to make concessions through a campaign of denigration, Novruzov said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to construct Susay-Khinalig road in Guba district. Under the presidential order, 13 million manats will be allocated to the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency for the construction of the road connecting eight residential areas with a total population of 8,000 people. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Samir Ali Trend: The attempt of the anti-national network to launch another campaign connected with Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov failed to gain resonance, Aydin Guliyev, editor-in-chief of the "Baki Xeber" newspaper, political analyst, told Trend on Jan. 7. The anti-national network has recently tried to intensify its activity again, he said. This time it focused on imprisoned blogger Mehman Huseynov. "This always happens when Azerbaijan strengthens its positions at international level, he said. Representatives of the anti-national network and its supporters periodically conduct such campaigns, trying to divert Azerbaijans attention from national goals." "Another attempt to launch an anti-Azerbaijan campaign was futile and no results were achieved except for an article in a newspaper and an appeal by a pro-Armenian congressman in the US, he said. Some information about blogger Mehman Huseynov, on whom the anti-state campaign was based, turned out to be false. He has nothing to do with the media and professional journalism and is not on hunger strike in prison, Guliyev added. Therefore, the campaign, based on groundless information, was doomed to failure. Azerbaijanis did not support it either. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: The Armenian armed forces opened sniper fire at an excavator on January 6 at 15:35 (GMT+4) at a border point near Kamarli village of Azerbaijans Gazakh region, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani State Border Service. The excavator was operated by a civilian, some 450 meters from the state border. The bullets hit the excavator, the civilian was not injured. The Armenian armed forces continue to violate the ceasefire regime in the areas of border points on the line of contact with Azerbaijan in Gazakh and Agstafa regions. Since the beginning of January up till now, the border points of the Gazakh frontier detachment have been shelled 81 times by the Armenian armed forces. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans statements must be more responsible, Azerbaijani ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev said in an interview with the Channel 5 Ukraine, Trend reports on Jan. 7. "Pashinyan makes some statements from time to time, he added. I think the prime ministers statements must be more responsible." The ambassador stressed that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is lasting for more than a quarter of a century. Unfortunately, 20 percent of our territories are under Armenias occupation, Khudiyev said. Today, despite our efforts to solve this issue peacefully, we have not solved it due to Armenias non-constructive and aggressive policy. We greatly respect OSCEs activity, he said. But, unfortunately, we see that there is no mechanism for resolving this conflict and we do not see significant progress and real results yet. We are in favor of resolving this issue peacefully. But we will never stop to strengthen fighting capability of our army." The ambassador stressed that Azerbaijan monitors everything that happens in neighboring countries, whether it is Armenia or other neighboring country. "We are concerned about the processes in Armenia, because we need stability in neighboring countries, Khudiyev said. If there is a chaos, some forces, radicals, ultranationalists can take advantage of it. Thus, escalation will begin, which may again lead to resumption of hostilities." The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 28 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Jan. 7, Trend reports. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. The number of Iranians working in Iraq has dropped from 20,000 to 5,000 since Baghdad stopped issuing work visas for the citizens of the Islamic Republic, says the Governor General of Kurdistan province, western Iran. Bahman Moradnia has not elaborated on the reasons behind Iraq's decision to stop issuing work visas for Iranians. Meanwhile, Moradnia said that the lack of transport infrastructure, including air routes, is the most important hurdle on the way of business and trade between Iran's Kurdistan and the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Last week, the chairman of Iranian parliament's influential Commission of National Security and Foreign Policy, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh had cautioned against Iran losing its economic position in Iraq and being replaced by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is the second biggest market for Iranian exports and Irans ambassador in November had said that trade can reach $22 billion annually in the future. While Iran has stopped releasing any official report on gas flaring levels since early 2015, new statistics published by Planning and Budget Organization indicate that the volume has increased significantly to 17.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2017. During oil production, the associated natural gas is flared when barriers to the development of gas markets and gas infrastructure prevent it from being exported. Iran burns two-thirds of associated gas produced from oil fields due to lack of technologies and investments to collect them. Last year, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that $5 billion is needed for curbing gas flaring. However, such an investment seems impossible, at least in the short-term, due to U.S. sanctions and a heavy budget deficit. No foreign investor would even think of getting involve in Iran, especially in its oil sector. The Planning and Budget Organization says that gas flaring volume was 15.7 bcm in 2016 and government had planned to decrease that to 11 bcm in a year. Despite the plan, gas flaring level soared to 17.7 bcm in 2017. The value of this amount of gas is about $4.5 billion; if Iran could export it via pipelines to regional markets like its current clients Iraq and Turkey. If Iran had developed its liquefied gas (LNG) plants, it could sell this volume of LNG at above $5.5 billion in East Asian or European markets. According to the World Bank, Irans gas flaring volume increased by an average of 6.6% per year since 2013, when Hassan Rouhani assumed the presidency. World Bank statistics show that Irans gas flaring level increased by 22.66% year-on-year in 2017, while the global averages decreased by 7.1% to 140 bcm. Iran ranks third after Russia and Iraq in terms of gas flaring. It also ranks seventh in terms of greenhouse emissions, with 672 million metric tons of CO2 annually, of which 35 million metric tons is due to gas flaring, according to Global Carbon Project. Gas flaring is one of the serious problems affecting global climate change, as well as creating air pollution with consequences for the populations health. Last year, state daily Iran reported that 21,000 Iranian citizens die annually due to air pollution. The report quoted former head of Department of Environment Masoumeh Ebtekar (replaced by Isa Kalantari last year) that air pollution costs $30 billion annually to the country, about three times more than in early 2010s. World Banks latest statistics put the costs for Iran at $14 billion in 2013. All parliamentary motions for impeaching President Hassan Rouhani's ministers have been shelved, a member of Majles (Islamic parliament) presidium has announced. According to Ali Asghar Yousefnejad, all the signatories to the motions have revoked their signatures for the impeachment of a few ministers. Earlier, it was said that the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had asked the MPs to end impeaching Rouhani's cabinet members. However, Yousefnejad insisted that he knew nothing about such a directive. There were reports in recent weeks concerning the possible impeachment of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture Jihad, and Interior ministers. Most impeachment moves have been pressure tactics by hardliners against Rouhani's government. The ministers of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, Ali Rabeie, and Economy, Massoud Karbasian, were impeached in recent months. Furthermore, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Abbas Akhoundi, and Industries and Mines, Mohammad Shariatmadari resigned from their positions. Nevertheless, Shariatmadari, who was targeted for impeachment, won the parliament's vote of confidence as the new Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. The Minister of Health, Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi also resigned from his post last week. A member of Irans parliament says the countrys foreign policy has a lot of unneeded costs and these can leave us paralyzed on the streets of Tehran. Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi on Sunday in an unprecedented speech before the start of parliaments official agenda said, Unneeded costs, which are not a priority should be removed and mentioned the example of the former Soviet Union, which despite its nuclear warheads and influence around the world eventually disintegrated. Such words, uttered in parliament are extremely interesting, but it is hard to judge how the MP took the liberty to contradict the country's foreign policy, set by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Rahimi Jahanabadi is a reformist politician and the leader of the Sunni parliamentarians. He has an academic background and was in charge of presidential documents more than a decade ago. According to ISNA, Rahimi Jahanabadi added, Although our influence in the region is important, but one point should not be forgotten, and that is, sometimes it is possible that unneeded costs can cripple us on Tehran streets. Drawing a parallel with the Soviet Union, the MP said, When the Soviet Union collapsed, it had 13,000 nuclear warheads and had influence in more than twenty countries and a space station, but it was torn apart on Moscow streets, losing its security and territorial integrity." In another part of his speech Rahimi Jahanabadi brought up the issue of economic hardship for ordinary Iranians. Today, people have difficulty to make a living and feed their children. If we fail to resolve the problem of unnecessary domestic and foreign expenditures, we will bear heavy costs, he said and added, What we need at home we should take care of itWe need to find friends, reduce tensions and increase cooperation in the region and focus on the economy as our top priority. Khamenei's opponents and critics have in recent years singled out his anti-Western and interventionist policies in the region as the main reasons for Iran's isolation and economic problems. But open criticism in parliament, directed at the core of the Supreme Leader's foreign policy, is unprecedented; even though his name was not mentioned and the criticism was voiced in careful and diplomatic manner. A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban says that negotiations between the militant group and Iran are necessary. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid described the talks as a political conversation with a neighboring country. Speaking with the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) on January 5, he said, "We should discuss the future of our country with Tehran in order to take positive steps toward strengthening friendship and peace on both sides." He stressed that the group would keep its channels open to Iran. The ultra-conservative Sunni group dispatched a delegation to Iran last week to meet with a group of Iranian diplomats led by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran. Iran says the meeting aimed to promote peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban and that the Afghan government had been informed. Following the talks, Araghchi traveled to Kabul to brief Afghan authorities on the meetings. This is not the first time the Afghan Taliban have sent a delegation to Tehran. In 2015, a Taliban delegation based in Qatar and led by the head of the groups political bureau, Tayyib Aqa, also visited the Iranian capital. The secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, recently visited Kabul and said Tehran had held talks with the Taliban. "We have a single leadership and policy, and therefore we are in contact with many neighboring and non-neighboring countries, ILNA quoted Mujahid as saying. Our contact with Iran is the same as that of other countries, and maintaining contact with Iran is very important to us. Previously, the Afghan Taliban had said the delegations aim was to discuss the future withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and regional stability. The delegation visited Tehran to share Talibans views on a post-occupation scenario and establishment of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region with Iranian officials, Mujahid said in a statement that reflected growing confidence among the Taliban for an imminent U.S. exit from Afghanistan. The Taliban's talks in Tehran come amid repeated accusations by Washington that Iran is training and equipping the insurgents. Tehran has dismissed such allegations as unfounded. In his interview with ILNA, Mujahid criticized the Islamic State (IS) militant group, saying it has "dangerous designs" for the region. "Frankly, the Afghan people find ISs beliefs problematic. IS does not observe any Islamic laws, and their beliefs have no roots in Islam or Sharia," he said. Mujahid also had strong words for the foreign forces currently deployed in Afghanistan. "If the Taliban concludes that Americans are not seeking to achieve peace through negotiations and do not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, we will without doubt dispatch them with military force and during the intensification of jihad from Afghanistan," he said. After weeks of Pentagon officials denying reports of a U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence confirmed on January 4 that U.S. President Donald Trump is in the process of evaluating whether to withdraw troops from the war-torn country. "The biggest issue that matters to us is the dismissal of U.S. troops. Of course, solutions have been considered, but the Americans have accepted that more talks are needed about how they will leave Afghanistan and that they will be followed up in the upcoming summit," Mujahid said. "We have not stopped jihad and are still at war with the Americans, and on the other hand we recognize the government of national unity as a puppet of the United States," he added. Mujahid did not rule out the possibility of the Talibans participation in Afghanistan's next election, but noted, "First of all, we believe that the occupation of Afghanistan by the United States must come to an end. The next step is to determine the structure of the political system that will eventually be voted for by the Afghans." Armenia's acting FM, Kazakh minister discuss situation in Karaganda Armenia's acting Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan had a phone conversation with Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov on the initiative of the Kazakh side. They discussed effective cooperation in bilateral and multilateral platforms and expressed willingness to take joint steps towards even greater expansion of the bilateral agenda. Atamkulov and Mnatsakanyan also emphasized the important role of the Armenian community of Kazakhstan as an integral part of the countrys society, which plays an important role in strengthening bilateral relations. The sides touched upon the situation in Karaganda and noted that attempts to give interethnic coloring to the tragedy are unacceptable. The interlocutors agreed that the current situation was of a sensitive nature, stressing the need to eliminate steps aimed at deliberately distorting public opinion and creating tension. In this regard, the parties stressed importance of strengthening the direct link between the various departments of Armenia and Kazakhstan. A scuffle broke out near Ancient Rome restaurant in Karaganda, and it turned into a mass brawl. One person was killed and three were wounded during the brawl. According to NUR.KZ agency, three suspects, among them two ethnic Armenians Torgom Malkhasyan and Sokhak Malkhasyan, were detained. Anti-Armenian rallies were held in the city after the brawl. PACE rapporteur welcomes Azerbaijans release of Armenian captives and Armenias handing over of mine-maps to Azerbaijan Armenia/Azerbaijan: Statement by High Representative Josep Borrell on the latest developments Pashinyan to publicly apology to Khachatryans During EURO 2020 Ucom subscribers to take part in the uMeter voting and draw Google Ad USA to continue to press for the return of Armenian prisoners of war and detainees: Philip Reeker Post-war Prospects for Nagorno-Karabakh: Crisis Groups new report Ucom-1 team was recognised the winner of the 2021 futsal tournament of the Galaxy Group of Companies: The award ceremony took place COVID 19: 11 deaths Statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia regarding the criminal prosecution against the Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijan The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia UCOM introduced new level up packages of voice service President Michel has discussions with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Acting Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia COVID19:108 new cases Ucom launches "Hello, summer" offer and presents "U!hoo" kids magazine 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Google Ad What our Homeland, Armenia and Artsakh will be like depends on us. President Armen Sarkissians message on the Republic Day Ucom Digital lab students keep on getting high-quality technical education Aharon Sahakyan is appointed governor of Kotayk Marz of Armenia 3503 tests were done yesterday Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Covid 19: 323 recoveries and 11 deaths Efforts by prosecutors and law enforcement to address hate crime in Armenia: ODIHR seminar We urge Turkey to respect these calls: Head of the Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union Prisoners of war in the aftermath of the most recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan COVID 19: 7 deaths. The release of all Armenian detainees is essential for building confidence and trust Helena Dalli Andrea Wiktorin about about the full ratification of CEPA Secretary Blinkens Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov It was not a childish dream to hold office - Marukyan President of the "Bright Armenia" party Edmon Marukyan's brother, Christ Marukyan's refusal of the mandate of the NA deputy does not depend on his candidacy for the mayor of Vanadzor. "The decision was not one-person decision," Christ Marukyan told "A1+," adding that the decision was made as a result of discussions within the party. "We have discussed all the pros and cons, we came to the conclusion that it would be right to stay in the Vanadzor Council of Elders and continue working here, including my work not only politically. And having a 18-member faction in the National Assembly, who are trained and experienced people, and my presence neither would increase nor lessen much, and, as a result of discussions we came to conclusion that it would be right to continue working in the City Council, " said Marukyan. Marukyan assures that it was not a childish dream to hold office, and if there is not the control of the "Bright Armenia" faction, we will not be guaranteed that abuse and the behavior of the Republicans will not continue. To remind, that the mayor of Vanadzor was Republican Mamikon Aslanyan, who had been elected by secret ballot on October 10, 2016. And Hrant Ayvazyan, member of the "Bright Armenia" faction of Vanadzor Municipality, will replace Christ Marukyan in the National Assembly, Armen Baghdasaryan also refused from the NA mandate from the same party. Armenak Mnjoyan: I am like a mushroom caused by moisture (video) A few days before his death, Armenak Mnjoyan had a telephone conversation with "A1 +" journalist. Armenak Mnjoyan, a lifelong prisoner for the case of Dro, recently dies at Nubarashen Prison. He never gave up in the years of imprisonment. He was describing the environment in which he had been convicted and serving his sentence for more than 20 years as an "unprecedented disaster in the justice sphere." In his interview to "A1 +" in 2011, Armenak Mnjoyan responded to the question about the necessity of changes in the country: "Any government is unable to record any progress in the development, especially when the struggle is between the 'former' and the 'present.' No progress has been made in the history of civilizations only through evolution, it has been combined with revolutionary active developments and from the moment that immodesty has become a rule in society," said Armenak Mnjoyan and added that when the new quality acquired through political change will become a demand realized by the society, then the real revolution will begin. Mnjoyan always found the ways to express his political and civic standpoints. He was concerned about Artsakh, he expressed his opinion on the policy pursued by the Armenian-Turkish protocols, about his party, and the ARF. During the former government, he addressed an open letter to the three presidents, accusing one of them for unjustly executing the death penalty, the other- for "sending" him to a "slow death," instead of the death penalty, and asking the third president to remember those who are in life prison in a country with a Christian tradition. But he was not granted pardon even today by the new authorities. And he had no hope, and, at the end, he did not even seek freedom. A few days before his death, Armenak Mnjoyan expressed concern over the recent events. "Here I have became a mushroom caused by moisture. But my situation is preferable to the old and the new state of power which do not differ from one another. I am a living organism at least... I feel excellent because I'm still here and away from a fictitious patriotic environment. If I was granted freedom and resisted those who gave me freedom, society would see me as an ungrateful 'Kurdish dog.' And if I supported them, that same society would accuse me of being pro-government or self-interested. And there will not be a layer that will accept you, as you are, that freedom is the opportunity that will secure your freedom of movement in various fields without constraints and additions. This problem is unsettled for me." These lines are written by Armenak Mnjoyan just days before his death. And on the day before the death, he also send a video message which is presented below. Arman Tatoyan discusses situation in Karaganda with Kazakh human rights commissioner Armenias ombudsman Arman Tatoyan had a phone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Askar Shakirov regarding the developments in the city of Karaganda. Human rights commissioner of Kazakhstan noted that he believes giving ethnic coloring to the incident is unacceptable. He assured that discrimination against Armenians based on their ethnicity is out of the questions. Askar Shakirov emphasized that he is focused on the matter, Tatoyan said in a statement on Facebook. After a phone conversation, he once again discussed the matter with the law enforcement agencies and informed Arman Tatoyan that the incident has no ethnic background. Askar Shakirov expressed readiness to study any complaint by the Armenians if the matter is in compliance with his mandate. Armenias Ombudsman underscored importance of cooperation with his Kazakh counterpart, and he will keep in touch with Shakirov to follow the situation. Ombudsman is also in touch with the Armenian Foreign Ministry as well as the Embassy in Astana. Acting Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan's statement on situation in Karaganda Acting Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan's statement on the situation in Karaganda reads as follows: "Everyone who had a chance to follow the situation, knows that on January 3, the Armenian Embassy in Kazakhstan made a corresponding statement. We realize that, in all likelihood, not everyone noticed this during the festive days. Naturally, the statement expresses the public side of the work we have done. In a statement, the embassy expressed hope that official sources will be taken as a basis, and t unverified information will not be dismantled via the social network. Nevertheless, in Armenia there are certain statements that are made without taking into account both the official position of our country, which, in particular, is expressed in the statement of the embassy, and the hyper-sensitive nature of the issue for our compatriots living in Karaganda. The Armenian Foreign Ministry is urging experts and specialists to show even greater responsibility in their statements and not to succumb to the temptation of populism and provocations. This is a super-sensitive issue, and all attempts to give it an international tint are condemned and unacceptable." PACE rapporteur welcomes Azerbaijans release of Armenian captives and Armenias handing over of mine-maps to Azerbaijan Armenia/Azerbaijan: Statement by High Representative Josep Borrell on the latest developments Pashinyan to publicly apology to Khachatryans During EURO 2020 Ucom subscribers to take part in the uMeter voting and draw USA to continue to press for the return of Armenian prisoners of war and detainees: Philip Reeker Post-war Prospects for Nagorno-Karabakh: Crisis Groups new report Ucom-1 team was recognised the winner of the 2021 futsal tournament of the Galaxy Group of Companies: The award ceremony took place COVID 19: 11 deaths Statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia regarding the criminal prosecution against the Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijan The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia UCOM introduced new level up packages of voice service President Michel has discussions with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Acting Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia COVID19:108 new cases Ucom launches "Hello, summer" offer and presents "U!hoo" kids magazine 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Google Ad What our Homeland, Armenia and Artsakh will be like depends on us. President Armen Sarkissians message on the Republic Day Ucom Digital lab students keep on getting high-quality technical education Aharon Sahakyan is appointed governor of Kotayk Marz of Armenia 3503 tests were done yesterday Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Covid 19: 323 recoveries and 11 deaths Efforts by prosecutors and law enforcement to address hate crime in Armenia: ODIHR seminar We urge Turkey to respect these calls: Head of the Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union Prisoners of war in the aftermath of the most recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan COVID 19: 7 deaths. The release of all Armenian detainees is essential for building confidence and trust Helena Dalli Andrea Wiktorin about about the full ratification of CEPA Secretary Blinkens Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Juan Manuel Moreno and Juan Marin in parliament. Alejandro Ruesga The new government of Andalusia, in southern Spain, is beginning to take shape. Following 36 years of uninterrupted administration by the Socialist Party (PSOE), Spains most populous region could soon get a center-right government controlled by the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos. Following the PSOEs poor performance at the December 2 election, the PP and Ciudadanos have crafted a deal that creates 10 departments. Under the terms of the agreement, Juan Marin, the Ciudadanos leader in Andalusia, will serve as the regional deputy, and he will also be in charge of the economy department. The PP will be in charge of the treasury. Diaz could still become the Andalusian premier if Vox does not support this pact. That would be a disaster Teodoro Garcia-Egea, PP secretary general Marin said that the agreement would turn into a reality Andalusians desire to get a government of change and send the PSOE to the opposition. The last details of the deal are still being ironed out and will be made public in the coming hours. But for this new government to become a reality, it will require support from the far-right Vox party, which must back the conservative candidate to the regional leadership, Juan Manuel Moreno of the PP. Support from Vox Teodoro Garcia Egea, secretary general of the PP. EFE Ciudadanos reiterated on Sunday that Vox is not invited to join its deal with the PP. Meanwhile the PPs secretary general, Teodoro Garcia Egea, is telling Vox that it should be aware of the historic moment in Andalusia and should support the deal to make sure that the incumbent Susana Diaz of the PSOE is not voted back in. Diaz could still become the Andalusian premier if Vox does not support this pact. That would be a disaster, he said in television interviews on Telecinco and Antena 3. At the December 2 election, the PSOE won the most votes but lost 14 seats, and its remaining 33 lawmakers fall far short of the 55-seat majority. The PP came in second with 26 seats and Ciudadanos was third with 21. Besides the historic loss for the PSOE, the Andalusian election made headlines because of the 12 seats obtained by Vox, marking the first time in Spanish democratic history that a far-right party sits inside a parliament. Spain is holding local, regional and European elections this year, opening the door for Vox to make new inroads in Spanish politics. A migrant from Ghana near the Aluche holding center in Madrid. Claudio Alvarez Spain deported 54,963 immigrants between 2013 and 2017, representing an average of 30 people a day, according to an Interior Ministry reply to a query by Senator Maribel Mora, of the leftist Unidos Podemos group. The figures show a sustained decrease in deportations over the period, with a slight rebound in 2017. A total of 13,985 people were sent back in 2013, another 11,817 in 2014, 10,594 in 2015, 9,241 in 2016 and 9,326 in 2017. What this evidences is a disproportionate application of internment measures against citizens of certain countries Senator Maribel Mora, Unidos Podemos Moroccans and Algerians are, in that order, the nationals who were most often targeted for deportation, representing 30,832 and 4,479 of the total for the period. This reflects the bilateral agreements that both countries have signed with Spain to facilitate the return of undocumented migrants. Citizens of Morocco accounted for 19% of the 28,572 undocumented migrant arrivals in 2017, while Algerians represented 17%, according to Interior Ministry figures obtained by filing an information request backed by Spains Transparency Law. Sub-Saharan Africa Deportations of people from sub-Saharan Africa, who make up the bulk of irregular immigration to Spain, are significantly lower due to identification difficulties and to the lack of bilateral agreements with many of their home countries. The exceptions are Senegal, which took back 757 people on the basis of a 2006 deal with Spain, followed by Nigeria, which accepted 608 people back, and Mali (231). Both these countries signed an immigration agreement with Spain in 2007. The CIE migrant holding center in Aluche, Madrid. EFE Senator Maribel Mora has noted that every year, the same scenario unfolds: hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants are taken to CIE holding centers, then allowed to go free once the 60-day detention deadline expires because authorities were unable to return them to their home countries. In 2017, for instance, citizens of Gambia and Cote dIvoire represented 24% of the 8,237 people held at CIE centers. Only six of them were deported. What this evidences is a disproportionate application of internment measures against citizens of certain countries, said Senator Mora, whose group has criticized the conditions at these centers. The figures obtained through the senators query include deportations from CIE centers and those performed directly from police precincts without going through the usual judicial procedures. They include both expulsiones and devoluciones, two different administrative procedures. Other nationalities represented in the deportation figures for 2013-2017 include Colombia (2,576), Bolivia (1,412), Ecuador (1,369), Brazil (1,067) and the United States (128). Some EU citizens were also sent back, generally for having committed crimes against state security such as drug or arms trafficking. This list includes Romanians (1.530), Portuguese (277), French (128) and Italians (101). The youngsters were looking for bats. They spied a few emerging from a crack, and decided to step into the heart of the mountain to see where the animals lived. Everything was going well until the five friends ran into several stalactites and stalagmites blocking their way. Undeterred, the little group returned the next day armed with a hammer and a couple of flashlights. I remember I was very scared Jose Luis Barbero After breaking their way through, the young explorers found themselves inside a large hollow space filled with strange rock formations. And then they found two skeletons. They began to panic. What if we had ended up trapped in there as well? wonders Jose Torres, who was 16 when he and his friends unwittingly discovered the cave of Nerja in 1959. The cave, located within Malaga province in southern Spain, is of great interest to scientists, as its rock formations go back 800,000 years. It also contains a huge gallery of prehistoric art made up of nearly 600 motifs. It was declared a Cultural Interest Site in 1985 and an archeology zone in 2005. Next January 12 marks the 60th anniversary of the discovery by the group of adventurous teens, and the foundation that manages the site has prepared a tribute for them. Besides representing the town of Nerja at the next FITUR international tourism fair, during the month of April they will serve as guides to cave visitors. Today, around a third of the 300,000 square meter space is open to visitors, and 450,000 people buy a ticket each year. Only the Picasso Museum in Malaga city attracts more tourists. Experts believe that the cave was inhabited 25,000 years ago, although ongoing studies suggest there may have been humans there as early as 40,000 years ago. Every other week, a new object is found at the site that sheds new light on various periods of early human history. These artifacts are kept at the Nerja musem. Jose Torres had arrived in Nerja with his family after his father, a Civil Guard officer, was sent there. His new friends said they wanted to show him a magical place that they had explored superficially years earlier. The leader of the group was Francisco Navas, then 21 and the oldest of them all. There was also Manuel Munoz, 18, and his brother Miguel, 13. I was very scared, recalls the latter. The fifth explorer, Jose Luis Barbero, who was 15 at the time, passed away in 2007. When they emerged from the cave and told people that they had found some skeletons, nobody would believe them except for their schoolteacher, Carlos Saura. The story spread, and on June 12, 1960 the cave was first opened to the public. That year also marked the beginning of a music and dance festival that continues to take place every year since then. The youths began working as tour guides in the cave. We took a course because we knew nothing about speleology, or about anything that was inside the cave for that matter, recalls Manuel Munoz. Some of them moved on to other jobs a few years later, but others like Munoz devoted their entire professional lives to the cave. And all five of them have at least one child who is now working there. They are incredibly proud of their discovery even though it was random luck, an accumulation of circumstances, admits Francisco Navas. These days, there is a monument to the five men outside the entrance where they first went in, embarking on an adventure that would change their lives. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A Utah man accused of fatally shooting a Provo police officer has been identified as a 40-year-old with an extensive criminal record dating back more than two decades. Orem Police Lt. Trent Colledge said Monday that Matt Frank Hoover was wanted on two drug-related felony warrants when officers encountered him in a shopping center parking lot Saturday in Orem, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. Police say Hoover fatally shot officer Joseph Shinners. Colledge says Hoover is in stable condition at a hospital being treated for a gunshot wound. He is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder and drug and weapons crimes but has not been charged. Hoover doesnt have a listed attorney. Online Utah court records show Hoover has pleaded guilty to several drug-related crimes, theft and forgery dating back to 1995. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Jan. 5 Jesse W. Avery, 25, of Elko was arrested on Lamoille Highway on a bench warrant. No bail ------ Christopher L. Heit Jr., 20, of Spring Creek was arrested at 384 River St. for minor in possession of alcoholic beverage in public. Bail: $355 ------ Christopher B. Nicholes, 31, of Fairport, New York was arrested at 251 Main St. in Carlin on a warrant for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $465 ------ Laquan Thompson, 37, of Elko was arrested at Elko County Jail on a Nevada State Prison hold. No bail ------ Yerandi Toledo, 36, of Plantation, Florida was arrested at 1515 Idaho St. for felony possession of a controlled substance, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving with a suspended drivers license. Bail: $5,995 The charges above do not imply guilt. Under the law, everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 ELKO A Spring Creek man with a long arrest record has been formally charged with attempted murder for allegedly trying to hit an Elko Police Department officer with a vehicle following a pursuit. The officer fired multiple shots at the vehicle during the incident that began early on the morning of Dec. 21, according to court records. Police were called to an area near Northern Nevada Regional Hospital at about 6 a.m. on a report of a domestic dispute. Officer Joshua Taylor arrived first and observed a white truck leaving the scene. He attempted to pull it over but the vehicle continued east through the traffic light on Lamoille Highway and then turned onto Powderhouse Road, where it reached a dead end. According to another officer, the truck drove around a shed and Taylor drove around from the opposite direction, so the two vehicles met face to face. Taylor then got out of his patrol car and the truck reportedly accelerated and drove toward him. Officer Taylor dove back into his vehicle, while firing rounds at the truck, stated police. The truck then ran over a barbed-wire fence and through a field, where it became disabled. The driver, who police identified as Tony A. Pressler, 37, then got out of the truck and allegedly stole an SUV. Vestas has secured a 18 MW order in Taiwan with local Engineering Procurement and Construction provider Star Energy Corporation for two of their latest wind energy projects. The order includes the supply and supervision of installation of 5 V105-3.45 MW turbines delivered in 3.6 MW Power Optimised Mode. The wind park will be located in Changhua along the west coast of Taiwan, which holds the largest wind energy capacity of any county, municipality or city in Taiwan. Vestas' High Wind Operation (HWO) will help increase energy production, reduced hysteresis losses and increased grid stability during High Wind condition which is ideal for Taiwan's good wind condition and requirement. "This is an important order for us as it signifies our return to the Taiwanese market", said Clive Turton, President of Vestas Asia Pacific. "Star Energy Corporation and Vestas have a long-standing service collaboration and the order adds to this relationship, showcasing the confidence and trust that Star Energy Corporation has in Vestas". The order also includes a 5-year service agreement AOM 4000 including a Vestas Online Business SCADA solution. Vestas is currently servicing 159 MW of wind turbines in Taiwan including multibrand turbines. Turbine installation is expected to commence around the second half of 2019. Contact: Stephanie Foo Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications, Asia Pacific Tel: +65 9645 4558 Mail: FOHKH@vestas.com About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and with 92 GW of wind turbines in 79 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled 78 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas' more than 23,900 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. Centrica plc has launched its route-to-market business in Italy, agreeing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with Glennmont Partners for the trading and balancing of 315 MW of capacity on 13 onshore wind farms in Southern Italy and Sicily. Cassim Mangerah, Centrica's Co-MD of Energy Marketing & Trading, said: 'We are delighted to sign these PPAs with Glennmont Partners who are among the most experienced and dedicated investors in clean energy infrastructure in Europe. 'Launching our route-to-market offering in Italy is in line with our strategy to grow and diversify into new markets. We want to be present in all major European markets for renewables, providing our customers with multi-geographical optimisation and leveraging our expertise of managing power purchase arrangements. 'The Italian electricity market has a high penetration of renewables making it a good fit for our business, both in terms of accessible installed capacity and the market dynamics where volatility is largely driven by the weather.' Francesco Cacciabue, Partner and Chief Financial Officer at Glennmont Partners, said: 'We have a strong track record in the development, construction and operation of renewable energy generation projects. Our investment strategy is focused on sustained investment performance and predictable returns. We welcome Centrica as a new PPA provider in Italy and are very pleased to have signed these PPAs with an investment grade company.' During 2017 and 2018, Centrica has been involved in a number of landmark European route-to-market projects with major corporates. The provision of route-to-market services is an important part of the strategy of its Energy Marketing & Trading business. It aims to further grow through renewable energy generators, corporates and industrials who are looking to purchase electricity on long-term agreements to provide price certainty and support new, low-carbon power generation. The market for PPAs is expected to grow rapidly in Europe and globally as renewable energy reaches grid parity and renewable power subsidies phase out. About Glennmont Partners Glennmont Partners is one of Europe's largest fund managers focusing exclusively on investment in clean energy infrastructure. It raises long-term capital to invest in alternative power generation projects, such as wind farms, biomass power stations, solar parks and small- scale hydro power plants. Its carefully selected, risk managed investments deliver sustained performance and predictable returns over periods of 10 years or more. Formerly BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners, the team has been working together since 2007, and has established a reputation for making intelligent, long-term investments that deliver absolute returns. Enquiries Media Relations: +44 (0)1784 843000 media@centrica.com A change in state law means MidAmerican Energy Company's Iowa customers will soon see a monthly "energy efficiency charge" on their utility bills - though customers are not actually paying a new fee. Beginning in January, Iowa's regulated utilities, including MidAmerican Energy, will show energy efficiency fees on a separate line on monthly customer bills. Utilities are required to use the fees to fund energy efficiency programs. MidAmerican Energy does not profit from the fees, and the money collected is passed through to other customers to support their energy-saving projects. Law to lift ban on fee disclosure in January The legislation, signed into law in May, requires utilities to itemize the energy efficiency charge beginning January 1. That's a significant change from the previous law that has barred utilities from listing the charge on monthly bills and required them to include the fee in the energy rate charge. "Most of our Iowa customers, along with other regulated utility customers in the state, probably don't know they are paying the monthly energy efficiency fee, which funds energy efficiency programs," Kathryn Kunert, MidAmerican Energy's vice president of economic connections and integration, said. "That changes in January, when the law will require utilities to list the fee. We welcome that transparency, and we think our customers will, too." Customers to see lower energy efficiency program charges later in 2019 The law will also reduce MidAmerican Energy customer utility bills by capping energy efficiency program spending. In 2017, MidAmerican Energy's Iowa customers paid, on average, more than 7 percent of their bills toward energy efficiency programs, the highest in the nation. During that 12-month period, an average single family home paid $145.16, including $67.50 on electric and $77.66 on natural gas bills for energy efficiency programs. The legislation will limit energy efficiency program spending at 2 percent for electric and 1.5 percent for natural gas. The spending caps will save MidAmerican Energy customers an estimated $80 - $90 million annually. On average, it will save about $81 per year for MidAmerican Energy's residential gas and electric customers, $172 for commercial and more than $12,000 for industrial energy users. Once the Iowa Utilities Board issues a ruling on MidAmerican Energy's latest proposed energy efficiency program spending plan, which the board must file by the end of March, the company's Iowa customers will pay reduced energy efficiency charges. Those reductions will take effect later in the year, depending on the board's ruling. While MidAmerican Energy customers will pay less each month, the company will continue to offer energy efficiency programs and customer energy savings incentives. "Since our Iowa customers will pay less every month into an energy efficiency fund, they are now able to make more of their own spending decisions," Kunert said. "Customers will also continue to benefit from robust energy efficiency programs, in addition to the clean, renewable energy that MidAmerican delivers to them." New look for monthly bill Separately, MidAmerican Energy customers will see a new monthly bill format beginning in January. MidAmerican Energy redesigned the bill, based on customer input, to make it easier to understand monthly energy use and charges. About MidAmerican Energy Company MidAmerican Energy Company, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, serves 770,000 electric customers and 751,000 natural gas customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. Information about MidAmerican Energy is available at MidAmericanEnergy.com and company social media channels. Many people in Thanh Hoa Province, 150 km southwest of Hanoi, earn a living by digging for termite queens. Their work usually starts in the 10th lunar month. Restaurants in the central province pay VND150,000 ($6.5) for a 20-mm, pupa-like insect. Common termites nest in the ground and the nests are taller than the surroundings. Besides identifying where the termite is by their mounds, the catchers have another way. The worker termites eat the leaves and make noise in waves which sounds almost like a light rain. Termites live in a hierarchical social group with queens, kings, workers, and soldiers. Workers make up of the largest numbers in a colony. They look after the king and queen, tend the young, build and repair the nest, and feed the soldiers. Each nest usually has one or two queens, each about 20 mm long. They resemble a pupa with a small head and a big belly. Chung Van Luong of Ngoc Lac District, Thanh Hoa said catching termites only requires simple tools but also experience. "When you see the mound rise high it means there are termite queens inside." Termite nests are often built with interconnected floors. "The queen is responsible for reproducing, so all the remaining termites work hard to build a nest and feed the queen," Luong said. The queens live on firm blocks of soil like this surrounded by many black termites (larger than the workers) and white ones. Termites are often found at the foot of large walls or in tree barks, making searching and digging for them difficult. Luong said: "If we are lucky, we can dig up 10 new termite nests every day and get about 15 termite queens. Each fetches VND150,000 ($6.5)." Termite queens are considered protein-rich and restaurants cook them in various ways such as roasted, stir-fried and steamed. Some people also make alcohol out of them. Cut Thi Hoa is held at a police station for human trafficking. Photo courtesy of Nghe An Police A 31-year-old woman in the central province of Nghe An is being investigated for allegedly trafficking her neighbor to China for $7,770. Cut Thi Hoa of Chieu Luu Commune, Ky Son District, is suspected of human trafficking, a crime punishable by up to 20 years. She has been given bail since she has a child aged under 36 months, but is prohibited from leaving home. According to the police, in 2016 she had offered to take the neighbor, an unidentified girl now aged 18, to China through the border in Quang Ninh Province and get her a well-paid job. But the girl was tricked and sold to a Chinese man as a bride for VND180 million ($7,770). Hoa kept VND80 million ($3,400) and gave the rest of the money to the victims family. The police said the girl had suffered constant physical abuse and escaped after more than half a year. Late last year she received help to make it back to Vietnam and complained to local authorities. Vietnam recorded 670 trafficking victims in 2017, down by almost half from the previous year. Most of the victims were uneducated women and children from poor areas. They were sold to men seeking wives in China, Malaysia and South Korea or just to bear children or work as prostitutes in these countries. Besides the financial difficulties of the victims, the police said negligence, easy immigration procedures and gender imbalance in destination countries also play a part in the crime. Taiwan plans a February-June amnesty program for overstaying foreign nationals including Vietnamese, offering reduced fines and shortened reentry bans. The plan was announced Sunday by Taiwans National Immigration Agency (NIA), the Central News Agency reported. The program is a measure to deal with the rising number of foreign nationals overstaying their visas in Taiwan, NIA director general Chiu Feng-kuang said at a press conference. The number had reached 88,000 as of last October, he said. The five-month program would allow beneficiaries to pay a maximum fine of NT$2,000 ($65) and a shortened re-entry ban "compared with detention" should they report to authorities within the grace period. There would also be no mandatory detention for those who chose to approach the authorities, said Chiu. For those who fail to do so, a maximum fine of NT$10,000 and a re-entry ban of eight years await. Overstaying foreign nationals are also encouraged to report to authorities about brokers and employers who hire illegal workers in Taiwan, the NIA has said. The brokers and employers will be made to pay for the illegal workers departure flights and face legal actions, it added. Most of the overstaying foreign nationals in Taiwan are migrant workers, according to the NIA. As of last November, there were 51,892, of whom 24,267 were Vietnamese. The amnesty programs announcement follows a bizarre incident of 152 Vietnamese tourists vanishing in Taiwan last month. Some of them admitted to have tried to work in Taiwan illegally after they were apprehended by Taiwanese authorities. As of Sunday, 104 of the tourists were still missing, said Chiu. They would not be eligible for the upcoming amnesty program, he added. In recent years, Taiwan has emerged as a promising destination for Vietnamese workers looking for jobs overseas. Vietnam sent 65,000 workers to Taiwan last year, accounting for nearly half of all workers sent overseas. Taiwanese police arrest four Vietnamese men for illegally staying in the territory during a raid on January 3. Photo by Shutterstocks/annhien Taiwanese police raided a rented apartment and arrested four illegal Vietnamese male immigrants last week. During a night patrol last Thursday, January 3, police officers in Hsinchu City in northern Taiwan spotted a Vietnamese man, surnamed Nguyen, wandering the street and acting suspiciously. They found that he had no identification papers and had tools used for smoking meth, the Chinese-language ETToday reported. Police then took Nguyen to his rented apartment to get the papers. When Nguyen deliberately delayed unlocking the door, they decided to conduct a raid. They found three other Vietnamese men hiding under a spring-mattress. Initial investigations revealed that all four were illegal immigrants. They are now being held at police station pending further investigation for violating Taiwans immigration laws. The arrest of the four men follows the major scandal of 152 Vietnamese tourists going missing after arriving in Taiwan last month. Some of the people who have since been caught admitted they hoped to work in Taiwan illegally. Ever since Taiwan lifted a 10-year ban on certain categories of Vietnamese workers in 2015, the territory has emerged as a promising destination for Vietnamese workers looking for jobs overseas. The average wage that Taiwanese employers pay to Vietnamese workers is around $700- $800 a month. In 2018, 65,000 Vietnamese workers were sent to Taiwan, accounting for nearly half of Vietnam's overseas workforce last year. The PM has approved a new service etiquette guide for government workers that asks them not to flatter their superiors. It enjoins them to lead virtuous lives, to be unfailingly courteous, polite and considerate, and be professional, responsible and effective in their work. It specifically tells workers to treat their superiors in accordance to their places in the workplace, to follow their commands and not flatter them for "unethical motives." Workers must also live honestly and humbly, not selfishly or opportunistically, it says. Whoever violates the etiquette code would be disciplined or dealt with according to the law. Yet according to the large public, the code will be hard to implement. Virtues, or even flattering, are abstract and it would be almost impossible to rule if an act is a violation, many readers wrote to VnExpress. Also, the code will not work if the bosses enjoy the flattering and benefits that follow, thus what more necessary should be rules demanding fairness and integrity from employers in the public sector, they said. This isnt the first time Vietnamese government has officially demanded proper behavior and attitude from public servants. Last April, Hanoi told its government employees they could not have expensive or extravagant weddings; specifically weddings with more than 600 guests at venues like 5-star hotels or resorts. Tattoos and improper use of cologne or perfume were also banned for government workers in the capital city. These strictures have not always been welcomed. HCMC tried to forbid public servants from wearing T-shirts and jeans in the workplace in 2017, but the plan was scrapped after facing heavy backlash from the public. Vietnam currently has approximately 2.8 million workers in the government payroll. They government sets basic wage of VND1.39 million ($60) a month for the public sector and the workers' monthly pay is calculated by multiplying the basic wage with a coefficient determined by qualifications and experience. Officials have said a civil servant's income can cover 60 percent of basic living costs at best. The fact that many people with modest salaries still afford fancy houses and cars have raised questions about widespread corruption. Many people living on the Tonle Sap water are ethnic Vietnamese. Photo by Shutterstock/Arthur Felixovich Cambodia has delayed the relocation of hundreds of ethnic Vietnamese families from the Tonle Sap River until July. The Kampong Chhnang Province administration plans to move 750 families as part of a five-year plan to beautify the riverfront and improve water quality. Governor Chhour Chandoeun said authorities made the decision to postpone the relocation after considering the impact it would have on the livelihoods of the families, the Phnom Penh Post reported Thursday. "We constantly think about the peoples livelihoods. In this case, they have been doing cage fish farming. So if we move the cages on to land, the fish will die. So we let them keep their homes and cage fish farms temporarily. "They need to settle on land. They can keep their cage fish farms but cant live in the area permanently." He added that authorities are preparing for the relocation within the next six months. It will be done in two phases, according to provincial deputy governor Sun Sovannarith. In the first phase, the government will build the required infrastructure for families already relocated and those who do not make a living off fish cages. In the resettlement areas, local authorities and NGOs will build roads, schools, health centers, and water and power supply systems. In the second phase authorities will work with private companies to turn fish farms into tourist attractions. Cambodia's Lake Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia. Boasting one of the most fertile ecosystems in the world, it provides 75 percent of Cambodia's freshwater fish catches. According to the Cambodian Overseas Vietnamese Association, over 1,500 Vietnamese households live in floating villages by the lake. At a meeting last November Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh agreed to work together to relocate the floating families in the Tonle Sap area. But if Warren has appeared entirely self-assured in diving into the policy positions that she has been crusading for in Washington for years -- "All right!" she cheered when an audience member in Sioux City began asking about internet regulations -- her tone has changed when faced with questions about the 2016 election, a kind of riddle that she and so many other Democrats are still struggling to unwind. Asked how she planned to prevent a repeat of the "undemocratic behavior between the DNC and Hillary's campaign in 2016 against Sen. Sanders," Warren told supporters in Des Moines, "I'm not relitigating 2016," before pivoting to call all Democrats running for president to disavow super PACs, saying, "I think that all of the Democratic candidates, whoever they turn out to be, should link arms and say our primary is not for sale to billionaires." In a gaggle with reporters at her Council Bluffs rally on Friday, she bypassed a question about the comparisons being drawn between her campaign and Hillary Clinton's four years ago. "You know, look -- I'd never run for public office before I got into the Senate race in Massachusetts," Warren responded. "I was pulled into this because I have watched how America's middle class has been hollowed out. I am in this fight for working families. I'm going to stay focused on that all the way through." Authorities in Somalia have executed two assassins associated with insurgent group, Al-Shabaab. The duo were convicted by a military court of murdering a traditional chief. Hassan Ali Hassan, 25, and Abdirahman Isse Ali, 22, were executed in the capital Mogadishu, the military confirmed on Monday. They were captured by the police in early November 2016 when they tried fleeing the scene of the murder of the traditional chief, Hilowle Heefow Hussein. The latest execution comes two weeks after a military court executed via firing squad a serial Al-Shabaab bomber, Abdul Kadir Shaair. The 41-year-old had been convicted of a series of bombings in 2017. Somalia remains one of a handful of African countries that still apply the death penalty despite a hard fightback by activists. Most African countries have the measure on their law books but they are hardly enforced. Most death penalties are commuted to life imprisonment. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka: Powering South Asian integration by Aditya Valiathan Pillai January 07,2019 | Source: The Hindu On December 18, the Union Ministry of Power issued a seemingly anodyne memo that set the rules for the flow of electricity across South Asian borders. Evaluated against the turbulent politics around the issue, the new guidelines are a startling departure from Indias previous stance. In an atmosphere of regional intrigue and mistrust, it is a rare and recent example of political pragmatism. It is important not only because it leads South Asian electricity trade in progressive directions but is also a concession to Indias neighbours in an area of political and economic importance. A course correction The revision is a response to two years of intense backroom pressure from neighbours, particularly Bhutan and Nepal, to drop trade barriers put up in 2016. The new guidelines meet most of their demands, that were timed to coincide with the recent visit of Bhutans new Prime Minister. India has thus signalled that it is serious about working with neighbours on the issues that should undergird 21st century South Asian regionalism, such as electricity trade. This course correction is a return to a trajectory of incremental, hard-earned progress developed over the decades. Ideas of tying South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries together with cross-border energy flows that punctuated the early 2000s began to gain steam with substantial power trade agreements between India and Bhutan (2006) and Bangladesh (2010). These were driven by Indias need for affordable power to fuel quickened growth in a recently liberalised economy. The apotheosis came in 2014 with the signing of the SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation and the India-Nepal Power Trade Agreement in quick succession. The new government in New Delhi was keen on regional cooperation, and these agreements imposed few restrictions on trade. Instead, they laid the contours of an institutional structure that would allow private sector participation and facilitate market rationality in electricity commerce. At the Fifth SAARC Energy Ministers meeting that year, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said he dreamt of a seamless SAARC power grid within the next few years and offshore wind projects set up in Sri Lankas coastal borders to power Pakistan or Nepal. Yet, two years later, the Union Ministry of Power released guidelines that imposed a slew of major restrictions on who could engage in cross-border electricity trade. There was a strong undercurrent of defensiveness in the guidelines of 2016. They seemed to be a reaction to perceptions of increased Chinese investment and influence in the energy sectors of South Asian neighbours. Some irritants The guidelines prevented anyone other than Indian generators in the neighbouring country, or generators owned by that countrys government, from selling power to India. Excluded were scores of privately held companies, particularly in Nepal, that had hoped to trade with India. In restricting access to the vast Indian market, the economic rationale for Nepali hydropower built for export was lost. Bhutan was worried about a clause that required the exporting generation companies to be majority owned by an Indian entity. This created friction in joint ventures between India and Bhutan. Bhutan also fretted about limited access to Indias main electricity spot markets, where it would have been well placed to profit from evening peaks in demand. Bangladesh had sensed an opportunity to partially address its power crisis with imports from Bhutan and Nepal routed through Indian territory but the guidelines complicated this by giving India disproportionate control over such trade. After two years of protests from neighbours, the new guidelines resolve all these issues and restore the governance of electricity trade to a less restrictive tone. Earlier concerns that India was enabling the incursion of foreign influence into neighbouring power sectors seem to have been replaced by an understanding that Indias buyers monopoly in the region actually give it ultimate leverage. More broadly, India seems to have acknowledged that the sinews of economic interdependency created by such arrangements have the political benefit of positioning India as a stable development partner rather than one inclined to defensive realpolitik. Tool for a greener grid A liberal trading regime is in Indias national interest. As India transitions to a power grid dominated by renewables, regional trade could prove useful in maintaining grid stability. Major commitments to renewables, which could amount to half of Indias installed power within a decade, have prompted justifiable concerns about stabilising the grid when the sun goes down or in seasons when renewables are less potent. Harnessing a wider pool of generation sources, particularly hydropower from the Himalayas that ramps up instantly as India turns on its lights and appliances after sunset, could be an important instrument in achieving a greener grid. Nepal and Bhutan have long recognised that their prosperity is tied to the sustainable use of vast hydropower reserves. The new guidelines are a tentative first step towards the creation of a true regional market in which generators across the subcontinent compete to deliver low-cost, green energy to consumers. Since this would soften the hard borders of South Asia, it is essentially a political vision. The new guidelines are a significant step in this direction because, for the first time, they allow tripartite trading arrangements, where power generated in a country is routed over the territory of a neighbour to be consumed in a third. This is a crucial move towards the evolution of complex, multi-country market arrangements. Such markets require the construction of regional institutions that absorb the politics and manage the technicalities of electricity trade. At present, this function is managed by the Indian state because of its geographic centrality and the ready availability of institutions that manage its domestic power sector. As volumes increase and experience in regional trade grows, South Asian nations might feel the need to build joint, independent regional institutions that proffer clear and stable rules of the road. The political vision to create this felt in the new guidelines must be maintained. Jammu and Kashmir: gets first hygienic fish marketing complex January 07,2019 | Source: Greater Kashmir The first hygienic retail and wholesale fish marketing complex was on Friday thrown open for fish lovers here at Narwal. Principal secretary animal, sheep and fisheries department, DrAsgar Hassan Samoon inaugurated the market. Jammu municipal commissioner, PankajMagotra; director fisheries, RN Pandita and other officials of fisheries department, district administration and JMC, besides fish traders and customers were present on the occasion. DrSamoon said the market is equipped with all latest facilities like deep freezers, air conditioning etc. He said this market will cater to the need for sale in an organised way for the private entrepreneurs, as well as the fishermen community. DrSamoon had a detailed tour of the facility and asked for its optimal utilization. He stressed on providing best and satisfactory customer service besides providing best facilities including ice plant for preservation of fish stocks to the sellers. Saying that hygiene shall be priority, DrSamoon asked for regular monitoring of material being sold at the market. We will ensure that a dedicated team under the supervision of JMC health officer will check the food items being sold here on daily basis. Public health is our priority and it will be maintained as one of the well-organised and well-maintained fish markets in India, DrSamoon told officials. He asked officers for segregation and disposal of waste on scientific lines at the facility. The JMC commissioner assured the principal secretary of full support in dealing with the waste and other issues at the facility. DrSamoon also asked for diversifying the role of the market for ease of customers and making it model one-stop facility of food items with the introduction of meat, eggs, cheese and chicken in wholesale and retail here. A diagnosis laboratory will also be setup at the facility, he said. He asked officials and fish traders to keep different varieties of fish including famed trout fish of Kashmir for fish food lovers. Fish traders delegation thanked DrSamoon for the facility which would help the sector and boost economy of the people associated with the trade. A large number of prospective buyers had also come to buy fish on the inauguration day. Gujarat: Five Indian fishermen arrested for violating territorial waters January 07,2019 | Source: The International News The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) has arrested five Indian fishermen for violating its territorial waters and doing illegal fishing. The spokesman of the PMSA said a boat of fishermen had also been confiscated during the operation, conducted off the coast of Sindh province. The fishermen were handed over to Docks Police Station after initial investigation. In August last year, at least nine Pakistani fishermen were taken into custody by Indian Coast Guard after they allegedly crossed over to the Indian territorial waters in the Arabian Sea. The crew and boat were escorted to Okha port and were handed over to local Marine Police for further investigation. The arrests came a week after Pakistan released 26 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture before formation of the new government. Pakistan and India routinely arrest fishermen on charges of entering each others waters as the maritime boundaries between the two countries were poorly defined and many fishing boats lack technologies on locating their precise places. Bangladesh: Slaves of the sea by Mohammed Mamun Rashid January 07,2019 | Source: The Daily Star Employment in fisheries and aquaculture around the globe has grown faster than the world's population. The sector provides jobs to tens of millions and supports the livelihoods of hundreds of millions. Bangladesh, the world's largest deltaic zone, is crisscrossed by big rivers and their tributaries and distributaries. Moreover, as a land with an abundance of torrential monsoon rains, most of the plain lands remain inundated during the monsoon season, thus turning the countryside into a big reservoir of freshwater for almost half the year. These huge, inland, sweet water bodies together with the expanse of saline water in the Bay of Bengal provide the basis for a large and diversified fisheries sector. Fisheries have always played an integral role in the lives of the people of Bangladesh. It is more ancient than the profession of agriculture itself. The fisheries sector of Bangladesh contributes 3.69 percent to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and fish accounts for 60 percent of national animal protein consumption. The sector also plays an important role in rural employment generation and poverty alleviation. Traditionally, low-caste Hindus have been engaged in the fishing profession. The Jaladas (slaves of the sea) belong to the Hindu fisherfolk community which is made up of caste-bound people. In most cases, they live in segregated paras which are localities within a village. The high-caste Hindu and the Muslim aristocracy and gentry carefully avoid any social mingling with them. Traditional fishing communities, which mainly comprise Hindus, are being put under pressure by incoming Muslims who have taken up fishing as their profession. The newcomers are either self-employed or find employment as labourers. The majority of Muslims opt for fishing due to population pressure, economic constraints in agricultural sector, and adverse effects of climate change. Many elite rich men entered the fisheries sector in the 1960s. The then aristocratic Bengali word motshojibi had been introduced instead of the word jele. What is noteworthy is that the word jele is not included in fisheries act, rules, ordinance, and policy though motshojibi and mach chashi are included in such documents. According to the National Fisheries Policy 1998, about 1.2 million people were engaged in full-time work in the fisheries sector and 12 million people were engaged in part-time work. It is important to include the word jele in policy documents in order to know their number and their contribution to the national economy. It would also help us to understand their socio-economic conditions and undertake different initiatives for improving the lives and livelihoods of fishing communities. However, there is no updated information on fishermen based on para, source of fishing, religion, socio-economic conditions and position. But we do get the number of fishermen from different studies, surveys and project reports. But these things are not always consistent or continuous. According to the Coastal District Information 2005 under Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan, the majority of traditional fishermen are Hindus in 19 coastal districts. The majority of Jaladas families are in financial debt and receive short- and long-term loans from relatives, neighbours, and businessmen. Their incomes usually increase during Hilsa fishing season. The scope for savings for this community is limited. Due to their dire situation, they spend mostly on food rather than clothes and other things. It is during the off-season that they face financial crises which occur round the year. The majority of Jaladas don't own boats but nets. Some don't own either; they work in others' boats or hire boats for fishing. Many adolescent boys accompany their fathers during fishing. A few of them receive primary education but fail to continue. Fishermen don't get loan facilities from financial institutions due to a lack of mortgage-free loan provisions in government banks. The average size of many fishermen families is 5 to 7 which is higher than the national average. The rate of early marriage within this community is higher due to abject poverty and social insecurity. And youth delinquency is also a major problem. Jaladas don't own lands. They mainly live on khas (government-owned) land, embankments, and accreted char land in huts. Due to the depletion of fish, piracy, and lack of capital, these people remain stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty. They do not even have pure drinking water as they live in over-populated areas. Even though they have been in the fisheries sector for generations, they do not have a voice when it comes to policies and laws. Furthermore, they are not well-informed about clauses of the fisheries law although they are punished under this law. Jaladas believe that it is not easy for them to switch to other professions. This is a socio-psychological barrier. Some even consider themselves to be sinners as they earn a living by catching innocent fish. They identify themselves as slaves of the sea without hesitation. They also believe they are destined to carry this curse their whole life. The Jaladas community has distinct socio-economic, political, cultural, technological and informational characteristics. Water, nets, boats, rivers and the sea are central to their lives and livelihood. They are socially neglected, economically insolvent, politically pressured, culturally ill-treated, technologically backward, not up-to-date with information, and geographically isolated and vulnerable. The government of Bangladesh should address these issues pertinent to the Jaladas community in relevant sectoral policies so that these people can live with dignity and their rights protected. Going to restaurants, bars and concerts is normal for a young woman her age. However, if you prefer not to subsidize the vacations because you feel they are excessive, discuss your feelings with her before deciding what to do. DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have lived like nomads for the last few years. We have bought, sold and moved many times for all sorts of silly reasons. Our 5-year-old daughter finally started school, yet we don't feel at home here. We now realize buying and selling may not be for us, so we are renting, but we still aren't happy. We moved here to be close to my oldest and dearest friend, whose kids are now grown, and to my sister, who hardly talks to us or sees us. My husband's sister and her husband's family love us and treat us well. They have suggested we should move by them. They have kids our daughter's age. The only issue is possibly not finding a good home or school. Private school could be an option. Would another move be bad? Should we make a final move before our daughter gets vested in school and friends? It would put us within walking distance to several families we spend a lot of time with and who love us very much. We are afraid of judgment from everyone. Please help us sort it out. -- HOPEFUL NOMADS IN ILLINOIS A man tries to kidnap a woman by forcing her into his car, in north Charlotte, North Carolina. She breaks free, and runs into a nearby karate studio pleading for help. You can already see how this ends: with the suspect being carried out on a stretcher after a fight with a karate head instructor. The incident happened at 9 p.m. Thursday outside Bushiken Karate Charlotte Dojo, according to CNN affiliate WSOC and the head instructor, Randall Ephraim. WSOC reported that cops said the man tried to force the woman in his vehicle near the karate school. Ephraim told CNN he was straightening up when the woman rushed inside the studio. "There were still some kids in the dojo being picked up by parents and a couple of adult students cleaning up when a young lady came through our doors and stated that someone was trying to harm her," he told CNN. "Shortly afterward, a big male entered the building," he said. "Not knowing what he wanted, I assumed he was inquiring about classes. Several area people were injured in crashes over the weekend. A Belgrade teen was seriously injured Sunday afternoon in an accident that occurred on Top Ozark Road just east of Route C in Washington County. According to the patrol crash report, Breanna Potter, 13, of Belgrade, was driving the 2000 Ford Focus. Potter reportedly was traveling too fast for conditions and lost control of the car. The vehicle ran off the right side of the road and struck a ditch, causing it to go airborne and strike a tree. Potter, who according to the report was wearing a seat belt, received no injuries. However her passenger, Sandra Potter, 14, of Belgrade, was not wearing her seat belt and received serious injuries. She was transported to Washington County Memorial by private conveyance. Michelle Long, 45, of Bismarck, received moderate injuries in an accident on eastbound Highway 32 west of Daniels Road in Washington County on Friday morning. The Irish government is proposing rebates to a carbon tax it recently imposed to households that comply with what it considers low-carbon lifestyles. The rebate, according to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, might be in the form of a check, an increase in welfare benefits or a tax credit for people who live the way the government thinks they should. Some believe that if implemented, the rebate could reduce tensions seen in many parts of Europe, but especially in France, where the yellow vest movement that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macrons big tax increase on gasoline, since rescinded, made a gallon of petrol among the most expensive in Europe with the tax accounting for more than half the cost. Im doubtful. People dont like their governments forcing them to accept a lesser lifestyle because of an ideology some believe has yet to be definitively proved, while the elites continue to live as they like. So strong is the faith of the climate change cult that McDonalds, the worlds largest purchaser of beef, is considering meat alternatives because of alleged environmental damage from traditional farming methods, according to a story in the Financial Times. A good indication of the seriousness of the plan is the way nationalist right-wingers reacted. Breitbart crowed that the called-for reforms amounted to amnesty and warned of mass immigration, while also noting that Kochs unwillingness to back Trump in 2020. Other critics have noted, with likely accuracy, that Kochs support for immigration reform comes with an expected return on the bottom line. Its no secret, though, that the stalemate over immigration is distressing to a lot of businesses, from restaurants to farmers and food processors. They want clarity and policies that supply the labor they need. And there are more general demographic realities at play. The nation is aging. We need the higher birthrates of immigrants; we need their entrepreneurial talent and labor and spending to sustain economic growth. Our borders can be secured by streamlining processes that allow people to arrive legally. Decades-long waits are unsustainable. Republicans have made hay with their deportation theater, with their demonization of undocumented immigrants as criminals. This misses the big picture despite the payoff at the polls. Stifling immigration is not good for the country. Its the opposite. My personal estimate is that robots will play a significant role in combat inside of a decade or a decade and a half, the chief of the Army, Gen. Mark Milley, said in May at a Senate hearing where he appealed for more money to modernize the force. Milley warned that adversaries like China and Russia are investing heavily and very quickly in the use of aerial, sea and ground robots. And now, he added, we are doing the same. Such a shift will be a huge game-changer for combat, said Scharre, who credits Milleys leadership for the push. The promise of such big Pentagon investments in robotics has been a boon for U.S. defense contractors and technology startups. But the situation is murkier for firms with foreign ties. Concerns that popular commercial drones made by Chinese company DJI could be vulnerable to spying led the Army to ban their use by soldiers in 2017. And in August, the Pentagon published a report that said China is conducting espionage to acquire foreign military technologies sometimes by using students or researchers as procurement agents and intermediaries. At a December defense expo in Egypt, some U.S. firms spotted what they viewed as Chinese knock-offs of their robots. A Lower Mifflin Township man was arrested Friday and taken to Cumberland County Prison after police say he spat on police and made obscene comments to hospital staff while highly intoxicated. Around 10:15 p.m. Friday, Carlisle Police who were called to South Pitt Street near West High Street in the borough found Carlton Lamar King, 46, manifestly under the influence of alcohol, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Carlisle Police. King was unable to control his balance, had slurred speech, smelled of alcohol and was shouting obscenities, police said. A preliminary breath test showed Kings blood alcohol content was 0.351 percent, and emergency medical personnel were called to the scene to assist, police said. Blood alcohol content between 0.31 percent and 0.45 percent is considered life threatening, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. King spat in the face of a police officer while being transported to UPMC Pinnacle Carlisle, according to police. He also shouted vulgar and obscene comments to hospital staff, patients and visitors at the hospital, police said. HARRISBURG A Lancaster County teenager who lives in a regular neighborhood but keeps his steer on a friends farm on Sunday became the 103rd Pennsylvania Farm Show Junior Beef Steer Grand Champion. Michael Butz, 15, of Reinholds, won the top beef prize for youth with Bentley, a 1,320-pound crossbred who beat 58 other steers to win the prestigious award. Marissa Miller, 18, of Greenville, won reserve grand champion honors with Motley, her 1,360-pound crossbred. I got Bentley last February when he was 6 months old, said Butz, a Cocalico High School sophomore. I work with him every day after school, walking him and washing him. Hes a pretty calm steer. Butz, who lives in a development, keeps his steer on the beef cattle farm of Jeff Mitchell of Reinholds. He said he was especially pleased to win this year. Last year, he was turned away at the entrance because his steer had the wrong identification tag in his ear. Butz and Marissa Miller both expressed surprise and joy at winning the awards, with the reserve winner calling Motley sassy, just like I am! Their steers, along with other market steers, swine, sheep, goats and rabbits, will be sold at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Sale of Champions in the Small Arena. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Abidjan, January 7, 2019Gabons government on Monday morning shut down the internet and broadcasting services following an attempted coup against President Ali Bongo, according to digital rights groups Netblocks, and Internet Without Borders, news reports, and local journalists and civil society organizations with whom the Committee to Protect Journalists spoke. Shutting down the internet and broadcasting services during times of crisis makes it impossible for journalists to carry out their work efficiently and safely. Citizens are robbed of access to the reliable information that they need to make decisions, said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal from New York. We call on authorities in Gabon to immediately and fully restore access to the internet and lift all restrictions on broadcasting. According to research by Internet Without Borders, internet traffic from Gabon fell sharply at around 8:00 a.m. local time, indicating the beginning of an outage. Eric Mbog Matassi, a local journalist, told CPJ that the internet remained shut down on Monday evening. Radio and television services had yet to be restored by late Monday, Matassi and Georges Mpaga, the spokesperson for the local civil society organization Le Reseau des organisations libres de la societe civile pour la bonne gouvernance au Gabon, told CPJ. Soldiers took control of the national radio stations offices at dawn on Monday and called on the public to rise up against Bongo, 59, who has been recuperating abroad after suffering a stroke in Saudi Arabia in October, according to reports by Bloomberg and Reuters. Gabons government put down the coup attempt, according to multiple news reports. Government spokesperson Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told the BBC that the government had taken back control of the area around the state broadcaster and said the situation was under control following a string of arrests. As elected officials, we are reminded that our obligation and our allegiance are to the people of this state, not any political leader or party. That is the promise and the spirit of our service, Evers said. Evers also proclaimed that we must turn the page on the tired politics of the past. Its time to remake and repair our state and to reclaim our better history, he said. Kaul, whos succeeding Republican Brad Schimel, set a more pugnacious tone with a forceful message to Republican lawmakers who curtailed the powers of his office and the governors office in a lame-duck session last month. Kaul described the move as unprecedented, saying it is designed to hinder our ability to do the jobs that the voters elected us to do. But I want to make clear that, irrespective of the action taken by the lame-duck legislature, the priorities of the Wisconsin Department of Justice are changing, Kaul said. Environment and consumer protection Democrat Tony Evers, who will be sworn into office as governor Monday, promises that he will seek civility and work together with Republicans, saying voters showed their displeasure with partisan politics when they rejected Gov. Scott Walker. Evers will become Wisconsins 46th governor at a ceremony that will see Democrats sworn into every statewide constitutional office. Republicans will maintain their majorities in the Senate and Assembly, setting up the potential for gridlock not seen in the state in more than a decade. Walker and Republicans had complete control the past eight years. Before that, Democrats had full control for two years. Evers, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his inauguration message will focus on hope for the future and bridging the partisan divide. The state schools superintendent since 2009, Evers said he recognizes that hes not liberal enough for some Democrats itching for revenge after eight years with Walker as governor. But Evers said he knows that to Republicans in charge of the Legislature, he is seen as the most liberal governor thats ever walked the face of the earth, or the face of Wisconsin. Its refreshing to move away from some of the more partisan and political appointees weve seen in the past toward a cabinet focused on being problem-solvers that can work together, Shilling said. Liberal activists looking for staunchly left-wing pedigrees in Evers Cabinet wont find many. But Grace Wagner, a spokeswoman for the group Our Wisconsin Revolution, which formed out of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign in the state, said her group is nonetheless pleased by what it has seen so far. She said they point to Evers hope for cooperation and a bipartisan era for the state of Wisconsin. Were certainly encouraged by the diversity and the experience level of the people he has appointed, Wagner said. Six of Evers Cabinet picks so far are women and three are people of color four if you add his choice to succeed him as state superintendent, Carolyn Stanford Taylor. That compares to Walkers first-term Cabinet picks, of whom three were women and two were people of color. Peer-to-peer support is also far cheaper than hospitalization, Laird said, and it may save states and communities money in the long run. Monarch House doesnt medically treat mental health crises or substance abuse emergencies, but its a good bridge to people who dont need that intensive treatment, Welle said. Prior to these respites, there were really only two choices. You could stay home and deal with things that youre going through on your own or having to go to the hospital, Laird said. And for a lot of people, thats really too intensive. Hospitals are vital, but are designed to stabilize a crisis instead of giving much one-on-one support, Laird said. In a hospital, those struggling with mental health may not be allowed to leave for one or two days. They may miss work or classes, a ripple effect that can cause lost wages. At Monarch House, those same people have the freedom to come and go, work if they wish and most importantly, talk to people who have experienced similar struggles, Welle said. This is a place where people can get a short respite and hopefully get some tools they can take back to their life and implement, Welle said. Welle compared Monarch House to mutual aid. Over more than half a century of occupation, Israel has mastered the arts of monitoring and surveilling millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. Israel is now packaging and selling this knowledge to governments that admire the countrys ability to suppress and manage resistance. Israels occupation has thus gone global. The countrys defense exports reached a record $9.2 billion in 2017, 40 percent higher than in 2016 (in a global arms market that recorded its highest ever sales in 2017 at $398.2 billion). The majority of these sales were in Asia and the Pacific region. Military hardware, such as missiles and aerial defenses, was the largest sector at 31 percent, while intel, cyber, and information systems comprised 5 percent. Israels industry is supported by lavish domestic spending: in 2016, defense expenditure represented 5.8 percent of the countrys GDP. By comparison, in 2017, the American defense sector absorbed 3.6 percent of US GDP. Premier Scott Moe apologized Monday for Saskatchewan's role in the Sixties Scoop. "There is nothing that we can offer that can fully restore what you have lost," Moe said, standing with Indigenous leaders from across the province in the lobby of the Legislative Building in Regina. "What we can offer is the solemn assurance is that government policies have changed." The Sixties Scoop saw saw tens of thousands of Indigenous children across Canada taken from their families and adopted out across the country and the world, mostly to white families, between the 1960s and the 1980s. Dozens of people, many of them survivors, packed into the legislative rotunda to hear Moe's comments. "I feel mixed about it," said survivor and social work professor Noela Crowe-Salazar. "It's good to hear the apology, and it's important for the province to do it, but I would imagine that most people in the province don't know exactly what this means and don't understand the full history of it." Crowe-Salazar said many of her university-level students haven't heard about the Sixties Scoop, and that needs to change. "Most of the students say that's the first time they've heard most of the history," she said. "Your average Canadian doesn't know that history." She also wanted to see reform of the current child welfare system. Crowe-Salazar said there are thousands of indigenous children in the social services system and that many of them will suffer similar effects of children caught up in the Sixties Scoop. "It has to stop," she said. "They can't keep taking children into care." Not in favour While he danced at the event, survivor Rod Belanger said he remains opposed to the apology. "I'm not in favour of the apology at this time. I'm doing this because I'm wanting our people to get back a part of their voice," Belanger said. Story continues In the fall, the province joined with the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan (SSISS) to hold sharing circles before the long-promised apology took place. The SSISS made a number of recommendations to the province and within weeks the province announced it would deliver the apology. Belanger, 57, a member of the SSISS, was taken away at about age three. He was fostered by a white family, and said he experienced physical abuse and ended up in a group home at age 12. Belanger met his birth mother and sister when they showed up at a neighbourhood pool in Regina. "I was a little bit shocked seeing my mother and sister standing before me," Belanger said. Bryan Eneas/CBC He eventually met his father and other relatives. "There is a honeymoon stage when we are reunited with our families, and then we find out we're totally different people." He said there are some fairytale endings for survivors who reunite with their birth families, but they're not the norm. Belanger said his difficult upbringing led him to crime and incarceration. He was saved when he got involved in traditional dance, he said. Apology almost split survivor group Belanger said the SSISS leadership almost split during the course of eight sharing circles for survivors that were held across Saskatchewan. "Half of us felt they were going to get something out of the apology, and half of us felt 'this is a bunch of bullshit,'" he said. "The apology is a huge controversy right now." He said the government needs more time to realize what has happened and understand what it is apologizing for. Bryan Eneas/CBC News Hearing the apology 'not easy' Melissa Parkyn considers herself lucky compared with other Sixties Scoop survivors. "I've heard lots of stories, and I was lucky to grow up in a good home, but just the only thing was losing my culture and my language and that identity loss. It took a lot of work for me to work on myself and who I was," said Parkyn, co-chair of the SSISS. Parkyn was born in North Battleford, one of 14 kids to a single mother. She was adopted out as part of the Sixties Scoop at six months and grew up in Alberta. She was raised by a white family. Parkyn found her birth family when she was 18. "I didn't know I was Cree. I didn't know my First Nations background, my culture, my language," said Parkyn. She said she knows hearing the apology "is not going to be easy." Parkyn said many survivors could not attend the sharing circles; others struggled to tell their painful stories. "There were some that couldn't even walk through the door. They felt it was so hard to tell their stories. They just handed over a letter; that's how hard it was to walk inside and tell their story." She said others chose not to attend and some don't want the apology at all. "There are still lots of Sixties Scoop survivors that never came home. And if they did find their way home, they didn't have a chance to meet their family or they're still looking. It's really hard for them to bring up their stories because they're so tragic, and the abuse was not good at all." Both Parkyn and Belanger want the province's actions to extend past the formal apology. Their recommendations include hosting more sharing circles, adding the Sixties Scoop to school curriculum and releasing apprehension records. Saskatchewan is the third province to issue an apology, following Manitoba and Alberta. In May, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley delivered her apology. She closed by saying sorry in seven Indigenous languages. By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon foiled an attempted military coup on Monday, killing two suspected plotters and capturing seven others just hours after they took over state radio in a bid to end 50 years of rule by President Ali Bongo's family. Government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou announced the deaths and arrests after soldiers briefly seized the radio station and broadcast a message saying Bongo was no longer fit for office after suffering a stroke in Saudi Arabia in October. The quick failure of Monday's coup and the lack of widespread support suggest further efforts to overthrow Bongo are unlikely, analysts said. But the attempt alone shows a growing frustration with a government weakened by the President's secretive medical leave. On Dec. 31, in one of his first television appearances since the stroke, Bongo, 59, slurred his speech and he appeared unable to move his right arm. It is unclear if he is able to walk. He has been in Morocco since November to continue treatment. In a radio message at 4:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, who described himself as an officer in the Republican Guard, said Bongo's New Year's Eve address "reinforced doubts about the president's ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office". Outside the radio station, loyalist soldiers fired teargas to disperse about 300 people who had come out into the streets to support the coup attempt, a Reuters witness said. Helicopters circled overhead and there was a strong military and police presence on the streets. Most of the beachside capital was quiet, however, and a government spokesman said the situation was under control after the arrests. Residents said Internet access was cut. "The government is in place. The institutions are in place," Mapangou told France 24. The Bongo family has ruled the oil-producing country since 1967. Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009. His re-election in 2016 was marred by claims of fraud and violent protest. The economy was long buoyed by oil revenues, much of which went to a moneyed elite while most of the two-million population live in deep poverty. In Libreville, expensive western hotels overlook the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the capital's hillside shanties to the east. A sharp drop in oil output and prices in recent years has squeezed revenues, raised debt and stoked discontent. Oil workers' strikes have become more common. Economic growth was 2 percent last year, down from over 7 percent in 2011. The coup indicates "broad socio-economic and political frustration with Gabon's leadership, which has been weakened by the suspected incapacitation of its strongman president," Exx Africa Business Risk Intelligence said in a report. The international community condemned the coup attempt, including former colonial ruler France which urged its 8,900 citizens registered in Gabon to avoid moving around Libreville. "Gabon's stability can only be ensured in strict compliance with the provisions of its constitution," French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said. African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat reaffirmed "the AU's total rejection of all unconstitutional changes of power." DISPUTED ELECTION In a video on social media, Ondo is seen in a radio studio wearing military fatigues and a green beret as he reads the statement. Two other soldiers with rifles stand behind him. Ondo said the coup attempt was by a group called the Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon against "those who, in a cowardly way, assassinated our young compatriots on the night of August 31, 2016," a reference to violence after Bongo was declared winner of a disputed election. Bongo won the poll by fewer than 6,000 votes, sparking deadly clashes between protesters and police during which the parliament was torched. "President Bongos record as defense minister under his father lowers the possibility that current military leadership is supportive of his ouster," said Judd Devermont of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. France has a permanent force of 300 soldiers in Gabon. The United States also sent about 80 soldiers to Gabon last week in response to possible violence in Democratic Republic of Congo after a presidential election there. Foreign governments have often suspected Bongo and members of his government of corruption, accusations they have denied. During his father's rule, Gabon was a pillar of "La Francafrique", a web of influence that gave French companies favored access to African autocrats. Gabons dollar-denominated sovereign debt tumbled in early trading, with both outstanding bonds losing around 3 cents in the dollar. However, prices recovered in late morning, with bonds trading around half a cent lower. (Additional reporting by David Lewis, Maggie Fick, Ange Aboa and Karin Strohecker; Writing by Aaron Ross and Edward McAllister; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean) German foreign minister Heiko Maas speaks at a press conference in Germany. Photo: Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images With the clock ticking down to the parliamentary vote on Theresa Mays Brexit agreement, Germany and Ireland are keen to figure out how to support the British prime minister as she pushes to get her deal approved. Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar traveled to Munich last week to meet with members of German chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democrats. The Guardian reports that Varadkar also had a 40-minute phone call with Merkel earlier in the week, which he said was to kind of brainstorm a bit as to what we could do to assist [May] in securing ratification of the withdrawal agreement. Varadkars efforts will be reciprocated when German foreign minister Heiko Maas arrives in Dublin on Tuesday to speak at a conference of Irish diplomats. A German foreign office spokesman told journalists in Berlin on Monday morning that Brexit was one of the international topics that would be discussed in Dublin, but declined to give any further concrete information about whether the two countries had a specific initiative in mind. The Guardian reports that any so-called fix being debated between Ireland and Germany would not entail tweaking the current withdrawal agreement, but rather focus on the details of the future relationship of the European Union and Britain. The German foreign minister has been adamant that there is no chance that the UK will be allowed to renegotiate the current backstop solution for Northern Ireland contained in the Brexit agreement. There is no basis for rewriting this agreement, and nothing will change that, Maas said in the Bundestag, noting that Germany would continue preparing for a hard Brexit, as long as the agreement went unsigned. Maas expressed relief that May had won the December confidence vote on her party leadership in an interview with Deutschlandfunk, saying it had averted total chaos over the UKs exit from the European Union. But he ruled out any changes to the Brexit agreement, saying Brussels had already extended a lot of goodwill in accommodating the British government. Security personnel sits behind the bullet-proof window at the headquarters of Germanys BSI national cyber defence body in Bonn, Germany, January 4, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo Germanys interior minister Horst Seehofer is under attack for the handling of a huge data leak which affected 1,000 politicians, including chancellor Angela Merkel and president Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The still-unknown hacker, or hackers, had been posting lawmakers and celebrities phone numbers, private messages, ID- and credit card details on Twitter in the run up to Christmas, in a type of daily Advent calendar. All the main political parties were targeted, except for the right-wing Alternative for Germany. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said it had been aware that some politicians had been hacked early in the month, but then agency boss Arne Schonbohm said they had only learned about the full scope of the breach last week. That the BSI may have known about some part of a breach early in December and bungled its response by failing to take it seriously enough has outraged politicians, and turned the spotlight on Seehoferthe BSI in part of his ministry. Seehofer told the Suddeutsche Zeitung that he had not been aware of the breach before Friday, and will meet with the BSI and the criminal police on Monday (Jan 7), with the aim of issuing a full, public explanation by the middle of this week. Seehofer has been criticised for not already having a handle on the situation. Lars Klingbeil, secretary-general of the Social Democrats, who govern in coalition with Merkels Christian Democrats, said that the ministry needed to offer clarity on which of the agencies knew what and when. This should be a priority for Horst Seehofer. Its about protecting our democracy, Klingbeil said. Seehofer, whose antagonism of Merkel kept the government in a state of instability during 2018, now finds himself on the defensive yet again, just a few months after he backed his domestic spy chief Hans-Georg Maasen over his assertion that videos of far-right riots in September could be fake news. Seehofer initially moved the spy chief into a role that was effectively a promotion, but was forced to fire him two months later for making controversial remarks. German public broadcaster ARD reported today that the Federal Criminal Police had raided the home of a 19-year-old IT worker in Heilbronn, Baden-Wurttemberg on Sunday, and confiscated his computer equipment. The man, known only as Jan S., told ARDs Kontraste show that he was being treated as a witness; he had claimed on Twitter that hed been in contact with the hacker 0rbit, believed to be behind the doxxing attack. He said he had been forbidden to make further comment on the investigation. Opinion / Columnist Proper Research and Development Allocation of National Resources Taskforce Is Key Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo writes in his personal capacity as an academic, project consultant and development practitioner and he is studying Doctor of Philosophy at Women's University of Africa (WUA), in the area of development (PhD), he can be contacted at tinamuzala@gmail.com From my own assessment and analysis it is important as an academic to make such recommendations and submissions basing on factual writings and credible information to improve the performance of governance and enhance development. As a development practitioner, it is critical for any institution or organization to come up with a competent public relations for the benefit of the organization. Public relations is important to improve the reputation of an organization and building the firm's image. They are experts in the development sector who focuses on capacity building. Most companies invest much time and resources as one of their strategies to improve the firm's image. The so-called new dispensation was supposed to have put up a budget or allocate resources for such a crucial project. In fact it must be labeled a project or "task", which must have deliverables. Public relations are about sending the right messages to the right places and people, to build your brand reputation. PR agencies work alongside clients industry and promote them. PR is an area that can change the face of the project or firm with good projections in future. PR can make or break a company- giving it the power to overcome almost any obstacle. Public relations improves the "credibility" by playing a huge role. A lack of trust could mean that a brand loses opportunities for sales.Looking at the Zim Government, was this done? What has been done so far to improve the credibility of the country or Government? If you remember very well, majority of Zimbabweans lost millions of dollars during Gideon Gono's era, and it is still in people's minds, yes alas we have a new Finance Minister but still, we are singing from the same hymnal. The major problem is that the public relation for Zim Government hasn't improved and still lacks credibility. So what the Government is supposed to do as a way of doing business they have to hire experts in the Public Relations area to deal with the issue of credibility. Our Government of today is associated with farm invasions which is still in people's minds, the issue of Murambatsvina, and other political tensions and toxic incidents. What needs to be done, is to work on the image of the Government. Some of the key positions in the Government were supposed to be offered to people in civic society, media experts, finance experts and other competent personnel so as to increase the Government's image. Public relations changes the way people think about you. For example as we speak, social media is flooded with people who attack Government, senior officials, political leadership across political divide, so instead of retaliation, Government must use this team, to explain the roles of Government, Government programs and its efficiency and effectiveness. Currently, the team occupying information ministry are not doing enough and I think, leadership must re-visit this area quickly and make it a priority. Instead of using propaganda to defend, Government actions there must be a strong team to manage such scenarios. Why should the Government struggle to manage people on social media when they have a competent team on social media? During my stay in Zambia as an academic, I had a case study on how PF media practitioners operate? PF media team is well managed and headed by Sunday Chanda. They have done a good job to market Government programs. My suggestion is instead of ministers becoming too arrogant on twitter, they must consider sending teams for proper research in neighboring countries such as South Africa, Botswana and Kenya for competence purposes. So far it's not pleasing at all. Arrogance won't pay but rather causes fissures and tensions amongst citizens. If you look at countries were uprisings have been effected, the major cause is arrogance and failure to take heed of issues affecting people. These days there is social media which can easily spread information.I like the way, Advocate Chasi responds to people on social media, the barrister is level headed, calm and patient, despite attacks, he has done tremendously well. I for see a situation were popular civil disturbances may come to shape if a proper PR department is not put in place. No need for propaganda, it is a thing of the past, just select or look for a proper team which can do the best and sell ideas of Government programs. I watched the presser done by V.P Chiwenga, again PR did not do its work, and this caused so many fissures and different perceptions. Public Relations is also key because, it raises the authority of the Government, build relations with key people and managing reputations. Look at how people are degenerating the President even opposition leaders? It is not because he is not talking sense rather but it is because PR has to be put into practice. Mugabe and Mnangagwa are different, their facial expressions, gestures and outlooks are totally different, and people tent to rate using previous perceptions, so what needs to be done is to manage perceptions and this is what development personnel can do, for the benefit of the country. Sometimes, PR is being confused with marketing and importance of public relations is overlooked. The aim of PR is to inform the public, including your potential international partners and creditors. Those who are in charge of selling Zimbabwe in the information ministry are not doing their best except to be arrogant, attacking people on social media and making funny gestures. Never underestimate the power of people, information is power. Instead of attacking people, share critical information. The information team is not doing anything meaningful except arrogance, and such actions will on result in rebellion or causing unnecessary fissures and tensions between Government and citizens. Government must learn from the past during Mugabe's tenure when such arrogance was practice by his arrogant team which did not pay heed to people's call.Some of the key major decisions in Government are not inspiring basing on the findings and conclusions on certain aspects. For example what happened to Dema project? How much did the Government lose? Did the Government make a proper research? What happened to Kunzvi dam project? What happened to Zambezi water trust project? What happened to the previous deal which the Government clinched on Beitbridge Chirundu project which was projected at 1 billion (USD)? What happened to ZISCO steel (ESSAR) deal? What happened to Chiadzwa diamonds which were estimated at 60 billion? Government must make use of its human resource personnel to come up with proper research. We have the best human resource personnel in the region. Research is an act of studying something carefully and thoroughly so as to obtain deep knowledge in the same. To be successful, research needs to be organized, summarized and recorded correctly. Findings should be submitted as they and then recommendations must be made public. Research is not just a process which is restricted to the field of science, it can as well appeal to academics, business community, scholars, policy makers, politicians and political leadership. For example before the 2% tax threshold was put in place, there was need for proper research. I'm aware that Government wants to introduce dollarization (USD), but then was proper research done even before eroding the bond notes from the market? We have come up with wrong decisions basing on assumptions and guess work. Economic decisions should be based on proper competent research with qualified personnel. On Government policies, research offers the foundation for almost all Government policies, in our economic system. For example Government budgets rest in part of analysis of requirements of people and on the availability of revenues to fulfill those requirements. The expense of needs should be equated to possible revenues and this is an area where research is most needed. Through proper research we can easily develop alternative policies and can well take a look at the effects of each of these options.Budgetary concerns must be based on proper research. For example allocating 900 million to ministry of Agriculture was basing on what? Was it on assumptions or for political reasons? The Government has to prepare programs for coping with all elements of the country's existence and most of these will be associated directly or indirectly to economic conditions. The plight of cultivators, the difficulties faced by big and small enterprises and industry, working conditions, trade union activities, the challenge distribution, even the size and character of defense services are issues which require research. Thus research is mandatory with regard to the allocation of nation's resources. Analysis of economic structure is important and essential for accumulating of data on the economic and social structure of the country. This type of information reveals what exactly is going on in the economy, and what adjustments are taking place. Gathering such statistical data involves a number of research problems. I was earlier disappointed during my tenure as a researcher in 2016, when I was doing some studies on the " EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE", I went to the statistics office and I was shocked to find out that their latest data was 2013 information. If Government can rely on such information can be so damaging.There is need for a taskforce which must tackle economic matters. It is of public knowledge that there is a cabinet in place, but majority of cabinet ministers are there on political inclinations basing on their political constituencies. There is need for a proper taskforce to be put in place which can deal with re-engagement issues, bilateral issues, investments, empowerment laws, and research, academic, legal and policy frameworks, and this is important for every nation to accomplish its own goals. Academics, policy makers, business community, politicians, researchers should comprise of this taskforce. This taskforce must be an independent one comprising of non-partisan people who must make decisions based on factual findings. Opinion / Columnist Don Chigumba is a mixed methods research specialist can be found on twitter @Donchigumba I am neither here to attack Strive Masiyiwa nor defend him but some issues raised by Prof Jonathan Moyo are pertinent. I am anxious to see how Masiyiwa is going to cleanse himself. The cold war between the two reached climax by the response of Prof Jonathan Moyo of 07/01/2019. The purpose of this piece is to elaborate the key points so that people off twitter can be enlightened as well.Prof Jonathan Moyo is a strong character and always stand by whatever he says. He has been speaking the truth since the time that he left the ministry of information and publicity docket. I am convinced that most of his accusations against Strive Masiyiwa can be true. There is a sense among the opposition supporters that Masiyiwa has been bullying them (of late) because of his financial muscles.Prof Moyo alleged that Strive Masiyiwa has been an underground member of the Lacoste wing of ZANU PF party which he claimed to have been a brainchild of the current president ED Mnangagwa. He went on to say that president ED Mnangagwa was behind the creation of Econet but Masiyiwa managed to overpower (fellow ZANU PF Lacoste businessmen) and gained total control of the telecom business.Prof Moyo claimed that, it was not because of championing human rights that Strive Masiyiwa fell out of the former president Mugabe's favor. The bad blood was ignited by a shoddy work that was done by Masiyiwa's company called Retrofit in the rural area of Zvimba. Is it true that Strive Masiyiwa owns such company? Is it true that he had such kinds of business ties with the first family? It is not a crime for Strive Masiyiwa to have such kinds of business relationships with the first family, but may be problematic if indeed the relationship was underground.Prof Moyo claimed that, Strive Masiyiwa's company gave ZANU PF $45 million to fund the runoff elections of 2008 and the money was used to by grains. In 2013, Prof Moyo alleged that Masiyiwa's company gave ZANU PF $60 million to fund 2013 elections behind the back of then minister of finance Tendai Biti. Another arrangement was made by Lacoste wing on behalf of the government and $30 million was dished out by Masiyiwa's company to pay civil servants.Prof Moyo claimed that, the license of Econet was almost cancelled because of the damning report produced by CIO highlighting the shoddy deals that the company was involved in. It was alleged that the company was forgiven because of the history of monetary contribution to ZANU PF by Strive Masiyiwa. This allegation sounds to be serious and criminal (if true). Is it true that Econet has been involved in corrupt and criminal games? An investigation may be needed to ascertain what expired between Econet and CIO investigation.If the alleged cash transfers are true, Strive Masiyiwa should repent, pray and ask for forgiveness from God and the late Morgan Tsvangirai. Strive Masiyiwa should stop silencing fellow citizens because of his financial muscles. I often heard him saying I did that. I did this.. while trying to silence his critics. Strive Masiyiwa should come out clean on Prof Moyo's allegations. News / National by Staff reporter Some parents at Chinhoyi High School with the help of a named Member of Parliament are resisting the fee hike, accusing the school authorities of unilateralism.Government has given some schools them green light to increase their tuition fees and levies to enable them to survive the harsh economic climate.The fee increases, approved on a case-by-case basis, compound pressures on struggling parents and guardians whose earnings are being eroded daily by the rising cost of living.In a letter to the provincial education director dated January 7, the aggrieved parents said while they appreciate the need to review fees upwards in view of the economic environment, "our school management has not been analytical as they took a firefighting approach by isolating affected parents in the decision-making and budget formulation".The parents are allegedly being sponsored by Zanu PF MP for Magunje Cecil Kashiri whose child is also a learner at Chinhoyi High.Kashiri told the Daily News yesterday that he was merely playing his role as a parent."I have a son at the school and would not want to antagonise anybody there but there are issues at the school and as an MP and parent at the same time, I am only playing my representative and oversight role," Kashiri said adding that he had engaged the school authorities on the matter.In the letter which Kashiri confirmed to be part of, the parents want an extraordinary meeting to be held at the school to reconsider the issue of fees. News / National by Staff reporter Members of the Apex Council, which brings together unions in the civil service, will today meet representatives of government in a crucial meeting that will discuss civil servants' working conditions and their remuneration.While the Apex Council has agreed to meet its employer today, its leadership is adamant that government should fulfil its demand to be paid in foreign currency or face the heat as the civil servants down tools.Apex Council acting president Thomas Muzondo told the Daily News yesterday that they expect government to provide solutions to the multiplicity of challenges facing them.He said their employer should also call for an urgent meeting of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) after its meeting of December 7, 2018 was abandoned because government was clueless on how to address its demands."Civil servants will not return to work as long as they are incapacitated due to meagre salaries being received in the form of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payments when goods and services in the country are being charged in United States dollars (USDs)," he said.Last Friday, acting Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister July Moyo called a meeting between government and representatives of public service staff associations scheduled for today.The meeting will take place in Harare at 1000hrs at NSSA Building."This meeting is part of the commitment of government to engage with all its employees in pursuit of developing common positions in relation to the improvement of employee salaries and generally resolve any matters that impact their conditions of service," Moyo said in a statement.Invitations were extended to members of the Apex Council and all registered public service staff associations.Government will be represented by the acting Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister; Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube; Primary and Secondary Education minister Paul Mavima; Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development minister Amon Murwira and the Public Service Commission chairperson Vincent Hungwe.Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) secretary-general Tapson Sibanda yesterday said teachers have resolved not to return to work on school opening tomorrow as they are incapacitated and have no means of getting to their work stations."Come school opening, we are not going back until we are paid in USDs," Sibanda said.He added that the union will indeed attend today's meeting although it does not have high expectations on the outcome of the indaba. News / National by Staff reporter Musician Clive Malunga has expressed ambitions of getting into politics, eyeing the Norton parliamentary seat in the next election that is due in 2023.Malunga, who has taken a back seat in the country's music industry, said he would not be joining any new political party as he has always been Zanu-PF.The Nesango hit maker told the Daily News that he will be using politics as a stepping stone to get into the system and make a meaningful contribution to the arts sector."I have not been concentrating much on music because I was studying, that is why I have not been in the limelight."I do not want to fall into the trap of many artistes who went down with nothing to their name after relying entirely on music. Our music industry is not lucrative, so education is very important," Malunga said"For us to see the change we want in the music industry, we should get in the system. We need to be a voice from within, especially as far as piracy is concerned."How many more years is it going to take to see harsh laws being implemented against piracy.""This is why I would like to get into politics, and my return to the country's music scene will depend on my entry into the system."There is nothing that the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe is doing now, and there is nothing that the ministry is doing now for the arts industry."The minister should have come to our arts centres to engage but nothing like that has ever happened."Malunga said with his education, he will be competent enough for positions in government and in Parliament.He has so far enrolled for a Master of Business Administration after several diplomas and certificates from various institutes in Financial Management, Marketing, Leadership Studies among others."I am a product of the current leadership and currently I am assessing their strengths and weaknesses. Leadership doesn't belong to an individual. We can all be leaders and I want to ask the people if they will accept me to lead them."If people think I can be a good leader, that will be good. I think I have already shown that I can be a good leader because I have spearheaded a lot of projects," Malunga told the Daily News."I did the Jenaguru Festival, and there was a time I sponsored tombstones for late fellow musicians. We are currently paying school fees for students under Jenaguru."So you cannot just come out of nowhere and say you want to be a leader with no track record.""I was born in the Nharira area which is in Norton so I cannot go and want to represent any other people." News / National by Mandla Ndlovu We publish the full statement below: Exiled former G40 Kingpin Jonathan Moyo has come out guns blazing against telecoms guru Strive Masiyiwa. In a series of Twitter thread Moyo revealed how Masiyiwa has always been a staunch supporter of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Moyo also exposed how Masiyiwa funded the bloody 2008 run off elections and the 2018 ZANU PF campaign.The self-righteous outburst by Strive Masiyiwa, supported by his fellow bible-quoting juntapreneurs, in response to a polite and genuine concern by Dewa Mavhinga reveals he holds himself as an untouchable who is beyond criticism. Yet his closet is full of despicable skeletons.Strive Masiyiwa has escaped scrutiny, thanks to Zimbabwe's flawed public discourse which has never been about facts, truth or ideas but about "good guys" versus "bad guys"; presumed to be such by definition, not by deed. So Zimbabwe, sadly, has no culture of truth-telling.When Strive Masiyiwa was caught with his pants down after defending his wife's indefensible outburst, smearing some human rights groups; he responded with an outburst smearing Dewa Mavhinga, labelling him a bad guy, inciting Human Rights Watch to fire him, while posturing as Mr Good Guy.Taking himself to be "the good guy of them all" and presuming his critics to be bad guys, Strive Masiyiwa went berserk. For calling him out on his uncouth attack on Dewa Mavhinga, he smeared me with false and defamatory allegations, laced with epithets; best handled by lawyers.The issue about Strive Masiyiwa, as it is about anyone else, is not whether he's a good or bad guy but whether his deeds match his self-righteous claims. Is he the champion of human rights and democracy, that he claims to be? If he is, does that make him a God above criticism?For the avoidance of doubt, it must be acknowledged upfront that Strive Masiyiwa has supported worthy philanthropic initiatives in and outside Zimbabwe for the benefit of society. This commendable support should be appreciated in its own right, as an inherently good thing!All things considered, Strive Masiyiwa is a bundle of falsehoods: he lies about his feats and failures of others, with reckless abandon. He lies that Econet is the biggest employer in Zimbabwe when government is. Small businesses are also employing more and well, as a sector!Strive Masiywa's biggest lie is his claim that he's a champion of human rights and democracy. There's no known or respected institution in Zimbabwe dedicated to the promotion of human rights & democracy in the country created by or from Masiyiwa's philanthropy. None.Strive Masiyiwa owned the Daily News, as a political investment to massage his political ambitions and not to promote democracy with a free & professional press. Edited by the ever reckless Geoff Nyarota. Masiyiwa's Daily News distinguished itself by publishing falsehoods!The difference between Masiyiwa's Daily News run down by Nyarota and today's Daily News, is like that of day and night. The former was a political pamphlet and the latter is a newspaper. But this is a story for another time. Suffice to say Masiyiwa is an enemy of press freedom.Over the years, Strive Masiyiwa and his fellow juntapreneurs have conflated the fight for democracy and human rights with their personal fights against former President Mugabe. For them, to be anti-Mugabe became synonymous with being a champion of human rights and democracy!Strive Masiyiwa's fight with Mugabe did not originate from any concerns he had about lack of democracy & human rights in Zimbabwe but hail from a contractual dispute over a shoddy job that Masiyiwa's Retrofit company did at the former President's rural home in Zvimba.Recently Strive Masiyiwa declared that Mnangagwa is "sincere", signalling his support for the Harare junta. He capped this by calling for the removal of Zidera sanctions. Masiyiwa is fully entitled to his views, as is anyone else. But his views invite public questions.When Strive Masiyiwa says Mnangagwa is sincere, is he himself sincere? And when he calls for the removal of sanctions, having been party to their imposition in 2001, is he sincere that their targeted objectives for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe have been achieved?Parenthetically, and given his loud claims that he has supported MDC in his self-proclaimed quest for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe, which party did Strive Masiyiwa support in the July 2018 elections? What explains his loud silence on the Army atrocities of 1 Aug 2018When and how did Strive Mayisiwa start working with Mnangagwa to know he is "sincere"? Is it from their Zambian days? Or their IBDC days? Or their 2008 runoff days? Or their 2013 election days or their 2018 election days? Or is it all these days plus some more in between?As former President Mugabe's right hand man until the 2017 coup, Mnangagwa abused his closeness to Mugabe to groom a cohort of political & business cronies for his ambitions. He went about this in a tribal, regional and Zambian way. A key product of this group is Masiyiwa!It's not by accident that Econet was created by some up and coming businessmen around Mnangagwa, including Strive Masiyiwa who later was alleged to have cheated the others out. While Masiyiwa has supported the MDC, his horse has always been a Mnangagwa led ZanuPF faction!That Strive Masiyiwa did not support MDC's 2018 election campaign and that, after the stolen election he said Mnangagwa is "sincere"; testify to his longstanding support for Mnangagwa. In 2008, Masiyiwa gave ZanuPF USD45m to purchase grain used in the Army-run runoff poll!On the back of the 2008 runoff grain scheme, in 2013 Masiyiwa's Econet joined Mbada Diamonds to give ZanuPF some $60m to fund the organisation and conduct of the 2013 elections, outside treasury then run by Tendai Biti. Mnangagwa and Chinamasa were the instrumental hands.In 2015 Strive Masiyiwa's schemed with Patrick Chinamasa, then a staunch Mnangagwa ally, to get $30m from Econet to pay salaries for civil servants through a dubious arrangement, whose backdrop was the longstanding relationship between Masiyiwa and Mnangagwa!There are many under cover dealings invloving Masiyiwa and Mnangagwa's Army faction, since 2008 after a damning CIO report on Econet, that almost got its license withdrawn only to be saved by monetary authorities, who cited many cases of Masiyiwa's cooperation with ZanuPF!Strive Masiyiwa claims to be a champion of press freedom and supports this with reference to his ownership of the Daily News. But his relationship with the press is terribly bad. In 2015 his Econet connived with the Police to raid and ransack The SourceZW offices computers!As a bondnote billionaire, Strive Masiyiwa fancies himself as a big fish. But he's in a small pond. Hard currency millionaires in bigger ponds with lots of big fish don't behave like him. It's time the other founders of #Econet got the justice they have been long denied. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Deputy Minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services has defended the widely condemned situation that saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Acting President Constantino Guvheya Nyikadzino Dominic Chiwenga being in office at the same time.President Mnangagwa is supposed to be on leave but he cut short his to deal with a number of issues affecting the country.Said Mutodi, "Having a President and an Acting President at the same time is like having rainfall and sunshine at once."There was a time when a sitting Head of State wouldn't stomach anyone acting in his vicinity but that's now in the past. With President Mnangagwa, the once impossible is now possible."When President Mnangagwa announced that he is resuming his duties, speculation went rife that he did not trust Chiwenga to deal with the doctors strike and other issues bedevilling the country.When Chiwenga failed to deal with the doctors Mnangagwa deployed his wife the First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa to deal with the doctors. After meeting them the doctors pledged to go back to work and on Monday the government announced that doctors have gone back to work.Recently a Bulawayo based pastor Ian Ndlovu prophesied that ZANU PF has two camps and the party was going to split in 2019 if prayers were offered. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Government wishes to thank all the doctors that have gone back to work at Mpilo, United Bulawayo Hospitals(UBH), Harare Central Hospitals and Parirenyatwa. pic.twitter.com/kHVD9tWk21 Ministry of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting (@InfoMinZW) January 7, 2019 The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services has announced that in the past two days all doctors have resumed their duties in the following areas:Marondera - All Doctors reported for DutyGweru- All Doctors reported for DutyGwanda- All Doctors reported for DutyMutare -All Doctors reported for DutyMeanwhile the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association had launched an online GoFundMe campaign to raise $250 000 for the suspended junior doctors. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Members of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) have been arrested by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) in Harare. No charge has been laid on them yet.Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have dispatched a team to the Harare Central police station.More to follow News / National by Staff reporter BULAWAYO business people have engaged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to secure a guarantee they will get foreign currency to pay for fuel supplies into the city by Botswana investors.Through the Bulawayo think-tank, local businesspeople recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hangana Private Limited, a diversified Botswana-headquartered firm, which has interests in petroleum, mining and manufacturing, among others to supply fuel into the city.In an interview last Friday, chairperson of the Bulawayo advisory board and think-tank Mr Kwanele Hlabangana said: "We are at the moment just waiting for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). There is a document that we require from them to guarantee the project so we wrote to Dr Mangudya (RBZ Governor) and once we get it, the fuel will start flowing into the city."The fuel supply deal, which was facilitated by the office of the Minister of State for Bulawayo Provincial Affairs, Judith Ncube, was one of the many proposed areas of co-operation between local investors and their counterparts from the neighbouring country.Mr Hlabangana said their Botswana counterparts have requested for a guarantee from the apex bank that the local fuel dealers would be able to pay back the supplies in forex within a stipulated time frame. As part of the agreement under the fuel deal, the Botswana counterparts will supply the petroleum into Bulawayo on 30-day credit terms."Once we get it (guarantee), we will then assemble all the fuel dealers in the city to actually avail the deal. We're hoping that in the next few days he (Dr Mangudya) will respond," he said."That's the only thing that is holding but otherwise we could have had fuel right immediately after signing of the MoU, but then those guys required that we give them some sort of guarantee from the Reserve Bank."Mr Hlabangana is on record saying the thrust of the private sector was to complement Government efforts in turning around the economy. As such he said the intervention by the Botswana businesspeople had come at an opportune time. It is hoped that the envisioned fuel procurement arrangement would see Bulawayo service stations receiving adequate stocks to meet the city's demands.Going forward, Hlabangana plans to spread the fuel venture across the country including setting up investments in areas such as diamond cutting and polishing in Bulawayo, mining and manufacturing. News / National by Staff reporter Striking public sector doctors have agreed to return to work with immediate effect after an agreement with Government on a plethora of grievances that had witnessed the health practitioners' stay away from work for close to a month.The doctors' representatives yesterday agreed to return to work within 48 hours, following yesterday's meeting which was also attended by representatives of other health sector labour unions including nurses.The meeting, held under the auspices of the Health Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel (HSBNP) also resolved to improve conditions of service including a duty free vehicle import scheme.While Government agreed to unfreeze posts in the health sector, it will, however, not pay salaries in United States dollars.The doctors will also get retention allowances disbursed by donors in foreign currency.Furthermore, doctors who participated in the illegal industrial action will face disciplinary action.In a statement last night, Health Services Board executive chairman Dr Paulinus Sikosana said: "There was a health service bipartite negotiating forum this afternoon and we are glad to announce that there has been a resolution of the labour dispute; an agreement was signed by the parties."The doctors on strike have agreed to go back to work starting immediately until 17:00 on Monday."Government is pleased that within the next few hours the situation in our affected hospitals will be returning back to normalcy. We wish to thank everyone who worked hard to make this happen."Commenting on the latest developments last night Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Mr Nick Mangwana said: "Starting from today onwards some of our doctors will begin going to work."The disciplinary hearing are going ahead; they started yesterday and are ongoing."Government's position on US dollar payment has not changed. We will not pay workers in US dollars."There will be a one off duty exemption scheme graduating according to one's grade for the importation of cars."Also Government has agreed to unfreeze posts and increase the amount offered from US$10 million to US$12 million."Government is very firm on the issue that it will run a very strict financial discipline and will never make an undertaking outside the budget."We will respect our budget cycle; we intend to adhere to a prudent fiscal discipline."The budget is a Government financial plan and Government will not go out of its budget. We want to bring down budget deficit and instil fiscal discipline."Government's negotiating team was led by Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals chief executive officer Mr Thomas Zigora and included Zimbabwean pathologist Dr Maxwell Hove.The doctors were led by Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association secretary general Dr Mthabisi Bebhe.In a statement jointly signed by doctors' representatives, Government and the HSBNP, the doctors were directed to return to work within 48 hours."Based on this agreement, ZHDA will engage its members who are on industrial action to go back to work within the next 48 hours," read the statement.The agreement also resolved to provide better remuneration and flexible working conditions for the doctors."Government gave reassurance on the previous positions to review allowances in April 2019. There should be continued engagement between Government and Health Workers concerning remuneration in US dollars," read part of the joint statement."The Apex panel was tasked with drafting a position paper with the required adjustments for health workers salaries by the end of March 2019."The principle of flexible working hours will be in place until there was a review of remuneration in 2019."Apex suggested that on implementation of the flexible working hours, Government should allow for the downward review of the 40 working hours per week."However, Government was of the view that the issue could be finalised in the meeting as it needed approval by the Principals."On unfreezing of posts, the parties agreed the following:"The critical posts required to bring relief to health service delivery would cost an estimated $12,5 million which exceeds the $10 million offered by Treasury which would include posts for senior registrars. Currently 214 GMO posts with treasury concurrence are available."As part of the agreement, doctors also received an advance on the vehicle loan scheme with Treasury fulfilling its earlier position to release the remaining $6 million to complete funding for the Health Service Vehicle Loan Scheme while there will be additional provisions for duty-free vehicles."Health workers on own volition would get duty free certificates, a scheme which would operate separately from the vehicle loan scheme. The duty free scheme would not interfere with the original vehicle loan scheme, coupled with issuance of the duty free certificates."The maximum values for the duty-free scheme shall be US$7 500 for JRMOs and SRMOs, US$15 000 for middle level doctors (SHOs, HMOs, GMOs Junior Registrars and District Medical Officers; and US$30 000 for Senior Doctors (Senior Registrars, PMDs and Consultants. This would be applicable to these and their equivalent and below grades. The Scheme is to commence from January 2019."The parties also reaffirmed that there would be no victimisation of doctors who went on strike."Disciplinary hearings of the remaining cases shall proceed and will be done by senior doctors. There shall be no dismissals or suspensions and no further pursuing of court proceedings after this agreement. No member of the ZHDA and ZiGRA shall be answerable to anything pertaining to this industrial action."They also agreed that December salaries for doctors and radiographers who participated in the illegal industrial action to be paid in lieu of leave days by the end of January 2019 and also agreed that all doctors and radiographers whose salaries were suspended in December receive advance payments for January.Other resolutions reached include improving accommodation services and housing allowances for health workers and guaranteed employment for all doctors who successfully complete training.The parties also agreed to create a Health Service Commission with the assistance of the Attorney General."This shall be achieved through constitutional alignment of the Health Services Act and any other relevant legislation. The process had already begun, and drafting by the AG's office would commence soon," read the statement.The parties also noted improvements of medical supplies at NatPharm."Government is still in the process of distributing the supplies to all Government hospitals. Government assures its employees of long term commitments to ensure availability of basic medicines and sundries in all institutions."Last week, President Mnangagwa cut short his leave to work closely with Vice President Chiwenga in resolving the long-running impasse between Government and the doctors. News / National by Staff reporter A PUBLIC consultation process will be conducted for the Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Bill after the festive holidays, the Information and Communication Technology Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has said.The bill seeks to provide for and to consolidate cyber-related offences with due regard to the Declaration of Rights under the Constitution and the public and national interests.The bill will also provide for investigation and collection of evidence of cyber-crime, for the admissibility of electronic evidence for such offences, to create a technology-driven business environment, to encourage technological development and the lawful use of technology.The committee chairperson Mr Chalton Hwende said they are waiting for the Bill to be submitted before the Parliament by the drafters. The submissions are expected to be done sometime in February after parliament resumes business by end of January."Immediately after the bill is submitted to Parliament it will be forwarded to my Committee and Public consultations will begin immediately," said Mr Hwende."We are hoping to reach every Zimbabwean who has an input to make and we promise to ensure that all the views and opinions will be debated in parliament so that at the end of the day we have a bill that captures the expectation of the Nation."Officially opening the Ninth Parliament, President Mnangagwa said to mitigate the security risks and cyber-crime related threats, a Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Bill shall be tabled before the Parliament.The proposed law comes against the backdrop of some Zimbabweans locally and abroad who are using the Internet to communicate subversive material which seeks to unconstitutionally remove Government through violence."Cyber crime is a huge challenge now not only in Zimbabwe but the world over. People are losing billions of dollars as most transactions are now done on line. The new bill must seek to contain this scourge," Mr Hwende said."Child p-rnography and cyber bullying are issues that we think the bill should look at. We must also in the same vein ensure that the rights of Zimbabweans to express themselves on social media are not in any way curtailed but encouraged."The Internet is not only a conduit of nefarious activities, the chairperson said, but a domain of sophisticated crime which any nation would need to regulate. He said other countries have already addressed this by putting in place some kind of governance to that problem and Zimbabwe is only getting there now. News / National by Staff reporter Government yesterday warned it will not tolerate any attempts by the opposition to topple President Mnangagwa as he was democratically-elected on July 30 last year.In a statement, Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana decried the perpetual electioneering mindset still gripping the opposition, describing it as retrogressive."Government takes note of media reports wherein some political entities made threats to overthrow the constitutionally-elected Government and subsequently install an unelected person as President of Zimbabwe."Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy with an elected leader, His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose term of office runs until 2023," said Mr Mangwana.Utterances and social media posts by senior members of the opposition, especially MDC-Alliance, have shown appetite to cause unrest in the country.Mr Mangwana urged Zimbabweans to heed President Mnangagwa's call for peace."The President values unity, peace and tranquillity in the country and has urged the nation to focus on rebuilding the economy with the immediate business being that of delivering Vision 2030 aimed at making Zimbabwe an upper middle income economy," said Mr Mangwana.He added: "It will be recalled that in his 2019 New Year message, the President emphasised that elections are now behind us, and the time has come to refocus on improving livelihoods and the general welfare of our citizens."Mr Mangwana said Zimbabwe needed to draw on a sense of unity and purpose and political maturity to move on from regressive actions and posturing.Since the July 31 harmonised elections, there has been rhetoric in opposition circles in which they promise to spoil the party for the elected Government. Mr Mangwana said such ill-conceived actions will not be tolerated."Government therefore places on record that any attempts to topple the Government and institute the long failed illegal regime change will be frowned upon," said Mr Mangwana.He said the executive was preoccupied with delivering on its election promises to the people of Zimbabwe."We cannot remain stuck in the electioneering and politicking mode: it is common cause that the majority of our people who elected President Mnangagwa are keen to see him deliver on his electoral promises, a task he is seized with at the moment."Government will continue to provide a peaceful and stable environment where business is allowed to flourish and citizens enjoy their constitutional rights," he said.Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga said the ZRP was ready to deal with any eventualities arising from the threats by opposition."We have heard about this information but ourselves as an organisation we are going to make sure that our officers are properly trained and equipped, to make sure they will be able to overcome the intended demonstrations being talked about," said Comm-Gen Matanga.He discouraged Zimbabweans from unlawful actions by sponsored outfits."At the same time, I want to appeal to members of the public to make sure that they do not involve themselves in such demonstrations."After coming from the harmonised elections we are looking forward to Government putting in place developmental programmes for the country from which all citizens will benefit from. I see no reason why the country must remain in election mode other than concentrating on development," he said."As an organisation, we are very ready but while we are ready it is not our wish that we remain in a situation where we expect problems from our political parties and even non-governmental organisations. We discourage these people from doing that," said Comm-Gen Matanga.There have been reports of clandestine plots by embassy officials, NGOs and opposition members to unseat President Mnangagwa. Zuckerberg San Francisco General has arranged for all ER care to be out-of-network, allowing the hospital to charge whatever wild prices it likes. VOX: Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG), recently renamed for the Facebook founder after he donated $75 million, is the largest public hospital in San Francisco and the city's only top-tier trauma center. But it doesn't participate in the networks of any private health insurers a surprise patients like Dang learn after assuming their coverage includes a trip to a large public ER. Most big hospital ERs negotiate prices for care with major health insurance providers and are considered "in-network." Zuckerberg San Francisco General has not done that bargaining with private plans, making them "out-of-network." That leaves many insured patients footing big bills. The problem is especially acute for patients like Dang: those who are brought to the hospital by ambulance, still recovering from a trauma and with little ability to research or choose an in-network facility. A spokesperson for the hospital confirmed that ZSFG does not accept any private health insurance, describing this as a normal billing practice. He said the hospital's focus is on serving those with public health coverage even if that means offsetting those costs with high bills for the privately-insured. "It's a pretty common thing," said Brent Andrew, the hospital spokesperson. "We're the trauma center for the whole city. Our mission is to serve people who are underserved because of their financial needs. We have to be attuned to that population." But most medical billing experts say it is rare for major emergency rooms to be out-of-network with all private health plans. "According to what I've seen, that's unusual," says Christopher Garmon, an economist at the University of Missouri Kansas City who studies surprise medical bills. "I've heard anecdotes of some hospitals trying a strategy like this but my impression is that it doesn't last very long." Joshua Bearman has long been one of my favorite journalists (he wrote the Wired story that was adapted as the movie Argo, and a profile of the super weird software mogul John McAfee). He's got a new, longform Wired story called "The Mad Scramble to Claim the World's Most Coveted Meteorite" and it's about the eccentric teams of people who look for meteorites in general, and a meteorite that landed in Peru in particular. Excerpt: On the far side of the bridge, they came to a battered border control outpost. Inside, Peruvian police were surprised. Farmer's Spanish was still pretty good from his Army days, so he did the talking. He had a high-pitched American accent, but when Farmer said they came to find a meteorite, the police quickly understood and agreed to take them to the spot. They hustled the group into two SUVs and sped off for the crater. The police were friendly, which Farmer took to mean they knew there was money to be gleaned from the gringos. He made sure not to reveal that they were carrying $30,000 in cash. Having that kind of money could be dangerous in remote places. As they drove they got a sense of just how remote this area was. There was a reason Carancas could not be seen on Google Maps. The altiplano was a lawless frontier, the police said. "Watch out for the village people," they added, warning of occasional instances of frontier justice. When the Aymara didn't want to wait for the police, they'd been known to burn suspected criminals alive in the fields. "You need protection," one of the cops said. Farmer took all that with a grain of salt. He suspected the "protection" would be offered at an inflated rate. What he didn't know was that his onetime mentor and current rival, Robert Haag, had just fled this very place. The veteran hunter had arrived a day earlier, rented a car, attached a portable PA system to the roof, and driven around broadcasting an offer to buy meteorite fragments. The New York Times weighs in on an Authors Guild survey that shows a "drastic 42% decline in authors' earnings over the past decade. John Scalzi offers some important perspective. Here's the summary: * Authors Guild: authors' incomes are way down, thanks to Amazon's monopolism, which is crushing indies and traditionally published authors alike; universities are relying on fair use and Google Books for coursepacks, and big tech overall is "devalu[ing] what we produce to lower their costs for content distribution." * New York Times: yeah, it's mostly Amazon. * Scalzi: This isn't a very good study. They surveyed 5,000-ish, self-selected authors (and the Science Fiction Writers of America didn't participate). Comparing the fortunes of authors today to Hemingway may not be very representative think instead of writers like John Brunner, who lived a writerly life that's pretty recognizable to writers today. Was there really ever a gilded age of writerly incomes, or just a bunch of survivor bias? My take: Amazon and the other monopolists are a huge problem. But big tech isn't uniformly culpable. Facebook and Twitter are certainly big social problems, but, they're not hurting authors. The idea of "devaluing what we produce" by letting people talk to each other for free is incoherent, intellectually bankrupt nonsense, ripped from the pages of "Home taping is killing music" and "Home cooking is killing restaurants." Also a problem: consolidation in publishing (we're down to five big publishers, and rumor has it that Simon and Shuster will be a subsidiary of Harper Collins within a year). Consolidation in bookselling (letting the chains merge until only B&N existed was great for looter hedge-fund sociopaths, not so much for bookselling). The Authors Guild recommendations are a mixed bag. Letting authors unionize and negotiate for good rates with Amazon is a great idea. Update: I've been discussing this with AG president James Glieck in email, and he has corrected my views on the AG's position here. He says that the AG's public lending right campaign would be contingent on the libraries receiving a separate tranche of funding to pay for it, ensuring that libraries aren't hurt by administering the PLR. He also advocates making the collection of circulation data by libraries optional, and says that despite the name, the Guild's "Lending Right" campaign is not meant to imply that authors should have the right to decide who can lend or borrow their books, analogizing it to "a new entitlement program for authors, aimed at helping preserve an endangered species." This is much better than I believed. That said, I think it's a dangerous proposal: as we saw in the UK, as libraries are starved of funds in conditions of austerity, commitments to maintain lending right payments separate from library operational/acquisitions budgets evaporate. Ultimately, governments come to think of libraries' funding coming from a single pool, and when it's time to shrink that pool, the idea of separation goes out the window. As said below, I think it's needlessly complex to create a system for compensating authors that give author money to libraries and then asks libraries to give it to authors. If we want to pay authors, let's just apportion funds to them, preferably in forms that benefit us as a class, like retirement homes for the arts, medical insurance pools, mortgage guarantees, etc. Establishing a lending right that charges libraries for the right to lend books is a terrible idea. If we're going to fund authorship through state grants (which I totally, absolutely support), let's break up digital (and publishing!) monopolists, make them pay their fair share of taxes, and fund the NEA and other institutions. But attacking libraries' funding in the midst of the human race's neoliberal extermination crisis is an attack on literally the only institution left in the country where you are welcome even if you're not spending money or praying. It's not just libraries that the AG is taking aim at, it's also booksellers. The AG is worried about returned books entering the stream of new book sales. This is, as far as I can tell, not a problem. Making life harder for indie bookstores will not win the AG any friends. Librarians and indie booksellers are authors' class allies, as are university professors. Our adversaries should be the tax-dodging, Fortune 100 Big Tech/Big Content vampire squids with their blood-funnels jammed down our collective throats. This is a category error that is often made by copyright maximalists when they argue over "piracy" and tech: they locate the problem with readers, technology, public lending, etc not with monopoly capitalism that reduces the competition for our works and starves the public coffers of the social safety net that has made a career in the arts survivable in years gone by. The problem with Big Tech is "big," not "tech." Brunner's tale here is anecdotal, and as with all anecdotes one should be careful not to make more of it than it is. But at the same time, as an anecdote, Brunner's tale has more to tell us about middle-class author jobbing in the 20th Century than the tale of Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner. And to bring it around to where we started with this piece, it does suggest that at all times, it's a hard time to make a living middle-class or otherwise solely as an author. Is it harder now? It might be. It's different than it was fifty years ago, with different players and challenges, but also with different opportunities it's the best time in decades to be writing novellas, for example, and the best time ever for writing work meant for the audiobook format. And if the BLS has anything to tell us, it's not the worst time ever to be a writer in a general sense, at least in the US. Just, you know. Maybe keep your day job. Still. Author Incomes: Not Great, Now or Then [John Scalzi/Whatever] Authors Guild Survey Shows Drastic 42 Percent Decline in Authors Earnings in Last Decade [Authors Guild] Does It Pay to Be a Writer? [Concepcion de Leon/New York Times] David Shaerf, a professor of English and cinema studies at Michigan's Oakland University, is fanatical about Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. He's so fanatical that he made a documentary about Moby Dick fanaticism. The film is titled "Call Us Ishmael" and in it, Shaerf joins the devotees who gather annually in New Bedford, Massachusetts to read Moby-Dick aloud, without stopping. He interviews the likes of Frank Stella who spent 15 years making a piece of art for each of the book's chapters. He talks with the likes of Laurie Anderson who developed an entire live performance and tour titled "Songs and Stories from Moby-Dick" and Matt Kish, the librarian/illustrator who drew "Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page." Now, Shaerf is seeking help via Kickstarter to get Call Me Ishmael ready for release by clearing the music, legal fees, and insurance before he can hand it off to the film's distributor. It sounds like a whale of a project and I look forward to seeing the film! "Support "Call Us Ishmael" via Kickstarter!" (Thanks Ora Pescovitz!) After four years of Freedom of Information Act litigation, the ACLU has prevailed and forced the Customs and Border Patrol to release 1,000 pages' worth of training documents in which new agents learn when they can stop people and what they can do after they stop them. The documents are a window into the CBP's legal gamesmanship, in which the flimsiest of pretenses are spun into legal excuses to stop, search, question and detain people within 100 miles of the US border and in any city with an international airport. Counsel for CBP has cherry-picked legal precedents to produce a kafka-esque litany of excuses for stops, including being close to the border, being on a "known smuggling route," driving "inconsistent with local traffic patterns," being "from out of the area," having a covered cargo area; paying "undue attention to the agent's presence," avoiding "looking at the agent," slowing down on seeing the agent, being dirty, etc. The documents also shed light on CBP surveillance activities, though much of this section is redacted. Of particular interest are the revelations of the CPB's shadowy "city patrol," which does not target people who've made illegal border crossings. Also interesting is the CBP's belief that it can force any civilian to operate on its behalf on penalty of a $1,000 fine (previously the CBP has used this authority to force doctors to perform medically unnecessary rectal examinations, a practice now banned by the courts). The entire chapter on electronic surveillance has been redacted in the ELC, and the unredacted sections, as well as the PowerPoint presentations, paint a complicated portrait of scenarios in which surveillance technology, when used by CBP, would constitute a search. The ELC points to Supreme Court decisions on GPS devices and thermal imagers as examples of cases in which a warrant would be required. Meanwhile, when it comes to aircraft overflights, "If the aircraft is operated lawfully and in airspace where such flights are routine, no intrusion by the aircraft into a reasonable expectation of privacy occurs," the ELC states. According to Sarah St.Vincent, a Human Rights Watch researcher on surveillance and domestic law enforcement who reviewed the ELC, this secrecy and lack of clarity about CBP's surveillance operations is a central feature of how the agency operates. "This is a form the surveillance state takes in the United States," St.Vincent told The Intercept. "It takes place under this veneer of law, such that it looks legitimate and reasoned, but actually there are serious questions to be asked, both about practices and whether the case law or the laws the government is citing in support of what it wants to do reflects what Congress or the courts actually said." Newly Released FOIA Documents Shed Light on Border Patrol's Seemingly Limitless Authority [Max Rivlin-Nadler/The Intercept] Powerhouses at the top of their game dont typically arrive fully formed. The quality of their product and their marketing is what transforms them from burgeoning enterprises to colossuses. To make that transformation, they evidently were doing some things very well indeed. And so it stands to reason that small businesses can learn valuable lessons from industry forebearers to assist in upscaling their profitability and size. Here,look at 5 of the most valuable of those lessons. 1) Video Content is where its at Almost 50% of people search for videos that relate to the product they want to buy prior to pur-chase. But as well as showcasing your product, its highly advisable to also skirt slightly around it by offering things such as video manuals, guides or animations which reward and inform the con-sumer and dont simply seek to commercialise their experience. And at this moment in time, video user content is hot. And for good reason. It creates a sense of trust and brand community. And it also makes content more shareable on social media since its consumer origin means its viewed with less suspicion. To see how big businesses do video content at its best, check out gopro and Kraft Foods 2) Outsource content creation or have an in- house resource Entrepreneurs or executives within a business are generally best not getting too caught up in con-tent creation. They should apply their acumen and talents elsewhere to expand their business. This is the best way to channel the talent and commercial instincts that are usually (but not always) required for someone to strike out and set up shop in the first place. Also, the fiercely competitive world of content marketing means that with diligent research theres quality work to be had cheaply. Its little wonder, then, that approximately 65% of mid to large sized businesses outsource content or have bespoke teams. 3) Offer free product or prize incentives This shouldnt cause panic in the hearts of businesses as there are prudent ways to approach this. Take a cue from Japanese clothing company, Uniqlo. They created a limited number of posters with unique barcodes which customers had to photo and upload to get free stuff. This meant they generated a massive amount of online heat in exchange for the controlled financial hit of giving away limited amounts of free clothes The free product idea can also be applied to a brands ethos to help foster a sense of identity that the consumer can relate to or even admire. Zappos.com, a trailblazer in e-shoe commerce, have a policy of free shipping and a 365 day money back guarantee return policy. So they developed a brand identity built upon the integrity to be found in their commercial incentives 4) Be brilliant at non self-promotional content Many of us have a deep-seated suspicion of brands who blow smoke up the own behinds, so its good to go as far as possible in the other direction. Nike identifies with edginess and individualism, Red Bill with adventure. And check out Colgate who go for a kind of insightful and informative jour-nalistic overload that was traditionally the preserve of high end periodicals. Obviously small businesses cant compete with the budgets of the big brands, but creating content that stands alone as fun, funny, informative (or all 3) is a lesson everyone can take away. 5) Work with influencers to create exposure Obviously, small businesses cant very well go out and get a David Beckham product endorsement. However, its possible to think inventively about who you want to influence your brand and how. Some of the most successful influencers of recent times include Kelly Lund and her wolf dog for Mercedes Benz - and they were hardly A-Listers. Equally, Lagavulin whiskey created a viral video, receiving 2 million hits in a week, around Parks and Recreations star Nick Offerman who, amusing as he is, is not bank-breaking. From this, we should all be able to take heart that gutsy, well-priced and left field influencer choices can bring about great success. This is Up and Down, where we give a brief thumbs up and thumbs down on the issues from the past week. Up When a young Colorado couple with family in the Bismarck area had car trouble on Dec. 27 near Bowman they were amazed by their treatment. From a mechanic to the mayor, Logan Strandemo and Shelby Hungness got special treatment. They received quick service on their vehicle, some free soup and overall were treated like long-lost friends by the residents. Theres no better advertisement for North Dakota than the warm welcome Bowman provided the personal trainers from Fort Collins. The word will get around. Down Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which built the Dakota Access Pipeline, has missed a year-end deadline to plant thousands of trees along the pipeline corridor in North Dakota. The company agreed to plant the trees in a settlement of allegations it violated state rules during construction. The settlement says 20,000 trees must be provided to county soil conservation districts along the pipeline's 359-mile North Dakota route. The settlement provides more time should the company run into problems, which it did. The company should make it a priority to complete the project. Up MINOT Last year was a good one for SkySkopes in Minot, and company president Matt Dunlevy feels positive about the year ahead too. "I think it's going to be a great 2019," Dunlevy said. "I have been extremely proud of the pilots that we have here, in their ability to hone in, zero in, on the missions that are going to make a company such as ours successful. So far, we have a lot to show for it." SkySkopes opened an office in downtown Minot in October and has been growing its services to oil field and utility companies in the Bakken region. The Grand Forks-based company announced in December 2016 that it was establishing a branch office in Minot. In April 2017, the Minot City Council approved a $375,100 forgivable MAGIC Fund loan to SkySkopes to help with purchase of equipment. Dunlevy said SkySkopes has been fortunate with the technology selected for purchase with the MAGIC Fund loan. In an industry where technology changes constantly and there's always newer equipment out there, SkySkopes found the equipment that has remained optimal for the work being performed. Dunlevy said that there's been an insatiable desire for SkySkopes' optical gas imaging sensors, used to detect hydrocarbon leakage from tanks or pipelines that represent not only loss of product but potential for harm to humans. Gov. Doug Burgums announcement that his office would display the flags of North Dakotas five tribal nations was one of the more warmly received parts of his State of the State address Thursday. It was also somewhat of a spur-of-the-moment declaration that wasn't included in his prepared remarks provided to reporters. Burgum, a first-term Republican who has emphasized improving the states relationships with the tribes, has thought about displaying the flags for more than a year, his spokesman Mike Nowatzki said. But it was only until he was inspired by the State-Tribal Relationship address Thursday morning that the governor decided to announce the decision in his speech that afternoon, which received a standing ovation in the House chambers. The five flags are now standing just outside the public entrance to Burgums office in the state Capitol. Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Chairman Jamie Azure called the decision "monumental" in a Twitter post. Democratic Sen. Richard Marcellais, a former Turtle Mountain chairman, welcomed Burgums surprise announcement. He has unsuccessfully pushed legislation to display the tribal flags in the state Capitol, and he said he may cancel another effort in light of Burgums decision. David Charles Connelly, 92, passed away Jan. 5, 2019, at his home in Bismarck, with his family gathered around him. Mass of Christian burial will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, at Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, 519 Raymond St., Bismarck. Family will greet visitors from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E. Divide Ave., Bismarck, where a vigil will begin at 7 p.m. Dave was born July 9, 1926, in Santa Ana, Calif. He was a proud naval veteran of World War II. After WWII ended, he married Colleen (Tobin) in Dickinson. He spent the majority of his career at MDU in Glendive, Mont., before transferring to Bismarck, where he retired from MDU as gas superintendent. A full obituary can be found online at www.eastgatefuneral.com. Today is the deadline for those whose property lies within the proposed special assessment district have to submit a letter of protest. If more than 50 percent of the area not owners protests, the project can't legally proceed. Richard Leingang, representing his elderly in-laws who live at 201 Sixth Ave. S.W., was among those who provided testimony at the two-hour public hearing. These people are on a limited income, less than $20,000 a year, he said, noting the couple's specials are estimated at more than $21,000. They're proud people .... They don't know where they're going to get this money from. Denny Hildebrand, who lives at 511 Ninth Ave. S.W., said the road adjacent to his property has been damaged by heavy equipment traveling to the nearby city shop, and his curb and gutter has been torn up by city plows and trucks. There's destruction that's been done by the city itself, he said. I appreciate the $1.5 million, but I think you should try to do a little more. Vern Herman, who lives at 211 Eighth Ave. S.W. and is facing a $21,000 assessment, said he was planning to protest the project, but the public hearing caused him to have a change of heart. Gov. Doug Burgum plans to again decline his salary on a campaign pledge from 2016. North Dakota lawmakers fretted over how to settle the situation in 2017, as they must appropriate the governor a salary. Thats the public policy sadness to me, that its misdirected intellectual energy, said Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, who sat on the conference committee that pondered the governors salary in 2017. The wealthy former software executive ended up donating the salary from his first six months in office to the newly created Office of Recovery Reinvented, while his salary for the current two-year budget cycle will go into the state's general fund on July 1, governor's spokesman Mike Nowatzki said. For the 2019-21 biennium, Burgum is asking that his salary from July 1, 2019, to Dec. 14, 2020 about $186,000 be cut from the budget. As the last six months of the next biennium are beyond his current term, the governors office has asked for about $80,000 in salary. A Mandan man has been sentenced for stabbing three people in September, which left a woman with 16 punctures wounds and a nearly severed finger. Cortez Ramon Lyons, 34, was charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of terrorizing, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of simple assault. Lyons reached a plea agreement with Morton County prosecutors last month and pleaded guilty to all counts. He was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison and five years of supervised probation. Mandan police officers responded to a domestic disturbance on Sept. 6 at a residence on the 300 block of 13th Street Northwest, according to court records. Lyons stabbed a 48-year-old woman and her 20-year-old son, as well as a 16-year-old female. Morton County Assistant State's Attorney Gabrielle Goter said in an email that the reasons prosecutors entered the plea agreement was due to the victims' wishes for a long period of incarceration and the need for a "lengthy period" of supervision once he is released from prison. Goter also said that Lyons, who was on supervision at the time of the offenses for a sex crime in Cass County, demonstrates a history of violent behavior and controlled substance use. Today, that ratio is more like 2.3 to 1 on new crop beans versus corn and that doesnt generate enough revenue per acre for guys to plant beans. Its a gross margin game, he said. The one caveat is Mother Nature. Randy Martinson with Martinson Ag in Fargo is doubtful there will be a huge swing into corn in the northwestern corn belt and states like North Dakota, due in part to the late harvest season. Farmers were still harvesting corn and even soybeans into December and didnt get much fall tillage done in those areas. If the soil conditions stay wet through spring, farmers wont be able to plant corn on or even spring wheat they will be forced to plant beans. Mockler agrees that weather may be the trump card. You know, were going to have some cooperative weather in the spring to get that much corn planted because youre talking corn could touch 93 to 94 million acres in the U.S. Bernadette Bailey, of Great Falls, Mont., will be the speaker for the two Christian Womens Clubs meeting on Thursday. Her theme is Best Recipe for Life. She is a Stonecroft area representative. The Brunch Group meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Bismarck Eagles Club, 313 N. 26th St. The theme is Best Recipe Brunch," featuring Sue Balcom, of Mandan. Music is provided by Suzy Pfliiger. Tickets are $8. Make reservations by calling 258-3397. Midday Connection will meet at 12:30 p.m. at the Municipal Country Club, 930 N. Griffin St., with Balcom. Theme is Fresh New Look for a New Year with a special feature by Marylee Gregware, an independent interior decorating consultant with decorating tips for the New Year. Tickets are $10. Call 701-751-2869 to make reservations. The After 5 CWC Evening Group will meet not be meeting during January, February or March. The Christian Womens groups are affiliated with Stonecroft. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Author: Mike Jacobs Title: "The Bank of North Dakota From Surviving to Thriving The First 100 Years" Publisher: Bank of North Dakota, 2018, through The Dakota Institute Press of Bismarck State College; 121 pages of text, black and white and color photos Mike Jacobs has written an excellent, succinct and informative history of the first 100 years of the Bank of North Dakota. He briefly describes the work of the Nonpartisan League and others to enact the legislation creating the Bank of North Dakota in the 1919 session of the Legislature. He also writes of the voters rejecting in 1921 the first major challenge to the bank. Having served on BNDs Board of Directors, comprised of the governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner, during my one term as attorney general, I should be embarrassed that I did not know and appreciate all of the many aspects of the banks history I learned from reading Jacobs book. This is a well written and very interesting story of the Bank of North Dakota and how it got to the outstanding position it enjoys today. All Montanans benefit from public lands. We all know it, whether were a hunter, hiker or rancher who depends on those lands for grazing. Public lands both our federal National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and other agency lands, and our state lands are essential to Montana. They support our incredible quality of life, they support our agriculture industry, they provide natural resource jobs and they support the booming outdoor recreation industry. An important piece of the overall public lands puzzle are targeted purchases and protective conservation easements under the Habitat Montana program. Habitat Montana is now over three decades old, and it doesnt use any general fund money. Its funded by a fee on hunting licenses, and used for conservation easements with willing landowners who also provide public hunting access, for fee title purchases of land with high wildlife values, and for fishing access sites. CHEYENNE, Wyo. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department reports another increase in hunting applications from both residents and non-residents last year. Game and Fish Director Scott Talbott says the hunting opportunities in Wyoming are sought after because of the high-quality wildlife, access and the experience with friends and family. Talbott says the agency thanks hunters for their support of Wyoming's wildlife conservation because they provide the bulk of Game and Fish's revenue from license sales. Many big game applications opened last Wednesday. All applications must be submitted online. Residents and non-residents can apply for elk, antelope, deer, spring turkey, bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goat. The first deadline is Jan. 31 for nonresident elk and resident and nonresident spring turkey. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Saying their voices werent being represented by Billings largest business organization, several local business owners Friday launched a new Chamber of Commerce one opposing local sales taxes and other revenue increases sought to help the city. There wasnt a final straw, said Sam Loveridge, of the Yellowstone Area Chamber of Commerce. I think for quite a long time business owners in the area felt their voice wasnt being heard. The formation comes as Montanas Legislature prepares to begin a new session this week. Loveridge said YACC plans to be there opposing some items that the Billings Area Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have routinely supported, such as a local option sales tax. For several legislative sessions, chambers of commerce from Bozeman, Billings and other areas that serve as Montana destinations for shopping and events have advocated for voter-approved local sales taxes. The revenue would most likely be used to improve event facilities and repair the roads and other infrastructure that receive the wear and tear of out-of-town visitors, or so the argument goes. The campaign of the Rev. Mark Harris, Republican nominee for the 9th U.S. Congressional District, Thursday will ask Wake County Superior Court to certify his victory in the 2018 election.In a statement released Wednesday night, the Harris campaign said the State Board of Elections hasn't presented evidence of enough questionable votes to change the outcome of the election. Lacking that evidence, along with what the Harris campaign called an unlawful process to investigate the balloting, the campaign said Harris should be certified.In unofficial results, Harris defeated Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. Libertarian Jeff Scott finished a distant third.The Harris campaign said it welcomes a full investigation of alleged ballot irregularities.News of the filing came hours after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper scrapped plans to name an interim State Board of Elections and accused Republicans of obstructing the ongoing investigation.Cooper's announcement prompted the staff of the state board to postpone a scheduled Jan. 11 evidentiary hearing . The proceeding was set to investigate suspicious absentee ballot activity in Bladen and Robeson counties. Harris received a disproportionately high number of absentee votes in those counties.The board's staff said it will continue collecting information. But in a statement, the staff said,said Kim Westbrook Strach, the board's executive director.With no board in place until Jan. 31, when House Bill 1029 takes effect, the fate of the 9th District remains in limbo - or with the 116th Congress, which could order its own investigation.Cooper said he wouldn't name a temporary board because the state Republican Party refused to submit recommended members from their party.The N.C. Republican Party sent a letter Sunday to Cooper attorney William McKinney stating the governor had no constitutional authority to name an interim elections board. The GOP didn't plan to send Cooper a list of nominees before Jan. 31, when just-passed legislation creating a new elections board takes effect.Cooper contends he was going to name the same people - three Democrats and two Republicans - to both the temporary board and the permanent board due to be seated at the end of the month.The five-member arrangement resembles the one in place before the end of 2016, just before Cooper took office, when the Republican-led General Assembly altered the format.A court order struck down the new structure as unconstitutional. Lawmakers then passed H.B. 1029, returning the board to its original framework, adding a provision for a primary election if the new board orders a do-over of the 9th District race.Cooper said in the news release.Cooper said he wanted to act quickly in naming the interim board to allow the investigation to continue without interruption.While the Democratic Party gave him a list of nominees, the Republican Party didn't. Cooper said he declined to appoint a board with only three Democratic members to ensure fairness.Republicans' failure to recommend membersCooper's statement said.The Harris campaign issued a news release Monday saying he looked forward to meeting with election board staff this weekWednesday, WSOC-TV in Charlotte reported Harris planned to meet with the board's staff Thursday.NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse and Chairman Robin Hayes Wednesday repeated their call for Harris to be certified. They said Cooper Leslie McCrae Dowless is at the heart of the probe. Harris admits hiring Dowless, but denies knowledge of any wrongdoing. Dowless, his team of operatives, and others have been accused of possible widespread, coordinated misconduct.At issue is whether Dowless performed unlawful ballot harvesting - collecting and submitting absentee mail-in ballots from voters. State law allows only the voter, near family members, and legal guardians to turn in absentee ballots. It's unclear whether the Dowless crew illegally filled in voters' unmarked ballots for Harris and threw out those already checked off for McCready.Through his attorney, Dowless has denied breaking any laws.Allegations of ballot harvesting improprieties by both Democrats and Republicans were known by state election officials, political party representatives, and politicians going back at least to the 2010 midterm election. The Bladen County Improvement Association is under the microscope for ballot harvesting for Democrats in several election cycles.Several Republican state senators held a press conference Dec. 6 urging Cooper to appoint a bipartisan task force to investigate the alleged absentee ballot fraud, and possibly create a statewide database to determine how widespread the practice may be. They also suggested an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Cooper has shown no interest in accepting their plea.Meanwhile, the wild card in the election outcome remains the U.S. House of Representatives. It has constitutional authority over seating its members. Democrats will swear in a majority of House members Thursday. Maryland U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, incoming House minority leader, is among those who have said they won't allow Harris to be seated because of the election irregularities. "It's not going to fix everything, but it's a step forward," he said. The six community college systems in the state "look forward to sitting down with employers and identifying high-need" areas to allocate scholarship money to fill those needs, Adams added. And NU President Hank Bounds said as the state is in the midst of a "workforce crisis," the scholarship program would help the university educate students who could fill some fields that have ever-growing needs. There are 1,700 information technology openings in Nebraska a number Bounds noted is expected to grow as well as 1,400 nursing positions and 1,000 accountant and auditor jobs, according to the Nebraska Department of Labor. "Clearly, at the current rate, we cannot produce enough young people to fill those jobs," he said. While Nebraska ranks in the bottom 10 states for offering taxpayer-funded assistance to college students, Bounds said the Nebraska Talent Scholarship is "a step in the right direction." But, Bounds added, with more than one-third of college graduates leaving to work in other states, and a large percentage of the state's highest-achieving students attending college in other states, Nebraska could do more to be financially attractive for students. How convenient would it be to have a public transit system connecting every Runza in the Lincoln area? Carlos Velasco, a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, asked himself that question and spent some free time scheming what such a system would look like. Velasco, a graphic designer who now works for an ad agency in New York City, describes himself as a "transit nerd." He loves big cities and admires the efforts of those who design the systems connecting them. "The reason I'm so interested in transit maps, as a designer, is they have to simplify something that is really, really complex, down to something that literally everyone can understand, and it's a really cool challenge," he said. "So I'm part of this Facebook group for other like-minded mass transit nerds, and the other day, someone had posted it's really funny and nifty it was based on if Milwaukee had a transit system based on the locations of area Culver's." Though several thousand miles from his home state, Velasco wanted to replicate the idea with the Runza restaurants in Nebraska's two largest cities, Lincoln and Omaha. He pulled up the store locator on the company's website and plotted the best routes using his prior knowledge of other systems. He then used Adobe Illustrator to mock up the route trees. Velasco said the locations were easier to connect than he expected and joked the Runza owners knew what they were doing, placing stores where they did. Reach the writer at 402-473-7214 or wstone@journalstar.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Wrexham-based Village Bakery has gained listings for five more of its products at Waitrose following the success of its existing range. The latest products to launch into Waitrose stores are pancakes in buttermilk, blueberry and chocolate flavours, a sourdough and five-grain crumpets. Village Bakery said the deal was a massive boost, having started out supplying just one Waitrose Store in Menai Bridge and now having lines in 220 stores nationwide. Village Bakery managing director Robin Jones said the new order was a testament to the quality of its products and skill of its staff. Its a massive vote of confidence in the Village Bakery by Waitrose and its part of our ambition to take the Village Bakery brand to every retailer nationally, said Jones. Its the result of 12 months of hard work, developing the products, developing the relationship and the distribution. The response from Waitrose customers has been fantastic, weve had nothing but positive feedback. The listings follow the business two award wins at the 2018 Baking Industry Awards, where it was crowned winner in the Free-from Bakery Product category for its Made without Wheat Belgian Chocolate Twists and Alan Jones was awarded for his Outstanding Contribution. Im just in awe of what we leave behind, like the Phoenix Trotting Park, Tatterson says. It was so huge and the architecture was just so ahead of its time. Phoenix Trotting Park was built in Goodyear in 1964 with 12,000 people in attendance for the opening celebration in 1965. While the owners had big dreams of establishing harness racing in the Southwest, the track shut its doors the following year and then sat empty for more than 50 years. It was finally demolished in 2017, but not before Tatterson stood within the skeletal remains to document the result of this misguided optimism. To stand there and watch the sunrise and the silence in this place, it can be quite eerie, she says. It really makes you think about the people who were there, why it was built, why it was abandoned. Times toll on the 640-acre complex is evident by spray paint along the walls and a layer of debris on the ground. Stables made to hold 1,000 horses are empty and the windows of the grandstand are shattered, but that was the result of an explosion set off during filming for the 1998 movie No Code of Conduct rather than of vandals, and Tatterson demonstrates a sharp eye for satisfying geometric patterns when composing the Sierra Estrella mountain range to the east within the empty frames. The Flagstaff Arts Council has chosen a new executive director. The council announced Wednesday that Jonathan Stone, executive director of the Downtown Oregon City Association in Oregon City, Oregon, will begin work with the Flagstaff Arts Council Jan. 14. The appointment comes after the councils former executive director, John Tannous, stepped down in August 2018 to pursue a position at Washed Ashore, an Oregon-based arts organization. Becky Daggett acted as the councils interim executive director while the organization searched for a replacement. In a press release, the organization laid out Stones background which includes his work in Oregon City, where he introduced new community traditions and events as well as expanded outreach and local partnerships. Oregon City is located just south of Portland and hosts a population of about 34,000 residents. Ive enjoyed learning about Flagstaffs arts, traditions and cultures, Stone said in the press release. Flagstaff is a vibrant community enriched by the efforts of the Flagstaff Arts Council. I look forward to working with the board, staff, volunteers and partners to continue to put arts and science at the center of community life. QUEBEC CITY, CanadaCrakRevenue has entered into a partnership with BlueChew, a rising new company in the U.S. erectile dysfunction market. The ED market in the U.S. is reportedly valued at $5 billion and growing. BlueChew makes affordable chewable tablets containing some of the the same FDA-approved active ingredients found in Viagra and Cialis. The partnership between BlueChew and CrakRevenue will promote the manufacturers online brand by opening up the offer to the networks vast pool of affiliates. "We're thrilled to partner with such passionate entrepreneurs, said Olivier Bourque, vice president of business development at CrakRevenue. BlueChew satisfies a very realway, way more common than you thinkneed. BlueChew's ease-of-ordering takes away all of the embarrassment and anxiety that males typically experience when seeking out ED products: Consumers can have BlueChew prescribed to them online by a real doctor and then shipped straight to their door. With most males 50 and older suffering from some form of ED at some point in time, BlueChew is a brand we know will help a lot of men, young or old, gay or straightbut we have to say, this offer has been doing phenomenal with gay traffic, Bourque said. The CPA network has stated that theyve seen twice as many customers for this segment of the market. With an average EPC of $1.12, CrakRevenue has reported impressive data running BlueChew campaignssome of the networks most profitable ever, according to the Quebec-based company. With tons of creatives available (Prelander, Banner, HTML5 ads, Pre-Roll & Pop), CrakRevenue and BlueChew is the winning formula that affiliates need in this lucrative ED market. The BlueChew affiliate offer is available at CrakRevenue.news/EPC-over-1-dollar. Nonprofit life insurance company WoodmenLife has announced that it will close its Auburn office in March, according to a representative. Kerry Heinrich, director of marketing communications for the Omaha-based company, said it has decided not to offer new sales in the state of New York. As a result, it will no longer have independent sales representatives in the state after March 31. The Auburn office, located in the Plaza of the Arts on Genesee Street, is WoodmenLife's only one in New York. It opened in September 2015. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} "In order to sustain long-term growth and continue providing high-quality service to our members, it was necessary to make this difficult choice," Heinrich said. Heinrich declined to elaborate further on the reasons for WoodmenLife's choice. The company has 13 full-time representatives, 19 part-time ones and five associates in New York who will be affected by the change. Heinrich said WoodmenLife will provide transitional packages for them. Customers, meanwhile, will be served by the WoodmenLife team in Omaha. There will be no gap in coverage for customers, Heinrich said. Love 0 Funny 4 Wow 1 Sad 9 Angry 5 GEDDES Camping World of Syracuse has been putting on January RV shows for 22 years, but this past weekend marked a first as the show was held at the new exhibition center at the New York State Fairgrounds. Camping World Sales Manager Nate Solomon said the show had "a little bit of everything." During the three-day event, campers both new and used filled the fairgrounds facility to its brim. The $63 million expo center opened last summer during the New York State Fair. In addition to RVs, on display at the weekend show were trailers and toy haulers. Coleman and Keystone were among the most popular brands at this year's show. Turnout for the show was "exceptional," said Solomon. "I can't believe the amount of traffic," he said. "Just (Saturday) alone we had over 1,000 people that walked in." Solomon said he thought the RV show was a great way to let people know that campers can be sold at affordable rates. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} "I think customers are realizing how affordable this stuff actually is," he said. "Our sales team has done a great job of sitting down with customers and making them realize how affordable camping can be." Jan. 7, 2004 CICERO Onondaga County granted the first waiver for New York's controversial smoking ban, and local tavern owners hope the decision will push the Cayuga County Board of Health to establish its own hardship waiver system. Damon's Party House in Onondaga County was given a one-year waiver to the Clean Indoor Air Act, the first waiver granted in the state since the smoking ban went into effect in July. Owner Dave Damon, 69, had to fill out a seven-page form from his county's health department to get the waiver. He documented his sales had dropped 40 percent since the ban began. His crowds for Friday night karaoke went from 70 to around a dozen during the past several months. "This was our fourth year in business. The three years previous were good, and all of a sudden bingo, bango down it went," Damon said. In Onondaga County, about 100 business owners have requested waiver forms. Two dozen have submitted the $100 application. The Cayuga County Board of Health recently agreed to establish a committee to examine the issue of hardship waivers. Compiled by David Wilcox Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The family of a young university graduate are rushing to try and bring her home from Thailand after she mysteriously woke up paralysed one morning. Caroline Bradner had been living and teaching English in Thailand when she started to feel weakness in her limbs last month. Doctors told the 22-year-old she was suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) before prescribing her some medication and sending her home. But when the Indiana native woke up the following morning, she was completely unable to move and told her friend to call an ambulance. The 22-year-old was later diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Image: GoFundMe It was not until she arrived at the hospital that doctors learned what the real cause of her paralysis was a rare autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Her concerned mother immediately flew to Thailand to be by her daughters side. But according to a GoFundMe appeal up by her sister, Pierce, their insurance provider has denied their request for any transportation home until she is able to take a regular flight. [Caroline] will require a nurse and special seating on the airplane to make the trip home as well as future hospitalisation and physical rehabilitation, Pierce wrote. This fund is to make sure that she can get home and receive the best possible care please help us. The target goal of $100,000 has already been met, with donations still coming in. Pierce said her sisters condition was improving and plans were now underway to fly her home. What is Guillain-Barre Syndrome? Caroline Bradner had been living in Thailand teaching English. Image: GoFundMe GBS, as its known, is a rare disease in which the bodys immune system ultimately attacks its own nerves. According to the World Health Organisation, the first symptoms of the disorder tend to be weakness in the legs, arms or face. For some people, these symptoms can lead to paralysis of the legs, arms, or muscles in the face, an information page on GBS from the WHO reads. In 2030 per cent of people, the chest muscles are affected, making it hard to breathe. Non-profit US medical centre Mayo Clinic says the precise cause of GBS remains unclear, but the disorder often occurs following an infection of some kind either bacterial or viral. Story continues The illness most commonly associated with GBS is campylobacter, a type of food poisoning that results from undercooked chicken. But GBS can also be triggered by more common illnesses such as influenza, Zika virus, Hepatitis A, B, C and E, and mycoplasma pneumoniae. In extremely rare cases, the disorder can result from surgery. Regardless of the cause, patients with GBS have the best prognosis when the disorder is caught early since the symptoms can be offset by immunotherapy treatment. Hundreds of people observed two minutes of silence on Monday in Norway in honour of two Scandinavian women hikers murdered in Morocco's Atlas Mountains in December. Standing in the cold with flags flying at half-mast at the University of South-Eastern Norway in the town of Bo, the participants gathered to remember 28-year-old Maren Ueland from Norway, and 24-year-old Dane Louisa Vesterager Jespersen. Both were both students there. The two women were killed at an isolated hiking spot south of Marrakesh overnight December 16-17, where they were vacationing. Their bodies were found the following day. The authorities have said they were beheaded and are calling the crime a "terrorist" act. The university addressed the murders with students on Monday morning as classes resumed after the Christmas break. "We talked with the students and tried not to understand what can't be understood, but we tried to make it easier for the students to put words on what has happened," Annette Bischoff, the head of the faculty where the two women were studying to be travel guides, told AFP. "This is very difficult for all of us, especially for the students who lived and studied with them," she said. The Moroccan authorities have arrested a total of 22 people in connection with the murders. They include the four main suspects and a Spanish-Swiss man who had links to some of the suspects and who subscribed to "extremist ideology", say Moroccan officials. The main suspects belonged to a cell inspired by Islamic State group ideology, but none of the four had contact with IS members in Syria or Iraq, Morocco's counter-terror chief Abdelhak Khiam told AFP. Both of the murdered hikers were students at the University of Southeastern Norway, where the ceremony was held The US Supreme Court upheld California's foie gras ban on Monday, ending a long legal battle between animal rights activists and defenders of the delicacy. The highest US court rejected an appeal filed by foie gras producers against a law prohibiting the sale of products obtained from force-feeding geese or duck to enlarge their liver. The law, passed in 2004 by California in the name of animal rights, carries a fine of $1,000. It took effect in 2012, was suspended by the courts in 2015 -- but then upheld on appeal in 2017. Producers of foie gras from Canada and New York, along with a California restaurateur, then appealed to the Supreme Court in defense of this delicacy they called "perhaps the most maligned (and misunderstood) food in the world." They argued that a state could not ban a federally authorized product. They had support from France, which called California's law "an assault on French (gastronomic and cultural) tradition." The high court threw out the appeal with no explanation. As such, California's law remains in effect. "This victory for animals follows tireless efforts from animal rights activists to oppose the archaic foie gras industry," the animal rights group PETA said. "Now that California can enforce this ban, PETA urges diners to blow the whistle on any restaurant that's caught serving this illegal and hideously produced substance," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. Foie gras cooked for a farewell to foie gras event in 2012 in Hermosa Beach, California Seven have been killed in a shooting at a crowded bar in the Mexican resort city of Playa del Carmen, reports say. Six people lost their lives at the scene, and a seventh subsequently died while being taken to the hospital, the public security minister for the state of Quintana Roo, Alberto Capella, told TV network Televisa after the Sunday night attack. Local media reports said the bar was about 10 minutes from the centre of the main tourist zone, and was packed with revellers at the end of the Epiphany holiday weekend. Playa del Carmen and nearby Cancun are the top tourist destinations in Mexico, famous for their turquoise waters and white-sand Caribbean beaches. Playa del Carmen is a popular resort in Mexico, but has also been the scene of drug-related violence. Image: AFP But they have been increasingly hit by violence as Mexicos powerful drug cartels fight for control of the area. Capella said the latest incident bore the hallmarks of a drug cartel hit, but authorities have yet to arrest any suspects. Mexico has been swept by a wave of violent crime since the government deployed the army to crack down on drug cartels in 2006. Since then, more than 200,000 people have been murdered, including a record 28,711 in 2017. Preliminary figures indicate the homicide record was broken again in 2018. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Monday that the Islamic State group would not be allowed to regroup as he headed to the Middle East following President Donald Trump's surprise decision to pull US troops from Syria. Leaving on a trip to eight Arab capitals, Pompeo told reporters he would show that "the United States is still committed to all the missions that we've signed up for with them over the past two years." The trip comes weeks after Trump announced that the United States would quickly pull its 2,000 soldiers out of Syria, declaring that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or IS, had been defeated. His advisers have since been walking back his timeline, with national security adviser John Bolton saying Monday in Jerusalem that the United States would verify that the group is truly defeated before withdrawing. Highlighting that IS emerged during the tenure of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, Pompeo said the campaign to destroy the movement's self-styled caliphate in war-battered Syria has been "enormously successful." "And I am confident that we will continue to ensure that the kind of rise that ISIS had under the Obama administration doesn't occur again," he said on his plane as he started his longest trip since taking over as top US diplomat last year. - Coalition against Iran - Pompeo opens his trip in Jordan and will deliver an address on Middle East policy in Egypt, whose military ruler turned president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has been a key partner of Trump. Another major focus of the tour will be sustaining a regional coalition to counter Iran, the main enemy of US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel. "This is a coalition that understands that the largest threats -- terrorism and the Islamic Republic of Iran -- are things that we ought to work on jointly and we will be marshaling all of the resources, theirs and ours, to achieve them," Pompeo said. Last year, Trump pulled out of an international accord negotiated under Obama on ending Iran's nuclear program and has instead reimposed biting sanctions. Pompeo repeatedly has called Iran "the world's largest state sponsor of terror," pointing to its targeting of domestic rivals in Europe and support of militant movements such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. - Promises from Turkey - The Trump administration has cited Iran as a reason for maintaining a strong alliance with Saudi Arabia, which Pompeo also will visit, despite the killing and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October. One of the rare US partners to support the US withdrawal from Syria has been Turkey, whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke to Trump before the US leader's December 19 decision. Pompeo, in an interview before his departure, said that Erdogan has given assurances to Trump not to attack US-allied Kurdish forces who fought IS in Syria. "President Erdogan made a commitment to President Trump as the two of them were discussing what this ought to look like -- that the Turks would continue the counter-ISIS campaign after our departure and that the Turks would ensure that the folks that we'd fought with, that had assisted us in the counter-ISIS campaign, would be protected," Pompeo told CNBC television. Pompeo was elaborating on his remark last week that the United States was working to ensure that "the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds" -- a choice of words that angered Turkey, which said the top US diplomat had a "worrying lack of knowledge." The US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units form the backbone of the opposition Syrian Democratic Forces, but Erdogan considers them linked to the PKK, which has waged a bloody insurgency inside Turkey in the name of the Kurdish minority. Bolton is set to hold talks Tuesday in Turkey after meetings in Israel, which has privately worried that Trump's withdrawal would empower Iran, which along with Russia offers military backing to President Bashar al-Assad. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Turkey promised to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to pull out American troops Ukraine's newly-created independent Orthodox Church, which has broken with Moscow, could sow "chaos" in neighbouring Poland, the head of the Orthodox Church in Warsaw warned Monday. Poland hosts about a million Ukrainian workers, and the leader of the Ukrainian Church, Metropolitan Yepifaniy, "could organise his own parishes in Poland for groups of faithful" among them, said Poland's Metropolitan Sawa. The Orthodox Church of Poland has some 600,000 followers, and like the new Ukrainian church, is independent of the Russian Orthodox Church. Orthodox believers are a tiny minority in Poland, a predominantly Catholic EU country of 38 million people. In Ukraine, orthodoxy is the predominant religion. "I recently heard that Pravyi Sektor (a Ukrainian paramilitary nationalist group) is already preparing the ground for Yepifaniy to visit Poland, chaos lies ahead," Sawa told Poland's Polityka weekly. The nationalist organisation had backed the creation of an independent Ukrainian Church. "Ukrainian authorities should first unify the country, put an end to the war and only then deal with issues like the Church," Sawa added, referring to the armed conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, the highest Orthodox authority, on Sunday presented a formal decree confirming the creation of an independent Ukrainian church to its leader, Yepifaniy, finalising a historic break with the Russian Orthodox Church. Moscow, in response, cut ties with the patriarchate in Istanbul. The decree opened the way for Ukraine's Orthodox Church to be recognised by other branches of orthodoxy and other churches. Sawa on Monday also questioned Yepifaniy's legitimacy, calling the 39-year-old a "layman" who was elected "illegally". Yepifaniy was ordained by the Kiev Patriarch Filaret, excommunicated by Moscow for creating a dissident church in Ukraine in 1992 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Filaret was later recognised by the Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch. Ukraine's newly created independent Orthodox Church held its first Christmas service in Kiev Monday. Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas according to the Julian Calendar. For more than 300 years, the Ukrainian Church was split into three, with one branch overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow. The Kiev government considered this unacceptable given Ukraine's ongoing war with Moscow-backed rebels in the country's east, which has already killed more than 10,000 people. Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas on January 7 Some of the 49 migrants stranded off the coast of Malta are refusing food, one of the groups running the boats that rescued them reported Monday. "On board of #SeaWatch we are reporting episodes of people refusing food," Sea-Watch International tweeted Monday. "We fear that their psychological and health status may deteriorate significantly," it added. The migrants, rescued while attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing from north Africa to Europe, have been stranded on the Sea-Watch and another boat since December 22 since no country has allowed it to dock. But the diplomatic deadlock among EU member states has still not been resolved, despite Pope Francis's appeal on Sunday for EU leaders to show solidarity towards the migrants. The Sea-Watch and the Sea-Eye, who between them have 49 migrants on board, including a baby and a number of children, remain off the coast of Malta. On Sunday, Sea Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi described how the migrants, crammed into a small room, were vomiting on each other in the stormy seas. One European diplomatic source said France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal had declared themselves ready to take in some of the migrants. So too has Romania, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, agreeing to take in five migrants. But both Italy and Malta have repeatedly refused port access to the rescue vessels and they stuck to that position Sunday despite the pope's intervention. Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini maintained his position on Monday. "I don't understand why ... if there are 49 people in Maltese waters on German and Dutch boats, it's still the problem of the Italians," he told journalists. Relations between Italy and Malta have been strained since Salvini's decision to close Italian ports to the migrants, accusing the groups who rescue them of running a migrant "taxi service". Frank Doerner, a doctor on board the Sea Watch, said on Sunday: "The situation here on board is getting more and more unstable." And because they were unable to land the migrants they had rescued, that prevented them from going back out to sea to rescue others risking the crossing. The Dutch-flagged rescue vessel Sea Watch 3 is carrying 32 migrants, including children and teenagers, off the Maltese coast, but has been refused permission to dock Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty Monday to indecently assaulting a teenager who alleged that the Oscar-winning US actor groped him in a bar in Massachusetts in 2016. The "House of Cards" star, who faces five years in prison if convicted, is accused of repeatedly reaching down into the pants of a man identified as William Little, who was 18 at the time of the alleged attack at a Nantucket restaurant. Spacey, dressed in a gray coat over a dark blazer and tie, was not asked for his plea during the brief arraignment in a crowded Nantucket courtroom, but his lawyer entered the denial on Spacey's behalf. A follow-on hearing was scheduled for March 4, but Spacey is not required to attend. The 59-year-old actor stood quietly with his hands clasped as the clerk read out the charge "that in the town of Nantucket on July 18, 2016 (the defendant) did commit indecent assault and battery on someone 14 and over." The case marks the first time Spacey has faced sexual misconduct charges, although there are dozens of claims against him. They come more than 13 months after the complaint was filed, the latest chapter in Hollywood's reckoning over sexual assault and harassment that has already seen television icon Bill Cosby jailed and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein indicted. - Forced out - Spacey's alleged victim was working as a bus boy for the summer in Nantucket and had remained in the bar after his shift finished to see his hero. After meeting the actor and telling him he was 23 years old -- the legal drinking age is 21 in Massachusetts -- he said he started drinking first beer and then whiskey at Spacey's urging. The actor then allegedly invited him back to his place, along with some other friends. The young man declined, suspecting the actor was trying to seduce him. But he stayed at the bar in the hopes of getting a picture with Spacey. It was then that the actor began sexually molesting the young man, according to court filings. The two-time Oscar winner -- recognized for his supporting role in "Usual Suspects" in 1996 and his lead role in "American Beauty" in 2000 -- was considered one of the finest actors of his generation. His career nosedived following allegations of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen men in the United States and Britain. Forced out of public life, Spacey posted a video online in December in which he discussed allegations of sexual abuse in character as Frank Underwood, the scheming politician he played in "House of Cards" before the show dropped him. - 'Never that simple' - "You wouldn't believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn't rush to judgments without facts, would you? Did you? No, not you. You're smarter than that," Spacey said in the video. "Of course, some believed everything and have been just waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They're just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. "Only you and I both know it's never that simple, not in politics and not in life." In addition to the Nantucket case, two other investigations are underway in Los Angeles and London, where Spacey served as artistic director of the prestigious Old Vic theater from 2004 to 2015. Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who performed in several Old Vic productions, said it seemed that "it only took a male under 30 to make Mr Spacey feel free to touch us." The first public allegation of abuse came from actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed that Spacey sexually assaulted him when Rapp was 14, in 1986. Spacey has not appeared on the screen or on stage since Rapp came forward. Director Ridley Scott even removed Spacey from his film "All the Money in the World" (2017) by shooting all scenes in which the actor appeared again with another star, Christopher Plummer. Actor Kevin Spacey attends his arraignment on sexual assault charges with his lawyer Alan Jackson (right) at Nantucket District Court on January 7, 2019 US actor Kevin Spacey wades through a media frenzy as he makes his appearance during his arraignment on January 7, 2019 at the Nantucket District Court US actor Kevin Spacey is formally charged with indecent assault and battery in a groping case involving a teenage busboy on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket in 2016 The two leaders of Italy's ruling populist coalition on Monday threw their support behind the "yellow vest" protesters roiling neighbouring France. "Yellow vests, do not weaken!" Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), wrote on his party's blog. He denounced the French government for protecting the elite and the privileged, saying "a new Europe is being born. Of the 'yellow vests', of movements, of direct democracy" ahead of European parliamentary elections in May. Matteo Salvini, his counterpart from the far-right, the anti-immigrant League, also backed the "yellow vest" protesters. "I give all possible support to the French who are, in an educated and respectful way, letting a president who isn't acting in the interests of the French people know that the sooner he goes home, the better," Salvini told journalists in Rome, while condemning the violence. On Monday, Di Maio offered French protesters the use of their so-called Rousseau platform to improve organisation and "draw up an electoral programme". "This system (Rousseau) is made for a horizontal and spontaneous movement such as yours and we would be happy if you want to use it," Di Maio wrote. M5S has vaunted direct democracy since it began in 2009. Through its Rousseau internet portal, it gathers the votes of members online to decide its policies, draft legislation and candidates. The platform is presented by the party as a reflection of its unique commitment to grassroots democracy and a new politics. But it has been criticised, notably by former members, for its lack of transparency and the leadership's tight control over its functioning. The movement's successful candidate for Rome mayor in 2016, Virginia Raggi, was chosen by M5S followers on Rousseau from among several previously unknown candidates. "Like other governments, the French one thinks mainly about representing the interests of the elites, those who live from privileges, no longer those of the people," Di Maio wrote. French President Emmanuel "Macron's government is not up to expectations and some policies are de facto dangerous, not just for the French, but for Europe". "In Italy, we have inverted this trend," Di Maio wrote, calling on French protesters to do likewise. Around 50,000 "yellow vest" protesters took to the streets again on Saturday in cities around France to denounce Macron's centrist policies. While the numbers have dwindled since the earliest protests, a smaller but increasingly radical core of protesters remain determined to push on. The demonstrations have been frequently violent since they began in late November, particularly on December 1 when crowds ransacked a museum in the Arc de Triomphe and daubed graffiti on the famed monument. Protesters have criticised the French media for their coverage, demonstrating outside their offices, while mock executions of Macron have also been a feature of some gatherings. "Yellow vest" protests against fuel taxes began in rural and small-town France in late November, but then mushroomed into a wider revolt during December against the policies and governing style of 41-year-old Macron. Italy's M5S-League coalition in June became the European Union's first populist-only government, taking over from the centre-left Democratic Party. The ruling coalition has had numerous spats with Macron and with the European Commission in Brussels since coming to power, notably over its big-spending budget to apply populist measures. Italy's deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio backed France's 'yellow jacket' movement in a post on the blog of his party, the Five Star Movement Italy?s far-right Interior Minister backed the French 'yellow vest' protesters Two Greek anarchists were arrested Monday after hurling red paint at the US embassy in Athens, police said. A further eight members of the Rubicon Anarchist Collective were also detained but later released over the incident, which caused minor material damage but no injuries, police added. The Greek foreign ministry condemned an action it said undermined "longstanding friendly relations between the two peoples and the strategic relationship between Greece and the United States (which is) crucial for our country and the region." The Rubicon group, which regards Washington's interventions in numerous regions including the nearby Balkans as "imperialism", arrived outside the embassy in the early hours and sprayed the entrance before police intervened. Another gripe is the planned US withdrawal of troops from Syria, which the group said would "abandon the Kurds into Syria's hands". Rubicon has carried out a number of similar acts on embassies, banks and public buildings in recent years, causing some material damage but no injury. Last October, the group daubed paint over the facade of the Canadian embassy to protest the presence of a Canadian gold mining firm in northern Greece. A month earlier, Rubicon targeted the Iranian embassy in "solidarity" with Iranian Kurds. Media reports say it plans to join a January 17 meeting of other anarchist organisations in Rome. Anarchists from the Rubicon Anarchist Collective have regularly denounced US "imperialism" and have carried out a series of similar actions, causing minor material damage but no injury The case of auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has gripped Japan and the business world since his stunning arrest in November, and now he is finally getting his day in court. Ghosn will be able to make his first public statement at a brief hearing on Tuesday, after his lawyers used an obscure article of Japan's constitution to demand an explanation for his detention. - What will happen in court? - The hearing is "a dialogue between the lawyer and the judge, and the prosecutor is not required to be present," said Yasuyuki Takai, a former investigator at the unit that arrested Ghosn. The judge is likely to give a brief explanation for Ghosn's detention, and the Constitution mandates that the accused be permitted to speak as well. However there is no allotted time for his comments, and the judge could require Ghosn to read a prepared statement rather than give off-the-cuff remarks. In theory he is free to say what he wants until the judge tells him to stop, said Takai. "He can wear what he wants, but he'll be handcuffed until the entrance of the courtroom," he added. He will not, however, be permitted to speak to reporters, the general public or family members in court. "This hearing will have no bearing on the rest of the case," Takai said. "There's no chance that Ghosn's release will be ordered tomorrow." - What is Ghosn accused of? - Prosecutors are investigating three separate lines of enquiry: -- He is accused of under-reporting his salary by around five billion yen ($44 million) between 2010 and 2015 in official documents sent to shareholders. -- He is accused also of under-reporting his salary by a further four billion yen between 2015 and 2018. -- He is further accused of trying to transfer 1.85 billion yen in personal investment losses during the financial crisis to Nissan. He is also accused of wiring company funds to a Saudi associate who put up collateral for him in the investment scheme. Authorities have so far only pressed formal charges over the first accusation. Ghosn reportedly denies all the allegations. - Why is he still in prison? - Under Japanese law, a suspect can be held for weeks, or even months, as prosecutors probe different allegations. After the initial arrest they have 48 hours to question the suspect. They can then apply for two consecutive 10-day extensions. After a maximum of 22 days they must either press formal charges, release the suspect on bail or come up with new allegations. Ghosn was initially held until December 10 as prosecutors investigated the first allegation against him. They then formally charged him, kicking off a two-month period of pre-trial detention that is renewable. But prosecutors also simultaneously re-arrested him on the second set of allegations, restarting the 22-day clock. A court rejected a further extension of that set -- raising the possibility of Ghosn's release on bail -- but in another twist, prosecutors slapped the tycoon with a third set of allegations, restarting the whole process. The case has sparked criticism of the Japanese legal system, especially from overseas. - What happens next? - The detention period for the third allegation against Ghosn expires on January 11, by which time prosecutors must decide whether to charge him, re-arrest him on new allegations or allow him to apply for bail. Even if prosecutors do not level new allegations, the former Nissan chief could remain in jail in pre-trial detention. If prosecutors charge him with either of the outstanding allegations that would also restart the pre-trial detention clock. If no new allegations are levelled against Ghosn he could apply for bail. His alleged accomplice and former right-hand man at Nissan, Greg Kelly, successfully won bail on December 25 on the condition he stays in Japan. Carlos Ghosn will finally get his day in court Gabon foiled an attempted coup on Monday, capturing the rebel chief and killing two of his men after a group of soldiers stormed a radio station to call for an uprising while the country's ailing president was abroad. Renegade soldiers burst into RTG state radio broadcasting offices in the capital Libreville at dawn and urged the public to "rise up", in an appeal made as President Ali Bongo was in Morocco recovering from a stroke last year. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the elite Republican Guard, two of them carrying assault rifles, were visible on a video of the speech released on social media. But security forces stormed the building soon afterwards, capturing the commander, killing two of his men and freeing radio technicians who were held hostage and forced to help the mutineers make their broadcast, the presidency said. "The situation is under control," it said in a statement. Shots were heard earlier around the state broadcasting headquarters in the centre of capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT). Security forces were deployed across the city and will remain there over the coming days, a government spokesman said. The Republican Guard was stationed around the radio building, armoured vehicles blocked access to the area and a helicopter circled overhead, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people had earlier torched a car and set fire to tyres before security forces dispersed them with tear gas. But much of the city was deserted, with businesses closed and local and foreign companies telling their workers to stay home. The dramatic developments came as Bongo was staying at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the country since October. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attempted putsch and called on all political actors to follow the constitution. "The secretary general has always stood against unconstitutional changes of power, especially by force, and in that light, he condemns the attempted coup that took place this morning in Gabon," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The UN envoy for Central Africa, Francois Lounceny Fall, who is based in Libreville, was closely monitoring the situation and is ready to offer assistance if needed, the spokesman said. The African Union and former colonial power France also strongly condemned the attempted coup and warned against any "unconstitutional" change of power. - 'Democratic transition' - The rebel message was read on state radio by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, describing himself as deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces. He said a "national restoration council" would be formed "to guarantee a democratic transition". The movement "calls on all young people from forces for the defence and security and Gabonese young people to join us," the officer said. "The eagerly awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos. "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up... Rise up as one and take control of the street," he said, urging people to seize public buildings and airports. - 'A difficult period' - The 59-year-old Bongo has not been back to Gabon since he suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia on October 24. In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of his powers to the prime minister and the vice president. On December 31, Bongo addressed the country for the first time since falling ill, saying in a recorded speech from Morocco that he had "been through a difficult period." His critics seized on signs of apparent ill-health, noting that the address was unusually short, his speech was slurred and his right hand seemed stiff and immobile. The speech was "shameful," the officer said in Monday's address, describing Gabon as "country (which) has lost its dignity." The Bongo family has governed the equatorial African nation for five decades. Bongo took over from his father Omar, who took office in 1967 and gained the reputation of a kleptocrat -- one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune derived from Gabon's oil wealth. He was also a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a now much-contested strategy by which France bound itself to its former African colonies through cronyism, often tainted with corruption and rights abuses. Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009. He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the Republican Guard were visible on a video of the speech circulating on social media Map locating Gabon and its major cities Gabonese security forces took up positions around the capital after the thwarted coup Gabonese soldiers stormed into a public radio station to take it back from rebels Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009 A French jihadist appeared in court on Monday as a jury was chosen for his trial for shooting dead four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014. Mehdi Nemmouche, the first jihadist to return from Syria's battlefields to allegedly launch an attack on European soil, faces a life sentence if convicted of the killings in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014. Both Nemmouche, 33, and Nacer Bendrer, a fellow Frenchman aged 30 who allegedly supplied the weapons, deny charges of "terrorist murder". Nemmouche, wearing a blue sweater, spoke only to confirm his identity as the hearing began at 10:30 am (0930 GMT). "Nemmouche, Mehdi, 33 years old, unemployed," he told the criminal court in Brussels before it selected a jury of eight men and four women for the trial, which opens on Thursday. More than 100 witnesses are due to testify at the trial, which will be attended by the victims' families and Jewish community leaders, who have denounced the anti-Semitic nature of the attack. And more than 300 Belgian and foreign journalists have registered to cover the proceedings which could last until the end of February. - 82 seconds of terror - The deadly attack, which lasted only 82 seconds, shocked Belgium and the world. Firing a pistol and then an assault rifle, the gunman killed two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian receptionist at the Jewish Museum. Nemmouche -- born to a family of Algerian origin in the northern French town of Roubaix -- was arrested six days after the attack. He was caught in the southern French port city of Marseille after arriving on a bus from Brussels, carrying a handgun and an assault rifle. Before the attack, Nemmouche is said to have fought in Syria as part of a jihadist faction and is also accused of acting as a jailer of kidnapped French journalists. Investigators say he was in Syria from 2013 to 2014, where he met Najim Laachraoui, a member of the gang which went on to carry out suicide bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people in March 2016. - Radicalised inmates - That same Brussels cell is also alleged to have coordinated and sent jihadists to carry out the Paris massacre of November 13, 2015, in which 130 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, whose activities in Syria and Iraq lured thousands of jihadists from Europe. Nemmouche and Bendrer, investigators say, met nearly a decade ago while in prison in southern France, where they were both described as "radicalised" inmates who tried to win others over. Bendrer was arrested in Marseille seven months after the Jewish Museum attack and charged as Nemmouche's accomplice. Although he was jailed for five years in September by a French court for attempted extortion, he was transferred to Belgium for the trial. - Jailer of hostages - Nemmouche is expected to face a separate trial in France for holding French journalists hostage in Syria. The former hostages are expected to testify about Nemmouche's character during the Brussels trial, despite the defence arguing that theirs is a separate case. Belgian Jewish leader Yohan Benizri told AFP he feared Nemmouche's lawyers Sebastien Courtoy and Henri Laquay will try to "play down" the anti-Semitic nature of the museum attack. The defence team, Benizri added, may even try to "twist" the facts by repeating "totally far-fetched" claims that Israel's intelligence service Mossad staged the attack. "We don't want Mehdi Nemmouche to become a star. He is a terrorist," said Benizri, who heads the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organizations. Courtoy himself suggested Israeli agents could be behind the attack when he spoke at a pre-trial hearing on December 20. While Jewish groups say the evidence against Nemmouche is "overwhelming," Courtoy argued "a trap" was sprung on his client. The deadly attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014 lasted just over a minute but four people were killed A grainy picture of Mehdi Nemmouche, the suspect who allegedly gunned down four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014 1. Fill in your name or an alias. Do not leave blank or use the name 'guest' or 'anonymous'. 2. No Nivul Peh. Profanity will be deleted. The Brazilian government is not poised to interrupt plans for a tie-up between national planemaker Embraer and US giant Boeing, a senior official said Monday, days after President Jair Bolsonaro expressed wariness over the venture. The government "is not thinking of interrupting this negotiation," Augusto Heleno, secretary for institutional security, said after accompanying Bolsonaro to an event in Brasilia appointing the new heads of public banks, the O Globo news website reported. Bolsonaro last week sent shares in Embraer diving after saying that, while he approved of the $5.2-billion tie-up, he wanted reassurance that Boeing would not simply gobble up the Brazilian company. Under the planned joint venture, Boeing is to take 80 percent of Embraer's commercial plane manufacturing business, giving it capacity to produce aircraft of up to 150 seats -- a market in which it currently does not compete. Embraer's military division is excluded from the deal, which was announced mid-2018 and is meant to be finalized by the end of this year. Embraer is the third-largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. It was privatized in 1994, but the Brazilian government retains a "golden share" with veto power over strategic decisions. Heleno, a retired military officer, said "there is a concern" over Embraer's technological assets "that we don't intend to lose." But he said that "can be perfectly set out" in the negotiations. Embraer shares were trading slightly lower, down 0.5 percent, in Sao Paulo midway through Monday. Brazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro voiced concern about a tie-up between Embraer and American giant Boeing -- but he's not against the deal Photos: Getty 2018 marked the worst year for the Australian housing market since the global financial crisis ten years ago. Sydney and Melbourne house prices fell by -8.9 per cent and -7 per cent respectively while Hobart, Canberra and Adelaide properties conversely rose in value. But whats in store for the year ahead? According to analysis by Moodys Analytics, the gloomy outlook doesnt look set to get much brighter but there are pockets of opportunities in some cities. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics Moodys Analytics measures house values in capital cities using using CoreLogics Hedonic Home Value Index, which accounts for factors such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, land area, and geographic context of the property. Heres a breakdown of how the housing markets of each of Australias capital cities might fare in 2019: Sydney Property prices in Sydney fell by 8.9 per cent according to CoreLogic figures, and its still downhill from here going into 2019. Sources CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics A further 3.3 per cent drop is forecast for 2019, said Moodys Analytics economist Katrina Ell. The city is Australias largest housing market. By 2020, the correction is forecast to have largely passed, but house value growth will be far from the lofty gains of recent years. Housing values are forecast to rise modestly in 2020. Melbourne Its bad news for the Europe of Australia: Moodys forecasts a further drop of 6 per cent in 2019. With lending conditions likely to remain tight in 2019, the downturn in home values in Greater Melbourne is expected to intensify before rising modestly in 2020, Ell said. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytis The largest declines are forecast in Melbourne-Inner East and Inner South, where home values are projected to fall by more than 10%. Brisbane While property values will vary across Brisbane, house prices are generally forecast to rise by a mild 1.2 per cent in 2019. West Brisbane and Inner Brisbane have been earmarked as key strength areas, offsetting drops in South Brisbane. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics The outlook for these housing markets is for either flat or mildly positive returns over the forecast period. Story continues Perth Western Australias weak housing market is set to cool further, with house values in Perth likely to decline 2.8 per cent in 2019. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics But a recovery is on the horizon in 2020 thanks to population growth, Ell observed. Adelaide Property investors in the City of Churches can expect house prices to rise 2.6 per cent this year, but shouldnt expect too much. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics Slow population and income growth will weigh on the South Australian housing market. Values are forecast to pick up slightly in 2019 and 2020, although growth is unlikely to accelerate meaningfully. Hobart Tasmania has enjoyed a period of sustained housing market growth, but this is expected to slow down by 2.7 per cent this year and then a further 2 per cent in 2020. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics The expected deceleration in the housing market in Hobart in 2019 stems from a lack of job growth, which will keep unemployment elevated after a period of improvement. This is contributing to relatively low wage gains, which will strain household balance sheets as house values rise. Canberra The Bush Capital could become the apple of the eye for Aussie property investors: ACT house values are set to rise 6.1 per cent in 2019 after a 5.5 per cent rise this year. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics Ell attributes strong population growth as propelling both the ACT economy as well as the resilience of the ACT housing market. The ACTs population grew by 2.2 per cent in the year ended 2017, the biggest rise since 2012, driven by record net overseas migration. Darwin Darwins housing market has been declining since 2014-2015 but this has had the effect of improving housing affordability in this capital city and attracting first-home buyers. Property prices fell 2 per cent in 2018 after a drop of 5 per cent in 2017, but will rise 3.7 per cent in 2019 and a further 6.6 per cent in 2020. Sources: CoreLogic, Moodys Analytics Make your money work with Yahoo Finances daily newsletter. Sign up here and stay on top of the latest money, news and tech news. Read next: 4 things one of the worlds leading economists is worried about Read next: Homebuilder Tamawood just warned of a perfect storm for Australian house prices Read next: These Australian property markets will boom in 2019 (Bloomberg) -- Standing in a vast field of muddy wasteland that wouldnt look out of place in an apocalyptic movie scene, Elon Musk exuded his usual mix of optimism and self-deprecating humor. Musk had trekked to these inhospitable outskirts of Shanghai on a rainy Monday to break ground on Tesla Inc.s first car-production site outside the U.S. And in typical Musk fashion, he was big on promises and can-do attitude, flanked by a phalanx of Chinese officials who are keen backers of Teslas beachhead in China, the worlds largest automobile market. The build-up to the event was vintage Musk: a rapid-fire string of tweets bubbling with excitement, a dose of star power (his on-again, off-again girlfriend, the rapper Grimes, accompanied him on his China trip), and an aggressive timetable even for Chinas standards, where centralized planning isnt foreign to the concept of moonshot construction projects. Tesla wants the factory to start pumping out Model 3 cars by the end of the year. For all the fanfare and official hobnobbing, Musk injected a dose of juvenile comic relief into the event. His eagerly-followed Twitter feed suddenly featured a new profile picture that showed the billionaire with a scribbled curly mustache so clumsily executed that it looked like a mischievious -- if harmless -- hack. A Musk spokesman later confirmed that the tweet was in fact real and authored by the main man himself. The actual ceremony turned out to be far more down-to-earth, which is to say: in the mud. Heavy rain had pelted the region all morning, filling the barren and bulldozed field with deep streams of slush. A freshly laid strip of road cut through the wasteland, crowned by a Tesla-emblazoned red gate and dozens of corporate flags flapping in the chilly wind. On one side off the street in the distance, a bouquet of eight motionless blue cranes pierced the gray sky. Coats, umbrellas and rubber boots were coveted commodities. Despite nothing of discernible value on the ground, police were out in force to guard the area. Story continues Its the kind of place nobody really wants to spend much time, but Musk was beaming. He was joined by local government dignitaries, including Shanghais mayor, on stage, and the all-male attire was black and gray against a backdrop of the Tesla-red stage. The actual ground-breaking act had its moment of science fiction: where typically executives lift gleaming spades in varying degrees of discomfort to move a few morsels of earth, Musk and his entourage simply placed their hands on translucent pylons to complete the deed. For an executive who has built his cult-like status in no small part by defying the odds and fighting the naysayers, there are few settings more fitting than this boggy field. Tesla wants to have initial construction completed by middle of the year and see Made-in-China cars rolling off the production line by the end of 2019. Capacity is for 500,000 units, for affordable versions of Teslas Model 3 and Model Y for Greater China. Theres a lot riding on Musks first car factory outside the U.S., which explains the rush. BMW, Mercedes and Audi all have plans to begin local production of electric SUVs. Musk has said that building locally is a key success factor, and the unresolved U.S.-China trade spat continues to be a major headache for any manufacturer producing in the U.S. and exporting to China. All told, Musk wants to sink $5 billion into the Shanghai facility, according to people familiar with his plans. By the time the event was wrapping up, Musks optimism had infected the locals. Rain represents fortune, Shanghais Vice Mayor Wu Qing said at the ceremony. The rain today could predict that Mr. Musk and Tesla will make a big fortune here. (Updates with reference to twitter profile picture in fourth paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Benedikt Kammel in Berlin at bkammel@bloomberg.net;Yan Zhang in Beijing at yzhang1044@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma O'Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. The internet yields a number of Martin Aulds but none who would seem to be our man, so I know nothing of his background or credentials. This included the quoted skepticism (above), rather cavalierly expressed, of the figure of up to 500,000 West Papuan Melanesians killed since Indonesia took over the territory Most recently, he has mounted a vigorous defence of Indonesia in the context of its brutal colonisation of West Papua. NOOSA I do not know Martin Auld except as a commentator on PNG Attitude where his expertise seems to be largely in Indonesian affairs. half a million? Most close observers of the conflict can see through that one (Martin Auld) We take our readers comments as views they are entitled to make. But when they present a line of argument based on demolishing the views of others (in Aulds case thats a wide field but he has a particular distaste for journalists) by claiming truths which are contestable and when this is done relentlessly and strenuously it is probably time to offer contesting testimony, especially as Auld seems to have no desire to do this himself. So when Auld, with some scorn I observe, challenged the figure of up to 500,000 West Papuans killed since Indonesia acquired their territory by means of a vote regarded as dubious at best and when he refers to that number as a transparent propaganda tactic - I thought it opportune to take the argument into the ranks of those organisations and people who claim this figure as a reasonable estimate. In truth, the number is unknowable because the observers have been few and the perpetrators are not going to own up to it, even if they keep count. Thus estimates must be made and, where these show a consistency, I believe the reasonable person would accept them. Accordingly I have sought to find sources that assess this horrific number of 500,000 as a fair approximation a calculated guess if you like. And, as it happens, there are very many such sources, far too many to cite here. But I offer some I have traversed. So let me share the results of that little search, beginning with a scene setter: a citation from a 2004 report from the prestigious Yale Law School in the United States on "the application of the law of genocide to the history of Indonesian control of West Papua". I note that in the 14 years since this paper was published, the situation in West Papua has worsened. Since Indonesia gained control of West Papua, the West Papuan people have suffered persistent and horrible abuses at the hands of the government. The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence, thus causing serious bodily and mental harm. Systematic resource exploitation, the destruction of Papuan resources and crops, compulsory (and often uncompensated) labor, transmigration schemes, and forced relocation have caused pervasive environmental harm to the region, undermined traditional subsistence practices, and led to widespread disease, malnutrition, and death among West Papuans. Such acts, taken as a whole, appear to constitute the imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the West Papuans. Let me continue with just 16 references I have found, and there are very many more available, to that widely-quoted 500,000 figure. Since 1963, an estimated 500,000 West Papuans have died at the hands of the brutal Indonesian occupying forces, accounting for more than 25% of the population. These numbers have been ratified by several studies and human rights groups (including The International Association of Genocide Scholars and Yale Law School) West Papua: The Forgotten People by Adam Perry, The Jerusalem Post (Israel) The people of West Papua have been calling for self-determination for half a century a struggle for liberation from an Indonesian military occupation that has seen as many as 500,000 Papuans killed - The Human Tragedy of West Papua by Gemima Harvey, The Diplomat, international current-affairs magazine (USA) Since Indonesia began its occupation of West Papua an estimated 500,000 locals have lost their lives under harsh military and police repression - Sydney Criminal Lawyers, Time to Support West Papua by Paul Gregoire (Australia) According to rights activists, more than 500,000 Papuans have been killed, and thousands more have been raped, tortured and imprisoned by the Indonesian military since 1969. Mass killings in Papuas tribal highlands during the 1970s amounted to genocide, according to the Asia Human Rights Commission - A Tragic, Forgotten Place.' Poverty and Death in Indonesia's Land of Gold by Febriana Firdaus, Time magazine (USA) It is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 Papuans have lost their lives in the conflict, most of which were civilians killed by security forces - The UKs involvement in the Papuan crisis by Giacomo Grison, New Internationalist (UK) The Indonesian military occupation has led to the well-documented violent deaths of over 500,000 West Papuan people and their dislocation from ancestral lands - Affirmation of West Papua, Baptist Churches of Aotearoa (New Zealand) The Free West Papua Campaign also claims that the government is engaging in genocide against the Papuan population, alleging that 500,000 civilians have been killed since Indonesia occupied the region. While these numbers are difficult to verify, a study by the University of Sydney has revealed that the continuation of current practices in West Papua may pose serious threats to the survival of the indigenous people of the Indonesian province of Papua - Situation in West Papua getting worse, The Asean Post (Malaysia) Up to 500,000 West Papuans have died as a result of Indonesias occupation of the territory since 1962 - Dr Camellia Webb-Gannon, Coordinator, West Papua Project, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney (Australia) Around 500,000 West Papuans are believed to have died in what many commentators have described as a slow genocide - Peter Tatchell Foundation, independent and non-party political human rights organisation (UK) Peter Arndt, executive officer of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane, told about 50 local supporters who attended the forum in the Cathedral Hall that more than 500,000 West Papuans have been slaughtered by security forces since West Papua was annexed and put under Indonesian control in the 1960s- West Papua at tipping point by Lindy McNamara, The Southern Cross - official news site of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide (Australia) . three decades of experience in West Papua that is a testament to the resilience and patience of the people in the face of slow genocide with an estimated 500,000 Papuans dying over the past half century - Asia Pacific Report, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand) Since the Suharto dictatorship annexed the region in a 1969 UN referendum largely seen as a fixed land grab, an estimated 500,000 West Papuans have been killed in their fight for self-rule - The $100bn gold mine and the West Papuans who say they are counting the cost by Susan Schulman, The Guardian (UK) Some estimates say that as many as 500,000 Papuans have been killed since Indonesia took control in 1969 - GlobalSecurity.org, source of background information on defence, intelligence etc (USA) .in the face of human rights abuses, a lack of media access, and a genocide that some observers estimate has killed as many as 500,000, Papuans have continued to advocate for the right to self-determination - 1.8 million Papuans sign referendum petition by Dr Keith Hyams, University of Warwick (UK) [We refuse] to turn a blind eye to the deaths of 500,000 West Papuans over the course of the last fifty years - Rex Horoi, Solomon Islands special envoy on West Papua to the UN General Assembly (Solomon Islands) The provinces of Papua and West Papua have been plagued by intimidation and violence, with over 500,000 Papuans killed since the 1960s. It is also Indonesias poorest province, with 28 percent of its people living below the poverty line Indonesian Public and Human Rights Groups Decry West Papuan Arrests by Stanley Widianto, Voice of America (US) These references, as I have said, fall short of proof. But they do align. Martin Aulds line of attack also falls short of proof and the evidence he does produce does appear biased, spurious or contaminated. A more credible assessment of what has really occurred in West Papua these past 50 years or so would be balanced with the possibility that what has occurred in West Papua is a fully-fledged, wide-scale and deliberate genocide. There can be no excusing away that. Solomon Islands first general elections since the end of RAMSI will test the capacity of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force. Similarly, president Hilda Heine in Marshall Islands will be looking to secure something more substantial than the very narrow margin by which she defeated a motion of no confidence last year. In Tuvalu, prime minister Enele Sesene Sopoaga will be hoping that his increased presence and activity in the realm of global climate diplomacy will not prove an impediment to success at home. BRISBANE - 2019 is going to be a busy year for the Pacific. A number of Pacific island countries will hold national elections this year as the peoples of Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Marshall Islands go to the polls. Despite having been prime minister for such a short period of time, incumbent Rick Hou claims to have achieved some significant milestones and has managed to progress some important legislative reforms, including passage of the Anti-Corruption Act. These elections will be conducted under the aegis of recently-enacted changes to the electoral law. Hou will be hoping to reap the political benefits of an increase in the minimum wage awarded just before Parliament was dissolved. There is also ongoing concern about the impacts of mining, including complaints that insufficient benefits are accruing to communities. Self-determination and independence are never far from peoples minds in the Pacific, and we are currently in a period where these issues are even more present than usual. The referendum in New Caledonia last year saw the territory elect to remain part of France but with a much stronger showing for independence from France than many had anticipated, and the aftereffects of this will be felt in 2019. In particular, the pro-independence parties will be looking to secure sufficient seats in the congressional elections (to be held on 12 May) to strengthen their argument for going ahead with up to two more referendums as envisaged by the Noumea Accords, despite opposition from anti-independence groups. The importance of this years provincial and congressional elections has prompted renewed lobbying for changes in the rules about who is eligible to vote. In 2019, Bougainville is scheduled to have a referendum in which its citizens will be asked to decide if they wish for greater autonomy within Papua New Guinea or if they want to be an independent state. Although some important steps have been taken to get referendum ready there are still a lot of hurdles to clear and it is likely that the scheduled date of 15 June will slip a little. The working relationship between the national government and the Autonomous Bougainville Government is not always a smooth one, with ongoing concerns about transfers of funding from Waigani. The situation has been further complicated by allegations of mismanagement (and possibly worse), and the impacts of these will be felt in the lead up to the referendum this year. The issue of self-determination for West Papua is likely to become more significant in our region over the next few years, especially given that by the end of this year the Pacific Islands Forum troika will include Tuvalu, whose prime minister spoke strongly on this issue at the UN General Assembly in 2018, and Vanuatu, whose support for West Papuan independence is well known. Recent increases in armed clashes, including reports of use of chemical weapons by the Indonesian military (which have been denied by Jakarta) have once again highlighted the situation in West Papua. In Papua New Guinea, following a tumultuous 2018, there is an expectation that the Opposition will seek to pass a motion of no confidence in the prime minister, Peter ONeill, after the post-elections grace period expires in February. Whilst the Opposition has strengthened thanks to the merger of the National Alliance and PNG Party, ONeill has proved himself to be a political survivor of the first order. No doubt ONeill will point to PNGs hosting of APEC in 2018 and resulting benefits as evidence for why he should remain in charge. His critics will also be looking to APEC, but for different reasons -- to demonstrate why he should go. Whoever is prime minister, come the end of the first quarter will have some major challenges to face, including concerns about the economy and dealing with the Bougainville referendum. But surely the biggest challenge of all for Papua New Guineas political leadership relates to the huge problems associated with health. Not only are local health facilities plagued with a lack of basic supplies, but there has been a resurgence of polio, leprosy, and HIV infections. Given the renewed interest in what happens in the Pacific in the Australian media and commentariat, there will be no shortage of discussions on these and other issues during the year. Likewise, the official announced he has sent a directive to the migrations office that will go into effect today. According to him, this measure is part of the agreements adopted by Lima Group members to put international pressure aimed at condemning the democratic and humanitarian crisis existing in that nation Furthermore, the Foreign Affairs representative indicated Lima Group does not recognize the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduro's new government , scheduled to start on January 10. Within this framework, Minister Popolizio confirmed Peru will not attend the swearing-in ceremony due to its illegitimacy As is known, delegates of Lima Group held a meeting last Friday to agree on their stance The declaration was approved by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Saint Lucia. In May 2018, Lima Group refused to recognize the legitimacy of Venezuelan elections as they failed to meet international standards of a democratic, free, fair, and transparent process. (END) CVC/DTK/MVB Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Nestor Popolizio on Monday informed key members of Nicolas Maduro's administration in Venezuela, including their relatives, will not be allowed to enter the Inca country.Published: 1/7/2019 16:18 | Pisco (Ica region), Jan. 7. Joan Barreda has been faithful to his reputation as a hunter of stage victories and has begun the 2019 Dakar with his first win ahead of Pablo Quintanilla Barreda made a big impression by reaching the finish with a lead of 1'34 over Quintanilla, whose performance was far from anything to be ashamed of. Adrien Van Beveren has finished in 4th place a little less than 3 minutes behind, whilst Toby Price slowed at the end of the special to claim the 6th position, just in front of Matthias Walkner "It's always difficult, this kind of stage. Everybody is really fast over this terrain. It's exciting to start like this, but sometimes it can be dangerous," said the 1st stage winner. "You always need to take care. Finally, I think I rode a good stage, I've got a good feeling and we are ready for more stages ," he added. Al-Attiyah wins stage 1 of cars On the other hand, Nasser Al-Attiyah has not given his rivals a chance along the route of the first special and has won with a majestic performance. The Qatari has beaten Carlos Sainz by almost 2 minutes in Pisco and is the first rally leader. "It was quite a short start to the rally but quite difficult. We tried to catch Carlos over the last 10 kilometers from the finish. We tried to stay with him and at the finishing line we tried to pass him, but today was a good day for us, and we'll see what happens," the Toyota driver commented. "If we win the stage, it will be good, but if we don't, then tomorrow is another day. The car is fantastic, it's working really well. The BF Goodrich tires are working very well. I'm happy, and we'll see what we can do," he continued. (END) RMB/MVB Spanish motorcycle rider Joan Barreda (Honda) won the first stage (Lima-Pisco) at 2019 Dakar Rally being held entirely in Peru Published: 1/7/2019 News 24-year-old Emirati fish seller vows to preserve ancestral occupation He said his official job did not prevent him from fulfilling his desire to stand on the fish display table, stressing that he is proud to sell fish to contribute to preserving a profession practised by his ancestors who were very fond of the sea and seafood. City inspectors have found dangerous levels of lead dust in nine East Village-area buildings produced by vacant apartments being gut-renovated, most recently in one owned by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. In investigations conducted over the past five years in response to tenant complaints, the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found lead levels at the buildings ranging from four to 440 times as high as the federal Environmental Protection Agency standard of 40 micrograms per square foot. At 118 East 4th Street, owned by Kushners Westminster City Living, inspectors on November 21st found 383 g per square foot on the staircase between the second and third floors. There was a white dust cloud that invaded my apartment. It covered everything, says tenant David Dupuis, who lives upstairs from a vacant unit being renovated. I felt a very intense burning in the back of my throat. I was coughing and choking. Its common for landlords of rent-stabilized buildings to renovate vacant apartments, as it gives them a legal way to raise rents to market rates. In buildings constructed before 1960, demolition usually means taking down walls that have lead paint on them, says Jodie Leidecker of the Cooper Square Committee, a neighborhood group helping tenants in the affected buildings organize. If safe work practices arent followed, she adds, tenants are exposed to extreme levels of lead dust. Not following legally required safety practices, such as using a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air filter) vacuum cleaner to suck up microscopic lead-dust particles and putting a plastic sheet over the door of the apartment being renovated in order to keep the dust out of the halls, has two advantages to landlords. First, its less costly. We see that nine times out of ten, the landlords do it the fast and cheap way, and hope they dont get caught, says Cooper Square Committee organizer Brandon Kielbasa. Second, it creates conditions noxious enough to make rent-stabilized tenants want to leave a practice dubbed construction as harassment. The nine buildings where the lead dust was found, eight in the East Village and one in northern Little Italy, are owned by Kushner, ICON, Samy Mahfar, or, formerly, Raphael Toledano all landlords who neighborhood housing activists regularly cite as driving out rent-stabilized tenants so their apartments can be converted to market rate. 325 East 12th Street (Scott Lynch / Gothamist) At 325 East 12th Street, a six-story apartment building between 1st and 2nd avenues, resident Liz Haak says the troubles began when Toledano bought the building in 2015 as part of a 15-property package. He actually told people, You dont want to live here, because Im going to do construction, she says. I had dust coming through the floorboards, every crack and crevice, says Holly Slayton, who lives with her daughter, now 11, at 514 East 12th Street, another building bought by Toledano in 2015. The three tenants say construction workers did not follow safety procedures mandated by city law, such as putting lead-contaminated debris in sealed containers before bringing it into public areas of the building, sealing vents, and having a plastic cover on the apartment doorway. In Haaks building, five vacant apartments were gutted down to the brick walls, but we never saw an air scrubber, she says. When the city did a safety sweep in May 2016, she adds, Con Ed said the buildings damaged gas pipes were too decrepit to be repairable, so it turned off the cooking gas for all 36 apartments and Toledano made no move to restore it. (He did offer them free ice cream 2 months later.) In April 2017, the Madison Capital Realty private-equity firm foreclosed on Toledano for $140 million in debts, taking over the 15 buildings. That spring, Haak says, the super had to go away for a family emergency, and the porter couldnt keep up with mopping and vacuuming the halls. After tenants called 311, Health Department inspectors found 640 g of lead dust on the floor of the third-floor hallway, 16 times the EPA standard. A spokesperson for Silverstone Property Group, Madison Capital Realtys property-management arm, says that since it took control, all 14 lead violations have been removed. City Department of Housing Preservation and Development records online indicate no current lead-paint violations in the two East 12th Street buildings. Rampant non-compliance with lead laws Dangerous amounts of lead dust are minuscule100 g is the size of a speck of coffee sweetener, says Matthew Chachere of the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning. Even low levels of lead can be hazardous: As little as as 5 g per deciliter of bloodless than 250 g in the circulatory system of a preteencan cause brain damage in children under 6, and scientists are increasingly concluding that there is no safe level. The problem is particularly acute in New York City, because more than 60 percent of its housing stock, 2 million units, was built in the years before 1950, when lead was added to paint to make it more durable, moisture-resistant, and quick-drying. In 1970, the year the Department of Health established a lead-poisoning prevention program, it found more than 2,600 children with more than 60 g per deciliter in their blood, levels today considered medical emergencies. 118 East 4th Street (Scott Lynch / Gothamist) The city outlawed lead paint in 1960, 18 years before the federal government did. But outlawing new use wasnt enough, as children could still be poisoned by peeling or flaking paint, or dust from friction surfaces like windows and doors, especially in poorer neighborhoods where building owners were less likely to maintain paint. By the 1990s, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Flatbush, and Jamaica were dubbed the lead belt. A 1982 city law required building owners to remove or seal up (encapsulate) lead paint. But, Chachere says, courts interpreted this as mandating that building owners remove every molecule of lead, which rendered it too costly to enforceby that standard, landlords would have had to gut-renovate every apartment they owned that had been built before 1960. In 1999, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani pushed through a bill that gutted the previous laws protections, but courts struck it down on environmental grounds. The current law, enacted in 2004, requires landlords to conduct yearly lead inspections of apartments where children under six live; remove or encapsulate lead paint on doors and windows when an apartment is vacant; and use safe construction practices. They also must file prenotifications with the Department of Health for work that would disturb a surface of more than 100 square feet that could contain lead paint or when replacing two or more windows. Since that law was enacted, according to Department of Health figures, the number of children under six who tested positive for high levels of lead has declined from more than 37,000 in 2005 to 4,261 in 2017, from 12 percent of those tested to less than 1.5 percent. HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer told the City Council on September 27th that the department has issued 314,000 violations for lead paint since 2005, and taken more than 2,300 actions to force landlords to abate it. Enforcement of lead-paint laws is split among three city agencies HPD, the Department of Health, and the Department of Buildings each with different responsibilities. An HPD spokesperson says the Department of Health is responsible for responding to complaints about lead contamination, and the Department of Buildings is responsible for responding to unsafe-work complaints. A Department of Buildings spokesperson said that lead-paint dust is not within our purview, so it refers those complaints to the Department of Health. HPD says its primary responsibility is to conduct inspections in response to complaints about lead hazards caused by poor maintenance, and the agency either supports, requires, or does the work to remediate those hazards, as well as looking for lead-based paint hazards during regular building inspections and going out to the worst buildings through its special enforcement programs. All three agencies are members of the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force, which is mandated to bring enforcement actions against landlords who harass tenants by creating unsafe living conditions. Housing and lead-prevention advocates, however, say that enforcement is weak, especially when it comes to lead dust generated by apartment renovations. The city logically enough concentrates lead-law enforcement on buildings with children under 6, but that means that those without young children are less of a priority, they say, and with enforcement split among three agencies, relying on safe-work-practice rules isnt enough. The way the system is set up, landlords simply dont face strong enough penalties for contaminating buildings, says Cooper Squares Kielbasa. Non-compliance with the safe work practice rules is rampant, concluded Lead Loopholes, a report issued in September by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and other groups. The city, it added, has failed to implement systems to ensure that owners are satisfying their legal obligations to prevent lead paint exposure before it occurs, and instead relies primarily on complaints from tenants. HPD, the report said, has never given a landlord a violation for failing to conduct an annual inspection, and as of mid-2017, had only issued two for failure to abate lead in vacant apartments. HPD responds that it issued 71 violations in the 2017-18 fiscal year against owners who failed to provide adequate records related to properties with Department of Health lead-abatement orders. The agency has also sued 22 landlords for failing to submit any documents, such as proof they abated or remediated lead paint in vacant apartments. It says it has collected about $56,000 in fines levied on 16 of them, and is owed $3,350 by one more. The agency is still working to get those documents from the owners, a spokesperson told Gothamist, and will bring cases back to court if they do not. The City Council is now considering a package of 23 bills to improve lead-poisoning prevention, including measures to expand inspection mandates and require lead-based paint to be permanently removed or encapsulated when an apartment becomes vacant. Intro 874, sponsored by Councilmember Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), would require HPD and the health department to notify the Department of Buildings if they find a violation of the lead-paint hazard laws. The Buildings Department could then use that information to issue a stop-work order for any construction in that building. You could see footprints in the dust I know that even more buildings than we have proof for are being contaminated, says Kielbasa. The problem, he says, is that tenants don't always know to call 311 to get the test done when the work is happening, and when they do, often have difficulty getting their complaints routed to Department of Health inspectors through 311 operators. The result can be a clean bill of health for contaminated buildings, if inspectors happen to arrive on the wrong day. HPD says it has not found any safety-related violating conditions at 118 East 4th Street in the past two years, most recently on December 7th. At 325 East 12th Street, it says inspectors found no construction-related dust the morning after tenants complained in April 2017, nor at 514 East 12th Street in March 2016. Yet at 514 East 12th Street, the contractor renovating vacant apartments didnt use any of the protocols, says tenant Holly Slayton, such as plastics to cover doors. The Department of Healths Healthy Homes program, she adds, told the landlord and contractor to put air purifiers in the hallway. They never did. 514 East 12th Street (Scott Lynch / Gothamist) In November 2017, the Department of Health found lead dust more than twice the EPA standard on three staircases in the building, including 169 g per square foot on the steps to the second floor. Fortunately, Slayton says, her daughter did not test positive for lead poisoningmore than 5 g per deciliter of blood. But Toledano, she says, was still able to use an array of harassment tactics to push out 200 tenants across his 15 buildings, and her building still has problems with chronic lack of heat and mold serious enough to give her and her daughter upper-respiratory infections. We have performed thorough lead testing at the buildings, all with negative results, the Silverstone Property Group spokesperson told Gothamist. The bankruptcy court decision that gave its parent Madison Capital Realty control of the buildings barred it from doing renovations except in emergencies, and the spokesperson said the only work it has done since has been repainting and minor necessary unit repairs. However, tenants charge that Madison, which lent Toledano $124 million to buy the 15 buildings in 2015, was well aware of the landlords predatory business model. Then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman unsuccessfully objected to the bankruptcy court ruling that gave the firm control of the buildings, alleging that Madison knew the only way Toledano could hope to pay back the loan on time was to embark on a hyper-aggressive plan to drive up the rents by getting rid of rent-stabilized tenants and renovating vacant apartments often without regard to applicable housing and safety laws. At the Kushner building at 118 East 4th Street, meanwhile, Dupuis recalls dust so thick on the hallway floor that you could see footprints. Once he saw a worker carrying an uncovered plastic garbage can full of rubble out of the building, wearing only a rag over his mouth. Another worker he saw was coated head to toe in thick white dustyou could see it on his eyelashes. As soon as we were alerted to the condition, we instructed the contractor responsible to immediately clean the public areas and to implement stricter measures to prevent construction dust or debris from escaping the work area, a Kushner company spokesperson responds. Kushner always uses a lead certified contractor who fully complies with the law. The Department of Health says it ordered the landlord to abate the lead dust, and followup inspections on November 23rd and December 10th found no dust in common areas and no violations of safety rules. In that instance, the city at least got the landlord to obey the law after the fact. Since the order was issued, Dupuis says, the contractors have been cleaning the hallways every single day and put the plastic cover back on the door of the apartment being renovated. If proper precautions had been taken, there was no need for that exposure, says Liz Haak. City agencies have to be more rigorous in enforcing the laws. Over four years after multiple women were sexually assaulted by the same man in Manhattan, police say the perpetrator has been caught. RaShaun Kelley, 35, a business and commercial attorney, stood before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court Saturday night on charges of three counts each of sex abuse and burglary as a sexually motivated felony. Police allege that on three occasions in December 2014 and January 2015, Kelley followed women into their buildings in the East Village, the Lower East Side, and Harlem, and sexually abused them. According to the police, in the early morning hours of December 16th, 2014, Kelley followed a 19-year-old woman into her East Village buildings elevator, where he pressed his body against her and groped her while trying to kiss her. The next day, he allegedly followed a 20-year-old woman into her Harlem building, where he covered her mouth, told her not to scream and rubbed her buttocks. Then, early on the morning of January 14th, 2015, Kelley allegedly pushed a 31-year-old woman into the lobby of her Lower East Side building, again covering her mouth. Prosecutors say he then put his hand down the front of her pants before pulling down her leggings and exposing her underwear. Assistant District Attorney Raffaela Belizaire said in court on Saturday that Kelley was a one-man sex assault spree. But when she asserted that the women had picked Kelley out of a lineup, defense attorney Christopher Carrion, a classmate of Kelleys at New York Law School, countered the veracity of the identification, telling the judge it had been very vague, with both witnesses unsure if he was their attacker. To say it was shaky is being generous, Carrion said of the lineups. Kelley, wearing jeans, a gray T-shirt and a black hoodie, rolled his eyes as the charges were read. Years after the alleged assaults, it was a tip that ultimately led Warrants Squad officers to the Canarsie native. Police say they were then able to identify Kelley based on surveillance videos, victim statements, and a DNA sample. Carrion said Kelley had strong ties in the community and pointed out Kelleys father in the courtroom, describing him as a high-ranking member of the Department of Sanitation. He also said Kelley lived with his brother, an NYPD officer. Avvo, an online legal services provider, describes Kelley as a litigator focusing on commercial and securities transactions. Prior to opening his own firm, he worked in the legal departments of JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and MF Global. Criminal Court Judge Althea Drysdale set Kelleys bail at $200,000. He is due back in court on Thursday to learn if a grand jury has indicted him. Local officials are looking to sink the hopes of a controversial advertising company that recently launched a floating billboard off the coast of Manhattan, which is probably illegal and definitely "hideous," according to the Mayor's Office. Owned by Miami-based company Ballyhoo Media, the 60-foot barge first began making daily voyages around Manhattan in October, carrying high-definition LED ads for private helicopter rides, beer, and The Walking Dead. But following a Gothamist investigation last week, the New York City Law Department sent a letter to Ballyhoo CEO Adam Shapiro informing him that he was breaking the law. "There is sufficient cause to believe that Ballyhoos operations in New York City violate the Zoning Resolution," Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter wrote in the January 2nd letter. "Therefore, we are writing to provide Ballyhoo with an opportunity to demonstrate, no later than Jan. 16, 2019, how it intends to comply." According to Carter, several provisions of the NYC Administrative Code prohibit advertising signs in waterways adjacent to a residential, commercial, or manufacturing district and within view of an arterial highwayincluding the West Side Highway and FDR Drive. The boat's current route begins near the Intrepid, traveling around the the southern tip of Manhattan before finishing at Roosevelt Island. Yeah, so in addition to being hideous, its likely illegal. In fact, we sent them a letter today spelling it out. Advertisers, beware. pic.twitter.com/1L222xpiUA Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) January 3, 2019 The aggressively bright ads have raised fears among New Yorkers that the tranquil waterfront could soon become overrun with intrusive advertising if the company is left unchecked. "It's disgusting," Marcy Benstock, director of the Clean Air Campaign and the Open Rivers Project, told us last week. "People go to the river to contemplate, to do yoga or meditate or just relax. Then this giant billboard comes alongwhat a nightmare!" Elected officials have also expressed concerns about safety. Councilmember Justin Brannan, who represents Bay Ridge, said the barge was "not only ugly, obnoxious and illegal, but dangerous to already distracted drivers." He added that "visual pollution is a real thing and our waterways should be off limits," noting that the law is "pretty clear." But according to Shapiro, the city is misinterpreting its own administrative code. The cited zoning resolution does not apply to the waters in which we operate," Shapiro said in an emailed statement. "We are legally operating in accordance with all current New York City laws and zoning resolutions. We look forward to working with the city and resolving this matter shortly." We reached out to the Coast Guard, which has federal oversight over the river, but did not hear back. A maritime expert previously told Gothamist that jurisdiction would likely fall to the city absent a federal law explicitly permitting waterfront advertising. Ballyhoo has navigated murky legal waters before. After their first floating billboard appeared off the coast of Miami two years ago, local officials pledged to ban the company, but found that the relevant city law pertained only to Biscayne Bay. During a regulatory hearing on the matter, Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez suggest that Ballyhoo "might have better luck up North." Anyway, we hear the Charles River is lovely this time of year, and Boston's waterfront is reportedly booming. A firefighter died in the line of duty after falling from a section of the Belt Parkway in Mill Basin, Brooklyn on Sunday night. Steven Pollard, 30, was a probationary firefighter at Ladder Company 170 and had been with the FDNY for a year and a half. Officials said that his father is a retired firefighter while his brother is an active firefighter with Ladder Company 14. At a press conference at Kings County Hospital, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "This is a family who has done so much for New York City and now they're going through this loss and this pain. It's a very, very tough situation." The FDNY had been responding to a two-car accident on the westbound lanes of the Belt Parkway just east of Flatbush around 10 p.m. Firefighters had approached the scene from the eastbound lanes, and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, "As they were going to help the victims at that accident, Firefighter Pollard slipped through a gap in the roadway and fell to the ground approximately 52 feet below." It is with deep regret that @NYCMayor Bill de Blasio and FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro announce the death of Probationary Firefighter Steven H. Pollard. Read more: https://t.co/zed7Wc4rvi pic.twitter.com/K71VacIigp FDNY (@FDNY) January 7, 2019 The gap was three feet wide, according to WABC 7. Pollard was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital. The victims of the crash were hospitalized for their injuries. "It's a terrible loss for the Department, to lose a member just at the beginning of his career like this is devastating to us," Commissioner Nigro said. "He is the 1,151st member of the Bravest to give his life in the service of the people of this city. As his family mourns him, the Department mourns him, and certainly the citizens of our city mourn him." WCBS 2 reports, "Investigators are now working to determine whether construction or ice in the area were factors." PLEASE NOTE! Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate! All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited! (One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!) The Ukrainian president expressed the hope that other dreams of the citizens of Ukraine will come true President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated that Ukraine has finally severed the ties, which connected it with the Russian Federation as 112 Ukraine reported. The heart of Kyiv is Saint Sophia Cathedral. Its millennia-old walls waited until the event of which a lot of generations dreamed. Now, the first service, after the delivery of Tomos, takes place here, under the cover of Orante - Solid wall, which kept this cathedral, Kyiv and the whole country for centuriesThe creation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is a pledge of our independence. It is the foundation of our spiritual freedom. We have severed the last ties, which connected us with Moscow, its fantasies about Ukraine as canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, he noted. The Ukrainian president expressed the hope that other dreams of the citizens of Ukraine will come true. The victory and peace will come. And Ukraine successful and wealthy will become the member of the EU and NATO, he emphasized and congratulated the Ukrainian on Christmas. I congratulate you on the great Christmas holiday from the Heart. I congratulate on Tomos on autocephaly. I wish you joy, peace and belief to our big united family. Lets our joint work and sincere prayers to confirm goodness and love on our land, he concluded. Earlier Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew passed the Tomos of autocephaly and bishops crosier to primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epifaniy. The event happened during the festive service in St. George's Cathedral. Besides, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko guarantees the states respect for the religious choice of every citizen of the country. Honorary Patriarch of Ukrainian Orthodox Church Filaret is sure that the church of Ukraine can claim the patriarchy Honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Filaret Open source Honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Filaret believes that the Ukrainian Church will be recognized as patriarchy and there will be no split in the world Orthodoxy. He stated this in an interview with Pryamy TV channel. "So far, we have been recognized as a archeparchy, and we agree with that. Although we were patriarchy for 25 years, we now agreed that we are a archeparchy, but a for all the Orthodoxy. We can claim the patriarchy because we are a big church. We have hope that, over time, the Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch will recognize the Ukrainian Church as patriarchy. This is the future, but it will be so," Filaret said. According to him, after receiving Tomos about the autocephaly by the Ukrainian church, a significant part of the Orthodox churches will start communicating with it. "Part of the local churches, as well as the Russian church, Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and some others will not start communion with the Ukrainian church, but this is temporary. Gradually, everything will go into prayer unity with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Ukrainian Church, including the Russian one, because there is no other way. Since we are Orthodoxy, we must stay united, the Patriarch emphasized. He noted that one who does not hold on to unity may find himself in a split. "It may happen that the Russian church, which accused us of a split, may itself turn out to be split for some time ... But its not going to be big anymore, because the Ukrainian church will separate from it. It has already separated, and therefore the Russian church isnt as big as it was. And if it is small, it will not have any influence, it will be forced under the pressure of bishops, and believers, and the clergy to seek unity with all Orthodoxy, " Filaret said. As it was reported earlier, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew passed the Tomos of autocephaly and bishops crosier to primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epifaniy. On January 7, the Christmas day, a divine liturgy will take place at Saint Sophia's Cathedral, where Tomos will be demonstrated on the granting of autocephaly to the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The wreck of a cargo ship off the coast of Turkey, which killed 4 Ukrainians, happened due to a wave hit. About this said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular service department head Vasyl Kyrylych to 112 Ukraine. "A cargo ship under the flag of Panama wrecked in the territorial waters of Turkey. As a result of a wave hit, the ship broke and began to sink. The command gave the coast guard the signal of distress," said Kyrylych. #SONDAKIKA Samsun Valisi Osman Kaymak, Samsun acklarnda batan gemide 6 kisinin hayatn kaybettigini, 7 kisinin de kurtarldgn acklad. pic.twitter.com/6NtbyBty9T EHA MEDYA (@eha_medya) January 7, 2019 "The ship under the flag of Panama, departing from the Russian port of Azov, sent a distress signal about 148 km (92 miles) from the northeastern Black Sea province of Samsun. There were 13 crew members onboard the cargo ship, including nine Ukrainian citizens, two citizens of Azerbaijan and two Russians," said in a statement. The military priests report that people are allegedly being called to use force on believers and clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine - on behalf of the Right Sector organization St. Volodymyr Cathedral Youtube The Orthodox Church of Ukraine warns about the preparation of provocations against believers and hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate. This is stated in the message of the Synodal Directorate of OCU Military Clergy, posted on Facebook. There is information from military priests (chaplains) from different regions of Ukraine that allegedly provocations on religious grounds are organized on behalf of the Right Sector. The organizers of these provocations call for the use of force against believers and clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, he said. Earlier Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew passed the Tomos of autocephaly and bishops crosier to primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epifaniy. The event happened during the festive service in St. George's Cathedral. Besides, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko guarantees the states respect for the religious choice of every citizen of The Belgian Ministry of Defense is considering banning the military participating in foreign missions, from using smartphones. Deutsche Welle reported that, citing information from the Belgian media. The media noted that the reason for such decision is the fear of espionage from the Russian side. It is known that now there is a revision of the rules for all the Belgian military, who are stationed in the Baltic countries. They will no longer be allowed to use their smartphones in "certain regions and in certain circumstances." The Russian soldiers held the missile drills in occupied Crimea to test the anti-ship coastal missile complex Bal as the Defense Ministry of Russia reported. The personnel of the up-front battery practiced the ways to deploy hardware at different positions, executing tasks on entry, deployment, change of fighting order and location after the use of weapons, the message said. It is noted that the accounts of the hardware executed the movement to the pointed areas, deployment and preparation of the arms for the use with the acting temporary standards. As we reported more than ten Russian fighter jets, Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 arrived at Belbek airfield near Sevastopol. Crimea was annexed by Russia after the illegal referendum held on the peninsula in March 2014. Earlier, the Russian military captured all strategic military objects and buildings of the key authoritative bodies. Neither Ukraine nor the rest of the civilized countries recognized the results of the referendum. A number of the European and the world countries, including Ukraine, imposed the economic sanctions against Russia. Conflict in Sea of Azov TASS Ukraine submitted a full-fledged statement against the Russian Federation on the violation of the rights of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait in November last year to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Ivan Lishchyna, the Deputy Minister of Justice - Commissioner for the ECHR announced that on Facebook page. "The secretariat of the ECHR representative finishes an intergovernmental statement against Russia regarding the violation of the rights of Ukrainian sailors on Christmas Eve. The Government of Ukraine executed the court instructions and filed a full statement on January 7, 2019 in case # 55855/18". Earlier we informed that during the attack in the Kerch Strait on November 25, Russian soldiers fired on Ukrainian ships with a large-caliber cannon. The lawyer Ilya Novikov reported this on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, citing the words of his client, the Ukrainian sailor Roman Mokryak who was detained as a result of the incident. The Russian side is trying to pose this situation to us like this: We have seen that they violate the border, we must stop it ... This must stop resulted in firing from a large-caliber cannon. According to the observations of my client Roman Mokryak, about 1,200 shells were fired," Novikov noted. He added that the Russian border ship Izumrud was firing at the Ukrainian ships. To avoid shelling, the Ukrainian ships began to disperse at sea, and one of the Border Guard ships of the Russian Federation went after Berdyansk, one of the Ukrainian vessels. WAWA, Pa., Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wawa, Inc. today announced plans to launch a hiring campaign with the goal of hiring up to 1,000 new associates across Florida during the next three months, with all of Wawas 160 stores in Florida looking to add new talent. The hiring campaign will span the first quarter of 2019 and focuses on filling customer-service positions. It is part of Wawas overall commitment to provide job opportunities that can lead to fulfilling careers for community members in the areas Wawa serves in the Sunshine State. At Wawa, part of commitment to fulfilling lives means adding jobs for new associates, while also providing advancement opportunities for the almost 6,000 Wawa associates who are part of our Wawa family in Florida. Thats why were thrilled to kick-off this hiring campaign and add a number of new members to our growing Wawa Family, said Elizabeth Moore, Manager of Talent Acquisition & Diversity at Wawa. As we look to fill these positions with people who have a strong passion for serving others, were looking for individuals who want to join our team for Floridas busy tourist season as well those who might be interested in the start of a fulfilling career at Wawa. January 16 Select Stores to Host Open House Hiring Events While every store will have job opportunities available, some will host open house events on Jan. 16 from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm. See attached list of stores in each market to learn where interested candidates may attend. The action-packed events will feature information about job openings candidates are encouraged to apply online at www.wawa.com before attending the open house event. Candidates will get the chance to meet the team and learn more about fulfilling opportunities! As part of the events, potential associates who have applied online can receive a brief first interview, learn more about Wawas unique culture, explore career opportunities, and discover the important role Wawa associates play in their communities. Stores hosting the Open House events will have signs announcing participation, but please visit this LINK for a full listing of open houses by market. Individuals interested in career opportunities at Wawa are encouraged to apply online prior to attending an Open House event. Wawa associates hired in these full and part-time positions enjoy competitive salaries and health benefits, as well as flexible schedules and tuition reimbursement opportunities. In addition, through Wawas employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), associates share directly in the growth of Wawa. Today Wawa is 41% owned by associates through the ESOP. Nearly half the ESOP is owned by store level associates and store management. With more than 13,000 participants, Wawas ESOP ranks as one of the top10 largest ESOPs in the country. Wawa continues to expand throughout Florida with plans to open 25-30 new stores each year for the next several years. In 2019, Wawa will launch in the new markets of Ocala and Miami-Dade. To apply for an open position, visit www.wawa.com . About Wawas Career Opportunities Wawa is always looking to provide fulfilling employment opportunities for both management and non-management associates. A career with Wawa includes significant advancement and growth opportunities, with 60% of all management in the company rising from customer service associate positions. Wawa offers a meaningful chance to be part of a team that exists to go beyond filling orders, to fulfill the lives of customers and communities every day. With extremely competitive compensation and benefits as well as continuing education opportunities and ongoing opportunities for associate recognition and fun, Wawa is proud to be a place that more than 30,000 associates call home. In 2016 and 2017, Wawa was recognized in Forbes as one of Americas Best Large Employers, a survey-based ranking of employers offering the best associate experiences and strongest opportunities. About Wawa Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, PA in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and certified process. As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960s, Grahame Wood, Georges grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for its dairy products. Today, Wawa is your all day, every day stop for freshly prepared foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services, and surcharge-free ATMs. A chain of more than 830 convenience retail stores (over 600 offering gasoline), Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and DC. Wawa stores offer a large fresh food service selection, including Wawa brands such as custom prepared hoagies, freshly-brewed coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, specialty beverages, and an assortment of soups, sides and snacks. In 2018, Wawa ranked #1 in the sandwich category of a Market Force study, making history as the first convenience to earn that honor. In 2017, Wawa was the recipient of a Silver Plate Award in the category of Retail & Specialty Foodservice by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association during their 63rd Annual Award Event. Wawa was also designated as a 2017 Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. In 2016 and 2017, Wawa was recognized in Forbes as one of Americas Best Large Employers, a survey-based ranking of employers offering the best associate experiences and strongest opportunities. CONTACT: public.relations@wawa.com On April 14, 2018, 268 deputies in the Ukrainian parliament voted to appeal to Constantinople to grant autocephaly, or independence, to the Orthodox church. Less than a year later on January 5, Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew signed the official document known as the tomos that created a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Russia The President of Russia Vladimir Putin AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin will go down in history as having lost Ukraine for good. Putin has experienced two geopolitical tragedies with the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 and disintegration of the Russian world in 2018. On April 14, 2018, 268 deputies in the Ukrainian parliament voted to appeal to Constantinople to grant autocephaly, or independence, to the Orthodox church. Less than a year later on January 5, Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew signed the official document known as the tomos that created a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Russia. Today, on Christmas Eve according to the old Julian calendar, the tomos was transferred to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. This event has major ramifications for Ukraines upcoming elections, the Orthodox world, relations with Russia, and geopolitics. First, elections. The main beneficiary of the tomos is Poroshenko. He has moved into second place in the polls, which means he is likely to face former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the second round of the presidential election in April. Ukrainians named Poroshenko as politician of the year and the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the most important event of 2018. It would be wrong to dismiss the push to free Ukraines church as a pure election ploy. Negotiations for autocephaly began under President Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010). As Rostyslav Pavlenko, who served as Poroshenkos deputy head of the presidential administration for humanitarian and societal issues and was the point man on the issue until recently, observed, This slow but steady implementation is the result of the invisible preparatory work spanning years before April 2018. Of Ukraines five presidents, only pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych (2010-2014) never supported autocephaly. Second, the Orthodox world. Before todays move, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which came under the Moscow Patriarchate accounted for a third of its total parishes and their loss reduces the size of the Russian Orthodox Church to that of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Within Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church will become a minority church with its influence severely curtailed. In the political domain, its main supportersParty of Regions and Communist Partybelong to pre-2014 Ukrainian history while its current allies, the Opposition Bloc, are bitterly divided and weak. Third, relations with Russia. These are continuing to deteriorate as seen in Russias naval piracy in the Black and Azov Seas. But, the tomos cannot be halted by the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Autocephaly adds to the deterioration of Russian soft power in other areas. On December 20, 240 parliamentary deputies voted to require the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the official name of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine) to re-register as a Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. As most of their parishes are in western and central Ukraine, a large number of patriotic Ukrainians will desert it because it will be henceforth openly linked to Russia. Two-thirds of Ukrainians view Russia as an aggressor country. Fourth, geopolitics. The tomos and Ukraines departure from the Russian world reconfigure Eastern Europes geopolitical map, which was created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when Muscovy transformed into the Russian Empire over three stages. In 1654, Ukraine and Muscovy signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which has always been viewed by Russian and Soviet leaders and historians as a reunion and by Ukrainians as a tactical military alliance against Poland. Crimea was transferred to Soviet Ukraine during the 1954 Soviet commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Treaty. In annexing Crimea, Russia effectively ripped up the Treaty of Pereyaslav. In 1686, Muscovy removed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from under Constantinoples canonical jurisdiction, placing it within the Russian Orthodox Church for 332 years. In the autumn of 2018, Constantinople declared this to have been uncanonical and returned Ukraine under its jurisdiction where it continues to be based. In 1709, the Swedish-Ukrainian alliance was defeated by Muscovy leading to its transformation into the Russian Empire in 1721. With opinion polls showing two-thirds to three-quarters of Ukrainians viewing Russian leaders, Russias political system, and Russian policies toward Ukraine in highly negative terms, there is no likelihood of Ukraine moving away from its European path. Ukraine, the largest country in the EUs Eastern Partnership, sees itself as irreversibly part of Europe. Ukraines new Orthodox Church will be pro-European and will not subscribe to the Russian Orthodox Churchs anti-Western xenophobia. In 1991, Ukraine declared independence from the USSR and in 2018 from the Russian world. Ukraine has chosen Europe over the Russian world. New Europe, lying between NATO and the EUs eastern frontier and Russia, has been geopolitically reconfigured to what the region resembled prior to Muscovys expansion westwards in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ukraines independence from Russia is Kyivs ultimate answer to Putins unprovoked imperialism and military aggression. If Mikhail Gorbachev lost the USSR, Putin will go down in history as having lost Ukraine for good. As Patriarch Barthomelew put it, a new page in Ukraines history has been opened, and it will forever be part of Europe. Read the original text here. Home to enormous oil reserves, Venezuela ought to be the envy of its neighbors. Instead, Latin America is watching apprehensively as the countrys implosion threatens to provoke a regional crisis. Venezuelas economy is in freefall, with a devastating social impact. Poverty and malnutrition are rampant. Once-eradicated diseases, such as diphtheria, have made a comeback. Some 3 million of Venezuelas 31 million people have fled the country, primarily to Colombia and other neighbors. The U.N. expects that number to climb to 5.3 million by the end of 2019. President Nicolas Maduros ruling clique, having badly mismanaged the economy, now refuses to admit the depth of Venezuelas agony or accept most humanitarian relief. The government has dismantled the countrys institutions, stripping the opposition-controlled parliament of its powers and stage-managing the election of a rubber-stamp legislature in its place. On Jan. 10, 2019, Maduro will start a second term, though neither his domestic opponents nor much of the outside world consider his re-election credible. For its part, the opposition is paralyzed by infighting, with a vocal faction (mostly in exile) calling upon foreign powers to topple Maduro by force. Venezuelas neighbors are struggling to accommodate the influx of people fleeing and anxious at the prospect of more. One barometer of Latin American impatience is the stance of Luis Almagro, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States: In September, he said the region should not exclude any option, implying a military intervention could be coming. The Trump administration has made similar hints. Such talk may be just that, and one of Maduros strongest critics, new Colombian President Ivan Duque, disavowed it in Octoberfortunately, given that external military action would almost certainly provoke further chaos. There are few good policy options. The United States and Europe have targeted Maduros inner circle with sanctions, with Washington adding financial restrictions, though broader trade penalties are inadvisable, as they would harm the population. Peru and others suggest cutting diplomatic ties, but that would isolate Venezuelans as their plight worsens. If concerned outsiders are to help while discouraging talk of armed intervention, they should press for a peaceful transition, likely involving negotiations on political and economic reform between the government and opposition and some form of transitional administration. Maduro has little incentive to agree to such a step, of course. But Latin American leaders could increase the pressure by imposing their own sanctions on top Venezuelan officials, to be lifted if the government complies (although such regional sanctions would be almost unprecedented). Without such steps, Venezuelas collapse remains possible, and the suffering of its people looks set to continue, with the countrys neighbors left to pick up the pieces. *** In a world with fewer rules, the only truly effective one is knowing what you can get away with. The answer today, it turns out, is: quite a lot. As the era of largely uncontested U.S. primacy fades, the international order has been thrown into turmoil. More leaders are tempted more often to test limits, jostle for power, and seek to bolster their influenceor diminish that of their rivalsby meddling in foreign conflicts. Multilateralism and its constraints are under siege, challenged by more transactional, zero-sum politics. Instruments of collective action, such as the United Nations Security Council, are paralyzed; those of collective accountability, including the International Criminal Court, are ignored and disparaged. Nostalgia can be deceptive. Too fond a portrayal of the era of Western hegemony would be misleading. Iraqs chemical weapons use against Iran in the 1980s; the 1990s bloodletting in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Somalia; the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; Sri Lankas brutal 2009 campaign against the Tamils; and the collapse of Libya and South Sudan: all these happened at a time ofin some cases because ofU.S. dominance and a reasonably coherent West. A liberal and nominally rules-based order hardly stopped those setting the rules from discarding them when they saw fit. The erosion of Western influence, in short, looks different from Moscow, Beijing, and the developing world than it does from Brussels, London, or Washington. Still, for better and for worse, U.S. power and alliances have for years shaped international affairs, set limits, and structured regional orders. As the Wests influence declines, accelerated by U.S. President Donald Trumps contempt for traditional allies and Europes struggles with Brexit and nativism, leaders across the world are probing and prodding to see how far they can go. In their domestic policies, many of those leaders embrace a noxious brew of nationalism and authoritarianism. The mix varies from place to place but typically entails rejection of international institutions and rules. There is little new in the critique of an unjust global order. But if once that critique tended to be rooted in international solidarity, today it stems chiefly from an inward-looking populism that celebrates narrow social and political identity, vilifies minorities and migrants, assails the rule of law and independence of the press, and elevates national sovereignty above all else. Trump may be the most visible of the genre, but he is far from the most extreme. The wind is in the sails of strongmen worldwide. They realize, at times perhaps to their surprise, that constraints are crumbling, and the behavior that results often fuels violence or crises. Myanmars mass expulsion of 700,000 Rohingya, the Syrian regimes brutal suppression of a popular uprising, the Cameroonian governments apparent determination to crush an Anglophone insurgency rather than tackle the grievances fueling it, the Venezuelan governments economic warfare against its own people, and the silencing of dissent in Turkey, Egypt, and elsewhere are but a few examples. All are motivated in part by what leaders perceive as a yellow light where they used to see solid red. Beyond their borders, these leaders test norms, too. Having annexed parts of Georgia and Crimea and stoked separatist violence in Ukraines Donbass region, Russia is now throwing its weight around in the Sea of Azov, poisoning dissidents in the United Kingdom, and subverting Western democracies with cyberwarfare. China obstructs freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and arbitrarily detains Canadian citizensincluding the International Crisis Groups Michael Kovrig. Saudi Arabia has pushed the envelope with the war in Yemen, the kidnapping of a Lebanese prime minister, and the gruesome murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul. Iran plots attacks against dissidents on European soil. Israel feels emboldened to undermine ever more systematically the foundations of a possible two-state solution. Such actions are hardly new or equal in magnitude. But they are more brazen and overt. They have this much in common: They start with the assumption that there will be few consequences for breaches of international norms. The U.S. government has hardly been an innocent bystander. Trumps disdain for human rights and penchant for transactional diplomacy have set a strikingly negative tone. So too has his flouting of Americas international commitments: tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and, worse, threatening to impose economic punishment on those who choose to abide by it; hinting he will leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty if U.S. demands are not met rather than working within it to press Russia to comply; and signaling, through attacks on the International Criminal Court and chest-thumping speeches about U.S. sovereignty, that Washington regards its actions and those of its friends as beyond accountability. The danger of todays free-for-all goes beyond the violence already generated. The larger risk is of miscalculation. Overreach by one leader convinced of his immunity may prompt an unexpected reaction by another; the ensuing tit for tat easily could escalate without the presence of a credible, willing outside power able to play the role of arbiter. True, not everyone gets away with everything all the time. Bangladesh seemed poised to forcibly return some Rohingya refugees to Myanmar but stopped, almost certainly in response to international pressure. The feared Russian-backed reconquest of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria, has, for now, been averted, in no small measure due to Turkish, European, and U.S. objections. The same is true (again: for the time being) when it comes to a potential Saudi-led offensive on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi largely deterred by warnings about the humanitarian impact and cost to their international standing. Elsewhere, leaders anticipating impunity have been taken aback by the severity of the response: Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, by the stiff sanctions and show of united resolve that Western powers have maintained since Moscows annexation of Crimea and the killing of its former agent on British soil; Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by the outrage that followed Khashoggis murder. Overall, though, it is hard to escape the sense that these are exceptions that prove the absence of rules. The international order as we know it is unraveling, with no clear sense of what will come in its wake. The danger may well lie less in the ultimate destination than in the process of getting there. As the following list of 10 Conflicts to Watch in 2019 amply illustrates, that road will be bumpy, and it will be perilous. Read the original text at Foreign Policy. Social media allows individuals to express their support and criticism of the Afghanistan War (Image via Reuters) Reuters If Yemen is the worlds worst humanitarian disaster, Afghanistan suffers its deadliest fighting. In 2018, by one tally, the war killed more than 40,000 combatants and civilians. Trumps reported decision in mid-December that half of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would leave brought further unease. In principle, Washingtons signal that it is ready to pull out could advance diplomatic efforts to end the war by focusing belligerents and regional actors minds. But the ad hoc nature of the decisionseemingly made without looping in top officialsand the specter it raises of the United States cutting and running could bode badly for the coming year. In 2018, the war exacted a higher toll than at any time since the Taliban were ousted from Kabul more than 17 years ago. A three-day cease-fire in June, which the Taliban and the government enforced and which prompted joyous celebration by fighters and civilians alike, offered a short respite, though fighting resumed immediately afterwards. Taliban fighters now effectively control perhaps half the country, cutting off transport routes and laying siege to cities and towns. A sharp uptick in U.S. airstrikes has not curbed their momentum. In September, Washington appointed the veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as an envoy for peace talksa welcome sign that it was prioritizing negotiations to end the war. Taliban leaders appear to be taking the talks seriously, though the process is stuck over their continued insistence that the United States commit to a timeline for full withdrawal of international forces as a precondition for a wider peace process involving other Afghan factions, a sequence that would be a win for the Taliban while saddling other Afghans with uncertainty. Only days after Khalilzads latest talks with the Taliban came Trumps bombshell. Withdrawing 7,000 troops in itself will probably not be militarily decisive. Indeed, there could be value to the United States making clear it is serious about bringing troops home. All sides understand that a rapid pullout could provoke a major new civil war, an outcome nobody, including the Taliban, wants. With a U.S. drawdown in the cards, the Talibans suspicion about Washingtons motives might ease, propelling talks forward. Neighboring countries and others involved in Afghanistannotably Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Chinaall want the Americans out eventually, but none of them wants a precipitous withdrawal. They may be more inclined to support U.S. diplomacy if they believe that Washington will eventually give up its strategic foothold in South Asia. Trumps announcement could therefore spur them to help end the war, but regional powers could just as easily increase their meddling by doubling down on Afghan proxies to hedge their bets. Unfortunately, the rashness of Trumps decision risks outweighing any potential silver lining. Its timing appeared to catch everyonefrom Khalilzad and top U.S. military chiefs to the Afghan governmentoff guard. The fact that it was not coordinated with Khalilzad meant that the envoy could not extract any concessions from the Taliban in return for such a key pledge that partially addressed their core demand. In Kabul, the sense of betrayal was palpable. A few days later, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani nominated two hard-line anti-Taliban officials as his defense and interior ministers, suggesting a move away from his compromising tone of the past year. The festivities that greeted the June cease-fire revealed broad support for peace, and there are signs that the wars core protagonists are open to a settlement. But that was always an uncertain bet. Trumps decision has only added to the uncertainty. Read the original text at Foreign Policy. Amnesty International Singling Out Jews in 2019 Leaked documents seen by NGO Monitor and an analysis of public statements from NGO officials indicate that Amnesty International will conduct a series of intense campaigns singling out Israel in early 2019. In this process, Amnesty will delegitimize Jewish historical connections to Jerusalem and elsewhere, as well as promote discriminatory boycotts (BDS) against Israel. The Campaigns Amnestys 2019 attacks will include at least two components: Amnestys Blacklist: A new campaign targeting some of the businesses that are profiting from human rights abuses by operating in the illegal Israeli settlements. This language mirrors that used by UN bureaucrats preparing the UNHRC blacklist. The list is aimed at economically damaging companies that are owned by Jews or do business with Israel, and is ultimately meant to harm the Jewish state. Amnestys campaign is timed to bolster this UN blacklist, for which Amnesty has been lobbying intensively, and to serve as an alternative should the UN not publish its list. Amnesty documents, seen by NGO Monitor, also show the NGO specifically seeks to censure companies that educate the public about Jewish history and historical ties to Jerusalem. Ban Israeli settlement goods: A continuation of a campaign to press governments, in particular the UK, to to ban Israeli settlement goods from entering your markets, and to stop companies based in your country operating in settlements or trading in their goods. Amnesty has built dedicated website sections for this purpose. In addition, it has supported legislation in Ireland that, if enacted, will criminalize visiting Jewish historical and holy sites, including Jerusalems Old City, and purchasing goods and services from Jews located for whatever reason or duration in Jerusalem and over the 1949 Armistice Lines. Amnestys Antisemitism Problem Amnestys 2019 attacks on the Jewish state come at a time when NGO is facing increased criticism over its own deeply-rooted antisemitism. In 2018, Amnesty antagonized the British Jewish community by cancelling a debate sponsored by the UKs Jewish Leadership Council, scheduled to be held at Amnestys Human Rights Centre in London. And when Amnesty conducted an unprecedented large scale analysis of abuse against women on Twitter, it included sexism and racism against female journalists and politicians, but not antisemitism Similarly, Amnesty has done little to no campaigning on the rising number of violent antisemitic incidents in the United States and Europe. In April 2015, Amnesty-UK rejected an initiative to Campaign against anti-Semitism in the UK, as well as Lobby the UK Government to tackle the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Britain and monitor anti-semitism closely- the only proposed resolution at the Annual General Meeting that was not adopted. Notably, Amnesty-UK continues to employ Kristyan Benedict, who has made multiple antisemitic comments (including against female Members of Parliament). In other words, instead of recognizing the fight against antisemitism as a human rights issue worthy of attention, Amnesty has decided instead to ratchet up its targeting of the Jewish state. This report by NGO Monitor is shocking but believable since we know Amnesty's anti-Israel record over the past thirty years or more. This is far from what Amnesty was originally supposed to be which was a defender of prisoners of conscience who were jailed in their repressive countries for their thoughts and statements but not for violence or terrorism. Over the last 30 odd years, Amnesty --following a decision of its board of directors or governing council-- has been defending terrorists, especially anti-Israel terrorists.The report below by NGO Monitor says that Amnesty will, among other things, attack and delegitimize Jewish history in Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem became important to the world, to both Christians and Muslims (not to mention Jews) because of the Jewish history of the city. The Christian faith relates in Book of Matthew, chaps. 1 & 2, that Jesus was descended from the Israelite King David of the tribe of Judah through Joseph (Chap. 1:16). Chapter 2 calls the country "Land of Israel" (verses 20-21). The place where Jesus was born is called Bethlehem of Judea (Chap. 2:5), a suburb of Jerusalem. Apparently, the parents of Jesus came to Jerusalem during one of the Jewish pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavu`ot [Pentecost], or Sukkot [Tabernacles]; and they could not find accomodations in Jerusalem so they went to look in nearby Bethlehem. According to the New Testament, Jesus --a Jew-- was later crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem.In Islam, the Umayyad dynasty decided to build a Muslim shrine as well as the Farthest Mosque [] mentioned in the Quran on the Temple Mount, site of successive Jewish temples, and left in ruins since the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Umayyads knowingly built their al-Aqsa Mosque on the ruins of the Jewish Temple, and likewise the Dome of the Rock shrine was built over a huge rock set in the ground which the ancient Jews believed was the Foundation Stone of the world []. This Foundation Stone may have underlain the Temple. Be that as it may, the Umayyads and other early Muslims knew that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was a holy place which is part of the reason why they built their Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock there. One of the Muslim names for Jerusalem iswhich is a slightly distorted pronunciation of the Jewish name for the Temple,, sometimes used for the city as a whole, it seems. The more usual Muslim name for the city is, which is derived ultimately from the Hebrew namewhich refers to the holiness deriving from the Temple in Jerusalem. Some experts believe thatderives fromthrough the Aramaic form ofwhich isNow, in case Amnesty is not interested in ancient history, let's talk about the modern history of Jerusalem. The city has had a Jewish majority since the mid-nineteenth century when the city was firmly in Muslim hands [of the Ottoman Empire and local Muslims]. Since Amnesty claims to stand up for the underdog, Jews in Jerusalem as elsewhere in the Islamic domain, were second class or third class subjects. They were calleds (ors), as were Christians and other non-Muslims , and required to pay tribute, calledAmnesty is using its no longer deserved reputation of a defender of human rights in order to smear Israel. Labels: Jerusalem, propaganda Washington: US President Donald Trump said he looks forward to speaking to the world in his annual State of the Union address later this month. Newly-sworn-in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week invited President Trump to deliver the customary State of the Union (SOTU) address before a joint session of Congress on January 29. Trump told reporters at the White House: "I will be making the State of the Union on January 29th. I look forward to it. I look forward to speaking, really, before the world. We have a lot of great things to say". This would be Trump's first State of the Union address wherein the Democrats would be in majority in the House of Representatives. "Our country is doing better than any country in the world, right now. Our military is almost completely rebuilt. When I took it over, it was a mess. It was depleted. Our trade deals are going great. "We have a deal with Mexico, Canada, South Korea. We're negotiating with Europe, the European Union. We're negotiating with China, which is, by far, the biggest of them all. We're doing very, very well," the president said in response to a question. According to the US Constitution, the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient". Bangkok: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Thailand authorities to stop the deportation of an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family and has been held at the Bangkok airport since the weekend. Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun has refused to board Kuwait Airlines Flight KU412, set to depart from Bangkok to Kuwait at 11.15 a.m., on Monday claiming her family has threatened to kill her after she ran away from them. The young woman was on her way to Australia when she was intercepted during a stopover at the Thai airport by personnel from the Saudi embassy, who confiscated her passport and plane ticket. "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will," HRW Middle East Director Michael Page said in a statement. "Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee," he added. Al-Qunun said her family subjected her to various abuses, including beatings and threats, and that she fled from them when visiting Kuwait, which does not require females to get the authorisation of a male relative to leave the country. Al-Qunun said in a Twitter account opened on Saturday that she is locked in a hotel room at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where staff from the Saudi embassy are preventing her from leaving, "I`m the girl who run away from Kuwait to Thailand. I`m in real danger because the Saudi embassy trying to forcing me to go back to Saudi Arabia, while I`m at the airport waiting for my second flight," the woman said when she created the account. Al-Qunun told HRW that Thai authorities told her on Sunday that she would not be allowed to enter Thailand since her visa had been rejected and that she would be deported to Kuwait on Monday. HRW demanded that the Thai authorities allow the young woman to contact UNHCR and abide by the decision taken by the UN refugee agency. Jerusalem: White House national security adviser John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the US withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States` Kurdish allies. President Donald Trump`s abrupt decision to announce a US pullout from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside US forces would now be attacked by their long-time enemy, Turkey. Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be protected. Ahead of talks with Israeli officials, he told reporters the pullout would be done in a way that guaranteed the Islamic State jihadist group "is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again." And it would be carried out in such a way as to "make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups." Asked whether a US withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said: "Basically, that`s right." The Syrian YPG militia has been highly effective in the war against Islamic State, a part of the wider Syrian conflict pitting a range of insurgent groups against President Bashar al-Assad`s forces and sometimes against each other. But Turkey has long castigated Washington for its military relationship with the YPG. Ankara regards the YPG an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish armed group that has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey for over three decades. "PRESIDENT`S REQUIREMENT" "We don`t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that`s not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum," Bolton said, "so they don`t endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president`s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered." The YPG has indicated that it might seek a deal with Damascus after the US forces have gone. Bolton, who will travel to Turkey on Monday, said the United States would talk to Ankara to find out what its objectives and capabilities were. Erdogan`s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey`s targets were the YPG, the PKK and Islamic State. "One aim of Turkey`s fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group," state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Kalin as saying, in comments that emerged after Bolton made his remarks. "Turkey will continue decisively its efforts to end the war, provide security, and implement the process of political transition without discriminating between our Syrian brothers on the basis of religion, ethnicity or sect," Kalin said. In Washington on Sunday, Trump reiterated that the United States would be pulling its troops out of Syria but suggested the move might not happen soon. "I never said we are doing it that quickly. But we are decimating ISIS," Trump told reporters. Later on Sunday Bolton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reassured Israel and other allies of the United States` commitment to their security. Karachi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been criticised by the Chief Minister of Sindh province for travelling around the world to "beg" for financial support for the cash-strapped country which is currently battling serious economic crisis. Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. "Imran Khan is going from country to country to beg (for financial aid)," Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said at a rally in Matli, Badin on Sunday. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader also claimed that those without any experience in politics were given a seat in the government, Samaa TV reported. On January 5, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) finalised a USD 6.2 billion support package to help Pakistan address its balance of payments challenge. The package involved USD 3.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payment, besides a USD 3 billion cash deposit, Dawn newspaper reported. The daily had cited a government official as saying that the package was similar to that given by Saudi Arabia. With this, Pakistan would get a total saving of about USD 7.9 billion on oil and gas imports from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of annual oil import bill of about USD 12-13 billion, the report said. The government had also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that was at an early stage, the report said. Khan had also visited China in November to seek economic assistance and Beijing is reported to have approved USD 2 billion. Beijing: China and the United States want to work together on trade, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday, as the world`s two largest economies resumed talks in a bid to end their trade dispute. US officials are meeting their counterparts in Beijing this week for the first face-to-face talks since U.S. President Donald Trump and China`s President Xi Jinping agreed in December agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled international markets. Trump said on Sunday that trade talks with China were going very well and that weakness in the Chinese economy gave Beijing a reason to work toward a deal. The two sides agreed to hold "positive and constructive" talks and dialogue to resolve economic and trade disputes in accordance with the consensus reached by the countries` leaders, Lu Kang, spokesman at the foreign ministry, told reporters. "From the beginning we have believed that China-US trade friction is not a positive situation for either country or the world economy. China has the good faith, on the basis of mutual respect and equality, to resolve the bilateral trade frictions," Lu said. Trump imposed import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods last year and has threatened more to pressure Beijing to change its practices on issues ranging from industrial subsidies to intellectual property to hacking. China retaliated with tariffs of its own. "As for whether the Chinese economy is good or not, I have already explained this. China`s development has ample tenacity and huge potential," Lu said. "We have firm confidence in the strong long-term fundamentals of the Chinese economy." LOS ANGELES, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Schall Law Firm , a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against PPDAI Group Inc. (PPDAI or the Company) (NYSE: PPDF ) for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors who purchased the Company's shares pursuant to and/or traceable to the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with the Companys initial public offering in November, 2017, are encouraged to contact the firm before January 25, 2019. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate . We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall, or Sherin Mahdavian, of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 424-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com . The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. PPDAI engaged in predatory lending practices, saddling low-income borrowers with debt and interest payments they could not repay. Many of the Companys customers were using PPDAI loans to pay off other loans, raising the risk of default. PPDAI suffered from increasing delinquency rates, hurting the Companys reserves. PPDAI was also providing online loans to college students, ignoring a government ban on the practice. At the same time, the Company engaged in improper collection practices. Based on these facts, the Companys public statements at the time of its IPO were false and materially misleading. When the market learned the truth about PPDAI, investors suffered damages. Join the case to recover your losses. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq., Sherin Mahdavian, Esq., www.schallfirm.com 310-301-3335 info@schallfirm.com SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm New Delhi: A 25-year-old man was arrested from Rajasthan for allegedly kidnapping a minor and forcefully marrying her, police said on Monday. The accused was identified as Manjeet Singh, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, they said, adding that he was carrying a reward of Rd 50,000. In February 2018, the girl, a student of class XI, was allegedly kidnapped by Singh and a case under the POCSO Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Juvenile Justice Act was registered at Ranhola police station, said Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Rajiv Ranjan. During investigation, it was revealed that the accused was being helped by his family members, including his brother-in-law Naresh, the officer said. Despite raids conducted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttrakhand, the girl and Singh could not be found. On Saturday, police received information that Singh was present in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the accused was apprehended from Jhunjhunu on Sunday at around 3 pm, while the girl was recovered from Najafgarh on Monday morning, Ranjan added. During interrogation, Singh disclosed that he worked as a driver in Rohini area. He used to visit the girl's neighbourhood occasionally to meet his relatives, he said. On February 14, 2018, he kidnapped her and later, he forcefully married her at Arya Samaj Mandir in Chandigarh, the officer said. New Delhi: Bollywood actress Disha Patani is often making headlines because of her alluring Instagram posts. Disha is quite active on the social media app and her pictures go viral in no time. The actress has flaunted her perfectly toned body in most of her Instagram posts and refuses to budge despite unsavory comments on her pictures. The Baaghi actress took to share yet another picture on Instagram that will motivate you to work hard on your body. Disha strikes a pose in grey lingerie and it is hard to take eyes off her in the pic! Disha will soon light up the silver screen with her presence in 'Bharat'. The film is being helmed by Ali Abbas Zafar and has an ensemble star cast including Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Tabu, Sunil Grover to name a few. 'Bharat' will release in 2019 on the occasion of Eid and is high on the buzzword ever since it was announced. As per reports, Disha will play a trapeze artist in the film. Not much has been revealed about her role as makers remain tight-lipped about the whole affair. Coming to her personal life, the pretty actress is rumored to be dating her 'Baaghi 2' co-star Tiger Shroff. Neither Disha nor Tiger have confirmed their relationship status. However, the two are often spotted hanging out together in Bandra and it tells that there is more than what meets the eye! Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to instruct Air India (AI) authorities to begin flight operations between the state's Jharsuguda city and the national capital. The air services at the airport have been suspended since November 6, 2018. In a letter written to the Prime Minister, Patnaik requested for having Veer Surendra Sai Airport at Jharsuguda as a stopover for one of the national carrier's flights from Bhubaneswar to Delhi. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik writes to PM Narendra Modi urging him to instruct Air India authorities to take steps to fulfill aspirations of people of western Odisha to have air connectivity at Jharsuguda Airport. Air services at the airport have been suspended since Nov 6, 2018. pic.twitter.com/3JZoRfxnVb ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 "It may be noted that Jharsuguda is located strategically in the industrial and mining belt of Odisha, and is a critical point of connectivity to western Odisha. During the inauguration of Jharsuguda Airport on September 22, I had offered full support of state government for running of commercial flights and had requested for commencing Air India flight operations from Jharsuguda to Delhi," he said in the letter. Air Odisha had started flying operations under RCS-UDAN. Unfortunately, it suspended its operations on November 6, 2018, without any valid reason, said the Chief Minister. (With inputs from agencies) SHILONG: Rescue operations for the 15 miners trapped in a Meghalaya mine hit a roadblock on Sunday as the two high-powered pumps engaged in dewatering did not operate the whole day after developing technical glitches, and Navy divers could not venture down with no change in the water level, officials said. The high-powered pumps of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd installed Saturday to pump out water from the main shaft, where the miners are trapped since December 13, developed glitches and could not function the whole day. Another submersible pump from Coal India Ltd (CIL) also faced a snag, affecting dewatering operations in the nearby abandoned mines in East Jaintia Hills district, they said. "Two pumps from Kirloskar Brothers and the submersible pump from Coal India encountered glitches and the dewatering process in the main shaft was affected," R Susngi, spokesperson for the operation, said. The two high-powered pumps are undergoing repair work, he said, adding that the CIL pump was replaced with a new one. The CIL is expected to put into operation at least three more pumps on Monday, Susngi added. However, no headway could be made in reducing the water levels in the main shaft and the nearby mines due to the malfunctioning of the pumps and fresh seepage, the official said. Divers from the Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) could not venture down to gauge the water level inside the main shaft as it was beyond the safe diving limit of 100 feet, the spokesperson said. The current water level in the main shaft is about 160 feet, while its total depth is around 370 feet. Rescue work is suspended daily at around 5 pm as night falls. The Kirloskar Brothers pumps could be used for just one hour on Saturday, he said. The owner of the illegal coal mine has been arrested. Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress Sunday alleged that the BJP-backed Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government has allowed illegal coal mining within six months of coming to power. "The BJP and the National People's Party (NPP) had both promised the people of the state to open up coal mining if they were elected to power. Actually, what they did was open up illegal coal mining within six months," Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said. MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Monday clarified that his party has no objection to writer Nayantara Sehgal attending the 92 Marathi All India Literary meet. The clarification comes after the MNS drew flak after the invitation extended to noted author was revoked. "As the party chief, I am not against inviting her. If Sahgal's presence at the All India Literary Meet is transcending into a cultural exchange, I or my party will not oppose it," Thackeray said in a statement. Thackeray admitted that one of his local party workers had opposed Sahgal's presence at the literary meet and regretted the annoyance caused to the supporters of such literary events. Sahgal was to inaugurate the 92nd literary meet on January 11 in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Yavatmal district. The organisers had said that the decision to withdraw the invitation to Sahgal was taken after a political outfit threatened to disrupt the function. Sahgal was earlier at the forefront of the "award wapsi" campaign against the Centre. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam had criticised the decision to cancel Sahgal's invitation, alleging that it was done at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The decision of the organisers was taken at the behest of the BJP, the MNS is just a front. Literature should not surrender before politics. If a government is scared of writers, it means that its days are over," he said. Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, however, said the state welcomed everyone. "If someone had opposed Sahgal after her speech at the meet, then it could have been understood. It is not fair to oppose her completely. Maharashtra is a state that welcomes everyone to present their work," he said. Working president of the literary meet's reception committee Ramakant Kolte said the organisers had decided to revoke Sahgal's invitation, "as a controversy has cropped up against her name and to avoid any untoward incident from those who threatened to derail the literary meet." BENGALURU: Hundreds of commuters in the hi-tech city of Bengaluru are likely to face a harrowing time on Tuesday in view of a proposed two-day strike (Bharat Bandh) by the major trade unions in the country from January 8. According to reports, buses and autos will stay off roads on Tuesday, aggravating problems for hundreds of daily commuters. The two-day strike has been called by ten major trade unions in protest against the Narendra Modi government's alleged anti-labour policies. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and BMTC buses and private autorickshaws will not ply on Tuesday. Banking services across the state are likely to be affected in view of the Karnataka bandh on Tuesday. However, app-based cabs, airport taxis and Metro trains will operate in Bengaluru. It is not year clear whether schools, colleges and other educational institutions and cinema halls will remain open in view of Bengaluru Bandh on Tuesday. Members of the All-India Trade Union Congress have said that they will hold demonstrations at Jigani, Bommasandra, Whitefield, Peenya and Doddaballapura. The AITUC members will also stage a procession from Town Hall to Freedom Park beginning around Tuesday noon, said reports. The trade bodies have claimed that the 48-hour-long nationwide general strike on January 8-9 will be a historic event. As compared to the two-day national bandh of 2013 in which around 13-14 crore workers took part, this year, the bandh is expected to see large participation, with employees from various state and Central governments, along with various other sectors, also deciding to join it. The strike has been called by ten major trade unions, including the All India Trade Union Congress, CITU, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), SEWA and LPF. The decision to organise a two-day general strike from January 8 was taken in the National Convention of Workers held on September 28, 2018. Employees in major sectors such as the Railways, banks and electricity departments as well as those in the unorganised sector, including street vendors and auto and taxi drivers, are expected to be part of the 48-hour strike. The failure to fulfill the promise of creating over 1 crore jobs a year has been an important reason cited by the trade unions for organising the strike against the Modi government. According to Labour Bureau statistics, 1.55 lakh jobs and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Another major reason cited by the trade unions is the rise in prices of various daily use commodities. The trade unions are also against the sale of public sector undertakings. Bengaluru: Normal life is likely to get affected on Tuesday in several parts of Karnataka in view of a two-day nationwide strike (Bharat Bandh) called by central trade unions against the alleged 'repressive' policies for workers by the Narendra Modi government. According to reports, buses and autos will stay off roads on Tuesday, aggravating problems for hundreds of daily commuters. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and BMTC buses and private autorickshaws will not ply on Tuesday. Banking services across the state are likely to be affected in view of the bandh. However, the metro service in Bengaluru, as also auto and taxi service, are likely to function as usual. Hotels, malls and film theaters are also likely to function as usual, with their unions extending "moral" support to the strike. Bank services are likely to be disrupted. District administrations have been given the authority to declare a holiday for schools and colleges depending on the situation there, officials said. Some universities have deferred the examinations. Members of the All-India Trade Union Congress have said that they will hold demonstrations at Jigani, Bommasandra, Whitefield, Peenya and Doddaballapura. The AITUC members will also stage a procession from Town Hall to Freedom Park beginning around Tuesday noon, said reports. The trade bodies have claimed that the 48-hour-long nationwide general strike on January 8-9 will be a 'historic event'. The strike has been called by ten major trade unions, including the All India Trade Union Congress, CITU, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), SEWA and LPF. The decision to organise a two-day general strike from January 8 was taken in the National Convention of Workers held on September 28, 2018. Employees in major sectors such as the Railways, banks and electricity departments as well as those in the unorganised sector, including street vendors and auto and taxi drivers, are expected to be part of the 48-hour strike. The failure to fulfill the promise of creating over 1 crore jobs a year has been an important reason cited by the trade unions for organising the strike against the Modi government. According to Labour Bureau statistics, 1.55 lakh jobs and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Another major reason cited by the trade unions is the rise in prices of various daily use commodities. (With inputs from agencies) Uttarakhand continued to shiver under an intense cold wave as snowfall continued intermittently in the hill tracts on Monday, officials said. It has been snowing in Dhanaulti and Surkanda areas in Mussoorie since Saturday while heavy snowfall is also intermittently taking place in Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath valley. Due to the heavy snowfall and poor visibility the Yamunotri and Gangotri highways have closed, disrupting the communication to two dozen villages. According to the Regional Met Office, there can be rains and fresh snowfall at some places in Kumayun region on Monday. Fog has disrupted normal life in Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar while places like Hemkund Saheb, Auli are completely covered in snow. The snow in the hill regions has also impacted weather in the plains and mercury has dropped in these places. The maximum temperature expected in Dehradun is 19.2 degrees celsius while the minimum was 6.6 degrees celsius. Mussoorie has recorded a minimum of 3.6 degrees while Uttarkashi is shivering at 3 degrees Celsius. Almorah district recorded a low of 2.3 degrees celsius while Mukteshwar had a low of 3.1 degrees celsius. Pithoragarh was the coldest with 1.4 degrees celsius. The weather is unlikely to improve over the next few days. However, the cold wave will continue unabated, the weather office said. The preparations for the Kumbh Mela, slated to begin in Prayagraj on January 15, are in full swing. Besides other authorities and agencies, the Uttar Pradesh Police is also involved in making all arrangements to make the Kumbh Mela hassle free and secure. Speaking to Zee News, Deputy Inspector General of Uttar Pradesh Police, KP Singh, said that only those police personnel, who are teetotaller and do not consume non-vegetarian food, have been involved in Kumbh Mela security. According to the police official, as many as 20,000 such police personnel have been involved in the security preparations for Kumbh Mela, which is expected to attract lakhs of devotees to the holy town of Prayagraj, which was till recently called Allahabad. Singh further told Zee News that all devotees visiting Prayagraj during Kumbh Mela must keep their identity cards handy. He also advised the devotees to keep with them mobile number of a family member, who could be contacted in case of emergency. This will help the police officials in conducting smooth security verification. Nearly 12 crore devotees are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj which will begin January 15. Touted as the biggest cultural and religious event in the world, the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj has been accorded the status of world heritage by the UNESCO. The event, which will conclude on March 4, has been included in the list of 'intangible cultural heritage of humanity.' Representatives of 192 countries are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela. During the Kumbh Mela, millions of pilgrims including naked, ash-smeared ascetics, will bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna, and a mythical third river, the Saraswati. Devout Hindus believe that bathing in the waters of the Ganges absolves people of sins and bathing at the time of the Kumbh brings salvation from the cycle of life and death. Mexico, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Since December, Aeromexico customers on all international and selected domestic flights departing from Mexico City have been treated to new flavors certain to tempt even the most discerning palate, thanks to the Top Chefs at Gate Gourmet International, featuring culinary masters Christian Hallowell, Gottfried Menge, and Dennis Purchet. With these updated menus, Aeromexico seeks to offer its customers the essence of high cuisine, dishing out both familiar favorites and light and healthy food choices. The new dining experience features seasonally-rotating menus with different options for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Highlights include: A fourth meal choice served on long-haul flights to Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Sao Paulo. A sweet option for breakfast served to customers in both Premier and main cabins. Meat, fish, and poultry cooked sous-vide to bring food to the perfectly cooked temperature, infusing extra flavor with just the right texture. Artisan handmade pasta. Stone oven baked bread. This new selection of delicious meal options applies to both Premier and main cabins and is available on flights to Cancun, Chihuahua, Hermosillo, Mexicali, Monterrey, Tijuana, and Torreon in Mexico, as well as on flights to the United States, Canada, Latin America and in the main cabin on flights to Europe. Clase Premier menus on flights to Europe are prepared by the prestigious chef Elena Reygadas, while customers on flights to Asia continue to be treated to the regionally-inspired cuisine of Edo Kobayashi on flights to Tokyo, Edmund Wong Man Ho on flights to Shanghai, and Vivian Oh, Jeagal Soung Il, and PM Kor An on flights to Seoul. With these redesigned menus, Aeromexico reinforces its commitment to continue renewing its customer services to ensure an enhanced onboard experience. About Aeromexico Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. is a holding company whose subsidiaries are engaged in commercial aviation in Mexico and the promotion of passenger loyalty programs. Aeromexico, Mexicos global airline, operates more than 600 daily flights and its main hub is in Terminal 2 at the Mexico City International Airport. Its destinations network features 89 cities on three continents; including 43 destinations in Mexico, 18 in the United States, 18 in Latin America, 4 in Europe, 3 in Canada and 3 in Asia. The Group's operating fleet of 125 aircraft is comprised of Boeing 787 and 737 jet airliners and next generation Embraer 170 and 190 models. In 2012, the airline announced the most significant investment strategy in aviation history in Mexico, to purchase 100 Boeing aircraft including 90 MAX B737 jet airliners and 10 B787-9 Dreamliners. As a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, Aeromexico offers customers more than 1,000 destinations in 177 countries served by the 20 SkyTeam airline partners rewarding passengers with benefits including access to 672 premium airport lounges around the world. Aeromexico also offers travel on its codeshare partner flights with Delta Air Lines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, EL AL, GOL Linhas Aereas, Jet Airways, and WestJet, with extensive connectivity in countries like the United States, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Colombia, India, Israel or Peru. www.aeromexico.com www.skyteam.com Attachment NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP on Monday said that the controversial Triple Talaq Bill, which is facing stiff resistance from several quarters, is meant to seek justice for thousands of Indian Muslim women and the government is determined to push hard for its clearance in the Parliament. While stating that the Triple Talaq Bill, which is listed in Rajya Sabha, is not a question of government's reputation, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged all parties to support the bill in the Upper House. ''Triple Talaq Bill is listed in Rajya Sabha, it's not a question of government's reputation. The Bill is meant to get justice for women, so everyone should support it. We all must help in getting the Bill passed, '' Tomar told ANI. Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar: Triple Talaq Bill is listed in Rajya Sabha, it's not a question of government's reputation. The Bill is meant to get justice for women, so everyone should support it. We all must help in getting the Bill passed. pic.twitter.com/EO0zpXsbBn ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 In view of stiff resistance to the Triple Talaq Bill, the Narendra Modi government had last week said that it was receptive about any "constructive suggestions'' by the Opposition on the controversial bill. The response came from Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad when questioned as to why the NDA government was not accepting the Opposition demand to refer the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 to a Select Committee of Parliament for scrutiny. "Our decision will be decided on the floor of the House when I speak there. We have already improved a lot of things. A Select Committee is important, but the plight of victim women is equally important. I would appeal to the MPs to listen to their plight," Prasad said. "We have no ego in...But the thing is that whatever is needed to be improved has been done. If they (Opposition) have a constructive suggestion, they can give us. We are open to considering them. But they did not give any suggestion in the Lok Sabha," he added. During the discussion on the Bill in Lok Sabha, the Opposition, and even the fence sitters such as the AIADMK and BJD, unanimously demanded that the Bill be referred to a joint committee for scrutiny. The government did not yield to the demand and got the Bill passed after a four-hour debate. When the Bill came up for discussion and passage in Rajya Sabha on December 31, the Opposition pressed for voting on the Bill whether it should be sent to a select committee of the House. The voting could not take place due to din and subsequent adjournment. PM Narendra Modi had recently said that Triple Talaq is a matter of gender equality while referring to a question on the entry of women in Kerala's Sabarimala temple, which, he said, was related to age-old tradition. Talking to ANI, Prime Minister tried to clear the air on BJP`s apparent contradiction in its stand on the controversial Triple Talaq Ordinance and the ban on entry of women between the age group of (10-50 years) in the Sabarimala Temple by saying the Ordinance against Triple Talaq was brought keeping in mind gender equality and social justice and it should not be seen as interference in religious issues. "Triple Talaq Ordinance was brought after Supreme Court verdict. We have said in our BJP manifesto that a solution would be found to this issue under the Constitution," Prime Minister Modi said. "Most Islamic countries have banned Triple Talaq. So it is not a matter of religion or faith. Even in Pakistan, Triple Talaq is banned. So it is an issue of gender equality, a matter of social justice. It is not an issue of faith. So keep the two separate," the PM said. Amid a walkout by some opposition parties, the Triple Talaq Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha with the support of 245 votes against 11 on December 27, 2018. The Triple Talaq Bill makes the practice of instant divorce among Muslims a criminal offence with a provision of three-year jail term for the erring husband. New Delhi: Ten major trade unions in the country have called for a 48-hour strike starting Tuesday against what they allege are anti-worker policies of the Narendra Modi government. Key services could take a big hit over Tuesday and Wednesday with reverberations of the strike likely to be felt in banking, insurance, city-based public transport and railways. The decision to organise a two-day general strike from January 8 was taken in the National Convention of Workers held on September 28, 2018. Who? Ten trade unions who have jointly called for the nationwide general strike are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA. Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left peasant wings are also expected to join the strike. "AIKS and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will observe 'gramin hartal', rail roko and road roko on January 8 and 9, the day trade unions are observing nationwide general strike. This move is against the Modi government's failure to address rural distress issues, to save rural farmers' lands from the corporates. The farmers will extend all support to the ensuing general strike," said Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha. Employees in major sectors such as the Railways, banks and electricity departments as well as those in the unorganised sector, including street vendors and auto and taxi drivers, are expected to be part of the 48-hour strike. It is estimated that a total of 20 crore workers from across the country could participate in the strike. This is an increase by seven crore over figures of workers who had participated in the two-day strike called in 2013. Why? The failure to fulfil the promise of creating over 1 crore jobs a year has been an important reason cited by the trade unions for organising the strike against the Modi government. According to Labour Bureau statistics, 1.55 lakh jobs and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Another major reason cited by the trade unions is the rise in prices of various daily use commodities. The trade unions are also against the sale of public sector undertakings. How? AITUC has said that a massive protest march would be taken from Delhi's Mandi House to the Parliament on Wednesday. She added that similar marches would be organised across the country over the 48-hour bandh period. It is also likely that the agitating workers could organise 'Rail Roko' and 'Raasta Roko' although unions have said that the strike would be peaceful in nature. Daily lives could be affected with taxi and auto drivers in many cities likely to stay off duty while transport of goods - apart from essential commodities - too could be affected. (With agency inputs) Former Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has convened a meeting of the constituents of Mahagathbandhan at his residence in Patna on Monday. According to reports, the meeting will be the first formal deliberation on seat sharing and other issues concerning the Lok Sabha elections, slated to be held in 2019. All members of the Mahagathbandhan the RJD, the Congress, Upendra Kushwahas Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Sharad Yadavs Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) are expected to attend the meeting. Sources have said that broad discussions are likely to be held on the number of seats to be fought by each Mahagathbandhan constituent in Bihar during the Lok Sabha elections. The constituents will also seek to identify constituencies best suited all partners. However, the sources added that a final agreement is unlikely to happen in the meeting. The parties will wait for a decision on the bail plea of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is currently serving sentence in fodder scam cases. A decision on his bail has been reserved by the Jharkhand High Court. In December, a meeting of the Mahagathbandhan partners had taken place in the national capital, wherein Upendra Kushwahas RLSP was included in the grand alliance of opposition parties. Days after the meeting, Tejashwi Yadav and Upendra Kushwaha met Lalu Prasad Yadav in Ranchi. Sources close to the jailed RJD supremo and former Bihar chief minister had said that preliminary talks were held between Lalu and other leaders regarding seat-sharing in the anti-NDA grouping. Since the RJD is believed to be the pivot of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, Lalus approval on the seat sharing issue holds significance. Following the meeting, Kushwaha had said, "There were some political discussions also, the details of which we need not make public. But, of course, we discussed the strategy to defeat the BJP-led NDA in both Bihar and Jharkhand." While India has finalised the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, neighbouring Pakistan has reached out to China for speedy procurement of JF-17 planes. Even before the Indian Air Force (IAF) gets the 36 Rafale fighters in a fly-away condition from Dassault Aviation, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is attempting to add as many as 62 JF-17 jets. But who has the edge? Where do Rafale and JF-17 stand when compared to each other? Heres a look at the specifications of Rafale and JF-17, which are set to power the IAF and PAF, respectively. Rafale fighter jet has its origin in 2001 and has been developed by French company Dassault Aviation. On the other hand JF-17 was developed in 2007 jointly by Aviation Industry Corporation of China and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. The length of a Rafale jet is 15.3 metres, its width is 10.9 metres and height 5.34 metres. JF-17 jets length is 14.93 metres while its width and height are 9.45 metres and 4.72 metres respectively. With regard to the weight of empty aircraft as well as the maximum weight that it can carry, Rafale appears to have an edge. The empty aircraft weight of Rafale is 9,500 kg while a fully loaded and armed plane will weigh 24,500 kg. The weight of an empty JF-17 is 6,585 kg and the maximum can be 12,385 kg. However, when it comes to speed, JF-17 can achieve a maximum of 1960 kmph (1058 knots) while Rafale can fly at up to 1915 kmph (1034 knots). JF-17 also has an edge with regard to the range. The maximum range of JF-17 jet is 3,482 km (1880 nautical miles) while that of Rafale is 1,850 km (999 nautical miles). But the Rafale can be refuelled mid-air and increase it range. Armament: The Rafale jet is equipped with standard outfitted 30 mm GIAT 30/M791 internal canon, which can fire up to 125 rounds. Besides, each jet has 14 external hardpoints that can carry air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, precision-guided weapons, fuel tanks etc. In JF-17, the standard armament is a 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin barrel internal cannon. Apart from this, the jet has seven external hardpoints to carry a range of air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has not sanctioned any funds to acquire land for the Kartarpur corridor. The Congress leader questioned as to how the work would be completed before November in the present circumstances. Government of India has not sanctioned funds to even acquire land there. How will we finish the work before November? the Punjab Chief Minister told mediapersons. Notably in December, the Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution suggesting swap of land with Pakistan to bring the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara across the border within the Indian territory. Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had suggested that land from his constituency could be given to Pakistan as part of the swap. The corridor is proposed to start from Dera Baba Nanak. The assembly also urged the Centre to complete the work for opening the corridor before the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in November 2019. The founder of Sikhism is believed to have spent 18 years at the gurdwara and opening a cross-border corridor was a long-pending demand of Sikhs. India laid the foundation stone of the corridor on November 26 and Pakistan did it two days later. The ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor was presided over by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and HS Puri were sent by the government of India to attend the event. Though Pakistan had invited External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the event, but she expressed her inability to go for the same, and declared that Harsimrat and Puri would be representing the Indian government. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was also invited by Pakistan, but he turned down the invitation, citing killing of Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army. However, his minister Navjot Singh Sidhu attended the event in Pakistan. (With PTI Inputs) The Triple Talaq Bill which has been passed by the Lok Sabha is yet to be moved in Rajya Sabha as the Centre faces fierce dissent from the opposition as well as its own allies. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will try and place the bill in the Upper House on Monday for consideration. While the government has been claiming that the bill is for the benefit and welfare of Muslim women and should not be seen through the prism of politics, the opposition led by Congress is demanding that the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, be referred to a select committee of the House. The bill was passed in Lok Sabha in December after Congress staged a walkout. However, in Rajya Sabha, the government does not appear to have enough numbers on its side to muscle the bill through. Here are the live updates from Parliament: # Defence Minister in Lok Sabha: I have received confirmation from HAL that contracts during 2014-18 worth Rs 26,570.80 crore have already been signed with HAL. Orders worth Rs 73,000 Cr approx are in the pipeline # Lok Sabha adjourned till noon amid protest by different parties over various issues # Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar: Triple Talaq Bill is listed in Rajya Sabha, it's not a question of government's reputation. The Bill is meant to get justice for women, so everyone should support it. We all must help in getting the Bill passed. # Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena: We're opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill. Asom Gana Parishad leaders met Uddhav ji and explained everything. It's not just Hindu-Muslim thing, Assam has its own culture and demography and this Bill would change that, which may again create conditions for civil war. # Telugu Desam Party MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dressed up as former TN CM MG Ramachandran during TDP protest in Parliament demanding 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh. He has earlier dressed up as a magician, a woman, a washerman & a school student among others. Delhi: Telugu Desam Party MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dressed up as former TN CM MG Ramachandran during TDP protest in parliament demanding 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh. He has earlier dressed up as a magician, a woman, a washerman & a school student among others. pic.twitter.com/RDbkTjS1NY ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 # Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is likely to move the Bill to protect the rights of married Muslim women and to prohibit divorce by pronouncing talaq by their husbands and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, as passed by Lok Sabha, be taken into consideration. # Other important bills to be discussed in Lok Sabha include Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar will move that amendments made by Rajya Sabha in the Bill further to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, be taken into consideration. # Ravi Shankar Prasad will also move The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to amend the Divorce Act, 1869, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, be taken into consideration. # Panel on Citizenship Bill is also likely to table its report on Monday. The joint committee on Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, which proposes citizenship to persecuted minorities barring Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, cleared the report rejecting all amendments moved by the Opposition. In the last meeting, out of 30 members, all the 13 BJP members were present and only six opposition members were present. NEW DELHI: In a major decision, the Union Cabinet on Monday approved 10 percent reservation to the economically backward members of the upper castes in government jobs. The reservation benefits will be given to those belonging to the economically weaker upper castes and earning less than Rs 8 lakh per year, according to the decision taken by the Union Cabinet. Quoting government sources, news agency ANI confirmed that the Union Cabinet has approved 10 percent reservation for upper castes. Sources: 10 percent reservation approved by Union Cabinet for upper castes. More details awaited pic.twitter.com/t0mlI73ymf ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 Quotas for economically backward in general category will be over and above existing 50 percent reservation, sources said. The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting of the Union Cabinet, which was chaired by PM Narendra Modi. Following the Union Cabinet's approval, the Narendra Modi government will now move to amend the Constitution in order to grant 10 percent reservation for the economically weaker upper castes. The government is likely to bring constitutional amendment bill on quotas for economically weaker sections in Parliament on Tuesday, the sources said. The decision effectively means that those who are economically backward and fall under the general category will now be able to enjoy the benefits of reservation in government jobs, an advantage that wasn't available to them previously. The development also assumes significance as it comes several months ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, which is likely to be held between April-May. The Union Cabinet's decision is being viewed as a big political masterstroke by the ruling BJP to consolidate its position among several disgruntled upper caste communities ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls. Several NDA allies, including Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP and RPI led by Ramdas Athawale, had in past demanded reservation for the economically backward upper caste members in government jobs. The Supreme Court has capped at 50% the quota for caste-based reservation for government jobs. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday voiced his support for Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, who is likely to be quizzed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an illegal mining case. Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the AAP leader accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre of unleashing CBI on Akhilesh Yadav. According to Kejriwal, it was a reminder of what Modis political opponents have faced during last five years. The Delhi Chief Minister further asserted that it was time to throw out the dictatorial and undemocratic regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In its last weeks in office, Modi govt shamelessly unleashing CBI on @yadavakhilesh is a reminder to all that we must not forget what Modi's political opponents have faced during last five years. Time to throw out this dictatorial & undemocratic regime Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 7, 2019 Kejriwal tweeted, In its last weeks in office, Modi govt shamelessly unleashing CBI on @yadavakhilesh is a reminder to all that we must not forget what Modi's political opponents have faced during last five years. Time to throw out this dictatorial & undemocratic regime. This comes a day after Akhilesh Yadav said that he was ready to face the central agency and willing to give all answers to them. He, however, added that people are ready to give an answer to the BJP. Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using the CBI like the Congress did earlier, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, Samajwadi Party is making efforts to win maximum Lok Sabha seats. Those who want to stop us, have the CBI with them. Once the Congress did CBI probe, and I was questioned. If the BJP is doing all this, the CBI will question me, I will answer (them). But, the people are ready to give an answer to the BJP. Why is the CBI conducting raids. Whatever they want to ask, they can ask me. However, the BJP should remember that the culture it is leaving behind, it may have to face it in the future, he had said. NEW DELHI: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Naramalli Sivaprasad on Monday dressed up like former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR) during the protests in Parliament demanding 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh. Soon after the Parliament convened for normal business on Monday, a group of TDP lawmakers started shouting slogans and protested in and outside the Parliament demanding special status for their state. TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad too joined his party colleagues in the protest, this time in a new avatar he dressed up like former Tamil Nadu CM MGR. Delhi: Telugu Desam Party MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dressed up as former TN CM MG Ramachandran during TDP protest in parliament demanding 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh. He has earlier dressed up as a magician, a woman, a washerman & a school student among others. pic.twitter.com/RDbkTjS1NY ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 In December last year, Sivaprasad had come to parliament dressed up as Lord Shiva to demand special status for Andhra Pradesh. He had dressed up as a schoolboy, Adolf Hitler, Chhatrapati Shivaji etc to demand special status for Andhra Pradesh. Protests for Special Status for Andhra Pradesh are public protests that started throughout the state of Andhra Pradesh on January 26, 2017, demanding for the 'Special Category Status' (SCS) which was promised to the state by the Congress Government during the state bifurcation. The demand for SCS for the state of Andhra Pradesh is still not resolved and the BJP government has not taken cognizance of the issue of granting the state of Andhra Pradesh a special status even after several protests. TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had accused the BJP of breaking promises when his party broke the four-year-old alliance with BJP before the Assembly Elections 2018 and Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Sivaprasad has also dressed up before as a tantrik, Mahatma Gandhi, Santa Claus amongst several other characters. NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has stepped up its efforts to bring fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya back to the country before the Lok Sabha elections due this year. Sources say that the Centre is using diplomatic channels to speed up his extradition process in the United Kingdom. Mallya was on January 5 declared a fugitive economic offender by a special PMLA court in Mumbai. Following the court verdict, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patted itself on the back saying that the ruling is a feather in the government's cap in its fight against corruption. Mallya, who has been accused of defaulting on loan repayments worth Rs 9,000 crore and money laundering, is the first businessman to be declared an FEO under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act which came into existence in August last year. "Mallya grew under the patronage of the Congress government. Despite him being bankrupt, he was given loans and his loans were even restructured. He fled with Rs 9,000 crore of the country's money. It is a feather in the cap for BJP's fight against corruption," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. The ED had requested the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Mumbai that Mallya, who is currently in the UK, be declared a fugitive and his properties be confiscated and brought under the control of the Union government. Mallya had left India in March 2016. Westminster Magistrates Court had in December said that Mallya can be extradited to India to stand trial on the charges brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Following the official announcement earlier today from HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Airports and representatives from across the aviation sector and the emirate of Dubai gave the airports billionth warm welcome to nine-year-old Arjun and his family who arrived this morning from Orlando, Florida on Emirates flight EK220 At a celebration held in DXB earlier today, Arjun along with his mother Ramya, father Venkatesh and thirteen-year-old brother Varun, were personally greeted by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and warmly welcomed on this, their first visit to Dubai. They were also delighted with details of an unforgettable and surprising set of experiences that showcase Dubais longstanding reputation for excitement, luxury and modern Arabic hospitality, organised for the next few days of their trip. At the airport this afternoon, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports said; This landmark billionth passenger achievement is the result of teamwork and collaboration, and special thanks goes out to each and every member of the airport community who have played a role in this journey. His Highness continued, Of course, we would not be in this position if it werent for the visionary leadership of HH Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, both of whom foresaw the development of Dubai into a global centre for trade, tourism and commerce enabled by a fast-growing and world-leading aviation sector with top-flight airport infrastructure. The billionth customer is arguably the most significant in a long litany of achievements since the airport first opened in September 30, 1960 with a tiny terminal building and a runway of compacted sand. Today the hub is widely considered a benchmark for its quality infrastructure, passenger and cargo volumes and high service levels despite unrelenting growth. DXB handles an average of 7.5 million customers every month and this year broke its own traffic record thrice with more than 8.3 million customers in a month. Nothing puts DXBs growth in perspective more than the fact that the airport took 51 years from September 30, 1960 to December 31, 2011 to reach its 500 millionth passenger but clocked the remaining 500 million in just seven years. Over the past 11 years alone Dubai Airports has opened seven major facilities with an investment of almost $12 billion. Five of those have been at DXB including Terminal 3, Concourses A, B, D and the complete refurbishment and expansion of Terminal 2. To pick the lucky passenger, Dubai Airports used its passenger traffic forecast to narrow down the selection to a specific flight and approached Emirates to make a random selection. During their stay, Arjun and his family will be visiting some of the top Dubai experiences and treated like superstars all the way. The family will stay at the iconic Atlantis Hotel and dine at the award-winning restaurants there and even spend a day exploring the Aquaventure water park. A visit to the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa for an access all areas tour, followed by a personal shopping experience at The Dubai Mall. Then a full day with Arabian Adventures exploring the more traditional side of Dubai, around the Al Fahidi Historical neighbourhood and then into the desert for a dune drive and sunset dinner. Dubai Airports will be posting highlights of the familys visit across its social media channels in the days to come. Media Contact Hannah Burden Hamer, Dubai Airports, Manager - Corporate Communication Hannah.BurdenHamer@dubaiairports.ae T: +9714-5044394 Editors Notes Dubai Airports manages the operation and development of both of Dubais airports DXB and DWC. As integrator, Dubai Airports works to balance the interests of all stakeholders to maintain aviation growth, protect operational resilience and ensure that service providers collaborate to provide a safe and secure service and improve the experience of our customers whilst maintaining a sustainable business. DXB is the worlds number one airport in terms of international passenger traffic and number three globally in terms of total passenger traffic as reported by Airports Council International. Dubai Airport's forecast team used forecasting tools to identify the day, time and flight which carried the one billionth passenger and randomly selected that passenger in conjunction with the operating airline. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b395d073-9473-47d0-b4b7-620230cc56e0 New Delhi: The Lok Sabha is likely to witness unruly scenes on Monday as the BJP and the main opposition party Congress continue to make allegations and counter-allegations on the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France. What has further added fuel to the ongoing controversy is the issue of procurement orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from the Defence Ministry. Though the process of ordering has been started, no actual orders from the Defence Ministry have been made, said media reports. HAL has become another flashpoint between the ruling BJP and the Congress-led Opposition with Defence Minister Sitharaman accusing Rahul Gandhi of "misleading" the country without fully understanding the issue and ''spreading lies.''. Congress has alleged that government denied HAL the offset contract under the Rafale fighter jets deal with France. On the contrary, BJP has accused the Congress of not supporting HAL during its rule. Interestingly, both the Congress and the BJP have issued whips, asking their MPs to be present in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Rahul Gandhi had on Sunday demanded that Sitharaman either place documents before the Parliament to prove her claim that government orders worth Rs one lakh crore were provided to HAL, or resign. When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PMs Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament, Rahul said in a tweet. Tomorrow (Monday), RM (Sitharaman) must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign, he tweeted. Gandhis attack on the BJP government came in the wake of media reports that not a single rupee of the said Rs 1 lakh crore has come to HAL, since not a single order, as claimed, has been signed till now. The media report cited senior HAL management officials in order to back its claim. The report, however, stated that though the process of ordering has been started, no actual orders from the Defence Minister have been placed yet. Hitting back at Rahul, Sitharaman said that it is a matter of shame that the Congress chief was misleading the country without fully understanding the issue. Suggesting that Gandhi jumped the gun while making the charges following a media report, Sitharamans office tweeted that Gandhi should start from ABCs and read the complete report before commenting on it. Its a shame that the president of @INCIndia is misleading the nation. HAL has signed contracts worth Rs 26570.8 Cr (Between 2014 and 2018) and contracts worth Rs 73000 Cr are in the pipeline. Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the house?, Sitharaman tweeted from the defence ministers official handle. She also tweeted details of contract awarded to HAL since 2014 when BJP came to power. According to her, the Rs 49,797 crore contract to HAL for supply of 83 light combat aircraft Tejas to the Indian Air Force was at the stage of technical evaluation stage. Another contract, whose tentative size is Rs 20,000 crore, for supply of a batch of Kamov Ka 226 T helicopters was also in the similar stage. Sitharaman also pointed out that the media report said that LS (Lok Sabha) record shows that she did not claim the orders were signed and mentioned that they were in the works. Sitharaman made the remarks about HAL during her reply to debate on Rafale deal in Lok Sabha on Friday. The Congress has been targeting the government, alleging that it denied the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) an offset contract under the Rafale fighter jets deal with France, a charge the government has denied. The Grand Old Party has alleged that price of each aircraft was sharply hiked from around Rs 526 crore, negotiated under deal during UPA, to Rs 1,600 crore and that the contract will help Anil Ambani get Rs 30,000 crore benefit through offset contract. Refuting the charges, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has accused the Congress of not supporting HAL during its rule and asserted that the government is now strengthening the defence public sector undertaking. Also, the government has claimed that the price negotiated by the NDA government is nine per cent lower than what was negotiated by the UPA. New Delhi: Amid uproar created by the opposition on various issues, the Lok Sabha on Monday passed 'The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018'. The bill was introduced by Union Minister PP Choudhary. The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 will amend the Divorce Act, 1869; Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939; Special Marriage Act, 1954; Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. It strikes out leprosy as a ground for seeking divorce. The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the bill. Before this landmark decision, people affected by leprosy were equated with those experiencing mental illness under several Marriage Acts and the Indian Divorce Act. The Bill was opposed by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, while Biju Janata Dal's Bhartruhari Mahtab, Trinamool Congress's Kalyan Banerjee and TRS's Vinod Kumar supported it with some suggestions like rehabilitation of victims facing leprosy problem which lead to divorce and state and Central government to work on it jointly. In a reply, Choudhary said, "Several steps are being taken by state governments for the rehabilitation of those facing leprosy disease." (With inputs from agencies) Thiruvananthapuram: With trade unions calling a nation-wide 48-hour bandh, daily life in the state of Kerala is likely to take a hit on Tuesday and Wednesday. To ensure law and order is maintained however, the state police chief has issued several guidelines. The Kerala High Court has already said that no strike can be called in the state without prior notice of at least seven days. The state police is determined to ensure that the court's decision is enforced on ground. All district police heads have been directed to take action against individuals who may damage property, and take necessary legal steps to punish criminals. They have also been advised to take effective precautionary measures to prevent any untoward incident. Strict measures will be taken to prevent any attempts to disrupt public life and violate law and order. Cops have also been instructed to closely monitor the procedures for maintaining law and order. Strict action would be taken especially against those who disrupt essential services. Ten trade unions who have jointly called for the nationwide general strike are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA. Farmers across the country under the aegis of the Left peasant wings are also expected to join the strike. Guwahati: A number of students' organisation and political parties have called an 11-hour northeast 'bandh' on Tuesday to protest the Citizenship Amendment Bill which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several students' bodies of the region have decided to observe the 5 am to 4 pm 'bandh' in support of the call given by the North East Students' Organisation (NESO), an umbrella organisation of students' unions, of which the AASU is a constituent. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has called for a state-wide bandh after a gap of 10 years and it is supported by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which withdrew support to the BJP-led government in Assam during the day, the opposition Congress, the AIUDF, and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS). The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. The AGP and other groups in Assam have said that the provisions of the bill will nullify the 1985 Assam Accord, which provides for deportation of all illegal migrants, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after March, 1971. "This is a crisis for the Assamese society, and all indigenous communities of the region in general. We will not allow the government to pass the Bill at any cost," AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told PTI in Guwahati. The movement needs to be taken to all interior places across Assam and the northeast so that the BJP does not pass the Bill, he said. Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said, "District SPs have been instructed to ensure public peace. Appropriate forces have been deployed across the state to prevent any untoward incidents. Patrolling has also been intensified at all places." From other parts of the region, the Mizo Zirlai Pawal (MZP), the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), the Naga Students' Federation (NSF) and other bodies have extended their support to the 11-hour bandh called by the NESO. The "bandh" has also been called to condemn Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent statement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would be passed in Parliament soon, a NESO leader said. "Despite staging various dharnas even in New Delhi by students' bodies from the northeast, the Centre is hell bent on passing the controversial bill, undermining the sentiments of the indigenous people of the region," NESO coordinator Pritambai Sonam told reporters at Itanagar. According to a report from, the Capital of Mizoram, MZP general secretary Lalnunmawia Pautu said the people of the region were against the proposed amendment as it would grant citizenship to people on religious grounds. In Mizoram, it would mean legalising thousands of Buddhist Chakmas who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh, Pautu said. "If the bill is passed, we will be left with no option but to take up arms to protect our indigenous population," AAPSU president Hawa Bagang said in Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar. The Twipra Student's Federation, the student wing of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of ruling BJP in the state, said in Agartala that it is supporting the bandh. In Shillong, a conglomeration of 14 pressure groups and social organisations of Meghalaya extended its support to the "bandh" called by the NESO. The Confederation of Hynniewtrep Social Organisation (CoHSO) also demanded that Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma snap ties with the BJP protest against the Centre's move to pass the bill. New Delhi: Australia`s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, will visit India on January 8 and 9.Harinder Sidhu, Australia`s High Commissioner to India, said that the visit is an opportunity to reinforce Australia`s commitment to strengthening India-Australia partnership. "Minister Payne is visiting at a time when our relationship has grown to become a significant partnership. Our shared interests range widely across political, security, cultural and economic fields," Sidhu said. "This is the strongest the Australia-India relationship has been, and the Minister`s visit presents an important opportunity to deepen our ties," the High Commissioner outlined. Payne will address the Raisina Dialogue on how Australia and India can work together and with regional partners to deliver a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. General Angus Campbell, Chief of the Australian Defence Force, will also participate in the event. The Minister will also meet with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss deepening regional engagement and the practical steps Australia is taking in response to the India Economic Strategy. This will be Payne`s first visit to India as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and follows the successful visit of President Ram Nath Kovind to Australia in November 2018. New Delhi: Expressing serious concerns over the non-passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, a women's organisation organized district-level demonstrations in 24 states on Monday. National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) members also protested outside Parliament and were later detained by police, the organisation said in a statement. Most of the political parties have expressed their willingness to support and vote for the passage of the Bill when it is brought before the Lok Sabha, but the BJP-led NDA government has not shown any interest or taken any initiative to pass the Bill, the NFIW alleged in the statement. "While receiving a memorandum demanding the passage of the Bill from NFIW delegation, the prime minister said that consensus is needed for this. During the last four and a half years time, Parliament passed or amended many legislations without any consensus. It is nothing but the double standard and it shows lack of political will and social commitment on the part of the NDA government," Annie Raja, General Secretary of the NFIW alleged. New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Monday said they might mull the possibility of having student representatives in the academic council since the elected students' union has not been notified yet. Professor Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector-I of the varsity, said the student's union could not be notified as election campaigning bills were not duly signed and were not submitted within the deadline recommended by the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines. "We are waiting and requesting them repeatedly. The administration cannot take action. The ball is in their court. We are accountable to the CAG and internal audit for every penny spent. Till now, there is no students' body at the varsity," he added. Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) members are special invitees to the Academic Council and since they have not been notified, they have not been able to attend the Academic Council meeting. They are not part of the decision making, Mahapatra pointed out, adding that students keep on writing to them on their demands and their concerns and they take note of those. He said there is a statute in the JNU Act which says that student representatives should be elected to the Academic Council, which was never adhered to since the JNUSU elected representatives were invited. "The statute was never adhered to and for decades, JNUSU was the special invitee to the Academic Council. We can probably explore the possibility of having student representatives (other than JNUSU). That is something the Academic Council can decide," he added. Meanwhile, some university officials claimed that the campaigning bills did not have the GST component, which is why the union has not been notified yet. New Delhi: Actor Varun Dhawan had a successful year in 2018. His films 'Sui Dhaaga' and 'October' brought him critical acclaims and proved his acting prowess. And now the actor is busy with Abhishek Varman's period-drama 'Kalank'. A DNA report has claimed that the actor may appear in the remake of hit film Coolie No. 1 and if things go as planned, Alia Bhatt will also feature in the film as his love interest. The report said that Varun along with his father and filmmaker David Dhawan and brother Rohit is all set to set a production house and their maiden production venture will be the remake of David's 1995 film 'Coolie No 1'. The report stated that they were also considering the remake of 'Biwi No 1', but the Dhawans zeroed upon remaking the Govinda and Karisma Kapoor-starrer 'Coolie No 1'. 'Biwi No 1' starred Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Sushmita Sen and had Varun agreed upon it, this would have been his second remake after 'Judwaa 2', both of which originally starred Salman. A source told the publication, "They will also be producing the film along with Vashu Bhagnani, who backed the original. While David will direct the film, his elder son Rohit will oversee the production from their side. The family plans to establish their production house with Rohit at the helm." Varun has worked with his father in two films so far 'Main Tera Hero' and 'Judwaa 2'. Directed by David Dhawan, 'Coolie No 1', the film featured Govinda, Karisma Kapoor, Shakti Kapoor, Kadar Khan and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. It was one of the first successful movies of Karisma Kapoor. The film itself was the remake of the 1991 Telugu film, 'Coolie No. 1'. The music of 'Coolie No. 1' was a rage when it released. Although the producer of Tips films Vashu Bhagnani and David believed that the song 'Husn Hain Suhana'', rendered by Abhijeet and Chandana Dixit would be the selling factor of the album. But it was the song 'Main To Raste Se Ja Raha Tha' that did the trick. New Delhi: Veteran actor Anupam Kher's upcoming biopic 'The Accidental Prime Minister' is ready for release and is high on the buzz word. The classic actor took to Instagram and shared a small video of how he transformed into the character of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He captioned the video as: Making of #DrManmohanSingh: This is a 20sec time lapse video of a two hour job done by my great make and wardrobe team. Thank you dearest Abhilasha for your brilliant costume design, #SurindrasNaturalHairTeam Bala, Pranay, Deepak, Rishi, Mangesh and Jaspreet. I couldnt have done this role without you. #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister #SwipeLeft @tapmofficial. 'The Accidental Prime Minister' movie is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Sanjaya Baru. The film has been directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte and written by Mayank Tewari. It stars Anupam Kher in the titular role of former PM Manmohan Singh. The film also features Akshaye Khanna, Suzanne Bernert, Aahana Kumra and Arjun Mathur to name a few. The movie has been courting controversies ever since the trailer was unveiled. 'The Accidental Prime Minister' is scheduled to hit the screens on January 11, 2019. New Delhi: Director Ali Abbas Zafar, who took a break from the shooting of his upcoming project 'Bharat' starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif last month, has resumed the shooting. The filmmaker shared the news with his fans announcing that this would be the last schedule of the shoot. Zafar took to Twitter to write, "Last shooting schedule of `Bharat` begins today... Ab Eid door Nahin (Eid is not far)." Take a look at his post: Last shooting schedule of @Bharat_TheFilm begins today .... Ab Eid door Nahin :) ali abbas zafar (@aliabbaszafar) January 7, 2019 Last month, after wrapping up the shoot of the film in Delhi, Zafar said that he would resume working on the next schedule in the new year, i.e. 2019. He wrote, " Finished with Delhi and Punjab schedules of 'Bharat', last schedule will start in new year." And he had a reason for taking a break from the shooting, saying, who works in the birth month of 'Bhai', referring to the birthday of superstar Salman Khan. Salman will turn 53 on December 27. "Bhai ke birthday wale month mein kaun kaam Karta hai... Par hum edit mein lage hue hain (But we are working on the edit)," he said. The film reunites the hit pair of Salman, Zafar and Katrina Kaif after the 2017 blockbuster 'Tiger Zinda Hai'. Produced by Salman's brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Salman, 'Bharat' is an official adaptation of a 2014 South Korean film 'Ode To My Father'. Vishal-Shekhar will compose songs for the film and Irshad Kamil is the lyricist. It features Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, Tabu, Jackie Shroff, Sunil Grover and Nora Fatehi. Actor Varun Dhawan will be seen in special appearance in one of the sequence. The film is slated for an Eid release in 2019. TORONTO, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rupert Resources Ltd (Rupert or the Company) (TSX-V:RUP) (FSE:R05) announces that it has today published unaudited financial results for the third quarter ending November 30, 2018 together with Managements Discussion and Analysis for the same period. Both of the above will be published on the Companys website www.rupertresources.com and will also be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Operating highlights for the period at the Companys projects in Finland are provided below. During the nine months ended November 30, 2018, the Company spent $4,937,215 (nine months ended November 30, 2017 - $6,070,112) on exploration and evaluation assets. As at November 30, 2018, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $8,284,491. James Withall, Chief Executive of Rupert Resources said, "Rupert continues to advance its projects in Northern and Central Finland. The new geological interpretation completed for Pahtavaara over the summer has provided the basis for systematic exploration both near mine and across the licence. Following the successful completion of a $7.4million private placement in November, Rupert is now well funded to execute its exploration activities in 2019. Operating Highlights Pahtavaara, Northern Finland The geology program at Pahtavaara is comprised of two main work streams. Firstly, definition of new resources in close proximity to underground mine infrastructure and at surface within 1km of the Pahtavaara mill. Secondly, evaluation of the resource potential on the wider claims held by Rupert at Pahtavaara. Rupert has now completed a baseline resource estimate and comprehensive re-evaluation of the historical dataset for Pahtavaara culminating in new geological interpretations for both the mine and regional land package, and an understanding that the mineralised system at the Pahtavaara mine may be significantly larger than considered by previous operators. Work evaluating the mill, tailings facility and associated infrastructure, and economic parameters for existing and potential resources has also commenced. In the mine Rupert has undertaken extensive underground sampling and is assaying historic unsampled diamond drill core. This work continues to reaffirm and demonstrate potential for extensions to the resource model announced in April 2018. Highlights from underground channel sampling in the east of the mine are 24g/t Au over 1m in a previously untested development drive in the K-Zone and, in the western extents, 4g/t Au over 3m in the Whaleback zone and 4.2g/t Au over 3m in the Karoliina East area. Diamond drilling recommenced at Pahtavaara in November, initially focussing on potential near surface expressions of known resources. The Whaleback target was prioritised as a result of a new potential mineralised extension having been identified by Ruperts underground channel sampling program. A total of 3,000m of diamond drilling is planned on near-mine targets between November 2018 and January 2019. Also in November, Rupert commenced a new 8,500 point base-of-till (BoT) program with the aim of outlining a number of new targets on its 290km2 licence area before proceeding with diamond drilling in 2019. The previous program to the end of October of around 1,600 points identified the Paskamaa East gold anomaly 1km from the existing mill. The footprint of Paskamaa East of 600m x 150m with grades of >0.1mm ppm (including several samples >0.5ppm) is more than twice the size of the original Pahtavaara mine surface anomaly (400m x 100m with grades >0.2ppm). Further infill BoT drilling has increased confidence in the anomaly. The new BoT program is initially testing further near-mine targets before continuing with the more distal targets to the west and south west extents of the licence. Rupert is working with an internationally recognised engineering consultant to understand the capital and operating costs of restarting the Pahtavaara mill. The work completed to date has indicated that the capital required to restart the existing mill and tailings facility will be low. Metallurgical testwork has also been completed on new zones in the orebody to confirm that they are able to be processed using the existing flowsheet which produced historical recoveries of 80 to 90% using gravity and flotation. Central Finland properties In September Rupert announced the results of its 2018 drill program at Hirsikangas. The program comprised 1,318m in ten diamond drill holes and targeted areas close to the historic resource estimate, including one hole under the main deposit, four holes to extend a known parallel or offset structure, a further five holes along the strike of the defined mineralisation to identify further parallel or offset structures to the east testing a resistivity high. Eight out of ten drill holes intersected the target structures. Fieldwork continued over the summer with a further 393 field observations, 284 outcrop observations, 107 boulder observations, 313 grab samples, 389 till samples and 17 heavy mineral samples. A UAV magnetic survey was also completed over the summer fieldwork season. A new baseline National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) resource report was published for Hirsikangas, along with a new NI 43-101 report for Osikonmaki on SEDAR on November 9. Gold Centre Property, Ontario and Surf Inlet Property, British Columbia Rupert is exploring opportunities to fund future work at Gold Centre with a strategic or joint venture partner. During the nine months ended November 30, 2018, the Company spent $nil (three and nine months ended November 30, 2017 - $nil) on general exploration costs. Financial Highlights Ruperts net loss totaled $1,476,048 and $3,907,375 respectively for the three and nine months ended November 30, 2018, with basic and diluted loss per share of $0.01 and $0.04 for these three and nine month periods. This compares with a net loss of $1,468,424 and $4,421,794 with basic and diluted loss per share of $0.01 and $0.04 for the three and nine months ended November 30, 2017. No revenue was recorded in either period. All references to currency in this press release are in Canadian dollars. About Rupert Rupert is a Canadian based gold exploration and development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RUP. The Company owns the Pahtavaara gold mine, mill, and exploration permits and concessions located in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in Northern Finland (Pahtavaara). Pahtavaara has an Inferred mineral resource at a 1.5 g/t Au cut off grade of 4.6 Mt at a grade of 3.2 g/t Au (474 koz) (see the technical report entitled NI 43-101 Technical Report: Pahtavaara Project, Finland with an effective date of April 16, 2018, prepared by Brian Wolfe, Principal Consultant, International Resource Solutions Pty Ltd., an independent qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects). The Company also holds a 100% interest in two properties in Central Finland - Hirsikangas and Osikonmaki; the Gold Centre property, which consists of mineral claims located in the Balmer Township, Red Lake, Ontario; and the Surf Inlet Property in British Columbia. Review by Qualified Person, Quality Control and Reports In compliance with National Instrument 43-101, Mr. Mike Sutton, P.Geo. is the Qualified Person who supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. For further information, please contact: James Withall Chief Executive Officer jwithall@rupertresources.com Thomas Credland Head of Corporate Development & Investor Relations tcredland@rupertresources.com Rupert Resources Ltd 82 Richmond Street East, Suite 203, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1 Tel: +1 416-304-9004 Web: http://rupertresources.com/ Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements, including operating performance of the Company. The words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the general risks of the mining industry, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended February 28, 2018 available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law. PATNA: In a major setback to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the Patna High Court on Monday dismissed his petition challenging the Bihar government's order asking him to vacate the bungalow allotted to him while he was the deputy chief minister. Patna High Court has rejected RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav's petition challenging Bihar government's order to vacate his bungalow. The bungalow was allotted to him when he was Bihar Deputy CM. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/TtaoocFuSu ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019 The order was passed by the division bench of Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Anjana Mishra, which rejected the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader's appeal challenging a single-judge order dated October 6, 2018, which had turned down his petition against the state government's direction. The single-judge bench had said in its order that "the petitioner has been allotted a bungalow, matching his status as a minister in the government, at 1, Polo Road, Patna. He cannot raise a complaint on the decision so taken, simply because the present bungalow is more suited to him". Yadav, who is now the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, occupies the 5, Desh Ratna Marg bungalow, which is at a stone's throw from the Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister's official residence. The Nitish Kumar government has asked Yadav to swap residences with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who lives in 1, Polo Road, situated about a kilometre away. (With Agency inputs) NEW DELHI: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) decided to pull out of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam after the Union Cabinet approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill on Monday. The approval came after the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) chairman Rajendra Agarwala tabled the bill in Lok Sabha. The bill is likely to be passed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. AGP president Atul Bora made the official announcement in Delhi after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "The bill will make the Assam Accord meaningless. We were against the bill and now that it is being passed, there is no question of being an alliance partner of the BJP. We have been fighting against the bill and will continue to do so to protect the Assamese community. Unfortunately, the Centre approved the bill without even thinking about the people of Assam," said Bora. Bora was leading a delegation of AGP members - Keshab Mahanta, Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Ramendra Narayan Kalita and Birendra Prasad Baishya. The AGP was an electoral ally of the BJP in Assam and also part of the NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance). On the other hand, Assam Congress MPs including the president Assam Congress President Ripun Bora led a protest in Parliament on Monday demanding immediate repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016. Back in Assam, All Assam Students Union (AASU) and 30 other organisations put up protests against the Central governments move to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Protestors set alight copies of the bill as a mark of protest across several places in Assam. The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) members also stripped themselves naked in Assams Tinsukia to register their protest against the bill. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant nationality to people belonging to minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India. WASHINGTON: A US military spokesman confirms that an American airstrike killed an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the attack nearly two decades ago on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors. The man targeted, Jamal al-Badawi, was wanted for his role in the attack on Oct 12, 2000. The spokesman for US Central Command, Navy Capt William Urban, says the military has confirmed through "a deliberate assessment process" that al-Badawi was killed on Jan 1 in the strike east of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. President Donald Trump tweets that "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole." The Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat while refuelling at the Yemeni port of Aden. Trei tratamente pentru cresterea parului preparate acasa Cresterea parului necesita timp. Uneori un pic prea mult pentru cei mai nerabdatori dintre noi. Ce se intampla daca acceleram lucrurile cu trei retete pe care le putem prepara acasa? Suc de ceapa Da, ai citit bine, ceapa! Oricat de neplacut ar fi mirosul, acest bulb bogat in sulf favorizeaza... [citeste mai departe] English Lithuanian Apranga Groups new office: a modern logistics centre built with attention to employees The leader in Baltic retail clothing market Apranga Group has taken up quarters to modern premises built for the specific needs of the company at Vilnius Business Park, on Ukmerges Street in Vilnius. Nearly 200 employees have moved to the administrative building and logistics complex. Over the past few decades, we have been rapidly expanding our sales network in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; the needs of the companys employees and the business environment have changed, and significant changes have taken place in the field of technology, which encompasses our daily activities. Our intention was to offer our growing team the best working conditions while also creating a more efficient logistics system, so we have matured to a new, modern office and logistics centre that meets the highest standards, says Apranga Group General Manager Rimantas Perveneckas. Premises designed according to specific requirements The administrative building and logistics warehouse complex was developed by Darnu Group, one of the largest real estate management and development companies in Lithuania. According to Darnu Group CEO Sigita Survilaite-Mekioniene, the companys extensive experience allowed it to offer premises that meet specific business needs. The entire park is being developed according to the build-to-suit model that is quite popular abroad, where we design, finance and build premises that meet specific business requirements, based on the needs of the customer. This kind of business model allows our customers to have premises tailor-made and equipped for them without investing their capital or time in their construction. The business park is for those who do not have enough space in the standard office in the centre of the city or who need premises with specific technical features, as well as for those who want to work in a separate building with a stylish and modernly landscaped outdoor space, says Ms Survilaite-Mekioniene. The main criterion employees Apranga Group moved to the new complex after the of selling its administrative and warehouse buildings in Kirtimai, which have been in operation since 1970. The companys new headquarters stand out both for their architecture, and high technical standards as well as energy efficiency. In designing the new complex, we paid considerable attention to the analysis of international experience; we also looked into innovations and the latest technological solutions, which will not only facilitate the daily work processes for our employees and contribute to their well-being at work, but will also ensure optimum speed and movement of goods in all three Baltic States, says Mr Perveneckas. The 3,200 sq. m. administrative building was equipped with careful thought about the well-being of employees: the administrative building features ergonomic workstations with height adjustable desks, and was designed with the intention of creating comfortable spaces with informal social areas and phone booths. There were also very high requirements for natural lighting. For the convenience of staff, there is a modern gym and a cafe, as well as a self-catering area. The administrative building is focused on a cosy outdoor space that is meant for employee relaxation, and the first floor of the building is as transparent as possible, connecting to the greenery of the environment. Five-kilometre garment line For the building to meet the needs of the people working there, control of the main systems heating, ventilation, conditioning, lighting and watering is fully computerised. For heating the complex, there is a geothermal power plant that meets the highest ecological requirements and which will work in cooling mode during the summer. Another effective technological solution is the window blinds, which are adjusted according to a schedule and react to the strength of the wind. The largest part of the building complex nearly 17,000 sq. m. is occupied by a logistics centre and warehouse complex that was built based on international experience. The logistics centre is equipped with a modern garment racking system that is more than five kilometres long and works automatically between two floors. The company is currently working on a warehouse management system project which will allow automated equipment to handle up to 5,000 garments per hour and simultaneously sort for more than 90 stores. The logistics centre also has approximately 20,000 storage places on shelves. In order to ensure maximum comfort for workers, the logistics centre is designed to capture natural daylight. Taking the changing business needs into account, Apranga Group also provided for the installation of a photo studio which can accommodate several teams at once. A concept was dictated by field of activity Algirdas Kauspedas, an architect from JP Architektura, the studio that designed the buildings, points out that the concept for the complex was dictated by the companys activities fashion trade. Mainly fashion associates with dynamics and seasonality. In fashion, like in nature, there is no one dominant colour it is range of colours from black to white which bring together all of the diversity of fashion content. This idea inspired the architecture of buildings the composition of two contrasting structures: the black, monumental, one-storey logistics structure planted on the ground, and the soaring white three-story administration building, explains Mr Kauspedas. According to one of the project designers, this building was deliberately built on the plot as if it were greeting guests coming to Vilnius. In this way, it becomes an accent representing the entire complex and the main axis of the architectural composition. According to Mr Kauspedas, significant attention was paid not only to the buildings, but also to the landscape, which merges harmoniously with the interior and exterior of the complex. Because the building is surrounded by nature, landscaping specialists recommended using native plants, of which there are more than 2,200. Rainwater collected on the roof of the building is used for watering. Vilnius Business Park covers a total area of 8.5 hectares, of which 3.6 hectares are used to accommodate the new Apranga Group administrative and logistics centre. For more information: Apranga Group General Director Rimantas Perveneckas T. (+370) 5 239 0800 info@apranga.lt www.aprangagroup.com Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 07:10:54|Editor: ZD Video Player Close CAIRO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's foreign currency reserves dropped by 4.4 percent to 42.5 billion U.S. dollars in December 2018, compared with 44.5 billion dollars in November, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday. In a statement on its website, the CBE attributed the recent drop in the foreign currency reserves to the government's payment of loan interest and treasury bills to foreign investors. Egypt's forex reserves kept declining from 36 billion dollars in January 2011, just before the uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak, until dropping to an alarming level of 13.5 billion dollars in February 2013, a few months before the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Over the past few years, Egypt has been suffering an economic recession due to political instability and relevant security issues that led to the decline of tourism and foreign investments, two major sources for Egypt's foreign currency reserves. But Egypt's forex started to gradually recover under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who was backed by some oil-rich Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, which have provided financial support. Improving the security condition, increasing remittances of Egyptian expatriates abroad as well as more foreign loans and deposits have refilled the CBE with foreign funds. To boost the economy, bolster forex and contain dollar shortage, Egypt started in late 2016 a strict three-year economic reform program including imposing austerity measures, fuel and energy subsidy cuts and tax increases, in addition to local currency's full floatation that led to nationwide price hikes. Egypt's reform program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund. Egyptian economist Walid Gaballah said the level of Egypt's monetary reserves is very safe, "especially as it covers about nine months of imports." "The cash reserve was increasing to reach 44.5 billion dollars, an unprecedented figure, and then saw a 2-billion-dollar drop amid the turbulence of the global market, a decline chosen by Egypt instead of issuing treasury bonds in the global market on terms that it cannot accept," Gaballah told Xinhua. "We should not worry about a limited and temporary decline, which is used for economic purposes, taking into account that Egypt has exceeded the safe rate of reserve very significantly," he said. Gaballah pointed out that the increase in cash reserves in 2018 confirms the success of the policy of the CBE, which led to the return of foreign currency to the banking system. The country's forex reserves increased by 15 percent in 2018 to 42.5 billion dollars by the end of last year. It stood at only 37 billion dollars in a year ago. Gaballah noted that Egypt is working in all ways to create a large cash reserve, adding that it has taken measures to rationalize imports and increase exports. "It also succeeded in activating tourism which has started to revive," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 06:00:37|Editor: WX Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Libyan eastern-based House of Representatives (parliament) on Monday said that any treaty unrecognized by Libya is unbinding. The parliament issued a statement regarding the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Migration held in the Moroccan city of Marrakech in last December, in which more than 150 countries adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. "We announce that any document or treaty that was unrecognized or not adopted by the House of Representatives is not a legal obligation to the state and will not be referred to in procedures," the parliament said in a statement. The statement warned that the Libyan government is against "taking any procedure with long-term commitments or imposing a legal reality that contradicts the Libyan laws in force before the country holds legislative elections." The parliament called on the international community to support development in countries of origin of migrants. Thousands of migrants, mostly Africans, chose to cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Libya because of the insecurity and chaos in Libya. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 05:35:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The first-ever direct flights between Israel and Rwanda are scheduled to operate as part of an aviation agreement signed on Monday, Israel's Ministry of Transportation said. The agreement was signed in Jerusalem by Israel's Transportation Minister Israel Katz and Rwandan ambassador to Israel Joseph Rutabana following talks between the civil aviation authorities of the two countries. The flights will be operated by RwandAir, the national airline of Rwanda. Rutabana informed Katz that the Rwandan airline intends to start operating the new route in the coming months. The agreement "led to a significant increase in the supply of flight companies to and from Israel," said the ministry. The relations between Israel and Rwanda were renewed in 1994 after 21 years of disconnection. In 2015, the Rwandan embassy was reopened in Israel, while the Israeli embassy in Rwanda is expected to open this year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 05:30:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BUCHAREST, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The dock landing ship Fort McHenry of the United States Navy pulled into the Romanian port of Constanta on Monday for a three-day stopover, the Romanian Navy Staff (SMFN) informed in a press release. TheFort McHenryis the first American warship to enter the Black Sea since Russia seized three Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait late November. "During the layover, the leadership of the Command Fleet will receive the visit of the USS Fort McHenry ship representatives and a detachment of the 307 Infantry Marine Regiment will carry out a fact-finding visit on board the U.S. ship," announced the SMFN. The Whidbey Island-class warship Fort McHenry is embarking the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Fort McHenry will conduct a series of joint training activities with Romania's King Ferdinand frigate, upon leaving Constanta on Thursday, in Romania's territorial waters and the international waters of the Black Sea. The last U.S. warship to operate in the Black Sea was the Spain-based guided-missile destroyer Carney that on Aug. 27 ended its third visit there in 2018. Two other guided-missile destroyers - the Ross and the Porter - also sailed into the sea last year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 05:15:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ANKARA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and his delegation arrived in Ankara on Monday to discuss security arrangement as the U.S. troops withdraw from Syria. Talks between U.S. and Turkish officials scheduled for Tuesday are expected to focus on the coordination of regional security following U.S. troops pullout from Syria, the roadmap for Syria's Manbij, and the fight against Islamic State (IS) and other terror groups, reported Anadolu Agency. The sale of U.S. Patriot air defense systems and extradition of Fethullah Gulen, U.S.-based preacher, are among the topics as well. Monday's visit comes a day after Bolton said the U.S. will not withdraw troops from Syria unless the Turkish government guarantees it won't attack Kurdish fighters. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar responded on Monday, saying that Turkey's fight isn't against Kurds but against the People's Protection Units (YPG) and IS group. Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey. However, the United States has supported the YPG to combat the IS in Syria. The U.S. delegation is due to leave on Tuesday. File Photo: Boys play around, climbing the border division between Mexico and the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Jan. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, as the partisan fight over his demand for funding a border wall has left the federal government partially shut down for more than two weeks. "President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Monday, without elaborating on specific arrangements for the presidential trip. Shortly after Sanders' tweet, Trump took to Twitter to announce his Tuesday primetime speech on border security. "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern," he said. The trip will be the first time Trump leaves the capital since the partial government shutdown took effect on Dec. 22. Trump has demanded for 5.6 billion dollars in the 2019 budget for building a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out what he said are illegal migrants and drug traffickers. Congressional Democrats, while saying they are also committed to strengthening border security, view the wall as both immoral and ineffective. "A wall is an immorality, it's not who we are as a nation... We are not doing a wall," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday, when she assumed speakership. Trump said on Sunday that he expects "some serious talks" over the wall from Monday to Wednesday but continued to reject giving up his request for the funding. "There's not going to be any bend right here," he said. It seems that the only change he has made so far concerning the issue is the wording. He told reporters Sunday that he had asked his aides to switch to the term "steel barrier." "The Democrats don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel," he said. The president also suggested that he would declare a national emergency so as to use the money from the Department of Defense to build the wall, thus bypassing the Congress. Democrats said he might face legal challenges if doing so. In a tweet he sent on Monday, Trump partially cited Democratic Congressman Adam Smith as saying "Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times." The quote was from Smith's appearance on ABC News' "This Week" program, where the congressman also said Trump will have to point out where the emergency is, otherwise the move will be potentially illegal. "In this case, I think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying, 'Where is the emergency?' You have to establish that in order to do this," Smith said. "But beyond that, this would be a terrible use of Department of Defense dollars." Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 04:35:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. automaker Ford said on Monday it would equip all its new U.S. vehicles from 2022 with 5G-enabled wireless communication technology, in a bid to make roads safer and cities better. Some 150 years after an English engineer invented the world's first traffic light in London, Ford pledged "to continue advancing this type of thinking by committing to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology -- or C-V2X -- in all of our new vehicle models in the United States beginning in 2022," said Don Butler, executive director of Ford Connected Vehicle Platform and Product. C-V2X is a wireless communication technology that can "talk" to and "listen" for similarly equipped vehicles, people and traffic management infrastructure such as traffic lights to relay important information and help make city mobility safer and less congested, Butler explained in a post on Ford's website. Planned alongside the rapidly building 5G cellular network, C-V2X enables direct communication between the connected devices, meaning a signal doesn't need to first travel to a cellular tower. It lets vehicles, human-driven or driverless, know in real time what's ahead of them even before they have to encounter it. According to Ford, C-V2X will work with Ford's Co-Pilot360 system, an advanced suite with driver-assist and other safety features. In September 2018, Ford tested its C-V2X technology in Wuxi City, eastern China, where there is the world's first city-level C-V2X pilot area, reportedly covering 211 intersections. Ford officials said they were excited to be part of successful demonstrations in Wuxi and elsewhere, in an effort to promote the development of C-V2X worldwide. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 04:30:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NICOSIA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus' banks will be invited in the coming weeks to sign an agreement with the government to restructure non-performing loans worth 3.5 billion euros (4 billion U.S. dollars), Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Monday. He told the parliamentary committee on financial affairs that a plan to help about 15,000 loan owners save their mortgaged primary residence and at the same time start repaying their non-performing loans (NPLs) is at the final stage of preparation. The banks will have to reduce the amount of NPLs to the value of the property each loan is secured with, while the government will pay one-third of the monthly installment for the repayment of the loan. It is estimated that loans will be reduced by one third of their current value. The latest available data show that non-performing loans total just over 16 billion euros (18.4 billion U.S. dollars). Reducing them by 3.5 billion euros will mean taking a considerable burden off the balance sheets of banks, thereby increasing their profitability. Georgiades said the plan will cost the state about 33 million euros a year over the next 25 years. He also said that the government will soon ask parliament to give its final approval for the release of the amount needed for the application of the scheme. He told the committee that each bank will sign an agreement with the government binding the lenders to stick to the plan. The plan has elicited strong reactions from loan owners, who kept paying their debts throughout the duration of the 2012-2013 Cypriot financial and banking crisis that led the country into a 10 billion euros (11.5 billion U.S. dollars) bailout, forcing the government to promise them some kind of reward. Georgiades said that planning for the financial support of those who kept paying their debts is at an advanced stage and will be presented soon to parliament, provided it will receive approval by the European Commission. Economists have criticized both plans on the ground that they encourage what they called "strategic defaulters" to avoid paying their debts. But the minister said that once those "strategic defaulters" start repaying their restructured debt they will stop to be defaulters. Those who will still not repay their debt stand to lose their house, the minister said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 04:05:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close File Photo: Boys play around, climbing the border division between Mexico and the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Jan. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, as the partisan fight over his demand for funding a border wall has left the federal government partially shut down for more than two weeks. "President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Monday, without elaborating on specific arrangements for the presidential trip. Shortly after Sanders' tweet, Trump took to Twitter to announce his Tuesday primetime speech on border security. "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern," he said. The trip will be the first time Trump leaves the capital since the partial government shutdown took effect on Dec. 22. Trump has demanded for 5.6 billion dollars in the 2019 budget for building a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out what he said are illegal migrants and drug traffickers. Congressional Democrats, while saying they are also committed to strengthening border security, view the wall as both immoral and ineffective. "A wall is an immorality, it's not who we are as a nation... We are not doing a wall," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday, when she assumed speakership. Trump said on Sunday that he expects "some serious talks" over the wall from Monday to Wednesday but continued to reject giving up his request for the funding. "There's not going to be any bend right here," he said. It seems that the only change he has made so far concerning the issue is the wording. He told reporters Sunday that he had asked his aides to switch to the term "steel barrier." "The Democrats don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel," he said. The president also suggested that he would declare a national emergency so as to use the money from the Department of Defense to build the wall, thus bypassing the Congress. Democrats said he might face legal challenges if doing so. In a tweet he sent on Monday, Trump partially cited Democratic Congressman Adam Smith as saying "Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. It's been done a number of times." The quote was from Smith's appearance on ABC News' "This Week" program, where the congressman also said Trump will have to point out where the emergency is, otherwise the move will be potentially illegal. "In this case, I think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying, 'Where is the emergency?' You have to establish that in order to do this," Smith said. "But beyond that, this would be a terrible use of Department of Defense dollars." Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 04:00:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WARSAW, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Fire departments have inspected 325 escape rooms across Poland, of which 26 have been ordered to close, said a spokesman of Poland's State Fire Service (PSP) on Monday. The inspection focused on the emergency evacuation conditions, the fire extinguishing equipment and the legally required periodic inspections of utility installations, including gas and electrical installations and ventilation. During the country-wide action over the weekend, more than one thousand irregularities were detected by the authorities, of which 406 were associated with evacuation, said PSP spokesman Pawel Fratczak. The Minister of Investment and Economic Development, Jerzy Kwiecinski, told a press conference on Monday that a structural inspection of escape rooms across the country was also under way, with reports expected on Friday. Operating an escape room in Poland does not require much today. However, the authorities are understood to be determined to change this situation after last Friday's tragic fire in the northwest city Koszalin, in which five teenage girls were killed while playing in an escape room. The owner of one of the escape rooms, Karolina Matuszewska, admitted in an interview with Polish TV station TVN24 that she did not have to possess either a permit from the fire department or a building permission when she started the business. Escape rooms are popular among Polish teenagers. In this physical adventure game, players are locked in a room and given a set time limit to solve a series of riddles to get out. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 03:20:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close PRAGUE, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Czech cabinet approved a bill to deal with Czech-British relations in case Britain leaves the EU without a deal in March, said Deputy PM and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek after a cabinet meeting Monday afternoon. The bill outlined an interim period till the end of 2020, during which the Czech government would guarantee the same approach to British citizens in selected areas as if they still kept their status of EU citizens, Czech News Agency quoted Hamacek as saying. The cabinet is going to propose that the Chamber of Deputies pass the bill in a sped-up procedure in the first reading. Without the bill, some 5,000 out of 8000 British nationals on the Czech labour market would end up with a status of non-EU foreigners. They would not be able to continuously work in the Czech Republic or automatically join local healthcare and welfare systems. "Failure to pass the bill would also threaten some 40,000 Czech citizens living in Britain," said Hamacek, adding that all measures proposed by the Czech cabinet are conditional on reciprocity on the part of Britain. Britain's departure from the EU is due on March 29. The key question now is whether the British parliament will support British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal in a vote later this month. Without a deal, Britain's departure threatens to be hard Brexit, which raises apprehensions of an uncertain future among British firms and people in the EU and vice versa. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 03:20:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ATHENS, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- A large amount of Captagon amphetamine pills, notoriously favored by ISIS fighters, was found in a container at Piraeus port, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported on Monday. Greek authorities have not yet formally revealed further information. The pills were hidden in lead pipes, and the shipment had arrived in Greece from the Middle East, probably from Syria, two days ago. Its final destination was Croatia, AMNA reported, citing police sources. The discovery was made during a joint operation by the Attica Police's anti-narcotics squad and their Turkish counterpart, with the assistance of the Hellenic Coast Guard, the Greek Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) and customs authorities. On Dec. 14, 2018, Greek authorities announced that they had discovered a massive haul of drugs with an estimated street value exceeding 100 million euros (115 million U.S. dollars) on board a Syrian-flagged ship. In March 2017, Greek authorities dismantled a criminal ring, which was manufacturing near Athens and trafficking the same synthetic amphetamine that has been associated with ISIS fighters in recent years. During a raid on a narcotics lab, authorities discovered and seized 635,000 tablets of Captagon, with an estimated market value of 10 million euros. (1 euro = 1.15 U.S. dollars) Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 03:20:01|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close File photo taken on Oct. 12, 2017 shows World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim attending a press conference of the 2017 International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington D.C., the United States. Kim announced on Jan. 7, 2019 that he will be stepping down from his position after more than six years at the international lending institution. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will assume the role of interim president effective Feb. 1, the World Bank said in a statement. Kim's tenure should expire on June 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim announced on Monday that he will be stepping down from his position after more than six years at the international lending institution. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will assume the role of interim president effective Feb. 1, the World Bank said in a statement. Kim's resignation from the World Bank came unexpected as he was appointed to a second five-year term as president of the multilateral development bank in 2016. Kim first became the 12th president of the World Bank on July 1, 2012. Before this post, he served as president of the famous U.S. academic institution Dartmouth College. "The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity," Kim said Monday in a statement. "Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege," he said. Immediately after his departure, Kim will join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries, the World Bank said, adding the details of this new position will be announced shortly. During his tenure at the World Bank, Kim has reinforced the growing partnership with China in the areas of poverty reduction, development finance, infrastructure investment, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). "We are now working with China on international development issues, through the World Bank's International Development Association, through South-South learning initiatives, through China's international development initiatives such as China-Africa cooperation," Kim told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in late October. Kim also said the World Bank is "well positioned" to support BRI projects with its experience in similar trade and connectivity projects, its unique institutional setup covering private and public sectors, and its range of financial and non-financial services such as guarantees and settlement of investment disputes. "The WBG can, for instance, advise on the economic viability of infrastructure investments, complementary policy and regulatory reforms, and the application of environmental, social and fiduciary standards," he said. Reflecting on China's reform and opening-up over the past 40 years, Kim said that has transformed the country into the world's second largest economy and provided valuable lessons for other developing countries to achieve economic success and alleviate poverty. "Understanding the path China traveled, historical decisions made, and their effects on the course of China's economy can inform decision makers hoping to achieve similar outcomes in their countries and for their populations," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 02:59:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BUCHAREST, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The budget allocated to the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) will stand between 60 and 80 million euros (68.6-91.5 million U.S. dollars), and many of the events will seek to highlight the country's pros, Minister Delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba told a press conference on Monday. According to the official, it is a rational budget, considering that this is the first time that Romania holds the Presidency. "It is also a rational budget when referenced to the ambitious agenda we envisage; the number of meetings [planned] at various levels is more ambitious than the previous Presidency," Ciamba said, adding that the country will host some 288 meetings. Ciamba told the media that many of the events organized during the country's first EU Presidency "will seek to highlight the country's pros, the comparative edge of Romania." The precise budget allocated to the Romania's EU Presidency will be known only at the end of the term, stressed the minister delegate. Romania holds the mandate of President of the Council of the EU for the first half of the new year. It is the first time for Romania to take over the rotating EU presidency since it joined the EU on Jan. 1, 2007, with the motto "Cohesion, a common European value. The opening ceremony of Romania's EU presidency is scheduled for Jan. 10, when the College of Commissioners and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will be in Bucharest. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 02:39:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ABUJA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday pledged his commitment to credible, free and fair elections, as the West African country prepares for general elections next month. While speaking at a political event of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) party in Abuja, Buhari noted free, fair and credible elections as the foundation of political stability and peace in any nation. "Let me reiterate my commitment to free and fair elections. If there is one legacy I want to leave, it is the enthronement of democracy as a system of government. And for democracy to be enthroned, elections must be free and fair," the Nigerian president said. The president said the quality of elections in the most populous African country since 2015 had continued to improve with declining levels of problems. "We have insisted that votes must count and have maintained a policy of non-interference in elections. "INEC has so far since 2015 conducted fair and credible elections in 195 constituencies nationwide, which have been attested nationwide to be qualitatively better than previous elections," he said, refering to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the country's electoral body. Buhari is seeking a second term of office in the general elections on Feb. 16, despite doubts over the 76-year-old's health and his fitness to govern Africa's biggest economy. Other than the president, National Assembly members will also be elected. Ninety-one political parties have been greenlighted for the general elections. Out of the figure, only 73 presidential candidates will contest the February polls. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 01:39:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LUSAKA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Zambia and South Africa on Monday held bilateral talks aimed at enhancing bilateral ties between the two countries. Zambia's Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji and his South African counterpart Lindiwe Sisulu held the talks in Pretoria, South Africa where various issues were raised, according to a statement from the Zambian embassy in South Africa. Among the issues discussed is preparations for the holding of the Bi-National Commission meeting which is expected to be held in the first quarter of this year, according to the statement. The two countries signed the Joint Bi-National Commission in August last year whose mandate includes pushing for more trade between the two countries. The Bi-National Commission, which is chaired by leaders of the two countries, is expected to help promote inter-trade, balance of trade, export and import of goods, discuss immigration issues as well as propose other issues such as enforcement of legal judgments between the two countries. According to the statement, the two ministers also discussed regional matters such as recently held elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Madagascar, the attempted coup attempt in Gabon as well as the peace process in Lesotho. Zambia is the current chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-08 00:14:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BRUSSELS, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) states agree on Monday to supervise investment firms based on their scale, and subject the largest ones to banking rules. There are about 6,000 investment firms in the European Economic Area. Most of them are rather small, but a limited number of investment firms hold a significant proportion of all assets and provide a very broad range of services. Until now, all investment firms have been subject to the same capital, liquidity and risk management rules. The new rules, agreed by representatives from EU member state governments, would place different requirements for investment firms according to their size, nature and complexity, according to a press release of the Council of the EU. The largest firms would be subject to the full banking prudential regime and would be supervised as credit institutions. Smaller firms would follow easier rules. The Council text further strengthens rules that would apply to third country investment firms. It sets out in greater detail some of the requirements for giving them access to the single market and grants additional powers to the European Commission. Given that many of the large investment firms in Europe are based in London and the United Kingdom is set to exit the EU shortly, the rules are expected to hit London-based investment firms. The rules agreed on Monday does not become law immediately. The Council and the European Parliament will have to reach consensus on the texts after negotiations. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:54:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KHARTOUM, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Interior Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman on Monday reiterated calmness of security situations at all areas of Sudan. The minister issued a statement to the Sudanese parliament in response to an inquiry request by a member of the parliament over the recent popular protests in the country. "Since the eruption of the events, 381 incidents have occurred and 816 people have been arrested. There are also 28 reports of theft and 65 reports of looting and possession of weapons," he said. Osman added that "118 government and partisan headquarters, 18 of which belong to the police, were burnt." A total of 194 cars, including 15 vehicles belonging to organizations, were burnt, he noted. The minister further explained that the demonstrations began peacefully, but then swerved towards sabotage and looting. Since Dec. 19, 2018, various areas in Sudan, including Khartoum, have been witnessing popular protests over the deteriorating economic conditions and price hikes of basic commodities. According to government statistics, 19 people have been killed during the popular protests. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:49:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ANTANANARIVO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar's government and parliament leaders on Monday called for calm before Tuesday's announcement of a court's verdict on presidential election result. Speaking at the state palace of Iavoloha during a New Year greeting event, Acting President Rivo Rakotovao stressed that "The presidential election should not be a source of conflict in the country." For his part, national assembly president Jean Max Rakotomamonjy called for compliance with the verdict of the High Constitutional Court (HCC), which is due to be announced on Tuesday. He recommended remedying the flaws in the organization of the presidential election to improve the upcoming elections. Senate acting president Mananjara Andriambololona called for tolerance and solidarity, as well as efforts to stop all forms of provocation. According to the initial results published by the Independent National Election Commission, Andry Rajoelina won some 55.66 percent of the votes while his sole rival in the race, Marc Ravalomanana, got about 44.34 percent. However, Ravalomanana's supporters held since then demonstrations to denounce alleged massive electoral fraud. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:49:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran will not remain silent in the face of the U.S. and Israel's threats and their continued hostilities against the Islamic Republic, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said here on Monday. Iran will neither keep silence over Israel and their supporters' attack on the country's cyber infrastructures, Hatami made the remarks in an international conference titled "Defense and Security in West Asia" in the capital Tehran on Monday. The Iranian minister criticized the U.S.' withdrawal from Iran's 2015 international nuclear deal, saying that Washington seeks to undermine the sovereignty of independent countries. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, also told the conference on the same day that "the U.S. troops have no choice but to leave the region." "The U.S. crimes have been carved in the minds of regional people," Shamkhani said. Washington suffered a strategic defeat in Syria, he said, adding that the Americans did not accomplish any of their security pledges in Afghanistan either. The United States has no choice but to ultimately leave the whole region, the Iranian security official said. Likewise, "in the future, they (the U.S. forces) will be forced to leave the Gulf region," Shamkhani stressed. The security conference in Tehran on Monday was attended by senior Iranian military commanders and security officials as well as the security figures from 40 countries, including Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia, France, China, Italy and Venezuela. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:39:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated all Orthodox Christians and Russian citizens celebrating Christmas by the old Julian calendar, the Kremlin said. "This wonderful holiday brings people joy and hope, unites them with timeless spiritual and moral values, and the traditions of compassion and charity," Putin said in his greeting message published on the Kremlin's website. He welcomed the large, positive role that the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations play in Russian life, and highlighted their contribution to solving pressing social issues and ensuring harmony in interethnic and interreligious dialogues. "I wish health, success and prosperity to all Orthodox Christians and all Russians celebrating Christmas," Putin said. The president attended the Christmas service held on the day at the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg, which is one of the most visited cathedrals in the city, according to the Kremlin. Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate Christmas Day annually on Jan. 7 according to the Julian calendar, two weeks after most Western Christian churches do by the commonly used modern Gregorian calendar. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:03:50|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close PARIS, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The French government would firmly respond to destructive "yellow vest" actions following protests which turned violent over the weekend, government officials said on Monday. Speaking to RTL radio, Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin called "an ultraviolent part of the 'yellow vest'" that according to him was seeking to topple President Emmanuel Macron's presidency as "delinquents and thugs." "Facing an ultraviolence, there is a necessity of ultra-severity. That must stop," he said. In the latest street demonstrations during the weekend which drew 50,000 people, anti-government protesters used a forklift truck to force their way into a government building compound, set cars ablaze near the Champs Elysees avenue and torched electric motors and garbage bins on the upmarket Boulevard Saint Germain. Television images showed a violent scuffle on a bridge over the Seine where "yellow vests" tried to reach the National Assembly. They punched and kicked riot police officers to the ground. In the wake of violent clashes between rioters and police, 345 people were detained, with 281 remained in police custody, Le Monde newspaper quoted figures from the Interior Ministry. "There are measures that can be taken and are being worked on," government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said without elaborating. "I'm in favor of everything that can help to restore the Republican order, to prevent the violence that has occurred, which is hitting the security forces and also the demonstrators who find themselves get caught up in this phenomena of violence," he told France Inter radio. He called for a "state of democratic emergency" to resume the dialogue with discontented people to hammer out adequate devices to end social strains. Struggling to maintain order and adapt policing tactics to handle the outburst of violence during weekend protests, Macron's executive team was mulling to create a list of violent demonstrators and troublemakers, according to local reports. "Several measures must be studied, including that of the list, but also a hardening of the penal legislation in certain circumstances," said Laurent Nunez, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior. In November 2018, people angry at higher fuel tax began blocking roads, occupying highway tollbooths and staging rolling nationwide protests. Their movement have since turned into a bigger uprising denouncing a squeeze on household spending, high living costs caused by the president's fiscal policy which they say favors the rich. Some of them asked Macron to step down and called for a "citizens' initiative referendum" to allow citizens to have stronger say to define the economic and social roadmap for the eurozone's second main powerhouse. Two months on, the 'yellow vest" movement which has no clear leader, is still posing a stern challenge to Macron, who is struggling to defuse public anger and meet protesters' requests, despite a series of concessions he made last month, including higher minimum wages and tax breaks. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 23:03:49|Editor: mmm Video Player Close DAKAR, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday made six proposals on how to implement results from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit in Senegal capital city of Dakar. At a joint press conference following his meeting with Senegalese Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba, Wang said China-Africa cooperation stands out with its pragmatism and effectiveness, which are also the unique advantage of the FOCAC. Right after the summit, the China-side Follow-up Action Committee set in motion to make plans, assign missions, draw roadmaps and list priorities with different African countries according to their respective situations. China would like to coordinate closely with the FOCAC co-chair Senegal, and promote the efforts in the following six aspects, according to Wang. The first is to build a closer community of shared future for China and Africa, Wang said, citing the rising of unilateralism and hegemony, which impacts the international order and multilateral rules, as a big challenge to the future of developing countries. Wang said China, the largest developing country, and Africa, a continent where most of the countries are developing ones, have never been more aware of a shared future, and need to jointly overcome the obstacles that restrict our development and to safeguard the rightful interests of China, Africa, as well s that of other developing countries. Secondly, we need to promote the integration of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the African Union's socio-economic development strategy Agenda 2063, Wang said. Including Senegal, up to 37 African countries have signed documents on BRI cooperation with China, Wang said, adding that China is willing to work with Africa to explore more opportunities in the integration and make more fruits in the joint construction of Belt and Road. Applying the FOCAC results to different African countries according to their respective situations is the third proposal of the Chinese envoy. African countries have different situations and needs, therefore China will distribute its aid and investment case by case, taking account of both the targeted country's need and the benefit of whole Africa, Wang said, adding that the African Union's role of coordination should also be actively applied. Fourthly, China will innovate its cooperation with Africa to make it more efficient, according to Wang. Chinese enterprises are encouraged to directly invest more in Africa, and align regional infrastructure construction with local industry development, so that African economy can generate the self-reliance momentum, decrease fiscal burden and financial risks, he added. The fifth is to make sure that the results of the FOCAC summit benefit the peoples of China and Africa, Wang stressed, adding that the eight major initiatives proposed at the Beijing Summit of FOCAC will contribute to poverty alleviation, employment and income increase in Africa. Last but not the least, joint actions of global partners are needed to promote Africa's development, Wang proposed. China insists on open and transparent cooperation with African partners and welcomes more countries to invest in Africa on the basis that African wills are respected, African voice is heard and African need is met, Wang said. Africa should be a stage for international cooperation instead of an arena for major powers to contest with each other, Wang concluded. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:58:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to introduce teaching of Mandarin Chinese in primary schools in 2020, a government official said on Monday. Julius Jwan, CEO Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), told Xinhua in Nairobi that the design, scope and sequence of the mandarin syllabus have already being completed. "Beginning 2020, we will commence teaching Mandarin as a foreign language from grade four for pupils who wish to learn the Asian language," Jwan said. Mandarin will be taught as a foreign language alongside French, Arabic and German. Jwan said that children in lower primary will be taught vernacular languages, adding that teaching of Mandarin will be introduced as part of the Competency Based Curriculum that is being rolled out this year. KICD said that Mandarin can no longer be ignored in Kenya because it is one of the most widely spoken languages globally. "The place of China in the world economy has also grown to be so strong that Kenya stands to benefit if its citizens can understand Mandarin," Jwan said. The CEO noted that Kenya will also be able to attract more Chinese tourists if it increases the number of local Mandarin speakers. He observed that even for the job market it will be a big advantage for Kenyans to improve their Mandarin language skills. He revealed that Chinese is also being prioritized because it is one of the official languages of the United Nations. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:28:43|Editor: ZX Video Player Close PHILADELPHIA, the United States -- The Chinese community in the United States should continue to play their unique role as "positive energy" in cementing China-U.S. ties, Huang Ping, Chinese consul general in New York, said Sunday. Overseas Chinese in America have been participants in and contributors to the establishment of China-U.S. ties, Huang Ping said, adding it is important that the Chinese community continues to help bridge bilateral ties. - - - - THE HAGUE -- "First you dial the 9 for an outside line, and then 011 for an international line," Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers told Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. "I made a mistake (missing the 0), and the next day I received an email message: Did you call 911?" Alhough Kuipers hung up immediately when he realized his error, the call triggered an alert at NASA, which checked the room where the call was issued but found no one there. - - - - BEIJING -- China and Bangladesh are important and friendly neighbors and the two countries have maintained sound momentum in the development of bilateral relations with outstanding achievements made in cooperation in various areas, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a congratulatory message to Sheikh Hasina on Monday on her re-election as the Bangladeshi prime minister. Li said he is ready to join efforts with Hasina to consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries, expand practical cooperation and lift the China-Bangladesh strategic partnership of cooperation to a higher level. - - - - DAKAR -- China-Africa friendship is unbreakable and the one-China principle has been consolidated and strengthened in Africa, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters at the end of his four-nation Africa trip. Wang's trip to Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal on Jan. 2-6 continued a 29-year tradition of making Africa the first international visit of the year by the Chinese foreign minister. In the face of some deliberate attempts to discredit China-Africa cooperation, African governments and people have stood up to dispel the rumors and firmly adhered to a friendly policy towards China, which manifested the unbreakable friendship between the two sides, Wang said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:28:43|Editor: mmm Video Player Close BERLIN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing diesel crisis has cost hundreds of jobs in drive technology last year at the German car supplier Bosch, Uwe Gackstatter, the responsible divisional board member told the industry newspaper Automobilwoche on Monday. However, Gackstatter limits the extend of job cuts to a three-digit number for the next years and is confident that Bosch can adapt. "We at Bosch have been able to make structural changes for 100 years." A total of 600 jobs had been cut at two Bosch locations, partly as an early retirement for permanent employees while the other half went to non-renewed fixed-term contracts. According to Automobilwoche, employee representatives fear further job cuts in the current year. Bosch did not intend to issue a forecast in this regard. Around 50,000 jobs at Bosch worldwide depend on diesel products, 15,000 of them in Germany. Works council chairman Frank Sell suspects that "If the quantities sold are no longer right, the German sites will be the first to come under pressure." Bosch is currently negotiating replacement technologies with its employees. "We are working with the works council on a vision for the future of the locations," Gackstatter said. "When we invest in fuel cells, we want our sites to participate. However, we cannot yet say whether negative employment effects from diesel can be offset one-to-one," Gackstatter told Automobilwoche. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:13:39|Editor: mym Video Player Close Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis (C) and the candidate for prime minister Krisjanis Karins (R) pose for photos in Riga, Latvia, on Jan. 7, 2019. Raimonds Vejonis on Monday asked Krisjanis Karins, a member of the European Parliament from the center-right New Unity party, to form the Baltic country's next government. (Xinhua/Janis) RIGA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis on Monday asked Krisjanis Karins, a member of the European Parliament from the center-right New Unity party, to form the Baltic country's next government. Negotiations among political parties on Latvia's next coalition government have been dragging on since early October, becoming the longest since the restoration of the Baltic country's independence. Karins has been leading the protracted talks since mid-December. Following a meeting with the president on Monday morning, Karins told reporters that he had briefed the president on the main areas he intends to prioritize as head of the government and the distribution of ministerial portfolios in his cabinet. Karins plans to form a center-right coalition government comprising New Unity, the New Conservative Party, the liberal alliance For Development/For, the right-wing National Alliance and KPV LV party. During a meeting with the president last Friday, representatives of all five parties confirmed they were ready to join the Karins-led cabinet. Since the rough composition of the new government is already clear, politicians now have to finish work on a government declaration which is expected to include priorities like prevention of money laundering through Latvian banks and corruption, fighting illicit economic activity and carrying through with education and health reforms, among other tasks. Karins is the third prime minister designate nominated by President Vejonis following Latvia's Oct. 6 general elections, which produced a fragmented parliament of seven factions. Janis Bordans of the New Conservative Party and Aldis Gobzems of KPV LV were the first candidates designated as prime ministers but their attempts to strike a deal on Latvia's next government failed. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:03:37|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close TAIPEI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's exports to the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong rose 6.3 percent to 138.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, accounting for 41.2 percent of its total exports, according to the island's finance authority Monday. More than 47 percent of its exports to the mainland and Hong Kong are electronic devices, followed by other items including chemical products, information and audio-visual products, and plastic rubber and its products. Taiwan's imports from the mainland and Hong Kong jumped 7.1 percent year-on-year to 55.2 billion dollars, taking about 19.3 percent of its total imports. In December, its exports to the mainland and Hong Kong dropped 9.9 percent year-on-year to 11.54 billion dollars and its imports from the mainland and Hong Kong edged up 1.2 percent to 4.72 billion dollars. Taiwan's total exports fell 3 percent year-on-year to 28.61 billion dollars in December while its imports increased by 2.2 percent to 23.89 billion dollars. Taiwan's exports are unlikely to expand massively in the first quarter this year as the prices of international crude oil and raw materials have softened amid a weak global economy, the island's financial authority said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 22:03:37|Editor: mmm Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani military said on Monday that one civilian was killed in Indian forces' firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region. An army statement said the Indian forces "resorted to unprovoked firing" in Bagsar Sector along the LoC, "targeting civil population." A 26-year-old citizen was killed while a woman got injured, the statement from the army's media wing the Inter-Services Public Relations said. "Pakistan Army troops responded effectively to those posts targeting civil population. Cease Fire Violations along LoC are on the increase yet again," the statement said. Pakistan and India have declared ceasefire along the LoC and the working boundary in 2003. Both, however, routinely accuse each other of violating the ceasefire. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 21:38:34|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close CHONGQING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Eight western Chinese provinces and regions signed a framework agreement Monday in southwest China's Chongqing to cooperate in building a new international land-sea trade corridor. The eight provincial regions include Chongqing Municipality, provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, local authorities said. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is an international trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provinces and ASEAN countries under the framework of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity. With Chongqing as the transportation hub, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor uses ports in Guangxi's Beibu Gulf to reach ports in Singapore and other ASEAN countries and links China-Europe freight trains launched from many western Chinese cities before heading for Central Asia, South Asia and Europe. Taking advantage of various transport options including railways, highways and water and air routes, the land-sea corridor enables transportation from western China to more regions across the world. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor was renamed in November 2018 from the previous China-Singapore Southern Transport Corridor launched in 2017. Initially, only Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou and Gansu signed the agreement in August 2017. Then, in June and November 2018, Qinghai and Xinjiang joined the cooperation. "The agreement signed by eight provinces and regions indicates that the cooperation on the new land-sea international trade corridor has expanded," said Han Baochang, director of the demonstration initiative's administration bureau. The cooperation among different provinces and regions will boost the construction of the new land-sea international trade corridor, help connect the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and boost the development of the western part of China while propelling the China-ASEAN common prosperity, Han said. Statistics shows that a total of 805 rail-sea freight trains via the corridor had been launched by Dec.31, 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 21:28:31|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat condemned on Monday a tour of senior U.S. officials to the occupied Old City of Jerusalem. Erekat said in a statement that the tour which was participated by John Bolton, the U.S. national security advisor, and David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, accompanied by Israeli officials, is a violation of international law and resolutions. He added that the U.S. administration has pushed the Middle East quickly into "violence, chaos, extremism and bloodshed." The PLO also slammed Bolton's statement that the Israel has right to defend itself, saying that "the occupation, field executions, killing of the innocent and house demolitions" is not self defense, but "war crimes." Bolton, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, said that the Israeli-U.S. relation is at its best under the administrations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, voicing his country's support for Israel. Before meeting Netanyahu, Bolton visited the Western Wall in the Old City in East Jerusalem and toured the tunnels there. Under international law, the Old City of Jerusalem is considered as occupied territory. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, while Israel wants all Jerusalem to be its eternal capital. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and declared the whole city as its eternal indivisible capital in 1980, a move that has not been recognized by the international community. In December 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and decided to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the city. The Palestinians described the move as a provocation and a flagrant violation of international law. They disqualified the United States from being the sole sponsor of the peace process with Israel and called for an international multilateral peace mechanism to overlook peace negotiations. The Palestinians have boycotted the U.S. administration since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in May 2018. They said in several statements that Trump's "deal of the century" falls way short of their expectations and aspirations for lasting and just peace settlement. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 21:18:29|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Monday demanded a snap general election immediately, saying the ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP) has led the country to poverty. "The Mongolian parliament and government that formed during the parliamentary elections in 2016 have not fulfilled their promises to the Mongolian people. The function of the parliament has been stalled for almost two months due to the MPP's internal conflicts," Sodnomzundui Erdene, chairman of the DP, said at a press conference. More than half of the lawmakers or 39 in the 76-seat parliament, most of whom belong to the MPP, sent an official letter to the country's parliament speaker Miyegombo Enkhbold in mid-December, urging him to voluntarily step down over alleged conflicts of interest. Some lawmakers and ministers have boycotted plenary sessions of the parliament and meetings of its standing committees for six weeks, demanding the parliament speaker's resignation. Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh submitted a request to the constitutional court on Nov. 29 to fire Enkhbold, saying that Enkhbold has been interfering in the investigation and settlement of related cases. Audio recordings were made public in 2017 that some officials of the MPP, including Enkhbold, allegedly used their government positions as a tool to run in the parliamentary election in 2016. Enkhbold has refused to resign, saying the lawmakers' demand is contrary to the law on dismissing a speaker of the parliament. According to Mongolian law, there are now five legal grounds to dismiss the country's parliament speaker: death, severe disease, appointment to another position, guilty of a crime, and decision of dismissal from the constitutional court. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 21:13:26|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Hao Weiwei, Xiong Ping, Zhong Ya, Dong Yue BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The year 2018 was destined to be extraordinary, as it marked a decade after the bitter global financial crisis swept the world and a century since the end of World War I, with rare and great changes lying ahead. Walking together away from the past crisis and calamity, human beings have yet to make choices between cooperation and confrontation, between opening-up and protectionism, and between win-win and zero-sum results. Despite turbulence and challenges during the year, China remained on its own track of development, celebrating the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up and striving to chase its two centennial goals, while the diplomatic endeavors made by Chinese President Xi Jinping, or Xiplomacy, impressed the world deeply. WORLDWIDE FOOTPRINTS Portugal, where "the land ends, and the sea begins" as Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camoes described, was the last stop of Xi's overseas journey in 2018. The 17 cooperation documents and a memorandum of understanding on Belt and Road cooperation signed there drew wide attention. U.S. newspaper Los Angeles Times commented "Portugal is embracing China's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative," while German radio station Deutschlandfunk noted that Portugal has been part of the Belt and Road. More than five months ago, Xi visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), his first overseas visit since his re-election, during which China and the UAE also signed a memo on jointly building the Belt and Road. In 2018, Xi visited 13 countries and attended three important international conferences on five continents, and China's win-win approach is extending. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS While attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) informal leaders' meeting in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, Xi stressed the importance of opening-up and cooperation to meet common challenges. Broadening opening-up was a consistent theme of Xiplomacy in 2018. From the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, the 10th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in South Africa and the China International Import Expo, to the APEC and the Group of 20 summit, China made loud its commitment that the door would only open even wider. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the SCO summit in Qingdao, where Xi awarded him the first-ever Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China. Three months later, Xi participated in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. In July, Xi kicked off his trip to the Middle East and Africa with the UAE as the first stop. About a week earlier, at the eighth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing, both sides agreed to establish a Sino-Arab future-oriented strategic partnership of comprehensive cooperation and common development. Over a month before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in September, Xi conducted his fourth visit to Africa as president. "Senegal takes a positive view of China's role in Africa ... for its contribution to peace and stability and equally ... for the financing of budgets," Senegalese President Macky Sall was quoted as saying. In January 2018, the second ministerial meeting under the framework of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum was held in the Chilean capital of Santiago, promoting bilateral ties and building momentum to the Belt and Road development in Latin America. From the end of November to the beginning of December, Xi visited Latin America, and co-construction of the Belt and Road was a mainline of the trip. China's efforts to expand its global partnership network demonstrate vision and responsibility of the Asian giant's leader. PEACE COMMITMENT Despite vicissitudes of international circumstances, China has sticked to its commitment to peaceful development, win-win cooperation and multilateralism. China-U.S. relations went through a challenging time in 2018, when head-of-state diplomacy once again guided bilateral ties through critical moments. The meeting between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump in Buenos Aires in December, which lasted for two and a half hours, pressed the pause button on China-U.S. economic and trade frictions, and moved forward bilateral ties which are underpinned by coordination, cooperation and stability. Regarding the relations between China and its neighbors, the year 2018 witnessed a positive momentum. China and India created a new model of high-level exchanges. China-Japan relations were brought back to the right track and made new progress. The friendship between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was vitalized by three visits to China by the DPRK leader. Relations between China and the Philippines made a U-turn, marked by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development between the two governments in November. In 2018, China clearly voiced its support for promoting cooperation and safeguarding order and rules, as well as upholding the spirit of partnership on various occasions amid divergence and confusion in the world. During the G20 summit, Xi met with world leaders and heads of international organizations, who expressed their appreciation of China's propositions. France is firmly committed to multilateralism and hopes to maintain mutual support with China on major international issues, working jointly to uphold the multilateral free trade system, said French President Emmanuel Macron. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany appreciates China's commitment to multilateral cooperation and its resolves to uphold the Paris Agreement on climate change. In his meeting with Xi in November, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said China has stood on the right side of history in dealing with international affairs. (Xinhua reporters Feng Junwei and Li Ying also contributed to the story.) Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 21:08:24|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BERLIN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Price-adjusted new orders in November 2018 for Germany's manufacturing industry have decreased 1.0 percent on the previous month, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday. New orders from the euro area were hit particularly hard and went down by 11.6 percent while new orders from other countries even increased by 2.3 percent compared to October 2018. The German industry has "suffered another setback in orders" in November, Michael Groemling from the German Economic Institute (IW) told Xinhua on Monday. "Orders from the euro zone, in particular, collapsed after the strong rise in the previous month. This means that the prospects for German industry remain subdued." Although German domestic orders increased by 2.4 percent, total orders from other countries decreased by 3.2 percent in November 2018, according to the provisional data. The manufacturers of capital equipment, "the real big machinery" as a Destatis spokesman explains, showed increases of 1.4 percent in new orders on the previous month. Intermediate goods for the German industry saw orders fall by 4.4 percent and consumer goods recorded a decrease of 3.2 percent. The price-adjusted turnover in German manufacturing also went down and was 2.4 percent below the previous month. In October 2018, the corrected figure showed an increase of 0.5 percent to September 2018. However, IW economist Groemling pointed out that "there are no signs of a clear downward or upward trend". Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:43:14|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday voiced firm opposition to a U.S. warship trespassing into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands, and urged the U.S. side to immediately stop such kind of provocative actions. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily news briefing that the USS McCampbell trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands earlier Monday without permission of the Chinese government, while China soon sent military vessel and aircraft to identify the U.S. warship, made a warning and demanded that it leave the area. China has lodged solemn representation to the U.S. side in this regard, Lu said, noting that the action has violated Chinese and relevant international laws, infringing on China's sovereignty and damaging peace, security and order of the area. "China firmly opposes and urges the U.S. side to stop such kind of provocative operations immediately," the spokesperson said, adding that China would continue taking necessary measures to defend its national sovereignty and security. Responding to questions about the impact such provocative actions will have on the ongoing China-U.S. trade consultations, Lu said it would be beneficial to both countries as well as the world to properly solve various problems between China and the U.S., including the trade issues. "Both sides should be responsible for creating a good atmosphere for it," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:38:12|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- An awards ceremony to honor the winners of a regional preliminary in an international art competition of overseas Chinese youth was held Sunday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in the U.S. town of Yorba Linda in California. More than 200 entries submitted between October and mid-December last year graced the preliminary in Los Angeles for the seventh edition of the biennial International Chinese Youth Painting and Calligraphy Competition. It was the first time that the contest was held in Los Angeles as a sub-region. Ten pieces of work entered the final stage of the local contest, with Chinese cultural elements, creativity and coloring being the decisive factors in the judging. Among the winners was Feng Chi, 16, who took the Grand Prize with a landscape painting of landmark architectures in China, the United States, France and Britain. He said it took 80 hours to complete his entry, adding "I'm extremely honored for winning the prize, and also surprised because I'm competing against a lot of very talented youth." Winners will compete in the final in Beijing. Well-known Chinese American artist Ding Shaoguang praised the local winning pieces of work as being of impressive imagination. He said children are the most imaginative human beings, and "will hence be the only force in tomorrow's art world to counter the artificial intelligence" which is likely to outrun people in art where reproducibility matters like painting techniques. The contest in Los Angeles was multi-sponsored by overseas Chinese and U.S.-China cultural exchange organizations including the Beijing Returned Overseas Chinese Federation. Li Hong, head of the organizing committee, said the local event was also held to mark the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic ties. "So it's very meaningful to hold the local competition," Li added. Tara Campbell, mayor of Yorba Linda, said, "I'm proud to say that we are hosting the event. We cherish cultural enrichment and it gives the opportunity to learn from one another." The awards ceremony was attended by nearly 300 people including Chinese and U.S. officials, artists and business figures. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:33:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close COLOMBO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government has been looking at introducing investor-friendly policies to bolster trade and attract fresh foreign investments this year, local media quoting Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama as saying on Monday. Samarawickrama told the local Daily FT that the government hoped to introduce investor-friendly mechanism to fast-track the approval and implementation of projects and the local Board of Investment (BOI) had already set up the Single Window Investment Facilitation Taskforce (SWIFT) to streamline and fast-track the investment approval process. "We also hope to talk to the existing investors to encourage reinvestment," the minister said. Samarawickrama said the government was steaming ahead in developing two new export processing zones in Millaniya, in western Sri Lanka and Bingiriya, in the northwestern part of the island nation. The official also said around Rs. 2.5 billion, or about 13 million U.S. dollars, will be allocated from the upcoming government budget to build the new zones. Samarawickrama last week said it is aiming to attract 3 billion U.S. dollars worth of Foreign Direct Investments in 2019 as several mega projects were being discussed with international investors. He said Sri Lanka had drawn around 2.2 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDIs last year, which was an all-time high. The Sri Lankan government is aiming to attract 5 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDIs per year by 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:28:09|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2019. U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday broke ground on its Shanghai factory, becoming the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China. The new plant, Tesla's first outside the United States, is located in Lingang Area, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbor of Shanghai. It is designed with an annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. Tesla signed the agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October, the company was approved to use an 864,885-square-meter tract of land in Lingang for its Shanghai plant. (Xinhua/Ding Ting) SHANGHAI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday broke ground on its Shanghai factory, becoming the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China. The new plant, Tesla's first outside the United States, is located in Lingang Area, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbor of Shanghai. It is designed with an annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. Tesla signed the agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October, the company was approved to use an 864,885-square-meter tract of land in Lingang for its Shanghai plant. COMPETITIVE EDGE Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai government officials attended the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. "This will be the most advanced Tesla gigafactory," Musk said. "With resources here, we are able to build this factory in record time, and we are hoping to have initial production of Tesla Model 3 toward the end of the year and volume production next year." The Tesla factory, with an investment of over 50 billion yuan (7 billion U.S. dollars), is the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai's history. Tesla brought its Model S, Model X and Model 3 to the China International Import Expo held in November 2018 in Shanghai, aiming to reinforce its presence in the world's largest market for electric cars. Tesla delivered 245,240 cars in 2018 worldwide, including 145,846 Model 3. China set a milestone record of selling 1 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) in 2018. The country aims to double the sales to 2 million in 2020. The production at the Shanghai plant will help Tesla significantly lower its cost and prices, giving it more edge in the market competition. Model 3, for example, which starts at a price of 35,000 dollars in the U.S. market, is sold between 500,000 yuan and 560,000 yuan (around 72,980 and 81,738 dollars) in China. After Tesla starts production of the model in China, the price of the car is expected to start at 400,000 yuan. Tesla has tapped into China's growing mainstream electric car market and established its charging network covering most cities in the country's developed regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta in east China and the Pearl River Delta in the south. The company set up in October 2018 its first overseas R&D innovation center in Beijing, with focus on areas such as software and hardware development, localization, China and Asia-Pacific data analysis, intelligent connected vehicles and charging technology. "In the past five years, Tesla has witnessed Chinese car consumers' growing awareness for environmental protection," said Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales. Shen Yuxiang, a Tesla user, drives the car shuttling between Shanghai and Hangzhou, capital city of neighboring Zhejiang Province, every weekend. Shen said he enjoys the 200 km ride as the car has no engine noise and boasts powerful acceleration. CATFISH EFFECT "Tesla's China production will have a 'catfish effect' in the country's auto industry, pushing domestic carmakers to speed up their technological upgrading," said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association. When Tesla's plant in Shanghai starts volume production in 2020, the China-made Tesla cars will play fair with Chinese automakers, as China is scheduled to eliminate various government subsidies on NEVs by that year, Cui said. However, Chinese automakers are not afraid of being edged out by the new-comer. Jin Guoqing, deputy director of the automotive dynamics research institute of Chang'an Automobile, said his company has accumulated years of experience in R&D and quality control. In the meantime, it has different price positioning targeting different customers from those of Tesla. "We shall amplify our advantages to the most," Jin said. From tariff cuts to removing access restrictions on foreign investment in various sectors, China has sped up in opening up. China's new rules regarding the procedure to approve new Sino-foreign auto joint ventures will take effect on Jan. 10. The streamlined measures will further shift the longstanding practice of checking and ratifying for the administration of auto joint ventures to the management mode of filing for record or registration only. China unveiled a shortened negative list for foreign investment, cutting the number of items down to 48 at the moment from 63 in June 2018, which has widened market access for foreign investment in primary, secondary as well as tertiary sectors. The German carmaker BMW announced in October last year that it would increase its stake in the joint venture, BMW Brilliance Automotive, in northeastern city of Shenyang, from 50 percent to 75 percent, and extend the cooperation for another 22 years to 2040. Mercedes-Benz Parts Manufacturing & Service Ltd. inaugurated its first factory outside Europe in October 2018 in Lingang Area, the same industrial park as Tesla Shanghai factory is located. Shanghai resident Liu Jiang recalled that he spent 200 yuan on a bicycle when he got married in 1980. Years later, he bought his first car, a Volkswagen, and then a Nissan. Now, his child wants to buy a Tesla. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:23:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close KABUL, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghan militancy and counter-militancy have claimed 56 lives in the conflict-battered country over the past 24 hours, officials said on Monday. In the latest wave of violent attacks by militants at least 10 civilians were killed in Jani Khil district of the eastern Paktika province on Monday as a mine planted by anti-government militants went off Monday in a bazaar, leaving 10 civilians dead and 13 others injured. Mohammad Raffah, a doctor in provincial capital hospital Sharan city, has confirmed that 10 bodies and 13 injured persons had been taken to the hospital. Women and children were also among the victims, the official added. Similarly, anti-government militants' attack on a security checkpoints in Faizabad district of the northern Jawzjan province late Sunday night left five police and three Taliban fighters dead, provincial governor Lutfullah Azizi has confirmed. Fighting between security forces and the Taliban militants in the western Badghis province have claimed 36 lives, including 21 security personnel and 15 Taliban militants over the past 24 hours, an official with Provincial Council Abdul Aziz Baig said Monday. The Taliban offensives, according to a security official, also killed two police on a highway outside Baghlan's provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri on Sunday night. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 20:08:02|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Huang Ping, Chinese consul general in New York, speaks as he meets with representatives from the Chinese community in Philadelphia, the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, Jan. 6, 2019. The Chinese community in the United States should continue to play their unique role as "positive energy" in cementing China-U.S. ties, Huang said here Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) PHILADELPHIA, the United States, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in the United States should continue to play their unique role as "positive energy" in cementing China-U.S. ties, a diplomat said here Sunday. Overseas Chinese in America have been participants in and contributors to the establishment of China-U.S. ties, Huang Ping, Chinese consul general in New York, said in a meeting with representatives from the Chinese community in Philadelphia, the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is important that the Chinese community continues to help bridge bilateral ties, he added. The diplomat said the exchanges between China and the United States are time-honored. Many Chinese, who came to the United States early, have helped a lot in its national construction amid hardships and became an indispensable part of the pluralistic society, Huang noted. He added that interactions between the two sides have deepened over the past decades. Huang said some 10,000 people make trips between the two countries every day. "We are very proud of the achievement our motherland has made over the past 40 years and we will continue our role in strengthening bilateral exchanges," said Sam Hung Sang Leung, president of the Shenzhen Commerce Association of Eastern America. After the two-hour meeting, Huang visited six local Chinese associations, during which he thanked the local Chinese community for their continuous support for the consulate-general. He promised that the consulate-general will do its best to serve the interests of the overseas Chinese. The 10 states for which the Chinese consulate-general in New York provides consular services include Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 19:52:57|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close TASHKENT, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a decree to offer 30-day visa-free travel for tourists from 45 more countries. The decree, which will come into effect on Feb. 1, is part of the measures taken by the government to boost tourism. The government's aim is to attract more than 9 million foreign tourists in 2025 and increase the share of the tourism industry in the GDP from 2.3 percent in 2017 to 5 percent in 2025. The list of countries eligible for Uzbekistan's e-visa system will also expand to 76 countries from Feb. 1. In addition, 30-day double- and multiple-entry e-visas will be introduced from March 15. Uzbekistan will also offer new types of visas, including the student visa, the academic visa and the medical visa, for certain groups of foreign citizens. According to the state tourism committee, the number of visitors to Uzbekistan hit 5.3 million in 2018, nearly doubling that of 2017. Uzbekistan offers 30-day visa-free entry to citizens of Israel, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and Japan, and allows mutual visa-free travel with members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional association of former Soviet republics. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 19:37:53|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close THE HAGUE, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- A Dutch astronaut accidentally dialed 911, an emergency telephone number in many countries, from the International Space Station, reported local media. Andre Kuipers, a 60-year-old astronaut with the European Space Agency, said he missed a number when he was trying to make an international call from space. "First you dial the 9 for an outside line, and then 011 for an international line," he told Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. "I made a mistake (missing the 0), and the next day I received an email message: Did you call 911?" Alhough Kuipers hung up immediately when he realized his error, the call triggered an alert at NASA, which checked the room where the call was issued but found no one there. According to NASA, astronauts in the International Space Station are able to make calls at any time. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 19:02:44|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close BEIRUT, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun assured on Monday that the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit will be held on time later this month in Beirut. "The absence of a government in Lebanon is not a reason for postponing the summit because the caretaker government is exercising its powers in accordance with the Constitution," the presidential website quoted Aoun as saying. Aoun made the remarks during his meeting with Tunisian Presidential advisor Lazhar Al-Qorawi Al-Chabi, who visited Lebanon to invite Aoun to the Arab League Summit scheduled in March in Tunisia. Earlier this month, political sources told Al Jumhouriya local newspaper that the Secretariat of the Arab League is considering the possibility of postponing the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit because of the absence of a government in Lebanon. Rafic Chlala, spokesman of the Beirut summit and the Lebanese president's media advisor, said on Friday that Lebanon had not received yet any request from the Arab League or any other entity for postponing the summit. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 19:02:43|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Guo Jun BANJUL, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid a visit to Africa on Jan. 2-6, carrying on a 29-year tradition of making Africa the destination of a Chinese top diplomat's first new year overseas trip. Wang said friendship between China and African countries is "solid and unbreakable" as ever and that cooperation between them continues to be robust and "expanding fast." African leaders hailed Wang's visit as a testimony of their true friendship, saying it injects a strong impetus in their relations with China. Wang's five-day African trip covered Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal. He also visited the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. Wang's Africa trip also came after the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit in September 2018. "The visit honors a 29-year-old tradition of the Chinese foreign minister making Africa the destination of his first visit in the new year and reflects the strong friendship built over the past decades," said Xu Zhicheng, an associate professor at the School of Economics, Henan University who specializes in aid studies. SUPPORTING AFRICA'S ECONOMIC AUTONOMY Wang said at the start of his African trip in Addis Ababa that the FOCAC Beijing Summit was a great success and that the initiatives outlined at the summit serve as a blueprint for the cooperation between China and Africa. He said the main purpose of his visit was to communicate with African countries based on the principles of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and the approach of upholding justice and pursuing shared interests. After a meeting with his Ethiopian counterpart Workneh Gebeyehu, Wang said China will support Africa on achieving economic autonomy and sustainable development. China is dedicated to helping Africa in its development and bringing benefits to the African people, he said. In Dakar, Wang and leaders of Senegal vowed to boost their cooperation. Senegal's Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba said Senegal will expand cooperation with China, including that related to the Belt and Road Initiative. In Ouagadougou, Wang and his Burkina Faso counterpart Alpha Barry agreed that the bilateral cooperation has been off to a good start since the two countries signed a joint communique on the resumption of their diplomatic ties in May 2018. The cooperation is growing extensively in many fields including agriculture. "Facts have proved that the decision of Burkina Faso to resume the diplomatic ties with China is 100 percent correct," Wang said. In Banjul, Wang said during a meeting with his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara that the two countries have restored exchanges in various fields and achieved notable results in cooperation on major infrastructure projects since the resumption of diplomatic ties more than two years ago. During the trip, Wang highlighted the importance of adherence to the one-China policy in the cooperation between China and Africa as the political foundation for the relations. He also said China has played a unique and constructive role in safeguarding peace and promoting security in Africa, which serve as the prerequisite for development. RELIABLE, LONG-LASTING PARTNERSHIP Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the visit by his Chinese guest testifies to the point that China is a true friend of Ethiopian and African people. Receiving Wang at the AU headquarters, Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat said Africa-China relations are united and friendly, strong and powerful, and mutually beneficial. In Ouagadougou, President of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso are filled with hope for the future of the bilateral ties. Summing up his four-country tour in Dakar on Sunday, Wang said the interactions on his tour reflected the unbreakable friendship between China and Africa, the calls for upholding multilateralism, the increasing support for jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, and the reaffirmation of the one-China policy in Africa. Wang said China has proved to be the most reliable and long-lasting partner of Africa, dedicated to helping Africa to develop and bringing benefits to the African people. China has helped build more than 10,000 km of highways, more than 6,000 km of railways, and hundreds of airports, ports and power stations in Africa. It has also helped build many more hospitals, schools and other essential projects, and sent more than 20,000 medical workers to Africa to treat more than 200 million local patients. CLAIM OF CHINA DEBT TRAP REFUTED China-Africa cooperation has been a model not only for South-South cooperation but also for international cooperation with Africa, Wang said. He said China respects the choice of the African people in terms of development paths. Wang refuted allegations that financial problems, including national debts which African countries face, have resulted from their cooperation with China. He said such rumors are an attempt to discredit China's sincere support and had been refuted by many African countries. Wang added that China sincerely upholds openness and transparency and strictly follows local laws and market rules of different countries, and that it never allows and will never tolerate any black-box operations and corrupt practices. Wang said the cooperation projects, which often represent efforts in building infrastructure and training the local labor force, follow win-win principles and are important in enabling Africa to achieve economic autonomy and sustainable development. They are a solution to the debt problems, he added. Xu said the cooperation projects between China and Africa are often characterized by the respect for the choice of the African people to pursue their own development paths; and the concentration of the projects in the infrastructural sector which leverages China's experience and strengths to serve the purpose of development promotion in Africa. He said that the best gauge of the results of such cooperation is their warm reception in Africa. Based on statistics in 2014-15 from the AfroBarometer, an independent research network which polls people in Africa on topics of interest, about 73 percent of the respondents believe China has played a positive role in African development. "The relationship is set to be further strengthened in the future," Xu said. (Xinhua reporters Wang Shoubao in Addis Ababa, Xu Zheng in Nairobi, Xing Jianqiao in Dakar and Liu Ruijuan in Nairobi contributed to the report) Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 18:52:42|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close NANCHANG, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Eastern China's Jiangxi Province has issued a policy to compensate farmers who lost crops or other harvests to foraging migratory birds. Jiangxi's forestry bureau said Monday that the new policy covers areas around the Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and a seasonal destination for half a million bird that arrive for winter every year. An official with the bureau told Xinhua that farmers are not allowed to hurt or drive away birds that trespass into their fields or fish ponds for food, but can instead claim recompense from the government. The compensation is set at 1,200 yuan (175 U.S. dollars) per hectare and is subject to floating. Late last year, local authorities said drought had lowered water levels in the Poyang Lake, which may pose difficulties for migratory birds to get food from the water body and nearby wetlands. Hundreds of thousands of birds arrive in the Poyang Lake every year for the winter before flying to warmer regions like Australia. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 18:32:38|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SHARAN, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 civilians were killed and 13 others wounded after a bomb ripped through a district bazaar in eastern Afghan province of Paktika on Monday, a local official said. "Ten martyred and 13 wounded civilians were admitted to a main hospital in the provincial capital Sharan city Monday morning following a bomb attack in Jani Khil district," Mohammad Raffah, a provincial health official, told Xinhua. Those among the killed were two children, and three wounded who received life-threatening injuries were shifted to Afghan capital of Kabul for treatment, he said. The blast occurred after an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at a bazaar in Jani Khil district on Monday morning, according to a local police source. The Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts as more than 2,790 civilians were killed and over 5,250 others injured in conflict-related incidents in first nine months of year, according to figures released by the United Nations (UN) mission in the country. The police source blamed enemies of peace, referring to the Taliban militant group, for the attack. Taliban militants, who ruled the country before being ousted in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, killing government troops as well as civilians. The UN mission has attributed 65 percent of the civilian casualties to the Taliban and other insurgent groups, 20 percent to security forces over the period while 11 percent to both sides during clashes and the rest 4 percent were caused by other reasons. In a separate development, five police personnel and three Taliban militants were killed after militants stormed a security checkpoint along a main roadway in Faizabad district of northern Jawzjan province on Sunday night, provincial Governor Lutfullah Azizi told Xinhua earlier on Monday. The militants overran the checkpoint and took several rounds of guns and ammunition after the clash. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 18:27:33|Editor: WX Video Player Close Photo taken on Jan. 7, 2019 shows the Rafah Border Crossing between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. Hamas said on Monday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has handed over the control of the Rafah Border Crossing between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt to Hamas security forces. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar) GAZA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Hamas said on Monday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has handed over the control of the Rafah Border Crossing between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt to Hamas security forces. In an e-mailed statement, the Interior Ministry of Hamas said the PA employees handed overnight the crossing point to Tawfiq Abu Neim, chief of Hamas interior security in Gaza. According to the statement, Nazmi Muhana, chief of PA border crossings corporation, had informed the ministry that his employees will pull out from the Rafah crossing point on Monday. Hamas will run the crossing point "to preserve the interests of our Palestinian people," the statement said. However, it is still unclear whether the crossing point will be open or remain closed under Hamas administration. Withdrawing the PA employees from the Rafah crossing came after a Hamas recent crackdown on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in the Gaza Strip. During the past two days, Hamas security forces have arrested dozens of Fatah members and leaders in Gaza to prevent them from marking 54 years of the establishment of their movement, which was founded in January 1965. On Sunday, the PA Corporation of Civil Affairs announced the decision to pull out the PA employees at the Rafah crossing point, citing "Hamas practices against Fatah leaders and members." The Rafah Border Crossing had been under Hamas' control since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. In November 2017, however, Hamas handed the crossing to the PA following an Egypt-brokered understanding with Fatah. Tension between the two rival Palestinian groups has mounted after Abbas announced last week that a PA constitutional court decided to dissolve the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament, better known as the Legislative Council. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 18:12:28|Editor: ZX Video Player Close DAKAR, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China-Africa friendship is unbreakable and the one-China principle has been consolidated and strengthened in Africa, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters at the end of his four-nation Africa trip. Wang's trip to Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal on Jan. 2-6 continued a 29-year tradition of making Africa the first international visit of the year by the Chinese foreign minister. In the face of some deliberate attempts to discredit China-Africa cooperation, African governments and people have stood up to dispel the rumors and firmly adhered to a friendly policy towards China, which manifested the unbreakable friendship between the two sides, Wang said. He added that the leaders of the four African countries appreciated China's cooperation with Africa and thanked China for its support for the development of African countries and the improvement of people's livelihood. Speaking about rising unilateralism, Wang said African countries have great expectations for China's role in defending multilateralism. The four countries are willing to strengthen coordination with China, jointly defend their rules of multilateralism and promote the democratization of international relations, he added. A large number of China's key projects in Africa have brought tangible benefits to local people. With the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with African Union's "2063 Agenda," as well as the development strategies of all countries, the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to launch cooperation with a higher quality and higher level on the African continent, Wang said. Among the four countries that Wang visited, Burkina Faso and Gambia resumed diplomatic ties with China in 2018 and 2016, respectively. The leaders of the two countries said the resumption of diplomatic ties with China is an independent choice and a correct decision that has been supported by the people and is in line with their national interests, Wang said. The two countries will continue to unswervingly pursue the one-China principle, and adherence to the principle has become a political consensus that all parties have followed on the African continent, Wang added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 18:07:27|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Senegalese President Macky Sall (L) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Teng) DAKAR, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The dynamic and practical relations between Senegal and China are a fine example for other countries, and Senegal hopes to further cooperation with China in various fields, President Macky Sall said on Sunday. He made the remarks during talks with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Sall extended congratulations upon the successful soft landing of China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, saying that his country is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in such fields as science, technology and innovation. The successful Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2018 shows China's strategic vision to develop China-Africa ties, the president said. In the hearts of the African people, they know who is a true friend to them, Sall said, adding that Africa and China share a relationship featuring mutual respect, mutual benefit, win-win cooperation and common development. Sall said Senegal is willing to push forward the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China and will support China's rightful stance on international affairs. For his part, Wang said Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful and historic visit to the West African country in 2018 has injected strong impetus into the two countries' relations. The solid political trust between China and Senegal consolidates the foundation for the two countries' high-quality cooperation in various areas, Wang said. China is willing to be an enduring and reliable partner for Senegal, the Chinese foreign minister said. He called for closer coordination between China and Senegal, the co-chairs of the FOCAC, to jointly implement the results of the summit and build a closer community with a shared future for China and Africa. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 17:57:23|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close JUBA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan government said on Monday it has started registration of all foreign nationals living in the country in a bid to deter cross-border crime. John Akot Maluth, head of Nationality and Immigration department in the Ministry of Interior, said they will screen and register foreigners to curb illegal immigrants in a period of three months. "We are asking foreigners to come to the designated centers for screening," said Maluth at a press conference in Juba. He disclosed that foreigners with legal documents will be pardoned and those without will be documented. South Sudan shares border with neighboring countries including Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and DR Congo. Over two million South Sudanese are living as refugees in these countries and others have been displaced since conflict erupted in the East African country in December 2013. South Sudan warring parties signed the revitalized peace agreement in September which has ushered in normalcy and fresh hope of peace. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 17:32:18|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SHARAN, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 civilians were killed and 13 others wounded after a bomb ripped through a district bazaar in eastern Afghan province of Paktika on Monday, a local official said. "Ten martyred and 13 wounded civilians were admitted to a main hospital in the provincial capital Sharan city Monday morning following a bomb attack in Jani Khil district," Dr. Mohammad Raffah, a provincial health official, told Xinhua. Those among the killed were two children, and three wounded who received life-threatening injuries were shifted to Afghan capital of Kabul for treatment, he said. The blast occurred after an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at a bazaar in Jani Khil district on Monday morning, according to a local police source. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 17:27:17|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are news highlights in South African major news outlets on Monday. -- With schools and businesses returning to full operation this week, electricity utility Eskom warned on Sunday that the risk of load shedding increases despite a rise in their coal stockpile. Eskom indicated that it would still need to assess what the situation looks like when everyone returns this week before announcing to the public what the future plans are in terms of power interruptions. (Independent Online) -- Police said on Sunday three women who died at the stampede at controversial Prophet Shepherd Bushiri's church last week have been identified by their families. The three women died when a group of congregants ran for cover seeking shelter during a thunderstorm at the Tshwane Showgrounds, the venue for the Enlightened Christian Gathering Church in Pretoria. (Eyewitness News) -- A market research has shown that as the country gears up to hold national elections this year, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) seems to be leading the pack by a far margin in terms of voter confidence. More than 3,500 South Africans participated in the survey which found that the ANC was at 61 percent, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 14 percent.(South African Broadcasting Corporation) Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 17:22:15|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SUVA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's Ministry of Health and Medical Services is taking steps to prevent outbreak of any potential diseases after tropical cyclone Mona brought heavy rain and flooding to the island nation, according to a government statement on Monday. Minister for Health and Medical Services Ifereimi Waqainabete said that health officials have already started to assess the situation in communities, according to the statement. "We have been very fortunate that the weather conditions is not as bad as we expected. However with the heavy downpour and people taking shelter at the evacuation centers, there are always possibilities of disease outbreaks. So our focus is on public health," Waqainabete said. "We will continue to strengthen our public health capability. There is always a possibility of disease outbreak, so we will be visiting villages, places, inspecting the environment and providing the right advice to people. Prevention is better than cure." Health officials are making regular visits to evacuation centers as well and giving out wash kits to evacuees. The Health Ministry is strongly advising people to boil drinking water, practice good hygiene habits and ensure their homes, compounds and surroundings to be clean. Tropical cyclone Mona has severely affected Fiji, with roads being closed, flights cancelled and thousands of people sheltered in evacuation centers across the nation. In 2016, Fiji was hit by the full force of tropical cyclone Winston, which left 44 people dead and destroyed tens of thousands of houses. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 17:07:10|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SHARAN, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 civilians were killed and 13 others wounded after a bomb ripped through a district bazaar in eastern Afghan province of Paktika on Monday, a local official said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:32:03|Editor: WX Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Five members of a dance troupe were killed and one critically injured early Monday when a vehicle carrying them rammed into a stationary truck amid dense fog in eastern Indian state of Odisha, police said. The accident took place near Aaanlabanka Chowk in Kendrapara district, about 115 km northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha. The victims were members of a dance troupe who were on the way to adjacent Jajpur district. Officials said the impact of the accident was so severe that the front portion of the vehicle was completely mangled. "We had to cut the metal parts of the vehicle to take out the bodies," a police officer said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:22:01|Editor: ZD Video Player Close SHANGHAI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday broke ground on its Shanghai factory, becoming the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China. The new plant, Tesla's first outside the United States, is located in Lingang Area, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbor of Shanghai. It is designed with an annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. Tesla signed the agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October, the company was approved to use an 864,885-square-meter tract of land in Lingang for its Shanghai plant. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:16:59|Editor: ZD Video Player Close SUVA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Evacuees at the Marist Campaigner Institute in Suva, capital of Fiji, have started cleaning their homes, hoping to return home on Monday after tropical cyclone Mona moves away from Fiji. A Nanuku resident in a squatter settlement in Suva Iosefo Baleinatuvu said all evacuees had a good night sleep and were ready to return to their homes. The Fiji Met Service said the Lau group islands in eastern Fiji remained under threat from tropical cyclone Mona. Mona, a category 1 storm, was forecast to continue to move south in the waters between Fiji and Tonga and senior forecaster Amit Singh said it could still impact some southern islands. Fiji's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) advised the public to continue to take precautionary measures. The NDMO said government operations and business were scheduled to continue as normal on Monday but said people should continue to monitor the weather and exercise their own discretion when making the decision to report to work. The office said this was particularly relevant for people living in flood prone and affected areas. The warning was made as several roads remained closed. The Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) said 27 roads remained closed around the country mainly due to flooding. A flood warning remained in place for all low lying areas, small streams and areas adjacent to major rivers including in Vanua Levu, Taveuni and the eastern half of Viti Levu. Over 2,000 people have sought shelter in 40 evacuation centers around Fiji. The Maritime Safety Authority confirmed that all shipping services have been cancelled on Monday. As part of readiness, Commissioner Eastern and Commissioner Northern have been advised to prepare teams for initial damage assessment. In Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island, shipping and air services have been closed until further notice. But the central business district remained open for business with normal operating hours. In 2016, Fiji was hit by the full force of tropical cyclone Winston, which left 44 people dead and destroyed tens of thousands of houses. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:11:55|Editor: mmm Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) announced on Monday that a convicted criminal in a kindergarten knife attack in south China had been executed last Friday after the SPC approved the death sentence. After re-examination, the SPC confirmed that defendant Qin Peng'an, a peasant from the village of Nanshan in Pingxiang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, brought a kitchen knife to a kindergarten in the city on Jan. 4, 2017, and attacked children out of retaliation. Four children were seriously injured while eight others received minor injuries. After the attack, Qin escaped and later surrendered to the police, according to the SPC statement. On Aug. 28, 2017, the Intermediate People's Court of Chongzuo sentenced Qin to death and deprived him of his political rights for life for intentional homicide. Qin appealed, but his appeal was dismissed by the Higher People's Court of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region later that year. The verdict was then submitted to the SPC for approval in accordance with the law. After reviewing the case, the SPC held that Qin's behavior had constituted the crime of intentional homicide and should be punished according to law. Although Qin's attempted murder failed and he turned himself in, it was still not enough to punish him leniently, said the SPC. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 16:01:52|Editor: zh Video Player Close LIBREVILLE, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Military officers in Gabon on early Monday morning seized the African country's state radio station and announced establishing a national council, local media reported. A statement was read on radio to criticize President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who is now hospitalized in Morocco's capital Rabat in recovery from a stroke. It is reported that the statement said the military was disappointed with the New Year address made by Bongo on Dec. 31, which it said showed the ailing president's strong attempt to remain in power. Bongo has been president of the coastal country in Central Africa since 2009. He was re-elected in 2016. It is reported the officers arrived at the state radio office around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT). Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 15:41:47|Editor: zh Video Player Close QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 Afghan soldiers and police personnel and 15 Taliban militants have been killed in clashes in western province of Badghis as fighting rages in the country, a local official said on Monday. In one incident, three army soldiers, 11 Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel and 15 militants were killed after Afghan security forces fought back scores of armed militants who stormed security checkpoints in Qarjaghai locality of Qadis district Sunday night, Abdul Aziz Baig, an official of Provincial Council, told Xinhua. The government established the ALP or community police in 2010 to protect villages and districts around the country where army and police have limited presence. In similar clashes in Gandab, an area in Ab Kamari district, seven ALP police were killed and nine others wounded while casualties were also reflected on the side of militants during clashes which occurred on late Sunday, the official said. "Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle in Ab Kamari, but their number could not be exactly specified as the militants evacuated their casualties after the fighting," he said. The province, 555 km northwest of Kabul, has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces and militants for long. The violence has been on the rise as Afghan security forces struggle against a surge in attacks by anti-government fighters since the drawdown of foreign forces four years ago. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 15:31:42|Editor: zh Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military said on Monday that it struck the northern Gaza Strip overnight in retaliation for the rocket fire toward southern Israel. A military spokesperson said in a statement that fighter jets and an attack helicopter struck several targets at a military camp belonging to Hamas that runs Gaza. The strike came in the wake of rocket fire toward the coastal city of Ashkelon and Hof Ashkelon Regional Council in the Southern District of Israel. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. No injuries were immediately reported from both sides. The Israeli military said it holds Hamas "accountable for all that happens in the Gaza Strip and from it," while Palestinians say the violence is the result of a crippling blockade Israel has imposed on the Palestinian enclave since 2007. Since late March 2018, protests and clashes have haunted the border fence separating Gaza from Israel. At least 240 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli gunfire, while two Israeli soldiers were killed, one by a sniper and the other during an undercover operation inside Gaza that was exposed. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 15:01:34|Editor: zh Video Player Close QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 Afghan soldiers and police personnel and 15 Taliban militants were killed in clashes in western province of Badghis as fighting rages in the country, a local official said Monday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 15:01:33|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) holds talks with Senegalese Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba in Dakar, Senegal, Jan. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Teng) DAKAR, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to work closely with Senegal to promote bilateral ties and China-Africa comprehensive strategic partnership, said visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday. During the meeting with his Senegalese counterpart Sidiki Kaba, Wang lauded Senegal for consistently supporting China's legitimate stance on issues concerning its core interests and said China will continue to firmly support Senegal in taking its own development path and safeguarding its legitimate rights. Senegal has taken the lead in West Africa in signing cooperation documents with China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its role as co-chair of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has opened up new scope for bilateral ties, Wang said. China is willing to facilitate the construction of agreed infrastructure projects and expand cooperation with Senegal in emerging fields such as industrial parks in accordance with its needs, Wang added. Noting that China has achieved fast development and made great contributions to world peace and development over the 40 years of reform and opening-up, Wang said China will have more capabilities and resources to support other developing countries as it grows stronger. The Chinese foreign minister said China and Africa shall enhance their sense of a community with a shared future for mankind and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries amid rising challenges against multilateralism. For his part, Kaba said that China is an important strategic partner of Senegal and a friend who cares indeed about Senegal's development. He lauded China's great achievements in lifting over 700 million people out of poverty and promoting world peace and stability. The Senegalese foreign minister said the BRI and the eight major initiatives in collaboration with Africa proposed by President Xi Jinping dovetail highly with the Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the Emerging Senegal Plan proposed by President Macky Sall, which will bring mutual benefits and win-win results for China and Africa. Senegal will play an active role in China-Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and work closely with China to jointly perform the duties of co-chairs of FOCAC, promote the construction of its mechanism, and put the results of its Beijing summit into action, Kaba said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 14:11:14|Editor: zh Video Player Close MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 militants were confirmed dead and nine others injured as fighting aircrafts pounded Taliban hideouts in Almar district of Faryab province in Afghanistan on Sunday, a statement of army released here said Monday. The airstrikes, according to the statement, were conducted against Taliban hideouts in several villages of Almar district on Sunday afternoon and besides killing 14 insurgents and injuring nine others, the militants' several trenches and weapon caches were also destroyed. Taliban militants who are active in parts of the restive Faryab district and posing threats to provincial capital Maimana have not commented. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 13:46:06|Editor: zh Video Player Close PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan police personnel, including a senior Afghan National police officer, were killed after Taliban ambushed a police vehicle in the northern province of Baghlan overnight, a local official said Monday. "Fawad Attahi, who serves as the commander of one of the Afghan National Police highway company, a military unit of the Afghan National Police Zone in the region, was killed along a police officer following the attack in Kelagay locality, Dushi district of Baghlan late Sunday," Bismellah Attash, an official of Provincial Council, told Xinhua. The militants fled the scene shortly after the attack. Attahi will be buried after a funeral ceremony later on Monday in the province, 160 km north of Kabul, the official added. The province has been the scene of heavy clashes between Taliban militants and security forces for long. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 13:46:05|Editor: zh Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- In the run up to the parliamentary elections, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up 17 committees to look after campaign, publicity, formulating the manifesto and other issues. The party's senior leader and the country's Home Minister Rajnath Singh has been appointed as head of the "Manifesto Committee," while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be one of the members of the committee besides heading the "Publicity Committee" for the parliamentary polls, most likely to be held in April or May this year. The 20-person committee is tasked with preparing the party's manifesto, a statement issued by the party said. Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will head a 17-member committee to reach out to social and volunteer organizations while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will preside over a group that will produce literature for the polls, added the statement. Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the committee which will organize meetings of intellectuals. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 13:41:04|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC) suspended open market operations on Monday, citing abundant liquidity in the banking system. Reverse repos worth 170 billion yuan matured on Monday, meaning the central bank withdrew the same amount of funds from financial institutions. The PBOC said Monday's operation was aiming to maintain "reasonably abundant liquidity" in the banking system. A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future. The central bank will maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy, with easing or tightening only as appropriate, and make the financial sector better serve the real economy, according to a report published by the bank in early November Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 12:05:46|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SYDNEY, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- After a successful trial period in October last year that nabbed over 11,000 drivers with fines, world-first camera technology will be permanently in place in parts of Sydney as of Monday, to catch those using their mobile phones while driving. Utilizing radar-based sensor systems, the cameras take photographs through the windscreens of vehicles. The photos are immediately analyzed by an AI processor. Once an image is flagged, it is then reviewed by a person for confirmation. With statistics from the University of Queensland suggesting that mobile phones account for one in four vehicle accidents in Australia, New South Wales (NSW) State Roads Minister Melinda Pavey believed the technology will "change driver behavior and save lives." "This is not about revenue raising," she said, adding that "seventy-four percent of the NSW community support the use of cameras to enforce mobile phone offences." "This is about sending a very strong message to get off your phone when you're behind the wheel of a car." In 2017, there were 42,000 fines issued across NSW for drivers using their mobile phones while driving. File photo taken on July 17, 2018 shows Malaysia's King Sultan Muhammad V (R, front) reviewing the royal guard of honour during the opening ceremony of the parliament in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung) KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's King Sultan Muhammad V resigned on Sunday, after over two years serving as the country's ceremonial supreme head of state. The resignation was announced by the national palace, saying Muhammad V has informed this matter officially to the Malay Rulers through a letter issued to the secretary of the Conference of Rulers. Under the special rotational monarchy system in Malaysia, the king as the head of state, is selected every five years from the nine hereditary sultans or state rulers, called the Conference of Rulers. Muhammad V had tried to fulfill his responsibilities as the head of state, and was an anchor of stability, source of justice, basis of unity and uniting factor among the country's diverse people, the palace said in a statement. He has also expressed his highest appreciation to the prime minister and the government for their cooperation, the statement said. The palace made no mention of the reason for his resignation, saying Muhammad V has prepared to return to his home state of where he remains as sultan. Muhammad V took the throne in December 2016. Prior to his resignation, the 49-year-old had been on a two-month medical leave from November last year before announcing his resignation. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 10:40:33|Editor: WX Video Player Close YANGON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two more fish processing plants in Myanmar have been permitted to export their products to the European Union (EU), bringing the total number of such plants allowed for export to EU to 23, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Monday. The two plants - TT Cold Store Factory and A&N Foods (Myanmar) Co Ltd - were so allowed after they passed a screening. However, the factories can only export fish caught in the wild. Myanmar has not allowed export of farmed fish due to lack of guarantee on their being free from biochemical residuals. To meet EU import standards, fishery products are to be produced by only those hatcheries that are compliant with Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP), the report said. Myanmar exports fish, prawn and crab to about 40 countries and regions including EU, China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. Myanmar has 480,000 acres (194,400 hectares) of fish and prawn breeding farms across the country, earning over 717 million U.S. dollars from fishery export in the last fiscal year 2017-18, the report added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 10:40:33|Editor: ZD Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The following is a selection of the latest posts on social media. U.S. President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump on Twitter) Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi. Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism! - - - - British Prime Minister Theresa May (@10DowningStreet on Twitter) In this New Year let's discover a new spirit of common purpose. Let's agree a Brexit deal that moves us forward into a brighter future with confidence. Let's secure the future of our NHS. Let's make 2019 a year to be proud of. - - - - Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Houston (@RusCons_TX on Twitter) #Ryabkov - #Moscow harbors no illusions regarding #US troops' withdrawal from #Syria, which is going to take a long time. @mfa_russia is monitoring the process assuming that the US contingent's staying on the Syrian territory is illegal in any case. - - - - Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu on Twitter) Our position is clear. We will continue to act against the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, including at present, and we will act against any element that undermines, or attempts to undermine, the security of Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 10:40:33|Editor: WX Video Player Close TOKYO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Monday began collecting a departure tax of 1,000 yen (9 U.S. dollars) from individual travelers departing the country. The new departure tax is applicable to those departing Japan by airplane or ship, while infants aged under two years old and those transiting within 24 hours are exempt. The tax follows legislation passed in April last year and is aimed at creating new revenue streams that will be directed into facilitating improved travel services, as well as providing travelers with better access to information about traveling in Japan to enhance visitors' satisfaction and bolster tourism, especially to rural areas. The departure tax will also be allocated to the building of facilities and infrastructure to cope with the increasing numbers of tourists expected to visit Japan in the run up to and after the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020, government officials have said. Government officials in Tokyo have said the income from the new tax will amount to some 6 billion yen (55.26 million U.S. dollars) between January and March 2019, and prior legislation had been passed to ensure all revenue generated is allocated for projects related to tourism. Revenue in fiscal 2019, meanwhile, is expected to hit the 50 billion yen mark, the government has estimated, with the funds to be utilized for tourism-related projects and infrastructure, including facial recognition technology at gates in air and seaports. Japan, while enjoying an economic uptick, is still mired in deflationary pressure and has been increasingly looking towards its tourism industry to boost its economy. The number of tourists, particularly from Japan's closest neighbors, has risen significantly recently, owing in part to relaxed visa regulations and a comparatively weak yen bolstering the purchasing power of inbound visitors. The Japan Tourism Agency said that inbound tourists for the first time since record keeping began topped 30 million visitors in 2018 and the government is aiming to see that figure rise to 40 million by 2020. Visitor numbers from China have been consistently solid, as well as those from South Korea. In addition, the government also aims at attracting more tourists from European countries. There has been some backlash, however, to the introduction of the departure tax, with some locals complaining that the system is designed just to benefit tourists and not Japanese citizens. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 10:00:26|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close TEGUCIGALPA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed Sunday in a mass shooting in the northern Honduran department of Atlantidain. The four victims were heading west to work as coffee pickers in the town of Tela when they were attacked by unknown gunmen, local police said. It was the third mass shooting in six days. On New Year's Day, four men were killed in the northwestern department of Cortes. A day later, three youngsters were killed in the northern department of Yoro. In 2018, Honduras registered 39 mass killings, according to online daily Proceso Digital. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 09:35:21|Editor: WX Video Player Close YANGON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's southern Tanintharyi region authorities have reopened border gates and island resorts after the weather bureau lifted its warning on tropical storm Pabuk Sunday, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Monday. The cyclonic storm over the Andaman Sea has weakened into a deep depression, said an announcement of the Meteorology and Hydrology Department. The border gates and resorts were suspended earlier due to the tropical storm crossing near Kawthoung. Local tourism businesses returned to normal on late Sunday with motorboats providing ferry services to local and foreign travelers to island resorts. Other services between Kawthoung and Ranong were also resumed on the day, the report added. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 08:40:08|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close CANBERRA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) has announced a plan to prevent poor-performing student from becoming teachers. Tanya Plibersek, deputy leader of the ALP and the party's education spokesperson, promised that, if elected at the general election in May, the ALP would restrict entry to education courses to the top 30 percent of students. Australian universities have come under fire for letting some students with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) lower than 30 into teaching courses. The ATAR, which is the primary criterion for entry into Australian universities, is a percentile score given to students at the end of their final year of secondary school. Scores range from the lowest "less than 30" to 99.95. "Labor wants the best and brightest Australians studying teaching," Plibersek told reporters on Sunday evening. "If universities don't do the right thing and fix this themselves, a Labor government will make them." The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in September 2018 revealed that half the places offered in education degrees in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in 2015 were offered to students ranked in the bottom 50 percent. "We want young Australians with a track record of achievement, motivation and capability to teach the next generation," Plibersek said. "We want a career in teaching to be a first choice, not a fall-back." She said that unless universities lifted entry requirements for education degrees, an ALP government would cap the number of places in teaching degrees. However, the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE), which represents the 39 Australian universities offering education degrees, has rejected the plan. "A threat to mandate a cap on ATARs of 80 may sound like a quick fix, but in reality, fewer than one-in-four students are chosen on the basis of their ATAR alone," Tania Aspland, president of the ACDE, told Fairfax Media. "There is no evidence to show that those with higher ATARs become better teachers. "We need to look at their intellectual capability, their non-academic attributes such as their capacity to communicate. There is no point being brilliant if you can't communicate with young people, and then other qualities like resilience, motivation." Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 05:24:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed at a wrong-way crash on the Interstate 75 (I-75) in Lexington of U.S. state of Kentucky on Sunday, according to a report released by the Lexington Police Department. A white pickup truck, traveling in a wrong direction in the northbound lanes of I-75, hit an SUV straight-on. The SUV caught fire. The driver of the pickup, a 41-year-old Kentucky resident, was killed in the crash. A Michigan family of five in the SUV were also killed. The identities of the Michigan family have not yet been released. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 05:24:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close YAOUNDE, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon army said on Sunday it had killed two armed separatist commanders in Southwest, one of the war-torn English-speaking regions of the country. "The 'general Obi', whose group terrorized the populations of the localities of Mamfe, Okoyong, Bachuo Ntai, Bachuo Akagbe, and Nchemba was neutralized early this morning of January 6, 2019," the army said in a statement. The operation conducted by Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), also neutralized "general Eyong", one of the separatist commanders, according to the army. "Their camp was destroyed and some weapons recovered or destroyed," the army said. Locals interviewed by Xinhua said "several" other separatist fighters and government forces were killed during the attack. The army raids came about a week after Cameroon President Paul Biya warned during end-of-year address to the nation that the armed separatists would be "neutralized" if they did not drop their weapons and "follow the right track." Clashes between government forces and armed separatist groups has been going on since November 2017 after the separatists declared the independence of a nation called "Ambazonia" in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest. According to the United Nations, more than 430,000 Cameroonians have been displaced internally and at least 30,000 others have fled to neighboring Nigeria since the conflict started. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 05:19:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NEW YORK, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A special Red Envelope show honoring the 2019 Chinese Lunar New Year is open to the public at the Flushing Town Hall in New York City's Queens borough. Unveiled at a special reception in the historic town hall Saturday evening, the show features artworks by local professional visual artists and is curated by Bert Chau of Grumpy Bert and community members. The extensive art exhibition will be held until Jan. 27. This exhibition is a homage to the red celebration envelopes the Chinese community distributes during the Lunar New Year. Many envelopes will include a special gift which can only be seen by the buyers. Red Envelopes, also known as "red packet" or "good luck envelope," are often decorated with lucky symbols or auspicious messages and stuffed with money. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 04:59:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Sunday said it signed a partnership agreement with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) to provide education for children in Libya's Tripoli and Benghazi. "UNICEF Libya signed its first partnership agreement in 2019 with NRC. The agreement aims to provide access to education for girls and boys in Tripoli and Benghazi," UNICEF said in a statement. Libyan cities, particularly the capital Tripoli and the eastern Benghazi, suffer escalating violence and insecurity that negatively affect education in the country. Additionally, years of armed conflict forced many Libyans to flee their homes to other areas and cities, making it difficult for children to access proper education. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 04:49:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) militants Sunday abducted five villagers from their homes near the city of Tikrit, the capital of Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said. The incident took place in the evening when 20 IS militants broke into the village of Tal-Gseiba in east of Tikrit, located some 170 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Col. Mohammed Khalil al-Bazi from Salahudin's provincial police command told Xinhua. A joint force from the Iraqi army, police and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi launched an operation to hunt down the extremist militant and rescue the kidnapped villagers, al-Bazi said. The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017. However, small groups and individuals of extremist militants melted or regrouped in urban and rugged areas, and are carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 02:34:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A big storm, dubbed Norma, broke out in Lebanon Sunday, causing heavy damages in several areas of the country, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. Lebanese Internal Security Forces warned citizens, especially those living in the mountains, not to leave their houses. Citizens in several mountain areas, including Dahr Al Baydar and Ehden, were stuck in their cars for hours, which making Bekaa Governor Kamal Abou Jaoude called upon the army to assist the Internal Security Forces in saving people in these areas, the NNA reported. Moreover, roads were closed in several areas including Faraya, Ayoun al Siman, Koura and other regions, according to Elnashra, an online independent newspaper. The heavy storm caused severe damages in El Miniyeh in northern Lebanon as well. A weather expert on local Future Television Channel said that the storm will subside on Wednesday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 00:48:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that negotiations are under way on the location for the second summit between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). "We are negotiating a location for a summit with North Korea's Kim," he told reporters before leaving for Camp David, where he would discuss border security and other issues. Trump also said Washington and Pyongyang "have a very good dialogue", but adding sanctions on the DPRK remain in place. The Trump administration has sent scouting teams to multiple locations in different regions, including Asia, for the much-discussed second meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the DPRK, according to a CNN report. For logistical reasons, Switzerland, which was among the sites proposed by the U.S. side, has been excluded, CNN cited one administration official as saying. Trump said earlier this week that he expected his second encounter with Kim in the "not-too-distant future." He also said he had received a "great" letter from the DPRK top leader. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily briefing on Jan. 3 that China always believes that more positive interactions and productive dialogues between the United States and the DPRK will contribute to the settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue as well as peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. The relations between the United States and the DPRK improved last year. Trump and Kim had their first summit in Singapore in June. Meanwhile, differences between the two sides remained over key issues including the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-06 21:53:13|Editor: ZX Video Player Close WASHINGTON -- As the United States and China continue their trade talks, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the U.S. Consumer Technology Association (CTA), said he would like to see a more "normalized" trade relationship with China, arguing that tariffs are not the right mechanism to solve the problems. "Tariffs on Chinese products are costing the U.S. tech industry and American consumers about a billion dollars a month," Shapiro said, noting that this is based on a comparison of data between October 2018 and October 2017. - - - - WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said that "not much headway" has been made in border wall funding and the ongoing partial government shutdown in an earlier meeting between senior White House officials and Democratic congressional staffers. "Second meeting set for tomorrow," Trump tweeted. "After so many decades, must finally and permanently fix the problems on the Southern Border!" - - - - CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned "ugly racial protests" that erupted in Melbourne on Saturday. "Australia is the most successful migrant country in the world." "This has been achieved by showing respect for each other, our laws and values and maintaining sensible immigration policies." "Let's keep it that way, it makes Australia stronger," Morrison wrote on social media. - - - - WASHINGTON -- Kevin Sweeney, chief of staff of the U.S. Department of Defense, announced his resignation from the post. "After two years in the Pentagon, I've decided the time is right to return to the private sector," Sweeney said in a statement. MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee woman has been charged with DUI manslaughter after a fatal crash in Madison County Sunday night. A passenger in one vehicle, Richard Christison, 25, of High Springs, Florida, died, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Christison was in a Dodge Ram pick-up truck driven by Dennis Castoral, 36, of High Springs, Florida. Castoral suffered serious injuries and was taken to Madison Memorial Hospital. The driver of the first vehicle, Candace Cullen, 50, of Tallahassee, faces charges of DUI manslaughter, DUI property damage and DUI in the second degree for following too close. FHP says Cullen's Nissan Murano was traveling eastbound on I-10 in the right travel lane and Castoral's vehicle was traveling below the speed limit ahead of her while pulling a trailer. Cullen failed to slow down, FHP said, and her front collided with the rear of the trailer, causing Christison's vehicle to travel off the roadway. The trailer unit, with another vehicle on it, separated from the Ram and overturned. The pickup truck traveled sideways into a ditch, overturned and came to rest on its roof. According to Leon County court records, Cullen was charged with DUI in May 2017. Troopers respond to fatal accident in Madison County MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Troopers say a fatal accident is blocking I-10 eastbound at mile marker 260 in Madison County early Monday morning. The Florida Highway Patrol site indicates that troopers were dispatched there at 10:13 p.m. Sunday and arrived there at 10:30 p.m. Sunday. WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTXL) - If the partial government shutdown doesn't end soon, the food stamp program that benefits nearly 39 million low-income Americans may run out of funding next month. The partial government shutdown started on Dec. 22 due to an impasse between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders over funding a $5 billion wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Politico reports that if Congress doesn't act, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could run out of funding, affecting millions of people who depend on the program each month. The USDA says that eligible families will still receive their food stamp benefits for January. However, according to a report from the Washington Post, SNAP's existence is automatically renewed, but has only been properly funded through January, with emergency reserves projected to cover less than two-thirds of February's payments. If the shutdown continues through March, there would be no remaining funding for benefits. Recipients could then be facing a disruption in service or benefit cuts, both of which hurt retailers where the money is spent. According to the Washington Post, federal officials haven't said whether they'd prioritize who receives food stamps or cut benefits for everyone. The shut down may also impact how quickly taxpayers get their tax refund checks from the IRS. Child nutrition programs, including school lunch, will continue operations into February, the USDA says, as well as most other domestic nutrition assistance programs such as the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC). WIC and other domestic nutrition programs will not receive any additional federal funds during the shut down, but "can continue to operate at the State and local level with any funding and commodity resources that remain available." The SNAP, the nation's food stamp program, served 38.5 million people in September 2018 and disbursed $4.7 billion in benefits, according to the latest available data from the USDA. For more information on how the partial government shutdown is affecting the USDA, click here. According to Yahoo Finance, Florida is the 13th most impacted state. We reported on how the shutdown was affecting federal employees in Tallahassee in December. TROUP COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - Authorities in Georgia are investigating after a newborn baby was found dead inside a portable cooler bag. The Troup County Sheriff's Office says that the baby was found Sunday afternoon along the side of the road. The child's body was inside a portable cooler bag. Deputies say witnesses told them that the bag had been on the side of the road for several days. They say the bag is light blue with pictures of watermelon slices and zips at the top, front and sides. If anyone has any information regarding this case you are asked to call investigators at 706-883-1616 or Crime Stoppers at 706-812-1000. ATLANTA (AP) - A state Senate committee is recommending that Georgia take steps to help students who have dyslexia. WABE Radio reports that the committee recently submitted its final report to the Legislature. Starting in August, the committee heard testimony from parents of children with dyslexia, teachers who work with dyslexic students and education experts. The committee made three recommendations: Among them: Developing a college curriculum for future teachers, to help them identify and help children with dyslexia and other language disorders. Also, the committee suggests screening for dyslexia for all kindergarten students in Georgia's public schools. The third proposal would create statewide guidance, teacher training, and evaluation regarding dyslexia. Experts say that students diagnosed with dyslexia often have trouble identifying sounds in words and understanding that letters represent those sounds. ___ Information from: WABE-FM, http://www.wabe.org/ (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a couple racked up more than $10,000 at a Florida Keys hotel and then took off. Monroe County Sheriff's officials say Lee and Ashley Roe stayed at the Hamptons Inn on five separate occasions in recent months. The hotel manager says they didn't have to provide a credit card initially because they checked in through the hotel's reward program. Eventually they did provide a credit card, which authorities said was stolen. The pair was arrested at a residence on Saturday and were both charged with grand theft of at least $10,000. (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) The publishing house of Communication University of China officially released a blue book to examine the internet literacy of children and teenagers in the country at a themed seminar held at Beijing Normal University on December 30. According to the report, organizers surveyed 7,044 children and teenagers from 57 middle schools in 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The questionnaire was designed to learn more about their online literacy and the problems faced by such groups in the process of surfing the internet. The study looked at juveniles' literacy from the perspective of their management of personal attention, their search and utility of online information, an analysis and evaluation of internet-based information, impression management related to the internet, and the administration of personal information. Researchers gave respondents a literacy test and found the average score was just above a pass. The authors said youngsters should further improve their internet skills in the future. Children and teenagers have made a noticeable improvement in their analytic and assessment competence in relation to online information after they enter higher grades at schools. More specifically, youths from the eastern regions and first-tier cities in China have excelled over their counterparts from other areas when it comes to personal internet literacy. Girls performed better than boys in terms of their management of personal attention and information when the process of surfing the internet is taken into account. However, boys were better than girls with regards to their search and utility of online information, the analysis and evaluation of online information, and their personal impression management connected with the internet. The blue book also found a positive correlation between children's internet literacy and the number of network devices, parent-child intimacy, the frequency of parents talking with their children about the internet, as well as students' access to relevant courses and multimedia. The report indicated that the average amount of time that college students spend on new media each day is about three and a half hours and that for surfing the internet is at least 30 minutes at a time. Moreover, college students are inclined to be distracted from their academic studies by unconscious connectivity with the internet, they highly depend on digital media, underperform in their self-control competence in searching and the utility of online content, and score low in internet-related impression management. Therefore, the blue book advises the youngsters to further enhance their self-management competence, formulate an action plan to realize the targets, have a clear understanding of their goals in surfing the internet, familiarize themselves with information featuring multimedia and cross-culture, and improve personal skills in making full use of online content as well as impression management. In addition, equal efforts should be made to continually boost children and teenagers' self-development competence, show respect to their spirit of freedom and the eagerness to explore truth, and implement relevant education to help youths become more savvy internet users. (Source: China Women's News / Translated and edited by Women of China) Zhang Hong [Cyol.com] Zhang Hong, founder of the electric vehicle service provider Red Dot New Energy, attended the unveiling ceremony of the company in Beijing on December 15. As one of the first batch of reporters engaging in the auto industry journalism in Chongqing, southwest China, Zhang established the auto special issue of Chongqing Morning Post has managed it for over 20 years, in addition to create an auto team. She first joined the portal website and served as the editor-in-chief of Auto iFeng.com, and then attempted to create the new media convergence place online and offline during the Internet revolution in 2016. Zhang said that the established experience center of the brand aims to provide a communication platform to serve auto manufacturers, media and consumers. She introduced that for consumers, the experience center provides appraising and testing of mainstream brands of new energy vehicles and smart cars that are currently sold in the country. It is also the first open electric vehicle activity base which can offer various open courses, test rides, and new car appraisal sessions by manufacturers and traders. For the increasingly large number of new energy vehicle users, it is also an open platform for exchanging experiences, making friends and group travelling, as well as a professional exchange venue for various interactive salons. Wu Yingqiu, president and CEO of Globe Auto Group, commented, "The transformation of the automotive media should be highly integrated with the entire industrial chain of the automobile. I hope that the experience center can be operated as a very meaningful platform for the development of new energy vehicles, and a useful exploration of media transformation." Zhang revealed that to "shatter the iron rice bowl and start a business" requires not only courage but also the ability to remain speculative about the future of the automobile industry. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's auto industry has taken an active part in the development of the world's auto industry, which is also experiencing a booming time for the development of new energy vehicles. However, relevant promotion and popularization have not been fully utilized at present. "At the critical stage of the transformation of the media and the automotive industry, consumers' understanding and awareness of new energy vehicles needs to be further deepened, and it requires more innovation," Zhang said. Zhang added, "It is my responsibility to promote these new concepts in the market so that consumers can perceive the bright future of new energy." (Source: Cnwomen.cn/ Translated and edited by Women of China) Ballard Woman Indicted on Abuse Charges By West Kentucky Star Staff WICKLIFFE - A Ballard County woman is facing child abuse charges.According to Kentucky State Police, their agency began a joint investigation with the Department for Community Based Services after a complaint regarding the abuse of two juveniles.The investigation led to the presentation of evidence to a Ballard County Grand Jury, and they returned an indictment on 25-year-old Alicia E. Hardman of Wickliffe. She appeared in court on Friday and faces two counts of abuse 1st degree on a child under 12, which is a class C felony.State Police say the investigation is continuing. Semi Crash Leaves Driver Injured By West Kentucky Star Staff GRAVES COUNTY - A Marshall County man was injured Monday morning when the semi he was driving crashed in Graves County. The Graves County Sheriff's Office said 39-year-old Ian Stinson of Hardin was driving his semi on KY 97 when he met an oncoming semi that was across the center line. Stinson steered his truck to the right and it left the roadway and overturned. Stinson was transported to Jackson Purchase Medical Center for treatment of his injuries. Police said they have not located the second semi. 35 MPH Wind Gusts Possible Today By National Weather Service PADUCAH - The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement for today concerning strong gusty winds this afternoon.As the day progresses, south winds 15 to 25 mph, with local wind gusts to 35 mph will overspread the region.These breezy conditions will be occurring ahead of an intense area of low pressure that is expected to move from the Central Plains to Lake Michigan by this evening.If you have outdoor objects that are not secured, they may be tossed around by the winds.If you drive high profile vehicles, such as a tractor trailer or recreational vehicle, you may encounter some difficulty in steering your vehicle. This will be especially true for those traveling on roads oriented east or west today.The breezy wind conditions should drop off significantly after sunset.On the Net: Paducah Dock Receives 2nd Boaters' Choice Award By WestKyStar & Paducah City Staff According to the website, 217 marinas and docking facilities are honored for going the extra mile for boaters in the past year. The Boaters Choice Award is based on reviews by boaters. To be recognized, each facility had to receive at least three reviews averaging a rating of four or more stars out of five stars. Below are a couple of the reviews posted by boaters who enjoyed Paducahs amenities in 2018: Coming through in 2015, I couldn't understand why Paducah had no facilities for cruisers. This has now been wonderfully resolved with the new docks. I hope the town reaps the benefits from all the cruisers that stop by. I grocery shopped and had dinner in town so hope I helped the economy in some small way. The docks are a superb piece of engineering and built at considerable cost. We appreciate the town's foresight. Fantastic Dock that we will visit again and again. Within walking distance of the downtown with plenty to see and do! Restaurants and downtown merchants are many and the River Wall art and The Quilt Museum with the Ohio River are fun things to see. Thanks Paducah!! In 2018, 360 boats docked in Paducah, spending a total of 522 nights. Paducahs 340-foot-long dock is located downstream from the heart of historic downtown Paducah and provides space for transient boaters to enjoy Paducah by spending a few hours or several nights. Amenities include fuel and power pedestals. The availability of water and the sewer pump out station are seasonal with both of those amenities currently drained and winterized to prevent the freezing of pipes. City Manager Jim Arndt said, I appreciate all of the boaters who took the time to submit their reviews. As we work each day to achieve our new mission statement of being the best city in the world, we value the information we receive from citizens and tourists about our amenities and services. The Transient Boat Dock is an amazing facility that is garnering much attention from boaters who look forward to stopping in Paducah. This recognition by marinas.com makes me proud of Paducah. Parks & Recreation Department Director Mark Thompson said, I enjoy reading the reviews from boaters who visit Paducahs Transient Boat Dock. They are explorers who enjoy not only the time they spend on the river but also their time in the various ports. Boaters truly enjoy visiting Paducah, walking downtown, and exploring our various businesses. We are giving them a destination that they want to visit time and time again. They also spread the word to their friends in the boating community about what Paducah has to offer. In 2018, 360 boats docked in Paducah, spending a total of 522 nights.Paducahs 340-foot-long dock is located downstream from the heart of historic downtown Paducah and provides space for transient boaters to enjoy Paducah by spending a few hours or several nights. Amenities include fuel and power pedestals. The availability of water and the sewer pump out station are seasonal with both of those amenities currently drained and winterized to prevent the freezing of pipes. Visit http://paducahky.gov/paducah-transient-boat-dock for more information about Paducahs Transient Boat Dock including a link to Dockwa to make reservations. PADUCAH - Marinas.com has notified the City of Paducah that the city's transient boat dock is a recipient of the 2018 Boaters Choice Award. This is the second consecutive year for Paducah to receive the award which honors marinas and docks that provide an excellent home for the boating community. McCracken Deputy Jailer Honored for Selfless Act By West Kentucky Star Staff MCCRACKEN COUNTY - A McCracken County Deputy Jailer has been honored for his selfless actions last year. On Nov. 9, a detective with the Paducah Police Department, was out with a suspect at Taco Johns, at the corner of Irvin Cobb and Bridge streets. The suspect became non-compliant with the detective and a scuffle ensued. During the scuffle the detective lost control of his radio and was unable to call for assistance. McCracken County Deputy Jailer Ernie Scarritt was driving by and observed the incident. Without hesitation or regard for his own safety, he immediately assisted the detective and both were able to bring the suspect under control and into custody. Because of his actions. McCracken County Jailer David Knight has presented Scarritt with the Jailers Commendation. Knight says Scarritt's selfless actions bring great credit upon himself, the corrections and law enforcement communities, and the citizens of McCracken County. Man Arrested in August Assault, Robbery Case By West Kentucky Star Staff PADUCAH - A Mayfield man was arrested Friday in a McCracken County assault and burglary investigation.The McCracken County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded in August to a robbery and assault at a Reidland home, and identified 38-year-old Robert Brandon Early of Mayfield as a suspect.Sheriff's detectives continued to seach for Early with the assistance of Graves County Law Enforcement.Officers with the Mayfield Police Department located and arrested Early on Friday.Early was charged with first degree robbery, first degree burglary, second degree assault, and two counts of theft over $500. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit Following the August 2018 Mercator Scoping mission for Swaziland, the WCO conducted a five-day diagnostic mission on Post Clearance Audit (PCA) from 3 to 7 December 2018 in Mbabane, Swaziland. This WCO PCA diagnostic mission was delivered under the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Programme funded by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) via Her Majestys Revenue and Customs of the United Kingdom, under the auspices of the WCO Mercator Programme. After a brief opening and introduction session with the Commissioner General of Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA), the mission included extensive consultations with different directorates and units within the SRA including the Intelligence and Investigations Unit, Anti-Smuggling Unit, Warehouse Inspections Unit, ICT Directorate, ASYCUDA Unit, Legal Directorate, Origin Tariff and the Valuation Unit, Human Resources, among others. This PCA diagnostic mission was delivered in parallel with a Risk Management diagnostic mission wherein extensive discussions on the critical role of PCA in enhancing the risk management processes and improving trader compliance was covered. Considering the ongoing initiatives to encourage voluntary compliance, the PCA function is critical in mantaining a balance between control and facilitation in Swaziland. The mission also included a visit to the Ngwenya Border Post, Customs Processing Hub (CPH) and the Inland Container Depot (ICD) to directly observe the clearance processes and impact on trade facilitation. As a result of the mission, SRAs current needs in improving PCA and Risk Management capacities were identified and recommendations for forward support were presented to the SRA Management including the Commissioner General and the Commissioner for Customs on the last day. The Commissioner General expressed his appreciation for the support provided by the WCO under the framework of the Mercator Programme. MEMORIAL DAY PARADE AND CEREMONY ONE TO REMEMBER: On a beautiful day, May 31, Our Town watched the parade along Washington and attended a meaningful ceremony at city hall that honored our fallen heroes. The gathering was among the largest in memory for this important day in Our Town. First, (Jan. 7, 2019) -- Ariana Moncada is a senior double majoring in math and statistics at UTSA. This coming spring, she will be only one of 20 students from across the U.S. to participate in a mini-semester program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This exclusive research facility is a government hub that develops the latest breakthroughs in new clean technologies. Close up of the pyrometer used to calibrate the Sky-Imager irradiance observations. The UTSA student fought hard and won admission thanks in part to her work in developing UTSAs Sky-Imager, a solar forecasting technology that uses machine learning to help the City of San Antonio determine how much solar energy to expect from local solar panels. We spoke to Ariana about this incredible internship opportunity. Can you describe your work with the Sky-Imager? I analyze images and weather data captured by the UTSA Sky-Imager, and I create machine learning models to forecast solar irradiance. The solar irradiance then can be used to predict how much power solar panels can produce. How did you feel when you were notified about your acceptance to the NREL program? I was ecstatic! Ill get to see with my very own eyes research at THE renewable energy lab. Although, Ill admit, reality still hasnt set in yet. I still cant believe Ill be visiting soon. Why do you like to work in the energy field? Everyday, for everything, we all need electricity and behind electricity are energy sources like solar. Thats my drive, knowing that the work I do really does matter and affects us all. What would you tell other women and minorities about applying to top internships in the country? I would tell them apply, apply, APPLY! You may surprise yourself at what you are capable of and what other people see that you are capable and deserving of. You lose nothing by applying and just getting your name out there is very important. The sky is the limit. What is the one class at UTSA that has been the turning point in your educational career? It actually wasnt a particular class. Going to Professor [Walter] Richardsons (my faculty mentors) office hours and asking him about his research was what changed everything for me. He took a chance and believed in me, and working with him has opened up many opportunities. You are the first Hispanic female student from UTSA to be admitted to the NREL mini semester program. What does that mean to you? Personally, it means that all my hard work really does pay off. Most importantly, I hope I empower others just like me to push past the difficultiesthat being Hispanic and female doesnt define all of who you are and have to offer. You have abilities, passions, motivations and qualifications just like any other, so you can do great things too. Register for a FREE account to keep reading! Register now for a FREE account to keep reading. No cost and no credit card required! Access up to 5 articles per month when you register, or get unlimited access to all of our content online starting at $1.99 now! Already registered? Click the log in link below Welcome Guest! You are here: Home India Mixed reactions, questions on timing as govt announces quota for upper castes AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the constitution does not permit reservation based on economic status New Delhi: The Modi government's decision to provide 10 percent quota to Economically poor people from the upper castes has received mixed reactions. While the BJP and its allies have hailed the decision as historic and a masterstroke, CPI, AIMIM and other opposition parties have called it an election jumla. The Opposition also said the move is a self-goal by the present government. They also said that the 10 per cent from 50 per cent will leave only 40 per cent for general category who will feel cheated. The Congress party on the other hand has supported the decision but has questioned its timing. The Modi government's move has come just few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "Just 100 days are left for elections and Mr Modi now remembers the economically weaker sections [EWS] of the society", Congress spokesperson Randeep Sujrewala said. "The government accepted in the Parliament that there are 24 lakh vacant posts, that have not been filled by the Modi government. We are in favour of reservation in jobs, but the youth of the country are asking when will they get the jobs," he added. Reacting on the Modi government's decision, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "My question is that in the name of elections can a government cheat people or ditch unemployed youth? They've to clarify whether it will be implemented or not and if it is constitutionally and legally valid or not." In his reactions, Prakash Ambedkar, leader of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM), said, "Realising that they have lost in 3 states, the government is now playing with the administration. The 10 % reservation was introduced by the Narasimha rao government as well but it was turned down by the court." AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the constitution does not permit reservation based on economic status. "Reservations are meant to correct historical injustice to Dalits. For poverty alleviation, one may run various schemes but reservations are meant for justice. Constitution doesn't permit reservations on economic grounds," he said. On the other hand, BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe described the reservation for upper castes as a step to widen the social justice net. "Congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the historic decision of extending job quotas for economically weaker sections. A commendable step widening the social justice net and underscoring the inclusive approach of the government," he said. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya said the decision has opened a new chapter in the history of social change. Applauding Modi for the decision, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and BJP's ally RPI(Athawale) leader Ramdas Athawale described the decision as a masterstroke which could end the difference between the upper and lower caste. "The issue of reservation caused a lot of conflict between Dalits and Savarnas. My demand has always been for 25 per cent reservation for the upper caste poor, 10 per cent is a good initiative. It is a masterstroke and Modi is a strong batsman," Athawale, who is a Dalit leader from Maharashtra, said. For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App . Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. Welcome Guest! You are here: Home Haj 2019 Haj Qurrah 2019 for Maharashtra pilgrims is held today, Check your name in the list The Haj Qurrah or Draw for Maharashtra Haj pilgrims is set to be held 11:00 am today at Haj House in Mumbai Mumbai: Maharashtra State Haj Committee is set to hold today i.e. Monday January 07, 2019 the Computerised Qurrah or Draw of Lots to prepare the final list of pilgrims from the state who will perform Haj in 2019 through the Haj Committee of India. The Haj Qurrah or Draw for Maharashtra Haj pilgrims is set to be held 11:00 am today at Haj House in Mumbai. The Maharashtra Haj Committee based on its Muslim population of 1,29,71,152 has a quota of 11,907 pilgrims but it had received 35,658 applications - 23,751 more than the allotted quota. In 2018, Maharashtra was allotted a quota of 11,527 pilgrims and it had received 43,779 applications. On the other hand, the state had a quota of 9,780 pilgrims in 2017 when it had received 57,259 applications in 2017. Unlike other State Haj Committees, Maharashtra Haj Committee does not release the final Haj Qurrah list on the website. A pilgrim therefore has to check his or her name using the Haj 2019 Cover Number from the Haj Committee of India website. Steps to Check your name in Haj 2019 Final List Follow the following steps to check if your name is in the Final or Waiting List released by the Maharashtra State Haj Committee. Go to Haj Committee of India website by clicking here hajcommittee.gov.in. Brwose to the bottom of home page and look for the area similar to the one shown below Enter your Cover No in the box. Your Cover No should start with your state code. Click on the Down Arraow from 'Select State' menu and select your state. Enter Passport No in the box. Click on "Load" button. Your application status shoul appear on the computer or mobile phone screen. The Haj Qurrah process starts district wise. Before the Qurah/Draw of Lots, it was decided by the Maharashtra Haj Committee to directly select the pilgrims of above 70 years of age and women who had applied to go for Haj without Mahram. After the Draw by the Maharashtra Haj Committee the list of pilgrims going to Haj from Mumbai, Nashik, Malegaon, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Pune and other state districts and cities are now final. Those who had applied for this year's haj can check their status using cover number as explianed above. Reports coming from Kerala State Haj Committee, Andhra Pradesh Haj Committee, Telangana State Haj Committee, Jammu and Kashmir Haj Committee, Rajasthan State Haj Committee, Gujarat State Haj Committee, Karnataka Haj Committee and other states said they will complete the Haj Qurrah in the next few days - possibly before the end of the January second week. The Uttar Pradesh State Haj Committee however confirmed that it will hold the Haj 2019 Qurrah of the state on Friday January 11, 2019. The Haj Committee of India distributed its total quota of 175,025 seats to pilgrims going to Haj through it. Accordingly, a total of 125,025 pilgrims will go through the Haj Committee of India and the remaining 50,000 seats have been allotted to Private Tour Operators (PTOs). The Haj Committee of India has received a total of 267,261 Haj Application Forms (HAF) from 31 Indian states. The number of application received this year has drastically reduced due to various reasons. But, it is still more than the double of India's Haj Quota allotted by Saudi Government. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Minister of Minorities, has requested the Saudi government to increase India's quota by 20,000. However a final decision on this is yet to be taken. All the states including Maharashtra will be allotted more seats if this additional quota is granted to the country. Also, the Haj Committee of India after completing Qurrah will release the Haj 2019 waiting list on February 05, 2019. The pilgrims whose names are in the Haj 2019 waiting list will be given a chance against cancellation of pilgrims who are unable to make the payment or cancel their Haj travel due to some other reason. Haj pilgrims should note that the Hajj 2019 Flight Schedule from all embarkation points will be released by the Haj Committee of India only after the process of the Haj Qurrah is completed by all states. However, according to Haj Action Plan 2019, the first outbound flight for Haj 2019 will depart from India on July 01, 2019. The last outbound Haj 2019 flight will be on August 03, 2019. The first inbound Haj flight from Saudi Arabia to India will be on August 14, 2019. Coinciding with Eid al Adha, Haj is the annual ritual to commemorate the sacrifices made by Prophet Ibrahim, his wife Hager and their son Prophet Ismael. The likely date of Wuqoof e Arafat - the key ritual of the Hajj, is August 09 or 10. As the Islamic calendar is based on sighting of moon, the final date will be decided once the new moon of the month of Dhul Hijjah is sighted. For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App . Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. Welcome Guest! You are here: Home India Cracks in BJP-led alliance in Assam as AGP withdraws support to govt BJP supports migration of Hindus and others from the neighboring countries, but it is opposed to Assamese Muslims who are living in the state since decades [AGP leaders including party president Atul Bora meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh. (File photo/Twitter/Atul Bora)] New Delhi/Guwahati: Upset over the Bhartiya Janata Party's insistence over passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) Monday withdrew support to 2-year-old state government in Assam. The AGP is opposed to the Bill as it believes it will destroy Assam. Ever since May, Assam especially the Brahmaputra Valley has seen widespread protests against the Bill. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 and aims to give citizenship to Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Jain and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Interestingly, the BJP supports migration of Hindus and others from the neighboring countries, but it is opposed to Bangala speaking Assamese Muslims who are living in the state since decades. We made a last ditch attempt today to convince the Centre not to pass the Bill. But Rajnath Singh told us clearly that it will be passed in Lok Sabha tomorrow. After this, there is no question of remaining in the alliance, PTI reported AGP President Atul Bora as saying after meeting the home minister. The AGP, which is in alliance with the BJP (along with the Bodoland Peoples Front), has been threatening to break ties with the alliance ever since the BJP announced its intention to table the Bill. We told the Home Minister in categorical terms that this Bill will violate the Assam Accord, it will hinder the ongoing NRC updation process. We told him, Please dont do this for votes, said Bora. The AGPs exit, however, does not present any immediate threat to the survival of the BJP-led government in Assam. The BJP has 61 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly and enjoys the support of the Bodo Peoples Front (BPF) which has 12 MLAs. However, the move coming just few months before the General Elections has indeed created a problem for the ruling BJP. For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App . Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. MATCHNow Launches Conditional Orders in Canada TriAct Canada Marketplace LP, a subsidiary of ITG Canada Corporation, today announced the launch of conditional orders in MATCHNow, Canadas premier broker-neutral dark book. This conditional order functionality enables MATCHNow subscribers to electronically indicate block size liquidity in MATCHNow, providing a valuable source of additional liquidity. Conditional orders in MATCHNow have a minimum size of 51 standard trading units or C$100,000 notional value, and firmed-up orders are executed in accordance with existing MATCHNow logic, which includes mid-point execution on a pro rata basis, with broker preferencing. Given the growing complexities in equity execution, there is an increasing focus on improving overall trading performance, and on trading in larger sizes, said Bryan Blake, CEO of TriAct Canada Marketplace LP. We are excited to launch an innovative order type that gives traders the opportunity to seek price improvement on block-size orders while minimizing market impact. For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: National carrier Oman Air won the Customer Delight Award in a colourful event held in Dubai recently. The award, organised by Menaa (Middle East, North Africa and Asia Award) was received on behalf of Oman Air by its country manager for UAE, Shahzad Naqvi. This prestigious award is in its fifth year and recognises remarkable business leaders and companies for their continuing commitment to excellence as well as developing best practices and innovative strategies. Oman Air was also named as the winner of the Asia Pacific Outstanding Airline award at the Now Travel Asia Awards held in Chengdu (China) recently. It is the second year in a row that Oman Air has received this award - voted for by the readers of Now Travel Asia magazine. The award was received on behalf of Oman Air by regional vice president Far East Hamad Al Harthy and country manager Thailand Joe Cusmano. This award recognises the commitment of Oman Air towards travel and tourism in Thailand and Asia Pacific and in providing their guests with quality, comfort and a seamless passenger experience. Commenting on the awards win, Engineer Abdulaziz Al Raisi, chief executive officer, Oman Air, said: This is a great way for Oman Air to conclude the year by winning two more awards to the growing long list of awards that we have for this year. These awards are a testament of our superb services and product offerings and it is immensely rewarding to be recognised this way. Apart from winning a multitude of awards and accolades, Oman Air also added eight new aircraft to its growing fleet and opened three new destinations, namely, Istanbul (Turkey), Casablanca (Morocco) and Moscow (Russia), as well as resuming operations to Maldives. - TradeArabia News Service Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) and the European Innovation Academy launched the second edition of Arab Innovation Academy (AIA) last week, bringing together over 160 aspiring techpreneurs from Qatar and the Mena region, as well as representatives from India and Russia. In addition to having over 80 students from Qatar representing 26 different countries, AIA delegates and participants hail from numerous other countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Oman, and Yemen. AIA, the first and largest entrepreneurship program of its kind in the region, is a strategic and exclusive partnership powered by QSTP and the European Innovation Academy (EIA), the world's largest extreme entrepreneurship program. This unique program is aimed at equipping entrepreneurs in the Arab region and global community with the skillset to build their start-up in just 10 days. During the AIA, participants are introduced to an accelerated mode of experiential learning, including how to develop and launch new tech ventures in a real marketplace, with genuine customer feedback. The opening of the AIA was attended by Yosouf Abdulrahman Saleh, executive director, QSTP, and Alar Kolk, president, EIA. Speaking at the event, Saleh said: "The initiatives we have taken and the projects we are engaged in revolve around our commitment to the process of research, development, and innovation. With leading programs like AIA, we encourage our talented youth to take the next step and propel their ideas to the stage of practical implementation." "We aim to develop an innovative mindset among our talented youth to nurture an unprecedented and competitive environment in the Mena region. More importantly, we believe that investment in our region's talent pool is the key to achieving long-term economic sustainability and prosperity." As part of this hands-on and groundbreaking initiative, participants will be introduced to cutting-edge methods and tools related to the entrepreneurship journey, from team formation and ideation to pitching venture capitalists and angel investors, tactics that are accredited by leading global universities, and endorsed by QSTP, Google, and Amadeus. AIA also offers participants access to an extensive global network of prominent experts, mentors, and speakers from premiere organisations in the fields of tech entrepreneurship and innovation. The first edition of AIA accepted more than 100 participants from 11 countries to come together and develop their techpreneurial ideas. This year, AIA selected more than 160 participants from a pool of over 900 applicants, to have an enriching experience of learning from 25 speakers and 37 mentors and investors, all representing 30 different nationalities, for its second edition in Doha. - TradeArabia News Service Wika, a leading German company engaged in measurement solutions, has announced the opening of its new manufacturing and service centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The facility, which is one of its kind, will provide not only measurement solutions in pressure and temperature but also services such as diaphragm seal repair and calibration services, said the statement from the German group. Following the founding of its first subsidiary in 1960, Wika presently has 43 global companies, all thanks to its 'Think global, Act local' strategy. These include state-of-the-art production facilities in all central markets, maintenance facilities, installation equipment and teams for additional services. This new facility in Saudi Arabia is one more step in that direction, said the statement. Tino Reppe, the general manager for Wika Middle East, said: "The new facility is our commitment to Saudi 2030 vision and will be our base in Saudi Arabia to serve our huge installed base in all sectors including oil and gas, petrochemical, power and water." Over the past 60 years Wika has built a reputation as a renowned partner and competent specialist for any task in the field of measurement technology. On the basis of steadily growing efficiency, innovative technologies are applied when developing new products and system solutions, he stated. "The reliability of the products and the readiness to face all challenges of the market have been the key factors for Wika to achieve a leading position in the global market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service MBABANE Government needs E151.9 million for 592 primary schools countrywide this year. This amount is needed for Free Primary Education (FPE) following the European Unions (EU) cutting of the umbilical cord after it had been sponsoring the programme since its infancy. The EU stopped funding FPE last year. For eight years, the EU had thrown a lifeline of about E140 million before leaving government to take full responsibility of FPE funding. This effectively means the EU paid approximately E17.5 million per year. While the EU was on board, government paid for six classes, depending on the number of streams each school had. The country, according to the education and data policy centre, has a total of 330 000 pupils. These pupils are enrolled in primary and secondary education. Pupils Of these pupils, about 240 000 (73 per cent) are enrolled in primary education. With this number of pupils in primary school, government pays a minimum of E560 per pupil. When this figure is multiplied by the 240 000 pupils estimated to be annually enrolled in primary schools, it translates to an expenditure of about E134.4 million. This amount is paid annually for the pupils to the 592 primary schools and it excludes the E17.5 million paid by the EU before it stopped supporting the programme. As the EU has terminated its sponsorship of the programme, government has been placed in a predicament. This, according to the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, is because pupils cannot be left lying idle at home due to lack of sponsorship. Mabuza said government was yet to discuss the way forward on how to fund the programme in the absence of the EU sponsorship. withdrawing However, she said in the interim, the State would take over the funding of the programme in the infancy stages. Weve not engaged on the issue much but the EU stated that they were withdrawing last year and government has to take over, Mabuza said. This expenditure to be incurred by government following the decision by the trade bloc to stop its funding under the Support to Education and Training (SET) Programme, comes at the backdrop of another ludicrous spending that was accumulated in 46 days by the ministry. The ministry had to put aside over E40 million to cover the writing of external examinations following that teachers were engaged in activities that kept them away from their workstations. This was at the height of an impasse between government and members of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) over the cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA) demand. The ministry roped in security personnel to guard and ferry examination papers to the offices of regional education officers (REOs) in fear of any interference against the exams. vehicles In doing so, the ministry also leased 400 vehicles from Woodford Car Hire to assist in the execution of the aforementioned duties. Also, this expenditure comes at a time when government has failed to fund CoLA as demanded by civil servants. This 6.5 per cent CoLA demand, which unions are adamant will render the country ungovernable come January 28, needs a budget of E54.5 million per month, which translates to E654.4 million per year. If it could eventually be afforded to the about 44 000 civil servants, the wage bill can balloon to E9 billion per year. Currently, the countrys wage bill is E8.39 billion per year and is about 15 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of E57.2 billion (US$4.4 billion) as per figures contained in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website. As if that it not enough, government is in the interim failing to cope with its day-to-day obligations, which include buying electricity units, paying outstanding water bills and other utilities. This was witnessed at the national broadcaster, Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services (EBIS) where the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) gave an ultimatum to the EBIS management to either pay the outstanding bill or face termination of power. Further, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) has been vocal about the lack of medical supplies and equipment at national health centres, citing that over 20 types of drugs were not available. Health A week ago, this publication reported that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was a threat to the health of patients seeking medical help at the Mbabane Government Hospital. One of the reasons, this publication has gathered, was failure by government to ensure that the various departments have the required equipment to ensure that patients get the best treatment. government is also indebted to its suppliers to the tune of over E3.68 billion which has coerced some entities to close shop, rendering a number of employees in the private sector jobless. Meanwhile, the EU came to support the FPE programme in 2010 when government took the giant step to pay school fees for all children in the primary education sector as per the requirement of the Constitution. Initially, the EU had anticipated to fund the programme through grants for all primary school pupils until 2016, however, after the initial period elapsed, the financial support was extended for a further two years, which lapsed at the end of 2018. The education sector in the last budget presented by then Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini was E3.3 billion. Almost invariably, the education and training sector gets a larger share of the budget. This was witnessed even during the 2011/2012 financial meltdown experienced by the country. SITEKI She is a genius! This best describes Mandisa Mabuza, one of the top performers in the 2018 Grade VII examinations. The 12-year-old from Mahlabaneni Primary School in Big Bend achieved an impressive 80 per cent aggregate and was placed position six nationwide. Her story to academic stardom is both amazing and unbelievable. After having passed her Grade VI with flying colours in 2017, she was forced to leave her school (Ikhwezi Primary) after her family had moved to Big Bend. Fortunately, she got admitted to Mahlabaneni Primary School near Matata but she only started classes in March. However, this certainly did not affect her as she demonstrated her great intellectual ability by quickly catching up with the rest of the class. By the end of the term, she managed to attain overwhelming results-outperforming pupils who had attended classes since the first day of the academic year. When examinations started, Mabuza was more than ready and she once again demonstrated her intelligence by attaining overwhelming results. Im grateful to my teachers and to my parents who assisted me. I knew I was going to pass because I have always done well, she stated. She further mentioned that her motivation, among other things, was that her mother had promised to buy her a laplop if she achieved good results. But on top of that, the whizz-kid said she was motivated to work hard by her ambition to become a civil engineer. dream Her dream is right on track as she has been offered a place at the renowned Manzini Nazarene High School. Meanwhile, Mabuzas mother said she was very proud of her daughter, adding that she could have done better than what she achieved. Matseliso Msibi, a teacher at U-Tech School, said she never had any doubt that her daughter would perform well as she had been attaining good grades since the first grade. The reason I enrolled her at Manzini Nazarene High is that Im also a product of the school. Secondly, I admire the schools strong Christian values, she stated. In the Lubombo Region, Mabuza was only outperformed by Thembukulunga Dlamini from Thembelisha Preparatory School, who attained 82 per cent aggregate. MBABANE Grade VII pupils could not wait any day longer to fetch their symbols from schools and excitement was the order of the day. Hardly two days after the official release of the Grade VII results and pupils were already crowded at their school receptions to get their symbols in preparation for securing spaces for Form I. pleased On Friday, when this reporter arrived at Mbabane Central Primary School, there was a great turnout of pupils. The Deputy Head teacher, Zodwa Dlamini, mentioned that the school had done exceptionally well this year. We are pleased with this years results as two of our pupils were among the cream of the crop in the country and the overall performance was extremely well. This is a new year indeed, said Dlamini. The deputy head teacher further attributed the 100 per cent pass rate to the teamwork of teachers who showed it through committing to assist the pupils to improve in their academic work. She also said consistency was crucial in the good results they had attained. Comparably, it was likewise with Hermann Gmeiner Primary where pupils were seen returning to their destinations by 11:15am. One pupil, Nompumelelo Shongwe, was found showing a lot of excitement and exhilaration over her merit pass. Similarly, St Marks Primary School, the turnout was also large as pupils were seen queueing at the schools reception area for their results. Simon Mamba, the deputy head teacher of the school, said pupils were coming in numbers. Pupils are showing interest in their symbols and this is seen in the way they have been arriving since morning. However, some have not showed up yet but we are expecting them to come on Monday, explained Mamba. He stated that there were 11 merits, 24 first class passes, 138 second class passes, 48 third class passes and eight failures recorded. St Francis Primary, which was on the 27th position in the best performing schools, was also said to have been flooded by pupils who were anxious to see their results first-hand, although when the publication arrived at the school, the pupils had left. Head teacher Goodness Tshabalala said despite the 100 per cent pass rate, pupils had challenges in the siSwati subject. We are so thrilled about the commendable pass rate, although siSwati remains a challenge with the learners. Quite a number of those who did not do well are those who flunked in the subject, detailed Tshabalala. Prayer She dedicated the success of the pupils to the hard work and dedication of the pupils who had a teachable spirit. Tshabalala also praised the invaluable support from parents throughout the year. She also credited prayer, which she said helped pupils achieve their good marks. Tshabalala said they encouraged pupils to put God first as they were a Christian school. However, Sifundazni Primary School, which was the second best performing school had no pupils who arrived to get their results. One employee told this publication that pupils were informed to get their results today. On the other hand, some pupils did not show up in numbers. Pupils from Ezulwini Valley Primary School were a no show as the gates were shut and no one was seen around. It is worth noting that it attained one merit, seven first classes, 42 second classes, 32 third classes and 19 fails. MBABANE Agents of the now controversial Kwazi Foundation say they have been made lightning arresters for insults and abuse. They allege that they are being harassed by donors who want a refund after realising that hopes of winning the new Ford Ranger are non-existent. One of the agents also alleged that he had been threatened with death if he did not pay back the money. The Kwazi Foundation, led by founder Kwazi Masuku, ran with a promotion in which the Ford Ranger Wild-Track was bait for donors who purchased E25 tickets from agents. The foundation had promised that proceeds from the campaign would go to the poverty-stricken emaSwati. However, the promotion went into a tailspin, when the winner was given something else but not the car. Donors started smelling the rat and demanded their monies back, something that prompted Masuku to direct them to the agents for concerns. agents The agents are now desperate to shrug off any links to the organisation to clear their names. Masuku told the Swazi News last week that aggrieved donors should contact the agents after which arrangements for refunds would be made. But the agents feel the announcement was badly timed in that Masuku had not briefed them on how to deal with the influx of calls, nor had he given them the money to refund the donors. The understanding of the people is that as an agent, I was also part of the scheme and can account for all the monies received. The truth is that I was merely an employee, and my contract ended on December 20, which was the end of two months. It is wrong to say I must deal with the donors who want their money back because I do not have the capacity to deal with such, he said. The agent, who declined to be named fearing further damage to his reputation, said he had sent text messages to Masuku on his Eswatini cellphone number but did not get any reply. I wanted Kwazi to explain to me why my number was published because I stopped being an agent in December. I now drive a kombi to earn a living and have closed the chapter on the foundation. He said all that he was waiting for was a date for the charity work, so he could attend. These past two days have been hellish for me. This morning my pastor told me to take a break from the leadership role in church until I have resolved the issue, another agent said. French President Emmanuel Macron tried to reassert control over a nation wracked by increasingly violent protests with offers of tax relief for struggling workers and pensioners and an exceptional admission Monday that I might have hurt people with my words. It may not be enough. Even as Macron broke his silence on the protests in a brief televised address, yellow-vested demonstrators vowed to keep up the pressure on a man they see as arrogant, out-of-touch and president of the rich. We are at a historic moment for our country, the French leader said from the presidential Elysee Palace. We will not resume the normal course of our lives after all that has happened. Speaking with a soft voice and gentle tone, Macron pleaded for a return to calm after almost four weeks of protests that started in neglected provinces to oppose fuel tax increases and progressed to rioting in Paris and a plethora of broad demands. Its a turning point in Macrons presidency, and a crucial moment for both France and Europe. Macron rode to the presidency last year on promises of rejuvenating Frances stagnant economy and salvaging European unity. His credibility on both fronts is now deeply damaged, just as the EU struggles with Britains chaotic exit and as Frances protests have prompted copycat movements beyond its borders. French protesters spent days demanding that Macron speak publicly about their concerns. After he did, they took to French airwaves and social media to dissect his promises. It doesnt solve the problem, a protester in a yellow vest, Alain Bouche, told BFM television from a yellow-vest roadblock southwest of Paris. He said fellow demonstrators want a national referendum, too. Some protest representatives have said more demonstrations will be held Saturday, following those in Paris that turned violent during the previous two weekends. Meanwhile, students opposing changes in key high school tests are calling for a new round of protests Tuesday. Macron declared an economic and social state of emergency, ordering the government and parliament to take immediate steps to change tax rules and other policies that hit the wallets of working class French people. He responded to several of the protesters demands, promising measures that included: -a government-funded 100-euro increase in the minimum wage starting at the beginning of the new year -the abolition of taxes on overtime pay in 2019 -asking profit-making companies to give workers tax-free year-end bonuses -slashing a tax hike on small pensions, acknowledging it was unjust. One thing he didnt do: restore a special tax on households with assets above 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) that he had slashed last year. Yellow vest protesters decry the end of the tax and wanted it revived. Overall, Macron unveiled no radical changes, and clung to his vision for transforming France. Yet his costly promises will make it even more difficult to boost growth already being hammered by protests that have damaged holiday retail sales and worried tourists and foreign investors. Its more of a budgetary adjustment than a change of political course, said Benjamin Cauchy, a yellow vest protest representative. That doesnt correspond to what the French want. Some protesters just wanted one thing: Macron to announce I quit. He showed no signs of giving in. Instead, he defended his political independence and described his devotion to serving France. No French presidential or parliamentary elections are scheduled until 2022. The most remarkable part of the speech may have been the moment Macron said: I take my share of responsibility for the anger gripping France. It was an unusual admission for a president whose leadership has appeared marked by a single-minded determination to push through reforms he promised in his 2017 campaign, regardless of the fallout. I might have hurt people with my words, he said. Indeed, he wounded many when he told a jobless man he just had to cross the street to find work. Or when he told retirees with small pensions to stop complaining. Or when he suggested some French workers are lazy. However, the centrist leader insisted Monday that the protesters malaise is as old as he is 40 years and coincides with Frances struggles in recent decades to keep up with globalization. And he denounced the protest-associated violence that led to hundreds of injuries, more than 1,000 arrests and the ransacking of stores in some of Paris richest neighborhoods. Authorities will show no indulgence to those behind the vandalism and rioting, Macron said, adding that no anger justifies attacking police or looting stores. Political analyst Dominique Moisi said the important thing in Macrons speech was not only what he said but the way he said it. Macron sought to establish his authority by declaring he wouldnt tolerate violence, but also gave the impression that he understood what is happening, Moisi said. Moisi predicted the protest movement could fizzle as the holidays approach and the government launches into the public dialogue Macron promised. But that might be too little, too late. Fallout from the protests so far could cost France 0.1 percent of gross domestic product in the last quarter of the year, French Finance Minister Le Maire warned Monday. That means fewer jobs, it means less prosperity for the whole country, he said. The yellow vest protests began in November against a rise in fuel taxes which Macron retreated from last week but mushroomed into other, sometimes contradictory demands. Before his TV speech, Macron met with local and national politicians and with union and business leaders to hear their concerns but with no representatives of the scattered, leaderless protest movement. (AP) The Real Jackie Kennedy Her style and grace were legendary, and her image came to define the 1960s. She captured the hearts of world leaders, fashion icons and people all over the planet, who knew her as Jackie Kennedy, Jacqueline Onassis, or simply Jackie O. But who was the real Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis? Take our quiz and find out. Take The Quiz Posted Monday, January 7, 2019 4:20 am Many pundits predict American political warfare will worsen in 2019 and grow more ruthless in 2020 our next presidential election year. The swamp that candidate Donald Trump promised to drain is expanding. James Astill, Washington bureau chief for The Economist, wrote: As America approached the mid-point of President Donald Trumps first term, sober commentators suggested it had not been so divided since the 1850s. Political disagreement is the heart of Americas way of governing. Diversity of opinion makes our country strong as long as those elected put our country not their political ambition first. Those we elect must be willing to put their election on the line to do whats best for our nation. The late President George H.W. Bush did when he supported tax increases to lift our country from recession. He broke his 1988 campaign promise (Read My Lips: No New Taxes) and lost his 1992 re-election bid. In the early 1970s, I was a congressional press aide in Washington. I worked for a two-term Montana Republican elected at a period when Democrats had large Congressional majorities. It was a time when President Richard Nixon was being impeached for the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Building. Our nation was severely strained and Nixon eventually resigned. During the darkest days of Watergate, Alexander M. Haig Jr., a four-star Army general served as White House chief of staff. He provided stability and a sense of confidence when the president was under siege. On Capitol Hill, while Nixons impeachment was center stage, Congress conducted its business. Many good pieces of legislation passed during the Watergate crisis. For example, the northeast railroads were crumbling and the Penn Central, the regions largest, was bankrupt. The track was so dilapidated that railcars derailed at speeds less than 15 mph. Federal intervention was necessary to keep freight moving. Without a robust railroad network, millions of jobs would be lost and people would go without essentials. Congressmen Richard Shoup, R-Montana, and Brock Adams, D-Washington, were part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who helped write and pass restructuring legislation. Their bill provided interim funding for the bankrupt railroads and created Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) as a government-funded private company. Nixon signed the bill in 1974 and today those railroads are our transportation lifeline. Failure to act meant coal from West Virginia would not reach power plants supplying New York City, Boston and even Washington, D.C. During that time, electricity in the northeast primarily came from burning coal. Today, we have crumbling infrastructure needing immediate attention. Finding common ground and passing legislation is essential this year. Here are ways to help drain the morass along the Potomac. First, dial back the ridicule. Americans are tired of the daily political bickering. Get off Twitter and out from behind the television cameras. Turn 30-second sound snippets into quiet constructive actions. Second, forget about who gets credit. If the President has a good idea, Congress shouldnt automatically dismiss it and vice versa. Third, people who serve with integrity are neither saints when they agree with you nor scoundrels when they dont. They are people working hard to benefit all of us. Fourth, the President should use the upcoming State of the Union speech to unify the country. Congress, likewise, should look for ways to take those recommendations and work together. Make things happen as they did with the bill restructuring the northeast railroads. Finally, the late Bush 41 attempted to make America a kinder and gentler place and 2019 is the year to do just that. The results will be surprisingly uplifting for all of us. Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He recently retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the states oldest and largest business organization, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com. Posted Monday, January 7, 2019 4:17 am The cost to Americans for funding the border wall is $25 billion, or $74 per man, woman, and child in the U.S. This is a onetime cost. The cost of Americans funding illegal immigrants is $116 billion per year, or $341 a year per immigrant for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. This is a yearly cost and is net of any taxes paid by illegal immigrants. Three hundred and sixty-one people, on average, die trying to cross the border illegally each year. More than 7,216 people have died in the past 20 years. Why do illegal immigrants cross the border illegally? Because 90 percent are not fleeing terror, gangs or discrimination, they are seeking better opportunity than they have in their countries. If they cross illegally, they can stay in the country, work and send money home over the border until, if and when they are caught. Money is sent over the border to the tune of $2 billion a month. That money doesnt come back to this country once it leaves. Venezuela has one of the largest oil deposits in the world. Yet, Venezuelans have little opportunity under the socialist regime. It is up to Venezuela to help its people, not the United States. Guatemala has abundant mineral reserves that include uranium, sand and gravel, nickel, limestone, petroleum, coal, gold, copper, iron ore and cobalt. Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market. Mexicos natural resources include petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, and timber. El Salvadors natural resources include hydropower, geothermal power, petroleum, arable land. Forty-nine percent of Central American and 57 percent of Mexican immigrants have less than a high school education. Most that come here work in entry-level jobs. This takes away entry level jobs for our youth and those entering the workforce. It is up to the people in these countries to elect leadership or revolt against bad leadership and exploitation, just like our country did. In a survey conducted by the National Border Patrol Council, the agents union, they overwhelmingly supported adding a wall system in strategic locations, embracing President Trumps argument that it will boost their ability to nab or deter would-be illegal immigrants. Agents also said they need the government to change the catch and release policy. They often have to immediately release illegal border crossers they arrest, giving them the chance to disappear into the shadows with the 11 million other illegal immigrants in the U.S. We need to E-verify and detain illegals until their hearing, restrict welfare and build a wall. To save lives and money we need to get rid of incentives. We need comprehensive reform. If we dont fix it now, then when? Build the wall, its a good start. As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill. Sterling Heights, MI (48312) Today Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High 76F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low around 50F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The British Army has launched a new campaign appealing to recruit snowflakes and binge gamers, a direct and attention-grabbing address that has attracted a lot of controversy on Twitter from people who stopped reading the poster after the first line. The poster pays homage to the World War I Kitchener poster, putting a modern spin on the familiar Your Country Needs You template. The campaign itself subverts the expectations of the reader and highlights the merits of traits the younger generation are often mocked or belittled for. Selfie addicts are sought after for their confidence, and snowflakes for their compassion. Often, millennials who are dismissed as binge gamers or phone zombies may feel as though their traits are undervalued or not respected in the typical workplace. It is an intelligent move for the Army to reach out and contradict the put-downs that theyve probably grown used to over time. Major General Paul Nanson commented on the campaign, stating that: "The Army sees people differently and we are proud to look beyond the stereotypes and spot potential in young people, from compassion to self-belief. We understand the drive they have to succeed and recognise their need for a bigger sense of purpose in a job where they can do something meaningful." Image Courtesy of The Ministry of Defence This spin on advertising comes after Army recruitment fell short, failing to meet its target of 82,500 fully trained troops by October last year. Typically, the British Army can have some bad-press for its heavy-handed advertising and its apparent correlation with GCSE Results Day. This is something theyve been criticised for in the past, due to its predatory attitude towards younger people at a vulnerable time for them. The controversy surrounding this new angle is coming from both sides - from those who think that the posters attack and humiliate millennials, and those who think that me me me millennials are not Army material. Terms such as snowflake have become a bit of a buzzword in recent years to use against younger people who voice their offense at controversial topics or opinions. Its an interesting stance for the Army to take to associate it positively and alongside compassion - this certainly explains some of the backlash on Twitter, especially from those who throw this word around as a casual insult themselves. Others have taken offense at the incorporation of this word and taken the ad campaign at face value to be condoning its use. This trend of the British Army addressing a more sensitive, supportive angle, rather than relying on the stereotyped physical thrill has met some concerns from the public. In early 2018, the Army released an advert that was voiced by serving soldiers and directly confronted questions such as, "What if I get emotional?", and "Can I be gay in the Army?". This was critiqued in a number of publications who felt that it was pandering to political correctness, and would actively discourage potential soldiers who werent part of a minority group. Image Courtesy of The Ministry of Defence In conclusion, the Army is choosing a very deliberate direction to move in. They have chosen a little more compassion, and a little more in the way of acceptance and understanding. Despite clashing with some, and angering others, they are showing that they are listening to and taking on board feedback from the young people they seek to engage with. At the end of the day, the people they are trying to win over are this age bracket - not Nigel Farage, or the 40-year-old Twitter warriors who are battling it out online. L ead Image Courtesy of The Ministry of Defence Why the British Armys new campaign is patronising and alienating Check out the full gallery of images from the campaign below and the other side in '' by Ellen Barr There was lots of silliness and lots of emotion amongst the wins at last nights Golden Globes, and we were very much here for it. Olivia Colman arrives at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Here are a few of our favourite moments. (NB: Features snacking, and a lot of it, because actors eat too.) Olivia Colman made the worlds most British acceptance speech: As a bonus heres the press room speech that she made afterwards: Roll on the Oscars. Melissa McCarthy smuggled in 30 ham and cheese sandwiches: Next year, shes bringing hot dogs. So, Im walking through the Globes and Melissa McCarthy asked me if I wanted a sandwich. Yup, I did. It was really good. https://t.co/agpYrOVej4 Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) January 7, 2019 Read the full story here . Jameela Jamil wore jeggings underneath her dress because its cold in LA in January, guys. Forking wonderful. An experienced woman wears jeans under her golden globes gown because its forking COLD. pic.twitter.com/M9erhxbJC3 Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) January 6, 2019 Rami Malek thanked every member of Queen individually, before dedicating his Bohemian Rhapsody win to Freddie Mercury: Rami Malek dedicates his #GoldenGlobes award to Freddie Mercury pic.twitter.com/rjcDNFMyuX Mesut (@Tvvittergod1) January 7, 2019 Kristen Bell forgot about the awards and ate two breakfasts: Were with you, Kristen. And her husband Dax Shepard got involved with the snacking theme, too. Mood: Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell snacking at the #GoldenGlobes. pic.twitter.com/6vc54PB74w People (@people) January 7, 2019 These two are just adorable all round, really. Emma Stone apologised, again, for Aloha : After host Sandra Oh called out whitewashing in Hollywood. Sandra Oh: ["Crazy Rich Asians"] is the first studio film with an Asian American lead since "Ghost in the Shell" and "Aloha." Emma Stone [in the crowd]: I'M SORRY! pic.twitter.com/YI1S7sLvPH David Mack (@davidmackau) January 7, 2019 Have we forgiven her? Well let you be the judge of that one The Marvellous Mrs Maisel s Alex Borstein was not here for the levels of prep required: Good question. She celebrated afterwards with a burger, because shes a woman after our own hearts. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer gave us all colleague goals: Their good vs. evil outfit collab is all over LGBTQ+ Twitter today. sandra oh and jodie comer holding hands like a married couple at the #GoldenGlobes red carpet is what the gays DESERVED, they raised trillions for the LGBT community pic.twitter.com/8bbvfEp2lX gabi (@harleivy) January 6, 2019 Of course, Killing Eve won big. And Sandras dad gave her a standing ovation when she won her gong. Mr Ohs face in the moment his daughter accepted her Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Drama might be the highlight of the evening. Sandra Oh's father gave her a standing ovation for her #GoldenGlobes win https://t.co/HVkJi4hxCs pic.twitter.com/nJtlBdCfuf Variety (@Variety) January 7, 2019 Shes also the first Asian actor in history to win two Golden Globes (her first was in 2006 for Greys Anatomy.) Meanwhile, Will & Grace star Megan Mullally got starstruck - more than once - and shared everything on her Instagram Story And ended the night with cookie dough, because snacks. More of this realness all through awards season, please Hollywood. Image credits: Megan Mullally // Instagram You can find your client key on your subscription renewal statement or call us at the Mountain Mail at 719-539-6691. Salida, CO (81201) Today Sunshine and some clouds. Hot. High 96F. NNW winds shifting to SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 57F. SE winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Welcome back pirates! As you make your return to campus The East Carolinian has created a forum that centers around topics within the community where readers can express their experiences and concerns. With the new guidelines set in place by East Carolina University do you feel as these precautions will keep you safe? Survey Want to share some news? Have a hot news tip? Let us know what's going on! Submit News Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. . 16 9.00 17.00 20- 18- . . . . ... Michigan is the first state in the Midwest and the 10th state in the nation to legally recognize marijuana for recreational use. Medical marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2008, but on Nov. 6, 2018, Michigan went full tilt, as its citizens voted to legalize marijuana for use by anyone over the age of 21. The policy went into effect in early December. But how far did Michigan really go? How does this change in the law change things for people living with HIV and other medical conditions? Does going from a medical marijuana state to a recreational use state change anything for those living with HIV? To be honest, when I first thought of writing this piece, I fully expected to be writing an article about how much easier it just became for anyone with HIV (or any health concern) to purchase and obtain marijuana. As it turns out, that isn't the case at all. Although it is now legal to grow (certain amounts), possess, and smoke marijuana, the new law in Michigan fails to provide a pathway to purchase marijuana -- at least for now. If you can obtain marijuana, it is legal to have it and smoke it, and since the only legal way to buy marijuana is still from a medical marijuana dispensary with a medical marijuana card, the recreational user can only legally obtain marijuana if someone who can purchase it from a dispensary "gifts" it to them. So while it is legal to use marijuana, it is still currently illegal to purchase it in Michigan. The only other way to legally obtain marijuana is for the recreational user to go through the time-consuming, painstaking process of growing it themselves. Being fond of the marijuana myself, I can tell you from experience, it is not as easy as growing tomatoes. To grow your own, you have to know the difference between the "vegetative" and the "flowering" phases, you have to know how to identify the "male" plants from the "female" plants, and numerous other steps along the way. Aside from the fact that in most cases it takes at least four months to fully mature a marijuana plant to completion, growing your own is not a viable option for most. The Challenges to Dispensaries Almost immediately after weed became legal for medical purposes in Michigan a decade ago, hundreds of dispensaries popped up all over Michigan seemingly overnight, most of them in the Detroit area, and many of them operating illegally. As reported in the Detroit Free Press, "In March [2018], the state sent cease and desist letters to more than 200 dispensaries that were operating [illegally], but didn't submit applications for licenses, ordering them to shut down." In September 2018, a judge approved an injunction against closing nearly half of the 200 illegal dispensaries. Here, the details get murky. Some dispensaries have stayed open, some have closed. Some have been raided, while others have been allowed to stay open while the police watch from outside, only to arrest citizens who shopped at those dispensaries, whether the consumer had a medical marijuana card or not. In the world of cannabis, Michigan has become sort of a "Wild West" of marijuana, where the regulations and policies of law enforcement seem out of sync with the spirit of legalization. To help me sift through what is what with the state of cannabis in the State of Michigan, I reached out to Margeaux Bruner. Appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, Bruner is a commissioner for Michigan's Impaired Driving Safety Commission who describes her work as representing qualified and registered medical marijuana patients. Commissioner Bruner points out that the measure to legalize marijuana in Michigan "was one of the most widely watched cannabis initiatives, as Michigan has twice the number of qualified and registered medical participants than Colorado; second only to California." Advice for People With HIV Who Want to Access Marijuana Since HIV and AIDS are qualifying conditions to obtain a medical marijuana card in Michigan, it is important for people living with HIV to understand the facts about accessing cannabis in Michigan. Commissioner Bruner told me that most people will not be able to purchase marijuana in a dispensary for probably a year and a half to two years without a medical marijuana card. "All medical patients should continue to purchase in dispensaries. One exception being if you have a personalized patient-caregiver relationship and a unique strain of marijuana is being grown for your particular ailment," said Bruner. It never occurred to me that some particular strains of marijuana work well with some particular ailments. In fact, an article published by Harvard Medical School reveals, "One particular form of childhood epilepsy called Dravet syndrome is almost impossible to control, but responds dramatically to a CBD-dominant strain of marijuana called Charlotte's Web." Commissioner Bruner also points out, "It is important to have medical marijuana that has been tested [as it is in proper dispensaries] for fungus and mold. This is imperative for anyone with a compromised immune system." As reported in a very informative piece on November 13, 2018 in TheBodyPRO, around the nation, people living with HIV are using marijuana for a variety of reasons, and it is important for doctors to stay up to date on the latest science regarding marijuana and their patients. Patients should also make sure to discuss any marijuana use with their doctors. In Michigan, Commissioner Bruner left us with this piece of information: "Doctors' certifications can be obtained for as low as $50, and the state registration fee of $60 is reduced to $25 for those receiving medical assistance." For more information on the Michigan Medical Marijuana Program (as it is still currently the only way to legally purchase cannabis), visit the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) website. Aaron Anderson is an activist, consultant, and former talk show host. Aaron is also co-founder of ARISE (Association of Refugees, Immigrants, and Survivors of Human Trafficking Engage). He is from Cleveland and is now living in Detroit. Blackshear, GA (31516) Today Mostly sunny skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 97F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Five dead, two missing in snow-struck Austria Vienne, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Three skiers and two snowshoe hikers have died as heavy snow and avalanches hit Austria, isolating several areas of the mountainous country, authorities said Monday. Two German skiers lost their lives in avalanches in the western region of Vorarlberg on Sunday, and a Slovenian died in the region of Salzburg, rescue services said. The bodies of two missing snowshoe hikers were discovered Monday as snow caused chaos in parts of the country, blocking roads and shuttering schools. Two other hikers are still missing in the country's northeast. Up to 1.5 metres (five feet) of snow has fallen in central and north Austria since the middle of last week, with up to three metres accumulating in the mountains around Salzburg, Austria's meteorological service said. Some 2,000 people, including tourists, were left stranded in villages in the Soelktal valley in the southeast. Army helicopters used in avalanche control were grounded due to the bad weather. In the Hochkar mountain range in Lower Austria, ski resorts were closed until further notice, with inhabitants and tourists requested to vacate the area. More snow is expected this week, with up to 80 centimetres forecast from Tuesday. Reports from Italy indicate that Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene is set to be replaced by Scuderia technical chief Mattia Binotto. The rumors of Arrivabene's eviction have been swirling in the past months, and despite their denial by the man himself, Ferrari has undertaken a management reshuffle according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. Ferrari enjoyed a strong start to its 2018 campaign, marked by consecutive opening wins in Melbourne and Bahrain for Sebastian Vettel who positioned himself and the Scuderia as the outright favourites for the title, a status the pair sustained over the summer despite the German driver's blunder at his home race at Hockenheim. Victory in Belgium was followed by a sloppy race in Italy however and the start of a performance slump just as arch-rivals Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes raised their game and piled on the pressure. But the Ferrari pitwall was also held accountable by the media for its lack of decisiveness in dealing with team orders, like at Monza, or for clumsy strategy errors, like at Suzuka when the Italian squad puts its drivers on the wrong tyres in qualifying. However, in addition to its lack of rigor, Ferrari's intra-team equilibrium was also called into question during the year with rumors of big dissensions brewing between Arrivabene and Binotto. Arrivabene dismissed the gossip as fake news destined to destabilize the red team, but according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferrari president John Elkann has now opted to promote Binotto to team principal and part ways with Arrivabene, a decision that could be made official later today or this week. Born in Switzerland, a graduate of Lausanne's Polytechnic university, Binotto first joined Ferrari in 1995 as an engine engineer, working his way up to the race team in 1997. From 2009, he oversaw the Scuderia's engine and KERS development before becoming chief operating officer of Ferrari's power unit department in 2014. Binotto, depicted as a tough character with a demanding work ethic, was very much a favourite of former Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne who had earmarked the Swiss engineer for a leading role at the Scuderia before his untimely passing last summer. A proponent of shutting off the media from the Scuderia, and a man well-versed in the art of intimidation, applied within his own team, Arrivabene has been terminated, but the Italian's demise may just be the prelude to more changes at the helm at Maranello. Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! In 2017, the old Chancellor's residence was renovated for its new purpose, housing the Gregg Museum of Art & Design. Along with a new addition of over 15,000 square feet, the museum has multiple galleries along with spaces for classes and private events. Through July 4 Free History Join the Sangamon Experience, Made By Us, Civics Unplugged and organizations nationwide in exploring our complex past and facing our future together. The Sangamon Experience will be highlighting Civic Citizens in Sangamon County to showcase the positive change that can be seen when our communities work together. In addition we want to include YOU and your story, as we spread the word to all those out there who are wrestling with how and where to shape Americas future. This #CivicSeason what do you think is worth celebrating today? 217-206-7432 Letter to the Editor The efforts been renewed to bond for a new school. . Let me state the problem Everybody, including me, wants a new school, nobody wants to ... What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 712-243-2624 or email circ@ant-news.com. Bay of Plenty Do you want the opportunity to work on one of the busiest ports in New Zealand? Then read on! We have an exciting role for... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Americas overdue Middle East withdrawal By Ramesh Thakur, exclusive to the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka View(s): View(s): CANBERRA Twas the week before Christmas, when US President Donald Trump issued another bombshell from the White House. With a single tweet, he decided to withdraw all US troops from Syria over the coming months; the next day, his administration announced that the number of troops in Afghanistan, currently 14,500, would be halved. According to The Times, Trumps decision to pull out of Syria came during a phone call with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan of Turkey and took the US defense leadership by surprise. After pointing out that the Islamic State (ISIS) had been 99% defeated, Erdogan reminded Trump of his own past statements listing ISIS as the only reason for the US presence in Syria. As if on cue, Trump duly tweeted: We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there. The announced withdrawal from Syria and drawdown in Afghanistan met with consternation in Washington, among US allies, and within Trumps own cabinet. Defence Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, both resigned in protest. And yet, Trumps decision not only fulfilled a campaign promise; it also validates former President Barack Obamas own critiques of a Washington playbook that prescribes military responses to most foreign crises. According to a 2015 Congressional Research Service report, in the 191-year period between 1798 and 1989, the US used force abroad 216 times, or 1.1 times per year on average. By comparison, the US deployed force 152 times 6.1 times per year in the 25-year period after the end of the Cold War. Despite a nearly sixfold increase in the frequency of its use of force, the US has clinched few, if any, decisive military victories in recent decades. Robert A. Lovett, Defence Secretary in the Truman administration, recommended when faced with political crises that carried great risks for small gains: Forget the cheese; lets get out of the trap. The US should forget the cheese of Pax Americana in the Islamic Crescent, escape the intervention trap, and bring the troops home. On Afghanistan, neither Obama nor his predecessor, George W. Bush, ever managed to answer three critical questions satisfactorily: Why are Americans still there? What interests justify unending US sacrifices? How will the war end? These questions were never answered because there were no political consequences for failing to answer them. Joe Quinn, a veteran of three deployments there and in Iraq, observes that for 17 years, Weve tried everything: a light footprint, a big footprint, conventional war, counterinsurgency, counter-corruption, surges and drawdowns. After an Afghan policeman manning a checkpoint demanded money from him at gunpoint, Quinn concluded that the $68 billion spent on Afghan forces had not bought the essential ingredients of a fighting force: loyalty, courage and integrity. In Syria, external interference prolonged and intensified the conflict, as well as civilian casualties and suffering, but failed to dislodge the countrys dictator, Bashar al-Assad, from power. Thus, Western interference has aggravated the pathology of broken, corrupt, and dysfunctional politics across the region, from Afghanistan through the Middle East to North Africa. Truly, there is no humanitarian crisis so grave that outside interference cannot make it worse. The chorus of criticism that met Trumps Christmas announcement can be distilled into four core arguments. The first is that a precipitous withdrawal will destabilise the region. But a withdrawal after 17 years of sustained fighting in the Middle East and North Africa is anything but precipitous. Serial US interventions have left the region bleeding, broken, and dysfunctional. Stripped of its sophistry, this argument boils down to an absurdity: Because US military interventions have failed, they must be maintained indefinitely. Meanwhile, demoralised and corrupt Afghan forces are deserting en masse, and the Taliban is resurgent, having become tactically savvier with each passing year. The group has now reclaimed large swaths of the territory that it lost after the US occupation. The US military presence has become part of the problem, in which case an exit may help reestablish local and regional equilibria. The second argument is to point out that the war on terror is not finished. But this involves a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, Americas long war on terror since September 11, 2001, has created far more extremists than it has eliminated. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya have all become breeding grounds for fanatics spewing hatred against America and Americans. The US has neither the expertise and capacity nor the willpower to sustain a successful nation-building effort in such hostile environments. And besides, Saudi Arabia, Americas longtime ally, is the leading enabler of Islamic fundamentalism across the region. The third argument holds that a withdrawal by the US amounts to a victory for Russia and Iran. But those making this claim should consult a map. Russia and Iran are both neighbors of the Middle East, whereas the US is separated by an ocean. If Russia wants to own the Syrian conflict and return to Afghanistan that graveyard of empires the US should not stand in its way. The last argument warns that a US withdrawal will leave Israel exposed to its deadly enemies. But Israel is the regions most formidable military power and its only nuclear-armed state. At the end of the day, critics of a US withdrawal have no real alternatives to offer. If Trump were to agree to leave US forces in place for another six months, and then another, US voters would ask why he broke his campaign promise. And if he was to put the same question to the generals, they would say: Mr. President, we do military strategy, not politics. By the way, sir, we need just another six months to finish the job. (Ramesh Thakur, an emeritus professor at the Australian National University, is a former UN assistant secretary-general who was the principal writer of Kofi Annans second UN reform report in 2002. He is the author of The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect.) Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018. www.project-syndicate.org You can joke in these letters to the editor and disrespect our President, but his heart is with this country. His efforts are demeaned every day of his presidency by so called democrats looking for 15 minutes of fame or arm chair politicals that think it's okay to insult him and strive to go for impeachment. By all indications, not just the crown prince, but also other senior officials whom Saudi authorities have previously accused of involvement in the killing have not been charged. Instead, a small group of security personnel, who undoubtedly followed orders when they participated in the attack, are being set up as scapegoats. Those to whom the death penalty is applied will be beheaded, in keeping with the kingdom's barbarity. Iran and Russia will dominate Syria as they have done for years. Both countries have always had a greater strategic stake in Syria than the U.S. and thus were more willing to accept a high price to protect their interests there. Now both will struggle with the difficulties of pacifying and reconstructing a war-torn state. With American forces in place, Putin and the Iranians could leave some of the dirty work of confronting the remnants of Islamic State to Washington; no longer. And with the U.S., a common adversary, gone, tensions between Iran and Russia could rise. The more Syria becomes a burden for Russia and Iran, the better for the United States. "As you look at different folks who have been mentioned as people who could potentially be suspended, the goal is not to [be] like, oh this person is politically different," DeSantis said when asked if he is going to suspend Israel. "If you are going to do it, get somebody in there who is going to do a good job. That second part kind of gets lost. Who are you going to put in?" "Now my baby has gotten justice," her grieving father, Christopher Cevilla, said at a news conference reported by the Houston Chronicle. "Now we can properly put her to rest. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that that he was feeling "a bit of relief" following the arrest. Bolton will seek assurances from the NATO ally that it won't attack the Kurds when the U.S. withdraws troops from northeastern Syria. Monday's visit comes a day after Bolton said such guarantees were a "condition" of the pullout President Donald Trump ordered last month. The move, which some critics said could be illegal, shows the extent to which the Trump administration's decision to keep the national park system open to visitors is straining its capacity and potentially exposing public lands to long-term damage. During such shutdowns under the Clinton and Obama administrations, the Park Service chose to block access to its sites rather than leave them open with a skeleton staff on board. Trump officials chose the opposite course, and as trash has begun to mount, and key habitat has been imperiled, the administration is struggling to manage the problems. Meanwhile the state has moved ahead with penalizing a handful of ALFs that arent in compliance. In November, the state has entered into settlement agreements with more than a dozen ALF providers across the state to settle allegations that they failed to meet the requirements, according to a review of information on a state website. "DeSantis was opposed to taking money from Big Sugar, which is something that we're aligned on, so I'm encouraged by that," said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. "But when you look at his voting record in Congress, I think that we kind of have to wait and see. What's unique here is that DeSantis didn't really give us many policy specifics during the campaign, so the donors he appointed to these transition committees, they're going to play an even bigger role in shaping his agenda which is troubling." What data faces, cars, license plates, etc. get put into the system for the camera to pull up if it detects an individual, car, or other image? What is the criteria for entering such information? Is it objective or subjective criteria? Who decides? How long will it be retained in the database? When will it be deleted from the system? Is there a board policy set on all of this and upon what current case law is it based? he asked. Within days of the murder, the Publix clerks who sold the flowers and balloons and the costume store employees who sold the clown suit all picked Sheila Keens picture out of a photo lineup. Police even found the Chrysler LeBaron believed to be driven by the clown parked outside a supermarket eight miles from the Warren home. A later search of the vehicle turned up orange fibers from a wig and several strands of long brown hair. Really disappointed to see (Marjory Stoneman Douglas) Commissioners Sheriff Gualtieri and Sheriff Grady Judd all over NRA TV trying to sell the idea of arming teachers, Guttenberg tweeted on Friday. Turns out they have been on NRA TV multiple times during the commission hearings. They know the audience they are speaking to. His business acumen earned him accolades internationally he earned the honor of Chevalier de lOrdre du Merite Agricole from the French government and the Order of Merit First Class from the German president. He also was made an honorary consul for Guatemala nearly three decades ago. The implosion of Bayit Yehudi, which had been the strongest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing coalition partners, is a function of its leaders. The pair were forced out of the Likud by personal antagonism with Netanyahu, and profited from an awkward alliance with the rump of the old National Religious Party and other even more extreme personalities. But if Bennett is to ever achieve his ambition to succeed Netanyahu, hes got to get back to the Likud. His goal is for his new party, which will attempt to bring together religious and secular voters, to do well enough to be part of the next government and then merge with Likud whenever Netanyahu falls. Residents have been asking us to open here for a long time, said Warehouse Manager Ed Flaherty, saying that previously the closest Costco to Coral Springs residents was 11 miles away in Pompano Beach or 20 miles away in Boca Raton. Synamedia makes CES debut, offering pay-TV providers frictionless cloud migration strategies, new revenue opportunities Credentials Sharing Insight premieres alongside other demos, showcasing Synamedias expanded video security portfolio LONDON( ) Synamedia, the largest independent video software provider, will bring its newest solutions to CES 2019, illustrating how pay-TV providers can migrate to the cloud at their own pace, and seamlessly. The company also unveiled new security software that combats the rapid rise in account sharing between friends and families, turning it instead into a new revenue-generating opportunity for operators. Synamedia is bringing to market effective solutions built to support customers wherever they are on their journey to deliver a blended broadcast and OTT multi-screen experience. Now an independent business, the company is committed to providing the worlds most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end open video delivery solutions. Synamedia was formerly Ciscos Service Provider Video Software Solutions business. Its enviable portfolio of over 200 pay-TV and media customers includes AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Disney, Liberty Global, Rogers, Sky, Verizon and Vodafone. At the core of the Synamedia offerings is Foundation (formerly known as Evo), the pay-TV industrys most widely deployed platform across cable, satellite and IPTV. Additionally, Infinite allows blended broadcast-OTT services to be delivered from a cloud-based infrastructure. With a clearly defined migration roadmap, pay-TV customers using the Foundation hybrid broadcast platform can now deploy Infinite to embark on a smooth and measured transition to the cloud. At CES 2019, Synamedia will showcase its leading technologies and latest offerings, including: Credentials Sharing Insight is a new offering within the video security portfolio. It uses AI, machine learning and behavioral analytics to identify, monitor and analyze credentials sharing activity across consumer accounts. It allows operators to turn casual sharing into incremental revenue, as well as detect and apply enforcement procedures on fraudulent, for-profit credentials sharing accounts. Video Processing features Synamedias patented low-latency ABR and Smart Rate Control that optimize IP video processing to match traditional broadcast quality, reliability and cost currently major challenges for IP video streaming. Synamedias ABR solution uses patented technology to optimize the perceived quality of live streams. It includes machine learning techniques to further adapt the encoding quality target to match content characteristics. Foundation which manages and monetizes in-home experiences on a broad range of broadcast and hybrid-IP set top boxes (STBs) and media gateways including Android TV. Deployed by 40+ pay-TV operators, it offers a smooth migration path to Infinite and the cloud. A prime example of the power of Foundation is a first-of-a-kind integration of the Netflix application on the OSN Network. This integration enables: Consumers to gain convenient access to OTT content via a single application; The OTT provider obtains access to the pay-TV service provider market and the existing billing/payment relationship between the customer and pay-TV provider; The pay-TV operator continues to bring value to consumers via a familiar application, and can generate additional revenues when new subscribers sign up for OTT via their platform. which manages and monetizes in-home experiences on a broad range of broadcast and hybrid-IP set top boxes (STBs) and media gateways including Android TV. Deployed by 40+ pay-TV operators, it offers a smooth migration path to Infinite and the cloud. A prime example of the power of Foundation is a first-of-a-kind integration of the Netflix application on the OSN Network. This integration enables: Infinite is a fully integrated cloud service platform for pay-TV operators to process, secure, distribute and monetize premium video experiences on all devices including those available via Foundation. Infinite enables operators to take advantage of the cloud economy and re-capture subscriber share of wallet by offering products, such as Cloud DVR, that leverage new business models and OTT partnerships. It is designed to help operators attract new customers, reconnect cord cutters, and increase the life-time value of a subscriber base. At CES, Synamedia will showcase a joint demo with Amazon Web Services, using Alexa technology integrated into Infinite in order to provide consumers with voice activated recommendations and content information. More and more of the consumers share of the video wallet expands beyond traditional pay-TV, pointing operators to the enormous OTT opportunity. To protect and grow new revenue streams and boost their brand value, operators need to broaden and deepen existing subscriber engagement, and entice new audiences. To do so, the sometimes difficult first steps for many are to add integrated OTT services and avail offerings across all consumer devices, which can seem overwhelming. Our roadmap takes a step-by-step approach that makes it easy to extend operators existing offerings and avoid any disruption to subscribers, said Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia. Synamedia will be in Chambertin 1 on the ground floor of the Wynn hotel. Appointments can be booked here. Synamedias voice recommendation technology will also be shown in the Amazon booth, Venetian Ballrooms C-D. About Synamedia As an independent business, Synamedia is committed to providing the worlds most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end open video delivery solution. Building on more than 30 years of expertise, the firm is the largest global provider of video solutions, trusted by over 200 top satellite DTH, cable, telco and OTT operators, content owners and broadcasters. Synamedia is backed by the Permira funds. Twitter: @synamediaSPVSS I cant help it. When I think Diesel, I think catalog cigar. Back when I was single living in an apartment in Northern Virginia, I can remember leafing through thick catalogs mailed to me by Cigars International, each page making its case for whatever disposable income I had (which wasnt very much at all). I spent many hours longingly studying the photos and descriptions of all the tasty treats. To me, those catalogs were cigar porn long before the phrase became a hashtag on social media. I must have seen enough ads for Diesel because, on more than one occasion, I ponied up for some Unholy Cocktails. Some liken a fine cigar to a harmonious symphony, I wrote of the Unholy Cocktail in 2010. To me, [its] more like a ZZ Top songunpolished, familiar, simplistic, repetitious, and somewhat heavy. But its also catchy. And the price rocks. Boxes of 30 sell for just under $100, rendering the Unholy Cocktail a smart buy if youre looking for a cheap full-bodied torpedo. Diesel debuted as an exclusive to Cigars International and Cigar.com in 2009. That makes 2019 the tenth anniversary of the brand. And everyone knows no industry loves its anniversaries more than the cigar industry; no milestone is wasted without a commemorative cigar. In keeping with tradition, master cigar maker A.J. Fernandez recently added the Diesel d. 10th to the Diesel portfoliowhich, over the years, has expanded to include Diesel Unlimited, Unlimited Maduro, Whiskey Row, Rage, Uncut, Delirium S.E., and Wicked. The three-vitola d. 10th is offered in a Short Robusto (4.5 x 52), Torpedo (6 x 54), and Robusto (5.5 x 52). The latter retails for $115 for a box of 20, or $45 for a 5-pack. Those friendly prices are in keeping with the Diesel value proposition, just like the assurance of a full-bodied experience is in keeping with the Diesel reputation. 100% full-bodied, 100% full-flavored, and 100% Diesel, reads the copy at Cigars International. The d. 10th recipe calls for an Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. The Robusto is, put simply, menacing. Its toothy, firm, rustic, and black. At the foot, I find pre-light notes reminiscent of cocoa and green raisin. The cold draw is clear. This is not one of those cigars that eases in to its strength. The Robusto is full-flavored from the get-go with tastes ranging from black pepper, espresso, cedar, oak, and a bit of cayenne heat on the lips. Smoking through the nose serves to amplify the intensity and bring out a few additional sensations, including roasted cashew, char, and natural tobacco sweetness. Just as Im about to write off the d. 10th as too much power for powers sake, it backs off the accelerator around the one-third mark. Here, the notes of cashew become more pronounced, and the creaminess comes through more clearly. Even so, I would characterize the body as on the high end of medium, verging on full. It remains this way until the final third, which is characterized by a reprise of power, power, and more power. I burned my way through a five-pack for this review. Each Robusto exhibited exemplary construction, including a straight burn line that requires zero touch-ups along the way, a solid gray ash, clear draw, and voluminous smoke production. Anyone who has been following the Diesel brand wont be surprised to hear the d. 10th is powerful and cost-effective. It packs a lot of punch for your dollar. Its also not going to wow anyone with its complexity or nuance. In my book, that earns a score of three and a half stogies out of five. [To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.] Patrick A photo credit: Stogie Guys Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. After joining Topeka Public Schools as superintendent, Tiffany Anderson began visiting youth in the correctional facility in 2017 and holding formal graduation ceremonies as they completed high school requirements in an effort to restore hope and dignity to students. Photo: Topeka Public Schools Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Milton, PA (17847) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Partly cloudy skies early. A few showers developing later in the day. High 73F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 52F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. McHale rakes have been tested in the worlds most difficult conditions in order to deliver a machine which is efficient and reliable in all terrain. Martin McHale, Sales & Marketing Director at McHale explained: We are an Irish company and do a lot of product testing here and throughout the world in parts of New Zealand, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom from which we get a lot of good feedback. This allows us to develop heavy duty products suitable for heavy crops. We had a number of rakes out with customers over the last two seasons and the feedback has been excellent, customers liked the heavy duty build quality and also the unique McHale features. The McHale R 68-78 rake is an ideal machine for those who want to get the best fodder by delivering an aerated swath. The rakes deliver an ideal swath for high output baling or harvesting. The pivoting headstock of a McHale rake couples into the tractor linkage arms and controls the steering system. On the McHale R 68-78 rake the drive line flows through a wide angle gearbox to the individual rotors. Each rotor on the McHale centre delivery rake picks the crop only once and places it in a loose aerated swath. The rotors on the McHale centre delivery rake are suspended centrally and both rotors operate at equal ground pressures across the working width. The suspension system allows the rotors to follow all ground contours regardless of the terrain. McHale centre delivery rakes are powerful but gentle on the crop, delivering the perfect row. The McHale R 68-78 twin rotor centre delivery rake is equipped with a height adjustment indicator so tine height can be adjusted easily. The tines on each tine arm guarantees the cleanest sweep delivering uncontaminated fodder into the row. The tine movement can be adjusted allowing the operator to adjust the cam angle which in turn adjusts when the tine releases the crop to cater for different crop conditions. Visitors to the LAMMA show at the NEC, Birmingham on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th January will be eligible to a discount on all Topcon X35 and X25 Autosteer kit purchased at the show and will also be able to take advantage of a free activation of Topcons Auto Headland Turn feature. The 12.1 inch X35 and 8.4 inch X25 are Topcons fully featured, colour screen auto-steering and guidance consoles. Both use Topcons Horizon software to provide icon-based and user-definable views to control a range of farming operations: from auto-steering tractors, sprayers and combines, to controlling variable rate applications and automatic section shut-off of spreaders, sprayers and drills. Topcons Auto Headland Turn function enables machines equipped with a Topcon auto-steer system to make fully automated turns at headlands using alternating, infill and single direction infill patterns. On Thursday 17 January, the 833-hectare Capenoch Estate, owned by a partnership of Robert Gladstone and his son John, will host Sapling to Sawmill, which will provide an insight into the importance of good design and establishment techniques for timber crops, as well as looking at the factors which can influence prices at harvesting. With more than half of the estate (477ha) devoted to forestry, there is a regular timber harvesting programme at Capenoch, with Robert currently planting around 17ha of enclosed land this winter. By improving the land remaining in agriculture, he hopes to maintain stocking numbers. FAS, which is delivered by experts from SAC Consulting, part of Scotlands Rural College, will host a second Sapling to Sawmill event on Tuesday 22 January at Townhead Sawmill, New Abbey, Dumfries. Operated by James Kingan and Sons, David Kingan will lead a tour of the sawmill, which supplies a wide range of fencing timber, timber for farm buildings and pallet wood and can also cut to order. Amhereez (Liberated Territories), January 7, 2019 (SPS) - The Sahrawi People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on Sunday performed a military maneuver in the northern sector, Amhereez region, in the presence of President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Brahim Ghali. The maneuver was attended by members of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, the Government, the General Staff of the Army and delegations from national institutions and the occupied territories of Western Sahara. The maneuver that lasted for several hours in the 4th military region sector was carried out by various infantry, air defense, engineering, and supply and support units of the fighters of the military region. The implementation of such combat drills is essential to train units and individuals on combat operations close to reality, as well as to examine the combat readiness of units and ability to perform the required tasks accurately. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA Strasbourg, January 6, 2019 (SPS) - The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that EU follows closely the situation of the Sahrawi prisoners of Gdeim Ezik group in the Moroccan prisons, underlining that EU expresses regularly its concerns about the suspected cases of ill treatment and the impunity from which suffered these detainees. Asked at the European Parliament about the situation of four Sahrawi prisoners of Gdeim Izik group, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2013 and subjected to continuous periods of isolation and ill treatment, Mogherini affirmed that EU follows closely the situation of Sahrawi detainees in Moroccan prisons. The four Sahrawi detainees Sidi Abdallah Abbahah, Mohamed Bourial, Mohamed Lamin Haddi and El Bachir Khadda are political prisoners belonging to Gdeim Izik group who were sentenced in 2013 to 20 years improsnment. They were imprisoned in different Moroccan jails and are now in Tiflet where they are subjected to ill treatment, according to the question asked to Mogherini. The four prisoners were also isolated for continuous periods without any human contact and deprived from their rights. The Euro deputies also wondered about the reason which allows Morocco to remain immune from an EUs condemnation while it continues its ill treatment practices towards the Sahrawi prisoners, infringing thereby the most basic human rights. In its written reply, Mogherini ensured that following the situation of the Sahrawi detainees in the Moroccan prisons includes the presence of the EUs delegation in Rabat as an observer in civil proceedings, adding that representatives of the EUs delegation meet regularly with the National Human Rights Council to improve health and detention conditions of Gdeim Izik groups prisoners. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Avi Loeb on the Mysterious Interstellar Body 'Oumuamua 'Thinking About Distant Civilizations Isn't Speculative' Astronomer Avi Loeb believes that the interstellar object dubbed 'Oumuamua could actually be a probe sent by alien beings. Given the evidence that has so far been gathered, he says, it is a possible conclusion to draw. Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. Are you looking for a Social Media Agency in Manchester? Social Media Marketing is about making your brand image known... So, it s not new for Google to update its ranking signals. Near the end of October 2020, they introduced... CBD, also known as cannabidiol, is a chemical compound found in cannabis plants, which is commonly used in the medicinal... In the past 20 years, weve seen a total revolution in information transparency. We have the option to research and... I Agree This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy Gabon foils coup attempt, with ailing president out of country Libreville, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Gabon foiled an attempted coup on Monday, capturing the rebel chief and killing two of his men after a group of soldiers stormed a radio station to call for an uprising while the country's ailing president was abroad. Renegade soldiers burst into RTG state radio broadcasting offices in the capital Libreville at dawn and urged the public to "rise up", in an appeal made as President Ali Bongo was in Morocco recovering from a stroke last year. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the elite Republican Guard, two of them carrying assault rifles, were visible on a video of the speech released on social media. But security forces stormed the building soon afterwards, capturing the commander, killing two of his men and freeing radio technicians who were held hostage and forced to help the mutineers make their broadcast, the presidency said. "The situation is under control," it said in a statement. Shots were heard earlier around the state broadcasting headquarters in the centre of capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT). Security forces were deployed across the city and will remain there over the coming days, a government spokesman said. The Republican Guard was stationed around the radio building, armoured vehicles blocked access to the area and a helicopter circled overhead, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people had earlier torched a car and set fire to tyres before security forces dispersed them with tear gas. But much of the city was deserted, with businesses closed and local and foreign companies telling their workers to stay home. The dramatic developments came as Bongo was staying at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the country since October. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attempted putsch and called on all political actors to follow the constitution. "The secretary general has always stood against unconstitutional changes of power, especially by force, and in that light, he condemns the attempted coup that took place this morning in Gabon," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The UN envoy for Central Africa, Francois Lounceny Fall, who is based in Libreville, was closely monitoring the situation and is ready to offer assistance if needed, the spokesman said. The African Union and former colonial power France also strongly condemned the attempted coup and warned against any "unconstitutional" change of power. - 'Democratic transition' - The rebel message was read on state radio by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, describing himself as deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces. He said a "national restoration council" would be formed "to guarantee a democratic transition". The movement "calls on all young people from forces for the defence and security and Gabonese young people to join us," the officer said. "The eagerly awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos. "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up... Rise up as one and take control of the street," he said, urging people to seize public buildings and airports. - 'A difficult period' - The 59-year-old Bongo has not been back to Gabon since he suffered a stroke in Saudi Arabia on October 24. In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of his powers to the prime minister and the vice president. On December 31, Bongo addressed the country for the first time since falling ill, saying in a recorded speech from Morocco that he had "been through a difficult period." His critics seized on signs of apparent ill-health, noting that the address was unusually short, his speech was slurred and his right hand seemed stiff and immobile. The speech was "shameful," the officer said in Monday's address, describing Gabon as "country (which) has lost its dignity." The Bongo family has governed the equatorial African nation for five decades. Bongo took over from his father Omar, who took office in 1967 and gained the reputation of a kleptocrat -- one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune derived from Gabon's oil wealth. He was also a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a now much-contested strategy by which France bound itself to its former African colonies through cronyism, often tainted with corruption and rights abuses. Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009. He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. ah/pm/gd Israeli F-15 lands safely after losing canopy at 30,000 feet Jerusalem, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 The crew of an Israeli air force F-15 warplane fought freezing temperatures and buffeting winds to bring their aircraft down after its cockpit canopy flew off at 30,000 feet, the military said on Monday. In a dramatic cockpit voice recording of the January 2 incident airmen can be heard shouting to one another over the roaring wind and engine noise, in what a military statement said were temperatures of -45 degrees Celsius (-49 Fahrenheit). "Are you all right," the navigator asks the pilot, identified in the statement as "captain Y". "Yes I'm fine," he replies. "We are without a canopy, proceeding for landing at the nearest base," the pilot says over the radio in a calm voice. He then notifies controllers he is heading to Nevatim air base in southern Israel. The landing went without further incident, the statement said, adding that the air force chief of staff ordered an immediate halt to training flights in F-15s pending an investigation. Haaretz newspaper said the air force has had a fleet of US-made F-15s since the 1970s and it had been considered the country's top warplane until it began taking delivery of the US F-35 stealth fighter in December 2016. Gabon says coup bid thwarted, as president abroad Libreville, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Gabon said it foiled an attempted coup on Monday after a group of soldiers called for a popular uprising while the country's ailing president was abroad. The soldiers burst into state radio offices at dawn and urged the public to "rise up," in a broadcast made as President Ali Bongo remained in Morocco after suffering a stroke last year. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the elite Republican Guard, two of them carrying assault rifles, were visible on a video of the speech released on social media. But security forces stormed the building, capturing the rebel chief, killing two of his team and freeing journalists and technicians who had been held hostage and forced to help the mutineers make their broadcast, the presidency said. "The situation is under control," it said in a statement. Shots were heard earlier around the RTG state broadcasting headquarters in Libreville, capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT). Security forces were deployed in the capital and will remain there over the coming days in order to maintain order, a government spokesman said. The Republican Guard was stationed around the radio building, armoured vehicles blocked access to the area and a helicopter circled overhead, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people torched a car and set fire to tyres, while the security forces fired teargas to try to disperse them. Elsewhere, much of the city appeared deserted, with businesses closed and local and foreign companies telling their workers to stay home. Internet access was also briefly cut on government instructions, said an employee of Canal+, one of the main internet providers. The dramatic developments came as Bongo is living at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the country since October. - 'Democratic transition' - The rebel message was read on state radio by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, describing himself as deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces. He announced a "national restoration council" would be formed "to guarantee a democratic transition for the Gabonese people". The movement "calls on all young people from forces for the defence and security and Gabonese young people to join us," the officer said. "We cannot abandon our homeland," the officer said. "The eagerly-awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos. "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up. Wake up your neighbours... rise up as one and take control of the street," he said, calling on the people to seize public buildings and airports. The African Union and France strongly condemned the attempted coup and warned against any "unconstitutional" change of power in Gabon. - 'A difficult period' - The 59-year-old Bongo has not been back to Gabon since he fell ill in Saudi Arabia on October 24. In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of the powers of the president to the prime minister and the vice president. The statement read out on Monday attacked the arrangement as "illegitimate and illegal." On December 31, Bongo addressed the country for the first time since falling ill, saying in a recorded speech from Morocco that he had "been through a difficult period." His critics seized on signs of apparent ill-health, pointing to an address that was unusually short, his slurred speech and a right hand that seemed stiff and immobile. The speech was "shameful," the officer said in Monday's address, describing Gabon as "country (which) has lost its dignity." The Bongo family has governed the equatorial African nation for five decades. Bongo took over from his father Omar, who took office in 1967 and gained the reputation of a kleptocrat -- one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune derived from Gabon's oil wealth. He was also a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a now much-contested strategy by which France bound itself to its former African colonies through cronyism, often tainted with corruption and rights abuses. Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009. He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. ah/ri/wdb/pma Visits to Israel by Iraqi officials stir controversy Baghdad, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Visits by Iraqi officials to Israel announced by the Jewish state stirred controversy Monday in Iraq, where the deputy parliamentary speaker demanded a probe to identify those who crossed a "red line". Israel's foreign ministry said on Twitter on Sunday that three Iraqi delegations visited Israel in 2018, and details were also later released by media. Baghdad does not recognise Israel, and is technically in a state of war with it. First deputy speaker of parliament Hassan Karim al-Kaabi called in a statement for "an investigation... to identify those who went to the occupied territory, particularly if they are lawmakers". "To go to the occupied territory is a red line and an extremely sensitive issue for all Muslims", the statement said. Kaabi is close to Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, whose bloc won the largest number of seats in Iraq's legislative election last year. Israel's foreign ministry said on Twitter that the 15 Iraqi visitors were "influential Shiite and Sunni personalities in the country", but did not give names. The ministry said the Iraqi travellers had visited "Israeli officials and universities", as well as the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. A spokesman for the memorial told AFP that "a group of 10 Iraqis" had "undertaken a guided tour in late December". He said he was not able to give details on the identity and roles of the Iraqis. Private Israeli TV station Hadashot, which described the Iraqis as "local leaders", said Sunday that they had stressed they were not taking part in an official visit and that secrecy was paramount. A significant Iraqi Jewish community lives in Israel and regularly calls for a normalisation of ties between Baghdad and the Jewish state. But the question remains sensitive and Israel's support for an independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan in late 2017 provoked Iraqi officials' ire. Israel was the only country to back the vote, which Baghdad deemed illegal. In 2017, a former Miss Iraq sparked a storm when she took a selfie with Miss Israel. Gabon says coup bid thwarted, as president abroad Libreville, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 A group of soldiers sought to take power in Gabon on Monday while the country's ailing president was abroad, but the government declared the bid had failed and the rebels had been arrested. Soldiers burst into state radio offices at dawn and called on the public to "rise up", an appeal made as President Ali Bongo remained in Morocco after suffering a stroke last year. Shots were heard around state broadcasting headquarters in Libreville, capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT). But within a few hours, government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told AFP: "Calm has returned, the situation is under control." Of the five who entered the radio station, "four have been arrested and one is on the run," according to Mapangou. Security forces have been deployed in the capital and will remain there over the coming days in order to maintain order, he said. The gunfire, he said, was used to control a crowd. The elite Republican Guard was deployed around the building and armoured vehicles blocked access to the area, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people torched a car and set fire to tyres, while the security forces fired teargas to try to disperse them. The dramatic developments came as Bongo is living at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year's Eve but has not been in the country since October. - 'Democratic transition' - A message was read on state radio by a person who identified himself as Lieutenant Ondo Obiang Kelly, the deputy commander of the Republican Guard and head of a previously unknown group, the Patriotic Youth Movement of the Gabonese Defence and Security Forces (MPJFDS). He announced a "national restoration council" would be formed "to guarantee a democratic transition for the Gabonese people". The movement "calls on all young people from forces for the defence and security and Gabonese young people to join us," the officer said. Three soldiers wearing the green beret of the Republican Guard, two of them carrying assault rifles, were visible on a video of the speech released on social media. "We cannot abandon our homeland," the officer said. "The eagerly-awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos. "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up. Wake up your neighbours... rise up as one and take control of the street," he said, calling on the people to seize public buildings and airports. - 'A difficult period' - The 59-year-old Bongo has not been back to Gabon since he fell ill in Saudi Arabia on October 24. In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of the powers of the president to the prime minister and the vice president. The statement read out on Monday attacked the arrangement as "illegitimate and illegal." On December 31, Bongo addressed the country for the first time since falling ill, saying in a recorded speech from Morocco that he had "been through a difficult period." His critics seized on signs of apparent ill-health, pointing to an address that was unusually short, his slurred speech and a right hand that seemed stiff and immobile. The speech was "shameful," the officer said in Monday's address, describing Gabon as "country (which) has lost its dignity." The Bongo family has governed the equatorial African nation for five decades. Bongo took over from his father Omar, who took office in 1967 and gained the reputation of a kleptocrat -- one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune derived from Gabon's oil wealth. He was also a pillar of "Francafrique" -- a now much-contested strategy by which France bound itself to its former African colonies through cronyism, often tainted with corruption and rights abuses. Ali Bongo was elected head of state after his father's death in 2009. He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud. The African Union said it "strongly condemns" the coup attempt and reaffirmed its "total rejection of all unconstitutional change of power". Nonprofit groups join industry in self-driving campaign Las Vegas, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Advocacy groups representing the elderly and the blind joined automotive and tech firms Monday to launch an educational campaign to explain the benefits of self-driving cars. Joining in the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas were tech firms including Intel and Nvidia, automakers such as General Motors and Daimler, and organizations including the National Council on Aging and National Federation of the Blind. They announced the formation of a Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE), which will hold events across the US to help consumers and policymakers get more information about autonomous driving. The launch comes amid progress toward fully autonomous navigation but also considerable public skepticism about driverless vehicles. While not created as a lobbying group, PAVE will attempt to provide better information and correct misinformation on the topic, it said. "PAVE will seek to bring realistic, factual information to policymakers and the public so consumers and decision-makers understand the technology, its current state and its future potential -- including the benefits in safety, mobility and sustainability," a statement from the group said. "People are understandably confused," said Kyle Vogt, a founder of Cruise Automation, a unit of General Motors. "There's a lot of misinformation circulating." Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, invoked a "pivotal moment" for automotive safety, saying the public should understand how automation can reduce the estimated 40,000 road deaths annually in the United States. The mission, she told a news conference, "is to help Americans better understand these misunderstood technologies." Mark Riccobono, president of the National Federation for the Blind, said advances in autonomous driving could offer enormous benefits to the visually impaired and other people with mobility issues. "Bringing greater freedom and mobility to those who are not currently part of the driving class will be truly transformative for our nation," Riccobono said. Other organizations in the coalition include the US Chamber of Commerce, American Automobile Association, American Public Transportation Association and the Consumer Technology Association. Privacy becomes a selling point at tech show Las Vegas, Jan 7 (AFP) Jan 07, 2019 Apple is not among the exhibitors at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, but that didn't prevent the iPhone maker from sending a message to attendees on a large billboard. "What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone," Apple says in the message to be seen by tens of thousands attending the Las Vegas tech show. The message comes as gadget makers are concerned about data protection scandals and in many cases looking to make their own point about respect for privacy. Some companies are offering better ways of protecting internet routers or services without a need for an internet connection -- reducing the potential for data leaks and breaches. Dutch startup Scalys is showing its Trustbox, a router that aims to protect the user's connection as well as devices using it. Another router from Chicago-based Winston stops tracking and surveillance and can also block ads and geolocation. The data scandals "are like Christmas presents for us," by prompting more consumers to look for better security, said Winston founder Richard Stokes. "As we see more things being connected I think that you'll definitely hear people talk about security more and really looking at how would you secure the data," said analyst Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. "More companies are going to take kind of a cue from the marketing that Apple has been doing." - Extra layers of protection - An estimated 74 million Americans have smart speakers, according to the research firm eMarketer, with Amazon and Google controlling the lion's share of the market. One of the fears of customers is that these devices are always listening, potentially putting privacy at risk. One device being launched at CES is called Mute from a startup called Smarte, creating a layer of protection to stop the devices from picking up conversations not intended for queries. French startup Snips is offering its own digital assistant which can be installed on a device without an internet connection. "Customers are turning to us because they don't want to depend on Big Tech," said Snips founder Rand Hindi. Hindi said the argument from tech firms that they need user data to make things work is false. "The only reason they need your data is to target you (with ads) to the maximum," he said. Analyst Bob O'Donnell of Technalysis Researchers said more companies are starting to wake up to issues surrounding privacy and data protection in light of the revelations on Facebook and others over the past year. "We've all started to become painfully aware of how big (and far-reaching) the problem of data privacy is," O'Donnell said. jc/rl/ska Facebook APPLE INC. GOOGLE ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. You are the owner of this article. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Great River Greening will soon work with the Minnesota DNR to seed a new forest just outside Faribault. (Photo courtesy of Great River Greening) Enterprise, AL (36331) Today Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 94F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. 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Yami interacted with the media when she visited a radio station to promote the film along with her co-actor Vicky Kaushal. The film is based on the Indian Army's 2016 surgical strikes inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in retaliation for the Uri attack. "We anyway make less patriotism infused films, so after a long time the audience will see something like this which is based on a very important true event. We really hope the audience loves the film," Yami said. On the audience response to the film's trailer, Yami said: "There is happy nervousness and excitement about the release of the film within our team. The kind of response we have been receiving for the trailer of the film is really amazing. "Wherever we are going to promote the film, people are saying they are really looking forward for the release of the film because it is for the first time we have made a film on surgical strikes in India." Uri..., produced by RSVP Movies, is releasing on January 11. Vicky said: "I feel everyone should watch this film with their family because it's a good film. I have seen it and I am sure our audience will also appreciate the film." Food testing and biosecurity specialist AsureQuality is extending its partnership with Bureau Veritas into South-East Asia to benefit from the regions rapid growth. The government-owned testing and certification agency will roll its eight-year-old Singapore facility into a new Singapore-based venture with Bureau Veritas - BVAQ. Bureau Veritas, listed on the Euronext Paris exchange, will fold its newly-established food testing labs in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand and its majority stake in Malaysias Permulab into the venture. The asset-based transaction is based on the structure the pair used in 2016 to form Bureau Veritas AsureQuality Holdings Pty in Australia. The latest venture will also be 51 percent-owned by Bureau Veritas. AsureQuality chief executive John McKay says the new agreement builds on the relationship the pair formed since their venture acquired Dairy Technical Services Australias leading food tester - in 2016. Partnering with Bureau Veritas in DTS has already proved to offer strong synergies. This new partnership is a great fit for both organisations and will enable us to provide better service to customers in this important region, he said in a statement. We also see tremendous benefits for New Zealand food and primary industry exporters. The greater geographic reach means well be closer on the ground in these markets offering local testing and support. We also look forward to bringing international market insights back in to our customers here in New Zealand. Bureau Veritas is a global testing giant with about 75,000 staff working in 1,400 offices globally. Its testing and certification operations span consumer goods through to electronics, commodities, petrochemicals, buildings, ships, pipelines and power stations. Chief executive Didier Michaud-Daniel noted that, including DTS, BVAQ joint-venture operations will include nine laboratories and more than 500 staff to cater for the fast-growing agri-food sector in the region. AsureQuality operates labs in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Lincoln and Singapore. It also has a joint-venture lab in Jedda in Saudi Arabia. While much of its work is for the meat, dairy, seeds and horticulture industries, it also serves the building, forestry and pharmaceuticals sectors. The company reported a net profit of $8.5 million in the June year, up from $5.3 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped by $31 million to $211.7 million, with much of the increase due to lower margin biosecurity work for the Myrtle Rust and Mycoplasma bovis outbreaks, and increased meat inspection services for the longer killing season. AsureQuality had total assets of $126.2 million at June 30, including the $31.4 million carrying value it put on its stake in BVAQ in Australia. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Investore Property Limited (NZX: IPL) Divestment of Dunedin Property 15th June 2021 Morning Report 14th June 2021 Morning Report Tower Limited (NZX: TWR) Update on Financial Impact of Canterbury Floods SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (NZX: SKC) Earnings Guidance for FY21 Result 11th June 2021 Morning Report Precinct Properties New Zealand Limited (NZX: PCT) Announces $284 Million Revaluation Uplift 10th June 2021 Morning Report Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Opening of Offer to Retail Investors Mercury NZ Limited (NZX: MCY) FY2021 EBITDAF Guidance Revised to $460 Million Press Release January 7, 2019 Poe wants "timbangan centers" set up in all public and private markets in PH To assure Filipino consumers that the products they buy from groceries or public markets have accurate weight and size, Sen. Grace Poe has called for the setting up of "timbangan (weighing) centers" all over the country. The use of a "timbangan center" by any consumer in any locality -- which should be within the area where there are public or private markets, supermarkets, groceries and even malls - will be free of charge, according to Poe. Poe recently filed Senate Bill No. 2050 as a way of protecting the consumers from substandard products. "The height, weight and other measurements are the primary indicators of the quality of a product. If the actual measurements of a product do not meet what is published, then it is a likely indicator that it is defective or even substandard," she said. "Filipino consumers must be protected from these defective or substandard products," the senator added. In proposing the establishment of "timbangan centers", Poe is also seeking to amend and introduce a provision in RA 7364 otherwise known as the Consumer Act of the Philippines on its creation in all local government units (LGUs). This is to make all "timbangan centers" to be placed in publicly accessible locations and enable those who may want to verify the accuracy of the quantity and measurements of the products they purchased. Poe proposed that market supervisors be in charge of the safekeeping and maintenance of such instruments. They shall likewise keep a record of all products found to be wanting in quantity or substandard in dimension, the establishment where the same were bought and the name of the proprietor or manager. In fact, the country is on an aggressive growth and diversification path, with substantial government spending expected to catalyze its Vision 2030 goals and drive sustainable growth and development. On the back of strong growth, revenues in the Kingdom are also projected to increase this year to SAR975bn, setting an optimistic blueprint for exponential growth and progress. The 2nd Saudi Maritime Congress, to be held on March 11th and 12th at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh, Kingdom Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will closely examine these budgetary implications on this sector, focus on the growth of intra-regional trade and the booming north-south network, analyse the changing regulatory environment and study existing project opportunities. Held under the patronage of the Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI) and in partnership with Bahri, the event is also expected to set new trends in the shipping and logistics industry, providing extraordinary insights into the countrys ambitious growth agenda and consolidate Saudi Arabias position as a global trading hub and a strategic gateway to Asia, Africa and Europe. For two days, international experts, influential maritime leaders and professionals from the shipping, ports and offshore marine companies will do business, forge new partnerships and discuss key market and sectoral insights, to fast track growth and development in this vital industry. Chris Hayman, Chairman of Seatrade, said: We are pleased to organise the Saudi Maritime Congress for the second time, following the great success of the first edition in 2014. Against the background of global change, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 plan is set to transform the Saudi economy, with massive consequences for its maritime and logistics sectors. This event will provide a unique opportunity to see at first hand the scale and nature of the developments which are now unfolding in the Kingdom, as it consolidates its role as a major industry player and as a global logistics hub. The Saudi Maritime Congress will provide an ideal platform for discussing with key players the future direction of maritime and logistics policy in the Kingdom and for showcasing the commercial and investment opportunities which this ambitious pathway towards sustainable development represents. For more information about the event, please visit www.saudimaritimecongress.com Fujian recorded 555m tons coastal cargo throughput and 16.3 m teu container volume in 2018, and its growth rate is higher than the national average figure, according to the statistics released by Fujian Provincial Department of Transport. Fujian is to make an easier transportation channel between Fujian and Taiwan and develop more direct cross-strait shipping and logistics solutions , said Huang Xiang Tan, director of Fujian Provincial Department of Transport. In 2018, Fujian completed 18.2m tons cargo throughput to Taiwan. Fujian will accelerate the construction of modern port cluster locally and support Xiamen to be developed as an international shipping hub; add more shipping routes to Southeast Asia and Middle East, explore routes to Europe, US, Africa and Latin America. It will also encourage top shipping companies to co-operate with oversea ports on shipping and port operation. The province aims to newly add 4m tons port throughput in 2019. Murrie was previously managing editor at Business Publishing Group and was a senior consultant with now defunct MG Media Communications which specialised in travel and tourism accounts. Public relations strategies He will be responsible for developing and implementing strategic communications and public relations strategies across Australia and New Zealand. This is a new dedicated position, designed to support our members even further as the cruise industry continues to expand in Australia and New Zealand, CLIA Australasia & Asia md Joel Katz said. Were looking forward to working with Jon as we intensify our focus on building cruisings reputation, influence and support among key stakeholder audiences, Katz said. Silver Muse maiden call Martinoli spoke to Seatrade Cruise News at the gala cocktail party on board Silver Muse Sunday to celebrate the flagships maiden arrival in Sydney. At a media lunch in Sydney on the eve of Cruise360 2017 he said Australia was only around 2,000 passengers short of becoming No. 2 market after the United States. He said nothing has changed since then but, with the recent appointment of Adam Armstrong as md Asia Pacific, he looks forward to welcoming Australia to second place sooner than later. Guests of honour Martinoli and his wife, chief marketing officer Barbara Muckermann, were guests of honour on Sunday night when Capt. Marco Sangiacomo was presented with a plaque from the ceo of Sydney Ports Corporation, Grant Gilfillan. Capt. Sangiacomo, in turn, presented Gilfillan with a model of Silver Muse. Silver Muses 2019/20 season The 596-passenger ultra-luxury boutique ship is scheduled to sail to New Zealand Monday night, making her maiden visit to Auckland on January 19. She will then sail between New Zealand and Australia before departing on February 2 on her 74-day Grand Asia Pacific Voyage to Tokyo. Silver Muse will return to Sydney in late November when she will operate an extended Australian summer season until March 2020. New Shanghai railway routes implemented By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2019-01-07 09:48 As the national railway put into service new routes on January 5, Shanghai citizens who boarded in Shanghai Railway Station and Hongqiao Railway Station enjoyed more convenient travel. This is because the high-speed rail line opened between Hangzhou and Huangshan concluded its trial run on January 1 and was officially put into service on January 5 with 10 more daily departures from the two Shanghai railway stations to Huangshan. The earliest scheduled departure is the G7317 at 8:05 from Shanghai Railway Station and the last departure is the G7309 at 18:28. Moreover, Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station will add two trains departing to the Thousand-island(Qiandao)Lake Station, one stop along the Hangzhou-Huangshan rail line. The new schedule will slash travel time between Hangzhou and Huangshan to less than 2.5 hours, about two hours less than before. On January 6, Shanghai debuted a common speed rail line with hard seats and cushioned berths to Huaian, a station in Jiangsu province. The K8376 train will leave Shanghai at 20:14 and arrive at the terminal station the next day at 7:42. Opening this train line means that Shanghaiers could travel nonstop to one more city by train and will further drive the economic development in the Yangtze River Delta region, one of the most densely populated regionson earth incorporating Shanghai District, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/07/2019 -- The Iraq healthcare (surgical procedures) market is foreseen to be immensely competitive and fragmented because of the large presence of various medical and healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, on both regional and global level. Key players in the Iraq market including suppliers and manufacturers, both are, Albanna Group, Al Assad Scientific Bureau, Applied Medical Corporation, Ismailiya Medical Co., Aesculap, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Medtronic, Inc., Maquet Holding B.V. & Co. KG, Minas Company (a subsidiary of Goran Group, Rudolf Riester GmbH, Munir Sukhtian Group Company, Siemens Healthcare, Stryker Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and TeknoMed Company. According to a recent research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the Iraq healthcare (surgical procedures) market is prognosticated to expand at a steady CAGR of 7.8%, within the forecast period from 2014 to 2022. In 2013, the market was valued around worth of US$320.3 mn, and is likely to surge around worth of US$530.3 mn by the end of 2022. Request A Sample Copy @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4708 The Iraq healthcare (surgical procedures) market is segmented broadly into general surgeries, cardiac procedures, orthopedic surgeries, reconstructive surgeries, and neurosurgeries. Among all of these, the cardiac procedures segment dominated the market, in 2013. The dominance is credited to the improvement and advancement in cardiovascular techniques along with the rise in population suffering from cardiac illnesses. Moreover, increase in people suffering from diabetes that triggers several cardiac issues is another factor foreseen to contribute in the growth of market in Iraq. As per the American Heart Association, heart stroke and cardiovascular illnesses are the major causes of death and disability in people suffering from diabetes. As a result, the increasing number of people with diabetes or cardiovascular illnesses in Iraq are expected to fuel the demand for the above mentioned segment within the forecast period. The Iraq healthcare system is majorly centralized, in terms of working. Here, mainly the public hospitals are the key of curative and preventive healthcare services. The nation uses the capital intensive model which was developed under government of Iraq's Ministry of Health, also known as MoH. MoH is the leading healthcare provider in the nation. Nevertheless, it doesn't hamper the growth of parallel growing private healthcare industry in Iraq. Request Brochure @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4708 The two key firms in the Iraq health care market are the private sector and the public sector. In the latter sector, health care services are given by the help of public hospitals and basic health care centers at very low expenses. As per the national constitution, the Iraq Government is accounted to take care of free health care facilities at public clinics and hospitals for the people living in the country. The State Company for Marketing Drugs and Medical Appliances (KIMADIA), which is a company owned by the Iraq government, and is managed by MoH, Iraq. This firm deals with the distribution and import of various medical tools and devices, lab equipment, pharmaceuticals, and equipments to all public health care services in Iraq. The information presented in this review is based on a TMR report, titled "Iraq Healthcare (Surgical Procedures) Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 2022." About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Rockville, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/07/2019 -- The global market has witnessed a rise in the demand for natural food ingredients and colorants, which can be attributed to the increasing consumer demand for naturally-derived and safer food ingredients. Color additives reinforce the colors already present in the food and ensure uniformity of the food from season to season and batch to batch. Over the years, the natural colorant market has evolved and has come up several new natural food colorants such as anthocyanins, beet colorants, carotenoids and annatto. Annatto colorants are derived from annatto seeds that grow on a tree called Bixa Orellana. The Bixa Orellana tree is known as Annatto or as 'Achiote' in large parts of South America and as 'Urucum' in Brazil. Request Methodology of this Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=1193 Global Annatto Market: Rising Demand for Natural Food Color Annatto seeds and extracts have been in use for over a century in Europe and North America to impart a yellow to red color to foods, especially dairy products such as cheddar and Colby cheeses. Today, annatto ranks second in economic importance worldwide among all natural colors and it is the most frequently used natural colorant in the food industry. Besides the food industry, the Annatto market has been slowing gaining traction in the cosmetic world as well. Cosmetic chemists have drawn inspiration from the use of annatto by the Amazonians for sunless tanners. While popular as a colorant, annatto is widely used in skin care products, especially brands that use all-natural ingredients as well. Annatto in its various forms, such as extract, oil and powder, is witnessing demand in large-scale food, cosmetic and retail sectors as well. Global Annatto Market: Key Takeaway Beta-carotene and annatto together comprise more than 70% of the carotenoid segment, which is being considered as the dominant segment. Moreover, the market is expected to gain traction in natural food colorant dominant regions such as Asia Pacific and North America. Global Annatto Market: Key Players Some of the key players operating in the global annatto market include BioconColors, Amerilure Inc., Kalsec Inc., Sensient Technologies Corporation, D.D. Williamson & Co. Inc. and ADM (Wild Flavors), among others. Global Annatto Market: Key Trends Major shareholding companies in the annatto market have been executing strategic collaborations with peer companies to come up with innovative products. Global Annatto Market: Key Developments In 2018, FMC Corporation andHansen, announced a five-year extension of their collaboration to develop and commercialize natural solutions for the agricultural industry In Feb 2018, Sensient Technologies Corporationannounced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the natural color business of GlobeNatural, a leading natural food and ingredient company, based in Lima, Peru, owned by the Michell Group Opportunities for Annatto Market Participants The global natural food colors market incorporates coloring foodstuffs and minimally processed pigments derived from micro-lags, plant parts, fruits and vegetables for imparting color to various foods and beverages. North America is among the prominent regions for natural food colors owing to technological advancements in the natural color extraction process, economical and intense colors. The Asia Pacific is another considered dominant region for natural colorant market due to rise in consumption rate of the product. Hence these two regions are being considered as the opportunistic factor for annatto market in order to gain traction and accordingly generate sales. To know more about the Annatto Market Trends, Visit the link https://www.factmr.com/report/1193/annatto-market Brief Approach to Research The company will follow a modeling-based approach and triangulation methodology to estimate data covered in this report. A detailed market understanding and assessment of the applications, types, forms, and end uses of the product segments covered in the study is followed by carrying out a demand-side approach to estimate the sales of target product segments, which is then cross-referenced with a supply-side assessment of value generated over a pre-defined period. The statistics and data are collected at a regional level, consolidated and synthesized at a global level to estimate the overall market sizes. Key Data Points Covered in the Report Some of the key data points covered in our report include: An overview of the Annatto market, including background and evolution Macroeconomic factors affecting the Annatto market and its potential Annattos Market dynamics, such as drivers, challenges, and trends Detailed value chain analysis of the Annatto market The cost structure of the products and segments covered in the study In-depth pricing analysis, by key product segments, regions and by major Annatto market participants Analysis of supply and demand, such as top producing and consuming geographies, imports/exports, and overall trade scenario Analysis of the market structure, including a tier-wise categorization of key market participants Competitive landscape of the Annatto market, including detailed profiles of the top players in this market Get In Touch with Our Industry Expert- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=1193 About FactMR FactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market insights reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. Contact Us FactMR 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Email: sales@factmr.com Web: https://www.factmr.com/ Read Industry News at- https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Selbyville, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/07/2019 -- This report focuses on the Aerospace Service Robotics in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application. An aerospace service robot is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment without industrial automation function in the aerospace industry. These robots assist humans by performing harmful, dull, and repetitive tasks. Request a sample of this premium report titled at https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1267721/?utm_source=RW-VL Due to their various advantages like delivery of accurate and high-quality services, enhanced usability, and reduced operational costs and human errors, yhe arospace robots gain witnessed widespread acceptance among aerospace industry. Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Dassault Aviation Israel Aerospace AeroVironment European Aeronautic Defence and Space Advanced Robotics BlueBotics MacDonald Dettwiler Space Von Hoerner & Sulger Universal Robots Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Market Segment by Type, covers Unmanned Aircraft Service Robotics Spacecraft Service Robotics Satellite Service Robotics Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Handle aircraft orders backlog Efficient aircraft production processes Others Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report titled at https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1267721/?utm_source=RW-VL There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Aerospace Service Robotics market. Chapter 1, to describe Aerospace Service Robotics Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Aerospace Service Robotics, with sales, revenue, and price of Aerospace Service Robotics, in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Aerospace Service Robotics, for each region, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions; Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 12, Aerospace Service Robotics market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Aerospace Service Robotics sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source Table of Contents 1 Market Overview 1.1 Aerospace Service Robotics Introduction 1.2 Market Analysis by Type 1.2.1 Unmanned Aircraft Service Robotics 1.2.2 Spacecraft Service Robotics 1.2.3 Satellite Service Robotics 1.3 Market Analysis by Applications 1.3.1 Handle aircraft orders backlog 1.3.2 Efficient aircraft production processes 1.3.3 others 1.4 Market Analysis by Regions 1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) 1.4.1.1 United States Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) 1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa 1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2013-2023) 1.5 Market Dynamics 1.5.1 Market Opportunities 1.5.2 Market Risk 1.5.3 Market Driving Force 2 Manufacturers Profiles 2.1 Dassault Aviation 2.2 Israel Aerospace 2.3 AeroVironment 2.4 European Aeronautic Defence and Space 2.5 Advanced Robotics 2.6 BlueBotics 2.7 MacDonald Dettwiler Space 2.8 Von Hoerner & Sulger 2.9 Universal Robots 3 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017) 3.1 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017) 3.2 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017) 3.3 Market Concentration Rate 3.4 Market Competition Trend 4 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Market Analysis by Regions 4.1 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions 4.1.1 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018) 4.1.2 Global Aerospace Service Robotics Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018) 4.2 North America Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 4.3 Europe Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 4.4 Asia-Pacific Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 4.5 South America Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 4.6 Middle East and Africa Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 5 North America Aerospace Service Robotics by Countries 5.1 North America Aerospace Service Robotics Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries 5.1.1 North America Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Market Share by Countries (2013-2018) 5.1.2 North America Aerospace Service Robotics Revenue and Market Share by Countries (2013-2018) 5.2 United States Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 5.3 Canada Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 5.4 Mexico Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 6 Europe Aerospace Service Robotics by Countries 6.1 Europe Aerospace Service Robotics Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries 6.1.1 Europe Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Market Share by Countries (2013-2018) 6.1.2 Europe Aerospace Service Robotics Revenue and Market Share by Countries (2013-2018) 6.2 Germany Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 6.3 UK Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 6.4 France Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 6.5 Russia Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) 6.6 Italy Aerospace Service Robotics Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018) Complete report titled at https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-aerospace-service-robotics-market-2018-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023/?utm_source=RW-VL About Market Study Report Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management. Contact Us: Market Study Report LLC 4 North Main Street, Selbyville, Delaware 19975 USA Phone: 1-302-273-0910 US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150 Email: sales@marketstudyreport.com Website: https://www.marketstudyreport.com Blog: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog 18 suspects in Quanjian case arrested, including founder From:ChinaDaily | 2019-01-07 10:20 Eighteen suspects, including the actual controller of Quanjian Nature Medicine Technology Development Co surnamed Shu, have been arrested, according to the investigation team, Tianjin Daily reported on its WeChat account Monday. Shu, 51, is also the founder and chairman of Quanjian. On Jan 1, Tianjin public security authorities launched an investigation into the company, suspected of engaging in a pyramid scheme and false advertising. On Jan 2, the team launched an investigation into a man surnamed Zhu, suspected of illegally practicing medicine at Quanjian (Tianjin) Tumor Hospital. Zhou Erli, whose daughter died of cancer after taking medicine supplied by Quanjian, told thepaper.cn that he was thrilled to hear the news. He said he would continue to work on prosecution against Quanjian. Zhou lost his first lawsuit in 2015 shortly before his daughter died. A court dismissed his claim that the company had misled the family over the potency of its anti-cancer treatment and spread false information. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. What if the birds in Netflixs much-buzzed about thriller, Bird Box, were of the original recipe or extra crispy variety? KFC Singapore spoofed the new streaming film by tweaking a Sandra Bullock photo from the movie to include a bucket of the Colonels finest. The 75 Best Fried Chicken Places in America Warning, minor spoilers ahead: Bird Box is based on Josh Malermans 2014 post-apocalyptic novel where Earth is somehow invaded by monstrous creatures. Just looking at them drives humans to suicide, so Sandra Bullocks character, Malorie, must blindfold herself and two children as they attempt a dangerous river journey in hopes of finding a safe haven. The bird box of the title is a real box of live birds, which survivors keep in hopes that the birds will sense when the monsters are nearby, and chitter-chatter a warning. Advertisement KFC Singapore, however, decided to wing it by mocking up a now-iconic picture of a blindfolded Bullock rowing, tucking a bucket of KFC chicken next to her in the boat. The chain captioned the image, The only #BirdBox you need. #KFCsg. https://twitter.com/KFC_SG/status/1080658549351448576 Fans didnt chicken out when it came to praising the parody. In less than a week on Facebook, it had been shared more than 1,500 times. Successfully made my day. Thank you KFC, wrote Sean Tan. Hey, the KFC bucket looks much better than the years-old canned goods the survivors were living on. Although, Bullock and crew arent going to get much monster warning if the birds that once chirped an alert are now seasoned with 11 herbs and spices. If chickens your bird, check out these crazy easy chicken recipes. View slideshow If I receive a compliment (albeit rare, but it does happen), it makes me uncomfortable. I always say thank you, and at the same time, I am beset by all the basic demons-- I dont deserve it, the person has mistaken me for someone else, he only wants to meet my wife, and finally back to I dont deserve it. So I turned to Dr. Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business School, who is the co-author of a book called The Progress Principle. I could have turned to my shrink, but what does he know about compliments? Amabile knows whereof she speaks. She has amassed daily diaries from 200+ professionals working on 26 different creative projects in seven companies in three industries. The study is designed to understand the best way to motivate employees in your organization. She measures psychological states, performance ratings, personality, cognitive style, etc. What she finds is that compliments to your workers matter greatly. It is proven that people like to receive praise. The thing that interests me is why it is so hard for some people to accept and embrace that praise. If our strengths come to us naturally, we may not recognize their value. Compliments can be a rich source of information. They make you pause and consider yourself. Advertisement Amabile argues for acknowledging small wins. At work, we often blast right past the successes, because significant challenges still loom ahead. Her research shows that meaningful praise can measurably boost motivation. (This works well at the gym.) But there is a puzzle here. If you are the CEO, if you are the entrepreneur charged with taking Hamburger Hill, then who gives you praise, and if you get it, can you accept it. The research shows that we humans tend to dwell on failures more than compliments. It is a bit of the famous loss aversion theory from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Twersky. When the market goes up and we take a profit, so what, but when it goes down, we are troubled greatly. Taking a loss is painful, so we do not sell. Amabile quotes Dr. Kristen Neff, of the University of Texas at Austin, who says, Our ancestors who were negative worrywarts were the more likely to survive, so our brains are designed to look for problems. (Finally, a scientific answer to my Jewish mother who had a Ph.D. in worrying. Trust me, I learned from the best.) The next problem with a compliment is that our internalized messaging tells us that it is not good to seem like we are bragging. Modesty is the mantra, so we explain away our achievements, even when the fact is that we did win the gold medal. We need to give compliments to ourselves for genuine achievement. She says it is OK to brag (but internally and only for a few seconds, and not very loudly). Amabile says, At work, the most impactful moments are celebrations of the small moments of progress. If you create an elegant solution to a problem, she says we should take a moment and reflect on it. In fact, the quiet self-administered back slap was seen as more important to the employee than the public call-out of praise. Even worse than no praise is if the external praise is perceived as empty attaboys. Then the boss has undermined the worker and has actually begun to create resentment. You all remember first grade where everyone gets a medal for simply showing up and breathing. Amabile has found that the best way to celebrate small wins is to keep a diary, a daily list of accomplishments. She is not promoting a to-do list; rather she is arguing for a daily reflection, a quick box score on the day. Neff suggests that simple tasks like eating a good meal or taking a nice shower also qualify as worth listing. (Not in my world). But in fairness, she reminds us that the small setbacks have the greater negative impact three to four times stronger than the triumph of a small win. That is just the way we are wired, she says, so be deliberate in reminding yourself about the positive. In the end, Amabile says, the best way to feel good about your progress is to actually make progress. Advertisement Rule No. 591: Miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost Gavin Newsom was sworn in as Californias 40th governor on Monday, taking over for the termed-out Jerry Brown and pledging to be bold with his leadership of the state. In his speech from the State Capitol in Sacramento, Newsom sought to position California as a leader for the rest of the nation and the world, and championed central campaign issues such as early childhood education and criminal justice reform. He said he would safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history but also aim high and work like hell to get there. Read his full inauguration speech below, as it was written. The story of our state is the story of a dream one that has drawn strivers and seekers here forever. Its what brought my family to California three generations ago the promise not just of a better life, but a bigger one, with opportunities they couldnt find anywhere else in the world. So deep does the California Dream run in the history and character of our state that it can feel as enduring as our primeval forests or our majestic mountain ranges. But there is nothing inevitable about it. Every dream depends on the dreamers. It is up to us to renew the California Dream for a new generation. And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it. And thankfully we have our champion Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But there is an administration in Washington hostile to Californias values and interests. California has always helped write Americas future. And we know the decisions we make, would be important at any time. But what we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. California is a giant engine of commerce the most creative and entrepreneurial in the world. We have the resources to ensure a decent standard of living for all. Its not a question of whether we can do this, but whether we will. At a time when so much of America is divided, we are united. Our people are big-hearted and fair-minded, when those qualities are more vital than ever. Ive seen that again in just the past few weeks. I visited Paradise after the fires swept through, and met people who literally lost everything they owned but were still reaching out to help others. I am so confident in our future. Gov. Gavin Newsom I went to San Diego and met volunteers providing relief to desperate migrants who others treat like criminals like the 3-year old girl, just a year older than my youngest, at a shelter who captured my heart. I spent time with farmers in Fresno who rise and grind before the sun comes up to feed the world. There are everyday heroes all over our state who work hard, then come home and care for aging parents or new-born children, or who open their homes to foster kids, like my mother Tessa did. She was a single mom raising two children and working three jobs, and she still had room in her heart for more. Thats the California I know. Thats the California I love. And thats why I am so confident in our future. Make no mistake, there are powerful forces arrayed against us. Not just politicians in Washington but drug companies that gouge Californians with sky-high prices. A gun lobby willing to sacrifice the lives of our children to line their pockets. Polluters who threaten our coastline and pay-day lenders who target our most vulnerable. In other places, interests like these still have a tight grip on power. But here in California, we have the power to stand up to them and we will. We face serious challenges some that have been deferred for too long. Even in a booming economy, there is a disquieting sense that things are not as predictable as they once were. That we must now run faster just to stay in place. Stagnant wages. Costs that keep rising rent, utilities, visiting the doctor the basics are increasingly out of reach. We face a gulf between the rich and everyone else and its not just inequality of wealth, its inequality of opportunity. A homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night. An achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids. And too many of our children know the ache of chronic hunger. Ive met families across the state who have to improvise where to tuck their babies in at night making nests out of blankets on the floor, or turning dresser drawers into makeshift cradles because they cannot afford a crib. These arent merely policy problems. They are moral imperatives. So long as they persist, we are all diminished. We are all touched by the human condition whether we ourselves are homeless or jobless, whether we ourselves can pay the bills or have safe drinking water at home. We all have our own frailties and vulnerabilities were all susceptible to suffering and disaster. So let us resolve to follow the example of rescuers and rebuilders in Paradise and Malibu and Santa Rosa and Ventura and make sure our fellow Californians share in the compassion and empathy that connect us and make our burdens and anxieties easier to bear. Our politics doesn't always reward taking on the hardest problems. The results of our work may not be evident for a long time. But that cannot be our concern. We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, pay down debt, and meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history. But let me be clear: We will be bold. We will aim high and we will work like hell to get there. I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me. Gov. Gavin Newsom Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith, and firm will can still come together to achieve big things. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. This will take courage. Thats a word that means different things to different people. To me, courage means doing what is right even when it is hard. That will be the mission of our Administration. We will be a "California for all." We will not be divided between rural and urban or north and south or coastal and inland. We will strive for solidarity, and face our most threatening problems together. It is with deep faith in our state and our future that I ask you to join me in the work ahead. Let us be pioneering optimists who look to the future not with trepidation but with creativity and boundless energy. This is a time for courage and we will rise to meet it. Our state has been on a journey together since the worst of the Great Recession. Back then, we were $27 billion in debt. Unemployment above 12 percent. The worst credit rating of any state in our nation. Today, our economy is larger than all but four nations in the world. Weve created nearly 3 million jobs and put away billions for a rainy day. Where Washington failed on the epochal challenge of climate change, California led, extending our cap-and-trade system and setting bold targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, then beating them. So much of this progress has happened under the leadership of Governor Jerry Brown. It has been an honor to serve with him these past eight years and to learn from him, not just as his Lieutenant Governor, but throughout my lifetime. When Jerry last took the oath of office, he reflected on a parable from the Sermon on the Mount. It tells of a foolish man who built his house on sand. A storm washed it away. But a wise man sought a sounder foundation. And when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house he built, it did not fall. For it was founded upon a rock. For eight years, California has built a foundation of rock. Our job now is not to rest on that foundation. It is to build our house upon it. Now more than ever, we Californians know how much a house matters as so many of our neighbors have lost theirs. Together, let us build a house stronger than the coming storms, yet open to the world. A house that provides shelter to all who need it and sanctuary to all who seek it -- where opportunity abounds for all who will work for it. A true California house, sun-kissed, dream-soaked, and built with the sweat of honest work. We will not have one house for the rich and one for the poor, or one for the native-born and one for the rest. We will build one house for one California. Because what is a house but a home. And California is our home. In our home, every child should be loved, fed, and safe. My wife Jennifer and I have four children, and there is nothing more important to us than giving them a good and happy life. But all kids not just the children of a governor and a filmmaker should have a good life in California. Not ripped away from their parents at the border Not left hungry while politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built. We will support parents so they can give their kids the love and care they need, especially in those critical early years when so much development occurs. In our home, no one should live in constant fear of eviction or spend their whole paycheck to keep a roof overhead. We will launch a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a state-wide mission. In our home, every person should have access to quality, affordable health care. Far-away judges and politicians may try to turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed health care for all Californians. We will use both our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs. We will stop stigmatizing mental health and start supporting it. And in California we will always protect a woman's right to choose. In our home, we believe in justice for all. We will defend the progress weve made to reform our criminal justice system. We will continue the fight against over-incarceration and over-crowding in our prisons. And we will end the outrage of private prisons once and for all. In our home, working people deserve fair pay, the right to join a union, and the chance at a middle-class life for themselves and their families. We will fight not just for growth at any cost but for inclusive, sustainable growth. We will shape the future of work and connect higher education and skills training to the next generation of middle-class jobs because in this time of swift and unsettling change, all Californians should be able to count on a measure of security and a real shot at opportunity. And those who dream of building something of their own a restaurant, a bookstore, a family farm they will get our support. Our small businesses help explain why we have one of the biggest economies on Earth. For me this is personal. I will never forget the day I got a $20 tip bussing tables at Ramona's restaurant in San Rafael. I was 16 years old. Trust me, busboys don't get tips like that. I know it sounds strange, but it changed my life. It meant that my hard work mattered and it motivated me to keep going. Eight years later, I started my own business. So I know how much hard work and sacrifice is behind every small business in this state and how good it feels when that hard work pays off. California must never turn its back on the entrepreneurial spirit that has always defined us. And in our home, when trouble comes, we will stand together. When fires strike or the earth shakes, we will be there for each other. As a former mayor, I learned the wisdom of the African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. To my friends in the legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike, I promise you an open door and an open mind. Californians didnt send us here to bicker or sulk they get enough of that from Washington. And lets not forget that it is not only in the corridors of the Capitol that change is being forged. I will partner with mayors, sheriffs, and supervisors all over this state, I know the pressures you face. Ive been there. The only way to fix our problems is if you are empowered to lead the way. I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me. I will be a governor for the dock worker in Long Beach, and the farm worker in Lost Hills, the small business owner in Corona, and the teacher in Compton. I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesnt care about them doesnt even really see them. Well, I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride. That notion that were all in this together is a powerful one. Its also how I was raised. Some of you may know that I lost my father just before Christmas. He was a judge. Justice Bill Newsom. For him, Justice was more than a title. It was in his bones. He believed to his core that all people should be treated fairly and with respect. Thats always been a bedrock California value to me. So 15 years ago, when I was a new mayor and I heard politicians in Washington sneering at California values and attacking our LGBT community, I remembered what my father taught me: Its never the wrong time to do the right thing. And thats what we did. In San Francisco, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, two women who had been in love for nearly 50 years, had the courage to stand up and say those two powerful words: I do. Thousands more followed in their footsteps. It took a long time, but love won. Just like fifteen years ago, this is a time for courage. We will stand up for whats right, and we will defend our people. My pledge to every Californian is this: no matter what comes at us, I will have your back! If we do this right, the progress we make will never be unmade. As Cesar Chavez said, You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. There is a story we tell about our history, from Sutters Mill to Steve Jobss garage, about how this is the place where anything is possible. This is the coast of dreams. And thats true. But you shouldnt have to find gold or make it in the movies or create a billion-dollar start-up to live the California Dream. It is for everyone. Everyone in California should have a good job with fair pay. Every child should have a great school and a teacher who is supported and respected. Every young person should be able to go to college without crushing debt or to get the training they need to compete and succeed. And every senior should be able to retire with security and live at home with dignity. That is the California Dream. Not to get rich quick or star on the big screen, but to work hard and share in the rewards. To leave a better future for our kids. The work we have spoken of today cannot be the job of a governor alone, or a legislature, or even the entire government. It will only be achieved if all of us share the spirit of the young DREAMer from Los Angeles I heard recently. She said: I wasnt born in California, but California was born in me. Theres a spark of California hope and California courage born in all of us. Its up to us, what we do with it. The eyes of the world are upon us. Now more than ever, America needs California. It needs the guiding light of our values and the progress they make possible. This is where Americas future is made. This is our charge. That is our calling. Lets get to work. Thank you and may God bless California. Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @abbyhamblin Therell be heaps of happy talk in Sacramento this month about bold new, expensive government programs. Thats normal from an eager new governor and Legislature. Too bad there wont also be some bitter truth spoken about the crucial need for state government to correct festering old mistakes that threaten or already are damaging California. But like politics and religion at some family holiday dinners, certain subjects are taboo among most politicians such as unfunded public pension liabilities, regulatory abuse that stymies economic development and a sick, decrepit state tax code. Elected officials will be feeding dessert to the public and skipping the nourishing vegetables that dont go down easily with many voters and powerful interests. Advertisement The happy talk is fine. Heaven knows, everyone can use some to mitigate the depressing blather spewing from Washington and talk shows. Democrat Gavin Newsom is anxious to inaugurate his gubernatorial regime with a popular package of programs aimed at expanding early education and childcare. He envisions a $1.5-billion one-time expense, plus $300 million in annual costs. Vital details to come. When legislators talk about passing such an ambitious program, however, they peg annual costs at $1 billion to $2 billion. Pre-kindergarten and childcare programs are commendable if the state can afford them without jeopardizing the treasury or forcing yet another tax increase. And thats debatable. Newsom also repeatedly promised voters hed create some sort of universal medical coverage, probably including care for immigrants living here illegally. Hell be pressed by his nurses union allies to follow through. The cost, however, may be out of reach at minimum into the multibillions. Those proposed government luxuries fit nicely into happy talk. The bitter truth about unfunded liabilities for public employee retirees just makes voters angry on both sides. Theres pension envy by private sector workers whose employers in recent years have frozen their traditional defined benefit retirement plans and turned to risky 401(k)-type savings programs. And theres resentment by public employees who feel theyre being disrespected and picked on by pension reformers. Advertisement More from George Skelton The problem is that two decades ago state and local politicians promised public employees a lot more than pension funds could afford. Theres an obvious conflict: Politicians get big hunks of campaign money from public employee unions. Today, Californias public pension systems are badly underfunded. Under the best scenarios, they owe roughly $3 in promised benefits for every $2 in projected assets. The total unfunded liabilities for all state and local pension systems in California range from $330 billion to $1 trillion, depending on how theyre calculated. Were still on this glide slope to a really bad place, says Joe Nation, a former Democratic state assemblyman whos a Stanford public policy professor and heads a pension research project. In the end, someone has to pay this. Itll probably be the public employees. Advertisement The options are ugly: Trim pensions, raise taxes, increase employee and government contributions or cut other public programs such as education. Local governments could also go bankrupt and slash retiree benefits. Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature took at stab at a partial fix in 2012. They enacted some modest reforms that made pensions less generous for future state employees. But the biggest barrier to a real fix is the so-called California Rule, an old, illogical concept. It decrees that pension benefits existing when a public employee is hired can never be reduced, even if they havent yet been earned by service. Coverage of California politics Advertisement A state Supreme Court decision is expected soon on the California Rule. But even if the rule is junked, Newsom and the Legislature would need to conjure up the courage to buck labor and alter the pension system for current employees. Another ugly truth is that California is considered notoriously unfriendly to business investment. High taxes are one problem. Wealthy taxpayers are leaving the state. Newsom and the Democratic-dominated Legislature should declare a moratorium on tax hikes, even if theyre called fees. But they wont. Advertisement Housing is often ridiculously unaffordable where most jobs are. So the state should make it easier to create jobs in regions such as the Central Valley where housing is affordable. Duh! One big help would be to streamline the burdensome California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which has been blatantly abused and has soured housing developers. Labor unions, business competitors and local NIMBYs have used CEQA to tie up projects in courts and run up development costs. Union blackmailers greenmailers threaten suits unless developers cave to labor demands. And Sacramento Democrats wont challenge unions. Brown used to call CEQA reform the Lords work. But the Lord never showed up on his watch. Advertisement Another ugly truth is that Californias outdated state tax system is unreliable and unstable. It produces a torrent of unneeded tax revenue in good times and shrinks the flow when the economy busts, playing havoc with the state budget and government services. Because of Browns soak-the-rich tax hike, the state leans too heavily on wealthy people, whose capital gains dry up in a recession. The top 1% pays nearly half the state income tax. That needs to be fixed by lowering income tax rates and extending the sales tax to services that are mainly used by businesses and the wealthy, such as legal. State Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg of Van Nuys says hell introduce tax reform legislation for discussion purposes. Good luck getting any other Capitol politician to even discuss it. Advertisement Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address george.skelton@latimes.com Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall hes demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week. Trumps Oval Office speech his first as president will be followed by his visit Thursday to the southern border to highlight his demand for a barrier. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that he will use the visit to meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. The administration is also at least talking about the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the $5.6 billion he wants. Vice President Mike Pence said the White House counsels office is looking at the idea. Such a move would certainly draw legal challenges, and Trump who told lawmakers he would be willing to keep the government closed for months or even years has said he would like to continue negotiations for now. Trumps prime-time address will be carried live by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC. Advertisement House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer called on the networks to give Democrats a chance to respond. Now that the television networks have decided to air the Presidents address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime, they wrote in a joint statement released Monday night. As Trumps speech and border visit were announced, newly empowered House Democrats and at least a few Republican senators stepped up pressure on GOP lawmakers to reopen the government without giving in to the presidents demands The closure, which has lasted 17 days, is already the second-longest in history and would become the longest this weekend. Leaning on Senate Republicans, some of whom are growing anxious about the impact of the shutdown, Pelosi said the House would begin passing individual bills this week that would reopen federal agencies, starting with the Treasury Department to ensure Americans receive their tax refunds . The White House moved to pre-empt the Democrats, telling reporters Monday that tax refunds would be paid despite the shutdown. That shutdown exemption would break from the practice of earlier administrations and could be challenged. There is an indefinite appropriation to pay tax refunds. As a result ... the refunds will go out as normal, said Russell Vought, acting director of the White House budget office. There were other signs that administration was working to control the damage from the shutdown, which has furloughed 380,000 federal workers and forced another 420,000 to work without pay. The National Park Service said it was dipping into entrance fees to pay for staffing at some highly visited parks to maintain restrooms, clean up trash and patrol the grounds, after reports of human waste and garbage overflowing in some spots. Over the weekend, the federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees missing work or calling in sick. But Trump and the Transportation Security Administration pushed back on any suggestion that the call-outs at the agency represented a sickout that was having a significant effect on U.S. air travel. TSA said it screened more than 2.2 million passengers Sunday, a historically busy day due to holiday travel. Ninety percent waited less than 15 minutes, the agency said. Advertisement We are grateful to the more than 51,000 agents across the country who remain focused on the mission and are respectful to the traveling public, said TSA spokesman Michael Bilello. The talks over ending the shutdown have been at an impasse over Trumps demand for the wall. He has offered to build the barrier with steel rather than concrete, billing that as a concession to Democrats objections. They dont like concrete, so well give them steel, he said. But Democrats have made clear that they object to the wall itself, not how its constructed. They see it as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed-upon levels. Maybe he thinks he can bully us. But Im from Brooklyn. You let a bully succeed, youll be bullied again worse, Schumer said at a breakfast with the Association for a Better New York. Advertisement At the White House, spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp complained that Democratic leaders have yet to define what they mean when they say they are for enhancing border security. Democrats want to secure the border? Great. Come to the table, she said Monday. We are willing to come to a deal to reopen the government. Trump has tasked Pence during the shutdown fight to negotiate with Democrats, including during talks over the weekend with Democratic staffers. But the vice president is increasingly being called upon to prevent defections in the GOP ranks. Asked whether cracks were forming between the White House and Republicans eager for the shutdown to end, Pence told reporters, Weve been in touch with those members and others. Advertisement He said that he and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would be at the Capitol Tuesday and Wednesday to brief lawmakers. Among the Republicans expressing concern was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should take up funding bills from the Democratic-led House. Lets get those reopened while the negotiations continue, Collins said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press. However, McConnell has said he wont take up funding bills without Trumps support. Advertisement Adding to concerns of lawmakers, federal workers who are still on the job apparently will miss this weeks paychecks. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NBCs Meet the Press that if the shutdown continues into Tuesday, then payroll will not go out as originally planned on Friday night. Trump asserted that he could relate to the plight of the federal workers who arent getting paid, though he acknowledged they will have to make adjustments to deal with the shutdown shortfall. Not so easy, many of them say. Derrick Padilla, a corrections officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Colorado, has worked without pay for two weeks and said hes nearly depleted his savings. Advertisement Its now becoming a game of, OK, whos going to get paid? How am I going to make this payment? Whats the most important thing I have to pay for this month? he said. The bills dont go away, Padilla added. Were expected to meet our financial obligations, and were being put in a position to not be able to meet those obligations. For furloughed federal workers in Washington, some at least could enjoy the prospect of baseball in a few months. The Washington Nationals said season ticket holders who are laid off or not being paid by the federal government could postpone monthly ticket payments until the government is back up and running. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Juliet Linderman in Washington, Alex Sanz in Atlanta and David R. Martin in New York contributed to this report. Skies cleared Sunday after a Pacific storm drenched much of San Diego County over the weekend, making way for a drier, but still cool week, forecasters said. The latest system dropped more than an inch of rain at Palomar Mountain and Lake Cuyamaca, and nearly an inch at Lake Henshaw, according to Sunday rainfall totals. San Diego International Airport reported 0.9 of an inch of rain, pushing its seasonal total to 5.3 inches, almost two inches above average. Stray showers are possible Sunday night Monday, which would lift totals a bit more. Officials suspect rain-slicked roadways contributed to a number of crashes, including two that turned fatal. Advertisement The first happened on north Interstate 5 near Clairemont Drive shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday. The driver of a red SUV apparently lost control and crashed into a wall in the center divide. Officers believe the driver was outside of the vehicle, which was disabled in the fast lane, when two other vehicles hit the SUV. It appears the driver of the initial collision was probably standing outside his vehicle when he got struck, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Joseph Aboy told OnScene TV. He was fatally injured as a result of the secondary and third collision. The second happened in Santee on North Woodside Avenue near Riverford Road about 8 a.m.Sunday. A 40-year-old woman was found dead in an SUV that had crashed into a nearby tree, a sheriffs official said. No other vehicles were involved. The storm also churned local waters prompting a high surf advisory. Wave sets south of Del Mar were expected to be as high as 8 feet. Rip currents and hazardous swimming conditions are possible until about 2 a.m. Monday when the surf should drop quickly, according to the weather service. Forecasters had expected the storm to drop an inch of snow onto the countys mountains, but that didnt happen due to a warm flow of air out of the south, although Mount Laguna did get dusted, said meteorologist Bruno Rodriquez. Dry, cool weather, mostly in the 60s, is expected into the weekend, when a follow-up storm could generate a smattering of showers. Advertisement We wont see widespread 70s for a while, Rodriquez said. City News Service and Staff Writer Gary Robbins contributed to this report. Advertisement Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 Advertisement lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com Luckin targets to be China's biggest coffee brand chain By:Wang Jiaye | From:english.eastday.com | 2019-01-07 09:46 Luckin Coffee, a new coffee store chain, announced in Beijing its annual strategic objective of becoming the biggest coffee brand chain in China on Jan. 3. The company will open 2,500 new stores in 2019 following last year's 2,000 store openings and will not stop offering price discounts in the upcoming five years. New stores have been popping up with large-scale subsidies provided to customers, while a loss of RMB 800 million has been made in just one year since its establishment. What will Luckin do to retain customers once its subsidies are suspended? Yang Fei, co-founder and CMO of Luckin, responded that it is worthwhile to acquire such market share at a fast speed by means of subsidies, adding that the amount of loss is within expectation. It is a systematic set of cost structure innovations including lowering store costs, gaining customers quickly and increasing the product quality rather than simply burning cash, Yang explained. A missing Oceanside man with schizophrenia was found by family members three days after police asked for help to find him. Arnulfo Delangel was reported missing after being last seen at an Oceanside Transit Center on South Tremont Street around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 6, police said. He got on a Metrolink train headed to Santa Ana. The 54-year-old who suffers from confusion and has schizophrenia was located three days later by family, Oceanside police spokesman Tom Bussey said more than a week later. No details were provided about how or where Delangel was found. Advertisement Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: Jan. 17: This article was updated with a police statement that Delangel was found three days after being reported missing. Advertisement This article was originally published Jan. 7, 2019 Democrats in Congress are taking the gloves off. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear Monday he will block a key foreign policy bill until Republicans stand up to President Trump and back measures to end the crippling government shutdown thats on track to become one of the longest in American history. A senior Democratic aide said Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged his caucus to join him in voting against advancing the Strengthening Americas Security in the Middle East Act, a sweeping appropriations bill that earmarks more security funds for Israel, reauthorizes a defense cooperation agreement with Jordan and boosts other U.S. missions in the region, including in Syria. The bipartisan legislation would also let state governments divest from entities boycotting Israel because of its occupation of Palestinian territories. Advertisement Schumer and most Senate Democrats support the bill but the aide said the party wont do business as usual until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stops caving to Trumps demand for a taxpayer-funded border wall and instead introduces a House-approved spending package that could end the partial shutdown, which enters its 18th day Tuesday. This is to show that they cant just skate along as usual, the Democratic source told the Daily News. Schumer is considering blocking other bills as well if McConnell tries to distract from the shutdown by moving on to other matters, the Capitol Hill insider added. The Senate is slated to hold a procedural vote on the pro-Israel bill late Tuesday. Dems can shelve the measure if they unanimously oppose it. The longest U.S. government closure to date lasted 21 days in 1995. This shutdown will become the longest ever if it drags beyond Friday. Some 800,000 federal employees continue to work without pay or not work at all. Everything from national parks to airport security have been impacted and food stamps could become the latest casualty if the shutdown runs into February, with millions of low-income Americans slated to see their welfare assistance substantially slashed if the government isnt funded. 1 / 40 Furloughed government workers affected by the shutdown hold a silent protest against the partial government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 23, 2019. After being at odds publicly over funding the southern border wall, Congress and President Trump failed to strike a bipartisan funding measure causing a partial shutdown of government services beginning on Dec. 22, 2018. After working without pay for weeks, federal workers missed their first paycheck on Jan. 11, 2019. The next day the shutdown became the longest in U.S. history lasting 35 days. (Andrew Harnik / AP) 2 / 40 Transportation Security Administration employee Princess Young visits a food pantry for furloughed government workers affected by the federal shutdown on Jan. 23, 2019, in Baltimore, Md. (Patrick Semansky / AP) 3 / 40 Transportation Security Administration employees carry boxes of non-perishables and bags of produce received from the Community Food Bank to help government employees who are working without pay during the partial government shutdown at Newark Liberty International Airport on Jan. 23, 2019 in Newark, N.J. (Julio Cortez / AP) 4 / 40 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Secretary for the Majority Laura Dove walk to the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 23, 2019. The Senate will vote on two competing proposals this week to end the partial government shutdown, but neither at this moment seems to have enough votes to advance. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) 5 / 40 Furloughed government workers protest the government shutdown at the door of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnells office in Lexington, Ky., on Jan. 23, 2019. (Bryan Woolston / AP) 6 / 40 A woman receives a carton of milk at a food distribution center for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown, at the Barclays Center, on Jan. 22, 2019 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Organized by Food Bank For New York City and the Barclays Center, the pop-up distribution center was organized to provide food, vital products, and other resources for furloughed federal workers. The partial government shutdown has now lasted over a month as the stalemate over funding the border wall continues. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) 7 / 40 A man receives a bag of supplies at a food distribution center for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown, at the Barclays Center, on Jan. 22, 2019 in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) 8 / 40 A U.S. Air Force bus parks in front of the Capitol Building after being called back following President Trumps decision to cancel House Speaker Nancy Pelosis overseas trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan on Jan. 17, 2019 in Washington, D.C. The day before Pelosi had suggested postponing Trumps January 29 State of the Union address to Congress citing security concerns due to the prolonged shutdown. After being at odds publicly over funding the southern border wall, Congress and President Trump failed to strike a bipartisan funding measure causing a partial shutdown of government services beginning on Dec. 22, 2018. After working without pay for weeks, federal workers missed their first paycheck on Jan. 11, 2019. The next day the shutdown became the longest in U.S. history. (ELODIE CUZIN / AFP/Getty Images) 9 / 40 Internal Revenue Service employees Brian Lanouette, of Merrimack, N.H., center right, and Mary Maldonado, of Dracut, Mass., right, join with others as they display placards during a rally by federal employees and supporters on Jan. 17, 2019, in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, Mass., held to call for an end of the partial shutdown of the federal government. (Steven Senne / AP) 10 / 40 Security lines at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Ga. require more than an hour long wait amid the partial federal shutdown, causing some travelers to miss their flights on Jan. 14, 2019. The long lines signal staffing shortages at security checkpoints. (John Spink / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) 11 / 40 A view of the White House during a winter storm on the 23rd day of the US government shutdown on Jan. 13, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images) 12 / 40 After missing their paycheck today, federal workers furloughed due to the partial government shutdown attend a job fair for substitute teacher positions held by the Fairfax County Public School system on Jan. 11, 2019 in Falls Church, Va. Approximately 800,000 federal workers are currently on furlough. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 13 / 40 Brian Uholik (R), a furloughed Justice Department employee, holds his infant daughter Wynnie while discussing with his wife Jamie (L) how the government shutdown has impacted their family during a roundtable discussion with government employees and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in Alexandria, Virginia on Jan. 11, 2019. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 14 / 40 U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. attends a rally with government workers and their supporters in Boston, Mass. on Jan. Jan.11, 2019 calling for President Trump to drop his demand for funding for a wall on the southern U.S. border and to reopen the federal government. (Michael Dwyer / AP) 15 / 40 Government workers and their supporters hold signs during a protest in Boston, Mass. on Jan.11, 2019. The workers rallied with Democratic U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and other supporters to urge that the Republican president put an end to the shutdown so they can get back to work. (Michael Dwyer / AP) 16 / 40 President Trump speaks to the media as he tours the U.S. border with Mexico at the Rio Grande on the southern border on Jan. 10, 2019, in McAllen, Texas. (Evan Vucci / AP) 17 / 40 President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House as he gives a prime-time address about border security on Jan. 8, 2018, in Washington D.C. (Pool photo by Carlos Barria via AP) 18 / 40 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pose for photographers after speaking on Capitol Hill in response President Donald Trumps border security address on Jan. 8, 2019, in Washington D.C. (Alex Brandon / AP) 19 / 40 Passengers wait in line on Jan. 7, 2019, at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested yesterday that the partial government shutdown is disrupting Transportation Security Administration operations. (Mark Lennihan / AP) 20 / 40 Transportation Security Administration agents help passengers through a security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. on Jan. 7, 2019. (Seth Wenig / AP) 21 / 40 New brewing equipment sits idle in a warehouse used by the Alementary Brewing Co. in Hackensack, N.J. on Jan. 7, 2019. The owners recently invested in one million dollars worth of new equipment and a new warehouse which would increase their capacity five times, but due to the government shutdown, they have been unable to get the required licenses from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. (Seth Wenig / AP) 22 / 40 President Trump speaks to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2019, for meetings at Camp David. Trump stood firm today on his demand for more than $5.7 billion to fund a border wall with Mexico, which has forced a partial shutdown of the federal government now entering its third week. We have to build the wall, Trump said to reporters while conceding that the barrier could be steel instead of concrete. (JIM WATSON / AFP/Getty Images) 23 / 40 Tourists look at a sign informing them that the main visitor center at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is closed due to the partial government shutdown on Jan. 1, 2019. Many other parts of the park remained open and accessible to visitors including the lodges, shuttle buses and restaurants. (Anna Johnson / AP) 24 / 40 A closed sign is displayed at The National Archives entrance in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 1, 2019, as a partial government shutdown stretches into its third week. (Jose Luis Magana / AP) 25 / 40 A closed sign is displayed on a door at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 1, 2019. (Jose Luis Magana / AP) 26 / 40 Elephant manager Marie Galloway, left, and zookeeper Jordan Hargis feed and give proper care to 70-year-old Asian elephant Ambika, at the Smithsonians National Zoo in Washington D.C., on Dec. 31, 2018. In the event of a prolonged government shutdown and the zoo closes, the zookeepers will continue to work without pay. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP) 27 / 40 The U.S. Capitol Dome is seen behind the Peace Monument statue in Washington D.C. on Dec. 31, 2018, as a partial government shutdown stretches into its second week. A high-stakes move to reopen the government will be the first big battle between Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump as Democrats come into control of the House. The new Democratic House majority gavels into session on Jan.3, 2019 with legislation to end the government shutdown. Pelosi and Trump both think they have public sentiment on their side in the battle over Trumps promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) 28 / 40 A Transportation Security Administration officer checks a travelers documents at a security screening area during a partial federal government shutdown on Dec. 31, 2018, in SeaTac, Wash. TSA staff are among tens of thousands of federal employees considered essential as the federal government shutdown moves into its second week. They are working without pay until the shutdown ends, but will likely be paid retroactively. (Elaine Thompson / AP) 29 / 40 The U.S. Capitol is shown during a partial shutdown of the federal government on Dec. 31, 2018, in Washington, DC. The partial shutdown will continue for at least a few more days as lawmakers are not scheduled to return to Washington until Jan. 3, 2019. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 30 / 40 A car drives into Joshua Tree National Park in California past an entrance station on Dec. 30, 2018, which is closed due to the partial shutdown of the federal government. The park remains open, but visitor services such as restroom cleaning, are not being provided. The shutdown began on Dec. 22, 2018, with Congress at loggerheads over whether to include in an appropriations bill $5 billion sought by Donald Trump to fund a wall on the border with Mexico, a central pillar of his election campaign and of his presidency. (LOIC PIALAT / AFP/Getty Images) 31 / 40 Empty corridors around the Senate chamber are seen at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on Dec. 28, 2018, during a partial government shutdown. The partial government shutdown will almost certainly be handed off to a divided government to solve in the new year, as both parties traded blame today and President Donald Trump sought to raise the stakes in the weeklong impasse. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) 32 / 40 Trash in a box overflows near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 27, 2018, as some government services have been stopped during a partial government shutdown. Congress members trickled back into Washington but there was little hope of ending the government shutdown sparked by a public feud with President Donald Trump over the U.S.-Mexico border wall. A lapse in funding to parts of the government meanwhile entered the sixth day. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP/Getty Images) 33 / 40 The U.S. Capitol is visible as a man who declined to give his name picks up garbage and stacks it near a trash can during a partial government shutdown on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 25, 2018. (Andrew Harnik / AP) 34 / 40 The gates to the National Christmas Tree in Washington, DC. are closed to the public on Dec. 24, 2018, due to a partial shutdown of the federal government. The partial shutdown will continue for at least a few more days as lawmakers head home for the holidays as Democrats and the Trump administration cannot agree on an amount of funding for border security. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 35 / 40 Trash begins to accumulate along the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Dec. 24, 2018, due to a partial shutdown of the federal government. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 36 / 40 Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks with reporters on his way to the U.S. Senate Chamber, as the Senate takes up a House-passed bill that would pay for President Donald Trumps border wall and avert a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 21, 2018. (Jose Luis Magana / AP) 37 / 40 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., speaks to reporters on Dec. 21, 2018, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. as the Senate takes up a House-passed bill that would pay for President Donald Trumps border wall and avert a partial government shutdown. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) 38 / 40 Vice President Mike Pence, second from right, walks with incoming White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, center, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, second from left, after meetings to pass a bill that would pay for President Donald Trumps border wall and avert a partial government shutdown, on Capitol Hill, on Dec. 21, 2018 in Washington D.C. (Alex Brandon / AP) 39 / 40 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returns from the White House to the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. as work to avoid a partial government shutdown continues on Dec. 21, 2018. Trump is imploring McConnell to change the Senates rules in order to pass the spending bill. (Jose Luis Magana / AP) 40 / 40 President Donald Trump makes a statement on the possible government shutdown before signing criminal just reform legislation in the Oval Office of the White House, on Dec. 21, 2018, in Washington D.C. (Evan Vucci / AP) Democrats, who are resolute on not giving Trump one single dime in wall cash, passed a bipartisan bill in the House last week that would give eight of the shuttered Cabinet departments full fiscal year funding while the Department of Homeland Security would be reopened on current spending levels through Feb. 8. Advertisement That way, Dems argue, lawmakers can continue to discuss disagreements on Homeland Security spending without holding the government and the livelihood of government workers hostage. McConnell himself previously supported the legislation. But Trump who wants at least $5 billion in taxpayer cash for a border wall he promised Mexico would pay for unexpectedly threatened to veto the measure. McConnell then refused to put it up for a vote, saying he wont advance something the President isnt committed to signing. Democrats have ripped McConnell as a coward for ceding power to Trump. The Senate should not take up any bills unrelated to reopening the government until the Majority Leader lets us vote on exactly that, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) tweeted. This is not business as usual. This is a crisis and a failure to govern. Dozens of government agencies are shut down. We must reconcile that first. Advertisement A McConnell spokesman wouldnt address the shutdown stalemate but took a shot at Schumer over his readiness to pull support for the pro-Israel Middle East defense bill. It would be a real surprise, and send a terrible message to a key ally, if Sen. Schumer was to suddenly reverse himself and block security aid to Israel, the spokesman said. Meanwhile, Trump teased a televised speech he plans for Tuesday night. I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern, Trump tweeted. Advertisement The major TV networks plan to carry the speech as well as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. The speech is expected to last about eight minutes. Trump also announced he will jet off to the U.S. southern border on Thursday to meet with federal agents. Exactly where Trump will travel was not immediately known, but press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pledged to provide more details soon. With Michael McAuliff National security advisor John Bolton on Sunday seemingly walked back President Trumps vow to speedily withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, setting down conditions that would probably require a prolonged American troop presence, including the protection of allied Kurdish forces and the defeat of Islamic State. Less than three weeks ago, Trump upended U.S. policy in the region by abruptly announcing a pullout now of American forces, prompting his highly respected defense secretary, James N. Mattis, to resign in protest and drawing a hail of bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who called the decision precipitous and highly damaging to relations with American allies. Senior aides to Trump have sometimes suffered harsh consequences when appearing to publicly contradict the president. But Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House hours after Boltons remarks in Jerusalem, did not give any immediate indication he felt undercut by his national security advisor. Instead, the president suggested that a calibrated pullout, with decisions made in accordance with conditions on the ground, had been his intention all along. Advertisement Were going to be removing our troops. I never said were doing it that quickly, Trump said. Using an acronym for the militant group Islamic State, he added: But were decimating ISIS. In his Dec. 19 announcement, the president declared that U.S. forces have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency. Bolton, on a visit to Israel, offered reassurances that the Trump-announced withdrawal, initially expected to take place within weeks, would instead be conditioned upon policy decisions that we need to implement. Trump allies sought to minimize any differences between the presidents previously articulated position and his national security advisors assurances. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was sharply critical of the presidents initial pullout announcement and personally lobbied Trump to reconsider, said on CBS Face the Nation that I think this is the reality setting in about the need to plan and coordinate the withdrawal of about 2,000 U.S. forces amid Syrias complex, multisided civil war. The bottom line here is we want to make sure we get this right, that ISIS doesnt come back, he said. Trump, the senator said, was slowing down and is reevaluating his policies in light of those three objectives: Dont let Iran get the oil fields, dont let the Turks slaughter the Kurds, and dont let ISIS come back. Although Boltons comments represented the most visible break with Trumps abrupt Dec. 19 announcement, aides had been seeking in recent days to soften his earlier position, playing down talk of any firm timetable for the pullout. The president had spoken of a possible four-month winding down of the U.S. presence. Advertisement In remarks delivered before a working dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bolton said the exit of U.S. troops would take place in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again, and to make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured. Protection of Kurdish allies who have fought alongside U.S. troops, he told reporters, was a priority. NATO ally Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters to be terrorists. We dont think the Turks ought to undertake military action thats not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they dont endanger our troops, said Bolton, who was to travel to Turkey on Monday with Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for talks with officials in the capital, Ankara. Decembers abrupt word of a planned American withdrawal from Syria rattled senior Israeli officials, especially followed by Trumps comment last week that Iran, Israels greatest regional foe, can do what they want in Syria. Danny Yatom, a former head of Israels Mossad intelligence agency, said in a television interview that the notion of a free rein for Iran in Syria was very worrisome. Advertisement Although Boltons comments helped ease fears of the potentially chaotic consequences of a rapid pullout from Syria, the administrations apparent change of heart drew barbs from some. Brian McKeon, who held senior security posts in the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter, So Mattis resigned over a policy decision thats now being reversed? Democrats, having regained control of the House of Representatives, are already signaling that Trumps freewheeling style on national security matters will draw new scrutiny. The new Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, criticized what he called a lack of transparency and explanation for Trumps decisions on troop deployments, including the Syria pullout. Advertisement Speaking on ABCs This Week, Smith said he intended to hold hearings about the White Houses policies on Syria and Afghanistan. He said hed like to call Mattis as a witness. The presidents December pullout announcement reportedly came in response to a request from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a seemingly off-the-cuff concession that startled even the Turkish leader. In Trumps comments Sunday, something of the triumphal tone of his abrupt December announcement remained. When I was elected President two years ago, ISIS was all over Syria and all over Iraq, he said. Weve wiped out ISIS in Iraq. Weve wiped out ISIS. Advertisement Bolton said he expected U.S. forces would eventually depart from northeastern Syria. But in September, he had said that U.S. forces would stay in Syria as long as there were Iranian forces in the country. Bolton was far more circumspect than Mattis in his response to last months pullout announcement, and he did not appear to have immediately drawn the presidents wrath with his comments in Jerusalem. Asked about Boltons remarks Sunday, Trump declared: John Bolton is doing a great job. But Trump sometimes gets angry at aides after the fact, depending on how his surrogates backpedaling or criticism, implicit or explicit, is characterized in media reports, particularly in the conservative outlets he favors. When Mattis quit, Trump initially reacted graciously, hailing his distinguished service. But after hearing the outgoing secretarys pre-Christmas resignation letter characterized as a scathing criticism of Trumps treatment of allies, the president began taking public potshots at the former Marine general. Advertisement Accelerating Mattis planned departure, which the ex-general had set for at the end of February, Trump pushed him out as of Jan. 1, and then claimed to have essentially fired Mattis. Whats he done for me? he asked last week. Special correspondent Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem and Times staff writer King from Washington. laura.king@latimes.com Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty Monday to groping an 18-year-old busboy in 2016 in the first criminal case brought against the disgraced actor following a string of sexual misconduct allegations that crippled his career. Spaceys court appearance came more than a year after former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh accused the former House of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son in a bar on the Massachusetts resort island of Nantucket. Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett ordered Spacey to stay away from his accuser and the mans family. Spacey will not have to appear at his next hearing on March 4, but he must be available by phone, Barrett said. The judge also ordered Spaceys accuser and the mans then-girlfriend to preserve text messages and other data on their cellphones from the day of the alleged assault and six months after. Spaceys attorney Alan Jackson told the judge they believe the cellphones contain information that is likely exculpatory for Spacey. Advertisement The actor and his lawyers declined to comment as they left the courthouse amid a crush of reporters. Spacey, wearing a gray suit, navy vest and polka dot tie, didnt speak during the hearing and his lawyers entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf. In court documents, Spaceys lawyers called the accusations patently false and noted that prosecutors have no witnesses to the alleged groping. Spaceys lawyers wrote that the teen lied about his age, welcomed drinks bought by Spacey, left the bar with him to smoke a cigarette and gave Spacey his phone number. At best, this describes two people engaged in mutual and consensual flirtation, nothing more, his attorneys wrote. If convicted of felony indecent assault and battery, the 59-year-old two-time Oscar winner could face as many as five years in prison. Unruhs son told police that he wanted to get a picture with the former House of Cards star and went over to talk to him after his shift ended at the Club Car, a popular island bar and restaurant, according to court documents. The man said Spacey bought him several drinks and tried to convince him to come home with him before unzipping the mans pants and groping him for about three minutes. The accuser told police that he tried to move Spaceys hands, but the groping continued, and he didnt know what to do because he didnt want to get in trouble for drinking. The man said he fled when Spacey went to the bathroom. The Associated Press does not typically identify people alleging sexual assault. The civil attorney for the accuser said in a statement ahead of the hearing that his client is leading by example. Advertisement By reporting the sexual assault, my client is a determined and encouraging voice for those victims not yet ready to report being sexually assaulted, said lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of clergy sexual abuse victims. Garabedian is not a part of the criminal case against Spacey. Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quiets down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold. When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear. A judge denied Spaceys bid to avoid appearing in person Monday. Spacey had argued that his presence would amplify the negative publicity already generated by the case. Hours after the court appearance, Spacey was pulled over for speeding as he exited Washingtons Reagan National Airport and given a warning, said Athena Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Advertisement After the sexual assault charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on House of Cards, in which he said, Im certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didnt do. It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge. Spacey was ousted from the Netflix series and other productions after he was accused of sexual assault and inappropriate behavior by numerous people amid the #MeToo movement. His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Rapp was 14 and Spacey 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologized if the allegations were true. Spacey remains under investigation on suspicion of sexual assault in Los Angeles for an incident that allegedly occurred in 2016. Prosecutors declined to file charges over a 1992 allegation because the statute of limitations had expired. Advertisement Associated Press writer Matthew Barakat contributed to this report from Falls Church, Va. Patrick McStay spent nearly four years agonizing. Where could his son Joseph McStay, daughter-in-law Summer and their two little boys be? They were just gone. No word from them after early February 2010. No reason to have left. And no signs of struggle in the familys Fallbrook home. Then, in November 2013, the family was found dead. Patrick McStays agony grew, but the questions multiplied. Who killed them? Advertisement Who beat them to death, apparently with a small sledgehammer? Who put their bodies in shallow graves, not far from busy Interstate 15 near Victorville? And why? On Monday, trial starts in San Bernardino Superior Court for the man authorities have accused of killing the family: Charles Chase Merritt, a talented welder who created some of the custom fountains Joseph Joey McStay sold. The Riverside County man is the last person known to have seen 40-year-old Joey McStay, on Feb. 4, 2010. Merritt was, days later, among the first to sound the alarm that the family was missing. He was arrested just shy of a year to the day after the family was found. Now 61 years old and jailed without bail since his November 2014 arrest, Merritt has pleaded not guilty. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted. As investigators worked the case before and after the family was found dead Patrick McStay was not idle. He did his own digging, and personally came to suspect Merritt. He also wrote a book about the family. Advertisement On February 4, 2010, my personal life stopped, McStay said Friday. My social life stopped. I have done nothing for nine years now other than this case. I dont know how its going to be when it is over. Everybody talks about closure, but I am not sure I have even accepted this all yet. A mysterious disappearance McStay, his 43-year-old wife, Summer, and their children Gianni and Joey Jr. moved from San Clemente to Fallbrook in late 2009. Gianni, with his bright eyes and long curls, was 4 years old. The little one, Chubba as his family called him, turned 3 on Jan. 31, 2010. Advertisement Five days later, on Feb. 4, 2010, Joey McStay spent the early afternoon in Rancho Cucamonga meeting with Merritt, ostensibly discussing a custom fountain project. Summer went shopping in Vista that afternoon, where she picked up baby clothes for her sisters newborn. On Feb. 8 of that year, four days after they were last seen, the familys Isuzu Trooper was found roughly 60 miles from their home, in a shopping center parking lot in San Ysidro, near the international border. Apparently abandoned, the vehicle was towed as a matter of routine. No one knew the father, mother and two boys were already missing. In mid-February, family members called the authorities to report the disappearance. Advertisement Investigators found a half-empty popcorn bag in the kitchen and two child-sized bowls of popcorn in the living room. They also found a carton of eggs on the counter and Summers prescription sunglasses. The two family dogs had been left outside, without food. The inexplicable disappearance of an entire family made headlines in Southern California. It also caught national attention. By April 2013, San Diego County Sheriffs detectives handed the case off to the FBI, suspecting that the family had intentionally gone south of the border, perhaps to stay or possibly meeting a terrible fate there. In this Nov. 20, 2013 file photo, Kyla Cummins, then 2, daughter of a family friend, plays with a toy left at the memorial for murdered McStay family, The crosses were installed at the spot where the family was found buried in shallow graves outside Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement The break came Nov. 11, 2013, when a motorcyclist riding in a desert area near Victorville found a childs skull and called 911. Authorities uncovered the skeletal remains of the family in two shallow graves a little more than 100 miles from the McStays Fallbrook home. San Bernardino County Sheriffs homicide detectives took over the case. The following year, detectives arrested Merritt. They did not share details as to why they suspected him. Evidence emerges In June 2015, at a day-long preliminary hearing in San Bernardino Superior Court, some of the investigators evidence became public. Advertisement Authorities testified that Merritts DNA was found on the steering wheel of the familys abandoned car. His cellphone had been used near the desert area where the bodies were found. Merritt has long ties to the Victor Valley area. Financial records showed someone had added Merritts name to one of Joseph McStays online QuickBooks accounts on Feb. 1, 2010 but it was an action that had not been performed on McStays computer. According to testimony at the hearing, five checks were written on the account on Feb. 5, 2010. But they had been backdated to Feb. 4 the last day the family was seen. Advertisement Three of those checks were to Merritt. The other two were to a company Merritt and McStay worked with. And on Feb. 9, 2010, according to testimony, someone called the QuickBooks customer service department from Merritts cellphone, identified himself as Joseph McStay and tried to delete the entire account. Details of the gruesome deaths also came out. Joseph McStay had suffered a broken bones and at least four blows to his head, according to testimony. He also had an electrical cord wrapped around his neck, and his body was then wrapped in some sort of material, perhaps a futon cover, which had degraded in the grave. Advertisement Summer McStay had multiple facial and skull wounds. Four-year-old Gianni had been struck in the head at least seven times. Defendant Chase Merritt listens as the judge speaks during Merrits preliminary hearing in San Bernardino Superior Court on June 15, 2015. At the end of the hearing, he was ordered to stand trial on four counts of murder. (John GIbbins/San Diego Union-Tribune/Zuma Press) At the end of the hearing, Judge Michael Smith ordered Merritt to stand trial on four counts of first-degree murder. Smith will also preside over the trial. Advertisement Im afraid of this trial None of the evidence in the graves, the defense has argued, ties Merritt to the killings, including his DNA. Merritts attorneys have pointed the finger at another McStay associate, and will be allowed to present some of their evidence at trial, The San Bernardino Sun reported in November. Patrick McStay has followed the case from his Houston-area home. Retired and on a fixed income, he said he will attend as much of the trial as he can and has set up a GoFundMe account in hopes of raising enough money to cover the cost. After all these years, McStay said, hes ready for the trial centered on the death of his son and family. And then again, hes not. Advertisement I dont know even if I have really accepted that they are gone yet, McStay said. Its an odd thing. I have, but I havent. And Im afraid of this trial. I am afraid of the ending of it. Not the verdict. Im afraid of when its over, its in the books and its reality. The trial is expected to take months, perhaps running through April or longer. Advertisement teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Each item exhumed from the shallow graves a diaper, a bra, a blanket filled with bones led detectives to the same question. Could this be the skeletal remains of the McStay family, who had vanished more than three years earlier? The mysterious disappearance of a family of four whose Fallbrook home showed signs of a swift departure uneaten bowls of popcorn on the futon, vegetables left out to rot transfixed the nation and puzzled police until the fall of 2013, when an off-road motorcyclist discovered parts of a skull in the desert off Interstate 15 in Victorville. Days later came a grim confirmation: The remains unearthed along with a rusty sledgehammer belonged to Joseph and Summer McStay and their two boys, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3. Advertisement On Monday, more than four years since his arrest in connection with the slayings, the familys accused killer, Charles Chase Merritt, is scheduled to go on trial on murder charges in San Bernardino, marking a legal milestone on nearly a decade of tragedy. Patrick McStay at his home in Texas. (Michael Stravato / For The Times) Ive been living in a fog for nine years now, said Patrick McStay, Josephs father, who investigated the disappearance and chronicled his findings in a book, McStays, Taken Too Soon: A True Story. From the start the case baffled detectives, who initially believed the family may have ventured out on their own and planned to return. There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry. A check of the familys computer revealed searches suggesting an international trip, including What documents do children need for traveling to Mexico? But friends and family insisted the couple would never travel there with their children. San Diego County sheriffs investigators eventually handed the case off to the FBI, saying they believed the family was out of the country. Authorities received hundreds of tips from callers reporting sightings around the country. But police now say they believe the McStays were killed at their home, on a cul-de-sac beneath a hill dotted with avocado trees. Merritt had cycled in and out of jails and prisons after several criminal convictions for burglary and receiving stolen property during the 1970s and 80s. In 2001, the Riverside County resident and father pleaded no contest to second-degree burglary and grand theft after authorities accused him of stealing from a San Gabriel Valley ironworks company. Merritt, now 61, was sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation. His probation was extended to a decade because he skipped so many court-ordered programs and was late to pay fines. He frequently bounced between jobs, eventually landing work as a subcontractor for Earth Inspired Products, Joseph McStays company, which sold water fountains. A week after officials excavated the bodies in Victorville, Merritt was quoted in a British tabloid, saying that the business was flourishing before the disappearance and that the two men had spent more than an hour together the day McStay vanished. Advertisement He was my best friend, Merritt told the tabloid. He was arrested and charged with four counts of murder in 2014. Merritt had used that same past-tense phrasing years earlier, according to court testimony from Det. Troy DuGal, the lead sheriffs investigator in San Diego County, where the case began as a missing-persons investigation. During an interview two weeks after the family disappeared, Merritt told detectives that McStay was one of his best friends, according to a transcript of the defendants preliminary hearing. Merritt also used the past tense when speaking about Summer, saying she was a verbal person. Charles Merritt, left, with his attorney, Rajan Maline, awaiting opening statements in his trial for the murder of Joseph and Summer McStay and their two boys, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in 2010. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement When DuGals partner confronted him about using past tense, Merritt seemed confused and disregarded the question. Detectives swabbed his cheek for DNA and asked him about a critical piece of evidence: the McStay familys Isuzu Trooper, which was towed from the parking lot of a strip mall near the Mexican border days after the disappearance. Merritt said he had never driven the vehicle, DuGal said. Det. Edward Bachman, the lead sheriffs investigator in San Bernardino County, where the bodies were found, testified that a DNA mixture, including a sample that matched Merritts genetic profile, was found on the gearshift and steering wheel of the Isuzu, and an FBI agent testified that Merritts cellphone records showed that his phone was in the vicinity of the desert gravesites two days after the disappearance. Evidence presented at the preliminary hearing suggested investigators believed the family may have been attacked at their home. No shoes were recovered from the gravesites; nor was there a shirt belonging to Summer, a detective testified, adding that her bra was splotched with paint. The McStay family had been renovating their home before the disappearance, the detective said, noting that pieces of blue painters tape like that affixed to the walls in the familys kitchen were found in the graves. Advertisement San Bernardino County Sheriffs Det. Daniel Hanke testified that in the days after the family vanished, Merritt deposited checks worth thousands of dollars from Joseph McStay, which were written using the online accounting program QuickBooks. Four days after the family disappeared, Hanke said, an individual identifying himself as Joseph McStay called QuickBooks and asked to transfer the account and then cancel his subscription. The call, Hanke said, came from Merritts cellphone number. But Merritts defense attorney, Rajan Maline, insists his client is innocent. Theres simply no evidence he did it, Maline said. The cellphone evidence presented at the preliminary hearing was incomplete, Maline said, adding that he believed the DNA mixture found on the gearshift and steering wheel actually exonerated his client. If Merritt had driven the car, he would be a major contributor to the DNA mixture, Maline said, instead of a minor or trace contributor. He said remnants of Merritts DNA probably were transferred to Joseph McStay during a handshake. Advertisement Its going to be pretty clear that Chase Merritt didnt do it, Maline said, adding that the defense team tested materials from the graves and found that none of them matched Merritts DNA. If convicted, Merritt whose trial may stretch into April could be subject to the death penalty, said a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County district attorneys office. Michael McStay pays his respects to his brother Joseph at crosses erected in memory McStay, his wife and their two children, who were found buried in shallow graves off Interstate 15 in Victorville in 2013. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) For Patrick McStay, 72, the impending trial still feels abstract. Advertisement Im not sure everything has even hit me yet, he said, adding that every day he witnesses some small reminder of his family. Maroon 5 songs on the radio make him laugh a reminder, he said, of how flabbergasted his son was to learn that he was a fan. The band Chicago reminds him of his daughter-in-law, because they shared a love for the group, and he often floats back to a memory of his grandsons the boys, he calls them. The month before the disappearance, while talking to them on Skype, Gianni picked up his parents laptop and wandered the home, giving his grandpa a virtual tour. McStay, a Texas resident, said he didnt plan to be in San Bernardino on Monday. Although proceeds from a GoFundMe account and his book have helped, he cant afford to spend several months in California. He plans to attend some of the trial, he said, and wonders how hell feel when its finally over. Maybe then, he said, the fog will lift and reality will crash down. Advertisement marisa.gerber@latimes.com For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber For the better part of two years, Anthony Rauda could be found sleeping in or around Malibu Creek State Park, one of any number of people who chose to spend their nights dozing near the popular hiking trails. But while the campers used the beach-adjacent recreation area as a quick getaway, Rauda stayed. Prosecutors say he was using the park and the surrounding area for a different purpose: as a hunting ground. For the record: A previous version of the article said that Tristan Beaudette was killed last July as he camped with his daughters. Beaudette was killed last June. In November 2016, a man who was sleeping outside while hiking the Backbone Trail awoke to a loud bang and said he felt a burning sensation in his arm. He looked down to find pellets from a shotgun blast embedded in his skin. The hiker was the first of 11 people to find themselves in Raudas sights over the next two years, prosecutors said Monday. Rauda, 42, allegedly opened fire on campsites and cars seven times between November 2016 and last June, when a rifle blast killed 35-year-old Tristan Beaudette as he camped with his daughters. Advertisement Rauda was charged Monday with one count of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder, a move that brought some relief to residents whose neighborhoods were scarred by a furious wildfire and whod become panicked at the idea that a sniper was stalking one of L.A.s most idyllic locales. Our community, the greater Malibu community, is still coping with the loss of those in Thousand Oaks followed by the loss of all the homes and three people in the fire, said Malibu City Councilman Skylar Peak, referring to the mass shooting at Borderline Bar and Grill and the eruption of the Woolsey fire a day later. It has just been a really tough, tough end to 2018, that I feel a lot of people are looking to put behind them. Rauda was arrested near Malibu last October in connection with a string of burglaries, but news that he was carrying a rifle at the time of his capture led to speculation that he might have been the gunman connected to the sporadic shootings. Forensic tests confirmed that the rifle he was arrested with was used in several of the shootings, said two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly. Investigators do not believe Rauda knew any of the individuals he fired on. The attacks were all random, targets of opportunity, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. Rauda was restrained in a chair and said little during a brief court appearance in Van Nuys on Monday. His bail was set at $1.1 million. Rauda did not enter a plea and his hearing was continued until Jan. 22. Deputy Public Defender Max Fantozzi declined to comment after the hearing. Beaudettes killing in June was the last in Raudas alleged series of attacks, and it left residents of the greater Malibu area unnerved and frustrated. As investigators with the Sheriffs Department struggled to come up with a motive or suspect, news of other shootings dating to 2016 began to surface, leading to speculation that a sniper was stalking the area. Unsubstantiated reports of shootings and gunfire some of which were dismissed as residents responding to the sound of a transformer explosion began pouring into the Lost Hills sheriffs station last summer. The attacks also became something of a political football, as Villanueva sharply criticized then-Sheriff Jim McDonnells handling of the case during the waning days of his 2018 election bid to oust the incumbent. Echoing concerns raised by some residents, Villanueva questioned why the Sheriffs Department had not publicized the potentially related shootings earlier. Discussing those comments Monday, Villanueva said the issue had been handled internally and he praised the investigators who captured Rauda. It represented a challenge in many regards: the sheer logistics of it, the fact that there was a time period of almost two years that we had to backtrack and figure out what his activities were, Villanueva said. It took a lot of hard work and good old-fashioned police work to make it happen. Advertisement According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Rauda was linked to seven shootings between November 2016 and Beaudettes death last year. The first took place on Nov. 3, 2016, when James Rogers says he was shot in the arm as he was sleeping in Tapia Park, just south of Malibu Creek State Park. Rauda allegedly shot at three cars in the area in 2017, and prosecutors have charged him with five counts of attempted murder in connection with those incidents, according to court records. Rauda opened fired on a Tesla in June of last year, just four days before Beaudette was killed, prosecutors said. Rauda was also charged with two counts of attempted murder in connection with Beaudettes death, as the victims young daughters were sleeping nearby. Prosecutors also accused Rauda of breaking into commercial buildings owned by the Las Virgenes Water District, Spectrum Building Development and the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center five times between July and October of last year, court records show. Several law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rauda was a survivalist who often slept outside in the Malibu area and other coastal sections. During the break-ins, he stole food and other items that would help foster his outdoor lifestyle, instead of valuables, the officials said. Advertisement The suspects weapon of choice also changed over the course of his alleged attacks, the officials said. He employed a shotgun in the 2016 shootings but began using a rifle afterward. Sheriffs investigators had been closing in on Rauda in the weeks leading up to his capture, Villanueva said. Detectives found video footage of him committing a burglary in the area, and also captured images of him carrying the rifle he was later arrested with, the sheriff said. Rauda has a lengthy criminal record, including multiple convictions for illegal weapons possession in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, court records show. He previously lived in Florida and Texas, where he was convicted of assault, according to court records. Sgt. Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriffs Office, said Rauda had been arrested several times in their jurisdiction and was once found illegally carrying a handgun. Investigators there also noted that in 2010, a woman was injured near the Los Angeles-Ventura county border when someone shot at her car from a distance while she drove along Thousand Oaks Boulevard, though Buschow said there is no definitive link between Rauda and that case. Advertisement Peak, the Malibu councilman, said that although hes happy a suspect is in custody, he still often thinks of Beaudettes family. Hopefully, we can put this thing to rest and people can rest easy at night. It was a real difficult thing for everyone in the area, he said. My heart still goes out to the widow and the children this was an unimaginable crime. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. james.queally@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT Jamal Badawi, the Yemeni Al Qaeda operative accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike, President Trump said Sunday. Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole, Trump said in a tweet. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi, the president added. Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism! U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, confirmed Badawis death in a statement Sunday afternoon. Advertisement U.S. CENTCOM has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Marib governate, Jan. 1, it said in a tweet. Jamal al-Badawi was an al Qaeda operative involved in the USS Cole bombing. U.S. forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process. Seventeen American sailors were killed and more than 40 were injured in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack, in which Al Qaeda suicide bombers pulled up to the refueling destroyer in an explosives-laden boat and blasted a hole in its hull. Navy Capt. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday that military leaders were assessing the results of the airstrike, the Associated Press reported. Badawi was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2004, but his sentence was later reduced to 15 years in prison. He made two successful jailbreaks in 2003 and 2006; after he surrendered in 2007, authorities in Yemen secretly made a deal to allow him to remain free in exchange for aiding in the search and capture of other Al Qaeda operatives. News of the deal put a strain on relations between Yemen and the United States, where Badawi had been indicted by a federal grand jury on murder and terrorism charges and the State Department had offered a $5-million bounty for his capture. "The Philippine government has recently told our embassy in Manila of its decision to buy the U.S.' UH-60 Blackhawk," an official with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Friday. Korea's hopes of selling its first homegrown helicopter, the Surion, to the Philippines have finally crumbled to dust. Korea Aerospace Industries and DAPA had thrown all their efforts into selling W250 billion worth of Surions to the Philippines last year (US$1=W1,124). The Defense Ministry put a Surion on display in its compound in Yongsan, Seoul during Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's visit in June last year. But the Blackhawk scored better on safety, and the U.S. offered to sell Manila 16 Blackhawks for the same price as 10 Surions. That means KAI's massive arms sales plans from last year have all gone awry. Earlier, KAI took part in bidding for a U.S. Air Force T-X trainer project worth W18 trillion in a consortium with Lockheed Martin and also lost out. The Korean defense industry had its worst year last year, and prospects look gloomy. A W3-trillion air defense missile project in India has become more competitive now that Russia has joined the bidding at the last moment. The 18-year-old Saudi woman, saying she feared for her safety because of an abusive family in her homeland, barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. She wedged a mattress against the door and waged a social media campaign to garner the attention of United Nations officials in hopes of gaining asylum in Australia. It was all Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun could think to do after Thai officials stopped her Saturday and took away her passport after she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait. Please help, Alqunun tweeted. I am in bangkok about to be forced on a flight back to Saudi where my life is in danger. Advertisement By late Monday, Thai authorities said they would not send Alqunun home against her wishes and granted members of the United Nations refugee agency access to her. The developments seemed to indicate that Alqunun might avoid a return to Saudi Arabia, where, she told human rights advocates, she endured constant beatings and death threats from her male family members. Other Saudi women have also turned to social media to share concerns about the unequal and often brutal treatment found in Saudi Arabia, where women arent allowed to travel without the permission of a male guardian. The nation has a record of domestic abuse, human rights watchers say, and Saudi women have repeatedly tried to flee the country with varying degrees of success. Women are effectively treated as property of their males, said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watchs Middle East and North Africa division. If there were a normal way to resolve family grievances in Saudi Arabia, if young women could live out their experiences and challenge things in a normal way, they wouldnt have to flee their country. Alqunun tweeted Saturday from Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport that she was in danger and trying to prevent the Saudi Embassy from forcing her to go back home. Alqunun had fled to Thailand from Kuwait, which does not require a male guardian to provide permission for women to travel. She had been vacationing in Kuwait with her family, Whitson said. When Thai officials learned Alqunun had no return flight or money, they detained her and put her in an airport hotel. They initially planned to return her to Kuwait on a Monday morning flight. But Alqunun continued to tweet, garnering tens of thousands of sympathetic followers, and contacted human rights groups and the United Nations seeking help. She refused to leave the hotel room and missed the flight to Kuwait. I want asylum, she said in a short video posted to her Twitter account. Advertisement Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were eventually granted permission to visit Alqunun. The agency said she was safe and that they would continue interviewing her after she had some rest. Through a friend, Alqunun declined to be interviewed, citing the advice of the United Nations. The friend, who declined to give her name for fear of her safety, said Alqunun was desperate for protection because of abuse at home in Saudi Arabia. She was abused by her parents, the friend said. They dont respect her [and] treated her without dignity. They imprisoned her for six months in her room because she cut her hair; thats how they are. Advertisement Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she was beaten by male relatives and faced death threats. If she returned to Saudi Arabia, she feared she could be killed. Alqunun tweeted Monday night that her father had arrived in Bangkok. She also said local authorities had returned her passport. As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She wont be sent anywhere tonight, Thailands immigration police chief, Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, said during a news conference at the airport, according to the Associated Press. She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles, he said. We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law. Advertisement Whitson said Alqununs fate was reversed by how quickly she raised international attention. It made all the difference, Whitson said. I have no doubt in my mind Thailand would have deported her had it not been publicized as it had. I think the chances are good she will probably be resettled. Alqununs friend remained skeptical. Were confident of the U.N.'s intention to help Rahaf, but were not sure of the Thai authorities, she said. Advertisement david.pierson@latimes.com | Follow me @dhpierson Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Baghdad contributed to this report. david.pierson@latimes.com | Follow me @dhpierson Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Baghdad contributed to this report. In its 34 years of staging contest-winning student works, the San Diego-based Playwrights Project had never before put up a fully produced musical for its annual Plays by Young Writers Festival. Then along came Trash! The piece by Naomi Melville, a senior at Mt. Carmel High School, is one of five winning works from the yearly California Young Playwrights Contest that will be showcased in the fest starting this week, and its the first musical to receive that honor. But its not the first to be in the running, says Cecelia Kouma, the festivals executive producer and the Projects longtime executive director. Advertisement Every two or three years we get a musical submission, Kouma says. Sometimes its by a group, and its like, Oh, that would be really impossible to work on, given the extensive workshopping each play receives. But with this script, because it was absolutely hands-down delightful, every single person (who read it) gave it a Yes, lets see this onstage! Melvilles Trash! The Musical a saga of tossed-away objects trying to find some new purpose in life is one of five plays by school-aged writers that will be showcased in the 2019 festival, which begins performances Thursday at the Old Globes Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in Balboa Park. The works also include Sea of Fog by Jack Ventimilia, and A Mothers Mother by Emma Kuli, both of which will receive full productions; plus Just Let Me Help by Marco Herrera and Chris Johnson, and Have Hope by Shyla de Hoop, which will get staged readings. Those plays were among 415 submitted by students statewide; the winners were chosen through an extensive vetting process conducted by area theater professionals, including Deborah Salzer, who founded Playwrights Project in 1985 and led it for more than two decades. Kouma, contest coordinator Rachael VanWormer (herself a former winner of the contest) and festival artistic chief Ruff Yeager made the final choices based on judges feedback and interviews with finalists. Melville was actually a finalist in the 2016 edition of the contest, and Trash! was just one of three plays she submitted this time around. As it turns out, it wasnt even the one she thought had the best prospects of winning. Advertisement I was really surprised, she acknowledges. I thought the other two were so profound, and they chose this one. It made me realize that what you think is good isnt necessarily the best work. In developing the piece for the fest, Melville worked with the New York-based composer Thomas Hodges yet another former Playwrights contest-winner to get her music from the piano onto the page, and with director Yeager to hone the storys whimsical characters. While she doesnt know her college destination yet, Melville has dreams of studying in the theater program at the University of California San Diego and meeting Naomi Iizuka, head of playwriting there and a favorite of the young writer and her Mt. Carmel drama teacher. Whatever happens, Melville sounds committed to her chosen artform. Advertisement Its really interesting to think about why we still have theater when we now have film and television and all that, she says. And I think its because of having that connection with someone whos really there in front of you and the ephemerality of it. Theres a quote I saw once, and it was about carving something into the snow; how its only there for an instant, but its still beautiful. And part of the beauty is that it is there for only an instant. The lineup Festival performances are divided into Program A (appropriate for ages 11 and up) and Program B (for ages 16-plus). Each program includes one staged reading and one or two full productions. Two separate acting ensembles will perform in the two programs; actors play multiple roles. Advertisement Heres a look at the full lineup (quoted plot descriptions are provided by Playwrights Project). PROGRAM A for ages 11 and up (directed by Ruff Yeager) Full production Trash! The Musical, by Naomi Melville, Sabre Springs: Trash! The Musical features discarded items in a trash can banding together in search of purpose. Through song and witty dialogue, this unlikely group sorts through their past, present, and hopes for the future. The script was written by Naomi Melville, at age 17, while attending Mt. Carmel High School. Director Ruff Yeager will direct and dramaturg this imaginative musical. Staged reading Advertisement Just Let Me Help, by Marco Herrera and Chris Johnson, Imperial Beach: In Just Let Me Help, a camping trip provides a father and son with a greater understanding of one another. Playwrights Marco Herrera and Chris Johnson, both age 14, composed their winning script while attending Bayfront Charter High School. Playwrights Project teaching artist and Plays by Young Writers Festival alumna Mabelle Reynoso will act as the dramaturg/writing mentor. PROGRAM B for ages 16 and up (directed by George Ye) Full productions Sea of Fog, by Jack Ventimilia, Studio City: In Sea of Fog, two outsiders examine their differences and explore religions place in a modern world. Compelling characters ponder issues of authenticity and vulnerability in this philosophical glimpse into teen-agers lives. Playwright Jack Ventimilia, age 16, wrote this script while attending Bridges Academy in Studio City. Director George Ye will also serve as the dramaturg. A Mothers Mother, by Emma Kuli, Villa Park: A Mothers Mother explores the relationship between a pregnant teen and her mother. This heartfelt look into their bond provides the audience with insights into the stigma of teen pregnancy and the responsibility of motherhood. Playwright Emma Kuli, who now attends Santa Clara University, wrote her play while attending the Orange County School of the Arts. A Mothers Mother will be dramaturged by Playwrights Project founder Deborah Salzer. Advertisement Staged reading Have Hope, by Shyla de Hoop, Rolando: Have Hope depicts the journey of two young cats searching for their mother. Shyla wrote her winning script in a playwriting program taught by Playwrights Project teaching artist Aurrora Arnold in Mr. Halls humanities class at the Creative Performing Media Arts School in San Diego. Her writing mentor will be Playwright Project teaching artist Aleta Barthell, who also founded Kids Act. Plays by Young Writers Festival When: 10 a.m. Jan. 10 (Program A) and 11 (Program B); 10 a.m. Jan. 22-23 (Program A) and 24 (Program B); 7:30 p.m. Jan 12 (opening night three full productions, no staged readings); 10 a.m. (Program A) and 7:30 p.m. (Program B) Jan. 25; 2 p.m. (Program B) and 7:30 p.m. (Program A) Jan. 26. Where: Old Globes Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, Balboa Park. Advertisement Tickets: $25 (discounts available); $60 for opening night, including reception. Phone: (858) 384-2970 Online: playwrightsproject.org Advertisement jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @jimhebert With 29 hats in the ring, the competition is keen for an appointment to a two-year term on the Oceanside City Council left open by Novembers election. The vacancy was created when Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, who was re-elected to a four-year, at-large seat in 2016, became the top vote-getter for the first-ever, four-year seat in the citys newly created District 1 in 2018. The council voted 3-1, with Sanchez opposed, on Dec. 19 to individually interview anyone interested in the job and be ready to make the appointment at their next meeting, which is Wednesday. Sanchez said they should take more time to make sure the process is transparent and fair. The challenge for everyone is to bring more balance to the council, Sanchez said Friday. Advertisement Shes been the outlier in a number of 3-1 and 4-1 decisions in recent years, often on matters related to residential and industrial development. The majority is pro-development, almost to the point of anti-local business, Sanchez said, and she worries the appointee could reflect that view. We need someone who is truly committed, who knows that we need jobs, we need affordable housing, she said. Thats my biggest concern. Without more jobs the city is in danger of becoming a bedroom community, she said. That would make it more difficult to pay for essential services, such as police and fire protection. Sanchez, whos been on the council since 2000, said this is the largest number of applicants she can remember for a council appointment, and she worries that her fellow council members might try to rush the decision. In December, she suggested the entire council interview each applicant, the way it does for seats on the Planning Commission. The bottom line is I am hoping it doesnt end up (looking) like a done deal, she said. That does concern me. Weve got 29 people. There are probably several people who could do a good job in that bunch. The council could appoint someone Wednesday or postpone a decision until later. The law allows 60 days to make the appointment or schedule a special election, which is unlikely at an estimated cost of $750,000 or more. Among the applicants are former Oceanside Mayor Terry Johnson, former Councilman Jerry Kern, former City Treasurer Rafe Trickey, and school board Trustee Mike Blessing, a former planning director and deputy city manager. There are also some previously unsuccessful City Council candidates, including Cindy Rocco, Dana Corso, Rick Kratcoski and Kristopher Kagen, and recent San Diego County Board of Supervisors candidate Michelle Gomez, who was defeated by Jim Desmond for the seat long held by Bill Horn. Advertisement Cannabis activist Amber Newman and Senior Citizen of the Year and frequent City Council speaker Jimmy Knott are on the applicant list. Other names released by City Hall, in no special order, are Richard Fox, Jane Marshall, Kevin Witowich, Ward ODoherty, Carl Grana, Nichole Dominguez, Phillip Schwartze, Jim Burlew, Pam Vliss, Stacy Thompson, Pat McCrary, Andrew Andrioff, Marilou dela Rosa, Kevin Byrne, Krista deBoer, Alex Paneli and Joe Sciortino. One reason there are so many applicants may be that its easy they dont have to campaign or spend a lot of money, said Jerry Kern, who chose not to seek re-election last year after three terms on the council. I was asked by the people of the city to put my name in, Kern said Thursday. I thought it was my civic duty to do that. Advertisement Hes familiar with the citys ongoing issues such as downtown development, the proposed North River Farms project in Morro Hills, and important routine matters such as the city budget, he said, because he was on the dais through December. You dont have to bring me up to speed, he said. Also, he cant run for a council seat in 2020 because he doesnt live in one of the two districts that will be open for the election that year. But Kern is no shoo-in. Michelle Gomez is openly campaigning for the seat. Her husband, Donald Gomez, issued a news release to reporters Wednesday to announce that Michelle deserves the seat, and that he will be her communications director. Advertisement Though the City Council is nonpartisan, Michelle Gomez said, it is dominated by Republicans and she would offer a fresh approach as a Democrat. Another possible reason there are so many candidates is the growing speculation that a successor has already been chosen behind closed doors, Gomez said. Regardless of the outcome of the appointment, she said, she plans to run for election in 2020, either for mayor or the District 4 council seat. Kern, an Oceanside politics veteran, said he thinks the council is unlikely to reach a decision Wednesday. Advertisement Instead, the council could narrow the list and bring some of the candidates back for interviews later in the month. Its got to be open and transparent, he said. Also to be discussed Wednesday is the opening created by the resignation of City Clerk Zack Beck, who left the part-time job at the end of December to accept an appointment as the full-time city clerk in Escondido. The council is expected to declare that position vacant and begin considering candidates for an appointment. Advertisement Both the city council and city clerk jobs are considered part time in Oceanside. The basic salary for a council member is about $34,000 annually; for the city clerk, it is about $24,000. philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @phildiehl Over a 10-year period beginning in 2003, Marine veteran Calvin Smith endured 21 surgeries caused by war injuries he suffered in Iraq, a brain tumor and a motorcycle accident that cost him his left leg. But looking back on that devastating decade, the 37-year-old Vista resident said he wouldnt change a thing. On his road to recovery, he fell in love with his speech therapist and shes now his wife. He also discovered Pilates, which has so reshaped his mental and physical health that hes now becoming an instructor. His new mission in life is to share the health benefits of the strength-training exercise program with other veterans whove experienced traumatic injuries. My message is that just because youre wounded, that doesnt mean you cant do something, he said. The only person holding you back is yourself. Advertisement Smith is the first veteran amputee in training to become an instructor for Club Pilates, which has 400 gyms nationwide and another 250 scheduled to open this year, said Tianna Strateman, vice president of education for Club Pilates. Calvin is definitely a rock star, Strateman said. I cant say enough about him and everything hes accomplished. Were excited about his teacher training and becoming an instructor for both regular members and others in the military. Hes our first and we hope he wont be our last. Hes a trailblazer. Smith grew up in Mesa, Ariz., where he said he had a Marine Corps poster tacked up on his bedroom wall by the time he was in second grade. Serving in the military was the family business. His grandfather spent 33 years in the Navy and his father did three tours in Vietnam. In high school, he enlisted in the Marines on delayed-entry status and spent most weekends drilling with other recruits before heading to boot camp after his senior year in 2000. As an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, he was stationed at several international bases. Then, after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, he prepared for war. Former Marine Corps Sgt. Calvin Smith, left, poses with members of his infantry company in Iraq in this undated photo. (Calvin Smith) On his first seven-month deployment to Iraq in 2003, he suffered a brain injury and five herniated discs in his upper spine when the Humvee he was riding in struck a hole in the road caused by a tank. He returned to Camp Pendleton for spine fusion surgery and a period of recuperation. He returned to Iraq in 2006, where he aggravated his back problems, which led to more surgeries. On May 30, 2007, Smith had just finished processing his final discharge papers at Camp Pendleton and was riding home on his motorcycle on Interstate 5 near the Las Pulgas Road when he was nearly killed in a three-vehicle crash. Smith collided with a speeding car, which pushed his bike into the next lane where he was hit by a second car. Smith has no memory of the accident, which shattered his right wrist, damaged the muscles in his right arm, caused a traumatic brain injury and broke most of the bones below the knee in his left leg. Advertisement As a result of the brain injury, Smith struggled with short-term memory loss and word finding. Five months after the accident, he started therapy at the Brain Injury Day Treatment Clinic at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. Thats where he met his future wife, Kristina Reinhold-Smith. After he graduated from the program, they started dating in 2009. They married in December 2010 and share a combined five children from their previous marriages. Reinhold-Smith, 43, said it was difficult seeing her husband struggle with his health. He suffered chronic pain and muscle spasms related to his spine and leg injuries and he battled post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Although he underwent multiple surgeries to repair his leg, he still spent most of his time in a wheelchair or with a cane. Finally, in 2013, he decided to amputate the lower limb. His only regret is that he didnt do it sooner. Now he enjoys hiking outdoors with his children and shopping trips to Costco, outings he couldnt do before. Advertisement After transitioning out of the service, Smith spent 18 months at Palomar College, studying to become a transition liaison for discharged veterans. But because of his brain injury, he couldnt retain the course material despite long hours of studying and he failed most of his classes. Then, during a checkup in early 2017, doctors discovered he had a brain tumor, which they removed. Smith was depressed, overweight, out of shape and unsure what to do with the rest of his life. Then in April 2017 he and his wife decided to take a class at Club Pilates in San Marcos. Before they even finished their introductory class, he had decided to sign up for unlimited visits. I could feel my body being challenged but not that jarring, squishing pain that you get with other workouts, he said. I knew this was something I could do without injuring myself. Marine veteran Calvin Smith, 37, works out at Club Pilates in San Marcos, where he regained his health after 21 surgeries, the loss of a leg and a traumatic brain injury. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) Advertisement Developed in the early 20th century by German fitness trainer Joseph Pilates, Pilates is a strength-and balance-training fitness program that uses floor exercises, equipment and a table-like gym apparatus to do core-building exercises. Strateman said Pilates is ideal for people like Smith with disabilities or physical limitations because the regimen can be modified for each individual user. The goal is to make it the best for one person, not a one size fits all. Smith began taking classes at the San Marcos club every day, which helped him shed 45 pounds. And through interacting with trainers and fellow students at the club, it also helped him come out of what he calls his bubble of isolation at home. Over the past year, Smith has completed nearly 500 hours of classroom, fitness and assistant teacher training. Once he finishes his teaching hours and an anatomy class next month, hell be certified to teach classes at several North County clubs. Eventually, he hopes to teach Pilates to Marines at Camp Pendleton. Advertisement Reinhold-Smith, who now works as a speech therapy manager for Kaiser Health, said shes been amazed by her husbands transformation. He no longer walks with difficulty, no longer suffers muscle spasms and his personality has been transformed. He was really depressed before the brain tumor was removed and was increasingly isolated and trying to figure out his future, she said, in an interview at Club Pilates in San Marcos on Friday. Coming here gave him a purpose for his day. Hes a people person and a natural teacher, so being here makes him so much more happy. Smith said hed like to bring more men into the fitness program, which is primarily practiced locally by women. Reinhold-Smith said she thinks her husbands recovery through the program might be an incentive for other veterans struggling with amputations and chronic pain. I think he could become an ambassador for people with injuries who are looking for something, she said. He has a lot to give back to people. Advertisement pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com Happy New Year! On this first Monday of 2019, here are specific things every California employer should do to limit employment-related legal challenges over the next 12 months. Confirm that your independent contractors are not really employees. The most significant development in California workplace law last year came from the California Supreme Court, not the California Legislature. The state high court ruled in Dynamex that, at least for purposes of the states wage rules, a worker may be classified as an independent contractor instead of an employee only if the worker: (A) is free from the kind of control the hiring entity typically exercises over its employees; and (B) performs work outside the scope of the hiring entitys business, and work therefore others would not ordinarily view as within the hiring entitys business; and (C) actually is not just potentially may be -- engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business, taking such steps as incorporating his business, getting a business or trade license, or advertising. Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor exposes your company to liability for unpaid regular and overtime wages, attorneys fees, and penalties. Make sure your compensation rates are lawful. California employers with 25 or fewer employees must pay their employees at least $11 per hour, up for $10.50 last year. Those with 26 or more employees must pay a minimum of $12 per hour, up from $11. Any employee who works at least two hours within the city of San Diego must receive at least $12 per hour in 2019 for those hours regardless of the size of the employer. And dont forget the obligation of all California employers under the Fair Pay Act to pay equal wages for substantially similar work regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity. Delete impermissible questions from your companys employment application. It has long been illegal to ask about an applicants membership in protected classes such as race, religion, age, and sexual orientation. More recent laws prohibit inquiries about salary history and, until a conditional offer of employment has been made, criminal history. Asking a prohibited question implies that it matters in the hiring decision and could make your company liable to a disappointed applicant. Advertisement Review your companys policy restricting what employees may say about company practices. Federal law makes it illegal for an employer to punish an employee for making a public statement, including on social media, designed to get co-workers to join together to improve wages, hours and working conditions. A new California law bars employers from making employees sign an agreement prohibiting the employee from publicly disclosing information about unlawful acts in the workplace, including sexual harassment. Make sure your companys non-disparagement policy complies. Consider revising the confidentiality provision in your companys standard release agreement. As of Jan.1, 2019, an agreement resolving a filed complaint of workplace sexual harassment or sex discrimination may not include a provision barring disclosure of factual information about the claim. The parties may agree to keep the identity of the complaining party, and all facts that could lead to the discovery of his or her identity, confidential at the complainants request, but this exception is narrow. The complainant may elect to shield her identity from the public, but not evidence the harassment occurred. This exception is unavailable where one of the parties is a government agency or public official. Schedule sexual harassment prevention training. By Jan.1, 2020, every California employer with five or more employees will have to have provided interactive training in identifying, addressing, and preventing workplace sexual harassment to both their supervisory and non-supervisory employees. Supervisors must receive at least two hours of training and non-supervisors must receive at least one hour of training. Later this year, the Department of Fair Employment & Housing will post online training the completion of which will satisfy this requirement. The necessarily generic materials the agency makes available, however, may not suit your particular workplace. Those are steps your company should take now. Watch this space for developments in the law at work as 2019 unfolds. Dan Eaton is a partner with the San Diego law firm of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek where his practice focuses on defending and advising employers. He also is an instructor at the San Diego State University Fowler College of Business where he teaches classes in business ethics and employment law. He may be reached at eaton@scmv.com. His Twitter handle is @DanEatonlaw. Whats in a name? For MasterCard, not enough to keep it in the logo. The company is removing the word Mastercard from the pair of interlocking red and yellow circles where it has resided for more than 50 years. Mastercard joins a small stable of brands like Nike, Apple and Target that rely on an image and not a name in most marketing materials. Advertisement A picture communicates better than words, said Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing strategy firm Metaforce. And they have the distinct advantage of having one of the most recognizable icons in the world. The Purchase, N.Y., company said Monday that 80 percent of people recognize the Mastercard logo even when its name isnt present. It also points to the changing nature of exchanging currency. One of the original major credit card companies, formerly known as Master Charge, Mastercard has attempted to rebrand itself in recent years as a technology company in the global payments industry. Adamson said the new wordless logo is a reflection of the tech-centric world we live in. Evolving the logo into an applike icon also fits in line with how younger consumers are connecting to the world around them, Adamson said. Mastercards announced changes, as with many corporate re-branding campaigns, also has its skeptics. I do not think it is yet iconic enough to successfully execute this new identity, but over time, they will learn if it was a mistake, Pace University marketing professor Larry Chiagouris said, adding: Which I think it is. Follow @ChiTribBusiness on Facebook and @ChiTribBiz on Twitter. Story by Bluesky Bluesky customers have already got a great start to 2019 thanks to the Journey with Bluesky Christmas Promotion. The promotion entailed customers to top up $7 or more for their chance to win. The draw ended on 31 December 2018, with the draw conducted on 4 January 2019 to give enough time for Bluesky to gather all data with the Gambling Authority Control present. The entrants then faced a nervous wait before the presentation was done yesterday. Although the promotion was open to all prepaid, postpaid capped, prepaid fixed line customers and prepaid broadband customers however there were terms and conditions set in place where under 21s, or tourists were not eligible to enter, says Bluesky C.E.O., Toleafoa Douglas Creevey. Therefore thorough checks were in place along with GCA present to ensure the prizes were presented fairly. Bluesky have had over 200,000 customers with eligible entries into the campaign, making this their most popular promotion to date where they offered over $150,000 tala worth of prizes this included the brand new 2019 Toyota Hilux. In just year 2018 alone, we had made over $6m tala worth of investment into our network infrastructure which also meant we further expanded our 4G network here in Samoa. With it only being seven days into 2019, we are proud to say we are on track to making this year even greater for all our Bluesky Customers, Toleafoa said. Both Iphone X Mobile Phones walked away with Nicole Rita from Faleasiu and Fiu Tupu from Sili, Savaii. The two Samsung J7 mobile phones were won by Fereti Matamua from Fogapoa, Savaii & Justin Aiafi from Alafua. The Samsung S9 mobile phone was won by Emele Iosefa from Malie and the Yamaha Generator was won by Elena Tito from Vaitele. But the main prize, the 2019 Toyota Hilux was driven away by the lucky Tagoai Tausaga Auelua from Aufaga, Aleipata. Part of the promotion included $50 tala eCharge awarded daily to five lucky winners selected randomly - making the total value of eCharge prizes won by participants over the period of the promotion to $15,000 tala. I am still in shock, for all those that want to win, you have to keep topping up $7 tala or more and keep supporting Bluesky. I can testify now, e Best a Bluesky, said Tagoai. Toleafoa added: Congratulations to all our winners and to all those who participated, we will have more in store for you this year, you just have to keep Journeying with Bluesky whilst we continue to serve Samoa and make improvements to create a superior experience for all our customers and members of the public. Most importantly, we want to say a huge, heartfelt thank you to all our customers, partners, the community and members of the public for Journeying with Bluesky during 2018. We sincerely thank you for your patronage, your support and your loyal advocacy of our brand. We will persist on this journey to progress and to make 2019 the very best for you, and all our dear customers. Faafetai tele lava Samoa. Manuia le Tausaga Fou and God Bless from your Bluesky Family. Students at Samoa College will return to school to a much better gate thanks to the Samoa College Old Pupils Association (S.C.O.P.A.). The $21,000 project is Phase 1 of the gate works which is ongoing. The opening of phase one was attended by Executive members of S.C.O.P.A. and the Principal of Samoa College, Auava Rimoni Reupena. It was blessed by Samoa College Old Pupil, Lealaiauloto Simon Potoi, with the ribbon cut by Tagaloa Sharon Aiafi. S.C.O.P.A. President, Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, said the project is part of ongoing development works by the Association to improve the school facilities. He said it was significant to have Lealaiauloto bless the project as he was the President of the Committee who worked on the old gate. The old gate had served the college very well over the years but it was time for a change, Lealailepule said. With the old gate, it was only one-lane traffic. The new gate now allows for two-way flow of traffic. With the increase in the school roll comes the increasing number in terms of vehicles that enter the school so this is why the Association and the school managament decided to fix this during the holidays so that when the students return, it is fixed and completed, Lealailepule said. The President acknowledged everyone who contributed to the funding for the project. We couldnt have done anything without your support, thank you so much, he said. When you meet, Volker Welse, you would immediately think he is a tourist. He could well be. The man from Germany is a long way away from his home but here in Samoa, he feels just as comfortable. In fact, Samoa is his second home for good reason. I could imagine staying here when I retire, he said. Mr. Welse comes to Samoa many times. Thats because he married a beautiful Samoan woman he met in Lano Savaii, where he has developed quite a close connection. It is a long trip but I have made it many times here in Samoa and I am married to a Samoan lady from Lano, Savaii, he said. Mr. Welse and his Samoan wife were married in Lano two years ago. They are currently staying in Germany but visit the island once a year not only for vacation but to visit families. We love coming back to spend some time here in the islands. Its beautiful and we love it. Mr. Welse told the Samoa Observer he admired the friendliness of the people around him and he feels safe and secure in Samoa. He also loves the Samoan people and the culture. I like the people, they are very friendly very polite and also helpful when you need them. With all the good memories and the good times that he had while in Samoa, Mr. Welse said he sees himself returning to Samoa for the long run. I can see myself retiring here, but who knows. We will see what will happen. Vaoala Government representative, Sooalo Koroseta, says he supports the transition to reusable grocery bags. He expressed satisfaction, knowing that businesses are prepared for the January 30 deadline. Speaking in an interview with the Samoa Observer, Sooalo said that the transition is challenging but good for the community, business and environment, and used as an example the Mynas Supermarket. Honestly, Mynas was the first shop ever to have implemented the use of reusable grocery bags, and because of them we have seen how great an impact it is for our environment and community, he said. According to the supermarket owner, Myna Vaitupu, they have switched to using reusable grocery bags due to the increase in plastic pollution in the environment. A plastic bag would go to small shopping that can be hand carried, like a can of soda and afterwards they just dispose it outside instead of throwing it away properly, Myna said. In the middle of last year, they decided to turn to a more effective way to solve the issue, resulting to the introduction of reusable grocery bags. It was new to a lot of our customers but we got so much support as well, she said and described it as breaking the habit. And they were successful. Now she said she encourages and supports the direction by the Government to move the country in transitioning for the same cause. All I can really say for the businesses is thats it, go for it. There will be times where you will want to turn back to the old habit of using plastic bags but if you stick to it, customers will learn and respect what you stand for-that it is for a good cause." Alarm bells are ringing for once rock-solid cooperation in Northeast Asia between South Korea, Japan as the U.S. as Washington increasingly sees Korea's defense as a business transaction and the two immediate neighbors are constantly at each other's throats. Washington worries about the fast pace of inter-Korean reconciliation while at the same time demanding more money to keep U.S. troops here. At the same time spats between Seoul and Tokyo about historical issues are escalating by the week. Tokyo is peeved that South Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies to compensate former Korean forced laborers, while Seoul effectively iced a murky agreement over compensation for Korean wartime sex slaves. Matters came to a head with a spat over a South Korean Navy destroyer pointing a fire-control radar at a Japanese spy plane that flew overhead near Korean islets that Japan covets. The forced-labor victims here have threatened to ask courts to seize the assets of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal unless they pay the compensation as ordered. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told NHK on Sunday, "I directed related ministries to consider specific measures based on international law to show our resolute stance." In the radar spat, the government here created its own video in eight languages to show what was actually happened, in response to Japan's international publicity campaign through a video which it says was "distorted" to represent its claims. Taking an alarmist view of the fraying South Korea-U.S. alliance was David Maxwell of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Writing on U.S. political website The Hill last Friday, he said President Moon Jae-in "will almost certainly ask [U.S. President Donald Trump] to meet him in the middle, and it's unclear whether Trump will accept anything less than 100 percent. If he doesn't, U.S. troops may soon be departing from the Korean Peninsula. It would be a tragic and abrupt end" to the strategic alliance. The two countries have failed to fix a schedule for more talks after failing to agree on a new cost-sharing agreement for the upkeep of the U.S. Forces Korea. The Diplomat magazine also wrote last Friday, "While the previous renegotiations in 2013 also ran past the end-of-year deadline, the prospects of both sides once again reaching an agreement in January appear slim. Not only are both countries still quite far apart on what the final deal should look like, but there are a number of other possible complicating factors." "The most significant cost of the stalled negotiations is the erosion of trust in the United States as a reliable security partner." If Seoul refuses to increase its share, "Trump could conceivably singlehandedly announce a troop drawdown at the second summit [with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] as a goodwill gesture to Pyongyang," it added. Shin Beom-chul of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies was equally alarmed. "The trilateral security alliance is shaking as the leaders of the U.S. and Japan are pushing their own national interests. But the South Korean government is looking away with an eye on North Korea," Shin said. "Seoul could end up being the biggest loser." The President of the Asian Development Bank (A.D.B), Takehiko Nakao, and his team arrived at the Faleolo International Airport yesterday evening. Mr. Nakao was greeted by the Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti, and other senior Government officials in the VIP lounge of the airport, before being shown around the first of their many site visits: Sun Pacific Energys solar farm, which A.D.B loaned $2 million to develop. It was part of their Private Sector Operations Department (P.S.O.D). President Nakao is a strong proponent of public-private partnerships in his role as president, since 2013. Not only that, but Sun Pacific Energy was P.S.O.Ds first energy deal in the Pacific and the first A.D.B investment supporting an independent power producer in the region. Mr. Nakao is joined by a delegation of six A.D.B. staff, and will explore more sites funded by the organisation until their departure on Wednesday evening. The visits first day was concluded with a welcoming ceremony at Taumeasina Island Resort. This morning, Mr. Nakao meets with the Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti, who is also the Governor of A.D.B in Samoa. He will follow with a courtesy call to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, where they will sign a host country agreement between Samoa and the bank. Over the two days, the A.D.B delegation will visited their funded sites in Aleisa Tafitoala and Fausaga, where they will be shown around by Leasiosiofaasisina Oscar Malielegaoi, the C.E.O of Ministry of Finance and Tologata Tile Leia Tuimalealiifano the General Manager of the Electric Power Corporation. Profile: Takehiko Nakao is the President of the Asian Development Bank (A.D.B.) and the Chairperson of ADBs Board of Directors. He was elected President by A.D.Bs Board of Governors and assumed office in April 2013. Before joining A.D.B, Mr. Nakao was the Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance of Japan. In a career spanning more than three decades, Mr. Nakao has gained extensive experience in international finance and development. He has held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance in Japan, which he joined in 1978, including Director-General of the International Bureau, where he fostered close ties with leading figures in the Asia-Pacific region, and G20 nations. He was assigned as Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C., between 2005 and 2007, and from 1994 to 1997 served as economist and advisor at the International Monetary Fund. He has published books and numerous papers on financial and economic issues, and in 2010 and 2011 was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. Born in 1956, Mr. Nakao holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. A.D.B. President schedule in Samoa Tuesday 8th January, 2019 9 10am Meeting with Minister of Finance & ADB Governor Venue: CBS Conference Room, Level 6 CBS Building 10.30 11.30am Courtesy call to Prime Minister and Signing of Host Country Agreement between the Government of Samoa and ADB Venue: PMs Office 11.30am 12.15pm Joint Press Conference (PM Tuilaepa & ADB President) Government Building Level 5 (PMs office waiting room) 2.45pm 3.15pm Site visit 1 SVM Green Samoa Agribusiness Support Project Attendees: Government of Samoa Leasiosiofaasisina Oscar Malielegaoi (CEO Ministry of Finance) ADB: Mr. Yoichiro Ikeda, Ms. Ma. Carmela D. Locsin, Mr. Masayuki Tachiiri, Ms. Sallyanne Shute-Trembath, Mr. Ariel Javellana, Ms. Maria Melei. Venue: SVM Green, Aleisa 3.30pm -5pm Site visit 2 Fiaga Power Station and Battery Storage Attendees: Government of Samoa Leasiosiofaasisina Oscar Malielegaoi (CEO Ministry of Finance), Tologata Tile Leia Tuimalealiifano (CEO Electric Power Corporation) ADB: Mr. Yoichiro Ikeda, Ms. Ma. Carmela D. Locsin, Mr. Masayuki Tachiiri, Ms. Sallyanne Shute-Trembath, Mr. Ariel Javellana, Ms. Maria Melei. Venue: Fiaga Power Station, Aleisa 7-9pm Reception hosted by the Government of Samoa at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum Wednesday 9th January, 2019 10 11.30am Commissioning ceremony for Tafitoala & Fausaga Small Hydropower Plant (co-financed by the Governments of Samoa and New Zealand, ADB and EU) Venue: Hydro Power Plant at Tafitoala 3.15 pm ADB President and Delegation depart Samoa New Zealand resident and helicopter pilot Rodger McCutcheon has confirmed plans to return to Samoa after a two-year absence. Responding to questions from the Samoa Observer, Mr. McCutcheon said he made the post on the Samoa Helicopters Limited Facebook page last Friday, which announced his intentions. He said his priority is to get approval from local authorities to fly again and he knows it will not be an easy task, mindful of events two years ago, when his firm Samoa Helicopters Ltd closed its doors in Apia and he packed up and left. I'm humbled by the support and grateful for the opportunity to start up again, should the local Civil Aviation authorities approve. I have an excellent team ready to go, but the process must be done correctly, he said. The first priority is to meet with the authorities and go through the regulatory processes to get flying again. I achieved an enormous amount of work in a short time we operated prior to being forced to shut down, so hopefully with local ownership stability, we can once again get the operation back, even better than before. Local businessman Samoa Roy Lee who bought the helicopter from the Ministry of Revenue through a public auction told the Samoa Observer yesterday that he has no connections to the previous owners of the aircraft. Last Friday, a post was made on the Facebook page of Mr. McCutcheons old company, announcing plans to return to the country. Mr. McCutcheon was the founder and principal of then company Samoa Helicopters Ltd, which was established in 2016 but folded after six months of operation. It operated a helicopter a model AS350VA which was manufactured in 1981 which it used for medical evacuation and search and rescue services with the support of the Samoa Government. But the business was shutdown and Mr. McCutcheon forced to leave, with the Ministry of Revenue taking possession of the aircraft. In December last year, the Ministry of Revenue announced that it will sell the helicopter in a public auction, and use the proceeds to settle outstanding Government taxes. Following the auction, Mr. Lee was announced as the successful bidder for the helicopter. Tagoa'i Tausaga Auelua was yesterday announced the winner of Blueskys Top Up $7 tala Promotion major prize and walked off with a brand new Toyota Hilux. The 55-year-old father of five from Aufaga told the Samoa Observer he was surprised when he was advised that he was the major prize winner. I was very surprised when I was notified that I won the car, still today (yesterday) I cannot believe it, he said and added he would put the new vehicle to good use. I am honoured and very grateful to Bluesky and ASCO Motors to have won this brand new Hilux. I know this vehicle will do well to help my family. Blueskys Top Up $7 tala promotion, which started November last year and ended at the end of last December, had six other winners who were also announced yesterday. The other major prize a 2019 Yamaha generator 2-stroke gasoline engine was won by Elena Tito. The other winners included Fereti Matamua and Justin Aiafi (who both won a Samsung J7 mobile phone), Nicole Rita and Fiu Tupu (who both won IPhone X mobile phones), and Emele Isoefa (who received a Samsung S9). The total value of the prizes eclipsed $150,000 tala with the promotion competition attracting 200,000 entries. A man has raised questions about the treatment of bank drafts from far away places like Canada by the local commercial banks. Harvey Ash came to Samoa to bury his wife, who passed away on 30th November 2018, in Canada. The journey to Savaii in December was about fulfilling his promise to her, to bury her alongside her brothers and parents. He told the Samoa Observer it was in her last wish for the funds of her Canadian estate, where they had lived, to be distributed among her family members. To honour the obligations of the faalavelave, Mr. Ash issued several bank drafts from the Royal Bank of Canada before arriving in Samoa thinking they would be more reliable than personal cheques. But once in Savaii, Mr. Ash and his family quickly discovered the money would be difficult to access. We visited three or four banks on Savaii and all of them said its not their policy to honour government draft, Mr. Ash said. One bank told me I would have to wait six weeks to send the cheques to Canada where the source was to get it okayed and returned. Mr. Ash said the biggest disappointment was that his family should already have this gift from his late wife, not having to potentially wait six weeks for it. I think this is a great disservice to Samoan people, he said. Its not a personal cheque; its honoured by the government of Canada. In todays modern age where they couldnt send an email and get an answer back in a few hours, there is something very wrong to me. Bank drafts are like prepaid cheques. One buys them from the bank, so there is no risk of the cheque not clearing. Mr. Ash ensured each cheque was made out to each family member in their name, from the estate of his wifes account. These cheques are all written to family members and it does not even have my name on this, because I paid the bank for these and the bank is the one that issued the cheques. It is so hard for me to understand why Samoan banks wont honour these cheques it was supposed to be a gift from my wife at the funeral time. According to the National Bank of Samoa, Samoa Commercial Bank, ANZ Samoa and Bank South Pacific, accepting cheques or cash from Canada is problematic, and recently it has become company policy not to do so. John Kaisa, Head of International and Trade Finance Services at Samoa Commercial Bank (S.C.B) said Canadian dollars is hard to move, because there is low demand for it in Samoa. We dont deal with Canadian money yet, because it gets stuck in our system for ages, he said. S.C.B also doesnt have any correspondent banks in Canada or the United States to shift the funds to if they dont get used here in Samoa. According to Mr. Kaisa, this is a Pacific wide issue. But we are working with the Asian Development Bank to get those relationships with American banks back, and dealing with the Central Bank with help with policies to put them in place, he said. The National Bank of Samoa (N.B.S.) used to accept international bank drafts like Mr. Ashs from Canada, but the lengthy process caused it to stop. It takes a month for cheques to be sent back to their source for clearance, because they have to be couriered, said a bank spokesperson. Head of Retail Banking for Bank South Pacific, Shirley Pauga, said the six weeks waiting time is unavoidable, as is the posting of cheques back to Canada. Yes, we accept international bank drafts and it takes up to six weeks to clear the cheque, she said. Generally, all international bank drafts must be cleared for payment and this is not unique to Samoa. This process requires the bank drafts to be sent to the issuing banks and it takes up to six weeks, depending on the location, to clear the bank drafts and remit funds. Ms. Pauga said she did not imagine emails or phone calls would replace the mail system anytime soon, as the actual cheque has to be received by the issuing bank to get clearance. For Mr. Ash, this leaves around ten cheques made out to his wifes family members, adding up to CAD$6,500 (T$12,700) uncashed, which according to the Royal Bank of Canada website, cannot be refunded. The website reads: R.B.C is not able to cancel or stop a Bank Draft. If lost or stolen, a replacement or refund will need to be requested, and a Bond of Indemnity may be required from the purchaser. Mr. Ash said hes concerned he wont be able to contribute fairly to the costs of the funeral, at least in good time. Calling the six week waiting time basically wrong and ridiculous, Mr. Ash said he hopes the policies will change soon. Thats the reason I came to the Samoa Observer, to hopefully improve matters for people in the future. Its a little late for me now but hopefully I can improve the situation for others. Re: Flight cancellations Flight delays happen, but that doesnt mean you have to accept them. Ask the airline to confirm the reason for the delay in writing. Speaking from experience, the airline that I was booked to go on was delayed. I was told the engine stuffed up due to bad weather. . I was now thinking. Okay but airlines sometimes cite bad weather as the cause of flight disruption in order to alleviate themselves from issuing compensation especially knowing that other flights were operating @ the time. Yes extreme weather conditions passengers are not eligible for compensation but in some cases, depending on the exact nature of bad weather you could be entitled to claim compensation. At the end of the day, theres no harm in pursuing your rights. The airline with the engine problem as mentioned due to bad weather was not caused by bad weather but from those responsible for ensuring the aircraft was safe to operate. After debates and my complaint was put through that afternoon, I was then transferred to Aggies Resort to rest before my flight. TYL. Lol. free room, and $100WST voucher for dinner at the restaurant. I didnt want to go alone knowing 5 other men who I didnt know including a Pastor were also at the airport early with me so I told them, hey lets go. If more passengers arrived at the airport that time since we were the only early ones there at the time, I wouldve taken the rest too so I felt for the others arriving later on. These 5 men also had a room each at Aggies Resort, $100 voucher each for dinner. We had a good time alright although initiated from a bad experience. When they took us back to the airport after 9hrs I felt for the rest of the passengers who mentioned that they only received a $25 voucher to eat at the airport. Shirley Siulepa On page 2 of the Weekend Observer, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi made a wonderful announcement in relation to Samoas national flag carrier, Samoa Airways. A year and a few months into the Airlines operations, the Government is moving to expand its services by acquiring much-needed additional aircraft. The Prime Minister, whom we know has been a driving force behind the launch and the airlines operations so far, sounded extremely optimistic in making the announcement. We anticipate having our second airplane running during the Pacific Games and we are looking at June for that development, he said. But thats not all. Also in March 2019, the current airplane will be replaced with a bigger aircraft. Tuilaepa added that all these plans have been put in place to improve the services currently provided by the airline. Which is fantastic, isnt it? What proud Samoan would not want the nations airline to grow and succeed? And who runs a business with the intention of failing anyway? Ironically, while the Prime Minister was gloating about the Governments grand plans on the Weekend Observer, passenger Florence Palamo and many other Samoans were stranded at Sydneys International Airport after their Samoa Airways flight to Faleolo was cancelled. The cancellation was apparently caused by bad weather. Still, Florence Palamo was not happy so she took to Facebook to express her displeasure. Thanks for nothing Samoa Airways Ive never experienced this before where they tell us to board three times and then go to the door of the plane to get told sorry we are cancelling the flight, she wrote. My heart melted to see our elderly people stranded at the airport and Samoa airways cant even provide us with a hotel they told us to go home. Who the hell does that? We try to support our airline but they dont treat us the way we should. Especially our elderly they dont even have respect for them. Well Samoa airways you have failed our people big time tonight we have been running around like headless chickens been told to go from one gate to the other just to be told oh sorry we are cancelling the flight then they say oh no we can board now then again they said sorry flights cancelled. Hope the Samoa Observer or TV1 News get this because this is not a good look. So we are now just sitting around the airport with our young kids, babies and our elderly waiting for our flight no shops open no nothing. Kalofae i nai matua ua Le amanaia ua faamomoe solo ile airport leai se Meaai, leai se vai, kalofae ia Samoa. This post, accompanied by photos of passengers sleeping on the floor across the airport, has gone viral, attracting much attention. Keep in mind that it wasnt just passengers in Sydney who were inconvenienced. Passengers in Samoa waiting for flights to Australia and New Zealand were also inconvenienced, with the airline being forced to push back all their flights. In the end, Samoa Airways responded in a statement. Part of it reads: The Airline apologises for the inconvenience caused, as a result of the disruption which was caused by unsuitable weather conditions, and reminds customers to ensure they have travel insurance coverage for unforeseen situations and emergencies. Lets try and look at this as rationally as possible. Flight delays happen from time to time anywhere in the world. It happens even to the best of airlines. In this case, the weather is to blame, which is something beyond the control of the airline. The reality though for Samoa Airways is that this was bound to happen, given the fact the Airline only has one aircraft. It is a miracle that the airline is still able to operate this many flights with one aircraft. Questions remain as to whether the Airline couldve done more to support the passengers in Sydney and Samoa, who were inconvenienced. They all have stories to tell and they are not positive. We know from experience with other carriers that the airline is ultimately responsible for the welfare of people accommodation and food conditional to the reasons why a flight is cancelled. Should Samoa Airways have done the same? If anything, what happened during the weekend perhaps validates the Governments plan to acquire two more aircrafts. There is nothing wrong with that. But here is the multi-million-tala question: How on earth is Samoa Airways going to fund these grand plans? The fact is that apart from the Governments verbal assurance that the airline is performing well financially, we havent seen any solid evidence that it is. Which is the real worry. It is one thing to grow an operation; its quite another when you are growing it with loans and losses. We say this because at the end of the day, taxpayers are the ones who will have to bail out the airline. Weve seen this before and we dont want a repeat. Have a great Tuesday Samoa, God bless! By SA Commercial Prop News South African cities failed to shine but Nairobi in Kenya was ranked 6th in the world's 20 most dynamic cities. JLL's sixth annual City Momentum Index last week announced the list of 20 world's most dynamic cities with South African cities nowhere to be found but Kenya's Nairobi made it in the chart list. Although momentum in the global economy appears to have peaked, there are still many cities in the world where real estate and economic growth continue to be robust. At the time when the World Economic Forum is examining globalization 4.0, JLLs City Momentum Index, now in its sixth iteration, focuses on momentum for the worlds most commercially active cities. Tracking a range of socioeconomic and commercial real-estate indicators to identify attributes for success over the short term, the City Momentum Index ranked 131 major established and emerging business hubs across the globe to identify the urban economies and real-estate markets that are currently undergoing the most rapid expansion. This years rankings find the fastest urban growth continuing to shift away from the West to the East. Asia Pacific is home to 19 of the top 20 cities in this years index, and overall, Indian and Chinese cities dominate the rankings, accounting for three-quarters of the top 20. Only one city outside of Asia Pacific, Nairobi, ranks in the top 20 most dynamic cities in the globe and even in Nairobi there is a strong Asian influence, with significant amounts of investment from China, particularly focused on infrastructure projects. Strong growth brings great opportunities for economic and social development, but equally creates challenges that emerging markets must address to ensure that short-term growth transitions into longer-term momentum. Cities that are growing rapidly tend to punch above their weight in attracting companies and people; however, this can often lead to social inequality, congestion and environmental degradation. Different cities take different development paths, but we know that the provision of smart, efficient and productive real estate and increased transparency are key factors in driving the long-term, sustainable growth they seek. Real estate is pivotal to sustainable momentum Regeneration projects can dramatically transform the trajectory of a rapidly growing city. New neighbourhoods and mixed-use developments can help nurture new businesses and improve lives. In parallel, large-scale infrastructure projects can combat problems such as congestion, while smart technology embedded within a citys infrastructure can help improve the flow of people. Nairobi (ranked 6th in the index) is projected to have one of the fastest-growing populations in the world over the next five years. The authorities there are turning to smart technologies to help cope with overcrowding, traffic congestion and inefficiency in transportation around the city. Technological innovation in the form of greener and smarter buildings plays an important role in answering the environmental challenges brought about by rapid growth. The Chinese city of Xian, (ranked 9th) struggles with severe air pollution, a common plight for developing cities. The installation of an innovative 100-metre-tall air purifying tower to reduce smog and improve air quality is one of the developments helping the city meet the challenges of growth. Strong growth and rapid urbanization can lead to many challenges, but through thoughtful and innovative development many of these challenges can be met. Increase transparency to bring foreign direct investment Sustainable long-term momentum and a maturing economy require long-term foreign direct investment, and this comes when investors can see transparent governance in markets including real estate. Indias fastest-growing cities have been successful over recent years in attracting high levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), with structural reforms, including the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, encouraging more real-estate investment from foreign buyers. A similar story is playing out in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, which are both on the cusp of joining the ranks of the worlds Transparent real-estate markets according to JLLs Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2018, published earlier this year. Transparency is vital in securing the long-term investment that leads to sustainable growth. By working with city governments, the private sector can help lead this change and bring benefits not only to the real-estate market but also to the wider commerciality of a city. Against a backdrop of rapid change, the World Economic Forum will examine globalization 4.0 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a definitive call to make global growth inclusive and sustainable. For growth to be both sustainable and inclusive, it must be long-term. The City Momentum Index shows how businesses and governments can work together to make this happen. By SA Commercial Prop News The Resilient stable also includes Nepi Rockcastle, Fortress and Lighthouse Capital, wants regulators to step up. To bring closure about market manipulation allegations, Resilient Reit (JSE: RES) has challenged Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to speed up investigations. Resilient, the founding member of the stable of property companies whose share price collapse amid allegations of insider trading and market manipulation has cost investors more than R100bn, has challenged regulators to speed up their investigations and bring the matter to rest. The company said on Thursday it had done all it could to assure shareholders that its management was not guilty of wrongdoing and that only the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) could bring an end to the ongoing uncertainty. It has rejected calls from the countrys biggest fund managers, including the Public Investment Corporation, Allan Gray and Coronation, for an independent probe into the groups affairs. The company said it wanted the FSCA, which has been investigating since March, to complete its probe so it could move forward with its normal business in 2019. The Resilient stable also includes Nepi Rockcastle, Fortress and Lighthouse Capital. Resilients share price is down 56.6% since the start of 2018, with Nepi down 49.4%, Fortress B-class shares down 67% and Lighthouse Capital 45.5% lower. The uncertainty also weighed on the listed property sector, which is down 31%. The JSEs all share index is down 13%. Garreth Elston, a portfolio manager at Reitway Global, said the only way to bring closure was for the FSCA to step up and that an independent investigation into Resilient would be unnecessary. "It is an utterly pointless exercise while the primary regulator has an investigation outstanding. It is a waste of shareholders funds. If an independent investigation finds X, but the FSCA finds Y, Y is all that matters," he said. The FSCAs investigation is twofold: it is studying possible insider trading and price manipulation in its shares; and false and misleading reporting by Resilient. It has not given an indication as to when the investigation will be completed. In January, there was a large sell-off of Resilient stock, followed by a number of reports accusing its management of inflating the share price through related party deals and other market-manipulation techniques. This included its cross-holding with Fortress and the two companies BEE trust. Resilient responded by removing the cross-holding as well as restructuring the trust. In August, 10 of SAs largest institutions, some shareholders in Resilient, sent a letter to its board and the boards of the other members of the stable demanding a forensic probe by a top auditing firm. All four boards set up committees to deal with the allegations. Fortress is the only member that has so far agreed to an outside investigation, saying in December it had appointed PwC. Resilient said "only the FSCA has the extensive investigative powers required to adequately probe and address unlawful third party share dealings". By SA Commercial Prop News Marcel Golding, who joined Textons board last year before replacing large shareholder Dempsey Naidoo as chair, said he has no intention to delist the company Texton Property Fund (JSE: TEX) has pledged to attend to its struggling companys affairs, but not all investors are impressed. The final slap in the face for investors who stuck with Texton Property Fund could be on its way if the SA and UK-invested real estate investment trust is delisted in 2019. The fund may have a new chair in Marcel Golding and interim CEO in former Pareto head Marius Muller, but some of the directors and major shareholders in the group cant see Texton being resuscitated. The funds share price has lost 62% over the past three and a half years, Muller confirmed that a number of entities had approached shareholders and tried to convince them to support the delisting of Texton. He said at the meeting that Textons fortunes could be turned around and that he had applied to be the permanent CEO of the group. Muller said it was beyond his control to stop directors and shareholders from trying to take the stock off the JSE and all he could do was continue to get the struggling companys affairs in order. The takeover of Vunani Property Investment Fund to form Texton in 2013 has not created value for its investors. Vunani was listed in 2011 with a focus on SA commercial property. A consortium bought its external management contract in November 2013 and the fund was renamed Texton Property Fund in 2014. The consortium soon brought UK shopping centres into Texton and fund managers were confused as to what its strategy was. The external management was eventually internalised in 2017 at a cost of R180m, after investors complained its interests were not aligned with those of the fund. Comments by Bridge Fund Managers chief investment officer Ian Anderson suggest Texton has been a blight on the listed property sector. We disposed of our investment in Texton some time back because of the companys ever-shifting strategy. The original strategy under CEO Rob Kane was focused, but after he left there has been very little focus at the company. The foray into the UK has not been successful and the local portfolio is now also under pressure. Add to that payments made to management team consortiums that destroyed shareholder value and youve got a recipe for one of the worst property investments in the past decade, he said. Muller believes there is still hope for the company and that its share price can gain momentum. The price had hit R12.15 in March 2015 but was trading at R4.57 by midday on Friday. I think it would be a shame if Texton were delisted. I came in as an acting CEO because I thought I could help the management team here to turn this fund around. I believe there are some strong assets here and if we can sort out a few structural problems and get the directors to support our management strategy going forward, Texton can be a success, Muller said. Last week, his wishes were granted and he was offered the job full-time but there are concerns he is trying to steer a sinking ship. While investors will have lost out on the chance to regain value if it is delisted, the assets themselves may be easier to sell on a piecemeal basis. This is because funds such as Arrowhead Properties, which has been acquisitive in the listed property sector in the past, has been against buying Texton because it doesnt want to buy the offshore exposure that comes with it. Arrowhead does not have experience in investing in the UK or Europe. Meanwhile, Golding, who joined Textons board last year before replacing large shareholder Dempsey Naidoo as chair, said he has no intention to delist the company. Industry , Trade Ministry announces statistics of damage to private sector facilities as a result of aggression during 2015-2018 [07/January/2019] SANAA,Jan.7 (Saba) - Ministry of Industry and Trade on Sunday announces priority results for accounting for damage to private sector facilities as a result of US-backed Saudi- aggression coalition to Yemen during 2015-2018 in the private sector enterprises in the capital Sanaa. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry explained that 89 industrial facilities were damaged, estimated at one billion and 400 million dollars during four years of aggression against Yemen. The chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hassan Kabws referred in this report it considered preliminary because they did not calculate cumulative loss values of all kinds, but it And limited to materials and machines according to the data of owners of enterprises. Vice-President Mohammed Kafla said ILO to support the private sector in overcoming the damage and destruction it has suffered. Vice- president of the Chamber of Commerce Mahammed Salah said this statistics Coinciding with the third anniversary of the bombing of the aggression for ministry of Industry , Trade. Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee Hamoud al-Nakeep referred this statistics should include all material and human damages ,whether offered to the private or public sector. He referred to the importance of raising criminal and judicial appeals to prosecute the states of aggression for their crimes. Amalsaba The growth in household debt in Korea compared to GDP is the second fastest in the world combined with the highest burden of debt redemption compared to income. According to the Bank for International Settlements on Sunday, Korea's household debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 96 percent as of the second quarter of last year, seventh out of 43 countries. But in terms of growth speed, the country was in second place with a 0.8 percentage point increase from the previous quarter, after China's one percentage point. The government began clamping down on rampant housing loans in August of 2017 but to little avail. The debt-service ratio, the proportion of disposable income required to meet debt payments, reached 12.4 percent in the second quarter last year, putting Korea at No. 6 globally, while the growth rate was the highest in the world at 0.2 percentage points on-quarter. Canada was the only other country whose DSR increased. NuVasive Inc. (NUVA) expects fourth quarter 2018 revenue to be about $288 million and full year 2018 revenue to be about $1.102 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenues of $294.35 million for the fourth-quarter, and $1.11 billion for 2018. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. NuVasive preliminary revenue results for full year 2018 reflect approximately 7% growth on a reported and constant currency basis, compared to revenue of $1.027 billion for full year 2017. On an organic basis, excluding the impact of the SafePassage acquisition and foreign currency, full year 2018 revenue growth was approximately 5%. NuVasive noted that it will report its full financial results for 2018 and provide its financial outlook for 2019 during its earnings announcement planned for late February. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Information services provider DXC Technology Co. (DXC) has agreed to acquire Luxoft Holding, Inc (LXFT), a provider of software development services and IT solutions, for an equity value of about $2 billion, the two companies said Monday. Pursuant to the agreement between the companies, all of the issued and outstanding Luxoft Class A and Class B ordinary shares will receive $59.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $2 billion. The companies expect to combine Luxoft's digital engineering capabilities with DXC's expertise in IT modernization and integration. Zug, Switzerland-based Luxoft provides digital strategy consulting and engineering services for companies across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The company achieved $911 million in revenue over the last four reported quarters, with a strong, double-digit compound annual growth rate or (CAGR over the last three years. Closing of the transaction is anticipated by June 2019. Shareholders representing about 83 percent of the total voting power of Luxoft have delivered written consents in support of the transaction, as a result of which the requisite Luxoft shareholder approval has been obtained. Tysons, Virginia-based DXC noted that the acquisition of Luxoft will expand its digital offerings portfolio, broaden its presence in high-growth verticals, enhance access to engineering talent globally, and strengthen the company's digital value proposition overall. The focus of the transaction will be on accelerating growth for DXC, with a focus on cross-selling digital services, expanding into new and scaling digital talent. Luxoft serves marquee clients in every region, with particular depth in European markets. In the automotive space, the combined company - Luxoft plus DXC - will serve more than 20 manufacturers and OEMs across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The combined company will serve half of the top financial institutions in the Americas and Europe. Luxoft will maintain its brand and operate as "A DXC Technology Company," and will continue to be led by Dmitry Loschinin, the company's current president and CEO, who will report to Mike Lawrie, chairman, president and CEO of DXC Technology. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Celgene Corp. (CELG) announced, based on a preliminary review of its results for the fourth-quarter ended December 31, 2018, the company achieved guidance for the full-year 2018 that it provided on October 25, 2018. The company's guidance include: adjusted EPS in a range of $8.75 - $8.80; and total revenue of approximately $15.2 billion. The company will report its results for the fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 on January 31, 2019. Celgene also provided guidance for the full-year 2019, including total revenue expected to be $17.0 billion to $17.2 billion, a 12 percent increase year-over-year, based on the mid-point of the range. Based on GAAP, earnings per share for the full-year 2019 is expected to be in the range of $8.48 to $9.17. Adjusted EPS for the full-year 2019 is expected to be in the range of $10.60 to $10.80. Looking forward, Celgene reaffirmed its expected 2020 long-term financial targets. For 2020, the company continues to expect: total revenue range of $19.0 billion to $20.0 billion; and adjusted EPS to exceed $12.50. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News With traders turning cautious on Monday after the strong gains recorded on the previous session, most of the across Europe are down in negative territory despite having opened higher on positive cues from Asia. The vice ministerial level trade talks between the U.S. and China commenced at Beijing today, but the buying momentum witnessed on Friday and in Asian markets earlier in the day is totally absent in European markets now. The lower U.S. index and stock futures, concerns about the likely impact of the government shutdown in the U.S. and Brexit uncertainty, in addition to a report showing eurozone investor confidence to have tumbled to the lowest level in five years are weighing on the markets. Crude oil prices are up once again on hopes the production cut agreed to by OPEC and some non-OPEC members including Russia will help ease concerns about excess supply in the market. Also, traders expect a positive outcome from U.S.-China trade talks will help revive global economic growth and result in increased demand for crude. Among the major markets in Europe, the U.K. is notably lower, with its benchmark FTSE 100 declining by about 0.58%. France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX are also down by nearly 0.6%, while Switzerland's SMI is down more than 1%. Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Italy are little changed from previous closing levels, while Turkey is up sharply. On the economic front, Germany's manufacturing new orders decreased for the first time in four months in November and the fall was worst than expected, preliminary data from Destatis showed on Monday. Factory orders decreased a calendar and seasonally adjusted 1% from October, when they grew 0.2%, revised from 0.3% reported earlier. Economists had forecast a modest decline of 0.1%. The latest fall was the most severe since a 3.6% slump in June. The data said demand from the euro area dropped 11.6%, while orders from other countries grew 2.3%. A preliminary report from Destatis showing Germany's retail sales to have grown at the fastest pace in seven months in November, exceeding economists' expectations. Retail sales rose a calendar and seasonally adjusted 1.4% from October, when they edged up 0.1%, revised from a 0.3% fall. Economists had expected a 0.4% increase. On a year-on-year basis, retail sales increased 1.1% in November after a 5.2% rise in October, revised from 5%. Economists were looking for a 0.4% fall. Survey data from the behavioral research institute Sentix showed eurozone's investor confidence deteriorated for a fifth straight month in January to its lowest level in over four years, but the easing was less severe than expected. The Sentix investor confidence index dropped to -1.5 from -0.3, marking the lowest level since December 2014. Economists had forecast a score of -2 for January. The current situation index dropped for a fifth month running, to 18, which was lowest level since January 2017. The expectations index of the survey fell for a third straight month -19.3, which was the lowest score since August 2012. "With these data, the eurozone is dangerously close to stagnation," Sentix Managing Director Manfred Hubner said. Meanwhile, eurozone retail sales grew for a second straight month in November and at a faster-than-expected pace, supported by lower oil prices and rising wages. Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent from October, when sales increased at the same pace, figures from Eurostat showed Monday. October sales growth was earlier reported as 0.3 percent. Economists had forecast 0.2 percent growth. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa has fled to the US to protest over President Nicolas Maduro's second term in office, according to the reports. Last year's election "was not free and competitive", the former Maduro loyalist reportedly told a Florida radio station. And he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court. In response, the court reportedly said Mr Zerpa was fleeing allegations of sexual harassment. Opposition parties boycotted the 2018 vote, calling it a sham. Mr Maduro is due to be formally inaugurated to a second term on 10 January. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Korea's overall employment has improved steadily since the global financial crisis, but youth unemployment is still worse. The main reason is a failure by big manufacturers to create jobs while the young working population has increased. The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade said in a report on Sunday that the employment rate among people in their 20s stood at 57.8 percent from January to October last year, which is 0.6 percentage point lower than in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The employment rate is calculated by dividing the economically active population by the number of employed people. Rockport, TX (78382) Today Mostly sunny skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 92F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear skies. Low 77F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Pompano Beach, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/07/2019 --Every business, irrespective of size and volume, especially the ones that have employees must have some insurance coverage to abide by the legal requirements. Usually, most companies limit themselves into having the bare minimum coverage such as unemployment and worker's compensation insurance. As the business scenario has changed, more business enterprises are hunting for additional covers to guarantee the safety of various aspects of the business. Different insurance coverage is available that can safeguard one's company from financial losses, accidents, damages, negligence, and malpractice claims, general liability, professional liability, and product liability. Today, commercial insurance in Coconut Creek Tamarac, Florida can guarantee the safety of various aspects, providing adequate services individually or as part of the business owner's policy bundle. Accidents are a common phenomenon. 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The dentist and team provide care supported by a passion for enhancing health and assisting others. When a patient visits Miami metro area dental office, they are treated to welcoming and hospitable attention from devoted professionals. With eighteen years of experience in creating perfect and healthy smiles, Dr. Nelson of Jacqueline A. Nelson-Mangatal, DDS can personalize treatment for a range of requirements, from specific care required by children to adults' more complicated concerns. The office takes pleasure in repute for mild care that enables patients to calm down and feel at ease at the dental office. Dr. Nelson and her team welcome the patients for the following Comprehensive, Non-Surgical Periodontal Care, Dentures, Dental Implant Restorations, Teeth Whitening, Porcelain Crowns and bridges in Davie and Lauderdale Lakes Florida. Individual patients and families with children as young as six years old are encouraged to visit our Plantation dental office for treatment that supports better all-around dental health, from gums to the appearance and function of individual teeth. From cosmetic dentistry to preventive care that helps in safeguarding the teeth from aesthetic and functional damage, Dr. Nelson and her team have every member of the family covered. The dental clinic understands that some patients are more interested in how their smiles appear, while others want to ensure their teeth and gums are as healthy as possible. Dr. Nelson of Jacqueline A. Nelson-Mangatal, DDS provides treatments to meet objectives and go the added mile to care for the patients. When it comes to insurance coverage for the process, the clinic takes the time to maximize available benefits to ensure the patients are provided with the best treatment plan for the goals and requirements. For more information on cosmetic dentistry in Lauderhill and Plantation Florida, one can just call at 954-791-3884. About Jacqueline A. Nelson-Mangatal, DDS Jacqueline A. Nelson-Mangatal, DDS offers the best dental processes for patients suffering from dental diseases. Greenville, NC (27833) Today Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies with a few passing clouds. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. North Korea's exports plummeted last year to just 1/10 of 2016's due to intensifying international sanctions, Voice of America reported Saturday. There are even forecasts that its foreign currency reserves could run out completely. According to data from the International Trade Center and other sources, North Korea exported US$235.3 million worth of products to its 14 major trading partners including India, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey in 2016, but that shrank to only $14.5 million as of the third quarter of last year. Even if fourth-quarter figures are added, North Korea's exports in 2018 would not exceed 10 percent of 2016's. According to Chinese customs data, North Korea's exports to China last year dropped to only eight percent of the volume in 2016. Meanwhile, Radio Free Asia reported that torrential rains in North Korea's North Hwanghae Province in August last year left 42 people dead and 242,000 homeless. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, torrential downpours of up to 678 mm per hour resulted in landslides causing huge levels of damage. Daniel Wallinder at the IFRC said, "The floods are part of a general and worrying trend in the past years of extreme and highly volatile weather that need further improvements in early warning systems and greater community training. Although geographically dispersed, the damage to land and to infrastructure often happens in areas that we could predict would be high-risk." US Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas): I understand from whats been testified to the Forest Service and the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], you want very much to work on the issue of climate change. We know theres been significant solar flare activity, and so is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moons orbit, or the Earths orbit around the sun? Obviously that would have profound effects on our climate. Jennifer Eberlein, associate deputy chief for the National Forest System, responded that she would have to follow up with you on that one, after a brief pause. Gohmert: Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service can make that change, Id like to know. Sterling Heights, MI (48312) Today Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High near 75F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. The bodys immune system is incredibly complex and keeping it well-regulated relies on many factors including diet, exercise and sleep. How much alcohol an individual consumes is also a factor. When the body processes alcohol, multiple organs are affected in different ways all of which have negative impacts on the immune system. As more and more people turn to alcohol to cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, its important to understand the potential harmful impacts of alcohol on the bodys ability to fight off diseases. Acting North Korean Ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil, who disappeared with his family last November, escaped to a third country but was discovered by Italian intelligence officials and taken back to Italy to be placed in protective custody, the Corriere della Sera reported Saturday. The newspaper said Jo was ordered to return to Pyongyang in September last year but disappeared as he was handing over his duties to his successor. The Italian government is not giving out any details on Jo's whereabouts. Some media reported that North Korea dispatched secret agents to Rome to find him but failed. The U.S. government declined to comment on Italian media reports saying that Jo had escaped there. One source said, "It's not true that Jo had already fled to the U.S. He is still believed to be in Italy." Former U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that the U.S. government "would not reject" a request for asylum by Jo, since it is a "humanitarian issue." But Hill added that Jo would have to undergo thorough vetting to determine the motive of his defection because of his status as a North Korean government official with close ties to the leader. Hill speculated that it could take "months" just to complete the debriefing. Meanwhile, Thae Yong-ho, the former deputy ambassador to the U.K. who fled to South Korea in 2016, wrote in an open letter to Jo on his blog, "My wife and children remember the guided tour you took us on... when we visited Italy in January of 2008." "My kids say they wish [your] family could come to Seoul too." Thae became friendly with Jo when they both worked in Europe. "It is not a choice but a duty for North Korean diplomats to come to [South] Korea. I hope that news reports that you are seeking to defect to the U.S. are not true." "Let's join hands in Seoul and topple the vested powers in the North and unify our nation," Thae added. "If you come to Seoul, more of our colleagues will also follow." But Washington and Seoul could face complications in denuclearization talks with North Korea if they choose to accept Jo's defection. North Korea has typically bristled at any defections from the elite. Earlier, the National Intelligence Service told lawmakers that it has not contacted Jo. Some critics pointed out that the NIS did not need to make such comments and that the purpose was to appease North Korea. One diplomatic source said, "If Jo clearly intends to defect, there would be no reason for the U.S. or South Korea to refuse, but they will find it difficult to actively make an offer to Jo." Hill said Jo's defection will not have a "direct negative impact" on inter-Korean or U.S.-North Korean relations but could become a "sensitive issue" in future talks with the North. LUSAKA, ZAMBIA The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa registered a 3.6 percent growth in foreign direct investment in 2017, says 2018 report. The 2018 COMESA report shows that FDI to the region increased from $18.6 billion in 2016 to $19.3 billion in 2017, about 45 percent of Africas FDI inflows. On the other hand, the continent recorded a 21.4 percent decline in FDI inflows, from $53.2 billion in 2016 to $41.8 billion in 2017, a trend attributed to weakening commodity prices. The trend was similar across the globe, with FDI inflows declining 23 percent from $1.9 trillion to $1.4 trillion. Despite delays by most member states in ratifying the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which seeks to create a 27-state trading bloc, COMESA is optimistic that FDI inflows will continue to increase, especially with the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). So far, 49 countries have signed the agreement and 12 have ratified it with 22 ratifications needed by March 2019 to enable it to enter into force. Kenya was among the COMESA members who recorded an increase in FDI inflows, receiving $671.7 million, up from $393.3 million in 2016 a 70.8 per cent growth. Burundi posted about 50 percent growth, despite the political crisis that continues to cast a shadow on its economic prospects. Burundi, Mauritius, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Malawi were the countries that saw significant declines in their FDI intensity index between 2016 and 2017. Key attractions The report says that the private sector continues to be the key attraction of investors. Sectors like manufacturing, oil and gas, real estate, construction and financial services are the main targets. Overall, Egypt and Ethiopia took the lions share about 63 percent and 44.4 percent respectively. In Egypt, where the FDI inflows were valued at $8.5 billion, petroleum, services and manufacturing sectors were the major recipients, accounting for about 86 percent of the total FDI distribution. About 92 percent of the inflows into Ethiopia, valued at $3.5 billion, went into real estate and business activities, manufacturing and construction in 2017. According to the report, the top gainers in terms of growth were eSwatini at 161.8 percent, Zambia (77.9 percent), Kenya (70.8 percent), Burundi (49.7 percent) and Seychelles at 23.6 percent. Significant drops were registered by Mauritius at 45.8 percent, Zimbabwe at 22.2 percent, Malawi at 14.9 percent, Madagascar at 13.7 percent and Ethiopia at 10.1 percent. The countries that saw significant declines in their FDI intensity index between 2016 and 2017 were Burundi, Mauritius, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Malawi. Madagascar reported an average of about $148 million, followed by Rwanda with about $66 million of inflows originating from the Comesa region. Other notable destinations for Comesa-originating investment were Uganda at $55.1 million, Zambia at $23.4 million, Kenya at $22.6 million and Egypt $22 million. The report shows that FDI outflows from the Comesa region posted a downward trend of about 30 percent from $1.3 billion to $787 million. The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for more than 37.1 percent of the total Comesa FDI outflows. Other countries that registered significant outflows in the region were Egypt and Libya at 25.3 percent and 14 percent respectively. South Africa continues to be the main source of inflows from Africa into Comesa countries, averaging $158.7 million to Kenya, followed by Zambia with an average of $140 million, $50 million to Mauritius and about $35 million to eSwatini. Out of 116 cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Africa, Comesa economies accounted for 42 in 2017, flat growth from the previous year. The deals were mainly in Egypt and Kenya. Out of the 99 cross-border M&A deals in Africa in 2017, 28 were from Comesa economies, with Mauritius accounting for 19 of these. Comments Thank you for reading the Philadelphia Tribune. You have exhausted your free article views for this month. Please press the "subscribe" button below and see our introductory price of $0.25 per week for 13 weeks. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you next month. If you like crowds, personalized travel experiences, or talking to machines, then youre going to love traveling in 2019. Thats because "overtourism," personalization, and artificial intelligence rank among the top travel trends of the new year, experts say. And, as in years past, youll also pay more to get where youre going. The roads, skies, and railways will be filled to the point of gridlock, warns Mahmood Khan, a professor in Virginia Techs Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Higher demand promises to make 2019 one of the busiest travel years on record. "Domestic travel is bound to increase sharply," Khan predicts. Prices are also expected to rise. Hotels rates will jump 3.7 percent, and airfares will increase 2.6 percent in 2019, driven by a growing global economy and rising oil prices, according to Carlson Wagonlit Travels 2019 travel forecast. Most of the other forecasts also call for moderate price increases across the board. "Aside from higher prices, the spotlight is on overtourism," says Jason Moskal, vice president of lifestyle brands at InterContinental Hotels Group. "Not only are destination locals becoming increasingly frustrated with an overflow of tourism, but it is causing harm to ecosystems and economies around the globe." Moskal says that in India, the Taj Mahals marble has yellowed and that the nearby Yamuna River is now severely polluted. And in Santorini, Greece, the volume of tourists is taxing local resources, forcing authorities to cap the number of cruise ships dropping off visitors. Overtourism will require visitors to do two critical things in 2019. First, theyll need to research their trips a little more carefully, in case a closure or a daily visitor quota affects an intended destination. But, perhaps more important, smart travelers will rethink plans to visit some popular destinations and choose some less-traveled ones. Another emerging trend: AI. I covered the ups and downs of early AI last year. But this year will be different, insiders say. "In years past, artificial intelligence was only being used within companies back-end systems to improve efficiency and cut costs," says Arvin Hsu, a senior director of data science and machine learning at GoodData, a software company based in San Francisco. "But in 2019 and beyond, AI will revolutionize the way consumers plan travel." How so? At the moment, most travelers make their reservations online through a travel site or a travel agent. AI cant do much more than search for flights or identify available hotels. But machine learning will allow new systems to make more sophisticated suggestions and then help you act on them. "In the year ahead, AI systems will learn consumers personal travel habits, help travelers find the cheapest flights or the most exciting stopover destinations, manage their itineraries, and even plan travel that earns maximum rewards points or miles," Hsu says. Best of all, these systems will be able to take spoken instructions and better understand your needs. This would mark a dramatic departure from the version 1.0 artificial intelligence that travel companies use today. And who knows? they might make booking travel a little easier than it is now. How do you get an edge? Be open to the technology, experts say. If a hotel offers you a new way to book a room, take a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised by what AI can do for you in 2019. With technology, the ultimate outcome is to offer a fully personalized experience. The chatbot recognizes you, predicts what you want, and then creates a trip thats perfect for you. That, too, is on the horizon this year, according to industry watchers. "A traditional trip, involving a flight, a few days at a hotel, then a flight home, is becoming a thing of the past," says Priceline chief executive Brett Keller. "Personalized travel will be the new normal." But what does that mean? Todays trips are relatively linear, which is to say, you make a reservation with a preferred airline, book a room with a preferred hotel, and then fill in the itinerary with activities. With personalization, an AI system or a person who knows you well, can spot additional opportunities, Keller says. "Modern dynamic-package engines can mix and match airlines to better fit your schedule," he says. "You can bounce between hotels, private apartments, and even treehouses within a single vacation if you so choose. In 2019, the travelers imagination will be the driving force." Ninan Chacko, the chief executive of Travel Leaders Group, a collection of premium travel agencies, agrees that this year, travel will become "highly personalized and more granular in focus." "A vacation is not just taking a break from work. Its a way to make connections, share experiences, and evoke emotions," Chacko says. Go where no one else is going, be open to new ideas, and be creative these sound more like New Years resolutions than travel trends. Maybe thats the point. Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist, and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United. Contact him at elliott.org. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has withdrawn his office from Pennsylvania's largest prosecutors' association, saying the advocacy group has supported regressive or overly punitive policies and represented "the voice of the past." Krasner, whose first 11 months in office have attracted national attention for his reform-driven agenda, said Friday that he believed that the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association was at least partly responsible for an explosion in the state's prison population over several decades, and that it continues to back ideas that would make the problem worse. "They have been claiming that Philadelphia supports this absolute nonsense, this throwback set of policies, and we do not," Krasner said during a speech at an "Innovation in Prosecution" conference at the University of Pennsylvania. He later added: "The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association will not claim legitimacy of its most important criminal justice jurisdiction and try to take us back 40 years. No." Richard W. Long, the association's executive director, said in an email that he was "disappointed, but not surprised" by Krasner's remarks, which he called "a troubling misrepresentation of our organization and the dedicated prosecutors who protect our communities." The organization, whose 1,200 members include top prosecutors and assistant district attorneys from across the state, offers training sessions, holds several annual meetings, and lobbies for criminal justice-related legislation. Long said Krasner "has made it very clear that he would rather use the PDAA as a political straw man than engage Pennsylvania's 66 other district attorneys of both parties in a productive conversation." He added: "Reasonable prosecutors can and do disagree on how to approach this mission. But the level of vitriol Mr. Krasner is directing at our members and how they go about their business is divisive and unproductive." Long said Krasner's withdrawal marked the first time since at least 2010 that one of the state's 67 county prosecutors had renounced an office's membership in the group. Krasner's decision and explanation represent his latest attempt to shake up a criminal justice system that he has frequently and fiercely criticized. Since taking office, the former defense attorney has not shied away from the impassioned rhetoric he used on the campaign trail, describing a need to recalibrate the culture of the office and rethink how it prosecutes defendants. In turning his eyes toward the statewide association, Krasner expanded the scope of his broadsides to include other prosecutors' offices and legislative leaders. During his speech, titled "The Urgency of Now," Krasner said, among other things, that he believed some rural leaders were eager to accept if not encourage the imprisonment of city residents as a way to create jobs at prisons and help receive other types of government funding. "We have a motivated bunch of rural counties motivated who want to have our Philadelphians, often black and brown Philadelphians, in their jails, because it gives them power, it gives them money," Krasner said. Efforts to reach prosecutors in Luzerne, Centre, Huntingdon, and Somerset Counties each of which has two state prisons were unsuccessful Friday. But Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan criticized Krasner's speech in a Facebook post Friday evening. "To the counties outside of Philadelphia, do not let this blight spread, unless you want to end up like today's Philadelphia, riddled with violence and lawlessness," Hogan wrote. Ben Waxman, a spokesperson for Krasner, said in a text message that Hogan was "welcome to come to Philadelphia anytime and debate Larry in a public forum assuming he's not too scared to come to our horrible city." As for the association, Krasner said its members were largely white, male, or conservative. He said they had contributed to the state's increased prison population and its world-leading population of juvenile lifers. And he said it supported legislation or policies such as increasing penalties for fentanyl, or seeking to restore some mandatory minimum sentences that would impede efforts to reform the criminal justice system. "We have a Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association that would have you believe that the war on drugs all over again is a good idea for their own incumbency, for their own ambition, for the economies of their own counties," Krasner said. Raymond J. Tonkin, the association's vice president and Pike County district attorney, said Krasner's decision to leave the association was "unfortunate," adding: "We welcome all voices at our table." Krasner, for his part, said he hoped to be able to work with the association again in the future, and that he believed self-described reformers winning prosecutorial elections in other states was a sign that more reform-oriented voices were emerging. "Those of us who seek a future that looks like criminal justice reform, we are all becoming the Goliath," he said. Travelers leaving Japan will be required to pay a departure tax of 1,000 yen starting Monday. It is the first such tax to be introduced in Japan since the early 1990s. The tax will apply to everyone except infants under two years old when they leave the country by aircraft or ship. It will be added automatically to plane and cruise tickets. The Japanese government says the revenue will be used to improve facilities for overseas travelers and enhance tourist attractions. LYON, France (AP) A Catholic cardinal and five other people went on trial Monday accused of covering up for a pedophile priest who abused Boy Scouts France's most important church sex abuse case to date. The case poses a new challenge to the Vatican, amid growing demands in overwhelmingly Catholic France for a reckoning with decades of sexual abuse by the clergy. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 68, appeared in a Lyon court Monday along with other senior church officials accused of failing to protect children from alleged abuse by the Rev. Bernard Preynat. The top Vatican official in charge of sex abuse cases, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, is among the accused but won't appear in court because the Vatican invoked his diplomatic immunity. Nine people who said the priest abused them in the 1970s and 1980s brought the case to court, and hope it marks a turning point in efforts to hold the French church hierarchy accountable for hushing up abuse. The victims say top clergy were aware of Preynat's actions for years, but allowed him to be in contact with children until his 2015 retirement. Despite nationwide attention on the case, it may fall apart for legal reasons. Prosecutors initially threw out it out for insufficient evidence. Barbarin's lawyer says his client never obstructed justice because the statute of limitations had passed on the acts in question by the time Barbarin was informed. "Accusing an innocent man doesn't advance a cause," lawyer Jean-Felix Luciani said. After the judge had read out the lengthy accusations, Barbarin took the stand to maintain his innocence. He said he had encouraged one of the alleged victims to get in contact with other victims and "thanks to that" evidence against Preynat was able to be built. If found guilty of failing to report the priest's actions, the defendants could face up to three years in prison and a 45,000-euro ($51,300) fine. Barbarin and some other defendants are also charged with failing to assist a person in peril. The case is a new test for Pope Francis, whose blind spot on clergy sex abuse has threatened his legacy and thrown the Catholic hierarchy into a credibility crisis. Francis has praised Barbarin as "brave" and said French justice should take its course. The priest Preynat, now in his 70s, wrote letters to some families confessing the abuse, and is to be tried separately on sexual violence charges involving several children. One of his alleged victims, Alexandre Hezez, hailed the trial as an effort to "move justice forward." Hezez, 44, spoke to the cardinal directly about Preynat and is among those who brought the case to trial. Barbarin sought counsel on how to handle abuse accusations against Preynat from the Vatican official, Cardinal Ladaria, who recommended disciplinary measures while "avoiding a public scandal." "Alexandre (Hezez) knew that I supported his moves... I sent his testimony to Rome to find out what I should do with Father Preynat. Rome told me to remove him from his parish," Barbarin said Monday. "I have never tried to hide facts and even less to cover these facts," he added. Numerous child sex abuse claims have been made against Catholic clergy in France since the 1990s, but there hasn't been a huge wave like those seen in the U.S., Ireland or some other countries. Barbarin is the highest-level French church figure accused of covering up abuse, and his case has cast a shadow over the diocese and the French Catholic Church. As a result, the Bishops of France last year created an ambitious commission aimed at shedding light on sexual abuse of minors in the church since 1950. A report is due in 2020. But the issue is divisive. An outspoken French priest, the Rev. Pierre Vignon, started a petition urging Barbarin to resign that garnered more than 100,000 signatures last year and Vignon says the effort has damaged his church career. Barbarin is among the most powerful figures in the Catholic Church, one of some 200 cardinals worldwide and archbishop of Lyon since 2002. Multiple cardinals have been accused in recent years of shielding abusers or committing abuse themselves, from Pennsylvania to Australia to Chile. ___ Angela Charlton in Paris contributed. Seven men and five women were picked as jurors Monday to hear the trial of a former Temple University student accused of killing 22-year-old Temple student Jenna Burleigh in his off-campus apartment in August 2017 and then hiding her body in the Poconos. Opening statements are expected Tuesday in the case of Joshua Hupperterz, 30, charged with murder, possession of an instrument of crime, abuse of corpse, and tampering with evidence. If convicted of first- or second-degree murder, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. During Mondays daylong jury selection, Burleighs parents, Ed and Jaqui, as well as Burleighs sister and one of her two brothers, sat quietly in the courtroom, as did Hupperterzs mother, Gina. The body of Burleigh, who lived with her parents in Harleysville, Montgomery County, was found in September 2017 in a bin at the house of Hupperterzs grandmother in the Poconos. Prosecutors say Hupperterz took it there after killing her in his apartment. A coroner ruled that Burleigh died of blunt-force trauma and strangulation. Hupperterz has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has contended to police detectives that his roommate killed Burleigh, a claim authorities dispute. The roommate was not charged. Last month, Hupperterz rejected an offer from the District Attorneys Office to plead guilty to third-degree murder and related offenses for a negotiated sentence of 30 to 60 years in state prison. Late Monday, after the jury had been selected but had left the courtroom, Hupperterzs lawyer, David Nenner, told Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn Bronson that Hupperterz wanted to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges related to transporting Burleighs body to his grandmothers house abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence. The judge said they would discuss the request Tuesday. The selected jurors include a hospital emergency room nurse, a Drexel University senior, a film and literature freelance writer, a librarian, two biologists, a software engineer, and a Realtor. Four alternates were also chosen. Of the men on the jury, five are white and two Asian American. At one point, Hupperterzs lawyer raised what is known as a Batson challenge, accusing Assistant District Attorneys Jason Grenell and Danielle Burkavage of excluding African Americans from the jury based on their race. At that time, the three women who had been picked as jurors were African American, but prosecutors had used four strikes to exclude African American men from the panel. Nenner told the judge that he had learned from Hupperterz that Hupperterz is half Hispanic and a quarter each white and black. The judge noted that by appearance Hupperterz looks Caucasian and that there is no racial aspect to this case. Burleigh was white. The judge ruled that prosecutors' reasons for excluding the four African American men were race-neutral and that there was no racial discrimination. Of the four alternates chosen later in the day, three were African American men and one an African American woman. Authorities have said that Hupperterz, then a 29-year-old former Temple student, met Burleigh at Pub Webb, a bar near campus on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. The two were seen on surveillance video sitting together and chatting in the bar, then leaving together shortly after 2 a.m. Aug. 31, 2017. Prosecutors believe that Hupperterz killed Burleigh in his apartment on 16th Street about 4 a.m., around the time an upstairs neighbor heard screaming. After allegedly killing Burleigh, Hupperterz put her body in a blue plastic storage container and had a cousin drive him and the container to the Jenkintown home of Hupperterzs mother, where the bin was placed inside a detached garage, according to testimony at Hupperterzs November 2017 preliminary hearing. He then returned to Philadelphia. The next day, Sept. 1, Hupperterz allegedly hired a Lyft driver to take him to Jenkintown, where he retrieved the container, and then had the driver take him and the container to the home of his grandmother in Wayne County. While trying to find Burleigh, law enforcement authorities discovered that she had last been seen leaving Pub Webb with Hupperterz, who was a regular at the bar. They traced his cell phone to his grandmothers home. On the night of Sept. 1, Pennsylvania state troopers went there and persuaded Hupperterz to go with them to their barracks in Dunmore. Philadelphia police detectives arrived at the barracks about 1 a.m. Sept. 2 and took Hupperterz back with them to the city. Later that day, his grandmothers estranged husband found the bin holding Burleighs body in a shed at the wooded, lakeside property in the Poconos. Passionate about issues of social justice, Burleigh was outspoken about racism, feminism, and LGBTQ rights. She had just started her first week of classes as a junior at Temple after transferring from Montgomery County Community College. She was also passionate about serving the homeless. After her death, her family set up a foundation in her memory, Jennas Blessing Bags Foundation, which provides backpacks to the homeless containing items such as toiletries, clothing, blankets, and food. The trial is expected to last into next week. In early fall 2017, reporters decided to independently test the environmental conditions inside some of Philadelphia's most rundown district schools built before 1978, the year of the federal lead-paint ban. We used district maintenance documents and other records to create the list of schools. We then began reaching out to teachers and building staffers to ask if they would help us test for four health hazards: Mold, asbestos fibers, lead dust and lead in drinking water. To test drinking water for lead, we purchased sterile water collection bottles from a firm that sells environmental testing equipment. We later learned that it was easier and just as reliable for staffers to draw a water samples from fountain taps using their own empty water bottles. We did not precisely follow federal and state guidelines for testing water for lead. Those guidelines say testers should collect "first draw" samples, water that sat overnight in pipes. That sample should be followed up with a "second draw" after the water has run for a bit. Instead, we instructed staffers to simply press their thumb on the taps of drinking fountains and fill their containers, labeling the bottles by school name, fountain location, date and time of water draw. We did not witness the testing firsthand. We picked up samples of water from staffers and delivered them to a state-certified lab. We used International Asbestos Testing Laboratories (iATL) in Mount Laurel, N.J., to do the lead analysis. To test for lead in dust on surfaces inside schools, we purchased "Ghost Wipes," which met standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The wipes are premoistened with deionized water and come in individually sealed packets. The wipes, after one use, were put in 50 ml "Digestion Vessels" EPA-approved collection bottles that provide greater chemical resistance. Reporters were taught at a state-certified lab how to collect dust-wipe samples using approved scientific methods. A lab technician demonstrated how to use a grid to frame out a 12-by-12-inch square and then methodically wipe within that space. Reporters used those techniques to test for lead in dust in the "Toxic City: Tainted Soil" installment of the series. We applied that knowledge and wrote out step-by-step instructions that was provided to school staffers. We also provided staffers with testing kits that included the written instructions, a permanent black-ink marker, several digestion vessels, and Ghost Wipes. We did not witness the testing. We also did not require staffers to tape down 12-by-12-inch templates, but rather to try their best to measure that amount of surface space. Some school staffers chose to wear disposable gloves during the testing. The samples were tested at iATL, the New Jersey lab. We used the same testing equipment Ghost Wipes and EPA-approved collection tubes to test for asbestos fibers in settled dust. There are no federal regulations for testing fibers in surface dust. But there are guidelines. They call for wiping a surface space of 10-by-10 centimeters, roughly a 4-by-4-inch square. We created a different set of written instructions for asbestos collection. We opted to test the material using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), which has the ability to detect very small asbestos fibers. Environmental scientists consider dust-wipe sampling to be an investigative tool to indicate potential airborne exposure. The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, used dust-wipes to gauge the scope of asbestos contamination in the wake of the September 11, 2001, collapse of the World Trade Center. Scientists and industrial hygienists say that any wipe samples that exceed 100,000 fibers (structures) per square centimeter (cm2) are cause for concern and indicate a potential fiber release. Asbestos fibers are only dangerous when inhaled. The only way to measure airborne asbestos is to collect air samples. Under city and federal law, the School District of Philadelphia is required to monitor the air during and after an asbestos abatement job. School district officials took issue with the newspapers' testing. Because we did not witness the testing, they said the chain-of-custody could not be confirmed. Also, the testing was not done by a certified environmental expert, the district noted. In addition, Gerald Junod, the district's environmental manager, said that if the staffer inadvertently wiped an area larger than 4-by-4-inches, the results could be falsely elevated. To collect mold spore samples, school staffers used one of two methods: The "Ghost Wipes" method described above. The other is called a "tape grab," placing a piece of clear tape against a spot of suspected mold. Staffers then pressed the tape on a glass slide, then numbered each slide with a marker. They wrote down sample location and noted the corresponding slide number. For example: Slide 1, back wall, classroom number, near window. The staffers placed the slides in a plastic case with dividers so the slides didn't touch. At ;0:08 a.m. on Monday, by the count of the deteriorated-but-still-ticking split-flap sign at the center of 30th Street Station, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle told reporters he believed a deal to preserve the look of the sign, which Amtrak had intended to swap out for a digital replacement, was likely. Boyle had just come from a meeting with representatives from the Preservation Alliance and the Disability Rights Network; Dave Handera, Amtraks vice president of stations, properties, and accessibility; and the chief executive of Oat Foundry, a Bridesburg-based company that has installed split-flap signs all over the world and is developing one for the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. This sign unfortunately does not appear to be ADA-compliant, and thats a goal I share," said Boyle, a Democrat representing parts of Philadelphia. "But as I expressed to them, we need not create a false choice. Amtrak did not make a firm commitment, he conceded, but he was nonetheless optimistic. Frankly, as someone who works on appropriations for Amtrak, they have every incentive to continue to work with us, he added. In a statement, however, Amtrak indicated its still on track to replace the sign this month but remains open to long-term conversations. "We continue progressing toward a January installation of our new and improved system; however, during this time we are happy to discuss alternatives for consideration during the upcoming master development process. We will keep an open dialogue with the congressman and the local community as we work to provide a modern and universally accessible station experience. According to Boyle, Amtrak will meet again with Oat Foundry this week to review a proposal to create a sign that is more clearly legible, and therefore in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. In the interim, he said, he was urging Amtrak not to follow through with plans to take down the old sign, made by the Italian company Solari in 1971, and replace it with televisions as an interim measure. Boyle noted that, as the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, the sudden urgency of updating the sign seemed unclear. Mark Kuhn, Oat Foundrys chief executive, said his company can create a sign that matches the styling of the old sign and its familiar clickety-clack, but also integrates with Amtraks systems to give real-time track data and provides alerts about train boarding. It would still have that authentic electro-mechanical flapping sound, he said. Kuhn said it would likely take three to six months to develop the sign. He described the price point as certainly more than TVs, but theyre much less than the long-term cost of having a breaking-down sign all the time. For many of those who pass through the station regularly, its welcome news. Online petitions calling for the preservation of the sign have been circulating for months. Its just a great tradition, said Marilyn Hauser, 59, of Center City, whose commute to work in Brooklyn begins with the soundtrack of the classic sign. Heidi Mann, 54, of Charlestown, N.H., stopped to take video. I make signage for a living, so Im really aware, and I love that sign," she said, citing the clarity of information it provides and the reprieve from digital screens. "I dont see why you would change it. Looking further ahead, Boyle said he had encouraged Amtrak to make the installation of a new split-flap sign part of the $100 million redevelopment initiative already scheduled for 30th Street Station. I believe this can be a win for everybody, and we can preserve part of what makes 30th Street Station so special ... and not go down the tragic path New York went with its Penn Station that in no way compares to Philadelphias 30th Street Station," he said. There are a lot of things to worry about when parenting a new baby. As a medical podcaster and neonatologist, or baby doctor, I ask parents to tell me their worries so I can discuss them on the show. There is one topic that parents ask about over and over again: How do I get my baby to sleep through the night? Many parents struggle with the unstructured sleep that their infants experience leading to stress for both themselves and their babies. This concern about sleeping through the night has become a phenomenon of Western society. Parents are often far from their families and their support, mothers are working, maternity leave is sparse, and finding child care can be an ordeal. Therefore, it is no surprise that the value of night time sleep has increased. In 2017, I moved from Los Angeles to Philadelphia in my second trimester of pregnancy. During that time, I bought a house, started a new job, and worked to get in enough shifts to justify my maternity leave. The hardest part of that year wasnt even labor, it was going back into the workforce with a 3-month-old who would wake three to five times a night. I thought working nights and weekends during my medical training would prepare me for this, but the sheer exhaustion from sleeping no more than a few hours at a time took its toll. Being at work felt emotional and trying at times. Its no wonder that postpartum depression effects 15 percent to 20 percent of new moms. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends screening for postpartum depression at 1, 2, 4 and 6 months out from delivery. Its important to know that this is a common phenomenon many families face. Recently, a study surveyed Canadian mothers about their babies' sleep habits. They defined sleeping through the night as the baby getting six to eight hours of continuous sleep. At 6 months, 38 percent to 57 percent of infants were not sleeping through the night, and at 12 months, 28 percent to 43 percent of 1-year olds were still not sleeping through the night. Babies are not meant to sleep like adults. They require frequent nighttime feedings, their nervous systems are still developing, and their awareness of day and night or circadian rhythms is not fully established. So its normal for your baby not to sleep through the night, but what about you? If you are feeling the sleep deprivation as I did, there are ways that might help calm your infant for a better nights sleep. Before encouraging your little one to sleep through the night, talk to your pediatrician and make sure that its the right time for your baby. Babies need to be out of the newborn phase and thriving before long stretches of sleep are acceptable. If your baby is ready, here are some tips: Work on daytime naps. It can be difficult to put an overtired baby to bed so attempt a daytime schedule that allows for two to three naps. Try not to put the baby to bed using feedings. Work on a nighttime routine for you and your baby to wind down. In an effort to not let the baby fall asleep on the breast or bottle, consider other soothing elements such as a bath, massage, and story time. Use a swaddle. This is a helpful tool until the baby can roll. It makes them feel snug and doesnt allow them to flail and hit themselves awake. Offer objects that help soothe baby. A sound machine with white noise and a pacifier work well. Consider a lovie when they can roll. Think about a sleep consultant. Pediatricians are a great first resource for sleep tips, but sleep consultants can give you personalized schedules that are individualized for you and your baby. They do cost money and there are no studies about their efficacy, but many parents think they offer great advice and tips. Heres hoping you and your baby rest easier in the New Year. Joanna Parga-Belinkie, M.D., is a neonatologist at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and a medical podcaster and co-creator of Baby Doctor Mamas. If you feel chest pain, get to a doctor fast. Nothing youre about to read below should dissuade you from that common-sense advice. That said, this worrisome symptom often does not mean a heart attack. Chest pain can be the result of other problems in the heart or lungs, a muscular ailment, or even indigestion. In a new study, Jefferson University cardiologists described an unusual condition in which the patient feels pressure or tightness in the chest the classic sign that coronary arteries are blocked by a clot or restricted by the severe buildup of plaque yet those key blood vessels appear normal. Instead, the symptoms are caused by sudden spasms in tiny heart vessels that lie downstream from those main arteries, causing them to clamp shut and restrict blood flow to the heart, the authors reported. The cause of this phenomenon, called coronary slow flow, is not well-understood, though it seems to occur more often in smokers. But in the study, the Jefferson physicians said they had identified a generic drug that relieves it almost instantaneously. Nicardipine, a type of vessel-dilating drug that is prescribed to people with high blood pressure, restored normal blood flow to the heart in all 30 patients to whom it was administered, the authors reported in the Journal of Invasive Cardiology. Its very dramatic, said senior author Michael P. Savage, director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Jefferson University Hospital. This condition was first described in the medical literature more than 40 years ago, but many physicians remain unaware of it, Savage said. He cited an informal poll he conducted on Twitter, asking his followers to look at X-ray images of a heart with this condition, and also the fact that he has diagnosed it in patients who come to him for a second opinion. Coronary slow flow may account for up to 4 percent of hospital admissions for sudden, unexpected chest pain, wrote the researchers, who included first author and cardiology fellow Hetal H. Mehta. The study drew praise from interventional cardiologist Tim A. Fischell, a professor of medicine at Western Michigan University and at Michigan State. He said that he, too, had given nicardipine to a handful of such patients with success. There needs to be increased awareness that this is one of the possible causes of chest pain without a heart attack, Fischell said. Savage said he and his colleagues decided to try the drug because X-rays of these patients' hearts resembled images of those with a different heart condition called no-reflow. That can occur in patients who undergo a balloon angioplasty to open a blocked coronary artery. Small particles of dislodged plaque can travel downstream to tinier blood vessels, causing them to spasm. Nicardipine, a type of drug called a calcium channel blocker, has been shown to relieve that condition, so Savage and his colleagues reasoned that it also might work for coronary slow flow. After all, the hearts tiniest arteries appeared to be going into spasm in coronary slow flow, too, even though physicians could not say why. The light bulb went off, Savage said. The cardiologist cautioned that a controlled study of the drug would be needed to prove its effectiveness for treating coronary slow flow. He said such a study was unlikely to occur in part because the drug is generic, so there would be little financial support. But because it generally causes no side effects, nicardipine seems like a good option for someone suffering this type of sudden, unexplained pain, which can last for up to 20 minutes at a time, he said. Previous studies have found that most people who experience coronary slow flow will suffer from it again, and some end up in the hospital. In severe cases, the condition can even lead to a heart attack. The drug was administered by catheter in the Jefferson study, but it might make sense for such patients to take it orally at home, Savage said. Youve heard the warnings. Supporters of President Donald Trumps strict immigration policies are spreading alarm about a caravan of Spanish-speaking migrants bringing deadly diseases to our borders. There are even claims that some of them are carrying smallpox. If that were true, it wouldnt be the first time. Caravans of disease-carrying migrants have reached our borders before, and the devastating effects for public health are well known. They spread measles, typhus, cholera and a host of other lethal infectious conditions in addition to smallpox, causing misery and death for countless native-born Americans. The first caravan, this one composed of ships, arrived in 1492 from Spain. Its successful voyage led many others to follow from England, France and other countries in Europe, bringing waves of disease-carrying migrants. Within a few decades, the illnesses they carried had sickened or killed thousands of people. The early migrants didnt know they harbored deadly germs. Most of them had developed immunity from early exposure at home. However, they were highly infectious to those who had never been exposed, like the people who lived in America before they arrived. But, there is a big difference between the public health consequences of the migrant caravans of past centuries and the one that recently arrived at the Mexican border. We know with near certainty that none of the newcomers has smallpox, because that disease was completely eradicated almost 40 years ago. And there is no evidence that they present any serious disease risk. We also have tools for screening and treating them, if they do. Border controls today are, of course, essential for protection against countless risks that open borders could present. But debates over immigration policy should focus on real risks and benefits of immigration, not imaginary ones. The health threats from todays migrants are nothing compared to those brought by the early European newcomers, some of whom are the forebears of those warning about the risks of immigration today. Philadelphia police are investigating a triple shooting that left two people dead early Monday in Kensington. Called to the 700 block of East Tioga Street about 3 a.m. for a shooting victim, police found a 32-year-old woman with a bullet wound to her left arm, police said. After the woman was taken to Temple University Hospital, she told police she had been shot in the area of F and Ontario Streets, about five blocks from where she was found. Officers sent to the 700 block of East Ontario to look for a crime scene then found a man and a woman both shot dead, inside a car with Delaware license plates with its engine still running. Police on Tuesday identified them as Efrain Gonzalez-Rivera, 40, of Wilmington, and Stephanie Rann, 30, of Newark, Del. Gonzalez-Rivera had been shot in the chest; Rann had been shot in the head, police said. Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters at the scene Monday that investigators were trying to determine why the hospitalized woman, who was reported to be in stable condition, made no mention of anyone else being shot at the location where she said she had been wounded. Police said the shooting apparently took place inside the car and that they were treating the wounded woman as a person of interest in the case. The investigation was still underway and no arrests have been made, police said Tuesday morning. AstraZeneca Plc moved to cement its position in cancer treatment by hiring a scientist who recently left a top U.S. research center after news reports that he had received payments from the pharma industry. Jose Baselga, who was Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centers physician-in-chief until he resigned in September, will head the U.K. drugmakers oncology research-and-development arm, the company said Monday. Current research head Mene Pangalos, who oversaw the testing of cancer treatments such as Imfinzi and Lynparza, will manage the cardiovascular and respiratory programs, which have been combined into one R&D unit. Drugmakers are desperate to gain an edge in oncology, the most lucrative and fastest-growing dimension of the industry, with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. each announcing major acquisitions in the field over the past few days. In Baselga, Astra saw the chance to bring on one of the top minds in cancer and is willing to weather criticism to get the former president of the American Association of Cancer Research. "Our policy is to recruit the best possible scientists thats been the driving force," Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said in a telephone interview. "Stepping down from Memorial and exploring options was the opportunity for us to make an offer to him to join us." AstraZeneca has surged over the past year as it has brought a variety of new drugs to market, including Imfinzi and Lynparza. Baselga, who earlier headed oncology for the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was involved in the development of Roche Holding AGs Herceptin, will help lead the company in finding new targets for existing medicines and explore the use of combinations, Soriot said. Along with research and development, Astra will split its commercialization operations into cancer and non-cancer divisions. The move will give greater focus to both enterprises, and demonstrate that the company will be an important player in the competitive field for years to come, Soriot said. AstraZeneca also has a stable of new medicines in the early stages of development that Baselga will attempt to shepherd through the research and approval process. He has performed scores of human trials and has sat on the boards of several biotechnology companies, giving him critical insight into the process, Soriot said. The CEO said he had discussed coming to AstraZeneca with Baselga two or three years ago, but the talks became more earnest just a few weeks ago, after his departure from Memorial Sloan Kettering. That followed articles by the New York Times and the ProPublica investigative news service that highlighted payments that scientists and researchers had received from industry that were hidden from view. Scientists are normally required by journals to state ties to companies whose products are studied in their research articles. The probe by the Times and ProPublica found that Baselga had received millions of dollars in payments, and that hed failed to disclose them in 60 percent of 180 papers published beginning in 2013. While Baselga acknowledged that he should have made appropriate disclosures, he said that the lapses were inadvertent and that none had involved AstraZeneca studies. In addition to his position at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Baselga stepped down as co-editor of AACRs journal, Cancer Discovery, and from the board of Bristol-Myers. At Astra, signs of a shakeup had been looming as several highly placed executives recently left. Ludovic Helfgott, former head of the diabetes unit, went to Novo Nordisk A/S in September. Bahija Jallal, who helmed the Medimmune unit, became CEO of Immunocore Ltd., and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. made former Astra strategist Mark Mallon its chief. Astras new shape will make the company quicker to move on new opportunities, Soriot said. Its a big change for us as a company, but its the right change and should help us support growth and accelerate the building of our pipeline, he said. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said Sunday that U.S. withdrawal of its 2,000 troops in Syria will not be abrupt and also will be conditioned on Turkish assurances that it will not target Kurdish fighters allied with American forces. John Bolton, during a visit to Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said there is no timetable for the troop withdrawal, but that the U.S. presence in Syria is also not unlimited. Bolton's comments were the first public confirmation that the withdrawal process has been slowed from an initial indication that it would be carried out within 30 days. Bolton said Trump "wants the ISIS caliphate destroyed," referring to Islamic State, which once claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its religious territory in Syria and Iraq. The national security adviser said "the timetable flows from the policy discussions that we need to implement." With so many major openings on Broadway behind us Network ... Mockingbird ... Cher! this is a good moment check out some intriguing Off-Broadway openings. Note that the dates here refer to the entire run, from first preview to closing performance. The Jungle, through Jan. 27. Following rave reviews in London (a co-production with the National Theatre and the Young Vic), The Jungle takes up residence in Brooklyn at St. Anns Warehouse, 45 Water St. The title refers to a refugee camp in northern France where people try, against huge odds, to build a successful community. Waiting for Godot (in Yiddish with English surtitles), extended through Jan. 27. Samuel Becketts masterpiece, perhaps the most influential play of the 20th century, is presented in Yiddish with English surtitles. Which seems fitting, in an existential sense. What, finally, can you say to the cosmos other than oy vey? Presented by New Yiddish Rep at the 14th Street Y, 344 E. 14th St. Theres also a production in the wings of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (with English and Russian surtitles) presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. It opens Feb. 11 at Stage 42 (422 W. 42nd St., formerly the Little Shubert) after a successful run that just ended at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Directed by Joel Grey. Maestro, through Feb. 9. John Noble, the man with the amazing basso profundo voice who plays Denethor in Lord of the Rings and Sherlocks father in Elementary, here plays Arturo Toscanini in a play with music violins, viola, cello, piano, and trumpet that follows the events of the legendary conductors life as he confronts fascism, refusing to perform in Germany or Italy. Presented by the Ensemble for the Romantic Century at the Duke Theatre, 229 W. 42nd St LaBute New Theater Festival, Jan 10-27. Playwright Neil LaBute, famous for enraging audiences, actors, and theater companies, will direct the world premiere of one of his three new one-acts, Unlikely Japan, starring Gia Crovatin (Billions). Also on the program, at the Davenport Theatre (354 W. 45th St.), is the world premiere of Great Negro Works of Art, and, in its New York premiere, The Fourth Reich. Brace yourselves. Merrily We Roll Along, Jan. 12-April 7. Fiasco Theatre Company at Roundabout offers this one for Stephen Sondheim fans (and we are legion). The subject of this show is show business and three old friends bumpy/grumpy friendship. Merrily is a musical with a checkered past. Since its premiere in 1981, which was a Broadway flop, there followed revision after revision, major production after major production. Its return to NYC is reason to rejoice. Playing at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St. Mies Julie, Jan. 15-March 10. That title is not a typo. Its the South African spelling of August Strindbergs famous title. Classic Stage Companys adaptation by Yael Farber presents the private, fierce gender battle as a fierce racial battle in the highly charged arena of post-apartheid South Africa. Not recommended for children under 18. This is half of CSCs Strindberg repertory program, with The Dance of Death (Jan. 17March 10) in a new version by Conor McPherson. Its another ferocious, sexy gender battle, which in Strindberg is always a battle to the death. Both plays are at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 E. 13th St. Joan, Jan. 19-Feb. 16. Stephen Belbers new play is about the life of a woman named Joan. Not much more information provided, but OK, be like that. Johanna Day stars at the Here Arts Center, 145 Sixth Ave. By the Way, Meet Vera Sark, Jan. 29-March 3. Lynn Nottages residency at the Signature Theatre, 480 W. 42nd St., continues with this satire about race and the movie industry. This show should make a perfect companion piece to the current Nottage show at the Signature (through Jan. 13), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine, another satire about an ambitious young woman. The Sean OCasey Season, Jan. 30-May 25. Irish Repertory Theatres ambitious 30th-anniversary season celebrates OCasey by offering his Dublin trilogy in rep: The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars. Adding to the dramatic festivities will be free readings of all of OCaseys other plays. The theater is at 132 W. 22nd St. Equity strike targets labs On Monday afternoon, the labor union representing theatrical performers announced a strike by its members against participation in developmental labs with Broadways commercial producers. Actors' Equity declared the strike Monday after negotiations with the producer-led Broadway League failed to increase minimum salaries for such labs where actors and writers test material for shows or to secure a share of profits for lab participants. Labs have been used to create blockbusters like The Cher Show, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hello, Dolly!, and Waitress, but the shows themselves are not targets of the strike. None of the Off-Broadway productions listed above are affected. Philadanco founder Joan Myers Brown, known for training and presenting some of finest modern dancers in the United States, is collaborating with String Theory Schools on a proposed charter school that would be named after her. The Joan Myers Brown Academy would be a K-8 school near Browns home in West Philadelphia modeled after String Theorys three other performing arts charter schools, with a special focus on dance. There will be a public hearing Jan. 22 for the academy and two other proposed charter schools, and the school board has until March 2 to make a decision on approvals. Charter proposals have not always been approved, and with a new school board, it is even less clear how members will vote. If approved, it would open in September at 3905 Ford Rd. They asked if they could name it after me, Brown, 87, said of String Theory. But she wanted more. Her plan is to step away from the day-to-day leadership of Philadanco after its 50th anniversary in 2020. We started talking about how children are no longer interested in training," Brown said. "They see So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars and want to do trick, trick, trick, rather than putting in the hours honing proper technique. We wanted to change the system of teaching dance in their schools, she said. They asked me to write a curriculum for them. The Joan Myers Brown Academy would be housed in the former Wordsworth Academy, which was a residential school for troubled youth. It closed in 2017 after a child died. The school is one of 20 new locations String Theory is looking to open around the country, said Jason Corosanite, String Theorys cofounder and chief innovations officer. West Philly focus For this one, Corosonite said, theyre focusing on the neighborhood. The three existing String Theory performing arts schools enroll from a citywide catchment, but the Joan Myers Brown Academy would give preference to three West Philadelphia zip codes (19131, 19151, and 19139), leaning toward students of color. That would align with Browns mission of giving talented dancers of color a place to study and perform. String Theory has already taken Browns first suggestion, to expand its curriculum to offer contemporary dance classes. On her recommendation, it hired Ali Willingham, one of 30 teachers Brown employs at the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, which she opened in 1960, 10 years before launching Philadanco. Willingham also directs D3 Minis, a performing troupe for talented 8- to 12-year-olds. He also teaches at Temple, Brown said of Willingham, so hes used to work with all levels and all ages. Hes very strict, very demanding. Thats what they needed. Training to succeed Most career-oriented dance training comes with similar exacting expectations, in addition to teaching dancers a range of styles. To succeed at an audition, they have to know more than ballet and jazz, Brown said. They need specific modern dance techniques, such as Graham, Horton, and perhaps Dunham. The school would include such diversity. Browns former students included Leslie Odom Jr., who was the original Aaron Burr in Hamilton, and TV producer/film director Lee Daniels. Many others she trained have danced with Philadanco, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, or on Broadway. The charter schools curriculum would start with what do you do with kids from kindergarten? How do you progress?' " Brown said. Dance history would be weaved thematically in academic classes, Corosanite said. Are we producing the next Philadanco dancers? You dont get to that point unless you grow up with it, he said. That means serious dance training, Brown said. Not just something to do to get out of math class. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The National Democratic Congress (NDC) upcoming presidential primary has been marred with death threats and open intimidations; a shocked contender for the position has disclosed. Goosie Tanoh, who is in the NDC presidential race, has alleged that some of the partys delegates have received death threats from known party members, ahead of the elections, which is slated for the latter part of this month. According to him, there is a grand agenda by certain party gurus, whose names he refused to mention, to adopt diabolical strategies to ensure that the delegates voted for one particular candidate, hence the death threats. Goosie Tanoh claimed that most of his supporters, who are NDC delegates, have received death threats and open intimidation for opting for him (Goosie), stressing that the death threats and intimidations ought to stop immediately since it would not help party cohesion and peace. Goosie Tanoh made the allegations in an interview with Kofi Asante of Nhyira Fm in Kumasi. He was of the view that the partys delegates should be allowed to vote for the candidate who they think has the qualities to help lead the NDC as flagbearer and wrestle political power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2020. Goosie Tanoh, who is confident of victory in the NDC presidential race, without mincing words, stated emphatically that the death threats and open intimidations must stop for the sake of party unity and peace. The NDC presidential hopeful did not mention those who were behind the death threats and intimidations but stated confidently that despite the intimidations and death threats I will still win the NDC race. Goosie Tanoh disclosed that the NDC delegates have embraced his grassroots empowerment message, adding that if voted as NDC flagbearer, he would not neglect the partys grassroots members as it happened during the 2016 polls. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has joined Ghanaians in the country and across the world in commemorating Ghanas maiden Constitution Day today Monday, January 7, 2019. The day has also been set aside to acknowledge the countrys collective efforts at ensuring that the tenets of democracy, rule of law and principles of constitutionalism are upheld. It is in recognition of the commencement of the 4th Republican constitutional dispensation on January 7, 1993. As part of activities to commemorate the day, the Ministry of Information has put together a public lecture. The Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, would deliver the address at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The topic for the lecture is Constitutionalism in Ghanas Fourth Republic: Towards Functional Performance. The NPP, in a statement issued by its General Secretary, John Boadu observed that the Constitution Day, which signals the birth of the fourth republic, undoubtedly marks a significant milestone in the history of Ghanas constitutional democracy. It reminds us of our renewed and unfettered commitment to upholding the very tenets of rule of law, charter of liberty, constitutionalism and democratic governance. It reminds us, more importantly, of our collective commitment to a regime of an uninterrupted constitutional order. The solemn commitment, the statement said, was manifested on January 7, 1993, with the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which ushered in the 4th Republican dispensation, the most enduring Republic in our history which is 26 years today and counting. It said its our conviction that this is the last of the Republics and that the 4th Republican Constitution shall remain the supreme and fundamental law of Ghana and only subject to amendments or reviews as and when necessary. It is in recognition of this that the Akufo-Addo government has set aside the 7th of January each year as Constitution Day ostensibly to celebrate the countrys enviable democratic feats and also remind us of the commencement of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution, the most efficacious and ever-lasting in our history. According to the statement, The day is accordingly declared as a public holiday due to its great significance. Hitherto, July 1, which day ushered in the 1st Republican Constitution of 1960, was celebrated as a Republic Day in Ghana and observed as a public holiday. However, the 1st Republican Constitution, just like the 2nd and the 3rd, was effectively truncated and repudiated by military interventions until the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution, which ushered in the current 4th Republic and put the country on the path of sustained and uninterrupted constitutional order. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video U.S. President Donald Trump showed no signs Sunday of backing down on his demand for taxpayer funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico, saying there is "not going to be any bend" on his part. "We have to build a wall, a barrier. It can be steel," Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to his Maryland retreat at Camp David for discussions with key administration officials about border security and policies they plan to pursue this year. In the meantime, Trump is engaged in a dispute with opposition Democratic lawmakers over his demand for more than $5 billion in funding for the barrier, a stalemate that has shut down about a quarter of U.S. government operations for 16 days, already one of the longest government closures in U.S. history. "This shutdown could end tomorrow, or it could go on a long time," Trump said, noting that Democrats refusing his demand for wall funding have voted for barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border in the past. "Democrats agree, you need border security." Trump said he does not expect anything to come out of a second day of negotiations Sunday between top White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, and key congressional aides on how to bridge differences over border security and Trump's demand for wall funding. But he said progress could be made in talks over the next few days. The U.S. leader said, "If we don't have border security, we'll be crime ridden," with people crossing into the U.S. illegally "killing our citizens." He said supporters, who often cheered his call for a wall during his successful 2016 run for the White House, are telling him, "Make sure you win this battle." He said, "People that didn't vote for Donald Trump also want border security." The National Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has assured Ghanaians that the year 2019 will be better for them as a result of the solid foundation laid by the current government to improve the countrys economy. I want to assure Ghanaians that there are better and more prosperous times ahead this year because of several measures put in place to better the economy. This year, there will be more money in peoples pockets, he promised. The NPP National Chairman said this at a forum organized by the Western Regional Organizer of the NPP, Abdul Ganiyu Mohammed, on Saturday to mark the second year of the NPP in office. The well-attended forum, which was organized in collaboration with the Western Regional Organizational Committee of the NPP, was on the theme: NPP, Our Hope 2020 and Beyond. The partys members also engaged in Quranic recitation at the Takoradi Central Mosque and Thanksgiving Service at the Bethel Methodist Church in Takoradi. The party also donated assorted items to babies at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi. Mr. Blay explained that the prudent policies put in place by the Akufo-Addo government over the last 22 months had helped to reduce the impact of hardship in the country. He thanked the party faithful in the region for their perseverance and sacrifices that ensured victory in the 2016 general elections, and also supporting him to win the national chairmanship position of the party. He appealed to the party activists to continue to join hands with the government to build the progressive nation Ghanaians have been yearning for over the years by contributing their quota in various fields. I have had the privilege of attending cabinet meetings under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo, and I can tell you that the government has put things right and very soon all of us will enjoy. It is sad that sometimes some of us join activists of the opposition parties in singing the chorus we have not seen anything. That should not come from us but the NDC activists who have refused to notice the efforts of the sitting government, he told the crowd. Let me stress here that in 2019, the government will not discriminate against any Ghanaian in terms of job and other opportunities, but the party will recognize its own, he added. Ghana is certainly on the right path, and I believe that we have all resolved not to give up political power to any political party in 2020. But let me stress that it is not about what you say but what you will do to achieve what we are saying, he added. He told the enthusiastic NPP supporters that the current government would not overlook corruption because it could bring the government and the party down. So whoever is within us and indulging in corrupt practices or any wrongdoings would be exposed, he emphasized. He told the people in the Western Region that under the current government, the residents would benefit more from the oil discovered in the area. Joe Ghartey The Minister for Railway Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Essikado-Ketan, Joe Ghartey, also commended both the former and current regional executives of the party for working hard to increase the NPPs seats in the region in Parliament from eight to 16. He indicated that the rejuvenation of the railway sector would not only benefit the people of the Western Region but also the country in general. Charles Bissue The Regional Secretary of the NPP, Charles Cromwell Bissue, who is also a Presidential Staffer, indicated that the NPP is fulfilling its manifesto promises presented to the people before the 2016 elections. For instance, we have introduced the free senior high school policy; we have made the National Health Insurance Scheme work again; teachers and nursing allowances are being paid, and NABCO is also working, among others, he added. Mr. Bissue, who is also the Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Small-Scale Mining, disclosed that six mining districts had been created in the region to help create jobs for Ghanaians. The Western Regional Organizer of the NPP, Abdul Ganiyu Mohammed, appealed to the various organizers of the party at the various levels to intensify their campaign in their respective areas towards victory 2020 and beyond. Later, Mr. Blay was presented with a citation and a wooden elephant by the youth wing of the party in the region for leading the party to victory in 2016 in his capacity as acting national chairman. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Two soldiers who took part in Monday's attempted coup in Gabon have been killed, the president's office says. They were shot dead after security officers stormed the national radio building which they had taken over. Three others are under arrest. The junior officers claimed they seized power "to restore democracy" in oil-rich Gabon, where the ailing leader's family has ruled for 50 years. "The situation is under control," the presidency's statement said. Coup leader Lt Kelly Ondo Obiang was on the run for a brief period, before being found hiding under a bed, reports Radio France Internationale (RFI). "The situation is calm. The gendarmes who are often stationed there have taken control of the entire area around the radio and TV headquarters, so everything is back to normal", said Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, a spokesman for the government of the central African country. Mr Mapangou said that the army generals, civil society and opposition leaders mentioned in the rebels' statement as potential supporters would be investigated. What is the opposition's reaction? The main opposition group, The Coalition for the New Republic, denied any link with the rebel soldiers. One of its leading members, Paul-Marie Gondjout, told the BBC that soldiers and the police were searching vehicles on main roads in the capital, Libreville. "We see order, but we don't know what is going on," Mr Gondjout said. He added that with President Ali Bongo out of the country since October when he suffered a stroke, his deputy should be sworn in as head of state. "The country needs to be run and we have no government, no head of state," Mr Gongjout said. President Bongo succeeded his father Omar Bongo as president in 2009. He narrowly won re-election in 2016 in a poll marred by violence and accusations of fraud. How did the coup attempt unfold? Rebel soldiers took control of the national radio station in the capital, Libreville, at 04:30 local time (03:30 GMT). Lt Obiang read a short statement announcing a "National Restoration Council". "If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up. Wake up your neighbours... rise up as one and take control of the street," the statement said. Some youth in the nearby Cocotiers settlement torched a car and set fire to tyres, while the security forces fired tear gas to disperse them. Much of the city was deserted with businesses closed and local and foreign companies telling their workers to stay home. Internet access was also briefly disrupted. The rebel soldiers entered the radio station after "neutralising" gendarmes in front of the building before making their broadcast, news agency AFP reports, quoting a statement from the presidency. The security services later stormed the building and shot dead two rebel soldiers and freed journalists who were being held hostage, the report says. Authorities had earlier said five rebels had entered the building and four had been arrested. A later statement said six rebels were involved while other reports put the number at seven. In a video circulating on social media, three young soldiers can be seen in a radio studio wearing military fatigues and holding guns. Lt Obiang, who said he represented a group called the Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon, specifically appealed to young people to "take charge of their destiny". The insurgents called on soldiers to take control of the transport system, ammunition reserves and airports "in the interests of the nation". BBC Afrique's Firmain Eric Mbadinga says the coup attempt came as a huge surprise. The army has always been seen as loyal to the Bongo family, he says, because it is dominated by the presidential guard, who mostly come from Mr Bongo's home region. The French government and the African Union condemned the attempted coup. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Gabonese government has put down a coup attempt after a group of soldiers briefly took over state radio and broadcast a statement calling on people to rise up while the president, Ali Bongo, is in Morocco recovering from a stroke. Authorities have regained control of the state broadcasting offices and a major thoroughfare in the capital, Libreville, which were the only areas taken by the plotters, the government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told Radio France International. At 4.30am (0530 GMT) on Monday a man identifying himself as Lt Kelly Ondo Obiang read out a message on state radio that was simultaneously filmed for social media. Obiang was flanked by two armed men, all in the uniform and green berets of the powerful Republican Guard, which is usually tasked with protecting the president. The eagerly awaited day has arrived when the army has decided to put itself on the side of the people in order to save Gabon from chaos, he said. If you are eating, stop; if you are having a drink, stop; if you are sleeping, wake up. Wake up your neighbours rise up as one and take control of the street, he added, calling on Gabonese to occupy the countrys airports, public buildings and media organisations. A witness told Reuters a crowd of about 300 people had gathered in support of the attempted coup at the state broadcasting headquarters, where the military fired teargas to disperse them. The Bongo family has ruled Gabon since 1967, except for four months in 2009 after Ali Bongos father, Omar, died. Four of the five plotters were taken into custody on Monday morning, Mapangou told France 24. The fifth was caught in the afternoon, reportedly hiding under a bed in a house. The government is in place. The institutions are in place, Mapangou said. The communications minister said the men were a group of jokers and the military hierarchy does not recognise them. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chair of the African Union, said he strongly condemned the coup attempt. A spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry also criticised the action in its former colony. Gabons stability can only be ensured in strict compliance with the provisions of its constitution, she said. Bongo became ill in October while on a visit to Saudi Arabia. Rather than going home, he went to recuperate in Morocco, from where he gave a New Years Day statement in which he admitted he had been through a difficult period, as sometimes happens in life. He said he was preparing to return home soon. Source: The Guardian Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video IRAN: President Rouhani Deputy Speaks Against Child Marriage 12/31/18 Source: Radio Farda An advisor to Iran's president criticizing early marriage laws says if thirteen-year-olds can get married then they can also vote or get a driver's license. Ma'asoumeh Ebtekar, Hassan Rouhani's deputy on family and women's affairs criticized on Monday the rejection of a bill by a parliamentary commission that would have banned child marriages in Iran. Speaking during a trip to Alborz province, Ebtekar said that statistics published by various organizations show a rising rate of divorce and other social harms from child marriages and urged parliament to reconsider its rejection of the proposed legislation. She also criticized contradictions in existing laws, saying, "If thirteen is a good age for marriage then all other laws should be also based on the same age criterion, so that 13-yerar-old children are able to vote, get a driver's license and ask for divorce. If the age of thirteen means adulthood, then all laws should be based on that age. The laws are not compatible, and it leads to a lot of problems for the people". Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice president for women and family affairs File photo The proposed law for raising the marriage age was rejected as a result of opposition by religious leaders who say Prophet Muhammed married a minor age 9 and therefore it is condoned by tradition. Related Story on Child Marriage in United States: 'You shouldn't be doing this' - Between 2000 and 2010, an estimated 248,000 children were married, most of whom were girls, some as young as 12, wedding men. Now, under pressure from advocates and amid a nationwide reckoning over gender equality and sexual misconduct, states have begun ending exceptions that have allowed marriages for people younger than 18, the minimum age in most states. - Washington Post Paxton mayor on parking lot proposal: 'I think we're going to be able to work something out' Paxton, IL (60957) Today Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High 82F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low near 55F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. BEIJING, Jan. 7 (ChinaMil) -- Naval and air forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command conducted whole-process monitoring of a US warship that had trespassed into Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands without permission, and warned it to leave, a spokesperson of the Southern Theater Command said on Monday. The USS McCampbell, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer of the US Navy, trespassed on Monday into Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands without permission of the Chinese government. The PLA Southern Theater Command soon sent naval ships and aircraft to identify and warn off the US warship. Senior colonel Li Huamin said in a statement that China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters, and the provocation of the US warship has infringed China's sovereignty, is a grave violation of Chinese law and relevant international law and is also a grave threat to regional peace and stability. "We urge the US side to immediately cease such provocative actions. The PLA Southern Theater Command will remain on high alert, closely monitor relevant maritime and air situations and resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty and security," he said. With the Netflix show Bird Box dominating all conversations this year (thanks to life-threatening challenges, viral memes, drag parodies, and some vital-in-2019 Kardashian support), the impending apocalypse is on everyone's minds more than ever. And that's really saying something considering the fraught Trumpian climate we've all been clawing through bloody-knuckled for years now. So it's only natural that elements of survival seep into all corners of our culture, including fashion a vehicle that, when successful, mirrors our society's fears and dreams through extreme stylized dramatization. A-Cold-Wall*, the brand operated by 27-year-old Virgil Abloh-endorsed Samuel Ross, delivered a collection that accomplished exactly that at London Fashion Week Men's 2019. While Bird Box reveled in a fictional unknown, this lineup spoke to a pressing reality that's affecting people right now: the migration crisis in Europe. Ross presented his clothes in a blacked-out warehouse, while performers gripped life rafts in a pool of water. Models walked beside them with dripping wet faces and dirtied hair, occasionally stopping to look their way. A dog emerged at one point, viciously barking in their direction against a pounding soundtrack. Like Malorie (Sandra Bullock) pummeling down the river to find a better life for Boy and Girl, millions of migrants in Europe crowd inside boats every year and embark on a deadly mission throughout the Seas. Many don't make it to their final destination a serious crisis echoed in A-Cold-Wall*'s ominous attitude and practical silhouettes this season. "The pool closest to the audience represents the pool of fear and preservation in the age of nationalism, the pool further away is the human pull to progression," Ross told The Guardian. "I was alluding to movement of people but also the depths of fear of a bottomless pit, and the bravery and the triumph that is required to move through to the future." Life vests in safety orange were edited for contemporary streetwear, designed with tons of utilitarian pockets and zippers. Transparent rain coats were cinched at the waist, while puffers were styled with oversized scarves and fisherman hats. Functional compasses were sewn directly into garments, while allusions to direction, time and travel were printed onto several pieces. Tailored suits were fabricated using weather-resistant nylon, and subtle plastic accents appeared throughout. As a literal but still dramatic display of protection, A-Cold-Wall* also created blue-tinted, jagged shields that were transparent and worn shirtless with nylon cargo pants. The plastic cascaded onto the ground, dragging behind the model like an evening gown's train, offering an intense, apocalyptic alternative to formalwear. Could you imagine if Trevante Rhodes had wore this as Tom in Bird Box? 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. Do you appreciate the work we do as the only independent media outlet dedicated to serving OU students, faculty, staff and alumni on campus and around the world for more than 100 years? Then consider helping fund our endeavors. Around the world, communities are grappling with what journalism is worth and how to fund the civic good that robust news organizations can generate. We believe The OU Daily and Crimson Quarterly magazine provide real value to this community both now by covering OU, and tomorrow by helping launch the careers of media professionals. If youre able, please SUPPORT US TODAY FOR AS LITTLE AS $1. You can make a one-time donation or a recurring pledge. Oswego, NY (13126) Today Showers in the morning, then cloudy in the afternoon. High 66F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low around 55F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. I am requesting that you withhold my salary until the partial government shutdown ends, Waltz said in a statement. It is my goal to end the shutdown while providing adequate border security as soon as possible. Until then, I do not believe it appropriate for members of Congress to be paid while federal employees critical to our national security are not. Colonel Yang Lei (R), head of the Chinese team in the joint training and deputy commander of a special operations brigade in the Xinjiang Military Command of the PLA PABBI, Pakistan, January 7 (ChinaMil) -- Special Operations Forces of the Pakistan Army and the PLA Army conducted joint counter-terrorism training successfully in the National Counter Terrorism Training Centre (NCTC) in Pabbi, Punjab Province, Pakistan on January 5. So far, the China-Pakistan joint military exercise "Warrior-VI 2018" came to a successful conclusion. As the last part of the China-Pakistan joint military exercise "Warrior- VI 2018", the joint training for counter-terrorism operations aimed to explore the methods and modes of defending major objectives and provide valuable experience for the special operations forces of the Pakistani Army and the PLA Army to improve their counter-terrorism operational capabilities. The exercise was conducted according to a process including multi-dimensional reconnaissance and search, three-dimensional maneuvering deployment and control, comprehensive fire assault exercise, searching and clearing building, air-ground coordinated attack, and joint defense and control. The in-situ journalists witnessed that under the cover of military helicopters and through conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, three-dimensional blockade and control, directional blasting, and precise sniping, the commandos flushed out the "terrorists" entrenched in the courtyards and bunkers and annihilated the fled "enemies" with air-ground coordination. Colonel Yang Lei, head of the Chinese team in the joint training and deputy commander of a special operations brigade in the Xinjiang Military Command of the PLA, said that "This joint training has fully demonstrated the mutual trust between Chinese and Pakistani militaries, and enhanced the friendship between the participating officers and soldiers from both sides, which is of great significance to promoting the joint anti-terrorism operational capabilities of the two countries." China-Pakistan joint military exercise Warrior-VI 2018 was officially launched on December 8, 2018. During the exercise, the two sides conducted joint training for anti-terrorism operations, shared counter-terrorism skills, learnt from each others expertise, jointly studied methods and exchanged training experiences. The best part, he said, is when youd come across the ones who say, Ive already voted, Im already engaged. It was a little motivation in that for every one person who said they werent going to vote, youd have about five or six people who said theyve already voted. As a mother when you talk to people on the campaign trail and they say, I would never let my kid swim in that water, or they say, I let my child swim in that water and I wound up in the emergency room the next day. Thats not OK. Were going to fix it, DeSantis said. Seventy years is a long time," DeSantis said in the Dec. 20 statement. "And thats the amount of time four young men have been wrongly written into Florida history for crimes they did not commit and punishments they did not deserve. Justice was miscarried for the Groveland Four beginning with events set in motion in 1949. Though these men now lie in graves, their stories linger in search of justice." We need a check and we need other branches of government to keep other branches in line, said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. If we have a bunch of other people who look the same and believe in the same thing in the Florida Supreme Court then its just going to be right-wing government gone wild. I am so excited to lead the charge for literacy in Central Florida, said Solomon, who joined the league in 2005. Every day I consider myself lucky to witness learning in action. I see our volunteer tutors light a spark in their students and our classroom volunteers generate excitement about language, math and other topics. She wasnt moving as fast as they were and she was getting real frustrated so she just sat down and it made me break down but I try not to break down in front of her, he said. Ill wait until shes asleep or not around and then Ill let go. He told deputies he was mistreated his whole life in his hometown, including at his rich Jewish school, according to court documents. Ill also told authorities the slurs were directed at a man he said had raped his ex-girlfriend. Ill said the man was Jewish and he spray-painted the symbols strategically so the man would see them. I dont think it was intentional, to be honest with you, Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolon said this week. He took over as interim chief three weeks after Bellos killing from John Mina, who was running for Orange County sheriff. We need to follow the same practice for anything that rises to the level where there might be some interest. Farm Share distributes foods for free to other organizations such as churches, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters. The nonprofit gave out more than 55 million pounds of food to other Florida organizations in 2018, the news release stated. Even so, Oh connected when she turned serious. I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change, she said. Right now, this moment is real. Trust me, it is real. By Mu Xiaoming The UK is working on plans to build two new military bases in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, said Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Gavin Williamson in an interview. Gavin Williamson claimed that where we have economic interests, where we should have military presence. Overseas military bases have served as the bridgehead for the UK to safeguard its overseas interests, control strategic arteries, consolidate leadership position, and prevent other major powers from seeking sea power since modern times. Some analysts pointed out that the UKs plan of establishing two new overseas military bases and the previous British military revitalization plan mean that the UK is trying to strengthen its international presence after Brexit. Some also said that the move by the UK may further complicate the strategic situation in relevant regions. The UKs security environment has undergone major changes since it officially launched the Brexit process. In particular, the US President Donald Trump has contempt for NATO, demanding that NATO member states apportion more defense spending. This has intensified the UKs anxiety about NATOs future and increased the urgency to improve its defense capabilities. British Ministry of Defense issued a report in December 2018, which argues that the world has returned to an era of fierce competition after 30 years of relative stability. In order to deter and defeat potential rivals, the UK should be able to deploy a 50,000-strong task force including an aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, which can carry F-35 stealth fighter jets, an army division with three brigades, one battle group consisting of fighter jets, transport aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft, and on especial operations force. At the same time, the UK must maintain at least one ballistic missile submarine at sea. In fact, the deployment and adjustment of overseas military bases can be seen as a barometer reflecting Britains global military dominance and political influence. The past 300 years have witnessed a transformation of Britains strength from strong to weak. At present, its overseas military bases can only be found in Brunei, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, and some trust territories located at oceans. However, the UK has always considered itself as the suzerain of the developing countries of the Commonwealth. Its ambition to maintain its status as a major power has enabled the UK to keep seeking maintenance its overseas military bases. As early as in 2003, the British national defense white paper pointed out that its Royal Navy would pay more attention to the rapid delivery of military personnel and equipment than at any time in history. In December 2014, the UK signed a military cooperation agreement with Bahrain. Accordingly, the UK has strengthened its military presence and established a permanent military base in Bahrain. This is the first time that the UK redeployed a military base in Bahrain since the withdrawal of British troops from the east of the Suez Canal in 1971. The re-establishment of a military base in Bahrain can neither reinvigorate Britains one-time national prestige nor reverse its downward momentum. However, it reflects the geopolitical ambition of Britain in the new era. Seen from the operational level, given that the British territory is small and narrow and its domestic climate, topography and natural conditions are not diverse, it is not suitable for British armed forces to carry out combat training under various natural conditions. Overseas bases make up for this disadvantage. Hence, the new overseas military bases are of great significance to the British armed forces that intend to reinvigorate its strategic influence. However, Williamsons claim to build overseas military bases was criticized by the British Conservative Party and the opposition party, saying that Williamson showed his ambition and ignorance. They also asked him where his budget would comefrom. Some media questioned the feasibility of the plan.They argued that although the UK is ambitious and hopes to restore its past glory as a global power, it remains to be seen whether the UK has the capability to build more overseas bases while struggling with austerity budget for many years to maintain a strong military deterrence. Disclaimer: The author is Mu Xiaoming from the College of Politics of the National Defense University of the PLA. The article was published on the China's National Defense newspaper on January 7. It is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Were just getting higher demand on our product spread throughout the year. That gives you pricing leverage. But what were also trying to do is be much smarter about pricing strategy, to try to spread attendance and reduce attendance in the peak periods so we can improve guest satisfaction, Iger said. Young, who like Lawson will work without a formal contract, told the Visit Florida board she was honored to have your trust and support and that she intends to travel the state to meet with the board members. The NDA stands for clean governance and inclusive development as well as for the service of the nation in absolute contrast to the UPA government known for the dynastic rule, policy paralysis and scarcely anything beyond self-service It may sound politically incorrect to state that two political stalwarts of that time were instrumental for breaking up a united India into two when it was poised to become a free country in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru and M A Jinnah brought about the partition because of their unbridled prime ministerial ambitions. As both of them started vying with each other for the privilege of ruling the nation in the offing, partition of India became inevitable. M K Gandhi, who had spearheaded the freedom movement and gained the colossal stature of Mahatma, was averse to the idea of partition. However, he was arm-twisted and emotionally blackmailed by Nehru into agreeing to the dismemberment of a bleeding India. Gandhi had even favoured placating Jinnah with the Premiership for the sake of keeping the country united. However, Nehru was insistent on having his own way just as Jinnah succeeded in extracting his pound of flesh. In the process of selection of the first Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was given short shrift although he was the preferred choice of the Congress party. M K Gandhi cast his veto in favour of Nehru, little realising the shape of things about to unfold in the aftermath of the latter's time in office. In brief, Nehru was catapulted to the coveted post of leading the nation by an act of personal choice by the Mahatma. This has cost the country four generations of dynastic rule by the Nehru-Gandhi family, with a foreign national thrown in. From the House of Windsor to the Nehru-Gandhi family, it was a classic case of a straight leap for India from the frying pan into the fire. Legitimacy What is particularly distressing is the fact that the family, which claimed to have made some sacrifices during the freedom struggle, chose to reward itself with the legitimacy of the right to rule through elections when opposition parties still had teething troubles in the political arena. Once in power, this family spread its roots and branches and established its stronghold on crucial departments of governance. This, in turn, authorised it to elicit sensitive information or infuse false information to exploit the situation, whenever required. Such manipulative operations enabled this family to stay afloat in the political currents and subvert the bonafide activities of governments other than its own. Power at Any Cost In 1975, when the Allahabad High Court declared the election of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the Parliament null and void on charges of misuse of the official machinery and the Supreme Court upheld the High Court verdict, rather than stepping down PM Gandhi chose to hang on to power. When her party introduced certain Constitutional amendments that were struck down by the Supreme Court, she tried to control the judiciary by promoting judges favourably disposed towards the government in supersession of senior judges. The bureaucracy and the judiciary were exhorted by her dispensation to become committed to the government's 'ideology' under the threat of being penalised. Moreover, she declared a state of Internal Emergency, curtailing democratic rights of the people for 11 months. The Emergency constituted a dark chapter in Indian democracy and demonstrated the dynasty's determination to hang on to power and perpetuate its rule, at any cost. Finger in the Honey Pot The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty always had a finger in the honey pot of public money and missed no occasion or opportunity to spirit away from the public exchequer. Furthermore, it solicited and accepted kickbacks and commissions from weapons procurement deals, global tenders for natural resources, government projects, subsidies and funds allocated for welfare schemes, and practically any program or project where there was a significant turnover of public money. The banking sector was a chosen segment for their systematic plunder and financial misdeeds. There was a humongous volume of non-performing assets (NPAs), with neither a serious investigation in the matter ordered nor any of the defaulters or their accomplices held responsible or apprehended. Pliant bigwigs of financial and related institutions were rewarded for their cooperation and services rendered to the government (read ruling party) in line with their policy of self-service. There was hardly any legal action against a minister, ruling party politician or erring official, industrialist or businessmen defaulting on bank loans, which ever resulted in a conviction. During the UPA regime, the requirements of the armed forces were totally ignored. Neither any weapons or equipment were indigenously manufactured nor any program of modernisation instituted. Any and every weapon or equipment had to be imported, through a maze of a corrupt system, with middlemen, who are forbidden, popping in and out all the time. Charges of embezzlement of huge sums of government funds, kickbacks, commissions, illegal transfer of funds to mysterious overseas bank accounts and involvement of cronies and members of the political family dynasty made headlines in the mainstream media on a regular basis, with the sudden or mysterious disappearance of the trail of investigations, if any. To be sure, the leading family dynasty had become so hugely bloated with numerous charges of corruption and misdeeds that no one could ignore or overlook it any longer. Practically, every member of the said family was involved in some financial transgression or the other. The political family, at the helm of the UPA government, had undeniably become one of the most corrupt dynasties ever. Governance versus Rule The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government made it abundantly clear at the outset that it believed in clean governance and inclusive development. Schemes such as Demonetization, GST, initiatives to unearth black money at home and to bring back black money stashed abroad, efforts to reverse NPAs and convict the defaulters, constituted a shot in the arm for a jaded economy. Schemes such as the Swachh Bharat, cleansing and rejuvenation of Ganga, etc, restored in a demoralised nation its lost self-esteem and pride. The poor people benefited from various schemes for health and insurance coverage, bank accounts, self-employment, Beti Bachao Beti Padao scheme, access to electricity, water, cooking gas, etc. Initiatives to strengthen and modernise the armed forces, keeping strict control on the terrorists and other troublemakers in J&K and keeping the enemy forces from across the border at bay, the successful surgical strike carried out in the enemy territory, etc, have rejuvenated the sagging morale of our defence forces. There is a long list of people-oriented schemes and infrastructure projects to connect villages, towns and cities by a network of roads, bridges and railways of international standards. Furthermore, a successful foreign policy is a significant feather on NDA's cap. To top it all is the crowning glory of no corruption charges on any minister or the government, notwithstanding the loose talk on Rafale, shot down by the apex court; and not to forget, the terrorism-free day-to-day life that people have been leading since 2014. Honestly, the NDA stands for clean governance and inclusive development as well as for the service of the nation in absolute contrast to the UPA government known for the dynastic rule, policy paralysis and scarcely anything beyond self-service! Communist Attempt to Trigger Communal Riots: CPM Branch Secretary arrested for attacking Mosque Communist attack on the mosque on Hartal day was aimed at instigating communal riots on the backdrop of the Sabarimala row The police have arrested a CPM leader for attacking a mosque in Perambra, Kozhikode. CPM branch secretary Atul Das was taken to the custody for pelting stones at Perambra Town Juma Mazjid . Atul Das is also a member of the DYFI regional committee. Atul attacked the mosque on Thursday, during hartal called by the Sabarimala Karma Samiti in protest against the CPM-sponsored violation of tradition in Sabarimala. A CCTV camera installed near the mosque captured the visuals of the CPM leader and other DYFI workers who indulged in the attack. CPM in collaboration with various religious terrorist and anti-national outfits unleashed violence across the state on the hartal day to vitiate the communal atmosphere of the state and malign the Hindu organisations. The police said that the motive of the assailants was to create a communal riot in the region. The accused have been booked under various sections of IPC and CrPC, including those of instigating communal riots. Cellular to Swaraj Andaman and Nicobar Islands were known for the Kalapani, in human torture and imprisonment, for freedom fighters. 75 Years ago, on the historic day of December 30, 1943, Netaji Bose hoisted the National Flag there and gave the first taste of Swaraj. Organiser revisits this glorious history of liberation movement on the occasion of renaming the three islands as Subhash, Shaheed and Swaraj by the Union Government Responding to a long standing demand and obvious expression of Swaraj (Self-Rule), the Union Government has decided to rename the three popular islands of Andaman and Nicobar Ross Island, Neil Island and Havelock Island as Subhash Island, Shaheed Island and Swaraj Island. Not long back, on November 11, 2018, Chandra Bose, a grand-nephew urged the Government that Netaji "as the first Prime Minister of United Free India" had hoisted the national flag at Port Blair on December 30, 1943, thus establishing the Azad Hind Government and had renamed Andaman & Nicobar Islands to Shaheed & Swaraj Islands. There has been a demand from the people of our great nation that the Government of India, renameAndaman & Nicobar Islands as Shaheed & Swaraj Islands as named by Netaji. The Government responded positively. Is it just a change of name? Why this name changing is so important for the nation? INA and the Liberation While delivering his address in Singapore to the representatives of the Indian communities in East Asia on July 4, 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose said, Not content with a civil disobedience campaign, Indian people are now morally prepared to employ other means for achieving their liberation. The time has therefore come to pass on to the next stage of our campaign. All organizations whether inside India or outside, must now transform themselves into a disciplined fighting organisation under one leadership. The aim and purpose of this organisation should be to take up arms against British imperialism when the time is ripe and signal is given. His government was officially proclaimed in Singapore at a mass rally on October 21, 1943 where Netaji was unanimously elected as the Head of the State and The Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army. While taking the oath he said, In the name of God, I take this sacred oath that to liberate India and the three hundred eighty million of my countrymen, I Subhas Chandra Bose, will continue the sacred war of freedom till the last breath of my life. I shall remain always a servant of India, and to look after the welfare of three hundred eighty million of Indian brothers and sisters shall be for me my highest duty. Even after winning freedom, I will always be prepared to shed even the last drop of my blood for the preservation of India's freedom. Toward the end of October, Netaji went to Tokyo again to meet Tojo and to attend the greater East Asia Conference and participated there as an observer. In his impressive speech at the conference, stressing the creation of a new Asia where all vestiges of colonialism and imperialism would be eliminated. By then, the Japanese navy had captured the Andaman and Nicober islands in the Bay of Bengal during the early months of war. With the pursuance from Netaji, Prime Minister Tojo announced at the conference that Japan had decided to place the two islands under the jurisdiction of the Provisional Government of Free India, thereby giving it its first sovereignty over a territory. The ceremonial transfer took place in December. On December 29, 1943, Netaji accompanied by Shri Anand Mohan Sahay, Captain Rawat - ADC and Col. DS Raju, the personal physician of Netaji, landed at the Port Blair aerodrome in the Andamans. He was received by the Japanese admiral at Port Blair. The enthusiastic Bharatiya and Burmese people also accorded a warm reception to him. Bose named Andaman Island as Shaheed and Nicobar Island as Swaraj and appointed INA General AD Loganathan as the governor of the Islands. Azad Hind Government was not merely a Government in Exile anymore but had its own land, own currency, civil codeand stamps. By hoisting the Azad Hind flag, Bose, the head of Provisional Government of Azad Hind also fulfilled his promise that INA would stand on the Indian soil by the end of 1943. The Independence Struggle of Bharat cannot be complete without the historic role played by Subhash Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA). It is recognition to glorious Chapter of Indian History Patron of the Forum for Awareness of National Security Shri Indresh Kumar , who was instrumental in starting Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh Naman Yatra in 2012 to apprise the countrymen of the forgotten chapter of Indias glorious history, is happy with the decision of the Government of India renaming Andamans as Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh. He thanked Prime Minister Shri Modi for this decision. Organiser Chief News Coordinator Dr Pramod Kumar spoke to Shri Indresh Kumar to know various aspects of this decision. Excerpts: What is the significance of December 30, 1943 in the history of Andamans? It is a red letter day in our history. On this day the Azad Hind Government, the first government of independent India, headed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and recognised by nine countries of the world, formally took over. Being head of independent Bharat, Netaji was also army chief (Sar Senapati) of the armed forces. Netaji had reached Port Blair on December 29, 1943 and on December 30, 1943 hoisted the flag of Azad Hind Government at Gymkhana Club. That government issued currency, had a flag, was recognised by nine countries of the world and also appointed Ambassadors in some countries. After hoisting the flag in Port Blair, Netaji had made three major announcements. First was about renaming Andamans & Nicobar Islands as Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh in order to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the motherland. The second announcement was about declaring all persons jailed there as freedom fighters. In the third announcement, he amended his slogan of Dilli Chalo to Dilli Ab Door Nahin. After the disappearance of Netaji, the Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh again went into the hands of Britishers. What was the objective of Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh Naman Yatra started by Forum for Awareness of National Security (FANS) under your guidance? The prime objective was to apprise the countrymen of this glorious history. The incident displays the self-respect of our nation. We started the Yatra in 2012. It has been a three-day affair beginning on December 29 and culminating on January 1. In 2012, UPA government was at the Centre. We spoke to the Lt Governor and local administration in Andamans. Before that, a closed-door flag hoisting ceremony was conducted on December 30 without involving the public. But, we involved public in this Yatra. The Congress, perhaps, did not recognise this historic day fearing that it would be accepting Netajis role in Independence. Rather, the truth about Netaji was suppressed. FANS took up the challenge of apprising the countrymen of the truth. On our persuasion, the local administration first declared December 30 as Restricted Holiday. Later, when Prof Jagdish Mukhi became Lt Governor of Andamans he also allowed public participation in the celebration. We have tried to ensure that this day should be celebrated with fanfare as the nation celebrates Independence Day and Republic Day. What are the other activities conducted the Yatra? We ensure felicitation of the family members of the martyrs. At the same time, we also raised the demand to rename the Islands as Shaheed Swaraj Dweep Samooh. We pressed upon the demand to change the names of the islands which have been named after atrocious British officers. Andamans is strategically a very significant region and can emerge as an important centre of trading through sea route. Now since the Government of India has renamed the Islands, how do you feel? Recognising the Azad Hind Sarkar in the 75th year of its formation, the Government of India headed by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has enhanced the self-respect of the country, the martyrs and also the freedom fighters. In this connection, the first ceremony was held on October 21, 2018 at Red Fort in Delhi. Prime Minister Shri Modi himself hoisted the flag. Now, he is joining the second ceremony on December 30 in Port Blair. We congratulate the Government of India for taking this bold step. This moment enhances the glory of the countrymen. It is a tribute to the freedom fighters and the martyrs. Nehru divided the country, while Netaji granted us full independence. It is a memorable day which should be celebrated with fanfare. The Strategic Significance Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprises of a chain 572 islands, of which only 37 are inhabited. Stretching over a length of 720 Kms, they provide a vast coast line of 1920 Kms and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of approximate six lakh Square Kilometres. They are thus vital for our economic and strategic needs. They are located over 1200 Km east of Indian mainland, constitutes less than 1 per cent of its landmass but provides for over 30 per cent of Indian EEZ with tremendous potential for seabed resources. Located closer to a large number of littorals (160 Km from Indonesia, 450 Km from Thailand and 600 Km from Malaysia and Mayanmar), they sit astride the strategic sea lane leading to the Malacca straits. They offer India a strategic view over the shipping traffic between the gulf and the Malacca straits transporting nearly 17 million tons of oil every day (300 ships daily) to growing economics of Southeast Asia nations, China, Japan, and Korea etc. Military power is an important component of any Nations Comprehensive National Power. Given the geo-strategic importance of Andaman and Nicobar Islands an assessment from military point of view is also in order. Historically, Rajendra Chola I of Chola dynasty was first ruler to colonise these islands and use them as a strategic naval base to launch an expedition against the Sriwijaya Empire (Indonesia). Later on again it was under rule of some rulers having control of it until European colonization of these islands which started with Danish East India Company. Denmark, Austria & British all had conflicts but still it was under Danish rule till 1868. In 1869 these islands were purchased by British and made them part of British India. Before independence, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was just a penal colony with the symbol of inhuman torture and confinement of freedom fighters, Thanks to the efforts of Netaji and his Indian National Army, these islands became a part of India through the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind. As Air Marshall PK Roy who was first head of the joint command of the Army, Navy and Air-Force told to Organiser, An increased awareness of our unique maritime position in terms of geo-strategy and geo-economics will be a key to our ability to be able to play a meaningful role in contributing to security and stability in the Indian Ocean Region. Andaman and Nicobar Islands hold the key to this centrality. This renaming will not just connect us to the history but also open the doors for the future. Revisiting the Glorious History of Netaji and INA I received the invitation to write this piece on the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who in many ways aided the efforts to keep Subhas Chandra Boses memories alive. When Netajis portrait was unveiled in Parliament on January 23, 1978, Vajpayee, then foreign minister, commented: "Historians and scholars should find out why the Congress government did injustice to Netaji by ignoring him all these years." This poser returns to prick our conscious as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Port Blair to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Netajis hoisting the national flag there. This is yet another step to rectify historical wrongs done to Subhas Bose and those who fought alongside him for the freedom of India. To many of his ardent admirers, it is akin to applying balm on wounds that refuse to heal. It is an open secret that Netaji was ignored because a particular narrative of how we became free had to be foisted on the people. According to this construct, the Congress leadership employing the stratagem of ahimsa led India to freedom in 1947. Others were just peripheral figures. For a rejoinder, I cannot think of anything more apt than recalling what Dr BR Ambedkar stated in the course of an interview in February 1955 with BBCs Francis Watson. A clear audio recording of the interview is available. There is no scope for any confusion or apprehension that Babasahebs words are being taken out of context. Dr Ambedkar wondered why Clement Attlee, the British PM in 1947,"suddenly agreed to give India independence". He then added that from what he could make out, the reason was the INA and Subhas Bose. In his words: "The British had been ruling the country in the firm belief that whatever may happen in the country or whatever the politicians do, they will never be able to change the loyalty of soldiers. That was one prop on which they were carrying on the administration. And that was completely dashed to pieces." Ever since Ambedkar said this, a large number of records and testimonials of those who had a ringside view of the events have become available. They prove the veracity of this observation. Clement Attlee himself was quite frank about it in his later years in the course of his private talks. In 1956, he told Justice Phani Bhushan Chakravartti, the acting Governor of Bengal, that in taking that momentous decision he was weighed down by growing dissent in the Indian armed forces caused by the actions of Bose. Mahatma Gandhis peaceful persuasions and failed Quit India movement had minimal impact on those who took the decision to free India. Evidently, that period was not tolerant enough for Justice Chakravartti to make this revelation public. He would take a few years to summon courage and then start talking about it. All the same, the word of the first Indian Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court carry far more weight than tomes written by court historians and eulogies from servile politicians. Attlee went on to display similar candour in 1960 when Barun De, a renowned historian who was much respected in Congress and Left circles, questioned him and received the same reply as Chakravartti had. Attlees statement is in turn substantiated by contemporary records, especially military intelligence reports, capturing the mood in the country in the years leading to Independence. As early as November 1945, when the INA trials at the Red Fort in New Delhi were about to start, Intelligence Bureau director Norman Smith stated that there has seldom been a matter which has attracted so much Indian public interest and the threat to the security of the Indian Army is one which it would be unwise to ignore". [National Archives, New Delhi] By 12 February 1946, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, Sir Claude Auchinleck, was forced to explain to his top military commanders the reasons the INA men, regarded by the colonial rulers as "war criminals" and "traitors", had to be set free was because sentencing them would have probably precipitated a violent outbreak throughout the country, and have created active and widespread disaffection in the Army. SK Sinha, the would be Lt General and Governor, was one of the only three natives posted in Directorate of Military Operations in those days. He came across a Top Secret record, not meant for Indian eyes. Prepared by the Director of Military Intelligence, it said that in view of INA trials and the mutinies in Mumbai and other places (which were a direct fallout of the Red Fort trials) the "Indian Army could no longer be relied upon to remain a loyal instrument for maintaining British rule over India". In the late 1945 and early 1946, the INA trials were used to the hilt by the Congress leaders who were otherwise hostile towards Subhas Bose. There are numerous British Raj era reports in support of this contention. For instance, on October 23, 1945 the Secretary of State for India in London was told that Congresss backing of the INA men put on trial at the Red Fort was one of political expediency. A famous cry that used to raised everywhere was Lal Quile se aye awaz, Sehgal, Dhillon, Shah Nawaz. Inqlab zindabad. The war cry comes from the Red Fort. Sehgal, Dhillon, Shah Nawaz. Long live revolution. And, on the day the power was transferred to Indian hands, slogans were raised in the praise of Lord Mountbatten, Subhas Boses military adversary during the war and free Indias first Governor-General. Mountbatten ki jai ho. Long live Mountbatten. There are scandalous claims about what transpired between Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru during the first meeting in Singapore in 1946. Nehrus stirring Tryst with destiny speech had not a word about either INA or Bose, but for whom the day would not have come in 1947. On August 28, 1947, the demand was made to have Netajis portrait in the Constituent Assembly (now Parliament). It would take 30 years before it would happen, when Congress had been ousted for power. This brings us back to what Vajpayee did, and what Narendra Modi is doing. To those mindful of forgotten chapters of history, these gestures are truly historical. Anuj Dhar is the author of the bestseller Indias biggest cover-up You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Go Baby Go aims to improve lives of kids living with disabilities By Lin Xiuqiang and Chen Chen SATTAHIP, May 21, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Wang Hai (L, Front), deputy commander of Chinese Navy, and Royal Thai Navy Fleet Commander Naris Prathumsuwan (R, Front) review troops during the opening ceremony for a joint military exercise in Sattahip Naval Base, Chon Buri province, Thailand, on May 21, 2016. Thai and Chinese marine corps held an opening ceremony for a joint military exercise codenamed Blue Strike 2016 here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang) BANGKOK, Jan. 7 (ChinaMil) -- On the morning of January 3, local time, the opening ceremony of the China-Thailand Joint Strike-2019 anti-terrorism exercise was held at the International Center for Counterterrorism Action (ICCA) in Bangkok, Thailand. This is the first time that China conducted exercise with Thailands ICCA. The Thai army sent 100 counter-terrorism military elites to this 13-day exercise, and the Chinese side dispatched 60 elite service members from a special operations brigade of the Army in the PLA Southern Theater Command. The joint training exercise consists of two stages: mixed professional training and comprehensive actual-combat exercise. It focuses on the commanding and decision-making exercise for staff officers, anti-terrorism training and comprehensive rescue exercise for special operations forces. The joint exercise involves such subjects as sector searching, breaking into rooms, reconnaissance and alert, close combat, sniping operation, and fast roping. This exercise is aimed to strengthen military exchange between China and Thailand and enhance their counter-terrorism training and capacity. Guo Yiheng, head of the Chinese delegation and commander of a special operations brigade of the Army in the PLA Southern Theater Command, said that the joint training exercise is a landmark military exchange activity between the two countries and opens a new chapter for the friendship of the two militaries. The commander-in-chief of Thailands ICCA noted that Thailand and China share a long and strong friendship, and the jointing training exercise is intended to enable the two militaries to learn combat ideas, strategic thought, and special operations skills from each other, enhance their anti-terrorism capacity, and push their exchange and cooperation to a new level. Anti-piracy search and rescue drills held during the 24th batch of escort formation of the Chinese Navy in January 17, 2017. WANG ZHANGSONG/CCTV Source: phnompenhpost.com Three Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (Plan) ships will spend four days at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on an official visit from Wednesday to Saturday, Deputy Navy Commander Tea Sokha said on Sunday. He said there will be no joint military drill as the visit coincides with Wednesdays celebration of recent achievements on Koh Rong island, including the inauguration of a new naval outpost. Sokha said China had requested the Sihanoukville visit to strengthen bilateral military ties. The three Plan ships have no special mission, he said, and after the visit they will return to China, but he was unsure whether they would first continue to Thailand or Vietnam. They come for one simple purpose and nothing else. It is typical as our country is always friendly to foreign guests, not only Chinese visitors. Every year our country welcomes foreign navy forces from places such as Europe and Asia, Tea Sokha said. The National Committee for Maritime Security (NCMS) on Sunday said two of the ships, Plan Wuhu and Plan Handan, are 135m long and 16m wide with a displacement of 4,100 tonnes. They are under the respective commands of Yang Kai and Zhao Shu Qian. Welcoming event The third ship, Plan Dong Ping Lake, is 179m long and 255m wide with a displacement of 20,500 tonnes. Wednesday, the day of the Chinese ships arrival, will see a celebration of Koh Rong islands important recent achievements. It will include the inauguration of a new naval outpost to ensure maritime security and a technical inspection of naval speedboat engines. The event will also celebrate the installation of a new artificial marine life habitat on the island and the building of two bridges connecting Koh Rong with nearby islands. Navy commander and NCMS secretary-general Tea Vinh said he will chair the Koh Rong celebration but has not yet contacted the event organiser for full details. NCMS Secretariat deputy commander Mornh Chhundy told The Post on Sunday: This naval outpost has been built to deploy experts to better manage information to ensure future maritime security. The 3,755 terrorists caught at the southern border were mainly individuals who showed up at airports around the world (not on the southern border) and were rejected because their name, or one like it, was on a no-fly list or the even larger list of names of people barred from entry in to the United States for any one of dozens of reasons. Had they been wanted terrorists, in most countries they would have been arrested by local authorities on the spot. Indeed, if known and wanted terrorists had shown up at the southern border, Customs and Border Protection officers would have taken them into custody. That, of course, did not happen. The Democrats also need to avoid the mistake made by The New York Times when it dumped a powerful investigation into Trumps tax cheating in the last century, a 14,000-word expose that few people read fully. Instead, the House should hold public hearings exposing the facts Trump wants to hide. And they had best do it over many days so that voters can absorb the information. Congo needs accountable leaders who will ensure compliance with Congos laws, and the government needs to hold its generals accountable for the human rights abuses they oversee, said Bafilemba. Congo also needs international help in the form of sanctions against the leading smugglers of conflict gold, which has become the largest funder of armed groups in eastern Congo. And Congo needs help from electronics, jewelry, and other companies, who should invest more in helping build up the conflict-free trade from Eastern Congo. Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers dialed 9, as even interplanetary communication systems require, and meant to dial 011, the code for the U.S. But he missed the 0, dialing 911 instead, he explained, as reported by Fortune. He hung up and didnt redial, but 200 miles away as in down a situation had been set in motion. Some 800,000 federal employees continue to work without pay or not work at all. Everything from national parks to airport security have been impacted and food stamps could become the latest casualty if the shutdown runs into February, with millions of low-income Americans slated to see their welfare assistance substantially slashed if the government isnt funded. Right down to its very name, the Independence Party attempts to fool people into believing they are registering as a true independent when, in fact, they are instead enrolling in a so-called party that has no platform or principles, oftentimes no candidate endorsement process, and no real party infrastructure, Skoufis said. The entire enterprise is a sham and needs to be broken up. The federal government has been under a partial shutdown since Dec. 22 while the Trump administration demands $5.6 billion from Congress that includes money to build a border wall. Despite repeated claims that Mexico would finance that wall, the President threatened on Friday to divert funds from the U.S. military budget to build the barricade if need be. Such a move would likely be challenged in court. Cuomo has made campaign and electoral reforms a priority for the legislative session that begins on Wednesday. Last week during a radio interview he said he wants to see not just electoral reforms, but also the creation of a state public campaign finance system passed within the first 100 days of the year. In this crazy political world, no one is really sure what happens, said Cuomo. You can pass a law today, and lightning can strike and you have a different political context and they can pass a new law which would repeal this law. When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy, she answered. When you look at how he reacted to the [August 2017] Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's it's night and day. It hit me like a ton of bricks that this is no longer okay, she told the Washington Post in November. It was not okay for me to preside over the largest housing crisis in the nation from the warmth and comfort of my own safe and sanitary apartment while NYCHA residents continue to suffer the most inhumane conditions. What you felt, being in that prison was First of all, this prison was built at the turn of the century. Youre walking down halls, and theyre like, dead ends. You dont know what is around the corner. Its really cold in the winter. Theres people with untreated mental illness. Its scary to work in there, and its scary to be a prisoner in there. And you start to see how important this kind of web of survival becomes, she said. Im pleased to share with you the news today that Susan Zirinsky, our widely respected and trusted colleague, is being elevated to President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News, Ianniello said in the letter, quoted by Variety. This announcement follows the news that David Rhodes has decided the time is right to move on to new opportunities. The head of Thailand's immigration police said Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand on Monday under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency, which was expected to take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case and claims for asylum status. Doctors said there is no evidence of any remaining disease. She has previously been treated for cancer two other times: once in 1999 for colon cancer and again in 2009 for pancreatic cancer. It started when the 6-year-old girl couldnt wake her father and stepmother, she later told police. Snapping photos of the unresponsive pair, the girl posted them on Facebook from her home in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, just north of Flint. Her grandparent in Tennessee saw the photos and called police, according to the Associated Press. The bag had been on the side of the road in Troup County for several days and may have been there a week, local residents told TV station WGXA. The eight people were shot at three different locations in the Kalamazoo area. Four women were killed in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, while a man and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars. "Their plan which underscored the severity of Geysers mental illness was to hike more than three hundred miles to the Nicolet National Forest to find Slender Man and join him in his mansion," Pinix writes. "The two girls did not know precisely where they would find the mansion, but the finer points of their plan became irrelevant when sheriffs deputies found them hiding in some tall grass near the freeway and arrested them." Rauda is accused of firing at unsuspecting campers and motorists stretching all the way back to November 2016, when he allegedly shot and injured a man who was sleeping in a hammock near the park, the DAs office said. Several days later, he also allegedly fired into a car. Cal Henry Green III, 36, staged his prison break from the minimum security facility, according to the Lansing Police Department. I had a vision ... of a very public place, only one way in and one way out. Preferably a bar/club on a busy night, she wrote, according to the Lakeland Ledger. 2019 has a lot in store if my plans go according! He was trying to do such a good and important thing and its just really painful to see him as we did in the hospital room," the mayor said. They can last another four weeks, but after that theyve got real trouble. They may have to borrow, which would increase their costs. They may have to cut back, which would be a very bad thing. It is important for us to do a thorough vetting so that we can determine now at this stage whether its a methodology that we could use, Coscia told The News. Because if it is, it will make the process far less painful to our travelers. When the cop saw McGill pulling the exhaust fan from the bathroom window next to the sink, the suspect elbowed him multiple times, then shoved him to the floor with both hands, knocking off the copss glasses, authorities charge. "And while we can say there's things where we want to see reform [in the criminal justice system], we can also say there's things where we want to see some tightening up." "The upper level is not wheelchair accessible," she said of the Paris in the missive. "The restrooms are located on the basement level which is not accessible, but it is my understanding that the theatre management has made arrangements with a nearby business to allow theater patrons to use its restrooms." Roshee Williams was attacked inside his home in the Farragut Houses on Sands St. near Navy St. near the Brooklyn Navy Yard about 10:40 a.m. Friday. Police found him semiconscious with trauma to the head. On his way to rescue two men trapped by the crash, Pollard tried to get from the westbound side of the highway to the crash scene in the eastbound lanes. But he was unable to clear a 3-foot gap between the two sides of the bridge, which was recently rebuilt, and fell about 50 feet into a construction site. The former House of Cards star had argued that he should not have to appear in court Monday because his presence will amplify the negative publicity already generated in connection with this case, but a judge ruled against the request. Among the rare misses on the evening were Judy Greer, who drowned in an oversized pantsuit, and the young Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade) in what appeared to be a velveteen red army uniform, while Dakota Fannings ice blue gown washed out her pale complexion even more than usual. And it was so not right. And I feel what I learned through this whole experience, we are women and nurturers, we have our children and our husbands if we are lucky enough, our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. And we have to say, I have to do that. And I should be allowed to do that. She was very flirty with him and there were definitely some vibes going on, a source told the outlet. Pete was smiling and laughing with her and she was all about him. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Rome, GA (30161) Today Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 90F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low 61F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has adjourned the case preferred against five suspected robbers who allegedly took part in th... A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has adjourned the case preferred against five suspected robbers who allegedly took part in the Offa banks robberies until January 18, 2019, for definite hearing as the prosecution failed to bring witnesses who will testify in the case to court. The five accused persons brought before the court were Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salaudeen Azeez, and Niyi Ogundiran. The prosecution charged the accused persons with a five-count of conspiracy, armed robbery, murder, culpable homicide and illegal possession of firearms. When the case which was slated for definite hearing this morning came up, Mr Jimoh Mumini, Kwara State Director of Public Prosecution who stood in for the prosecution said that the Police who investigated the case could not bring its witnesses who are all in the Force Headquarters in Abuja to the court. Mumini said, All the witnesses in the robbery case are Policemen who investigated the case and they are all from the Police Headquarters in Abuja. No witness was taken from Offa where the robbery took place and non from Kwara State. He said that all efforts he made to the Police Assistant Inspector General, David Igodo, who is in charge of Police investigation and Mr Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who led the investigation team to Kwara to produce the witnesses in court did not yield any result. The DPP said, on the 10th of December 2018, I wrote a letter to the AIG, Mr Igodo, which I copied to this honorable court to make available all witnesses in this case in court today. I followed it up with phone calls on January 2, 4 and 6, 2019. It was at about 8.07 pm yesterday (Sunday) that Abba Kyari, DCP told me that the witnesses will leave Abuja for Ilorin this morning. I told him that the court would sit at 9am. The AIG then told me to beg the court for short adjournment. He, however, sought for short adjournment for the case from the Court. The Defence Counsel, Mathias Emeribe, did not oppose the adjournment request. He pleaded with the court to order the prosecution to serve him with the amended charge of the case as well as the Confessional statements of the five accused persons. In his ruling, the trial Judge, Justice Halimat Salman said that she was adjourning the case till January 18, 2019, because the Police failed to make the witnesses available in court. He vacated the definite hearing order slated for today and ordered that the Police should send down all the witnesses to Ilorin for the definite hearing of the case on Friday next week, 18th January 2019. There is uncertainty in the Police Service Commission, PSC, following the silence of the Presidency over the expected retirement of th... There is uncertainty in the Police Service Commission, PSC, following the silence of the Presidency over the expected retirement of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who completed 35 years in service last Thursday, December 3, 2018. Consequently, a source in the commission told our correspondent that PSC was now waiting to see if any decision by the federal government would be communicated when IGP Ibrahim Idris turns 60 years of age on January 15, 2019. According to civil service statutes, the occupant of the office of the Inspector General of Police is to resign after spending the mandatory 35 years in service or attaining 60 years of age, whichever came first. A source at the commission, however, said there was nothing the PSC could do on its own, adding that they were still open to the window of the IGP attaining 60 years of age on January 15 to proceed on retirement, except the President felt otherwise. Recent activities of the Inspector General of Police, including the deployment and redeployment of over seven state police commissioners to states commands, such as Bauchi, Kogi, Imo, Edo, Bayelsa, Delta, Abia, and Akwa Ibom among others, do not give the impression of an IGP who had attained mandatory 35 years in service and is willing to go on retirement. Incidentally, more than 10 senior police officers, who were course mates of IGP Idris, who attained the mandatory 35 years in service, were duely retired in 2018. Among them are the former Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Fraud Unit, Lagos, Kola Shodipo; former Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State, Austin Iwar; CP Isaac Eke, and Deputy Commissioner of Police Chinwuba Isiakpuna. A course mate of IGP Idris, who earlier rose to the position of IGP and was retired by former President Goodluck Jonathan, was Suleiman Abbah. The Police Council made up of the 36 state governors, chaired by the President, is supposed to confirm a new Inspector General of Police if and when a new one is chosen by the President. Meanwhile, the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria, NOPRIN, comprising 46 civil society organisations spread across the country, stated that Idris only sees his job and role as that of protecting the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All progressives Congress, APC. It pointed out that the constant harassment, intimidation and victimisation of political opponents and critical voices attested to its claim. National Coordinator of the network, Okechukwu Nwaguma, therefore, appealed to the President to prioritise national security and national interest above selfish, narrow or partisan interest, by appointing a new IGP, in order to redeem the battered image and restore the lost pride of the Nigeria Police. He said: Now that the IGPs tenure has lapsed this January, President Buhari should immediately convene the Police Council to select and nominate for Senate approval- as required by the constitution, a competent and qualified senior officer with requisite professional, leadership and managerial competence and integrity as the new IGP. It is bad enough that the President has ignored calls to sack the IGP on account of his incompetence and the serial scandalous allegations hanging on his neck. But it will be a tragedy if the President takes the joke too far by deciding to succumb to partisan pressure to extend the tenure of this same failed IGP after he has served out his lawful term on account of age and/or length of service. We witnessed in 2018 the arrest and detention at the Force Headquarters of a Premium Times reporter who was eventually charged to court maliciously and on frivolous charges, for refusing to disclose his source of information. We also witnessed in December 2018 the arrest and detention of Mr. Deji Adeyanju, Civil Rights Activist and Social Critic, by the Nigeria Police Force which eventually took him to Kano on Tuesday, December 18, 2018, where he was charged and remanded in prison for an offence he allegedly committed in 2009 which had been decided already by the court which discharged and acquitted him. Now, we are witnessing the shameless police siege on Melayes residence on the orders of an IGP under whose command the same police has not only exhibited a pathetic lack of capacity to confront criminals but has even suffered enormous casualties in the line of duty. This siege is the culmination of a running battle between the police and Melaye which has a clear political undertone. In a civilized, democratic clime, where the rule of law reigns, guides and regulates the conduct of government, the continued show of shame of the unrestrained siege on the residence of Senator Dino Melaye by the police would not be tolerated. The further invasion of Melayes family life and privacy and the violation of his right to human dignity ought to have embarrassed a responsible government. Unfortunately, the Inspector General of Police is emboldened to continue to engage in his serial abuse of power and barefaced partisan displays by the silence of the President who ought to call him to order but has failed to do so. A Nigerian Doctor took to Twitter to narrate how he was blamed for the death of a patient he referred to another hospital. This ordeal m... A Nigerian Doctor took to Twitter to narrate how he was blamed for the death of a patient he referred to another hospital. This ordeal made him quit medicine as he was declared wanted by an angry mob who wanted to lynch him. Embattled Senator Dino Melaye was rushed to the Police Hospital in Garki, Abuja shortly after he was arrested by the police last Friday ... Embattled Senator Dino Melaye was rushed to the Police Hospital in Garki, Abuja shortly after he was arrested by the police last Friday January 4th. Recall that Dino slumped immediately he got to the police headquarters after he surrendered to the police last week. The police has accused Dino and his thugs of attempting to murder a polic Here are new photos of him receiving medication in the hospital. The embattled senator in a statement relased yesterday denied being amongst the lawmakers who booed President Buhari. According to Punch, the Senator made this known in a statement signed by his media aide, Gideon Ayodele. On December 19, 2018, Buhari, while presenting the 2019 budget at the National Assembly, was booed by some lawmakers. Speaking on the incident, Melaye said that he was absent from the chambers when it happened. His media aide, also said The attention of Senator Dino Melaye has been drawn to a malicious reference to his person on the social media as one of the lawmakers who booed President Muhammadu Buhari during his 2019 Budget presentation before a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 19, 2018. Before now, he (Melaye) had refused to refute the mischievous social media fabrication for what it is a cheap lie Senator Dino Melaye was not in the National Assembly that day. The military in Gabon on Monday claiming it has seized power from the President Ali Bongo-led government in the country. The BBC r... The military in Gabon on Monday claiming it has seized power from the President Ali Bongo-led government in the country. The BBC reports that soldiers in the West African country said they launched a coup to restore democracy. They took control of the national radio station in the early hours of Monday to read a short statement announcing a National Restoration Council. President Bongo, who took over power in 2009, reportedly suffered a stroke in October and received treatment in Morocco. Bongo sought to put an end to the rumours about his health with a New Year message in which he said he was feeling fine. Millionaire MoneySupermarket.com co-founder, Richard Mason has revealed that he discovered the three sons he had raised for 21 years wer... Millionaire MoneySupermarket.com co-founder, Richard Mason has revealed that he discovered the three sons he had raised for 21 years were not his when he was diagonsed with cystic fibrosis and doctors told him he had been infertile since birth. an inherited disease which prevents male sufferers from fathering children naturally. Mr Mason who was a devoted father, never doubted he was the boys biological dad until two years ago when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosisan inherited disease which prevents male sufferers from fathering children naturally. DNA and other tests later confirmed beyond doubt that the businessman has no biological link to his eldest, now 23, and his 19-year-old twins, throwing his life and his relationship with them into turmoil. Richard Masons ex-wife has been ordered to pay him 250,000 following a legal case that has allowed her to keep the identity of the real father a secret. Mr Mason believes that the same man fathered all three boys during an on/off four-year affair his wife Kate, 54, embarked on in the late 1990s. But she only confessed to the adultery in 2016, ten years on from their divorce, when he confronted her about the childrens paternity. It is not known if Mrs Masons former lover is aware he is the real father. The case came to light when Mr Mason launched a legal bid to claw back some of the 4 million his wife received in their divorce settlement, as well as suing her for paternity fraud. As a result, two of the boys have since broken off contact with him. Legal papers seen by Daily Mail on Sunday reveal that, when she became pregnant with the first child, Mrs Mason declared a sudden interest in Judaism and also insisted all three children were given Jewish middle names. She also refused to have them christened. Mr Mason, from Rhos, North Wales, believes it is a clue to the identity of the real father, but he is tortured by not knowing who he is and has called on his ex-wife to admit the truth if only for the sake of her sons. Mr Mason, 55, told Daily Mail on Sunday night that discovering the boys were not his own left his life in pieces. You dont know whats real and what isnt its as if Im living in The Matrix, he said. Someone says to you, All that you know and everything you thought to be solid and true is not real, and never did exist. You are not a father, you are not able to have kids, your name will not continue. I still see what the boys are doing on Facebook and its heart-wrenching because we saw the graduation of the eldest on there, but I wasnt invited. I walk past a toy store and it reminds you of buying Christmas presents for them and other family occasions. And when friends post things on Facebook about their own families like their first grandchild or saying theyre proud of their boy for something, I just think, My God, thats all been taken away from me. Mr Mason, now remarried, said his ex-wife tricked him into believing the boys were his, when at the very least there must have been some doubt in her mind not least because she only became pregnant seven years into their marriage. After the divorce, she constantly hounded me for more maintenance even though I always complied with the Child Support Agency demands, he said. Rotimi Amaechi, director-general of President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, has reportedly described Nigeria as hopeless, sayi... Rotimi Amaechi, director-general of President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, has reportedly described Nigeria as hopeless, saying the only way for the country to make progress is for everybody to be killed. According to an audio released by Phrank Shaibu, an aide of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Amaechi, who is minister of transportation, said this in a conversation with some journalists. The minister was heard saying there would be a university in his village after the plans to build one in Daura, hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari in Katsina state, have been concluded. Amaechi is from Ubima in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers state. NigerianEye could not independently verify the audio. It is unclear when the conversation took place but it has been generating reactions on social media. This country can never change, I swear. The only way this country can change is in a situation where everybody is killed, Amaechi said in the audio. This country is going nowhere. When Magnus (Abe) was secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), I told him that this country is hopeless and helpless and he told me, Oga, stop it. This cannot be coming from a governor. But two months in Abuja, Magnus came to meet me and said, I agree with you; this country is hopeless and helpless. All they do in Abuja is to share money. I have already written to the governor of Katsina state and I dont know why he has not replied to give us the land in Daura for a university in Daura. The next university would be in my village. There is a popular saying while we were growing up, that charity begins at home. Will my own begin abroad? The president does not listen to anybody. He doesnt care. You can write what you want to write. Does he read? I was flying with him in the aircraft and we saw a news report where a goat seller was complaining that he couldnt sell his goats during Sallah because of Buharis administration. And the president said what my business with goat sellers is? David Iyiofor, spokesman of the minister, could not be reached for comments as of the time this report was filed. He neither answered calls nor responded to a text message sent. Commenting on the audio, Shaibu asked Nigerians to vote against Buhari in the forthcoming election. He said a vote for the president is a vote for stagnation, asking Buhari to quit honourably instead of wasting tax payers monies on his reelection bid. The truth is that, the other day, the President confessed that the economy had collapsed under his watch. On another occasion , the wife confessed to the fact that, the canal and not her dearest husband, President Buhari was in charge of the country and now, the director-general of his re-election campaign has confessed to the lack of capacity of President Buhari and the dismal failure of hid administration, he said in a statement. The truth is, the president has established a record of failures which probably no other President would ever equal or erase. Mrs Aishat Buhari was partially correct when she stated that two people are preventing her husband from performing well. With this audio tape, if the two dont include her husband then she is not completely being truthful. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has officially disclosed the number of registered voters to participate in the 20... The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has officially disclosed the number of registered voters to participate in the 2019 general elections. The electoral body said eighty-four million, four thousand and eighty four Nigerians would be casting their votes in the forthcoming elections. INEC, on its Twitter handle on Monday afternoon, also said it has handed the National Register of Voters to political parties. A statement on its official handle reads, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu presents the National Register of Voters to Political Parties. The Director-General of President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 Campaign Council, Rotimi Amaechi, has dismissed an audio recording, in which he ... The Director-General of President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 Campaign Council, Rotimi Amaechi, has dismissed an audio recording, in which he allegedly criticized his principal. In the recording which has gone viral, Amaechi apparently claimed Buhari does not read newspapers or listen to news on the economic situation in the country. However, speaking with The Sun, the Transportation Minister said that he was not aware of such audio. When he was asked for his comments on the audio that has gone viral, Amaechi said: Nothing. I am not aware of any audio recording. Further told that the audio was gaining momentum on different online websites, the immediate-past governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation asked: Do I do website? It would be recalled that an audio detailing Amaechis criticism of the Buhari administration went viral some days ago. The Nigeria Police Force has declared the Senator representing Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Dino Mela... The Nigeria Police Force has declared the Senator representing Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye fit to face trial. The Police said it arrived at the conclusion after several test conducted on the Senator came out negative adding that it was an indication that the Senator was not medically challenged as he claimed. But Melaye urged the police to relocate him to National hospital after three days of treatment at Police hospital in Garki, Abuja. Certifying the Senator medically fit for trial, the Police Authority described the Senators request and actions so far as Nigerian Home video part 2. The Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Police Medical, AIG Kaomi Amadu also faulted Melayes claim based on medical record from expert. Senator Melaye, whose Abuja residence was under siege for eight days surrendered to Police operatives at the weekend amidst drama which landed him in the hospital. A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt Monday issued a restraining order on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ... A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt Monday issued a restraining order on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to recognise candidates of both factions of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for this years general elections. Justice J.K Omotosho ruled that following the nullification of the congresses of the APC in Rivers state, the direct and indirect primaries conducted by both factions of the party were built on nothing. Justice Omotosho therefore declined the request of Senator Magnus Abe and forty-three others asking to be declared as authentic candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State. A federal high court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital, has refused to grant a request to release $2.8 million seized by th... A federal high court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital, has refused to grant a request to release $2.8 million seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In December, operatives of the anti-graft agency in Enugu intercepted $2.8m (N1.02bn) at Akanu Ibiam International Airport. The money was found with Ighoh Augustine and Ezekwe Emmanuel. Bankers Warehouse subsequently said those arrested were its employees who were carrying out legitimate business of cash movement for one of its banker clients. The EFCC went ahead to get an order for the interim forfeiture of the money. At the resumed hearing of the case on Friday, Charles Ajuya, a senior advocate who appeared for the respondents, prayed the court to vacate the interim order. But, AT Mohammed, the justice who presided over the case, refused the prayer. In a statement on Sunday, Tony Orilade, EFCC spokesman said Anasoh Onyedikachi Henry, EFCC counsel who filed eight paragraphs affidavits of facts, had disclosed the progress made by the commission in the investigation. While filing application for interim forfeiture on December 24, 2018, the Commission had also filed an affidavit of urgency for the matter to be heard before a vacation Judge sitting in Port Harcourt, the statement read. The EFCC counsel further argued that the defence was wrong to have asked for vacation of the court order since the Exparte is still subsisting. According to Orilade, the judge upheld the arguments of the prosecution and noted that since the publication of the interim forfeiture order was public knowledge, the defence should be prepared to prove its case rather than come to court seeking for the vacation of the order. The Nigeria Labour Congress says it will on Tuesday hold a nationwide protest to drive its demand for the upward review of the national ... The Nigeria Labour Congress says it will on Tuesday hold a nationwide protest to drive its demand for the upward review of the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. The General Secretary of the NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said in a statement that there would be no strike for now. Ozo-Eson, therefore, asked members of the public to disregard reports that the strike would begin tomorrow. The statement read in part, It has come to our attention that some sections of the news media have largely misrepresented our action plan in reaction to the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari. It should be recalled that the National Executive Council of the NLC met on December 17 last year and directed that we hold nationwide mobilisation of workers and our allies if, by December 31, 2018, the bill on the national minimum wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an Act of Parliament. The government of Gabon declared that it was in control after an attempted coup by army rebels Monday and that it had arrested most of t... The government of Gabon declared that it was in control after an attempted coup by army rebels Monday and that it had arrested most of those involved. Calm has returned, the situation is under control, government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told AFP. Only hours earlier, soldiers burst into state radio and called on the people to rise up, an apparent bid to oust ailing President Ali Bongo, who is out of the country. Of the five who did this, according to Mapangou, four have been arrested and one is on the run. Details Later Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has condemned Sunday invasion of... Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has condemned Sunday invasion of Daily Trust offices in Maiduguri and Abuja, likening the development to an attack on the rights and freedom of Nigerians. Atiku also picked holes in the arrest of the Newspapers northern regional editor, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab. In a statement issued Monday by his media aide, Paul Ibe, Atiku called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything possible to guarantee press freedom before, during and after the 2019 general elections. We totally condemn these actions and call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call his forces to order and end their attack on the media and the freedom of the press. This is a travesty, the likes of which we have not seen since the heinous days of military rule. Atiku Abubakar and other pro-democrats did not risk their lives fighting for democracy for this to happen. This is unacceptable. The media is not only a partner in progress to the government, but they are also a quasi-arm of government being, as Edmund Burke propounded, the Fourth Estate of the Realm. The particular use of heavily armed soldiers also shows the abuse of scarce resources which has exacerbated the insecurity currently plaguing Nigeria. Our soldiers should not be used to target law-abiding citizens. A dutiful and prudent Commander-in-Chief should rather deploy them to either the Northeast or the Zamfara-Katsina axis, especially after the governors of both states held New Years Day conferences bemoaning the breakdown of law and order in their respective states, the statement read in part. Hollywood actor Christian Bale on Sunday night won a Golden Globe award for "best actor in a musical/comedy film" for his portra... Hollywood actor Christian Bale on Sunday night won a Golden Globe award for "best actor in a musical/comedy film" for his portrayal of former US vice president Dick Cheney in 'Vice'....and surprised the audience when he thanked Satan for giving him inspiration to play the role properly. 'Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role,' he said. Lawmakers in Jefferson City will begin the 100th General Assembly this week with a laundry list of legislation, including workforce development, tax reform and establishing the countrys last statewide prescription-drug-monitoring database. And almost a year removed from the extramarital affair scandal that hijacked the attention of legislators and resulted in the resignation of Gov. Eric Greitens, lawmakers enter the session with a new governor, Mike Parson, who served in the legislature before being elected lieutenant governor in 2016. Were really excited about being able to work with Gov. Parson and his willingness to work with the legislature, said Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cosby. Being a former legislator himself, the governor understands the process and appreciates the efforts of the legislators. Without mentioning Greitens by name, Hegeman said Parson has been very engaging and signaled that the new governor has surrounded himself with a staff that knows the process. It will be welcome to be able to engage with the governors office as we go through the process and work out any difficulties ahead of time, said Hegeman, a member of Senate leadership. If we can identify problems that he might have and then work on those during the session, I think that would be great, he said. To have that engagement is wonderful and will make this process more smooth. One of the biggest hurdles lawmakers will face is how to move forward with transportation and infrastructure spending following voters rejection of a hike to the states fuel tax. Parson has listed the topic as a top priority for his administration. The Republican-controlled legislature also is likely to tackle legislation that has failed in the past but seems to have new legs in the new session: implementing a database that monitors controlled substances prescribed by medical professionals. The senator always blamed for holding up the passage of a database is no longer in the legislature. St. Joseph Republican Rob Schaaf, a physician who cited privacy concerns with proposed databases, was replaced in the Senate by fellow Republican Tony Luetkemeyer due to term limits. Coincidentally, Luetkemeyers first bill filed for the new session would establish the very thing his predecessor fought to block. I think there is support for it and the governor has already said its a priority and something long overdue, Luetkemeyer said. Were the only state in the country that does not have an opioid-monitoring program. The new legislative session begins Wednesday, Jan. 9. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has directed ministries to look into countermeasures after plaintiffs in South Korea took legal steps to seize the local assets of a Japanese steelmaker that has refused to comply with a court order to pay compensation for wartime forced labor. "It is extremely regrettable. I directed related ministries to consider specific measures based on international law to show our resolute stance" in regard to the matter, Abe said in a TV program aired on Sunday, although he did not elaborate. Lawyers representing the South Korean plaintiffs have launched procedures to seize assets belonging to Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp in the country, according to an official statement Wednesday. In response, Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono urged Seoul to prevent Japanese companies from being treated unfairly. Abe did not specify the potential countermeasures, but they could include taking the case to the International Court of Justice, according to government sources. South Korea's top court ordered the steelmaker in October to compensate four South Koreans who were victims of forced labor during Japanese colonial rule. The decision brought an immediate rebuke from Japan, which maintains that the right to seek compensation was terminated under a 1965 treaty signed between the two countries. In another wartime forced labor case, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd faces a similar order by a South Korean court. A Philippine court has ordered the arrest of Japanese pachinko billionaire Kazuo Okada, about a month after the country's Department of Justice recommended the filing of charges against him over three counts of fraud. The DOJ has found cause to indict Okada for three counts of swindling after he acquired "through mistake or fraud" $3.15 million in salary and consultancy fees during his tenure as chief executive of Manila casino operator Tiger Resort. Okada had filed a motion for reconsideration at the DOJ, dismissing the accusations against him as baseless. Judge Rolando How of the Paranaque City Regional Trial Court Branch 257 ordered the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to present Okada to court. The warrant of arrest was issued on Friday and made public on Sunday. The bail was fixed at 348,000 Philippine pesos ($6,627) for all three charges. Tiger Resort previously said the payments were facilitated by its former president and were not authorised by its board. Flight cancellations due to heavy snow in Hokkaido, northern Japan, left around 2,000 travelers stranded overnight at a key airport through Sunday, right at the end of the country's New Year holidays. Check-in counters at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo were swamped with people looking to book new flights to take them home after 105 flights were cancelled on Saturday. Near a security checkpoint, sleeping bags and blankets that had been handed out by staff were stacked high. Michio Maeda, a 71-year-old in the construction business, said he had been enjoying vacationing with his family until his return flight to Tokyo's Haneda airport was canceled. - Kyodo President Donald Trump stood firm yesterday on his demand for billions of dollars to fund a border wall with Mexico, which has forced a shutdown of the US government now entering its third week. We have to build the wall, Trump told reporters as he left the White House for the Camp David presidential retreat, while conceding that the barrier could be steel instead of concrete. Its about safety, its about security for our country, he said. We have no choice. An impasse with lawmakers over funding for the border wall has partially shut down the federal government since December 22. Talks aimed at ending the shutdown were to continue Sunday, after discussions a day earlier between Vice President Mike Pence and representatives of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the top two Democrats in Congress, made little headway. Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, seem in no mood to make concessions to the president on a border wall Pelosi has described as an immorality. This shutdown could end tomorrow and it could also go on for a long time, Trump said. It really depends on the Democrats. Both Democrats and Republicans have attempted to pin the blame for the shutdown on the other side. Building a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border was a central plank in the 2016 election campaign of Trump, who has sought to equate immigrants with crime, drugs and gangs. The president has described the situation at the border as a national emergency, and has said he is looking into ways to get a wall built without congressional approval. While the US military and other major agencies are still fully funded, the impasse has left 800,000 government workers from other departments furloughed or working without pay. Those on the job and not being paid include airline security officers from the Transportation Security Administration, FBI agents, and others. The shutdown has left the Smithsonian museums, a major tourist draw, shuttered, garbage piling up at national parks, and workers concerned about paying their bills. The First High Appellate Criminal Court has upheld the 15 years jail sentence handed down to a Bahraini convicted of attacking police officers. According to court details, the convict along with others targeted police officers by hurling Molotov cocktails and other explosives at them. One police officer suffered serious injuries in the incident with burns to his face and legs, the prosecutors said. The prosecutors added that it was the first accused, who recruited other members of the terror group. All of them were charged with attacking police officers, possessing weapons and rioting by the Public Prosecution. The First High Criminal Court has adjourned the case in which a Bahraini woman is accused of trading visas. The woman is accused of selling visas each for BD200 by misusing the electronic signature system at her workplace. The case was adjourned for the officials of Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) to present their details on the visas that were traded by the accused. The accused was employed a school, whose management filed a complaint with police after coming to know about the illegal act, said prosecutors. According to prosecutors, the crime was discovered after a Moroccan woman, who was on the school visa obtained through the accused, tried to change her sponsor. When the new sponsor approached the school to get her visa transferred, the school authorities got perplexed as they were totally unaware about her identity. This led to a suspicion against the accused and subsequently a case was filed. It is learnt that the accused sold 17 visas to expatriates, charing them BD200 for each visa. Jewellery showrooms in the Kingdom witnessed a huge rush yesterday with customers buying large quantities of gold ornaments, two days before the Value-Added Tax (VAT) kicks in. The Kingdom is all set to implement VAT tomorrow after the legislation was passed by the parliament and Shura Council. Although this pre-VAT rush was expected, many jewellers said the businesses surpassed all expectations. We had a good business during the past week, a jeweller told Tribune. He said that almost all jewellers of Manama, have been stocking latest ornament designs expecting a pre-VAT rush. The price of 22-carat gold also rose from BD14.6 per gram to BD16.2 yesterday. Speaking to Tribune, a housewife said that she was happy to buy her favourite ornaments without paying VAT. Though the gold price increased during the past week, I happy that I could buy some ornaments without paying VAT, she said. The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. Community Perspective Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer. Letters to the editor Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer. Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here (Newser) Cyntoia Brown, the Tennessee woman whose case sparked outrage when she was sentenced to life in prison for what she says was a killing in self-defense when she was 16, won't be spending decades behind bars after all. Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday granted the now-30-year-old Brown a full commutation of her sentence to parole and ordered her early release. She will be eligible for release Aug. 7 on time served, and will be on parole for 10 years. "Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16," the Republican governor said in a statement. "Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life. Transformation should be accompanied by hope." story continues below Brown says she was a victim of child sex trafficking, forced into prostitution as a teen by her pimp boyfriend. She fatally shot Johnny Mitchell Allen in 2004 after the 43-year-old solicited her for sex and brought her to his home; she says he was reaching for a gun at the time, but prosecutors said she was trying to rob him. Celebrities including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West took up her cause. Brown got her GED and a college degree while in prison and plans to support social justice causes through her own nonprofit. The terms of Haslam's commutation require her to get a job, attend regular counseling sessions, and perform community service, including supporting at-risk youth. In a statement, she thanked Haslam for his "act of mercy" and the "second chance." WSMV has her full statement, as well as Haslam's, the mayor's, and even Kardashian West's reaction. (Read more Cyntoia Brown stories.) (Newser) A Chihuahua who was shot in Arkansas isn't dead, but a deputy's career with the Faulkner County Sheriff's Department is. Deputy Keenan Wallace has been "relieved of his duties" after an expletive-filled video showing him shooting a dog named Reese's after responding to a call in Shiloh Estates last Friday was posted to Facebook. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has the somewhat confusing story, which it says began when a woman standing outside Doug Canady's home aimed a gun at the dog and toward his house; he told her to put the gun away. She did but called police, and a deputy responded. Canady filmed what came next, with the video initially capturing mainly audio as his camera is tilted toward the ground, recording grass as dogs run in and out of the frame. story continues below The deputy asked Canady to approach the road and talk to him. He refused, so the deputy headed to him, with two small dogs barking and running around his feet. Then, a shot, the one that hit Reese's. "You're f-----g kidding me," Canady is heard saying, as the camera is refocused on the deputy. "I told you," says the deputy. A Facebook post from the sheriff's department described it as "an aggressive dog." Last Saturday night came a post from Sheriff Tim Ryals announcing the firing and noting Wallace "fired his service weapon ... while in close proximity to a citizen. I believe there were numerous opportunities to de-escalate the incident." KATV reports Reese's is having surgery for a broken jaw and needs to have a bone removed from her stomach. In the video Canady says the dog isn't his; a GoFundMe campaign set up for Reese's care explains she was abandoned by neighbors and has been cared for by Canady since. It says she's "not out of danger yet." (Read more chihuahua stories.) (Newser) Kevin Spacey failed to avoid his perp walk: The actor showed up in court in Nantucket, Mass., on Monday to be arraigned in his felony sexual assault case. Spacey is accused of groping an 18-year-old busboy in a Nantucket restaurant in 2016, and the busboy reportedly has video proof. Spacey didn't enter a plea during his brief court appearance, reports the AP. However, a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf, reports CNN, which explains that under state law, a defendant doesn't need to state it. The next hearing in the case is March 4, and Spacey doesn't have to be present for that. The actor didn't answer reporters' questions as he left the courthouse. story continues below The alleged victim has said that he was introduced to Spacey at the end of his shift, then drank with the actor at the restaurant's bar after lying about his age and saying he was 23. After numerous drinks, the teen says Spacey began rubbing his leg and unzipped the teen's pants and touched him without consent. Spacey faces multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, but this is the first criminal case, reports the AP. The charges are felony indecent assault and battery. (Spacey was spotted treating paparazzi to pizza.) (Newser) The timeline for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria has gone from 30 days to four months and now to no fixed date, according to John Bolton. He said "certain objectives" must be met before an American withdrawal could happen, the Washington Post reports. Bolton said there was no fixed timetable and some US troops would remain, at least in the south of the country. When he announced the withdrawal last month, a move that led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, among others, Trump said: "Our boys, our young women, our men, theyre all coming back and they're coming back now. We won." But on Sunday, Trump told reporters he "never said we're doing it that quickly." story continues below Bolton, speaking during a visit to Israel, said American forces would not fully withdraw until ISIS was fully defeated and Turkey had assured the safety of Kurdish forces allied with the US, the Telegraph reports. "Timetables or the timing of the withdrawal occurs as a result of the fulfillment of the conditions and the establishment of the circumstances that we want to see." Sen. Lindsey Graham, asked on CBS' Face the Nation if Trump was admitting his earlier announcement was a mistake, said the president was "slowing down and re-evaluating his policies," the New York Times reports. "This is the reality setting in that youve got to plan this out," he said. (An American teacher has been captured in Syria.) (Newser) It was Edith Blais' "lifelong dream" to travel to Africa, her mother tells the CBC. But after the 34-year-old Quebec woman achieved that dream last year, she disappearedshe and her companion, 30-year-old Italian man Luca Tacchetto, have not been heard from since Dec. 15. They were in Burkina Faso at the time, and on Sunday, Canadian officials said their vanishing is being treated as a kidnapping, the CBC reports. The pair was planning to travel to the capital city, Ouagadougou, for a few days before heading to the neighboring West African nation of Togo to work on a restoration project for a month. But they never arrived. While many have reached out with tips via a Facebook page Blais' family set up to help with the search, her mother says what's "difficult" is that "there is nothing tangible" and it's not clear what leads should be followed up on. story continues below Blais' mother says her daughter, a visual artist, led a bohemian lifestyle, traveling often since age 18; she and Tacchetto were in Europe before heading to Africa. "They werent worried about anything," Blais sister tells CTV of the traveling companions. "They were having a really happy trip. She has been dreaming about traveling to Africa for all of her life." But a former Canadian diplomat tells CTV he cautions against traveling in the troubled region, and the Canadian government has an active travel advisory for Burkina Faso advising against any non-essential travel. Of particular concern are its borders with Mali, Niger, Benin, and Togo due to threats including terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping. A state of emergency was declared in Burkina Faso last week following terrorist attacks in the north. (A blind Michigan woman also went missing in Peru last month.) (Newser) Five Jewish teenagers have been arrested in connection with "serious terror offenses," including the stoning death of a Palestinian woman in October, Israeli authorities revealed after a news blackout was lifted over the weekend. The Shin Bet security agency says the five, who were detained a week ago, are students at an Orthodox Jewish high school in the West Bank settlement of Rehelim, the New York Times reports. On Oct. 12, Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old mother of nine, died after being hit in the head with a stone as she rode in a car with her husband and two of her daughters. Her husband said the culprits were six or seven young Jewish settlers and he heard them speaking Hebrew. story continues below On Saturday, hundreds of settlers protested the arrests outside the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Washington Post reports. Settler leader Rabbi Haim Druckman urged the prime minister to get involved, saying the teens are not terrorists and "should not be investigated in the Shin Bet's cellars." Shin Bet said it should be "allowed to continue with our activities to prevent terrorism, whether Jewish or Palestinian." It condemned what it called an effort "to defame the organization and its staff and delegitimize its operations." (In 2016, Jewish extremists were arrested in connection with an arson attack that killed a toddler and his parents.) Feed tests reveal lower digestibility New seasonal feed quality test results showing the stark differences between wet and dry seasons have underlined the need for end users to measure and know what they are feeding. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images via ABCAttention BTS Army: BTS dolls are on the way! Mattel, Inc. announced Sunday at the Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair that its signed a worldwide licensing agreement with the mega-popular South Korean boy band. As part of the deal, Mattel will create dolls, collectible figures, games and more. The collaboration will launch this summer with BTS toys created in the likenesses of members RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook. The dolls will be outfitted in looks from BTS' "IDOL" music video. Mattel, @bts_bighit & @BigHitEnt are bringing #BTSDollsOfficial to millions around the world! Follow us for #BTSxMattel updates. #BTS," Mattel's official account tweeted. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.